Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Amoare ab Hostis ❯ Chapter 14 ( Chapter 14 )

~~Three Years Later~~

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Walter tugged his arm out of his armed escort's grip for the third time as he made his way down the dimly lit stone hallway deep beneath the Hellsing manor proper. He passed by numerous dark rooms, each of them with a lonely, abandoned feel to them, as though they hadn't seen use in some time. They took a sharp right turn suddenly and Walter forced his mind to focus on the task at hand, no matter how much it might like to wander rather than dwell on what lay ahead. He remembered Arthur's words...

"You have one hour."

He hadn't needed to ask what the sixty minutes he'd been allotted were for, and Arthur had simlilarly not felt the need to explain furthur. Now, walking through the deserted, musty halls of the Hellsing dungeons, Walter's heart pounded out a fast rhythm in his throat. He thought he knew why Arthur was suddenly allowing this short visitation.

Alucard was strong, but in the end he was and would always be a vampire. Vampires needed blood to fuel their unnatural corpse-like bodies, and without it they began to decay like any other dead body. Even a master vampire could only go so long without feeding; a few decades, at the most. Alucard had been imprisoned for eighteen years.

Walter was meant to say his goodbyes.

Well, fuck that.

The now thirty-six-year-old long-haired brunette allowed himself a small, victorious smile and ducked his head lest his escort see it. They'd checked him for weapons, but they'd forgotten one very important thing. Something so easy to overlook, especially given his occupation as a manservant. His gloves. He would buy Alucard another twenty years, at least.

Stopping in front of a large, iron door with naught but a small, barred window opening out into the hallway they stood in, Walter took a long, calming breath. He noticed the glyphs painted over the door, added protection. His mouth twisted wryly. He doubted they'd do much good, should Alucard really want something on the outside.

One of the soldiers stepped forward with a ring of keys, his hands shaking so badly that they clanked together loudly.

'Wakey, wakey, vampire...' Walter thought with a smirk. The soldier next to him caught it and grabbed his arm in a painful grip again, tugging Walter sharply towards the door.

"One hour," he said in what he probably thought was a commanding voice.

"Oh, you can count," Walter intoned. "Shocking."

Walter was unceremoniously propelled into the cell and landed ungracefully on cold, hard concrete. Rising to his hands and knees on the dusty stone floor, he stayed that way for some seconds, wanting to look up and fearful at what he would find if he did. With another calming breath he drew himself up and sat back on his heels, raising his eyes to peer through the darkness towards the back of the cell. He'd expected to see red eyes glowing back at him from out of the shadows. Instead he saw a dried, pruned coprse leering at him through empty sockets and peeled back, flaking lips.

Feeling a fresh surge of searing anger at Arthur, Walter stood and walked the short dozen steps over to the wasted body of his once great friend. He began to reach for the bonds that held Alucard's arms back at what looked to be an extremely painful angle, but decided against it. Perhaps it was best to have the vampire restrained for the first part of this task...

Avoiding looking at Alucard as much as possible, Walter rolled up the sleeve of his right cuff. Looping a single wire around one finger he drew it slowly over his right fist and pulled it taut around his wrist. Careful not to lop off his entire hand, he applied just the right amount of pressure to tighten the wire and snicked a thin red line across the web of blue veins on the inside of his wrist. Refusing to rush and perhaps nick a finger off in the process, he eased the wire off of his hand and knelt down beside the lifeless body of his friend and former lover.

His heart in his throat and his stomach twisting unpleasantly, Walter slowly raised his steadily bleeding wrist and tipped it up to meet dry, cracked lips, letting a trickle of blood slip inside of the vampire's gaping mouth. At first there was no reaction, and Walter fought a sob that rose unbidden in his chest as he thought that Arthur had deliberately waited until it was too late, knowing what Walter would attempt to do and giving him this false hope as some cruel joke.

Fighting tears and calling himself every kind of a fool for having to fight them in the first place, Walter began to draw away and cried out as the tender flesh of his wrist was caught by two sharp canines. He winced as they dug in even deeper, those dead lips clamping down around his torn flesh. The hard suction of Alucard's mouth as he pulled at his blood hurt, but Walter forced himself to ignore it as he watched in morbid fascination the way the shrunken hollows of Alucard's cheekbones rose and sank with every swallow. He made a half-choked sound of disgust as a withered, leathery tongue probed at his wound and forced down the revulsion that wanted to rise up in him.

Soon the dry, thin skin in Alucard's face began to plump and thicken as the blood vessels there filled with life once more. Wrinkles and flakes smoothed, sharp, jutting bones were hidden from view, and Walter let loose a breathy laugh as he looked upon the profile of his friend again. He began to feel vaguely lightheaded and knew he'd have to put and end to this soon, unless he wished to become a ghoul. His breath came fast and short, and he panted as he watched Alucard's now soft lips encase his wrist again and again as he shifted his bite on Walter's veins. The vampire was moaning deliriously, obscenely enjoying his first meal in nearly twenty years. Walter tried to tug his wrist away and was answered with a warning growl. He felt something long forgotten and carnal in him jump in response to that lusty sound and pushed it away. The danger was too real at this point to be thinking with his cock.

Gripping his forearm with his free hand, Walter braced a leg against the wall before heaving back with all of his weight. He fell awkwardly onto his side and Alucard roared as his wrist came free. Walter cried out in pain, the newly torn flesh of his wrist singing in agony. He listened, his eyes tightly closed as he cradled the damaged side of his arm against his chest, as Alucard twisted and struggled in his bonds, wild with bloodlust. Real fear echoed inside of him as he lay there, hearing the animalistic sounds the vampire made not four feet away. When the sounds of struggle began to subside he slowly sat up, his calves tucked under him and his arm still pressed tightly to his shirtfront. Red eyes glinted, still slightly wild and unfocused, before they met his and seemed to clear, recognizing the man in front of them.

"...Walter?" Alucard's voice was rusty with disuse.

Walter sighed in relief. It had been risky, what he'd done. He had half expected not to live through the full hour. "We only have fourty-five minutes left."

There was a long pause, and then Alucard burst out laughing. Walter chuckled along with him and scooted across the gritty stone floor to sit against the wall, his side tucked into Alucard's. Long strands of hair tickled his cheek and Walter reached up to brush them away but trailed them through his fingers instead. "White," he observed, raising a lock to wave in front of Alucard's face.

"Yes," he said. "It happened around...the fifth year? How long have I been in here?"

"Eighteen," Walter told him, resting his head on the vampire's shoulder. Reaching behind him he began to undo his bonds.

"Eighteen years..." Alucard murmured. He pulled his arms around slowly, rotating his shoulders in their sockets and groaning. Walter winced in sympathy. "What's this?" He asked, tweaking Walter's monocle.

Walter reached up protectively, sweeping it from Alucard's grasp and shining it on his shirtsleeves. "I had an accident with some chemicals. They left me partially blind in one eye."

"Chemicals?" Alucard asked, readjusting Walter in his arms so that he lay across his chest, allowing the vampire to see his face as they spoke.

"Yes," Walter grimaced, looking away. "They made me a butler."

Alucard frowned. He'd known, of course. Rupert had told him before locking him away, not even allowing him the happiness of knowing that Walter thrived on the outside. But nearly twenty years had put it from his mind, the idleness of the cell driving him slowly mad.

"So," Alucard said, a hint of his old slyness creeping into his voice. "That's where you acquired the accent."

Walter elbowed him in the ribs. "Shut it."

They laughed, curled together on the dungeon floor, and spoke of the things that had occured in the vampire's absence. Of Rupert's death, and Arthur's position as heir making him the new Sir Hellsing. Alucard's face flickered slightly at this news, and Walter knew that he'd worked out that his former friend was the reason for his remaining imprisoned. He offered silent comfort, lacing his fingers with his.

"Arthur's getting married." Walter told him.

"Oh?" Alucard asked blandly, hiding any hint of other emotion at the prolonged dicussion of the man who'd betrayed him.

"She's beautiful," Walter said, looking at their joined hands and playing idley with the vampire's fingers. "She looks like winter embodied. Long blonde hair, pale skin and ice blue eyes. When she walks down a corridor everyone forgets to breathe..."

"You sound enamored." Alucard grinned.

"So what if I am?" Walter retorted, jutting out his chin in playful defiance.

Alucard answered by ducking his head and pulling Walter semi-upright in his arms, bringing their lips together. Walter whimpered pathetically at the long-denied contact and the kiss grew deeper and faster than either of them had expected. The brunette shifted in the vampire's lap, straddling his hips and pressing him back against the cold stone behind him. Alucard tickled his long-fingered hands up and down Walter's arms, before sliding his own around him squeezing his narrow waist in a way that was both desirous and mournful. Both of them knew that this couldn't go much farther, but neither doubted how much the other wanted it to, or how much it would destroy them both.

"One minute!" Came the call from outside.

Walter pulled away and immediately burrowed his face in Alucard's neck, hiding what he was sure was a dead giveaway look on his face as to his feelings.

"You have to go," the vampire murmured, stroking a hair down Walter's back and smoothing his long ponytail.

Walter nodded against his shoulder but didn't move, and Alucard laughed and hugged him tighter. They knew, both of them, that this opportunity wouldn't come again. Through old age or death, fate would rob them of their passion for one another. Turning his head, Walter pressed a fierce kiss to the vampire's lips. When he pulled away a hint of the rougish grin of his youth graced his mouth. "I'll see you soon," he whispered, knowing it was a lie.

"Now!" The soldier outside the door ordered impatiently.

Walter rolled his eyes and Alucard chuckled. He made quick work of refastening the vampire's manacles and gave him an apologetic look at his grimace of pain. With one last lingering caress, Walter stood and walked to the door, and paused.

"Soon," he repeated, before walking out the door and letting it clang shut with a heavy metallic bang after him, leaving Alucard alone again with only a few slanting bars of light and his taste lingering on his tongue.

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