A Ghosts Shadow
Disclaimer: I truly wish that I owned Hellsing. None of this stuff is mine. Except for the obvious.
Two years ago:
It had spread through the community, like a rash, the plague that crept through, slowly poisoning it. It was beyond sick in the opinion of the Hellsing organisation, and this was one plague that they planned on eradicating.
Arucard had found the nest with no real problem and was once more annoyed at the antics of these supposed vampires. How dare they desecrate his name. Bored and ready for a challenge, he kicked the door down and scanned around the room, disgusted and slightly thrilled at the sight.
The latest fad amongst these lowlifes was hanging up like slabs of meat. Men and women, their hands chained and suspended in claw like butcher hooks. At the moment, only one soul was on the floor, kneeling with his head hanging as he was chained in an awkward position with his arms above his head. Blood caked his ripped open flesh and stained his hair.
Raising his gun, Arucard aimed for the vampires currently feeding off the human, easily dusting them. Once more bored, he shot the rest of the vampires before smirking; tilting his head and making the yellow glasses slip down his nose to reveal his red eyes.
"Targets silenced." He smirked and moved over to the man who was chained on the floor, circling him and noting the smell of poison. He knew that he should have refused his urge; he was supposed to just leave the humans for the police to deal with.
Crouching down, he tilted the mans head back, exposing the throat that was covered with bites, each one a vivid red and weeping blood. One eye flicked open, blood shot and dark, the presence of the vampire being noted and he pulled away slightly.
The bite was short lasting, just a nip really. Standing again, Arucard licked the remaining blood off his fangs before chuckling, his form disintegrating to hundreds of bats. On cue, the door opened and a unit of police came in.
Present day:
"Arucard!"
Mischievously, the vampire popped up in his master's office and he smirked, the glasses on his face slipping down to reveal his blood red eyes. He chuckled when he noticed the woman's distressed state.
"What is the meaning of this?" Sir Integra indicated the cause of the problem, a small box from which meowing would occasionally be heard.
"It was Walters's idea, master."
She raised a perfect eyebrow and frowned. "How so?"
"He said pets were therapeutic, helped relieve stress and tension." The vampire nodded enthusiastically before going over to the box and pausing. Carefully, he lifted the cat up by its scruff and examined the ball of fluff.
"I am not having that...thing in this house."
Arucard had to admit, the thing was a little...fluffy. The cat was a black and white little critter and had massive green eyes. It meowed again.
"And why that one? I would have expected something more...vicious, or crude from you."
"Seras picked it."
"That explains everything."
You had to wait; patience was a virtue they said. The silver finally pooled, transforming into a liquid mirror. It was cautiously picked up by hands roughened with a harsh life and gently tipped into the moulds.
This was the hardest part to wait for. Ghost watched, scratching back a loose strand of the hair that had given him his name. It was white, pure white, odd on such a youthful complexion. His eyes were red, but not through vampirism. His was a genetic complaint.
Finally, he removed the silver from their cases, turning over the stakes in his large hands. Gently, he placed them on a table before picking up a small needle, selecting the stake nearest him that was still warm.
Slowly but surely, he scratched the needle over its surface. The inscription simple and written in his neat handwriting. A ghost of silver to silence the undead.
Dropping the silver in a bucket of cold water to set them, he stood up and stretched before picking them back up. It was an expensive hobby, making them from scratch, but an essential one. He tucked them neatly into the holster style belt that he had made.
Turning the light off, he moved off into the night, smiling.
It was a freak nest again. Arucard had left his master in care of, and he shuddered at the thought of using the name, Tipsy. That cat was going to be the centre of a lot of hard feelings and pranks; he could feel it in his immortal bones.
He paused, curious as to what was happening. The artificial vampires seemed to be having some real trouble and were running around like headless chickens. Arucard smirked, keeping that image in mind as he cleanly beheaded one.
The vampire frowned when he was actually run into; didn't the red jacket serve as enough warning? Arucard pushed the freak away and smirked, noting the distressed way in which the short vampire looked back and forth.
"Are you Hellsings pet?" He asked, nervously looking behind him.
"I guess so." Arucard smirked, his jackal a comfortable weight in his hand as he levelled it straight at the vampires head. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, you see, there's this other guy who kinds ambushed us." The unnamed vampire seemed quite comfortable in the presence of the Hellsing vampire. "It was scary; he just appeared out of nowhere, like a ghost or something-"
Bored, Arucard smirked. "Oops." He put the smoking gun in his pocket and started towards the source of the vampires, taking off any strays he came across.
Inside was completely deserted, dust swirling in the gentle breeze of his coat. Frowning at the lack of any life, he shook his head, knowing that his master wouldn't be pleased about the appearance of an unknown vampire killer.
"Targets silenced." He announced. "Minimum energy levels used." The guns were forlornly removed and he sighed. This wasn't fair, he was too bored. Between the attention stealing antics of that damn cat and the fact that it was too easy to kill of vampires these days; he was quickly running out of things to do.
"Arucard, we meet again." Integra spun in her leather chair, cat on her lap and she burst out laughing. Using the table to propel herself, she faced the wall again and kicked off it, the chair spinning too fast this time and she ended up facing the wall again.
This time, she used less force and the chair settled a fair bit past the designated angle. There was more to this than she had expected. Propping the chair back to the wall again, she giggled and turned it.
"Arucard, we meet again." She chuckled and froze as the chair stopped at the perfect angle. It wasn't that though that had caused her to freeze.
The vampire raised an eyebrow but remained silent. The smirk broke his face and he indicated the cat. "I think she's working, don't you?"
"Arucard!"
"Perhaps not, master." He sat down on the edge of the table and shied away from the cat that wanted to investigate his coat.
"How did it go?" Integra shuffled some papers, pretending that none of the chair twirling had happened.
"Too easy."
She nodded. "The freaks numbers are finally on the decrease, you'll get to fight some real vampires soon, don't worry."
"There's another hunter."
"What?" Integra frowned. "Another vampire?"
"I don't know, he was gone before I got into the house." Arucard confessed and gently pushed the cat away. Tipsy purred and promptly started to work on getting as much fur on him as possible. "Well?"
"Hmm?" She looked up over her glasses, pulling her hand away from the cat she had been petting. "Oh, find him and bring him here."
"Yes, master."
Dropping his silver stakes on the table, Ghost dropped down heavily on the lone chair. He hated his apartment. It was like living in a cement cube and he wasn't even graced with a window. Sluggishly getting to his feet, he pulled off his jacket and caught sight of himself in the mirror.
He would never have called himself handsome, his best traits being his strong features and his height that allowed him to nearly reach six foot. Then there were the negative features. The albino sighed, even in the most unbearable of hot days; he would never remove his shirt or his top. They covered up a chapter in his life he wished to forget.
Hearing the kettle click, Ghost moved through to the kitchen and poured the hot water into a bowl before liberally adding salt to the foul mix. After a moment, a capful of meths was also included and he moved back through to the main room.
Gritting his teeth, he pressed a rag against the light grazes on his arm. All his wounds were treated this way, he wouldn't risk letting them go untreated. Breathing out a sigh of relief as he removed the rag, he let it soak a bit more before checking for more cuts.
Kicking his heavy boots off, he moved through to the bedroom and dropped down on the corner of the bed. Ghost stood up again and finally worked up the nerve to get changed, the sight of his own torso making his stomach churn.
The best way to hunt vampires was to adopt their lifestyle. Dozing off lightly under the thin sheets, the albino smiled. Being nocturnal was a hard habit to start, but now he was there, it came too easily. The sun had barely started to rise and he was sound.
"I hate cats!" Arucard announced as he carted the thing into the kitchen. Walter pulled a face but said nothing as he watched the vampire dump the cat on the table. He whirled round to look at the butler. "How did that thing get in my room? There's cat hair all over my coffin!"
"They're free roaming creatures, Arucard." Walter hid a smile, Integra would love this reaction. She had given him very specific instructions to leave a trail of kibble into the vampire's coffin.
A new night had started and the vampire felt like he had better things to do than deal with that ridiculous cat. He and Seras were going to have to have words; he wanted a dog – something big like a deer hound. Instead he got...Tipsy.
As though sensing the thoughts, Tipsy rolled onto her back and meowed, wanting tickled. She was promptly ignored and leapt, darting under the stove as a shout rang through the house.
"Arucard!"
Smirking, the vampire sunk through the floor.
He couldn't fight. He couldn't kill. Letting out a deep breath, Ghost surveyed his situation. The place was crawling with vampires and he was sitting in one of the huge trees outside in the massive gardens.
Fingering one of his stakes as though it was a holy cross, he closed his eyes and tried to relax. It was amazing that he hadn't been spotted yet. His white hair was so obvious it was painful.
Dropping down, he watched as he was noticed and the vampires came towards him, laughing and sharing snide comments. The albino let his arms drop, his resolve vanishing. Finally, he found the dark place in his mind that let him fight.
Smiling, he twirled his stakes, taunting the creatures around him. Ghost had found the side in him that most humans weren't even aware of. He had dug down into the vicious animal part, the part that makes such a frail body survive the worst of tortures. He lived by those instincts now.
With fluid grace, the first stake found its home as did the next. The fight had started. He could fight. He could kill.
With a sense of shock, Arucard watched from a distance as his latest mission was being done for him. The hunter was human, by scent anyway. The viscous battle cries made him think otherwise, as did the way in which the hunter seemed so at ease in his body.
Feeling restless now since half the vampires were dead, he moved onto the battle field and worked off some tension with his guns. Looking over, he noticed that the hunter appeared to be an albino or something, the paleness of his skin and hair adding to the ghost like quality of the man. Another battle cry saw to the end of yet more vampires.
Fearing that his position as top vampire hunter was about to be threatened, Arucard let the fight take over. From the corner of his red eyes, he noticed that the albino was in a spot of bother, one arm bleeding as he avoided a knife that was being swung at him.
With a flick of the gun, the Hellsing vampire saw to the end of that particular pest and turned back to the other freaks. The few that were left had high tailed it and their retreating forms were shot at. Well aimed stakes flew through the air, catching some in the backs. The creatures falling down in the fog.
Both hunters turned to look at each other, size one another up. The human turned, knowing that he wasn't strong enough yet to beat this particular vampire. Arucard frowned, sensing something familiar about this man.
"What am I to call a vampire that hunts its own?" The albino had stopped, his back to the vampire.
"Arucard." The vampire smirked. "And what am I to call you, human?"
"Ghost." A wind blew, causing the fog to swirl and for the hunter to vanish into the deep dark depths of night.
Arucard smiled, this Ghost was going to prove interesting. He had never met a human before who could tap into their dark side in the reptilian recesses of the mind. Turning, he too left the battle field.
"You let him get away!?" Integra paced her office and scowled in annoyance at the vampire. "Why did you let him go?"
"For a human, he has a lot of honour. He chose not to fight and left." Arucard smirked as his master picked up the cat and started petting it roughly. "I thought it best to let him recover before tomorrow."
"Why, what happens tomorrow?"
"More freaks no doubt." The vampire sat down on the desk edge and actually managed a smile. It didn't last long and was replaced with his usual smirk. "Ghost is picking out the large nests, causing as much damage as he can. He'll let them regroup before going in. It's obvious that our next hit will be his."
"Ghost?"
"That's his name apparently."
"You know his name?" The leader of the Hellsing organisation sunk down into her seat and shook her head. "How do you know his name?"
"He asked for mine then I asked for his." Arucard stood up and watched the cat for a moment. "Do you still wish for me to bring him here, master?"
"Yes, and use any force necessary."
"Gladly." Chuckling, he vanished into the shadows.
Sighing, Walter cleaned up the mess from their pet's latest game. Just how the vampire had come to acquire six pots of glitter (red, white and blue nonetheless) was beyond him. Then there was also the problem in that a lot of glue had gotten everywhere.
For an ancient vampire, Arucard could be exceptionally childish at times. The butler smiled at the memory that left Integra fairly 'brightened up'. Just how he was going to get the stuff of her suit was another matter that would involve a fair amount of experiments with different detergents.
A meow brought his attention to Tipsy and the butler smiled, the cat was utterly adorable. Petting it, Walter actually had to admit that the introduction of the feline was a good idea. She was proving very good at relieving some of the tension from around the place.
Chuckling suddenly, Walter started to conjure up ideas of what Integra might do for a little revenge. Oh how he loved just being the butler, he got to have all the fun whilst not actually getting involved.
It wasn't that bad a wound, Ghost figured as he awoke the next night. He had crashed out without looking at it and now he was roughly stitching it up. It should be clean enough; he hoped and started on making more stakes.
Once he was kitted up, he was off again to the battlefield. The largest nest he was now currently aware of wasn't that far away, a little too close to home for his comfort, but it had to be done. His arm ached, but he ignored it and continued on.
Life as a slayer of vampires wasn't as exciting as people presumed, the albino smiled. He slept, he fought, he made weapons. If he was lucky, he'd actually get something warm to eat.
Chuckling, there was going to be a bonus to this fight. No doubt this Arucard would show up again, and perhaps he'd feel reckless enough to actually fight.
Perhaps.
He doubted it.
This game of avoidance and co-fighting had been going on for over a fortnight now. Arucard was becoming somewhat annoyed at this and, after setting a small trap for his master, he headed off to fight again.
He actually enjoyed having the human around as they once more fought together, the freaks panicking and generally dying off quite quickly. A few gunshots had gone off from another's gun, but the vampire paid them no heed as he shot and ripped apart as many as he could.
Once the fight was over, he was about to exchange some witty repartee with the albino when he noted a distinct lack of humans. Puzzled as to why he had cleared out so fast, Arucard easily picked up the crude scent that had developed around the hunter lately and he followed it to a study of sorts.
Ghost was sitting on the floor and using the couch as a support as he looked set to topple over. The albino smiled, knowing who was there without even opening his eyes. A rustle indicated that the vampire had crouched down, watching him.
"Sorry."
"Why?" Arucard frowned.
"I did intend on fighting you." Ghost coughed, bringing up blood before he smiled faintly. "Had it coming, really."
The vampire gently reached over and lifted the sleeve of the torn shirt, shaking his head when he noted that the crude wound was badly infected. He then took the hand that was tightly clenched on the human's side and sighed when he noticed the blood.
Smiling still, Ghost looked over, the action stalled as he coughed again, more blood coming up. "Tell me vampire, let this fools mind rest. Why do you hunt your own when you are still, in true essence, a vampire?"
Not quite fully understanding the question, Arucard having been sure that he hadn't actually fed off a person recently, he smirked. "I do what my master commands. She wants to meet you."
"I don't think I'll make the appointment." The albino chuckled and coughed again. "Too bad, I really wanted to kill you."
"And I, you."
Ghost straightened suddenly, his eyes focusing. Tensing, he tried to dart away but was caught easily. A fit of coughing caused him to loose resistance and the vampire took the opportunity to get the human pinned neatly.
"I was told to do whatever was necessary to bring you in." Arucard licked a fang with an exaggerated air. "And you're right in that I still practise what makes me a vampire." He pulled the albinos head back and bit, drinking the rich blood that was somewhat familiar.