Human
by Lyaliro
A/N: I do not own Hellsing. I hope you enjoy reading this story. That is all.
It was dark. Eerily, impossibly dark. The cramped stone walls had disappeared, melted away behind an opaque magician's curtain where secret atrocities were committed and silenced. The familiar pathetic wooden table, kept level with books, still stood there, a knife buried in the half-eaten steak upon it. The wine glass was missing.
Seras Victoria's eyes strained to make something out of the blackness about her. Her foot tested the ground; it was solid and rang of stone. She dared to traverse the perimeter of the little table, her finger tracing the lines in the woodwork. Fear stirred within her, a feeling she knew that was wrong for her to have. One of her hands reached out to where a wall should be and found only nothingness.
Was it a trick? A test set before her by Alucard? She wouldn't put it past him to come up with one at such a time. His boredom often manifested itself in utterly strange ways.
"Sir Integra?" She called out meekly.
For a few moments, silence. Then came a voice very much like the Hellsing, only somehow more sinister. "You should be able to see me. I can see you very clearly, Seras Victoria."
Seras' expression turned to confusion. She definitely heard Integra speak, but it seemed to come from every direction at once. Her eyes scanned about her carefully. "Sir Integra? What do you mean?"
"Come a bit closer, then, if you have so much trouble."
Not quite understanding where to go in order to get closer, Seras picked at random and started off at a walk. In a few minutes she came upon a silhouette of black upon black. Yet, somehow, she could tell a difference between the two. One was merely background. The other had presence, a shape that shifted almost imperceptibly in odd, deeply disturbing ways. The police girl hesitated, then took a few more steps forward.
Out of the dark, out of the impossible shadow, materialized a pair of shoes that steadily grew upward into legs and a torso. Arms, as well, formed, elbows resting on the sides of a chair that also faded into sight. In one hand she lazily held the missing wine glass, filled halfway with a red liquid. The glint of her glasses appeared first of her head, then color spread from there, as if a painter were filling it in. The Cheshire cat himself could do no better.
Polished blue eyes that gave that impression of surgeon's scalpels pressed themselves upon Seras. She felt transparent and uncomfortable, although she'd been on the receiving end of that gaze many times before. At length, Integra smirked and removed her glasses, tucking them neatly away inside the pocket of her jacket.
What Seras saw made her gasp.
Her eyes had turned crimson. But even more alarming than color was the fact that they contained a degree of cruelty, an absolute disregard for the loss of any life. Integra took a sip from the wine glass, and it was then the distinct smell of still-warm blood wafted to Sera's nostrils. It made her jaw ache. Her commander merely watched, amused, as the other vampire shifted nervously, eyeing the fluid with a suppressed hunger.
The Hellsing gave a sanguine smile, blood still clinging to her teeth in a veined pattern. She finished off the rest of her drink before rising, tossing the glass away carelessly. No sound of shattering came.
"If memory serves, you haven't ever had fresh human blood, have you?" She asked, her tone unreadable yet smug. Like Alucard. So much like Alucard.
Seras merely nodded her affirmation.
Integra took a few leisurely steps forward, hands folded behind her back. The clicking of her shoes was undoubtedly produced by the floor that didn't exist. By now, Seras had learned to stop trying to make sense of what was going on. But, if things started to make sense in a way she didn't like, she did recently begin to carry a handgun with her. Not that it would do much good in most situations she'd encounter.
Now standing a mere foot away, Integra appeared even more threatening. A gloved hand want to Seras' face, holding her chin in between the thumb and curled index finger. Red-but-once-blue eyes scrutinized her.
"You're still human, police girl, despite the blood you drink and the sun you avoid. The coffin you sleep in is not yours; it is for some other body, still living and waiting for their time to come. You walk the night, yet stop not to speak secrets with its shadows. The power you were given, the power that you asked for and received, lies dormant in your veins for a bit of real blood to stir it, as a seed rests in soil for water. You are still human, Seras Victoria."
And that gloved hand slipped behind the police girl's head, white cloth meshing with strawberry blond hair. The other arm wrapped about her waist. Sir Hellsing pulled the vampire towards her irresistibly into a kiss.
Seras had expected a marble coldness from her skin, like when Alucard first touched her as he drank her blood. His fingers were no different from icicles, and they chilled through her clothes. Instead of that, however, she felt warmth. More than warmth. It was a burning that filled her mouth as Integra's tongue pressed into it mere droplets of blood. Eagerly, ravenously Seras replied, her own tongue intertwining with the other woman's in a vicious writhing duel of two snakes. Where the Hellsing's fingertips met skin sprouted tendrils of heat that slithered throughout her entire body, from the ends of her toes to the crown of her head.
Suddenly Integra's jaw snapped, fangs puncturing the police girl's lip. Seras wasted no time in responding, tearing instead of piercing neatly. Their blood flowed thickly and sweetly, mixing together and traveling down their throats as molten iron. Quiet, lovely curses grated hot against Seras, unspoken but still understood. They were cruel, they were sweet, they were silent, tickling against the inside of her ear in hisses reminiscent of Integra's voice.
It was the newer vampire who broke the kiss. She pushed Seras away, chuckling and growling at the same time. Red, dripping lines were painted upon her chin. "So very human," she whispered, yet it resounded as if she had yelled it. Then she grinned, full of delight, and darkness engulfed her, leaving nothing behind.
The chamber, or cell, more like it, shimmered back into view. Everything was as it should be. The wine glass sat undisturbed upon the table. Seras, bewildered, looked around in alarm. A wall had appeared in front of her. She felt it with her hand, running over the crevices in the stone. Indeed, it was there. A drop of blood splattered at her feet. She stared at it, and her fingers went to the slight soreness at her lip where it was punctured.
She felt parched.
A/N: So there you have it. I'm pondering over continuing it. It depends on the muses.
A/N #2: Sorry about the broken link with the Remarkable Hellsing Fanfiction community update hoo-hah. I submitted the story, then realized that it was missing the title in the document and all the fancy A/N such, so I deleted it. Only after I deleted it and replaced it did I notice the "Replace" feature. My apologies.