Singe

The Return

Disclaimer: Hellsing belongs to People who are not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Castlevania belongs to Konami who are also not me. I make no claim on any characters from either Hellsing or Castlevania I'm simply borrowing them without permission.

Rating: PG-13

Part: One of ?

Authoress note: The Castle rises again in an unexpected place.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You do not need to know anything about Castlevania to understand this fic, all Castlevania references are explained in the fic.

Italics are thoughts, metal speak, and flashbacks

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Chapter Two

The daemons were strange, Seras decided; this one looked human, despite being over eight feet tall and heavily armored. He had a chain attached to his arm and on the end of said chain was a ball. The monstrous man swung the chain with ease, as if they made the ball of foam. When the ball struck the earth, it left a crater.

"He's a plate lord." Alucard noticed Seras watching the creature. "They cannot talk, and are permanently attached to their weapon,"

"That sounds sad." Seras watching the mortal men surround the plate, Lord.

"Not really. They communicate with each other in different ways and the chain is something similar to horns on rams, antlers on deer." he sniggered. "The bigger the chain, the more impressive his is to the ladies."

"You're kidding, right?"

Alucard shook his head. Then, noticing the mortal forces were getting a little close to the plate Lord, he stepped forward. The daemon watched him and, upon recognizing him, lowered its arm and dipped its head.

"Return." The master vampire watched as the demon faded at the command. Alucard looked at the troops.

"Why are you even here?" He turned to walk away.

"Don't be rude," Seras muttered as her master returned to her. Alucard made a face.

"Now we call those over there Venus weeds." Alucard pointed to three very large reddish flowers.

"Kind of like Venus fly traps?"

Alucard sniggered and approached the flowers. He laid a hand on one and Seras flinched when it moved, half expecting lots of teeth and vines to come from nowhere and devour her master. What she was not expecting was a naked girl to emerge from the flower, like some twisted version of Thumbelina.

"What?" she approached. The girl was only a girl from the belly button up, she had no legs, she merged with the plant. Like a mermaid, a plant mermaid.

"Exceptional."

"Trust you to like the naked one." Seras grumbled as Alucard commanded the weeds to return. "Now stop showing off. We need to find the castle."

Twenty minutes later, Seras was sniggering.

"You're lost!" Seras sniggered. "How long have you been? In this city and you're lost!"

"I am not lost," Alucard growled, the words low and threatening. However, the desired effect was not had as Seras continued to snigger. So, not knowing what else to do, the master vampire tried to ignore his fledgling.

"You need sat-nav!"

"Say that louder. I don't think they heard you in Liverpool. For the last time I am not-" Alucard froze suddenly, his expression causing his fledgling to lose her mirth instantly. He looked confused and afraid, pale, and his hands started shaking ever so slightly.

"What?"

Alucard did not answer her; he sniffed at the air before making a sound of confusion and tearing off down the street. Seras yelped in surprise and followed.

Her master's pace was fast, faster than a mortal man could have moved, but it was not his usual gait. He always had a smoothness to the way he moved, even when he moved in unconventional ways. But now his movements were jerky, panicked, and it frightened Seras.

"Have you found it?" She bolted to keep pace with him. Again, she got no answer; instead all she got was a face full of darkness as Alucard decided that two legs were too slow and changed. He slipped into a black mass and reemerged with four legs and fur without slowing or losing his rhythm.

"Master!" Seras cried as he left her behind. "Slow down!" She hadn't expected him to slow and was not surprised when he didn't. She let out a frustrated breath and tried to force her body to move faster. But it was a vain effort. She watched as he bolted ahead, wondering how he moved at such speed without barreling into a lamppost or wheelie bin.

After a while, she stopped running. She had lost him visually, but could still follow at a more sedate pace. She followed his scent and the little voice in her head that kept them connected. It was not a voice a more feeling; she knew which way he had taken.

Eventually, she found him. She had half expected to turn a corner and find the castle nestled in an alleyway or something equally ridiculous. Instead, she found something she had not expected. A crucifix held up into her face. She yelped in surprise.

"Back down, monster!" The voice behind the crucifix was one she recognized, and she batted the symbol away.

"What on earth is going on?" She met the eyes of the Belmont. He was a tall man, dressed strangely in her eyes; his eyes and hair were dark, his completion tanned and his build strong. But he did not worry her, despite being one of the world's most infamous vampire hunters. She had spent some time with the man and had found him to be irritating more than a threat. "Master!" she snapped, irritated when the Belmont blocked her path.

"He is being destroyed, wretch, and when he falls, so shall you." the Belmont grinned and took a fighting stance against her. Absently, Seras peeked over his shoulder.

"Um… no, he's not," she said. The Belmont frowned and glanced behind him. He was silent for a few moments before letting out an exasperated sound. Alucard was perched on a pile of wooden crates, talking animatedly with another man. This man was also familiar to Seras. His name was Adrian, and he was Alucard's son.

"Alucard." Both vampire and half blood looked up.

"What?" both said. Seras sniggered. The two were not identical, but there were similarities. The shape of the nose, the tilt of the eyes all gave away the shared blood between them.

"What are you doing?" Belmont said, oblivious to Seras' sniggers.

"Do you mind?" Alucard muttered. "We were talking." His voice had taken on his 'I-am-superior' tone and she smiled wider at him, using it against the Belmont. Adrian ignored the tone and continued to speak.

"We arrive a few days ago. We were following a group."

"A group?" Alucard looked somewhat perplexed. Adrian nodded.

"Yes, they are the remnants of the priesthood that spawned the likes of Shaft." The half blood made an unpleasant face and Seras resolved to enquire further as to the identity of Shaft. Absently, she started humming the theme tune, Alucard snorted.

"Not that Shaft." His son gave a confused look. "A television show."

"You watch television?" The half blood asked as if it were the most ridiculous thing he had heard in a long time.

"Beats torpor." Alucard made a face. The half blood looked like he would respond but remained silent and shook his head.

"We followed them here; at least I hope we did." he made a noise of irritation. Alucard looked confused, and Adrian nodded. "We are struggling to locate them. They took a plane, but someone." He glared at the Belmont, "refused to fly and thus we had to take a boat."

"I don't like flying either," Seras muttered. Alucard grinned at her.

"I only dropped you once." Adrian gave her a pitying look.

"You think this priesthood has anything to do with the castle?" she asked. Alucard shrugged.

"Perhaps. It could be the castle followed me here, but that explanation is a little thin. Death would not have disobeyed my instruction to remain in the mountains without good reason."

"You left Death in charge?" Alucard asked in disbelief.

"Well, I wasn't leaving you in charge. But the castle could have still come here on its own. The master's control over it can be frivolous." He looked at Seras for a moment. "Don't tell Integra I said that."

"She won't let you keep it." Seras sighed. "But I won't tell her."

"Good." he turned to face his son. "Why did you follow the priesthood?"

"They saw the castle and assumed you had returned. Then they saw you were not there and assumed the Belmont had destroyed you." He looked at the Belmont who was beaming proudly despite not having done anything. "They proposed to raise you again. They knew you had ties in England and I think they came here to exploit those ties."

"Why?" Seras asked. Both vampire and half vampire looked at her oddly.

"They worshiped him." Adrian gestured to Alucard, who puffed up for a moment before deflating a little. Seras just stared. She had known Alucard had been powerful in Romania, but worshiped? No wonder he had an ego.

"They're morons," Alucard said. "My ties here are hardly what one would term friendly." Adrian shrugged. "But speaking of my ties here, we had the best return to them." He stood and stretched. Adrian watched him warily.

"Well, get up then. I'm not carrying you."

"You want us to come?" the half blood asked,

"I'm not leaving you here to destroy my city." Alucard smirked, Seras grinned. Briefly, she wondered if it was just a masculine thing that stopped men from saying what they really meant. Why couldn't her master just offer his son a place to stay? Adrian was just as bad, though, when he replied.

"I should probably monitor you. The last thing we need now is more trouble."

"You are both idiots."

Alucard glared hard at her.

"Just call for a car. I am not carrying a Belmont."

The car that came was easily big enough for all of them to sit in the back and not be crushed. Seras watched her master and Adrian. Adrian was whispering with the Belmont Alucard was watching his child.

"He doesn't look that much like you," Seras said after a while. "I mean some bits I can see but others." She shook her head.

"He resembled his mother a lot."

"Lisa?" Seras asked. The half-blood jerked at the sound of his mother's name. Alucard swallowed hard. "What happened to her?" she heard herself ask before she had decided to. She bit her lip at the look of pain and anger that flashed across both her master's and Adrian's faces.

"She died," Adrian said after a few moments of silence.

"They murdered her." Alucard looked at his child, but dropped his gaze almost instantly. Seras bit her lip harder; she had resolved to ask this question a long time ago, but now regretted it.

"The village rose up," Alucard explained.

"They were afraid," Adrian said, and his voice sounded very much like someone making excuses he did not want to make. "They came for my mother and me when I was young. My mother did not survive."

"I'm sorry." Seras looked up at her master, who was looking out the window at the street, his fingers making lazy patterns on the glass. They were silent for most of the ride after that, but as they turned out of the city onto the road that would bring them to the Hellsing house, Alucard spoke.

"It was my fault." Alucard broke the silence. Adrian flinched. "They burned her and nearly destroyed Adrian because I was not there." Seras felt sick. She had always known that people had burned women for a variety of reasons, but hearing it from someone who had lost someone to witch burning it made her stomach clench. He sounded so wretched, she wanted to shake him. He had not killed the mother of his child. A group of idiotic, dangerous men had.

"I did not know you blamed yourself," Adrian said. "You were so angry at the village. You burned it down."

"Yes." Alucard said plainly. Seras sighed as the car fell into silence again. This one was worse than before. The weight of the death of this woman hung heavy in the air. It was suffocating, and she had to break it.

"So you raised Adrian?" Seras said. "By yourself?"

"I had help. Demons are mothers as well, and every single one of them had some kind of advice to give." Adrian snorted at that.

"Didn't stop you abducting that poor woman when I got sick."

"Demons don't get sick," Alucard shrugged. "Mortals do. I asked someone who knew what they were talking about."

"That's kind of sweet, in a kidnappy-kind-of-way," Seras said. Everyone turned to look at her then. Vampire, half-blood, and mortal hunter. They stared for a few moments before the Belmont broke the silence by sniggering.

"Sweet," he laughed. "Not the word I would have used, but still."

"Be quiet," Seras glared. "You don't get an opinion!"

End Chapter Two

Thank you for reading, please review, I'd love to hear what you think of the fic.

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My first Novel, Grey Wings has now been released!

GREY WINGS

Jason is stranded in a dark city, and is in desperate need of help when he has no idea how he will get home.

So, when he collides with Aurelius, an Angel only in the mildest sense of the word – who has committed a crime worthy of great punishment, but has been handed a rare chance at redemption – Jason can see a way home.

However, their journey will be hampered by Fallen Angels, Earth Spirits, and Griffons – and none can say if everyone will make it home.