Fresh Blood
By SSG Michael B. Jackson
Disclaimer: I don't own Hellsing or anything connected with it, though it sure as hell would be fun if I did. I'm writing this purely for my own twisted amusement, and will not make a dime in the process.
The next hour or so passed very quickly for Brad, occupied as it was with meaningless sundries. Seras introduced him to Walter, a rather polite, well-mannered older gentleman who, apparently, was Sir Integra's butler and much more. He seemed to be in charge of practically everything of a domestic nature around the house, and, Brad gathered, had other duties as well. Even in his current state, Brad found himself drawn to the older man almost immediately, though there was something about him that struck Brad oddly. He wasn't sure exactly why, but he was somehow sure that there was a bit more to Walter than met the eye.
After being assigned a guest room and given a hasty tour of the relevant facilities, Brad was left pretty much to his own devices. Seras had excused herself soon after turning him over to Walter, saying that she had a report to file regarding the evening's activities, though she said she'd check back in with Brad before he retired for the night. Not, Brad thought, that there was much chance of that happening any time soon.
Left alone in his borrowed room, he found himself staring at the pile of goods stacked neatly next to the immaculately made bed. Instructions had been sent, it seemed, to whoever was left at the crime scene, and all of Brad's and his family's luggage had been salvaged. In fact, according to Walter, they'd even recovered the family van, which apparently was parked somewhere on the estate grounds, waiting like Brad for a verdict from Sir Integra.
The longer he stared at the suitcases and gym bags, the portable crib and the child-sized backpacks, the more agitated he became. In his mind he saw himself going through it all, trying to figure out what would be kept, what would go to his in-laws, and what would simply be thrown away. He went over it and over it in his head, changing his mind each time. A part of him became almost frantic in the process, realizing that eventually he'd have to go through everything for real.
After an unknowable length of time, he'd finally had enough, and with a muttered, "Fuck it!" turned and stalked to the door. Yanking it open savagely, he was startled to find an equally surprised Seras standing on the other side, hand poised to knock.
"Oh!" She said, red eyes widening slightly, "Talk about timing."
Brad just looked at her impassively, and said, "Finished your report, I guess?"
Seras nodded and said, "Uh, yeah, and I-"
"Figured you'd check up and make sure I hadn't snapped while you were busy?"
Seras frowned, and said, "Well, no, it's not like that, really. It's just that I said I'd come back to see if you needed anything, and... here I am."
Brad frowned slightly, and said, "I see. Well, then, Sergeant Victoria, I guess you know what I need right now. Answers. And let's see if we can avoid getting side-tracked this time." Then, motioning toward a desk and chair at one side of the room, he said with just a trace of sarcasm, "Come on in. Make yourself comfortable. I think we might be here a while."
Anything but comfortable, Seras complied, saying, "Er, yes, of course." And then, pulling out the chair and sitting, she said, "So. What do you want to know?"
Brad shut the door, and, turning slowly, said, "You were up there when I talked to Sir Integra. You heard what I asked her."
"Well, yes," Seras agreed, "but- where would you like me to start?"
Hands clasped behind his back, Brad paced slowly back and forth in front of her, and said, "At the beginning, I guess. Who or what the hell WAS the son of a fucking bitch who killed my family? That's the first item on the agenda."
Seras sighed, and said, "That's a bit complicated, I'm afraid."
Brad frowned, and said, "I'm a fairly bright guy. Enlighten me."
Frowning slightly herself, Seras said, "Well, that's not really the problem, you see. The problem is, I doubt you'll believe me. Nothing we deal with here at Hellsing is exactly normal, Sergeant Porter."
Brad shook his head, and said, "Yeah, I kind of gathered that. And you might as well call me Brad. I'm not really in a very formal mood just now."
Seras nodded slowly, and said, "Alright, then, Brad. And since we're at it, you can call me Seras. I've never really been much of one for formality either."
Brad sighed loudly, and then said, "Ok, Seras. So now how about explaining this guy to me. What was so damn incredible about him that I wouldn't believe it?"
Seras was silent for a moment, trying to think of the best way to phrase her answer, and then finally she just spat it out. "He wasn't human, Brad."
Cocking his head slightly, Brad said, "Not human? Now what hell exactly does that mean? I saw what happened to him after you shot him, and I've sure as hell never heard of anything like that. But if he wasn't human, what the hell was he?"
"That's the complicated bit, I'm afraid," Seras said slowly. "He was a vampire. Or at least a sort of vampire."
Brad stopped pacing abruptly, and turning to Seras with a quizzical expression said, "Say what? Vampire?" And then, anger creeping into his tone, he said, "Look, lady, if you can't tell me what the hell happened tonight, just let me know that. Don't insult my intelligence with some cock and bull story about vampires and spooky shit. Hell, at least come up with something half-ass plausible if you're gonna bullshit me."
"Bullshit you?" Seras said hotly, angry herself now. "Now exactly why, I ask you, would I come up with anything as far out as vampires if I were trying to 'bullshit you'? Do I come off to you as being that stupid?"
Brad frowned, momentarily non-plussed, and then said, "No, you don't. Which is why I'm wondering just what the hell your angle is on this. Vampires?"
She nodded, and said, "Vampires. And that's just what that bastard was. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof, at least."
"Whoa, wait a minute," Brad said, confused. "First you say that this guy was a vampire, and now you're saying he wasn't? You're losing me, Seras."
Exhaling loudly in frustration, Seras said, "Didn't I tell you this was complicated?"
Brad nodded slowly, and said, "Yeah, I guess you did at that. So what did you mean by 'a reasonable facsimile thereof'?"
"Well," Seras said, "You see, there are these chips. Microchips, that is. We call them FREAK chips, though I'm not exactly sure where the name comes from. I think it's an acronym, but I don't know what it stands for."
"Ok," Brad said skeptically. "Go on."
"When you implant one of these chips in a human body, it, well, somehow- Christ, I'm making a mess of this!" She said in exasperation. "Sir Integra or one of the bloody eggheads should be telling you all this, not me."
"No," Brad said in an odd tone, "You're doing OK. And let me guess; these chips you're talking about somehow turn people into vampires. Is that it?"
Seras nodded emphatically, and said, "Exactly. Or, really, they turn people into sort of washed out copies of vampires. They're quite nasty in their own right, mind you, but nothing at all compared to the real thing."
"Really," Brad said in the same odd tone. "And, by the way you say that, I assume you have experience with the 'real' kind?"
Seras looked down suddenly, no longer meeting Brad's gaze, and, in a subdued voice said, "You... could say that."
Brad frowned just slightly, and said, "Something wrong, Seras? You seem kind of uncomfortable all of a sudden. Bad memories?"
She gave a short laugh, and said, "Sort of." Then, looking at him slightly askance, she said, "Haven't you noticed anything... different about me? Or were you just too busy hating my guts to care?"
Still frowning, and examining Seras a bit more closely, Brad said, "I- don't hate you, Seras. Part of me still thinks I should, but- another part of me sees just how bad this tore you up inside. And that in itself tells me that you're no cold-blooded killer. I've known a couple of those in my time, and none of them would've reacted the way you did. So I believe that YOU believe there was no other choice. Now you've just got to sell me on why that was."
Swallowing a lump that had suddenly formed in her throat, Seras said, "It's because of what he was. Because he'd already bitten her and taken her blood, like I said before. You see, a vampire like him, a 'fake' one, that is, can't... make other vampires. Not without using another chip, that is. But they can make ghouls."
"Ghouls?" Brad said incredulously. "Like walking, flesh eating corpses? Come on, now, Seras, I've played quite a bit of D&D and seen a lot of horror movies, but GHOULS? You've gotta be shitting me."
Seras sighed again, and said tiredly, "I know. It's awfully hard to believe. I'd never have believed it either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Seen it HAPPEN before my own eyes, no less."
"And that's what you're saying would have happened to Janin if you hadn't shot her," Brad said.
Seras nodded, and said, "Exactly. She'd have become a mindless undead thing under that bastard's control." Then, looking down, she said in a more subdued tone, "It's not pretty, believe me. Especially not when it happens to someone you know. Someone you care about."
"You sound like you're speaking from experience," Brad said slowly. "Care to share?"
Seras shook her head slowly, and said, "I don't know. I-"
"I know. You hardly even know me. So who the hell am I to ask about your personal demons? Well, without being too blunt, I'm the guy whose daughter you just shot tonight. I want to believe that you did that for a good reason, but I'm still not convinced. Why don't you convince me."
Seras' gasped at the pain his words caused her, and her fists suddenly clenched at her sides. For a moment, Brad thought she would simply bolt from the room, but eventually, in a tightly controlled voice, she said, "Alright, then. If that's how you want it." And then, in an even flatter tone, she continued. "My introduction to this whole mess happened almost two years ago. I was a cop back then, part of D-11, in fact. And I was pretty proud of that." Looking down, she said in a quiet voice, "My Dad had been a policeman, you see, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. Well, I did, and it ended me up in more trouble than I ever could've imagined."
"Go on," Brad said, intrigued now.
Seras sighed, and said, "Anyway, that particular night, we got sent out to a little village called Cheddar. We were supposed to be looking into the disappearances of some townsfolk, and of a regular police unit that'd been sent out before us. We were told that the local priest might be involved." She paused for a moment, evidently collecting herself, and then continued. "What nobody bothered to tell us was the priest in question just happened to be a FREAK vampire. We... found that out the hard way. I was the squad medic, so I didn't go in with the assault element. I stayed back at our rally point with the vehicles, and then..." She stopped again, obviously on the verge of tears, and Brad wasn't sure if she would be able to continue. Eventually, though she did.
In a voice now hoarse with emotion, she said, "Not all of them came back. Only a few, and all of them wounded. At first, I thought it would be alright; most of the wounds were superficial. But then they all started getting sick... fever, nausea, chills, delirium, you name it. I thought it was an infection of some sort, and I- wasn't wrong, exactly. Soon after that, they started to die, despite my best efforts. And that's not the worst, I'm afraid."
"They started coming back," Brad said in a small voice.
Seras nodded, and said, "That's right. They started coming back. My friends... but they weren't my friends anymore. They were mindless, and they were hungry. And as far as they were concerned, I was just meat." After another long pause, she continued with, "I ran for my life, naturally. And, thank God, they were slow. I managed to put some distance between myself and them, but I ended up in even more trouble later. First it was ghoul townspeople, and then... well, lets just say I managed to find the priest. And not under the most ideal circumstances, either."
Brad frowned, and said, "Huh! So how the hell did you get out of that alive? Hellsing just happen to charge in to your rescue?"
Seras gave a short, humorless laugh, and said, "Not exactly. And I didn't. Get out alive, that is."
Brad snorted, and said, "Cute, but I've heard that one before. So, seriously, what happened? Or was all that just a lead up to the punch line?"
Frowning herself now, in a dark tone Seras said, "It's not a joke, Brad. When I say that I didn't make it out that church alive, I mean it. Literally. Haven't you noticed anything odd about me? Anything unusual? Or are you just too torn up inside right now to see?"
Looking closely at Seras once more, Brad said, "No, I noticed a couple of things. Your eyes... I've never seen eyes like yours before. And, now that I look... those are awfully prominent canines you've got there. And you are so pale..." Brad paused, the idea gelling in his head, and then said, "So what are you telling me, Seras? You're a vampire too?"
Seras just looked at him curiously, and then said, "I don't know. What do you think?"
Holding Seras' gaze, Brad said slowly, "Well, first off I think you'd better get your story straight. You just got through telling me that these 'fake' vampires couldn't make more vampires. Just ghouls. And now you're telling me that one made you?"
Seras frowned, and in a tone dripping distaste said, "God, no! I never said that vile creature made me. He was just like all the other FREAKS; worthless, bloodthirsty, and twisted. Ghouls were the best he could do, just like all the others."
Puzzled now, Brad said, "Ok, if not him, then who? Are you saying that he wasn't the only vampire there that night?"
Seras nodded and said, "Exactly. And he was true undead; not a pale copy like the FREAKS."
Even more puzzled now, Brad said, "And this other vampire; he just decided to 'bring you over', or whatever you want to call it?"
"After putting a bullet through my chest to nail the FREAK," she said quietly. "It was a lot like things were with your daughter, I'm afraid. It was the only way. But he... made it up to me afterwards, I suppose you'd say. And I agreed to it."
Brad opened his mouth to say something, but, before he could, he was cut off by a low, deep laugh that seemed somehow to come from all around the two of them.
"Yes, Police Girl, you did at that," said a deep, gruff, and equally sourceless voice. And then, as Brad glanced furtively around the room with a muttered, "What the hell?", a tall, gaunt, grinning figure casually stepped forth from a pool of shadow that suddenly formed along a wall.
"Master," Seras breathed quietly, just a hint of reverence in her tone.
And then, as a very confused Brad looked back and forth from Seras to the dark-haired, red-clad stranger whose eyes were hidden behind an oddly made set of orange-lensed spectacles, the new-comer turned to her and said sardonically, "So, Police Girl. Why don't you introduce me to your new 'friend'. I'm sure we'll have ever so much to talk about."
Ok, that's it for chapter 3. It came out a lot quicker than I thought it would, but that's what happens when you get a chance to write while you're at work. I don't know if this is as interesting as I said it would be, but I can hope. Things are rambling a bit, but I'm still on course for where I want to go with this. Again, please review, and stay tuned if you liked this!
