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Hellsing still isn't mine, but it was very optimistic of you to check this disclaimer.

Uhh, this is chapter 3, right? Yes it is. Good. ++++++

I found myself repeating the same prayer, over and over and over again. Walter was in position, unmoving. We had gone over the grounds together, step by step, as we laid out our plans.

The safehouse was a bust. Not that it wasn't, well, safe, but it wasn't elder vampire-proof. It was a dome of masonry set in the earth, an upper room with small windows, a lower room full of medical supplies and food. No back door. When dealing with Alucard, we wanted no dead ends. We both knew we needed room to dance in.

I had made another trip back to a warehouse where I stored some of my ghoul- killing gear. Setting it in place had burned up our remaining daylight hours, and both of us felt no safer. If we rigged the ground well, our adversary would come at us from the sky.

Our only chance was to hit him and not let up until he was dead.

"Hallowed be Thy name," I found myself chanting again.

The weapons were a small part of my unease. I craft and bless my own blades, and here I was with completely foreign weapons. I'd handed the crossbow over t to Walter, wearing a shield over my shoulder instead. I deliberately wrapped my fingers around the cork handle of the harpoon.

That was all it took. I've been fighting for years and years. Put a blessed blade in my hand and the promise of an enemy, and I'm in bloodlust. I forgot everything except my duty and my plan and the fact that there was a vampire for me to kill. I was almost surprised when I saw Walter.

The phone rang.

Walter picked it up, said, "Yes, Sir Integra," and hung up again.

No, Lady Integra now, I thought, she's been demoted to being her pet's pet. Walter went by me in unhurried strides, picking his way across the slopes to stand in the trees by the road.

Bless them, I thought with a grin when I saw them coming. I barked, "by road!" so Walter would be prepared.

And prepared he was.

He knew their fighting styles and strategy like nobody else. He knew that if Integra were to wish to travel by car, both would refuse to be the passenger. He knew that Integra would win the argument and Alucard would travel outside to watch over her.

All Walter had to do was force the car to stop.

Honestly, I'd expected him to have done something complicated with metal floss. No. He just stepped out in front of the car.

The car braked powerfully, but I had no time to pay attention. I had Alucard. He was flying, a small, flitting shape. My first blade ripped one wing from his bat's body. He plummeted downward, growing.

I knew there would be hellhounds after that first definite strike. I saw Walter at the riverbank, his back to us, before Alucard hit the earth in a snaking ball of tendrils and fangs. I had already scooped up and levelled the rocket launcher.

The first howl from the hellhound's throat wilted the grass around it. The second was worse, because it had just had an explosive round sent into its side. I hadn't expected the power of the blast; I ducked into the wind, a hand up to protect my face. I dropped the rocket launcher to dodge, because tooth-edged tentacles were coming my way. I was too far to run in and finish it. Alucard didn't bother to re-summon his pet.

I dodged along the pattern I'd memorized. Behind me, snapping sounds went off. Alucard gave a pain-filled laugh as the silver-alloy traps we'd planted in the ground snapped shut. I turned, flinging the Sword of the Disciple (if I'd known which disciple, the prayer I'd thrown it with would have been a lot more efficient) and following it up with as many of my own blades as I could reach. He kept up with me, despite the silver cluttering his legs. He wanted to play.

The Disciple's sword seemed to have the most effect. Alucard laughed again and melted into the ground. I heard traps go off around me as he snaked through the grass and triggered them from below. He surged up from the earth about two steps from me, injury-free and seeking a fight.

Then he jerked and swung around, reaching up to his chest. Walter was already cranking a second bolt-this one weaker, but still launched by the blessed weapon. I thanked Heaven for my ally as I grabbed the harpoon and swept the blade through the vampire's neck. I caught his head and sprinted over the ground, trying to ignore the way his hair was writhing around my wrist. I jammed it into one of the containers, slammed the lid on, and slung it into the safehouse. This wasn't, of course, over yet. As I ran back, I briefly pondered the nature of a beast that would use its whole body to think instead of its brain alone.

Damnable vampire.

I heard the repeated crack of a gun, and I fell, almost catching myself in one of the traps that Alucard had missed. I picked it up and threw it. By luck alone, I fouled his aim as he levelled his gun. An eye was watching me from his shoulder, directing his aim. He idly grew his head back as he untangled gun and trap. "You were expecting an easy fight, Judas Priest?"

Then who had shot me? I saw Walter aim and fire his second crossbow bolt, then discard the weapon. His wires came out again and he sprinted at Sir Integra, who was reloading. I cursed. The first of our plans hadn't contained her.

Well, hopefully Walter would keep more of her bullets from coming my way. Alucard had his gun out now. I flipped my shield off my back and charged him.

It was a new tactic for me. He smoked aside in a flurry of mist and tentacles. I had the axe in my other hand, and I struck at the area around the gun. The gun went off at roughly the same time. The bullet ricocheted from the shield edge and tore my scalp. I threw the shield at the center of the coalescing vampire, scooped up the gun, threw it in the river, and had at him again with the axe. He formed twice, but each time I caught him in the center of the head. He retreated.

I heard laughter as we crossed the first boundary. I was pushing him back across my laid-out lines. Since we were in open air, Walter and I had drawn up a giant holy symbol in the ground. Alucard shifted back to his usual self without the slightest sign of discomfort.

Almost his usual self. His hands were gloveless. His expression was jubilant.

"What to do?" He ducked the axe, hands crooked into claws. "Integra has joined me; should I celebrate with the destruction of an enemy? Or should I let you run free to challenge me again?"

I missed the seals.

Something hit me in the side of the head. My glasses frame buckled. I knocked them away from my face, handling the axe one-handed as I drew a short sword to help me parry. I glanced down. I identified my assailant as a common ground rock. Oh no. Telekinesis was coming my way. I handled it with my catch-all cure for vampiric ailments: I charged.

The blessed silver boomerang from the Catholic mission to Australia curved gracefully through the air and lodged in Alucard's back. Unless Integra was playing tag, Walter had gotten to my car and picked up another few weapons. Alucard pulled it free, shaking the flames off his hand like water, and dropped it on the ground. He looked at me quizzically, dancing aside from the axe. "What are you going to do next? Strangle me with Mother Theresa's holy necklace of discarded pop tabs?"

Everything we had wasn't damaging him. This was just getting ludicrous. I motioned for Walter to retreat. There was no reason both of us should die. Walter, naturally, acted like he hadn't seen me. I gritted my teeth and charged in again.

That time I pushed him to the center of my carefully laid-out symbol, and his telekinesis was closed to him. Walter tagged him from behind with the flamethrower. Alucard thrashed around to find out where this new attack was coming from; Walter almost set me ablaze; and Alucard levelled a punch at the old man.

I brought the axe around in an overhead swing, trying to cut his arm off before he hit his target. Integra stepped in between Alucard and Walter. She was dripping wet, her hair plastered to her and her skin burned red, but she radiated control. "Enough."

Walter looked at me, his face blank, agony in his eyes. He had wires between his hands and no will to use them. I threw the axe. It whipped through the air, aimed straight for her heart.

Alucard spun, snatching it out of the air. Tossing it aside (ablaze once more,) he used the force of his spin to send his fist into the center of my chest.

I heard several bones snapping at once; I blacked out before I hit the ground.