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Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlines	By : devilsdoormat Category: +S to Z > Vampire Hunter D Views: 1732 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Vampire Hunter D is obviously not my original property. I will make no money and benefit only emotionally from sharing. The title character, D, is pulled from both animated movies and not from the manga.

Chapter List
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It was relieving in a way to hear her prattle on about things. It was better than the alternative. Most times at least. Meredith had to raise her voice as they rode onward, her hair whipping back into his face every now and then.

They'd entered a sandy area with more patches of green. There were trees and small groves out there. Little ponds and springs had grown their own forests somehow, life finding a way to spread almost anywhere.

She'd leaned backward at one point, telling him about a horse she'd had at the castle. A real horse. Not cybernetic. Meredith had also complained about being hungry before skipping to another topic as easily as D drove his horse across a small stream. There and gone.

He smiled a bit as she continued to talk, obviously not being needed in the conversation she was having with herself. Meredith pointed at a huge forest in the distance as they passed it and called out about it.

"Ooh! I wish we could go see that!" Meredith had shouted, "Those trees are huge! Can we see those on the way back?"

"Yes." D told her.

"It's beautiful!" Meredith exclaimed. He could feel her joy.

It might be enjoyable after all. Her exhilaration was somewhat contagious and he spoke to her again.

"There are a lot of beautiful places in the world." He said.

"I want to see them." Meredith said, smiling and trying to look back at him. Her large eyes were a lovely shade of crystal blue, like deep ponds, and her tied back red hair whipped about like fire. Her freckles stood out on her cheeks. If not for her pointed ears and the smell of her vampire lineage D would have sworn she was human. A tall, very lovely, very strong human girl, "I want to see them all!"

He couldn't help but remain smiling, feeling something akin to fondness for the girl and everything about her, though his expression was somewhat reserved to her eyes. To Meredith, he appeared to be hiding amusement behind a stoic, fixed gaze. Only the delicately lifted corners of his lips betrayed him.

"Am I silly?" Meredith asked him, aware of her childishness all of a sudden.

"No. You will see all of those places." D told her, but couldn't bring himself to finish his thought out loud with the words 'I will show you'.

The mere idea of it sent a cold rush through his insides and pushed any sentiment he had about the entire endeavor right out. He couldn't do that. D's eyes drifted from her face and he steadied his gaze forward. The cybernetic horse jumped over a dip in the crumbled road they were riding upon and Meredith bounced a little in the process. They'd been riding over uneven earth for awhile now, the land relatively flat at each horizon save for the forest.

Fool. What a fool he was. He didn't need to hear it from any other sources and indeed felt a sting of quiet resentment for the unfortunate truth of the matter. D had entertained the thought briefly, but he knew that it couldn't be. The girl in front of him, the girl who had dulled his senses and lulled him into a lapse of sensibility, he would eventually find on the receiving end of his sword. Their mock battle, earlier, had been a glimpse of the future.

When she turned, like her mother before her. And her mother. And her mother.

D hated the concept of destiny or fate, but only because it was a cruel truth that mortals ignored. They hadn't the capacity to see history repeating itself and prophecies being fulfilled. It was a detestable and inescapable reality that things which might go bad often did and those you loved would always die. If they didn't die by the sword, time took them with its own sickle blade. No one was immune.

Not even the bright eyed Dhampir girl he had pressed against his armored stomach as she leaned into him to make a comment about how she was hungry again. D briefly considered flagging down the car behind them and pointing toward a less strangled looking grove of trees many, many yards away but he didn't need to. Meredith did it for him. She began waving an arm around like mad, turning around to get the attention of Renshen and his band.

"I'm hungry! We need to stop!" Meredith cried out.

"We still have a way to go. We can stop before nightfall." D told her.

"I'm hungry now." Meredith didn't stop waving and there was a loud honking sound, like a blaring horn, behind them, "Let's find a spot to stop! We've been riding for hours. I need to stretch my legs."

D snapped the reigns and took them toward the large grove of trees and then realized that it was much bigger than he'd thought. It was also a bit further away. A trick of the light and distance. Regardless, they were there within a few minutes of hard riding and as soon as he'd slowed his horse to a trot Meredith was sliding off and running toward the trees.

The car pulled up, stopped and then the hatch opened at the side.

"What are we stopping for?" Gencho was stepping out into the sunlight and placed a hand above his eyes to shield himself.

"Meredith is hungry." D told him.

"We stopped for that?" Gencho muttered.

"Jeez, Meredith, can't you just eat while you ride? You're not even the one steering that thing." Tengen was laughing as he stepped out into the heat. He adjusted his eye patch, flipping it up only to drop it back down again when the light was too strong for that eye, "It's really crap out here. I'm glad the car has climate control. I'm gonna sit in there and not melt."

Valeria was stepping out as Tengen stepped back in.

"Meredith, just remember that we don't have all day." Val called after her.

Meredith was sitting under a tree and eating venison jerky.

"Ahno!" Meredith answered, chewing and then swallowing, "I mean, I know, I just wanna take a break!"

"A break?" Val shook her head, "Ten minutes. Then we head out."

Meredith finished eating and then stood, brushing the dirt from her gray pants. She turned to the large trees behind herself and looked in at the large grove with curious eyes. It wasn't as big as a forest, but it was dark in there. The sunny day wasn't reaching the ground within the huge wooded growth. Meredith began to climb the closest tree and found a branch to sit on, kicking her booted feet.

D dismounted, standing beside his horse as he looked up at Meredith in her tree. Again he felt that swell of emotion which had caused a cold backlash before. It triggered an uncertainty and he furrowed his brows very softly. It was a conflicting feeling. The urge to protect her and the urge to draw her near. It was present but yet a ghost. To find it becoming materialized would have sent that chilled veil shimmering across his insides again, but it wasn't real yet. He could sit back and study it without fear of the thing taking hold of his better senses or of his better senses cutting the thing out before it had a chance to reveal its face.

He wanted to see its face, but from a distance.

D thought about the absurdity of the entire situation and shook himself from his daydreaming. He had nothing to give her and no reason to change that.

When the thick, organic ropes wrapped around her arms and legs and pulled her into the dark undergrowth D was drawing his sword from behind his back and making a dash toward the forest.

They'd been tendrils, worm like. Something huge and terrible from within the grove. It had sent its feelers out, grabbed for Meredith and taken her bodily into the shadows. She'd barely let out a squeak of surprise before she was yanked away.

"Renshen! You guys! Get the hell out here!" Valeria cried out, throwing a hand out toward the grove, "Hurry! Something's grabbed Meredith! Get the hell out here!"

Val began to sprint toward the forest as well even as Tengen, Renshen and Gencho came spilling out of the hatch into the light. They were at first confused but then heard the horrible, crunching noises from the forest. The trees were shaking in the canopy far within the grove and there were splitting sounds, like bones cracking. A horrifying shriek filled the air.

Valeria had her pistols at the ready and was muttering something under her breath. She stuck the pistols into their holsters, choosing to chant something. When she stopped, she held aloft a hand and raised it. Fire danced on the ends of her fingertips.

D was already in the forest, running over fallen, rotten logs and trying to hone in on the sounds. He was only fifty feet in when the movement of something large rushed above his head and he spun on his heel, sword held at his side and took off in its direction.

The breaking of branches was loud, deafening, and the beast with all of the tentacles came crashing out into the light. Valeria's flames grazed it, causing it to howl. It was something unworldly, amorphous and every sickly color that Val could imagine. It moved like it had no bones, rolling and lifting itself with its many thick and ropey tentacles. It was shrieking. Dark, navy blue oil was smeared across its weird, gigantic mass.

One of its tentacles came flying off, flopping madly on the ground. It must have hated the sunlight for it began to shrink immediately upon hitting the hot earth. The large beast was flailing, crying out.

D would have sliced right through it if he hadn't have seen Meredith there when it turned around. She was riding its back, holding onto her sword which was plunged into its gleaming, rotten flesh. She had been hacking at a tentacle and was yanking the sword back out, grabbing at the half removed appendage with her free hand. She tore it off and the thing shrieked again, throwing her to the ground as it bucked. Thick, blue liquid sprayed from the wound. It then went crashing back into the forest, lifting itself over D and fled into the darkness.

The sound of breaking branches followed after it.

Meredith was coated in a blue slime which could have only been its blood, her eyes wild and her grin wide. She was outside of the forest again, her back to the hunters but facing D.

Gencho, Tengen and Renshen stood there, weapons aimed at the forest. Meredith let out a cry and raised her fist into the air.

"I'm goin' back in! I'll make that sucker regret trying to eat me!" Meredith stated loudly and began to make a run for the woods.

D stopped her, his arm going out and catching her across her chest. She met him with an impact and he was an unmovable object. D didn't even flinch, his body a statue and his arm unwavering as she collided with it. Meredith didn't fall backwards but she did have to stagger a few footsteps in reverse.

"No, you will not." D told her.

"But.. but.." Meredith stammered, "Com'on! I could totally take that thing!"

"I believe you. Let's go." D said and took a step around her. He'd begun to walk back out of the forest when he paused, turning his head to the side and peering back at her. His expression was deadly serious.

"Bah! Fine!" Meredith shot him a look and there was murder in her blue eyes. She folded her arms across her chest and made her way past him, her chin up and her bottom lip pushed out, "If you're in such a hurry to go. It doesn't matter anyway. Stupid thing. It'll bleed out anyway."

D smiled when she wasn't looking at him.

"Ugh, you smell like garbage." Tengen waved his hand in front of his nose when Meredith approached him.

"Well, a big monster just bled all over me. So that might be why." Meredith stuck her tongue out at Tengen and the man grinned at her.

Tengen lifted his eye patch up, squinting at her with both eyes.

"Y'know, you're kinda hot when you're covered in viscera, Meredith." Tengen bit his bottom lip while still showing teeth, a flash of gold in the back of his mouth announcing the presence of a capped or missing tooth.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Yeah, you keep surprising me, Princess." Gencho laughed.

"Stop calling me Princess, all of you!" Meredith barked at him.

"Gencho, stop riling Meredith up." Val gave Gencho a punch in the arm and then smirked, "Ok, if we're all satisfied here, why don't we let Meredith clean up. I wouldn't envy the man riding with her right now."

Meredith entered the hatch to the Bella, leaving D outside standing beside his horse.

Tengen warily studied the Dhampir.

D knew the look on the young man's face. He wasn't very pleased. Tengen turned around and boarded the Bella as well.

***

It didn't take Meredith long to finish and she was getting dressed again in the cabin of the Bella. Tengen was in there, sitting on his cot. Val was at a bench seat up front, looking at her book. Gencho was at the driver's seat and tapping his fingers on the wheel. Renshen was looking off.

"You sure you don't wanna ride in here, Meredith?" Tengen asked her.

"I'll be back in the car soon, Tengen." Meredith passed by him, pausing to look at the man. What she saw made her brows furrow. He looked genuinely hurt. When he saw her expression change he offered a forced grin.

"Hey, that's cool. It was just a blast riding together." Tengen shrugged.

Meredith touched his shoulder, smiling, and then left through the hatch, closing it behind herself.

She saw D waiting there for her, just as she'd left him.

D was mounting his horse and extended a hand down to Meredith.

"When we come back and see this area, I wanna come back to this grove." Meredith took D's hand and accepted his help, taking her place in front of him with her body pushed against his on the mechanical steed. He was quick to release her hand, and she grunted, "Unfinished business."

Through the window, Meredith could be seen settling in on the horse in front of the other Dhampir.

Renshen spared a look at D with Meredith, watching D trot his horse off to the west. They would follow him, of course, but Renshen frowned. He'd enjoyed it more when Meredith was riding with them.

He looked away from the window.

Renshen exhaled and watched at Gencho took the wheel, starting the old girl up with a rumble of her engine and a heavy roll of thunder from her gears. She shook to life and then Gencho put her into drive, looking through the small glass panel and checking on the equipment along the dashboard.

"What, you gettin' soft for the girl now?" Gencho asked.

"Wha-" Renshen began to answer but was cut off.

"No." Tengen chuckled, "Why are you askin' me that? That's a dumb question."

"It just looks like you're poking at her a lot, is all." Gencho stated, "Lookin' at her different. I'm not blind. Get it out of your head, Tengen Hai. That'd be a bad idea."

"Yeah, like you haven't been at her." Tengen said, "You've been all over Meredith. But I don't feel that way at all."

"Good. Glad to hear that." Gencho grunted, "I been on her, sure, but y'know.. I'm just playin' around. 'Sides, looks like she's sweet on that other Dhampir, don't she?"

"The living statue?" Tengen muttered, looking displeased, "Eh, who cares."

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy?" Val came up from the seat behind Tengen and ruffled his dirty blonde hair, "I can sense these things, you know."

"I'm not jealous. What the hell is wrong with you guys? Knock it the hell off." Tengen snapped, his one visible eye closing and folding his arms over his chest.

"Leave it alone." Renshen finally said, his blood pressure rising.

"Something wrong, Ren?" Val asked.

Renshen was lighting up a cigarette, staring out from the small, portal window to his right.

He exhaled smoke.

"She's just a girl. You can call her whatever you want, but she's a girl." Renshen stated, his voice tired, "I knew it from the moment I saw her. She's not a woman yet. She's not a monster. She's not human. She's just a young girl who can't figure out where she fits in this world, and we've yanked her out of her home and dragged her out into the middle of this shit storm. Sure, she agreed to come, but she didn't really get it, did she? I don't want to see anything bad happen to her."

"Damn, Renshen." Gencho said, "So you're all soft for her too, aintcha?"

"Yeah, and I don't care what you think about it either, Gencho Jones." Renshen grinned weakly, holding his cigarette close to his lips while the car bounced along the rugged road beneath them, "You were all kids when I took you in, weren't you? You know I hate to see anything bad happen to kids. Especially to a kid like her. She's old enough to be my daughter."

"She's not your daughter though, Ren." Valeria whispered, her eyes fixed on Renshen Bui, "She's not Olivia."

"No, she's not Olivia." Renshen shook his head, "But damn if I don't see similarities. Olivia was just so full of life, like Meredith. She was spunky and headstrong. She made me proud. When her mother died, when Kalee passed, she was stronger than I was. She held our little family together. And when I lost her.."

Renshen had to stop. The atmosphere in the car had shifted.

"Look, I'm sorry Ren." Gencho said, "Just.. just nevermind. Forget about it."

"Just.. don't make it sound so bad to be soft for the girl." Renshen exhaled, "She's a nice girl."

"She is." Val nodded, "I'm sorry."

Gencho frowned, staring ahead as he drove.

"I like her too." Gencho muttered, "Sorry I've been such an ass to you about it, Tengen. I really like her. She's.. she's really fuckin' great."

Tengen sighed.

***

It was becoming obvious that the desert was giving way to jungle, ruins of a once great city spilled out like entrails into the greenery. The remains were being devoured by plant life, vines and roots breaking apart concrete as if it were already dust.

The road was bumpier but the Bella could handle it. They had reached a flatter area, a clearing in the jungle, where the concrete had yet to be turned to rubble. The sky was turning black.

When the rain came, hard and sudden, they were forced to take another break and the clearing seemed the best place to camp out. Gencho parked the Bella under the balcony of a fallen building and the crew was out there, watching the heavy rain. It was flooding in the forest, rivers running across the ground around them. They'd parked on slightly higher ground though and could watch from a position of relative safety as the storm shook the trees. Riding through it would have been too dangerous, for the earth was turning to mud and being swept away.

Meredith had gotten her satchel from the Bella, deciding to carry it on her again. Sitting and watching the rain, she noted D, many feet away, was doing the same. He looked so distant, staring off at the storm and the flooding waters. His horse was waiting under the balcony by the parked Bella, being inspected by Renshen as he smoked a cigarette. Renshen was eyeballing the horse with suspicion.

Meredith turned back to D. He was still lost out there, looking pale and beautiful with dark hair.

She opened her satchel, took her sketchbook out and slipped her charcoal pencil from its place in the front of the bag. Carefully, not wanting to spoil the moment, Meredith opened the book on her lap and found a blank page. She set the charcoal pencil down on the paper and then looked back at D.

He was glancing in her direction and their eyes met. Apparently D knew when he was being watched.

She found she'd been startled and, for some reason, half expected him to leave his spot and find somewhere else to stand. D did not, however. He turned back to the rain and watched it once more.

Meredith drew him, sketching his features carefully. He was a lovely subject, each strong feature delicately matched with a softer curve. He was elegant in his own right, male in the ways she knew to be rugged in their attractiveness and feminine in their design. D was perfectly constructed and she found those butterflies back in her stomach again. Meredith drew for a good half hour, wanting a full page, full form sketch of him. He was lean and strong, fluid but with hard angles. Perfect and dark.

She finished his drawing even as the rain was coming down heavier, the world beyond the balcony a thick mist of falling water from the downpour, the sky opening up and thunder rolling like drums across it.

Meredith looked back to the Bella, noting that Tengen was napping on a blanket he'd thrown down on the ground. The rain must have been soothing to him. Gencho was sitting on the end of the wall overlooking the flat ground and the flooding below, shielded from the rain by the balcony but wanting a closer look. Val was no where to be seen and Renshen was gone as well then.

She stood up, holding her book open, and made her way to D.

"I drew you if you'd like to see." Meredith offered him the opportunity to look at the sketch and she felt mild disappointment when D didn't immediately turn to glance at it.

He tilted his head, looked at the drawing and nodded.

"That's very good." He told her.

"Thanks." Meredith closed the book. She'd wanted to show him other drawings but the urge had left her. He seemed disinterested and was looking at the rain again. She returned to the spot she'd been sitting, slipped the book back into her satchel and slid the strap over her shoulder.

Walking past him, Meredith considered exploring around the side of the fallen building. There was some jungle encroaching back that way, shielded from the rain as well, and she could see some lovely flowers, electric blue and deep purple, blooming on some vines. She walked that way, paused, and watched the little waterfalls streaming down the balcony's edge near a deeper pool of shifting water.

The sound of the thunder rolled again.

"The rain will let up soon." D told her. He'd come up behind her and she hadn't noticed, "Then we can keep moving."

"I wish you couldn't sneak up on me so easily." Meredith smiled, feeling somewhat elated that he'd come over and spoken to her, "I don't hear as well as you do, I think."

"Can you hear the rain falling?" D asked her.

"Well, yeah. That's loud." Meredith smirked at him and turned to face him.

"No, can you hear each rain drop falling?" D met her eyes and tilted his head at her.

"I.. I can't hear that, no." Meredith shook her head, "Can you?"

"I can. I can hear each one as it moves through the air. I can hear it when it hits the ground, or a leaf or even water." D told her.

"Each one? That must be beautiful." Meredith looked up at him. Their height wasn't too far off, though he had more than half a foot on her.

D seemed distant again and his lips parted as if he'd speak.

Meredith rushed him, her mouth seeking his, and slid an arm around his middle. She felt his fingers in her hair and they were kissing. His lips burned hers, his fingernails digging into her red locks. He set a more cautious hand on her hip and squeezed. She felt his tongue alongside her own, slipping past her lips. He tasted like she thought he might, spicy and earthy. His reserved posture broke down as he pulled her closer more fervently, their bodies pressed together. Then, he forced their mouths apart, his breathing slightly labored, and pushed her away very gently.

Meredith stood there with her eyes wide and her mouth open as D stepped back and away from her. That heat in his eyes was yet evident but he squared his shoulders.

"Meredith, I cannot." D said to her, his voice sounding different to her. Deep and low, as she was used to, but wavering ever so slightly at the edges, "I'm sorry."

"Why?" She asked him, brows knitted.

"If you love me, it will only lead you to more pain than you can ever imagine." D said to her, his eyes fixed upon her face, "You have to know how tempting this is for me, but I cannot. For your sake, and for mine. It would hurt me too, I assure you."

"Love you?" Meredith canted her head and then blinked at him, "D, I just met you a week ago. It doesn't work like that."

D eyed her, motionless but still catching his breath.

"I like you a lot. I'm attracted to you. So I thought, why not?" Meredith smiled a little, blushing, "I'm not going to say I love you. How could I? I just thought it'd be fun to-"

Meredith sighed and then nodded.

"It's fine. I'm sorry too." She went to walk around him, pausing at his side. He was facing away from her, "I'll understand if you want me to ride in the car for the rest of the journey, if I offended you."

"You didn't offend me." D told her, "And that is your choice."

"Do you want me to stay riding with you?" Meredith asked him.

D was watching the rain again.

The answer was a simple 'Yes' that he couldn't articulate and so he couldn't speak at all. He merely stared off until Meredith left his side and walked away. The anger and the resentment built in his chest until, when he was sure she was gone, he leaned to the side and sent a fist down into a block of concrete to his right. It shattered into pieces and crumbled into dust. The sound was masked by the roll of thunder and D was baring his teeth, staring into the storm.

At least the storm got to have its way, didn't it? It got to yell and scream and thrash at the world for a short period of time, cooling down the heated air after exploding from the build up of budding moisture and struggling air currents. The hot and cold winds got to rise together, fall together and then pummel the surface of the earth with their powerful release.

The rain was slowing then and D was breathing more heavily. He swallowed and then reigned it back in, feeling the cool strings within his chest trying to reattach themselves to the errant flames running rampant inside of him.

"Temper temper.." That little voice sounded calmer than D felt.

D rolled his shoulders, exhaling.

"I think you should stay away from that girl." That raspy voice whispered, "I know you agree with me."

D straightened his shoulders and came around the corner to see Meredith talking to Tengen down at the Bella. He could hear their conversation. She'd told him she'd be riding with them again and Tengen was quite pleased.

He had something to offer Meredith, it seemed.

D did not.

"What kind of life do you think she could have?" The voice was carefully speaking to him, "Even if she doesn't fulfill her destiny, what kind of existence is there for a Dhampir? Whatever the spell on her, she's always going to be the same thing you are."

Immortal.

Lonely.

Hopeless.

He'd almost let himself fade off again before he heard a sound somewhere behind him. D caught a glimpse of movement in the jungle. They weren't alone.
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Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlines