Next chapter. Short, but soon as was desired.
A Party Escape
Cat thought about escaping around the side of the house, but Seras was a vampire and probably knew Cat was there before she stepped outside the door. She must only be acting normal to make things less awkward.
Cat thought that it made things even more awkward.
Seras faked a random glance in Cat's direction and smiled with pleasant surprise at seeing her, "Oh hi, are you coming to the party?"
"Yes, Lucian dragged me out here," Cat glumly fell in step next to her.
"It shouldn't be all that bad. Just Pip and some of the guys I think," Seras reached for the door, but paused, "Oh dear."
"What? Is something wrong?" Cat eyed her quizzically.
"The gun shed," Seras cringed.
"What about it?" Cat was starting to feel hysterical. Seras was just like Alucard. Did she think Cat could read her mind?
Seras moaned as if in agony and let her arm drop to her side, "It's completely full of people waiting for the party. There's got to be at least a hundred of them."
"A hundred?! My God. I didn't think Pip was going to go this crazy," Cat looked over at the gun shed to see if she could see anyone peaking out the windows.
"Ooh what am I going to do?" Seras started to look around just as Cat had done when she was looking for an escape route.
"Oh no you don't! You're going to go in there and enjoy your going away party. Or at least suffer through it. Pip is really fond of you he'll be upset if you don't go," Cat pushed her towards the door and she did not resist. She stumbled forward just like any regular human would have done.
Seras reached for the door again, but stopped and turned around abruptly, "What if I tell you what Alucard was telling me. He told me not to tell you, but I think we could keep it secret long enough for me to get out of England."
Cat froze and started to consider the bargain. She nearly gave in, but was interrupted when Pip flung opened the door with a huge grin on his face, "Are zey gone?"
"Yes zey're gone. Walter left on 'is bicycle a few minutes ago," she rolled her eyes at his eagerness.
"Are you making fun of me?" he poked out his lip and turned down the corners of his mouth.
"Oh no, I would never," she grinned at him cheekily and he snatched both her a Seras by the arm and dragged them inside.
The room was still booming with music, but the soldiers had managed to drape enough streamers over the rafters so that the room did not look half bad. A table had been set up with punch, snacks, booze, and Cat saw a cooler on the floor next to it full of ice that was part way covering the unmistakable red medical bags.
"Pip, I thought you said it was going to be a small party. There are nearly a hundred people hiding in the gun shed," Seras squirmed under the grip of his hand on her arm, but did not break away from it.
Cat knew that if she wanted to she could easily snap his arm clean off. She wondered if the girl they referred to as Kitten and Police Woman was really still attached to her human self as much as they made her out to be. She dressed human enough and she acted nothing but human. Cat found herself again wondering if it felt different to be a vampire.
"Come and dance wiz me before ze ozer guests are let out of zeir pen," Cat watched Pip pull Seras out into the middle of the floor and dance with her in a twirly half slow half go-go fashion.
What could Alucard have told Seras? Obviously it was about her other wise Seras would not have bothered mentioning it because it would have had no leverage in a negotiation. Seras was told not to tell her so it was either something that was going to scare her or make her angry. But this was Alucard so it would not matter to him if she was angry so it had to be the scare scenario. But, then again, this was Alucard. Why would he care if something scared her? Maybe it was something that would sparkā¦.
"Hey!" Lucian came up behind Cat and grabbed her shoulders.
"Ahhh! Don't do that! Are you crazy! Scaring someone who works for Hellsing. It's just cruel. As if I don't get scared enough," she took a deep breath and tried to steady her quivering.
"Are you alright? I didn't think you spooked that easily. Are you upset about Seras? I know it's sad she isn't staying longer," he patted her shoulder to consol her.
"I'm not sad about her leaving," Cat thought that Seras could probably hear her so she added to her blunt statement, "I like her and all, but I just didn't know her for all that long you know? So she's still sort of just a stranger. I'm sure she'll visit again." It was true that Cat was not exactly fond of Seras who had disrupted her new life at Hellsing, but she had no intentions of hurting the extra sensitive vampire's feelings.
"Yeah I guess that's true. She was a whole lot of fun though. You missed most of it because you were moping around in the library so much. What do you do in there anyway?" he suavely picked up her hand and started to lead her towards the dance floor.
"What do you think I do in a room full of books? I read them obviously," she rolled her eyes exasperated. She wanted to get away from the party as soon as she could.
"You're very irritable today," he stopped a little ways from Pip and Seras and put his free hand on her waist.
"What are you doing," she asked in a tone of complaint.
"What do you think I'm doing in the middle of a dance floor? Dancing obviously," he spun her around and she gave in hoping it would make him happy enough so she could sneak away later without him noticing.
As they were dancing Cat saw Pip pick up his radio and say something. About twenty seconds later the barracks flooded with a rush of the people who had been hiding in the gun shed. There were men and women of various ages. Some seemed to be the friends of the Wild Geese, some of the older Hellsing soldiers, and some of the younger. Lucian danced with Cat for a while longer, but she could see his attention was beginning to drift towards a group of people who were probably his friends.
"I'm going to get something to drink and walk around," Cat stopped dancing and dropped her hand away from his shoulder.
"Okay I'll see you around then. Come and hang with us when you're done mingling," he smiled and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead.
Did he really think she was the type to mingle?
She waited until he was invisible amongst the group of boys and girls who were laughing boisterously and helping themselves to canned beer before she snuck off towards the back of the room. She knew there was a back door or window somewhere, it was just a matter of climbing over all of the bunk beds blocking her way. She casually backed up towards them trying to look small so no one would notice her. Everyone seemed to be so involved with drinking and dancing and yelling that she thought she could probably walk right out the common door and no one would care, but it was not a chance worth taking. Once she got to the beds she sat down on one and started to slide herself backwards, weaving in and out between the ladders and posts so that she would be more hidden if anyone should look over that way. Soon she reached the door, but found it swung inwards so she had to use the window instead. She crawled out it backwards so she could keep an eye out for anyone who might be watching. When she jumped down she expected the ground to be closer than it was so she lost her balance and fell over backwards.
"At least no one saw that," she crawled a little ways past the window so no one would see her and then stood up and walked towards the gun shed so she could go around it to the back garden of the house. She did not want to take the chance that Lucian might see her out any other windows.
When she got to the garden she let out a sigh of relief and pulled the back door opened. It was cozy inside the tea room that over looked the garden and she was tempted to lay down on one of the couches and take a short nap.
She took a view steps towards it and then changed her mind, "No no I can't. I need to go to the library. I've already been interrupted enough for one day." She veered away from the couch and dragged her feet up the stairs to the library. She found the row of books she had left off at and started pulling books to look through again. It had been almost two weeks and Cat still could not find anything else on vampire souls or anything about Alucard for that matter. She had started at the very first book shelf and was checking every single book to be sure nothing was hidden in any of them. Now she continued down the row monotonously pulling books, reading their titles, and putting them back on the shelves. Soon she felt her eyelids drooping so she lay down on the floor to rest for a while.
Cat awoke as a chill ran through her and caused her to shiver. She wearily flipped over and looked at the window with sleepy eyes. It looked to be about dusk. She struggled to stand up and yawned loudly. When she turned towards the couches she immediately jumped back and fell into the book shelf. She was not alone.
Don't forget to review. Who could be in the library with her? hmmmmmm.
