Disclaimer- I wish these were my characters, but they're not.
The night was black, and a slow drizzle covered the cobblestone streets outside Number 43, Dover Street. It was so late that the tourists had finally cleared out, and all of the businesses on the street were closed. The only real light on the entire street came from the street lamps and the occasional neon sign over a business establishment. Even the windows of the apartments nearby were darkened.
"This is strange," commented one of the soldiers near Seras. No one answered him, probably because they agreed. The door to the Dover Street Gallery had been knocked in, and the police that had arrived when the alarm went off had never returned. When the gallery's manager had arrived she'd made another call, and subsequently the Hellsing soldiers had been dispatched. The manager was standing with the unit commander, her eyes wild with fright,
"They were eating my security guard!" she shrieked.
Seras turned to Ben,
"We know there will be at least three ghouls, but the vampire has yet to be seen. Shouldn't we go in and try to find him?"
Ben shot an edgy glance at the commander, "We're to wait for orders," was his terse reply.
The group had surrounded the building upon arrival and had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity to Seras, but what was in fact a few minutes. Everyone was tense. If they'd been allowed to go into the building immediately things would have been different, but as it was they were all getting vaguely anxious. The gallery manager was continuing to rant, and not attempting to keep her voice down,
"I thought it was some students from King's. They're always making a mess of the gallery during the day, and we've had more than one break in at night. They're obsessed with defiling our art."
The commander pretended to listen, nodding sympathetically, despite the fact that he was clearly listening in his cell for word from headquarters. Some of the men began to shiver and Seras realized with a start that it must be freezing for them,
"Are you cold?" she asked Ben.
Ben didn't have time to answer however, as at that moment the commander signaled for their attention,
"The ghouls inside are to be dispatched with as little damage to the artwork inside as possible. The FREAK is not in the gallery. An agent has been sent out to track him. Go!"
The group surged forward, ready and willing to get their job done, but Seras was called back,
"Victoria we need you to try and find the FREAK." The commander was speaking just above a whisper, so that no one else could hear him.
"But sir," Seras looked back at the gallery, "If my master was dispatched… he can handle one little FREAK."
"No Victoria," the commander answered gravely, "He has another matter to attend. You will have to try and locate the FREAK and then report back."
"Yes sir!"
"The vampire was trying to find something here Seras, so you might want to look at other galleries in the area." Shots started to punctuate the silence of the street and the commander gestured for her to go. Seras started off, past the manager and the darkened businesses and apartments. Dover Street was home to several galleries, but none had been forced open. She turned off the street, and found herself in a small alley. There was nothing particularly interesting to the naked eye, but Seras had a strange feeling that this was the place to be. She looked down at a homeless man gasping for air and saw the telltale bite marks on his neck. She shot him once in the head and then paused. Strains of music so faint that they were barely distinguishable even to Seras were drifting from the wall to her left. There was nothing to indicate that there should be music coming from what had appeared from the street to be a vacant building, but they were there none-the-less. Seras looked for a door or window of some kind, and finding none went back to the street. The empty building had been boarded up. The boards over the door were still nailed firmly in place, but there was one missing from a window. Seras ran to it, and pulled it out completely. The gaping hole revealed was more than large enough for the petite vampire to slide through.
The inside of the building looked anything but vacant. There were tables and couches set up around a makeshift stage, and candles lit at each table. A small coat check in the front of the building was collapsed partway, but there were still coats hanging inside. No, Seras realized, her eyes widening, those are bodies! Each person was hung by their rope bound hands on a pole. They all had a bullet hole between the eyes and Seras wondered what kind of vampire would shoot their victims instead of simply draining them. The music she'd heard outside started up again, and this time she could identify the location as being somewhere overhead. She pulled her handgun out quickly, and walked carefully though the empty tables. To the left of the stage a set of stairs curved upwards disappearing into inky black darkness. Seras quickly ran to these and ascended them carefully. The music became louder as she climbed and soon enough she was in the same room with the musician.
The vampire playing the piano seemed oblivious to her. His hands moved with unnatural speed over the aged piano keys, and his eyes darted back and forth across space as though he was reading notes, though there was no page to read from,
"I wanted to meet Alucard," he said suddenly, flipping a long auburn braid over one shoulder before continuing "But I suppose that damned priest took precedence over me."
Seras started, "Priest?"
"Yes," the vampire looked bored, "An annoying fellow that chased me here all the way from Italy."
"But you're English, why were you in Italy?"
The playing faltered slightly, but the FREAK didn't answer,
"Is that where your master is?" Seras attempted. When the vampire simply ignored her she aimed her gun at him, "Tell me!"
"Do you like blood?" the vampire asked carefully, "I hate it myself, so I find it rather strange that after a few days I just can't stand it anymore. I have to feed."
"Is that why you don't drain them?" Seras asked,
Why are you chatting with the FREAK? her master's voice demanded. Seras frowned slightly, but put her finger on the trigger. Before she could pull the trigger however, the FREAK was gone. He'd disappeared in an instant.
"Wha-'' Seras felt the barrel of a gun against her head and she gasped, "How did you do that?"
"I'm fast." The vampire answered simply. Seras heard his finger move to the trigger and panic overtook her. She thought back to police training and did the first thing she could remember. She drove her free hand as hard she could into the FREAK's stomach, and dropped as his gun went off. She could feel the silver bullet graze her scalp as she fell, but she didn't have time to worry about it. She turned onto her back as soon as she had her bearings and shoved her gun into the other vampire's face. He smirked at her and she realized that he'd recovered quickly as well. The barrel of his gun was pointed at her. The two stared at one another a moment and the FREAK grinned,
"Are you Alucard's servant?"
"How do you know my master?" Seras asked angrily,
"His reputation precedes him." The vampire grinned. Seras' eyes narrowed slightly,
"I recognize you." She couldn't place where she'd seen him from, but she knew she'd seen his face somewhere recently. His eyes brightened and he grinned wider,
"I'm famous."
"Not anymore," she pulled the trigger before he had time to react and watched him turn to ash. She waited a moment in the silence considering his face, and the distinctive hair, "Who were you?"
Police Girl! Her master startled her before she could think much on the matter,
"Master?" she picked up the gun that had been pointed at her moments ago and turned back to the stairs,
Meet me at the Shaftesbury Memorial!!
"Yes Master," Seras ran down the stairs, through the maze of tables and chairs, and knocked the boarded up door down with on swift kick. She was halfway down the street when she realized she'd never heard of the Shaftesbury Memorial. She stopped in her tracks and noticed that a little further down her unit was leaving the Downing Street Gallery, and the cleanup crew was going in. Sir Integra was standing next to her commander smoking a cigar and looking generally displeased. Seras rushed over to the two,
"Sir Integra! Commander!" she didn't pay attention to the displeasure etched into Sir Integra's face, "Master Alucard wants me to meet him at the Shaftesbury Memorial, but I've never even heard of it. Do either of you know what he's talking about?"
"You will stay with your unit," Integra snapped, "Alucard allowed a FREAK to get away to chase after an Iscariot priest. He will not have you running after him to help!"
Seras grimaced, "He needs me there!"
"He is quite capable of taking care of himself," Integra said smoothly, her expression hidden by a long white line of cigar smoke, "And if he were in any kind of trouble you would be the last person he would call for help."
Seras was stung even though she knew it was true, "B-but-''
"Did you get the FREAK?" the commander asked.
"He's taken care of, but there are bodies in the vacant building on the corner. They-they're hanging on the coat rack."
Integra walked away without another word, her attention directed on the gallery manager, and the commander scratched his head,
"The Shaftesbury Memorial is what they used to call the statue of Eros."
Seras' eyes lit up, "Thanks!" she called, already running towards the Piccadilly square, just down the road.
***
Alucard sat dejectedly at the base of the fountain his gun still in his hand. He made no effort to greet Seras when she arrived but started talking as if they'd already been midway through a conversation,
"He just disappeared."
"Who Master?" Seras glanced at a small huddle of street people watching them with interest.
"Anderson."
She had never seen him look quite so dejected, "Why would he run."
"He's toying with me." There was thinly veiled rage beneath his tone.
"But you can smell him, you can track him… You're faster than he is Master."
Alucard stood, "You wasted time with the FREAK Police Girl."
"I recognized him." She was caught off guard by his sudden change in topic. He gave her one of his inscrutable searching gazes,
"Your job is not to find out who made him what he is, your purpose is to destroy." His tone was not harsh, but Seras found herself looking down in shame,
"I'm sorry Master," He looked towards Downing Street, "I'll go make my report now."
The homeless people standing nearby had begun to walk hastily away as soon as Alucard stood, but he hadn't noticed. Seras watched them go and wondered briefly what they thought when they saw him. Did they really only see an imposing figure? What do you see? She was really beginning to hate it that he could read her mind so easily, My Master. She answered simply, before walking back to the gallery with him in silence.
***
"You directly disobeyed orders," Integra mustered her most imposing glare, though it clearly had no effect on Alucard, "You were to follow the FREAK."
"The Police Girl took care of the vampire," Alucard answered, his eyes never leaving the painting of Integra's father.
"That's beside the point," she insisted, "You should have done as you were told."
"I have greater troubles than the petty affairs of man," Alucard replied rather cryptically.
Integra would have liked to have shot him. She had been gone when he and Seras had arrived back at the scene, but she'd learned of the younger vampire's disobedience before she left. The whole thing infuriated her,
"The affairs of man should trouble you greatly Alucard, as they are your only food source and the ones who control you." Not for the first time she wondered if this was actually so. Certainly Alucard did not ordinarily stray from orders so completely, but he tested her so often that she sometimes felt as though her power over him could slip at any moment. Moments like these it felt as though it already was.
"It was Anderson." He commented.
Integra knew this was as close to an apology as she would get, and it only served to anger her further, "And you don't even have a body to show for it."
He turned to go without another word, but just before he'd completely disappeared through the walls of Integra's office she put her final word in,
"Do that again and you may just find yourself back in the basement sealed away until one of my future heirs sees fit to release you, or to kill you."
Once he was gone Integra stood from her desk, checking it once to see that everything was in order, and left the office. The halls of the Hellsing Mansion were empty, and dark without moonlight to brighten them. The rain had stopped long before, but the clouds remained. It was odd that Alucard had been so blatantly disobedient, odder still that he made Seras choose between following her orders and his own. She supposed she should have been prepared for the eventual test of power, and she knew that the Police Girl was not fond of disobeying her, but the bond between Alucard in servant was strong.
I wonder if it was really Anderson? she thought, removing a new cigar from the inside of her jacket, If it was, there is no reason that he would run. That maniacal bastard loves to go one on one with Alucard. She was at her bedroom door before she knew it, and in her nightclothes a moment later. Why would the Iscariot care anything about the FREAK on Downing? He may have been in Italy once, but he was English, and he was in Protestant land. The entire situation was puzzling. As Integra tried to fall asleep she thought about Alucard's defiance once more, If it was Anderson, and he ran rather than face Alucard then something is about to happen. Something… unpleasant. The thought kept sleep at bay for quite some time.