Seras arrived back at the Hellsing mansion at eight the next evening more than a little tired and disgruntled and not at all pleased with herself. Before removing the corpses and torching the building, a thorough search by the Hellsing officers had elicited nothing. Not a single clue to their allegiance except what could be gathered through their equipment. She had got carried away in the slaughter, she admitted to herself. That last one at least she could have probably knocked unconscious, rather than headless…
She sighed as she trudged down the basement stairs. It was done now, no use crying over spilt blood. Looking up as she walked the familiar route to her room she was surprised to see the door slightly ajar. She could feel a faint sense of almost despondency, edging across her mind. Walking more slowly, she almost crept to the door, before pushing it open.
Integra was sitting on her bed. Her jacket was off and lying on the floor nearby, and her shirt was spotted with blood. She looked abjectly miserable. Her head shot up as Seras entered the room, and she saw that her face was stained with the red streaks of vampiric tears.
"Seras…" she said in greeting. Her voice sounded small and helpless, so far removed from the commanding air of authority that she had come to know.
"What are you doing here Integra?" Asked Seras, walking slowly towards the distraught vampire. "Shouldn't you be in your office, or something?"
"I can't face them Seras, I just can't face them. Walter is running things from the Ops room…he's saying my injuries playing up again or something…Oh Seras, what did I do?"
"You made a choice, Integra." Said Seras, sitting down on the bed beside her. "A choice you can't ever unmake."
"It was a stupid choice, Seras." Said Integra, slumping against the elder vampire, "I'd be so much happier dead."
"But no-one else would be. Integra. We've been through this before. You had to survive for the good of Hellsing…"
Integra gave out a great racking sob, blood falling again from her eyes. Seras felt herself instinctively put an arm around her holding tight to her shoulder. She was so cold…
"How long have you been crying, Integra? She asked, suddenly worried for her fledgling.
"I don't know…I think I started early this morning…"
"You're really cold. Come on, you need blood. Goodness knows how much of it you've cried out…" She started to help her up, one hand on her shoulder the other steadying her at the waist.
"I don't want to drink Seras…can't I just starve…leave it all behind?"
" NO!" Said Seras, more sharply than she'd meant. She picked Integra up. She felt so light. The fledgling struggled against her grip, breaking away from her and falling across Seras' battered old armchair.
"I didn't mean for this Seras…" The older vampire looked around wildly. Where was Walter when you needed him? She couldn't leave Integra like this, not even to go and get blood for her, and the refrigerator unit that held the vampire's blood supply was in the central kitchens. She couldn't walk Integral through for a drink in front of all the kitchen staff…
"I tried to slit my wrists."
She turned to look down at the broken figure curling into the chair.
"I tried twice. It just…healed over."
"Right, come on you," she said, hauling Integra upright in the chair. She pulled her sleeve up to expose her wrist. "Drink!"
Integra stared dumbfounded at Seras' flawlessly white skin, hovering just inches away from her teeth.
"But won't that make me…" she said at last.
"No. It has to be a willing act on both sides. I won't allow it to release you."
"I don't…"
Seras sighed.
"I'm getting tired of this Integra." She said, and practically jammed her wrist into the vampire's mouth. She bit down more out of surprise than anything else, at first anyway. Then the hunger took over. Seras herself had fed well before setting out from Belfast: there was enough in her veins to share. She gave a little moan at the electric sensation of the bite, her mind racing back all those years to when Alucard had turned her. So long ago now. She felt a tingle of pleasure run up her arm as Integra sucked on the puncture wounds made by her fangs. As she felt her arm grow cold, or at least colder, she slowly withdrew it from Integra's mouth. The young vampire suckled pathetically, only letting go when Seras threatened to tug her fangs out, her tongue extending to lap at the wound even as Seras rolled down her sleeve. Integra collapsed forwards with a groan, her head resting sideways on Seras stomach.
"Why won't you let me just starve…?" She said, in a sort of pleading tone.
Seras knelt down, pushing her back into the chair as they did so, so they were looking eye to eye.
"You don't 'starve', Integra. You just become hungrier and hungrier, until it overwhelms you and you kill and drain the first living thing you come across, whether it be a stray cat or your own son."
Integra flinched slightly when she said that, a look of fleeting pain passing over her crimson eyes.
"So you see," continued Seras, "You've got to drink, if not for your sake then for others."
"I've always done things for others, Seras." Said Integra, stretching back in the chair and licking her bloodstained fangs. "Everything I've ever done has been for others." She sat straight, and looked up at Seras as she stood, the petite vampire seeming to tower over her. "Every action I've ever taken in my life has been for the institution, or the crown, or the country, or the family, or the soldiers, but never for me..."
Seras sat on the corner of her coffin-bed, her back resting against the hydraulic pillar.
"Well then," she said, "Why are you so upset about becoming a vampire?"
Integra looked at her blankly.
"We are, first and foremost Integra, creatures of independent will. Alucard and I are bound to Hellsing by the seals and by choice, but even within our bonds we exert a staggering amount of independence. When things are quiet we roam the night-time streets of London, socialising and feeding."
Integra looked shocked. "Feeding? But I thought…"
Seras smiled. "You know as well as I do that vampires do not have to kill when they feed, Integra. When I feel the need for warm blood, which I do sometimes, once you've had the taste of it the transfusion packs are never quite enough, I simply go into a bar, beguile some drunken young man, we end up kissing in an alleyway and bam." She slammed her fist down on her palm. "I give him a tap around the head, drink a pint of his blood, steal his wallet and then rush back into the bar screaming blue murder and saying that a mugger has attacked my prospective one night stand. Someone rushes out to help him, I have a drink to calm my nerves, then leave unobtrusively before he regains consciousness. He learns not to take strange young women home from pubs, I get a warm meal, the people in the bar get a bit of excitement, in the end, as I see it, everyone's happy, or at least no worse off."
Integra was nodding slowly. "What do you do with the money?" she asked. She knew that the salary Hellsing gave her more than paid for Seras' relatively non-extravagant taste in clothes and other such items.
"I pay it back into their bank accounts. No sense in being especially nasty to someone who stood you up for a drink, is there?" Seras laughed, and Integra smiled a bit too.
"There you go." Said Seras, "Cheer up, eh? You've quite literally got everything to live for."
"Well, sort of." Said Integra, chuckling slightly. Seras smiled ruefully and nodded. "Yeah, well, even so it isn't so bad."
Integra sighed again. "But what about my son, Seras? I love him more than anything, I took this cursed immortality to protect him, and yet…I can't be with him anymore Seras. I just can't. I was with him, talking to him about it all, the implications…and there was this little voice speaking to me all the time, dripping like sugary acid…you know the voice, don't you Seras?"
She nodded. "Was it by any chance doing something along the lines of urging you to drink every last drop of his sweet, virgin blood?"
She nodded. "Ignore it." Said Seras, simply, "I do. It gets weaker the less hungry you are. If you keep yourself well fed it isn't a problem. Goodness knows, back when I first joined, before you married your husband, I had to practically contain myself from drooling whenever you entered the room."
Integra blushed slightly, no mean feat for a vampire, even one that had just fed.
Seras laughed again before continuing. "A virgin of noble birth? Good grief…That's why it's so strong, around your son I mean. As far as his blood goes against the transfusion packs, it's like the difference between, oh, Moet et Chandon and Tesco's sparkling wine. They're basically the same thing, but you know which you'd rather be drinking." Integra nodded slowly. So that was why the urge had been so strong…her family had vintage blood. No wonder Alucard had always been trying to get his teeth round her neck.
"So…" she began slowly, "You liked the taste of my blood?" The idea that was forming in her mind, this thought, was so contrary to everything that she had ever done and believed before it scared her…yet the thought, the very idea of it, was so thrilling, so tantalising…
Seras looked at her astonished.
"Why, yes…"
"Would you like to taste it again?"
Seras eyes widened as she realised what Integra was saying. She felt herself begin to blush as well, and stood up hurriedly.
"Integra…" she began, but the other woman finished for her.
"Oh my god Seras! I'm sorry, I don't know what you must think of me…oh…" she sprang up from her chair, and backed hurriedly towards the door, her hand over her mouth. "Oh dear…forget I asked, forget…oh what must you think…" and with that she was out the door. She heard her footsteps running off down the corridor then a heavy slam that indicated she had entered her own room and shut the door with some force.
Seras sat back stunned. Had Integra really asked what she thought she'd asked? Her mind reeled as she thought about it. Could it really be that that proud virginity was the product of something other than strict protestant morals? Could Integra really…no, it was preposterous, Sir Integra Hellsing…she was married with a child for heavens sakes! So? Countered a voice in her mind, Don't think you've never had any doubt about your own sexual preferences. Your virginity DEFINITELY wasn't the product of strict protestant morals, was it? Don't seem to remember you much enjoyed that time with dear old Alucard either… She stopped her thoughts there. She was not going to go back to dwell on that sordid little moment of her past. That had all been his doing anyway, he'd tricked her almost…But doesn't that lend weight to the idea that…She stopped again. She felt quite flushed. This was getting silly, she was a perfectly well adjusted young woman, as far as she was a woman, definitely not…well, a homosexual. The very idea repulsed her.
They do say that the most ardent homophobes are the homosexuals who repress their own true feelings…
She stood again, and flung on her coat. She would head up to ops centre, see if she was needed on any missions. Failing that, a brisk walk into the village would do her fine, yes, something to work out all this energy, blow the cobwebs away…
She closed her door behind her, and walked off down the corridor towards the stairs. Suddenly, she felt a prickly sensation on the back of her neck. She whirled round to see a familiar figure, seemingly made entirely of shadows and red suede.
"What the hell do you want?" she asked, hotly.
"My, my, police girl." He said, his voice full of deep, disturbing merriment, "You do get feisty when your blood is sufficiently roused."
"What in heavens name is that supposed to mean, Alucard?"
"Did your little fledgling make a pass at you?"
She felt herself almost quivering with rage. The elder vampire had the art of annoying people down to a tee.
"I don't know where you got that impression, Alucard. Talk about dirty old men. All those centuries must be getting to you."
He laughed properly, rich and deep "Maybe you should have accepted, Police Girl. You were always too uptight. A little fun would do you a world of good."
She snarled, and withdrew the Jezebel from inside her coat.
"If I were to blast you into dog meat, Alucard, how long would it take you to regenerate? I doubt it would be pleasant no matter how long it took. There's a lot of blessed mercury in these bullets."
His laugh rose again as he swept back into the shadows, leaving nothing put a slight chill to betray his presence. She replaced her gun in her pocket. Damn him…maybe she should go see to Integra? She could be crying again…no, better leave her to cool off. Yes, that's what was needed, just a cooling off. She had been confused, dazed, a bit punch-drunk on Seras' immortal blood…yes, it would all cool off after a bit, if she gave it some time.
Putting on her red-tinted spectacles she turned and headed off up the basement steps.
It was more of an informal gathering than a proper meeting. Integra, washed and in a fresh set of clothes, was there, sitting slightly away from Seras, as if still deeply embarrassed by what she'd said. Also present were Walter, Captain Ross, the leading human operative in the intelligence section, Captains Peters and Lestrange, commanders of companies one and two respectively, and of course Alucard, who sat at a distance to the main group around the library's big central table, looking slyly over his glasses at the two female vampires in attendance. Integra, who was of course in her human disguise, did her best to avoid his gaze, putting on a stern and implacable façade, with the help of some telepathic encouragement from Seras.
"Now, gentlemen, Seras," she said, her voice almost back up to that old standard, "Do we have any leads on the men that kidnapped the Juggler?" 'The Juggler' was Hellsing's code for father Lieberwitz, just as 'Sword Dancer' was their code for Anderson. Someone made a small movement. "Captain Ross?"
Ross stood. He was a small and impeccably neat man, seemingly unaffected by the presence of two known vampires in the room. He adjusted his little wire-framed glasses as he walked over to the projection screen.
"When we examined the corpses, we were able to extract dental x-rays from three of them, that is those that still had intact faces. Using the information from Captain Victoria, we narrowed down our search of the dental records to recent American immigrants, backtracking for twenty years without success. However, when we checked the Republic of Ireland's records, we found our match almost instantly.
Three faces appeared on the projection screen as he pressed a button. Seras had the vague memory of last seeing one of them falling backwards, his forehead exploding from a TMP round. Names and other information, seemingly photocopied from passports, appeared next to them.
"The names are almost certainly spurious. As are the dates of birth and most other data about them. They came over in a party of eighteen, claiming to be construction Engineers from the US."
"I only killed sixteen." Said Seras, "What happened to the other two?"
"As yet unknown. We've eliminated most of the dead, and we have arrest warrants out for four suspects, two of which are unidentifiable corpses, two of which are our true targets. If they didn't leave Ireland before we put the lockdown in place we should stand a decent chance of catching up with them, especially if we enlist some, er, underground help." Ross was referring to Hellsing's increasingly effective, yet technically treasonous, tactic of using the passive elements of the undead population against those most likely to cause trouble, posting information about them on certain internet bulletin boards and handing notices to the managers of certain nightclubs. Very often, they would find their potential troublemaker either dead by morning or suddenly gone underground. The mere knowledge that Hellsing knew where they were hiding out was enough to induce even the most arrogant vampire to do almost anything out of pure fear, in the hope that if they treated Hellsing well, it wouldn't destroy them. And so far, it hadn't. Hellsing had honour, even when it dealt with the undead.
"Good." Said Integra, "There's nothing more we can do there until we capture at least one of them. Walter, do you think we'll be able to get clearance to employ some 'creative data retrieval' techniques?"
"I'll get right on it, Sir Integra."
"Now, do we have any idea what these gentlemen did before coming to the British Isles, and, more importantly, who hired them and brought their equipment and to what end. You can't smuggle assault rifles and exoskeletons into somewhere like Ireland, not easily anyway. Also, where in hells name did they get depleted uranium and mercury ignition rounds from? That's specialised anti-NHB equipment, which means they knew what they were doing to some extent."
"They knew what a vampire was, and how to kill one." Said Seras, "And they had the equipment to do it…well" she grinned, "Sort of. My estimate is that they'd probably fought nothing but FREAKs before, if they're knowledge was anything but theory."
"Okay, their guns?"
Ross again. "Steyr assault rifles and Glock pistols. Frame numbers filed off. They could have been brought practically anywhere. They're ammo however, has us stumped."
He clicked a slide, to show a familiar picture, a 5.56 mm mercury ignition bullet. "These bullets have no other purpose than for dealing with NHB targets. To our knowledge, they're manufactured in only four places in the world. On site here, in Black Sands Nevada, the Vatican city and in Kyoto. We're certain our stocks haven't been depleted unlawfully, as are the Vatican. We're still waiting for the Japanese and the Americans to get back to us."
"Could they have made the bullets themselves?" Asked Captain Peters, sitting forward slightly.
"That looks to be the most likely possibility. They'd need a bullet press, mercury, silver and either a priest or a quantity of holy water to bless them with. We're looking into people who have purchased unusual quantities of any of these things right now, but we need co-operation with the American agencies, and that's always troublesome." Faced with only FREAKs, the continents true vampire population being both small and passive, the American agencies stubbornly refused to believe that the undead had anything except a scientific explanation, and viewed their counterparts in Europe, Asia. Africa and South America as 'superstitious fools'. Just they wait until they encounter the true undead, thought Seras, then they'll be dancing to a different tune…
"So, unknown men, not exactly decent professional hunters, but probably instructed by some, equipped with nondescript weapons…what about the exoskeletons?"
"Modified construction models. Could have been brought anywhere."
"Okay, so, they were Americans, or at least they had American passports and American accents. Amateur hunters…and they were kidnapping a regenerator. Why?"
"Could be any number of reasons," said Alucard, causing all their heads to turn. "Number one, revenge. Lieberwitz has slaughtered countless undead over the years. Maybe a grief-stricken sire or fledgling hired these men, and they were holding him for the undead in question to exact his no doubt gruesome revenge."
"That doesn't explain the silver bullets," retorted Seras. "Maybe our vengeful hirer knew nothing of regenerators, and thought silver bullets would harm them."
"What are regenerators exactly?" asked Captain Lestrange, gingerly, "I've thought a bit about the matter, but…"
Alucard smiled, pushing up his glasses.
"Back in the eighteenth century a Vatican scholar working for the recently made secret Iscariot Inquisition had an idea so brilliant that it was almost certainly blasphemous. If the devil creates demons like vampires and werewolves to plague man and defy God, why should not man, as God's agents on this earth, use their knowledge of science and magic to create an antithesis, a holy monster capable of fighting the undead on its own terms?
"I will not go in to the hideous experiments they performed in the name of Christ. However, eventually, after twenty painstaking years of research, they finally created the first regenerator, refining the blood of undead into a mixture that produced as many strengths and as few weaknesses as possible. They are living undead: Their hearts beat, they eat food and drink water, their bodies are warm, yet they can survive almost any injury, live without food, water or even air for an exceptionally long length of time, they are inhumanly fast and strong, and have an increased capacity for using magic. However, they still retain a few flaws, despite careful refinements by out Catholic friends. They retain a form of Lunacy, that is, they become irritable and aggressive towards the time of the full moon, and their teeth become more bestial, the canines elongating almost to fangs. They also lust for battle and bloodshed, and the thrill of the hunt. Their flaws are all minor however, when compared to the traditional weaknesses of the undead that they overcame: regenerators are not affected by holy items, silver, sunlight or fire. They can still be paralysed by a stake or other such object through the heart, and from my memories of regenerators I fought back in the nineteenth century, in the time before Sir Hellsing's dear old ancestor came into my unlife, whilst the sun may have no negative effects on them as with regards damage to the eyes or skin, they're still not particularly keen on it. That might have been got rid of since, though. The only ways to kill them are to either fully or near totally decapitate them, completely remove their hearts from their bodies, or drain all their blood. The problem with the latter method is that they do not normally bleed. Their bodies somehow retain blood until a certain level of damage has been done, when they do start to bleed. So, a regenerator can be killed by just shooting at him, but it takes hundreds and hundreds of normal bullets, and more ammunition than I carry, unless I was to aim to blow off his head. Oh, and did I mention that they are utterly immortal?" The vampire sat back with a grin.
"So gentlemen," said Integra, "Fast, strong, stripped of both major undead weaknesses and the higher powers, alive but immortal. Can you think of any reason people would not want this technology? Given the ease with which government officials and others have been bribed in the past with offers of FREAK chips or immortal blood, with all the inherent drawbacks, can you not imagine the chaos someone equipped with regenerator technology could reap? An army of immortals and a web of corruption. It would be another Das Millennium, only this time worse." She sat back. "Have we no clues as to who may have hired these people, who they may have been?"
"Well, until we get word back from the Americans…"
"Oh god!" Said Integra sharply, "It couldn't be the Americans, could it? They use exoskeletons, don't they? And there's the fact they seemed knowledgeable about the undead yet inexperienced against true vampires. The Americans couldn't be after their own higher tier hunters, could they? We have vampires, Iscariot has regenerators, the Scandinavians use witches, the Russians can deploy a squad of half werewolves…Yet the Americans have only got men in big space-suits."
Ross seemed to give the idea some thought. "It could be…it depends how much the Americans co-operate…that should give us a clue." He thought for a bit more, "Unless, of course, they say they are co-operating whilst they feed us lies." He looked worried at these thoughts.
"Or, maybe," put forward Seras, "Someone wants to incriminate the Americans. Wouldn't they have moved Lieberwitz out of the country as soon as possible, rather than keep him there for a whole day? It doesn't make sense to me."
Integra put up her hand. "This could go on all night. What we're saying is, we don't have a clue who kidnapped the regenerator or why, but that they used what might have been American mercenaries, and they were well funded. We need those other two suspects. Tell the Ulster constabulary* to redouble their efforts." Ross nodded and headed out of the room, and the rest of the meeting slowly broke up as well, Walter heading to the ops room, Peters and Lestrange to the barracks. Soon, only the three vampires were left in the study. Seras rose first, Integra hesitating for a moment before getting up to follow her. Alucard simply sat there, smiling viciously.
"Shall I get Walter to order up a king size coffin?" he said, cruelly, as the two left together. Integra winced slightly, but Seras just kept walking straight on, only the bunching of her fists betraying her immense anger. Not just at Alucard's obscene, pig-headed comment, but at the sneaking suspicion it might just be the truth.
