Vampire Hunter D Volume 18- Fortress of the Elder God (4 page)

Shortly thereafter, three sets of footsteps echoed from the ground as they started off across the wasteland.

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“They’re following us, just like I thought, the lousy pests,” said a hoarse voice. It came from the vicinity of D’s left hip. There was nothing there but his left hand.

The voice continued its harangue, saying, “This is partly your fault, you know. You’re the one who made that worthless bunch do it. You never should’ve told ’em it was dangerous out here. Talk about being completely out of luck. Those clowns think they were spared the hell of dying in a crash, and now they’re jumping into a different kind of hell. It’s a million times more dangerous out here.”

D pressed ahead, not saying a word.

As evening approached, the wind twined around the cooling light so it might sneak its chill into the people even through their eyes. That alone would’ve made it hard enough for a living creature to survive until morning, but this was no ordinary wasteland.

Shortly after, the hoarse voice inquired, “You hear that?”

There was no reply. That was as good as an affirmation.

“Why, that’s—a flute. My! Above us and below, to our left and right, I can hear it coming from every possible direction. There must be enough people playing to start a damn orchestra.”

“There are only two,” D said simply.

“That can’t be!” the hoarse voice replied, and then it fell silent, adding a second later, “You’re right. You really are one scary character, you know that? Sure as hell, you’re the only one who could do a job like this out here in the Playground, where your horse got gobbled up as soon as we entered the place.”

“How far is the fortress?”

“Another fifty miles. We should get there tomorrow. Of course, the real trouble will just be starting then.” Chortling, the hoarse voice added, “Those clowns will be better off if they die along the way.”

The voice stopped.

D had halted. Even in the midday sun, his beautiful visage remained icy cold, and he kept it pointed straight ahead.

“The sound of their footsteps has disappeared,” the hoarse voice was heard to say.

The man’s black hair fluttered in the wind like the lush grass of the prairies.

“So, what are you gonna do? You planning on going to save ’em?”

Before the voice had finished teasing D, the Hunter’s boots began treading the ground before him again.

ENEMY SIGHTED IN THE PLAYGROUND

CHAPTER 2

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I

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Everyone saw the man who’d identified himself as D stop. But then he didn’t move another muscle. He simply stood still, like a gorgeous piece of sculpture. In spite of themselves, they too halted.

“Something ain’t right,” Jan said, tilting his head to one side. His right hand was going for the broadsword on his belt. “Don’t move. I’m just gonna ask him a few questions,” he said, taking a couple of steps.

“You stay here,” the sheriff said, clapping a hand on the mobster’s shoulder as he stepped forward. “This is myjob. Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

The sheriff seemed to be fighting the wind as he dragged his massive form up behind D.

“Hey, is there something—”

Right in front of him, D turned. The sheriff’s eyes bulged in their sockets.

D didn’t have a face. Beneath his traveler’s hat was a gaping hole; not even his hair could be seen. A heartbeat later, the sheriff saw some sort of purplish mass shoot out of the hole. The thing split into countless purple tentacles that assailed the group behind him. There was no time to run or even to dodge them, so great was their speed. Wrapping around everyone’s torsos, they pulled tight with a strength that threatened to tear them apart. Maria’s face quickly turned blue from cyanosis. Weizmann groaned, and Jan found his arm crushed against his torso just as he was about to raise his sword.

Overhead, a black shape soaked up the sunlight as it zipped along. One of the tentacles coiled, trying to catch hold of it. It was rebuffed instead. A second and third entered the fray. Deftly averting them, an arrow of black iron flew with supersonic speed at D’s face, piercing the center of the writhing mass of tentacles. Reeling back without a sound, D tried to extricate the arrow with both hands, but it wouldn’t budge. The tentacles had already released the people. It was obvious that they danced in the throes of death at the bidding of their host.

When D finally fell over, one of the men avoided the still-twitching tentacles and went over to him. It was Bierce. Obviously the deadly arrows that had pierced D had been unleashed by him in midair. Like the others, he’d had both arms tied up by the tentacles, which now twitched on the ground in numerous pieces. They’d been torn apart. The question was, how?

The warrior looked down sternly at D in his death throes.

Just then, Jan came over clutching his throat and cursed, “That son of a bitch was lying when he said he was a Vampire Hunter. Damned if he wasn’t one of the monsters!”

“No, it’s not him.”

“What?” Jan exclaimed, and he wasn’t the only one with the wrathful look of a demon on his face.

“He was different somehow. Somewhere along the line we got duped. By more of these things, I guess.”

“These things? What the hell are they?”

“Things is the only way I can describe them. Looks like those aerial photos didn’t catch all the strange stuff on the ground. Are all of you okay?” Bierce said to the group behind Jan.

“Yeah. I’ll survive.”

“Keep the Stows and the kid back there,” the warrior told them.

“Why—”

“Looks like this guy isn’t all right.”

Following Bierce’s gaze, Jan flinched, and then immediately let out a gagging sound.

The massive form of the sheriff lay on the ground. Rather than strangling him, their foe had chosen to do something else. His head, ripped from his broad shoulders, sat on the ground about a foot and a half closer to the two men than the lawman’s body. It was facing them.

“Wish we could bury him, but we don’t have the time. We can have a funeral for him later. If we make it, that is.”

“You’ll jinx us with talk like that,” Jan said, his body seeming to quiver with a sort of helplessness.

“You scared?”

“Hell, yeah. I can take care of myself against humans, but I’m no good when it comes to monsters.”

The warrior grinned wryly. “Well, at least you’re honest.”

“That’s my best point. We’re counting on you now, you old warrior. You’re our only hope.” When the mobster looked back at the rest of the party, his face was indeed pale. “At any rate, let’s get going.”

The two men began to walk back to the rest of the party. Everyone was facing them. Weizmann, the Stows, Maria—their expressions all changed suddenly. The instant he recognized it as a look of fear, Bierce twisted his upper body around. He raised the arrow he still held in his left hand. But he didn’t get a chance to throw it.

Behind him stood the faceless D. His wounds hadn’t been fatal. However, his body was enveloped in white smoke, and the tentacles that spilled from the hole in his face rained down on the ground. The broken tentacles had started to dissolve. A stark, silvery tip protruded from the chest of his black coat.

When the body began to melt away and collapse as if it were hollow, the two of them saw the young man in black who stood there with naked steel in hand. This was the real one.

Such awe and terror coursed through Jan’s body that he literally shook. But he didn’t even know what sort of terror it was.

“We’re saved . . .” the mobster said, somehow managing to keep his knees from buckling.

“You came back?” Bierce asked, returning the arrow to his quiver and ignoring Jan.

“I kept right on going and ended up here,” D replied, sheathing his blade. And then, before Bierce could open his mouth again, the Hunter turned his back to him and started to walk away.

“Wait,” Transport Officer Weizmann called out shrilly as he ran over to block D’s path. He’d given Franz Stow the suckling’s rope and a pistol to cover him. “I’m responsible for this group. I can’t allow you to behave in such a self-centered manner.”

“I’m just passing through,” D said without halting.

With that, the officer from the Capital backed away, saying, “There’s no telling what’s out there. It’s too dangerous to move around haphazardly.”

“Then stay here.”

“Forget about him, officer,” Bierce said in a resigned tone. “He’s a whole different breed from us. Let him go. All we have to do is follow along behind him.”

“I can’t do that. I’m a public servant. And all your lives are my responsibility.”

“So that means we’re all supposed to take orders from you, Mr. High-and-Mighty?” Jan sneered.

“You got something to say, you son of a bitch?” the transport officer snarled, taking a big leap back. Covering more than ten feet, the jump even drew a small gasp from Bierce. And as Weizmann landed, he trained the threatening implement that had hung by his hip on D. Six thick barrels, each seemingly twenty millimeters in diameter, surrounded the center barrel of what appeared to be a .50 caliber gun. The ammo belt ran back into the cylinder on his back, which looked to hold an incredible fifty thousand rounds. The load that looked awkward on such a delicate man turned out to be a magazine.

As Bierce let out a gasp of admiration, beside him Jan’s face went pale.

“Hey, knock it off, man. I mean, delivery boy. Try talking this over, okay?”

Anyone who knew D would’ve closed his eyes at this point, easily able to imagine the scene that was going to play out. This gorgeous young man didn’t allow anyone to turn a weapon on him.

However, the situation took an unexpected turn.

D halted.

“Huh?” Jan exclaimed, his eyes going wide—apparently he’d pictured a deadly scene that was quite different.

D remained motionless.

The officer was perplexed. Though he had a terrible weapon leveled at the Hunter, the vision of beauty before him gave off such an eerie aura the officer forgot himself—he never would’ve thought the Hunter would face him empty handed. Weizmann’s fist was clenched, but he forgot to put enough power into his index finger to pull the trigger.

D then raised his right hand.

“What in the—” the transport officer cried, hugging his weapon close.

“Don’t!” Jan shouted. They were dealing with D here. But now he pictured the young man being torn to shreds by gunfire.

A black-gloved hand was slowly reaching for the hilt of his longsword.

“Don’t do it! I’ll shoot!” Weizmann shouted at him. His face was masked in sweat. His finger had the trigger squeezed back almost to the limit. The intensity of the unearthly air that linked him and D threatened to knock the officer unconscious.

D’s hand went for his weapon’s hilt. The ghastly air roiled from him like smoke from an explosion. Jan snorted and drew his broadsword, while the transport officer could only hang his head.

The bullets didn’t fly.

As D silently took his hand away from his sword’s hilt, everyone watched him as if frozen. The Hunter began to walk away. This time the transport officer didn’t stop him. He’d lost all desire to do so.

“That was pathetic. That’s why you’re just a snot-nosed kid,” Jan spat at the stiffened officer, managing to hide his own trembling.

Turning, he continued frankly, “Okay, let’s get going. We can leave our fearless leader here.”

And with that, he started to walk away.

Fingers like steel sank into Jan’s shoulder. The pain was so great he couldn’t even cry out.

“What’ll we do, officer?” Bierce inquired.

As if these words had broken the spell over him, Weizmann lowered his weapon and reeled a little.

“Here I thought you were just a young fella with a short fuse. I’m glad you didn’t shoot,” Bierce said with a smile.

“Of course I didn’t. I’m a police officer.”

“You only shoot when you’re gonna be shot, then? So, what do we do?”

Wiping the sweat from his face, Weizmann looked up at the sky. The blue was deepening. Night would probably set upon them without any twilight.

“Let’s keep going like we were. For the time being, we’ll follow after him.”

“For the time being, eh?”

“Yes, for the time being. It’s my opinion that he’s headed in the same direction we are.”

“I’ll second that,” the warrior said with a nod, and Jan spat on the ground.

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II

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At some point, the wasteland had become a valley. They hadn’t noticed it because of the fog that had sprung up some time ago. Though they all exchanged nervous glances, D melted into the milky whiteness as he advanced ahead of them confidently, and it was all they could do just to keep from losing sight of him. Suspicions that he might transform into a monster like that thing they saw earlier flitted through their minds, but they couldn’t think of anything else to do, so they just kept following along after the vision of beauty.