Camilla walked in the dusky evening's light. Her head was bowed as she walked towards the field.
"You can quit following me and walk beside me." She paused.
Arucard appeared beside her.
"Has it been too soon to have Seras out? I have hardly been able to teach her rudimentary controls."
"We do not have the benefit of time, ironically. She is ready, she has a courageous heart." Camilla reassured him.
"Are you ready? Herod has been cautious since he first attacked you. Do we trust the intelligence? I still believe there is one within our ranks who works to undermine you." Arucard said, giving voice to his concerns about the upcoming battle.
"Only one? You are more trusting than I remember. The politics never dies. They go underground but wait for the opportune moment to rise again. Herod wants to see me crawl before him. His motive is not very compelling but vengeance will take you farther than you would expect." Camilla replied, the teasing tone not quite covering her aloofness.
"Then you knew?" Arucard asked, mildly surprised.
"I think, my dear brother, that you sometimes think that my benevolence and compassion cloud my other qualities. I did not survive in the chaos of the 500 years before you were sired based on those qualities. Again, the irony is that, should anyone want to head the house of Alexander, I am not sure I would protest too much, but despite ourselves, we are bound to archaic laws and rituals." Camilla stopped and turned to face Arucard.
"If I perish in this battle, I want you to ensure that the House of Alexander does not fall. You do not have to head it, but of all Alexander's offspring, it is you I trust the most. I have already proclaimed as much to the council."
"You will not perish. I personally will ensure that you live through this, if nothing more than to spare me the endless politics that will occur before the new head can be named." Arucard smiled his mad, wide grin at her.
"That, I believe, is a promise you will keep." Camilla laughed as she turned back towards the field.
"I have one last thing to attend to. Herod is still gathering, I can feel his presence ahead." Camilla said as she disappeared in the shadows.
"Be careful. Now is not the time for distractions." Arucard said to the emptiness.
"Nor regrets." Camilla's response softly echoed.
Lord Hellsing sat in the front seat of the transport, smoking another cigar. The driver, a sergeant kept glancing over at her nervously.
She watched the small screen of the laptop before her, listening to the commands and intelligence coming over the comlink headset nestled in her ear. There were so many FREAKS gathering. FREAKS and more from the satellite photos and infrared tracking they were using.
"Jesus!" The driver exclaimed, slamming on the brakes of the transport.
Hellsing turned and faced him. "Sergeant?" She asked coolly.
"Sir, sorry sir." He replied, pointing out the front windshield.
Hellsing turned and saw Camilla standing there. Hellsing felt her breath catch in her throat. She was striking, standing there in the glare of the headlights. Hellsing had not seen her in almost two weeks, since she had left her alone in her room. Camilla was dressed in dark pants, a white shirt and leather vest interwoven with chain mail. Her hair was pulled back in a practical ponytail; still, a few of those dark ringlets escaped and framed her face. Her dark cloak billowed behind her.
"Hellsing, offline. Continue information gathering and wait for my command." She spoke into the headset and then took it off. She opened the transport door and stepped down into the street.
Camilla had the same reaction to Hellsing in full battle regalia as Hellsing had moments earlier. If her heart still beat, it would ache at the beauty of this proud woman moving towards her.
"Lord Hellsing." Camilla said, bowing slightly.
"Countess Camilla." Hellsing replied, bowing in return.
"A word, before I reveal the 2 areas our intelligence believe Herod will appear." Camilla said as she moved out of the headlights beams.
Hellsing followed her into the shadows.
"Integra." Camilla whispered into Hellsing's ear. Hellsing felt the creature wrap her in her arms and embrace her from behind. For a moment, she stayed in that embrace, feeling almost safe. Then she turned so she was facing Camilla.
"I never thought you were a coward. Have you been avoiding me?" Hellsing asked, her face dangerously close to Camilla's.
"With every fiber of my being." Camilla answered before she covered Integra's lips with her own.
They kissed was such intensity that when they finally broke apart, Integra's heart was racing and she could see the burning red rims of the vampire's eyes in the darkness before her.
"I have to say this, and then I must be gone. If I perish in this coming battle, know that you have touched me in a way that I have not felt in many lifetimes. If you do not think me too presumptuous, I have a token of my affection for you. Should anything happen to me, you can use it to keep the true vampires of the house of Alexander out of your beloved London." Camilla said, moving back so she could hold out a small gleaming item in the palm of her hand.
"Surely, if you perish, then who among us should feel as if we have a chance to survive?" Hellsing responded with more brevity than she felt.
"It is I whom Herod wishes to destroy. Should he succeed, I am not sure if he will learn that revenge is empty." Camilla answered, her tone somber as she gazed into Integra's clear blue eyes.
Integra could only seen the barest shimmering redness in the shadows but felt the penetrating gaze of the vampire woman.
"Before you take my heart, reconsider. You have the power to affect me in ways I cannot fathom." Hellsing whispered.
"I know…" Camilla answered.
She felt Camilla press the item from her hand into her own.
"Godspeed to you, Integra Hellsing." Camilla said, embracing the younger woman and holding her tightly before she began to melt into the shadows.
"And may your own demons rise to serve you this night." Integra whispered into the darkness.
She made her way back towards the transport. She did not look at the sergeant as she opened her palm. Inside was a slip of paper and a ring. She looked at the paper, there were co-ordinates listed. She placed the headset back over her ear.
"Hellsing online. Confirm the following co-ordinates. Do not engage, repeat, do not engage. Secure the perimeter." She barked into the headset as she held the ring up to examine it. It was a simple band, white gold from the gleam, with a single red ruby set in the center. It was a ring that she had seen Camilla wear often. She narrowed her eyes, on one side of the gem was an intricate design that looked to be part rune, part crest, presumably for the House of Alexander, on the other, the crest of Hellsing. Inside the ring, she saw the words "Pacificatio inter se onis." (Latin: Peace between us *note: that is a very rough interpretation of what I think the combination of those words mean. The very literal translates into Make peace to each other mutually combined into one. And I am pretty sure the grammar is completely wrong.)
"Presumptuous indeed." Hellsing muttered under her breath as she slipped off her glove to place the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly.
*-*
"Down, down, we have another battalion down. Confirm support to position." The commander barked into his headset.
"Negatory, we have movement closing in on your position, we are calling in for air support Delta team."
"Flank is broken, more FREAKS at 12:00."
"Bravo 88th battalion, fall back, repeat, fall back. Charlie company 55th battalion, royal force move in for covering support."
"Medical back up has arrive."
"Medics, save or destroy."
"Milord, we cannot hold these positions. There is too much activity from the FREAKS." Walter said to the haggard looking Hellsing. It had been 5 weeks since the first skirmish had started the battle. It had been unnerving to many of the battalions to find dark shadows appearing in their midst and attacking alongside with them.
"There is another group from the House of Alexander moving in for support. We have to hold the line. So far, we have kept them contained." Hellsing replied firmly, her blue eyes sunken into the exhaustion that etched her face.
"Milord, it has been 5 weeks of furious fighting and we have not yet seen Herod and his forces. You have barely slept, our troops are fatigued."
"Herod watches us." Hellsing answered, closing her eyes briefly. She knew that Herod had thrown the FREAKS and his minions forward for the last 48 hours. He was making sure they were exhausted before he struck, likely at full power.
Hellsing had only seen Camilla once or twice in the clamor and din of the battles taking place across the field and abandoned buildings. She could have been there more, so many of the true vampires were using their controls and creature forms that she could barely keep track of those that were allies and those they were attacking.
Seras and Arucard were knee deep in battle as well. If she knew the vampire, Arucard was relishing every kill he made.
Camilla ripped open the throat of one of Herod's vampire and drank deeply. She had spent the past year perfecting her numerous skills and tracking how much energy each action took. She would not be caught unaware again by the power Herod wielded.
Swirling clouds of shadow and blood gathered around her, prehensile shadows and whipping strands of blood grabbed anything that dared to venture too close and opened them wide. She ripped off the head and threw the body away. Her eyes blazed blood red and she was more creature than human.
"Control 1-4-C, Bleeding Vengeance." She snarled as her form spread across another group of FREAKS and Herod's minion's. The sky crackled with lightning as the bodies caught in the shadow of her form began to pour blood from their eyes, noses and mouths. A huge blood dragon began to take shape and it moved towards the next group of FREAKS and vampires.
"Control combination 2-6-B. Angel's Fury." She shifted her form again and the blood dragon was illuminated with a fierce blue light that it breathed out towards attacking figures, incinerating them in a single pass.
Arucard could sense her powers as she exercised one after another control. The field was littered with piles upon piles of FREAKS, vampires and Hellsing troops. The flat field now had rows and gullies of bodies as they fell. Still, he had not seen Herod appear on the battlefield and that worried him.
Camilla was fury manifested; she devoured those that could feed her before destroying them completely. Arucard himself had drunk from more than one dying creature. He had instructed Seras to do the same but didn't know if she had. She was spending most of her time near her battalion.
This was like the epic battles of old that they used to wage, despite everything, Arucard thrilled at the carnage he could wreak.
The hordes of FREAKS and Herod's vampires began to retreat. Arucard glanced at the sky daybreak was coming. The hellhounds continued their galloping rampage and met the vampiric forces head on.
It was going to be another long day.
Hellsing saw a vampiric creature form that was truly frightening in the midst of the battle. She recognized Arucard occasionally in his creature form, and she knew how many controls she had released for him.
Whatever was laying waste out there though, was not him. Power crackled in the air around this creature as dark shadows, hellish, demons; hell beasts from spirals of blood and darkness like a maelstrom of violence.
The ground rippled as controls that Hellsing had never even imagined flew from this creature. The day was breaking and the battlefield was clearing as only the hellhounds were left behind to hold the invisible line of Herod's territory.
Hellsing watched in astonishment as the chaos and fury of the creature slowly transformed into Camilla. Not the Camilla that had left her, this Camilla was a feral creature.
"Binoculars." Hellsing barked and then held them to her eyes.
Camilla came into sharp focus, her white shirt was drenched in blood so dark and thick, it looked black. Her dark hair had come undone from the ponytail and flew behind her like a dark banner. It was her face that Hellsing focused on. Her eyes were blazing red and her fangs were pronounced. She was frighteningly intense and coldly beautiful as she gazed around her. Suddenly, she turned and looked directly at Hellsing. Hellsing watched as the fierce features softened slightly and then she turned away and disappeared into a shadow form that slithered across the battlefield.
Hellsing lowered the binoculars. There was no mistaking now that Camilla was a vampire. A creature of the dead. Still, the image of her burned into Hellsing's mind. She looked like some demon princess come to prowl the earth, and even as bloodied and ferocious as she appeared, Hellsing saw in those flaming red eyes the gentleness she knew when they looked in her direction.
"Lord Hellsing, come, rest now. The day will not last long enough." Walter came forward and put his arms gently around Hellsing's shoulders.
"She is probably the most powerful vampire we have ever seen. And she fights beside us. How is that possible Walter? How did I let the Hellsing organization come to this?" Hellsing asked, shrugging off Walter's gentle guidance.
She didn't wait for him to answer.
"Get the commanders that can make it to the base transport there, link the others on the com for the briefing of the day." Hellsing said as she moved towards the transport that had been set up into a makeshift base station.
Walter shook his head as he picked up the headset she had tossed off and relayed her instructions.
Camilla slumped against the cool stone.
"M'liege. You need to rest; I have bought you additional rations. We are delivering as many as we can across the field."
Camilla looked up and smiled tiredly at her companion. Marcus. He had traveled with her through so many centuries. She enjoyed his quiet company. He had been the first to welcome her back after Laurian's death. She took the bags of medical blood from him and began to drink.
"Why did you betray me Marcus?" She asked after the second bag.
"My liege?" Marcus replied, startled by her question.
"You are not alone in this, I know. I wanted to know, before this evening, when I suspect Herod will show. He has watched as I battled, as have you all, so that you may know the extent of my powers and know that I will be, despite the nourishment, weakened."
Marcus bowed his head.
"I would not subject you to needless sentimentality, I only ask because, as the betrayed, I want to know how I failed to lead the House of Alexander." Camilla finished another bag, watching Marcus intently.
"My liege. You never wanted the mantle that was given to you by Alexander. It was his perverse joke against all his peers that he named you his successor. Despite that, you led the house well in his name." Marcus answered quietly.
"So I am betrayed after 400 years because you were angry that Alexander chose me as his successor?" Camilla sighed.
"I would have rather died 1,000 years ago, as Camilla, daughter of Nikolas and Ariana, in a land that no longer remembers the name of my tribe or the travels we made every year. I certainly never expected that I would be here to witness all that I have. In the end, I am betrayed by a plot that if we were human would amount to nothing more than jealousy over daddy's favorite."
Marcus did not answer.
"Am I betrayed by the entire council?" She finally asked.
"No, my liege, and you are not truly betrayed by those of us who conspired with Herod. There are few of us. I have served you with pleasure my liege. However, for all your talents and wisdom, you were not meant to lead any house."
"Marcus, you know that by the old laws, the ones that you cling to judge that I am unfit to lead any house of any vampire, I am to put you to death." Camilla felt the weight of the last two days and the past year since her awakening settle on her shoulders like a lead cloak. Betrayed by those within her own house.
"Yes my liege." Marcus replied, this time raising his head to stare her directly in the eye.
"You don't think I will, do you?" Camilla sighed again. In her mind putting together the pieces that she had toyed with for the last year. The names of her betrayers fell into place.
"Arucard. Marcus, Theolus and Altena are my betrayers." Camilla sent the message to Arucard.
Marcus just continued to stare directly into her dark gaze.
In a flash, Camilla was up and behind Marcus, a blessed dagger pressed against his throat, shadows unraveling from beneath her cloak to pin him to her.
"That is something that none of you ever understood. You mistake my compassion for weakness. I was first and foremost a human from a time when humans were brutal and ruthless. If there is one thing that remains, that is my will to survive. The predators never recognize when there is something stronger out there hunting them." Camilla whispered into Marcus's ear as she slit his throat.
She sliced his head far enough to drink from the dark liquid pouring from the gaping wound. She drank until she had drained his corpse and then finished removing his head. Within moments, only dust swirled at her feet.
Arucard entered the room, followed by the council who herded Theolus and Altena towards her.
Camilla turned to face them.
"You know why you are here. In the midst of this battle, when the House of Alexander should be at its' strongest, I discover that there are those in this house that are hacking away at the foundation. I just explained to Marcus that by the very laws that you proclaim to be upholding by questioning my succession to the head of this house that I should put you to death. He chose to allow his contempt for what he believed me to be to challenge me. Do you wish to challenge me?" Camilla spoke softly.
Arucard felt that tremor along his spine, this was the Camilla that he so rarely saw but that invoked the same feeling to everyone in the room. Fear. He wondered if this side of Camilla is what Alexander sought when he made her his successor. Despite her calm demeanor and preference for a non-violent solution when she could, he knew that at the end of the day, she was as brutal and vicious as any of those who claimed the name vampire.
"My liege, if you killed Marcus, then you know that we did not act to ally with Herod, merely to raise the question." Theolus replied, raising his gaze to meet Camilla's.
"You know, I always encourage the questioning of my policies. I welcome a lively discussion on my decisions and relish the opportunity to try and convince you. I thought I had answered all the questions when the time of succession came, met the challenges. Yet, you chose to wait until this moment, the first real battle invoked against this house in centuries to raise the question of my worth to lead the house? So let me say this another way, the price you pay, based on the laws of this house, is that if you believe yourself to be fit to challenge me, then I will collect your head." Camilla did not raise her voice as she spoke.
"My liege…It is not your practice to hold to the laws, which is one of the reasons…" Theolus began to answer but could not finish as Camilla once again, faster than even those who could move across rooms at the speed of thought, drew her dagger across Theolus's throat and began to feed again. Again, when she finished, she finished the decapitation and turned to face her last betrayer as the dust that was Theolus blew across the floor.
"My liege. Mercy, please." Altena dropped to her knees before Camilla and lowered her head.
"Was it not my mercy that led you to believe I was weak? Now you ask to invoke it?" Camilla asked, still speaking in that quietly commanding voice.
The rest of the council bore silent witness. Those that watched, like Arucard, knew that this ruthless creature was Camilla, true heir of the house of Alexander. One only need to witness her in action once to realize that beneath her veneer of genteel compassion was a beast that she tried to contain.
Altena kept her head bowed.
"No, my liege. Yours is the will of the House of Alexander, should you decree my death, then I accept it by your hand." She murmured.
Camilla knelt down and lifted Altena's face so that she could look into her violet colored eyes.
"My beautiful Altena, you are so cunning. Yours is a will to survive almost as strong as my own. Why should I grant you mercy?" She whispered to fill the small space between them.
"My liege and lord Camilla. Forgive me my foolishness in questioning your will. If mercy is not yours to give, then death is your privilege. If mercy is yours to give, then I swear, on this house and by our sire Alexander, that you will never find another who will follow you as devoutly as I." Altena replied, lowering her eyes even as her face was still held by Camilla's hand.
"Then tell me what you know of Herod's plans, surely, if you were sharing news of our plans, then he must have shared some with you? In order to confirm your allegiance to me, you will deliver a new message to Herod. You will instruct him as I direct. Should you be lying to save your skin right now, Herod will likely destroy you if you tell him I have discovered you and try to confess that you are misleading him. If you survive and make it back, then, should we both survive to the end…We will talk again." Camilla rose and moved back towards the center of the room.
The other members of the council moved to allow her passage.
"Have her removed while we discuss the shift in plans to prepare for this evening. Altena, we will talk before the day ends. Keep her under close watch and no blood for her this day." Camilla said as she grabbed another bag of medical blood for herself.
Arucard watched silently as they took Altena away. Camilla was drinking so much, but then, as he had witnessed, she was using so much of her powers.
*-*
Hellsing opened her eyes. It had only been a few hours since she had closed them. She could feel the fatigue spread through her bones. She swung her feet over the side of the thin cot. Her coat and weapons hung off the metal hooks attached to the transport wall.
She walked over to the small washbasin and mirror. She gazed at the tired figure gazing back at her. She splashed water on her face and prepared to freshen up as best she could. The air on the battlefield was so thick with the scent of blood and death that her own smell would hardly matter.
Walter looked up as Lord Hellsing exited the transport she had taken a brief nap in. Despite the exhaustion etched on her face, she was dressed still in the full Hellsing regalia looking only slightly disheveled.
"Tea?" He asked, already pouring her a cup.
Hellsing nodded as she sat down. Walter had prepared a light meal of cold chicken and vegetables to accompany the tea.
"The troops…" She started.
"Are being fed and restocked on ammunition as we speak. We have also given them the enhancers in their packs. I recommend you take one after your meal." Walter answered as he sat across from her.
"Have we heard from Arucard or Seras?"
"Arucard returned briefly while you slept. He asked me to let you know that there has been a shift in their plans. He expects Herod will appear tonight. The request is that we pull our troops as far back along the periphery as we can. Seras has remained with her battalion since the battle became engaged."
"We will not pull back." Hellsing retorted, "I am not here to provide mop up detail."
"As you command." Walter replied calmly.
Camilla rose from her slumber in one easy movement. There was no one in the chamber she had slept in. The brief respite had been enough to replenish her strength but she could not withstand many more days like this.
She grabbed a bag of blood and began drinking. She moved through the chamber, her battle outfit was cleaned and hanging off to the side. She fingered the white shirt, it must be new, since she was sure no amount of cleaning would clean the other.
She sat down on the stone ledge that ran the perimeter of the chamber. Weeks of fighting and then Marcus and Theolus, all for what? Politics and ancient grudges that never wore away in the mix of time. She sometimes believed that humans could embrace forgiveness much more easily since they are the ones that had a finite life to live. Her breed however, they could polish and nurture even the mildest offense into a sharp and deadly vendetta. She sighed as she finished the bag.
She had not lied, some days she truly had wished that her bones had long since become part of the earth and all this had never come to be.
"Come in brother." She called out, sensing Arucard's presence moving down the corridor that led to her chamber.
"You are awake already? You did not rest for very long." Arucard replied as he appeared in the room.
"There is still too much to do. How fares Altena?" Camilla asked, holding up a bag of blood to Arucard.
"She has told us much that we already know. The only thing she had that we did not was the cluster of mages that Herod had contracted. She knows not for what purpose. That worries me. To bring in mages can not bode well for us." Arucard shook his head at the proffered blood.
He could sense that Camilla was tired, beyond the battle. He had no idea how it was that she managed to continue leading the House. He suspected that more than once she would gladly have walked away if she thought that she could truly just move through the world unchallenged.
"One does not lead one of the oldest and strongest houses without cultivating many with a need for vengeance and my blood as retribution. The enemy I know is better than any other." Camilla answered the unspoken question.
"Why did you accept the mantle?" Arucard asked, something he had never bothered to ask, even the night of her ascension ceremony.
Camilla smiled at him, that warm smile that she shared so rarely, the one that, when you were the recipient, there was nothing else in the world except the intimacy of that smile.
"When Alexander was ready to move on, tired of this physical life, he called me into his study." Camilla began, speaking out loud.
"It was simple enough. If I did not take on, as per his wish, the leading of his house, he would kill me. Before he did that, he promised he would personally destroy any and all that I may have cared even slightly for. I did not lie when I said my instinct for self-preservation has been one of the driving forces in my existence. Alexander, as you remember, was many things, but above all, he was a true monster. He had no true belief in family or even traditions. He was born from a time that we could never know, more creature than human. Despite how well he cleaned up, he was a beast at heart. The betrayers did not lie, he named me for one reason, and that was to exact a perverse sense of who knows what against the other vampires." Camilla paused as she looked over at Arucard.
"I know you have heard the rumors about me. I also know, in your own loyal way, you never chose to participate in the speculation. The rumors are only guessing. I am truly a half-breed. They call us Dhamir but I am not even that. I am vampire and human, conceived, created, crafted by the magicks of my people and Alexander's own dark meddling, I was manifested between the three of them. My mother, my father and Alexander, each of their blood runs through my veins. It was this great experiment of Alexander's that made him believe that he was now superior to any other of his kind. For none of them had produced an offspring such as he. There were half-breeds, woman attacked before giving birth and turning completely, other 'accidents' such as they are. Alexander loved that he had willfully determined and created a progeny. Never mind that I hated him, hated what he made me into, hate this darkness that is whatever we call a soul. He cared not for the time, so inconsequential to him, that I spent as a human broken in the great hall of his house. Never mind that he killed me not once, but three times and forced his blood down my throat when I continued to refuse his story of who I was.
"Then allowed me loose in the world to see if I could survive. I was hunted, beaten, attacked, forced to kneel before the master of many a house. Forced to serve them as well, never underestimate the depravity of the elders of our breed. Alexander was the one who announced what I was to all of our breed. I was sport for them since I was an outcast, not a true vampire. He offered no benediction to me in those first decades. It was in those decades, when I was either chained and beaten like an animal, or tortured and subjugated beneath their well-polished heels, that I learned compassion." She gave a small laugh.
"Ironic, isn't it? In those decades I realized the very last thing I wanted to be was one of them. For all of humanity's faults and weaknesses, of which there are many, this species never stopped hoping. Believing in some higher meaning to their existence. So, when I returned to Alexander, when he finally decreed I was under the protection of his house, I was not the same child I had been when I left. He believed me to be just like him now, a beast disguised beneath this civilized veneer. Instead, I was a civilized being trying to impersonate a beast."
"You deny the beast within you to yourself?" Arucard asked, he had never understood the relationship between Camilla and Alexander. The two of them in a room together had made whatever room it was seem incredibly small. Alexander had been a decent sire, so far as Arucard could determine. His turning and subsequent training had not been as horrific as the details Camilla described. Of course, he would not deny that his kind had a very sadistic streak with many of their new progeny. Perhaps he was so far down in the chain of progeny that by the time he had been turned, Alexander did it more as an obligation to his house than for real sport.
"There is no denying the beast within me, but I will not let it rule me. If I die this evening, I know it will be as my creature self and not as my human side. I accepted that long ago. However, I would like to think that my time spent on this earth, I have done more kindness than evil." Camilla answered matter of factly. It was true, despite her resolve, becoming the darkness was less than a thought to her, so easily could she become her vampiric form.
"I wanted you to know, so long I have denied you, of all my brethren, knowing the true story of me. You have always been among my favorites of Alexander's children. Long have I admired how truly you embrace the creature you were transformed into. One last thing, I gave to your Lord Hellsing a ring, it bears the crest of Hellsing and the symbol of Alexander's house. No matter what happens to me against Herod, the House of Alexander will abide by that token. Now, on to tonight's plans. Let's bring Altena up and summon the council." Camilla rose from her position, slipping her linen sleeping robe off and stepping towards her clothes.
Arucard nodded his head and began to disappear from the chamber. He saw again the truth of her tale written against her flesh. Her back was lightly scarred from her shoulders down across the backs of her thighs. He knew that her torso bore the same threading of scars.
*-*
"Why does she send you here?" Herod asked the kneeling figure before him.
"I escaped to come here, I am now an exile from my own house Lord Herod. She discovered our treachery and killed Marcus and Theolus. I was to be next but managed to escape in the lull of this afternoon's recovery." Altena murmured, keeping her eyes to the ground.
Herod raised one scarred eyebrow. Like any expression that moved across his face, what came across was a grotesque mockery of the expected expression.
"Indeed, and you thought somehow I would give you sanctuary?" Herod sneered down.
"Milord, I can help you, you have none as old as I among your ranks. Tell me where to serve and I will serve. Lord Camilla is planning on continuing her frontal attack, to move the line back again. She will persist in this every night until she comes to this door." Altena answered. If given a choice between lying to Herod or having to face Camilla's wrath again, lying was the easier option.
Herod cocked his head. It was true, all his sniveling progeny were not as old as Altena before him.
"You will accompany my pet project then, out to the battle field tonight." Herod smiled and then waved his hand, to indicate her audience with him was over.
*-*
Camilla turned, flinging the attacking FREAKS from her. She could sense Herod, he was near. The night was only half gone, and what stretched before her could mark the minutes between her ultimate death.
Hellsing watched the fury and grace of Camilla move through the line that the hellhounds had held for two days. A swarm of dark figures followed her into the breach. Hellsing smiled a small smile; perhaps the fortune will turn in their favor this evening.
Hellsing felt the tension settle across her shoulders. Her own clothes stiff with blood, the FREAKS had broken several perimeters and made it into the base camp. They had been driven back when vampires appeared, not least of who was Arucard to destroy the attackers.
Camilla moved in a bloody swath nearing the cave where she knew Herod sat.
"Come out you coward of a vampire. Vermin that I crushed before and will crush again!" Camilla flung her thought towards the cave entrance.
"Gladly you bastard aberration." Herod responded, appearing right before the cave entrance.
"They've met. Herod has shown himself." Hellsing heard the crackling voice come over the comlink.
She raised binoculars to her eyes and saw the dark hooded figure appearing before Camilla. Camilla, again in that disheveled battle fury. Her hair loosed again, blood across her clothes, her cloak billowing with her hair behind her. The flurry of shadows as each side lined up with one after another of vampires squaring off to face each other. She saw Arucard at Camilla's side. Hellsing narrowed her blue eyes; she would do well to learn more about the intricacies of the vampire culture. She had always known Arucard to be powerful, but how he ranked, aside from how he ranked himself, in that standing now intrigued her. There was no doubt of Camilla's place in that hierarchy.
Hellsing watched as the line of vampires stood facing each other. There didn't appear to be any movement.
"Seras!" She barked into her headset.
"Sir, yes sir! Seras on line." Seras replied.
"What is happening?" Hellsing asked.
"They are battling Lord Hellsing. Look at the FREAKS and hellhounds, they are being destroyed by the residual force." Seras replied. She could hardly believe what she was seeing; she knew it was from Camilla's blood and Arucard's recent training of her that she was even attuned to this fighting taking place. It hardly seemed fair, the power that rippled from the House of Alexander almost lit the sky so fierce was that power. So many elders, standing side by side. Herod, and a select few others appeared to be emanating most of the power. Younger vampires were falling from the on-slaught.
Seras had been angry at first, when Arucard told her of his wishes that she stay with the Hellsing battalion she often supported. It was only when Camilla had come to her later, holding her hands within her own and gazing at her with those dark eyes.
"Victoria Seras, you are now sired by the House of Alexander, progeny of Arucard, and it is because I fear the outcome of this battle may not bode well for me that I ask that you follow your Master's wishes. We need you with the house of Hellsing in this battle. There is too much at stake to have you sacrificed in this mess. Your time will come, of that I am absolutely sure."
So, now Seras stood, watching the battle between the two ancient forces, with her battalion, translating what she saw for the Lord of the Hellsing organization.
Helsing moved her binoculars along the line, it was true, the FREAKS were backing away and still appeared to be imploding from within.
Camilla raged against Herod, feeling the fury she felt the day she had set out to destroy him the first time. Laurian's fading green eyes still burned in her memory.
Herod fell to one knee. The she-bitch had not lied; she was not the whelp that had come after him the first time. Even after watching her for these past weeks, Herod suspected that she had barely tapped into her reservoir of power.
"How dare you threaten the house of Alexander? How dare you turn those dearest to my heart to your feeble cause? How DARE you threaten to touch those in my protection." Camilla shouted as she landed blow after psychic below upon Herod.
"How dare I?!" Herod forced himself to stand and defended himself against the reign of blows she was unleashing. "HOW DARE I!!" He bellowed and unleashed a control that hit Camilla squarely in the chest.
Camilla grimaced but did not bow. Along either side of them, the vampires were beginning to spread out; the battle was about to turn into full assault of every power they possessed amongst them.
Hellsing flinched when she saw Camilla move back as if struck. She watched as within seconds, the form of Camilla was gone and replaced with the creature of blood and shadows from earlier.
"Altena!" Herod shouted back into the cave.
Camilla moved forward, lashing and striking at Herod who was doing all he could to defend himself. For all the powers she was unleashing, she could not get a direct blow in.
Arucard fired one control after another, trying to make sure Camilla did not get to far ahead of their line, but it was no use, she was attacking, moving in, attacking, moving in. Arucard had the sense that Herod was baiting her forward.
"Camilla…You are venturing to far ahead. Slow your pace." Arucard called out, dodging the attacks from the line of vampires that fired low-level controls against him.
Camilla did not respond as she moved forward again. A maelstrom of darkness and crimson was unleashed towards Herod's form, when he disappeared into shadows and moved away.
The attack flew towards the figure standing where Herod had been.
"You would kill me with you own hands this time?" The voice rang through Camilla's head.
The attacking chaos swerved and took out half a dozen of Herod's young vampires.
Hellsing, Arucard and Seras all watched as in less than a heartbeat, Camilla's human form reappeared. It was then that each of them realized that she truly was alone in the midst of Herod's line.
Camilla stood, all fury drained from her.
"Laurian?" She whispered at the figure before her.
Altena watched from behind Laurian's figure. Something about the look in Camilla's eyes pained her.
"My dear sweet Camilla." Camilla watched as the figure before her began to move towards her.
Herod appeared behind Camilla and wretched her arms behind her. Arucard unleashed several potent controls towards the large vampire. They bounced away before hitting him.
"Magicks…" He muttered.
Camilla felt the burning of blessed chains wrapping around her swiftly, but could not break her eyes away from the figure before her.
"Laurian." She whispered again, this time sounding like a lost child.
"Shush my sweet Camilla." Laurian answered, moving forward and brushing her hand lightly across Camilla's cheek.
"Now, as I promised you." Herod whispered in Camilla's ear before striking her viciously across the back of the head.
Hellsing watched, astonished as Camilla was bound and then beaten by Herod in the cave entrance. Who was the woman that had appeared and caused Camilla to stop in her tracks? Camilla was eventually beaten down to her knees or else she collapsed to her knees. Hellsing focused the binoculars there was such pain on Camilla's face. She was weeping…
"God in heaven…Laurian?" Hellsing whispered, moving the binoculars back up to the woman who stood, watching impassively at the figure crumpled at her feet while Herod continued to kick the prone figure.
Arucard screamed as he released one after another of his powers at the line of vampires now closing ranks.
Seras began firing her shoulder cannon repeatedly. "No, no, no…" She kept whispering to herself as the shells landed one after the other and blowing up groups of vampires.
The last thing any of them saw was Herod dragging Camilla by her hair into the cave. A new swarm of vampires, FREAKS and hellhounds poured out from the face of the mountain.
Hellsing lowered the binoculars slowly.
"He planned this all along. He deliberately baited her until she was alone…Now, he has her." Hellsing whispered, unaware that tears were streaming down her face.
Walter moved towards Hellsing.
"Come, Lord Hellsing." He murmured as he guided her back towards the transport she had been staying in.
"I cannot. We have to bring in reinforcements. They will be destroyed out there if we do not assist." Hellsing answered, her tone all business. Walter lowered his eyes from the pain he saw radiating in her blue eyes. He knew she was, above all else, Lord Integra Wingates Hellsing, and this was what she had been bred to do.
"Attack plan B-4 initiated. Call in the air support and secondary battalions. We are making sure that line gets out of there." Hellsing barked into the com link.
The commanders responded one by one on the com link and she watched as they moved forward, firing, destroying Herod's swarm of hell, breaking it up enough to allow those who had stood with Camilla a chance to break away.
By the time day broke again, the breadth of bodies and the stench of death in the air was so strong the horizon was dark with smoldering bodies and the ground wet with blood.
Arucard fought the urge to chase the retreating FREAKS and vampires as they scampered away from the rising sun.
He saw a figure staggering towards him. He waited, patiently. The young vampire collapsed before him.
"From Lady Altena…" He said before he collapsed.
Arucard sneered as he ripped the young vampires head off. One of Herod's whelps, he bent down and grabbed the small card the vampire clutched.
Hellsing sat in the transport, finally alone. Walter had insisted that she remove her battle regalia for cleaning before the next evening of battle.
The evening had finished with less casualties than the previous two weeks. It was almost as if now that Herod had what he wanted; the attacks were there for show only.
There was a knock at the transport door.
Hellsing wasn't sure she wanted to see anyone. Instead, she pulled her robe closer to her form and opened the door.
Seras stood outside, dirty and bloodied and staring up at her with eyes that flamed a deep red.
"Lord Hellsing…Forgive me…I…" Seras started to speak.
Hellsing only nodded and turned away, heading back into the transport.
Arucard found them both, sitting in Hellsing's transport some hours later. They were not speaking when he arrived, he wasn't sure if they had spoken at all. They sat, across from each other, looking across to one another.
"Do you want what news we have?" He asked as he materialized in the small space.
"I presume that was Laurian…Or some form of her." Hellsing replied without looking at him.
Arucard flashed his mad grin. "Indeed. We had underestimated the amount of magicks that Herod had sought. He has two very powerful mage houses working with him. We do not know what he possibly promised them to elicit their support, as it is always in their interest that they provide any manner of assistance."
"Her, I imagine." Hellsing said softly.
Arucard had no response. He had not thought that Herod would offer up…But of course, why wouldn't the mages want her and her blood? His red eyes narrowed…He did not want to think about what they would do to Camilla.
He shared no other information, as the Council was undecided on Altena's act of information. Camilla could have at least one ally, or another in line to exact their vengeance.
*-*
Camilla screamed again, the pain crawling along her flesh searing her from the inside out. How had they bound her? Mere blessed chains did not easily bind her, yet she could not move. Hanging suspended from the ceiling. Where was she? The pain again…Hooded figures, chanting. Magickal torture? Not that. Anything but that. Camilla whimpered, she had been captured only once by a mages guild in her early years but if there was one thing that still sometimes woke her in a terror; it was when those memories surfaced.
The gnawing insects crawled beneath her flesh, she watched in horror as her skin bubbled and blistered and she could see the shiny black bugs burrowing into her flesh. Heading for her bones.
Herod watched Camilla, stripped and hanging, twitching and screaming. The look of terror on her face made him smile. He had no idea what the mages were chanting but it was well worth it. Her body was covered in runes and symbols; her flesh was charred where magick brands had been applied. Laurian had told him of this fear of Camilla's. Not knowing the end result would be this.
As a doppelganger, she had the memories of her original but no essence of true life. No feelings or loyalties. Just a shell that spoke like moved like and looked like the original. Herod merely had to ask, to instruct and the Laurian creature would do as he asked. It had cost him dearly; he had collected her clothes, trophies like so many of his kills in those days. How happy had he been once he had survived Camilla's attack? The equivalent of magical cloning, all they needed was the slightest remain of Laurian, and the dust embedded in the clothes had been enough to bring her back exactly as she had been the day he killed her, without all her troublesome powers and interference of course. If he had only known then what he knew now, he would have killed Camilla that day. No matter, he smiled, as he listened to Camilla's screams pierce through the room.