Midian Evolution

“…never known…”

“…library…”


I only caught bits of sentences. My attention remained solely upon my progenitor.

It was instinct, wasn’t it, Police Girl? He asked. Instinct told you not to drink from me.

I guess, master.

He smiled. What does instinct tell you now?

I believe I can drink from you. But, master, what is happening to me?

His smile faded. It isn’t hurting you, is it?

N-no. I felt woozy and weird, but not painful or panicked. Master, I can feel my heart beating.

I can, too. He let go of me slowly, turning his head to watch the monitors. My life signs immediately flat-lined. Ignoring the activity around us, Alucard sat on the examination table, picked me up and sat me in his lap. The moment he touched me, the blips on the screens renewed.

“What are you doing to her, Alucard?” Sir Integra demanded.

“Nothing.” He chuckled, and it reverberated in my chest. “Nothing at all, Master Hellsing.”

I rested my head on his shoulder, content to let him handle whatever was happening. I had perfect confidence he could take care of me, the situation, everything.

“Well, you must be doing something,” she stressed, coming closer. “She has life signs while you touch her.”

“Yes, so I observed, my master,” Alucard replied, sounding highly amused, smug, and just a touch too superior to be speaking to his owner. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Isn’t it interesting?”

I laughed weakly. My master certainly enjoyed interesting things.

“I’ll go into the library and search your father’s accounts, Sir Integra,” Walter volunteered. “Perhaps this phenomenon has documentation.”

Doctor Kayne put face in front of mine. “Do you feel stressed or different when you go from living to dead?” he asked.

“No. I can feel my heart, but that’s all,” I told him, taking a handful of Alucard’s vest. He covered my hand with his, as if we were lovers.

Sir Intergra made a hissing noise. “Where are your gloves, servant?”

“I took them off to touch the police girl.”

Now, everyone in the room knew my master stayed because he wished, not because he must. It was a bomb dropping. Doctor Kayne stepped far, far away from us.

“If I put them back on, how will you examine her?” Alucard asked, his voice nothing but a smile.

Checkmate.

“Doctor,” Sir Integra said. “Stay on my assurance?’

Kayne made a face. He came back to her.

I endured a long hour or so of prodding, poking and monitoring. I grew tired of it quickly. Master, I said. Please, make them stop. I just want to lie down. The sun will come up in an hour or less.

“Enough,” Alucard said. “Aceasta este sotia mea. Have Walter bring blood packs to the lowest level.” As he spoke, he stood with me, cradling me in his arms.

“She won’t,” Sir Integra began, but Master cut her off.

“She’ll fit. Disturb us before nightfall and blood will run.”

We flowed in shadow and formlessness. I blinked and found myself in a part of Hellsing Mansion I’d never seen. Dark, so dark and airless. Moist, stone-walled and dank, the space called to me for quiet and solitude. I sighed in pleasure as Alucard placed me in a small, enclosed space before joining me. The scent of soil and water filled my nose. I sought my master’s form and burrowed close.

When his arms encircled me, I felt complete closure.

“Sleep, police girl,” he said, his voice smooth and warm. “You’ve pleased me tonight, do you know that?”

“Truly, master?” I asked, sleepy and drugged. “I thought I failed you.” His approval meant so much, and I’d never yet felt as though I had it.

His lips pressed to my forehead. “You didn’t fail me,” he sighed. “In fact, my singe-sotie, you have triumphed. You’ve succeeded where no one else ever did.”

“Succeeded?” I pressed my face to his cloth-covered chest. “I didn’t know I was fighting, master.”

He laughed softly. “Sweet, innocent police girl,” he said. “Rest. When the next nightfall comes, you and I will go out.”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m hungry already.”


******************************************************************************


I slept like the dead.

When the sun died, and night strengthened, I stirred upon the heavy male body flush to mine. “Master,” I murmured, smelling his identity.

Reddish yellow eyes opened and pierced me. “Seras,” he murmured. “Are you hungry?”

I was. I wanted to feed upon fresh, hot blood. “Master, I hunger,” I said. “Please help me.”

He tossed the lid back on his coffin and sat, pulling me up to join him. I loved the feel of him and I didn’t care if he knew it, for once. “Master,” I entreated. “Take me to my meal, please?”

He shivered.

“Seras,” he breathed. “I’ll take you to a banquet.”

“No more drunks, master,” I asked. “Please.”

“No,” he answered, making me stand. “No more drunks for you, Seras.” He brought me up against himself. “Here,” he said, taking up a blood pack on a nearby table. “This will hold you until we may leave. I imagine Sir Integra wishes to see you.”

The blood tasted flat as always, but it relieved the worst of my hunger. “Master, what language were you speaking yesterday?” I asked, putting the empty plastic bag on the table where Walter would see it. “It was pretty.”

“Romanian.” Master took up the other bag of blood and bit into it, draining it completely in seconds.

“You know a lot of languages, don’t you?”

“Many,” he confirmed. “You’ll pick up a few, I dare say. Time is a good teacher.”

So are you, I thought.

His orange gaze flicked to me. “You didn’t think so until last night.”

“I was being stupid. I’ve been stupid about a lot of things.”

“You’re a child, Police Girl,” he replied. “Children don’t have foresight or experience to help them think.” He slipped on his glasses, but left his hat on the chair back. “But, you’re a strong, adaptable child. I wouldn’t have offered near-eternity to an imbecile.”

Warmed by his assurance, I took a casual glance at myself. I still wore the goth outfit he’d put on me yesterday. Thinking about how he’d dressed me made my heart skip around.

“Your rushing blood is tempting,” master murmured. “I wonder why your heart is beating, and why it continues to beat though I’m not touching you.”

I bent to put on my boots. “I wish I knew. Maybe I should attempt to eat food and see what happens.”

“As long as you understand you’ll have to vomit it back up, unless a miracle has occurred.” Alucard put on his coat but left his gloves off. He touched the skin of my throat, pressing. “Strong pulse. I wonder what sort of transformation you’ve undergone? Do you feel hungry for food as well as blood?”

“No. But, I want the blood badly.” And, I did. My fangs ached to pierce flesh. “I don’t feel the need to breathe. Surely if my heart is beating I should want to breathe?”

He smiled. “You’re a mystery, Police Girl.” He held out his arm. “Let us see what Integra and her doctor say. Perhaps Walter has discovered something.”

I looked at that long arm. He’d never offered to lead me. Slowly, I took him up on his offer and placed my hand on him.

We walked. This confused me. My master rarely walked to visit Sir Integra.

We passed a knot of guards on the first floor. They shied away from us. Frustration made me want to bare my fangs at them. Cowards. They knew Sir Integra wouldn’t permit us vampires to feed on her military. One of them, a young man with short, red hair, winked at me.

Startled, I nearly stumbled. Throwing him a look of disbelief, I hurried on, almost pulling Alucard with me. That one winked at me, I said mentally.

The red haired one? My master’s mental voice seemed unnaturally low. He should know better. I’ll make certain he learns.

Before yesterday, he would have expected me to take care of such insolence by myself. What had changed?

“Ah, Alucard, Miss Victoria,” Walter greeted us on the second floor. He held an armload of old, heavy books with leather covers. I smelled the touch of time on them, the scent of decaying paper, and strangely blended inks. “So far I’m not having much fortune in my investigation, I’m sorry to say.” He went to my master’s other side and walked with us.

“I did find an interesting little snip of information about dhampires, though,” he went on.

“Seras isn’t a dhampire.” Alucard grinned. “I don’t make those.”

“What’s a dhampire?” I asked. Both men looked at me. Walter coughed and Alucard’s gaze went back to the path ahead.

Okay. I’d have to find out on my own, apparently.

“Doctor Kayne discovered that Miss Victoria’s blood classifies as living, though it isn’t as oxygen or nutrient rich as it should be,” Walter continued. “He wants her back for another sample.”

“I thought being dead would mean I’d no longer have to endure doctors,” I groused.

Walter chuckled along with my master. “Life isn’t fair,” he said. “And, it appears half-life isn’t either.” He paused. “By the way, I’d like to formally invite the two of you to my wedding.”

Alucard’s grin grew to obscene proportions. “Congratulations, Walter. We accept, of course. When?”

“Next week. It is to be a private affair with only Hellsing operatives in attendance, with the exception of a royal witness.”

The older man’s smile of pleasure made me feel good for him. Of course I wouldn’t miss him wedding Sir Integra, but why had my master answered for the both of us?

“Ah, good, all of you,” Sir Integra said the moment we entered her office. Her brilliant eyes cut to mine. “How do you feel, Seras?”

“Confused, bloodthirsty,” I recited. “Other than that, no different, Sir Integra.”

She smiled slightly. Taking up a file from her desk, she passed it to Alucard. “Here’s the medical report.”

Now I really felt left out of a loop. Why hand the file to my master instead of me?

My sire opened the file and gave every appearance of studying it like he knew medical terminology.

I leaned on the wall and closed my eyes, listening to all the heart beats in the room. The steady, strong beat of Walter’s gave me assurance. Sir Integra’s had a measured excitement making hers beat slightly faster. My own heart beat sounded a bit vexed…

A fourth heartbeat sounded, but only for a few thumps before vanishing. Startled, I looked around the room and sniffed the air. We were alone, I felt sure of it. “I just heard another heart,” I announced. “It’s gone, now.”

“Mine beats upon the odd occasion,” Alucard said distractedly. “I wonder…” He gave me the file and looked closely at my face. “I wonder if that has anything to do with yours?”

“I didn’t know this,” Integra said, sounding irritated. “By your own words, that shouldn’t happen.”

“Yes. I’ve never met another Undead with that quality.” He took his glasses off and met his master’s challenging stare. “I can force it to beat, if I desire. There’s no part of my form I cannot manipulate.”

“Does emotion have anything to do with it?” Walter asked quietly.

Alucard seemed to think. He looked up at the ceiling, folded his hands behind his back and went motionless. “Yes,” he said after a moment. “I believe it must.”

That begged the question of what he’d read in my medical file to inspire emotion. I flipped it open and read the unfamiliar words. None of it made any sense to me. I put the file down on Sir Integra’s desk.

“On many occasions you’ve claimed to be emotionless,” she said.

“I’m not a very good liar.” He grinned at her. “I’m too powerful to lie with any success. I’m surprised you believed me.”

They stared at each other and the silence grew oppressive.

“Where are your gloves, servant?” Sir Integra asked.

“Everywhere and nowhere,” came his slightly disrespectful answer. “Would it make you feel better if I wore them?”

“They’re just for show, aren’t they?” she asked quietly. “How long have they been useless?”

“They were never a measure of control, not after you awakened me with your blood, master,” he said, still grinning.

Walter sighed. “You confound me, Alucard,” he admitted, hefting his books closer. “I’m taking my leave. I have many more books to read.”

“Don’t fret,” Alucard said, still addressing Sir Integra. “It isn’t as if anything has changed. I’m still your pet monster.”

Integra gnashed her teeth. “Go tend to your business. Report to me if Seras’ condition changes.”

My master led me out, chuckling. As soon as the door shut, he turned to me. “She only upset because she made a grand gesture taking my gloves off. I couldn’t very well please her while wearing them.”

I felt a brief flash of insight. “Master,” I said, sighing. “You’re the devil.”

“Rubbish. The devil is probably female.”