Chapter VIII: Awkward Questions, Awkward Answers
"No." With that said, Integral Wingates Hellsing lit her cigar, and began to smoke.
Christina Elizabeth Hellsing stared at her mother for a moment. Integra said it with confidence and without hesitation. It was as if she had long rehearsed her answer to that particular question. Christina didn't know whether she would feel relieved or worried about that. "But why do we have the same eye color?" she persisted.
"Many people have the same eye color and yet, they are not related to each other."
"Yes, but we live in the same household, unlike those people. Furthermore, red is a very rare eye color."
"Your father had reddish amber eyes, almost scarlet. And he is human."
Christina was a little surprised. It was the first time her mother said anything about her father. However, she wasn't finished yet. "Then who is my father?"
Her mother countered her with another question. "Why are you suddenly interested with your father? You've never been this persistent before." Her mother gave her another one of her piercing stares.
Christina met her mother's icy gaze head on. "Let's call it natural human curiosity, mother," she lied smoothly. "Every person wants to know his or her origins, do they not?"
"I see." Integra took another leisurely puff from her cigar. "Well, perhaps one day your curiosity about your origins will be satisfied."
"Why not now?"
"Because now isn't the time."
Christina was about to ask another question when there was a discreet knock on the door. The door then opened, revealing Walter. "What is it, Walter?" her mother asked.
"Lord Integra and Lady Christina, you have visitors from His Majesty," Walter replied.
Mother and daughter looked at each other. "Send them into my office," Integra ordered. What's this all about? the Hellsing women both thought.
*******
Christina had seen 'visitors from the monarch' before, the first time was when she was about four. She had thought they were door-to-door insurance salesmen, until Walter told them who they were. They usually came in pairs, one reed-thin and the other, pot-bellied. They always wore black: Black bowler hats, black slacks, black coats, black ties–non-descript and boring, as Alucard had once described with a snort.
However, Christina knew better than to judge them as boring. She knew that their words carried great weight and therefore, should not be ignored. Looks can be deceiving, after all.
She glanced at her mother. Though her mother didn't show it, she knew this meeting disturbed her. In the past, whenever they came, Christina would politely excuse herself out of the room, since she knew that whatever information they brought was for her mother's ears only. This time, however, she was included in the discussion.
"Lord Integra," the rotund man said. Then he turned to Christina. "And Lady Christina, I am here to extend His Majesty's invitation for you to come to the palace two days hence. His Majesty wishes to discuss certain pertinent matters with you and your daughter."
Integra was silent for a moment, contemplating on the matter. Then she said, "Tell His Majesty that her loyal subjects gratefully and humbly accepts His Majesty's invitation." She and Christina curtsied in acquiescence.
The two men bowed back. "Excellent," the thin one said. He handed Integra an envelope with the royal seal stamped on it. "The envelope contains the pass and the details of His Majesty's invitation. They bowed again. "Thank you, Lord Integra, Lady Christina. May the blessings of God and the King be with you. Amen."
"Amen."
*******
"What was that all about?" Christina asked her mother as soon as the two visitors were out of earshot.
Integra carefully opened the envelope. After she scanned briefly its content, she frowned slightly and looked at her daughter. "The letter says nothing of the King's purpose, only minor details about the invitation. It appears we are to dine with His Majesty and his sons in the evening two days hence."
"Oh," Christina managed to say. "Well, I guess I'll be shopping for new clothes," she remarked lightly. "Though after what happened, I suppose I'll have bodyguards tagging along."
"I suppose so." Integra's ice blue eyes suddenly narrowed. "Christina, I'm truly sorry about what happened to your friends, but I hope that it will serve as a valuable lesson to all of you. I must admit I'm a little disappointed. You should have known better than to go out at night."
"I know, Mother," Christina replied. "That reminds me. What happened to your investigation?" Her mother encouraged her to get involved in Hellsing affairs, though there are instances she did not want Christina to be involved, especially when it involved the Hellsing vampires, Celes and of course, Alucard.
Integra shook her head. "Nothing important came up." She made a sound of disgust. "I saw the Vatican swines in the Gautiers' house. It seems they'll be dipping their long, slimy, bejeweled fingers into this case." She spoke casually, but Christina knew her mother was absolutely furious. "By the way, what did that Vatican priest say to you? He said you met him last night."
"I didn't exactly meet him. He intercepted me when I was heading towards the car. He said he has been 'longing' to meet me. Then he inquired about Alucard who then appeared out of nowhere. They were going to fight but I managed to hold it off," Christina replied. "I don't like him. I think he's up to something."
The Vatican is always up to something, Integra thought. The question was, what was it this time?
*******
Alone in her room, sitting in her four-poster canopied bed, Christina pondered deeply on what her mother had just said. She was not in a good mood. She was so engrossed in her own thought that she did not sense someone looking at her until she heard him speak up.
"Such deep thoughts so early in the morning, little one."
She nearly started at the sound of his voice. Christina turned, finding Alucard standing at the foot of her bed. By chance or because of some unknown magnetism, she found herself staring at his red eyes. She willed herself not to look away as well as to clear her mind. She didn't want him prying into her thoughts. "It's never early to think seriously. You should try it sometime. It would improve your personality enormously."
Alucard chuckled. "You seem to be a foul mood today, little one," he observed with a smile.
"I am not in a foul mood. And stop calling me 'little one'. I'm not a child anymore." The first time they met, he called her that. On the second time they met, in that village where she witnessed her first Hellsing assault on FREAKS and ghouls, he called her that as well.
She vaguely remembered those two encounters. They seemed like a long time ago. On the events that happened when she was eleven, what she remembered usually surfaced when she was dreaming or when something connected with the incident triggered it, like the ghoul in the school's forest.
However, she could clearly remember some parts, like the time they first met. He spoke to her through her mind. Since she was a mere child, it didn't seem so strange back then, but now…it was quite disturbing. She knew her mother and Alucard could talk to each other through their minds, since they were bound together as master and slave in mystic ways. Her ability to telepathically communicate with him was probably something she inherited from her mother, but she felt that this 'bond' she shared with Alucard was somehow closer that what he and her mother shared. Maybe it was because she knew of Alucard at a much younger age than her mother, but still…
Just like know, in her room, facing each other, she could feel that bond growing stronger…and in some mysterious way, more powerful.
"Yes, you are still a child," Alucard told her. "A little older, but still one."
"I suppose were all children to you. After all, we might all grow up and age, but we'll still be a fraction of your age," she replied. Alucard was more than five hundred years old. "What are you doing here, anyway?"
"Does it matter?"
She glared at him. "It does, when it is my room you're visiting. Why don't you talk to my mother? I think you have much to discuss with her."
And what does that mean, little one? This time, he spoke telepathically spoke to her.
"Does it matter?" she flung back in a loud voice. And stop talking to me that way! she added.
The vampire grinned again. You are in a foul mood.
She paused for a moment, ignoring his comment. "What's it like?" she suddenly asked.
"What's it like what, little one?" This time, to her relief, he spoke aloud.
"What's it like, being what you are? Being a vampire, I mean?" Christina wondered if she wasn't being impertinent or reckless asking Alucard questions. In her room, even. If her mother found out about Alucard's visits to her room…she refused to complete the sentence.
Alucard looked amused. "Why the sudden curiosity about me, little one?"
"Everything about you is worth to be curious about. You're not exactly ordinary, as you well know."
Suddenly, the vampire laughed, then smiled. "When your mother was about your age, she asked me the same questions."
"Indeed?" Christina was rather surprised. With the current state of the relationship between her mother and Alucard, She found it hard to imagine a young Integra talking so candidly with Alucard. Maybe they did when her mother was younger. Things must have drastically changed since the day she was born.
"Truly. I do not jest."
She looked at him pointedly. "You're changing the subject, and you haven't answered my question yet."
"Very well. It was very boring most of the while," he replied. "It usually got interesting during times of conflict. Right now, it's very, very interesting." He grinned, baring his white teeth.
"That was not what I meant." Her face then became very serious. "You've been here for a long time, haven't you? Perhaps there is something you can answer for me."
"I will try."
"Who is my father?"
She could feel the atmosphere in the room change suddenly. The lightheartedness was gone, replaced by dead seriousness. Alucard was silent, his eyes hidden by his long dark hair. "Well?" she prompted.
They locked gazes. His answer was quite unexpected. "Your father was a man of many talents." The look on Alucard's eyes would send chills running up the spine of any normal person.
Her gaze did not waver. She wasn't Sir Integral Wingates Hellsing's daughter for nothing. "I see," she replied in an even voice. "And was that man you?"
There, she had finally asked him. After years of procrastination, of asking her mother, of watching and speculating, she had finally asked him the question. She could not get a straight answer out of her mother. So, she went directly to the man in question. She unconsciously held her breath, waiting for an answer, bracing herself.
The world seemed to have shrunk to the two of them in that moment. Vaguely, she could hear the phone ringing, but she ignored it. A sudden wave of determination rose in Christina. She did not care if her mother burst into her room, or if the King came, or if Satan and his army of demons arrived from Hell, or if God Himself came down from Heaven to interrupt this conversation. She had waited for a decade for an answer. She would not be denied so easily. She would get her answer. Whatever it might be.
It was if everything moved in slow motion, so slow so one could remember every detail carefully. Alucard opened his mouth, his red eyes glittering, and said in his deep, mocking voice, "No."
The world expanded again after that. Christina heard a knock on her door and she instinctively turned. "Come in," she said. When she turned to face Alucard, he was no longer there.
*******
"Where have you been, Alucard?" Integral sharply asked the vampire.
"Here and there, master." Alucard flashed her his usual mocking smile. He stood a few feet away from her table, somewhat shielded by the shadows.
"Just make sure you are nowhere near my daughter," she said. She took a deep breath. "She's been asking questions again. I don't want your presence to encourage it."
"Has she?" Alucard's face was expressionless. Integra's eyes narrowed with suspicion, but she let it go for now. Christina would be discussed later. There was business to attend to. She glanced at the report she had been reading. "FREAK attacks have increased steadily for three weeks now. We are also getting reports that the production of FREAK chips has increased as well." The never-ending production of FREAK chips has been a constant source of frustration for Integra. No matter how many factories they destroy, more seem to spring up.
The vampire showed no reaction to the news. Integra went on. "I have also talked to Christina. It seems that she and her friends encountered the vampire by accident. Three of her friends, Gautier, Kent, and Rothschild, saw the vampire first. Apparently, the three saw the vampire performing some ritual, which is still unknown." Then she picked up a letter. "The Knights of the Round Table has demanded an explanation why Hellsing hasn't controlled the situation with the undead yet."
Alucard snorted in disgust at the last piece of information. "The fault does not lie solely on Hellsing. What is that bastard Harker doing? He is the head of your intelligence, is he not?"
Though she didn't like Harker, she also didn’t want to encourage Alucard to insult him. "That will do, Alucard. Harker is an ally. I will not permit you to antagonize him."
"Ally?" He smiled slyly. "How can you be sure, Master? Is it because he is a member of the Knights of the Round Table? I seem to recall that a fellow knight betrayed you in the past."
Integra gave him a cool look. "Your prejudice is showing, Alucard. However, Harker isn't the reason why I summoned you here. Last night, you fought with the vampire. What can you say about him? Do you know him?"
This time, the vampire grinned. "I regret to say that I do not know him. However, I am quite sure he is a true vampire though whether he has a human master, I could not tell." His red eyes gleamed with anticipation. "It has been a long time since I encountered a true vampire with such power."
"Hn. Control your penchant for dramatics, Alucard." Integra's eyes hardened. "You should have killed him the first time you encountered him. Failure is something I will not tolerate. He has dared to defile my home with his presence and has tried to hurt my daughter. The next time you meet, you are ordered to utterly destroy him."
Alucard's eyes hardened as well. "You need not order me to do that." He was really going to savor sending that cursed vampire back to Hell. "However, I will handle this matter in my own way." When Integra appeared to disapprove of his words, he asked, "Have I failed you before?"
"Many times before, Alucard, the most recent was last night. If you had moved faster, Christina wouldn't have been injured. The vampire wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the heir to Hellsing." Though she did not show it, Integra had been badly shaken when she saw her daughter injured. She hadn't realized just how much she loved her daughter until that moment, when Celes brought her daughter to her, bleeding to her death. She had never been so thankful for her daughter's ability to heal faster than most humans than in that moment. She vowed that an incident like that would never happen again.
"I do not want her harmed in any way, Alucard."
Alucard just stared at her and said nothing. Silence reigned in the room until Integra spoke again. "That's all for now. You are dismissed, Alucard." She turned back to her papers, but then looked up again. "Well? Why are you still here?" Integra asked a little impatiently.
Alucard then smiled at her, a smile she couldn't decipher. Then before she could react, the vampire disappeared before her. Damn him, she thought.
~T.B.C~
Lalalalalala....
I cannot believe that you left off at such a good part!! I'm just iching to find out what happens now!!