Chapter Four: The Chase.

Seras didn't answer. If he'd just look behind him.

"Oh, I know. Maybe we can get Anderson to come over and perform an exorcism. What do you think?"

Seras took a chance. She didn't imagine that things could get any worse. As quickly as she could, Seras grabbed Alucard's head and swirled it in Jan's direction. "Master, look."

Jan saw Seras swirl Alucard's head and instantly tried to hide from the much larger, scarier vampire. He ran to the nearest wall, fully intending to phase through it. However, Jan was so scared that he forgot to go intangible. Instead of passing through the wall, he smacked his head into it at full speed. He fell backwards, landing on the floor, and brought his hand up to his head. Jan rubbed the bruised area and let out a string of swears that made Seras blush.

Through her blushing, Seras's mouth pulled itself into a small smirk. She'd done it, shown her master that the ghosts were real. And Seras had no doubt that, between the two of them, they could convince Integra. Yes Seras was quite pleased with herself. "See, Master, I told you they were real."

Alucard growled back, "Police Girl, remove your hands from my face at once."

It was then that Seras realized she was still holding her master's head, and he was obviously unhappy about it. She took her hands off of him and offered up a sheepish, "Sorry." Okay, so maybe he's a little mad at me for swirling his head, but at least he knows I've been telling the truth. It was then that Alucard turned back to his fledgling, flames dancing in front of his eyes.

Seras knew that something was wrong. She could understand her master being a little upset with her, but his attention should've been focused on the enemy vampire ghost. Seras began to back away from her Master again. "Ah, Master, didn't you see Jan Valentine?"

"Oh, of course I did. He was standing right between Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny."

"But... But you had to see him. He's right there." Seras pointed behind Alucard again. This didn't make any sense. Up till now, Seras assumed that she could see the ghosts because she was a vampire, but her master was a far more powerful vampire than her. If he couldn't see them, than something else was going on. Maybe I really am crazy?

Alucard was again drawing near his fledgling. He growled, "Police Girl, if I were you, I'd start running." Alucard's advice wasn't given out of any desire that his fledgling actually escape him or what he planned to do to her. It was motivated by the elder vampire's own selfish tastes. He liked to chase his prey.

Seras took off anyway. Even crazy people want to live. She ran to the nearest window and jumped through it, shattering the glass and spreading it all over the place. However, the busted window was the least of her problems. Seras had an ancient, extremely powerful vampire chasing her, one who was adapt at hunting down and ending other vampires. Not that Seras, thought her master would actually kill her. She doubted he would go that far. However, she could survive quite a bit of punishment thanks to her own vampire abilities, and Seras had no desire to let her master test the upper limits of her endurance.

Once out of the window, Seras chucked the Jackal as far as her Vampire strength allowed. She ran in the opposite direction. Seras figured that her master would reclaim his prized possession before coming after her, and any more time she could buy was welcome. Seras looked over her shoulder to see that she was right. Alucard had indeed gone for his gun first.

Seras continued running as fast as she could. She rounded the mansion only to bump into something and fall flat on her butt. "What the..." Seras looked up to see Jack staggering back to his feet. Apparently the pirate ghost was what Seras had bumped into.

"Oh, love, glad I found you. I've been looking for you everywhere. I found us another bottle." Jack held up a bottle of tequila that he could only have stolen from one of the side houses occupied by the Wild Geese.

Seras rolled her eyes at the pirate, then remembered the spot she was in and quickly got up. She started to run again, but Jack latched unto her arm. "Come on, love, and share another bottle with an old pirate." Jack pouted. "I hate drinking alone."

Seras roughly removed Jack's hand from her arm. "I don't have time for this! My Master's going to kill me."

"Oh, that again? Look, I'm a pirate of my word. Well, I am when it suits me at least. I promised to help you explain everything to your master. So when he gets here, we'll all sit down, have a little drink and get to know each other better, savy?"

"It won't work. For some reason, my master can't see you."

Jack stroked his chin. "Really, love? Now that's interesting. Tell you what, I'll help you hide from your angry master; and, in return, you share another bottle with me."

Seras eyed Jack warily. She knew that hiding was her best option. She'd never be able to outrun her master, but she doubted that Jack could be much help with avoiding Alucard's third eye. "What exactly makes you think you can help me hide."

"Oooh, I'm excellent at running and hiding. Like I always say, 'He who fights and runs away... lives to run away another day.'" Jack let out a chuckle.

Seras didn't see much choice. She could sense her master's presence drawing closer. He'd be rounding the mansion any moment. "Okay, it's a deal."

"Excellent, take my hand." Jack held his hand out to Seras.

"What? Why?"

"Just trust me, love."

Trust you? That's like trusting the cat not to eat the canary, but what do I have to lose? Seras took Jack's hand just a split second before Alucard came into view.

Seras couldn't believe it. Her master was not more than ten feet away, and he didn't seem to notice her. He was turning around and casting looks every which way. He looked very much like a confused man who'd just lost something.

Then what Seras was afraid of happened. She could feel her master's third eye passover her, and he began to walk near her and Jack. Seras was terrified. She was convinced that her master spotted her with his third eye, but Jack simply pulled her to the left, sidestepping her very angry, very confused master.

Seras breathed a sigh of relief. Somehow Jack was shielding her from her master's sight. Then Jack handed her the bottle of tequila. "A deal's a deal, love."

Seras took the bottle and brought it up to her lips. She let the liquid flow into her mouth, then flow back out as she lowered the bottle. It tasted different from the rum, and Seras suspected that it had a higher alcohol content.

Seras started to hand the bottle back to Jack, but he put up his hand. "Wait a minute, love." Jack used his free hand to pull out his sword. He had a very mischievous look on his face as he continued, "Watch this." Jack positioned the sword behind Alucard and drew it back.

Seras began to franticly shake her head, "No!" She couldn't actually say the word for she didn't know if Jack's concealment trick also hid her voice.

Jack ignored Seras's silent protests and swung his sword back, hard. It's flat side roughly collided with Alucard's back end, producing a loud thwack sound and making Alucard jump. He quickly turned around and fired instinctively, blowing a large hole in the side of the mansion.

Alucard's face fell when he saw what he'd done. Integra would not be pleased. Alucard rubbed his butt for a moment and looked around, trying to figure out what had hit him. Jack was laughing manically, and Seras was just barely able to contain her own laughter. After another moment of looking around and again searching with his third eye, Alucard was still unable to figure out what struck him. He scratched the side of his head with the barrel of his Jackal, then decided to search for his fledgling in a different area. First he'd lost sight of his fledgling, then he'd been hit by something that wasn't there. Strange things seemed to happen where he was.

Once Alucard was gone, Seras finally burst into a fit of laughter. Jack grabbed the bottle and took a swing from it, then handed it back to Seras. Once again, they finished a bottle of alcohol; and once again, Jack got the lion's share. However, between the two bottles, Seras had drunk enough that she was past the buzzed stage. She still wasn't completely 'falling down drunk', but she was a little disoriented. Still she decided, that as far as her nights went, this one hadn't been all bad.

Alucard continued to search for his fledgling. What he found instead was a monkey. Now Alucard had no idea how a monkey got into the grounds around his master's mansion, and he really didn't care. It was technically an intruder, which meant that he could shoot it. And, after the night he'd been having, Alucard desperately wanted to shoot something. Alucard aimed his Jackal and blew the monkey's head off, but then a most peculiar thing happened. The body scampered around, picked up the head, reattached it, and the monkey began shaking one of it's tiny fist at Alucard and chattering angrily.

Now maybe Alucard was a little warped. (Okay, there's no maybe about that.) Anyway, he found this to be quite amusing. He fired his gun again and blew off one of the monkey's arms, the one with the shaking fist. The monkey again scattered off, retrieved it's body part and reattached it. Alucard continued his sick game of 'blast the monkey part' until his clip was empty and he was laughing almost uncontrollably, then it happened. As the monkey was running from the sick vampire, it passed through a moon beam and Alucard saw it for what it really was.

Now Alucard had never seen a ghoul monkey before, but he could think of no other way to describe the strange creature that was now headed towards the mansion. Alucard took off after it. He had no intension of letting the monkey harm his master. Alucard attempted to shoot the thing again. Unfortunately, he'd already emptied his clip and didn't have the time to go get another. So, Alucard instead transformed into his demon dog form and chased the monkey through the mansion.

They knocked over tables, tripped Walter who was bringing Integra some tea to calm her down and pulled down the entrance chandelier which, as it turned out, could support the weight of a monkey but not that of a demon dog. Finally, Alucard seized the monkey in his powerful jaws. Integra, alerted to another problem by the clatter the two creatures made, chose that moment to enter the room.

Integra saw the awful mess that the two creatures had made. She exclaimed, "What happened here!" Then she turned and saw what looked very much like Alucard, in his demon dog form, shaking the life out of a poor defenseless monkey. Integra ran over to her pet and hit him on the nose. "No! Bad, Alucard. Bad. You stop that right now."

Alucard shifted back to human form, but kept the monkey firmly grasped in his right hand. "Wait, Master, you don't understand. It's a ghoul monkey."

Integra eyed her servant suspiciously. She pointed to the monkey. "It doesn't look like a ghoul to me."

"Well, no, not now; but it did."

"Uhuh."

"No really, Master. I'm telling you it's a ghoul."

Integra shook her head and let out a sigh. Are all the vampires going crazy, or only those who serve me? "Alucard."

"Yes, Master?"

"Put the monkey down."

"But... But I just ran all over the mansion to catch it. It really is a ghoul. Watch. I'll pull it's head off and it'll reattach it."

"Alucard! I said put the monkey down." Alucard reluctantly did as he was ordered. "Good. Now clean up this mess then go wait in your dungeon until I summon you."

(Well, what did you think of the forth chapter? A lot of my reviewers were saying how sorry they felt for Seras, so I decided to pick on Alucard a little in this chapter. Which do you like better? Please Review. Thanks.

Next chapter: The Monkey's owner shows up. He blames Jack for his missing Monkey. They start fighting and Seras runs away the crazed 'dueling pirate ghosts'. She discovers the ghost of an old friend and gets an unexpected kiss.

Have a good day, and God bless.

Metropolis Kid.)