“Hello?” I called out timidly, not knowing what to expect.
“Ah Jade, so good of you to join me here in my humble establishment.”
I jumped as Graham stepped out of the black covering, his voice like melted honey as he approached me slowly before stopping in the centre of the room.
“You’re not nervous, Jade, are you?” His laugh caressed my skin like hundreds of tiny spiders; the whole situation didn’t feel right, as though I had just walked into a huge trap that hadn’t been sprung yet.
“I came here to talk to you about Sam.” I kept my voice even and my face bland; I knew he would use the slightest sign of weakness against me.
“Ah yes of course, Sam; such a lovely vampire, wouldn’t you agree? Far too noble for my liking, though. When he came and asked for one of my poisons – I mean potions – well, I was only too happy to oblige; one less goody two shoes in the world suits me just fine. But then I heard about you, this wonderful being who, if turned, would lead us to victory. Their words, not mine, Jade. Don’t look so concerned, dear; personally, I prefer things as they are. I don’t really need a dark queen.” He smiled and I could see the edges of his shining sharp fangs in the grey light. He must be hungry, I thought. The idea hit me with a force strong enough to cause me to take a tentative small step backwards. He continued to talk as though he hadn’t noticed my movement.
“Yes, dear one, things are quite fine as they are. I don’t need any more of a dictatorship than there already is, so your secret is safe with me.” He held his fingers to his lips. “I won’t tell them you were here. Anyway, enough rambling from me; you wanted to hear what really happened to Sam I suppose, yes?” He stood and leaned against the wooden frame of a crate as he began to tell me what he had seen. “After taking the potion I sold him, I’m not really sure where he had gone to. He stayed away for quite some hours and then arrived back and bedded himself down in one of the other many empty warehouses. I don’t like to interfere so I let him be, presuming he would do the deed when he was good and ready. Alas, what I had not anticipated was his foolish mistake of waiting to confront the council members who had arranged to meet him here. They had some very interesting points to discuss, Jade; let me tell you. Sam truly thought he had them beaten, that he would keep your secret and keep you safe.” Graham shook his head sadly. “He did not realise that Oskaar already knew of his plans and had prepared for this eventuality. Jade, did you know that some vampires have special powers?”
His question took me by surprise and I glanced at him, just missing the eye contact that he was trying to establish. ‘Come on, Jade; stay focused.’ The thought raced through my brain as I stared at his chest.
“Yes, I know. Why is that important?”
“Ah, I can see your Sam has you well informed and updated then. Well, it’s important because Oskaar brought with him one of his healers; a vampire with the very rare and extraordinary ability to bring even those close to the brink of termination back again. Sam drank his little cocktail, the most potent one I have ever made; he certainly paid well, and he deserved the best. Sam very nearly died; for a moment even Oskaar was worried but he need not have. Sam recovered and was taken back to the council’s seat here in Ireland, where he resides until he gives you up.”
I couldn’t keep the eagerness from my voice as I spoke to him. “But do you know where the council’s seat is? Have you been there?”
He smiled at me once again and a small flashing of his fangs accompanied it, “Indeed, my child, I know where it is; I am The Chemist, after all. I have been summoned there many times, but I can’t let you go there, Jade. If you do, they will take you and I don’t want that. I care about what happens to you; I have to keep you from them.”
The tenderness in his voice surprised me and before I could stop myself, I glanced into his eyes. Normally, my powers allow me to shake a vampire’s gaze off much faster than an ordinary person would, but not this time. I was weakened from the healing I had performed on Sam the night before and Graham pulled me under his gaze without any interference from me. I simply stood there gazing back into his deep brown eyes; they looked beautiful and glowed with a deep amber glow. He really is quite beautiful, I thought. Staring into his perfect face, his skin was a pale flawless marble and his black hair, which had at first seemed unkempt, now seemed to add a rugged appeal to his face. His pale perfectly sculpted pink lips spread into a smile and he beckoned me towards him. One finger crooked in my direction and I sighed as I trotted over to him. He circled me once, appraising me with his eyes. One hand traced lines and circles over my skin, along my jaw and down onto my neck.
“Jade, you are a stunning creature; I can see why he chose you. All creamy skin and warm blood rushing beneath, deep cerulean eyes surrounded with rich hair of the bitterest chocolate colouring. Perfection. I could almost follow you as my dark queen; almost. But then, Jade, almost is not enough now, is it?”
I shook my head. The entire time I never took my eyes off his; he was an angel sent here to save me. I closed my eyes as he leaned closer to me. He smelled my hair and then buried his nose against my neck. He inhaled deeply, his lips moving gently against my neck.
“Beautiful,” he murmured appreciatively. He wrapped his cold arms around my body and pulled me closer to him. His cold tongue flickered out and brushed against the skin of my neck and he sighed. He knelt on the floor and pulled me down with him, draping me across his lap as he brushed my hair out of my face.
“Jade, you understand why I have to do this, don’t you?” He asked me, his voice filled with tenderness. I nodded again; I felt blissfully happy here in his arms as he held me close and gazed into my eyes. He kissed me then; gently, just a pressing of his cold lips against my warm ones before tilting my head to the side. He pressed his lips against my skin, just over the place where I could feel my pulse hammering away. I felt an exquisite pleasure as he opened his mouth and sank his fully extended fangs deep into my pulse. Closing my eyes, I floated high on a cloud of pleasure as he drank from me. He lifted his mouth from the wound and allowed the blood to pour out of the wound he had made; it dripped delicately onto the cement floor. As he began to lap at the wound with his tongue, I balled my hands into the front of his jacket, pulling him as close to me as I could. I never wanted the pleasure to end.
Chapter Twenty One
Opening his eyes, Sam stared at his ever familiar surroundings. The doors to the revenants’ caged areas stood blissfully shut for once and he had not been disturbed since Lissie had almost killed him yesterday. He shifted, expecting to feel pain, but instead he felt strong. His thoughts turned to the dream he’d had. Jade had been here, really been here; she had saved him because all of his wounds had disappeared as though they had never even existed. He stared down at the smooth skin of his chest in wonder; he couldn’t understand how she had done it without actually being here. It seemed she was growing in power. He wondered what it had cost her to help him, how weakened had she become because she chose to save him.
He played the vision back in his mind. Yesterday, he had accidentally dragged her into his own personal hell. It had happened while Lissie was doling out her punishment for not wanting to play with her revenants; he was sure he had killed at least one of them, but it had been a survival instinct to protect himself. He couldn’t explain how he had called Jade to him yesterday, but it had felt as though she was inside his head and he was inside hers. Lissie had torn at his flesh and in that moment, he had simply thought of his beloved and there she was, but not in the way he had anticipated. Instead of the beautiful image he had expected of her, he normally used this tactic to escape from the worst of his tortures, retreating back inside his mind and as far away from the pain as he could get. This time however something different had occurred; Jade had appeared but he could see her writhing on the floor in agony as she also suffered at the hands of his tormentor. It had almost been his undoing, seeing her hurt that way because of him. He had tried to give up and had almost succee
ded until she had come to him, wrapped her arms around him and told him how much she needed him to survive. After all the danger she had put herself through for him, the least he could do at this stage was to survive.
He thought of all that had happened. He regretted leaving her. In retrospect, he had placed her in more danger than he had intended to, but then one doesne hit plan for these kinds of things and he certainly hadn’t. In fact, since he had met and fallen in love with Jade, he hadn’t planned one moment in advance. She was always finding new ways to surprise him; he didn’t see the point anymore in trying to plan. He smiled to himself at the thought of her enthusiasm; she loved to put her heart into everything she did. He wasn’t sure how he would manage it, but he would survive this ordeal simply so he could get back to her and hold her in his arms. Her dedication to him amazed him. He didn’t deserve it but if she believed in him so thoroughly, then he too could return the favour. He knew she would try her utmost to find him and it was that very thing that terrified him more than anything else. He needed to find her first; she couldn’t wander into the lion’s den alone, not if he had anything to do with it.
The door to the dungeon began to creak open. Sam lowered his head, trying his best to appear as though he was still completely out of it from the beating he had taken. Lissie skipped down the steps towards him. He could hear her childish humming as she made her way over to him only to stop suddenly, a hiss escaping her lips as she stared at his perfect skin.
“How did you do that?” She questioned him, visibly bristling with anger. Sam decided the best course of action might be to claim complete ignorance.
“Do what exactly?” He replied.
“Heal so quickly? That should have taken days, maybe even a week; some wouldn’t have survived what I did to you! I knew you were different; I couldn’t break you. I thought I almost had you but then you changed; something caused you to change again. This is impossible. I’m good at my punishments; in fact, I’m the best!”
She stomped her foot in frustration and Sam did his best to hide his smile; for all the years she had lived, she still had so much to learn.
“Elisabeth, shouldn’t you know that nothing is impossible?” Sam spoke low but he couldn’t resist the comment. He could see the anger pour up through her as she stood in front of him.
“What Exactly Do You Mean By That Comment?” She over pronounced each word, placing the emphasis on each letter, almost spitting them at Sam. Perhaps he had overstepped the boundary, but he had gone this far; he may as well finish it.
“Well, I’m simply saying that by definition our very existence should be impossible and yet here we both stand. Is it not a bit silly, therefore, to rule anything out as impossible?” His voice remained sweet as he spoke to her, but it didn’t stop the tantrum that exploded from her tiny frame.
“You think I’m SILLY?! You truly believe I’m SILLY?! You worthless piece of Scum! I’ll show you how silly I truly am!”
With that she looked at Sam and stared hard into his eyes. As the light in the room began to dim, her eyes took on a strange black glow; almost the colour of obsidian, Sam thought before he started shouting for help. He knew what Elisabeth could do and it wasn’t at the top of his list to be buried in a pile of rubble. Power crackled over her skin as she stood in front of him; black lines flowed under her skin as the earth beneath their feet began to tremble. She watched him closely and laughter cracked from her mouth like a whip that coiled around his torso, slowing his breathing; breath wasn’t a necessity, but it certainly wasn’t comfortable to not breathe.
“Guys, Lissie’s going to blow! If you don’t get down in here, she’s going to bury this whole place under a heap of rubble!”
His words became more and more choked as he ran out of breath to shout with. So, he resorted to the only thing he knew might work. Staring back into Lissie’s now completely black soulless eyes, he summoned all his power into his gaze. He hadn’t been fed in days and he was concerned he wouldn’t have enough strength to overpower her, but he soon discovered that Jade had left him with more than just a healed body. He could feel it rippling through his body; it felt just like the days of old when he could control the lesser vampires and even some of the older ones with a single glance. It flowed through his body, his eyes melted to pools of green fire, and slowly Elisabeth began to lose some of the blackness that filled her eyes. The ground slowed its trembling and still Sam pushed against her mind. Although she was a child, Sam realised it was in appearances only as he got glimpses from inside her mind. No empathy for anyone; nothing mattered to her except her own pleasure and her pleasures consisted of the most sick and twisted things she could think up. He witnessed images of her allowing her pet revenants to play with some of the humans who ended up under her supervision. The revenants, although almost completely feral animals with no real thoughts beyond the taste of blood, still sometimes had urges beyond the drive for food and it was those urges that Elisabeth nurtured within them. He almost closed his eyes against the onslaught of images that filtered through his head but still he pushed against her power with his own. He could feel her walls beginning to crumble beneath the weight of his crushing force and still she tried to fight against him. More images flowed and suddenly their eye contact broke. Raphael stood on the stairs holding Lissie’s limp body in his arms.
“What have done to her, dog? Lissie, pet; Lissie, wake up. I have a special gift for you.” Sam watched, horrified at the tenderness Raphael expressed towards that monster. How anyone could show affection towards her was beyond him; she was a sickness, a gaping entity of nothing but pure and undiluted evil. And yet here was someone who could match her pure sadism with his own twisted tendencies, treating her like his child.
“Lissie; come on, darling, wake up. It’s me; it’s Raphael.” He turned to glare at Sam. “I’ll kill you with my own hands if you’ve done any damage to her. How did you do it? We were all told you had lost that ability due to your new diet. She’s a child.” His voice sounded pitiful to Sam’s ears and he felt nothing towards him except a small amount of pleasure at a job well done.
“She’d have buried this place if I didn’t do something to stop her. You should be thanking me, not threatening me. If I had let her continue, this place and everyone in it would be gone. You know what she’s like when she has a tantrum and there was a tantrum coming; surely you could all feel it. It’s like the taste of lightening in the air; it ruffles over the skin, makes one feel uneasy. I did what I had to do. Ask Oskaar; he’ll tell you.”
As the words left his mouth, Marianne and Oskaar appeared at the top of the stairs. Marianne hurried ahead of Oskaar to Raphael’s side, where she fretted over the prone form of Lissie. They spoke in hushed tones and she glanced worriedly at Oskaar before urging Raphael to carry the child back up to the main part of the house. Sam shifted uncomfortably under Oskaar’s glare.
“So, this is how you repay our hospitality; is it, Samuel?” Oskaar’s voice dripped with ice. “By hurting one of our children? You do realise that if you had destroyed her mind, it would have meant death for you? I don’t think you thought of that, did you?” He shook his head sadly. “You always did run ahead of yourself, Samuel. I can remember you as a young vampire trying to run before you had even learned how to crawl. You were filled with promise back then and now look at you; it’s a disgusting sight to behold. If only you knew how it wounds me to see you brought so low. Sam, join us again; just tell us where your beloved is hiding herself and all will be forgiven. I give you my word that we shall not harm a hair on her head, but we need to bring her here, Samuel, where she can be kept safe. I have heard of others who are not looking upon the prophecy favourably, Samuel. There is talk of wanting to kill her and if she is not protected, she will die in some back alley at the hands of some vicious rogue vampire who feels it is his duty. I implore you, Samuel, think very carefully on your decision before you answer me; her very existence depends upon what choice you make. You must see that.”
Sam watched Oskaar through narrowed eyes. He seemed to be telling the truth and what he said did make sense; he could imagine that there would be some out there who would not take kindly to the type of ruling Jade’s rebirth into the world of night would bring. Fool, the voice whispered through his head, leaving her alone; if she dies as Oskaar predicts, it will be your fault.
A keening erupted from the room above and Oskaar moved slowly back up the stairs to observe the commotion. Sam could hear the long keening and wailing coming from Elisabeth. He knew he shouldn’t have caused any long term damage to her, but a taste of her medicine was certainly good enough for her. Oskaar halted on the top of the steps and spoke without turning around.
“I will send Cassiopeia to blindfold you and think up a suitable punishment for your ill treatment of our night child; the blindfold is to protect all the others from your new found gaze. I do hope for all our sakes that you choose wisely, Samuel; Jade is not something any of us can afford to lose.” And with that he disappeared out through the door and shut it behind him.
Sam stood thinking, mulling over all that Oskaar had said to him. On one hand, he could see Oskaar’s point but he still couldn’t give Jade up to them. Sam knew she was resourceful and quick witted; she wouldn’t allow herself to be caught by just any vampire. A shiver passed over Sam’s spine and his heart began to ache; it thumped raggedly in his chest. His heart couldn’t beat; he was dead! He stared at his chest, and panicked as his heart continued to slowly, irregularly beat. For the first time in more than two centuries, Sam could feel blood pulsing through his veins and he knew deepr down inside that it was Jade’s blood he could feel; her heartbeat that beat in his chest, and it was slowing down.
The Violet Line Page 15
