Chapter 10. I don't own hellsing, hellsing characters, or carpe jugulum.
Integra did not know how they had ended up in this position, but it was all together quite comfortable, and, most ironically, she felt safe in Alucard's arms. He was sitting up and leaning against the headboard of the bed, and she was sitting on his lap and leaning against his torso.
Though it was quite nice and relaxing, she was not sure if that was because she had drunk too much wine or if it was that Alucard was losing form just enough to let little tendrils of his shadows creep up her skin and adhere themselves to her, and the end result was that he felt like one of those mattresses with memory cells that supposedly helped one sleep. A mix of both was probably the most accurate answer.
She made a feeble attempt to detach herself from his invading shadows, but they just stretched out at greater lengths and wrapped themselves more securely around her arms and waist. "Could you stop that?" she asked, struggling against the smoky tendrils halfheartedly. She felt vague feelings of disgust and resentment warring with an absurd desire to let them stay where they were.
"Can I help it if every atom of my being wants to be one with you?" he murmured sincerely, hands lightly resting on her hips. Integra stilled at his words and fought to compose her features enough to talk. "And what do you mean by that?" she managed to ask.
"Can I help it if I want to share eternity with you?" he said, answering her question with a question of his own. "I can't stop my desire to have my blood flowing through your veins so that you can be my queen," he continued in a musing tone. "It gets lonely, with everyone around you dying," he remarked, and Integra felt pity overwhelm her, but only for a moment. She would not give him the satisfaction of manipulating her emotions.
"All it would take is a little prick," he concluded persuasively, his mouth already hovering over her neck with the small, hopeless hope that she might cave in and relinquish her self to him.
"It won't be yours," Integra informed him, seizing the chance to catch him off guard and stop the subject of conversation before it went too far.
Alucard laughed softly. "Mine isn't little," he replied, sliding his hands from her hips to around her waist until they interlocked to hold her in place.
Integra smirked. "I wouldn't know," she commented drowsily. Yawning, she extricated her arm from underneath his imprisoning arm and reached for her half-empty glass of wine. To her annoyance, Alucard neatly caught her wrist with his hand and shook his head. "No," he emphasized out loud. "Wine is to be drunk for pleasure, not for intoxication," he admonished.
Integra looked at him angrily. "I wasn't going to drink it to intoxicate myself," she protested, trying to break free from his grip on her wrist. She tried to get up, realizing he was no longer restraining her with both arms, but forgot about the insubstantial tendrils that had attached to her earlier, which immediately hardened and increased their hold on her when she tried to move.
Alucard looked at her impassively. "You are drunk," he informed her, releasing his grip on her wrist and holding her hand instead. "Or maybe just tipsy," he corrected, aware of her cold, clear gaze on him. "But either way, it is best to sleep it off," he added, withdrawing his shadows and gently laying her down on the bed. She held his hand firmly and looked up at him trustingly.
Alucard flinched and looked away. He had not seen that look directed at him in centuries. "I will leave you to sleep," he muttered softly.
When there was no response he looked at her again and realized she had drifted to sleep. Slowly, he slid off the bed and tried to back away carefully, but found that Integra was still gripping his hand tight even in her sleep. Sighing, he sat on the floor by her bed and tried to gently pry her fingers off of his hand, but without any luck.
He gave up after several attempts and slumped against the side of the bed. If it weren't for the glove, which he couldn't take off, he would have been able to dissolve his hand into shadow and easily extract himself from her grasp, he mused irritatedly.
Well. He had a reason to stay with her, at least, and as it looked like he wasn't going to be going anywhere any time soon, he slowly moved back on to the bed and eased himself down beside her. He watched her form as it rose and fell with each breath and wondered at human fragility. "I'd forgotten how susceptible humans are to the influence of alcohol," he muttered, mostly to himself. As he continued to watch her, a much less benign train of thought began to run through his mind. How easy it would be to change her, right now, in her sleep, he thought hungrily.His teeth began to ache to bite her again and he had to remind himself that he had already fed on her blood. But then, the hunger for Hellsing blood never stops, a small part of him reminded him. With a faint growl he shoved the thought from his mind and contented himself with the delectable smell of her neck. "Good night," he finally murmured softly to her sleeping figure.
Integra woke up on her side with someone's nose pushed into her neck and a gloved hand resting against the bare skin of her stomach. As she gradually became more aware of her surroundings, she realized that the nose and the gloved hand belonged to a heavy lump that was lying next to her, with various parts draped over her.
"Alucard?" she asked groggily, but was almost positive of the answer.
The answering nuzzle that seemed to be preoccupied with the area of her neck confirmed that it was the vampire. "What are you still doing here?" she asked crossly, coming to the realization that she had a pounding headache and couldn't seem to see clearly.
"You're the one that had a deathlike grip on my hand for most of the night," Alucard replied amusedly. He lifted his hand languidly and moved it towards her head, and it lingered in places where it should not have lingered on the way up. He placed his hand lightly against her temple. "Does it ache here?" he asked, moving his fingers expertly in small circles against her head.
Integra murmured assent and moved closer to him. Alucard sighed and continued rubbing the side of her head. "Forgive me for not monitoring your wine intake last night," he said. "It is easy to forget that alcohol is one of the many human weaknesses," he continued, stressing the word 'weaknesses' with the satisfaction of seeing her grow angry.
"No, it was my fault," Integra replied coolly, despite her initial look of anger. "I was irresponsible." Her eyes widened as she finally focused her eyes on a tray by the bed. "Walter came by?" she asked in a horrified tone, and Alucard reveled in feeling the blood rush underneath her skin to her head as she blushed.
"Hmm…yes, I seem to recall that he did, earlier this morning," Alucard answered. "He wondered if you might come by later when you were up and about and see him for a moment," Alucard explained, and he felt Integra freeze.
"When was that? Why didn't you wake me up?" she asked.
Alucard brushed his fingers against her lips in a soothing motion. "Don't worry, he wanted to let you sleep," he assured her. "Breakfast and your tea is on the tray. I would keep you company, but…" He gestured towards the clock, which read 10:15 am.
"It's daytime, and you want to sleep in your coffin," Integra finished for him.
Alucard grinned and got up. "Exactly," he replied, heading towards the door. He turned and looked at her one last time and added, "If you want to come join me later, you would be most welcome," before going through the door without bothering to open it and disappearing from sight.
"Walter," Integra said in greeting, watching as he stopped polishing the china cabinet and turned around at the sound of her voice.
"Sir Integra," he said formally, setting down a rag and facing her.
"You wished to speak with me?" she asked.
"Yes," Walter answered, "I will only take a few minutes of your time," he added apologetically, adjusting his monocle.
Integra tensed. Adjusting his monocle was a nervous habit, which meant that something was wrong.
"It involves Alucard and yourself," he began cautiously, but took her outward lack of reaction as a sign to continue, and so he did. "I only wanted to warn you once again to never take Alucard's seals off."
Integra blinked and relaxed, relieved. "Walter, you've told this to me countless times since I found him in the basement," she said. "I'm not about to go and do a stupid thing like that now," she pointed out practically. "Why did you think I would?" She asked curiously.
Walter coughed and looked uncomfortable. "No reason, really," he said evasively, not meeting her eye.
Integra frowned, but decided not to pursue the topic further at the moment. "Well…if that's all…" she began, turning to go.
Walter nodded. "That is all," Miss Integra," he said resuming his work. He paused and whirled around. "Oh wait," he started, and she paused obligingly. "There is one more thing, Sir Integra," he said.
"Oh? What is it?" Integra asked.
"Quincy Morris," Walter answered seriously, and his heart sank when she looked at him blankly.
"Quincy Morris?" Integra asked, her brow furrowing. A memory came floating back to her, but it seemed to be from so long ago…she had found him…somewhere…
"Think hard, Sir Integra," Walter said desperately.
Integra concentrated, and it finally came back to her in a rush. Her eyes widened and she looked at Walter in shock. "Last night! But…why did I forget?" she asked in a confused tone.
Walter sighed. "Alucard tampered with your memory," he answered, hating to say it to her.
Integra looked at him disbelievingly. "But why?" she asked finally, fervently wishing for a cigar.
"He didn't want you to know the reason for Quincy," Walter answered vaguely.
Integra raised an eyebrow. "The reason for Quincy?" she repeated. She looked at Walter intently. "And what exactly is this reason for Quincy?" she asked, when a sudden thought struck her. "And how did you know we…I…met Quincy?" she added.
Walter smiled faintly. "When I came in to your room I saw the old wines from the wine storage room on the nightstand. To get to the wine cellar you have to pass Quincy's room, and he would never have let you pass without meeting you," he answered. "As to your first question, I have sworn to Alucard to never tell you," he answered. "I am sorry," he said at her look, "but it is one of the few things I will honor for that vampire." He looked down to avoid her eyes and looked back up to see her open her mouth again.. "And just in case you were wondering," he cut in smoothly, "The reason I know Quincy is something I cannot convey to you either."
Integra inwardly fumed and swore to get a cigar as soon as possible. "Isn't there anything you might tell me?" she asked.
Walter frowned. "Anything?" He asked. "I wouldn't know what to tell you, Sir Integra, but the library may hold some answers," he replied.
Hey kiddos I TOLD you the next chapter would come soon. I must be psychic.
And just to let you know, the "All it would take is a small prick"/ "it won't be yours" conversation is pure Terry Pratchett, from the book Carpe Jugulum (go for the throat).
I just couldn't resist putting that one in. Many thanks to Royalpalmtree for pointing out Integra's lack of reaction to discovering Quincy…I think I managed to incorporate a good reason for that….and…good news! Or maybe bad news! I thought of a plot (gasp!) so there will be an ending to this fic. In case you were wondering.
Oh, and about the Quincy/ Quincey spelling. I found out the proper spelling in the book is "Quincey", and I had been spelling it "Quincy" so you may have noticed that I switched to Quincey in chapter 9 from the no E spelling in chapter 8, but then now I'm back to "Quincy" because...well…I like it better.