Dissolution of Arms

By Eerie

Chapter Nine: Confrontation

The two half-breeds stared silently at one another, everything else around them wavering and disappearing. A cold wind streamed between their still bodies and carried away the steam that trailed from scarcely breathing lips, but neither shivered. The dense forest enclosing that clearing grew unnaturally still as if the trees themselves waited in anticipation for what was to come.

D held his sword firmly against the albino's throat but suddenly forgot why he was there at all. He was locked in the ruby eyes before him that seemed to glow like embers in the moonlight peeking timidly from its wintry curtain. His gaze from them broke reluctantly and traveled slowly over the curves of the younger man's face. The thin rays of moonlight cast his skin and hair in an almost silver tone. In that endless moment of forgetfulness, D saw a blazing beauty that lay buried deeper than that which glittered on the crimson eyes now regarding him with equal wonder. He recalled the way the stranger's sword had spun so strangely in the air but decided to let it be for the time. There were more important matters to see to . . . if only he could remember just what they were.

The presence of the blue thing about the youth's neck caught his eye and D beheld the sapphire-like jewel. Even in the darkness he recognized it as identical to the one ever present about his own neck. The sight of it surprised him and he momentarily lost his concentration as his sword bit shallow into the albino's throat. To D's astonishment, as he realized what he had done, the stranger did not cry out in alarm or pain. The trickle of red at his blade made the hunter quickly withdraw his weapon, looking to see the pale creature's reaction. But the youth's eyes were closed, his pale lips slightly parted as if he had meant what he said and waited for it with welcome.

Caruwyn opened his eyes and lifted his hand to touch the hot wound in his throat. He was almost disappointed to find his head still intact. He looked at the dark being before him and studied once again the dark eyes, sharply cut features and long hair. Caruwyn remembered his father's recount of the dhampire who had tried to kill him and resigned to allow his parents' escape for the stars. There could be no doubt about it. This was that very hunter. Caruwyn inwardly laughed with disdain at the irony that he should find that very one his first night on the human's planet. Perhaps he would not see another. But the revelation remained silent within, churning with slowly rising anger and grief.

"I was hoping for a deeper cut," Caruwyn said instead.

"You may get your wish," D replied as the moon cowered behind the clouds again, "if you don't tell me who you are and what your purpose is." Of course the hunter knew very well the answer to the first question, though he could not wholly believe it himself. No, he would not believe it until he was forced to. He would keep this confrontation as strict business for as much time allowed to him.

"Why should I tell you?" Caruwyn said in a voice edged with bitterness. He imagined his father's mourning when he believed his beloved dead as he fought vainly with the vampire hunter. Perhaps this hunter believed it also and found satisfaction when he knew Meier was lost and broken. Caruwyn's eyes narrowed.

"Is it true you're a vampire?" D asked lowly.

"I am no different than you." His revelation slipped before he was ready.

D stood tall and pointed the sharp tip of his sword at Caruwyn's chest. "And what makes you believe that?"

Caruwyn glared at the other half-breed. He could not imagine why or how the hunter had tracked him down and stood ready to kill him. He sat steadily and said nothing. When he sensed the other draw breath to speak again, he snatched up his sword and jumped back in the space of a heartbeat, holding it in a defensive position. He cursed the cold that betrayed his shivers; he couldn't allow this man think he was intimidated. But Caruwyn had only a fraction of a second to block the first blow that fell heavily against his sword.

D pressed his weapon into the albino's, studying his movements. Their swords scraped terribly in the wild silence before Caruwyn gave a hard shove and pushed D's weapon away, dropping to a crouch and swinging his blade right for the dark hunter's knees. D saw the swift movement and parried the blow with a few spirals of his own blade, throwing Caruwyn balance off and his sword aside into a drift of snow. The tip of D's weapon was pressed at Caruwyn's heart again when he pushed himself back up.

"I'll give you this one last chance. You've obviously never used a sword before so I recommend you start talking," D said coolly.

"Why are you bothering me? I haven't done anything," Caruwyn growled.

"I've heard otherwise from the people of the village back there. They say that a vampire attacked a young girl today. You seem to match their description quite well."

Caruwyn remembered the scene in the alley and damned himself for stopping to satisfy his curiosity. Of course they would assume it was him. The eyes in the inn's tavern did not conceal their astonishment and uneasiness well at the sight of him.

"I've never harmed anyone," the albino replied and sank into a slump, wholly at the intruder's mercy. "You are mistaken."

D remained quiet and pondered over the curious being at his feet. The youth's behavior was like none he had ever witnessed in one who had the bloodlust. Perhaps the townspeople were mistaken in their accusations; maybe the girl fell due to some sickness or was not dead at all. It was not an unlikely possibility, for the half-breed did look very unusual. The attention that the youth caught was doubtfully any more different than that lain on his own strangely and almost unnaturally beautiful features. Perhaps he had come into this world untainted.

When D spoke again his voice was softer. "Why did you invite your death a moment ago?"

The question caught him completely off guard and Caruwyn looked up in pure surprise. His mouth opened instinctively to reply or voice his astonishment but he closed it again and looked back to the ground. D saw the unmistakable innocence in the other's response, confirming his doubt. He lowered his sword.

"You are not the one I seek," the hunter said. "Forgive my intrusion."

D sheathed his heavy weapon behind his back and began to walk away. He stopped at the snow bank and picked the strange sword from its powdery covering, looking it over with brief interest. He tossed it dramatically in the air and turned away before seeing it land point-buried in the ground before the pale youth.

"It's unfitting that you carry such a blade with your lack of experience," D said and continued to walk toward the trees. "Learn to use it."

Caruwyn watched his sword swagger before him before turning his eyes upon the hunter's departing back. He felt humiliated. Defeated. Anger boiled in his veins like burning hot wine.

"You leave without carving up my soul the way you did to Meier? How truly noble you are, Hunter," he spat before he could weigh his words and the effect they might have. The night grew oddly more silent, the kind of silence that that echoes painfully in the ears.

D stopped in his tracks. An endless moment of tension passed before he slowly turned to look again on the shivering half-breed. The confrontation just took the turn he dreaded and sought to avoid most. But Caruwyn was not sated.

"Was the reward worth it? I wonder how many others you've broken and left to suffer in torment without justice." The youth growled bitterly and felt the sting of tears come unwillingly to his eyes.

"You know nothing of the things you speak, child." D's tone was tinged with warning. But it was unheeded.

"I would be a fool to take anything you say as truth. You are a murdering deceiver that betra—"

Caruwyn's voice was crushed from his throat as D moved with the speed of a ravaged leopard and snagged the smooth column harshly in an iron grip.

"I advise you to still your words. It's not wise to let your mouth act before your mind," the dark hunter said with a glint of fury in his eyes.

Caruwyn felt the blood circulate without escape throughout his skull and struggled to breath. But he braved a look into the dark half-breed's eyes and locked them there. The tears of his pain rolled unfelt down his cold cheeks. To his surprise, the deadly fire that flared up in the dark eyes subsided and the grip around his throat eased away.

D remained crouched before him and gave in to the youth's pitiful state of agitation. He couldn't tiptoe around the subject any longer.

"I understood his pain more than you know. If I could somehow have altered their fates I would have. But nothing would have been changed even if I were not hired to take her back," he said quietly. "They were deceived by another." D watched Caruwyn shift his eyes to the ground as tears continued to slide down his smooth face. Much to his dismay, he could not ignore the increasing sense of pity it arose in him. He was almost tempted to touch the youth but resisted the urge. "Why did you come to this place?"

Caruwyn shook, his smoldering rage tempered by the other half-breed's tone that he never expected to hear from that particular mouth. All he had now was his grief, his aching weariness, and the cold. He didn't care any longer.

"I never got a chance to see my mother. Her death veiled my father's eyes with despair. I was forced to leave," Caruwyn professed. "But now I wish hadn't. This place is horrible. I should rather be alone with the graves of the only one I ever knew and the one I could never see or touch." He suddenly longed more than anything to be asleep and away from his present situation. Caruwyn lifted his shaking hands to bury his face in them, willing himself to disappear.

D was startled at the youth's naked emotional breakdown. He stood and began to depart from his concluded business but found his feet growing heavier with each step as if he treaded through thickening tar. The guilt over leaving the stranger so prone in the dangerous woods would not let him go. It steadily worsened.

The hunter stopped and sighed heavily, wishing the broken sobs behind him would silence. He could not unravel the meaning of what was coming over him but he could neither ignore it altogether. Something about that half-breed intrigued him despite his desire to simply let it alone and be on his way. The image of the spinning sword and sapphire-colored jewel haunted his memory. But D felt that there was much more to this ignorant youth than was plain and he had to learn of it if he was ever rest peacefully again. He turned in irritation and approached the younger dhampire once again to extend his hand down toward the shaking mass.

"Come. You can't stay out here all night," D said through gritted teeth. From the corner of his mind he could feel the parasite react with nothing short of shock but he pushed it aside. Caruwyn peered up at the hand awaiting him and laughed weakly.

"And where will you take me, oh esteemed hunter? To that wonderful demise you promised me?" the albino said and sat rigid.

D was nearly exasperated. "Even you can't outlast this cold. Now get up before I change my mind."

"I don't really care what you do," Caruwyn replied in matching apathy, remaining motionless.

D wanted so badly to slap that pale face with all his force. But instead he impatiently stepped away and Caruwyn thought he would simply leave. In the blurring graceful motion of that which silenced the stubborn youth's accusing words, D unsheathed his sword and rammed its hilt into the back of Caruwyn's head before the latter could react. The young dhampire's eyes rolled back and he blacked out instantly into the snow.

Hauling the lithe body into his reluctant arms, D sighed. He gathered up the other's sword and strode with his unwanted burden back toward his snorting horse. The snow began to fall more heavily than before, cluttering the air with lazy eddies of white down.

He pushed the unconscious albino onto the saddle and jumped up himself, tucking the sliver sword securely into his hip belt. He adjusted the youth to rest against him, feeling his body much colder than he'd thought. He wasn't in the mood to deal with the stranger at all but even less so for dealing with a frozen corpse.

As D pulled his cloak tight around himself and the young man against the biting air, the youth's weight pressed closer. His soft white-haired head fell back and rested heavily against the hunter's chest, the red eyes closed in a look of peaceful slumber. D studied the soft, strange features of the one sharing his saddle and cursed himself for feeling sorry toward the young man. His eyes fell once again to the stone at the creature's neck and he hesitantly reached to touch it.

As his fingers descended upon the smooth surface, D swore he saw the thing begin to glow. He blinked and removed his hand instantly before the dull light faded away. His eyes screwed up in puzzlement but he convinced himself the winter air was numbing his mind as well as body. Without another second wasted, he hugged the steed's sides with his heels and started the journey to the opposite end of the forest, for he doubted that Caruwyn would be well received again in Southbridge for a while. The next town beyond did not lie far if he remembered correctly.

"D?!" rasped a little voice from the whipping winds the horse created in its haste. "What the hell do you think you're doing? I thought you knew better than to trust a fresh pretty face. This kid could be dangerous!"

"He harbors something unusual within him. I have to find out what it is," D replied and kicked the steed harder.

"You're out of your mind. I don't sense anything but trouble in him. You're going to regret this. You know it. Just push him off and let him freeze to death," the parasite offered.

"You haven't figured out who he is yet?"

"Oh I figured it out, as unbelievable as it is. But why does that matter? Something about him bothers me, D. Why are you taking such a risk? He said he didn't attack that girl so he's innocent. Just let it be."

The dhampire Prince remained stern in his decision. The parasite was nearly frantic with confusion. What was it about the stubborn child of a half-breed that had D so worked up? It was all madness. Sure the kid was good-looking enough by the right standards, but D was the last person in the world to ever let himself be deceived by such common guises. The parasite had no doubts that there was indeed something strange about the pale half-breed but the harder it tried to touch the surface of these things, the more deeply troubled it was left. D had rarely shown that even more rare side of himself and the entity could not help but feel defensive. But nothing would change the iron-willed hunter's mind. Certainly not the parasite that shared his fate.

"Just be careful. He's an ignorant kid that could be easily swayed into corruption, if you take my meaning. I sense some serious disturbances already at work in him," the creature said with finality and dropped into silence.

D considered what the parasite said. Yes, it would be easy for one so young and alone to give into the feeding lust that occasions one with vampire's blood. But surely that was not the reason he had taken up the fallen youth? D was anything but a mentor. And though he would not deny the intensity of the younger man's grace, such trivial things would not tempt him. No, there was something more. Something truly unique that could become terrifying in time. D sensed this. But the puzzle remained an intricate challenge for him to piece.

As they rode through the thick wood, Caruwyn stirred slightly and pressed his head harder into D's chest, groaning. He mumbled something incoherent in his sleep and fell quiet again. D chanced another look down at the slumbering dhampire and felt that same comfortable emptiness he had experienced when their eyes first met in the clearing. The hunter shook his head. What could he find comforting in the presence of one the parasite had gone nearly frantic with agitation over?

The steed leaped unexpectedly over a fallen tree that crowded their path and landed hard. Caruwyn jerked and sagged dangerously toward the side of the saddle before D reflexively shot a hand around his waist to catch him. But the albino remained unconscious as he was steadied upon the horse again.

The parasite was none too pleased to find its master's arm still lingering there as they thundered into the quiet town miles from the forest edge.

The old innkeeper gave them a strange look as D dropped the last of his coins on the scarred and stained countertop.

"You need me to call a doctor for that one?" the frail man asked timidly from behind his comically bushy mustache and nodded toward Caruwyn, who lay still and, to the innkeeper's eyes, deathly pale.

"That's not necessary," D said and waited for the man to bustle his way around the counter and lead him toward the room.

The thin old innkeeper remained apprehensive of the dark and dangerous looking man that startled him awake at his entry from the dead night. At first he seemed to carry an injured old woman in his arms but upon closer inspection the man realized that it was in fact a very young man with unusually white hair. The dark blood at the neck of the unconscious man's clothing gruesomely caught his eye but he struggled to keep his attention away from it. What he didn't see couldn't get him in trouble later. But he still wasn't sure the pale one breathed.

The keys jangled in his weak hands as he turned the lock and pushed open the door, allowing himself in before his guests to start up a fire in the bleak hearth. When he was finished, the innkeeper hurried out the door without another word to the frightening black-clad figure that towered over him.

D set Caruwyn down on the bed by the warming fire and straightened with the intention to sit before the fire and let him rest. But the image of the pale youth with his stark white, long hair spread over the equally white pillow paused his step. D could see the traces of the other half-breed's parents mingling in exquisite harmony over his slightly flushed sleeping face. It was Meier's sheer paleness and masculinity meshed with Charlotte's soft yet fragile attributes. It was incredibly lovely. It was incredibly unnerving.

The sight of the dried blood at the untended wound reminded D of his previous carelessness. He stalked to the washbowl and wet a rag in the lukewarm water before spotting a roll of gauze next to it. He hadn't seen the old innkeeper set it there but was relieved at its presence. Returning to the main hall to request it at this hour did not sound appealing. The blood soaked lazily into the hungry cloth pressed at Caruwyn's neck. D lifted him away from the pillow and began to wrap the bandages carefully about his throat, not surprised that the skin there felt like liquid silk. But he didn't want to think about that at all. His task was quickly finished and he rested the youth back down, not realizing how much care was put into the act until his hands finished lingering on the soft hair that entangled them like thin ribbons. Dark eyes once again pondered the jewel that was a remarkable copy of the hunter's own pendant. Where had he acquired such a thing? D had never seen it on Meier's neck during their brief struggle. But still . . . it was strange to see them together.

The vampire hunter's stone was a parting gift from his father, the Lord of Vampires. He had simply been told that it was an ancient relic that came from a place far away and losing it meant ill tidings. So D kept it close for all his endless years and it became like an extension of his own body. He learned to twist and move in ways that became natural and protected the pendant in even the fiercest battles. So treasured it was to him. But now he had seen another and his curiosity for the young man intensified threefold in those scarce moments. D's eyes roved the young half-breed again before he tore himself away.

D inwardly chided himself and sat at the fire to thaw his frozen bones after setting the stranger's sword beside the bed. Vampires and their kin almost always carried a striking beauty in their favor. He had seen it countless times and destroyed them without a blink of an eye. Usually. But he never let even the most gorgeous of the cursed race get under his skin. No, beauty was a mask for something . . . unpleasant. Or dangerous. The mark of the devil, he had heard some call it and found himself agreeing more and more as his years passed. He would be cautious, but he had already known that. The parasite's warnings meant nothing to him.

The fire cracked and slowly ate at the fragrant pinewood that fueled it. Shifting weight on rusty springs turned D's head, curious to see if the albino had awakened. But Caruwyn remained in deep sleep, troubled by disturbing dreams no doubt as he tossed and muttered. D was tempted to listen but tried instead to focus on the sound of the flames.

"I cannot . . . please . . . don't make me do this . . . stop!" Caruwyn groaned uneasily and crunched his eyes tighter. "Father . . . don't tell me these things . . . don't go!" The albino rolled over and curled into a tight ball before screaming, "Noooo!"

D stood and cast a brief glance at the agitated sleeper before quietly slipping from the room, shutting the door behind him and slumping down against the wall next to it. He couldn't listen to that. Such slips made him feel like an eavesdropper over things he had no business knowing. Truly he had no idea what it was the stranger dreamt of, but even if it held clues it was not meant for his ears. D pulled the wide brim of his hat over his eyes and folded his arms across his chest before he settled as comfortably as possible against the hard wall. He could still hear Caruwyn's muffled screaming as he fell into his own uneasy slumber.

To be continued . . .