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Vol.1 Vampire Hunter D 11 страница

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"I'm not in a hurry, but we don't know if my work here will get finished or not."

Doris' heart sank. In her frailty, the girl instinctively reached
out for support and piece of mind, only to run into this
sledgehammer. There was no guarantee her foe would be
destroyed. She'd been lucky to weather two assaults so far, but
the battle still raged on.

"D," Doris said once again, the same word sounding like it
came from a completely different person this time. "Once you
finish up with that, come on back to the living room. I'd like to
discuss what kind of strategy we should take from here on out."
"Understood."

 

T he voice that came over his shoulder sounded satisfied.

Their enemy was extraordinarily quick about making his "visit." That evening, Greco was out carousing with his hoodlum friends, trying to work off some of the rage they still felt from the beating they'd taken at the hands of Rei-Ginsei's gang. He was headed down a deserted street for home when he happened to see a strange carriage stop in front of the inn, and he quickly concealed himself in the shadows.

Stranger than strange, from the time the black carriage appeared out of the darkness till the time it came to a halt, it never made a single sound. The horses' hooves beat the earth clearly enough, and the wagon wheels spun, but not even the sound of the scattering gravel reached Greco's ears.

That there's a Noble's carriage... This much Greco grasped. His drunken stupor dissipated instantly.

So this is the prick that's after Dons? Curiosity—and feelings of jealousy toward this rival suitor-held Greco in place. The door opened and a single figure garbed in black stepped down to the ground. By the light of a lamp dangling from the eaves of the inn, the pallid countenance of a man with a supernatural air to him came into view. I take it that's the lord of the manner then.

Greco knew this intuitively. Though he'd never seen the man before, he matched the reliable descriptions of the fiend that'd been hammered into his head by village elders when he was still a child. Soon the carriage raced off, and the Count disappeared into the inn. What the hell brings him into town? Clouded as they were by low-grade alcohol, his brain cells weren't up to neatly fitting the Count, the inn, and Doris together, but they did manage to give him a push in the right direction and tell him, Follow him, stupid.

On entering the inn, Greco found the clerk standing frozen behind the counter. The clerk seemed to be under some sort of spell; his eyes were open wide and his pupils didn't track Greco's hand as he waved it up and down. Greco opened the register. There were ten rooms. All of them were on the second floor. And there was only one guest staying there. The register put him in room #207.

Name: Charles E. Chan. Occupation: Artist.

Careful not to make a sound, Greco padded lightly up the stairs and made his way down to the door of the room in question. Light spilled out through crevasses around the door. The guest is a guy, so I don't suppose the vampire is here to drink his blood. Maybe he's one of the Count's cronies? I wonder if this clown had to call in help to try and make Doris his own. Greco pulled out what looked like a stethoscope made of thin copper wire. Hunters swore by this sort of listening device. Quite a while back, Greco had won it in rigged card game. The gossamer fairy wing, set in a tiny hole in the bell, could catch the voices of creatures otherwise inaudible to human ears, and those sounds were conveyed up the copper wire and into the listener's ears. Ordinarily, the device would be used when searching for the hiding places of supernatural creatures too dangerous to approach, or to listen in on their private conversations, but Greco had made an art out of putting it to the windows of all the young ladies in town. Securing its bell to the door with a suction cup, he put the ear tips in and began to listen. An eerie voice that was not of this world reverberated from the other side of the door. Greco put his eye to the keyhole for good measure.

 

R ei-Ginsei was astonished when the supposedly bolted door
opened without a sound and a figure in black leisurely strolled
in. Quickly realizing the intruder was a Noble, he puzzled over
the meaning of the visit even as he reached for the shrike-blades
on the desk.

The intruder gazed at him with glittering eyes as he made a truly preposterous proposal. "I know all about you and your cohorts," the figure in black said. "That you wiped out a Frontier Defense Force patrol, and that you tried, and failed, to kill a certain young lady. I have business with that particular girl. However, someone remains in my way. That was the person you encountered out in the fog, the one you were powerless to stop."

"What on earth could you be referring to?" Rei-Ginsei asked, with feigned innocence. "I am but a simple traveling artisan. The mere mention of such sordid goings-on is enough to chill my blood."

The black-garbed intruder laughed coldly and tossed a silver badge onto the bed. It had belonged to an FDF patrolman. "I know you believe all the horses and corpses were eaten or burned, and their ashes scattered to the four winds, but unfortunately such is not the case," the voice said coolly. "Monitoring devices in my castle are linked to a spy satellite stationed overhead, and when I awake, it keeps me minutely informed of movements on the Frontier. That badge was reconstructed from molecules of ash recovered at the site, and I also have images of you and yours taken during the attack, and beamed down from the satellite. I needn't tell you what would happen should this information be sent to not only this village, but also every place the lowly human race calls home."

Having heard that much, Rei-Ginsei hurled a shrike-blade.
It struck an invisible barrier in front of the fearsome blackmailer's
heart and imbedded itself in the floor. In truth, it was then that Rei-Ginsei gave up.

"There is the girl who eludes me to consider as well, " the voice continued. "I shouldn't be surprised if she were to pay a call on the sheriff tomorrow, and I assure you she would tell him all about you and your cohorts. I suppose the reason you've taken up lodging here in town alone is to kill the girl before she can do so, but as long as she has that man by her side, you'll not have an easy time of it. After all, your foe is a dhampir—he has the blood of my kind in him. No matter which course you choose, naught save doom awaits your group."

"Then why would you tell me this? What would you have us do?"

The reason Rei-Ginsei's tone was surprisingly calm was because the intruder had been right on all points but one, and he'd decided that putting up any more of a struggle would be futile.

"I thought I might lend you some assistance," the voice said—a remark that was quite unexpected. "So long as the stripling that's frustrating my efforts is slain, and the girl comes into my possession, I have no interest in what happens in the lowly world of mankind."

"But how?"

A vicious, vulgar light shone in Rei-Ginsei's eyes. He realized he might have a chance now to slay the young punk—his opponent back in the fog. That was the one point on which the Count had been mistaken. He hadn't left his three henchmen camped in the woods and come into town alone to keep the girl from talking. Well, that had been part of the plan, but his true aim was much more personal. He'd had the little bird where he could rip her wings off, tear her legs off, and wring her dainty neck, and his foe had taken her right out from under his nose. Worse yet, he'd known the humiliation of being paralyzed by a ghastly aura that kept him from lifting a finger against his foe, and he'd had the invincible shrike-blade he prided himself on knocked from the air with a single blow. He'd gone into town to see to it his foe paid for all these things. It was malice. Just as full of hatred and longing for vengeance as he was, his henchmen agreed to his plan. He returned to town alone to be less conspicuous as he looked for the girl and his mysterious foe.

However, wait as he might at the entrance to town, there was no sign of his prey. In asking around, he only managed to learn what the girl's name was and where she lived. Normally he would've gone right out there and attacked her, but the proven strength of this other enemy—who no one in town had been able to identify—was enough to throw cold water on the wildfire that was his malice. He'd left town again briefly to meet with his cohorts and order them to keep an eye on Doris' farm. Then he went back into the village to gather as much information as possible on his enemy for his own murderous purposes. And while he hadn't exactly gathered any information he now had a more powerful ally than he ever could’ve imagined standing right before him.

"How shall we do it?" Rei-Ginsei asked once again.

"This is what you should do"

Discussions between the demon in black and the gorgeous fiend went on for some time.

Presently, the visitor in black dropped something long, thin, and candle-like on the bed.

"That's Time-Bewitching Incense. It's a tool for turning day to night, or night to day. This is an especially potent version. Light it when you're near him, then quickly extinguish it again. That should throw his defenses off. That's when you kill him. However, just to keep you from getting any ideas about other uses you might put this to, it can only be used twice. You have only to give it a good shake and it should light."

"Please, wait a moment," Rei-Ginsei cried out, hoping to stop the departing figure. "I have one additional favor to ask of you."

"A favor?" The shadowy figure sounded both puzzled and angered.

"Yes, sir." With a nod and a smile, Rei-Ginsei made his
outlandish request. "I ask that you make me one of the Nobility.
Oh, you needn't be so angry about it. Please, simply hear me out
I have to wonder why you bothered selecting me as your partner
in this. If this incense alone is enough to do the trick, there must
be any number of humans you could have entrusted this to. We
live in times where parents will kill their own child for a gold
coin and a new spear. And yet, the very fact that you went to
all the trouble of coming to see me is proof enough that you
need someone of my skill in order to kill the dhampir. I know a
thing or two about dhampirs myself. I know they tend to be the
very worst sort of enemy you could ever make. And there's
something so powerful, so terrifying about the one we're dealing
with now, it cuts me to the quick. That is no ordinary dhampir.
With all due respect, it's not enough to merely have you overlook
my group's misdeeds. I do not ask the same favor for all four
of my party—I alone would like to rise to the hallowed ranks
of the Nobility."

The shadowy figure fell silent.

Anyone with a heart who heard Rei-Ginsei's overture would ve wanted to scream "Traitor!"--to say nothing about what his three henchmen might have done-but then the world has never lacked for turncoats. Even as they hated and feared them like demons from hell, deep in their heart of hearts people looked at the dreaded vampires with a covetous gaze. Power and immortality had such an alluring scent.

"What say you?" Rei-Ginsei asked, pressuring his visitor for a response.

The shadowy figure gave a nod, and Rei-Ginsei nodded in return.

"Then thy will be done."

"See to it."

The shadowy figure left the room. He still had another visit to pay before he returned to his castle. By the guttering lamplight, he failed to notice the other person in the hallway.

 

The bloody battle - fifteen seconds each

 

Chapter 5

 

 

I t was early the next morning that Dan's disappearance came to light. Weary as she was from her deadly battle the previous night and from staying up almost all night preparing for the Count's attack, Doris failed to notice her younger brother racing out to the prairie at the crack of dawn.

Having told D the details of her run-in with Rei-Ginsei and his gang, Doris had decided to go see the sheriff today to inform him. Though Dan had been told not to leave the farm until they were ready to go into town, the boy was just bursting at the seams with energy. Apparently he'd switched off the barrier and gone out alone with a laser rifle to hunt some mist devils.

Fog-like monsters that slipped in with the morning mist, the creatures were a nuisance on the Frontier mainly because they had a propensity for dissolving their way through crops and the hides of farm animals. They didn't fare well against heat, however, and a blast from a laser beam was enough to destroy them. Being rather sluggish, they posed little threat to an armed boy used to dealing with them.

Hunting mist devils was really Dan's specialty.


Soon after she awoke, Doris realized her brother wasn't on the farm. She raced frantically to the weapon storeroom and saw hat he'd taken his rifle, which let her relax for a moment. But when she ran outside to call him back in, she froze in her tracks at the entrance to the farm.

His laser rifle had been left as a paperweight on a single sheet of paper that was lying on the ground, right in front of the gate. The following words were written on the page in elegant lettering:

Your brother is coming with us. The Hunter D is to come alone at six o'clock Evening to the region of ruins where we met the other day. Our goal is simply to ascertain which Hunter has the superior skills, and nothing more. We have no need of observers, not even you, Doris. Until this test of skill has been decided, you are to mention this to no one.

If you deviate from the above conditions in the least, a sweet little eight-year-old will bum in the fires of hell.

—Rei-Ginsei.

Doris felt every ounce of strength drain from her body as she returned to the house. She was still trying to decide whether or not she should show the letter to D when D noticed all was not right with her. Trapped in the gaze of his lustrous eyes, Doris finally showed him the letter.

"Well, half of it is true, at least," D said, as if the matter didn't concern him in the least, though it was quite clear he was being challenged to a duel.

"Half of it?"

"If he just wanted to face off against me, all he had to do was come here and say so. Since he took Dan, he must have another aim—to separate the two of us. The Count is behind this."

"But why would he have gone to all that trouble? It'd be a lot faster and easier if he'd said I was the one who had to come alone...


One reason is because the author of this letter wants to settle a score with me. The other—"

"What would that be?"

"Using a child to get you would reflect poorly on the honor of the Nobility."

Doris' eyes blazed with fury. "But he really is using Dan to "

"Most likely his abduction is the only part of the plan Rei-Ginsei and his gang came up with."

"The honor of the Nobility—don't make me laugh! Even if it wasn't his idea, if he approves of it it's the same damned thing. Nobility my ass—they're nothing but blood-sucking monsters!" After she spat the words like a gout of flame, Doris was shocked at herself. "I'm sorry, you're not like that at all. That was a rotten thing for me to say."

Tears quickly welled in her eyes, and Doris broke down crying on the spot. The recoil from putting all her violent emotions into words had just hit her. Her situation was grim, with one misfortune after another piling onto her as if she was possessed by some evil spirit that drew all these calamities to her. In reality, it was amazing she hadn't surrendered to tears long before now.

As weeping shook her pale shoulders, a cool hand came to rest on them. "We can't have you forgetting you hired a bodyguard."

Even with the present state of affairs, D's voice remained soft. But within the coolly composed ring of his words, the ears of Doris' heart clearly heard another voice propped up by unshakable assurance. And this is what it seemed to say: I promised to protect you and Dan, and you can be certain I will.

Doris raised her face.

Right before her eyes was the face of an elegant, valiant young man gazing quietly at her.

It felt as something hot fell onto her full bosom.

"Hold me," she sobbed, throwing herself against D's chest don't care what happens. Just hold me tight. Don't let me go.


Gently resting his hands on the sob-wracked shoulders of the seven teen-year- old girl, D gazed out the window at the blue expanse of sky and the prairie filling with morning's life.

What was he thinking about? The safety of the boy, his four foes, the Count, or something else? The emotional hue that filled his eyes remained a single shade of cold, clear black. Before long, Doris pulled back from him. With a spent, sublime expression she said, "I'm sorry. That wasn't exactly in character for me. It's just... I suddenly got the feeling you might stay here with me forever. But that's not right. When your job's done, you'll be moving on, won't you?"

D said nothing.

"This is almost over. Something tells me that. But what are we gonna do about Dan?"

"I'll go, of course. I have to." "Can you take them?" "I'll bring Dan back, safe and sound." "Please, see that you do. I feel awful making you look out for him, but I think I'm gonna head into town to hole up. I'll have Doc Ferringo put me up at his place. You know, he saved me the night before last. I'm sure I'll be fine this time, too."

Doris still didn't know that the real reason the Count had run off was the protective charm D had placed on her neck. And most likely the reason D said nothing when the girl told him she was going to the physician's home was because he knew he couldn't guarantee that the charm would ward off someone with the Count's power forever.

When the angle of the sunlight spearing through the window became sharp, the two of them got on their horses and left the farm. Regardless of what D had said, Doris' expression

remained dark.

If anyone can bring back Dan, he can—she had no trouble making herself believe this. But she remembered how powerful his enemies were. She could still hear the shrike-blade screaming


up behind her in the ruins; the horrid sight of her horse falling over with all four legs cut off was burned deep into her eyelids. Now there were four such fiends out there. A dark spot of despair remained in Doris' heart.

What's more, even if D made it back alive, if the Count were to strike while D was gone, there was no way she could escape him this time. She'd said nothing about it to D, but she still wasn't entirely sure going to Dr. Ferringo's was the right thing to do.

On entering town, countless eyes focused on the pair as they rode down the main street. The looks were colored more by fear than by hate. For people on the Frontier, who lived surrounded by dark forests and monsters, a girl who'd been preyed on by a vampire and a young man with vampire blood in his veins were beyond the normal level of revulsion. Thanks to Greco, everyone had heard what had happened.

A little girl who seemed to recognize Doris said, "Oh, hi"
and started to approach, but her mother wasted no time in
pulling her back.

Among the men, there were some whose faces showed the urge to kill, and they reached for swords or guns the second they saw D. Not because they'd been told what he was, but rather because of the eerie aura that hung about him. All the women, however, looked like they would swoon as they watched him go by, and given how beautiful he was, that came as little surprise. And yet, the pair made their way down the street without a single hot-head running out to stop them, and finally they arrived at a house with the sign "Dr. Ferringo" hanging from the eaves.

Doris got down off her horse and rang the bell, and presently the woman from next door, who acted as a nurse and watched the place while Doc was out, answered. Apparently ignorant of Doris' situation, she smiled and stated, "Doc's been out since this morning. It seems there was someone out at Harker Lane's house that needed urgent care and he went off to see to 'em. He left a


note saying he'd be back around noon, but where he's still not back yet, he may be dealing with something serious. You know, the lady of the house out there is apt to put anything in season into her mouth, even if it's a numbleberry or a topsy-turvy toadstool." Lane was a huntsman, and his home was out in the middle of the woods, two hours of hard riding from town. "I hate it when this happens. On my own I can't do much besides treat scrapes and hand out sedatives, but since everyone always says that's good enough I've been running myself ragged all morning. Why don't you come in and wait. I'm sure Doc will be back soon, and if you're willing, I could sure use the help."

Uncertain about what to do, Doris looked to D. Sitting on his horse, he gave her the slightest nod.

She decided. Giving a bow to the housewife—who was watching D with starry eyes—Doris said, "It looks like I'll be in your hair until Doc gets back then." She sounded a little tense, but that was unavoidable. While she thought D would come with her, as soon as he saw she'd made up her mind, he started to ride off slowly.

"Dear me, isn't he with you?" the woman asked Doris excitedly. She didn't even try to hide her disappointment. At that point, before Doris could get angry at the thought of a woman oi the nurse's age getting all worked up about D, she was sharing the woman's confusion.

"Hold on. Where are you headed?"

"Just taking a look around the perimeter." I "It's still midday. There's not going to be anything out. Stay with me."

"I'll be back soon."

D let his horse go on without once looking back.

A

fter they'd gone a ways he took a left turn. In a needling tone, a voice asked, "Why don't you stick close to her? You mean to tell me you're so worried about that little tike you can't


sit still? Or is just that you can't stand to see the suffering on his sister's face? Dhampir or not, seems you're still a little wet behind the ears. Heh heh heh. Or could it be you're in love with the girl?"

"Is that what you think?"

Just whom was D talking to?

The road ahead was a dusty path that continued on between walls of earth and stone. Aside from the lethargic, vexing rays of the sun as it moved past noon, there was no sign of anyone around. And yet, there was still that voice.

"No chance. You're not that kind of softy. After all, you've
got his blood in your veins. It's perfect, the way you told them to
call you D."
"Silence!"

Judging by the way the man in question had roared in reaction to his name, it seemed the voice had touched on a rather sensitive point.

An instant later his tone became soft once again. "You've been full of complaints lately. Would you like to split with me?"

"Oh no!" the voice exclaimed, sounding a touch threatened. But then, as if to avoid showing any weakness, it replied, "It's not like I'm with you because I like it. Well, you know how it goes-give-and-take makes the world go round. Not to change the subject, but why didn't you tell the girl about the mark you put on her neck? Out of loyalty to your father? Just a word from you would've put her at ease, I bet. It must be tough having the blood of the Nobility in you."

The voice sounded sincere enough, but the fact that its heart held an entirely different sentiment was made apparent by a burst of derisive laughter.

Still, one couldn't help but wonder if the young man had completely lost his mind to continue a dialogue with an imaginary companion as he sat there on his horse. But because the tone, quality, and everything else about the two voices were


completely different, the weird scene only seemed possible
through some truly ingenious ventriloquism.

D's eyes sparkled brilliantly, but soon reclaimed their usual, quiet darkness, and the conversation came to an end. Shortly thereafter he took a left at the next corner, came to a similar corner, and once again turned the same way. Eventually, he returned to the front of the physician's home.

"Any strange characters out there?" the voice once again echoed from nowhere in particular.

"None."

Given the way he'd answered, it seemed he had in fact gone off to check the surrounding area for any hint of anything out of the ordinary.

However, he showed no sign of dismounting as he lifted his beautiful visage and grimaced at the sun listing westward from the center of the sky.

"Is that all I can do?" he muttered. Perhaps some vision of the grisly battle to come flitted through his mind; for an instant, a certain expression rose on his oh-so-proper countenance, and then it was gone.

A few horses hitched up across the street suddenly grew agitated, and people walking by shielded their eyes from the dust kicked up by an unpleasantly warm wind blowing by without warning.

The momentary expression on D's face was the same one the Midwich Medusas had seen in the subterranean waterway— the face of a blood-crazed vampire.

Gazing for a brief moment at the closed door to the doctor's home, D reined his horse around and headed out of town. The ruins were two hours away.

Here he comes. You should see him on top of the hill any

minute," Gimlet said, returning with the wind in his

wake. When Rei-Ginsei heard this news he pulled himself up off


the stone sculpture he'd been leaning against. Gimlet was their lookout. "Alone, I take it?"

"Yessir. Just like you told him."

Rei-Ginsei nodded, then addressed the other two henchmen who'd been standing there for some time like guardian demons at a temple gate, with their eyes running out across the prairie.

"Everyone is set, I see. Engage him just as we've planned."

"Yessir."

Nodding as Golem and Chullah bowed in unison, Rei-Ginsei walked to the horse hitched up behind him. The place the four of them had chosen for this showdown was the same bowl-like depression where Witch had been killed. Challenging D to a grudge match in the same location where D's aura had battered them and kept them paralyzed was just the sort of thing this vindictive ruffian would do, but consideration had also been given to how useful this location would be for restricting their opponent's movements when they fought him four against one.

Rei'Ginsei squatted next to Dan, who lay behind a rock, gagged and bound hand and foot, and pulled down the cloth covering the boy's mouth. Called a gag rag, the cloth was a favorite of criminals. The fabric was woven from special fibers that could absorb all sound, and its usefulness to kidnappers made it worth its weight in gold.

Still, there was no call for the cruelty displayed by keeping a boy barely eight years old gagged ever since the morning.

"Look, your savior is coming. I put this plan together yesterday after hearing about you and your sister, and I must confess it seems to be going beautifully."

Just as Rei-Ginsei finished speaking, the furious gaze that had been concentrated on him was colored by relief and confidence. Dan looked toward the hills.

Twisting his lips a bit, Rei-Ginsei sneered, "How sad. Neither of you is fated to leave here alive."


«Ha you guys are the one who won't make it out of here alive." Worried and hungry and looking gaunt, Dan still managed to fling the reply with all his might. He hadn't been given so much as a drop of water since he'd been captured. "You have no

idea how tough ol' D is!"

His words were strong, but they were also a childish bluff. He'd never even seen D fight.

Dan thought Rei-Ginsei might fly into a rage, but, to the contrary, Rei-Ginsei only smirked and turned his gaze to his three henchmen standing in the center of the depression. "You may be right. That would certainly mean less work for me."

Dan's eyes opened wide, as if he must have heard that wrong.


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