Eternity is Only A Lifetime Away

Cold and Broken

“Kaleb! Kaleb! You can't just stroll in there and ask him about it.” Lilia hissed, pulling the youngest vampire back by his shirt.

“I'm not going to! I'm going to hint and then force a reaction out of him. I knew he couldn't totally emotionless!” Kaleb was finding way too much pleasure in the incident that his telepathy had picked up on only twenty minutes earlier. “But, he'll be suspicious if both of us walk in there. You should probably go and play the doting nurse upstairs and check on Aleka's friend.” He suggested, nodding at his own idea. The witch folded her arms and tried to stare down the excited immortal, but she soon gave in. Unlike them, she did need rest and it had been a long night.

“Fine. But don't provoke him.” She cautioned, turning around and walking away, planning on visiting the human and checking her over before turning in for a few hours.

Kaleb strolled casually through the library towards the prophecy room where Tristan was organising the parchments that Aleka had pulled from the shelves previously. “Hey Tristan.” He sauntered into the darkened room and hopped up onto the table, swinging his legs as he settled into a comfortable position.

“What can I do for you Kaleb?” Tristan was hoping for some alone time with his thoughts before he visited Aleka later. He knew that they had to discuss what had happened in this very room, their feelings and what could possibly happen next given the dangers that would come with it.

“I've been thinking about what you told me. Y'know, about the night you fed from Aleka and how she didn't repel you? Well, I was trying to decide why she would trust you enough to give herself to you. I mean, no offence, but you're far from a friendly face and I know that she walks around her ready to attack any vampire who's a bit late on his feeding. I've been on the receiving end of a blow from her in the past. She doesn't trust us, so why trust you?”

“She knows that I monitor my feeding habits. I would never attack her. That night, I resisted, but she spilt her own blood to entice me.”

“Makings of a vampire herself.” Kaleb mumbled. “No wonder Sullivan is after her power more than just killing her.” His lighter eyes moved to study Tristan who suddenly seemed tense. “Dude, there's got to be more to it than that. Surely it can't just be trust alone.”

“Does it really matter? The situation will never arise again.”

“I'm not saying that it will. I'm just saying that maybe there's something more to her and you than you think.” He studied the older vampire's reaction carefully, marginally catching the slight slack in his jaw and the uncharacteristic flutter of his eyelids. “There's no denying that you've been there for her and I know you chased after her as soon as we got back here. How many other times have you stepped in to make sure she was okay? It doesn't take much to get a teenage girl's heart racing; especially when they're best friends with loneliness.” He kept his eyes fixed on Tristan who was standing still, parchment in hand as he listened. “And no one could blame, say you, if you did do something to encourage them feelings. You've been locked up and closed off more than anyone else in this rebellion. And, if Lilia's interpretation of the prophecy is correct then there wouldn't be any harm in opening up to a girl like Aleka, especially if the stars have destined her life to end before it truly begins.” Tristan's fingers curled into a fist, his jaw clenching again.

“The witch has already misinterpreted the stars meanings once..”

“Huh?” The statement caught Kaleb off guard and he sat up straighter. Tristan held out the parchment in his hand and Kaleb studied it, his eyes widening as the puzzle pieces fell into place. “Darien wasn't a true warrior?”

“Aleka is a variation of Alexandra; its meaning is 'man's defender'. Darien, depending on the variants and the countries of origin is either 'water' or 'gift'.” Tristan sighed softly and looked at Kaleb. “The whole Proctor line has had their destiny written on their birth certificate in the form of their given name. We were just too selfish to notice it.”

“Aleka was so much stronger than him. It should have been obvious.” Kaleb said, dropping the parchment on the table and sitting there in shock.

“We missed it. Which means we could have read hundreds of these prophecies wrong and we'll never know until after this is all over. 'The arrival of two' may not even mean Aleka and Darien.”

“What else could it mean though? They are the only set of siblings in the bloodline.”

“Exactly, but Aleka was the one who inherited her mother's abilities. Darien shared the blood pattern, yes, but not the destiny.”

Kaleb sat their silently. Suddenly, the potential romance seemed irrelevant. They had pretty much been responsible for the murder of Aleka's only living relative because they were too obsessed about ending Sullivan's reign to care about the fine details. “What do we do?”

“There is nothing that can be done. We just need to pray that Aleka is strong enough to channel her emotions into her powers.

“Aleka's strong enough without needing to do that. You know she is.” Kaleb switched subtly to the topic he had come in here to discuss. “Her emotions are what make her great. You encourage them.”

“I do no such thing.”

“Then why did you kiss her?” The words came out of Kaleb's mouth before he could stop them and he nervously awaited the intimidating vampire's reaction.

“What makes you think that I did anything of the sort?” Tristan jammed the parchment on the shelf and tried to stare Kaleb down, hoping that the truth wasn’t written all over his face.

“You – you opened your thoughts again. They flooded my head before I could give you your privacy back. I heard your thoughts Tris.”

Tristan sighed and turned away. That spectacular kiss had made him relax, made him forget and had clearly dropped the barriers he had worked so hard to put up over the years. Aleka really did have some power over him it seemed and this was the proof of it.

“I am not going to discuss that with you Kaleb. Those thoughts were intended to be as secret as all the rest.”

“Clearly something happened to change that though.” He slid from the table and walked closer to Tristan. “For once in your immortality, go with it. You may be dead, but that's no reason why you can't live. Most humans think that their life sucks because they take all the good parts for granted. They don't understand that one day it may all fade away.” He looked Tristan square in the eye, wanting to make sure that his friend understood what he was saying. “Aleka will fade away one day and I'm pretty damn sure that immortality would suck a lot more if you don't act on what happened earlier. Forever is a long time to be lonely, Tris.” He smiled weakly and then slowly left the room, wanting to leave the older immortal with that thought. Hopefully he'd see that, for once, Kaleb was making perfect sense.