The Violet Line (27 page)

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I met your father when he came to my house looking for help. They had unearthed a prophecy of a child who would be gifted with the powers of life and death, but after that it became unclear. At the time, he was just a researcher in the fairy court. He had heard of my abilities to see the future and of course people’s lives in full, if I so chose. He wanted me to read him. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that day and how he looked as he walked through the door. Have you ever seen a fairy, Jade?”

I felt like a small child being told a fairytale. “No. Well, I don’t think I have anyway.”

She smiled at me indulgently. “Trust me, you’d know if you had ever seen one. I know you have seen at least one in your lifetime; you don’t remember it now, but you’ll meet him again soon, don’t worry. Fairies are very striking creatures. That’s why I said you’d know if you had; there could be no doubt about it. They are tall, slender and incredibly graceful creatures, even more graceful than your vampires. I think ‘willowy’ is a good word to describe how they look; wouldn’t you agree, Lorcan?” She said as she turned towards him. His mouth was once more filled with the remnants of a scone and he tried to talk around it.

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Umm yeah, willlophfhy, isz cool!” His words came out garbled and I started to laugh as he choked on one particularly large crumb. I felt more relaxed with Lorcan here for some reason; he had a way about him that allowed any situation to become diffused from its tension. Emily hurried over to him and began rapidly thumping his back vigorously.

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Lorcan, what have I told you about talking with your mouth full? God’s sake, if your mother was here she’d give you a good clip. And stop eating all the scones; if you grow anymore, you’re not going to fit in your own door at home.” Turning back to me, she added, “I swear he’s going to eat me out of house and home.”

I continued to laugh, trying to disguise it behind a cough as Lorcan turned beetroot coloured in the face from embarrassment. I tried to smile at him reassuringly, but failed miserably as I was forced to swallow a loud guffaw. Emily sat down again as Lorcan made faces at me from behind her back like a small child might. I once again focused all my attention on her and the story.

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Well, what I was saying. Yes, they’re willowy and graceful; their eyes are nearly always some shade of violet and the more royal they are, the brighter the colour seems to be. However, there is always the exception and very rarely you’ll find some fairies with a blue eye colour; always very vibrant and vivid, of course, and they don’t seem normal if you understand?” I nodded and she continued. “They do have wings and it’s this that stops them from joining the human world; it takes a lot to glamour a pair of wings away, let me tell you. Their wings are beautiful and delicate; they always remind me a little of cob webbing and you’ll understand when you see your father’s. Their blood is violet; it’s the reason for their eye colour and also for the colour of their veins.

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Anyway, I’m getting off topic. You’ll understand all this better when your father gets back. The day he arrived, I couldn’t help myself; I fell in love with him on sight. He says the same thing about me; although what he saw in me, I’ll never know. We knew it was forbidden; fairies are not allowed to fall in love with mortals. However, there are laws in place to deal with it should it arise; it’s rare enough for it to not really be an issue. So he went back and explained that it really wasn’t our fault, that the meeting of soul mates is a powerful magic that cannot be denied and so they accepted us. On several conditions, of course; I must immediately return to the fairy realm and live there. Under no circumstances was I supposed to ever have contact with my family, and well, you know how well that worked out. Then of course, it came to you; my beautiful little girl. It is forbidden to have children with a fairy and most children don’t carry to term, but you did. They were shocked. You are an anomaly, child, one of a kind. Because you are technically part mortal – and even that part of you is not entirely pure because I have powers of my own – and of course you are part fey, you weren’t allowed to live here with me and your father. I think it was also some kind of sick punishment on us for having you. You see, the fairy king’s wife is also human and they had longed for a child but none of their children survived. When you did, well, as I said, I think it was a punishment. I had the choice of giving you up to a human family of my choice or they would have you destroyed. I knew they were not lying so I gave you to my sister. I wouldn’t let her tell you about us because I wanted you to have as normal an upbringing as possible. Of course, nobody planned for the fact that you would carry powers, let alone the powers of the prophesised child. As I said, you are unique. I couldn’t let them hurt you so I did what I felt was best.

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I’ve only been allowed to contact you now because of all that has happened. I’ve watched over you every day and I’ve watched your powers grow since Sam was taken. There can be no denying now that you are indeed the prophecy child. They are concerned; the court wonders if you do get caught and turned, will you truly become the dark queen and will the prophecy be fulfilled? I have held them off for as long as I could, Jade. If you didn’t come here with Lorcan they were sending out their own guards to pick you up; you would simply have been abducted from either your home or the street. The fairies don’t worry about human consequences too much because they control and hold so much power; they won’t go out of their way to attract attention, but they will not be denied at all costs.”

I wasn’t sure what to make of her story. It shocked me that all this had happened and I had been so ignorantly blissful. Everything in my life began to suddenly fall into place, but the thought of the fairy court being interested in me frightened me; did I not have enough to contend with, with the vampires? I sat there unable to speak; I couldn’t meet my mother’s eyes, so instead I chose to stare out of the window. Finally, I plucked up the courage to speak to her.

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I’m sorry all this happened to you and I honestly still don’t know how I feel about it all, but I see that it wasn’t your choice to give me away and I can understand that. They wouldn’t let you stay in contact with me but I’m going to need some time to come to terms with all of this; it changes everything. I hope you can understand.” I knew my voice sounded stilted but I didn’t know how else to speak. She nodded her head in reply, but I could see the tears glistening in her eyes.

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I knew of the prophecy before I came here, but how is it certain that I’m the one it’s all about? I mean, I don’t have power over life or anything; all I’ve ever been able to do is make others feel death, but I certainly couldn’t kill someone with it. So maybe it’s just a mistake and I’m not who everyone thinks I am?” My voice sounded pathetic even to my own ears but my mother smiled indulgently at me as she answered.

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My dear child, you do have these powers; you just haven’t had the push you need to release them. I fear it will take a great emotional upheaval for you to come entirely into your powers and maybe it will never occur, but I know that was how it was for me. I was powerful before it but now, well now my powers are second to none; even the fey struggle to keep up with me sometimes.” She chuckled as she spoke and she looked so young, she could have passed for my sister; nobody would ever guess she was my mother.

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What was your emotional trigger; falling in love?” I had to ask; the question burned inside me. I wanted to know why meeting Sam hadn’t been mine.

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No, dear, it wasn’t falling in love. It’s not the happy kind of emotion; it’s part of it but not enough.” She seemed distant as she spoke. “My trigger was losing you. The day I had to give you up was the day I came fully into my powers. I loved you – you were my baby and I made you – so it broke my heart to do it; it was the pain of loss that caused my powers to develop. You have felt only the edge of what true loss is. At least you are fighting to get your Sam back; there is hope and you have not lost him yet. But for me, I knew I had lost you the day I had to hand you over to my sister. I can see the future after all, my dear, and I could see this happening; although I made you, you don’t know me. That is my loss.” She sat for a few moments before standing suddenly and dashing from the room. I looked at Lorcan; both our faces held looks of concern but I didn’t know what I should do.

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Maybe you should go after her,” Lorcan prompted me. I stood hesitantly and then followed her. I didn’t know what I should say to her; I didn’t even know what I felt for her.

Leaving the kitchen, I made my way down the carpeted narrow hallway to the sitting room. It was here that I found her sitting on the couch dabbing the tears from her face with a tissue. I coughed, not sure if I could really do or say anything to ease the situation. She looked up at me, her face tear stained, and once again the feeling of finally belonging somewhere washed over me. Walking quickly to her side, I sat down beside her, wrapped my arms around her thin shoulders and hugged her tight. I inhaled her perfume deeply; it was the smell of summer and I could remember it from when I was small, when she would hold me tight and whisper in my ear that I was safe and home and that everything would be alright. The memory brought tears to my eyes; I could only remember snatches of my time spent with her. As I sat hugging her, I could feel what she had felt as she handed me over. The heartbreak was crippling and even though I knew they were not my own feelings, they still felt real and raw.

Finally, we broke the hug off and sat in silence, simply looking at each other. Smiling, she tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear.

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I can teach you about your powers, or at least how to hone the skill of one or two of them. We’re not really going to have all that much time to teach you everything; well, just yet anyway. You see, time passes much slower here; a day in this place is the equivalent of about a week of your time, so we shall have to get you back as quickly as possible. People don’t age here past the age of thirty; everyone remains forever young and people can’t die, though your father worries I might if I ever left this place. That’s the problem of me being mortal and living in the fairy realm; I’m fine if I travel with him but I can never do it alone. I don’t know if I believe it though; it could just be superstition.”

I looked at her nervously. “Will I be alright going back? I mean, I’m part mortal.”

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Oh, you’ll be fine. I’m not saying it’s easy for you to cross the veil but because you have fey blood, it means your life is never endangered by it.”

Sighing with relief, I watched as she took my hands in hers. I began to feel apprehensive about what she might do. Her skin began to glow softly as she held them and I could feel a heat radiating from her body; it rolled from her skin to wrap itself around my body. As it came full circle, I felt it push in through my chest. Gasping, I tried to pull away from her but she held me tightly. It didn’t hurt but it felt uncomfortable as the heat flowed in through my chest; I could feel it spreading over my skin and underneath it until I took on the same glow she had. Opening her eyes, she released my hands and sat back.

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Now when you do have your visions, you won’t be receiving any injuries; they were taking their toll on you. Because you’re unprotected, every time you heal someone of their wounds, you give far too much of yourself over to the effort. It’s not healthy for you and you will have to learn to control that as quickly as possible; I can’t have you accidentally giving all of yourself to someone whose wounds don’t need that much healing. What did you think and feel when you healed Sam?”

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Umm well, I suppose I never really thought about it. I just really wanted him to be better; I wanted to see him whole and happy and not in pain.”

She nodded her head in understanding as she sat there. “I see. Well, in order to stop giving him large pieces of yourself, which takes a long time to recover from and you don’t have that luxury when you’re in this sort of situation, you need to focus only on healing his wounds. It’s a conscious decision on your behalf; you can’t just shut your eyes and wish he was better. You need to sense him, where he hurts and how bad it is.

The easiest thing to do is shut your eyes and in your vision or if you have him with you in reality it is better, wrap your arms around him and hold him close. Then as you’re holding him, reach down within yourself where you have your power and bring a small amount of it to the surface. It’s not going to take much to heal a vampire and most of it they can do themselves; all you really need to do for now is give him a helping hand until you have better control. When you have a small piece of your power, I’m not sure how you visualise yours but you will learn, sense where he is hurt; you don’t need to do this with your eyes or your hands, just simply let your power slowly pour over his skin and only heal what you find. It’s not necessary for you to flood him with power and in the process damage your own health; he wouldn’t want you doing that. When you feel he is healed then pull your power back inside yourself. Don’t just let it pour out of you and not return; you don’t want to kill yourself. Only in dire circumstances would you need to allow your power to pour completely out; if you did do it, the likelihood is that you would end up dying after doing it.

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Your blood flows with power; this is another way to allow you to share or heal someone. If the situation ever arose that Sam needed to drink from you, he would share some of your power with you until it wore off. But please, Jade, I would never advise you to do it. Vampires are unpredictable and no matter how much you love him or truly believe you know him, at the end of this he is still a full vampire who craves blood and yours, my dear, is a particular lure for their kind. They can almost smell the magic and the power that flows beneath your skin. Under no circumstances should you let another vampire bite you. Sam may have some control but another vampire would drain you; they would have no choice because of how your blood tastes to them. That is why the prophecy is so confusing. We know a vampire wouldn’t be able to turn you; they would only be able to kill you. No vampire that I know of exists that is strong enough to stop in time, and the only thing that protects you from Sam is the love you share. I must discuss this further with your father when he returns; I simply don’t understand how the vampire council intends to have you turned and I have yet to have a vision of any certain future.”