As he lay still not breathing his mind still functioned on some lower level, similar to a humans sleep he dreamed. Nonsensical ravings of his mind, past memories flashed to images of what he would have liked to happen to his captors and moved on to aspirations and back to the past. A confused jumble.

 

Eventually like his body his mind slowed until it faded almost completely, the dreams now faint, all sentient thought gone.

 

~ * ~

 

His body awoke before his mind did, while his body jolted into movement his mind awoke slowly almost groggily struggling to catch up with the movement of his body. His body wrenched upwards into a sitting position and claws dug deeply into living flesh meanwhile his mind was still lost in a fog of confusion struggling to comprehend where he was, trying to remember why he found it strange to be sitting up and at the same time thanking what ever dark deity that approved of him for the nourishment he was absorbing at a sickeningly fast speed.

 

As he drained this unfortunate creature his mind was not yet coherent, with an animalistic intensity he scanned his surroundings for something that could be considered dangerous. He was weak at the moment he knew that and this sense of venerability made him hyper alert if not coherent.

 

The corpse ran dry and with a whine of disappointment he dropped it. He let himself slump back so he was half lying in his former prison, his coherence rising, he opened his eyes noting his clouded vision was quickly clearing and tried to come to terms with what was happening. His memory slowly resurfacing, life, death, grief, imprisonment and sleep. But why now was he awake, free of his claustrophobic velvet prison.

 

He closed his eyes briefly feeling his body rejuvenate itself as much as one human’s worth of blood would allow. While not at his full strength he felt strong enough to defend himself if necessary. The small rise in his strength made him feel slightly more secure. But still why had the lid been opened? Why had there been food waiting for him? Had one of his kind done what he could not? Had Hellsing fallen at some other lower vampires claws? He sneered in disgust at that thought, how dare one of his kind even think of approaching what had been clearly labeled his.

 

No wait if he had not been able to destroy Hellsing no other would have even been able to come close, he reached out with his mental fingertips for any sign of another immortal . . . just to be sure. He felt no other immortal but he did feel more humans than he remembered being here before and they were all moving with purpose, it reminded him somewhat of his army’s movements, when he had been human royalty.  He caught tastes of emotion from the humans fear, anger, hate and determination were the most prominent.

 

He closed his mind off and sunk back further into his opened prison, lying with only his head visible above the rim of the casket, so their was no other immortal, Hellsing had some sort of organized force and he had been freed and fed even if it was only a minor amount. While he was trying to get his slightly groggy mind to figure this out he failed to notice a presence approaching his cell until it was right outside the door.

 

‘your awake then’

 

he recognized Van Hellsing’s voice instantly and touched around with his mind realizing there was no one else around. He responded finding his voice rough

 

‘apparently so’