Hellhounds

Integra watched as William straightened himself and looked directly at her. He stood there, half naked, in a pair of worn baggy green trousers which had two large pockets on the outsides of the legs, just above the knees, these trousers were tucked into a pair of faded black, loosely tied, military style boots. His body was lightly tanned, less so than hers was, and was very well toned. He had long untidy brown hair, coming to just between the shoulder blades, a five o’clock shadow on his face and stunning lightning blue eyes.

From what she had seen he bore three tattoos on his body, the first was an Ouroboros on his right shoulder set around the Japanese kanji for snake, the second was a large Chinese style dragon climbing up his back, holding three orbs, one in each of its hands and the third in its mouth. The orb in the dragons mouth was red the others, green and blue. The tail of the dragon went below the waist line of his trousers and Integra found herself, very briefly, wondering how far it went down.

Shaking her thoughts from this idea she noticed the tattoo on his left shoulder. It was a symbol she was not familiar with; it seemed like the famous Ying-Yang but was very different. It was black and white, though the ‘white’ areas only showed skin, half of the circular shape was pure black with a white line cutting it into two quarters of a circle, and this was mirrored on the ‘white’ side but with a black line instead. The centre of the tattoo was a spiralling of the black and ‘white’ areas of the larger outer circle. What was the symbol? She, with her vast knowledge of almost every spiritual symbol in the world had never seen this one before. What was it?!

I rose from the bow and noticed Sir Integra admiring my tattoos. As her eyes lingered on my left shoulder I saw the slight crinkling of her brow, no doubt she did not recognise the symbol, not surprising it was rather obscure. After a minute or two I decided to answer her unasked question.

“It’s called Hunab Ku, Sir Integra, also known as the Galactic Butterfly. It’s a very old Mayan symbol which is said to represent all of the consciousness that has ever existed in this galaxy. This consciousness is said to include all of our physical ancestors both human, animal, reptile, fish, shell fish, plants all the way back to the primordial ooze. Also, it is said to include the consciousness which organized all of the raw material from a whirling disk into stars then planets which form this solar systems.” I said with a smile at the slight blush on her face, “If I’m getting it permanently attached to my body its going to have a very important meaning. But that’s just me.”

Coughing slightly, Integra looked pointedly at Alucard. Alucard nodding in acknowledgement stepped forwards towards William. Noticing Alucards’ movement I turned quickly on the spot and jumped backwards away from him and into open space, I was still nowhere near trusting these three strangers. However, it didn’t work quiet as I intended, instead of jumping away form the recently re-headed ‘man’ I instead, somehow, found myself jumping backwards into him.

‘What the hell?!’ I thought as he put me into a quick full nelson with titanic strength.

Pointlessly struggling and kicking I saw Sir Integra and Seras stand and walk towards me, Sir Integra pulling out a small glass flask of clear liquid.

“What the HELL are you people doing?! Let me go you son of a…”

“Relax,” said Sir Integra “, this is simply a test to see if my suspicions are correct.”

“A test,” I yelled “what kind of test involves headless here holding me in a full fucking nelson?!”

“Relax,” repeated Seras, “We need to see if you are a Vampire.”

“RELAX!? You try and relax with leather legs nearly breaking your arms off!”

“I wouldn’t have to hold you so tightly if you stopped struggling.” Came the amused reply of the man behind me.

“Oh your enjoying this aren’t you!? Look, you want to know if I’m a Vamp? I can tell you now I’m not! I can walk in sunlight, cross running water; I can hold a crucifix…”

But my protest went unheeded as Sir Integra motioned to Seras who stepped forwards and, with strength a women like her should not have possessed, held out my right arm. Seeing, what I though was my chance, I lunged forwards thinking to brake the nelson and then rush to my weapons mere meters infront of me. Unfortunately, as was my lot in life, it failed spectacularly. All I managed to achieve was me on the floor with the Alucard bloke sitting on top of my body and the Seras girl doing the same to my right arm, making sure to hold my hand out in the open.

Integra watched with amusement as William accidentally force himself to the floor, honestly this wouldn’t be that bad, she didn’t know what he was yelling about. Moving towards his right hand she uncorked the small glass vile and made to pour a small amount of the contents onto the back of his right hand.

“Wait, wait, wait! What the hell is that stuff?!”

“Its only holy water,” calmly answered Sir Integra, “if your not a Vampire, as you say, then you have nothing to fear. This will be like nothing more than normal water.”

“And say,” I asked tentatively “perchance I am a Vampire, isn’t that stuff going to kill me?!”

“Not if it’s only a small, diluted amount.” Said Alucard with the ever amused tone “And most certainly not if it’s only on your right hand.”

“Oh shut it already! Hey!” I yelled in protest as Sir Integra quickly poured a small amount of the holy water onto the back of my hand.

Integra watched, expecting to see smoke and hear the sound of sizzling flesh. Nothing happened. So he really wasn’t a vampire, now that was interesting, not at all what she expected.

“Well?” asked William quickly “Am I a Vampire?”

“No,” said Integra standing up, “the reaction would have been instantaneous; you’re a human…a very powerful human.”

“Good! Now if you two wouldn’t mind do you think, perhaps, you could get…the fuck…OFF OF ME!!”

Seras quickly jumped up, Alucard slowly followed suit. I jumped to my feet then quickly ran to my sword and gun; grabbing them I pointed them at the three, a look of pure rage on my face. Who the fuck did these people think they were?!

“Get the fuck out.” I said more calmly than I felt.

“We are still…” began Integra but I abruptly interrupted.

“No, no, no, no, no. No talking, just leave, NOW!” I finished through gritted teeth. Did these people EVER listen?

“But…”

“NO BUTS! GET OUT!” I said pointing to the elevator with my sword.

Integra knew a lost cause when she saw one; perhaps she should have asked to test him first. Oh well, even if he didn’t join them he would still help them kill the Ghouls in London. Gesturing to Alucard and Seras they disappeared into the shadows while she walked towards the elevator. Passing the TV, now showing a commercial about washing detergent, she briefly stopped. Pulling out a business card from an inner jacket pocket she placed it on top of the TV. Turning to face William she said briefly.

“The offer to join us is still open. If you change your mind this is how to contact us.”

“Thanks,” I said mockingly “I’ll keep that in mind. Good Bye.” I said with true finality.

Moments later she was gone, down the elevator and out the front door. I watched, from the gapping hole in the side of the warehouse, as a very expensive Rolls-Royce drove of into the setting moon. I glared after it and snorted at the arrogance, it was then that I heard a large thud sit next to me.

“And where have you been?” I asked looking at Murrfy, who only looked up at me with a very sad and pathetic look on his face.

Sighing I walked over to what was suppose to be a kitchen and cooked up a lovely meal of pasta and tinned tomato sauce with a cheap bottle of wine. Hey beggars can’t be choosers right? Sitting down in the seat that that 'Sir' Integra had so recently vacated. I changed the channel from news to something humorous as Murrfy jumped up and sat next to me, I was always amazed that such a large animal could fit onto this sofa. Finishing my meal I watched the TV for a few hours before drifting of to sleep just before dawn.

I awoke a few hours later to several unpleasant things. First was Murrfy barking, not that unusual, second was a strange quiet sizzling sound, had I left something cooking? And the final thing was a very painful sensation on the back of my right hand. Deciding I could ignore it no longer I opened my eyes to the blazing sun shinning through the ‘window’ in the side of the warehouse. My first sight was of Murrfy, standing a distance away from me barking his head off.

Yelling at him to shut up which, thankfully, he did I sat up, having evidently lain down during the night/morning, I quickly looked at the back of my right hand, the source of the most discomfort…it was smoking and also the source of the sizzling sound.

“What the…”

I never managed to finish the sentence; do to the back of my hand exploding in a large cloud of noxious black smoke. The force of the explosion sent me flying backwards along with the sofa. Murrfy redoubled his barking as I stumbled to my feet, highly disorientated.

“What the fuck was that?!”

I looked at the back of my hand, black, burned and crispy…

“Shit,” I said to myself, Murrfy continuing is barking chorus “I’m a Vampire.”