The Long, Dark Night

chapter 2

1

With a soft rasp of steel, the rider in black returned his sword to the sheath on his back. To Annette’s utter astonishment, he seemed ready to keep going without so much as a glance at her. His black cyborg horse was about to pass right by the coach.

“Wait!” she shouted, running toward him, but as soon as she did, she reeled. The rider was so handsome, he was like some lovely dream from which she couldn’t awaken, and she was paralyzed both in heart and mind. Her fear of death had been lacquered over with fascination. Shaking her head to clear it, she shouted, “I’m Annette Krishken. My father is the mayor of the village of Krishken. See me home. You won’t regret it.”

Annette figured paying him twice the usual rate would probably suffice.

The horse and rider continued off in silence.

“Wait. No! Wait!”

Sending great splashes up from the ground, which had largely been reduced to mud, Annette dashed out in front of the horse and grabbed hold of its bridle.

“I’m in trouble here! Would you just leave a woman in a place like this?” she said, her angry tone jolting to the fore. She was being jerked forward with each step the horse took. “Stop! Please—just stop.”

“You’re headed in the wrong direction, princess.”

The hoarse voice swiftly drained Annette of her strength. It was simply too much at odds with the face the lightning had shown her moments earlier.

“Do something! A few minutes ago, that villain said his friends would be right behind you, didn’t he? They’re after me! The Nobles of the Xeno clan were supposed to have been exterminated ages ago. And now they’re back—I can’t believe this!”

“Xeno, eh? If they’re back, it’d be the five that were said to have fled to somewhere in the castle—Grand Duke Xeno’s son and four of his cousins. They’re real trouble, to be sure.”

Annette got the feeling that hoarse voice was neither addressed toward her nor engaged in soliloquy.

“There is something you could do,” the voice continued.

“What?!”

“You can hire us. Whatever money you’ve got on hand will do for a down payment, with the balance due once you’re safely home.”

“How much?” Annette asked, regaining some of her calm even as she was dragged along.

“Given the distance to the village of Krishken and the fact that it’s in the opposite direction, plus the strength of the opposition—that’ll be a hundred thousand dalas.”

“You must be joking!” Annette snapped, and in her anger she let go of the steed’s bridle that she’d latched onto. There in the rain and mud, she stood like a defiant deity. The road was just beginning its downward slope.

“For someone so good-looking,” she said, and, beginning to drift into infatuation she desperately fought to regain control enough to continue, “you have the heart of a loan shark, you know that? A hundred thousand dalas to bring me home—why, that’s enough to run a small village for half a year. Five thousand should more than suffice!”

“Oh, and where do you get that?”

Donning a perplexed expression, Annette gave the question some consideration. After advancing five or six paces down the slope along with the horse, she continued, “A long time ago, I was kidnapped by a band of outlaws, and the warrior who rescued me got five thousand dalas. What’s more, he had to deal with twenty of them. You’re only up against five—no, make that four now. You’re quite proficient at your trade, aren’t you? You simply have to take care of the other four.”

“I did that one just now because he came at me.”

The hoarse voice had been replaced by one of steel. So lovely, but with a sternness radiating from its depths—Annette thought the blood was freezing in her veins. It wasn’t fear alone that froze it.

Was that supposed to mean he wouldn’t simply take care of the rest? Not knowing for sure, Annette was almost like a sleepwalker as she extended a pair of fingers and called to the leaving rider, “Twenty thousand dalas,” and even managing that much was something of a feat.

No reaction.

“Thirty thousand.”

Though she was sure there was no point in further negotiations with the rider, just to be on the safe side she said, “Fifty thousand.”

“Okay, princess—throw in the towel already.”

The hoarse voice had returned.

Damn it, she thought.

“Fifty-three thousand.”

The hoarse voice laughed. Mockingly it said, “Oh, look at that. His friends are coming. They’re making their way up the pass. They’ll be here in three minutes.”

“Fifty-five thousand.”

The hoarse voice fell silent. Through the now louder pounding of the rain, Annette thought she could hear the sound of iron-shod hooves climbing the pass.

“Extortionist—okay, I’ll pay you a hundred thousand. But I only have ten thousand on me, so you’ll receive the balance once I’m home!”

“Good enough,” the hoarse voice said, sounding relieved. “So, do you wanna ride this horse, or would you prefer the coach?”

“And meet the same fate as the driver? No, thank you! I’ll ride with you. Wait just a moment, and I’ll go fetch my luggage.”

“Just bring your purse.”

“Oh, I don’t believe you! Okay! Okay!”

Collecting the hem of her skirt in both hands, the girl returned to the coach and pulled a compact raincoat from the same bag that held her purse. Pulling it over her head, she came back with bag in hand.

Grumbling all the while about how he didn’t offer her a hand up and that they didn’t have time for this, she climbed on behind the rider and wrapped her arms around his waist. That made her feel safer—or it should have, but through her arms his body felt hard and cold as steel.

“God,” she murmured in spite of herself.

“What’s your problem now?” a hoarse voice inquired. “It ain’t bad enough you’re a tightwad?”

The horse had already turned around and begun traveling in the direction Annette desired. When they’d passed the stationary cyborg horse and the bisected corpse of Baron Hayden and had come alongside the coach, Annette heard the rasp of a sword being drawn from the back right in front of her.

Reaching out one hand, the rider grabbed the reins to the coach. He tied them to his saddle horn, and as soon as he let go of the reins they stretched like a rope, with one horse following along behind the pair. Logically, the girl knew that the rider must’ve used his blade to cut the traces between the coach and the horses drawing it in the blink of an eye. It’d literally been faster than the eye could follow.

After advancing another five or six paces, the horse stopped.

An indescribable air of weirdness enveloped Annette. It had billowed up the road from the slope. At the same time, she heard something. The sound of hoofbeats, like a spectral steed galloping out of the depths of the earth. And there was more than one horse coming.

The unearthly air of evil billowing toward them grew denser and more unsettling, seeping into the very flesh.

Despair sapped Annette’s will. She couldn’t get away. They had come back from Hell to pursue her, and she was fated to fall victim to their fangs. They would drain the blood from her, making her a demon of the night who would seek the lifeblood of humans just as they did. Oh, why did she have to come back here? She could’ve stayed back in the Capital, enjoying her comfortable life as a student on the sizable allowance she received. What about her life? And look—now this guy couldn’t even move a muscle.

The approaching hoofbeats halted. They’d completed the climb.

They were coming. They were going to attack. Her consciousness rapidly began to dwindle. She was so afraid, she was about to pass out.

And at that very moment—they started forward. Their horse and its riders.

The road to the top of the pass wasn’t wide enough for two wagons to travel abreast, so every so often spaces had been set aside where someone going in the opposite direction could pull out of the way. The enemy blocked the center of the road, making it impossible for the young man and Annette to pass. Nevertheless, the rider in black and his steed pressed on.

The flashing lightning picked out dark silhouettes halted up ahead. Try as she might to see them, Annette couldn’t even make out their outlines in the instant before they faded back into the darkness.

Illuminated by the lightning was “the Glittering Gates to the Land of the Dead.” The two of them headed right for it. Was it that the rider didn’t fear death? Or did he not even know what death was?

Arms still wrapped around that waist of steel, Annette shut her eyes. Her body trembled abruptly. It was a result of the supernatural aura that came from up ahead. But that air was suddenly shaken. As the unearthly air and her own trembling dwindled, Annette focused her gaze to the fore.

Look. Were the shadowy figures ranked like a threat against the very darkness not pulling off to the right? Like vassals bowing before their king. Like fiends cowed by a hero.

The rain still lashed the pair viciously, the wind still harangued their mount and the horse that followed them, yet the young man rode on into the night with the girl and the horses, not so much as drawing his blade.

Annette caught a sound she’d heard before. It was one her father often made the night before the village financial reports were presented as he studied the documents in his office. It was one condemned criminals in the Capital tried to choke back as they climbed the thirteen steps to their place of execution. The sound of grinding teeth.

Hating. Cursing. Regretting. As the pair passed right by them while they could only watch in silence, the Nobles hated themselves so much they could die. Cursed themselves. Regretted what they were. Oh, how many times over that would grow, becoming malice when they assailed the pair.

However, as they rode through the pass, Annette’s heart was pounding with excitement. For she had seen the shadowy figures’ faces etched by a flash of lightning. She knew the legends of the Xeno clan. The power and cruelty of its true heir and his cousins was also established to a shocking degree. She’d even come to accept that they had returned. But at present those demons were unable to lift so much as a finger to prevent the pair from making good their unhurried escape.

Almost impressed, Annette called out the young man’s name.

“D.”

Annette was surprised to discover she wasn’t the one speaking.

“I must have heard your name a hundred and one times in the village of Jagos,” someone said to him. “I asked a hundred and one people who the most powerful Vampire Hunter was. Oh, the look of bliss on the idiots’ faces as they spoke of you. How they went on about your beauty, your physique, your sword, and the unearthly air about you—and not once in a hundred and one times did they fail to mention your name.”

His tone suddenly shifted to gloom.

“We shall let you go for the time being. However, next time our swords will pierce you. Know that there shall never be a third meeting between us.”

A flash of light picked the speaker out starkly. Beneath a head of blazing red hair was a pair of blood-hued eyes brighter than flames that reflected the two riders.

“I am Xeno Gillian, son of Grand Duke Xeno Don.”

White light picked out a second face. It was a young man with an aquiline nose, wearing an ornate jacket reminiscent of formal attire.

“Xeno Gorshin. I’ll be seeing you.”

The third face glowed starkly. Unlike the first two, the long-haired youth almost seemed like a monk in his threadbare cape and horribly worn clothing. He had a giant scythe across his back.

“From generation to generation, the Grim Reaper has been called ‘Benelli’ by the Xeno clan. And that is my name.”

The fourth one squinted in the light. With a pair of crossed longswords strapped to his back, he had a youthful visage, but was still colored by the nihilism of the horribly aged.

“Xeno Braylow, and don’t forget it.”

Though he didn’t lift a finger, the sound of his voice alone was enough to raise a clang from his back. The pair of blades had slid up and down as if writhing about.

With the fifth gone, that left these four. When their eyes gave off the death light, and their hands took up swords, and their fangs were stained with blood, how many souls would be taken from their Creator?

Lightning flashed, and thunder followed.

On hearing a hoarse voice from the vicinity of the black rider’s left hip, Annette bugged her eyes.

“Well I’ll be—there are two people up in the sky mixing it up. Oh, one of them got whomped, I think. They’re going down. But—run for it! Something else is coming down, too!”

Before the hoarse voice could even finish speaking, the four vampires and the horse with two riders were racing off. D and Annette were headed for the bottom of the slope, while the four from the Xeno clan made for the top of the pass.

It was seven seconds after the silvery cylinder dropped that a million degrees of blistering heat vaporized the entire pass.

II

The world of darkness seemed to watch spellbound as the blast spread. That tiny flash of light, virulent napalm flames swallowing just over five thousand square feet, was a simple but effective way of dealing with the invaders. D and Annette watched from the summit of a mound on the plains as the light was assimilated by the darkness.

“It’s gone!” Annette said, lowering the collapsible night-vision goggles she held. “What was that just now? It blew the entire pass to smithereens.”

She looked terrified. Rain mercilessly pelted her thin vinyl raincoat.

“We had an enemy in the sky,” said the hoarse voice that issued from a little ahead of D and off to the left—and the hand that gripped the reins.

Strain her eyes as she might, Annette still didn’t see anything. There was only his left hand.

The voice continued, “I suppose it’s necessary that we answer our employer’s question. You see, there was an enemy in the sky above us. And another foe attacked them. One of those other four, I suppose. As a result of their battle, one of ’em was shot down. That explosion would’ve been a napalm bomb they were carrying.”

“Which one was taken out?”

“We’ll know soon enough.”

“If one of them is in league with those four, who in the world could the other one be?”

“That I don’t know. To be flying in weather like this, it could be a smuggler or something, only that wasn’t any flying machine. There was no sound of engines from it, either. In which case it’d either be some stray demon bird, or else a bodyguard for you.”

“For me? Then my father might’ve hired them?”

“They were up there either watching over you or looking for you. Judging from the weather, probably the latter. You’d best pray the one that got shot down wasn’t guarding you.”

“Oh, I don’t care for this one bit. All this killing and dying.”

Annette furrowed her brow, shaking her head from side to side as if to deny the truth of any of this. Not that she was mourning the dead. Her tone and expression made it clear she found it revolting and bothersome to have others dying around her.

“Eighteen years I’ve lived in peace, so why did these musty old Nobles have to climb out of their graves now? And why are they after my family? This sort of trouble we could do without. Do you suppose it’s too much to hope that explosion wiped out the lot of them?”

“Since we’re safe and sound, it’s safe to assume the same goes for the enemy. I think they converged here to either snatch you or butcher you. They’re probably already headed this way.”

“Oh dear. After a short rest, you must take me home posthaste.”

“A short rest?”

“Well, we can’t go any farther in this downpour. My clothes are soaked, and the strain has left me exhausted. Let’s take a break somewhere.”

“We press on.”

The shriveled voice had suddenly been replaced by one of iron. Low and soft, his tone still made it clear he would brook no objections, yet Annette listened to it like a dotard while glaring at the man’s black back.

“And I’m telling you that your employer is tired and we need to rest. Try to remember your place in this equation.”

“Change horses,” said the owner of that broad back.

At the bottom of the pass D had intended to put her onto the extra horse he’d taken from the coach, but the incident with the napalm had forced them to gallop away at top speed, so that Annette was still riding double on D’s cyborg horse.

Annette didn’t budge. While riding double was still a hassle, she didn’t even want to move.

“I don’t want to. Too much bother.”

When she said that, the cyborg horse had already started forward through the needling rain.

“Stop for a minute. Every bone in my body is creaking. And my behind is killing me.”

“Has to be better than dying.”

The steely voice silenced the mayor’s daughter.

“The enemy is already closing in. And there are four of them. We’ll ride through the night.”

Annette shuddered. Earlier, the demons pursuing her had allowed D to pass without lifting a finger to stop him. And that was only right, she thought, having witnessed the greatness that lay within the gorgeous young man, the skilled swordsmanship that’d dispatched Baron Hayden with a single blow. She wanted to laugh in their faces and tell them they could go to Hell. However, the malevolence that crazed their eyes as they looked at D and the ghastly aura that emanated from every inch of them had also been enough to make Annette’s blood run cold. These are Nobles, she knew in her heart of hearts as she clung to D. Though her faith in D was absolute, these assassins weren’t to be taken lightly. And four of them were coming.

“You’re right—ride on, then.”

“Oh, ain’t you the smart cookie,” the hoarse voice said, the tone carrying a laughter that infuriated Annette. She promised herself she’d find out the source of it and make it pay.

As they were coming down the hill, something occurred to her and she had to ask, “They said there were five including the cousins, right? But you cut down one, leaving the other four who were back there. So, how did they manage to shoot down a foe in the sky overhead?”

There was no answer.

She figured it probably didn’t matter anyway. No matter how many of them there were, he would cut them down—because this gorgeous young man was clearly that ironbound rule made flesh.

They reached the bottom of the hill. Giving a light kick to his horse’s belly, D spurred it into a dash.

Racing through the night, ignoring even the dawn, it was nearly noon when they finally reached the town of Ligatem. A mining town with a population of about a thousand, the high-quality uranium ore excavated there kept the place prosperous.

“At any rate, we’ve gotta get a room at a hotel, let the girly get some sleep, and procure a horse, eh?” the hoarse voice said.

“I’ll thank to you make that ‘young lady,’” Annette said with displeasure, but she seemed to have no other complaints.

As D advanced on his cyborg horse, the bustle along the street died. On noticing his good looks, pedestrians were left breathless. Though one might’ve expected Annette to be disgusted by this, since entering town she’d powdered her face and applied lipstick, sitting up straight and proud to show her good looks off to even better effect. She believed herself to be the cause of the pedestrians’ silence.

“The girl behind you—seems she’s been fussed over up till now. Still, she is pretty good-looking,” the hand gripping the reins remarked with amusement.

D replied, “If we could, I’d like to pass right through, but we can’t do that.”

Unheard by anyone else, this was a conversation between D and his left hand alone.

“Probably not. She’s putting on a brave face, but the girl’s all tuckered out. You could knock ’er over with a feather. Gotta be tough being a beauty, though. Needs to work on everything besides her looks—what in the blazes?!”

Not three feet in front of the steed a mass of brown had slammed into the road, then swiftly resolved into a human form. It was a boy who appeared to be about ten years old. Though grimacing and clutching his back, he looked impudently up at the second-story saloon window he’d fallen from.

“Hold it right there, you little shit!” a man’s voice snarled viciously.

“The hell I will! That’s what you get for what you did to that girl. And next time, you won’t get off so easily!” the boy fired back, his words flying like bullets from a repeating rifle, and then in the blink of an eye he disappeared into the crowd. In the course of doing so, apparently he bumped into someone, as there was a thud and a cry of “Jerk! What are you doing, staring at a woman like that?!” Further curses rang out, then faded.

Annette snuck a peek in that direction, but D didn’t even glance at the boy.

When they arrived at the hotel another fifty yards away, there were angry shouts and a number of footfalls behind them, but D was so expressionless all that seemed like events on another world as he climbed off his cyborg horse, tethered both steeds to the hitching post, and brought Annette into the hotel.

Parting company with Annette in front of her room, D went back outside. He headed straight for the “bird man.”

After twisting and turning down numerous alleyways, D was greeted by a small shop with a rather spacious front yard. The sign read: Pigeons, Bugs, Butterflies and More for Messaging.

What D asked for was a “recon hawk.”

“Also, the camera has to be able to transmit,” the Hunter said, “and I need you to put some basic armor on it.”

“In that case, it’ll also need secondary propulsion,” the proprietor replied somewhat dreamily after gazing in rapture at D’s face for more than ten seconds. “All my big models are rented out right now. All that’s left is one bitty one. Got a camera on board, but it’ll barely make a sixty-mile round trip.”

“Good enough.”

“Okay, that’ll be an extra five thousand dalas.”

No sooner had the man finished saying that than the very end of his bulbous nose vanished. He only clutched his nose after bright blood had welled to the surface of a slice no bigger than the tip of his pinky. The scream came even later.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve had to have attachments put on a recon bird, you know. Thought you’d play us for a sucker, but you thought wrong. Three hundred and fifty dalas should do it, eh?”

Negotiations be damned, more than shock and fear from having the tip of his nose taken off, it was out of terror at not understanding what’d happened that the shopkeeper nodded. He didn’t have enough faculties left to even notice a dubious change in the customer in black’s tone of voice. He was bowing intensely and repeatedly, like a clockwork automaton, when the door opened and a brown-haired boy stuck his head in.

“Hey, isn’t that the squirt who—” the left hand murmured.

The boy shot a quick glance in that direction, but couldn’t discern anything.

“I’d heard someone had gone into this rip-off master’s shop, mister,” the boy said, and then his mouth fell open. Still, it was admirable the way he suddenly slapped his own cheeks, swiftly returning sanity to both his eyes and expression. “Man, you sure are one handsome cuss.”

His manly voice carried a feeling of pure admiration. His words were followed by a foul stench. From the look of his tattered shirt and trousers and the way his hair was plastered to his head, he and the bathtub hadn’t been on speaking terms for quite some time now.

“Boy,” he continued, “wish I’d been born with a face like that, too. Thanks to my mom, I’ve got kinda a pug nose. Well, not much I can do about that. Oh, I’m Pikk. By the way, I wouldn’t do business here if I were you.”

“D.”

But before the Hunter could ask the boy why he said that, the shop owner shouted with bulging eyes, “What’d you just say, you little thieving bastard?!” He’d pulled out a towel to cover his nose, but as it was also soaked with blood, it remained a shocking sight. Shifting his eyes from the smirking boy—Pikk—to D, he said, “That little prick’s a well-known troublemaker. Just a snot-nosed brat, but he sasses adults, steals liquor from the bar, helps hookers run off, blackmails and shakes down travelers—if we were to catch him, the mayor’d pay a reward. Don’t you go believing anything that one tells you!”

“What are you talking about, jerk?” Pikk sneered. “The liquor in the bar was leftovers, so I helped myself. The girl from the cathouse’s time was up, but she was being forced to keep working under a bogus contract. And all I ever blackmailed or shook down were stupid rich folks, no matter how much money they had. This here’s the Frontier. Act like that, and you’ll fall prey to bandits the second you step outta town. I taught ’em a lesson about survival. All I was doing was getting paid in return for the service.”

“Why, you little—”

The shopkeeper reached for the rifle he had hanging on the wall. The gun brushed his fingers, then vanished.

“What in the—”

Setting down the rifle, D said, “So, you said he was a cheat, didn’t you?”

Pikk gave a quiet, mature nod, saying, “Now, I don’t know what sort of bird you asked for, but this old coot probably told you right now he ain’t got nothing but little ones. So if it’s gonna carry a payload, it’ll need some upgrades. And that’ll cost you extra.”

The shop owner went white. His nose even stopped bleeding.

“Why, you little—”

“Right? I wouldn’t use this place,” Pikk said, grinning at D. “If it’s a recon bird you need, I’ve got a good one. And you can have it for half of what this place usually charges. Naturally, that includes the upgrades.”

“Don’t you believe that little bastard. Ask anyone. They’ll attest to me running an honest business.”

“Of course they will. Round these parts, you’re all in on it together. This whole town’s rotten to the core. The merchants are all in cahoots, and they’ve got ties with the sheriff and the town hall. They rip off travelers and the only honest people in town—but they can’t pull a fast one on me. No, I turn the tables on ’em. That’s why they try and run me out.”

Not even turning to face the shop owner, D said, “The deal is off.”

“But that kid’s—”

“—better than the likes of you, it seems.”

The shop owner turned a stunned gaze to the vicinity of D’s left hip. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a grubby face ducking back out, and the figure in black headed for the door.

III

“Make it quick,” D said tersely on exiting the shop.

Brimming with confidence, the boy nodded vehemently.

“I hear ya. Just leave it to me.”

His right hand slipped into his ragged shirt, and out came a great hawk with wings folded. It was of such a size there didn’t seem to be any way the boy could’ve kept it concealed. Its wingspan alone was easily wider than Pikk was tall.

“You a cyborg?” said the hoarse voice. “Your stomach kept its functionality, but got a dimensional pocket that lets it double as storage—that’s a pretty tricky operation!”

“I had a really good doctor,” Pikk laughed. His white teeth gleamed like precious stones in his sunburnt face. “Pay enough and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do. Mine’s for stashing hot merchandise, but he did all kinds of operations on some folks. He was so busy, he just keeled over a couple months back. Couldn’t even spare enough time to work on himself. Well, Mister D, it’s just verbal, but we’ve got ourselves a contract, don’t we?”

“I want to ask you something.”

Putting away the hawk he’d been holding out, Pikk replied, “What’s that?”

“Why only half price? I doubt you’re that service oriented.”

“The truth is—” The mature expression once more became that of a ten-year-old. A look of naivety unimaginable after his earlier words and deeds came to rest on the boy’s face. “I’ll tell ya later.”

“Then no deal.”

“No way—I said half price! Tell you what, I’ll settle for a third. How about it?”

“Why the fire sale?”

The boy was cornered by the steely voice. “Ease up,” he said. “You’re embarrassing me.”

The boy laughed, but he realized he wouldn’t be able to fool this one. He was out of his league. Averting his gaze from D, he rubbed one hand along the side of his nose. After two shakes of his head, he finally continued, “Earlier, you had a girl riding behind you, right? I was wondering—would you introduce me to her?”

D was expressionless.

His left hand groaned, “Whaaaaat?!” and sputtered out a laugh. “I’ve heard of pearls before swine and blood from a stone, but this is a shocker. Beauty and the brat? Oh, that’s rich. Hey, D, let’s make his wish come true. Heh heh he—eerrrrrgh!”

Left hand still clenched tightly, the Hunter said, “I’ll pay the going rate for the hawk. Forget the other part.”

“No way,” Pikk shot back, scrutinizing D. No, actually glaring at him. But the challenge instantly melted from his eyes, easily settling the match. Still, the fight hadn’t left the boy entirely. “I don’t care how handsome you are,” he said, “don’t be so full of yourself. Th-th-there’s more to a man than just his face!”

D silently gazed at the youthful face, which was now the very picture of truculence.

Pikk froze. They were in different leagues—too different.

“Okay,” D said.

His left fist weakly exclaimed, “What?!”

The boy was speechless. Lowering his hands and spreading them wide, the boy let his jaw drop as he stared at D.

“What’s wrong?” D asked, but as the boy remained as his was, the Hunter clapped him lightly on the shoulder.

Suddenly Pikk had a blank look on his face, and his eyes were swimming in his head. Apparently he’d been so surprised, he’d nearly fainted.

“It seemed that caught you off-guard. Did you think I’d refuse?”

“Huh? Yeah. I mean—shut up! One look at me, and she’ll learn the appeal of a real man. You’re gonna regret introducing her to me till your dying day!”

“I hope you’re right.”

It was rare for D to play along with anyone for so long—in fact, it was nearly miraculous. The fact that his left hand held its tongue was proof of that.

Maybe he was just working up his fight, but Pikk bared his teeth and growled, then gnashed them repeatedly.

“Okay, let’s go, then,” the boy said, turning in the direction of the hotel.

Catching him by the collar and hauling him back, D said, “First, launch that hawk for me. Got a camera and armor?”

“Right here. Just leave it to me.”

From the vicinity of his solar plexus Pikk then produced a miniature video camera and basic armor for the bird. The camera was equipped with mounting hardware.

“You’re well prepared, aren’t you?”

“Well, I get a lot of call for this. So, what area did you wanna shoot?”

“The ground between Salval Pass and the town. If it spots a foursome, have it follow them for a while and then come back.”

“Sounds interesting,” Pikk said, his eyes alight with curiosity. “Are you two being chased? If you are, hire me! I may not look it, but I pride myself on being pretty good with weapons. Hell, I’m a million times better than the third-rate Hunters in these parts!”

“Get it in the air.”

“Oh, right. First, the business at hand.”

In less than ten seconds Pikk had the armor on the hawk and the camera mounted. On seeing how deft the boy was, the left hand murmured, “Kid knows his stuff.”

After watching the bird wing its way skyward shortly thereafter, D then paid the boy.

“Well, just about time for the big event!” the boy said, jubilantly rubbing his hands together.

“Sure you’re dressed for it?” D inquired.

“Eh? You mean something’s wrong with what I got on?”

“Of course so,” said the hoarse voice. “It’s bad enough you’re in rags, but you stink to high heaven too.”

“Now that you mention it, I haven’t had me a shower in a while. But that’s all right. There’s more to a man than the way he sme—” the boy was saying, ready to march on triumphantly when he was once again snagged and dragged back.

“Isn’t there an establishment around here that could take care of that?” asked D.

“There’s a spa for women. They’re okay with guy customers, too—but I’ll have none of that. I want the little lady to see me just as I am.”

Somewhere, someone guffawed.

“Have it your way,” D said. “But I’ll have to stay there when you see her.”

“Huh?!”

“After all, she’s had a sheltered upbringing,” said the hoarse voice. “Can’t have a punk like you from gods-know-where getting too close to her, now, can we?”

“To hell with that, asshole. That tears it. I positively ain’t taking no stinking bath. I’ll see her as I am. It’s like this—it’ll be a test to see if the little lady is any judge of men.”

The boy wanted to glower at the source of another guffaw, but all he saw was the Hunter’s left hand.

“You might have a weird little trick there, but you won’t be making a fool of me for long, D. Just you wait and see if I don’t have the little lady patting me on the head.”

And as the boy stormed away indignantly, behind him there was an explosion of laughter as well as D’s voice.

“Annette is resting now. Stop by the hotel in about three hours.”

Annette was in a horrible mood. Though she needed at least seven hours of sleep a day to keep from being a total wreck, D had woken her in the middle of it. She knew that not even four hours had passed, and to top everything off she’d been told some boy she didn’t know wanted to meet her. Listening to the story, she learned that it was in exchange for letting them have the recon bird for a third of the going rate.

“What’s that got to do with me?!” Annette fumed.

She had a point.

D responded by saying, “If you don’t want to, that’s fine.”

That wasn’t a threat. He meant it literally.

When that cold gaze fell on her, even before she could be mesmerized, a chill seeped from the marrow of her bones, spreading through her body like exhaustion and causing Annette to shake her head from side to side.

“All right,” she said. “But I’ll only talk with him for five minutes in the lounge downstairs—okay?”

D then left, and ten minutes later a grubby boy with three roses in hand appeared at Annette’s table in the lounge.

Shortly after she’d returned to her room D called on her. This was exactly what Annette had been waiting for, and she was ready to launch into a tirade, but the second their eyes met her throat tightened and her brain began to seethe, yet at the same time she felt like her heart was in the grip of an icy hand.

“He left happy,” the Hunter told her.

Even then, all she could say in reply was, “Oh, really?”

The Hunter added, “Get your stuff together. We’re heading out.”

He said it so matter-of-factly. Wasn’t this young man the same person who’d sent her into that ordeal?

Suddenly, she snapped. “You’re supposed to be watching out for me, aren’t you? Yet you barely let me get any sleep at all, and you set me up on a date with a filthy urchin. Oh, that was the worst time!”

“Still, it was pretty long,” said D. “Thirty minutes. So he went away happy. Looks like you’ll remember it as long as you live.”

Annette looked to the heavens. That kid—the person in charge of the lounge and others working there had popped their eyes and held their nose around the grimy boy—what was there about him to remember as long as she lived?!

“That’s a joke to make my blood run cold, D. On the bright side, it’s over and done. I never want to see that kid again. And if he comes looking for a second date—”

“There won’t be a second time. The enemy’s less than three miles from town. Get your stuff ready.”

A terrible tension and shaking came over Annette.

Beyond the window, the world was gently shaded blue.

“The hawk came back, then?”

D nodded. Then he told her, “And it died.”

Annette thought even his tone seemed tinged with blue.