Title: Crimson Heir

Summary: Unable to have an heir herself, Sir Integra adopts a girl fit for the job. However, things get sticky when Alucard is forced to make his next master like him.

Note: Yay, Se-chan! The ONLY person to give me a good analysis. And of course, she was right. At the time I was writing Chapter 8, I was in a rocky position with my boyfriend, who had dumped me and then kept pulling me between a friend and something more. Doesn't matter now though.

This will be one of (if not) the last chapter of Crimson Heir. I've had a good run, yeah, but my interests are beginning to run toward stuff like Supernatural, Torchwood, Doctor Who, CSI, and NCIS. So keep on the look-out for more stories by yours truly. On with the show!!

Chapter Nine: Dawn

Pip had scaled the steep side of the mountain faster (and more recklessly) than the sure-footed Cora had and now stood staring down into the valley below, carefully scanning the sides of the cliffs. Of course, there was no sign of the Hellsing heir, except her footprints to the door of the castle. They vanished from there, with nothing leading into or away from the ruin. If he lost Cora, Integra would have his ass on a platter before he could say "Ah damn".

Captain Wyatt Harding was standing at the brink of the shear drop like a sentinel over its post. He was a tall blonde man, one of the few soldiers who'd managed to survive more than a year with the Hellsing Organization. Usually, one of the agents barely lasted a few months before they were killed in the line of duty. He removed the sunglasses from his brown eyes and looked over at where Pip knelt in the dirt, staring at the footprints on the crumbling doorstep.

"She can't dissolve yet, can she?" Harding asked as he put away his glasses into his back pocket. "Y'know, like Alucard likes to."

Pip shook his head. "Nah, he hasn't taught her yet. She's still gotta walk."

Harding's lips twitched into an uncomfortable smirk. "Not sure if that's a good thing." He knew what the Hellsing heir was, and he knew what she could learn to do. For now, though, she wasn't a danger to her allies. Only her enemies.

"Tried going in?" Harding asked finally and took the few steps up to the entrance where little Miss Hellsing vanished.

"Yeah," answered the mercenary. "Nothing but rock dust."

"One can only enter on a blood moon." The soft voice, quivering in fear, came from behind the two men. The speaker was a tiny young woman, no longer than a ten-year-old child, in baggy clothes and a shawl over her whispy blonde hair. Her tiny hands clutched at her baggy sweater.

Harding nodded and turned to Pip. "Tomorrow," he said. "Around here, a blood moon is the day before and after the full moon." He cast a glance at the small woman. "Is that right?"

The woman nodded her head once. "For tonight," she said in her halting way, English not being her first language, "lock your doors and windows. The Countess hunts tonight." She made a gesture with her hands, like she was brushing them away. "You must hurry! The sun is going to set!"

Following the young woman back down over the rough terrain, Harding asked, "What's your name?" He grabbed a rock as the ground under his feet slid away into open space. This side of the mountain was steeper than the way they'd come up, but this side faced the village and was still drenched in dying sunlight.

Her china-doll face appeared around the boulder she had just circumnavigated. "I am Szabina," she answered before once again vanishing into the dirt and dust of the landscape. 'Like a mountain goat,' thought Harding bitterly as he dangerously increased his pace for fear of losing sight of their ally. Pip swore and scrambled along behind him.

Back inside the tower dungeon, Cora felt the presence of the Countess leave the castle and grinned to herself that it felt warmer. Lifting herself from her corner, she crawled over to the heavy wooden door and placed her ear to it. Silence. Weak from lack of blood, she tried to drag the door free of its casing but only succeeded in exhausting what energy she'd saved up. Cora slumped against the wall again and lay her head at the feet of one of her skeletal roommates.

She couldn't die like this, not caged like an animal waiting the slaughter. A wave of panic – pure and sharp as ice – washed over her, tightening her weary muscles to the peak, ready to spring. Cora leapt into the reaches of the roof, grabbing a heavy wooden beam and hauling herself onto it. In her frustration, she let out a high-pitch scream that might have shattered eardrums had she had company. Then, fully spent, she crawled down the wall and crashed again before one of the other victims. The blood of the old castle began to seep into her body...

Alucard's ear pricked up, and his gaze went east, toward the darkest part of the growing night sky. He'd distinctly heard the squeal of a bat, even though there was none to be found. No, not a bat; it sounded female, frustrated. He frowned. The more he sifted the sound, the more it sounded like Cora. His limbs cramped suddenly, as if he hadn't fed in days. Fear bubbled up inside him, and tears threatened to choke him.

"Cora!" Alucard gasped, dissolving through the shadows to the turrets where he'd last left her. As fast as the pain and emotions had appeared, they vanished, leaving a chilling ache that truly frightened him. His master needed him, and damn his orders to stay away from her!

"I never wanted this to happen," Cora whispered, her body like lead. She was still sprawled out on the floor with whispy tendrils of old blood snaking into her body like water into a sponge. "I was doing my job, my duty as a member of the Hellsing Organization and the Hellsing family. How can God be so set against me? I Changed only to live, to continue my family's legacy."

"But you aren't a Hellsing," whispered a syrupy sweet voice of black silk, enfolding her like a blanket. "You're a Seward by blood. Your family's involvement with vampires and the Undead ended with the stake through Lord Dracula's heart!"

"That's not true!" Cora screamed. "I am a Hellsing to the bone, to my last breath!" Her arms gained the shaky strength to support her, and she forced herself into a seated position. A burst of light – moonlight? – ringed her in her prison, a spotlight.

"You're a monster, a creature unworthy the kindness of God!" It was Anderson's voice this time, hard and menacing.

"I am His loyal servant!" She staggered to her feat, pressed to the wall in the spotlit circle. "I walk the path He laid before me!"

"Who are you really?" Alucard's face materialized out of the darkness directly in front of her. "Who are you, child of the night?"

"I am Cora Malandra Alucard Hellsing," she said firmly, able to stand on her own now, "servant of God and Her Majesty, the Queen on England. Daughter of Sir Integra Fairbrook Windgates Hellsing, heir of the Hellsing Organization, and a vampire under the guidance of my master Alucard. I know who I am – "

"Then live, Hellsing!" snarled the voice of Anderson again.

The night of the full moon had been Hell for the Hellsing operatives in the little hotel. Pip paces incessantly from the time the sun dipped below the horizon until Wyatt Harding pushed him onto the bed in irritation. The next day absolutely snailed by, an hour stretching into a day, and night falling over the course of a week. Finally, as the last edge of the sun sank, the two men leapt from their beds and pelted out of the hotel. Harding noticed by the blood-red sky that Alucard must be there before them.

Alucard stood with head sunk on his chest and his Jackal grasped in a nerveless arm, his lips quirked into a smirk. "I haven't fought one like you in a long time, Countess Bathory." He sneered her name like he wanted to spit out the taste of it. "Your thirst is legendary. I suppose I should thank you for gracing me with your presence."

Across the cliff, on the doorstep of her castle, stood the Countess, her regal head high and her eyes full of malice. "And who are you to speak to me in such a familiar manner?" she sniffed, her left arm beginning to blur in preparation of a transformation.

"Me?" asked the Hellsing vampire and lifted his head. "Why, I'm your executioner."

"You are a commoner," said the Countess dismissively. "It is I who will destroy you." With that, she flew at him, her arm a scythe of sharpened bone, ready to behead. His Jackal's bullet ricocheted off the surface like a rubber ball on a cement wall.

Alucard sucked his teeth in distaste; she was old enough to be powerful, but she was a glutton, taking blood only for the pleasure of it. She didn't train, didn't cultivate her skills. She would be a difficult fight, but a boring one. He let the scythe shave him in two, his arm dropping to the ground with a wet thud. He morphed, liquefying himself into a black puddle which then bubbled to form the Hellhound Baskerville. He sprang at his enemy, his jaws wide. His many eyes set her in their sights and honed in for the kill.

She leapt aside, striking him with her skeletal arm at the same time. Baskerville gave a snarl and snapped, taking the tip off with his jaws. The Countess hissed in fury and threw herself at him, taloned hands snapping at his throat...

She shrieked as a large black cat, the size of a panther with six eyes glowing red demonic anger seized hold of her cloak and threw her backward toward the cliff. It sprang, pinning the distorted figure of the Countess to the edge of the cliff with claws like razors. Baskerville threw himself forehead, his mouth opening to emit Alucard's gloved hand and Jackal. It belched two rounds into the Countess, who convulsed twice, shrieked like a demon in Hell, and dissolved into white ash.

The demon cat turned on Baskerville with teeth bared, double canines razor-sharp and deadly. Baskerville's form bubbled and broiled until it was that of Alucard once more. He reached out, removing his glove.

"Drink," he ordered softly.

The bite hurt, but the pain was pleasurable, the demonic cat sure in its lapping, the eager swallows. Like a man dying of thirst, it drank until Alucard withdrew his hand, the bitemarks gone. The cat gave a whine and blurred until Cora knelt before him, her clothing in tatters and her face smeared with blood. She dissolved into tears and threw herself into his arms.

"My master," Alucard cooed softly. "My poor, darling master."

"Alucard," Cora said as she and her master stood on the decaying stone steps of the now-vacant castle a few hours later, "you know we'll end up together eventually."

"I do," he acknowledged and brushed the hair from her face with a white-gloved hand. Alucard knew by instinct that she wasn't finished speaking, and he went silent to allow her to finish her thought.

"You'll always been my master, and I'll always be yours." She chuckled. "We're quite a pair, you and I." Her crimson eyes rolled up to his face. "That's how it will stay for now. I trust you, and I know you'll catch me when I fall, but right now, I still have so much more to learn." Her fangs glinted in the moonlight as her lips parted in a smile. "Besides, there's someone else for now."

Alucard smirked and bent his head to lick a spot of blood from her nose. "He's coming up the mountain as we speak." The crunching footsteps, muted curses, and falling rocks floated up the side of the mountain nearest the village below.

She allowed herself to kiss him for a moment, but she stepped away before he could draw her in. "Până la acea zi," she whispered and turned in time to see Harding and Pip clamber over the lip of the cliff. With long, quick strides, Cora flew across the space between and met Wyatt Harding for a kiss.

The End.

Ending note: That is technically the end of Crimson Heir, because the next chapter will be drabbles about what happens in the future to Integra, Alucard, and Cora. Thank you all for being so faithful in your reviews. You've all been wonderful, and I owe you much for staying with me. Thank you especially to Se-Chan, who has been my most loyal reviewer and reader since this fic was published. We of the Hellsing Organization thank you for the bottom of our hearts.

"Până la acea zi" is Romanian for "until that day".

-Nariko Sasame