Chapter 10
We ran for most of the day, trailing behind James as he charged through the shadows making sure to stick in the shadows to avoid being spotted. The sun saw just starting to set when I looked at Jasmine realising that she wasn’t doing so well I quickened my pace in order to catch up with James.
“We need to stop,” I gasped when I was close enough for him to hear me, “I don’t know how much longer we can go on like this.”
“There is a small cave just up ahead; it should provide us with enough shelter to avoid being found so we can rest for the night.”
I fell back a bit to wait for the others to catch up so I could tell them we would be stopping for a rest soon. In the short time it had taken to catch James and tell him we needed to stop Jasmine had gotten worse and without thinking about how exhausted I already was I scooped her up in my arms and continued to run after James.
When we finally stopped running Jasmine had passed out and her head was resting against my shoulder. I turned to James, “Will this provide us with enough cover to allow time for her to recover she is in no state to be running around in the forest.”
“I know,” he said sadly, “we will stay here as long as we can but I can’t promise that we will be here for long.”
With that James set about trying to hide the entrance from the outside and Rose, Lily and I attempted to organise comfortable sleeping arrangements for us all.
“Why where you in such a rush to get us away from there, what was the danger?” Rose asked rounding on James as soon as everything was set up.
“My mother,” he replied simply, “is worried that if we help the Fey preserve their race they will turn around and stab us in the back again. She believes that Opal and Tabatha should be killed. The potion she gave Opal wasn’t meant to just knock her out it was meant to kill her.”
“If that was the case why did it fail, why is Opal still here with us?”
“Because of me, when a fairy forms a strong connection with someone, in particular someone of another race the connection can then be used to preserve the fairies life provided the person with whom they are connected with is strong enough to provide enough strength to the fairy.”
“What does that mean for the person providing the strength?” I asked worried that I had significantly weakened James without even knowing it.
“There is no way that a person can give strength that they would otherwise need to survive. That’s why connection with another fairy often won’t have the same effect as they would have to offer up my power then they could live without.”
“Why wasn’t the connection between my brother and Jasmine strong enough to save him?”
“I believe that may have something to do with the way in which Peter was killed steel is deadly to a vampire and had Jasmine been able to provide him with any strength it would have killed both of them. Also at the moment Jasmine is using her strength to protect two lives already there is no telling what the addition of another life drawing on that strength could have done.”
“He also knew he was about to be killed and rather than having her risk herself and their child he severed some of the connection between them,” Lily said from her sister side, “does Sylvia know about Jasmines baby?”
“I am afraid so,” he said not looking at any of us now, “I don’t know how she found out but she knows.”
“I am afraid that may have been my fault,” Rose spoke up, “I thought we could trust her.”
“There is no point worrying about what has happened in the past. We need to focus on what is going to happen and how we are meant to stay hidden from her,” I said realising that there all we were doing is wasting time.
“Opal is right,” Lily said, “we need to focus on staying alive and right now our priority should be making sure that Jasmine and her baby are going to be alright.”
“Yes I know but how are we going to do that when we can’t get her to any form of medical treatment.”
“There is someone who might be able to help us he live a few hours away from hear, farther use to take me to see him when I was a small child, I will leave at first light and see if I can get him to come here and check Jasmine over.”
“Given our current situation with your mother won’t it be dangerous to ask for his help?”
“Not at all, my mother knows nothing about him, she wouldn’t have approved of farther taking me to see him because he is a fey, an angel to be exact. For tonight just get some rest I will deal with everything else tomorrow.”
I went and lay where I was meant to sleep for the night but I found it very difficult, my head was spinning as I tried to process all the new information I had been dumped with in the last few moments.
When I did eventually get to sleep that night, I slept fitfully. It seemed that every time I closed my eyes I was flooded with images of the night my brother had been killed. I wondered if he had known about his child and that severing the link between him and Jasmine would cost him his life, above all else I wondered why he had chosen to return that night if he had known he was going to die, it wasn’t as though he would have been able to protect me from them either way. I just couldn’t understand why he would chose to risk his own life when he could have stayed with Jasmine and saved our race on our own. Before I could come up with any real kind of answer the sun was rising and James was starting to wake. It was then that something else hit me, how had I been able to form any kind of connection with him, when I barely knew a thing about him. Sure I trusted him and I liked him well enough, but I to me the kind of connection they were talking about seemed to go beyond that, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for it.
“Is everything alright, Opal?” He asked realising that I was awake.
“Yeah,” I replied sleepily, “I just couldn’t sleep, I keep thinking about everything that’s happened, I just can’t believe that is such a short period of time my life has taken such a dramatic change.”
“I know it’s a lot to take in, a lot of responsibility now rest on your shoulders just remember you are not alone in all of this.”
“I know it is just hard to be young and worrying about the normal things like friends and relationships one day and the next be constantly thinking about how a friendship with this person or a relationship with another is going to affect the fate of an entire race. Add to that worrying about betrayal and any other unforeseen circumstances it’s hard to know who to trust.”
“It will get easier, after all you have been through I think that the five of us should try and keep to ourselves as much as possible until we are sure that there is no longer a threat.”
“That could mean we live like this for the rest of our lives.”
“That may be the case but at least we aren’t alone, we have each other.”
At the moment Jasmine moaned in her sleep reminding us both that there was somewhere else James needed to be.
Before turning to leave he pulled me into a hug, “everything will be alright,” he whispered kissing me on the top of my head.
In that moment I truly felt that everything was going to be alright as I breathed in his smell I almost forgot that we were now homeless, in that moment I knew that no matter what happened I would always be able to rely on him to be there.
Without saying another word he released me from his embrace and walked out of the cave that had now become our home. When he was gone I turned and looked at the other members of my little group, most of us still had the rest of our lives ahead of us, Jasmine was about to have a baby and now she was sleeping in a cave not knowing if she would ever sleep in a bed again, I could only imagine how she must be feeling. As I stood there I started to feel as though someone was missing and I crumbled. I couldn’t believe she was really gone, things hadn’t been the same between us since I found out how she felt about me and now she was gone I realised that deep down I felt the same way about her, I would just never get the chance to tell her. It was only when I felt a hand on my shoulder that I r
ealised that I had started to cry.
“It will be alright,” Lily said sitting down gently next to me wrapping her arms around me, “when all of this is over we will all be able to have normal lives.”
I looked up at her, she was so beautiful all I wanted was to kiss her, “and what happens if it never ends.”
Her eyes lit up as she smiled and for a moment I wondered if she knew what I was really thinking about, “well,” she replied, the five of us plus the baby will find somewhere to set up a home, sure we might die out and we will have failed but I have no intention of spending my life fighting for this if it is a lost cause.”
I almost laughed at that, “I wonder if the others would agree with that?” I asked resting my head on her shoulder.
“I think we will just have to convince them,” she giggled placing a kiss on my forehead much the same way James had done earlier and once again I felt all my worries wash away.
“How are we going to convince that others to turn their backs on this?” I asked feeling better than I had since I had met her.
“I don’t think Jasmine will take much convincing once bub is born and James sounds like he already wants the same thing. As for mum I’m sure that if the rest of us agree she will just go along with it weather she likes it or not.”
I was starting to get excited it seemed like our planes were coming together, “where are we going to go?”
Lily didn’t answer at first she just stood up and walked over where she had been sleeping and came back holding a piece of folded paper, “we are here,” she said pointing at the map she had spread out in front of us she then pointed out the territories that were controlled by the humans and the vampires, “this is where we should go,” she said indicating another point on the map, “it is known as the dead zone, the vampires done dare enter. Legend has it that anyone who enters is never heard from again. I have been there a number of times as a child because there were things that I didn’t want anyone else to know about and I saw no sign of danger. The land there is quite fertile anything will grow there.”
“Then that is where we will go,” I said feeling like I was truly about to find a place to call home, “but even if we get the others to agree to abandon the prophecy, they will never agree to go somewhere that is believed to be cursed.”
“They will have no choice in the matter it is the only way we truly be safe, I will talk to Jasmine you talk to James and when we have them on side we will talk to mother together.”
My heart fluttered and I found myself wanting her more, using all the self-control I could muster I turned to place a soft kiss on her check only to meet with her lips apparently we had both been going to do the same thing. My heart was racing as we pulled away. Shakily I looked at her wondering how she was going to react, much to my surprise she was smiling, “wow,” she sighed, “I wasn’t expecting that,”
I didn’t know what to say other than Tabatha I had never met anyone who was attracted to other girls, until a few days ago I never would have considered myself to be one of them. “Where do we take this from here?” I asked, “I really like you but there is the whole connection with James.”
“Its ok,” she whispered, “you can have feelings for both of us from what I have heard it is really common for fey to have both female and male lovers. Don’t worry too much for now though anything between us needs to be kept a secret no one knows that I am not interested in males.”
I leant over and kissed her again, “your secrete is safe with me,” I gave her a smile and stood up.
“Where are you going?” her voice was full of longing and I knew that she felt that same way I did.
James should be back soon with the doctor and there are things we need to do before they get here. You go and wake Jasmine and I will go and see what I can do about getting us some food and maybe a spot we can meet in secrete while we’re here.”
A smile lit her face, she stood up gave we a quick hug and we both went our separate ways to get ready.
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