Free A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) by Bell Stoires

don’t know why she decided not to kill me. When I awoke the next night I was a vampire. For a time I followed her but…” he said, his voice suddenly trailing off. 
    As Ari listened to hi s story she couldn’t help but sympathise with him. He had not chosen this life; it had been forced on him.
    “ The woman was Kiara?” She asked, and Radon nodded. “But why didn’t you hide from her?”
    “I did. She has followed me throughout the decades. Whenever I moved to new city to escape her, she would find me; she is my maker and I her fledgling. So we share a bond; I can’t hide from her. In the end I just gave up. Finally I decided to remain in Brisbane; a city where the weather was generally so sunny that it would be impossible for her to terrorize me during the day. But enough talk of her; we should get out. I need to get you to a doctor.”
    “I can’t go to a hospital! Don’t you think they’ll want to know what the hell happened to my arm?” asked Ari. “What am I supposed to tell them… a werewolf bit me?”
    Ari was struck by her sudden change in attitude. One min ute she was cowering from Ragon and the next, wanting to protect his secret. Again the fact that vampires could control humans crossed her mind, and she wondered if that was the case with her and Ragon.
    “Werewolf?” laughed Ragon. “There aren’t any left.”
    Ari let an awkward silence follow this statement.
    “Well the pharmacy,” he said finally, “we can get something to bandage your arm there.”
    Ari nodded once .
    “After you,” she said, gesturing for him to leave first.
    As soon as she heard the bathroom door close, she reached for a towel and begun drying herself. Her whole body ached; reaching out a hand to wipe away the fog from the mirror, she gasped at her reflection. She looked deathly pale and desperately tired, and felt it. There was large cuts and bruises on her backside from where she had been dragged by Matthew. Her wrists and neck were red and swollen, and already there were purpling bruises starting to form around her throat. She didn’t remove the torn remnants of Ragon’s shirt from her arm, too afraid of what she would find if she did.
                                                           
    It was sunset when Ragon knocked on her bedroom door and asked if she was ready to go to the pharmacy.
    “But what about Kiara and Matthew?” asked Ari, when she was on the back of Ragon’s bike, her eyes darting around as she looked for anything suspicious on the street where she had been abducted the previous night.
    “Kiara won’t attack outright,” said Ragon.
    “How can you be sure?”
    “It’s not her style, besides, she prefers to plan rather than to act on impulse,” he said.
    “So what’s our plan?”
    Ragon smiled and touched his jacket pocket surreptitiously, saying, “Don’t worry, I have one.”
     
    The ride to the chemist shop was relatively uneventful. Unlike last time, Ari had no thoughts what’s so ever of screaming out for help. Though she didn’t like the thought of having to live hidden with Ragon for ever, possibly under his control, she had accepted that for now, it was definitely safer for her to be with him than anywhere else. 
    When finally they arrived at the twenty-four hour chemist in Red Hill, the young pharmacy assistant gawked at Ragon when he presented her with requests for all manner of bandage material.
    “Dog bite,” he muttered.
    Ari laughed quietly to herself. She knew the girl’s astonishment had nothing to do with why they were there, and everything to do with Ragon’s god-like appearance. He had seen it a hundred times before in the university library. Girls would glance over at him, staring at his obvious good looks, and he would ignore, as if oblivious to their interests. 
    The assistant was flushed in the face , and fluffed her hair with her spare hand when Ragon handed her some money. Clumsily she