Blood Ties

by SailorMoonV

A letter from D's past returns the dark memories to thepresent, forcing him to remember the ordeal of being a prisoner in the hands of a pair of dunpeal sisters....

5. Bloodlust

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust "Blood Ties"

by Troy A. Stanton note: This fanfic follows the events of the original stories "Winds of Change" and "Final Hours" (both 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 graphic violence and adult content, please do not read beyond this point if you are easily offended by such things.

((Chapter Five - Bloodlust))

D turned his head slightly as he heard the door creak open. He initially thought it was April coming to visit him as Coral had said she would ask her timid slave to do, but his mood quickly changed as soon as he saw who his quiet visitor was.

"Hi," Abelyne said as she approached, casting a quick glance up towards the open hatch. The gesture fully exposed her neck, giving him a clear look at the puncture wound on her throat that hadn't been there the last time she came down to the dungeon. "Coral wanted me to close the hatch if it got too cold or uncomfortable for you down here," she explained as she absently scratched the back of her left hand.

D cast a quick glance up at the hatch as well before sighing softly. "You can close it if you wish," he spoke up calmly. "I'm done with it."

"Okay," the young girl said absently as she moved over to the levers and pushed on the one that controlled the roof hatch. She seemed to hesitate for several seconds before she carefully approached him, raising up on her tip-toes to peer at the full length of his body. "Umm, listen, I can't stay for long, but Coral and Pearl are still soaking in the tub and I just wanted to ask you a quick question. Just... what exactly is going on?"

The question caught him by surprise, causing him to twist his head to look directly at her. He looked away a few moments later as he noticed the way she was resting against the edge of the padded surface, leaning forward slightly at the waist and unconsciously thrusting her bare breasts forward in a pose that most would have described as openly inviting. "What do you mean?" he asked as he briefly turned his focus inward to clear his mind of the visual.

"Coral said something about having a baby," Abelyne said carefully, giving him a somewhat nervous look. "She then said something to Pearl about getting married before she sent me away to take care of a few things for her. I didn't hear what Pearl said as I was leaving, but I know that she wasn't happy with the idea. You... wouldn't happen to know anything about what Coral was saying earlier, would you? About having a baby and getting married?"

D sighed quietly before drawing in a breath to speak. "Coral wants me to give her a child," he said, pausing and glancing over at her as he heard her startled intake of breath. "And later she wants to be married to me in a ceremony of blood as vampires do."

"Oh, boy," Abelyne whispered, casting a truly startled look towards the open archway. "That's going to complicate things around here. No wonder Pearl sounded so upset. Umm, you haven't... you know... with Coral and all"
she asked, her cheeks turning bright pink as she glanced down at his manhood.

"What do you mean by complicating things?" he asked, pointedly ignoring her question.

"I... can't..." Abelyne started to say before casting another worried glance towards the doorway and taking a deep breath. "Listen," she said in a low tone as she glanced back at him. "Coral is a good woman and I know she loves me, but Pearl absolutely hates young children. I'm surprised she didn't kill April when she first came here, and April knows it. You've got to take her away from here before it all goes to hell. Coral will take care of me, but if Coral has a baby and Pearl does something to her in anger..."

"I understand," D said simply. "I'll do what I can."

"Thank you," Abelyne said, giving him a warm smile. She paused as she cast a reflexive glance down at his groin, her ears turning a dark shade of red once again as she was suddenly aware of the fact that he was completely naked and that she was only dressed in a thin loincloth. "Umm, can you... you know, not... give Coral a child for awhile?" she managed to say in a calm and level tone despite the hard blush raging on her cheeks. "I mean, I know she wants a baby, but... now is not a good time."

"Believe me when I say I have no intentions of doing so," D said flatly.

"Thanks, I..." she started to say before abruptly whirling around. The sound reached D's ears a moment later, a very soft padding of bare feet on cold stone. A distant part of him was impressed with the acuteness of Abelyne's hearing, as the sound would normally not have been audible to a human unless they were actively paying attention to their surroundings.

"You should go," D said very quietly to Abelyne as Pearl entered the room, seeming to be wearing only a fairly short bathrobe. Her pale blue-white hair was still quite damp though combed out, suggesting that she was simply letting it air-dry. The look on her face was fairly neutral, but the constant flickers of pale crimson in her aqua-blue eyes like so many coal embers spoke volumes about her current mood.

"Abby?" Pearl said in a low but even tone as she approached, keeping her gaze solely focused on D. "Why are you down here?"

"Coral asked me to check on him after I finished cleaning her bedroom," Abelyne replied in an almost casual tone, as if she were either unaware or uncaring of Pearl's mood. "I just got finished a few minutes ago, so I came down here. Is Coral finished with her bath yet?"

"April is still washing her hair," Pearl said curtly, still keeping her attention on D. "But you should go up and help her anyway."

"Okay," Abelyne replied in a carefree tone as she turned and left the room without a second glance back.

D cast the briefest of glances at the departing figure before returning his attention to Pearl, giving her a level though unreadable look. He kept his eyes on her as she moved over to the control levers, calmly giving the center lever a shove to bring him into a vertical position. As expected, the pain in his ankles returned with a vengeance to remind him that his respite hadn't been enough to let him heal properly.

The silence between them stretched on for what felt like a minor eternity, their eyes locked on one another and barely seeming to blink. The only sounds that could be heard were the very soft and subtle rasping as they breathed in slow and steady mantras. The flickering glow in her eyes seemed to come and go at irregular intervals, suggesting that she was actively thinking about a number of things that swung her mood back and forth like a pendulum.

"Every time I come down here to talk to you," she finally said in a low tone, her lips barely moving as she spoke, "The more amazed I am by my sister's behavior. She was never like this before, so that only leaves me to conclude that you're doing something to her."

"Did you enjoy your bath together?" D asked calmly.

The question clearly caught her off-guard, causing her to blink hard in surprise before she could recover. "So what's it to you, hunter?" she asked in an openly wary voice. "Or should I ask what sort of fantasies you were having while we were up there?" she added as she cast a disdainful glance down at his crotch.

"The only fantasy I have is for Coral to wake up and realize that I want nothing to do with her," D stated firmly. "Unfortunately, I think she's too blinded by her own desires to notice."

"Oh, now this is amusing," Pearl said to the room at large as she leaned into him, pointedly resting her knee against his groin. "First she says she wants a child, now there's some nonsense about a blood-marriage, and you want me to believe you want nothing to do with her? Give me a break," she spat.

"Maybe I should be asking you for one," D countered in an edged tone as he leaned forward as best he could, ignoring the sudden increase in the pressure of her kneecap against his manhood. "Do you really think I want her, Pearl? Do you truly believe I would sacrifice my life and my future in the pursuit of justice against vampires, only to suddenly turn around and start having such children of my own? Your sister is ill and doesn't know what she's doing."

Her hand lashed out far too quickly for him to have followed or even to prepare for the blow. The world as a whole seemed to briefly shake as the back of her hand connected with his cheek, rocking him back as much as the chains would allow him. "Fool," she said simply.

"You're the fool, Pearl," D countered even as he braced himself for future reactions from her dark temper. "Your love for your sister blinds you even as Coral's insanity blinds her. Think!" he demanded as he was struck again, his voice briefly faltering from the intensity of the pain. "What sane woman would open her arms to one who's hands were still wet with her father's blood? Would you do such a thing, Pearl? So why would Coral?"

He quickly braced himself for a third blow, narrowing his eyes to stare deep into her own as she remained poised to strike again. "Do you think Coral really loves me?" he spoke up in a low but even tone, keeping one eye on the way her shaking hand was still drawn back and the other on her own expression of barely-controlled rage. "Ask yourself why, Pearl. Why would she turn to me to have a child when I would just as soon have killed her had we met in your father's castle? Ask yourself why she would ask to be bound in blood to me after all that I have done. Ask yourself why she thinks I care for her when I said to her face that I don't. Ask yourself why, Pearl."

"Coral has her own reasons," Pearl said in a dangerously low tone. "She always has, that's just how she is."

D narrowed his eyes as he decided to make a final push. "And you don't see that as insanity?" he asked very carefully. "You don't see denial of the obvious as being troublesome?"

"You don't know my sister," Pearl whispered harshly, her hand still drawn back as if to strike at a moment's notice. "Just like you don't know me. That is your problem, hunter, you know absolutely nothing."

"I think given what has transpired these past two days," D said in a very careful tone, "I can say that I know your sister quite well."

Instead of the backhanded response that he expected, he was answered with a low and distinctly bitter laugh. "Oh, I'll bet you do, hunter," she said, her lips curling up into a truly dark sneer. "I'll bet you do. In fact, she told me how you fucked her nice and good earlier and I'll bet she's still got that smile on her face even now. Tell me how good she was, hunter," she said as she pressed her knee harder against him. "Let me hear you brag about how you took her."

"You're still a virgin, aren't you?" D asked calmly. A truly intense wave of pain overcame him as she drew her knee back only to slam it forward again, compressing his testicles and driving the air from his lungs in a mad exodus.

"What's it to you, hunter?" she snarled as she grabbed his chin and forced his head back to stare into his eyes. "Or is every woman you meet supposed to be a cheap slut who spreads her legs open at the drop of a hat?"

"Coral told me what happened," D said as calmly as he could manage, still figuratively seeing stars after being racked. "About how she offered herself to your brothers' friend. She told me why she did it."

"And so what?" Pearl demanded in a truly glacial tone.

"You were afraid after that, weren't you?" D said carefully, ignoring the intensity of crimson rage in her eyes. "Afraid of being vulnerable and exposed to men. That's why you never took a lover for yourself, instead watching your sister and her lovers from a distance when she had them chained down and thus couldn't possibly try to touch you."

Pearl slowly shook her head. "You know nothing..."

"You finally wanted to try it for yourself, but Coral killed him before you could find the courage," D continued, keeping his eyes focused on hers and trying very hard to ignore the pain in both his jaw and his groin. "You said so yourself, you know nothing of men and know nothing of true intimacy."

"You..." Pearl started to say before her voice briefly failed her, the glow in her eyes flickering strongly now. "You... know... nothing..."

"If I know nothing, Pearl," D challenged quietly, "Then tell me what YOU know of it. Tell me what sex is like, how it feels to have someone inside you,
how it feels to be brought to orgasm. You don't know, do you?" he added as she remained perfectly silent. "And why is that, Pearl? Why don't you know?"

"None of your damn business, hunter," she growled in a low tone. "I'll sleep with whomever I want, whenever I want, and it's none of your business."

"Coral won't let you, will she?" D said softly. "She's still trying to protect her little sister like she did so long ago. And because you look up to her as the only family you have, as the only one whom you think has ever loved you or cared for you, you listen to her. You let her treat you like a child,
the little baby sister she always has to protect and watch out for."

This time he could see her fist lashing out, curling into a tight ball a bare instant before it slammed square into the center of his chest where his sternum was. A truly agonizing wave of pain erupted in his chest as he felt something crunch, followed by what had to have been the longest moments of his life as he waited to see if his lungs would reinflate as he struggled to draw in a breath.

"You dare..." she whispered as a single tear trickled from the corner of her aqua-blue eye. "Coral is my sister, of course she's always looked out for me. Nobody else has, hunter, and I'm not going to let you hurt her..."

D waited until he was absolutely sure he wasn't going to pass out from the pain of trying to breathe before lifting his head up. "What did she say that night, Pearl?" he wheezed, his voice so broken as to barely be audible. "When she walked in just as you were about to be raped. What did she say to him, and what didn't she say to you? Did she say she did it for you, or did she say she had her own reasons for doing so?"

"One more word and I'll kill you," she promised, her own voice barely more than a shaken whisper. "Not another word, hunter..."

"Kill me, then," D replied calmly. "But that will not erase the question,
nor will it erase the answer. You know the truth, Pearl, even if you don't want to hear it or say it. You don't have to answer me, but you will have to answer your conscience. Honor, Pearl," he whispered as he suddenly slumped,
barely able to finish speaking. "Answer yourself with honor, as nobody else can answer it for you. What... did... she... say?"

Pearl remained as motionless as a statue for several moments before her lips finally parted, just enough to form the words that were delivered in a broken whisper. "Such a waste, don't you think?" she breathed. "Honestly, do you really want her, a mere child? Or would you rather have a real woman to please? The choice is yours, of course, but I think we both know what it is that you really want. I'll be waiting in the hayloft..."

D summoned the strength to open his eyes once again and lift his head up, feeling his stomach turn into an icy pit at the expression on her face. He was about to say something when he heard another series of soft footsteps, turning his head slightly to look as Coral padded into the room. Like Pearl, she was dressed in only a bathrobe as she continued to run a comb through her silvery hair. Her left hand remained ungloved, the dark metal of her implant standing out in stark contrast against the rest of her pale and seemingly flawless skin.

"Pearl?" Coral said, blinking in surprise as she realized that her sister was deeply upset on something. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, sis," Pearl replied in a hollow tone, her expression seeming to harden slightly as she kept her focus on D. "I was just asking D what he thought of this whole marriage nonsense."

Coral raised a delicate eyebrow. "I would hardly call it nonsense," she chided gently as she moved over to gently lean against D's shoulder, her left hand still combing out a lengthy coil of hair. "After all, it only makes sense for us to be bound by blood after we are bound in flesh, as we would be once our child is born."

D cast a neutral glance at Pearl before closing his eyes. "You're not pregnant yet, Coral," he said carefully. "Nor will you be if I have any say in the matter."

"No, not yet," Coral sighed before her expression turned coy and sultry. "But I soon will be," she purred, reaching out to run her fingertip along the lines of his jaw. "Tomorrow, my love," she whispered as she leaned forward to kiss him.

Pearl's eyes narrowed slightly as she saw the way D tried to turn his head away from Coral, resulting in the kiss being planted on his cheek. "Are you sure that's a good idea, sis?" Pearl spoke up, her tone still sounding more than a little shaken. "Trying to get knocked up so soon?"

"So soon?" Coral inquired, giving her sister a curious look. "With as long as I've waited for this to come about? I know the old adage about how patience is a virtue and all, but let's be honest about this one, okay? When have I ever been a patient individual? Besides," she added coyly as she turned her focus back to D. "Even if I hadn't gotten rid of my virtue a century ago, I most certainly would have given it to D earlier..."

"He's not housebroken yet," Pearl pointed out carefully. "Surely you can wait another month for your perpetual itch to return while we make sure that he won't be doing anything harmful to us."

"Oh, listen to you," Coral fussed, giving Pearl a slightly irritated look. "I'm going to be the mother of his child, he's not going to hurt me. And the only reason he's still chained up like this is because he hasn't promised not to hurt you. And believe me when I say I'll be glad when I can finally unchain him from our little playpen here," she added in a meaningful tone. "Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed that little bath we just shared and you know I absolutely love having my hair brushed out like that, but I'd also like to be able to share that with D as well. Granted we're not married yet, so I suppose we shouldn't be talking of such pleasures together, but who bothers with all those pre-nuptial 'taboos' anymore?"

"Right..." Pearl said slowly, clearly not convinced. "So let me get this right, you're blaming me for him being all tied up?"

"Silly," Coral chuckled as she rested her head on D's shoulder, giving her sister an openly amused smile. "I'm only doing it to protect you. After all, that is what sisters are for, right? Yes, all I'm waiting on is for our little hunter here to promise me he won't hurt you," she said, her voice taking on a honeyed echo as she purred at him. "That's all that is keeping us apart like this. Just give me your word you won't harm my dear little sister, and I would gladly free you from our adamantium chains..."

"That's it, huh?" Pearl spoke up, her voice taking on a faintly tempered edge. "He just makes a promise and gets to run free? Coral, do you really think he can be trusted like that?"

"Of course," Coral replied lightly, still smiling softly at D. "He is a man of honor, after all. If he isn't serious about keeping his word, then why hasn't he promised me that so far, hmm?"

"As I said," D said quietly, keeping his eyes on Pearl, "I'm not about to trade one set of chains for another, even if it means my so-called freedom."

Pearl just shook her head slowly in disbelief. "And you think my sister is insane?" she murmured quietly.

"Honor, Pearl," D replied simply, giving her a piercing look. "I will not make a promise I don't intend to keep, it's as simple as that. And speaking of honor... I owe you an apology for what I said earlier."

"Oh?" Coral said, lifting her head up from his shoulder and giving him a startled look. She cast a quick glance at Pearl and blinked as she realized that Pearl seemed to be even more surprised than she was.

"I'm listening," Pearl said, narrowing her eyes as a veil of suspicion suddenly fell over her.

"You spoke to me of your pain earlier," D said quietly. "You didn't have to, and I could see that it hurt to do so, but you nonetheless faced that pain and answered me truthfully when you could easily have remained silent. That is a sign of honor, and I was wrong for saying you didn't have any. Thank you for proving me wrong and for having the strength to share your pain with me."

Pearl's eyes suddenly flashed with crimson before the glow began to fade. "Did you enjoy seeing my pain, hunter?" she demanded, her mouth pressed into a flat line.

"No," D said as he lifted his head up to look directly into her eyes. "I do not relish seeing the pain of others, and like having to inflict pain even less so, but there is no dishonor in sharing your pain with others. It is... a human need to share such things, as one can draw strength from such sharing. Even when all that is shared is pain and sorrow," he added quietly. "You have my respect for being courageous enough to share your pain with me like that."

"D..." Coral purred in a silken tone as she reached up to embrace him, gently pressing her body against his. "I had no idea you were such a softie like this. Certainly the legends never said anything about it..."

"Of course they didn't," D pointed out, causing both Coral and Pearl to blink. "What is so remarkable about being human? All that the legends concern are feats which are inhuman or are seemingly beyond the abilities of mortal men and women. They speak of my strength and skill, as most legends do, but why should they speak of my human emotions when all humans are like that?"

"But you're not human," Pearl pointed out. "You're a dunpeal."

"Be that as it may," D countered, "I am no less human on the inside than my mother and no more a vampire than my father. I am both and I can understand both. You say I don't know you, Pearl, and perhaps that applies to the small details of your life that make you a unique individual, but don't you think I know what it feels like to be trapped between two worlds like you? To feel the burning of my blood as it calls out for the blood of others, to feel the hate and anger burning inside me when I contemplate what my own life has been like? If nothing else, keep my age in mind. I honestly don't remember how old I am anymore, but I know I am older than your father was. And if he can understand something because of his experiences in life, then why can't I?"

"Who said he understood me either?" Pearl spat before she whirled around on her bare heel and stalked out of the room, her hands clenched together into tight fists. Her footsteps seemed to be unusually loud as she crossed the room and slipped out the doorway, leaving D alone in the room with a visibly uneasy Baroness Coral Winters.

"D?" she asked carefully, giving him an unsettled look. "What was that all about? What pain were you talking about earlier?"

He glanced at her for a few moments before closing his eyes. "Surely you know your own sister far better than I do," he murmured.

"Of course I do," Coral replied, giving him a faintly uneasy look. "But that doesn't mean I know everything. So tell me what's going on."

"Your sister wants my respect," D pointed out, still keeping his eyes closed and largely ignoring her. "I was just letting her know that she earned a small measure of it earlier."

"Mmmm," she purred as she nuzzled his cheek gently. "You seem to be able to get along with her," she pointed out. "So why won't you promise me not to hurt her?"

D opened his eyes just enough to cast a very brief sidelong glance at her, absently making note of the look on her face. "Honor," he said simply as he closed his eyes once again. "You should head upstairs, as it should be close to sunrise now and we're both still in need of a rest."

"It shouldn't be that close to sunrise," she pointed out.

"Consider this," D suggested as he started to turn his focus inward to try to shut his body down into dormancy again. "The sooner we both get some rest and perhaps even sleep, the sooner the night will come and we can put an end to things once and for all."

"D?" she said, reaching up to hold his chin firmly. She waited until he parted his eyes slightly to look at her before continuing, "I'm not sure I like the way you said that. What do you mean by putting an end to things?"

"I thought you liked surprises?" he inquired softly.

She raised an eyebrow at him in silence for several seconds before the corners of her mouth finally edged upwards. "Okay, I suppose I walked into that one," she admitted with a very faint giggle.

"As I said, we both need some rest," D pointed out.

"Oh, very well," she sighed as she leaned forward to kiss him tenderly. "I will let you be, my dark hunter, though I'll warn you now... you better get as much rest as you can, because tonight you're going to need it," she purred in a honeyed tone as she pressed herself suggestively against him.

"Indeed I will," D replied, giving her an unreadable look.

"Stop that," she murmured as she leaned forward, pressing herself harder against him and letting her lips brush against his as she spoke. "You're going to get me all excited again, talking to me like that..."

"You'll manage," he replied dryly.

"Such a tease," she admonished as she reached up to touch his lips with her fingertips before moving her hand down to untie the sash to her robe. A truly delightful purr rose up from her throat as she pressed her groin against him, rubbing the hardened points of her nipples against his chest.

"Coral..." he said in a faint tone of warning.

"I know, my love," she whispered back in a plaintive tone, giving him a truly longing look even as she continued to gently rub against him. "I can't help it if I want you right now..."

D just shook his head to himself. "Go to bed, Coral," he whispered.

She sighed softly and gave him a deep kiss. "You know I'm not going to be able to sleep very well being all worked up like this," she murmured.

"Try a cold shower," D suggested calmly, prompting a faint giggle.

"Eww," she replied, leaning back to give him a look that was only somewhat amused. "You do know that doesn't work on women, right? Oh, D," she sighed as he blinked in surprise. "What am I going to do with you?" she asked the room at large, giving him another smile before leaning in to kiss him yet again.

"I'll see you tonight," he said quietly, trying not to dwell on the sheer arrogance of his statement given the fact that he was the one who was chained down and thus couldn't come or go as he pleased.

"Tonight, my love," she breathed in a husky tone as she stepped back, not bothering to tie her robe shut. "Tonight..." she repeated softly before she turned away and padded across the room. She paused in the archway and looked back at him, bringing a pair of fingertips to her lips and kissing them softly before she left the room. The dungeon door was closed behind her, the soft click of the lock being engaged echoing unusually loudly in the still air.

He cast a quick glance at his left hand, half-expecting it to speak up and share some of its thoughts about the current situation. Much to his surprise the parasite remained quiet, allowing him to close his eyes and focus what was left of his thoughts in undisturbed silence. Tonight would be the end of his situation, he decided as he continued to shut his body down. He would find a way to escape Coral's clutches... one way, or the other.

The tingle of the rising sun caught him just as he was about to slip back into the quiet depths of enforced slumber, leaving him hanging on that most elusive of precipices between dreamless sleep and sleepless dreams for what felt like an eternity before the world finally became quiet and black as his consciousness was claimed by the abyss.

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The voices in his dreams seemed to drift in and out like ghosts, not fully registering on his mind but still audible at the same time. It wasn't enough to rouse him, but they nonetheless remained with him as they continued to speak in hushed tones and spectral whispers.

((Look, I've got a very bad feeling about this, okay?))

"What do you need me to do?"

((You can't get involved in this, I'll never hear the end of it if you get caught or something happens.))

"Don't... don't worry about me, just tell me what you need."

((I'm not kidding, I can't... oh, hell with it. Listen carefully... in that third pouch on D's chest belt... no, the other belt... yes, that one. The third one from the top... yes, that's it. Carefully, and I do mean very carefully, open it up. And whatever you do don't drop it.))

"Hey, this looks like..."

((Exactly, but it's got a little more oomph than you'd think, and I'll bet with the condition her weapon is in...))

"Right. Give me a moment, I've watched her do this before."

((Just be careful, okay? I mean it, don't sneeze, don't fart...))

"Excuse me."

((You know what I mean, just be careful, alright?))

"... Almost done... there, it's full."

((Just tie it shut like you found it, put it back, and make sure to wash your hands before you head back upstairs. We'll handle the rest. Oh, and if you hear it go off? Give us three minutes before you try to come down here to see how things went.))

"Please, take care of him, he's our only hope now."

((Tell me about it. Now go on before you get caught.))

"D... be strong..."

More spectral murmurs and whispers came after that, softer words and far more subtle sounds that quickly lulled him back down into the depths and back into the cool, empty embrace of unconsciousness.

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It wasn't the tingle of the setting sun that finally roused him, though he was aware of the transition. The sensation that drew his conscious mind up out of the darkness and back into clarity was the feeling of a hand on his cheek, a gentle touch that was more like a caress as it probed his jaw.

So it ends, D found himself thinking as his eyelids parted, expecting to find himself face-to-face with Coral and her eager desires. As such, he was more than a little surprised to discover that it was Pearl's touch on his face, her aqua-blue eyes seeming to be openly haunted by something.

"Are you awake?" she asked softly, her lips pressed together in something that wasn't quite a frown but still indicated a less-than-pleased mood.

"I am now," D replied cautiously as he blinked and tried to refocus. He had to blink a second time to ensure his eyes were clear as he realized that she seemed to still be wearing the bathrobe from earlier, a soft mass of satin-like fabric that barely came down to her knees and left a good portion of her upper chest exposed.

"I was thinking about what you said earlier," she said in a muted tone, her hand still brushing against his cheek and jaw. "About how you knew what I was feeling and all. For the longest time, I didn't think anyone could ever know how I truly feel inside. Not Coral, not my father, nobody. And yet... you somehow know. Every time you spoke to me... you knew what I was, what I felt. How is that possible, hunter? You know nothing of me, and yet... you know me. How is this?"

"You said it yourself," D replied quietly. "We are all related by blood, being descended from noble vampires. But you and I are alike, being dunpeals born to human mothers, and so we are subjected to the same prejudices of mixed blood. The nobles view us as commoners and impure, rejecting us as unworthy spawn born from simple lust. Humans view us with suspicion and even hatred, blaming us for the sins of our fathers. The only true difference between you and I, Pearl, is that I was born a number of centuries before you were. That's it. Everything else is the result of life's experiences, knowledge that you can gain just as easily as I did, and perhaps with far less pain armed with the understanding that it can be done, as it was done once before by a dunpeal just like you."

"Alright, hunter," she said as she lowered her arm to her side and took a single step back. "Look at me and tell me what you see, then. Tell me about the woman standing before you."

"I know you're hurt, Pearl," D said gently. "You think you were abandoned by your mother at birth, tormented by your father's noble family, and cast out by humanity as a whole. That leaves a lot of pain inside your human heart, and without human love to comfort you, a love that not even your sister understands well enough to give you, that pain in your heart has been allowed to fester in your spirit like a disease. The rage you find yourself always fighting against is a result of that darkness in your blood, a burning hatred you want to get rid of but don't know how. Even now it burns," he added quietly as he saw the faintest of flickers in her eyes.

"What can I say, hunter?" she said in a low tone. "That truth hurts?"

"Only if you let it," D replied. "When you learn to accept that you are who you are, the daughter of a noble man and a human woman, and that nothing you can do in this world can ever change that, then you can begin the process of healing on the inside. I fought against my father's blood for centuries, and even today I still dislike its presence in my veins, but I finally realized that I simply couldn't turn away from it. A human taught me that," he added. "She opened my eyes to my humanity, reminding me of what I had forgotten so long ago. You have a human heart and a human soul, Pearl, just like I do, and like me you need to reach out to others and learn how to love again."

Pearl crossed her arms over her petite chest and hugged herself tightly. "And how do I do that?" she asked simply.

"Let go of your anger for humans," D murmured. "Do them no harm. It may sound foolish, but all you need to do is do nothing towards them. In time they will start to reach out to you. Don't ask me why, as to this day I still don't understand it for myself, but they will. Reaching out to others is a human need, and for reasons that vary from one human to another they will just as easily reach out to others who are not human. How many dunpeals were born to those who genuinely cared for their noble lovers? How many such couples were married, either by vow or in blood? You need not do anything, Pearl, merely do them no harm and wait for them to approach you on their own terms."

"Easier said than done," she pointed out in a neutral tone.

D nodded slowly. "I know," he said softly. "It took centuries for me to realize this and even then it was only because of two human women who saw into my soul, a soul I didn't even know I had, and reached out to it with the warmth of their human hearts. If the power of human emotions can reach through the barriers I had erected out of ignorance and self-defense, walls of isolation that had existed for centuries, then just think of what they can do for the pain in your heart that has only existed for a dozen decades. I am not trying to belittle your pain," he added as her eyes flashed crimson again, "Only to compare it to the depth of my own for so long. If opening my heart to humans can help me, then it can help you as well."

"Help me how?" she asked carefully, gazing down at his chest. A faint frown crossed her face as she saw the bruise over his heart, a perfect imprint of her right fist where she had hit him earlier.

"To show you what it's like to be human," he replied. "To show you what comfort feels like, to teach you what needs you know you have but never could identify before, and how to satisfy those needs."

"Uh-huh," she said, her eyebrow arching up slightly. "Funny how we find ourselves on the topic of satisfaction. And I'm sure these humans would be more than willing to show me what it's like to be... satisfied?"

D just sighed softly to himself. "There are more pleasures in life than simple sex," he explained. "The joy of a simple touch, the comfort of hearing a loved one's voice, the satisfaction of knowing they will always be with you. Yes, there is always a physical aspect of it, but it doesn't have to be focused on sex or love-making. No doubt that at some point you will find yourself with an offer of physical intimacy, but it will be up to you to accept. True love will never force anything on you, but will instead gently offer it to you to accept at your own pace. And Pearl?" he added as he gave her a pointed look. "Nobody is going to bat an eyelash if you decide you wish to remain a virgin, as quite a number of humans do not view the pleasures of the flesh as being truly worthwhile. If you had any idea how long I avoided a woman's bed, you would probably laugh."

"Oh, really?" she purred as she stepped close to him, reaching up to run her hand along his jaw. "Humor me, hunter, tell me how long ago it was."

"Time is not easy for me to keep track of anymore," he pointed out as he narrowed his eyes slightly. "I would say it's been two centuries, perhaps a decade or two less, since that first night in a woman's bed and arms."

Pearl blinked in surprise before raising a delicate eyebrow. "And you're how old, hunter?" she prodded. She got only silence in response and gave him a very studious look. "You're serious..." she said in a near-whisper.

"I don't lie," D said firmly. "About anything."

"And that would be... honor?" she inquired lightly. She got a solemn nod in reply and tilted her head slightly, almost as if she were a bird studying something of avian interest. "I have to admit I don't understand it too well."

"You will," D assured her quietly. "Just think of how a spider-web is built, one strand at a time, and just how long it takes to build before it can be spread wide enough to matter."

"Bah," she said softly with the faintest twinkle of amusement in her aqua-blue eyes. "Let's not talk of sex and love, then try to speak of spreading things wide. I might think you had motives or intentions."

D just grunted softly to himself. "I don't mean any disrespect, but I'm not interested in either you or Coral like that."

"Mmm, I'm not so sure, hunter," she countered as she glanced down. "You still haven't convinced me that you didn't want to bed my sister earlier. Or, for that matter, that you weren't having dark fantasies about me when I told you about almost being raped," she added, her tone starting to darken slightly.

D closed his eyes and sighed softly in open resignation. "What would you have me say or do to prove otherwise?" he inquired as he looked back up at her. "If you could read my mind, we could have settled this two days ago."

"I don't know," she replied with a casual shrug. "But go ahead and keep protesting your innocence anyway. I'll admit I like listening to your voice," she added with a faint smile that struck D as being slightly predatory.

"If I didn't know better, Pearl," D spoke up carefully, bracing himself for a possibly bad reaction, "I'd think you wanted me to fantasize about you."

A dark look promptly swept over her face like a stormcloud before she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled through her nose. "And why would I want you to think that, hunter?" she inquired in a neutral tone once she opened her eyes and appeared to have largely calmed down.

"Jealousy comes to mind," D pointed out. "You welcome Coral's protective nature, but at the same time it chafes you to be told that you're not ready for something or that it's too dangerous for you."

"Maybe," she allowed in an even tone. "But she's still my sister."

"And that gives her free rein to run your life?" D countered. "You are right to find comfort and solace in her presence, just as she is right to keep an eye out for your best interests. But you are not a child, Pearl, and Coral is not your mother... though you may have wished her to be."

"We covered this before, hunter," Pearl said with a dark frown. "I don't have a mother. I never have."

"But you wanted one growing up, didn't you?" D spoke up softly. "Like all children do, human and vampire. And who was the only female figure in your life that you could look up to, who cared about you and took care of you?"

"So what if Coral was the only one who cared about me?" Pearl countered.

"Pearl..." D started to say before hesitating, wondering if it was truly wise to continue with his train of thought.

"Okay, so maybe I'm a little envious of her right now," Pearl said in a faintly bitter tone. "I'm not sure what to make of Coral's insistence on you being the father of her child or this crazy idea of a blood-marriage between you and her, but at least she seems to have that option available to her."

"And you don't?" D replied.

"I don't see any suitors lining up and knocking on my door," she pointed out in a fairly acidic tone.

"And Coral does?" he pointed out archly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but she has to chain down her current 'suitor' because she fears her death at his hands if he gets loose. That doesn't sound like a situation I would be all too eager to have for myself," he added dryly.

She paused for a moment to think, absently glancing down at the bruise on his chest before looking back up into his dark eyes. "You know what?" she said quietly. "I'll grant you that one. But humor me for a moment here and tell me just what precisely I'm supposed to be jealous of?"

"Attention," D replied. "Someone to talk to, someone who won't hurt or demean you. Someone you respect... and someone who respects you in return."

Pearl shook her head slowly. "You don't respect either of us," she said quietly, more to herself than to him.

"Quite the contrary," D replied. "I respect your willingness to talk to me like this, one intelligent person to another, instead of raging at me and thriving on my pain. I respect your sense of honor, new as it is to you, and your willingness to share your deepest pain with me despite the cost."

"And Coral?" she whispered.

"Your sister is not in her right mind, Pearl," D said very carefully. "I fear for her sanity, as she doesn't seem to be able to see that I do not want to be her lover or the father of her child. You yourself have seen that with your own eyes and ears."

"No," Pearl said as she shook her head slowly.

"She's sick," D insisted gently. "She needs help, and right now only you can help her. You need to get her to understand I don't want to give her a child, nor will I let her force me again. If it comes down to it, I will fight her with every ounce of my strength tonight, even if it means my death."

"Ha!" Pearl gasped as she took a step back, a look of surprised amusement crossing her face. "You think Coral is mad? Listen to you! You slept with her twice already, and now you say you'll kill yourself if she wants you to take her again?"

D shook his head in frustration as he sensed he was hitting the same wall of denial yet again. "Pearl, Coral is controlling you," he blurted out.

"Right," Pearl replied with a sneer of contempt.

"Then why does your hand itch every so often?" D demanded, causing her to pause and sober up. "Or have you ever noticed how Abelyne seems to always be scratching her hand as well? Why in the same place as her implant, or do you truly believe it to be mere coincidence? Do you know what that implant in her hand is or what it can do?"

"I suppose you know?" she challenged in a low tone.

"I know its power," D replied darkly. "I know she's been trying to use it against me, calling to me like a siren in order to seduce me. Have you ever touched it with your bare hand? I think you have," he added as her expression suddenly became perfectly neutral. "Tell me you didn't feel a jolt of energy inside it, a power that seemed ready to reach out and grab you."

"That's just the properties of the metal," Pearl replied in a hollow tone.
"Several metals are reactive to energy like that."

"But to what energy?" D persisted. "What power source does she use? Where does the energy come from? And why would you feel it in your mind if it was just ordinary energy like in your mace?"

She narrowed her eyes dangerously at him as she thought, the faintest of flickers appearing and disappearing in her eyes at random. "I don't believe you," she finally said in a low, almost inaudible tone.

"Pearl?" D said quietly, allowing the tension to drain from his body as he came dangerously close to simply giving up. "Why would I lie? To try to turn you against your sister for my own amusement? I'm trying to help the both of you so I won't have to kill you. Coral is not in her right mind, and you are under her influence. Ask yourself, for your sister's sake and for your own, do you really believe I am lying? If so, then pick up my sword from the shelf behind you and kill me now. Give me the honor of dying in peace so I won't have to fight your sister when she comes for me to have the child she wants."

Pearl stared at him for a number of moments before she turned around and walked over to the shelf. She studied the contents piled on it before she very carefully picked up the massive sword that D had been using for ages now, a well-crafted and balanced blade that seemed to be impossibly long to wield. She carried it back and came to a halt in front of him, holding the scabbard with one hand and easing the hilt back with the other to expose a good foot of the polished metal blade.

"Mmmm," she said softly to herself in admiration. "This is a very nice sword, D. Where'd you get it?"

"A gift," D replied quietly, almost too quiet for her to hear. "From the first woman I ever loved. It was her father's, and she gave it to me after I lost my sword saving her from a noble vampire."

"Oh?" Pearl said, looking up at him in surprise.

"Her name was Doris Lang," he continued quietly, letting her see the pain in his eyes at the memories. "She was the one who seduced me, giving me her virginity in exchange for my own, and ultimately opened my eyes to the world of human love I had been too blind to see, let alone understand. The sword I have kept with me ever since, a reminder of what she meant to me, something I didn't fully understand until too much time had passed and she was gone."

"Interesting," Pearl said as she looked down to study the blade for a few more moments. "Tell me more, hunter," she asked as she returned her gaze to the haunted lines of his face. "About the other humans in your life."

"The clasp on my knife-belt," D said simply.

"What about it?" she prompted carefully.

"The flower petal is from Leila's grave," he explained. "From the flowers I brought to her to fulfill a promise made to one another during the chase to rescue Charlotte Elbourne from Meier Link. She touched my heart and showed me what it is to truly love, and to never fear the power of a woman."

"Leila," Pearl repeated as something clicked in her memory. "I've heard Coral mention that name before, back when we went travelling for awhile."

D nodded slowly. "She was the one who made me promise not to refuse the offer of human warmth and love should it be made by a companion after a time of great stress and trauma. Fulfilling that promise is why you have heard the stories of me, the quiet ones about what happens long after the battle is won."

"Ahhhhh," Pearl purred softly as she slid the sword back into the scabbard and carefully leaned it against the utility cart. She paused as she noticed his sudden shift in attention and smirked, reaching out to pick the weapon back up again. "Nice try, hunter, but I'll not be leaving this out where you might be able to get it," she said as she carried it back to the shelf.

He said nothing as she returned to him, a faint smile still lingering on her lips. "Interesting stories, hunter," she mused. "And what other kinds of trophies do you have of your other conquests, hmm? What other tokens do you have to remind you of which beds you've graced, which women you've taken? Do I want to ask what you'll ask of Coral as a keepsake?" she said in a mockery of a husky tone as she approached, pressing herself gently against him.

"Pearl..." he said in a warning tone as he started to look towards the open dungeon door. He quickly refocused his gaze on her as she reached out to grab his jaw, keeping him still and preventing him from turning away from her.

"Morbid curiosity, hunter," she continued in a dark whisper as she leaned forward, brushing her lips against his ear. "Humor me for just one moment and tell me, what you would have asked of me had I submitted to your lusts like my sister did? What memento would remind you the most of taking my virginity?"

"Has he taken you, then?" a voice inquired almost casually.

Pearl promptly whipped around in a burst of startled motion, blinking hard as she found Coral making her way across the floor in perfect silence. Like she still was, her sister was still wearing only the bathrobe from earlier in the day, her bare feet moving so lightly so as not to betray her presence with even the slightest hint of noise. "Coral..." Pearl said, still too surprised to think of anything better to say.

"Pearl, you disappoint me greatly," Coral said in a neutral tone as she continued to cross the room, finally coming to a stop next to the utility cart. She didn't look at either D or Pearl as she spoke, absently studying the odd collection of items that had had accumulated on the cart's flat surface since the whole situation had started. "I tell you not to hurt his face, I come down here one day and find his jaw covered in bruises. I tell you not to hurt him after that, and I find a handprint on his chest that could only have come from a blow that by all rights should have killed him instantly. I tell you that he is mine... and now I come down here to find you all over him, asking what he wants in exchange for your virginity."

"Coral, it's not like that at all!" Pearl protested, giving her sister a truly upset look.

"You've never disobeyed me before like this," Coral said, seeming not to have heard Pearl as she reached out with her ungloved left hand to carefully pick up the ancient flintlock pistol she had brought down earlier. "Oh, you've had your moments where you needed a little extra prodding, but we've all had those and I never thought very much of them. But this, Pearl... I just don't get it," she said, shaking her head slowly, still not looking at her.

"Coral..." Pearl started to say as she felt her blood grow cold at her sister's unexpected demeanor.

"I would have let you play with him," Coral murmured in a low tone as she carefully checked over the pistol, easing the housing back to peer into the barrel before absently nodding in satisfaction and gently closing it. "I told you I would, once I was pregnant and too swollen to please him anymore myself. But you just couldn't wait, could you? You just had to come down here tonight, on the one night I had waited years for and was finally ready for him..."

"Coral!" Pearl blurted out in horror as the silvery-haired dunpeal finally turned to look at her, the vivid golden glow in her corneas enough to mask her irises but not enough to erase the look of cold fury that was burning in their depths. Pearl's own eyes suddenly widened as she realized that the old pistol was now turned in her direction, aiming squarely for the center of her chest. "Hey, watch where you point that!"

"Was he worth it, little sister?" Coral demanded in a low tone, narrowing her eyes slightly. The gesture did very little to dampen the radiance in her eyes, the glow uniform enough to make them seem otherwise featureless. "You've said so many times before that you've never needed a man, and being the fool that I was I believed you. After all, surely my little sister wouldn't betray me, not after all that I've done for her over the years. Such a fool that I was, thinking I could trust you alone with him..."

"Coral, what are you talking about?" Pearl asked in an openly uneasy tone. "I haven't done anything to him. Just ask him," she added, casting a worried glance towards D. "Tell her, D," she urged him.

"Well, hunter?" Coral inquired gently, casting a neutral look towards D while still keeping the pistol aimed at Pearl's chest. "How was she?"

"She speaks the truth," D said calmly, maintaining an outward appearance of being perfectly composed. What he was feeling on the inside, however, was another matter entirely. He had expected the situation to have turned ugly at some point tonight, but he had thought it would have been between him and Coral once she came for him, not between Coral and Pearl. And certainly not one that looked ready to end in fratricide. "I have not touched her or have otherwise taken her virginity."

"Yet, you mean," Coral suggested ominously as she glanced back at Pearl. "Did I come down too early for you, then? I was wondering why Abby was so insistent that I stay in bed with her earlier. Am I not able to trust anyone anymore?" she sighed. "And Abby was such a good girl, too. How'd you do it, Pearl? How'd you get my darling little Abelyne to turn on me as well?"

"Sis, I haven't turned on you," Pearl replied carefully as she started to edge back, clearly horrified with the sudden change in Coral's demeanor. "I just came down here to talk to him, that's all. I haven't touched him..."

"Please," Coral scoffed quietly. "I saw you kissing him, all pressed up against his body like a wanton. You should have listened to D earlier, lying to others is such a no-no. Especially when you try to lie to me," she added darkly as she tightened her grip on the pistol.

"Coral, please..." Pearl whispered, keeping her hands up and open to show that she wasn't armed or a threat. She jerked suddenly as she backed into D, reflexively jumping forward a few inches only to hop back again as the motion put her dangerously close to the end of the flintlock pistol.

"So you haven't taken him, then?" Coral inquired, one eyebrow arching up. "Haven't popped your maidenhead on his manhood and felt his seed pop inside you in response?"

"No, I haven't," Pearl replied, shaking her head vehemently. "Sis..."

"I believe you," Coral said simply with a slight shrug, the aim of her pistol never wavering. "Oh, well, no matter. I've waited this long for him, I suppose I can wait another hour. Go ahead, you can take him first."

"What?" Pearl said, blinking hard enough to be heard. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder at D, finding an equally startled look on his face. "Coral, what the hell are you...?" she started to say before suddenly falling silent as a very ominous click was heard, the result of Coral's thumb cocking the pistol's hammer back into the firing position.

"I'm not going to wait all night," Coral said in a cold voice. "I know you want him, Pearl, so go ahead and take him before I lose my patience. You watched me several times before, so now it's my turn to sit back and see how much you've learned. He'll make it worth your while," she added, casting a dark glare towards D. "Won't you, hunter?"

"Coral..." Pearl managed to say in a bare whisper before her voice failed her, the realization finally sinking into her consciousness that her sister was indeed insane as D had tried to warn her.

Coral's glowing gaze returned to Pearl and seemed to grow even colder. "Take him," she ordered in a truly glacial tone that Pearl only rarely heard her use before, and never before towards her. It was the tone she used when she was indeed at the end of her limits, and more often than not blood had been shed in the moments following her icy words.

Pearl blinked hard and stared at her before slowly turning towards D, her whole body seeming to go numb in an instant. She looked up into his eyes to find him impassively gazing at her without the slightest hint of expression on his face, leaving her unable to fathom his thoughts. "D..." she said in a very quiet voice before briefly falling silent. Her lips started to move, but it took several tries for her to find her voice again. "Help me," she pleaded in a voice so soft that he almost didn't hear her.

"Coral," D spoke up, glancing over at the baroness. "I've no desire to take your sister's virginity. Given recent events, I'm not sure I even have the strength to do so anyway, so there's no point in forcing either of us to do something that nobody wants."

Coral snorted quietly in contempt. "She'll help you get it up," she said in a somewhat flat tone. "Granted she's never done such a thing before, but like I said, she's watched me enough times to have a general idea of how things are done. Try showing a little skin, Pearl," she suggested absently with a casual gesture of the pistol. "I know you're a little self-conscious about your figure, but he doesn't strike me as the kind to truly care what kind of shape you're in as long as you're nice and wet when he's ready for you."

"Coral..." Pearl started to say, half-turning to look at her.

"Quit stalling," Coral said darkly, bringing her right hand up to brace her left as she continued to keep the barrel centered on her sister's torso.

Pearl gave her a truly saddened look before sighing quietly in despair and turning to look at D. She paused as she noticed his expression change, first giving Coral a dark look before turning his head to give her a much gentler look of understanding and almost regret. "D?" she said very softly, trying to keep her voice low so that only he could hear her. "I don't know what to do," she breathed.

D simply shook his head to himself, briefly closing his eyes. "Sometimes none of the choices available are good ones," he murmured. "All you can do is be true to yourself. Listen to what your heart is telling you and do what you truly feel is the honorable thing to do, regardless of the price you might have to pay for it, for nobody can ever take your honor away from you."

She looked at him carefully for a moment before she reached up to touch him, very lightly running her fingertips across his jaw. "D... would you... be willing?" she finally said as a solitary tear formed in her eye.

He paused slightly and cast a quick glance over at Coral, not surprised to see that the baroness had barely moved. She had lowered her right hand, the one she had been using for stability, but her left hand continued to hold the pistol upright and aimed at her younger sister. It was hard to read her mood given the intensity of the vampiric glow in her eyes, but something told him that he would be allowed the chance to give Pearl what she had just asked for. As for what might happen after that, however...

You need to get this into your head, a ghostly voice said to him as it drifted up from the darkness of his memories. It had first spoken to him in a small cabin in the past, trying to help him deal with Leila and her pain, but the words seemed to apply just as well now. You can't bring emotional comfort to her unless you open yourself to her, and that is what you have to do if you truly want to help her. She's standing at a crossroads in her life, D, she needs to be shown what its like to have human emotions in her heart instead of only the bitter ashes of vengeance. You can show it to her because you've done it before, and it didn't kill you to do it! No, it actually made you stronger inside, D!

"D?" Pearl whispered, half in nervousness and half in fright as she saw his expression go blank for a number of moments.

Just think about it, the voice persisted as he refocused, reminding him that he had been trying to help Pearl earlier. Let her get past her anger first, D, then see if you can truly help her make something of her life...

"If that is what you truly wish," D found himself saying softly.

"D..." Pearl said before she suddenly took a deep breath. "I won't hurt you like my sister has. I won't force myself on you."

D looked at her for a moment before he gently shook his head, seeing his path crystalize in front of him in an instant. "You won't need to use force," he murmured quietly, causing her to blink hard. "As I said, all I ever wanted is to help you open your eyes, Pearl. You are already seeing differently now, seeing what honor is like and feeling the comfort it brings from knowing what you are doing is truly right. If you wish me to show you what it is like to open your human heart even further, to try to find that which can't be found by force but must be freely shared, then I would be... honored to help you."

She blinked again in surprise, silently digesting his words before she nodded once in understanding. She continued to study him silently before she very slowly leaned forward, brushing her lips against his in a hesitant kiss. She gently deepened the kiss after discovering not resistance, but the warmth of acceptance and understanding. "D, I'm sorry," she whispered once their lips broke apart.

"I have very few regrets in this life," D murmured back. "All are things that I have done, mostly out of ignorance, but they will nonetheless haunt me until the end. But do not think that I will regret helping you," he assured her in a very soft tone. "There is no dishonor in helping another when they have asked for help, nor is it dishonorable to ask for help when needed in such difficult and trying circumstances."

"Even like this?" she whispered softly, her aqua-blue eyes filled with more emotions than he could count. They closed a moment later as he craned his neck forward as best he could, very lightly brushing his lips against hers in a deliberate and unmistakable gesture. She seemed to shiver briefly before she calmed down and leaned into him, deepening the kiss and letting it persist for a number of moments.

"Even like this," he murmured once the kiss was broken.

"Do... do you truly want me?" she found herself asking quietly, feeling a gentle heat rising to her face. "After all that I've done to you?"

"In another time and place, Pearl," D explained quietly, casting a quick glance towards Coral to get an idea of just how patient she was going to be and how much time he had in which to try to comfort Pearl. The baroness seemed to be quite content to wait while he whispered softly to her sister, leaving him feeling more than a little worried about what she was thinking.

"As I said before," he continued, returning his focus to Pearl, "I would be more than willing to embrace you as a lover if you open your human heart to others, to cast aside your hate for life as a whole. I see that happening as we speak, and if my help can open your heart further..."

He fell silent as she reached up to press a pair of fingertips against his lips, the lone tear that had been forming in her eye finally slipping free to glide down her cheek. She leaned forward to brush her lips against his ear, ostensibly to kiss him again but whispering very softly so that Coral couldn't hear. "D, if we get out of this alive... would you... stay with me for.
for awhile, to teach me about my... my human heart?"

"I would," he said softly without hesitation, knowing that indeed he would be willing to remain with her if she was starting to learn as he hoped. It was hardly the way he would have had preferred for her to be awakened to her human feelings, being betrayed at gunpoint by the one person in her life who meant the entire world to her. But life was like that, hardly fair and rarely gentle when it decided to teach you a lesson, and so he knew he had to make the best of his situation if he was to help her. And if that meant he had to make love to her with Coral standing over them both with a loaded pistol...

Pearl gasped softly as D bent his head down slightly, having to strain his entire body forward to an almost painful degree in order to be able to brush his lips against the soft curvature of her throat. She seemed to hesitate for a moment before she pressed herself against him, gently pushing him back until he didn't have to strain to reach her. She reached up to cradle his head, her fingertips sliding through his hair as he continued to kiss and caress her neck with his lips. Her own lips seemed to move of their own accord, brushing his temple for a few moments before she gently pushed herself away from him and took a step back.

D kept his eyes focused on hers as she untied the sash to her robe and slipped it off her shoulders. He waited until the material had slid to the floor in a heap before allowing himself to look down, aware of the look of deep uncertainty on her face at being so exposed to him. Her breasts were much like Abelyne's, shallow swells of super-soft flesh tipped with fairly large nipples. Discovering the sparse tuft of visibly blue hair that adorned her sheath was a bit of a surprise, given the extreme paleness of the rest of her hair, but it was something that could easily be passed off as just another genetic quirk of nature.

He brought his eyes back up to hers, feeling the faintest of twinges in his guts at the look on her face. Granted it was perfectly normal for a young woman to be embarrassed or abashed when she is naked before the eyes of others, but she most certainly shouldn't be forced into disrobing. But there was more to the look of unease in her eyes than discomfort with the situation...

"You're beautiful," D murmured quietly, a distant part of his mind making note of the way her expression promptly changed. Vampires and dunpeals could blush every bit as easily and as vividly as humans could, given the way their veins were structured, and were it not for the way the pointed tips of her ears took on a vibrant crimson tint he would have thought her no different than any other beautiful woman he had been in a position to compliment after being able to watch her undress.

"Thank you," she replied in an equally quiet tone as she moved forward to lean against him, still blushing fairly hard. She paused and cast the briefest of glances out of the corner of her eye towards Coral before she sighed and pressed her face against the junction of his shoulder and neck. "D... am I really beautiful, or are you just being nice to me?" she murmured.

His response was to tilt his head to the side and move his shoulder in a modified shrug, the best he could do to 'hold' her given the way his arms were still chained to the support columns. "Beauty is an acquired taste," he said gently. "I know you are shy because you feel your body isn't over-developed like many women, but you are who you are. Just between you and me?" he added in an even quieter tone, causing her to lift her head up to look at him. "I'm not impressed by over-development. As long as it does what it was designed to do efficiently, then size really doesn't matter at all. And yes, Pearl," he added with a measure of authority in his voice, seeking to reassure her. "You really are beautiful."

She gave him a look that seemed to be embarrassed amusement, a faint smile briefly touching her lips before she closed her eyes and returned her head to the crook of his shoulder. "Thank you," she whispered softly. She hesitated for a number of moments before she brought her hand up, lightly touching his chest. She used a very delicate touch to explore him, first tracing the dark outline of the bruise over his sternum before very slowly and gingerly letting her fingertips migrate downwards over the expanse of his abdomen.

He allowed his eyes to close at her touch, turning his focus inwards once again to control his body's responses. This time, however, instead of trying to stave off a reaction to stimulus he was allowing it to happen. That was not to say he was actively encouraging a state of arousal, as deep in his heart he knew that he didn't want things to happen this way, but he knew his conscience would be at ease if he tried to make the best of a bad situation and in what he felt was an honorable way.

His dark eyes opened again as she sighed softly, letting her lips tease his shoulder even as her fingertips teased his manhood. He tilted his head to rub his cheek against hers in a gentle motion, allowing her to hear his soft sigh as his blood warmed up. The sound seemed to draw her attention, causing her to open her eyes and look up at him with a faintly curious look.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?" she whispered as she massaged his hardness.

"Not this time," he assured her softly. He realized an instant later that he should have phrased it differently when a flicker of dark emotion crossed her face, a subtle but still pointed reminder of how she had grabbed and abused his flesh in the recent past. "Pearl, I didn't mean to..."

"It's alright," she whispered, shaking her head gently. "I... I know now that I was wrong, but hopefully... hopefully I can make it right now," she breathed as she leaned forward to kiss him gently. She deepened the kiss after a few seconds, savoring the warmth of the gesture before she brought her hand back up to his chest and very carefully molded her body against his.

A faint shiver ran down D's spine as he felt the heat of her sheath as she pressed against him, carefully capturing the tip of his manhood between her upper thighs so that he was almost but not quite rubbing against her directly. "D?" she whispered softly in his ear. "I'm... I've never done this before, so I might... need you to tell me what to do."

"You won't," D told her gently. "You just need to listen to what your body is telling you, that's all. Contrary to what you may think, you don't need to be taught anything. Things can be learned, granted, but your instincts are there for a reason. Trust them," he added softly.

She looked at him for a moment before nodding, leaning forward to kiss him yet again. The softest of sounds rose up from both their throats as she also moved her hips forward, just enough to press the tip of his manhood against the velvety folds of her sheath to part them slightly. "D..." she suddenly said in a low tone, seeming to forget how to breathe for a moment.

"Just relax, Pearl," he murmured quietly. He paused for a moment before he took a deep breath and cast a look towards Coral, making sure he had her attention before he gestured with his chin to the control levers. He kept his eyes on hers as she raised an eyebrow, giving him a look of cool amusement before she reached out with her free hand to make a grabbing motion.

Pearl nearly hit the roof as the lever clicked down without warning, the device having been activated by Coral's telekinetic power. The gears in the floor began to move as commanded, slowly tipping the support frame back from a vertical position to a horizontal one. She cast a quick glance around before she hopped forward slightly, just enough to balance her feet on the narrow edge of the frame bottom. It quickly became a minor scramble to retain her balance as her weight was tilted forward, forcing her to make a hasty adjustment to the placement of her hands and knees before she ended up squishing D beneath her weight. Even so, she still wound up on top of him in what most would call a compromising position.

She cast a brief sidelong glance out of her eye, more towards the levers than towards Coral, before sighing and looking back at D. "Sorry, I didn't mean to squash you like that," she apologized softly as she shifted positions. She blinked as she found herself pressed fairly hard against him, able to feel not just the warmth of his manhood pressed flat against her stomach but able to feel the subtle vibrations as it pulsed in time with his heartbeat.

"All things considered, Pearl, I wouldn't worry about it," D replied in a dry tone, giving her a look that was mostly neutral but still contained a small hint of ironic amusement. It was enough to allay her concerns, resulting in a small smile as she rose up on her knees and straddled him. She then paused as she glanced down, trying to get an idea of how exactly she was supposed to do things.

"D?" she asked quietly as she glanced up at him.

"Listen to your body," D replied softly. "I can't really do anything like this. That's not a bad thing, if you think about it," he added, causing her to blink fairly hard.

"Umm... why?" she asked as she very gingerly settled her weight down, still keeping one eye on where she was at so she wouldn't squish anything.

"You'll be in total control the entire time," D explained calmly. "I know it may be difficult for you, seeing how you haven't done anything like this before, but you will be able to go at your own pace. Like I said, just listen to what your body is telling you."

She nodded as she reached down, gently taking hold of his manhood. She ran her thumbs along the vein on the underside for several moments before she glanced back up at him. "I heard it hurts at first," she whispered.

"Only at first, and only if you're not careful," he said, having dealt with his fair share of first-time lovers before. "Just don't worry about it, okay? As I said, you will be in control and can go at your own pace."

"Alright," she replied softly with a somewhat hesitant nod. She glanced down at the way she was holding him and adjusted herself accordingly, scooting forward slightly. She then held him steady as she rose up on her knees, making absolutely sure everything was where she wanted to be before she very gingerly began to settle her weight back down.

He wasn't sure what it was that caused him to hold his breath as he felt himself press against her, acutely aware of how warm and inviting she suddenly seemed to be. There was the usual moment of resistance before her labia parted around him, allowing him to carefully enter her most sacred of gardens. A soft gasp of surprised delight rose up from her chest at the sensation, her cautious movements coming to a brief halt before resuming once more. She continued to settle her weight around him, slowly easing him inside her at a pace that was surprisingly erotic despite the near-glacial speed. The steady motion came to an abrupt halt as the tension registered on both their senses, the pressure and feeling of his flesh encountering a barrier of sorts.

Their eyes immediately locked on one another, seeming to communicate on a wordless level before she took a deep breath and very carefully started to rock her hips back and forth in a very subtle rhythm, barely moving him at all. He nodded to her as he realized what she was doing, seeking to stretch her hymen to the breaking point instead of simply puncturing it with brute force. It was something he had tried to do in the past on those rare occasions when he would be the first for a woman, but he had never been able to get it 'right' without slipping too deeply with the wrong amount of gentle force at some point.

She suddenly tensed as her hips moved a little farther than intended, a brief spasm of pain crossing her face. Her mouth opened slightly as if in a silent gasp before she very slowly exhaled. She gave him a somewhat uncertain look before she began to move again, her irises visibly widening as she found that the resistance was gone and he was allowed to slide deeper inside her. She continued to ease herself forward until her groin was fully against his, a look of absolute wonder forming on her face as she realized that he was now completely inside her.

"D?" she breathed, her voice barely more than a faint whisper.

"Not what you expected it to be like, is it?" he murmured softly, giving her a gentle look. The pleasure of being within her was exquisite, perhaps even more so than usual. He started to wonder why that was before abruptly emptying his mind of the thoughts, knowing that now was not the time for idle speculation. Nor, for that matter, did he want to start looking for an answer that he probably wouldn't want to find to begin with. Ignorance is bliss, as the saying went, and in this case it truly didn't matter why.

She shook her head gently before taking a deep breath and lifting herself up slightly, just enough to ease most of his length out of her. She stopped at the last possible moment, leaving just the tip of him lodged within before she began to settle her weight around him again. "Oohhhh," she breathed as her eyes seemed to close of their own accord. "D, this is... wonderful..."

D cast a quick glance at Coral, feeling his blood chill at the utterly impassive and unreadable look on her face. The glow was still present in her eyes, giving her a somewhat hellish cast as she silently watched her sister make love to him. With her expression blank like that, D wasn't able to tell what was going through her mind, which only made him all the more wary of what her unbalanced mind was making of the situation. Or how she would react once it was over...

He mentally blinked as he felt his body already starting to respond to Pearl's slow and hesitant movements, a slow sensation of pressure starting to build in his groin. He wasn't quite sure why he was reacting so quickly, but it was a response he thought it was best to stave off for as long as possible. He was fairly sure that Pearl was vividly aware of how short a time her would-be rapist had spent up in the hayloft with Coral, and given the stories that he himself was all too aware of circulating about his 'skill' in bed he knew he had not just a reputation to protect but an expectation to meet. He had little concern for what others thought of him personally, as he was who he was, but given the circumstances and the fact that he was doing this to help Pearl, he felt that he also had the moral obligation to ensure that her first time would not be a disappointment in any way.

Remember, the playful voice from his past rose up to whisper in his ear with a truly impish smile that he could almost physically see before his very eyes, Slowly to do it right, and doing it for the right reasons...

With his wrists and ankles chained to the support columns with almost no slack whatsoever, there was very little for D to do aside from hold perfectly still, breathe carefully, and enjoy the feeling of Pearl's sheath sliding up and down the full length of his manhood at a measured pace. Her breath seemed to be tangled in her throat as she moved, producing an odd rasping noise as she struggled to keep herself from making the same kind of almost guttural noises that she had heard Coral make when she had watched her those few times.

"Pearl?" D spoke up softly as he noticed the pace start to pick up, the gentle rolls and thrusts of her hips now becoming moderate stabbing motions as she continued to impale herself on him. "Take it easy, there's no rush."

"D..." she whispered, leaning forward to brace her hands on either side of him. She didn't pause or cease her motions in the slightest, continuing to work herself into a lustful frenzy of passion and pleasure. "I... I can't... help it... my... my body... wants... oh, god..."

He simply nodded in understanding, momentarily oblivious to the fact that she couldn't see the gesture with her eyes closed like that. The first time was usually rough on the body, both hormones and pleasure senses running amok with unrestrained and reckless abandon as they were freed from the bonds of frustration that had held them in check up until this point. He knew he had pretty much lost all control himself when he had taken Doris, wondering long afterwards how he had managed to avoid killing her in that lustful frenzy of thrusts and withdrawals. And that had been after centuries of celibacy and no small amount of sexual frustration from his adamant denial of his body's most basic needs and instincts...

"D... oh, god, D..." Pearl gasped as her pace increased to an almost frantic degree, making him suddenly worry about acquiring a case of friction-burn from her rapid motions.

"Relax, Pearl," he managed to say as calmly as he could before her passion didn't so much break as explode with an almost violent force. He blinked as the full-body shiver visibly tore through her, the sudden spasming of her inner muscles catching him by surprise. He wasn't sure if it was simple biological synergy or a psychological reflex but his own orgasm suddenly surged to break the control of his willpower, causing him to flood her sheath with what little life-energy he had been able to regenerate since his encounter with Coral.

The world took on a distinctly gray cast for several moments afterwards, his senses blurred into uselessness before finally recovering to the point of allowing him to process information once again. Pearl was collapsed on top of him, making it extremely difficult for him to breathe properly. The sudden impact of her body's weight on his chest, light as she was, had also worsened the damage caused by her fist earlier. He wasn't sure if something was broken or was merely fractured again, but the searing pain that was radiating from his upper chest was definitely not a good sign.

"Pearl..." he gasped softly, his voice sounding dangerously weak.

"Re..." she puffed, not bothering to try to lift her head up from his chest as she struggled to breathe, "Relax... my... ass... Oh, god, D..."

He gave up trying to get her to move for the moment and turned his focus inward, listening to what his own body was telling him. The pain in his chest was already starting to abate slightly, suggesting that he had only irritated a previous fracture in either his sternum or ribs. His lungs felt okay, but breathing was still difficult with her weight pressing down on him like that.
A truly fierce ache was starting up in his groin, suggesting that he had been abused just a little bit past his tolerances. Normally that wouldn't be too much of a concern for him, but with the situation being what it was...

"So what do you think?" Coral spoke up calmly, suddenly reminding both D and Pearl that she had been there and watching the entire time. Her hands were clasped behind her back almost casually with her head tilted just slightly, as if she were studying something of idle or remote interest.

"Oh, god, sis..." Pearl whispered as she slowly pushed herself up into a kneeling position, still keeping D delightfully ensconced within her. Her body seemed to shiver hard again as she sighed, finally opening her eyes to reveal the vivid crimson highlights of her vampiric side. Unlike previous times her corneas had lit up with raw emotion, the glow this time was soft and seemed to burn with gentle warmth instead of raging anger.

"That's about what I said after my first time," Coral said, keeping her voice perfectly calm and composed. "Definitely something to smile about for the rest of your life, don't you think?"

Pearl paused before she glanced down at D, studying the look on his face. "Yes, it is," she said very softly as a gentle smile formed on her lips. The smile lasted for a few seconds before her eyes suddenly widened at the sharp and unmistakable twanging sound of a crossbow being fired.

D was unable to stop the startled gasp of horror that rose from his throat as the tip of a crossbow bolt erupted from the center of Pearl's bare chest, sending a wide spray of blood arcing into the air. "Pearl!" he cried out as he felt the sticky warmth splatter across his chest, unable to tear his eyes away from the metal protrusion marring her smooth skin.

"Well, at least you enjoyed it," Coral said calmly as she lowered Pearl's antique crossbow, her eyes fixed on the feathered end of the bolt sticking out from Pearl's back. Blood pulsed out from both ends of the wound, a thick wave flowing out with every rapid beat of her heart to quickly coat the lower half of both her body and D's in a thin crimson veil.

Pearl blinked once and looked at D, her face seeming to be frozen in a mask of surprise. She started to move her lips, a thin trickle of blood oozing out of the corner of her mouth with a soft gurgle as her lungs failed to push enough air over her vocal chords to let her speak. Stop her, she mouthed in eerie silence before she twitched once. The pulsing of the wounds abruptly ceased a moment later, leaving her sitting perfectly still and motionless. She seemed to try to say something else when the crimson light vanished from her eyes as if a switch had been thrown.

D's blood seemed to be a solid wall of ice, refusing to flow in his veins as he watched Pearl slump to the side and into a motionless heap. Her blood continued to seep from the chest wound but not with any internal force, telling him that her heart muscle had stopped. It took him a moment to wrench his gaze from Pearl's body and focus on Coral, all too aware of the extreme danger he was now in.

"I told you he was mine," Coral whispered softly as she set the crossbow aside and picked up her pistol. "I told you that in the beginning. I made you a deal, I'd let you have Celene if you let me have D. And my plan worked," she breathed as she moved over to the row of control levers.

D didn't dare interrupt her soft monologue, knowing that either one of two things was about to happen. Either she would try to take him next to fulfill her vision of having a child, or she would simply kill him. In either case, he knew that his chances of survival were essentially non-existent now. After all, if Coral's madness could turn against her own sister like that, how little would it take to jar her mind into turning against him just as easily?

"I told you I wanted a child," Coral murmured as she pulled the center lever, slowly bringing the frame back into a vertical position. She seemed to be oblivious to the way Pearl's body was sent tumbling to the floor, the metal tip of the bolt protruding from her chest making a hollow ringing sound as it struck the metal flooring. "And I told you I wanted his child. So why'd you do it, Pearl? Why did you come down here to take him tonight? Why?" she said as she turned to face the frame, almost pleading with the open air.

"You knew I was ready tonight!" she cried out in anguish, gesturing with the pistol. "I told you myself I would be ready! And even if you didn't hear me, how could you miss what your own body was telling you? You know our cycles are timed together, so you had to be ready too! Could you not have waited a single month? Couldn't you have waited until he had given me a child before asking to have your own?"

D blinked hard as Coral whirled and yanked the lever on the right from his vantage point. The tunnel beneath his feet spiraled open to expose the dark void of the canyon floor below. He felt his throat constrict as Pearl's body was sent tumbling into the open air, unable to breathe or move or even think as he watched her plummet into the abyss and finally disappear from view.

"You betrayed me, Pearl," Coral whispered softly, seeming to be trying not to sob to herself. "I'm your sister, I've shared with you everything I've ever had. Everything. All you had to do was ask and be patient. But you didn't. You... of all people, you betrayed me. Why, D?" she asked as she finally looked up at him, a lone tear trickling down her cheek. "Why did she do it?"

He remained silent as she returned the lever to the upright position, once again sealing the lava tunnel and cutting off the view of the darkened canyon. "I know you came inside her," she said in a low tone as she suddenly raised the pistol, aiming at his blood-spattered chest as she slowly approached. "I saw the way you shuddered when she came. You gave to her what you should have gave to me. She was just as ready as I am, you know, our cycles have been in synch with one another since she first bled. You just gave her a child, D."

"She's dead, Coral," D said quietly.

"Yes, I know," Coral replied in a broken whisper as she finally reached him, the muzzle of her pistol barely an inch away from the center of his chest. "My darling little sister... is gone. Father should be glad to see her, so it's not that bad. And she took her baby with her," she added in a dark tone as her grip on the pistol tightened.

"I wanted to be the one to present him with his first grandchild," she spat in a steely tone, the vivid glow of vampiric rage returning to her pale yellow eyes. "Rose would never sully herself with a child, and no girl would have been stupid enough to lay with his bastard sons unless she had been tied down or drugged first. That just left me and Pearl, and Pearl was too young!"

"She wasn't a child," D replied softly.

"She's my baby sister," Coral hissed. "I'm supposed to watch out for her and take care of her. I trusted you, D, I trusted in your honor not to hurt her. And now look what happened," she said as she made a gesture to the blood coating him. "You took her virginity and she bled all over you. You were supposed to be gentle with her, but you made her bleed!"

"Coral..." D said as he instinctively tensed, sensing that she was about to lose control. And if she did with that pistol still pointed at him...

"You hurt her!" she raged at him, her lips pulled back to expose her tiny dunpeal fangs. "You hurt my sister! You hurt Pearl! I can't forgive you for that, hunter! I just can't!"

((D!)) it suddenly yelled, startling them both. ((The brace! NOW!))

Time seemed to grind to a perfect halt for one agonizing moment, as if a single grain of the Sands of Time had become jammed in the hourglass just as it began to fall. D and Coral glanced at one another for the briefest of instants before the world began to move once again, D suddenly putting his entire being behind a fierce tug on his left wrist as he sought to break the screws that bound him and Coral taking a startled leap back before bringing her right hand up to brace the flintlock pistol as she took aim at him.

The explosive sound was the first thing that fully registered on his mind, not the concussive blast of gunpowder being ignited by a spark but rather the rasping sound of metal giving way to a superior force, the iron threads of the screws being shorn off and stripped of their ability to hold. Then the pain set in, first the bruising sensation of his wrist slamming against the inside of the adamantium band, then the sharper and more distinct agony of his wrist snapping from the pressure even as the screws yielded to the force.

In the split-second that followed, D realized that he had lost his gambit. Surely with his wrist broken, the nerves would be all but paralyzed by the pain and thus unable to function properly. His left arm was free now, but there was simply nothing useful he could do with it. And even if he had options, he knew that there was maybe half a millimeter of pull left in the trigger as Coral's finger continued to pull back.

In that instant he saw his life flash before his eyes, an odd phenomenon many humans had insisted they experienced when confronted with certain death. He could hear a soft fragment of song as his mother hummed to him, a gentle and delightful melody as she tucked him into bed. He saw her smile gently at him, her face becoming replaced by the enraged visage of his father as he held her body on the palace steps, screaming as no living entity should ever scream. A blade flashed before his vision, cutting through vampire after vampire to leave an ocean of blood in his wake. Doris looked at him through tearful eyes as her robe parted, still damp from her shower and whispering that she loved him. He then heard Leila's voice in his ear, whispering the same words as he continued to make slow and gentle love to her. And then...

He blinked hard as his arm continued to move forward, no doubt because of simple inertia but seemingly beyond his control now. His fist suddenly opened, his fingers spreading wide as he reached forward to grab the barrel of her pistol as the hammer moved, slipping free from the catch to slam down into the flint-pan and sending a cascade of sparks into the mass of black powder. Had there been enough time to do so he would have blinked again as he suddenly felt the thing in his hand open up, clamping its mouth around the barrel and biting down hard just as the powder ignited.

The end of the barrel compressed into a thin flat line just as the back half of the pistol exploded, the mixture of ammonium nitrate and charcoal that D occasionally used for small-scale and controlled pyrotechnics being far too powerful to be used as a substitute for gunpowder. The expansion of hot gasses would have propelled the bullet forward nonetheless had there been any place for it to vent, but with the barrel now effectively crimped shut between the symbiot's teeth the concussive force only had one outlet.

Even though the blast was directed away from him there was still enough force to send D flying backwards against the padded surface, slamming his left arm against the adamantium support structure hard enough to crack another bone. He flinched by pure reflex, closing his eyes to protect them from the sudden grit and dust in the air as the pressure wave compressed his chest hard enough to empty his lungs. It took an incredible amount of willpower to not inhale an instant later, waiting in breathless agony for the worst of the blast to fade before trying to breathe once again. The amount of smoke and soot in the air immediately triggered a series of extremely painful coughs, wracking his chest with spasms like so many lightning bolts driving into his core.

He finally managed to open his eyes, looking around for what would no doubt be Coral's return strike once she recovered. He blinked as he realized that no such attack would ever be coming, finding her flat on her ass with her robe blown completely open to expose her slender body. Normally he wouldn't have paid the slightest attention to such a trivial detail, but he found he couldn't tear his eyes away from her bare breasts. The soft and gentle swells of her feminine flesh rose and fell as she breathed, neatly framing the small and perfectly circular hole that had been blown into the skin directly over her heart. Blood oozed from the wound at a horrific rate, pulsing in a rhythmic cascade as Pearl's life-blood had done barely a minute ago.

"Coral!" he called out to her, his voice so raw and raspy as to barely be much of a voice at all.

Coral tilted her head to the side and slowly raised her left hand, staring at the furrow that had been blasted in the metal implant by the explosion. The rest of the flesh of her hand was little more than a ruin, dripping blood onto the floor at a steady pace to form a small pool. Even as she watched, the odd metal seemed to shake and shiver before it fell free from her skin to clatter on the ground.

"D?" she gurgled softly, a bright pink froth starting to form on her lips. The sight was enough to cause D to grimace, knowing that the exploding bullet had likely grazed her heart before puncturing a lung. The odds of that had to have been on the order of seven digits or higher, given the way she was holding the pistol, but he also know that exploding metal tended to go in all sorts of random directions.

"Coral, just... don't move," he called out as best he could, knowing that there might still be a chance to save her. He paused as he noticed just how much blood was forming around her, realizing that whatever help he might have been able to offer her if he had been fully unbound might still not have been enough to save her life.

"I... still want... my baby..." Coral rasped as her eyelids started to droop. Her left hand fell to her side, landing in the puddle of blood next to her to scatter droplets in a shallow arc all around. "Why... couldn't... you... love... me..."

D couldn't speak even if he wanted to, his whole body sagging as he felt the last of his strength draining away from him. His chest hurt, his arm hurt, his wrist hurt, his ankles hurt, and he was tired. So tired...

"Pearl... my... sister..." Coral whispered as she leaned back, resting against the wall and fully closing her eyes. "Pearl... I need... you. D... Pearl... I... love... you..."

It was all he could do to keep his own eyes open as the pulsing wound in Coral's chest suddenly became still, the pool of blood around her ceasing to expand several moments later. He realized then that it was over, that he was free of both her and Pearl and wouldn't need to worry about them ever again. It was over now, so surely he could rest... surely he could... rest...

He didn't have the strength to glance up as he heard footsteps running down the stairs and into the room. "D!" April called out in open worry as she started to charge into the room only to come to a dead halt. "Oh, my god. ABBY!" she yelled back towards the stairs in a panic.

((D, hold still,)) it said in a muted tone. ((This is going to hurt, so just hold your breath for me, okay? One, two, three!))

A jolt of white-hot pain seared through his arm as the fractured bones in his wrist were reset, bringing them back into proper alignment. The blinding veil of pain fell away several moments later, leaving him feeling just a tiny bit better and even more tired than before. "Thank you," he managed to murmur as the world became gray once more.

"D!" April blurted out as she ran to his side, her eyes wide with horror as she saw that he was covered in blood. "Please don't die on me! Oh, god," she whimpered. "ABBY!" she screamed again.

"What? What?" Abelyne said in a panic as she scampered down the stairs as fast as she could. She darted into the room and almost literally skidded to a stop as she realized what had panicked April so much. "Oh, shit! CORAL!"

((Coral's dead,)) it spoke up quietly, causing April to jerk back at the reminder of its presence. ((Coral and Pearl both.))

"D, please tell me you're alright," April whimpered as she tentatively reached out to touch his arm.

((He won't be if you don't get us out of here,)) it warned as it cast an openly worried look up at D. ((He's exhausted, and I mean totally out of energy this time. You've got to get us unchained and find a place in the ground to bury him so he can start to regenerate. Abelyne?)) it called out in a louder voice.

"Coral?" Abelyne said in a sickened voice as she carefully knelt down and picked up the baroness' right hand. "Coral, please... wake up. Coral?"

"Abby, where's the tools?" April called out as she began to frantically search the dungeon for the special tools that could undo the titanium screws without destroying anything.

"Coral?" Abelyne repeated as a single tear started to well up.

"Abby, listen," April said as she came over and squeezed the flaxen-haired girl's bare shoulder. "Coral's dead. We're free now, do you understand? We aren't slaves anymore, he rescued us!" she whispered fiercely. "Just like he said he would! Now we have to help him get out of here!"

"D?" Abelyne sniffled as she edged back and slowly stood up, turning to give him a heart-rending look. "Did you have to kill her? I know she was a good woman and I know she loved me..."

"D?" April blurted out as D's eyes closed and he seemed to quit breathing. The world became a darker shade of gray after that, broken only by the sound of April's voice calling his name, trying to keep him anchored to the realm of the living instead of letting him quietly slip into the abyss where two of his sisters had just gone.

Sisters? he found himself thinking before everything went dark. Yes, we were all related. Bound in blood, the blood of vampires. And as always, it seemed to end in violence, death, and destruction. And blood, always blood...

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

The air was deathly still as D opened his eyes again, slowly looking up to focus on the ceiling above him. An eternity passed before he could find the strength he needed to turn to his side, gazing at the horrified and saddened look of his beloved bride. He felt his stomach twist into a knot as her eyes finally rose up to meet him, the liquid-like coloring seeming to be even more liquid than usual as they brimmed with sorrowful tears.

"So tell me how it ended," Galen finally whispered, closing her eyes once as she hugged him tighter. "How you survived and freed them from the bonds of slavery."

The air above him remained still before he finally drew a deep enough breath to speak again. "At that point, they were already free," he murmured. "Coral and Pearl were dead, and there were no other nobles to lay claim to them as slaves. They found the tools and unchained me, carrying me out of that underground lair and over to the village a good mile or so away. They buried me in a corner of a farmer's field and covered me with straw so that nobody would know of my condition. I awoke the following day to Abelyne's touch, as she knew I needed blood and offered me some of hers. I couldn't refuse her, as I was simply too weak and was still bound by Leila's promise. I took as little as I could, knowing she had recently fed Coral, but even so it left her half-conscious and barely able to stand.

"April found us an hour later and moved us into a room at the inn she had rented. It took two days for my ankles to heal enough to where I could walk, but she insisted I spend a third day with her to finish resting. She hardly left my side at all, taking care of and watching over both myself and Abelyne until she was convinced that we were both alright. Word had finally spread of Coral's death in the village, and most of the last day was spent meeting with village officials to discuss what they were to do from that point on.

"April and Abelyne eventually agreed to stay in the village for a time to help with the fall harvest, as the winter months were not too far away, but they both said they intended to leave the village come spring to find a new place to continue their lives. The village that night had a... I won't call it a celebration, given the deep level of concerns from the village elders of future events, but there was still a sense of relief following the fall of the castle and the end of the Winters barony.

"I would have left that night had April not bade me to remain, to at least keep her company until the sun rose if not to take part in the festivities of the others. It was that last night that she came to me..."

He fell silent as Galen reached up to squeeze his hand gently, carefully rolling onto her side to give him a tender kiss. The gesture was more than a little comforting, despite his thoroughly dark and haunted mood, and soon he found some the tension being drained away by the simple power of her love.

"You can tell me," she murmured quietly as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I know you've had several lovers in your past, and I know that it won't change my love for you. It's alright, D."

"The white moon was full that night," D found himself saying in a soft, almost withdrawn tone. "It was low on the horizon when she drew the shutters back and opened the window to let the cool twilight air inside the room. The light of the moon remained when she turned the lights out, giving her body an almost ethereal glow. She decided she liked it and left the window open as she undressed and whispered to me, thanking me for saving her and Abelyne. I saw the cut she had made earlier to share her blood with me, and she bade me to drink from her again. I accepted," he added simply.

"Hence the 'moon-kissed' nickname?" she murmured softly.

D nodded absently to himself. "We spoke of many things during those three days while I healed, and learning she knew of the ancient Druidic language was simply one of them. I believe her parents may have been druids, or at least people who still followed in their beliefs. Regardless of her past, I talked to both her and Abelyne about what their lives would be like from that point on, free from the controlling influence of the Winters family and how they then could do whatever it was they wanted to do and become whomever they wanted to be. The last traces of Coral's influence had left Abelyne by the second day, returning her to the cheerful young girl that she had been before becoming enthralled by the hypnotic illusion of Coral's 'love' for her.

"I have no idea what became of the implant," he added softly. "April said that Coral's body had turned to ash the following day, but that the damaged metal of her implant had vanished. I made a brief stop to look for it after I left the inn to continue my journey, but neither I nor... it... could sense any trace of the alien metal. I tried to remember the sigils I had seen and write them down, but my memories were... not reliable enough. I eventually gave up and continued down the road, stopping only to ensure that nobody would be able to make use of their underground dungeon ever again and that my pain would be the last the adamantium chains would ever see."

Galen made a soft noise to herself as she squeezed his arm again, still resting her head on his shoulder. "D..." she started to say before falling silent, not sure if she truly wished to speak of the matter. She blinked hard as she felt the faintest of twitches inside her, reminding her that she was six-months pregnant with a child. Her child, and D's...

She glanced up as he moved slightly, twisting around to look at her with an unreadable expression. His eyes remained on hers for what seemed like a minor eternity before his gaze finally dropped to the swelling of her abdomen. His hand moved over to rest on her belly, his fingertips barely brushing her skin as he felt for himself the tiny twitches of movement that were coming from within the sanctity of her womb.

"I never wanted a child," D whispered, causing her to blink hard and her blood to turn deathly cold. "Not before then, and certainly not afterwards. My life up until now has been... one of destruction, one of death. I saw no future for me or my kind, and so I saw no purpose in trying to extend that dark and hopeless future for another generation."

"So why did you finally say yes to me?" Galen asked softly. "What was it that made you turn your back on thousands of years of death and your quest to purge the world of our blood? Why did you decide to marry me in blood, to tie your fate and future to my own? Why did you ultimately give me a child, D?"

D sighed softly and closed his eyes, leaning back against the pillow as he absently hugged his bride closer. "You're different, Galen," he murmured. "Of all the dunpeals I have ever met, you are the only one who seemed to be capable of caring about others. Truly caring about both kin and strangers, humans and mutants and vampires and all else. You made me realize that... that there was still hope, that what burned inside me wasn't just a unique flaw or fluke of humanity but was something that could be... copied," he whispered.

She remained silent for some time afterwards, simply holding his hand in hers as she rested against him. "D," she finally said. "What about Pearl?"

D opened his eyes and glanced at her, feeling a twinge inside at the look on her face. "Perhaps I could have saved her," he replied softly, almost too softly for her to hear. "Perhaps she did have the same potential I had, to rise up above the burning rage of her father's blood and come to embrace the emotions and feelings of her human mother's blood. I don't know, and I don't think I ever will know. I regret her death, but part of the pain is offset by the knowledge that she didn't suffer and that she died... happy, for once in her life."

"And if... if you had given her a child?" she asked.

He frowned slightly at the question, knowing that she knew full well it was purely an academic question. "I don't know," he repeated. "Galen... why do you ask me this?"

She sighed and seemed to curl up into a ball, drawing her knees up as best she could given the bulk of her swollen abdomen. "D... please tell me that I didn't push you into this," she whispered, her voice starting to break around the edges with emotion. "That I didn't make you feel like you had to give me a child to shut me up."

"No."

Galen blinked hard at his tone, looking up to find a stern resolve in his eyes as he looked down at her. "Galen," he started to say before giving her a somewhat level look. "I'm... I'm insulted that you felt you had to ask that. Yes, for all my life I wanted only to end the curse of our blood and rid the world of it once and for all, and until recently I would have found it to be unconscionable to have done what I have done only to turn around and willfully father a child.

"But you showed me I was wrong," he persisted in a gentler tone. "Meeting you and watching how you acted, being with you for years like this, proved to me that you are not dominated by your blood as the others were. That made me realize that there was hope for us, for the dark blood that flows in our veins. Yes, I still view it as cursed and I will still hold myself to our promise in blood to end your life if you willingly do harm to others as the rest of our kind has done throughout history, but not once since I met you have you given me reason to suspect I will ever have to do so. And I trust I have likewise not given you reason to contemplate fulfilling your half of the promise?" he added with a faintly uneasy look.

A soft smile crossed her face for a brief moment. "So far you have not, my love," she murmured as she leaned forward to kiss him gently. She paused and lifted her head up to stare into his eyes, her own starting to twinkle with faint amusement. "I suspect I will be calling for your death as punishment once I go into labor and the pain overwhelms me, but I've been assured that it is a natural impulse among women to blame their husbands for their condition during childbirth."

"So I've heard," D replied in a perfectly neutral tone, prompting a soft giggle from her. The moment of humor quickly passed and the look of pain and sorrow returned to her eyes, seeming to taint their blue-green depths in a way that bothered D greatly. "D..."

"As I told Pearl," he said quietly, "I would rather see my own life ended than be forced to do something unwillingly. I did not try to give you a child when you first asked me to because I didn't believe it was right, but again, being with you for so long has made me truly examine myself and my life. If I didn't believe I could live with my decision, mine and yours together, then I would not have allowed myself to run the risk of giving you a child. I would have been afraid for a child in the arms of a woman like Coral... but I have no fear of what my... of what our child will be like in your arms."

"Thank you," she whispered as she turned away from him, squeezing his hand tightly as the tears started to fall. She would have held onto him and cried into his shoulder had she not known that tears burned him just as easily as holy water did. The reminder of his description of what had happened to him earlier in his life made her shudder, trying not to imagine just how badly he had been hurt during his ordeal. "Dammit," she muttered darkly as more tears continued to well up and glide down her cheeks. "I'm sorry about this, it must be the..."

She fell silent as he curled his arm up, gently rolling her back over to him and resting her head against his bare shoulder. She quickly reached up to wipe the tears away as they fell, knowing that they were burning him and taking a deep measure of comfort from his willingness to put her emotional pain above his physical pain. She still didn't want to hurt him like that, even by pure accident, but the emotional comfort was still something she couldn't deny. A human need, she found herself thinking. To hold and be held...

"D?" she murmured softly. "I love you."

She closed her eyes as he rolled over onto his side to face her, wrapping both his arms around her and giving her that soft, tender, unique kind of kiss that always melted her heart like so much warm butter. "And I love you," he whispered back. Nothing more needed to be said after that as they simply held one another tightly, bound not just by the blood shared between them but by the deeper ties of love that only human hearts could truly grasp and welcome.

THE END

This story has been reformatted to play nice with fanfic's web engine.
The original story format can be found on my webpage at:
www dot sailormoonv dot net slash forsaken dot htm