A week after the evening walk with August, Integra came to terms with the fact that she would have to let Walter throw out the flowers. They were wilted and looked like they carried the plague. She made a face at them before resuming her cigar.
The paperwork loomed before her seemingly without end. The clock mocked her. All that she wanted to do was go to bed so that she would be prepared for the coming day. Then Alucard walked in. He hadn't spoken with her since she ordered him to stay in the basement rather than allowing him to go on the walk with her.
"I don't like him." He said simply, easily melting into the chair across from her desk.
"And why is that?" She asked. She was only trying to quiet him down without orders. She didn't appreciate feeling like a tyrant. She only half heard his answer, but what she heard definitely caught her attention.
"What did you say?" She asked, blue eyes wide with shock. This was quite an unfamiliar expression for her face, and her muscles protested gently.
"Did you not hear me, Master?" he taunted.
"Answer me."
"I said that he has you fooled." Alucard's eyes glimmered with a sadistic light.
"And how did you come to that conclusion?"
"I spied on him of course."
"When did you do that?"
"When his brother dropped off the first letter." Alucard's smile refused to leave his place.
"How did you spy on August when Dorian was the one at the door?"
"They are one in the same. I admit, it took me a bit of a while to puzzle it out completely, but thanks to your grandfather's obsession with Freud and psychology in general, I eventually put two and two together, so to speak."
"Out with it, Alucard."
Here Alucard pulled a book from his jacket and left it open on her desk. The heading said something about a study concerning Dissociative Identity Disorder.
"What is this?"
"August de Sade and Dorian de Sade are the same man."
"How absurd." Integra reached for another cigar.
"I was wondering why you smelled like Dorian when you came back from your lunch date... Then it became clearer when he appeared at your door last week. When you left us alone, I had ample time to examine him. His mind was not as it should have been, and now, it makes sense."
"I am glad it is clear to one of us."
"You know of Jeckyll and Hyde. They are one as Dorian and August are one."
Integra just sat in silence, the decaying pink roses mocking her with their sickly sweet scent of death. She came to terms with this revelation just as quietly as she did every other emotional crisis. She lit her cigar and inhaled slowly and deeply, eyes closing.
"Thank you for telling me, Alucard." Her voice was soft, masking her hurt. If she had spoken louder, her voice would have shaken or cracked.
"Of course, my master." With that, he faded away, leaving her with her thoughts.
Below the manor, Alucard sat on his throne, staring off into the darkness, hearing the vicious way that she signed the documents. He could tell that she was upset. He knew from the beginning that August wasn't nearly good enough for her. And lo and behold... the minute that he resigned himself to the fact that she had found someone that she could be happy with, that man had to show his true colors. At least he was just crazy instead of simply unfit. This would just complicate things rather than ruin them. But at least she knew that it couldn't work. She needed someone stable and reliable, not someone unpredictable with a tenuous hold on sanity.
Alucard suddenly stopped his musings, realizing for the first time what a fool he truly was. Even that man was more qualified to be with Integra than he himself was. At least that man, or those men, were living and not confined to a cursed existence as he was. And that man had a will of his own and she could see that he wanted to be with her, that he wasn't forced like she thought. Alucard sighed.
He could never hope to hold the station that had just been vacated by the Misters de Sade. She would never see him as more than a servant, and he certainly didn't deserve that distinction. He was a monster, had never been anything except a monster, and he would never be anything other than what he was. Apparently he would have to come to new terms with his sentence and live with the bare facts. She needed a man, not a monster.
His eyes closed and his expression grew more solemn.
He would never have her.
He could never have her.
However, with that outlook, and with her wonderfully alienating quirks, they would both end their existences alone.
Alucard decided that he could contest fate once again. After all, the last time hadn't gone so badly... He grinned.
***** So...I finally updated. I just didn't know how to come back to this after their little walk, and I've been meaning to get rid of August for a few chapters. Hopefully the next chapter comes a little easier than this one did. Thank you all for bearing with me. It means a lot. ~Nyxe