The Violet Line

by Bilinda Ni Siodacain

  I searched on the floor around us for something sharp and found the broken end of one of the chain links. Picking it up, I positioned it over my wrist and struck downwards. It tore through the skin and blood ran in a thin line down my wrist onto Sam’s skin. Turning it over, I placed the bloodied wound over his mouth, closed my eyes and once more summoned my power. It easily came at my call and curled up through my body, flowing fowards through the wound in my wrist and mingling with the blood.

  I sat there waiting for Sam to stir; I needed him to come back. The blood flowed out over the edge of his mouth and I pleaded with him to bite down, to drink from my arm and take back what had been taken from him, but still he didn’t move. I could feel the power working its way through his body, healing all the physical wounds he had. When I looked down at him, the only blood marring his skin was mine; he simply looked as though he was sleeping. I could feel my heart rate slowing down and the noise seemed to thunder within my ears and still, my blood and power poured into him.

  I closed my eyes and from what felt like a great distance, I felt him bite down on my hand and begin to suck at the wound. Smiling, I slumped down over him. I had lost a lot of blood and the magic was making it worse, but I needed to keep going in order to bring him back. I forced more and more into him before drifting into a peaceful sleep. The final words I whispered to him were, “I’ll always love you, forever.”

  Chapter Thirty

  He looked up at her. She lay across his chest, slumped over him like a broken rag doll. She wasn’t quite dead, but her heart beat had slowed down so much it was barely audible even with his vampire hearing. His heartbeat, though, beat steadily and rhythmically thudding away in his chest. It gave him a pain in his head listening to it; he hadn’t heard it beat in so many years and now that it was back, he wasn’t used to it. He tore his mouth away from her wrist. He had almost drained her completely; he’d nearly killed the one he loved even though he had promised to protect her.

  He sat up, pulling her into his arms as gently as he could. Ripping some of the blue chiffon fabric from the bottom of the dress she wore, he bandaged the wound on her arm as tightly as he could; he needed to stop her from losing anymore blood. He listened carefully, but her breathing was sporadic and her heartbeat had slowed even more. She didn’t have enough blood to pump through her veins anymore and her body was slowly shutting down. He sat holding her. He didn’t want to do what he was going to have to do; he had fought against this for so long, but he couldn’t lose her; not now when she had fought so hard for him. The thought of never seeing her smile again, of never being able to hold her in his arms again or kiss her, nearly broke his heart in two.

  If he lost her now that he had her back again, he would kill himself. There would be no point in continuing on with his life; it was meaningless without her. Looking down into her quiet face, he made up his mind. Having her this way was better than letting her die and slip away from him completely. Her lips had turned blue from her loss of blood and he lowered his mouth gently over hers and kissed her, one soft chaste kiss.

  “Jade, I love you. Come back, love.”

  Taking his own wrist, he bit down over the vein and watched as the blood welled up. Her blood; the blood she had given him moments before and now he would give it back to her. He listened as her heartbeat faltered and then stopped. He lowered his wrist to her mouth and poured in the blood, willing her to drink in the same way she had willed him. The blood dropped painfully slowly into her open mouth and eventually she stirred, her lips closing around the wound she drank deep.

  He held her close as she drank. At least this way, even if she was a vampire, he would get to keep her. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. She shifted in his arms and then stirred again. He thought it seemed a bit soon for her to be stirring; after all, she was undergoing the transformation and it should have taken more blood than the few drops she had drunk from him. Her mouth ripped away from his arm and she convulsed, her spine bowing upwards as though she was pulled on strings. A ragged scream tore from her bloodied lips as she ripped and tore at herself, writhing in agony. Sam held onto her as best as he could, trying to soothe her, but nothing seemed to work. He knew the transformation process was agonising, but it shouldn’t have been happening like this; he had never witnessed it like this before.

  She twisted out of his grip and continued to writhe and scream on the stone floor. He could see the veins on her arms turning a violet colour and violet fire danced along the edges of her skin. He tried to reach out towards her but she rolled out of his reach, her body contorting and convulsing as scream after scream of terror and pain howled from her mouth. What had he done to her? He hadn’t meant for this to happen; he didn’t want to cause her more pain by turning her, but he thought it was for the best. He couldn’t live without her.

  He reached for her again but a blinding light erupting into the room, knocking him away from where she writhed. Standing in the room was a woman who looked remarkably like Jade. Her long dark hair was pinned back and her blue eyes were a match for Jade’s in every way. She stepped over to Jade and laid her hand across her forehead, temporarily soothing her agony.

  “Who are you?” Sam’s voice was hoarse with fear but at least he could talk, he thought to himself.

  “My name is Emily; I’m Jade’s real mother. I don’t really have time to explain but while she was in the fairy realm with me and my husband, Faraling, who is her father, I had a vision of this moment. I knew it was coming but I just didn’t know what led up to this moment and now I do. You have tried to turn her, haven’t you, Sam?”

  He nodded. His voice had dried up completely; he didn’t think he’d been away that long, but apparently he had missed quite a bit.

  “I thought you would. I understand you didn’t want to lose her, but she doesn’t have enough blood running in her veins to be turned. You see, Sam, Jade is not like an ordinary human. She is of the Violet Line and the blood that flows within her is not just purely human, it is also fey and you know about the fey.”

  He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “The fey can’t be turned because they have no humanity in them to begin with; it turns them into powerful bombs, destroying everything in their reach.”

  She smiled. “You know your fey well, but because Jade is only part fey, part human and part of my power, it means she could be turned but only if it is done when all her own blood is present. When you gave your blood, she did not have enough humanity in her and so you see the problem. All that is left within her now is fey blood and your vampire blood; it is not enough and my vision showed me her destroying you and herself. It is why I have come; I don’t want to lose my daughter now that I have found her again. So I am going to give her back some of my blood in the hope that it will balance all this out. If it doesn’t, then we shall all be destroyed.”

  She leaned down over her daughter and looked into her eyes. Violet fire ate at the edges of her blue ones; only the fey who were consumed by the blood power had eyes like that. She hoped she wasn’t too late. She pulled the pin from her hair and stuck it in the tip of her finger. A small drop of ruby blood glistened there and she dropped three drops into Jade’s mouth and watched.

  Jade sucked in a long shuddering breath before growing completely still. Her skin grew pale and the violet lines that had run amok on her skin faded. Emily looked into her daughter’s eyes and was relieved to see the violet fire fading slowly from her iris. Her breathing became steadier and Emily turned back to Sam with a smile.

  “I believe she’ll be okay. Look after my girl and remember you owe us a visit; she needs to discover where she really comes from and we’d like to see more of her.” Her smile grew wider. “Oh, and try not to be too jealous of Lorcan. He has been a great help to her; it was he who brought me here. Without him, both you and Jade would now be dead; please keep it in mind.” Her voice turned urgent. “Sam, I have to go. Please look after her. I’ll be watching.”

  The brilliant white light e
ngulfed her once more and she was gone, leaving Sam to scramble hastily over to Jade’s side once more. Lifting her gently onto his lap, he smoothed her hair back from her face and her eyes fluttered and opened. She smiled lazily up at him as he held her, giggling as she thought she could hear her own heartbeat against his chest; she didn’t realise it belonged to him. Cradling her, he stood with her still in his arms and she yawned.

  “I love you, but I’m very tired. Promise you won’t leave me till I wake up.” Her voice sounded small and a little bit frightened, but he tried to reassure her.

  “Jade, I promise I won’t ever leave you again if I can help it. I love you, too. Now go asleep. When you wake up, I’ll have you home.” Her eyes fluttered closed and she sighed contentedly before slipping into a deep, exhausted sleep

  Chapter Thirty One

  I opened my eyes groggily as the light streamed in through the curtains. I felt as though I had climbed the highest mountain and had run down it again. My body felt battered and bruised but I also had a strange feeling of contentedness, as though something great had happened but I just wasn’t sure what it was yet. Opening my eyes, it hit me that the curtains were open and it was sunny. If Sam walked in, he’d get burnt. I scrambled out of the bed to get to the window and then halted. Had it been a dream about Sam? Maybe I hadn’t saved him; maybe it had just been part imagination and part nightmare and fantasy, all rolled into one. I still walked to the window to close the curtains; even if it was a dream, old habits die hard. I was reaching over to grab the heavy dark drapes when I heard the door click and Sam’s voice. I screamed at him to stay out, that the curtains were open, but he simply walked into the centre of the room and stood in the sunshine. I stood frozen, waiting for him to start burning, to cry out in agony, but nothing happened. He simply stood there looking at me, a small grin playing at the corners of his lips.

  “But...what...how...but.” I tried to speak but I was too shocked to get the words out. He crossed the room in two strides and picked me up in his strong arms, swinging me around and laughing at the shocked expression on my face. I just couldn’t believe it Sam could go out in the sunlight. As he held me, I noticed something else strange about him. He felt slightly warmer than he should have; still not as warm as a real human, but still warmer, and I could hear his heart beating. He sat me down on the bed and cuddled me close against him, nuzzling in close against my hair, inhaling my scent as I held him close.

  “Sam... What’s going on? I don’t understand.”

  He gazed into my face as he spoke, as though he hadn’t seen my face a million times before. “You changed me. When you brought me back, you changed me back; you gave me a life of sorts. The closest I can figure out is that I’m now a living vampire. My heart beats and because my circulation is back up and running, I feel warmer to the touch. I can go out into the sunlight, something I haven’t been able to do for two centuries. You gave all this back to me when you gave me your life.”

  I studied him to see was he telling me the truth. “But it doesn’t make sense. I mean, how did I do all this? And if I gave you my life, how am I alive? I mean, I had this dream where you tried to turn me but it was so painful. It consumed me and I didn’t want you to touch me because I knew it would consume you, too. I tried to get away from you but you kept trying to hold me. I couldn’t get away and then I woke up here in my bed. Sam, what happened?”

  I could see him trying to think of the best way to broach the subject but I just wanted him to tell me the truth. “Sam, just tell me; I can handle it.”

  He glanced at the floor. “I did try to turn you. I didn’t want to lose you; I couldn’t bear the thought of living in this world without you by my side in it, so I was selfish and tried to make you like me. And yes, you did freak out; you really gave me a scare actually. But it was your mom who saved you.”

  I hugged him close to me and drank in the smell of him. “It wasn’t selfish. I know what it is like; I’d have done anything to keep you with me, so I understand. But, how did my mom save me?”

  He smiled at me. “Can’t I tell you all that later? Right now I just want to enjoy having you with me. I just want to hold you; I haven’t been able to do that in a long time. I missed you.”

  Playfully, I ruffled his hair. “Of course you can, but first I need to have a bathroom break; you know, shower and stuff.”

  He grinned as he released me from his embrace. “I’ll wait here but hurry up; I know what you’re like with your showers. Oh, and you have a note on the kitchen counter from some guy called Lorcan. Your mom filled me in but you can tell me the rest later.”

  I hurried from the room and hastily read over the note.

  “Hey Jade, glad it all worked out for you. I’m really sorry I couldn’t help you when the two vamps turned up, but I thought it was best to follow you and see where they were keeping Sam, seeing as you were planning on going with them later in the day anyway. I called your mom into it all and sent her in to fix you so don’t be angry. Actually, I don’t see how you could be angry. I saved you but then, I always knew I was good at saving the damsel in distress! Anyway, I’ll be seeing you soon; you know, to sort out what you owe me and all for services supplied. Yours truly, Lorcan”

  I smiled as I read the note. I knew he hadn’t simply deserted me and it was such a relief to know he hadn’t gotten caught up with the vampires. Placing it back on the counter, I headed in for the fastest shower in my life. I didn’t want to give Sam anything to tease me about and we had a lot to discuss. Pulling on my clean clothes after the shower, I left my hair wet and hurried back into the room only to be caught immediately in a bear hug from Sam. He kissed me softly on the lips, just a gentle meeting of lips and nothing more.

  “So, tell me everything you’ve been up to; and should I be worried about this Lorcan guy?”

  Laughing, I cuddled up to him as he climbed up onto the bed, taking me with him as I began to recount everything that had happened since he went missing. I had a lot to fill him in on but at least I could do it; I had him back with me and for now, that was all that mattered.

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