Pt 2 of 2. Enjoy. R&R!

Damned vampire! she seethed as she flopped into her chairHe knows full well the depth of my emotions…

...And for a moment... when she had turned and faced the enraged Demon... she had had the giddy half-thought, half-wish that he was going to kiss her...

Before she could take a breath to banish the blasphemous thought, he was there. He stood behind her chair as she tried desperately to hold back the tears of anger that threatened to spill over. He wouldn't understand… he would think them tears of fragility… of weakness, just one more thing to disgust him about me, about being human…

"Leave me, now." She managed aloud, her voice holding only the merest hint of a tremble.

She was stolidly still as Alucard reached his gloved hand over the looming backrest of her chair, his fingers gently stroking her silky hair. With his touch, her anger flared to almost unimaginable heights, and then just as suddenly dissipated like a morning fog under the suns warm rays. A single tear squeezed through as a single finger gently traced a line from the base of her ear down to the crook of her neck where it met her shoulder. She shivered involuntarily.

"It is your choice, Integral." He murmured softly. "It always has been, and shall always be your choice." The arrogant air she had come to know as his was absent. She held a death grip on her reserve of pride and restraint, refusing to acknowledge what his touch did to her.

He sensed the fight deep within her. Meaning perhaps to make it easier for her, he placed a jaunty smile on his lips, and leaned closer, purring softly into the delicate shell of her ear, "I am ever you servant, my Master. Use me as you will... as is your right…"

Integra closed her eyes. Her heart was galloping, its beats so loud she was sure it was audible to all the world. She felt Alucard's fingers, cool beneath the fabric of his gloves, tracing a soft pattern on her warm shoulder. She knew he could feel the slight tremor that ran through her at his touch, could sense the heat that flooded through her veins at the insinuation that colored his voice. She had been Alucard's prey ever since she had freed him from his cold basement tomb; he had long awaited this moment, when her resolve was at its weakest and her indomitable will close to being shattered. She had always fancied that this would be the moment he chose to strike, to kill her and be free of her forever. It surprised her, then, his words, confused her, and perhaps lulled her into a false sense of security that had never been present in their twisted relationship before. For this moment, at least, she trusted him completely.

She stood and before she could change her mind, quickly turned to face him. Her eyes were cool, haughty, her chin at an arrogant angle, while her mind raced. His hands now at his sides, her quivering body a hairs breadth from him, he smirked. Her chest was rising with her short breaths, her heart beating a staggering staccato that was the sweetest symphony to grace his ancient ears in ages. "I sense your heart beating faster, my master..." he almost whispered, his deep, gravely voice tinged with a soft intimacy she had never heard before. "… and your blood sings to me as it courses through your veins." He sniffed the air surrounding her, as if taking in the bouquet of a fine wine. "Frightened?" he finally inquired in his usual teasing manner.

She stepped closer into him, her anger turned to longing. Her gloved fingers captured his and entwined them with her own. Her eyes did not stray from his - that would have placed her in the submissive, even on the most infinitesimal level... and that could never be allowed. "I will never be afraid of you, Alucard," she breathed defiantly against him as she wrapped his arms, her fingers still entwined with his, around her. He smiled that irritatingly knowing smle, but this time it did not bother her.

His head moved slowly, ever-so-slowly down, to place a soft kiss on her neck. She did not flinch, she did not shiver.

He chuckled, and moved ever-so-slowly to place a chaste kiss on the other side of her throat as well.

"You realize that if you do this, Alucard, you will never be able to make me like you… you are sealing my fate, to die as a human."

His hair seemed to have taken on a life of its own, caressing her hair, her cheek, and her shoulders while his hands were held captive by hers. "It is not my choice, Integra, to condemn you to anything. You condemn yourself."

How easy it would be then, she mused to herself silently. One night with him, and I would never have to agonize over his offer of immortality again.

Ahh, his strong mental voice countered, slightly annoying her at his intrusion, Yes, how easy it would be to take my one evening of comfort, to appease yourself, and leave me forever unsatisfied... to use me in that manner.

Would not your ownership of my body satisfy you? She demanded almost indignantly. Sure he realized that once she had done this, she would never in good conscious be able to have another man in her bed.

He chuckled darkly. "Integra my dear, pleasures of the flesh are but the tip of the iceberg, compared to the ecstasy that your immortality would bring to me."

As the pale brilliance of the night's full moon shone through her office window, his shadowy tentacles softly caressed her cheek. His infinite patience with her never once wavered, his crimson orbs never once flashed in anger, or in anticipation. It was truly her choice.

She stood up on tiptoe, and placed a soft, sweet, gentle kiss on his waiting lips. "Perhaps one evening, Alucard," she whispered softly against those lips, "I will acquiesce, to both you and to myself. But not this evening. I still relish the taste of wine, the warmth of the sun on my skin, the blue of my eyes and the frailty of my mortality too much."

She held very still, her strength of will leaving her for the moment, unable to bring her eyes to meet his. He pulled her to him in a tight embrace, full of pride and longing, protection and respect… and perhaps a twinge of the foreign concept of love. He pulled back; their fingers still entwined, and left a lingering kiss on her forehead, before vanishing softly into the night.

His voice echoed in her head, however, a sweet caressing promise. I will wait forever for that evening, my master. You need but call my name.

Fin