Freedom Chapter 1
By J.L. Pitard
Standard disclaimer: All characters belong to Kohta Hirano and his publishers. I have no stake in them...
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Damn these blood bags...cold...and now nearly empty. Alucard roared and threw away his third bag. The stone wall above the trash can had long since ceased to soak in the dark red liquid. It dribbled slowly down along a well-worn path towards the metal bin. Alucard eyed the wall with disgust. He longed for a fight and the chance to rip the throat out of an enemy. A sigh escaped as he shook himself from the thought.
Boredom is the price of immortality, he told himself. Then he half smiled as he remembered the true price he had paid to gain his place as no-life king. So very many years ago. Almost involuntarily, his hand traced the line of his neck. No scars. No marks of any sort defiled his perfect body. He relaxed his mind and let his body slip away entirely. The night had begun and Alucard decided to go greet the moon.
He rose from his stone room, soaking in the details of a normal evening at Hellsing Manor.
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She felt a shiver run up her spine. Sir Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing sat at her large mahogany desk reading Scottish police reports. Nothing abnormal in them at all. She took off her glasses, rubbed the bridge of her nose and picked up another stack of documents. Integra considered closing the windows. A cool wind touched her face as she looked over her shoulder at the balcony. She sensed the light touch of Alucard's mind. Annoyance shot through her. She knew it would do no good. "He's just checking moods, not poking about in my thoughts." She said, trying to calm herself. Still, he knew how to push her buttons. Damn him!
She rose and stalked toward the balcony. The curtains shifted in the light breeze, but the moonlight revealed it to be empty.
Still, she'd learned quite a bit in the ten years since she'd found him in the dungeon. An emotionally numb shell of a little girl meeting a dry husk of a corpse. Ten long years ago.
She stood and waited. The moon was full. Integra rarely let herself admire the night. It held few mysteries for her. Her father had taught her at a young age that she needed to master the night or it would master her. Since then, she'd come face to face with true evil. As she thought of the devil, he began to solidify in front of her. His black hair fell over the collar of his red duster. His back to her, he seemed to glory in the sight of the moon hanging just over the horizon, looking as big as the sky itself.
"What a beautiful night," he turned slightly to smile at her over his shoulder, "my Master." She looked into his wild red eyes and felt her pulse begin to race. The familiar feeling fluttered deep in her belly. His voice was like falling into deep velvet. He could almost purr when he chose to. He often chose to when they were alone.
"What do you want, Alucard." Phrased as a question, but spoken as a rebuke. Integra had discovered, years ago, how to control her breathing to get her heart rate back under control. He could sense pulse rates and she did not like to give him the pleasure of getting under her skin. He was a tool to use in the fight against unholy demons. Her family's crowning glory was in the harnessing and enhancing of his power. Many times she'd wanted to ask him about that, but this was neither the time nor the place.
"Orders." He moved languidly to the stone balustrade and posed, distractedly looking at the moon, while able to keep an eye on Integra. She turned her back to him and pushed aside the curtain to return inside. He was suddenly in front of her, smiling his wide smirk and blocking her way.
She held her fear and let her temper rise instead. "Alucard!" She snarled, "Do you mind?"
"Of course, Master." He turned, with a low flourish, backing into the large study. Walter entered through the study doors. He greeted Alucard with a nod and stood by Integra's desk.
Ever the perfect butler, Alucard snorted to himself. Walter C. Dornez had retired gradually to raise Integra once Alucard returned to be Hellsing's Trashman. From primary warrior to nanny and then to butler, quite a career, thought Alucard. He watched as the young man he had fought Nazis with half a century ago withered into this aged creature before him. Alucard was comforted to think that he had chosen something better for himself.
Integra strode over to Walter. There were printouts from several police forces scattered in the space between her computer and the remnants of tea. Integra sat down at her keyboard and several pages slid to the floor. Alucard moved to the desk and looked over them.
"Hmmm, cockroach activity in several cities." He murmured, pushing the papers along the carpet with his boot. "Good training, perhaps?"
Integra gave him a neutral look, and then drew his attention to the monitor. "What do you think of this coverage?"
On the screen was a map of Great Britain, overlaid on this was a web of dots and lines. When Alucard narrowed his eyes, the webs formed a cross with a ball at the bottom. He flexed his white-gloved hands, eyes widening in surprise. Integra was looking very intently at him, searching for the reason for his unease.
He composed his face again, sliding his yellow sunglasses on. "Orders, Master?" His defenses were back in place.
"What is it, Alucard?" Integra challenged. "What do you see?"
He hesitated just a beat. "A map of your country. Where do you want us to start cleaning?"
She considered pushing him, but decided to wait until she could discuss this with Walter. It was rare to see anything fluster Alucard, and she did not want to give away that she had no idea why.
"You will each go with a team and take out the ones near the Royal Palace and the prince's home." She looked from the map to Alucard. "Obviously, this must be kept discreet." He nodded, turned and dissolved through the wall.
Integra looked at Walter, who raised his eyebrows. He walked around the desk to look at the monitor. He had looked at it earlier, but hadn't seen any organized pattern. He kept pacing backwards until he was about halfway across the room. Walter removed and replaced his monocle.
"I believe the cross shape disturbed him," he observed. On his way to the dungeon, Alucard laughed to himself.