I'm back, sorry this update is so overdue. On with the usual sad, boring disclaimers, that people for the most part don't read…

Disclaimer-I do not own Vampire hunter D, this character and whole concept is owned by Hideyuki Kikuchi, nor do I make any money off of this, if I did there would be more than just two movies, and last but not least, the movie Bloodlust, the VHD books, and manga are also not mine, it belongs to someone else. In short I don't own anything at all, let's leave it at that.

And Thank you for the nice review from vampirehunterDfan217, just for you this chapter is a bit longer than the others. Let this be proof that Reviews are the milk and cookies of a writer; it makes us feel good, and helps us to improve our writing style, to put it bluntly the more reviews the faster I will try to write.

VHD

Chapter Four- Of Morons and Fools

With little sound the creatures of the dark slipped away at the presence of the horse and its rider, now while a horse was a very fine meal to most nocturnal mutants and a human rider nice little snack. There was something very off about this rider, the horse was just like any other, but the rider left a sense that attacking him would leave one in several smaller pieces. With this thought in many minds they did nothing as the rider raced passed their hiding places, even as eerie disembodied voice spoke

"So you're outnumbered, four to one; so what? They do have a head start, but - but when the sun comes up, the heat will slow 'em down." If one had been close enough they would come to the realization that the voice was coming from the rider's left hand…odd to say in the least.

The vampire hunter made no reply as he guided the horse with unnatural skill over an open gorge and up onto the road, a relic of the ancient past, smooth and flawless even after hundreds of years. Despite being old, the way was surprisingly well lit, running along the side rails were tall slender lamps that ran the length of the highway clearly marking the way.

VHD

hours later…

The sun beat down on the windblown sands of the desert with unforgiving heat, this was one of many waste lands left after the war, and it like many was not a place that even the nobles would travel through, unless they were desperate for shelter or for a short cut to the other side. "Speaking of, ah, sun and heat, I know I don't need to remind you of your susceptibility. It's called heat syndrome, and the last time you ignored it, you almost…" "Don't worry" interjected D; his hand was silent for a moment "I hate it when you say that." D rode off the road as it disappeared under the sand, coming to a stop he dismounted with fluid grace "Sunshine; good. I'd like to stop now. If we hurry we can catch up. They had a big head start, y'know." Left Hand commented, as D stopped lying in the soft sand were two long straight grooves, tracks from a carriage. "Tracks… let me see…" ordered Left Hand, D knelt down one knee without a sound, stretching out his hand as he did so, placing it palm down on the bed of the track. " Yes, OK… these are definitely… they're them… six hours old I'd say..." a moment of silence "OK. I'm suffocating now."

D lifted his hand but remained kneeling in the soft sand, the only sound was that of the harshly blowing wind, but for slight moment there was a soft sound, so subtle it seemed a trick of the wind "Hey, what was that?" spoke Left Hand with a slight note of fear in its voice, nothing answered him "That's funny; I could have sworn I heard something..."

"Quiet…" interrupted D's softly spoken voice "…Sand Mantas, most likely." he had barely finished speaking when the desert floor and dune erupted, sending a massive cloud dust into the air. From within the cloud rose massive shapes, the creatures that appeared looked for the entire world like the ancient Mantas that roamed the oceans before the war, these creatures like many where mutated and twisted by both the effects of the war and the nobles. Now instead of moving through water they moved through sand, their once sleek skin harden and ruff like bones with massive spikes along their bodies that helped them move through the ground with ease. These behemoths would leap from the ground in large herds in their search for anything tasty that was dumb enough to enter the desert.

D stood even as Left Hand cried out "Ah! Ahhh… yaaaaah! Sweet blasphemy… sand mantas galore! Talk about your prehistoric pigeons. They're filthy animals, y'know, they're just… filthy! Well, I…I guess we better just turn back… it's a shame, really, 'cause you know, we could… hey, whoa." Left Hand was startled as D proceeded to mount his horse "hey, now…" once mounted D kicked the cyber horse forward, Left Hand protesting the entire way. One could say that Sand mantas where one of the many ways the nobles had for the most part kept their prey from moving into the desert where it would be harder for the nobles to hunt them, because of the way the mantas hunted it would be suicide to try to pass under the gliding monsters, as they could dive-bomb down onto their prey, despite this there was one way to get pass such beast… although the manner in which it could be done, for some lead to an early grave.

"No… go back, man, go back, now, c'mon…you're crazy, c'mon, man…" the horse continued forward "please, let's' just go back…" the horse started to pick up speed, running to a full gallop and leapt into the air "nonooo!" Scream Left Hand as the horse landed on the back of one of the mantas, racing over it thick bone like hide, then leaping once more onto anther's back, from there back into the open air narrowly avoiding a another manta's circular jaws as they snapped shut. The horse landed safely on the other side of the herd and continued its headlong dash across the sand.

"That… that was good, OK, now, we survived that, could we stop?" inquired Left Hand, D said nothing "Did…did you ever hear the expression 'too close for comfort'? That…that was damn uncomfortable." D just rode on, passing ancient ships and buildings from the last war, crossing barren waste lands, and finally entering a wetter more green area. As he guided his horse over some boulders by a water fall D noticed that the tracks suddenly left the road to go into the surrounding forest.

VHD

Some hours later…

D stood on a hill top overlooking a clearing in the forest on the other side of the desert, the sun was setting, painting the sky in reds, gold, and purples. However it wasn't the sky that held the vampire hunter's attention, but a shape in the clearing, it was rectangle about two hundred feet long and one hundred twenty-five feet wide, and the most interesting thing about this building was that it blended almost perfectly in with the background. "What is it …" asked Left Hand "a resting house? I didn't think anybody had those anymore. They must be in there. Wow, it blends in nicely." D watched as a small, fluffy, cute, woodland rabbit ran out into the clearing, after a moment it must have gotten too close to the structure, for in a blink of an eye a deadly laser bolt opened on the buildings outer wall and fried the little critter to a burnt crisp.

It would appear that the resting house was well protected, but then that would be expected by anything built to shelter nobles during the day. Even so every good security system can be tricked; D picked some small acorns from the forest floor, and walked toward the resting house. As he got within range of the still smoking remains of the animal he started to flick the acorns in the air with his right hand, naturally the laser fired on the movements of the acorns as they tracked the acorns they were unable to track D's movements. In short order D stood right next to the resting house, the secret to its camouflage was seen when one got close, the walls where all covered in a mirror like metal which reflected the landscape and D's own pale refection back at him. Resting his hand on the surface as Left Hand spoke after a moment "OK… oh, here we are. I… I see 'em."

"How many are there?"

" Two. I think. A man ... and a woman."

"Look out for the exit door".

D turned to his right and slowly proceed to walk the length of the resting house, Left Hand mumbling along the way " No door ... no door there ... still no door... no ..." they continued this as the sun started to sink below the horizon, within the resting house something started to stir with the fading of the sun, "Are you sure ... about that door ...?" the sun drop lower, the shadows lengthened with the coming night " No ... no ..." if they didn't hurry the night would soon be upon them, drawing out the noble's full power, even the day worlds creatures seemed to sense that there was something dark approaching, their gentle calls to each other falling into silence. Their silence allowed for a new sound to enter the approaching twilight, a slight humming sound that got louder and louder as its source came closer.

"What was that?" inquired a started Left Hand, confused for a moment; D calmly looked over his left shoulder to see the flickering light of a motorcycle on a fast approach to the resting house. The vehicles' rider was female, with pale blond hair and wearing a pair of blue goggles over her eyes, the one odd thing about her whole set up was she was carry what appeared to be a large bazooka on one shoulder…

With a cruel smile as her goggles' targeting system locked onto the half-breed, she raced towards D. however before she could fir the resting house's defense systems came online and opened fire on the female hunter, as the lasers rained down on her, she shifted her bike left and right in a harder to hit zigzag pattern through the lethal hail, "She's out of her mind!" exclaimed Left Hand, only to shut up when suddenly she down shifted and pressed a small red button on the handle of the machine, this allowed a small jet burst under the bike, launching it into the air almost three stories up.

Twisting the bike at the last moment, the wheels hitting the side of the building, this along with her momentum allowed her cruise on the side of the building, defying the laws of gravity. The sun, not unnoticed by both hunters, dropped beneath the horizon, the moment it did so the door of the building opened as a series of panels folded and slide together, revealing the black inter of the resting house. From this darkness a four horse team, drawing a carriage sprang forth.

"Door! Door!" Left Hand shouted to D, drawing his attention onto the hunt and away from the crazy girl. Even as her targeting system locked onto the driver of the carriage "You're dead!" she snarled and opened fire, the shot was made of liquid metal that would quickly cool into shrapnel, a deadly weapon to be sure. However, much to her shock the vampire merely lifted part of his cape, the cape acted like a living thing twisting and turning into a large wing, which the liquid shot hit only to reflect back at the sender, the girl could do nothing except watch with wide eyes as the shot separated into smaller hot shrapnel pieces that penetrated her bike, killing the engine, another smaller pieces struck her shoulder, making her grunt in pain, with a crash the bike hit the ground and slide to a stop beneath a large tree dropping its rider on the way. The young huntress gasped and curled up into a ball as pain raced through her body.

The noble's carriage raced on without slowing down, passing rocks and trees it barreled it way through the forest, and into an ancient tunnel carved into the rock face, like the bridge it too was light by never ending light, showing the way. As the carriage entered the tunnel a shadow drop onto the roof, a slight pause the noble turned his head to look behind him. The noble like most nobles was very handsome, pale skin, white blond hair, deep red eyes and dressed in the formal wear the vampire were so known to like, although if possible even more handsome quite the opposite could be almost be said of the hunter kneeling on the roof. With both hunter and prey's cloaks whipping in the wind the noble slowly stood up, watching the young hunter with cold eyes, as the younger creature reached for the long sword on his back.

"I'm here for the young woman." D stated.

The vampire smiled faintly "I wouldn't recommend it, dhampir. Taking on a vampire at night is a mission for morons and fools…which are you?" at the hunter lack of response the vampire lord continued

"You may be scum who hunt people down for a living, but I've no wish to pointlessly shed blood." Perhaps he could dissuade the hunter before someone got hurt…

"Return the girl to me" so much for that idea.

"I took her because I wanted her; you should try to do the same…That is if you can handle fighting a Noble at night!"

Without a word D lunged forward drawing his sword and slashing at the young noble in one smooth motion, only to have his target vanish, and reappear behind him. D narrowing his eyes followed through with his stroke, twisting to slash behind him, the vampire again disappeared and reappeared farther to D's right, hoping to catch the hunter off guard with a swipe of his claws, which had lengthened to being over two feet long, harder than the strongest iron, and razor sharp. Despite the vampire's speed the hunter was just as quick, the vampire was forced to change his strike into a block the following slash from the hunter's blade, their weapons locking together.

the young lord was surprised although he didn't show it, the half-breed hunter was stronger than any dhampir he had crossed before, and he a noble was straining to hold the strike at bay. With a massive shove he was able to push the hunter away, D flipping in the air twisting to land on the back of one of the lead horses.

The vampire halted his attack for a moment, remembering rumors and stories of an infamous hunter "Your face, your skill… I've heard of you before. Any noble would pale at the mention of your name…So, you're D."

"I've heard of you too." The hunter wordless confirmed his identity, "They say of all the nobility…only one young lord is praised by his subjects for his virtue. I believe his name is Mayerling." Although D had been told that the vampire's name was Meier link, it was not uncommon for humans to butcher the pronunciation of various vampire names, as many were left to vague translations or the humans were just too busy trying to survive to talk about semantic.

The vampire smiled slightly at the correct translation of his name "I've always wanted to meet you, one way or another." He told the hunter

"And now you have."

It was time for this friendly chat to end "I've done nothing to the humans; she's here by her own choice, dhampir. So unless you're the kind of man who would take a woman against her will for the money in it…and I'm sure it's a lot…I suggest you save your sorry ass now and leave us to travel in peace."

"I would if I could believe you, Mayerling. Your credibility, however, is less than impeccable under the circumstances. You kidnapped the girl."

Mayerling snared, pushing with all of his strength, snapping his claws at the hunter, slashing horizontally, grinding his weapon into the wall. Despite the powerful blow the hunter was able to jump clear of the attack, bring his own weapon in a down word strike; cutting into the noble's chest spilling, crimson red blood into the air. As D brought his sword back for the finishing blow a small feminine voice cried out in fear…

" Mayerling!"

D hearing the voice glanced down at the carriage, his hesitation prevented him from blocking or avoiding Meier's side swipe. The blow sent D flying off of the carriage, twisting at the last minute D was able to catch himself, stopping his backwards momentum with his….left hand…much to Left Hand's discomfort

"Oh, my nose, my nose! What happened…what'd…. what'd I miss?"

"She called out his name. It may be true, what he said." Whispered D with uncertainty

"No; she's just ignorant…she's a child. She doesn't know him yet. She doesn't know what he's capable of."

VHD

Author's Notes: The name of our dear vampire in the books was Mayerling, however in the film it was changed to Meier Link due to mistranslation just like Dhampir was translated into Dunpeal. Besides I think Mayerling sounds a little more vampire-ish.