Free Blood Hunter (The Grandor Descendant Series) by Bell Stoires

giant, grey satin sheet.
     
    Only Ari and Ryder remained outside. The pair stood at the helm of the boat, watching its progress through the treacherous sea. Ari glanced up at the rest of the coven, whose silhouettes were discernible from inside the cabin above. She could just make out Ragon and Patrick; they kept glancing down, apparently wanting to keep an eye on them. It wasn’t too difficult for Ari to guess why they should appear so concerned; though Ryder had shown great mastery of his vampiric urges around Ariana, he was still a fledgling, having only been turned into a vampire in the last few months.
     
    “Ryder,” Ari said suddenly, turning to face him, “Can I ask you a question?” Ryder nodded and so she added, “What’s it like?”
     
    Though it was clear that being immortal suited Ryder, Ari had known him when he was just a regular boy. Ari had been fostered by his parents, and at one point had even been hopeful that he might become her brother, but his parents had returned her to the orphanage when she had been in the tenth grade. It was only recently that Ryder had become part of her life again. She could still remember when Ryder had been mortal, how his skin had been a pale pallor; now it was like smooth marble, and no longer did he look sickly from all the hours he spent indoors, but handsome. His eyes, which had previously been a vivid shade of blue and lined by dark purpling bags, were now bright and youthful, and he held himself with a grace that was in his mortal days, entirely uncharacteristic of him. Apart from being a fledgling, Ryder was also gay. If it weren’t for his infatuation with Patrick, Ari guessed he might have been able to have any guy he chose. Immortality had a way of smoothing out the creases so that all vampires were irresistible.
     
    “Oh muffin, I was wondering when you would ask me. Well, it’s different to what I expected, being a vampire, kind of like I am discovering everything for the first time. I didn’t realise it until recently, you know, when I started to get on top of the cravings, but there were so many things I was missing out on, but now…” he said, opening his eyes wider as he looked out across the sea, “it’s like I can see everything. It’s hard to explain, like being a human means that you can’t really understand. But I feel everything more, like the difference between watching a movie in black and white versus colour.”
     
    For a moment Ryder’s eyes strained to see out over the ocean, and though Ari could see naught but grey swirls of sea, the way his eyes had lit up, made her feel as though he was looking at something wondrous, and she pictured him spying a colourful montage of marine life, or perhaps seabirds soaring through the sky. 
     
    “And the cravings?” asked Ari.
     
    “They’re still there, but they lessen all the time. When it first happened, I use to think that all I wanted was to sit and feed, but Patrick taught me that we aren’t only about taking life. He reckons I have mastered the fledgling blood thirst pretty well. He was surprised that I was able to be near you so quickly after my transformation. I mean, I only tried to kill you that one time.” 
     
    “Are you as strong as them?” Ari wondered out loud, ignoring his last comment.  
     
    “No, I can’t command human will yet and the others are most defiantly more physically capable than I am. The older you are the stronger you get, except of course if you become a blood hunter, but that’s kind of like cheating.”
     
    “So you have no regrets; nothing? Do you think about your old life… your parents?”
     
    For a second Ryder faltered. Immortality came at a great price and Ari wondered, were he able to, if Ryder would go back and undo what he had become?
     
    “It’s not like I have forgotten my parents,” he said. “I can picture them and being happy with them, but sometimes I feel their memory slipping away, as if that life was all just a