Ghosts of the Family

Alleania ponders her past and future as a vampire.

50.

Ghosts of the family

 

 

 

 

She knew the way into the ducal keep without the guards ever seeing her, though in the form of a bat, they probably wouldn’t have thought much about her presence.   She fluttered down the stairwell and through a door always open on the ground level.   The guards stood outside the front entrance here and would not sense her, so Alleania changed back into her natural form.    

It was nearly dawn, and she didn’t have long to snoop, but she wanted to check on Aurei before she slept.   Quietly she went back up the stairs until she came to the duchess’ master bedroom.   She went incorporeal for a moment to avoid opening the door and then rematerialized just inside the door.  

The apartments that made up the master bedroom suite were all shut, but she knew where she was going and silently crossed the floor, and then listened outside the door for a long moment.   Her Elven ears detected the steady breathing of a pair of sleeping forms, so she again became a mist and slipped under the door, to reform inside their bedroom.

 

She had been rather surprised that her daughter had taken a lover at so young of an age, especially since both she and her lover were both Paladins of Yesh.   They slept close together, Aurei wrapped protectively in his arms.    The sight did not displease her at all, for Aurei had picked a handsome and strong man, even if he was half Faesidhe.   From the slight hint of smiles on both of their faces, they were in love.  

 

That was a term unfamiliar to the Vampire except in the definition the Drow of the Underdark used - and most didn’t even use that definition.   She had felt something like that for Chal and certainly her heart longed for him.   But now she was alone.   

No lover, and no purpose; the words hung in her mind like an executioner standing beside a chopping block.    Looking down at her wonderfully beautiful daughter, she felt something again flicker somewhere deep inside of her.    Like a ghost it remained indistinct and ethereal, but Alleania knew what it was.  

It was the pull of family.

How she had not understood that word!  

Ar’Rilla had been by far, one of the most tightly bound Drow families in the entire Underdark.   They had not plotted and schemed against each other, but felt united under their Matron’s leadership. 

 

Even when she had been wrong, they had loyally followed Thaia Ar’Rilla unquestioningly.   When it had gone wrong the final time, they had even tried to escape as a family.   She remembered the terror she felt, bleeding from the Elven arrow wound, deep in the agony of labor as her equally as scared sister Zeatt served as a midwife and Tholmi desperately raced the Elven coach out of danger.  

 

She remembered seeing Zeatt’s wide eyes as she felt life ebb from her then nothingness until she felt herself smothered in loose soil.   She had clawed hysterically at the dirt to find herself in a very shallow grave.   As soon as she had pulled her naked body out of the grave she saw Chal standing over her in the dark of the forest, watching and waiting for her to come forth.  

 

Realization had come to her at once that she was a Vampire.   The playful biting that Chal had used as foreplay as soon as he had learned that she was pregnant had not been just some odd fetish for the wizard.   He had waited until after she had conceived a child by him, then he had paid a Vampire to convert him into one of the undead.  

Of course that had meant that he had been a minion of the Vampire who had killed him, but Chal had figured that out as well and he had paid an assassin to kill his Vampire lord, leaving him free.  

Then he had bit her during sex, feigning a sexual game, and she had not known that though she still lived, she had turned at that moment into a living Vampire minion.

 

Of course after she had died, she arose a full Vampire, though still a lesser creature under Chal’s control.   He had found her body the same night she had died, washed ashore less than a mile from where the coach and Aurei were found downstream.   He had buried her in a few feet of dirt and the next night she had risen, and he was there, eager for her to join him, though disappointed at the loss of their child.  

 

They had returned to the Underdark, but the few of the Council of Matrons in Hor’olorbb that survived the war with the Faesidhe that Thaia had instigated, burned with fury at House Ar’Rilla and they massacred all of their servants and slaves.   Chal had taken her to the surface again and they had found haven in the southlands as members of the Necromancer’s Guild.  

 

All of the bonds of family had been forgotten; until recently.   Now she stood looking down at her sleeping daughter and knew that somewhere nearby she would find her sister Zeatt.    Alleania felt conflicted; she was free to travel back to the Underdark and perhaps now that 70 years had passed, try to rebuild her family house.   But to what end?   She could not bear children, nor would Aurei or Zeatt agree to give up their lives and come with her.  

 

If she returned, she would be completely alone; no family, no lover - nothing.   Here she at least could be close to them, though she knew they would soon realize she was around and try to trap her, and then kill her.   Yet they were all she had.   With a sad smile, she looked down at Aurei and her lover and turned to mist again, then drifted out of the room, to return to her coffin before the sun rose.