Disclaimer: Yet another chapter. I still don't own Hellsing, not matter how much I want to. If I did Alucard and Integra would already be together and making out. A lot. But that's just my view…

Alexandra stepped cautiously into the room, looking with awe at the matching checked ceiling and floor. She spotted a desk at one end, and walked towards it. Her steps were quick, betraying the nervousness she felt. Her hands shook a little, but she flexed her muscles and they stopped.

"Hello Alexandra." Integra's firm voice reached Alexandra's ears, and she hurriedly sat down in the chair. "You're probably wondering what we do here. I'm going to tell you, but you have to promise not to interrupt." Alexandra nodded, though she was still puzzled about why. Maybe she's just a bit of a control freak. I can deal with that, she thought.

"What we do is, in essence, train soldiers for the British army, though we train them for a specialized task. This is one that we do for queen, for country, and for the Church of England."

OK, so she's a bit of a fanatic. I can deal with that. Alexandra thought, slowly relaxing her tightened muscles.

"To put it simply, we hunt vampires."

She's barmy! I think I might be able to deal with that. With a mood-altering substance or two. Maybe five. The tension in her back had returned, and her face changed into one that asked 'what the hell are you talking about you crazy nutcase?'

Integra smirked a little, grating Alexandra's nerves further. Alexandra was gathering the courage to make a break for it when Integra spoke again. "I can see you don't believe me. Alucard." She said the word like a command. A moment later Alucard phased through the wall behind her. He was wearing his trademark red coat, and it sparked some recognition in Alexandra's mind. She couldn't remember what, and most of her mental processing was taken up by one thought: Run the hell away right now before that thing eats you. Humans have an ancient fear of vampires, one that was certainly getting the better of her now. She fell out of her chair, and scrambled against the floor trying to get away from the man, if you could call it that, that stood behind Integra. She was smiling a little, and Alucard was doing is insane grin that took up half his face.

Things that walk through walls: Can't deal with that with this!

"This is Alucard. He, as you have no doubt gathered, is a vampire."

Alexandra couldn't help herself. "This- it can't be real! Special effects, or something!" She was slowly recovering her wits. One solid and sane thought came into her head. "Prove it." She stood up, hiding her shaking legs behind the chair, and she partially supported herself on it.

Alucard's grin widened, disturbing Alexandra, even though he wasn't showing any fang yet. Humans don't grin like that, she thought. She knew her face was full of fear, but she couldn't muster the strength to calm it.

The vampire walked in front of Integra and placed his gloved hand beneath the middle of the huge oak desk. It must have weighed several hundred pounds, but he lifted it like it was made of air. Alexandra's eyes widened, and she started when he put it down with a loud thump. His grin changed to show off his hugely oversized fangs. Alexandra's eyes widened even further, but this time she remained standing.

Integra had stopped smirking. "I know this is shocking, but it's true. If you need the details, refer to classic vampire literature, such as Dracula or Carmilla. Now, I recommend you return to your room to think things over. I will be speaking to you in the morning. Thank you for not screaming, by the way. It tends to attract unwanted attention from the servants. Good day." She walked from the room, presumably to talk to the troops. Alexandra was left in the office, holding the back of the chair in a death grip, and facing a potentially homicidal vampire with unknown intentions. One thought came to mind.

I'm screwed.

The vampire across from her chuckled a little, making her jump a little. His voice was deep, and it vibrated the chair she was gripping with an iron grip. "That's entirely a matter of opinion, Miss Hellsing." His tone removed any tangible evidence of respect in the title, and he imbued it with more mocking than she thought was possible. It occurred to her that she hadn't said anything.

"I didn't say anything…" Her fear was pushed in the back of her head by extreme puzzlement. Then the icy thought entered her head: He reads minds.

He laughed again, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "Not out loud, but that is not the only way you speak." He laughed again and faded into the wall behind him, leaving Alexandra standing alone in the room. She managed to sit down in the chair before she collapsed. Her breathing took some time to slow to normal, and it took even longer for her to regain the ability to walk.

She walked in a daze to her room. She had a bit of trouble mustering the coordination to open the door and she almost slipped on the Dracula book that sat on the floor. "At least it didn't move this time." She said, picking it up. She opened it to a random page; the first word she found on the page was Dr. Helsing. Suddenly a revelation hit her. "Helsing, Hellsing." She smacked herself on the forehead. "God I'm stupid! Why didn't I see it before?" She paused before she smacked herself again. "Wait… Dracula, Alucard- oh damn I'm stupider than I thought." I'm also more screwed than I thought. She stretched out on the bed and read her book with renewed fervor, trying to glean any information she could about Alucard and her apparent ancestors.

Divider

Alexandra awoke the next morning to a knocking on her door. She yawned and stood up, pulling on the light blue robe that hung on one post of the four-poster bed. She tied it shut and opened the door to see Walter's face. She smiled a little, though she still couldn't see very well as she had just woken up.

"Miss Hellsing, Sir Integra wishes to see you when you have dressed." His voice was more respectful than Alucard's. Of course, that doesn't say much. It's difficult to be more mocking than Alucard.

"Thank you, Walter. I'll be there in a few minutes, Walter."

"Very good, miss Hellsing." He bowed a little and left. Alexandra mentally prepared herself for the meeting that lay ahead while she dressed, putting on slightly more formal clothes, ones reminiscent of her old school uniform. A fairly short (just above the knee) olive green pleated skirt and a white blouse. She left the gloves behind, thinking they would look a bit silly with short sleeves. A pair of knee-high socks completed the outfit, and she pulled on her cardigan before leaving her room behind.

She found at least three dead ends and two dusty rooms before finally reaching Integra's office. She took a deep breath before opening the door. She walked inside, and quickly looked behind Integra's desk to see if Alucard was there. She let out the deep breath when she saw he wasn't, but a nagging feeling in the back of her mind told her he was near. It was like having someone staring at the back of your neck, you just ache to turn around and see if someone's watching you. She pushed that troublesome feeling to the back of her mind and walked over to the large desk.

Integra motioned for he to take a seat, and Alexandra did so, more gracefully than the last time. She had begun to toy nervously with her skirt when Integra spoke.

"I hope you've had enough time to adjust to your new situation. I was hoping you could assist with some of the simpler duties of the station as head of the Hellsing organization. If I have no children, you will be running it when I die." Her voice was firm and in control, as always, despite the slightly morbid topic.

"But Sir Integra, I'm only fourteen. I have no training in anything of this sort-" She was cut off by Integra suddenly.

"I was a year younger than you when I took over the organization. You should be prepared. Now, I'll show how most of the paperwork is done. It's fairly simple. Just fill out all the forms, and I'll sign them when I get the time."

For the next few hours Integra showed the teenaged girl how to fill out the forms for things like ammunition, m-16s and blood from the blood bank.

"Wait, blood? What's that for? Bait?" Alexandra was growing accustomed to the weird thing requested in the forms, like blessed silver bullets and explosives, but this request had left her puzzled.

Integra smirked a little. "What do you think Alucard and Seras eat? Alucard is not nearly as strong without blood."

Alexandra was puzzled. "Seras? Who's she?" She got a little pale. "Another vampire? How many of these things to you keep around?"

Integra smirked a little. "Only two. But Seras is Alucard's… fledgling. She a very new vampire, and sadly refuses to drink blood, but we provide her with it anyway."

Alexandra swallowed her questions, and continued to fill out the forms mechanically. Shortly thereafter Integra left to do something with the troops, and Alexandra barely noticed. She continued filling out forms until her hand started to ache, and she realized she hadn't had anything to eat other then tea since lunch nearly twelve hours before, and she was incredibly hungry. Not knowing how to contact Walter for food, or how to get to the kitchens she kept filling out forms. She barely noticed when the sun sank over the horizon, and only turned on the lamp when it got to dark to read the fine print.

"Now I know why Sir Integra wears those glasses: reading small print in the dark far to often." She smiled briefly, and then returned to the grim work of writing letters to the families of the men who had died.

At approximately midnight, Integra returned from whatever missions the troops had been on. She appeared fine, and there were no bloodstains on her clothes showing she hadn't been involved in combat. She seemed surprised to find Alexandra still plodding away at the paperwork.

"Alexandra!" The girl in question jumped, startled out of her quiet focus.

"Sir Integra? What is it?" She yawned a little. "What time is it?"

"Alexandra, I left Walter with orders to send you to bed at ten! Why are you still up?" She seemed angry, though at her or at Walter Alexandra couldn't tell.

Alexandra was confused. "I think Walter came in here around then, but I told him I'd go to bed soon." She shrugged. "I guess I just lost track of the time."

Integra's face softened. "Well, got to bed now. Considering that this organization runs on a nocturnal schedule this is fairly fortunate. Good night." Alexandra replied in kind and walked form the room, anticipating her soft bed.

Her bed was just as soft as she had imagined it, but she dragged herself out of bed to put on a nightgown. Sleeping in a skirt was not comfortable. She grabbed a nightgown from the dresser and staggered into the bathroom. She was about to take off her bra when she saw a pair of blood red eyes and shadowy tendrils peering out of the bottom left corner of the mirror. Alexandra froze in place, her fatigue and nightgown forgotten.

She stifled a scream, blinked, and looked more closely at the mirror. The shadows were forming into something humanoid inside the floor-to-ceiling mirror. She noticed her own reflection had vanished. She edged away slowly, her nightgown left forgotten on the floor in front of the mirror.

Suddenly the shadows moved at lightning speed to form the image of a very tall man- Alucard. He wasn't wearing his long coat or his hat, but his glasses remained on his face. This time, Alexandra had to slap her hand to her mouth to keep from screaming as Alucard walked out of the mirror and onto the tile floor. He passed by Alexandra without so much as a second glance, and then he grabbed Dracula off the floor.

His voice was deep, so deep Alexandra swore she felt the vibrations in the floor. "May I borrow this?" He was smirking in a teasing way, baiting her into refusing. It worked.

"N-no. I was planning on r-reading that to-tonight." She stuttered, trying to snatch her book back. Alucard chuckled and pulled it just out of her reach, causing her to loose her balance. She barely regained it in time to see him disappear into the mirror. After she regained her wits she felt the mirror tentatively, as if it would bite her. It seemed solid. She was determined to get her book back. Wait… Integra said not to go into the basement, and vampires sleep underground… He must have gone to the basement! She pulled her shirt back on, and, fairly certain of the direction she had to take, headed for the basement. It was simple: head down.

After getting lost once and having a few close calls with the household staff, she found herself in front of the same door she had chased the red coat back to earlier that day. It hit her that the red coat she had been chasing was this vampire. She mentally smacked herself on the forehead, and pulled at the door. It was at first very difficult, but it suddenly groaned and opened, revealing a dank stone passageway lit by yellowish lamps. The place smelled like mold and damp earth. She stepped into the passage, and the lights went out. She squeaked, and found a wall to guide her deeper into the depths of the mansion.