Chapter 17

                "You do not have to apologize, master..." As she brought her hand back around, and slipped her arms around his middle, she felt the little trickle of blood run down her neck, then it just as quickly disappeared as it was licked away. Alucard studied her, widening his eyes so he could see her better, and relaxed only a little as he saw she was all right.

                "I lost it...I am sorry...at my age...I should have more control than that..." He still held her, but he shifted his head away, almost as if in shame. Seras sighed and buried her face right smack in the middle of his red necktie, looking a little strange as her bangs flopped up from her forehead in disarray.

                "It's okay...really..." Her voice sounded a little muffled. Alucard looked at her from that position, moving his right hand and putting it on her head, ruffling up her hair a bit.

                He looked at her naturally, as if nothing really happened. "Alright...let's get some rest...for real, this time...a good part of the day is gone..." He grinned at her again, like he used to, with her bloodstains on his teeth. She turned her head and made herself comfortable, and at the same time he brought the hand on her head back down into place in the middle of her back and closed his eyes.

                A sinister grin spread across his face. "SNORE!!!" He said as a joke, but quite loudly. Seras jumped, jerking up with VERY wide eyes. If there had been no coffin top above them, she would have flown into the air.

                She was silent, then her eyes slanted and her eyebrows furrowed, her mouth forming a line.

                "Don't mock me, master..." She growled and put herself in her previous position, wrapping her arms around his middle, hugging him closely and resting her head on him.

                He smiled, giving a little half-chuckle in acknowledgment. "Good day, Seras..." And he really does fall asleep.

                She pushed his tie out of the way with her face one more time, with a little trouble, as it got in her way.

                "Goddamn tie..." She grumbled and stared it down, trying to fall asleep, but she couldn't...she had to absorb what had happened in so little time. A lot was running through her head at fast speeds.

                Alucard, using the 'sleep' period for his body to recuperate, used his psychic connection with Seras to talk to her, his voice coming into her head.

                "Hmmm...Can't sleep...?"

                She blinked, hearing his voice in her mind, staring at the red fabric of his tie. "Not right now...no...But I will as soon as I shut my eyes..." And she proceeded to do so, stifling a yawn.

                The next evening, Alucard woke up, a little groggy as he tried to remember everything. His eyes opened to slits, seeing the sleeping form of Seras right next to him.            

                He smiled as he looked down at her, and he moved one of his arms that were wrapped around her to lift her chin up a little.

                "Hmm...dead silence..." He smiled a little more, looking on, with a bit of laughter in his throat. "WAKE UP...mmmm..."

                Seras' eyes shot open, almost popping out of her head as she jumped up, slamming her head into the top of the closed coffin.

                "AAAHHH!!" She rubbed her head, looking down at him who still held onto her. Her eyes started simmering down, from wide, dinner-plate size, to just plain old wide as if surprised, then drooped down to little teeny dots; specks on her face. She stared at him with her dotted eyes.

                "Good evening to you, too, master..." She fell down to where she was like a blob. The coffin top opened as he chuckled, revealing his room, and the window directly above his coffin. He raised his head to look out, observing an almost full moon waning, as it was a foggy night.

                He helped Seras out of the coffin, looking at her. "Sleep well, Police Girl?" He asked with a surreptitious grin. Seras yawned widely as she practically tripped over herself as she got out with is help.

                "Naaaaa..." She yawned, covering her mouth. "Hai, master..." She grinned too, her feet touching the ground firmly, and she felt her halconnen on the tip of her shoe on the floor. She looked down at it, realizing its existence.

                "You should take care of your halconnen; it helps..." He glared at his own two guns that rested on the table, reaching out his hands and taking one in each, swiftly putting them away inside his coat. He redeemed his hat and glasses from the table as well, turning to her as he flipped his sunglasses on the long bridge of his nose.

                "Let's see if there are any new assignments..." He grinned evilly with red eyes that seemed to grow darker and darker by the second.

                Seras bent down and grabbed her halconnen and her incendiary rounds box from the ground, heaving the gun like it weighed nothing onto her shoulder, gripping the box with her other hand.

                "Hai!"

                His eyes were on her, as he thought for a moment...then turned on his heel, his coat swaying to the side from the sharp move. The bottom of his trench coat wafted out, creating a ripple effect, as they walked down the stretching corridor to Integra's study.

                Did they not only see Miss Hellsing sitting at her desk, but Walter accompanied her, both seemed deep in thought.

                "Order, my master," He said straightforward, approaching the desk with Seras bringing up the rear. Seras stopped, assuming her position in front of Lady Hellsing's desk, her unusually large halconnen resting on her shoulder as if it were nothing, and her other hand casually wrapped around the handle of the rounds box.

                Integra looked at them as they came up to her, grinning a little from the corner of her mouth that was barely visible. She had been talking to Walter.

                "Timing is perfect as usual, Alucard...Walter has just been telling me the details...Continue, Walter..."

                Walter's eyes went from Integra, to Alucard and Seras, and then he nodded.

                "Hai, Integra-sama...It seems the mass murder of 153 were all super freak related, as blood was spattered on the ground and there was a new way of bite..." He looked at Alucard, who watched him all the same.

                "Huh...what kind?"

                Walter studied all three of them. "It seems they have a double bite...4 marks...and not on their necks..." He looked down at the report in his hands, and slapped in on the desk. "They are getting smarter, stronger, and this new disease that is being transferred is even worse...it doesn't make ghouls anymore, direct vampires..."

                Alucard looked a little dumbfounded. "Then..."

                "The ghouls you fought were merely reproductions of the vampire's former self, but with added power...what they would have become..."

                Integra turned her head, looking over to Alucard and Seras. "Alucard, Seras, obliterate these monsters and send them to hell...In the name of God and her majesty the Queen, Amen!"