Hellsing - Blood Heritage

So... I apologize profusely for how long this took to put up. Life has been crazy, and writer's block has been kicking my arse. I'm still not satisfied with this chapter - but to hell with it. I'm tired of re-writing it. So if it sucks, I apologize. I might go back and completely re-write it later... I might not. I just need to get past this part and move on to the rest of the story.

-edit- added a few things, so maybe it will make a bit more sense. (Thanks to Elalona for the review. Hopefully it will make more sense now.)
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"Do you trust me?"

The question was unexpected and it made her pause. "Why...?"

His response was calm, but Syn could tell there was something hiding underneath. "It is a simple question. I wish to know your response while I have you this way - locked away from the world and surrounded only by me. Now... do you trust me?"

Syn lost herself in her thoughts, trying to come to a decision about how to answer.

"I'm waiting Syn."

She looked up and saw the expectant look in his eyes. Suddenly, she knew her answer, though she had never admitted it aloud before now...

"Yes." she said slowly. "I do."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Alucard murmured something unintelligible, then sank his fangs into her throat. It wasn't like the other times he had bitten her. No, this was 'painful' in the worst way. It felt like an acid had been poured into her bloodstream and it was coursing it's way through her body, even as he was drawing her blood out. When it reached her heart, she felt something that no human being should ever feel except at the moment of death. She felt her soul being ripped in two.

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Syn's eyes flew open, only to be greeted by darkness. She blinked in confusion before she realized where she was.

'Oh my god. I cannot believe I just slept in a bloody coffin...'

At least it was warm. The walls of the box trapped in body heat, so it was a 'little' better than waking up in a cold room like she was used to. The trade off however, was blindness, and she had experienced quite enough of that to last for a while. She shifted slightly, noticing Alucard was still unconscious. 'The sun must still be up.' she mused. That might just make getting up easier. Alucard usually didn't get up during the day, so he was more likely to remain asleep while she went about her normal routine. She moved to open the lid, only to have the strong arms around her waist tighten.

Syn glanced behind her. Alucard still looked asleep, but he seemed to sense her intentions. Normally, she would have argued about him keeping her from getting up, but the sight of him looking somewhat peaceful and free of nightmares made her stop. She sighed and laid back down.

"Can I open the lid?"

Alucard grumbled sleepily, then reached up and pushed open the lid to the coffin. Syn felt a little less caged in, but now there was cold air to deal with. Her teeth chattered and she clambered to snuggle closer to the vampire, hoping she might get a little body heat from him. It was all in vain of course, since vampires didn't give off any heat of their own. She felt a rush of irritation from him at her movements.

"What is it now?" he demanded, sliding a single eye open to peer at her.

Syn made a face. "I'm cold..."

The vampire snorted, then pulled a thick blanket out of nowhere. He wrapped it around them tightly, then laid back down with a huff.

'Damn humans...' he thought as he went back to sleep.

Syn laid there feeling very confused. He hadn't said anything out loud, so how had she heard that? And the irritation that came from him... she had felt it like it was her own feeling... 'Does this have something to do with that dream?' she wondered.

Alucard's arms tightened around her again. "You worry too much." he muttered.

'Did he just... read my mind?' she thought, surprised. She was supposed to be immune to vampiric manipulation like mind reading. Alucard, no matter how powerful he was, shouldn't be able to get into her head...

'Yes, I just read your mind.' his voice interrupted into her thoughts. 'Now go back to sleep.'

Okay, something really weird was going on. He was doing something that should have been impossible, yet there he was, talking to her through some sort of mental connection. She felt his irritation rise again, and she clamped down on her thoughts. No matter what had happened to cause this, the last thing she wanted to do was get him in a bad mood. He was grumpy enough when someone woke him up early. She would wait until sundown to badger him about it.

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"Okay, you want to explain what's going on here?"

Alucard glanced up from the Backgammon board with an innocent expression. "Explain what, dearest?"

Syn frowned. "Don't play dumb with me. Did you do some kind of vampiric hocus pocus to be able to get into my head?"

"I will remind you that you are able to 'get into' my head as well." he pointed out, as if that somehow answered the question.

Syn gritted her teeth in frustration. "I KNOW. Hence, why I asked the fucking question." she glared at him in accusation. "You did something to me last night, didn't you?"

Alucard quirked a brow at her. "I would think the answer to that is obvious."

"GOD DAMN IT ALUCARD! Will you PLEASE stop playing your fucking mind games and give me straight answer!?"

He seemed to find her actions amusing. No, he found them downright hilarious. Syn could 'feel' that he was laughing at her internally. Which was precisely why she was so upset about the whole thing. She might be able to accept whatever kind of weird... 'thing' he had done if he would at least be serious about it. But NO. He had to sit there and run circles around the issue, laughing at her confusion the whole time. She wanted to throw the board game across the room.

"Now Syn," he chided playfully. "You know as well as I that domestic problems are never solved by resorting to violence..."

'Domestic problems my ass.' she thought venomously. 'Making it sound like we're a married couple having a spat...'

He smirked at her knowingly. "Vampires do not marry. They take mates. Marriage is a weak human comparison."

Syn's head shot up. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?" she demanded, not liking where this was going.

Alucard shrugged as he picked up the dice. "You were the one who thought of marriage. I'm simply explaining the difference."

Syn fell silent, not paying any attention to him as he made his play. Is that what happened? He had done something to tie them together as mates? It certainly explained the mental/emotional connection. She had read about mated vampires being able to do such a thing. But it didn't explain why he had done it. She was a piece of property - promised to him by her ancestors for him to use for his amusement. And even 'if' that's what he had done, vampires didn't take mates from outside their own species. The process would kill them if they weren't strong enough to survive...

'You think too little of yourself. You said you trusted me.'

Syn looked up and narrowed her eyes at him. He hadn't even taken his eyes off the board. 'Stay out of my head.'

He chuckled inside her mind. 'You are so anxious, my dear.' he purred. 'Is the notion so terrible to you? Very little will change. And if you are objectionable to having your thoughts open to me, I will teach you to block them.'

She had a hard time believing that, but she couldn't sense any deception on his part. She looked at him suspiciously. "You would do that?"

He finished moving his checkers, then pushed the dice to her side of the board. "I will." he replied. "It is a skill you need to learn. Not to mention, it would be most helpful when I'm trying to sleep..."

He said the last bit with a smirk that made her blood boil. She snorted as she grabbed the dice to make her roll. "Fine. Be that way."

Her cell phone rang just before she dropped the dice. Her concentration broke, making the dice fall onto the opposite side of the board - meaning that she just lost her turn. She cursed under her breath. Alucard was already ahead as it was. She ignored his triumphant smile and got up to look for her phone. When she found it in the other room, Chris' number was flashing on the display. 'What the hell is he calling me for?' she wondered.

"Chris?" she asked upon answering the phone. "What's going on?"

Alucard glanced up and listened to the conversation with interest.

"Syn? I certainly hope your having a wonderful vacation doing whatever the hell it is you're doing! You just 'had' to leave during the busiest part of the year, didn't you!?"

Ooh... he sounded pissed. Syn winced at his tone. "I told you I was sorry. I had some things come up that I had to..."

"I don't give a shit what the hell happened! You've left me in a hell of a lurch. I've had the best spinners in the country for the past three years, and now I'm working with pond scum. Do you know how much money I've lost!?"

Syn was sure there was a complement in there somewhere, but it was hiding underneath all the yelling. She opened her mouth to respond, only to be interrupted again.

"I don't know what this 'family business' of yours is, and frankly, I don't want to know." He stated, not letting her get a word in edgewise. "But I expect you to be here on October 24th to host Bloody Friday, or I am going to come looking for you. You understand me girl?"

Syn sighed in resignation. She had forgotten how pushy the man could be when he had his mind set on something. That was one thing she 'didn't' miss about working in a nightclub. But Bloody Friday was a Halloween tradition that she didn't want to miss. She should be thankful he was giving her this long to prepare for it. "Chris, I'll see if I can pull a few strings, but I can't make any promises. My new job keeps me very..." she glanced at Alucard and cleared her throat. " busy."

Chris snorted on his end of the line. "Fine. Just make sure you aren't busy on the 24th."

He hung up before she had a chance to argue. Syn stared at the phone before tossing it across the table. 'Why are all the men in my life either completely deranged or sadistic assholes?'

"Perhaps your personality attracts such men." Alucard said helpfully. He cocked his head to the side. "I'm curious, which of these categories do I fall in to?"

"Oh, you're special. You're deranged AND sadistic."

It wasn't meant to be a complement, but Alucard looked pleased by it. Syn rolled her eyes at his proud grin. "Only you would take that as a good thing..."

'Coming from you, it is a great complement.'

The sound of his voice in her head forced her to come back to the issue at hand. It would be so much easier to pretend that nothing had happened...

"I couldn't help but notice you pulled this little stunt while I 'have' to do what you want." she said accusingly. She narrowed her eyes. "You could have at least asked me..."

"I asked if you trusted me." he interjected. He cast a serious look at her. "That should have been enough."

Syn crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. She could argue about this all night, but Alucard would never be reasoned with. However, there was one thing that needed to be addressed now, while he was willing to help her with it. She glanced down at the Backgammon board and sighed.

"If I concede defeat, will you teach me about these mental blocks?"

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It took most of their internment, but Syn finally figured out how to hide her thoughts from him. It was actually easy, once she got the hang of it. She still couldn't block him from speaking into her mind - but keeping her thoughts private was enough for her. Though, she did occasionally slip up. From Alucard's explanation, thoughts tied to emotions tend to be 'louder' and harder to cover up. Anger was the strongest for her. He went out of his way to piss her off, then wound up getting a headful of visions of his own evisceration. It was quality entertainment for him - but only served to make her even more upset.

They didn't talk about 'mating' issue again. She was thankful he didn't bring it up. Funnily enough, she wasn't so much bothered by the idea itself than about how he had done it. Alucard had deliberately set this up - gotten her into a situation where she would be locked up with him, then took advantage of Sir Integra's rules to do whatever the hell he wanted while she couldn't say no. Actually, that wasn't quite right. He hadn't even asked in the first place. It didn't matter that they were already tied together. She had gotten used to that. But... maybe she had finally let her guard down a bit too far.

She lay in bed one night turning all this over in her mind, when she noticed Alucard studying her. The moment she saw it, she threw up her blocks, hoping he hadn't seen too much. The vampire frowned when he could no longer see what she was thinking.

"You think I have taken advantage of you."

Syn sniffed. "Didn't you?"

It was telling that he didn't answer. A pained look crossed his face, as if he were actually troubled by it. She quickly shook off the thought. Alucard wasn't capable of feeling remorse. That heavy burden she felt on her shoulders wasn't his. It was her own guilt for playing into his hands so easily.

When she woke up the morning of the fourth day, she was alone. She thought for a moment that Alucard had gone to sleep in his coffin until she saw a small box sitting on the bedside table. It was a black velveteen jewelry box, and sitting next to it was a note written in his elegant script.

'The choice is yours.'

Intrigued, she sat up and opened the box, gasping at what lay inside. It was a ring. A band of burnished silver engraved with a Celtic dragon - his symbol drawn in the style of the people from which she got her name. She pulled it from the box and studied it, noticing an engraving along the inside of it.

'nu viata regina'

Her brows knitted together at the unfamiliar words. She had no idea what they meant, but she faintly recalled them being among what he had said before biting her. She glanced back at the note. 'Choice?' she wondered. 'He's giving me a choice now?' She sat quietly, holding the ring in her hands for what felt like forever. Alucard was careful to keep his thoughts blocked, so she had no idea what his intentions were. Knowing him, it was probably just a way to get her to cooperate and calm down. But... she turned it over between her fingers. Maybe she had been wrong when she thought he wasn't capable of feeling sorry. She let out a heavy sigh. She still didn't like how it had happened, but... something about being given a choice -even if it was a little late- made her feel a bit better. Finally, she made a decision.

She slipped the ring on her left hand, then got dressed to go upstairs.

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I'm already working on the next chapter, so HOPEFULLY ~crosses fingers~ the next update wont take so long.


In the meantime... REVIEWS ARE LIKE AMBROSIA!!! THEY ARE THE FOOD OF THE GODS!!!