Beginning's End
By: Lazeralk
Standard disclaimers apply.
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." – Semisonic
To my reviewers, thanks so much, Seras doesn't have a familiar yet, she's not even a century old. Don't worry though, lots of other fun stuff will be happening.
Part 4
The moment Seras walked into the room, she knew something was wrong. It wasn't just a feeling in her gut or the cold rage that settled in her heart at the sight of her master with his feet propped up on the table, and a glass of blood in his fingers. It was pale redhead wearing short shorts and bra that was draped over her master's lap trailing her hands all over his body.
It was also the fact that Arucard was sitting there drinking blood like nothing was wrong. She had half a mind to pull her gun and shoot the both of them. At that moment however, her master slammed down the goblet he'd been drinking from causing everyone in the room, including Galina and a woman she didn't recognize, to freeze. There was a tension in the air, as if a great storm were building, and then Arucard threw back his head and laughed somewhat hysterically.
"Master!" yelled Seras, her face reddening cutely.
"You're a trip police-girl." He told her between fits of laughter.
The redhead was still thrown over him, rubbing her chest over his lap in small circles while she glared at her 'sister'. Her hostile eyes seemed to scream at her: 'Mine! Don't touch!'
Seras didn't see the point in it, it wasn't as if she were tiring to court her master, he was more a father figure to her than anything. She still mourned her husband in the few moments she had to herself. Kai had been her whole world, her everything.
The bimbo could have him for all she cared. Seras tried to convey the message with her face, arching an eyebrow as if to say: 'What? I'm not competition.'
The redhead ignored the look and continued to glare.
Arucard was still laughing, though considerably more subdued. He cleared his throat loudly and made a sweeping gesture towards Seras.
"Katrina, this is Seras. Police-girl, this is Katrina." He said, watching them battle with the intensity of their glares. It was just too cute.
"Ok, everyone get geared up and be ready to leave in ten minutes." Said Arucard as he stood, dumping his elder child unceremoniously onto the floor.
"Sir." Said Seras as she clicked her heels together, saluted and walked out of the room.
"Do I have to?" wined Katrina, pulling herself up Arucard's body by grabbing fistfuls of his clothes.
"Yes Katrina you have to. Now don't make me repeat myself." He told her coldly as he pried her fingers out of his coat. She pouted then headed downstairs to where her normal room was.
"She hasn't changed a bit. Why did I make her a vampire?" he asked Isabella, who stood beside him.
"Don't look at me, you haven't had to live with her for the last century." She answered, turning on her heel and stalking after her charge.
Arucard sighed and opened a large box on the floor beside the table. He began to empty it as Galina rushed up the stairs to change, leaving the nosfaratu alone in the dining room. He set clip after clip of ammunition for every kind of gun imaginable in neat rows across the surface. He piled the magazines for his own Jackals and Seras' Cassul on the corner.
Seras returned first, her eyes relieved when she saw that the redhead, Katrina, was nowhere to be found.
"You might need a few more clips police-girl." Said Arucard, tossing her a handful from the table. Seras had the Cassul under her left arm, the new Halconnen slung over her shoulder and a Beretta on each hip. She carefully tucked the extra clips into a utility belt that was already half full.
Galina entered the room, her flowing silks replaced with black terrycloth with blacked out buckles. She had several handguns hidden on her person, a sawed off shotgun across her back and a 7.62 mm. AKM thrown casually over her shoulder.
"An AKM?" balked Seras as she eyed the long weapon. It looked something like a rifle, but the clip attached to it looked like it belonged on a machine gun. If she recalled her guns correctly, it actually was capable of automatic fire.
"Nothing but the best Russian design!" crowed Galina, leading them to the mahogany doors yet again.
Isabella was wearing the strangest shoulder guards any of them had ever seen. Her cape was fitted into the guards and extending from the plates over her shoulders were about ten long points. It looked as if she'd taken metal skewers and shoved them into the rim of the armor. Bats hung from the skewers, their small bodies swaying with their mistress' movement.
Katrina was wearing as little as possible, meaning camo undies. She sneered at Seras who was wearing her normal 'police-girl' uniform with the Hellsing coat of arms still sewn on the breast pocket. Katrina glared hostilely at the small blonde, looping her arm through her master's. Seras frowned at her but said nothing, walking briskly towards the mess hall. The humans all lined up when Galina's face appeared in the doorway. Seras moved towards her usual, but Arucard shook off Katrina's arm and claimed the man for himself. Seras paused for a moment, unsure of why he would do such a thing before picking a healthy woman who looked to be in her forties.
They fed, Katrina pouting as she picked a young man and sank her teeth into him, even as she fondled him through his pants, her eyes on Arucard. Her master ignored her however and when she'd finished feeding she shoved her victim away roughly.
"Arighty, to the plane." Said Galina, her mood quite playful. She walked across the room and threw open a large door. The humans shrank back to the far side of room, pressing their backs against the wall. Seras stood hypnotized by the creatures that emerged.
They stood a good six feet tall, a wild mane surrounding their snapping jaws and coal black eyes. Giant bat wings rose from their backs, the talons curving wickedly. A huge scorpion's tail arched gracefully over their backs, the tips barbed and glistening with poison. They were the most beautiful of all super-predators, they were manticors.
Galina ran her fingers through the tawny manes, and hugged the barrel chests of the beasts, six in all. She cooed and petted them, her face full of a mother's love.
"My babies." She said, kissing the pink nose of the one she was holding. The manticor rumbled at her, rubbing its side along her body, like a giant house cat.
"This is Ranja." She said, introducing them.
"Hi Ranja!" said Katrina leaping forward to pet him. The beast watched her lazily, completely confident in his own power.
"We need to get moving now. Send the manticors ahead Galina. They fly faster than the jet anyway." Instructed Arucard as he turned and headed straight for the humans, smiling evilly as their eyes widened in fear before phasing right through them and into the wall.
"Show off." Quipped Galina, herding the manticors out the door.
"Get to the jet you three, I'll be there in a moment."
Isabella, Seras and Katrina scowled for different reasons but moved to obey. Katrina's fingers clenched, cracking her knuckles as she stared murderously at the back of Seras' head.
"Katrina. Don't even start." Growled Isabella as she led them towards the back of the house.
Seras was buckling her seatbelt when Arucard began floating through the floor. She stared at him as his body emerged from underneath the plane, blinking in wiry amusement.
"Hello master." She said quietly.
"Police-girl." He returned, his feet now actually on the floor rather then in it. He sat beside her, not bothering with the seatbelt, and pulled the rim of his hat down over his eyes.
"Good night master." Whispered Seras, turning towards him and leaning her head on his shoulder as she settled down to sleep. She'd just barely closed her eyes when a bloodthirsty shriek caused both of them to jump.
Arucard had his gun in his hand and was pointing it steadily at his older child, from which the dreadful noise had originated, while Seras struggled to get her gun out from under the seatbelt.
"Is there a problem Katrina?" asked Arucard icily.
"I don't like her master, I don't want her touching you." Declared the redhead hotly.
Arucard glared at her and she wilted.
"Who are you to say who can touch me and who cannot? I am master here, not you. Now go sit in the back like a good little girl." He growled.
Katrina flinched and retreated to sulk at the back of the small six-seater cabin. Arucard watched her for a moment before returning to his original position, grumbling about insubordination. Seras warily eyed the top of the other girl's head before undoing her seatbelt and sliding into a more comfortable position, her head once again on her master's shoulder.
Seras frowned when she realized she couldn't sleep, not with the questions brewing in her mind. Why did Katrina hate her so much? What was her connection to Arucard? Had they been lovers once? Was that why she was so jealous? Was she always this bitchy? Why would her master turn her if she was?
As if hearing her thoughts, as perhaps he had, Arucard began to speak in her mind, his voice soft as he lost himself in memories.
-I met her in New Mexico, in Santa Fe about one hundred eighty years ago. She was such a tiny little thing, maybe ten years old. Her parents had died in a car crash the year before and she was living in foster care. I was on my usual hunts when I found her playing behind an old warehouse. The man I'd been stalking was some small time car thief, using the warehouse to store his loot. She looked up at me and she wasn't afraid. I think that's what really did it. She just watched me and then gave me a little flower. She asked if I wanted to play with her. No one had ever done that before. No one. –
He was silent a long time, as if debating what to tell her, or if he'd tell her at all. She watched him quietly, eager to unlock the secrets of her master's past. Arucard quirked his lips and decided to oblige her.
-I was originally Japanese, the son of a feudal lord during Ji Goku Sen Dai. My name was Mikado. I wandered to far into a cave system one night and ended up food for a vampire. She liked me though, my master Lamia. After a few hundred years of learning to become a vampire I traveled to Thebes, in Greece. I established myself as a war hero and eventually was named Lord. I worked my way north, killing and feeding and growing in power. The people thought me a devil, or sometimes a dragon. I became the ultimate boogey man and they called me Dracul. Ah, the good old days.
By 1410 I'd reached Romania. You know the stories about Dracula? They're actually about my son. Vlad Tepes was a prince, a celebrated hero for leading his people against the Ottomans. He was ruthless and cruel, but also fair. He was my ideal first fledgling. I'd been dead some 1200 years by then. I turned him, but it was a mistake, as soon as he learned to control his power, he went on an insatiable rampage, killed everyone he could get his hands on. He even tried to kill me a few times. He was such a loose cannon that I eventually had to track him through London and kill him myself. But the damage had been done; Van Helsing's diary was passed from hand to hand until it reached the desk of Bram Stoker. The whole sordid story was published and my image was ruined forever, confined to the laughable B-movie Dracula.
Anyway, I moved semi-permanently to the British Isles, as by then it was 1800-something. I began to cash in my stash of buried treasure and became quite rich. I bought summer homes all over the world and all the finer things of mortal luxury. Once I'd made an appearance in the higher society, other vampires began to seek me out, tales of the power I had and the bloodshed I'd caused on their lips. They made me their king, the King of the Night. I had so much fun it was almost sinful. Wait. It was sinful. Very sinful. Anderson would have had a heart attack.
But enough of that, back to New Mexico. And Katrina. I saved her that day, I don't know what the hell was wrong with me, but I saved her. She became my constant companion from then on; she even slept in my coffin with me. You see police-girl, all my life I'd been respected, feared, hated, degraded. But this one little child, my own little orphan Annie, didn't fear me, or hate me or want me dead. She just wanted to play in the mud with me. And soon she wanted to play other games with me. She loved me.
That was so important once, so necessary. To just be loved, to know that someone loved you. Not just liked you because you had something they wanted, or tolerated you because they had to. Someone who genuinely cared. –
-Master, I. Thank you, for telling me all that. I know you don't like to share much. But, why did it take you so long to get to Romania? –
-What? You think I just traveled? I conquered, I killed, I looted and burned. I took over entire feudal systems imposed my rule until no one was left alive and then moved on. I spent those years building my reputation and my fortune. –
-And your wardrobe. – She giggled, eyeing his archaic suit.
-It's not that old. – He snipped, suddenly self-conscious in his normal clothing. Why did he care what his child thought of how he dressed? That was stupid. In more ways than one.
Seras watched her master; highly aware of the great gift she'd been given. She doubted many people knew what he'd just told her. She leaned over the armrest of the chair and placed a small kiss on the corner of his mouth.
"Thank you." She whispered.
"Anytime." He said, recovering his cool and pulling the brim of his hat back over his eyes.
-Really master, I enjoyed it. –
-Don't get too excited police-girl, it's ancient history. –
She smiled and settled down next to him, her head neatly placed on his shoulder, her nose buried in the thick red cloth. She had a moment to think that it was softer than it looked before sleep over took her and she slipped into the realm of dreams where her master waited for her with open arms.
End part 4
Next part: Bran Castle (which actually exists).