The Blood Remembers
The battlefield was silent now.
Bodies—human, ghoul, and monster—littered the broken street like discarded puppets. Smoke coiled through the air, illuminated by the flicker of distant fires. Seras sat on a shattered wall, breathing hard, her massive weapon resting beside her like a sleeping beast.
I stood a few feet away, arm half-torn open from shielding her from a surprise round of silver bullets. The wound was healing, slowly, sluggishly. I could feel the edge of fatigue clawing at the corners of my mind.
She looked over at me. "You're bleeding."
I gave a half-smile. "Yeah, well... silver bullets. Kinda hard to walk off."
She studied me then. Not with fear—Seras Victoria didn't scare easy—but with that curious, wary stare of someone used to monsters, and not sure if the one in front of her is friend or food.
"You're not like any vampire I've ever seen," she said slowly.
"No," I agreed. "I'm not from here. Not from this time, not this universe."
She raised an eyebrow. "What, are you a time-traveler now?"
I hesitated, then stepped closer. "I want to show you something. But you'll need to trust me."
She looked at me for a beat longer. Then, without flinching, she offered her hand.
I bit gently—not to feed, but to give. My blood flowed into her veins, rich with memory, dream, story.
Her eyes widened instantly, pupils dilating, a jolt shooting through her like lightning. She gasped, then gripped her head as the visions hit.
She saw it.
The Hellsing Organization. Her own story. Alucard's story. Integra. The Major. The war in London. Her turning. Her pain. Her power.
The entire anime, downloaded into her mind in seconds—except she lived it, felt it, as if she were watching her own reflection in another world.
When it was over, she stumbled back, staring at me with something like awe and horror.
"You... knew all of this?"
I nodded. "Back where I'm from, you're fictional. A character. But here? It's real. You're real."
She sat down hard. "That's insane."
I sat beside her. "Tell me about it. I woke up this morning as David, the vampire hybrid, and now I'm in your world fighting ghouls with you and getting death-stared by Alucard."
She was quiet for a moment, then laughed—just a breath.
"Okay. What now, mystery hybrid?"
I looked up at the blood-red moon above. "Now? I think I figure out why I'm here."
From the shadows, a voice like razors wrapped in velvet whispered:
"Because someone's pulling strings."
Alucard.
Of course he was still watching.