Chapter Three: Binding by Blood
She didn't know whether it was her own mind or Alucard's that returned her dreams to the days of her childhood, following their first meeting. In the end, it didn't seem to matter. She was content to watch, and to remember.
***DoM***
Walter returned the day after her uncle's attempt on her life. By the time he came home she had woken, had another hot bath and some food, and managed to reload her gun. She'd even gotten her bandages changed, with Alucards assistance.
With a good night's sleep behind her and some food, she had the sense to be far more wary of the vampire than she had been the previous day. She also had sense enough to show him no fear, and to direct her statements to him in calm, clear tones, backed with all the authority her father had taught her to use.
Walter was properly appalled by her uncle's behavior, and by her wounds. He was also well-trained enough to oversee the necessary arrangements for the removal of the bodies from the basement. As well as arrangements for the care and containment of Integra's new, rather unconventional, guardian.
He was far less appalled by Alucards appearance than she had expected. Then again, Integra admitted later that she was far more surprised than she should have been at the first encounter between the butler and the monster.
Apparently, they had known each other before Alucard had been sealed away, before she had been born. Walter was far more comfortable around Alucard than she was. And while she had no idea what her new vampire servant meant by calling Walter 'Angel of Death', she sensed that he both respected and was amused by her older servant, for some unfathomable reason, and that Walter returned the sentiment.
Respect aside, her butler took time the next day and gave her a very thorough history of Alucard. How he had come to serve the Hellsings through the skills of Abraham Van Helsing a hundred years before. He also detailed the work Alucard had done, and the experiments he had been involved in (with and without his consent), before her father has sealed him away, following the second World War. He gave her a detailed overview of the things Alucard was capable of, in terms so graphic they might have been horrifying if she hadn't spent the last several years learning about monsters at her fathers knee.
Then he told her about The Binding. A ceremony, performed in a consecrated chamber underneath the house, which would formally bind Alucard to her service.
Her father had left a book in Walter's keeping, in case she ever had need of Alucard's powers. Apparently, the fact that he'd claimed her as his Master voluntarily was a good sign, though not required. Her own father, according to his notes, had suffered a rather problematic relationship with the vampire.
The ritual was a complicated one, full of Latin spells and points where she would have to interject passwords of her own devising, sealing his power or unbinding it as needed. There were also points where she would have to specifically name those who could release Alucard's power. And once the ritual was set, it was unbreakable.
She and Walter went over the ritual in detail. Paranoia kept her list of authorized release handlers to herself and Alucard, and she was the only one who could unleash the last two levels of his power. The first she left open to being released by specific orders, 'total destruction orders', as Walter advised. The last could only be revoked by specific ritual phrases in conjunction with a summoning by name.
The preparing of the ritual area had to be done in blood and ink and ash. There was plenty of blood, her own and her father's, thanks to her father's careful preparation. Walter sketched out the intricate seal for her, but she was the one who drew out the seal in the blood mixture, then went over it twice to make sure it was properly done, every line and rune and symbol or archaic phrase in it's proper place.
They performed the ritual the very next night. The robes she wore were a little too big, and the blade she carried was a long dagger, rather than the traditional sword, but she hadn't allowed herself to care about that. Walter had warned her that she had to be absolutely calm, focused, and confident.
It was fortunate that she'd always had a good head for memorizing things, and for spell-work. Otherwise, Walter's instructions might have been far more difficult to follow.
Summoning Alucard was the simple part. "Alucard. Come here."
He came, melting out of the shadows with a feral grin, though she had no idea how someone with his pale white hair could be camouflaged by shadow so well. "What is it you wish of me, my Master?"
"I wish for you to go into the center of that circle, without damaging it, and kneel until I say otherwise." She pointed to the ritual diagram.
She had wondered before the ritual how she could force him into the circle. He was sure to recognize what it was. She was surprised when he walked into the circle without a word, stepping ghost-like among the intricate design until he reached the center and knelt, turning to face her.
What followed was the strangest night of her young life.
At the opening words of the first spell set, the set that would seal him to her and block the core of his power, the seal began to glow. Red, like the blood it had been inscribed with. That much she had known to expect, but it was still unnerving to watch.
What she hadn't know was that Alucard would also glow. The light from him was an odd reddish-black, flickering with shades she had no real name for and disturbing to the eye. She caught a sense of...things, moving in the shadow-light that surrounded him. Faces that were sometimes human, sometimes animal. Shapes like masses of bats or writhing worms or waves of blood stirred by an invisible hand. Eyes, hundreds upon hundreds of eyes, all glittering with eerie madness.
She kept her eyes on the monster's face, somehow still clear despite the disturbance around him. She kept her mind on the night Alucard had saved her from her uncle and his treachery. Focusing on that was all that allowed her to keep speaking the spell, rather than giving in to nausea or worse.
She finished the first spell set, and felt the link to Alucard snap into place. She wasn't sure how to describe the feeling, as if someone had snapped a chain between the two of them. She did notice, however, that the glow around Alucard had dimmed.
And, for some reason, his hair had turned black. It was still long, hanging past his hips, but it had turned the color of shadow.
She would have liked to take time to explore that, but there were six more spell sets to go, and she needed to finish before dawn.
She began the second set, and was answered by another flare of red. Shockingly, it came not from the floor, but from Alucard's hands.
It was only then that she realized his hands had been gloved, and the backs of each had been inscribed with a smaller version of the seal.
She couldn't spare any time to think on that either.
With the completion of the second set of spells, the odd shapes around Alucard disappeared. There were still too many eyes, and the red-black glow was still present, but the dog faces and the writhing worms and other distorted visions faded.
The last five sets were much shorter and less complex, reducing the powers Alucard could use down to regeneration and feeding, though the second was limited. She made sure to speak them carefully and clearly just the same. She was, however, grateful to her father's lessons in discipline and focus, because it was hard not to be distracted.
With each set of spells, Alucard's light dimmed. But more than that, Alucard himself transformed.
The dark hair shortened until it was a longish, untidy mop. Long enough to get in his eyes and frame his face, but not as long as Walters, which could be tied back neatly. His clothing also changed, becoming a slightly old-fashioned Victorian suit, mostly gray, black boots of a more modern style, and a long red coat of a cut that somewhat resembled the sort of evening coat a gentleman might wear for an informal outing or bad weather, though not entirely. It had the interesting effect of cloaking his frame a bit. Altogether, the ensemble gave him a rather eccentric appearance, but not an unfitting one. It seemed to suit him, in an odd way.
She wondered why he'd chosen that appearance. Walter had hinted that his appearance had once been very different.
Finally, there was only one ritual left to perform. She was exhausted and her throat was sore, but she kept her back straight as she moved from where she'd been standing. Her feet and legs hurt too, cramping a little as she moved, but she locked her knees and refused to reveal that as well.
Alucard remained kneeling where he was as she approached. The light of the great seal had faded but the ones on his hands glowed brightly, as if all the power of the original seal had been transferred to the smaller ones. For all she knew, it had. She was no expert in the arcane, and it didn't change what she needed to do.
She stopped in front of him, positioned so that with a shift of a few inches she could have forced the kneeling vampire to kiss her shoes. For a long moment, she studied his bent head, wondering if she could really do what was necessary. The rite she had performed would bind him, and it would be a simple matter to seal him in the underground chambers again.
Then she remembered her uncle and the fact that she was a teenage girl on the brink of seizing a powerful position, a position that not even the peers of Parliament could hope to match. Her uncle was most likely not the only one who would test her strength, and she would need someone besides Walter to help her until she had reached her adulthood and established her own reputation. Her grip firmed around the knife at her belt, and she found her voice again.
"You will acknowledge me as your Master." She refused to make it a question.
From the dark amusement in his deep voice, she thought he might approve. "Yes, my Master."
"You will fight the vampires and monsters of this world in my name."
"Yes, my Master."
"You will fight on my command. You will feed when I permit it, and abstain as I command. You will hunt when I say, and protect me with your full power and your best effort when I require it. You will heed my orders, and only mine."
"Yes, my Master."
She drew her blade from it's sheath. "Swear it on my blood and my name." She cut her hand on the sharp blade, feeling the edge part her skin. "Swear to me that you will serve me for the length of my life, or until I release you from my service willingly and of my own volition." She was unlikely to do the second, but Walter had told her to add the provision for it.
"I swear. I will be your servant for as long as you command, my Master. Integra Winigates Fairbrook Hellsing." He raised his crimson eyes to look at her.
There was hunger there, his nostrils flaring and jaw clenching as he smelled the blood gathering in the palm of her hand. But he made no move to attack her.
"Then by my blood, you are bound. To seal this pledge, I permit you, my servant, to drink." She extended her hand to him.
"Yes, my Master." He bent his head and lapped at the blood in her palm.
The marks flared, then faded, and she felt the last binding click into place.
There was a shadowy new presence in her mind, held away from her own mind but there. A presence that oozed power and darkness and strength. Alucard.
She touched it tentatively. She felt dark amusement, and a new awareness. Information touched her mind, unexpected and unwanted but also unforgettable.
She had never considered the dynamics of blood exchange among vampires. In that fleeting brush, she learned how the act of taking blood forcibly was an act of dominance. And how the act of giving blood willingly was an establishment, a statement of dominance and power.
And she learned how the acceptance of freely given blood was a form of submission, as powerful as swearing an oath to the Crown and far more binding.
Alucard raised his head from her now clean palm, and she saw the knowledge in his eyes. Knowledge of her new awareness, of the new link between them. Then he bent his head again. "What are your orders, my Master?"
The knowledge of what she had just leashed, what that title meant, was nearly overwhelming. She kept her voice steady with an effort. "Walter has prepared rooms for you. Go there and wait until I call for you."
"As you wish, Lady Integra." The dark head dipped in a bow, then he rose. He was gone before she could think any further about it.
Realization made her light-headed, and exhaustion made her dizzy. For the second time in a week, she allowed herself to be escorted upstairs, bandaged, fed, and put to bed.
***DoM***
Integra floated back to a sort of half-awareness, feeling as if the muzziness from her dream had followed her into waking. She blinked at the blurry ceiling, and at the IV she knew was giving her medicine as well as liquids and blood.
Blood. The word took her back to the memory she'd relived in her dream. The night she'd blood-bound Alucard to her service.
She smiled, remembering his answer when she'd inquired about his form. The dark hair and blood-red eyes were apparently natural to him, but the rest of his appearance he had taken from her thoughts of what she wanted her protector to be like. Or so he said. She had no recollections of harboring such thoughts, but she supposed that her childish subconscious might have harbored any number of odd images. And she had been in shock part of the time after getting shot by her uncle.
After her bond with Alucard, her mind had become a much more guarded place.
She had wondered, but never asked, why he had walked into the ritual circle that night, knowing it meant his enslavement. Alucard had never volunteered an answer, though he had hinted at her worthiness to be his mistress.
His Countess. His Lady. She always rebuffed him when he mentioned such things. But she did wonder what that had to do with his willingness to submit to her when he could have overpowered her instead.
It didn't really matter though. He had been a good servant. And if she was willing to admit it, which was rarely, he had been a good companion and adviser. Not as good as Walter, of course, but still...Had he not been a monster, she might have called him a friend.
She sensed a brush of dark amusement, and appreciation. "Do stop eavesdropping. What I dream is none of your business." She was glad that she didn't have to speak the words aloud. Just thinking them was difficult, through the fog in her mind.
Laughter in her mind. "But your memories are so clear, my Integra. It has been a long time since I thought of these things."
She sighed, then decided to ignore him. After all, as long as she was remembering, she supposed it would do no harm for him to watch her dreams. It might even protect her from more outside influences, like that which had ensnared her before. She ought to have realized that she had no female cousins her age named Laura.
Another soundless laugh. Then a gentle brush, nudging her back towards oblivion. "Sleep, my master. I will watch."
She knew she ought to have retorted that he was not the one who gave orders, but it was too much effort. Besides, it was rare of him to be so careful of her moods, or her health. She might as well accept it while it lasted, as she had no doubt he'd go back to being his typically irritating self as soon as she was upright.
She prodded at him with a half-hearted attempt at reproach, then slipped back into her dreams.
Back into her memories.
Author's Note: And there we go. The next memory. Thoughts?
Next up...Integra's knighting.