Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Angel of Mercy ❯ Memories ( Chapter 11 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Wandering Storyteller 
Anime/Manga: Hellsing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Adventure | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.24.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 323 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Hellsing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Adventure | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.24.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.3K | Visits: 323 | Status: Completed
Chapter 11
Alucard watched Julia’s fledgling from the shadows. He was not sure what to think of the vampire, or what exactly his loyalties to him should be. He had never had a fledgling live long enough to sire a fledgling of their own. All but one of his original fledglings had been systematically slain by Van Hellsing when he was first captured.
He could still remember that terrible feeling of his own kin crying out for his aid and being helpless to protect them. Even a mad animal does not like to see it’s young slain. The one fledgling that had escaped Van Hellsing, because she had been far away at the time, was killed by a vampire hunter only a few years after.
Then there had been Susan. She had been the first vampire he had sired under Hellsing control. She had been a young woman he had found on one of his missions. She was near death from having been tortured by a cruel vampire. Alucard had offered to turn her and she had accepted.
He never really knew what went wrong. She was as loyal to him as the police girl, but without her fear or reserve. She seemed to accept her state of unlife and grew into a powerful vampire in her own right. She accepted his blood and become a true No Life King, and then left him and Hellsing to venture out on her own.
She returned after about eighty years, a human life time, and demanded one thing of Alucard, that he take away the false life he had given her. By that time she was too strong for him to look inside her mind and he could not tell whether she asked for death because of sorrow, or weariness, or something else.
Alucard had grudgingly granted her wish and taken her life blood and all the power she had accumulated in her years of existence. Though the No Life King could not be said to feel guilt or sorrow, he still felt strange when he remembered taking the life of his own child.
He wondered if the Julia would be like Susan some day, and hoped not. He could never grant such a request again. Fortenately he suspected that as long as Julia had Tobias and her other fledglings scattered across the world, she would have reason to continue.
Alucard contemplated the young vampire again. He seemed to be outwardly very weak and cowardly but he could tell that how Tobias was now, was not his normal state. Tobias actually had a fair amount of power, especially from the blood he had recently taken from Julia.
Alucard understood the necessity of why Julia had given so much of her own blood to her fledgling at the time, but not why she had let him keep it. A vampire gave their blood to a fledgling when they became full fledged vampires, but that was only a small amount. Julia had given Tobias nearly fifty years of her own strength. Tobias, if he could regain control of his own mind, could be quit dangerous, if he wished to.
But for now Tobias was the picture of innocents wandering through the garden of Hellsing manor. Julia had insisted the moonlight would do him good. He felt uneasy to be out in the open alone but he knew he need only call for Julia and she would be there to protect him.
Tobias could sense Alucard but was unconcerned, he knew he was a blood relative. Her sat down on a wooden bench and began to mumble something under his breath holding the silver star of David he wore around his neck. Alucard grew bored of peaceful observation and left the shadows to speak to him directly.
As he grew closer to the boy, he realized he was praying very softly in German, his mother tongue. “You still have faith even though you are damned,” Alucard asked him. Tobias looked up at him his eyes wide with the false innocents of forgetfulness, while a wisdom of many years lay locked behind.
“No one is damned unless they believe themselves to be so,” he said quietly.
“Your god abandoned you as a human, why have faith now,” Alucard’s words where cruel, though his intent was only for his own amusement.
“My god never abandoned me Alucard. God had nothing to do with what happened to me and my people. You can’t blame a god for the sins of man. The divine gave humans free will, and by doing so must let them commit their own sins. ”
Tobias’s age was for a moment showing through, his words where that of a man not a child. For an instant Alicard could see Tobias as his true self but then the boys eyes dimmed again and he resumed praying.
“Do you pray for fear of the devil. Do you try and protect yourself from some great evil.” asked Alucard. Again for a moment light shown in Tobias’s eyes.
“I know prayer can not protect me. I pray because it is my soul I fear for not my body.”
“You would not fear me killing you?” Alucard gave a predatory grin meaning to frighten the young vampire, but did not secede.
“I do not fear death, but I do not wish it. I know you will not kill me. I am the child of your child, and you will not harm your blood kin.”
“I should, it’s an embarrassment to be related to one as weak as you. Julia always creates such weak fledglings. She waists all her strength and wisdom raising broken fools. Some times I think she is a fool herself” Alucard was trying to get a rise out of Tobias and he had succeed.
Tobias frowned and said his voice like ice, “Don’t insult my master,”
“what are you going to do, you will get nowhere fighting me.” Alucard was testing Tobias now to see his reaction, to gauge the strength of will, that lay behind those wide eyes.
“To fight you would be to give you what you wish,” replied Tobias. Though he was shaking slightly under Alucard’s gaze he met his eyes, like a brave puppy challenging an alpha.
“Let the boy alone, you old dog. Must you hound every one you see a speck of fear in?” Julia stepped out of the shadows. She had sense her fledglings distress and come to tell Alucard off.
Alucard turned to face Julia amusement clear in his eyes. “I was only getting to know my descendent,” he held his arms wide as if in jest.
“Don’t tease him Alucard. His mind is in a delicate state. If you cause him any damage it will take me years to mend.”
Alucard ignored Julia’s scolding, losing interest now that he was faced with his strict fledgling, some times she acted as if he where the fledgling and she the sire. “Fine I won’t break your precise toy.” he told her and walked off fading into the night.
Julia turned to face Tobias the hint of a grin on her lips, “You did well Tobias, you haven’t locked away all of your courage after all. I’m proud of you few people, human or vampire, can argue with Alucard and live to tell about it.”
Tobias smiled like a young man receiving praise for a task well done. Julia patted him on the shoulder then vanished into the darkness, leaving Tobias to his prayers. She still had things to do that night.
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Integra found herself again absently waiting for the midian’s appearance, and she shuffled through the usual reports. She was secretly glad for the time to think, she was not sure what to say to the nosferatu. Her original questions had been answered the night before, but she was still curios about the vampire.
She justified the second meeting by telling herself that: first it would be good to know more about Julia in case she ever became a problem in the future, and second that she could learn more about vampires in general, by speaking with a vampire that had recently been in contact with her own kind.
However, the truth was that she had enjoyed speaking to Julia. She could not remember how long it had been since she had spent a few hours simply talking with some one and in such an open manor, although the openness had been on Julia’s part alone. Integra had become used to people always being very reserved around her, after all she was a leader. It was refreshing to spend time with someone who was not under her command.
A soft knock removed her from her thoughts, and she called for Julia to enter. She opened the door walked into the room treading on her soundless footsteps. She was dressed much as she had been the day before, save for the fact that she now wore her hair in a delicate twist held together with the stem of a single white rose. It suited her well.
There was an unspoken subtly in the ornate change that Integra did not miss. Julia had not simply altered her appearance for formality, but had taken a step towards elegance. She had done something that showed she now cared about her appearance, something Integra had never seen her do before. It made her recall the portrait that now hung in the downstairs gallery, and the simple yet beautiful way the vampire was dressed in the faded image.
Integra motioned for Julia to sit and poured their respective drinks. Julia took the delicate china cup and sipped the dark metallic liquid within. There was an awkward moment of silence then she spoke.
“Do you have anymore questions for me Sir Hellsing?” Though she had not thought of one earlier Integra came up with one quickly.
“You never told me why you came into conflict with Vashnicalf. Was it some manner of feud that caused him to seize your fledgling?”
Julia shook her head, “Not exactly, at one point he expressed a carnal interest in me and I rejected him quite violently. He didn’t take the insult well. He captured Tobias in order to gain power over me.” Integra had a mild expression of surprise.
“you mean that’s what it was all about?” Julia did not look amused.
“I assure you it was more complicated than that.”
“Do tell?” said Integra resting her chin on her hand,” unable to hide a small smile, at Julia’s indignation. The ruffled immortal continued.
“Vashnicalf was doing more than trying to rape me, it was a power play. Among vampire I am considered fairly powerful, not because I am physically strong like Alucard, but because I am able to affect and control the minds of other vampires. Most vampires can only control humans or their own fledglings, even I can only control vampires that are not drastically stronger than me.
“I’m one of the older and stronger vampires currently in existence, this ensures few will ever challenge me or my fledglings. Unfortunately, Vashnicalf was one of the few that are more powerful than me. He was to powerful for me to get into his mind, so he had nothing to fear in challenging me.
“Vashnicalf was a leader, he liked drawing other vampires to him and making them obey him. To him the image of power was everything. For several years before he and I came into conflict, he had been challenging any powerful vampire he thought he could win against. When he defeated them he and took their blood and strength, by doing this he increased the sense of supremacy other vampires had of him, as well as his actual power.
“When he crossed paths with me he must have become determined to defeat me as he had some many others. As far as vampires are concerned, I am an outsider and by bringing me under heel he would gain the respect and possible loyalty of many vampires, who dislike me.
“Simply killing me in battle, however, would not be an effective victory against me, because I am respected for my mental abilities, and this is as much from understanding of psychology as psychic ability . He probably realized he could not gain respect by slaughtering a trickster, but by beating me at my own game. To gain the honor of having truly triumphed over me, he would have to bring me under heel willingly.
“He wanted to either make me become his bride by choice, or force me to publicly submit to him. When I refused to be his willingly, he attacked my one weakness, my fledgling. He expected me to have no choice, but to surrender to him outright, or fight an impossible battle against him and then be forced to yield to him when I lost, in order to save Tobias’s life. He didn’t expect me to appeal to Alucard, and by doing so I destroyed him.”
“So you won?” asked Integra.
“Against Vashnicalf yes, but I weakened my standing with other vampires by appealing to my sire for help. I showed I was unable to deal with a vampire of Vashnicalf’s strength on my own. I’ll now be considered to be under Alucard’s wing, so to speak, until I fight and win another battle on my own. For a grown fledgling to require their sire’s help is a rather embarrassing state of affairs.”
“I did not realize vampire society was so complicated,” said Integra thoughtfully. It sounded almost as if she was describing aristocrats. Integra saw to the extermination of monsters and did not question there motives, or how they interacted with other monsters.
“Vampire’s are alarmingly complicated,” said Julia shrugging her shoulders. “Just imagine English nobles but with several life time’s worth of grudges and alliances. I suppose you’ve never really encountered this though. I intend no offense, but you organization specializes in killing rouge vampires that have carelessly made themselves known to humans. If Hellsing did not eradicate them, other vampires would.”
“Really?”
“Yes, if all vampires acted like the ones you hunt, do you really think we would have lasted this long? The ones you destroy are rouges that are either fledglings that have been abandoned by their sire and don’t know how to kill secretly, or older vampires that have lost their will to live and kill indiscriminately, or have simply gone insane.
“If all of my kind made themselves so visible, humans would have destroyed us long ago. Most vampires either don’t kill when they gather blood, or destroy the ghouls they create. The reason vampires can exist as we do is that humans are convinced we are a superstition. You can even show evidence to people that we exist and they won’t believe you. Still, if vampires always left ghouls wandering about and killed too many humans they would eventually realize we exist.
“Then they would organize against us, as they have all other predators. In nearly every part of the world there are organizations that hunt vampires and keep knowledge of our existence from the public. Although, they do take some toll on our general population, mostly they destroy the vampires they can easily find, which are the rouges. In a way you could say they really help vampires to continue existing, they weed out the careless.”
Now it was Integra’s turn not to look amused, “So I am the hunter that kills the sickly wolves then?”
“Of course, but keep in mind even a healthy wolf knows to fear the baying of hounds.”
“Yet you do not fear me.” They where both leaning across the table caught up in the match of words, hardly a hairs breath separating them.
“I could never fear you Hellsing, you are too much like Mary, and I would never have feared her.” Julia’s word’s startled Integra and she quickly leaned back into her seat, not ready to contemplate what the vampire had meant.
When Integra had regained her composure, Julia had already returned to her chair, sitting with the composure of a lady, and ease of a feline. Her expression was not as blank as the mask Integra wore, but her calm face still gave away nothing.
Integra changed the subject quickly. “From what you’ve said it sounds as if there are several groups within immortal kind, which are you?” Julia nodded, accepting the shift of conversation.
“Vampires are as highly divided as humans, and perhaps even more independent on an individual level. That is how you run across vampires as insane as Alucard, power hungry as Vashnicalf, or sweet as Seres. We all have a different idea of what to do with eternity, and there are many schools of thought. The slang term for vampires like me would be revenants.”
“Revenants are bodies that have become reanimated by the soul after death just long enough to complete some unfinished task. They’re different from vampires and not immortal,” said Integra critically. Julia shrugged her shoulders, and spoke again as if she where trying to explain the difference between the color orange and the fruit orange, to a child.
“That is the proper definition of a revenant that humans use. However, among vampires the term revenant is applied to other vampires who act something like real revenants. You see, I chose to become a vampire on the threshold of death, for the sole purpose or remaining with Mary. I turned every one of my fledglings when they where dying so they could live on to finish something they had left undone as humans.
“Once a revenant’s reason for continuing as a vampires is finished they often end their false life by their own hand. Several of my own fledglings ended their existence in such a way, although I have sired many, few still remain. I am rather unique in the fact that I persist in continuing even after my original reason for becoming a vampire is gone. Revenant vampires usually will try to not interfere with anything other than the task they have remained for, and do not kill humans.”
“Then how do they feed?” asked Integra incredulously.
“It’s possible to take blood from a human without killing or biting them. It is a simple thing for a vampire to put a human into a trance, cut their wrist and drain some of their blood, and then leave them convinced they fell on some glass or the like. That is how I usually survive. Cold blood keeps a vampires alive, and the hunger at bay, although it is a shadow compared to feeding from a living human.
“So you’ve killed then,” the question was sharp. Julia looked at Integra, who’s cobalt eyes had gone cold.
“Yes, and no. I have given countless mercy killings, and I have sire several fledglings, but I have never killed a human for the sake of their blood, although I have killed for revenge.”
“Who?”
“Two of section thirteen’s priests nearly a century ago. They killed a two fledglings of mine, and a deaf and blind human girl who I was protecting. In the seventeenth century while traveling in Italy I came across the child. She was orphaned, and near death from hunger. I took her under my care, with the assumption that I could find a human family to take her soon enough.
“Unfortunately no one wanted a girl with no hearing, voice or sight, so she remained with me and I became rather attached to her. I was able to communicate with her telepathically and let her see what I saw through my eyes and hear what I heard. She was almost a daughter to me, and an exceptionally intelligent girl.
“Several months after I found her, I received word from a fledgling of mine named Leon who lived in France. There where Vatican hunters pursuing him and he needed my help. I left the girl with another fledgling of mine named Philemon who lived near the border of Italy with his lover another vampire name Bauchis, who was the former fledgling of a friend of mine.
“I reached France to late to save Leon, the hunter had already slain my fledgling and laid in wait for me. I fought and defeated him but I did not kill him.
“You let an enemy live?” asked Integra doubtfully. Julia shook her head and in a voice far to calm for the words that followed she replied, “Yes I let him live, but I blinded his eyes and cut the tendons on both his legs so that he could never hunt my kind again.” There was something almost frightening about Julia as she said this. They where the words of a creature of necessity, the harsh statement of one who had often had to fight for survival. It did not fit the innocent looking youth sitting in the wooden chair, with the poise of an aristocrat.
Julia continued talking and the tiger like gleam retreated from her eyes and regret took it‘s place. “I should have known he wasn’t acting alone. As the hunter cursed me clutching his darkened eyes he told me my fledgling in Italy was being killed as we spoke. I raced back to Italy and was again too late. I found the dust of my fledgling and his lover.
“The human girl was gone and at first I thought she might have live, but when I reached out for her thoughts I found nothing, and knew she was dead. I soon found her ashes in the town square. She had been burned as a witch for her association with the vampires and lack of a voice to defend herself. I went into a rage over her death. She had been a child, an innocent, deserving of a long life not a horrible death.
“I quickly learned of the two hunters that had done the deed. I tracked both of them down. I found the older one first, a man in his late forties and after a difficult duel I killed him without mercy. I realized later that he was holding me off so that the younger hunter could escape. I tracked the remaining killer, he was a boy of no more than sixteen, almost an innocent. I shouldn’t have killed him.
“He even begged for his life. I could have blinded him like the first hunter that killed Leon, but the death of the human girl hardened my heart to his please and I took his life. In that act I went against everything I stood for and believed in. I perpetuated the cycle of violence and stained my hands with human blood. I nearly became as much of a monster as Alucard.” Julia’s voice faltered and she fell silent. She had not meant to confess so much to the Hellsing leader, it was unwise to show such vulnerability to her, yet she could not help it. It was as if she where talking to Mary again, seeking her council in the dark hours of the night.
Integra watched her calmly for a moment, she knew not how to reply. She was a killer herself and had shot her own uncle in order to save her own life. She had ordered the destruction of countless vampires, and in the course a few humans as well. She could offer Julia no condolence or forgiveness, only understanding.
“Vampire, do not think you are the only immortal or mortal who has taken a life. Now, the hour grows late and I still have work to do, I must ask you to withdraw.” Julia stood and bowed slightly in a manner almost reminiscing of Alucard.
“As you wish, Sir Hellsing” Integra nodded and Julia turned to leave. As her cold hand touched the door Integra remember something.
“Julia, if you could bring me a copy of the volume of poetry you mentioned in your last visit I would like to see it.”
“I’ll find one,” said Julia and then she was gone. Integra glanced after the now closed door and leaned back lighting a cigar. She had a bit to much to think about to begin working yet.
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I opologise for how long this chapter took. My only exuse is that life got in the way. I extend a major thank you to every one who is still reading this after eleven chapters.
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Alucard watched Julia’s fledgling from the shadows. He was not sure what to think of the vampire, or what exactly his loyalties to him should be. He had never had a fledgling live long enough to sire a fledgling of their own. All but one of his original fledglings had been systematically slain by Van Hellsing when he was first captured.
He could still remember that terrible feeling of his own kin crying out for his aid and being helpless to protect them. Even a mad animal does not like to see it’s young slain. The one fledgling that had escaped Van Hellsing, because she had been far away at the time, was killed by a vampire hunter only a few years after.
Then there had been Susan. She had been the first vampire he had sired under Hellsing control. She had been a young woman he had found on one of his missions. She was near death from having been tortured by a cruel vampire. Alucard had offered to turn her and she had accepted.
He never really knew what went wrong. She was as loyal to him as the police girl, but without her fear or reserve. She seemed to accept her state of unlife and grew into a powerful vampire in her own right. She accepted his blood and become a true No Life King, and then left him and Hellsing to venture out on her own.
She returned after about eighty years, a human life time, and demanded one thing of Alucard, that he take away the false life he had given her. By that time she was too strong for him to look inside her mind and he could not tell whether she asked for death because of sorrow, or weariness, or something else.
Alucard had grudgingly granted her wish and taken her life blood and all the power she had accumulated in her years of existence. Though the No Life King could not be said to feel guilt or sorrow, he still felt strange when he remembered taking the life of his own child.
He wondered if the Julia would be like Susan some day, and hoped not. He could never grant such a request again. Fortenately he suspected that as long as Julia had Tobias and her other fledglings scattered across the world, she would have reason to continue.
Alucard contemplated the young vampire again. He seemed to be outwardly very weak and cowardly but he could tell that how Tobias was now, was not his normal state. Tobias actually had a fair amount of power, especially from the blood he had recently taken from Julia.
Alucard understood the necessity of why Julia had given so much of her own blood to her fledgling at the time, but not why she had let him keep it. A vampire gave their blood to a fledgling when they became full fledged vampires, but that was only a small amount. Julia had given Tobias nearly fifty years of her own strength. Tobias, if he could regain control of his own mind, could be quit dangerous, if he wished to.
But for now Tobias was the picture of innocents wandering through the garden of Hellsing manor. Julia had insisted the moonlight would do him good. He felt uneasy to be out in the open alone but he knew he need only call for Julia and she would be there to protect him.
Tobias could sense Alucard but was unconcerned, he knew he was a blood relative. Her sat down on a wooden bench and began to mumble something under his breath holding the silver star of David he wore around his neck. Alucard grew bored of peaceful observation and left the shadows to speak to him directly.
As he grew closer to the boy, he realized he was praying very softly in German, his mother tongue. “You still have faith even though you are damned,” Alucard asked him. Tobias looked up at him his eyes wide with the false innocents of forgetfulness, while a wisdom of many years lay locked behind.
“No one is damned unless they believe themselves to be so,” he said quietly.
“Your god abandoned you as a human, why have faith now,” Alucard’s words where cruel, though his intent was only for his own amusement.
“My god never abandoned me Alucard. God had nothing to do with what happened to me and my people. You can’t blame a god for the sins of man. The divine gave humans free will, and by doing so must let them commit their own sins. ”
Tobias’s age was for a moment showing through, his words where that of a man not a child. For an instant Alicard could see Tobias as his true self but then the boys eyes dimmed again and he resumed praying.
“Do you pray for fear of the devil. Do you try and protect yourself from some great evil.” asked Alucard. Again for a moment light shown in Tobias’s eyes.
“I know prayer can not protect me. I pray because it is my soul I fear for not my body.”
“You would not fear me killing you?” Alucard gave a predatory grin meaning to frighten the young vampire, but did not secede.
“I do not fear death, but I do not wish it. I know you will not kill me. I am the child of your child, and you will not harm your blood kin.”
“I should, it’s an embarrassment to be related to one as weak as you. Julia always creates such weak fledglings. She waists all her strength and wisdom raising broken fools. Some times I think she is a fool herself” Alucard was trying to get a rise out of Tobias and he had succeed.
Tobias frowned and said his voice like ice, “Don’t insult my master,”
“what are you going to do, you will get nowhere fighting me.” Alucard was testing Tobias now to see his reaction, to gauge the strength of will, that lay behind those wide eyes.
“To fight you would be to give you what you wish,” replied Tobias. Though he was shaking slightly under Alucard’s gaze he met his eyes, like a brave puppy challenging an alpha.
“Let the boy alone, you old dog. Must you hound every one you see a speck of fear in?” Julia stepped out of the shadows. She had sense her fledglings distress and come to tell Alucard off.
Alucard turned to face Julia amusement clear in his eyes. “I was only getting to know my descendent,” he held his arms wide as if in jest.
“Don’t tease him Alucard. His mind is in a delicate state. If you cause him any damage it will take me years to mend.”
Alucard ignored Julia’s scolding, losing interest now that he was faced with his strict fledgling, some times she acted as if he where the fledgling and she the sire. “Fine I won’t break your precise toy.” he told her and walked off fading into the night.
Julia turned to face Tobias the hint of a grin on her lips, “You did well Tobias, you haven’t locked away all of your courage after all. I’m proud of you few people, human or vampire, can argue with Alucard and live to tell about it.”
Tobias smiled like a young man receiving praise for a task well done. Julia patted him on the shoulder then vanished into the darkness, leaving Tobias to his prayers. She still had things to do that night.
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Integra found herself again absently waiting for the midian’s appearance, and she shuffled through the usual reports. She was secretly glad for the time to think, she was not sure what to say to the nosferatu. Her original questions had been answered the night before, but she was still curios about the vampire.
She justified the second meeting by telling herself that: first it would be good to know more about Julia in case she ever became a problem in the future, and second that she could learn more about vampires in general, by speaking with a vampire that had recently been in contact with her own kind.
However, the truth was that she had enjoyed speaking to Julia. She could not remember how long it had been since she had spent a few hours simply talking with some one and in such an open manor, although the openness had been on Julia’s part alone. Integra had become used to people always being very reserved around her, after all she was a leader. It was refreshing to spend time with someone who was not under her command.
A soft knock removed her from her thoughts, and she called for Julia to enter. She opened the door walked into the room treading on her soundless footsteps. She was dressed much as she had been the day before, save for the fact that she now wore her hair in a delicate twist held together with the stem of a single white rose. It suited her well.
There was an unspoken subtly in the ornate change that Integra did not miss. Julia had not simply altered her appearance for formality, but had taken a step towards elegance. She had done something that showed she now cared about her appearance, something Integra had never seen her do before. It made her recall the portrait that now hung in the downstairs gallery, and the simple yet beautiful way the vampire was dressed in the faded image.
Integra motioned for Julia to sit and poured their respective drinks. Julia took the delicate china cup and sipped the dark metallic liquid within. There was an awkward moment of silence then she spoke.
“Do you have anymore questions for me Sir Hellsing?” Though she had not thought of one earlier Integra came up with one quickly.
“You never told me why you came into conflict with Vashnicalf. Was it some manner of feud that caused him to seize your fledgling?”
Julia shook her head, “Not exactly, at one point he expressed a carnal interest in me and I rejected him quite violently. He didn’t take the insult well. He captured Tobias in order to gain power over me.” Integra had a mild expression of surprise.
“you mean that’s what it was all about?” Julia did not look amused.
“I assure you it was more complicated than that.”
“Do tell?” said Integra resting her chin on her hand,” unable to hide a small smile, at Julia’s indignation. The ruffled immortal continued.
“Vashnicalf was doing more than trying to rape me, it was a power play. Among vampire I am considered fairly powerful, not because I am physically strong like Alucard, but because I am able to affect and control the minds of other vampires. Most vampires can only control humans or their own fledglings, even I can only control vampires that are not drastically stronger than me.
“I’m one of the older and stronger vampires currently in existence, this ensures few will ever challenge me or my fledglings. Unfortunately, Vashnicalf was one of the few that are more powerful than me. He was to powerful for me to get into his mind, so he had nothing to fear in challenging me.
“Vashnicalf was a leader, he liked drawing other vampires to him and making them obey him. To him the image of power was everything. For several years before he and I came into conflict, he had been challenging any powerful vampire he thought he could win against. When he defeated them he and took their blood and strength, by doing this he increased the sense of supremacy other vampires had of him, as well as his actual power.
“When he crossed paths with me he must have become determined to defeat me as he had some many others. As far as vampires are concerned, I am an outsider and by bringing me under heel he would gain the respect and possible loyalty of many vampires, who dislike me.
“Simply killing me in battle, however, would not be an effective victory against me, because I am respected for my mental abilities, and this is as much from understanding of psychology as psychic ability . He probably realized he could not gain respect by slaughtering a trickster, but by beating me at my own game. To gain the honor of having truly triumphed over me, he would have to bring me under heel willingly.
“He wanted to either make me become his bride by choice, or force me to publicly submit to him. When I refused to be his willingly, he attacked my one weakness, my fledgling. He expected me to have no choice, but to surrender to him outright, or fight an impossible battle against him and then be forced to yield to him when I lost, in order to save Tobias’s life. He didn’t expect me to appeal to Alucard, and by doing so I destroyed him.”
“So you won?” asked Integra.
“Against Vashnicalf yes, but I weakened my standing with other vampires by appealing to my sire for help. I showed I was unable to deal with a vampire of Vashnicalf’s strength on my own. I’ll now be considered to be under Alucard’s wing, so to speak, until I fight and win another battle on my own. For a grown fledgling to require their sire’s help is a rather embarrassing state of affairs.”
“I did not realize vampire society was so complicated,” said Integra thoughtfully. It sounded almost as if she was describing aristocrats. Integra saw to the extermination of monsters and did not question there motives, or how they interacted with other monsters.
“Vampire’s are alarmingly complicated,” said Julia shrugging her shoulders. “Just imagine English nobles but with several life time’s worth of grudges and alliances. I suppose you’ve never really encountered this though. I intend no offense, but you organization specializes in killing rouge vampires that have carelessly made themselves known to humans. If Hellsing did not eradicate them, other vampires would.”
“Really?”
“Yes, if all vampires acted like the ones you hunt, do you really think we would have lasted this long? The ones you destroy are rouges that are either fledglings that have been abandoned by their sire and don’t know how to kill secretly, or older vampires that have lost their will to live and kill indiscriminately, or have simply gone insane.
“If all of my kind made themselves so visible, humans would have destroyed us long ago. Most vampires either don’t kill when they gather blood, or destroy the ghouls they create. The reason vampires can exist as we do is that humans are convinced we are a superstition. You can even show evidence to people that we exist and they won’t believe you. Still, if vampires always left ghouls wandering about and killed too many humans they would eventually realize we exist.
“Then they would organize against us, as they have all other predators. In nearly every part of the world there are organizations that hunt vampires and keep knowledge of our existence from the public. Although, they do take some toll on our general population, mostly they destroy the vampires they can easily find, which are the rouges. In a way you could say they really help vampires to continue existing, they weed out the careless.”
Now it was Integra’s turn not to look amused, “So I am the hunter that kills the sickly wolves then?”
“Of course, but keep in mind even a healthy wolf knows to fear the baying of hounds.”
“Yet you do not fear me.” They where both leaning across the table caught up in the match of words, hardly a hairs breath separating them.
“I could never fear you Hellsing, you are too much like Mary, and I would never have feared her.” Julia’s word’s startled Integra and she quickly leaned back into her seat, not ready to contemplate what the vampire had meant.
When Integra had regained her composure, Julia had already returned to her chair, sitting with the composure of a lady, and ease of a feline. Her expression was not as blank as the mask Integra wore, but her calm face still gave away nothing.
Integra changed the subject quickly. “From what you’ve said it sounds as if there are several groups within immortal kind, which are you?” Julia nodded, accepting the shift of conversation.
“Vampires are as highly divided as humans, and perhaps even more independent on an individual level. That is how you run across vampires as insane as Alucard, power hungry as Vashnicalf, or sweet as Seres. We all have a different idea of what to do with eternity, and there are many schools of thought. The slang term for vampires like me would be revenants.”
“Revenants are bodies that have become reanimated by the soul after death just long enough to complete some unfinished task. They’re different from vampires and not immortal,” said Integra critically. Julia shrugged her shoulders, and spoke again as if she where trying to explain the difference between the color orange and the fruit orange, to a child.
“That is the proper definition of a revenant that humans use. However, among vampires the term revenant is applied to other vampires who act something like real revenants. You see, I chose to become a vampire on the threshold of death, for the sole purpose or remaining with Mary. I turned every one of my fledglings when they where dying so they could live on to finish something they had left undone as humans.
“Once a revenant’s reason for continuing as a vampires is finished they often end their false life by their own hand. Several of my own fledglings ended their existence in such a way, although I have sired many, few still remain. I am rather unique in the fact that I persist in continuing even after my original reason for becoming a vampire is gone. Revenant vampires usually will try to not interfere with anything other than the task they have remained for, and do not kill humans.”
“Then how do they feed?” asked Integra incredulously.
“It’s possible to take blood from a human without killing or biting them. It is a simple thing for a vampire to put a human into a trance, cut their wrist and drain some of their blood, and then leave them convinced they fell on some glass or the like. That is how I usually survive. Cold blood keeps a vampires alive, and the hunger at bay, although it is a shadow compared to feeding from a living human.
“So you’ve killed then,” the question was sharp. Julia looked at Integra, who’s cobalt eyes had gone cold.
“Yes, and no. I have given countless mercy killings, and I have sire several fledglings, but I have never killed a human for the sake of their blood, although I have killed for revenge.”
“Who?”
“Two of section thirteen’s priests nearly a century ago. They killed a two fledglings of mine, and a deaf and blind human girl who I was protecting. In the seventeenth century while traveling in Italy I came across the child. She was orphaned, and near death from hunger. I took her under my care, with the assumption that I could find a human family to take her soon enough.
“Unfortunately no one wanted a girl with no hearing, voice or sight, so she remained with me and I became rather attached to her. I was able to communicate with her telepathically and let her see what I saw through my eyes and hear what I heard. She was almost a daughter to me, and an exceptionally intelligent girl.
“Several months after I found her, I received word from a fledgling of mine named Leon who lived in France. There where Vatican hunters pursuing him and he needed my help. I left the girl with another fledgling of mine named Philemon who lived near the border of Italy with his lover another vampire name Bauchis, who was the former fledgling of a friend of mine.
“I reached France to late to save Leon, the hunter had already slain my fledgling and laid in wait for me. I fought and defeated him but I did not kill him.
“You let an enemy live?” asked Integra doubtfully. Julia shook her head and in a voice far to calm for the words that followed she replied, “Yes I let him live, but I blinded his eyes and cut the tendons on both his legs so that he could never hunt my kind again.” There was something almost frightening about Julia as she said this. They where the words of a creature of necessity, the harsh statement of one who had often had to fight for survival. It did not fit the innocent looking youth sitting in the wooden chair, with the poise of an aristocrat.
Julia continued talking and the tiger like gleam retreated from her eyes and regret took it‘s place. “I should have known he wasn’t acting alone. As the hunter cursed me clutching his darkened eyes he told me my fledgling in Italy was being killed as we spoke. I raced back to Italy and was again too late. I found the dust of my fledgling and his lover.
“The human girl was gone and at first I thought she might have live, but when I reached out for her thoughts I found nothing, and knew she was dead. I soon found her ashes in the town square. She had been burned as a witch for her association with the vampires and lack of a voice to defend herself. I went into a rage over her death. She had been a child, an innocent, deserving of a long life not a horrible death.
“I quickly learned of the two hunters that had done the deed. I tracked both of them down. I found the older one first, a man in his late forties and after a difficult duel I killed him without mercy. I realized later that he was holding me off so that the younger hunter could escape. I tracked the remaining killer, he was a boy of no more than sixteen, almost an innocent. I shouldn’t have killed him.
“He even begged for his life. I could have blinded him like the first hunter that killed Leon, but the death of the human girl hardened my heart to his please and I took his life. In that act I went against everything I stood for and believed in. I perpetuated the cycle of violence and stained my hands with human blood. I nearly became as much of a monster as Alucard.” Julia’s voice faltered and she fell silent. She had not meant to confess so much to the Hellsing leader, it was unwise to show such vulnerability to her, yet she could not help it. It was as if she where talking to Mary again, seeking her council in the dark hours of the night.
Integra watched her calmly for a moment, she knew not how to reply. She was a killer herself and had shot her own uncle in order to save her own life. She had ordered the destruction of countless vampires, and in the course a few humans as well. She could offer Julia no condolence or forgiveness, only understanding.
“Vampire, do not think you are the only immortal or mortal who has taken a life. Now, the hour grows late and I still have work to do, I must ask you to withdraw.” Julia stood and bowed slightly in a manner almost reminiscing of Alucard.
“As you wish, Sir Hellsing” Integra nodded and Julia turned to leave. As her cold hand touched the door Integra remember something.
“Julia, if you could bring me a copy of the volume of poetry you mentioned in your last visit I would like to see it.”
“I’ll find one,” said Julia and then she was gone. Integra glanced after the now closed door and leaned back lighting a cigar. She had a bit to much to think about to begin working yet.
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I opologise for how long this chapter took. My only exuse is that life got in the way. I extend a major thank you to every one who is still reading this after eleven chapters.
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