Chapter 10: My New Life

The next time I woke up, I felt…I felt…strangely good. My head didn't hurt, my mouth wasn't dry, my eyes weren't thick and seeking to escape my head. I got up and stretched. Man, I felt great. I went to the window and opened the drapes. The sun greeted me with all its brilliance and I squinted at it. Then my stomach growled. Breakfast, yeah, I wanted breakfast.

"How are we feeling this morning?" asked Walter, as he began cooking breakfast.

"I feel great…and hungry. Will you please make me a big breakfast today?"

"Yes, young Miss. I've been instructed to give you anything that you want today." he said, with a gentle smile.

"Anything I want? Why?" I asked, confused as to why he was given such orders.

"Because you saved Sir Integra's life last night."

"I did?"

"Do you remember nothing of last night?"

I thought about it. But not a single thing came to mind.

"Nope, not a thing. What happened last night?"

"The mission did not go well, but you saved Sir Hellsing's life. That is what happened last night." he stated in a very abbreviated manner.

I got the impression that he was holding something back from me. But I felt too good to care what it was. In minutes, he placed before me the biggest bacon and eggs breakfast that I had ever seen; complete with Pancakes and sausages and tea. I thanked him for his generosity and I ate it all.

Later, when I came down to practice with my men, they all looked at me. Now I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Questioning stares followed me as I made my way to my weapon's locker.

"What's going on?" I asked my Sergeant.

"We heard you died last night."

"I what?" I asked in complete disbelief. Was this what Walter had been hiding from me? "Not possible, I'm here."

"Yeah, which begs the question…why?"

Then I got at what he meant.

"You think I'm a vampire."

"Or a werewolf." added Corporal Thomas, as he too dared to came over to see me.

"Show us your teeth." requested my Sergeant.

I opened my mouth and showed them both my teeth. I turned my head and gave them a good look.

"Anything?" I asked, as I closed my mouth.

"Nah, looks like your still human." he smiled.

"And I'm still a bitch too." I smiled back. "I want everyone briefed on the mission last night and how we screwed up so royally as to let Sir Integra Hellsing's life be in danger."

"Sir, yes sir." they saluted me.

They still had their doubts about me, I could tell. But as that I still couldn't remember a thing about last night, that was the end of it…for a while.

I thought Alucard stopped coming to see me out of some twisted measure of respect for saving his master's life, but that was not the case.

It happened one night that Alucard was busy with other Hellsing business, but it was he that had suggested that I be given the task of killing the lost soul Wallace Benton. I thought nothing of it. It was just another mission to me.

Mr. Wallace Benton was a nobody, or that's what his official file at Hellsing said. He was a three time loser wannabe gangster. He had fallen in with a very bad crowd and was now doing patsy jobs just to be accepted. He passed his initiation by killing off the witness of his boss's trial, but what she hadn't counted on was that he was still a virgin. I mean really, this guy didn't seem like to type to still be a cherry; but given that he looked like a sleazy rat with blue eyes, I guess no girl in her right mind would sleep with him.

Anyway, it was his killing of a cop that brought him to the attention of the Hellsing Organization. I found him down at DICK's, a sleazy strip club, guzzling down liquor and ogling the girls. I didn't want to cause a scene in the club, so I need to get him outside. I walked right up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hiya deadwood, time to die."

"Piss off." he told me, as he shoved me aside.

I just smiled at him and showed him my "fake" police badge.

"We don't take kindly to you dregs killing our finest. Now are you gonna come peacefully?"

They never do. I knew he'd run. That's why I said it, to get him out of the bar. Needless to say, he ran. He shoved me aside, hissed at me with his fangs and took off running. I laughed. The chase was on. It was Friday night as I chased that bastard through the crowded streets of Soho. He carelessly shoved people out of his way as he ran past them. They shouted their displeasure as he passed by, some even threw beer cans at him. I kept on his heels, nimbly dodging the evening partiers. Soon, I saw him duck into Admiral Duncan's.

Admiral Duncan's is a gay bar. I guess he thought to lose me in the crowd. He was wrong. The club was alive with music and gay couples dancing to the techno rhythm. Others were at the bar, drinking and socializing. There were gays, lesbians, and transvestites in here. I had to laugh. It was a really colorful scene and had I the time, I might have stayed just to see it all. But right now I had a mission. I scanned the crowd for his face.

I didn't think anything of it then, but the people seemed to have a reddish glow to them. It was like seeing red ghosts with clearly distinguishable faces. And then I saw him, he was the only one there with no glow. It was like he was a death shadow among the living. I moved towards him. But suddenly, someone grabbed my shoulder.

"Hi hunny, you're new here."

I turned and saw a transvestite looking at me, with seriously lustful intent. She…um..he was tall and had a square chin, Green eyes and too much rouge on his cheeks. Suddenly, I was surrounded by three very good looking young girls. Each in their late twenties. Each obviously looking to spend the evening with someone.

"You're cute." said the red head, as she gave me a big smile.

"Thanks." I said trying to pull away from them.

"And your strong." noted the brunette, as she grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back towards them.

"I'm also on duty and in pursuit of a suspect. Now please let me go."

"Oh, so forceful and sure of yourself. I like that." he said.

"Ah…yeah." I said, rolling my eyes and still trying to pull away from them.

"I'll let you go," he said, loosening his grip on me slightly. "after you give me your number."

"No fair. I want a shot at her. She smells good." smiled the red head, as she leaned in close to me.

"Irish spring." I joked. "Now let me go."

I pulled away from them roughly and took off out the back door of the club.

"Damnit."

His rouse had worked. I had lost Wallace.

"Shit!"

I took off down the alley and tried to track him the best I could. Suddenly, I heard someone scream. I took off like a shot. I came upon him trying his best to subdue a girl for a bite to eat. Apparently, me chasing him had tired him out. He was going to bite her with his fangs, and not thinking, I shot at him. My shot hit him in his back and he dropped the girl.

He growled at me and tried to jump me, but I shot at him again. It didn't take him long to learn that my bullets could do him damage, so he ran from me. I shot at that bastard more than once, but he eluded me. I was determined not to let him get away. So again, I chased after him. And then it started to rain, That Damned English rain.

My eyes blinked and blinked to keep the rain out of my eyes as I ran. Had I thought about it, I might have realized that I had been chasing this guy all over town for an hour and yet hadn't felt tired once. He ran down and alley and I followed. He ran, made a vampiric leap, grabbed an escape ladder, and ran up the stairs to the roof. I climbed on top of a garbage dumpster and made a jump for the ladder. I surprised me, I almost over shot it. But I continued on, up the ladder and onto the roof. He jumped from the roof that we were on, to a roof easily fifty feet away. And not thinking at all till I was in mid-air, so did I. To say that it surprised me that I was able to make the jump and land on both feet was an understatement. I was shocked and stunned at my feat, and he was getting further away. I looked after him and my eyes adjusted to the darkness. It had to have been close to 2AM right now; but I could see him clearly, as clearly as if he were standing right in front of me. And he was still getting further and further away.

"Go after him." said a voice inside my head. "Don't let him get away."

I took off like a shot and cleared the distance between us in no time. I charged at him and shoved his head into the ground. He flip turned and kicked me into the wall. I fell off the roof and landed in an ally below us. He jumped down seeking to kill me. I turned, he threw a punch at me, and I ducked. I came with an upper cut and I sent him through a wall. I looked down at my hands as he lay there amoung the rubble of the destroyed wall, trying to recover.

"What is happening to me?" I finally wondered.

And then my memory returned. I was dying and Alucard was standing over me. He asked me to join him in death…did I say yes? I couldn't have. I still walked in the sun. I still ate normal food. I could still…. He recovered and charged at me again. Suddenly, something told me…

"Point your hand like a dart and shove it straight through his heart."

I did so and I saw his agony filled face as I ripped his heart from his chest. His body turned to dust and I sank down the wall as my feet would no longer hold me up. What had I just done? I killed a freak vampire with my bare hands. Only Alucard could do that.

"Not any more it seems." said a voice, that I had come to know very well.

"Alucard."

"Yes." he answered me, as the rain seemed to congeal right before me and become a red coated man.

"What…what…what's happened to me? Why can I…"

My mind filled me in on all the things I had done that night. I had run down a freak vampire…on foot. I had jumped over fifty feet from the roof top of one building to another. And I had just killed a freak vampire by ripping out its heart.

"Did I say yes to you that night?"

He smiled at me in his usual way, with that wolf eating a sheep kind of grin.

"What if you had?"

"I couldn't have. I can still stand the sun. My teeth are normal and I don't crave blood."

"You may…in time."

"What did you do me?!" I yelled at him, in all fear of losing my humanity.

"I saved your life." he said most plainly, not at all put out by my accusation.

"And yet you didn't drink from me. That's not like you."

"What do you think happened?" he asked me, in a cat and mouse way.

"I don't want to guess, I want to know. What did you do to me?!"

He hesitated, but then tilted his head and gave me an answer.

"I gave you my blood."

"You…what?"

The rain poured down upon us both, but only I seemed to be getting wet. I don't know how he did it, but the rain never seemed to touch him.

"Would you like to get out of this rain?" he offered me. "You're getting awfully wet."

I didn't answer him. I just looked at my hands and looked at the ground. Already, the ashes of Wallace Benton were being washed away as they were diluted by the rain.

"Fine." I sniffed. Could I even catch a cold anymore?

He wrapped his coat around me and we warped to somewhere else. I half expected him to warp me to my room, but he didn't. He warped me to his. I have never ever been in his room. All soldiers are forbidden to be down here. I looked around as he took of his hat and coat, threw them away and they became nothing. And then plopped himself down in his throne like chair. His room was cold, and dark, and had stone walls. And though they were old, they were very well kept clean. His room was huge and cold and empty. Only one table, one coffin, and one throne like chair adorned this room. There were no windows and only one door. I started shivering. The cold wet rain had now soaked me to my bones. He cocked his head at me in amusement.

"Cold?"

"Yes." I shivered, hugging my own body and trying to keep warm.

He snapped his fingers and a huge fireplace appeared before me. A hellish green fire blazed within and as eerie as it was, it was keeping me warm and chasing away the cold. He crossed his legs and waited for me to get warmer. Then the questions started.

"How do you feel?"

"I don't know. Normal, I guess." wondering what had happened and what was going to happen.

"And yet you're not. Not anymore."

"You said you gave me your blood. Have you corrupted me? Is that why you no longer seek my blood?"

"As I recall, you never wanted me drinking your blood in the first place. Does this mean you miss me?" he smirked, in his usual Cheshire grin.

"Sort of. I guess I just got used to it." I said, now coming to stand before him. "So what does this mean?"

"Well, since I never bit you, you are not vampire. But I have shared my blood with you. My blood and your blood are now one within you. So what do you think that makes you?"

"Corrupted." I said, remembering what they had told me of my "special" bloodline.

"Given your previous bloodline, I suppose so. Or you could see it as privileged. You now have the blood of a Romanian Prince flowing through your veins. You are now more than human and yet spared the curse." he said seriously, as he looked me over, as if wondering what to do with me now.

With such seriousness in his voice, I dared not make any more jokes.

"Sir Hellsing doesn't know, does she?"

He sat back and his manner relaxed. He made a glass of wine appear in his left hand. It looked like wine, but I knew it to be blood by the smell of it. I wondered who's it was. He swirled it in the glass as he spoke to me.

"No."

"Shouldn't you tell her?"

"No. Dhampires are so rare as to be only legend themselves. Can you imagine what would happen if a real one turned up?"

I thought about it as he sipped from his glass of blood.

"I would become hunted by men; studied, copied, confined." I said, sadness filling my voice at my possible future.

"You're a cheerful person." he smirked. "Think you so little of your own species."

"I'm a realist. Men are nothing if not predictable and in all human history, nothing has really changed has it."

He thought about it as he looked at me.

"You are right. I am amazed by you. So few humans look at history and apply it to today. So what do you propose to do?"

I sighed a heavy sigh.

"Nothing, I will continue to do my job. However…"

"Those answers I do not have for you. As I said, Dhampires are incredibly rare. One has never been studied in great length."

"I guess we'll see then. Will you do me a favor?"

He said nothing, but nodded at me.

"Will you keep an eye on me? I mean…"

"Don't worry. I will. I rather consider you like a daughter now."

"Is that a good thing?"

"We'll see. At least you won't have to worry about my midnight feedings anymore."

With that, he waved me into Integra's office to make my mission report.