Lines and Leads
"What's that noise?" Came a muffled query. D woke from his light sleep and listened for a few moments.
"The wind." He stated shortly before he went back to dozing. He had spent the day riding through a desert. A few old vehicles and patches of asphalt still remained every few miles but for the most part it was devoid of life. There weren't even sand mantas or buzzards out there. The sun had been unforgiving, so when D came to a lush wooded area he decided to rest. He could hear his horse not too far away, eating grass and drinking from the stream. He estimated he'd been sleeping for about an hour when he heard Left Hand talk.
"It's getting closer." Left hand commented. D tilted his head back a little and inhaled.
"Maybe a storm is coming." D guessed. His eyes snapped open when the faint whirling noise turning into a surly howl. The dark wooded area was suddenly a blaze with light as something shot over it. D sprinted out of the way of a falling tree and grabbed his horse before it could run away scared.
"What is that! A comet!?" Left hand asked. "Let me see."
"It's a...space craft." D said, not entirely certain himself. What ever it was, it crashed into the sand about a mile from the wooded area. D steadied the horse as the earth shook violently. A few moments later a wall of wind and sand blew over D. He aligned himself behind a large birch and held on tightly to his horse as it attempted to get away. When the wind settle he calmed the cyber creature before mounting it.
"I suppose you want to go see what that was." Left hand said. D said nothing. Only nudged his horse with his feet slightly and directed it towards the craft's landing sight. "This is all well and good but you do know what 'killed the cat', right?" D's reply was the same as always: silence.
They reached the crater about forty five minutes later. D took the horse slow, feeling the creatures apprehension. He dismounted and tied the horse to an old lamp post that had been thrust out of the ground by the craft's landing. D soon found himself walking on glass. The heat from the object had crystallized the sand around it. D wasn't phased by the heat, the high temperature was only a mild discomfort. He scanned the craft with his eyes and soon found what might have been a door. He used his sword to wedge it open. When he broke it's seal, the hatch flung open with an angry hiss and a plume of pressurized air. He jumped back, narrowly missing being hit in the face by the door.
"What's in it?" Left hand asked. He materialized in D's palm so he could have a look himself. D flinched a little when he saw what was inside. "It's a kid." Left hand's assessment wasn't quite accurate. The man inside looked more like he was in his late teens. But D knew that was a facade. "It's dinner in a can." Left hand chuckled.
"A dhampir." D said in his usual tone. He raised his sword to the boy's throat, ready to sever his head--
"D..." The boy murmured. He froze. He reached in and grabbed the collar of the boy's tattered white tuxedo shirt and pulled him up.
"Who are you?" D asked shaking him a little. His head stayed up for a moment before it lulled back. Had he imagined it? D sucked his teeth before he gather the boy up and walked him back to the horse.
D poked at the fire with a stick before he spared a glance at the boy he had taken from the space craft. It took D all of three minutes to recognize him. The boy was the spitting image of Meier Link - only younger. His face was more round, the outline of his eyes were bigger. His skin wasn't the sickly blue that Meier had been but a pale shade of peach. D attributed the boys difference from Meier to the woman he knew to be his mother. Charlotte. The boy had her wavy brown hair - though it was shaved in the back and cut short on top with few soft curls near his ears. The boy certainly didn't look like he came from such rich blood lines. His clothes were tattered and worn. The only thing that wasn't covered in dirt or dried blood was a flat, white opal ring. It's onset colors gleamed in the fire light as it rest on his right middle finger.
The boy was relatively young for a dhampir. Probably a little over two hundred years old. D tried to remember when Meier and Charlotte left for the 'Castle in the Stars'. Had it been two hundred years ago? After they left, the next milestone had been Leila's funeral and that had been seventy years after they left. Her granddaughter had died in her eighties and that was about forty years ago. So yeah, it had been about two hundred years.
"That means it's been three hundred since Doris died." He said to himself.
"Hm? What's that?" Left hand asked. "Reminiscing again."
"Just trying to pin point his age." D replied.
"I can do that." Left hand said as he materialized again. D shifted over and put his hand to the boy's throat. His pulse was slow and steady, a clear indication that he was still asleep. "Hmm...let's see." He took a few moments to gather his information. "I'd say he's about two hundred and thirteen years old, give or take a few days--
"Ahhh!" the boy suddenly shrieked as he jumped out of sleep. D pulled his hand back when he felt a nagged sting in his palm.
"Son of a bitch!" Left hand snarled. "The little bastard stabbed me!" D looked closer and sure enough the boy had a blood covered dagger in his hand.
"Don't touch me you old perv!" The boy said as he tried to move. He found his legs failed him. As he leaned back on one arm it wobbled under his weight. "Who the hell do you think you are?"
"I was just checking to see if you were alright...my name is D." He answered his questions as he took in the boy's form. He was tired and half starved. He could barely hold the large dagger in his hand.
"D? The Dhampir!?" The boy asked. His angry expression turning to that of elation. "I don't believe it. I found you on the first day! And dad said I would die in the landing. I sure showed him." D and Left hand watched the boy ramble on. D only under stood half of what he was saying, he was talking so fast.
"He's insane. I say you eat him." Left hand suggested.
"Who are you?" D simply asked. The boy stopped mid sentence and smiled brightly. He stood up and bowed politely.
"I am Julian Link. My father was the vampire Meier Link." The boy said. "He sent me down here to find you--" Once again D cut him off. Julian gasped when his back hit a tree a second later. He felt the cold steel of D's sword on his neck and froze. "Hold it! Hold it! It's not what you think."
"You're father was a fool to send you here. I'm a vampire hunter and half breeds count." D said. Left hand laughed.
"Slit his throat and let's have a feast."
"No! No! He sent me down here to train under you! Not kill you." Julian said trying to move away from the swords edge. D dropped him.
"Why would I train you?" D asked.
"Well, father said I was weak and I needed to train in order to--
"No." D simply said as he sheathed his sword and started towards his horse.
"What? How can you say no? I need your help and you--
"No." D mounted his horse and started away. Julian trotted after him.
"You're just going to leave me here?" Julian asked. "Why won't you train me?"
"I'm not going to teach you just so you can turn around and kill me. I owe your father nothing and you, less." D explained. "Go back to where you came from. I'm trying to rid this world of your kind."
"You are my kind! If you don't help me I'll die." Julian protested as he continued to follow D. All he got was silence from D this time but he still went on. "I'm just trying to live my life like you. You saw how easily you pinned me to that tree. Without proper training I won't last very long."
"You've made it two hundred years without my help." D said.
"How did you know...whatever. I've been up in a floating palace, hiding behind my mother's skirt until now. But father got tired of my weakness. I have never killed in my life. How can you turn away an innocent person asking for your help. Look, I just..." D tuned the boy out as he rode. Concentrating his hearing on the wind and the sound of his horse until the boy's high pitched voice was nothing but a nagging little ring in his ears. After a few hours the sun rose and was just as hot as the day before. The boy slowed down a bit. And his words started to come far and few between. Soon all he was doing was begging. "Please...please..." And soon even that faded.
"He passed out." Left hand stated. But D was well aware of that. The kid had been stricken with heat syndrome. D wasn't so susceptible but Julian was so young. He'd be dead in about an hour. "Why are you going back? He barely has any blood left in him." When D didn't reply Left hand sighed. "You're getting soft in your old age."
"Tell me what's wrong with him." D demanded as he put his left hand to Julius' chest.
"Slave driver." Left hand muttered before he checked the boy. "Let's see...oy, he's a train wreck. Emaciation. Anemia. The lack of nutrition has him in the early stages of renal failure. He's got athletes foot and he's not circumcised. That enough?" D simply took his hand away. He unsheathed his sword and carefully made a knick on his wrist. Soon it started bleeding profusely and D held it over Julian's open mouth. Once again the boy started out of unconsciousness.
"What are you doing?" He yelled as he tried to move away.
"Keeping you alive." D said. He easily held Julian down and force fed him the blood.
"Stop it! It's disgusting! I don't drink blood...anymore." Julian protested. D relinquished his hold and tended to his small wound. It healed quickly.
"That explains a whole lot. Even you sometimes drink those plasma packs from the hospital." Left Hand said to D. D balled his hand into a fist to silence him. He watched Julian as he slipped back out of consciousness. "My advice is to take that nice ring and leave him in a ditch." D sighed as he lifted Julian off the ground. He jumped on to his horse and started riding, a little faster than his usual meandering pace. He had to find a town before nightfall.
"What is that?" Julian opened his eyes when his coma was interrupted by the smell of something delicious. His stomach cramped and demanded it be given what ever it was.
"You talk in your sleep." Julian looked at D. The older dhampir was sitting not to far away from where he was laying. Julian looked around the room they were in. "It's a hotel." D clarified.
"What smells so good?" He asked. D simply pointed to the covered tray next to Julian on the bed.
"Eat it."
"Don't gotta tell me twice." Julian said as he uncovered the tray. He looked at the bowl of steaming red liquid and frowned. "I don't drink blood I thought I--
"It's tomato soup." D interrupted. D studied him for a moment. Why couldn't he tell the difference in smells?
"I like tomatoes." Julian said as he picked up the bowl. He nearly spilled it on himself twice before he got it to his mouth. D watched him chug the whole thing and sighed.
"You're going to make yourself sic--" D was interrupted this time. Julian opened his mouth a let out a burp so loud D was sure the dead heard it.
"S'cuse me." Julian said smiling a little. He laid back down. "I feel so tired." He yawned and closed his eyes.
"He's chatty." Left hand commented. D looked at his hand for a moment before focusing on Julian again. He was back asleep.
"Ah!" Julian yelped when sharp pain woke him. He opened his eyes to find D loaming over him, pinching his cheek - he guessed to wake him. "What--
"Eat it." He simply said as he gave Julian another tray. This had been going on for about a month. All Julian did was eat and sleep. While he was awake he talked D's ear off about whatever nonsense was on his mind at the moment. While he was asleep D went out and looked for solutions to Julius' other problems. He gathered water and had Julian drink at least half a gallon every day to reverse the effects the sun caused on his organs. During the third week D finally saw an improvement. Once he got Julian on solid food, he started to fill out. His cheeks got plumper and his ribs and vertebrae were no longer protruding through his taunt skin. D looked at Julian as he talked. He tuned in. It seemed he was explaining why he was in such bad shape.
"...I saw them carting in all these humans and I never knew where they kept coming from. Father told me long ago that there weren't anymore spaceships that could come to the castle. I finally followed one of my servants and saw them all. Like how humans used to keep live stock - my father and the other vampires were keeping the humans in the lowest basement. Breeding them like animals and eating them when they became old enough. All the food I had ever eaten was humans, just chopped up and served with a side of lettuce. Which I'm pretty sure was made of humans too. So I stopped eating and father became furious. For months I didn't eat and he finally got sick of my weakness. He didn't want to see me waste away to nothing. He put me in that...'pod' and told me to go live with other cowards like myself. No offense." Julian said as he looked up from his sandwich.
"None taken." D said. His response made Julian smile. He finished his sandwich and drank his water and laid down. It was like he inherited more human characteristics than vampire. Julian ate more food in four weeks than D did in the past couple of years. Maybe it was his condition. Maybe it was the fact he had led a sheltered life up until now. He needed to learn to fend for himself. He wasn't a baby anymore.
'The transition starts tomorrow.' D thought. He stood up when he heard Julian snoring and left the room. It was nearly dusk and most of the shops in the town were still open. He decided to get a few essentials for Julian's training. New clothes was the first stop. He picked up something that would protect Julian's skin from the sun, a short cape and a hat. More water and some oil for the cyber horse.
"Something's happening." Left hand said. D looked up when he heard the ruckus too. There was a crowd outside the hotel where he had left Julian. He knew what that meant.
"Get them out. Get them out of our town before they attract others!" One man yelled.
"How dare you harbor them here!?"
"What were you thinking?" Two woman yelled at the old man that ran the hotel. He stood in the doorway, keeping the mob from entering the establishment and burning it to the ground. D decided to go around the back way. The last time he underestimated an angry mob he woke up hanging from a tree.
'Thought I'd never get that crick out of my neck.' He thought as he climbed the stairs to his room. He opened the door to find Julian huddled in the corner, with his legs drawn up to his chest. "Julian." He jumped when he heard D. When he looked up D noticed a gash on his forehead, dripping blood down his forehead and into his left eye.
"D! Thank god you're--
"What happened?" He asked grabbing a wash cloth from the bathroom. He gave it to Julian to clean himself up with.
"I--I was just sitting in the window and the sun got in my eyes. And--and someone saw my eyes while they were red. And--
"Ok. Here get dressed. We're leaving today anyway." D said as he gave Julian his new clothes. Julian did as he was told.
"Tops a little snug." Julian commented. He liked how the high collar of the shirt was loose around his neck. The pants were a little tight too but he didn't mind that as much. He put on his boots and turned to D. "What do you think?"
"Here." D put the cape and hat on him.
"A hat? Really? They're so ugly." Julian said without thinking. D just looked at him, waiting for him to catch what he said. "Except on you! You really pull it off, D. Totally...sexy."
"Come on." D said. They slipped out the way D had come in, mounted the horse and rode off before the towns people were any the wiser.
"I don't get it." It wasn't long before Julian started talking. "I'm just a Dhampir. I don't even drink blood. Why were they so angry?"
"It doesn't matter whether you're a whole or just a half. To them a vampire is a vampire. There are few people on this planet that see the difference." D answered. Julian looked over his shoulder at the quickly fading town.