Vampire Hunter D (19 page)

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It was Greco who’d used the Time-Bewitching Incense to save Doris. The morning after he eavesdropped on the conversation between Rei-Ginsei and the Count, Greco had one of the thugs who usually watched out for him pose as a visitor and call Rei-Ginsei down from his hotel room to the lobby. The thug was gone before Rei-Ginsei got there, however, and by the time Rei-Ginsei returned to his room, the Time-Bewitching Incense had been replaced with an ordinary candle that looked just like it. With the incense in his possession, Greco had kept watch on Dr. Ferringo’s house, and when the vampire-physician left with Doris, he’d followed after them but kept far enough back so they wouldn’t notice.

He intended to rescue Doris and bind her fast with the shackles known as obligation. And, if the fates were kind, he would also slay their feudal lord, the Count. In one fell swoop, he would become a big man in town, and he had ambitions of heading to the Capital. The fact that he had single-handedly dispatched a Noble would clearly be his greatest selling point to the Revolutionary Government, and his best chance to win advancement into their leadership.

However, the situation had changed somewhat. The buggy was supposed to go straight to the Count, but it had stopped when a girl in white suddenly appeared, and on top of that, the very same girl staked Dr. Ferringo. No longer sure exactly what was going on, Greco was convinced that something had gone wrong. He got closer to the wagon. Seeing the vampiress and her lurid expression as she prepared to sink her claws into Doris’ throat, he’d given the Time-Bewitching Incense a desperate shake.

Timid at first, when he saw Larmica writhing in agony and he approached the buggy with his head held high. The incense was in his left hand. In his right hand, he was gripping a foot-long stake of rough wood so fiercely that it pressed into his fingers. Stakes were everyday items on the Frontier. The ten-banger pistol holstered at his waist with the safety off, and the large-bore heat-rifle stuck through the saddle of the horse he’d tethered in the trees, were for dealing with the Nobility’s underlings. His beloved combat suit was in the shop for repairs, just like most of his flunkies’ gear.

“Oh,” Doris groaned as she got up. In her writhing, Larmica must’ve struck some part of Doris’ body and brought her around. Her eyes were torpid for a brief moment, but they opened wide as soon as she noticed Larmica. Then she looked at Dr. Ferringo’s body, lying on the ground not far from the buggy, and at Greco and said, “Doc ... why in the world?...What are you doing way out here?”

“So that’s the thanks I get,” Greco said, clambering up into the backseat of the buggy. You know, I kept that bitch from making chunky splatter out of you. I followed you out here from town in the dark of night. You’d think that’d win a little favor from you.”

“Did you kill Doc, too?”

Doris’ voice shook with sorrow and rage.

“What, are you kidding? The bitch did it. Although, it did making rescuing your ass a little easier.”

Being careful not to let the tiny flame go out, Greco moved Larmica into the backseat with his other hand. The young lady in white curled up under the seat without offering the slightest resistance. Not only was she deathly still, but she also seemed to have stopped breathing.

“That’s the Count’s daughter. Was she responsible for turning Doc into a vampire, too?”

“No, that was the Count. See, he attacked him last night so he could use him to lure you out here.” Greco quickly shut his mouth, but it was too late.

Doris stared at him with fire in her eyes. “And just how the hell do you know all this? You knew he was gonna be attacked and you didn’t even tell him, did you? You dirty bastard! What do you mean you saved me? You’re only looking out for yourself!”

“Shut your damn mouth, you!” Turning away from her burning gaze, Greco reasserted himself. “How dare you go talkin’ to me that way after I saved your life. We can hash that out later. Right now, we’ve got to decide what to do about her.”

“Do about her?” Doris knit her brow.

“Sure. As in, do we kill her or use her as a bargaining chip to negotiate with the Count.”

“What!? Are you serious?”

“Dead serious. And don’t act like this don’t concern you. I’m doing all this for you.”

Doris was in a daze as she watched the young tough make one preposterous statement after another. Then her nose twitched ever so slightly. She’d caught the scent of the Time-Bewitching Incense.

Come to think of it, the moonlit night felt strangely like a brilliant, sunny day. Greco said with pride, “The perfume in this candle is to thank. The Nobility has them, and apparently they can change day into night and vice versa. As long as it’s lit, the bitch can’t move a muscle and the Nobility can’t come near us—which is what got me thinking. It’d be so easy to kill her, but considering how she’s the Count’s daughter, there’d be hell to pay later. So, we take her hostage to set up a trade, then take the Count’s life, too, if all goes well.”

“Could you ... could you really do that?” Her plaintive voice made Greco’s lips twist lewdly, and when Doris averted her gaze she saw the pale face of Larmica as she lay beneath the backseat breathing feebly.

Larmica was lovely, and didn’t look very far in age from herself. Doris felt ashamed for having considered for even a moment using the young lady as a bargaining chip.

“Noble or not, there ain’t a parent out there who don’t love their own daughter. That’s how we can trip him up good. We’ll say we want to trade her for some treasure. Then when he comes out all confident, bang, we use the incense to nab him and drive this here stake through his heart. Rumor has it their bodies turn into dust and disappear, but if someone like my father or the sheriff is there to see it, they’d make a first-class witness when I give the government in the Capital my account.”

“The Capital?”

“Er, forget I mentioned it.” In his heart, Greco thumbed his nose at her. “At any rate, if we kill ’em, the two of us will get the Noble’s stuff—their fortune, weapons, ammo, everything! All for the huge service to humanity we’ll be doing.”

“But this woman ... she hasn’t done anything to anyone in the village,” Doris said vehemently, sifting through everything she could remember hearing since childhood.

“Open your eyes. A Noble’s a Noble. They’re all bloodsucking freaks preying on the human race.”

Doris was dumbstruck. This coarse thug had just hurled the same curse on them that she had once said to D!
I was just like him then. That’s not right. Even if they are Nobles, I can’t use someone’s helpless daughter to lure them to their death.
Just as Doris was about to voice her objections, a voice dark as the shadows held her tongue.

“Kill me ... here ... and now ...”

Larmica.

“What’s that?” Greco sneered down at her in his overbearing manner, but her expression was so utterly ghastly it took his breath away. Even as she was subjected to the agony of her body burning in the midday sun, she showed incredible willpower.

“Father ... is not so foolish he would exchange his life for my own. And I will not be a pawn in your trade ... Kill me ... If you don’t ... I shall kill you both someday ...”

“You bitch!” Greco’s face seemed to boil with anger and fear, and then he raised his stake. As a rule, he hadn’t had much self-restraint to start with.

“Stop it! You can’t do that to a defenseless person!” As she spoke, Doris grabbed his arm.

The two of them struggled in the buggy. Strength was in Greco’s favor, but Doris had fighting skills imparted to her by her father. Suddenly letting go of his arm, she planted her left foot firmly and put the full force of her body behind a roundhouse kick that exploded against Greco’s breastbone.

“Oof!”

The cramped buggy, with its unsteady footing, was too much for him. Greco reeled back, caught his leg on the door, and fell out of the vehicle.

Not even looking at where the dull thud came from, Doris got out of her seat and tried to talk to Larmica. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna let that jerk do anything to you. But I can’t very well just send you on your merry way, either. You know who I am, right? You’ll have to come back to my house with me. We’ll figure out what to do about you there.”

A low chuckle that seemed to rise from the bowels of the earth cut off all further comment from Doris. “You are free to try what you will, but I won’t be going anywhere.” Doris thought her spine had turned to ice when she saw the beautiful visage look up at her, paler than moonlight and filled now by an evil grin of confidence. She didn’t know what had just happened. When Greco had fallen from the buggy, the Time-Bewitching Incense had gone out!

Larmica caught hold of Doris’ hand with a grip as cold as ice. In the darkness, Doris’ eyes made out pearly fangs poking over the lips of the child of night as she got to her feet.

Doris was pulled closer with such brute strength Greco couldn’t even begin to compare. She couldn’t move at all. Larmica’s breath had the scent of flowers. Flowers nourished with blood. Two silhouettes, two faces overlapped into one.

“Aaaagh!” A scream stirred the darkness, and then was gone. Trembling, Larmica shielded her face.

There in the dark she’d seen it. No, she’d felt it. Felt the pain of the same holy mark of the cross her father had seen on the girl’s neck two days earlier! It would make its sudden appearance only when the breath of a vampire fell on it.

The vampires themselves didn’t know why they feared it. All that was certain was that even without seeing it their skin could feel its presence. In that instant some nameless force bound them. This was the mark they couldn’t allow humans to know about, something that had supposedly sunk into the watery depths of forgetfulness thanks to ages of ingenious psychological manipulation—so how could this girl have the holy mark on her neck?

Though Doris didn’t understand why Larmica—who’d enjoyed an overwhelming advantage until a second earlier—had suddenly lost her mind, she surmised that she’d been saved. Now she had to run!

“Greco, you all right?”

“Oooh, kind of.” The dubious response that came from the ground beside her suggested he might have hit his head.

“Hurry up and get in! If you don’t get your ass in gear I’ll leave you out here!”

And with that threat she took the reins in hand and gave them a crack. She intended to throw Larmica off with a sudden jolt forward. But the horses didn’t move.

Doris finally noticed a man wearing an inverness standing in front of the horses and holding them by their bridles. For some time now, a number of figures had been standing at the edge of the woods.

“As the doctor was late, I thought something might be amiss, and my suspicions proved correct,” one of the silhouettes said in a voice of barely suppressed rage. It was the Count. Though her heart was sinking into hopelessness, Doris was still the same warrior woman who’d bitterly resisted the Count all along. Seeing that the whip Doc had taken from her earlier was lying on the seat beside her, Doris snatched it up and swung it at the man in the inverness.

“Huh?” Doris cried, and the man—Garou—grinned broadly. She was sure she’d split the side of his face open, but he bobbed his head out of the way and caught the end of the whip between his teeth. Grrrrr! With a bestial growl he—it—started chewing up Doris’ whip, a weapon that had stood up to swords without a problem.

“You’re a werewolf,” Doris shouted in surprise.

“That’s correct,” the Count responded. “He serves me, but unlike me he is rather hot-blooded. Another thing you may wish to consider—I told him that, should you give us any trouble, he had my permission to hurt you. It might be amusing to see a bride missing some fingers and toes.”

Suddenly a boom rang out. Still flat on his ass on the ground, Greco had fired off his ten-banger. High-power powder—the type that could easily punch a hole through the armor of larger creatures—enveloped the Count and those near him in flames. The Count didn’t even glance at Greco, and the flames were promptly swallowed by the darkness. Such was the power of the Count’s force field.

“Raaarrrrrr!” The werewolf snarled at Greco. Halfway through its transformation, it glared at Greco with blood-red eyes. Greco gave a squeal and froze. White steam rose from the crotch of his pants. Fear had gotten the better of his bladder, but who could blame him?

Doris’ shoulders sank. The last bit of will she possessed was thoroughly uprooted.

“Father … ”

Larmica drifted down to the ground like a breeze. With glittering eyes, the Count gave her a hard look and said, “I have an excellent idea of what you were trying to do. Daughter or not, this time I’ll not let you get away with it. You shall be punished on our return to the castle. Now stand back!” Ignoring Larmica as she headed silently to the rear, the Count extended a hand to Doris.

“Well, now, you had best come with me.”

Doris bit her lip. “Don’t be so pleased with yourself! No matter what happens to me, D is gonna send you all to the hereafter.”

“Is he really?” The Count forced a smile. “Right about now the stripling and your younger brother are both being taken care of by our mutual acquaintances. In a fair fight, he might have prevailed, but I gave his foes a secret weapon.”

“Father … ” From the tree line to the Count’s rear, Larmica pointed to where Greco crouched on the ground. “That man had Time-Bewitching Incense.”

“What!” Even through the darkness the sudden contortion of the Count’s face was clear. “That cannot be. I gave it to Rei-Ginsei.” Here he paused for a beat, and after closely scrutinizing his daughter’s face said, “I can see that you speak the truth—which means the stripling is—”

“Correct.”

A low voice made all who stood there shrink in fear. The Count looked over his shoulder again, and Doris’ eyes darted in the same direction—toward Larmica. Or rather, toward something looming from the trees to her back. A figure of unearthly beauty.

“I’m right here.”

A groan that fell short of speech spilled from the Count’s throat.

Never did I imagine this rogue might come back alive …