Hellsing - Blood Heritage

Well, it's... ~checks watch~ 3 o'clock in the morning my time, so guess what I'm doing? Yup, I am sitting out in the night air typing up a new chapter for you guys to sink your teeth into! See what I endure for you people? I've lost half of my blood supply to mosquitoes for you!

And no, I can't go inside my house to write. That would be far too simple. :D


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Lieutenant Joseph Stephens was Captain Bernadette's second in command. He and Pip had been buddies in school, and the two of them had worked closely together ever since. So while the rescue team flew off to pick up the Captain and Seras, he was the one to take charge of the offensive team sent to track down those responsible.

It also meant that he was the one who had to deliver the bad news.

They had all felt the sick twisting of their stomachs when they stepped onto the smuggler's airfield and discovered the mangled corpses. Stephens ordered two of his men to stay behind and clean up while the rest sped off to the house. Even after what they had seen, there was still the smallest hope that perhaps Millennium hadn't been able to pick up the trail. Or at the least, that they would arrive in the midst of an attack and be able to fend them off. However, when the trucks pulled up it was apparent that those responsible had already done what they came to do and had left hours ago.

It was nothing short of horrific. Bernadette's family hadn't simply been killed - they had been tortured in the most extreme of ways. Their throats had been torn so viciously the bodies were almost decapitated. Each one of the Geese had seen the brutality of war more times than they could count - but every memory they dredged up from their minds paled in comparison to this. The sight of the teenagers treated in such a manner only intensified the horror of it.

Stephens did his best to keep his composure as he handed out orders. The corpses were arranged neatly in the front room and covered with sheets. A group of men patrolled the perimeter of the site - looking for any clues that might indicate where the perpetrators had gone - while another searched the house in a similar manner. On the walls of the main living area, a large seal none of them recognized had been painted in blood, along with a message written in a language none of them could readily identify.

"Get a camera in here." Stephens called out to one of the men. "Sir Integra will want to see this. And someone get me a goddamn phone!"

Lewis, the ginger haired tech expert of the Wild Geese, took photos of the scene while the lieutenant called Hellsing to report what they found. Sir Integra was having a debriefing with Pip, so it was Walter that answered the phone.

"We got here too late." he reported, much more calmly than how he felt. Though he hadn't known Pip's family personally, he was still affected by how close to home this attack was. "No survivors. Even the children were..." Stephens stopped himself and cleared his throat before he lost the self-control that was hanging together by a thread. "The 'monsters' that did this have been gone for some time. We're searching the area for clues, but I don't think we'll find anything. The trail has gone cold and these things covered their tracks extremely well."

"I see..." was the butler's reply.

Walter took it upon himself to inform him that Captain Bernadette and the young vampire had been recovered and received few injuries from the crash. The leutenant was grateful to hear his friend had survived. However, the current situation weighed heavily on his mind, and he questioned the butler as to whether Pip was able to take the phone. All things considered, he deserved to be told about this as soon as possible.

The old butler hummed thoughtfully. "He is in the hospital wing at the moment, but I believe he is well enough to talk to you. I'm headed there as we speak."

Stephens nodded and prepared himself for the painful news he was about to deliver.

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Everything he had ever held close to his heart was gone.

Vlad stared at the message scrawled across the castle walls - a warning inked with the blood of his family.

'Those who interfere with us shall be crushed.'

The bodies of his court were splayed across the floor like ragdolls. Throats had been viciously torn out and entrails scattered as if the mutilations had been the work of an animal rather than a man. But the viovode's black fury was focused entirely on his beloved wife and young son impaled to the wall next to the bloody taunt. Heavy spears had been driven through their bodies and into the stone behind them; their faces twisted in horrible displays of the agony they must have endured before death finally took mercy on them. Vlad knew that agony like a dear friend. He wielded it against his enemies like an artist wielded a brush.

The prince's ears picked up the lightest of footsteps behind him. He whirled around, drawing his sword to face whatever enemy had dared to remain behind to insult him further.

"Dear brother." a soft voice almost cooed at him from the shadows. "Is your soul tormented by their deaths? I should hope so, since it was you that caused it."

Vlad's hazel eyes burned with hatred as his sibling's familiar form drifted out of the dark corner he had hidden in. His face twisted with rage, and his voice was a trembling snarl as he spoke.

"Radu. What have you 'done'?" he demanded.

His brother laughed. The fiery embers of his eyes danced with thinly veiled amusement at the question.

"Can you not see what is right before your eyes? You have lost everything. Your castle, your family, your bloodline... I have laid waste to it all. You have been reduced to 'nothing'. You are no longer the strong, undefeatable foe everyone believes you to be... That honor belongs to me."

Vlad's heart twisted with barely contained malice for the man before him. After all he had suffered... everything he had done for him, Radu had still succumed to the will of their enemies and dared to ally himself with them.

"You..." he began, his voice trembling with murderous intent. "You ungrateful, traitorous 'whelp'! I will slaughter your precious Sultan then tear out your miserable heart with my bare hands!!!"

Radu's face remained passive, completely unphased by the threat. It was astonishing how beautiful he was even with faced with the horrors of the impaler's anger.

"What will you do, brother?" he asked, giving Vlad a confident smirk. "Will you hunt me down? Have me impaled like everyone else who pits their will against yours?" He shook his head as if he knew some wonderful secret that the prince did not. "You will find that I am not as weak as I was when we were children. Try as you might, Tepes, you will 'never' be able to kill me."

The last thing Vlad saw before his brother disappeared in a swirl of shadows was his wide, sadistic grin and the glint of candlelight across gleaming white fangs.

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" 'ey! Wake up!"

Syn jerked herself free from the nightmare as strong hands shook her back into consciousness. She shoved the heavy weight of her hair out of her face then looked up to find Bernadette crouched in front of her.

"You alright zhere?" he asked, giving her a once over.

Syn straightened her position in the uncomfortable chair and nodded. "Just a bad dream..."

A bad dream that she was becoming quite familiar with lately, she mused silently. She noticed she tended to have them when Alucard was in a bad mood. Ever since the attack on Bernadette's family, the no life king's famous temper was dramatically shorter than it usually was. Syn had heard Walter complaining about the vampire snapping at any household staff he encountered on the upper floors of the house. Though she had elected to stay in the hospital wing to watch over Seras, she admitted to herself that part of the reason for it was so she would have an excuse to stay away from him. Though she had endured Alucard's temper tantrums before, she honestly didn't want to be on the receiving end of his anger at the moment.

Pip got back to his feet with a thoughtful hum. Syn wondered absently when he had gotten back. Sir Integra had given him leave to go back to France for his family's funeral several days ago. Though she hadn't been present for the discussion, something heated must have taken place between the mercenary and the knight. From the moment he left the grounds of the manor, several of his men had expressed concern for their captain's mental state. Some, (Andrews being one of them) came right out and said that Bernadette might not come back at all.

If the ripped jeans and faded black t-shirt were anything to go by, he had probably just returned. Syn watched as the man cast a glance toward the hospital bed where Seras lay sleeping. She had IV tubes hooked up to her arms to transfuse the blood she needed for her recovery. The few passing moments she was awake wouldn't allow enough time for her to drink down the necessary amount - even if she agreed to go against her morals and do as she was told.

" 'as she been out all zhis time?" he asked.

"She's woken up a few times, but she's going to be down here for a while." Syn informed him.

She stretched out her legs, hoping to work out the soreness that had crept into them while she had been asleep. Pip took notice of the discomfort that come from hours of sitting in the same spot.

"How long 'ave you been down 'ere?" he asked as he took one of the empty chairs for himself.

Syn shrugged. "Ever since we brought you guys back." she replied. "Alucard is off doing something with Sir Integra, and someone should be here in case she wakes up again..."

Bernadette nodded silently, and the redhead couldn't help but notice how incredibly tired he looked. The pain of losing loved ones she could understand - she had been there herself. But she wouldn't dare delude herself into thinking that she could understand the emotions that might be brought on by knowing that the last time he had seen them alive, it had been nothing more than a grand performance put on at his employer's order. At times like this the fact that it was necessary didn't matter. There was only the painful truth of it.

"I am sorry... about your family." she said, finally breaking the silence that had blossomed in the room.

The mercenary acknowledged the sentiment with a half-hearted nod. He glanced up at the ceiling and let out a heavy sigh.

"At least..." he trailed off, as if thinking about the wisdom of revealing his thoughts on the matter. "At least I got to zee zhem one last time. I'm glad I did somezhing zhat made zhem 'appy before zhey went..."

Syn shot a small ghost of a smile in his direction. "I take it Seras made an impression?"

Pip's mouth curved into what had to be the first grin he had worn for a while. "You could say zhat."

The redhead might have come up with some sort of witty response for that if her attention hadn't been caught by something else. Somewhere on the upper floors of the manor, Alucard was 'pissed'. Not the simple ire he had been nursing over the last few days, but a dark, all encompassing fury. It was the kind of emotional state he tended to fall into when he wanted to torture something to death. She had the nagging sensation that something was being dangled right in front of his nose - and he had been ordered not to touch it. The feeling was strong enough that Syn could feel the pulse of a migraine beginning to form behind her eyes.

Her expression must have changed to something awful because Bernadette suddenly turned his concerned attention onto her.

"You look like shit." he said, not bothering to mince words. "You go get zome sleep. I'll stay 'ere."

Syn wanted to argue, but the idea of sleeping in a bed rather than a chair was just too attractive. "Are you sure?" She shot a glance at the unconscious draculina before looking at him in mock suspicion. "You're not going to molest her in her sleep are you?"

Pip clutched at his chest as if wounded. "Damn. My plot haz been foiled."

She couldn't help but laugh at that. Even in the midst of all this darkness, the captain was still able to retain a sense of humor.

"Fine." she said, rising stiffly from her chair. "I'm going."

Syn left knowing that the police girl would be taken care of should she wake up again. She decided to take the man's advice and try to get some rest, but the constant bombardment of the vampire king's ire upon her brain made it almost impossible. That first pulse of a migraine flared up into the real deal. By the time she reached the sub levels and crawled into bed, she felt like a thousand jackhammers were chiseling designs on the inside of her skull. Even light itself made the pain worse, so she draped a wet washcloth over her eyes to take the edge off.

'Stupid vampire is going to be the death of me.'

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Alucard didn't like admitting he had made a mistake.

He was too controlling of everything he did to fall prey to something as simple and foolish as misjudgment But when he saw the photographs of the attack in France, he realized that he had indeed made one.

'I should have killed the little shit when I had the chance.' he thought murderously.

He could recognize his brother's handiwork anywhere. Everything pictured at the scene was eerily similar to the attack Radu had made against his castle more than five centuries ago. The bodies were treated in the same manner. The same taunting message was written on the walls - in his native tongue no less. The bastard had even 'dared' to paint Alucard's former royal seal next to it. It was deliberately intended to be a slap in his face. Radu was calling him out, urging him to take drastic action and do something brash that would weaken Hellsing. Even through the savage wrath he felt, Alucard could see the tactic.

Integra sensed the growing malice inside of her servant and forcefully ordered him not to do anything stupid. They needed more information before Hellsing could strike back against this invisible foe. It was a wise decision on her part; the sort of smart move that would make the difference between failure and success. Alucard's analytical side agreed with his master completely. But the dark beast crouched deep within his un-dead heart wanted nothing more than to hunt the bastard down that very moment and rip him to shreds.

He phased down to the sub levels to stew in solitude. Sir Integra had already yelled at him several times for torturing the household staff for amusement. Alucard's personal opinion was that maids and cooks were easily replaced - and were therefore free game if they were foolish enough to cross his path. It was quite unfortunate that his master did not share the same view...

When he stepped out of the shadows into his private rooms, the vampire was greeted by the sight of his lovely 'little goddess' curled up in bed with a rag over her face. A human would have thought her to be asleep, but Alucard could sense the conscious thoughts rolling through her mind and the steady throb of pain.

"I don't know what you're so pissed about, but you need to tone it down." she huffed at him, not moving a muscle. "My brain feels like it's turning to mush."

Ah yes, he mused. She would be able to feel his emotions, wouldn't she? The woman's presence was a welcome distraction, yet he was slightly surprised to find her here rather than her ever constant perch in the hospital wing.

"Have we finally decided that the police girl doesn't require a babysitter?" he asked, the mattress sinking under his weight as he sat down next to her prostrate form.

The expulsion of air from her snort made a visible trail in the wet cloth. "Pip came back. He said he would stay with her."

One of the vampire's dark brows rose slightly at the information. So the Frenchman decided to return? Alucard had been curious about what the man would do. He had caught the scent of fresh blood in his fledgling's veins upon their arrival to the manor, and his interest was instantly pricked. Bernadette had seen first hand what the police girl could do when in the throes of blood lust - and yet he still had the backbone to force-feed her his blood. He made a mental note to keep an eye on the captain. He was turning out to be far more interesting than he first appeared.

"Alucard?" Syn's voice interruppted his thoughts. "Why have I been dreaming about your brother?"

The vampire froze. Despite what she believed, he had carefully considered the consequences of binding the two of them together. He had known that it was possible for memories to bleed through the connection - usually when either of them were unconscious since that was when the mind was at it's most relaxed and open. But memories are curious things. They are usually tied to emotional states, and are most likely to well up when one falls into one of those states of mind. This meant that she usually wound up seeing things that Alucard didn't like remembering himself, much less anyone else...

"What did you see this time?" he asked.

Syn sighed and pulled the cloth off of her face. "It was... I don't want to think about it." She looked up at him, her emerald eyes troubled. "That... that dream of the little boy... was that you?"

Alucard's eyes flickered with resentment at the memory. His jaw set firmly, he said "It was."

The red-head suddenly sat up, seeming to forget all about her little migraine. "You... then he..." she trailed off, her face twisting into a fierce expression. "That heartless 'bastard'! I certainly hope you killed him."

The no-life king couldn't help but grin at the woman's anger. She always looked so incredibly 'alive' when she was upset.

"Would it please you if I did?" he purred. Syn didn't realize it, but she was acting in a possessive manner towards him. It was such a stimulating and interesting notion that he couldn't help but encourage it.

She sniffed in response. "After what he did, I would enjoy watching the monster suffer if it were me." Syn glanced at him sideways. "You 'did' kill him, didn't you?"

Alucard frowned. "I had him entombed alive to suffer for what he did." he told her. "Only a man may kill a monster, and I have never been a man... not even when I was human."

The vampire honestly believed it. He couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been bloodthirsty and violent. Even as a small child he had been that way. Radu had somehow been vampirized years before he had given up his own humanity at his execution. Alucard had been unprepared for his brother's increased strength and powers. Though he would have gladly torn him apart, locking him away in that little church had been the only way to deal with him at the time. It was a weakness he wouldn't allow himself to commit a second time.

Syn blinked as realization dawned across her features. "Do you think he had something to do with what happened?"

Alucard allowed himself a pensive moment before answering. "There are many similarities... too many for it too be a coincidence. Radu has always left a signature behind, and I would recognize it anywhere."

The red-head chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully. "Well damn." she swore, obviously not liking the idea of one of his family members running around causing havoc. "I guess I need to get to work on those new cannons..."

The vampire's lips quirked slightly. It had taken a great deal of effort on his part, but his master had finally agreed to an upgrade of the police girl's Harkonnen. He was eager to see what she would do with the designs she had made. Unfortunately, there were more pressing matters he wished for her to attend to before jumping into that particular project.

"As much as I am looking forward to that, I have something else for you to do first."

Syn stared at him a moment before narrowing her eyes in suspicion. It was almost laughable, how cautious she had suddenly become, as if she expected him to order her to march to the gates of Hell. It was almost a fitting comparison.

"My master will be traveling to Rome to meet with Iscariot soon." he informed her. His lips curved into a grin in anticipation for her reaction. "And you will go with her."

His mate didn't disappoint him.


"EXCUSE ME?!"

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So, lots of angsty stuff going on here. Poor Pip hates my guts now, but it had to be done unfortunately. And this meeting with Iscariot that's coming up is going to be very interesting methinks.

My beta, marora, pointed out that the time line is a bit difficult to understand when it comes to events in Alucard's past. Now, I personally have never found anything in Hellsing or Dracula that indicates that Alucard was the first vampire... but it is entirely possible that I have overlooked something. (keeping in mind of course, that Hellsing and Dracula don't always agree.) If anyone actually finds a quote or something that spells that out, please send it my way. For right now, let's just say that in my little corner of the universe, Alucard is the most powerful creature of darkness - but not the father of the species. :)


You know how Hercules tricked Atlas into taking the world back onto his shoulders? He told him it was FULL of amazing, wonderful reviews!! THAT people, is how awesome it is to get one. >.> But if one of you guys hands me a freakin' planet instead of a review, I will hunt you down and throw it at you.

Just a heads up. ^__^

... I just realized that there are some people who don't know who Altas or Hercules are... and that makes me very sad. T.T