Vampire Hunter D Fan Fiction ❯ God of Death ❯ Chapter 13: Spell Bound And Spell Broken ( Chapter 13 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 13: Spell Bound and Spell Broken.

After the passionate encounter, the dhampir Hunter noticed things were much easier to focus on than they’d been prior to the incident. His mind was sharper, his attention was up to par and his control seemed to be much more contained. The young Huntress had saved him a world of grief by engaging in the illicit act, though it would cost her freedom were she ever found out. It seemed it was a risk she was happy to take for even she couldn’t ignore those baser instincts. Nevertheless, he welcomed the newly restored vigour and alertness he’d gained in the encounter.

‘You should have done that a long time ago.’ The tiny face of the symbiote surfaced, its needling voice once again invading the privacy of his thoughts. ‘If you’d just taken the girl to bed you would have been able to curb this and not have the girl do the work for you. Not that she minded.’ The parasite chuckled.
‘Enough,’ the dhampir said harshly. He didn’t want to dwell too long on the relief the Huntress had given him. If he did he would most likely fall once again into the torment of his lust. Not something he wanted to encourage in the very least.
‘Come on, don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that!’ cried the carbuncle. ‘Not even a tiny bit? You can’t let those words fool me, D. I could feel how much you revelled in it. Just because I got a mind of my own doesn’t mean I can’t feel what’s going on with you.’
D tried to ignore the parasite. He hated how it could understand him so well. But then again, without the symbiote he most likely would not have survived the fatalities he’d endured in the past. Still, it didn’t help that he wanted to cut the stupid thing off right now and stuff it in his saddlebag.
‘You could have tasted her blood while you were at it though. She definitely seemed to like tasting you.’ The countenanced carbuncle snickered. ‘Why didn’t you quench your thirst a little, huh? I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.’
‘Quiet!’ The Hunter clenched his hand tightly, muffling the parasite’s next words. He didn’t want to think about that right now. There was a task to be done here and he couldn’t do it if he was fantasising about the young Huntress. It would only strain his control and he didn’t want to lose that after regaining it.

The dhampir walked to his horse and mounted smoothly. With a simple jerk of the reins, the metallic stallion bolted off into the direction of the village. The Covenant son Ambrose was his target of interrogation tonight. But before he could confront the young man, he’d have to gather as much information as possible to make an effective move. All that was known about the young Covenant had been gleaned by the symbiote, and even that wasn’t enough to accuse him of aiding Titus and his coven in their war for control of Verna. No, something subtler was needed for this plan to work.
He slowed his mount just five miles from the village. The gorgeous youth dismounted, tying the cyber steed to a tree in the woods. He couldn’t be seen riding into town. It would only complicate matters and destroy his cover. With the mount secured, he moved swiftly into the shadows of the wall surrounding the village.

From what Melissa had told him, Verna was a large village consisting of over five thousand residents. With a myriad of schools, medical clinics and a single church, it was practically a city, or what passed for a city in these dark times.  The streets were a labyrinth of cobblestone alleys and smooth mud-brick pavement, all of which connected to the town hall where the council resided. It was as though that single, pristine marble building was the heart of the village, the centre of this maze of people and walkways. All of this was confined within a wall over thirty feet high and constantly patrolled by the rag-tag youth brigades and renegade squads that comprised what passed for law enforcement in the Frontier. Only four gates granted entrance to this place, each facing the four corners of a map was it drawn onto parchment. Yet, in spite of the large population, the townspeople were always well aware of the goings on in Verna. From the smallest offence of an orphan stealing bread to stave off their hunger to what was considered the most despicable crime of their history; Hellfire’s wilful indulgement of their unholiest taboo. In any other city or village, the murder of their own or a vampire attack was deemed to be the most heinous of crimes. But here, it seemed the young Huntress’s vampire kill was the centre of their ironclad edicts. Why this was, D couldn’t contemplate. Perhaps after he interrogated Ambrose, a piece of this convoluted puzzle would fall into place.

The gorgeous youth stalked through the shadows of the outside streets, years of hunting aiding in his efforts to remain undetected. As he crept through the darkness to which he was so appropriately suited, he could glean whispers from the townspeople he passed. It would seem, even now, that the young woman’s wilful crime against their holiest edict was the topic of everyday gossip.
‘Can you believe that the council still allows that girl to walk in and our of this town?’ A woman in her mid-thirties, clad in evening finery and waving a makeshift fan of pheasant feathers, was conversing with her ardently listening friend as they walked past where the Hunter was hidden.
‘I don’t see why they would bother with such a miscreant,’ tutted the lady’s friend. ‘She clearly shows no regard for our laws at all. Just look at the way she rides in here, so proud and defiant. The strength she exhibits and the way she calmly sets out to kill another of the Nobility’s brood. It’s simply unnatural!’
‘Indeed. And that Hunter that came in with her.’ The older lady flushed a deep crimson as she put a hand to her breast. ‘Such a dashing young man!’
‘Ah yes, that Vampire Hunter D.’ The gossip’s friend giggled behind her raised hand. ‘In spite of his ghastly profession, he is quite a handsome fellow. Those broad shoulders and lush lips…and those cold eyes just make me shiver.’
‘And to think he came in with that whore,’ spat the gossip in distaste. ‘If she’d just behaved and found herself a nice man she would have lived a pleasant life. But she seems to enjoy breaking our laws and spitting on the village. I say she deserves her punishment.’
‘Agreed. Though it is a pity in some ways. She’s such a beauty. But that man!’ The gossip’s friend grew quite red in the face, her hand fluttering at her breast. ‘I wouldn’t mind showing such a fine gentleman like that a good time.’
‘Oh you and me both, dear.’ They went off, giggling like schoolgirls and talking more about the dhampir and the Huntress. D couldn’t help but sigh in frustration. No matter where he turned, women of all ages seemed to turn to jelly when they saw him. Giggling and simpering like young schoolgirls peeking at the most handsome boy in the courtyard…. it deeply irritated him to no end. However, the case seemed to be different with the Huntress. She did show a measure of lust for the gorgeous youth but aside from that, she only focused on her work. She was indeed a strange case…
No. He quickly shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. Now is not the time for that. He needed to find Ambrose, and quickly before his presence was known here.  He turned the corner and caught a glimpse of the man’s criminal features before returning to the shadows. He’d found his target, but he could only wonder if the young Covenant had caught onto to him. He did not hear the perceptible murmurs of a male wondering if he’d been watched so he carefully peered around the corner once more. Ambrose was talking to a man in a grey suit. A frail-looking fellow with greying, matted hair and a sunken face spoke in hushed tones to the young man, his voice like crackling bark. The young Covenant seemed to be paying close attention to what he was saying for he suddenly grabbed his coat from the man in the grey suit and followed the gaunt gentleman out of the street. The dhampir Hunter swiftly moved in pursuit, careful to remain undetected by any who may recognise him. He followed the young man to the south gate, which opened onto the outskirts of the village. From what the Huntress had informed D, that gate led to an abandoned mineshaft just twenty miles outside the village walls. Before, it used to be a rich resource engorged with veins of gold, silver and titanium. But the shaft had run dry over twelve years ago and had been sealed off to all but the city officials. Why it hadn’t simply been caved in to prevent entry was anyone’s guess but D surmised there must be something concealed within the shaft that only Ambrose knew about. He watched closely from the shadows as the young man was led to a large black carriage, parked just outside the south gate. Ambrose paid the gaunt gentlemen by placing a small bag in his hand. Whatever the bag’s contents were, the frail man seemed to be overjoyed and praised Ambrose for his generosity before bundling him into the carriage and quickly taking the driver’s seat. With a flick of the reins, the horse-drawn vehicle launched off into the shadows of the mineshaft road.

‘There’s something really screwy going on here,’ muttered the symbiote, apparently very attuned to what was going on. ‘What do you think was in that bag?’
‘I wouldn’t have the slightest idea,’ replied D, though his eyes glinted a faint crimson. In spite of the contents being cleverly concealed in the small hessian bag, the garlic and pepper herbs that had been placed inside with the vials did not so easily mask the scent of blood. There was no mistake that the gentleman that led Ambrose to the carriage was a vampire servant, and the gorgeous youth had a very clear idea as to whom the vampire served.
The dhampir Hunter trailed the carriage on foot, keeping a surprisingly close distance to the racing vehicle. It was clear some other power was at work for no human could move with such effortless grace and alarming speed. The usual mutants and beasts that inhabited this part of the wood surrounding the village seemed to make themselves scarce before the gorgeous youth, fleeing the moment that eldritch aura slammed into their faces. The carriage pulled to a halt in front of the abandoned mineshaft and D immediately concealed himself in the shadows once more. Watching closely, he observed a cloaked figure approach the carriage as the door flung open. Ambrose stepped down casually from the confines of the vehicle and greeted the figure with a jovial gleam in his eyes. The stranger lifted a pale, spidery hand towards the hood and pushed it back, revealing the fiery tresses and sinister grey eyes of Lizbeth, the vampiress that attacked Melissa and D three short days ago. The Covenant son cupped her face in his hand and greeted the vampire assassin with a passionate kiss, much to the concealed surprise of the dhampir Hunter. After Lizbeth returned the loving display of affection, she took his hand and led him around the side of the mineshaft. D followed them intently with his cold gaze, discerning a small tunnel that had been dug into the left side of the shaft. Lizbeth disappeared inside with the young Covenant traipsing in her wake.
‘So that’s the story,’ muttered the parasite, coming out of hiding once more. ‘Seems he’s been doing the late night rumpy with Titus’s assassin, the sly old dog.’
‘Their connection is deeper than that,’ D replied. ‘And it may clear up some things about this whole affair. At least now everything is beginning to make sense.’
‘It’ll make more sense if we can find out what Titus wants with that Hunter so get your uptight ass moving.’
The dhampir ignored the symbiote’s blunt words and proceeded to follow the couple inside. His passage was blocked, however, as a small group of vampires intercepted him on the way into the shaft. One of them had a mane of hair the hue of fresh blood.
‘We meet again, Vampire Hunter D,’ sneered the vampire.
‘Impressive,’ mused the Hunter. ‘I never imagined you could survive that wound.’
‘Ha! You think that toy could kill me?’ spat Lucius. The vampire peeled back layers of tattered cloth to reveal the large scar left by D’s sword when he was cut in two. ‘I admit, it took some time for that wound to fully heal. Your skill with a sword precedes you, Dhampir. But it will take more than a cut dealt by a half-breed’s sliver to kill me.’
‘Then let us see how well you last against me this time.’ D shifted into position, his hand straying to his sword. Lucius laughed, a horrible sound like oil sliding down broken glass.
‘And leave the girl to our brood? How thoughtful.’
The dhampir’s hand wavered ever so slightly. ‘What do you mean?’
The bloody-haired vampire burst into a cacophony of laughter. ‘Oh, this is too good it has to be fattening! You actually care about what happens to that exiled whore? Well, in deference to your compassion, I’ll leave you a present before you die. Lord Titus is going to finish what he started with that girl twelve years ago and make her one of his servants. But since she was so well protected we couldn’t lay a hand on her. But as of tonight, that will change.’
‘What is happening tonight?’
‘Why, only the best possible thing!’ cried Lucius. ‘One of our own was able to find a seat in the council hall, so tonight the entire council will be servants of Titus.’
‘What?!’

The startling news cost D for the vampires had sneaked up on him from behind while Lucius was boasting. They pounced on the Hunter, claws out and fangs bared for the kill. A single flash of light and two of the brood were taken down, sliced in two and their entrails pouring onto the ground in a gruesome shower of gore. The dhampir now turned to them with his sword out, staring them down with an icy glare. The vampires paled before the white sensation of that eerie aura but quickly were snapped out of by Lucius’s barking tone.
‘What are you waiting for, you imbeciles?! Kill him!’
One of them launched into his attack, flitting around the gorgeous youth with the grace and speed of a hummingbird. D merely stood there as the vampire sneered, continuing his mad and taunting dance.
‘What the matter, Dhampir?’ cackled the nymph-like creature. ‘Can’t keep up? This is why I am prized in Lord Titus’s brood as one of his elite assassins! Do you think you can possibly beat me?’
The high frequency manoeuvres didn’t seem to faze the Hunter. He swiftly whirled to the left and an arc of white light split the darkness. The vampire stood there, staring in awe at the dhampir.
‘How…..? How could you….?’ He didn’t get to finish his sentence as he split in two and collapsed in a fountain of blood. His comrades stared in shock and suddenly threw themselves at the gorgeous youth in a rage. Their lives ended as swiftly as flashes of light rent the night, fading into a crimson mist. All that was left was Lucius who was eagerly awaiting the dhampir with a snake-like smirk upon his gaunt features.
‘Excellent. You have impressive moves.’ He drew a set of knives from his coat, clasping them between his fingers. ‘However, you will now know the meaning of true pain!’
A burst of light in the darkest spectrum of the rainbow immediately flooded the clearing, surrounding the dhampir. For a brief moment, the Hunter was left totally blind and helpless. The light faded and he found himself in a peculiar prism of translucent black crystal. A sudden rush of wind and he turned in time to block a silver knife hurtling towards his left shoulder. A second knife had been thrown from the opposite direction, slicing through his right thigh and exposing deathly pale flesh tainted with his own blood. Three came at him this time and he managed to block them all but didn’t react fast enough to see five others streak past, slashing into his back. He growled in pain and raised his head to see the vampire sneering at him through the pane of crystal in front of him.  
‘How do you like my house of crystal mirrors, dhampir?’ he crowed. ‘You may be fast but I’m faster still. Let’s see you slice your way out of this!’ The image of the vampire disappeared and then five more appeared around D, the timing of each appearance off by a mere second. It would seem the aim of this attack was to catch the victim off guard by launching several attacks at slightly different times so that their pacing was thrown off. D lunged for one of the images and slashed at it. The image vanished and appeared in a different crystal facet, smirking at him mockingly. He threw a steel needle directly at the vampire’s heart. The mirror shattered but quickly reformed itself, the image of the vampire reappearing elsewhere. It was a clever tactic and it seemed to have D at his wit’s end.
‘I’ve never seen a mirror illusion magic like this,’ said the parasite, and he didn’t sound the least bit happy. ‘Normally, you would hit the original image and the caster’s dead and the spell wears off. But the mirrors here reform themselves. This guy is no mage’s student.’
‘Is it possible to break out of here?’
‘What, are you crazy?’ cried the parasite. ‘Even if there was, it would take some time. But there has been no case in the history of the Nobility of someone being able to break out a spell of this calibre.’
‘That is time we don’t have.’ D’s voice was slightly edged with irritation. ‘We have no choice but to break out.’
The countenanced carbuncle was silent but it was a silence pregnant with agitation and fear. ‘You have the floor for this one,’ it finally replied, ‘but I don’t know where you get these crazy ideas from. I don’t want to be anywhere near you when you break out.’
‘Do as you wish, but until then, you need to do your part.’
D swiftly circled the crystal house. Gathering dead branches as he walked, he snapped off the twigs before piling them on his shoulder. When he returned to the centre of the spell some ten minutes later, both shoulders were loaded with as much as would possibly fit.
Piling the heap of wood on the ground like kindling for a fire, D began to dig up the soil. With all five fingers lying flat, he artlessly thrust his left hand into the ground, scooping out clods of dirt like his hand was a shovel, and piling the dirt in a mound beside the kindling.
But this was no plain soil. The earth was black and hard, packed solid by countless passing loads. What indescribable strength that hand must’ve possessed, to slide wrist-deep into the earth with such consummate ease. In no time, he’d dug a hole big enough for a person to lie in comfortably, and had accumulated a corresponding volume of dirt.
‘All set,’ he said, smacking the soil from his hands.
‘Not yet,’ the left hand protested. ‘Earth, fire, water and wind- we’re still short of water. There is no way we can break out of this spell if we’re short one element.’
‘Don’t worry.’
Standing before the mound of dirt, the gorgeous youth removed his bracer and rolled back his sleeve, exposing his left forearm to the wind. He brought his right index finger to bear just above the wrist, at a point where the artery was. Both finger and nail were gracefully in keeping with their owner. What sort of trick was employed here was unclear, but merely running the finger across the white flesh left a thick vermilion line, and bright blood gushed from the wound, pouring down on the lumpy black earth like a warm waterfall.
After making sure his lifeblood had sufficiently soaked into the clods of earth, D wiped the same finger across the gash. The bleeding stopped, and there wasn’t even a trace of the wound to be seen. Not surprisingly, his complexion was a bit paler than usual, but what was most disturbing to see was how deftly he brought that finger dripping with his own blood to his mouth, taking that little bit of sustenance.
‘This is a miserable bit of business,’ the parasite moaned. ‘It’s scary as hell how coolly you do it. Guess it shouldn’t be a surprise, considering you’re-‘
‘Enough.’
With that one word from D, changed by that single drop of blood he had tasted, the voice was silenced.
Taking two branches from the pile of kindling and holding one in each hand, D put the end of one against the side of the other and rubbed them together vigorously. He didn’t appear to put much strength into it, but both branches soon burst into flame, and when they were tossed back onto the mound of dead wood, heavy black smoke and fierce flames instantly sprung skyward.
‘Your turn now,’ he said.
His left hand reached for the flames. Then into the flames. The wind howled and there, the blazing pillar of flame became a thin line that was sucked like smoke into D palm!
‘That makes fire and wind, right? Earth and water are next,’ D muttered in a beautiful voice, as his pale skin regained a lustre that could rightly be termed bewitching. D’s left hand immediately sunk into the mound of earth, and it seemed to quickly diminish before his eyes.

‘Oooh, you have some tricks up your sleeve too, eh?’ Lucius cackled, apparently watching the entire display. But there is not going to save you from this place, half-breed!’

‘Okay, ready to roll,’ came the voice of the parasite.

With the exception of a smattering of bloody mud and a fistful of ashes, the outlandish materials had vanished. Who would have thought that entire mound of dirt could have been consumed by a mouth the size of a baby’s finger?
Without another glance at the remains, D drew his sword.
Bracing his body against what seemed to be a painful effort for him, he took off hard.
‘Where is the original image of the vampire?’ he asked, training his piercing gaze straight ahead. The wind rang in his ears.
‘About one hundred yards from here. He’ll catch on soon so you better hurry up,’ said the left hand teasingly.
The wind seemed to kick up into a tremendous howl as the facets of crystal twisted itself into a veritable mirage, dissolving like sugar crystals in water and surging after D as he sprinted by.
It was a beautiful and whimsical sight, as the gale raised by this gorgeous youth melted the world around and pulled it after him.
‘Eighty….seventy….almost there,’ said the parasite with pleasure.
D’s eyes reflected only the landscape before him. No fear, no anger, no sorrow there. It seemed he was always that way. Increasing his speed further, the howls of the wind became a maddening scream.
‘Fifty….Thirty….Ten…..NOW!’
W ith that signal, the dhampir leaped into the air and streaked towards the vampire’s image with blinding speed.
‘WHAT?!’ Lucius’s shocked gaze reflected the dhampir as the Hunter’s blade bore down on him.
A scream beyond any concern for masculinity and a shower of gore were the only things the vampire saw and felt as the spell shattered into a million crystal shards and vanished. The vampire himself fell face down in the earth, sliced in half by the dhampir’s mystical blade. D landed silently before the bloodied corpse, flicking his blade of the gore that coated it before stowing it in its sheath.
‘Well, that was an unwanted delay. We better get moving before they catch on to what happened here.’
The dhampir didn’t respond to the parasite as he melted into the darkness of the shaft before him.


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