Hellsing Fan Fiction ❯ San Graal ❯ Obligation ( Chapter 5 )

She was not about to leave the master's office. Argetni could survive without sleep as long as she had blood, which Stephen had already provided, as she waited for the child-leader to return from the hospital. The sun had already risen halfway up the sky, and while her body cried for the safety of her coffin in the dungeons below, her mind was set to catch Aiden in whatever idiotic trap he had just snared himself.

The smirk only spread further across her lips as she smelled the musky aroma of the boy enter the building, along with the cold, sterile scent of the hospital that lingered upon his clothing.

His first stop was not to be the office; it would be his bedroom for his daily slumber, in the vain hope that when he would finally awake the nightmare would be over. Never mind that he should be attending religious services this morning, Aiden was beyond the help of the Church at the moment.

There would be no meeting in his dreams to discuss the current matters of the Organization and the child's life, but a more human meeting- mother and son standing in the hall speaking like the genteel folk their breeding intended them to be. Silently, she traversed the office in a few strides, entering the hall just as the boy stepped upon the third floor landing.

"Argetni, I've had a helluva night. Unless you have a fresh supply of my drink, I suggest you leave immediately."

Mother and son? No, Argetni could only chuckle as his words registered in her mind. If he wished to play the game of master and servant, she would be more than willing to oblige.

"Or you'll do what, my master?" The smirk remained; the challenge now issued. If he was to address her as the abomination she had become, she would act as the creature. "Allow me to become famished due to your selfish desires, hmm? You know what I am like when I haven't fed, don't you Sir Hellsing?"

"I apologize for not being here to issue dismissal from your previous mission, but something terrible occurred last night and I had to stay at the hospital, you do understand. You may have tonight to yourself unless I call for you, and I will only do so through the releasing of your seals. You are dismissed Argetni, so please leave."

He continued away from her toward the entrance to his room, bolting the door behind him, but knowing that if she wished, the vampiress would be in the room to press the matter further.

Just as he expected, Argetni had materialized in the shadows near his closet, sitting upon a wooden chair as she watched him remove his shirt, thankfully satiated by the blood from earlier this morning.

"What really happened Aiden? Which horse harmed the girl? I may have to try the blood of those creatures tonight. God knows their meat is by far superior to other types. Perhaps their blood is the same."

The boy did not turn to acknowledge the vampiress seated behind him as he stepped from his trousers in to a pair of loose cotton pants. She must know what happened, otherwise she would not be questioning him.

"It wasn't a horse that caused the accident, it was me. My hands sent Madelen Radclyffe to the hospital. I may have made her a simpleton for the rest of her pathetic existence." He turned to face her as she sat in the chair, but just for a moment. "Are you pleased? Now I won't have to marry her if she doesn't pull through."

Silence gripped the room as the boy continued his preparations for bed, folding the soiled clothes from the night before as he waited for the reply, some snide comment about embracing his darkness or whatever it was Argetni would rant of this day.

He should have been worried that she did not respond. It could only foretell trouble.

Shivering as he turned, for the silence had remained too long, Aiden could only bite his lip so not to cry aloud as icy arms wrapped around his torso, gleaming razor-sharp fingernails leaving bloody tracks across his chest as the gentle pads of willowy fingers soothed the wounds. This was too much, the blood, the closeness, the forced breaths upon his neck. . . . .

I will not lose my innocence to a demon. . . . .

Normally, she stopped as soon as she noticed how terrified he was of the contact, but this time was to be different. Her hands had slipped lower, gently caressing the exposed flesh just above the cotton pants; her lips pressed against his neck, canines gently piercing the skin, but not enough to draw a significant amount of blood.

Whimpering, Aiden tried to struggle gently against her touch, to make Argetni realize what she was doing, but his movement in her arms only seemed to encourage her hands to continue their exploration of the body in their grasp.

God was cruel to his loyal soldier; allowing the temptations of one of Satan's minions to lull his body and mind to cry for more, to increase the pleasure, to make the religion of the flesh his own.

But she was his mother, and she must be made to remember. He would lose her respect if he could not deflect her sensual assault, and he fully understood that it was only through a grudging respect that the vampiress obeyed his commands, both in battle and civilian life.

"Mum! Let me go! I'm not one of the commoners you're allowed to corrupt!"

The vampiress chuckled as he struggled more violently against her restraints, loving how absolutely simple it was to tempt the child, but also grateful his will was strong. She had taught him the Faith well; that was all she wished to test this morning.

As quickly as she had captured him in her arms, Argetni released the child, standing beside the door, watching him try to regain his composure as he leaned against the dresser, head in his hands as he forced his breathing to slow.

"Remember MY warnings. You do not wish to serve my master."

~*~*~*~*~*~

His dreams were restless that day, a conglomeration of his pet vampire's caresses, Madelen's cries for justice to be served, and his father's warnings of religious fanaticism all coupled together in a surreal portrait of his life, concluding with watching himself draw blood from a human victim much like a common vampire would. To a normal human, such dreams would be too much to comprehend, but Aiden fully understood what was happening. Spirits were contacting him in his trance-like state, as they could do with most any person willing to listen to their cries. Unfortunately, the spirits that ruled his dreams were those of monsters.

But what was the purpose of the dream? If it was to be a vision of the future, the child realized that he was damned, no matter what particular path he chose.

He ate his later afternoon breakfast alone, preferring to remain away from even the retainer and his mother, who was pretending to be her human counterpart this night, even contorting her appearance with her abilities to appear like the eighty year old specimen she should have been. He assumed she would be entertaining one of the elderly Round Table Conference members, perhaps trying to arrange a marriage with one of their daughters or just discussing the fate of Argetni now that the inhuman problem of England was all but solved.

Stephen allowed him access to the Jaguar, a surprising occurrence given Aiden's age and the fact that he was not yet eligible for a driver's permit, giving the boy the freedom to escort himself to Sir Radclyffe's home, which was just minutes from the Hellsing residence. But all familiar with Aiden's appearance would never guess the boy at his true age- most believed he was twenty at the youngest.

The drive across the outskirts of the city was routine, and about as uneventful as one could expect for a Sunday evening. He soon arrived at the grotesque new-style mansion, just built less than five years prior on the site of the former Radclyffe manor which had been deemed unsuitable for living after a fire.

Parking the Jaguar in front of the main entrance- doors to a lift that carried the visitor to the third floor where the actual entrance way was placed- Aiden stopped for just a moment, staring at the office-like façade of the house, with its thin, multi-storied structures that reminded him somewhat of the sights of New York when he had traveled to meet the NAPHC's leader the year prior.

No one awaited him in the lift, but Aiden had been to the Radclyffe home enough to know exactly which buttons to press to take him to the desired location, the topmost eighth story without stopping on the third floor reception area, and almost as soon as the door closed, it opened once again to the desired balcony.

The library was to his right, and with hands buried in his pockets Aiden hurried to the place he had been asked to wait for his special training to begin so that he could repay his debt to the family.

There was still no cause for worry in his mind. The Radclyffe family had spent generations living their traitorous dreams while still remaining beloved subjects of former kings and queens. Why could he and his future family not harbor the same secrets and still remain loyal subjects to King and country?

Tomes, both ancient and modern stood side by side in the expansive room filled with shelves upon shelves to store all the works collected by the Round Table's official librarian. How Radclyffe knew exactly where each and every text was in this jumble was amazing, but Aiden was certain that if he spent his entire life in training for the task of running an archive, he too would have a system only he understood, just so outsiders would have a difficult time locating whatever mystery they wished to uncover.

"'The literal meaning of the Bible is for the vulgar only,' Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, 1871. Do you agree, Sir Hellsing?"

Radclyffe stepped from behind one of the far shelves, holding a leather bound book in his right hand; a smile pasted across his face. "Or is it that you are one of the vulgar masses, my dear boy?"

"I am not. I believe that the Bible is the ultimate authority of God's word. It is man that destroys the literal and implied meanings of the wisdom given to us from heaven, like the Catholics did during the early years of the Faith."

"Tsk. I should not expect more than such a statement from a child." Smoothing a stray hair behind his ear, Radclyffe's featured hardened, his brow wrinkled in contempt of the boy's ignorance. After all of the meetings between the two, Aiden still refused to open his eyes to understand the truth of his situation.

But then again, his mother was just as unflexible in her beliefs, for his grandfather had tried to recruit Integral Devries when she was but a young woman, a feat which only incurred the wrath of Hellsing's vampire. That was also when the Radclyffe family learned of Hellsing's greatest secret.

"Sir Radclyffe, I will leave if you do not show me the proper respect for a man of my titles."

His brow softened; his lips curling to sneer as he spat the words. "Oh yes. Sir Aiden Hellsing, fifth generation of the Hellsing family, but officially recorded as sixth generation in the public archives. Your mother and grandmother are one in the same, making you an inbred, unholy demon like every woman that controlled your Organization previously. You are one of the youngest ever Royal Protestant Knights, but after those two, miniscule additions to your name, you are nothing, child. Nothing but an accident created from an affair."

Pursing his lips, Aiden glared at the elder man who still appeared bitter from his daughter's accident. Had he known the truth the entire time, just playing the game as Argetni and he did to create a sense of normalcy in the Organization? Or did he just discover such truths this very day, upset at what the implications for his daughter's married life could be. This was going to be worse than Aiden expected.

"Who spreads such lies about Hellsing! I will have to purge-"

"Your mother divulged the information to my family at a private meeting when my father had tried to prepare an arranged marriage between my brother and her. She, barred her fangs, so to speak."

Aiden could only nod, knowing that would have been Argetni's reaction to such a proposal. Perhaps that was why she was still so bitter about Charles's attempts to arrange a marriage between the children.

But this was not the time to think of such things. He had come here on a mission, and he would see that mission through, no matter the cost.

"If you want my army to work for you, inform me of your plans so I can prepare an alibi for the ground troops."

"I want you to read Morals and Dogma, Aiden. I want you to understand every word written upon its pages, and I want you to be ready and willing to do anything for your obligation to the Order. Do you understand?

Closing his eyes as he breathed, the boy sighed before turning from the elder Knight, uncertain of what he should say. He did promise to help Sir Radclyffe because of Maddy's injury, but the situation was now too strange. Charles was not the person that Aiden believed he had known.

But then again, Aiden was not the person Charles that believed him to be.

"I can only try to do what you ask, Sir Radclyffe."

"Then, my boy, what is it that binds you to me and the Organization I command?"

"My obligation."

Radclyffe smiled as he closed the difference between them, clapping his hand upon the boy's shoulder as he led him to the back of the library.