Holding his sword-point down, D raised the weapon high above his head. All at once, the wings of the monstrous bird swept back. Quivering, they gave off intense vibrational waves. The bird-like monstrosity’s back became semitransparent. The agony of having a needle driven through each and every cell in his body assailed the Hunter. D’s brow knit ever so slightly. That was his only reaction. The longsword he swiftly brought down pierced the monstrous bird right through the medulla oblongata.
A howl of pain shook the sky, and, when it ended, the breakup began. The creature’s death throes must’ve turned the vibrations against its own anatomy, because every last feather came out of its wings, and its skin and flesh cracked like drying clay. In the blink of an eye, the monstrous bird of prey was reduced to numerous chunks of meat spread across the sky.
All this took place at an altitude of six hundred and fifty feet. Together, D and the little girl fell from the sky.
-
All told, it took the town two hours to fight off the birds of prey. Afterward, traces of the battle remained. Bright blood ran down the streets, several buildings had their roofs blown away by the wind pressure, and a boy who’d picked up a still-hot antiaircraft shell cried out in pain. The faces of the people were unexpectedly bright. There had been no fatalities. Hardly anyone had been wounded, either. A few people had received minor cuts from glass blown out of the windows, but that was the extent of the injuries. What’s more, the food situation in town had started to show signs of improvement.
The smaller birds of prey were being loaded onto carts and hauled away, while men with axes and chainsaws gathered around the gigantic carcasses that filled the streets. The whine of motors mixed with sounds of meat and bones being severed, and here and there the stench of blood pervaded the town. In less than thirty minutes a huge bird with a thirty-foot wingspan could be stripped down to the point it was no longer recognizable. After all, man-eating birds were delicious, even to the very people they’d intended to eat.
The town was bustling with activity. Carts were laden with piles of meat, viscera, feathers, and bones to be hauled away. All of them would be sent to the factories for chemical processing, with some of the meat being preserved and sent to warehouses for storage. The rest would circulate to the butcher shops and turn up on dinner tables this very night. In the factories waited men with various skills at their disposal. Spears could be made from some of the bones, tendons and viscera could be used for bowstrings, and the rest of the skeleton would be pulverized to make a paste to be delivered to the hospital. Even the sharp fangs could be turned into accessories. And the blood had its uses as well—trace amounts of it would probably be mixed in juice or in their nightly drinks at the bar. The blood of birds of prey had been proven to have an invigorating effect on humans.
Among all of the bustling activity, a mother suddenly noticed her daughter was missing. Seeing her dashing all over town like a woman possessed as she called out the girl’s name, other folks finally realized they hadn’t seen the woman’s only child anywhere. As someone tried to soothe the half-crazed mother, one of her friends answered that her daughter had been seen headed for the park. There was every reason to suspect the girl might’ve met her end at the talons of the colossal birds.
Several people started to dash down the street, but quickly stopped in their tracks. From the opposite direction came a beautiful yet foreboding young man. By his side was a slight figure. The woman called out the little girl’s name and ran to her. As the mother and child shared a tearful embrace, D turned and walked away without giving them so much as a glance. Where was he going?
After the mother had brushed the little girl’s hair away from her neck and confirmed there wasn’t a mark on her, a relieved smile swept over her face.
“Didn’t do nothing funny to you, now, did he?” said one man. “He’s a dhampir, you know.” Everyone muttered their shared sentiments at that.
“He saved me,” the little girl mumbled.
“Saved you? From what?”
“A bird got me . . . Carried me way up into the sky . . . ”
“You’re talking nonsense. Nothing like that fell in the park.”
“But it’s true,” the little girl said absentmindedly. “We were falling from the sky. And then he saved me . . . He really did save me.”
The eyes of the townsfolk sought the young Hunter. But they could no longer find the faintest trace of him on the noisy street.
-
THE TOWNSFOLK
CHAPTER 3
-
I
-
Night fell and the clouds appeared, swirling shapes borne by the wind. The light of the moon was snuffed out.
This day—or to be more precise, this evening—was entirely without precedent for the town. Ordinarily, the streets would’ve been filled with merrymakers. Unwinding after a hard day’s work, men with flushed faces would be arguing in bars where the lights burned all night and the hum of the electric organ never faded. Women would be harping about their daily toils while children dashed through the streets with newly acquired fireworks in hand. But tonight, shutters were lowered before the bar doors, and the wind alone danced through the streets. From time to time someone passed by, but they were volunteer deputies with deathly grim faces. The windows of every home were shut tight, and men ranged with weapons and sharpened stakes. For what was probably the first time ever, this town had to deal with the sort of rampaging demon all too familiar to those in the world below.
-
As soon as Laura had fallen asleep, the mayor called for D. “Now it’s up to you.” And saying only this, he left.
Putting the armchair they’d provided him against the wall, D sat down to wait. It was eleven o’clock Night. One of the most common times for the Nobility to pay a call. The young lady in bed breathed easily as she slept. But, though her breathing sounded serene enough, D heard another sound over it. Her breaths were just a bit longer and deeper than those of ordinary people. When she exhaled, her breathing sounded more like a sigh.
If the Noble who’d attacked the girl lived only by night, then the chances were extremely good that he wasn’t aware D was here. No matter who was guarding the young lady, they’d certainly be no match for the power of a Noble. That was exactly the sort of self-confidence that led to mistakes. And all Vampire Hunters found that sense of security the key to destroying the Nobility.
An hour passed, and then two, without anything out of the ordinary. Both D and the girl seemed like statues, motionless. D had his eyes open.
At one o’clock Morning, there was a rapping sound outside the window. Laura’s eyes snapped open. An evil grin of delight rose on her lips, and red light shone from her freshly opened eyes. As if checking just how they’d left her, she looked up above her, then to either side. When her eyes found D, they stopped dead. Damned interloper, they seemed to say.
Those who’d known the rapture in their blood didn’t flee from it—rather, they were doomed to drown in it. Regardless of what she made of the Vampire Hunter sitting there with his eyes closed, after watching him for a while Laura turned her gaze beyond the window. “Who’s there?” she asked coyly. She put the question to the pitch-black space.
Faint laughter came from the darkness. A voice that only the closest of human ears would hear said, “I’m coming in.”
“You can’t,” she whispered back. “There’s a Hunter in here.”
“I don’t have to fear the likes of him. Not even your father can touch me now.”
“But he’s not like other people,” Laura said softly. “There’s something different about him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Something that looked like a black stain started flowing in through the window while the girl watched. Before Laura’s very eyes it gathered on the floor, took human shape, and became an actual person of flesh and blood. This vampire was gifted with one of the powers of legend—that of entering rooms as a fog. The sight of him there,
in an orange T-shirt and wrinkled jeans, would’ve made the bulk of the Nobility grimace. Still young, he was a powerfully built man. Yet his whole body was subtly distorted, looking like a human figure molded by the hands of a child . . .
Looking first at Laura, the vampire shifted his gaze to D. Sleeping, perhaps, D kept his face down and didn’t move at all. The vampire’s eyes began to glitter wildly. Red light tinged D’s form a crimson hue. Soon, the light faded again.
“That’ll keep him asleep,” the intruder said. “Just as it did with the others. He won’t even remember me.”
“Oh, please hurry. Come to me . . . ” Laura writhed beneath the blankets. “I want your kiss. I—I need . . . ”
“I know.” The vampire’s lips twisted into a grin. Though his teeth were dirty and crooked, his canines were particularly impressive. They slanted forward. When he slowly bent over the girl, whose eyes were shut in rapture, the air in the room grew unspeakably cold. And the chill emanated from one point in particular. The intruder looked over his shoulder in disbelief. “You dirty bastard,” he growled. “You mean to tell me my gaze didn’t work on you?”
D got to his feet without saying a word.
Just as he was about to launch himself at the Hunter, the intruder stiffened. His already pale face lost even more color. D’s aura had just hit him. If I move, I’m as good as dead, he thought.
“Any more of your kind around? Before you answer that, you’d better tell me your name,” D commanded him softly. Calm as his voice was, it had a ring of steel to it that said no resistance would be tolerated. “Answer me. What’s your name? Are you the only one?”
“No, I’m not . . . ” the intruder replied.
“How many others are there?”
“One.”
“What’s your name, and what’s theirs?”
The intruder began to tremble. Every inch of him shook, as if he were struggling against the threat that ensnared him.
“You don’t have to tell me,” D said. “If I check you against the resident lists, I should find out who you are. Step outside.”
The man nodded. Slowly he made his way to the door to the front hall. D followed behind him. Something caught lightly at the Hunter’s coat. Laura’s pale hand. Most likely the action was merely a reflex, and not some effort to save the intruder. However, D’s attention was diverted for a split second, and the spell he had over the other man broke. The intruder’s body lost its shape. Wasting no time, the fog rushed for the door’s keyhole like a black cloud and poured through it in a single stream.
D’s right hand went into action. A flash as bright as the moon arced over his right shoulder, and the intruder who was supposedly safely on the other side of the door gave a scream of agonizing death. D’s expression actually changed. Quickly opening the door, he peered beyond it—into the mayor’s living room.
Before him was the intruder, now leaning backward. A sharp wooden tip poked from the left side of his back. From the waist down, the man remained in his fog-like condition. With a deep groan, the intruder fell to the floor, both hands clutching his own throat. It seemed that the fog was probably his true form after all. His fallen body soon covered itself in a black hue and curled up on the floor with a rustling sound.
“What do you think you’re doing?” D’s quiet tone harbored an unearthly air.
“Nothing, I was just . . . ” Dr. Tsurugi stammered, shaking his head. “I heard a strange sound and I froze in my tracks, trying to figure out what I should do, when all of a sudden . . . My eyes met his, and then I just panicked and ran him through.”
Not saying a word, D merely gazed at bits of fog spreading across the floor and the stake dripping with black blood. “How did you get in here?” the Hunter finally asked. His voice was far more terrifying than any heated tone could’ve been.
“I snuck in,” said Dr. Tsurugi, giving the sack over his shoulder a pat. There was a loud clatter that suggested it contained a hammer and stakes. “But everything’s taken care of now, right?”
“It seems we face two foes.” Heedless of the changes those words wrought on the physician’s expression, the Hunter continued. “One may be gone now, but we don’t know the whereabouts of the other. Are you sure there haven’t been any other victims? None at all?”
Dr. Tsurugi nodded.
“The girl’s probably back to normal,” said D. “Go check on her.”
“Sure,” the young physician replied, and he was just about to nod his head. Then his eyes halted at the legs of the corpse that’d been reduced to dust. There was a gap of a fraction of an inch just below the knees. “It almost looks like . . . You cut him, didn’t you?”
Giving no reply, D squatted down by the dusty remains. Once he was sure Dr. Tsurugi had gone through the door, the Hunter stretched his left hand over the dust. “How about it?” he asked.
“Oh, this is a tough one,” a hoarse voice said in reply. “The memory’s been completely erased from the cells. But then, I guess you already know this guy wasn’t made to serve any Noble.” Was the voice suggesting, then, that this vampire had just spontaneously generated?
Not surprised in the least, D nodded. “But those who aren’t Nobility don’t just turn into Nobles on their own.”
“Then that’d mean someone had to make him that way,” the voice suggested. “What we’ve got here is an imitation vampire. The question is, who made it?”
D didn’t reply.
“Come to think of it, they did say something about letting someone into town two centuries ago. Could be him again . . . ” the hoarse voice mused. “Still, it’s all very strange. From what the mayor’s said, and from the way the locals have been acting, it doesn’t seem like there’s been a ruckus over vampires before. So, these characters suddenly show up two hundred years after the fact? There’s no way their strange visitor could still be in town after all this time. What do you think?”
Straightening up, D headed for the mayor’s room. “There’s another one out there,” he said. “That’s all I know.”
When the Hunter knocked on his door, the mayor stuck his head out like he’d been waiting for him to come. “What is it?” he asked.
“He’s been taken care of.”
“My daughter’s been saved?”
“Ask the doctor about that.”
Just as the mayor’s dazed face turned toward his daughter’s bedroom, Dr. Tsurugi appeared. Seeing the mayor, he gave a satisfied smile. The mayor’s shoulders dropped and a deep sigh escaped from him. “Can I see her?”
Not saying a word, D stepped aside. The mayor disappeared into his daughter’s bedroom.
“Remarkable, isn’t it?” As D was headed for the front door, the odd remark followed him. It was neither praising nor sarcastic, but the tone of it was nearly a challenge. “This thing had everyone quaking in their boots, but you come here and things get taken care of in no time flat . . . Although it was yours truly that put the fateful stake through his heart.”
“Yes, it was.” D turned around.
A strangely firm resolve, or something like it, graced the young physician’s face. It was an unusual emotion, one no one had ever directed toward D.
The mayor quickly came back out of his daughter’s room. A smile spread across his face, and he declared, “The wounds on her throat have vanished, and she’s sleeping peacefully. And all thanks to you, D!”
“If you’ll pardon me saying so, I was actually the one who finished him off.”
Looking dumbfounded, the mayor turned from D to Dr. Tsurugi and back again.
“The doctor’s right,” D told him. “I was no use at all.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dr. Tsurugi countered vehemently. “Mayor, this gentleman not only prevented the sneaking vampire from laying a finger on your daughter, but also succeeded in driving him from her room. I merely happened to be in the right place at the right time. If any reward is to be paid, we’ll split it.”
“You’re welcome to it,” D said, soundi
ng somewhat surprised. His tone was strangely agreeable. Perhaps he was taken aback by events.
“I’d like you to come to my room,” the mayor said with a smile. “You’ll be given your remuneration. We’ll put you up wherever you like in town. Why, if you should decide to stay on permanently with us, that’d be fine, too.”
“Can’t do that just yet.” In the present mood of jubilant confidence, the Hunter’s words hung like icicles. “There’s still another one out there.”
“What?” the mayor began to say, but his mouth merely hung open. “Impossible!”
“No. He said there were two of them. I don’t think he was lying.”
“But—” the mayor sputtered, “You see, up till now there haven’t been any victims aside from my Laura.”
D turned to the physician. Gathering the drift of his question from that look alone, the physician shook his head. “No one’s come to my hospital secretly for treatment.”
“When was the town’s last regular medical exam?”
“A week ago. There were some colds and minor chronic conditions, but there wasn’t anyone out of the ordinary. No one skipped the medical exams. I can guarantee that.”
“The last time his daughter was attacked was three days ago. How about since then?”
“I can’t vouch for anyone after that.”
Letting out a deep sigh, the mayor brought his fist to his forehead. “A fine mess we have here. One problem solved, and another arises to take its place. Now we hear our town—a town our foes in the outside world can’t even get into—has been invaded by not one but two filthy freaks.”
Tale of the Dead Town Page 6