A dark blue van made its way out heading South towards Nornville through the darkness. They were still easily forty-five minutes away from the their destination, but they moved onward at a constant speed. Inside the van were an older couple and their three little kids. They kept driving until they came across something, or rather someone lying in the road. They immediately stopped the vehicle and the older man got out to examine the obstacle blocking their path. To his shock it was a little boy, no older than nine or ten lying in a bizarre position on the road.

        The man couldn't tell in the dark what the kid looked like exactly or whether or not he was injured. His door was open so he called back to his wife, telling her what was going on, but didn't wait for a response. He went over to the kid and knelt down to check and see if he was alright. The boy's pale skin was colder to the touch than the man was expecting. Instantly the man feared the worst and looked around. The kid was motionless, and there was no sign of external injury to him, nor was there any blood around. What was going on here? He bent down and put his ear to the boy's chest, listening for signs of a heartbeat. Nothing...nothing at all.

        Then, without any warning at all, the kid wrapped his hands around the chest of the old man, and the last thing he felt was stinging agony like no other on Earth as teeth as sharp as a surgeon's scalpel pierced into the side of his neck, cutting deep into his flesh and his pulsing jugular vein. His cries of agony and terror quickly became a gurgling death rattle as his wife and children looked on, powerless to help him. He saw his own blood splatter and drip onto the ground as his life came to an end.

.....

        The wife turned to get out the car and help her kids get away as the gruesome spectacle unfolded, but before she could touch the handle of the car door the kids shrieked and the wife felt a cold hand on her shoulder. She heard an unearthly moan as who or whatever was holding her pulled her closer. She looked over her shoulder, and the last thing she saw was a pair of glowing purple eyes and jagged sharp teeth. The last thing she heard was the glass on the back windows shatter and her kids scream in horror. Just like her husband, the last sensation she knew on this Earth was excruciating pain as her assailant tore into her.

.....

        Several moments later, the little boy pushed the corpse of the husband aside and got to his feet, and dusted himself off whilst the wife and kids screamed to their last breath, leaving the windshield and back windows with a fresh coat of smeared crimson paint. Numerous dark figures milled about the car, trying to tear at it to get in anyway they could to join the feeding frenzy. Two more forms stepped out of the shadows from either side of the road and joined the boy. Both were considerably taller, but obscured by the darkness and the backlight from the car's lights. He wiped some of the blood off of his chin and licked it.

        "That was tasty," he said. "And you should have seen the look on his face! Oh, it was just too good! The utter horror! The dumb confusion in his eyes! Soooo satisfying!"

        "Enough messing around with these little meat sacks," said the individual to his right in a sultry, but mature and refined female voice. "It's almost time. Remember why we're here. We have to-"

        "Yeah, yeah," said the kid with a smirk. "We have to find and capture the target. Kill any and all witnesses. Blah, blah, blah. I know, I know. You're such a pain sometimes. This'll be a piece of cake, so stop worryin'."

        "Don't bet on that," said the one to his left. This one had the voice of an adult male with an Italian accent. "The Hellsing Organization sent one of their pets. We have to be careful."

        "That's why I'm here, isn't it?" asked the boy rhetorically. "I'll totally crush anyone and anything that tries to stop us, and our 'glorious leader' will have his prize. Now, let's get moving, there's a whole town of yahoos up ahead ripe for the taking."

        "Hell yes," hissed the woman. "Besides, I'm a bit peckish myself after watching that performance." All three of them laughed and the boy snapped his finger. Instantly, the shapes behind them stopped moving and gathered behind the three. As they did so, the corpse of the man on the ground near the boy's feet began to twitch and moan. Slowly, he forced himself back up to its feet with a hideous squelching sound as blood spurted from a massive tear in the side of his neck, drenching his clothes. His eyes now had the same unearthly purple glow as all the others around the three.

        "Alright kiddies," said the boy. "Let's roll out. We're not getting any younger, even if we're not getting any older either!" With that, two of them headed back into the woods on the left side of the road with some of the horrid creatures behind them, following the path right toward Nornville. The boy stepped off to the right and vanished into the forest with the other monsters right behind him.

....

        "Let me get this straight," said a rather pudgy police officer with a lush dark brown beard but a balding head a pair of beady brown eyes. "You're telling me that we need to essentially close the town because of a suspected terrorist threat. You do realize what you're asking? I can't jus-"

        "It's not suspected," said Viola matter-of-factly as she sat in a chair opposite across from him on a wooden desk. "We know it's coming." She had altered her appearance slightly for this meeting. Her hair was now slightly longer and unbraided to give her a more mature and serious appearance and she wore gold-rimmed Ray Band sunglasses over her eyes. She had shape-shifted her trench coat and Hellsing uniform into something resembling a high-ranking secret agent-type attire. It was a black suit with a white button-up undershirt and dark pants.  Other than shortening her fangs, the rest of her appearance was exactly the same. She had never tried taking this form before, but Alucard would sometimes change into a businessman-look in the rare event he had to make any sort of contact with the local populace of wherever they were. This meeting was the first, and so far the longest item on her to-do list since arriving here. She glanced at her watch. It was nearly eight-thirty now. She had been sitting here for nearly two hours of this nonsense!

        Viola was getting increasingly frustrated, but was trying to take the diplomatic approach at the moment. Her master would have hypnotized this guy and been on his merry way long ago. Using an ability like that didn't sit well with her. In essence, she was taking away someone's free will simply to make her job easier. Her orders were quite clear, though. Integra and Alucard both would've told her to do whatever she had to do to ensure mission success, even if the injustice stung.

        "Whether it is or not," sighed the officer. "There's just no way I can do that on this kind of notice. People go hunting around here, some have to leave to get to work early before sun-up, there's not enough of us to realistically enforce that rule even if you have the mayor's approval. Not with this kind of-"

        "Look," Viola sighed. "I'm not telling you to do it this second. In fact, it would be better all around if that didn't become a thing since it would draw too much attention. We're trying to keep this as quiet as we can. Lockdown is a reserve option. What we need from you right now is to get some eyes on as many of the main ways in and out town as possible. Now, if your men see anything out of the ordinary, they need to report it immediately to you and then you'll tell us and we'll deal with it. Again, they need to observe and as soon as they spot something, report it and back off."

        "Alright, but even that's a problem. Some of the guys go off-duty because of a shift-change in two hours. What do you want me to do? Tell my boys that they're working overtime tonight out of nowhere? Not to mention if your terrorist and his group of cronies don't show tonight and we have to do this again it just causes too much of a fuss."

        Viola mentally face-palmed. Shift change?! Overtime?! Was he serious right now? Had she not made it clear that there were lives at stake? Was this guy an officer, or a bureaucrat disguised as one? How someone like this had managed to get this high up in law enforcement completely escaped her.  She couldn't flat out tell him that there was a bloodsucking vampire and possibly a ghoul army heading for Nornville.  Even if he did believe her, he would just invent another excuse not to cooperate and rock the proverbial boat. Some public servant you are, Viola thought. You're so worried about your job that you won't even do your job. At this point, her hand had been forced. It was obvious that no matter what she did she wasn't going to get anywhere with words at this point. Even though technically she had the authority as an agent of Hellsing and the approval of the mayor to force him to cooperate, she needed to be sure that he followed instructions to the letter. She was going to regret it later, but now there was no alternative but to use the tried-and-true "Alucard formula" to solve this problem. Luckily, they were alone in the room so no one was going to see this. 

        She slowly took off her sunglasses and then leaned over the desk. The officer flinched as she extended her hand out towards his face, stopping just short of touching him with her index finger right between his incredibly dark brown eyes. The red upside-down pentagrams that had been absent in her current form reappeared on her black gloves and glowed for a moment before vanishing again. Suddenly he looked like he had become lost in the red pools of her eyes leaving an somewhat dumbed expression on his face. His own eyes turned red as his will gave way to hers. Now he was completely under her hypnosis. She could make him say or do whatever she wished and he would not question it or hesitate to do it.

        "Send out some of your officers to get eyes on every main way in or out of town," she said slowly. Her voice had a more sinister tone to it now.

        "Yes...send out some of my officers...to get eyes on...every main way...in or out of town," he repeated in a monotone and submissive voice. It sounded almost robotic.

        "Tell them to report any suspicious activity to you, and then as soon as they do you'll tell Corporal Mors outside."

        "I'll tell them...to report...any suspicious activity to me...and then...I'll tell Corporal Mors."

        "Once your boys see something, they report it and then get out of there."

        "...Report it... and...get out of...there...Yes."

        "Good," she said standing up. "Then let's make it happen, officer!"

        "Of course...right away, miss."

        Viola then turned and quickly stepped out of the office, leaving the pudgy police officer sitting there with a bizarrely blissful expression on his face. Almost immediately she noticed a couple people turned to look inside, and then after seeing him, turn back to look at her no doubt wondering: what in the hell had just happened in there?

        She felt very guilty about doing that to him. Realistically, it was the best option since it would ensure that he would do as he was asked and that would help save lives. However, it felt wrong, like she had abused her powers. On the other hand, it was strangely exhilerating. Having that kind of power over someone else was truly exhilarating. No matter how many times she had to use it, she always felt that rush. Besides, the problem was now solved and it didn't hurt anyone. She honestly didn't know how to feel about it right now. She didn't show her confliction though. Instead she walked on with a pleasant and pleased look on her face.

        She walked towards two soldiers dressed in the typical dark green Hellsing uniform with a black or darker green padded vest on over it. They removed their red barets that sported the Hellsing crest on them, and the ones on their chest were covered by their vests. At the moment they just looked like generic soldiers of some kind. The taller and more muscular one had ginger hair cut down to a very militaristic-looking crew cut. He had piercing hazel eyes and a no-nonsense look about him. His face reminded Viola of the old cartoon Batman's depiction of Bruce Wayne except for the hair and the eyes.

        This was Captain Daniel Murray, a seasoned Hellsing operative with ten years of experience battling the undead. The other soldier was a bit shorter and had a slightly longer and messier crew-cut of black hair. Hey had light blue eyes and a more lively expression than Murray. He smiled as Viola approached. He was known as Corporal Jean Ross. He was new to Hellsing, and had yet to face the forces of darkness in combat. According to his file he had been in the SAS for several years prior so he probably had seen fighting before. Neither had their weapons on them at the moment. They were Viola's escorts, assigned to her specifically for this mission, although they were not the only people that worked for Hellsing here in Nornville. There were six others, all of whom were back at the so-called safe house.

        "Alright boys," Viola said confidently looking up at them. "We're good to go."

        "Yes, sir," they said in unison.

        "Ross, I need to leave you here to help the police chief in there conduct his forces," Viola said. She noted the look of disappointment in his eyes and motioned for them both to follow her outside. After making sure there was no one around or in human earshot, she said softly: "Look Corporal, someone's got to stay at the station and oversee this, yeah? Murray and I, we've both done this before, so it's better if we handle killing this thing."

        "Permission to speak freely, sir?" Asked the Corporal. Murray rolled his eyes at the question with that oh boy, here we go again look on his face.

        "Of course," Viola replied, sounding almost taken aback. "I told you before, you don't have to ask me that. If you want to say something, say it. I'm new at being in charge, so I'll take any input I can get."

        In truth, she found it a bit embarrassing and flattering that they asked her for permission to speak their minds, even if it was the chain of command. She didn't know if she was ready to be in charge, to have people under her that were counting on her to get the job done and get them out alive. This mission was not only a test of her skills as a monster hunter, but also of her ability to take charge and lead others. That in itself was rather awkward since both of these men were technically older than her. Having people ask for permission to talk only made her even more nervous about it. Still, her training taught her to keep a level and objective mind, so she did her best not to let it get to her. Whether she felt ready or not, the responsibility was hers, and she took it very seriously.

        "I understand my orders, but I've been waiting for this for a while.  I've been here in Nornville helping out with our facility's research into you-know-what. Wouldn't it be better if I got some first hand experience against vampires now since there's one on the way?"

        "Sorry, not this time," Viola answered in a serious tone. "Under normal circumstances, possibly. But, this is too dangerous."

        "How so?"

        "May, I sir?" Interrupted Murray as Viola was about to speak. She wasn't sure how to answer that without offending the soldier. Hopefully Murray would know.

        "Yes Captain," Viola acquiesced.

        "I think what Miss Nelle is trying to say is that in this case the vampire we're facing may prove to be more of a threat than usual, and trust me Corporal, that's saying something. This one's proven itself to be pretty smart - clever enough to elude the Hellsing Organization multiple times. It's better for the sake of the mission that you stay here and oversee the local police operations. It's also safer for you. It slows us down if we have to worry about watching your back while trying not to get torn to bits by the vampire or its ghouls. This is a job for people with experience."

        "Yep," Viola nodded. She used the alias "Nelle" when in public. Perhaps Walter was right: she really did take after Alucard more than she thought. She asked that Ross, Murray, and all the others use her real name when they were back at headquarters or totally by themselves. "Speaking as a vampire, I can tell you that in a fair fight a normal human wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell even with your track record. Seeing as you're just one human soldier with no experience against even a new vampire, you're better off away from the action. Besides, I'm counting on you to guide the police and update us as the night goes on."

        "Yes sir," he agreed, smiling.

        "So, we're clear on our jobs?" She asked.

        "Clear," they said.

        "Good, then let's get this started and be ready to show our guest some small town hospitality." With that, Viola sent Ross back inside the police station. Viola looked at Murray and the two headed for the car."

        "That wasn't half-bad," said the Captain as he hopped into the driver's seat of the black Sudan. "I've been in command before, sir. It's important to make people feel important. It makes them like you, and respect you."

        "Thanks," said Viola quickly as she got into the car and immediately assumed her usual form once again. She felt relieved to hear him say that. In spite of his serious exterior, he seemed to be a rather insightful and empathetic man. Granted she hadn't seen him smile even once, but he seemed like he was trying. His encouragement helped to put her mind at ease a little bit. Leading was not her strong suit. 

        "May I make a suggestion, sir?" Murray asked.

        "Sure!"

        "Try and be a bit more assertive. You said 'sorry' when Ross tried to object to your decision. Don't say sorry. You don't have anything to apologize for. You're in charge, so when you give someone a job to do, it's not a suggestion, it's an order."

        "Thank you Captain," said Viola, very glad for the help. "I'll definitely remember that next time." That was probably part of her problem with the police officer. She asked for his cooperation at first, when she should have made it clear that it was not a request. It was an order and that her team would be calling the shots for the time being. The car drove away from the station off into the night.

        Their base of operations was located within the very same forest where Ellen's house had once stood. As a matter-of-fact, it had been built over the very spot where Ellen's House used to be before it faded into nothing. Unfortunately, to get to it they had to go out of town using the road leading through the forest and make a left about fifteen kilometers out and go about ten more back in to get there, which made getting to and from the place a bit of a drive. Although, now that Viola thought about it, Ellen's house was still a good hour's walk from her old house. The path was hidden though to keep the place secret. No one who knew about the road ever used it, according to Ross. Even if they did, they would find a gated off area blocking their path if the drove far enough.

        Every now and again people who hunted in that forest still reported strange things happening there, which deterred some people from setting foot in those woods. It was likely though these "ghostly encounters" were fueled only by the superstitious people hearing the lingering local legends of the haunted woods and the witch that snatched away children, because Viola felt very much at peace looking up at the night sky through the green of the tall trees around them on either side. She remembered as a small child that she never played in the forest at night, there was always something about it that rubbed her the wrong way.

        Some kind of heaviness or pressure in the air as though there was this powerful and dangerous presence that dwelt there. By day the forest felt as it did to her right now: pristine and alive. It had been washed clean of the darkness that had existed there for who-knows-how long. She thought that coming back here would be very hard, but instead she felt like a tiny part of the weight she carried on her shoulders for five years had been lifted. It still felt strange to be back in Nornville, and stranger still to be back in the forest, but it was not as bad as she thought it would be. She was able to relax and do some quiet brooding in the car as they drove back. After they cleared the security gates, they drove some distance further before they finally pulled into the motor court.

        Viola took another look at the place. Safe house indeed! Safe mansion was a better description of it. Or even better, safe mansion/occult lore junky's wet dream. It resembled a miniature version of the main Hellsing Estate on the outside. It was roughly the same size as Ellen's house, relatively speaking as the size and the number of rooms in a witch's house was somewhat variable. Viola remembered being amazed by the size of Ellen's home when she first started visiting the witch, but the Hellsing Estate was on another level altogether. On more than one occasion she had gotten lost trying to find someplace in that house. She didn't have time to really get a feel for this place when she first arrived, but Viola knew that most of the rooms on the first floor were dedicated to storing and cataloguing the Hellsing Organization's knowledge into what they had dubbed: demonic sorcery. She wasn't quite sure what that meant as there were in fact several varieties of magic, but it almost certainly had something to do with the "Ellen incident."

        Murray parked the car and the pair headed inside the grand double doors of the front entrance. Viola wondered why it was that Sir Integra felt the need to have every building look like it was fit for the ancient Greek Gods or something. It seemed a bit unnecessary to her, but oh well. Not her call, and she wasn't going to complain with all the benefits. She turned back to the forest one more time, looking out at it and taking in the view before she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

        They found themselves in a fairly large foyer with a circular staircase that started at the far wall on either side leading up to the second floor. The room had a large crystal Chandelier hanging down from the ceiling above them with multiple little light bulbs on it. The floor was made of white marble tiles and the rest of the room was largely white in color except for the wooden stair railing and the off colored carpet.

        "Alright Captain," she said. "I think it's past time I got a tour of my new home for the next few days."

        "Yes, ma'am," he said quickly. "Where do you want to start?"

        "Uh, I don't know. I have no idea where anything is. Actually, first off, tell me again what this place really is." Her normal instinct would have been to pose that statement in the form of a question, but she was trying to sound more assertive like he said.

        "Well, the purpose of this facility is mainly for storage and cataloguing of the Hellsing Organization's collection of occult knowledge. When someone finds something useful, it gets sent here where we read and analyze it, and then store it. We only keep it if it we think it pertains to demonic sorcery. Otherwise, we send it either back to headquarters or to another secret facility."

        "I take it demonic sorcery is the supposed to be witchcraft, right? Ellen's powers?"

        "Yes. I'm not the expert, but apparently it can only be performed if someone is given the power by a demon. Something like that. I don't know much else about it."

        "I thought that the Hellsing Organization had access to all kinds of knowledge about magic. Alucard was altered with occult knowledge and so was I." She was under the impression that anyone could use magic, and that Ellen's was only so powerful because of the demon and the house. She didn't think it was actually a different form or anything. Not that she knew the first thing about it, since she the memories of Ellen's life had been erased completely from her. There was the brief period in Ellen's body when she had used them, but she was so caught up in her own pain, desperation, and fear at the time that she didn't stop to really understand how it worked.

        "Like I said, I wouldn't know about that. I'm just here to run the day to day operations, I don't know all the fine details about the subject. You might want to ask Amelia about that. She's Hellsing's foremost expert on magic of any kind."

        "Captain, we're starting the tour... at wherever Amelia is!" said Viola in a voice mimicking that of an overly enthusiastic adventurer about to set off on a quest. As usual, he didn't so much as smile at all at her humor.

        He simply said: "She's probably in the room on your right, where she always is." They walked towards the door with a brass sign over the door frame that said: BR-1 in black typewriter style letters.

        When they entered, Viola's jaw dropped. In terms of sheer size, this was one of the largest book collections she'd ever seen. There was row upon row of them stacked in shelves like a great library. The came in all shapes and sizes. London had a much larger one that she'd been to on numerous occasions. She also remembered that Ellen's supply of books was technically infinite, but it was smaller in terms of the number of books on display. Viola had never been much of a reader, but ever since that day five years ago she'd gained quite an appetite for brain food, as books were sometimes called. That would be a good way to kill some time once the vampire was dealt with.

        "Amelia," Murray called lazily.

        "Yes, Captain?" Came an overly cheery high-pitched voice from some distance down the room. Soon a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length curly chestnut brown hair stepped out from behind one of the bookshelves. She wore a white button-up shirt similar to Integra's, but hers had small blue stripes running all the way down from the shoulders. She also wore a long blue skirt under which the bottom of her shirt was tucked. She wore very large circular glasses with thick lenses on her face. Whatever visual impairment she had, it must have been pretty severe.

        "Amelia, you remember Miss Viola?"

        "Captain, it's only been a couple of hours," she laughed.

        "Yeah, sorry we didn't get a chance to talk before, I had to run off to a very boring meeting about my mission," said Viola as she extended her hand. Amelia accepted the handshake eagerly.

        "Let me just say again that it's an honor to meet you. Working with these soldier types, you and Alucard are all I ever hear about some days."

        "Uh...Um," Viola started, beginning to fiddle with her hair again. It was a bit embarrassing and the woman's enthusiastic tone only made it a bit more overwhelming. "I'm flattered that I'm well known around here," she finally managed to say with a nervous laugh. She decided to change the topic before it got out of hand. "Anyway, I was told that you could tell me what exactly this place is. What it is that Hellsing does here?"

        "I guess I should start at the beginning. The reason Hellsing started this facility and the work we do here is, no offense intended, because of you."

        "Me?" Viola asked. "You mean me and Ellen swapping bodies five years ago before she stabbed me in the back!" She said it with unintended passion. The mere thought of it brought her nothing but sadness and despair. Even now, it still brought her some anger as well. It wasn't directed at Amelia, but nonetheless it shown through.

        "Precisely," Amelia replied nonchalantly ignoring or not noticing Viola's expression. "As you know, Alucard was dispatched five years ago on reports of strange disappearances that had been recorded in the forest around Nornville for nearly two hundred years. Sir Integra sent him out to kill what was thought to be a vampire, but instead he found you inside the house with no eyes and your legs had been chopped off."

        "Yeah, and he tried to talk to me, but since Ellen made me drink whatever the hell that was that burned my throat I couldn't say anything." Viola huffed. This topic of conversation was now even worse than the last one. She was reliving the entire incident over in her mind. She trembled and grabbed at her shoulders momentarily in shock, but regained her composure. "He's told me all this before, and I was there. It's a bit uncomfortable talking about it."

        "Do you want to stop?"

        "No, no. I have to try," she sighed and braced herself. She had to force the words off her tongue, and her lips trembled, but she managed to continue. "He asked me if I wanted to die and have my soul eaten by a demon, or if I wanted to live. I knew one thing, that I didn't want to die like that. I could hear his voice so I reached for it, and here I am." There was a bit more to the story, but it didn't matter at the moment so she didn't say it.

        "Yeah. That's about it. The point is, that Alucard's encounter is one of the few that Hellsing has ever had with a demonic sorcerer. Alucard himself said that this was the first time he'd encountered someone like this. That is, someone who is given relative immortality and magic by a demon. The last time that happened was before Sir Integra became head of Hellsing when her father ran the show. There's even a legend that Dr. Abraham Van Hellsing himself battled one and defeated her by cutting her head off with a blessed sword, but we've never been able to confirm it. The fact is, we have very little solid information about them. They're very rare, but according to your own report of the Ellen Incident they're very, very dangerous. It was decided that Hellsing needed to be better equipped to deal with them in the future. So Sir Integra had this place built so that we could gather more information about them, which is what we've been doing for the past three and-a-half years since we finished building it. Unfortunately, the hardest part is separating fact from fiction since aside from your story we have almost nothing to go on."

        "Why build it here?" Viola asked. "Why build it on the exact spot where the actual witch's house used to be?"

        "I can answer that," Murray interjected. "There are three reasons. The first is that we wanted to make sure nothing like that ever comes back, so we blessed the area where the house used to be and built our place on top of it so that we'd always have eyes out here. Second, Alucard suggested that the forest might hold some answers that we were looking for. He said that darkness like that tends to linger on and that we should stay vigilant. Third, we wanted to monitor Ellen. Even though she's not considered dangerous anymore, there's no reason to assume that her powers wouldn't return for some reason. We use this facility to watch her as long as she stays in Nornville. If at any point her powers do come back, we'll immediately know and we'll destroy her."

        "Destroy her?" Viola asked. So just like that? Without a second thought? Somehow that sounded very much like how Ellen would deal with it if the roles were reversed. She wasn't sure how she felt about it. On one hand, good riddance to her. No more people would be hurt, killed, or manipulated by Ellen ever again. But, there was more to it than that. She couldn't understand why, but even after what Ellen had done to her, she still saw the image of the purple haired little girl with the golden eyes and bloody face lying in bed. That bloody, swollen face with those putrid rotten legs and cracked arms. Ellen lied about many things, but her illness and dying body? They were only too real. The pain Viola felt until Alucard turned her was all the proof she needed of that. Seeing that image brought up all sorts of mixed feelings. She'd never forgive Ellen, but even now on some level perhaps she still pitied her. Pity, oh boy would Alucard have a thing or two to say about that. That was who she was though. Vampire or not, she couldn't help but feel sorry for people who knew suffering, and she wanted to try and make their suffering end.

        "Yeah, that's the decision that Sir Integra and the rest of the Round Table members agreed upon," said Amelia matter-of-factly. "If Ellen's powers resurface to the point that she's again deemed a threat, we are authorized to search and destroy. Although, the truth is, we don't know exactly how we'd go about doing that."

        "Sounds reasonable," Viola lied. "If those are the orders, then so be it. I know that a witch can die if she feels despair. I don't really know how to make that happen though."

        "That actually helps us a lot," Amelia exclaimed. "Where did you learn that, or should I ask?"

        "I...I..." she couldn't answer that. What Ellen had done, and why she had done it to make her feel despair so that she would die, it still haunted her to this day. She couldn't bare to speak of that horrible day any further at the moment. "Not now," she said weakly, looking down. "Maybe later."

        "It's okay, whenever your ready, sir," she said. That was the first time Amelia has used the word sir to address her. Viola had never liked being called sir, ma'am, or miss. She just wanted to be Viola. These titles just didn't appeal to her. However, it was protocol. The vampire took a moment to again get it together before she realized she was forgetting something important.

        "Oh, before I forget, just one more question, Amelia. What exactly is the difference between human magic and the magic Ellen used?"

        "That's part of the problem," said Amelia. "We really don't completely understand it ourselves. One huge difference is that you can't just use the kind of spells that a true witch or warlock can. The power has to be given to the person by a demonic entity first. Also, the spells they use don't require any vocal incantations or fancy dances like you see on television or anything, a true witch makes a spell happen just by thinking it if all of the prerequisites for using it have been met. They only have to know what the spell needs to work and once that is in place, boom! The confusing part is that we can't really find information on the spells themselves, since they don't have names or anything. then there's divine, like the blessings that paladins and priests use to fight monsters. Then there's the kind that we're more used to dealing with, and some people call it dark or demonic. I think, and this is just speculation, that it's an attempt to copy the stuff a demonic sorcerer can do. It's a bad joke compared to the stuff we think these guys are capable of. Used correctly, it obviously can have crazy results. Yourself and Alucard for example. But normally, it doesn't come even close to the kind of crap a real witch can do. I can't tell you what fundamentally makes it any different in terms of the energies being invoked to use it though."

        "Hm," Viola said. Now every single word they spoke reminded her of Ellen's betrayal. She wanted no more of this conversation at all. She needed to distract herself with something for a while. "Thanks for the time, but we have no idea when Ross'll call to tell us that our guest is about to show. We should finish this later. I'm sure there's plenty you'd like to ask me. Murray, come on. I still need to know where my bedroom is now that I think of it." Her voice was shaky even as she tried to make it seem like she was fine. With that she abruptly turned away and headed for the door in a hurry, her shoulders slightly slumped and her head down. Both Murray and Amelia seemed a bit taken aback by the sudden change in attitude. Amelia turned to Murray and smiled as though she knew what he was about to tell her and said:

        "Go on, Captain. Don't worry about me, sir. I'd be even worse off if I had to go through what she did. If I may, you might want to let her be for a while once you show her to her room."

        He simply nodded and followed behind Viola, but didn't say a word. Once they left the room, she asked him:

        "So, which way do we go?" Her voice was still trembling. She was trying with all her might to maintain her appearance, but she couldn't do it. She felt like she needed some time to think this over and gather her thoughts. Or better yet, facing the vampire would offer her a distraction and a chance to blow off some steam. That sounded like fun. Too bad the undead have no sense of timing, she thought. She smiled at her own mental joke. Maybe she was already starting to feel better.

        "Up the stairs, and to the right. Last door at the end of the hall." He proceeded to follow her all the way there, and then opened the door and let her in. She quietly thanked him and walked inside. However, before either one of them say anything or do anything, a phone began to ring. Murray went over to it and picked it up while Viola sat down on top of her mahogany coffin and rested her chin in her hands with her elbows on her knees.

"What?" Murray asked suddenly. "No way. You're sure? What do you mean pretty sure, Ross? You'd better be damn sure! Check again, then re-check... Right then. Okay, I'll put her on the line." Then he turned to Viola. "It's for you, ma'am."

        She nodded, got to her feet, and hurried over to take the phone.

        "What've you got, Ross?" She asked, still feeling downcast as evidenced by her more stoic tone of voice. She listened, and felt a bit better but simultaneously disturbed at the news she received. It seemed the undead sometimes did have a sense of timing. "Tell him to have them pull back and keep out of the way. We'll be over there as soon as we can. Right, Nelle out." She hung up the phone, and a little smile crossed her lips. "Captain, our guests have arrived. Multiple targets coming in from the North and the East roads. Ross said that it's two large groups using some of the sparse woods in that area as cover."

        "Ma'am," he nodded, standing at attention immediately. "How do you want to handle it?"

        "Well, for starters I think we should play it on the safe side and assume that ghouls aside, the vamp brought a plus-one along for this party."

        "More than one vampire? That might explain why they've been one step ahead of main operations in London."

        "I've got an idea," Viola said, her voice trailing off a bit. "I've heard about you from Walter and Sir Integra, Captain. Apparently you're quite the talented vampire killer yourself. I can probably deal with these guys myself, but I can't be in two places at once. I think you and I should handle this together. We'll split into two groups. You and another soldier, maybe Hughes, go and handle the guys coming from the North. I'll take the East."

        "Sounds good, ma'am," Murray said calmly without much change in his serious expression. Viola decided at that moment that one way or another she'd get a smile out of him one way or another before her time in Nornville was done. "I'll just need to grab my weapons and some special tools and then we can head out."

        "Nah," she said. "You do that and head out without me. I can move much faster without the car. With any luck I'll be finished fast and come join you. I'd love to see what Hellsing's 'Explosive Exorcist' can do. But, don't wait up for me."

        "Huh? Oh, right. I forgot you vampires can move super fast."

"Actually, I can fly also," she said. "I didn't earlier because it draws too much attention sometimes, if you know what I mean."

"Yes ma'am," he said. Still no grin appeared on his face.

        "Okay, Captain," Viola began with an almost mischievous smile. "Let's go fight some monsters!" She opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Oh God, did she need this right now. She felt better knowing that soon they would stop these monsters and put an end to their path of destruction. Part of her was also hoping that this would be a good fight as well. She really needed to cut loose and let all her frustration, fear, anger, and sadness out.

        Viola's body began to emit a faint red aura as a writhing mass of red and black shadows billowed out from her trench coat and engulfed her body. It was as though she had become the shadows save for her eyes and teeth. Its edges almost looked like the outline of tiny wings. Then it erupted into a swarm of black bats that flew down the hall, beating their wings and flying in perfect unison, screeching and shrieking as they went. They fluttered and glided at lightning speeds over the steps and to the door, which flew open without warning as though some invisible hand had forced it open. The swarm flew right out the door and out into the night.