Midian Evolution

“Alucard, Seras.”

I opened my eyes to see Integra standing over us. Incredibly, Alucard hadn’t awoken at the intrusion. He slept on, and hard. A fierce feeling of protection washed over me, made me hold him more tightly against myself. He made a rumbling sound of satisfaction and spread a hand out on my shoulder.

Integra looked at him before giving me a curious quirk of her eyebrow. “Wake him,” she ordered. “We’re leaving the train for the Hilton in twenty minutes.”

She had a good reason, but I still resented how casually she ordered me. Very well, I’d do as she wished, but I’d give her something to think about. I wasn’t a monster bound by Hellsing chains.

I slowly, slowly dipped my hand downward and ran it over Alucard, starting at his neck and stopping at his groin. I sent out my power to seduce, to coerce, and I directed it to her. Using the lightest pressure, I cupped my king and caressed an area she no doubt felt curious over herself. “Vlad,” I said in his ear just loud enough for her to hear. “Sir Integra wants you to wake up. We’re leaving the train.”

Alucard gave a groan, thrust against my palm and only nestled against me harder. Again I felt that over-powering urge to guard him, to keep him sleeping until he felt satisfied. Night would be here in less than an hour, and he’d wake naturally then. Why did Integra insist upon having things her way all the bloody time?

Integra put out a hand and began to reach toward my master’s shoulder. Before I could react, and I was swelling with the power to do something I’d regret, Anderson appeared out of nowhere and clamped his large hand on her wrist.

“Don’t,” he advised in a level voice. “In fact, dinnae ever.”

Integra tore free of him and squared off, bristling. “Don’t ever what, Anderson?” she demanded.

To my surprise, it was Walter who answered. “Don’t touch Alucard,” he said calmly. He glided up behind the group and looked at us. “I think the reason is plain enough, if you really look.”

I didn’t know what any of them were talking about, but they were starting to irritate me. Was it so much to ask to have daytime sleep? Alucard and I were vampires.

Integra gazed upon us a long moment. She took a small canister from her vest pocket and put something in her mouth, biting down on it. “Yes, you’re right,” she announced, but to whom she spoke I had no idea. She turned and gave me her back. “The steward should be informed not to come in here and clean.”

Integra and Walter left us to merciful quiet and darkness. I stroked Alucard’s hair, tracking Anderson as he moved to a window and turned one of the blind slats upward. Very dim light gave him a bluish cast.

“Be careful, vampire lass,” Anderson said. “She’ll put the wards on you, too.”

“Alucard isn’t held by the Hellsing wards,” I said, startling the ex-priest into turning around. “He stays of his own free will, as do I.”

The paladin seemed to tuck that information away for later. He smiled a little. “All well an’ good, but you keep tha’ aggression up and see what happens.”

“I’m not aggressive,” I argued. “I did as she requested. It isn’t my fault Alucard’s too tired to wake up yet; we’ve been keeping her schedule in daylight hours and it’s made us exhausted.” Really, this was all very simple for me; why did others find it so difficult?

Anderson nodded. “Still, you’d ha’ lit inta Integra Hellsing if she’d touched your lover. I saw it in yer face.” He uncorked Alucard’s wine and sniffed the leftover contents. Then, he took a swig straight from the bottle. “Yeh got the mantle of his darkness over you, but you don’ have his experience in handlin’ it. Be careful.”

Surprised, I considered how protective I felt. Even now, with Anderson’s words in my head, I knew I’d attack anyone who attempted to touch Alucard. It scared me a little, even though it felt perfectly right and fair. He belonged to me, after all.

“Uh-huh,” Anderson said, his eyes upon my face to watch the emotions move me. “I expect it’s no’ verra comfortin’ to know yeh could’ve ripped inta someone you think so much of.” He took another long pull from the wine bottle, draining it.

“I have to apologize,” I blurted. “I’d never want to hurt Sir Integra.”

“Apologize away, but some damage has already been done.” Anderson set the empty bottle down. “She’ll think seriously about warding yeh; she’s no fool.”

“It doesn’t matter, I don’t suppose.” I stroked Alucard’s hair again just to soothe myself. “My master isn’t going anywhere, so I won’t either. It might make Sir Integra feel better about keeping both of her vampires if she put the wards on me. I really don’t want bound, but what can I do?”

“Aye.” Anderson looked at Alucard a long moment. “That monster in your arms isnae ever goin’ ta let me go. I’ve already got a taste of what it means to be bound to Hellsing.” He grinned just a little. “S’work, isn’t it?”

The sun went down behind mountains, leaving us in darkness a full thirty minutes earlier than I expected. Alucard stirred slowly. His hands glided over whatever skin of mine he could reach, savoring. “Sotie,” he whispered.

I released him and he sat up. His red gaze rested upon Anderson immediately. “Paladin,” he murmured. “You reek of benevolence.”

“Men of the cloth tend ta do that,” Anderson replied. “Even de-frocked men can know God’s eternal love.”

Alucard stood and stretched before offering me his hand. “You’re all masochists,” he said, aiding me from the cramped couch bed. “I prefer sadism.”

“A’course yeh do, yeh foul thing.” Anderson walked past us for his side of the cabin. “Yer Protestant mistress is on route fer the hotel. If we hurry we can catch up.”

“She left without us?” Alucard lifted an eyebrow before looking to me.

“You wouldn’t wake up, and I didn’t force it,” I explained.

Alucard smiled slightly. His eyes softened to brilliant orange. “Feeling territorial tonight, are we, Seras?” he prodded.

I started to try and explain how I felt, but stopped before a word came out of my mouth. His cocky stance and expectant body language told me he knew exactly what I felt right now. Trying to use words to explain was utterly useless.

“Will I get used to it?” I asked simply. The thought of hurting Sir Integra had frightened me, and I needed to know.

Alucard tilted his head a little before twitching his finger toward me. “No,” he said. “You’ll learn to control the reaction, but not the impetus.”

“Explain that, please.” I had a decent vocabulary for someone unschooled, even if I chose not to throw those pretty words around a lot, but I didn’t get what he meant.

“Think of it like Integra suffering with this non-smoking honeymoon Walter engineered,” he advised. “She’s reaching for her cigar pocket all the time, and she’s prickly. She can control herself from breaking and lighting up, but her first impulse when under stress is to get a cigar.”

“You aren’t a habit,” I argued softly. “You’re a genuine requirement.”

The humor dropped from him. “You still feel that way?” He stepped a bit closer, curiosity all over his handsome face. “You shouldn’t, Seras. You became a queen a handful of hours ago.” He didn’t laud me from the rooftops for that accomplishment, nor did he ignore it.

Oh, he was a slick one. Near-perfect equilibrium at all times, then suddenly psychopathic at a whim. What a creature he was. I thought about it often, wondering if he’d been born this suave or if he’d just learned to perfect his approach over the years.

Hmm. He hadn’t expected me to still love him after I truly became a queen, which meant he hadn’t anticipated I’d want him, either. He’d still thought I’d just swan off the second I came into my own, no matter what he’d heard while eavesdropping in my head.

“So I did become a queen.” I ran my eyes over him, admiring him while I got a whiff of his musk. “Why would I be an ordinary No-Life Queen when I was an odd little draculina?”

There. I could use words carefully, too. He couldn’t deny I was strange and unpredictable. Since he absolutely sucked at reading me when my mind wasn’t an open study guide, I had the upper hand for once. Let him decipher my meaning the same way I had to figure him out.

Man to woman, my handsome and horrible No-Life-King; no easy way out for you now. Like I’d said earlier, it’s too late.

He blinked exactly twice. “Good point,” he said. Holding out a hand, his sunglasses formed in his palm. He slid them on his face slowly, and I felt the weight of his stare even after his eyes were covered by mirror-tinted amber. “I can’t hear you in my head, Seras,” he added. He wanted to know what I’d done to completely block him. “What are you thinking about?”

I smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

His unhurried grin made my blood heat up. “I could make you tell me,” he pointed out.

“I look forward to the lesson.” I changed my clothing with a thought. A pretty, long black skirt and matching blouse would probably do well enough for dinner in a fancy place with Integra and Walter. “Learning from you is always really interesting, Master.” And, it was. Sometimes it blew my mind.

“You don’t have to call me that anymore,” he reminded softly.

“I think I’ll call you whatever I like, even if it’s ‘bastard’, ‘son-of-a-bitch’ or ‘arsehole’.” I showed him my teeth in the wickedest grin I could summon.

Alucard lowered his head and chuckled. He licked his lips with a quick swipe of his tongue, then looked at me from under his hair. “Glorious,” he said deeply, approvingly. “Wonderful, even.” He held out his arm. “Shall we collect the fallen priest and meet the humans?”

“Certainly.” As I threaded my arm through his, I had to wonder if he hadn’t known I’d turn out this way. He didn’t seem very surprised by my new attitude, the sneaky prick.

God, I loved him.


Master changed into a tuxedo as we walked, but he didn’t make a single comment over Anderson’s refusal to meet dress code. I only noticed it because I’d pondered why Angel Dust didn’t smell bad after days in the same clothing. Will no one comment on the paladin? I asked.

Polite society will never ask someone to change their clothing when it’s a symbol of their religion, Alucard answered, eyes straight ahead. Polite, modern society, that is. There are Roman Catholics here, so he isn’t attracting undue attention. Eastern Orthodox Christians wouldn’t see Father Anderson as anything unduly odd, anyway.

I thought he might be wrong. Anderson was a large man with a large personality. Still, he didn’t seem to attract as many looks as Alucard and I did. “Why do people look at us strangely?” I asked. “We’re not that odd, really.”

“I don’t know,” Master answered. “I’ve always attempted to know what makes a person obviously foreign, but it’s an elusive quality.”

“Yeh aren’t foreign,” Anderson argued, walking up beside Alucard with his hands clasped behind his back. “These are yer own people. Yer ethnic Vlach, no matter what that Stoker character wrote in his trash pulp novel.”

Master stopped dead, forcing Anderson and I to stop as well. People began to part around us, as we served a huge bottleneck to the flow of foot traffic. Alucard turned his head and smiled at Anderson, and it was a genuine smile. If my heart hadn’t already stopped, it would have in that second upon seeing such honest emotion.

“You’re such a smart man, Alexander,” he said. “I always enjoyed you for your sheer, bloody violence, your eagerness to play with me. I had no idea until recently you could think independently of Maxwell.”

Anderson screwed his face up into a moue of disgust. “Dinnae flatter me, yeh snake of Eden,” he uttered. “Especially when it’s all to th’ purpose o’ turnin’ the screw ta me. Ah don’ appreciate yer fire-and-tow approach.” He drew up a little and glanced at me. “As ta why everyone’s lookin’ at yeh, lass, I think yer master knows only too well.”

Alucard started walking again. “We’ll discuss it in private,” he announced.

I focused on my surroundings, setting the issue to the side. Almost in that second I sensed something distinctly wrong. An acrid taste hung in my throat before turning into raw bile, a flavor I hadn’t experienced since becoming Midian. I knew we were being followed, then, but I didn’t know why I knew.

Master Alucard, I said. Someone is tailing us.

Indeed? Alucard didn’t pause in his stride, but I felt him reaching out, his influence and mind stretching tendrils in every direction with ease and fluidity. His was a mighty presence that could insinuate into the most forbidden, remote places. I’d never experienced feeling this about him, except in the basest ways. Now, being a queen, I supposed I had no choice but to be aware of him on levels previously unknown or even suspected.

Sotie, your instincts are sublime. We are being followed. I hadn’t noticed.

That confession scared the hell out of me. Alucard, why? I asked, getting a bit closer and taking his hand without asking. You’re supposed to know everything, damn it!

Alucard chuckled lowly. You’ve always relied upon me to be a supernatural know-it-all, Seras, but I’m not. Aside from that, I’m very focused on you right now.

Well, unfocus on me! I gripped his hand tightly. Our shadow smells like a werewolf! I do not want to get hit with Regenerist Serum.

It only smells like a werewolf because it’s been fucking a werewolf, Alucard replied casually. It’s only too human, Sotie, which means Regenerist Serum is a high probability.

Shit. If I was alive I’d be sweating. I felt terrified of that stuff that made the paladin. Alucard squeezed my hand.

We’ll walk down this alley, he went on. We can’t lead our shadow to the hotel. He looked at Anderson and held out his hand, silently demanding that the ex-priest take it.

Anderson stared coldly at Alucard, and even though we still walked, the amount of concentration between them made the air heavy. A thin trickle of blood escaped Anderson’s nose as he resisted voluntarily taking Alucard’s hand. But, finally, trembling, he obeyed. His sigh of defeat had an echo within me.

One could only defy my master for so long.