It Was Of No Help

Violet brought the brand down harshly, shoving it as hard as she could into Fallon's belly. The muffled, albeit murderous screams sounding from the gagged Jeremiah did nothing to quell the rage Violet felt.

She tugged the brand free from his skin and with a squelching sound blood and skin peeled off, Jeremiah's legs shook angrily against the chains attempting in vain to pull free.

Violet looked down at the man, he had at one point been undoubtedly handsome, now in his late sixties, and having lost his toned figure he looked pathetic. Mix in his disgusting disregard for personal space, vile sexual desires, and he amounted to nothing more than a cretin who needed to be silenced. Violet pressed the brand back into his forearm as he writhed around on the floor.

Yanking the brand free once more Violet began, "I don't actually want anything from you, so whichever monetary scheme you're concocting in that brain of yours, nix it. I'm here, because I made a promise, a useless promise that changed nothing for that child. A child you tortured and molested until you had no further use because he was simply too old."

Violet paused and made a sound of disgust, the pain had been too fruitful and Jeremiah had emptied his bladder. The warm liquid mixed with blood and seeped onto the floor, pooling around the now ashamed naked man. A sudden knock interrupted the scene, Violet glanced over at the door as Jeremiah jostled aggressively with his binds.

"Sir, are you done with that child? We have an appointment in a hour, Dave has everything ready. When you are finished we will clean up." The woman's voice faded as she walked away, Violet furrowed her brow, she had hoped the other adults were not involved.

Letting out an over-exaggerated sigh Violet muttered, "Fluidity in plans is essential, essential. Hey, Fallon, where do you keep the knives? You know... for the children?"

Perhaps Fallon found inspiration from her statement, or perhaps he had simply been awaiting the right moment. He found it as Violet opened a large chest, rifled through it slowly, and settled on a large skinning knife. Violet, who had been expecting him to escape didn't even bother turning back as he bent the metal chains and broke free.

Fallon's first attack arose in the form of the metal chains tied around his body, he swung them with enough force to take her head, a second almost simultaneous attack came from beneath Violet's feet as a six foot long jagged rock emerged. Triumph gleamed in Fallon's face, he let out a laugh, Violet had no room to evade.

The problem, at least for Fallon was, she never meant to evade. In a swooping motion her left hand seemed to almost scoop the jutted rock out of the ground. A set of symbols froze in the air around the rock, and in a breezy motion the once deadly fragment became granules of sand. Violet smiled ethereally, an overwhelming amount of presence emerged from within her, and she blew the copious amounts of sand back to Jeremiah. The man, blinded and shocked froze as he felt something penetrate into his gut.

At the exact same moment she had released the sand, her right hand had, with pinpoint accuracy, thrown the skinning knife.

"Shhh."

Violet used her foot to slow his fall as he tilted back, "If you pull it out, you'll only die faster."

Jeremiah grunted, his hands around the hilt of the knife, he no longer looked angry, he was afraid, and stunned.

"What are you?"

Violet looked surprised for a moment, "Caught on have we? Something altogether different. Now, I do hate to move oh so fast, but you see, it would appear our hour together is almost up. We are going to have to work fast Mr. Fallon. Stay with me, until the end, yes?"

The gag was back in his mouth, although, Violet was certain she could have proceeded without it. Violet knew she had no more than five minutes before his employees came knocking, she selected another knife and approached him slowly. After carefully recreating ever wound he had ever sliced into Charlie, Violet slit his throat and walked out the door.

The two employees reached the stairs perplexed, Mr. Fallon was never late! As they reached the landed they found Violet standing outside his bedroom door with one finger motioning for silence.

"Yes, 911, HELP a fire! I can see the smoke rising from the trees!" Violet's tone was shrill and full of panic, a startling contrast from her lax posture and facial expressions.

"Mr. Fallon lives there! OMG FIRE!" Violet hung up the call and looked to the shell-shocked employees.

Dave, the man yelled, "What bloody fire? Who the fuck are you? There's no fucking fire!"

Violet cocked her head to the side in a charming gesture, "Not yet"

"Ngh Ughh" the woman fell the floor in a panic clutching her throat as Violet viciously crushed her windpipe. A Glock 17 appeared in her peripheral, Violet dodged the first round, closed the distance, and successfully dislocated Dave's shoulder. His scream was cut short as Violet placed two rounds in between his eyes, she cleaned the gun, put it back in his holster and left.

Violet watched the scene turn chaotic from the cover of trees almost half a mile away. The approaching emergency providers had stopped in confusion, there was no smoke, no signs of fire. A sudden explosion knocked a few of them off their feet and they looked up aghast as the second floor erupted in flames.

A second even more concerning disturbance caused the radio waves to become abnormally frenzied, there were children, boys, in various stages of disarray emerging from a cellar door.

Violet witnessed first hand the rage and confusion on the first responders faces as they comprehended the situation.

There was nothing more she could do.

She turned to disappear when her phone vibrated in her pocket. Alex was calling, with a smile the shimmery orb opened for Violet and stepping through she answered, "Hey Alex?"

Violet emerged onto one of the more secluded waking trails behind the school.

"Hey Violet," Alex was nervous, Violet grinned as Alex asked, "Where are you?"

"Oh, I'm on a walk, Hidden Lake Trail, almost back at the school. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah... yeah, hey can we chat? Well, all of us, meet us at the twins room yeah?"

Violet answered calmly, "sure, be there in ten."

Violet took up the sofa with ease, Alex had said they all wanted to talk to her, but Kieren was not present. She bit back a laugh, they were all so tense, "Did something happen?"

Zen took a deep breath, "Violet? There's a rumor going around, that you slept with James. Did you?"

Violet put her arms behind her head and stretched out her legs nonchalantly, "I fail to see how any of that could possibly be of your concern?"

"Well, we..." awkward silence filled the air.

"Unless," Violet cut in, "what you're really trying to ask is that you noticed Kieren's absence, and you also heard about how I arrived this morning. And because you have Kieren's best interest at heart, you're so concerned that I could have spent the night shamelessly seducing Kieren instead of James and you're really hoping it was James?" Violet glanced in their direction catching the way the twins eyes were glued to the mark on her neck. Right, she should have removed that, too late now.

"Violet," Alex whispered, "there would be so many repercussions you can't even begin to comprehend."

They all stopped as the door opened abruptly, Kieren walked in rubbing a hand lazily through his undone hair. He was dressed more casual than Violet had ever seen him, a white t-shirt and black pants. Somehow, on him, it still looked designer, like a million dollar photo shoot outfit.

"Hmm"

All eyes on their leader it was Zen who bolted up, "Kil, you.."

Kieren raised a hand, "I've caught a cold, it's not unheard of, no need to call in the Serpent Kings."

Violet frowned in his direction, he looked in better condition than last night, but there was still a tinge of pink on his fair skin and the glassy look in his eyes was not yet gone. Lingering fever... their eyes locked and his gaze softened, he smiled happily and walked in her direction. Ignoring the worried gazes of his team members, he hovered momentarily over Violet's spread out frame before laying himself directly on top of her. He nestled his head on her chest his arms wrapping around her waist as his legs pressed in between hers. He closed his eyes and mumbled, "Good morning."