Sanctuary to the Lost and Damned

Ch 8: Bad Blood


Three Months Later...

The vampire hung his head over a bucket in the corner of his room. All of the blood that he had ingested only hours before had come up.

He sat back down on the cold floor if the floor. He cursed Abrahan as he did so. His body seemed to have been rejecting the blood it was given. He could attribute it to only one thing. The blood that he was being given was bad.

The vampire inwardly cursed. If only he had access to fresh blood this would not be happening.

The bad blood was causing him to vomit, he reasoned and that in turn was causing him to be weak. Yes Alucard had been sleeping, sometimes almost through the nights.

One more than one occasion Abrahan had sent some one to his room to retrieve the creature of the night; Alucard had only growled at them and told them to leave.

Alucard was not a vampire that could easily be frightened, but he could swear at times particularly in the middle of the day when he was drifting off to sleep, that he could hear a human's heart beating. This was particularly odd because he knew that he was far from any human.

Another thing which was starting to concern the Vampire was the distention of his abdomen. He believed that it might have been caused by some infection, perhaps introduced to his body through the experiments that Abraham had conducted throughout the years.

His mind had went back and forth on whether to tell the doctor about it an have the man examine him.

He decided that if the problem was the blood then he would need to get his from a different source. He had always held a preference for human blood, but he knew that it was forbidden to him now. There was numerous barn animals on the property which would do. But he knew that Abraham would punish him for drinking blood that was not given to him.

He decided that the cattle in the barn would do for that. He waited until all of the humans had gone to bed before creeping, equipped with some local analgesics (painkillers) stolen from the medicine supplies, into the building where the cattle were kept. The last thing that he needed was the cow making a commotion and alerting Abraham of his actions.

Alucard heard the sound of feet approaching. He hide behind a few bails of straw. The barn door opened. There were two women, the one was younger than the other. They were chatting as they walked holding candles, toward on of the cattle which was separate from the rest.

"Here she is Mary." The one pointed to the heifer.

"Is she really pregnant?" Mary asked.

"I knew that it is hard to see in this light, but she is much larger than the others. She is expecting very soon."

"So that is why, we need to check on her so often?" The older woman nodded.

"I heard that Abigale is pregnant again? Is that true?" Mary asked the older woman.

"Seems like it."

"Then she has seen the doctor already?"

The older woman laughed. "I've had five children and let me tell you that I never once needed some man from any medical school to tell me that I was pregnant. Mary, Abigale has all of the signs. She has been vomiting, headaches, cravings, then there are those foods that she can't stand the smell of anymore. And the poor dear is so tired. Abigale sleeps more in the day then does the cat. It won't be long till she's showing."

Alucard, who was still behind the bails, was starting to grow annoyed by the women and wondered when they would leave him to his meal.

"Poor Abigale."

"Oh it isn't something that will last throughout the entire pregnancy." The older woman laughed. "Oh, Mary, you will understand these things when you are pregnant." The older woman then put her hands on the belly of the heifer.

"What are you doing?"

"I' m feeling for movement in her womb. When they get strong it means that she is preparing to give birth." She turned to Mary. "Put your hands here." Mary did as she was told. "This is what it should feel like." The older woman informed Mary. "You need to keep an eye on her and let Dr. Valentino know when it starts." The younger woman nodded. "Well I'm off to get some sleep."

"It it okay, if I stay here just a while longer with her."

"I don't see why not."

Alucard watched as the older woman left. His annoyance was growing by the minute as the young woman continued to sit there. She just sat there for what must have been three hours, all the while Alucard mentally cursed at her. 'Why won't she leave?' he thought, many times over.

Alucard was starting to get concerned as the sun would soon be up and then he would be forced to leave without his meal; a meal that he hoped would make him feel better.

Alucard had an idea. He stepped out quietly from the bails. He cleared his throat.

This caught Mary's attention. "Oh, I did not see you there."

"I have just finished the nightly rounds. I did not expect to see anyone here." He gave her a closed lip smile, "Tell me what a pretty woman like yourself is doing out so late?"

"I'm...who are you?"

"My apologizes. I work for Sir Abraham Hellsing."

"Are you a guard?"

"It is my duty to protect, Miss. I only work at night, but if you don't get to bed soon, we will both miss the beautiful morning."

"Oh, right, I guess that I have been here for a while now."

"Do you need someone to escort you back?"he offered. He was willing to take her to her home to ensure that she was truly away.

"No, I think that I will be fine, but could you watch her." Mary pointed at the pregnant heifer.

"I will." Alucard agreed. When he was sure that the woman was gone, he gathered some blood from the cow three stalls down from 'Mary's pregnant heifer'.

Alucard held his head over the same bucket in the corner of his room. "Damn!" his yell echoed throughout the lover levels of the Hellsing Mansion.

'Alucard' He heard the telepathic summing from Abraham Hellsing.

Abraham sat at his desk. "You called, master." Alucard said as he moved through the ceiling and landed on the floor. This did not shock Abraham as he had grown used to Alucard's antics. However the man in a military uniform, who was standing in front of the desk was terrified.

"There you are Alucard, We have been waiting." Hellsing said emotionless.

The soldier said nothing, but his face still was distorted with fear. This could be forgiven as he had not been expecting someone to phase through the ceiling.

"This is Captain Maury, Alucard. You will be working with his team to investigate a report of a vampire in Romania. "

Alucard's eyes lit up. He had been on missions, but had never that close to his home land. Since 'The Great War' had ended Transylvania had now become part of Romania.(1)

"People in a small village there, have reported a woman, who apparently died of an unknown cause, has been seen wondering the village late at night. It may be nothing, but I promised the mayor, over the telephone, that I would send my best people."


The organization's solder's first took a train and then road on some very noisy automobiles.

Alucard however spent most of his time in the between the luggage compartment and in the sleeping area of the train.

It was the evening when the group finally arrive at there destination.

Upon seeing Alucard for the first time many of the men were scared while others were just curious.

Since the town was not known for having tourists the place did not have a motel. So the solders set up there tents and worked to start a fire.

Much to the annoyance of many solders Alucard stood bent over, by a grouping of trees. The solders very much desired to say something to make him help them out, but no one dared say anything. The reason being that word had gotten around about the nature of Alucard's being.

"Hey." one of the braver ones called. "Are you gonna help me with this fire."

"No, I think not." said Alucard still feeling nauseated.

"Well then, I think your gonna be hungry tonight."

'I'm already Hungry' the vampire thought as he recalled all of the blood which had been in him only minutes ago. The Vampire's only reply to that was his rebuttal about liking his meals raw. The words had drawn the attention of many solders who had started whispering more.

The vampire wondered off into the woods away from the encampment. He stared up at the moon which was appearing as her brother, the sun was departing.

He bent over as a wave of nausea hit him again. 'why is this still happening?' he wondered. Alucard had stored enough cow's blood and brought it with him to remove his dependency on the blood that Abraham was provided. At the beginning, he had concluded that the pig's blood was bad. Whether it was done with purpose to make the vampire weak or not, was a matter the vampire was still speculating. That was not the only matter the vampire held concern with. The infection in his abdomen seemed to be growing as the inflammation was becoming more pronounced.

His hand pressed to his abdomen. It had started to trouble him more and more. Since he had decide to not tell Abraham about his medical troubles, he had launched a secret investigation into the problem. This had led him to the conclusion had he might not have an infection, but rather the possibility that he had developed some sort of cancer in his gut. It was the only thing which seemed to fit. The mass was hard. It was growing and based on the amount of blood it was draining from him he surmised that it must have devolved it's own blood supply. He had thought it over and had found that it was more probable than the infection issue.

He came out into in the woods many night, looking for signs of supernatural activity, but he never found any.

He stayed in his tent during the day most of the night as well.

One night as the Soldiers were eating dinner He sat with them. He soon considered this a bad idea as his hunger, was bringing his eyes to the arteries of the soldiers' necks. He could hear the blood moving through their veins as they sat. Much to his confusion he also found himself drawn to what was on their plates as well. Being that hungry he had expect to be looking at them in that manner, but the part with the food was something that had thrown him off guard.

"Did you want some?" Asked one of the soldiers; upon seeing his attention to the food on the soldiers' plates.

Alucard wished that he could tell the man that he did not eat food. But he accepted some corned beef and a bun. Much to his surprise and to the soldiers as well, the vampire started to eat the food.


One night he decided to join the men for a hunt. Though he knew that they were all wasting their time there. The men were all eying him around the campfire.

"Hey", a man with dark hair who Alucard thought was named David Winfield, called out to him. "I heard that ya a Vampire." The man laughed.

Alucard ignored him. He was feeling stronger than most days. But he still was not allowed to attack a human being, especially one on the team. He knew that Abraham would slice him up inside if he did. His master had done things like that before.

Maury appeared from his tent. "Alright men. We may finally have a solid lead about the vampire at last." The captain waited for the men to gather in a straight-line. Alucard stayed where he was. "We have a report of the vampire being in the cemetery for the last two night."

Alucard snored. He knew that there was no supernatural being anywhere near the small village. He had been to the cemetery for many nights. He wasn't truly there for any sort of investigation, but rather it was the best place to see the Carpathian mountains, of which he had not seen this close for a long while.

"Do you have something to add, Alucard?" Maury asked.

"There is no supernatural activity there." He told them.

"That may be the case, but we will check thing out there."

As Alucard made to leave for the cemetery, when he heard a voice call out to him.

"Hey Mr. Vampire." it was Winfield. He waltzed forward toward the vampire. "Hey I heard that a vampire can't have sex, because they have nothing below the belt. " The man laughed. "How about we take a look-see?."

"You heard wrong." Alucard did not look at the men as he checked his ammunition.

"So you admit what you are?"

Alucard ignored him.

"Do you know what bugs me Vampire? You walk around here in our uniform. A demon walks around in a uniform meant for true followers of God. Tell me is this your way of mocking us?"

Alucard sneered at this comment. "If given the choice I would prefer to wear my own attire, having said that it is reasonable to assume that this is Hellsing mocking God, not I."

"You blood sucker." Winfield's eyes narrowed. The man walked over to the tents and pulled a wooden peg holding down a tarp. "How about I stick this in ya, and see how well the devil receives ya."

The vampire and soldier stood there for a minute with their eyes locked. Many other solders were also watching the drama unfold.

"Alright men, " Came a voice nearby , "Let's get a move on."

Winfield glared at Alucard as he passed by him.


The group surrounded the cemetery forming a net. The plan was simple they would close the net and trap supernatural creature. Alucard laughed. It was a faulty plan. He knew that there were no supernatural creature here. But even if there was, if the creature was anything like him it could escape by fog or changing it's shape into something such as an animal or a grouping of bats.

The night was as much a failure as the previous ones.

Alucard leaned on a tombstone, feeling very tired. He heard the crumple of grass behind him.


He left his tent during the day only once; to vomit. His bent over form was not missed, from the view of a certain soldier.

"What do you want?" He asked the man.

Before Alucard knew it several hands had pulled him and were now holding him down.

"What are you doing?" He demanded.

Winfield put his hands to Alucard's pale skin.

"Well I was talking with the guys and well all thought that you could use a tan." Alucard hissed as the men moved him into the sun.

"Let me go!" Alucard demanded.

"Or what? Are you going to bite me, tear me to shreds? I heard it from a reliable source that you can't do anything to me." Winfield smiles smugly.

The men waited, Apparently they were expecting Alucard to burn to a crisp. Alucard just thrashed around trying to get away from the sun which he abhorred.

"Nothing is happening, David." One of the men said very worried. "You said that he was a vampire."

"He is." Winfield countered.

"Then why isn't he burning? David! Tell us why he isn't burning."

Winfield said nothing.

From the corner of Alucard's eyes he saw one of the men run off. "Hey where do you think that you are going."Winfield. called after him.

Several minutes the same man returned with Maury at his side. "What do you think that you are doing?" Maury yelled at Winfield.

The man who had run off, returned in a moment and started to untie him. Alucard glared at the soldier who was not following Winfield. "Sorry, Mr. Alucard," the soldier said "But he sort of made us do it."

After receiving an apology from Maury and a forced one from Winfield. He returned to bed.


Two evenings later, Alucard approached Winfield with an offer to settle their differences. The two of them went to the graveyard. "You wanted to show me something?"

Alucard pointed to a group of new of tombstones. "Last night I heard movement over there."

Winfield approached the area. "This grave is empty." The man looked down at the 7 foot rectangular hole in the ground.

Alucard smiled as he slowly drew closer to Winfield. With one shift kick the 5foot 8inch soldier was in the deep pit.

"You bastard!" Winfield growled.

Alucard laughed. "I have grown used to hunting with humans. I don't mind the other's but you are quite the rodent: Chewing up everything."

"Help me out of here, now."

"You know, Mr. Winfield, for someone who hears so much, one would think that you would learn to shut up as well."

Alucard laughed. To Winfield's horror, from Alucard's right shoulder emerged a fearsome dog with many large red eyes.

Moments later Hundreds of red eyes appeared all over Alucard entire body. "No I think not. You were right about one thing I can not kill you, but now I can say that I have put you in a grave once."

Winfield heard Alucard laugh again. "Tell me mortal, how is the view. It won't be long now before this is a permanent resident for you." Winfield's knees went weak and he crumbled to the ground. Seconds later Alucard smelt the scent of human urine. Alucard grinned as he walked over to the crypt. The hell hound and all of the eyes disappeared.

He unlocked it. He disappeared inside then reappeared outside pulling out with him a woman who was bound. "Now miss, grave robber, shall I escort you to you cell."

Alucard would write in his report that a woman by the name of Alina Bochinsky, who resembled a woman from the village who had died, had been masquerading as a vampire so that she could rob newly buried bodies for valuables, without being disturbed by the frightened locals.

Alucard hoped that his success, in capturing the fraud, would help him to gain favor with his recent request to work alone, independent of the human unit.


END of Ch 8


AN:

(1) – 'The Great War' refers to WWI.


Preview of the next chapter: Parasite?

Alucard jumped up and started to look for the insect that was crawling on him before realizing to his horror, where the movement was coming from.

It was coming from inside his abdomen.


&

&