Especially special thanks to: All of my reviewers and...

Kurogawa Yumi

KawaiiKittyChan

Angel Reaper

Youko's Befuddled Fox

Arigato!!!

Floating above the city had been a joy ever sence she had discovered she could do it. The icy wind tousled her "hair" and made her feel crisp and clean. Winter air always did this to her. Seras lazily rode the air currents, her dark grey mist blending almost perfectly into the sky. She had heard that it might snow this year. She hoped so. The mansion was easy enough to find. It was large and made of a pink colored brick with huge windows on every floor to let in as much light as possible. Plus, it was surrounded by bright yellow police tape.

Seras phased through the dark roof, solidifying and landing gracfully on a rich red carpet. A quick glance told her she was in a guest room of some sort. Seras explored the rooms and floors until she found a large room with white furniture and pink walls that were all drenched in a child's sweet blood. She knew it was Bonnie's because of the sweet virgin scent in the blood. She also smelled the thick, rotten smell of ghouls blood. As she examined the filthy walls and floors, something odd struck her. Frowning Seras opened the door to the hallway and looked at the now blue area carpet. It was spotless. No blood was dripped here.

The realization suddenly clicked for Seras. They were dealing with a real vampire. For one thing, ghouls always make a bloody mess of things as the child's room attested to, yet said room was the only ruined area in the mansion. They couldn't have gotten in through the window that was two floors above the ground because they aren't coordinated enough to climb, or smart enough to use a ladder.

Seras jerked her head back into the room and strode in front of the mirrored wardrobe facing the room and thought. Is it possible to sense a portal made four days earlier? And if so, how does one go about doing that?? It's not the same as sensing the presence of an actual vampire, and besides, that has dissipated awhile ago, for I can't sense a damn thing! After a few moments thought, Seras finally sighed and resigned herself to the fact that she has to ask for help. From her moody ex-master. Duh.

Tentatively at first and then growing bolder, like a defiant teenager about to break a strict parent's rule, Seras reached for the bond she and Alucard would always share. Alucard?

When almost a minute went by without an answer, Seras was beginning to think wasn't going to acknowledge her. Just as she was about to pull away, Seras felt a lazy impression on her mind. Upon further and much closer examination, she found that, rather than lazy, it was tired. What is it, Police Girl?

Seras's sudden anger surprised the both of them with it's intensity. My name is Seras Victoria, dammit!! I'm not your pet, anymore, but your equal, so treat me like it, Alucard!

The anger was gone as quickly as it came leaving both vampires in a stunned silence. Seras stood in front of the wardrobe's door, looking through the blood splatters at her slowly fading ruby eyes, her mouth working soundlessly in her shock. I-I'm-I don't know what-, she spluttered more to herself than to Alucard.

Alucard's mocking "voice" resounded in her head again. My humblest apologies, Seras Victoria, I did not mean to offend you so. Seras nearly gave herself a hernia when she registered that his words were laced with amusement. She would have thought he would be furious.

Deciding to see how far her luck ran, Seras tried this on purpose. What's so damn funny?

Apparently, she had run out of freebees for Alucard's temper was back just as liquid hot as that morning. Watch your mouth, Seras! I'm still your elder.

Oh, I get it. I have to be accidentally angry to get what I want! Seras thought sarcastically to herself.

Seras... Alucard warned.

Stay out of my head, Seras snapped, a fraction of her unexpected heat returning. Alucard growled angrily, a final warning for Seras to shut up. This time, Seras begrudgingly assented. Sorry, Master. I needed your, help if you not busy? A soft brush on her mind signaled that he would listen. Is it possible to sense four day old portals? I think we are dealing with a true night walker.

A small pause followed this during which, Seras felt oddly nervous and smoothed her short skirt. It is possible, but it will be very faint. It might even have dissipated, but maybe not. It's not like just sensing presences and auras because those are unfocused. A portal, however, requires a focus of dark power, so it will last longer than merely being there.

I figured that would be the case, Seras nodded as if he could see her. But is there a certain way to go about it?

Another pause. I think I'll let you try to figure it out on your own. He said simply before throwing up his iron mental walls, shutting Seras out effectively.

Master! I don't have all bloody night! Seras screamed at him, but it did no good. Seras, now thouroghly pissed off, gave his blocks a good "kick," and squeaked in surprise when they faltered to the point of almost collapsing. She felt him, half furious, half amused by something only he knows, resurrect his blocks and hold them.

Getting over her surprise quickly, Seras grumbled about stupid, crusty vampires and their high-and-mighty ways (conveniently forgetting that she had previously tried to behave like one). She turned back to the room and took a moment to think. finally, she just decided to try her third eye, something she rarely used. It was just something about an eye on her forehead that made her itch.

Seras closed her blue eyes and slowly opened her center red eye. She had learned the hard way that if you don't frequently use your third eye, opening it quickly stings like a bitch. The world came into sudden clarity; Seras could could the fibers in the carpet, the dust in the air floating past her face, everything. There was a red and black haze in her vision that was never there before, and she wondered on that for a second or two before shrugging it off. It didn't hurt her vision, after all. Quite the contrary in fact. It somehow made things more in-depth and real. Weird.

Seras stared around the room, looking for a glow that would prove that a portal was made here to bring ghouls into a child's room. However hard she looked, though, she could find not a trace of anything. Just when she was about to give up, Seras turned just slightly to her left and out of the corner of her eye, caught a faint glow. Seras whirled around and stared in disgust at the wardrobe. The soft light of a dissipating aura shone behind the door.

Opening the door, she found a solid black wall; the portal door. A sudden wave of pity shook Seras when she thought of those monsters stumbling out of the closet and into the room. "Monsters in the closet... the poor girl."

Studying the portal, Seras got the impression that the vampire was male, and middle aged (100-200 years, maybe). The portal was too old to tell where it had been made from, though, and even it it weren't, Seras wouldn't have been able to, anyway. She had never been taught that.

After making her main discovery, Seras found little things after that. The ghouls' footprints were mostly smudged, but she found that each one wore rubber soled boots, and that there were at least four of them. A bloody hand print on the wardrobe door gave her partial fingerprints, no doubt the police were befuddled when they found the hand print of a dead man in a crime scene. Seras would have a Hellsing operative come and look at it later. Now, it was time to go.

Seras phased into they backyard of the mansion and was about to transform and fly when the moon caught her eye. She shone bold and white against the black sky. The clouds around her seemed to have opened up like a window. She cast her pale ivory beams down onto the frame of clouds and onto Seras's awed face. For a moment, all Seras could do was look.

A cloud moved to cover the moon's radiance, and Seras shook herself. With one last glance at where the moon used to be, she turned herself around, deciding on a sudden impulse to walk home.

Integra's going to be pissed... she thought, but kept walking. What about that little girl? She's in trouble! that came from the back of her mind, and somehow, Seras didn't care, although she'd hate herself for it later. That moon had done something to her, but what, she couldn't say. The only thing in her mind now, was the night was too beautiful to miss; that she had to take a walk.

And walk she did.

She walked, light, completely silent, through the quite neighbor hood, and along a busy road, straight into ever busy London, and still on. Finally, when she had almost reached the edge of the city, did the moon come back out and wake Seras from her trance. She blinked up at the moon and looked around, confused and wondering how she had gotten there.

Before she could try to retrace the steps she couldn't remember, a movement in the crowd behind her made her look back. At first she thought she had just seen the normal jostling of the people, but as she was turning back around, a pair of brown eyes seemed to jump out at her.

Seras had to restrain herself from looking back and keep turning. She walked casually forward in the current of people but at the next alley, she calmly slipped in. Shrouded in the darkness, Seras pulled the hand gun from behind her belt (it was hidden under her shirt) and stared, alert at the entrance.

After a moment or two with no one following her into the alley, Seras berated herself for getting so worked up over a pair of brown eyes. She did not budge from her alert stance, though. Those eyes... That man was watching me. Seras had a gut feeling that it was a man and that he had been following her, although she did not see the face.

Almost a minute had passed when a black silhouette hesitantly poked his head into the alley. Seras used her power to darken the alley so that she was almost hidden. She was right. A man's shape entered the alley nervously and peered into the dark. When he came in entirly, Seras blackened the narrow passage until only a vampire's eyes could see through the mirk and phased in front of him before he could gasp.

Seras grabbed the collar of his shirt and pressed the gun to his temple. "Who are you? What do you want?" She growled at him.

The man looked down to where he heard the voice. He was tall, with dark blond hair and those same brown eyes. His face was handsome, and scared at the moment. "M-my name is Chris! Please don't hurt me!"

"Why were you following me?" Seras levitated herself up to his eye-level, and found a tiny pleasure in his little jump at the different location of sound.

At that question, Chris paused and nervously licked his lips. "Well... I, uh, saw you and thought, 'wow! She's pretty!', and wanted to, well, uh, maybe-"

"What?"

"-Maybe-ask-you-for-your-name-and-a-date?" He said all in a rush and bit his lip, waiting for the worst.

Seras stood there, holding a gun to this man's head for following her, and all he wanted was a date? Well she was flabbergasted, with herself as well as this stranger, Chris. All of a sudden, her face heated up till it felt like it was burning. He thinks I'm pretty? She thought girlishly before giving herself a firm mental slap. He was basically stalking her right? So what? she argued with herself. I haven't had a relationship with anyone since Pip, and we were just friends! Before him, not since I was a teenager! Master doesn't count, he's just my master... For some reason, Seras felt that she didn't want to think that. It kinda... hurt?

"...uh, Miss?" Chris asked nervously.

Seras jerked herself from her thoughts and lessened the darkness so he could see her better. With one last rueful thought about being completely devoted to Hellsing, and that she should be allowed to go on just one date, Seras put the gun away. "I'm sorry, but I have a very hectic schedule. I work at night, so a date is impossible for you."

"Oh, wow! I work at night, too!" He said cheerfully, as if this strange, attractive woman had never pressed a gun to his head. "I'm a night guard at a museum." She stared at him. "Uh, if I may?" She blinked. "Ask your name that is."

Seras said the first name that came to her mind. "Rachel." Bonnie's middle name.

"Nice to meet you, Rachel."

"Pleasure, I'm sure," she mumbled back.

What are you doing?! Seras screamed inwardly. Get back to Hellsing!! "I've got to go. Don't follow me," Seras said warningly before briskly stepping back out into the crowd, the light from the street flooding back in as she left.

Seras sped thorough the streets, called a cab (feeling incredibly drained for no reason what-so-ever), and got out a mile from the Hellsing Mansion. Still too tired to fly or phase, Seras trudged back, enjoying the dredges of the night, as she felt weariness seep into her bones. The sun would be up in two or three hours.

She waved the guards away when they made to go to her slumped form and walked through the gate, up the walk, and into her home. She would report to Integra and crawl to her comfy coffin early tonight. Let Alucard deal with any missions that may pop up. He needs to blow off some steam anyway.

With the prospect of blood and bed on the brain, Seras happily dragged herself up the stairs to report to Integra.