Vampire Hunter D Fan Fiction ❯ Innocent Souls ❯ Chapter Six: A New Offering ( Chapter 6 )

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

As D runs his errand for Bronach, he is ambushed by Ciaran. They're evenly matched, or does the Dark Faerie have some nefarious tricks up his sleeve?

Anime/Manga: Vampire Hunter D Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Fantasy / Hentai | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.09.2005 | Pages: 8 | Words: 7.5K | Visits: 400 | Status: Completed

Disclaimer:Vampire Hunter D is the property of its creator, Hideuki Kikuchi. I do not own D or any of the characters related to the novel series.

Innocent Souls

Chapter Six: A New Offering

By: Elf

Ciaran watched the town in distaste. There were hunters abound here. He couldn't fling out a shadow tendril without hitting a hunter of some sort.

“Look at `em. Humans. Not good for anything other than eating,” Richmond hissed from where he was crouched at Ciaran's side.

Ciaran smiled at his goblin servant and replied, “They have their uses. Their souls are quite powerful. Especially that of a child.”

“Why do you want the Wild Hunt back anyway?” Richmond asked, huge eyes blinking owlishly.

The Dark Faerie tilted his head thoughtfully. He replied, “Because the humans have corrupted and killed this world for far too long. Radiation poisons things, mutating something beautiful beyond recognition. They rape and pillage the land without a second thought. Vampires cull the humans, but they are dying themselves, and in some ways they're even worse. Its time for the world to be recalled back to its Mother. Time for the Hunt to right the wrongs that man has created.”

“Of course you'll lead it,” Richmond snorted as he wiped his nose with a clawed hand.

Ciaran smiled and replied, “Of course. I'll be worshiped as a god. This is why I'm going to all of this trouble. I don't care about the humans nor the so called Nobility. I want the world righted so I can properly rule.”

“And the Morrigan's Grace?” Richmond asked hungrily, his claws clacking together as he rubbed his hands.

Ciaran's lip curled as he saw the dhampire leave Bronach. From his lofty perch he watched as the hunter got on his horse and rode out of the village of all things. Then he watched as Bronach began to walk the village.

He pulled a clear beryl orb out of his robes and peered through it like a spy glass. He saw Bronach walk into the very center of the town. A center a human couldn't concern, but a Faerie building a warding spell would. His tri-violet eyes narrowed as he watched her place a twin spire of dark smokey quartz there in the dirt.

“Where the hell is that half breed spawn of a coffin going?” Richmond asked as his sickly yellow eyes followed the form of the hunter.

Ciaran smirked as he watched Bronach singing. He turned away so he could watch the madly riding hunter. He closed his eyes and opened his senses in the direction to where the hunter was going.

He felt a steady, humming power, bright and shining there. He wasn't a fan of Earth Magics, shunning crystals and herbs for his true power over darkness. Yet any Faerie worth his weight in salt knew where to gather ingredients for spells, or could find them.

“So, Bronach, you sent your pet hunter to get supplies. Sadly he won't get back to you,” Ciaran mused softly to himself.

Richmond grinned ferally at his master. He asked, “The imps and the ekings haven't gotten out since you stormed Blackmoure's castle. Shall we use them?”

Ciaran smirked as he remembered the imps overwhelming Blackmoure until he gave into his bloodlust. However, D wasn't as intimate with his father's nature as Blackmoure was. If anything, D repressed and controlled it with a truly extraordinary will.

Ciaran wanted to see that bloodthirsty nature out in the open. He wanted to see the hunter in his full glory. Because, in that moment he planned to take his soul and forego the tedium of going after all the children.

After all, what better to give to the Wild Hunt than the soul of Dracula's son as an offering?

******

D stooped over to avoid a stalactite. The tip of his hat still brushed against the low point as he nimbly made his way around the abandoned shaft. His eyes quickly accustomed to the gloom of the cave.

“Damn, it's dark in here,” his Left Hand grumbled as D skirted around a stalagmite.

D ignored his parasite as he journeyed deeper into the cave. In the dark grey base rock he could make out patterns of shimmering white, pink, and pale metallic grey. He ran his right hand over it.

It was cool and slick under his fingertips. He ran his fingers over a milky vein before lowering his hand. He stopped and looked around thoughtfully.

He lifted up his left hand and stated, “Find me whole crystals. Not the veins.”

“Man, this girl really has a bug up your butt if she's making you do all of this crap,” the life form retorted as D spanned his hand across the cave. “I mean, you're getting her crystals and everything. Not to mention that kiss. Man, that was hot. As much as your fangs were throbbing, I'd bet that your c-mmmffhafgh!”

D stilled and scraped his palm against the cold, wet rock. There was a muffled yelp and he smiled to himself in satisfaction. “Find them,” he reminded the creature within his hand.

“Find them, damn it D, you're a fucking slave driver,” Left Hand grumbled as D began to span it in front of him again.

D looked around the abandoned shaft as they continued to go deeper. “Turn left,” Left Hand said. D did and had to duck down to get into another room. His amulet scraped against the hard limestone wall as he pressed himself deeper into the crevice.

His eyes widened as he entered the tiny room. His keen eyes caught out the glittering and shimmering points of various crystals growing out of the ground. The very place throbbed and sparkled with energy. He felt it course through his veins and raise the hairs on his body on end.

“Found your crystals, or rather, your girlfriend's crystals,” Left Hand said.

D grumbled, “Stop calling her that.”

“Why? She's the closest thing to a girlfriend you've ever had. Hell, you even kissed her. Well, she kissed you first technically but damn that was hot. You know, she is rather tasty,” Left Hand said.

D reached out and began to gather the almost glowing golden points. He grabbed a loose rock and broke it along the crystals' base to free them. Then he proceeded to stuff the points in a pouch in his belt. Flawless clear crystals followed their golden brethren moments later.

“Lets go,” D said as he stood up and began to inch his way out of the hidden room.

His ears twitched. There was a faint sound of wings beating echoing throughout the cave. It grew louder and louder, almost deafening. Tiny chirps and squawks accompanied the wings.

D spun around to see hundreds of tiny glowing red eyes in the darkness. Fangs and claws flashed in and out of vision. Hundreds of tiny, winged and clawed creatures flew at D.

D took a stance and drew his sword. He tilted it so that the blade was across him as a barrier. Then he took off running into the creatures.

There were loud screams as he plowed through the things. He braced his sword with his left hand and guided it with his right. Tiny clawed hands went for his hair, coat and hat. They began to swarm at him.

He kept moving.

They surrounded him at once in a swarm. Hands grabbed at him. Sharp teeth nipped at his hands and face.

D spun with his blade slashing almost blindly. He bisected the winged imps as he began to make his way out of the cave. Under the sound of scathing wings and slashing claws D heard the familiar clacking of hooves.

Bigger than the clawed, pointed eared imps swarming him, more creatures appeared. From the waist up they were humanoid with pale, shimmering golden skin and matching hair. They had long, pointed ears, but coming from their heads were large horns that curved up in multiple points like a stag's. From the waist down they had the legs and body of deer. They bared upper and lower fangs as they charged at D.

He lowered his head and ran right through them. He heard tiny screams as his sword passed through some of them as he ran. He could smell their blood in the air. It was sour and stagnant smelling.

He saw the shimmer of sunlight ahead and jumped. He rolled on the sandy ground and stood back up from the cave's entrance. The imps and ekings swarmed out of the castle. They staggered once they hit the light, tiny hands shielding dark suited eyes.

D spun back around and charged at them. Claws and teeth managed to snare him, but he didn't dwell on the pain. He bounded into the air and began to avoid and attack.

Jump in, swipe the sword, swipe back. Again and again. His sword almost sang with each slash.

Soon enough, he was standing alone in the middle of a pile of demi-fey corpses. He shook the watery blood off of his blade before returning it to its sheath. As soon as he got back to the inn he'd have to clean both the blade and the sheath to keep it from gumming up.

He turned around to head back to his horse. He sighed when he saw what was left of it covered in a myriad of tiny bites and claw marks. He shook his head softly and turned towards the direction of the town.

The hot sun beat down upon him.

“Well, this is just great,” Left Hand groused as D began to walk his way back into town.

******

Danny always thought that Sean was a practical leader, if a bit impatient at times. Besides, the redhead had an uncanny ability to see things before they happened and had intense gut instincts about things. With his foresight, Sean had managed to save the mercs of Batharoy many times in the past.

Right now Danny was following Sean into his apartment. Sean's blood red hair was in a disarray of curls as he kept running his hands through it. He kept pacing back and forth, hands tugging at the his hair as he looked for something.

Danny looked at the dark scroll work etched into his dark skin. He flexed his muscles and sighed. Whatever D had said was coming had Sean worked up into a lather.

“Iron, iron . . . Hey, Dan, got any iron?” Sean asked almost absently.

Danny shook his head and answered, “Nah, most of my stuff is tungsten carbide steel. Holds a better edge and has more weight behind it when you swing it. Better for killing dragons, Sean.”

“Bloody hell, what about Thomson? Doesn't he do witches?” Sean reached under his bed and pulled out a thick chest. Danny knew for a fact that the heavy steel box held Sean's best weapons and some other odds and ends used for magic making.

Danny answered, “Thomson is in Ransylvania at the moment, doing business with the Langs.”

“Static?” Sean asked, emerald eyes fixing on Danny's face.

Danny shrugged and said, “Static's still in that coma after running across that werewolf that tried to eat him.”

“So who the fuck do we have available? Hard core badasses. Like yourself.” Sean reached over and grabbed his lightest blanket from his bed. It wasn't uncommon to have multiple covers on a bed this time of year. Night could get positively frigid on the Frontier. Danny watched as Sean wrapped it around his hands and bent towards the box again.

Danny thought for a moment and answered, “Well, Bevins is here. He's the Weretiger Hunter you know. Garnet's in town for a spell and you know she's unbeatable with a whip. Tommy and Dougan are here too, the Mist Trappers. And we've got the Arachnid Men Hunters here too right now.”

“Garnet knows spells, doesn't she? Precog and all of that right?” Danny frowned at the hopeful look on Sean's face as he lifted something gingerly from the box.

Danny asked, “Boss, don't mind me asking, sir, but what the hell has you hot and bothered like this?”

“We have an Unseelie Faerie with the urge to swipe the souls of all our kids,” Sean answered as he stood up. In his hands he held a giant broad sword. The metal was dimmer and heavier than the tungsten carbide steel that Danny was use to working with. The blade was a dull greyish color with tiny flecks of something shinny in it.

Danny replied, “I thought you told D that we could handle it.”

“Yeah, well, I lied to the dhampire and the Faerie assassin with him. Can't let half breeds and strangers know I'm afraid, right?” Sean answered as he studied the sword's blade. The blanket was wrapped around the handle.

Danny asked, “What's the sword, Sean?”

“Cold iron. Deadly to all Fey, demi and high,” Sean answered softly as he looked at it. His eyes dimmed and his skin grew waxy and pale, just like a vampire victim's.

Danny quietly asked, “Why ain't you touching it, Sean?”

Sean looked at him with now glassy green eyes. He held it with one hand around the blanket wrapped handle and he lifted his right hand towards the blade. He stilled and flinched. He took a deep breath and his eyes wavered shut. Then he placed his palm onto the blade.

The flesh hissed and popped as soon as it hit the metal. Steam and smoke rose up from between the blade and his hand. He moved his hand and threw the sword on the bed. He cradled his injured hand to his chest. His skin regained its normal color and his eyes burned like fine emeralds once more as he looked at Danny.

He answered, “That's why, Dan.”

“Holy shit,” Danny breathed as he bent down to touch the blade, “You're one of them.”

Sean winched as he looked at his hand. He held it out for Danny to inspect it. Danny frowned. It was purple and a shockingly blueish-white color, not the striking red he'd expected. “Looks like frostbite,” he mumbled.

“And I'm just a quarter Faerie, Danny. With pure bloods like that banshee and that Unseelie fucker it strips their powers as well. Do what I just did to one of them and they'd faint from it,” Sean answered grimly, “Just getting that close to that bastard is gonna be the problem. Hense why I need all of our firepower.”

Danny asked, “I thought you said your father was a Pixie Hunter?”

“Was. And they ain't true pixies. Not by the Fey definition. They're creatures created by the Nobility for whatever fucking reason. This is the real deal,” Sean answered as he looked out his window.

Danny turned as well. Down in the street he saw a tall woman dressed in black, her long golden hair braided behind her. Bronach, the banshee who burst through the force shield like it was nothing. He watched as she placed something down in the middle of the street and tilted her head up to the sky.

“What the hell is she doing?” Danny asked softly.

Sean looked down and answered, “Protecting our youngins.”

******

Bronach frowned at the sun. She then frowned at the three citrine crystals remaining in her hands. She rubbed her nose and looked at the point she just had put down.

She opened up her bag. It held crystals, candles, herbs, and other spell supplies. She had put black candles in every corner of the octagon that made up the city's perimeter. Then she had put one in the center of the city. Finally she had formed a circle between the center and the perimeter with yellow candles. The black was for protection and the yellow stood for repelling and dispelling negative energy.

She'd put alternating smokey quartz and black tourmaline crystals along with the black candles around the edge of the city. In a circle around the candle in the center of the city there was a circle of clear quartz. Now she was walking the final circle and was almost out of the citrine crystals.

She sighed as she placed two of her remaining crystals in her bag. She palmed the last one, a point as long as her middle finger and just as wide. She knelt beside a yellow candle that burned with an everlasting flame. A Seelie spell that she had mastered. It could withstand most of Ciaran's shadows, and hopefully enough flames could weaken them. Or so she theorized.

Still, she was a few crystals short and D was taking far too long.

She placed the crystal behind the candle so it could reflect the candlelight. Then she looked at the sky with a worried frown. She thought, Come now D, it's taking you far too long for a simple errand.

******

The sun was merciless D decided. An unrelenting, unfeeling thing that offered death to some and life to others. Right now it beat down on him, soaking through his clothing and hat. He was even sweating a slight bit, and it grew worse with each step.

“You're gonna need to get covered, D,” Left Hand warned.

D sighed, “I know.”

“How much longer to Batharoy?” Left Hand asked.

D answered, “I'm not sure. Being on foot is different than horseback and running . . .” He shielded his eyes with his right hand and looked out into the desert. He saw the sky meet the earth and shimmer with the joining. It stretched out forever.

He was getting closer to the town, but he had to admit his horse was much faster than him on foot. Running with this amount of sun was out of the question. He would succumb to the sun stoke too easily and too quickly. Besides, there was no safe place to burry himself incase he got that desperate.

He felt the hairs on the back of his arms and neck rise. He felt the cool throb of Ciaran's power. He drew his blade and spun around as the Faerie showed himself.

“Well, fuck, D,” Left Hand cursed as D took a stance.

Ciaran's shroud hovered over the sand as he stepped closer to D. D noticed his feet made no footprints on the sand as he walked. Even the sunlight seemed to dim around Ciaran, the very light around him darker, just like another cloak.

“I take it you sent the elkings and the imps after me,” D stated softly.

Ciaran laughed, a light lilting sound. He nodded as he flounced towards D. D drew back, watching the other man ever carefully.

“Indeed, and I'm surprised you managed to take them all out in such a crowded space. Even Blackthorn ran from them when I attacked him so I could get to his son,” Ciaran replied with a grin.

D's eyes narrowed right before he attacked.

He darted forward with his blade pointed out towards Ciaran. The Faerie jumped into the air to avoid getting impaled. D twisted back and caught the blade against Ciaran's cloak.

The Faerie hissed and flung his cape outwards like wings. The sunlight quickly cast shadows against the sand from the fabric and his tri-ringed violet eyes glowed. D sprung back as the shadow tendrils shot out after him.

He swung his blade and cut right through them. He bounced nimbly on his toes before jumping again. Ciaran held out his hand and shadows whirled to form something in it. Within moments, he was holding a rapier created out of nothing but darkness.

He slashed at D. D parried the clean ark and swung his blade to catch Ciaran down low. The Faerie's blade caught against D's sword just like any other metal blade would. Ciaran reached out and tried to cuff D's ear. D let go of his sword with his right hand to sweep Ciaran's hand away at the wrist, push it down, and lock it against his own body, putting them inches away from each other.

Ciaran's eyes sparkled as they were locked together. D slammed his head against Ciaran's, sending the Faerie staggering back. D rushed forward with his blade drawn. He heft it up and began to bring it down against Ciaran's throat.

Ciaran shout out his free hand and clinched it into a fist. Then he jerked it back towards his own body as if he was pulling something. D felt something cool wrap around his ankles and jerk his feet together. It jerked back hard and he fell with it.

Breathing hard, Ciaran stood up as more shadow tendrils wrapped themselves around D. D let his sword drop to the ground. He felt his Left Hand open its mouth greedily as it began to suck the tendrils into itself.

Within moments, D was free. He jumped out of the remaining tendrils' way and grabbed his sword. He sprang to his feet and met Ciaran head on.

Ciaran grimaced as he managed to block D's blade with his own. D noted the sweat trickling down the Faerie's face. That Ciaran wasn't glowing like moonlight now. The sun beat down on them mercilessly.

“The sun is as much as your ally as it is mine,” D growled as he kicked Ciaran in the stomach.

Ciaran stumbled back and darted back even more. He flung off his shroud and wiped his forehead off with the back of his arm. Under his cloak he was wearing leather pants, boots, and a black frock coat. He shook his knee length hair out of his face as he continued to move back from D.

D noted his lips were rapidly moving. Not giving Ciaran the chance to cast a spell, D charged at him. Ciaran laughed and his voice rang out into the sunlit sky.

“And I bring his blood to me! I bind it too me! Come to me, Life! Bring and bind his blood to me!”

D choked and collapsed. His blood was burning in his veins. He felt something hot run from his eyes and then his nose. Soon it trickled from his ear.

He gagged and blood bubbled up from his mouth and hit the white sand. His body convulsed, retching more blood. He clutched at the sand as he trembled. The pain was incredible as his blood was being forced out of his body in any way it could find. His arteries and veins burned like someone had injected him with hot acid. His vision was blurring as he expelled more blood.

Ciaran drew his cloak and wrapped it about him again. D looked up at him as blood continued to trickle in any means from his body. He gagged again.

Ciaran drew out a glowing orb and held it above D's head.

He was smirking as he bent over the dhampire. The glowing orb pulsed as he lowered it towards D. Ciaran's voice was almost pleasant as he said, “Now, D, let me have your soul.”

He held the glowing orb above D's head and began to chant in ancient Gaelic.

To Be Continued!

Author's Notes: Oh, I am a little bitch aren't I? I left you at a cliffhanger and everything!