The Violet Line (21 page)

“
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.

Panic swept through him as he struggled to understand what was happening; there was pain in his neck and this strange lapping sensation. He closed his eyes and saw her lying in the arms of Graham, her blood forming a small pool on the dirty concrete floor underneath her still body. Her eyes fluttered open and stared into his – and then she was gone. Sam howled in anguish. Great racking sobs tore raggedly from his throat, drowning out the high pitched keening which Elisabeth still continued upstairs. It wasn’t long before the revenants joined his screaming cries with their own howling. The sound he emitted sent a shiver through all who heard him; it was normally only reserved for the ones who had lost a great love and Sam truly believed he had.

As his cries died down and he was left heaving small sobs at the image that remained imprinted in his mind, the door to the upstairs floor opened and Cassiopeia made her way down to Sam. A blindfold was in one hand and a long, wickedly curved silver blade was in the other. As she wrapped the blindfold around his eyes, he didn’t try to stop her. Without a word she began to run the blade over his healed skin. He welcomed the pain she inflicted upon him; nothing could be worse than what he had just witnessed. He would prefer if she cut out his unbeating heart and fed it to the revenants; it would be a better fate than an existence without his love. His silence was eerie as Cassiopeia carved up his marbled flesh with the silver blade, leaving long, patterned gouges and tears on his body. She tried to cause him some form of pain, but nothing moved him anymore. As she finished up, she was disturbed by his distance and lack of response. She left him hanging from his chained wrists with blood pooling beneath his feet, blood that reminded him of Jade’s blood spilled on the dusty grey floor.

* * *

Cleaning her blade, she watched him carefully before making her way up the stairs to find Oskaar. She would send Raphael down to oversee his placement into the revenants’ room. The revenants roamed freely in there and she would see to it that Sam would be chained to the wall. She had spilled enough of his blood to entice them to play but they would not eat him; he was vampire, after all, just like them. She could not however guarantee that they would not try and kill him, so she would have them chained too, so as to not have too much damage inflicted. Samuels’s behaviour concerned her and Oskaar would have to hear of Sam’s strange behaviour. He had never been completely immune to their tortures; he was not a screamer, as some were, and she enjoyed their pain and suffering. Sam was an internaliser but he still had visceral responses, particularly to the silver blades she favoured. His silence and stillness troubled her and she knew deep down within her own heart that only one thing could cause such a reaction, for she had felt it herself when Sam had left her all those years ago.

Chapter Twenty Two

As my eyes focused on the spreading crimson on the cement floor, I noticed the thundering in my ears. I fought against the darkness threatening to eat at the edges of my vision. Why did it feel like I should just let go? Let go of what? I asked myself. The voice in my head told me to relax again, not to fight. I didn’t want to fight. The voice sounded beautiful, melodic, as if it should belong to an angel. I relaxed into his grip as once again the blackness began to overwhelm me. It felt so warm and inviting, like the warm red on the floor. The beautiful warm red of my own blood spreading in a pool beneath me. Everything is beautiful when you’re dying, I thought to myself.

Suddenly, I felt it; the cuts, bruises and
him,
his fangs sunk deep into my neck. As I began to struggle beneath him, he lifted his face from where he had bitten me. He had been beautiful, but then they all are; now he looked more like an animal. Blood dribbled slowly down his chin as he tried once again to force me under with his eyes, but now his magic was broken. I felt his power pour out towards me only to break around me like water flowing around a rock. It confused him; I saw it flicker in his eyes the uncertainty. This was my only opportunity because unless I got away from him right now, he wasn’t going to try and put me under his control as he drained my life out of me. This time it wouldn’t be beautiful and peaceful; this time it would hurt. Hell, it was starting to hurt now.

I reached both hands towards him; he hadn’t bothered trying to restrain me, didn’t feel it was necessary. Usually when a vamp puts you under with their power, you don’t wake up; luckily for me, I’m not an average human. Grabbing his face in my hands, I pulled him closer as though I were going to kiss him. I saw fear filter into his eyes as I pulled my own power from deep within me. It felt as though it was coming from a very faraway place and it had a long way to travel to reach the surface, but it did; it bubbled up within my body, flooded down through my arms and out of my hands. I pushed it into him, the feeling of death. My eyes began to water from the strain; clearly, I had over done it with everything. Healing Sam, the visions, everything; it was beginning to become too much for my human body to handle – and I certainly wasn’t used to all this power; it felt alien to me. His eyes, which had seemed so enticing below, were now simply a mud brown colour that had darkened in his panic. Ripping away from me, a mixture between a snarl and a shriek tore from his mouth. I watched him writhe in agony as he gripped his chest with both hands, trying to claw the feeling out from under his skin – or at least that was how it looked to me.

Glancing around, I knew I had only seconds to find my way out of this place and into the sunlight before he came around from my little trick. I stood unsteadily on shaking legs and tried to run for the door nearest to me. I could see sunlight peeping at me around its frame, casting a soft glow into the grey light of this place. As I slammed into it, I prayed it hadn’t become stuck behind me as I had entered… I fumbled for the handle only to notice the room had gone silent behind me. Grabbing it with both hands, I pushed down on the handle with all my strength. The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention; my own little alarm system. I felt the air around me shift as he made one last grab for me before I pushed the door outwards into the bright midday sun. I fell onto my knees in the pool of light and crawled further away from the door. I heard his cry of pain as he caught some of the sun’s rays on his sensitive skin.

I crawled further forward into the light just to be sure I was completely out of his reach and sat down hard on the cold ground. Tentatively, I reached my hand up to my neck. It felt moist. I pulled my hand away and stared for a minute at the red stain on my fingers; I gazed at it until my vision became blurred and I realised I was crying. Tearing a piece of my tattered t-shirt, I pressed it against my neck. I couldn’t hide from it anymore; I needed help with all this stuff. Being independent and trying to find Sam on my own was fine, but not at the expense of dying before I found him.

I tried to get to my feet. I wasn’t going to just lie down and bleed to death; I wouldn’t give that creep the satisfaction. My head swam as I straightened my cramped and bloodied legs. I almost fell to the ground again as soon as I managed to stand up. I closed my eyes and tried to chase the fog from my brain. When I felt steady enough, I opened my eyes and blinked once, twice, until my eyes adjusted to the light. The sun beat down on my aching shoulders. I had to move. He’d be out looking for me soon and I had to get somewhere safe.

As I lurched forward in what I hoped was the direction of my car, I thought once again about my decision to come here. The vampire with the soulless eyes who’d almost emptied me on the warehouse floor – or Graham, as he liked to be called – leaving the note for me had been very clever; he knew I wouldn’t be able to resist and since he had arranged to meet me in daylight hours, I had thought I would be safe. I knew what Graham was. I knew given the opportunity, he would try and kill me, turn me maybe; with some vampires you could never be too sure, but he would certainly kill me. Only the thought of him, the one I’d lost, made me go so willingly into the arms of that monster.

“
Sam.” The name echoed around in my head. Tears ran hot down my face at the thought of never seeing him in the flesh again. I had to find him. I couldn’t let him down; he hadn’t let me down, hadn’t given me up to them. I pictured his face as he’d told me what they wanted; my memory failed me with the image of him. He was never as beautiful in my memory as he was in reality; I could never seem to completely capture all of him. As I remembered him now, he was a little hazy. His hair flopped down onto his brow. It was such a rich black colour; it wasn’t cold like most black is. His hair and its colour looked like you could drown in its depth. It contrasted so sharply against his pale skin. His eyes peering at me from their frame of thick black lashes; his spiralling green eyes, the only eyes I had ever gotten utterly and irrevocably lost in. He’d had to pull me out himself; my gift could never help me against the force of Sam’s gaze. As I reached my car, I wiped the tears off my face with the back of my hand and remembered what Sam had said that day. The day my heart had been irreparably broken. He’d reached his hand out towards me, tracing my cheek with his thumb as though he could memorise it through touch alone. I pressed my face into the cold embrace of his hand.

“
I won’t let them have you,” he’d said, stroking my face as he looked at me with pain filled his eyes. “I’ll never let them have you; I’ll die before I let them have you. You’re mine, Jade. My heart, my being; it’s all yours. All that I am, I give to you.”

Leaning into me, his lips had brushed mine tenderly and then he’d crushed me against him, his lips pressing into mine as though he was trying to melt the two of us into the one person. The force of the emotion had almost crippled me and I’d known the loss of my happy ending within his embrace. Pulling away from me, his breathing was ragged. He’d leaned his forehead against mine and whispered, “I love you, from now until eternity. Remember that; and when I’m gone, don’t look for me.” With that, he’d ripped away from me and was gone. I still felt the rush of wind and the ghost of his touch on my face, but he was gone.

Looking back on it now, I should have done more to persuade him to stay. Since he’d left, my whole world had become one huge mess. I had fallen apart at the seams; I’d cried and screamed after him, begging him to come back, but my words went unheard. I was still no closer to finding him now than I had been then.

The voice in my head piped up, “you had to do all this; you can’t leave any stone unturned and who would you get to help you anyway?” I thought about it hard; even if I hadn’t gone searching for him, they were still looking for me. I just needed to find Sam before they found me. I only knew one person who I might be able to call on for the type of help I needed, but I wasn’t sure how willing he would be. Lorcan seemed as though he could hold his own in a fight; I’d witnessed what he’d done to the creepy vamp in the club ‘The Wreak-Room’. Even though he said he’d been sent by my aunt, I still wasn’t too sure how well I could trust him. I’d just met him, after all.