Alucard stared into Integra's office: the wide, empty room fitted with only a single desk and chair. Integra was a bit of a minimalist, despite her vast wealth and resources. It was yet another one of Integra's endearing quirks along with her temper; she didn't need much, she had no use for frivolous things unlike her father, who seemed to get great amusement out of the various material trappings of life.

That, of course, didn't mean that Arthur had been a bad man, far from it, he had simply been more caught up in material possessions than his daughter was. Perhaps, Alucard mused, that was why Integra was so resistant to materialism; the memory of her father.

The sun set through the massive mullioned windows, bathing the red velvet curtains in fire. Integra's head was bent down over her papers, her pale blond locks slipping forward on her shoulders, her expression cool and composed as usual. There was a firm grace and an enchanting resilience about her; her bearing, while masculine and stubborn at heart, Integra hardly the sort of woman that would have been desired in Alucard's day. But that was the very thing Alucard found attractive about her. Hundreds of years of women in parlors, women in drawing rooms, women in bowers, their corsets laced so tight they couldn't even lift a finger in defense. Women with their locks combed and neatly fixed to their heads, so afraid to move, so daunted by the men around them and forced into submission. How dull they all were.

And in truth, the same thing that had attracted Alucard to Mina Harker was the same thing that drew him to Integra: Strength, intelligence, and the knowledge of just how important her comrades were, and that fire! Oh the fire, the pride of fighting on your own two feet, beside those you love.

Sure, Alucard's initial attack on Mina had been out of spite to Jonathan Harker, but Mina's strength and courage was simply moving; certainly not something he had noted in the dour and drab women of Wallachia hundreds of years before.

And yet she had fled, and fought, and fled again in the end, he lay broken and defeated in the cemetery, Abraham Van Hellsing towering over his defeated form…

Alucard's blood quickened as the dying sunlight bathed the walls the color of a fresh battlefield. Integra paused, reaching into her pocket for her signature cigar, her glasses flashing in the reflected light.

Abraham van Hellsing: how Alucard had cursed that name in the beginning, forced to serve the Hellsing household like a great black lapdog. Even in Warsaw, as enjoyable as it had been to have been let out of the cage to chase those cowering Nazi's rabbits, Abraham van Hellsing was the name he cursed above all else.

It wasn't until ten years ago, when Integra inadvertently released him again that he realized that the Van Hellsing's, now Anglicized to 'Hellsing', were perhaps the greatest thing to happen to him.

Integra was lenient, perhaps her youthful ignorance causing her to let his leash loose far more than was wise, but in doing so, he was by far the most powerful he had ever been, even since his last sunrise in Wallachia.

Integra was the one to thank. He was virtually undefeatable because of her, and over the decade that he had spent watching over her, serving her, and even comforting her in her throes of teenage woe, he had grown to see her strength and supremacy over other women. She was as proud as any queen, and number of the concubines he'd had, and of far greater worth; She was his master, his Queen, and he would serve her until Hell itself rained down form the sky. He would take no other Master.

But his love for her went deeper than that; for him it was far more rare; even when he had been but a Boyar of Wallachia, and a mere Count in Romania, no woman had stirred him so as much as Integra.

A child was what he wanted, an heir to represent his love for her, unrequited, as he was certain it was. And Heir that would carry on the Hellsing line and would aso be a beast of blood such as himself.

A child that they could not have, due to the nature of vampires.

Alucard could smell Walter approaching, and receded into the deepening shadows, choosing to keep Integra unaware of his presence.

"Miss Integra." Walter began with a curt bow. "A swat team has been sent out to Cheddar. It would seem that there is a vampire there who is causing quite a stirring there."

Integra looked up at Walter in the dying glow of the sunset. "Where's Alucard?"

"Safely in the basement." Walter lied, his tone amused. Alucard couldn't help but crack a smile himself.

Icy blue eyes narrowed in a flashing glare, slender shoulders squaring as they came to rest against the high-backed chair; sometimes Integra seemed far older than she was.

"Get him up here. We have work to do." She said, standing up. "Get my coat."

Walter bowed and left, and Integra took three steps before stopping in front of the window.

"You can come out of the shadows, Alucard." she said frankly, the rivulet of blonde hair that streamed down her back glowing strangely silver in the drying light.

Alucard gladly stepped forward, removing his hat before his mater and bowing. "As you wish, My Master." he murmured in a slightly amused tone, his orange-red eyes never leaving the young woman in front of him. Perhaps he had made her more than a little uncomfortable: because she turned to him suddenly without a word, only the rise and fall of her chest giving her away.

They simply stood, staring at one another, a little bit of Intergra's worry easing from around her eyes. Despite her best efforts, there was nothing she could hide from Alucard.

Alucard smiled serenely, nodding and rising as Walter re-entered, carrying Integra's coat over his arm.

"I'm dispatching you to Cheddar." Integra said stiffly as Walter helped her into the long black garment. "I trust you won't destroy anything this time, Alucard."

Alucard only bowed deeply, his smile spreading.

A/N: Just something I did really quick; originally for a fanfiction contest for a con I went to last weekend, I passed out in my masquerade outfit and didn't make it to the contest :P Damn hotel didn't have A/C in the ballroom!

I think we all know how this turns out: In my mind, Alucard picks Seras to be his 'heir', and to replace him after he #$*&^ Schrodinger and #^$&*'s.