Ageless (19 page)

Rose
,
Violet thought with great sadness. It suddenly felt like everything
in her life at that moment always came back to Rose.

Violet didn’t know what to say to
comfort Margo, so instead she kept silent. She wondered what she
would do in Margo’s place, and it made sense now why sometimes
Margo would be angry watching Jonah trying to get close to Violet.
Margo wanted Jonah to be getting close to her. That should have
been perfect because Violet wanted Jeremiah, but he was pushing her
toward Jonah. It was frustrating.

They had been walking for about
fifteen minutes when she felt a vibration in the air, and she knew
something was different. Something had changed. The ground beneath
her fell flat and she saw that they were crossing out of the tree
line onto a worn path.

“We just crossed onto Montrose
land,” Margo said.

Violet didn’t know what to expect,
but now she had an inkling of what Jeremiah meant when he said that
the fabric between realities was thinner there. She felt sensations
around her that were reminiscent of the time she spent in that
phantom place right after the train accident. “I feel strange,” she
said, bringing her hand to her forehead.

Margo turned to her and frowned.
“What do you mean strange?”

Pausing to catch her breath, Violet
felt sensations pressing hard against her and it was making her
lightheaded. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I feel like
someone is trying to get my attention.”

“We’d better hurry,” Margo said
breathlessly and grabbed her hand. She pulled Violet
forward.

Now feeling dizzy, Violet started
to zigzag, unable to walk straight. Margo grabbed her by the
shoulders. “It’s not time for that yet. Tell them to back off,
Violet.”

“Back off,” Violet said in a
sing-song voice that was completely unfamiliar to her. Then she saw
a figure emerge behind Margo, and her eyes bulged as she wondered
if her ancestors were actually manifesting in front of her. Then
Jonah’s face became visible. She smiled. “Jonah. Hello,
Jonah.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Jonah
asked Margo. His eyes were darting all around them.

“I think she’s being affected by
the spirits on the other side,” Margo said frantically. Then she
looked around Jonah. “Where’s Jeremiah?”

“We are in serious trouble,” Jonah
in a terse voice. “We have to get Violet together. We need her
help.”

“Help to do what?” Violet asked,
swinging her arms back and forth. Then she raised her hands up in
the air and made her fingers dance. “I’ve got big magic. People
should be scared of me.” She laughed, even though she had no idea
what she was laughing about. Jonah’s expression made her laugh
harder. There was a voice in the back of her mind telling her that
she was acting like she had lost it, but there was another part of
her that was telling her she shouldn’t care.

“Violet,” Jonah said, gently
pulling her arms back down to her sides. “Elysa managed to find a
way to harness some kind of magic, and she set a trap for Jeremiah.
She’s taken him, and my guess is that if we don’t get in there
soon, she will kill him.”

Violet pouted at the thought. “But
Elysa loves him. She won’t hurt him.”

“Yes, yes she will, Violet. Now
come on. Whatever is making you act like this, you need to fight it
off. I need your help.”

Violet felt like she was swimming
in his eyes. Without thinking she wrapped her arms around his neck
and pressed herself to him. “Your eyes are so pretty, Jonah. I
could look at them forever.”

Margo groaned, whether in annoyance
or frustration Violet couldn’t tell.

Jonah didn’t move. He took a
shuddering breath, and even though Violet could tell that he didn’t
want to, he reached up and broke her clasp and pushed her away. “I
need the Violet who was going to go to Brown in the fall to take
control right now. The one who sat next to her parents’ tombstone
every day for a month after their car accident. The Violet who
cried herself to sleep for a year.” He reached up and brushed the
locket around her neck. “Remember who you are, Violet.”

Her consciousness slammed into
place. All the fuzziness and irrational thoughts flew right from
her mind. She slapped her forehead as if to drive any remnants out.
“That was frickin’ crazy. It was like someone else was totally in
my head.”

Jonah nodded. “You have to be on
your guard. If you lose focus, any one of the many spirits here
could step inside your mind.”

“How do I do that?” she
asked.

“I can’t tell you that because I
don't know. I just know what Rose told me,” Jonah replied. “Just
focus and stay with us.”

Violet shook her head. She ran over
the conversation from the last few minutes in alarm. “Okay, how is
it possible that Jeremiah was captured? I thought you guys were all
bad-ass being ancient vampires and all.”

“Even vampires are susceptible to
magic,” Jonah said. “I haven’t seen anything like that this since
Bruckhart Ward’s days. You can set a perimeter of magic so that
when your intended target steps inside, they are instantly trapped.
That’s what happened. I was able to walk right out; I didn’t even
know it was there. But Jeremiah was stuck. As soon as he figured it
out he sent me back to warn you.”

Jonah grabbed her hand and pulled
her the rest of the way on the path, and she was amazed to find
that just past a row of tall shrubbery, it opened up to a
well-trodden driveway. She looked all around her. It was like they
were in the middle of a tunnel, but the roof was made out of a tree
canopy and sides made out of the shrubs.

“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Margo
said, stepping off the path and onto the driveway beside
her.

“It’s lovely,” Violet said. She saw
glowing lanterns at evenly spaced intervals all the way down the
drive. “Okay, I probably suck at this whole strategy thing, but
aren’t we going to be a bit obvious walking right up to the front
door?”

That’s when they heard it; a man
was howling in pain. In the enclosed tunnel, it was like the sound
traveled right to them before sweeping over them. Jonah turned
pale. “I suck at strategy too. Jeremiah really is the brains behind
all of this kind of stuff, and I’d say our element of surprise is
completely blown. Violet, you are the best weapon we
have.”

It was strange and exhilarating to
be called a weapon. If only she could fulfill that expectation. As
she tried to clear her mind, she could tell that the hum of the
ground hadn’t left her even though she had pushed the presence out
of her mind. She felt a strange energy calling to her, and her arms
began to tingle. She looked down and saw that the glowing gold
symbols had appeared on her skin.

“I can feel it,” she whispered,
looking at her hands. “But I’m not sure I can control
whatever
it
is,
Jonah.”

“Try, Violet, please. You have to
if you want to help Jeremiah.”

The screams came again and sent shivers down her
spine. What could Elysa possibly be doing to cause a grown man like
Jeremiah to scream like that? The thought was terrifying.

Violet closed her eyes. She thought about her time
floating in the place between life and death and how happy she had
been there. She opened herself up to the sensations and emotions
that she remembered feeling there. Then it felt like she just fell
inside. Jeremiah had been right. The fabric between the realities
here was so thin that all she had to do was push.

She felt the presence rather than
saw it. She was in a place between worlds and she wasn’t alone.
“Hello? I need your help.” Violet wasn’t sure if she was speaking
the words out loud or just in her mind, but she thought it probably
didn’t matter. Jonah and Margo knew what she was trying to
do.

It was like the presence danced
around her, but wouldn’t reveal itself. It frustrated her as she
tried to reach out with her mind and tackle it. “Stop hiding from
me! I just want to talk. We’re the same, you and me, but you know
more than I do. You know things that I need to know to help my
friends. Please, will you talk to me?”

“If you want my help, you must let
me in
,” a dark voice gurgled, sending her
skin crawling.

“No,” Violet said. The idea of
losing control for even a second wasn’t something that she was
willing to do. She didn’t understand enough of this place and its
rules, and there was nothing that could convince her that was a
good idea.

There was just laughing in reply,
and then it faded away. In its place, Violet felt a great rush of
sadness. It had a distinctly male feel as it brushed against her,
but it wasn’t threatening. It was almost as if it was looking for
comfort.

“Can you help me?” Violet asked,
reaching out. She knew that this was the presence she first
encountered upon entering the transition space. The darker presence
had swept it away, but now that the bad thing was gone, this
lighter, warmer presence had returned.

She felt it wrap gently around her,
embracing her. Violet felt safe and comforted. It was exactly the
same as when she had been in that reality earlier. A thought popped
into her mind and tears sprung to her eyes. “Daddy, is that you?”
she asked. It was like a sigh whispered in her ear. Violet was
overwhelmed and it took her a moment to remember what she was
supposed to do.

“Daddy, I need help. They say I’m a
witch and that I have the power to help my friends, and I don’t
know how. What should I do?” She felt her father’s presence unwind
from hers, and there was a vast emptiness left. She didn’t want him
to go.

“Daddy?” she called out into the
darkness.

Then a kaleidoscope of color
exploded in her mind. She smelled a familiar scent. It was like she
was standing in a room full of the most fragrant flowers
imaginable, but it wasn’t just any flower. It smelled like a
roomful of roses. Then in the glaring light, Violet saw her father
and her heart beat wildly against her chest. He was holding the
hand of a young woman, and Violet’s throat constricted as she
realized she was looking at her own face. It was true. She and Rose
could have passed for identical twins.

Her father stopped halfway to her and then gestured
to Rose to continue alone. Violet wanted to call out to her father
and tell him to come back. He waved sadly and turned to go.

“I love you, Daddy!” she cried out.
A warm rush of energy was his reply and she wanted to cry in
frustration. Her only hope was that after this, she could return to
this place and find him again.

As Rose continued forward, Violet
was able to see subtle differences between them. Where Violet had
always prided herself on her strong muscles and athletic stance,
Rose seemed fragile. She carried herself as if she expected to trip
and fall at any moment. Her skin was pale while Violet’s had a
healthy glow from sitting out in the quad to study every day that
the sun was out. The biggest difference, though, was Rose’s eyes.
Hers were dark brown and full of sadness compared to Violet’s own
light purple.

Rose stopped just short of her.
Violet could see that the girl was also just a bit shorter. It made
her feel slightly better to know that no matter what, they were
different. They were related, but Violet couldn’t be this soul
reincarnated; not when Rose stood before her. That made her feel
better about Jeremiah’s attraction to her as well.

“Your father asked for my
assistance
,” Rose said. Her lips didn’t
move, but Violet heard her plain as day in her mind.

“Yes, I need you to help me harness
the magical power from the Ward bloodline,” Violet said.

“That is a great deal of
power
,” Rose said. “
You won't be able to control it.
”

“I want to help and I have to try.
Jeremiah’s in trouble,” Violet said. She felt a jolt of jealously
as she watched Rose’s face light up for the first time.

“Jeremiah still lives?”
Rose asked. “
What of
Jonah?”

“They both are alive, but Jeremiah
won’t be for long if the vindictive bitch who’s got her claws into
him has her way,” Violet said. “Beyond that, though, I want to know
how to break your father’s curse.”

Rose shook her head.
“
I couldn’t tell you, even if I knew. It
would be against my father’s wishes
.”

“The same father who put the hex on
you that killed you?” Violet challenged.

Rose’s eyes dropped.
“
My father only wished to protect me from
harm.
”

“Wake up and smell the twenty-first
century,” Violet said. “Your father created a whole species that
hunts and kills human beings just because he was mad that you fell
in love with somebody he didn’t approve of. Your father has
issues.”

Rose looked up, her eyes flashing.
“
You don’t know anything about me or my
father. You definitely don’t know anything about my relationship
with Jeremiah
.”

“I really don’t care to know
either,” Violet said. “But you have to at least help me help him.
I’d think you’d want to if you cared about him so much,” Violet
said. She could feel that time was running short, and arguing with
a long dead ghost wasn’t helping.