It was absolutely amazing how almost nothing could take that mad smirk off his face. Absolutely amazing.
That behavior must have stemmed from his inner struggles, aswell as all he had been through in his long existence... or at least thats what she liked to believe.
Being able to blame it on psychological issues that might stand a chance of being worked out was much more relaxing then simply accepting he was completely insane and without a shred of human emotion. And as the head of Hellsing, and his master, she needed any relaxation she could take.
Groaning, she pulled a cigar out of the box and lit up, looking over the damage for tonight.
Ahh, the joys of joining the men out on patrol. Bloodstains everywhere. At least it was better then office work.
Several casualties, two of her own soldiers, and at least twelve civilians turned ghouls. It wouldn't take much to kill the ghouls, but aside from them there had already been a pair of vampires who caused the damage. From what progress reports she had received, she was lead to believe they where a couple. It seemed some poor teenager, charged up with hormones, had let themselves slip into such a situation. Nothing like the older vampires turning as many minors as possible.
She walked past the mangled corpses of the ghouls they where hauling out, and over to the clearing that Seras Victoria and a few soldiers where resting in. The young vampire was cleaning up her weapon after the hunt, from the top of one of the tree's she had taken out several ghouls, and one of the two vampires.
According to the childe the other midian had fled into the forrest, and Alucard had proceeded after it. Nothing more to do now then wait for him to come back, and allow some of the other troops to pull out. They where no longer needed, the job was done.
Seras glanced up at her leader.
"Sir Hellsing...?" The girl looked up at her director, at the same time she began to polish the Harkonnen. There was nothing else better to do.
"Yes..."
"Master seemed a little...strange tonight..."
Integra exhaled, blowing smoke into the crisp night air. "Stranger then usual?", she questioned.
"Well, yes...He was just as, well, enthusiastic as always, but his aim seemed a little off, and his regenera-"
Sir Hellsing shook her head, and held up her hand, silencing the girl.
"I would suggest you pay no mind to it. I have seen him behave like this on a few occasions... I'm sure he just hasn't fed recently. Its best that you don't even bring up the subject."
Several gunshots where heard from what seemed to be a few miles away.
She took a drag and closed her eyes. Good God. Why couldn't he do things in a more normal way?
It had happened before. He only seemed to drink when he was bored, or deeply anticipating something...
At any other given time it was almost as if he forgot. That in itself seemed impossible, he was surrounded by humans, one would think it would make him crave the substance...
Still, the seal that had been applied after his capture blocked off many things from him, including free consumption of human blood. Anything other then donor blood was a rare privilege that only came if his master ordered him to kill. Because of this, humans probably seemed less a target
She ran her hand through her hair, then took the cigar from her mouth, dropped it to the ground, and snuffed it out under her foot.
"At least he'll drink when he comes back."
If he was starting to be affected by any side effects, that meant he probably hadn't fed in at least five days...He will have noticed by tonight.
It made perfect sense, really. The past week had brought with it a wave of attacks across the country. With each night on duty it must have slipped his mind. All he did was sleep, bother his master, and kill...then repeat the process the next day. Normally there where slow nights, and he'd always step aside and pull out a blood pack, rather then waste his time with ghouls. But a rise in catagory A vampires seemed to have stopped this behavior...
Suddenly, Seras looked up from her work and stared into the woods. Like the creature that she was, she could already sense someone approaching. After several minutes the nosferatus familiar form was coming into view, approaching them. From several feet away that smirk was already visible, his rows of fangs almost glittering in the moonlight.
Seras' face lit up as her master came into view, for reasons even the childe could not explain, his presence always made her confused world a little bit brighter. Or at least in some dark sense of the term.
Integra marched over to him, her hands in her pockets. "Well?" she said. The sooner this would be over, the better. It had been a long night.
His grin grew just abit wider, at the same time Integra noticed the blood dripping from his gloves.
"The target has been silenced, my master..." He whispered darkly, bowing his head just abit.
She nodded, and turned to face her troops.
"...Then I want everyone to pull out."
Integra turned from her servant and walked towards the flashing lights.
Good, good...The police force that was involved had arrived to cover up this mess.
oOoOoOo
Two hours since she got off 'work'.
A ride back in her armored car...
A cup of tea...
A hot bath.
She put on her nightwear, dark green mens pajama's that hung loosely over her shapely frame, then walked downstairs to pull a few bags of medical blood from the freezer.
She yawned and looked up at the clock.
Half past four in the morning.
She ventured down to the cellars, and finally to her servants chambers, nearly tripping into the room. Damn him for keeping it so dark. She turned on the lights in the hall, a few buzzed to life, while others remained out, completely dead from years of neglect. Nevertheless, they where enough to provide some light in Alucard's chambers.
She set the blood bags on the table, next to the bottles of wine, and looked around the room, eyes finally resting on the closed coffin. She approached it silently, and ran her fingers over the text engraved on it.
"Alucard?" she murmured, pushing the lid open only to find it empty.
Ah. That made sense, she thought the room seemed alot brighter then usual. She turned to walk out, only to come face to face with him, standing the doorway.
She closed her eyes and inhaled slowly, trying to control her own frustration. However, it wasn't long till she noticed he had his coat off, and a hand grasping his shoulder. There was blood soaking the side of his shirt, and it was dripping to the floor in an almost rhythmic way. He only made eye contact for a minute, and then walked right past her to sit down in his chair.
"What did you do?" She demanded, in a low semi-worried tone.
He let out a low chuckle, only to have her storm over to him and repeat the question.
He turned away from her with almost a look of embarrassment on his face.
She groaned and pulled his hand away from the wound, causing him to let out a short yelp, and as she began to take off that half of his shirt to get a better look, she repeated her question in a very threatening and finalizing tone.
"I...shot myself..."
Integra turned her head and looked right into his face with a perplexed expression, but before she could even ask, he added quietly "Please, don't ask how..."
She decided to give him a break and settle with that response, although she couldn't help but feel a head-ache coming on. She knew he wounded himself when he was killing that other vampire. He could have said something then, and had he really let himself get so weak that he couldn't regenerate the silver? He had been immune to that for ages... Damn, she needed to smoke...
"I was just down the hall...removing the bullet..."
"And then what? Walking back in here to go to sleep?"
"I can heal it in a few seconds."
This last phrase was followed by a moment of silence before a smile spread across Integra's face and she held back her laughter. Victory always felt so sweet.
During the course of all this, Alucard seemed completely humiliated, and he continued to look away from her and stare at the wall. Integra had already removed his shirt and took a seat next to him on his throne, and started to examine the wound torn through his arm, he let out a small whimper, but shut his mouth very quickly, not wanting to elevate the shame to any worse a level. He had gotten out the bullet, all she had left to do was bandage it, At least she could stop the bleeding.
With a drinks of blood he'd be just fine by morning, that is, if he felt like showing his face. At the moment he seemed like he was ready to bury his head in a hole somewhere...
He cringed once or twice, but after a few minutes when she had finished tending to the wound, she found he had simply fallen asleep. She thought it strange, but desided to pay no mind. It amused her, really, and she let a smile spread across her face as she shook her head and stood up.
She turned and tore open a blood bag, pouring its contents into one the glasses on the table. Then she drew out a knife, carefully slashing her finger, and letting a few drops fall into the glass. Finally, she poured a few drops of wine, and let it mix, rather pleased with her work.
She left it there for him to drink, carefully bandaging her cut, then she turned back to her sleeping pet. Come to think of it, she'd never actually seen him completely dorment like this. She checked his arm again, just to make sure it wasn't bleeding through the wrappings, then she sat down and leaned against him, running her hands through his hair for a moment, almost petting him.
She stayed there for about fifteen more minutes, never once dozing off, just lying beside him and thinking. Once again she had to take care of her pet...her adult pet that was not only old and wise enough to take care of himself, but far older then her by centuries.
She also couldn't help but notice that despite who he was, the No Life King himself, It was fascinating how docile he seemed now. That insanity, that deranged grin, that madness in his eyes had faded... and just then he seemed so human...
She stood, careful not to disturb him, and was finally ready to leave. She leaned over and ran her hand across his cheek one last time, completely forgetting the fangs housed behind it. She leaned in and whispered into his ear, but her words where for him alone, the rest was lost to the night.
She walked down the hall, taking one last look at the peaceful creature before her, and smiling as she turned off the lights. Then finally journeyed up to her room for one last smoke and a long deserved sleep.[Note: This fic is...slightly poorly edited...I shall be running through it and fixing what errors exist VERY soon. Anyway, as with most my fics. This is a oneshot. Okay, okay.