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 …
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 w
ith 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 i
n 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.”
Vampire Hunter D Page 17