[WP] Humanity discovers that supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves exist. Instead of attempting to exterminate them, some countries attempt to offer them lucrative jobs that they could do better than a human.
New? Part 1 here
Part 3
The tall office building in the outskirts of London rose out of a park with frost-kissed pines. Down by a frozen pond, a sanded trail snaked through the groves and up to stone terrace sprinkled with fresh snow. Like a breathless mist, Alucard floated in over the park and up to the seventh floor of the building and in through an open window.
The other workers sometimes complained about the low temperature in the office, but nobody dared say anything to his face. Humans were such fragile balls of nerves, he'd learned that working in a hospital overseas. But that was before Olivia and his return to London.
With snow crystals whirling in the air inside his office, Alucard sat down at his desk and looked over his mail. The workers here thought he was an insurance salesman like everyone else.
Slowly, his long fingers pried open the letters. The least interesting part of working for the MI6. Nothing annoyed him more than bureaucratic rubbish. One by one, the letters landed in the trash. For some reason, they thought he was a resource that they could tap like an open vein. They clearly hadn't dealt with a Nosferatu before.
His dark eyes finally stopped on an envelope marked, 'A. V. H.'
The corners of his mouth rose ever so slightly, revealing just a tiny glimmer of razor-sharp whiteness. The vampire let the rest of the letters sail to the floor, and sliced it open with the tip of his nail.
Dear Abraham,
Your insights on the reactive attributes of the strain have proven invaluable. The sample you provided me with has been instrumental in the development of a stable product. Indeed, very little augmentation was required to reach the desired effects. One cannot help but wonder where you acquired such a potent specimen?
If the effects are lasting, this may very well be the most important breakthrough that science has made in the past few centuries. I am truly blessed to have found your name in my great-great grandfather's journal. How exhilarating is it that, even after all these years, the fates of our bloodlines have once more been intertwined?
I shall provide you with a stable product very soon.
Sincerely,
Dr. Artemis Holmwood
Alucard touched his chin, reading through the letter once more. Surprise didn't come easily to a vampire of Alucard's age, but the content of this letter pushed the dark eyebrows well up on his pale forehead. After Van Helsing's death, Alucard had taken control of his estates. Any letters addressed to the late professor were directly forwarded to him instead. Whatever Artemis was working on must be important if it had grabbed Van Helsing's attention.
"Artemis Holmwood," he said, trying the name in his mouth for the first time, tasting the texture of the letter combination.
Another descendant of Arthur Holmwood and Lucy Westenra that he was unaware of? He felt his dead heart twitch in his chest at the thought. Quickly, he pulled up a blank sheet of paper and started writing.
Dear Dr. Holmwood,
I am overjoyed that you have taken such strides in your project. I'll be in London for the next few weeks. It would be a grand pleasure to make your acquaintance and discuss your findings. Perhaps over a drink?
Yours truly,
Prof. Abraham Van Helsing
Whoever this Holmwood girl was, she clearly didn't know that Van Helsing had been dead for nearly a year now. And she seemed to be under the illusion that the professor was a descendant of the famous vampire hunter from the shift of the last century, which was only logical. Very few men lived to celebrate their 150th birthday.
Alucard licked his lips and then sealed the envelope with the tip of his tongue. Emails and text messages were the norm these days, but there was something about traditional letters that felt more genuine, especially ones with exquisitely forged handwriting.
After dropping the letter into a mailbox, Alucard took a step out of the window and let the night swallow him once more. One good thing about modern society was the ability find to people's home addresses -- it made stalking someone so much easier. He turned his face toward the moon. Several more hours remained until dawn and he needed to figure out Morgana's motives. Even now, he could feel her presence in the city like a bad sore.
Frost flowers bloomed on the glass of the streetlamps, their intricate crystalline structures blurring the light into a dim sheen over the cobblestones of Whitford Avenue. On either side of the road, iron fences guarded the snow-coated turfs of the Gothic style villas from most intruders, but shadows and gusts of wind slipped through the bars unhindered.
On the parapets of one roof, gargoyles sat in motionless silence, their grotesque faces watching a tall shadow flicker across the lawn and then melt into the darkness of the house. The wooden floor of the old building creaked under Alucard's weight. White canvases covered the furniture and art objects that lined the walls of the foyer.
If it weren't for the tracks in the dust that led upstairs, one could easily have assumed that the house had stood empty for a very long time. Alucard stopped by a portrait on the third floor -- the only one not covered. The rugged face of Van Helsing stared at him accusingly. The dullness in his gray eyes, which matched his silvery hair, was deceptive. Even in his late years, the professor had been as sharp as a wooden stake. Despite their difference, he was one of the few men that Alucard respected.
He shook his head and continued down the dark corridor. A gentle waft carried a very familiar smell out of the study -- a smell that fanned the fire back into the coal black eyes of the ancient vampire. Nostrils flaring, he drifted into the room.
A small window shed a bleak light over the bookshelves that reached for the ceiling. Books of every kind, from pamphlet to dusty tome, surrounded a massive pinewood desk with a mess of papers on it. Crystal chandeliers hung over two leather armchairs, and an antique crossbow rested on a cushion inside a glass case, but Alucard's gaze was on the floor, where a dried-up riverbed of crimson split the room in half.
Slowly, the vampire rounded the desk and found the body of a young man sprawled over an exotic rug. The last expression chiseled into the twisted face of Dr. Seward, Jr. was one of surprise and terror. His dead eyes stared emptily into the ceiling and his hands clutched his neck, which was the source of the small pond that soaked the carpet and then turned into a river of blood across the room.
Alucard's stomach groaned at the sight, and his gums itched horribly. He pulled out the amulet that Morgana had given him as proof of her deed and dangled it over the body. His lips dropped at the sight of the vile symbol carved into the metal. Why she had come to London and killed this man was a mystery. She didn't have any hatred for the Seward bloodline that he knew about.
With a shrug, Alucard dropped the amulet and leaned over the desk, his long fingers sifting through the papers. Morgana had been looking for something, that much was clear. Perhaps her interest was less in the Seward bloodline and more in the young man's work. The boy had been an expert on vampires and one of Van Helsing's biggest admirers. In his letter from a few months back he had sounded so excited. So, when he asked for access to Van Helsing's archives, Alucard had, of course, granted him permission. The old vampire enjoyed playing with his food, and he was a little bitter that Morgana had killed the boy before he'd had the chance to see his little game play out.
The papers strewn across the desk were of no interest. Just Van Helsing's handwritten accounts from a lifetime ago and a few sketches of garlic flowers and fangs. Some of Seward, Jr.'s notes were also in the mix, but Alucard doubted that anything important would've been left out in the open. If the boy was anything like his idol, he would've hidden it in a place of personal significance.
A grin parted the thin lips of the vampire. Morgana had combed through the study in vain, but she hadn't known Van Helsing -- and in turn, the Seward boy -- like Alucard. He stepped over the body and backtracked his steps out into the hallway, following the corridor back to the stairs. There, he looked at the portrait of Van Helsing once more before lifting it off the wall.
Glued to the back of the frame, Alucard found a thin bundle of papers. A wrinkle crept across on his forehead as he skimmed through what appeared to be a lab report of some sort. In fact, there were two of them and they were both on the same topic; the same experiments; the same DNA helix, twisting around itself on the sheet. The first report was dated two weeks ago and had a logo of a white chalice with a red infinity symbol. The second report was dated a year ago and just had the letters 'A. H.' scribbled with a marker at the top.
Alucard flipped to the very back where he found a note written in the neat longhand of Dr. Seward, Jr.
First strain with sufficient potency.
Acquired through A. V. H.?
Will lead to the completion of "longevity potion."
Strain source: unknown to the researcher...
At the very bottom of the page, one word had been circled with a red marker.
((Dracula))
Submitted August 31, 2018 at 04:30AM by Lilwa_Dexel https://ift.tt/2PSPARP
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