It took her nearly two hours before her mind would quiet enough to allow sleep to overtake her body. A heavy cloud seemed to envelop her senses as she drifted in and out of consciousness, an odd feeling still lingering at the base of her shoulder blade. Ceras forced her mind to forget the injury and tried to blank out, to allow herself to sleep without fitful dreams or interruptions. A chill enveloped the room and shielded her body from the warmth of her coffin. It seemed to invade every crevice of her enclosed space forcing the hairs on her skin to rise as she lazily opened one eye. Darkness blocked her from seeing anything around her and she felt around for the switch to allow the lid of her coffin to rise.
Ceras closed her eyes briefly and focused on the quiet humming noise that echoed through the dim room as the coffin rose up and the lid snapped open, revealing the small blond vampire that slept on the silk padding within it. With a reluctant sigh, Victoria pushed herself into a sitting position and glanced about the room blearily.

"I hate waking up." She mumbled, her small almost child-like voice echoing strangely through the hollow cell that was her resting-place. Drawing up her hands to rub warmth into her bare arms, she stood shakily and attempted to gather the clothes she had hastily shed the night before. As soon as her dressing ritual was complete, Ceras glanced at the bandaged wound on her arm, poking at it feebly to test the pain. Seeing as this drew a sharp breath followed by a quick flash of pain, Victoria realized that any kind of physical contact with said wound would have to wait. Taking that as an incentive to get to work, she moved hastily toward the door, her eyes downcast as her hands fumbled with a random button that had come loose sometime during her inspection. As such, this was ample opportunity for her to smash headfirst into the wall-or rather, headfirst into a rather sturdy wall-like object. Mumbling a half-coherent sound that was a mix between "Ow!" and "Damn it!" she looked up through the one eye that didn't take the most impact to see a large red object looming over.
Reaching up a hand hesitantly, she grabbed at whatever it was that stood in her path and pushed. This in turn caused the object to chuckle and Ceras jumped slightly, blinking rapidly up at the hooded gaze of Alucard.

"Sleep well, police-girl?" He inquired.
Ceras nodded, rubbing at her head absent-mindedly as she backed up a few paces. "You really should make some sort of a noise when you enter a room you know. It isn't very nice to sneak up on people like that." She responded.

"Who says I was sneaking? I've been standing here all along. You just didn't notice until your head connected with my chest." He retorted, smiling mischievously down at her.
Victoria raised an eyebrow but didn't elaborate on the situation. Instead, she turned and began to pick up the mess she had created the night before.
She waited for him to speak again as she tidied up, hoping he'd at least make a comment about her wound or the situation in general. When nothing came after a good five minutes, Ceras spun on her heel, a bottle of cleaning solution balanced precariously in one hand.

"I hate to be rude, but is there something you needed?" The thought hadn't actually come to mind that perhaps this wasn't the best statement to make to one's master before the words actually left her mouth, and she was left staring feebly up at him as her cheeks turned red. Expecting some sort of reprimand or sarcastic comment, Victoria was surprised to see her master's lip draw up in a smirk instead.

"There's no need to get snippy police-girl." Ceras swallowed the lump that had risen in her throat and looked down. "I just came to check on you." The words caused her head to snap back up and she dropped the bottle before she could even meet his gaze.

"What?" Her expression must have clearly read 'dumbfounded' for he looked at her with sheer amusement. Without furthering the discussion, he moved forward until he was standing directly in front of her, his chest pressed up against her own forcing his heartbeat to mimic her own.

"Can't I be concerned about my only fledgling?" There was something in his tone that seemed off to her. Ceras regarded him with a look born of both bewilderment and shock as he bent impossibly closer to her, his breath mingling with her own. "There are still some things I haven't taught you."
Swallowing the lump that had formed at the base of her throat, Ceras forced herself to nod as he moved back, his red jacket rustling as he strode across the room. /Is he trying to get a reaction out of me? /
He now stood a good three feet away from her, allowing Ceras to regain the breathe she had lost at the mere presence of him. There was a rustle of cloth against cloth as he reached a gloved hand into the front of his jacket, drawing the large black gun with the words "Jesus Christ is in Heaven now" emblazoned on the side. He checked the clip rather absent mindedly before cocking his wrist and pointing it directly at the center of her chest.

There was a long pause in which Ceras felt her eyes grow wide in shock as her master smirked, his glasses glinting strangely in the dim lighting. Her heart pumped faster in her chest and she wondered briefly if he had gone completely insane.

"M-Master...what are you-" she began, but he cut her off with a wave of his free hand.
"You should be able to dodge this." His voice cut through the harsh stillness her quite voice had left and pushed the adrenaline in her system up about 12 notches. He really had gone insane. There was no way she could dodge that!
"I-I don't understand."
"You don't have to."
"..."
"Your sight is much better than that of any human. Your eyes can read the trajectory of the bullet five times faster than any mortal being."
Another pause.
Ceras narrowed her eyes as tensed her body, preparing her senses to either take the shot full force in the chest, or get the hell out of the way before it even so much as left the barrel.
"Are you ready?" Alucard asked, his voice low and subdued. When Ceras nodded, his lips curved into a malicious grin, teeth overlapping his lips and glinting like rare ivory in the moonlight.
She only had a second to react. Watching closely, she gauged the time it would take him to pull the trigger back and estimated the timing of each bullet, figuring it to be about half a second before it would release and fly toward her. Her mind working at impossible speeds, Ceras bit her lip and waited for the inevitable trigger click and bang of the bullet being released. She smelt the gunpowder before she could actually see the fleck of silver as it reared toward her, intentions to hit and kill. It seemed as if everything slowed and came to a stop as Ceras pushed her body to move, feeling her limbs lock and freeze two seconds before impact. Forcing herself to switch positions, she moved quickly to the side, unable to even comprehend just how fast she had actually moved. The bullet whizzed past her arm just as she turned, narrowly missing the flesh hidden underneath the cloth uniform. It hit the wall and bounced off, momentarily off course as Ceras ducked to avoid being hit square in the face. With a loud clang it hit the wall adjacent to her and came to a halt, falling uselessly to the ground and rolling toward Alucard's boot.

She had just dodged one of Alucard's bullets. An insane giggle made its way to her throat and she fought it back down, not wanting her master to think she had lost her marbles. Instead, she faced him with a grin of complete satisfaction and utter amazement on her face.
"I did it Master! I really did it!"
The satisfaction turned to sheer elation as he smiled back at her, putting the gun back into his jacket and letting a small laugh escape his lips.
"It appears you did. I'm actually rather surprised. I was nearly positive you wouldn't be ready for such a thing just yet." His voice gave away the fact that he was pleased with her, which only furthered Ceras' excitement. He approached her again and placed his hand on her shoulder. The gesture caused Ceras to jump despite her best efforts not to and she felt a small shiver travel the length of her spine as she looked up at him.
"We'll continue this later." He said, the hint of dry amusement dripping from his voice. He patted her on the head, another gesture that took her completely by surprise. Her master was acting rather strangely that night, coming down to her room and actually taking time to train her in the ways of a proper vampire.
The air seemed to shift as he brushed past her, his body drifting back into the shadows. "Tomorrow then." The words echoed through the empty room and reverberated back to her, creating a hollowed effect in her mind. Shaking her head to rid herself of the strange thoughts invading it, she ran a hand through her hair anxiously before grabbing her gun and exiting the room. Tension was building up inside of her and after her little encounter with Alucard she needed to release as much of it as possible before their next meeting.

To be continued...

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