"You're stalling for time, you know. You don't actually need to be here."
"It is none of your concern."
The two voices echoed through the otherwise silent shade of the woods. Were one to look, they'd have had trouble spotting D at first, as he was lying in a shallow covered grave, with only his head exposed. The other speaker was nowhere in sight.
"Pft, please; not like I'm gonna get the chance to speak any other time, is it now? Surrounded by all of them… and since when have you ever buried yourself before you started feeling the heat? You're hiding!"
"I am not." D's voice had an edge of frustration to it.
"Can't fool me, I know how you think, how you feel, and how you feel about this is mighty conflicted. Another dhampir – another one just like you, meant to walk the earth forever alone, never able to so much as touch another, forever consumed by hunger, hated by both kinds-"
"Enough!"
There was a moment of silence, and then raspy chuckling could be heard, getting ever louder.
"But that's what's eating you, isn't it? The fact that it might not be like that – that they might not be like you, with all your pain. You can't help but wonder if the fact that this kid's mother and aunt might live forever too would be enough to stop the pain you live with, and that hurts you, makes you wonder about your own famil-emhfff!"
D clenched his jaw, and some movement could be seen under the soil. The words he spoke sounded practically feral they were growled so. "I said enough."
There was muttered grumbling, and then silence. Eventually, D seemed to relax. Then the other voice returned again. "Ok, ok – didn't mean to make you all ratty."
D snorted quietly, as if he knew the exact amount of truth in that statement and found it to be lacking.
"So, you decided what you gonna do yet?"
There was a long pause while D seemed to consider this question.
"I don't know."
"Well, you're gonna have to decide, and soon. I mean – there's two choices, really. Take them on, or leave them to their own devices, to go on or back by themselves…and we got problems with both of those."
"I am aware."
The other voice seemed not to take notice of D. "I mean, take 'em on, and it means there's another dhampir in the world, possibly stronger than you, with two guardians who, if the brunette back at the carriage is anything to go by, ain't exactly gonna be dainty little things themselves. But…they'll probably be on your side."
"Maybe."
"Or, you leave 'em, which means they could all die out here, or the mom could die when Erik takes the kid, or they could make it to civilisation only for the mom or, or 'and', the kid to die, which means you're risking a whole lot of deaths, at least one pissed off half-were when the brunette gets through with you, and possibly a dhampir who's gonna whoop your ass in twenty years time because he's either been raised by the nobility, or blames you for the death of his mother."
There was another momentary pause as they both seemed to consider these two options, trying to decide which was preferable.
"Damn…we're continuing on with them, ain't we?"
"Looks that way," D said evenly.
"Then, then may I suggest something?"
"What?" There was a cautious tone in D's voice.
"Get your ass back to camp before something else tries to eat 'em!"
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
The sun had long since peaked and was heading towards the western horizon when Sarah – now feeling very sleepy herself – looked up at the sound of movement from the direction of the forest. Gripping her blaster, she relaxed when, after a few minutes, D drifted into her line of sight through the trees.
She bit back a snarky remark about the time and merely said. "Great – if you're back, can you take watch so I can get some rest?"
D merely nodded, and raised his eyebrow at the debris surrounding Sarah.
The average human ate approximately one ration pack per meal. Sarah was surrounded by the wrappers from at least twenty.
"What?" said Sarah, sounding defensive. "The change takes a lot of energy; I'll go into hypoglycaemic shock if I don't eat to replace it."
D shrugged wordlessly, and settled on the drivers seat at the front of the carriage. Sarah didn't even bother to move from her spot, but simply lay down in it, throwing her coat over herself as a cover, and pillowing her head on her arm.
Then she turned over and tried the other side. Then lay on her back. Then on her front. Then tried her side again.
This tossing and turning continued for a while, until finally Sarah sat up again and addressed D.
"Are you going to kill Gabriel?"
D raised an eyebrow at her. "Gabriel?"
"The baby – Beth picked his name once we knew his gender."
There was a momentary silence before D answered. "I will not harm your sister or the child."
"But you will leave us to be harmed by something else should it take your fancy, right?"
"I will see you to Hamilton – that was the contract, and I will see it out."
"So you thought about doing it?"
Another pause. Then, finally, D said "Yes."
Sarah stared at D for a good minute in silence. D didn't appear discomfited by this. Eventually, she asked "Is your life really so bad that you'd not even give him the chance to live, were it down to you?"
D looked Sarah, as if considering something. "How old are you?" he eventually asked.
"74," said Sarah – she looked no older than 21.
D seemed to consider something again, then finally, spoke. "I've lost count of how many years I've walked this earth. Occasionally, when I'm passing my homeland, I go back and work it out. I always forget the exact number, but I know that, within a few centuries, I'll be passing the ten millennia mark."
Sarah's eyes went round at this. Then, after mulling it over for a couple of seconds, she asked "So you're old – what has that to do with it?"
D sighed softly. "I walk this road with no companions, constantly surrounded by fear and hate from all sides, my life a constant battle with those such as the one who hurt your sister. Imagine living like that, for ten thousand years, with little to no hope of ever even dying well. Would you wish that on someone else?"
"But Gabriel won't be like that," Sarah pointed out. "He has me, and he has his mother – he won't be alone."
"But you aren't dhampirs."
"We'll still be with him – we won't die from old age any more than you would. Werewolves are just as ageless as vampires, you know, they're just less powerful."
"I am aware. But even with your companionship, his life…will be far from happy."
"You think."
"No," D's voice was pained in its evenness. "I know. And I'm probably the only one who does."
This seemed to perplex Sarah, and she sat in silent contemplation of their conversation for a while.
"Do you have any more questions, or will you sleep now?" said D, voice still even, but Sarah squinted as him suspiciously, certain she could hear something like sarcasm in his tone.
"Nope, all done. So I'll be sleeping now, unless you have any questions for me, that is?" Sarah's last sentence was slightly mocking, and obviously facetious, but D took it seriously.
"Just one."
"Oh?"
"Your sister and yourself are twins, you said – why does she have this weakness, and you don't?"
Sarah sighed. "When we were born, Mother had to reveal to the attending doctor what our father was…the doctor decided we were abominations and had to be destroyed, so he took the task upon himself to do so. Mother stopped him before he killed her, but he started this little 'job' by stabbing Beth with a silver dinner knife. We…find silver wounds hard to heal. They take almost as long to do so as a human's equivalent wound would…and for a baby who was less than an hour old, with a less than matured immune system? She's been weak, even for a human, ever since."
D appeared to absorb this information. "That satisfy your curiosity?" asked Sarah, unable to keep the slightly sarcastic tone out of her voice.
"Yes," said D, voice flat.
"Good," shot back Sarah, settling down under her coat again. "Then I'm going to sleep."
They spoke no more after that until Helen emerged from the carriage several hours later and they began to prepare to move…but Sarah found it very hard to sleep after that.
If D noticed this, he didn't say.
