Thank you for your comments & recommendations, I appreciate them.
gasacan90: Helena & rifle: I'm not an artist, and I don't know anything about photoshopping. About other suggestions: I have most of the story planned (Synopsis is 21 pages long), but moving her library to another place might actually fit the story, but probably not the way you think. I'm considering it.
darkcloudt2: I'm not planning to use any more crossovers in this story. It's hard enough to mix these two worlds together.
Firehedgehog: Thank you.
This is somewhat action packed, but this is my adaptation from Raymond Chandlers advice: "When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand." Instead of a man come through a door I put a man with a gun go through a window.
My version of how Helena become a vampire is at the end of this chapter. I don't really like the way it came out, but it's best I can do now, and I need that later. Even though young Helena calls him 'The Devil' it doesn't mean he is The Devil. Oh, and I'm not fan of Alucard being The First of his kind. He may be The Most Powerful Vampire, but the first... nope, I don't think so.
Chapter Four
The old Hotel in front of him wasn't big, but it still was grandiose. Fifty years earlier it had been one of those Hotels where Agatha Christie characters lived. From where he stood, the Hotel's entrance was majestic, overwhelming humans puny scale. He had always hated those too majestic Hotels, he didn't understand what was the point of building those breathtaking entrances and lobbies. Why did they try to make their guests feel that they're tiny and insignificant?
Of course, the customers of those Hotels were accustomed to that kind of luxury. He knew that Helena could afford those places,, but when he traveled, he used regular Hotels, they didn't make him feel like he was too big of a loser to stay in them. When he climbed on the roof of the building behind the Hotel, he saw eight guards, two on each of the corners of the Hotel. He sighed, these weren't ordinary guards; they were vampires, manufactured but still vampires.
He opened the blueprint, and examined it, strangely enough the control room wasn't underground, it was at the first floor, south-east corner of the building. That would be the point of HIS entrance. The job and escape route seemed simple enough, only few vampires on the first floor and few on the basement. He didn't have to care about the other floors. If he'd keep moving in his full speed, he should be out from the building under two minutes. "I'll take the guards on the front, you take the ones on here," He said to Blackbeard, as he had named the man who had trained armed combat to him. "When I go, I'll leave my rifle hidden on the roof across the hotel, you go and get it and bring it to dungeon,"
Blackbeard slowly nodded and then he grunted few words.
Alexander sighed. "In English, please. I still haven't had time to learn Russian,"
"Go check. Tunnel maps right,"
"Right, you don't trust engineers, and their blueprints, do you?" Blackbeard just grunted. "Okay, I'll go and check if the hatch is there,"
He jumped down from the building, went on the Underground and waited three trains. When he was sure about the timetable of trains, he pulled out the lock of a metal door and went inside, it was an old warehouse. He pulled the shelves off from the wall and found the hatch he was looking for.
Behind it was a tunnel. He nodded approvingly, you could say many things about London's architecture, but one thing was sure: underneath the streets it was full of interconnected tunnels. He was sure that some of the tunnels were about as old as Helena. He put the shelves back on their places and left from the room. It took him half an hour to find the tunnel on the other side of the hatch, but only few minutes to find the building where vampires were. He felt three of them guarding the basement.
He ran up to the roof of the building across the Hotel. He opened a box he'd hidden up there, and took out his new toy; high end sniper rifle. It took just a moment for him to assemble it on the edge of the roof. He glanced down, it wouldn't be hard to take those guys down, the rifle had five round magazine, so taking down four vampires from this distance was easy. He reached out with his Spider sense, trying to find out how many vampires there were inside.
He was amazed when he couldn't sense more than three on the first floor, plus four in the basement, but he could feel that the vampires in the basement were strong. He sighed, he'd really have to find bigger back up team than one grunting mercenary. He closed the nagging Helena out from his mind, well, not really, he couldn't do that, but he had learned to ignore her the same way than he had learned to ignore teachers in the High School.
He loaded the sniper rifle, glanced his clock. In about one minute train would come, after it he'd have about three and half minutes before next one comes.
"Whatever happens. Keep on the move. Don't stop,"
"Yeah, I know that, moving target is hard to hit," Alexander answered.
"Moving пиявка is hard to kill," Blackbeard grunted on the radio.
Alexander sighed, he was sure that Blackbeard had just insulted him, at times he worked for Helena because she paid well, but he'd rather kill both of them. The man hated vampires, but he was a mercenary, as long as Helena paid well he worked for them. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind,"
Alexander glanced his clock. Time for the train to come. He aimed, and at the moment all four rounds were on the air he jumped down on the street.
As he ran toward the Hotel, he glanced his clock. Three minutes twenty two seconds left, he pulled out his guns and jumped through the window, for an instant Alexander was incongruously aware of all the smells and noises in the Hotel, someone was screaming from pain at the basement. While still in mid-air he shot the vampire in the room twice, turned around and landed feet first on the wall opposite the window. He leaped from the wall through the door on the right, leaving explosive behind him. Inside the next room, when he was sliding on the floor he placed bullets on the heads of two vampires. They hadn't even turned to dust when he already was running toward the basement door, leaving explosives everywhere.
When he crashed through the basement door there was the smell of ozone and sulfur, and that indescribable smell that surrounded all of the artificial vampires, maybe it had something to do them being made by men and not 'natural' magic. The soldier at the bottom of the stairs reacted quickly and pulled the trigger of his Uzi and bullets rained on Alexander, tearing his flesh. For a fraction of second, he was worried, but instead of pain he felt familiar stings and he smirked; they were standard bullets. Alexander shot him on the head, and when he crashed on his body Alexander raised his brow. The soldier had been a human.
He got up, and ignoring the bullets hitting him, killed all soldiers on the hallway, and entered into the huge laboratory. It was filled with medical equipments and computers, but there was only one man and he laid on the examination table. The heavy, sickly scents filled his nostrils, the laboratory was filled with the heavy fragrance of a blood, sulfur and ozone. The man on the table screamed from pain. Alexander shot him on the head, glanced at his clock; two minutes twenty four seconds to go. He quickly examined the laboratory, there were no papers or dossiers for him to take with him. And the desktop computers were too big to fit into the sewer tunnel.
He threw two bombs under the examination table, and as he jumped through the side door in to the next room he was faced with two vampires shooting at him, they'd been waiting him to come. He killed the small male vampire, and as he spun around and placed a bullet into the head of a female vampire, he felt a bullet hit his neck, breaking his spine, and his body went numb. When the man appeared above him, he was cursing his own stupidity. It was the male vampire from the control room. He'd been back there somewhere, waiting for the right moment to attack.
Alexander felt the gun slip from his grasp as the vampire slammed his head against the hard wall. He knew that it would take under a minute for him to heal, but that was more than long enough for the vampire to behead him. But he was lucky, and once again he thanked God that most vampires were stupid enough to think that they were immortals, the attacker was even stupider than he'd been; instead of killing him immediately he played with him.
As the vampire threw him through the wall, Alexander was reaching for his third gun before his body fell on the floor, hands slippery with blood. Awkwardly he managed to turn on his back, just when the vampire leaped on him, at the moment Alexander pulled the trigger he knew that the first round went wide, but second and third rounds hit the vampire on the heart and head, and only his dust fell on him.
He groaned, and stumbled up, and when he heard a click behind him, instinctively he threw himself against the inside wall of the room. An instant later, the Uzi blazed right next to his ear. He shook his head, whoever it was he was inexperienced enough to shoot from the doorway, instead through the wall. He held his own automatic, still too badly injured to move fast enough to attack while the rounds ricocheted against the stone walls. The vampire stepped in from the door. He grabbed the Uzi with one hand and shoved his fist into the face of the figure struggling to turn his Uzi on him.
The vampire hit him on the abdomen, breaking his ribs. These guys were a lot stronger and faster than any vampire he'd met before. The weapon fired, the round glanced off the stone wall and ricocheted down in to attacker's shoulder. Vampire ignored that, and as their struggle continued, the vampire tried to bite him. Alexander brought his knee against the vampire's groin and shoved him against the wall. "Two can play that game," He said and sunk his fangs into the vampire's neck.
Instant flow of cold blood filled him with strength, power and memories of a Nazi vampire. Suddenly he smelled and tasted burning sulfur, and he was surrounded by blue flames. He jumped backwards and watched the burning vampire. "What the fuck," He said as he went back to the hall, grabbed his gun from the floor and loaded it. "Was that?"
And that was when he heard how the doors and windows were blown in, someone was making a grand entrance into the Hotel. He ran to the basement, lifted the sewer hatch and jumped down. When he landed on the tunnel, he was faced with a group of men wearing Hellsing uniform. The moment seemed frozen in time, he didn't want to kill these guys. He automatically dropped down and jumped away from them with a practiced move.
The Hellsing men were fast, their bullets slammed against the wall where, only half a second earlier, Alexander's body had been. But he had already gotten the tranquilizer darts out from his pocket and was throwing darts at them as he was running. Then a hard punch hit his jaw. The strawberry blonde girl – she actually smelled strawberries, hot chocolate and tomato-soup, he'd never forget that scent – had hit him with all her vampire strength, and he crashed through the wall, leaving a hole behind him. He rubbed his broken jaw and glanced around him. He was in the subway station, and Strawberry Girl was in front of him and the tunnel.
He dodged Strawberry Girl's blow, grabbed her face and rammed her head against the steel beam with enough force to bend the steel, and felt her body go fully limp. "I'm sorry," He said, threw two tranquilizer darts into the Hellsing men coming through the hole. He ran toward the coming underground train, checking his watch and smiled. Although going through the wall hadn't been part of the plan, his timing still was perfect. He leaned against the wall, and when the tube train came he hitched a ride on it's side. As he plunged his fingers through the steel he smirked, maybe he should buy himself a Spider-Man costume, that would be fun. Perhaps he should take pictures of himself crawling on the wall, and then give those photos to some tabloid. He could see the headlines: London's new superhero!
The train shook when the explosion came. He glanced his clock and frowned. It was eighteen seconds too early, either Hellsing, or Millennium – he had gotten the vampire's memories and knew now who was behind those damn freaks – had blown it up. He was convinced that, in this case, it was the latter.
At Liverpool Street, he went inside of the train, and as he sat down, people got away from him, and he couldn't blame them; he smelled shit. Literally. Crawling inside of a sewer wasn't going to be his favorite past time hobby. Suddenly he felt a damn powerful vampire above him. "Alucard," He whispered. And he was there on the next stop. "Goddammit," He swore when Alucard was there on third and fourth stops too. Alucard was following the train, which meant that somehow Hellsing had managed to put a tracker on him. He looked at the underground map on the wall and swore again. Just six stops before the end of the line.
He didn't have much time. He took his jacket off and found the tracker. On the next stop, he got out, and left his jacket on the train, and went in on the next train going back to the city.
"Ah, after nearly five centuries Elena finally made a child," A voice said beside him.
"Alucard..." Alexander said. "I didn't sense you,"
Alucard sat opposite of him. "I wonder... why are you so important that she turned you? She thinks that immortality is a curse,"
"Maybe it is," Alexander said.
"No one is immortal," Alucard said, his hand lashed out, aimed for the heart, Alexander barely had time to move enough that he missed his target.
"Ouch..." Alexander said and looked at Alucard's arm, sticking out from his chest. "Double ouch," He pointed his gun on Alucard's head and pulled the trigger, trying not to hit the people around them.
When half of his head exploded Alucard fell on the ground. Holding his left arm over the hole in his chest Alexander kept firing Alucard. When the magazine was empty Alexander got up on his feet and stumbled away from the infamous vampire, Alucard began to laugh. Alexander turned to look at the black moving shadow. "You should be dead," Alucard stated.
"Fuck!" Alexander said as he reloaded his gun. He dropped on his knees and shot Alucard through head few times, but the vampire kept coming. "Can't you, like, die?" Alexander said as Alucard pinned him against the wall.
"Truthfully... I'm not sure if I can," Alucard said just before his fangs pierced Alexander's neck.
When he felt his life being drained out from him Alexander squeezed his gun. Gun? He thought, how fucking stupid he was to bite me when I still have my gun? He gathered all his strength to raise his hand and shot Alucard into neck. "Sorry 'bout that... but..." Alexander said as he somehow managed to kick Alucard hard enough to get him off from him. "I'm not ready to die yet," He continued as he fell on the floor and rolled away from the other vampire.
"Too bad," Alucard said and shot him several times. "But you will die tonight,"
"Fuck this!" Alexander said and jumped through the window. His body bounced between the wall and train until the train was gone. He was too badly injured to walk, he crawled into a hollow and even that took most of his strength and willpower. He loaded his gun and waited for Alucard to come, hoping that he'd still be conscious when he did.
But Alucard never came, Helena did. And when she saw him she sighed. She knelt over Alexander. "You've drank my blood before. But this time it will be different, you will know things you're not ready yet, and you have to drink as much as possible, or you might die and..." She paused. "Alex... I'm sorry, I want you to live," She cut her own artery open and placed it on his mouth.
Alexander drank her blood, and as it filled his veins his body began to regenerate. When he stopped she again cut her already healed artery open and ordered him to drink more. When she was almost drained she made him stop, then she looked deep into his eyes. "Now, sleep," And as Alexander fell asleep she picked him up.
Flashes, pieces, fragments of memories, came so fast that he couldn't understand them. Her fangs sunk into a throat and ripped it open. Over, and over, and over and over and over again. More blood... Always more blood and more death.
Then it slowed down. She was standing in front of a mirror, staring at her own reflection. It was an old house which had wooden walls, heavy drapes, in the room there was only a desk and the bed. And a colorful painting about the crucifixion of Jesus. It was her room.
She was alone in the house, and she liked it that way. But her thoughts were most fearful; she had heard her father talking about the devil and only thing she feared more than her father... was the Devil. Her father never had actually harmed her, but around her father lingered an aura of malicious violence. She hoped that he'd again send her back to her grandfather, she liked grandpa, he was a nice, gentle and God fearing man.
And very round man. She giggled when she remembered how grandpa held her two year old little sister's hands when she bounced on his enormous belly. When she had been younger she had done that too, but now she was too big. She was too big to follow her little sister to grandpa, she had to stay home with her father. She wondered how so gentle man had so... bad son. Yes, bad, she thought, my father is a bad man. She never understood why her father let her study in Monastery, when he seemed to hate God.
And why did he hate God so much, after all, his father had been a clergyman and he was a God fearing man. How could her father hate God when grandpa had raised him? She knelt on her bed and crossed her fingers. "Domine Iesu, Per vagitus Tui in praesepio pro me nascentis, Per lacrimas Tui in cruce pro me morientis, Per amorem Tui in tabernaculo pro me viventis, Miserere mei et salva me..." She paused and thought about it for a minute. "And save the souls of my father and mother. Amen,"
She undressed, put on her nightgown and slid under the covers. For a long time, she stared at the ceiling, listening the creaks and groans of the old house.
When she woke up, she stared at the dark, scared eyes of her father. Her father smelled liquor, mud and... something else. "Get dressed," Her father ordered. "It is time, your brother failed, he wasn't a pure soul. At least not a pure enough,"
Pure soul? She thought as she got up, she glanced at the window, it was still dark. It was night. She nodded. "Yes Sir," She answered and waited her father to leave her alone to dress.
"Now!" Her father ordered.
"But..."
"Now, we don't have a lot time. Don't mind about me. I've seen you naked before,"
She blushed as she took off her nightgown, and she quickly put her dress on, forgetting to put her undergarments on. Her father grabbed her hand and dragged her out, then he pushed her into the carriage. And she almost fell when the horse began to gallop. She was freezing, she hadn't gotten time to take her jacket or shoes, she shivered, but her father didn't seem to notice. Whatever had happened her father was terrified.
When the carriage stopped, she saw that they were at the new Church. Her father dragged her into a small tunnel under the Church. "Sir, my feet hurt," She said as the stones hurt her bare feet.
His father glanced at her feet. "You should have taken shoes,"
They went downwards, and she felt how some power surrounded her, it itched in her skin. Then they entered into a chamber, it was empty, few candles here and there, her mother standing on the other side. And a huge Iron circle in the middle of it. The Iron Circle had strange markings on it, she couldn't read them, but the blackish red over it... she shivered, she hoped that it wasn't blood.
As she tried to hide herself into the shadows, her father took a huge, black book with golden writing on the cover and started to read.
Her father squirmed to a point directly beside her, and made stiff ceremonial motions to the circle he faced. He started to chant using Language she didn't understand, but she managed to get few words here and there, the language had many words taken from Latin, and she was fluent in Latin.
Her father's actions scared her, especially when he held above his head that abhorrent black and gold, now glowing book. Then her mother started to chant, the air in the chamber was still as if even the air had not courage to move. Then, with a loud clang, a bright light appeared, and a hissing small snake slithered from the light that came from the opening on the iron circle.
Then the snake gradually grew, and as it grew it changed it shape. And soon in front of them was a golden haired man with red reptilian eyes. But he terrified her, she saw through the beautiful face; it had changed into something unthinkable and unexpected, vicious sharp fanged eyes covered it, even it's wings were covered with eyes that had teeth. Even though she believed he existed she never actually had thought that she'd have to face him. "The Devil," She whispered.
The Devil didn't pay attention to her, he spoke to her father, using language she didn't understand. Her father answered to him, and then the terrible moment happened when her father took a dagger and, as he approached her, she saw how terrified her father was. Then he sliced her throat, and she fell on her knees, she tried to stop the bleeding by her hands, but it didn't help. For a moment, she felt only the pain.
From above, she watched how her dead body fell over the Iron circle.
Then her blood magically flowed back into her throat, and she was slammed back into her body. And if the moment her father had cut her throat had terrified her, on the next moment, when The Devil turned his eyes on her, she was beyond terror. "Dear girl, what should they have remembered before summoning me?"
"T...t...that y..you are evil,"
The Devil laughed. "No, I am not evil. Just like God and all of the Angels, I am above good and evil. Tell us what is the Devil known for?"
"Rebellion against God," She blurted out.
"And his traits?" The Devil asked.
She frowned, why was the Devil asking these easy questions? "Hating humanity, opposing God, spreading lies and wreaking havoc on our souls,"
The Devil turned to her parents. "The Child knows better than you," He said and smiled. "I have been a liar since humans crawled out from the mud. But as powerful I am, I still can't break His promises," The Devil again smiled to her. "They sold your soul to me,"
Her eyes widened with fear, then the anger came. She locked her eyes on The Devil's black ones. "That can't be! You said you can't break God's promises,"
"I can not, tell us what you are thinking,"
"My soul is mine to give, and I will not give it away, not for any price,"
The Devil smirked. "Indeed, that was what they forgot," He touched the wound in her throat, and it closed. "Two souls for immortality through blood," He pointed at her parents. "Your souls, her Immortality,"
"But... free will!" Her father yelled. "I will not give my soul,"
"Oh, but both of you already gave your souls to me," As The Devil said that the blood from her parents started to flow out, it formed a huge cloud, and as the bodies of her parents fell down the blood, through her eyes, flowed into her, and she felt an insufferablepain, then a tremendous surge of power followed the pain.
"But I don't want this!" She yelled.
"Doesn't matter, your soul is yours, but your earthly now dead body has been claimed to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and Godless greed," The Devil smirked and put his hand on her forehead. Then he said something, only thing she understood was Adonai, God. "Child, your father, and mother are dead, so is your brother, but you will not die. Immortality through blood, their blood, your blood, you will continue your pitiful existence until you finally give your soul to me,"
"Da, quaesumus Dominus, ut in hora mortis nostrae Sacramentis refecti et culpis omnibus expiati, in sinum misericordiae tuae laeti suscipi mereamur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen," She prayed staring into Devil's endless eyes, challenging him. "I will never give my soul to you,"
"My dear child, that we will see. Eternity is a long time. It may take hundreds of years, it may take thousands of years, but eventually you will want to die. And I will be there," The Devil said, changed back to snake and slithered back in from the small latch in the Iron circle, then the circle closed with a loud clang.
She gently close her mother's and father's terrified eyes, crossed her hands and stared at the ceiling. "Father forgive them, for they did not know what they did,"
Alexander opened his eyes. "Your parents... they sold your soul,"
"They tried," Helena said. "But do you understand what it means?"
Alexander stared at his hands, hundreds of years of memories had flushed over him, thousands of lives she'd taken. His mind was filled with grief and rage, and vague tears for the lives taken, so that the body would be preserved until the day comes when the soul eventually surrenders. "Yes," He was terrified, now that he had her memories, he knew what being an immortal monster truly meant. "Their blood, your blood, both are my blood now," He paused for a moment. "Everyone I love... I'll be there to close their eyes..."
пиявка: According Google translator it means: leech.
Translation of the prayers:
1: Lord, Jesus, Through Thine infant cries when Thou wast born for me in the manger, Through Thy tears when Thou didst die for me on the Cross, Through Thy love as Thou livest for me in the tabernacle, Have mercy on me and save me.
2: Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that in the hour of our death we may be refreshed by Thy holy Sacraments and delivered from all guilt, and so deserve to be received with joy into the arms of Thy mercy. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.