Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Prelude to Eternity ❯ A boy with an insect ( Chapter 5 )

Alucard's lips turn down in a sneer of disapproval. For three nights now his fledgling has been avoiding him. Concentrating, he locates his disobedient childe in her room. With a grin he dematerializes. She will have to tell him everything.

`Oh god, he'll find me eventually and then…' His mouth curls in amusement as he appears in her room, careful not to be seen. She is thinking about him. Her hand reaches gingerly to her neck and she trails her fingers along the wound that stubbornly refuses to heal, still bleeding on occasion. `I can't keep going this way.' He watches her lift the blood pack to her mouth and drink it, haltingly. `If I can just do everything right. Just until I figure out what's happening…' He suppresses a chuckle at the distaste flavoring her thoughts, centering around her evening meal. `I just have to fly under the radar a little longer…' “I wasn't aware that you could fly Police Girl.” She jumps three feet in the air at the sound of his voice, instinctively turning and backing away from him, deeper into her room.

He frowns sharply at her reaction, he can feel her shivering from six feet away. “Coward.”

Seras' eyes widen. Did she just hear him correctly? A coward? She bristles for a moment and then reality sets in. “Yes Master.” His eyes narrow and a sharp darkness permeates the room. “Police Girl. I tire of this game.” Seras' eyes flick up to his face. His anger is well masked and he isn't making any move to get closer to her. Maybe, she should try talking to him…

A chuckle reaches her ears. “There's no need Police Girl. Your thoughts speak far loader than any words.” Her brows furrow and she fights to keep her temper even. Realization has dawned. Her Master is playing with her again. `Enough.' With a conscious decision she straightens her back. “Master. I want you to leave.”

Alucard watches his fledgling's responses with great pleasure. For a moment he'd wondered if she'd pull through. After leaving her two nights previously, he could remember only her broken compliance with his every thought. No fledgling should behave like that. A grin tips on his lips. `At least no fledgling of mine.'

She watches emotions flow across her Master's face and finds her fury growing. He is standing there, after all that he's done, just standing there grinning like a fool. Grimly, she feels a sudden bond with Integra. “Dammit! Stop that!” His smile is almost content, his voice a low purr. “Yes… that's it Police Girl, let it out. You are vampire, not some fool mortal.” His words only serve to inflame her anger, most likely his exact intention. The urge to scream at him washes over her, to scream and cry and tear him apart until there is nothing left of the monster that torments her. With a blink, she remembers that he can hear her every thought, that she is the one putting that grin on his face. A decision is made. “Good evening Master.” With that, she turns her back on him and steps over to her wardrobe to dig out her boots. Tonight is for training.

Alucard blinks at the dismissal. A moment ago he had been deep in her mind, enjoying the turbulence of her emotions but now... He concentrates a moment more. There is nothing but cold there, something intangible, like the air that hangs over a tepid lake. “Police Girl.” He growls a low warning at her and is angry to see that she does not respond. “Police Girl, do not ignore your Master.” He can feel the anger in her thoughts, but it is like trying to catch a shadow in the dark. “Police Girl, enough. You have proven your point.” He waits to see her fear, wanting almost… needing to find that benchmark in her. When she finally turns, she has finished lacing up her boots. “Are you still here?” Fury tears through him, he can sense her bravado but for some reason it only makes him angrier. He should be enjoying her brittle facade, playing with it, poking it until it shatters, toying with her as he does his Master. But no, not from his fledgling.

With a swift step forward he catches hold of her, forcing her to face him, to meet his uncovered eyes. “Police Girl, that is enough. You will reveal what you are hiding. You will tell me what is going on inside that tiny mind of yours.” Her skin burns beneath his fingers and he watches as the half-healed wound on her neck reopens, the blood flowing fiercely, bubbling as it passes over his mark. A new voice echoes in the room. “Such brittle threats, to stoop so low to control your own fledgling.” Alucard feels his childe stiffen at the sound of the voice and she hiccoughs quietly. Terror flows through their bond and he interprets this immediately.

Stepping away from her, he confronts the voice, staring directly at where the faint presence is strongest. “I do not find myself breaking her bones to make her obey me.” He feels the presence bristle at his words and Seras, standing rigidly a few feet away from them, vaguely realises that this is a battle of pride. “You should watch over her better.” The presence shifts slightly to be nearer Seras. “Though it is amusing to see an ancient that behaves like a boy with an insect.” Seras' eyes flick to her Master who grins. “An insect perhaps, but my insect. I would encourage you not to damage my property in future.” His voice is laced with malice and Sears feels a shiver travel down her spine at the possessive tone. The presence chuckles. “Of course, but Alucard…” The elder narrows his eyes. “How then can I survive in a world you consider yours? I must eat you know.” Seras' nervousness gives way and she can't help giggling. This person obviously knows her Master. He sends her a silencing look and she stops abruptly. Seras trembles as a silken sensation brushes against her cheek. “You may call me Csont young one.”

Then he is gone.

Integra narrows her eyes at the young vampire before her. Seras is standing there, shuffling her feet, unable to meet her commander's gaze. The girl is hiding something. With a sigh Integra decides that she doesn't want to know, that if it is truly important she will persuade Alucard to find out for her. “There is likely to be a large amount of ghouls present. A D11 squad stumbled on the group earlier tonight. Communications were few, but it appears they were overpowered and turned.” She observes her officer's further discomfort at the mention of her old employers. “In short, you can expect resistance, it has been quiet lately, but things may be about to get busy. Keep in mind that there were already four people missing in the area before D11 went in. It is likely they will now have a large force of ghouls.” The girl begins to fidget again. Integra feels her resolve to question the woman's sire strengthen. “Dismissed Officer Victoria. You have your orders.” “Yes Sir.” With a sharp salute, the blonde scurries from the room.

“Alucard, you can come out now.” His body materializes from the shadows opposite to the spot his fledgling has just vacated. “Really Master, are you sure you're not just a little vampire…?” Integra scowls at his sly grin. “Enough. You heard the orders.” He nods, even though it is a statement. “Then what are you still doing here?” Alucard grins and steps away, fading into darkness. Integra keeps her eyes fastened on his form until he is gone, his disembodied grin hanging in the air like a Cheshire cat for a few seconds before he makes his exit.

“Why aren't we telling Sir Integra Master?”

The young fledgling shifts the weight of her Halconnen with one hand, the other fiddling nervously with the fresh plaster attached to her neck. Alucard scowls at the reminder. “Because she needn't know. Really Police Girl, I don't know what you are worrying for. This is the first decent silencing in the city for weeks, you should be enjoying yourself.” Seras avoids looking at her Master, instead staring at the men preparing around her. “I know Master, but she said there are four here.” `We may lose a lot of soldiers.' His mouth turns down at her thoughts. Still worrying over mortals. His eyes fix on the foreboding building before them. Set in the scummier part of Nodnol (couldn't resist) the abandoned theatre is daunting to his fledgling. Following her sire's gaze, Seras shivers and mutters, “It's like something out of Anne Rice.” Alucard chuckles, “Freaks are never very original Police Girl.”

“Blasted Master.” Alucard had disappeared shortly before they were ordered to move in. “I hate it when he does that.” Seras cannot seem to shake the bad feeling she has about the theatre. She glances around a corner, surveying the corridor before she moves on, footsteps echoing in the massive building. `It's probably the coven in the book, I'm just worried that there'll be as many Freaks here.' Her thoughts are hollow, doing nothing to quell the rising anxiety. “What's your position Officer Victoria?” Her CO's voice crackles through her earpiece. “I'm moving past the entrance now, heading for the theatre itself.” She keeps her voice even but cannot keep the scorn from her thoughts. `Fancy sending a girl in alone, even if she is a vampire. Men!'

Carefully easing open the great double-doors to the main theatre, she checks for movement before heading in. She has entered at the back of the room, hundreds of seats stretching downwards in front of her. The door makes a low thud as she shuts it carefully behind her. The theatre is in complete blackness. Seras sticks close to the wall, making her way slowly down to the front of the theatre, allowing her eyes time to adjust to the dark. Soon she can make out the stage, a heavy crimson curtain hiding the players. As she nears the halfway point of the room, a sea of seats stretching up and down to her right, she sees them. There are a dozen or so people seated at the front of the theatre, watching the closed curtains expectantly. They do not whisper or fidget, eyes trained completely on the red velvet folds. Seras renews her efforts to approach quietly, trying to ignore the eerie quiet.

Of course, she cannot bring herself to shoot first. “Stand and identify yourselves.” She shouts it, her voice calm and even. They do not respond. “Stand and identify yourselves now, or I'll shoot dammit!” Still no response. A scraping sound fills the room and Seras' eyes are drawn to the stage, audience forgotten. The crimson curtain slowly rises.

Wow, my first attempt at a cliffhanger! lol Sorry not to update for so long, I won't make excuses. Please read and review, criticism is welcome if constructive.

Disclaimer: Five chapters in and I STILL don't own it. sigh