Altena followed the racing form of Laurian down the hall. Laurian stopped and turned suddenly.
"You betrayed her. You…" Laurian snarled.
Altena recoiled slightly; this was not the moving mockery of the vampire she had been attending to these past months.
Altena bowed her head.
"By her wish, I did as I was told." Altena replied.
"Stay away from me…Run and tell Herod whatever it is you run and tell Herod…" Laurian snapped as she began moving quickly down the hall again.
Altena did not follow; instead she began to move back towards the cell.
"Laurian?" Altena felt the question as she approached the door.
"No Lord Camilla, it is Altena." Altena answered gently.
"Altena? Has it finally come to be your moment to exact your pound of flesh from me?" Camilla replied with little emotion.
Altena materialized into the cell.
"No, it is not." Altena said, bending down towards the other woman.
"It matters not…" Camilla replied, curling into a small ball.
"You are not alone here." Altena murmured before rising to leave.
Camilla did not respond, she could only stare at the wall. She felt herself slipping away from caring. Whether it was truth or another of Herod's plots, she no longer cared.
Altena walked down the hallway. Her head bowed as she thought back to her audience with Camilla before she had met with Herod.
*-*-*
"Altena." Camilla had spoken her name softly when Altena had been delivered to her chambers.
"My lord." Altena had kept her eyes to the ground.
Camilla had reached out and taken her face gently into her hands.
"Sweet Altena…Do you truly believe me to be unfit in my role? So you truly think me a misfit?" Camilla asked, gazing into Altena's violet eyes with her own dark ones.
"My lord…" Altena stammered, the nearness of Camilla causing her concentration to falter.
"When we were lovers, did you think it then?" Camilla released her hold on Altena and moved away.
"My l…" Altena started to say but was cut off by Camilla's gentle,
"No…You have called me Lord enough on this day. Will you not even say my name any longer? Altena, you and Marcus, of anyone to…" Camilla stopped herself.
"You are not like us." Altena finally said. The sound of the explanation sounding weak to her own ears.
"I never was. It didn't matter before, did it? We traveled as companions, we were lovers, and when you and Marcus…When it was no longer the three of us, but the two of you…I wished you well." Camilla answered.
"Camilla. We are creatures, vampires, beasts that hunt and feed. You are, so human…We indulge in satisfying our needs, feeding, sex, warmth, traveling with another when necessary. You…" Altena tried to explain, although she knew it was not wholly true. Being with Camilla, she had made her and Marcus feel like perhaps they were more than primal creatures. They were sentient after all, and did feel, even if among their kind such things were dismissed as weakness.
Camilla baited them to think, debate, read the words written by humans. To aspire to take their powers and be more than killing machines. She taught them how to laugh, taught them to appreciate passion beyond the need, taught them how to be still with one another. She had asked once, why there were no great works written by their kind? Surely creatures that walked the earth for centuries must have some insight into the condition of existence.
"How can you belittle what you and Marcus became to one another by saying it was just a need?" Camilla asked, feeling so incredibly tired.
"You killed him, as was your right. I do not belittle his memory." Altena answered. This too, made Camilla so unlike their kind. She was and could be a brutal and ruthless vampire. Then, she would sit and feel remorse over the actions she had taken.
"Altena. I asked to have you here to give you a choice. I will not send you to Herod, nor will I demand your fealty. You tell me what you want from me, and I will give it to you if I am able. I am sorry…My hand was forced, but it is of no consequence, I did what I did.
"I am tired of these politics and games. Either I will defeat Herod, or Herod will defeat me. Someone will rise to assume my position, or another will rise to claim Herod's House. Time will march on, with or without us in the parade.
"For what you once were to me, for all those moonlight conversations, for the feelings I had, and obviously, still have for you. As penance for having to kill Marcus to make a political point or the benediction of a woman who feels death might be waiting to dance with her tonight. Tell me your wish." Camilla said, moving back towards Altena.
Altena stared at the woman before her. Damn her, damn Marcus…Damn the whole lot of this breed of bloodsucking corpses. Damn this conscience which Camilla had obviously cultivated. Altena and Marcus had talked about this, their betrayal. Why had it seemed so right then and so wrong now?
"Why?" Altena asked.
Camilla took Altena's hands in her own.
"For all the things I have already stated and because, even if it is unbecoming to our breed, I cannot deny that there is, or was a friendship between us. There were already two pawns that Herod sacrificed today. I don't feel like making it three."
Altena bent her knee and bowed before Camilla.
"Altena, don't." Camilla tugged on her hands to get her to rise again.
Altena pulled her hands back down, so she was kneeling before Camilla, holding her hands above her head.
"My liege, tell me what you wish me to tell Herod. I did not lie when I said that I would follow you as the most devout of your House. I will serve where I can serve. If victory is yours this evening, then, as you said, we can speak again. If it is not, then the future is unknown how I can serve you."
Camilla knelt before Altena.
"This is truly the choice you make?" She whispered softly.
"It is, I will speak it again if you did not understand my intention." Altena replied, a very small smile crossing her lips.
"Then it is I who am humbled before you." Camilla said, pressing her lips to Altena's fingers.
Altena's small smile grew.
"Forgive me my betrayal?" She asked, leaning her head down to touch against Camilla's forehead.
"Always." Camilla answered.
They had spoken for a little while longer, and then, Camilla had called for those who waited outside her chambers to escort Altena out.
Altena had waited, watching what she could, moving in the darkness and out of Herod's way. Watching Camilla, she realized that she and Marcus had been foolish to listen to Theolus's insinuating questions, casting doubt on her ability to lead the House of Alexander. So fickle were their kind, so easily seduced by the moment. Camilla had endured all that Herod threw at her and never once asked for mercy, or even death.
Now, Altena knew she would have to find a way to let the House know where they were, because she suspected the whole thing was going to unravel very quickly.
*-*-
"All troops are in position?" Hellsing spoke into the headset.
She listened as the troops rattled back their replies.
"We are support only. There will be no excusable actions other than engage only if attacked. I repeat, only if attacked." Hellsing issued the command, removing her glasses to massage the bridge of her nose.
She would not be overly optimistic. In the two weeks since Arucard's return from Paris, with the new information and the vast resources between Hellsing Organization, and the House of Alexander, it seemed like just the traction they needed.
So now, here they were, surrounding an innocuous building in the heart of Paris, the storefront a small patisserie shop that had apparently gone out of business.
Hellsing did not believe that they would actually find Herod inside, and if they did, she dared not hope that Camilla would also be here. It had been almost a year since Herod had taken her. Hellsing knew Herod was doing something; members of her troops on normal FREAK activity containment had disappeared. The FREAKS were re-surfacing again, fiercer, harder to kill.
Arucard waited. Elder vampires were moving like shadows around the perimeter of the building, he knew they were trying to dispel the magick shields. One of the Mage's Guilds had begrudgingly offered their assistance when an old debt was dug up between the House of Alexander and the Guild. So, they were using countering talismans, combined with vampire controls to undo whatever traps and shields might be contained within the building.
Every vampire there, and there were many, wore other small talismans. Enchanted for a limited 'cloaking' effect from the vampires within the building. Arucard could not imagine how Herod could not sense the mass of dark power that waited outside his door.
Arucard was not inclined to believe in such things as hope, so he could only wait for either the confirmation or denial of whether or not this was truly Herod's sanctuary. If this was not the place, as so many others had not been the place, then they would keep going until they found the place.
*-*-
Altena looked through the cell door at the figure that was curled in the corner. Camilla was barely lucid these days, after the day the doppelganger had raced out of the room and in the subsequent days that followed. Altena suspected Camilla's lucidity returned when Laurian came to visit her alone.
Laurian had not said anything since that day to Altena, but Altena saw the difference in her eyes. Altena had no idea how Herod could NOT sense the change in the doppelganger, but apparently he did not, so focused was he on furthering the pain and humiliation he could visit on Camilla.
Altena's suspicions had been correct; Herod was bored and tired of Camilla's retreat. So, he began to move onto his next stage. She watched as young vampires, probably barely turned by those from any number of the House of Alexander, were paraded, tortured and executed before Camilla's eyes. She watched as Herod slathered over the doppelganger, pawing Laurian before Camilla, evoking no response as well. It wasn't until he started bringing the humans in, the ones dressed in military garb, from the Hellsing Organization, and killing them, that Altena could sense any change in Camilla.
The impact was two fold. It seemed to be the only thing that truly seemed to bring panic into her dark eyes, and, it made her retreat even deeper inside herself. She was more creature now than Altena had ever seen her. Her dark eyes were huge in her face now, her fangs curled over her cracked lips, resulting in a path of dried blood down her chin. Her dark hair was dull, matted and clumped, her features mostly hidden these days by the wild clusters of knotted hair that draped like old rope over her face. She truly looked like an animal when Herod attached the chain to the collar he had placed on her that first day. Camilla's neck was chafed and raw from where the collar sat. Altena imagined that the rawness around her neck was what prevented Herod from realizing when Laurian had fed from her, that day now past.
Altena suspected though, as she did about the visits when Laurian went into the cell, that beneath the feral, dirty exterior, Camilla was still in there. Watching and biding her time.
The effect on Herod was not unexpected. The more she retreated, the angrier he became.
Altena had murmured to him, after he had unleashed his fury against Camilla's snarling form as she crouched in the corner.
"Lord Herod, it is not entirely unexpected that Camilla's mind would break as it apparently has."
Herod turned his furious gaze towards Altena, who kept her eyes focused on the floor, her head demurely bent.
"Now!! Never, never in all the stories and tales and whispered rumors, is there tell of this. She had lived years locked in cells smaller, conditions worse, although I have tried to outdo anything I know she has lived through." Herod answered angrily.
Laurian watched, her face impassive, and her emotions as steady as her face indicated. She could not ever let Herod know the effect his vendetta against Camilla was having on her. For all he could know, she was the same dead inside creature he had dragged back from the true sleep. The moments she shared with Camilla, in her cell, those were moments she treasured, when it was Camilla who spoke to her.
"Then, my Lord Herod should shout from the rooftops, that he is the Vampire that broke the will and mind of Camilla, former Lord of the House of Alexander. Your will is the stronger, obviously. You are the smarter vampire, for none had thought to bring back the one she prized above all others." Altena murmured, knowing that Herod's ego would latch onto the praise immediately.
He did, he stopped mid stride and turned again to face Altena.
"By the blood! You are right! Then, all I need to do is finish out my vengeance and destroy the House of Alexander, then her. She may be mad, she may be a beast, but already I have trained her to walk as a beast, I will keep her chained to my chair so I can sit by the fire and tell the tale of breaking Camilla Alexandre to my will. Then, she can beg for scraps for the amusement of my new court." He crowed, his eyes lighting up in his scarred face as he imagined the scene he just described. He walked over to the prone form and absently nudged her with his foot.
Camilla snarled again and shrank further into the corner.
Herod laughed and moved back towards Altena.
"Very good Milord." Altena answered, casting a sidelong glance at the doppelganger. She was not reacting.
Between the two of them, all they had to do was wait for those on the outside to put together the information she had been slipping out for so many months.
The Mages had already left, quietly disapproving of Herod and his mad outbursts. They finished their contract with him, gave him the charms to equip the FREAKS to make them even stronger than before. When they left, all the runes, the symbols, even the mystical burns, faded from Camilla's flesh. The only marks that remained were the magicks that bound her, preventing her access to her powers. All it did was bring into stark relief the new scars that now mapped over the old.
*.*.*.*
Arucard moved towards the door of the patisserie shop. Everything was in place; the location appeared to be exactly where Herod was keeping Camilla. One of the elders has slipped through the airshafts far enough in to view what the outside disguised. He had confirmed sighting Herod and other vampires moving in the large space within. He could not confirm absolutely, but suspected that a figure in the corner of the room may be Camilla.
"Teams are in position. Waiting for your signal." Hellsing said softly into the headset. She knew that there was little her teams could actually do and she was still afraid to hope, even after what the elder vampire had said, that the long search was finally over.
Seras waited with a small group of younger vampires, assigned with several elders, just outside what appeared to be an old delivery door. She and the other younger vampires had not yet mastered the shifting into shadows, so they would be entering as part of the overall attack force. She could feel that rush that came upon her right before a battle. She had learned as much as she could, building on her powers, remembering Camilla's words before she had been taken. To learn the capability inherent to what she now was did not mean she had to sacrifice her own conscience.
"Engage." The voice rang through Sera's head, as she knew it rang through every vampire there. She had never seen such a gathering of vampires and had wondered but did not ask what Hellsing thought of this; so many vampires in one place, and the Hellsing organization on the perimeter, not attacking them.
Seras would only remember what happened when that thought command had been issued. The elders had placed the magick talismans against the door and upon the command being given; they moved their hands in rapid succession and the door imploded inwards. Tearing a hole in the wall and the magickal barrier large enough that they could all move through.
Seras sensed the room filling rapidly with vampires as the magickal barriers were broken through from the roof, the doors, walls, and the boarded windows. It was a swarm of supernatural activity. Behind those figures came the troops from the Hellsing organization to form a perimeter.
Arucard materialized in the center of the room. Herod's face as the room filled transformed from anger to fear as he saw the sheer numbers filling the room.
"Request Control Release A-17 Containment." Arucard said.
"Control release granted A-17, A-1 through A-25." Hellsing answered quickly. She stood at the periphery and contained the urge she had to run to the figure huddled in the corner. She could not believe the feral creature was Camilla, but she knew in her heart it was.
The room exploded into a flurry of close range battles as Herod's vampires, FREAKS and hellhounds began to enter the room from the doors from deep within his sanctuary.
Altena shifted into her shadow form and moved back into the hall. She noticed Laurian had neither moved nor transformed into her creature form.
None would remember how long the battle itself took, only that the aftermath left a room filled with dust, dead hellhounds and dying FREAKS. Those wounded from Hellsing and the House of Alexander lay among their foes. In dying, there was no distinction of whose side they had fought.
Arucard had launched his attack against Herod but had only managed to contain several vampires and FREAKS and watched enraged as Herod broke a small vial around his neck and disappeared from the room.
In the odd stillness of the battle's aftermath, of which during the chaos preceding, neither Camilla nor Laurian had moved.
The wounded vampires and Hellsing troops began to mill around, clearing the room as those still fit chased the few stragglers still trying to escape while the wounded moved or were helped out towards the transports outside for medical aid.
Laurian turned towards Camilla, who watched with her glittering feral eyes. Would anyone notice the shift of perception that crossed Laurian's face? She could sense Herod was still out there. She knew she remained bound to the vile creature and until he was killed, would remain so. Then what would happen to her? None would be able to tell her; she was, ironically, a walking dead among the walking dead.
Laurian smiled to herself as she shifted, only slightly, towards her creature manifestation. Her fangs extended and were bared; her eyes flamed red, as she turned towards Camilla, hell-bent on attacking.
Hellsing saw Laurian transform and begin to move, quickly, towards the prone form of Camilla. There was no conscious thought involved that compelled her to place herself between the attacking creature and Camilla's prostrate form.
Camilla watched Laurian begin to race towards her. She saw Hellsing step in front of the attacking vampire, as if to shield her.
Camilla watched, horrified, as Laurian jerked forward, still rushing in her attack, now towards Hellsing, as she began to fall forward, Camilla saw the long silver blade protruding from Laurian's back. The macabre dance as blessed bullets fired from Arucard, Seras, and even Walter emptied into Laurian, each of them perceiving her attack directed now towards Hellsing. The mages who fought with them unleashed their own flurry of attacks.
"Nooo!" Camilla cried out as Laurian fell towards the blonde woman. Camilla would not remember this until much later, but Hellsing never once raised her own weapon at Laurian. She had merely stepped in front of the attacking vampire.
Laurian grasped Hellsing's lapels and pulled her down.
"Love her with all your heart, for that is the way she will love you." She whispered, her green eyes blazing with an intense fire as clear green met cobalt blue.
She let go and began to slide towards the ground.
Camilla struggled to rise and stumbled her way to Laurian's side as quickly as she could, Hellsing stood over the two women for a moment, then moved away.
"Laurian. My love, you cannot leave me like this. Not again." Camilla cried as she cradled Laurian's bleeding form. She drew her wrist up to her mouth and sliced it open.
"Feed from me." She lowered it towards Laurian.
Laurian turned her head away. She could invoke the powers inherent to her race, she could, with but one sip of Camilla's blood gather enough fortitude to come back from the chasm of darkness she hovered over.
"Sweet Camilla. My truest love, do not keep me from the long slumber I was in. Would you keep me here, bound to you as I was bound to Herod? I am no longer what I was. I am only a shadow moving through this time. We spoke of this. We got something that never happens to our kind, we had the chance to talk again. You made me laugh again. Now, you must let me go, you said all the things you wished you said, I have said all the things I wanted to say. Our time is done."
"Laurian…" Camilla wanted to force her to drink her blood, even as the truth of her words cut through her.
"The human…She cares for you. Who else but a woman in love would throw herself in front of an attacking vampire?" Laurian smiled up at Camilla. The playfulness in her green eyes masked behind the pain.
"Please don't…"
"You grew up to be quite an astonishing testament of both human and creature. You shame us all by being what we all should strive to be." Laurian's thoughts began to fade.
Camilla had that familiar sinking feeling, the one that haunted her nightmares, this moment when she could feel Laurian slipping away.
"You were the greatest love of my life." Camilla said, cradling Laurian close to her.
"I know…" Laurian gave a small pained laugh as she looked up into those dark eyes gazing at her so intently.
"But your life isn't over, so there could be a runner up." She said once the pain subsided.
"Laurian…" Camilla cried out, even as she knew Laurian was dead, again. In moments, the form she was clutching became dust. This time though, even the clothes, everything, flared in a momentary flash as the magicks were dispelled, and the dust began to blow away.
Camilla hugged herself, rocking against the ground. She did not think she could cry anymore, but the tears slipped down her face and the sound of her anguish poured from her lips, although Camilla did not recognize herself as the source for the keening sound filling the room.
Hellsing watched from across the room. She was not sure what to do; Laurian's words rang in her head. She sighed, all this frenzy to find Camilla, the ludicrous dream she had of what? Swooping in like some hero to Camilla's distressed damsel. Instead, she can only watch as the woman that was never far in her thoughts sobbed over the loss, again, of the love of her long life.
Arucard appeared beside Hellsing, as did Seras. Neither spoke as they all bore silent witness to the grieving vampire woman.
"She is very weak." Arucard spoke aloud. Truth be told, had Herod wanted to kill her before making his escape, it would not have been a great challenge. Camilla was a broken creature, so thin, obviously barely attended to. He could only imagine how ravenously hungry she was. Her body was consuming itself for sustenance; he could see every tendon, sinew and muscle in stark relief against her skin. The flare of anger rippled along his spine when he saw the collar Herod had placed on Camilla. Herod would pay…
Seras felt her eyes well with tears. The sound of her grief pierced the air with such razor sharp intensity, the heartbreak tangible in the large room. More than that, she could see the toll the last year + had taken on the strongest creature Seras had ever met. She looked so feral, like a starving alley cat. Seras realized that the creature was what was keeping Camilla alive.
Hellsing turned away from the vision of the woman she had spent every waking moment in the last year searching for. The sound of her anguish and the vision of her so weak, the sign of her captivity written in bold relief across her body was breaking Hellsing's heart.
"Please make sure she has whatever she needs." Hellsing murmured as she began to walk away. Arucard looked at her retreating figure.
"You are not walking away from her now, are you?" He asked, his voice, for the first time she could ever remember, hiding no other affect than the question. She could almost imagine that this was what he might have sounded like when he was human.
"The fates have had their laugh at her expense. My own private prank they threw in as a bonus." Hellsing didn't stop.
Seras looked at Arucard, then back to Camilla, then towards the retreating Hellsing.
"Lord Hellsing." She called out.
Hellsing paused only for a brief moment and then kept walking.
"I shall instruct that she is taken to Hellsing manor to recuperate." Was all Seras said. She herself could not explain the connection that had formed between her and the Lord of Hellsing manor. It didn't involve words; it was an understanding, an understanding that revolved around Camilla.
Arucard saw Hellsing nod ever so slightly as she moved towards the door.
"Camilla?" Arucard asked softly. Her anguish was all he could sense from her.
Camilla knew there were others in the room. She had the vaguest sense that somehow, something had shifted. There was no way out from where she was though. She was operating on primal instinct only.
"She is mad with grief…Laurian truly returned, a few months back, she stopped being just a doppelganger." Altena appeared beside Arucard.
"You sent the messages." Arucard asked, not wanting to interrupt Camilla's grief.
"When Laurian's self, essence, whatever it is called, returned…Camilla, in all these months, she bore the doppelganger's cruelty, the mages experiments, Herod's rants and beatings. She even escaped into sleep and there did not dream of Laurian…. Even then, these last weeks with Laurian, they talked when they could. Laurian could not offer much by help, bound as she was to Herod's will, but they talked. I know not of what. Herod broke Camilla's will when he appeared to make good his threat to begin going after those she cared about. When he bought in a Hellsing soldier, explaining all that he would do to tear down the humans foolish enough to align with the House of Alexander, that was when she became panicked. She has been more creature than not since that day." Altena explained in a few brief sentences, to try and shed some insight into the state of the once proud head of the House of Alexander.
"You did not betray her." Arucard stated calmly, as he moved towards Camilla who appeared to have finally collapsed.
"No. I meant what I said when she spared my life. I made a mistake, and by her grace, remain alive today. There shall never be a moment from now until my death when I shall ever doubt Camilla and her place." Altena answered, following after Arucard.
"The Council will want to speak with you." Was all Arucard said.
"I am here to serve Camilla and the House of Alexander." Altena replied as she began moving towards the cluster of elders who stared at her.