Sir Integra scowled as she read the letter in front of her. The flowing handwriting had been penned by an old family friend who was had written to inform her of an alarming discovery they had made to do with the Hellsing Family. If the letter was to be believed, as she highly doubted, Sir Integra had a living, yet distant, relative. Sighing aloud Integra placed the expensive stationary gently down onto her desk and lit a cigar. The smoke danced upwards and gathered at the ceiling before dispersing into the rest of the room.
"What do you think of this?" she asked the elderly gentleman,who had been patiently waiting beside her. He briefly scanned the letter and tilted his head in consideration
"I think it will be worth our time to investigate, Sir Integra. If nothing else it may be a solution to containing Alucard and his fledgling in the future" Walter allowed his thought to hang in the air, hoping that the heir to the Hellsing organisation would see the significant chance of prosperity this may bring to the family, if the letter was to be believed, of course. It had always been a concern of his that after Sir Integra died the two vampires would be be forced to end their own un-lives, or be released into society, having every vampire hunter in the work out to kill them, or that maybe he would be forced to deal with them himself. This could be a perfect solution to the problem, not forever, certainly, but for a while at least.
"You honestly think that the blood tie could be strong enough?" Integra asked
"Well the young lady is what? Your cousins daughter, yes?" he paused, calculating the relation "That does make her you second cousin, I dont see it being too much of a stretch, but there is only one way to be sure"
"He has to meet her" She replied steadily "Walter?"
"Yes Madame?"
"Prepare a room for this…" she glanced at the letter to confirm her so-called relatives name "this Bethany"
"Certainly, Sir Integra" Walter relied with a small smile. He made a bow before departing the room swiftly, there would be much to do if another member of the Hellsing family was to enter the household.
Seras cracked open her eyes and stared at the roof of her dark coffin. Her hand fumbled in the dark for the beds controls, eventually she found the small plastic box and pressing the button to open the lid of her bed, she rolled out and landed, cat-like, on her cold stone floor. Standing up, she read the the small bedside clock, which Walter had gotten her, on request, as she hadn't yet learnt to sense the time of day accurately. The large digital face, and green glowing numbers told her that it was nearly half nine in the evening. Thankfully it was winter so such hours were now consumed by the darkness of nightfall, meaning that Seras was allowed such simple pleasures as a walk outside immediately after she got dressed, instead of having to wait for sunset. She was also blessed by the fact that her master would not awaken for at least another hour, and she took great pleasure in slackening her mental barriers and actually having some time where she knew her master wouldn't disturb her reverie.
She opened her wardrobe and looked at the disappointing array of clothes, there was, of course, a pile of fresh and folded uniforms and underwear on one side, and on the other some simple looking casual clothes that she had been allowed to take from her old residence when she was a police officer. It was at times like these, she wished that she had chosen more varied styles, for she now only owned a pair of jeans and a handful of drab t-shirts. Sighing inwardly she pulled on the Hellsing uniform and made her way up and out of the basement and towards the gardens that spread outwards from the back of the house.
Walking her usual circuit around the gardens Seras' mind wandered. Around her, most things in the garden had died or gone into a state of hibernation, to hide from the cold weather that was normal at this late stage in the year. It had been a couple of years science her master had turned her in that small village. Many things had happened science then, she had lost many people but she had also come to accept her nature. However she was still felt like a very apparent bother to those around her, especially Alucard, who still saw his fledgling as an over-emotional train-wreak. Serras had to admit it, she was lonely. Human friends were hard to keep, the only ones she knew well enough were the soldiers, who you weren't sure you'd see one mission to the next. There was Walter or Sir Integra, but Sir Integra wasn't the friendly type and Walter was nice but always very busy. Sears did enjoy his company, however, she had never felt especially close to the man.
Removing these thought from her brain momentarily Seras moved to the front of the manor where she noticed the soldiers were acting slightly strange. There appeared to be more on guard than usual tonight and, unlike the usual groups of men talking about one thing or another, they marched with order and discipline, but only a select few were carrying their weapons visibly. Perhaps they were expecting an attack? She frowned, that couldn't be it otherwise she would have been called, something else was going on tonight. Hugging the wall of the building, and its shadows, so that no-one noticed her presence, she watched as Walter Exited the main door of the mansion and have a hurried conversation with one of the commanders, quite unusual for the normally unflappable retainer.
"Thats unusual" she mused aloud "I wonder what is going on…?"
"Good evening, Police Girl" a low voice rumbled behind her. She jumped at the sound and instantly fortified her mental barriers. It wasn't like she had been thinking anything especially important or secretive, but she still didn't like her master snooping around. Just in case.
"Don't do that!" she said, angrily, in a low voice. "You scared me!" Alucard merely tilted his head and chuckled with amusement, he did so enjoy toying with his fledgling. He watched as her crimson eyes, originally widened in shock, now sparkled with annoyance and anger. Direceted at him, of course. However, instead of rising to the bait she turned away from him. Curious as to what had drawn her attention he gazed over her head and at the groups of patrolling soldiers. He tried to read her mind for a reason as to why she had decided to hide in the darkest shadows of the mansion and watch the troops, but all he found was a solid wall and a lot of resistance from his influence. Smiling inwardly at this accomplishment his fledgling had made, he decided to go about this the old fashioned way and ask her.
"What are you doing out here?" Alucard briefly wondered if Seras was still wanting to become a human again. That was one thing he could never deny, to himself, he found her unrelenting grip on her humanity absolutely fascinating He shook his head, and cleared his mind of such thoughts, despite the fact that she still behaved in a very un-vampiric manner, she had learnt to accept her fate and in some ways embrace it.
'So why watch the humans?' he wondered 'there must be another reason…' he scanned the humans again, looking for anything that his fledgling may find so captivating, however before he was able to locate such a thing she decided to interrupt his concentration by answering his question.
"I went for a walk" She murmured, turning, eyes once again tracking the humans.
"Really?" he inquired "because it looks remarkably like you are stalking the young men in uniform…" He commented with a crooked smile, which only proceeded to grow in size as he saw the Police Girls shoulders tense in embarrassment and agitation
"Very funny" she spat unceremoniously, still she didn't look at him. Deciding to ignore her masters comment Seras said instead "Don't you think they're all acting kinda strange?" She peered closer at al the men, they looked nervous, in fact Seras was almost certain that she could smell the apprehension coming off them. She frowned. No. That wasn't possible, was it? Breathing deeply she smelt the air again. She was right! A small smile tugged at the edges of her lips. A Heavy but sweet aroma was wafting over from the soldiers
"Curious…" She muttered under her breath. What was happening that was making all theses fully trained FREAK killing troops so worried
Alucard, who had also noticed the odd behaviour of the humans, finally, was now watching as intently as the Police Girl to see if any could offer an explanation of why things were not running the same as they usually did in the house of Hellsing. He had never seen them like this, even Walter, who had now gone inside, had been fidgeting. They had never done this before, not even when he came into the room, coated in his enemies blood. Whatever was expect by the soldiers must have been truly terrifying
Deciding that loitering in the shadows of the house was neither worth his time nor becoming of two vampires, he was about to make a snide comment and slink off somewhere, when Alucard noticed how close Seras as to him. Normaly the vampire would actively avoid letting anyone close to his person, not even his master was allowed such a privilege. But there stood Seras, inches from him and he had barely even noticed. He sniffed and glared at the back of the little draculina's head, he was getting too comfortable around her. Wondering how she had managed to take a small part of his trust, he stepped back and began to walk in the other direction. If he wanted answers, there was no point in standing around with a person who had less of a clue of what was going on than himself. Chuckling softly he melted into the darkness, intent on finding his master.
Seras hadn't noticed Alucards departure until she turned to ask about her new sense of smell, only to find that he had already left her side. At such a revelation into her current circumstance, Seras found herself feeling quite empty all of a sudden. Ushering the feelings out her thoughts she decided to go back inside and hunt down Walter. Perhaps he could offer her some answers.