(A/N: Hey there. I'm really sorry about the long space between updates. School's been a pain. Please let me know if I should continue this, or not. Thanks)
Integra marched through the hallways towards the meeting place. At times, her purposeful stride was silenced by thick carpeting. At others, the heels of her shoes cracked menacingly upon marbled floors.
At last reaching the room, she threw open the doors without pause, and swept inside. He had better not try anything in here, she thought firmly.
Feeling a slight sweat beginning to come on from all of the earlier emotional exertion coupled by the brisk walk, Integra found her seat. After clasping her hands together and resting them on the table, she leaned forward and addressed the other members of the table.
"What is our business today? Let us make this quick, I am on a very tight schedule."
The other members, all older men, appeared slightly ruffled by her rude behavior, but after a sigh by few, and looks exchanged, a particularly short, bald man stood and began to give a detailed report about the current situation.
He had only just begun to speak, when a feather of cool air brushed against Integra's neck. Startled, Integra jerked her head to the left. She could feel a presence beside her, but saw nothing.
A few men raised their eyebrows at her, but as the speaker had obliviously continued his address, everyone's eyes were soon back on him. Integra withheld a sigh of contempt at having allowed herself to draw unnecessary attention, especially over nothing.
After a moment of inward composure, Integra began her attempts to lend an ear to the short man's droning voice. What the devil had he been talking about for the past five minutes, anyway? It hadn't sounded terribly important.
The thought shocked her, and she straightened in her chair. She hadn't thought such a thing since the earlier days of her schooling! All things discussed within the confines of the round table were important, whether her wandering mind considered it so, or not.
Another light puff of air slid silently past her neck, but this time, she was not startled. Not visibly, at least. Anger swelled within her as the air continued to intermittently grace her pale skin. It was him. The beast knew no bounds.
Well, considered Integra with slight amusement, if this was his game, she'd have no trouble beating it. Honestly, the man placed too much account in his ego if he really thought that breathing on her would ruffle her feathers!
Integra bit into her lip suddenly, as the cool, wet sensation of a tongue slid from the nape of her neck all the way up to just behind her ear. She could feel a shudder coming on, and she fought it successfully.
She would kill him once the meeting was through! She would tear his body up with bullets again and again, without giving him time to reform. She would shut off his blood supply, and threaten to lock him away if such a thing like this were to ever occur again!
The sensation of a hand now began to tug at the tightly clasped collar of her shirt. Soft fingers worked their way into the cloth, pulling it aside ever so slightly. Integra thought wildly of excusing herself from the room, but knew resignedly that she had already been rude enough. It was absolutely imperative that no one discover that she was having...problems, shall we say, controlling her servant vampire.
The fingers had stopped their tickling movements, and again a tongue left its wetness upon her skin. She gritted her teeth and tried not to lean away from her invisible assailant. The heat of Integra's silent rage was beginning to mix with warmth of another kind, the two sources seeming almost to fuel each other.
The cool breaths were coming more fast upon her, causing her to wonder absently if her hair was being moved at all. Lips joined her skin now, and as they worked up and down the graceful curves of her slender neck, a hand wrapped around her waist from the other side of the high-backed wooden chair.
He defies physics, she thought, though really her thoughts had become much less frequent in the last several minutes.
A gentle nip at Integra's ear brought everything into slightly better focus. Enough focus to realize that everyone was staring at her. Every sensation she had just been feeling fled along with His presence as she scrutinized the faces of each round table member in an attempt to discern why they were looking at her.
When their faces yielded nothing, and the silence began to stretch uncomfortably long, Integra opened her mouth to speak. Gratefully, she was interrupted.
"I said, Sir Integra, what do you think we should do about the matter?" The short, balding man's beady eyes were regarding her seriously, and she felt the barest heat rise to her cheeks. It was a comment on her character that the woman had only just now begun to flush.
"Give me some time to think on the matter, gentlemen. I will have Walter get in touch with you in the morning."
Integra smiled inwardly at the startled expressions on their faces as they rose from their chairs one by one. She remained seated, watching as they each exited, before letting her hand slam down onto the table in front of her in a very uncharacteristic display of immaturity.
Heavens, was she regressing?! She had been behaving like some sort of hormone-driven prostitute allowing Alucard to touch her like that! She cursed her body silently for having responded.
"Sir Integra?" Walter's voice carried an undertone of unease, and she swiftly moved her hand from the tabletop to join the other in her lap.
"I'm fine, Walter. Have they all left, then?"
He gave a short nod. "Yes, Sir Integra."
She didn't approve of the look he was giving her, and rose from her seat with every intention of moving past him and going down to the dungeons with her gun. To her surprise, however, Walter would not move out of the doorway.
"Excuse me, Walter," she said a little more sharply than intended.
He was silent for a second, then sighed. "Sir Integra, please know that if you have need of my assistance at any time, I shall be within immediate reach."
Did he think she was getting weak? Integra nodded curtly and moved past him. "Thank you, Walter. You have been a blessing to the Hellsing family."
Anger and indignation at his words threatened to boil over as she stormed her way down to the dungeons for the second time in a little over a week. Pulling her gun from its place in her waist-coat pocket, she checked to see that it was loaded. It did not hold enough bullets for the task at hand, but they were blessed and would cause a sufficient amount of pain when aimed carefully by her skilled hand.
The air became cooler as she stepped into the dark, wet dungeon and began to make her way. Sweat beaded onto her skin as the dank air began to cling to her. The heavy clothing she wore began to stick to the soft skin underneath. She realized she was panting, and stopped for a moment to catch her breath.
"So weak," came a familiarly smug voice from nearby. "Human bodies are good-for-nothing sacks of meat."
Integra closed her eyes. This is not how she had wanted him to see her. As much as she did not want to admit it, it was clear that she had been overexerting herself. She reached up to feel her neck, gingerly. She had taken the bandages off several days ago, but a nasty new scar was still present. Now, as she felt around, she was surprised to find that the wound had shrunk considerably.
"What did you do to it?"
"A heh," came the short laughter. "Shouldn't the leader of the Hellsing family know about the healing properties a vampire's tongue can have?"
He materialized from the darkness, suddenly right in front of her.
"Perhaps your father withheld such knowledge out of worry that his little girl might have desires to explore such a thing, further," Alucard whispered with a glint of amusement in his glowing crimson eyes.
Integra wasted no time in rearing back to slap him across the cheek, and practically growled when he caught her wrist before it could reach him.
"How dare you defile my father's name in such a way!"
Alucard let go of her hand and stepped back to lean against the wall across from her, shrugging as he did so.
"You care so much about honor that it has become your weakness."
Integra pressed her lips into a thin white line as she considered his statement.
"You would know of honor?" she spat the words at him, reveling in reminding him of their arrangement as master and servant.
"You are nothing but a slave to the Hellsing family. How can a slave have honor?"
Alucard was silent, giving no indication of whether he was listening or not. Looking to one side, he pulled his glasses off and hung them in the air where they disappeared.
Integra fell silent as she watched him then remove his hat, followed by his coat. They too, disappeared.
"What..." she cleared her throat to sound more steady. "What are you doing?"
He stood before her now in only his black pants and white dress shirt. His red neck tie lay draped about his lean neck in disarray.
"At some moment during your pointless words about honor, you wished to see me in less."
Integra's eyes grew round with shock. She sputtered, trying to find words that wouldn't come.
"The thought was very fleeting, and did not specify how much less, so I estimated that this would be sufficient."
His fangs gleamed in the faded light that a single dirty light bulb gave, and he grinned widely.
"Please correct me, if this is not as you wish, my Master."
Integra's voice had become dangerously low as she carefully considered her next words.
"You mock me, vampire. You dare play these games when you know that I have the power to cut you off from life itself?!"
Alucard's grin widened. "I believe that I have little to worry about. It seems to me that your subconscious and I are generally on the same side."
Integra's eyes narrowed to slits. "I could never have feelings for a monster."
Alucard began fiddling with the red tie at his neck. "I suppose sentiments like those are why you continue to deny it, then."
The tie was gone, and his fingers had begun nimbly working at the top buttons of his clean-looking white shirt.
"Stop. This. Instant!" Integra cried in alarm. He paused, and let his hands fall to his sides.
"Have I mentioned how fickle a place your mind is, Master?"
The vampire gazed down at her with his wine-red eyes as he continued lounging against the wall in front of her.
"You are a creature of surprising passion, but you never let it out. It builds inside of you, like an unquenchable thirst."
Alucard tilted his head back to gaze at her from beneath half-lowered lids. "Someday I will satisfy that thirst."