The Violet Line (30 page)

“
That can’t happen. I won’t let it happen.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “I couldn’t hurt him. You’re wrong.”

She reached her hands out towards me, imploring. “Jade, I’m only telling you what I seen; I haven’t made this up. I don’t want to see this happen; you’re my baby I want to see you happy. You have to know this. I wouldn’t say it to hurt you.”

I turned away from her. I wanted to run as far away from her and this room and her visions as I possibly could, but deep down I knew she was right. She wouldn’t make them up. What she had seen was the truth for now but if I could change it, I would.

“
Can your visions change?” My voice sounded small in my ears.

“
Sometimes they do, but only if something intervenes to change them and usually I have some type of inclination as to what it might be. This time I only seen these two visions; nothing else and certainly nothing that could give us some clues as to how to change the events. Jade, I’m worried and I don’t know what to say to you; it’s looking as though you might lose Sam no matter what you do. I know that you love him, but I want to protect you. Would you consider staying here with us? At least until we figure out what we can do to stop all of this. I don’t want to lose you now that I have you back; I don’t think I could bear it.”

The idea of staying here, while it was comforting, I knew I couldn’t. If I stayed here, they would kill Sam and I would have no reason to go on. I felt hollow without him.

“
I can’t. If I do, they will kill him for certain and I can’t let that happen, not if there is the tiniest of chance I could have saved him myself. I need to see him. If they end up killing me then at least I’ll know I tried, but I don’t plan on letting that happen. I’ll be alright; I know I will. I have a good feeling about finding Sam and getting him home safe and I haven’t been wrong yet.”

Faraling’s voice piped up from the direction of the doorway. “Your mother hasn’t been wrong yet either; all her visions occur whether you have feelings about them or not. You should listen to what she’s saying, Jade; we can’t lose you just when we have you back. The thought of those leeches getting their hands on you makes my blood curdle.”

I turned towards him. “If they had Emily, would you just let them have her while you stayed in hiding; would you not try to save her? Even if it meant the possibility of your own destruction, wouldn’t you go just so you could try? Isn’t that what love is all about?”

He hung his head as I spoke and his voice came out on a whisper. “Yes, I would go and find her. Even if I knew my end was certain, I would still go to her.” He looked up at her then and then back at me as I spoke again.

“
Well then, you understand why I’m doing what I have to do. I can’t let anything else happen to Sam; he has done everything he can to keep me safe and save me. Now it’s my turn to return the favour. I have to try.”

He shook his head. “Jade, you’re so young. You don’t even have the full control over your powers yet and you plan on waging a war against this scum? How do you propose you will achieve this? The vampire council has been around a very long time; true, in comparison to the fey, it is only an infant but we have been here from the beginning. We have simply always existed and we shall continue to exist long after everything else has disappeared; it is how the laws work. You, on the other hand, are a child; nothing more than a mortal baby. I’m not trying to insult you when I say it; I’m merely trying to make you understand just how far out of your depth you truly are.”

I thought for a few moments, mulling his words over. “I’m not sure how I’ll get Sam back, but I don’t want to wage a war against them; just maybe frighten them off. Just because they have been around longer than me doesn’t mean they are smarter than me; perhaps my youth will play to my advantage. And anyway, if they want me because I’m so powerful, can’t I use my powers against them? It will at least immobilise them for a while.”

He watched me with a look of incredulity on his face. “Jade, did you just hear what you said to me? It is pure insanity; what you have just proposed is suicide for both you and your Sam. Why aren’t you listening to me, child? They will kill you and your power will be no match for them. They’re animals; they feed off pain. If you think for one moment that they will all line up nice and politely for you to make them feel their own demise, then you are more immature and foolish then I had originally thought. You don’t deal with the monsters. You don’t talk to the monsters. They simply take what they want from you and in this case, Jade, it will be your life and that of your beloved. Do you really think that rushing in there with no plan is truly the way to go? Don’t you think that they will smell you coming? No, child, you need a better plan than that or you won’t spend two minutes alive in their company.”

I sat on the bed. He was right; they would kill me and I did need a better plan. Most of my hopes were riding on the fact that they wanted me to be there dark queen so badly that they would grant me some last requests before they tried to change me.

“
I have no other choice. There is no one I can turn to for help; well, not unless you can help me?” I looked at him hopefully and then back at Emily, who smiled at me sadly. He watched the floor for a moment and the silence in the room was unbearable. My heart sank and I wanted to jump up and scream or do something as equally childish. I could feel the tension building and then he spoke quietly.

“
I’m afraid we can’t. We’re not allowed to interfere; the laws forbid it because of the long standing feud and uneasy truce between our fey folk and their kind. As much as I long to help you, Jade, I’m not allowed to and technically neither is your mother. If we did interfere to aide you, it would be a violation of our laws and the law between our respective groups. It would mean war and your mother and I and possibly you could be put to death for the violation. It hasn’t been directly specified that your mother shouldn’t interfere, but it has been hinted at.” He walked over to me, knelt down in front of me and looked into my face. “Jade, you have to know that I would help you if it were possible but I can’t; you must understand this. I can’t risk war between our kind and theirs all because you love Sam. The risk is too high a price to pay for something so uncertain and changeable.”

I couldn’t stop the words pouring from my mouth in a vehement torrent. “You think my love for Sam is UNCERTAIN and CHANGEABLE! You don’t believe it is worth the risk; you don’t think I am worth the risk? Well, let me tell you this; without him, I am nothing. If I don’t do this and he dies, I will die with him. My place is by his side fighting with him against them, not staying here and hiding away from them in the hopes that one day they might get bored. I can’t stay here and let him risk himself anymore in the hope that he can save me from them. I just won’t do it. And if you’re not willing to accept that then I don’t want anything more to do with you and your kind!”

He reached his hand out and tried to cover mine but I jerked away and jumped to my feet.

“
Don’t touch me. I’ll find somebody else who can help me, who believes in me and what I’m trying to do. I certainly won’t hide like a coward.”

With that, I stormed from the room and down the stairs. I stumbled into the kitchen, my anger still bubbling beneath the surface until I saw Lorcan still sitting at the table. I couldn’t help letting my anger out on him too.

“
Why did you bring me here? Why did you even tell me what you did? Did you enjoy seeing what it does to me? Couldn’t you just have left me alone to do what I had to do? All I wanted was to find Sam and bring him home. I never wanted any of this other stuff but you just had to tell me!”

He sat in silence listening to my anger boil forth. My tears coursed in hot tracks down my face until I couldn’t shout anymore. It wasn’t his fault; he was simply doing a favour. With this thought, I ran from the kitchen, out through the back door and into the garden and field beyond the house. I ran until my lungs burned and my legs grew heavy. I still ran on, hoping to outrun my pain and disappointment. I had really hoped they would help me and now I felt as lost as I had in the beginning. I was certainly no further along in finding Sam then I had been; I was failing him.

My legs gave way beneath me and I fell in a tangled heap near the edge of the woods in the field. Drawing myself upwards, I sat on the ground. Tucking my legs under my chin and wrapping my arms around them, I simply sat there. I had run a good bit away; the house was now just a small dot in the distance. How had everything gone so wrong and when had it become so complicated? I felt like Alice when she fell down the rabbit hole; everything was different here and I didn’t know if I was coming or going anymore. I had wanted so badly for them to help me and I knew it was irrational for me to be angry, but I really couldn’t help it; I was still human.

I sat on the ground and I could feel the damp soaking up through the bottom of my jeans. Looking at the sky, it really was beautiful here; blue, pink and purple hues swept across the sky like someone had taken a paint brush and simply placed them there. I stared hard at the cloudless sky and watched as stars began to appear among the pinks and purples. They looked bigger here for some reason, as though when you were in this place you were closer to them. The air ruffled the short grass and I shivered. I should probably go back, I thought as I stood up stiffly and dusted myself off.

A twig snapped somewhere in the woods behind me and I spun around, but I couldn’t see anything in the darkened trees. Scolding myself, I turned again and began to walk back towards the house but a hand clamped across my mouth and an arm snaked around my waist, pinning my arms to my sides, and lifted me clean off my feet. I kicked out and tried to wriggle out of his grip but I couldn’t; he was bigger than me and much stronger. He turned us and dashed back into the woods, all the time carrying me in front of him as though I weighed little more than feather. I couldn’t release my arms enough to grab him and use my power. Just as suddenly as he had grabbed me, he dropped me onto the forest floor. I landed on my backside and scrambled to get away but each time I turned, he stood in front of me. I looked up and realised with shock who my abductor was.

“
Lorcan, what the hell are you doing?” I questioned, angry that he had first of all frightened me so much and secondly, that he had snuck up on me so easily and I hadn’t been able to defend myself against him. He laughed as I pulled myself back onto my feet and brushed my clothes down angrily.

“
Well, I heard what you said to your parents back there and I could hardly talk to you about it in hearing range of your dad, now could I? He’d kill me for sure. But what I was thinking was that I could help you. That’s if you wanted me to help you. I know I’m not the best fighter in the world, but I am strong and I’m fast and I can glamour; the vampires can’t compete with that. I’ll understand if you don’t want my help; I know I’m only really a last resort and even at that, probably still not good enough, but I might be some help.” His eyes shone with suppressed excitement as he spoke but I didn’t understand why he would want to help me; after all, wouldn’t that get them all in trouble?

“
I thought you couldn’t interfere, that it would start off some sort of war or something.”

He smiled this time and the excitement poured off him in waves. “Yeah, that really only applies to the fairies. The leprechauns never had a feud with the vampires; we prefer to leave well enough alone. But you know what the fey are like; always poking their noses in where they don’t belong and bossing others around.” He paused and scratched his head. “Well, I suppose you don’t know what they’re like really since this is your first time meeting them. But yeah, totally into bossing others around. The last time it happened they took it a step too far and before you know it the whole thing goes kaboom and everyone is in the shit. Fairies are being attacked by vampires, vampires are dying from fey poisoning and then the whole issue of fairy blood came up; vampires become addicted to it. It’s a bit like their version of crack cocaine; one bite and they’re hooked. And none of it would have happened if they hadn’t started the war. It’s part of the reason the fey had to go underground; too many of them were being attacked by vampires. So you see, I could help you and there would be no repercussions. Well, apart from your dad maybe killing me but I’m sure we could work that one out if you promise to stay alive.”

He grinned at me and I couldn’t stop the same look from creeping over my face, but I quickly sobered. He was a nice guy and we were quickly becoming friends. I didn’t want anything to happen to him. I wouldn’t have him getting involved in something that had the potential to kill him; I wanted to save Sam but not at the expense of someone else.

“
Look, Lorcan, it’s a really lovely offer but I don’t think I can drag you into this. I mean, I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you and I don’t want you risking your life for someone you barely know.” He looked at me seriously as I spoke before beginning to laugh once more. It seemed to be the only thing he was really good at; if all else failed he could simply laugh the vampires to death. I kept my face as serious as I waited for him to stop his giggling.

“
Jade, seriously, do you honestly think I would offer to do something I didn’t think I could do? I’m not thick. And really, all I’m offering is to give you a hand. I mean, I’m not offering you my life or anything and if you don’t let me come, I’ll simply follow you and possibly abduct you at the most inconvenient time simply to ask you pointless questions about inane subjects. So now you really don’t have a choice in the matter; either you let me help you or suffer the wrath of serial abductor Lorcan Fitzgearld!” His declaration caused me to splutter out a choking laugh but I could see from his face that in a way he was being serious and he was a big boy; he knew what he was getting himself into. After all, he had saved me from the vampire in the club without too much hassle.