Charred flesh flaked away from Alucard's shoulder, melted into shadows when it reached the earth, and was swept back into his form. He stalked into the woods, Buffy's scent as clear as a lit trail in the night to his senses. She wasn't truly attempting to hide. Alucard was confident of that. Buffy was too wise and too skilled to make such a foolish mistake. Part of him wanted to turn her, to see what she might be with his blood in her veins. Glasya's orders had said nothing of turning over an entirely human captive ...
Alucard shook his head to clear the thought from his mind. He did not wish to harm this woman. She was as near to Integra as anyone he had met in his long life. It would be a waste to change her unwillingly, and a waste to give her to the Knights of Ren. Unless ... Would she be able to topple their order from within? Perhaps he should take her, leave her friends to wonder what had become of the slayer. Leave Selene on the outside to capture Glasya between the three of them.
No. Glasya will take control of them both. Better that Buffy should die in this forest if she could not defeat Alucard on her own strength.
"I can hear your heartbeat," he called into the night. "I could find you if I were blind."