Disclaimer: I'm thankful that Hellsing belongs Kouta Hirano, if it had belonged to CLAMP, Alucard might be living in another dimension by now xD No other payment I get that your favs, follows and scarce but lovely comments.

(Re) Building an Empire

Second Week

Luckily they haven't asked him to fight ghouls anymore, he had had enough of those monsters. Now he was stuck with the rescuing team. He hated being outside in the cold night, the scent of rotting corpses filling his nostrils, being demoted to a job a simple dog could do. Two weeks after the massacre the possibilities of finding victims alive were short, so their work had reduced to retrieve corpses for their families, so they can give their relatives and friends a proper burial. It was a noble task, but a tiresome and dirty one!

Another pair of corpses. This time a little girl clung to her mother. Duke looked for an exit, they were buried deep under layers of concrete, only a thin beam of moonlight allowed him to know where was up, and where down. He wiped some debris from the girl's cheek with the back side of his hand, her mother's legs were long lost as a mangled mesh of black meat under a fallen pillar. Humans were so fragile, he thought, not feeling particularly anything from the scene. Suddenly he perceived a faint heartbeat. The mother was alive, unconscious and on the verge of death, but alive. Maybe they weren't as fragile as expected. He had entered there as a plume of smoke, there was only place for that. How was he supposed to go out of there with two women?

He sighed in resignation; then started to pull the woman and child from under a fallen wall. Integra had given him a Hellsing uniform, a classy dark green military vest, pants and black leather boots. He covered his face with the hand, the next night he would ask her for a gas mask.

"Hey Duke, I've found three!" Seras tuned inside his head. For the young vampire it had turned a game of who discovers more corpses in a night. He could bet she hadn't lost her humanity yet, it was more about her way of dealing with this situation.

"Only two." He theatrically moaned, he could hear her chuckle in his mind. "One of them is barely alive, guess that gives me more points." He didn't want to mess it like he did with the german children. "But it seems I'm trapped. Can you give me a hand?"

"You're such a lazy ass." Duke could swear it was Seras's familiar, Pip Bernadotte, who said that. "Stop worrying for your manicure and lift some walls."

"Seriously, and how you expect me to do so while carrying the bodies, eh?" He set back playful. Corpses were, in the usage of vampire abilities, objects able to pass through the wall. The problem here was the mother.

"I'll be there as soon a possible." Seras took control of her body again.

Silence, the whole place was nothing but this word. Well, stench could describe it too. Duke carefully cleaned some dust from the floor and sat, the corpses the farthest from him. He looked up to the night, as the time passed the moon moved from its place to the horizon leaving him in a deep darkness.

He wondered how much his life had changed from that night when he met Sir Integra. He closed his eyes remembering the night of the disgrace in London that had brought such turnabout in his life. If it weren't for it, perhaps he would never had gathered the guts for coming to meet Dracula. He remembered.

The warm night in Philadelphia when he was strolling with Jack. Unsure of what to do of their first official date. When he found a theater where the movie Dracula was being exhibited. It was the Francis Ford Coppola version, unneeded to say he ended trembling on his seat. Most people had found it a masterpiece, some expected more horror, Duke could only feel anguish.

Days later Jack bought him Bram Stoker's book. The vampire devoured it in three hours, the last page of his precious book is stained with blood, from the tears he shed when knowing his sire's fate.

Jack was such a sweet man. Of course he had read the book years ago, and finished it unaware of the reality of the story. But once he realized how much it had hurt Duke to know, he spent most of his free time investigating how much of the novel was true. And truth was, it was all of it. But he never gave up, he found something worth risking his career and life. A dark organization founded by the Crown of England, a somewhat military branch. Hellsing household had so many resemblance to Bram Stoker's tale. To start with, the name was a somewhat anglicization of Van Helsing, a character in the novel, more else, it was a vampire hunting organization! Jack continued researching until, one day, he handed Duke an address with phone number. He had needed to pull a lot of strings but he had managed to get in contact with Arthur Hellsing, of course he was careful to set a commercial arrangement, they would never know about Duke being a vampire, but at least Market Off was now related to the military british organization.

"Dracula is alive...well...in some way" Jack told him reassuring, and Duke's world turned upside down. Van Helsing had tried to kill the vampire, yes; Dracula had turned into dust, yes; however he only had transformed to run away and the evil vampire hunter had chased him to his cemetery, where he caught Dracula. His sire had been held captive of the Hellsings for several generations. But it seemed he didn't mind, Duke remembered how much his sire enjoyed reading about England, he had been specially mesmerized by London. Maybe he was fine, pleased to be part of something in the place he wanted to be. Even though he had the phone number, he never had the courage to contact them. All the meetings were through a representative in London. He even got the new that Arthur Hellsing had passed away and wondered what Dracula could do after that; and then as a little girl took her father's place as head of the organization the contact turned meager.

Then the night of the attack to London Duke was laying on the couch, head resting on Jack's shoulder. The images of the broken buildings, the weeping people, a single reporter mentioned another attack at Hellsing mansion, which was far from London. Duke's heart sank. He stood up that same moment for calling his private jet's pilot. Jack thought he was crazy, at first he thought it was a joke, then the seriousness of the situation changed his disregard to anger. He shouted Duke to leave it off, Dracula was a far more powerful vampire than him and he could take care of by himself. As Duke started the engine of his car, Jack felt in languish while grabbing the car window. Nothing could stop Duke, it might been his only opportunity to talk again with who he thought was important, the man who gave him life in death.

Just arriving England, eighteen hours later for the mess that had just happened in the place, he got a message from his clerk, Jack had been smart enough to set an alibi for him, so he could enter into Hellsing without problem. He was going to access with a huge shipment of medical aid. Also, since the mansion had been tore apart, the delivery was to Sir Irons, who had taken the head of Hellsing under his wing.

Duke wondered how stupid he had been. Of course he cared Dracula, one can't explain how awful he felt when Integra told him his sire was absent, and not knowing if Dracula would ever go back; but he had also remembered that last expression of fear in Jack's face. His partner was worried for his safe, and he had wasted all this for his childish selfishness.

Duke felt terrible, as if his head was sinking in thick water. He covered his face for painfully sobbing. He missed Jack, but had grown fond to Seras and Integra. And once again, he didn't have the boldness to call back home to say sorry. Much less to call asking Jack for help in the creation of another artificial seal. He feared hearing his beloved one telling him it was over. And yet it was eating him up not having news of his partner.

A cracking noise brought him back to reality. The pure darkness broken by the intense light of a flash lantern, the sound of sirens, flashing of red and blue mixing with the white lantern. A wall falling outside, and another. Seras pulled herself inside in the shape of mist. She had progressed so much. Duke smiled at her, she was her cute little sister.

"Here we are!" She gleaned a big rock while her familiar pushed another wall aside. Then she noticed the red marks on Duke's face "uh? a-are you okay? We didn't last that much, did we?"

The paramedics pushed her aside as they entered in a rush. They immediately put the woman on a stretcher to take her to the ambulance. Seras looked outside to the car noisily going away at full speed, then she turned for picking the dead child. Caring preciously for her even if that was a long deceased body.

"Duke," she caressed the girl on the back, turning a condescend yet sad smile at him "whatever that had made you cry is now gone. Tonight, you saved a life."

The vampire smiled back. At least, that was a decision he would never regret.

Author's Note: A short chapter here. Well, I didn't get any comment ;_; but at least I can thank GF255 for the fave and following. Next chapter is has some Seras/Integra interaction, as I had promised a while back .

And for the mexican readers: Felices Fiestas Patrias! ^o^