CHAPTER 6

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I

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The villagers knew that summer had come—it had risen from beyond the sea in the form of a man in blue. And knowing what his arrival entailed, there wasn’t really much to be surprised about. Though two girls and a young man had vanished the night before, even that couldn’t be allowed to disrupt their summer. A number of family members and other relatives had searched in the woods and ruined lodges with the Youth Brigade and Vigilance Committee so as not to disturb the festival, but their actions hadn’t borne results, and the stakes and javelins they carried shimmered mockingly in the white heat and threw ugly shadows on the blue flowers that covered the ground.

Magic tricks and carbonated drinks, candy and snow cones. Summer still remained in full swing.

Early in the morning, Toto left Su-In behind and exited the ruined temple. He was off to deliver the ransom note he’d written the night before to D.

The watery sunlight made the young leaves sparkle. As the thief swayed on the back of a cyborg horse and looked at the flowers in the grassy fields, his face brimmed with a pure appreciation that was unimaginable given his line of work. After about forty minutes, he came to the part of the woods where the festival was being held. Not surprisingly, everyone was still asleep. The entrances to the performers’ trailers and flexible housing units were all shut tight.

“I hope I can get this taken care of quickly and join in the fun,” Toto muttered, but then he suddenly pulled back on his reins.

Roughly thirty feet away, a figure that appeared to be female was standing in the shade of a grove of trees. After further scrutiny, it turned out to be a girl of twelve or thirteen who wore a lemon yellow dress. Pulling back her long black tresses, she tied them with a ribbon the same color as her dress. From the look of her, she had to be one of the traveling performers. But what made Toto’s eyes open as wide as they could possibly go was neither the girl’s features nor her overdeveloped bust line. In one hand, she disinterestedly toyed with something shiny. Bouncing it in her palm, she let it fall on the back of her hand, then let it walk, one by one, down all five fingers. Without a doubt, it was the very bead he sought.

More than questions of why some girl he’d never seen before should be playing with it, more than anything, it was shock and jubilation that filled Toto’s heart. There’d be no need to go to D now—all of his hard work was about to pay off right here. He could gain the girl’s confidence—or slug her if that became necessary—and simply take the bead from her.

Toto didn’t actually know what the bead was worth—that was why he hadn’t answered Su-In the night before when she asked him about it. The only reason he was going to such lengths to try and get the bead was that his instincts as a thief told him it actually had tremendous value. The constant problems that’d been springing up ever since he first met Wu-Lin back at that inn only served to reinforce that feeling. And the people that were involved here were so incredible, he’d never run into their like in his long career as a thief, and didn’t think he was likely to do so ever again, either.

Toto’s spirit had been stoked. There was a fortune to be made here, too. But more than that, he felt his reputation as a thief depended on his beating out all the others and getting the bead first.

I’ll do it. I’ll give it my best shot, he told himself.

But while Toto had decided his course of action, the reality of the situation was a bit harsher. D was always around the bead. From what Toto could see, the Hunter was tougher than any of the others—just unbelievably powerful. As proof, the thief hadn’t been able to do a thing even while his skillful disguise got him into Su-In’s house. If that’s all there’d been to it, he still might’ve managed something, but as he patiently studied D’s behavior, a strange feeling came over him. The Hunter’s beauty was of the kind that would only occur once out of all the boundless possibilities, but an untamed shadow and an undefined sadness hung heavily on his features. At some point, Toto was shocked to discover that he’d started following D around along with all of the women. Toto had left the house both because he sensed his disguise might be seen through eventually and because of this strange psychological state. After that, he’d considered various things and plotted at length before finally deciding to kidnap Su-In.

But now all that’s finished, Toto thought, licking his lips.

When he went to wheel his horse around in the girl’s direction, her vivid splash of color vanished between the trees without warning.

There’s someone in there, Toto decided instantly, and he got off his horse. Crouching down, he raced off in the same direction that the girl had gone. The way he could make the sound of his footsteps and every other hint of his presence vanish was pure artistry. Even an insect resting on a leaf wouldn’t notice this man racing by less than four inches away.

He heard a voice. Standing behind a thick tree trunk, Toto poked half of his face out to watch.

The girl was facing a well-groomed middle-aged man with a mustache. Surprisingly enough, the pair was more than thirty feet away from Toto. This wasn’t a forest in the deathly still of night. It was a boisterous summer morn, with birds singing and insects chirping in the grass and bushes and trees. His frighteningly good hearing was one of the things that’d helped earn Toto his reputation as the greatest thief on the Frontier.

Seeing that the bead was no longer in the girl’s hand, Toto felt relieved.

“Now, don’t forget what we agreed on,” the girl said pedantically. “Cash in advance.”

The man held out his hand. From it, something shiny spilled into the girl’s palm. Gold coins, no doubt.

“You’ll get the rest when the job is done,” he told her.

“Okay.”

“Before we get started, could I have a demonstration of your ability, just to be sure?”

“Oh, aren’t you the cautious one. Be my guest.”

The girl closed her eyes, and the man roughly pressed his right hand to her round forehead. And then—

What a sight it was. In no time at all, the girl’s face became that of someone else. And that wasn’t all. Her height and build also changed, and in the span of two breaths, the person who stood there was—

“Su-In,” Toto said despite himself, though he was ordinarily a master of concealment.

Yes, she was Su-In.

Did that mean the girl was a traveling performer who could change into anyone the man told her to? Not exactly. Toto had already noticed there were some minor differences between this transformed Su-In and the real thing, because the girl had never actually seen Su-In. And yet the only reason she’d been able to mimic the woman with more than ninety percent accuracy had to be because her information on Su-In had come from the bearded middle-aged man—Gyohki. The image he had of Su-In was transmitted from his brain to the girl, where she then began transforming at a cellular level. Needless to say, that image had been transferred through the hand he’d touched to the girl’s forehead. In a manner of speaking, the girl was a metamorph whose shape could be determined by external forces.

“Remarkable,” said the man. “On closer inspection, there are some differences, but from a distance this should suffice. Now, would you say something for me?”

“I won’t be in any danger, will I?” said the girl.

Toto was amazed to hear she sounded exactly like Su-In. If she had a photograph of whomever she was trying to duplicate, she could’ve impersonated that person for the rest of her life without anyone around her ever noticing.

Toto grew tense. The man with the mustache wasn’t your average person.

“Relax,” said the man. “Do I look like someone who’d lie to you?”

“Yes,” replied the girl—or Su-In—with a nod.

The pair soon got on a cyborg horse that was tethered there and rode off to the west, while another horse and rider followed after them at a distance of sixty feet.

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D lay inside the barn. A blanket was spread on the ground, and his upper body rested against the wooden box of life jackets while his legs were stretched out. His longsword was cradled on his left shoulder. He was sleeping.

Descending from both humans and Nobles, dhampirs could operate by either day or night, though for the most part they chose to sleep during the day. The reason for this wasn’t so much that they often worked in a field where they had to do battle with demons by night, but rather because the Noble disposition of their blood prevailed over their human tendencies.

The night before, D had gone to both their hiding place and here after Su-In was abducted, and he’d found the remains of one of the Twins buried out back. Though it was unclear what he thought when he saw the handprint that remained on the man’s neck, the Hunter stopped his search then and went into the barn to sleep.

To look at his handsome countenance, no one would’ve ever thought he still drew breath, but the fact that his features didn’t retain the slightest stress from all of his deadly battles of late was truly shocking. Pain and even death itself were unwilling to mar the young man’s beauty.

His eyes opened. They were already completely focused.

Without making a sound, he got up. The light filtering in through gaps in the wooden door turned the dust he stirred into dancing flecks of gold. Shifting his sword to his back, D left the barn. Looking at the steep road that continued down to the beach, he then went straight over to the main house. His left arm hung naturally by his side.

An iron arrow was stuck in the door. Around the center of it was wound a piece of white paper—obviously a letter. Raising his left arm, D smiled wryly before using his right hand to pull out the arrow. Holding the edge of the paper with his teeth, he skillfully untied the string that held it in place, discarded the arrow, and uncurled the letter.

I have the woman. If you want her back, bring the bead to “The Black Lagoon” on the western edge of town at precisely 1:00 Afternoon. This all depends on you.

It was from Gyohki. His plan had been set in motion.

Staring down at the end of his left arm, D said, “Worthless little bugger,” with a straight face.

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That worthless little bugger was writhing on the floor as the first light started creeping in. Of course, the limb hadn’t really started moving until Toto had left; up until then, it’d played dead.

Su-In had noticed it, too. Still under the effects of the drug she’d been given, she couldn’t move her body, though she could still think, and her eyes, ears, and mouth were all working fine. At first, she’d thought it was a rat that looked like it’d been impaled on something had come back to life. But as the light swelled with the dawn, she realized she’d been mistaken.

Pinned to the floor by a foot-long iron stake, the thing writhing as madly as a rat looked like it was someone’s left hand, of all things! A fear that surpassed description filled Su-In’s chest with ice, but then she suddenly understood. When D had come to see her, he’d kept his left hand stuck in his coat pocket the whole time. Though she hadn’t thought to ask him about it, she had to wonder—did that left hand belong to him? But even if it was—

“Hey!” someone suddenly called out to her.

It took a while for her to realize the voice came from the hand. Stranger yet, she could recall hearing the same voice before.

“Hey, Su-In! Can you hear me?”

“Was that you? You’re some kind of talking hand?!” Su-In exclaimed. At some point, her fear had evaporated, and now she just found it funny. She certainly had plenty of pluck.

“You got something against talking hands?”

“Not at all,” the woman replied. “It’s just—you’re D’s hand, aren’t you?”

“Well, I’m thinking about trading up one of these days.”

“I knew it. What are you doing here?”

“That’s a hell of a question to be asking,” said the hand. “Do you have any idea how much you owe me, you little ingrate? It should be pretty obvious I’m here because I was worried about you. I’m quite conscientious, you know. I try to keep my landlord’s position in mind.”

“You’ve been following me?” asked Su-In. “Since when?”

“Well, I was the one who saved you when that butcher disguised as your granddaddy was about to shave your nose off.”

“So, it was you that killed him then?”

“Hey, I didn’t kill him. I saved you.”

“Okay,” said the woman. “What did you do after that?”

“I was in your bag the whole time. Down on the beach, I was ready to catch a ride on the priest’s back, but he was good enough to bring the bag along when you folks made a run for it.”

“Oh, then that rat I saw last night was really you—”

“Well,” the hand said, “I got out of the bag before he went through it. But he’s a hell of a shot for a lousy burglar. It’ll take quite a bit of work to get me free now. Give me some help here.”

“It’s no use. I got a shot of something and now I can’t move.”

“You worthless little bugger,” the hand spat, using the same words as its master while it twisted wildly.

Running through the hand from the base of the middle finger to almost the center of its palm, the stake was sunk a good four inches into the hardwood floor and wouldn’t budge in the slightest.

“Damn,” the hand continued. “Haven’t had anything to eat but wind lately, so I can’t get my strength up. If I only had some dirt or water. Hey, spill some blood or something my way!”

“I’d help you if I could,” Su-In said in a sincere tone. “But you’ll just have to manage something. If you’re really his hand, I find it hard to believe you’d be so stupid or good for nothing.”

“Couldn’t you phrase that a little more gently?” the hand said indignantly. “If I just had one drink of water, I could melt this damn thing or freeze it solid. Shit! I’m useless like this! Doesn’t anyone ever come out here?”

“Not a chance. This is pretty far off the beaten path, so folks rarely pass this way.”

“There’ll be big trouble if we don’t do something. We’d be better off if the thief came back,” the hand remarked. “I hope he gets back before sundown . . .”

“What do you mean by that?” asked the woman.

“He didn’t notice it, but something dangerous is sleeping near the temple. I can tell. I can smell it. When the sun goes down, they’ll get up and they’ll come here.”

Su-In’s mind became ten times more focused. “When the sun goes down . . . You mean Nobles or their servants?”

“Yes, damn it! And not fifteen feet from here. It might take all night for that drug to wear off you. While for my part, I’m malnourished.”

“You’ve gotta do something!” Su-In said in a deadly serious tone. She realized she sounded pathetic. But that’s how strongly humans feared the Nobility.

The hand twisted again, but it didn’t look like it would work itself free in ten years’ time, let alone before sundown.

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II

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D arrived at the Black Lagoon at the appointed time. It was an untamed spot about three miles west of the woods where the festival was being held. As the word “lagoon” implied, in days of old it’d been filled with crystal-clear water, but now the land eight inches lower than the road only showed a slight slope down to a circular area about three hundred feet in diameter, and at the very center it looked like a muddy bog. Of course, that was only a trick of the mind—the lagoon’s waters had dried up more than a century ago, and its bottom was now covered with summer grass. Almost in the center of the lagoon there was a small island-like rise about fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, the remains of what must’ve been an actual island long ago. Now it was completely overrun with trees and high grass.

Stepping off the road, the Hunter’s mount took seven or eight steps around the edge of the former lagoon before a voice called out, “Hold it!”

A figure suddenly appeared from the trees that had grown up to swallow the road on the opposite side of the lagoon.

Turning in that direction, D squinted. “King Egbert” had a scarf wrapped around his neck, and he gazed at D with a kind of dazed sadness in his eyes. The summer days were long.

“Glad you could make it. I suppose you thought you could come here and take all of us down at once, did you?”

Not replying to that remark, D asked, “Where’s Su-In?”

“Before we get to that, you got the bead?”

When Egbert spoke, D knew that his foe wasn’t working with Shin on this. “One of your colleagues has the bead,” the Hunter replied. “Shin, I believe the name was.”

“He’s dead. Are you the one that arranged that?”

“At any rate, I don’t have the bead. Where is Su-In?” D inquired.

“You know a guy by the name of Professor Krolock?” Egbert said. Not waiting for a reply, he continued, “Well, it would seem he’s the one that killed Shin. So you mean to tell me he’s got the bead, then?”

D was silent.

“The woman’s right here,” a voice could be heard to say from the island in the center of the lagoon.

Su-In and Gyohki stepped out from between the trees. Of course, the young performer who’d assumed Su-In’s shape didn’t have the right clothes, so to prevent that from giving away their deception, she was dressed only in her underwear.

“As you can see, we have Su-In. But if you don’t have the bead, there’s no reason for us to let her go. Or were you going to ask us to give her up in exchange for something else?” Grinning, Gyohki added, “Come on out here. I’m sure we can manage something. This used to be a lagoon, but now it’s dry as a bone. Nothing for even a dhampir to worry about.”

He beckoned to the Hunter.

Nothing to worry about? It was obviously a trap.

Seeing that D hadn’t made a move, Gyohki pressed his right hand against Su-In’s throat. Black claws that resembled scythes stretched from his fingers.

“Don’t you care what happens to your employer? You’re a disgrace to Hunters everywhere,” said Gyohki.

Although Su-In grew pale, it was all just part of the act. The girl was doing this for the ample reward she’d been offered, and because she’d been assured it was all just an illusion. It never occurred to her that Gyohki would be more than happy to kill her if the situation called for it.

While it wasn’t clear if he took the transformed girl for Su-In, D then calmly rode his horse down off the path and onto the dry lagoon. The ground under his horse’s hooves felt like parched soil. Not seeming to be in any hurry, the Hunter advanced slowly, and high above his head, clouds streamed by sedately. Knowing nothing of the killing lust that was coagulating in this wild patch of land, they were simply part of nature’s great bounty in the blue summer sky. But the question now was whether or not D had noticed the black ditch that’d been made all the way around lagoon.

Just another fifteen feet to the island.

Gyohki shouted, “Now! Do it, Egbert!”

At the same time, the girl screamed and dropped to her knees where she was. In the stand of trees, branches snapped off at the trunk, and one struck the barely standing Gyohki in the shoulder. Even D’s horse planted its feet, trying to brace itself against the amorphous pressure that suddenly assailed it.

Egbert had altered the gravity in his “kingdom.”

The girl cried out as her torso snapped forward.

With a heavy whooosh!, the whole bottom of the lagoon collapsed. Obviously the foundation had been weak from the very beginning. Deep black cracks appeared on the surface, and in no time at all they swallowed the earth, claiming the entire lagoon. A split second later, D and his horse were unfortunate enough to find themselves sinking up to their necks. Black spray shot up around them. Water.

It was true that the water in the lagoon had dried up centuries earlier. Dirt and dust had accumulated on top of it to form the present surface, and people had forgotten all about the water. However, subterranean sources continued to trickle in, saturating the ground beneath it and displacing a massive amount of dirt and sand to form an underground swamp. And having been born in the area, Gyohki had no doubt discovered this somehow.

Egbert had lifted his gravity attack from the little island, and now Gyohki stripped off his shirt. Naked to the waist, he then dove straight into the depths. As soon as his body broke through the water’s surface, it underwent a transformation. The water seemed to take hold of his hair and stretch it as it streamed down his back. His skin became gorgeous and white, and his powerful chest swelled into full breasts. Still clad in a pair of trousers, his lower body was covered with countless scales, and the end of his tail split in two to splash violently from the water. The figure that was now closing on D with over-arm strokes was clearly a woman—a mermaid!—that once had been Gyohki.

D waited silently in the black water for the product of Meinster’s accursed experiments. However, the Hunter’s body was most definitely sinking in this bottomless abyss. Bubbles rose from the corner of his mouth.

Gyohki zipped closer. His burst of speed was incredible. The second he passed D’s right side, his right hand shot out. Having gone right by, he turned around. A cloud blacker than the water trailed from the woman’s hand, and as if in response, a thick stream of blood rose like smoke from D’s right hip.

“My, but you’re good,” the woman said, but being who he was, D heard it differently—he heard it as Gyohki’s voice.

The woman pressed her left hand to the opposite hip. It was an instant later that little explosions of blood rose in gouts from the same spot. Gyohki stared at the blade in D’s right hand with terror and malice.

“I underestimated you because we’re underwater. But this time I won’t let you get away,” the mermaid muttered with a deadly determination.

Slowly, she/he began to circle D, and a mighty cloud of bubbles spilled from D’s mouth. Following them as they rose, D kicked his way through the water. Beyond the black depths, there lay a muted light. The surface was fifteen feet away.

Looking up at his foe from the depths, Gyohki donned a thin smile as he thrashed through the water. He was closing with the speed of a fish.

When D’s head started to cause ripples on the surface, a woman’s hands seized the Hunter’s ankles and gave them a pull. D was dragged back underwater with incredible force. His foe moved with a speed and strength that was absolutely unbelievable for such a lithe female form.

D’s face was twisted with pain. The store of oxygen in his lungs had reached its limits.

“I’ll let you go soon,” Gyohki laughed as he towed the Hunter toward the bottom. “But you can’t have any air. Drink in the water. Fill your lungs with it. I’ll pull you back down before you can get your face out.”

There was no need to do that. Before Gyohki had even let go of him, D opened his mouth. His throat moved. He was taking in the water. A few seconds passed—and then he clutched at his jugular. Spasms ran through his body. Then they stopped sharply—Gyohki released the Hunter, and D’s body began to slowly sink to the bottom.

“Three and a half minutes,” Gyohki said to himself. “That’s how long the average dhampir can last underwater.”

Keeping his distance, Gyohki drifted down along with D. Then he brought his hand up to his mouth. Along with some bubbles, his mouth disgorged a wooden stake that was nearly a foot and a half long.

“Those of Noble blood don’t drown,” he said. “I’ll have to put this through you to finish you off.”

Just to be on the safe side, Gyohki watched for another minute as D drifted toward the bottom, then wriggled the fish tail sensuously. Going over to D, the mermaid turned him so his back was to the bottom. Staring at the gorgeous countenance that seemed to sparkle in the black water, he said, “How beautiful you are—and now, as a woman, I only feel it all the more. But if I were to do nothing, you’d destroy us all. So here you must die.”

Raising her right hand, the mermaid prepared to drive the stake home. But surely she couldn’t believe what happened then. The hand the drowned man used to hold his sword tried to grab her wrist in mid-motion.

“Why, you—?!” she cried in amazement, but a second later her body began to be dragged upward with incredible force. “Just toying with me, were you?!” she screamed, and although she willed every muscle in her body to bring her back down, the rate of her ascent didn’t diminish in the least. In fact, Gyohki rose with such speed there was no time to try anything else before he/she broke the surface, shooting up into the air along with D.

Then the mermaid saw the stern beauty staring down at him/her, and the black sphere above the Hunter’s head that even now continued to ascend. The balloon was connected to D by a pair of leather straps. Designed to hoist people thrown into the icy sea safely into the air before they froze to death, the balloon was filled with a gas that was lighter than air. D had put on this piece of indispensable lifesaving equipment back in Su-In’s barn. Ever since they’d met under Meinster’s castle, he must’ve known Gyohki would try fighting him in the water. The Hunter may have even known that Gyohki was actually the mermaid.

More than the blade he raised, more than the distant blue sky behind him, it was D himself that mesmerized Gyohki as the Hunter brought his weapon down on the mermaid. What was it that Gyohki saw in that instant?

“Such skill—and that face—” he/she cried out absentmindedly. “Could it be that you are his—” A heartbeat later, as he watched the blade with all the colors of the spectrum streaming behind it slash his/her torso two, Gyohki reached a violent peak, the female upper body and fish-like lower body separating as he/she fell back toward the black surface of the water. Spray shot up.

Using his right hand to pull on a leather strap and slowly release the gas, D gradually sank back to earth. He landed on the road, about thirty feet away from Egbert.

“Not too shabby,” Egbert said in a low voice, his iron staff in one hand.

Using his sword to cut himself free of the balloon from Su-In’s barn, D took a quick glance at the rejuvenated lagoon. Although the woman’s beautiful torso had at some point turned back into that of a man, the lower body remained that of a fish, and even now it writhed and splashed in the water. A hue darker than the black water began to spread through the lagoon like a blossoming flower . . .

Egbert said, “One thing you might want to know—the girl on the island ain’t the real thing. Of course, I’m more curious as to whether or not you already knew that.”

The girl’s transformation probably wasn’t good enough to fool D. But had the Hunter walked right into Gyohki’s hands because he saw his foe was about to kill some girl he’d never even met before? Or because he knew what Gyohki’s secret was?

“Just as I thought—you’re no ordinary dhampir. What are you?”

Not replying to Egbert’s question, D focused a look that was both vacant and sad on the scarf around the man’s neck as he quietly said, “You’ve been bitten, haven’t you?”

Tiny ripples of agitation spread through Egbert’s face. They then became a look of agony as he reeled backward. He didn’t actually fall over, and as he barely managed to turn around, there was a sharp dagger buried to the hilt in the middle of his back.

“You traitor!” a ferocious voice laden with indignation could be heard to say from a distant stand of bushes. Twin’s voice. “You were acting strangely all morning, so Gyohki pretended to have me look for the professor while he actually had me keep an eye on you. On the slim chance D did make it to the surface, the plan was that you’d pump up the gravity to send him right under again, but you betrayed us. So now you’ll get what you’ve got coming. I don’t know where Samon disappeared to, but we’ll take care of her and the other guy later.” And to the Hunter he called out, “D, we’ll meet again!”

Though a wooden stake flew from D’s right hand in pursuit of the voice, only a few verdant stalks rustled before nothing more could be heard.

“He’s not your real concern,” Egbert said as he twisted his left hand around to his back. “Someone else is. A man you already know. I’m heading back to see him.”

“Is he your new master?”

“Call it what you will.”

“Where is he?” asked D.

“Well, let me see. If I told you I didn’t know, would you cut me down?”

“Why didn’t you attack me?”

“Because a certain lady asked me not to. Go ahead and laugh if you like. If you don’t cut me down now, the Nobility will just gain another member,” said Egbert, his words tinged with a hint of distress.

Of course, this young man wasn’t the kind who could let something like that pass. The fact that Egbert was wounded and that he’d held back from attacking the Hunter were both irrelevant.

D strode forward.

Egbert held his iron staff at the ready.

A flash of light in all the colors of the spectrum sketched an arc between the two of them. With a shower of sparks, D’s blade was stopped by the iron staff Egbert held braced over his head.

But look at what was happening! The blade had bitten halfway through the staff. D was using one hand, while Egbert was using both. And yet, the warrior who’d stopped the Hunter’s blow was slowly being overpowered, and he’d already been forced to his knees. Was it because Egbert, in his present condition, was at a disadvantage in the abundant sunlight? No, there was simply too great a difference in the power of the two figures from the very start.

As the blade sliced steadily into his iron staff, Egbert actually gazed at it and the gorgeous young man behind it with a deathlike rapture. Perhaps that was the very last bit of humanity remaining in him. Without a doubt, Egbert’s head was going to be split in two in a matter of seconds.

There was a splash in the water on the opposite side of the lagoon.

D’s concentration was disturbed ever so slightly.

A massive burst of strength shot up from below, and the two forms sprang away to different locations.

But both of them saw the splash. A blackish figure had just leapt out of the lagoon and was running off into the woods. Without a moment’s hesitation, it vanished among the trees.

“It seems the ruler of Hell has decided to give me a little longer to live,” Egbert called out, but as his voice faded in the distance, D didn’t even glance in his direction.

The Hunter’s interest had been caught by something the diminutive figure had held in its hands a split second before it vanished. The dazzling outline that’d glittered in the sunlight had been that of the bead.

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III

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As he raced down the forest trail at full speed, Toto coolly considered his next move. He’d gotten the bead. At that very moment, it sat in his right pocket as surely as he drew breath. Naturally, he’d have to take it to a trustworthy expert and have it appraised. Though a number of names popped into his head, and any of them would’ve been fine if he were just out for some pocket money, none of them would be suitable for a major score like this. It looked like he’d have to head into the Capital after all and be introduced to someone he could trust. Fortunately, he had plenty of acquaintances who could arrange that.

But first, what would he do about Su-In?

His greed-tinged expression suddenly clouded.

If he just let things run their course, the drug he’d given her would probably wear off around 6:00 Night. He couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t be attacked by one of the supernatural creatures infesting the area around the ruined temple, though—that would be determined more or less by the woman’s own luck.

That look of complete faith she’d had in her eye when she’d taken him for a traveling holy man and asked him to perform a funeral knifed into his heart. Once more he heard the same voice as the night before, when she’d tried to persuade him to get out of thievery and settle down in the village. Both were just dreams. Giving his head a shake, Toto tried to dislodge the face of a woman that shone like the sun.

His horse was tethered by the exit from the woods. Once on it, he could be out of this foul-smelling little coastal village in less than an hour.

Even D and Egbert hadn’t noticed him as he went into the water, swam out to the island, got the bead out of the girl’s clothes where they’d been left behind a tree, and swam back again. In fact, things had gone so well, he’d gotten sloppy and made some noise getting back out of the water. But if he was good enough to swipe something without even a Vampire Hunter noticing, he figured he’d be able to stay in the game another thirty years at least.

Untying the reins from a tree, Toto straddled his horse.

Just be one of us—

“Dammit,” Toto muttered as he wheeled his mount around, toward the ruined temple where he’d imprisoned Su-In.

Just then, a wrinkled old voice echoed through Toto’s head.

“Get off the horse, and get the bead out.”

Before he could even begin to wonder what the hell was going on, his thoughts faded like sparks. Toto’s brain now heard nothing but directions given by a bizarre voice.

Oh no!, reason cried from the dark corner of his mind where it’d been shoved.

Toto took out the bead.

“Throw it straight ahead.”

The bead limned an arc and vanished into the bushes in front of him. A scrawny figure quickly stood up. Professor Krolock. But although the thief knew who it was, his consciousness couldn’t make his body do anything at all.

Bringing his face up to the papery object in his hands, the professor whispered something: “Die. Stab yourself through the heart.” This time, his voice was low and husky—and overwhelming.

Toto felt his own right hand going for the belt around his waist. His burglary tools were stuck in the belt. His hand chose an awl.

Don’t! a distant voice inside him shouted.

Toto brought the tool to the right side of his chest with a fluid movement.

“No. The left side.”

The tip of the tool hovering over his chest finally came to rest against his left nipple.

You can’t! The voice inside him was practically a scream.

As the cold steel ripped through his flesh, Toto screamed and collapsed against a nearby tree. The strength left the thief’s ankles, knees, and waist in turn, causing him to slide down the trunk.

As Toto lay there, the professor looked down at him with surpassing cruelty, and then quickly turned to peer into the depths of the forest.

“Watching D since last night certainly paid off. Now I’ll be able to make Nobles of whomever I please. Let the fools who don’t know the true use of the bead keep killing each other if they wish. I still have the final preparations to make!”

His tattered cloak fluttering abnormally, the professor ran off toward where he’d tethered his own horse.

After a short while, the thick scent of blood began to hang over the area. And as if it were an invitation, unsettling cries and chirps and rustling started to come from the bushes and the trees.

The summer woods were brimming with life. Dangerous life.

In the darkness formed by the leaves of the bushes, countless lights winked on, then became eyes set in hideous faces as the creatures slid out through the green grass. “Pan-eyes”—bugs with giant compound eyes on their ash-gray heads. Flesh-eating worms with black spots on their ocher skin. Bristling caterpillars with dozens of glittering fangs. Hopping, crawling, and slithering vilely, they closed on the prone Toto. If the ravenous forest denizens sank their teeth into him, not even a fragment of bone would be left within an hour—he’d utterly vanish from the face of the earth.

The first thing the flesh-eating worms did was make a beeline for Toto’s ear. There was nothing they liked better than to enter through the ear canal and munch their way through someone’s brain.

But they never would’ve thought the corpse would move. Toto’s right hand flashed out, bisecting several of the worms in midair. No sooner had those pieces hit the ground than the remaining worms pounced on them without a sound.

A “pan-eye” wasted no time in launching itself at Toto’s throat, but a slash from the thief’s sharp tool ripped open the bug’s lizard-like torso.

But that was all the resistance the dying man gave them. Matting the verdant grass as it flopped to the ground, his arm would move no more.

“Dammit . . . So I end up . . . food for the worms . . . ,” he cursed, his hatred and mortification made into words so they might roll across the ground.

Having finished devouring their bloodied compatriots, it took these insects with no concerns aside from their own instinctive hunger less than ten seconds to recall the other, larger meal.

Was this the end of the corpse’s unexpected resistance?

As the supernatural beasts prepared to descend en masse, something seemed to billow over them. The blood-crazed creatures then retreated without a sound.

A figure in black appeared from the grove across from the thief. The ghastly aura that’d frightened the monsters emanated from D. Quite a way off, there was a young girl. She no longer wore Su-In’s face. And the spot where she remained must’ve been where the stench of blood ended.

D went right over to Toto and took his left hand. The awl in the thief’s right hand didn’t even warrant a glance. To the Hunter, it was something he could take care of with his little finger.

“Hate to tell you . . . but . . . I’m still alive,” the thief said, his bloodless lips twisting into a smile. “Stupid bastard . . . had his chance . . . and had to go and miss the spot . . . My heart . . . ,” he chuckled, “is on the right side . . .”

“Who did this to you?” D asked, not sounding at all concerned.

“Professor Krolock . . . whispered something . . . to this weird paper . . . and got me to do whatever he wanted . . . Watch out . . . The bead . . .” The expression slipped from Toto’s face. “He’s gonna . . .” All the strength then drained from the thief’s body.

Taking the man’s pulse, D then pulled out some emergency sheets with his right hand. Made of a highly porous cellophane, they were eight inches square. Even when the bandages came in bundles of a hundred, they weren’t bulky at all. The medicated layer could serve as a styptic and an antiseptic, provide nutrients, and act as a heating pad or a cold compress. Out on the road, they were indispensable for dealing with everything from minor colds to major lacerations.

Applying one of the bandages to the left side of Toto’s chest, the Hunter then lay the thief over his shoulder using just his right hand. Seeing how the Hunter easily rose again with this new burden, the girl’s eyes went wide. It was almost as if he were carrying a hollow doll.

“Come here,” D called to the girl as he stood by Toto’s horse.

As she tottered toward him like a marionette, the expression that came to her face was so rapt it was almost obscene. After all, she’d been right by D’s side ever since he left the lagoon.

“Is he, you know . . . dead?” she asked.

“He has a pulse. I’m going to bring him to the hospital, but you can get off wherever you like. And I’ll thank you not to mention what happened today to anyone.”

The girl nodded. The beauty and mysterious charm of the young man extended to the very words he spoke. There was no way she’d be able to refuse him.

With Toto over one shoulder and the girl sitting behind him, D gave a stern kick to the horse’s flank.

.

Before a desolate expanse of rubble, Professor Krolock dismounted from his cyborg horse. He also unloaded some baggage from his mount—a blanket and a leather bag.

Looking up at the sky, which had begun to take a vague bluish tint, he said, “The sun will be going down soon. What a fitting time for my wish to be granted.”

As twilight descended, the professor began cautiously picking a path through the rubble. Six hundred feet ahead of him loomed the remains of what looked like a castle wall. He knew that beyond it lay a gaping chasm of incredible proportions. His sole concern now was whether or not the coil of wire he’d brought in his bag would be long enough to reach the bottom.

.

“This is not good,” a voice that sounded both relaxed and tense said from the wooden floor of the room.

“What is it?” Su-In asked disagreeably.

There was good reason for her mood—that cryptic remark was all the hand had to say when it broke two hours of silence, and because the light that filled the room had begun to dwindle perceptibly in the last few minutes. The outline of the hand impaled by the metal wedge had also begun to dissolve into deepening blue.

“I told you before, didn’t I? There’s something in this temple. Or rather, someone.”

“Well,” Su-In said, “that guy did spray some odorless monster repellent around the place.”

“Hasn’t that drug worn off yet?”

“It’s still no use. I’ve got a little feeling back . . . but I can’t move at all.”

“By the feel of it, how long do you think it’ll take?” asked the hand.

“Another hour. I wonder if we’ll be okay for that long.”

The hand was silent. After pausing for a beat, it then asked, “Would you mind if I deviated from the subject for a moment?” Its tone was so lascivious, it made Su-In’s eyes go wide.

“What is it?” she asked sharply.

“You said you’d got a little feeling back, right?”

“Yes,” Su-In replied, her tone cautious. There was a look of suspicion in her eyes.

“Hmm.”

“What do you mean, ‘Hmm’?”

“Well, the truth is, I’m starving. At least, that’s how you’d put it in your terms. Basically, I need nourishment.”

“What kind of nourishment?” Su-In asked, her curiosity piqued.

“Well . . .”

“Don’t be such a tease!” Su-In scolded him, and then her ears suddenly perked up.

Off in the distance—if memory served, it was in the direction of the entrance—she’d heard a sound. Had someone come? Just at that moment, the light coming in through the window began to rapidly fade. It couldn’t be that Noble . . . After all, there was no way he could know she was out here of all places. No, it wasn’t him. It would be someone from the village. But even thinking that, Su-In couldn’t bring herself to cry out for help.

“Hey,” she called out to the hand. “Hurry up and say what you’re gonna say. What should I do?”

“When did you eat last?” the hand asked her, oddly enough.

“Sometime before noon yesterday.”

“Did you have some water then, too?”

“Of course.”

There was a pregnant pause from the left hand.

“Oh,” Su-In cried. As she flushed all the way to her ears, she glared at the talking hand.

“Well . . .”

“What do you mean, ‘Well’?! That’s disgusting!”

“It’s just a minor inconvenience.”

“I don’t see what’s so minor about it! You’re talking to a lady!”

“I think it’d have to be less objectionable than becoming a servant of the Nobility.”

The color drained right out of Su-In’s face at that moment partly because of the left hand’s words, but also because she’d just heard a number of footsteps behind her. The feeble footsteps she could hear somewhere out there were slowly drawing closer.

The world had passed through the blue and was surrendering itself now to an inky black.

“That can’t be—”

“Oh, yes it can. It feels just like them,” the hand said, its tone hard. “Getting back to what I said—can you do it?”

“Well, this is all pretty sudden.”

“Your life—no, your very soul—depends on it. You’ve gotta do it somehow.”

“I don’t want to. How disgusting!”

Su-In held her breath. The footsteps stopped. Stopped right at the door. They were looking for her. Su-In could tell. But why didn’t they come in? Why didn’t they call out to see if there was anyone there? And why weren’t they even talking among themselves, for that matter? Cold sweat rolled down her cheek.

“Haven’t you gone yet?” the hand asked her.

“Wait—just a second now.”

“Hey, we don’t have any time here.”

The door creaked.

Don’t open it, Su-In thought.

The sound continued for a long time, flowing into the room. It was probably for the best that Su-In couldn’t turn to look. The figures that stepped from the shallow murkiness like ghosts numbered three in all—two women and a man with blood staining the base of their necks.

“Here?” a girl with a round face asked. Her complexion was like paraffin.

“Yes, here,” a girl with red hair replied. She sounded so happy she could weep.

“It’s cold. And I’m hungry,” the third figure—a young man—said sorrowfully. “I want to warm up. But it’s supposed to be summer.”

The trio exchanged glances. And as their gazes intertwined, they fell on Su-In, too.

“Here!”

“She’s here!”

“Let’s go!”

The three of them started walking again. Their eyes were vacant, and they seemed glazed with the colors of hell. There was no circulation in their lips. And yet they looked red. But that was only due to the color of their skin. Their hearts beat out the rhythm of the night, and the blood in their veins was the hue of darkness. Their breath held the odor of dirt from a grave.

“Don’t look behind you, okay?” the hand told the woman.

“I couldn’t look if I wanted to!” Su-In said, but she could barely work her tongue now.

“Have you gone yet?”

Groaning with exasperation, Su-In said, “Hold on. I just need a little longer.”

“We can’t wait any more. I hate to tell you this, but the leader of the pack is only about ten feet from you!”

Su-In was speechless.

“Oh, I see you stretched yourself out some. Keep at it. You’ve almost got it!”

Three shadowy figures clustered around Su-In’s body. Su-In could sense them bending over her. Icicles were pressed against the nape of her neck. They were fingers. Fingers pale and cold as ice itself.

“She’s warm,” the young man said. “So warm! Hot blood runs through her veins!”

“Do you think she looks tasty?” asked the girl with red hair.

“I’m sure she’s delicious,” the young man replied. “Unlike us.”

“I need to drink. A lot,” said the girl with the round face, almost singing the words.

“It won’t be easy drinking from her like that.”

“We can flip her over.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Six hands reached out and rolled Su-In over onto her back. For the first time, she could see their faces.

“Hannah? Clem? Ricardo?!” she cried out in astonishment. “But you’re—Why?!”

“Su-In,” said the young man—Ricardo. Only the slightest surprise could be felt in his hollow voice. However, his youthful face was quickly covered by the lewd smile of a sinful centenarian as he said, “So it was you in here, was it? Your blood is bound to be so very—”

“Delicious!” the girl with the round face—Hannah—moaned.

“When did this happen? When was it? When were you bitten?” Su-In inquired in desperation as she watched Ricardo’s hand drawing closer to her throat.

“Last night . . . The three of us . . . were out picking moonlight grass together, you see,” said Clementine. In the darkness, her red hair looked like a filthy vermilion rag. As her thin lips moved, a number of strands of hair stuck to them, pulled to and fro by their movements. “And then the two of them came . . . They stared at us with those red eyes . . . and we couldn’t move . . . But I see now, Su-In, and you will, too . . . You’ll see just how wonderful this can be. And then all of us went to sleep under the temple’s porch.”

Su-In’s breath had been taken away. Ricardo’s hand grabbed the neck of her shirt and tore it open. Though the rich swells that her white brassiere could barely contain were exposed to the eyes of all three of them, this was no time for embarrassment.

“You smell good, Su-In. Warm. Now there’s a nice human chest! Surely it’s pumping with the freshest of blood. That’s the only regard in which your kind surpasses ours.” Saliva dripped from Ricardo’s lips, splattering between Su-In’s breasts. “I’ll go first. No one has any complaints, I take it?”

“That’s fine,” said one of the others. “Just hurry.”

Ricardo opened his mouth. Fangs peeked from his gums.

Seeing that they were coming down toward her throat, Su-In shut her eyes.

“Just a second,” said a hoarse voice that made the three vampires turn around.

As his glittering eyes bored through the darkness, Ricardo said, “What a strange creature. A hand that can talk! But from the look of things, you can’t move. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained—so once we’re done drinking Su-In’s blood, it’ll be your turn.”

“Hell, take me first!” the hand shouted.

No longer looking at the hand, Ricardo turned back toward Su-In. White fangs bared all the way to the gums, he pressed his teeth to her trembling flesh for a split second before unleashing a cry of surprise and jumping back up. As his crazed eyes fell to the woman’s feet, they found a steaming puddle of liquid coursing in the hand’s direction.

SOARING CLIFFS