Chapter 22

Season's greetings to all my readers. I hope you all had a great Christmas. :)

Here's the chapter, last one of the year, and I'll see you all next year. So have and have a great night on the 31st.

bye.

.

Chapter 22

The clock struck half passes nine and baby cooed softly. Fed, changed and warm, sleep started to lure it in once again. She yawns widely while her small right hand still held onto one of the longer strands of platinum blond hair. Integra's hair was still a mess, very short in the back and close to almost shoulder long in the front due to the way Heinkel had grabbed her before cutting it.

"Let go…." She whispers with a soft smile peeling her strand of hair out of her tiny hand with great care. She was a small baby and being at least a month premature made her even smaller. Both the lavender blanket and the pink hat were on the bed with the former sprawled out on the bed in front of the young mother. "You must sleep." She tells her gently placing the child on the blanket and wrapping it around her tiny body to keep her warm. Afterwards she cradles her back in her arms and stands up softly rocking her until Margo's eyes start to close. She was a very quite child, she made no fuss and she didn't scream from the top of her lungs when hungry or wet. "I'm sorry I yelled at your daddy. The things said weren't what I meant to say." Leaning she kisses Margo on the forehead just below the tiny scuff of black hair. Blue eyes had starred back at her for a moment longer then closed as sleep took her. "Your daddy won't be long, I promise." She whispers kissing her second time, yet the words aren't meant to comfort the baby alone; she needed them as well.

"No," A deep and somewhat rough voice, familiar though the difference was still noticeable, filled the room seconds before the chuckling started. "I don't think he won't." Integra immediately turned from the crib, her back hitting it as she startled by the eerie tone of the one person she truly wasn't expecting to see.

"Alucard." the sound of her own voice seems out of place as the deeply resonating chuckle continues to fill her ears and with it the shadows in the room morph revealing an opening portal and the imposing figure stepping out of it. Beside the window a knee high riding boot came out first, the leg and black pants afterwards, a red fedora had and cravat, orange glasses…

Every element was familiar and was as it should be. It was and looked as real as possible had it not been for the truth she'd seen earlier that night. There was no Alucard, there was just a boy. So this couldn't be real.

With a simple flick of his left wrist the lock in the door shuts with an audible click and the light dims eerily slow. And the vampire continued to grin throughout it all; that same iconic Cheshire cat grin she's seen so many times.

"A long way from home, aren't you?" she bravely tells him subsequently tightening her grip on her sleeping baby. She stood her ground tall and proud. He was just a vampire like any other no matter who he attempted to portray.

"Not nearly as far as you since you left your home burning and in ashes." Though he grins the same he failed to mock her in the end of that speech with the title my master. A trait and mannerism the real vampire would have never let go of.

"And you left your bride."

"Have I?" He smiles allowing his orange glasses to slide down the ridge of his nose while never noticing the second mistake he'd already made. Seras was and would never be a mere bride. "She doesn't need myself holding her hand. And," he pauses taking his glasses off completely before looking at her from under his dark bangs. "You've seen her. She's doing fine,"

"Her wounds aren't yet healed. She still bleeds." Integra counters gambling with a piece of information not even true, but one the vampire might consider true. There had been only one vampire brought before her in the time Seras was still sick and still residing in the Hellsing manor. And if she was right then he would no more of her situation. Alucard was never generous with information. Not unless it's pried out of him after a good threat and several bullets to the scull.

"Bullet holes are small, they heal." He tells her and his eyes eventually narrow as though taking a moment to reconsider his very words. As though realizing he's made all too many mistakes already. He tries to correct himself, but it's already too late." I have not come to…"

"To converse about your fledgling?" she cuts him off. "Clearly not, though the real you would have."

"Would he?" the vampire questions with an eerie and unnerving grin while stepping closer. The tips of his fangs peer from under his upper lip and the grin is no longer as friendly.

"I wouldn't come any closer." Integra warns him without making the smallest effort to move out of the way as the vampire approaches her.

"And why is that?" he mocks her by defiantly stopping directly in front of her, half a foot left between them. The sentence barely passes his lips when his senses flare up in warning him of impending danger. Everything happens so fast that the wound inflicted on his body prequels the pain until the vampire wised up enough to glance down at his chest and see the a thin and slender hand covered in blood stick out of his left hemi thorax. Then, just as fast, the hand pulls back under his stare taking the damaged rib it had broken with it. The sound of bone cracking echoed loudly as it was brutally ripped from his chest and he himself pulled forward due to the close proximity to the white haired vampire now standing in front of him.

The vampire stagers back in the wake of such action, the tips of three of his fingers heavily stained, and by the time he looks back up Seras he sees her standing protectively between himself and Integra. Her right hand was coated in blood and her fist closed around the broken piece of bone; the blood dripped onto the carpeted floor next to her right boot and the bone fell from her grasp not moments later.

Seras's eyes starred with shining crimson with unyielding precision and intensity. The vampire only grins in return, his injury healing as though it were nothing at all. The charade wasn't worth keeping any longer. Thus, his clothing and appearance changed: the black suit and boots melted away a dark grey long sleeved sweater reappeared in its place; dark pants and shoes to match and a black trench coat. The white gloves vanished, and the well as the crimson cravat turned into a black silken ascot.

"Miss Victoria." He purrs offering a slight nod of the head.

"Who are you?" she asks and the tone of her voice cuts through the air like a sharp blade.

"I apologies." he smiles. "I had forgotten you were asleep when last presented to me. A young and sleeping vampire."

"Who is he?" and yet Seras ignores him almost completely turning instead to Integra for answers.

"He used to be accepted. Let's leave it at that. Your master brought him." She then says emphasizing the word in anything but a flattering manner.

"Accepted, yes that would be right. The appropriate term as it were. We had but one meeting Sir Hellsing and I had an ever briefer stay at your house. What was I then before it all went up in smoke? A yes," he grins most amused revealing the tips of his lengthening fangs. "Friend."

"Foe would be best right now. Just where were you when it all came crashing down on me?" she replies with a grin of her own. "I had thought you smarter than disobeying him."

"Perhaps." He agrees not yet letting the grin fade from his face. "But he is not my master, never has been. He just likes the attention. And by the looks of his newest coquets, I'd say he enjoys hearing it screamed into his ear quite a lot."

The walls of the room cracked as several black tendril rose up along its length from the ground. Seras's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the hidden meaning of his spiteful words and, for a moment, she let her anger slip passed her defenses. The wooden boards squeaked loudly beneath her own feet as black ink seeped through the fine cracks distending them further. The noise was enough this time to disturb the baby which started whimpering in her mother's embrace. "Careful Sir Hellsing," Nicolae whispers, a warning hidden in his otherwise amused tone of voice. The left side of his mouth curls upward as the building begins to reek of blood and death and the sound of doors breaking and glass in the distance shattering fills the air. The distinct sound of…

"The ghouls are not mine." He laughs as a sinister screech, a horrid mix between agony and insanity, shatters the glass of their own window just as a dark silhouette passes alongside it. Margo's cries grew stronger as if she could sense the impending danger. A black gloved hand broke the residual pieces of glass in the window frame and with it a hand entered: the skin was dark and cadaveric and the cloth of his sleeve dark brown in color. And the more it stretched as the figure entered the room the yellow emblem stitched on its upper arm just beneath the curve of the shoulder came forth: We are on a mission from God.

The face that then peered through the broken frame was twisted in a snarl while the creature's eyes were a hybrid grey and devoid of any light, emotion or life. The face of a once proud soldier was now utterly unrecognizable.

"No.." Integra whispers in disbelief at the sight unable to tear her eyes away from the ghoul. A figment of the past flashed through her mind once the ghoul dressed in a Hellsing uniform was full in view. The day had been one of the worst ones in her history as leader of the Hellsing organization: the day the Valentine brother attacked and Seras viciously tore into them without a hint of self restrain and control. She tore through the many bodies over and over again without mercy spilling their blood upon the walls seeing only red.

"As I said the ghouls are not mine, but the soldiers were definitely yours. After all they did require a place after their rather abrupt dismissal from your employment." With a wave of his hand the ghoul was dead long before he got a chance to fully step through the window, his body turning to ash. Behind him the silhouettes of many more undead prowled along the balcony linked to the window, groaning and grunting ready to break everything in their path. "It was quick I assure, violent but quick." At the same moment the same screeching sound reverberated behind the closed door of the room before the door handle was viciously ripped off and the door shook violently, splinter flying everywhere.

"I do hope there's no one else here beside you otherwise it will be quite a mess. There are so many of them I lost track when they passed 50." His gaze honed in that of the white haired vampire. "Or is there?"

He barely got the words out when Seras's body immediately vanished in a trail of inky blast mist leaving the two alone. Despite the danger and the frail human life left alone to fend for itself against an immortal one far superior, the draculina left without blinking once. It didn't matter that he saw and it didn't matter what either of them though or would come to think because of it…he was all that mattered. The screaming behind the door intensified, the grunts and groans, furniture being ripped and smashed apart.

"How predictable…." He purrs vanishing into this air only to reaper of the shadow directly in front of the knight forcing a shiver down her spine. "You know you were right to be cautious about me, but I wound advise more caution now…with her. Blood of her blood Sir Hellsing. You never know what she might do next now that she's lost her mind." He chuckles and his gaze then drops to the small infant. He reaches for her with his left hand taking hold of the loose edge of the lavender colored blanket between his index and middle finger; the fabric was soft to the touch. "The maddening darkness in ones heritage. You should take hid. She might just come after you." He whispers and his fingers move upward. He's about to touch her left hand and then the baby when Seras bursts though the door breaking it in half, ripping of the hinges, and forcing him to back up a step. The two vampires shared one brief glance before she attacked. Unfortunately, he quickly avoided them fading and reappearing each time she struck in order to avoid each blow. The altercation lasted no more than 1-2 minutes before both stopped at the same time.

"As amusing as this may be, I have other engagements tonight." Quickly moving towards the broken window he uses his powers to rip through the wall and the ghouls littering behind it. "As such," he pauses while offering a big grin and bringing his left hand up to his face as a pair of dark sunglasses appears between his index and middle finger. He easily slides them over the bridge of his nose. "Till then my lady Hellsing and do enjoy my gift for you tonight." With those final words his body dematerializes from existence leaving only his laughter and the sound of new oncoming ghouls behind. Margo's cries intensified tenfold, the child inconsolable despite her mother quick attempt at soothing her.

"Seras." Integra calls the draculina's name just as the room floor rumbles beneath her feet almost causing her to fall on her knees. as the entire room trembles violently as if subjected to a major earthquake. New ghouls hovered outside of the window and began entering through the large opening.

"Go with him." Seras tells her placing herself in front of the incoming ghoul. She gestures with her head towards the ripped door and when the knight follows her gaze, finally tearing it away from the undead creatures, she find a young boy with ebony black hair, black pants and white shirt standing there with his left hand placed on the ruined door frame. He's barefoot and his hair somewhat mess and some bruising still lingered marring his face.

"Alu.…" she starts whispering, but stops realizing it might not be the right thing to say. The sole, foreign, form she knew him to have taken in the past was that of teenage girl with flowing long black hair and ironically white clothing during world war two, but never anything else. Especially not…a human…form; his human form to be more exact.

"The house is full of ghouls. Go." Seras tells them watching the ghouls enter, come closer. She allows her senses to flare and envelop the house…there were so many of them and more were coming. But most of all there was the presence of something else lingering in the air…something…that truly bothered her.

Mad, mad, mad…..MAD

A very thin voice, a woman's voice, kept repeating the same thing over and over again hardly able to control itself or stop laughing while doing so. Upon hearing it Integra quickly did as told and cautionately moved towards the young raven haired boy. She rocked the child, but the unnatural laugher continued to bother her making her cry. It was then that the ceiling in the other room came crushing down on the on the piano and furniture filling the room in thick dust and debris and destroying everything. Shadows and blood then descended from above, the former as fine mist made from dry ice and the latter trickling down from the recently made hole. A figure rose in the middle of that chaos and dust and from it a long pale arm peered out quickly followed by a second and the dark blue fabric of a ripped long sleeved shirt. The rest of the figure did not move, but once the dust finally settled black tendrils appeared in its place encircling the creature before them. Shoulder long black hair in once beautiful curls which were now in utter disarray blocked the way making it impossible for anyone to see the female vampire's face. Her head hung forward almost lifeless, her clothes were dusty and dirt, stained with blood and ripped in several places making her look truly mad. She was as still as a rock and could have passed for an eccentric statue had it not been for the unnerving laughter surrounding her; a laughter that gave off an immediate and imminent sense of dread and danger, a cold chill that did not fail to run down each one of their backs. Slowly the creature raised her head showing off her crimson irises. The twin orbs may have been red, but the color was dull and lifeless when compared to Seras's. What's more, they looked mad with the left twitching uncontrollably and her entire appearance screaming caution.

The woman chuckles, eyes rolling in the back of her head as her body sways while doing so as though she were drunk. Both her forearms had cuts on either side and the cuts themselves ran deep along the entire length of her limbs. The wounds were strangely symmetric and proportioned suggesting a self inflicted pattern. The stench of old and dried up blood accompanied her, but the scent that made her stand out as a vampire was off. She looked sick and her blood smelled tainted. And it was fragrance se recognized for it was the same scent she remembered from that night when she lost everything. It was the poisoned of…

"Seras." Integra calls her name with an utterly emotionless tone breaking her train of thought. Her head turn, blue meeting red. "Search and destroy." she commands with the deadliest of intent and utter lack of mercy. She no longer cared how many ghouls there were or where Lucy and the other female vampire had gone. She didn't even care if they were somewhere close or nearby. All she cared for was in her hands and there would be hell to pay should anything happen to her.

"Yes master." Seras's left arm extends and morphs into a black swirling mass ready to strike if need be. And the timing couldn't have come at a more precise moment considering not a second passed before a bloody hand gripped her throat tightly squeezing so hard nail pierced her flesh and fingers crush her larynx.

"Make them stop…" the female vampire hisses screaming in pain and anguish as the twitching of her left eye intensified. "The voices. I can hear…I can hear them. They're always speaking…Whispering!" she screams then suddenly starts laughing hysterically offering the draculina a chance to break free of the hold and stand her ground, though the latter doesn't take it. She stays where she is and doesn't even bother to raise a hand and make a grab for the vampire's wrist. Her grip was crushing her throat and yet she never moved.

"BE Silent!" the female suddenly screams without warning letting go of Seras's throat and backing up a few steps while grabbing hold of her head instead and scratching at her own face and scalp along her temples. One of the ghouls yet to be crushed was unfortunate enough to get to close after rising from the ground and debris and thus suffered a gruesome fate being quickly dismembered and turned into a pile of blood and ash spilled upon the nearest wall. "SILENCE!" she keeps on screaming while repeatedly hunching over and drawing more of her own blood which trickles down her face and fingers. "Silent, silent, silent!" she repeatedly stomps her left foot upon her newest victim's skull until her foot eventually cracked the floor unleashing both her fury and madness upon it screaming till her lungs gave out and a very long pause followed. Or at it least it would have, had the baby not started to cry truly frightened. Her scream was loud and high pitched and it only added fuel to the fire.

"All of you STOP!" despite the shouting she cont to laugh viciously and maddening and with blood running down her hands, face and forearms she looked sick and completely mad. Sound upon sound ravaged the ebony haired vampire's mind over and over always taking and never stopping until all the words and languages became an undecipherable mangled mess like scratching a blackboard with a fine, sharp needle. It grated on her mind as well as her sanity…whatever was left of it.

And then things got worse when a new voice was added to the mix.

/Who are you?/

Seras asks carefully entering the strange vampire's mind from a distance without any sort of trouble. Her tone of voice is soft and gentle, yet barely recognizable while lost in-between the rest. At any other time she would have hesitated in pursuing such a course of action, the mere sight of the female vampire inspiring noting but sadness and pity. She was nothing but a toy. A poor creature weak, undisciplined, mad and…in need of mercy. A pitiful cry for mercy. Yet even so she offered a small spark of interest to the draculina given the unusual condition she was in and the voices Seras could hear inside her head.

It was seeing her scream over and over that contradictory feelings rose up inside of the white haired vampire and the prospect of mercy became much more than a mere statement; it became appealing while standing in front such a poor, unfortunate and retched soul.

"Who are you?" She asks again and steps forward, but does so while keeping a close eye on the two behind her. Integra was finally managing to silence the baby while the ebony haired boy beside her briefly met her gaze. "Tell me." Seras demands only to receive mad and irrational laughter in return.

"Boom…" the vampire laughs loosing all self control. She lunges forward taking hold of the draculina's throat once more, swinging her to the side and crushing her body into that of the cradle breaking it and the wall in one clean swoop.

"Boom….boom…." the last pause is long and the look in her crimson eyes as she focuses her gaze on Seras turns evil and sinister. It's only then that she finally picks up on the other disturbing sound. It was so faint she let slip by; it came back with a vengeance. A sound never quite there and with all the ruckus and distraction easily ignored and forgotten.

Bip…bip….bip….

"Too late…" the sound of Nicolae's voice echoing through the house prequels the inevitable. The blipping sound grew faster and then turned into one single sound. Seras's crimson eyes fall on the blue eyed boy.

/Run…/ it is all she can hope to whisper. Her shadows reach out, but it was too late. There is a pause, a rush of air and glass shattering, then a sound booming and loud and finally fire setting everything ablaze.

A black tendril drills through her stomach forcing her to break eye contact just as the river of fire consumes everything.

One of the last ghouls to enter the house had carried a bomb beneath his clothing and the flames swallowed everything in their path propelled by the shockwave and the added amount of air allowed to enter the enclosed spade due to the collapsing wall near the front door where the ghoul had stood. The ceiling collapsed of the lower floor collapsed, smoke and debris filling whatever clear space remained, the furniture was carbonized, broken to pieces and finally scattered everywhere throughout the once comfy home. The surrounding walls caved in as well forcing the entire side of the house close to where the baby's room had been to collapse onto itself. Both Vlad's former room as well as piano disappeared and one of the walls of Integra's room fell as well.

The silence to follow was deafening. There was no sound whatsoever, not the tiniest pin dropping to the floor. Just silence.

Then…Margo's cries gradually fill the room in defiance until finally exploding in a violent screech as a strange and almost domelike shape shielding herself and her mother breaks apart dividing into many separate thin strands or wire that sparkle brilliantly in the residual flames littering the floor. Integra's legs give out under her from shock trembling uncontrollably as she slides down along the length of the wall she'd somehow, miraculously, found. Her upper body was hunched over that of the baby she desperately held onto and her lower back bruised from the sudden impact with the wall as firm hand had found her in the very last possible second and had thrown her not to gently against. Yet she was alive and it was all that mattered. She held onto the baby so tight her nails damaged her own skin as her arms were kept protectively wrapped across the tiny infant. She never even realized she was crying until the baby started kicking her arms and legs underneath the lavender blanket she was wrapped it.

Still unaware of everything else, Integra quickly pulled her knees up to her chest to prop the baby against them and rapidly starting to unwrap the blanket from around her in an almost frantic manner with trembling fingers and desperately searching hand and eyes fearing the worst.

"Stop…" she couldn't even hear the voice least of all recognize it. It was faint and distant, her ears still ringing from the intensity of the blast, which only served to fuel her desperation further. The child was so small, premature, and the sound could have damaged her irreparably. She saw her crying, tiny face all red and scrunched up, but she couldn't hear her. And it was driving her mad. She started sobbing undoing the caps on the clothes to get at her skin and see the damage she was expecting to see: blood coating her fingers and never stopping; the life dripping and draining from her baby leaving behind nothing but a cold shell and empty, lifeless corpse.

"Stop…stop!" the voice grew louder and louder until two pairs of strong hands took hold of her wrists. The soft fabric of black, fingerless gloves and cold metal from the rings at the base of each individual finger caressed her skin and the deeply resonating tone finally got her attention seeping through the continuous ringing inside her ears, prompting her to look up and away from her daughter.

"She's fine…" blue eyes stare back at her appearing almost violet in color from the lack of proper lighting in what remained of the room. Short strands of disheveled raven hair caress her face as the teen's head leans forward brushing his forehead against hers for a second before pulling back; hands squeeze hers and smiles while breathing deeply and searching her eyes. The crimson that smeared his hands got transferred onto hers while another trickle slowly made its way down the left side of his face from a deep cut obviously reopened during the struggle.

Her eyes were wide in wander while starring at the familiar face in front of her.

"It's alright." He whispers from his kneeled position in front of her and leaning in to kiss her forehead and then dropping his head to repeat the gesture with the tiny infant. "Walter…"she whispers back almost afraid to utter the words any louder than in fear of having it all fall apart.

"I'm here." He tells softly and the child's cries lessen calmed down by the sound of her father's voice.

Unfortunately, the tender moment was broken as the remainder of the ceiling cracked and the metal in the walls gave way from being far to damaged to support the weight of the remaining concrete. Walter reacts without delay turning around and summoning his wires ready to face whatever came next, but there was little he could do in the face of the floor moving around them and pillars of black ink seeping though it, breaking through. The entire front section of the house was destroyed leaving nothing but a mass of debris. The cold night air passed through fueling the few of the remaining flames left making them grow and glow brighter. There was no sign of either vampire or the raven haired boy.

Then laughter filled the room once again. The same psychotic laughter bordering on dementia as the vampire in question rose from a mass of debris litter the far corner of the floor with a violent scream then fell to her knees unable to stop laughing. Not even as she raised her head up high and brought her right hand in front of her face to studying the blood dripping from it did she stop. There was fresh blood all around her coating her clothes.

"Oh they stopped." She laughs. "The voices stopped…stopped…" she laughs maniacally throwing her head back.

Just then a shadow arm with long, clawed fingers pushes through her left shoulder pulling her back and bending her backwards until her body is forcefully contoured and her back crushed against a partial support beam sticking out of the mass of ruble. Seras emerges behind her, shadows parting, and her prince by her side. The latter falls to his knees not a moment later coughing violently in an attempt to dislodge the traces of soot and ash form his lungs. His clothing looked as though partially burned in some places, but other than that he was intact. It was most ash and dirt from the fallen house. Seras's shadows had protected him despite the sudden attack rendering her momentarily useless. A hole in her clothing remained where the fled had struck her in the abdomen, yet her clothing fared far less well. Her were truly burned and the skin of her forearms and right leg still healing from the severe burs caused while protecting her human master.

"Seras!" Walter calls her name standing up in a similar fashion in front of his small family with wires at the ready despite his injured and bleeding fingers. The pressure placed upon his hands during the explosion had cut through his flesh deeply, but that wasn't about to stop him any time soon. The draculina, however, stops him with a small gesture of her left hand.

/Go./ she tells him easily finding his mind admits the rest. She would take care of it. Meanwhile the foreign vampire continued screaming and cursing as she struggled to free herself from her prison and eventually succeeded at the price of ripping her left arm off almost entirely. It barely hung onto the rest of her body.

"Who are you?" Seras questions again demanding answers. She steps forward never taking her eyes off her. She hears Walter move to kneel and help Integra and her own master stand back up again, but keep her attention focused of her foe.

"You," the dark haired creature curses, anger dripping of her words. Shadows rise form under her feet as she gets up chuckling crudely, but are put to rest long before they can become a threat. They're smothered by Seras's own powers as easily as putting out a small infant fire with the sole of ones boot. The latter eyes glow crimson and her left arm become shadows once more.

"Can't…can't kill me…"she manages to say between fits of laugher. "Can't, can't kill me. Master wouldn't like." The tone of her voice borders on hysteria and for a moment her very eyes tilt back, twitching and widening as though in wonder. "Master….master…master…" she sways on her feet left, right, left…right with no true sense of direction as though heavily drunk while repeating the same word over and over in different tones. Then, for but a moment, she stops in her tracks facing them all sideway from the left. Her head tilts backwards and partially to the left until her unnatural red irises stop to stare at the small family behind the white haired vampire.

"Blood…" the word is barely whispered and passed her lips when a wave of wires defensively appears in front of her scratching the ground half a foot from her position and even a stray lock of her black color hair cutting it in two. The massage was clear, but the fledgling vampire merely smirked unimpressed and then disappeared completely ready to attack them.

"No!" Integra screams ducking behind Walter and hugging the baby to her chest to protect it, yet the attack never reaches her. The wires hold her back. The cut in deep completely encircling her torso and right arm especially as the latter would have reached the middle of the angels' chest, the tips of her fingers barely a few cm apart. They wrapped themselves like coils of rope around her body from head to toe faster than she had a chance to move holding her prisoner and making her bleed into the makeshift, staining the dust covered floor red. And each and every time she tried to move regardless of how tiny the movement of her muscles was the wires tightened around her dissecting her flesh a little bit more. Then, as she dared to jerk forward towards his daughter, the coils tightened tenfold around her right arm cutting through flesh and bone alike without meeting a hint of resistance savagely detaching the limb from her body and the shredding it to pieces till there almost nothing left to fall to the floor between them. The wires uncoiled flooding the space around them in blood and ripped flesh and bone, the liquid splattering all over even his clothing, over his chest and right cheek. Yet not one drop was allowed to come anywhere near his woman or child. "Miss Richford." Walter slyly speaks her name in greeting both mocking and punishing her actions through that one simple gesture. She should have never have dared to touch.

The formerly know Miss Adele Richford screams in agony and has no chance to retaliate while being brutally pulled back by Seras who took the opportunity to grab hold of her still injured left shoulder while Walter had been busy chopping of her dominant limb. She pulled ripping the socket and then threw the hemorrhaging fledgling into the open area that had once been the piano room. Her back collides with a section of remaining wall breaking it.

"Leave here." Seras tells Walter briefly meeting his gaze before quickly walking in the direction she'd thrown her opponent. "And take them with you."

"You!" Adele shrieks hissing and growling at the white haired draculina while recovering and getting to her feet with tremendous effort. Her injured limbs, torso, legs...everything essentially refused to heal properly. She could not do it. She's unable to sustain the change needed in order to regenerate and thus falls to her knees a bloody mess while attempting to take that one step forward passed the hole in the wall.

"Master did not make you." Seras boldly tells her summoning a piece of charred wood from a pile of debris nearby to her right hand and then breaking it so that the tip became very sharp and pointy and the simple piece of wood turns into a very effective stake. "He doesn't make things like you." And whoever did would get to know her wrath soon enough.

The fledgling screams in anger readying herself for the attack: to jump and tear into the silver haired vampire's throat with her bare teeth and then rip it open. Yet, just as she was about to release all that tension accumulated in her muscles and move into a much better position, the sound of a cocking gun echoed loudly in the aftermath of her own scream drowning all other sounds.

"No, he doesn't." The prince quietly says despite the harsh, serious and emotionless his tone; no mercy. The half formed Casull in his right hand emerged from the mass of darkness swirling in his open palm and his fingers closed around its handle pulling the trigger back. The very last bullet in the barrel ripped thought he air echoing louder and anything that night as it hit its target without delay: the fledgling's chest and a shot meant directly to the heart.

"Ahh!" the scream to follow though, was not hers but his as the heavy weight of the gun and the force of the shot recoiled pushing the heavy metal object back against his arm crushing his wrist in the process. Holding it up had been difficult enough given his 'form' and thus firing it could have only one unwelcome side effect: a target missed and a bone irreparably shattered. Not only had the weight impaired his line of sight and the bullet to miss by mere mm or two alone, but break his wrist as well and all of it in a matter of a few seconds and nothing more. Still, the bullet did pierce the fledglings' chest ripping through a good portion of her sternum, ribs and right lung.

Vlad drops to the floor grunting in pain and cradling his broken wrist to his chest, legs tucked in underneath him and upper body hunched over with his forehead touching the floor. He's unable to move a muscle much les feel anything other than the literal bone shattering pain tearing through his entire body.

"No!" Seras shouts, eyes turning almost black and loosing themselves to the anger rising up inside her chest. Her left arm shifts completely and violently like a wild sea entirely forgetting about the chosen weapon in her other hand. The stake was no longer an option; it was too good a death and too great a mercy.

The lengthening limb touches the ground splitting into several tendrils that spread like wildfire along the remains of the floor and walls. The temperature drops severally as almost all light is removed form the premises; the night seemed far brighter than the darkness she was inducing. "I will end you." Her voice took on a dual, eerie, angry and dangerous tone while locking eyes with the still bleeding dark haired vampire. She in turn is far to gone to comprehend the actual beast now standing in front of her. Instead she starts to laugh once again. Though she's chocking on her own blood she's laughing; her mind devoid of any though whatsoever.

"Perhaps you will." Nicolae speaks up for the first time since disappearing so abruptly before the entire House went to hell. He stood in the very place of the once broken window in Integra's former room, his back leaning most casually against the a remaining beam of wall and a crooked smile on his lips and lit cigar threatening to fall form them. "But not tonight."

He barely gets the words out when a portal forms beneath the young vampire swallowing her whole. A second, much smaller one, appears right after that directly in front of his own right foot.

"Oh and I do hope you have no plans in staying here any longer. Not with all that gunpowder and dynamite safely stored beneath your feet, I mean. But if you do," His gaze lowers in most mischievous fashion gleaming with amusement at the utter look of mistrust and disbelief on their faces as he took a deep breath of his cigar and then blew the smoke from his dead lungs.

"All you need is a spark." Hot ash falls to the floor and through the portal he's created as he then takes hold of the cigar between his right index and thumb and flicks it somewhere to his right into a third awaiting portal. The falling ash illuminated the path of the portal all the way down to the steal box holding housing all of the dynamite.

"Enjoy." His laughter fades as one with his body; as one with the igniting powder.

.

.

.

Nothing remained of the once beautiful architecture except for the hole of its foundation and the scattered remains of its body littering the charred snow all around. Somewhere in the distance, as smoke rose in row after row from the house, Nicolae kept on watching the scene until the smoke slowly started to clear blown away by the cold winter wind and his cigar gave off its last breath.

The smirk continued to grace his lips. He never saw anyone leave and yet he could feel a lingering presence in the air.

For he knew far too well that it would take so much more than a feeble attempt at death to get rid those two bloodlines.

.

To be continued….

Till next time.