10. "You ate him, haven't you?"

Alucard felt the familiar and unmistakeable rush that he felt every time he changed into his dog form. It was a feeling when suddenly everything stopped and the only thing moving was him. The time itself didn't matter at those few moments. He saw everything as if paused. His body shuddered, his spine and arms lengthened, legs shortened, his face prolonged into a muzzle. And the many eyes opened all at once, taking in the layout of their little battlefield. For that one moment, he could get everybody's position at once and decide whom to strike down first.

The most practical choice would be their leader, of course. Once he was down, the others would most likely fall into confusion. Especially if they were under his influence as Alpha. Alpha's were tricky that way. They earned their place in the lead by fighting and raw force, or, as was probably this case, by outsmarting all the others. Practical choice would be to remove him and his influence, yes. Well, smart Alphas don't cooperate with such reasonable planning though and Alucard noticed that this particular one stayed well clear from the others, still in his human form.

The time resumed its course and the wolves stopped for a blink of an eye to stare at the huge Hell Hound that stood in front of them where only split of second ago was a tall vampire. The Hound had the same maniacal grin though and the wolves recovered quickly and continued their attack. They were skilled at working together and they knew how vampires thought. They quickly formed a circle around the Hound and the strongest of them launched the first attack. Alucard's wolfish body moved with unnatural speed and the launching wolf hit nothing but the air. He slammed into the ground but was back up quickly.

The Hound's many eyes swept over the others and went immediately after the weakest of them. It was a she-wolf with lithe form. She wasn't as quick to attack when the other one's attack was thwarted and Alucard reasoned she's either a new member or too young to have the skill of a real fighter. Or she was really old. Or wounded. Whatever the case, she was obviously the weakest and the others knew it. The wolf pack didn't protect the weakest unless it was a cub. The she-wolf let out pained whine as the Hound's teeth sank into her back. Within a second, her body lay on the ground, blood quickly gushing from torn flesh. The Hound stood over her still holding her spine in his massive jaws. He snapped it and let it fall on the body beneath him. The smell of fresh blood overwhelmed him and his primal self took over.

"It wasn't a fair fight. Not by a long shot. Six of you against one of me?" Alucard looked at the Alpha and sneered. "You never had a chance." His words voice was husky and heavy. He always felt this way after a good fight, after sating himself with the fresh blood of his enemies.

The Alpha hasn't said a word. He just stood where he has since the fight started. The bodies of his fallen pack lay scattered on the ground all around him. None survived. Alucard was right. It wasn't a fair fight. Three of them were dead in less than two minutes. The remaining three adopted smarted tactics and tried the strike-and-run method of real wolves. They managed to land few tears and bites on the Hound before they were ripped apart as well.

"So, what's your name?" Alucard was licking his fingers from some remaining blood. The sight made the Alpha slightly nauseas. He remained silent.

"Look, you can either tell me who you are, whom you are working for and how many others there are of you. Or, I can get it out of you. I do hope you choose the latter. I haven't had the pleasure to torture anyone for information for a looooong time." He grinned and his eyes filled with cruelty the Alpha hadn't seen before.

"You'll get nothing out of me, vampire!"

Alucard cocked his head to a side. "You've got some guts, I give you that. Oh well, it's not going to help you this time." He was about to grab the little man when his ears caught a distant voice. "I better hurry back…" He looked at the man and smirked. "One way or other, you're going to tell me what I want to hear."

Alucard entered the basement of the old hotel from the outside entrance. It was locked, but when was a lock problem for him? He opened small creaking door whose paint was mostly gone now, then shut them behind himself again. He looked around the room, his eyes easily picking up every object and corner. The basement was just one large room, maybe fifteen meters long and just as wide. It was filled with broken furniture, stacks of books and old newspapers, several armoires stood by one of the walls, their doors hanging opened. Heaps of clothes and discarded blankets were scattered everywhere. There was hardly a spot clear of the rubbish that lay all around.

"This'll have to do." He returned to the closed door and picked up a large heavy-looking sack that he left there upon entering the basement, tossed it over his shoulder and headed towards He sat the sack down none too gently and looked at it with disdain. "Now, this is gonna be a long night unless you cooperate." He cut the sack opened and the sandy-haired pack leader fell out.

…

Anderson paced back and forth in Alucard's room, debating with himself what he should do. If he reported Alucard's absence there sure as hell was going to be agents swarming the area in less than an hour, both Vatican's and Hellsing's. The thing was, if that happened, they might spook off any potential lead to the vampires' leader, the Pristinus or whoever, whatever, he or she were. He slammed his fist against a wall furiously. Could he possibly trust that the vampire would come back? What if he planned to join the vampires after all?

The sun was rising when there was a soft thud on the balcony and Alucard came striding in.

"Where the fuck have you been, vampire?!"

Alucard looked surprised for a brief moment, then rearranged his face into his usual mocking grin. "What? No hug, no kiss, no welcome back, dear?"

"I swear as God is my witness that I am going to kill you one of these days!"

"Careful, you shouldn't make promises you won't be able to keep, my dear priest. Doesn't the big boss take offence at that kind of things?"

Anderson didn't stop to think. He launched at Alucard, his bayonets in his hands before the crossed the few steps. Alucard didn't dodge, he just stood there and took the blows without flinching. "This is pointless, Anderson. We both know how this is gonna end and I am tired to play right now."

The priest stopped dead in his tracks. Something wasn't right. Alucard was always more than happy to return the fight. It was one of the things you could always count on; a constant, a never-changing and absolute trait of his. To hear him say this seemed about as right as seeing an ice in Hell would be. "What the…"

"Just drop it, okay? Pack up, we've got places to go before the day's over." Alucard just brushed past the stunned priest and headed to the shower. He could smell the werewolves' scent all over himself.

"You haven't answered my question!" Anderson called after him but got only silence in return.

He swore under his breath, then headed back to his room, grabbed his coat and spare weapons. He considered calling Vatican to let them know, then decided that since he had no idea where they were going, it would be waste of breath. Besides, reaching his commander has been increasingly difficult for the past few days.

"Ready?" The vampire's voice came from the door. He looked as he always have. Red cloaked draped over his shoulder, the ridiculously large hat perched on his head, sunglasses on even in the relative darkness of the hall. Still, something in the way he was standing made Anderson wary.

"Where are we going?"

"I'll fill you in on the way. There's no time to lose."

Anderson planted his feet, his arms crossed on his chest defiantly. "I'm not going anywhere unless you speak, vampire."

"Fine by me." Alucard turned on his heel and took off towards the stairs, reaching the front door before Anderson caught up with him. He could see he was furious but he didn't care. He didn't have time to. He had to reach them before it was too late.

Anderson's fists were clenched so hard his knuckles threatened to pop out any moment. He was sitting in their car as a passenger. Alucard was driving at a deadly speed and by the way he was clutching the wheel and shifting the gears without stepping on the clutch made Anderson wonder whether he could actually drive.

"We're on the way. Spill." Anderson gritted through his clenched teeth, tearing his eyes off the road to look at Alucard.

"There's not much to say, really."

"You can start by telling me where we're going."

"Dublin."

"What? Dublin? As in Dublin in Ireland?" Anderson stared at him, forgetting Alucard's dangerous driving for a moment.

"Is there any other?"

"And what exactly is in Dublin?"

"Answers."

Anderson looked at him levelly. "Oh, of course! How stupid of me! Answers! Just why haven't I understood that sooner?!"

Alucard couldn't help it and let out a laugh. "Okay, okay. I had no idea you were such a joker, priest!" He continued to laugh some more, then looked at the angry Anderson. "Fine." He paused for a moment to form his words.

"When I left last night, I just meant to go for a stroll-"

"Yeah, right. Like I'm going to believe that…" Anderson scoffed and looked unconvinced.

"Okay, maybe I wasn't going just for a stroll. Look, you… You have no idea what it's like to be bound like a dog on a leash… This is the first time in a fifty years I've been able to be away from the Hellsings. So yeah, I wanted to stretch my legs, to taste the freedom, even if just a little and for a moment." He paused but kept his eyes on the road.

"Fine, let's say I buy that. What does that have to do anything with where are we going?"

"You remember how you told me about those werewolf attacks?"

Anderson nodded. "You said they'd be long gone."

"Yeah, well, turned out I was wrong." Alucard shrugged. "I ran into a pack of seven werewolves. Their leader was this small jerk…" Alucard quickly recounted what happened the previous night. "So, naturally, I thought- Hey!" Alucard flashed a look at Anderson who just made a small choking sound. "The more I come to know you, vampire, the more difficulty I have to imagine you actually thinking. I hope you haven't strained yourself too much."

Alucard gave him a look. "Anyway, as I was about to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, I spared the Alpha to question him."

"Wow, I am actually impressed!" Anderson mocked him with a wide-eyed shocked expression. "So, if you spared him, where's he now?" He looked at the vampire suspiciously. "You ate him, haven't you?"

Alucard made defensive gesture. "Not all of him!"

The priest just shook his head with disgust. "I still don't see how this is linked to Dublin."

"It's not."

Anderson all but screamed in rage and Alucard stopped the car at once. "That was unnecessary, priest!" He turned to him, one of Anderson's bayonets protruding from his neck. He took the blade and pulled it out. Anderson answered by sticking a second one through his chest. "You're being childish, Anderson! Stop it!" Before he finished the sentence, Anderson made a pincushion from him and half a dozen blades stuck from Alucard's chest.

"I am going to kill you, vampire! Your insolence ends now!"

"You didn't let me finish!" He looked at him accusingly like a child that has been punished for what he believed was wrong cause.

"Speak then! Quickly!" Anderson growled at him.

"Alright, alright." He pulled the blades out one by one and tossed them on the back seat, then started the car again. "I took the Alpha back to the hotel, to the basement. I started to question him, but no matter how I tried, he wouldn't talk." Anderson gave him a look that clearly said he knew exactly how that must have felt. Alucard ignored him.

"He must had been under an influence of a vampire or different werewolf to keep quite all through that. I may be a little rusty on all the torture but I'm not that rusty." He was genuinely proud of himself at that point though he quickly resumed talking. "When it was clear he wasn't going to tell me anything, I did eat him. I mean, it would be a waste of a perfectly good dinner. Also, by devouring him, I've gotten in a lot of his, hmm, how to say, an essence maybe? What I mean is that I was able to track his movements for the past few days easier."

Anderson remained quiet and just nodded at him to continue. Aware or not, the vampire was telling him some useful information about himself and the vampire hunter part of his brain filed it to use at later time.

"I managed to find where his lair was. Honestly, it was more of an operating room than somebody's home. He was a neat freak. I'm telling you, Anderson, that man was crazy! But it had an upside. His study was filled with organizers and files. In a safe I found some papers and his personal diary. He was supposed to fly for a meeting with a group of vampires this very morning. The meeting's in Dublin. There were even names and I think you'll recognize this one. Virgil."

Anderson looked at him sharply. "That Elder vampire? The one that presumably leads the vampires? The only one that knows the Pristinus?"

"The very same." Alucard smiled smugly. "So, are you going to trust me now?"

"No. But I will let you live for now."

Alucard laughed. "Fine by me."

They arrived to Dublin few hours later and headed to the meeting place at once.