The Violet Line

by Bilinda Ni Siodacain

  I stared out the window as we drove through the city. He drove effortlessly and slipped through the traffic seamlessly. Marianne didn’t speak for the entire journey but kept herself pressed firmly against me as though I might simply melt into the seat. I gazed out the window as we drove through the back streets on the way to the docks. I could see glimpses of the water as it shone dully in the grey light.

  We pulled into an area I hadn’t seen the last time. I had been down here but I’d had other things on my mind, I thought. I had been too busy to notice all of my surroundings. The wheels crunched on the gravel near the entrance to one of the open fronted warehouses. Raphael stepped out, skipped around the car and opened the door for Marianne and myself. She pushed in closely against me as I turned to get out and her breath tickled my neck as she inhaled my scent and murmured her appreciation.

  I scrambled out as quickly as I could, anything to be away from her closely clinging form and her creepy scenting of my blood. She smirked as she stepped out beside me, fixing her little bottle green dress and smoothing out its skirt. Flicking her long hair over her shoulder, she sauntered forward into the gloomy building. Raphael swept his hand out in front of himself in a gesture of gentlemanly politeness from an era that had long since past. Nervously, I crept after her, sandwiched between the two vampire guards. I entered the warehouse and the first thing to catch my eyes was Sam’s chained form lying on the cement floor.

  I couldn’t see any signs of life but then he was a vampire; he didn’t need to breath and they could remain perfectly still for indefinite amounts of time, but something about the way he was lying didn’t feel right. I sprinted forward only to be jerked backwards with a quick flick of Marianne’s arm.

  “Patience, child.” He melted out of the shadows at the back of the room and glided forwards to stand over Sam’s body. “We haven’t been formally introduced yet and it would be impolite to not greet me before I let you heal your lover. I am Oskaar and you must be Jade. You truly are as beautiful as he imagined.”

  I recognised his voice as that of the vampire from my visions but meeting him in the flesh was much more chilling than anything I might have imagined him to be. Tall and thin, his hair was black and streaked with silver. He seemed older than the others, both at the age he had been turned but also older in the years he had seen as a vampire. His skin was paper thin and translucent and it stretched across his gaunt cheek bones. Although he seemed beautiful and carried an impressive presence, he filled me more with dread than with a longing like all the others normally did. He was too creepy and I could feel my stomach churning in fear and revulsion at being in his presence. My heart thumped against my rib cage and although I knew they could hear it, I prayed irrationally that they wouldn’t notice how much faster it beat in fear.

  “Umm, ok. Now can I go to Sam?” I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible. I didn’t want to betray too much emotion to them because I knew they would use it against me if I did.

  “Always so impatient, aren’t you; eager to be doing other things even though you are stuck doing the first thing. I like that about you. I enjoy eager people; they always lead to more excitement, don’t you think?”

  I didn’t answer him, hoping that my prolonged silence would make him get on with his sermon faster. I only wanted to know if Sam was going to be alright. I stepped forward and once again met with Marianne’s restraining hand. I contemplated using my power on her but I knew if I did, they would make it worse for Sam. Oskaar sighed, a motion I knew to be for show rather than necessity. He was dead and vampires had no use for breath aside from the obvious of needing it to be able to talk; they didn’t need it to survive. He beckoned me forward.

  “Come along then, child; come and heal your fallen lover. I will have plenty of time with you later. I can wait; unlike youth, I am patient.”

  I darted forward and fell on my knees beside Sam. My hand automatically reached out to touch his pale icy skin. He felt colder than he normally did and he didn’t stir when I brushed over his marble skin. Even when I whispered in his ear, he still remained statue like. I looked up at Oskaar imploringly.

  “How do I heal him? What have you done to him?”

  He smiled. “Jade, I’m afraid you shall have to figure that out for yourself. Only you can bring him back; not even I have control at this point.”

  I looked back at Sam and carefully rolled him onto his back. The chains and shackles clinked together as I moved him, making me jump. Sitting over him lying there, his eyelashes looked like dark smudges against his cheeks. If I didn’t know about vampires and Sam, I would have said he was nothing more than a beautiful corpse. But I knew what Sam was and I knew that even though he seemed gone, his heart belonged to me and that if I wanted I could bring him back.

  I draped myself over him, my salty tears dropping onto his face and rolling over the edges of his sculpted cheek bones. Wrapping my arms around him, I held him close as I called him. I felt my power rise through me, searching for the wound that needed to be healed. I fed it into him where my hands touched his skin; every part of me that made contact with his skin I fed power in through. I felt him stir; it didn’t take much. Sam wasn’t as far gone as Oskaar had hoped. I knew that with my powers not completely online, if he was too far gone, I wouldn’t have been able to call him back.

  Lying over him, I felt him stirring beneath me. I lifted my face that was pressed against his chest and gazed into his smouldering blazing green eyes. I couldn’t help the smile of triumph and love that spread across my face. I heard Raphael behind me making vomiting noises into his hand, but I didn’t care. I had Sam back but I needed to make him understand that he needed to escape, that I could only distract them for so long. If he was lucky, it would give him the opportunity he required to run and never look back. I knew I would probably die, but as long as he was safe, then that was all that mattered.

  He moved stiffly and I sat up and away from him. I kept our skin to skin contact; I had missed him. It wasn’t until I had him back within touching distance that I realised the extent to which I had missed him. He watched me carefully, as though I was some type of dream he wasn’t sure could be trusted. I felt like shaking him and telling him that I was really here, but he had been used and tortured; I couldn’t blame him for his doubt now. Strong arms gripped the back of my jumper and I was lifted clean off my knees and left dangling in the air. Oskaar smiled at me again, a cruel barring of his sharp yellowed teeth that made me shudder.

  “Well done. Now that you have completed what you wanted, it is time to go. We have much to prepare.”

  I watched as Sam struggled to get to his feet, but two other male vampires had appeared while I had been healing him and they grabbed the chains that bound him and yanked him off his feet. I watched as he smashed into the cement and then lightening quick dived towards where Raphael held me suspended.

  I tried to shout at him, but the words wouldn’t leave my mouth; it was as though they were glued in there. The two vampires that held his chains struggled to hold him back and Sam twirled, dragging the smaller one across the floor with him. The other one had dirty blonde hair and was tall and rangy; the sinuous muscles stood out taunt in his arms as he held Sam’s weight off his friend with the chains. The smaller one had spiked blue hair and he easily rolled to his feet, wrapping the chains around his arms and pulling Sam hard. It knocked him to the side again but it only brought him closer to where Raphael stood with me in his arms. Sam made a final dive at Raphael’s legs, his teeth snapping, and they didn’t catch him in time. His mouth latched onto Raphael, biting and tearing into the muscle in his legs. Raphael yowled like an animal caught in a bear trap and I felt his grip loosen on me as he let me go.

  I fell from the height he had held me at and I could see the horror in Sam’s face as I plummeted head first towards the cement floor. Sam released him and dived for me instead, only to be whipped back by the two vamps holding the chains that bound him. I put my hands up over my face to protect myse
lf from the fall and the pain tore through my injured hand as it connected with the floor just before the rest of me slammed into it. Stars burst behind my eyelids before the world went dark.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Light filtered in through my half opened eyes and I stirred, my hand automatically going to where I had hit my head. A cold hand on my arm made my eyes fly open. I stared at a small squat vampire holding my arm down on the bed. I tried to wriggle away from him, but he simply held me a little tighter. I could feel warmth beginning to spread from where he held my arm; it tingled up through the broken bone in my wrist and I had the oddest sensation of it slowly knitting back together. Lifting his hands away, he looked down at me. His small narrow face remained impassive as he scrutinised me before nodding to himself and moving away.

  I struggled to pull myself upright but I found myself impeded by the intricate corsetry of the dress I was wearing. Looking down at myself in horror, I remembered how I hadn’t been wearing this when I was in the warehouse earlier and I certainly didn’t remember dressing in it. So that meant somebody else had dressed me. I prayed that the tall vampire, Raphael, had had nothing to do with it. Come to think of it, I hoped Marianne hadn’t dressed me either; she was beyond strange.

  I eventually managed to scramble to a kneeling position on the large four poster bed. The scarlet satin bedspread slipped underneath me made it even hard to maintain my balance. Settling as best I could, I looked around the room. The smaller vampire left through a door set into the far wall. I watched as the heavy dark wooden door swung back into place.

  As I slid off the bed to investigate further, the door swung inwards again, revealing the small child vampire with the perfect blonde hair and the blue eyes who I had healed not hours before. She was flanked by two taller vampires, one male and one female. I could see from the way they kept their heads lowered that she was the one in charge. She flounced into the room before coming to a halt in front of me. She held the body of a broken doll in one hand and the other hand held a corner of her dress in the same way that a small child might. However, the eyes that observed me were in no way childlike. She studied me in the way one might study an insect and I could feel her gaze raking up and down my body.

  “So, it was you who saved me? But then, I suppose it was your job to do it. I mean it was your boyfriend who hurt me and if you are going to be the queen, then it’s your place to look after your most powerful children. Although, even if you’re going to become the queen, I don’t care because I still won’t bow to you or anything; I’ll still be older than you. You probably won’t even be that powerful anyway. We have people here who can heal us already; I don’t see why we need another healer. And your other power, the way you can make them feel death?” She giggled behind her hand. “I can kill people. I don’t need to pretend to do it and make them think they are dying; I just do it. I think that is far more powerful than yours; wouldn’t you agree?”

  I didn’t know how to answer her. She looked like a child and her mannerisms and arguments were childish, but the look in her eyes was very mature. It frightened me to look into her eyes but I could still do it and she had no power over me. It seemed my power was still growing. I could feel how truly powerful she was; it ran over my skin like little currents of electricity, but her eyes had no pull to them at all. I smiled with my small victory and her face twisted into a scowl. She stomped towards me but the tall, older vampire who had called himself Oskaar floated into the room just then.

  “Lissie, I do hope you are behaving yourself and treating our very special guest here with the utmost of respect?”

  She turned and smiled angelically at him. “Of course I am, Uncle; I wouldn’t dream of being naughty.”

  He studied her for a second before returning her smile with one as equally sickening. He looked past her to where I stood rooted to the floor and looked at me from head to toe. “Well, don’t you just look like a vision? I believe everything is in place so if you will follow me, I shall escort you both personally to the hall where we shall sort the little matter at hand.”

  Sweeping his hand out grandly before him, Lissie slipped her cold little hand into mine and squeezed hard before dragging me out of the room while Oskaar brought up the rear with the other two guards. She towed me down through the grand hallway before skipping down along the marbled staircase, her feet barely touching the stone. She moved effortlessly but not as graceful as a fairy; I couldn’t stop the nasty thought from entering my head as she dragged me after her.

  Her feet carried her forward at a faster pace as she pulled me into a large entry hallway. Up ahead, I could see two large heavy wooden doors. Stopping beside them, she came to an abrupt halt as she waited for Oskaar to catch up to us. He arrived with his easy glide and slowly passed us. The doors swung inwards to reveal a large ballroom. The floor was made of a dark stone tiles and I could see that all the windows had been shut up, leaving no real light to filter through. The walls were covered in heavy tapestries depicting to cruel scenes of violence. I couldn’t stare at them for too long; they made my stomach roll in disgust at some of the acts depicted.

  Walking into the room, I could see several other vampires scattered about, including Marianne and Raphael. In the far corner, Sam stood chained to one of the large iron rings on the wall. His eyes met mine as I walked in; they looked huge and terrified. I tried to smile to reassure him that I was alright, but I couldn’t bring myself to be brave enough. My lip trembled and I was forced to fight back frightened tears. I didn’t want to die this way and I definitely didn’t want to kill Sam, but how could I avoid my mother’s premonition? I tried to go to Sam but Lissie steered me towards the low stage instead. I began to struggle and she tried to pull me under her power with her eyes, but she had no hold over me. I struggled against her harder; I wanted to go to Sam.

  Oskaar held his hand up and two vampires unhooked Sam from his place on the wall and dragged him into the centre of the large cavernous hall. My heart filled with dread as I heard the sound of snarling and growling coming from behind one of the smaller doors and from it emerged my worst nightmare. Three large, what I presumed must be real revenants emerged on chain leashes. The vampires that led them out strained to hold them back as they scored the stone with their clawed hands, growling and snarling with temper. I stood completely still in Lissie’s arms as the vampires brought them into the centre of the room, almost within arm’s reach of where Sam was held. And then Oskaar spoke to me.

  “Now, Jade, as a little bit of an incentive for you, I felt this little display was necessary. Do you agree to allow me to bite and turn you into what the prophecy has promised? Or shall I let the Revenants drain Sam in front of you and then turn you anyway?”

  Mutely, I shook my head as I stared into Sam’s horrified eyes. I wouldn’t let him die. Oskaar clapped happily.

  “See, I knew this would all work out; all it requires is a little persuasion. Now, Lissie dear, if you would be so good as to help Jade up here to me we can begin.”

  She pulled me towards the steps at the side of the stage and led me up them. The entire time, I stared at Sam standing shackled in the centre of the room. I stood in front of Oskaar and he turned my face towards his as he looked into my eyes.

  “I see, child, our power has no hold over you anymore so I’m afraid it will hurt, but I cannot help that.”

  I watched in horror and shock as his fangs slid out and I could see droplets of spit coating the edges. I held up my hand. “Wait. If I let you do this, will you promise me that Sam will go free?”

  He smiled indulgently at me. “My dear, I promise that when I am finished, I will let you decide what you will do with Sam.”

  I nodded; it was the best deal I would get from him. His mouth opened and he tilted my head to the right, exposing the long column of my neck to his wicked fangs. His cold breath fanned against my skin. Just as he grazed my skin, a howling erupted from the room below. It startled Oskaar and I turned my head just in time to see one o
f the vampires releasing a revenant from his grip. My eyes sought out Sam and he lunged for the bottom of the stage, but he wasn’t fast enough to escape from the loose revenant that landed on his back and latched onto his neck.

  Oskaar still held me but he lifted his head to watch the proceedings. They both rolled across the floor below the stage but the revenant had Sam in a tight grip and blood ran in rivulets from Sam’s wounds. They struggled and I screamed in terror and pain as the revenant clamped even more securely around Sam’s neck. He still fought but I could see he was tiring under the onslaught; and he couldn’t shake the thing from his back.

  I broke free from Oskaar’s surprised hold and jumped from the edge of the stage just as Sam stopped struggling beneath the weight of the beast that sat atop him. A howl of anguish ripped from my lips as I ran at them. From the corner of my eye, I could see some of the vampires darting to try and catch me, but in that moment I was my father’s daughter and I was of the Violet Line. I dodged through their arms and felt for my power that lay coiled deep in the pit of my stomach. Calling it forth, it lashed outwards from my outstretched hands in the form of violet fire engulfing any vampire foolish enough to come with its reach. The revenant on top of Sam bristled at my approach and launched itself towards my head but I was consumed by the burning power. With one touch I reduced it to ash that blew away on the air.

  Dropping to my knees, I cradled Sam’s bloodied form in my arms. I knew he was dead, for real this time. I could feel it; there was nothing within him and all I had left was the shell I held in my arms. The two other revenants were released and I dispatched them with a simple flick of the wrist. Violet fire blew through them, turning them into small piles of ash on the floor. I lifted my head in time to see Marianne and Raphael ushering Oskaar and Lissie out a small side door beside the stage. I contemplated following them, but that would mean I would have to leave Sam. I sat there rocking him back and forth for what seemed like an eternity before it dawned on me; I could give him his life back if I worked fast enough. My powers, when they were complete, allowed me to give back a life that I took and while I knew taking the lives of the revenants wasn’t enough, I had a life I could give; my own.