Scene 3
"She still got your balls."
The slight twist of D's eyebrows should have alerted the symbiont that he was trying the dhampire's rapidly withering patience, but the counteanced carbunle just rambled on, as he had been for the past hour. The dhampire for his part just slipped on his armor, gloves, cloak, boots, hat (all black or some variation on that theme) and sheathed his sword in silence but a shadow darkened his face, testament to just how close Leftie was to being cut off. Literally.
"You've barely been in her presence for twelve hours and already I feel that anxiety in your blood, that catch in your breath..." Leftie almost appeared amused, but there was an undercurrent of worry. "The one woman that got under your skin and now she's sleeping in your bed and you find yourself wanting to-"
The hand became a tight fist.
"Be quiet." There was no room for debate in the soft steeliness of that voice.
D stepped into the room he'd told Doris to take, standing and staring for just a moment. Count Lee couldn't have selected a more ravishing specimen to fixate on; she was simply the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Then his left hand fell onto her forehead. There was no need for communication-the symbiont knew what the dhampire demanded and soon the young woman's troubled sleeping became tranquil and deep. As a wind he departed, shutting the door with less sound than a breath.
It didn't take long for the dhampire to collect the supplies he'd arranged for, loading them on his cybernetic horse. In a single bound the vampire hunter was on its back, bidding it to gallop for the gates. As he passed the town and its ruined houses and ruined homes, D favored not a one with a glance. The enchantment that Leftie bound Doris in would keep her asleep for hours, but the dhampire didn't long to face her if she should defy expectation and awake before he was far away from this place.
"Yep, you're scared shitless of her."
"Don't." There was an serrated edge to that word.
"You're only making things worse for the both of you. You should just face her, give her what both of you want and then move on." Again that mixture of admonishment and apprenhension from the counteanced carbuncle. "You're just prolonging your pain and hers." A long drawn out sigh, then: "Just do her, suck her blood and then kiss her goodbye. She'd be happier that way. And so would you."
"No." What exactly was D saying that single word in response to? Or was it to everything?
"It's killing you, D. You can fool her, fool the old farts here, even fool yourself. But I know you too long and too well not to know when you're in that deep. Listen, when your father was around your mother-"
A flash of silver came within an inch of his left hand's wrist. "I'm warning you." The hue of D's voice didn't lift beyond a conversational tone but between the slender sword and the edge in his eyes Leftie knew that the dhampire was pushed to that point. Something like a sigh escaped the hunter's pale lips. "We're at the gate now, and we won't have to bother with her anymore."
If only it was that easy. For, of course, it wasn't.
In a traditional huntress garb of silk shirt worn under an outerwear corset and hunting trousers made of the finest leather sat a girl on a cybernetic horse. A whip flashed from the early morning sun. Her long dark hair appeared as a host of ravens around her nearly perfect pearly face and mischevious smile.
"Good morning, D," said Doris. She appeared quite proud of herself.
D didn't address her, rather his symbiont. Flipping up his palm to face him, the dhampire said, "You didn't put her to sleep."
"Oh, what, now you want to talk to me?" snapped the counteaunced carbuncle. Seeing the shadow return in twofold force on the dhampire's face he hurried on. "I did! You failed to take into account that this is the same chick that resisted being a zombie-slave to Count Magnus Lee after he bit her."
"You remembered and still you didn't remind me."
A self-satisfied smirk crossed the symbiont's lips.
"Well," Doris cut in, leather gloves gripping her steed's reins. "We should be going. If we ride hard all day we should reach the port to take us to the Capitol before nightfall."
With a click of his tongue, the dhampire instructed his mount to canter. "You're not coming."
"Stop me then."
A glance over his shoulder gave D a view of the young woman's straight shoulders and firmly-set lips. The idea of having Leftie to send her back to sleep or using the blunt edge of his sword to knock her out crossed his mind briefly but the dhampire dismissed it. She would likely tire of the harshness of life on the road and turn back on her own. He could afford to entertain her foolish bravado.
As he turned his head back to face the road ahead, the dhampire heard her speak again.
"I know I was a damsel in distress before. I know you think that's all I still am. Not worthy of your respect or your..." Here she halted, appearing to change her train of thought. "But I've changed, D. And I can help. I will help. I will show you."
Not looking back at all what D said in response was, "Tail me if you wish, but stay out of my way."
The hurried hoofbeats behind him told the dhampire she'd heard and was hot at his heels.
"Yep, she got your balls in a bag. Are you gonna fetch them back any time soon?"
In the second incredible moment of the day, the vampire hunter let the comment pass without rebuke, instead straining his hands around the reins.
He...they...had a lot of ground to cover.