Illusions

Note: Wooot! Here we are, last chapter, sorta. Sorry again for the delay. Anyway, this got lengthy so I split it in two, but don't worry…part two already up as the epilogue. Well, enjoy and know this is rated M for a reason.

Chapter Fourteen: Illusions

"It was just an illusion. There was no substance to it." D said matter- of- factly." – Vampire Hunter D: Mysterious Journey to the North Sea: Part One. 82

The first thing that D noticed as he stumbled wearily down into Cthulhu was not the stink of ash and blood but of wolf flesh. Werewolves to be exact. Once D had staggered past the horrific forest of impaled bodies, the disbelief plain of his face, the first werewolf come snarling out of the shadows and leaping at him in a blur of grey. D delivered a swift chop with his bare hand to the creature's neck, severing the skull from the neck and without a sound the creature sank to the blood stained ground. The Crimson Eye was glaring on its neck. It was said the Dracula could summon his armies from the very shadows, that he could turn any creature of the night into his slave, but more often than not it was the werewolves that answered his silent call. It was the werewolves that could raze a whole city to the ground in only a matter of minutes. D had seen it hundreds of times before…it should have been second nature to D's gelid eyes.

Still he turned his gaze with morbid curiosity up to the tall stake that was nearest to him, up to the young man that hung shrieking and writhing atop of it. How often had he seen these grim markers encircling Castle Dracula, planted like grotesque trees? His father adored stringing these up like baubles at Christmas time. Rarely did the victim die from the actual impalement. Dracula was a master at his art, usually impaling his victims with a blunt spear, pushing aside their organs and leaving them alive and in utmost torture with no hope and then the carrion birds would come and fest on their flesh sometimes while they still lived. D could already faintly hear the raucous calling of crows and vultures in flight, drawn to the stench of rotting flesh. It seemed as if more than half the population of Cthulhu was now impaled before him. D didn't notice that a single, red tinged tear had begun to meander down the side of his face.

But soon enough D pushed aside the shock, and with a low growl, his eyes blazing forth in fury he began to run again, past the grim forest. He spied a fallen broadsword upon the cobblestones and he snatched up, hefted it easily in his hands and plunged into the blazing heart of Cthulhu. He cut down werewolves so fast that they never even saw Death approaching. Every building, every cottage, boat, and every farm was burning in a strangely beautiful wreath of flames. No mercy had been granted. Children were laying maimed and dead in the streets, men cut down and or else impaled and the women were naked, their bodies evidently violated before death.

"Where ARE you!" D roared out amidst the chaos, his feet flying across the cobblestones and sword flashing as it took lives of the lupine. "Show yourself you fucking coward!" he screamed to the sky.

The few that had still managed to survive by skill or sheer luck could not help but to cringe into the shadows as they saw their mayor running like a berserker in the streets, killing as through it were what he had been honed to do. His eyes were gleaming ruby red; he was wearing heavy black armor, the type that only a Hunter would wear. To each desperate mind a single thought formed…could the rumors of the Mayor Underhill have been true?

D slowed to a walk only when he approached his own cottage, then he stood stock still. Only a skeletal frame that glowed eerily with embers remained of the house he'd fled to escape his calling, and silhouetted within the light of the burning village was a tall spear. The sword slipped from D's hands and frigid horror swept across his once impassive face.

"Luna" he murmured brokenly and dreading each step he took forward.

The shape atop of the spear was diminutive, far too small to be that of Luna and soon enough he saw then it was actually two smaller shapes. They were the stiff forms of their cats; the fuzzy bundle that had once been his cat Fluffy, the ginger coated one that had been Luna's cat, Yttik. His gaze followed the drip of blood that oozed down the stake, and down onto the ground. That was where Luna was pinned, face down. Her dress was badly torn, exposing her beauty to the night, gashes and wounds covered the whole of her but the most horrific wound was that of the spear that had punched through her midsection and trapped her against the earth. There was a vast pool of blood soaking the grass.

D sank to his knees in defeated helplessness down by her side and he whispered her name.

The Nymph's head jerked up. Even D gave a shocked cry at her sudden movement, then another at the sight of her once beautiful face distorted by blood, misery and black bruises. There was a dark crimson pool at her throat; through it was one of his wooden needles. She made a choked, watery rasp, but after a moment D understood that she was trying to speak. "D…it's you…" she reached out and grasped his hand with her trembling one.

"I am here." He answered simply but his heart was pounding wildly in his chest, fast enough to ache along with the rest of his body. He gripped her hand tightly.

There was another terrible gagging sound and vivid green tears tracked down the sides of Luna's cheeks. It took moment for him to understand her strangled words, "Wilhelmina…he killed her."

Only then did notice the importance of the stake that had pieced the Nymph's midsection. Grim terror seized D as he began to understand that the vivid blood that had stained the ground was not just of his pets, and his wife, but of his unborn child. Perhaps further along the immortal child might have survived such drastic blow to the mother's womb…but not so young, not when it's fragile heart had only began to beat weeks ago. It appeared that Dracula had meant to take out the whole of D's family on this single axis. It was as if a stake a hundred times sharper and crueler than any before had punched into D's center leaving only a gaping and bleeding hole in his chest. Yet, for the sake of Luna he kept his face stony calm and merely stroked her hair. "At least I still have you."

Whimpering Luna nodded.

D bent down and kissed her lips softly, the taste of her blood sending a thrumming chill through his nerves and a tiny surge of strength through his exhausted body, just enough to momentarily fight away the pain. He lifted his left hand to Luna's cheek; she blinked wearily and then sank back down to the ground unconscious. First D removed the wooden needle through her neck, and then gently as possible pulled up the stake that pinned her, sparing a forlorn glance at their lifeless pets before tossing the skewer away. He tried desperately not to look at the gaping wound in her abdomen as he felt for her threaded pulse, and listened to her uneven breathing.

"Well?" he questioned impatiently.

"These next few weeks are a going to be hard on her, but she'll live." The gravelly voice spoke with a relieved sigh.

"Thank God." D murmured and kissed her forehead.

"God had nothing to do with it," came a stony voice.

D's head snapped up, but he was not shocked to see the tall frame of his father standing several yards away, haloed by the hellfire. His normally perfect hair was wild about his face that was drenched in innocent blood. Rubies seemed to be dripping from his fangs. "I've merely forgotten that Nymphs are harder to kill than they look. Perhaps it is understandable. I practically created this world and all its fiends, when you're God you tend to forget a few minor things. No matter, I will dispose of her."

Slowly D released Luna and rose to his feet, ignoring the wobble in his legs as he did so. He met his father eye to blazing eye. "I will end you." He seethed. "You will suffer twice the deaths that you have taken tonight and all these millennia."

"Well then, come on at me!" Dracula cackled, becoming toward his son with bloodied hands. He glanced to where the Nymph lay, "At least I can see what all the fuss was about. I haven't tasted blood that succulent since Mina. Poor thing thought that she could command me by summoning my lust, but she only whetted my appetite. It's quite within your right to become my perfect enemy D….it hurt even me to hear the way she screamed out for you. Yet still it was quite satisfying to pound my memory into something that wanted only you. I grew quite tired of being overshadowed by your vacant beauty."

With a throaty cry D flew toward his father, armed with nothing more than his bare fists. Dracula's cape flew outward and whirled about his form. The cape appeared to swirl with its own life and whip D about the midsection knocking him backward. A vivid mist of blood spread from the Hunters belly, and awkwardly he pressed his hand to the wound. Any deeper and he would have been split right in half. Thunderous laughter pealed the air as Dracula watched his son writhe upon the ground. It was all too evident the dhampir was utterly exhausted to have missed an attack like that. He lacked even the power to cast his deadly aura about him. D looked utterly human and utterly vulnerable as he strained to reach for his fallen broadsword, pressing his hand to the wound all the while. Dracula kicked him harshly beneath the chin, sending him flying back to where the Nymph was laying. At last a groan of agony rose from D's form, and he coughed on the blood that welled from his mouth.

"Give it up now D. I've already won…" Dracula began to taunt again but D did not listen to him. Rather his gaze was drawn to the Nymph, still so faintly stunning beneath glow the hell fire, and the veil of blood that shrouded her. Her blood… swiftly D crawled to her side and he pressed his lips to her unresponsive ones. Tasting her life force he moaned with ecstasy, and leaned in closer, lapping the blood off her cheek and her throat. It wasn't the rich infusion that he now craved to function at all, but it was enough to fuel him.

"No, STOP!" Dracula raged in horror as he released what the dhampir had done but almost before the words where out his mouth Dracula staggered, groaning. D had leapt at him a dark blur, and he pulled a dagger from the depths of his coat. Dracula could not help but screaming as the blade sank into his heart, than was withdrawn and sank again, then again into his chest. It was blinding, almost exquisite agony.

"What's wrong?" D panted wildly, "Not going to scream for Mina as I drive my memory into you!" he shook the spray of the Sacred Ancestor's blood from his eyes but did not hesitate in licking it from his lips. He was hardly surprised to find its taste to be as potent and dark natured as the taste of his own blood. It fueled him further, driving the dagger ruthlessly into Dracula's heart. Dracula collapsed onto the ground, but only momentarily. It was long enough for D to bend to retrieve his fallen blade. He lashed wildly with his sword, arching toward Dracula's neck but the Sacred Ancestor's own glittering blade rose to parry the strike. Dracula surged back to his feet and hurled himself at D, piercing his chest ruthlessly. He saw a silvery flash, and just barely managed to twist away from it but couldn't entirely avoid the blade as it sank down into this left arm. He spun around shocked to see that D was there at his side, his blade upraised to hack down into his skull. He's merely pieced the after image of him. In a spilt seconds reaction Dracula defended the lethal blow.

Long minutes passed as the sword battle ensued, the scene no more than flashes of steel and the elegant dance of black shrouded figures to any that observed it.

But it wasn't surprising that it was D's movements that had begun to slacken. Even Dracula was shocked that the dhampir was standing at all, after having died and run more than a hundred miles to this village. But eventually D's knees gave out from under him, and he collapsed helplessly onto the smoldering embers of his home. Silently Dracula sneered and impaled him to the ground with his sword through the midsection. D's hand rose wearily to remove the blade but Dracula surged forth and he retrieved something glittering from the pocket of his coat. Whatever it was burned the vampires' hands and swiftly he wrapped it in his cape but left part of the golden object revealed. He pressed it to D's forehead and quickly the skin beneath began to smolder and D shrieked and writhed beneath Dracula, trying to pull the object from his skin.

Dracula grinned in triumph. "I found this on the shore of Arges, a day after I found where you buried her. I am certain you've guessed what it is by now."

Smoke was curling around Dracula's hand as he pressed the cross from Mina's pendant to his son's flesh. The vampire did not directly face the loathsome symbol, rather he stared at the vicious glow in his sons eyes. He pulled something else out of the pocket of his coat and pressed it to D's heart. It was a long barreled silver pistol, normally a weapon that one would have found in the armory of werewolf Hunters.

"Now, let us get one thing straight son." Dracula breathed, "Mayhap you are fated to kill me, but I have no intention of dying. Not while I can help it. I've worked too hard and too long to secure my immortality. I told you how to destroy me to even the score and to give the Nymph a fighting chance, but you failed her and the score is even. I am killing you now out of my own interest. Perhaps you recall suffering a little sting three years ago. One that would have killed you had the sniveling little Nymph not showed up? Surely you recall that you never saw the enemy that unleashed that Manticore upon you?" Dracula laughed coldly; there was only agony in D's face, not surprise. "Oh well why did I expect that would shock you? Yes, that was my little pet but knowing you, you likely knew that. Manticore venom, it's the only venom that means death to the immortal."

He cocked the hammer of the gun back, "The same venom is held within the bullets of this gun. Goodbye my son."

Luna tasted something strange in her mouth as she stirred into consciousness. It was something more than the metallic taste of her blood. It spoke of exquisite, wisdom defying darkness, of power that welled from the very core of the universe, from the very catalyst of creation. No…it was blood, but it was deeper, its coppery bite seemed somehow sweet. It was not her blood, but D's blood. She's tasted it on her lips when he'd kissed her both times, and now it was thrumming through her, pulling her back into wakefulness, lending her strength. Yes, she recalled its taste well.

Luna's eyes fell as she lowered the slender bow. She heard the arrow thud uselessly to the ground and the rustle of dead leaves. At her side D sighed in exasperation. "You aim worse that a human child."

Angrily Luna whirled about to face him and thrust the bow back into his hands. "I am not a godamn Hunter! This is completely useless!"

"Perhaps so," D mused

She disguised her hurt by rolling her eyes, "I told you this was a waste of time. I am a Nymph, D. I can't even stomach the idea of eating meat, much less the thought of killing a poor rabbit just for target practice! That is beyond me!"

D pushed the bow angrily back into her hands, "The rabbit is just a sacrifice. Kill it."

"Sacrifice!" she raged eyes blazing. 'Why! Why kill for no reason! I CAN defend myself. Besides, the rabbit is gone now."

"There is a whole warren just beyond that tree. The Nymph song is hardly near enough to take down the evils I face daily."

"Exactly why I am NOT a Hunter." She growled fiercely.

D face remained calm as ever. "Do you love me?"

The Nymph's eyes went wide and her heart fluttered in her breast at that sudden question. Only a week had passed since they'd first made love, his bite was still tender upon her neck. She fearlessly met his fathomless eyes. "I love you to death."

D nodded ever so slightly, 'Loving me could very well mean your death. I am a dhampir, I do not thrive in the ways of nature and life, not like you. I am born to kill; I've attracted death since the moment I was born. That being said, you must be able to try to defend yourself from those shadows. They will never leave me."

Luna needed no further convincing and she turned back to the tall oak before them, and waited for the stir of animal life, knocking another arrow.

"Like this." D offered and reached around her to help her stand correctly and positioned her fingers correctly on the string. He lingered for a moment at her side, and leaned down to kiss her lips briefly. "Now."

She shot again right as a rust colored rabbit ambled from the ferns. Thanks to D's aiming the arrow flew better, clipped a bit of the beast's fur but it scrambled quickly away. Three more tries yielded progressively worse efforts. Two hours had passed since D had sprung this idea on her. Impatience gripped the Nymph again and she cursed and threw the bow away once again.

D sighed again, "I' am going to try one more thing. Maybe it will give you an idea of how to defend yourself."

Luna watched mystified as D did nothing other than bite down on his bottom lip with a small pointed fang, dark blood welled from the wound and trickled down past his lips. His eyes glowed red. After a moment Luna understood.

"Wait…you want me to…."

"Taste it." D replied softly, "A small amount will not hurt you; it will only temporally awaken the gene of darkness that is slumbering within you."

"The gene of darkness?" she repeated half horrified. "My kind don't have…"

D cut her off, "Any creature that is born of the Nobility, either by blood or experimentation has the gene of darkness, some stronger than others."

Luna could not help but to stare at the rivulet of blood that was running down his cheek, feeling like a woman possessed. The Nymph had never consumed the flesh and blood of a living creature, the very thought of it repulsed her to the core of her being until this moment. "If I taste it…."

"You'll see what it's like to fight. You'll understand." He said simply and stepped lightly over to her side.

Surprised by her own insistency Luna lurched forward and wrapped her arms around D's neck, kissed his mouth hard. She was momentarily sickened by the coppery, bitter taste of his life force, but soon she felt found something deeper. A spark that seemed to linger within the very blood itself, as thought it were alive, and teaming with consciousness. Her eyes flew open as a vision began to flash before her mind. They were terrible images, flashes of flames, of blood and entrails, bloodied swords, fanged beasts, nightmarish wraiths, fields of decaying corpses. Each image was of fright, and abject terror deeper than the creature of the nature had dared to dream. But through it all she found a power yet higher, an emotion, a thread of hope…it was anger. It was determination. Strength and power. The way ahead was clear, and she possessed all the power she needed.

Luna pulled wordlessly from D, intoxicated with the thrum of power and she snatched up the bow, aiming it effortlessly, as thought the knowledge was within her very soul. She let the arrow fly and there was a pained squeal that rent the air. That hellish death cry of the white rabbit she'd pierced snapped the surge of power short, and Luna whimpered, sorrow hastily twisting her face.

D laid a hand on her shoulder. "Well done."

"I…I…" she moaned and tears welling in her eyes she turned and pressed herself into D's muscular chest. He silently stroked her hair. "How can you do it? How can you take life for a living?"

She was shocked that he dared to answer. "Because he took the life from me."

Luna's eyes snapped open; they were no longer green but vivid red. She did not need visions of terror and death this time, not when she'd already physically seen them. The horrific pain in her abdomen, the paralyzing fear mattered not anymore. Now the darkness had awakened and all that mattered to her was the emptiness in her womb and the wild, defeated screams to her left. She'd never heard such a sound before but she knew right away by the way it tugged at her heart that it was D's cries. Her mind thought only to avenge the life that had been taken from her, to end those terrible cries of agony. Easily and painlessly she rose to her feet.

D was lying impaled on the ashes of their razed home and Dracula was bent low over him and pressing a strange symbol to his forehead that appeared to cause him such agony. In the other hand he pressed an immense gun to D's chest.

You killed Wilhelmina, you've violated me and burned our village to the ground, but you're never going to take D you motherfucker! She spied a wooden needle lying on the ground that was covered with blood and gore. It had been the same that had pierced her throat. She snatched it up and hefted it easily in her hand. Her path was clear. Dracula was left utterly vulnerable. It was all too easy, she could see the path clearly in her mind's eye, feel the eagerness in her hands. The needle seared the very air as she let it fly.

As expected it sank easily enough through Dracula's back and out of his chest, right through the heart. He gave a shocked roar of agony, the strange symbol slipping through his fingers. He whirled about to see the Nymph standing before her, her eyes glowing dimly. Her lips moved although no sound came out the words she formed were clear enough. "For Wilhelmina."

Dracula merely glared at the Nymph, hate filled eyes glittering and he raised his gun and simply fired it at Luna.

"NO!" D roared out even as a bloody rose appeared to bloom on her breast. Luna's eyes grew wide, and lost their strange glow before she thudded limply onto the ground.

There was a shout of mocking laughter from Dracula's throat that died a moment later as D shot upward in dark blur, yanked the sword from his body. Dracula stumbled backward and with a roar fired his gun again at D. There was a flash of silver as D's dagger rose and sliced the bullet in midair right down the center, the vivid blue poison flying outward. D surged forward, the hem of his cape spread wide and its edges stiff and razor sharp. It enveloped the Sacred Ancestor, who had only the time to widen his eyes before his body tumbled onto the ground, a jet of blood spraying from where his head had been. Wildly D knelt down onto the ground and searched the golden relic, wincing as his hands found it, but biting past the pain he clutched it hard and gripped the lifeless form of Dracula's head, slammed the relic point down into the vampires forehead. That ought to cease regeneration…for now at least.

"Luna" he breathed and crawled over to her side. The Nymph lay face down and utterly still, disbelievingly he took her into his arms and laid his hand across the vivid rose of blood on her breast. Right through her heart. The smell of the venom pulsating throughout her reeled D's scenes, summoning images of agony, of death that he'd never fully pushed away.

With slow bewilderment he pushed back her hair, for a second or two she looked tranquil before her eyes snapped open, fevered with torment and her mouth opened as well, a terrible sound escaped that sounded like a sob and chocked scream moving past her destroyed vocal cords. She wailed dreadfully, her body convulsed within D's arms, and terrible anguish twisted her once beautiful face, horror colored her eyes a distant black.

"You're going to be alright! You're going to be alright…" D heard himself breathe in utmost vain, wanting to mock his feeble words. It was such a terrible lie, already dark veins had spread like vines from the sight of the wound, and she violently seizing within his grasp, even as her muscles began to feel oddly lax. The memories were still all to vivid of when D had fallen victim to that insidious poison, the raw torture as it flared in his veins and crept toward his heart. But the poison was already reached Luna's….It had taken D thirty minutes to succumb from an indirect hit. How long did Luna have?

D's own heart felt oddly strained, as though some clawed beast were sinking into its flesh.

Desperately he looked to the Nymph's torn throat. It had not even begun to heal, nor would it with that foul poison coursing through her. Still he pressed left hand to the wound, ignoring the muffled and slightly broken voice within it, "Can't help this D….even alleviating the pain won't help her…"

"Luna dear, you have to sing. You have to do what you did for me." He commanded hopelessly.

Weakly she nodded, and her lips moved but a moment later only a wild shriek moved past them and her eyes somehow burned even brighter with pain. Tears were clinging to her pale lashes. Her lips moved again, slowly, and a mere whisper meet the dhampir's ears, "D, this is how we first meet."

"Don't…", he answered and faltered. There it was, that horrible lump of agony that had lodged into his throat, just as it had at the age of 19 but somehow it seemed bigger and more deeply rooted. It was coupled by that foreign, clawing feeling in his chest. He couldn't push past it fully and a sob escaped him when he spoke again, "…don't talk that way. "

Her skin was now burning hot and somehow icy cold beneath his finger tips, and feebly she shifted closer into his arms, laid her head against the solidity of his chest and gazed up at him with her wide eyes, whispering, "Just hold me…"

He felt the ache in his eyes, and the bloodstained tears began to claw at him as he pulled her tightly into the circle of his arms. "I'll always be here, I won't let you go." For a long moment there were no other words between then, only the gasps from the Nymph, her tiny spasms and the sting of tears in D's eyes. Her breathing was growing shallow while her cries were coming faster. At last D broke, the tears flowing unhindered from his eyes and he leaned down and kissed her clammy face, her trembling lips and tasted the vibrancy of her blood for the last time. "Don't leave me Luna. I cannot bear it, not again. I love you!"

Her eyes were curiously glazed now, as though she were not seeing the physical world, but one of dreams, one hidden from the eyes of the living. "D…" she whimpered, and her tremulous hand rose and clumsily caressed his cheek than fell leadenly back down to the ground. D knew it had not been him she'd been intending to caress; she'd seen it, that wretched archway between the living and the dead and pulled back the veil. The rest of her words never left her lips, her eyes remained wide horror filled glass marbles and terror transfixed her face forever. She did not move again.

For a moment or two D remained in transfixed disbelief, staring at the appalling corpse of his wife. He felt it soon enough, a strange snapping within his heart as though it had been released from mystical binds, but it was not a liberating sensation, it was deep and aching one. The Heart Bind had been snapped forever. His gorgeous face knitted with pain and he bowed his head no longer daring to hold back his sobs, he tears flowing like rivulets of blood down his face and down onto Luna. His lips ached as he kissed her cold flesh, as though trying to coax her back into life, and his fingers trembled as he smoothed back her hair. "Come back…come back…come back, Luna. I need you." He wasn't even aware as he said the words; he knew nothing but the rending pain in his heart. Each treacherous throb brought the pain closer and closer, bright and brighter. He couldn't draw in breath. His tears felt like shards of glass.

"D...D, stop it…" came a hoarse voice full of pain as well. "She's gone…"

"Come home to me…" D whimpered again. But it was no use. How could any life remain within those empty eyes, that dimly reflected the flames all around them, or within her pale skin as vacant as porcelain? Here it was…the shell of an illusion he'd dared to believe in. Countless times he'd encountered illusions left by the Nobility, strange transparent memories given artificial life that dissipated when he refused to acknowledge them. He'd long forgotten that illusions could also be living and breathing beings. They could be whole years spent in denial, spend in hiding and in simple, unattainable dreams. Dreams he'd dared to let himself believe in for the first time in his life. Mina had been right. Her voice drifted to D from the hazes of his memory.

"But don't you dare let your heart become entangled with hers. You see love is as terrible as hate, because in the end, no matter what you believe it was all an illusion. A dream."