Okay, time to get this ball rolling!
This chapter might get a little...weird. I've been watching both Trinity Blood and Elfen Lied on top of re-watching Hellsing for the third freaking time (it's one of those anime that I never get tired of re-watching) so my inspiration is coming at me from a strange angle...
that said-
WARNINGS: Some cliche and not-so-cliche things ahead. Blood. Some MORE angst. Panic. The usual.
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CH XI
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Ariel walked down the corridor, passing by the door to the room their guests were occupying. They weren't in there now, having been sent out with Lukas to investigate a new disappearance from the east end of the village, leaving Ariel and Cedric in charge of tending to the masses as well as making sure no one entered the King's temporary chambers whilst he was away- "on penalty of swift death", so Alucard had warned. Ariel huffed.
It wasn't that he didn't like his Lord- he just found it remarkably difficult to respect someone who killed for fun. But, being just a lowly peasant, he didn't have any choice but to at least fake the dispays of respect he offered, begrudgingly as he did so; fucked up as it seemed, he knew he could be killed if he didn't. 'Just another in a long list of things that can sentance you to death in the presence of that monstrosity of a vampire. Vampire? More like a demon from the pits of Hell!' Ariel sighed at length, cooling off. 'But what bothers me the most about him isn't him- it's that poor sap of a girl he's turned.' Ariel thought back on the woman, who had at first seemed just as cocksure and arrogant as her supposed Master; but after listening to her crying the morning prior, though he hadn't meant to eavesdrop, his first impression of her shifted. 'I can't help but wonder what she was upset about...But I can only imagine it, considering the person she shares the room with. I don't even want to fathom what he could have done to her...Then again, it could just as easily be that I was the one responsible for upsetting the King, which may have reflected at her unfairly...Damnit!' Ariel grimmaced. He hated this feeling, like he was the one to blame for making her cry...And he hadn't even said anything to the girl!
'Maybe she was upset over something else...But Alucard was still in there when she was crying, wasn't he? So why didn't he do something to quiet her? I know I can't have been the only one to hear her sobs...' A startling, razor sharp thought gouged its way into his head, breaking through every barrier he'd put up to stop such morbid thoughts from entering there. The thought stabbed at his heart like the sting of a needle, making him pause in his travels. 'What if he tried to, but made it worse?' Ariel thought, swallowing. 'I mean, what could have started as silent tears could just as easily have become a death sentance, had she been anyone else...But even Alucard wouldn't kill his own Fledgling, not unless it was do or die...Would he? Could he really be so masochistic as to revel in the agony of killing one's own Childe?' The thought gave him a terrible feeling in his stomach, making him concerned suddenly for the little girl that was Seras.
He thought about her for a moment, letting his mind wander. She was certainly a very voluminous woman, which disturbed him, in a way; after all, her "master" was reknowned for doing all kinds of heinous things to people...he'd had God knows how many wives, to boot. The thought of Seras as another one of Alucard's disposable wives made Ariel shiver, partly with disgust, and partly with nerves. What was her purpose, exactly? So far as he was aware, Alucard had only ever had one other Childe, and she had wound up his wife for a time before going off and getting herself killed*. Would Seras meet the same fate? God, he hoped not. Not that he felt anything for the girl, really, he thought with a small blush; she was just...well, she just didn't seem like wife material for someone like Alucard. Maybe he'd gotten that impression at first, but after listening to her sob by the door for almost an hour, he wasn't so sure.
Ariel sighed again. It had been some time since he'd last had anything to do with the King, and even then, he hadn't had anything to do with him directly...maybe the man had changed? Maybe, just maybe, he wasn't the bloodthirsty monster he'd known before? Maybe, just maybe, Alucard had been transformed during his imprisonment, Ariel reasoned; maybe the King had finally found the kinder side of himself.
Yeah, right.
He remembered the last time he'd had anything to do with that bloody, genocidal maniac. It had been some hundred fifty years ago, not long before Dracula had metamorphosized into Alucard at the hands of Van Hellsing...
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Seras kept low to the ground, keeping her temporarily assigned assault rifle tucked into her shoulder. This 'job' of hers required more stealth than her Harkonnen allowed, so Lukas had said. Thankfully, she brought backup weapons just in case of such a thing. She sucked in a deep, steadying breath, bringing her nerves down from the vertigo-inducing heights they were at at present down to a less nauseating level. She was in pursuit of someone suspected to be in allegiance with the primary Night-Child-turning suspects, but the bugger had up and vanished on her while turning a corner. This thought didn't especially perturb her though; she had the wherewithal to sense if anyone was coming up behind her, except maybe her Master if she wasn't paying close attention- no, it was the fact that she'd been warned well in advance that there was a susinct, but diminished, likelihood of encountering a Night Child itself while pursuing this particular person. Lukas had made it clear that it wasn't likely, since he was just a suspect-relating-to-another-suspect, but the probability existed nontheless.
'Cool it, Seras, you're getting too wound up over something that isn't even likely to happen.' She told herself, feeling her nerves dissipate in the wake of her self-talk. She breathed again, feeling it calm her gradually. Snorting in determination, she rose from her position, surveying the area before silently moving forward. There was no confirmation of whether this person was armed or not, but given her past experiences, Seras would much rather air on the side of caution.
Rounding the corner of a tiny house, she heard a soft rustling noise and froze so completely that it felt as if her muscles had been inexplicably turned to stone, made heavy and deliberate by an unbreakable spell that seemed to bind her beneath a sudden, unmeasurable pressure that squeezed her muscles like a snake, keeping her as still as waiting death. Her eyes found the will to move, and she scanned around her suspiciously, ears straining to make out any further sounds. Another small rustle came from around the house, promting Seras' frozen muscles into slow thawing action as she crept forward, plastering herself as flat as possible to the wall of the home in an effort to avoid detection. She sniffed the air curiously, filtering through the scents of the village in search of the one which would tell her if the thing on the other side of the wall was friend or potential foe. As the microscopic scent particles traced through her nose, she dropped into a crouch, prepared. Whether friend or foe, the thing on the other side was indeed a vampire- one which smelled unfamiliar.
Seras felt her muscles coil in anticipation, feeling very much like a stalking cat as she sank lower, her whole body a loaded spring. Her spine flexed tangibly as the person on the other side made obvious strides towards her, making her reel back like a striking snake. She held the position until the footfalls, soft though they were, stopped, holding the tension in her body at bay as power surged into her muscles along with adrenaline, preparing for a fight.
Picking what she guessed to be the most unassuming moment, she suddenly sprung out from behind the wall, feeling the glorious relief as her muscles released all of their tightly wound energy all at once. However, coming around the corner, she was confronted not with the man they were persuing, as expected, but a small girl, who screamed in obvious surprise as Seras leapt from her position, causing the girl to jump back some six or seven paces before falling flat on her arse, her arms coming up defensively to shield her face. Seras managed to halt her momentum just in time to avoid running into the girl, her heels digging into the earth in an effort to force herself to stop, muscles screaming in protest from their abrupt recindence of freedom after tensing so much before. Holding out her arms to keep her balance, Seras managed to halt just before the girl, throwing her weight back so as not to topple onto her. The action wound up being too fast, though, and down Seras went onto her arse along with the child.
"oof!" Seras protested as she landed on her hiney quite sharply, feeling rocks from the dirt below her bite into her flesh through her uniform shorts like tiny fangs trying to pierce her skin, making her clutch her bottom reflexively from the pain.
"Ow..." She whined, rubbing her sore bottom as she did so. Turining her gaze upward, she looked at the girl before her, who wore a startled and frightened expression in her wide, jade colored eyes, short brown hair quite mussy and once pink dress now stained with dirt.
"Oh, sorry about that," Seras offered sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Thought you were someone else." At the incomprehending stare she received, Seras was again reminded that she was in a foreign country where English was not a particularly common language.
"Oh...um..." Seras fished for words from her "lessons" on the plane, but found none that would be useful in this situation. Floundering, she felt a twinge of panic tug at her when she again took in the girls pale, frightened face, which was eyeing her gun with a mixture of suspicion and horror.
"Oh, no,no, no!" Seras said swiftly, shaking her hands in front of her abatingly. "You misunderstand-"
With that, the girl promptly stood up, attempting to bolt- only to run face-first into Alucard's thighs.
"Master!" Seras said, surprised to see him appear so suddenly. "What are you-"
"Seras, go." Alucard said, looking down at the girl in front of him. "We spotted the suspect moving about a block from here. Lukas is in pursuit. Go join him now." Alucard said dismissively, piercing gaze effectively pinning the little girl down to the ground where she'd fallen. Seras couldn't help but offer her Master a confused stare.
"Then why are you here?" She asked.
"Because as it would happen, you have stumbled upon what was supposedly unlikely to be found here." Alucard said simply. It took a second for Seras to process the words, upon which she felt bile climb enthusiastically up her throat before lingering as a bad taste on the back of her tongue. She swallowed hard as she felt her blood rush to her stomach, making her queasy. "I knew you would either be unable to identify her or otherwise be unable to handle the situation as it needs to be handled." Alucard said, voice hard but not scolding. As if to emphasize his point, he pulled Casull from his breast pocket, and Seras forced herself to look away.
"You mean, she-" Seras paused mid-sentence, recalling that she had scented an unfamiliar vampire around the corner. She felt herself tremble involuntarily at the realization, feeling stupid for not putting the pieces together sooner.
"Yes." There was a pause as Seras felt herself freeze up again, though this time for different reasons entirely.
"Go, Seras. What must be done must be done. You'll come to understand in time."
"But Mas-"
"Go!" He barked, making Seras move on reflex, abruptly rushing to her feet. She spared her Master a single glance, refusing to look at the girl, and ran.
She ran, not just for the sake of catching up to Lukas, but also to gain as much distance between herself and what was happening behind her as possible. She stopped only a moment to pick up a scent trail Lukas might've left behind, and upon finding it pursued him outside of town and into a thicket of wood just beyond. She ran for all she could, pumping muscles that she had a distant recollection wouldv'e been quite tired by now were she human.
But she wasn't. Not anymore. Not for a while.
And neither was that little girl.
Seras stopped abruptly when she heard the tell tale bang from the distance, recognizing the sound of her Master's gun anywhere as he took the life that hadn't yet come to live. She looked back fleetlingly, shoving her heart down when it leapt into her throat as if to choke her before turning around determinedly, pushing forward. She could think about it later. Right now she needed to catch the guy who might be responsible for even turning her in the first place. The thought made her angry, bitter tears threatening her eyes with a sharp pricking feeling- but she wouldn't let them fall. Not again, not so soon after the last time. She needed to be strong now. She needed it.
Seras ran through the forest, trailing Lukas' scent, when she heard the tell-tale pop-pop-pop of a semi-automatic, causing her to halt, alert. When she heard the sound again, she rushed in it's general direction, fearing that Lukas had caught up to their suspect already and was trying to take him on alone. She pushed her muscles faster, faster, until she burst forth suddenly into a small clearing, where the struggle was presently ensuing.
She didn't have to take much time to assess- Lukas was pinned to the ground beneath who she assumed was their suspect, the other vampire using a rifle to force him down, teeth gnashing at Lukas' throat. The suspect didn't even glance up at Seras, and for all intents and purposes hadn't seemed to realize she was there.
Feeling a surge of protective rage course through her, Seras wasted no time in drawing up her gun, aiming for the little shit's head with a sense of conviction- which was promptly shattered the moment Lukas turned his head to look at her.
His eyes were deep, panicked pools of wine as they fell upon her, perhaps fearing her to be another stray vampire, but his expression quickly turned luridly pale and desperate when he finally seemed to register her appearance. But rather than betraying a desperation to be saved, his eyes instead warned her. Get out. Get away. Run. His gaze flicked behind her for a split second, upon which his expression became even more grave, if that was even possible, pupils expanding like a cat's as he looked back at Seras with a desperate, panicked plea. His eyes hardened a moment later as he once more looked behind her before promptly widening again.
"Seras! GO! Get away! Go away!" Lukas shouted at her suddenly, causing Seras to back up involuntarily, her mount dropping. About to turn around to see what he'd spotted, she was suddenly struck very hard in the center of her chest by something moving very fast.
Several things happened in the next five seconds or so that would, unbeknownst to Seras, come to change everything she thought she knew about her life as a vampire.
Because as of now, it was in grave danger of ending.
Seras felt her body go rigid long before she registered that she'd even been struck, some hidden instinct paralyzing her muscles for a few seconds. Immediately following this feeling was the distinctive impression that...something just wasn't right. It wasn't an extrinic kind of feeling either, promting her to look down at her chest curiously-
Only to find about seven inches of a silver-capped arrow jutting from beside her sternum, dangerously close to her heart.
It took a few moments for Seras to register the severity of her wound, and a moment more before the pain actually struck her. At the same time her body actually reistered the tearing, distinctively stabbing feeling of the arrow wound, her self-induced paralysis gave up it's turn, letting her muscles collapse suddenly beneath an overwhelming sense of fatigue, like a puppet that had been suspended from wires suddenly being cut loose. As the ground approached her, she heard a distant-sounding popping, perhaps indicating that her attacker had been killed- or Lukas had. She didn't know.
She barely managed to catch herself on reflex before hitting the ground, landing half-doubled over on all fours and staying that way for a time as a sharp throb began eminating from her heart, a strange, wriggling feeling creeping out from it as though worms had suddenly invaded her body**, spreading a sharp, agonizing pain along with it, as though there were razors scraping along her very veins. It was then that the panic hit her.
'Oh no...My heart...My heart! He struck my heart! He hit my heart!' Seras thought about this for a second, taking in the surrealness of it. She'd imagined, curiously, what dying like this felt like, but she hadn't ever expected it to happen. Not like this.
'Guess that's just how it is. I mean, if death was predictable, we'd never die, would we?' Seras thought, feeling another instinct tug at her from deep inside, telling her- no, pleading with her to get up, to stand, to fight- don't lie down! Don't lay down! Get up, Seras! Get up! On your feet - you'll be fine if you get up, Seras! Her inner mind shouted at her, promting her to try without strength to lift herself from her prone position, coming successfully up to her knees before losing out to a sudden throb of agony punching through her chest, making her dizzy with it's force so that the next thing she was aware of was the feeling of cool earth against her cheek.
Seras lie there for a time, mind struggling to form thoughts as a disgustingly wet hack brought up dredges of blackish blood from her lips, the fluid spilling onto the ground in a thick, tar like pool beneath her cheek, making it feel damp and warm in a way which was both strangely comforting and simultaneuosly alarming. She tried again to lift herself, but her arms had not the strength, and wracked futilely with shudder after unceasing shudder as she tried. She tried. She tried.
Her vision became dotted with black as another wave of anguish came over her, prompting she clutch the arrow jutting from her breast, not that it did much to quell the pain, or the realization that she was dying. In fact, it only served to make that observation more tangible, more real to her as she lie there, suddenly too weak to move. She was probably dying. For what? To what end was her death but her own? She didn't even know who had shot her. And with an arrow? Points for stealth, she had to admit. She let out a wry internal smirk, as her face was unable to express much in it's present state. A dry cough of laughter followed. She was such a fool.
Suddenly, she heard something- a distant sound like thunder, though it's fluctuation was all wrong. She heard again the noise, her hearing straining through an inexplicable shround of mist to make out the sound. Something about it seemed familiar.
As it happened a final time, she recognized it was a gun firing, one she felt she knew the sound of somehow. Suddenly, there was a voice beside her, deep and unmistakable.
"Master?" She whispered to him telepathically, not having the strength to do much more than shiver at this point- which, she realized belatedly, she was doing quite a lot right now, her whole body vibrating with wrack after wrack of tiny muscle spasms, though why she could not say.
"Seras." His voice was strained, that much she could make out between the warbles of sound and a peculiar rushing noise in her head, almost like radio static, that had inexplicably begun to sound. The back of her head felt fuzzy, and she realized with a start that she didn't feel any pain anymore.
"M...Master..."
"You did well. You did well." He shushed. "I shouldn't have sent you alone. I wasn't expecting our suspect to have backup. If you're going to be angry at anyone for this, be angry with me."
"Master...I...I'm not angry...Just...really tired..." Seras pictured suddenly that distant memory from thirty years ago, her Master's eyes all closing. It took a second for her to realize why it was there, and she sucked in a literal breath as she did, causing her to cough and hack up more of her precious bodily fluids.
"Easy now, Seras." Alucard whispered back to her, his voice betraying a strange emotion. "You're going to be okay. You're going to be fine as long as you stay awake. STAY AWAKE, Seras!" He commanded, forcing her senses into painful sharpness, ears ringing with the force, but allowing her suddenly to hear the rustle of leaves as Lukas shifted beside her. He was saying something.
"We need to take her back. She won't make it much longer if she stays here. Come, Alucard! We need to- what are you doing?!"
"My blood should bring her back, shouldn't it?" He said this as non-chalantly as possible, but both Seras and Lukas knew his calmness was a facade.
"But, Sir, your bond-"
"Bond be damned, Lukas! She's dying." Alucard hissed the last part, and Seras, though only half-conscious, felt his energy surge.
"Master, don't. I know...I know how bad it looks, but it's not that bad...I...don't want to...lose you...like that..."
"You won't. Not if I only give you a tiny bit. Just enough for you to recover from the shock long enough to remove the arrow. If we take it out now, you'll bleed to death before we can get back to the village. Now, drink."
Seras was only half-aware of her body being manipulated into an upright postion, the action sending a rather dull sting through her injury. She tried to open her eyes, but only seen a blurr of red. In the next second, she quite hazily registered the feeling of something soft and delicate pressint against her lips with an inviting kind of dampness, her tongue tenatively reaching from it's sticky confines to taste the metalic substance. She drank it down, the taste mixing with her own blood into a kind of bittersweet concoction that reminded her wierdly of coffee. She felt some energy seeping back into her, but not quickly, her senses only marginally regaining their edge. After a second, the fluid stopped flowing into her mouth, urging her tongue to seek out more, some baser instinct demanding she drink more of it. She was quite startled to find, however, the presence of a foreign object within her orfice which bore a stark resemblance to her own. Had she not been half-dead, she might have blushed at the realization he'd given her his blood by mouth, but instead decided to go with it for now, because her life sort of depended on it.
"Why is it every time we kiss, it seems to be when I least expect it?"
"There's my Seras." Seras could hear the smile in his voice, and offered a very weak one of her own, realizing on the way that their "kiss" if you could call it that had been broken.
"Relax now. Your heart was narrowly struck. If we get the arrow out of you, you'll be okay."
"Can I sleep now?"
"Yes, love. You can sleep now." Seras only narrowly caught the strange title before letting herself drift away into a much less daunting-looking darkness. Her last thought before she slept was 'I wonder if Alucard can even feel love...'
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Alright, interesting, no? Just wait. The AluSeras is coming on big time in the next few chappies, with any luck. Just be patient.
Now, I get to again revel in the joy of exclaiming the most fun word on the planet-
ASTERISKS!
*Alucard's wife/Mina getting herself killed: I am working under the assumption that her death is mysterious and that no one really knows how she died except maybe Alucard. The public masses assume she was killed, in this case, by Van Hellsing when he captured Alucard, since at that time Mina was already changed. (As is implied, perhaps, in the series.)
**worms invading her body: This is a sensation caused by a medical occurance whereby a blood vessel expands beyond it's normal capacity (as can happen with trauma) and tries to shrink. A similar feeling apparently happens when the valves/pumps in your arteries spasm. In this case, you can think of both happening as a result of her bodies reaction to the silver as well as the fact her heart was actually struck by the arrow.
Okay kiddies, you know the drill. Please, REVIEW for the next update. Until then!
