This is yet another side story, I know not many people read the last one, but I find that it helps to develop a complete picture of the way the events are related and how the characters interact. Also if you choose not to read this you might not get the plot twists and love triangles that are going on in the 'current' story line, consider this like extensions of the prologue. Thank you for being so patient during my studying for finals.
Side Story Two: Credit Card Chaos
(Eight Years Ago….Hellsing…Integra's Office)
Integra was looking back and forth between Alucard and Lina, wondering which one she should strangle. Both were giving her puppy dog looks and she groaned; they burst into wide grins, knowing they had won.
"Fine, you can go. But if you two cause any trouble I'll strip the privilege." Lina bounced on the balls of her feet, quickly hugging the blonde she had come to see as family. Awkwardly patting the girl on the back Integra was released from the hug. Alucard came up behind Lina his arms out stretched.
"Not a snowballs chance in hell Alucard." He pretended to be hurt, his arms dropping.
"You have no love for the dead." Lina rolled her eyes, grabbing his arm and pushing him out of the room.
"Thanks Integra, I'll get you something nice! Come on, we have to get dressed." Alucard gave her a strange look.
"We have to get dressed to go shopping? I haven't been to a mall, but that seems a little backwards." Lina just shrugged and continued poking him to get him to change out of his normal outfit.
(Two hours later…random mall in London)
Walter said nothing as he dropped them off. Looking in his rear view mirror he shook his head and chuckled as he watched the two run to the mall while trying to look bored. He honestly wondered which one would come back with more useless crap, his money was on Alucard.
Walking through the mall, both heads turned to examine the stores. Lina was wearing a red skirt and a white shirt, addias running shoes, a grey Disneyland jacket on. But Alucard was the more interesting; he still was wearing his glasses but his tight grey shirt and dark blue jeans, leather belt with a buckle of a skull made him the center of attention. He had changed his age as well, now looking like a nineteen year old boy. Lina kept looking him up and down, disbelief and 'oh my god he's hot' written all over her face.
"You said you've never been shopping, then how the hell did you get that out fit?" He smirked down at her, hooking his thumbs in his pockets.
"I don't need to buy clothes, I just have to think them and I can wear them." Linas' eyes bugged out then narrowed.
"Please tell me that doesn't mean what I think it does." He started to chuckle.
"I am wearing underclothes if that's what you mean." Lina stopped dead in her tracks, all the color rushing to her face before she shook it off and jogged to catch up to with his long strides. Seeing an anime/manga, book and videogame store she turned in, Alucard following. He watched her with an amused look; she was completely focused on finding something of interest, even forgetting his presence. He resigned himself to searching with her, mostly anything with magic, monster, or vampire in the title was picked up and examined. After they had spent the better part of an hour they walked out with a bag full of games and reading material, much of which Alucard had bought from the restricted section of the store. They walked along through the mall, Lina stopping to get a smoothie and Alucard a cup to drink his blood from without drawing attention. He had some how managed to find the one and only weapons store in the whole mall, and he had yet again managed to buy for the pair of them something that she never would have gotten on her own. He was enjoying himself, laughing along at some of her random jokes and strange outbursts. At one point he thought blood would come out his nose as he watched her play a game where she had to follow the dancing directions on the screen. The longer they spent in the mall, 'hanging out' as she called it the more he felt like she had forgotten the fact he was a vampire. She even at one point dragged them into one of those crapped photo booths and made him take ridiculous pictures with her. He liked seeing her like this. He had never felt what it was like to be this carefree; he never really had a childhood. But now he was getting a glimpse of what modern teenagers did, well at least the weird ones anyway. He sat on the bench, his legs stretched out in front of him with their days hard shopping resting next to him. She had asked him to wait there for her to use the restroom and he really had no plans of wondering off with a shit load of crap by himself. As he sat back, Alucard heard giggling and exclamations of approval over his looks, making him bend his head back at them and wink with a sexy smirk in place. The gaggle of girls about Lina's age all screamed in excitement, their mini-skirts and belly shirts all sliding up as they virtually skipped over to him. The majority of the girls were blonde, most with chlorine added to make their hair that platinum color people these days seemed to prefer. Alucard let them come over and start talking to him, flirting shamelessly and bending down to pick up objects they had 'dropped'. He quickly grew bored with them, he had scanned their minds and found little to no activity at all. He hoped Lina would get back soon.
Drying her hands off and walking back to were Alucard was sitting, Lina stiffened as she observed the girls gathered around him like birds around bread crumbs. Taking a deep breath she walked up behind them and started to pick up some of her bags, not bothering to make eye contact with anyone, eyes glued to the floor and her head bowed she quickly walked away, not even waiting for Alucard. He felt her pang of hurt, flinching as he smelt her tears. Why the hell was she crying? He stood up to follow her, earning yet another round of complements from the girls. But when they noticed him gathering his bags instead of making to give them his number the leader of the girls quickly went on the attack. She had the blondest hair and the smallest amount of clothing on.
"Where you going cutie? Not after that dog in the red skirt I hope. Stay with us, we're a lot of fun compared to that freak. Now come on hunk, let's go somewhere fun." The rest of the girls all nodded in agreement, helping the leader drag him in the opposite direction from where Lina had disappeared. Alucard couldn't do anything to get the girls off him, if he threw them off and got hurt Integra would revoke his outing privileges, and his mind control was only allowed on missions. Growling in frustration he shot Lina a thought, trying to get her help.
'Weakling! Get back here and help remove these pests!' He waited for a response, when he got it Lina sounded like a frightened kitten even in her own mind.
'They'll leave you alone if you say you have a girlfriend. That always puts girls like them off.' He retorted angrily at her, mentally grabbing her and shaking her roughly.
'What the bloody hell is wrong with you!? You stand up to me and fended off vampires and other monsters but when a bunch of human girls start wagging their tongues you run and cry. What makes them so much more terrifying then monsters you can create!?' She went silent for a moment, and then he heard her marching back over to them, all their bags in one hand and a pissed look on her face. He felt the beginnings of a proud smile on his face, he had always been good at ruffling peoples feathers till they did what needed to be done. After all, he had only lost the war to the Turks because of numbers, not in fighting spirit. She put her bags down and tapped the lead girl, waiting till she had turned before slapping the girl in the face. Alucards' face spilt into a grin, quickly moving out of the group as they released him to form a semi-circle around Lina and the leader. The lead girl was so shocked she hadn't even turned her head back. Lina stepped back slightly; amazed she had just done that. The slap hadn't even been that strong, more of a tap but certainly was enough for the blonde to grow red in the face with anger. Before Lina could stop herself she was talking.
"Keep your dirty hands off my boyfriend whore." She bit her tongue the minute that escaped her mouth, knowing Alucard would bug her about this later. The blonde sized her up, making Lina feel subconscious about her body once again.
"Like a guy like him would ever want a girl like you." Lina shifted uncomfortably, feeling like a lamb for the slaughter. But even she was shocked when Alucard wrapped his arms around her and put his head on her shoulder, making it look like they really were a couple. Lina miraculously didn't blush, acting like it was natural for him to be draping over her like a curtain. He spoke to the other girls, turning Linas face towards his.
"Of course I want her; she keeps me entertained with her mind, not just her body." And with that he gave her a kiss, not going deeper then her lips but with enough vigor the other girl huffed and stalked off and her lackeys in tow. Once they were gone he still hadn't stopped kissing her, and she was in no hurry for this to end.
(Three Years Later…a large underground apartment in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)
Lina was laying in her bed, the medical equipment beeping as it monitored her heart rare and breathing. Steve was sitting in the chair at the end of her bed, looking exhausted. Lina had pushed a little boy out of the way of a barrage of bullets, taking most of them. He was thankful for the special equipment they had bought off the black market; she would have died if not for it. Standing up to stretch before heading off to wake Seth up for his shift of watching Lina, Steve noticed a shoe box that was teasingly poking out of her closet. Double checking to make sure everyone was asleep; he silently retrieved the box and opened it. He saw a few random objects, but what caught his eye was a strip of pictures, containing Lina and an eerily handsome nineteen year old boy. Picking the photo strip up and examining it closer, he noticed how happy the two were, both with wide smiles. He turned it over, expecting to see some type of writing that would identify the boy but was disappointed to find none.
'Was he her boyfriend?' He shook his, showing her sleeping face the pictures.
"A friend of yours from London right?" He chuckled, about to put the picture back when he heard her voice speaking out softly.
"His name is Alucard. I fell in love with him after he saved my life. I was just dreaming about the day we took those, it was the only time he ever kissed me. I miss him so much." He nodded, not letting her half-lidded eyes see his grimace at her words. He felt as if she had just shot him in the stomach but he wouldn't say anything. 'What about all the times I've saved you?' He just handed her the picture and put the box back. She whispered a weak 'thank you, and sleep good' to him before putting the photos over her heart and falling back asleep. He slipped out of her room and into Seth's', waking him up and then going to bed himself.
(Next Night…Mission in a busy night club)
Steve made sure the safety was off as he entered the night club, Kyle right behind him. Kyle tapped his earpiece and motioned that he was taking the left side of the club, leaving him the right half. He slipped into the crowd, acting like he was one of the partygoers while keeping his eyes watchful for vampire activity. He spotted a man dancing with a woman, licking at her neck and slowly pulling her towards the dark shadowed nooks in the wall. Steve trying to look inconspicuous followed, never taking his eyes off the woman's neck to make sure he got there in time. Steve cursed as the vampire took the girl out a back door he hadn't noticed and quickly pursued them, tapping his earpiece to alert Kyle. 'No answer, shit.' But that didn't matter, the woman came walking past him, no marks on her neck and seemingly dazed. It was a trap and he couldn't get back up, he started heading back, turning only to come face to face with a tall vampire in white holding a deck of cards. Stepping back he realized he was surrounded.
"Don't worry kid, we aren't going to eat you. We just want to talk. You have a thing for that Lina girl don't you. Yes Steve, we know your names, but that's not what we are discussing. Your little girlfriend has something we want, and we really don't feel like killing such a pretty little fighter just for some papers. These papers contain a spell that could make all our weaknesses things of the past, I'm sure she's shown you them. If you can get them for us, we'll spare her life and maybe even invite you to join our ranks. How's that sound kid?" Steve was stock still, a shiver running up and down his spine as the tall vampire circled him, all the while shuffling the cards.
"She's not my girlfriend. She's already in love with someone else." Steve didn't realize he had just said that, the vampire had somehow forced it out of him. A card was thrown and Steve cursed as the bullet he had shot was sliced clean in half. The vampire laughed, circling closer.
"If you get us those papers, and if you join us, she could be all yours; mind, body, and even her very soul." Steve looked down at the card the vampire was offering him.
"If I don't accept right now, will you kill me?" The vampire smiled, holding his hand up and motioning for the rest of the vampires in the shadows to clear a path for him to get back into the club.
"No, that wouldn't reflect very well with my superiors, they want you to live. Just think about it kid." He stuffed the card into Steve's packet and suddenly all of the vampires were gone. Steve just turned around and went back in the club staring at the card; it was an eye with a drop of blood and a strange saying. 'What am I going to do?' He smiled as he made up his mind, from now on he would have to be extra careful on field missions.
Hope this wets your whistle for more of this story. If I get no reviews, I will stop all writing of this story till I do. But don't let my threats make you feel forced to review.
