Twisted Thorns

Chapter Fifteen

"Theo!" Looking into the face of her fallen (lover?), she kissed him on the head and whispered: "I'm sorry." she hopped up, bringing the machete and gun with her in her good hand, and ran towards the dungeon where Theo was. She put Alucard's gun in her back pocket as she moved through the door.
"Theo!" she swung the door open and flew in. Before the door shut, it allowed enough light to see the scared, feral vampiric underling of Sebastian's holding Theo by the front of his shirt. His dark curls were in his face, and his skin was covered in blood. Lizzie was shocked, seeing his happy face so pale and frightened.
"Theo! NO!" Using the arm that had not been hurt when she had been pulled out of the jail cell, she ran at the creature with the dropped machete. The creature dropped Theo down, and retreated to all fours, snarling. 
"Witch!" he pointed a gnarled fingernail at her, froth at his lips and a dark, crazed look in his eye.
Witch? she thought in her head as she pointed the blade towards him. "Theo?" 
"Lizzie help me. He's... he's bitten me!" Theo cried, clutching his arm. 
"You bastard! He's just a boy!" she snarled. The creature leered at her, blood dripping from it's disgusting yellow fangs. He darted towards Theo, a look of desperation in his eyes. 
"NO!" Lizzie screamed. Her voice echoed off the walls, reverberated. She felt it beneath her feet. The power in it. As if it were alive. She felt the vibration become a steady, hard shudder. The creature was nearly at Theo's side. Lizzie darted towards him, her broken arm outstretched as far as it would go. Please... No.
Lizzie felt a tingling in her shoulder, shooting down her arm, right through to her palm. Oh God! She'd forgotten how badly she'd hurt it. But to her surprise... the creature was blasted backwards! Stunned, she stopped, astounded. "What..." Theo was staring at her in disbelief. She ran towards him, crouching next to him. "I'll keep you safe Theo. Come on!" she whispered, picking her up. Theo wrapped his uninjured arm around her neck, and she hoisted him up. Years of lifting patients single handedly had given her much upper body strength. Swapping the machete into her limp arm, and secured Theo with her good arm. "Let's go." she ran towards the door, and flung a look behind her, staring at the creature that was currently out cold. She slammed the heavy door behind them. "Theo don't look, honey." she said as she slid down the door, remembering Alucard's head was currently cleaved in two and on the floor a few feet from the door. 
"Lizzie... please it hurts." he started to cry, shielding his face from the sunlight flooding in. Lizzie's blood ran cold. What if... what if he became a vampire? A little boy who was only just telling him about the crush he had on a girl at his school, or about his parents. 
"It's okay Theo, it's okay." she nuzzled him close, hiding her face in his curls. She let out a silent sob, as the weight of what had happened caught up with her. The man who had been hunting her down for centuries had just died, all because she wasn't careful enough. Now he was dead. There was an unhinged vampiric creature that would come round at some point soon, and she'd have to fight him off with a broken arm and a possibly soon to be vampire child by her side. She knew what she needed to do; she needed to get moving. "Come o-" she stopped. There was a pool of blood where Alucard laid... but the body was gone. She started to panic. Was Sebastian back? One thing she did know, she'd protect little Theo with her life. 
"Theo. Hide behind me." she set him down and had him walk behind her, the machete in her good hand again. She heard creaking from the hallway. Steeling herself, she pressed herself to the wall, listening to the sound of heavy boots on the floor. She mentally counted down. Three... two... one... she burst round the corner, machete held high. 
"I'm offended Elizabeth. You came to finish the job, I take it?" Alucard smiled down at her, the joke falling from his lips in that same velvety tone as usual. He wore a black suit, a white shirt and a floppy red bow tie. 
"Alucard... you're alive." Lizzie forgot where she was, what she was doing... Fuck, for a moment she even forgot her own name. She dropped the machete to the floor, and threw her arms around her towering lover. As she felt his arms wrap around her, his safe warmth enveloped her. "I thought I lost you. You crazy fool." she sobbed. She kissed his face, his forehead, his cheeks, his nose. 
"Elizabeth. Don't you have someone you should introduce to me?" he smiled again, kissing the tip of her nose as she set her down. Lizzie turned and met Theo's eyes. 
"Hey Theo, you ready to go?" she smiled, wiping her eyes. 
"But Lizzie... Louse is still down there." he pointed back to the door, shaking. 
"Louse?" 
"The man who tried to- to eat me!" he cried, running to Lizzie's leg. Alucard's eyes narrowed. 
"He tried to eat you?"
"Yeah! He bit me! See!" Lizzie felt her blood run cold again as Theo held up his forearm to show Alucard the bite mark, quite distinguishable. 
"I see. I'll be back." he moved away from Elizabeth, having taken his gun from her back pocket, and stepped towards the closed door. Swinging it open, he stepped in and shut it firmly behind him with a loud click. There was silence for a few moments, then a scuffling. And then, three bullets sounded, echoing through the empty stone walls of the castle. Theo gripped tighter to her leg, and put a hand to the side of his head, and held him closely to her. 

Alucard stepped into the darkness, however his eyes were used to the darkness of both night and room. He made out the figure hunched up in the corner, mumbling to itself. "Louse?" Alucard said quietly, and he saw the creature prick his head up. He was a mutant of a being, a Naga if he'd ever seen one. Part snake, part vampire, the scales on his arms could be mistaken for scars, and his fangs were long and cone like. His fingernails were twisted, and he had sparse, scraggly black hairs on his head. "You... you're powerful. I can feel it." he crawled towards Alucard on all fours, neither vampire or snake at this point, not much more than a dog. "She- she is a witch you see. Threw me against those bars, made the entire room shake. She's strong. She's dangerous."
"Who sent you?"
"I know nothing... I- I promise." 
"Where is Marissa?" 
"I do not know. I only know of Master Sebastian, who talks highly of Miss Marissa. They will be together. He just needs to get rid of her." he pointed above his head with a single finger, to the room Lizzie was currently in. 
"Where can I find him?" 
"He-he'll be at the Black Heart, sir. It's his place of business. If you wish to see Miss Marissa, you should start with him." 
"Thank you Louse, you've been a huge" he stomped his foot onto Louse's leg, feeling it snap under his foot. Louse yelped, scratching at the wet stone floor to try and get away "help. However, there's a child with a large bite mark on his arm. That I could let slide. However, my Queen is currently upstairs," he stepped more weight onto the now broken appendage. "nursing serious injuries. That, I cannot forgive. MY Queen" he twisted his foot side to side, as if stubbing out a cigarette. Louse whimpered in pain again, feeling the bone completely snap, and the segments move away from each other. "is my everything. I will end whoever hurts her, even if it's the last thing I do. Goodbye, Louse." Alucard shot him in the chest twice, and once between the eyes. He wanted to see the look on the Naga's face as he realised his simpering ways would not help him out of this situation. Reaching into his now still mouth, he began pulling and prising. 

Alucard shut the door behind him as he stepped forward. Lizzie exhaled audibly as she smiled at him. His poor Queen, beaten and bruised and broken but still smiling beautifully for him. 
"Lets get going, shall we?" Alucard ushered Lizzie towards the door, picking little Theo up with no effort to take the weight off of Lizzie. Seras was outside in a large Land Rover, already waiting. Lizzie and Theo slipped in, Theo being placed in the front so not to bash Lizzie's broken arm. As Lizzie slipped into the back, she saw Alucard and Seras exchange something between their hands, and Seras nod and say 'Yes Master' quietly. 

Alucard slipped into the back with Lizzie, wrapping his arm around her. "We'll fix you up when we get home okay? Just... please come here." he pulled her in, and she was surrounded by his scent, his presence. She laid on his chest as best as she could, and she felt something being placed over her, and Seras placed a blanket over Theo's now sleeping form, before slipping into her own side and starting the car.

Marissa slapped Sebastian across the face in rage. "How could you let them escape? How could you just allow the stupid little whore to get away from you like that? And you didn't even take the boy with you? Imbecile!" she raged, her eyes a flaming red, the black net and lace dress clinging to her pale skin making the now red hues of her skin stand out even more. Sebastian hung his head. "I'm sorry I failed you my love." he sounded defeated. Marissa reigned in her temper. She had to keep Sebastian on her side, he brought her food, kept her hidden from Alucard's detection. He dealt with her business, and if truth be told she couldn't be bothered to train another pathetic fledgling. She had saved Sebastian from addiction three years before. She had found him curled up by the first bar she had taken over. She had promised him a new life free of addiction, free of pain, by her side. Of course when Lizzie was out of the way and Alucard realised she was his true love, she would dispose of Sebastian like she had done with previous fledglings. But for now, she had to keep him sweet. 
"I'm sorry Sebastian. I didn't mean to hurt you." she wrapped her arms around him, her silken black hair tickling his chin. 
"Why are we doing this? Can't we just leave the country... live out the rest of forever away from those two?" He asked again for the millionth time it felt to Marissa. She seethed inwardly.
"You know what he did to me? You remember how I told you he turned me, used me, and tried to kill me. Killed my beloved sisters in cold blood and I had to run for my life. He's been hunting me. Lizzie too. Through her  years of reincarnations, she's been learning her true nature as a cold blooded killer. I need them both dead so I can move on."
"I put a machete through is head..."
"Yes. But he doesn't die so easily my sweet love. It doesn't matter, we can do this together. And then we can be together. Forever." she smiled sickly sweet, all the while thinking of a nice place to mount his skull when she killed him.