Chapter 3

Integra

I'm not sure what unnerved me more.

Her unflinching nerve? Or the fact that she was twelve and looked a gun straight in the face without so much as a blink of an azure eye.

I remembered the smell of her, a scent that was made clear of the residues of alcohol and cigarette smoke of her late father. Mixing in with a soft lilac and the scent of sweet virgin's blood. My mouth watered even in my twenty-year slumber.

In a state of limbo, my conscious seemed to raise to the surface. A member of the Hellsing family was in danger and I had to stop it. But how? I felt her small body slump against the stone wall against mine. Her desperation radiating off her in waves. She was frustrated with herself. What could she do? Where could she go? What was she doing here? Where had her knight in shining armor gone to?

I smelled the salt of tears stinging at her cerulean eyes but couldn't help but smirk mentally as she forced them back. Now was not the time.

The door banged open.

Cruel and sardonic voices.

Soft laughs of pleasure at pain.

Misery and defeat

A gunshot

The smell of blood.

Yes…yes…it was here, I could smell it, practically taste it. My body used up the last of its reserves of energy I had kept stored within myself. Twisting my arms and legs around in my bonds. My head reached forward and my long tongue snaked out to snatch at the ruby liquid.

My God…it was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. Power, determination, ruthlessness, cruelty, the potential twisted nature, all mixed in with the perfect splash of innocence and sweetness. I devoured it greedily. Her wonderful blood. Eyes snapped open, I felt an age old ache for the sustaining liquid. I grinned madly at them.

Eyes widened in horror.

"…Shoot!"

"…Run…we…"

"…Richard…he…"

"…We have to…"

"…OH MY-" I smirked as I tore through them all with my teeth. Their warm blood gushing down my parched throat. The feelings of power as I combined tooth and nail and twisted my hands and face through their bodies. It was a blood bath alright, a rain of blood coming down on me. I grinned as I opened my mouth to let a waterfall tear through into my system. But I was not sedated just yet.

He stood, looking so much like my previous Master, his gun up in the air as he pointed it shakingly at me. I scowled, Arthur was never like that. I hated the man but at least he had the guts to never flinch, to stare me into the eye and smirk playfully, it was always a game with him. With Abraham it had been a learning experience, with his son James a never ending chess game of strategic combatives, with his son Arthur it was all a well calculated and well played out game, and I wondered what it would be with my next Master.

I ignored Richard's sniveling attempts for a repent as I bowed down before the little girl who had just picked up a gun and was doing her best not to shake from loss of blood and cold and the mixture of fear to boot.

"D-d-don't come any closer!" Her voice quivered but it was not from fear, nervousness perhaps? But not from me. I smirked at her as I backed her father into the wall.

"And just who are you, little girl to tell me what to do?" The gun rammed straight between my eyes and I smirked. "Go ahead and shoot, see what happens." I goaded her on. Knowing just how much fun women -especially children- with guns were.

"I am Integra Fairbrooks Wingates Hellsing and I am the head of this household and I will command the respect of all who dwell in this house. And I will command your respect, is that understood vampire?"

I couldn't help it, I laughed.

That voice, so soft and so you and so sweet. It was just like Arthur's with that sharp and hardened tone when he wanted something done. A hidden spark in her eye. Her eyes were icy and sharp but they became ablaze with a hellfire to match my own. I smirked and backed away from her.

"My apologies, little one." Sinking down on bended knee, I smiled not, but kept myself in obedience as I bowed my head to her - respectfully.

"What is your bidding…my Master?"

I felt the Dawn approaching on a new day with my new Master.