Nosferatu heaved a sigh and ran a gloved hand through his disheveled hair, then looked at Asmund with an unreadable expression, although confusion was clear in his eyes. "How is this even possible?" was his response after few minutes of awkward, pin-drop silence.
Few weeks had passed since he and Frida made love on the night of his return after thirty years of killing all three million, four hundred twenty-four thousand, eight hundred and sixty-seven souls, with the exception of the last soul that kept him existing on this planet. His return had intrigued the children, who began throwing questions at him about being an immortal, intimidated the new soldiers, annoyed Asmund now that the vampire would be extra clingy to his No Life Queen; otherwise, thing returned to normal, especially with Seras screaming whenever Alucard walked through walks out of the blue during her training.
However, this could be said differently when it came to Frida. People started to notice that she was consuming more blood than the usual amount she had for the past thirty years as a Draculina, and she was starting to be very particular about the type of blood she wanted to drink. She was starting to decline medical blood packets, and craved for fresh negative blood type; the rarer the blood type, the better. Besides being picky about her food, she was becoming more lethargic, which was very odd to her fellow comrades whom had been on mission with her. She went to bed earlier, by dusk, and woke up later past dawn. Shortness of breath soon followed after having dizziness when he sucked her blood, and that was the last straw for her lover.
Although he had been away for many years and wasn't able to observe her habits as a newly-transformed Draculina, Alucard knew something was wrong with her body, and it was worrying him. He had always known her as someone every energetic and was able to adapt to many situations, especially when it came to drinking blood. Judging by Integra's side of the story during her observation on the No Life Queen, he could tell she was perfectly fine with surviving on medical blood packets, eating them every day without feeling bored or sick of them. She was willing to sacrifice her sleep to carry out extra tasks given to her by their Master, sleep late, and wake up early on that evening. It was a complete 180 degree change.
He was wondering if his semen had made those sudden changes in her body, and if it did, then he needed to seek some help. But never in his life had he ever heard of a medical doctor who specialised in vampires. Even if there was one in the entire world, which part of Earth did he need to go to seek for advice from this doctor? Were they going to be in England, Britain, U.S., Africa or Asia? He would never knew, and the search would take too long. He didn't want to risk having that much of a delay while his Queen was going through drastic changes in her body.
Every night, he sat on his throne while his Queen slept in their shared coffin, which was custom-made by the annoyed Asmund according to the Nosferatu's orders, and brainstormed with a glass of win in his hand. How was he going to solve this problem that was becoming worse? Just moments ago, he had to help his lover walk down the stairs to arrive at their sub-basement when she was starting to have shortness of breath and when she laid in the coffin, he had to give her some of his blood when she was hungry, despite already having her dinner few hours ago. The problem was starting frustrate him, for he wasn't able to find a solution when he was the caused of it. He wondered whether it was a faithful night to make love to her, or was it a curse in disguise?
Alucard knew enough was enough, and pondering over the problem without taking any action wasn't going to help his Queen either. So he resulted in something that was best, yet annoyed the other party to no end - teaming up with Asmund to search for answers. At first, the latter was reluctant to get involved. What did he know about vampires more than his own sister, who had transformed in a life and and death situation? All he knew was that when a vampire bit a virgin, they turned them into their kind; and if it wasn't a virgin, a ghoul was the result. That was all his knowledge on vampires. But after getting bugged by the persistent Nosferatu, and it involved his beloved sister, he had no choice but to take up another responsibility and balanced it with ones tied to being the butler of the Hellsing Director.
For the next few weeks, Asmund would serve Sir Integra during the day, and did his research using his sister's blood sample collected by the No Life King himself. At the same time, Alucard would go back to where his abandoned castle was located and rummaged through old documents, searching for any missing important information on female vampires that would be of use to his Queen. Instead, all he got were documents on the notorious Elizabeth Báthory, who was known for killing young women for their blood and flesh to preserve her youthful appearance. He had encountered her once during his lifetime, and needless to say, the very sight of her name caused him to burn the documents, for he had no time for greedy human beings who kill for their own desires.
A month had passed in a blink of an eye, but the two still found nothing, and Frida still had those rare symptoms. Although she managed to adapt to the changes happening in her body, that didn't mean her cravings for fresh negative blood and tiredness were gone. One part of Alucard was relieved that his lover's condition wasn't worsening, but the other part of him was still concerned about her slow recovery. Although it seemed that they had yet to achieve anything, Alucard knew what the problem was. He had human wives before, and could see the similarities they had with his Queen, excluding the consumption of blood as source of nutrition. Deep down, he knew the answer, but the vampire side of him denied it, for he felt that it was impossible to happen. Now, his dilemma about the unknown cause of his lover's condition had shifted to his internal debate.
Of course, Asmund was never the patient one to wait for answers. After taking the last sample of her sister's blood, he used whatever spells that he could think of and potions that he could combine with her blood to search for it, even having to use an old spell book found in an abandoned castle located in the country he was born in. Finally, after working on the research for many sleepless nights, he found the answer, and summoned Alucard, who was shocked when he realised that he knew the reason all this while and denied it because of the impossibilities.
The tired sorcerer blinked owlishly at him, before it was his turn to heave a sigh. "After sacrificing my sleep for so many nights, this is the appreciation that I receive?" he questioned before looking back at the ball of energy floating inside a Florence flask. "You can reject the truth all you want, but this is the answer to my sister's odd condition." Alucard took a step forward, and Asmund handed him the flask, letting him take a closer look at the energy. He knew nothing about sorcery and spells, but when he felt the warmth radiating from this orange orb, he could understand what was going on, and there was no denying it. Closing his eyes and chuckling to himself, he handed the flask back to Asmund and left the room after muttering his thanks, right before Asmund passed out on the table to catch up with his rest.
Alucard shut the wooden door behind him, and began making his way to his sub-basement, but stopped when he saw something heading towards his direction from the other end of the dark corridor. With the aid of his vampire abilities, he saw the silhouette that belonged to a boy wearing a white tunic, charcoal pants and leather riding boots. He kept his intense gaze on the little boy, thinking that it was one of the children whom Frida was so fond of and trying to keep him in his place for running around the Hellsing mansion, but the boy didn't seem to be fazed by his burning stare and continued running.
Alucard was about to stop him, but upon closer inspection, the boy looked a lot like him when he was a child! That dark mane and pink eyes were more than enough to prove that this boy resembled him. But unlike him, this boy didn't wear a cross nor had any injuries inflicted on him like he did when he was captured by his father's enemies. This boy had joy and happiness, running down the hallway with a radiating smile on his face. Why was there such a boy in the building? Who was he? And where did he come from? Was he one of those children rescued by his Queen that he had yet to meet?
The vampire's gaze continued to follow the boy, and the next thing he knew, he was looking at a vision of somewhere familiar; the balcony where his lover, adorned in the beautiful red dress he had given her many decades ago, often spent her free time. He was shocked. Why was his lover there? Was he in another dream that was trying to tell him something? And if it was a dream, was it going to be ominous like the one that pictured her death during the war?
His questions were soon answered when the boy halted at the entrance. Alucard couldn't hear him, but he knew that the boy was calling out to Frida, who turned around and smiled at the boy. With her arms stretched out to him, he ran towards her and was picked up by the waist as she spun around, laughing with him before taking him into her warm embrace. The boy, whom had his head buried into the crook of her neck, straightened himself up and looked at Alucard into the eyes, catching the Nosferatu by surprise.
The very second their eyes met, was the message that he had received. And it became clearer to him when his gaze shifted to something that caught his attention - the red amulet made from his blood. It was a precious gift to his Queen, who still kept it after so many years, and it was still in pristine condition. He looked back at the boy, who then gave him a warm smile before the scene disappeared with a blink of an eye.
Alucard quickly disappeared from the hall and searched for his lover, which was an easy task because she was standing at the same balcony, adorned in a dark blue long-sleeved dress that complimented her fair complexion. She turned around upon hearing footsteps from behind and smiled at her King as a greeting.
"Did you find anything?" she asked, knowing what he and her brother had been up to for so many nights.
"Yes." was his reply before walking closer to the railing, and placed his gloved hands on it while staring into the night sky.
Frida took note of her lover's expression, and worry began to etch on her face. "What is it?" she asked carefully, taking a step closer to him.
It was silent between the two, with the exception of a light breeze brushing through their hair and the crickets chirping in the trees to make things less tensed. With a sigh, Alucard looked into her boysenberry eyes and muttered, "There is life growing inside of you." The No Life Queen softly gasped at the announcement, and was stunned. It was expected for a woman to have a child when she made love with a man, but that was possible for a human. Would it be the same for a vampire, an immortal that lived on human blood and a dead heart?
Alucard removed his hands from the railing and faced her. "I, too, had such concerns." he said after hearing her thoughts. "But there's no denying the truth. My instincts were telling me this, and Asmund had proven it."
Frida stared at him for a moment before looking down at her abdomen, placing a hand on it. "But would it be safe for this little one?" she questioned with concern. "I do not wish for it suffer because of me."
Nosferatu's gaze softened, and a warm smile was plastered on his face. He stood closer to her and placed a hand over hers that was on her belly, while the other tilted her head to make her look at him. "I cannot say for sure, but you will not go through this alone." he assured before leaning down to peck her soft lips. Frida returned a smile and snuggled into his chest while he wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Our child." she whispered with tears of joy welled up in her eyes. "We are going to have a little one, running around the building and bringing joy to everyone."
"I can guarantee that he will." said Alucard with his smile widening at the thought of his child.
Frida pulled away a little to look at him with surprise. "He?" she repeated.
Her lover chuckled at her expression. "It's just a feeling." was his response before pulling her into his embrace again.