Atop a dune behind D was a small band of men, all armed with various sorts of guns and sabers. All of them were in black desert garb, their arms and legs bound with strips of cloth to keep the sand out, half their faces covered with scarves.
"You shall not interfere with our business, stranger," the tallest among them voiced.
"And what business may that be?" asked D. His sword lowered, his poise calm.
"Lord Valshress of the city yonder has long wanted rid of this desert pest. Many a child has gone missing in centuries past. Their families left grief-stricken and confused. No Noble has ever been successful in having sway over us for generations beyond memory, and we choose to keep it that way. Now that the Lord's own grandchild has gone missing, who but this Desert Lady could be the culprit?"
D had always heard the stories of the small city of Eldrith, the city called Hope. Many federal dispatches from the City had been sent in the past to study the mysteries of this backwater place. The history for certain was an interesting one. Every Noble that had ever tried to place a foothold in this land had been unsuccessful. The reasons why were still unknown. The rumors are that there is a guardian protecting the boundaries of this land that is greater than even the strongest of the nobles; others said that the forgotten secrets, the lost wards against Nobles are still remembered here. This would mean that their genetics are original, unpolluted and untouched by the Nobles, if this is true. D had been here before, however, and the only thing that seemed warded against vampire kind in the city was the church, which is even older than the city, and left in ruins. But the "Desert Lady" had never been a problem before. He had always assumed that she, now no longer a rumor, was a renegade mutant that the Nobles had left years before from the struggles with the humans, and he had never had to deal with her. It seems that he now knew what sort of things that would pertain to his next assignment as a bounty hunter.
"Desert Lady…" D murmured.
The leader rose pointed his gun at D. "We do not know why you are here, stranger. You could be in league with the witch or you could be competition. Either which, you are unwelcome."
Well, D was certainly use to that. He did not have time for this. The Lord Valshress who the human had spoken of was long expecting him. "Your Lord has called for the best of hunters. I am here to answer his call. It would perhaps make him unhappy for you to waste his time by fighting me." D sheathed his sword and turned his back on the humans, certain that they would not make trouble after that comment. He could hear some of them gritting their teeth in displeasure.
"You have a point, stranger. 'Til later, hunter." With those words, they silently made their way toward the shelter amidst the stones that D had left vacant. "Now, for that witch…"
"This is not the first time this has happened in our city, dhampir. The only difference between then and now is that we are skeptical of the stories that we use to believe in." Lord Valshress was pacing the floor of his hall, the polished wood showing the wear marks of many a restless predecessor before him.
"What stories," asked D, his face barely audible above the crackling of the fire in the great hearth in front of the human.
"Even when I was young, my mother once told me the stories of about a desert guardian, a sacred protector of the city. I believed in them then, for I watched the coming and going of at least one Noble and a couple of beasts made by Noble disappear. They would come into our land, making slaves, causing loved ones to die, but…but then they would disappear. No one had hired a hunter. I checked the records. I questioned those who remembered more clearly those occurrences. They did not have the time to hire a hunter before the problem was already solved. But by whom? Or by what?" Valshress paused in pacing, his grey eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Always, not long after the trouble would stop, a child would disappear. Boy or girl, it made no difference. And each time from a different family. No other pattern than it being after the trouble and that it would be a child."
"And you connect this with the woman in the desert?" D remained still, never taking comfort in the Lord's offer of a seat by the fire.
"Who else could it be? If it were monsters that needed food or blood, they would come back to feed. But this…this only happens after an attack with only one child to be taken." He placed a hand over his eyes. "In the past we ignored this. Now that it is my own grand child…" He coughed and looked the dhampir in the eyes, well, what he could make out of eyes from deep in the shadows of the man's hat. "I know it is selfish for us to take interest in this only now. But if not now, then when? Please, hunter, bring back my child and put an end to this."
"This will not be easy. The child may already be dead," whispered D.
"Then I want the one responsible dead!" spat Valshress.
D watched the moment of anger pass on the human's face and then spoke. "Understood. But five million dalas is not enough."
"Then how is fourteen million? I am sure some of the villagers can add to that as well. After you bring me the head of the one responsible, be it the witch or nay, will you get your pay. There are others hired as well, ones who are more familiar with this land. You best be on your way, dun peal."
With that dismissal, D turned and left the mansion.
As he crossed the first few sand dunes outside the city gates, he came across the band of humans once again. Except that this time, their courageous countenance now gone and replaced with the symptoms of fear, shivering and shaking, eyes downcast. Their leader was not among them.
The Hand whispered from near his waist. "Well, she can at least take care of human threats."
A man raised his eyes to meet D's face and found a moment's loss in its beauty. "She is impossible to win against, hunter. You should save yourself the trouble and find another assignment. With that warning, they moved on into the city, spirits broken, and D turned to watch them. No wounds, but certainly beaten in spirit at the least, if spirit was the lesser valued.
As D turned his automation back toward the vast desert expanse, a silent figure stood still in his path. D was only slightly taken aback by this quiet approach. It was the "Desert Lady." But she was not alone. In her arms she carried a limp figure that was surely twice her size, but she carried the burden with ease. It was the tall leader of the human band. D could see even in this dark night that the man's chest was rising and falling, his breath steady and calm.
"He is alive." It was all that D could manage with the different questions that were raised in his mind at her appearance.
This time she did not wear the dark goggles. Her eyes glimmered with unnatural silver as they assessed him. "So, you were another hunter for hire, after all." She laid the man on the sand at the feet of D's mount. "No, for I value you life. Short lives are more valuable than mine, or even yours. Don't you agree?"
D remained silent for a moment, then asked, "Then, I do wonder if you are the one I am to hunt?"
The sad smile that spread on her face beneath her scarf made it wrinkle more. "Am I?" She turned and looked at him from the corner of her eye. "And what do you want to know, dhampir?"
"Only to know if you do indeed have the child."
"I do." Her voice was as calm as his.
This did not surprise D, not a bit. "Return the child and their will be no trouble."
She looked up at the moon hanging in the dark sky, like the cradle it was referred to in songs long lost. "Will there really be no trouble if I do so?"
"I can assure you that that the humans will not harm you." What inspired him to offer this woman his protection, he did not know. She somehow did not seem deserving any violence, especially since she had not killed the humans that had hunted her.
"That is not the trouble I was referring to." She faced him. "These children are most important to this world's future, and are safest in my keeping."
"I cannot allow you to keep the child. The grandfather is worried."
"I am afraid that I cannot rest his worries. Humans do not trust what they do not understand, especially when they are in the later half of their lives." Her eyes found his own beneath the long brim of his hat. "Tell me, son of the Vampire King, where does your duty and honor lay?"
D's head jerked up. "You know…"
A laugh like that of a sweet bell tone parted her lips. "You do not remember me as well as I do you…but that is not important here. What is important, however, is that you do not interfere."
"With what?" D was indeed becoming slightly irritated with this woman not being more frank with him.
"These children are the survivors of genetics left untouched by the Nobles. It is they who will lead the resistance against the power that the Nobles have over them. They are able to remember what is made to be forgotten." She turned her back to him. "You know what this means. They cannot learn what is to be remembered by those who do not hold that knowledge nor can retain it."
"But to take a child from a loving parent? I do not know if I can agree with your justification of your actions." D got off his mount and took a step closer to her.
She took a step back. "Normally these parents were children I had raised myself. They understood the reasons why I would take their own children from them. Be the children become priests, hunters, or else, they would become some form of resistance. But to allow a family together who know the vampires' weakness? It would surely bring too much unwanted attention, and seen as a threat. These children must be made to disperse and not stay in one city."
"She's right, D," murmured the Hand. "The Nobles have their connections, even to this city. After all, these people have to trade their goods with someone outside."
"I know this," D replied.
"Then would not you let this mission go?" asked the woman hopefully. "I do so not like bloodshed, and I doubt I could bring myself to destroy you."
"Give the child back or seek the approval of the grandfather for what you wish to do."
She looked down at the sand, sadness embedded deep in her eyes. "I tried. He does not believe, and I cannot take him to my abode unless he wishes never return to the world above." She crossed her arms. "I am afraid that even if he did agree to stay, he would try to leave, and I would be forced to take action against that and bind him against his will."
She truly was not an evil being; now he could see this. "Then we must find a solution that will be agreeable to both sides."
"No! This is not possible. The child must have no ties to his family or this city, for the sake of those in the city. His mother died because of her lingering tie to the city." She looked up at him. "But I promise this, the child will love and have family if he so wishes. If that is not enough for the grandfather, than perhaps he is being too selfish."
"Or perhaps you have forgotten also that short lives also need some selfishness to survive?" D's reply left her quiet for some time.
"I have never had a short life. We share that much, Hunter D. But I have promised to protect these children in all ways possible, leaving no opening of weakness for vampires to exploit." She took several steps back, drawing her cloak tighter about herself.
He drew his sword in one quick moment, the tip of its long blade mere finger's span from her throat. "Then I no choice."
"Duty over heart, Dracula? Is that what your father wanted of you?"
D's sword tip lowered a bit in surprise at the use of his name. "I never knew what he wanted of me except for success in his experiments."
In his moment of surprise, she vanished. There was no flash of light or puff of smoke. Just a quick night breeze and she was gone.
"Maybe now you see why your father liked her?" The Hand snickered.