Scene 8

"So much for being a softy."

D didn't respond. Hardly news, that.

"You were so cold to Doris, turning her down like that. Why not keep her close? You know she'd give you all you'd want and more..." Leftie was poking him now, trying to provoke a response. But the dhampire seemed to determined to remain non-conversational.

"You know I can tell when she's getting to you. In fact, when she leaned over and gave you a view of the goods, I couldn't tell what throbbed more...Your fangs or your-"

D twisted his fingers together. "You're out of line."

A chuckle emanted from the clenched fist as the countenanced carbuncle struggled to be given freedom to speak. His words floated out. "Oh, hit a nerve...did I?"

The dark-haired dhampire stood at the prow of the ship, right hand on the railing. His long ebony cloak billowed out behind him as the ship slid through the waters. How his hat did not whip off his head remained a mystery. He'd spent the better part of an hour staring out into the ocean, the vampire hunter's eyes so stunning that it seemed even the endless body of water would be spellbound by him.

Perhaps the vampire hunter was distracted for he released his fist and Leftie took his opportunity to continue to torment his host. "Don't like hearing that, do you? Don't like being compared to...Him? What, because of your mother? Or the others that submitted to his will?"

D's brow knit together slightly. Even a lesser dragon seeing that might drop dead from the sheer fright. The miasma that encircled the dhampire could fell mutants of the highest genetic make-up, but Leftie appeared immune to it. Speaking softly, D repiled, "I can't accept Doris on those terms. She came to me to settle a debt, but I won't dishonor her by taking it."

More chuckles issued from the symbiont. "Oh, please, you dress up this excuse of turning her down to seem honorable but the truth is she got you scared shitless. You're not afraid of hurting her...you're afraid of hurting you." The next few words flew out mired in amusment, but a high note of almost hysterical fear could be heard in them. "You're not in love with her, are you?"

Turning on his heel the vampire hunter clenched his fist tightly enough to dig his nails into the palm of his left hand. All around him the sailors stared at him as he went, some stopping in mid-task. A mooring line was left unattended while the attendants of the crow's nest almost fell out trying to snatch a glimpse of him.

Disppearing down the hold, D sought out the captain. Ten kids and nearly a whole town depended on him. If the attack on the Port of Nubarol was any indication the forces arrayed against him were nothing to sneeze at. The thought of getting back into the action was a calm splash of water, setting his nerves on fire at the same time it stilled his mind which threatened to be overwhelmed by...her.

And who should be there with the Captain but Doris? The young woman displayed none of the teasing sensuality or childish anger she had earlier. Oh, she was still a beauty of all beauties, but now she glanced up at D with a small smile, eyes dropping back to the map pinned by little rocks on a table before her.

A snowy-bearded, powerfully-built man, the Captain stood up from his chair and smiled a smile to split his face. "The vampire hunter D...a guest on my ship!" His hand came down so hard on D's back that a lesser man would have been bowled over it. "Shouldn't take too much longer before we arrive at the Port of Azarvin. After that, the Capitol is just a few days ride from there."

D put his back to the room's wall, head bowed as he mulled that over. "Can we buy cybernetic horses there?"

The Captain guffawed. "But of course! The port is a stopping point for many looking to visit the Capitol so they'll have any breed you fancy."

"Have you heard of any cult of vampires in the city?" D's voice fluttered out from under his fedora.

A man of extreme joviality, that joy bled out of his face at the mention of vampires. The mention of the Nobility struck fear in even the stoutest hearts and talk of a group of them only compounded that fear. The Captain coughed. "No, I haven't, but you can check out the Singing Siren, one of the bars on their main street, to see if any the patrons have." He grunted. "Though, if you ask me, you don't go looking for them damn vampires and hope they don't go looking for you."

Then the Capatin fell silent. It occured to him that the man before him both shed and shared the blood of vampires. He took a step back, repelled.

Doris looked up from the map. "I think there's a shortcut we can take the Capitol." Her voice was collected, as if they'd not argued earlier.

"We'll see what path we'll take when we make landfall," is all D said as he left the cabin. Doris didn't follow, didn't argue with him. She was was not subdued, but she seemed to have enough sense not to press him. Stepping up the stairway back up to deck, the dhampire appeared into the light just in time to feel the ship quake like it was hit by a glacier.

"What's happened, mates?" demanded the Captain as followed D on deck. Doris was hot on his heels, gripping the mooring line as the ship shook violently again. "Have we run aground?"

D could see the huntress out the corner of his eye as she rushed over to the railing. Hands grasping the railing tightly, she twirled her head around to stare at D, black tresses swirling around dramatically. "There's...there's something in the water!"

No sooner had the young woman declared that then a huge tentacle burst out of the ocean, water spraying all over deck. Sailors scurried around, grasping anything they could to serve as a weapon. Spears spun in the air, most of them way off the mark. The Captain barked orders to his crew, commanding them to remain calm and fight the beast in a coordinated attack.

A laser beam cut through the tentacle, sending it back into the water with a splash.

D glanced over at Doris. She held the laser gun in her arms, drenched in the water that the beast had doused the deck with. Their gaze met and held for the briefest of heartbeats.

Then D was in the air, his crescent-shaped sword leading the way in a silvery flash.

Coming down on a tentacle, the dhampire slid down it, blade slitting it all the way to the flesh that connected it to the body. A tentacle swept down to ensare him but D was not there, the shimmer of his former presence an unsatisfactory trophy to the beast. It was a geneticly-engineered kraken, the sort of creature that the vampires birthed to expand their own empire.

Again the dhampire dove in the air, water showering him, yet seeming not to touch him. He made death beautiful, made those who faced it long for it, beg for it, just so they could feel his blade in their breast. But this beast was without thought, without the ability to appreciate beauty. Its huge mouth gaped open as if suck D right in.

D lived for this moment. He lived for the moment of near-death, for any moment his blade met skin. And it did, again and again, as it pierced another of the kraken's tentacles. Again the dhampire slid down the tentacle, then bounced off as another tentacle came to swipe him off. His blade cut off two of the tentacles in one blow, showering the deck with more than water now. Inky blood poured on deck, yet did not leave a drop on the stunning hunter.

Then a tentacle wrapped around D's chest. That wouldn't have stopped him had he not been focused on keeping the creature's attention on himself. A single slash of his sword would free him, but the dhampire couldn't connect because he was suddenly immersed in the water. The tentacle had dove underwater taking D with it.

Darkness drowned D, wrapping him as surely as the tentacle did. Had he erred? Had his attention wavered just long enough to be defeated? More tentacles slammed into him, seeming intent on driving him deeper undwater. In the rain a dhampire's strength dropped by thirty percent and a few degrees of temparture fell with it. That reduced a half-blood's effectiveness significantly. How much more disabled was a dhampire who was completely buried alive in water?

As if a beam of dark light, D burst out the water, slashing with his blade at the tentacle that yet held him. How had he escaped the watery death? The crew cheered as they saw his dark form spinning the air. He was a mystic bird, seeming to stop time with just how magnificient he was. With a single swipe of his sword the tentacle that clutched him fell apart. With a second swipe, another fell.

Then backflipping the dhampire landed on the head of the monster and drove his blade deep into its skull.

A deafening cheer went up as the vampire hunter dropped lightly onto deck. Behind him the monster sank into the ocean, long tentacles sending up pillars of water as they fell. It was the perfect ending to the whole vicious symphony: D with his blade in a figure eight stance as he stood before them all, water cascanding around him like a celeberation to mark his victory.

In an instant Doris was hugging him tightly and he did not resist. "I was so worried for you."

D lowered his sword and brought his other hand around to pull her close to him. The scent of her hair was intoxicating. His nose drank of it deeply. "It's alright. I'm alright." His hand came up to stroke her hair comfortingly. "It's all over now. We're safe."

It was a long time before the crew disturbed them, and D was grateful for it. He knew the symbiont would torment him mercilessly about it later, but, for now, he could just melt into the moment.

A voice from around his waist said, only loud enough for him to hear: "And now the softy's back."