Disclaimer- I do not own Vampyre Hunter D. I do not own Meier Link. I am a poor senior in high school that works at fast food. This is merely a hobby and I do not make any money off of it. On the contrary though, Radha is mine! As well are Lady Carfax, Mina, and Blaise. These are my creations and cannot be used without MY direct permission. If you wish to use them, contact me via e-mail.

Author's notes: This is the final chapter of Dhampire, and yes, I realize many people spell vampyre as vampire. I do not. If this different spelling bothers you then I apologize.

Dhampire

Conclusion to Love and War

"This is possibly my last night.  And, after so many thousand years of living as a proud Englishman, I will die in the belly of a Frog's castle.  How did I stoop so low?" Horatio thought with mild discomfort from the safety of his room during the last remaining moments of twilight.  However, such thoughts were once again pushed out of his mind while he groaned as his eyes rolled back into his head while the pang of thirst swept through his body.  He could smell the blood beating in the slim body of the woman asleep in his coffin.  He could even hear it rushing through her veins.  Her heart was strong, and the subtle sound of it beating was a torturous roar in his ears.  It was that very sound that had woken him early and sent him clambering out of his own sarcophagus.  Underneath that agonizingly beautiful cadence, Horatio could hear his glass nails pierce the underside of the chair's arms that he had been clutching.

With a hiss dripping with disgust, he rose and moved toward the stone box.  His hand grazed over the lid, which was slid open enough that the side of the woman's form was visible.  Horatio's nostrils flared as the smell of blood increased ten fold with increased closeness to her as well as the two small trails of sanguine fluid dripping down the vampyre's chin when he refused to open his mouth to make room for his elongating fangs.  He hissed once more at himself as his hand moved into the coffin.  His self-hatred doubled when his slender fingers grasped a small wooden box.  So as not to disturb the sleeping siren, he carefully pulled the parcel out of his coffin and moved back to his chair.  The box was crafted out of polished red wood.  Its shape was simple yet somehow cast off a vision of elegance with its rounded edges and golden lid.  The lid itself was a work of art.  Numerous small holes punctured its surface in such a way as to imitate the image of a phoenix aflame.  Below the flames, someone had crudely scratched the word "weakness" into the polished metal.

Horatio snorted at the word but nodded in agreement.  "I am weak." He mumbled to himself while opening the lid and grasping the object inside.  His ears pricked when his fingers ensnared the creature within, eliciting a faint "coo" noise.  He shut his eyes for shame and did not look to see what thing had made such a noise.  He knew exactly what it was.  He gently ran the small animal under his nose to find the strongest pulse.  The action invoked a slight chuckle.  "All doves smell the same…pure." He said regretfully just before sinking his aching fangs into the white bird.  His stomach clenched at the thought of the foul red liquid staining the brilliant white feathers.  The bird's muffled cries blistered his ears.  His mind fuzzed over with a sated feeling until the painful memories of the first doves and the box burned to the surface of his reason.

@; --'-- ~*~ --'--; @

During the fifth year of his new life, Horatio had been little more than a lost savage in the ancient sewers of Paris.  The change had been forced upon.  He was not given a choice.  Hating what he had become, Horatio fled his beloved England and his title for the barbaric France.  As much as he saw the French as below him, he could not force himself to harm them with his new "gift."  Instead, he wreaked havoc on the rodent population of the great city.  Rodents were just as foul and diseased as he saw himself.  Therefore, nothing could be a finer meal than a large sewer rat, for in his eyes, he was damned and the only way to even graze salvation was to not spread his dark curse.

However, every once in a while, the self-deprived vampyre would venture to the surface to treat himself with a cat or a dog but never a human.  During one such adventure to the top level, a few police officers, who were on the hunt for a murderer, stumbled upon Horatio.  Even in a starved state, a vampyre with any strength can easily outmatch a few measly humans but not Horatio.  He was too afraid of being invoked into spreading his curse.  Therefore, he did the next logical thing.  He ran.

Shifting from all fours to two, the vampyre stumbled over stairs, under railings, and burst through a few gates.  Yet, all attempts to outrun or out maneuver where futile.  He simply did not have the strength to do so.  Even worse was the fact that the sun was rising.  Horatio could feel his skin beginning to smolder under its rays.  With both exhaustion and pain working against him, he collapsed into the gutter.  He could hear the police's heavy footsteps growing louder.  He chuckled at himself while betting the police would beat the sun to his end.  He closed his eyes and awaited the beating they would surely give him.  It never came.  Not a single blow battered against Horatio's tired form.  Instead, strong, yet surprisingly gentle, hands lifted him into a windowless carriage.  At that moment, he was too enervated to see or thank whoever had helped.  He simply drifted to sleep at the sound of a few, heavily accented words.  "Sleep, monsieur.  You need your rest."

Blaise du Sang had saved him.  But had he really saved him?  No.  He only prolonged and added to the Englishman's torment.

When Horatio awoke the next evening, he was not in the damp sewers like he expected.  He was in an equally large and damp, stone room with no windows, which was lit by hundreds of candles.  In front of him stood the man who he presumed saved him.  Rather yet, the vampyre who saved him.  The demon was a few inches shorter than Horatio with aqua green, chin-length hair with a matching goatee.  He was dressed like a French aristocrat yet there was a certain look in his eye that did not match the prissy, spoiled nobility of the French.  He looked absolutely mad.  Horatio mentally nodded to the notion dealing with the man's sanity, or lack there of, when his eyes focused on what the demon held prisoner in his talon-like hands.  Squirming in his grasp was a frightened young woman.  She was absolutely beautiful.  Her hair was dark and free of snarls, which accented her tanned skin perfectly.  Her eyes were the deepest chocolate and shone with light and fear.  A gag of black fabric separated full, dark wet lips.  She glimmered in the candlelight that sparkled off the thin cloth of sweat that covered her entire body.

"An exotic morsel to sate your thirst, monsieur." The man teased, shoving the woman toward Horatio.  Horatio, always the gentleman, rushed forward to catch the woman, and, once she had regained her balance, glared at the other man.

"My name, sir, is Lord Horatio Christen, and I do not abuse women." The Englishman challenged while removing the gag from the poor maid's mouth.

"A lord are we?  Well!  You certainly do not possess the appearance of a lord, especially one that is a vampyre.  You are so filthy and thin that I almost mistook you for a common beggar." The demon replied in a rather bored manner.

Horatio's eyes narrowed as he straightened his pose from his usual bent posture so that he could tower over the other vampyre.

"Ah! So you were a lord!  Well, Lord Horatio, you best eat up before your meal gets cold.  You need to regain your strength."

"I do not 'eat' humans." Horatio fumed.  He was quite certain that he had never been more disgusted than he was now.  Not only was the man mad, he was also the vilest creature he had ever met; at least the Englishman's maker had class.

"I'm glad you don't.  You are supposed to drink their blood.  What?  Is she not pure enough for you?" The vampyre sneered while walking gracefully toward his guest.

"Beast!" Horatio shouted, wishing he had his foil so that he might rid the world of this madman.

"No.  Sorry.  That is not my name.  I am Blaise du Sang, former German land lord until my maker showed me the error of my barbaric ways." Blaise countered with a mock bow.

"You are still a barbarian." The Englishman hissed while stepping between the German-French vampyre and the woman who had resorted to standing dumb from shock.

"Wrong again, Lord.  I am not the one in rags living off rats.  That would be you.  Now, if she is not pure enough for your taste, I will deal with her myself and fetch you something else…perhaps a babe would be pure enough for you.  They are without sin." The madman suggested as he gingerly stroked his goatee.

"You are a monster!" Horatio roared as he launched at Blaise.  Although his intentions were good, there were two things against the Englishman.  For one thing, he was still weak.  Secondly, Blaise was a couple hundred years his senior.  Therefore, he ended up being batted away like a mere insect, and like an insect, he was smashed against a wall causing him to once again fall into a pit of darkness.  He never found out what happened to the girl.  The only thing he could remember was waking up the next night in the same little room in which he sheltered the woman from the beasts outside.  Waiting for him on the floor were several sets of clothes and the little box with its phoenix and crude graffiti.  Inside the little casket was the first dove and a note.

"Since mankind is not pure enough for your taste, drink of the spirit of God."

Those words seared into the very core of Horatio's being.  Everyday, when a new dove would be found within the box, Horatio could imagine Blaise writing the note with a sickening sneer.  On the few occasions that the Englishman dared to venture out of his room, the Frenchman would tease him back into the chamber with taunts questioning how the pure Horatio could stand the impure gore of the castle.  Horatio, however, soon outgrew his desire for salvation and replaced it with a need to save his dignity.  This need eventually drew the vampyre out of his miserable sanctuary and into the nearby city.  He became the merciful end to those who suffered- suicidal adolescents, whores looking for an escape, and the poor who would rather be dead than continue their wretched lives.  Although there were so many looking for death, Horatio soon returned to the doves.  He could no longer murder humans, even those who wished to be.  Horatio decided that it was best to be considered weak by his landlord than damn himself further.  Therefore, he resigned to being the subject of the Frenchman's jeers and mockery.  Yet, despite his own cruel remarks and occasional physical outbursts, Blaise admired him and would never allow anything to harm him.

@; --'-- ~*~ --'--; @

"How could such an uneasy relationship have formed and lasted so long?" Horatio thought with dismay as the memories faded. Fortunately, such distressing memories when Mina rose out of the coffin like Aphrodite rising out of the Greek myths.  "Good evening."  He greeted warmly as he stood to offer her a hand.

"Thank you." Mina replied while accepting his help out of his sarcophagus.  She smiled slightly at his nod and took the offered seat without argument.  After a moment of uneasy silence, Mina gained the courage to start a conversation.  "Do you know how long before the hunters attack?"  She did not take the look of apprehension that formed on the vampyre's face as a good sign.  "Good icebreaker, Mina.  Very smooth."

"Both Blaise and I believe that they will attack at sunrise, but do not worry, lady.  I will not allow a single ghoul to harm you, and I will hand you over to the hunters once they defeat Blaise." The vampyre answered without glancing at his charge.  He did not want to "hand her over," but he knew he had no choice in the matter.

"Oh, I'm glad." The woman rejoined half heartedly while wondering if she even wanted to go back.  "What is that in your hand?"  The look of disgust that slowly became apparent on the vampyre lord's face pulled at her heart. "I'm really on a roll…" Mina thought with a slight feeling of self-loathing.

"I…I do not feed off humans." Horatio started while his hand slowly uncurled from around the carcass of the bird.  His nostrils flared at the smell of death and soiled innocence, but he managed continued his explanation with a fairly straight face.  "Therefore, Blaise provides me with these to live off of."

Mina thought that that was wonderful!  A vampyre who did not kill was a something amiable indeed, yet the look of somewhat repressed look of repulsion on the vampyre's countenance made her think twice.  "There must be a story behind his expression…cold indifference spliced with immense self hatred…why does he look so?  And that sadness in his eyes…something has hurt him greatly…but what?  What could hurt such a noble and just man?" Mina mentally questioned while she peered into the ageless depths of the icy pools of the vampyre's sharp eyes.  "If it does not trouble you, please tell me about your life before this."  The lady asked softly while motioning to the room around them.

The vampyre rose and began to pace about the room.  He did not look at her, but she could easily detect the uneasiness in his manner.  Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity of anxious silence and distance, the vampyre returned to his seat and looked his charge straight in the eyes.  Mina could plainly see the few beads of sweat that had formed on his brow and the distraught look in his eyes.  It pained her to see him in such a state and she greatly wished she had not questioned him.

"As I have told you, I was an English lord.  Being so, I owned vast amounts of land.  I was also very young and foolish and took a liking to mindlessly riding about, whether it was through town or through forests.  It did not matter.  I was a man who was not much more than a youth and lived in the sun on horseback.  One night, however, instead of locking myself in my library with the Odyssey and Byron at my side, I stole into the moonlit moors on one of my most spirited mounts.  The ride was exhilarating.  The wind played with my hair, teasing it out of its braid, and pocketed the color from my cheeks with its icy hands to replace it with a bright red glow.  However, there was more to be stolen from me than my pale complexion that night.  As I neared a village, a monster in the dark attacked me and purloined my humanity.  He ripped from me the very mortality and innocence that makes one human.  When it was done, he caressed my cheek and told me the rules of my new monstrous, damned existence…" Horatio then paused for a moment in the telling of his monologue.  "Do I tell you all?  Would you accept me for the wretched coward I have become?" The vampyre inquired of the lady's enraptured expression and understanding eyes.  With decisive nod meant more for his own determination than for her, Horatio continued to tell her of his five years in the Parisian sewers, of the constables who had chased him into the clutches of the German fake, and of the little box and its pure contents that he soiled night after night.  When he was finished, he rose once more and moved to the other side of the room.  He expected her to look at him with disgust, hate, or any other expression of that sort.  How could one look upon a true monster such as himself with any other sort of countenance?  However, instead of glaring her hatred or casting an unladylike curse at him, she too rose and walked over to him.  With an almost girlhood innocence, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him close with her head resting on his shoulder.

"You are neither a monster nor a coward…merely a victim and, at the same time, a survivor of fate." She told him softly.

Shocked filled and consumed Horatio.  Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined such a reaction, but this was not fantasy.  This was real.  With a small smile, he returned the embrace and ran a hand through her silky hair.  Then, after mustering forgotten courage, he turned her chin so that she looked at him.  He stared into her watery eyes for several moments before he pressed his lips against hers in a chaste kiss.

@; --'-- ~*~ --'--; @

Radha glared at the sun.  She hated the sun.  She was quite sure that she hated it almost as much as a vampyre.  The only thing she liked about the sun was the edge it gave her against the vampyres.  With a decisive nod, she mounted her cyborg and galloped off into the direction D had just left in.  It did not take her long to find him.  He was waiting on the top of a small ridge a couple miles from the castle.    The sun, by this time, could be clearly seen and was slowly beginning its march to its noontime position.

"They're ready for us.  The beasts that can stand the sun are waiting on the battlements." D said in his usual monotone voice as she neared.

"Being a vampyre, he'll be waiting in the bowels of the fortress.  I say we charge the place and keep riding down until the cyborgs can go no further.  By that point, we should be close." Radha suggested while patting Goliath's neck affectionately.

"They might expect that."  The other Dhampire countered.

"It doesn't matter what they expect.  Knowing this vampyre, he wants to finish us off himself.  Therefore, it leads to reason that they will not put up much a of a fight to begin with."  The red haired hunter argued.

D shook his head.  Radha's plan was reckless and he knew it.  Only a hunter so young would come up with a strategy as simple as "charge the place, kill the vampyre, and win the day."  However, she did have a point.  Blaise probably did want to try to finish them off himself.  Therefore, something as reckless as her plan might work.  "Fine."  D answered simply while kicking his cyborg gently with his heels.  With a very triumphant grin, Radha followed.

@; --'-- ~*~ --'--; @

Blood spewed across the already stained fortress walls.  Steel met steel as hooves beat against stone.  Body parts and gore littered the ground.  Radha's "charge and keeping riding" plan did not happen the way she would have liked.  Although they stayed mounted, the hunters had yet to make it past the courtyard.  The beasts continually surrounded them like a churning sea of filth, keeping them from entering the castle keep.  With a hiss, Radha pulled on her reigns to force Goliath to rise up and kick out with his massive hooves.  It worked.  A small path was created through the red sea of carnage just large enough for the Dhampires to gallop into the keep.

Blackness surrounded and engulfed them, pulling them in.  Their eyes glowed in the darkness, appearing to be nothing more than blue and green fire flies rushing through tunnel.  Their cyborgs screamed at the gloom, daring it to devour them.  Yet, after a few moments of unending obscurity, a single torch nestled in the dividing wall between two different paths filled the end of the single tunnel with an eerie light that seemed to spread like a cancer.

"You take the right.  I'll go left." D ordered simply before charging down his chosen tunnel.  Radha snorted and galloped into the right.

The passageway engulfed the huntress with its ensnaring black mouth.  The darkness made the corridor heavy with a dank, mildew-infested air that made breathing laborious.  The walls rose to soaring heights, supported by immense pillars that were strangled with daunting fractures and slime.  Perched on the tops of the columns sat menacing monsters of stone whose scaled, lengthy necks allowed their ugly heads to peer at Radha with their shining ruby eyes.  Their crooked and jagged fangs were parted to allow their serpentine tongues to expel silent curses at whoever passed.  Separating the mammoth supports with their ghoulish crests were ancient torches that reeked with rancid oil.  While most were unlit and only the fumes created by their pungent fuel testified to their existence, the few lights glowed just enough to keep the massive cyborg from scraping his nose on the hard stonewalls.

Goliath did not run more than ten feet into the black abyss of the passageway before he suddenly halted, almost sending Radha flying in the process.  A heavy, silky mist slowly encircled the cyborg's hooves like thick ropes.  Like a disease spreading through the body, the mist climbed its way up the mount to encase the rider as well.  It clouded over Radha eyes, making them lifeless and dull.  The fog coursed its way through her nostrils and into her lungs, filling her with a warm, sleepy feeling while slowly suffocating her.  Her lungs began to burn with the lack of air.  Her lips parted with a soundless scream, allowing the mist into her mouth and down her esophagus.  The muscles in her throat clenched in an attempt to spew forth whatever was blocking her windpipe.  The mist thickened in response, forcing the muscles to relax and allow it to kill her, but she would not lie down and die.  Her arms flailed, scratching at the attacking force and clawed at her throat.  Blood coursed its way down her neck like streams of red following the map made by her veins.

"Stop."  An elegant voice ordered.  The tone cut through the mist like a hot poker slicing through ice.  The heavy fog seemed to shrivel and fall to the floor like the harmless mist blanketing the stone floor.  Radha's soundless scream of moments ago echoed loudly through the halls like an imprisoned harpy's cry reverberating off the walls of its cage.  The sudden rush of much needed air made her dizzy.  Her head swam in the flow of oxygen.  Her eyes rolled back into her head against the dim light of the hallway while the muscles in her throat burned from the abuse of the mist.  She suddenly felt the need to crawl into a hole and rest.  However, the source of the deadly fog would not allow such repose.  With the ring of a battle cry resonating within the hall, a slim figure armed with a crimson foil leapt at the mounted hunter.  Sensing that his mistress was still lost in her haze, Goliath thrashed his head from side to side in an attempt to slam Radha's new foe into a wall.  Unfortunately, the assailant easily avoided the immense head of the cyborg by springing backwards.  The attacker then bounced forward once more with hopes of trapping one more soul within his blade.  Luckily for the dazed Radha, her savior of moments ago rushed forward as well in her defense. The defender caught the figure's foil between his palms while an arrogant grin spread across his graceful mouth.  The smirk disappeared when assailant quickly released the blade and leapt to kick at the Dhampire's defender.  With inhumane grace, the elegant figure used the attacker's own blade against him and sent him into the wall by bashing the handle into his head.  A laugh as equally arrogant as the smirk filled the hall as the assailant charged once more.  When the echoes ceased to rumble through the stone fortress, there was a sudden piercing spark of ice blue from her rescuer's eyes that reduced the agile attacker into crumbled heap on the floor and was answered by a sharp cry of agony.  The victor of the short fray then turned to the cyborg, and, after placing a hand on the mounts nose, left the way Radha came.  Not wasting any time, Goliath sped toward his mistress's attacker and reared up to bring a hoof smashing down.  This time, the assailant did not dodge the cyborg's attack.

The jolt from her mount's attack zipped through Radha's spine, effectively waking her up.  With a shake of the head, she looked down at Goliath's victim with a pleased smile.  "Good boy." She cooed, patting her cyborg's neck before dismounting.  "Well, well…what has my little horsey caught under his foot?" Radha purred as she knelt beside her captured prey.  "The mutant from the carriage.  How quaint.  Where's Blaise, Pretty Boy?"

Lie's ribs were shattered and broken, leaving a purple spider web of bruises amidst the burnt flesh of his chest.  His eyes were glazed over and blood poured from his lips only to come out in jets when he mumbled something.  The mutant's only reply to her question was a gurgle sound and a spatter of blood that hit Radha in the middle of her forehead.  The thing then muttered some more inaudible words and went silent.

"Damn it…" Radha cursed while wiping the blood off her forehead.

"Take the next left.  That will connect you with the main hallway once more and lead to the oubliette.  The vampyre you seek is in there.  Once you have destroyed him, I will give you the lady." The silky voice from before echoed.  Radha turned to see whom the informant was but was greeted only with a wisp of chocolate hair and the tails of a red coat.  She wanted to investigate, but didn't have time.  If the left took her to the main hallway, then D was on a one-way trip to meet the vampyre alone, and although D had proven time and time again that he was more than capable, two hunters were always better than one.  With a decisive nod, Radha quickly paid her respects to the fallen mutant, mounted her cyborg, and galloped in the direction of her fellow hunter.

@; --'-- ~*~ --'--; @

Crede had been ordered to take out the hunter that chose her hallway.  It was a simple order that she was more than willing to comply with.  However, the nagging feeling that Lie was hurt was not letting her pay attention.  In fact, the rider had just galloped past her.  She should have gone after him.  She knew that, but when the second hunter flew past her, Crede knew something was wrong.  With a decisive nod, she leapt off the gargoyle she had been perched on and flew down the hallway in the opposite direction of the hunters.  Her gold eyes shifted in the darkness until she found the turn that would lead to the hallway Radha had originally taken.  It was then that the smell of blood and crispy skin hit her and forced her to land.  A growl forced at bay the tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of to whom that blood and burnt flesh belonged.  Following her nose, she turned and walked slowly until she saw the form of her beloved.  Dropping to her knees, tears flowed freely as she gathered him in her arms.  Crede pressed a small kiss to his cold and bloody lips before a lonely, sad howl erupted from hers.  The wolf's mourning cry ceased suddenly when a blue mist rose from her mate's dead body and surrounded the canine mutant.

"Lie?" She whispered meekly and was silenced when the mist rushed into her mouth and penetrated her very soul.  She screamed as her body was lifted into the air and her wings were snapped and shredded.  Every fiber of her being howled in sheer torment as it was ripped and shattered.  Her once delicate fingers burst forth with razor sharp talons while her newly clawed feet ripped through her boots and were popped and bent in such a way that she could walk on her now elongated toes.  Large dewclaws grew on the inner sides of her ankles, as even larger talons formed off what were once her heels.  Long, lustrous white locks withered into a spiky, blue and white mane that fell down her back to touch the beginning of a new tail with the same blue and white coloring.  Her once beautiful white-feathered wings now resembled blue dragon wings with white feathers only running along the leading edge of each wing and stopping at the one-clawed finger on the final major joint of the wings.  With a crack, the mist evaporated from within her and she landed unharmed in her reborn state on her toes.  Her beautiful, full lips pulled back into a snarl while her still golden eyes searched the disserted hallway as a blood red symbol formed on her forehead.

"Huntress…"

@; --'-- ~*~ --'--; @

Hot white sparks flew as steel met steel.  Flowing capes swirled around each other as the Dhampire fought the vampyre.  Even to an amateur swordsman, it was quite easy to see that the hunter had his quarry on the defense.  Every slice and slash made by the hunter barely missed cutting into the beast.  Fearing for his life, the vampyre suddenly changed tactics, and instead of blocking the Dhampire's next blow with his own blade, he ducked and embedded a dagger that had been hidden within the folds of his clothing deep into the hunter's stomach.  While the wound would surely heal soon, it gave Blaise the chance he needed.  With a quick kick, he sent D into the nearby wall and rushed forward.  With a sickening crunch, the vampyre's blade pinned the Dhampire to the stone through the shoulder of his sword arm.  D hissed to keep from crying out or cringing and resorted to glaring at the vampyre since he could not use his sword to cut him down.  Blaise, on the other hand, moved in so that he was nose to nose with the hunter just to make sure that D saw the arrogant light of victory in his eyes.

"You half-bloods will never defeat…"

A crash and a burst of splinters hushed the haughty words of the vampyre as the mighty hooves of the cyborg Goliath smashed the wooden door that separated the oubliette from the outside world.  With her claymore in hand and her jade eyes aflame, she maneuvered Goliath into the large chamber and charged at her prey.

"Sterben, Hündin!" Blaise hissed as he yanked the dagger out of D, eliciting a pained grunt from the Dhampire, and threw the blade at the neck of the cyborg.  The knife hit its mark and cut into one of the main blood lines in the mount's neck, effectively sending the beast into the ground with a pained, metallic cry and throwing the rider in one fell swoop.

By this time, D had dislodged the blade of the vampyre from his shoulder and had enough strength left for one more assault.  With both hands clenching the handle of his sword, he leapt at Blaise.

At the same time, however, Radha had risen from her fall and was charging the vampyre with her great sword swung back so that she could swing it at the last second and cleave his head off.  "This is going to work.  He's caught between us.  No matter if he goes left or right, one of us will catch him." The huntress thought triumphantly.

Blaise watched as the two Dhampires charged at him with their swords.  If he did not act quickly, one of the hunters would surely skewer him.  With an insane laugh, he wrapped his cloak around him and awaited their attack.  When Radha reached him a few seconds before D and slashed at him with her sword, he merely ducked and spun to make his cape twirl outwards.  A twisted grin formed on his countenance as a splash of blood wet his face and the clang of a blade against stone met his ears.  His eyes followed the length of D's blade through his cape and into the damned huntress's heart.  The look of pain on one hunter's face and of shock on the other's face was absolutely beautiful and deserved to be mentioned.

"How sad…Hunters killing hunters!  What is a world coming to when one cannot even trust one's own partner…and they say that vampyres have no honor.  Ha!  What nerve." Blaise sneered while removing his cape and taking D's sword out of his shaking hands.  With a yank of the blade and one more splash of blood, the mighty huntress fell into a beaten, bloody mess on the floor.  "By the law of castle, I declare you, Vampyre Hunter D, guilty of murder and sentenced to death…which is to be carried out immediately." The vampyre laughed as he raised the Dhampire's sword high into the air. With a swish of his wrist, he brought the sword down.  D snapped to life and deflected his blade with his vambrace and grabbed the unsuspecting vampyre by the throat.

"No…" Was all D said as his nails ripped into the beastly vampyre's throat to rip out his windpipe and snap his major arteries.  The fortress groaned and shook as its master's blood only added to its stained floor.  D paid the roars of the castle no mind and rushed to the quickly fading Radha.

"D…Hold me…" She cried out hoarsely, blood flowing freely from her mouth and chest wound.  Unable to say anything, the elder Dhampire complied with the huntress's wish.  "I guess we won't know if what Kaag said was true…" Radha continued with a weary, blood tainted smile while her body writhed and shook.  D carefully wiped away some off the blood off her lips in a desperate attempt to comfort the dying woman.  "D!  D…I…I lo…I…forgive…" That was all she said.  A single tear stained D's flawless cheek while stone upon stone fell around him.  He gathered her into his arms, grasped her sword, and called his mount to him.  After carefully mounting with her in his arms and her sword strapped to his back, he turned to look at his bloody sword on the ground and her beloved dead cyborg.  With a shake of his head, he clicked his heels and rode out of the crumbling castle.  Once out of the dying gloom of the doomed fortress, D was greeted by the beginnings of twilight, which dyed the sky and clouds in a flood of red.

"How appropriate…" The sym. spoke softly.

"Silence." D ordered harshly as the neighs and whinnies of a nearby team of cyborgs quieted both Dhampire and symbiot.  Turning to his left, D's eyes fell upon the girl he was suppose to rescue in the arms of another vampyre in front of a carriage.  She was obviously crying as the vampyre tried to tell her to go to the Dhampires.

When the girl finally broke free of the vampyre's embrace and reached D, she was breathless and holding her unicorn pendant.  "Take this hunter!  Take this and get your money!  I am not going home!"

D stared down at the girl in disgust.  How dare she offer such a deal after all that he had lost- after all Radha had lost.  However, D took the pendant.  She was not worth Radha's sacrifice and he half-heartedly hoped that the vampyre killed her.  With a click of his heels, he sped away from the foolish child and her new vampyre love.  He had one last thing to do before he could return the pendant.

He only rode a few miles before the dead weight of the huntress's body began to wear him down.  With a decisive jerk of the reins, he dismounted and laid her on the ground carefully.  He summoned his horse to him and ordered it to rise up and beat and scrape the ground with its hooves in hopes of breaking through the topsoil.  Fortunately, the earth was loose, red matter and easily gave way under the cyborg's attack.  D ordered the beast to continue and returned to Radha's side.  She was pale, so very pale.  Her clothes were covered in dirt, blood, and filth.  Long locks of red flared out around her like a veil- so similar to the way it had only a day before. However, what disturbed D the most were her eyes.  Once fiery jade orbs seemed glassy and glazed.  To keep the threat of more tears at bay, the hunter gently closed her eyes.  Then, using a clean edge of his cape, he began cleaning off her face.  Her clean face shone in the failing light of the sun and almost seemed alive again, which brought a slight smile to D's face.  However, there was one spot that would not wipe away.  On her forehead rested a symbol that looked similar to dried blood, yet did not clean up as easily.  With a shake of his head, D rose and returned to the grave his mount had started.  He had to finish it himself.  Using the same hands that ripped the vampyre's throat to ribbons, he clawed out the rest of her tiny grave.  When he could dig no more for lack of strength, D returned to Radha's side once more and gathered her gently into his arms for the last time.  Once he had placed her in her grave, he was still for a moment as he looked at her.  She seemed so peaceful and possessed the same lifelike qualities of a doll.  With gentle hands, the hunter laid the sword on her chest so that blade ran down the length of her stiff body and closed her hands to around the handle.   He then covered his huntress over with a veil of earth.  It did not take long and when the task was at its end, he said a small prayer to her with his hand on her grave.

"Farewell, brave huntress…farewell."  D finished with a final nod as he mounted his horse.  He looked at the grave on last time before clicking his heels and galloping away.  He had a long ride ahead of him.

@; --'-- ~*~ --'--; @

"Lady Carfax!  The hunter!  The hunter!  He's here!" A servant bellowed through out the house as she ran in search of her mistress.

"Silence, Lucy…I know he is here, and if you have yet to notice, he is alone." Lady Carfax said dryly.  She did not even look up when there was a knock at the door.  Lucy, however, refused to partake in her mistress's gloomy mood and rushed to answer it.  As foretold, a solitary hunter stood in the doorway.  "Come in, Vampyre Hunter D…sit here."  The once proud lady motioned and was acknowledge only with the sounds of heavy boots clicking against polished wood floors.  "You have something for me."

D did not reply.  He merely stared the woman in the eyes as he handed her the pendant.

"Thank you." Lady Carfax said quietly as her fingers closed around the unicorn.  She coughed softly and then continued.  "You see…I was expecting this.  Just recently, I received a letter from my sister, Mina.  She explained everything from the failed rescue attempt at the river to the brilliant red of her new love's coat and how she was not returning.  She explained that she had given her pendant to the hunters and that I should pay them for their troubles."

D looked at the lady with understanding eyes.  That was all he could do.  He had no words of comfort for her.

"So, you see, I really have no option in the matter but to comply with my sister's last wishes." Lady Carfax concluded while putting the pendant around her own neck.  D nodded in reply and held out his hand.  She answered his nod by placing a heavy velvet and silk pouch in his hand.  She then sat back against her chair with her head dropped to keep the hunter from seeing her watering eyes and went silent.  With no more business here, D rose to leave.  "Where's the huntress?" The last word of her simple question stopped him in his tracks quite effectively.

"She…she…is permanently disposed." D answered coldly and left.  No more needed to be said and nothing more would be said.  Her story was done and that was all.

D mounted his cyborg and began his ride out of town.  It did not take long to leave the burgh, and once he was well beyond its outskirts, the symbiot finally spoke.

"I can understand you bringing her sword with you to leave it with her, but did you have to leave your own in the castle?  A good blade like that will cost a pretty credit to replace!" The sym. complained.

"I left my sword because it is no longer needed." The Dhampire replied simply.  D had never been one for words and rarely enjoyed talking, but he certainly was not in the mood to hear his parasite complain about a lost sword and expenditures.

"No longer needed!  Have you suddenly lost all of your senses and have decided to kill vampyres with your bare hands all of the time.  The incident was Blaise was understandable and quite a crafty trick, but be reasonable, man!" The haughty voice countered.

"I have no intentions of killing any more vampyres." The Dhampire responded as he quickly clenched his fist around the reins to keep the symbiot from arguing further.  Neither the lack of benefits nor the large sums money received in payment could hold D to his previously life long trade as a hunter when he could not even save the one woman he truly cared for.  His desire to be the executioner for the Nosferatu died with his red haired angel of death.  Mankind would just have to learn to survive fate on their own without his interference.

@; --'-- ~*~ --'--, @

Cyber Aya- "You are a sadistic bitch…"

VC- *wipes away tears and blows nose* "Yeah…I know…"

Cyber Aya- "So…will you write the sequel?"

VC- "That depends on my lovely audience.  It took me nearly two years to write this story off and on and I have barely received any reviews.  I want more reviews.  Get your buds to review.  Get your enemies to review.  Heck!  I would settle for your parents and teachers!  Once I'm satisfied, I will start on the sequel."

Cyber Aya- "You are a sadistic bitch."

VC- "Yeah…I know…"

Yaoi- *holds up that familiar sign asking for reviews with the e-mail address aya_fujimiya_rose@hotmail.com posted on it*