Anderson had refused to leave his room for more than a week. Alfonse had left the ice bucket with his meals outside the vampire's door each night and retrieved the emptied bags and bucket the next morning. Alucard had intruded into his room on several occasions only to be ignored so completely that he might as well have not existed in Anderson's world.

One thing Alex had learned from the vampires he'd consumed was how to keep Alucard out of his mind. Unless his Master chose to batter down the walls he'd put up, Alucard could not touch the man's thoughts. With the Master/Servant bond that they had, Alucard could have done it, but did not. The Judas Priest needed time to come to terms with something only a nosferatu must learn to endure, accept and control.

Ten nights after their return from Italy, he emerged from his room to give his report to his commander. Olivia was surprised when she felt an unfamiliar mental touch. Sir Olivia, may I come to yer office? Even in her mind, he had a strong brogue.

Yes, Anderson, come on up.

Alucard was already lounging in his favorite chair when Anderson walked through the wall and into her office. His grin looked big enough to split his face as he watched his child with something Olivia could only interpret as pride. "Do you see how much our trip to Italy taught our Judas Priest?"

The look that Anderson gave Alucard was one of the purest hatred. He pulled a chair over to Sir Olivia's desk, sat down with his back to Alucard, and began to tell her the entire story of the cult they had destroyed.

Artemisia Gentileschi had been the leader of the cult. She had become a vampire in one of the rarest manners; her rage and hatred had borne her out of the grave in the form of a vampire. She had spent the first century or so of her undeath killing and feeding when and where whim took her. After that first century, she cast around for more meaning to her existence and found the cult of Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of just retribution. She was drawn to the myth of Sekhmet bathing in the blood of those she had slain and the idea of punishing those who transgressed because of her human background.

She had been tortured when human. Her crime? Reporting her rape by her teacher. Her teacher was tried and given the merest slap on the wrist. Whereas she had been defamed and reviled and when she died, nobody noted her artistic achievements. Rather, her obituaries were slurs on her supposed sexual promiscuity.

Her cult actually served a decent purpose for most of its existence. She would send her vampires out to punish those who seemed to have completely evaded the law despite their obvious guilt. The triads she sent always had a vampire skilled in mental disciplines to provide the final proof of the condemned's guilt. If that confirmation was given, her vampires would execute the criminal.

In the past few decades, her grasp on sanity began to fade. She no longer considered herself a worshipper of Sekhmet, but had more and more frequent delusions that she was Sekhmet. Her edicts became more erratic; the people she chose to punish were less often the obviously deserving that had once been the cult's targets. Instead she began to covet both Egyptian artifacts devoted to Sekhmet and her own paintings. She somehow saw the people who owned her paintings as criminals who had stolen them.

The missing piece of information about the amulet that had been retrieved was that it was a symbol of the cult that had fallen out of the cult's possession and into human hands. The eye was one of Sehmet's symbols and the flames were representative both of the goddess' position as a sun goddess and of the flames that the cult's disciples had learned to harness with their magic.

Another useful detail involved the surprise visit from the Iscariot regenerator. Artemisia had anticipated that Alex would accompany Olivia, and had sent a letter to Bishop Traversera informing him that his rogue paladin would be in Italy and relatively undefended. She had intended to use Iscariot to eliminate Olivia's only bodyguard before turning the Hellsing leader into a vampire in her service.

When Anderson finally finished speaking, he leaned back in his chair and waited for the Sir Olivia's response.

She took a few minutes to absorb the information that he had provided in such detail. She understood how he had gotten the information and wondered how much consuming Artemisia's soul and memories had unbalanced Anderson.

"My mother has already returned to her home. She wanted me to thank you for her when you were ready to come out again. I have to thank you as well. I was afraid I was sending you to your doom and instead, you surpassed my highest expectations. It's clear that you have grown in your abilities from the experience as well."

"Aye. Grown. Ye could say that." Alex's face was unreadable.

"Anderson, as your superior, I need to know what the problem is."

"The problem?" he asked. He laughed bitterly. "The problem is that now that I have the memories and souls of two vampires inside me, I see how much longer it will be before I can possibly achieve my goal of destroying my Master," he jerked his chin in Alucard's direction. "I'm not happy to think of spending the next couple of centuries just building power until I can do what I must. It pains me in ways I can't explain that I will probably take more souls from more people during that time. I hate what I have become and I hate still more the idea of what time will make me.

"And I hate how much I hate. Artemisia has shown me how dangerous hate can be. Hating Alucard is the only thing that gets me out of my coffin at night, it's the only thing that makes me drink the blood every night, it's the only thing that keeps me from handing myself over to Iscariot and begging them to send me to Hell."

He stood up and shouted at the Hellsing leader, "Hating him isn't enough, dammit!"

She didn't even have time to rise from her chair before he strode through the closed door, leaving her alone with Alucard's delighted chuckles.

•••

Alucard awoke with the knowledge that something was very wrong. He pushed on his coffin lid and it didn't budge. He tried to phase out of his coffin, but found himself locked in his solid form, unable to change. He reached out with his mind and found the cold thoughts of Olivia Hellsing nearby.

"I've been waiting for you to wake up, Alucard. Do you know where you are?"

He thought about it and realized with growing rage that he did. You've put me in the prison.

"That's right. The spell to keep you asleep while we moved your coffin was much simpler than the one to force you into this cell would have been."

Why are you imprisoning me? I haven't disobeyed you.

"You think making an unwilling human into a vampire isn't disobedience? I allowed you continued freedom because you were too valuable. Now it is my opinion that you are too much of a liability."

You need me!

"No, Alucard. You need me, and you can't have me. You will stay here until Anderson feels he is strong enough to face you in a fight. When you are released, I am sure that your ego will force you to release him from his servitude and he will be given his opportunity to destroy you." Alucard could almost see her smile. "It's my fervent hope that it takes him several centuries to feel ready for that while you rot in here."

You can't trust him! He's an Iscariot. A disciple of Judas! He'll betray you eventually.

"I'm willing to take that chance, Alucard. He may betray us eventually; you have already betrayed Hellsing. Good night, Alucard."

He lost his contact with her mind as she left the room and he hit the barriers that would keep him confined in this room in both mind and body.

•••

Alex stood at the door of Alucard's cell. He could feel the wards that confined the vampire burning along his skin. He called through the door, "Good night, Master. May yer dreams all be nightmares."

He turned away to where Sir Olivia was watching. He went to his knee in front of her and took her hand, "For this gift, I give my loyalty to ye and the Hellsing family until the day I go to my grave never to rise again."

Hoo boy am I glad to be done with this one. It got harder and harder to write with each chapter. I hope it turned out alright.