Alucard sighed. He had almost completely coaxed her out of her shell, but now she had reassumed her cold, unemotional, exterior mask…and it was all Quincey's fault.
"How did you stay awake?" Alucard hissed, advancing on the vague outline of a shape in the far corner. There was some rustling, but no response.
"Rats' blood," Quincey said wisely, after a pause, from his spot in the corner. "Nasty stuff, but it keeps you going when you're in a tight spot." His eyes flicked to Integra. "Do you feel powerful having a vampire drink out of your hand?" he asked rather bluntly.
Alucard growled and started forward, but Integra gave him a fierce look and he backed down.
Quincey watched this exchange with a neutral expression. "You always did like being controlled," he muttered under his breath, but, most unfortunately, Alucard heard this comment and had Quincy thrown against the wall before Integra could do anything to stop him.
"Alucard!" she admonished sharply nonetheless. "Control yourself!"
Quincey's eyes widened slightly when he saw Integra's face clearly and he tried to get up. Alucard, however, had other ideas, and pinned him against the wall by the throat with one hand. "Could…Alucard….and I talk privately for a few minutes…please?" he choked out.
Integra took an involuntary step backwards in surprise. "I suppose," she said reluctantly. She gave Alucard a questioning look, but he nodded his assent, so she withdrew from the room without further comment.
"She looks just like her, doesn't she?" Quincey murmured, looking after Integra's retreating figure with fading surprise.
Alucard dropped Quincey with a start and stared at him. "What did you just say?" he asked him hoarsely.
Quincey stared at him in undisguised astonishment. "Was that emotion in your voice?" he asked in amazement. "Things have changed quite a bit since 1902." He sighed at Alucard's demeanor. "I said, she looks just like her."
"Who?" Alucard asked numbly. "She looks like who?"
"Why, Mina of course," Quincey exclaimed. "I'm rather curious as to how that worked out in the family tree," he added nonchalantly.
"Mina and Jonathan's daughter married Integra's grandfather," Alucard answered mechanically.
"Interesting how these things turn out, isn't it," Quincey mused. "She has the same facial structure, same mouth, same stubborn chin…"
"I don't want to hear it," Alucard snarled.
"You never want to hear anything," Quincey countered calmly. "But what I really meant to talk about was you. Something tells me that your failure to win Mina's heart last time hasn't taught you anything about the incompatibility between vampire and human love."
Alucard flinched. "Do not remind me of my failures, or I will remind you of yours," he hissed warningly.
"Ouch," Quincey murmured, struggling to obtain an easygoing atmosphere. "I would prefer that you leave, then," he said huffily, "seeing as you don't want to have this little chat with me."
"Will do," Alucard retorted obligingly, turning to go. He paused momentarily, however, and looked back at Quincey. Quincey sensed his gaze and looked back at him with dead eyes. "Yes?" he asked wearily.
"You know what to do if…." Alucard began.
"Of course I do," Quincey replied quietly. "That's what we're made for, right?"
Alucard laughed. "Exactly," he answered, before gliding over to the doorway and looking out into the hall. "Integra?" He asked the empty stone corridor.
There was silence. A foreign feeling of fear began to writhe in his stomach, but he quelled it with some effort. Vampires do no feel fear. "Integra?" he called louder, stepping out into the hallway.
"Over here," he heard very faintly from somewhere to his right. His head jerked towards the sound of her voice, and, after rounding a corner, the scent of her blood was strong enough for him to find her without further help.
She was leaning against a wall (which she had tested to be sure of its solidity before trusting it) and smoking a cigar. Alucard wrinkled his sensitive nose at the unpleasant scent of smoke before closing the distance between them with a few long strides. "You should really stop smoking those," he chastised, plucking it from her fingers and crushing it under his boot. "It disrupts your otherwise mouthwatering scent," he added in a lower voice.
Integra glared at him. "I found the wine cellar," she said with no real enthusiasm in her voice. Alucard, however, perked up noticeably at the word 'wine' and glided past her in anticipation into the door that was slightly ajar at her right.
"No, no, that's the torture room," Integra corrected him belatedly as he hastily backed out of the room, his less savory memories of that room surfacing in his mind. "It's the room behind you," she said, pointing to the wall across from her. "If you look closely there's another wall behind that wall, and together they form a small passageway."
"Very clever, Sir Hellsing," Alucard commented with quiet appreciation, referring to her being able to find the hidden passageway. He eased behind the wall without waiting for a response and soon Integra could hear the sound of bottles clinking as he looked through the wine.
After a few minutes he reemerged with a bottle in each hand and a pleased look on his face. "A superb collection," he remarked with suppressed satisfaction in his tone.
Integra raised an eyebrow delicately. "Did I give you permission to take wine out of that room?" she asked him menacingly.
"Are you really going to be cruel enough to make me go and put them back?" Alucard shot back.
Integra opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. "As long as you share it," she said finally.
"That was exactly my plan, Sir Hellsing," he purred.
When they got back to Integra's temporary room the small nightstand clock informed them that it was a little past midnight. Integra sat down on the edge of her bed and laughed ruefully. "After all that, we never did find the actual laboratory," she sighed.
"That can always wait for another day," Alucard assured her as he joined her on the bed. "Finding two bottles of fine cabernets are far more enjoyable than finding secret laboratories, anyway," he added, pulling out the cork of one bottle with his teeth. "Do you know how to drink wine?" he asked her in a muffled tone, before spitting out the cork. After some rummaging in his coat he produced two wine glasses and set them on the nightstand.
"I suppose," Integra answered, looking at the wine glasses in surprise. "Where did you get those?" she asked curiously.
"They were in the wine cellar," Alucard replied, frowning at the dust covering both of the glasses. "What do you mean, you suppose you know how to drink wine?" he asked, referring to her earlier response. "You either do or you don't," he continued, wiping out each glass with a corner of his coat.
Integra eyed this action doubtfully. "I'm not sure if you made those glasses cleaner or dirtier," she commented with some amusement. "As for how to drink wine," she continued, "You pour it in a glass and drink it," she answered simply.
Alucard gave her a withering look. "I will forgive your ignorance," he said condescendingly, "after all, you are only what—23? 24?"
"Don't mock me," Integra snapped, temper briefly flaring at his patronizing tone. "Even if I don't know how to drink wine correctly, you can be assured that I know how to use a gun properly," she added, the threat quite clear.
"I know you do," Alucard said soothingly, pouring half a glass for her and half a glass for himself. "I was the one that fine-tuned your marksmanship skills, remember? …Just as I am going to teach you how to drink wine."
"If you must," Integra sighed, staring at her wineglass. She sensed, rather than saw, Alucard grin from beside her, but started when his arm snaked around her waist.
"First," he purred, "swirl the wine in your glass and smell it at the same time. Notice the scent of the wine—don't be afraid to inhale it deeply," he ordered, seemingly following the last of the directions himself in regards to her neck.
"Next," he continued slowly, "take a small sip and let it roll over your tongue."
He knew he shouldn't have moved so close to her neck when he was hungry and at the height of his nighttime awareness. Though familiar craving for her blood that had overcome his senses had automatically dulled to a small ache due to the Hellsing seals, he was still very aware of the empty space in his throat where he felt he should be swallowing her blood. And he knew it would only be so long before he was overwhelmed with the desire to taste her blood despite the restraint the seals provided. He would silently suffer with unfulfilled longing for her blood unless she gave him permission.
"Mmm," Integra murmured appreciatively about the wine, unaware of Alucard's inner conflict. At the same time Alucard felt his throat constrict and his tongue almost force its way out of his mouth in his desire to taste the side of her neck that was so temptingly in front of him.
In one subconscious movement he moved more behind her and slid his hands over her shoulders. In response, Integra carefully put down her glass and leaned back into his touch. He bent his head over her neck and almost lazily let his tongue trail over her skin.
Integra did not fail to notice his tongue's path traced her jugular vein, or that he growled faintly in frustration whenever he tried to lock his teeth into her throat and the seals froze his jaw before he could penetrate her skin. It was this part of Alucard that she despised: that he could be reduced to an animalistic monster under the influence of her blood.
Not knowing what else to do, she reached up a hand and placed it on Alucard's head, letting her fingers tangle in his hair, and it quieted him a little. Like a dog would be, she thought, and immediately hated herself for thinking that.
"May I?" Alucard's voice in her mind asked pleadingly, and Integra swallowed. How would her father have dealt with this? She doubted that he would have let Alucard drink his blood; it was more likely that he preferred to get satisfaction out of depriving Alucard of pure Hellsing blood. She was even more positive that her father would not have felt pity for Alucard. Did that make what she was about to do wrong?
"You may," Integra murmured softly, "but know restraint, my pet," she added in an uncharacteristically tender tone.
"Of course, my master," he responded mentally, his teeth sinking into her skin and his tongue beginning to lap up the blood that welled out of the bite mark.
She let him drink for a few more minutes before telling him to stop. He immediately withdrew from her, if a bit reluctantly, and licked his lips to savor the last traces of her blood.
"A treat, as always," he said seductively, reaching for his wine glass from its place on the nightstand, and after sniffing it, he sipped it appreciatively.
Integra took another sip of her wine as well and turned to set her wine glass down. When she turned back around she barely had time to register Alucard's face in front of hers before their lips collided and they fell backwards together on to the bed.
When his tongue invaded her mouth she could still taste the mix of blood and wine in his mouth, and to her surprise she did not mind it as much as she had feared.
She finally broke off the kiss, mostly to catch her breath, and gently pried him off of her. "A simple 'thank you' will suffice next time," she murmured, smirking.
Alucard returned the smirk and propped himself up against the headboard of the bed. "Shall we continue the wine lesson where we left off, then?" he asked invitingly.
Integra handed him his wine glass before reaching for hers. "Of course," she replied.
siiiigh sorry it took so long.
Ok credit goes where credit is due:
…I got the inspiration for this chapter from the movie sideways. Mmhmm. And my own misadventures in the wine region as well. And….next chapter is almost done, and by almost done I mean I'm just kidding, but it'll get here when it gets here. I promise it won't take as long as this one did.
Oh, and I think I've figured out this fic is a plot-what-plot. Took me just about 9 chapters to figure that one out. But then if you have like a really good idea for this fic don't hesitate to share. And even if it's just a small suggestion I'll take anything I can get…so maybe I can save this fic before it falls into the PWP pit.