Passengers of flight 666 on "Blackbird" please fasten seat belts, chapter 4 is about to begin.

The blackbird left with a bang. I opened my eyes when we were already breaking the clouds.

"Are we still alive?"

"No. in case you forgot, we are undead."

"Right. Good. Well. How long will it take?"

"Too much. I am restless!"

"I know. Any last minute tip?"

"No. just let me do my job."

"Do you know our enemy?"

"A sniper for the upcoming war. A simple vampire, as far as i know."

"Not that it would trouble you if she was a disguised Godzilla."

"No. although i'd be more interested. I have already taken care of her once, and she wasn't much of a fight."

"If you have already killed her, why is she still standing?"

"I never said 'killed'. I wasn't much in condition to inflict real harm back then."

"Like more a little cute girl instead of a big spooky vampire?"

"What?"

"You know what. You must've been quit a show, shape shifted into a cute child..."

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?! WHO?!"

"No one, a little bird said it..."

"AAAARGH! WALTER! YOU'LL PAY!"

I confided he wasn't able to fight me on the plane and once we landed- i mean crushed- he could've discharged his anger on the Millennium soldiers.

The plane reached the height of attack. The radio crackled again, Integra's voice confused by statics.

"You are about to (crack) the ship. Pre(crack) for the worse. You will now receive the (crack) frequencies. You might (crack) useful."

The ship must have had a radio jammer.

Another rain of statics, then classic music invaded our communication system. It was an aria from some german opera, i didn't understand a word. The voice was very beautiful though.

"What is it?" asked an unknown voice in the radio.

"Die Freischütz, by Carl Maria Von Weber." answered another voice.

The plane slowly turned its prow down. I cold sweated and felt myself trying to escape my body. Calm before the storm. I'd have needed to turn into my animal form to escape the explosion, and i had not done so for a few centuries. Was i ready?

Wise man says, if you're ready, you will live to be proud of it, if you're not, you won't have much time to be ashamed anyway.

I don't think the speed which we started our descent with can be expressed by word. It's just like when you dive from a very high springboard, and you realise how many meters are there between you and the water. Only we were going to hit the only non-water spot around there.

The music grew in intensity as we draw near. A magic bullet hit the plane once, twice, three times, enough to shatter half of the windscreen. It was sufficient for me to jump out. One more second. The plane was about to crash, Alucard looked crazier than ever.

I jumped. I felt the wind, the fire of the engines, the smell of sea mixed with that of fire.

"Please." i said to myself.

I felt all my atoms colliding, every single molecule merging with the others in the primordial substance. My body lost shape, i felt the immense freedom of being everything in that split second in which my essence hadn't yet returned a defined entity.

Them two membranous wings emerged from what was becoming my back, i felt four more limbs coming out from my body and scales covering my skin, my head emerged, horned and three-eyed, the head of a dragon.

I was transformed.

After a huge sigh of relief, imaginated of course, since i wasn't able to breath, i saw the soldiers in the control tower just ahead of me. I moved my wings, felt air rushing around me, the windows drawing near. I let out a scream of freedom, before crushing the reinforced pane and enter breathing fire in the room.

The soldiers stood no chance. I disposed of them and devoured the little of them i had not incinerated. I vomited a generous amount of flames on the instruments before returning human-like and watching how Alucard was doing. He was taking heavy gunfire but he stood, as always, triumphant already before the battle had begun.

I jumped down, summoning my wings to glide slowly in direction of Rip Van Winkle, who was crying and reloading her gun hidden behind a corner.

Her expression switched from desperate from resolute. In that precise instant, i realized she was beautiful just like her voice. Did she deserve to die like this?

I also realized her bullet was going to hit me if i didn't react, so i summoned one of my most powerful spells. I didn't really think about it, i was like frenzy, like berserk. I had turned into a dragon, breathed fire, returned humanoid, flown, i felt magic all around and inside me, like a second heart pulsing through me and pushing me to do more. I called a storm on the ship. Lightings rained all over it, burning all that survived the blackbird's crash. One hit precisely the lieutenant, a second too late. The bullet had started already. It hit me in the stomach and flight to Alucard. Who let himself be taken a few times, them he realized it was enough and took the projectile in his hand. Then he nodded me, pretending to throw it.

I grabbed the musket from Rip and held it like a baseball bat, hoping to remember the basics of the game. I had not played baseball since fifty years before at best.

I opened my eyes and focused on the ball. He charged the pitch.

Go.

I hit the bullet, more by luck than by skill. It disappeared among the clouds and left to outer space.

"HOME RUN! IT'S AN HOME RUN! THE CROWD GOES WILD!"

Alucard stared to laugh maniacally and i, for the first and last time, laughed with him.

Then an umbrella hit my nape.

Lieutenant Rip Van Winkle, in a last desperate attempt, took back the musket, but an hand appeared from nowhere and stopped her. Alucard expanded his figure until he concealed me and Rip.

"Good job, trickster. Now leave her to me."

"Why? I have done everything. I think i deserve her!"

"You have much to learn. Step aside."

"Who has killed the officers? Who has caused the lightings? Who has bunt the control room?"

"You bunt the control room? How are we supposed to guide this ship now?"

"Don't change subject! I did it all! I defeated the enemies an all you've done is catching that bullet! And it's me who threw it into hyperspace. So she is mine."

"Go on and take her. What do you think you'll gain..."

"Why shouldn't i take her? Why?"

"Because... bah. You're lucky Integra won't allow me to kill you.. yet."

"You can't stand that she trusts my counsel just as much as yours, can you?"

"You are playing with greater things than you. Beware, my patience has limits."

I stopped talking and bowed on Rip, still held by the No-Life King's telekinetic hands.

She was beyond terror, trying to escape from the grip by pure instinct of survival, with no hope at all.

So exciting.

I licked her neck first, tasting the ashes and the dust, and the subtitle taste of the burnt gunpowder on her skin. My teeth ran on her cold flesh, barely scratching it, looking for the jugular. When i penetrated her throat and started sucking her sweet essence, the sensual surge of drinking a vampire's blood overtook me.

Bleeding a vampire is not the same as a mortal, it's much better even than drinking from a virgin. You feel at the same time all the mixed tastes of those the undead has fed upon, an harmony of different bloods, women, men, children, everything, all together. Any mortal has his peculiar taste, like the sound o an instrument, and this is what you taste as you bleed him. Vampires have no note of their own, their blood is long since gone, but you taste the whole orchestra of all their victims.

And this is what i felt in her, as some of the blood poured out my mouth and my fingers, turned into claws, pierced her back in a fiendish embrace. I felt her slowly fading away, disappearing.

And i felt mercy. Why to kill her? She was defeated already. She was so harmless now. So pathetic. Like me when i met Alucard, and i was sure he was about to kill me.

He had spared me.

I'd have spared her.

I, reluctantly, pulled back and few drops of red vitae dripped from my lips back to her neck.

"Why aren't you finishing her?" Alucard asked, looking disgusted. "Are you going to waste her blood? Or do you think you an save her? Millennium will never allow us to take prisoners. They will kill her."

"Aren't you supposed to be burning, Rip Van?"

Alucard and i turned around. The cat-boy had appeared behind us.

"You! The Millennium feline physic paradox!"

"You! The Hellsing arsonist vampire! No, seriously, she should be burning you know."

"She isn't, unless my hallucinations have grown worse than usual."

"No, she isn't." confirmed the cat-boy, making me feel very comforted. Alucard was laughing a little less crazily than usual.

"Wait" i said "Maybe i got it. Are the freak chips lighting-proof?"

"Gimme a second, i check." Schrödinger vanished and reappeared a few seconds later.

"Doc says they're not tested, but he can experiment it and give you an answer soon."

"Very kind, but there's no need to. I have just demonstrated they can be destroyed with mild lighting, preserving the vampire's life. Go tell him."

He returned after a short while.

"He says you are a really expert science man, and he'd be GLaD to work with you, also because you have so well described my powers at the round table."

"WHAT!? How can he know of this!? Maxwell, it must be him... well, report the Doctor i will collaborate with him maybe later, now i have other matters to attend to."

"Like explaining me what are you going to do with the Lieutenant." said Alucard.

"Well she is our prisoner. Our hostage. We will bring her home and interrogate her."

"Integra said search and destroy, and you know it."

"This is my personal modification to the plan. We are keeping her."

"Bah. Call Integra and let's hear what does she think about it."

Luckily i had a cell phone, otherwise we'd have been insulated, since i had vanquished the ship's radio.

"Hello? Are there trouble on the ship?" she said as she answered.

"Not precisely. You see, i managed to take a prisoner avoiding millennium to burn her up."

"WHAT? I said DESTROY!"

"Yeah, but having an insight in Millennium plans can be useful."

"Ok. I am perfectly calm. Let me just explain you. THEY HAVE NO FUCKING PLANS AT ALL! They have no schemes and no purpose! They just keep on killing everything!"

"And are you ordering me to do so too?"

"You... you cursed bastard! Using my own phrases against me!"

"So what do you say?"

"I want to speak with Alucard."

I gave the phone to him.

They spoke for a little, then he closed the communication.

"What did she say?"

"Let me explain you."

The fist come unexpected, and i was blown out of balance. I fell on the cold steel floor of the ship, bleeding from my cheek.

"Why?!"

"Integra had told me not to harm her, for now. Unfortunately.. she didn't mention harming you!"

His guns were pointed towards me, kilos of blessed silver waiting inside both their magazines, eager to come out.

And it's right then that i started hating Alucard. Before, he had always been my master, my guide, my inspiration. Sure, i feared him, sure, i considered him cruel... but then, he was going to kill me because he wanted to. Because he could. Because of no good reason. Because of Integra...

I realized i spoke the last reason aloud. His eyes shone with anger and rage.

The bullets started a slow-motion travel towards me. I felt my power decuplictad by the recently drank blood.

I hit the ground before the silver projectiles were halfway between me he and me. A broad, transparent red line appeared on the floor and rose from it like a shield.

The bullets hit it and were deviated, as time returned into its usual pace.

"What!" yelled Alucard.

"Dark Continent Sorcery! Liked it?"

More red lines built a cage around me and Rip, still unconscious, protecting every side yet allowing to see through. They created a sphere like structure, constantly rotating concentrically. I felt protected enough to dare taunting him.

"You're jealous because our Master listens to my counsel. It must be sad living so long and being considered less than your weak descendant!"

"You shall pay! No one can take her from me!" A rain of silver invested the shield, which stood.

"Come on! The feared No-Life King jealous of his master for such a pointless little thing!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Sooooo sorry, i meant the No-Life-Cute-Girl-In-A-Furry Hat!"

At these words, Rip sprang up, took her musket and stared jumping around screaming" WHERE?! Where is she!? The girl! The Enemy! She's here!!"

I and Alucard stopped for an instant.

"Are you sure you're all right?" i asked.