Sorry I keep going back and rewriting and refining. I'll get back up to date soon. I hope. |
Chapter One: Allianna held back a cry of pain as she felt his fangs sink into her neck. She did not dare give him the thrill of her tear shed. She’d managed to evade him for so long and the filthy blood sucker had finally caught up with her in a tavern in the deep forest of Cayleryne. The tavern stood just next to the high Falls of Tevirin. She’d been admiring the fascinating display when he’d caught her off her guard. Allianna was once one of the young mistresses of a Manor in Venomira until De Venor, a sorcerous vampire, had destroyed their home and their lives. He’d enslaved her sisters, taking the sixteen year old as his own. He’d thought Allianna dead when he’d gone. Allianna’s mother had fled, leaving her unconscious daughter for dead. When Allianna had come to she’d discovered the lifeless form of her father. Her brother, Keleb, was watching her from the other side of the room. From that point on it had just been them until his disappearance on the coast of the Cavaydra Sea. Then Allianna had been left to wander helplessly for the following 13 years. She’d been hunted and chased by all manner of blood sucker and demon and dark hunter. She’d even birthed a child as a result of rape and the child had been stolen and enslaved while she’d been hunting. Not long after that De Monter discovered that she had not perished after all. He’d wanted her for his bride from the start. And so he began to hunt her, tracking her through all manner of places, destroying anyone and anything that stood in his way. Not that he’d been the only one, he’d just been the only one to finally catch up with her. Now she could do nothing as he slowly drained away her blood, her life force with it. When she held on by but a thread he smirked and drew his dagger, slashing it across his wrist. He watched as a thin line of blood began to form then expand. His dripping wrist moved to hover over Allianna’s parted lips. “Drink girl, or destroy your brats only hope of being saved,” he hissed into her ear. She did drink. She drank until the thirst for blood crept into her senses and she gulped it hungrily. When he pulled away she shrieked angrily. “Enough, you must now earn the right to feed off me.” Allianna fought for control and won. “Then I won’t. I’ll find others to feed from,” she snapped. But she already felt drawn to him, drawn to her sire and his blood, she’d little power over that need. “We shall see, girl, we shall see.” His gaze raked her slim features and took in the smooth oval of her face, already paler than usual as the changes began to take hold. Her full crimson lips pleased him and the black wave of her hair was befitting to a vampiress, his too was black, though cut shoulder length and tied back with a strip of leather. His black gaze met her flashing gold one. “For now you may go, you’ll know when you are to return.” “I’ll never return,” Allianna replied icily. “Not if I can help it.” “But you can’t,” He pointed out before vanishing into nothingness. Allianna shrieked in rage and sorrow. How could she have let her guard down for even a second? “Alrigh’ there miss?” the tavernsman asked, looking out the tavern’s door. “I-I’m fine. I was just frightened by some forest creature. It caught me off guard is all.” “It was probably jus’ some rodent.” “That’s right, just a filthy gutter rat,” she replied, more to herself then to him. “Come in an’ I’ll get ye something t’ calm your nerves,” he offered with a wink. “That’s all right, thank you. I’ll just go on home.” “Alrigh’ then miss.” As soon as the door shut Allianna darted toward the thicker part of the forest. She found the hallowed tree where she’d spent the previous night. When she’d settled herself in the realization of a powerful pain racking her body surfaced itself. Allianna shrieked in pain as the turn from mortal to vampiress took it’s toll. The change went on for hours and left her trembling weakly. She was sobbing mutely and rocking on her knees. Even then small surges of pain coursed through her every few minutes. The thirst for blood grew steadily stronger, though she fought it with every ounce of her will. “Having fun?” The cold voice of her sire inquired from the opening of the tree. “It hurts, doesn’t it? The hunger must be maddening. I stayed for Nireleth’s change so she never felt the pain, I took it away.” Allianna tried to ignore him, tried to suppress the hunger, but the need for her master, the need to quench her thirst was too powerful. Yet she still only knelt there, rocking slightly. “I’ll let you drink your fill this once, all you need do is admit to your thirst,” he whispered in her ear, his hands resting on her shoulders from behind. “No,” she squeaked through her tight throat. “No?” His tone was one of surprise; he’d not anticipated that reply. Her sister had been stubborn but never so stubborn as to pass up an opportunity like that. But then this was Allianna, not Nireleth. “Never.” “Never, sweet one, is such a very long time. Here.” He rolled his sleeve up to his elbow and offered his bared wrist, lifting it in front of her mouth. “Just drink, Allianna.” But the girl only looked away, trying her best to ignore the offered artery. The scent of his vampiric blood, the very blood she now craved most, filled her head. Alex sighed in irritation. “I don’t even think my brother’s impudent slave, Scarlet, is this stubborn. Drink damn you. That is not a request girl.” That meant it was an order and, until he willingly freed her from his power or she took a vampiric mate, she had no choice but to obey. Without realizing it, Allianna turned back and took his arm in her hands. She sank her new fangs deep into the flesh of his wrist, piercing the main vein. Blood began to flow thickly into her mouth. The moment she regained her senses she pulled away. Her sire rolled his eyes and licked the bleeding wrist like a cat. The wound was healed instantantly. “Feel better, little one?” She hissed at him then stiffened and buried her face in the black silk of her skirt. The action had been that of a vampire, an unintentional admittance to what she had now become because of him. Alex stood, a slightly pained look on his face. Within an instant he’d masked it. “Come with me?” “When Hell freezes,” came the muffled reply. “There’s a slayer headed this way that will kill you the moment he catches your scent. Please come with me?” It took everything he had to keep his voice from taking on a pleading note. “I’ll take my chances with the slayer.” “The Hell you will!” Alex hissed. “What’s the matter, De Monter? Don’t want all you efforts to go to waste?” Allianna taunted, still not lifting her head. “And if the slayer kills you? Who will rescue your precious daughter then?” “It does not matter. How could I rescue her anyway? I haven’t the strength.” Alex knelt in front of her and lifted her chin. “If you will come with me now I will help you to rescue Amnira.” “How? I’ve been searching for years and I haven’t found her.” “Mithel knows where she is, she’s known for quite a while, though she has not said it to me.” Alex glanced over his shoulder. “Make your choice now before the slayer is close enough to track us both if we leave.” Allianna bit her lip then nodded. Alex took her hand and they both vanished into nothingness. The next moment that Allianna knew she was in the middle of a forest clearing. The trees above her were bright with the colors of fall and the cold air caused her breath to mist in front of her. Alex threw a heavy cloak over her shoulders then walked away toward a tall manor in the distance, not saying another word. A woman of raven hair and blue eyes, appearing to be the age of 25 at turning, made her way out of the shadows to her side. “Allianna?” she asked softly. The other nodded in confirmation. “I am Mithel. I knew your sister, Nireleth, when she was still with us.” “What happened to her?” Allianna asked, a hint of panic shading her voice. “David and Maya came and took her away. Our sire will never bother her again,” Mithel eased. Allianna sighed in relief and smiled. She was glad that her sister had ended up with her beloved after all. “Where are we?” Allianna asked softly. Mithel shrugged. “Home, our forest. Only a few forest types and the slayers that can manage to break through Alex’s barrier ever come here but there’s a small town not far away that we can go to. I don’t but that’s by my own choosing.” Alianna frowned but didn’t ask the question that loomed in her mind, she had more important things to deal with. “Do you really know where Amnira is?” Mithel nodded. “Yes.” She paused as if making a decision. “I had hoped that would draw you here if he ever caught you. Else I would not have let him hear the thought. If you let Alex hear most of your thoughts, ones of little importance, and you behave Alex won’t try as hard to penetrate you mind so you can guard more significant things without his notice. So far as Alex knows I have no idea where my own daughter has gone and I keep nothing from him.” “Why are you telling me that?” “Because it is something that could have saved your sister a great deal of grief if I had told it to her, not that it really mattered. She was too rebellious and he did not trust her enough to let the mundane pass like that.” Allianna shook her head. “Where is my child?” “With a mistress in the Second Magical world not far from the Tavern of The Wanderer.” Mithel looked over the trees toward the rising sun. “Until you know for sure which type of vampire you are you should find cover before that sunlight makes it through the tree cover. Come, this way.” Without a word Allianna followed Mithel into a thick part of the woods where the leaves of the trees were so tightly knit you could not tell that the sun was rising in the eastern sky. Only a small glowing ball Mithel had created out of the sap of one of the trees and the few trees around that dripped with the very same sap broke the darkness. “Are you daylight or nightwalker, Mithel?” “Me? I have always been daylight,” Mithel murmured. “I found out when a slayer wanna be threw me out of a tavern into the sunlight and I didn’t burst into flame. The stupid kid didn’t even know daylight vampires existed.” Allianna nodded. “What about De Monter?” “Alex is of the old ones. Most of them are nightwalkers. He follows the trend but he has an amulet that allows him to walk under the sun.” “Mithel, will he keep his promise to help rescue my daughter?” “Alex? He will not make a promise to one of his sirelings unless he intends to keep it. Hell if he wanted you to come with him that bad he had no reason to promise anything, all he had to do was order it. Besides, he’d intended to help you save the girl anyway.” Allianna frowned and looked out into the forest. Off in the distance she could see the faint glimmer of light that was coming through the less thick trees. “Is there a safe way to find out which type of vampire you are?” “You can ask Alex but he will only answer when he feels that answering benefits him in some way.” Mithel smiled then rummaged through a pack she carried slung over her shoulder. She pulled out a folded blanket then shook it out and it stretched and thickened into a heavy black and gold quilt. This she handed to Allianna then she proceeded to prepare one for herself. That accomplished, Mithel spread her own violet and blue quilt on the leaf strewn forest floor and lay down on it. She pulled the extra over herself and pillowed her head on her arm. Allianna thanked her and did the same. “You’re welcome. I’ll show you how to fold it back down into the smaller version tonight then, that one’s yours. It matches your eyes by the way,” Mithel murmured sleepily. Allianna laughed. “And my hair.” Mithel laughed, already half asleep. Allianna stretched then willed herself to sleep. |