Here we go, first fanfic...

We interrupt at page 73, where Doris is telling Greco what a foppish scumbag he is…

"You were all hot under the collar about what happened this morning, so you went and leaned on Old Man Whatley so he wouldn't sell us nothing, didn't you? And you call yourself a man? You're the lowest of the low!"

"What the hell are you yammering about?" Greco smiled mockingly. "I don't have to take that off no one who's about to be some vampire's fun toy. You should thank…" He trailed off as a cloud of darkness sublimated in front of the saloon. "What the hell is that?"

The form of a young lady materialized out of the cloud and walked into the bar. The crowd watching gave a collective gasp when they saw the figure clearly.

She was dressed in all black, spotless and crisp. The deep shade of the cloth seemed to swallow up the light that rested on her form, but her raven hair did the opposite, reflecting it with a crimson glow. Vampiric beauty radiated from her, alongside a deadly aura, though she seemed to ignore both of these. She cocked her head to the side as she watched the humans gape at her. Then she grinned, revealing long, white fangs.

"Vampire's fun toy?" she purred in a deep, melodious voice that made the men almost forget what she was. Almost.

Doris took a step back. While this put her closer to the slimeball Greco, it moved her away from the monster standing before her.

"Ah, yes, I see that the local count, Magnus, has taken a liking to you. He usually goes for your type." The vampire's eyes slide down Doris' shirt to where her cleavage was barely contained*. Then the Noble moved to where the bartender stood and ordered a White Russian. The middle-aged man stared at her in shock.

"What? Don't you people know what a White Russian is? You get some vodka," she pantomimed pouring.

Doris squared her shoulders. She had already been bitten by one vampire; she could face another to save a fellow town resident.

"Yes, I've been bitten by Count Lee," Doris said, trying to sound haughty, "and I hired a Vampire Hunter to kill him."

"Really?" the vampire drawled. She was much better than Doris at haughtiness, most likely due to being older than seventeen, despite not looking a day over the age, and being an aristocrat. "Poor Hunter, the Count can be as slippery as a greased minnow."

Doris faltered, surprised by the Noble's simile and trying to picture a vampire as a greased minnow. Would it be in pork grease or slick oil? But her confidence in her Hunter made her answer. "D is a great Hunter. The Count is probably dying as we speak."

The vampire turned away from her explanation of White Russian ingredients to raise an eyebrow. Then she was in front of Doris, examining the bite mark. She snorted. Then she was in front of the bartender again. The men in the room had reached their shock quota for the day and pretended that they hadn't seen this, thus preventing having to react. Doris jumped.

"Charming, sweetheart, but—did you say D? The tall, dark, handsome, melancholy sap? Faded and patched black clothes, curved sword, foppish blue pendant?" She took Doris' silence for yes, that's him to the dot on the 't' because the Noble forgot her goal of a White Russian. "And he's at Lee's, horrible name for that man by the way, he is nothing like good old Robert, castle as we speak? I ought to go see him. Saving his ass and all. Ciao." With that she was gone. The darkness came again and sped down the street faster than the human eye could follow. Down the road, Dan felt a slight chill, but shook it off and continued waiting patiently for his big sis.

Doris stared after the shadow for a moment. Then she turned back to Greco. "Now, you spoiled son of a—"

Greco sneered and hit low with a speech on how she wasn't going to be able to feed her farm, she wouldn't have a shadow and who knows what would happen to her brother. The vampire out in midday must be a hallucination and his combat suit gave him confidence by hiding the wet spot on his pants. Doris brought out her whip. Meanwhile, a group of four, led by a gorgeous youth, walked to the saloon.

*see the manga if you want a picture

At the castle, the strange vampire slipped through the gates unnoticed. The owners of the castle had just sent D in to the subterranean world and were finishing their rants. The strange vampire relaxed as she entered the time-bewitched room.

The Count Lee started with surprise at the sight of a young woman wondering in his castle. "And who might this be?" he pondered.

"Is that how you address your Crown Princess?" the young woman hissed. A look of terror hit the face of a creature who hadn't felt such emotion in centuries. Count Lee dropped to his knees and his daughter followed suit.

"My Lady, I apologize. We were not expecting such an esteemed visitor during the cursed daylight hours."

"Esteemed visitor?" Larmica repeated. "No Noble can come out during the day, and those petty worms—." Her father hissed at her to be silent.

"I am your Crown Princess, niece of the Sacred Ancestor and Voivodess of the Western Hemisphere, among various other titles. You will address me as 'My Lady' or 'Madam," child." The older vampire's tone dripped with poisonous threats. She was not used to being crossed and put down any disobedience immediately.

Larmica bowed her head in deference.

The count cleared his throat. "My Lady, what is it that you have come to our humble place on the Frontier for?" Both of the women choked down gags at Lee's attempt at humility.

"I was told that a Vampire Hunter by the name of 'D' was attempting to slay you. Has he come here?"

"How were you to come to this place and information during the day?" the count evaded tactlessly. "We were alerted of no carriage…"

"That's because I didn't bring one. I walked through the daylight." The other two vampires made sounds of amazed disbelief. "It comes from being the King of Kings' niece. Now, about that Hunter."

"The Sacred Ancestor and his kin are the most powerful of—"

"The Sacred Ancestor can't do that sort of thing. Why do you think he has been doing all of those ridiculous experiments all these millennia? The Hunter, if you care to change the subject."

Count Lee stumbled a bit, wanting to know how a willowy girl could walk in the light of day, but the Great One could not. But his common sense told him not to push after she used that tone.

"He was an annoying gnat, so we sent him down to the subterranean chamber," the count gestured at the trapdoor. Both he and the lady knew that the Hunter was more than a gnat from the wound he had inflicted with his sword. "There are three sisters down there who will dispatch him."

"Ah, well," the lady sighed.

Magnus Lee offered to entertain her until twilight. The lady accepted and the three made small talk and subtle politics over glasses of synthetic blood for the remaining daylight hours. Finally, they parted.

"What a peculiar girl," Larmica commented as they watched her walk away on the remote camera screen.

"Yes," the count agreed. "I believe I will rest until midnight, and then I will visit my toy."

D wandering through the maze, following the large body of the Midwich Medusas. He felt the sun sinking and felt very slightly irked that he would not reach the farm by the time the count visited. Another piece of his ire was focused on the patch of sandy mud that had worked its way through his boots to grit at the arch of his right foot.

We join Doris and Dr. Ferringo discussing vampiric weaknesses, pg 100…

"This isn't something the Lesser Nobility are capable of. It may well be…"

"It may well be what?

"Him. All the true Nobility in the world were united under the thousand Greater Nobility, the Seven Kings and the legendary dark lord who ruled them all—the great vampire, the king of kings, Dra—"

Doris heard a thud on the front porch. Dan was asleep and the barrier was up, so the only person Doris could think of was D. A muffed curse filtered through the door and Doris realized that D wouldn't make that much noise. She was moving towards a weapon when the door fell in.

A female form dressed in less-than-immaculate black tripped over the front rug and another curse was uttered. A small cloud of dust rose from her coat. How the woman had managed to get passed the electromagnetic barrier was a mystery.

"'Ello," the vampire said, looking up with crimson eyes.

The two humans stared in stunned silence for a moment. Doc was bewildered by the vampire's appearance and Doris was shocked by her reappearance. Doc recovered first. He brandished the powder-filled vial.

"You demon, we know your weakness. This vial—"

"You have mint dark chocolate?" the vampire interrupted.

"No, I have garlic powder," Dr. Ferringo said in a lesser grand tone than before. He was a bit at a loss for what to do after that.

"Oh, garlic. Okay, yes, that is a weakness. Go on, I hate to disrupt you when you seem on such a roll."

"Well, I was going to uncork this at you and chase you off and…all." Doc still doubted that the powder would work (why would a lesser vampire admit a weakness?) and so still remembered his original plan.

"I would greatly prefer if you didn't. That stuff gives me an awful allergy attack," the vampire explained. "And besides, we might want to save it for when Count Lee comes."

"A good point," the doctor conceded. "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't but it's Sorin. It was a grandfather's name."

"What the hell do you think you're doing barging in here like that? I'm not going to stand being bitten by every vampire within a hundred mile radius. I'm a Hunter's daughter and I'm good enough to kill the likes of you. I'll stake you if you don't head for the hills now!" Doris had recovered.

"Why would I bite you? You're already Magnus' plaything. It's terrible manners to chew on someone else's fun toy." The vampire gave Doris a condescending look. That was the last straw. Doris would not be looked down upon. Doc tried to intervene but it was in vain.

"I'm a fun toy?! You just come in here and act like you own the place when your race is dying out. You're going extinct and humans are going to be here after and thumb their noses at your dust. You—"

Sorin noticed Dr. Ferringo trying to speak. "Shush, bunny cunny, your elders are trying to have a conversation," she crooned at Doris. The girl turned bright red and Doc forgot what he was going to say.

"Bunny…" Doris repeated.

"Yes, sweetheart. I don't care how much silicon you've got there, that only impresses men."

"I haven't got any cyborg parts! All my limbs are mine!" The silicon implants of the past were not part of Doris' knowledge.

"Ciao," the Noble Sorin walked out the door. Doc and Doris stared after her for a while. Then the sounds of a black carriage approaching reached the humans' ears and Doris leapt into action.

Sorin laughed as she walked away in the cool night air. She looked up and told the stars, "I love confusing the hell out of people and walking away. Smile, it makes people wonder what you're up to…" The Vampiress Sorin Drăculeşti, great-granddaughter of Mircea cel Mare of Wallachia, niece and Heir Apparent to the Great Sacred Ancestor, walked like a commoner to find a tree to sleep under.

While the Time-Bewitching Incense burns, all vampires except Sorin are in pain and immobile. Sorin's just in miserable pain. We join Greco as he is kicked out of the carriage on pg 173…

"Oof!"

The undignified grunt reached Sorin's undead ears long before she was in sight of the carriage. It had been quite fun to pretend to stalk the horses like a highway bandit of old. But now it sounded like she was needed.

Larmica was recoiling from the mark of the cross, that little 't' that caused most vampires so much pain.

"Oh, get over it," Sorin snapped. Vampires who were burnt by the cross annoyed her. "Just because one guy was crucified—" Larmica hissed again "—doesn't mean anything. The Romans crucified hundreds, thousands of people."

Larmica tried to protest, but Sorin cut her off. The humans stared in amazement, Doris by Sorin's tone and Greco by Sorin's cleavage.

"Oh for mud water's sake, you only get hurt by the religion you followed as a human and you two didn't have a religion (being latecomers and all) so you're just bandwagoning on the Sacred Ancestor's. I knew this one vampire who was burnt by phallic symbols. It was a bloody hell of a life, seeing as he was attached to one. But if he had denounced his belief/obsession/etc. he would have had a much easier time about everything. I personally don't see how men do it, all that stuff floppin' in the wind, but it's yours so live with it." Larmica's finely sculpted mouth dropped open.

Doris seized the opportunity to flee. She grabbed the reins of the carriage and snapped them, intending to shake Larmica off and run like hell. But then she saw the man wearing an inverness.

Sorin looked over and sniffed distastefully. She didn't like werewolf servants, even the original kind. She quietly vanished, before the count called notice to her presence.

At page 200, D shows a bit of his vampire nature to scare the townsfolk and Rei-Ginsei proposes the duel. Sorin is on the roof.

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."

Rei-Ginsei's voice rang out over the crowd and they started to part when Sorin fell off the roof. She was a vampire, and an agile one at that, so she gracefully landed on D with a thud. A brief struggle ensued.

"Get the fuck off of me," D grunted. Sorin sat bolt upright with a delighted gasp.

"D-kun! You said 'fuck!' I'm so proud of you, let me show you how to use your middle finger!" D continued his attempt to get out from under the girl (who must have weighed much more that she appeared, likely due to a technology of vampires that allowed them to ignore physical volume and carry large objects in small pockets) and his left hand gave a prime example of the sign language Sorin wanted to coach.

"Don't call me D-kun," the dhamir ordered. He managed a push-up position.

"I can call you whatever the hell I want. You're my little cousin. I call you D-kun. Unless we are in France, in which case I would call you moi petite a la D, but we're not in France because they got blown up and therefore I call you D-kun."

"That's not even real French," D grumbled under his breath. He heaved her off of him and stood ready to receive Rei-Ginsei's challenge.

"The bastard who attacked the FDF patrol and some slut just drop in?" Doris shouted and the crowd buzzed in response. The mob hadn't seen Sorin's red eyes or fangs.

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?"

"I'm not some slut," Sorin muttered. D kicked her in the shin.

Doris ground her teeth in frustration. She didn't have evidence to support either of her accusations. Rei-Ginsei's gang had destroyed all of the patrol and vampiress could be some Vestal Virgin for all she knew.

"As I was saying," Rei-Ginsei continued. He quickly ensnared the simple mayor with his angelic smile. "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?"

"Hubristic fop," Sorin muttered as the mayor hemmed and hawed. The mayor (who Sorin was beginning to think was a friggin' moron) agreed Rei-Ginsei's first request and the next one as well.

With the challenge made and terms set, the two combatants stood in the circle of people. Sorin had moved to the railing of the porch and watched with Doris and Dan. She mused over the fact that the villagers had not noticed that she wasn't human. They were too caught up in their own problems to see the demons standing among them.

Doris studied the vampire sitting next to her. Sorin glanced over and the two shared a moment of mutual understanding. Both loved D and would cheer for him.

The moon watched over the gathering, three people facing many with two warriors between them.

There was an exhalation as Rei-Ginsei threw the first three blows. The humans present couldn't see the shrike-blades' path but Sorin and D could. D parried and leapt into the air. But just when the Hunter's victory seemed assured, he wobbled. A moment later, Sorin fell off the railing, her face twisted in the brief agony that came when she stepped into sunlight. This time, the humans saw what neither of the Nobility did. Rei-Ginsei pulled out Greco's wooden stake and impaled D's heart. The bloody mist and body hit the ground.

"Nailed him!"

The jubilant cried 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.

Sorin heard the thud of a body and the shouts that came after. From the order of shouters, she assumed D had been defeated with the Time-Bewitching Incense. The agony the candle caused her was not much different than a dhamir's sunstroke and she got over it in less than two minutes, but too many things could happen in those precious seconds.

The mob was surging forward when Sorin managed to sit up. Doris had been knocked unconscious (how did all this happen so fast when humans moved so slowly?) and her little brother was screaming protests. Spunky kid. With that motivation, Sorin managed a grin and evil laugh, both showing off her fangs, cerise eyes and unearthly beauty. The mob broke into panicked pieces and ran from her, taking the two children and riding to town with them.

The Incense was fading, but the two figures that remained. Sorin laid on the hard wood decking, feinting unconsciousness as D's slayer and another talked. She glared daggers at the former and wished a plague on the latter for his role in this. If only the recoil didn't make her so tired. She watched Rei-Ginsei cut off D's left hand and pondered if that would slow down anything.

She grinned and added a second disturbing chuckle when the two parted with a threat. With a bit of will, she called a breeze to blow the last bit of incense away. The bushes stirred after the wind died down.

Sorin stumbled over to the fallen Hunter, feeling slightly buzzed. She fell to her knees and knelt by the body. The amputated hand was already positioning itself to connect with D's arm.

"Good evening, Your Ladyship," the countenanced carbuncle greeted her formally.

"Oh, cut the crap, you gnomish goiter," Sorin snapped back. "You were never formal before."

"I thought it would be best to be respectful in case you were in an extremely bad mood."

"Am I ever in an extremely bad mood when I offer to teach some obscene hand gestures?" The vampiress snorted. "It worries me when he's like this."

"Like what, dead? Yeah, I guess that's kinda stressful. Excuse me for a moment, Your Majesty." The hand started its trick of inhaling all the air it could and then munched away at the dirt. "I don't suppose you have a match, would you?" Sorin shook her head. She had been burnt at the stake the last time a vampire hunter tried to kill her and was currently in the throes of pyrophobia. She did reach out and pull the stake out of D's chest.

"You're a rather odd vampire, you know. I've heard a bit about you being out in the sun and not being afraid of crosses. You examined that girl's neck without flinching." The hand made a fist and pounded D's healed chest. Why wasn't his heart starting? "Beat, damn it."

"I think it runs in the family. Great-Grandpa was so proud, Grandpa was proud and a genius, Uncle Mircea was clever (if tactless) and Uncle Vlad is…everything. Look at what he made," she gestured to D. On that topic, there was a strong resemblance between the two. Dark hair, pale skin, strong but smoothly shaped noses and sculpted lips that revealed an iron will. Neither flaunted their beauty, in fact, they both tried to cover it with cloth or attitude.

"I think he would be happier if he let himself get along with at least one member of his family. Want to foster any cousinly love?" The carbuncle grinned at the maiden. She made a face at it. So Sorin and D were related by the name of Vlad. Obviously the vampiric half of D's genetics came from him. What kind of person was this man? What kind of people were his son and niece?

"I do have weaknesses, you know. I just don't follow the bandwagon and go with all of Uncle's. Hell with crosses and sunlight, I have heptagrams and possums." She shuddered at the last one. Opossums severely crept her out, especially the ten foot long mutant ones. The subject needed changing

"Why doesn't your little friend come out and help?" the carbuncle challenged.

"My one of you died. It was not a happy creature."

They shared a moment of silence for this thing that neither had known. There was so much irony in that moment. Humans of the Frontier had little time to give to the dead. Bodies were buried with only the preparations to prevent demonic possession. At the same time, two creatures, one of which was one of the most evil beings in existence, paused to mourn what was likely one of millions of creatures that failed to thrive at being a vampire's experiment. The moment was quickly becoming depressing.

"Well, I'd best be going. Places to go, people to meet, things to blow up, all that." The face in D's palm gave her a pleading look. Sorin sighed and with a quick show of friction, manifested a ball of fire. The countenanced carbuncle made quick work of it and thanked the Noble with much gusto and sarcasm. Sorin countered with an adieu and left, like the night mist in the morning sun.

"Jeez, that family's screwed up. Well, I'm not here to ask questions. Now, c'mon and beat already!" the tumor spat at D's heart. It was about to hit D again when something deadly coagulated from the night sky. "Shit."

Sorin watched the battle from her perch in the rafters. The beams were actually supporting the castle's floor, but they were open to the underground chamber as well. It was actually pretty shoddy craftsmanship with the wooden beams exposed to the air and elements. Sorin frowned upon vampiric tweaking with support structures.

She heard Larmica reversing the computers' safety circuits and the warning bell that was the Count's downfall. Her compatriot fell to dust that would be buried under his manor. It seemed fitting.

Sorin mourned the loss silently. Even if Magnus Lee had been a stubborn fool planted firmly in the past, he was still an ancient vampire. She and Uncle were the two oldest vampires in existence and there were three others left from before Armageddon. But Lee's generation was gone when he and Larmica died. The similarities and reality stung.

She followed Doris to the exit and sent a charm to increase the protective power of D's pendant. Even if their electromagnetic barrier broke down, the pendant would keep most things away as long as it was on the Lang's land.

With half an ear, she listened to D and Larmica's parting words. The falling dust disrupted the sounds at this distance, but she heard most of it. Larmica was a better person than Sorin had given her credit for. What a loss.

The vampire left the humans and headed away from the castle at a right angle from them. She could watch for D from there. The cloud of white dust settled and Sorin shook off her gray coating. And she waited.

D rode away from the powdered castle, long after Doris and her brother had gone home. He rode until the afternoon took its toll on his vampire blood. After finding a tree with suitable dense shade, the dhamir dismounted and tied the horse to a low-hanging branch. He then sat against the trunk and seemed to sleep. His gorgeous countenance almost relaxed and his shoulders drooped slightly. But one could tell that he was still alert, ready to wake from his catnap at the slightest sound. No creature was likely to come near with his aura present, but it mattered little to the dhamir.

Sometime later, D woke up to find himself cradled against a woman's soft bosom. His left hand had moved itself up by her ear to hold a whispered conversation about nothings. A mended sword and bright blue pendant lay near the pair. Both were polished to shining almost new.

D tried to shift away, but the woman's arms tightened around him.

"Go back to sleep, love. I haven't gotten to hold you like this since you were little." Sorin murmured into his hair. D relaxed and let her stroke his head. Soon he fell back asleep. Was it some trick of the vampire or countenance carbuncle to make the cold Hunter venerable in the arms of one that he hunted? Or did D choose his actions on his own accord?