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Chapter 10: Danger
Lost again, Mia thought as she wandered aimlessly through the seemingly endless halls of the Hellsing Manor. This was becoming a pattern for her, she mused as she looked around the abandoned corridor she found herself in. She had never been renowned for her sense of direction, but she had spent more time lost in the recent days than she had spent sleeping.

She looked down at Arthur critically. “Can’t you sniff out which way the dining room is?” she joked.

He whined defensively.

She pulled out the cell phone and flipped it open to look at the clock. It was almost five thirty… the sun would be going down soon. This was going to royally destroy her sleep schedule in a few days.

“’Scuse me… are you lost?”

Mia jumped and turned to see a young woman with short-cropped blonde hair in a police uniform. She had a soft, friendly face and red eyes like Alucard. When would people stop sneaking up on her?

“Yeah,” the younger girl giggled. “Could you help me? I’m looking for the dining room…”

The woman blinked at her and then burst into laughter. “You’re way off,” she said through giggles. She had a very thick accent Mia had a hard time identifying. “It’s on the other side of the ‘ouse. ‘Ere, I’ll take you there, I’m going that way meself. You must be the girl from another world Ma—erm, Alucard told me ‘bout.”

Mia nodded. “Yep,” she said, having the feeling the woman didn’t believe her. Not that she had expected anyone to—she had only told Sir Hellsing because the woman had told her in no uncertain terms to be completely honest. She was a terrible liar anyways. “That’s me… Mia.”

The woman smiled as if humoring her. “I’m Seras Victoria. This way, miss.” She turned and led Mia back the way she had come.

“Come on, Arthur,” Mia coaxed the dog, who had begun acting skittish again as soon as the woman showed up. “Honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with him!”

“Oh, dogs ‘ave never liked me,” she sighed. “I’ve always been a cat person. Cute name for a dog, though.”

Mia grinned, glancing around the house. “You know, for an organization that’s supposedly so important, it seems kind of guard-less, if you know what I mean. You’re the first official-looking person I’ve seen.”

Seras grimaced. Mia noted with some surprise that Victoria was probably barely old enough to drink on Mia’s planet. “Yeah, well, a couple of vampires and a ‘ole a**-load of ghouls got past security, killed all the guys. Sir ‘Ellsing and Alucard stopped ‘em in the end, but…”

The young keyblade master winced in sympathy. “Sorry.”

“Ain’t your fault, miss, so don’t worry,” Seras said. “Sir ‘Ellsing’s hiring a bunch of new people, so things will get busy again soon.”

Grabbing Arthur by the scruff of the neck, Mia gave him an encouraging tug as they headed up the stairs and came out on a hall on the east side of the house. “Another thing I don’t get,” Mia grunted, struggling to keep the increasingly nervous dog in check, “why is Miss Hellsing called ‘sir’ when she’s a woman?”

Seras looked at Mia in a way that suggested she had never thought about it before. “Well, she’s a knight… but lady knights are usually called ‘dame’. Men are called ‘sir’. I dunno. You should ask Alucard—he prob’ly knows. ‘E’s known Sir ‘Ellsing ‘er ‘ole life.”

“Do you know Alucard well?” Mia asked.

“Well—not ‘well’, but I know ‘im alright,” Seras sighed. “I don’t ‘alf think anyone in this place knows ‘im ‘well’ except for ol’ Walter, and ‘e ain’t sayin’ noth—” She turned abruptly. “Good evening, Sir ‘Ellsing!”

Mia looked over her shoulder at the platinum blonde, bespectacled woman who had almost succeeded on sneaking up on them both. She glanced over at Seras, who had entered a solute, looking tense and a little nervous. Sir Integra was eyeing the young policewoman with a hint of suspicion.

“Erm, sorry about my dog, Sir,” said Mia, trying to pull some of Integra’s attention away from Seras (who she found she liked quite a lot). “Should I put him outside, or something…?”

“Hmm?” Integra looked down at Arthur, who had calmed a little. “Oh, no. Your dog is fine, don’t worry.” She turned her gaze back to Seras. “What are you doing?”

“Showing Miss Mia to the dining room, Sir,” Seras responded. “She got lost in the basements. Honest to God, Sir,” she added at the slight narrowing of the eyes Integra threw at her.

“Very well,” said Integra. She glanced out the nearby windows, where dusk had fallen, the first stars bright enough to pierce the lights of the city glittering dimly in the pink-purple sky. “Is your master awake?”

Mia looked over briefly at Seras. She had a master? What kind of world was this crazy place?

“Yes, I am,” said a familiar voice from all around them.

Mia jumped, but she was the only one to do so. Sir Integra stepped a bit to her right and from out of the shadow she had been standing in stepped Alucard, dusting off his red jacket. He looked exactly the same as Mia had seen him last night, yellow shades and all.

“Lovely evening,” said Sir Integra sarcastically.

“Quite,” said Alucard in kind. He nodded at Mia. “Good evening, madam,” he said more honestly. “Did you rest well?”

Mia choked back an idiotic giggle. Unfortunately, that also made an idiotic choking sound that accompanied the weak nod she gave him.

Seras disguised a snort of laughter with a cough. Sir Integra rolled her eyes at the both of them and looked away. Alucard seemed to understand her meaning and smiled and nodded as if she had given an actual answer. “I’m pleased to hear that.” He glanced down at Arthur—who was once again growling at him—sighed briefly, and turned his gaze to Seras. “Police girl,” he said in half-dismissive greeting.

“I ‘ave a name, master,” she grumbled.

“That’s good to know,” he said scathingly.

Sir Integra rubbed her temples, looking for all the world like a mother with two rowdy children. “Alucard, Miss Victoria, can I have a word with Mia in private?”

“Of course, madam,” said Alucard taking several long paces down the hall. “Police girl.”

Seras shot Mia a wan smile and followed the vampire.

“I want you to be careful around Alucard and Miss Victoria,” said Integra as soon as Alucard and the policewoman were out of earshot. “You can’t trust their kind.”

“You mean she’s a vampire too?” Mia hissed. “God, I’m stupid. No wonder Arthur was flipping out.”

The head of the Hellsing family was clearly a patient woman—when it came to humans, at least. “That’s fine, it’s hard to tell if you haven’t dealt with them all your life. But that’s not the point. I’m assigning Alucard to be your bodyguard. He’ll follow your orders, but if he can turn them to his advantage, he will. If you give him an order, be very specific.”

“I’m not giving anybody orders,” said Mia with a frown, crossing her arms in a rebellious sort of way.

“It’s the only way he’ll listen to you.”

“Then let him not listen.”

The older woman shook her head, no doubt at Mia’s naïveté. She reached into her suit coat pocket and drew out a credit card. “This is for you. Some pocket money, for clothes and such.”

Mia took it, surprised. “Wow. Thanks. How much is…?”

“Don’t worry about it. Take your time shopping. There’s plenty of little shops in London open late, you’re sure to find something you want.” Sir Integra smiled.

“You still don’t believe me, do you?” Mia said thoughtfully. “About the other worlds out there?”

Integra’s face fell. “I don’t destroy the enemies of the queen by blindly trusting everything everyone says, Mia. But I do believe there is a battle you must fight here. And if it comes to it, I will help you. But only for Queen and country. Other planets are of no concern to me.”

Mia nodded slightly. “Thank you, Sir Integra.”

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“I’m not even going to ask you what you think, because the hamster is obviously not in his moving wheel right now.”

Alucard blinked and looked up at Mia, who had come out of the dressing room in a new pair of jeans and a t-shirt. “I’m sorry?” he asked.

She smiled at him and sat down next to him, looking to any passerby as a girl who had dragged her older brother on a shopping trip. “Something’s on your mind, Alucard. Sir Hellsing’s probably asked you not to talk to me in social sense or maybe it’s below you, but I want to at least try to be your friend.”

“Don’t you think you have more important things to be worried about than making ‘friends’ with a person like me, keyblade master?” Alucard said quietly.

She tossed her hair back over her shoulder. “I have a feeling PR has something to do with saving the planet as well as kicking Heartless hiney. So come on, tell me what’s going on.”

Growling slightly, he crossed his arms. “The police girl told you about the new people Sir Hellsing was hiring, correct?”

“Yup.”

“It’s my belief Sir Hellsing sent you out to… ‘shop’ to keep me away from the initiation of these fellows.” Alucard grimaced. “They’re mercenaries. Wild Geese from North Ireland or Scotland or Whales or some such ungodly place.”

Mia cocked her head. “How is North Ireland Or Scotland Or Whales ungodly?”

The vampire looked at her. She had listed the places he had mentioned as if they were one and the same. “You are really not from this planet, are you?” He shook his head, sighing, “The point is, now that Sir Hellsing has the police girl—my fledgling, known to you as Seras Victoria—she no longer needs me to… show the truth of the world to new recruits.” He pulled a face that looked like a cross between a laughing smile and a frustrated grimace. “She’s introducing them to less dangerous stock.”

Mia frowned. “Yeah, about that. Is Seras really a—?

“Yes, she’s a vampire.” He looked pained. “She gets sick at the sight of blood.”

Wincing in sympathy, Mia gave him a quick cue to go on.

“These people… They must understand how… dangerous… a vampire can be.”

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“They just don’t get it, do they?!”

A knife flew through the darkness and its point slammed symbolically into a Polaroid of the head of the Hellsing Organization.

The sister of the speaker, a pretty woman with long black hair that came down to the small of her back, shook her head with a sigh. She looked about sixteen, but was much, much older than she looked. “Neko. You need to work on that temper of yours.”

The other vampire snarled and threw another knife at the image. Her hair was also black, cut short in a tomboyish sort of way. “It’s true, though, and you know it, Halo!” she whined. “Vampires were here before humans, we’ll be here after and they can’t do anything about it!” Another knife whizzed through the warehouse and stuck pointedly in the picture.

“You have to admit, though,” said Halo with a grudging sigh, “they do well.”

The older vampire turned on her sister, waving a knife in a half-threatening, half playful way. “That’s because, one: there are only small fry in this city. B…” She frowned. “No… Two: all the old, scary vampires are dead, in Asia, or us. C: may I point out their whole security team got whipped out when a couple of flunkies from that stupid millennium group got in? Hell-b***h was in a meeting with, like, fifteen other people, all armed with guns with silver bullets. If she had been alone, she would have been lunch. And, lastly, or a very pointed four or D or that little ‘iv’ in brackets they use in footnotes, they have that traitor leech that calls himself a vampire!” She hurled the knife with all her significant strength at the Polaroid.

Having sat patiently through one of the shorter of her sister’s rants, Halo sighed, “Are you quite finished?”

“Yeah,” Neko chimed, suddenly cheerful again. “I’m out of knives.”

She trotted over to the crate where her sister sat and hoisted herself up onto it, grabbing the bag of marshmallows from another box nearby.

“You’re going to make yourself sick,” Halo said chidingly, knowing the adverse effects of human food on vampires.

Not caring, Neko shoved one of the marshmallows into her mouth. “But they’re so good! If there’s one thing I don’t miss about the seventeen hundreds besides cars, it’s sugar!!!” She giggled maniacally only to start choking on the not-yet-swallowed marshmallow. Her sister rolled her eyes and gave Neko a swift thump across the back, dislodging the blockage.

The elder of the girls cleared her throat. “But anyway, it’s the mostly the Hellsing vampire that’s doing so well, not the organization.” She grinned, fishing a new marshmallow from the bag. “Let’s kill him.”

Halo grinned, her red eyes glinting in the darkness. She liked the sound of that.