Allianna (technically a rough draft btw)

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight:
Alex cursed when he realized he’d fallen asleep. He and Trisallynn were both lucky none of the local slayers had found them while he slept. He turned to realize she was wide awake and watching him.
“You know you talk in your sleep usually but for some strange reason there are instances that you sleep in complete silence,” Trisallynn murmured.
Alex scowled as he stood. “I assume by your tone that this was one of those rare times.”
She grinned as she lifted her pack onto her shoulder. “Yeah well it seems your silent sleep has not made you any less cranky. Shall we continue our travel?”
“I’m beginning to think this entire search was for nothing. We’ve scoured the area a thousand times and found nothing,” Alex snapped.
Trisallynn chuckled. “Uncle you assume I remained by your side the entire time you slept. I’ve found something. There is a town a mile further and a handsome tavernsman who may have seen our quarry.”
Alex smirked. “Sometimes I wonder if you are not in truth my own blood.”
Tris tossed him his own pack with an honest smile. “No, if I were I would not have thought to go on ahead. Only I could be so well inspired.”
Alex rolled his eyes then the two set of for the village. Trisallynn needed no reminder to find the tavern. The owner smiled in warm greeting as he saw her enter then frowned as he realized she was not alone this time.
“Do not worry sir, my uncle will not demand you wed me for having bedded me. I am not, after all, a mere thirteen year old. Now please tell him where it is that we can find the youth I spoke of yesterday.”
The man remained nervous but stammered the directions to a manor that stood ten miles from the next town.
When Alex had fled the manor he had not been immediately certain of where he was headed. Trisallynn had followed soon after and reminded him of the very place they should begin their search, she was very contrite and had begged his forgiveness for the things she’d said both to him and Allianna. In the end she expressed her fears that Allianna would have discovered those feelings to be her own and leave Alex before he ever had the chance to make certain she was his.
Up until now there had been no news at all of Keleb de Venor. All either knew was the rumor that the young landless lord had been injured and then vanished. Alex had his suspicions that he’d never returned to Allianna because the injuries he’d sustained had stolen his memories. From what the tavernsman had told them it sounded as if Alex had been right but Keleb had found solace in the arms of the least likely of woman.
“I don’t understand. From what I know the drow princess will only take a husband long enough to conceive her heir and then she kills him... Why would she be away from her clan and why would she be so long married?” Trisallynn mused. She had researched long ago the ways of her father’s people.
Suddenly she stopped where she stood. “He’s been following us for-”
“Since we left camp this evening. He’s no novice, that’s a well-trained slayer and not one with nothing but a silly dagger to kill us with,” Alex muttered.
“Uncle, I think-”
“Are you certain you can handle him alone, Tris? I won’t leave you to die.”
“I’ll meet you back home when you’re finished, Uncle,” Trisallynn assured. She stretched and then settled down to wait for the slayer to catch up to her. Alex smiled again thinking she might truly be his blood.
It was not long after that he reached his destination. The manor loomed in the trees, an old thing that did not look out of place in its natural environment. He went straight to the door and swung the heavy knocker. A little girl answered the door, violet eyes flashing with curiosity, her mother came up behind her, looking every bit the princess that she was.
“May I help you?”
“I am looking for Keleb de Venor,” Alex said, without preamble.
“Keleb de….” Her voice trailed off and then suddenly she was yelling down the hallway behind her. “Keleb! Keleb come quick!”
The man that joined her in the doorway was every bit the man that Alex remembered. But for the violet of his eyes his features matched Allianna’s almost as if they had been fraternal twins. Keleb’s gaze met his with curiosity. He did not recognize Alex at all, but perhaps that was better until after Alex said his piece.
“Keleb he knows you, he asked for-“
“Keleb de Venor, it has been a long time and your sister has felt abandoned. I see now that my assumption that you had lost your memory was correct. I think it would make it easier for Allianna to understand if she could see you, however.”
“My sister?”
“Allianna, you left her alone on the banks of the Cavaydra.”
Keleb blinked the looked at his wife, asking her without words if they should trust this man. She nodded slowly, her drowen instincts telling her that this man spoke the truth and the two invited Alex in to talk.
Keleb’s reaction when Alex told him of the past was to be expected but his wife seemed to accept the truth behind Alex’s reasoning and lay a staying hand on her husbands shoulder. “I think he tells the truth, my love. Can you blame him for what he has done if he truly loves her enough to be telling you the truth now, willing to accept whatever you throw at him because she values your love above even his?”
Keleb frowned, closing his eyes against a flow of fragmented memories. “I want to see her. I want to see that she is safe where she is and I want to hear what she has to say.” And I want to remember her, this face that I see when I hear her name and the dearness I feel with it.
The unspoken words hung in the air and Alex nodded. “We must wait for my niece and then we will go back to my manor. You may take your family if you wish. You have my word they will not come to harm and I have plenty of room for all of you.”
The drow princess exchanged a look with her husband and smiled. “I think this is a rare offer, Keleb, and I would very much like to meet someone that loves you as dearly as I do.”
Keleb grumbled but nodded. His wife went to the kitchens to order a dinner made then returned to speak with Alex some more. She was very interested to discover that his niece was half her kind and looked forward to meeting Trisallynn. She jumped up from her seat the moment a knock sounded on the door. The two talked for several hours, each interested in the other.
It seemed the drowen princess had left her people because she sought love, something that was forbidden to the females of her race. She’d found it while running with a small group of others that were running away from things, be it slavers or fear of themselves. Keleb had been one of them and it was with him she had found the love she’d always been searching for. With her Keleb had found a sense of self that had been lost with his memories, memories he had long given up hope of retrieving. It seemed now he might have his chance to recover his past.
They left late (in vampiric terms) while the horizon was beginning to show the feint signs of the coming dawn. They stopped only twice and made it to Alex’s land within two days, much faster than it had taken the two vampires to find Keleb in the first place.
The rest of the manor was quiet, all its occupants sleeping soundly. The group decided it was best to wait until the next night to tell Allianna what had transpired and so they all found their beds, Keleb and his wife on Trisallyn’s side of the manor and their daughter in the nursery with the other two girls. Starlight stirred briefly, seemed to approve of the other girls presence and then went back to sleep curled in cat form at Amnira’s feet.

Allianna stretched as she woke from the spelled sleep Mithel had put her under the morning before. Her blood sister had grown frustrated at seeing her weariness and sent her to her room with a potion. She still had not been able to get Allianna to drink any blood and the girl was getting very weak and would be sick soon if she did not feed. Even Amnira had sensed Allianna’s failing health and was becoming fretful. To Allianna it didn’t matter. She’d never wanted to be what she was in the first place. She only wished Alex would hurry back.
She stiffened as she caught a familiar scent in the house. Then she smiled happily and jumped from her bed, donning a gown of soft black velvet that she’d come to favor. She stepped out into the hall and made her way down to the dining room where she sensed his presence. She was nearly to the door when she feinted.
Those waiting in the dining room heard her fall and rushed out to the hallway, Keleb at the front. He beat Alex to his sister’s side and lifted her into his arms, following his host into a sitting room close by where he placed her carefully on a couch.
“She looks sick,” Keleb accused, so concerned he was unaware of the familiarity he was treating her with.
Mithel stepped forward before Alex could speak, knowing he would take an aggressive attitude toward the unspoken accusation. “She has been worried and has refused to feed at all. It has made her very weak.”
Keleb relaxed and stepped back to allow Alex room. The vampire knelt beside the couch and gently stroked her cheek until she stirred. “Hungry, dear one?”
She nodded dazedly, taking his offered wrist in her hands and biting down. When she’d finished her coloring was much better and her eyes more alert. So much so that she finally spotted the other man. Recognition and shock registered in her golden eyes but she seemed at a loss for words.
“Hey sis,” Keleb greeted. He too was unsure of what to say. Besides the shock of seeing her the shock of the memories that were spilling into his mind as if a floodgate had been open was unnerving. Finally he leaned over and brushed a light kiss over her forehead. “Why so worried?”
“I thought he wouldn’t come back,” she whispered. Her eyes filled with tears as she leaned into her brother’s arms. “I don’t care if you hate me for it, Keleb. I love him.”
Alex watched the reunion in silence and felt something inside of him snap at hearing those words. It wasn’t a bad thing but something that seemed to have been strangling him from inside for a long time. Still he said nothing. He needed Keleb’s approval even if she didn’t. Maybe he hadn’t had her father’s but he wouldn’t take away the last of her family, even if it meant letting her go after all those years of searching.
Keleb grinned and chucked her chin. “You think I’d hate you over something so important to you? Do you think so little of me, sis?” His laughing eyes turned serious for a moment. “He came all the way to get me just so you could see me and I you, how could anyone be so cold as to ignore such a thoughtful thing?”
Allianna laughed and burst into tears again. She had been being silly. Even after Alex had destroyed their family Keleb had always maintained that there must have been some reason why. Now she knew what it was, even she accepted it.
It was Keleb’s wife that spoke next, turning to Alex. “So you have the approval of the only family that counts and you have her love, what say you?”
Alex grinned and took Allianna from her brother’s embrace into his own, cradling her as if she were the most precious thing on earth. “I love you too, my dear one. Now can I have the hand I was asking for so very long ago?”
Allianna giggled, suddenly light hearted. “What, no courting?”
“Wasn’t chasing after you for so long courting enough?”
Allianna nodded and nipped his shoulder lightly. She heard small feet entering the room and was overjoyed when Amnira joined the embrace. Everything was right now. After so long being alone everything was perfect. But could it last?