The night moon was full, shining like a pearl in the sky as the vampire lord stood at the top of the ramparts of his castle. He waited there, looking down at the preparations for his wedding this night to a very troublesome girl who had for nights on end eluded him. Soon, though, it would be resolved, he would have his bride, and his dhampir son would be Embraced as a full vampire before taking his own bride.
Truly, this night was turning out to be one of the best he'd seen in a long time.
"I was beginning to wonder when you'd return," Tremere stated as he glanced back to the new arrival. Standing there, fresh blood on the blade of his broadsword, Grigori was grinning from ear to ear. "I take it that the hunter is dead."
A nod as Grigori stepped over to his father, knelt down, and held up the sword as a trophy. "A stake through the heart," the dhampir said with pride. He looked up at his father, noting the gleam of approval in the vampire's eyes. "He was quite a fight, but is seems that iron is the greatest weakness of a dunpeal."
With the sword in his hand, Tremere gestured for his son to rise and stand by him. "You have made me proud indeed, Grigori." The vampire flashed a smile to his son. "This night, after Catherine is made my bride, you too shall join the ranks of the eternal, as a prince."
Yes, to be a full blooded vampire, immortal and unaging for all eternity. That was the reward he had worked all these centuries to attain, and soon, it would be his. After that, his pleasures and indulgences would be unending. He would claim the older sister as his property, perhaps enthrall the brother as his slave, and then, someday, he would travel to take his own domain in the frontier.
Yes, indeed, this night had been a good one.
The brunette young man stumbled toward the castle. His head was hurting, not to mention the wound on his head was bleeding, but Daniel Ran ignored all that as he held his rifle tightly. His sisters needed him, this all had happened because he'd sent the hunter away. "We should have trusted him," the young man stated, setting the power charge in the rifle's chamber. "Should have given him the chance to prove himself again, but I was too damn scared to listen to reason, and this happened...it's all my fault."
Something moved in the trees. Turning, Daniel raised his rifle and fired just as a large rat-like creature leapt out at him. Dead shot right into the head, the komodo rat exploded like a ripe fruit. The young man looked around for any more of the creatures, then continued on his way toward the castle. He was tired, exhausted, but all that was pushed back by the burning anger, sheer will and determination.
There. The castle bridge was down, waiting for him just as Grigori had promised. They were waiting for him to join as witness to the wedding, to accept his sisters' fates as bride to the vampire and his half-breed son. No doubt he was expected to simply stand by and watch as his sisters were turned into the undead.
Well, the vampire and his minions were going to be in for one hell of a surprise.
Nothing stirred in the ruins of the Ran farm. No crickets chirped, no animals moved about, nothing was there that showed signs of life. It was a dead place, with the smell of death all around.
But then, something moved. Flashing about the surface of the golden gauntlet, the demon face of Varda appeared, looking around to find D laying against the rubble, a stake through his left breast and blood oozing out. "Oh hell," he muttered. "This isn't good at all." The face shifted about, found no way to enable himself movement, then sighed. "You know, sometimes I do wish I was in your hand and not this damn fancy glove, because then I could do something about all this!"
Something was now coming. Varda shifted to see some kind of gaseous creature floating toward them. A mist creeper, harmless to humans and large animals, being that it was primarily a scavenger and not a predator of large prey. However, in the case of large dead animals, it was known for seeking out a feast of a meal. And considering the amount of blood that was pooling around D, that was going to attract one hungry mist creeper, not to mention anything else that happen to be in the area.
"This is definitely not good!" Varda cried out. Jolts of electricity shot through D's body, vainly attempting to revive the young hunter. Despite everything, Varda could not jumpstart the dunpeal back to life. "D, snap out of it!" he screamed. "I can't revive you like some super life generator, I'm not the parasite in that damn book!"
The mist creeper was getting closer. Wait, that wasn't any ordinary mist creeper. It was too big, and it looked off. It was one of those mutations that had been appearing, the ones that had no issue with attacking large and live prey. This was really not good. "D, I'm serious!" Varda's face was shifting about, trying to find some way to get him and D out of the situation they were in. "If you don't get your ass back up in the next ten minutes, you are mist fodder, and I'm out of a job, not to mention asleep for the next god knows how long until the old man comes to find us!"
Specters continued rushing about in the castle, making the final preparations for the ceremony. Tremere stood before several of his mutant servants, his attire being fitted and last minute changes made so that it fit perfectly. Meanwhile, Grigori was also being dressed for the events of the night, for both the wedding and his rise to full vampire existence. Clad now in royal blue, a cloak on his shoulders, the dhampir smiled as he looked himself over in the mirror. Contrary to popular beliefs, he had a solid reflection, as did his father. They weren't sure what had started the myth that vampires had no reflection in a mirror, but Grigori was starting to think that it perhaps stemmed from the vanpyrs and their dunpeal spawn.
Down in the other side of the castle, Catherine and Iria, both held in trances, were being dressed in shimmering white gowns. The younger of the two sisters looked blankly at the specter who was dressing her, unable to process any thought. It made her and her sister so much easier to control in these last moments before they were embraced.
"The master will be most happy with this one," one of the specters remarked. "So young and full of energy. You will make him pleased in your duties."
And at the bridge of the castle, Daniel finally made it, crossing the bridge and entering the main entry. He gripped his rifle more tightly now, eyes looking around for any sign of danger. So far, the komodo rats in the forest had been the only thing that attacked him, but he wasn't so sure how much he could trust the word of a vampire and his son.
So far, he'd made it to the foyer of the castle. The design most definitely wasn't what had so far seemed to be Tremere's style. A vampire wouldn't have built a castle with decorations depicting angels, nor would those symbols of the sun have been worked into the walls. Daniel could actually see where intentional damage had been done to the designs and statues, making it obvious that Tremere was not the original owner of this place. But then who had lived here before?
Something shifted from in the shadows. Daniel turned and raised his rifle, finger tightening around the trigger. Sweat dripped down his face as he nervously continued through the foyer. With no idea as to what was hiding in the shadows, possibly waiting for him to lower his guard, he could only keep walking toward the entrance to the castle proper. Now he was really wishing that he hadn't sent D away.
"I'm so sorry," the young man whispered. "I got scared, and now I've probably lost you both forever..."
Bolts of lighting surged from Varda still, his attempts to revive D still meeting with failure. "Would you wake the fuck up, you punk!" the demon screamed as the mist creeper continued to get closer. The monster was coming faster now that it smelled the pool of blood that was around the hunter. Within minutes, it would be on them. "God damnit, it figures that this kid goes through this the first time he gets staked!" The face growled at D. "Damnit, kid, you're no ordinary dunpeal! You can survive worse than this, your damn father is-"
The monster was upon them. It swooped down to envelope D, then suddenly wretched as a swarm of lighting slammed into it. Moments later, the creature exploded into bits of pulp, leaving D with his arm up as he breathed in heavily. It took him a few seconds more to reach to the stake with his right hand and pull it out of his chest. Moore blood poured from the wounded, but soon enough, it began to heal, though obviously slower than a lesser injury would have.
"Son of a bitch!" the hunter exclaimed. He tried to stand, but did not yet have the strength. he was weak, from the combination of iron burn, the stake to his heart, and the loss of blood. "God, I'm glad he only stabbed one of them." D felt the right side of his chest, breathing with relief to feel a heartbeat there. "Makes me really glad that dunpeals have two hearts."
With a sigh of relief, Varda then glared at the dunpeal. "It would have been nice if that extra ticker of yours had kicked in sooner!" the demon exclaimed in annoyance. "You had me damned worried there, what the hell took you so long!"
The boy breathed in for a minute, trying to recover from the injuries he'd taken. The wound over his left heart had healed, but he was still dealing with the massive blood loss. Even with a second heart, it was going to be awhile before he was at full strength again. Unless, of course, he found something to feed from, but that wasn't too likely considering that Grigori had killed all the livestock, and trying to lick up that pool of his own blood was not a good idea.
Taking the time to slowly get to his feet, D stumbled over to his motorcycle. He opened a side compartment, fumbling through the objects in there until he pulled out a case and unlocked the lid. Inside were bags of synthesized blood and plasma, developed over a century ago by Kinthea scientists so that the human population wouldn't be depleted. It had turned out to be rather useful for human medicine and for the vanpyrs, not to mention dunpeals. It was especially useful in this situation, being that it was an emergency supply that D had hoped he would rarely need to use. Using his fangs to rip open the seal on one of the bags, he quickly began to drink down the fluid through a canteen style opening. The emptied bag was quickly discarded, and D opened another bag of blood, drinking it as fast as he could.
After two more bags, the dunpeal check his supply and sighed. "Eight left," he muttered while locking the box shut after pulling out one more bag and sliding the case back into the cold storage unit in the compartment. "Damn, I was hoping I wouldn't have to drink those down this job! I still need a new load after the last three jobs used up the other case!"
The demon gauntlet only grunted. He couldn't find any reason to mock D on this one, being that the boy already had enough problems. He still wasn't fully recovered from what Grigori did to him, and the iron burns were only now just healing. It was going to be at least a day before the dunpeal was in perfect condition again. But they didn't have time to wait for that. "After this one, lets go back to Enoch and get new supplies already!" Varda sighed while D slid into the motorcycle and opened the seal of the bag in his hand to down one last drink of blood. "The bike has been running rough enough as it is after five months without a real re-alignment job, you need a new case of emergency food, and we're low on power cells for your guns."
"You forgot disc blades for the bike," D muttered before slipping his helmet on and slapping down the shield visor. With the empty bag thrown to the ground with rest in a pile, the hunter keyed on the engine, revved the 'cycle, then tore off with overdrives coming online. This was already one hell of a bad day for him, and it was only getting worse as it went on. If he was right, D didn't have much time to get to the castle and stop the wedding.
An instant later, the overdrive thrusters flared to life, sending the motorcycle roaring toward the castle. He'd arrive in a matter of minutes, and with the drawbridge down, it was going to be easy getting in. But why was it down? That could wait until later to discover, after he'd saved the Rans, if they could still be saved.
Most important though was the issue of Tremere and his son. D still had never forgotten what Tremere had done to him four centuries before. The images stilled haunted him even so many hundreds of years afterwards. He could still hear the screams as gunshots went off, the sound of people dying, being butchered like animals, all because of who they were.
His hands tightened around the control grip, foot slamming down the accelerator. D's eyes were now blazing with light, the shifting motion of his irises flowing madly. In seconds he hit the bridge, tearing down the foyer only to come to a halt as he saw the young human staring at his motorcycle in shock. "Daniel?" the hunter whispered as he lifted his shield visor and got out of the vehicle. "What the hell are you doing here?"
The young man caught his breath. "D? What...I would ask you the same thing! I'm here trying to save my sisters!"
A glance to Daniel's rifle told D that much, but only a fool walked right into a vampire's castle with only a blaster rifle and a prayer. Wait, where were the defenses that should have been going off right now to stop him? Why the hell had Tremere left his castle door wide open?
"I'm here for Tremere's head," the young hunter stated as he moved back into the motorcycle. "Your sisters are part of the job if they're still human, so you're welcome to come along." He paused for a minute. "That is, if you trust me."
As much as he wanted to answer, Daniel knew he didn't have much choice. D really was his only hope of saving Catherine and Iria. As it was, he didn't know how much time they had left. "Alright," he stated. "Just...tell me where to sit."
D reached to the control panel, then paused. Daniel wasn't very well off coming on to help him, he was better off waiting here. But, knowing the young man, D didn't expect him to do that. "I don't think you wann'a ride in shotgun's lap," he stated, his words almost a joke if not for the situation they were in. "I think Tremere's ordered that you're to be given safe passage through the castle, it's the only reason you've gotten even this far." Again, he paused as he thought the circumstances over. "You're best off going by yourself. I'll head on and crash the party."
"But Katie and Iria-"
"Will be fine so long as I get there in time," D stated in effort to stop Daniel before he started arguing. "Every minute you argue is another minute I don't get there. Now shut up and get walking!" Visor slapped down, and the hunter in his vehicle was off was more, roaring through the entrance and driving into the main hall. He had already lost the signal from the satellite network, but he was still able to use the trackers on his motorcycle. The trouble was that something was jamming the sensors, so he couldn't get a clear fix on the vampire.
Varda quickly manifested on the top of the gauntlet. "This Tremere guy really pissed you off in the past," the demon remarked. His usually tone of joking around was absent, revealing that for once, Varda was taking this quite seriously. "Is he the one that-"
"An Uzi firing sixty rounds into my chest," D hissed as he turned a tight corner. He checked the sensors quickly, the narrowed his eyes as he saw a cluster of werewolves standing in his way. "These guys just don't know when to quit, do they?" Fingers pulling the triggers, the motorcycle fired off a series of disc blades, slicing into the monsters, but hardly bringing them down. This was not going to end well at all.
Tapping at the keypad, D braced himself before activating a set of boosters that sent the motorcycle jumping into the air and over the werewolves. It landed again with a jolt, still heading down the hall while the werewolves gave chase. If Tremere had thought D was dead, he probably would know soon enough that he was wrong.
"First the asshole shoots me up and slaughters my family, now he can't leave my ass alone," the hunter muttered just before turning a corner. "What is his goddamn obsession with killing us off!"
The werewolves were catching up. D growled in response. He couldn't activate the overdrives, there wasn't enough room for that kind of speed, and the motorcycle's weapon systems were useless against the monsters. More off, his force gun had been destroyed by Grigori, which meant that, being he didn't have any silver weapons, D was out of things to throw at the werewolves.
This was going to get interesting.
Within the massive great hall of the castle, the majority of Tremere's servants had gathered to stand witness to their master's wedding. Grigori already stood by the alter with the ghostly phantom who served as minister. Now arriving, cloaking in black and red, was Tremere, the hypnosis induced Catherine holding his arm as they walked down the aisle together. A haunting rendition of the bridal march began to play as the pair stepped toward the alter.
A smile was on the dhampir's lips. Across from him, in the spot for a maid of honor, was Iria, in the same trance state as her sister. After the marriage of his father, Grigori would be granted immortality and the boon of taking his own bride.
The moon was shining down from the skylight, and as the couple neared the alter, a large cauldron flared to life with a blaze. The specters began to chant in praise of their master, wishing him and his new bride well as the came to the alter and bowed to the phantom minister.
"Those gathered here," the ghost began solemnly. "We are brought together to witness the union of Duke Jonathan Tremere and Catherine Ran in wedlock."
The werewolves were still gaining, and D knew he was running out of time. If he was right, the wedding was starting right now, though if he knew Tremere's kind well enough, it meant that the wedding was going to be a rather drawn out affair, especially since the vampire and his spawn thought that their hunter foe was dead. "How to crash the wedding and buy some time," he muttered. Then, it hit him. "Varda."
The gauntlet's faces shifted to look at the hunter. "What is it now?"
"Give the castle alerts a nice ring to let the home owner know he has a party crasher." D gave a grin as he formed his plan. "I wann'a hold up that wedding so we get a bit more time to get down there."
For a moment, the demon chewed on the plan. Then he flashed a grin while energy crackled over the fingers of the gauntlet. "Aim and fire, kid!"
D reached out with his left hand, allowing Varda to fire off an lighting assault that slammed into the walls and set off the castle sensors. Intruder alarms went off in the defense centers, and with any luck, Tremere's little wedding would be delay just long enough.
A dull drone went off, interrupting the phantom minister. Tremere looked around, then glared at Grigori to find out what was going on. The dhampir, in response, walked over to a wall mounted console and tapped on the keypad to bring up the image of D's motorcycle drive down the halls, chased by a pack of werewolves. "What!" the half-breed roared. "It can't be!"
"What the hell is it!" Tremere snapped angrily as he turned back toward his son. "I supposed that the brother is stirring up some trouble?"
Grigori went pale. What he was seeing wasn't possible. "It's that damned hunter!" he replied, looking to his father with horror on his face. "He's still alive, after I ran him through and staked him!"
For a moment, Tremere almost yelled out at the dhampir, but stopped before he started. There was no way Grigori had lied about what he had done to the hunter, but how could then their foe still live? No spawn of vampires could survive being staked through the heart, he knew that from experience in having killed both dhampirs and dunpeals. How then was the hunter still alive?
"Go and kill him again then!" the vampire ordered of his son. "Take my sword and cut his damned head off this time, just make sure he's dead!"
With a nod, Grigori ran from the chamber, racing to obtain the iron sword before going after the vampire hunter. None of this made any sense though. How could any being save a werewolf survive what he had done to the hunter? The dunpeal was a mere half-breed, meaning he was even less likely to survive death than a full vampire.
There. As he entered Tremere's chambers, Grigori found the iron blade and claimed it from its rest stand. Still on it was D's blood, now drying to join the ancient bloodstains which already marked the blade. With a grin, the dhampir headed back down the hall, his eyes shining as he thought of all the horrible ways he was going to kill the hunter.