Do not own! Not mine!
*For those of you who wonder, "Flora" mixed authentic history with the Hellsing universe for the backstory between Alucard and Radu. Its true, some of it is just true only in the Hellsing universe…or might be.
Al's POV:
"Work juice work juice work juice work juice…"
"Dude…that's creepy." one of the mercenaries that worked under Captain Evil-Braid muttered, looking at me uncomfortably over the rim of his beer bottle. I shot a sharp glance to my left. "SILENCE!" My gaze instantly swerved back to the coffee pot as I continued rocking in my seat. "Work juice work juice work juice work juice…" I crooned under my breath, tightening my grip on my legs as I curled up further in my seat. There was a ding as the magic machine finished and I instantly snatched the entire pot out of the cradle, clutching it like Gollum with the Ring as I slunk out of the break room. "Work juice work juice work juice…" I sniggered to myself, creeping into my room and slowly easing the door closed. After doing so I instantly straightened, placing the pot on my counter and collapsing into my creaky old swivel chair, covering a yawn with one hand. The six computers I had set up beeped and blinked, and I poured myself some of the liquid gold, lifting the mug marked "World's Best Hacker" to my lips and taking a long, contented sip.
Then my eyes widened.
The mug fell from my hands, shattering on the off-white counter.
I stared at the picture on the screen as the coffee burned its way down my throat.
Flora's POV:
"SWEET BLACK FUCKING SABBATH!"
I jumped as the shriek rose from the basement level, and Alucard instantly had me tucked in the safety of his duster, his fangs bared. Then I blinked. "That's Al's voice!" I said in surprise, and Alucard loosened his grip ever so slightly, letting my feet –which had been hovering a few scant inches above the plush hallway carpet– drop back down onto the burgundy surface. I quickly moved out of his "sphere" of protection, heading down to the computer room Al had commandeered as his own. Just as I reached the stone-paved hallway, the door flew open, so hard in fact that it banged against the opposite wall. Al staggered out, then grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me hard, his hazel brown eyes panicked. "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THE PERP YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IS MY OLD BOSS?!" he shrieked in my face, and my jaw dropped down with a click. "HE'S YOUR OLD BOSS?!" I shrieked back in surprise, and Al yelped as Alucard fisted the back of his shirt in one hand and literally lifted him off the ground, his crimson eyes glowing dangerously. "And exactly what are you doing to my mate?" he asked with the certain icy politeness that he had only when someone was inches from a very gruesome death as Al twisted to look in his eyes, then gulped hard. "I-"
As soon as he opened his mouth, Pip and some of his men burst into the hallway, guns outstretched. "Nobody move!"
Al wriggled furiously in Alucard's grip, looking like a toddler throwing a fit as he flailed his fists around. "WILL EVERYONE SHUT UP AND STOP THREATENING EACH OTHER WITH GUNS AND SHARP POINTY TEETH AND LOUD SCREAMING!" he roared, somehow managing to look imposing despite the fact Alucard was holding him three feet up in the air by his somewhat dirty white shirt and he was squirming like a landed fish in said vampire's grip. Alucard gave him a slightly surprised look, then slowly lowered him to the ground as Al inhaled deeply and dusted himself off, looking shaken, smoothing his hands over his tousled blonde hair to settle it. "In answer to everyone's questions, I have just found out the possible location of the vampire that killed Jay and is threatening Flora. He's CEO of a government enterprise that tracks and records all air, land, and sea traffic in and out of Britain. I used to work as an intern there before all this vampire crap started up. Hell of a boring job, but it has the added bonus of the fact that you can, if you wish, make sure nobody so much as sets foot outside of or into England without you knowing about it. My guess is that's why this Radu guy took a job there." he said rapidly, then snapped off a razor-sharp salute. "Sir!"
I sweatdropped slightly as Pip and some of his men chuckled. "Nice one kid." Al promptly lost his professional air and stuck his tongue out at them as I smiled sadly. He totally reminds me of a less severe version of Jay. I thought wistfully, then shook my head slightly. "So wait, you used to work for him?" Al looked glum, as well as slightly irritated. "Yeah. He saw me researching Jay and told me to "keep track of such a woman" with the most self-satisfied smirk I'd ever seen in my life-" He obviously did not like the subtle mockery that Radu had thrown his way. "-and after that, when I was going down to the parking garage, I'm pretty sure he was gonna try to kill me. I managed to turn on a flashlight in time, and he just brushed it off as my nerves. Then my three friends of the undead persuasion show up on my doorstep a few hours after I get home." he explained with a sour look, and his lips twitched up slightly. "I'm pretty sure I'm fired."
Even Alucard chuckled at that one, and I caught a large upswing in his mood, as well as a large dose of battle-lust. He was excited at the thought of killing his brother…which made sense, given the history between them. Jay and I had taken a Europe history class a few years back, and I had taken a certain fascination with the Romanian 1400s, specifically that of Vlad Dracul…and his two brothers. Vlad had been born in the middle of three brothers, the elder being Mircea and the younger being Radu. His father had sent him and his younger brother, Radu, to the sultan of the Ottoman Empire as a kind of "hostage/tribute" to prove his loyalty (as well as ensure it). He had kept Mircea in Wallachia, as he was not a (truly) legitimate heir. During Vlad and Radu's stay in the Sultan's court, their father and their brother were captured by Hungarian rebels and killed. His father, Vlad II, was killed in a swamp, and his elder brother was blinded and buried alive.
Vlad was rumored to have hated his father, and he certainly hated the Turks. He was, after all, a small boy (he was only about eleven years old when he was sent to the Ottomans) in a foreign country where everyone disliked him and his younger brother. There were a bunch of nasty rumors about what the Sultan did to his guests/captives, and a lot of them made me green and Jay scowl…which took a lot. Sodomy, among other things. Vlad, unfortunately, lost the only ally and support he had thousands of miles from his homeland when his brother turned to the religion and people that he hated so much after their father's death.
Radu converted to Islam and became a court favorite, and personal friend of the Sultan's son.
This sparked a long and bitter rivalry between them for the throne of Wallachia, although Radu (supposedly, although history was obviously wrong in this respect) died before his brother, in 1475. So, coming back to the present, I could understand perfectly why Alucard hated him so very much, and why Radu was so very desperate to take me away from him. I made Alucard happy, and, apparently, the hatred was mutual. Radu did not want Alucard to be happy. At all. Ever. If he wasn't preoccupied somehow, I had no doubt that he would be right here right now, trying to kill him. Or maybe he wasn't as strong as Alucard.
I wasn't much of a praying person, but I was praying now that it was so.
Please let him not be as strong as Alucard.
Please.
Please.
Integra's POV:
I stared at the young man as he swallowed hard, looking anxious. "Are you saying you know where the vampire who attacked Rome is?" He sucked in a deep breath, closing his hazel brown eyes, then opened them and straightened. "Possibly. He is the CEO of BSLSA, Border Surveillance of Land, Sea, and Air. He's supposed to just monitor traffic, stop illegal shipments, so on and so forth, but I'd be willing to bet that he's done more than just a little abuse of his position in the favor of attacking you guys." he said briskly, then bit his lower lip. "I used to be an intern at his company, but once he discovered I had connections to Jay and Flora, he obviously decided I was no longer his employee." Maxwell scowled slightly from the video screen to my right. "So what you're saying is, he's probably been tipped off to our pursuit of him by your research on your deceased friend?" he said, making the question sound like something of an accusation. Al flushed slightly. "Well…yeah. I mean, yes sir! He sent some vampiric goons to silence me, and he probably kept tabs on the fact that Hellsing showed up soon after. In all honesty, he's probably long gone by now." he said dejectedly.
I hid a smirk. "Not quite, Mr. Curtis. The CEO of an important company, even if he is a vampire, cannot just vanish into thin air without raising a good deal more suspicion that he is willing or possibly prepared to deal with. After all, we don't know how much of the vampires under his command he sent out against us in Italy. He could've lost a vast amount of his forces there; we exterminated every last one. Or we could've possibly just made a minuscule dent in his army. We don't know which, although I suspect it is the former. In either case, he cannot cut ties with his company and expect to vanish off the face of the earth without preparation and time. He will have to make excuses, invent a story, as well as make sure everything is, for lack of a better word, tied-up before he leaves. It will raise a great amount of suspicion if he doesn't. No, Mr. Curtis, he isn't out of our reach yet."