Part One: Illusions
Chapter Two – The Nymph
"Fear and pain may accompany Death, but it is desire that shepherds it's certainty as we shall see..." Her Ghost in the Fog, Cradle of Filth.
The girl stayed faithfully by D's side as he burrowed into the Earth and slept, allowing his wounds and his illness to heal fully. When he rose from his makeshift grave, the dirt falling right off his beautiful form as if was loathe to mar him in any longer, he found that the girl had her back to him and she was feeding a horse. Judging from the gear on the horse's back, and the appearance of the horse D's suspicions were confirmed. It had no reins or saddle, and it was brilliant golden brown color that was unnatural to any human bred horse, the hair of it's mane and tail had a silver sheen, and its flesh was too lively, it's mane too long and wild to be that of a cyborg. This was a horse of the Fae that could only belong to a woman of the Fae.
"You're a Nymph, are you not?" asked D.
The girl whirled about to face him; her eyes were bright with outrage. Her hair was white, almost silvery sort of blonde and it hung in a flawless sheet down to her knees, small plaits were woven through it's form to keep the unworldly tresses from her eyes. Her eyes were as vivid as emeralds and her curves were too fell formed, too sensual to be that of any human woman. While she was not waif thin, her body still glowed with femininity that would have made any man that looked upon her weak with lust, as if the very hands of Venus had shaped her. She wore a simple and modest green tunic that seemed to be sewn together with vines, vines which she also wore as necklaces and bracelets, through her hair. Diminutive, undying flowers were her jewels.
She seemed a stark contrast to the Hunter that loomed a good foot above her, with his black garb and his black hair untamed beneath his hat, his form was the very definition of formidable, but somehow elegant beyond description. But despite his dark, radiant beauty the girl did not stare at him with the misty eyed expression most women had upon meeting D's gorgeous form. Rather she looked positively livid.
"What does it matter if I am!" she hissed.
D said nothing. In all honesty he didn't hold much respect for Nymphs. Like most creatures that roamed this world they had been created by Nobel experimentation.
In creating the Nymphs they bred only the most beautiful human women with their previously created male elves. The result was the Nymphs that were always born female, and were usually shallow, fiendish beings that cared only for the Earth beyond their endless pursuit of beauty and pleasures of the flesh. Their elven blood allowed them great magical ability but it was power they generally wasted in their endless, immortal hunt for sex. D's gorgeous countenance had made more than a few Nymphs swoon over him, and to dog in his footsteps for months at a time.
But the woman seemed to show none of that inanity. Still, D regarded her distantly.
"I own you my life. I must repay that debt." He answered almost mechanically.
The Nymph shook her head, sighing, "There is no debt. I am a traveling healer. I do this merely to help the helpless. I cannot charge you anymore than I would a penniless child. You may call me Luna."
"Call me D."
At this she smiled, "Call you D…well I knew that already but how about your real name? I did just save your life."
D said nothing.
She smiled a bit more, her jewel like eyes sparkled in the moonlight "Oh why not? My real name isn't Luna, it's Lunerahnefer. So how about it, what's yours?"
But D made no attempt to answer her, and merely surveyed his situation. He still had his longsword, and a few of his wooden throwing spears, but every other weapon he'd spent while fighting the manticore his foe had set upon him. His horse and the few possessions the Hunter owned were destroyed. He was caught in the midst of a vast, and rather featureless grassland with only a shrub and stand of trees here and there, but nothing else to be seen.
"We need to move." D stated in his firm, detached voice, " the beast that attacked me does not give up so easily. I am being hunted."
The Nymph looked over to her horse and flushed, "So…then I suppose you'll be riding with me, seeing as I don't intend to have to save you all over again."
"Does riding with me bother you?" answered D, again in utter indifference as he moved over to the Fae horse, and placed his elegant, thin hand on the beasts' head. It whickered in approval and lowered its head in submission.
'Well…yes!" the Nymph fumed, color bright in her cheeks, "I may have denounced the ways of my people for this cause, but I can't help what I am. I cannot imagine that I'll endure hours of being pressed up against a man as beautiful as yourself without becoming a little flustered."
"Try." He answered in his steely tone as he leapt easily on the horses back, and wound his long fingers through the mane. Luna clucked her tongue with indignation and glared at the young Hunter. After a seconds hesitation D extended his hand to the girl, but the girl snorted in disgust and batted his hand away. She did not wrap her arms around the man she'd just bleed to save, but rather glared harshly at his caped back and the elegant longsword slung there.
Hours passed without a single word as D nudged the horse to a gallop, the sun sank into the horizon and died in a burst of orange and scarlet. A paralyzing cold quickly descended over the land, and the stars had begun to appear from the darkness when the first wild howls began to circle the horse and riders. The Nymph's head snapped up from her thoughts, the howls seemed to be circling them, edging closer and closer. She could recognize the thunderous calls to be that of the bronze hounds. When she could see the eerie glow of the beasts' vivid blue eyes, D urged the horse to a stop.
The sound of heavy paws closing in on all sides filled the air, there was a flash of silver as D's sword slid out of its sheath, but it was Luna that dismounted the horse. Her body was still and her was face fearless as she walked into the midst of the gathering circle of beasts.
"Stop." She commanded firmly, but her voice seemed different…it was saccharine, as well as sultry and almost operatic. Each of the steel skinned wolves froze still in its tracks, and each muzzle turned obediently to the Nymph, their eyes blazing wilder than ever, but it was not with blood lust. Rather it was almost like they were suddenly awash with lust for pleasure.
"Woah…don't see that every day…" said a strange voice from around D's waist.
"Leave, don't come back." Luna continued in that strange, commanding voice.
Obediently the bronze hounds turned tail and fled from the scene; their foot falls uneven, as if in a daze.
Luna turned back to D as if nothing had happened, " We're stopping here for the night. Your welcome to keep going…on foot that is." She replied a bit waspishly, and hurriedly grabbed a thick hand made quilt from the horses back, wrapping it tight about her shivering body.
D dismounted, surveying the chosen camp sight. " I doubt we're safe. I'll keep watch."
She noticed that it seemed no puff of breath escaped from the Hunters lips and into the freezing night air.
"I am not taking second watch. Nor or we stopping tomorrow for you to sleep."
"I don't expect you to. I'll keep watch. The Frontier is not safe."
"Oh," she half laughed, " did you figure that out all on your own? I don't need a hero, so cut the crap."
Again silence prevailed as she began to gather a few twigs into a pile…certainly not enough for a fire, but never the less she rubbed a few of the flimsy sticks together and a moment later a brilliant, flickering fire of blue flames was roaring there. While the flames weren't especially warm D could feel the magical flames were emitting a powerful, and repulsive aura that must have acted like a repellant for the denizens of the Frontier. But she was a woman of no chances it seemed. She took a bow and quiver of incendiary arrows from her horses back and kept them close as she began to consume her solitary meal of roots and bright colored fruits that seemed whimsical even to D's eyes.
The moon at it's apex of it's climb when D at last spoke, "I did not know it was possible for a Nymph to summon the Phoenix."
Shocked at his sudden words she looked up, color flooding her face, " Nor should you…not many of my kind are aware that they have the ability. They waste away their magic. If my kind followed my example instead of trolling about for a fuck than we might be treated like women rather than mindless whores."
'You've mastered your powers well." Said the Hunter, nodding his appreciation.
Her face flushed even brighter, apparently she was aware of the impossibility of such a comment from the Hunter. "Well…thank you. It's not that hard…a Nymph's sole purpose in life is pleasure and to serve the Earth. We can do both through song, when I heal, I sing in the traditional way. Nymphs use song to draw the power of the Earth, and to accelerate healing. When we seduce we can use song as well, but usually we reserve that for rare cases and more often than not our enemies are powerless against that song. They'll do anything we say. So when I defend myself, I sing in the seduction notes…with a hint of pleasure you can make your enemies and your allies do anything. Still you'd be surprised how many Nymphs don't even know how to repel so much as a fly."
"Why waste those powers on a dhampir?" D inquired, again sounding rather disinterested in the words he spoke.
At this the Nymph meet the Hunter's eyes. They'd not yet properly meet since D had drank of her, and upon meeting her bright and doe like eyes even D could not help but to feel the tiniest, heated thread of attraction quiver throughout him.
" Well I am a Healer. I heal regardless of race and blood. After all, it wouldn't be fair of me to judge you when Nymphs are merely half human as well, and we too were created by the Nobility."
"Do you show such devotion to all your causes?" he questioned, faint interest now stirring in his pallid face.
"Well you're not the first dhampir or Nobel I've bled to save if that's what you mean."
She said looking down at her swollen wrist. In the glare of the fire light D noticed that past his bite her skin was covered with cuts, and punctures that had scarred. Ordinarily mortal wounds would have healed without a trace on a Nymph, but these were more than mortal wounds. The sight was strangely tempting to the Hunter. He could not deny he felt that stirring of lust growing brighter deep within him. "But I treat all my patients the same, all life is precious…although I cannot say I would have called the Phoenix for just anyone. You are D, the greatest Hunter who ever lived. I've been hearing legends about you for centuries."
"If all life is precious than I should not be famous." said D, glibly.
Luna's eyes widened at the impact of his gelid words but she did not speak out against them. Perhaps he was right, or perhaps she's merely saved a cold-blooded killer hours ago. Try as she did to wrench her gaze from the killer's beauty she found it quite impossible. Nymphs were no strangers to the beauty of the male form and for this reason they often took husbands that were either elven or Noble. In her immortally Luna had seen the very height of male beauty…but no Fae or Nobel seemed to even touch upon the gorgeous looks of this dhampir. He looked like what the moonlight would be if it had been crystallized and given flesh.
She could not recall ever seeing skin as pale, yet as faultless as his, nor features as angular, narrow and yet perfectly symmetrical. His narrow eyes were fringed with long black lashes; the eyes themselves were like shards of onyx. He wore his raven colored hair in thick waves that cascaded to his waist. His face did not look a day past about 25, but Luna had been hearing his strange name for all her life. He was clothed entirely in black; sheathed in grey amour and an enormous wide brimmed hat was perched atop of his head with a curious red jewel on the side. The only other color about him was the brilliant blue pendant he wore, the jeweled rings on his fingers and the faded red scarf that encircled his neck. All that betrayed his Nobel blood were the sharp points of his ears, and the long, sharp nails adorning his fingertips but she knew well that his vampire nature lay quietly suppressed within him. She's seen his cruel fangs deep in her wrist.
Without really thinking she found herself massaging the wound.
"Come here." His deep voice was somehow extremely soft spoken, even in it's odd detached tone, but somehow it seemed the only voice fitting for such a gorgeous man.
"What?" She breathed, stricken by its suddenness.
"Come here, give me your hand."
She could not suppress a shiver of anticipation as she rose and slipped her hand into the Hunter's graceful one. She sought out his eyes but his interest was only in the wounds on her arm. Oddly enough D raised his left hand, and merely brushed it across the angry, swollen wounds. She felt a sudden chill, and when the Hunter removed his hand she saw that no wound remained at all.
She laughed lightly, "Thank you…you must teach me that one day."
"I can only heal wounds I inflect." He answered flatly.
"I don't suppose your going to tell me the story on your left hand huh? For decades I've heard you've got strange powers centered around it, that you can even use it break through dimensional walls."
But she was hardly surprised when her question was meet with silence. But she was surprised when she saw that his left hand remained softly on hers. Was it a touch of kindness, or merely because he's forgotten to remove it?
She could not help but to feel a jittery surge of affection for the beautiful, albeit icy Hunter at her side. Feeling much like an immature Nymph that had discovered attraction for the first time, she wondered if it might be at all possible if the Hunter might feel some sort of affection toward her.
Instantly Luna was seized with the need of the Nymph and desperately she raised her hands and knocked off the Hunter's enormous hat, bringing his thick hair and gorgeous face fully into the moonlight. She slipped her hands feverishly across his gaunt cheeks, into his silky hair.
"I let you feed your weakness, let me feed mine." She gasped breathless at his moonlit splendor.
D remained quite motionless, 'Do not kiss me." He commanded in his steely tone.
'I won't." she nodded. Apparently he knew well of the Nymph's Curse.
She merely caressed his hair, ravenously drinking in the sight of him, much the way he'd drank of her blood. D could feel the anguish of arousal within the Nymph's form, he could sense it like a writhing serpent of lust twisting it's way through her consciousness, but amazingly the girl did not respond to it. Spurred on by her own temptation D could feel the curse of his own blood beginning to well into his awareness, hunger suddenly pounded in his veins. His gaze was drawn to her slender, pale neck that was quite exposed; her flushed skin was so eager for his kiss. He could feel his fangs beginning to lengthen, his sight grew rose tinted with bloodlust.
But neither of them moved forward.
It was the Nymph that turned away first, but she smiled, undeterred by the blood light shimmering in the dhampir's eyes. "Vampire Hunter D, I think you and I have more in common than you may believe."