Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

"Final Hours"

by Troy A. Stanton

(Author's note: This fanfic follows the events of the original story
"Winds of Change" (written by me) and also incorporates a few elements
from the story "Drawing Blood" by Catherine B. Krusberg. I have her
permission to make use of her work as a source of material, so anything
"new" you see in here about D's past with Doris that didn't happen in
the movie is most likely her original plot material.)

WARNING: This story contains adult content, please do not read beyond
this point if you are easily offended by such things.

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((Day 3 - Galen's Burrow))

As before, it was the gentle tug of the rising sun on his soul that woke
him up from the foggy existence between a dreamless sleep and sleepless dreams.
The level of light in the room was unchanged as he opened his eyes, figuring
that a door or covering of some sort was shielding the chamber from the morning
rays of light.

It only took a few short seconds to unearth himself, using his renewed
strength to pull his body out of the soil. What took far longer, however, was
getting the worst of the dirt out of every place imaginable plus a few others
that he hadn't readily thought was possible. Finding dirt in your boots was a
given, but how could so much of it end up packed in his navel like that? And
that didn't even cover how much wound up in his underwear....

Once that task was done, he spent the next few minutes using the shovel to
'make the bed' as it were, digging out a deep hollow to make it available the
next time Galen needed to use it. The rest of the soil was scraped together
and put back in the container, moving it aside before going over to the barrel
of collected rain-water. A ladle hanging from a hook was all he needed to wash
the dirt off his hands, letting the runoff flow into a ditch apparently carved
out for just that purpose.

((Mmmph?)) it suddenly grunted, causing D to pause with his hand still over
the ditch. ((Mrrph.... mmmrrkkk, mmmghph.... GAAAAHK)) it horked as a clod of
dirt was finally expelled with the force of a clay bullet. ((Hrrrrk, what an
aftertaste. Don't get me wrong, that was nice and rich in nitrogen with just
a hint of sulphur, but the level of phosphate in that.... bleh.))

D said nothing as he reached for the ladle again, scooping up more water
and pouring it over the palm of his hand. He ignored the slurping sounds it
made as it inhaled the water, turning his hand back around when it was finished
making swishing noises to itself. A small stream of dark brown water jetted
out into the ditch, followed by a deep sigh of satisfaction.

((Thanks, D, I needed that,)) it said gratefully.

"You're welcome," he replied with just a hint of dryness. He carefully
studied the room, finally able to truly get a feel for it now that he wasn't
fixed in one location. The underground chamber wasn't all that large, but it
was roomy enough to be a suitable place to cuddle with an intimate friend when
you really weren't interested in large tracts of personal space.

The ceiling was a lot lower than he had thought it was, able to reach up
and brush the overhead roots without fully extending his arm. An idle glance
at the ramp showed that a layer of matted foliage had been placed over the
archway, thick enough to block almost all the light while really blending in
with the surroundings. Curious, he approached the barrier and tried to move it
aside, surprised to see that it was actually a sturdy frame that was mounted on
a hinge just like a door.

He winced as he was greeted by the blinding glare of the morning sun, the
topmost edge of the burning sphere just clearing the treeline. He could feel
it already starting to weaken him, but he was strong enough now to be able to
withstand full exposure for at least a week, maybe two if he didn't have to
exhaust himself in high-energy combat again.

((Ahh, don't you just love those east-facing bedroom doors?)) it chuckled.
((Galen must not have been kidding about being able to draw strength from a nap
in a tree to ward off the sun if she let the door face this direction.))

He cast a dark glare down at his hand at the casual mention of her name.
"Ask the rabbits," he said calmly. "They built their burrow here first."

((Oh,)) it replied a moment later. ((That's right, they did, didn't they?
Well, no matter, you probably can't blame them for wanting a little sun in the
morning, now can you? It probably gets awfully dark and cold in those tiny
underground burrows. Especially during the winter-time. That's not too far
off in the future, you know. Think this place keeps warm when the snow starts
to blanket the area? At least, when it's not being used as a love-nest. Now
there's irony for you, using a rabbit burrow for that. Kinda gives new meaning
to the term snuggle-bunny, eh?))

D said nothing as he strode up the ramp and into the sunlight, looking
around the immediate area for a suitable tree or bush. A fairly large thicket
was visible a few dozen yards away, causing him to raise an eyebrow at the
realization that it didn't appear to be native to the rest of the plant-life
in this part of the wooded area.

((Hey, what's wrong?)) it spoke up as it sensed a change in D's mood.

"That bush shouldn't be here," he said slowly, wondering if he should go
back and get his sword. "It's the wrong species for this region."

((What, you expected a wooden structure with the word 'outhouse' painted on
it with a neon arrow?)) it countered with a scoffing noise. ((I'll bet you quite
a lot that it was transplanted here when they terraformed everything. I mean,
just look at it.... dense foliage for privacy, not too close to the burrow to
smell, large and relatively soft leaves for.... well, you get the idea. At
least it tries to blend in with everything else.))

He decided it had made a very valid case and went over to take a closer
look at the bush, not surprised that it was exactly it had said it would be.
He stopped to look around, finding where his mount had been tied to on a rather
lengthy tether. He headed over to it, patting it gently as he grabbed the roll
of rapidly-degradable toilet paper from the saddle-bags to make his life just
a little easier.

He left the roll prominently hanging from a branch and returned to Galen's
burrow, pausing for a moment to study it from the outside. The host tree was
largest one around, the nearest one in terms of size being a good six or seven
hundred yards away. It would be rather hard to miss if you actually got close
to the trunk, but from a distance it wouldn't be too much of a curiosity. He
didn't know where the trail was in relation to the burrow, but he was willing
to bet that casual travelers wouldn't be able to see it.

The cocoon was still securely hanging from the ceiling as he descended the
ramp, the lower half bathed in the orangish-yellow radiance of the sun. The
glow was cut off as D moved the matting back into place, reducing the amount of
light to almost nothing. He waited until his eyes had adjusted back to the
near-darkness before moving over to the cocoon, looking up to study the mass of
blue-green hair hanging down from the end.

((D?)) it spoke up very quietly as he started to reach out to touch her hair
as he had done the previous two days. ((I really think you should let me tell
you what I think is going on between the two of you.))

"I don't care what you think," he said in a very low tone, dropping his
voice to a whisper so he wouldn't disturb her.

((But you care about her,)) it countered immediately. ((And deny it all you
want, deep down inside that heart of yours you know damn well that you do. I
just don't want to see you continue to suffer, D, that's all. Honest.))

"Then shut up," he said flatly. He waited to see if there would be more,
hearing only the softest of disgruntled mutterings in both his ears and in his
mind. Satisfied for the moment that it was finished, he very slowly reached up
to run his fingertips through her soft mane of hair.

The soft buzzing noise started up almost immediately, lasting for so long
that he knew she was definitely taking her time in waking up. He found that he
really didn't mind the delay, not really being in any great rush to reach the
end of their journey. The realization was almost enough to make him stop his
gentle caress of her hair and step back, wondering if the comment last night
about her kiss possibly having an effect had any truth to it.

His hand stayed where it was, moving in a slow and gentle rhythm as the
cape slowly fell away from her body with a soft cracking sound. She began to
relax her arms, slowly bringing her head down to where she could look directly
into his eyes. The insectoid features of her face melted away a moment later,
leaving her exotic beauty untouched by any outward manifestation of her unique
hybrid nature.

He paused slightly as she adjusted her clawed grip on the root, seeming to
edge slightly closer to him. "Good morning," she whispered softly.

"Morning," D replied calmly as he lowered his hand to his side.

"D.... I didn't upset you last night, did I?" she asked, her voice still
little more than a soft whisper.

"No," he said with a very subtle shake of his head. He paused and held
perfectly still as she leaned forward, very gently brushing her lips against
his in a soft kiss. It wasn't the most graceful of gestures, given the fact
that she was hanging upside-down from the ceiling, but that didn't have any
impact on the way the kiss left a rather delightfully electric sensation on his
lips when she finally edged back.

"I'm not much of a morning person either, you know," she breathed softly.
"But being woken up by you.... like this.... it just keeps getting better and
better each time. It makes me wonder what the next morning will be like. Or
does that thought bother you?" she added softly as she tried to read the look
on his face.

D said nothing as he took a step back, giving her plenty of space to lower
herself down to the ground. She seemed to do so with deliberate slowness, her
arm and leg muscles flexing and tightening as they bore the full brunt of her
weight. He couldn't help but be impressed by the display of both strength and
grace, her body moving with almost cat-like fluidity as she finally let go of
the root structure.

"You mind waiting here for a few moments?" she inquired as she bent down
to grab her boots.

"I left a roll of toilet paper on a branch for you," he said impassively,
causing her head to snap up to give him a surprised look.

"Thank you," she said after a slight hesitation, the faintest hint of a
blush rising up to tint her pale cheeks. She quickly slipped the boots on and
headed for the ramp, pausing to cast a final glance over her shoulder at him
before pushing the matting aside.

((What are we going to do with you?)) the voice sighed as the covered door
was closed behind her, returning the chamber to semi-darkness. The amount of
light seeping in around the archway had increased as the bulk of the sun rose
above the treeline, allowing several pinhole-sized beams of light to lance out
across the empty air like so many low-intensity lasers.

((So have you given any thought to what you're going to do once this mess
is over?)) it prodded him quietly, causing D to suddenly hold very still. ((I
mean, this assumes you're not going to be a coward and slit your throat open
and let the worms feed on your corpse. What good will that do, hmm? Even with
as much as you say you dislike yourself, I think you've come to like what life
has to offer you as of late.))

"I am rapidly losing my tolerance for you," D said very calmly.

A dark sigh rose up from his left hand. ((Look, I really don't mean to be
a pimple on your ass, D, but my parasitic life is tied to yours, remember? If
you die, so do I, and unlike you I happen to like existing. That kind of gives
me a little incentive to try to keep you alive as well, don't you think? Or am
I supposed to just stand aside and let you obliterate us both? It doesn't have
to end with your death, you know.))

"We've discussed this before," he reminded it in a warning tone.

((Yeah, well, that was before this new opportunity arose,)) it countered.
((Now we have Galen to deal with, and that's...? D....)) it suddenly said in a
very apprehensive tone as it heard a dagger being withdrawn.

D tried to keep his breathing under control as he pressed the tip of the
dagger against his left palm, right between and just above the wrinkles where
its eyes were. "Do not...." he said very slowly and distinctly, "Mention her
to me again. I didn't ask for your company to start with, and I have never
asked for your opinion. I tolerate you because you are a useful and powerful
ally, not because I like you. My patience with you is at an end now. If you
will not stay silent, I will silence you myself. Do you understand?"

((Yes, D,)) it replied in a voice as cold as arctic tundra. ((I understand
you perfectly. You know where to find me if you need something.))

He said nothing as the voice fell silent, the face embedded in his hand
melting back into his skin to become little more than a few unusually deep
wrinkles in his palm. The dark anger seemed to leave him a moment later, the
dagger almost slipping from his fingers as he wondered just what the hell was
wrong with him. Certainly it had pissed him off before, but never had it been
able to get under his skin that deeply.... and why? Not just why was it
bothering him so, but why was he so bothered by even thinking of her?

His hand seemed to move without conscious effort, returning the dagger to
the empty sheath on his belt just as the matting was opened up. He sighed and
turned away from the fierce glare of the light, seeming to hit him harder than
usual given the fact that he had just moments ago been in moderate darkness.

"Sorry," Galen apologized quietly as she left the door-like barrier open
to add some light to the underground chamber. "I put the toilet paper back in
the saddle-bag. Thank you," she added with distinct gratitude as she headed
over to the barrel of rain-water to rinse her hands.

D simply nodded his head, knowing that a life spent in constant travel
didn't mean he had to give up all the creature comforts one found in any
civilization. The ones that wouldn't fit in a saddle-bag or required a power
source were always the first to go, but somehow the most basic of the basics
found a way to persist in one form or another.

He paused as she moved back over to him, a small frown crossing her face
as she lightly brushed her hand across the front of his dark tunic. A small
cloud of dust wafted up from the contact, the tiny particles sparkling in the
beams of sunlight like microscopic fireflies drifting around on a lazy current
of air. "You need a bath," she pointed out in a slightly disgruntled tone.

"It can wait," he said calmly, figuring that he could find a river or a
small lake somewhere along the way. Either that or wait for the next time it
rained, one of the two.

She shot him a remotely unamused look as she wrinkled her nose. "Your
horse might not care, but I'd strongly prefer if you dealt with that before you
start to reek. There's a fork down the road ahead, probably take us most of
the day to reach it. My mother's grave is on the north-west fork, but if you
take the south fork for about an hour you'll find a small human frontier town.
We should be able to find a clean bed, a warm shower, and a decent meal for a
fair price. We'll lose a couple of hours, of course, but at our current pace
we'll still reach her well before sundown the day after tomorrow."

He looked at her in silence for a moment, wondering if there was something
more than the face-value of her words to consider. He had no great love for
social interaction, with humans or anyone else, but at least he knew he could
deal with humans well enough despite their chaotic tendencies. A frontier town
meant that they would be even more reserved and coarse than usual, but it was
a perfectly understandable attitude to develop when one lived on the very edge
of civilization in a rather unfriendly wilderness area.

"Besides," she added coyly, giving him a look that made his blood chill
for a brief instant, "After the dinner we had last night? I wouldn't want to
even look at more trail rations, let alone have to eat them."

"Very well," D said calmly, knowing that she had spoken that one with pure
and absolute sincerity. The dried rations weren't exactly his favorite either,
but after living off of them for so long it would have been a lie to say that
he hadn't adapted to the coarse textures and bland flavors. And it had been
quite some time since he had allowed himself to indulge in some wine, providing
for a very flavorful contrast....

"Good," she said with a smile as she reached out, intending to give his
shoulder a gentle squeeze. She paused as she encountered the very well-crafted
plates of his armor, remembering being surprised by its discovery last night as
she buried him in the ground.

D said nothing as she gently rapped a knuckle against his shoulder, the
metallic sound gently echoing back at her. "Forgot about that," she said in a
quiet tone. "I don't know who designed this armor for you, D, but they did a
superb job. You almost can't tell that you're wearing it. Hold still," she
added as she did a very quick poke-test to determine what the shell-like armor
protected and what it left vulnerable. "Just the upper-body?" she inquired.

"Most vampires and beasts go for the chest or throat," D explained calmly
as he turned around, heading over to the corner of the room to retrieve the
rest of his clothing. "The design offers the most protection against the most
likely targets while allowing me to still remain unencumbered and able to move
freely. Deliberately non-fatal attacks from weapons like yours are rare," he
added as he slipped on his cape and sword scabbard.

He paused and cast a glance over his shoulder as he heard the soft whisper
of her rapier being drawn, turning around to face her as she whipped the sharp
tip through the air to create a soft buzzing sound. His eyes narrowed to mere
slits as she approached him, her platinum-silver weapon carefully held at the
ready. He remained silent as he put his hat on, adjusting the brim slightly
before lowering his hand and remaining perfectly still.

The super-sharp point of her rapier made just the slightest of noises as
it was casually tapped against the center of his chest, the faint echo of metal
meeting armor registering on both their ears. She carefully struck at him with
a feather-light touch, the rapier making only the most superficial of contacts
with various points on his upper body where major nerves were known to cluster.
In each case the point was blocked by his armor, creating very soft pings and
rings of resonating metal.

A look of amusement crossed her face as she stared up at him, her rapier
suddenly flashing down at a steep angle. A delicate blue-green eyebrow was
raised as the slender shaft of her weapon was brought up into his groin, moving
hard enough to have truly gotten his attention if it hadn't been blocked by a
smaller piece of armor plating protecting a distinctly sensitive spot.

Their eyes met in silence, and for one instant it seemed that he might
have thought about smiling at her. "Trust me," he said quietly, the dryness in
his tone indicating that he didn't need to say anything else about that one.

"Curiosity, hunter, nothing more," Galen said demurely as she slid the
weapon upwards, sliding the metal shaft along the groove of his thigh before
swinging it away from his body. The weapon was returned to the scabbard on her
belt and the edge of the cape tucked over it, her liquid-like eyes looking over
the dusty lines of his dark clothing.

She glanced up at his eyes and smiled at him, not entirely sure why she
was doing so. "Go get the horse ready," she said softly. "I need to finish
cleaning up in here since I'm not sure when I'll be back."

He nodded in understanding and turned to leave, pausing as he felt her
hand gently touch his wrist. He turned to look at her just as she gave a firm
tug, causing him to edge forward just enough to bring his lips into very soft
contact with hers. The sheer surprise of the gesture produced yet another odd
disconnect in his mind, making it impossible to tell just how much time had
passed before the gentle kiss was broken and she edged away.

"Thank you for opening up to me last night," she whispered softly as she
gazed into the depths of his eyes, the exotic blue-green structure of her eyes
seeming to be even more liquid than usual. "I think I'm finally beginning to
understand you, D."

It was one of those moments in which he didn't know what to say. All he
could do was nod slightly before turning away, unable to reply to something he
didn't even understand for himself. He left the underground burrow without
looking back, not sure how he would react to seeing the emotion in her eyes,
any emotion. Part of him realized that she was starting to weave a web
around him, seeking to trap him in a mesh of feelings as a spider would snare
a passing insect. He truly didn't know if it was conscious or not, if it was
intentional or not, or even what her true intentions were. All he knew was
that if the web was finished, things would get very uncomfortable for him.

A stray memory rose up from his mind as he untethered the horse and made
sure everything was still secured. May you live in interesting times, someone
had once said to him, only later explaining how some of the ancient humans had
viewed that phrase as a curse. Indeed, D thought to himself as he climbed into
the saddle and gently urged the mount over towards the burrow entrance. This
has definitely been.... interesting.

A second thought rose up from the dark recesses of his memory, the simple
realization registering so forcefully on his mind that it almost caused him to
slip out of the saddle. He recovered just as Galen stepped out of the burrow,
carefully sealing the matting behind her and fluffing the edges out to help it
blend in to the landscape. He automatically reached down to help her into the
saddle in front of him, his eyes seeing the gentle smile on her face but his
mind seeing something else entirely.

Doris had tried to lure him into the web of her emotions, fragile strands
hesitantly reaching out to him as he lay on the rug before the fireplace. He
had yielded to her, but only after the call of her moon-blood proved to be too
strong to resist, and so he had spent the night trapped in that web....

Leila had likewise ensnared him in as neat a web as any woman could weave,
luring him into her embrace as a siren would a lonely sailor. She had used her
body as bait, but it was her heart and soul that finally reached out to claim
him as hers....

And he had loved both women, not realizing the webs for what they were
until long after the threads has been broken by the passage of time. Only the
residue remained, still wrapped around the part of his heart where they had
anchored themselves to him even as they loved him in their own unique ways.
And now with Galen trying to reach out to him as well, with the softness of her
voice and the even softer feeling of her lips against his....

"D?" she asked quietly, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked up to
find her twisted around in the saddle, giving him a slightly puzzled look as
she sought to make sense of the brooding look on his face. "You okay?"

He nodded to her before quietly adding, "I just have a lot on my mind."

She tilted her head at a slight angle, regarding him carefully as she idly
toyed with the reins. "Tell me something.... do you always have something on
your mind like that, or is this just one of those weeks for you?"

The silence hung in the air for a few moments before he opened his mouth
to speak. The voice that was heard, however, was clearly not his own. ((Trust
me,)) it spoke up in a calm, empty tone. ((This has been one of those months.
Just leave him alone, he'll figure it out sooner or later.))

Galen shrugged to herself, missing the dark look D cast at his left hand.
"I think I know what you mean. Somewhat," she added lightly, looking up to
give D a sultry look. "I have monthly issues as well, but that refers to the
timing and not the duration. Still, I know the feeling," she said with a soft
smile and a wink that he almost missed.

"Let's go," D replied in an unamused tone, drawing a laugh and a pat on
the leg from his female companion. A gentle flick on the reins set them into
motion once again, first heading south to reach the road and then turning into
the burning disc of the sun for another long day's ride towards the east.

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He was both surprised and grateful when she didn't make any attempt at
trying to talk to him during the journey. As before, they rested at several
places along the way to water and feed the horse. The forest was starting to
thicken up as they went, the overhead foliage starting to provide enough cover
and shade to blunt the worst of the weakening effects of the overhead sun.

The silence gave him more than enough time to think, to try to sort out
just what in the hell he was going to do with her when they reached the end of
their travels. He couldn't see himself killing her, driving his sword into her
chest to sunder her heart as he had all too easily done to Count Niles. Nor
could he see himself simply walking away and leaving her to her own devices,
not as long as she held vampiric blood in her veins.

Not while she still had the power of creation in her body.

The legends were both right and wrong about how vampires could be created.
The true vampires, the so-called nobles, had evolved over the ages into a new
species of sentient being. They were every bit as sexually functional as their
ancient human ancestors, bearing children of their own kind. They could even
breed with humans, the result being dunpeals like himself and Galen.

However, they could also be created with the infection of the dark blood.
A simple bite alone from a full-blooded vampire is enough to make the victim
vulnerable to their willpower and domination, but that wouldn't cause them to
undergo the irreversible transformation into blood-thirsty creatures of the
night. What was needed was often termed a blood marriage, the vampire draining
his bride-to-be almost to the point of death before offering her a taste of his
own blood to seal the bond between them. The infection, concentrated in his
blood, could then easily spread throughout the weakened victim's veins and thus
forever taint her body with its curse. Those who were born tended to look down
on those who were created, the former calling themselves nobles while giving
the latter the epithet of commoner. Both, however, were equal in power and in
the utter destruction of their humanities.

Dunpeals, however, were different. The curse in their blood wasn't nearly
as strong or as potent, unable to spread the infection through a casual bite.
A dunpeal could perform a blood marriage, however, but the result would not be
a living noble vampire. Their tainted blood instead trapped the victim in a
state between life and death, twisting their bodies into vampire-like forms
that were called zombies by the humans. The shock of being changed seemed to
always unhinge the human mind, corrupting it with madness and destroying the
spark of intellect that it once had.

D had never tried to create a zombie, but he had destroyed more than his
fair share of the foul creatures. It seemed that noble vampires could create
them as well, but the process required some sort of modification that he had
yet to figure out to this day. He suspected it wasn't a widely-shared secret,
as he only encountered zombies in certain areas and always all grouped under
the control of the same master or mistress.

He almost asked her if she had tried to 'gift' another with her dark kiss,
easily able to picture her sipping the blood from a young man's throat but not
able to imagine her opening up a vein to feed him in return. Or, for that
matter, trying to order a bunch of zombies around to do her bidding. Perhaps
it was just him, but she really didn't seem like that kind of dunpeal. But by
the same token.... could he really afford to overlook that risk?

He soon found himself staring at her, studying the back and sides of her
head as they rode in silence. The points on her ears were a little sharper
than most, perhaps due to her Barbaroi blood. Her hair was likewise a hallmark
of her inhuman blood, creating a soft cascade that he was starting to find more
than a little mesmerizing. Perhaps it had been the soft feel of it beneath his
fingertips when he had woken her up, or maybe the gentle fragrance he seemed to
remember tickling his nose yesterday....

He blinked and almost jerked back as he refocused, suddenly realizing that
he had started to lean over to her. The fading impulse registered on his mind
before it vanished like a ghost, wanting to inhale her scent and savor it for
some reason. A quick search of his memories revealed other momentary impulses
that he had discarded without realizing them, the urge to reach up and touch
her hand, to feel her fingers intertwine among his in a gentle grip, to lean
forward to nuzzle her hair, the nape of her neck, the exposed portions of her
soft and pale skin, to lean her back and taste her lips once again....

The gentle touch of her finger on the tip of his nose almost shocked his
bladder into activity, causing him to lurch back in surprise as if he had been
struck with a lightning bolt. Her eyes widened at the sudden reaction, edging
forward in the saddle as much as she could to put a bit of space between them.

"D?" she asked carefully once she saw he had gotten himself back under
control. "I didn't mean to startle you like that, but.... you alright?"

He looked at her with a slightly harried expression before he slowly let
his breath out, his face darkening at being caught so completely off-guard. He
remained silent for a number of moments before finally drawing a soft breath to
reply to her. "I was.... just thinking, that's all," he said quietly.

"About what?" she prodded carefully. "I don't want you to take this the
wrong way, but the look on your face was starting to give me goose-bumps. You
sure you're alright, D?" she said, casting a brief glance at the road ahead to
make sure she wouldn't steer the mount into a tree or anything. Not that she
feared it was stupid enough to actually bump into one even if told to, but that
she might encounter a low-hanging branch to put a dent in both her head and her
somber mood.

"What do you know about zombies?" he asked, taking them both by surprise.
His expression didn't change to give her any indication that it was something
he had said purely on impulse, something that he very rarely allowed himself to
do. Her expression seemed to flicker with brief puzzlement before becoming
something else, a sort of veil of sadness crossing her face only to vanish as
she turned back around in the saddle.

"I assume you're not asking me if I know of any tips on how to hunt them
down," she said quietly without looking over her shoulder. She sighed heavily
and flicked the reins, encouraging the mount to increase his pace to a steady
trot. "I won't lie, D, I've made two of my own. Bear in mind this was back
when I was a teenager, wondering about the extent of my powers once I came to
the conclusion that being one-quarter Barbarois changed the equation more than
either of my parents realized."

"What became of them?" D asked in a quiet tone. His voice wasn't flat or
harsh, but she could clearly make out the undercurrent of disapproval as he
spoke to her.

"I destroyed them, of course," she replied softly. "The first was a young
fop of a man who claimed he loved me and wanted to be as immortal as I was so
that we could be together for eternity. I was a young girl, still a maiden and
somewhat naive about men, so I eventually gave him both my body and my blood.
He attacked me in a rage as he was transformed and would not relent, so I had
no choice but to defend myself against him."

"And the other?" he prompted, his voice still quiet and empty of warmth.

"What I thought was an act of mercy," she said in an even quieter tone.
"A woman I found on a trail who was a victim of a bandit attack, robbed of her
purse, her virtue, and nearly her life. I thought that I could save her if she
had the strength of my kind. I tried to explain it to her as best I could but
she begged me to do it before she could bleed out. I could tell that she would
indeed die soon, and so I made a cut on my wrist and let her feed."

He remained silent as her voice trailed off, clearly filled with regret
and sorrow over what she had done. He could imagine what had happened next,
the dying woman quickly being transformed into little more than a warmed corpse
as her mind was reduced to a mere cinder of what it once was. Whatever it was
that made humans so.... human would have been destroyed in a moment, leaving
behind only a savage beast that could only act on instinct unless its will was
dominated by its creator. Thus already near death and without control, it most
likely would have lashed out as the other one had, leaving Galen with no other
choice but to permanently render it lifeless.

"I never dared share my blood again," she finally whispered, seeming to
speak more to herself than to D. "At least, not to anyone who wasn't one of
our kind. A vampire kissed me once, seeking to woo and seduce me in order to
gain an influence on my father. It was.... dangerously erotic. The intensity
frightened me and I resisted him. My father was not pleased to learn what had
taken place and forbade me from allowing such a thing to happen again. When I
later asked him about it, once his temper had cooled, he said that such a thing
was more intimate than sex and should be treated as such, revered with the same
passion and level of caring that needed to be present for physical intimacy to
be worthwhile enough to indulge in. I didn't realize what he meant until I met
Mikhail and gained a true appreciation for such things."

She sighed softly at the memories of her past lover, casting the briefest
of glances over her shoulder at the dunpeal riding behind her. "I bit him by
accident once, during the height of an unusually fiery passion. His blood only
fueled the fires inside me, and I might have taken far more blood had he not
whispered my name. The pain in his voice brought me out of the bloodlust, and
it was quite some time before I allowed myself to relax in his arms again. He
told me that it had hurt but that he hadn't minded tending to my needs, only
asking that I warn him ahead of time if I wanted to sample his blood again. It
must have been a full year before I finally yielded to his gentle words and far
gentler touch, to taste his blood once again even as it burned with his desire
for me and the love he felt in his human heart."

She sighed again and twisted around in the saddle to look at him, her eyes
seeming to be little more than blue-green puddles of liquid sorrow. "D, was I
really wrong in giving him the pleasure of my dark kiss?" she asked in a soft
tone, the intensity of her emotions making her voice sound as fragile as newly-
cast glass. "To share with him part of what I really am? If such a thing can
be shared among our kind, supposedly within the same bonds as sex and love, why
can't it be shared with a human in the same way?"

He looked at her in silence for a moment, wondering why she was asking him
such a thing. There was something in her eyes that he found deeply disturbing,
rattling him just enough to give in to his dark curiosity. "Why does it matter
what I think?" he inquired calmly. "It is not for me to judge anyone else."

The saddle almost jerked out from underneath him as she brought the mount
to a halt, the sudden change in inertia rocking them both. Her eyes seemed to
bore straight through him, suddenly filled with indignation. "Do you ever stop
to listen to yourself?" she demanded. "You have acted as a judge of others for
your entire life, damning vampires and dunpeals alike who do not measure up to
your personal standards of justice. You who have sworn to destroy evil now say
is not for you to stand in judgment of what defines that evil? If not, then
what courts have you taken the others to, what laws have you accused them of
violating? If you have not acted as judge, jury, and executioner for all these
centuries, bringing our kind to extinction for their crimes, then who has?"

She blinked and said nothing as he suddenly dismounted, the dirt crunching
beneath his boots as he walked over to the nearest tree. A frown crossed her
face as he reached out to touch the trunk, seeming to hold onto it for a few
seconds before edging closer to rest his shoulder against it. Sighing quietly,
she climbed down from the saddle as well and went over to him, pausing a few
paces away as she suddenly realized that he was shaking lightly.

"D?" she called out softly, suddenly unsure of the situation.

"I never intended to be a judge," he said very quietly, his voice audibly
shaking with barely-contained emotion. "All I wanted to do was right a great
wrong, put a terrible injustice to rest for good. Nothing more."

He closed his eyes as he felt her touch, first on the armored plates of
his shoulders, then on the unarmored flesh of his wrist. He felt her other
hand touch his face, turning him around to look at her. His eyes opened after
a moment, finding a look of slight confusion in her oddly colored eyes.

"So why did you do it, then?" she asked, her soft tone free from any hint
of reproachment or condemnation. "Vengeance I can understand, wanting to see
justice brought to those who killed your mother. But what about the others?
What of those who had nothing to do with the attacks on the palace or innocent
humans? Why did they have to die?"

It took him a moment to find the proper reply to her. "Someone once said
to me that all that evil needs to flourish is for good men to do nothing," he
replied quietly. "I felt that I needed to do something, that with all I had
seen and heard about the injustice, the wrongness of what vampires had done, I
felt I was being given a duty to see this evil ended. I felt I had no choice
but to see this ended."

"Ahh, I see," she said with a slow nod. "So the judgment had already been
made then, and you were not the judge but merely the executioner? D...." she
whispered as he suddenly turned from her. She pulled him back and slid her
arms around him, drawing him into a soft and gentle embrace. "I understand,"
she said simply.

It was one of those rare moments when D was almost brought to tears, the
moisture starting to leak from his tear-ducts but not enough to make it fall.
His sense of the passage of time disconnected itself again as he let her hold
him, taking comfort from the warmth of her body pressed against his. There was
something about the feeling that started to make him wish, not just wish but
actively want for time to remain frozen, for the sands to stay stuck in mid-
motion in the hourglass while he simply held her.

His senses started to reawaken one by one, slowly restoring a feeling of
the passage of time once again. Her breathing was slow and steady as she held
him, her chest gently expanding and contracting as it pressed again him. Her
skin-scent and the smell of her hair teased his nose, a gentle and airy, nearly
flowery smell that was almost physically soothed him. And her pulse....

It was the beginnings of desire that finally brought him out of the sort
of emotional haven he had slipped into. Had it been a simple physical desire
for her, he could have dealt with it as easily as he had dealt with such things
in the past. But it had been a desire for blood, a more than simple curiosity
about what her blood tasted like and a musing how she might react to having her
own life-force sampled like a sip of the most fragrant of wines.

He gently pushed himself away from her, having learned from his mistake
long ago in rejecting Doris' initial offering of herself. He didn't want to
take Galen's blood, not now.... but neither could he bring himself to slam the
door shut on that, to forever cut him off from that possibility. He had come
to appreciate the willing gift of blood from others, first Doris, then Leila,
then the other women he had yielded to over the years, and part of him didn't,
simply couldn't bring himself to deny Galen the same.... pleasure, the same
satisfaction of giving him life and comfort and even satisfaction of his own.
And if anyone could truly understand that one, it would be another dunpeal....

"D?" she said quietly, tilting his chin down just slightly so they could
look into one another's eyes. "I really do understand how you feel. It's just
that nobody else would have understood if you didn't tell them yourself. Just
think of it as one more reason not to hide behind your armor, to open yourself
up to others just a little bit more."

He simply nodded to her, realizing that there was a few grains of wisdom
to be found in her words. He almost sighed as she leaned closer, once again
feeling her lips brush very softly against his. It wasn't the delightfully
electric feeling that was starting to bother him, far from it. It was just the
temporal disconnect the sensation produced that was really starting to make him
wonder just what the hell was going on. He found himself actually wanting to
feel how much time elapsed between when her lips touched his and when they
finally broke away. How else was he supposed to....

Enjoy it? he suddenly thought, sparking a considerable shift of his mental
focus to the realization. Yes, he was enjoying the feeling of being kissed,
and he honestly couldn't explain why. It certainly was different than all of
the others, the hesitant but determined kisses Doris had tried to give him so
long ago, the kisses Leila had given him that were as fiery as they were deep
in the throes of passion, the sometimes naive kisses of innocent young maidens
he had rescued, simply wanting to express their gratitude in a time-honored
traditional fashion....

He blinked hard as his mind was snapped back in to crystal-clear and very
sharp focus. It took him a moment to process the backlog of sensory input,
realizing that what had brought him out of his thoughts had been the sensation
of her teeth very gently nipping his lower lip. Not her sharpened fangs, of
course, but delivered in such a way as to be distinctly attention-getting.

"D?" she said in a faintly amused tone once she was sure his dark eyes had
fully refocused. "You really need to do something about those dark thoughts of
yours. I've never seen anyone so constantly driven to distraction as you seem
to be. Not a good trait in a hunter, if you know what I mean," she observed.

"Then stay out of my mind," he said quietly before he even realized the
retort had formed on his tongue. He mentally winced a moment later, knowing
that he had just made two serious mistakes. The first was letting her know
that his grip on his thoughts was slipping, leaving him dangerously vulnerable
when distracted. The other mistake, the greater of the two in his opinion, was
letting her know she was the one shaking the screws loose, at it were.

The comment clearly took her by surprise, leaving her speechless for a few
moments. "Well," she finally said after a number of slow and steady breaths,
"I suppose it's only fair given what you're doing to me," she said, her eyes
drifting down to study one of the small pouches tightly secured to the chest
pocket on his dark tunic.

"And that is...?" he prompted in a guarded tone.

"What's it to you, hunter?" she countered, her tone soft and gentle with
an undercurrent of a challenge. Her eyes rose up to meet his, the corner of
her mouth quirking up into a faint smirk. "Or do you care a little more about
what others think of you than you would have them believe?"

The urge to sigh in frustration washed over her as she was answered with
stony silence once again, realizing that he wouldn't be giving her a reply to
that question any time soon. She knew that his silence this time wasn't due to
his armor of isolation, but was instead a part of what he had become over the
centuries. He simply was not talkative by nature and that no amount of gentle
coaxing could be able to radically alter that. At least, not anytime soon.

"Alright, D," she spoke up after taking a deep breath, looking him square
in the eyes. She almost choked on a random air molecule as a sudden wave of
anxiety swept over her, making her wonder just what in the hell was wrong with
her. "Like I said last night, I'm starting to like you. You're unlike anyone
I've ever met.... human, dunpeal, vampire, mutant, anything. I'm glad to hear
I'm driving you to distraction, because that's exactly what you've done to me
since the moment I saw you step out of the front gates of my father's castle.
I have no idea what I'm going to do, either with you or with myself, and it's
making my head spin so much I'm surprised I haven't gotten nauseous enough to
throw up on your boots. Figuratively," she added with a soft growl as he edged
away half a step.

"So now what?" D asked calmly, his expression perfectly impassive.

She simply looked at him, not believing that he could be so unaffected by
her confession of feelings. "D, please tell me everything I just said means
something to you," she asked in a very soft tone.

He looked at her in silence before very slowly nodding his head, a look
of dark isolation and pain slowly seeping into his eyes. "It does," he replied
quietly, almost too softly for her to hear.

"Then tell me," she pleaded, her liquid-like eyes starting to fill with
tears. "D, please, I need to know if.... if you feel the same as I do, if you
care about me as I've found myself starting to care about you."

The look of pain on her face was like one of the many daggers that had
been rammed into his chest at various points in his life. This one seemed to
bite more deeply than the others, leeching him not of blood or life but of his
resolve, his strength, his projected armor that had kept him shielded from the
confusion and soul-searing chaos of human emotions.

"Galen...." he started to say before hesitating. He couldn't lie to her,
not just because honor forbade it but it simply wasn't in his nature to do so.
And yet, when the truth would hurt far more than a lie would, when it would be
almost a mercy to spare her the pain.... even then, he couldn't.

"I don't know," he finally said as calmly as possible. He had tried to
keep his tone empty of emotion, to project the feeling of impassiveness and
control, but there was simply too much pain to have kept it concealed. "Not
that I don't have.... feelings, but that I.... I simply don't know what they
are. I'm sorry."

"You've loved before," she pointed out in a soft whisper, visibly fighting
to keep her tears and emotions in check. "I'm not asking you to love me, D, I
just want to know if.... if you.... if we.... if we can...."

Her blue-green eyes closed as he stepped forward, a single tear sliding
down her face as his hand came up to very softly brush her cheek. A gentle
embrace followed, wrapping her up in a comforting hug just as she had done for
him.... how long ago? Minutes? An hour? She summarily dismissed the thoughts
of time from her mind as she melted into his arms, feeling a sense of emotional
peace surround her at the simple warmth of the gesture.

((Guys?)) a very cautious voice spoke up, causing them both to blink at the
unexpected interruption. ((I really hate to break this up, but we're about to
get some company. Up the road ahead.))

Both D and Galen immediately turned to look, the soft clomping sound of a
horse-drawn wagon reaching their ears at it approached. It seemed to be a
delivery cart of some sort, several large wooden barrels and crates neatly
stacked and tied down in the back. A very gruff-looking man was holding the
reins in the driver's seat, turning his head to look as he saw the pair of
figures holding one another on the trail. A fairly large shotgun was resting
on the seat next to him in easy reach, the polished double-barreled weapon
seeming to sparkle as it was struck by tiny rays of light breaking through the
forest canopy.

D looked down to find Galen giving him a slightly uncertain look, clearly
not sure what to do now. She kept her arms around him as the cart approached,
however, laying her head on his shoulder as it finally reached them.

The cart didn't even slow down as it passed by them, the driver casually
nodding his head to them in idle recognition as he rode by. D kept his gaze on
the driver the entire time, making sure that they wouldn't be attacked as more
than one shotgun-bearing wagoneer had done when they encountered a dunpeal on
the road. The driver apparently had no interest in doing so, however, and it
was only a matter of seconds before the wagon sounds faded from their ears.

"I take it that means we're getting close to the human town," she said in
a quiet voice, her head still resting on his shoulder. "You sure you don't
mind if we spend the night there? I really don't think they'll bother us."

"And if they do?" he asked quietly, fairly sure he knew what the answer
would be but feeling the need to hear her say it anyway.

"Then I guess we leave as quickly as we can," she replied, squeezing him
tightly. "I'm not about to start a riot just because I want a hot shower."
She lifted her head from his shoulder and added, "You need one too."

He glanced down at her, trying to determine her mood. She seemed to be
serious and somber for the most part, but there was just the faintest flicker
of something else in her eyes. Amusement, perhaps, teasing him just a little.
And after putting up with that thing in his hand for so long, he knew he could
deal with being teased.

"Let's go," he said simply. He paused when he started to turn away from
her, feeling the grip on his hand suddenly triple in intensity.

"D...." she said hesitantly, looking up at him with openly uncertain eyes.
"Do you.... do you want to try to make this work?"

He paused in slight confusion, wondering what exactly she was trying to
ask of him. "Make what work?" he inquired carefully.

Her lower lip trembled slightly as she hesitated for a moment. "Us," she
finally said, barely able to whisper the word.

The stabbing sensation was back in his chest again, seeming to burrow even
deeper than the first time. Again it took him a few moments to gather enough
courage to speak the painful truth, and again it almost burned his soul like a
brand to have to say it. "I don't know," he whispered back.

He almost blinked as she laughed very softly to herself, a smile briefly
crossing her face as she looked up at him. "I suppose I should have expected
that," she murmured softly, more to herself than to him. "Damn you, hunter,
what the hell am I supposed to do with you?"

((I've been asking that question for centuries,)) the thing muttered.

Galen's hand shot out just as D's did, her hand grasping his left wrist in
an iron grip before he could slam his palm against the tree trunk. She gave
him a warning look before turning his hand around, looking down at the suddenly
uneasy face in the center of his palm.

"Do me a favor, little one," she said slowly.

((Ma'am?)) it asked in an extremely wary tone.

"I remember what you said earlier. 'You're a cute dunpeal and all, but I
don't want to get involved in whatever it is the two of you seem intent on
getting yourselves into,'" she mimicked gently. "Please have the good grace to
keep your word and stay out of our business, or at least keep your commentary
to yourself. It is.... not appreciated."

((Yes, ma'am, I'll keep quiet,)) it promised in a subdued tone.

"Thank you," she replied with a slight nod of her head as she let D's hand
go. She cast another warning look at him before turning around, heading over
to where the mount had wandered off to. She hoisted herself into the saddle
without effort and picked up the reins, pausing to give D a slightly impatient
gesture. "Whenever you're ready," she called out to him.

((D?)) it spoke up very quietly to him, drawing a dark look. ((Do you have
any idea how much trouble we're probably going to be in soon?))

"No," he replied succinctly as he headed over to the mount.

((That makes two of us,)) it sighed softly, moments before it was mashed
flat against the saddlehorn.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another two hours of silent riding brought them to the fork in the road,
Galen pausing just long enough to glance over her shoulder at D before steering
the mount along the southern trail. It took another half-hour before the first
signs of human habitation could be seen, small farming houses and open fields
dotting the landscape at random intervals.

The majority of the trees sharply thinned out as they approached the town,
the forest here reduced to simple fields in order to provide raw materials for
building construction. They didn't see any evidence of advanced construction
such as metal structures or electrical distribution lines until they reached
the hub of the town itself, a rather loose collection of small buildings that
boasted both commercial and residential uses. Only a handful of people could
be seen moving about, but almost all of them stopped to very closely watch the
pair of dunpeals as the came to a halt next to a tavern-like inn.

They left the mount tied to one of the posts next to a water trough and
stepped inside, carefully assessing the environment as they went past the pair
of saloon-like swinging doors. It was fairly dark inside, with only a handful
of shielded lamps hanging from the ceiling and a slew of typically rowdy neon
signs to provide any illumination.

Whatever activity had been going on at the time had come to a perfectly
silent halt, a game of cards suspended in mid-motion as a good two dozen pairs
of eyes all turned to focus on the two figures standing just inside the open
doorway. Most were dressed in the rugged, dusty overalls of ranchers, complete
with wide-brimmed hats and fairly large belts. More than one weapon could be
seen in a holster hanging from the leather-and-metal belts, and more than one
hand was discreetly freed up to move fast if need be.

"Howdy, strangers," a man sitting by himself at a table said with a very
heavy drawl. Most of his face was hidden in darkness despite the lightbulb
hanging almost directly over him, his light gray hat casting a wide shadow
around his head.

"Evening," Galen replied calmly, making sure both her hands were in front
of her where everyone could see them. The edge of her cape seemed to slip back
a few inches as if stirred by a breeze, letting the hilt of her rapier reflect
some of the dim light in the room. "We're just passing through and wondering
if we could get a room for the night."

The man said nothing for a moment as he sipped on a rather huge tankard of
bright yellow beer. "Well, miss, you'll have to talk to Rosie over there," he
said with a casual gesture of his free hand across the room. "She's the keeper
of the keys, as it were. I must say, though, it's rather.... unusual to see
one of your kind in these here parts, let alone two of you together," he added
in a calm manner before taking another sip of his beer.

Galen cast a quick glance at D before shrugging in dismissal. "Like I
said, we're just passing through, nothing more." She looked up and frowned as
she heard a snort of contempt from another patron a few tables down.

"Yeah, that's what the last dunpeal said before we had to run his ass out
of town," a dark-haired man growled quietly. "Buncha blood-sucking...."

"Zeke?" the first man said in a weary tone. "Now I know your momma done
taught you better manners than that. Just sit down and drink your beer, we'll
handle this one. You'll have to excuse him, miss," he added to Galen. "We've
had a few bad experiences with your kind a few years back, and some of us are
still a touch bitter about it."

Galen nodded quietly, the edges of her lip curling down in mild disgust.
"I can understand that one," she allowed, absently reaching back to brush her
fingertips along D's wrist.

"Rosie, you've got a room or two still open, right?" the man called out
towards the back of the tavern.

"Well, I...." a woman who appeared to be in her fifties started to say.

"Now hold on," Zeke said with a scowl. "Red, you can't be serious about
letting them stay here! You know what happened the last time!"

A quiet sigh rose up from the first man's chest as he took a very deep
drink from his tankard before setting it down with a heavy thump. "Zeke, you
really need to learn a few manners. Not all the dunpeals in this world are
hell-bent on death and destruction. How about giving 'em a chance to at least
introduce themselves before flyin' off the handle, eh? My name's Red," he said
to the dunpeals, reaching up to tip his hat just slightly. "If you don't mind
my saying so, miss, you've got some right pretty looks on you. Don't suppose
you'd mind telling me your name?"

"Galen," she replied with a slight bow of her head at the compliment.

"Huh," Red said as he scratched his chin. "Now I know I done heard that
name tossed around before. Daughter of some nearby vampire lord, right?"

"That's her, alright," a woman's voice spoke up from somewhere in the dim
depths of the tavern. "I ain't never heard of nobody else having hair like
that, she has to be Count Niles' daughter."

Red nodded to himself before picking up his beer again. "That's right,"
he muttered before taking another deep sip. "Now I don't know much about the
man, but I can't say I've heard anything about him attacking humans or being a
pain in the neck as it were. Whoops, sorry," he added as he realized what he
had just said. "Figure of speech, miss, didn't mean to offend nobody."

"No offense taken," Galen replied with amusement. "And my father isn't
the kind of noble to bother anyone who isn't bothering him. Not all of us are
mindless blood-sucking leeches," she added lightly, casting a look at Zeke.

Red laughed softly to himself before taking another sip of beer. "That's
right comforting to hear, Miss Galen. So what about you, stranger?" he said to
D. "Don't suppose you'd care to introduce yourself as well?"

D cast a glance at Galen as she took his hand in hers and squeezed gently.
"D," he said simply to the room in general.

"WHAT?" Zeke blurted out loudly, standing up so quickly that his chair
tumbled onto the floor. "The D, the legendary vampire hunter?!"

"Now hold your horses, Zeke," Red said patiently, seemingly unfazed by the
announcement. "That's a fairly famous name and all, and one you're not likely
to see around these here parts. Granted he's a dunpeal, but everyone knows D
is a dunpeal. No disrespect, stranger, but you'll have to prove that one to me
just so we know for sure you are who you claim you are," he said very calmly
before taking a sip of beer.

"Red, are you crazy?" another voice called out from somewhere in the back
of the tavern.

"Nope," Red replied as he set his tankard of beer down. "Just cautious,
that's all. Now I know how his identity can be proven, too. You folks may
want to have a seat," he added, making a gesture to an empty table across from
him. "This one should take a fair bit to explain, so bear with me. Rosie, you
want to be kind enough to get them something to drink? Put it on my tab."

"Thank you," Galen said, still holding D's hand as she made her way over
to the indicated table. She looked up as Rosie carefully approached, holding
a small serving tray as if it were a wooden shield of sort. "Do you have any
wines, by chance?" she inquired carefully as she held out a coin.

"I.... think so," Rosie replied hesitantly, looking at the offered coin
before nervously accepting it. "A-And you?" she asked, casting a glance at D.

"The same," he said quietly, the brim of his hat keeping virtually his
entire face hidden in shadow. The scabbard of his sword rasped quietly as it
was removed and leaned against the table, allowing him to sit down in the old
wooden chair.

Red waited until the bar-mistress headed back towards the kitchen before
starting to speak again. "It must've been a good, oh, thirty years ago when I
was still living in Riverwake out west," he mused, his voice staying calm and
quiet but still loud enough for the rest of the room to hear. "Small town like
this, mostly ranchers herding cattle for a living. One day this dunpeal fellow
comes through town, middle of the day in full sunshine. Talkative gent, but we
could tell he was a little touched in the head by the way he spoke. Not really
a simpleton, but he wasn't exactly a right thinker, either.

"So anyway, the day goes by and this gent moves on about his business. As
soon as the sun goes over the horizon, however, all flaming hell breaks loose.
Zombies start swarming the place, must've been a good seven or eight dozen of
the bastards. The screams started about six seconds after the first one was
spotted and they didn't stop.

"My boys and I were out in one of the cattle pens when we heard the first
screams, so we start riding like the devil himself was on our tail to see what
was going on. Almost made it to the town when we met up with the zombies, and
damned if things didn't get ugly right quick."

Red paused to take a deep sip of his beer, the rest of the tavern seeming
to remain perfectly still and listening to his story in absolute silence. "We
had our guns with us, of course, but the ammo didn't last too long and really
didn't slow the bastards down too much. Miss, I'm sorry if my rough manner of
speaking offends you," he suddenly said to Galen.

"It's quite alright," she replied softly. "Please, go on."

"Thank you kindly, miss," Red said as he paused to take another sip of his
beer. He was about to speak but held his tongue as Rosie returned with two
large mugs of dark purple wine.

"Here you go, miss," Rosie said in a slightly uneasy tone as she set the
pair of mugs down in front of D and Galen. "We don't have much in the way of
wine as few of these rustlers drink it, but we still have a cask we bought a
few years back."

"Thank you," Galen replied with a gentle smile as she picked up her mug.
She sipped at it carefully, blinking hard at the smoothness of the taste. "Not
to complain in the least, but this tastes like it's been around for far longer
than a few years. You should try some yourself one of these days," she added.

"I'll.... I'll think about it," Rosie stammered.

"So anyway," Red drawled quietly once Rosie had returned to the other side
of the tavern, "We're busy blundering around like newly-castrated cattle trying
to figure out how in tarnation we're going to deal with these zombies, when all
of a sudden this dark figure on a dark horse just blows past us like he was the
wind himself. Didn't hear him coming, didn't see him coming, nothing, just
bam, he's there.

"Now I'll be honest, I didn't see the man's face, moved too quickly for
that, but I caught a glimpse of his skin and could tell he wasn't just some
pale ol' white boy from the back forty. The rest of my boys picked up on this
too, and we're all thinking he's just a second dunpeal come to join the first
to finish us off."

The room remained deathly silent as he paused to take a sip of beer before
continuing. "That thought got changed right quick soon as this fellow meets up
with the zombies. His horse didn't even slow down as he whipped out one of the
biggest swords I ever seen in all my life and just starts whaling away at them
zombies like he was the hand of God himself.

"Now I was a younger man back then, but I hadn't just fallen off the hay
wagon the week before. I done seen my share of one-sided fights before, but I
ain't never seen one man kick so much ass all by hisself in so short a time
like that. There must've been a good twenty zombies or so, minus the two we
managed to plug before we ran out of ammo, and I swear that he done cut 'em all
down in about thirty seconds. Wham, bam, thank'ee zombie, just like that.

"Now the rest of us are just standing there ready to piss ourselves, not
believing what we're seein' maybe twenty feet in front of us. And before the
last chunk of zombie parts can hit the dirt, he's off galloping towards the
town again like a bolt of black lightning. So we stop to make sure that the
zombies ain't gonna sit back up again before we start scramblin' after him."

Another sip of beer provided an agonizing pause of anticipation before he
began to speak again. "Well, there are several paths into town, and he must've
taken one of the low roads because we didn't see him until we reached a small
hill overlooking the center of the town. So we're looking into the town and
all we can see is a herd of zombies being mowed down by this stranger. He had
gotten off his horse for some reason and was still wingin' that sword around,
dropping zombies like they was just ugly clumps of wheat during harvest time.

"Then all of a sudden we hear a scream. Real high-pitched, coming from a
little girl over by the barn. Cute little thing, couldn't have been more than
five or six years old. Anyway, she was backed up against the barn with this
zombie looming over her, like he was going to eat her or something. Now the
stranger was on the opposite side of the road with a good four or five zombies
in his way, and we all knew that even if he ain't had nothing but open road in
front of him to run, there was no way that he'd be able to get over there to
save that little girl from that zombie."

Red paused to take an unusually deep swig from his tankard before setting
it down on the table. "And then the damnedest thing I ever seen in my life
happened. This stranger looks up to see where the scream is coming from, and
all of a sudden he starts moving faster than I can follow. I mean blurred like
a ghost, he moved that quickly. That sword sounded like a thunderclap as it
cut through both the air and the two zombies in front of him. Then he reached
down to his belt, drew a knife, flipped it to catch it by the point, and then
chunked that thing across the entire distance between him and that little girl.
Must've been a good sixty yards, but damned if it didn't make the distance.

"Damn thing looked like a saw-blade as it spun through the air, and it
nailed that zombie right in the back of the neck. Just whip-whip-whip-thunk,
the entire thing buried up to the hilt. The tip blew clean through its throat
and stuck in the barn, and that was it for the zombie. Bastard was just nailed
to the side of the barn like the ugliest scarecrow you ever seen. That little
girl damn near broke our eardrums with a scream of fright, but she was able to
run away and over to the arms of her mother. They both hauled out of there,
safe and sound, and that stranger just went back to kicking zombie ass and
taking names like it was a Sunday afternoon stroll."

"Ho-ly shit, Red," someone whispered from the darkened tavern as the
rancher stopped for another sip of beer. "Are you serious?"

"Quiet, Jeb, I ain't finished yet," Red said calmly. "So anyway, this
dunpeal finishes with the zombies, saddles back up, and goes tearing off after
the first dunpeal who was seen on the other side of town. Then things get real
quiet for about ten minutes before one of the townsfolk comes back with that
mentally-challenged dunpeal's head on a stick. Boy told everyone as loud as he
could that the two dunpeals got into it real ugly-like before the stranger just
lopped his head off. Then he just wiped the dirt off hisself and started to
head out of town like it was nothing. The boy managed to get a name from him
before he left, and he said his name was D.

"'So that's D,' we all said soon as we got everything back in order. I
still never got to see his face, however, so I didn't think I'd be able to say
for sure if I ever ran across him again. So anyway, we're still cleaning up
when I remember the scarecrow-zombie he left us with, so I walk over to it,
plunk it with my .45 a few times to make damn sure it's dead, and yanked the
dagger out of its neck."

Red paused for a sip of beer before continuing. "I remember thinking to
myself that it was a right nice piece of work, light, well-crafted, and just
begging to be thrown. I flipped it over and saw.... well, let's just call it
a design for the moment. Anyway, I was thinking that surely he'd come back to
get it once he remembered where it went, so I just rinsed it off, wiped it down
with a touch of metal polish, and kept it nice and safe for him.

"Thing is, he never came back for it," Red said with a casual shrug. "So
after a month or so, I finally said hell with it and decided to keep it myself.
Damned useful knife it was, saved my ass from a werewolf once seeing how it had
some silver edging on it, but anyway. Here's what I'm thinking, stranger....
surely that man who called himself D knew what was on that knife of his, so if
you could tell me what that.... design was, that'd be all the proof I need to
know that you're the same man I saw in action way back then."

"Well damn, Red," Zeke muttered into his beer. "Why didn't you just ask
that question at the start and spared us that whole story?"

"Well, stranger?" Red prodded D quietly. "What was on it?"

D took a slow sip of his wine before speaking. "Flowers," he said calmly.

"Flowers?" Galen echoed, giving him a startled look. "What kind?"

"A lily and a pansy," D replied before taking another sip of wine.

The entire room turned to look at Zeke as he bust out laughing, almost
spilling his beer across the table. "F-F-Flowers?" he laughed, clutching the
table for support. "You tryin' to tell me that this supposedly bad-ass hunter
of vampires puts flowers on his weapons? A lily and a pansy? BWAHAHAHA!"

The rest of the room looked over at Red as he leaned back, swinging his
leg up to thump the heel of his boot on the table. He reached down and pulled
a large knife out from inside the boot, flipping the weapon in the air to catch
it by the point. His arm suddenly flicked out in a surprisingly fast throwing
motion, sending the knife spinning along a dangerously low arc.

The blade embedded itself right on the edge of the table, barely more than
an inch away from the still-laughing Zeke. The laughter abruptly changed to a
very startled yelp of surprise as he stumbled back, the mug of beer landing in
his lap with a heavy splashing sound. "God DAMN, Red!!" he gasped as he shot
to his feet, dripping beer. "What in tarnation do you think you're doing?!"

"Zeke?" Red said in a very tired tone. "Shut your yap before I shut it
for you, a'right? Now pull that thing out and show it to Rosie. I don't know
nothin' about flowers 'cept that they smell nice, and I'm fairly sure an inbred
hick like you don't know a pansy from a weed. Rosie, think you can help us out
with this one?"

Zeke stared at the old rancher before yanking the knife out of the table
with a snarl, casting a dark look at both Red and D before glancing down. His
eyes doubled size a moment later as his head snapped back up, giving Red an
incredulous look. "What the hell, Red?" he gasped.

"Rosie?" Red asked quietly as the bar-mistress leaned over Zeke's shoulder
to look at the delicate designs etched on the blade.

"Well, I'll be damned if that ain't a lily," she breathed. "And you just
have to go look at my garden to see what a pansy looks like, and that right
there is one of the most beautiful pictures I ever seen of one."

"Good enough for me," Red said calmly as he leaned back. "So I guess you
are that D fellow after all. Welcome, pardner," he added with a gentle hoist
of his tankard in casual salute.

Galen just stared at D in silence for a moment before rising to her feet.
She quietly walked across the room to where Zeke and Rosie were, ignoring the
latter as she edged back and gently plucking the blade out of the grasp of the
former. She looked down at the blade, tilting it slightly to get a better view
of the pair of flowers with intertwined stems. "D?" she called out, lifting
her head up to give him a slightly stunned look.

"A gift," D said quietly, taking another sip from his mug.

Galen's eyebrows arched up in surprise as she studied the knife in silence
for another few seconds. She made a soft noise of curiosity to herself as she
hefted the blade, testing it for balance and aerodynamics. Satisfied that it
was of a very high quality, she flipped it around to hold it by the bladed end.

Few people actually saw her move, her wrist snapping out in a very tight
arc to send the blade singing through the air. A collective gasp of surprise
and awe rose up from the rest of the tavern as D reached up to pluck it out of
the air as it neared him, the hilt slapping his palm solidly enough to sound
like a wooden board being broken.

"Jesus...." someone muttered as D calmly finished his mug of wine before
standing up. He walked around to the front of the table and pulled one of his
daggers from his belt. The weapon was then gently laid down on the edge of
Red's table as D put the decorated knife back in the now-empty sheath.

"Naw, you don't have to do that, pardner," Red drawled quietly.

"Thank you," D said quietly to Red before he started to turn away.

"I don't think so, hunter," Red suddenly said in a low tone as he started
to rise to his feet.

The entire tavern suddenly held its collective breath as D slowly turned
back around, his eyes narrowing slightly at the other man's tone. It had been
some time since someone had used it with him, and in every case it had been the
precursor to a fight of some sort.

Red slowly reached up to remove his hat with his left hand, revealing the
face of an old rancher who had seen things he would rather not have. A pair of
ice-blue eyes looked back at D, the man's jaw covered with the coarse salt-and-
pepper bristles of one who hadn't bothered to shave in a few days. His right
hand slowly came up, outstretched to offer D a simple handshake.

"I thank you, D," he said very slowly, "For saving my daughter's life
back there with that knife throw."

D looked up at him before nodding slightly, reaching out with his own hand
to accept the handshake. It was a simple gesture, one that he hadn't been in
a position to do very often, but it was probably one of the very few uniquely
human gestures he didn't have many problems being a part of. Under the right
conditions.

"Damn, Red," someone whispered quietly, the soft feminine voice audibly
laced with emotion. The emotion was also visible in Red's eyes, the old man
seeming to be close to the point of tears himself as he shook D's hand.

D looked up as they stepped back from one another, finding Galen quietly
approaching him with a similar look in her eyes. She gave Red a gentle smile
before she stepped closer to D, sliding her arms around his waist and leaning
forward to give him a very solid kiss that raised more than a few eyebrows from
the rest of the tavern patrons.

The kiss took him completely by surprise. It wasn't the soft brushing of
her lips against his as the previous ones had been, but a full and bold kiss on
the mouth that left them both silently panting for breath. Her lips parted as
she edged back a few seconds later, just enough to let the very edges of her
teeth lightly nip his lower lip before pulling away from him.

He simply had no idea what to say or how to react as she let go and moved
past him, returning to her seat at the table. Stunned, he turned to look at
Red, noticing that a very faint blush of embarrassment had taken up residence
on his sun-weathered face.

"I've been waiting to thank you for thirty years," he said with a slight
cough as he put his hat back on. "But I'll be damned if I'm going to thank you
like that as well," he drawled with a twinkle in his eye.

A series of quiet chuckles and laughs swept the room as D gave the old man
a faint smirk of amusement, nodding his head slightly before returning to take
his seat as well. He paused as he sat down, casting a sidelong look at Galen
as he felt her hand lightly rest on his thigh.

"Rosie?" Red drawled as he tossed back the remainder of his tankard in a
single gulp. "About that room they were askin' for...."

"Easy, Red," Rosie replied with a gentle scoff, looking over at D. "After
hearing a story like that, I don't think anyone would have a problem with them
spending the night here. I'll fetch the room keys after dinner. Assuming the
two of you are staying for dinner...?" she asked, giving Galen and D a slightly
uncertain look.

"Just as long as trail rations aren't on the menu," Galen replied dryly as
she drained her mug.

"Oh, heavens no," the bar-mistress replied with an insulted look. "I may
not be the best cook in these here parts, but I certainly can cook a lot better
than that! Trail rations.... I never!" she stated indignantly.

"Easy, Rosie," Red chuckled quietly. "Those rations are good for filling
you up on those long wagon rides, but they do sort of wear out the taste buds
after a few days. I'm sure whatever you make will be right delicious. What's
going to be on the grill tonight?"

"Well, I was fixin' to try my hand at some ribs," Rosie hedged, suddenly
not so sure of her abilities anymore. "Been awhile since I done that, but we
just got a crate of 'em from Westerfield yesterday. Decent price, too."

Galen chuckled quietly to herself, idly rubbing D's leg beneath the table.
"Ribs sound good to us, ma'am," she said with a soft smile. "Don't suppose I
could trouble you for some more of that wine?"

"Sure thing, miss," the bar-mistress replied as she started to turn away.
She paused and glanced over at D, still appearing to be slightly nervous with
his dark presence in her tavern. "I take it you need a refill as well?" she
asked in a slightly hesitant tone. She paused as she only got a silent nod in
response before she turned to Red, casting a slightly disgruntled look down at
his empty tankard. "And I take it you want me to fill that glass buffalo of
yours as well?" she said primly.

Red chuckled quietly as he held out the empty tankard to her. "You know
I always pay my bar tab, Rosie," he drawled.

Galen looked over at D as the tavern seemed to slowly return to normal,
the long-interrupted card game once again progressing. She leaned over to him,
to speak quietly without being overheard. "Flowers, D?" she asked lightly, a
look of amusement dancing in her liquid-like eyes.

"I was once hired to rescue a girl who had been kidnapped by a small clan
of vampires, apparently for ransom," D said in a hollow tone, his face hidden
in darkness by his hat. "At least, that's what the note they left said. They
really wanted me and just used her as bait. They sought to play mind games as
I followed their trail in the hopes it would make me easier to kill. I came
across that knife left out in the open, etched with the supposedly cowardly
images of a lily and a pansy as a sort of insult. I would have left it where
it was had the blade not been wetted with blood. Her blood," he added softly.

"D...." Galen said gently, squeezing his leg. They both looked up as
Rosie returned, quietly placing another pair of wine-filled mugs in front of
them before collecting the used ones and departing. Galen's eyebrows arched up
as D picked up the mug and seemed to down a good fourth of the contents in a
single swallow, feeling tiny threads of ice slowly wind around her spine. "So
what happened?" she asked softly, praying it wouldn't play out as she started
to fear it had.

"I found the girl's body nailed to the castle doors," D said softly, his
muted tone faintly laced with anger, bitterness, and sorrow at the memories.
"She didn't have a pulse when I reached her, but her blood was still hot. She
had been hanging there for hours, but she couldn't have been dead for longer
than five minutes. I kept the knife with me, not because of its craftsmanship
but because it was a reminder that even after all that I had done over the
centuries, I still needed to make sure that every moment counts. When I was
able to use it to save a life when a single second had mattered.... I felt it
was best to leave it behind and let the girl's memory finally rest in peace."

He remained silent as she scooted closer to him, leaning over to take his
hand in hers and resting her head on his shoulder. The gesture was not truly
unexpected at this point, having already gotten used to her tendency to try to
comfort him like that. The realization that he was both getting used to her
and that he was indeed starting to find the gestures to be of some degree of
comfort was enough to make him put his mug back down with a muted thump, not
wanting his sense of unease to be revealed by a hand-tremor or worse.

"You know," Red drawled slowly, tipping his hat back just enough to study
the pair of dunpeals, "I've heard many thing said about you, pardner, some I
can easily believe, others I'd have to see proof of m'self first. But in all
the stories and legends and the like, not one of them ever said anything about
you having a traveling companion. Certainly nothing about a woman as uniquely
beautiful or as memorable as Miss Galen there," he added respectfully.

Galen lifted her head up to cast an amused glance at D, giggling softly to
herself at the dour look on his face. She edged forward to plant a soft kiss
along his jaw before turning around to look back at Red. "Let's just say that
I'm a recent development," she said with a hint of coyness. She missed the
look that crossed D's face, his free hand reaching for the mug of wine as he
cast a slightly unamused glare at the back of her head.

"Oh?" Red mused as he leaned back, idly sipping on his refilled tankard of
light yellow beer.

"We had a bit of a rough encounter at first, but once we.... ran through
our differences," she said playfully, casting a sultry look back at D, "We were
able to sort things out between us well enough."

It was one of those rare moments where it took D every single ounce of his
self-control to avoid publicly embarrassing himself by reacting to the way she
had so cavalierly summarized their initial encounter on the bridge. Even so,
he was unable to fully suppress a faint cough from wafting up from his lungs.
He set his mug back down on the table and swallowed the wine as discreetly as
he could to avoid a choking hazard.

Red chuckled quietly to himself, having caught the momentary change in D's
expression and knowing that something was definitely going on between the pair
of dunpeals. "Now that sounds like an interesting story, miss," he said in a
somewhat lazily tone. "I take it the two of you have been traveling together
for some time now?"

Galen shrugged off-handedly as she reached for her mug of wine with her
free hand, her other still holding D's hand in a gentle grip. "Not really. He
had some business with my father, and I guess we sort of made a connection on
the way out." She took a deep sip of the wine before adding in a dangerously
calm tone, "I guess you can say we're now on our way to go see my mother."

She looked up at D just in time to see his expression change, unable to
prevent herself from smiling at the look of sheer surprise and even a hint of
horror with the implications at the way she had said it. A quick glance around
the tavern revealed more than a few raised eyebrows and looks of intrigue at
the thought, especially from the small group of women clustered together in the
far corner.

"Sounds serious," Red observed carefully with a sip of his beer.

Galen turned to look at D, not bothering to hide the gentle look in her
eyes. She squeezed his hand gently before leaning over, letting her lips brush
against his for several seconds. A very faint sighing-hum rose up from her
chest as he didn't resist the public display of affection. "We're starting to
think it is," she murmured to the rancher as she laid her head back on D's
armored shoulder, a soft smile of satisfaction crossing her face.

The old rancher nodded sagely to himself, idly taking another sip of beer.
"That's probably one of the best things than can happen to a man like him," he
said quietly. "If you don't mind my saying so, pardner, I can see for myself
that you're not the most talkative gent in the world. More often than not it
means you got something right heavy on your mind. Sometimes you can tell your
boys about it while you're chasing the herd all over God's creation, to get it
off your chest and all. But there are some things that you really just can't
talk about with your boys, and so the only cure for that one is the presence of
a special woman at your side."

He paused to take a sip of beer before continuing, "Now I imagine that a
famous vampire-hunter such as yourself has seen a lot of stuff us common folk
couldn't even dream about in our worst nightmares. If I had that weighing on
my mind, I'd probably be sitting on my tongue as well just so I don't let slip
something that might scare the color off anyone's drawers just thinkin' about
it. Now I don't mean to be racist or nothing, miss, but seeing how you're one
of kind as well I'd be thinking that you'd be better-equipped to cope with some
of those notions given your nature than us human folk might be."

"That's a fair way of looking at it," Galen replied quietly, squeezing D's
hand yet again. She almost blinked when she felt him return the gesture, her
eyes closing briefly as she savored the feeling of comfort that came from so
simple a thing as a momentary increase in pressure.

"You'd be surprised what humans can cope with," D spoke up very quietly.

"Oh?" Red said, looking up from the rim of his tankard with a slightly
startled look. "And what do you mean by that, pardner?"

D seemed to stare down at his mug for a few moments before replying. "The
strength of the human spirit is often stronger than people realize," he said.
"That's part of what vampires found so interesting, and also why they continued
to underestimate the power humans have when confronting them."

Red and Galen exchanged slightly uncertain glances, neither one sure where
this one was going or even where it had come from. "I reckon you might have a
point with that," Red said carefully.

"D, what's wrong?" Galen suddenly spoke up, suddenly sensing a dramatic
shift in his mood.

"The human spirit is what keeps you going through the darkest of times,"
D said in an emotionless tone. "Once the final hours have passed, the horrors
will eventually fade in intensity as you adjust to and cope with the memories.
You may even forget them entirely if enough time passes, allowing you to live
your lives with only a few scars."

Red snorted quietly and took a deep sip of beer. "I don't know about that
last one, pardner, but I'm following along with what you're saying. I think,"
he added in an openly guarded tone. "I reckon there's just a little more to
what you're saying than that, however."

Galen studied D's face as he remained silent, seeming to absently sip his
mug of wine with uncaring indifference. "I think his point is that my being a
dunpeal probably doesn't make that much of a difference," she said to Red, her
eyes never leaving the slightly weary lines of D's face. "At least in terms of
being able to cope with all that he's gone through," she added, giving the old
rancher a gentle look.

"I see your point, miss," Red replied, easing back against the wall in a
relaxed position. He seemed to pause for a moment before the brim of his hat
tilted up, allowing some of the light to be cast on his unshaven face as he
sniffed the air. "Well, damned if that don't smell like some good ribs," he
drawled with a faint smile.

Galen tested the air as well, making a soft purr of intrigue as the aroma
of barbecued ribs registered on her senses. "Mmm, I do believe you're right,"
she said in a slightly husky tone. "I'm a little more partial to rabbit stew
than beef, to be honest, but think I can tell when something is going to be
delicious when I smell it."

"Rabbits?" Red echoed with a dry chuckle. "Miss, you got to be kidding
me. Not to poke fun at your idea of vittles, but how can you compare the taste
of an itty-bitty ball of fast-hoppin' fur diced up in a kettle to the taste of
some plump an' juicy corn-fed, hand-raised good ol' fashioned beef all laid out
on a grill and roasted over a hickory fire to mouth-waterin' perfection?"

Galen chuckled quietly to herself as she laid her head back down on D's
shoulder, giving the rancher an amused look. "Half the fun is catching them in
the first place," she pointed out. "The taste of triumph in a difficult hunt
tends to sweeten things. And if they give you a real hard time in the process,
the taste of vengeance can be just as honeyed as any glaze," she added with a
slightly predatory smile.

"Jesus," Red laughed, almost spewing a mouthful of beer across the table.
"Now that's one vivid image you just painted there for me, miss. Now I ain't
never been much of a hunter and all, but I've taken a few pot-shots over the
years at migrating ducks and geese. Only had a duck on the dinner plate but
once or twice, but I do know what you mean about the taste of satisfaction."

D said nothing as he listened to the conversations around him, trying to
figure out what was bothering him so much. It was clear from the way Galen and
Red were talking that the rancher didn't mind their presence in the slightest,
a slightly unusual attitude for a human to have after being attacked by another
dunpeal in the past. Granted it was thirty years ago, not counting the other
incidents he quietly alluded to earlier, but still....

A casual survey of the room produced a wide range of reactions. He could
tell from the way that Zeke kept glancing at him that the younger man didn't
trust him, which was both understood and expected. A good number of the other
patrons glanced over at him every so often as well, but he couldn't tell if it
was out of distrust or simple curiosity at the 'legend' sitting at one of the
tables.

The small group of women clustered together around a large table in the
corner worried him the most, able to discern more than one furtive glance in
his direction that had little to do with distrust. It was a phenomenon he only
recently became aware of, a growing number of women becoming more than a little
interested in the man behind the stories they heard. Not the stories that he
could hear being told in bars and taverns among the general population, but the
far more quieter whispers only rarely heard outside the very complex and almost
frighteningly huge social circles that women formed.

It would have been a lie to say it wasn't his fault, as he had willingly
joined a very small number of equally willing women for a (usually) quiet night
of (mostly) gentle passion and lust. He did, however, quietly blame Leila's
sense of humor for leading him to make his other promise to her on that very
windy and sand-stormy night so long ago. She had wanted others to also be able
to boast about having had a night with him, a concept that he still had yet
to truly figure out why even to this day. He might have refused the promise to
her had he any idea that such dalliances, rare as they were, would fuel such a
wide-spread phenomenon.

Of course, had he known just how many women would try to approach him for
a quiet night after hearing about the whispered stories, he probably would have
ran screaming out the door, sandstorm be damned, for the sanctity of a plague-
filled rat-infested crypt buried in a swamp before making that promise to her.
That wasn't to say he didn't mind the occasional dalliance.... well, as least
only recently, as it had taken him quite some time to get used to them after
Leila had opened his eyes in more ways than one.... but he still didn't like
having to leave them in the morning after sharing so much with him. And that
didn't take into account all the less-than-comely women who approached him.
Granted he truly didn't care much about physical appearances, but in some cases
he just couldn't help the faint nausea at the thought of seeing some of them
naked with a look of lust for him in their eyes....

He blinked as he felt a pair of fingertips touch his chin, very gently
turning his head around to wind up looking at a pair of openly curious liquid
eyes. "You're thinking again," Galen said very softly, her gaze sliding down
slightly to study his lips. She waited to see if he would say anything before
glancing back up to gaze into his eyes. "Something on your mind?"

"Always," he replied softly, his tone quite unreadable.

"Of course," she purred very quietly, playfully batting her eyelashes at
him. The corners of her mouth edged up in a satisfied smirk at the brief but
still discernable reaction of surprise and unease that crossed his face, the
wicked part of her delighting in being able to throw him off-balance so easily.
"It wouldn't have anything to do with that gaggle of geese in the corner making
eyes at you, now would it?" she said in a soft, almost sultry tone as she made
a slight gesture with her head.

He honestly wasn't sure which alarm went off first, the one warning him
that she was a woman in a playful mood, the one that sensed a hint of jealousy
in her tone, or the display of uncanny insight that most women tended to have
that openly bordered on the supernatural and he had yet to figure out how it
functioned as it did.

"And if it did?" he replied calmly, figuring that pushing the jealously
button was probably the easiest of the three to understand and cope with. He
had come to understand just how volatile a jealous woman could be, but he was
quite used to physical danger. The sheer unpredictability of a playful woman,
however.... that he doubted he could ever get used to.

The remote looks of amusement and intrigue were clearly visible in her
blue-green eyes as a delicate eyebrow was arched up in response to his words.
"Really now," she purred in a soft tone. "And do any of them catch your eye?"

He paused for a moment as something seemed to tickle the back of his mind.
It wasn't another warning alarm going off, although there were plenty of them
doing so at this very second. He quickly realized that it had been the psionic
voice of the thing in his hand, perhaps doing the equivalent of a silent sigh.
The vocal part didn't register on his ears, of course, as it had been entirely
too soft and lost amid the muted background noise, but the mental part of its
voice was still able to reach him.

Was it trying to warn him? he quickly wondered. Or was there something
else it wanted? Granted it had been trying awfully hard lately to try to keep
him together with Galen, possibly even as a couple. That much was glaringly
obvious, even to one as obtuse as he knew he tended to be in social situations,
but what would that truly accomplish?

He refocused and looked into her eyes, a very soft-spoken part of his mind
urging him to do something. It was a part he rarely heard from and listened to
even less, but there was something about this particular situation that made
him stop and actually listen to it for once. She was being playful, trying to
tease a reaction of some sort from him. So why not turn the tables on her, if
only for a moment? Would it hurt if he played along just this once? Surely he
could be coy after so many centuries of dealing with countless coy women....

"Maybe," he finally said quietly. He waited for the span of a heartbeat
before adding, "But not like you do."

He realized a moment later that perhaps he had miscalculated something,
deciding that he couldn't have drawn a stronger reaction from her if he had
stuck a cherry stem in her ear and set it on fire. Her eyes promptly doubled
in diameter, her irises widening so rapidly that it literally created a ripple
of liquid motion in their depths. Her soft and pale blue lips parted of their
own accord, the gentle outrush of air suddenly freezing in mid-motion in a soft
gasp. The grip of her hand on his suddenly tightened, not painfully so but
enough to threaten to cut off all circulation in that area.

"D...." she breathed very softly as her expression changed, her tear-ducts
starting to open up just enough to increase the level of moisture in her eyes.
The look in her eyes changed yet again, a fairly wicked gleam of playfulness
replacing the stunned looks of shock, surprise, and something else that had
been too fleeting to truly identify.

"Well now," she said in a husky whisper as she leaned over towards him,
just enough so that her lips brushed his as she spoke. "I guess we'll just
have to give the geese something to gaggle about for awhile to keep them busy,
now won't we?"

Her lips seemed to burn with electric fire as they melded to his, giving
him a decidedly deep kiss that quite literally took his breath away. He was a
fraction of a second away from tearing himself free from her so he could try to
breathe before he suddenly remembered he had a nose that could conduct air just
as well as his mouth could. The cool sensation of life-giving air filling his
lungs seemed to settle his nerves down a notch, just enough to let the rest of
his brain cope with the feeling of being turned inside-out by the raw emotional
intensity of her kiss.

A distant part of his mind started to nag him quietly, telling him that he
was making a scene and that the tavern was becoming dangerously quiet again as
they noticed. The voice was a drop in the bucket compared to the whirlwind of
emotions and feelings whipping around inside his skull, however. He figured
the only reason Galen wasn't in his lap was because of the design of the wooden
chairs, making it somewhat problematic to rest anything other than a napkin on
your upper thighs in comfort. That did little to interfere with the range of
motion of her upper body, however, which was demonstrated by the way her arms
wrapped around him in a very tight embrace.

He was unable to resist responding to the fierce pressure of her lips, his
own parting just slightly as hers started to work around in a gentle motion.
His hand seemed to move of their own accord, coming up to lightly squeeze and
knead the muscles of her upper back. He had no idea how long the kiss lasted
before a loud cough seemed to echo across the deathly silent tavern.

"I don't mean to be rude, kids," Red drawled in a very polite tone, his
face all but buried in his tankard of beer, "But you might want to save some of
that appetite for dinner. Rosie's passing out the plates now...."

The kiss was broken so quickly it almost rattled their teeth, Galen's head
pulling back from his just as a truly intense bloom of crimson embarrassment
swept across her face. D's face quickly became its usual impassive mien, but
not before a dark blush of his own could be seen making a brief appearance.

"Sorry," Galen managed to murmur without tripping over her tongue, giving
D a look filled with more emotions than could be counted. She quickly removed
her hands from around his waist, one hand sliding down to hold his in a very
firm grip. She scooted her chair over as close to his as she could, leaning
against him his arm as best she could.

"Don't need to apologize to me, miss," Red replied with a rueful chuckle
and a very long drink from the tankard. "I know how it is when you young'uns
fall in love and all. Shoot, with all the nonsense that's been happening as of
late with the bandits and other unsavory nocturnal types, it's a bit heartening
to see you two go at it like that. After all, how often do you hear of that
happening?"

"Red, you sick buzzard," a voice called out, "I keep telling you that if
you get a woman of your own, you won't get all hot and bothered if you happen
to see someone else getting a lil' kiss or two. Might even improve your mood
on occasion."

"Cork it, Jeb," Red growled quietly.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean," Galen said to Red in a slightly
hesitant tone, briefly exchanging glances with D.

Red paused and gave her a slightly abashed look. "I was just sayin' about
the snuggling and all, miss," he replied. "That's not something we hear about
happening among your kind, that's all."

"Really," Galen said dryly, giving him a half-amused look. "And how do
you think we came to be if it wasn't for.... snuggling?"

Red promptly blushed hard as he looked down at his tankard of beer. "Not
what I meant, miss," he managed to say in a level tone, clearly embarrassed at
where the conversation had ended up. "I just meant that I can't remember ever
hearing any stories from anyone about meeting a vampire or a dunpeal who was as
friendly as you are or who seemed to be.... well, forgive my saying so, miss,
but who seemed to be human enough to do such things in public like hold hands
or give your man a right solid kiss like that as you seem to be. I had always
thought that y'all simply don't do that."

It took her a few moments to figure out how to reply to that, exchanging
openly surprised looks with D. "Why, thank you, Red," she said with genuine
warmth as she looked over at the old rancher. "I.... don't remember anyone
ever saying anything like that to me before."

"Shoot," Red grumbled quietly as he busied himself with a deep drink from
his tankard. "If it weren't for the points on your ears, miss, you could pass
for a human with the way you've been carrying on like that."

D looked over at Galen as she turned around, her eyes starting to fill
with tears and completely at a loss for words. He knew his own expression was
as impassive as ever on the outside, but what he was feeling inside was a whole
different issue. If one who was only one-quarter human had enough humanity and
human-like traits to impress a full-blooded human.... what was a half-human
dunpeal like himself truly capable of? It had taken him virtually his entire
adult life to learn how to love and be loved, but she was probably a tenth of
his age and had already learned so much.... not just learned, but mastered
to the point of readily gaining human warmth, trust, and approval....

He blinked and refocused as he felt her fingertips brushing across his
lips, finding her staring up at him with a very soft and tender look on her
face. She was so young, and yet knew so much about being human. Perhaps....
perhaps she could teach him? If she could learn, why couldn't he? Surely she
wouldn't refuse him if he asked properly....

"D?" she said in a very soft tone. "You're ticking me off now."

That drew a very hard blink from him, the soft declaration of her current
mood completely taking him by surprise. "What?" he said, allowing his tone to
reflect his stunned state.

"You're thinking again," she replied, the corners of her mouth twisting up
into a gentle smile as she tapped a fingertip against his lips. "You really
need to quit doing that every so often, you know. It's not good for you. Why
don't you just quit thinking and follow your heart for awhile? You know," she
said, lazily tracing random patterns with her fingertip. "Just try to relax a
bit. Look around you, D, nobody's interested in hurting us or anything. If
you start to open up a little, you might even make a few life-long friends, or
at least find someone to share a few stories with over a few beers. Or are you
afraid that people might start thinking of you as.... being human?" she added
in a very soft and light whisper.

D knew a challenge when he heard one. He usually ignored the ones that he
knew would have little impact on whatever it was he was doing at the time and
responded to the rest as appropriate. The part of his mind that weighed such
things decided for some reason that this was one challenge that really might
not be in his best interests for him to simply let pass unanswered.

"Alright," he said simply, clearing his mind of all active thoughts and
deciding to permit the first impulse that would normally be rejected by his
conscience when it crossed his mind. There was a delay of precisely six one-
hundredths of a second between when the first impulse popped into his mind and
when it was validated as an acceptable action under the present circumstances,
making it seem like there was no hesitation at all.

He could almost feel her eyelids closing in surprise as he leaned over,
pressing his lips to hers in what he felt was a moderate kiss. Not too light
to be ignored, not too deep to be invasive, and with just enough passion and
warmth to make it something worth remembering for longer than a few seconds.

The only reaction he could discern was in her hands, one squeezing his
hand gently and the other coming up to lightly hold his cheek. There was no
resistance whatsoever to him, her soft lips seeming to be nothing more than a
most pliant and warm putty. It surprised him to realize that he could feel her
pulse beneath her lips, seeming to race along at a fairly rapid pace.

The sound of a pair of plates being laid on the table caused him to break
the kiss and look up, finding Rosie standing there with a small serving tray
and a look of almost motherly disapproval on her face. Her eyes seemed to
sparkle with amusement, however, as she finished laying out the steak knives
and silverware in front of them.

"I said I'll fetch the room key after dinner," she said, giving Galen a
knowing look that tripled the intensity of the blush on her cheeks. "You two
just enjoy your ribs and behave yourselves, alright? I know you ain't going to
cause no problems to nobody, but I still don't need no ruckus of any kind here
in my tavern. That goes for you as well," she added, giving Red a stern look.
"Don't need you giving these kids any ideas or nothing."

"Shoot, woman," Red chuckled into his beer. "They look like they need any
ideas from an old coot like me?"

Galen just looked over at D as a series of quiet snicker and chuckles went
around the room, the vibrant blush on her cheeks seeming to get even worse.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to him as she gave his hand one final squeeze before
twisting back around to sit at the table properly.

"For what?" he asked, giving her a slightly curious look.

She giggled quietly before making a gesture to the rest of the tavern.
"I think I just ruined your dark and mysterious reputation," she said as she
grabbed a napkin and fluffed it out over her lap.

He cast a brief glance towards the back wall where the group of women were
seated, seeming to be whispering among themselves at a furious pace despite the
fact they were all busy eating. A second sweep of his eyes revealed that the
rest of the patrons were likewise occupied with their meals, all busy devouring
the fresh-off-the-grill barbecued ribs and paying scant attention to the pair
of dunpeals. Perhaps there was still a lingering sense of wariness in the air,
but for the most part the impression he got was one of.... casual acceptance.

"Good," he said calmly as he reached for his own half-rack of ribs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dinner was delicious by anyone's standards, more so when compared to the
trail rations he was used to. The ribs had been just a little over-cooked, or
at least it was to his sense of taste, but the tartness of the barbecue sauce
more than made up for it. Of course, the sauce had provided its own host of
problems, namely the unholy mess it made, but that's what the stack of napkins
was for.

Both D and Galen sat back in their chairs, Galen to relax as she nibbled
on one of the last ribs and D to conceal the fact that he was letting the thing
in his hand eat some of the bones. It had taken Galen a few minutes to notice,
giving him a slightly startled look of curiosity before dismissing it and going
back to her task.

"Rosie?" Red drawled as the bar-mistress returned to collect most of the
dirty dishes. "I think you need to quit frettin' about your cooking skills.
Those were some of the best ribs I've had in awhile."

Rosie shot him a faintly unamused look. "I know I can cook, Red," she
countered tartly. "All you cattle-rustlers wouldn't be hanging around here
begging for scraps if I couldn't."

A quiet laugh rose up from somewhere in the back of the tavern. "Now if
you could just brew a better-tastin' beer instead of having to have those kegs
of chilled horse-piss hauled out from the tradin' post up the trail, you just
might have something here," a voice called out.

"Jebadiah, you ingrate backwoods hick, get out of my tavern!" Rosie yelled
over her shoulder, causing the rest of the patrons to burst into laughter. "I
don't seen you goin' to all the trouble of brewin' your own, and you sure drink
a lot of my beer for not likin' the taste."

Galen gave D an amused look as she scooted back from the table and stood
up, idly gathering the dishes together in a neat pile. "I'll be back," she
said quietly as she carried the dishes over to Rosie.

"Huh?" Rosie said as she turned around to find Galen approaching her.
"Oh, you didn't have to do that, miss," she said rapidly as she set her tray
down to rebalance the load and make room for more dishes.

"It's quite alright," Galen assured her as she handed the dishes over.
"I just need directions to the washroom, if you don't mind."

Rosie nodded in understanding. "Straight back through the kitchen door
and off to your left," she replied as she hefted the tray and went back to
collecting more dishes.

It seemed that the majority of the room's attention shifted as a single
unit, first to follow Galen's exotic beauty into the kitchen, then turning to
unobtrusively assess D as he silently sipped on his third mug of wine.

"You know, pardner," Red said gently as he sipped on a fresh tankard of
beer, "I hope you don't mind my saying so, but Miss Galen seems to be a right
fine young woman."

"I know," D replied quietly, his tone seeming to be one of resignation.

"The two of you are going to be alright together, I trust?" the rancher
inquired in a very careful and slightly guarded tone. He sighed quietly as he
got a slightly confused look from D and took another sip of beer. "I'm just an
old man and don't mean to be pryin' into nobody's business, pardner, but I'm
seeing the two of you together and I'm wondering why I ain't never heard of
something like that being seen before, you know? Now I don't know anything
about the young lady, but you.... you're just a little warmer than what I've
heard about you. Not that anything bad is said about you, just that you were
a little.... distant, I guess. Almost like you didn't care about nothin'."

There was a long stretch of silence as Red sat back to study the dunpeal,
idly sipping his beer as he watched him work on the mug of wine. "Now I know
that ain't true," he finally said quietly, keeping his voice low so only D and
perhaps a few nearby patrons could hear. "I've seen you react when innocents
are in danger, and I done heard far too many other stories about the same to
believe otherwise. I also heard about some of the critters you've gone up
against, and I don't mean some casual nasties like them zombies. You got some
heavy guts there, pardner, taking 'em on like that, and I reckon it wasn't a
pretty sight in the end."

Red sighed quietly and paused to take another sip of beer before pressing
on. "But I'll tell you what, pardner, I also done seen what those kinds of
horrors can do to a man. Just eats you alive from the inside on out, leavin'
nothing but an empty shell behind. Now I don't know what you've seen or what
it's all done to you, but you might want to take it easy. Don't none of us
need to be hearing about the same sort of thing happening to you, not after all
that you've done for us human folk."

"Your kindness and concern is appreciated," D said calmly.

"I'm sure it is, pardner," Red replied. "Still, I think you should just
try to relax a touch. Miss Galen there has a lot heart for a dunpeal, if you
don't mind my saying so, and damned if I ever met one like either of you. She
seems to be happy havin' your arm to lean on and all," he pointed out. "Now I
know what it's like to have a loved one to be with, and I know what it's like
to try to live without one. The difference 'tween them is like comparing a
field of wheat to a herd of tumbleweeds. Same plant, stalks and all, but only
one of 'em is truly alive and healthy. And they need a little attention every
so often to stay healthy, if you know what I mean."

"I do," D said after a few moment's of contemplative silence.

Red just chuckled and tipped his hat back a few inches. "I guess what I'm
trying to say to you, pardner, is be careful with what you've got. Might end
up like me one day, waking up with the crack of dawn to find that the special
woman in your life won't be waking up ever again," he said, pausing to take the
deepest swallow of beer anyone had ever seen him take. "If she treasures you,
pardner, you best be treasuring her just as much lest she slip away from your
grasp while your head is turned. She might not pass away from a fever as my
wife did several winters ago, but a loss is a loss regardless."

"I understand," D said quietly, staring in to his mug before looking up
over at the old rancher. "And I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you for having
the strength and courage to share that with me."

"That's right kind of you to say so, pardner," Red replied quietly, making
a slight tipping motion with his hat. "My daughter moved down south a ways a
number of years ago to get married, sends me letters every so often. Last one
I got was a couple of months ago, letting me know that she'll be making me a
grandpa before the spring thaw is finished. It's the kind of thought to put
hair on your chest, if you know what I mean," he chuckled ruefully. "Still,
her letters keep me going some days, and I've got Rosie and the boys here for
those days when I need something more than a beer for company. You get used to
it in some ways, and others you don't."

"Ever thought of remarrying?" Galen inquired softly as she approached in
perfect silence. Neither D nor Red has seen her return, the end result being
a very hard cough from the rancher that almost coated the table with beer.

"Tarnation, miss!" Red gasped once he was sure his lungs were beer-free.
"You about made me embarrass myself, sneaking up on an old man like that."

"I'm sorry," Galen apologized with a smile as she sat down next to D, one
hand reaching out to take hold of his.

Red said nothing for several seconds as he sipped his beer. "I suppose
some folk would want to get married again," he finally said in a quiet voice.
"Maybe if I were twenty years younger, I'd think about it. But I was married
to my wife for damn near forty years when she passed away, and no woman in the
world could possibly even come close to replacing what she meant to me. Oh, I
suppose I could find some widow my age to like, spend the rest of my days in
her company, but all we'd be doing would be growing old together. You only
live once, and I already done lived out most of my life with Grace. You just
can't replace something like that, not just the memory of living together but
the memory of life itself. It wouldn't be right if I were to try to forget all
that we had, to replace that little empty spot in my life with someone else."

"I think I understand," Galen said softly. "And I'm sorry if...."

"Miss," Red interrupted quietly with an absent gesture of his tankard.
"Don't ever be sorry for asking questions you don't know the answer to. I'm
not foolish enough to just look at your pretty face and reckon that you're my
daughter's age, I know dunpeals like yourself don't age with the seasons like
the rest of us human folk do. I suppose if I could live as long as you do, I
would eventually find another woman to be with, to fill the void in my life,
but I'm old, miss. Old and tired. Not that I've got one foot in the grave,
mind you, I can still round up the herd with the best of 'em, but I'm tired
enough to just want to sit back and count the days until I can be with her once
again on the other side. Had the tables been turned I don't doubt she'd be
doing the same for me, so I'm not going to disappoint or dishonor her memory or
her love just for a few years of good times that an old man like me probably
wouldn't be able to enjoy like a younger man would.

"But you?" he said, setting his beer down to face her squarely. "I'll be
honest, I have no idea how old you are, and I'm not rude enough to be asking a
lady for her age, but I reckon you're plenty young enough to have several human
lifetimes ahead of you. If you and your man over there are serious about one
another, you shouldn't hesitate to make the best of it. Might only be for a
short while, might be for longer than my grandkid's life, but at least you have
that kind of time to enjoy life together. I had almost forty years with my
wife, and I thank the good lord for every second of it. And if the two of you
can find as much happiness and love with one another.... well, I wish you two
the best. Not much more than a man can say about that," he added with a shrug
and another deep sip of beer.

"Thank you, Red," Galen said very quietly, squeezing D's hand gently. She
looked over her shoulder at him, her blue-green eyes starting to fill with the
beginnings of tears again. She blinked as a shiver ran through her, causing
every single muscle in her body to twitch ever-so-slightly in unison. "Sorry,"
she muttered as a faint blush crossed her cheeks.

"It's okay," D said quietly, having likewise felt the gentle tingle in his
soul caused by the setting sun. He lifted his head as Rosie approached their
table, a knowing look of what might have been called motherly understanding on
her face as she set a simple metal key in front of him. She then briefly wiped
off the table with a damp cloth before moving over to another table, leaving
their half-empty mugs of wine on the table.

D and Galen exchanged glances before she blushed again, the pale crimson
tint of her cheeks providing a rather fetching contrast to the blue-green hues
of her hair and eyes. "You want to get my stuff out of the saddle-bag for me
while I go find out which room is ours?" she asked in an unusually quiet tone.
"I'll leave the door open so you know which one it is."

He nodded as he stood up, reaching out to grab the sword leaning against
the edge of the table. He paused as she tugged gently on his wrist, turning
him around to give him a soft but decidedly warm kiss. "Thanks," she whispered
as she grabbed the key with her free hand and headed towards the staircase at
the far end of the tavern.

"Night, miss," Red drawled quietly as she passed him, looking down at his
beer with a small knowing smile.

Galen paused to give him a slightly embarrassed look, the dark blush still
in full force on her cheeks. "Good night, Red. Thanks for the company. It's
not often that.... well, that I'm so openly welcomed in a place like this."

"Due respect, miss, it's not often we get paid a visit by a dunpeal like
you," Red countered gently. "Truth be told, I don't think we've ever had such
a visit, period. We're pretty fair-minded folk if you stop and try to get to
know us, and so we tend to treat strangers in the same way they treat us. You
and your hunter friend are the only dunpeals I ever heard of making an effort
to be friendly and all, so it's only fair that we return the favor. Manners,
you know," he added.

"Thank you," Galen said quietly, glancing over at D before turning around
and resuming her walk towards the stairs.

D watched her go for a moment before casting a glance at Red, absently
slipping the scabbard's strap over his chest to secure it against his back. He
was almost at the door when Red spoke up again, causing him to pause for a few
moments to listen.

"Word of advice, pardner," the old rancher said quietly. "Now I know you
ain't going to find no horse-thieves in these here parts, but we still get a
visit every now and then from a few nocturnal critters who have a taste for
horse-flesh. You might want to take your mount over to the stables at the end
of the town, just a short walk from here. Bart's a good man and he'll watch
over him for you. If he gives you any problems, just tell him you know me, and
if that don't do the trick, just come back here and I'll go have a word with
him m'self. He's a bit like Zeke, you know, but he's got better manners."

"Thank you," D said quietly as he pushed his way through the saloon-like
doors and into the cooling twilight air. He untied his horse and led him by
the reins up the street, able to see the wide structure of the stables a good
five hundred yards away.

((You know, D,)) the thing in his hand spoke up quietly, ((I have to admit I
never really thought about it myself. Honestly, how many times have you heard
of a dunpeal walking into a town for a casual meal? And I mean a true meal,
not just window-shopping for his or her next victim. Or a pair of dunpeals
traveling together? Sure, you hear about the vampires going for an evening
carriage ride with their brides, or their living sex toys depending on how you
want to look at it, but....))

"Enough," D said quietly.

((You're not listening, damn it,)) it protested with surprising harshness,
causing him to stop and glance down at his hand. ((Has this ever truly happened
before? Not that you or I are aware of, which means it is actually possible
that you are the first to do such a thing.))

"And?" he prodded quietly after pausing to search his memories for just
such an occurrence. The only thing he could think of was the time he had been
asked to meet another dunpeal in a very dark and seedy tavern ages ago. The
discussion had been distinctly blunt and open, rapidly degenerating to the
point where it had to be 'taken outside' to be resolved with rather unsavory
results. At least, unsavory to the other dunpeal....

((And I think that things back there went pretty damn good for happening
for the first time,)) it pointed out. ((Especially in a town that seems to have
been victimized in the past by other vampires and dunpeals. They opened up to
you, D, they gave you the chance to prove yourself. And then they welcomed you
as one of their own. I think that's pretty significant, don't you?))

D said nothing as he resumed guiding the horse up the road towards the
stables. He realized that the thing was right, however, that he had just been
pretty much accepted back there. At least in Red's point of view. Granted he
had apparently saved the man's daughter back then, which would have put him on
any man's good side, but the rancher seemed to have made a genuine attempt at
reaching out to him as a friend.

((And you know what's even more significant?)) it continued carefully. ((It
wasn't just you that got accepted. She did too, and she didn't have her own
legend to rely on. She didn't bother to hide herself from them, did she? No,
she just showed them who she really was and they liked what they saw. And you
can do the same, D, I know you can. You two are really are a pair, even if you
don't want to hear it,)) it added before falling silent.

D managed to keep his thoughts fairly empty until he reached the stables.
Bart turned out to be a fairly gruff man in his forties, his mannerisms giving
D the impression that he got along better with animals than most people. That
suited D just fine, needing only a very short and curt conversation with him to
have his horse guided into an empty stall for the night. He was almost back to
the stable doors before he remembered the change of clothes, quickly heading
back to extract them from the saddle-bags. His abrupt about-face seemed to
amuse the stablemaster, prompting a knowing smirk and an absent shake of his
head as he returned to his work.

D glanced down at the bundle he was carrying as he made his way back to
the combination tavern and inn, idly curious as to what she had picked up. A
cursory check revealed that it was little more than a clean blouse, some fresh
underwear, and a very small container of basic feminine toiletries. That last
drew a very quietly grunt of remote amusement from him, idly wondering why
women as a universal whole insisted on such things, or at least the items he
deemed non-essential. He readily understood the purpose of some of them, and
could even appreciate their usage despite being a male, but the 'need' of the
rest continued to elude him even after all this time.

Very little had changed when he returned to the tavern, his quiet entrance
briefly drawing a number of curious eyes before they returned to whatever it
was they had been doing. Red wasn't around but both his hat and his tankard of
beer were still lying on the table, suggesting that he had simply stepped out
for a moment. He could feel a number of discreet gazes following him as he
headed towards the stairs, the majority of them coming from the distant corner
of the room where the 'gaggle of geese' were still clustered together in quiet
conversation.

The stairs creaked quietly as he used them, not nearly as loudly as the
staircase in the Hive tavern had been, but still loud enough to be heard by a
majority of patrons still idly nibbling on the remains of their dinner. The
stairs terminated in a fairly darkened hallway that ran in both directions. He
could see Galen leaning against the wall at the very end of the left-hand wing,
causing him to hesitate slightly before heading over to her.

His sense of unease deepened as he drew closer to her, able to make out
the unsettled look on her face. She looked up as he approached, her cheeks
once again taking on a faint crimson tint for some reason. She still held the
key in her hand and the door next to her was slightly ajar.

"Thanks," she said quietly as D handed her the package she had picked up
back at the Cha'laka Hive. "Umm, D, we.... umm.... might need to think about
this one for a moment," she said in a hesitant tone, the blush on her cheeks
darkening slightly.

"Why?" he asked carefully, not entirely sure if he wanted to ask what was
wrong or not. He paused as she simply opened the door and edged back, giving
him a clear view of the inside of the room.

The room was roughly the same size as the tavern room they had gotten back
at the Hive. The walls were painted a soft pastel red color and the ceiling
was fairly high, probably too high for Galen to reach unaided and without any
sort of surface she could readily attach to. That meant she would likely have
to use the bed to sleep on, which was fairly large and over in the corner....

....Decorated in whites and reds with cutesy heart prints all over. The
pillows were likewise adorned with them, and a quick glance around showed that
everything else that could be decorated with them in fact was. He couldn't see
inside bathroom from his angle, but he had little doubt that the towels and
other sundry items inside were fabricated to match the rest of the decor.

He cast a sidelong glance at Galen, knowing a honeymoon suite when he came
across one and wondering what exactly was going through her mind at the moment.
"I see," he said very quietly, suddenly feeling an urgent need to go use the
toilet as his kidneys finished processing the wine.

"I think I gave everyone the wrong impression earlier," she muttered, the
cherry red glow on her cheeks tripling in intensity again. "I never cared for
cutesy girl stuff when I was growing up, so this really isn't my idea of....
well, you know," she added, seeming to blush even harder as she looked away
from him. "I don't want to embarrass you or anything, so I can go ask Rosie
for another room if you don't think this will be appropriate...."

She glanced back at him, blinking hard as she realized he wasn't there
anymore. Confused, she peered into the suite, blinking again as she saw him
half-way across the room and unstrapping the massive sword scabbard from his
back. "D?" she called out hesitantly.

He turned to look at her over his shoulder, his face perfectly impassive
as he gazed at her. "I thought you said you wanted to give them something to
talk about," he said calmly. He paused and watched with amazement as her face
and skin suddenly became as red as an overripe tomato, making him wonder just
how concentrated her blood was becoming from blushing so hard.

She leaned against the doorway as she began to feel light-headed, acutely
aware of the sudden change in her blood pressure. "That's.... not what I had
in mind," she muttered, mostly to herself. She looked up at him for a moment
before ruefully chuckling quietly, carefully slipping inside the room to very
quietly close the door behind her. "You really don't mind?" she asked.

"The room decorations do not concern me," D replied calmly as he laid his
sword against the wall. His cape was removed and neatly folded into a dark
square that was draped over the hilt, followed by his wide-brimmed hat. He
then turned around and headed towards the bathroom, intent on doing something
about that weighty feeling taking up residence in his bladder.

The bathroom was unusually spacious in his view as he stepped inside and
closed the door behind him. The toilet and sink were of the usual sizes, but
the shower stall appeared to be large enough to accommodate a small horse. The
reason why it was so spacious suddenly came to him as he finished his business
and flushed the toilet. The thought was enough to make him pause for a moment
as he washed his hands, shaking his head to clear the mental images once he was
finished. He quietly exited the bathroom, figuring that it had been either a
playful woman behind the architectural drawing board or somebody with entirely
too much free time and wishful imagination on their hands.

He found Galen waiting patiently just outside the door, her cheeks still
tinged pink with lingering embarrassment. He started to move past her to let
her use the facilities, pausing as he felt her gentle touch on his wrist. He
looked back at her to find a slightly curious look in her liquid-like eyes, her
lips moving up to brush against his in a feather-light kiss before poking her
head into the bathroom to look around. He could feel a sudden change in her
mood as she froze, very slowly leaning back out before looking up at him.

An icy chill promptly formed in his blood as he saw the emotions changing
in her eyes. Surprise at first, then curiosity, then a mixture of studious
assessment, careful playfulness, and sultry intrigue. She reached up to pat
the front of his tunic, creating a very slight puff of dirt and dust that made
her wrinkle her nose. "You're dirty, you know," she said softly.

"I know," he replied in a perfectly neutral tone, suddenly feeling like he
was looking down the business end of a fully-charged hyper-velocity railgun.

"You think that shower is going to be too big for you?" she inquired, her
fingertips lightly toying with the topmost button on his shirt. She glanced up
into his eyes and smiled gently, able to see the look of unease on his face.

"Why?" he finally asked after several moments of heavy silence. He knew
what she was getting at, of course, but he wasn't exactly sure what was going
through her mind. The kisses she had given him earlier was a definite clue,
but this was something he really didn't want to misunderstand in the slightest.

The blush started to return to her cheeks as she slowly undid the first
button on his collar. "Well, I was just.... wondering.... if you.... needed a
hand with that," she murmured softly. "Like I said, I don't want to embarrass
you or anything, D, I just.... thought it would be.... nice."

He said nothing for several moments as the second button came undone, her
fingertips starting to lightly explore the exposed skin beneath the dark fabric
of his tunic. He found the offer to be dangerously tempting for some reason,
and not just because she was an extremely beautiful and undeniably attractive
young woman. He had rarely allowed others to touch him before, and fewer still
to do so intimately, but there was something about her touch that made him want
to yield to her, to let her pry him open as one would a clam to get at what was
safely nestled beneath the armor....

"I've never done that before," he found himself saying very quietly.

She looked up at him with a faint twinkle in her eyes. She nodded as she
pressed herself against him, her lips softly brushing against his to produce
that now-familiar electric tingle. "It's okay, D," she breathed softly, her
lips continuing to brush against his as she spoke. "Neither have I."

Time seemed to turn to slush again as she deepened the kiss, the softness
of her lips parting just slightly to entice him to do the same. Her hands came
down to his, intertwining their fingers gently as they leaned against the wall.
It wasn't a deep or passionate kiss, but rather something that was slow and
gentle, neither one seeming to be in any rush to 'turn up the heat' or end the
soul-tingling experience.

She finally edged her head back from him, knowing that he was pretty much
pressed flat against the wall and had no room of his own to move around. She
smiled at him softly as she stepped back, keeping their hands together as she
led him back towards the over-decorated bed.

He almost panicked at first, thinking that he had either grossly misread
the situation or had completely zoned out and missed some crucial detail. He
breathed a silent sigh of relief as he realized that she wasn't trying to take
him to bed, but instead just needed a place for them to sit in order to remove
their excess traveling gear.

It turned out to be a fairly large pile of equipment. Her belt had only
been adorned with her rapier sheath and a pair of small pouches, but his belt
and chest bandolier had had been laden with far much more. He found it to be
oddly amusing to watch her eyebrows rise up higher and higher with each pouch
or tool or device that was removed and stacked on the floor. The two knives,
a pair of pure silver spikes, no less than a dozen small pouches, a compact but
extremely sturdy set of lockpicks, a magnetic compass, a small package of tiny
but wickedly-sharp caltrops, and a bundle of what looked like used tea-bags.

"Wolfsbane," D said quietly as she held up one of the pouch-on-a-string
packages, her eyebrows arched clear up to her hairline.

"Ah," she said simply as she set the tiny pouch back down and nudged it
away from her. While wolfsbane was primarily used to deter werewolves, more
than one full-blooded vampire had experienced an unpleasant allergic reaction
to the delicate herbal plant.

His armor was removed next, followed by his boots. He looked up as she
laid a hand on his wrist when he went to remove his tunic, giving him a gentle
look. She merely smiled in response to the questioning look on his face and
slipped out of her own boots, absently setting them aside as she stood up. She
then gently took hold of his other wrist and pulled him to his feet, edging him
away from the bed.

He frowned in slight confusion as she nudged him back a few paces and let
go, turning around to untuck the heart-dotted blankets and sheets. She drew
them down to the very foot of the bed and left them at a slight angle, as if to
make the bed ready for immediate use. That worried him as she turned back to
face him, reaching out once again to take hold of his wrist. He nonetheless
allowed her to lead him back towards the bathroom, stopping outside the open
door as she gently pressed him against the wall.

Her pale blue lips brushed against his as lightly as possible while her
fingertips took their time in toying with the third button on his tunic, the
feathery contact seeming to tantalize him with its shallowness and brevity. He
soon found himself leaning forward, trying to bring his lips into firm contact
with hers. She actually seemed to resist at first, edging back by fractions of
an inch to keep the contact super-light before allowing her lips to be very
gently captured by his. A pair of silent sighs seemed to whisper like ghosts
out of their noses as she relaxed against him, the third button parting beneath
her fingertips to expose more of his skin to her.

The kiss was gently broken as she leaned back to gaze into his eyes, her
eyelids half-closed as she studied him. Her hands came up to slide inside the
open collar of his shirt, very lightly caressing the pale skin of his neck and
upper chest. "I could probably kiss you like this for hours," she said in an
almost inaudible whisper.

The only proper response he could think of was another kiss, leaning his
head forward enough to capture her soft lips between his own once again. The
gesture was a bit more passionate that before, drawing a very soft sigh from
her as she continued to lightly caress his skin. The remaining buttons of his
tunic parted as if by magic, her hands seeming to need only glide over them to
entice the desired response.

A quiet sigh rose up from his chest as her hands slowly slid up the length
of his now-bared chest, seeming to be in no rush to push the fabric off of his
shoulders. A slightly louder sigh followed the first as her lips slid off to
one side, following the lines of his jaw and very slowly down to the curves of
his neck.

His world started to take on a distinctly blue tint a few seconds later at
the feel of her lips on his throat, lightly teasing the pale skin. The dark
desire of his vampiric blood quieted down a few seconds later as her lips came
back up to his, her hands gliding up to his shoulders to gently massage them
before moving off to the side.

He had allowed himself to be seduced before, first by Doris, then later by
Leila, and later still by the handful of trysts that had followed as he kept
his unusual promise to Leila, but none of them had ignited such a deep desire
to respond as Galen's attentions were doing. What truly amazed him was that it
wasn't an overly strong or burning compulsion either, leaving him feeling that
he had all the time in the world in which to proceed at his own pace.

Her black satin cape appeared to be secured only by a simple clasp, the
metal appearing to be forged from an amalgam of platinum and silver. The irony
of the discovery made him pause for a moment, realizing that it was virtually
identical to the composition of the rapier he had bought for her back at the
Hive. He quickly brushed the thoughts from his mind as he reached out to work
the clasp, absently wondering if it was tied around her body somewhere else as
well. The image of her hanging by it back on the bridge popped into his mind's
eye, realizing that she would surely have been choked if her entire weight had
been supported by a simple chain around her neck.

((D, watch it!)) the thing suddenly yelled as the clasp separated. He moved
back by sheer reflex at the warning, blinking hard as the metal links began to
move and twist back and forth like a pair of miniature metal snakes.

Galen blinked hard at the situation, taking a step back and reaching up to
touch the clasp with both hands. She glanced up at D and blushed, giving him
a deeply apologetic look. "Sorry, I completely forgot about that," she said in
a whisper as she stroked the edges of her cape. The moving links seemed to
calm down after a moment, gently relaxing to hang free from the mounting points
on the fabric itself.

"A silken?" D inquired carefully, having heard of the creatures but never
actually encountering one before. They weren't sentient beings in the sense
that his parasitic symbiot was, but rather empathic creatures that could react
to living beings if attached to them.

"A gift from the noble who sought to charm me," she replied quietly as she
very carefully removed the cape from around her shoulders. It seemed to resist
for several moments, almost like wet fabric sticking to a body, before it slid
free. The creature immediately became a mottled gray color as it was neatly
folded into a bundle and carried across the room, gently set down on top of the
pile of gear. She lightly stroked it for a few seconds before returning over
to him, her cheeks still faintly tinged with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," she apologized quietly again, her hands gliding across his
upper chest once again. "I tend to forget what it truly is. No matter," she
purred softly, her hands sliding up to caress the back of his neck. "So remind
me where we were?"

She closed her eyes as she was answered with a soft kiss, her lips parting
slightly beneath the gentle assault of quiet passion. She leaned back slightly
as his hands brushed against the collar of her blouse, letting him examine the
opal-like buttons. She barely felt the first two being undone and failed to
notice the third, only realizing that one had been touched as well once the
upper part of her blouse was parted to bare most of her upper chest.

Her breath seemed to snag in her throat as his head dipped down, leaving
a trail of soft kisses from her jaw down along the full length of her neck and
around her collarbone. The swells of her breasts were exposed but not entirely
so, kept in gentle confinement by the tension on the fourth button. Even so,
the feel of his lips brushing across the supersoft skin sent tingles of both
fire and ice coursing through her veins, her hands kneading the back of his
neck in a slow and gentle rhythm.

She almost opened her eyes as she felt his hands working on her blouse
again, only this time working the buttons from the bottom up. The cool air
seemed to tickle her stomach lightly as they were all undone save for a single
button, the one keeping the fabric pulled over the rest of her breasts. She
could feel his fingertips lightly caressing the muscles of her abdomen even as
his lips continued a gentle exploration of her exposed curves.

A soft noise rose up from her chest as she pushed his tunic off of his
shoulders, her fingertips gently guiding it down along his arms until it was
mostly bundled around his wrists. She then lightly pushed against his bare
chest, edging him away from her just enough so she could look into his eyes as
she slipped the material off of his arms.

He looked back at her as he cooperated, absently wondering just what the
hell he was getting himself into. The whole experience was unlike any other he
could remember having, part of him thoroughly enjoying her touch as she first
freed him from his tunic, then caressed all that had just been bared. Another
part of his mind was warning him that something was missing from the equation,
but that somehow it was in fact a good thing. He probably would have felt just
a little bit better if he knew what the missing aspect was, but right now he
already had more than enough to feel good about....

The button felt slightly cool as he lightly grasped it between his thumb
and index finger. A very simple and slight gesture of his fingers slipped the
button through the hole, allowing the blouse to part beneath its own weight.
She inhaled gently as the loss of tension registered, expanding her chest just
enough to cause the fabric to slide further and fall away to fully reveal her
feminine curves to his gaze.

He paused for a moment to study her breasts, entranced by the sheer beauty
that lay bare before him. She wasn't as voluptuous as some of the women he had
the privilege of seeing topless but wasn't flat-chested either, seeming to be
able to fit into his hands with perfection. Her areolae were a very pale shade
of powder blue and her nipples were an equally soft shade of light lavender.
They began to harden as he watched, seeming to draw inward and tighten up even
as her areolae started to crinkle in a most inviting fashion.

He could hear her sudden intake of breath as he leaned forward, gently
nuzzling the shallow valley of her cleavage. Her fingers started to intertwine
in his hair as he took his time, kissing her curves softly, inhaling the airy
scent of her skin, lightly tasting the softness of her quivering flesh. A very
slow exhalation followed as he began to tease her nipple directly, brushing his
lips against the hardened nub before giving it a deep and lingering kiss.

"D...." she whispered very softly, almost too softly for either one of
them to hear. He heard her nonetheless, giving her curves a final soft kiss
before letting his lips slowly migrate back up to the hollow of her throat. He
dared not let himself linger too long there, however, able to feel the heavy
throbbing of her pulse and sense the almost burning heat of her rapidly-flowing
blood as it called to him.

The temporal disconnect returned as his lips found hers once again, the
deep yet gentle kiss seeming to go on for an eternity. The feeling was broken
sometime later as her hands came up to his chest, her fingernails very lightly
gliding across his skin as they slid down to his waist. Their lips remained
melded together as they worked, his hands gently sliding the blouse off of her
even as her hands worked the fastenings of his pants.

He paused slightly as he ran his hands along the full length of her back,
his fingertips encountering a pair of ridges that he hadn't expected to find.
The feeling of her teeth only half-gently nipping his lower lip a moment later
provided a momentary distraction, listening to the faint intake of breath as
she suddenly breathed in.

"Sorry," she said in a very soft whisper as she edged back slightly, just
enough for her slightly-wide eyes to look into his. "They're sensitive to the
touch at the moment."

"How sensitive?" he asked softly, deciding it was best to hold off on the
more obvious question for the moment. They had felt like dorsal ridges of some
kind, running parallel to her spine along her lower back. Had he to guess, he
would have thought they were either an aspect of her Barbarois heritage she had
yet to mention or perhaps something that the silken creature had implanted to
attach to or otherwise make use of.

"Just use a light touch," she breathed softly in his ear as she leaned
into him, her lips brushing his earlobe as she spoke.

It took him a moment to focus enough to respond, distracted by the sudden
sensation of the front of his pants being opened. Her fingertips wriggled into
his waistband a moment later, gently loosening the fabric around him. He made
a soft sighing sound as he kissed the delicate shell of her ear, using as light
a touch as he could to probe the ridges on her back.

They felt fairly long, seeming to run for at least half the length of her
back, The surface was rough but not hard, unlikely to be something like bone
or cartilage. He decided it was best not to probe too long, knowing that he
would be able to see it for himself shortly. That she had failed to mention it
to him previously indicated that it was something she didn't feel comfortable
with or wanted to talk about, a concept that he could all too easily understand
and accept.

The thoughts of what was on her back became lost as he suddenly felt cool
air flowing around him, rushing into fill the displacement caused by his pants
succumbing to the force of gravity. He allowed them to settle down around his
ankles before leaning hard against her, bring his lips to hers in a deep kiss
as he shifted his weight to step out of the dark fabric. She seemed to be
surprised by the depth of the kiss but yielded instantly, molding her body to
his as he shuffled slightly.

A startling realization lanced through his brain with the force of a bolt
of lightning a moment later. Here he was, now just wearing a pair of ink-black
briefs and deeply kissing a half-naked woman that he would soon make a serious
attempt at transforming into a fully-naked one, his lips pressed to hers and
savoring the taste of her kiss....

....And the beast in his shorts was still taking a nap.

The shock was enough to almost physically throw him off-balance. What the
hell was wrong with him? Why wasn't he reacting to her touch, to her kiss, to
her taste, or to the thought of what lay ahead? Was he broken, or was there a
far more disturbing problem that he hadn't consciously picked up on yet? He
did want her.... right?

"D?" she murmured very softly as she sensed a sudden shift in his mood.
She edged back to look up at him, pausing slightly as she sensed a new kind of
barrier slipping into place around his personality. "Something wrong?"

He looked at her for a moment before shaking his head, leaning forward to
brush his lips against hers as softly as he could. "I'm not used to this," he
said softly. It was a literal truth, of course, as he simply couldn't lie to
her. Perhaps he would regret his rare attempt at faint misdirection, but for
the moment he just couldn't bring himself to mention his sudden doubts.

She giggled very softly and kissed him softly, briefly flicking the tip of
her tongue against his lips. A very soft humming purr rose up from her chest
as she felt him react slightly, clearly surprised by the new gesture. She slid
her hands around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder, turning to one
side to tease the edge of his ear with her lips.

Okay, D thought quietly to himself, suddenly feeling a slight increase in
the warmth of his blood at her shift in attentions. Perhaps there was far more
to the situation than he had realized at first. The reaction, subtle as it had
been, went a long way in reassuring himself that the plumbing still worked just
fine. Of course, it also meant that the problem was probably psychological in
nature, which meant that he still had a long way to go before he had his whole
situation ironed out.

He tried to split his attention as best he could, giving up after just a
few seconds as he realized that achieving any reliable degree of mental focus
at the moment just wasn't going to happen. He shoved the thoughts onto the
proverbial back burner as he caressed her shapely hips, deliberately tickling
her. He almost smiled as she wriggled against him in a most delightful way,
her breath audibly tangling up in her throat as she fought to quell her body's
reflexive actions.

He continued to tease her lightly before moving his hands down further,
gently working the fastenings to her pants. They seemed to readily part with
a simple touch, the zipper almost undoing itself as he glided his finger along
it. His hands followed the movements hers had earlier, gently working their
way inside the waistband to loosen it up before carefully sliding it down over
her hips.

The kiss came as a surprise to him, her body pressing hard against his and
almost mashing him against the wall. Her hips seemed to do a little dance as
she stepped out of her pants, her lips sealed to his with an almost frightening
intensity. And yet despite the fierce passion behind the kiss, there was still
the feeling of something missing, something that he knew should have been there
but simply wasn't.

They were both quite breathless when she finally relented, easing away
from him and taking the worst of the pressure off of his ribcage. Not that he
had minded it in the least, far from it, but being pressed up against the wall
like that was likewise not something he was used to. In fact, after stopping
for a brief instant to think about it, he honestly couldn't remember ever being
subjected to that rather delightful if unusual experience.

He paused to look her over for a moment, noticing that she was now just
clad in a pair of pale blue panties. She smiled gently at him as she noticed
his gaze, leaning back provocatively to let him drink in the soft lines of her
body. The gesture raised her breasts in the air, seeming to offer the pointed
nipples to him. It was an offer he didn't decline, dipping his head down to
very softly plant a series of kisses around the throbbing nubs that drew a very
quiet sigh of pleasure from her.

She finally straightened up and reached down, taking his hand in hers and
squeezing gently. "Come on," she whispered, moving towards the bathroom with
him in gentle tow. The tiled floor was dangerously cool beneath their bare
feet, neither one wasting much time in crossing the bathroom to stand on the
floormat outside the shower stall doors.

They both paused to cast a measured look at the towel rack before looking
at one another. The white towels were fairly large and adorned with tiny red
hearts. One had been emblazoned with 'his' in bright blue lettering while the
second said 'hers' in a vibrant pink script. Galen giggled quietly and leaned
forward to kiss him briefly before stepping into the shower stall, casting a
glance over her shoulder to indicate he should stay put for a moment.

D remained motionless as he watched her play with the shower settings,
adjusting the dial to a moderately hot temperature before giving it a gentle
yank. The showerhead immediately began to gurgle as the water flowed through
the pipes, causing her to quickly dance out of the way before she could be
soaked with what would likely be cold water. She stepped back out of the stall
to stand near him, her blue-green eyes seeming to study his physique with open
interest.

She looked up at him and smiled gently, staring into his eyes for a few
seconds before she suddenly blinked. She quickly looked around the room, her
gaze finally coming to rest on the small basket perched on the back of the
toilet tank. She padded over to examine it, giving him a clear view of the
dark brown lines marring her lower back. He could only view them for a brief
moment as she plucked several of the items out of the basket, quickly turning
around and bringing them back to him.

"These might help," she said playfully as she handed him a small plastic
bottle of shampoo and a miniature bar of soap.

"Indeed," he said quietly, glancing down at the standard-issue shampoo and
soap sets one found in virtually every inn across the planet. He stared at
them before finally looking back up at her, the expression his face causing her
to blink in surprise. "Galen...." he said in a soft tone.

"You do want some company with this, right?" she replied in a hesitant
tone, trying to gauge his mood.

"I do," he said honestly, feeling the anxiety easing just a little bit at
the look of relief on her face. "Can I ask you a favor?"

His eyebrows almost hit the ceiling as she smiled and stepped over to him,
a soft and almost predatory purr rising up from her chest. "Anything," she
whispered softly, reaching out to run her fingertips across his pectorals.

It took him a moment to remember what he was going to ask, realizing that
she had probably meant it when she said anything. "Would you turn around for
me, please?" he managed to ask in a level tone. "Just for a few moments."

A faint sadness seemed to cross her face for a brief instant before she
nodded, seeming to understand what he was asking. She reached out to take his
free hand in hers, holding his palm against the softness of her breast as she
twisted around to let him get a close-up and unobstructed view of the ridges on
her bare back.

"Part of your grandmother's heritage?" he said softly as he gave her a
very gentle squeeze. Her feminine flesh felt extremely soft and supple in his
hand, able to feel the hardened point of her nipple pressing against his palm.
It was enough to start to rouse his lust, sending a feeling of blooming warmth
throughout his veins.

"Yes," she whispered back, tilting her head to one side to rest it on his
arm. She didn't attempt to explain further, further solidifying his impression
that she was self-conscious about it.

He very gently pulled her against him, gently tossing the bar of soap and
bottle of shampoo into the shower stall before bring his other hand up to cup
her other breast. He started to knead them very gently, dipping his head down
to kiss the nape of her neck. "You're beautiful, Galen," he murmured softly,
knowing it was very much the honest truth and hoping it would distract her from
her current self-conscious mood.

She seemed to melt back against him with a soft sigh, likewise tossing her
own soap and shampoo into the shower. Her hands then came up to cover his,
gently massaging his knuckles as they continued to knead her soft flesh. Her
breathing began to deepen as he continued to kiss the side of her neck, tilting
her head slightly to give him better access.

Her pulse started to flutter even harder beneath his lips as he slid his
hands across the full length of her body, gliding down over her abdomen to slip
his thumbs inside the waistband of her panties. A few gentle tugs was all it
took to send them sliding down her shapely legs to puddle on the floor, his
fingertips pausing to linger over most of the bared skin before moving back up
to cup and cuddle her breasts.

He held perfectly still as she reached behind her, very gently trying to
return the favor. It was a slightly awkward evolution, but after a few tugs in
the wrong places she finally managed to work the fabric down far enough to let
gravity handle the rest. They both remained still for several moments, their
underwear still loosely around their ankles as the held one another.

A heated cloud of moist air billowed past them, causing them to open their
eyes and realize just how much steam was in the room. She turned around to
look up at him, her liquid-like eyes filled with warmth and tenderness as she
gazed into his dark eyes. They closed a moment later as he leaned forward, his
lips brushing across hers as he gave her a tight hug.

"You ready?" she whispered softly once the kiss was broken after a minor
eternity had passed.

"For you or for the shower?" D replied quietly.

"One thing at a time," she murmured back. She kissed him once again as
she took his hand, carefully stepping out of her panties and drawing him into
the now dangerously-warm shower stall. She waited for him to step out of his
own underwear before gently pulling him deeper into the vapor cloud, kicking
the forgotten bars of soap aside and closing the stall door behind him to trap
both the billowing steamcloud and themselves in the distinctly hot and soothing
embrace of a cleansing shower.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The shower was virtually over before D finally figured out what he had
been missing all along. The basic purpose of the shower was definitely taken
care of, namely purging their bodies of the layer of trail dust that they had
managed to acquire during the previous three days of travel. Granted it had
taken at least four times as long as it should have under normal circumstances,
but neither minded the excessive delays as they took turns gently soaping up
one another with gentle touches. It seemed that they spent more time kissing
than actually rubbing or scrubbing, but that was part of the fun.

The kisses has been warm and gentle, seeming to be content to take their
time and savor each individual brushing of the lips as a new experience. The
soapy caresses had been slow and gentle, even playful at times as a cleansing
lather was worked up, massaged around, and thoroughly rinsed off. Shampooing
one another had been a whole new experience as well, neither having done that
for anyone before. A few playful questions had led to them trying to compare
the length of their hair, discovering that D's was longer than Galen's by less
than a full inch.

But what surprised him the most was the realization of how they kissed and
caressed. It wasn't the deeply personal or invasive touches of experienced
lovers, but neither was it the timid explorations of someone new to the art.
There was genuine warmth and passion in it all, but it finally dawned on him
that what was missing was the feeling of lust.

That wasn't to say there wasn't an undercurrent of desire, as it was very
much present. What had been left out were the feelings of haste, of urgency,
of an overriding need to take one another and do it now. It seemed to him that
she was in no rush to increase the heat of the fires of passion, content to let
them burn with gentle warmth at their own pace.

He found it to be a refreshing feeling, as if time itself was actually on
his side for once in his life. He had very little reason to believe that their
gentle passion would be ending with the shower, but was instead left feeling
like it was going to be a very long night and for all the right reasons.

They looked up at one another as the shower was finally shut off, their
bodies covered from head to toe in countless drops and beads of water. A faint
smile crossed her face as she kissed him and took a step back, bracing herself
against the wall and taking a deep breath.

D flinched as she shook her head rapidly, sending a fair amount of water
flying into the air as her blue-green hair whipped back and forth. He gave her
a mostly-feigned look of unamusement as he wiped the droplets off of his face,
reaching over his shoulder to squeeze the majority of the water out of his own
dark mane of hair.

"You're no fun," she teased quietly as she cuddled up to him again, one
hand coming up to run her fingers through his damp hair.

"That's not what you said a few minutes ago," he pointed out in a somber
tone, drawing a quiet giggle and a very light blush from her.

"I'm a woman, I'm allowed to change my mind," she retorted with a playful
twinkle in her eyes. She giggled again as she got a dour look in response,
leaning forward to kiss him yet again. She figured that their lips should have
bruised by now from all the kissing, but she felt only a gentle tingle at the
contact. She parted her lips a moment later, flicking her tongue against his
lips to savor the natural sweetness of his kiss once again.

She shivered lightly as the shower door was opened, letting a distinctly
chilly draft creep in along the ground. She looked up as he reached out to
grab a towel, chuckling softly to herself as he could only grab the pink 'hers'
towel without having to take a few more steps. "Wait," she said very softly as
he began to brush the towel against her.

He paused in mid-motion and gave her a slightly curious look, wondering
what she was going to do this time. He watched as she took the towel from him
and wrapped it around her body for a few seconds before unwrapping it. She
then did the same to him, letting it enfold him for only a brief period of time
before removing it.

"Come on," she said quietly, taking his hand as she gingerly stepped out
of the shower. The damp towel was casually tossed onto the rack, leaving the
blue 'his' towel untouched. She paused to let the floormat absorb the worst of
the water on her feet before walking towards the door, still holding his hand
in a gentle grip.

"Galen...." he started to say in slight confusion.

"Trust me," she said over her shoulder as she opened the bathroom door.
The heavy cloud of steam that had built up in the bathroom promptly began to
billow out into the rest of the room, allowing an even colder gust of air to
surge inside to greet them both. The end result was a pair of light shivers
and a slight increase in their pace, leaving a trail of damp footprints across
the floor as they padded along in silence.

She led him over to the bed and climbed in, edging over to the far side to
give him enough room. She looked up at him as he hesitated, giving him a soft
sigh and a patient look. "What's wrong, D?" she asked quietly.

"I'm still wet," he protested, eyeing the water marks that were starting
to form on the sheets where she had touched them.

"Yes, I left us that way for a reason," she replied. "I'll show you in a
moment. Now you coming in or what?" she said lightly.

He gave her an uneasy look before gingerly laying down, feeling the heart-
dotted fabric start to absorb the water almost instantly. He blinked as she
reached down to grab the topsheet, pulling it over them almost up to the base
of their throats. She then scooted over to him, slipping his arm around her
and molding her body against his as she made herself comfortable. She laid her
head down in the crook of his arm, the warmth of her breath tickling his ear as
she exhaled slowly.

"There," she cooed softly, patting the sheet against his chest. The red
and white linens promptly adhered to them like a second skin, molding around
them to emphasize the curves of their naked bodies. She looked up to catch the
truly puzzled look on his face, unable to prevent herself from giggling softly
at the expression.

"I like sticking to the sheets," she explained softly as she closed her
eyes, letting her arm rest on his chest. "I usually take a hot shower and then
cool off like this. Yes, the sheets stay wet at first, but they dry out soon
enough and cool you as it goes. And if it gets too cool, you just reach down
and grab the blankets."

"Okay," he said slowly. The simple physics of evaporation made sense to
him, but the reasoning for doing so wasn't so easy to grasp.

"I just figured we could cuddle for awhile, that's all," she murmured,
edging herself a little closer to bring her lips in contact with the soft skin
of his neck. She paused before lifting her head up to give him a playful look.
"Or is that something else you're not used to?" she inquired lightly.

He turned his head to look at her, his expression impassive as he gazed at
the soft contours of her face. "Why would I be?" he asked, trying to keep his
tone free from any negative influences.

She sighed and laid her head back down, absently tracing patterns over his
chest with a fingertip. "I've heard the stories," she said quietly. "About
how every so often you would wind up in bed with a young woman. They all said
the same thing, too, that you were always gentle with them. Most said that it
was the best night of their lives, lying in your arms until you left with the
morning sun. Surely you didn't just sweep them off of their feet, slipped them
out of their clothes, and made them breathless with passion and pleasure."

A very soft sigh rose up from her chest as she received silence in reply,
barely able to make out the sound of his breathing even with her head on his
shoulder. She glanced up at him, pausing as he saw his empty gaze focused up
at the ceiling, seeing and yet not seeing at the same time. "D?" she asked in
a very soft whisper.

"I would rather not talk about it," he said quietly.

"Why not?" she prodded, her question causing him to refocus and cast a
sidelong glance at her out of the corner of his eye. His head turned after a
few seconds to look directly at her, revealing a faint veil of pain.

"I'm not interested in what the stories have said about me," he finally
said in a somber tone. "To borrow a uniquely human phrase, I don't kiss and
tell. It would be best if you were to form your own opinions and not rely on
the whispered words of others who weren't there."

"Ah," she purred very softly. "The shield of honor comes to bear, hmm?
I understand, D," she said, lifting her head up to brush her lips against his.
"Sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. Although I hope you won't blame me
for trying to see if the truth is being told about you. I'd hate to think that
the stories of your tenderness and gentleness are wrong...."

A very soft and hollow grunt rose up from his throat as he looked back up
at the off-white ceiling again. "I have no desire to harm anyone who doesn't
deserve it," he said quietly. "You should know that by now."

"And what about me, then?" she inquired softly. "I'm a dunpeal like you,
and you already said our blood needs to be destroyed. Does the circumstances
of my birth mean I deserve to be harmed?"

He blinked and turned to look at her, a faint chill working its way down
his spine as he saw the somber look in her eyes. "You're different," he said
in a calm tone. "You're not like the others."

"So what will you do with me?" she whispered softly, her eyes suddenly
filling with painful uncertainty. She blinked hard and edged back as he sat
up, turning to the side to put his feet on the floor. "D?" she asked as he
leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs and bowing his head slightly.

"I don't know," he said softly, almost too softly for her to hear.

The bed creaked slightly as she sat up and moved over to him. The sheet
draped across them both as she hugged him, gently locking her arms over his
chest and resting her cheek against his back. He subconsciously leaned back
against her, the odd feelings of both cool dampness and burning warmth blending
together to provide a very unique feeling of comfort.

"D?" she said softly, her face still pressed against his upper back. "We
discussed this once before. I'm a noble who only has my pride and honor left
to truly call my own. I will not beg for my life or otherwise ask you to spare
me from the death you believe I deserve."

"Galen...." he whispered hoarsely, his voice rasping in his suddenly too-
dry throat. He closed his eyes as she turned her head, tenderly brushing her
lips across the nape of his neck.

"All I ask is that you let me enjoy what I have," she said. "And right
now, I have you. I don't care if that will change when the dawn comes, I just
want to hold you for awhile."

D said nothing as he leaned back against her. He simply couldn't bring
himself deny her that much, not even if he wanted to. He found himself wanting
her as well, wanting to feel the warmth of her touch, the soft taste of her
kiss. Leila's soft voice rose up from the depths of his memory, reminding him
of the promise he had made to her. The spectral whisper was banished from his
mind a moment later, not out of malice or pain but simply because her words
were unnecessary this time.

He could feel the softness of her bare breasts as she hugged him tighter,
the aching points of her nipples leaving a tiny pair of dents in his back. A
soft blue glow filled his eyes a few moments later as she tilted her head, her
lips sliding along the curve of his neck to kiss the side of his throat. The
glow became stronger as the kiss deepened, feeling her lips parting to gently
nip his flesh with her teeth.

"D? she murmured softly. "Have you ever kissed one of our kind before?"

He blinked at the question, knowing that she didn't mean the soft kisses
they had been sharing for most of the evening. He had been bitten twice by
vampires before, but only during the heat of battle and only because his arm
had gotten in the way and provided a convenient attack of opportunity. There
had likewise been a few times in which his dark bite had been his only weapon,
used not to feast on blood but only used to seriously injure his opponent.

"No," he said very quietly. He suddenly tensed as he felt her teeth nip
his throat again, just a little harder than the last time. Then he felt the
twin points of her vampiric fangs, ever so lightly scratching his skin as she
gave his throat a lingering kiss. "Galen...." he started to say, only to fall
silent as her hand came up to his mouth, a pair of fingertips lightly pressing
against his lips.

He simply closed his eyes as she gently tugged on him, leaning him back at
an angle to rest against her. Her other hand came up to stroke his chest, her
head tilting to one side to get a better angle. He knew what she was going to
do, something he had never allowed to happen before. Various encounters with
his kind and others had drawn his blood, but never before had he willingly let
it be taken from him....

His entire world suddenly ground to a halt, flushing a deep shade of dark
blue and pulsing in time with his heart as his corneas luminesced like they had
never done before. The pain was as exquisite as it was inconsequential, deep
and shallow at the same time, and producing a feeling unlike anything he had
ever experienced since his birth. He realized right then and there that if
this is what Doris had felt, or Leila, or any of the others he had taken blood
from in the past, then he had grossly underestimated the emotional impact it
would have had on them.

And then she started to sip the blood from his veins.

If the simple act of being bitten by her made him question everything he
had done since the first days, then the feeling his blood drawn out by her was
enough to sear every single synapse in his brain with pleasure. He could feel
his body reacting as it had never done before, tensing, relaxing, melting all
at once. He could feel everything and nothing at the same time, no idea what
his hands were doing at the moment, no idea if he was sitting up or laying down
or whatever. And at the moment, he didn't give a good goddamn.

Her lips, her soft and supple, wonderful lips worked gently against his
skin as she sipped his blood, gently drawing out tiny crimson pearls of liquid
life to bathe her tongue with his essence. Waves of pleasure crashed into him
with each gentle stroke of that warm and wet muscle, lapping up the droplets
that welled up through the puncture marks.

His breath left his lungs in an explosion as she bit him again, her fangs
piercing deeper into the same spot even as his body tried to seal the wounds.
The mixture of pain and pleasure brought him dangerously close to orgasm, the
sheer force of his pulse making his manhood throb like a rabid animal raging
against the bars of a cage. The rest of his body was likewise as taut, kept in
check only by the warmth of her presence and the gentle touch on his chest.

He didn't know if he was alive or dead at that point, only aware of the
fact that he was with her, her lips at his throat, and very slowly sampling the
blood that burned like liquid fire in his veins. His vampire nature was well
beyond his control, fully awake in ways it had never been allowed to be but
still restrained by the tender force of another. He knew he would return the
favor, he would have to lest he go completely mad, but there was something
about the whole experience that left him content to wait his turn. She would
be his soon, but for the moment he belonged to her in ways he simply couldn't
have imagined before....

His whole body was suddenly wracked with the most pleasurable of spasms as
she bit him a third time, piercing him even deeper than before. This time he
did orgasm, the shockwave of pleasure coursing through his body until he was
erupting like a volcano. He could feel her hand leave his chest and come down
to grab his hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing firmly as the worst
of the spasms finally abated.

He simply had no idea how long she tasted his blood, but he knew the exact
moment she ceased. The loss of contact was like an icy shock, freezing his
nerves solid and leaving him feeling utterly drained in more ways that he could
count. Perhaps it was just the stress and the relieving of that stress in his
body finally catching up to him, but he found himself unable to move as she
leaned back and rested his cheek against the softness of her breasts.

It seemed an eternity passed before his strength returned, creeping along
the length of his body and thawing his nerves from their icy prisons. His eyes
opened a few minutes later, seeming to take forever to adjust and bring focus
to the solid wall of blue he was seeing.

The world promptly faded to black again as she tilted his head back, her
lips gently pressing against his to send that most delightful of electrical
sensations throughout his body. It seemed to speed up the recovery process,
reawakening his senses one degree at a time until he was fairly confident he
knew were everything was again. His legs were still hanging over the edge of
the bed, feeling dangerously cold from lack of circulation. One hand was still
intertwined with hers while the other was.... where?

It took him a moment to realize it was wrapped around her ankle, and that
the only way they could be in that position without breaking anything was if
she was curled up in a ball around him. He sighed softly as he kissed her, a
dark tingle shooting throughout his body as he could taste not just her but his
own blood as well. The tingle deepened as her lips parted, her tongue coming
out to very gently slide between his own lips to give him a better taste.

"D?" she whispered when she finally edged back, her voice dangerously raw
with several emotions. "Are you alright? I.... didn't think it would have
that strong of an effect on you...."

It took him three tries to get the knot out of his vocal chords, barely
managing to audibly whisper her name on the third attempt. "G.... Galen," he
rasped. "I.... have.... never...."

His voice failed him again as he focused enough to part his eyelids and
look up at her. Her face was clearly insectoid at the moment, her usually pale
skin a very light shade of mottled brown. A pair of sensory ridges had formed
on her forehead like rudimentary antennae, and her glowing red eyes were very
strongly faceted. Even with her Barbaroi blood on display like that, he still
found her to be incredibly beautiful.

D very carefully sat up, almost falling back down as he felt a momentary
empty feeling in his skull. His blood pressure stabilized a moment later and
he carefully turned around. He moved to kneel next to the bed before pausing,
casting a quick glance around as he suddenly remembered making an orgasmic mess
in the recent past. He made a face as he saw where it had ended up, making a
mental note to run her boots through the shower in the morning.

He returned his attention to her as he knelt down on the floor, gently
drawing her curled-up form over to him. He then began to caress her entire
body with his fingertips, starting at her ankles and taking his time in moving
upwards.

The skin of her lower legs and arms had taken on a dark brown cast but had
remained otherwise unchanged. The woodland coloring started to drain out as
his fingertips gently caressed and massaged her, lulling her Barbaroi blood to
sleep and restoring the pale, flawless perfection that he was used to. Her
muscles readily relaxed at his touch, seeming to melt into patches of fibrous
flesh that he took his time exploring and mapping.

He closed his eyes at her touch, her fingertips gliding through his still-
damp mane of hair. He worked for several minutes by touch alone, his hands
sliding and caressing the supple expanse of her legs. His eyes opened once
again as he reached her upper thighs, one hand slipping between them to gently
part her legs and expose her most sacred of treasures.

The downy hair here was the same as the rest of her hair, each individual
strand seeming to be unable to make up its mind if it wanted to grow blue or
green. They were softer and finer to the touch as well, a very gentle mass of
silky strands that almost but not quite concealed everything from his gaze.

He leaned forward to kiss her there, his fingertips parting the soft mass
of hair to let his lips brush against the velvety folds of her sex. The scent
of her musk tickled his senses a moment later, a rich, intoxicating, almost
dizzying scent that warmed his blood in an instant. He knew she was ready for
him, and had been ready for quite some time. The scent only served to further
temper his resolve to take her, to yield to her desires and not deny her the
pleasure she needed.

He teased her for several minutes with his tongue, flicking out to caress
the firm pearl of her womanhood from several directions. Even without hearing
her soft cries of pleasure or feeling her hands knead his scalp, he could tell
that he was having an effect on her, giving her the attention her body craved.

His lips finally slid upwards, taking a very slow and meandering path
across her groin and up to the flat smoothness of her stomach. The soft sounds
that were whispering up from her throat didn't diminish at all as he worked,
seeming to savor his attentions without being in a frenzied rush. He figured
she was either the most patient life-form he had ever encountered or that he
was overlooking something else. It didn't matter to him at the moment, as he
knew that he would put a strangle-hold on time itself if need be in order to
pleasure her the right way.

He allowed his hand to stray back down to her sheath, lightly caressing
and toying with the supersoft strands of hair as his lips finally reached the
base of her breast. He decided to let his tongue do most of the work, slowly
tracing the circumference of her breast in a large circle before moving over to
tease the opposite one in an identical fashion.

It soon evolved into a sort of a figure-eight pattern, tonguing a circle
around one breast before sliding across to the other. The circles began to
shrink in size, eventually encountering the pale circles of her areola. His
tongue was starting to get a little sore by that time, so he switched tactics
and began to use his lips instead.

Her hands never left his neck and upper back as he continued to pleasure
her, a soft but steady mantra of whispered moans and gentle sighs escaping her
lips. Her hips began to twitch ever so gently, rocking back and forth in slow
and subtle motion as his hand continued to caress her honeyed sheath. A wave
of pleasure washed over her without warning as he opened his mouth to nip the
throbbing, aching tightness of her nipple, bringing her to a gentle orgasm and
catching them both by surprise.

The volume of her soft cries increased slightly as he didn't relent even
for a moment. He gently rocked his head from side to side, passing her nipple
between his parted teeth in a light scraping motion. A single fingertip began
to caress the full length of her labia, first tracing one super-sensitive fold
of flesh before repeating the same process with the other.

He lifted his head up as he heard her whisper his name, calling out for
him in a soft voice that said she was ready for him, that she wanted him and
couldn't wait any longer. It was a call he didn't want to refuse, giving her
thoroughly-stimulated nipple a lingering kiss before moving up to give her a
deep kiss on her pale blue lips. He paused for a moment as he almost sliced
himself open on her fangs, still fully extended and prominently displayed as
she whimpered softly.

Taking the unintentional hint, he dipped his head down to kiss her throat
softly, marveling at the feel of her humming vocal chords beneath his lips. He
could also feel the strength of her pulse, thrumming a heavy tempo in a most
alluring fashion. He very gently nipped her, using the very edges of his flat
teeth to see what sort of reaction he would draw from her.

He blinked as she tensed, her arms tightening around his shoulders in an
almost painful grip. Her breathing drastically changed as well, deepening even
further even as it started to rasp in her throat. Fearing that any attempt at
biting her would make matters worse, he started to edge away only to discover
that he didn't have any room to move at all.

"Galen?" he whispered very softly, unsure of what to do now. He received
his answer as her hand came up to caress the back of his head, gently pressing
his mouth back down to the soft skin of her throat. The rest of her started to
react as well, her free hand all but dragging him into bed and drawing his body
over hers in an unmistakable indication of what she wanted from him.

He wasn't sure which part of him reacted first, his vampiric nature as he
kissed her throat again or his manhood as it brushed against the soft patch of
her pubic hair. The simultaneous reaction of both was enough to overload his
conscious mind, producing a momentary disconnect from one second to the next.
The haze soon cleared, leaving him almost breathless with desire, a need to
pleasure her and be pleasured.... and a hunger for her in a way he had never
felt before.

The rich, heady scent of her blood called to him as he brought his lips
to her throat, finding a throbbing conduit of life within moments. He kissed
her softly, tenderly, gently as if it was the first time he had ever done so.
Her skin seemed to dance at the contact, able to feel the vein fluttering in
a reflexive action. The sharpened points of his fangs touched her skin next,
just lightly enough to dent the pale flesh without breaking it. He closed his
eyes as he felt, not just felt but heard her pulse echoing inside his ears,
inside his mind, inside his very core.

There were no true thoughts of hesitation that he was aware of. She was
offering him her blood, almost begging in a way for him to taste it, to savor
her life's essence as she had his minutes ago. He was aware of the call of her
body as well, the exquisite warmth of her sheath waiting for his hardness to
enter her, to fill her with passion and pleasure. Never before had he been in
such a position where a woman was offering him so much, not like this, not when
his own body, his own blood was begging, almost screaming to accept.

So why was he hesitating?

A soft whispered voice drifted up from the depths of memory, one of the
many voices of the past that had haunted and tormented him his entire life.
This one, however, was one of the all-too familiar ones, coming not to wrack
his soul with guilt or pain, but to soothe and calm his doubts.

Remember.... Leila whispered to him, a soft and loving smile on her face,
slowly to do it right, and doing it for the right reasons....

He stopped for a moment, wondering what were the right reasons for taking
Galen like this. Because she wanted him to? Because he wanted to? Because of
all they had shared in the past three days? Did it matter that he would have
to decide in two days if he had to kill her or not? Could he even be able to
do so if he took her body and blood? Would it matter?

You made a promise, something said in the back of his mind.

Very well, he thought to himself as he took a deep breath. He would try
to sort out things later when he had the time and luxury of being able to think
straight, but right now he had a promise to keep....

....And a woman to make love to.

A truly deep sigh rose up from her throat as he slipped inside her, very
gently filling her depths with a measured thrust. Her response was very much
expected, tilting her head back even farther in a reflexive motion. Her quiet
sigh of pleasure quickly changed to a sharp gasp as he bit down, his fangs
carefully penetrating the large vein beneath her skin in a quick strike. Her
blood flowed across his tongue almost instantly, the incredibly warm and rich
taste making his senses reel with delight like no other experience could.

He almost cried as a mental fuse was blown an instant later, able to not
just taste her blood but her emotions as well. The sensation washed over him
with the force of a tidal wave, threatening to sweep him away in a torrent of
pleasure, passion, pain, warmth, tenderness, happiness, contentment, desire....

The sense of the passage of time went screaming out the proverbial window
as he began to move within her, a series of slow and gentle thrusts that left
distinct ripples of super-sweet flavor in the taste of her blood. Each slow
movement inside her brought out the sweetest of pleasurable tastes, and each
measured withdrawal resulted in a keen sense of loss, almost sorrow, only to be
replaced with a sense of yearning and anticipation for the next stroke. The
experience left him dangerously disoriented, only able to focus on the taste of
her blood and the feeling of her body beneath him, surrounding him.

How in the hell had he missed this one? Of all the times he had taken a
woman's blood, he hadn't done so while actively engaged in making love to them.
Sure, the latter tended to follow the former in almost every instance, but why
hadn't he thought of trying them together? The result of doing so was almost
literally blowing his mind inside-out, leaving only the barest threads of his
consciousness intact to think about the situation.

His jaws flexed slightly to bite her again, doing so even before he could
realize that the flow of blood had slowed down due to her regeneration. He
didn't want to leave his fangs imbedded in her skin, afraid of what it might
result in. He felt her body shudder beneath him as her throat was pierced for
the second time, his eyes almost popping out of his head as her sheath became
as tight as a vice from her orgasm.

He barely managed to retain control of his own body's response to the vast
increase in pleasure, having the hunch that the only reason he was able to do
so was because he had already orgasmed himself earlier. A momentary feeling of
shame washed over him at the thought, and not just because of the mess he had
made on her boots. Although now that he thought about it, if being bitten was
every bit as orgasmic for her as it was for him....

He waited until she had recovered before drawing his tongue over the twin
wounds, lapping up the crimson globs of blood before carefully biting her for
a third time. The reaction was just as immediate as the first time, feeling
her whole body shudder as a single entity as the waves of pleasure ran amok
through her nervous system. Her sheath tightened around him once again, but
even prepared for it he wasn't able to stave off a response of his own.

She seemed to pull him tightly against her as he came, almost driving his
fangs back into her throat as she clutched him. Her internal muscles seemed to
ripple slightly, increasing the hyper-stimulating sensation and threatening to
spark a whole new explosion of pleasure.

They simply held one another for several minutes, his tongue still lapping
up the droplets of blood that flowed from her throat before the wound finally
sealed itself. Her hands began to caress his back, a slow and gentle sweeping
of her fingertips up and down his spine. They were both quite breathless and
beyond words, content to enjoy the intimate comfort and warmth of their mutual
afterglow as he lay buried within her depths.

A soft, almost plaintive whimpering-moan drifted up from her throat as he
gently withdrew from her, her arms tightening around him in an effort to keep
him with her, inside her. A soft but deep kiss convinced her to relax, letting
him slide off to the side just enough to take his full weight off of her. The
very soft sigh that followed was one he easily recognized, filled with the deep
disappointment that the love-making was officially over for the moment but at
the same time quietly relieved to be free from the mild crushing sensation of
his body on top of hers.

He kissed her again before edging back, giving him enough room to reach
down and grab the blankets. The heart-dotted linens were careful drawn up to
their waists, trapping part of the burning heat of their bodies to keep them
warm while still letting the worst of it escape so they didn't cook themselves.

He laid his head down on her shoulder, brushing his lips against her soft
skin as she cuddled against him. Time seemed to slip past them in silence as
they held one another, their pulses and their breathing eventually slowing down
to a more moderate tempo as both their passions and the air cooled.

"I see why you're not worried about the stories," Galen murmured softly
sometime later, her fingertips coming up to stroke his hair.

"And why is that?" D inquired, only now starting to wonder just what he
had gotten himself into this time.

She gently rolled over onto her side, very carefully pulling him up higher
on her arm so she could bring her lips to his. "They were right about you,"
she whispered, her lips brushing against his as she spoke. "But they don't do
you justice. You are.... far more than they had claimed."

He couldn't have said anything in reply even if he had wanted to, finding
the air gently drawn out of his lungs by the warmth and gentleness of her kiss.
Her leg came up to gently slide between his own, intertwining their bodies even
as their lips seemed to fuse together as a single entity.

"D...." she whispered softly after another minor eternity had passed. "I
don't want you to read too much into this, but.... if you're going to kill me,
could you.... could you do it right now?"

"What?" he said, clearly startled by the soft request.

It seemed to take a long time for her to find the words to reply. "Just
before you came to kill my father.... he sent me away from him, saying that he
didn't want my last memory of him to be of his death," she said in a very soft
and somber tone. "I understood what he was saying, which is why I left him and
waited for you outside. If.... if I am to die, D, then let it be now while I
still have this memory of you."

"Galen...."

"Please," she whispered, giving him a tender kiss as her tears started to
well up. "I have never felt this.... satisfied, this fulfilled, this.... happy
in all my life. I don't want this feeling to end, D, I.... don't want to lose
you now that I have you. In my arms.... inside me.... in my.... in my heart,"
she whispered before her voice failed entirely.

His voice likewise refused to work as she embraced him, pressing their
bodies together in a gentle but tight hug. The sting of her tears on his skin
registered a moment later, tiny drops of acid-like moisture dripping onto his
shoulder and leaving a searing path down his skin. Why tears burned him he had
yet to figure out, but a couple of experiments awhile ago had confirmed his
suspicions that exposure to them was every bit as dangerous as sunlight. At
least, it was to him....

"I'm not going to kill you," he said softly, only realizing after he had
spoken that he had already decided the issue long ago. He wouldn't be able to
bring himself to hurt her, not unless she did something truly deserving of such
a fatal strike. But that only made the chaos in his mind even worse. What was
he supposed to do with her if he couldn't bring himself to kill her? And as
long as there was another dunpeal in the world, how could his life-long quest
ever be finished? What would all the sacrifices he had made mean then?

The deep kiss that followed his words took both their breaths away, filled
with the joy of relief and the warmth of happiness. There was even a hint of
renewed passion in the kiss, something that might have been explored a little
further if they both weren't still thoroughly exhausted from earlier. Whether
the feeling of weakness was from draining one another of blood or if it was
because their love-making had really been that good they couldn't tell, but
at the moment neither one really cared why.

"So...." she whispered once the kiss was broken, reaching up to stroke his
cheek. "Now what?"

He almost sighed at the question, knowing there were literally countless
ways he could answer her but only one would be the literal and honest truth.
"I don't know," he replied softly, looking up at her to stare into the depths
of her multi-faceted eyes. The red composite shape smoothly melted back into
the liquid-like ring of blue-green a moment later, the few lingering traces of
her unique heritage fading away as she regained full conscious control of her
body's reactions.

"I don't suppose you'll stay with me?" she asked, seeming to be uncertain
of the situation.

He nodded slightly. "We still have a promise," he reminded her gently.
"We will resume traveling to your mother's resting site in the morning, and we
should be able to figure out something by then."

"Just don't leave me, D," she implored in a soft whisper. "Not after what
we just shared. Not just the love-making, but.... everything," she said, her
hand coming up to press against his to intertwine their fingers.

She closed her eyes as he leaned forward, her lips parting as he gave her
yet another soft and deep kiss. She made the softest of moaning sounds as his
tongue momentarily flicked against her lips, causing her to reflexively try to
capture it between her teeth. She ended up nipping his lower lip instead, the
sensation resulting in a very quiet sigh of his own and a gentle increase in
the tightness of their intimate embrace.

"D?" she murmured softly, very lightly chewing on his lip.

"Ask me in the morning," he replied with a faint hint of dry amusement to
his otherwise somber tone. The tone made her giggle very softly, bringing a
light blush to her cheeks at the realization that he had apparently been able
to read her mind.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, giving him another kiss.

"Don't be," he replied as he leaned down, planting a light kiss on the
swell of her breast. He paused as he felt her hand on the back of his neck,
very gently pressing his mouth against the tightening point of her nipple. He
allowed himself to do what she wished him to do, parting his lips slightly to
capture the nub of sensitive flesh.

"D?" she breathed softly as the tingles of pleasure started to run rampant
through her body once again. "Are you sure I can't convince you to make love
to me again? It would be.... nice.... to have you inside me some more...."

He paused and lifted his head up slightly, drawing the nipple upwards with
his lips until the tension slipped it free with the faintest of popping sounds.
"Galen...." he started to say quietly.

"Let me enjoy you while I still have you," she whispered breathlessly.
"Even if it means our bodies might regret it in the morning. Please...."

D paused to assess his body's condition. Being a dunpeal meant that his
capacity for regeneration made for some truly impressive stamina. However, he
knew that there was a major difference between sealing a wound and replenishing
his life-energy, which between the blood-taking and dual orgasms is precisely
what he had lost a fair amount of earlier. "It might take awhile," he warned
her in a carefully guarded tone. "And we still have to get up in the morning,"
he added, more as an after-thought than as an actual reason.

He almost sighed at the soft laughter that rose up from her chest, the
motion causing her supple breasts to jiggle in a most inviting fashion. "I've
waited my entire life to meet someone like you, D," she murmured, reaching out
to run her fingertips through his hair again. "And you've already proven to be
worth the wait. Take your time, hunter, please.... take your time."

This is going to be a long night, alright, he thought to himself with a
gentle shake of his head before lowering his mouth to her body once again.