"You want me to what?"

There was a rather awkward silence as Integra looked at the writhing mass of shadows standing off to one side of her office, the pallid face of her newest servant half-hidden beneath locks of black hair that seemed to have a mind of its own.

"Give me orders, Master."

Once again, the request stumped her. Integra was twelve years old, and seven days ago, she had awoken the slumbering Nosferatu Alucard, the Hellsing Organization's greatest accomplishment, from the depths of a dungeon. He had slaughtered her uncle, who attempted to murder her because she inherited from her death father what he did not.

Things had been so very uncomfortable between them for the days in between. At first, Integra had been so shocked by her uncle betrayal and the fact that her late father had kept a goddamn vampire locked in the basement that she'd been unable to function. She'd passed through the day and the night in a daze, unable to eat, or sleep, for fear the creature who prowled around her in the shadows would turn on her despite his oath to protect her.

Then the day that her faithful family butler, Walter, had returned home from an emergency trip overseas, he had entered the mansion to find it nigh-on deserted. The guards still stood in position, but the grand house had been very, very quiet. He had happened upon Integra in the living room, wrapped up in a blanket and gazing at the flames that flickered over the blackened log in the hearth. She was wrapped in the arms of the dozing vampire. Neither had been able to sleep, restless, tired – until Integra had found herself alone, mourning her father. The vampire, of all ungodly things, had comforted her, draping his arm around her shoulder, not saying a word, until her tears had dried and she had nodded off against his chest. Integra had woken the next day in her own bed, and she still didn't have the courage to ask either of the two men who were now her personal servants exactly which one of them had put her there in the first place. She had a sneaking suspicion it had been the one in the ridiculous red hat, from the way he kept grinning about it. She had been trying to avoid him ever since.

The line of work that Integra had inherited was, of course, vampire hunting and extermination. It was not easy, often it involved commanding her forces into situations where many of them did not return alive, and it often depressed her just how much paperwork there was afterwards. Taking on such responsibility at her age was immense, because not only did it mean she had to deal with writing condolences to the deceased members of her troops families, but it also meant that she had to deal with the very much alive members of the Round Table, an organization of about twelve men who overlooked her work to make sure she was doing her job right and keeping her new found pet in line.

Because they'd all heard about him. He was infamous, the notorious Hellsing family dog. The vampire who hunts his own kind, the No Life King who serves the crown of England, the only vampire ever known who bowed to human command. Integra couldn't help but feel that the Round Table wasn't really judging how well she was commandeering the Hellsing organization, but more that they were all holding their breath and waiting to see if she'd let her control on such a dangerous creature slip. And that, she knew, would never be good.

Which brought her back to her current predicament. Alucard had become bored. He had been roaming the mansion for the past several days, gliding through the walls and the doors as if they were nothing. Integra didn't know what to do with this colossal responsibility, as if being the new head of a secret organization wasn't already enough. Now she had to entertain a vampire, too. He proclaimed that he was her willing servant, that she only had to say the word and he would crush her enemies beneath his boots like so many ants. But that was just the thing.

Enemies were by no means in short supply; there had been several attacks on the Hellsing mansion by assassins, mercenaries, and the like over the last few years, there was no denying that. But so far, Integra had no need to use Alucard for protection – there had not been any sort of situation where his power and passion to kill had been necessary. She couldn't deploy him with the troops on any extermination mission – that would do terrible things to the troops morale and probably impair their judgement, not to mention scare them all witless. She'd seen what Alucard could do to a mortal, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. She didn't want to know what kind of glee he'd have in ripping apart another vampire.

"I don't have anything for you to do, Alucard," she replied uselessly. "Go take a nap or something. I'm busy, if you can't see that."

The crimson-eyed monster dwelling in the shadows ignored the stack of papers she gestured to on the desk in front of her and stepped forward, into the sunlight. It was late afternoon, and the sky was streaked with orange rays of light as the sun began its descent. She knew that Alucard had been up for an hour already – he wouldn't be wanting sleep until dawn tomorrow morning.

"I care not for sleep." He growled as he planted a large, white-gloved hand over her papers and scooted them aside, leaning in over her late fathers large study desk. "I want to hunt. I want to –"

"I don't care, Alucard!" Integra stood from the leather chair that, in comparison to her still prepubescent frame, seemed enormous. She even sat with her feet swinging off the ground in the damn thing. She was hardly going to be respected if anyone knew about that. "I'm busy, and I must get these papers signed before the Round Table conference this evening!"

The glaring match went on for a good, long couple of minutes, neither girl nor ancient Nosferatu willing to back down. She knew that Alucard was still testing her, still deciding for himself whether she was a worthy master for him, and she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of being weak or distracted. She had to keep complete control over him.

A knock at the door broke both of their concentration – and Integra, though she would never let it show, was so very relieved as she looked past the glowering vampire. "Who is it?"

Walter stepped into the study, a cup of tea balanced in his hands and a serious expression on his old, wizened features.

"Sir Integra," he began. "It's about time we began preparing you for the conference this evening – the first of the guests will be arriving shortly."

Glad for the reprieve, but angry that her paperwork had not been finished, Integra sighed and let herself relax as Alucard stood back to allow Walter to set down the cup. The butler paid the vampire no heed, instead smiled gently at Integra before bowing. At least he respected her enough to knock before entering, she thought.

"Thank you, Walter – send a maid up to my chambers, and I'll be down to the conference room by seven sharp." She replied, and Walter bowed again before turning swiftly on one heel and leaving. Silence once again fell, but her problem still remained.

"Your orders?"

"Argh, Alucard!" she cried in frustration. "I don't have and bloody orders for you! What the hell do you want?!"

Suddenly, Alucard disappeared from the other side of the mahogany desk, reappearing like black mist just behind her, shoving the heavy leather chair out of the way – the chair toppled over; no easy feat for a mere man to accomplish – it would take at least two men to lift the chair, but Alucard pushed it aside as if it were nothing. Before Integra could blink, he had her by the front of her shirt, hefting her up and off her feet, his eyes wild and his snarl cruel as he growled into her face. Integra suppressed a yelp of surprise, but couldn't help but choke from the pressure of her cravat tightening around her windpipe in the vampires grip.

"Order me, use me, command me!" Alucard roared, his breath cold and clammy on her skin, but the heat of her own body caused her glasses to fog up, smudging her vision of the vampire. "I am your faithful servant, your toy – why will you not use me as such? I cannot stand this monotony, this dreary life you lead with no fighting, no killing, no action that you can see that makes you who you are!"

"What the hell are you on about?!" Integra choked the words out angrily, her hands grasping his, trying to hold herself up by them just enough to be able to breathe. Her vision swum when he shook her roughly.

"I am a creature who is born to kill. I am your ultimate weapon of destruction. And you have nothing for me to do. Your father would be ashamed! Shamed, that his so-called heir had no more use for her weapon of salvation now she was busy signing goddamn papers!"

"Do not speak of my father!" Integra cried, yelling right back into his face. "You're a monster under my command, you will let me down this instance!"

Alucard growled deep in his throat, his eyes narrowing and his bared teeth glinting in the late afternoon sunlight that streamed in through the window. His shadow engulfed her completely – no warmth from the sun touched her, and Integra realized just how cold she felt, that there were gooseflesh raising on the skin of her arms.

"If you do n– "

Bang.

Alucard's face fell, his expression stunned, and he looked down at his midriff. There was a bullet hole right through his left lung, and Integra's handgun was still pressed firmly against the cold flesh as blood began to leak over the barrel. She'd let go of him and with one hand, grappled for the handgun she kept tucked into the waistband of her skirt at all times. There was a silver-tipped bullet lodged somewhere in the wall behind Alucard, splintering the wooden paneling around it, and Alucard groaned as he dropped down to one knee, releasing his grip on her in the process. Integra stumbled back, gun still pointed directly at him.

"I will decide whether or not I order you, monster," she tried her very best to not allow her voice to tremble. She hated the sight of blood and she hated using such a barbaric weapon, but this was a necessity. A means of gaining respect from the one thing that had to respect her the most. "You will leave me if I say so. You will move under my command. And if I tell you to unhand me, you will do so without hesitation."

Alucard sucked in a pained breath – the silver bullet would not kill him; he was far too powerful for that. But it was the human equivalent of having ones hand slammed in a door; incredibly painful, but with his vampiric curse he healed himself, ridding himself of the nagging, throbbing pain that would haunt a human with a jarred hand for weeks.

"Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

Finally, he raised his eyes to meet herself. There was an unreadable expression in his eyes; she couldn't tell quite what he was thinking, or feeling. However, a small smirk began to stretch across his pale lips.

"Perfectly, Master. Forgive my loss of control. It shall not happen again."

Integra hated that smirk. She hated being on the receiving end of it. Instead of holding his gaze, she turned away, only to see that in his move, he had knocked the desk sufficiently to topple over the teacup, spilling the hot brew over the varnished surface. Quickly, she whisked away any documents that were in danger of becoming drenched in the slowly spreading liquid.

"Good," she said, not turning to look at him. "Now get out. I'll deal with you later, I have to ready myself for the conference."

And with that, she felt his presence fade from the room, vanishing like smoke on a breeze. Sighing to herself, Integra made her way out of the study as well, seeing the flash of Alucard's red tailcoat disappearing down the hallway towards the stairs. She alerted a passing maid of the mess of split tea on the study desk, before turning and striding away in the opposite direction, towards her bedroom. Taking a deep breath, Integra knew that it was going to be a very long night. What to do with the vampire, she had no idea. What did one use such a creature for?

She'd look into it later. She could hear the first cars pulling up on the gravel driveway outside – she was going to be late to the conference if she did not hurry.

…

Boredom, Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing found, was not only a problem that Alucard suffered from. Try as she might, the conference was really just a matter of sitting still for two hours listening to a handful of old men scrutinize her work. She'd only had one conference with the Round Table before, and that had been on the day after Walter had returned after her fathers death, to discuss her ascension to the head of the household. Most of them had grumbled that she was too young, but Integra had stood up for herself and agreed to their terms of reporting in to them every week of the missions carried out by Hellsing while she was still underage. Most of the reports would, in future, be handled by Walter, but for now, while things were still settling down, the Round Table felt it was important to press home the matter of what a big responsibility Integra had taken upon herself.

And, like Alucard, they were still testing her.

Today's issue was a local disturbance report – several of them, in fact. No one had been able to pinpoint the vampire who had been terrorizing the locals of the small town of Paddington, about two hours or so outside of London. It had been hiding somewhere out in the woods, and had collected a small gathering of ghouls, another two or three vampires among them. Local law enforcement had lost most of their men to the vampires, and since they'd proven to be too much for mere mortals to handle, word had been sent to Her Majesty the Queen for help. In turn, the Queen was sending Hellsing in to take care of the problem.

"…And in this particular case, Sir Hellsing," Sir Islands was saying, and Integra shook herself from her reverie to focus on what he was saying. "You will be joining your troops in action."

"What?!" Walter, unable to keep from objecting, was immediately at Integra's side, when he had been previously just across the room, standing patiently at the door. "Sir Islands! She's just a child, she cannot possibly – "

"Walter," Integra said calmly, and at the mere sound of her voice, the butler fell silent, though she could tell he was fuming. She kept her voice calm, but inside she was trembling. Taking on other vampires would be very different to just keeping Alucard on a tight leash. She was not prepared to face them, but, because she knew that the Hellsing's did not back down, and she could not shame her family or its title, she kept her chin up as she replied to Sir Islands. "I will do it."

Several of the other members of the Round Table were exchanging murmurs and worried glances; Walter had voiced all of their thoughts precisely. Integra was still a young girl, she hadn't even begun her menstrual cycle yet. Twelve was awfully young to be killing anything, especially to be killing vampires. However, Sir Islands, whom she deeply respected because of his close friendship and loyalty to her late father, was adamant in his decision.

"You may choose your troops – hand-picking your closest men will prove who you hold in the closest regard, who you trust. This will be important for you in the future, Sir Hellsing, so you must choose wisely."

Integra thought for a moment. She could not show herself to be weak here, so she could not just choose and handful of random troops. Any one of them might slip up and endanger everyone's lives. "How many men may I choose?"

"Up to a squad of twenty. You have until tomorrow evening to decide, and then, you will be deployed alongside them into the woods base-camp already set-up and waiting for you just outside Paddington the night after tomorrow." Sir Islands said. "And there is one more thing."

"Yes, sir?"

"You will be judged by several accompanying soldiers of Her Majesty on your performance and actions in two nights time – and this entire mission is to be treated as a fox hunt, if you will."

"A fox hunt?" she repeated, surprised. "You mean, we are to hunt these creatures not for the good of mankind, but for sport?"

Sir Islands shook his head, a brief smile gracing his aging features before his usual stern demeanor returned. "No, but you will be on horseback, as the woods are vast and vehicles cannot penetrate the dense foliage, and going on foot has already proved to take too long and be of little use."

Integra felt something drop in her stomach. Horseback, he'd said. She remembered, vaguely, being on horseback once before in her life. She had been very small, a toddler, even – and she had been held tightly by her father as he had taken her for a ride on the horses at a stable not far from their estate. She'd never ridden a horse by herself before, let alone one in the middle of a midian hunt.

At her blank expression, Sir Penwood, a portly gentleman off to Sir Islands right, spoke up. "You er, do know how to ride, do you not, Sir Integra?"

Swallowing hard and blinking to refocus, Integra found herself nodding. "Of course I do. Please Sir Penwood, have a little faith." She glanced sideways at Walter – he sent a barely noticeable glance back at her. Tomorrow there was going to be some intensive riding lessons happening, she was sure of it. "I will have my men chosen by tomorrow evening, gentlemen," she continued, standing. "And I will report for duty alongside them at the base camp in Paddington in two nights time."

Sir Islands also got to his feet, nodding in approval. "Very good, Sir Hellsing. Your accompaniment will meet you there at six-thirty sharp, and the hunt will begin."

…

"I can't believe the nerve of Sir Islands!" Integra cried as she let herself fall face-first onto her queen sized bed, Walter following her into the room with a soothing cup of tea in hand. "How does he expect me to be able to hunt vampires on a damn horse?! I can't ride to save my life!"

Before her butler could answer, however, there was a deep chuckle somewhere off to their right, and she knew that Alucard had just stepped into the room from the windowsill. "That wasn't what you were claiming back in the conference room, Master. How very good you are at lying; you have them all right under you thumb."

With a yell of frustration, Integra sat up, grabbed the closest thing within reach – a pillow – and hurled it at the grinning Nosferatu. He didn't even side-step it, he just let it land in his face before it fell pathetically to the floor. Integra watched the sad attempt at shutting the vampire up fail, and threw herself back down onto the bed with a groan of frustration. Walter set the tea down on her bedside table and sat on the edge of the bed, patting Integra's leg rather awkwardly in an attempt to comfort the distressed girl.

"We'll begin riding lessons tomorrow morning, Sir," he said. "You'll be just fine – you should focus more on who you're going to chose as your hunting party."

The twelve year old rolled over onto her back, staring up at the canopy above her. "I have no idea who to pick. They're all so…samey. None of them have particularly outstanding track records, because they're all good at what they do, just not overly fantastic. If it looks like I'm playing favourites, which I'm not, it could breed contempt among the soldiers. The ones I choose might let it go to their heads and the ones I don't choose might question my authority. Goooooooooood." She groaned again, throwing an arm over her eyes.

"Then do not focus on it right this instance, Sir," Walter said kindly. "Let us prepare you for bed and then we shall see how things turn out in the morning."

She was so relieved she had someone as level-headed as Walter there to sooth everything out. She'd be lost without him. As for Alucard…she glanced over at the vampire from beneath her arm, and saw him watching her with an odd sort of look across his stupidly handsome face. It was almost…pity, but in a kind way. It was the same sort of look that Walter had whenever she fussed too much about paperwork, or what she had to wear for an official occasion, or when she was unable to tame her mane of platinum hair. Alucards expression was almost as bad as his smirk. Rolling her eyes and remembering the events of earlier that evening, she turned away, sitting up so that Walter could take the jacket she was wearing and hang it up in the wardrobe.

"I suppose so," she sighed, kicking off her shoes. "I guess I'm going to have to have a day off from paperwork tomorrow – maybe even the day after as well. Somehow I don't think I'll be a natural in the saddle."

Alucard broke into another chuckle at that, and she threw a glance of disdain in his direction. "Oh? If you're able to handle me, my little Master, then surely a horse should be easily controlled."

"Go away, Alucard." She growled as Walter returned, and began to unbutton her dress shirt. "I'm getting changed."

The Nosferatu made a noise of interest at that statement, and she shuddered to think his perverted eyes might still spy on her, even though he'd disappeared through the wall without another word. However, knowing there was nothing she could do about it, Integra sighed and shrugged out of the shirt as Walter lifted it from her narrow shoulders, and she grabbed up her nightgown and slid it over her head as her butler turned away immediately to give her privacy.

When she'd crawled in under the cold blankets, Walter had pulled them up to her chin and smoothed out any creases and folds. He'd bowed to her, bid her goodnight, and then, turned and left, turning off the light and closing the door behind him. But, instead of finding sleep, Integra found herself worrying about the day to come. She gazed out the window at the moon, a mere sliver of silver hanging alone in the clear night sky. Right before she fell asleep, however, she saw what could only have been Alucard's shadow pass by the window – he was probably out, roaming the mansion's grounds, looking for something to drain blood from, to occupy himself with until the morning came.

Seeing the flash of his shadow no longer frightened her as it had a week ago. At first, she hadn't been able to sleep at all because of his nighttime wanderings around the mansion gardens. He'd always pass by her window, once, twice, three times a time before not returning. As the nights had passed, however, Integra began to realize that he was not just roaming in search of amusement, but he was doing rounds, making sure there was no threat to his supposedly slumbering young master. And, finally, Integra had managed to find sleep. Now, as she felt her lids become heavy over her eyes, she saw the shadow pass by again – this time, it paused, looked from left to right, up and down, before moving on again.

A thought crossed her mind, but before she could really grasp it, sleep took hold of her, and it was gone.