Vampire Hunter D (22 page)

“Would you really?” Greco’s tone had become an appeal. The question of how he could shake the pursuing Noble if he managed to make good his escape with Doris was a point of concern for him. But why on earth would Rei-Ginsei say such a thing to him? Because he wasn’t sure that just getting the Time-Bewitching Incense would be enough to beat D.

The indescribable swordplay the Hunter displayed as he made good his promise to dispatch three of the superhuman gang leader’s valued henchmen in less than fifteen seconds each, and the invincibility he demonstrated in getting to his feet again despite the sword sticking out of his belly—the mere thought of these things was enough to give Rei-Ginsei gooseflesh. Just to be prepared for any eventuality, he decided to use the stupid little hood he’d found. Once D had been slain, Greco would have outlived his usefulness, and he would be crushed like an insect. “Well, I believe we have a bargain then.” Rei-Ginsei flashed a smile so beautiful it would put a flower to shame, and held out his remaining hand.

“Um, okay.” Greco hesitated to take his hand. “But I don’t completely trust you yet. Just so we’re clear, if you try anything funny I’ll wreck the candle on the spot.”

“Fair enough.”

“Then that’s just great.”

They shared a firm handshake.

..

The round moon rose. Strangely large and white, the unsettling lunar disc sent wild waves of anxiety across the hearts of all who looked up at it. An old farmer named Morris snapped awake when he felt a chill. Sitting up in bed, the old man looked to the bedroom window and felt his hair rising on end. The window he was certain he’d locked was open now.

But that wasn’t what terrified the old man.

His granddaughter Lucy, whom he’d looked after since she’d lost her parents in an accident, stood by the window in her little nightgown, staring at her grandfather with vacant eyes. Her face was paler than the moonlight spilling in through the window.

“Lucy, what’s the matter?”

When he noticed the twin streaks of red coursing down his granddaughter’s throat, the old man froze in his bed.

“I am ... Count Lee,” Lucy mumbled. In a man’s voice! “Give me Doris Lang ... If you do not ... tonight, tomorrow night ... every night the ranks of the living-dead shall swell ... ”

And then his granddaughter collapsed on the floor.

..

After dinner, Dan had been inseparable from D, but even he couldn’t resist the sandman indefinitely, and he had to retire to his room. Doris disappeared into her own bedroom, leaving D alone in the living room, which was lit only by stark moonlight. He’d been sleeping there since the first night, since he said the room to the back of the house was too cramped. He lay on the sofa, his eyes cold and clear as ice. The hour was nearing eleven Night.

A white light flickered.

The bedroom door opened, and Doris stepped out. A threadbare bath towel covered her from her breasts to her thighs. Crossing the living room without a sound, she stood before the sofa. Her ample bosom was heaving. Taking two deep breaths, Doris let the towel fall.

Unmoving, unblinking, D fixed his eyes on the girl’s naked form. Her well-proportioned and slightly muscled body wasn’t yet endowed with all a woman’s sensuality, but it had more than enough of the pale virgin charm that always took men’s breath away.

“D ...” Doris’ voice caught in her throat.

“I haven’t finished my work here.”

“I’ll pay you in advance. Take it ...”

Before he could even speak, her warm flesh was on top of him and her sweet breath was tickling his nose.

“Hey, I’m ...”

“The Count’s gonna come again,” Doris panted. “And this time it’s gonna get settled—at least, that’s the feeling I get. I probably won’t get a chance to give you your reward—so take me, suck my blood, do whatever you like to me.”

D’s hand brushed the girl’s lengthy tresses aside, exposing the face they’d hidden to the night air. Their lips met.

For a few seconds they remained together—and then D sat up quickly. His eyes raced to the window. That way lay the main gate.

“What is it? The Count?” Doris’ voice was taut.

“No. I sense two groups. The first is a pair, and the second—there’s a lot of them. Fifty, no, close to a hundred strong.”

“A hundred people?!”

“Go wake up Dan.”

Doris disappeared into her bedroom.

..

Near the gate to the farm, a pair of silhouettes suddenly halted their horses and looked back across the prairie. Countless points of light swayed closer, coming from the direction of town. As the pair strained their ears, they could hear a rumble of voices that bordered on rage, mixed with the beating of numberless hooves.

“What could that be?” mumbled Rei-Ginsei.

“Folks from town. Something must’ve happened,” Greco said, watching the points of light nervously. Those were flaming torches.

“At any rate, we’d do well to conceal ourselves and see what transpires.”

The two of them quickly melted into the shadows of the farm’s fence.

They didn’t have long to wait; the procession of villagers assembled before the entrance to the farm shortly after they’d hidden themselves. Greco’s brow furrowed. Leading the pack was his father, Mayor Rohman. Steam was rising from his bald pate. Around him were his family’s hired hands, all armed to the teeth with crossbows and laser rifles; the villagers carried spears and rifles as well.

More than half of them looked like they’d just been dragged out of bed, dressed in pajamas and slippers. Humorous as it appeared, it testified to exactly how serious the situation had become. The shadows of hatred and fear fell heavily on every face.

This was a mob. There was no sign of the sheriff.

“Doris! Doris Lang! Turn this barrier off,” the mayor roared in front of the gate.

A light went on in one window of the house.

Soon after, a pair of figures loomed on the front porch.

“What in the blazes is your business at this hour of the night! You bring the whole damn town out here to rob the place or something?” That was Doris’ voice.

“Just turn the barrier off already! Then we’ll discuss it,” the mayor bellowed back.

“It’s already off, you moron. You gonna stay out there all night?”

A number of fiery streaks shot out from around the mayor, melting the chain off the gate.

The crowd spilled into her front yard.

“Hold it right there! Come any closer and I’ll shoot you dead!” More than Doris’ threat, more than the laser rifle propped against her shoulder, it was the sight of D standing there behind her that checked the crazed mob and stopped them ten feet shy of the porch.

To cow a group, you had to take aim at a person at the center of their rampage and carefully cut them off from the others. Just as her father had taught her, Doris aligned the barrel of her laser rifle perfectly with the mayor’s breastbone, letting the promise that she wouldn’t give an inch flood through her entire being.

“Okay, I want some answers. What’s your business? And where the heck’s the sheriff? I’m warning you right now, if he’s not here I don’t owe you a good answer no matter what kind of complaint you got. Dan and I both pay our taxes.”

“That pain in the ass got slapped around a little and thrown in his own jail. We’ll let him out again once we’ve taken care of the lot of you,” the mayor said with disgust. And then, still glaring at Doris, he gave a wave of one hand. “Come on, show her.”

The crowd parted and a hoary-headed old man stepped to the fore. In his arms he held a little girl with braids in her hair.

“Mr. Morris, is Lucy…” Doris began, but swallowed the rest of her words. Two repugnant streaks of blood marked the girl’s paraffin-pale throat.

“There are more.”

With the mayor’s words as their cue, two pathetic couples came forward.

The miller Fu Lanchu and his wife Kim, the huntsman Machen and his spouse—both couples were in their thirties, though the wives of both men were still renowned in the village for their beauty. The sight of the women—now held up by their husbands as their vacant eyes pointed to the heavens and fresh blood dripped down their throats—told Doris everything.

“The Count did this, the ruthless bastard ...”

“That’s right,” Machen said with a nod. “The wife and I were tuckered out from a hard day’s work, and headed off to bed early. Not long after that, I woke up feeling chilled and found my wife not by my side where she should be but standing over next to a wide-open window, glaring at me with these burning eyes. And when I jumped out of bed to see what the hell was going on—”

The miller Lanchu picked up where Machen left off. “All of a sudden my wife said in a man’s voice, ‘Give me Doris Lang. If you don’t, your wife will remain like this forever, neither alive nor dead.’ He said those exact words.”

“The moment she stopped speaking, she just keeled over, and she hasn’t moved or spoken since!” Machen’s voice was a veritable scream. “I rushed to take her pulse, but there wasn’t a trace of one. She’s not breathing either. And yet, her heart’s still beating.”

“Now, I didn’t believe any of what Greco was saying,” said Mr. Morris. “Knowing you, I figured if some vampire had bit you, you’d have done away with yourself. Why, if it was true, I thought I’d lend what aid an old fool could and help you destroy our lord. But why did my granddaughter Lucy have to suffer in your place ... She’s only five!”

The old man’s teary, grief-stricken appeal gradually brought down the barrel of Doris’ weapon. Her voice now stripped of its willfulness, Doris asked, “So what are you saying we should do?”

The mayor turned his dagger-filled gaze at D. Stroking his bald head, he said, “First, chase the punk behind you off your farm. Next, you’re going into the asylum. I’m not saying we’re going to grab you and give you to the Count as tribute or anything as heartless as all that. But you’ve got to follow the law of the village. In the meantime, we’ll take care of the Count.”

Doris vacillated. What the mayor proposed had its merits. Since she’d been bitten by a vampire, the only thing that kept her out of the asylum was the aid of Dr. Ferringo and the sheriff. Now the elderly physician was dead, and the sheriff wasn’t here. But there were three people here who’d been made living-dead in her stead, and lots of villagers with hate-filled eyes. Her rifle drooped limply to the floor.

“Take her away,” the mayor commanded triumphantly.

And at that moment, D said, “How will you take care of
him
?”

The buzz of the mob, which had gone on incessantly during Doris’ discussion with the mayor, came to an immediate halt. Hatred, horror, menace—as they gazed upon him with every emotion they felt toward the unknown, Vampire Hunter D slowly made his way down the porch stairs with his sword over his shoulder. The mob shrank back without a word. All except for the mayor. The instant D’s eyes caught him, he became utterly paralyzed. “How will you take care of him?” D asked again, stopping a few paces away from the mayor.

“Well, um ... actually ...”

D reached out his
left hand
and stuck the
palm
of it against the mayor’s octopus-like face. For a moment the man’s voice broke off, and then he went on again.

“Throw her ... in the freaking asylum ... and then negotiate. Tell him ... he’s not to harm anyone in town any more ... If he does, we’ll kill the love of his life ...”

The mayor’s face twisted and beads of sweat formed chains across his brow, almost as if he was battling some titanic force within himself.

“After we talked to him ... we’d tell Doris we’d destroyed the Count or something ... let her out ... After that, he could do what he liked—make her one of his kind, bleed her to death, whatever ... You’re the devil ... you little punk. If you give Doris any more help ... ”

“Aren’t you the cooperative one?”

D took his hand away. The mayor took a few steps back, his face looking like whatever demon had possessed him had just left. Beads of sweat streamed down his face.

“This young lady hired me,” D said darkly. “And as I haven’t finished what I was hired to do, I can’t very well leave now. Especially not after hearing your detailed confession.”

Suddenly, his tone became commanding. “The Nobility won’t die out if you stand around and do nothing. How many times will you give in, and how many people are you willing to sacrifice to those who have nothing but extinction ahead of them? If that’s the human mentality, then there’s absolutely no chance I’ll let you have the girl. An old man who can only weep for the child taken from him, and husbands who would have another girl take the place of their own defiled wives—the flames of hell can take you, and everyone else in this village as well. I’ll take on humans and Nobles alike. I will defend this family even if I have to leave a mountain of corpses and a river of blood the likes of which you can’t begin to imagine—any objections?”

The people saw the crimson gleam of his eyes through the darkness—the eyes of a vampire! D took a step forward, and the silenced mob was pushed back by a wave of primal fear.

“I object.”

Everyone stopped at what was a beautiful voice for such a loud shout.

“Who’s that?”

“Let him through!”

One voice after another arose from the back of the pack, and as the crowd split down the middle, a young man who was almost blindingly handsome stepped forward. While the beauty of his countenance was great, it was the unusual state of both his left and right arms that drew the people’s attention. His right arm was sheathed all the way to the shoulder in what looked like the metallic sleeve of a combat suit, and his left arm was missing from the elbow down. Proffering the stump of his arm, Rei-Ginsei said, “I came to thank you for doing this yesterday.” His tone made it seemed like an amiable greeting.

“You? Everyone, this is the bastard who attacked the FDF patrol!” The mayor and the rest of the mob started murmuring when they heard Doris shout that.

Rei-Ginsei calmly replied, “And I suppose you have some proof of that, do you? Did you find some trace of the patrol—their horses’ corpses, anything? True, there has been some unpleasantness between us in the past, but I can’t have you heaping any further aspersions on my good name.”