Chapter Six:
The bartender didn't need to ask, having become accustomed to the sight of her seated at the end of the bar. He placed three shots in front of her.
"…I'll be moving on soon." Ash said.
"You've been moving around a lot lately." Violet commented without any real warmth or interest as she gulped down the bitter alcohol.
"Yeah." He agreed, his attention also divided.
He turned toward her, laying a hand on her bare shoulder and she was startled, staring up at him. "Are you going to tell me what's going on or should we play pretend?"
"I've been pretending for so long I don't know anything else." She whispered.
He withdrew his hand and looked out at the dark undulating crowd. "Is it something to do with that body?"
"It was just a human."
"You don't think like that, Violet." He said quickly.
"I should."
He glanced at her to gauge her expression.
"You should too."
"Troubles at home?" He said to change the subject.
"What could be more troublesome than a wedding?" She lifted a shot glass in salute and gulped it down.
"You miss your sister?"
She shook her head, no and gulped another shot.
"It must be difficult, having to let go of your twin." He mused.
"She let go a long time ago." Violet snapped slamming down her shot glass on the counter, earning a dower look from the bartender.
She turned toward Ash, her eyes bright with tears, her words slurred and diluted with grief. "I think I'm fucking up and I don't know what to do next."
"Here." He slid a small card across the bar. "Don't tell, just call when the time's right."
"More secrets?" She asked quickly wiping away her tears, pushing down the tumult of emotion that had her gut twisted in knots. Ash gave an endearing lop sided smile but didn't reply.
"Everybody loves Rose." She continued softly almost to no one in particular. "Who's going to love someone like me?" Ash pretended not to hear or just didn't bother to respond. It amounted to the same thing and so she stood.
"I have to go to the bathroom."
He watched her go, she threaded through the tightly packed crowd, pushing her way to girl's bathroom. She didn't notice as she was followed into the stall. She turned to find her reflection standing staring at her.
"Aren't you missing your engagement soirée?" Violet smoothed over her surprise with anger, it was simpler that way. "Where's your Cally? He here too?"
Rose didn't speak. Violet was more than a little drunk now, swaying on her feet.
"What are you doing here?" She asked.
"It's not enough that you killed him but you had to fuck my fiancé too?"
Rose's words hit Violet let an icy jet of water and she stumbled backward, catching herself to sit on the closed toilet lid.
"Just tell me." Rose whispered.
Violet's jaw trembled and she felt sick and mean. "I kept your sordid little secret, Rose, I did exactly what you told me to do."
"Tell me what happened to him."
"I did not fuck your fiancé." She said through clenched teeth, wanting to clarify it before all else.
Rose grabbed her sister by the throat, her eyes wild. "Tell me what happened to him."
"You're right." Violet hissed despite the tightening hold on her throat. "Your precious fucking Nicky is dead."
It was Rose's turn to collapse back against, her back hit the bathroom door, her head lowered, her shoulders shaking as she cried into her hands.
"You knew it." Violet said softly.
Rose shook her head, and Violet could almost taste her tears. "He was your soul mate, wasn't he?" She continued in a gentle tone.
Rose screamed. Not a mere yelp but a scream that emptied her lungs and made the rickety stall shake. Violet embraced Rose tight, smothering her tears. Holding onto her as if to ensure that she not crumble or fly off into a billion molecules.
It was true. Violet felt suddenly hollow with the knowledge. She had heard tales of the old magic rising, had heard the horrors of People being tied to humans, inexplicably one soul but in two people.
"It's going to be okay." Hadn't she said something similar to Nicky? She cradled her sister, seating her on her lap, Violet rocking her twin, stroking her hair, calming her to a dreamless sleep. "We'll go home, you'll call the engagement off and we'll figure this out. It's going to be okay."
*
Had she been asleep long? Violet couldn't tell. The night had turned to day but it seemed as if years had passed since last night with Rose shivering in her arms as she grieved for her dead soul mate. Rose was not with her now, she was alone and moved sluggishly, showering beneath the hottest setting as if she could scour the knowledge of what had happened from her skin.
She bounded downstairs wanting to find Rose and begin the process of figuring out what to do, and where to go. They could go together and everything would be all right. Instead the house was swarming with women of the Marwood-Thorn clan.
"What are you doing, girl? Where is your dress? Your sister is going to walk down the aisle in less than two hours and you're nowhere near ready." A corpulent vampire gently pushed her along the corridor.
"Wedding?" Violet was confused.
The woman smiled, her teeth too white and wholly menacing, she lead Violet into a side room where a gown was laid out for her. Violet sat in a complete daze, unable to think, she was primped and preened and clothed in a brilliant red dress. She was in deep shock and could not resist them.
"Well you're not as comely as the other one but you'll do." The corpulent woman said giving her shrewd look. Violet grit her teeth, she and Rose were identical.
The anger was good it helped her regain some measure of control. She went hunting for Rose, gathering bunches of red fabric to stride through the house. She tried Rose's phone but there was no answer and Violet left no message. She found her mother instead.
Coral Bludworth was serenely adjusting her hair.
"You planned this." Violet hissed.
"I thought it would be expedient if they were to marry sooner rather than later." Coral smiled to her reflection.
"She's not ready for this." Violet said grasping her mother's hands, trying to appeal to the vampire who only a few days ago had told her of her own tragedy and the loss of her human soul mate. It was as if the conversation had never taken place. Her mother's face was cold and smooth.
"This is the best thing for this family, dear."
"And when have you ever had this family's interests at heart?" Violet snapped.
Coral slapped her smartly about the cheeks.
Violet stared at her mother, her mother who had always been confined to a bed, to her room, always drunk or passed out from drinking. The woman who could not muster two sentences to her daughters for the years they had been alive.
"I wanted something better for her but she's used goods, unfortunately it's common knowledge and this is the best match she can hope to make now. In her conditions it's only right." Coral said.
"Her 'condition'?"
"Don't you dare ruin your sister's wedding you wretched little girl." She moved toward the door as if to leave but Violet grasped her arm and looked pleadingly into her mother's face.
"It's not right." She said firmly but softly trying to penetrate that one part of Coral who had sympathy for someone or something else but she did not find it.
"This isn't about what's right, we all have to make sacrifices for our family name and our children's prospects. You may understand this one day if we ever find you a suitor. Now get in the car and focus on being a bridesmaid." Coral strode out of the room.
Violet walked slowly almost as if she were defeated. Back in a haze of confusion and frustration she got into a car and the People buzzed around her like insects, each moved with strict purpose.
They pulled up to the Grand Hall. The same hall, Rose's engagement had been announced, there were already a horde of cars parked in front and guests were swarming. She saw Quinn emerge from a black limo, opening the door for Hunter Redfern himself who had his daughter Lily on his arm.
The door was being held open for her, the driver cleared his throat to gain her attention and she got out of the car mechanically.
She saw her father standing in the distance. She was in two minds as she stared at him, he hadn't aged passed 30 years. He was smoothing down the lapels of his jacket and saw his mouth lift in a smile as he spoke with someone nearby.
Violet made a decision and broke out into a run toward him.
"Violet." He embraced her with unrestrained affection. "What's wrong? Where's your mother?"
She stepped back tears gleaming in her eyes. "I don't know. Daddy you have to stop this wedding, you have to."
He gave a sharp look around them and seized her shoulders. He dragged her to a private spot at the side of the hall where no one would be sure to watch. His expression turned cruel and foreign and there was no trace of affection in him now. "What nonsense are you talking about? This wedding will proceed do you hear me?"
"But Daddy, it's not right. Rose doesn't need this-"
"It's what she's going to get. You don't think I know about you and your sisters gallivanting all about town. She will marry and become a respectable Night Person and so will you in due time. Now no more talk of this nonsense."
She felt betrayed but she had to expect It. She had known deep within herself that her father had resented them, Coral, Violet and Rose. It only made more sense now that she knew her mother's story.
He walked away and she was ushered by the corpulent Marrow-Thorn to enter the Grand Hall. She could still get to Rose, there was still time, she allowed herself a small measure of hope. She walked mechanically into the hall and was told where to stand. Things were moving quick and she knew the bride was confined in a little ante room waiting for the guests to settle in their seats.
She made an excuse to leave the remaining party and headed toward the ante room but as she approached Calder stood before her and she froze. Her blood turned cold.
He was in the middle of a conversation with someone or other when he spotted her too. His eyes swept up and down and she felt ridiculously self conscious in her bridesmaid dress screaming vermillion.
She stared at him think, poor bastard. He had no idea.
"You look beautiful." He conceded.
"I need to see my sister." She said a little too passionately and then through a fraudulent smile. "To speak to her one last time as a Bludworth."
He nodded but he looked shell-shocked. She touched his hand and squeezed lightly, sympathetically. "I'm sorry." And she truly was but not for any reason he could comprehend.
He didn't know what to say and walked away in a daze.
She took the moment to burst into the ante room and found Rose standing in her white gown. She caught her twins eye and then looked away, not able to stand her gaze. She was radiating guilt and regret.
"You look beautiful." Violet said sadly.
"Get out of here, Violet. It's too late."
"It's not." Violet rushed forward. "Please, you can't go through with this sham."
"It's gone too far. The Redfern clan are here, officials from the highest echelons of the Council, to back out now would be a death warrant."
"Rose."
"You can't conceive of the implications of this marriage."
"What about the implications for you?"
A tear rolled down Rose's cheek. "There's nothing left for me now." She whispered.
Violet felt awkward and stupid. She felt hopeless as if there was nothing she could do. "Don't go through with it." She said but it sounded pathetic even to her own ears.
Their mother burst into the room moments later, Coral glared at Violet before busying herself arranging the pleats at the front of Rose's gown. She had been frightened Violet could change Rose's mind.
"Are you ready, darling?"
Rose nodded.
Violet heard the distant sound of the wedding march. It mirrored the human ceremony, something new among vampires: to conduct a white wedding, except the priest was a witch and the union was witness by ancient gods rather than the one God.
"Pick up her train and march like a good little girl." Coral said chirpily but her grip of Violet's arm was like a vice.
She picked up the train, fingering the lacy fabric.
Her mother gasped dramatically and spun round. "Wait, her orchid. Violet, sweetheart go back and fetch it, we'll wait for you just outside."
Violet did as she was told and went to fetch the orchid. She pottered around the room. A shadow fell across her eyes and she saw her mother's eyes narrowed into slits. She slammed the door shut and Violet heard the click of the lock.
"No." She ran to the door and pounded on it but it hurt, the doors were wood. Her skin broke and blood flowed. She must have been pounding on the door for hours before she sunk to her knees and closed her eyes in defeat.
She must have fallen asleep at some point because darkness enveloped her and then a slim crack of light cut a path through the doorway. It was open. Mistrustful she approached it slowly after taking minutes to pick herself up.
She emerged and the place was deserted. She saw the wedding debris before her and she knew she had missed it all, just as her mother wanted.
It was done.