The Rose Princess (7 page)

“Now for the coup de grace,” Elena said, raising her right hand. The sharpened tip
of the steel pipe she held was aimed right at the Blue Knight’s heart.

A flash of light raced toward the end of the weapon. The electric shock not only knocked
the pipe from Elena’s hand, but also left her whole body numb.

“Knocked on your behind by a woman? Let that be a lesson to you,” the Black Knight
said gravely. Blue light spilled from the tip of the finger he’d extended. Electrical
discharge.

“Goddamn . . . cheaters . . . ,” Elena groaned.

It was amazing that she didn’t fall off the bike or topple over with it. And for all
her agonized panting, the gleam in her eyes declared that the fight would go on.

“You needn’t have interfered like that,” the Blue Knight said as he got to his feet.

Elena wasn’t scared. Revving her bike with her numbed hand, she endeavored to maintain
her battle-readiness. She was definitely tenacious.

“Well played, missy. You can tell them in heaven that you earned the praise of the
Blue Knight.”

The knights watched with satisfaction as their compatriot hauled back mightily with
his lance and launched it at Elena’s chest in a gleaming blur.

With a mellifluous sound, the lance jolted upward. And then it completely reversed
direction and headed back at the chest of the Blue Knight. Naturally, the knight was
able to catch it in his bare hands, though the effort staggered him and he was once
more knocked back on his ass.

The three knights gazed in rapture at the powerful figure in a black coat who stood
before Elena. Was their reaction a pure response to the young man’s good looks, or
was it the joy they felt as warriors at the prospect of doing battle with such a man?

“Are you determined to do this?” the Red Knight asked in a weary tone. “We should’ve
known you could never live under the same roof as us. Before the princess awakens,
we shall take matters into our own hands.”

Not only the air, but even the flowers blooming so grandly seemed to freeze.

The three knights spread out without making a sound.

Against them stood D, alone. Basking in the moonlight, with the blade that’d deflected
the lance in one hand, he was adorned with roses of blue, red, black, and white. The
sight of him not only left his three opponents spellbound, but also captivated the
agonized Elena.

The Red Knight had all his weight balanced on the tip of his foot. One way or another,
life and death were clearly a heartbeat away from colliding in a shower of sparks.

And at just that moment, a voice as distinct as a rose flowed out into the still night
it suited so well, crying, “Hold!”

—

I

—

T
he reaction of the three knights was almost comical to see. At the sound of the chiming
voice, each had fallen to one knee right where he was. Since the voice had come from
behind the trio, only D and Elena could actually see the speaker. As the girl remained
slumped against her bike’s handlebars, a gasp of surprise slipped from her.

Moonlight rained down on the woman, melting into her white dress when it struck the
shoulders, the bust, the skirt. For an instant, each spot glistened like a collection
of tiny jewels, but this sight couldn’t be enjoyed for more than a heartbeat before
ripples spread across the surface of the dress and the gleam faded away. Her brow
and eyes, nose and lips—each beautiful part had been so delicately arranged they would
leave any poet incapable of ever setting his pen down again. With her crystal-clear
gaze trained on D all the while, the young lady brought the rose she held up to her
mouth. Her lips were so red that it seemed they’d stain the petals.

“So we finally meet in my world, D and whoever-you-are,” she said.

The moonlight gave a pearly luster to the lips of the woman—although given her youthful
visage, it would’ve been more accurate to call her a girl. It was night now.

“Since you’ve taken all the trouble to come up here, would you join me for a spot
of tea? If you don’t mind the company, that is.”

“Princess!” both the Red Knight and Blue Knight cried.

“Silence!” the princess snapped at them as if they were a pair of high-spirited children.
The rose whipped around, painting a streak of white in the air. “The prospect of that
filthy moppet coming along doesn’t thrill me, but I’m sure you won’t agree to anything
unless she can accompany you. Both of you, follow me,” she said as if she were giving
orders to her retainers, rolling the flower between her fingertips all the while.
But the young lady stopped immediately. Her expression tightened, but she quickly
formed a smile and said, “Don’t be that way. Are you all business? You may be eminently
trusting, but I’m sure you’re equally stubborn.” Here the young woman tilted her head
a bit to one side. “Say, I have an idea. Would you join me in a little competition?”

It was not D, but rather the trio of knights who froze where they were. Still, it
was remarkable how the warriors never took their eyes off of the Hunter for a second.

“Oh,” she laughed, “you should be accustomed to my whims by now. Don’t make such a
scene in front of your foe. You know, I said a little competition, but I’m loath to
engage in anything as unseemly as a drawn-out sword fight. Let’s do something light
and refreshing. I’ll stand right in front of you, and you come at me any way you wish.
But only once,” she said. “If you cut me, I lose. And if by some chance I’m unscathed,
you lose. In which case the two of you will have to join me for tea. What do you think?”

Everyone’s eyes were riveted to D. Oddly enough, the look the three knights gave him
didn’t carry as much anger or menace as it did a powerful tinge of dependence—and
that included the eyes of the Black Knight.

“Let’s do it,” said D.

The princess, incredibly enough, snapped her fingers. “Fantastic! I just adore decisive
men.”

Her body seemed to float through the air, and she came to stand before D with just
the faintest ruffling of the hem of her dress.

“Princess!” the Blue Knight shouted as he prepared to dash to her aid.

“I believe I told you to be silent, didn’t I?” she said, her voice flying like a spear
of ice to nail her guardian in blue firmly in place. “There will be no interruptions
now,” the princess told the Hunter. “So, shall we get started?” she asked, her tone
incredibly innocent even as she invited a blow from his blade.

While she was a full-grown woman and a beautiful one at that, the gap between the
way she looked and the way she sounded wasn’t so much strange as it was bewitching,
and even another female like Elena found herself swallowing hard. When faced with
such charm, a Hunter of even the firmest resolve would’ve found himself suddenly unable
to attack her, stripped of not only malice but of all hostility. Anyone but D, that
is.

A flash of white light came straight down at the top of the princess’s head—a merciless
blow from D’s sword. However, Elena forgot all about the numbness that had spread
through her entire body.

The enchanting princess had clearly been split in two from the crown of her head to
her crotch, but she was smiling.

“Which of us won?” she asked. But who would’ve imagined anyone who’d felt the edge
of D’s sword would live to frame such a question? The princess was twirling the white
rose right in front of her nose.

“You did,” D said, sheathing his blade without another word.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’ve put your sword away. I take it you trust me when I say those
three won’t lay a hand on you. I like you better with each passing minute. And I have
some really delicious tea to offer you.”

The Hunter and the biker followed the princess through a doorway into the main building.
The knights didn’t come with them, for the princess had ordered them to remain there.
What’s more, she’d told them they weren’t to do anything to the girl’s motorcycle,
and the trio acquiesced.

The interior of the manor had every imaginable luxury. Seeing how generous the Nobility
had been in their use of crystal and gemstones, gold and the legendary precious metals
their kind had synthesized, Elena could only stare in amazement. Her paralysis passed
when D’s left hand touched her.

“Unbelievable . . . So this is what Nobles’ houses look like?” she muttered in amazement
as they passed the base of a crystal statue that looked to be over sixty feet tall.
She meant every word.

Fog coursed around the three of them incessantly, and as it writhed around their bodies,
it took the shape of gorgeous men and women. When Elena waved her hand through them,
they faded away, leaving only a smile that wasn’t really a smile.

“As you can see, nothing has changed in my manor. By day, it may not be much to look
at, but it returns to its glory when my time comes. Like it?” the princess inquired
innocently.

D replied, “The Nobility dreamed of the daytime. Do they dream of the nights now,
too?”

“Dear me, that’s a terrible thing to say! I’ll have you know I’m as alive as can be.
No different from yourself, my good dhampir.”

Elena thought her heart was about to fly out of her mouth.

“Oh, does that surprise you, child? You’ve known him even longer than I have—how could
you not notice? I guess you humans really are terribly stupid after all, aren’t you?”

“How do you know that’s what he is?” Elena asked, having worked up her courage once
more. The fear the Nobility inspired in humans was overwhelming both mentally and
emotionally. Her voice was hoarse, and its volume a whisper.

With faux sympathy, the princess said, “Do you think any human male could be so beautiful?
Five minutes in his presence should be enough to tell you he’s from an entirely different
world. And that’s why he’s a Vampire Hunter.”

Pondering the ghastly implications of the words the princess had uttered with such
weight, Elena began to feel dizzy. How could the person who was going to dispose of
the Nobility so easily be half vampire himself?

“We’re here,” the princess exclaimed, the doors before her opening at the sound of
her voice.

The trio stepped into a lavishly appointed room. Once they’d taken their seats around
a marble table, semitransparent stewards came over without a sound and poured wine
into goblets wrought of pure silver.

“I had been thinking about tea,” the princess said, “but this is a more grown-up taste.
It may be a bit too mature for our young miss, though.”

“What, this crap?!” Elena sneered, and she was about to drain the cup when D put his
hand across the top of it.

“Let’s hear what you have to say. Before anyone drinks anything.”

“Are you trying to tell me the battle will be on as soon as we’re done drinking? Well,
don’t worry on that account. I’ll gladly indulge you. Are you incapable of taking
a simple invitation to tea at face value?”

“Yes.”

“How unfortunate that you’ve had such a poor upbringing,” the princess remarked with
a wink at Elena, but the biker turned away in disgust. Nonchalantly taking a sip from
her cup, the enchanting princess let out a sad sigh and said, “There’s something I’d
like you to do for me.” Her words were directed at D. “It’s about my four guardians—although
you’ve only seen three of them so far. I don’t suppose you’d be so kind as to dispose
of them?”

Silence fell.

Still in the process of bringing the cup to her lips, Elena had her eyes open as wide
as they would go. She looked extremely uncomfortable. Born and raised in the village,
she was all too familiar with the four knights and their relationship with the princess.
If the princess was the moon, then the four knights were the darkness that allowed
her radiance to reach the earth. At her bidding, the knights would gallop out like
thunder on their chargers, racing off to trample all those who would oppose her.

Ironically enough, it also meant that at times the knights defended the village of
Sacri. Elena herself knew of more than a dozen times when various monsters or bands
of well-armed brigands had attacked, trying to get at their rich supply of grain.
And it was said there’d been countless other attempts in the past. Burn, pillage,
and kill—this was the standard under which their villainous attackers gathered, but
they’d always been repelled by a hair’s breadth and then made the victims of their
very own motto by the four knights acting on the princess’s orders.

And it was the four knights who boldly thundered out across the plains to challenge
the gigantic “earth devourer” that could swallow a whole hill in the course of a night,
eventually slaying the beast after a fierce and bloody conflict.

And when the land tsunami that unavoidably crushed everything in its path and churned
the debris high into the air was bearing down on the village, it was the knights who
arrived like a four-colored wind and used the Nobility’s civil engineering equipment
and advanced technology to temporarily hide the entire community deep in the earth
to keep it safe.

The skillful Hunters who’d come to dispose of the lovely princess residing in this
lonely outpost had never managed to breach the doors to her fortress before being
cut down amid the whistling blows of her guardians’ swords and lances.

The strange thing was, Elena had never actually seen the princess in the flesh before—nor
had the mayor or any of the other village elders. When they’d been born, the lady
of the manor was already the stuff of legend. The only reason she remained painfully
carved into the hearts of the people was because when the knights occasionally called
on the village, they often mentioned the princess and delivered her edicts.

Just how old was this woman they called their princess? What were these knights who
could walk in the light of the sun? These questions were always on the tips of the
people’s tongues, but ultimately sank back into the dark recesses of their brains
unanswered. Living as she did in a manor far older than the village, there was no
point in asking her age. Most likely, several generations of knights had fought from
beneath that immutable armor. After all, it only stood to reason the Noblewoman would
need someone of human blood to guard her coffin by day. Needless to say, the Nobility
were objects of fear and hatred, and the princess was no exception. At one time, young
people and even children had vanished from the village every night, irrespective of
sex. They returned with teeth marks on their necks; pale and less than human. Every
last one of them had the aroma of roses on their breath, and rose petals filled their
pockets. Thus, the lady of the manor became known as “the rose princess.”

And yet, incredibly few people had ever offered her any resistance. Aside from the
fact she was shielded by her knights, the human populace of this region had a more
deeply rooted fear of the Nobility than people in other Frontier sectors. Mothers
could only weep as their children were locked up on the edge of town, and husbands
drowned their anger in liquor after driving stakes through the hearts of wives who’d
bared their fangs. Once in a very great while, a brave rebel would take the road up
to the manor, but many of them were never seen again—as if swallowed by the darkness—while
even more had been left as brutalized corpses decorating the sides of the road out
of town.

It was a few years earlier that the first symptoms of change had manifested. Young
people had been born without the innate fear of the Nobility many believed had been
fused into their very genetic code. And once grown, they made little secret of their
plans to resist the princess and her guardians. Elena was one such person; the dangerous
nucleus of her biker group.

“Just what the hell are you up to?” she asked the princess, her voice a mix of tension
and trepidation—and expectation.

“They’re a hindrance, the lot of them,” the lovely princess replied, but her words
were directed to D, as always. “The fact of the matter is, I’ve finally grown tired
of these lands. Although I look young, I’ve actually been here for a fairly long time.
And recently, I’ve yearned to see something of the world at long last. But when I
go, I’d like to spread my wings and fly solo. And that’s where
they
become a problem.”

Elena also looked at D. She couldn’t help but wonder what he thought of the staggering
information the princess had just disclosed. Relief and excitement filled the biker’s
heart, but D’s expression hadn’t changed in the least. No matter what the Nobility
had in mind, the Hunter would no doubt remain impassive as he brought all their plans
to naught. Beautifully and emotionlessly.