Chapter 13: The Count, the Lioness and the Dragon.
They sailed all through the night, Alucard picking up speed once his master had dozed off by his side. He was currently trying to make it to the Arabian Sea and to the Persian Gulf, to Irak, though on a yellow, rubber pontoon, he wasn't making good time.
When Mina's head drooped down to rest on his shoulder he did not protest, appreciating the warmth and softness of her human body. He raised an arm and awkwardly placed it over her warm shoulders, wondering why the hell he was acting this way in the first place. His master unknowingly cuddled closer to him, murmuring another man's name. Well…that was sure a put off.
In the morning, she was cranky and he was hungry, so after some harsh words on both accounts, some hissing and a bitchslap, they sat on opposite sides of the pontoon, sulking in the hot sun. After a while, Alucard, without asking permission, climbed into his coffin and slammed the lid shut.
...0...
"Let me change you…"his voice shook and his breath was labored.
"No." Integra kissed his chest, making the vampire below her shudder.
"P-please…"he gripped her shirt so tightly, it ripped at the seams. He looked down to see the woman work on his belt and loosen his trousers. She kissed the dip of his hip. It was taking a very large amount of control to keep from grabbing her. Integra sighed.
"Is spending the remaining time with me not enough?"
"I want you forever…" he whispered heatedly, pulling her up to kiss her neck. Alucard smoothed his tongue along her pulsing artery.
"Forever is a very long time." She murmured softly as his affections became more intense.
"I can make you a Queen. You will have power beyond imaginable, strength…Me. My Countess…" Kissing her hard, the NoLife King tried to force her to forget all her apprehensions. She turned away.
"Ahh…A-And walk forever in the night without peace? Forsake my religion, the redemption of my soul?"Integra's voice was strangled but her mind was still sharp. She raised herself on her elbows, looking down into his pained face. Hellsing cupped his cheeks.
"Do you love me?" she asked quietly, looking hesitantly into his sad eyes.
"Don't do this…You're trying to use my feelings for you against me…You want to force me into abiding by your wishes."
"You know I could just order you."
"Would you?" He smiled sadly "What about your love for me?"
Integra huffed and tried to sit up but the vampire pulled her close and then rolled on top of her womanly form, sinking his hands into her blonde hair and devouring her lips.
"Will we forever argue about this? If you weren't so bloody stubborn, we could be making love right now." Integra grumbled between kisses, running her hands down his firm back.
"If you wouldn't be so stubborn, we could be making love forever, if it so pleased you." He moved against her legs provokingly.
"I won't agree."
"Then I won't either." Alucard retorted smugly. Integra made an annoyed face and involuntarily rocked against him, running her nails lightly up his back.
"Oh?"
"Not…fair." He answered in a strained voice, looking into Integra's eye, pleading with her.
Their farce lasted all evening…and one week longer, until Alucard, to his unending misery, finally gave up and realized that being able to make love with Sir Integra Hellsing for a small part of forever, was the lesser of two evils.
...0...
"Goodnight, you bloody git." Mina had snarled and heaved her legs up on the wood, using it as a footstool. She took another swing from her bottle, horrified that her only drink supply was quickly coming to an end.
She was thirsty. She was hungry. Her stomach growled for the hundredth time that evening. She had a silver knife strapped to her calf, but what would she manage to do with it except pop the rubber floater or feed the goddamned vampire? She lost her shoes, she lost her gun; she couldn't fish…What she would give for a bit of sushi right about now…
Alucard's eyes snapped open when the sun began to set. He felt dreary, but he knew he could not neglect his new master for much longer. Besides, it wasn't like he could go back to sleep after having another dream-memory about Integra. He opened the coffin's lid and stretched.
"Sleep well?" Mina growled at him. Her feet were soaking in the ocean water and she held her arms under her head. Her hair was slightly wet, so he knew she had gone for a swim. She had thrown her jacket to the side and rolled up her pant legs up to her knees.
If she noticed his bloodshot eyes, she didn't say anything.
"I'm hungry." He grumbled "I'll have to feed longer if you don't give me your blood now."
"You lasted 20 years in a basement." She snapped back.
"You're hungry too…I propose a trade."
Mina snorted but heaved herself up on her good elbow and eyed him suspiciously.
"Let me drink your blood. I'll…hunt for you."
"No way." She shook her head "I can just force you to do it."
Alucard shook his head, fighting a smile.
"No. You're too weak. I won't acknowledge your order."
"Won't be able to or just won't want to?" her voice was dangerously low.
"Make a guess."
She almost hissed at him, but covered it up with a vehement snarl. Then she got up on her knees and ripped out the little silver knife from its sheath strapped to her calf. She swiped it against her left wrist lightly and a small gash appeared.
Alucard's eyes went wide with hunger and before the gathering blood spilt from her hand, he caught it with his tongue, and then latched onto the wound.
"Don't' you dare bite me, Servant."
He glared up at her and was surprised to see her flushed face and panicky eyes. Alucard ran his lips along her flesh and Mina trembled with pleasure.
This was the most intimate thing she had ever experienced. Her body betrayed how she was feeling as Goosebumps covered her arm and she desperately squeezed her knees together, trying to rid herself of the ache between her legs. She didn't like it. Mina bit her lip to quell a low moan.
She didn't like feeling these things, these deliciously sinful feelings… they made her remember. She knew he could feel what she was feeling, because she could sense his enjoyment.
"Relax, Mina" Alucard purred "You're distress is ruining the delicious taste of your blood."
She groaned, trying to pull her wrist free, face turning maroon. God, it felt like he was touching her but his hands didn't stray from her limb. The vampire just caressed her arm soothingly. Her body began trembling with want.
He licked at the drying blood, frustrated that his meal was being cut short, but she would notice if he took the knife to probe at her wrist. They looked each other in the eye. Docile chocolate faced glowing, blood red eyes. It was like they were testing their new found intimacy.
Alucard placed a humble kiss on her skin, which almost had Harker jumping out of the pontoon, back into the water. She tried to rip her hand away but he held her firmly and reached for his tattered neck tie. Mina then noticed that the material was the same color of her bandages. Alucard ripped a piece off with his teeth, staring her straight in the eye. It was so damn sexy, it gave Mina the vapors. And she didn't want to be thinking about her servant that way. It was wrong on so, so many levels…
He wrapped it gently around her wrist and tied the material tightly, smirking down at her. His form seemed to grow thanks to the refreshment of her blood.
"Why, thank you, Master."
"Shut up and get fishing." Harker rasped turning away from him having handed him some rope. Alucard blinked.
"What is this for?"
"Well, how do you expect to catch a tuna on a bloody pontoon? You have to dive in. Once you catch something, tug and I'll pull you up. You have great agility, so I'm not worried you won't be able to handle a little fishy."
Alucard looked at her flabbergasted.
An hour later, in the remainder of the pinkish-light of the sunset, Mina and Alucard sat side by side, staring at the two flopping herrings.
"Have you ever guttered a fish before?" asked the vampire
"No." Mina sighed, watching the poor fish swallow desperately "I assumed you would cook them for me?"
He gave her a funny look.
"I can't cook on a pontoon."
"…Can you make sushi?" she asked hopefully.
"What is that?"
Mina face-palmed. She couldn't hold it against him really. He had been dead for more than five hundred years. And when he was Count, he probably ate venison and roasted peacocks over a fire.
"It's…it's like really, really thin plasters of fish meat with rice. Usually the fish is marinated or seasoned, but it is raw. It's very good when done well."
After a lot of fussing, shouting, cutting, Mina finally got her sushi placed strategically on Alucard's coffin lid, sprinkled with salt scrubbed off of the pontoon's dry edges. It would have been sickening to a normal person. But she was hungry and in her high school days, Mina had stomached weirder things. She washed it down with alcohol.
They sailed under the stars, the floater zipping towards the closest land. The woman was bundled up in Alucard's coat again and he sat by his coffin patting the wood apologetically as she feasted on top of it.
"How is it?" he asked, not really caring about her answer. He wasn't a damned babysitter or cook for any matter and she was eating on the lid of his Last Domain! Such impudence!
"Surprisingly edible. Thank you for cutting it so expertly. Needs more salt, though." She said, taking a last swing out of the bottle.
...0...
"I love you…" she murmured as Alex held her protectively before the fire place of his parent's cottage. They had managed a short get-away before their exams, to take a breather, before engaging in battle with Law. The man brought her hand up to his face and kissed the inside of her palm lightly in answer.
"I'm so glad you convinced your parents to let us stay. Mine…well, you know they haven't been getting along since Father told Mum about Amelia…but it isn't like she didn't already know, I mean he had been cheating on us since I was, like, five." Her voice was livid.
"Will, don't think about it…it's their problem, their marriage. Let's just think about us, huh? We're here together…" he smiled and turned her a bit till she rolled to him on the couch. "Toasty warm…" he kissed her on the cheeks "…Alone…" his voice turned into a seductive purr as he kissed her forehead and then lowered his lips to hers, brushing his mouth against her parted mouth "Will…"
And then she remembered kisses that were different, cold and frightening.
"You weren't giving him any, so I decided to!"
"I was never planning on marrying you!"
...0...
Mina shot straight up, eyes wide and breath labored. The quick movement made her whole body burn like it was on fire and she momentarily rubbed her fingers, which she had clenched into fists painfully.
She hid her face in her hands and shuddered.
"Hoh…Bad dream?" Alucard asked from his perch atop his coffin. His hair whipped around madly in the harsh wind. She lay down to hide herself from the splattering water, covering her frame with the vampire's duster. They were moving really fast again.
"I need my pills…I can't believe you switched them with tic tacs." She grumbled. She hadn't even wondered at the slight citrusy taste as she swallowed!
"I was curious as to your reaction. Now, I know."
"What? That I weep in my sleep?" Mina hissed embarrassed. Normally, if she didn't take her medication, she wouldn't sleep at all. The young Harker was just so tired, that she couldn't help it. Maybe it was the stress or the ocean and being outdoors, she didn't know. What she did know was that the moment she fell asleep, she would dream. Almost always, they weren't pleasant dreams. The pills knocked her out cold. Her mother and the doctor warned her that this was dangerous, but she was careful, never increased the dosage, and made regular checkups.
He didn't answer her, but just stared on to the horizon.
"There's…Something is approaching us. Fast." Alucard furrowed his brow; he could clearly see a ship of some sorts heading their way.
"A ship? O jolly good!" Mina cried, cupping her hands over her eyes and looking to where he was. She could see it approach after a couple of minutes. "I bet they are a rescue team! This is marvelous, I'm famished!"
"Don't get your hopes up yet, Master. There's something bizarre about that ship…It's a warship."
Like a mirage, the battleship appeared before them, surrounded by swirling mists, dark yet luminous like a ghost ship.
"I can't feel anything, any life. It is a void." Alucard whispered to her, maneuvering in front of his Master and coffin.
The ship slowly anchored, the propellers moving backwards. It aligned itself to the rubber floater. Mina scrunched up her eyes to see the vessel better and swore unladylike. It had the flag of the Republic of China…and a whole lot of red flags and stars in general.
"Chinese…More communists…" she saw someone standing on deck in the shadows and waved friendlily.
"Wan shang hao! Ni hao ma1?" she smiled widely. A smile was international right? Alucard was blocking her from anything that could come their way but even without seeing his face she knew he was amused.
'I learnt it from a telly commercial.'
'Well, whatever it means, I don't think it will help much. The ship if full of ghouls.'
The person that came out of the shadows to greet them was a short but lean middle-aged Chinese man. His Asian features were truly lovely, dark eyes set in a perfect face. The whole image was ruined though, the moment he smiled back, exposing pointy, bloodied fangs.
"Huan Ying, Huan Ying2." He said and snapped his fingers. A chorus of moans repeated his welcome.
Immediately an army of ghouls moved in front of him, barring all kinds of heavy guns, from rifles and machine guns to shot guns, all pointing at the duo on the yellow pontoon.
'I need blood.' Alucard hissed at the woman behind him and this time there was no discussion. Mina shot out from behind the coffin like a newborn vampire and locking eyes with Alucard, wrenched off the bandage on her left wrist. She bit into her wounded wrist hard and spit out her own flesh. Harker was too shocked, too scared to even realize the pain.
"Drink!" she snarled
In the split second it took for the other vampire to give the execution order, Alucard pulled Mina tightly against his cold hard body and summoned all of his familiars to keep their vessel safe. He could just jump out of the floater and turn to mist; his master however, could not. And he needed his damned coffin!
The ghouls shot, Mina screamed in terror and Alucard stood on his head to do whatever he could to keep the pontoon afloat. Black shadows enveloped them, bullets disappearing in their depths, as the vampire drank her blood.
Wilhelmina felt lightheaded and the emotions she and he felt began to blur together. Pleasure and pain, fear and elation, until she became so weak, Alucard had to embrace her and hold her up.
It almost felt as if he was ripping a part of her soul from her3, drinking away her life force, turning her into the same shadowed mass he was.
The Nosferatu invaded her mind and for once, he could see everything clearly.
Every emotion Mina had ever felt, her love, her fear, all for some snotty boy, who had humiliated her, betrayed her and made her distrust and fear the touch of a man.
He saw her feelings of loyalty, admiration and love for her family, for Integra…and even her carefully hidden dreams: Light, curly haired cherubs held to her heart, children she drove to school and football practice. A caring husband, who kissed her when he came home and held her in her sleep. Simple things, happiness that came from living your life alongside those you cherish:
Security, warmth and love, the longing for a family.
Everything blurred and yet everything was so sharp and clear…
Alucard tore himself away from Harker when he felt her heartbeat slow. His Master lay limply in his arms, naked to his prodding mind.
Their closeness had been absolute, maddening torture for her. Mina was forced to experience every physically and emotionally painful event of her life once more as Alucard engraved it all into his memory. She felt dirty, shamed and so small and helpless. Her mind was in shambles, defenses destroyed, she was going insane…
"I'm sorry." he said, nearly shocking himself by his own gentle words as he tied the bandage back on her tattered wrist.
The vampire laid her down in his floating coffin and smirked up to the ghouls on the warship's deck. Eyes glowing, Alucard jumped up high above the vessel and pulled out his Casull and Djed, that formed from his shadows, coming down hard on the monsters on deck. They must have been the old crew, by the looks of their tattered uniforms. Ghouls fell but more just appeared in their place, so he escaped the tight circle they were enclosing him in and set off to find the master vampire. He was already waiting for him, eastern-styled sword in one hand and machine gun in the other.
The night was lit up by explosions and sparks that came from steel on steel contact. Both vampires shot and blocked and parried, and when Alucard was about to land the finishing blow, the other monster speared him through his non-existing heart with the barrel of his gun and then beheaded him.
Alucard's head fell to the ground and the ghouls immediately threw themselves for the tasty treat.
"Mai4!" bellowed the Chinese vampire, forbidding the ghouls from touching it and then kicking the head off the ship. If this was baseball, it would have been a homerun… He walked up to the edge of the starboard side and looked down at the drifting coffin with Mina inside.
"Hmm. Pretty girl.' He scratched his head with the barrel of the revolver he had pulled out of his coat and then pointed it at her. "Shame, really…Zhai Jien5."
Just as he was going to pull the trigger, a hand shot through his chest, piercing his heart. Alucard squeezed the dead organ in his fist, turning it into a pulp. The vampire managed to turn his head to the side to see that instead of a head his opponent had a dark shadowy mass over his shoulders.
"Did you really think staking and head lopping would work against me?"
The other vampire only gave a gurgled groan and toppled to the ground, reduced to bloody remains, which immediately were absorbed into the towering Count's form.
...0...
Mina awoke terribly weak and in pain. She yelped and tried to move but a pair of fairly warm hands held her still.
"Don't move." a familiar voice ordered.
"A-Alu?" she tried to speak but something in her mouth prevented it.
"Don't talk either. Just…don't do anything for a while. You're safe, I'm here. We're on the ship and we're sailing."
Mina realized that she had been placed in a recovery position. What was in her mouth was blood. She spit it out disgusted and tried to calm herself with deep breaths. She felt something cold brush her head and realized that Alucard was pressing his palm to her fiery forehead. She sighed with relief.
"You went into hypovolemic shock. You bled severally and your heart stopped beating for a moment. I gave you CPR and restored your circulation and breathing6." His voice was a soft murmur and she fell asleep listening to him.
Now when she woke up, Wilhelmina knew her head and legs, along with her aching arm had been placed higher than her middle. She also felt toasty warm.
"I found the doctors ward and I gave you some morphine half an hour ago." Alucard said to her, placing his cool palm on her forehead again. It helped with the pain. "I also put some loose bandages on your wrist instead of my neck tie, which I used to stop the blood flow from your veins. It has clotted up nicely, but don't move your arm. It doesn't seem bad enough to need more stitches, though only by a miracle. If you move your wrist, it might get severally damaged."
'Yes, Doc.' She whispered through her thoughts 'Tell me what happened. Only…slowly, please.'
'You should wait till you get a minimal amount of strength back…'
'Don't treat me like a little girl! If I won't be able to handle it, I'll ask you to shut up, now, start talking!' Mina winced. Even shouting in her thoughts hurt.
"Roger, My Master." Alucard smiled looking into her bleary eyes. He passed her a dusty water bottle with a bending straw. She flushed darkly but sucked the cold liquid into her mouth. This was humiliating and…and it was entirely his fault!
"The C.R.O.W. Dragon 974 battleship, we are currently sailing to the mouth of the Arabian Gulf, had been taken hostage by an unknown, to Chinese Intelligence, enemy. One month ago it disappeared off radars and now we know that the captain, the one who so graciously greeted you, along with a couple of old sea wolves bailed on the Chinese People's Army." He switched hands on her forehead. Mina murmured in appeal. "They turned the crew into ghouls and located themselves at strategic points on the pacific and Indian Oceans. They are with the soviets, which came knocking to our door."
'What was their objective? To capture us?'
"Yes. Their main goal was to capture and kill us, the Hellsing Organization being a direct threat to their interests. The Chinese reds…the more radical ones have joined in the plan of overcoming the West."
'Is this an ordinary military conquest?'
"Nu." He declined in Romanian and then grinned ferally "I was right, they are werewolves."
'So they want to enslave humans, make us into their meat dishes and additionally fill the world with happy headlines of freedom for the working class, equality and prosperity?'
"Da, and destroy the monarchy as well."
'Oh, goody…' Mina growled to him looking around the room. It was the first time she noticed where she was.
They were in the control room by the looks of the large amount of screens and machinery. Mina scrunched up her nose after finally understanding where the light rotting scent came from. There was dried blood on the walls and broken glass windows. There was also a limb or two sown over the floor.
"If it makes you feel better, I sent the other warships little presents."
Harker raised her brow, asking him silently to continue. Alucard gave her a shit-eating grin.
"I nuked them. The vessel was loaded with small atomic warheads. The banned kind. The vampire I killed had a fair amount of information on how to coordinate this ship, so working the right buttons was no problem."
'I should be worrying about the ecosystem but truly, right this moment; I don't give a flying fuck. Maybe three eyed fish will become popular thanks to you.' She smiled slightly at the vampire. He updated her on nearly everything and though her head was killing her and she felt slightly nauseous, Mina just sipped her water and asked in a rough whisper, testing her voice.
"So why are we sailing to Irak?"
"I believe they were the ones who shot us down. Let's crash the port, retaliate, kill them all and borrow a plane to get to Moscow."
"No to all except borrowing a plane . Did you find out who is behind this? They must have a leader…"
"Sadly, no. They are hiding extremely well. It's very strange…Usually when you declare a war, it is crucial to show yourself to your opponents, otherwise, it is just a guerilla." Alucard fell silent, remembering the past. After a while, the silence began to feel awkward.
He had saved her life again and Mina had fed him her blood, giving Alucard access to her private thoughts. It's not like either of them forgot what had happened, what was learned…
"Ah, six hundred years of experience." Mina coughed, trying to clear the air. Alucard looked at her from the corner of his eye, trying to test her mood.
"I almost turned you, Master. Forgive me, I had no right to greedily take from you."
"You needed the blood." Mina sighed. She looked seriously into his eyes "Everything you learned about me shall stay between us and only us. Do you understand, Servant?" he gave her an odd look. Mina couldn't hold his gaze any longer and let her eyes fall, to stubbornly glare at the warm blanket she was smothered with.
"Of course, my Master." He answered softly.
*I 3 China! ^^ The country's been around for over 3000 years, think of the sightseeing! Again, these are Mina's views. Damn…she's starting to be a real short-sighted, narrow minded bitch, isn't she?
I've got to do something about that. Maybe I should put less of my pissy character into her character. Gomenasai Minna! ; (
*And really, we learn a lot about CPR in school and stuff, but what do you do when you CAN'T call an ambulance afterwards. Is the patient/almost-dead man really fine after his or her heart stopped beating for x seconds? .
*Music: Cruel Black Dove Love My Way, Mage Era, Breaking Benjamin Lights Out,
1 (Chinese) Good evening, How are you doing?
2 (Chinese) Welcome.
3 Integra and Victoria discuss this in Hellsing OVA 8, where Hellsing explains that by drinking a person's blood, a vampire becomes the owner of their thoughts and feelings and even their life.
4 (Chinese)I really hope that means: no, or halt. I was also thinking about Bu, which means no, but it sounds commical^^
5 (Chinese) probably wrote it wrong. But I meant: good bye.
6 H. shock-due to extreme blood loss. Also, what does one do after a successfully performed CPR? Does the patient-whose-heart-stopped get back up as if nothing happened?