Scene 9

Even though Alucard knew that only a short few hours had passed, somehow it felt like eternity had come and waved him goodbye. Though he knew he slept, the dhampire observed much of what occured around him: the wind that caressed his cheek, the cool earth that bound him even the smell of rain-dewed leaves that fell upon his fedora.

Yet, even though his paranomal senses noted nearly everything around him, it failed to catch a key thing.

That thing was the knife.

A low groan issued from Alucard's lips as his eyes opened then flickered over to the blade of steel mere inches from his nose.

"Don't get any ideas."

Those eyes trailed the length of the blade until it climbed up the green-gloved hand to a slender shoulder and finally to set of glistening eyes and reddened cheeks.

Maria. He thought she never looked more beautiful in a backdrop of lush trees and streaming rain. But the anger that strained that face kept his tongue silent.

Alucard never willed so much for an escape than he did now. And he was buried beneath mounds of earth with a blade to his face.

"I'm just trying to keep dry." The blade retracted a few inches. "If there was any other places I'd be there. When the rain let's up I'll be away from here and...you." There was a clink, and the knife returned to its sheath.

The huntress's smile was bitter. "So don't worry your pretty little head."

Somehow the dhampire felt compelled to speak. "I think I know what your problem is." His own voice strained, dreading where this would lead.

"I'd imagine so."

The sigh that Alucard gave was barely discernible amid the rain which intensified. The two were sheltered from it by the thick foilage overhead. Alucard surmised that it was the huntress that had been his salvation, finding him after he'd swooned, and had buried him. Certainly Demon couldn't manage that, he knew. Speaking of which...where had his talkative, troublesome familiar flown off to?

"You're a messed up one, you know that?" The dhampire's eyes swiftly appraised Maria. Her gaze was as sewn on her outfit as the large bow on her belt. "You seemed on the verge of making peace with who you are...making a life with me..."

Another sigh from Alucard. They'd been through this before.

"And then they came. And we couldn't stop them."

Flames danced on the torches, like the anger burning on the faces of the mob. Alucard and Maria stood in front of their mansion pleading with them for understanding, like they'd been for the past few weeks. But a child had been found dead and while no wounds had been found on his neck, the mob needed someone to blame.

That someone was Alucard.

"...They wouldn't leave you alone. Weeks of them following you, attacking you, ransacking the place..." Her voice pulled Alucard into the present. "I know you tried, Alucard." A raindrop settled on Maria's neck and she swept it away absently. "But you gave up and went to back to sleep. And you hurt us all."

Then there was silence. Maybe she waited for an answer, but didn't get one. He knew naught what to say.

"Then I heard that you had risen, going after a vampire. And I had hoped. But I guess that's the wishful thinking of a love-sick girl, isn't it?" Though Maria tried to sound indiginant the dhampire could hear the hurt bleeding into the tone.

"Why, Maria?" He tilted his head to get a good view of her. "Why do you do this? You know I can't have a life...not with you."

"Isn't that the easy way out?" Alucard squirmed, but there's only so much one can do when surrounded by packed dirt. "You took to the hills when things got tough. You couldn't face all the suffering so you did your thing and then ran away!"

His eyes closed.

He stood at her door, a sad assortment of flowers in his hands. They'd had a fight over the presecution they'd suffering from the crowd after the mysterious death of the child. She'd thrown him out and he'd gone searching for some flowers to make amends, though all he could manage in the end was ripping a few from the garden.

Seeing his lost expression, Maria could not turn him away. And then they talked, a long good talk. And talk lead to more intimate actions, inspired by deepeness in which they'd shared their souls. It was an amazing night, their only night, one neither of them could forget.

"It was nothing to you! A few moments of passion and a few days later after one more cracked window you took off in the middle of the night." He could not deny it. "And that...that was my only time..."

Alucard's golden eyebrows climbed his forehead, an uncommon expression of surprise. "Maria, I am so sorry."

"All I ever wanted was for you to bring me flowers again. To hold my hand. To do something, anything to show that human side of you." She snorted. "Don't know why that matters. I just love flowers. Must be the rain, makes me sentimental..."

His cultured voice cut into her ramble. "I'll do it. I'll bring you flowers again. Someday."

"Oh, stop it. I don't need that, I'm just--"

"I'll do it."

Maria fell silent, appraising his curiously. Letting out a sigh, she crawled over to him. His eyebrows climbed higher. Then the huntress lay her head on the mound of dirt that encased his chest. His lips opened to speak but it was her turn to cut in. "Please, just let me lay here. Just 'til the rain lets up."

Alucard didn't respond and she seemed to take this as acqusience for the huntress continued to rest on him.

"You know I can't have a life...not with you."

But...why not?