The vampire on Her Majesty's Secret Service fidgeted and tried to pull her short skirt down. One shouldn't have to be a genius in Geometry and Optical Physics to say that the imaginary line between the scope of that extensively arrogant new mercenary, Pip Bernadotte, and the shadow under the lower part of her uniform was quite straight. Their group had been in an ambush for almost an hour already, but there were no signs of FREAKs, reported in this gloomy slum of Brixton. Victoria, as a more experienced and less vulnerable soldier in Hellsing business, had been picked by Fergusson to be in the first row of the perimeter, along with a few veterans, lucky survivors of all the recent bloodsheds. Pip and his fellows were a few yards aback, behind a sophisticated cover of overflowing trash cans. Serves him right. Pip... Hah! Peep would be more correct, dammit!!! Victoria wondered how her garments hadn't started to sizzle yet.
The girl glanced back to cringe at the incurably obnoxious smile, plastered on Bernadotte's face in the same manner as the constant band-aid on his nose. The dude was absentmindedly chewing a strand from the end of his long braid - Hellsing organization had gained another chain smoker in his face and cigarettes were naturally banned during missions - and peeping through the scope. Victoria snorted in disgust. Pip was one of the new batch of problems, bugging her lately. With a sigh, she gave a good look to the deserted street and returned to her brooding.
...The first problem was Pussy. The name seemed to stick to it, especially favored by Alucard, who had developed a peculiar habit to call it only by name in Lady Integra's presence. Hm. The animal was quite adorable, of course... But its main ambition seemed to be squirming in anywhere, where or when it was especially unwanted, and making people and undeads perfectly mad at it. Having accomplished something notably nasty, it would sit on its tail and listen to the steady queue of victim's curses in his address with an air of a musical critic listening to a new staging of his favorite opera. Pussy's conceit became especially unbearable after the latest scandal in the barracks, when one of the recently arrived mercenaries had been awoken in the middle of the night by a nature's call. He drowsily staggered to the bathroom to 'drain his lizard' ... When the half-dressed co-workers' mob with a step-ladder managed to lure the man from clutching all his limbs to a water pipe under the ceiling, he stirred an awful row. The ungrateful one was blaming his rescuers on having sneaked spot remover or some peculiar seasoning of the kind into his evening drink. According to him, the hallucinations had been helluva dreadful... As for Victoria, the girl honestly considered that statement to be a wicked exaggeration. So what, a cat's head had popped through the wall above the toilet, scanned the exposed for drainage length with its keen eight eyes, uttered a derisive "Maw!" and returned into the wall. Hmph, big deal! Some people just tend to make quite a fuss out of trifle household incidents, giving an absolutely wrong in pedagogical sense idea to the animal. Victoria carefully avoided the memories of her first encounter with the cat, when its vague presence in the corridor had spooked her enough to grab the Harconnen as humble means of self protection.
Occasions of this sort happened pretty often, but without the forementioned devastating overreactions. Even Lady Integra didn't blame the cat at all, contenting herself with pitching random cheap or unbreakable objects at it, as when the feline had tried to improve a detailed map of London, spread on her desk. Fresh steaming dumps had really made it 3D... To Integra's disgust and Victoria's embarrassment. Walter had just shaken his head, fetching a clean non-improved replacement and glaring at laughing Alucard, who kept observing the commotion from the ceiling.
Hellsing leader said once that the problem of having a pet from Hell was achingly familiar to her indeed. "That's their nature, Sergeant Seras... And even years of patient effort hardly bring any positive reformation to it." As for Alucard, Pussy's antisocial stunts often made him disreputably amused, somehow proving both Integra's remark and the wide-known fact of commonplace mutual sympathy between creatures of the same behavior pattern and without clashing interests.
Victoria bit her lip, casting another look back. Gee. The second problem. The new captain was still studying her hips through the scope's lenses with the meticulous approach of a military topologist. What, gonna draw a map for the further invasion? Dream on, pal.
Despite the fact that Pip had called her a freak of nature in sheer light-heartedness of hurt masculine vanity during their first meeting... He didn't seem to feel anything wrong about manifesting keen interest concerning the female vampire later. Like now, for example. Duh. Some guys have a way too broadband connection between their brains and their gonads for their own good... But, well, it was a somewhat nice change... At least, better than to feel wary or spooked looks as it had often happened before. Besides, he wasn't half that bad and overall annoying as Captain Stetra had been. That little incident, when Lady Integra had ordered to show Victoria what she'd got as a vampire to a disbelieving gang of mercenaries... The huffed girl had sent Bernadotte cart wheeling across the room by a mere push of her index finger. Not that she would admit that it had been fun...But, hah, at least, it had been useful by bringing a bit more belief into the further anti-undead instructions. God knows, these arrogant hot-shots honestly needed it, because the third thing which had started to trouble Victoria lately was a sudden outburst of FREAKs' activity in London and its surroundings. There wasn't a night without a mission now and sometimes there were several of them, like this time for example. Master was suddenly dispatched elsewhere, leaving Fergusson and Co sitting and smelling ripe odors from Pip's literally trash cover and waiting for anything to happen. The information they had got about vampires there lacked any clarity. Man, what a lousy place for an ambush... Victoria quickly shook off the thoughts and gripped the gun with both hands as a car pulled up to the entrance of one of the buildings under Hellsing surveillance.
Two men and a young girl got out of a vehicle, laughing and talking. Victoria frowned at the strange sense she had developed lately. Somehow she had learned to feel a distinction between humans and undeads. At the first glance, at any distance... she unmistakably knew. It was like an elusive smell... No, not smell. None of the five senses had anything to do with this feeling, it was another sprout of her developing new nature. Coping with it was still somewhat hard for her, so the girl strained her vision, looking at the newcomers' faces, as they started to unload the car of luggage and carry it inside. Hmm, the trio looked like innocent visitors. Wait! Oh yeah... Yellow cat-like eyes were not typical for humans and... Positive, vampires. Fanged smiles were a total giveaway. Seras whispered the discovery into a headset microphone, silently praying for the coming mission to be easy and clean. Still, a vast list of Murphy laws for military operations, which a SAS drill sergeant had recited to rookies so often, scrolled down in her mind in all its sickening truth.
Bullets were like fierce wasps, flying from the fifth floor landing and biting Victoria's body with quick hot splashes of pain. She could feel her torn flesh tingle and twitch underneath the clothes, pushing the slugs out and closing the wounds. Not silver, thanks God. But still... Not a feeling to enjoy either.
A burst of gunfire thundered from above and the girl gritted her teeth, swaying off-balance under its sudden impact. Oh, hell... Almost every turn in this building meant nasty surprises. She quickly retreated behind a corner, where movement and angry mutter stated someone's presence. She didn't know who exactly were there, but they were her human brothers in arms for sure. Probably preparing to storm the threat upstairs despite the danger.
Seras would have preferred to torch the FREAK-verminated house as a Guy Fox' straw dummy right after the realization that it had been packed by a bunch of bloodsucking homies of the trio from the car. Fergusson had forbidden that. "We aren't sure if there are only vampires inside, Victoria. Besides, Investigations Department might find some useful information there. We know close to nothing about FREAKs' origin and intentions, and this knowledge is too important." Yes, he had got a point... Even though they hadn't met a single human being in this bloody nest yet. So, they didn't have any choice but to clean the entire vampiric condominium floor by floor. One more hostile floor left...
"Stay back!" - yelled Victoria to the troopers around the corner and tried to figure how to eliminate the gunman upstairs. Damn. The shooting angle was still too uncomfortable. Should move closer to the target. She glanced aside to see Pip with his long braid wrapped around his neck as a scarf. He looked up, obviously measuring the odds of a successful shot too. Too bad they couldn't use grenades without a fear of the whole rundown staircase collapsing on their heads.
"Cease the fire. I'm going up." - Victoria's command was hardly heard through the deafening noise of gunfire and screams in the building, but she got an affirmative nod. A second later the young vampire rushed up the stairs without a worry to put her back under friendly fire of deadly silver.
She spotted a vague form of their enemy above, hardly visible in the dark, gun smoke and dust, and pulled the trigger. The body didn't settle yet in a puff of grey ash as Seras was on the landing already, scoring a direct hit into another undead, too busy struggling with a jammed ammo clip in his rifle. A moment of silence, only hasty footfalls of Hellsing soldiers on the stairs and distant screams of scared humans, who were unlucky enough to live next door to the showdown spot. Artful half-voice obscenities appeared behind her shoulder and the girl turned, meeting nose to nose with Pip again. Without a word he gave her thumbs-up and turned to his subordinates, infiltering the fifth floor hallway. The final stage of this messy operation was about to begin. Fergusson's group had destroyed several dozens of undeads already; mostly FREAKs and only a few ghouls. The vampires they were fighting this time were alarmingly experienced with weapons. Seras didn't want to think what it could possibly cost to Hellsing; she had caught a glimpse of at least three uniform-clad falling bodies during the massacre in the lobby... And there were many encounters later and higher in the building too. All she could hope for was that the men were just injured. Reloading her gun, Victoria joined the other members of their team, checking the last floor for any undead inhabitants. Suddenly she felt that something was wrong. So wrong, that she couldn't fight the urge to walk back into the hallway and head to the end of it. She hesitantly stopped, looking around then up. Ah. The hideous feeling increased as she spotted a trap door on the ceiling. The girl quickly reported her discovery into her microphone and climbed up towards the source of her uneasiness.
Seras landed a vampire with an automatic gun, managing to send an explosive round right through the black spot of a screaming mouth on the white vampire's face.The result was a nauseating sound like a pumpkin hitting stone, dry rustle, silence. Victoria winced at the slowly fading pain in her freshly perforated shoulder and hand and wished she'd dodged bullets faster. Carefully glancing around, the trash-cleaner stepped into an enormous windowless attic. The place was a chaotic maze of old furniture and new boxes of various size, rising in piles to the low flat ceiling. There were a few low-watt lighting facilities on it and they provided more confusing shadows than helpful light. The stuffy air was full of gunpowder stench and dust. The room seemed empty and totally lifeless, but... well tuned shit-detectors in Victoria's intuition department kept blinking red, pushing her forward. The girl smoothly moved along the single twisting aisle between piles of cardboard boxes with "Made in Hong Kong" on them, trying to suppress a sudden chill running down her spine. An obscure form briskly moved in a dark cavern to the left, making Victoria instantly level her gun at it. Oh, just a dusted mirror and her crouching self in it... The girl exhaled and lowered her weapon only to be knocked down on the floor by a figure, having soundlessly darted across the aisle behind her back. They rolled on the floor in a ferocious flurry of exchanged punches and kicks. Despite all the struggle Victoria came up with, her chances were dropping low, as she became pinned to the floor with the heavy body of the male vampire. His palms locked on the girl's neck, strangling her while battering her head against the wooden floor. Victoria gathered all her remaining power in a desperate attempt to free herself but the FREAK only chuckled.
"That's right, I love it when chicks ain't lying like logs... - his fingers tightened in a crashing grip and Victoria clearly heard the dry snapping of her breaking neck. - Now yer time to come, you meddling bitch!"
Victoria's body became limp, as the world switched off.
The gunshots still rang in her ears, as Victoria opened her eyes and blinked.
"Yes, ma'am? May I help you?" - She mumbled, staring up at two blurry faces in front of her. - Oh, this must be your son, you two look so alike..."
"Dammit, wake up!"
She blinked again and the faces juxtaposed into a single one of huffed Pip.
"Ew, I've had double vision..."
"Oh, really? Now, get up. Can you?"
A lead weight of something sprawled on her body made Victoria get the grip of reality and jump up, throwing aside the twitching FREAK with still smoking wounds in his side. Judging by that, she was unconscious for less than a minute. The first thing she did was grabbing her gun from the floor and planting bullets into the vampire's head and heart, completing his drop dead collection of silver.
"Don't forget your instructions, would you? Only here, if you want them really dead."
"You two were too busy hugging to hit him there without pulling the bastard aside with a crowbar... or turning your body into... hm... sublimated form together with him, Seras. And that would be a crying shame. - Pip favored the girl with a crooked smile and quickly became serious again. - Besides, that were you who forgot the basic instructions in the first place. Why did you go here alone without anybody covering your back? You claim to be trained by pros in SAS before Hellsing and here you go acting like a dumbass cannon fodder! Shit, we were almost late!"
Victoria frowned and absent-mindedly rubbed her blood-covered temple, as if trying to summon Fergusson's voice in her communication device, ordering the troops to withdraw. The mission seemed to be really finished, as no gunfire was heard.
"Have you checked the rest of the place?" - Ex-policewoman's stare swept the surroundings. A second later a shocked exclamation came from the end of the room, proving that someone else was present there. Both Hellsing operatives reached the end of the room-piercing path in an instant, holding their weapons ready for any unpleasant surprise. They halted on the edge of a dead end by the far wall, where a trooper in Hellsing uniform stood, looking at the floor or, more correctly, at a variety of objects, scattered on it in disorder. Extremely unnerving variety for anyone who knew the purpose of yellowish-grey lumps of clayish substance, wrapped in plastic.
"C4... - exhaled Pip. - Sonuvabitch..."
He quickly kneeled by the explosives, trying to examine them from all sides without touching. At last he got up, shaking dust off his palms.
"No detonators. We're lucky like hell. This quantity would be enough to mash everything 50 yards around..."
"Or more... - muttered the soldier beside him, counting the packs of condensed death with his eyes. - About ten pounds, my God..."
Victoria looked at the mess around, with boxes opened and wires, tools and random trifles being thrown out of them in obvious haste and met Pip's stare.
"He was looking for something to detonate it... And bang our asses goodbye. - The mercenary looked down and lightly kicked a broken electric bulb. - Did you know? To hurry here the way you did?"
"How? It's just... Guess I just felt growing menace from here."
"Felt?"
Seras dismissively shrugged, not wishing to explain the strange things descending (or ascending?) on her as a true vampire: "Master says one should always trust intuition."
"Master, huh? Hasn't your fanged Yoda said anything about, say, calling for enforcement, if you trust your intuition that much?"
"Never. He prefers to work alone... - a faint smile touched the young vampire's lips. - Looks like it's slightly contagious. Me bad."
Pip opened his mouth to answer, but Fergusson's voice on the radio interrupted him, finally stating the end of the operation - a helicopter pilot confirmed the roof to be clean. Trash-cleaning Department had to withdraw to free the neutralized place for arriving investigators. Rustles and occasional talk in different parts of the attic marked intricate trajectories of Hellsing soldiers to the exit. Victoria stepped aside to let the third operative pass and turned to the still annoyed captain:
" Anyway, thank you for giving me a hand here, Captain Bernadotte..."
"Pip for ya. - the man shrugged and turned to the door. - Let's go."
Heading down to the street, the two kept silence, lingering in their own thoughts. At last Pip glanced at his gloomy co-worker and cleared his throat.
"Wait."
Victoria stopped and looked at Captain's face, waiting for the continuation. She didn't feel like talking at the current moment, tired and hungry. Besides, she felt cold. Blood loss? Probably. Pip had an odd expression on his face, as he looked at the girl from head to toes.
"I have two questions to ask before we join the others."
"Yes?"
"The first question. Did you feel pain when you were shot? Back then... on the stairs?"
Seras slowly exhaled, trying to vent a sudden wave of irritation. What kind of silly question was that...
"Yes, I did."
"Uh-huh, figured so... But wasn't quite sure."
A tense pause fell, making Victoria snap at last.
"All right, what's the other question? We don't have the whole night to stand here and discuss stup... subtle matters, you know. Time to go home."
"Ah, that's exactly what the second question is about. - a dubious glint appeared in mercenary's eyes, albeit his face was carefully bland. - Are you going back looking like this?"
"And what's wrong about tha... - the girl automatically combed her hair with a hand, looked down at herself and finally found a solid reason for feeling cold. - Argh!"
She quickly crossed her hands on her chest, strategically covering the results of the fact that her clothes had not regenerated along with her body. All the bullets she had caught during the mission successfully turned her uniform into a messy set of holes with a feeble framing of blood-soaked fabric. Rolling on the floor fighting widened them to boot.
"Reality bites, huh? - Pip had the cheek to wink. - It has bitten off enough for quite a show. I know that milk does a body good... But damn, looks like drinking blood works even better."
"Don't bother yourself! - stone walls of the corridor leading to the underground lair of Hellsing vampires reflected Victoria's voice with eerie echo. Unfortunately, not eerie enough to shoo away her company. Of course, she was thankful to Pip for lending her the upper piece of his uniform... But all the bonus points were soon annihilated by his clear intention to tag along all the way to her room, providing her with questions and comments of a goggling tourist. Gee, what a nuisance... - I'll return your jacket as soon as possible, if you worry about that."
"Hah, I don't. It's definitely not your size... But on the other hand... - Bernadotte made a stiff mien of a TV preacher and concluded: - Too many people these days consider fetishism a fascinating hobby... Surely, the last days of this world are coming!"
Victoria gritted her teeth and sharply turned to Pip, being fed by his teasing to the limit. However, before she was able to give the braided cuckoo a piece of her mind, a deep voice purred out of thin air:
"Fetishism? Yeah, quite a popular trend. But you forget one thing... - unmistakable mocking tones condensed along with the body of the notorious Hellsing nosferatu. He towered above the two, presenting the mercenary with a nasty fanged smirk. - She's a vampire. And vampires should have more stylish collections than ridiculous heaps of used clothing... Scalps are OK, for example." A lazy red-eyed stare stopped on Bernadotte's hair and a gloved hand made a snake-like upwards movement. Pip rapidly recoiled, uttering a curious crossover between "Eeek!" and "Fuck!" and grabbing his braid with both hands in reflexive protection. Alucard chuckled, demonstratively slowing his rising hand and taking the shades off the bridge of his nose to look the captain in the eye in his most vicious fashion.
Tiny beads of sweat appeared on the new captain's forehead, as Victoria tried her best to be above the glee of having a little revenge. She hardly refrained from doing anything so obvious as, say, cackling.
"Where have you been tonight, Master? - she asked, making Alucard disengage his scornful stare from the increasingly nervous mercenary. - Was it tough? That operation in Brixton... It turned out kinda... messy."
"Well, I had quite a city tour this night... Hah! By the way, I've been to Hyde Park..."
"To rehearse a speech for your Nobel Peace Prize from a soapbox, no doubt..." - remarked Pip in a sour half-voice, quickly recovering his usual arrogance. Alucard barked a short laughter.
"No need to - I'm good at improvisations. But back to the topic. I've seen fresh traces of Anderson's handiwork there. "
"The priest is back?! - Seras grimaced, suppressing a strong desire to emit a frustrated yowl. Not too successfully. - Aw, crap!!! What should we do to get rid of that blithering twit for good? Nuke him?!"
"Whoa, creative idea! But I doubt that Integra would consider it thrilling, heh-heh... We'll find less spectacular... but I swear, more entertaining measures to make the Judas priest leave this country. Making him leave this world would be a better option, though."
"Whom are you talking about? - Bernadotte looked puzzled by the cordial reaction of the undeads. - I thought you Hellsing vamps aren't that antagonistic with church... And don't kill humans."
"Just wait till you have your own experience with that bozo... - hissed the girl, - to call him a raving maniac is a sweet compliment!"
"Not only him. - Alucard crooked his lips as if feeling a nasty taste in his mouth all of a sudden. - The percentage of MDs in Iscariots organization is amazingly close to 100."
Two pairs of surprised eyes stared at him: "You... You mean all of them are doctors?"
"No. I mean all of them are mentally defective." - snapped the nosferatu and leaned to the wall, crosshanded. His inquisitive gaze lingered on his apprentice.
"Bad luck tonight, huh? You look even more battered than after our visit to the Countess."
Seras painfully winced and tried to flake dry blood off the side of her forehead.
"Could be better, for sure."
"The mission was successful. We just got more friggin' bloodsuckers than we'd expected. - suddenly fitted a remark Pip, making Alucard quirk a brow at a tricky term. – I've never thought there would be so many of them in the city."
"Hmm. Dispatching me to the latest location tonight, our fair Lady Integra murmured something about shit hitting a fan. But again, I'm not sure if she mentioned FREAK's activity in London or your familiar's activity in her office, cop." - grinned Alucard, who seemed to return to his alarmingly good mood.
"What, again?! - groaned poor Victoria as the London city map accident readily popped up in her mind. - Oh, noooo..."
"Mwahaha!!! Just kidding. Your cat-astrophe of a pet is strangely quiet lately. Perhaps, too busy planning something grand."
Victoria breathed relief, albeit slightly tainted by Master's ominous prediction. Captain Bernadotte rolled his eyes, grunted "Seeya" and headed to the stairs from the dungeon, mumbling something about nuts. Judging by his last glance at the undeads, the topic of Pip's incomprehensible speech hardly had any connection to food.
As soon as the last sounds of human's footsteps died away, the No Life King looked down at his fledgling with a smile, still hiding in the corners of his lips.
"Tired, huh?"
Instead of an answer Victoria's forehead was pressed to his shirtfront. She hid her face on her Master's chest with a sigh, as if wordlessly asking for reassurance. It was granted, as Alucard's hands slipped around her shoulders and waist, bringing the girl closer. For a few moments they were silent, as Victoria felt the tense, fear and anger of the long working night finally unclaw her. At last she raised her face and looked up into Alucard's eyes.
"Master, tonight... I..."
"Nearly got into a trouble?"
"Um... Yes. - Seras bit her lip and shuddered. - There was a moment I thought I was a goner..."
Alucard reluctantly nodded, moving his hand up to the girl's neck.
"You are too young for major regeneration yet. - his fingers slowly traced the line of the backbone up to the mass of blonde hair. Smeared with blood, it had dried into odd spikes. - If your neck was not broken but torn... be careful next time, police girl."
"Master, how do you... Ah. - the girl twisted her lips in understanding. -You felt it through the bond."
"Yes... Kind of. - the senior vampire suddenly chuckled, regarding Victoria's face. - I hope you aren't going to start that stale argument about privacy once again."
"Err... No."
"Good girl."
"I've figured it's useless anyway. - a brief smile lit Victoria's face, as her fingers ran up the fabric of the red coat to settle on the wide shoulders. -Whether I argue or not, you still keep doing that. You are addicted to peeping and eavesdropping, Master."
"What a deep analysis. I'm impressed. - the suffering addict grinned, bowed down and planted a kiss on the lips of his wannabe-shrink. At last he made a step back and casually tugged the collar of the borrowed uniform, arching his brow. - So, as a clinical... hm... observer, I wish to see what you are hiding under these ugly greens, cop."
"Much uglier blues..." - The girl sighed and unfastened the jacket to prove her words.
"Mmmm... Right. The only way your clothes could look decent now is in a crumpled heap on the bedroom floor."
"I think I should get several new uniforms, while I'm at it... Like you do with your glasses." - Victoria made a face and sighed again.
"Collateral damage they call it. - the nosferatu shrugged. - All right, now you go and take care of yourself. I'll see you later... After sunrise."
"Are you still busy, Master?"
"Probably."
Alucard stepped into invisibility and watched his apprentice to walk away to her chamber. The traces of bullets on her clothes, the smell of blood mixed with her usual soft scent... her blood... They stirred the same emotions he had harbored about an hour ago and tried to stomp later. They were most illogical... The vampire crossed his hands on his chest, remembering and questioning his own motives.
Pain was a nonissue for him, something a creature of darkness of his age barely notices. However, the pain of his fledgling was something he couldn't ignore. It was so wrong that he had almost decided to block the bond for awhile that night - as an annoying distraction. But somehow he couldn't. He only made it fainter and returned to the exciting discovery he had just made. Judas priest was somewhere nearby, an unexpected present for Hellsing best operative. The vampire felt exactly like a bored hunter feels, finally finding fresh traces of a decent prey after hours of aimless killing time and hares. His teeth bared in a satisfied grin, as Alucard stood over a holy blade, stuck in the middle of killed undead's remains. They were so fresh, that the night breeze hadn't ruined the shape of the body yet, mixing its ash with the light sand of the park alley. The vampire slowly looked around, his sharp senses alert for any clue. Quietness of the night lovingly cradled every sound, letting it cover twice the distance it normally would. Soon the vampire heard heavy footsteps and words of a Latin prayer about two hundred yards from him, moving away. A few moments later Alucard wouldn't have been able to capture these sounds among the gentle whispering of tree leaves. Alucard's cold grin became broader, as he pulled out the Jackal and checked the ammo, preparing for the fight. And then... he twitched.
The corner of his mind he had carefully muffled sent a throb, making the predator disregard his desired hunt. Fear. Anger. Despair. They flowed into him from outside, waking similar emotions of his own and erasing any other goals but to get to the other end of the bond as soon as possible. The tall red-clad figure swiftly melted in the air to step out of shadows in the attic at the other end of the city - just to see silver bullets grinding into the body of a FREAK. Staying invisible for the others, Alucard watched his apprentice's neck changing its angle to natural, fascinated by the deep relief, creeping into his soul. He waited for a minute, while the girl regained consciousness and immediately finished off her assaulter. She was a true fighter, like his Master... And she was safe.
When the vampire returned to the park, his target was lost. Alucard gritted his teeth as he caught the sound of a clapping door and a car going away. Failures always made him mad... Albeit this time the failure was an element of understanding what had happened to him since that simple mission in Cheders. A creature of many centuries behind him, he hadn't felt this way for centuries. He had forgotten the feeling, until now. He shouldn't let himself... Not now. Later, perhaps... Or never. It was all wrong.
"Pussy, you idiot!!! Look, what you have done! Stop that!" - the voice of the subject of Alucard's brooding returned him to the present time. He quickly backed into the wall to watch barefoot Victoria in a pink bathrobe following her familiar, who had an opened bottle of shampoo in its teeth. The two galloped along the corridor and disappeared around the corner, leaving a slimy green trail behind them. Alucard chuckled. Yeah, who could ever imagine spectacular chases like this in the most gloomy dungeon of Hellsing? Abraham von Hellsing would've got fits for sure, old preaching bastard.
Still smirking, Alucard headed for a snack. He planned to be back by the time the things would settle down, to the coffin bed with a sleeping blonde undead curled inside. Yes, she was childish sometimes. Stubborn too. She affected his business like tonight. Had a disastrous fashion sense. Ages younger than him - everything she would want to do, everything she would find new and fascinating, he had already done. Yet... With her beside, the monochrome of his endless existence gained all the colors he thought he had forsaken long ago. So... it wasn't all that wrong. Actually, it wasn't wrong at all.
Alucard lazily walked along the corridor to Victoria's room, thinking of the sudden decreasing of Hellsing activities these days. Two days had passed since the mass destruction of undeads in Brixton... Maybe that was the reason. The scum kept low profile, too scared by a sudden blow. The vampire was far from the optimistic thought that Hellsing had managed to kill all the FREAKs out there. But anyway, it was rather silent so almost all operatives were off duty, spending their time the way they pleased. Time to discuss the plans for the unexpected break with Seras... He would wait for her return from the shooting ground here. The vampire smiled and opened the door.
"I knew that sooner or later you'll come here. - Hellsing butler, who sat at the table with a thoughtful air, turned his head to the door and nodded. - Sooner, most likely, as Lady Integra doesn't have any work for you so far."
"What are you doing here, Walter?" - Alucard walked in and leaned to a bed lid pole. Walter visited the dungeon daily, but he rarely stayed there for long. Too many duties were waiting for him upstairs.
"Me? - Walter's monocle glistened, as a thin smile appeared on the face of its owner. - Brought yours and Miss Victoria's Happy Meals, of course. And something else...By the way, what are those green spots on the corridor floor, Lord Alucard? My foot slipped on one of them..."
"Ah, that... - Alucard paused, frowning. - The police girl accidentally summoned new hell beasts tonight. Stress, you know... Hasn't anyone seen them yet? They must be crawling somewhere in the mansion."
"Crawling? - a brief flash of worry appeared in butler's eyes. - What exactly are they? How many?"
"Bah, I wish she'd learn to control this ability faster... This time she's got something like monstrous snails."
With an unsavory delight the vampire watched Walter's facial expression. However, in a couple of seconds sheer horror there muted into healthy suspicion, demonstrated by a politely raised brow. Alucard smirked.
"All right, the substance is shampoo. No snails or whatever."
"Nice to hear. But why shampoo if I may ask?"
"The cat misbehaved again. Seras must have missed some spots while cleaning away the aftermath."
"Ah, I see. This lack of control is truly most unfortunate for Miss Victoria. - the butler pursed his lips, apparently recalling the previous deeds of the demonic pet, and finally continued. - All right, it cannot be helped, I believe. Now about the business."
Walter pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket and handed it to his old partner: "I've just got this from the Investigations."
As Alucard's eyes looked through the text, his features became arctic cold. At last he finished reading and clenched the sheet in his fist, locking his gaze with Walter's.
"I was right, after all. He knew."
The ex-Angel of Death grimly nodded.
"What do you intend to do with this information? Let me remind you that by Lady Integra's strict order you can't even touch Enrico Maxwell. Besides, killing him would be... politically unwise."
"I won't... all things considered. But the temptation is great. - Alucard's calm voice was more sinister than any snarling. - Where's my Master now?"
"Holding a meeting with MI 5 leader and a few other Knights. We need more cooperation in the situation with FREAKs."
"Exactly. We'll discuss it with Maxwell tonight. Integra's never banned me from just... - nosferatu's lips drew back in a hideous humorless grin, - ...chatting with him. How beneficial."
"What are you planning, Master? - a sudden confused inquiry came from behind, where Seras stood at the opened door. Judging by her frown, she heard pretty much of the conversation. - What did Maxwell know?"
Author's note:
Here's another bit of my pretty random writing, guys. Sorry for the pause, the Real Life doesn't leave too much time for any afterlife business. ' BTW, Captain Bernadotte isn't my home-made character. Here's Pip in all his manga glory for ya ( ). Cute, eh?
Now, to the point. About OOCness. Yeah, probably you can blame me for this, especially if you take in consideration only the anime version of Hellsing. Rephrasing old saloon announcements about pianists, my answer would be: "Don't shoot the writer, she writes as she can." '''
About my spelling and grammar mistakes... sighs Grammar is a bitc... hm... I mean, it's a bitter problem, heh-heh. English is a foreign language for me, but I have neither enough time nor (let's be honest!) enough will-power to pick up a text-book or a dictionary and check the stuff I wrote here. Grand disclaimer: the very sight of any English text-book gives me creeps and vivid memories of our English class. This picture ( ) bears a stunning resemblance with a Doomsday of Test in our classroom with the exceptions of the flashy ornament on the background and the fact that our respective teacher (in the center, smiling like an angel) usually preferred to wear skirts instead of pants due to her gender. Anyway, if there are many outrageous mistakes - I'm sorry. If you send me an e-mail about them, I'll be just happy to correct everything (and finally stuff the right way to write into my head, tah-dah!). On this optimistic note let me bow and hide behind a curtain.