The Seldom Seen
AN: I'm back! Sorta. Am sick again. Boo. But I'm working on a lot of goodies to post in the future even if they don't update right away. Sorry about the delay in WCHB, muse is being picky. This little one shot actually went a lot differently in my head, but oh well, I think it works well enough. There's a surprise for you guys at the bottom!
31: Target Practice
Seras Victoria woke drowsily, rubbing at her eyes blearily as she sat up, blinking to take in her surroundings. This…wasn't her room. "What?"
"Good, you're awake. It's time for some target practice." The dulcet tones of her Master's voice slipped into her ears like honey, and she fought back a shiver. Movement out of the corner of her eye made her react instinctively, and she grunted, nearly toppling under the weight of her cannon being thrown at her.
She blinked.
Her eyes widened as her sleep addled brain finally registered his words and she scrambled to her feet – noting with some relief that she wore her usual golden Hellsing uniform, though she distinctly remembered changing into her pjs before bed – swinging the Harkonnen up with ease onto her shoulder and turning in a quick circle to survey the room cautiously.
"Master?" She questioned, blue eyes flickering constantly from side to side, up and down, never staying in the same spot for long. Come to think of it… where was she? She didn't recognize the stone chamber, but it reminded her of the sub basement levels.
"Police Girl." His voice answered, echoing off the walls. She felt a strange tickle up the back of her neck, and pivoted on her heel to face a pair of rust red eyes peering at her from the wall. His smile appeared, like the Cheshire Cat, before it faded and the eyes vanished. "Your first task is to find me."
The red eyes appeared again and spread out like a swarm of ants, covering the walls and ceiling, and even a few on the floor. Seras bit back the urge to shriek as she was surrounded by burning ginger, some the size of footballs that bizarrely brought to mind the tale of cyclopses. This was really freaky!
Her eyes darted to all the different eyes, looking for some hint that one pair was specific to her Sire. She heard his chuckle, and disturbingly, all the eyes jiggled up and down with his mirth. Ugh. Taking a wild chance, she fired the cannon at a set near the ceiling, but they merely popped like balloons and the explosion made the room shudder.
"Tsk tsk, you can do better than that. Concentrate." He admonished, and she could swear she felt his breath on the back of her neck, but when she whirled around there was nothing there. Gritting her teeth, she tried closing her eyes for a moment to brush tentatively at the wall with her vampiric senses. She still wasn't that good at using these strange powers, being such a new undead, but she was learning.
That strange tickle raced up her spine and she turned – blindly – and fired. She heard him grunt in surprise as he appeared from the wall, and she felt a sick thrill rush through her when she noticed half his arm was missing.
"Very good."
Her nostrils flared and her pupils dilated as the scent of his blood trickled into her senses. He smirked and melted into the floor, his words no longer echoing about the room but inside her head. 'Can you find me, Police Girl? Make sure to aim for the heart or the head.' He added in a mocking coo, a phantom caress trailing across her cheek.
She shuddered, and her fingers clenched convulsively on the trigger of her massive gun before she reloaded in swift easy motions. She could feel him in the walls, the floor, the ceiling… moving erratically with the occasional toss of rubble in her direction to tease her about her slow reaction time.
The smell of his blood flooded her being, drowning the world in red, yet enhancing it to the nth degree. She trembled.
The Harkonnen fell from nerveless fingers, and as the echo of it clattering to the stones reverberated in her skull, she lunged at the wall, landing in a gravity defying crouch as she slashed her hand into the stone, creating a massive divot it the grey rock. She missed.
Her pupils contracted to vertical slits as the blue darkened to the color of hot coals, her muscles tensing as her mind swept out with her senses to caress her surroundings. She lunged again, and shoved her arm through the wall with a crunch of protesting granite and a sickening squelch of parting flesh. Blood flowed down her arm, dripping off her elbow, and she laughed. Her more human self quaked and quivered as the vampire took sadistic glee in wounding her progenitor. She withdrew her hand from the gaping wound in the stones, and jumped in surprise as her Master's head tumbled through the opening to land on the floor, grinning sickly at her.
Oh god, she'd decapitated him!
(itfeltmarvelous)
The head was facing her (heh, get it?) and she saw it wink. His lips moved and his voice crept into her mental ears like a purr. 'Do you enjoy hurting me, Police Girl?'
She couldn't bring herself to answer.
(yesyesyesthebloodwasglorious )
His body phased out of the wall and bent down to pick up the missing portion of itself – she noticed his arm was back – and set it back on his shoulders, the neck reattaching seamlessly.
"Well, that was fun, hmm?"
Just as she was about to retort something rather childish, she heard a series of thuds on the ceiling and Sir Integra's voice shouted down at them quite crossly. "Enough! If your training your fledgling rocks this manor one more time I will stake you both out in the sun! No more firing explosives inside, do you hear me Alucard?"
The vampires gazed up at the stonework above with identical expressions of amusement, though Seras' quickly changed when she saw her Master looking. She wanted to huff and cross her arms over her chest, but her arm was still coated in blood – his blood.
"Are we done, then, Master?"
"For now, Police Girl."
AN: As promised! The surprise. VanquishedLithium (my imaginary friend) and I are slowly working on a co-op piece. It won't be posted until it's 100% done, but here's a snippet for your torm-...enjoyment! Comments on both the TSS and collab snippet are welcome. :]
"Police Girl, put Alucard on the phone." Sir Integra's voice floated up from the ear piece, and the blonde half turned, looking over her shoulder at the bat on her ceiling. Her brow arched silently, and as she watched, the wretched beast descended towards the floor, growing bigger with each flap of his membranous wings. He bared his teeth at her in a shark's grin as he extended his gloved hand towards her for the (hideously pink) cell phone. She rolled her right shoulder in a half shrug and handed the device over, dropping down into her chair to start her homework.
"Jealous, my Master?" Her Sire cooed into the phone, and Seras fought back the urge to snicker in response. She listened with half an ear as Integra spouted obscenities at the laughing man in her dorm room.
"Calm down, my Master." He interrupted when Seras could tell the woman had stopped to catch her breath, she had a faint worry that perhaps her Sire might drive the Hellsing to aneurism with how he loved to raise her blood pressure. "There is no need for me to be at Hellsing when there's nothing to do." He contnued in a lofty tone, sounding bored.
"BATS!" Seras heard that scream quite clearly, and the tip of her pencil snapped, she cursed and reached for a new one, cinnamon brown eyes (thanks to her contacts) dancing with badly concealed mirth. Oh, it wasn't funny, not really, but listening to Sir Integra berate the vampire tickled her pink.
"Bats would imply a plural." Alucard corrected mildly, also amused.
"And how does having a pet vampire bat help Victoria blend in?!" Integra hollered, and a smack sounded through the wires as the aged woman slapped her desk in aggrivation. Seras' rather joking worry was quickly losing its mirth, and she felt the ridiculous urge to portal over to the manor to ensure that Sir Integra took her blood pressure pillls and had a drink to calm her down.