Chapter 30
To those who remember me mentioning those 22 chapters to come regarding the evolution of Seras and Vlad's relationship a couple of chapters back, they just turned into about 27-28. I know I should finish the two or so chapters I have left until I get to the start of that whole saga, but I just got a few more ideas, a few more good songs for inspiration and they all fit in so well with the rest of the plot that I couldn't leave them out. They just made it all the more interesting at least in my opinion.
I'll make sure to finish them as soon as possible and hopefully post again by the end of the month.
Enjoy. And I hope I got all the bugs out.
Chapter 30
"I'm curious little one, what deal have you made with the angel of death?" the young prince asks her while sitting on a chair in front of her. The latter was turned so that the backrest was to his chest and he comfortably rested both of his hands on top of it in a crossed position. His chin rested atop and his legs swung loosely on either side of the chair. Seras on the other hand sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him once the two had retreated to the privacy of their room away from the others.
"Would it make a difference if I didn't tell you?" She tells him letting her head drop in her right palm, the elbow resting on top of her knee. Three times now and she still couldn't get it right. The kitten came so easily, almost like breathing. It was everything else that hurt. She couldn't find the wolf form any longer. And yet she clearly felt him especially when anger got the best of her.
"The wolf came just as easily Seras, close your eyes." he softly tells her with great patience choosing to let his unanswered question slip by for the moment.
"I needed to kill." She quickly responds but then lowers her voice and her gaze as well. "And I was angry...and hungry…I…"
"You're hungry now little one." Though he contradicts her his tone is in no way scolding or annoyed with her refusal to drink. This time it was different, it wasn't a matter of choice any longer. Despite having fed of him not long ago she has yet to be thoroughly satisfied. "And I'm the last person in the world that needs saving draculina. That should never be your motivation."
"I know." She sighs closing her eyes dropping her head. Now that he mentioned, the hunger seemed to return all the more strongly.
"Today or tomorrow, you'll have to drink again."
"I'll be fine." She tells him with great conviction.
"In the twenty or so years locked in the basement I felt hunger like never before. It eats at your mind. The very though of fresh, warm crimson trickling down your throat, dripping from your chin…"
"Please don't." she pleads fisting her hands tightly.
"The walls and the door had barriers to keep me in. The entire room was designed to lock me away. I broke my hand punching though the stone to get out, my bones to rip through that door and chains again and again and as the years passed lost my voice screaming and cursing the entire Hellsing bloodline." His tone then lowers turning deadly serious. "What walls will hold you Seras? When hunger drives you mad beyond reason."
"You will hold me!" She immediately tells him raising her head, almost screaming the words in his face. "And it will be enough because I'd never…" her voice fails her, distress shining in her eyes as she tires searching for the right words.
"Never what little one?" his tone is the soothing comfort she needs to put her restlessness aside and calm the storm within her soul.
"Hurt you." She silently whispers raising her eyes to meet his soft gaze. His chin yet rests atop his forearms, his eyes half lidded, raven bangs and somewhat longer forelocks framing his young face so beautifully.
"I trust you…" he tells her in an equally soft and gentle tone. It may have taken years, hundreds of years, pain and bloodshed, but he finally learned to trust. And trust he did, with every fiber of his being. For the fist time in a long time, he trusted those beautiful eyes staring back him whether they were crimson or blue. The only problem lay with everyone else. "But the rest won't be as accepting. We are vampires Seras, in the end."
"I won't touch them." She interrupts him before he can finish. I promise.
"Then close your eyes." He whispers in return after than short moment of comforting silence. "And let go."
Doing as told Seras closes her eyes and relaxes her body letting the shadows rise from under her yet again. They rose surely but slowly and then…
Meow…
The kitten was beautiful; a white light amongst a mass of pure darkness. And yet she was too ashamed to lift her head and ears and him calling her name once it was done was like a death blow. She had failed again. The wolf still escaped her.
Her eyes were closed and her little body tense, a fact made worse by his innocent gesture of picking her up. She hisses at the feel of his hands upon her and her claws extend digging into the wooden floor beneath her thus trying to stop him. Shame made her angry and anger turned her fur black and made her grow. More shadows erupted like the flames of a violent fire and consumed her whole pushing him back and away from her till there was no trace of the small white bundle and in its place stood a massive wolf with fur as dark and bristled as the blackest night. The creature towered like a giant over the place the tiny kitten had once held. The large muzzle emerged first, jaws tight and set and a low pitched growl and deep rumble emerging from her enlarged ribcage. Searing red eyes ablaze with hellfire came out next and with them a set of two matching large paws with claws that dug and scratched at the wooden floor.
"Not good enough." Distain filled his voice and words and on queue the creature opened her mouth wide in a hellish anger filled snarl that shook the entire room like an earthquake causing both walls and wooden floorboards to screech. The creature comes forth in its entirety.
Anger was beyond beautiful.
"Now sit." He purrs in satisfaction standing but a humble child before a vicious monster. The wolf obeys and crouches down on all fours, her chest still rumbling and ears twitching. "And change draculina. See what you wish to become."
The large body dissolved evaporating like steam from a boiling pot of water. Without warning…gold…bright and vibrant like the sun emerged like diamonds from crushed coal and the thick mass of black surrounding her. Vlad takes a step back letting the mass retreat aside before walking the distance and approaching the kneeling figure in front of him whose upper body was hunched over her knees and whose arms were tucked in between her chest and thighs. Golden hair long and curly a bit like his covered her head and back like a large silken veil all traces of silver gone from it. The body was small, that of a child's, with the sleeves of her crimson shirt now far too long for her arms and her pants even longer on her legs. The shirt itself fell over her right shoulder along with the bra strap and a soft sound passes her lips as though waking from a dream.
The prince knelt in front of his draculina sinking his hands into the cloud like mass of golden silk to find the contours of her face cup her cheek and gently raise her head.
Now sit.
Master's words were low and the submissive part of her demon felt the utter need to comply with his demand in any way possible.
And change draculina.
The words caressed her ears like a soft summer breeze soothing her black fur. The hurt she felt as her body changed, the bone breaking and reforming, muscles stretching, no longer mattered; nothing mattered, just his voice. And so her body shifted a second time and she pictured herself a human, felt herself become human once more. Paws turned into hands and fingers, muscle mass decreased and bones refitted themselves into a much smaller and compact size.
Silence descended and a moment later the wooden floorboards gave of a light creek as two warm hands cupped her cheeks raising her face. Her eyelids flutter open and she finds tender blue eyes starring into hers with great pride once her vision clears.
"Glorious." He hotly whispers against her mouth pulling his lips form hers slowly.
7 year old Seras starred back, eyes as blue as the sky just as the day they first met at the orphanage. The sole difference was the length and curls now present in her long hair easily reaching the middle of her back instead of the short spiky haircut she bore that first time.
.
.
The low pitched growl reverberated through the entire small church shaking the walls and its very foundation. The cup of tea Integra was drinking from tipped over on the coffee table in the living room spilling the remainder of the tea onto the small plate it sat on. The knight sat with Walter and the elder priest on the couch, the latter on the living chair reading the last few chapters of his book before his sermon would start in about two hours time. The young man was just coming back with Nathaniel from the kitchen when the roar came scaring the later, making him back up into the doorframe. Immediate silence fell afterwards for a good few seconds and then the baby's cries echoed from the upper floor. All three pairs of eyes moved upward looking at the stairs except for one who kept reading his book calmly as though nothing happened.
"Did you say something?" he poses the question to Integra without turning his attention away from his book. His only gesture is to reach up with his left hand and slightly adjust the volume to his hearing aid. She doesn't answer and instead turns her head to look over at Walter in a way that spoke of a dreaded question she almost wished to she wouldn't have to ask out loud. He in turn only nods and starts walking forward towards the stairway even as Nathaniel's frightened voice spills a terrified 'What was that?' behind him.
A low pitched growl was left behind the terror inspiring howl and it reverberated of the halls of the second floor like a deeply resonating purr.
"Walter?" Integra speaks up to which he only nods a second time. "Stay here." He whispers moving forward. Yet moving up the stairs, before he reaches the small landing of the stairway, the sound of a door opening reaches his ears. Footsteps follow immediately after and the young prince emerges from his room stopping in front of the open doorway meeting Walter's gaze. The two exchange a mere glance before the boy smiles, but does not get a chance to utter much after that.
"What did you do?" Integra immediately questions raising the tone of her voice while quickly crossing the room in the span of a few short and hurried steps. The cup of tea is left forgotten and her tone is angry and accusatory; she'd barely gotten her little girl to sleep not half an hour ago.
"I have done nothing my master." The same mocking tone comes again. "Just experimenting."
"Where the hell is she?" she sighs in annoyance holding in her anger by tightly clenching her right fist as she reached the foot of the stairs. She knows who's at fault even without being told. And if he's experimenting then it's only far too clear whose hands are actually getting dirty. And just as she utters those words a black tendril crosses the hall to his left coming from the baby's room, the door closing behind her with a soft click, and touches the floor behind the raven haired boy shifting a new. Surprisingly for everyone, there is no large figure to emerge form behind the prince, but a small pale hand taking hold of the right side of his sweater over his hip. The hand is clad in a caramel colored mohair sweater with sleeves far longer than the arm it covered making it almost hide her entire hand leaving only the lower half of her fingers in plain sight. And as the small figure partially stepped into view from behind the boy, they could see the sweater almost reach her knees covering the dark leggings underneath. Her boots shrunk to size, but other than that hey remained the same. The sweater fell of her shoulders revealing the black turtleneck blouse underneath. Long golden hair, no longer a mixed match of silver and yellow, in loose curls fell over her right shoulder and down her back reaching her hips. Her irises were a vibrant crimson, her skin a light pale shade to somewhat hide the immortal look she bore. She looked just like any human child.
"Oh my God." Integra whispers at the sight of the little girl, eyes wide in wonder as she brings her right hand in front of her mouth.
"God's not as fun." The prince chuckles lightly with a bright and cunning smile looking down at the child and patting her head affectionately.
Flashback
"Glorious." He hotly whispers against her mouth slowly pulling his lips form hers.
7 year old Seras starred back, eyes as blue as the sky just as the day they first met at the orphanage. The sole difference was the length and curls now present in her long hair easily reaching the middle of her back instead of the short spiky haircut she bore that first time.
"You need different clothes little one." Vlad tells her with a smile watching as the clothing covering her small body disappears and new pieces take their place in the blink of an eye. Both can hear the infant crying by now and with a slight nod the prince gives her quick permission to calm her down. It wouldn't take her long to get the child to sleep once more; her mind was easily influenced at this age.
He's left standing alone still kneeling on the floor as her body disappears in a black mist tending to child. Her mother would have a fit otherwise.
Flashback end
His eyes are alit with amusement and the gesture he makes is simple. At the same time Seras steps forward placing her right hand on the wooden railing while using her left to grab hold of his sweater once more, replacing the right. She smiles in return slightly tilting her head to the left and the sheer innocent manner of her gesture prompts the angel into a hard laughing fit he can no longer control. And he kept on laughing even as he turned his back to the two children and walked passing Integra and heading back to the couch. There he took a seat placing his arms on the backrest and crossing his legs. The smile was still on his lips, his laugh a deep chuckle. Oh but it was hilarious.
"Best one yet." He says while gazing across the room towards the two children coming down the stairs. "The girl fighting alongside me was amusing, but this is priceless."
"Walter!" Integra calls his name finally coming out of the shock induced by that unnaturally freaky sight, but the latter speaks again interrupting her.
"And is this your grand idea for entering into Iscariot's hands? Because if so," he pauses once the two reach the table in front of the couch passing Integra on their way down. Seras still held onto the boy's sweater, yet had her right hand brought up to her lips. The long sleeves covered both her hands, her hair was falling over her shoulder and her bangs fell over her eyes hiding them beautifully. She was like porcelain doll, a perfect china doll. Walter finally stops laughing and brings his arms down resting them on his knees while leaning forward. "It might just work." He reaches out with his right hand gesturing to Integra to come closer after which he silently tells her with a simple nod of the head to take a seat on the couch beside him. "Come here if only for a moment." He whispers telling her with just those words not to be afraid or worried about their daughter while at the same time letting her know he would not be stopping her from checking on the small infant. "As irresponsible as the vampire is, his childe is not." His head then turns back on Seras. "Am I not right little one?" the amusement is still there in the subtle curl of his lips and the light chuckle that somehow finds a way to slip passed his lips. He gazes upon the small little girl whose gaze did not meet his but innocently looked up at her master. Amusing indeed. She looked incredibly innocent, beautiful. A doll no mortal would dare resist or think of harming, yet at the same time the perfect bait to lure prey to its death.
"What have you done you stupid vampire?" the knight sighs pinching the bridge of her nose with her right hand to control her raging anger.
"Just," he briefly pauses. "Experimenting my master. As I said, nothing more." He emphasizes that one word with great satisfaction. And his foreign Romanian accent made it all the more real.
"Heinkel knows her face. "Walter speaks up voicing one of her possible concerns.
"She's orphaned." Vlad replies offering the same reply he himself had once received from the old man regarding Seras's past decades ago.
"Yes, and you killed her." Walter adds reminding him of the rest of said conversation.
"I did. She doesn't exist. Then why worry?"
"Because a wolf doesn't forget his favorite lamb."
"Neither does a monster." Vlad says with a smirk that puts a definite end to the discussion. Neither does a monster. And what better monster could there be than an innocent little girl?
.
.
With a little time before the 6 o'clock mass started all the residents of the small chapel made their way in the adjacent chapel; all except for the two young children who instead of staying warm by the fire were walking through the sown outside in the small garden behind the chapel. Though their coats and scarves kept them warm flakes of snow adorned their hair. They walked side by side though Seras's manner of walking was far more light and happy as she watched her own two feet sink into the freshly layer of snow all the way down to her ankles. She was smiling and laughing just like any real child her age.
"Seras…" the prince whispers, his hands in his pockets, while stopping behind her. He stops yet still looks at her smiling face halfway covered under the brown scarf she was wearing. Her cheeks tainted pink by the cold and the white pearls in her hair. His face, unlike hers wasn't covered, and the crimson scarf hung low circling the base of his throat.
He offers her a small smile before speaking further. "Are you still Seras little one?" he watches carefully as the smile drops from her face and her expressions becomes serious as she ponders her words over. She's several steps ahead of him and instead of immediately replying she runs back to his side stopping in front of him. She looks up meeting his gaze noticing the small hint of concern within his blue eyes. This little girl in front of him was acting so utterly different from what he knew. In the hour after her change she had moved from one adult to another playing with them as any child would. The most captivated of them all being the old priest who went on to tell her stories to which she laughed so freely, so joyfully, it made her seem almost surreal in his eyes. Had his draculina always been like this? Even in the first stages of her new life as a vampire she'd acted in her own childish way, but this was so very different. He'd never heard her laugh that way before.
"I can change…" Seras whispers lowering her gaze once the silence between them turn uncomfortable. "If this isn't good enough I can…"
"No." his tone is firm putting an end to all doubts she might have. At the same time he reaches out with his right hand placing it on top of her head caressing her hair softly. He offers her a smile lightly tilting his head to the left. Never.
"You are just different."
"I'm supposed to act like a child."
"You aren't acting Seras." The smile still graces his lips and his eyes no longer held that faraway look. And it was indeed a sight to see.
"I don't understand." She whispers, confusion blossoming in her crimson orbs.
"This is you." He tells her in return while kneeling in front of her on his right knee to reach her level as she was only tall enough to reach the middle of his chest otherwise. The gloves come of easy and his hands cup either side of her small face basking in the softness of her skin. "Before your world ended in blood. Before innocence was robbed."
The flash of recognition in her crimson eyes did not go unnoticed and her gaze immediately drops once more finding the snow and their feet far more interesting. Joy and laughter died with her mother and father. There was nothing to love at the orphanage. And no one to make her laugh. Giggles turned to silence and violence. There were no friends, just children making fun and hurting her. Sadness and loneliness.
"Maybe…" It's all she can voice out feeling his thumbs trace her cheek bones. Truth was she couldn't recall ever having smiled, laughed like that. It was something children do and she just needed to be one for a while.
"You were a beautiful child little one." The prince gently raises her head leaning in so that their foreheads touch. He smiles and nothing more is needed. The silence between them comforting once more. His eyes looked upon her with such pride. Peace overflowing.
Thus Seras smiles in return, dazzling and warm. Her eyelids drop, eyes closing, and her smile turns even brighter, lighter…and free. Truly beautiful.
"I'm here…" Vlad whispers brushing his lips against the upper right corner of her mouth, nuzzling his nose against hers.
"Can I stay like this a little longer?" she softly asks placing herself in his hand completely; her forehead resting against his accepting his touch. Could they stay in sweet state of blissful innocent just a little bit longer? Could they stay like that before Iscariot took it all away.
"We can." His hands continue to trace her face, fingers softly moving over her cheeks. The air grew colder around them and the first signs of snow fell from the sky around them. White flakes finding both gold and raven.
"But your eyes are the wrong color little one." He tells her moments later with one last lingering kiss over the corner of her mouth. "As beautiful as they are, you need to make them blue or Heinkel will know."
"Alright." Biting her lower lip she takes in a deep breath and for a moment nothing seems to happen until bright sky blue orbs stare him down from behind her small eyelashes.
"Excellent." The prince whispers most pleased brushing her left cheek with the back of his right hand.
Laughing Seras pulls away from his touch turning around and running through the snow trying to catch they many snowflakes descending from the heavens. The prince was left standing there watching her go with a smile on his face. She wouldn't be a child for much longer, why not let her enjoy it? After all there wasn't much els…
His train of though is suddenly broken by the cold snowball hitting his right temple in a direct shot sending pieces of snow flying everywhere. Laughter and giggles follow in its path. She wouldn't dare.
"Why you…" the second snowball, he didn't see that one coming either, as it hit him square in the chest splattering snow all over his black coat. Seras ran giggling immediately after and he followed quickly scooping up his own snowball. "You dare treat your prince this way. Get back here draculina."
He couldn't remember laughing this hard in his life. Snow went flying through the air as they ran after another in the snow. He really couldn't remember.
And it was the most beautiful think he would ever remember.
.
.
The door to the confession did not close fully after the last parishioner left the confessional once mass was over. It was nothing new and the small squeak the door subsequently made went unnoticed as the priest was gathering his things preparing himself to leave. Then, just as he was about to get up from his seat, he noticed the silhouette of the young boy behind the divider screen from the corner of his right eye. His raven hair was somewhat damp and even held a few more frozen flakes of snow which had not yet melted between the raven black strands.
"The night has taken your flock father." He whispers as his lips knowingly curl into an upward smirk. His tone sounds mocking and sarcastic, yet neither element upsets the priest nor discourages him from picking up the light layer of amusement hidden beneath.
"You're late." Paddy replies in kind, tone soft and understanding like that of a grandfather. "Mass was an hour ago." The prince smiles hearing those words. "I prefer a different from of worship, one less damaging to my immortal soul." And though he emphasizes that one word Paddy fails to see its true meaning. All human souls were immortal and therefore the implication of a vampire's immortal existence was left buried a little bit longer. The priest had yet to fully understand he wasn't talking to an actual human boy.
"Yet you wear a cross around your neck. And you came here," he pauses. "To confess."
"I wouldn't go so far." The prince chuckles louder crossing his arms above his chest.
"Then what have you come for my boy?"
"An itch." He replies turning his head to look directly at the priest through the separating grate. "Why so interested in my draculina?"
"She has a lot to say." He replies thinking back to his conversation with the young creature. "Especially about you. About choosing you to be more precise."
"Why assume she chose me?"
Why think I chose him?
The same words rang true just as Seras had asked of him earlier. But why would such a vampire choose to let itself be chosen by a mere child?
"She said the same." He whispers slowly starting to understand the bigger picture.
"You're looking at the book all wrong father." The prince tells him and for the briefest of seconds Paddy can swear he heard the tone of his voice change becoming deeper and far more mature for a mere 13 year old boy. Yet it happened so fast it could have easily been a trick of the mind. "The content is less worth than the cover this time. And you are a man greatly fond of books."
"What are you proposing?"
"That you ask what you really want to ask me father."
"What is the closest thing God you have?"
"That's not your real question father." Vlad smirks. "That is merely an itch you have."
"One I would be grateful if you answered."
"Why?"
"You and the vampire," he pauses to reform his words. "There is something about you I…"
"Yes?"
"What is she to you?" Paddy changes tactics, yet with little success.
"You're avoiding again father." The prince contradicts him and the light smirk upon his lips fades.
"You're just a child." Paddy whispers partially giving voice to his main concern. "And she will live forever." He adds Seras's own words into the mix attempting to see if they would be recognized as well.
"Which answer would you prefer?"
"What is she?"
"To you not much. Just another vampire, one you shouldn't cross despite her more gentle nature." Vlad offers his reply answering only a part of his question. "She is not as you think. Beneath that girlish exterior lies a fascinating and complicated creature."
"You made her. You're a vampire." Of all the things he could have said, this was just part of it. For the Hellsing vampire, the one he knew of, wasn't…
"You've said that before. In less words, but the meaning is the same." The prince scolds him for using that phrase again as he chuckles in both amusement and delight at hearing those words. So he finally figured it out.
"It wasn't my decision priest. It was hers." He replies without fail inadvertently giving away a piece of information he shouldn't have parted with. There wasn't therefore much sense it hiding the rest as well. "Always, in the end." He ads with a smirk forming on his lips. The priest had somehow tricked him. "Clever father, but I would not think so much about it."
"You're Hellsing's vampire." His pause isn't long, but meaningful nonetheless. "Alucard."
"I am..." he ponders his answer for a mere moment before he finally admitting the truth in a low tone with pride in his words. "Myself."
"And what would that be?"
The prince turns his head to fully look at the man beside him through the checkered wooden grate. He lowers his tone and when he speaks his eyes narrow taking on a serious look that even through the perforated wall separating them dared to prove him wrong. "Hellsing's pet vampire is neither a child nor a woman." The words sent a chill down the priest's spine. "Yet you serve them in your own way. So why ask a monster who he is when you already know of me?"
"If you are real then you cannot be a mere child. You cannot be…human." Paddy whispers after an initial moment of silence in which he processed the boy's sentence.
"I never openly said I was one." Vlad smiles. "Not to you."
"I do not understand."
"Was it the blood that upset you? That she gave me a drink?" Vlad question, the grin reappearing on his face. "Or that she's sharing my bed? Our room which is your room…" His words cause the elder priest to swallow his next words and instead truly focus on the meaning this new line of questioning held. "What have you thought goes on in that bed, "He briefly pauses, a second only, to increase the tension. "Father?"
"What have you done?" the urgency of his words and the sharp intake of breath as he to turn his head to fully look at the child beside him betray everything he never said out loud.
"Nothing one usually doesn't do in a bed." The boy replies with amusement softly chuckling and tilting his head back a little. "You have no idea how truly warm she is. how very innocent."
"Why is she a child now?"
"Because I made her."
"A human child." Paddy adds making himself better understood. Though there were several other issues he wasn't quite sure he should voice out in the wake of his last reply regarding the girl's warmth. so for the moment, he decided to stay silent on the subject.
"Because innocence is preferred." The prince purrs in satisfaction. "Such large, innocent eyes that have never know the cruelty of the world or its cold and unforgiving touch that can never be washed away. And the lions will devour her whole make no mistake. It is how the world tends to work whether in your time or mine."
"You would let her fall?"
"She's been falling since the day I killed her." Such pride lingered in that one word it took Paddy by surprise. "And what a splendid night it was. You should have been there to taste," he chuckles then corrects himself. "To relish in such pure virgin blood. It was almost a shame to take that flower for myself one night."
"Why be a child yourself?" Paddy asks changing the subject again to one less intimate. His actions only cause the young prince to chuckle one more before his tone eventually turns nostalgic while freely offering more information about his past to this one stranger, this one priest. A confession centuries overdue. "It is…how I died long ago. I died in this form the first time. In a cold and wet dungeon." He merely whispers lowering both his tone and his voice. "You know nothing of the world father nor the cruelty of the thing you call God. I've told you this before. The world loves seeding its own destruction and God will forever stand watch changing nothing."
"And what of the one that made you?"
"I made myself father." Once again the tone he uses turns dark and dangerous. "Taking blood and killing them all long before I turned undead. I am and forever will be my own master…and my own monster."
"You serve humans that imprisoned you." Paddy corrects him oblivious to the anger now surfacing within the boy's blue eyes and the clenching of his fists as he fights to keep his ager and fury at bay. "That is the fate of the Hellsing vampire."
"Not everything you read in an old book is true. But yes, imprisonment would be the right word. Then again you've never been forced to comply with runes burning every inch of your skin alive if you dared oppose. Still," he pauses and the anger fades replaced by a gratifying smirk. "Servitude has its benefits. I've killed more from under their nose than I ever did by avoiding their eyes. I neither have to kill to eat nor eat to kill, it is merely a game. And I excel in it."
"Then you are…"
"Myself." He chuckles offering the same reply he had sometime during the beginning of their conversation.
"Dracula cannot be human." Paddy finally whispers after taking a long, deep calming breath.
"Why?" Vlad challenges back. "Because you say so? Or because your God says so?"
"God has nothing to do with this my boy."
"No, he hasn't." the prince agrees tilting his head to the left gazing upon the grate and the priest's face once more. "How can he? When he doesn't even answer men's prayers. When he's blind to the world around him?"
"He has answered yours." He softly tells reclaiming the calm in his tone. He watching with just a tiny hint of satisfaction as the grin on the boy's face fades and the look in his eyes betrays his full attention to his words. "Or is that child not the closest thing to Him that you have?"
Seconds pass then, a full moment later, the prince bursts into laughter that turns into a deep chuckle accompanied by his famous grin once again.
"Such assumptions father. Is that what you think? What you really think?"
"No." Paddy tells him and his own tone is far too confident to be wrong. He knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is indeed right. "It's what I see."
"Then you see too much."
"I see life as it is."
"And what is that Father? Was is life to you?"
Paddy smiles, finally it was his turn to chuckle if only lightly, his shoulders gently trembling with the effort. "You keep calling me that…" he whispers in a soft tone.
"If you prefer priest or catholic dog, it is the same to me. You're just a man in an assumed position of power granted by fools who believe in a higher power to compensate for their own inadequacies."
"Once you were the same, the human before Dracula."
"Yes, but then God's will was for us to fight and he spared no salvation to those who would beg for it. To truly pray one must fight. And if we pray enough God shall rain down upon us." He chuckles. "Such nonsense. But the world was different then than it is now father. God was on a pedestal he's now fallen from. And the thoughts of men are no longer as blind."
"Still God has delivered something good in your hands."
"No Father, he hasn't. Blood and death delivered her. Blood and death forged a child long before my darkness touched her. Stop looking at her like a young woman. She's as much demon as I am."
"Perhaps. But what I've seen so far holds her more human than demon. I see what she says without speaking a word or offering a glance: I'm here. I'll always be here." The simplest of answers. "And it's always directed at you."
Silence descends between them afterwards and neither breaks it for a good few minutes.
"Giving up is what kills people father. Those who refuse to give up are entitled their time to trample upon the weak."
"And when the day comes and she finally gives up on you what will you do?"
"Bathe the world in blood." Vlad nonchalantly replies as though it were the most normal thing in the entire world. "Only a human may defeat a monster." He briefly pauses closing his eyes. "Seras is my human father, whether you believe it or not. She exist for the sole reason of….fighting me."
"What do you mean?"
"She exists for the sole reason of saving me. I live because of what she'll do to save me." His blue eyes become distant whit the thought that his words were already so very redundant. For what hadn't she done so far to save him? And what wouldn't she do in the future yet to come? "She chose the devil in spite of seeing the devil take her life. And in close to 6 centuries no other human has ever shown me such kindness. For when you fall as deep as I have you tend to find yourself in a world you can no longer recognize. It's like being, falling, in a room where no one will ever see or hear you. Where the light won't find you or touch you because you aren't worthy. I have found light father." His head turns to face the priest through the grid and for the first since meeting the boy his irises bleed blood red under his very gaze growing each and every spec of blue. The look he casts id murderous and speaks of haunting promise to come should anything ever, ever, get in his way; worse, should anything ever, ever, happen to his draculina. "She is all a human should be and yet she's proved to be everything a vampire should be. You ask what I would do?" he laughs and the sound is evil and dark making his expression and the look in his crimson eyes all the more deadly. "I would do what I came to be feared for. I will show the world the kind of monster I can be."
Paddy can do no more than simple look and hear his speak so utterly captivated by the sheer intensity of his words.
"I once swore the world would never forget who I am." He grins and, to the priest's surprise, his canines lengthened just as they would as fangs. "I will ensure they don't forget her either."
And the silence falling between them was all consuming. The pounding of Paddy's heart was loud and rapid and his eyes wide in disbelief. All this coming for what he though was just a boy when the sun fell the night before and then rose hours later that very morning.
And just as the priest prepared himself to say something in reply the door on Vlad's side suddenly opens wide revealing a scuff of golden hair and cream colored long sleeves that wrap themselves around the boy's waist in a fraction of a second squeezing hard. Seras's embrace is warm and soothing as she so easily fits between his knees and against chest while hugging him as he sat there momentarily taken aback by her sudden act. Her long golden curls fall over her shoulders and the black fabric of his pants and her arms curl around his waist fisting the soft, black mohair sweater above his lower back; her left cheek warm against his chest feeling for his heartbeat. The soft and soothing blanket he's always searched for…and his tense shoulders immediately relax, his features returning to normal.
Yet the moment is fleeting as she quickly pulls back just as his fingers touch her shoulders in an attempt to embrace her back. She gently pulls at his sweater making him move and stand up form the chair and succeeds with a soft childish giggle and not much effort. There were neither words nor lingering glances just the warmth of her touch as she easily pulled on his left hand dragging him behind her still giggling wanting to play just a little bit longer. And when the door closed behind them those very giggles lingered in their absence a moment or tow longer.
I could bathe the world in blood.
"I doubt it." Paddy softly whispers giving voice to the words he didn't get to tell the boy. There was much that little girl could do, so much more than she even knew she could. And in that very though also lie the greatest treat and danger. He might doubt it hoping for the best, but at the same…he couldn't be more sure of the intensity and truth those very words had brought to life.
I could bathe the world in blood….
And I will….
Should you take her from me.
.
.
To be continued…