Chapter 4 WELCOME HOME

Alucard held the sleeping Integra carefully in his arms as the car navigated the treacherous mountain roads.

"My Lord, your wife doesn't look very good," commented the driver, his voice full of concern, "shall we take a little break by the road side? There's a place we can stop up ahead if my Lady requires a quiet place to rest."

"I think she will be fine. Drive on please. The castle is just up ahead and when we get there, I will get a doctor to attend to her."

"Very well, Lord Vlad. Pardon me sir, but the poor dear looks sickly."

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Integra looked cautiously around the large ornate room she just entered. The room was well decorated and offered a great view of the valleys below the castle. In its older and more glorious days, it might have been the throne room of the castle. The scenery was breathtaking if one was in the mood to enjoy it but Integra had other things on her mind. The events during the last four days were a blur to her. She only remembered being taken from her bed in the dead of one night, only to wake up tied and gagged in Alucard's coffin the next. Following a brief exchange of angry words (stares more like it) with Alucard, she had been taken onto a train, half unconscious and against her will. Exhausted for reasons she could not decipher, she had slept through most the journey here. Although she had awoken once briefly in a train - and to her mortification, in Alucard's lap, she had been too weak to attempt an escape.

The events of the day before she arrived in this strange castle were a total mystery to her (this would be the third day). Most frustrating was the fact that even her memories of her arrival in the castle were hazy. All that she had was a vague recollection of meeting a kindly old man who addressed her as Lady Vlad. The next thing she knew, she had awakened in a bathtub filled with milk, attended to by two strangely mute women.

When confronted an hour ago, Alucard laughingly told her that they were in "his home" and that she should make herself comfortable, seeing that they were unlikely to return to England within the next two weeks.

She seethed as she walked on quickly, determined to put as much distance between her and the two women charged with attendance on her. "What is that blasted vampire up to? Don't tell me he brought me all the way here for a holiday?" wondered Integra both angrily and curiously. Already smarting from having been rudely uprooted from her own manor, she was absolutely livid when Alucard had insisted that her assigned handmaids strip her of her suit.

"Romania is still very much a conservative country, more so this village," he had 'explained' with his usual smirk. "It is our tradition that our women behave like women and look like one. I must insist that you wear the dress my people have prepared for you. Pardon the archaic design, my villagers are unfortunately, not used to the modern ways your English nation are more accustomed to."

"I'm not a bloody doll he can dress up and play around with. Tradition my foot! Who is he trying to kid?" she ranted.

"And other than the fact kidnapping and tyranny run in his family, there's nothing traditional or normal about him," Integra spat angrily as she stomped around the room, furious. "When I get out of here, I am personally going to stake Alucard for this. No, I think I'll gain more gratification from tearing him limb by limb until he is finally unable to regenerate," fumed Integra.

Just then, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find one of the handmaidens holding out a necklace to her, the other bowing respectfully. Integra had resisted the ladies' attempts to put the jewels on her but it would appear that Alucard's servants could be, at times, as stubborn as their master.

"No, I told you I don't want anything more of his," she said as firmly as she could.

The women stared at her as if she had been speaking Chinese. Integra stared back, as she tried to figure out how to refuse the necklace. Her hesitation, although brief, was just enough to allow them to clasp the chain around her neck. This final loss of control irritated Integra and boiling with anger, she was about to contemplate taking out her frustration on the pair of handmaidens. Fortunately, she caught hold of herself just in time.

"No Integra, now this not the time to contemplate revenge or to lose your temper," she chided herself as she willed her heart to return to its normal pulse. The cold breeze in the castle, accented by the fact she had begun walking quickly away from the two women, helped cool her head. "Revenge will come later but not now. The villagers are most probably innocent, having no choice but to amuse their tyrannical overlord. Calm yourself; you need to think yourself out of this. Think. You need to find a way to leave this castle or at least get a message to Walter to where you are."

Propping herself comfortably on a window still while she scouted out the terrain around the castle, Integra tried to figure out how Alucard had broken the seal which bound him to her family. This was unfortunately, to no avail. She then mentally calculated her options and possible success of escape. Her heart sank somewhat when she realised that the odds were not stacked in her favor. For one, she was in a foreign land with no clues as to where she was exactly, save for the fact she knew she was somewhere in Romania. From the looks of things, the castle was perched on a lonely mountain surrounded on all sides by valleys of forests. Her years of military training indicated that she was at least a good two miles from the nearest town. It would not be practical to try to leave the castle on foot without aid. It would however, be of little help to seek refuge in the village at the foot of the mountain as Alucard was lord of the said settlement. As such, even if she did manage to slip away from her watchers, she would not be able to find help before she was recaptured. Secondly, she was unarmed and while the castle seemed unguarded but for the pair of handmaidens that followed her everywhere incessantly, she was positive that she was being watched at all times by a good number of Alucard's servants. Thirdly, even if the castle was unguarded, fighting an old and powerful vampire without the benefit of silver or blessed ammunition was not a viable option. A sense of helplessness and fear threatened to overwhelm Integra as she tried to make sense of her surroundings with little success.

"What happened during those four days?" Integra wondered. "I don't know what Alucard did to me and I was too weak to take much notice of where we had been. Fortunately, I appeared to have regained my strength and so ..."

At her own words, Integra froze. Instinctively, she reached to touch her neck, heartbeats racing, fearful of a telltale vampire bite. Unable to detect the presence of a wound, she sighed with relief.

Staring at her the dress she was wearing, Integra tried to calm herself down. Strangely, as hateful as it was, the dress was on closer examination, of excellent workmanship. Its fabric was beautifully exquisite. Integra noticed with mild amusement that its color matched the very color of her own eyes and that the cut was a perfect fit as if made with her measurements in mind. Had the circumstances been different, Integra would have been secretly pleased. One reason why she had given up wearing dresses was the fact she could never find one off the rack to fit. As Integra had once joked with Walter, she would never find a dress until and unless they made women's clothes for men.

Tailoring was out of the question as she did not have spare time for the long hours required for the numerous fittings. She had been too busy working to enjoy the little pleasures in life but it was unavoidable. The responsibility of knowing the number of lives that would be lost if she should ever neglect the Hellsing organization to satisfy her own frivolity, kept her from having a semblance of a normal life most women her age took for granted.

"Thinking of something milady?"

"Yes, of how nice it would be to put your head through a meat grinder and then to feed it to the dogs."

"Delightful as always Integra," laughed Alucard as he entered the throne room. "I am pleased to see you are making yourself at home. Romania is a beautiful country is it not?"

"Lovely, pity I am not quite in the mood to enjoy it," she paused briefly, eyeing him coldly. "Especially when I know not the purpose for which I have been so rudely taken from my own home."

"Tsk tsk, you wound me."

"I hardly think you could have feelings, let alone a sense of decency. The gardens of Eden would give me little pleasure at this time."

"Pity. The valleys are so beautiful at the time of this year. If you promise not to escape, I could even bring you on a tour of the place."

"Stop the niceties Alucard. What do you want with me?" spat Integra bitterly. "I really doubt you would go through all the trouble to smuggle me here to discuss the weather."

"Perhaps. Or maybe I was homesick and required to be allowed to return to my own abode?"

"Oh delightful place you have here. Thank you for the suggestion and I will consider a retirement home here, if I live long enough to retire that is," commented Integra icily. "Now if you may be so kind as to inform Walter to pick me up, I am way overdue for my interview with the Queen."

"I am afraid that is out of the question Integra. You see, this is a very old castle and I am a very old man. You must excuse me if I lack knowledge of the high-tech gadgets you are so used to," said Alucard as he walked up to the window in which Integra had comfortably wedged herself.

Integra said nothing but stared impassively out of the window.

Grabbing her gently by the shoulders, Alucard swung her around to face him. "The road by the river is broken. The only exit is by the mountain trail, through my village and via a two-mile drive to town. Before you get any ideas Integra, let me remind you that I do not intend to let you out of my sight at anytime. Have a heart, pet and spare an old man the worry of his guest's whereabouts."

She returned his gaze steely. With an air of mock innocence, she replied, "Whatever are you talking about? I do not plan to escape quietly. Considering my reception here, I will accept no less than a grand send-off back to London."

Alucard smirked. "I'm glad we are agreed on that then. By the way, dinner will be served soon. Perhaps you would like to freshen up before meeting me in the dinning hall? Your maids will show you the way," Alucard said as he turned to leave.

"I'll be there for dinner. What ever you've got planned, I can match you pound for pound," retorted Integra silently in her mind as she returned her gaze to the scenery outside. "Just remember I want extra garlic with all my food."

"As my lady wishes," answered Alucard. He was grinning before he vanished out of sight. "By the way, the jewels look as good on you as they did on Elisabeta."

Despite herself, Integra's eyes widened at the mention of the name even as she felt a strange flutter in her heart.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Chapter 5 THE PORTRAIT

Integra paced her room restlessly as she fingered the wooden stake in her hand. She was greatly relieved when her assigned ladies finally retired for the night, allowing her to continue work on her makeshift stake. It was but half an hour to sunrise. If she wanted to speak to Alucard on her terms, it was now or never. She was pretty confident that he had been in his coffin for his customary nap since the last hour and would probably remain so for at least another three.

Integra felt a wry grin on her face as she realised the irony of the situation. With the exception of Walter, she was probably the only living person so well acquainted with Alucard's sleeping habits. Unlike the popular lore circulated among the masses, not all vampires needed to sleep as soon as the sun was up. Powerful vampires like Alucard could easily stroll down Piccadilly Circus any time of the day as they pleased. Even younger vampires (but not including freaks) like Seras had no problems wandering around in broad daylight. Nevertheless, until of Alucard's level, it would be prudent for younger vampires to avoid over-exposure.

Forcing her mind to refocus her attention to the task at hand, Integra surveyed her handiwork. She felt a glint of pride at her own resourcefulness.

"I need to work on my carpentering skills but I believe this will suffice for now."

Grabbing firmly what once was the leg of a kitchen stool - in her opinion, it was most convenient that the cook had discovered that one of the kitchen hands had broken a stool after lunch and that a small fruit knife had been left unnoticed in the furore, she almost but slammed the door furiously behind her, catching herself in the nick of time.

"Stay calm, Integra, we're going to make him send you home," she scowled as she involuntarily recalled the events that had occurred during dinner, in particular, that which led to Alucard's smug look after dessert.

Dinner for Integra was generally a quiet and hurried affair in her study. A brief respite was all she allowed herself before work really begun for the Hellsing organization. Dinner this evening was however, definitely anything but quiet. In Integra's opinion, the whole affair tonight had been a circus. Despite her reluctance, her sense of manners dictated that it would be rude for her to decline the invitation totally. She had however, intended to stay no longer than necessary. To her surprise and mortification, she turned up only to realise that Alucard had invited the whole village for what she had prayed would be a quiet dinner. When confronted, his excuse was that he as ruler, simply had to greet his subjects after his long absence from the castle.

"The nerve of that vampire," she spat angrily. "What is the meaning of calling the whole village and asunder and on top of that, not correcting them when they addressed me as Lady Vlad? What does he take me for? A prize? A trophy? A spoil of war to show off as he pleases?"

"Spare the villagers the complexities of our exact relationship," - the memory of the message the vampire mentally conveyed to her on sensing her fury, while winking - much to her chagrin, did not help her temper.

This was when a little voice in her head pointed out wryly that she could have corrected the villagers herself. Ignoring the annoying comments of her own mind, Integra decided that she and Alucard were /long/ overdue for a little chat, preferably one involving her new stake. She wanted to go home to England, and now, in her opinion, was a good time.

"Relationship my foot! When I get my hands on that idiot, he'll be sorry that my great grandfather had not reduced him to dust in the first place," she said, smiling grimly at the pleasure the act would probably give her if she had to resort to it.

Somewhere in the same castle, a vampire chuckled, pleased with the effect of his little dinner prank, "Oh Integra, Integra, you never cease to amuse me dear child. Your false bravado will get you nowhere and surely you must realize that too, don't you?"

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Half an hour later, Integra found herself hopelessly lost. She stared, confused by her surroundings. The castle with its long hallways seemed an endless maze.

"Which fool in the world built this bizarre monstrosity?" she wondered in frustration. "Oh I forgot," she fumed as she continued her search for Alucard's chambers, "it was probably commissioned by one of Alucard's ancestors after all." Dismissing a nagging suspicion that Alucard was presently laughing at her predicament, Integra reminded herself of her all-important task of finding his coffin before he woke up or before anyone found her.

"Damn, I distinctly recall the bastard's chambers being but two floors below mine in the tower."

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Two hours later, Integra would have been quite happy to catch sight of anyone who could show her back to her room. Oddly enough, the castle that had been teeming with life yesterday now seemed devoid of any inhabitants – human or otherwise.

"Disgraceful," she muttered to herself as she spotted an ornate iron door she had not seen earlier, her attitude half joking, half serious. "One would have thought that a tyrant of his make would have had his servants working to the bone by sunrise," she grumbled as she leaned gingerly against the cold metallic door.

Pushing aside the heavy door and stepping through the doorway, Integra was intrigued to find a huge hall. The room she was in was enormous, its height and length each at least 300 feet or more. Mesmerized by the proud and colorful banners that hung from towering columns and in spite of her initial apprehension, she found herself admiring the room. The room was beautiful; in particular the numerous imposing stained glass windows that adorned both sides of the hall. Stories of battles appeared to be the predominant theme of their intricate designs and their majesty was accentuated by the soft blue light streaming in through their tops. Extending from where she stood to the other end of the hall was a long oaken table, one which could have easily accommodated hundreds of men and women.

"It must be a banquet table so this must be some ceremonial hall of sorts. Look at this place ... and I thought the viewing hall yesterday morning was huge."

As her eyes glanced across the hallway, following the length of the table to its other end, Integra caught sight of what appeared to be an artist's easel.

"How strange," she thought, her attention strangely ensnared by the easel. A simple article; so innocuous and yet so out of place.

Walking over quickly and for reasons she could not fathom, she found herself peering respectfully over the easel. Integra was surprised by her find. From what she could make out, it appeared to be an unfinished portrait of a woman. The slight discoloration of most of the painted areas as well as the yellowed portions of the exposed and still unpainted canvas suggested that the painting was very old albeit an extremely well preserved work. The odd presence of fresh paint in some parts suggested that recent attempts had been made to complete the portrait. Integra examined the painting carefully, strangely intrigued by the picture on it. It was an unfinished image of a woman with long white hair. She was sitting in a chair while draped in nothing but a long cream cloth. Her features were indiscernible. The jaggered patterns on the painted areas betrayed the artist's hesitation as he worked on the portrait.

"It is almost as if the artist was trying to paint someone he wanted to remember and at the same time unable to remember what she looked like," Integra thought wistfully, studying the painting intently.

"Yet this is most odd," she commented as she ran a finger carefully against the jaw line of the image.

Although mindful of the work's age, she was unable to resist the impulse to touch the picture.

"The constant style of the paint strokes discounts any possibility that various people had been working on this picture. And yet if I'm correct, the uneven discoloration of the paint suggests that this same someone had been working on this portrait over a very long period of time. How is that possible? No man could have lived this long, not unless it was ..."

Integra gazed about the hallway, thoughtful. "But who is he trying to remember?" Sitting on the adjourning richly upholstered chair, she stared pensively at the portrait, minutes before a strange sleepiness overwhelmed her.

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Integra stirred uncomfortably. She struggled to open her eyes but the sharp pain that ensured quickly convinced her otherwise. She was lying flat on her back and her body was racked with pain. Just breathing and lying down would have to do for now.

"Love? Can you hear me?" A familiar hand gently cupped her left cheek.

A voice? From its tenor and manner of address it could only be Walter, only he sounded as if he were twenty years younger. Integra tried to make a sound in response. No good, she could not draw enough strength even to move her lips.

She heard the sound of another entering the room.

"Arthur, I'm sorry about Amelia but we were fortunately able to save Integra, or ... at least Alucard was."

"Arthur? Amelia?" thought Integra, extremely confused: was Walter referring to her father and mother? But they were both dead, weren't they?

"Amelia is gone, leaving me my only child. Damn the Duke of Ellington. Curse his involvement in this," said the second voice bitterly. "If not for my family's honor, I would sooner murder him myself, related to the Crown or not."

Integra would have cried out in surprise if she could. She recognised the second voice to be that of Arthur Hellsing's. "How can this be?" she wondered, "Father alive? Mother dead? Her death caused by the Duke of Ellington?"

A thousand thoughts sped through Integra's head. She knew so little of the mother she lost, only that she was called Amelia and that she had been the cousin of the previous Duke of Ellington, with whom her family was now estranged.

As far as Integra could recall, her father had spoken neither of her mother nor of the Duke. There were no photos of her mother save for one Integra knew her father had locked in his study's drawers. Certain sadness filled his eyes whenever Lady Hellsing's name was mentioned and the pain in his expression taught Integra from an early age not to ask any questions about her mother.

Integra's only memory of her mother was that of a woman with dark honeyed skin and long pale hair like hers. She could no longer remember her mother's face save that she used to sing a lovely lullaby in a foreign tongue. Nevertheless, the realisation that her mother's death had been caused by her cousin, rather than in a car accident when Integra was four (as she was told), came as a new and shocking revelation.

Integra swore to herself that if she got out of this whole incident alive, she would have a word with Walter about her mother.

"Where is Alucard?" Arthur Hellsing bellowed suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. "Where is he?"

"He has gone to deal with the monsters that had attacked Amelia and Integra. We received news that they were hiding out in the outskirts of Manchester and he has ..."

"How dare he act without my orders? Must he defy me in every way?"

"Arthur ... old friend, you are not ... you know, are you?" asked Walter hesitantly, uncertain as to how to react to his master's sudden show of displeasure.

Walter's words were followed by an uneasy silence. After what seemed like a long time, Integra finally heard her father's voice again. It was strained as if as he was about to breakdown.

"You must be laughing at me old friend, for even now I am still jealous of him. Amelia was mine in body but his in soul."

It was then, the first and only time in her life, she heard her father cry.

"My wife ... the jewel of my life, in love with him ..." sobbed Arthur bitterly.

"Arthur ... I can't say I understand your situation but God forbid that I laugh at you. You know Amelia had a special place in her heart for you." Walter's voice was soft, grave with concern for his friend.

"She treated me as a friend. Amelia was grateful to me Walter, but gratitude is hardly compensation for her affection," Arthur continued. "She married me to repay the favor, not because she loved me. I did harbour hopes that she would grow to love me but she had place only for him in her heart. I ... I ... the child, is she ..."

"Integra is your daughter Arthur," Walter chided. "Do not forget that."

"I know, forgive me old friend. I will love her with every ounce of my heart dear friend, but at times, I can't help but wonder ..."

"Arthur, Integra Fairbrook Wingates is your own flesh and blood!"

"Yes," he sobbed, "but I shall never forget that she was named by him, named by him."

Integra strained to hear more but the voices began fading rapidly. In desperation, she focused all her strength at an imaginary point in front of her head and forced her eyes open.

As she glanced around her surroundings, she realised with great disappointment that she appeared to be back in the banquet hall in Alucard's castle. Still reeling from the intensity of the conversation she had just heard, she shook her head as she desperately tried to make sense of Walter's and her father's words. Had it all been a mere nightmare or were they truths from suppressed childhood memories?

She closed her eyes again in an effort to steady herself. It was too real to have been a mere nightmare: had her mother and Alucard been lovers? Was she Integra, her father's daughter? He had doubted it himself for a moment hadn't he?

Just then, she felt a tug. Opening her eyes warily, Integra was surprised to find a small child pulling at her dress. With horrid fascination, Integra was painfully aware of the person to whom the child bore great resemblance; the eye color was wrong but ...

"Lady, why are you sleeping here? Won't you catch a cold?"

"I'll be fine. Who are you," asked Integra, trembling in spite of herself.

"They call me Vlad ," came the dreadful answer. "Who are you madam?"

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"Walter, is there any real chance of us finding clues in Alucard's coffin?"

"Quiet Pip. I have a hunch that all this is linked to what the Queen was going to announce to her Lordship. Something tells me that Alucard was anxious that Integra never found out what her Majesty had to say."

Pip shrugged his shoulders as he resumed the unpleasant task of combing through Alucard's sleeping quarters: how was anyone to find something when they did not even know what they were looking for?

"Strange isn't it?"

"What?"

"This is still here. Alucard has left his coffin behind."

"And what's so strange about that? He couldn't have lugged this out of the house without anyone noticing."

"I find myself not quite agreeing with you. Alucard has always been, pardon the pun, deadly protective of this thing. And he simply abandoned it this time. Whatever the thing involving Sir Integra was, it must have been extremely important to him."

The butler was about to reply when they heard an excited cry behind them.

"Walter, Pip ..."

The two men turned to see Seras waving at them. She was clutching a crumpled piece of paper. "Walter, I found this over here, it bears the Queen's insignia. Is this what we are ..."

"Good work Seras, give that to me."

As Walter read the note, Pip could not help noticing the sudden look of tension on the butler's face. "So Walter," he asked curiously, careful not to lean against Alucard's abandoned coffin, "what did her Majesty want with her Lordship?"

Walter looked up darkly, "Sir Integra was supposed to receive announcement of her betrothal to the newly knighted Duke of Ellington." His voice was strained, "The engagement party is in a month's time."

"I guess this means we just need to explain to this Duke guy and her Majesty that Sir Integra is presently outstationed?"

"Very funny Pip. According to her Majesty's orders, Sir Integra's failure to turn up will result in the disbanding of the Hellsing organisation."

"Oh ... that is not so good then," replied Pip, before wilting under the stare his remark earned him.

"It's not even so easy," muttered Walter, gesturing Pip and Seras to follow him out of the dungeon. "It is not so easy ..."