Read Online A Dark Night (Book One of The Grandor Descendant series) by Bell Stoires - Free Book Online Page B

that they could invade her mind and control it was, well, frankly scaring the shit out of her. What if Ragon was controlling her right now? Making her think that she had rescued him before he had bitten her? And why didn’t Ragon want to hurt her?  
    “You said you could control me for a time?” she asked, pushing away this thought. 
    “That’s true, I said I could, but I also said I wouldn’t.”
    “I mean, how long does the venom last?” she asked.
    “It depends on the age of the vampire; for me usually about 7 days.”
    “And how does it work- the controlling part?” she asked.
    “There’s a neurotoxin in our venom which acts on a human’s nervous system. For a certain amount time, which depends on how strong the vampire is, the vampire has the power to bend them to their will. Then the mortal has to do everything they are told. It’s kind of like their mind becomes an extension of the vampires.”
    “Bend them to their will?” Ari asked curiously. “So that’s what Kiara meant, that’s why she was looking for bites on me. She expected you to do that to me?”
    “So man y questions!” said Ragon. “When I bite someone, I don’t know… I can feel their blood racing through my system, restoring my immortality. At the same time I can feel my venom coursing through my… victim’s blood, binding to their neurons. And, I don’t know how to describe it; it’s like they become a part of you; under your control,” he said. “All we need to do is think a command and the source must do it.”
    “Source?” asked Ari.
    “It’s what we call a human who we feed from.”
    “Is that why Paige…” Ari began to say, but her voice trailed off, remembering the girl’s still body on the floor of that concrete dungeon.
    Ragon nodded solemnly.
    “She wouldn’t have had a choice. Kiara and Matthew probably shared the control of her mind; it would have been the easiest thing in the world to get her to-” said Ragon, before Ari quickly interrupted him.
    “So how often do you need to um, feed?”
    “It depends on how much we take from our victim and how reckless we are,” replied Ragon.
    “Reckless?”
    “Yea like playing in the sun, or smashing through fortified iron bars- stuff like that,” he said smiling.
     
    Another few moments passed in silence. Ari watched mesmerised, as drops of water cascaded majestically down Ragon’s body, almost as if he were a marble waterfall. Somehow watching him made her feel peaceful. Despite everything that she had been through, there was something reassuring about being close to him so that slowly she began to replace the monster with the boy she had dotted on, for all those years.
    “I am sorry,” Ragon said again, interrupting Ari’s thoughts.
    Ari raised her gaze from his abdomen and asked, “Why did they take me?”
    “To hurt me; Kiara made me and she wants to own me. Decades ago I left her; I think that the thought of my being happy has offended her.”
    He was happy? What did he mean? Was he happy with her? But they weren’t even together. He had saved her and then he had been stuck with her.
    “So,” said Ari, “Kiara made you? And that’s why she took me; to get back at you for leaving her?”
    “Yes.”
    “How did it happen? When did you become a vampire?” she asked.
    Ragon took a deep breath and exhaled. 
    “It was 1815 and I was a soldier. Napoleon’s War against the kingdoms had bought him many enemies, and many nations rallied to bring about his end of tyranny. Fourteen countries had risen against Napoleon and the first French Empire. Though the war had been coined the hundred day battle, I didn’t live past the first two months. It was, as far as I can remember, a relatively painless death. One moment I was charging at the enemy and the next I was lying in a ditch. No one could have told you how long I was dying for. I was unconscious and almost dead when I felt a stabbing pain in my neck. I came to and saw a woman leant over me. I