Isabel and the Beast - Alucard

Chapter 10: Rebel Yell

The next morning, I helped my brother get ready for the day. There hadn't been any sign of the out of town crew when I'd come in the night before. No vampires had come after me. The morning went as it usually did - I helped out. Cleaned up. At some point the strangers from out of town wandered down from the upstairs rooms. One of them leered at me as entered the tavern. I ignored him as best I could, helping Lea with the morning tasks. Reo took over where they were concerned, addressing their questions and escorting them out to the village to help with whatever needs they had.

One the men came back in, alone, as I swept the floor and Lea stocked the shelves. He walked straight over to me, looming over me, the massive bear of a man that he was. Lea quite determinedly walked around from behind the bar as he did.

"I been told you work for an interesting man. Lives abouts here." The man said in a deep grunt of a voice.

"I only work here," I said, glaring at him. He stood close enough - He wanted to intimidate me.

"So your calling your friend a liar?" he said. I hesitated at that. Who had told him that? He fed on my hesitation and towered over me.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, as if indifferent. I moved away but he grabbed my arm, his huge hand taking up most of my forearm. "Let me go!"

"You think you're clever, girl," he growled. "But we'll be watching you."

"Take your hands off her," Lea snapped, standing close to me. She was so small and frail looking but her attitude made her ten times larger in theory. "Or find another place to sleep while you stay."

The man took his hand off me, raising both his in false surrender. "I'm just asking questions." Behind him the door opened and he shot a look over his shoulder. His pivot allowed me to see Trevor Belmont in the doorway. He took in our situation with a dry smirk.

"Everything good here?" he asked, strolling in casually, but his eyes never left the big guy. His target shrugged, choosing to step away from me and walk out of the tavern. Trevor seemed pleased at the outcome, as if he'd whipped the man out himself, and went straight for a bar seat. Lea disappeared upstairs and I moved around to grab him a beer, not even considering how early it still was.

"I wasn't here for that but I'll take it." His voice sounded behind me. When I shot him a look over my shoulder there was a chuckle. "OK, I might have been here for that, too, but..."

I poured out a beer and plopped it in front of him. He took a long, appreciative sip and exhaled loudly. As he was taken care of, I'd started to back to my tasks, but he set the beer down loudly.

"He didn't tell you about daddy dearest," he said. I paused and looked back at him but didn't say anything. He quirked an eyebrow. "I see things, despite what Sypha suggests about my intelligence. You got really weird last night, and then disappeared. Alucard did too, for a time. Then, this morning, he's back to being a sulky fucking bastard, and you're nowhere to be found. So I'm right, right? You're angry you didn't know."

"He should have told me," I said simply. He tilted his head to the side, lifting a shoulder as if to say 'maybe'. Then he messily and enthusiastically drained his beer mug.

"It's a bit complicated. He's never been able to be his own person. Just an extension of the family name. It gets even more complicated when he has a lot of mixed feelings about killing his own old man." My surprised face only made him smirk.

"You're sure he did it?"

He held a dry smile and an empty beer mug, sliding it across the counter toward me. I huffed out a breath and filled it, putting it back in front of him. He took a drink, sighing again. Taking his sweet time.