Sacred and Profane
Rain Act II
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Rain: Act II
(the long version of chapter 4)
Wales: November 15, 2002, Tywyn, two
hours after sunset.
The Welsh countryside was wild beneath the crescent moon that bathed the land
in its ominous crimson glow. Seras sighed heavily, unable to shake the feeling
that something was happening. In an effort to clear her mind so she could
concentrate on the job at hand, she had taken her leave of the mercenaries and
wandered off for a pre-mission walk; something that normally would have relaxed
and restored her spirits, but this time everything seemed wrong. There was a
kind of darkness at the edge of her mind; a presence of something that was
inherently terrible and it frightened her. Groaning, she leaned back on the
stone sheep fence she had followed from the main road in Tywyn, and turned her
gaze to the moon and stars above her.
Sighing, she closed her crimson eyes and let her mind open itself to the world
around her, calling upon the psychic ability that had been slowly growing
stronger since she’d subscribed to a proper vampiric
diet. Slowly she began to trace the edges of that dark presence she had been
feeling since arriving in
tentatively trying to ferret out its origin. However, something about the stars
she had jbeenbeen looking at bothered her, tearing her concentration from her
original purpose. She could swear that these constellations were not the same
as she had memorized as a child. They seemed...
“...so wrong,” said a roughly accented voice, echoing her thoughts. Startled,
Seras’ eyes flew open and she let out a gasp of terror.
Earlier, after noting the arrival of his rivals,
had continued his daily devotions; but as the last rays of sunlight
escalating feeling of terrible anticipation. He had continued his Rosary,
trying to push the ever-growing sense of unease to the baf hif his mind. Finally,
after stumbling over the same words several times in a row, he gave up and
decided he needed fresh air to clear his head.
Following a rocky path just off the main road through town, he soon found
himself walking along an aging rock fence and gazing up at the stars. Something
about them bothered the priest; and not at all helped by the sense that
something was coming. That some eternal mechanism had set forth a cycle of
events and he wost ost within them. As he continued walking, lightly running
the long fingers of his left hand along the uneven surface of the stone fence,
he tried to figure out exactly what it was about the heavens above that had set
off alarm bells deep within his soul.
The sudden realization of what his subconscious had been trying to tell him
about the cosmos above startled Anderson out of his reverie and brought his
attention back to his surroundings, where he found himself about to run into a
lithe female body, haphazardly leaning back against the fence he was following.
His surprise deepened when he recognized who she was.
His first instinct was to reach inside his coat, seize one of his blessed
blades and take off her pretty, little head; but something in the way her face
Glancing upward again, he knew instinctively what she was thinking. For an instant,
he was able to brush her consciousness with his, plucking one sentence out of
her wildly fluctuating stream thought, finishing it aloud and startling the
young woman.
Ruby eyes widened with fear, then confusion as the lanky priest looked away and
then settled his large form next to hers on the ancient fence. Seras nervously
ran her tongue over her elongated canines trying to decide if she should run or
not. After a few long seconds of warring feelings, curiosity won out and she
nervously cleared her throat, bringing the priest’s attention back to her.
“W.” s.” she started cautiously, but was cut off when
pinned her with his steady gaze. “I’ll kill you,” he said softly, before
looking away again, “I will kill you, Draculina. As sure as I stand, you will
be saved.” Seras fell silent at that statement, annoyed by the priest’s
arrogance, yet frightened by the calm certainty behind his words.
When she would have moved to leave the priest she stopped, her senses stinging
with awareness. Acting on pure instinct, she grabbed a very surprised paladin
by the wrist and flung him over the stone fence, following him in a blink of an
eye. Almost instantaneously, there was an explosion of stone and earth as the
fence was shattered.
rolling a couple of times before coming to a painful halt next to the crouching
police girl. Blinking, he tried to clear his vision and his head as he
scrambled into a deadly crouch, ready to spring and deliver the young officer
from this world. His actions were interrupted when
Seras, looking intently at the direction they had just tumbled from, emitted a
low hissing growl and bared her fangs in a grimace of fear-tinged anger.
Following her wild gaze,
watched as the dust and debris settled, revealing two figures standing where
that section of fence once ran.
“Hmm, I missed,” stated a coldly amused female voice, “What now, sire?” The
shorter figure fully emerged moving from the settling dust cloud.
watched, mesmerized and confused, unable to suppress the involuntary shiver or dread
when he caught the cold blue gaze of the boy. The boy paused, looking from
Seras to
shoulder to where an attractive fair-haired woman had come to stand just behind
him. Smiling, he turned back to the priest and the Hellsing operative.
“Now, my Lady, we play.”
Hellsing Headquarters.
It had been almost exactly a day since he had explained the situation to Sir
Hellsing and Master Alucard, and Walter was getting a bit nervous. Integra had
thrown a royal fit, cursing the
and had then marched back into her office, slammed the door with orders not to
disturb her while she made a few phone calls. During all this, Alucard had not
said a thing. And it was Alucard’s silence that
worried Walter; when Alucard was silent, copious amounts of blood were usually
spilled. Now that Seras Victoria, the young fledgling, was involved, Walter was
convinced things might turn even uglier than they had in
when the vampire had slaughtered hundreds of fleeing Nazi soldiers during the
Second World War. It was not that he thought the enigmatic vampire had romantic
feelings for the young woman; Alucard was more of a sadistic surrogate father
or insane uncle than a potential lover to either of the two young women left in
their charge.
“How sweet, you’re worried about me,” stated Alucard in a voice that suggested
anything but sincerity. Giving Walter a sidelong
glance, Alucard casually shifted his position studied the planes of the Angel
of Death’s face. Not in the least
bothered by Alucard’s intense study of his aged features, Walter returned the
vampires gaze with just as much cool intensity.
few more seconds before blinking and turning toward a thick paned window with a
frown.
“She’s gone,” Alucard stated flatly before turning back to
Walter.
“What? Who’s gone?”
“The police girl.”
Several hours after Seras
“Damnit, where the fuck is she,”
hissed Captain Bernadotte as he ground a cigarette out on the fender of the
Hellsing personnel carrier. It had been an hour since Seras had last checked in
and the time to start the mission was fast approaching.
for the girl, but none of the reluctant searchers had found any trace of her.
Slamming his hand against the armored carrier hard enough to
numb his fingers, Pip Bernadotte growled and stomped around to the driver side
door and threw it open. This was unlike
Seras. He had not worked for Hellsing
organization long; but he had been on enough training maneuvers with the young
vampire to be able to predict her behavior.
Seras would fight when backed into a corner, but for the most part, she
truly lived up to her nickname Kitten.
was a lot of things, but most of all, she was conscious of her responsibility
as an officer of Hellsing and everything that entails. She would not endanger
the mission intentionally with her absence, which left only one answer.
Grabbing the cell phone from its resting space on the driver
seat, Pip punched in a set of numbers and waited, dreading the conversation
ahead of him.
Author’s Note:
And
chapter four. The next chapter will
continue with a flashback to