Vampire Hunter D: Pale Fallen Angel Parts One and Two

by Pale Fallen Angel (Parts 1

  “Defense systems?” he asked.

  D nodded.

  The defensive mechanisms incorporated into Miska’s coffin had determined that D was something other than a Noble. His whole body had been pierced by laser beams of a hundred thousand degrees.

  “You must forgive me for putting you in such a situation. I completely forgot you’re a dhampir,” the baron apologized. And apparently he meant it.

  “Don’t worry about it. Only half of them went off,” D replied, his words leaving the baron silent.

  Fortunately, a hint of blue had begun to mix with the eastern sky. The baron returned to his carriage.

  “Once day breaks, we’ll be off. Load your baggage into this carriage,” D told the children.

  “Sure,” the boy replied, throwing a look at the Noble in blue before he dashed off for his bags. His eyes had a calm hue to them.

  __

  “What did you talk with the Noble about?” D asked as he rode alongside the carriage.

  “Nothing important,” the boy replied.

  Hastily tossing her head from side to side, his sister said, “That’s a lie. He asked us where we were born, and where we’re going.”

  “Like I said, nothing important,” the boy countered firmly, slightly backing away from the imposing and pudgy face before him.

  “He asked if we liked the Nobility.”

  To a child, that must’ve seemed an important question.

  “I see. And what did you reply?”

  “I told him I hate them,” the girl answered peevishly. She was in love with D.

  “I didn’t answer,” the boy said rather sheepishly.

  “Why didn’t you say you hated them?!” his sister exclaimed.

  “Well, he’s a good-looking guy, and his eyes were so kind.”

  “Kind eyes, eh?” said D.

  “That’s right. And kinda sad, too. Like yours, mister.”

  Beneath the blue sky, a pair of gorgeous young men moved on—one inside a coffin, the other on the back of a horse. Both with sad eyes. But perhaps the real question was whether or not D’s eyes were kind.

  “Now look what you’ve gone and done—you had to go and say he was just like a Noble, and now he’s clammed up.”

  “Hey, that hurts!”

  The girl had furtively got hold of her brother’s thigh and given it a twist, and the boy entered into a mute struggle with her. As they were silently wrestling, they suddenly looked forward.

  “Oh, my,” the girl gasped, her brother still tugging madly at her cheek. But on noticing that D had grabbed hold of the reins and stopped the carriage, the boy also gasped in surprise.

  “Use this,” D said, dropping a large rifle across their laps before he galloped forward.

  To either side of the road were sandstone plateaus over thirty feet high. On the road a hundred feet ahead, a girl with blond hair stood in a daze. What’s more, on her back she had a giant purple toad that was as ugly as sin. Noticing D, the girl took a few unsteady steps forward, then fell like a log. But at that very moment, the toad got off her and scrambled up the nearby rock face, disappearing from sight in no time.

  Quickly dismounting, D took the girl’s pulse. Her long, thin eyes opened a crack. Her beautiful but anemic countenance looked familiar. She was the same young lady who’d been working with the magician by the side of the road back before they’d crossed the swamp.

  “Help . . . me . . .” the girl said, barely wringing the words from her throat. But on seeing D’s face, her eyes didn’t fail to go wide. Even a patient at death’s door would undoubtedly react the same way.

  “What’s wrong?” asked D. He could tell the girl’s condition was merely the result of shock and fatigue.

  “That toad . . . has been after me . . . forever . . . Please . . .”

  “It’s already run off.”

  This only served to put more dread on the girl’s face.

  “I can’t believe it . . . That it would finally . . . let me go . . .”

  Not even asking whether she could stand or not, D lent the girl his shoulder as he put her back on her feet. Placing her in the saddle, he took his horse by the reins and returned to the carriage.

  What’s going on? the baron asked, the words drifting to D in a tone only he could hear. Apparently the Nobleman must’ve heard the commotion.

  Explaining the situation, D added, “She’ll go with us as far as the next inn. Although I would like to put her in your carriage.”

  That’s fine, the baron replied.

  However, when D tried to get her into the vehicle, the girl started crying and screaming like she was out of her mind. One glance told her that the carriage belonged to the Nobility.

  “Stop! Don’t put me in with a Noble—I beg of you!”

  Struggling as if for her very life, she certainly appeared to be sincere.

  “Okay, you two get in there, then,” D told the brother and sister.

  Though the girl was quick to voice her complaints, her brother was brimming with curiosity as he said, “Sure thing!”

  Eyes sparkling, the boy climbed down out of the driver’s seat all by himself.

  Left no alternative, his sister followed reluctantly.

  Loading the spent girl into the driver’s seat, D then started them moving forward again. Although he thought the toad would come leaping out at some point, there wasn’t the slightest trace of it anywhere.

  Taking a capsule from his saddlebags, the Hunter offered it to the exhausted girl. Staring at it dazedly, she apparently gave up any hope of getting additional aid as she weakly took the capsule in hand, put it in her mouth, and chewed it. With vitamins, minerals, and sedatives among its nine hundred ingredients, the capsule brought life and color back into the girl’s face in no time—less than five seconds, to be precise. Though such capsules were expensive, a traveler crossing the Frontier without them might as well be naked.

  Letting out a deep breath, the girl straightened herself.

  “Thank you,” she said with a polite bow.

  “Feeling better?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you can get off at the next inn.”

  The girl was left at a loss for words. The fact that a gorgeous and muscular young man wouldn’t want to look after a woman like herself came like a slap to the face.

  “Who . . . who exactly are you?” she managed to ask about five minutes later, with despair and anger still churning in her features.

  There was no reply.

  “This is a Noble’s carriage—so the person guarding it would be . . . But you don’t look like that’s the case at all . . . By any chance, are you D?”

  “Where did you hear my name?”

  Caught in his stare, the girl’s cheek flushed carmine.

  “Through the grapevine. They say there’s a beautiful Hunter out on the Frontier. But what would a Vampire Hunter be doing guarding Nobles’ carriages?”

  “One of them hired me.”

  “To protect him from humans?”

  “In a manner of speaking.”

  “But isn’t that the complete opposite of what you do?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “You don’t say much, do you?” the girl said, not realizing that in fact that was quite a lot for him. But it looked as if D had ignored her remark.

  “Yesterday, I saw you just outside the village of Shamuni. Not that you’d remember me. I was working as a magician’s assistant.”

  Discussion of the girl’s personal situation dissolved into the stark sunlight. At some point the cliffs had vanished, and flat green expanses lined the road ahead. The grass was billowing in waves, thanks to the wind. The creak of the wheels went out like a mumbled song.

  And there were those inside the blue carriage who also saw and heard these things. The brother and sister stared at the luxurious coffin secured in the center of the vehicle with a somewhat distressed look on their faces. After all, there was a Noble inside it. Though that much was obvious, the sen
se of incongruity was stronger than that of fear because the impression left by the occupant when they’d seen him the previous night was one of elegance and kindness, and because D was watching over him. But in the end, when a Noble’s resting place was right in front of them, the primeval and almost instinctive fear that’d been hammered into the children from the day they were born couldn’t help but rear its ugly head.

  “It’s kinda creepy, Sis,” the boy whined.

  “It’s broad daylight now, so there’s not a chance of him coming out,” the girl assured him. “But it’s all your fault for going on about what a wonderful fella he is.”

  “That’s got nothing to do with this. It’s just that coffins give me the creeps.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ve got me here, and we’ve got that guy outside, too.”

  “Yeah, but still,” the boy protested.

  Where do the two of you come from? inquired the shady voice that echoed through the siblings’ heads.

  “What’s it matter to you anyway?” the girl shot back. “You try anything funny, and we’ll tell that guy outside.”

  I wouldn’t want that, the voice in their heads replied in a tone laced with irony. I’m not quite sure whether I could beat him or not.

  “Like there’s a chance in hell of you ever beating him!” the girl said, inflating her cheeks indignantly.

  Jabbing her elbow with his own, her brother said, “Don’t be so blunt about it.”

  Apparently he was more of a realist. Ordinarily women were predisposed to be that way, but it seemed that having taken to the road with such a strong personality at an earlier age, he’d developed his outlook to some degree out of sheer necessity. However, given the dazzling acrobatics he’d unveiled back on the ship in the swamp in their hour of need, he undoubtedly had every bit as much nerve as his sister when the situation called for it.

  “I’m just saying . . .”

  Getting a tight grip on his sister’s hand as her eyes bulged in their sockets, the boy replied, “A town in the western Frontier called Liddell. Ever heard of it?”

  Can’t say that I have. What kind of place is it?

  “You’re just full of questions, aren’t you, mister? It’s just this little town out in the middle of nowhere. It’s the safest place thereabouts, but on the other hand, it’s also real quiet and boring. There were beautiful plains and a waterfall on the edge of town.”

  Why did you leave?

  “Because our father and mother died,” the boy responded in a tone that made it seem as if that were the perfectly natural answer.

  If you don’t mind my asking, how did they happen to pass away?

  “They were out in the swamp catching fang shrimp when a snake dragon did them in. The folks in town told us what happened. One of the village bigwigs took us in, but he worked us like slaves. So we lit out of there and got picked up by a carnival that tours the Frontier. We had the whole acrobatics thing down pat in three years.”

  That’s quite an accomplishment.

  “You’ve never even seen our act, so don’t be so quick with the compliments,” the boy said, waving his arms at the coffin in a way that was terribly adult. His face alone remained appropriate to his age, with a grimace that was both childish and endearing. Fearless he seemed—but in fact, he had merely learned to use his own cheer to master his fear.

  “But enough about us. You’re a Noble, aren’t you, mister? So how come you let us ride in your carriage without doing anything to us?”

  “He’ll get around to it—just wait,” his sister said with surety.

  “If he was gonna, he’d have long since done it.”

  “He can’t do a thing with that tough, handsome guy out there.”

  You may be right about that.

  The girl hadn’t intended for her scathing remarks to be overheard, and she slapped a plump hand up over her mouth.

  “Where are you headed, mister?” the boy promptly inquired.

  The village of Krauhausen.

  “That’s pretty far off. Know someone there, do you?”

  My father is there.

  “Your father? Lucky you! I bet you’ll get to play and stuff. You sure got it good!”

  “Knock it off,” his sister told him, and this time it was his turn to get elbowed.

  “What was that for?!” the boy said, pursing his lips sourly. Seeing how his sister’s face had grown red as the setting sun, he snorted and turned away in disgust.

  “I like you, mister, but I don’t care too much for that woman in white,” the boy said.

  Why is that?

  “Well, she comes off pretty harsh for a woman, and she doesn’t have much by way of charm. If every woman were like that, there wouldn’t be any sweetness left in the world.”

  Well, we couldn’t have that.

  “And there’s something kinda funny about the way she looks at folks. Those are the eyes of a loony.”

  You think so?

  “Yep. I don’t know if she’s your girlfriend or what, but that’s the kind you’d do well to drop as fast as you can. For what it’s worth, I’m a pretty mean judge of women.”

  I’ll keep that in mind.

  “Think nothing of it,” the boy said, his chest puffed out as he looked down at the coffin. He was beaming.

  A slap resounded from his cheek. The acrobatic genius probably hadn’t been able to dodge it because he’d been distracted, and also because the blow had come from a fellow genius.

  “What do you think you’re doing?!”

  His angry gaze was greeted by a chubby face swelling with an ever more intense wrath.

  “What the blazes do you think you’re doing, sucking up to the Nobility?!”

  “I wasn’t sucking up to anyone!”

  “You were so!”

  “Was not—” the boy protested, his body quivering as he tried to strike back at his sister.

  There’s no reason why you should like the Nobility, but do you hate us so badly? asked the voice from the coffin.

  The girl’s body quaked as if from madness. “Oh, I hate you. I hate your guts! You, your kind—”

  The girl hiccuped. Though she wasn’t exactly sobbing, every time her shoulders shook, a little sound escaped her.

  “My mom and dad were—”

  “Huh?!” the boy suddenly cried out in a tone not merely of surprise but of utter disbelief as he stared at his older sister. “That’s a lie!”

  “No, it’s true. It’s the truth, I tell you!”

  “It can’t be. They said Mom and Dad were both killed by a snake dragon.”

  “That’s just the story the villagers told you, but this is the truth. What really happened is that Mom and Dad made it back alive—or at least pretending to still be alive. They both complained about how cold they felt, and they sat in front of the heater without moving a muscle. Not saying a word, just staring into the flames. They didn’t even look each other in the face. And they were never like that before. Even when they were in different rooms, they were always calling out to each other and making all kinds of racket. I was feeling kinda sad, so I went over and tried talking to them. I said, ‘Mom and Dad, what’s wrong?’ And then—”

  Her brother had a bewildered look on his face.

  “And then, they told me, ‘Get out. Don’t look at me.’ ‘Hurry up and get away from us.’ They told me to take you, Hugh, and get out. I wondered what was wrong with them. I knew that muddle mold could mess up someone’s head, and I thought maybe that’s what had come over them. So then I circled around in front of them. Their faces were stark white. Even with the heater burning there, their faces were as cold and pale as Lake Aida. But there was one thing that was red—crimson, even. Their lips. Both of them had lips so red it looked like blood had welled up to fill them. I realized the truth right away. I don’t actually remember what I said then. The next thing I knew, you were still asleep but I held you in my arms and I was outside the house. Sheriff Gidari and a bunch of volunteer deputies were around
me and were talking something over, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I watched the house burn. Our house had always seemed so tiny, and it seemed strange how huge the flames were. Later, Gidari told me Mom and Dad had been attacked by a Noble out in the swamp. Someone had seen it, so they’d all come over to the house. And that was the last time I ever saw them.”

  The boy was looking out the window. Blotches of shade slid across his pink face. They were the shadows of the trees that adorned that side of the road.

  “You’re also a Noble, right? Boxed up in your posh coffin, and going out each and every night to drink human blood. To be honest, I never wanted to ride in your carriage. Even now, I’d like nothing better than to put it to the torch.”

  That would be rather inconvenient, the baron’s voice remarked. I’ll have to ask you to refrain from setting that fire for a while. Until I’ve attended to my business, that is.

  “You mean to tell me I can torch it after that? Ha! There’s not a chance of that happening, so stop yanking my chain.”

  If you come along, I see no reason why you couldn’t.

  The boy turned and looked at the coffin in amazement.

  However, I’ll give you an honest fight, too. How does that sound?

  The blood drained from the girl’s pudgy face. She turned to her younger brother. His expression told her not to do it. That decided it.

  “Fine. I’ll put you down for sure. You’d better wear an iron plate over your heart if you don’t want me to put a stake through it.”

  That’s sound advice. How about you?

  The boy needed a few seconds to realize the Noble was addressing him. He was still dumbfounded by his sister’s utter recklessness.

  “I—”

  “Naturally, he wants in on it too. The two of us have nothing but each other. Isn’t that right?” the girl said, glaring at her brother with an intensity normally unimaginable.

  “Sure,” the boy said with a nod.

  You seem rather devoted to your sister, the voice from the coffin remarked, and the tone seemed to be tinged with laughter. Very well. Although the two of you must part company with us soon, no matter where you should happen to go, I will call on you once my business is settled and you shall show me exactly what you’re made of.