Disclaimer: Not mine, worst luck. What I wouldn't give for shadows to fetch and carry for me.

Authors note: I'm issuing a blanket warning for this and all future chapters. There are going to be things here and there that may make some readers uncomfortable. They are not my personal opinions nor are they here to cause offense. This is fiction, and as such, I'm making this shit up as I go along. Roll with it and see where it takes you – its what I'm doing.

Chapter 7

"An angel of mercy." said Integra flatly. "What the hell is that?"

"It's a vampire that goes around turning humans that are on the brink of death. They believe that they are saving their victims from death. The last two targets that we silenced both had accidents, then both became vampire. It's an angel of mercy, I'm sure of it."

"And where do we look for this roving misfit?"

"Put watchers on all the hospitals in that area. Their usual hunting grounds are trauma centers or nursing homes. Since both targets had accidents, I'm betting on a trauma center."

Integra nodded and then said:

"I've never heard of this before. Is it common?"

"No." Alucard shook his head, "Actually its very rare, and a good thing too. Otherwise we'd be hip deep in vampires."

He sighed deeply and said:

"Is there anything else?"

"No. Good morning."

He nodded and dropped through the floor to the sub levels. He had a very good idea that Seras would be waiting for him, and he wasn't wrong. She was leaning against the wall outside his door, scuffing the toe of her boot. She looked up as she felt him arrive.

"Master, can I talk to you for a moment?"

He stepped past her and opened the chamber door, walked inside and threw himself into his chair. Timidly she followed, and jumped as the candles flared into life.

"You want to know about the woman in the park?"

"Not really."

Her answer startled him. He was sure that she was going to question him about how he had dealt with their last target.

"Then what police girl, the sun is coming." impatience coloured his tone.

"I want to know why you gave me the blood to drink in the field."

"Because you needed it." he said bluntly. "You need to start associating blood with positive emotions, not negative ones."

"B..But..." she stammered.

"But nothing!" he snapped. "You will learn to drink. Whether you drink willingly or I force feed it to you is your choice. But you will drink!"

By this time, he was on his feet, looming over her and shouting.

"I'm sorry." she whispered.

"I heard your promise you know." he said slyly, all traces of anger suddenly gone from him tone.

"You did?" she blushed.

"I did. And I intend to hold you to that promise."

He sat back down, steepled his fingers and looked at her over the tops of his glasses.

"Now go to you room, have a snack and go to sleep."

The stern tone brooked no opposition and Seras nodded once and left the room. She paused at the door and said quietly.

"I already know why you were gentle with the lady in the park. Because she deserved mercy."

And then she was gone.

Alucard bared his fangs and snorted in self disgust. The fledgling thought that he had been gentle, that was NOT the reputation that he had intended to ever cultivate. He made a mental note to show savagery on the next mission and then threw himself into his coffin, a little put out that his feeding subterfuge had been seen.

Meanwhile, at the Hellsing munitions factory in Cardiff:

"Oi!"

The indignant shout echoed across the loading bay and was directed at the two privates that were supposed to be loading crates into a waiting truck. They had gotten bored with their assignment and had sloped off round the stack of crates for a smoke. They looked in the direction of the voice and inwardly groaned as they saw Jane stalking towards them.

She reached them, snatched the cigarette from them and ground it out on the sole of her boot. Then she stuffed the still warm butt into the shirt pocket of the nearest private. He didn't dare flinch.

Glaring first at one and then the other, she let rip.

"Did either of you two muppets think to take a look at what you were loading before you decided to strike an open flame?"

"Uhh, no ma'am." mumbled one. His partner in crime remained silent, because he knew better.

"No." she said vehemently. "Of course you didn't. Because if you had, you'd have noticed that you were surrounded by five hundred or more claymore mines, my claymore mines. Which means that if either of you two bell ends had dropped that fag, we'd be using a high pressure hose to clean what was left of you off the walls."

She let that visual image sink in for a moment.

"Now get on with it, and no more mucking about."

She turned on her heel and left the two young men standing at rigid attention while their nuts climbed back down to where they belonged and then started loading as efficiently as possible.

She had made it back into her office when she could hear indignant voices coming from the upstairs offices. Shrugging, she closed the door and sat down at her desk where she was reviewing her prototype drawings of a liquid round. Above her the voices continued and then loud and hurried boot falls sounded on the stairs. A moment later, the door to her office was kicked open.

Turning in her seat, she looked to see which suicidal individual had decided that today was the day they died, only to be confronted by a Hellsing squad, masked, fully armed and pointing it all at her.

"Ah." she said calmly, realisation dawning. "I take it the mail arrived."

"Miss Jane Smith, you are to come with us now. With no resistance."

She held up her hands and walked slowly towards them. Once she was within arms reach, she was grabbed, her hands zip tied behind her and relieved of her sidearm, her combat knife and the stiletto that she kept in her boot. A swift patting down found no further weapons and she was marched swiftly towards a waiting van. As she was being taken away, she could Joshua shouting from behind the cordon that had been put up at the door.

"Jane, what's going on?"

"It's okay Josh." she called back.

"No talking." snapped the trooper who was propelling her along, giving her a savage shake.

She rolled her eyes and made a mildly obscene gesture with her hands.

She was nearing the van and she wasn't surprised to see Wiggins being marched towards a different van. His hands were also bound. Other troop members came behind him carrying boxes of files and documents. Jane could recognise some of them being from her own office.

"What have you done Jane?" he screamed as he got closer.

"The right thing." she shouted back, only to receive a sharp blow to the back of her head.

"I said no talking." growled the man who held her.

Jane ground her teeth and stopped walking, planting her feet firmly on the ground. The man walked straight into her and as he did his hold on her arm loosened. Twisting out of his grip, she quickly turned around, stepped in and planted her knee in his crotch. He went down like a sack of wet cement.

She didn't get to enjoy her revenge, as a fist to her jaw dazed her enough for someone else to grab her and shove her into the waiting van. By the time her vision cleared, the doors were closed and she was sitting against the vans rear wall, surrounded by angry, armed troopers.

Deciding that she was in enough trouble for the moment, she resisted the temptation to verbally abuse them and closed her eyes instead, thinking that the look in the trooper's eyes as he went down was well worth the pounding in her head and the swelling she could feel rising on her jaw.

The travel was uneventful although by the time they reached the castle, it was raining. Stopping in a large courtyard, she was manhandled out and stood in front of a man with a monocle and a military posture. He frowned at her and said to the lieutenant:

"What happened to her face?"

"She assaulted one of my men sir, resisting arrest"

the older man's eyes narrowed and he said,

"I doubt that's the whole story but lets not dally in the rain. I'll take her from here. Thank you lieutenant"

He took her elbow gently and led her through a doorway and down a set of steps.

"Please be careful, the steps can be slippery in the damp."

Jane could feel the strength of his grip even though he was only lightly holding on and she instinctively knew not to try anything with this man. He led her down a stone hallway and stopped in front of a metal door.

"Here we are."

'Here' turned out to be a small windowless room with a bare floor, narrow bed and a table and chair. Another door led off to a bathroom. She stood very still as the man drew a pair of clippers from his pocket and snipped off the tie that held her hands. Carefully she brought them in front of her and started to rub life back into the blood starved extremities.

"My name is Walter and I'll be looking after you while you are with us."

She nodded, anger having fled and fear starting to creep in, along with the realisation of how much trouble she was actually in.

"I'll be back soon with some dinner. There are dry things in the cupboard, I suggest you avail yourself of them and the bathroom. There's plenty of hot water."

"Thank you Walter." she said quietly.

He nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him. A moment later, she heard the key turn in the lock.

Jane stood very still for a long while and then moved the chair to face the door and sat down, waiting.

By her watch, she had been sitting for an hour and a half when she heard the scrape of the key in the lock. By the time the door opened, she was standing. Walter came in bearing a covered tray that smelled like it was very good food. He gave her a quizzical look as he set the tray on the table.

Jane swallowed heavily and spoke, trying to keep the tremor from her voice:

"If you're going to execute me, two in the chest please. I'd rather see it coming and I think my brother would want an open casket."

Walter's eyes went very wide as he realised that she fully expected to be sanctioned there and then. He placed the tray on the table and turned to her, looking her in the eye.

"You're very mistaken Miss Smith." he said gently. "I believe that Sir Integra just wants to get to the bottom of this matter and would rather have you here at her convenience, possibly even for your own safety.

"Ah." she sounded unconvinced.

Walter turned and took the lid of the tray revealing a bowl of soup with two slices of bread next to it.

A glass of juice and a small paper cup with two tablets in it completed the tray.

"what are those?"

"Painkillers. That jaw looks rather painful and I think you'd better have a good nights sleep."

He was about to leave when she spoke again:

"I did assault that man."

"I have no doubt that you did. Good night Miss Smith."

And with that, she was alone again.

She sat at the table and poked at the soup. It was good and was soon gone along with the bread. The juice followed and the two tablets went straight into the toilet.

She had a shower and the water was as hot as promised. The cupboard yielded a plain grey tracksuit and clean underthings that were suspiciously her size. Sitting on the bed, her back against the wall, she tried to sort out in her head what was going to happen now, but she found herself sliding down and was soon flat on the bed, fast asleep.

In the kitchen, Walter felt a small moment of guilt at his deception. The tablets were sugar pills, and the sedative had been in the soup.