The evening so like the others filled with the never ending battle approached again; the three figures stood, watching the field. There was no movement coming from the cave and the hellhounds merely stood as they have stood throughout the day.
Hellsing began to stride forward.
"Don't." Arucard warns, shifting in front of her.
"He is gone. He has what he came for, these are for show. Battalions, attack at will, confirm FREAK activity along the perimeter." Hellsing replied, then spoke into her headset.
"Confirmation. No FREAKS found in sector A-1."
"Confirmed, No activity in sector A-2."
Hellsing glared at Arucard grimly as one after another, the battalions reported back that the areas were clear. Nary a trace of vampire or FREAK to be seen. Shots rang out as the battalions moved forward, firing at the stray Hellhounds left behind.
Arucard cocked his head. The vampires of the house of Alexander confirmed what Hellsing's angry gaze told him. Herod was gone, disappeared in the daylight, taking Camilla with him.
Seras didn't look at either of them. She merely hefted her shoulder cannon over her shoulder and began firing at the line of hellhounds.
None of them had slept that day, in the silence between them, each of them dealing with Camilla's loss in their own way. Arucard disappeared and reappeared frequently, dealing with the Council as more news came in.
By the time the sun had completely set and the night was dark, the forces of Hellsing and Alexander stood in the cave entrance.
Hellsing felt a pain in her chest as she remembered the sight of Camilla, bound and beaten in this very spot. It wasn't that memory so much as the pain she had seen on Camilla's face that tore her inside.
Hellsing waited as Arucard, Seras and the point battalion moved in to confirm the cave was clear. Hellsing had no doubt in her mind that they would find no trace of Herod, Camilla or anything else.
Arucard reappeared, his usual mad grin more chaotic than usual. He was holding a pile of clothes and a bloody cloak.
"Master…"Sera asked when she saw him.
"They are hers." He answered as he tossed them to one of the council members.
Hellsing did not look at the bundle that the vampire was moving away with. She walked into the cave and looked around. It was larger than it looked from the outside. Various tunnels burrowed into the mountain. She suspected that many of them led to various points outside, which would explain Herod's ability to unleash his swarms whenever he needed.
"One of these must lead somewhere outside the perimeter we secured. Commander Young, send a recon out and explore the tunnels. I want this entire cave mapped, and I want to know how Herod escaped. Call in fresh units if you need to." Hellsing turned towards the commander nearest to her.
"Travel with a vampire in each group. They may be able to sense things you cannot see." Arucard said, nodding towards a group of vampires also in the cave.
Hellsing turned to face Arucard.
"Lord Hellsing. The truce that Camilla offered remains in effect until we can confirm whether she lives or not. Lord Arucard merely speaks on behalf of the council." An older male vampire dressed in a deep maroon cloak and finery from an age gone by murmured as he nodded his assent towards Arucard.
Hellsing grunted her reply and began moving deeper into the cave.
*-*
"Camilla."
Camilla opened her eyes. She ached from so deep within that even bothering to surface into consciousness hardly seemed worth the effort. Except, it was Laurian who called her. Laurian…Whose blue eyes she had dreamt of deep in her blackness. No, Laurian did not have blue eyes. Green, her eyes were green. Camilla struggled to raise her head. She was on some dirty floor, dressed in some linen rag, she was bound but not by chains. She stared dully at the intricate shimmering thread that wove around her wrist and up her arms. The same intricate designs wound around her ankles and up her legs. She could not stand but felt little inclination to try. She felt the weight of some kind of collar around her neck. Strange, that all her bindings but that one would be magickal.
"Laurian?" She asked, tentatively. Camilla was having a hard time tracking the thread of time. She dreamt of a blue-eyed Laurian and Laurian was here. She felt as if she had not lived over 1,000 years. How could she be back where she started? Trapped by mages, subject to their experiments, endless experiments, bound and trapped. It was Alexander and his damned lessons. No, Alexander was gone, she…Camilla struggled to find the memory that would tell her where she was and why Laurian was here.
"I am here my love. I came to see how you were feeling." Laurian answered.
Camilla heard Laurian's reply but could sense nothing beneath it. This was the most disconcerting part of Laurian's presence. She could talk to her, she could feel her touch on those rare occasions when Laurian reached to her, she could look into those green eyes that she had lost herself in so many days and nights, there was something missing now in that gaze.
Laurian, so different in her cruel coldness, standing before her, so aloof, asking why Camilla had let her die, the accusation as sharp as a blade. Asking her why she had done so much harm in the world. Camilla could not remember this side of Laurian; she knew it existed, for she was Laurian of the House of Duchemont…Never with her though. Laurian would leave Camilla crying after she left, walking out of her cell with not even a backward glance. Leading her to the mages, carrying her back like a limp rag doll to leave her in this room with little concern for Camilla.
Camilla startled as Laurian's gentle touch. She was cleaning her gently. Camilla shivered; having others clean her always bought back the memories of Alexander's long vigil to break her. That single action was the thing that always made her feel helpless, powerless.
Camilla looked up and saw green eyes gazing at her with mock concern. Then why was she dreaming of such intently cold blue eyes, blue as the sky, deep as the ocean, blue.
"So much pain my love. Why is there so much pain?" Laurian asked gently as she ran the damp cloth over Camilla's prone form. There was silence for a stretch of moments as she gently washed her.
"For the sins we bear." Camilla finally answered despite herself. The feeling of despair welling up in her chest as she struggled to keep her eyes away from Laurian's face, to not look into those eyes and not see anything there. Of all the things Herod had done to her, the pain of the mages and their endless quest to discover whatever it was they sought, in the space of however long she had been his prisoner, Laurian's distant presence ripped open the wound across her heart anew every day.
"Let me help you then my love." Laurian whispered as she moved closer to Camilla, her lips brushing the flesh she had just cleaned.
Camilla closed her eyes, no, not this. Please, not this. Everything the creature that was Laurian and not Laurian knew she also knew how to run her fingers over Camilla's tortured body with the gentlest of flutters. Camilla felt the despair bloom even deeper in her chest.
Altena waited outside the room. She had indeed accompanied Laurian everywhere she went, and the first time she saw Laurian's cruelness and the effect on Camilla, she began to demurely excuse herself to wait elsewhere. The doppelganger did not care; Herod directed all her actions.
*-*
"You leave the doppelganger unattended far to often with the half breed. We have never tried to resurrect one of your breed. There could be unforeseen complications." The old mage spoke to Herod from beneath his dark hood.
"That is not your concern to worry about. Have I not let you have the access you asked for? Have I not permitted you every opportunity to gain the information you need from her? How many times can you cut her open and perform your exploratory rituals?" Herod answered impatiently. In the beginning, he enjoyed watching the mages perform their experiments. The sound of Camilla's pain was like a salve on the burning hatred he felt for the woman. He enjoyed watching her sorrow when Laurian toyed with her, asking her the questions he fed to her. Taunting her with his attentions to the doppelganger, who did all that he asked. The first time he had thought of it, he had taken the doppelganger into Camilla's cell and there he had done so many things to the beautifully and amazingly obedient doppelganger. He was breaking Camilla, little by little; the doppelganger had been more successful than he had anticipated. Except, all that was waning, it hadn't been very long, and he had not been able to leave this magick-protected sanctuary since he bought the bastard half-breed here. Even dragging her about by the collar had begun to prove wearisome.
The house of Alexander had invoked the rite of vengeance against him. All houses allied with the House of Alexander were now looking for him. Not that he was too terribly concerned, archaic old elders, tired and out of touch with the new world that existed out there. Even allied with the humans and their pathetic group of vampire pets, including Arucard. Herod relished the thought that Arucard, preening, arrogant whelp whom so often and so loudly proclaimed his prowess, favored by Camilla, bought low as well.
The FREAKS had been a stroke of genius by the human insects that created them. That combined with the magicks of the mages, he was building an army that when he walked the earth again, they would fall. They would all fall, and he would carry a banner with the half-breed bitches head atop it.
"You underestimate what she is. Even with all the time we have spent examining her, much of what she is is unknown to us. The magick that created her has been lost from many of the mages guilds. Nothing written, and her people were exterminated long ago in some crusade or another." The mage replied in that soft tone inherent to his kind.
"She is a half breed abomination. Her tribe has not been gone that long, she is not that old. There are those among your guild I imagine are older. A mere 10 centuries, my kind and yours have been on this earth since before man could speak in any manner besides guttural shouts." Herod snarled. He hated this talk of her, even when she was allowed to be hunted for sport, when she was nothing more than another fledgling turned creature, whispers in the great halls of her potential, her endurance, her ability to heal and survive, among those that were immortal.
The mage merely nodded and moved to leave the chamber.
"An ounce of caution is always worth more than a pound of vengeance." Was his parting comment.
Herod smashed his fist into the stone column beside him, shattering it through the center. He was going to exact his vengeance, he would break her when she saw all that she cared about destroyed. Stupid sentimental creature, her anguish over the doppelganger proved that.
*-*-
Walter knocked on the door gently.
"Enter." He heard Hellsing bark.
"Lord Hellsing, I thought perhaps some tea might be a welcome diversion." He said as he entered the room.
Integra Hellsing looked up at him. Walter noticed again how much older she looked, her blue eyes haunted by these past 9 months whenever she looked upon him. In the beginning he tried to console her, to speak to her, but she never mentioned Camilla by name after the day in the cave.
Not to say that she had not devoted every moment and resource at her disposal to find information about where the female vampire could be. Oddly enough, it was Seras who was able to calm her in the nights when she stalked through the mansion. Hellsing would never allow anyone to see her openly rage, but on more nights than not, she prowled the mansion. Hellsing Organization, always running around the clock before, now never stopped. She ordered attacks one after the other. When summoned to the Round Table, she would sit and listen, quietly seething, the administrative details that she excelled in now struck her as time wasted from finding the female vampire. Even orders directly from the Queen, which she abided by, did not stop her relentlessness.
Seras did not speak to her; she would follow her around the mansion. Arucard and she would arrive in the shadows and follow her. Whether to protect her or just letting her know that they were there, none, not even Walter could say.
Arucard was gone as often as he had ever been. What had been strange was Seras beginning to disappear with him, or on her own. Walter suspected that the Council for the House of Alexander had a fair amount to do with that.
The vampires continued to assist the Hellsing organization. It was a strange truce, to have ancient members of the vampire race enter into the Hellsing manor. Sit at the tables with the commanders as they shared information.
"Thank you Walter." Hellsing replied, staring intently at the computer screen. This was new, this information on the mages guild. A man had been killed in a car accident in Paris recently. The autopsy had listed a burn across his hip. Believed to be a result of the accident, Hellsing's contacts had noticed the strange pattern and discovered it to be a rune of a mage's guild. Was he a mage or merely the victim, Hellsing didn't know. Nor did she know if the mage's guild was one of the ones she sought.
Could she be in Paris? So close, only a few hours away? Hellsing turned away from the computer and faced Walter, who was holding out a cup of tea for her.
"It is possible there is a lead in Paris." She said calmly as she accepted the tea. So many leads in the past months, each of them coming to nothing. She wasn't sure why she cared any longer, if she just stopped looking, she could go back to her life. She glanced down at her hand, there, beneath the glove; she saw the outline of the ring. The ring that allowed there to be a truce between the House of Alexander and the Hellsing Organization. A truce that 2 years ago she would have scoffed at the mere mention of. She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a distracted manner.
"Very good. Shall I summon the commanders?" Walter replied, pausing in his settling down across from her with his own cup of tea.
"Not yet. I will send Seras over to the Council, their investigation may reveal more than my initial report." Hellsing answered, sipping her tea slowly.
"Have the archives proved useful in your research?" Walter asked conversationally. The Council had agreed to give Arucard access to records from their history to share with Hellsing. She had compiled a significant source of notes on Herod, Laurian and some on even Camilla. She made it a point to not read the passages with Arucard referenced.
"To a certain extent. It is like trying to know the intrigue of Henry the VIIIs court by reading history books. Surely, none could predict the actions within that court merely be reading about the players." Hellsing answered, running her fingers through her long blond hair absently.
"A point well made. Integra…" Walter paused, then noticed that she had turned her piercing blue eyes upon him.
"I have known you all your life. I fought beside Arucard before you were born. I heard tales from your father's lips of the legacy of the Hellsing name. You bring no shame to the name for the feelings you have for the woman who leads the House of Alexander. I am only saddened that your first risk into emotions of the heart led into the path of heartbreak before the joy." Walter spoke softly. He knew she would not respond but he had watched her struggle every day, trying to find a way through the shades of grey that she found herself in.
To his astonishment, silent tears began trailing down her sculpted cheekbones.
"How did this happen?" She sobbed silently.
"The heart makes its' own decisions and rarely asks if the mind approves." Walter answered, moving to comfort the quietly shaking lord of the manor.
"Even if I loved her the whole of my lifetime, it is not a fraction of the life she has lived. What madness is this? To speak of love for something I have made it my life to destroy. And now, it would appear as though I may never know. I could live and die in the time it takes for this war to play out. It could be 6 months, 6 years, 60 years before Herod is found and she is rescued. If she…" Hellsing gave voice to the doubts that had plagued her since that night in the cave.
Walter held her shoulders as she silently continued to cry. He had no words to comfort her. Love, Camilla had once said to him, is that which truly makes a soul sing. Without it, we are all of us just marching towards our grave.
*.*.*
Arucard raced through the night. He was personally heading to Paris to see if the lead Hellsing had sent proved to be worth any merit. He had no memory of Herod, had he been turned with this whole drama started? Or had he been too young to care? Fresh with his new powers, stalking the night, reveling in his ability to melt into shadows. Was it one of those things that Alexander and Camilla spent hours into the days and night fighting over and plotting?
Camilla…Arucard had never understood how she could appear so close and always so distant. Now, he understood. To realize that there was none like you in the world, and even those you were aligned with held you in distrust. Even still, she tried to balance both worlds that she came from. How did she live with the contradiction within herself? Now, he understood her waxing endlessly on the creatures that they were, and the struggles they faced. Perhaps none but her had the conscience to actually care about the actions the beasts they were took in their survival. He had noticed a change in Seras, and most telling, the change in Hellsing. There was something even more guarded with her since Camilla's abduction. Not that she would share very much with him anyway, but with even those that were closer to her. Walter. Strangely enough, it was Seras who spent time with the young leader of Hellsing. When she wasn't learning the new world that had opened before her. The Council, the meetings, the 'kin' that she never knew was out there. It was the silent vigil she kept with Hellsing.
Arucard settled on a shelf of the Eiffel Tower. There was another vampire that was to meet him. He gazed out at the glittering lights. Paris, city of lights, no matter how many lights, they could never truly dispel the shadows.
"Greetings from the House of Iris." Arucard heard the greeting before he sensed the other's presence.
"Greetings from the House of Alexander." Arucard answered, turning to face the presence that appeared beside him.
"Pietro sends his regards and hopes this information is helpful in the location of Camilla." The other vampire said.
"The House of Alexander will not forget the aid of the House of Iris in this time of darkness we face." Arucard replied the ritual reply.
"It appears as though the Mages Guilds are beginning to withdraw from Paris. The body of the car accident was the first that perhaps indicated other strange accidents should be considered. It is our current inclination to believe that we have gathered enough details from the past 2 months from other deaths that we believe Herod is in Paris. There are several locations he could be, and if it is true that since he disappeared with Lord Camilla that he has likely been in hiding in a magickal sanctuary, well. It will take time to determine."
"You think that the Mages are moving because they are done or there is something else?" Arucard asked, he would have to have members of the council and Hellsing's own resources confirm the information.
"Mages are a cautious lot, if they believe that a confrontation is brewing, then they will begin to move out of the area. The apprentices have begun to relocate to other countries. They are either following their adepts or preparing for the adepts arrival. We will likely not know which the case is, as the adepts are much harder to track." The other answered.
"Who do we think is sending the information on the dead?" Arucard asked.
"We thought perhaps you might know the ally you have." The other vampire answered, raising one eyebrow quizzically.
"It is hard to know which are allies and which are leading us into a trap." Arucard replied.
"Indeed. Call upon us if you need aid." The other vampire shifted, indicating his departure.
"By the blood of the elders." Arucard answered and also shifted so he could head back to London with this news.
*-*
Camilla curled on the floor. How long had it been? Laurian had not come by but Camilla welcomed the respite. Herod stopped by, daily? More than that, always just long enough to rant at her, unleash a few brutal attacks on her. The mages came too, Camilla could not prevent the screams that their experiments invoked. No matter how much she thought that they had done their worse, the magicks beneath her flesh, peeling her open from bone to skin, the burning of the magick seeping in through her cells, she could never prepare for.
There was the other, Altena, whom she had ordered, like Judas, to betray her. Altena kept to the fringes, trailing behind Laurian, murmuring to Herod. She could not blame Altena…She had sent her into Herod's house, so sure was she in her belief that she would be victorious against him.
She was fed only when she passed out into blissful oblivion, then one of Herod's junior vampires would drip blood from some vermin over her lips, enough to awaken the hunger within her, enough to coax her into that barely conscious state. Not unlike her early years, when she didn't understand it then, she knew now that she would not die of starvation but the hunger pangs of the beast within her would claw her from the inside.
Perhaps it with this near madness of hunger that compelled her, to perform the final act that so often had consummated the passion between her and Laurian, the act she had resisted each time Laurian was coaxing her body to yet another betrayal. So skilled was she with the knowledge of just how to make Camilla's body move beneath her.
Camilla arched and saw Laurian's smooth neck so close…She started to move closer, then held herself back. For a moment, she closed her eyes, no, if she did this, it would be like she had given in to this façade.
The beast within her had no such qualms. Laurian pulled her closer, and Camilla drew back her lips, her fangs lengthening. When she arched again, her fangs pierced Laurian's neck and she began to drink. Voraciously, as if she had never fed before.
Laurian gasped but did not try to pull away. In her memories, she remembered this feeling. The pounding of her blood spilling over Camilla's tongue. There was more.
"Feed from me." Camilla whispered to Laurian, needing the cycle of blood to be complete.
Laurian obediently bent her head over Camilla's neck, pierced the skin above the collar and began to feed. Entwining herself against the woman beneath her as they began to move in a slow gentle rhythm, Laurian's human form shifting into the shadow and crimson creature form, Camilla could not shift, bound was she by the magicks she wore.
Camilla wept at the sensation of Laurian's blood filling her mouth and then the taste of her own blood coursing through Laurian's. She held what she could of the form that felt like her lover tightly, undulating beneath the sinewy, insidious shadows that flitted over her flesh.
For the first time since her capture, Camilla felt her head finally begin to clear. She tasted like Laurian; the rich crimson elixir had that sweet finish that she had loved about Laurian.
She felt Laurian suddenly pull back. Camilla stopped drinking, slowly lapping the trickle of blood from the puncture wounds on Laurian's neck.
"Camilla?" Laurian whispered questioningly, pulling back to look down at Camilla. Manifesting fully into her human form.
Camilla tried to turn her head, she hated looking up into those green eyes that were exactly as she remembered, except they were missing that spark…The playful mirth dancing in those eyes.
"What…" Laurian pulled away, scrambling away from Camilla.
Camilla looked at her finally and saw confusion painted across that beautiful face.
"How am I here?" Laurian asked, panic tingeing her voice as she grabbed her clothes and gathered them in front of her.
"Laurian?" Camilla asked, daring not to believe.
"Camilla…By the blood, what happened to you? Where are we? How am I here!" Laurian could not speak calmly.
Camilla gazed hard at the creature that had come in and like a walking doll for so many days and nights gone through the motions of all the things she had remembered about Laurian, without ever feeling like Laurian. Now, the room filled with the other vampire's panic.
"I died…How am I here?" Laurian turned her glare towards Camilla.
"Oh no…Oh no…no no no no. No…Those are only tales. We are not bought back. I was not bought back by magick…" Laurian shook her head.
"Laurian?" Camilla felt the spark of hope flare to life in her chest.
"No…I cannot be here, who bought me back? Camilla? Was it you?" Laurian asked, the memories of the last 9 months flooding back.
"Herod…" Laurian gave a small moan as she buried her face in her hands.
"Laurian, is it really you?" Camilla began moving towards the other woman, her strength recovered mildly by the feeding.
'NO! Stay away…I'm sorry, I am so sorry…The things I did." Laurian leapt to her feet and began to back away.
"Laurian. Please…" Camilla stopped, looking up at Laurian.
"Camilla…You don't understand…We are not meant to come back, I should not be here. I am bound to the blood that resurrected me. I am bound to Herod." Laurian whispered as she continued to back towards the cell door.
Camilla felt the small flicker of hope swept away by the force of the gust that slammed into her chest. There was that pain, her constant companion, the wound bleeding freely again at Laurian's words.
Camilla crumpled to the ground, shivering.