Disclaimer: Hellsing is not mine. I make no money from this madness. More's the pity.

Ch. 2: A Solution to a Problem

Integra clenched her teeth on her cigar as she attempted to concentrate on the report in front of her. The demon had killed twenty-three more times before the Hellsing Demon Extermination Unit could dispatch it.

Over the thirty years since Alucard had disappeared, they had developed various units specializing in disposing of the creatures that they used to be able to just send him after. When he returned, Integra had assumed he would be just as powerful as ever. He hadn't denied that or warned her he might not be able to handle the foes they used to throw him at…until he almost died in truth.

How could he frighten her like that?! She didn't care that he had lost the power that she had come to depend on in her youth. In thirty years, she had learned to compensate for that. She was just glad…to have him back.

Sighing, she sat back in her office chair. He didn't see it that way. She knew that. Since the incident, he hadn't come out of the basement except to collect the blood packets that the butler that replaced Walter refused to deliver down there. How could a man over five hundred years old sulk like a…a…toddler? And yet, that was so very…Alucard.

At least he wasn't out trying to get himself killed again.

V^^^V

Seras touched the door to her master's chamber, her stomach tied up in knots. She'd never seen him like this: sullen, angry…powerless. She wanted to reach out to him, but every time she tried, he snarled at her.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

"Master? I brought you some blood packets."

The door knob clicked and eased open a couple of inches. Hesitantly, Seras pushed it open and found Alucard lounging on his throne, legs crossed at the ankle out in front of him. His head tilted down, the brim of the fedora hiding his face from view. Empty blood packets littered the floor and the room smelled vaguely of rot and decay. Seras resisted the urge to cover her nose.

"Where do you want them?"

No response. Alucard could be a corpse in truth for all the reaction he gave her. She wondered, if she dared to check under the brim of the hat, would she find a dried out husk? Biting her lip, she spotted a small table beside the door.

"I'll just leave them here."

Silence.

Hurriedly, she dropped the four packets of blood on the table and rushed out of the room. She had meant to talk to him…tell him it wasn't his fault. He'd done what he had to do in order to return to them. Even if that left him weakened, she didn't care. She had her master back. But she couldn't do it. His silence spoke loud and clear. He wasn't ready…and might never be.

V^^^V

Alucard watched Seras scurry from the room. She couldn't see his face under the brim of his hat, but he was fully aware of everything in his domain.

With the door shut, he levered himself to his feet. His legs and ribs still ached with the phantom pain of an injury he could no longer heal on his own. He still tasted Seras's blood on the back of his tongue. It filled him with impotent rage.

Snatching up a blood packet, he ripped the IV port off with his teeth and tilted his head back to pour the red liquid down his throat. All too quickly, the last drop drained out and still that hollow, hungry feeling made his chest ache. Integra's virgin blood could ease the ache…for a time. It always returned, if anything more powerful and painful than before. A vision popped into his mind, his teeth sunk deep into Integra's throat, drinking, consuming her, not to turn her but to take her in, make her a permanent part of himself.

His mouth opened and a look came over his face as that of a man sighting heaven. He knew she would sooner destroy him…and herself, than allow him to consume her. Still, the dream danced in his mind like a carrot before the proverbial ass.

Tossing the empty blood packet on the ground, the vampire strode back to his throne and glared down at it. Nothing had changed in his basement room in thirty years, but nothing was the same. He brought his hands up to examine the pristine white gloves he wore, not a mark on them.

An idea floated across his glowing red eyes. His lips slowly skimmed back in a feral grin and for the first time since his encounter with the demon, a low, maniacal chuckle rumbled up out of his chest.

V^^^V

A man in a bright red duster strolled down Brixton road at 1:53 in the morning. Most of the district's residents slept fitfully in their beds…if they had beds in this barren, burned out part of London. Those that were still up and about were generally up to no good.

A pair of ruffians spotted the lone figure. They took in the sumptuous leather duster and matching fedora. The clothes looked like something out of a theatre production, but the quality of the material spoke of a man of wealth. Grinning at one another, they hurried around a corner to hit up a cross alley.

Alucard came to a stop at the sound of a footstep behind him. A thug strolled around the corner in front of him.

"You've a gun aimed at the back of yer head, sir," the thug said with a gap-toothed grin. "We'll be having your wallet and any valuables you might be having on your person."

"Oh, will you, now?"

Alucard cocked his head at the human bully, the distant street lights glinting off his orange spectacles. The thug took a step back, uncertain. Generally, his announcements weren't met with such calm confidence. He expected more begging and pleading.

The vampire flashed a grin at the thug and rushed him with a speed that a human couldn't hope to react to. The gun went off as Alucard's teeth closed on the man's unprotected throat. The gun went off again as the first thug died with a loud gurgle.

Terrified, the man with the gun turned to flee, all sense of loyalty lost in the face of certain death. Alucard dropped the body clutched in his jaw and leaped after the fleeing gunman. Taking him from behind, the vampire sank two fingers into the man's eye sockets and ripped backwards, opening the human's brain case in a great fountain of blood. He buried his face in the warm flesh, gnawing on the bone as the blood covering the street began seeping toward him. It soaked into the hem of his duster and the soles of his boots. Pulling back, Alucard cradled the bloody remnants of the gunman's head in his hands. With a tender look that didn't belong at the site of such slaughter, he opened his mouth, light glistening off the upper and lower row of spiked teeth. The body twitched with some base brain nerve reaction as he bit down into the flesh of the throat.

Blood welled up and dripped down the vampire's jaw. His eyes closed in utter bliss. The human's body wavered to mist around the edges as tendrils of Alucard's hair snaked around the remnants of the mutilated head. They curled themselves around the body, consuming and feeding until nothing but a splotch of red remained on the sidewalk.

Alucard's body dissolved fully into shadow and a pair of wide, frightened eyes blinked open on his chest. The vampire looked down at his new familiar and wild, joyful laughter bubbled up out of his throat.

Thunder rumbled across the sky overhead as the clouds opened with a deluge that swept over the infernal creature as he descended on the other thug still twitching in the final throes of death.

End Note:

Yum, dinner? What would Integra think?

Kinoko182: I'm glad you like it! I just finished reading the entire series recently myself and am on a total Hellsing bender at the moment. Heh. At least I'm getting some good fanfic out of it? *grin*