The Hellsing Mansion was quiet. Occasionally, a soldier would pass along the walls of the estate, watching for intruders, but they all missed the danger just outside their sight.
"Shh. Ve haff a limited time to get this spell in effect," said the woman with the queasily shifting tattoos.
"Joleen, vy do ve haff to do this? I thought the Major said that ve should leafe them alone?" asked the werewolf boy who was hiding behind her.
"The Major says a lot of things we don't listen to, Schro. Vy vould I listen to him about Hellsing? Besides, it ist just a little spell und ist more for fun than anything else."
"Joleen, hurry up, already. I haff to go soon. The Major ist going to be wery angry vith me if I hold up the mission to the Eagle.
"Stop vhining, Rip. If both of you vould shut up, I could get this spell finished." Joleen returned to adding the final ingredients to the brazier inside the mystic circle she had drawn. With a quick eye to the walls for passing guards, she chanted the words of an ancient spell and tossed a lit charm bundle into the waiting pile of components. A brilliant purple flash signaled the success of the spell and she motioned her companions to follow her as she raced away through the night.
Seras Victoria walked down the hallway to her room. She was feeling so tired and crabby. She'd probably be in a better mood if that Pip Bernadette hadn't been bothering her earlier. He kept making off color jokes and ogling her chest. He just didn't get it. He wasn't interesting to her. Why would she be interested in a twisted little French mercenary when she- She stopped that line of thinking. There was no reason to go there, it was never going to happen. At least not in this human lifetime.
She sighed at herself. She was so stupid, mooning over someone she could never have. He already had a love. She'd seen them together. He was never as relaxed with Seras as he was with her. "Why am I doing this to myself?" she muttered as she slammed through the door to her room and threw herself on the bed. She rolled over and stared at the canopy over her bed. "I don't want to drink blood tonight. I want a nice plate of bangers and mash. I want steak and kidney pie. I want a nice hot pudding. I don't want to drink that nasty stuff!"
She rolled back off the bed and decided to change out of her boring Police Girl uniform. It was always the same thing, day after day. She had to admit that the short skirt and tight blouse earned her a lot of looks from the soldiers, but the one man she wanted to notice her never seemed to look twice. She thought she'd try something new tonight. She pulled out the shopping bags and looked over her prizes. The dress was calf-length, but cut to emphasize Seras' more obvious attributes. What she liked best about it was its color. It was a perfect red color. She slipped off her uniform and thigh highs and slipped the dress over her head. With the matching pumps, she looked less like a police girl than a woman.
Seras twirled in front of the mirror and thought about the reason she'd bought the dress. She was thinking that maybe she'd come up with an excuse to go visit him down the hallway when her eyes suddenly glowed purple and her whole body stiffened like she'd gotten an electric shock. When the glow faded, the girl collapsed to the floor.
It had been such a fun week. They'd just gotten back from Brazil two days ago and it was obvious that things were ramping up for a lot more activity.
Integral had been monopolizing his time a lot lately, and frankly, it was starting to get a little annoying. He had more things to do than show her things she should already know.
For one thing, the Police Girl needed more help. She just wasn't getting the hang of being undead quickly enough and she was going to need to know a lot more than she did if she was going to make it through what was obviously coming.
He settled down in his chair with a decanter full of blood and a wine glass in his hand. He had just crossed his legs and taken a long sip when power flashed through the mansion. His glass crashed to the floor as he leaped up to find the source of the attack.
Pip Bernadette and Walter Dornez were sharing war stories in the kitchen. Walter had just finished telling Pip an implausible story about taking on an entire Nazi battalion with nothing but some pieces of wire and Alucard. Pip was just getting ready to tell him an almost equally unlikely story about an ill-considered contract he and the Wild Geese had taken in Uganda when Integral Hellsing entered the kitchen.
She looked sourly at the two snickering men and asked, "Walter, were you planning on doing anything constructive tonight or were you just going to sit around telling dirty jokes with Captain Bernadette?"
"Sir Integral, I assure you, we have everything under control," Walter said as he pretended not to hear a certain snide comment Pip made under his breath in French.
Integral was glaring at Pip. Not only was her hearing excellent, so was her French. "Captain Bernadette, why don't you go out to the barracks with your men and make sure that all of the latrines are thoroughly cleaned? I think you should do the majority of the work yourself." She smirked as he left.
She was just about to lay into Walter for his attitude when they both felt a strange jolt go through them.
Seras opened her eyes and groaned. Her head felt like someone had just been using it for football practice. She winced, expecting to see David Beckham's foot heading for her temple as another shot of pain lanced through her brain.
"Bloody hell, what was that?" she moaned. It took two tries, but she made it to her feet, swaying in front of the mirror. She grumbled to herself about the wrinkle in her nice new dress until she stared in shock at the new detail in the mirror. Her red eyes were no longer red, but a glowing solid purple.
Alucard had searched the grounds thoroughly and found the remains of the spell casting. It wasn't a spell he recognized, so he had gone inside to get Walter. If Walter didn't know what the spell was, at least the old man would be able to take pictures and do whatever it was the butler did that made things run so smoothly.
When he arrived in Integral's office, the first thing he noticed was the delicious odor in the air. The second thing he noticed was the Police Girl, who was out of her uniform for one of the few times he could remember. He had just enough time to think that she looked good in red before the most important thing in the room caught his attention, the solid glowing purple of her eyes.
He had crossed the room and had the girl in his arms without realizing what he was doing. He was brought to his senses by Integral's angry shout. "Alucard, get your hands off of Seras, now!"
Seras jumped away from him, shaking. "Oh my God, what are you doing, Master?"
Alucard moved as far away from her across Integral's office as he could get and looked anywhere but at Seras. He didn't know what it was, but she made him hungry in ways that had nothing to do with blood. He wanted her right then and there, whether Integral, Walter and that French guy were watching or not.
Integral got right up in Alucard's face, still shouting at him, "What do you think you're doing, assaulting the Police Girl right here in front of me? Do you have no sense of self-respect?"
"Master, do you think that I would try to take the Police Girl in that fashion with all these witnesses? Even I am not that much of a monster. I don't know what came over me, but it is very hard to resist." He thought for a minute and said, "It might be connected with the spell remains I found outside the walls. I had just come up here to get Walter when I was so distracted by…" he trailed off when he made the mistake of looking at Seras again. The glow of her eyes was hypnotic and he had crossed halfway to her before Integral's hand against his chest brought him somewhat to his senses.
Integral pushed Alucard back across the room and back against a wall. When she thought she had the vampire pinned in one place, she called over her shoulder to Seras, "I want you out of here. Go back to your room until we have a use for you. I can't have you bringing out the beast in Alucard every time he so much as looks at you."
Seras hurried out of the room. She was insulted that Integral was treating her as though this was somehow her fault. She thought that Integral was acting almost jealous that Alucard was showing so much desire for her instead of his Master. She couldn't help it, it felt good. It was what she'd just been wishing for, after all.
Integral sat back at her desk and lit a cigar while Alucard described to her and Walter what he'd found outside. Walter frowned and asked for permission to take a look at the site and spell remnants before beginning his research into what it may have intended.
When Alucard and his Master were alone together, she turned on him, furiously. "I told you not to make toys, Alucard. Look what happened! I knew she would be trouble."
"Master, the Police Girl means well and she has been useful. If she hasn't taken to the life of a nosferatu yet, that's as much my fault as it is hers. I'm not a very good teacher and I know that."
Integral snorted disdainfully and blew a cloud of smoke in her vampire's direction. "I don't need a weakling vampire in my service. In my opinion, she has been more trouble than she's been worth, and it is my opinion that makes the final difference around here. Do not forget that, Servant."
Alucard leaned against the wall and tried not to let his irritation with Integral show. She'd been getting more and more difficult to live with since he had turned Seras. He didn't understand where she got off acting jealous when she had always been very clear that he had no chance with her. It was like she wanted him to spend eternity alone and frustrated.
They waited quietly, if uncomfortably, for Walter to report back with some results of his investigation. It seemed to take forever, but Alucard assumed that the old boy was just slowing down with time. He just wasn't as spry as he used to be. Alucard kept getting distracted by thoughts of Seras. Her perfume hung in the air, making his mouth water with thoughts of how someone who smelled like that would taste.
After what felt like forever, Walter returned to the office. He had a digital camera with him, and he showed Integral the scene on the preview window on the camera. He commented on the burned remains in the brazier as well as the special nature of the circle.
"If I didn't know that love spells don't work, Sir Integral, I would say that this was some teenager's idea of how to get their true love to notice them. However, I can't discount the reality of Miss Victoria's changed eyes, nor that of Alucard's reaction to her."
"Are you saying that Seras has been the object of a love spell, Walter?" asked Integral.
"No, Sir Integral, I'm not saying that. In my long experience, love spells are pure bunk. Miss Victoria and Alucard have both been affected by something that cannot be dismissed as bunk. I will need some time to research this, but I don't expect it will take me long. The remains of the spell are very telling. If you'll excuse me, I'd like your permission to open the sealed archives to see what I can find."
Integral waved her hand irritably at Walter and said, "Do what you need to do, Walter, just find out what this is and how we can fix it before we have Alucard and Seras setting up house and filling the Hellsing mansion with a litter of red-eyed offspring."
Alucard's boredom was interrupted by an urgent call that there were ghouls attacking in a small village nearby. At Integral's order, he left to take out the trash. She growled when he grumbled a little too loudly about how sexist it was that he always had to take out the garbage.