Chapter 5
HELLSING
The shop spun around me, shadows blurring into a dizzying, dark whirl as a dark familiar presence clawed its way through my mind, sending sharp strikes of pain that felt like jagged knives digging into my eyes. Its laughter slithered through my skull, a sick, vile echo.
“Ahh, Hellsing. It’s been too long,” Bael purred, the demon’s voice dripped with sick amusement. “Did you miss me? I missed you.”
“Fuck you,” I cursed, squeezing Grace’s hands and trying to make out her features as my eyes glazed over, the white film turning her into a ghostly shadow.
“Is that how you greet an old friend? Maybe I should remind you of who you are speaking too,” a sharp shrill sound echoed through my head, and I grabbed my ears, feeling blood seep through my fingers as my eardrums burst. I screamed and, in the background, I could feel Grace’s hands covering mine.
“Get the fuck out of my head,” I gritted out, my fingers clawing at the floorboards, but I could feel him sinking deeper, sinking his fangs right into my mind.
“Oh, Peter, but you led me here,” he sneered, his voice twisting with mocking gratitude. “And now? Now you’ve brought me to someone… very special.”
My body seized up as images flooded my mind, vile scenes dripping with his malicious intent.
Grace. His words painted her like she was nothing more than his prey.
A piece of meat he was waiting to sink his teeth into.
He sent images of her naked, writhing in the air, her breasts heavy and full.
She was sinful, and beautiful, and my body was forced to react.
“Virgil’s daughter,” he murmured, almost reverent. “That dark lush hair, that body. She looks… delicious,” he hissed, slithering his tongue out like a snake. “Maybe you can sink your cock into her as I fill her soul.”
“You will not touch her,” my voice came out weaker than I intended, but his presence was consuming, and it tightened, pulsing hot and cruel in my chest.
“Can’t deny it, can you?” Bael cooed, his voice slinking lower, dripping with perversion. “You want her. You always have.” A scene of hot bodies fucking wildly flashed through my mind, instantly followed by blood, so much blood. Covering both out naked forms.
“Stop!” I yelled, sliding my head down onto the floorboards, trying to steady my breathing.
“You can feel that heat, that need, can’t you, Peter? We’re the same, you and I. She’s ripe for the taking.” His tone turned darker, like a twisted caress. “I’d make her scream for us. And she’d beg, ohh, how she would beg for mercy.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snarled, but even as I fought him, his words festered, stoking a fire I couldn’t put out. I could feel my body’s betrayal, the shame creeping up my spine. Bael chuckled, reveling in every second of it.
“You feel it, Hellsing. That heat, that hunger.” His laugh was a vile tremor in my ear, and it only grew sharper, darker.
“She’d writhe beneath me, and you’d be there to watch it all, helpless.
You want to protect her?” His hand reached down between my legs, and I grunted as it squeezed around my traitorous dick.
“Then why are you so hard, Peter? Why are you so ready to let me take her?”
My fists clenched, and I fought the flood of arousal, his darkness stirred up in me. The bastard fed off my lust, twisting it, molding it into something disgusting and perverse.
“You’re nothing but filth,” I growled, but even my own voice was shaking, teetering on the edge of losing control.
“Filth, am I?” he sneered. “Then what does that make you? There’s a reason you belong in hell, Hellsing. You’re just like me. Weak, twisted. I can feel it in your blood. You want this… you want her.”
“You’re nothing, even Lucifer doesn’t want you.”
Bael screamed in my head, a wail of terror so profound, it doubled me over in pain.
A flicker of movement broke through the darkness.
Grace knelt in front of me, worry etched across her beautiful face.
Her hands found my cheeks, grounding me for a moment in the whirlwind of the hell Bael had thrown me into.
“Peter, what’s wrong?” she whispered, her voice soft but firm. “Tell me what’s happening. What do you see?”
She rarely called me by my first name, and I found it was filled with softness, hearing it come from her lips.
I locked onto her pretty face, my eyes adjusting, searching for an anchor, for anything to keep me tethered to reality.
Her eyes suddenly came into view, her gaze was warm, steady, and in that moment, I felt something deep.
A pull, a connection that reached down to the core of me, silencing Bael’s mocking taunts, if only for a second. But that second wasn’t enough.
“Run,” I whispered, feeling the words escape like a plea. “You need to run from me. Now.”
But she didn’t move, her hands still cupping my face. “Peter, I’m not leaving. What’s happening?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but a wave of suffocating heat washed over me, Bael’s hold tightening like a noose.
The air turned thick, heavy with smoke, and I was pulled down, spiraling into a dark, fiery abyss.
I was slipping, falling, tumbling into the depths, and there was nothing but heat, smoke, and Bael’s laughter echoing like thunder around me.
“No, no, no,” I choked out, clawing against the fiery tendrils pulling me down, dragging me deeper into the pit.
Hell was alive around me, writhing with heat, devouring any shred of sanity I had left.
I had seen and walked through hell before but was never pulled into it against my own will.
I was crawling on my hands and knees, flames licking at my skin, searing through my bones.
Bael’s voice boomed through the molten air, filling every inch of the inferno.
“Give in, Peter. Just let go. Let me in.”
I fought against him, dragging myself forward, but it felt like clawing through quicksand.
The fire was everywhere, alive and ravenous, filling my lungs, suffocating me.
Somewhere, faintly, I could hear Grace’s voice breaking through the haze, her call like a rope trying to pull me back from the edge.
She was humming something, over and over.
“Return to me, now,” she demanded, her voice soft, urgent, and that single phrase sliced through the darkness, grounding me even as I felt the flames engulfing me.
Then, with a violent jolt, I felt myself pulled upward, my body crashing against the floorboards of the shop as if thrown by an unseen force. Air filled my lungs in a rush, and I gasped, blinking against the harsh light as I came to.
Grace was staring at me, wide-eyed, a mix of confusion and fear in her gaze. “Peter? Peter it’s me, Grace.”
I grabbed at her hands, squeezing them as my eyes shot left and right, taking in my surroundings.
“Grace?” I whispered.
“Yes. I’m here. Are you alright?”
“I will be,” I tried to get up but my bones hurt too much so I just lay back against the floorboards and closed my eyes.
“What just happened?” she demanded, her voice shaky but strong.
I looked up into her pretty face, my body still trembling, drenched in sweat. “I… I was dragged into hell,” I breathed, the words barely a whisper, still tasting the sulfur on my tongue, the heat lingering like an aftershock.
Her gaze flickered with something fierce, but she didn’t flinch, she bent down to touch my cheek, her fingers warm against my hot skin. “What does that mean? Is that a hypothetical thing, or…”
“It’s a long story,” my voice rasped.
She wrapped a hand around my waist, and I held onto her as she helped me stand. “Bael,” I choked out, his name slipping from my lips like a curse.
Her eyes widened, and I felt her stiffen against me. “What did you say?”
“Bael found us,” I whispered, still barely able to speak
"How?" she asked softly, guiding me to sit in a chair before crouching beside me. I wished I could smooth away the worry etched into her brow, those deep lines across her nose.
“What were you reciting? When you brought me back?”
“I don’t know. Now tell me how he found us.”
“That’s one hell of an I don’t know.”
“Peter!”
“I don’t know. But he’s back, and he wants you. He wants you more than anything, Grace, and he’ll stop at nothing to take you.”
Grace’s eyes blazed, a spark of defiance that made my heart clench. “Then let him come and try. I’m not afraid of him.”
“You should be,” I said, my voice rough with desperation. “You don’t know what that demon’s capable of. He’ll kill you, Grace. And he’ll find joy in your death.”
“Then help me fight it,” she challenged, stepping closer, her eyes never leaving mine. “Teach me, Hellsing.”
I took a steadying breath, feeling her warm presence beside me as I slumped back in the chair. She leaned in, her dark eyes blazing with that stubborn, unshakable fire that I knew well. That I both respected and, hell, feared, especially since it was exactly like her father’s.
"I can’t teach you this, Grace," I drawled, forcing myself to hold her gaze. "This ain’t somethin’ you fight with fists or spells. This thing…it knows the darkest parts of humanity. Knows how to crawl inside you and make a home out of your worst feelings or thoughts."
She crossed her arms, that rebellious spark flaring.
"I’m not a little kid anymore, Hellsing, so don’t treat me like one.
My father made sure I knew how to defend myself, taught me how to take on what most people wouldn’t even believe in.
So don’t try to push me off like I’m some helpless little girl. "
Her words hit hard, and I found myself staring at her beautiful face feeling both admiration and dread.
It didn’t matter what she thought she knew; this was a whole different kind of monster.
"I barely made it back, Grace. It took…everything in me. That thing, Bael, it was pullin’ me under like I was just some piece of driftwood.
" I stopped short, a sudden realization hitting me like a punch to the gut. "But I didn’t crawl out of that hell hole on my own, did I? You did somethin’. "
She lifted her chin, her expression softening just a little. “I don’t know exactly. I just…you looked like you were dying. I just kept talkin’ to you, wanting to pull you back.”
"Pull me back?" I murmured, still stunned. I searched her face, my voice lowering. "How, Grace? How the hell did you reach me through that?”
"I don’t know," she admitted, but there was a fierce determination in her eyes. "I just kept thinking…you weren’t supposed to go yet. Not like that.”
“Did you feel anything, Grace?”
“Just a lot of anxiety, I could tell in your face that you were in pain.”
“And…” I tried searching her eyes but se avoided me and I knew she was keeping something from me.
“Don’t keep shit from me. Not now!” I shook her. “What else did you see?”
“You were hot.”
“Hot?” I whispered.
“You were hot to the touch, burning up. And your hat…”
“What about my hat?” I touched it, to make sure it was still attached to my head.
“It was…it was letting out smoke, Hellsing.”
I felt a shiver run down my spine, the intensity between us so thick I could almost reach out and touch it. "You shouldn’t have had to witness that. This is my battle to fight."
"Maybe it’s both of ours now." Her hand brushed over mine, grounding me in a way I had never experienced before.
“What you need is someone to watch over you while I figure out what to do.”
"I don’t need protection, Hellsing. I need to learn to defend myself."
My jaw tightened as I watched her, torn between pushing her away for her own good and knowing damn well she wasn’t gonna back down.
"If you want to do this, then you need to be ready, Grace. ‘Cause when it comes down to it, this thing ain’t just comin’ for me, no.
It’s got its sights set on you, too. And it’s not going to stop until it gets what it wants. ”
“What does it want, Peter?” She asked, her lips slightly quivering.
I slid my thumb over her bottom lip, her eyes slightly darkening at my touch. “It wants your soul, gorgeous.”
One thought stayed with me as I spoke those words to her.
And if there’s anyone who will own Grace’s soul…it will be me.