Note: I honestly didn't expect quite the level of enthusiasm this has gotten so far, and just from a short prologue chapter! Reviews will be responded to privately and not within chapters. Thanks to everyone that reviewed and I hope you enjoy the story! This chapter is going to follow Hellsing Ultimate Episode 1 rather closely, for the sake of getting characterization and beginning to set the tone for the overall story. Dialogue may be changed or exact but will not be heavily edited to fit my own desires, thus leading away from the characters personalities.

This work is un beta'd.

Chapter One

It was eerily silent, the sky bathing the land in a red hue. Atop a rolling hill sat a church, the building casting a stark shadow in the same color as blood from. At the entrance to the church three tense figures stood, wary and unwilling to push open the doors just yet. What could be lying in wait amidst the pews? It was one of the men that opened the doors, guns at the ready to intimidate. Inside the church was dark, the only illumination coming from the stained windows on either side of the door, and even that was faint enough that most of the interior was painted in harsh shadows. A flashlight cut through the shadows, allowing human eyes to peer into the gloom, and what they saw startled a gasp out of the only woman amongst them.

There, at the far side of the church, was a man who looked like a priest. Brown hair, dark clothes, and when he turned to them his eyes burned like hot coals. Red as the blood staining his chin and lips, red as the blood coating the woman held in his arms. The amount of blood left no illusions to the state of the woman's existence, no way could someone lose so much of their life essence and remain alive. In a horrible, surreal moment the remaining liquid in the woman's veins seemed to spurt out like a geyser.

Beside the two men, the woman with sapphire eyes stared in horror at what came next. With only a motion of his arm the priest called up decayed corpses from the pews, the church suddenly filled with moaning and wet sounds as ruined flesh dragged over wood. Yellowed eyes stared at the three humans without feeling, bloodied flesh having gone ashen in death, and each new face boasted pointed teeth in perfect rows – a mockery of how normal teeth should be. Behind the waves of bodies rising up, movement sluggish and clumsy, was the priest looking completely satisfied with himself.

The flashlight dropped to the ground, shattering loud enough it was like a gunshot, and then the actual gunshots started. A husky, male voice grunting out "Bastards!" in an effort to give the corpses pause. It might have worked, had they been human any longer. Instead it incited them into new levels of aggression, the hoard of them picking up speed while a few stumbled back from the force of a bullet hitting their limbs. Even bullets weren't enough to really slow them down.

Bright eyes darkened when the woman looked over to the men on her right, her partners and the only humans left in Cheddar it seemed. Farthest from her was clawing, greyed arms dragging one of the men towards a waiting maw despite his severe struggles. Once one had him the others rushed in, dragging limbs towards gnashing teeth and blood spurted from each fresh wound in a heated rush. The man screamed, the other turning with a shout to protect himself from the onslaught and only succeeding in futily unloading his clip into uncaring corpses. It hastened his end, the grasping hands taking hold and pulling him in with such ferocity he unleashed a scream that was high in pitch, ear piercing.

"Go!" he grunted, looking the woman dead in the eye. Daring her to stick around and join them in death. She hesitated, long enough that one of the corpses scrabbled to get ahold of her clothing, before backpeddaling quickly and turning tail to flee.

Had she looked back she might have given a scream of her own. Amongst the advancing hoard were her comrades, slowly having flesh eaten even as they joined the ranks of whatever hellish creations the priest had spawned – the priest who was slowly advancing. No need to rush, he thought. We have all night.

In the distance, a makeshift base had been set up with police officers and officials of various rank. They were disbelieving, laughing at a stern individual with platinum hair and silvery-blue eyes. None of them could wrap their heads around what had just been told to them, unable and unwilling to believe what information had passed the suited individual's lips. It would have been comical at any other time but the current situation was dire, humor had no place in such a thing. Particularly when the news of a whole squad being taken down was given to those within the tent, the informed individual blowing a plume of smoke from her mouth. The voice was distinctly professional when she called the village a ghoul den, without a hint of amusement when she declared a vampire was responsible. Once amused at her words, the men became fearful.

Finding humor in the situation had been easy for them, none had seen exactly what was going on in the village of Cheddar. They couldn't lay eyes on the police officers running while shooting uselessly into the slow-moving hoard of ghouls, led by the red-eyed priest with the slash of white across his face where his dagger-like teeth caught the glow of the moon. Men who were tucked safely within their temporary base didn't feel the fear, the uncertainty, that the men out in Cheddar felt. With ghouls stalking the woods, devouring men without discrimination, and a gleeful vampire watching his hoard of mindless servants multiply they would have been no more use than the masses of their officers that were being devoured to join the deceased villagers of Cheddar.

Amongst those fleeing, the numbers dwindling to one, was the same woman that had gone to the church. She ran fast, lungs expelling harsh breaths and eyes threatening to tear up at what was going on around her. Branches threatened to snatch at her flared blond hair as she zipped past and through the underbrush. Running seemed to further excite the vampire and his ghouls, the woman unaware she wasn't running from her death but towards it at alarming speed. Questions ran through her head, confusion over what was following her and what had happened to her fellow officers.

All the while her superiors stayed comfortable and safe away from the chaos that was the ever growing ghoul den, Cheddar.

"In order to keep the ghouls from further multiplying, you need to terminate the leader vampire itself." The woman took another drag of her cigar, beginning to look more amused as the panic set in amongst the officers. They were finally beginning to realize the position they were in, that her information was spot on and they needed her organization. A distant buzzing in her head, ringing of mirth, came and went as quick as a blink. She continued, taking a special delight in the men who had just been looking down on her suddenly realizing they needed her. "That's where we come in. Hellsing wll take care of the vampire."

Her glasses glinted in the light, giving a vaguely demonic appearance that had grown men freezing in terror and awe. The world as they knew it was suddenly very different, full of monsters and demons that they had no chance of fighting and winning against. The fact that Hellsing took such perverse delight in that didn't escape their notice, they were simply not in any place to do anything without the organization's assisatance. Boxed in and they knew it, unable to deny they were beneath a woman in the ladder of power.

"You can't be serious," a suited man murmured. His eyes were so wide the whites were visible all around, petrified. This can't be happening.

"One of our top anti-vampire experts is already on his way to the town of Cheddar," she announced, voice full of dark humor. The same buzz came and went, searching out the source of her mirth and settling with a distant cackle once it was found. "The issue will be settled in a matter of hours."

"Who the hell is he?" one of the men demanded, voice hard and eyes frantic. Surely Hellsing wasn't sending fodder in? Or some psychotic individual that would turn on them too.

"When it comes to monsters," she said, voice laden with enjoyment, "especially vampires, he's the greatest expert there is."

Walking to the village of Cheddar was a tall, broad shouldered figure. The silhoutte billowed out where clothing trailed behind with each step, arms swinging almost childishly at the lone person's sides. A glint of the full moon overhead revealed the red attire, wide-brimmed fedora obscuring his entire face in shadows except where minimal light caught his glasses and set them ablaze in a wash of red and orange light. From a distance it looked as if he had two circles of hell peering from his face.

"It's a great night." The voice that slashed through the darkness was surprisingly warm, rough like sandpaper and with an accent that was difficult to place. "The kind of night that makes me want to drink some blood."

It shifted from nonchalance towards a dark hunger, coiling through the air like a living thing and whispering 'danger' to anyone that could have been listening. Whatever the owner of the voice was, he wasn't human and he certainly had an edge that sent nearby animals running. The night suddenly felt alive, writhing across the sense in a more sinful manner than the lunacy of the moon already caused. The man, if he could be called such, stood still with his head tilted back as if to breath in the insanity of the night. Far off was the moaning of the dead, gunshots still echoing through the air.

What a great night indeed.

"Ah," he groaned, grinning so wide his face appeared to split in two. "The quiet… It really is a great evening."

Having taken the moment for himself, senses sweeping out and getting a vague glimpse of the situation he would be walking into, the man began walking forward once again. This time, however, he didn't follow the road as he had been but veered off into the trees instead. Something was calling him that way, like a long forgotten fever dream coming to life before his eyes. That direction was where the fun would be, where the night would prove to be every bit as beautiful as he'd felt while staring towards the moon.

Cutting through the woods had saved the woman from being too closely followed by the hoard of dead, their steps unsteady and bodies easily slowed further by the trek through the woods. Her hand clutched at her gun, not knowing what else to do with it other than keep it out in case she felt the need to defend herself in the same vain attempts that had proceeded the ending of so many other lives. A tiny voice in her mind urged her to keep moving, to reach a certain destination. Help will meet us there, it said. We won't die here! It felt like lunacy to run, some other part of her knowing that there would be no help coming for her. Everyone else had died, she felt sure that she was going to meet her end in the village of Cheddar and not a single soul would miss her.

The only positive aspect of being an orphan, she thought with a mental whimper, is that you don't leave loved ones behind.

She was determined to leave Cheddar behind, scrambling to run over uneven ground and paying little attention to the area around her. It proved to be a mistake, losing track of her surroundings like that, and before she could backtrack there were those… things ahead of her. They reached out, mindlessly desperate to obey orders and eat flesh, and she threw herself back with such force it was a shock she didn't lose balance. She recalled the sight of the priest tearing into someone's throat, one of her fellow police officers, and bile threatened to rise up in her throat. It wasn't just some awful dream, it was reality and it was terrifying.

Her escape route from the front was blocked off. Whipping around revealed that the way she'd come from was just as cut off and furtive glances to both sides of her showed corpses closing in. They didn't reach for her, instead coming to a standstill and countless pairs of eyes were all on her with bloodied spittle dripping from their gaping mouths. Most horrifying was the priest. While the ambling corpses barely resembled people anymore he still looked normal, even with his knife-sharp teeth bared in a grin some part of her brain refused to see him for the monster he was. Like his voice was tearing through her head, forcing her to forget that he had killed everyone and turned them into mindless corpses!

"There's no use running," he cackled, throwing his head back while his eyes glowed in her direction. They would have almost been beautiful, had they not so greatly resembled old blood that was long coagulated. Almost brownish in appearance without the gleam of the moon.

Feeling suddenly enraged, almost snarling, the woman lifted her gun to eye level and fired off several consecutive shots aimed at the priest. Despite the heat of her anger her limbs had been shaking, sending none of the bullets to their intended target, and within one second and the next she was falling to her behind when the priest was suddenly directly in front of her. The ruthlessness with which his eyes gleamed at her indicated that was what he thought she should have been doing all along, groveling on the ground beneath him. He leaned down, almost gentle, and hauled her back to her feet with a cruel grip. Nails almost like daggers pricking at her skin and bringing them a hairs width apart, face to face.

"There's no use firing your gun either," he growled, startling a rush of breath from her. Then, as if it would arouse her, the priest reached out and took brutal hold of one breast, shocking a yelp from the police woman. Utterly mortified, face flushed, she stared away from his face with increasing horror.

There, struggling to walk towards her, were the two men who had died right in front of her in the church. Flesh hanging off their faces, lips pulled back and drool falling in great globs from their chins. Mindless yellowed eyes staring without recognition towards her face. It became that much more real and despite her best efforts tears sprang to the corners of her eyes, stomach twisting itself into knots of dread.

"Eddie…. Simon..."

They were…

Almost as if reading her mind, the priest replied with a carelessness that his intent stare belied. "That's right. Your partners belong to me now."

He seemed extremely proud of that fact, the sick priest. She almost wanted to spit in his face just to spite him, just to give some of that fight she imagined Eddie and Simon had wanted to give in the end. The urge was quickly overcome by terror once more.

"I'm going to make you one of mine as well," the priest purred, looking utterly mad. The sharp light of madness in his eyes gave her the courage to lift the gun and pull the trigger, aiming for his smug face and hitting it with enough force he turned completely away but didn't release her. Instead he squeezed her breast harder, laughing in a higher pitch at her pained gasp. He continued on as if she hadn't interrupted, "What I want is a loyal slave. I don't want to create some Draculina with her own free will."

Once more was she yanked, harsh hands pulling until they were face one another again and the gun was knocked out of her hand. Contrary to his hard hold on her, the weapon was knocked away like it was a childs game and she was being chastened for being an unruly participant. The force in the hand holding her felt like it could have easily snapped bones and yet he was just toying with her. Something in her burned over the treatment, hating that the attention had made her blush like a teenager with their first crush at school, in danger of being caught by adults. She burned, struggling when he easily flipped her so his chest was to her back, copper breath drifting over the side of her face.

"Girls your age aren't usually virgins nowadays, but..." The grin was obvious in his voice, even when she wanted to retch at his closeness she took note of small things to try and escape. Every movement of her own was almost idly stopped by the priest, as if she were so weak he could stop her without even realizing he was, but still she fought and grunted against his hold.

She hated the pause in his words, wanted to gouge out his eyes or anything to make him let her go. Feeling helpless made her hate with a passion, forcing up the tide of old memories.

"I'm going to rape you," he commented, as if discussing the weather. It struck her then, the hand not holding her still going between her legs and she writhed at the humiliation. The priest was copping feels like she offered them up, begging for it, and ignoring all protest in her grunts and hissed breaths. "I'm going to make you my slave."

Not winning any points for seduction, a dry humor drawled in the depths of her mind.

He was so close to her neck now, when she knew what his teeth could do to the delicate flesh there.

Then it felt like something shoved its way into her head, like fingers were tearing at the walls inside her skull. Eyes watching all around, judging her humiliation and finding amusement in her struggles while she screamed. It was high and desperate, terrified.

Everything got still and silent, even the priest's breathing seemed to have ceased and the moaning of the corpses dwindled down to nothing. She felt like she was being watched, a heavy weighted gaze resting upon her. The woman felt more than saw the priest turn around to face something other.

Another man was approaching, the moon as his back and casting his body into inky blackness. The priest was suddenly uneasy, demanding, "Who the hell are you?"

A slash of white appeared in the shadows, minute inching of the new man's face revealing two perfect circles of hellish light far too big to be eyes. He grinned, this stranger, and the woman had a feeling he wanted to laugh at the gall of the priest questioning him. Like a child with a new toy, all gleeful and aggressive.

"I'm a professional killer." Stated, like it was perfectly normal.

"Professional killer?" Incredulous, questioning yet demanding with hysterical mirth. "You can't be serious!"

One human woman caught between mirthful monsters.

The woman squirmed to be free, suddenly not liking the atmosphere between these two and wanting to get away. The priest wasn't looking at her, far too focused on the newest addition to the night of horrors, but a considerable weight settled across her shoulders from someone's regard. While the lone figure watched them, radiating amusement, the priest laughed and shot an arm out. With a condescending click if his fingers, loud as a shot, the metallic sound of guns filled the air with the command.

"Kill him."

Words failed the woman, there was no way she could have given name to what she felt. Bullets raced past and aimed true towards the new man who had come from God knows where. His body rocked with the impact, some of the more high powered weapons tearing away huge chunks of flesh and muscle to leave bone visible in its place. She gaped as what had once been a man turned into a mangled mess of flesh only vaguely held together by flimsy cords of sinew and skin. The glasses had shattered, taking away the hellish pools and revealed eyes such a startling crimson she couldn't help but think of rubies.

The man watched her the entire time, or it seemed as if he was. The weight of his gaze had settled and didn't seem like it was going anywhere. She knew she should have been horrified, that she should have been shrieking at the sight before her but she felt almost….calm. This man… no, this monster was not going to kill her. He was here to kill the priest, of that she was positive. Even when he'd fallen to the ground with a heavy thud she knew, deep down, that he wasn't finished.

Somewhere in the midst of the shooting the priest had let her go, his laughter ringing out once the shots ended. "Are you dead already, professional killer?"

His tone deemed the question rhetorical but the woman waited for an answer. The man's mind raced through possibilities, touching on two minds who mattered the most and seemingly dead to the priest. Just because a heart didn't beat, lungs didn't draw breath, and a body was riddled with holes didn't mean a monster was beaten.

Moon high overhead, the fallen man began to chuckle. The sound was almost musical at first, steadily gaining to razor edged laughter. Sharp with insanity and heavy with dark amusement. Insects crawled, the sky writhed with dark shapes, and the woman looked on in horrified fascination as the body of the 'dead' man suddenly began to move. The priest seemed disbelieving, his own power not enough to have guaranteed such a thing and yet watching it happen right before his very eyes.

Distantly the 'man' heard a conversation going on, as if through water, and dipped in to get a better grasp before pulling himself to his own mind. His master was entertaining foolish humans with their infantile questions and demands. The man's own mind was much more focused on the temporary game he would be able to play, wondering just how long it would take this new toy to break under his relentless hands. And the woman, such a pretty little thing with her wide eyes and her beating heart. He could hear the blood rushing through her veins, smell her fear, but it was the eyes that brought back long forgotten dreams.

A child with whispy white strands and the bluest jewels for eyes, gums exposed in a smile with frothy spit from clumsy happiness.

Feeling like he was conducting a show, the newly risen man used shadow to reform himself on his feet. Grinning with a heady glint of madness coloring his eyes while pulling the silver gun out painfully slow. Not too fast so as not to spook the prey, but not so slow that he'd give a chance for the priest to become boring. Just the right speed to make it significant, feeling all eyes on his movements with rapt attention. Satisfied with his turn going uninterrupted, the man pulled the trigger while spinning in a circle and utterly decimated the ghoul numbers.

Child's play.

Their heads and hearts burst forth in a splash of dust, unable to bleed any further and crumbling like ancient parchment. Ah, what a beautiful night!

"Those bullets..."

The priest said it like a curse, a curious manner while his ghouls were downed and he did nothing to prevent the dark figure from reloading. Someone foolishly skipped their turn in the game!

"They're exploding 13mm shells made out of a melted down silver cross from Lanchester Cathedral," the rough voice spoke as if imparting little more than casual conversation, similar to how any normal person might say hello in passing. But the grin, wild and crazed, was anything but casual. "They'll kill any freak they hit."

The priest finally realized – foolish, insignifigant, disgusting - just how huge his mistake was. Underestimating the professional killer might well be the last thing he did… unless…

He slanted a gaze to the woman, inquiring, "Why would a fellow vampire side with humans?"

Why, why, why?

Before he'd even moved the ruby eyed vampire's gaze darted to the woman, considering without changing facial expression from his manic grin. The priest grabbed the human woman, a pitiful shield that would stand no chance against bullets. Using a human as a shield while he begged for his life, his freedom.

Such a disgusting insect of a vampire.

"She's the only survivor." Indeed she was, staring with wide eyes and a tiny hint of trust hidden deep within. Startling clear pools trusting that everything would be alright, as though that was enough to guarantee that her life would continue on. "Don't you want to let her live?"

A fair question, one that got a few seconds of consideration. Did he want to let her live? Red considered blue, spearing through her mind with intent on judging the next course of action. Not so deep he left her a vegetable, it would ruin the purpose, but deep enough to determine the next course of action. Her thoughts were abuzz, waves crashing onto the beach and dragging away sand ravenously – demanding answers to unasked questions. Yes, he supposed he did want her alive. To have survived as long as she had, human she was, demanded some kind of darker instinct. How many of her friends and comrades had fallen just so she could go farther, get ahead of the ghouls?

All of them, of course. And had she the chance, more would have fallen so she could be free. That fierce nature was beautiful.

Begging from a bottom feeding vampire was anything but beautiful, more akin to the sound of a fly buzzing in your ear. Redundant and abhorrent, such grotesque vampires that would beg for mercy when they deserved none, unwilling to fight until the end regardless of the end result.

The woman, however, wasn't begging for her life. Not once while he was listening in did she beg for leniency, beg for the priest to let her go. She fought, even when the vampire was stronger than her and most humans would have resorted to begging. A more worthy human he had not seen.

"Young lady," he drawled out the words, grinning ferally at her. "Are you a virgin?"

As one would expect, she looked absolutely shocked at the question. Wide eyes holding so much innocence he didn't doubt that the answer to his inquiry would be yes. It still had to be asked, the binding on his person preventing him from turning those that hadn't given their express permission – or that's what he'd have everyone believ. The truth was much different, that a vampire so ancient had simply not found anyone willing to bear his blood in such a long time. Turning such a lady…

"I'm asking if you're a virgin," he wasn't asking so much as demanding an answer now. The priest realizing that something bad might be going on right under his nose. It was amusing to see the thin-blooded vampire squirm, similar to the delight in pouring salt on slugs. "Answer!"

"Yes! I am!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth he pulled the trigger, aiming right through her left breast to pierce her lung and the vampire's heart in one shot. While the woman was forced back with the shot the vampire desintegrated into dust as if he'd simply never been. Such a fitting end for one that was less than shit in the eyes of such an ancient and powerful vampire.

The blood that spilled from the woman smelled so sweet, so pure.

Pain colored her world for long moments before she went numb, breathing a struggle she wasn't going to win. Her vision was going dark, it wouldn't be long before it blinked out like every other human that had lived in Cheddar, like her partners. The vampire priest was dead and gone and her world was dimming to blackness with every breath she tried to take in. Sprawling sky was still dominated by the moon, looking larger than ever from her point of view.

"In order to hit his heart I had to hit your lung," the voice drew her gaze, just the simple action feeling like it took eternity. Up close she could make out the strange man's face. See his otherworldly visage, handsome in a classical warlord kind of way… or the insane kind of way. Eyes so bright they glowed looking almost tender, but it must have been a trick of the light. Monsters held no tenderness. "Sorry, but it's a high caliber gun. You won't last long."

For a moment he sounded genuinely apologetic.

"What do you want to do?"

What did she want to do? Were there choices right then? Dying seemed awfully inevitable, laying in a growing puddle of her own blood with limbs having already gone cold. Even her mind was fogging over but she knew that she was beginning to cry. Everyone else had died in Cheddar, had been put to rest by the strange man asking what she wanted to do. If it wasn't so traumatizing she might have been tempted to laugh. She was dying, fading away, and nothing was stopping her from…

She didn't want to die.

Gathering the last of her strength she attempted to reach out towards something, her vision so fuzzy nothing was in the right place just then. Before her arm got very far the strength left her limb and it fell into the man's waiting hand. She didn't want to die. Tears spilled anew, dimming eyes watching his blurring face.

Please don't let me die, she said without words.

The last words she heard before everything went black came from the man, drawn out. "Tonight really is a great night..."

She didn't even have the energy left to feel pain, only blissful numbness as she was swept up into comforting shadows.

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