BaΠe of Nigh† (Hellsing)

the show (19)

It was midnight and Albert showed Angel how to access the roof.  It had rain only an hour ago and the air still smelled fresh.  The young woman gazed into the sky and realized it was a new moon.  She turned to Albert and smiled, "I hope you are not disappointed in me." 

In what was but a few seconds, her body twisted and reshaped into her Morpheus form.  The old demon got a shiver down his spine along with a hard on.  He thought, he had not seen anything as dreadful, but beautiful at the same time.  The boys were being guarded by Iscariot, the special branch of the Vatican and the vampire, Adriean was resting near the hunting manor.  That meant only one thing:  Alucard would make a house call.  His dark Angel would be in the middle, of it all, to give all the more reason to fear the darkness that is.

"Remember Angel do not hold back your talents, if there is a need." Albert reminded her.

The female Nightbane, other than her friend in Seattle, understood this side of her and wasn't afraid or calling her monster.

Alucard walked calmly along a country road, to a hunting manor, north of London.  He looked to the sky and sighed, a new moon.  Killing was so much more enjoyable in the moonlight.  The vampire wanted to get rid of this Adriean scum so he could go stakeout Antebellum.  That demon was up to no good and had crossed he, the Vampire King.  Angel had not totally renounced him, so she was still his to first claim, if he wanted to.

A light breeze rustled over him and was gone.  Whatever it was, had been hard to see but for a brief shimmer of something, he could not say.  His mind reached out but found nothing.  His nose caught something, a scent he knew all too well.  The bird creature was about...how was it he couldn't see it well?  Then he remembered Angel talked about an ability called "Shroud' that Nightbane could do.  So, this creature was a member of the Nightbane race.  He picked up the pace.

Angel lowered the shroud ability, as it was hard to maintain, for long periods of time.  She was perched on a tall lamp post.  Her taloned hand reached down and quietly, as possible, disabled the lamp part.  That was the only light for a two-mile distance.  She waited for a minute and then lifted off again.  She planned to land on the roof of the building and literally slip in.

The No Life King was able to get close enough, he could have shot the creature off the post but decided to just observe.  It did have an ability to hide its form, it gave him even sight problems, so a human had no chance.  Perhaps those, in the past of old that went insane, had been tormented by such a creature?

It was a real monster not a hallucination?  How long had Nightbane been around?

He studied her wings, they appeared stitched on with wire and pierced with nails, to her back.  Her legs looked just like the tattoos, Angel had, with gears and other metalware.  An oily black substance, most likely blood, oozed continually from the wounds.  The right eye looked beyond painful, as it was metal, with a red mechanical eyeball. This gave the appearance of   the creature, that was forever doomed, to cry Nightbane blood from the eye socket.

Beautiful and horrifying at the same moment.  Alucard wondered if this was Angel.  She had mentioned Raven clan and mechanical body parts, would be a mockery of her beliefs.   The vampire stopped thinking and turned into a swarm of bats; he didn't want to be late to this 'party'.  As he landed in the shadows of a grove that contained large trees, another scent caught his nose...Iscariot! 

The vampire rolled his eyes, Anderson had better not ruin his fun, with the creature.

Angel now used the Nightbane ability 'shadow slide,' so her Morpheus was able to turn to a literal shadow, and then physically flow through any opening.  The tribal woman slid through a crack in a window and entered a bedroom, not currently occupied.  She reached out with her mind, to find the two boys but also discovered the downstairs was 'full' of people.  The two boys were among ten other people, with murderous intent for Alucard.  The young woman quietly spoke the words, for the 'fear' spell again, as it had worked so well the last time, to get people out of a building.