The Violet Line (31 page)

“
Fine. Looks like you’re not exactly leaving me with a choice, now are you? You can help me.” I tried not to seem too pleased; I really didn’t want him to get hurt but I was glad to have someone powerful on my side. He snorted at my reply.

“
Jeez, don’t get too excited. I mean, I didn’t just offer to help you fight some vampires and also go against your dad’s wishes, all in one fell swoop.”

I smiled. “Lorcan, I am grateful but I am also worried. I already have the guilt of Sam being taken without adding to that guilt with something happening to you and it being my fault. You promise me you’ll be careful?”

Smiling, he replied, “Yes mother, I promise; scouts honour!” He saluted me as he spoke. “So, can we go then or do you want to go back and say goodbye to your parents? Do you think it’d be wise? Your dad would see straight through me.” He chewed nervously on his lip as he spoke and I had to agree with him that going back now, no matter how much I wanted to, would probably be a bad idea.

“
No, you’re right. Let’s get going; going back would only prolong things and cause problems. You do know the way out of here, don’t you?”

“
Yup, I surely do; didn’t I get you in here? I go to the human world all the time, so of course I know the way in and out; almost like the back of my hand at this point. Hmm, but we’ll have to walk. I doubt you’re very fast, are you? I could just blink us there but you’d be chucking up everything you ate for at least an hour afterwards. It’s not really worth it to you so we’ll just have to walk. Hmm, maybe if I drag you, we could get there faster?”

I stared at him as he spoke. “You’re not dragging me through the woods. We’re not back in the stone age where you can simply drag me around the place by my hair.”

“
Hey, I wouldn’t drag you by the hair, Jade; by the arm, yes, but by the hair is a bit stupid.”

I sighed. “Lorcan, have you ever heard of a little thing called sarcasm? I know you wouldn’t drag me by the hair, but dragging me in general is out of the question. Okay?”

He blushed furiously. “Oh right, yeah; well, I thought... hmmm, got ya. No dragging; walking it is.”

He was innocent in so many ways that I hoped I was doing the right thing. Maybe I should simply have refused his help point blank; I really didn’t want anything to happen to him. But I wasn’t his keeper and if he wanted to do it, who was I to really argue with him? I nodded at him. “Ok then, lead the way. Let’s get back to the real world and kick some vampire ass!”

He jumped up with excitement. “Follow me.”

As he set off at a fast trot into the woods, I stumbled to keep up to him and in the pit of my stomach, I felt nervous about what lay ahead. I wasn’t sure how we would find where the vampires held Sam, but I knew we had to figure it out. Maybe if I was lucky, they would send me another message and I could get some clues from it. I wasn’t so sure. I stumbled after him, tripping over fallen logs and other debris in my hurry to keep up, and in my heart I prayed it would all work out.

Chapter Twenty Eight

I followed Lorcan as quickly as I could but he was much faster than me, his legs carrying him further ahead of me with each stride. I stumbled several times and it wasn’t until I actually tumbled over a particularly well hidden log in the darkened forest that I was forced to admit defeat. Poised on my already well bruised knees, I looked around but he was nowhere to be seen; he was just too fast for me to keep up with him.

“
Lorcan!” My voice rang out around me, only to be bounced back from the surrounding trees. I dragged myself to my feet and shouted again; surely he couldn’t have gotten that far ahead of me. I once again began trotting through the trees as fast as I could without letting myself fall head first over every branch that littered the forest floor; the last thing I wanted or needed was to fall and really hurt myself.

“
Lorcan, come back! I fell and you travel too fast for me to keep up! Come on, it’s not funny. I need help!”

A cacophony of animal noises started up in response to my shouting; birds flapped and some smaller animals rustled nearby, but it was the howling that really held my attention and caused my heart to beat faster. What if there were wolves out here and Lorcan didn’t come back in time? The thoughts flashed through my brain, forcing me to run faster, not caring now whether I tripped over rocks or branches just as long as I caught up to Lorcan. My heart thudded in my ears as I flew through the trees. My clothes caught in branches and twigs scraped at my skin, but I didn’t care anymore. I came to a shuddering halt as I crashed into a very broad chest that suddenly appeared in front of me as though he had been dropped from the tree branches. I screamed in surprise but a large rough hand clamped down over my mouth and Lorcan’s breath tickled my ear as he spoke.

“
Shh. Jesus, Jade, you’re thumping around in the woods like some sort of an elephant. Can you not hear the heart hounds starting up? You’ve disturbed them with your roaring. Come on. You better hope I can run you out of here faster than they catch up to us because if they do, well, let’s just say people don’t normally go shouting and trouncing through the fey forests for very good reason.”

He slowly lifted his hand from my mouth and I sucked in a large breath as he cocked his ears to listen. “Come on now, run this time; light on the balls of your feet.”

With this, he grabbed my wrist and took off at a very fast trot, much faster than anything I could achieve at a full tilt run. His grip was tight on my wrist and it hurt like hell, but at least this time I couldn’t get separated from him as he ran. He stopped suddenly and I crashed into the back of him once more, grunting in surprise as only his grip kept me upright.

“
Jade, seriously, come on. You’re part fey; you can run better than this. Try please, or we’re not going to get out of here.” As he spoke, I could hear loud thrashing in the undergrowth behind us that seemed to be gaining on us.

“
Lorcan, I can’t. I was never good at sports and I really can’t run; I don’t think I got that gene from the fairies.”

“
You did; you just don’t know how to use it. Jade, you’re going to have to try or they will catch us.”

The crashing and snapping of twigs grew louder as he spoke and he ran again, dragging me behind him like some sort of unwanted rag doll. I tried to run the way he wanted me to, but I didn’t seem to have the ability; it probably had something to do with the fact I didn’t have access to all my powers. I could hear their snarling and growling as they began to close in behind us but I dared not to look behind me in case I fell on my face and dragged Lorcan down with me. We zigzagged through the forest as Lorcan did his best to shake them from our tail, but to no avail. I grabbed at him in terror as he came to a thundering halt once again.

“
Jesus, Lorcan, they’re right behind us. Why are you stopping?”

He didn’t answer but instead grabbed me and pulled me in close against his chest. The snarling and growling grew unbearably loud as he held me in a tight bear hug. A faint glow swamped my vision and I felt completely weightless; it was the most wonderful experience I had ever felt. It tingled in my veins like bubbles in champagne and when I opened my eyes again, the forest was once more surrounding us but it seemed different somehow. I couldn’t hear the snarling anymore and the attack I had been certain was coming never arrived. Looking up at Lorcan’s face, I beamed at him. He’d done it; he’d saved me again – and I wasn’t altogether sure how he’d done it.

Gently, he released me from his grip and I stumbled backwards, trying to regain my balance. As he stepped away from me, my feeling of wellbeing dissipated and just as suddenly as we had arrived, I felt my stomach catching up with me. I watched his face turn sheepish.

“
This is why I didn’t want to blink us here; I knew this would happen. You’re not used to that mode of travel. I’m so sorry, Jade.”

But I wasn’t really listening to his explanation. I broke away from him and doubled over at the base of the nearest bush. All I had eaten making a sudden unwanted reappearance. He stood awkwardly to one side as I continued to throw up everything I had consumed and didn’t try to speak to me until I slumped back onto my backside on the dirt.

“
Are you ok? I really didn’t want this to happen but I didn’t know another way of getting us out of there fast enough to be away from them.”

I nodded, not daring to open my mouth again for fear I wasn’t yet finished. I knew it wasn’t his fault and he had already warned me about that particular type of travel, but it still didn’t make it any easier. I suppose it served me right for drawing attention to us in the first place, I thought as I sat on the ground and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand until a handkerchief appeared below my nose. I took it from him gratefully. I wiped my face as I stared at the ground, waiting for my stomach to settle before I chanced standing upright.

“
Jade, are you ok? You’re still pretty green around the gills. I don’t want to rush you, but we should probably head through the veil pretty soon. They might still catch up to us.”

I looked up at him in horror. “Surely they couldn’t catch us now. I mean, you took us straight out of there. There wouldn’t even be a trail for them to follow, right?”

He looked at me grimly. “Jade, they’re heart hounds; they’ll smell you anywhere in this forest because you’re part human. They don’t so much take notice of the leprechauns but if they’re desperate, they might and now they know they were cheated out of a meal, they’ll be on the hunt for certain. I just don’t want to risk them creeping up on us here; they’re stealthy hunters when they have to be. If you could hurry up and be better faster I’d be very grateful.”

Heeding his words, I began to pull myself to my feet, holding onto a gnarled tree for support until I felt his arms around my waist pulling me upright. I shook my head at him, indicating I didn’t want to come up too fast. If I was going to be better, then I needed to take some things a little slower and standing up was definitely one of those things. My head swam a little as I clung to the tree, praying for it to clear but hoping more that I wouldn’t be sick anymore. The world steadied and I nodded for Lorcan to lead the way to the veil.

He walked slowly ahead of me, turning back every few moments to make sure I was still following him until he eventually gave up and stopped until I caught up to him. We walked in silence for a few minutes but I had to know why he wanted to help me.

“
Lorcan, why are you doing this? I mean, you are risking yourself against the vampires and against your own kind; not mentioning the fairies and my Dad, who doesn’t seem to like you at all. So with all of that, why are you helping me?”

He didn’t answer straight away but instead stared off into the darkening forest. I had almost given up hope of him answering at all when he opened his mouth. “I like you, Jade. I find you funny and strange and I feel like I should be helping you. When I was younger, I knew a girl like you – not part fairy or anything; she was entirely human, but we got on really well. She made me laugh and I think I made her laugh, too; she was great. You remind me of her a little. Not in how you look; she was quite different from you. Her hair was redder for a start.”

He laughed suddenly and I jumped. He stopped talking and even though I didn’t want to interrupt his train of thought, I wanted to know what happened between them but before I could ask him, he began to speak again.

“
She was lovely to everyone; you know, one of those truly good people. I could see it in her; her soul sang and she made everyone near her happier simply by being there. You remind me of her because your soul sings, too; your goodness rolls off you in waves. It’s one of the reasons you attracted that vampire to you so quickly in the club; well, that and the way you were dressed.” He smiled at me quickly before continuing. “And then, one day she was just gone.”

“
What happened to her?”

He remained silent again, as though thinking about what best to say to me. “Well, I introduced her to this world. You know, leprechauns and fairies and naturally enough, she became curious about all the others like vampires and the like. She went to the club, the one you were in the other night, ‘The Wreak-Room’. She shouldn’t have; I told her not to, to stay away, but she was always so curious about everything. She wanted to see a real vampire. She went on her own; sent me a note telling me where she had gone. I didn’t believe it at first; I should have but I thought she was just messing, you know. If I had realised, I’d have gone after her straight away, but I didn’t. I really thought she was just messing, Jade. I didn’t think; I swear I didn’t think.”

He choked on his words and stopped walking, covering his face with his hands. He coughed loudly, clearing his throat before beginning to walk again. I didn’t speak; I knew he would finish when he was ready. We walked in silence for a few minutes more.

“
When I realised, it was too late, we were supposed to meet up that day and I was going to bring her back to meet my family; I was going to show her the fairy realm. I was so excited. I had never had someone of my own before and then she came along and I loved her; even though we were young, I still loved her. When she didn’t turn up, I got worried and then remembered the note. I’ll never forget that feeling, realising how wrong I had been.

“
I blinked over there. The place was shut down because it was morning, but I got in there and I found her. They take all their victims to the basement bunker under the club, the ones they don’t intend on letting go. She was so frightened. Luckily, she couldn’t remember the things he did to her; or I should say, they did to her because he couldn’t resist passing her around. He destroyed her and by the time I got there, it was too late to save her; she was almost dead. They had bleed her practically dry and her other injuries were too much for her to survive. I picked her up and I held her. She was so cold and all I wanted to do was give her some of my warmth but I couldn’t.