A/N: Okay…I've come up with an excuse for my tardiness of posting the story!
School:D :D It's been trying to kill mee! I hate Geometry and Biology and Spanish! Also, I've been having some issues with a few people I know, so…yeah, that is distracting me too…
So yeah, that's my excuse. I think I'll be posting a lot more in the summer though, or at least when school lightens up the work (highly unlikely u.u)
Aw man…I LOVE YOU GUYS! So much support!
Thank you so very much:3 :3
Anyway, on with the story!
CHAPTER 11:
Asleep in the backseat of the car, Celia waited peacefully for Integra and Walter's return. She had grown tired inside the museum; so Walter had carried her out, placed her in the car then returned to Sir Integra's side. The backseat was dark—a black cover on the window blocked the sun's shining rays, preventing any sunlight from penetrating Celia's napping spot.
The fledgling had one arm bent with her hand under her head, while her elbow was in front of her face, and the other hand was clutching a thick blanket Walter had found in the trunk of the car. With eyes shut a bit tightly as she dreamed, she whimpered a little and tightened in her position for a moment before relaxing again. Her mouth was slightly open, her burgundy-colored hair hiding most of her small face. She sighed a bit in her sleep, her dreams filled with black, red, white, blood, screaming, and a large, fanged grin—or was it the crescent moon?
Her body was curled up in a ball, the blanket making her look like a large rodent with no tail or large ears. Walter had taken off the leash, which was lying on the car's floor, along with the collar.
As she slept, Integra and Walter finally walked out of the museum, followed by Maxwell and his two comrades. When they reached the final step, Integra turned to Enrico as he called out her name and held out his hand, waiting for her to take it. She took it with great reluctance, shaking it to confirm whatever deal they had made one final time. Maxwell smirked, satisfied, then moved past her to reach his own transportation. Anderson glanced at Integra's car, just barely seeing the small child in the window, watching when Integra opened the door and scooted Celia over so she could sit down.
"Having such a young child become a vampire…" Maxwell scoffed in disgust, watching as the car pulled away from the sidewalk and into the traffic. "That Protestant witch has made far too many mistakes."
"…" Anderson had no honest clue how to react. As fond of children as he was, owning an orphanage and such, he couldn't help but gain a small loathing for Celia—her vampire heritage was unforgivable. She was cursed to be a child forever—to remain at that very age, her purpose now to live forever as a five-year-old, as a vulnerable, sensitive creature meant to walk irregular hours and drink the abhorring taste of blood.
How long would she survive? Was she obedient to Hellsing's damned pet, Alucard? Anderson couldn't help but growl in disgust. Alucard…the abomination had mutated the child's chance of a normal life. It was—it should be a sin, dragging a child down into the life of a monster!
What was he supposed to do? Kill the child along with Alucard and his other fledgling? In her state now—eternal youth at a literal meaning—he couldn't bear to destroy a child; despite the vampire traits, she was innocent yet. She had not committed the crime of drinking a victim's blood—hopefully. Her eyes did not show bloodlust or deterioration of the human instincts, so how would Anderson live with killing a child that had a mind below the ability of comprehending death? Not even her smile was tarnished by insanity yet, to which Anderson thanked the Lord.
The guilt of having to see that child turn to ash someday would drive him further into insanity than he already was!
"Anderson, come along." Maxwell ordered, sitting in the car.
With a nod, and a frustrated look on his face, he turned and moved into the car.
"You with pay for thon child, Alucard. Ah swear to it."
Celia awoke within a confined darkness—noticing the smell of confinement easily because of her frequent trips to the closet when her brothers teased her or played hide-and-seek. She sat up with a high-pitched gasp, thwacking her head against…a ceiling?
Her red eye looked up, but didn't see anything for a few moments, her eyes still adjusting to vampyric senses and darkness. Clutching her forehead, she whimpered a little, wishing that there was a light switch. Finally, she noticed that she was in some type of box.
Panic filled her and she looked around for something to get her out. Within her moment of fear, she didn't notice red eyes appear above her. Blinking back tears, feeling like she was going to be trapped for a while, she lifted her head, propping herself up on her elbows so her forehead wouldn't collide with the top again.
The eyes staring down at her widened in amusement as hers did the same with terror, and she squeaked, jumping back and hitting her head on the top again anyway, whining as she did so, rolling up into a fetal position as she gripped her head.
A loud chuckle surrounded the box she sat within and the top was suddenly pulled open. "Good evening, Celia…" The familiar voice was deep, almost calming.
Opening her good eye to peek around, she lifted her head cautiously, a large tear forming in the corner from a bump on her head. "M…Master Alucard!"
His usual fanged grin was plastered on his face. "You seem to have slept well. Did you enjoy your time at the museum?"
"Oh—uh…mm-hmm!" She nodded and stood up as the top of the coffin was raised up to the real ceiling. "The city was fun, Master…"
"I see." He smirked, standing up straight, looking at the table nearby, noticing the recently placed "juice box". "So it was your first time to see the town, was it not?"
"Yeah…" She followed his gaze for a moment, but looked up at him. "Master…? I…um…I have a question…"
"Really? I may have an answer." He chuckled, lifting Celia up and resting her on the chair by the table gently. "What do you which to ask?"
Staring at the small box filled with her necessary amount of human fluid, she began her inquiry. "Um…Mister…Mr. Anderson is…a bad guy…right?"
"I wouldn't say he's so horrible—but he works for an enemy organization, who I suppose we just agreed to work with for a while." His wild grin appeared, remembering their past battles. "He's quite fun, Celia." As his fangs disappeared behind his lips, he stared at his favorable fledgling with his piercing red eyes. "Sir Integra told me of your meeting him. Did he frighten you?"
"Yeah…a little…eh…a lot…" The child mumbled; her face flushed a bit as she struggled to give his an honest answer unlike when once speaking to her parents. If her brothers made fun of her and she went to her parents, she under exaggerated so her siblings wouldn't end up in so much trouble and look for her later just to do it again. "He…looked like he was fighting himself…or something. I watched him, and he would smile; but his eyes would get angry and twitch…"
Alucard couldn't help but laugh in amusement at hearing of Anderson's reaction. Oh, how delicious the next battle would be—Anderson fighting with the fury of monsters, and the Nosferatu combating like the real monster he was. Celia blinked in consternation as her master continued in his expressing amusement; the deep chuckle soon echoed throughout the Hellsing manor. She felt shivers crawl up and down her spine as it finally faded and she looked up at him wide-eyed, wondering how he did that.
"Let us hope your next meeting is more…exciting, my little fledgling…" The elder vampire smirked, grabbing the little box and handing it to her, his statement leaving her in a great state of confusion.
Instead of trying to decipher what he spoke of, she sucked in blood from the straw.
The elder vampire had insisted in having Celia follow him that day. Constantly, Integra would receive complaints from the soldiers as they caught sight of him sliding through a hallway with the child waddling after him like a baby chick stalking its parent.
Releasing small sighs with every grievance, she would dismiss it immediately and continue with her work, stating that Alucard simply wanted the pint-sized fledgling to become accustomed to obeying, following, and watching him.
Even Walter would try to explain it—also telling the few picky soldiers that the leader of Hellsing had been buried in work. The nosferatu could do as he pleased, so long as he didn't kill anyone unnecessarily. Integra couldn't exactly reprimand him for flying around the mansion's corridors. He couldn't pass the time any other way, especially since no problems had arisen since the massacre of Celia's family.
Perhaps he was trying to improve the child's abilities (if she had any). Sir Hellsing highly doubted that the young, innocent blood-sucker had instant special abilities. A story she heard from one soldier was that Alucard had gliding through a wall; while Celia ran into it in an attempt to follow him. Such a scenario forced out a chuckle even from the icy personality of Integra. The old vampire must have had quite a few laughs—having a five-year-old around might even keep Alucard from irritating Integra during her paperwork.
Finally she could get a decent amount of labor finished!
Lifting up a large pile of papers from her desk, she straightened them against the sanded, mahogany wood of her desk before resting them down to begin reading and reviewing them.
However, she suddenly imagined Celia sitting in the middle of the office, holding a pen oddly in her hand and simply scribbling across many unnecessary papers.
Without her realizing it, Integra released an amused smirk before returning to the tasks at hand.
Alucard chuckled to himself as he watched Celia trot after him, her eyes wide and attentive; though distracted, as if she focused on him and released him into her own imagination rather than the dark corridors he had them traveling through. She was unbelievably entertaining, despite her young age.
The child seemed to enjoy the manor, even if she had just arrived a week ago. Soon the Vatican's Section XIII bureau would arrive and the nosferatu would end up busy with enjoying the mad priest's raving lunacies. From what he heard from the childnow chasing him and, quite often, crashing into walls—mentioned about him; he had become rather frustrated with his compassion for orphans and vehement hatred for vampires when he caught sight of Celia, and when he realized her eternal fate.
With a dark grin and a soft chuckle, Alucard suddenly lowered himself to the floor, and his face was soon mere inches away from the five-year-old he claimed as his fledgling. She nearly ran into him, but caught herself in time, grabbing a few locks of his hair to stop from falling into him or backwards as she skidded forward with a small gasp.
"Do you wish to visit the Police Girl, My Little Fledgling?" The elder asked, grinning as she inhaled in excitement and nodded, her blood red eyes lighting up.
"Yeah! I want to see my sister!" She smiled, looking up at her Master as confusion seemed to dawn on his face before he shook it away—as if it were never even there.
They turned back the other direction, Celia grabbing a hold of his coat to keep up. He couldn't help but let go of another chuckle at that. Even then, she would lose her grip and stumble after him with a small cry of surprise.
Despite the fact that he had a child chasing after him, the soldiers of Hellsing still found him so intimidating. Some scrambled out of the way as they passed, others stood straight and perfectly still to try and avoid any contact with them. Alucard could sense fear, confusion, and wonder from them, and heard some of them laughing quietly to themselves as they watched Celia trail after the monstrous creature.
The two of them finally reached the door to Seras' room, and he easily slid through it, assisting Celia in such a move as well since she still had a tight grip on his trench coat. "Good evening, Police Girl,"
Seras turned in shock, nearly knocking over the table she stood by. "Gah! Master, don't do that! I was—er—I was concentrating!" Her eyes were wide—almost embarrassed. Alucard had his usual Cheshire cat grin spread across his face; shrugging as if his presence was nothing.
"I see," Such a statement made the tenseness in Seras' shoulders disappear, but both of them knew that he wouldn't leave it at that.
"What exactly were you concentrating on, Police Girl?"
"Ah—un…" The girl lowered her head—noticing Celia for the first time as well. "I-I was just thinking about what I should do to practice and recover my strength!"
"And what ideas have you come up with?" Alucard smirked, waving his hand towards the table she was obviously trying to block. She turned towards it quickly, as if he had signaled that something else was there—but there wasn't.
Only the bowl filled with blood was there, a spoon covered in blood had a small puddle of the red body fluid pooling around it. There was also a small trail of blood dribbling down Victoria's cheek, which Alucard wiped away with is glove.
If she were alive, she'd probably be blushing with embarrassment or humiliation, but she did not, just gazed at the line of red on his glove with surprise. "Ah—I—Master, I'm trying, I really am!'
"I see that, Police Girl. Little Celia can see that as well." The child accompanying the monster nodded her agreement. "You will learn—we will make sure of that." A grin crossed his face again. Uh-oh…Seras thought, recognizing the impish smirk.
"Perhaps you would prefer the juice boxes Walter gives to Celia? They're quite fun—you won't even know the difference," Seras frowned in annoyance, knowing that it had been a trick in the first place to give her the disguised blood. To add to it, she hadn't actually had anything to drink since she was converted into the fledgling she was now.
Celia smiled warmly, nodding at Alucard's idea. "Mr. Walter makes it really good!" A soft, giddy laugh escaped the child's body and she looked up at Seras. "I like it…I'll share them with you, sister!"
"Eh-heh…" The Police Girl gave her a nervous grin, glancing back at the bowl of blood. "Thank you, Celia, but I'll be fine,"
"Oh…" She seemed rather disappointed, but then seemed more determined than ever. "Well, then I'll still share when you want one!"
Alucard chuckled, then lifted Celia up onto the chair at the table, the sight of the bowl of blood lighting up the red pupils of the fledgling's innocent eyes. "Ha!" She took in another breath of pleasure and nearly scrambled for the spoon, taking a few dollops of the thick liquid. Seras looked utterly shocked at her action, watching quietly.
"Are you going to finish it off, Seras Victoria?" Her Master asked. Lifting her head, she stared at him, wondering if he even grasped the horrors of a five-year-old child drinking blood. Celia watched quietly, sucking softly on the ladle, only that small amount of blood satisfying her already.
How much would she crave when she became older, yet never grew?
"I—uh…" Why couldn't she do this? She felt like a fool, standing there and not drinking blood as she needed when Celia even had enthusiasm for hearing about it after only a few days of living as a bloodsucker.
"…Fine…alright," For the sake of the child's hope—to be able to help the child with every bit of strength a vampire could have. Moving back to the table, Seras slowly lifted up the red-stained bowl, gazing at the contents hesitantly, knowing that drinking it would just…make her more insane, more lustful of the stuff.
More like Alucard.
Did she really want to be as insane as him? What about Celia? What would she do if Celia was to get hurt and she wasn't strong enough to help if Alucard were to be absent?
With that goal in mind—to be strong, to protect the innocence of the newest member of Alucard's family—Seras downed the entire bowl of blood.