Integra watched intently as the woman, she recognised to be her mother, stepped daintily out of the gazebo. Amelia was wearing a simple white dress and her platinum blonde hair was piled neatly ontop of her head in a bun.
She gazed at the sight of her mother, unable to tear her eyes away from the face she had almost forgotten.
"Mother," she mouthed sadly.
As Amelia turned, Integra noticed the birthmark right below the hairline on Amelia's neck. Involuntarily, Integra reached to touch the back of her own neck. She could not help but stare dumbfounded. She had always heard the servants comment on how much she resembled her mother but she had not expected this – why they could almost pass off as twins.
"Thank you for your help," said Amelia, curtseying. "I shudder to think what would have happened to me if you hadn't arrived then."
"It was no bother milady," replied her companion. "Please be careful in the future, the streets are full of gangsters and petty thugs these days. I would not advise you to wander on your own in the evenings. Your fiancee would be devastated if anything untoward were to happen to you."
Integra strained her eyes to catch sight of the man whose voice she was hearing. Part of her was sorely disappointed that the gentleman was not showing any intention of entering the gardens; yet the other part of her was relieved, dreading the knowledge that she was about to gain.
"A foolish act on my part truly," replied Amelia softly. "But I was anxious to purchase the cigars for Arthur. Oh, pardon me for forgetting my manners. Will you come into the house? The least I could offer you is a cup of tea."
"I regret that I must decline your kind offer, milady. I will need to report to my post in ten minutes."
"I thought I knew everyone in the organisation," said Amelia. "But it seems I may have missed you sir. Are you new here?"
"No, but I was in Scotl'nd for the last six months," replied the young man who sounded as if he was barely twenty. "I must have been still seconded to the Scottish army when you arrived."
Integra froze as she slowly realised who the speaker was.
"That probably explains it. I'm sorry to have taken up some much of your time. Perhaps if you could allow me to offer you tea at another time sir," said Amelia. As Amelia turned, Integra noted a slight flush on her mother's face.
"It couldn't be ..." muttered Integra soundlessly. "It cannot be."
"I take my leave milady," replied the man.
"Wait. Sir, if I may have the pleasure of knowing your name."
"No, the pleasure is mine, milady. The name's Walter, Walter Kum Dorne."
Just then, another voice spoke. "Walter, you can have tea another day. Hurry up, I anticipate a good hunt tonight," said the second voice impatiently. "Let's not keep the prey waiting."
"Yes, Alucard," replied Walter sounding amused. "We take our leave, milady."
Integra sank to her knees. The fading footsteps indicated that the speakers were leaving. Had that been Walter and Alucard?
"... Behold, your parents approach ..."
Horror had said that the man with whom her mother was speaking was her father ... but it was impossible, it could not be ... could it?
"Amelia, who were you speaking too?"
Integra turned to catch sight of a distinguished woman in her early forties. Her dark eyes were cold and she had a rather strict look about her. If the woman had been younger, the resemblance would have been uncanny.
"Rip van Winkle? How can this be? I thought ..." mouthed Integra silently. "She shouldn't exist in this time but ..."
"Good evening, Lady Minerva," replied Amelia, curtseying. "I was just speaking to the men I met at the gates."
"I see," replied Minerva dryly. "Amelia, I would have not thought that I would need to impress upon you your changed status. You are a member of this distinguished family and it will not simply do to have you fraternizing with the troops like the maids in this house. I do not wish to have to repeat this to you again."
"Yes, Lady Minerva," replied Amelia as the elder lady began walking away.
Suddenly, Integra felt cold metallic fingers circle her throat. Before she could react, she found herself pinned to the floor. Despite her increased strength, the knight was too strong for her as she struggled in vain to pry his strong fingers off her throat. She gasped desperately for breath as she felt the life being squeezed out of her body. Her vision blurring rapidly from the lack of air, she could just about make out the outline of Horror, who had reappeared beside the knight.
"W-h-o are t-he-y?"
"That is an interesting question is it not Integra?" said Horror with great amusement in her voice. "So many questions, so little time. Save your breath girl, there is not much left."
"Fiend," cursed Integra silently in her mind.
Horror said nothing but merely laughed sweetly as she sat upon the grass. Running her fingers idly through Integra's hair, she giggled as the platinum strands turned white at her touch. "Give up child. Rest and let him have your soul," said Horror soothingly. "Sleep the endless sleep. Why fight anymore?"
As Integra stared blankly at Horror, a second voice (sounding like her own) prompted, "Your existence is a mistake, a symbol of all that is perverse. Give up and die."
"Yes why not," said Horror. "Sleep and rest. It's no use. You are defeated."
"Yes," said the voice in her head, as consciousness slipped quietly away, "Rest and worry no more."
"But soon the real battle will begin," said a third voice. "Give up now and you might as well end your misery yourself."
Integra awoke with a jolt at the familiarity of the third voice. "Alucard," she thought.
"It's no use," said Horror sweetly even though her face (which was inches from Integra's own) was contorted with anger. "Even he has abandoned you, you are on your own child."
Just managing enough strength to lift her right hand, Integra took advantage of their proximity and dug her fingers into Horror's eyes. Horror screamed as blood gushed from her injured eyes. "You'll pay for this Integra," she screeched as she began writhing on the floor in pain.
The knight stared confusedly at his injured lady. As his hold on Integra's neck loosened briefly, Integra took advantage of his distraction to call upon her last hope of rescue.
"A-L-U-C-A-R-D," she yelled, exhausting the last ounce of strength in her body.
The hold on her throat tightened once more. Just before she blacked out, Integra thought she caught sight of a flash of red.
----------
She felt something cool upon her forehead. She opened her eyes slowly. As her vision slowly focused, she recognised the man knelt by her bed. He sponging her face carefully, his face fully of concern.
"Sir Integra," called a surprised Walter, finding his charge awake at last. "Sir Integra, do you recognise me?"
"Walter, is that really you," she whispered hoarsely. "Where am I? This is not another of those horrible dreams is it?"
"Dreams?" asked Walter uneasily.
"I've been having the most awful dreams. I dreamt I was attacked and Aluc- ..."
"No, Sir Integra, this is no dream. You are safe with us now."
"Where are we?"
"We're presently in the Czech Republic," replied Walter, his voice full of worry.
Integra said nothing in reply. Her attention was focused at the mirror near the foot of her bed for staring back at her was the image of a woman with her face but whose hair was white as snow.
"How did you find me? And my hair," she said as she recalled her near fatal encounter with Horror, "Walter, my hair, it's ..."
"The doctor that found you attributed the color-change to the stress of the last few days." Walter lied quickly. "He said that you should recover with sufficient rest. Some workers restoring Alucard's abandoned castle found you unconscious in the basement. You were severely undernourished. The workers were scared witless but fortunately someone had the sense to carry you down to the village for immediate treatment."
"Restoration?"
"Yes, I do believe there is presently a project to restore the castle for use as a tourist attraction."
"How ironic," she said cradling her head. "I am alive and I guess I should be thankful for that. There are certain perils from being the great granddaughter of a famous vampire hunter."
To her surprise, she found Walter kneeling down before her, beside her bed.
"Forgive me, Integra. I beg your forgiveness for allowing all this to have happened to you."
"Please, Walter. Get up. Why are you doing this?"
"It was all due to my fault."
"Don't be too harsh on yourself, Walter," Integra sighed. "If anything, my arrogance was the cause of my downfall. Alucard was a ticking time bomb and to think that I believed I could simply leash the devil and control him," she said softly. "How will I face my father?"
"Integra! I ..."
"Perhaps Alucard knew."
"Knew what?"
"That my blood was tainted; that my father was not ... that I was not ..." she broke off uncertainly.
"My Lordship," Walter gasped. "That is not true. Don't say that."
Integra half-laughed bitterly. "I will have to report this to the Queen. The censure from the Round Table will be much worse but right now, I can't worry too much. All I want to do is to go home."
"Integra."
"I want to go home. As soon as practically possible."
Walter answered uneasily as he turned to leave the room, "Yes, Sir Integra. But I will first need to get Doctor Trevor to make sure you are alright."
"Walter?"
"Yes, Sir Integra?"
Integra breathed in deeply. "Walter, before you go. Tell me, did you know my mother well?"
"We all were good friends," he replied, his voice slightly strained. "She was ... a wonderful lady and dear friend."
"Can you tell me more about her?" Integra asked quietly. "Please? I remember so little of her."
She swallowed as she saw her butler's shoulders stiffened involuntarily. "I will tell you all I know when we are back in England, Sir Integra," he answered, his back to her. "Rest now while I get Doctor Trevor."
Integra stared intently at Walter's leaving figure, fighting the million questions going through her mind. Could she ask him? What would he say? Had Horror been real or was she but the product of an over-imaginative mind?
"No, this is madness," she told herself strictly. "It was just a nightmare. It was not real. It cannot be. Horror does not exist."
Still, she couldn't help wondering. Were her nightmares suppressed truths or was the suggestion that her father was either her faithful steward or Alucard all but foolish fancies?
Why did Lady Minerva look like a older version of Rip?
And most importantly, why was she an exact replica of her mother Amelia, down to the birthmark behind their necks?
----------
Dr Trevor looked at Walter worriedly as they approached the helicopter. "Walter, about Integra."
"Hush," whispered Walter urgently. "Return with the required medicine quickly and tell no one in England we are here."
"How long do you plan to keep this from her?" asked the doctor. "Look Walter, the other knights are getting suspicious."
"Stall them as long as you can, Edward. Integra doesn't need to know anything because it's going to end soon. We are leaving for his castle now. With his death, she will be free of his accursed mark."
"But ... it's Alucard we're talking about," whispered Dr Trevor, his face turning pale. "Can you truly say that you are confident of subduing him? I know you were evenly matched then but it was a miracle that you could overcome him then. What more now when you are ..."
"I cannot worry about that," replied the butler gravely. "However, I am aware of the fact I am not that boy I was. That's why Pip and Seras are coming with me. If I fail, it falls upon them to finish my work."
"But Walter, this is madness. We might have had a chance thirty years ago but ... Furthermore, is it wise to leave her here alone, unguarded?"
"I can only hope the spells employed one hundred years ago by Lord Helsing still work."
"But ..." said Doctor Trevor hesitantly. "What if ..."
"Do you have so little faith in me?"
"I, I do not wish to lose another good friend."
"I cannot care what happens of me. Integra's wellbeing must come above everything, including my life and even my soul if it needs be."
"But I cannot see how we are going to ..."
"No more questions doctor. We each have our work cut out for us. No one must know of what has happened this last few weeks. Not ever. This is a secret we must take to our graves."
----------
Integra stared at the ceiling of her room listlessly. Dr Trevor had left an hour ago after a lengthy examination. Despite his assurance that her that everything was fine and that she should be up and about within a week, Integra felt uneasy. Walter had also tried to assuage her worries - after all, as he said, she had been subjected to extreme stress and rest could only be good for her. She would be home in England within a week and life would be, in the words of the good doctor, "fine".
Except the situation at hand was anything but fine. The two men were keeping something from her. Her throat was horribly dry regardless of the water she consumed. The curtains in her room were always tightly drawn and even in his inspection, the doctor had kept her room dimly lit.
And there was still the inexplicable fact that she was having perfect vision without her glasses and that she could clearly make out every detail in her room despite the dim conditions. Shuddering, she recalled her encounter with Rip van Winkle.
"No, I mustn't think that way. There must be some rationale explanation for all this," she chided herself sternly.
She heard a knock upon the door.
"Come in," she answered, looking intently as the door opened and two soldiers entered. The two soldiers gestured Integra to remain still as a third man wheeled in a strange contraption from which tubes filled with a reddish liquid hung. A strangely familiar and delicious smell wafted through the room. Integra was horrified at her own reaction to a smell that had previously sickened her.
Blood. It was the undeniable smell of blood.
----------
Two more days had passed since she had first awoken. She was growing increasingly frustrated at the constant blood transfusions she was subjected to – once every four hours. There was something not quite right about the whole thing. Perhaps her dream had been ...
"Not quite right is the word," chuckled a low voice in the dark.
"Alucard," she snarled before she was surprised by her own reaction. Her voice sounded strange to her, almost feral. "How did you find us so quickly?"
She looked around for a weapon, dismayed to find none.
"Do you think you could have left my castle if I did not intend you too?" he asked, leaning idly against the curtains. "Walter tried to keep me away with your great grandfather's old spells but, as you humans are fond of saying, history has a strange way of repeating itself."
"What do you mean?"
"It was most useful that one of your guards forgot his instructions to renew the seal around your room with fresh blood ever hour."
"Damn you," Integra cried just as she felt a sharp pain go through her head.
"Still adjusting aren't you?" said Alucard, smirking. "Regretfully, I remember the initial pain all too well."
"What are you talking about," she demanded. "What am I adjusting to?"
"You don't remember?"
"Remember what?"
Alucard said nothing but stared at her intently.
He walked over slowly before sitting down by the side of her bed. "Integra, you disappoint me. I thought you would have realised what was happening much sooner."
"It couldn't have been. It was just another mind trick of yours."
"Really," he quizzed in annoyance. "This is all just a passing fancy, you say."
Integra sighed. It seemed impossible but with Alucard, one could never be too cautious.
"Fine, I shall take it that I am not going mad nor are you lying to me. Tell me, who is responsible for all this?" she asked angrily.
"A bastard I thought I had reduced to dust - apparently killing him once is insufficient."
Integra sat up, looking at Alucard with surprise at the intensity of hatred in his voice. She was long resigned to the fact Alucard was anything but good; still she had never seen him exhibit so much loathing before, other than at his last outburst.
"Alucard, who is the person that did this to me?" she asked as she held up a strand of her now silvery hair. "Someone has been messing around in my head ... I have seen the most horrible things. You must know something. Tell me," she pleaded.
"This is just the beginning."
She felt him press something cold and metallic into her hands. She stared. It was her gun.
"Be careful now," he warned. "The silver will hurt you doubly in your present state but it should suffice to convince you of my sincerity in this matter."
She shuddered as another wave of pain ran through her head.
"You fight but how long can you hold out? Why do you cling to your pathetic humanity?"
"I won't lose!" she snarled, glaring at him. "You lost but I will triumph over him."
"You know the futility of your attempts, child. Surely you remember your great grandfather's notes on Mina and Lucy."
"Fiend," she gasped, lugging at him. This time Alucard was faster, pinning her arms as he forced her to lie back down on the bed.
"I assure you this has nothing to do with me," replied Alucard dryly, his face inches from hers. "I recoil in disgust at the fact he still walks this earth. Disgust that he still lives, disgust that he has marked something that only I can, except ..."
"Except that this means you get to kill him again, whoever he is?" said Integra trembling as she saw the crazed smile cross the vampire's face. The remark about her being his unnerved her but she was not about to risk Alucard being distracted. The visions over the last few days were not just mere dreams; they were nightmares come true. Something more sinister than Alucard was in control here. Something whose blood now coursed through her veins.
"What have I become?" she cried. Despite herself, Integra felt a tear roll down her cheek.
"I'm not crying," she protested. "I've just got dust in my eye."
Alucard said nothing. Releasing her arms, he gently lifted a finger to arrest the descent of the offending droplet.
Startled, she pushed his hand away. "No, I am not crying. I am Integra Hellsing. I cannot give in, not now, not ever."
"Of course you are," Alucard replied, his gruff voice calming her somewhat. "Come with me and I will tell you all you need to know. I am your only ally. You cannot return to England, not like this. Just like it was thirteen years ago, you don't have any other options but me."
"But," Integra replied, hesitant. "Why are you helping me? It is not in your nature and there are no seals this time to compel you."
"No one crosses me twice and lives," he snarled. "I want him dead, more than anything else in the world and I dare bet that his death would give you great pleasure too, milady."
With reflexes quicker than even she expected, Integra had the barrel of the gun pressed against Alucard's temples. "How do I know you are telling me the truth?" she asked. "You've been very good at keeping your thoughts to yourself. How do I know you're not in cahoots with this person, whoever he is?"
Alucard laughed. "Wonderful, you would make a good vampire even though your silly head refuses to admit it."
She glared at him.
"You don't have any other person to turn to and you know it. Soon the real battle will begin. Give up now and you might as well end your misery yourself," he said, gesturing to her gun nonchalantly.
She froze at the familiarity of the words.
"But Walter, he will ..."
"The poor man does not know what we are up against. Hurry, if you value his life. He, Seras and Pip are on their way to my castle but Verdorben is already there."
"You fled?" she asked, incredulous. What kind of enemy was this if he scared even the great Alucard?
Alucard snorted in disgust. "I have defeated him and I will defeat him again but I could not risk your capture."
"My capture?"
"You defeated Horror this time because he has underestimated you. You will not be so fortunate the next time he sends his other minions for you."
Clenching her eyelids, Integra tried to fight back the remaining tears that were threatening to flood out. She had never felt fear so acutely since that fateful night thirteen years ago when she had fled to the dungeons to avoid her pursuers.
She had hoped to find her knight in shining armour, a prince to vanquish all the monsters around her.
There was no prince in the dungeon. Instead, she had found a monster and a life that she had never dreamed would be so terrifying. Nothing had changed, thirteen years later she was still the scared little girl fleeing for her life, with only the same monster for an ally.
"Swear to me that you won't hurt Walter or Pip or Seras," she said as she lowered the gun slowly.
"Why do you care for them when you can barely protect yourself."
"Promise me," she repeated determinedly.
"Fine, I will not lift my hand against them," he answered. Approaching the window, he said "I leave now. The question is, are you still afraid, child?"
She frowned at his words. Ignoring the little voice at the back of her mind, Integra gingerly stepped onto the window-sill.
