AN: I hope everyone is well where ever you are! Special thanks to ruler of the ice dragon for the follow and shark-demon-luv for favoriting
And hey in this chapter you'll see where my user name comes from (it is not a self insert I'm not awesome enough)
With that I leave you, like always thank you for the support!
"Come on vampire!" Sanders shouted switching directions and heading towards the music. Luckily the piano didn't stop making the source easy to find.
In a sitting room filled with tasteful antique furniture sat a piano and a single woman on its bench. Her fingers nimbly danced over the keys of the white grand, every movement she made added to her serene beauty. She didn't stop playing even with her new audience. When the song came to an end she rose and smoothed out her pale blue dress.
She was the same height as Sanders and had similar short brown hair that curled slightly at the ends. Alucard could feel the woman's presence emanating from her small form, ancient and powerful. He tried getting a better look at her face but a shimmering veil that began under her eyes and flowed just below her chin obscured the rest of her features.
She approached the pair and Sanders bowed politely.
"There's no need for that Sanders," the woman said and it was clear that she was the first speaker from Sanders ball of light.
"And you must be Alucard, I've heard many stories about you No Life King." The mystery woman fixed the elder vampire with her silver haloed brown eyes then gave him a small bow.
"Alucard this is my queen, Carmen-Grace Nightray." Sanders spoke with a note of pride and admiration in her voice, it was clear Queen Nightray meant a great deal to her.
"An honor." Alucard took Carmen's hand and bent his head towards it. His red eyes trailed up the back of the queen's hand and up her arm. Thin lines similar the one's Sanders wore stretched in delicate patterns up towards her neck and chest.
"Yes, I too have been marked by forbidden magic. I guess you could say that my experience has caused me to be a sort of expert on the subject," the queen said noticing his gaze. Alucard released her small hand and it fell to her side. She moved next to Sanders and reached out towards her. Carmen picked up her ringed hand and stared at it intently.
"If I'm not mistaken this was the item I had sent you to retrieve." Sanders nodded as Carmen continued her examination.
"Count your blessings that Ms. Blake isn't exceptionally gifted with magic, the curse isn't complete."
"Can you break it?" Sanders asked hopefully.
"I can't. This curse must be satisfied. It's a form of binding that is meant to hold two people together permanently. Since it's incomplete separation is possible but your not gonna like it." Carmen then released Sanders hand and began passing around the room.
"How? I'll do anything." Alucard continued to watch the two women. He simply waited for Queen Carmen to answer Sanders.
"Let's see. How should I put this?" Carmen mumbled as she walked. "Sanders do you remember why forbidden magic is tabooed?"
"It controls things that rely on fate. Altering them causes shifts in fate that can disrupt natural balance."
"Yes that's correct. Essentially Ms. Blake has used part of your fates to bind the pair of you together." She motioned to both Alucard and Sanders to further show exactly whom this involved,
"So how do I get rid of him?" Sanders asked, she sounded annoyed, though that was turning into a fairly normal sentiment for her during this whole ordeal.
'Like I said you're not gonna like this. The fate this spell uses is love. That is why I cannot break it. I cannot break a spell that binds you to the one person your soul will one day crave."
"Do you mean to say that this thing," Sanders waved her hands up and down in the vampire's general direction, "is my soul mate?" She sounded disgusted and Alucard wasn't terribly happy with the prospect either but he stayed silent. The temperature was rising in the room and instinct told him not to intervene when Sanders was that riled up.
"Yes but it can be broken." Carmen spoke in her most calming voice and Sanders took a deep breath.
"How?"
"Okay but please try to keep calm."
"Just say it."
"The only way to satisfy this kind of spell is for both of you to give yourselves truly and fully to each other." When Carmen finished she took a small step backwards as if she expected Sanders to explode, which in a way she did.
"WHAT!" Sanders screamed, her voice echoed through the room and out the open door. Running feet could be heard somewhere outside and Walter soon appeared.
"Is something the matter Ms. Sanders?" The butler asked carefully. Sanders turned to face him and Walter gasped. Brilliant red scales lined the sides of her face the darkest of which flowed into her hairline, but the most shocking part of her change in appearance was that her warm brown eyes shone with flecks of gold and the pupils had taken on a reptilian shape.
"Oh! Everything is just fine. Except for the fact that I'll probably be stuck here until I die." Her voice sounded like the hissing of a snake due to her teeth turning into rows of fangs.
"Sanders! Calm down, breath woman breath." Carmen touched the raging woman's shoulder; that seemed to calm her a bit. The room, which had become unbearably hot began to cool as her dragon-like features faded back to human.
"You're a powerful witch, a possible vessel for the high goddess Crona, immortal blood flows in your veins. She won't be letting you go that easily. Give up now and you will spend an eternity tethered to this man."
"Have I ever told you how much I hate our family?" Sanders asked, she looked as though she was on the brink of crumbling.
"Grasandra Dracavitch, I have always looked up to you. Please don't give up, not yet." Carmen whispered.
"I need to go home now, but I will continue to look for another answer, you're not going to have to do this alone."
"You're right about not being alone." Sanders said walking over to Alucard and leaning on her arm with a sarcastic Cheshire grin on her face. Carmen bowed her head to the pair of them and walked towards the door and Walter stepped to the side. Just before she left Carmen turned to Alucard.
"I apologize for Sanders Alucard. She really is a nice girl, once you get to know her!" She yelled the last part as she ran out of the room giggling since Sanders had thrown a small ball of fire in her direction.
"Sorry Walter, her highness doesn't always act her age." Sanders said, she sounded frustrated but the smirk on her face said other wise. Alucard marveled at how the queen had managed to cheer up Sanders so quickly.
"Quite alright, I hope that she had a solution for the two of you." Walter said now standing inside the sitting room.
"Hopefully she'll find something better but you never know." Then she turned her smirk to Alucard and gave him a coy little wink.
"Alright C'mon tall one lets go on an adventure!"
~ Later in some far off part of Hellsing
Sanders skipped around the towering bookcases and stopped in front of a particularly dusty one. She blew some dust away to read the titles and immediately began sneezing. Holding her nose with one hand she used her other to carefully pick up one of the books and began flipping through the yellowed pages.
"You look like you want to say something," she said without glancing at Alucard.
"So that was your queen." He said taking a seat in a shadowy reading nook.
"Yep. Queen Carmen-Grace Nightray, the most powerful being I have ever met." She returned the book to its shelf and picked up another, Bram Stocker she red across the spine.
"Dracula, my favorite." Then she put that one back as well before turning to Alucard.
"Did you expect her to be older?" Sanders asked with a raised eyebrow. He nodded at the question but remained silent.
"Yeah Carmie is remarkable, far more powerful than I could ever be even though I mastered magic before her with the same teacher." She paused and took on a far away look for a brief moment.
"I used to be the best, I had to be. I am the oldest but of course she was stronger, and smarter, and kinder. She had to be she's the queen she was born a queen. My little sister; announced as the new monarch just seconds after her birth, rightfully crowned at the age of six she's my whole world but she has always had something I lack."
"And what would that be?" Alucard asked.
"Empathy. She cares for monsters, humans and witches. We were always taught that creatures like vampires were vile, covered in remnants of forbidden magic but that never stopped her from seeing them as possible equals. I'm not sure if it's kindness or foolishness, but there so close they could be the same thing." In the dimming late afternoon light that filtered into the library Alucard looked at Sanders. He looked at the woman that could not have been older than twenty-three, and how in this moment her face was not masked by sarcasm, fire, anger or stone cold seriousness. She was indeed beautiful, stripped bear and vulnerable he had a strong desire to hold her. He must have been growing soft in his old age.
"Carmen may be the witches greatest weapon but I will always be their greatest soldier." The fire was again lit in her intense brown eyes showing that she lived for the thrill of battle and was far more dangerous than her small frame would entail.
"So you've sworn your allegiance to her?" Alucard phrased it more like a statement than an actually question, but she still answered.
"Like I said she's the strongest being I know, you would've done the same thing if you were in my shoes." She moved away from the elder vampire to look out at the Hellsing's sprawling estate being bathed in the sun's glow. Alucard remained in the shadows and replayed what she had said. He had begun to see part of himself in her, perhaps there was more to her that he had initially thought. Yes she was very interesting and finally Alucard concluded that being bound to Sanders Dracavitch wasn't so bad after all.