Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ Drowning in Darkness ❯ Calm before the Storm ( Chapter 3 )

Drowning in Darkness

By: Lazeralk

Standard disclaimers apply

In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation. Amen.

Part 3

*

"These attacks are becoming a major annoyance. Our mysterious hunter goes on a killing spree and we get to do all the paperwork." Said Integra; shuffling through the mound of work she had to do.

"I do hope Arucard catches this hunter, I think it would be rather interesting to meet someone else of our vampire's caliber." Commented Walter, lounging on a sofa across from the desk and playing with his wires.

"Are you so sure of that? Just think, another Arucard in Hellsing. The house wouldn't survive."

"It would be just like him to fight wouldn't it?" laughed the retired agent.

"He doesn't seem to be tiring of it. Do you know what's agitating him Walter? His anger is staring to annoy me." Said Integra as she rubbed at her temples.

"Your bond?"

"Yes, I can get a rather sketchy impression of his feelings and right now he's gleefully plotting someone's death. It's starting to give me a headache."

*

Arucard, while installing a systems password on Malikai's computer, sneezed.

*

"Would you like some herbal tea Sir Integra? It would help at least with the headache." Said Walter, as he stood and stretched his long limbs.

"Yes Walter, thank you."

"Right away then."

The aging retainer of the Hellsing family left the room and descended into the kitchens to prepare the tea.

*

Seras made a minute adjustment to the angle, stepped back and gave the wall and it's painting a calculating stare. She stepped back up to the frame and pushed it ju~st so.

"Ah! Perfect!" she cried.

She stared at the picture then hurried over to the mirror Arucard had given her out of the blue and straightened her skirt. Her master probably stole it from one of the other rooms, but it meant that he'd been listening to her after all. And all this time she thought he just tuned her out whenever she spoke.

"Ok, Seras, now you're just stalling." She said, even as she ran a brush through her hair one more time.

"You know," said Arucard as he came in through her picture sideways and upside down.

"Talking to your self is one of the first signs of insanity."

She scowled at him and he laughed. She ran her hands down her skirt and gave him pleading eyes.

"Master. How do I look?" she asked nervously, wringing her hands. Her skirt was black and just above knee length; her crimson blouse was conservative but showed the skin at her neck. Her leggings and boots were still firmly in place and she'd done something interesting with her hair.

Arucard finished coming out of the wall and once he was back on his feet, stalked around her, one hand at his chin the other holding his elbow. He looked her up and down, from side to side and back again, all the while making little `hmming' noises.

Arucard, who wore skintight clothes himself, could understand her choice of outfits. He could even commend her taking the gun, tucked under her left arm in a borrowed holster. Judging by the fit and the make, he assumed it was one of Walters's old rigs. She looked very nice.

He'd bite off his own tongue and swallow it before he told her as much but he could admit it to himself.

"You're showing too much skin police girl, are you planning to bed him before the sun rises?" he asked with a sneer.

She blushed, having made good on her promise to drink the offered blood, and looked at her feet.

"Of course not Master. I was raised better than that."

"Good to hear." He said. He stared at her for a moment, his protectiveness warring with his nature as he debated whether to say anything of his own feelings or not. Not won out in the end and he gave her his devil-may-care grin.

"Off with you police girl, and don't do anything I wouldn't. In fact, do everything I would."

"I'm not going to shoot him Master."

"Drat. Not even in the leg?"

"No Master." She said, her eyes narrowing in annoyance. Why couldn't he approve of Malikai? Was it too much to ask that he just be happy for her? Did he even know how much his opinion meant to her?

"I see. Good night. Seras."

Her eyes widened with surprise. Her master called her by her first name. He'd never done that before. It was always police girl or just Victoria, but never Seras. She watched him walk back through the wall, unable to speak, her heart stuck in her throat.

"Master. Why now? Why must you show me this now?" she asked her empty room. What was he trying to tell her? Was he jealous or just being overprotective? Was his affection for her fatherly or romantic? She had no idea.

*

Malikai twitched in annoyance but refused to scream. So far, he had been locked out of his office and had to wait three hours for a janitor to be summoned with the wrong key. Then another one and a half for the blundering idiot to find the right one. Then his computer demanded a password to be turned on at all and the file cabinets his predecessor had left were locked as well. All his supplies had been mysteriously misplaced or lost forever and someone had loosened a brick in the stairs causing him to trip.

"It's the stupid vampire, I know it is." He grumbled to himself.

Somewhere in the dungeons, Arucard was rolling on the floor, fighting to get enough air into his lungs to continue laughing at his latest victim. Ah, life was good, but death was better.

*

"Here's your tea, Sir Integra. Are you alright?" asked Walter, setting the steaming china cup on the desk and looking at her pale color and angry eyes.

"Am I allowed to shoot my own men Walter?" she asked, picking up the cup and bringing it gingerly to her lips.

"Arucard again?" he asked.

"Yes." She replied, pulling back after burning her lips a touch.

"What's he done this time?"

"He won't stop laughing for some reason."

*

Arucard cocked his head to the side a little, listening to his master's conversation. He giggled at her comment and then stopped dead, (no pun intended) and realized that he'd actually giggled. He promptly pulled out his gun, and a spare clip of normal bullets, and held it to his temple.

"Don't ever giggle again." He told himself, then he pulled the trigger and his head exploded in a shower of blood and thicker things, all over the nice washed stone walls.

His head then reformed and, satisfied, he popped the clip out and replaced it with the melted down cross bullets and tucked his gun back into his coat.

Deciding that sitting at home and laughing at the human moron was just this side of pathetic, he pulled his lanky form up and proceeded to the wall.

Please understand that having just blown his own head to smithereens, he was slightly disoriented and thus, didn't concentrate on his nifty wall-phasing technique too hard and that, while the only excuse he has to offer, it is a rather good one.

He walked right into the wall, his face smashing into the hard stone and stunning him. He fell flat on his back and stared up and pretty blinking lights for a moment before growling to himself and snapping back to reality.

To his credit, he did manage to walk through the wall on his third try.

*

Walter, in his own private study, reviewed the latest information his personal network of spies had provided, sipping at a glass of some thing liquid and pink.

Arucard phased through the wall and sat heavily before him, his yellow tinged glasses in his hands.

"Is there something I can do for you Arucard?" asked Walter, not looking up from his papers.

"You know the gun you got me? The new one?" the other began.

"Yes." Answered the mortal, glancing up at him, and taking in his too relaxed pose and dazed red eyes.

"I want another one. I gave the Cassul to the police girl. I'd like another Jackal I think. Yes, that would be nice." Said Arucard.

"Are you alright?" asked Walter, setting down his reports and giving the vampire his full attention.

"Fine. Just shot myself in the head, but I'm fine."

"Why on earth did you do that?" asked the Angel of Death.

"Trust me, you don't want to know. The truth would scar you beyond recovery." Answered the immortal solemnly.

"I see. I will have your gun in a few days. Is that sufficient?'

"It is. What is that?"

"What's what?"

"That, what you're drinking."

"Oh this? It's guava juice, quite tasty actually." Answered Walter.

Arucard just looked at him for a moment, then opened his mouth to say something and closed it again.

"Would you like me to shoot you in the head?" he asked, quite serious.

Walter gave him a scathing look.

"No. Thank you."

*

Seras shifted her weight from one leg to the other and bit her lip. Malikai was late. She glanced around and confirmed in her mind that this was indeed the place he said to meet for the umpteenth time in the last five minutes. She was just about to turn around and go back to her room when she spotted his white blond head jogging down the road.

"Seras!" he called, coming to a halt before her.

"Sorry I'm late, I had the most horrible day." He explained.

She smiled, careful not to show her fangs and nodded understandingly.

"It's no problem. Shall we?" she asked, making a sweeping gesture with her arm.

"We shall." He laughed, offering his own to her.

"Isn't that my line?"

"I guess it is. Sorry." She giggled as she took his arm, wrapping her own all the way around it.

Her skin was warm, and cheeks were flushed, giving her a much healthier appearance now that she'd fed. She smiled happily.

They walked down the way to the park, neither noticing the burning red eyes that followed their every move.

*

Arucard could have kicked himself, but after the incident with the wall, he was rather reluctant to rip his own leg off and use it as a self-imposed punishment. Wouldn't want to be walking funny in addition to running into stone walls. He watched the human touch his child and felt an involuntary twitch begin in his left eye, his fists clenched and he silently bared his fangs. His gun sort of materialized in his hand, he looked at it and couldn't remember drawing it. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad so he settled on both. Good that he could draw without thinking about it, bad that he couldn't use it on the mortal fool (Puck) in front of him. He scowled and tucked the gun away, no use in keeping it out if he wasn't going to use it.

Oh well, there would always be next time.

*

End Part 3

* If you didn't understand the Puck reference read "A Midsummer's Night Dream" by Shakespeare. Puck says: "Lord what fools these mortals be."