Chaper 5. It took longer than usual, believe me I had my reasons, and this time I won't pin them on a lack of reviews, I am very happy with the ones I got. Actually I got quite a lot this time, Thank you!

Pairing: Alucard/Seras
POV Characters: none, General pov
Genres: Horror/Romance/Alternate universe
Rating: T+ (Possible se.... I don't need to finish this right?)

Chapter 5: Dining with the devil, running with the wolves

As Seras entered the spacious dining room she cast a curious look around, the small flames of lit candles flickered gently in the light breeze of wind that came from the slightly opened arched windows.
The ghastly image produced by the shadows that danced around the candle light did nothing to relieve the tension that had built to an uncomfortable point during her walk.

The castle lord was nowhere to be seen.

"Strange, it was him who summoned me here. One would expect a lord like himself to be in time to welcome his guests."

"Good evening, girl, I hope I did not leave you waiting for too long." Seras was soon torn from her musings.

Seras turned slowly to face Alucard and smiled, he too had taken off his heavy plate suit and exchanged if for more formal clothing.
Carefully, making sure not to look like she were checking him out she let her eyes glide over his muscled chest,
and the strong abs and...

Seras immediately blushed, she was indeed checking him out!
And the smug grin that pulled on his lips told her he had been aware, she felt so embarrassed she wanted to sink through the ground there and then.
Her face seemed to burn intensely as she willed the impure thoughts that had risen to vanish from her mind. She was a holy knight from the round table for God sake!

"Like what you see, girl?"

That was just what she needed, something to turn her embarrassment into anger. She had been there for two days now and not once had he called her by her name!

"Sir, If you don't mind, I have a name and it's not "Girl" It's Seras Victoria."

Alucard's grin only seemed to grow, which while it on one side agitated her, also made her feel relieved to know she had not angered him. With a chuckle he held out his hand for her to take.

With a small bow Seras accepted the gesture, all of this felt so unreal,
at one moment she was surrounded by death and suffering and the next she was here, being treated like a sort of queen by this... Amazingly handsome man.

Wait, her friends and comrades, She had almost forgotten about them she realized.
Where would they be now? Would they be alright? Would they know she was alive?

Those were the questions on her mind as Alucard sat her down on one of the comfortable seats at one end of the dining table and took a seat on the other end himself.
Her mind was too occupied to even think about questions like how the food had gotten on the table in the few seconds her back was turned,
or why he had only a single glass of wine as opposed to the grand meal presented to her.

She had to ask lord for aid in her search. Looking past the long massive golden candlesticks she found it easy to make eye contact,
it was as if he had been watching her all along. She sighed and decided to leave this matter for after dinner.
Smiling and holding her cup up she toasted to what promised to be the start of a wonderful friendship.

After taking the fist sip she let one hand slip below her dress to take out her silver cross necklace,
as she held it up in prayer she was surprised to hear a loud hiss from the man on the opposite side of the table.

"Lord Alucard, Are you okay? You seem a little... pale."
As their eyes again connected her breath stopped, there was no mistaking, his eyes, his beautiful brown eyes, were bleeding crimson at the very sight of her pendant.

"No way." Her voice was trembling. She had suspected this before but she had not wanted to believe it. Not from the kind lord that had saved her and gave her a place to stay

"You can't be." Her eyes were almost watering, she had trusted this man! At one moment she even thought she would grow to lov..like him!

"A vampire? A monster?" Alucard filled in the words she did not want to say. As if not saying them would make a difference.

Alucard chuckled madly at the young woman's reaction, had she really trusted him? Could one really be that naïve? It was too bad his disguise did not last longer, but he never expected her to have complete faith in him.

"Truth be told the plan was that you would not find out what I really was until I had fully claimed you, but now you know the truth the only way to get this done is to take you by violence..."

His chuckling turned into loud cackling.

"And actually, that's the way I prefer to do things."

It was obvious to Seras that conflict would be unavoidable, The only problem was that she was completely helpless without her weapons. No matter how well-trained she was, there was no possible way she could best a true Nosferatu in hand-to-hand combat.

"I have to find something." She frantically looked around for anything that resembled a weapon, and then she saw it, At the entrance of the dining hall stood two of those decorative armour suits. Both of them equipped with Halberds.

"I have no experience fighting with a Halberd whatsoever, But I have no choice." She muttered to herself as she sprinted the short distance to the unmoving guard. For once her speed training with Walter seemed to pay off.

With a hard tug she pulled the weapon out of the hands of the suit of armour causing it to collapse.

"Stand back!" She Yelled as she whirled around to face her enemy and took on her fighters stance.

Alucard was amused by her spirit. At first he had thought she would try to run away but she chose to fight. It would not take long as judging from the way she held her weapon of choice she had never used a Halberd.. Or any polearm before.

"Heh.. So, that is your decision? If you wish to fight I'm more than happy to oblige. Come at me, Paladin"
Seras went wide-eyed at hearing him call her Paladin, only in her nightmares he had called her that which meant, they were probably not dreams after all.
This man had indeed taken her first kiss. She almost wanted to cry again.

"You filth, how dare you take advantage of me in my sleep?" Anger overtook her and she stormed Alucard, her Halberd poised to pierce his heart.
It was perhaps the most reckless thing she had done in her life.
At least when she battled the wolves she had had a plan, now all she could think about is how this vampire had taken what was not his to take. Alucard's smirked as she neared,
He sidestepped in an attempt to evade her attack.

"Besides I'm not a paladin, I'm a warrior not a priest!" She yelled and Alucard was dumbstruck as she swiped the halberd tackling him to the ground and pushed her other hand,
still clutching her silver rosary against his chest right where his heart was. Smoke raised from he place where the silver burned into his flesh, but to Seras' despair his smirk widened.

"Well done paladin, Any normal vampire would have been completely paralysed after this, but unfortunately for you these things won't do much against me."
Alucard's fist connected with Seras' chest and the sickening crack of bones could be heard as she was thrown off him.

"You probably broke a few ribs just now, it's nothing serious I assure you. It will regenerate as soon as I bite you and.. turn you into my toy." Alucard Chuckled as he towered over Seras' limp figure. Her hand sliding over the ground below her to look for something, Anything at all. Feeling something sharp she realized the impact on the floor had caused a few of the tiles to break.

"Bastard..." She growled as she closed her hand around the sharp piece of ceramic. She wanted to say more but only managed to cough up blood.

"Such a wonderful, intoxicating scent." Alucard spoke just above a whisper. He sounded almost gentle as he just stood there and inhaled. Bending one knee to lower himself. One finger gliding over her lips which were slightly opened because of how the strain that was placed on her body tired her out. As he slowly pulled back it was covered in a sticky red liquid which Seras noticed was her blood mixed with some of her saliva.

"Alu.. card?" Seras watched in interest as he licked the finger clean, his eyes glowing in a mesmerising way as he fed. She should be disgusted at this sight her mind tried to tell her, but she ignored it. Without realizing it her grip on the sharp piece of stone had weakened. Maybe she should have just let him have his way? Slowly Alucard inched closer to her neck. Maybe being his would not be too bad.

A loud roar was heard as a black wolf leaped onto Alucard's back and lodged it's teeth in his neck, as soon as their eye contact was severed Seras' eyes snapped wide open. He'd almost let him claim her, what was she thinking?!

She realized that, if Alucard could hypnotise her, and ordinary means of hurting vampires were useless on him. fighting him would only result him her becoming his concubine. She had to run, but if she ran now the wolf that had saved her would certainly be killed. She looked around and found the halberd she'd dropped. As Alucard got the wolf off of him and made to face her again she plunged the sharp edge of the halberd into his chest.

Alucard could only watch as the girl he'd wanted to enslave picked up the wolf that had ruined his chance of claiming her, and with it under her arm ran out of the dining room. Yet, the anger that would be expected never came.

"You made your decision I see, I can wait a night. In the end the paladin shall be mine regardless of what you do."

It was ten minutes later Seras decided it was safe to stop running, Besides, if she moved any more the pain in her chest would kill her. She sat down and looked at the wolf who had saved her life, chastity, and probably sanity.

"Really I can't thank you enough, if it was not for you I'd probably be in Alucard's coffin right now. Do you have a name?.... Silly me, I'm talking to a wolf now, guess my sanity has not been saved after all." She ended her solo dialogue with a chuckle.

"The name's Kim, I thought we had already been introduced." Came an all too familiar voice as the wolf's body began to deform and fur started to make way for skin. And indeed, Soon Kim appeared from the mass of fur Bright yellow eyes aglow as she gave Seras a gentle smile.

"Seras, Long time no see."

And there you go, I got not much to say except... REVIEW DAMMIT!

Thank you for reading!
~Kitty