Disclaimer: I think if I owned any one of these franchises I'd be swimming in riches, but alas! I do not own Kuroshitsuji, Hellsing, or Dracula. I guess I'm just not that original hahaha.

A/N: Hey guys, thanks for reviewing, faving, and following; it makes my day! Hope you all enjoy this new chapter. WARNING: some more creepy stuff in this chapter with upcoming violence in the next few. Hey, it's Hellsing and Kuroshitsuji, you got a demon butler and the King Vampire runnin' around, impending violence is a given right?

~Happy Reading!~


Chapter 9: Testing

Abraham checked once more to see that his gun was properly holstered at his side with plenty of ammunition stashed discretely within his clothes, then seized a small stack of notes that pertained to the hunt his troops were about to embark on. There would be time on their journey to review any important details, and Abraham preferred to be thoroughly prepared beforehand.

"Director Hellsing?" Abraham glanced up to see a soldier hastily making his way across the long foyer to him, with an uneasy cast to his features.

"Yes?" Abraham prompted.

"There's an Earl Phantomhive requesting to see you, sir,"

Abraham's mind went entirely blank and he felt his face slacken in surprise.

"Sir?"

"Did you just say "Earl Phantomhive"?"

"Yessir, shall I tell him you are currently occupied?"

"I-I, yes-no! I shall meet with him at once, where is he?"

"Right outside, sir."

"You didn't leave him unattended, did you?" Abraham asked sternly.

"No sir! There was a servant with him, a butler I think,"

The image of a cat-like grin of insincerity unfurling in a curve of ivory flashed across his thoughts.

"And where is Alucard?" He questioned, fighting back a sudden sense of unease.

"Outside, sir," the solider shifted in embarrassment, "He was the one that identified them," he added reluctantly.

Of course he is. Where else would he be, but precisely where he would wish to inconvenience me the most? Abraham struggled to stifle his growing sense of alarm.

It was unlikely Alucard was causing any physical damage to his impromptu visitors; Abraham had effectively drilled into the beast exactly what would happen to it if it decided to take things too far. Even so, Alucard still possessed an uncanny ability to summon chaos wherever he went and Abraham was not about to let the creature ruin any chance he had of gaining some stance among England's nobility.

It's not as though the boy is making this any easier. Dropping by on an unannounced visit, indeed.

He set a brisk pace for the front doors, the soldier flinching out of his path before following him. He just managed to master his stormy features before he flung the doors open wide and stepped across the threshold. He stopped there, silhouetted by the gold light streaming from the entrance of the Hellsing Manor, and gazed down at the carriage-filled driveway from the top of the wide porch steps. He immediately spotted the little Earl and his tall, slender servant directly below him, facing the carriages. Abraham felt his heart sink somewhat as he also spotted Alucard seemingly conversing with the two. A loose ring of curious and apprehensive soldiers had formed about the trio and Abraham quickly made his way down to them.

As he approached, he began to note tiny details about the new arrivals. The young Earl was not dressed in his usual finery, but wore dark attire more suited for outdoor activities. He could not make out much of the butler's attire, but the man towered in the manner of a statue bundled in black, not unlike Alucard. Abraham also noticed that Sebastian had inconspicuously placed himself slightly between the Earl and the vampire in what could only be interpreted as a loose defensive stance. A futile move on the butler's part should Alucard decide to take action, as no mere human could hope to best a vampire in hand-to-hand combat, but Abraham still marveled at the apparent loyalty and dedication the servant displayed for his master.

He saw Alucard's mouth move in answer to an unheard question, and the boy waved his hand imperiously in response, to which Alucard raised an eyebrow to. Abraham saw the smirk curling the butler's lips as he made a comment of sorts and Alucard's booming laugh made its way to Abraham's straining ears. He felt his left eye twitch.

"Earl Phantomhive, what is the meaning of this?" Abraham demanded by way of greeting as he drew closer.

"And a good evening to you as well, Mr. Hellsing," Ciel responded, turning to face him with a coy grin, but the single eye above the curving mouth shone with cold calculation.

Careful, Hellsing, careful, those eyes warned, the game is still in play.

Abraham schooled his features once more.

"Yes it is a good evening, and one I did not think I would be sharing with you. Why are you here?" His bluntness seemed to amuse the child, and he gritted his teeth at the sight of Alucard's gleaming, teeth-filled smile floating above and behind the Phantomhives.

He's enjoying this way too much. All three of them are entirely too pleased with themselves.

"Is it not obvious? I wish to join you on your little hunt and determine if you are really worth both mine and the Queen's time," The boy stated calmly, ignoring Abraham's paling expression, "Besides, bringing a vampire to lunch as a proof of existence is all well and good, but is he really useful to you or is he all bark and no bite?"

Alucard's smile took on a meaner, sharper edge, and his crimson eyes flared in eager challenge at the child's words. Feeling strangely trapped and desperate, Abraham turned to Sebastian, the only other human adult that could have any sway over the boy; for surely there had to be occasions in which the butler had been made to decide for or council the child in his actions. The servant's face remained impassive and indifferent, however, as though he was a mere observer, and Abraham knew then that no help would be forthcoming from those quarters.

Abraham felt great misapprehension pressing down on his chest but he nodded to the little Earl in resignation. The boy was speeding up the "game" far too fast for Abraham's liking, but there was naught to be done about it. He turned to his gathered men and ordered them to begin boarding the carriages.


"Now then, Earl Phantomhive," Abraham began, glowering at the seated boy and his servant on the opposite bench, "Since you have decided to accompany us on this venture, there will be basic ground rules you must follow, both for the safety of all who are involved and for my own peace of mind."

The Earl's amusement had seemingly vanished when the carriage had taken off, and the boy's single eye now bore into his own with a startling focus. Abraham was both pleased and saddened by this. On the one hand, the boy seemed to truly be considering the gravity of the situation which would make Abraham's job much easier, and on the other it was disheartening to see a child so evidently familiar with the harsh realities of the world.

"You will obey my orders while on the field, if I tell you to run you run. You will stay out of the way of the soldiers and Alucard and you must not interfere! Cohesion and focus are an absolute requirement in battling the Undead and I will not suffer distraction. Am I understood?"

The boy nodded. "Quite,"

"Are you armed?" Abraham didn't mean to snap, but his sense of worry was growing and he wanted no harm to befall this child.

"Yes,"

"With what?"

The boy extracted a small handgun from his clothes and held it up into the dim light of the carriage for Abraham to examine. The Hellsing Director gave an approving nod and sat back against his seat cushion. He glanced at the Phantomhive butler from the corner of his eye. The man was gazing calmly out the window, his pale reflection staring back at them all from the glass pane. The reflection's face was deathly white under the moon's dim radiance and the eyes floated in the porcelain expanse like cavernous, black holes. This, coupled with Alucard's own lack of reflection as he sat across from the butler, created a strangely disturbing image and Abraham fought not to shudder.

"And your butler? Is he armed? Is he prepared for what is about to take place?" Abraham demanded, his eyes landing on the Earl once more.

The boy's single eye narrowed ever so slightly and a corner of his small mouth began to curl up in a hint of a smirk.

"Yes, he is," the boy replied simply.

Abraham felt his own eyes narrow and he looked again at the butler only to find the servant's chilling stare already on him. They held each other's gaze for a brief moment longer before Abraham broke away with a grumble. He ignored Alucard's almost inaudible chuckle.

"Do either of you have questions?" Abraham prompted.

"None," the Earl replied before relaxing into his own cushioned seat.

They rode in silence for several moments after that.

A brief rapping sound from the driver's seat caught Abraham's attention.

"We've arrived."


Alucard turned away from the gathered contingent of humans and threw his head back to gaze up at the swollen moon. Behind him, his master was relaying last minute instructions to their impromptu guests and to the troops. Before him was a sprawling and crumbling cemetery. The moon painted the sky a near black-indigo hue, and coated the grass and trees in a choking black, while its lingering light touched upon crooked, ivory tombstones. The graveyard's perimeter fence had once been made of rough, wooden posts, but was now overgrown with dense ivy and shrubbery. A single cherub hewed from stone marked the center of the cemetery, its forearms missing and the face had long since been eroded away by seasons of rains and snows. The wings remained intact, surprisingly, and stretched up towards the moon, tips nearly touching. The entire scene emitted a sense of sorrow and neglect. The cemetery was also conveniently located a measly three miles from the nearest little village on the outskirts of London.

It was the perfect home for a vampire.

It was a perfect night for hunting.

Alucard felt a hungry grin worm its way onto his face, and his fangs ached to the roots in anticipation. He shifted restlessly as the soldiers began to line up around the desiccated fence. Then his master gave the signal and with a near loping stride, he came to the graveyard entrance and stepped through, his Third Eye roving along the crooked rows of tombs and crypts.

It all happened very quickly then.


Ciel silenced a gasp at the sudden flurry of movement throughout the still burial grounds. At the Hellsing Director's signal, Alucard had sprung into action, his legs nearly jerking in their rapidity, and the second a black-sheathed foot had touched the grass within the cemetery's boundaries the old, neglected graves had erupted.

Black dirt sprayed wildly into the air as naked, gray limbs clawed at the ground, heaving groaning, clumsy bodies into the open air. Snarls and moans that came from deep down in the chest filled the night air, drowning out nearly any other natural sound. Even from his position near the carriage line flanked by Abraham and Sebastian, Ciel could make out the dull gleam of the ghouls' eyes, swimming blankly in sagging sockets above gaping mouths filled with sharp teeth that oozed strings of saliva.

For a brief second he was back in the narrow halls of the Campania, trapped by moving corpses, bizarre dolls, on every floor, with their reaching, grasping hands and gurgling, blood-stained mouths, but a sudden barrage of rifle retorts quickly brought him back to the present.

The Hellsing soldiers were now firing into the swarming masses of ghouls that had advanced to the overgrown fence, and Alucard was a black blur, cutting a swath through the thick group that had assailed him upon entry with ease, and his white gloved-hands lashed out with deadly precision to pierce the monsters' hearts. At this distance Ciel could have easily mistaken the vampire for Sebastian had his butler not been standing there next to him. Ciel blinked at the sight of the previously solid bodies collapsing into soft ash.

"Ashes, ashes, we all fall down," Sebastian whispered quietly enough for only Ciel to hear.

Ciel gave him an unimpressed glare. Honestly, is that the best you could come up with?

Sebastian breathed a soft laugh and they turned back to the ensuing battle. Sparks appeared on all sides as the soldiers continued to fire, and the occasional cry of warning from the men interspersed among the moans, and howls of the ghouls filled the next few moments. Inside the graveyard, Alucard plunged a glove-sheathed hand through a final ghoul before disappearing into the ground at the base of the cherub's crumbling feet as the ghoul's ashes settled.

"Now what?" Ciel asked, addressing Abraham.

The man's ice-blue eyes were trained on the lines of his men. A scowl furrowed the man's face as he noted the seemingly endless stream of ghouls still pouring from the now open graves. There were lulls between fired shots now, gaps of time filled with reloading and the steady advance of the shambling corpses. There were far more ghouls than he had suspected. The reports on this particular vampire indicated that it would have multiple ghouls accompanying it, but not quite this many. His fingers wandered to his holstered pistol.

"Now, we wait,"

"For what?"

Abraham canted his head at the place Alucard had vanished.

"Alucard has the highest priority. Whilst my men keep the ghouls occupied, Alucard seeks out the master vampire and any fledglings it may have, and executes it. Once truly dead, the connection held between the master vampire and its ghouls is severed, and the ghouls immediately become ash as well with no master to keep them anchored in this world."

Ciel watched the advancing horde of ghouls with a growing sense of unease.

"Are there usually this many ghouls?"

"No," Abraham's face looked as though it were carved from stone, "which means that we are looking at two possible scenarios. The first scenario being that there is one lone vampire who has made far too many ghouls to remain hidden. The second scenario is that this a vampire nest, meaning that the master vampire has a fledgling or two, with all three creating ghouls that are, once again, too many to keep concealed. Whichever is the case, I'll count it as a blessing that these ghouls do not seem to be armed."

Ciel stared.

"What do you mean by "armed"?" Ciel demanded, his voice shriller than he intended.

"Occasionally a master vampire will attempt at cleverness and outfit its ghouls with weaponry to better overwhelm its opponents."

"So these ghouls possess…an intelligence of sorts?" Ciel immediately thought of the reanimated students at the Midnight Tea Party, with their lurching, parroting movements, and repetitive phrases.

"The tea smells good," one corpse had repeated up until and after it had bitten a chunk out of Greenhill's shoulder.

Abraham snorted.

"Absolutely not. The master vampire is just that: the master. It controls the creature's movements with its thoughts as easily as a puppeteer does his puppets. So far as we know most every vampire possesses the ability to control its ghouls, however, very few expend the effort out of arrogance, indifference, and ultimately stupidity. Uncontrolled ghouls are one of the quickest and surest ways to track down a vampire. It was one of the ways we were able to pinpoint this one."

"Well clearly these monsters are acting in unison under the direction of the master vampire, so it cannot be too stupid." Ciel commented.

Abraham waved a hand dismissively.

"It created more ghouls than it could keep undiscovered. Nor has it gone to the trouble of arming its ghouls for maximum effect, instead relying on their many numbers to overwhelm any attack. Quantity over quality, but we are prepared for this."

Sebastian shifted suddenly.

"Pardon me, Director Hellsing, but I wouldn't be too sure of that," The butler stated, his eyes trained on the cemetery.

At that precise moment the sharp crack! of the rifles seemed to double in frequency, and a panicked scream rent the air.


A/N: TO BE CONTINUED! Hope you all enjoyed. More action coming up in the next chapter! GIMME THEM REVIEWS!...please?