Chapter 41

The Crosses a King Bears

Alucard nodded once and asked briskly, "Are we done this interrogation then?"

"You haven't told me what happened when you went to Daciana and asked her to leave with you," Seras said with an equal mix of hesitancy and curiosity. "Nor how you came to change her status as a peasant and marry her."

Alucard frowned. No he hadn't… And he knew Seras would only pester him at a later date to finish telling her if he didn't now because he had agreed to tell her. And with having related part of the events, allowed this much out, he knew that the past would haunt him all the more… Unless, perhaps, he finally exorcised it from his mind.

"When I arrived at her home, her mother was out. I'd learn shortly that her mother had been called out to deliver a child, leaving her alone yet again." Alucard couldn't keep the entirety of his disapproval from his voice. "The door was locked, so I went to the back of their hut where the windows were covered with thick hides. I could hear Daciana inside the room, muttering vaguely in distress, and her wolf was whining in fear. I cut the bottom of the hide open and peeked inside, to find her tossing and turning in her sleep, in the midst of a nightmare. Fortunately, her wolf remembered me and didn't become aggressive when I climbed inside. I woke her up and she was only faintly surprised to see me somehow in her bedchamber…" Alucard trailed off, remembering that fateful moment.

"What was she dreaming about? Did she tell you?" Seras asked, guessing that the seer had seen something important, especially for her master to be so hesitant to continue.

Alucard hardened his expression. "When she realized I was really there, she first asked me why I had come. I told her that my father was sending me to his enemies. I had stolen some funds, left in the middle of the night, taken the fastest horse in our stables, and I wanted her to come away with me. I had ridden the horse hard, but it had given us a good head start, so even if he had immediately guessed where I went when he discovered me missing that morning, we had a good chance to make a clean escape if we left now. To my surprise, she didn't argue that I needed to run away, only said she wouldn't come with me because the horse would travel faster with only one rider. Before I could reply, she was darting to the other room in a panic and packing me supplies to help with the travel."

Alucard let out a heavy puff of air through his nose, simulating a sigh once more, as he shook his head at the memory. "I caught up with her quick enough and asked her what she meant, why she wouldn't come with me. She froze and told me it didn't matter, all that mattered was getting me to safety. I could tell she was hiding something, though I had no idea at the time what it was, and demanded she tell me what she was hiding. She told me she couldn't, that if she did, I might hate her, and that it would mean her life. I was even more upset with her refusal to answer and ordered as her prince for her to answer me. She couldn't refuse that, not without forfeiting her life anyway, and she knew it…" Alucard's jaw clenched tightly, sharp canines digging into his lower lip.

"What did she say?" Seras asked in a whisper, fingers drifting to lace together in her lap.

Alucard willed himself to iciness, for the memory to be only that, then said impassively, "She told me, very reluctantly and with clear terror, that she and her mother weren't witches, she promised, but sometimes they knew things, and sometimes she'd see things, especially in her dreams. Her mother told her that it was a gift from God, to help them heal people or know they'd need prepare for healing people, but they weren't witches. She was terrified of that potential association.

"And the last few nights, she said, including that one, she had been dreaming of me riding over the mountain with my father and another boy, who I recognized as my younger brother from the description. My father returned without us, and a river of blood followed in his wake. She had seen images of war flashing in her mind after that. Then she saw me returning by myself over the mountain range, much older than when I had left, and I was surrounded by darkness. She didn't know what happened while I was gone, but it was clear it would change me." Alucard smirked, thinking that it had indeed, but not so much as the changes he had undergone of his own volition much later on.

"What did you do when she told you that?" Seras asked when he didn't continue, unabashedly enraptured in the story.

"I was shocked silent, for about a minute," Alucard said dryly. "Then I decided that I didn't care if she was a witch or not. She innately knew the same thing I did, which was I shouldn't go to the Turks, and as she was the only person on my side of that argument, she was coming with me. And I told her she was coming with me. She tried to argue with me, saying that if she disappeared too, they'd certainly know I had been there and come after me in a more precise search. I told her that she was the only person I had felt more than obligation for, and I could tell she was truly my friend and cared what happened to me, so I wasn't leaving her there. My father wouldn't send an entire search party out for me and risk it getting back to the Turks that I had run away; he'd have to be more discreet. We'd find somewhere nearby to hide and let the horse rest until the hunt for us died down. Then I was taking her somewhere they'd never find us, and my father would need handle the Turks without using me as a pawn.

"She realized I wasn't going to change my mind and we were wasting the time I had bought us. She said she knew of a place in the mountains, some hours from the village. The hut was all but falling down, but it was near a stream for fresh water and there were some winter vegetables that should still be growing around it. She went there to play and keep away from the villagers when her mother was gone for extended periods of time to perform her midwife skills for some lord or other, and had planted the food to help keep fed when she was there. It was out of the way and forgotten, no one had ever found her hiding spot, so we might be able to successfully hide there until it'd be safe to run further. We packed up some extra food and medicine, and I left a few coins to repay her mother. We made it to the fishing hut after navigating a treacherous trail up the mountain."

"What was it like?" Seras asked, leaning forward with curiosity.

"She hadn't been exaggerating when she said it was run down. It was a mile below the ruins of a castle and I had thought the castle might have been better lodgings, except for the lack of access to clean running water. We unpacked the horse and tied it up to graze on some bushes that still had bits of foliage, and I spent the next day proving that I didn't know a thing about carpentry or house repairs while trying to patch up the roof." Alucard gave another self-deprecating chuckle at the thought. He had honestly been lucky not to break his neck on the icy roof. "Daciana had helped her mother thatch their roof when it needed it. When I finally had no choice but to swallow my pride and concede defeat, she showed me what she knew. We managed to get it somewhat covered again, though it still remained little protection from the elements. We had some warm blankets and my winter cloak, wood for fire, each other and her hound, though, and that winter hadn't been the worst we had seen, so we were able to keep things survivable. She could also fish and managed to pull a few small fish from the river from time to time. Between the fish, her vegetables, and the animals I could bring down with my bow or her wolf with his innate skills, we kept ourselves fairly well fed."

"Sounds like for someone not used to being out of a castle," Seras said with a little grin, "a peasant girl used to watching out for herself and her pet wolf were really useful to have around."

Alucard smirked wryly. "Yes, she was; more than I had realized she'd be. I learned not to estimate anyone's worth based on their station in life and that lesson saved my life on more than one occasion later."

"So how long were you two at the hut by the river?"

"Almost two weeks," Alucard said ambivalently. "I had snuck down one evening, about a week into our stay, to the village to find out if there was any news. It was snowing that night, so I decided it'd be safe enough with the snow to cover my tracks. When I arrived, I spotted two men from the palace walking around the village. I followed in the shadows and overheard that my father had thought to search the village for me and the midwife had been panicking because her daughter and the wolf were missing and the slashed window covering led her to believe her daughter had been kidnapped. My father had small groups of men spread out on the roads searching for us, and they were there with him to keep the search organized and wait to see if we came back to Daciana's mother. Something both of them were unhappy about, cursing me most furiously for being a spoiled palace brat."

The progenitor of vampires smirked again. "Yet they had no idea that I had been tailing them, too wasted from drink and arrogance to be properly aware of their surroundings. I went back to the hut and told Daciana we'd have to stay hiding a bit longer because my father had his men out looking for us still, but we'd be able to slip by in a few weeks when they realized we weren't coming back and had to go back to the castle to prepare for the Turkish envoy, giving us more leeway for movement.

"Unfortunately for us, the weather got worse over the next few days and we were snowed in. My horse died from the cold. Later that week a man from the village was out hunting and spotted the smoke from the fire in the hut when he had to go further than usual to find game. He came further up the mountain to investigate and spotted Daciana digging through the snow and frozen ground to pull up some more vegetables for our dinner.

"We had just laid down to bed that night when they came. Her wolf was out roaming somewhere in search of his own meal, so we didn't have him for protection nor to alert us of intruders. With the snow muffling the sound of their approach, it wasn't until they were close enough for the horses' snorts to be heard in the clearing that we realized someone was outside. I had time enough to grab my sword, then the door was being broken down by my father's men, guided there by the hunter and led by my father. Daciana and I knew that we were cornered and couldn't run from them, so we gave ourselves up."

"What did your father do this time?" Seras asked as she chewed her lower lip in anxious anticipation for the story to continue, fingers twisting in her lap.

Alucard's eyes narrowed at the memory, gaze turning to one side again. "He had us both dragged out of the hut and said that he had had enough of my impudence, and this time I couldn't claim my conspirator didn't have any part in my defiance, so she'd be punished as well for putting our entire country in jeopardy."

Seras's eyes widened as she gasped. "What did he do to her?"

"He intended to have her killed," Alucard said stoically.

"He was going to execute her?!" Seras asked, horrified.

Alucard gave a single nod, expression hardening further to hide all emotion. "Yes. I knew what the punishment for her would be for such a crime he accused her of. I told him that she was innocent this time as well; I had again shown up at her home without her foreknowledge, and told her I was in danger and needed to hide. She tried to protest my version of the events to protect her. I told her to shut up and then told my father that I had manipulated her, told her I was being hunted by enemies and she thought she was protecting me. She was only doing as a good peasant should for her prince and I was to blame for misusing her trust and goodwill, so the blame should fall on me and I would accept my punishment.

"My father knew I was lying to some extent, I think, because he asked Daciana if what I said was true. She realized by then that her life was in the balance and gave a small nod, then carefully said she had been made to believe I was in danger and she was only trying to keep me from harm. My father was not pleased by her verifying my story, and I think he still believed us to be lying, but he had to take our words for what had happened as he had no proof to the contrary. That didn't mean he wouldn't still teach the both of us a lesson about my rebellion. He had me stripped of my upper clothes and held by two of his men, while another held Daciana so she had no choice but to watch my reactions as he whipped me for my multiple transgressions until my back flowed freely with blood and stained the snow around me a pool of crimson…"

Seras stared in absolute shock, and felt rage and disgust churning somewhere deep inside her. "That's cruel and barbaric! To do that to his own son? That's…"

"Those were the times, Police Girl," the progenitor of vampires interrupted what would undoubtedly be a long rant. "My father wouldn't kill me for the same crime as he would a peasant, I was his own flesh and blood and our line needed to be preserved. But I knew he would make it clear even a prince could be held accountable if he crossed too far over a line; that some form of liability needed to be in place, and that was the most expedient mode of the times. I knew the punishment I faced if I was caught, and the plain and simple fact was I had already made my decision when I left his palace that I wanted to escape and I didn't care how many lashings I incurred if thwarted. And she was spared worse for trying to help me, so I took the extra lashings without so much as a whimper that would make it even harder for her to bear witness to."

Seras was fighting with herself to not continue voicing her opinion on the literally medieval behavior, and instead asked unhappily, "What happened then? Clearly, he wouldn't have let Daciana come back with you to the castle."

"No, he didn't. He warned Daciana that while this should prove to be an efficient lesson, should I ever return on my own again and ask anything of her, she was to assume I was attempting some new rebellion and report me to the village elders. If something had truly happened to cause me to flee the castle, they'd find out and aid me, but it was not her place. Should she forget her place and aid one of my dissents, no amount of protests about her innocence would be accepted again because she had been unmistakably instructed on how to respond. Daciana said she understood, though she never gave her word to do as told. I knew from our talks the last few weeks, as my father wouldn't, that it meant she was keeping herself from being bound to a promise, that she was still willing to risk his punishment if I ever needed her again.

"As we were preparing to leave, I realized I had left my cloak in the fishing hut and told my father. He ordered Daciana to go find it and bring it out. Even with the injured state I was in, he was not willing to give me the chance to run or try anything else rebellious. She gave me my cloak, all neatly folded up and with her plain little silver cross on a rope laid atop it. She said as she did so that she was truly sorry this came to pass; she'd pray that God would grant me strength to face my future, to keep me safe from darkness and harm, and that someday I'd grow to be the prince his country needed him to be. As I met her gaze, I knew she didn't mean accepting the fate my father was sending me to, nor be what he wanted me to be. Only be strong enough to face whatever hell I was being sent to because God had already shown her I'd survive it, so I should use the experience to forge my future with His light in mind, not the darkness that would try surrounding me."

Alucard gave a wry smirk. "My father, wise as he could be most of the time, still took the words as he presumed them to be. He told me that he hoped if I wouldn't listen to his words, perhaps I'd listen to the little peasant girl who had better sense than myself to at least know he was right and I was being petulant. He allowed me to keep the cross because of the purely religious nature of the gift offered, and hoped it would remind me to obey his words like I obeyed the Word of God."

"Your father really sounds as though he was blinded by his opinions sometimes," Seras said with a frown. "That time, though, it seems to be a good thing."

Alucard nodded. "Everyone has some flaw that can be their downfall. My father's was his unbending pride and sense of black and white morality. They allowed many things to take place right beneath his nose because he didn't want to see that the entire system he was surrounded by had become corrupt, that his beliefs were only as substantiated as he could make the illusion seem in his own mind."

"So how did you and Daciana finally end up together again?" Seras asked. "Was that after you returned to Wallachia?"

Alucard's gaze flashed with hellfire, and Seras flinched as she saw some shadows briefly swirl around her master. Whatever her master was thinking of at that moment, it was clearly not a pleasant thing. She had no idea what exactly took place while he was a hostage because he refused to speak of it, but she knew he had not had an easy time of it.

What little was recounted in history books was that he was given further advanced schooling under the Turks' watch, which he excelled in and mastered; but he had received a number of beatings because he was far less willing to integrate with Turkish and Muslim customs than his brother had been; and that he had reportedly started developing an interest in torture and impalement when exposed to their expertise on the matter.

Given the dissmisive fashion in which her master related taking a whipping he knew he was bringing down on himself, Seras had a feeling that the Turks had done far worse than beat him to earn the wrath she knew he felt for them. She felt nauseous wondering what sort of torture they might have inflicted on a teenage version of her Master to try breaking him of his rebellious streak and instead fomented such anger. A vengeful rage that didn't seem to have eased even with all this time; as evidenced by his reaction just now.

Thankfully, he got his temper in check before those shadows manifested into anything lethal, and Seras gave a sigh of relief. She had the hope that with whatever had happened during his stay with the Turks, those responsible for her Master's fury, and everything that had resulted because of it, were burning in some pit of hell as punishment for what they caused.

After another minute of tense silence, Alucard finally was able to look at Seras again and say, "Yes, I saw her again once I returned."

"How?"

Alucard smirked yet again, recalling his initial reasoning. "Well, I no longer had to worry about what my father would say about associating with a peasant girl and I wanted to know how the last nearly seven years had treated her. She also had something of mine that I needed to retrieve."

"Something of yours?" Seras asked in confusion.

"Indeed. You see, when she returned my cloak, she had apparently decided to take the liberty of keeping the pin emblazoned with my family crest and my initials that held it closed, in exchange for her cross."

"She wanted to be sure you came back someday!" Seras exclaimed with a smile.

Alucard gave a single nod, smirk relaxing to a faint smile. "Yes. Though it had made it difficult to keep my cloak in place for the ride home from that hut, and my father was tempted to whip me again when I had to tell him I lost the expensive trinket on the road at one point."

Seras gave a small, nervous giggle. "I'm sure she didn't mean for that part."

Alucard shook his head. "No, she didn't. She was just acting on an impulse to show that she did care, declaring her loyalty to me over my father by carrying with her something that had my name attached to it. When I realized what she had done, I hoped it would keep her safe for however long my absence was to be; that if she ever found herself in a situation like her mother had been when we first met, she'd use the token to get herself out of it. Even ignorant peasants would recognize the crest and understand it meant she was under my personal protection, and upsetting one of the legitimate sons of House Draculesti by harming those they had claims on was a death sentence."

"Did you keep her cross as well?" Seras asked curiously. She knew her master couldn't stand the sight of crosses now, avoided them unless forced to be near them, but she wasn't sure when his repulsion for all things related to Christianity started, if that was before or after he became a vampire.

Alucard closed his eyes a moment, jaw clenching as he shoved back especially unwanted memories, then gave a nod. "Yes… I kept her cross on me at all times while with the Turks and as I fought to return to my ancestral throne." Before Seras could ask, and he knew she would because she was persistent, he added, "I had it until the moment I ceased being tied to mortal flesh. Then, it no longer mattered because I had moved beyond even God's reach to judge or damn."

The Vampire King didn't add that the cross had been sliced in two when he had been beheaded. Nor that he had retrieved the pieces later that night after he had reformed from shadows.

And he'd slaughter and reap every last soul in this world before allowing anyone to back him into confessing that he had laid it to rest with his beloved wife's long dead and rotted body, shedding the last bloodless tears he'd ever have the ability to cry- having realized that her vision from their childhood had come all too true and if she had seen this moment actually come to pass, she'd have never forgiven him for embracing his inner darkness as he had.

No, he had placed that shattered icon of all he had sacrificed to God where it belonged, with the remains of another thing he had lost and would never have returned to him, and never would he place his faith in such hollow things again.

But there were some things he would not explain, not even to Seras.

Seras watched her master carefully. She knew from years of observation that when he got quieter, or icier and aloof, it was because he was retreating from his emotions and took refuge in facts and depersonalization. It was how he tried coping with things. So she realized he was more deeply affected by those events than he liked to show. And while he frequently berated her for sentiments and 'unwise' attachments, Seras had the persistent feeling it was because he had been so deeply hurt and was trying to keep her from having the same happen.

Her Master was a lot of things, but Seras couldn't ever accuse him of not watching over her, of not trying to help her have the fortitude to survive. Surviving and defeating one's enemies wasn't enough, however, and she was trying to get him to realize that.

So Seras said, hoping to remind him of more positive times and maybe get him thinking that perhaps it would be worth repeating someday, "So, you each had something of the other's, and you sought her out when you returned… How did she react when you visited her?"

Alucard's expression remained the same and he stoically said, "When I went to her mother's hut, I found it in utter disrepair, clearly having been attacked at some point in the not too distant past. Their village had been caught in the middle of a fight between my country men who had tried to support a pretender on my throne, and the Turks who had been helping me reclaim it."

Seras's eyes widened in shock. "Oh no! So where were she and her mother?"

"Her mother, I later found out, had been killed in the fight," Alucard said, voice becoming a shade furious. "She had been trying to help those injured when she was shot in the back, the arrow piercing a lung, and it was unknown which side had killed her in the heat of battle. Daciana, however, had survived, but no one had seen her or her wolf since just after the battle. When I arrived to her hut, I didn't know any of that, but I had heard about various skirmishes that had happened outside those I had participated in. I was only mildly shocked to find that this village had been among them, as it was too small a location to be concerned with. I saw a faint trail of smoke coming from the chimney from a fire that had been smothered out, but not soon enough to completely dissipate. Someone was clearly inside and didn't want others to know about their presence. I didn't know if it was the rightful residents and they were concerned by a new possible attack, or some vagabond who had taken over the hut after it was abandoned, but I was going to find out.

"I banged on the door and demanded for whoever was inside to open the door. I received no answer, but I could hear movement within. And, more concerning, I didn't hear her wolf making any noises, as he usually did when people came calling. I again demanded the door be opened, in the name of the Voivode, or the door would be broken down. A female voice yelled back at me that the Voivode was dead and the pretender on the throne had no claim to the crown while his son was still alive and fighting to reclaim his throne from his cousin, so she felt no obligation to abide that order. If her door was broken down, I'd have an arrow through my eye before I could blink for trespassing on her family's property and openly supporting a traitor to the real Voivode."

Seras's eyes widened and then she couldn't help but give a nervous giggle. "Sounds like she was the one inside and was as feisty as ever."

Alucard didn't smile, or even smirk. His face remained as remote as before. "Yes, she was the one inside. I couldn't recognize her voice because she had grown from adolescent to adult, but I remembered her mother's voice well enough to know it wasn't hers, so I was fairly certain it was the daughter. I called Daciana by name and told her that it wasn't a soldier for a false king at her door, but the prince she once foresaw returning as Voivode who was ordering her to open the door. Instead of doing as I commanded, however, she went silent and I could hear more movement inside. Frustrated with her behavior and not getting an answer for what had happened, I kicked down the door as promised, it was barely held together at that point, and made certain to not be in the way of any arrows loosed. However, there were none sent my way. Using my sword as a mirror, I couldn't see her in the main room. I could hear noise in the back of the hut though, and went through the curtain leading to the bedroom, to find the window there open and a woman dashing for the forest behind the hut."

"She ran from you?" Seras asked in shock. "But why? After everything that happened, I would think she would have been happy you returned?"

Alucard gave her a disdainful look. "You'd think so, but she wasn't."

"What did you do?"

"Naturally, I wanted an explanation for her behavior, so I chased her down."

"Did you catch her?"

"She may have known the forest surrounding her home better than I, but I was a trained warrior, so I had excellent tracking skills now at my disposal. Not to mention I was faster and had far more stamina. What do you think?"

Seras gave a sheepish laugh, "Heh, heh… I suppose you caught up to her within a minute or so."

"Indeed," Alucard said dryly. "And when I did, we had another of our fights, in which she told me that while she was glad to know I lived, I couldn't be there. I needed to be back at my castle trying to secure my claim to the throne. I told her that I was handling all my responsibilities, and part of that was coming to check on her after all these years. We argued a great deal more, Daciana wanted me to leave and forget about her, and I refused to do so. She eventually struck me and dashed off, and I let her run for the time being."

"She hit you?" Seras exclaimed. "She hit her own king? What the bloody hell did you say to deserve that?!"

Alucard levelled a displeased look at Seras, causing her to cringe. "I assure you, I had said nothing to deserve it. She was being emotional and unreasonable in her opinions."

Seras gave him a disbelieving look. "Uh huh… Even a feisty woman who was a childhood friend wouldn't risk death for hitting her king unless something set her off."

"Be that as it may or may not be, I wasn't at fault," Alucard said icily. "Having survived the attack on her village, and losing her mother, was to blame. And because I could tell she was under strain from the attack, I decided to retreat for the evening and come back in the morning, when she had time to calm down. When I did, however, I found that she had abandoned the hut and only left behind the cloak pin she had stolen from me."

"She left behind the pin?" Seras asked, dumbfounded. To his nod, she asked, "Why?"

"She knew I'd come looking for her again and wanted to try severing things without seeing one another."

"And you weren't having that," Seras said knowingly. "Not after everything that had happened."

"No, I wasn't. And I knew she didn't have any reliable family on her mother's side to run to, not after her mother's death. Nor did she have the means to search out her father's family in Hungary. Nor had she married and had in-laws to run to. I could only think of one place to search for her."

"The fishing cabin?"

Alucard nodded.

"Was she there?"

Alucard nodded again.

"Was her wolf with her?"

"No. He had died before my return."

"How?"

"During the attack on the village, protecting her. He was far too old to survive his injuries."

Seras frowned, saddened by that news. Then she gave a frustrated huff with the lacking answers. "Okay, well? Did she speak with you then? Did she hit you again? Or did she dash off again?"

Alucard gave a brief humorless laugh. "I didn't give her the opportunity to strike me or run again. I tied up my horse a distance away so she wouldn't hear it and made my way quietly to the house. I could hear her inside, humming to herself, and kicked the door open, with an arrow at the ready so she couldn't try anything foolish again. She was cutting vegetables for a stew and was only mildly surprised to see me there. As she went back to chopping, she said that if I was going to shoot her for having struck me the day before, I may want to wait until after she had finished the stew, as I couldn't cook to save my own life. If I wasn't going to wait, there was a loaf of bread freshly cooked on the shelf and to grab it on my way out. If I was going to wait, or simply not shoot her, please shut the door to keep the draft out, as there was no need for us both to freeze. And if I'd put the bow down and pick up the other knife, she knew I could manage chopping the vegetables without ruining that part of the preparation."

Seras sputtered in surprise, then broke into giggles. "So, she actually knew you were coming after all, even if she tried dissuading you by leaving the pin behind, and ordered you to help make your own dinner?"

Alucard gave a small smirk. "She was a seer. She wasn't sure the exact day I'd find her, but she knew I was coming back for her and that I would never actually shoot her."

"So did things quiet down between you two after that?" Seras asked, noticing the two seemed to have a pattern of fighting when they initially reunited, then having peaceful interactions unless something separated them.

"No, not initially," Alucard said.

"Huh? But why not?"

"Because I told her I couldn't stand the thought of leaving her to rot alone in the middle of the woods. I wanted her to come back to the castle with me as my wife because I couldn't think of a woman I'd rather have at my side than the one who had always been on it and I could trust to always speak her mind honestly."

Seras's eyes widened. "You- you asked her to marry you? That night?!" To his nod, she asked, "And she said no to a proposal like that? Why?!"

"She didn't think that it was wise for me to marry a peasant who had no familial connections that would aid me in my efforts to maintain my throne and restore some order to my broken country. I told her that I didn't need a wife's family's connections; I could do those things on my own. What I needed was a proper wife for myself and she was that woman. She continued to disagree and we argued well into the night over it."

"So what happened to break the opinionated standoff?" Seras asked.

"I told her that if she wouldn't marry me because she felt her birth was one of the biggest obstacles, or that I'd change my mind about wanting her as my wife if we spent more time together, I'd prove her wrong on all accounts. She'd come to the castle anyway for her own safety and because I still wanted her presence as a trusted friend. While I'd not force her hand and I'd allow her to live as she wanted regardless of a continuing refusal of my proposal, I was certain that she'd change her mind and be agreeing to marry me of her own volition within a year of arrival."

Seras's eyes bugged out a little with as wide as she opened them. "Well, weren't you the cocky young king once upon a time?"

Alucard chuckled sardonically. "Maybe, but pride aside, I also believed I'd be proven right. We had been friends in childhood, and she had foreseen my survival and had tried to help ensure it. Despite everything that had happened, we had both survived up to then. She had no one else to rely on, had declined to marry others while I was gone, and I wanted no one else by my side. Therefore, to my mind at the time, she was meant to be my wife and there was no one and nothing that would stand in the way of being together.

"So I told her I would arrange a false identity for her so she could have a fresh start in life. My father was dead and couldn't expose the lie, as were his men that had hunted us down before. No one else at my court would know her, and the villagers where she lived rarely left so it wasn't likely they'd ever be able to expose us. Even if one of them for some reason came to court, saw her, and recognized her in courtly trappings, they'd be too terrified to cross me by speaking about knowing her. And while I was making the arrangements, I'd send a guardian I could trust to keep her safe and teach her what she needed to know of court life.

"When things were ready, I'd send for her and she could live as a daughter of one of the lesser nobles I had met a few times in my youth, a man who had stayed loyal to my family. He had been murdered, along with his entire family, by the pretender king for his loyalty. It would be easy enough to make up a story about how the reports had been wrong, that one daughter had been able to escape and had been kept hidden until my cousin was deposed. And so long as I placed it in writing, declaring her to now be so, it wouldn't be a lie for her to say it, only an omission of who she was before I rewrote her history.

"Taking a young, unmarried noble woman into royal custody for her own welfare and out of debt to her family would raise few questions. A former acquaintance with such a woman from my trips to her father's castle would explain any familiarity we showed once she was at my court. If she wanted to resume her former work as a healer, I'd arrange for her to be the royal physician's assistant. Eventually, as I laid out all the points to why my plan could work, she agreed to join me at my castle. She said it was because she had nothing left to lose and she could tell that, with the turbulent politics I was embroiled in, I needed people I could trust around me and she could be another set of eyes and ears for me in the castle.

"It took me longer than expected to make all the arrangements in secret. I had been able to send a guard and a tutor to her. As it happened, one of the maids to the dead lord's daughters had survived and was in service to one of my other lord's families. She could help provide intimiate family knowledge to Daciana so she could play her role convincingly, and she was trustworthy and romantic-minded enough that I could put faith in her oath to keep our secret for us. The guard I was sending was a younger son of a lord who had joined me all those years in Turkish custody and I had grown to value as a friend. A knight, I knew from him fighting at my side to reclaim my throne, to be skilled enough in martial combat to keep her safe; and who could help the maid teach her what he knew of court etiquette and politics. The lord I had in mind for her to impersonate being the daughter of was a provincial noble who lived far from court, so she wouldn't be expected to know all the intriciacies of court life and being a perfectly proper lady.

"But almost as soon as I had sent the two of them to Daciana, I ended up having to retreat from Târgoviste and my throne due to a lack of forces to keep my reign secure from some unexpectedly swift retribution attacks that followed. While I was in exile, finally under the safety of my Uncle Bogdan, I was only able to send and receive brief correspondences from her tutors, otherwise I'd risk exposing her to my enemies. However, once they deemed she was ready to play her part in our deception to her heritage, I was able to send for her. She was afraid to leave the lands she knew, especially with an active civil war still raging, but she came to court when beckoned and the knight I had assigned made certain she arrived safely.

"And after nearly a year of playing cat and mouse with one another on the matter, I told her that she really was my best option for a wife, as she should well know after seeing my other prospects. She was legally raised up to the status of a noble, we had everyone thoroughly convinced she was who I said she was, so she had no excuse unless she didn't find me an agreeable potential husband. She finally conceded she wasn't opposed to marrying me on a personal level, just worried that I was making a mistake because a few papers and family heirlooms didn't bring soldiers and other connections with them. I told her I'd worry about that as I could gain resources and support by other means, as she well knew I had been doing with my uncle, so she only needed to worry about being the woman I needed as a wife. With that said, she finally agreed to marry me and I had my uncle's priest marry us in a private ceremony later that week."

"Why do I get the feeling that that is an extremely abbreviated retelling to how you courted her and changed her mind?"

"Because it is."

"But what happened during those months leading up to your proposal being accepted?" Seras asked with a faint whine to her voice, frustrated with her master. "And what was the wedding ceremony like? It doesn't do the rest of the story justice, not when you're leaving it so spare in details."

Alucard said unmovably, "I'm not telling it for your benefit, now am I?"

"No, you're supposed to be letting me hear what happened so you can sort through it and have some peace of mind."

"Who's to say that brief account didn't accomplish the goal?"

Seras pouted. "I bet there was a lot more to it than that, which would not just be interesting to hear, but good for you to retell."

Alucard gave a small shrug. Then he gave a sly smirk as he said with obvious insinuation, "Perhaps, but what happens between a man and the woman who would eventually be his wife is not for your ears, Police Girl, now is it? Unless you're needing some advice on your own activities with Captain Bernodette when others aren't present?"

Seras turned bright red. "That's… That's not what I meant! And…" Her cheeks turned a darker crimson. "Oh, god! You haven't listened or peeked in, have you?!"

Alucard's mocking chuckles rippled out. "Of course not, but I have been on missions with you and the Geese on occasion. Cheap hotel walls don't muffle sounds as much as the Frenchman told you, even with a tv playing to drown out noises, and you do scream quite high sometimes, so I can't help but pick up some of what you're saying and doing."

Seras gave a mortified screech. "Bloody hell! I'm going to kill Pip!"

Alucard's chuckles turned into a full laugh. "Come now, Police Girl. If you're grown up enough to decide to do the deed, you should be grown enough not to be so embarrassed."

"There's a significant difference between not being embarrassed I have a relationship with Pip and the things within those bounds taking place, and not being embarrassed when I find out my Master has heard us!"

"Well, I hardly see the difference. And in the vein of a concerned Master for his fledgling, I would suggest you tell Pip to invest in silk rope. It's far easier to tie and untie knots with it, and therefore correct mistakes in patterns or get out of in a hurry. Not to mention less abrasive when you're going for sensual, not punishment sessions. And while you two are keeping it playful and not true BDSM, you should let him know he needs to flick his wrist a little harder if he's to get the proper snap of the cat-of-nine-tails and keep from the dull thud I've heard you complain about on two occasions now. Especially if using soft-leather tipped whips, as it sounds like you are."

Seras sputtered and screeched, hands flailing; unable to voice words to express her mortification that he heard those things, and how disturbing it was for her master to give such advice for her sex life. "You! What?! No! Uuughhhh! Why would you even? And what? What?! Uuuughhhh! Gggrrrr! Maaaster!"

"I'm sorry, Police Girl, too blunt?" Alucard asked with an entirely unrepentant smirk. "Well, ropes, strings and knots are one of Walter's specialties, as you heard Val mention, so you could always ask his advice on the matter if you'd be more comfortable with that?"

Seras's jaw dropped in shocked horror. It took a few seconds for her to be able to think, then she exclaimed, "NO! Most definitely not! That's nearly as much like having such a conversation with a parent as you! Both of you can keep your opinions and thoughts to yourselves! Bloody hell! The whole lot of you are a bunch of perverts!"

Alucard continued to chuckle, deciding not to point out that she could just as easily be called a pervert for having dipped her toes into the lighter sides of BDSM at Pip's coaxing. Instead, he asked, "So are you ready to return to the house like a good little skittish kitten?"

Seras gave a flat, unamused look, causing more chuckles from her master. She sighed and then said tentatively, "I have one last immediate question for you, and I guess it might not be too out of place to ask after that embarrassing derailment from you…"

"And that would be?" Alucard asked curiously, chuckles tapering off.

"If Miss Mercedes is just an ally you feel a bit more compelled to protect because she reminds you of Daciana, but she's not in some way an attempt at replacing her, why did you call Miss Mercedes 'draga mea' just before she slipped into unconsciousness?"

Alucard's hellfire gaze darted back to Seras, eyes now blazing furiously though his face had otherwise swiftly morphed to icily impassive. "I do believe that was said with a distinct effort for only her to be aware of it."

Seras gave a nervous laugh as she tapped her pointer fingers together nervously. "Heh, heh… I, well, I may have picked up on what you were saying telepathically, as it was kinda obvious she was answering something being said to her." She gulped as her master's gaze bordered on murderous again, then asked quietly, "So… Seen as where I did hear it… Do you love her?"

Alucard gave a disdainful snort and turned his gaze away. "You really are a fool, Police Girl. I barely know the woman and she's been extraordinarily deceptive, especially for a seer, about a great number of things. Certain memories might be making me approach the matter with an attempt at a little more understanding and consideration than I usually give, or are giving me a point of reference on how to handle Mercedes's situation, but she's simply an ally who has had her useful moments and I'd like to keep her and the boy alive so Iscariot can't have satisfaction for their plans. Certain things we've said to one another, including my calling her 'draga mea', have been said in sarcasm and to annoy the other since we've met. Especially when mundane people in her life were present and we were giving a façade of potential budding romance to avoid suspicions about our association with one another. In the instance you specifically mention, I was trying to irritate her enough to stay conscious, which she failed to do."

Seras gave a heavy, disappointed sigh. "I see…" She gazed up at her master a few seconds longer, then said cautiously, "Well, far be it for me to say you may or may not mean it, Master, but if you don't, perhaps maybe you should consider meaning such a sentiment. I know she hid some things from you, but it seems like she has had her reasons, and has been deeply hurt in the past. You still haven't heard her side of the story."

Seras stood, brushed her skirt clean of grass and dirt, and slowly walked away; her master's baleful glare following her retreat. When she reached the edge of the clearing, she added quietly, not looking back, "And whatever exactly happened between her and Liam, they're not together anymore. She left him. Even if he's not happy about it and wants her to change her mind, she did leave him and hasn't gone back. Which means she's free to love someone else, if they wanted her to. And if anyone could pull her and the little one safely out of this mess with the Elders and Iscariot, give her a chance at a life she wants for herself, free of others' control, I know that's you. It wouldn't be the first, or even the second, time you've done so for someone. And I think she might be able to help you in ways no one else could, if you would allow her to. I don't think it was a mere coincidence or circumstance or probability that made you two meet. I think maybe you two were meant to meet one another when you did, and not just so she could help you against Iscariot or you could save her from some thugs."

"Are you done your overly-romantic and sentimental drivel, Police Girl?" Alucard asked with unmistakable disdain in his voice. "Just so we're clear after the discussion we just had, I no longer believe in such ridiculous things as being fated to be with someone. And even if such a thing was possible, Daciana died nearly six hundred years ago, leaving me without the one woman I was capable of loving. There is no replacing her with a new woman, even if I did take a second wife for political purposes or have had vampiric brides for passing entertainment. I never loved them and they were only there to serve the purposes I needed or wanted them to serve. Such is, as it always has been and will be, my prerogative as a king. I have indulged your sentiments far too much as it is, and I am out of patience for such nonsense. I trust we don't need further discussion as to why you're being foolish and should cease immediately."

Seras sighed heavily, hands clenching at her sides as she tried to hold back her disappointment and first response. That response had to do with she could see why some people really felt he was an irredeemable sociopath incapable of caring about anyone but himself. But she knew that wasn't true, deep down. He did care about her and Walter, had gone out of his way many times to protect them. And even if he might not be capable of loving another woman as he said, he did still care about Mercedes and her son enough to protect them as allies and maybe someday friends.

It wasn't enough, to her mind, but she wasn't her master. And her master was in fact the Vampire King- the first of their kind, and as inhuman in his thoughts to the parallel degree that she was still attached to her humanity. Someday, she might actually remember that critical difference, but it wasn't easy. At least he understood from his vantage point of age and experience with fledglings that it wasn't easy for her fully comprehend and factor in at every moment.

After a few seconds, she managed to collect her thoughts and said dispiritedly, "Yes, my Master. I'm sorry for bothering you, but thank you for indulging my questions." She shifted into a shadow and sped her way back to the seer's house, before she could stick her foot further in her mouth and incite his wrath again.