Vampire Hunter D (20 page)

If Time-Bewitching Incense hadn’t played its pivotal role in the duel, the Hunter’s survival was far from impossible. But unless he had an aircraft of some sort, it should’ve taken D another hour by horse to cover the distance from the site of his duel with Rei-Ginsei.

And yet D was here. He had been one with the darkness, and neither the Count’s night-piercing gaze nor the three-dimensional radar of the robot sentries had detected him.

The robot sentries turned in D’s direction, but an attack was impossible, of course.

“Don’t try anything funny—I’ll show her no mercy.” Garou was just about to pounce on Doris when a low but not particularly rough voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Doris, you and what’s-your-name—bring the wagon over here. Be quick about it!”

“Ye—yessir!” Doris answered dreamily, not just because of the relief she felt in being rescued, but because D had called her by name for the first time ever.

“Garou, grab the girl,” the Count commanded sharply.

As the black figure prepared once again to leap up into the buggy, it was buffeted with another castrating voice—Doris’. “You come near me and I’ll bite my tongue off!”

The werewolf snarled loudly and stopped. So many irritations. Greco flopped into the buggy.

“I’m prepared to die before I’d ever become one of your kind. If it’s gotta be here and now, that won’t bother me.” The threats of an insignificant human—a mere girl of seventeen—silenced the Count. To all appearances, D and Doris had won this
outré
encounter. The Count was obsessed with Doris, and would have her at any price. Conversely, if Doris were to die, that would be the end of everything.

“We shall settle this another time.”

The buggy stirred the night air as it sped to D’s side, and the Count put his arm around Larmica’s shoulder for the first time. The next instant, the two figures nimbly made their way up into the buggy.

What was astonishing about this whole encounter was that D never even touched the sword on his back. Even when he’d taken Larmica hostage, he hadn’t threatened her with his blade. Larmica had moved to the back as her father ordered, and the second she sensed D’s presence behind her, she found she couldn’t move a muscle. She was paralyzed by the overwhelming aura that radiated from him—one that the superhuman senses of vampires alone could fully appreciate. The same aura had prevented the Count and Garou from raising a hand against him.

“What do you intend to do with my daughter?” the Count called out to D, who kept a steady gaze trained on him and his party from the backseat of the buggy.

There was no reply

“The little imbecile has crossed me at every turn and cost me the chance of a lifetime—I no longer consider her my daughter. Let her lie in the sun till decay takes her to the marrow of her bones!”

His words were unthinkably harsh for a father, but then, on the whole, the vampire race had extremely dilute notions of love and consideration, compared to human beings. Quite possibly it was this trait that had both led them to the heights of prosperity and guided them to their eventual downfall. When her father’s words reached her ears, Larmica didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

“Doc, we’ll come back for you later!” Following Doris’ sorrowful cry, the buggy took off.

After they’d gone a short way across the plains, they could hear a horse whinnying up ahead. Apparently, whoever was out there had noticed them.

“Who’s that? Is that you, Sis?!”

“Dan! You’re all right, are you?!” Doris asked, her voice nearly weeping as she drove the buggy over to her brother. He was on horseback. And he held the reins to a second horse. That one had been Rei-Ginsei’s, and they’d brought it for Doris. They’d planned on having her ride home with them, but unfortunately they’d picked up some unwanted baggage. The whole reason D had taken Doris and Greco out in the buggy was to solve their transportation problems.

“I’m going to lighten our load. You two get on the horse. Dan, you come over here with me.”

By “you two” he meant Doris and Greco. Because so many of the things that’d been happening were beyond his comprehension, Greco felt like his brains were half scrambled, so he followed orders without the slightest protest. The transfers were effected in a matter of seconds.

“Are you sure you can still handle the buggy if you’ve got her riding with you?” Doris asked from her seat in the saddle. The real question was: how many present noticed the jealousy in her voice? D made no answer, but silently lashed the horses with Doris’ whip.

The wind howled in the girl’s ears as the forest and fiends were left further and further behind.

“Dan, you weren’t hurt, were you?”

Doris barely squeezed the question out as she rode alongside them. They were going full speed to keep the Count from catching up, and the wheels of the buggy spun wildly.

“Not a bit. I was gonna ask you the same thing—hey, of course you’re fine. D’s on the job. He wouldn’t let anyone harm a hair on your head.”

“No, I suppose he wouldn’t,” Doris concurred, her eyes full of joy.

“I wish you could’ve seen it,” Dan said loudly. “It took him less than fifteen seconds each to get rid of them freaks. It’s too bad the last one got away, but that couldn’t be helped with D being hurt and all.”

“Huh? Was he really?”

It was understandable that Doris grew pale, but why Larmica suddenly looked over at D from her seat was unclear.

“Hunters are really great, though. He got stabbed through the gut and it didn’t even bother him—good ol’ D rode through the roughest country with me on the back and pulling another horse behind us. You should’ve seen it. When D had the reins, them darned horses would jump right over the biggest crevice or a swamp full of giant leeches without batting an eye. Oh yeah, and they wouldn’t stop no matter how steep the grade got—I’m gonna have him teach me all that horse and sword stuff later!”

“Oh, that’s great. You pay good attention when he does now…” Doris’ words were exuberant, but the power petered out of them and they were shredded by the wind. Perhaps her maiden instincts had given her some hint of how their story was going to end.

Deathly still and watching the darkness ahead, Larmica suddenly muttered, “Traitor.”

“What did you say?!” Doris was the picture of rage. She realized the vampiress was referring to D. Larmica didn’t even look at the girl, but bloody flames fairly shot from her eyes as she stared at D’s frigid profile.

“You have skill and power enough to intimidate Father and myself, but you have forgotten your proud Noble blood. You feel some duty to the humans—worse yet, you are foolish enough to serve them by hunting us. I feel polluted simply speaking to you. Father wouldn’t bother to follow you this far. Slay me here!”

“Shut up! We don’t take orders from prisoners,” Doris roared. “What have you high-ranking Noble types done to us? Just because you wanna feed, because you want hot human blood, you bite into the throats of folks who never did you any harm and make them vampires. They just turn around and attack the family that loved them—in the end, their family has to drive a stake through their heart. Demons is what you are. You’re the Devil. Do you have any idea how many people die every year, parents and children crying out to their loved ones as they’re killed in tidal waves and earthquakes caused by the weather controllers your kind runs?” Doris spat the accusations at her like a gob of blood, but Larmica just smiled coolly.

“We are the Nobility—the ruling class. The rulers are entitled to take such measures to ensure the rebellious feelings of the lower class are kept in check. You should consider yourself lucky we even allowed your race to continue.” And then, with a long gaze at Greco as he brooded and raced along on his horse, she said, “Indeed, we will attack your kind to drink but a single drop of sweet blood. But what has that man done? I heard. For wanting you, he did nothing to warn that decrepit old man, even when he knew he was to be attacked, did he not?”

Doris couldn’t find a thing to say.

Larmica’s voice continued to dominate the night. “But I do not condemn him for that,” she laughed. “To the contrary, the man is to be lauded. Is it not appropriate to sacrifice others to satisfy our own desires? The strong rule the weak, and the superior leave the inferior in the dust—that is the great principle that governs the cosmos. There are many among you who seem to share our point of view.”

“Ha ha ha,” Doris suddenly laughed back mockingly. “Don’t make me laugh. If you’re such great rulers then what do you want with me?” Now it was Larmica’s turn to be silenced. “I heard something, too. It made me sick to hear it, but it seems your father wants to make me his bride. Every night he comes sniffing around my place like a dog in heat, and I turn him down—you’d think he’d be tired of it by now. The Nobility must be hard-pressed for women. Or is it something else? Could it be your father’s just weirder than the rest?”

The killing lust in Larmica’s eyes was like a heat ray that flew at Doris’ face. Not to be outdone, Doris met it with a shower of sparks from her own hatred. It was as if there was a titanic spray of invisible embers between the galloping horse and racing buggy when their eyes locked.

Suddenly, D pulled back on the reins.

“Oh!” Doris gasped as she hastened to stop her horse as well. Greco alone was at a loss as to what to do, but then he decided staying with them any longer would only make matters worse, and he rushed away into the darkness.

Though no one was quite sure what he was doing, all of them followed D’s lead, dismounting when he climbed down from the buggy. Larmica quickly turned to face the other three.

“What do you intend to do?” Larmica asked.

“As you yourself said, we’ve gone far enough the Count won’t give chase. Now all we have to do is deal with you,” D said softly. A tense hue raced into Larmica’s face, and then into those of Doris and Dan. “I’ve been hired to keep her safe. Therefore, I’ll have to slay your father. But anything else is another matter—meaning I now need my employer to decide what to do about you. Well?”

His final “Well?” had been directed at Doris. She was perplexed. They’d just been arguing a few seconds earlier. She’d thought she hated the vampiress enough to kill her, but the girl she saw looked like a beautiful, defenseless young lady about her own age.

This daughter of the detestable Nobility.
If not for her family, me and Dan would be living in peace now—I wanna kill her. I’ve got it. I can give her my whip and have her fight D. That’d be fair. If we gave her a chance like that, there’d be nothing to be ashamed about.

“What do you want to do?” D asked.

“Slay me,” Larmica said with eyes ablaze.

And then Doris shook her head.

“Let her go. I don’t have it in me to murder. I couldn’t do that to her, even if she’s a Noble ...”

D turned to Dan. “What about you?”

“It’s plain as day, ain’t it? I couldn’t do nothing as low as cutting down a woman in cold blood—and you couldn’t either, could you?”

Then the Langs saw a smile spread across D’s face. For years after, even for decades after, the two of them would remember D’s expression, and take pride in the fact they were responsible for it. It was just such a smile.

“Well, there you have it. You’d best go now.”

And with that D turned his back to Larmica, but she flung abuse at him anyway.

“The stupidity of the lot of you amazes me. Do not delude yourselves that I am in any way grateful. I will make you rue your decision to set me free! Had I been in your position, I would have had you slaughtered like a sow. And your brother as well.”

The other three didn’t turn to look at her again, but went back to the buggy.

“Take this horse.”

Doris dropped the reins in front of Larmica.

“Even children know the cosmic principle, it seems,” D said calmly from the driver’s seat.

“What?”

“Survival of the fittest, might makes right—that’s not what your Sacred Ancestor used to say.”

Larmica’s eyes bulged, but a moment later she laughed out loud. “Not only are you sickeningly soft-hearted, but it appears you’re given to delusions as well. Did you mention the Sacred Ancestor? There’s no chance a lowly creature like you would know someone of his greatness. He who made our civilization, our whole world, and the laws by which we ruled. Every one of us faithfully followed his words.”

“Every one of you? Then why was the poor old bastard always so troubled ...”

“The poor old bastard? You mean ... No, you couldn’t ...” Larmica’s voice carried a hint of fear. She recalled a certain plausible rumor that had been whispered at a grand ball at the castle when she was just a child.

“Such skill, and such power ... Might it be that you are ... ”

The whip cracked.

When the buggy had dashed off leaving only the tortured squeal of its tires in its wake, the daughter of the Nobility forgot all about gathering the reins of the horse before her as she stood stock still in the moonlight.

“Milord, might it be ...”

..

The next day, Dan and D accompanied Doris when she went out to claim Dr. Ferringo’s body. They then paid a call on the sheriff and entrusted him with the remains before bringing all of Rei-Ginsei and Greco’s misdeeds to light.

Having received a communiqué from the village of Pedros about the Frontier Defense Force, the sheriff had been out to the ruins himself and discovered the trio of lurid corpses there. Based on Doris’ testimony, he concluded Rei-Ginsei’s gang was connected to the disappearance of the FDF patrol. In an attempt to ascertain the whereabouts of that patrol, special deputies rushed off to the neighboring villages.

“Well, Rei-Ginsei won’t be at large for long now. Of course, there’s also a good chance he made like the wind last night right after you lopped off his cabbage-collector.”

On the way back to the farm, Doris’ expression was sunny—she had at least one of her problems taken care of. But D told her simply, “If he becomes a Noble, he could lose all his limbs and still be a threat.”

Rei-Ginsei had ambitions of joining the Nobility. Given his skill and scheming nature, to say nothing of a vindictiveness that put a serpent to shame, it was unthinkable that he would run off with his tail between his legs, or quit before he’d achieved his ends. He may have fled, but it was clear he’d hidden himself somewhere and would be vigilantly watching what they did. He might still carry out the Count’s orders.