DEATH OF A VAMPIRE HUNTER

CHAPTER 7

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It was Greco who’d used the Time-Bewitching Incense to save Doris. The morning after he eavesdropped on the conversation between Rei-Ginsei and the Count, Greco had one of the thugs who usually watched out for him pose as a visitor and call Rei-Ginsei down from his hotel room to the lobby. The thug was gone before Rei-Ginsei got there, however, and by the time Rei-Ginsei returned to his room, the Time-Bewitching Incense had been replaced with an ordinary candle that looked just like it. With the incense in his possession, Greco had kept watch on Dr. Ferringo’s house, and when the vampire-physician left with Doris, he’d followed after them but kept far enough back so they wouldn’t notice.

He intended to rescue Doris and bind her fast with the shackles known as obligation. And, if the fates were kind, he would also slay their feudal lord, the Count. In one fell swoop, he would become a big man in town, and he had ambitions of heading to the Capital. The fact that he had single-handedly dispatched a Noble would clearly be his greatest selling point to the Revolutionary Government, and his best chance to win advancement into their leadership.

However, the situation had changed somewhat. The buggy was supposed to go straight to the Count, but it had stopped when a girl in white suddenly appeared, and on top of that, the very same girl staked Dr. Ferringo. No longer sure exactly what was going on, Greco was convinced that something had gone wrong. He got closer to the wagon. Seeing the vampiress and her lurid expression as she prepared to sink her claws into Doris’ throat, he’d given the Time-Bewitching Incense a desperate shake.

Timid at first, when he saw Larmica writhing in agony and he approached the buggy with his head held high. The incense was in his left hand. In his right hand, he was gripping a foot-long stake of rough wood so fiercely that it pressed into his fingers. Stakes were everyday items on the Frontier. The ten-banger pistol holstered at his waist with the safety off, and the large-bore heat-rifle stuck through the saddle of the horse he’d tethered in the trees, were for dealing with the Nobility’s underlings. His beloved combat suit was in the shop for repairs, just like most of his flunkies’ gear.

“Oh,” Doris groaned as she got up. In her writhing, Larmica must’ve struck some part of Doris’ body and brought her around. Her eyes were torpid for a brief moment, but they opened wide as soon as she noticed Larmica. Then she looked at Dr. Ferringo’s body, lying on the ground not far from the buggy, and at Greco and said, “Doc ... why in the world?...What are you doing way out here?”

“So that’s the thanks I get,” Greco said, clambering up into the backseat of the buggy. You know, I kept that bitch from making chunky splatter out of you. I followed you out here from town in the dark of night. You’d think that’d win a little favor from you.”

“Did you kill Doc, too?”

Doris’ voice shook with sorrow and rage.

“What, are you kidding? The bitch did it. Although, it did making rescuing your ass a little easier.”

Being careful not to let the tiny flame go out, Greco moved Larmica into the backseat with his other hand. The young lady in white curled up under the seat without offering the slightest resistance. Not only was she deathly still, but she also seemed to have stopped breathing.

“That’s the Count’s daughter. Was she responsible for turning Doc into a vampire, too?”

“No, that was the Count. See, he attacked him last night so he could use him to lure you out here.” Greco quickly shut his mouth, but it was too late.

Doris stared at him with fire in her eyes. “And just how the hell do you know all this? You knew he was gonna be attacked and you didn’t even tell him, did you? You dirty bastard! What do you mean you saved me? You’re only looking out for yourself!”

“Shut your damn mouth, you!” Turning away from her burning gaze, Greco reasserted himself. “How dare you go talkin’ to me that way after I saved your life. We can hash that out later. Right now, we’ve got to decide what to do about her.”

“Do about her?” Doris knit her brow.

“Sure. As in, do we kill her or use her as a bargaining chip to negotiate with the Count.”

“What!? Are you serious?”

“Dead serious. And don’t act like this don’t concern you. I’m doing all this for you.”

Doris was in a daze as she watched the young tough make one preposterous statement after another. Then her nose twitched ever so slightly. She’d caught the scent of the Time-Bewitching Incense.

Come to think of it, the moonlit night felt strangely like a brilliant, sunny day. Greco said with pride, “The perfume in this candle is to thank. The Nobility has them, and apparently they can change day into night and vice versa. As long as it’s lit, the bitch can’t move a muscle and the Nobility can’t come near us—which is what got me thinking. It’d be so easy to kill her, but considering how she’s the Count’s daughter, there’d be hell to pay later. So, we take her hostage to set up a trade, then take the Count’s life, too, if all goes well.”

“Could you ... could you really do that?” Her plaintive voice made Greco’s lips twist lewdly, and when Doris averted her gaze she saw the pale face of Larmica as she lay beneath the backseat breathing feebly.

Larmica was lovely, and didn’t look very far in age from herself. Doris felt ashamed for having considered for even a moment using the young lady as a bargaining chip.

“Noble or not, there ain’t a parent out there who don’t love their own daughter. That’s how we can trip him up good. We’ll say we want to trade her for some treasure. Then when he comes out all confident, bang, we use the incense to nab him and drive this here stake through his heart. Rumor has it their bodies turn into dust and disappear, but if someone like my father or the sheriff is there to see it, they’d make a first-class witness when I give the government in the Capital my account.”

“The Capital?”

“Er, forget I mentioned it.” In his heart, Greco thumbed his nose at her. “At any rate, if we kill ’em, the two of us will get the Noble’s stuff—their fortune, weapons, ammo, everything! All for the huge service to humanity we’ll be doing.”

“But this woman ... she hasn’t done anything to anyone in the village,” Doris said vehemently, sifting through everything she could remember hearing since childhood.

“Open your eyes. A Noble’s a Noble. They’re all bloodsucking freaks preying on the human race.”

Doris was dumbstruck. This coarse thug had just hurled the same curse on them that she had once said to D! I was just like him then. That’s not right. Even if they are Nobles, I can’t use someone’s helpless daughter to lure them to their death. Just as Doris was about to voice her objections, a voice dark as the shadows held her tongue.

“Kill me ... here ... and now ...”

Larmica.

“What’s that?” Greco sneered down at her in his overbearing manner, but her expression was so utterly ghastly it took his breath away. Even as she was subjected to the agony of her body burning in the midday sun, she showed incredible willpower.

“Father ... is not so foolish he would exchange his life for my own. And I will not be a pawn in your trade ... Kill me ... If you don’t ... I shall kill you both someday ...”

“You bitch!” Greco’s face seemed to boil with anger and fear, and then he raised his stake. As a rule, he hadn’t had much self-restraint to start with.

“Stop it! You can’t do that to a defenseless person!” As she spoke, Doris grabbed his arm.

The two of them struggled in the buggy. Strength was in Greco’s favor, but Doris had fighting skills imparted to her by her father. Suddenly letting go of his arm, she planted her left foot firmly and put the full force of her body behind a roundhouse kick that exploded against Greco’s breastbone.

“Oof!”

The cramped buggy, with its unsteady footing, was too much for him. Greco reeled back, caught his leg on the door, and fell out of the vehicle.

Not even looking at where the dull thud came from, Doris got out of her seat and tried to talk to Larmica. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna let that jerk do anything to you. But I can’t very well just send you on your merry way, either. You know who I am, right? You’ll have to come back to my house with me. We’ll figure out what to do about you there.”

A low chuckle that seemed to rise from the bowels of the earth cut off all further comment from Doris. “You are free to try what you will, but I won’t be going anywhere.” Doris thought her spine had turned to ice when she saw the beautiful visage look up at her, paler than moonlight and filled now by an evil grin of confidence. She didn’t know what had just happened. When Greco had fallen from the buggy, the Time-Bewitching Incense had gone out!

Larmica caught hold of Doris’ hand with a grip as cold as ice. In the darkness, Doris’ eyes made out pearly fangs poking over the lips of the child of night as she got to her feet.

Doris was pulled closer with such brute strength Greco couldn’t even begin to compare. She couldn’t move at all. Larmica’s breath had the scent of flowers. Flowers nourished with blood. Two silhouettes, two faces overlapped into one.

“Aaaagh!” A scream stirred the darkness, and then was gone. Trembling, Larmica shielded her face.

There in the dark she’d seen it. No, she’d felt it. Felt the pain of the same holy mark of the cross her father had seen on the girl’s neck two days earlier! It would make its sudden appearance only when the breath of a vampire fell on it.

The vampires themselves didn’t know why they feared it. All that was certain was that even without seeing it their skin could feel its presence. In that instant some nameless force bound them. This was the mark they couldn’t allow humans to know about, something that had supposedly sunk into the watery depths of forgetfulness thanks to ages of ingenious psychological manipulation—so how could this girl have the holy mark on her neck?

Though Doris didn’t understand why Larmica—who’d enjoyed an overwhelming advantage until a second earlier—had suddenly lost her mind, she surmised that she’d been saved. Now she had to run!

“Greco, you all right?”

“Oooh, kind of.” The dubious response that came from the ground beside her suggested he might have hit his head.

“Hurry up and get in! If you don’t get your ass in gear I’ll leave you out here!”

And with that threat she took the reins in hand and gave them a crack. She intended to throw Larmica off with a sudden jolt forward. But the horses didn’t move.

Doris finally noticed a man wearing an inverness standing in front of the horses and holding them by their bridles. For some time now, a number of figures had been standing at the edge of the woods.

“As the doctor was late, I thought something might be amiss, and my suspicions proved correct,” one of the silhouettes said in a voice of barely suppressed rage. It was the Count. Though her heart was sinking into hopelessness, Doris was still the same warrior woman who’d bitterly resisted the Count all along. Seeing that the whip Doc had taken from her earlier was lying on the seat beside her, Doris snatched it up and swung it at the man in the inverness.

“Huh?” Doris cried, and the man—Garou—grinned broadly. She was sure she’d split the side of his face open, but he bobbed his head out of the way and caught the end of the whip between his teeth. Grrrrr! With a bestial growl he—it—started chewing up Doris’ whip, a weapon that had stood up to swords without a problem.

“You’re a werewolf,” Doris shouted in surprise.

“That’s correct,” the Count responded. “He serves me, but unlike me he is rather hot-blooded. Another thing you may wish to consider—I told him that, should you give us any trouble, he had my permission to hurt you. It might be amusing to see a bride missing some fingers and toes.”

Suddenly a boom rang out. Still flat on his ass on the ground, Greco had fired off his ten-banger. High-power powder—the type that could easily punch a hole through the armor of larger creatures—enveloped the Count and those near him in flames. The Count didn’t even glance at Greco, and the flames were promptly swallowed by the darkness. Such was the power of the Count’s force field.

“Raaarrrrrr!” The werewolf snarled at Greco. Halfway through its transformation, it glared at Greco with blood-red eyes. Greco gave a squeal and froze. White steam rose from the crotch of his pants. Fear had gotten the better of his bladder, but who could blame him?

Doris’ shoulders sank. The last bit of will she possessed was thoroughly uprooted.

“Father … ”

Larmica drifted down to the ground like a breeze. With glittering eyes, the Count gave her a hard look and said, “I have an excellent idea of what you were trying to do. Daughter or not, this time I’ll not let you get away with it. You shall be punished on our return to the castle. Now stand back!” Ignoring Larmica as she headed silently to the rear, the Count extended a hand to Doris.

“Well, now, you had best come with me.”

Doris bit her lip. “Don’t be so pleased with yourself! No matter what happens to me, D is gonna send you all to the hereafter.”

“Is he really?” The Count forced a smile. “Right about now the stripling and your younger brother are both being taken care of by our mutual acquaintances. In a fair fight, he might have prevailed, but I gave his foes a secret weapon.”

“Father … ” From the tree line to the Count’s rear, Larmica pointed to where Greco crouched on the ground. “That man had Time-Bewitching Incense.”

“What!” Even through the darkness the sudden contortion of the Count’s face was clear. “That cannot be. I gave it to Rei-Ginsei.” Here he paused for a beat, and after closely scrutinizing his daughter’s face said, “I can see that you speak the truth—which means the stripling is—”

“Correct.”

A low voice made all who stood there shrink in fear. The Count looked over his shoulder again, and Doris’ eyes darted in the same direction—toward Larmica. Or rather, toward something looming from the trees to her back. A figure of unearthly beauty.

“I’m right here.”

A groan that fell short of speech spilled from the Count’s throat.

Never did I imagine this rogue might come back alive …

If Time-Bewitching Incense hadn’t played its pivotal role in the duel, the Hunter’s survival was far from impossible. But unless he had an aircraft of some sort, it should’ve taken D another hour by horse to cover the distance from the site of his duel with Rei-Ginsei.

And yet D was here. He had been one with the darkness, and neither the Count’s night-piercing gaze nor the three-dimensional radar of the robot sentries had detected him.

The robot sentries turned in D’s direction, but an attack was impossible, of course.

“Don’t try anything funny—I’ll show her no mercy.” Garou was just about to pounce on Doris when a low but not particularly rough voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Doris, you and what’s-your-name—bring the wagon over here. Be quick about it!”

“Ye—yessir!” Doris answered dreamily, not just because of the relief she felt in being rescued, but because D had called her by name for the first time ever.

“Garou, grab the girl,” the Count commanded sharply.

As the black figure prepared once again to leap up into the buggy, it was buffeted with another castrating voice—Doris’. “You come near me and I’ll bite my tongue off!”

The werewolf snarled loudly and stopped. So many irritations. Greco flopped into the buggy.

“I’m prepared to die before I’d ever become one of your kind. If it’s gotta be here and now, that won’t bother me.” The threats of an insignificant human—a mere girl of seventeen—silenced the Count. To all appearances, D and Doris had won this outré encounter. The Count was obsessed with Doris, and would have her at any price. Conversely, if Doris were to die, that would be the end of everything.

“We shall settle this another time.”

The buggy stirred the night air as it sped to D’s side, and the Count put his arm around Larmica’s shoulder for the first time. The next instant, the two figures nimbly made their way up into the buggy.

What was astonishing about this whole encounter was that D never even touched the sword on his back. Even when he’d taken Larmica hostage, he hadn’t threatened her with his blade. Larmica had moved to the back as her father ordered, and the second she sensed D’s presence behind her, she found she couldn’t move a muscle. She was paralyzed by the overwhelming aura that radiated from him—one that the superhuman senses of vampires alone could fully appreciate. The same aura had prevented the Count and Garou from raising a hand against him.

“What do you intend to do with my daughter?” the Count called out to D, who kept a steady gaze trained on him and his party from the backseat of the buggy.

There was no reply

“The little imbecile has crossed me at every turn and cost me the chance of a lifetime—I no longer consider her my daughter. Let her lie in the sun till decay takes her to the marrow of her bones!”

His words were unthinkably harsh for a father, but then, on the whole, the vampire race had extremely dilute notions of love and consideration, compared to human beings. Quite possibly it was this trait that had both led them to the heights of prosperity and guided them to their eventual downfall. When her father’s words reached her ears, Larmica didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

“Doc, we’ll come back for you later!” Following Doris’ sorrowful cry, the buggy took off.

After they’d gone a short way across the plains, they could hear a horse whinnying up ahead. Apparently, whoever was out there had noticed them.

“Who’s that? Is that you, Sis?!”

“Dan! You’re all right, are you?!” Doris asked, her voice nearly weeping as she drove the buggy over to her brother. He was on horseback. And he held the reins to a second horse. That one had been Rei-Ginsei’s, and they’d brought it for Doris. They’d planned on having her ride home with them, but unfortunately they’d picked up some unwanted baggage. The whole reason D had taken Doris and Greco out in the buggy was to solve their transportation problems.

“I’m going to lighten our load. You two get on the horse. Dan, you come over here with me.”

By “you two” he meant Doris and Greco. Because so many of the things that’d been happening were beyond his comprehension, Greco felt like his brains were half scrambled, so he followed orders without the slightest protest. The transfers were effected in a matter of seconds.

“Are you sure you can still handle the buggy if you’ve got her riding with you?” Doris asked from her seat in the saddle. The real question was: how many present noticed the jealousy in her voice? D made no answer, but silently lashed the horses with Doris’ whip.

The wind howled in the girl’s ears as the forest and fiends were left further and further behind.

“Dan, you weren’t hurt, were you?”

Doris barely squeezed the question out as she rode alongside them. They were going full speed to keep the Count from catching up, and the wheels of the buggy spun wildly.

“Not a bit. I was gonna ask you the same thing—hey, of course you’re fine. D’s on the job. He wouldn’t let anyone harm a hair on your head.”

“No, I suppose he wouldn’t,” Doris concurred, her eyes full of joy.

“I wish you could’ve seen it,” Dan said loudly. “It took him less than fifteen seconds each to get rid of them freaks. It’s too bad the last one got away, but that couldn’t be helped with D being hurt and all.”

“Huh? Was he really?”

It was understandable that Doris grew pale, but why Larmica suddenly looked over at D from her seat was unclear.

“Hunters are really great, though. He got stabbed through the gut and it didn’t even bother him—good ol’ D rode through the roughest country with me on the back and pulling another horse behind us. You should’ve seen it. When D had the reins, them darned horses would jump right over the biggest crevice or a swamp full of giant leeches without batting an eye. Oh yeah, and they wouldn’t stop no matter how steep the grade got—I’m gonna have him teach me all that horse and sword stuff later!”

“Oh, that’s great. You pay good attention when he does now…” Doris’ words were exuberant, but the power petered out of them and they were shredded by the wind. Perhaps her maiden instincts had given her some hint of how their story was going to end.

Deathly still and watching the darkness ahead, Larmica suddenly muttered, “Traitor.”

“What did you say?!” Doris was the picture of rage. She realized the vampiress was referring to D. Larmica didn’t even look at the girl, but bloody flames fairly shot from her eyes as she stared at D’s frigid profile.

“You have skill and power enough to intimidate Father and myself, but you have forgotten your proud Noble blood. You feel some duty to the humans—worse yet, you are foolish enough to serve them by hunting us. I feel polluted simply speaking to you. Father wouldn’t bother to follow you this far. Slay me here!”

“Shut up! We don’t take orders from prisoners,” Doris roared. “What have you high-ranking Noble types done to us? Just because you wanna feed, because you want hot human blood, you bite into the throats of folks who never did you any harm and make them vampires. They just turn around and attack the family that loved them—in the end, their family has to drive a stake through their heart. Demons is what you are. You’re the Devil. Do you have any idea how many people die every year, parents and children crying out to their loved ones as they’re killed in tidal waves and earthquakes caused by the weather controllers your kind runs?” Doris spat the accusations at her like a gob of blood, but Larmica just smiled coolly.

“We are the Nobility—the ruling class. The rulers are entitled to take such measures to ensure the rebellious feelings of the lower class are kept in check. You should consider yourself lucky we even allowed your race to continue.” And then, with a long gaze at Greco as he brooded and raced along on his horse, she said, “Indeed, we will attack your kind to drink but a single drop of sweet blood. But what has that man done? I heard. For wanting you, he did nothing to warn that decrepit old man, even when he knew he was to be attacked, did he not?”

Doris couldn’t find a thing to say.

Larmica’s voice continued to dominate the night. “But I do not condemn him for that,” she laughed. “To the contrary, the man is to be lauded. Is it not appropriate to sacrifice others to satisfy our own desires? The strong rule the weak, and the superior leave the inferior in the dust—that is the great principle that governs the cosmos. There are many among you who seem to share our point of view.”

“Ha ha ha,” Doris suddenly laughed back mockingly. “Don’t make me laugh. If you’re such great rulers then what do you want with me?” Now it was Larmica’s turn to be silenced. “I heard something, too. It made me sick to hear it, but it seems your father wants to make me his bride. Every night he comes sniffing around my place like a dog in heat, and I turn him down—you’d think he’d be tired of it by now. The Nobility must be hard-pressed for women. Or is it something else? Could it be your father’s just weirder than the rest?”

The killing lust in Larmica’s eyes was like a heat ray that flew at Doris’ face. Not to be outdone, Doris met it with a shower of sparks from her own hatred. It was as if there was a titanic spray of invisible embers between the galloping horse and racing buggy when their eyes locked.

Suddenly, D pulled back on the reins.

“Oh!” Doris gasped as she hastened to stop her horse as well. Greco alone was at a loss as to what to do, but then he decided staying with them any longer would only make matters worse, and he rushed away into the darkness.

Though no one was quite sure what he was doing, all of them followed D’s lead, dismounting when he climbed down from the buggy. Larmica quickly turned to face the other three.

“What do you intend to do?” Larmica asked.

“As you yourself said, we’ve gone far enough the Count won’t give chase. Now all we have to do is deal with you,” D said softly. A tense hue raced into Larmica’s face, and then into those of Doris and Dan. “I’ve been hired to keep her safe. Therefore, I’ll have to slay your father. But anything else is another matter—meaning I now need my employer to decide what to do about you. Well?”

His final “Well?” had been directed at Doris. She was perplexed. They’d just been arguing a few seconds earlier. She’d thought she hated the vampiress enough to kill her, but the girl she saw looked like a beautiful, defenseless young lady about her own age.

This daughter of the detestable Nobility. If not for her family, me and Dan would be living in peace now—I wanna kill her. I’ve got it. I can give her my whip and have her fight D. That’d be fair. If we gave her a chance like that, there’d be nothing to be ashamed about.

“What do you want to do?” D asked.

“Slay me,” Larmica said with eyes ablaze.

And then Doris shook her head.

“Let her go. I don’t have it in me to murder. I couldn’t do that to her, even if she’s a Noble ...”

D turned to Dan. “What about you?”

“It’s plain as day, ain’t it? I couldn’t do nothing as low as cutting down a woman in cold blood—and you couldn’t either, could you?”

Then the Langs saw a smile spread across D’s face. For years after, even for decades after, the two of them would remember D’s expression, and take pride in the fact they were responsible for it. It was just such a smile.

“Well, there you have it. You’d best go now.”

And with that D turned his back to Larmica, but she flung abuse at him anyway.

“The stupidity of the lot of you amazes me. Do not delude yourselves that I am in any way grateful. I will make you rue your decision to set me free! Had I been in your position, I would have had you slaughtered like a sow. And your brother as well.”

The other three didn’t turn to look at her again, but went back to the buggy.

“Take this horse.”

Doris dropped the reins in front of Larmica.

“Even children know the cosmic principle, it seems,” D said calmly from the driver’s seat.

“What?”

“Survival of the fittest, might makes right—that’s not what your Sacred Ancestor used to say.”

Larmica’s eyes bulged, but a moment later she laughed out loud. “Not only are you sickeningly soft-hearted, but it appears you’re given to delusions as well. Did you mention the Sacred Ancestor? There’s no chance a lowly creature like you would know someone of his greatness. He who made our civilization, our whole world, and the laws by which we ruled. Every one of us faithfully followed his words.”

“Every one of you? Then why was the poor old bastard always so troubled ...”

“The poor old bastard? You mean ... No, you couldn’t ...” Larmica’s voice carried a hint of fear. She recalled a certain plausible rumor that had been whispered at a grand ball at the castle when she was just a child.

“Such skill, and such power ... Might it be that you are ... ”

The whip cracked.

When the buggy had dashed off leaving only the tortured squeal of its tires in its wake, the daughter of the Nobility forgot all about gathering the reins of the horse before her as she stood stock still in the moonlight.

“Milord, might it be ...”

..

The next day, Dan and D accompanied Doris when she went out to claim Dr. Ferringo’s body. They then paid a call on the sheriff and entrusted him with the remains before bringing all of Rei-Ginsei and Greco’s misdeeds to light.

Having received a communiqué from the village of Pedros about the Frontier Defense Force, the sheriff had been out to the ruins himself and discovered the trio of lurid corpses there. Based on Doris’ testimony, he concluded Rei-Ginsei’s gang was connected to the disappearance of the FDF patrol. In an attempt to ascertain the whereabouts of that patrol, special deputies rushed off to the neighboring villages.

“Well, Rei-Ginsei won’t be at large for long now. Of course, there’s also a good chance he made like the wind last night right after you lopped off his cabbage-collector.”

On the way back to the farm, Doris’ expression was sunny—she had at least one of her problems taken care of. But D told her simply, “If he becomes a Noble, he could lose all his limbs and still be a threat.”

Rei-Ginsei had ambitions of joining the Nobility. Given his skill and scheming nature, to say nothing of a vindictiveness that put a serpent to shame, it was unthinkable that he would run off with his tail between his legs, or quit before he’d achieved his ends. He may have fled, but it was clear he’d hidden himself somewhere and would be vigilantly watching what they did. He might still carry out the Count’s orders.

A daylight foe—because of him, D’s movements were greatly restricted. Up until now, he’d only had to worry about taking up his blade by night. But now, it would be patently impossible to go attack the Count in his castle and leave Doris and Dan under the scrutiny of an appreciable foe who possessed both weird weapons and even stranger skill.

“Still, it’s too bad they didn’t lock that bastard Greco up,” Dan muttered.

The sheriff was wrapped up in the Rei-Ginsei case, but couldn’t get to the bottom of Greco’s activities. The three of them had accompanied the lawman to the mayor’s house to question him, but the thoroughly disgusted mayor appeared and informed them that Greco had returned quite agitated the previous night, grabbed all the money in the house as well as the combat suit that’d just come back from the repair shop, and took off on his horse. The sheriff had Doris and the others wait in his office while he checked with some of Greco’s partners-in-crime, but they all said they didn’t know where he was.

Rei-Ginsei and Greco—with the whereabouts of both of them unknown there was little the sheriff could do. He informally sent Greco’s description to the other villages and requested that if the man was found, he was to be detained for having important information about the murder of Dr. Ferringo.

“But we can’t charge him in this case,” the sheriff told a visibly dissatisfied Doris. “From what you tell me, it seems Doc was killed by this Noble girl. And as for the matter of being turned into a vampire in the first place—well, even now it’s not clear if a person suffers any harm when that happens. I wish to hell the Capital would give us a clear ruling on that ...”

Doris nodded reluctantly.

It was unclear whether or not turning someone into a vampire could be considered murder. From one perspective, the change merely caused a shift in personality, not an absolute loss of life. The question dogged mankind throughout history, remaining undecided to this very day. Consequently, Greco couldn’t be charged with a crime, even though he didn’t inform the sheriff when he knew the Count was going to “kill” Dr. Ferringo.

“Quite the contrary, in the eyes of the law Greco might be considered a hero for rescuing you.” Seeing Doris’ slender eyebrows rise in wrath, the sheriff hurriedly added, “And while I don’t have any authority to get caught up in personal squabbles ...” The rest was implied—when I find the weasel, I’m gonna belt him good. Doris and Dan looked at each other and grinned.

Doris found herself in the first peaceful lull since the Count had attacked her.

There was a mountain of work to be done. Synthesized protein harvested by the robots had to be put into packages, stacked at the edge of the garden, and covered with a water-repellent tent until the traveling merchant made his monthly call. The Langs didn’t sell it, but rather traded it for daily necessities. The protein Doris and Dan grew was well known for its density, and the merchant always gave them an exceptional rate in trade for it.

The milking and general care of the cows had been neglected as well. Of course, the village of Ransylva was where most of that was traded; even though she’d been shut out of all the shops, she couldn’t let the cows go any longer. Doris’ battle with the Count didn’t put food on the table.

With Dan and a battered robot to help her, the job would’ve taken three whole days, but D did it in half a day. He skillfully poured huge bowls of milky protein extract into plastic packages, and then carried them from the processing area to the garden when he had a pile of a certain size. The boxes weighed a good seventy pounds each, and he carried three of them at a time. When he first saw it, Dan bugged out his eyes and exclaimed, “Wow!” but after three straight hours of this superhuman toting, his jaw dropped and he was left speechless.

The speed with which D milked the cows was almost miraculous. In the time it took Doris to do one cow, he did three. And that was only using his left hand. His right hand was left empty to go for the sword by his side at any time. That was the way Hunters were.

I wonder what kind of family he comes from?

It wasn’t the first time this question had occurred to her, but it hadn’t been answered in the days they’d been fighting, and even then Doris hadn’t had the time ask anyway. Actually, it was the code of the Frontier that you didn’t go poking into the background of travelers, and D’s bearing in particular didn’t invite questions.

Doris watched D’s profile with a distant look in her eyes as he silently worked one hand on the cow, the white fluid collecting in an aluminum-plated can.

The scene seemed so familiar; maybe it was the girl’s feverish, young heart that made her feel like it would go on this way forever. While it wasn’t that long ago that Doris had lost her father—and her battle to protect her brother and the farm began—she suddenly realized how exhausted she was.

“Done. Aren’t you finished yet?”

At D’s query, Doris returned from her fantasies. “Er, no, I’m done here.”

As she stood up and pulled the can out from under the cow, she felt as if she was naked before him.

“Your face is flushed. You coming down with a cold or something?”

“No, it’s not. It must just be the sunset.”

The interior of the barn was stained red.

“I see. The Count will probably come here again. You’d best eat early and get Dan to bed.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Doris grabbed the handle of the can with both hands and carried it to one side of barn. For some reason she had no strength.

“Leave it. I’ll carry it,” D said, having seen how wobbly her legs were.

“I’ll be fine!”

Her tone was so rough she surprised herself. Tears rolled out with the words. Dropping the can to the ground, she ran out sobbing.

As D went after her—though his casual pace hardly made it seem like pursuit—Dan trained an apprehensive gaze on him from the porch.

“Sis ran around back crying. You two have a fight or something?”

D shook his head. “No. Your sister’s just worried about you.”

“You know, someone told me a man shouldn’t make women cry.”

D smiled wryly. “You’re right. I’ll go apologize.”

Taking a few steps, D then turned to Dan again.

“You still remember that promise you made, do you?”

“Yep.”

“You’re eight now. In another five years, you’ll be stronger than your sister. Don’t forget.”

Dan nodded. When he raised his face, it was shining with tears.

“Are you gonna go away, D? Once you’ve killed the Count, I mean.”

D disappeared around back without giving an answer.

Doris was leaning against the fence. Her shoulders were quaking.

D’s footsteps didn’t make a sound as he went and stood behind her.

A cool breeze played through the grassy sea beyond the fence and through Doris’ black tresses.

“You should go back to the house.”

Doris didn’t reply, but after a bit she mumbled, “I should’ve looked for someone else. Once you’re gone, I won’t be able to live like I did before. That milking can just now—I used to be able to carry two at a time. I won’t be able set Dan straight when he needs it, or have the strength to fend off any fellahs who come out here courting me. But you’re gonna go just the same.”

“That was the deal. That will end your sorrow. That or my death.”

“No!” Doris suddenly buried her face in his muscular chest. “No, no, no.”

She didn’t know what she was protesting. Nor did she know why she cried. Neither the young woman weeping—as if weeping could keep a phantom from vanishing—nor the young man with the melancholy air supporting her moved for the longest time. And then, after a little while …

Doris lifted her face suddenly. Just above her head, D had started to growl softly. Doris was about to ask, “What is it?” when her head was forced back against his chest by his formidable strength. A few seconds more passed.

The two silhouettes were fused in the red glow, but from between the two of them came the words, “I’m okay now,” in a feverish voice.

Nothing else was said, and soon D gently pushed Doris away and quickly walked back toward the house.

As he rounded the corner of the barn, a voice said teasingly, “Why didn’t you drink her blood?” It originated around his waist.

“Shut up.” For once D’s voice bore undisguised emotion.

“The girl knew. She knew what you wanted. Oh, now don’t you make that face with me. You can fight it all you like, but you’ve got the blood of the Nobility in the marrow of your bones. The fact that when you fancy a woman you’re more interested in latching onto her pale neck instead of getting her in the sack is proof of that.”

It was true. When Doris had bared her soul to him, and he felt her warm body sobbing against his chest, D’s expression became the same lurid vampire visage he’d worn when he drank the blood of the Midwich Medusas in the darkness of the subterranean aqueduct. But somehow, with his truly impressive willpower, he’d managed to fight the urge this time.

As D kept walking, the voice said to him, “The girl saw your other face. Not just that, but I bet she smelled your breath as it brushed her neck. Smelled the scent of your cursed blood. And still she said she didn’t mind. Go easy on the nice guy routine. You fight your own desire and deny the wishes of the girl—is that any way for a grown dhampir to act? You’re always on the run—from your blood, and from the people who want you. When you tell them you were fated to part, that’s just dressing it up in a pretty excuse. Listen to me. Your father—”

“Shut up.” The words D said were the same as a moment earlier, but the eerie aura behind them made it plain this was far more than just a threat. The voice fell silent. Climbing the stairs to the porch, D turned a thoughtful gaze to the prairie and muttered, “Still, I’ve got to go—go and find him.”

..

“Oh, shit!”

As D’s hard gaze filled the lenses’ field of view, a shadowy figure hurriedly ducked, afraid that D would see him. But he forgot he was now on a hill a good thousand feet away. It was none other than the mayor’s hell-raising son Greco, who most believed to have long since fled the village. He was wearing his combat suit.

“That son of a bitch gets to have all the fun,” Greco said, slamming his electronic binoculars against the ground. The previous night, after deciding discretion was the better part of valor, he’d come up to the top of this hill and kept an eye on the farm. Lying flat on his belly, he reached over to his saddlebags and pulled the Time-Bewitching Incense out from among the food and provisions packed in there.

“Heh, you’ll get yours once the sun’s down. I’ll use this baby to get you down crawling on the ground, then nail you with a stake. Then yours truly will take Doris by the hand and kiss this godforsaken shithole goodbye,” he said spitefully, turning his eyes toward the farm again. The previous night he’d been so scared by the Count and his werewolf that he’d abandoned all thought of killing them and decided to abduct Doris instead. And clearly, the person he talked about dispatching with a stake was D.

“I wonder if it’ll go as smoothly as all that?” The words rained down on Greco in a cool voice.

“What the—?!”

Looking up, Greco saw a handsome young man sitting on a branch directly overhead. He wore an innocent smile, but his left arm was missing below the elbow, and its stump was wrapped in a bloody white cloth. He needed no introduction. And yet, less than twenty-four hours after losing one arm he’d climbed up into a tree and scared the daylights out of Greco while looking no worse for wear, aside from a little darkness around his eyes. What strength he had, both physically and mentally!

Rei-Ginsei got back down to the ground without making a sound.

“Wh … what the hell do you want?”

“Don’t play the innocent. I’m the rightful owner of that candle. Thanks to you, I lost my arm. I came out to the farm in the hopes of encountering the Count, but lo and behold, I’ve run across someone else of interest to me. So, are the three of them still hale and hearty?”

His speech was refined, but Greco felt a crushing coercion in it that left him bobbing his head in agreement.

“I suspected as much. In which case, I shall have to score some quick points here if I’m to be made one of them.” After that enigmatic statement, the handsome young man addressed Greco with familiarity. “What do you say to joining forces with me?”

“Work with you?”

“From what I observed up in the tree, you seem obsessed with the young lady on the farm. Yet her bodyguard remains an obstacle. I have another reason for wanting him out of the way. What say you?”

Greco hesitated.

Rei-Ginsei chided him. “Are you certain you can finish him, even with the candle and your combat suit? With your skill?”

Greco was at a loss for an answer. That was exactly why he hadn’t gone down and abducted Doris yet. Thanks to the effect it had on the Count’s daughter, he’d been able to verify that Time-Bewitching Incense was highly effective against pure vampires, but when it came to a half-human dhampir, he didn’t have much confidence. He’d donned the combat suit, but since it was just back from the repair shop he wasn’t used to wearing it or using it, and if he had to call upon its power, it was doubtful he could use it to its full potential. “You mean to say, if I hook up with you, we might be able to do this?” His words were proof enough he’d fallen under Rei-Ginsei’s spell.

Killing his smile, the handsome young man nodded. “Indeed. Once the sun has set I shall fight him, so watch for the right moment to light the candle, if you please. Should he leave himself open for even an instant, well, that’s where my blades come in,” he said, pointing to the shrike-blades on his hip.

Greco made up his mind. “Sure ... but what happens after that?”

“After that?”

“I know you’re planning on handing the girl over to the Count, but that’s exactly what I’ve been busting my hump to keep from happening.”

“In that case, take her and flee,” Rei-Ginsei said casually. Seeing the now-stupefied Greco, he added, “I merely promised him I would slay the dhampir. I don’t care a whit whose property the girl becomes. That matter is between yourself and the Count, is it not? But you being a fellow human and all, if you like I shall tell my compatriots scattered across the Frontier to aid you in your flight from the Count.”

“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.”

Doris ground her teeth. Rei-Ginsei definitely had her at a disadvantage where the FDF case was concerned. Without victims, he couldn’t be charged with a crime. Though if the sheriff was there, there’s little doubt he’d have promptly taken Rei-Ginsei into custody as a material witness.

“Mister Mayor, may I be so bold as to make a suggestion?”

Greeted by a flash of pearly teeth, the mayor smiled back nervously. Like all who’d been enslaved by Rei-Ginsei’s grin, he did not notice the devil that hid behind it. “And what would that be?” the mayor asked.

“Please allow me to do battle with our friend, here and now. Should he win, you will leave this family alone, and should I win, the girl shall go to the asylum. How does that suit you?”

“Well, I don’t know ...” The mayor vacillated. His position really wouldn’t allow him to entrust a matter of this magnitude to a man he didn’t know in the least—particularly someone as shrouded in suspicion as Rei-Ginsei was.

“Can the lot of you do something then? Come tomorrow evening, there shall be more victims.”

The mayor made up his mind. All the villagers were held at bay by D’s energy. He had to see what the man could do. “Very well.”

“One more thing,” Rei-Ginsei said, extending a single finger of the combat suit. Of course it was Greco’s. To keep Doris from realizing as much, he’d only donned the one sleeve. If his connection to Greco came to light, they would realize where the Time-Bewitching Incense was now. “Dispatch someone to the neighboring villages and have the warrants out on me withdrawn.”

“Okay—understood,” the mayor said, the words coming out like a moan. With no one but this dashing young man to rely on, he had no resort but to concede to his every demand.

Rei-Ginsei turned to Doris and asked, “And is that fine with you, too?”

“Sure. You’ll just wind up getting your other hand lopped off,” Doris replied.

D asked, “Where do you want to do this?” He made no mention of the fact that his opponent was trying to curry favor with the Nobility, or that he’d attempted to strangle a helpless young boy.

“Right here. Our duel will soon be over.”

Only the moon watched the moving people.

In front of the porch the two of them squared off, ten feet apart.

The villagers filling the front yard, and Doris and Dan up on the porch, were on pins and needles. When they all let out a deep breath seemingly on cue, three shrike-blades flew from Rei-Ginsei’s right hip. The combat suit’s muscular enhancement system made them all faster than ever, faster than the human eye could follow, and yet all of them were knocked from the sky just in front of D by a silvery flash.

In the blink of an eye, D was in the air over Rei-Ginsei’s head. Sword raised for the kill, the moment the crowd gasped at their premonition of the blade cleaving Rei-Ginsei’s head, the victorious Hunter wobbled in midair.

Who could miss that chance? Once again Rei-Ginsei’s right hand went into action, sending out a stream of white light. That was Greco’s wooden stake, which he’d kept tucked through the back of his belt. With Rei-Ginsei’s normal skill, D most likely would have dodged it despite his throes of agony, but now it had the added speed of the combat suit. Longsword still raised above his head, with the stake stuck through his heart and sticking out his back, D sent out a faint mist of blood as he thudded to the ground.

“Nailed him!”

The jubilant cry came from neither Rei-Ginsei nor the villagers. The crowd was more confused by the strange feeling that night had become day than they were by the duel’s gruesome finale.

“Greco! Oh, so you were in cahoots with this jerk!”

With that shout, Doris took aim with her rifle at the figure who’d popped up in front of the fence holding a candle in one hand, but a sudden massive blow to the barrel of the weapon knocked it back, striking its owner in the forehead.

“Now’s our chance! Grab her!”

Giving a faint smile to the villagers as they charged Dan and the unconscious sister Dan clung to, Rei-Ginsei fastened the last returning shrike-blade to his belt and stripped off the combat suit sleeve.

The limp Doris was thrown on a horse, as was her bellowing and far-from-cooperative brother, and the villagers went back out through the gate.

“What are you up to?” Greco grimaced, about to go get the horse he’d hidden at the rear of the farm.

Rei-Ginsei was stooping down over the body of the already deceased D. Raising the left hand, he eyed the palm and back of it suspiciously. “I simply don’t understand,” he groaned. “This is the same hand that swallowed Chullah’s spiders and made the mayor spill his secrets ...There must be some secret to it.” As he said that, he took a shrike-blade from his hip and slashed the left hand off at the elbow, which made Greco’s eyes bug in his head. He then discarded the hand in the nearby bushes. “I couldn’t rest easy if I didn’t do that. Also, I believe that makes us even,” he said coolly.

Rei-Ginsei walked toward the gate without so much as a glancing back, but Greco called out in an overly familiar tone, “Hey, wait up. Why don’t we have a drink in town or something? Together, me and you could do big things.”

Stopping dead in his tracks, Rei-Ginsei turned around. The look in his eyes riveted Greco. “The next time we meet, consider your life over.”

And then he left.

“Sheesh, you’re pretty damn full of yourself,” Greco muttered with all the venom he could muster, and then he too headed for the exit. His legs froze. He turned around, looking scared out of his wits. “I must be imagining things,” he mumbled, and then he wasted little time getting back out through the gate.

He thought he’d heard what sounded like chuckling. And it hadn’t come from D’s corpse, but from the dark bushes where his severed left hand had been discarded ...

..

“Ha ha ha ... Everything has gone exactly as planned. It’s unfortunate I had to wait an additional day, but I suppose that has only increased my ardor all the more.”

Standing on the same hilltop where Greco had encountered Rei-Ginsei by day, the figure took the electronic binoculars from his eyes and laughed softly. With white fangs spilling over his red lips, it was none other than Count Magnus Lee.

A carriage was parked by a tree, and the moonlight illuminated the werewolf Garou standing beside it in his inverness. Naturally, he had his human face and form at the moment.

He asked, “So, what shall we do next?”

“That should go without saying. We force our way into that miserable little hamlet and take the girl. That damned mayor of theirs undoubtedly plans on locking her in the asylum while he negotiates with me, but I shall have none of that. For all the inconveniences they’ve caused me thus fur, I shall create more living-dead in their village tomorrow night, and still more the night after that. Their children and their children’s children shall have a tale to tell of the horror of the Nobility. Consider it a gift to commemorate my nuptials. Upon our return, order the robots to commence preparations for the ceremony immediately.”

“Yessir.”

Giving a magnanimous nod to his deeply bowing servitor, the Count was about to get into his carriage when he turned and asked, “How is Larmica?”

“As you instructed, sire, she was punished with Time-Bewitching Incense, and she appeared to be in severe pain as she was still lying on the floor of her room when I took my leave.”

“Is that so? Very well then. If this serves to keep her from harboring any further thoughts of disobeying her father then everything will once again be as it should. I merely wanted to take the human girl as my wife. To live forever, sucking the blood as it gushes from her pale-as-wax throat night after night. Transient guest? The words of our Sacred Ancestor do not apply to me, I dare say. The rest of my kind may face extinction, but the girl and I shall stay here forever and hold the humans down with power and fear. Just you watch!”

Once again Garou gave a deep nod.

The Count shut the carriage door firmly from the inside.

“Go! The dawn is nigh. Of course, I don’t believe there shall be any need to burn it, but I have Time-Bewitching Incense ready just in case.”

Neither the Count nor Garou had noticed that, soon after D had been felled by Rei-Ginsei’s stake, a carriage had come from the woods on the opposite side of the farm and headed toward town.

..

For some time after Greco left, only a refreshing breeze and the light of the moon held sway at the farm. The cattle were sleeping peacefully, but an unsettling chuckle suddenly arose in the otherwise silent, solemn darkness.

“Heh heh heh ... It’s been a while since I got to take center stage. Eating spiders and making baldy spill his guts is all well and good, but I want a little more time in the limelight—of course, he and I might both be happier if I left things the way they stand now, but there’s still things that need doing in this life. And I kinda like that firecracker and her squirt of a brother. I’m loathe to do this, but I guess I can bail him out once again.”

By “him” it meant D.

The voice came from within the bushes. At the same time, something seemed to be moving around in there. Oh, it was the hand. The fingers. As if it possessed a mind of its own, the left hand Rei-Ginsei had hacked from D and thrown away was now moving all five of its fingers.

The hand had its back to the ground and its palm pointed to the sky. The surface of the palm rippled, like a lump of muscle was being pushed to the surface from the inside. But the truly startling part was still to come. A few creases shot across the surface of the lump, depressions formed in the flesh in some places while other parts swelled up—forming at last a human face!