*Removes hard hat* While the story is still under construction, I have finished quite a few chapters. So I figured I would upload some. These first few chapters are like a prologue. Give back story and what not. I hope you guys like it.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Enjoy!
Dalca Cominov was never one to follow the rules. She wasn't exactly sure why but if there was a rule, she would find a way to break it. It could have been the fact that when she did break a rule her father would finally pay attention to her. He was always too busy for her now days. He never had any time for her anymore. It wasn't always like that. She had memories of times when he would spend the entire day, doing things with her. She hated the thought that under her now tough reputation that there was a little girl underneath wishing her daddy would give her a hug and read her a story.
She knew he only viewed her as nuisance, she was fifteen years old and skipped school more than all the graduating class combined but he still wouldn't affectionately ruffle her hair or even look at her like he used too. All she received was disapproving stares and stern words. Her mother provided her with love but it wasn't what she wanted. She wanted her daddy back, he spent so much time away from home that even her mum had started to notice.
His absence was exactly the reason she was sneaking out after curfew. Well, her curfew really, her parents were more night people than anything. It was the family's big secret, they weren't entirely human. Well she was partially human, half and half but her parents were Carpathian. Killers of vampires and protectors of the worldly balance between good and evil or whatever they did. She didn't know. Her father forbade it and it was one rule she couldn't break, her father made sure of it.
"You need to be a normal child. You will learn all of this when you are older. I will teach you myself but for right now you need to grow up and do the things normal children do." His words filtered through her head and she sighed as she slowly walked through the woods. The family house was located in the middle of forest and Dalca had to walk to the road when she snuck out of the house. She was going out to meet some of her friends and maybe some guys. She knew if her father found to he would flip. It wasn't hard for her to get guys, she was the near mirror image of her mother. Dark green eyes, black hair and a petite build but she was taller than average, a trait she knew she had inherited from her father.
Life for her wasn't difficult, other than her ability to get into trouble but that was her own doing. Their family wasn't poor, her father certainly wasn't abusive, and there was love, loads and loads of it. It just never seemed like enough for her. Dalca always felt empty, sad, despondent, depressed or any other words similar. Dalca always told herself it was as if she was a puzzle and there was just one piece missing.
Dalca, run! Her mother's voice pushed into her head quickly and the compulsion was strong and Dalca couldn't even respond, despite the sudden panic the desperate tone her mother used, brought her. Something was seriously wrong but she ran because she had too. The trees went by quickly and Dalca knew she was getting lost in the forest but she still ran. After several minutes of the harsh sprinting her lungs burned and her throat felt ragged.
Dalca, where are you? Her father's tone was absolutely furious .She could barely catch her breath and her legs felt like jello as she collapsed, unable to run or even walk anymore. Her heart beat wildly in her chest and she tried to get the words to form in her mind so she could send them to her father.
In the forest. I don't know where. She gulped in mouthfuls of air and tried to steady her breathing and her heart beat.
Stay. You stay right there and you do not move. He was so angry, she had never felt him that angry before but the compulsion was strong. It scared her and after several moments she could feel him again. You are not to come home, Dalca. His voice had so much pain in it that Dalca stood up, her need to find her family overrode the compulsion to stay.
Daddy, what happened? She took several steps and he roared soundlessly in her head and she pressed her hands over her ears despite not actually hearing him. The roar was so deafening that she felt like her skull would break in two.
I said stay! It was a mere snarl and Dalca froze wide eyed at the compulsion. She felt the shaking start in her hands before it moved to shaking her entire body. She was terrified. Tears blurred her vision and her teeth chattered violently. She wrapped her arms around herself and felt her body start to cramp from the compulsion to stay.
She heard him land before she could actually see him. She wanted to move but she couldn't, even as he grabbed her in a tight grasp and flew off.
"Daddy?" Dalca tried her best to stop her teeth from chattering but she failed miserably. He held such violence in his body that it terrified her. It wasn't aimed at anything but that is what scared her, it felt unpredictable.
"Do not say anything, Dalca. Don't you dare." It was practically a hiss and she pressed her mouth into a thin line and after a few moments they landed roughly. She barely had any time to orientate herself before her father pushed her away. "Take her, Dalakis. Take her far from here. Let her be a child but protect her as if she was your own. Do this for me, I beg of you." His voice sounded so pained that Dalca turned to her father and held out her hands. He grasped her face and his dark eyes looked at her. Dalca swallowed hard, this wasn't her father, this was a broken man who had her father's face. She still didn't understand what was happening.
"You be good." His words contained a strong compulsion but she fought it off. He was going to leave her and she didn't want those to be his last words to her. She wanted to be at home curled up in her bed while her mum sang her lullabies that she knew she was too old for.
"I don't understand! I want to go home." She reached for him and he grabbed her arms quickly and gave him a firm shake. His eyes went so hard that she could see the violence that shook his hands on her arms.
"You can never go home." He let her go abruptly and took off. Dalca was left with an outstretched arm and utter bewilderment and shock. What had happened that was so bad? She was only sneaking out, she did it twice a week.
"We must go." The voice was cold and she whirled around. A tall man with blond hair and piercing blue eyes looked down at her. He looked so blank. She didn't know him.
"No. I want my daddy!" She backed away and he stared at her with utterly no emotion on his face. This man was terrifying; there was nothing soft or nice about him. He was completely unapproachable and it was scary for her to be alone with him, in the dark, in the middle of the woods.
"Your father has entrusted you to my care. We must leave." He said the words with such a cold and dead tone that Dalca took a few more steps backwards.
"No! What happened? Why did he leave?" She wiped away tears and felt the shaking start again. So much was happening and she still couldn't understand what was going on.
"You mother is dead. You father is going to seek the dawn. This is the reason he has entrusted you to my care. Come morning you would have been an orphan and unprotected if your father had not contacted me." He delivered the crushing news so coldly that it seemed to make it worse. Dalca's heart stuttered in her chest.
"No. No. That's not true. No." She shook her head rapidly and tears filled her eyes. She didn't want to believe it but the harsh silence and absence of her mother from their line of connection told of the truth. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and crouched down. "No no no nononononononono." Tears rolled down her cheeks and she started rocking.
"You have been entrusted to my care. We must leave." His voice barely filtered through the chaos filling her head and she ignored him as a sharp pain hit her chest, her heart was breaking and there would be no motherly kisses to help mend it and no fatherly words of advice. She was so wrapped up in her grief that she barely noticed that the man had picked her up and that they were now flying across the night sky at a rather fast pace.
Dalca tried to breathe through the pain but ended up sobbing instead, loud, body wracking sobs that shook her frame and hurt her throat. She wanted for the pain to end, she wished for it to be all a dream. She would wake up and then tell her mother about it, who would give her a warm hug and kiss her forehead before telling her everything was fine and not to worry.
"Sleep." The voice was sharp and the compulsion was strong and Dalca slipped into unconsciousness.
Dalca woke up to a dark and unfamiliar room and she scrambled to get up. A movement from a corner caught her eyes and a tall man with blond hair looked at her from the shadows. It was in that moment that her entire world crashed down on top of her. Her parents were dead and she could never go home. Her bottom lip quivered and she pulled the blanket up to her chin so she could hide the quivering from the man in the corner. She refused to let him see her cry.
"My name is Alexander Dalakis. I have known your father for over a thousand years. I was only in his territory hunting a vampire. It was that vampire that killed your mother." His accent was sharp and the tone dead. "The vampire was hunting for you. Do not worry. Your father, Yuric managed to destroy the unholy creature." She didn't want to hear it, she didn't want to know. Dalca sobered at the thought that she wished her life would end because she didn't want the pain to continue. It was so sharp and it throbbed in her chest as if in tandem with her heart beating. It made sense, her heart was the thing that was broken.
"I took some of your blood so I can track your whereabouts and so I would have a connection to you if I ever needed to contact you." He moved out of the corner and stared down at her. His gaze was unnerving and Dalca looked back up at him, trying not to let her gaze falter. "Do not expect me to be around at all hours of the night. You will find that this house has been filled with everything you will need." He didn't walk more as glided towards the door to the bedroom she was sitting in and Dalca felt for the connection with her mind.
I don't want to be alone. It sounded so pitiful to her. She barely knew him but it didn't stop the fact that she didn't wish to be left alone, not at that moment. Not when she was trying so hard not to fall apart.
I may not be here physically but I shall always be close. He gave her one last empty look before he left the room. True to his word, she could feel his mind close to hers, it brought little comfort to her but she knew she would have to learn to live without the ever present feeling of her parents.
"Baby mine, don't you cry. Baby mine, dry your eyes. Rest your head close to my heart. Never to part, baby of mine." The words were warbled and wavering but she forced herself to continue. "Little one when you play. Pay no heed what they say. Let your eyes sparkle and shine. Never a tear, baby of mine." Dalca swallowed hard and took a deep breath in.
"If they knew all about you. They'd end up loving you too. All those same people who scold you. What they'd give just for. The chance to hold you." Tears blurred her vision and she sniffled. "From your head to your toes. You're not much, goodness knows. But you're so precious to me. Sweet as can be, baby of mine." The sadness twisted her throat so badly that the last few words were merely a whisper. Dalca pressed a hand to her mouth and she sobbed.
No matter how old we act at that age, we are still so young. Poor Dalca. Yes, Dalca and not Ash. As you can see I made a few changes. Although her mother dies and her father is forced to make a decision, he chooses to seek the dawn rather than turn. No protective runes, no birthmarks (Although something can be said about that later but she wasn't exactly born with it. Any way moving on.) Alexander Dalakis rather than Dervin. Little changes that I think suit it a bit better. Any way, tell me what you think!