Exigencies

Arthur Hellsing, second generation head of the Hellsing Organization and not altogether willing inheritor of the Hellsing legacy was not happy. He was sober, he had an atom bomb-sized mess in his lap, and He. Was. Not. Happy.

He stood in the door to Alucard’s chamber watching his legacy lean in to kiss his now-undead butler and worked to contain a shout.

He was rather proud of himself for his restraint in merely interrupting them before they started snogging.

“I’m sure I’ll regret breaking up this touching moment, but would one of you tell me just what the Hell is going on here?”

It was almost gratifying to catch the two of them by surprise. Almost. It was also quite offputting because it was a sign of just how distracted they were. Both of them should have heard Arthur coming long before he’d even opened the door, let alone before he had spoken.

It certainly didn’t help Arthur’s mood to have heard Alucard’s declaration of possession for the young man. He’d known for years that the two of them had a relationship that he shouldn’t permit, but between his own weakness for women of negotiable virtue and the knowledge that both the vampire and the butler were terribly isolated from the company of their peers – because they were without peer, he thought ruefully – Hellsing’s master could not bring himself to directly order the two of them to break things off.

And here he reaped the harvest of his weakness.

Arthur came the rest of the way into the room and watched the two of them compose themselves.

“The worst case scenario came to pass, Master,” Alucard said, rising smoothly from the bed to put physical and emotional distance between himself and Walter. “Walter was bitten on the hunt and has chosen the path of the No Life King rather than allow the vampire who bit him to possess him or force me to kill him.”

“Oh, is that all?” Arthur’s words dripped sarcasm. “Just a little love bite, Sir Hellsing. We didn’t want to trouble you by letting you know or Heaven forfend asking Master’s bloody permission!”

“Sir.” Walter spoke up, pushing himself up against the headboard. “It wasn’t like that.”

Arthur turned his attention on Walter and for a change, those chilly blue eyes were hot with anger. “And what was it like? The report I got came from a soldier who looks exactly like someone who’s had Alucard mucking about in his head, and I’m supposed to believe anything right now?”

Still, despite those harsh words, Arthur stepped the rest of the way into the chamber and gave the door a hard push to close it behind him.

“Tell me everything, both of you.” His expression was unyielding as he turned it on first one vampire and then the other. “Alucard, tell me the whole truth, I command it. Walter, remember that as he is your master, I am his master. Take my command as though it were his.”

Two vampires. God. Damn. It. He now had to command two vampires. And vampirism probably wouldn’t even make Walter stop nagging.

The day just kept getting worse and worse.

Arthur’s anger didn’t abate as he listened to Walter’s retelling of the events at the ballet studio and of the girl who had not been a victim, but the victimizer.

If it didn’t lessen at that part of the story, it grew upon hearing the combined recounting of Walter’s being brought over as a vampire and the very troubling news of the female’s potential hold on Walter.

“Let me see if I understand the situation,” he said, pulling out a cigarillo and lighting it in an attempt to steady his temper. “Walter allowed some chit of a vampire to bite him on a routine hunt. The troops brought him home. You,” he glared at Alucard, “took Walter from them because there was nothing for it but killing him or killing him, which you did because he asked you to. That chit found you both in some metaphysical ‘this is where I decide which way I’m going to die’ space and tried to take Walter as her own. You three all had a lovers’ quarrel and the upshot is that Walter is here, fanged, and wearing her marks on his throat.”

Walter rubbed the scars on his neck uncomfortably and looked to Alucard, who nodded.

“Yes, Master, I believe that sums it up.”

“Just bloody brilliant!” Arthur threw his hands in the air in disgust and looked around on the off chance that his vampire actually had an unopened bottle of wine somewhere in sight.

He sighed in disgust and sat down in Alucard’s chair when the answer appeared to be no.

“Islands is never going to let me hear the end of this,” he grumbled to himself.

His tone took on a mocking resemblance to Sir Hugh Islands’ usual pinched tones, “I told you that vampire was trouble. I told you he shouldn’t be allowed near the boy. I told you he should be destroyed. I told you. I told you. I told you.”

In a more normal voice he went on, “Bastard never has any sense of adventure.”

Still, maybe Islands had been right, and that was what would chafe most about the situation.

Walter had been unusually subdued for most of the tale telling and through most of Arthur’s railing at them, but now he sat up and looked irritated through the fatigue.

“Sir, with all due respect for Sir Islands,” which his tone indicated was minimal at best, “he knows fuckall about what it takes to hunt vampires. It was my mistake, not Alucard’s and not yours. And if you had listened to Islands, I would be truly dead right now and you would have no trashmen. You’d have to throw humans into the breach and see them die over and over.”

The young man - young vampire – looked tired but resolute. “Alucard and I will find this ‘chit’ who killed me and we will silence her for good, and I will continue to serve Hellsing as I have for years.”

Well, that was certainly the Angel of Death that Arthur knew and respected. Walter would tolerate quite a lot, but when his boundaries had been exceeded, everyone knew.

Interesting, then, that it was when Alucard was threatened or impugned that he had his ire roused.

Arthur took this in, but still niggling in the back of his head was the fact that he was still never going to hear the end of this.

“See that you do,” he finally said, since he had nothing else that would help the situation.

Arthur waved a hand to the standing vampire. “Alucard, go get the boy his first meal.” And leave me alone to speak with Walter, went loudly unspoken.

Alucard nodded and glanced down at Walter, who raised an eyebrow at him and nodded slightly. “I will return soon, but I will be here immediately should you need me,” he said, and most notably for him, left by the door.

“Now,” Arthur said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, “Is there anything else you want to tell me that you wouldn’t tell me with Alucard present? Any other concerns I need to know about?”

Walter shook his head. “No, sir. We told you the whole story. It was my fault from start to finish and I didn’t want to...” He wet his lips with a pale tongue. “I wasn’t ready to die and neither of us knew she was strong enough to make me anything but a ghoul.”

He looked as though he had something more to say, but leaned back in the pillows and closed his eyes. After a moment, he spoke. “I chose this. Don’t punish Alucard. He didn’t force anything.”

Well, that answered the question that had gnawed at Arthur despite his order to Alucard to tell him only the truth. Walter held to the claim that the elder vampire hadn’t coerced him, and Arthur had no reason to believe that he was lying.

This was a ruddy mess, but it could be worse. Much worse.

“Is there anything else about this female vampire that you can tell me? Any detail I can use to possibly work out her identity?”

Walter’s brow wrinkled as he thought back through the jumbled events and then he nodded, opening his eyes. “Yes. I don’t know how it will help you find her, but she didn’t look the same in the ballet studio as she looked in that other place. In the ballet studio, she looked young. Young enough to be a student. In the other place, she looked older and drier, like she’d lived a hard life too much in the sun.”

“Too much in the sun?” Arthur asked, interested by Walter’s unusual choice of words. “A vampire?”

“She looked like she’d been brown before she died,” Walter clarified. “And that had faded out to a sort of dry dirt color. Not like in the studio. I distinctly remember how white her hands looked.”

“A brown vampire.” Arthur searched his memory for something that would give him a clue but found nothing that fit together with what little he knew of Walter’s attacker. “I’m going to send investigators to interview the parents and other students from the ballet school and I’ll let you know if I obtain any useful information from that.”

The door opened and Arthur rose from the chair, giving his attention to Alucard, who had returned with an ice bucket and two goblets. “Until then, I want both of you to be very careful and aware in case this woman tries to exploit this bond to Walter. Alucard, you will not allow him your blood. Right now, the master servant bond you two share may be what protects him.”

This would be simpler if he did not only value Walter’s services, but like the young man. He could order him destroyed, or lock him away in the special room he had prepared in case Alucard became too dangerous to allow any freedom at all.

Instead, he would tolerate this risk to his organization. No doubt Islands would have words for him on that, too.

Dammit.

He issued an order that he didn’t think the pair would have any difficulty following. “Do not leave Walter again until we have silenced the female. Do not permit him live feedings. Do not allow him to leave the grounds without reporting to me.”

Alucard and Walter both murmured assent and Arthur turned to leave, pausing at the door to look at his two charges. He was silent for a long moment while he considered how lucky Richard had been to be second-born and raised away from Hellsing by their mother. He would never have to make these sorts of bizarre decisions.

“And Walter?”

Walter sat a little straighter under his scrutiny. “Yes, sir?”

“Clean yourself up. You look a fright. Just because you’re undead is no reason to be slovenly.”

With that, Hellsing’s master left the room, closing the door firmly behind himself.