Author's Notes Ha, three reviews. Not bad for a teaser chapter actually.
"Hmmm..." murmured Alucard as he slowly awoke within his black varnished coffin. The moon was still low, but the light of the stars shone in through the one window of his lair.
"Strange," he said to himself, his red eyes glinting in the dark as he got up leisurely.
"I thought I felt...a chill..." he continued as he got up, stood up on the edge of his coffin, faded light glancing off his pale face as he looked around his room warily, feeling the odd sense he was being watched, or that something was passing nearby. His perch and eyes gave him the appearance of a black raptor on sentry.
"Heh..." he almost snorted to himself as he stepped down lightly. A presence in his room would be hard to miss, all his energy concentrated on one spot and yet nothing was detected. He must be getting paranoid.
As he walked over to his table, he picked up the blood bag in the ice box, prepared not fifteen minutes before his wake, and tore off the nozzle end easily before letting the contents drip into his wineglass.
He let the blood drip, he had no hurry. In fact, he hadn't needed to rush himself in anyway for the last three weeks. No trash vampire activity for three long weeks. The moon was in full circle and Alucard hadn't been able to destroy one single ghoul, let alone a cheap vampire.
Oh sure, there was the massive wave four weeks before, with the sudden surge of vampires in the outer villages. But after that particularly enjoyable week, it seemed like not one was left afterwards, but Alucard doubted he had actually destroyed all the vampires in London. True, he had killed many, many many of them, but they bred like rabbits and their ins Either that, or they were suddenly keeping a low profile. That was very strange. If the Valentine brothers were any indication, it showed that even the stupid weren't liable to lay quietly for so long.
Were they frightened? Of him? Ha! Of course they would be terrified of him! But not to the point of hiding in petrified awe...
Alucard whipped his head around. Yet again, he felt the unexplained chill. He was a No Life King, one of the undead, bound to a unliving life in which he was very naturally cold-blooded. Therefore, just WHY was he feeling 'chilly' of all things?
A few moments of survellience, and he shrugged it off with a drink from his glass of the chilled blood.
"Hmm..." he noted immediately, that Integral was expecting his presence, from his empathic master-servant bond.
"Finally, one of the fanged gophers decides to peek out of his hole..." he grinned as he started to pull on his gloves that bore his insignia.
"A little bit of fun at last..." he hissed almost hysterically to himself as he pushed his glasses up his noise and pulled on his hat.
"There had better be many..."
He picked up his guns, magically transported them instantneously into his inner coat pockets, and disappeared into the shadows as he travelled through the walls and doors of the manor.
"You called, Master?" he asked immediately as he phased through the walls of Integral's office, right beside the portrait of her father.
Integral was seated passively in her chair, a thin grey trail of smoke showing she had, and still was, smoking on her cigars. The third one of her second pack to be exact.
"That is without question, Alucard," she replied.
Alucard smirked and walked up the side of the desk. It didn't really matter whether he faced her or not, he could hear all the same anyway, not to mention he HAD to listen and do whatever whim she said in the end.
"Do you know what I saw this morning?"
Alucard laughed lightly, "Unfortunately, my eyes would probably be burned to their sockets by the bloody sun if I ever ventured in the morning, Master,"
"I saw," Integral continued, her eyes narrowing from annoyance and a innate rising distest at the memory.
"I saw a church being burned down,"
"I should be celebrating!" Alucard laughed, Integral's voice only rose.
"This is no laughing matter, Alucard! The fires were unnatural. They consumed the whole building and yet the bricks and even the paint did not blacken. It was as clear as water and yet it was so intense, entire sections of the building would dismantle and fall off into dust in less than five seconds. Within just two minutes, there was nothing left of the building except a square of mixed rubble!"
"Tell me, Alucard, what kind of fire could do such a thing?"
Alucard looked up quizzically, "Are you asking me that, Master? It's just hard to guess which of your questions are sarcasm, rhetorical, or are actually questions,"
"Answer me, Alucard," Integral growled.
"Heh, dare I ask what makes you think I would know or all things?"
"You surely haven't been just sucking blood and hiding under a rock all your long life, though I believe a vast majority of the time you were doing just that,"
Alucard grimaced just slightly, but Integral continued.
"An unnatural flame, I would even think hellfire. Tell me if I'm right, Alucard,"
"You are not,"
"Good, that's a start. So you do know what it is, and now you will tell me,"
Alucard smiled and tilted his head back so as not to have to look at his master. It was then did he realise he had forgotten to take of his hat and glasses. Even Integral had forgotten that little detail.
Heh, must be losing her touch...
"And take off your hat and glasses when you are talking to me,"
Or not, he thought to himself in amusement.
With a gracious air, Alucard took off his hat and glasses and placed them on the desk, with the glasses atop his hat.
In fact, he kept straightening the pile for a few moments longer, which caused Integral to ask once more, more sternly this time, "What is the source of that fire, Alucard,"
"Hmm...if I told you, then you might just believe that apocalypse is at your very doorstep..."
Integral frowned, "What is it?"
"His infamy is etched in the Bible of course. Although it gives a very wrong account, I suppose it's fair enough. Just think of him as the Beast of 666,"
Integral's eyes widened at the foul name.
"Although it's also, totally wrong," Alucard laughed.
"Stop joking around and tell me, NOW,"
Alucard laughed again, "Patience is a virture, dear Master,"
But seeing Integral's anger being pushed to a dangerous limit, Alucard sighed and leaned forward just a little, just enough so that Integral's blue eyes and his red ones were more or less on par.
"Tell me, Master, do you believe in dragons?"
Outside the grounds of the Hellsing manor, just around the corner and hidden from the guards, a man dully dressed in a russet-brown trench coat slowly stood up.
His hair was a black that bordered on brown, straight and shoulderlength. His eyes were rounded to a shape like brown almonds that tapered slightly at the edges. The pupils were also a clear chocolate brown, luminescent like darkened ambers. His skin was a healthy tan that also looked tempered with dark blemishes. He stood tall with slooping shoulders and a coat that brushed the ground and was voluminous, flowing like water in the wind.
On his neck, a gold choker wound around his neck. It was about the width of an inch, the metal was thin as a sheet and looked like it would cut into his skin if it was bent the wrong way. All along its curved surface, light carvings of symbols and lost words were etched into it, looking weathered and almost invisible in poor light.
The man's left palm had been placed against the rough side of the fence fortification ever since sundown. He had stood there unnoticed as he stayed quiet and unmoving. He had been waiting for Alucard to finally wake up. He had spread his senses all around the building to detect the vampire, and waited.
He had to observe his soon to be adversary, measure his strength. He was strong, indeed, he must have been if he could still detect his presence. The No Life King would be tough to battle, he knew.
But he had also detected another vampire. Well, not fully vampire, the undead scent lingered on her, but not as strongly. Strong by blood, weak by age. A servant vampire.
Another convert... he almost groaned.
He sighed and turned to walk away, while still gazing high at the the windows of the impressive manor.
Looks like I've found my prey too...but she's fresh. This isn't going to be nice...
With lingering thoughts, the man dressed in nondescript brown walked down the road, blending to the darkness the further he left the manor.