I'm back! The end draws nigh! And this is a super-short chapter, but I couldn't in good conscience add more. That would be too kind of me. ;) Rest assured, I'm already in the process of writing Chapter 18.

Tonight was an ugly night.

The moon was hidden despite the cloudless sky. A new lunar cycle, the beginning of a gradual growth. The beginning of a gradual death.

Tonight he would hide from the moon. Alucard, vampire lord and Count of so many nightmares. Tonight, he would hide from everything. Coward. He loathed himself for not being able to watch.

Out in the field, the blood-bound assassin was with his master. In the near-black of a moonless night, Serena's eyes glowed a hungry crimson. Integra's eyes were closed, hidden from him even as he was hiding from her.

Coward. A snarl rippled across his body, and a concerned Seras hesitantly put her hand on his arm. He didn't feel her touch; he didn't feel anything.

Serena grabbed a handful of Integra's beautiful long hair and kicked the back of her knees, forcing the proud woman to the ground. Then, the lithe draculina slit the skin of her free hand with her own fangs. Painting an upside-down crucifix on her forehead with the fountaining blood, she ground between clenched teeth, "Open your servant's eye, my Master, and see your orders obeyed!"

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the assassin bent in silent pain, clutching at her head. With their undead eyes, Seras and Alucard could see across the distance that a third eye had split Serena's forehead. Balefully, it peered down at the fallen Integra, molten black and flecked with gold.

Integra winced as her head was pulled back. Seras squeezed her eyes shut, trembling; her master, Alucard, could only stare at how white and long his Integra's neck was, lovely even without the moonlight. Then, a longer, more wicked shadow fell over it: the raised form of a holy stake from the ancient catacombs in Rome.

The third eye widened in glee, and Serena shrieked, "May my offering please you!"

She plunged the stake into Integra's heart. Integra, who had sworn dry-eyed before them all to keep her composure for the sake of her British pride, twisted and screamed in helpless agony. Alucard felt the sudden urge to die with her, to kill her assassin-turned-friend-turned-killer, to tear the world into a river of bloody carnage…to do something. But instead he watched, and wept red tears as Integra finally fell silent and died.

Tonight was an ugly night. It ought to have been the last night, but no blood-sucking monster is allowed to die when he wants it most.