'The Demon'
"It was unbelievably risky for you to go there, Miss Seras. I cannot believe you were so foolhardy."
Seras smiled softly as the older retainer continued to berate her. He had lectured her for almost an hour when she returned home some hours after dark and had begun lecturing her again immediately as she sat to breakfast.
"I am fine, Walter. And I am sorry I made you worry. I never intended to be out so late." She looked up at him as he glowered down at her, blue eyes truly contrite at the idea of causing him anguish.
"I guess it is past us anyway. I hope your trip satisfied your curiosity and you can drop the matter completely."
"Oh," she murmured.
It was a quiet sound, but telling. The aging man knew his charge well enough to know that his hopes were far from being true. He looked at her a moment longer, a suspicion growing in his eyes as he noticed a blush growing on her cheeks. When she continued to not quite meet his gaze, he sighed, sitting down heavily in the seat across from her.
"You met him, didn't you?"
Shocked, she looked up to meet his gaze. "Wait, you know Alucard?"
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"What kind of name is Alucard? It doesn't even sound foreign, just…strange."
The two of them were sitting in one of the drawing rooms. The man had demonstrated his otherworldliness by summoning a fire in the hearth with thought alone. Still, he had yet to threaten her and, honestly, she knew if he wanted to, she could do nothing to prevent it. With the confidence only someone half-assured of their own death could have, she asked him the brazen question.
He chuckled from his seat across from her. "Not my own, actually. It was given to me by those that are hunting me. However, I have used it for so long that it has become my own."
"Why are people hunting you? I mean, aside from…." Seras trailed off, not entirely sure how to complete her sentence.
"For someone who so quickly grasped that they are sitting with someone of an entirely different nature than their own….you are very calm," Alucard observed with a small smile.
"Well," she murmured with a blush under his admiring gaze, "it is hard to deny the obvious. Plus, you saved me so I am inclined to like you. Even if you are a demon, you were not the one that started the rumored curse on this house nor have you done me any harm."
Alucard laughed, the sound rich and unsettling. Yet, Seras could not help but like it. She continued to look at him, expectantly, desperate to hold his gaze even as it made her blush further.
"Yes, people are hunting me," he answered at last, drawing a sip from a strange red liquid that Seras pretended to be unable to identify. "I escaped them and they want me back. They want to use me to kill off the creatures that you saw before. I am their weapon and they wish to use me still."
Seras frowned. "But…" she paused, unsure of whether or not to speak before swallowing and continuing on. "You are clearly the same…sort of…creature. You have red eyes like he did and move incredibly quickly. Why would you kill your own kind?"
Alucard smiled at her in answer. It was a strange sort of smile that concealed much and, while his eyes revealed an appreciation for her ability to get to the heart of the matter, she knew he would not answer.
The silence drew on for a moment. It was almost expectant and she could feel her blush rise again. Without a doubt, she knew this man could kill her, but she was almost certain at this point that he meant her no harm. In fact, he seemed to be delighted to have someone to speak to.
"Are…are you all alone here?" she asked quietly, at last.
"Yes." His eyes shadowed and his face became unreadable.
"Then…might I come and visit you again?" He quirked his eyebrow at the question and she felt her confidence ebb.
"Isn't this your own home, my lady? Why would you ask permission?"
For a moment, she was startled silent, realizing the point that he made. Bursting into laughter, she rose to her feet and adjusted her shawl. Wordlessly, he rose to escort her to the door, a gentleman demon at least. At the door, she turned to him again, smile shy but confident.
"Then, I will see you again soon."
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"You must not go back to him!" Walter cried out, frustrated.
"But, why? He means me no harm!"
"Miss Seras, just because a wolf ignores you once does not mean it will not attack the second time." The retainer sighed. "He is dangerous."
"Why do you even know him? Were you the one to give him permission to live there all while you told me to stay away?" Her voice got louder as her question continued, shocked at how much her faithful companion had kept from her.
"Yes," he sighed. "I knew he needed sanctuary and the Hall has…benefits for him beyond being abandoned."
"What benefits?"
Walter looked at the girl quietly for a moment, his eyes judging just what to tell.
"He told you he was being hunted?"
"Yes."
Sitting back in his chair, Walter appraised the young woman before him. He knew, after more than a decade of caring for her, that she was headstrong and would do as she saw fit. Danger did not scare her and, if she had been born a man, he was sure she would have run off to join the militia already. However, as foolhardy as she could be, she was intelligent. He might not be able to stop her, but he could at least arm her with knowledge.
"Then, allow me to tell you about an organization named Hellsing."
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"Walter tells me you fought together once."
"A long time ago during the Seven Years' Conflict." Alucard smiled, "He was a lot younger then."
The two of them were touring the large house, candles magically lighting as they approached each sconce. As a child, Seras had not really been allowed in all parts of the grand manor home and she relished the idea of exploring the house.
"You must be fairly old yourself. Do demons or whatever you are not age?" Seras asked the question distractedly as she looked up at old family paintings of people long dead. The bluntness of it made him laugh, however, and she realized what she had said with a blush.
"No, lady, I do not. I can change my physical age if I wish, but typically I look as I do now." He smiled strangely at her, a light in his eyes that she was beginning to recognize – though not understand – as he looked down at her.
"If-if you are so much older, then I must be very boring to talk to," she stuttered, trying to ignore the way her heart beat at his gaze. She was not foolish enough to trust any sort of look in a demon's eyes. Or so she told herself.
At first he did not answer, causing her to stop and look at him again, blush fading as her curiosity rose. After a moment, he reached out his gloved hand and stroked her cheek with a dance of his fingers.
"You would be surprised."
"O-oh?"
His smile deepened as he looked down at her, the distance between them almost gone somehow. She wondered if he could hear her heart beating as she looked up at him. His eyes seemed to tell her he did.
"You see, my lady, when you are as old as I am, you learn that it is not about the age of a person, but who they are that makes them interesting. An 80 year old man can be nothing but a boor while a woman at the cusp of adulthood can be…fascinating."
Seras gasped as his fingers trailed along her arms, the fabric thin without her coat or shawl to protect them. For a moment, she stood entranced in those eyes, falling deep into promises that they silently made. Then, with a shake, she stepped away.
"Then I-I am delighted to know I am not poor company," she murmured at last, turning to make her way down the hallway.
A sensual chuckle followed her steps and she was certain he knew exactly what effect his game was having on her and enjoying it.
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"Must you keep going, Miss Seras?"
The young woman stopped at the door, adjusting her shawl around her as she turned to look at him.
"He is not going to hurt me, Walter."
"I have told you about those who hunt him. I have told you about how vicious he can be, the danger you put yourself in. He is not human, Miss Seras. You cannot think that your limited experiences with him mean you know him."
For a moment, Seras trained her blue eyes down to the floor, understanding and feeling the worry in Walter's quiet words. In part, it broke her heart to have him worry over her. But, she also knew he did not understand.
"He's the only one."
Walter frowned at her. "The only one what?"
"The only one, apart from you, who does not look at me in fear and disgust because of actions I made as a child. Can't I have that for a little while, Walter? Even if it is just a few days more?"
The retainer sighed and looked away, not stopping his charge as she closed the door behind her.
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She had been visiting every night for two weeks before she finally had him take her to the attics. For those two weeks, she had relished his company, even if he still made her feel uneasy, and avoided the truth that she knew the attics held.
"So it's true," she sighed quietly.
Before her on the wall, there was a strange design. A circle with different shapes and words in a language she did not understand. It was expansive, covering almost 3 yards of distance. Walter had described it to her that day two weeks ago, but she had tried to forget its existence.
"You had no idea that your mother had been part of the occult?"
"None," Seras whispered. "She died when I was very young. I…I thought that those looks they gave me had been because of…but, maybe they had been because of her as well."
Silently, she approached the symbol, her fingers following the pattern it made on the wall. Walter had told her that many years before, her mother had been in the service of Hellsing. She had hated the way they had treated their "pet" and worked actively to find a way to free him. Of course, she had been murdered by people who sought revenge against her magistrate husband and it had come of nothing.
Until Walter had found it after their death.
Now this symbol created a blind spot in the spells that held Alucard, keeping him hidden from view. The old retainer had found a way of contacting his former comrade in arms, telling him of the abandoned home that could act as the first step to set him free from those that bound him. Vaguely, Seras could remember Walter taking long trips away from the village when she had been young, but had thought nothing of it. That was the time before the other servants found her too unnatural to care for and there had been others to distract her from his absence. But on one of those trips, the two of them must have found a way of getting Alucard here and to the house that would protect him.
And trap him.
"Because of what?"
Seras started, having almost forgotten she was not alone. She looked over at Alucard, confused at his question until she thought back to what she had said. She frowned, looking away again. Unwilling to tell the whole story to the one person who had not judged her, she shrugged slightly.
"Let's just say that when violence came to call, I did not sit idly by. And there are many who do not approve of that kind of behavior in a young girl."
She pointedly looked away, pretending to continue her observations on the symbol. The tone of his voice made her think that he probably knew the answer already, but had wanted her to say it. Of course, he would know. Everyone seemed to know.
His approach was silent and she jumped slightly as he put his finger under her chin, raising her face to meet his eyes. She refused at first, eyes locked on his lips as they curved into that unsettling smile. But, never the coward, at last she looked only to find admiration instead of disgust.
"Only fools look down on someone who fights instead of runs away. I am not a fool."
Once again, she was struck by the attraction she felt towards him. It had been present from the very first night, but had grown over the passing days. She knew it was absurd to feel that way towards a demon. Even if he meant her no harm, his world was so far apart from her own that she could not comprehend it. Logic, however, could not stop her heart from aching for the only man who had looked at her that way, who had treated her like an equal, like someone worthwhile.
Blushing, she pulled her head away and looked back at the symbol.
"There must be a way to break their control over you. Even a demon should not be trapped in a prison, no matter how nice it is." She frowned at the symbol before something struck her.
Quickly, she turned, starting to realize how close he was to her. His grin grew knowing as she blushed again, but she ignored it in favor of grabbing at his hand. She remembered seeing something strange about his gloves, but had never looked too closely. Pulling his hand to her face, she saw a similar symbol etched in the glove on his left hand. Curious, she grabbed his other hand and found a similar mark there. Curious….
"You are very forward tonight," he whispered into her ear as she stood lost in thought. The words hummed in her ear and sent a pleasant shiver throughout her body. "I am beginning to think that you don't realize that you are, in fact, spending time alone with a man."
"Oh! But…I mean…you…I," she stammered, unable to form a coherent thought. He took advantage of her confusion, advancing on her as she edged away until the wall pressed against her back. "A-Alucard?"
"You seem to think that I am no danger to you, Lady Victoria," he murmured softly. "I am sure that Walter, good fellow that he is, has warned you that I am dangerous. Yet, you ignore him."
She gaped up at him, trying desperately to form thoughts as he began to press even closer. "I-I am sure you would never hurt me, Alucard. If you were going to, you would have already."
"There are other dangers to a young unmarried woman. Dangers you seem to be oblivious to," he chuckled, leaning his head in to nip gently at her neck.
Gasping, Seras stood in shock as he took charge of her grasps on his hands and brought them up to kiss the pulse of her wrists one by one. Words were beyond her at this point as was any notion of struggling. She would be lying if she said she had not ached for this sort of intimacy, but had imagined it impossible.
Eyes peering deep into hers, Alucard laughed seductively as he bent his head forward again. Pressing the length of his body into hers, he pulled her earlobe between his teeth.
"I think," he whispered softly, "the right company would make me content to never leave this house again."
He stayed there a moment more before detaching himself from her. His lips curved into a satisfied smirk, he turned and headed back through the attics.
Seras stood there, breath uneven and heart pounding, for a long while after that.
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"Walter," Alucard grinned. "An unexpected surprise."
"Miss Seras has asked me to come and search for her mother's books and to copy over your seals," the retainer replied dryly as he walked past the ageless man.
"Oh, and she could not come herself?"
Walter looked over at Alucard, noting the look of unadulterated glee on the demon vampire's face. Narrowing his eyes repressively, the retainer sighed.
"May I remind you that I have been watching over Miss Seras since the death of her parents. She is as close to a daughter as I will ever have."
Alucard laughed. "Remind away. I have no ill intentions towards the girl." His smile darkened into something more knowing. "None at all."
Walter frowned at the older man. "I may not be able to kill you, vampire, but I can still hurt you plenty, even in my old age."
"Well I know," Alucard laughed, bowing graciously to the other man. "I will behave. For now at least."
Rolling his eyes, Walter decided to ignore him and do the task charged to him.
As much as he might want to do otherwise.
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Seras sat back in her chair, idly watching as the sun began to disappear into the horizon. It had been a week since she had visited Alucard, a week of research and work. The days had been filled with her mother's books and the bits of information that Walter could bring her from other sources. Those days had brought her to the realization that her mother had almost been finished with her work. She had figured it out, but had not had a chance to test her solution. A solution that Seras now had.
Her days had been productive indeed.
Her nights….had been something else.
She had started dreaming of the mysterious demon almost from the start. He had been compelling and captivating and she had little else in her life to compete with his presence. However, since that night in the attic, her dreams had taken on an entirely different nature. More than once, she had awoken in the middle of the night panting and unsatisfied. Finally, she understood what the books had spoken of when they talked about untamable desire and a want that became a physical ache.
She wanted him. Was probably in love with him.
Damn, she was a fool.
Standing up, she left the room to get her winter outerwear. Tonight she would tell Alucard that she could set him free. By chance – or fate? – their opportunity was only a few days away on the Day of Longest Night. Soon he could be free to go and never worry about those who would lock him away.
Soon, he would leave and she would lose what she wanted most.
"Damn."
Curse on her lips, she headed out the door and off to confront Alucard with his future.