The old mansion of the Hellsing organization looked on the outside like many of the other wealthy old family estates. A woman walked in the front gate noticing the subtle differences that an untrained eye wouldn't notice. The easiest and most obvious was the presence of so many armed men and woman lined up at the gate and inside the property. But of course that doesn't mean anything really, other than they might be a paranoid family. The woman however knew where she was going. The long driveway was paved and the grass and yard were trimmed with precisely cut hedges lining everything into a pristine perfection everywhere she looked. The front door was at the top of a set of a white stone stairs making her look up at the tall antique building. She stopped and pulled the cord ringing the ancient sounding doorbell that seemed to echo on forever. When the door creaked open a tall lanky man with is black gray hair pulled back into a neat ponytail. His face wore many wrinkles and scars his eyes even though they looked worn held a glint of danger in them.
"Ah, you must be miss Lumina Cross." He stepped aside his arm stretched out inviting her in.
"You must be Walter." She said in a passive tone as she looked up and around at the immense building.
"Indeed. I am to take you directly to Sir Integra if you will follow me." He closed the door silently and walked with his hands interlocked gently behind his back. She followed keeping her eyes forward taking in her guide, his gate was long and sure. She could see instantly he was once a fighter perhaps even a vampire hunter in his younger days.
Leading her up stairs and down hallways she found herself noticing how the mansion was set up and how if she ever needed to she could escape. A hint of a smile touched her lips as Walter slowed and stopped in front of a set of double oak doors that looked as ancient as the house was. He knocked lightly, and waited not looking at her but past her like a soldier would.
"Enter." She heard and Walter bowed opening the door to her. She passed by him smelling blood and metal like an afterthought. Walter followed her in and closed the doors walking immediately to the side of a woman sitting in a high backed leather chair behind a solid English oak desk at the other end of a long, large cavernous room. Lumina strolled unconcerned not being in any hurry down the oblong rug that led up to the desk. Obviously intended to make those who enter realize Integra's authority and power. Her bloodline was famous if not shrouded in mythos and misdirection.
Walter bowed formally, she noticed everythig about the man was taught and formal with no room for mistakes or hesitation. A sign of a good servant and a good soldier. "Sir Integra. May I introduce Miss lumina Cross."
Lumina stood still her hands hung easily at her sides as she allowed the blond woman whose blue eyes considered her with a scrutiny that if she had been any other person; she would've thrown the dagger that was not two inches from her hand. The suited woman regarded her for a moment then without looking put her hand out as Walter handed her a manila envelope.
*
The thin woman that stood before Integra's desk stood with an aura that said who and what she was to anyone who knew how to look. The second Walter opened the door he could see the same look of intensity that once shone in his own eyes. Her black hair was cropped short in the back coming down longer framing her thin face her blue eyes stood out on her nearly colorless skin. She wore a long duster coat again black as the rest of her outfit was. She wore thigh holsters and he could see a slit where the hilt of a sword could stick out in the back. Her smooth skin made her look quite young but her file said she was twenty four. To him he would have said eighteen at the oldest.
"So Lumina Cross." Integra started.
"I see you have quite a reputation in the
Americas. You've traveled between North
and South. I hear that the vampires there
are quite vicious."
::
Walter could tell Integra was impressed but her tone was merely conversational
testing the metal of this young woman who was young enough to be her daughter.
"No more vicious I hear, than the one you keep as a pet." Lumina spoke up a hint of contempt rang through in her voice. Integra's body stiffened but her voice was just as smooth and calm as if she were talking about what to have for tea.
"We have a vampire here that is under my family's control yes. But I would hardly call him a pet." A slight slip of aggravation seeped through her last words making Lumina's lips twitch almost as if she wanted to smile. Walter saw now she was testing Integra as well.
"I realize it is hardly a common occurrence for someone like me to apply, as it were to enter into your family's organization. I believe that on my own I'm not making the impact that I could, being a part of a whole." Lumina spoke with an American accent where her file says she was born and raised but there was an inflection in her voice that made Walter wonder how much she had traveled.