Camilla opened her eyes and saw the drowsing figure of Hellsing in the chair beside the bed. She lifted the sheet gingerly, she was still covered in a filthy rag, the ordeal of the last year still caked upon her body. The collar was gone at least. The weight she had stopped feeling now blissfully absent from her neck.
She sensed someone watching her and saw that Hellsing had opened her eyes and was staring at her with that intense blue gaze.
"I remembered from your journal that you hated to awaken to find yourself cleaned and in new clothing. Despite the smell, I made sure you were not disturbed. The mages helped us in removing the collar. If you feel well enough, there are new clothes and a bath off to the side that I can run for you." Hellsing said, nodding to the room off to the side.
Camilla shook her head with the smallest of motions. She could not speak; awakening reminded her all over again that Laurian was dead, again. The lump in her throat grew as she turned her head away from looking at Integra Hellsing.
"Very well, at least have some more blood. It was advised to allow you to feed slowly, every 6 hours you have been fed two bags. It is almost time again." Hellsing continued, standing to move towards the medical bags on the table. She flicked open her pocketknife and sliced the tip of the tube, she pinched it between her fingers and turned back towards the vampire woman.
Camilla accepted the tube fed from Hellsing's fingers, numbly drinking the tangy contents. Hellsing repeated the action when the first bag was emptied.
Hellsing stood quietly, not watching as Camilla fed. She had seen the despair in those dark eyes and it felt like a cold fist was closing around her heart. She knew it was foolish to think of anything except Camilla's recovery, if she ventured to close to the emotions she felt for the woman, she ventured too close to despair. She did not naively think that Camilla would be as she was before she left, Hellsing knew that Laurian's death had all but destroyed the woman the first time, and it had happened to her again.
Hellsing removed the tube and tossed the empty medical bags into the wastebasket. She turned to leave the room.
"I'll let you have some privacy. If you need anything, there is a controller beside the bed, it will let myself, Walter, and Seras know you require something. I am in the room outside this one if a simple shout is easier. When you are ready, we have a team of doctors specializing in healing the kind of wounds you sustained, should you wish to. They can also remove the bindings, their recommendation was you were too weak before, so we have waited." Hellsing tried to make her tone light as she walked towards the door.
Camilla wanted to reply and could find no words. She was stronger than she had been and even through the pain of Laurian's death, she appreciated the Hellsing's thoughtfulness in leaving her as she was.
Hellsing closed the door behind her and leaned heavily against the ornate oak. She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. No matter how she tried to make sense of it, she had no idea how she had come to this place in her life. Emotionally unsettled by something that two years past she would have immediately categorized as an animal and ordered destroyed. Now, her beloved Hellsing organization had aligned with a vampire House. By that very action, she had compromised the very core beliefs she had been raised with her entire life. Now, the other houses treated Hellsing Organization as a subsidiary of some kind of the House of Alexander.
She had fought with Arucard vehemently.
"I will not turn Hellsing into some 'service to kill rogue vampires so they don't have to sully their hands'. The name of the organization is Hellsing, not Renfield, make sure they understand that." She had yelled at him when he had come with a list of names of vampires. Arucard had laughed and disappeared from her office, which had been moved, as she told Camilla, to the larger anteroom outside the small room where Camilla lay.
"Lord Hellsing?" Seras asked as she walked into the temporary office.
Hellsing pushed herself away from the door and looked at the young vampire before her. Seras had been there when Hellsing had been too exhausted to keep vigil over Camilla. Seras had fed the wounded vampire while Hellsing slept in the chair beside the bed.
"Is there any new intelligence? We did track the mages to the correct locations?" Hellsing replied moving over towards her desk.
"There is no new intelligence. The mages guilds are willing to come forward to negotiate, as well as provide information about what they learned from their own investigations into the make up of Camilla." Seras answered neutrally, she knew Integra would not react well to the news.
"They think they can negotiate? That they can barter their own findings extracted by torture and live experimentation to us?" Hellsing said, her voice cold.
"No, that is not what they think. What they think is that the value of allies having this information rather than enemies would prove useful to us." Seras replied, setting a file down on Hellsing's desk.
"Or they extort us, what is to stop them from starting a bidding war for those that want this information?" Hellsing picked up one of her cigars and lit it. Pausing to look at the silver lighter in her hand before turning back to Seras.
"They will not start a bidding war." Arucard said, materializing in the hallway leading into the room.
Hellsing whirled and fixed him in that patented Hellsing gaze.
"And you are so sure because of what?" Hellsing asked.
"They didn't really learn anything. Nothing that would indicate a weakness, that is why they are wiling to come forward and negotiate." Arucard answered, settling into one of the chairs.
"And that is supposed to comfort me somehow? You saw what they did to her. You saw the…" Hellsing stopped and turned away from the two vampires, her anger threatening to overwhelm her.
Arucard and Seras did not answer. Everyone sitting in the room could only imagine what had caused the scars and brands across what flesh that was exposed on Camilla. That was the reason why Hellsing had sought the finest mage healers to be on standby when Camilla was ready.
"Come now, emotion has no place in negotiations with your enemies."
Everyone in the room turned at the sound of Camilla's voice speaking from the doorway of her room.
Camilla stood, cleaned and dressed in a simple linen robe. Her dark hair shorn close to her head, despite the almost weeklong feeding schedule, she still had a drawn look about her and coupled with the shorn hair, which she had obviously just done, looked like war refugee.
"You should not be up and around yet." Arucard spoke aloud, not moving from his position.
"I needed to do something and I could not help but overhear the conversation." Camilla smiled weakly and began to move slowly towards one of the chairs.
Seras was at her side in an instant and offered her support as she moved towards the chair nearest to her.
Camilla sat down and smiled at Seras.
"You have matured so very much in my absence." She murmured and then turned to face the rest of the inhabitants of the room.
"What do you think you are doing?" Arucard asked, still not moving from his position across her.
"I am doing what I always do. I am surviving; I want to know what has happened. Where is Herod?" Camilla answered, no warmth in her response.
"We are still looking. He cannot be far; we think he has gone underground. Now is not the time, the houses clamor for new alliances since so many of them rose from the shadows to aid Alexander's House in your absence." Arucard figured he would tell her now rather than later. All the politics, all the old alliances and grudges were coming to bear as the elders of many houses rose from the catatonic slumber.
"I see. It is nice to be missed I suppose." Camilla answered.
She turned her dark eyes to watch the pacing figure of Integra Hellsing, who would not look at her. She clenched the cigar between her teeth and prowled from one end of the room to the other.
"Will you excuse us for a moment?" Camilla asked both Sera and Arucard, her gaze never leaving the prowling woman.
"What are you going to say?" Arucard asked. Seras only nodded and began to move towards the door.
"We need to talk." Camilla answered.
"Then know only this, I know you are grieving, everyone in the House of Alexander knows you are grieving. None of us can escape the burden of that grief, so powerful is it, it runs like a cold shadow through our veins. She is but a human; the time it could take you to grieve could be the sum of her lifetime. If that is your intent, then sever this connection quickly and go brood on some other continent." Arucard said as he too began to move towards the door.
Camilla did not respond, she wanted to find some angry retort but recognized the truth of his words. More than that, she did not know how to explain that beneath the grief, she found herself comforted by Hellsing's presence. She had felt something move within her when she had awoken and seen Integra's blue eyes upon her.
"Integra." She spoke once the room had emptied.
Integra paused in her pacing; the sound of her name falling from Camilla's lips froze her in her tracks. She turned to face the woman sitting in the chair across from her desk.
"Camilla." Hellsing responded, her voice sounding surer than she did.
"I want to thank you for once again, allowing me to recover in your house." Camilla said her dark eyes gazing into Hellsing's blue ones.
Staring into those blue eyes, Camilla knew that it was Hellsing she dreamt of when she was in Herod's possession. It was Hellsing she wanted to protect when Herod began his plan to make her pay. Even Laurian, once she had truly returned, knew there was another who lived in her heart now.
Camilla could see the fear in those blue eyes, despite the cool tone of Hellsing's reply.
"You always mistake my generosity for more than it is Camilla. There was no other place that would allow you the ability to recover so completely absent from those who are seeking to watch you. Without costing a fortune in magickal shields."
"So, are you my protector now? That would be ironic, the descendant of Hellsing, Knight of the Round Table, offering sanctuary to a vampire." Camilla answered, her tone light. She wanted to know what she could say that would chase away that fear in Hellsing's eyes.
"You think the irony escapes me? I have had ample time to try and reconcile what I have been raised to believe and…" Integra did not finish, she had not moved since Camilla had called her name, she had turned and been trapped by those midnight eyes, staring into her soul. Now what? What would she do now? Hellsing knew she had, at best, another week while Camilla recovered, at least physically enough to go back to the House of Alexander. She was steeling herself for the inevitable statement; Camilla was going to leave again. She was going to disappear into the world of shadows and grieve over the loss of her true love and Integra was going to be left, counting the sands of time, as humans are wont to do, until the sands run out. Hellsing hoped that she would not be on her deathbed, thinking still of those dark eyes she was gazing into now.
What else could she say to the vampire, the woman who was still watching her intently? That Integra didn't know what to do with how she felt about Camilla? How could she love something she swore to destroy? All the discoveries about what and who Camilla was had not really changed the fundamental fact that no matter how she became one, she was a vampire. Yet, the year she had spent getting to know Camilla and the ache that filled her heart when she had been taken. Integra knew her mind was at the short end of a losing battle since every conviction she had, every argument she made to herself fell apart in the presence of the woman sitting across from her now.
Camilla watched Hellsing, the space between them was awkward and she was not sure how to change it. She felt the exhaustion creeping up on her again.
"Are you ready for the doctors? We can get the magickal bindings removed, they have several recommended salves and prescriptions, but I wanted you to be aware of them. They are…" Hellsing finally turned away, she felt silly. She could see Camilla trying to put up that front again, but Hellsing knew that Camilla was tiring. Now was not the time for her insecurities. The first step was making sure Camilla was safe and she was next make sure she healed. Then, whatever was going to happen would happen.
"Mages? Healers I presume." Camilla answered, a chill running up her spine. Logically, she knew that mage healers were the exact opposite of everything she believed mages to be. They truly only ever offered their services to help, never to harm. Their fees were often low, simple requests to keep hospices and other various fronts open where they could aid the ill.
"Yes. We have, with your House, run extensive checks on each of the doctors." Hellsing answered, finally moving to sit in her own chair.
"I trust you. Not yet though. Would you, could you help me back to the room?" Camilla replied as she began to push herself out of the chair.
Hellsing leapt out of the chair she had just settled in and hurried around the desk. She grabbed Camilla's hand and offered her support as she stood.
Camilla leaned against Hellsing as they turned towards her room. Neither woman spoke as they made their way back to the room.
Camilla finally sat on the edge of the bed; she grabbed Hellsing's hand and rubbed her thumb over the gloved hand, finding the outline of the ring beneath the glove.
"You wear the ring." Was all she said.
Hellsing pulled her hand away quickly, before she could speak, Camilla had stood and was kissing her.
There was that sensation again, the falling, flying, shooting to the moon rush pounding through her. Hellsing moaned slightly and wrapped her arms around Camilla's waist, feeling how thin she still was, pulling her tighter as the kiss deepened.
Camilla leaned back; her knees giving out and Hellsing followed her as she lay back on the bed. They continued to kiss, Camilla wrapping her arms around Integra's waist. Hellsing pulled back from the kiss when she realized she was laying on top of the other woman.
"I shouldn't, are you ok?" She asked, shifting to the side and gazing down into Camilla's dark eyes.
Camilla smiled. "I am exactly where I want to be now." She replied as she settled against Hellsing's chest.
Hellsing shifted to get more comfortable and thought about leaning down to kiss Camilla again, when she realized that she was sleeping. If that was what they did when they slipped into what looked like death.
*-*-*
When Camilla awoke again, she could hear the sound of a heart beating. She lifted her head from Hellsing's chest. The blonde woman was asleep, not having moved from the position when Camilla had fallen asleep.
Camilla gazed at the sleeping woman. In sleep, the fierce will dissipated and left only the innocence behind. Laurian was right, this woman before her was in love with her. More than that, she loved her back. She mused on that statement. In her long lifetime, the plethora of lovers and companions she had through the years, the fascinating, funny, primal and complex people and vampires that she had shared her attentions with. None of them embodied as many contradictions as the woman before her. None had challenged her, reviled and celebrated her as this young human female sleeping beside her. Camilla settled back down into the warmth of Hellsing's body. She lay there drowsing, remembering the kiss from the night before. She began to catalogue all the small considerations the Integra had displayed towards her. The large ones as well, Integra had obviously aligned herself with the House of Alexander to search for her. That could not have been easy.
"Lord Hellsing?" Camilla heard Walter's voice in the anteroom outside her room. She did not want to waken the sleeping woman but felt the warm body shifting beneath her.
Camilla looked into the deep blue eyes that were gazing down at her. She was not surprised to discover that Hellsing awoke with such alacrity.
"Good morning." Integra said as she gave a small smile.
"I believe it is." Camilla answered.
Hellsing reached out to touch the dark luxurious hair that had grown through the night.
"That must be convenient." She laughed, wrapping her fingers into the silky softness.
"It has its' moments." Camilla chuckled her reply.
Integra untangled herself and stood beside the bed. She moved towards the door, then paused and turned back around.
"About…" She started to say but finished instead by leaning over and kissing Camilla again. The same heart pounding rush filled her as she indulged in that kiss before pulling herself away.
"If your schedule is clear later, we could explore that a little bit more." Camilla smiled from her reposed position on the bed.
Integra gave her a coy smile.
"Let me see what I can do." She replied as she opened the door.
Walter turned towards the sound of her voice.
"Good morning Lord Hellsing." He said with a smile.
"Good morning Walter. What is this morning's agenda?" Integra replied, trying to force her mind from the woman who lay in the room behind her.
"We have a briefing this morning. Seras informed me that the Mage's Guild's are now indicating they can direct us to where Herod may be hiding." Walter said as he began to move towards the tea set to prepare Hellsing's morning pot of tea.
Integra raised her eyebrow as she moved towards her desk, checking her appointments for the day. She smiled to herself; she did not have anything after lunch, which meant she could pick up where she had left off.
"Really? That is interesting news indeed. Walter, after today, I want to clear my schedule for the next two weeks. The Mage's can wait, and since our attack, the FREAK activity has returned to pre-Herod levels. I trust you can handle the administrative details for that time?" Integra said absently as she flipped ahead through her calendar.
Walter smiled even more broadly.
"I believe I can take care of anything that comes up. Should I cancel this morning's briefings?"
"No, no." Hellsing said, settling into her chair to begin sorting through what should be attended to in what would be the first vacation she had ever taken since becoming the head of the Hellsing organization.
Camilla sat in the room, finishing her second bag of blood. She had resisted the urge to race out there to find out where Herod might be. There would be enough time for her to find him on her own. When she heard Hellsing discuss clearing her calendar for the next two weeks, she smiled broadly.
*-*-*
Seras stopped in the hallway. She had seen Lord Hellsing's figure pacing through the manor. Force of habit from Camilla's absence had dictated she begin to follow.
"Come out into the light." Hellsing said, sensing the presence behind her.
Seras stepped out into the moonlit hallway.
Hellsing smiled at Seras somewhat distractedly.
"There is no need to follow me in the shadows." She said.
"I am sorry, I felt you pass by and…" Seras started to explain.
"I know. You have nothing to say about this latest development?" Hellsing cocked her head as she gazed as the silhouetted figure.
"There is nothing to say Lord Hellsing." Seras replied. It felt like whenever they tried to talk was when the space between them became awkward. In all the months she had come to Lord Hellsing during Camilla's absence, since the day she was captured, it was never with words that they seemed to understand the other.
"Ironic, no?" Hellsing said as she turned to begin walking again.
"I am not sure what you mean?" Seras said as she too began walking, slightly off to the side of Integra.
"Hrmm. It is almost as if she is not really…Not really a vampire." Hellsing said, moving through the rows of slatted moonlight coming in through the thin, narrow windows.
"It is because of the bindings I imagine." Seras replied.
"What do you mean?" Hellsing stopped and turned to face the young vampire woman.
Seras stopped as well, "The bindings don't allow her any powers at all. She can communicate, you know, and feed but that is about it. She cannot access any of the powers or controls. That is why…" Seras stopped herself. She did not need to finish the sentence. She saw the flash of understanding in Hellsing's eyes. That was why she could do nothing to defend herself in the year Herod held her.
"I see." Hellsing nodded and began walking again.
The two women walked through the manor without speaking another word. When Hellsing found herself in the hallway that led back to Camilla's room, she turned again towards Seras.
"Is there more?" She asked.
"My Master is angry with her. The Council is eager to talk with her, of course you know of the Mage's Guilds increasing demands as well. He said to Lady Altena that the longer she persists in this masquerade of humanity, the more dangerous it becomes for her." Seras answered. Her master had all but stopped coming to see Camilla, the last time he had come, there had been a disagreement, of that there was no doubt.
Hellsing didn't answer but gave a small nod and then went into her office.
Seras looked at the door closing and then turned to head back to her own room. Despite everything, her growing knowledge of the world she now belonged to, she still spent much of her time alone. There were not many other young vampires that she found she had anything in common with.
Integra lit her cigarillo. She turned and looked at Camilla, dressed still in the simple linen robe as she had been almost every day of these last two weeks, when she was clothed, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"You still have those bindings around your wrist and ankles. Why?" She asked, nodding at the shimmering threads of symbols that still wound around Camilla's wrists, forearms, ankles and calves.
Camilla looked down at her arms, then back at Hellsing.
"It is more complicated than it appears." Camilla replied.
"Really? You don't want all your powers back? It seems like so long as you are bound, you appear almost human." Hellsing answered coolly.
Camilla shifted uncomfortably and turned her eyes away from that cool, piercing gaze.
"That is ridiculous Integra." She answered, tugging the sleeves of her robe down over her wrists.
Hellsing sighed as she moved towards Camilla. She put her cigarillo down in the ashtray and took Camilla's hands in her own.
"You did this because of me?" She asked gently.
"Really? Center of the world are we?" Camilla responded lightly, still avoiding Hellsing's gaze.
"Camilla…Please. You think I don't know what you are? I fell in love with you, all of you. Is it easy to admit that to myself? No. Will it be easy once we end this self-imposed vacation where we have both avoided the reality of this situation? Absolutely not. The longer you refuse to take back your power, the higher the risk to those you care about and yourself. I don't think I could stand it if…If something were to happen to you again." Hellsing said, her voice lowering as she said the last sentence.
Camilla finally turned her gaze towards Integra Hellsing. The warmth of her hands in her own cool ones, the intoxicating nearness of her, Camilla was finding it hard to locate the words to tell this beautiful creature before her that was only part of it. The rest of it, the shadow that was still Laurian's recent death, all the politics that she knew waited outside these doors, Herod still out there. Hiding in here, stripped of all her powers, except the barest creature ones, she could almost pretend that she was but a human woman again. She could revel being wrapped in her lover's arms, wasting away the hours in exploration and discovery of the flesh.
"Integra…You are right. I have wanted to extend, as long as I could, this moment in time. I wanted to hold on to what it felt like, almost, to be human again. Not just to feel what it was like to be almost human, more than that, a woman in love. Not Camilla Alexandre of the House of Alexander, not quite vampire, not quite Dhamir, not quite human. Certainly not all those things with Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing, Knight of the Round Table, head of the Hellsing Organization, member of the Royal Knights of the Protestant Order. I wanted it to be just you and I, here, with each other." Camilla said softly, gripping Hellsing's hands in her own.
Both woman gazed at each other. Clear blue and midnight dark eyes stared into each other. As so often happened these days, the intensity of the emotion, the nearness of the other, they moved closer towards one another and their lips met. All the things that were too painful to say, too hard to think about disappeared when their bodies met and communicated in a way that superceded the words that sometimes rose between them.
Slowly, tenderly, between the kisses and gentle caresses, Hellsing's layers of clothes began to disappear and her own hands quickly freed Camilla's form from the linen gown.
Integra bent down and feathered kisses between Camilla's lips and her wrists. She trailed a line of kisses up the other woman's arm and finished with a long, deep kiss.
Camilla had long since given up being surprised the effect Integra Hellsing's attention had on her body.
The afternoon passed into evening, the two women lost in each other and the heights their passions were taking them too.
Hellsing looked into Camilla's dark eyes, the pupils rimmed in red, she leaned forward,
"Feed from me." Hellsing murmured into Camilla's ear, arcing her neck towards Camilla's lips.
"I told you before, your blood would never pass my lips." Camilla replied, nuzzling the warm flesh, her lips brushing ever so slightly against the throbbing vein beneath the alabaster skin.
Hellsing chuckled, wrapping herself even tighter against Camilla's cool naked form.
"You are already a liar on that promise, Camilla Alexandre. Whose blood do you think you fed on these last few weeks? It was my blood alone that nourished you back to health." Hellsing whispered as she nuzzled the earlobe before her lips.
Camilla drew back so she could look into Hellsing's blue eyes.
"You fed me only your own blood? Are you sure?" She asked she could feel Hellsing's heart beating against her own chest. She was so warm, this beautiful creature in her arms; Camilla had reveled in invoking wave after wave of pleasure upon the blonde woman's body and had been taken by surprise with Integra's own ferocious reciprocity.
"You know what I am asking for. It is the fulfillment of the bond of love for your kind." Hellsing answered, her answer completely honest.
"You know then the rest of it." Camilla said; as she bent down to kiss those wonderful, silken, magical, lips.
"Well, that part…" Hellsing answered in between the kisses. She did not want to think about that. The mutual feeding, she had read about it in the archives she had been granted access to. She was not ready to become what she swore to destroy.
"My love…I swear it to you again, your blood shall never pass from your flesh to my lips. Thank you for the offer, but I meant what I said. I shall never take a drop of blood from your body." Camilla said, seeing the shadow in Hellsing's blue eyes.
Integra smiled weakly. "Thank you. Is that the value of living a multitude of lifetimes? Knowing when the folly of passion will lead to regret later?"
Camilla laughed, "I make no such claim to wisdom like that. I think I have followed gleefully down the path of passion with you, and folly be damned."
"I wonder if one day that promise would cause you harm." Integra said, her mood sobering again.
"Such is the price I would pay." Camilla answered.
"You will allow the healers to remove these bindings then?" Hellsing said, running her fingertips lightly over Camilla's forearm and wrist.
Camilla sighed as she rolled to her side. "Yes, we can arrange for it tomorrow. I expect it will not be a pleasant experience."
"That is another reason, isn't it?" Integra murmured.
"It is very painful, magickal bindings and unbinding." Camilla shuddered at the thought. She could almost feel the pain beyond imagining coursing through her body again. She curled in tighter into a ball. Her fists clenching as she struggled to not let the panic overwhelm her.
Hellsing reached out and held the vampire woman. "I will be there with you, every step of the way." She whispered to the shivering figure.
*-*-*-*
Camilla lay on the stone platform. She was fighting every urge within her that wanted to flee from the room. She had met all the mage healers, one on one and they had all expressed great consternation over the state of what she had been subjected to. She was not bound, the room was well lit and she could see Integra over in the corner. She was listening to one of the mage healers intently, nodding her head slightly as the mage spoke.
Seras was standing near the platform, Arucard stood beside her. The chambers outside this room were filled with entire troops of the Hellsing organization, not to mention the vampires from her own house prowling outside the building, in the sewers, on the roof top.
"Could you be any more…" Arucard said peevishly, Camilla's panic was filling his head like so much smothering fog.
"Do not worry Camilla, such apprehension is understandable." Seras answered. Her master was right, Camilla's fear was filling up every space in the room but telling her so was not likely to lessen it in any way.
"I am sorry. I…The…This is one thing, after everything I know, the controls, our own magicks…" Camilla tried to articulate the purely primal fear that she felt with the mages.
"I understand." Arucard replied. He knew what it was like to be experimented on while alive, having things magically attached to you. That was one of the reasons that he depended on Hellsing to release his controls. He too had his own bindings of a sort.
Since she had made the decision to have the bindings removed, Arucard had spoken to her about all that waited for her when she returned to her place as the head of the House of Alexander. She continued to dodge answering when she would be ready to return, but once she had made the decision to have the bindings removed, it would be a short time indeed.
Integra walked over to where Camilla lay on the platform. After their conversation and a few more days of convincing, Camilla had agreed to have the bindings removed. Hellsing could see in those dark eyes the panic that Camilla was struggling with.
"They say it should not take very long. They had indicated that they could give you a sleep draught, but I told them I would check with you first." Hellsing said, her fingers wrapping around Camilla's clenched fist.
Camilla opened her fist only slightly. She weighed the options, a sleep draught meant she would be blissfully unconscious, but that thought frightened her almost as much as the pain she envisioned. She shook her head.
Hellsing nodded and then turned back towards the healer mages. She beckoned them over with her free hand.
She turned back and smiled down at Camilla. "I am right here, always." She said.
The mage healers began a low chanting and Camilla felt a shiver run up her spine. One of the mage healers approached her, with a gentle smile, began to lay crystals around the perimeter of the stone platform. Dry hands feathered along her wrists and ankles as he dabbed a light powder on the markings.
When the chanting became louder, Camilla felt that sensation, that icy fire sensation in her flesh.
"No…Please, no." Camilla murmured, the panic threatening to overwhelm her, her fists clenching.
"I am here. There is no danger. Look at me, Camilla…Look at me." Hellsing said, gripping the vampire's hands that had clenched back into a fist. She forced Camilla's face to turn towards her.
"You are not bound, you are free. Lift your hands and touch me if you do not believe my words." Hellsing said, trying to force by her own will, the panic back in Camilla's dark eyes.
Camilla looked into those blue eyes, gazing into her own with a fiery strength. She raised her hand tentatively, and then touched Hellsing's face leaning over her own.
The pain increased for a brief moment and then subsided. The low thrumming pain Camilla could handle. She stared into those blue eyes, holding her own as steady as the ocean, the warmth of the face which she held above her own.
It was over in a very short time, but it stretched like an eternity before Camilla. The whole time, she gazed into those blue eyes, which never wavered from her. Her hands held the entire time by Integra's own. When the very last remnant of pain subsided, the mages stopped their chanting, the crystal's light subsided and Hellsing helped Camilla up to a sitting position.
"Are you all right?" Integra asked, Camilla was shivering.
"Yes. Yes, thank you." Camilla answered, she smiled at Integra Hellsing. If there was ever a feeling of gratitude she had at this moment, she could not imagine when it was.
"So it wasn't as bad as you thought it would be was it?" Arucard said wryly, shifting to appear beside the women and the stone platform.
"A walk in the park, indeed." Camilla replied.
"Then you are restored?" Seras asked, nodding down towards Camilla's hands, which were still entwined with Integra's.
Camilla looked down and saw that indeed the shimmering threads that had wrapped around her wrists and up her forearms were gone. Just a thought and she could feel the power surging through her again.
"I am." Camilla smiled.
"You know what that means?" Arucard asked.
"I know. Summon the Council…In 5 days time." Camilla answered.
Arucard's cocked his head, but did not respond except to nod.
"Seras, let us go. There will be, once again, much to prepare for." Arucard said as he tipped his hat towards Hellsing.
"Lord Hellsing, the commanders have been informed of the briefing." Walter said, approaching the two women.
"Very well, I shall be there in within the hour. Everyone has the briefings?" Hellsing answered, her eyes never left Camilla's face.
"Yes Milord." Walter said moving away.
"Let me help you back to the room. I shall be back as soon as I am finished with the briefing." Integra said as she held out her hand to help Camilla.
"Do you think I need help?" Camilla smiled as she leapt down to stand on the floor.
"For someone who has lived as long as you, you can be dense. Mostly because I wanted to be alone with you." Integra smiled back at Camilla.
Walter watched the two women standing beside the platform. Camilla's return had changed Integra Hellsing, for the better so far as Walter could observe. If her mood was dark when Camilla had been gone, it was light now that she had returned. Those who did not know Lord Hellsing might not be able to pinpoint the change but Walter had seen it.
Walter had been astonished when he saw Camilla after the first time she had been returned from Herod's. Arucard had carried her into the room, the room she had been placed before. Walter looked at the thin, ragged figure Arucard was carrying in. He did not realize at first what it was until he got closer.
He had watched Lord Hellsing devote herself to Camilla's care and had seen the feral creature that slept and ate and slept again become the vampire woman he knew.
Even now, as he watched the two women walking back towards the manor, a contrast of light and dark as they moved, one complimenting the other. Camilla still looked thin. There was something changed about her since her return from Herod's. Camilla had, despite her abundant charm, always been aloof but now she seemed to be protecting some part of her self. Except when she was with Hellsing.
Walter knew that the two of them were trying very hard to not talk about the reality that they found themselves in. On the rare occasions that he saw Hellsing alone, prowling the halls of the manor, she was often, not uncommonly, deep in thought. He saw her in the study sometimes, gazing intently at the picture of her grandfather. The times, they have changed.
*-*--
Integra sat in her briefing. She was only marginally paying attention to the commander speaking at the other end of the table. She could not help but think back to the woman she had just left.
Integra had recognized the shift in Camilla's strength now that the bindings were removed. Her body was just beginning to ache with that delicious ache from Camilla's earlier attentions.
Integra had spent her entire life willfully ignoring the 'base passions' that she believed to be a distraction from her mission in life. There had been no shortage of men who had tried to garner, on some level or another, her attention. Some women as well, in the select circles she traveled in. Hellsing had never given it a second thought.
Her closest relations had been Walter and whatever connection she had with Arucard. There was nothing about Camilla that resembled Arucard, other than the attribution they shared of their species. Camilla was an expert and attentive lover and Integra wanted nothing more than to go back to those arms and drown herself in those lips.
Every moment Integra spent with Camilla, only made her realize she wanted to spend 5 more just like it with her.
"So, this must be love." Integra mused to herself as the next commander stood to give his briefing.
Integra looked down and opened the next folder, lest it be revealed she was not paying attention.