Man, eight freaking reviews?! I can't believe it, I feel so special! a powerful feeling of geek-ish euphoria swells into my chest I swear, you guys are like my dope or something. Don't think I can live without you. Keep up the awesome work!

--onto the plot!--

"Miss, are you looking for something?" A light, male voice asked Luca.

"Yes, I was looking for suburban house blueprints," ah, the wonders of the public library.

"Ah, this way. What area of town…?"

--Back home in Hell--

"Master, have you returned yet from your source of information regarding my future residence?" what was with Alucard and asking dumb questions, today? Luca stared coolly at her servant.

"Of course I'm not back, why would I be here and heading over to my chair if I was back?"

Silence.

Luca stared at her unaffected vampire, willing him to say something- anything witty.

More silence. Whoop-dee-doo.

"Can you travel beneath this room? I plan to create an underground room beneath this one, look for a rock bed, if it exists," finally, something that might even begin to stretch his mystical muscles. How long had it been? Didn't matter now, the ball had started rolling and that was good enough. Soon, he would be put to good use, especially with all those young, vampiric scents running around everywhere he went in this oblivious country. He couldn't wait to kill something

He gave an overly elaborate bow, "Of course, Master," before sinking into the floor with some sort of awesome grace. What was with him today? Ever since this morning when she had hit him with the baseball bat, he had been very quiet. Was silence some code for respect?

Or, more likely, he was mad, probably at her. Why, though? Was it the collar Sora had gotten him? I mean yes, it had been neon pink and had been covered in horrid amounts of bling- not to mention the pink, fake fluff on it-, (for such a thing can only be found, and never sold) but was his ego just that badly bruised? It's not like it was her fault, anyway.

What was taking so long? It had been minutes since he went down. Did it really take that long? But perhaps she was a bad judge of the time it would actually take, seeing as she'd never morphed-or whatever you wanted to call it- into the underground area of her room. Well, technically speaking, it wasn't really underground yet.

"You have quite the slab of rock under your room, perhaps twenty-five or thirty feet beneath your feet," Luca sucked in a breath at his sudden appearance, surprised she hadn't jumped or something of the sort. She'd have to get used to this. Great.

"Can you hollow it out?" Oh yes, she had thought this through.

"Of course."

"How long?"

"How long do you want it to take?" Did this man's ego have an off button? Probably not, but how convenient would that be?

"Have it done whenever you want it done. It's for you, so do whatever you feel like with it. Connect it with a tunnel that leads to the carpet of my closet, in the back. Make sure it structurally sound, too," after that, she had to install something to get up and down. Stairs, preferably.

…Actually, she didn't have to install them; she could just pawn it off on Alucard, which was the good thing about having an unwillingly faithful servant. Not only could you make them do it, they might not want to do it, and you could make them do it anyway.

Of course she needed to get the supplies to construct it, cement to strengthen the tunnel, perhaps even make the stair out of it. Wasn't her problem, she just had to get the cement. Home Supplies was good for something. Luca watched her servant sink into the floor gracefully as she took a seat onto her desk chair. The monotone –yet still seemingly happy- ring of the phone made Luca look up form the spot on the ground where Alucard had disappeared. She rose from the chair, heading out her bedroom door and into the hall.

She glanced at the caller ID before picking up the phone, "You need to escape from the house again, Kayla?" Silence reigned on the other side of the line for a moment.

"Hell yeah, and how the hell do you always know shit like that?" Luca paused, while Kayla was unafraid of swearing (if not, down right in love with it), this was getting a little heavy. Something, once again, had sparked this troubled girl's temper. "I'm bringing Mark and his brother, Seth, too." Luca starred at the receiver for a brief moment. The one thing her dad ever got nervous about in the house. Boys.

It was a good thing he was out of town for the next three days. "You do realize that school starts the day after tomorrow, right?"

"Duh, I can't believe those fuckers actually gave us two whole weeks for Christmas. Oh yeah, what'd you get?" Luca sucked on the inside of her cheek for a moment. I got Count Dracula. Perhaps not the best answer. Speaking of, all his things had yet to arrive.

"Cash, we gave out stuff a couple days before we left to see my Grandmother."

"Oh yeah, how is she? I liked her, she was freakin' awesome," on the other side of the line, Luca could heard two boys voices, and then Kayla yell distantly that she was leaving before the loud slamming of what was probably the side door.

"She's got cancer, Kayla," she waited as an awkward silence reined over the line.

"Aww, shit man. That sucks, sorry," Luca listened as she heard one of the boys ask something, and Kayla responded with a "her grandmas got cancer".

"Alright, Kayla, I'll meet you out front, okay? My sisters here, but my dad left on business at noon today."

"See ya in a bit."

"Yeah," Luca hung up the phone, heading back to her room. Kayla was deathly afraid of dogs, wasn't she? Well, this could be a problem. Well, that's just how things tended to go, didn't they?

Oh well, She'd have to pull something out of her ear to fix this one.

Luca strode to the front of her house, thinking (or at least attempting) to Alucard.

"Can you hear me?"

"Of course, Master, I always hear your thoughts,"

'A disturbing thought, but I suppose that's good, because apparently, we've got company coming over in a few minutes,' speaking to someone using telepathy, for she was pretty sure that's what it had to be called, was hard, and took quite a bit of getting used to.

'Can I eat them?'

Luca paused in front of the door momentarily, 'no.' she ignored the heavy sigh he gave her and stepped into the bright, open suburban arena and closed the door quietly. 'The girl who's coming hates dogs.'

'And what do you expect me to do about that?'

'Not sure yet.' More silence.

'Don't worry, Master, I've got a plan.' Luca paused, suddenly worried. Alucard had a plan?

'They can't know you're Dracula,' she reminded him, unsure if she should his… "plan"

'Of course, not Master. Leave it me,' ah, what a glorious idea his deranged mind had created. Besides, he needed to test her reaction will under pressure. Improvisation was never a bad skill to hone, anyway.

Luca glanced at the mail truck as it turned the corner, leaving her line of sight. Might as well get the mail while she waited for the three to get here. Luca's eyes widened at the fair-sized crate nestled between the mailbox and thick shrubbery. She walked closer, studying it. It appeared to be marked 'LUCA' in large, bright red letters on all sides. Of course, what was more worrisome was the large black coffin resting on top of it.

Well, crap.

'Alucard, get over here now, we've got mail.' A few seconds passed before Alucard rose up from the cement like the undead creature he was.

Way to be incognito, idiot. Luca smacked him upside the head, standing on her toes to accomplish said feat, "What if some saw that, Alucard!?" She smacked her head, rolling her eyes and making a sound of disgusted annoyance.

"Don't be so stuck up, Master. I checked to see if anyone was watching before I came up, anyway." Luca passed it off, not even bothering to ponder how it was possible to accomplish such a feat.

"Help me carry this in," Luca grabbed the crate, which surprisingly enough, had handles. Alucard picked up the coffin, walking behind Luca. Reaching the door first, Alucard opened it, lifting his arm up slightly to let the shorter Luca to pass under it with the cumbersome crate.

'Where do you plan to store this?' Luca kept walking toward her room, thinking hard.

'Have you hollowed out enough of the cavern to store all of this?'

'No,' Luca bit her lip, where else could…? She sighed, not the best area in the world, but it'd do. Opening the curvy, lever-like handle with her elbow, Luca proceeded to her closet, repeating the rather awkward movement, before placing it in the back of the short, 'L' shaped walk in closet. Luca moved to the side as Alucard brushed past her, setting the ebony coffin down gently. "Do whatever you were going to do now, they should be here soon," she exited the closet, heading for the front door again. The tired teen sighed; glad she had gone outside when she had.

That would have been one weird conversation. Luca reached the front door and opened it, only to be met shortly thereafter by a surprised scream from Kayla, who instantly retracted her outstretched hand to clutch her heart. Luca, along with the two boys, grimaced at the loud scream. Kayla sucked in a gulp of air, "Don't do that!"

"Nice to see you, too," the girl opened the door wider, a silent invitation to come in. At the front of the group, Kayla, with her dirty blonde hair, black tank top and navy sweater with black skater jeans and checkered Vans. Second was Mark, who Kayla playfully referred to as her 'boy toy' who wore a brown shirt with the logo 'Quick Sliver' on it in silver, which matched his dark brown hair and lone bleached-white streak, and his usual red skater pants.

Seth, however, stuck out the most with his bottle-black hair that resembled the behind of a chicken and baggy, purple pants with a tight pink shirt that said 'Pink Power' on the front in rhinestones. All three wore matching shoes, with the exception of Seth, whose white squares were colored in with yellow and pink.

Luca closed the door and looked up at the back of the effeminate boy's shirt, which sported the words 'And proud of it!' on the bottom of the shirt in black stitching. She had to wonder where he always got those "Gay Power" shirts from.

Kayla led the two boys to Luca's room, the two having never been in her house before. Luca trailed behind, wondering where Alucard was, and how Sora had not heard Kayla's scream. The blonde continued pointing out random things, and assuring the two that they could indeed, raid the fridge whenever they felt like it, officially taking over the role of hostess- despite it not being her house.

Arriving in Luca's room, she received two distinct responses.

"Your room scares me."

"I love your room!" Surprisingly, it was Seth that loved her room.

"Are you kidding, Seth? It's creepy; she's got like twenty swords in here! And look, theirs a bat in the corner!"

Seth ignored his brother, "wait, but Luca, do your parents really let you keep all these weapons in your room?"

Luca nodded absently, taking a seat on the bed, "Yeah, my dad lets me keep it all in my room."

Luca's head whipped toward the door as it cracked open, a beautiful, feminine, but male face poked into the room that looked to be about Seth's age. Meaning seventeen or so. Said teen looked very much like what she'd imagine a young Alucard to look like.

Oh no.

"Lu, Sora said she was going to Mia's and that she'd be back later tonight," Luca stayed silent for a moment. Never, ever, will she trust him again.

'Lu?'

'Seemed appropriate.' Silence reigned over the room, two of the rooms occupants having a love struck expressions on their face. Those two being Seth and Kayla. Mark waved his hand in front of the two of them, which brought them out of their trance. His gay brother and girlfriend were both starring at this… guy?

Goddamn you, Alucard.

"Guys," she paused for a millisecond, what was she going to call him? "This is Vlad, my second cousin." More silence. Great.

"… Hi."

--What did ja think?--

No free advertising for you, Quick Silver!

Well, what'cha think? Sound like a plan? Going places? Picking up slight amounts of speed? Plot beginning to finally show itself in some obscure way, shape, or form?

Or is it all just still crap? I'd like to know.

By the way, what's you guys opinion of bringing Seras into the picture?

THANKS!:

Kudos to Conquistador Imp, who got it right pretty dang on the dot! And to Little Hellsing, who's reviewed pretty much every chapter o' mine, and has made me feel a sense of nerdy euphoria more times than I care to count. I'd bet it was in the double digits, though. And pretty much to everyone else, who all have that special little place in the black hole I like to call a heart, I love you!!

Basically.