Freedom Chapter 12
By J.L. Pitard
Standard disclaimer: All characters belong to Kohta Hirano and his publishers. I have no stake in them...
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Alucard looked down at Integra's sleeping form. He resisted an uncharacteristic desire to stroke her face. He did not like touching humans generally. All the training with Seras and the foreplay with the silly Katt must've gotten to him. As a young vampire, he only interacted with humans as meals. They were food and he enjoyed playing with them, but he would never try to form a relationship with them.
Damn van Helsing! He'd been living, if that was the term, with the Hellsings ever since that human foiled his seduction of the excellent Harker girl. Retribution and torture under Abraham, then experimentation, black magic enhancements and the chance to kill under Helsing's children and grandchildren. Now, under the great granddaughter, Alucard was getting his own kind of revenge. He had corrupted her until she was almost as much of a monster as he. Alucard was the killer, true, but she gave the orders. Her father and grandfather had used him as a tool also, but he'd been able to form her, to a large extent, from the time he'd first tasted her blood.
Some day he thought he'd like to turn her. What a wonderful challenge she would make. He smiled at the thought of how little humanity she had to shed, unlike his current toy. Even if she never evolved, she was already enough like him to make van Helsing turn in his blessed grave.
He smiled to himself and cooed, "Master," sitting on the bed next to her.
Some part of Integra's conscious mind heard him and was glad she hadn't started REM sleep. He could invade her dreams if he chose, and those were dreams she didn't want to remember. Red eyes, insanity and death. She shook herself and her eyes flitted open.
"Sleeping the sleep of the innocent, Master?"
She met his playful look, with her own, "Mmm, the sleep of the dead, more like."
"Touché."
A pause and he brought his face near hers. His eyes were like crimson pin drops in the large whiteness.
"Back off, Alucard." She broke eye contact and reached for her glasses.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Report." She hurled the word at him. Integra remembered what Walter had discovered. "What have you and Seras been up to?"
Alucard stretched like a cat and lay across her legs. Somehow, she didn't look as tough as she wished when she was curled up in bed. With his weight on her legs, she felt trapped. Integra wanted to kick him off of her, but knew she couldn't and that would amuse him more. He really was quite out of line.
He looked up at the ceiling and began his edited version of the night's events.
"There is a cabal arranged against Hellsing, and yourself in particular. Our hostess believes us to be in league with her and that may be our key to the whole thing. I've asked her to use Police Girl to contact me."
"Is that wise? Does she understand?" Integra again felt unease about Alucard's young vampire.
"She's her usual confused self," he rolled to his side, looking at Integra with an intimacy that was very disconcerting. "This vampire, Princess Katerina, has mental abilities. She'll peel Police Girl's mind like a grape. I think it best to keep her out of the main plan."
"Like you can do to mine?" Her voice seethed with anger.
"Master," he had the courtesy to look chastised. "I try not to abuse your..." Limitations seemed like the wrong word to use, but he couldn't think of anything else.
It would do no good to go over that old argument again, she thought. He'd tried to teach her mental defenses when she was younger, only to get annoyed with her for using them to try and keep him out. At least now she was aware of it whenever he invaded her thoughts. "So she's a Princess?"
"She fancies herself one. Roma with some Ottoman blood. You know Romani?" He looked at her and tried a northern British accent, "'Yer Tinker sort?"
"I know the people you mean, Alucard. Gypsies."
He nodded slightly and rolled onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. "She was turned by a Russian nobleman about 300 years ago."
"She told you all this?"
Alucard half shrugged, leaning on her legs limited the gesture.
"Blood will out," he purred in his velvety voice. He pulled himself up inches away from Integra's face, his body stretched atop hers. The sheets and clothing between them suddenly flimsy to her. She wished she'd left on the duvet, but the night had been warm and humid after the storm had passed. The faint metallic scent of blood held between them as Alucard breathed in and out softly. It was too much for Integra. She tried to control her pulse but her anger, fear, repulsion and even attraction were all mixing and mounting. She felt him harden against her thigh. Right. That's it.
"GET OUT!" Her voice found its sense of command again.
Walter came running into the room, his eyes and fingers flashing in the dim light.
Alucard laughed, standing to meet Walter's challenge. Integra pulled her legs up to her chest and reached for the loaded gun she kept under her pillow.
The situation was quickly becoming too close to a real fight, the vampire decided. One of them would get hurt, though it probably wouldn't be him. He left a laugh behind and opened a portal to his room. He did hope Integra would explain it to Walter, Alucard needed rest and some food; both would be out of the question if Walter ever thought him a real threat to Hellsing.