Better Is He Who Controls His Temper Than He Who Takes a City
AN: After debating for quite a while about who should be Dracula's original queen in this story - you know the one who gets exiled in the first chapter - I finally settled on Lucy instead of Mina. I know that Mina is the more popular of the two and the only one who really played a part in Hellsing (even if said part was as a skeleton subjected to experiments by some insane 'Doctor'), but after thinking about it talking it over with one of my friends (Lila) I decide Lucy just fits this story better. She's closer to the Queen Vashti (at least what little we know of her) in the original Biblical tale. So yeah, sorry if you were hoping to see Mina (and I apologize to any of my readers who I told would see Mina this chapter - like Alastor Vega), but Lucy just fits the story better.
Nineteen years had come and gone since the day when Integra Hellsing had taken the baby Seras Victoria into her home, and the girl had grown in both body and mind, yet somehow she retained an almost childlike innocence that her adoptive mother found both endearing and unusual, given the turbulent times they'd lived through. It was the one hundredth and tenth year of Vlad Dracula's reign over all of the British Commonwealth, and the easterner lands of the Czar had just yielded to his control, following a long and bloody war that had lasted the better part of thirty years. The nation was at peace once more, though few in the kingdom thought it would last. Their king's appetites were both legendary and voracious, and the people knew that eventual his eye would turn to a new land to conquer. But for the moment there was peace, and upon the anniversary of Vlad's ascension to the British throne, he threw a lavish, weeklong party for his generals, heads of state, and all the foreign dignitaries in his realm.
While outside the palace, the common citizens enjoyed a year free of taxes, a reprieve only made possible by the large tribute paid by the current Czar, inside the palace over a nearly half of this tribute was whittled away on a week of sinful indigence and riotous living. The main hall of the palace was draped in silk and velvet and encrusted with gold and bronze. Artisans had been hired to crave the likeness of the king and each of his generals into pillars of marble, and these too ordained the center room, while marble slabs embedded with emeralds and pearls had replaced the plainer looking carved stones of the palace walkways. Expensive wine and fresh blood flowed from golden pitchers into goblets of the same. It was excessive. It was wasteful, but it was also an important tactic in Vlad's plan.
The war had not been popular with other nations, many of whom feared they might be next, nor indeed among some of Vlad's own citizenry, whose taxes had nearly doubled over the last three decades to pay for the war abroad. And now that the war was won, his people would have a rest from their taxes, and the representatives of the other nations would drink themselves stupid at the most excessive party any of them had ever been too. All would share in the spoils of war, and as a result they would be the more willing to support the king's future ambitions.
On the sixth day of the festival, when the king and his guests were swelled with all manner of strong drink and the palace dancers - glorified harem girls - were gyrating upon the stage, Vlad turned to the ambassador to his right. "They are quite beautiful aren't they?" he asked with the confident, slightly lopsided grin of an intoxicated man showing off a prized possession.
The ambassador from America - a nation that had been a strong ally of Vlad's kingdom since more than fifty years earlier, when together the two had put down an axis of powerful nations who sought to conquer the who world and divide it up amongst themselves - smiled slyly back. "They are, indeed, quite lovely. But their beauty still pales in comparison to that of our women."
"Blah, you prancing, sparkly vampires, always bragging about your beauty," the king replied and then hiccupped from his drink. "I think it's time I put you in your place," he continued jovially. "For you see there is not a woman alive... or dead... or anything else who can match my queen's splendor." He then motioned for one of the palace servers. "You, yes you, in the ridiculous hat, tell..." the king hiccupped again then stopped and stared at his goblet. "Hey, I can see the bottom of this," he commented somewhat absently.
"More blood wine?" the servant in the red and yellow, pointy tipped hat asked.
"What? More wine? Yes, YES, more wine, more blood. More everything. It's a party, is it not? And when I throw a party, I really throw a party!"
"Yes, my king," the server replied as he came over to fill his ruler's goblet.
"Oh, and fetch my queen. It's about time I show this upstart" - the king slapped said, 'young upstart' with an open palm upon the latter's back - "that my kingdom is superior in every regard." The king then laughed and poked the server in his side before continuing, "Including the beauty of its women."
"As you wish, Sir," the servant replied as he left to fetch his liege lord's No-Life Queen.
"Now... now you will see," the king continued to the ambassador. "My Lucy will put all your women to shame."
The sever returned about fifteen minutes later, pale grimace upon his face. "Well?" the king asked upon seeing the servant's return. "Where is she?"
The servant gulped. "I-I... that is to say... the queen is in the middle of hosting her own party for your guest's wives, as you know and... and..." The servant gulped again but then, seeing the expression on his master's face, figured he'd better finish his report before the monster's short patience was completely exhausted. "She's not coming," he finally blurted out.
"WHAT?"
"She... she says that she's too busy right now."
"I call for my queen, and she's too busy to answer?" Vlad growled.
"I'm sorry, my king, but... but she says you can come to her if-" the servant's words were cut off as Vlad's head morphed into that of some unholy creature and let out an ear splitting roar.
The king was upon his servant in a flash. "My queen refuses to come to me, but expects me to go to her?" the beastial, non-human growled as his hand tightened around the server's neck.
"P-please, Sir, it is not my fault. I-I'm only relaying her message. I-"
"You," the monster growled his eyes flashing red, and the servant saw his life pass before his eyes. But then the creature paused. He took an un-needed but apparently calming breath and continued, "You are quite right." The monster released his near victim. "It's not your fault. Go, get out of here. You have the rest of the night off. In fact, all of you clear out! Guests go back to your rooms, servers do... whatever it is that you do with your free time. The party's over for the night; it'll recommence in the morning. Now leave."
The room emptied quickly, for as much as the guests had enjoyed the festivities, they knew Vlad's reputation and none wanted to risk his anger. Only a few generals, heads of state, and one ambassador remained; for these were trusted advisors of the king's and they believed that that relationship excused them from Vlad's cry for solitude. The No-Life king shook his head as he slowly made his way back over to the cushioned bench he'd been sitting on a few moments before. "My queen has dishonored me, what should I do?" he mused aloud, asking no one in particular.
Yet it was the American ambassador who posed the first answers. "Great king, live forever, if I may speak?"
"You may," Vlad replied, looking over at his longtime advisor.
"Your Queen has not only dishonored you, but everyone of your guests as well. She has refused your direct order and behaved in a manner most unfitting for a vampiric bride. Dear king, you know that the whole vampiric world looks to you and your kingdom to set the example, and this is as it should be for yours was the first openly ruled by a vampire. But if the disgrace your queen has heaped upon you and your guests is not met with swift retribution it will set a dangerous precedent. Brides everywhere will look upon their husbands with scorn and refuse to abide by their decisions. Dear king, it falls to you to set an example. Let your queen be stripped of her status and write a law that decrees that since she refused to come to you when you called she may never again enter your presence. Exile her from your life, my lord, and then all brides - rich and poor - will learn to honor their husbands."
Vlad looked around the room and when he saw his other advisors nodding in approval of the American ambassador's plan he decided to follow it. "So let it be. As you are all my witnesses, Lucy is my queen no more. Let her be banished from my site and from my life, let all her royal possessions be stripped of her. Only let her remain the women's section of the palace, for though banished from my life, she is still one of the Brides of Dracula, and I will see no foreigner gain power over her. So let it be written; so let it be done."
Now it came to pass that sometime after Lucy's banishment, when the king's temper had cooled, that he began to miss his queen. Yet, his previous decree was permanent; for the word of the king was law in his land, and even the king himself was bound by that law. He could not so much as look upon the bride who'd once been his queen ever again. And so, the king began to despair the loss of his queen. However, his trusted advisors had a solution in mind for this problem. They suggested that agents be sent throughout the kingdom to invite the most beautiful virgins, who'd come of age, to become the next generation of Dracula's brides and that the member of this new breed who found the most favor in the No-Life King's eyes should become his new No-Life Queen. The suggestion pleased the king, and so he dispatched 'recruiters' throughout his lands.
Seras was a town guard at the time, serving in the unofficial 'human sector' of Dracula's capitol. It was the poorest area of the magnificent and ancient city of London, for much of its residents were simple servants in the houses of the great lords of the land and the foreign dignitaries appointed to Vlad's kingdom. Yet, even here the streets were clean and most of the apartment buildings were fairly well kept up. The pay wasn't great, since the citizens of this area didn't earn much money and thus tax revenue was pretty low, but it was sufficient to meet the young woman's needs, especially since she still lived with her adoptive mother and the latter shouldered most of the rent.
All was not well in this small community however as a number of citizens had disappeared over the last month, and Seras as well as most of those in her precinct suspected that they had a rogue vampire on their hands. Feeding on humans wasn't forbidden in the kingdom of course. Vampires needed blood to survive, and few in Vlad's kingdom were given to the -predominantly American vampiric - perversion of drinking animal blood. Even still there were laws that governed the consumption of human blood.
The blood could be from 'donors' (which given London's skewed vampire to human population meant importing most of the blood supply from the neighboring country side). This blood was extracted by way of needle, and only one or two pints was taken per donation. In this way the donors were able to continue living their regular lives and giving blood on future occasions, once their bodies had had a chance to replenish. This provided the vampires with a steady supply of blood and insured the stability of the kingdom.
Donor blood was not the only legal way of obtaining human blood of course. When a marriage took place between a vampire and a virgin human, the vampire would often drink of the virgin's blood in order to turn her or him. Those vampires who served in the military were also permitted their fill of enemy blood upon the battlefield. And any human condemned to die could have be sentenced to 'execution by draining'. Such sentences were the King's prerogative, and these condemned men and women were either drained by him personally or by another vampire to which he wished to show favor. Occasionally other vampires were even sentenced to execution by draining, but such was rare and reserved for only the most heinous of crimes.
But any other form of draining was strictly forbidden, and those few rogue vampires who choose to disregard this band were in danger of receiving the execution by draining sentence themselves. Unfortunately, though the King would often sentence 'rogues' to such a fate, he still charged the individual town garrisons with apprehending said rogues, a dangerous mission... especially for a normal human like Seras. But such was her duty, and if there was one thing the twenty-year-old, buxom, strawberry-blonde had learned from her adoptive mother, it was powerful sense of duty.
So Seras and her partner, Jack, trolled the back alleyways of the human sector, keeping a watchful eye out for any suspicious activity or unfamiliar vampires. And around a dark corner, as the sun was just dropping below the horizon, the lightly armored town guards came upon both.
Two males, vampires judging by their fangs, had stopped a young woman on her way home from work. The girl was pretty and looked to be about Seras's age, perhaps a year younger. And while one of the males - a pale blond with long, flowing hair - talked to the women, the other - a heavily pierced and darker skinned one - was maneuvering around her, his eyes roaming over the curves in her body with barely restrained lust.
"I think we've found a keeper, Brother," Seras heard the paler of the two males comment.
"Fuck yeah! Just look at those cans! And that ass! Man, I'd ride her all night long, can't believe she's still a virgin," the heavily pierced vampire brother replied.
Jack keyed his radio and whispered into it. "Possible 10:14 in progress on Fleet Street. Request immediate backup, all available units."
But while Jack was calling for backup, Seras was unslinging her assault rifle and moving towards the opening of the alleyway. Jack grabbed his junior partner's arm to stop her. "What do you think you're doing?" he whispered through gritted teeth. "There's two of them; wait for the backup."
"By the time backup arrives that girl could be dead. We have to save her."
"They haven't done anything illegal... yet . Even if we could take them out, we can't just charge in guns blazing."
"And if we wait until they pounce on her, she'll be history before we can do anything. We have to do something... now."
Jack sighed. His idealistic partner was going to be the death of him; he just knew it. "Fine, keep your gun on them, but don't fire unless they move towards you, me, or the girl. We do not want to be accused of a racial execution."
Seras nodded and the two popped out from around the corner. "Alright, freeze, you two! Hands on your heads... slowly."
The heavily pierced vampire laughed. "Well, well, look what we've got here. Another fine piece of ass... and this one's dressed up as a cop, kinky!" He licked his lips but otherwise remained motionless. "You got some handcuffs there, 'Police Girl'? Want to play a game with us?"
Seras's grip on her trigger tightened, but she held her aim steady. She focused on the closest vampire's chest and watched carefully for any blur that might signify movement. Her gun was loaded with armor piercing rounds, rounds that could punch a hole through steel, and she knew how to aim and shoot. But there was still the question of reflexes. Could she pull the trigger before the vampire's great speed allowed him to move out of the way? She wasn't sure.
"Jan, shut up before you end up putting us in a position where we have to kill two town guards," the blond brother commented as he slapped the back of the other's head. "I apologize for my brother; he can be rather crude at times."
"Hands on your heads and on the ground, both of you!" Jack replied.
"Well, which is it? Do you want my fucking hands on my fucking head or on the fucking ground?"
"Jan, I thought I told you to shut up! Look, officers, you're making a huge mistake. We're recruiters for the King."
"What? Then why were you harassing that women?" Seras asked.
"We weren't harassing her; we were extending an invitation to become one of Dracula's Brides."
"Yeah, you two fuckers are interfering with royal fucking affairs... by which I mean the fucking affaires of our royalty!"
"Easy there, Brother. Officers, I'm going to reach very slowly into my vest pocket and take out my ID. Then you'll see that me and my brother really are agents of the Crown."
"Very slowly," Jack agreed.
The brother pulled out his ID and lightly tossed it over to the town guardsman. "Luke Valentine, Royal Recruiter. It's legit. He is who he says he is."
"Still doesn't give them the right to sexually harass their... 'applicants'," Seras responded as her partner threw Luke's ID back to him.
"Well, ain't you just a fucking feisty one," Jan replied and then chuckled. "Hey, maybe we should give her an invitation too; I'm sure the King could have a lot of fucking fun with her."
The comment was actually meant as a joke, but Luke seemed to take it seriously. "You know, that's not a bad idea. She's certainly pretty enough. You a still virgin, Police Girl?"
"I-" Seras began then stopped to stare in disbelief. "I don't see how that's any of your business," she answered coldly.
Jan moved towards the town guards and sniffed the air a couple times. "Yeah, she's still a fucking virgin, alright. I can smell it on her."
Seras responded by placing the barrel of her gun against the vampire's head. "Not interested."
"Don't be so sure, there are a lot of benefits to being one of Dracula's brides... even if you're not made Queen. Wouldn't you rather live in the palace than struggle to scrape by as a town guard on these streets?" Luke asked as he too approached Seras, laminated invitation card in hand.
"I do just fine, thanks," Seras replied sardonically.
"Just... think about it," Luke continued as he slipped the card into one of the pockets on Seras's vest, his hands lingering longer than seemed necessary for the action.
She glared daggers at the vampire touching her. "Get your hands off me."
Luke made a show of raising his hands into the air. "Okay, okay, no need to get snippish. We were just leaving." Luke and Jan passed by the two town guards and headed around the corner. "You both have your invitations, show them at the palace gate if you want in."
Seras exhaled sharply as the two brothers disappeared around the corner. "Bloody vampires: over fed; over sexed; and over here."
Her partner cracked a smile at her comment then breathed a sigh of relief himself. "Well, at least we didn't wind up dead."
Seras laughed a little. "Yes, there's always that," she replied just as all the town guards in their precinct began to poor into the alleyway in response to their earlier, all but forgotten, call for back up.
"All right, where's the rogue vampire?" their captain questioned, as Seras and Jack shared a sheepish look.
"Yeah, about that..."
Okay, and there we have our first official chapter. Ended up being a little longer than I'd planned on - I was aiming for 2,000 to 2,500 words. But the set up just took longer than expected. Hopefully you guys and gals don't mind the longer length, and still enjoyed the chapter.
Have a good day, and God bless.
Metropolis Kid.
To Larisa: Thanks for your reviews - both of them. :D I'm very pleased that you enjoyed the opening so much that you've been checking back each day looking for the next update. In fact, that last review you left, where you informed me of just how eagerly you've been awaiting the next chapter even inspired me to get this posted a day before I was planning. I just finished typing it up early today, and was going to wait until after classes tomorrow to do the proofreading and post. But after your last comment I decided to do the proofreading right away. So, well, thanks again for all the encouragement. :D I just hope the chapter lives up to your expectations. ;) Oh, and thanks also for informing me that that comment about Integra's run away blood hound made you think of Alucard. That wasn't actually intended, but I did get a smile after picturing his Hellhound form running away from little Integra. :) Also, nice catch on the "Murder, She Wrote" reference. Good show; good show.
To Shadow Blackheart: Thanks for the review. :) I'm glad you enjoyed the opening and thought that I did a good job of keeping the character's IC throughout the short prologue. Hopefully you'll have as much fun with this chapter. ;)