A/N: I don't own hellsing. Making absolutely zero currency of any kind with this. I usually just leave it at that, but I have to say that I started this story a long time ago, and have since then, not majorly rewritten, but rather added a few details and changed a few small things that I think make this more believable within the Hellsing universe. As I was re-reading after a long hiatus, I noticed a few inconsistencies and a few just glaring mistakes regarding Hellsing lore that I needed to fix. Nothing major has changed, but it would probably be a good idea to re-read, because a many small things have changed to make this a more believable fic. If you notice anything I missed, please let me know. I promise I will not be offended. I am a glutton for constructive criticism.
Title: Lily
Chapter: 1-An Unusual Mission
Fandom: Hellsing
Pairing: Alucard/Seras, way on down the line.
Rating: I'd put it at an M rating now just for violence and language.
The old pain he had given her was there. She could feel all of it again, the numb ache of new bruises on top of older ones that hadn't faded yet, the broken ribs, her twisted ankle, the deep cuts and scrapes all over her skin. She began to panic as the fetid odor overpowered her again. "How long have I even been here? I've lost track since..." That roll in her stomach was back, the same one she felt when her naked body pressed into the filthy floor where she had fallen and simply had not the strength to move. She felt and heard him moving towards her in the cramped and darkened room more than she saw him, because she just didn't have the anger to open her eyes and focus them on him anymore. He stopped in front of her, and she heard him raise his foot from the ground, and prepared for the blow. It didn't come, and then he said, "Will you consent?" She felt a hot surge of panic and had to fight down the extremely unwise urge to burst into hysterical laughter. This time, she knew she would give in..."I can't take this anymore." And then she felt the sharp pain in her stomach.
Lily woke up breathing hard, body and sheets drenched in a cold sweat. "God, I'm getting fucking tired of that dream..." she thought as she stumbled to the bathroom and splashed her face with cold water. Her bathroom was all white porcelain and dingy pale tile, and when she finally opened her eyes enough to see she was almost blinded by the stark light. Looking into the red eyes that stared at her from the mirror above the sink, she saw her reflection purr at her, "This is going to be a good night."
Alucard was draped across his chair more than sitting in it, left leg thrown over the arm. He was sipping the blood that Walter had deposited on his table before he woke up when he felt that tug that meant Integra was calling him. Sighing, he gulped down the rest of his supper and slowly phased into her office, knowing that the longer it took to answer her summons the more annoyed she would be. It followed that it would then be much easier to get her to kick him out of said office, thus greatly reducing his amount of time spent taking orders. "Hey," he thought, "the system's tried and true. Why mess with a good thing?"
When he finally showed up smirking in her shadowed office, she was lighting one of her cigars with a slightly irritated look on her face. Walter was standing to the right side of her desk serving tea, finishing as Integra remarked "Nice of you to join us, Alucard." Smirk steadily expanding, he made a short mocking bow and replied "The pleasure is all mine, Master."
Integra had had an extremely trying day so far, and was already developing that, "There's a nail pounding into my right temple, and its name is Alucard" headache she was so familiar with. Pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand, she handed the mostly annoying vampire a manila folder. As he flipped it open disinterestedly, she explained, "I have an unusual mission for you tonight. You will be traveling alone to New York City, where we have received reports from our American allies that someone, or something, is making a significant dent in the FREAK population, in some rather gruesome ways. Of course, the bodies are ashes, but whoever it is may as well be decorating the walls with their entrails from what we can tell from the aftermath. Nonetheless, they have had no luck subduing the creature. You are to go and either bring the target here, or if he/she/it is deemed a threat to the human population, you are to silence it. I trust you will have no problems getting to the city?"
As Alucard looked through the file and listened to his master, his smirk slowly bled into that I'm-going-to-get-to-shoot-things grin and only got wider. "Of course not, Master." Integra's right eye twitched slightly as she shouted, "Well then get out of my office and get on with it!" The last thing Integra or Walter heard as the vampire slipped through one of his dark portals was "This is going to be a marvelous night." Integra sighed and sipped her tea as she looked at the mountain of paperwork on her desk as if she would like nothing better than to set the whole lot on fire. Walter coughed and excused himself, not finding it polite to mention how much his employer resembled a certain vampire servant when she had that look on her face.
Lily stepped out of the steamy bathroom after her shower and into the large sparsely decorated room she lived in, thinking about what to wear. More specifically, she was thinking about where her next meal would come from, as how she dressed was directly influenced by who she wanted to attract. Deciding that she was in the mood to kill another one of those gluttonous pigs who had been terrorizing the city lately, she abruptly made a decision on her outfit, and called the articles of clothing to her hands with a thought. As she got dressed, she looked around at the room that could barely be called a home. There was an old green refrigerator that she kept nothing in but a steady supply of rum, a simple double bed with plain gray sheets and blankets, a beat up old red chair that at one time may have passed for a recliner, and a secondhand record player. The only thing in the apartment that she had apparently indulged in at all was the by now hefty album collection on her single bookcase.
Locking her loft behind her, the young vampire phased to the alley behind her building. She had been surprised when she found out about that particular ability. When she was still only a few days into her unlife, she had been wandering the streets aimlessly and hiding in alley doorways during the day, incredibly timid and fearful and alone. A male vampire had cornered her after backing her into one of these alleys, and had trapped her arms against the wall of the building he'd slammed her into. He had been whispering into her ear lasciviously about all the cruel things he planned to do to his sweet new pet when panic had overwhelmed her and she felt herself tumbling forward.
Crying out, she realized that she was now behind the extremely shocked vampire and had reacted on instinct as he was whirling to face her again. As he made a grab for her again, she had used her right hand to grasp his left forearm and her left to clamp onto his wrist with all the desperation she could muster. Using her shorter stature to her advantage, Lily had quickly kicked him in the gut and at the same time twisted and pulled as hard as she could, effectively ripping off his whole left arm and a good portion of his shoulder. As her would-be rapist collapsed on his knees, she had barely hesitated in dropping his severed arm and latching onto the right side of his neck. Once she had been a bit sickened by the violence of her first real kill, but now that she had grown up a bit, it brought a smile to her face. Lily's instincts had saved her that time and on many occasions since, and that useless pig hadn't had very much time to regret his choice of victims that night.
Still lost in her thoughts, she absentmindedly blended into the shadows of the night time city, making her way to one of her favorite haunts, a club frequented by what she had learned were artificial vampires made with chips. The vampire who had attacked her in the alley had been a FREAK. She didn't really know how the whole recipe worked out, but she had picked up that most of them were no better than rabid animals, and she enjoyed taking them out of this world. It was much better than feeding on innocent humans, and she felt like she was giving something back to the universe in exchange for the power it had given her, restoring a bit of the balance.
About a block away, her demeanor changed drastically, emerging from the shadows and taking on the appearance of a human girl, red eyes fading to green. As she stepped into the club and undid the buttons of her coat, she could feel the eyes of a good number of the males in the room raking over her young form. Smiling, she made her way to the bar. "Hey Ryan, how you doing, doll?" The effeminate brunette man smiled her way and said, "Lily! You know me, sweetie, happy as a bug in a bed. You want your usual?" At her nod, he made her rum and coke and leaned in close, saying in a completely different and much colder tone of voice, "Lots of new trash here tonight. You wanna help me take out the garbage later on?" Lily thought about it a moment before shaking her head, replying, "I'm in a foul mood. It'll be harder to find the kind of prey I'm looking for if I'm not alone." Being preoccupied with some of her unpleasant memories for the better part of the night already had done nothing to sweeten her disposition. Ryan gave her a knowing look and said, "All right, doll. But be careful." He blew her a kiss and walked to the newcomers at the end of the bar.
Ryan was Lily's only friend. Needless to say, she had some lingering trust issues. He also happened to be the only other true vampire she knew, and the kind soul who had found her on the street and taken her under his wing. He was the one who had explained about the FREAK chips, and over the last year, he had answered many questions about her new state. Unlike her, he wasn't turned against his will and abandoned by his maker, and his mistress had trained him well. He was sort of a surrogate older brother to Lily, and was the only person she trusted at all. They often hunted together, and he had shown her many "tricks of the trade." He taught her perhaps the most important lesson she had learned, which was that one always repaid ones debts, whether violence or kindness was due. Ryan was also the only one who knew the circumstances of her change, besides herself and her sire. He knew what she wanted more than anything.
With that thought, her mood darkened even more and she turned herself to the business at hand. Quickly finishing her drink, she made her way to the dance floor. As she had been expecting, she was quickly approached by a lecherous looking freak, and smiled invitingly at her quarry. He hadn't realized it yet, but she was subtly shifting through his thoughts, prying softly so as not to arouse his attention, she felt his arms wrap around her from behind. As they danced to the loud music, the deep bass seeming to pump through her veins, she heard him whisper into her ear, "How about a drink, baby?" Realizing that she had possibly aroused his suspicions, she pretended as if she couldn't hear and shouted over the music, "What?" She sensed his guard relax. If she had responded, he would have known she wasn't human; there was no way she could have heard him if she was. He smiled and she allowed him to lead her to the bar.
Alucard was strolling aimlessly through the area where he sensed the greatest number of freaks, when he felt a new aura. Two true nosferatu surrounded by freaks, and this aroused his suspicions. Based on the file he had been given, he had decided that the one taking out the imitation vampires in New York was most likely a true blood. The style was too animalistic for a Vatican dog, and he seriously doubted a purely human individual could inflict that much damage even on a lowly FREAK. His senses led him to an underground club called "The Hovel." As he walked down the grimy steps and into a short but liberally graffitied hall, he only became more sure that the object of his search was within. An extremely young vampire and one who was slightly older were inside, of this he was sure. The young one was a veritable mine of impending violence while the elder looked on in wary amusement.
Alucard decided to keep to the shadows and observe the situation, effortlessly blending into the darkness of the club. He sorted through the different auras of the vampires and humans in the club, and decided that the two true bloods were a young woman and a bartender. The bartender was a bit older than his companion, who was a very young child in Alucard's opinion. The barkeep was incredibly nondescript but graceful. The kind of vampire who could slip in anywhere unnoticed and slip back out as easily.
The woman had thick unruly black hair that fell to just below her shoulder blades, and dark eyes. And she was wearing an outfit that might as well have been screaming "I'm hunting" to the practiced eye. Sleeveless white oxford shirt, cinched in at the waist by a black satin corset that only accentuated her already curvy figure. Her short black pleated satin miniskirt was worn over black tights, with flat cotton mary janes on her feet. She wore small hoops on her ears, and a thin black leather collar was buckled around her neck. The woman was an eye-catching mixture of little-girl innocence and just-under-the-surface sensuality. She reminded Alucard vaguely of his Police Girl. And to him, it was obvious what she was hunting. That outfit was practically designed to attract a less-than-honorable bloodsucker. He noted with amusement that it had only taken both of the vampires about a minute to notice, even if they had not yet located, his presence.
Abruptly, Lily became aware of a new aura, even though she couldn't pin-point its location. She shot a quick look at Ryan and noticed he also took on a carefully nonchalant look and scanned the bar furtively. Lily looked at her "date" and mentally pushed him to ask her to leave with him. Suddenly, the young freak took her hand and said, "Hey honey, why don't we take this somewhere more private?" Lily affected a nervous look and stole a glace at her watch before replying "Um, how about we go get a cup of coffee? I know a good shop near here." She still had several hours before sunrise. He agreed and as she gently probed his thoughts again, she knew that if he had his way, they would not make it to the coffee shop. But that was fine with her as she had never planned on taking him there anyway. She really did like that shop, and didn't want to contaminate it. So she stood and he followed her, walking out of the club in the direction of an abandoned building she knew would be vacant at this time of night, except for a few homeless people.
Lily was being watched, she was sure of it. As she led the freak towards the decrepit hotel she was going to use tonight she could almost feel the gaze on her back. Subtly, she manipulated the young freak into making his move right outside the building she had chosen. This one really was a few McNuggets short of a Happy Meal. Lily felt her arm grabbed roughly and twisted behind her back as he dragged her through a side entrance. His hand over her mouth smelled like old blood and dirty sex, and she had to resist biting him just to get his disgusting fingers farther away from her nose. He threw her on the filthy bed of the first room they came to, and flung himself on top of her, pinning her arms above her head. "I'm going to have some fun and then drain you dry, girly. Just bad luck, I guess." Lily smiled dangerously at him, and enjoyed his confused look for a short second before she struck.
Alucard followed the young girl to a decrepit hotel, and watched as she skillfully manipulated the young freak into doing what she wanted. He had to admit, this girl knew what she was doing. She was playing with that trash like a cat would play with a mouse, and he was taking the bait hook, line, and sinker. Taking on his shadow form, he watched as she allowed herself to be assaulted, and as the freak threw her on the bed, caught the small smile that he took as a sign that the game had come to an end.
He then watched in amusement as she appeared behind her prey, surprising both her victim and her hunter. He had not expected one so young to be so in control of her own power. Grabbing his throat from behind, she slammed his face into the wall hard enough to splinter the old wood into his skin, and roughly dropped him before grabbing him again, this time pulling his arms straight towards her with her foot planted in the middle of his back. Alucard heard the sound of cracking bones as the freak screamed obscenities and dropped to the floor, his two now useless arms hanging by his side. Alucard received another shock as the girl said without looking at him, "I don't know who you are, but I hope you're enjoying the show, Mr. Shadow." The freak looked confused, and she returned her full attention to her quarry.
Lily wasn't having very much fun with this one. He was so naïve he barely fought back, shocked that she had tricked him. Laughing mirthlessly, she said coldly, "What, lover boy? Surprised? But you weren't planning anything very nice for me either, were you? Didn't you think I'd notice? You were going to rape me and drain me, and not even because you were thirsty. You were just bored. So I thought I'd have some fun and show you what it's like to be the prey." And with that, she stomped on his right thigh, breaking it just above the knee. Feeling a stronger presence behind her, she turned her head to see a very tall, very pale man in a ridiculous hat and a red coat leaning against the wall and watching her.
"Ah, mystery boy decides to show his face. What a nice hat." Catching his smirk at her sardonic words before looking back at the cowering freak before her, she said, "You got lucky, lover. I have something much more interesting to do now than waste time torturing you, so this is gonna go a little quicker than I'd planned. You should be grateful." And with that, she lovingly cradled his face in her hands before roughly wrapping a small hand in his hair, jerking his head to the side to expose his neck and sinking her fangs in as far as she could. Greedily sucking the life from him, she concentrated fully on making this feeding the most painful thing this shit for brains asshole had ever felt. Dropping his lifeless form to the ground, she punched him hard in the nose, obliterating his face and most of his head before he could go ghoul, just to be sure. This one would not rise again.
Lily stood up and leisurely brushed the stray dust from her skirt and hands. She cast an appraising eye at the stranger who was still watching her with that arrogant smirk on his face. She could almost taste his darkness, and knew that he was much, much older and far more powerful than her. "Well, Red, I assume you followed me for a reason? Or do you object to the way I treated this one?"