Allianna (technically a rough draft btw)

Chapter Six

Chapter Six:
“The play was incredible, Mithel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything played out so vividly,” Trisallynn mused.
“They had a pisky involved. The sprite cousins have a fantastic knack for illusions and the illusions serve well for special affects to add some spark to a play. But the effects would have been pointless were it not for how incredible the actors are. They play their parts perfectly,” Mithel added. She smiled lightly at the young girl and then stiffened.
“I hear it too,” Trisallynn murmured. “From the alley over there.”
There was indeed a faint sound coming from an alley on the left side of the dirt road. It sounded something between a mew and a sob. The two vampires made their way into the dark shadows with a caution highly in contrast to the beliefs about vampires.
Both were afraid. In Venomira where there was crying there was likely someone causing harm and to them it could mean their own without Alex their to protect them. Even when Alex was there the hatred of their species made it dangerous for them to be wandering around the village.
“Thel I think it’s...” Trisallynn started.
Mithel looked at her then straightened and called into the darkness filling the alley. “Starlight? Starlight is that you honey?”
“M-mommy?” a small voice called back.
“It’s Star all right. The new family must have abandoned her,” Mithel murmured sadly.
Trisallynn nodded. She could never understand why the cat nymph had so much trouble keeping a home but whatever had happened she’d been dumped in their village yet again and still somehow remembered Mithel and herself.
Without waiting for Mithel’s opinion, Trisallynn stalked into the shadows and came back out carrying a small girl in her arms. “She’s 5 again.”
“Let’s take her back to the forest.”
“No.”
Mithel frowned, then sighed as realization dawned. “You know how he feels about strays.”
“He takes in children of the other races easily enough and Allianna’s child could use a play mate. Plus, if he finds her a home I can promise you she’ll keep it this time.” Trisallynn glared at her in a rare show of domination. “I will take her to my Uncle.”
Mithel sighed. There wasn’t much more they could do for Starlight on her own. For some reason her mental and physical age skipped around (and not always together) and in the twelve families Mithel and Trisallynn had set her up in not one of them had kept her for long. Each one had abandoned the child and once again she had ended up in Mithel’s arms. No one could quite figure out why the nymph child called Mithel mother but the fact remained that she did call her that.
The nymph mewed as Trisallynn passed her to Mithel. The walk back to the manor was shadowed in silence, the younger vampiress lost in thought and Mithel pensive. When they reached the front doors Mithel gave the child back to her sire’s “niece” then vanished into the forest as was her way.
Trisallynn found Alex standing outside the nursery leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in front of him and his eyes closed. Still, she knew he sensed her standing there, even though the presence of the woman and child inside the room fogged her senses a little.
“What young waif have you brought with you this time, Tris?” Alex asked softly.
“She’s a nymph, she’s of the feline variety and I-”
“Give her one of the beds in the nursery and tell Mithel not to be so presumptuous in the future. A cat nymph is still a human race and I will not leave one any worse off than the other,” Alex muttered, disappointed that Trisallynn would think so little of him.
She smiled brightly for a moment then hesitated. “There is one problem.. She’s got some kind of defect. She keeps, well, Starlight has some sort of kink in her genetic makeup that causes her to age at a very strange rate...”
Alex opened his eyes and raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
“Her age skips around, as well as her mindset. She’s not normal. We’ve found her homes but her deficiency always causes her to be abandoned again. Could you perhaps help us this time around?”
There was a moment of silence as Alex appraised the child in Trisallynn’s arms then he smiled lightly. “I shall see what can be done. Meanwhile she can stay here and keep Amnira company. I imagine neither child has had much for playmates in their lifetimes.”
Trisallynn nodded and allowed Alex to take the child from her. He gently lifted her to his shoulder then made his way into the nursery where Amnira and Allianna were getting reacquainted.
“It would seem that there’s to be another occupant in my home for a while. Amnira, this is Starlight. I thought perhaps the two of you could become friends,” Alex suggested. He set Starlight on her feet and the nymph shifted to her animal form, quickly jumping up into Amnira’s lap and snuggling against her. Amnira tensed for a moment then smiled brightly and cuddled the kitten-nymph.
“Hi Starlight.”
Starlight purred and shifted again, back to her human form. “’Llo ‘Mnira. Good to meet you. Glad time ‘lone finally is passed.”
Alex frowned in thought for a moment as he looked more closely at the child. He shook off the suspicion and caught Allianna’s hand in his. “Come now, let them to their rest.”
Allianna opened her mouth to protest then exhaled heavily instead. “I suppose you are right. I just don’t want to let her out of my sight.”
Alex smiled reassuringly as he led her into the hallway and closed the door to the nursery. “The nymph shows signs of psychic talent. I am sure that if anything goes amiss we will be forewarned.”
They found Trisallynn waiting just outside the room, looking somewhat distracted. She seemed, however, to snap right out of it upon their entry into the hall. “It seems that you’ve settled your differences. Allianna may I speak with you for a moment?”
Allianna frowned and followed Trisallynn into her side of the house and joined her quietly in a sitting room painted in a muted blue, small silver spider webs delicately stenciled to cover the walls and ceiling. The furniture held a very shadowy elegance to it, all done with dark silver and shadowy red velvet.
Trisallynn had no discomfort getting to her point, opening the conversation with her very blunt observation. “You’re falling in love with Alex.”
Allianna nearly fell out of the ornate chair she’d settled herself in and stared at her hostess with astonishment. “What on earth brought you to that conclusion?”
“But he’s your enemy,” Trisallynn went on, seeming not to have heard the other vampiress’s question. “You should speak with your brother before doing anything so rash as getting involved with my uncle.”
“I don’t even know where he is!” Allianna snapped, forgetting that she was supposed to be denying feelings toward the man that had destroyed her family. “Kaleb left me to fend for myself.”
The younger vampiress shrugged. “Perhaps, or perhaps there is more to it than that. You of all people should know that slavers are won’t to take anyone they find alone and vulnerable, male or female. Then there are always normal accidents like hitting ones head and contracting amnesia or who knows what else.”
“Trisallynn leave her be,” Alex growled from the entry. “You should learn when enough is enough. Let her get more comfortable with her child again before you remind her of others we must find. For that matter, let her get used to her knew state. For all she knows her brother could be much like that whore of a sister that decided all vampires were evil and should be destroyed.”
Trisallynn stood and glared at her uncle for a moment before murmuring, her voice equally dangerous. “You’re the one who is getting involved with her so soon. You ought to learn to slow down and let life go on before allowing her to get close to you. Besides, what makes her any less a whore then Maya? She’s with you is she not? You have been her enemy for as long as Maya was the enemy of all vampires and you call Maya a whore for ending up with Vincent but how is Allianna being with you any different!”
Alex stared at his niece for a moment, the whole room seemed to have been put under a mute spell. He turned quite suddenly and left the room. Allianna was momentarily paralyzed then she too left and found her way back to her room. Mithel, sensing the sudden confusion of emotions that seemed to fill the manor actually entered it. Alex’s presence had vanished; apparently he had gone elsewhere for some purpose. She found Allianna sitting on her bed with her knees drawn up to her chin cradling a carved wolf in her hands.
“Are you alright, honey?”
Allianna looked up at her, eyes a deep shade of orange in her pain. “Why am I betraying my entire family? Where have these feelings come from and why do they feel so familiar?”
Mithel shrugged as she perched herself on the edge of the bed. “Perhaps because they are. Perhaps they have been there in another life, perhaps even in another half of this life.” Things she and Lennari had discussed were falling neatly into place now. “You have betrayed no one but yourself and you have only betrayed yourself by believing that those who have abandoned you have any claim to your loyalty. Even so I know both of your sisters and I do not believe either of them would feel betrayal in what you have done. Maya least of all.”
“But he tore my family apart,” Allianna murmured.
“Perhaps, but did you ever think to ask why? Your Father was a great man but his mind was very narrow. Alex could never explain why but somehow he needed to be with you and he tried to go about it the correct way. The day he is said to have brought ruin to your home and your family was the day he approached your father requesting permission simply to court you. Your father’s response was an attempt to have him slain and Alex responded the only way he knew how.
“Alex has been raised to be the way he is and still he has always fought to do some kind of good. In the end the only acceptance he ever found was with the demoness Mirayine and so he did her favors. It was that way for a very long time and then he saw you in a market near your home. Mirayine gave him orders that day to destroy your home but instead he went there seeking you. His attack was in defense and he hated himself for the longest time, believing he had killed you by mistake and trying to fill your place in his heart with your sister. He sent the others away because they too had tried to slay him.
Your brother had done nothing save detain him from getting to you so Alex did not harm him, though Keleb could never have known that.
“Alex may have destroyed your family but only because they tried to destroy him first.”
Alianna stared at her blood sister for a long time and then turned her attention back to the figure in her hand. “I wish Keleb were here. None of this ever would have happened.”
“None of it, Allianna. Think of what that entails...Rather think of what it doesn’t entail,” Mithel’s gaze turned pointedly in the direction of the nursery. “Some things are meant to be and the cause is not always as it seems.”
“What..?”
“Eventually you will see.”