Vampire Hunter D (17 page)

“Everyone is set, I see. Engage him just as we’ve planned.”

“Yessir.”

Nodding as Golem and Chullah bowed in unison, Rei-Ginsei walked to the horse hitched up behind him. The place the four of them had chosen for this showdown was the same bowl-like depression where Witch had been killed. Challenging D to a grudge match in the same location where D’s aura had battered them and kept them paralyzed was just the sort of thing this vindictive ruffian would do, but consideration had also been given to how useful this location would be for restricting their opponent’s movements when they fought him four against one.

Rei-Ginsei squatted next to Dan, who lay behind a rock, gagged and bound hand and foot, and pulled down the cloth covering the boy’s mouth. Called a gag rag, the cloth was a favorite of criminals. The fabric was woven from special fibers that could absorb all sound, and its usefulness to kidnappers made it worth its weight in gold.

Still, there was no call for the cruelty displayed by keeping a boy barely eight years old gagged ever since the morning.

“Look, your savior is coming. I put this plan together yesterday after hearing about you and your sister, and I must confess it seems to be going beautifully.”

Just as Rei-Ginsei finished speaking, the furious gaze that had been concentrated on him was colored by relief and confidence. Dan looked toward the hills.

Twisting his lips a bit, Rei-Ginsei sneered, “How sad. Neither of you is fated to leave here alive.”

“Ha, you guys are the one who won’t make it out of here alive.” Worried and hungry and looking gaunt, Dan still managed to fling the reply with all his might. He hadn’t been given so much as a drop of water since he’d been captured. “You have no idea how tough ol’ D is!”

His words were strong, but they were also a childish bluff. He’d never even seen D fight.

Dan thought Rei-Ginsei might fly into a rage, but, to the contrary, Rei-Ginsei only smirked and turned his gaze to his three henchmen standing in the center of the depression. “You may be right. That would certainly mean less work for me.”

Dan’s eyes opened wide, as if he must have heard that wrong.

But it was true. This gorgeous fiend fully intended to bury his three underlings here along with D. At first he’d only intended to take care of D and Doris, who’d seen his face, but after receiving the Count’s oath to turn him into one of the Nobility, Rei-Ginsei’s plans had taken a complete turn. The power and immortality of a Noble would be his—he would no longer be a filthy brigand wandering the wilderness.

So, in accordance with the Count’s plan, he left Doris for the Noble to handle, while he decided to add three more people to the pair the Count wanted him to kill. In his estimation, if he allowed his henchmen to live, he would come to regret it later.

If D should dispatch them all here, so much the better. But if luck is not with me and some survive, I shall kill them myself.

A solitary rider popped up over the hilltop. He didn’t reduce his speed, but galloped toward them at full tilt.

“Well, time to make yourself useful.” Grabbing hold of the leather straps that hung around the boy’s back, Rei-Ginsei carried Dan over to his horse with one hand, like he was a piece of baggage. The shrike-blades on his hip rubbed together, making a harsh, grating noise. Groping in his saddlebag with his free hand, he pulled out the Time-Bewitching Incense. “That’s strange,” he said, tilting his head to the side.

“Boss!”

At Chullah’s tense cry, Rei-Ginsei whirled around, still gripping the candle.

“D,” Dan called out, his shout flying off on the wind.

Rei-Ginsei’s sworn enemy had already dismounted and now stood at the bottom of the earthen depression with an elegantly curved longsword across his back.

“Dear Lord ...”

The beauty of his foe left Rei-Ginsei shocked … and envious.

“I wish I could tell you what an honor it is to have one of my blades knocked down by a man of your kind, but I won’t. The fact that you’re a miserable cross between a human and a Noble takes the charm out of it.”

To Rei-Ginsei’s frigid smile and scornful greeting, D softly replied, “And you must be the bastard son of the Devil and a hellhound.”

Rei-Ginsei’s entire face grew dark. As if his blood had turned to poison.

“Let the boy go.”

In lieu of a reply, Rei-Ginsei gave Dan’s leather bonds a twist with one hand. An agonized cry split the boy’s young lips.

“Ow! D, it really hurts!”

Though they looked like ordinary leather straps, they must have been tied with some fiendish skill, because they started pressing deep into Dan’s shoulders and arms.

“These bonds are rather special,” Rei-Ginsei said, twisting his lips into a grin and making a small circle with his thumb and forefinger. “Apply force from the right direction and they pull up tight like this. I figure for a child of eight, it should take twenty minutes or so for them to sink far enough into his flesh to choke the life out of him. If you haven’t finished us all off by then, this boy will be cursing you from the hereafter. Does that light a little fire under you?”

“D ...”

What an utterly heartless tactic. The bonds had already begun working their way through his clothes. As the boy writhed in agony, D gave him a few powerful words of encouragement.

“This’ll just take a minute.”

Meaning he would take care of them in fifteen seconds each?

“O … okay.”

Unlike the bravely smiling Dan, the four men were livid.

The ring formed by Rei-Ginsei’s three henchmen began to tighten like a noose. All of them were painted by the vermilion rays of the setting sun, but the palpable lust for blood rising from each seemed to rob the light of its color.

“Now, let’s show him what you can do one by one. Golem, you go first.”

As his boss gave him the command, not only Golem but all three henchmen began to look dubious. After all, the initial plan had been for all four of them to attack at once and kill him. But a moment later, Golem’s massive brown body raced toward D with the silent footfalls of a cat. The broad blade of his machete glittered in the red light. There was a loud clang! His machete was big enough to chop a horse’s head off, but just as it was about to hack into the Hunter’s torso, D drew his blade with lightning speed, bringing the tip of it down through Golem’s left shoulder. Or rather, it looked like it was going to go right through his shoulder, but it bounced off him.

Golem the Tortureless—a man with muscles of bronze. His body had even proved itself impervious to high-frequency wave sabers.

Once again, Golem’s machete howled through the air, and D skillfully dodged it with a leap that carried him yards away in an instant. And once again, the giant went after him, closing on the Hunter.

“What’s wrong? You said fifteen seconds each!”

Like a cry to battle borne on the wind, D’s angry roar shook the grass and filled the mortar-shaped depression in the earth.

..

Doris awoke from her nap as someone gently shook her shoulder. A warm, familiar face was smiling down at her.

“Doc! I must’ve dozed off while I was waiting for you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re exhausted. It took quite some time to take care of my patient at Harker’s, and I’ve just gotten back here myself. I swung by your place and no one was there, so I hustled back with the sneaking suspicion I might find you here. Did something happen? Where’s Dan and that young fellow?”

All her memories and concerns flooding back to her, Doris looked around. After D left, she’d helped the nurse deal with the patients, then she’d stretched out on a sofa in the examination room and fallen asleep.

There was no sign of the nurse, who’d apparently gone home, and the rows of houses and trees beyond the windowpanes were all steeped in red. The curtain was set to rise on her time for terror.

“Well ... the two of them are hiding out in Pedros. I figured I’d join ’em there once I’d paid my respects to you …”

As she attempted to rise, a cool hand came to rest on her shoulder. Pedros was the name of a nearly deserted village the better part of a day’s and a night’s ride from Ransylva. Even at that, it was still their closest neighbor.

“Even though you’ll have to get through at least one night before you arrive?”

“Uh, yeah.”

As he peered at her face with an uncharacteristically hard gaze, Doris unconsciously looked down at the floor.

Giving a little nod, the elderly physician said, “Very well then, I’ll press the matter no further. But if you’re really going to go somewhere, there’s a much better place for you.” At these surprising words, Doris looked up at the old man’s face. “I found it on my way back from Harker’s place when I decided to go through the north woods.”

Dr. Ferringo pulled a map out of his jacket pocket and unfolded it. The passing years had dulled his memory, so he often used this map of Ransylva and its surroundings anytime he had to travel far to treat a patient. It had a red mark on it in part of the north woods. It was a huge forest, the thickest in the area, and not a single soul in the village knew their way around the whole of it.

“Part of a stone wall caught my eye, and when I hacked away the bushes and vines covering it I found this place—ancient ruins. It appeared to be the remains of some sort of place of worship. It’s pretty large, and I only examined a small portion of it, but I guess you could say luck was with us, because that stone wall was inscribed with an explanation of the site. It seems it was constructed to keep vampires at bay.”

This left Doris completely speechless.

Now that he mentioned it, she could recall her father and his Hunter friends gathered around the hearth sharing stories about this place when she was a child. They said that far in the distant past, long before the Nobility rose to power in the world, people who’d been preyed on by vampires were locked up in a holy place and treated with incantations and electronics. Perhaps what Dr. Ferringo had discovered was one such facility.

“Then you mean to tell me if I’m in there, he can’t get at me?”

“In all likelihood,” Dr. Ferringo replied, smiling broadly. “At any rate, I imagine it’s better than trying to reach Pedros now, or holing up here in my house. Shall we go out and give it a try?”

“Yes, sir!”

Less than five minutes later, the two of them were jolting along in Dr. Ferringo’s buggy as it hastened down the dusky road to the north woods. They must have rode for nearly an hour. Ahead, tiny walls of trees blacker than the darkness came into view. This was the entrance to the forest.

“Woah!”

Once they were in the buggy, the elderly physician hadn’t answered her no matter how she tried to get him to talk, but suddenly he’d given a cry and pulled back on the reins.