Chapter One

Encounter in an Alley

It was in the wee hours of Sunday evening, when Sunday was technically Monday morning. More specifically, it was about 2:30am Monday morning.

A young woman named Mercedes Dreux-Brézé was walking from the bar she worked at in Center City of Philadelphia to the bus station a few miles over. She had just missed her usual bus down the street from the bar thanks to an extra-large mess that had needed picking up, courtesy of a bunch of drunken frat boys from the medical college.

Being the end of June, even this late in the evening, it was quite hot and humid. Especially as they were in the middle of a month long heat wave that seemed to know no relent. Mercedes was acclimated to much colder climes, being originally from the New England region of the country, and was sick of the heat already and wishing she didn't need to walk so far to catch the bus. As usual, Mercedes had her iPod playing music, though the volume was kept low to be able to hear around her, to help herself unwind from yet another long night of work.

Mercedes was just turning onto a side street that would eventually bring her over to Market Street to catch the bus that would bring her close enough to home when she noticed she was being followed. She could hear several sets of footsteps echoing behind her and turned the volume down lower on her iPod to listen without acknowledging the others' presences.

The young woman could hear the voices of men, making crass jokes that were clearly aimed about her. As she was an empathic human, Mercedes could pick up that said licentious comments had an actual intent behind them. And their footsteps were slowly speeding up to shorten the distance between them and her.

Mercedes quickly calculated out in her mind that she wasn't going to be able to make it to Market Street safely at her current speed and by this route.

Without giving her followers any further time to gain distance on her, Mercedes took off at a sprint down the next side street she came across to try losing them. She saw from the corner of her brown eyes as she made the sharp turn that her pursuers were the drunken frat boys from the bar. And she could tell from the sure strides they were pursuing her at that they weren't nearly as drunk as they had seemed when they left the bar almost an hour earlier.

Mercedes came to the very obvious conclusion that they must have been waiting for her to get off her shift; perhaps making such a mess so she would get out of work late because she was one of the closing bartenders. They had been in the bar a handful of times; they might have even planned it out.

'Merde, merde, merde merde, merde!' Mercedes thought, looking for another bar to duck into or a police officer to shout to. Neither were to be found. All the bars, like the one she worked in, were closed this late. Being late in the evening in Center City, middle of summer no less, there should have been police officers on bikes at least. The gods knew she usually saw two or three on her way home most nights. But tonight it seemed luck was not on her side.

Mercedes continued racing in a roundabout manner towards Market Street, taking various turns and side streets to try losing the frat boys who were still chasing after her. While two were falling behind, a couple most definitely looked to be jocks as well as med students and they were steadily gaining on her.

They were also shouting for her to stop running unless she wanted to make things worse for herself.

Fat chance of her stopping with that sort of option offered.

Unfortunately, Mercedes was beginning to feel winded. She knew that if she kept running, the college boys behind her would catch her anyway and she'd not have the stamina left to fight. And with the way they were gaining on her, she wasn't going to make it to the more populated area near Market Street.

When Mercedes passed a giant dumpster that had leftover wood from a renovation being done on the building next to it, she abruptly stopped in her tracks. She scanned the contents and pulled out a long wooden rod with one end broken. She gave it a quick twirl to test its balance and hit it against the ground to check its sturdiness. It passed both tests as best as could be expected.

Mercedes turned to face the direction her would-be attackers were approaching from, holding the fairly thick scrap wood like a staff.

"Turn around and leave or I will attack," Mercedes warned in a level voice as the first jock, a young man with a solid yet svelte frame like a swimmer or soccer player, turned the corner and approached.

He laughed in amusement. "Sweetheart, what do you think you're going to do with that little stick of yours?" The brunette frat boy pulled a switchblade out from his pants pocket. "How about you put that down, agree to play nice, and I'll give you a real piece of wood to hold?"

A blonde with a similar build was just turning the corner now and likewise approaching.

"This is your last warning. Back off!" Mercedes said furiously. "You get any closer and I will floor your ass."

The blonde was now laughing with the brunette. "Feisty," he commented, pulling a smaller knife of his own out from the pocket of his college logo sweatshirt. "But our thought was we'd be flooring your ass and then tapping it. Put the scrap wood down before you get hurt, hunny."

The other two frat boys were now coming up behind the blonde.

As they arrived, the brown-haired jock was just stepping into strike range.

Mercedes darted out with the make-shift staff and landed a hard hit to the side of his face.

The frat boy dropped to the ground and his knife flew from his hand. He was obviously dazed, cheek and corner of his eye bleeding, cheekbone likely cracked, but he wasn't unconscious.

"You fucking bitch!" his blonde friend shouted and charged at Mercedes.

Mercedes, already a small woman to begin with, crouched down and landed a fast blow to his left knee. As her second attacker buckled, she was standing once more and jutted the other end, the non-broken end, of her staff up with the extra force of her standing momentum into the blonde's chin. The blow sent him stumbling backwards and he likewise dropped his knife in surprise.

The last two would-be-rapists were approaching slower now, realizing their quarry was not as defenseless as they initially thought. The two were unarmed, but were clearly still intent on attacking her.

Mercedes had hoped that seeing two out of four of them getting injured would deter them, but even their drunken minds didn't seem to process information as well as they should.

The brunette was trying to get to his feet, though he was stumbling and went to one knee half way up.

Mercedes took a few steps backwards as the two uninjured college boys approached together, angling herself so they couldn't try to flank her.

"Gather up your friends and leave or you'll be getting adjoining hospital beds," Mercedes warned the two.

"Like we're going to let you fucking walk away after what you just did to our friends," the first said furiously.

"We were going to play nice and you may have even liked it, you stupid bitch," the second said. "Now we're going to make sure you're screaming for every minute of it."

The second one came closest first.

Mercedes feinted a blow towards his head and then reversed the swing and slammed the end of her makeshift staff into his stomach as hard as she could. As he doubled over, she slammed the opposite end of the rod into the side of his face.

He dropped to the ground and he didn't move.

Mercedes didn't stop to wonder whether he was unconscious or dead. She had more pressing concerns at the moment.

The brunette was back on his feet now, as was the blonde, the latter had found his knife quickly enough. All three were once again approaching Mercedes, who was slowly backing away from them.

'Fucking dumb jocks take a beating and still won't back down,' Mercedes thought, starting to get concerned.

The one closest to her was waiting for his injured friends to catch up to him.

Mercedes instinctively knew that when that happened, they'd all rush her.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, all three men made a simultaneous run towards the bartender.

The fourth attacker, being uninjured and having the build of a body builder or football player, made it to her first.

When Mercedes swung for his head, she didn't pull the swing as a feint this time. He moved his left arm to block her staff, taking the hit to his wrist and there was a sickening crunch.

The jock let out a yell of pain and, before Mercedes could aim another attack, he grabbed her makeshift staff with his uninjured hand. The bulky jock may not have been as fast as his friends, but he was strong. Two swift jerks and he had the weapon out of her hands.

Mercedes backed up several steps quickly and glanced around for another weapon. With a weapon, she could handle multiple attackers. Without one… Mercedes knew that three men, even injured, against one unarmed female wasn't generally favorable odds.

And luck was not on her side again, as there was nothing in the immediate vicinity that would be of use.

'Fou-le-camp! Oừ sont la police quand vous en avez besoin?!' Mercedes thought in frustration, thoughts once again reverting back to French. The frat boys were all giving her unmistakably ominous looks and she had no doubts that their threats of doing more than raping her because she was fighting back was now most definitely on their agendas.

The jock that had disarmed her still had the wooden rod in his uninjured hand, though he didn't balance it with any seeming practice. Mercedes guessed the injured arm was his primary hand. Someone without martial arts training often made the mistake of blocking with their dominant hand by reflex from that being the one so often used for everything else.

While he may not have any formal training, Mercedes knew brute strength wielding a weapon could still do plenty damage.

The other two were beginning to close in on either side of the still retreating Mercedes, the blonde with the knife closer than the brunette with the head injury.

The body-builder jock attacked first. He took an awkward swing at Mercedes with the salvaged wood, putting his weight behind the swing but leaving himself off balance.

Rather than trying to disarm him, as he had already proven he was stronger, Mercedes ducked beneath the swing and grabbed the rod. Using his own momentum, the petite brunette was able to throw the jock behind her and managed to land a swift kick to his ribs before sending him flying to the ground.

Mercedes pivoted quickly and was just able to turn aside with a sweep of her left forearm a knife slash from the blonde that was meant for her chest. The young woman turned aside a follow up punch from his left hand with her right forearm and kicked him hard in the ribs. When he buckled over she was already kicking him in the face.

The blonde dropped to the ground again, his knife skittering over the pavement.

The brunette with the head injury, her first attacker, approached to attack again.

Before Mercedes could inflict further injury on him, the makeshift staff slammed into her ribs. The air was abruptly knocked out of her and she bent over in half from the pain and force of the blow.

She hadn't kept a close enough eye on the jock behind her.

A few seconds later the wood was against Mercedes's throat, being held with one uninjured hand and in the crook of the elbow of the injured arm, forcing her back upright. She grabbed the rod to keep from being choked, tugging it away from her throat as much as she could, which wasn't much.

"Got you now, bitch," the jock laughed from behind, though his voice was thick with pain.

The brunette laughed as well, seeing Mercedes struggling with his friend, and resumed his approach. He was eyeing the woman up and down, intent blatantly apparent.

When the would-be rapist came closer, Mercedes's grip on the wood tightened and she braced her back against the big jock behind herself. The brunette laughed, mistaking the action for Mercedes cowering away from him.

Once he was in range, Mercedes used her arm and ab strength to do a pull up on the rod being held so securely at her throat, simultaneously kicking off the ground. Her legs came up and she landed a hard kick with both feet, putting her full weight behind it, to the brunette's chest, causing him to stagger backwards.

As her feet came down, Mercedes used the momentum to flip the jock over her shoulder. The jock somehow managed to keep his one-handed grip on the makeshift staff, despite the surprise of the move. The rod was wrenched out of Mercedes's hands as he fell, keeping her without weapon.

"This chienne isn't out yet, you fils des salopes," Mercedes swore furiously once free from restraint, the words coming out almost as a growl.

She stepped back quickly as the blonde staggered to his feet. Despite her words, the young woman was breathing heavily and her chest was radiating a great deal of pain. Between the injury and a long and tiring night at work, Mercedes really wasn't sure how much fight she had left in her.

"Neither are we, you fucking whore!" the blonde yelled as he stood, hand leaving his broken nose. "You really are going to pay out in every way we can think of now!" He started to approach again, albeit slower than before.

Mercedes jogged backwards to keep an eye on him. The brunette and jock were not far behind him, despite their injuries.

"And you should really learn to stay down," Mercedes replied heatedly, trying to stall for time to think and not liking any of the conclusions she was coming to. "The only one getting paid tonight will be the ferry man who brings souls to the underworld if you don't back off immediately."

"What do you think you're going to do?" the jock asked mockingly, waving the wooden rod in his hand. "Don't have your little stick anymore and your hits are pathetic without it."

The three frat boys in front of her suddenly stopped approaching and glanced at something behind the young woman.

Mercedes could hear heels from either boots or dress shoes approaching from behind. She likewise stopped her retreat.

'Baiser ma vie! Now I'm surrounded and I'm guessing this guy isn't even doing me the kindness of already being injured,' Mercedes thought sarcastically. She surmised she must have miscounted her pursuers and they had another friend that had circled around and was now approaching from behind. 'This night really is going to get messier than I wanted.'

Even though she couldn't place what it was, Mercedes was getting a feeling like the attacker behind her was going to be even more problematic than the others had been. Perhaps it was the fact he had held back to enter the fray until she was already injured by his friends, which showed a level of conniving forethought. While she didn't want to resort to her last modes of defense, it was becoming undeniable that she wasn't going to have much of a choice if she wanted to survive through the night.

Before Mercedes could decide whether or not to take a glance behind her to assess this new attacker, a voice came from the direction of the one approaching from behind.

"It seems you children are attempting to play cat and mouse with a little mouse who can fight back," the darkly amused voice rumbled out. "Why don't you run along before another bite is taken from you?"

Mercedes wasn't sure if she should say a prayer of thanks, as it sounded like this new variable of a person seemed to be coming to her aid; or be concerned, as something in this man's faintly accented voice was setting off warning bells of every sort in her mind. The intuitive feeling of danger was becoming unmistakably more so.

"Who the hell do you think you are, you fucking faggot?" the blonde with the busted open chin and broken nose yelled at the new arrival. "Turn around and walk away now. This isn't any of your business."

"Damn right! This bitch attacked us and now she's got more than a little something coming to her," said the jock with the broken wrist.

"Hm… Doesn't seem smart for a lone woman to go picking a fight in the middle of the night with four men." The voice was decidedly mocking. "And as she was intelligent enough to give chase and then injure all four of you, even with two of you having been armed, I think that perhaps your version of events is a lie, little mewling tom cat. Collect the gutter trash you've left fallen behind you and leave now or you're not stepping foot out of this alley again."

Mercedes began to suspect the nature of the one behind her, but she didn't turn around to confirm that suspicion. He was still several yards behind her from the sounds of it and she didn't want to take her eyes off the three in front of her and closer. She cautiously side stepped towards the building next to her, trying to catch her breath and slowly angling herself from directly between the two dangers to having them each on either side.

"Seriously, who the fuck do you think you are?" the blonde said, further incensed. "Get the fuck out of here! This isn't your business and unless you want your neck broken, you'll go back the way you came. There are four of us and only one of you."

Mercedes was now to one side of the alley, with her back still to the stranger and her eyes on her three still standing attackers.

"Four of nothing is still nothing," the man behind her said, sardonic amusement still in his voice. "And what I see before me is even more insignificant than nothing. This is your last warning, foolish hormonal children, to retreat. I am not going to waste any more of my evening arguing with the likes of you. Fail to heed even your own survival instincts and you mangy broken tom cats are going to become fodder for the dogs, as that is all your base kind is good for."

Mercedes could sense a very distinct energy growing behind her as the new arrival spoke. Recognizing what type of energy that was, the young woman finally deemed it critical to her immediate survival to glance over at him. She shifted her own energy to aid in seeing another's as she turned her head.

What Mercedes saw was an incredibly tall, svelte man with short, shaggy ebony hair, long enough in the front to fall across his eyes. He was wearing a black fedora and wire-rimmed orange-tinted sunglasses; body clad in a sleek black suit and a crimson duster jacket. It was, in point of fact, a pair of highly-polished, knee-high, black riding boots worn with his dress pants neatly tucked into them that she had heard as he was walking.

And Mercedes could see, as the three men in the alley could not, at least not yet, that the man was gathering a dark shadowy energy around himself. She could just make out quick flashes of eyes and teeth in those writhing shadows and a crimson energy suffusing them like streams of blood flowing along a morass.

The new arrival noticed the direction of her attention changing and glanced at her from above the rim of his glasses.

Mercedes's now golden-iris eyes locked with fiery red eyes.

'A vampire… A vampire, who can summon hell hounds?' Mercedes thought to herself in shock as her suspicion was confirmed even beyond what she had sensed. She had certainly not expected this particular sort of rescuer. Not by a long shot.

As the blonde attacker shouted some refusal to back down, the vampire was still meeting Mercedes's gaze and raised a jet-black eyebrow a fraction.

Mercedes realized he heard her thought and immediately slammed up mental barriers against whatever telepathy he may possess.

The vampire smirked and then his hellfire gaze was back on the frat boys in front of him who were still not retreating. They were in fact approaching again, minds focused on their intended victim and more than willing to fight another if it meant accomplishing their ends.

"You did warn them," Mercedes said quietly.

The young woman was neither taking joy in the idea of what was about to happen, nor encouraging it, simply voicing she understood and the vampire didn't need to continue wasting his time in an attempt to be discreet in front of a potential witness. Although, if he killed her after feeding them to his dogs, a witness wouldn't be a problem. Mercedes could only hope he wasn't saving her from them to try to have a snack for himself.

The vampire gave a nod, understanding her meaning, and his smirk broadened on his ivory face to a malicious grin. One section of the shadows around him became the more corporeal form of a pitch-black hell hound in the space of the heartbeat.

The college boys stopped in their tracks, clearly not sure if they were seeing what they thought they were now seeing.

"Time for the tom cats to be reminded of nature's order," the vampire said with obvious blood-thirsty anticipation.

In the blink of an eye, the eight-eyed demonic familiar was racing towards the closest frat boy and leaping up to rip open his throat with its three rows of razor sharp teeth. The attacker-turned-victim didn't have time to scream before he was dead.

Mercedes turned her face away as the other two frat boys were quickly added to the body count. Her golden gaze once more met red, the vampire watching her from where he still stood as his hell hound made short work of the attackers.

Mercedes could feel the wispy sensations of the unknown vampire making a subtle attempt to breech her mental defenses as their gazes met again. She kept her mental barriers in place against whatever mental tricks he was attempting, whether it was mind reading or mind control. Mercedes didn't really care which, she just wasn't going to give him the open opportunity to try.

The last yells that had become an unmistakable gurgle were now silent.

Mercedes could sense the hell hound slowly approaching from one side, its path towards her rather than its master. She glanced in the familiar's direction and saw all eight of its eyes fixed on her and its jaws opened slightly as though to bite. She looked back at the vampire who controlled the hound. She could see small streams of blood from the hound's victims moving unnaturally up the slight incline of the street and being absorbed into the vampire.

"Your familiar would find me far less digestible than those idiots. Do you intend to order him to attempt to eat me?" Mercedes asked quietly, trying to keep fear from her voice and failing.

"I was not intending you to be a meal for the hound," the vampire said, dark smirk not disappearing. "He is not the only entity prowling the streets and hungry."

"I don't think you'd find me terribly digestible either and you seem to have a meal already being delivered to you." Mercedes glanced meaningfully at the blood still flowing to the vampire. "I appreciate that you saved me from needing to further engage those men, and thank you for that, but I am walking out of this alley and I will do so in a manner of my own volition."

"This base refuse is hardly a fulfilling meal. Perhaps, however, if the little mouse answers my questions, I may deign it reasonable to look for other more satisfying prey."

Mercedes didn't feel the least reassured with the 'perhaps', 'if', and 'may', knowing from long experience that those could be very tricky words employed. The stalking familiar was only a dozen or so feet from her now.

Mercedes turned her gaze back to the hell hound. "Heel," she snapped the command out at the demonic dog and the gold of her eyes flared distinctly brighter as she allowed her own energy to rise more forcefully to the surface.

The familiar stopped its stalking and whimpered much like a mortal canine. Its ears tilted forward and it backed up a step.

Before Mercedes could turn her gaze back to its master, said vampire was in front of her with his hand around her throat, slamming her back against the wall.

"What did you just do to my hound?" the vampire demanded with a quiet rage, his own eyes flaring a much brighter red behind his glasses.

'I told him to heel.' Mercedes opened her thoughts just enough to answer him mentally, as the vampire was still probing her mind and his grip on her throat was not giving her enough air to breathe and speak.

As soon as she thought the answer, the young woman willed the enchanted barriers back up around her mind. She could feel the vampire slamming his own mind against her barriers now, his hand around her throat tightening. Mercedes was able to keep him from tearing his way into her mind for the time being, but she wasn't so sure she could continue to do so.

"You appear human. But humans don't normally have golden eyes or smell of dark magic, and they certainly never possess the ability to countermand an order I give my familiars. What are you?!" the vampire furiously demanded.

Mercedes used her empathy to slam the emotional imprints of terror and horror at the vampire to stun him, while simultaneously shoving her own energy between his fingers in a small blaze of indigo light to release herself from his grip. As she dropped from his choke hold, there was a small flare of bright red eldritch light from around her neck that slammed itself into the vampire. An enchanted barrier to immobilize him.

Mercedes ran as fast as she could away; adrenaline and fear making her move far faster than when she had fled the would-be-rapists. She was no longer in a state of mind to care about discretion, not knowing how long the ward would hold and knowing she was too injured and unprepared to try fighting the foreign vampire.

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.

Alucard was able to break free of the enchantment, using his own energy to tear the magic apart, after just half a minute of effort. That was still 29 seconds of being incapacitated too long for his liking. His narrowed, fiery gaze was in the direction the young woman darted off in.

'Interesting little tricks… She is human, but the little mouse is an enchantress of some kind…'

The progenitor of vampires smirked slightly, intrigued curiosity flaring now alongside his anger at whatever it was she had done to his hell hound.

Said hound was back to behaving normally the moment the golden-eyed woman was out of sight. All eight hellfire eyes hungrily stared at the victims in the alley. The three whom it had ripped the throats out of, and the one the female had killed in the course of defending herself. Four freshly dead humans was quite the feast for the demonic familiar these days and it was anxious to eat while the corpses were still warm.

Alucard ignored his hell hound's impatient noises as it waited for permission to devour the bodies, however. He picked up the blood-speckled wooden rod the woman had left behind, sniffing it as it still had her scent from handling it beneath the stronger scents of her attackers' blood.

The young woman had a most alluring scent. Human blood coursed through those veins beneath such pale delicate skin, yes. But there was the scent of dark magic as well. A scent that was almost unnoticeable at first, until she had called up that energy.

Alucard was generally wary of magic using humans. This woman, however, was calling on forces of darkness, rather than holy forces. Most humans in this modern technology-fueled age did not even believe such powers existed. And the darker side of magic was not easily controlled by humans. Most all would-be-enchanters died in foolish attempts to tap into that dark and destructive power. The few humans the vampire had encountered who pursued tapping into ethereal power gravitated towards holy powers that came with significantly less risks.

This relatively young human recognized him as a vampire, was capable of keeping him out of her mind, stopped his hound in its tracks, and had managed to successfully immobilize him, even if only temporarily, with the skilled use of such tempestuous power.

Yet, she hadn't tried to kill him, despite her bold statements and obvious fearful desire to escape him. She hadn't unleashed her powers on her fellow humans, yet she had voiced understanding if he had his hounds consume her attackers. Nor did she seem repulsed by his consumption of their blood.

All of which was a puzzling rarity.

And she had escaped just now by catching him by surprise. In doing so, she had run off with his demanded questions being unanswered, in a fashion that created even further questions.

Being bested by a young human woman and not receiving those answers was a conclusion to this encounter that Alucard found to be entirely unacceptable.

The vampire finally turned his attention back to his familiar and gave the waiting hell hound permission to feast on the remains of the humans in the alleyway.

Still keeping the abandoned makeshift weapon in hand, and retrieving the dropped knives, Alucard followed behind the female, stalking the shadows as one himself before she could slip off too far ahead.

As he tracked her, the bus she had boarded passed over a bridge crossing a small river. Alucard dropped the staff bearing the human's fingerprints and the attacker's knives into the rushing waters as he flew across. With the attackers dead and their bodies consumed, the blood absorbed from the scene, and the weapons disposed of; the inept American police should find piecing together what happened to the humans impossible when their disappearances were reported.

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Mercedes arrived home an hour after her encounter with the frat boys and vampire. There had been no sign of pursuit, though she had been cautious nonetheless and transferred bus services a few times and took a longer time to get home than usual. She arrived at her apartment building shortly after 4am and quickly let herself in. As she unlocked the door to her apartment, Mercedes lowered her energy again, forcing her eye color to shift back to brown. When the young woman opened the door to her apartment, the babysitter snoozing in the reclining chair came awake and glanced at her wrist watch.

"You're home later than usual, sweetie," Geina said, then the old woman's dark eyes narrowed as she took in Mercedes's appearance. "And you are looking a bit peaky. What happened?"

"It took longer to close up than usual and I missed my bus. Some guys tried to follow me to the other stop, but I got away." Mercedes said the last with a shrug. "It's nothing to worry about, Miss Geina. I'm alright, as you can see, and I'm sorry for getting back so late."

"Why are you apologizing for something like that, Mercedes? I'm just glad you made it away alright, child," Geina said kindly, standing from the chair. "You really should find a better neighborhood to work in. That part of Center City is going to hell in a hand basket."

Mercedes snorted back a laugh in a rather indelicate manner. "You've no idea," she muttered as she tossed her jacket on the other chair in the living room. She said more seriously, and loudly enough to be heard, as she turned back around to face the babysitter, "A job's a job, Miss Geina, and I need a job. Anyway, I'm fine. No worse for the wear. How was Xander tonight?"

"Fine, fine. We watched his bedtime movie and he fell asleep halfway through it," Geina said. "He's been out since."

"I'm glad to hear it was a good night then," Mercedes said sincerely. She gave the babysitter a hug goodnight after the old woman slipped on her slippers. "Thanks, Miss Geina, for watching him."

"Psssh, Mercedes, you don't need to thank me every night," Geina said, swatting at the young woman's shoulder.

"I just want you to know I appreciate it is all," Mercedes said as she pulled a couple bills from her wallet to pay the sitter out of her tip money for the night.

"If I didn't think you appreciated it, I wouldn't bother. But I know you do, so you don't need to always say it child," Geina said. She noticed Mercedes's hand shaking slightly as she accepted the money. "You sure you're alright, Mercedes?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Mercedes gave the old woman a reassuring smile. "Just a bit tired."

Geina shook her head. "Try to get some rest, and mayhaps look into finding a new job, sweetie. I know you need a job to support Xander, but he needs his mom most of all."

"I know and I got home safe and sound for him like I always do," Mercedes said. "Nothing short of divine intervention could keep me from doing so. And I'm trying to find a new job, but jobs are scarce these days."

"I hear that, sweetie," Geina said with a nod. "Just try to be safe on your way home and keep an eye out in case any of those men might be lurking about again. I know I say you need to take a night off to go on a date, but that's not what I had in mind."

Mercedes laughed quietly and shook her head. "I'll keep an eye out, Miss Geina. Don't worry about that. Thanks for caring." Though she knew that her original pursuers wouldn't be around to try to chase her down again, Mercedes was concerned about that foreign vampire possibly popping up on another night on her way home from work.

"Of course, child. I know how it is to be a young mother, even if it was all those years ago. You and Xander are nice neighbors to have and I don't want to be seeing anything bad happen to either of you."

Geina gave Mercedes another hug and then exited the apartment after Mercedes wished her a goodnight and told her she'd see her tomorrow evening.

Mercedes slid the locks shut on her door and breathed a small breath of relief to be home safely. She went to her son's room and peeked her head in to check on the sleeping five year old.

The room was not a perfect rectangle. There was a large walk-in closet that stood out from the left wall and her son's bed was tucked in the nook between the partial wall the closet made and the corner made by the far wall. There was a table along the rest of the back wall, stacked with Lego models and a flat screen computer monitor, the CPU tower tucked under the table. A bureau was against the right wall, and a long row of cubby/cubicles with storage bins for toys was against the wall the door was set in. The set up left the center of the room clear for Xander to play in.

Despite the bed being tucked away, Mercedes saw her son's little ebony haired head poking out from the pale blue comforter that he had tightly wrapped himself in because he was sleeping with his head facing the end of the bed. His oversized, green stuffed dragon was wrapped up with him, the boy using it like a body pillow.

Mercedes smiled and shook her head. Didn't matter what the weather was like or how he started off sleeping, the little guy always ended up wrapping himself up like a little burrito with his dragon and had his feet towards the headboard.

Mercedes raised her energy again, eyes shifting to gold once more, and did a discreet scan of the apartment with her senses. After several seconds of careful scanning, the enchantress was satisfied all was as it should be and closed the door again, though she cautiously kept her energy raised to have the extra boost to her senses. It might have been paranoid, but it wouldn't be the first time she was followed home after being attacked and she didn't want to take any chances.

Mercedes went to the kitchen and, though she usually didn't like to drink alone, poured herself a double shot of Captain Morgan's and then mixed it up with Coca Cola. The bartender downed the glass in a couple swallows and poured another.

Her hands were shaking worse as the adrenaline rush she had been on before began to wear off and she realized just how lucky she was to make it out of the alley alive and whole. Her fear wasn't in regards to the four humans who had attacked her. Even without the vampire's help, she would have been able to handle them by less discreet means than physical fighting. No, her fear and realization were due to said foreign vampire who had more advanced dark powers than most vampires found locally. Had she reacted with less precision, hesitated more than she had, she could have found herself in dire straits.

Her torso was hurting worse than before as well with the lack of adrenaline and her mind finally recognized that she was indeed injured. Mercedes lifted her shirt and saw the beginnings of a gigantic bruise already forming and stretching across her ribs. She prodded the injury firmly, clenching her teeth against a yell of pain, and could ascertain that none of her ribs were broken, but she wouldn't be surprised if there was a hair line fracture.

"Bruised or cracked ribs certainly aren't the worst injury I've ever had to pick myself up from," Mercedes muttered wryly to herself in French. "I'll survive and call this lucky compared to how the night could've gone." She drank the second rum and coke down at a slightly slower rate but still close to chugging it. It took two more before the young woman's nerves were relaxed enough for her to stop shaking, dull some of the pain throbbing in her ribs, and calm her thoughts enough to possibly sleep.

Though she usually pulled out the bed from the pull out couch, Mercedes went into her son's room and snuggled up next to him and his stuffed dragon to sleep a few hours before he'd wake her for breakfast.

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Alucard's shadowy form floated outside the apartment building, listening to the exchange between the old black woman and the young mother. He was carefully keeping his distance and making certain to force his energy down to a containable level to mask it from the enchantress. He heard the bedroom door open and then close a minute later. He shifted closer to her apartment windows and used his own psychic senses to watch her move about.

The vampire saw the young brunette drink down a glass of alcohol with shaking hands, inspecting her injury, drinking some more and then retreat back into the room her small son was in. He could hear her heart rate and breathing slow into sleeping patterns eventually and retreated back from the apartment for the time being.

'So, the tricky little mouse has a child. No wonder she was snapping so furiously to escape the alley, besides the obvious immediate threat to herself, even before I made my presence known…'

Alucard contemplated for a few minutes how to gain the answers he wanted.

Even in her sleep, the golden-eyed human was cautiously keeping her mind, and her son's, blocked from his senses somehow. He could always go in and drain her before she could try her tricks again, pulling answers from her blood as he did so. But then her son would be without its only parent.

He could always kill the child as well. Death would be a kinder fate than the notoriously horrific American foster care system.

The sire of vampires found the human's courage in the face of imminent danger to be commendable, however. Alucard decided he would first make an attempt to extract answers in a less fatal manner. He had other business in the city that was dominating most of his attention, but he decided he could spare some time to the endeavor as a diversion from the more serious matters.

Alucard pulled a cell phone from his pocket and dialed his manor.

"Good evening, Master Alucard," the English butler said upon answering the international call.

"Walter. Contact my hotel and plane and make arrangements for me to remain here in the States until Friday," Alucard instructed. "I still haven't discovered what the Catholic dogs are up to and my stay needs to be extended."

"Of course, Master," Walter said. "Will there be anything else?"

"No, that is all for now."

"I'll make the necessary calls first thing when business hours begin in the States, Master."

"Thank you." Alucard disconnected the call. He shifted his psychic sight to the building's entryway and took note of the surname listed on the mailbox for Mercedes's apartment number in case he needed it for later reference. That done, the progenitor of vampires left the apartment building for the time being, making his way back downtown for more pressing business that needed to be attended to.

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A Singular Author's Note on the Alternate Timeline

To those readers of this fanfic,

This story deviates from Hellsing canon in that the group Millennium was truly destroyed in WWII. While I thoroughly enjoy Hirano san's work enough to delve into writing a fanfic, I just as thoroughly detest the character of the Major. I found the Major to be a rather pathetic excuse for an arch-enemy of Alucard, and his constant verbal masturbation to war speeches were immensely annoying. I've heard the arguments about The Major being a military genius, using his brain instead of his brawn, to try defeating Alucard with careful maneuvering of pawns; but the fact is he was a proxy character whose very existence required gaping plot holes and suspension of logic, who relied on a plan that was one of the most extreme cases I've ever seen of the stereotypical trope of a Gambit Roulette, and was following The Rule of Cool to do so. While The Rule of Cool is fun in moderate doses, it lacks substance when that is all that makes up the story. As such, this story becomes an alternate timeline with consideration to how things might have gone if Millennium had been destroyed, yet the canon characters remained.

As for Millennium characters, some of them survived the destruction of the project, or came into an undead existence through other means, and will be making appearances throughout the arcs of this story. And there will be many arcs. Who makes appearances, how, and the extent of their roles, I will not divulge; that would give away much of the story. But rest assured, besides the Major, many of your favorite Millennium survivors will have a place in this timeline.

As for Hellsing characters, I will give a brief synopsis of events to help people understand where this story in launching from.

With the destruction of Millennium, Walter never became a sleeper agent for the project. When Arthur died and left Integra as his heir, the events with her uncle took place as was canon. Alucard and Walter raised Integra to be a worthy leader of the Hellsing organization. Iscariot is still their greatest irritation and rivals when dealing with undead extermination, and Anderson is still Iscariot's greatest weapon. However, Alucard over time grew tired of being a puppet of Integra's, for reasons that will be expounded on as the story progresses. Walter, though not an agent of Millennium, still had harbored fears of becoming useless in his old age. Alucard used that to his advantage, convincing Walter to turn on Integra to help free him from his service, and granted him a vampiric existence in return. Again, details will be divulged in the story.

As a result of being freed, Integra attempted to send Hellsing forces after Alucard, which obviously didn't end well. With the destruction of a huge section of Hellsing human soldiers, Alucard offered Integra a truce. Part of that was an agreement that he'd continue to help Hellsing's mission, but as a paid contractor, not as a forced servant. Integra hired the Wild Geese, led by Captain Bernodette, to help fill the ranks of Hellsing.

The incident in Cheddar happened mostly to canon, with Alucard turning Seras. For the story, it was just under ten years ago. This Seras is an older vampire than in the series, though still young when compared to Alucard. Therefore, you'll be seeing a more matured Seras who demonstrates her vampiric powers with more alacrity and acceptance, along with getting more chances to display those analytical and assertive skills she would have garnered as a police girl and were glossed over in the canon series. That said, she still gets flustered, especially when her Master is annoyed with her (cuz let's face it, Alucard is scary, no matter who you are or how strong you may be). She still has the excitable and sometimes child-like personality we all know from the series, complete with animated gestures and outbursts when she's especially pleased or annoyed by something. And for the Seras and Pip shippers, you'll be glad to know that those two developed a tempestuous but mostly functional relationship since her vampiric life and work with Hellsing began. She is frequently sent along with the Geese to handle undead problems.

Walter and Alucard tend to work solo or as a team, on missions Hellsing hires them for, or for aims that Alucard devises. Walter has become fairly indispensable to Alucard, and the friendship/respect we saw in canon is more genuine between the two, though there is still a hierarchy present. Walter in this story is a blend of the dutiful servant first seen in Hellsing, and Dark Walter when the occasion calls for the Angel of Death to deliver some wholesale slaughter alongside his master.

As for Alucard, I've tried my best to keep him in character for this story. He is still bloodthirsty, always ready for a fight, disdainful of those he views as beneath him, sometimes frustrated with Seras's on-going humanity struggles, and has a major hate-boner for Anderson. However, I'm also attempting to string together the stories of the historical Vlad Draculea, the fictional story of Dracula written by Stoker, and the Hellsing universe. The three characters, though supposedly the same man, are very different from one another in many ways, and I'd like to unravel a potential story as to how Alucard evolved into who and what he is in modern nights and show more dimensions to his character. As well as give him a far more worthy adversary to face throughout a story, besides the epic tank that is Anderson. (And Anderson will be plaguing him.)

With that said, there are Original Characters in this story.

*Watches 30% of my audience dash for the hills.* Well, now that those easily spooked have taken their leave, continuing on, shall we?

I have spent a great deal of time contemplating each of these characters and developing them. We'll be seeing some new faces in Iscariot alongside the old; new subordinates of Anderson's as Iscariot tries to eradicate the Vampire King and his servants. The Wild Geese have been fleshed out more, as will be seen after the first arc when this story moves out of the United States and back to England. And there's an American cast of characters. There's a group of old vampires, called the Elders, in charge of most vampires in America, with their own agendas and presence in the story. They have had their own conflicts with Iscariot over the last few centuries and, as they are in America, haven't had any direct contact with Hellsing or its allies before now. That's poised to change with these events.

The lead American characters are a human woman named Mercedes; Mercedes's son, Xander; an Elder by the name of Liam; and some cameos by Mercedes's best friend and adopted sister Val. Yes, Mercedes is going to end up a love interest for Alucard…

*Watches another 25% of the remaining audience chase the first group. Coughs nervously.* Well, um… As I was saying…

Mercedes is a love interest for Alucard, *but* it is going to be extremely slow burn. They are very different people with extremely strong and stubborn personalities, and a great deal of past baggage, so theirs is a relationship that is very volatile and takes a great deal of time to form. As of chapter twenty-seven, Mercedes and Alucard have finally, indirectly, admitted a mutual respect and tentative trust in the other as competent allies, and both are ignoring a sexual tension between them because of chaotic circumstances around their acquaintance with one another. Alucard is not suddenly going to turn over a wholesome new leaf and stop being the character we all know as he's developing feelings for her. Morbidly and indirectly affectionate after a great deal of trials and tribulations, and willing to make a few concessions in his own distinctly twisted way, yes. Fluffy Twi-tard-esque emo bastardization of a vampire who is begging forgiveness for his past behavior, fuck no. I think I'm fundamentally incapable of writing a fluffy character, never mind a fluffy Alucard. Not happening.

And finally on the subject of Mercedes, I fully realize some people are going to scream she is a Mary-Sue because I've presented a strong female lead with supernatural powers to help her. I honestly think it would be insulting to Alucard's character to try pairing him with a helpless damsel, an incompetent idiot, or someone who simply won't challenge him and is just there to please him and provide readers with gratuitous sex scenes. I also hate writing female leads like that, I prefer women to be portrayed as equal forces to be reckoned with.

…And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the thundering of 50% of the people who had still been reading now fleeing, while 25% of the remaining start lighting the torches for flames… Wow… Tough crowd?! And thank you to the folks with the fire for providing me the means to make S'mores! Now sit back, remember which fandom we're dealing with, and let me finish!...

The Hellsing verse is rife with bad asses, including female ones, so I scaled her in a way I felt appropriate for the story. Despite her powers, which she sacrificed and worked her ass off for (as will be detailed as the story unfolds), Mercedes is human. She is human and her powers have distinct disadvantages and limitations, and she has many faults as well. Please keep in mind that when they meet, and for a long time after, Mercedes views Alucard as a potential threat, and then an uncertain ally. She's going to do everything she can to keep her flaws and weaknesses hidden from him, and thus you readers. It'd be potentially suicidal to do otherwise with an ally like Alucard. As the story plays out, her flaws will become apparent and have consequences, her past will bite her in the ass (I take a page from the George RR Martin school of storytelling realism and *hate* author-induced plot shields, so I am more than willing to torture my own characters as the situation demands), and this is still Alucard's arena to be the uncontested canon badass of. He's going to insist after the first arc that Mercedes start training more pro-actively for honing her gifts, and convinces her to use them in some new ways for survival, but she's still stuck with a limited skill set that comes with pitfalls.

Val is a side character you'll see off and on in the first arc. Xander is likewise seen only in small amounts for the first arc because all the interactions between Mercedes and Alucard happen at night, when the child is already asleep, but he will likewise get more page time after the first arc and is integral to certain plot points I have in mind for later arcs. I won't reveal much more at this time, but they and Liam, like some others that appear in short scenes, will be developed more when it's appropriate to shift the spot light over to them.

I felt firmly establishing the groundwork of interactions between Mercedes and Alucard was important, as they're the heads of their two dysfunctional "families" and what's keeping this uneasy alliance together throughout the arcs. If this was only going to be a few chapters, I wouldn't bother with the character development and certain scenes that may seem like fluffy filler keeping you from the action. However, this is going to be a *very* long series, and there are so very many details that are important for what I have mapped out that the groundwork needs be placed. I never write and keep a scene after editing without having at least half a dozen reasons for doing so, I like layered plots. Never, ever, take something I have written at face value, or assume you've been told the full story after the first twist has been revealed. So be patient and you may just get mind-blown when all the pieces fall into place.

And that is my promise to you- Alucard will always be the uncontested badass, no Mary Sues will be allowed to invade this story, bad choices will eventually bite characters where the sun doesn't shine, and I write nothing without reason so don't take anything for granted.

For the 26.25% of those who decided to check out this fic and didn't run off (and dropped their torches!), thanks for bearing with the long Author's Note. Unless there's an overwhelming need to make a response publicly due to many people saying/asking the same thing and not wanting to type the same answer dozens of times, or give credit to those who may go above and beyond on something related to the fic, I'll answer any questions, comments, quotes, quips and queries via PMs.

So, with all that said, on to the rest of the entertainment. Please keep your hands, feet and head tucked in at all times because this is going to be a hell of a ride for those patient enough to tolerate the slow climb up the steep ramp leading to the first Death Drop plunge of this roller-coaster story.

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Late 2019 Addendum- While this fic has steady readers who have stuck with me, even while on a long hiatus for personal reasons, I occasionally get some flames for two reasons. I'm sharing them here so new readers know what they're getting themselves into.

The first, people are impatient with the fic being slow burn on romance, or it taking almost two dozen chapters to get to the first big fight. There's several fight chapters once we get there, and more to come in later arcs, but this *is* a character driven plot. And I already explained why the romance is slow burn, and the in-story reasons make it all the more obvious why as we go. Those first twenty chapters are necessary for laying the groundwork of a series that is planned to be hundreds of chapters by the time it's done. Complaints three years after I've already started and published the chapters, as though I'm going to rewrite the entirety of this story to suit a few people's tastes, will incite some groans or laughter, depending on my mood, and be otherwise ignored.

The second, people weren't paying attention to the details in those early chapters, and as some opening twists to the plot have been revealed, they felt I blind-sided readers. I warned everyone to keep sharp and I write nothing without careful thought & purpose. There's clues in advance for every reveal I'll eventually make. People paying attention have been pleasantly surprised and say "in retrospect, I see what you fucking did, bravo!" People not paying attention? Go back and re-read what I've written and find the clues- that's my only suggestion these days. I've had some severe health issues recently and I'm shrugging off the complaints instead of trying to individually explain everything missed. My energy, when I have time for fanfics, is better spent concentrating on writing new stuff for the people who appreciate the fic for what it is.