It felt odd to leave that dank chamber again, and slowly climb the shallow stone stairs with a step so much lighter than that with which she had descended.

"It hasn't changed much up there," Seras said, pausing to glance back over her shoulder once she was a few steps into the dark hallway. "It's almost as though no time's passed at all."

Alucard's gaze flicked around the hallway briefly before returning to her, and he stepped through the door after only the slightest hesitation.

"Everything has changed, though," he said. He glanced down at his gloves. The printed seal stood out as clearly as ever on the dusty white fabric, yet she could tell from his face that something was amiss. "My master…"

Seras watched him. He seemed to be finally letting the memories of those battles over a decade ago flood back to him. The un-dead armies, the bloodshed, and carnage, and death. Too many had died in that conflict, the last and perhaps best of all being his master, Sir Integral. Seras remembered it only vaguely. She regretted that. She knew it was the sort of thing she should remember so clearly, an event that should be seared onto her memory in photographic detail and retained forever.

She had gone down fighting, Seras knew that. It was only fitting for such a woman as Integral Hellsing.

"You remember…?" she asked softly. He looked up. His expression was blank, and he nodded.

"I do," he replied. His shoulders slumped. "Everything has changed."

"Yeah," Seras answered. She wasn't sure what else to say. "The seals…"

"They're broken now," he finished for her, confirming what she had believed. "If they were not, I would still be trapped in that cell." She watched him intently for a moment, before taking a few steps closer. "You've changed," he said.

"Well, yes," she replied. "It has been ten years, after all."

"But what's a decade to us?" He smiled crookedly.

Seras laughed. "You know, I haven't changed all that much."

He shook his head, moving closer. "I can feel it," he said. He brought one hand to the back of her neck and looked down at her, the hint of a smile still on his lips. "I can taste it." Seras felt herself blush, the little blood he had left her rushing to her cheeks. He laughed softly and leaned down to press his lips to hers. This time his kiss was slow, lazy even, and Seras felt herself weaken. She pressed one hand to his chest, her fingers curling until she was gripping a handful of the stiff leather. When at last he pulled back, she closed her eyes, savouring the moment.

"I thought you had died," she said eventually, her voice low. He didn't reply, but gave her a mental prod that felt like a question. "After she died… I couldn't find you. I got lost in the battle, and when everyone was dead, you weren't there."

"I apologise," he said slowly.

She looked up at him. "What happened to you?"

But he only shook his head. "That can wait."

"Wait for wh- Oh!" She was cut off as he leaned in and kissed her again, pushing her until her back hit the wall. He gave a low, hungry growl, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and answered with a breathy mewl of her own. She pushed her body against his until they were as close as they could be, and gave a small yelp of surprise when he slid a hand over her hip to gently grip her thigh, pulling her leg up so that she could easily wrap it around his hips.

"Master…" she purred as he once again moved his kisses lower. The contact spoke not of love, but of simply, fiery need. Her whole body arched, her head tilting back, redundant breaths hitching in her throat.

She let her head roll to the side as he began to suck at the now-healed flesh of her throat. Opening her eyes, she saw the gaping door, the long dried red paint depicting the arcane spells that had kept him prisoner for so many years now.

"Stop…" she murmured. He raised his head. "Not here." She kissed him again, taking the lead this time and slipping her tongue between his lips, before wrenching herself away. "Not here…"

He glanced to the side, then nodded. "A fair point," he said, and stepped back, releasing her. "I want to get somewhere else… away from here."

"I need to drink soon," she said as they ascended the stairs and emerged into one of the mansion's lower hallways. "You took quite a lot out of me."

"That was your own choice, police girl."

"I know… Hey," she shot him an irritated look. "It's been a long time since anyone called me that, so don't you start again now."

Alucard only raised his eyebrows. "My apologies. An old habit. Seras, then."

"Actually… It's Victoria these days." He gave her a questioning look. "Without the Organisation to protect me, I had to function in the outside world on my own. I wasn't going to get very far with the identity of a woman confirmed dead, now was I?" He frowned. "But… You can still call me Seras, I suppose."

"Victoria…" He seemed to be pondering the new change, letting the name sit on his tongue for a moment. "Very well."

Seras shook her head absently, a small smile gracing her lips. "I think," she said. "We should get out of here."

"No…" Alucard answered. He took a few steps beyond her, and she stared after him in mild confusion.

"No?"

"My coffin," he explained.

"The bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame," Sera recited, her voice sounding somewhat vague. The words always evoked some sense of mystery in her. Her own coffin was a plain affair, and the least expensive she could get hold of, once things had calmed down. Still, it had served her well for many years now. "It's a beautiful object, you know," she commented.

Alucard nodded absently. "Everything seems to be here," he said, still scanning the small, dark room. Its contents were few, but the thick dust that covered them indicated that they had not been disturbed in a very long time.

"We can send someone to collect it and whatever else we need tomorrow night," Seras suggested. "Turns out it's a lot easier to find people who'll do fetch-and-carry type jobs like that with no questions asked these days."

After a pause, Alucard nodded. Then, as though at a loss as to what else to do, he sank into the single throne-like chair and sat, leaning forward, his chin supported by one hand.

"Master?" Seras moved towards him. Ever since he had come out of that cellar he had seemed strangely vacant. She remembered him being much more alert, and this new lethargy was beginning to make her uneasy. He appeared not to hear her, so she moved until she was standing directly in front of him. "Master, look at me." After a long hesitation, he looked up. "What's the matter? You're freaking me out here."

"When they took me down there again, I didn't even argue," he began. "I went willingly… So tell me: what now, Seras? Victoria?"

The blonde pursed her lips and frowned, before crouching at his feet, one hand on his knee. "Honestly?" she said. "I don't know. It's been ten years and I don't know. I've just been… surviving."

"So now you see," he said with the hint of a wry smile. "Eternity is more difficult than you might think. I'm surprised you lasted even this long."

"Huh. You always did underestimate me," she replied. "I'm tougher than I look."

"I know," he said. "But then, you are a blood relation of mine. I would expect nothing less than excellence."

"Smug bastard," Seras thought to herself.

"I heard that," Alucard commented, causing her to blush.

"You really haven't changed, have you?" she laughed. A pause, then, "But… why did you…?" She found she couldn't ask it. It didn't matter, he knew anyway.

"Why do you care?" he asked. "I thought you didn't want to be alone any more."

Seras was going to reply, but somehow the words simply wouldn't come, wouldn't assemble themselves into the right order. She knew that this was all the explanation she was going to get, at least for now. He tilted her chin up with one finger and, leaning down, kissed her in gently, though it swiftly became more heated as she rose up on her knees and returned the kiss full force.

Without breaking that contact, the pair shifted so that Seras was no longer on the floor but was once again straddling her master's lap. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and shifted her weight, grinning inwardly at the low groan this evoked. His hands slid from her waist over her hips, first gripping then sliding a fraction lower, to the bare skin between the fabric of her skirt and her stockings, and a second later and he was sliding the skirt upwards, hands moving underneath. A feline smile on her face, she broke away and began to lick possessively at the side of his neck, before kissing the same spot, letting the tips of her teeth just graze the skin.

"Are you going to bite me, Seras Victoria?" he asked, and the husky quality to his voice made Seras shiver.

"But… if I did that," the woman replied softly. "You wouldn't be my master any more…"

"That's true," he said. He looked her in the eye. She felt a wave of vertigo, as though she could fall and drown in those eyes, like pools of blood. Then, moving so slowly, she lowered her head once more. Her lips touched his cold flesh and she licked tentatively, before testing his skin with the tips of her fangs. She closed her eyes, tightened her hold on him, and bit down.