Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

Psalms for the Fallen	By : anyasy Category: Hellsing > General Views: 3357 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Hellsing, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
Psalms
for the Fallen

Chapter
4

I

�Alucard.�
His Lady Integral did not sound surprised to hear him, though Alucard grinned
as he heard the metallic clip of a guillotine cut on a cigar, a sure sign that
his previous Master was stressed. �I did not think you in the habit of
having a cellphone.�

�I
took one from some fat businessman on my last stop for supplies, my Lady,�
Alucard explained. At the height of his power, having an antique train
pull up unnoticed at a station to refuel, as well as having a line diverted for
its express trip to Romania, had been child�s play. �And you do need some
way of contacting me.�

�Hmph.�
He could hear the barely veiled irritation in his former Master�s tone, and it
made his smirk widen. �What did you do to Anderson?�

�He�s
resting.� Alucard�s hand dropped to his lap, where Alex�s head was cradled, the
priest sleeping in a fetal position upon the wide, cushioned bench, still and
unmoving and exhausted. The marks his claws and teeth had left on the
priest�s naked body had long healed, but the tanned, scarred flesh was still
soiled with their mingled fluids, scented by sex. He petted one muscular
shoulder, tracing a scar, the mark in the same unhealthy, taut pink as the one
on the priest�s jaw, and Alex stirred in his sleep, whispering something in
Latin, but did not wake.

�Thank
you for the puzzle, my Lady. I wonder if he realizes how you�ve sold him
out.� Alucard stroked fingers down to Anderson�s wrists, and for a moment, the
pentagrams on the priest�s gloves flared a bloody red, in warning.

�Tch.
The priest isn�t stupid.� Integral said dismissively. �I will be flying
to Rome on the morrow. Mentioning �Lamia� on the line to the Vatican put
them into quite a frenzy. What did you do, Alucard?�

�It
seems my zero release in London had the aftereffect of breaking the Holy Writ
on her sealed prison, Lady Integral,� Alucard slid his finger back up to trace
the vein on Anderson�s neck, and grinned as the priest moaned even in his
sleep. �After which she decided to return the favor.�

�Ah.�
Integral drew breath from her cigar. �I see.�

�I�m
a little jealous, my Lady,� Alucard purred then, deciding to tease, �I would
have thought that I would be your first priority, rather than Rome.�

�I
am not so sure what your motive is, Alucard,� Integral drawled, her tone darkly
amused, �But I don�t think you�ll be making your move anytime soon, and the
matter of Lamia proves more pressing. How do you find freedom, monster?�

�Seras
talked to you?�

�No.
But you�ve not once even attempted to free yourself from being a servant.
You even seem to enjoy it.� Integral noted idly. �Perhaps eternity
without fetters bores you, Alucard?�

�Perhaps.
Do you hope so, my �Master�?�

�Besides,
you do not like the limiter on your Alex, do you?� Integral asked, and
he could see her knife�s edge smirk now, she with her perfect,
indomitable Hellsing blood, and he bared his teeth, his shoulders shaking in
silent laughter.

�What
makes you think I do not?�

�You�re
very possessive of your childer, Alucard. That limiter allows me
to kill him, if I want. Allows him to resist your will. Enough
perhaps to end his own life, if you toy too much with him as he is now, and you
would not be able to stop him, would you?� When Alucard did not reply, tense,
Integral added, her tone clipped, �He will never accept you as long as you are
free, monster, not even an inch.�

�So
that was your purpose,� Alucard mused, rubbing a thumb over the scar on
Anderson�s jaw. �Your trap. I did so think you went quite
unprepared to the Museum. Your only purpose was to have me take Anderson,
force my move.�

�Yes.�

Idly,
he observed, �I could break the limiter, especially since you made it
different.�

�You
could,� Integral agreed, �With little effort. But you don�t want to risk
the effect it would have on him. You don�t know what he would do the
moment you free him from the symbol of his restraint. If he goes berserk
and you have to exert your will� well, you do not want a doll. You don�t
want to break him.�

�So
I don�t.� Clever, clever little girl, to have done this without him even
suspecting. He had thought the silly little display she had
managed with the Golgotha stone had been somewhat half-hearted, curious about
Hellsing�s games, curious enough to have Seras guard his perfect English
rose.

�Not
only do you want to have me back as your servant, you want me to come back
willingly, on my pride. Very clever, my Lord Hellsing.�

He
heard Integral chuckle � she laughed rarely, and it was always like this,
knife-sharp and merciless. �Until then, vampire. Enjoy your little
vacation.�

Alucard
switched off the cell and placed it on the table, then took another sip of
wine. The taste of anything other than blood was bitter to his kind, but
he had long trained himself to enjoy it, to work some semblance of function
back to a throat that had long been reconstructed to enjoy nothing but
blood.

He
did intend to enjoy his vacation. Reaching down, Alucard picked up the
heavy silver cross that Anderson wore at all times, rubbing a thumb over its
edge. He�ll play in Romania for a little while, remind its little humans
exactly who was still the ruler at Bran Castle, find out if his library
still remained, and take his time to fully enjoy Alex while he did so.
And once the priest began to chafe at his bit, well, he�d just have to mention
Rome. He wouldn�t put it beyond his old Master to tarry there and wait
for him, simply to make a point. Or perhaps she would wait in England,
since the ghoul problem would still be rampant.

Humans
were so fascinating. He should have known. Of course
Lady Hellsing would have known that the pentagram incantation would not work
without both his blood and hers: undoubtedly the legend of her ancestor had
been drilled into her since she could read a book. Yet unlike Abraham,
instead of coming to Romania in arms to forcibly spill his blood in battle,
then bind him, she had woven � so quickly � a web around him, with every strand
designed to force him back to her side. Masterful! Masterful! He could
not do anything but applaud, his dark nature amused by her manipulation.
He had had Hellsing masters before, but had not felt truly loyal to any but
Integral.

But
first� but first, he would play his fill with her bait. Alucard hauled
Alex into his lap, the priest not even stirring from his exhausted slumber, and
settled him over his thighs, pressed over tailored trousers, pulled him flush
against him before sinking his teeth delicately into Alex�s neck. He felt
the priest flinch and wake with a gasp, which turned quickly into a sigh of
ecstasy, going slack in his arms.

�Fucken�
fucken monster,� the Judas Priest slurred weakly, to Alucard�s surprise, that
Anderson could resist the pleasure of the bite enough to speak, �Aren�t ye even
fucken tired?�

Alucard
smirked, even as he bit Alex harder without drinking, felt the priest twist and
whine against him as he stroked his gloved hands up the curve of the Paladin�s
spine. He was willingly ensnared by Integral�s bait, and he knew it.

II

�Eeh�
Integral-sama� why can�t you just er, call them or something�� Seras Victoria
looked somewhat the worse for wear, even with the windows of the private jet
shuttered fast. Unlike Anderson, Seras had taken somewhat late to being
comfortable in direct sunlight � she could operate in it when hooded, but like
Alucard, shunned it unless necessary.

�Is
it the sunlight?� Integral asked, her tone apparently solicitous.

�Eeh�
not really, Integral-sama��

�I
did offer you your normal mode of transport.�

Seras
made a face, reminded of being forcibly strapped into a coffin. �Thank
you� very much� Integral-sama��

The
female vampire sat on the opposite side of the aisle, slowly going through a
series of old tomes from the Hellsing library, trying to find any mention of
Lamia. So far, all the information they had was that the mentioned
creature was a being from Greek mythology. Integral grimaced. Tales
often had some manner of truth behind them, particularly if they were tales of
monsters.

But
it seemed that the Vatican had information. She idly considered the
possibility of a trap, but dismissed it as paranoia. With Enrico,
Anderson, and many of their forces dead, by all reports Iscariot had almost
collapsed into itself, and had temporarily been absorbed into the Ninth Branch,
Thomas, the �Doubters�, the so-called Inquisition. Unlike the secret
Iscariot assassins, the modern-day Inquisition seemed to adhere less to ad
abolendam as to the business of undermining heresy, so she had heard.
A member of Thomas would be meeting them at the international airport in Rome.

Seras,
however, did have a point. She had tried to arrange some sort of
information exchange in a more efficient manner, or at the very least, at some
venue that was more convenient, but it seemed that the Pope had insisted that
she come to Rome. Even when she had detailed who would be her
guard.

Perhaps
she wasn�t being paranoid when she thought of matters as a trap.

Still,
until Alucard grew bored of freedom and came back to Hellsing they were
stretched a little too thin, simply handling England, and were definitely
unlikely to be able to go to Africa themselves. And, she had to admit,
hardening her heart, Africa was none of her concern. It would have been
different had Lamia struck out against her or England, like Millennium had done
so, but the vampire seemed content to leave Europe alone for Alucard�s
sake.

She
would have liked the luxury of forgetting about matters and staying in England,
but the vampire hunter�s blood within her protested strenuously about letting
matters settle as they were. At the very least, she had to speak to the
one other organization on earth that had specialized in monster hunting.

�Integral-sama?�

Integral
glanced up, realizing that Seras had been calling her for some time.
�Yes?�

�Ah�
they just asked if you wanted coffee or tea�� Integral looked from Seras to the
young, pretty blonde female flight attendant, who smiled nervously at
her. The private jet was Penwood�s: the sentimental old bachelor had left
her what remained of his estates, in his will. She missed him, even with
his incompetence and his antiquated ways.

�Tea,
thank you.� Integral turned back to the reports she had been scanning through.

�Worried
about Master?� Seras asked, as the attendant pottered away.

�No.�
That was one thing she wasn�t worried about. �He�ll come back when he�s
bored. That�s the curse of eternal life, ennui.�

�Ah.�
Seras said, blinking, and Integral remembered something odd that Alucard had
said, when he had called her in England.

�What
he did speak to you about, Seras?�

�Eeh,
I already told you-�

�I
didn�t mean what he told you to tell me.�

�Oh.
You know how Master tends to go off on these strange diatribes� he did
that. He said freedom is a curse, for Midians.� Seras scratched her head
thoughtfully. �I don�t think I understood.�

�Hmph.�
Trust the insane vampire to think that way. Integral smirked.
Perhaps Alucard would return sooner than she thought. Besides, as much as
she hated to admit, she felt vulnerable without his presence: had been so used
to him, irritating, invasive and inhuman as he was, hanging about her since her
childhood, guarding her. Knowing that Alucard was her servant,
knowing that his loyalty was ironclad, had fed her confidence, allowed her to
take her birthright as Lord Hellsing at a tender age. Now he was
gone, and she felt restless.

Damned
Alucard.

�So
from Fiumicino Airport we�ll take another flight to Vatican city� but this is a
private jet, shouldn�t we fly direct?�

�Unfortunately,
the level of trust between the Vatican and Hellsing is not quite so high,�
Integral said dryly, �From Fiumicino, we will be in the hands of the security
of their Section Nine.�

�Section
Nine?�

�The
Inquisition.� Integral turned a page of the reports. �They�ve mellowed
over the years, but they are still dangerous. Particularly now that they
have absorbed Section Thirteen, Iscariot.�

�Oh.�
Seras made a face. �Do you think they know, about� about-�

�About
Anderson? Probably. Especially since the damned idiot took to wandering
around outside England. I wouldn�t put it beyond them to raise the
topic.� Integral had already thought over that eventuality.

�Suppose
they ask us to give him up?�

�He
would certainly go, I think.� Integral had considered that at length. The
priest�s agreement to stay with Hellsing was fairly tenuous. �But I do
not think your Master would let him.�

�Ah.�
Seras nodded, looking uncomfortable. �He has a good heart. I mean,
even under the er, bloodthirst.�

�I
could see that.� That had been precisely why she hadn�t ordered Anderson�s
immediate destruction. �So do you, Seras.� Or hers.

The
juxtaposition of a good heart with a Midian�s darkness intrigued Alucard,
enough that he bothered to train and protect Seras, as much as her good nature
and relatively weaker will made her somewhat less than competent, at
times. Anderson himself was an even greater contradiction � a priest and
an assassin, the mentor of children at an orphanage and the killer of monsters;
a good heart and a bloodthirst to go along with it. Small wonder he made
the perfect bait, to hold Alucard�s wayward attentions until Integral finished
negotiations with Rome.

Integral
remembered the priest�s inflexible morality and had to pity him: Alucard�s
attentions were hardly gentle or moral. Anderson had to be truly
concerned about the English scourge, if he hadn�t yet killed himself. Or
perhaps he simply did not wish to die; not by suicide, at least � after
all, self-murder was an incontrovertible sin; or perhaps the priest stayed as
he was so as to wait for an opportunity to kill Alucard. Whatever
Anderson�s motive was, for now, however, he was necessary.

III

Alucard
had attempted to thank the humans who had maintained his castle by only warning
them off without killing them, but distressingly enough, the creatures were
stubborn enough to start a shootout. After murdering security, he�d
draped the torn bodies of the guards as well as the riffraff who had refused to
leave within the time limit on the trees outside, and enveloped his castle with
his shadows. The touristy details had to go, of course, as did much of
the furniture, most of the electric lighting. And he�ll have to have a
bath installed, something suitably decadent with black marble�

Beside
him, Oscar Robsen rose out of the shadows and bowed. �Should I take your
luggage to your chambers, Lord Alucard?�

Alucard
vaguely wished that he had bitten Walter, but he nodded curtly. Legs
sprouted out from under his black coffin, lifting the other coffin that was
bound atop it, with its precious, sleeping cargo. The castle was all too
bright and� pretty� for his purposes at the moment, even as a temporary
vacation retreat, and he supposed that at some point he would have to make an
appearance in the town, terrorize a few people into submission.

So
much to do.

And
then he�d likely have to deal with the usual manner of mobs and angry citizens,
perhaps. Alucard analyzed the idea in his mind and found that it bored
him. Killing humans was fairly boring � they tended to be weak, little
worth his time, and far more useful to him alive than dead. Also, if he
wasn�t careful, they came back as ghouls, and therefore became even more
trouble than they were worth.

He
set a few of his Souls from his darkness to watching the gate, destroying the
gift shop, and removing any further hints of tourism from the castle, then
began to explore the place, curious. He hadn�t been here for centuries,
and the maintenance was very good. It had passed through the hands
of royalty after all, though the rather distressingly feminine feel to
all the furniture was somewhat irritating. Still, he was only
going to be here for a few weeks, at the most, so he didn�t have to do that
much redecorating.

An
hour later, Alucard concluded that the humans had managed to find most of the
secret passages, but was relatively relieved to find that they hadn�t located
his library. He raised a hand to the wall of a seemingly innocent
corridor, then paused, cocking his head, as he felt Alex wake. Smirking,
he sent his childe a summons, felt the instant irritation from Alex in
response, and pressed a pressure point in the wall, descending down the
winding, dust-choked stairway.

The
shelves had been carved into stone and encased in glass to survive time: a
Midian�s library; and so the books were still in fairly decent condition, if
crackling and delicate. When Anderson made his appearance, looking
irritable, Alucard had already placed several tomes carefully on the old,
polished marble table and sent a summons to Oscar to find writing paper.
An emergency torchlight had been found to serve temporarily as a light source,
and it sat on the books, its fluorescent lamp chasing stark shadows into the
corners.

The
priest looked good, at least, suitably dressed as befit the lover and childe
of the ruler of Romania. Alucard had purchased some clothes at their last
stop (or, more technically, �obtained�), and Anderson wore a sharply cut,
long-sleeved white collared shirt with large cuffs adorned with brass buttons,
tucked into a pair of thin, tailored gray pants that clung to his hips and
accentuated his long legs. The silver cross on its long chain was worn
outside the shirt, but at least there was no stiff coat to hide his broad
shoulders. Alucard noted that the priest had disdained to wear the
loafers he had purchased, sticking to his old shoes. Perhaps he should
have shredded those as he had the other clothes: that seemed to be the only way
to get Anderson to wear anything Alucard picked out. It was a good
thing Anderson hadn�t yet figured out how to use the darkness to clothe
himself.

Alex
circled the library, his bloodlust ceding to curiosity and pleasure, for the
moment. Curious. Alucard hadn�t thought the priest one for
books. �Ye have ae library?�

�Aye.
It seems the humans did not find it.� Alucard continued to scan the
shelves. He had amassed a large library in his time, most of it regarding
lore, monsters, theology and, in particular, Midians, and the library chamber
was two-tiered, a cylindrical room eight meters across and lined with shelves,
with no stairway going up to the second level. Midians didn�t need such
things, after all.

�Centuries
auld,� Alex breathed, like a child in a candy shop, and Alucard had to
smirk. That was definitely a surprise. �Wha� d�ye have?�

Well.
Perhaps this could keep Alex out of trouble while he dealt with administrative
matters: some Souls he had dispatched as spies had told him that the town was
in a panic of sorts and rife with rumors. He�d probably have to appear at
a suitably dramatic moment and make a speech: it would be nice to fly down as a
traditional swarm of bats, but Alucard wasn�t sure if he wanted to risk
indignity and accident by doing so. The winds had been rather stiff,
today.

�Theology
to your right� then mythology; Midian lore on the second tier, some shelves on
monsters, maps, and literature.�

�Literature?�
The Judas Priest frowned. �Tha� dinnae-�

�Nothing
too esoteric. Dunne, the Bard, Chaucer, some other curios I came about
here and there.�

�Ae
Bishop Bible!� Anderson had caught sight of something behind the glass
on the shelf to his right. �Dinnae ken how much tha�s worth t�ae
scholar?�

�What
does a Midian need of money?�

�Ah
wasn�t referrin� t�money,� the priest said irritably, then forgot it in
the next as he saw something else, �Ah� ae Tyndale�s 1537�� Alex seemed to
catch himself, straightening up and glancing at the books he had placed on the
table. �Wha� are ye doin�?�

�A
little homework on Lady Lamia.� And �Dominion�. He was sure he had read
that somewhere before.

Anderson
looked suspicious. �Dinnae come back t�Romania t�stay? Wha� d�ye care o�
her?�

�Perhaps.�
Alucard said, with as irritating a smirk as he could manage. �Think of it
as a working holiday.�

He�d
intended to play a little more with Anderson�s mind before dropping hints that
he might return to Hellsing, but supposed there was little point, and it was
likely safer this way. Much as he didn�t like to admit it, Integral�s
observation that Anderson might choose to kill himself had disconcerted
him.

The
priest, however, obviously didn�t believe him, narrowing eyes that abruptly
turned a feral red, trying another line of interrogation. �Where�s
Seras?�

�With
Sir Integral, playing bodyguard. I can�t leave a lady unguarded, can I?�

�Ah
dinnae ken what is yer game,� Anderson said skeptically, all business again as
he stalked over to the table to look at the books. �Ah dinnae like it.�

�Since
you�re here, you could help,� Alucard suggested, and chuckled as Anderson
growled.

�Ah
dinnae ken why Ah should, she�s left Europe an� disnae our business.�

�Then
do what you want, just try not to be an inconvenience.� Alucard watched as the
priest wavered between scholarly greed and aggravation, before the former won
out, and Anderson turned back to the theology shelves, muttering darkly to
himself.

Amused,
Alucard returned to the shelves. �If you want any of the books, you could
ask. But of course, you�ll have to find suitable� payment.� His drawl was
playfully lecherous, and behind him, Anderson hissed, spitting out an
incoherent epithet, but, adorably enough, did not leave the library, only
continuing to scan the shelves in poor grace.

Snickering
to himself, the vampire smirked. This vacation was getting more and more
interesting.

-tbc-
- 3
- 4
- 5
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Psalms for the Fallen