Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) (15 page)

There was a familiar apple insignia on the cover and Ari smiled as she pulled out a brand new iPhone. The next box was four times as large, but was branded with the same apple icon. It took her much longer to get into this box; when she finally did she found a slender white laptop. The third and final box held a printer. She knew immediately the gifts were from Ragon. The entire situation reminded her of the first time she had met him, when he had taken her back to his family Mausoleum after she had nearly been raped. She had fainted after the attack and woke to find that Ragon had left her a basket filled with provisions, strange extravagant things like expensive moisturiser, an array of snacks and lavish clothes.

Though Ari was grateful, these gifts did not bring the pleasure, rather another wave of guilt settled in her stomach. She had spent the majority of the day being mad at Ragon, and he had been out buying her all these fancy gadgets for her studies, and getting furniture for her dorm room. She clung to this thought as she re-made her bed, forcing the three garbage bags full of Styrofoam underneath it, before finally reaching for her new phone. When she turned it on there was a message waiting for her:

‘Hope you enjoy playing with your new toys. They should make life studying a little easier. I know you think I just want to lock you away… but I do it to keep you safe. I want you to be happy and I know that studying vet is your dream, so enjoy. I love you. Ragon x’  

As Ari read the message she smiled, but this had been written by Ragon earlier in the day, before their fight. Maybe if he had of explained that the reason he had not contacted her was because he was out getting her these things… maybe she wouldn’t have been so angry with him, and tonight might have played out very differently. She was torn between writing him a reply message to thank him for his presents, and still being angry at him for attacking Chris. As she normally did, Ari considered what she would have done if the roles were reversed? She had to admit that if she’d found a girl half naked in Ragon’s dorm room, standing suggestively near the bed, she might have thought that something was going on. Still, she certainly wouldn’t have attacked the girl, but then again, Ari wasn’t a vampire. Sighing loudly, she began typing her reply:

‘I’m sorry about before- Chris was just helping me clean up. Apparently there are 3 jokesters in my hall who thought it might be fun messing with the new kid. I only just finished getting rid of all the Styrofoam. I know you want to keep me safe… Thanks for everything you got me today. What time do you have class tomorrow- can we talk?

She didn’t think that what Ragon had done to Chris was acceptable behaviour, but it was up to him to apologise, not for her to scold him for it. She had wanted to ask if Thomas had found Sandra, and what had happened with Greg, but decided it would be best not to put those tricky questions into a text. Besides, her head was still throbbing and all she really wanted to do was to put her first day of university behind her as quickly as possible. Only one thing would potentially make her feel better; a nice warm shower.  

Grabbing a towel and her toiletries bag, Ari moved from her room, down the hall and to the bathroom. Unlike Ragon’s room in Cruor halls, she did not have her own bathroom, but given the late hour, she did not run into anyone. She poked her head into each of the cubicles, finally choosing the one furthest from the door.

Turning the taps on, Ari waited for the hot water to steam up the shower before beginning to remove her clothing. When a thick layer of hot mist blanketed the cool tiled floor, she threw her clothes onto a hook and moved quickly under the water; instantly she winced. Her head felt too big for her body and her neck was stiff; a trail of dilute blood flowed down her shoulders, joining the mass of water escaping through the drain. Gingerly she grabbed some shampoo and conditioner and began washing her hair, trying to avoid the gash on her head as best she could.

As soon as she was finished she turned the taps off and sprung towards her towel, wrapping it around her body so as to furiously dry herself. Once dressed she raced back to her dorm room, leaving tiny wet footprints on her path from the bathroom. Despite the comfort the steamy shower had imparted, she retrieved a familiar red and silver packet of Nurophen Plus from her bag. Popping two of the tablets out, she placed them into her mouth and washed them down with a mouthful of water, thinking that this probably wouldn’t be the last time she would need to reach for pain killers. Finally she moved over to her bed and crawled under the sheets. It was then, as her toes brushed against the crisp warm linen, that she realised Ragon must have also bought her an electric blanket.

Thinking of Ragon, she reached for her phone and saw that she had an unread message from him:

‘At 9am. I’m at Rodwell building- have a meeting to discuss a thesis proposal. Sorry for reacting the way I did. I only commanded him to forget what I had done- nothing else. I’m sorry... Meet for breakfast at the cafeteria?’

A few minutes later and Ariana’s phone vibrated again; there was another text from Ragon:

Chapter 7 –
Vet School

Ari had woken early the following morning and dressed quickly. Ordinarily she would have showered first thing but the moment she had gotten out of her heated bed, she knew it was far too cold to brave the communal showers this early, that and she didn’t want to risk running into Peter, Perry and Pip. Moving over to her wardrobe, she searched for her warmest outfit, finally settling on a pair of skinny jeans, a high necked long sleeved jumped and the coat which Ragon had given her when they first arrived in England. Grabbing her bag, which she had filled with hurriedly printed lecture notes, she raced from her room and down the stairs. When she was outside Omega Halls, she saw the coven waiting for her.   

“Where’s Sandra?” she asked, looking around hopefully.

“Still sleeping,” Thomas replied sourly.

“Well, she won’t win any attendance awards,” Clyde said smirking. “Or playing nice with others awards, come to think of it.”

Thomas growled and Clyde quickly stepped back a few paces.    

“And what happened about Gre-” Ari began, but Thomas moved over to her and shushed her.

“Not here and not now,” he whispered, taking a meaningful look at a bunch of students, who were making their way up to the cafeteria for breakfast.

“So, what’s your first class?” asked Ragon, reaching a hand out and grasping onto Ari’s, as they walked to the mess hall.

“Um Chris said that it was-” she began to say, but stopped quickly.  

At the mention of Chris’s name, Ragon had squeezed her hand tightly, and Ari felt that explanations were in order as to why Chris had been shirtless in her room and holding onto her bed sheets.

“Ragon, about last night… I just got upset after I saw Sandra and, and then when you sent that girl in to check on me, I just lost it. When I went outside I ran into Chris; when he saw that I was bleeding he gave me his shirt to hold against my head. Nothing happened… he’s just a nice guy who offered to help me get rid of all the Styrofoam that Peter, Pip and Perry thought would be funny to leave in my room,” she said, not pausing to breath as she rushed through her explanation of the night’s events.

“Chris,” said Clyde, eavesdropping on their conversation, “you mean that jumped up pretty boy from last night?”

Both Ari and Ragon ignored him, and Ragon pulled Ari closer to hug her.

“Well, I suppose I should be grateful that he didn’t use his pants to stop the bleeding,” said Ragon, his lips thin and white. “No more sneaking out of bathroom windows! And,” he added, winking, “if anyone is going to be removing clothes around you, it will be me.”

Ari smiled lightly, recalling the first night she had stayed with Ragon at his house in Mount Cootha, before escaping through a bathroom window he had mistakenly left open. She did seem to favour windows as an escape route.

“Agreed,” she said. “So what exactly did you command him?”

All Ari could remember from last night was that Ragon had told Chris to leave, but she knew that vampires were capable of thinking their commands, rather than just verbalising them.

“Nothing exciting; just that he was to forget that I attacked him and think it was a spider bite. Oh, and that he was never to look at you or talk to you again,” Ragon said, smiling innocently.

Ari stopped dead in her tracks and Ragon pulled her towards him.

“Ok, that last part might have been an exaggeration,” he said, kissing her playfully on the lips.

Eating at the cafeteria with a table full of vampires, who only drank blood, felt a little awkward. Back in Australia in Ragon’s house, Ari never really noticed it, but in a room of starving, hungover or still drunk students, the fact that she was the only one at her table with an appetite, was painfully obvious. The Cruor halls had their own self-contained kitchens on each floor to explain why they did not eat in the Cafeteria with the rest of the students that lived on campus. Still, she couldn’t miss the few surprised glances that were shot her way, though most of these seemed to be coming from girls looking at either Ragon or Clyde, and Ari couldn’t help thinking that they were checking them out more so than worrying about their appetite. Ari tried not to look at the passers-by as she scoffed down her breakfast of warm milk and Weetabix, before she was ready to leave for class ten minutes later.

“Well I had better go,” she said, reaching on her tippy toes so as to kiss Ragon goodbye.

“Yea me too, I have a meeting now with Victoria; she’s supposed to be pairing me with a PhD student so that I can do an honours program.”

“Pairing you… with who?” asked Ari.

“No idea; after that I was going to go to the library; Clyde’s going to be there. He’s researching the,
you know what
. We got out student ID cards this morning, so we have access to the vamp library now.”

“
You know what
?” said Ari, laughing, “You mean the Gran-” she began to say, but for the second time that morning she was shushed, this time by Ragon. “Geez you guys are real sticklers for secrecy.”

“You know we aren’t the only ones here with
excellent
hearing; I’ll text you if I find anything, otherwise I will see you after class. What time do you finish?”

Ari reached for her phone and retrieved the photo she had taken of her timetable.

“5pm,” she replied.

After that Ari watched as Ragon jogged, in a very humanly manner, to catch up with Clyde and the rest of the coven who were waiting outside for him. For a moment she was mesmerised, but then remembering that she still had no idea where she was going, turned around and begun heading towards where she hoped her first lecture was.

After ten minutes of walking in what was essentially a large loop, Ari decided to consult a map. Reaching for her phone, she pulled up the Ap of the uni that she had downloaded and waited for it to load.

“Not lost are you?”  

Ari spun around to see Chris.

“How can you tell?” she asked, frowning. “I thought I was doing a really good job of walking around in circles inconspicuously.”

“This is your second loop of this building,” he replied. “We’re this way,” he added, turning Ari so that she faced the opposite direction.

Unable to stop herself, Ari glanced down at Chris’s wrist and saw that there was a small band-aid there. Instantly she felt Chris’s eyes on her and she looked away, but not before he had noticed.

Thinking it would be unkind not to comment, she said, “So you have been in the wars too?”

“Oh yea… err, a wasp or something,” he replied indifferently, pulling his rolled up sleeves down so that it covered his wrists.

Being friends with Chris defiantly made Ari’s second day much more enjoyable than her first. After a few hours of lectures, the pair made their way to the vet school laboratory for Ari’s first prac class. Outside the lab, she watched as her classmates began retrieving lab coats and looked nervously around; her lab coat, dissection kit and gum boots, were all in her locker, many thousands of miles away in Australia.

Seeing the panicked look on Ari’s face, Chris moved over to her, handing her the lab coat in his hand as he said, “I have a spare one.”

Ari took the coat and pulled it on. It was two sizes too big but she was grateful. If the lab attendants were anything like the ones back in Australia, she didn’t want to get on their wrong side for not having the proper attire on her first day.

The moment she walked into the lab, she realised quickly that everyone was seated in groups of three. She looked around desperately, hoping to see a spare spot, when for the third time that day Chris came to the rescue.

“Everyone this is Ari,” he said, pulling her over to a table and introducing her to his group.

Seated at the table were the only two people that Ari had met so far; Rick, the senior resident of Omega halls, and Lisa, the girl who had spoken to Chris last night. 

“Hey,” Ari said, moving to sit down at the empty seat next to Lisa.

“But we already have three,” said Lisa, stretching her hand so as to block Ari from pulling out the empty chair.

“Oh, cat fight!” said Rick, smiling toothily as his gaze flashed backwards and forwards from Ari and Lisa hopefully.

“I might just see if there is a spare group-” Ari began to say, glancing around at the other tables, where students in groups of three had already started working.

“-Ari sit down,” Chris said quickly, glaring at Lisa. “No one is going to care if we have a group of four. Besides, there aren’t any other spare groups.”

After that Lisa removed her hand away from the chair, albeit somewhat reluctantly, and Ari sat down. Ari was certain that at least one person did care that they had a group of four; Lisa’s eyes were thin slits as she contemplated Ari. Ari had no idea what she had done to this girl to deserve this sort of rudeness, but was determined to ignore her. 

Despite hoping that Lisa might warm up to her, for the entire prac class Lisa went out of her way to point out just how far behind Ari was, not that she needed reminding. She hadn’t studied at all since the night that Ragon had rescued her and this was becoming increasingly obvious. The group had been instructed to dissect a dog that had been euthanized at the animal hospital on campus, so as to reacquaint themselves with its anatomy. They had just finished revising the arterial supply and were going over the major muscle groups for an upcoming exam, when a tutor joined their table and began quizzing them on the various structures. The tutor didn’t look old, perhaps late twenties, and judging by his name badge, which read Dr Joseph Reid, Ari guessed that he must be a recent graduate.

“Ok,” Dr Reid said, “who can tell me which muscle attaches the underneath of the scapula to the thorax?”

Immediately Lisa leaned forwards, indicating a thin muscle which resembled a fan as she said, “Subscapularis.”

Behind her Chris rolled his eyes while Ari laughed, until she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. Trying to retrieve her phone inconspicuously, she saw that Ragon had sent her a text: 

‘How’s your first day going? I am up to by elbows in journal articles for my thesis. Meet me at my room when you’re done? I love you.’

Ari smiled, quickly checked to make sure that Lisa was still engaging Dr Reid’s attention, and then began writing a reply to Ragon:

‘Yea first day is alright. Feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment. I am so far behind. It feels like everything I learnt in the first three years of vet has slipped out of my ears. Anyway, so who’s your thesis partner? Any news from Clyde about ‘you know what’????????’

For the next few minutes Ari tried to focus on Dr Reid, until a second vibration from her lab coat pocket had her jumping slightly; it was another message from Ragon:

‘Oh baby that’s no good. I am sure you will bounce back into vet soon. You have had a lot on your plate for the last year. It will probably take you a little bit to get back into the swing of study. Haven’t heard anything from Clyde yet. Hopefully he is focusing on the task at hand, rather than harassing student who are still wearing green.’

“And what muscle is this?” Dr Reid said.

Though Ari had heard Dr Reid’s question, she didn’t look up. She was still re-reading the message from Ragon; why hadn’t he said who his thesis partner was? She was just about to write a reply message, asking this question again, when someone kicked her underneath the table.

“Ouch,” she said, looking across the table to where Chris was hurriedly pointing to the tutor.

“Did you hear me miss…” the tutor said, waiting for Ari to supply her name.

“What?” said Ari, frowning, “Oh, I mean… my name is Ariana.”

“Well then Ariana,” said Dr Reid, “can you please inform the group of which muscles are responsible for extension of the forelimb in the dog?”

Ari’s heart was hammering so hard in her chest that she barely heard the tutor’s question. She thought of asking him to repeat himself, but all she could do was stare blankly at the smug smile on Lisa’s face, wishing like hell that she’d been paying attention. Quickly she tried to recall the muscles in the forelimb which attached to the digits.