Second chapter here. I will follow the manga storyline, at least for now, but in the future changes will happen. Read and review.

My new room was small and stone walled. A coffin in the centre, a couple of old chests of drawers at the walls and the dust of centuries of non-attendance all around.

"Did anyone ever clean this place?"

"Not in my lifetime." answered Walter, who had just

"Well, i guess i am not going to spend too much time in here anyway. By the way, is this kind of hosting comprehensive of meals too? I am quite thirsty." Actually, i was starving, but a vampire will never tell you that. Even if he's about to die, he'll say "I could use a drink" or something like it.

"We do have supplies of medical blood for vampires' exigence. I'll go fetch some."

I did my best not to make a sick expression. Cold blood. Nothing worse in the world.

I considered slipping out of the manor and hunting someone, but i wasn't sure i could control myself and not drain my victim. If i created a ghoul it would've meant i was fired from the organization, and fired by Alucard, and the game wasn't worth it at all.

So i just patiently waited for the blood and drank it pretending to enjoy the meal. Well, i actually enjoyed it. When i had finished i looked at my hands and i saw a faint red mist around them.

My full power was back. I was nearly as powerful as Alucard, although my resistance wasn't even nearly comparable to his own.

I spawned a small tornado, part to see if i was still able to cast spells, part to clear a bit the room.

Rather satisfactory. One of the chests crushed as it was thrown on the wall, but the other resisted, and one is enough.

Hopefully.

Among the wreckage of the destroyed one i found a red book, apparently containing photos. It wasn't as old ans the rest of the room's items, although it was ten years old at least.

It was sealed with a small padlock... definitely too much for my curiosity. I summoned a flame to melt the lock (i know i could just crush it, it's just that a wizard never takes the easiest solution) and opened the book.

The first part was, as i expected, photos. It seemed they were mainly teenager Integra. Alucard as well was in a lot of photos. There were a few birthdays pictures, a couple of undescernable occasions and a lot of portraits. An some pictures there were scramblings in red pen, too old to understand anything. The second half of the book was what really surprised me. There were random poetic lines, all in red pen and pencil, a few riddle-like phrases and lots of doodles, mainly of people kissing and hugging. Ok, usual teenager or pre-teenager girl stuff, she had just fallen in love for someone. I didn't know Integra well enough to understand how strange that was. Our Iron Lady in love?

She wasn't a great poetess, but a bunch of verses really hit me.

...

For your life is doomed to last

until Earth moves and rivers flow

can an immortal see the haste

in a mortal's heart and feelings

brief as the life of a butterfly

is to your eyes my existence

will you remember my name

when i'll be gone and you'll live?

Is it life when your friends fall

and you're still alive?

is it life when sun always shines

and dawn never rises on you?

Was it about Alucard? Probably. Although it was stylistically very uncertain and it was clear she didn't completely understand the feelings of a vampire, the ending was just... a good imagine. Although all vampires can expose themselves to sun, though only for short periods, it's not the same as seeing daylight being a mortal. It just seems painful. There's no beauty in sun after you have embraced the night.

Only memory.

I put the book back in the unbroken cabinet and went out in the corridor.

A girl in a yellow uniform stared at me.

Her aura was definitely vampiric, but to say she wasn't human it was enough to look at the ease she was carrying a gigantic weapon with.

"Who are you?!" asked her, wild eyed.

"The new recruit of the Hellsing organization, by Count Alucard's decision. And you are...?"

"I... my name is Seras Victoria, very pleased to meet you."

"Wow, a polite vampire girl. You're the first i met centuries."

"Did you just say 'polite'?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. I am so used to be called police girl that i... kinda misheard it."

"So that's how Alucard calls you. He has always had a thing for ridiculous nicknames. I was 'trickster'".

"Is he your Master?!" she asked, excited.

"Actually, i was his sister's fledgeling, so he is the master of my master. And the cigar maniac upstairs is his master, so i am her servant too."

Seras dropped the cannon and looked at me like i was crazy.

"You mean... sir Integra... right...?"

"Yeah, i was just wondering how does Vlad call her."

She shook her head, hardly still conscious.

"Did i say anything wrong?"

She nodded yes.

"Oh well. I guess i should be more cautious while i am here."

"Yeah, you really should. The master can read your thoughts, you know."

"Not my thoughts. My brain is screened. That's high level sorcery."

"Oh. Is that some vampiric power?"

"It's my power. I don't know of any other undead who has it, not even Alucard. Do you have any peculiar power of your own? It can be useful for my researches." And to make some casual conversation, actually. Although i was sincerely interested in the fledgling's powers, right then i was more interested to her body.

"I don't have any power. Master says i won't have any until i won't drink blood."

"You mean you haven't had your baptism of blood? Never drank any?"

"Nah."

"Just how long have you been undead?"

"A week, more or less."

It was my turn of looking disconcerted.

"You've probably beaten the record, police girl."

"Don't you start with that too!"

"I will just call you Seras then, okay?"

"Yeah, perfect."

"As you wish, police girl."

Later on, i discovered my mind's screening wasn't enough to keep Alucard out of my mind. Well, right then he surely was proud of me as he heard that.

"Are you coming with us in Rio?" she asked, while she took up her cannon again.

"In Rio De Janeiro? I surely hope so."

"I am afraid" Walter intervened " You are ordered to remain in England to protect the mansion and Sir Integra,"

"Protect from what, precisely?"

"Yourself, for now. I noticed the furniture of your room has not survived the first night."

"Oh. I hope that thing wasn't too priced."

"No, i was simply complaining that the manor is in a sufficiently unstable condition without your intervention."

I waved my hand at Seras as she boarded the helicopter that was bringing them tho the airport. I had no time to speak with Alucard, although i wanted to.

The red book returned in my mind. I had placed it inside the coffin, sure that no one else than me would've entered that chamber. I hoped Walter had been polite enough not to open my sleeping place.

"So you've cleaned my room?"

"Yes, Sir Integra cares about the state of her... minions. Or employee, if you prefer."

"And have you cleaned my coffin too?"

"In my experience vampires prefer if no one touches their coffin."

"Good. Forgive me if i doubted you knowledge about us. You've been knowing Alucard for quite some time, i guess...?"

"Since i started working for the Hellsing family, in the thirties. I was very young."

"And i guess he wasn't at all. He always looks the same."

"Well... not always." Walter chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"Let this remain between you and me, right?"

So i learned about Girlycard. Discovering your master, mentor and the eldest vampire in the world had spent years turned into a girl was a bit of a shock.

A lot of a shock, in fact.

"And what about Integra? She has known Alucard since her birth?"

"No. well... you should ask her. Or maybe not. Anyway she wants to see you now. And i have work to do."

Did she want to see me about the photo album? As paranoid as that hypothesis was, i didn't exclude it.

Integra was sitting at her desk, with the usual tons of paper on it.

"You're here, finally. I have decided to keep you here as protection in case Walter and the Geese are not enough."

"What are we defending against, exactly?"

"Millennium. A pack of Nazi vampires whose intentions are unknown. Does that ring any bell?"

"I was in America during WWII, so i am not quite an expert of Nazis."

"Well. Anyway. There is something you must tell me about Alucard. I've been knowing him for ten years, you seem to know him since much before."

"Two hundred and thirty four years. I met hi in Wallachia in his castle, when he was already undead. His sisters turned me into a vampire, and let me go. I don't precisely know why didn't they keep me with theirselves."

"I see. So you don't know him very well..."

"No. i always did my best to stay away from him."

"It's just that he's always so close... he never speaks of himself..."

"All vampires are. It's because mortals are simply so... brief-living. All their emotions are... hasty to us."

"Really?" Integra was sincerely interested.

"Yes... i mean, almost everyone we know is born and dies within our lifetime... all our friends fall before us."

"This reminds me something..."

"Maybe something you have abandoned a lot of time ago? Something you wanted to forget?"

"I... YOU BASTARD!"

"What? Why?"

"You have read my personal papers and violated my belongings! I should have thought you were going to use that room!"

"Master, i just found it by chance..."

"And you by chance removed the lock?"

She remembered of having locked that book, even after who knows how many years. She really must have held it dear.

"I am sorry, but... i really liked what i found. It is rare a mortal understands so deeply the thoughts of an undead."

She, for an instant, seemed to sweeten her expression. Then returned angry.

"Enough! Flattery won't save you! You had no permission to do what you did!"

"Alucard was like a father to you, right?"

She closed her eyes and bowed her head, repressing anger, or maybe just memories.

"You know nothing about it. Nothing about him and my father."

"Tell me then. What do you gain for hiding me all of this?"

She turned towards me. "Go away. Now. This conversation is over."

"But i..."

"SILENT! Such an act of disrespect towards me deserves to be punished! I will retrieve my book now, and i expect you not to mention it again. For now, there will be no further action... but you'd better learn there are rules at Hellsing. We are not just a pack of bloodthirsty hunters. Dismissed."

I took my leave. If i had known Integra a bit better, i thought afterwards, i'd have never provoked her like this. But i learned her story much after, and i yet knew nothing about her temper.

Thinking after-afterwards, maybe if i had not angered her like this what happened in the following few days would've went differently, and i think the ending that came was the best one, at least for me.

And not only for me.

Next chapter will be uploaded in September 16th or 17th.