Several centuries ago...
"I can't...harm...my own people..." the man, with a pale face, and long black hair, was doubled over and crouching as if from some inner pain, his hands clutch over his stomach.
But you must feeeeeeeeeed... some voice said, whispering from all the dark corners of the simple stone cathedral, it's tongue slithering over cold nightwind-blow cobblestone and over the rough grit of the floor. It's breath was a light mist that flowed from cracks and over the corners of the wooden benches for human worshippers. The figure of God, crucified in loin cloth and immortalised in his metal representation did nothing to deter this dark force that crept within the confines of the supposed holy sanctum.
That figure, did nothing, did not give comfort nor solace to the suffering shadow of a man kneeling before him.
You must feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed..." breathed the voice so softly, so gently, crawling with thin fingers into the crevices of the man's ears.
What purpose, other than to serve their prince, were they saaaaaaved for? cooed this little voice that tormented the man.
The man wanted to say, he saved them so that they could live in peace, live without fear, of anyone anymore.
They live in fear of you, my priiiiiincccccccce... jeered the tiny voice, that in its whispered form still thundered in volume within the man's troubled mind. The cathedral was otherwise silent. The man had not the strength to say what he wanted to say.
Feeeeeeeeeed...a man a day, well, you saved far more in yesterday's fight... continued the voice, its tone so persuasive, and...kindly.
"...now...damn you Devil...I only agreed...I only agreed..." the man, his anger rising, managed to find his voice.
The voice was silent, but the man could hear far off laughter. The man, his unnatural red eyes flashing, glared at the surrounding darkness, where faces made of mist sometimes formed and smiled and laughed for moments before bursting apart again. He struggled against his pain, his hunger, as he croaked, "I only agreed to take this curse...to help my people! I will not...I will not be, like another scourge upon them like the Turks!" he snarled, his sharp fangs in the moonlight filtering through the tinted window of the cathedral.
You won't be like the Turkssssss... slurred the voice once more, surrounding the man, gripping his shoulders with solid fingers of cold.
You are so much worssssssse...vampire... it laughed, its frozen talons pressed and dugged into the man's flesh, and he growled in anger and fury, but found himself too weak to disobey.
Feeeeeeed...leave this placccce...it's ssssso cold...not like blood sssso warm... the voice cooed into his ear, it now being a sure presence on the man's back, a cold deadweight, cold as death indeed.
And the man, the prince, felt himself losing control, he was already lost, he felt the blood call from the humble cottages just a few kilometres down the way of his castle, no, he felt the blood call, from all the corners of his nation.
Let the blood flooooooow...all over your kingdom... the devilling laughed, its harsh breath flowing down the prince's spine as the moon became blood red.
The man found himself losing to the demon hutched upon his shoulders, the lust in his fangs gripped him and ripped away what ever part of him was still human and humane. He felt himself rising to his knees, to go through village and cottage and house to hunt...
"Would you corrupt this man then, devil-kin," interceded another voice, but not filting, not ethereal as the devlling's. It was coupled with heavy steps and the prince looked up, his ears so sure that the person coming from out of the thin air it seemed, was as real as he.
The devilling hissed on the prince's back, its pupils rolling and glaring at the person before them. The prince was pushed down as the devilling leaned forward, so heavy that he could not even see the feet of this third entity.
Don't interrupt me, us, him, from our task, old one! hissed the devilling.
"Back. You...and they...and him...have no power over me," the man said slowly, surely, unhurried and unperturbed by the evil cries and whispers that came from all sides.
Yeeee! the devilling seemed to wail, all its claws and talons clawing at the prince's back, and him powerless to do anything beyond keeping silence, he did not need to breathe anymore afterall.
The darkness rushed, consumed the wooden benches, the stone walkway in between, the windows and walls of the cathedral, even the cross was unspared. The room was a horror, warped and distorted with devils and monsters, the cross became inhabited by mischievious demons and the eyes were given rolling pupils that peered at the third man, the figure of God's tongue wagging.
He is ours! all the evil things screeched in a single voice, dotted with a medley of growls and feral snarls.
"Bothersome things..." the man breathed and suddenly, the prince felt no more weight on his back, no more coldness that pressed him from all sides, no more sounds of nighttime horror.
Just the normal, innocent, emptiness of a building at night.
"I can take whatever I want from them..." the man mused to himself as the prince looked up in bewilderment at what manner of person, or creature, could dispelled the forces of the Devil with a single breath in a single moment.
But all he saw was a normal looking man, of no special dress, nor face, nor bearing. He was not in extravagant garb, nor was he in beggar's clothes, but simply having the look of a contented and fine man, though with tired eyes.
His eyes! The one point of strangeness in all his plainness! The prince, equipped with all his new senses and enhancements, could only find the one difference this other man before him had was gold eyes. They were not a yellow of sickness, but true gold that shone in the moonlight in a different way from his own somewhat luminous scarlet ones.
"Who...who are you?" the prince queried, his voice unrepressed now except from his own unnatural hunger.
"If you want a name, I can only give you something easy to remember, easy to call. I never needed a name," the man said, looking down at the kneeling prince nonchalantly.
"But if you wish to hail me, then you may call me Gonard, and only that,"
The prince could not really reply, for he did not know what to say. Who was this man, who could dispel demons, who saw him for what he was, a demon himself. A vampire, a feeder on others that were his own kin. This man no doubt knew, the prince could feel it. But noone must know, what would his people feel if they found out their lord was a damned creature? No, this man must die, and he must feed.
The prince grinned maliciously.
He had harboured his hunger for many days now, feeding only on the fallen blood of enemies in fields on the pretext of searching for his rightful 'spoils of victory'. He could satisfy his hunger, and keep his secret hidden if he killed this man.
Yes, that was what he would do, the prince thought, his eyes glinting in excitement as his supernatural strength was made ready for him to tear the common man before him apart.
"You would try to kill me then, I see," the man looked on in calm and expressionless nonchalance, his gold eyes looking directly at the prince's predatorial red ones, and the prince froze when he could not fight that gaze.
The man knelt before him at that moment, and held out his arm before the prince's arched fangs, his eyes never leaving those of the prince.
"You are a good man, with an honourable purpose but with a foolish heart, spirit, and only human" Gonard said almost sadly, his eyes still holding the prince in awe. But the prince could hear clearly, and his mind was still his own.
In fact, his mind was clearer than it had been for many nights. It was as if, that golden gaze was pushing back the devil's hold and leaving him with his own soul and mind again.
"I pity you, dealing with the devil. You are his pawn now, for while your undead life continues. That is forever, you will understand, until such is time to perish. But even that is a long time," the man continued, his voice growing sadder.
"So, I ask you if you would, decide this while you are your own. I think you would want to spend this everlasting quarter of your life free, won't you?"
"Of this curse?" the prince said hopefully.
"No," Gonard said steadily.
"But, you can expel those devils away even though they could enter and corrupt this holy place!"
"And you would think me so holy man? Some, herald of your God?" his voice tinged with anger, and his eyes glinted that slightly.
"Some building of rock and stone and gravel, with metal moulded in a mere shape, is it because of those things that you thought you could find protection here?"
"You can no longer face that God of yours and ask him for help. His supposed forgiveness? It is nothing more than tales in a book, as the devils are, tales of a book that is just popular because there are no other books around,"
"Man are foolish to give power to primitive things. Whether it be themselves or their creations it does not matter, both are too young to understand anything worth more than themselves, and that is everything," Gonard said lowly.
"Listen, Prince Vladislaus of Wallachia, you cannot be free of something of your own doing, and I have no obligation to help you if I could. I only give you this, freedom of the devil, that is all I can give. And perhaps if you wish help, I can give that, but only so far,"
"Freedom of the devil's influence, do you mean that?" the prince once more hopeful, forgetting the previous conversation for the rewards of this new one.
"Indeed, that would be exactly what I'm offering. You would be a vampire, you would need to feed. I can sate it for you today, but you must understand that you must still find other men, and feed as your body needs. It is all necessity, and you must accept it," Gonard said, he raised his arm higher, closer to the prince's hungry fangs.
"Take my blood now, and what will follow, will follow. Freedom comes at prices, mine is the best,"
The prince needed no more bidding. He lunged at the offered limb and sank his teeth deep into the flesh and muscle. He ripped and tore until the blood ran more freely and drank the rich blood as it were sweet nectar. It was to him, and though he felt he had drank far beyond what he should take, but Gonard made no complaint, and the blood never ceased...
"Best price indeed. Should have asked for the market list, shouldn't I Gonard?" mused Alucard as he remained paralysed as a black pool, staring upwards without really seeing.
"You had the most delicious blood though," he continued.
He wondered just how mad would Integral be to learn he failed in his mission...
"Integral, Sir!" saluted the officer, snapping to attention as Integral stepped out of her private Rolls.
"Is the situation stable?" she inquired as she shut the door behind her, straightening her dusty baige suit.
The question almost seemed redundant. The screech of police and fire sirens, the chattering collective of policemen, Hellsing operatives and anxious pedestrains. The whole block and those up and down the street were awake in the extremely hours of the next morn. No moon, red or pale, was available to shine down on the scene, its face covered unceremoniously by dark unseen clouds above.
But there was really no need; the orange, red and blue light of police cars and fire engines, the spotlights of late-sleeping newsgroups, the strobing flames of the smothering church...
Everything was clear enough.
She was led to the tent that housed what was supposed to be her best operative. It was flanked by guards more for keeping him in than keeping anyone out. She looked around at the mess behind her and frowned.
"Why is the media on the premises?" she asked the officer.
"This is a residential area, sir, we can only block out this part of the street, but the residents and civilians are free to talk to the press," explained the officer, steeping sideways as he pushed back the tent flap, careful to keep a foot of distance between him and the danger within.
"See to it you keep them quiet. Send a message back to headquarters immediately and get out team down here before this whole bloody mess is splashed cover to cover by daybreak!" she snapped irritably as she stepped into the tent.
The officer bowed quickly and dropped the flap the moment Integral was inside, and hastily scooted off to complete his orders.
"Cranky in the morning, aren't we, Master?" slurred Alucard.
The tent was unlit. Not surprising since Alucard was pratically covering the whole patch of ground in his ill-disposed form. Noone, in whatever state of mind, was going to risk standing in him just to install a lightbulb. The soldiers who had set up the tent as it was, were brave enough to have ventured this close to the vampire as it was.
The fabric was thick and heavy enough to keep out prying eyes, but the bright lights outside illuminated the inside of the tent in bright flashes, while the din outside still managed to permeat through. Integral briefly provided some light as she lit a cigar, but nothing more after. The inside of the tent was a surreal dark, and Integral would just about be swallowed by it save for the orange embers of her cigar and the tiny glint of her glasses.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Alucard," she almost growled.
She looked in no particular direction, it did not matter, he could hear her all the same. Darkness or vampire, she faced the same thing.
"Oh...where should I start first..." Alucard once more slurred almost in an amused tone.
"Start with your primary objective. Why do I have another destroyed church on my hands?" she demanded.
"A careless mistake on my part..."
"What," she punctuated, "mistake?"
"I fell asleep," Alucard replied simply.
Several bright, red-rimmmed eyes blinked and became clear in the dark, llying flat and expressionless on the ground where that formless that was Alucard lay somewhat hapless.
"You fell asleep!" Integral yelled angrily.
"Well, not exactly. But absolute boredom does lull you into a rather daze state, don't you think Master?"
Integral closed her eyes and started messaging her temples, a vain attempt to clear her throbbing migraine, a result of being woken up too late and too early, nausea of bright lights, and noisy sounds, and a general but deep dislike of incompetence.
"I did wake up, eventually, when the chuch was burning anyway, but at least I found the perpetrators," Alucard continued nonchalantly.
"And daren't I ask..." groaned Integral.
With Alucard in the state he was, it could only mean failure.
Failure was not a usual term you would use in the same sentence with Alucard. Despite her grudging hatred of all things dark and evil, she had to admit that Alucard was good at his job, the foremost thrump card of the Hellsing organization.
Integral was willing to bet that Alucard had a fully successful record when her father was at the reins of the organization. Figures hell was going to freeze over during her time.
"A most...interesting target, I must say," Alucard mused.
He was having mixed...opinions of the lackey of Gonard's. On one hand, Alucard was going to make him suffer, excessively, for the humiliation. On the another hand, he could prove a most worthy opponent, neight holy human or vampire of any sort he was aware of. He was far more interesting than Anderson for the matter.
Other than wanting to kill him, Alucard was admittedly rather curious of the lackey.
"For the love of God please do NOT start that discussion about dragons,"
"Actually, I have pretty much decided that that topic is well beyond your grasp,"
"Don't make me soak you up with a sponge and plunge you into holy water, Alucard. The thought is just too appealing,"
Alucard chuckled a little, some of his many eyes half closed in mirth.
"This whole isn't directly the old lizard's doing. Maybe he's lazy, or planning something bigger..."
"Quiet! I said I did not want to talk about fake mythical rubbish!" Integral yelled.
Alucard kept respectfully silent after the outburst. Lack of sleep, annoyance from lights and sounds, loss of another church, possible over consumption of tobacco, made his master a ticking time bomb of apocalyptic proportions. He could not take her earlier threat lightly.
For several moments, the blinking puddle and the very tired and exasperated woman with her fingers pressed at the sides of her forehead, were silent.
Finally, she sighed and dropped her giners. Her eyes were still closed with the folds of stress and fatigue showing, the embers glowed more intensely with the rush of air going through as Integral drew deeply on her cigar.
"I'm not going to spend what's left of my evening talking to a puddle," she began, her eyes opening to shoot a stern gaze.
She turned around and pushed back the tent flap, Alucard thought that his master was just leaving him, feeling indignant at just being left on the ground. Then again, he thought to himself, being a deadly puddle did have its diginities, when compared to being a deadly sponge...
But Integral did not leave the tent. She stood at the entrance, her form outlined by the discoteuqsih lights outside.
"Officer Hibbery, send for Alucard's coffin to be brought here immediately," she ordered the closest officer, before ending the stream of artificial lights as she let teh tent flap fall.
"Can you move, Alucard?" she asked.
In response, Alucard tried to get some control his formless form with considerable effort. The pain from the dragon poison had subsided, but it left Alucard with the funny feeling of loftiness when he relaxed, and a heaviness he was not used to when he tried to move.
However, move he did, in the most basic of definitions. Integral watched as the mass of eyes moved left to one end of the tent, then to the right.
"Good, that means I wouldn't have to get a dustpan to scoop you up as well," remarked Integral.
"I think that would have tested more than one's patience," Alucard commented as well.
Yet again, there was silence and stillness within the tent. Alucard found that though movement had returned, he was still unable to assume his usual form.
Master and monster were both left with nothing to say, and stayed in polite and wordless company as Integral's exasperation took a turn for the better.
She broke the wordless exchange.
"This situation has become out of hand," she started.
Alucard remained quiet and waited for her to continue.
"I was awoken to this mess by her majesty herself, Alucard," she said in a strained voice.
"She informed me that although it is now confirmed that, by me and you, that the church burnings are supernatural in nature, it is easily regarded as religious terrorism in the eyes of the public,"
Other religious groups, Muslims especially unfortunately, have been naturally targeted as possible felons, while several extremist groups have openly advocated the acts as their own,"
Integral's tone suddenly changed to obvious fury as she spat out the next words, "Not only do we have a potential civil crisis on our hands, but Rome have also claimed that there is danger to the Catholic faction in London,"
If Alucard actually had a mouth to do so, he would grinned, widely, as he realised the true source of Integral's anger.
"The Vatican has sent their operative, Alexander Anderson as an 'investigator' and 'personal protection' for their churches," she growled.
Alucard laughed in glee.
"That was quicky of them. Considering that we ourselves only got confirmation ourselves yesterday and today,"
"Meaning that the Vatican has already sent in Anderson for the last three or so days,"
"We don't know how much information they've been withholding. He might had had a romp through London for the last three weeks, which is more than I can say for myself,"
For the first time in the last 12 hours, Integral had the semblance of a smile on her face, "You should be very happy then. You are going on full alert and am hereby ordered to protect the last church in anyway necessary. You had better not fail again,"
"At least I know my target will be there," agreed Alucard, the glee clearly evident in his voice.
"Sir Integral?" querired a voice from beyond the tent flap.
"Celes Victoria," answered Integral as she lifted the tent flap.
Celes looked in curiously, Alucard's ebony black coffin perched on her left shoulder, much to the bewilderment of the crowd around.
"The soldiers couldn't figure out how to lift the coffin and transport it here fast enoguh, so I offered to being it instead," she explained.
"Heh, more like the soldiers were too scared to touch it," laughed Alucard.
"Master?" Celes looked around, her red eyes trying to locate the form of her master in the darkness, which shouldn't be a problem for vampire naturally, but she found nothing in the tent save for Integral.
"Lower, look lower, policegirl," he instructed.
"Down here, policegirl,"
Celes looked straight down at her feet. Alucard had advanced closer to the entrance, and part of his black form just brushed Celes' foot, a large eye looking back up at her.
Despite having seen her master dissolved into a pool of eyes before, it is kinda understandable for her initial shock.
"YARAARGH!"
"Don't drop that coffin on me!"
"Who do you think you are stomping policegirl! Not the eye! Not the eye!"
"...and I would have expected that Gonard would have had some perverted guy as his disciple!" yelled Tian angrily as he paced back and forth, waving his arms and his sword along with his right hand in wild gestures.
"He was just hungry, Tian," said Neysa calmly, her form unseen but her voice rang clearly.
They were in a cavern, somewhere unknown and unseen, total privacy for them. It went in deep, very deep. They stayed in a chamber further in from the entrance, but deeper in, downwards, their 'boss' took residence in the darkness, safe from any prying eyes and concealed within his own thoughts.
Tian huffed a little, but his anger was quick to abide. It was not any big deal, but he felt self-concious about being nearly bitten by the vampire, and a guy for that matter. It made him feel of a shiver.
'And the world will think me conservative.' he thought to himself, giving a snort of a derisive chuckle.
He walked over to a boulder in the cave, reached behind it for his own private luggage and shifted through the cloth sack. Finally, he found what he was looking for, and pulled it out of the sack. It was a Chinese wine gourd, with a tassel tied around its middle. He pulled the top off and drank deeply the rich white wine inside.
Sighing, he pulled himself up onto the boulder and leaned backwards, dropping the sword onto the ground as he relaxed.
"One thousand year old thing," he mused as he swirled the liquid about, watching the little bit of it he could see at the top swishing back and forth. Always full, that gourd, one thousand years and still good and full.
He tillted his head back for another deep gulp of it.
"Don't get too drunk," Neysa warned, her clopping reached the side of the boulder and Tian felt her looking up at him.
"I won't," he responded, and immediately capped it and spun it about playfully by its tassel.
"I've lived for two thousand years, but even I can't wait another millenium just to make a wine like this again," he laughed, "Millenium Chinese rice wine, gods what a name."
They were both quiet for a while, Tian was staring off into space with an expression of thought in his eyes. He didn't know what Neysa was doing, never even knew where she was for most of the time, but he could guess she was doing the same thing as him.
"Don't you think that Gonard has been...strange...lately?" Neysa asked.
Tian looked a bit surprised, Neysa was usually the one giving him answers, since she always took the orders from Gonard.
"I wouldn't know, seriously. But if it has anything to do with our mischief this last three days, I can only guess that Gonard wants to get down to more business since he's dug his way back to the surface,"
"All those years behind, we never, EVER, faced Alucard, only the servants he left behind. But now, Gonard has suddenly appeared above ground, and even ordered us to keep an eye on him so closely that he hasn't even left this new servant to her own devices yet. For all our long years in Europe, we have always only skirted at the bare brim of the vampire's awareness, keeping good distances both physically and in spirit. We've had never done as much mischief in the past as we have now. Don't you feel it is a bit strange?"
"Like I said, Neysa, you would know better than I. I'm an unwilling party in this whole thing ever since it started five centuries ago," he tapped his choker and said nothing more, "I wouldn't care about the dragon,"
Tian was right, Neysa herself needed no choker or collar to keep her in company. She was here, with Gonard, willingly, her loyalty was sincerely given unlike Tian's forced one. She could feel the difference in the dragon when she met with him, and it frightened her.
Gonard never resorted to gluttony, or such maliciousness before. She could sometimes barely see anything of him even in sufficient light. His scales had turned black some time during his centuries long residence in the earth, it masked the curves and lines of his body as light was literally swallowed into him. He was frightening, very frightening, even to Neysa.
But she was loyal, she would not question him, a part of her feared him but her heart was most filled with love and compassion for the old one, and she had to stay loyal no matter what.
Neysa let the subject pass, seeing her companion's disinterest, and began on a more immediate concern.
"About the new servant, what do you make of her?"
Tian paused in his twirling, and thought for a while. Then, he turned slowly around to face where he heard Neysa's voice last, and said sheepishly, "I don't know,"
"What?"
"I don't know, seriously, anything about her. I only managed to detect her, but not actually observe her or spot her as of yet,"
"We've been here for four days already! Haven't you found anything about her!"
"Um, nope," replied Tian.
He immediately felt a sharp poke from Neysa's horn and yelped.
"We want to finish this as fast as possible before the vampire tries to do anything, do you understand? We must maintain as much of our secrecy and concealment as possible in this venture,"
"He's already known about us,"
"Yes, but he doesn't know enough to stop us, and you must finish your job," stated Neysa sternly, poking him again.
Tian nodded submissively, but said with a tinge of disgust, "I think it'll be the same as before anyway. That demonic mushroom is an irresponsible idiot and all his servants have so far been sluts to say the least,"
"I do as you ask me to," he said as he flipped back over to the other side, lying comfortably down on the boulder, "I'm a demonhunting hound of Heaven, and I have to be true to my nature."
His eyes burned with bating fire as he continued, a little softly, "I wouldn't mind hurting her and him a little,"
"Don't worry Neysa, I'll carry out the order, just give me a few more days, and that servant of his will be 'judged' accordingly,"