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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
- 12
- 13
The sun had risen without event, the night passing without even a single false start. It had been silence and darkness out there in the plains surrounding the town. Whatever had been watching the hunters had decided to take a reprieve from their mission and allowed the quiet to settle in.

It was still very early, the eastern horizon beginning to bloom in full force. On the western horizon, the dark blue canvas littered with the few remaining stars pulled back. The blue sky would soon swallow the stars and the sun would send the shadows running.

In that moment of serenity, balanced on the edges of night and day, D stood on the porch outside of the house and felt the warm sunbeams reach his face. The town looked peaceful, even while it crumbled.

"That was really stupid, do you know that?" It spoke low, whispering.

"I know." D said. His serenity had been broken.

"I was pretty sure that we'd established you were going to stay away from her." The voice continued.

"We did." D agreed with it.

"Maybe we've confused 'what staying away from' something or someone entails, because that was decidedly the opposite of the concept." It muttered at him, "If you want to make things more complicated, that's on you. Maybe you couldn't help it. Maybe you didn't have a choice after all."

"It was my choice." D walked away from the porch and stood in the street. His horse was tied there, between the houses. Untouched and still standing, it turned to him.

"Perhaps not." The voice told him, "Have you considered the possibility that you've been bewitched? Hm?"

"That would have been detected." D was checking the saddle, having reached the mechanical beast, "I haven't been bewitched."

"Ah, yes. I would have sensed that, right?" The voice chuckled, "But if it were of a demonic nature, I might have missed it. Who do we know who has an association with a demon? Hm. Let me think.."

"I wasn't bewitched." D repeated.

"Ok, Ok." It attempted to placate him, "She is the perfect storm though, you have to admit that. Human enough to trigger your damn soft spot but inhuman enough to avoid tempting your thirst."

That was true, wasn't it? D placed his right hand against the neck of his biomechanical steed and patted the beast. Some of Meredith's warmth for the horse, past it being his mode of transportation, had sneaked into him somehow and he found it almost ironic. This horse would be another casualty eventually. He'd had more than a dozen of this model and many others before. He'd ridden on real horses, the organic ones that required food and drink. The original models of the cybernetic ones were much less personable, more robotic. They'd done a number on the most current model and it even shook its mane and patted at the ground with its hooves when bored. It had a personality.

It felt like a preemptive injury.

Meredith had infected him with that weakness, but he could push it out. A splinter would work its way out of the skin. So would bullets though, and broken glass. Nothing lingered long enough to cause sickness. It was painful, but time would go on. It always did. However, he might miss this splinter.

And it was true also, he hadn't felt the call of her blood. He wouldn't have. She wasn't human. He hadn't heard the beating of her heart like a drum in his ears, felt the pumping of that liquid life in her veins and desired it. He hadn't imagined the arteries, right under her pale skin, and seen them appear to his hungry eyes. His fangs had stayed, not being drawn out by an inescapable hunger. He'd kissed her throat and felt no yearning to feed on her.

His sudden change of heart hadn't stemmed from her tears as he'd watched her grieve over the Barbaroi boy. Her friend. He'd given his life for her. The love he'd expressed had been intimate. They'd been very close. As close as she'd been to D the previous night.

Watching her dig his burial plot had moved him. Watching her struggle but find her footing had moved him even further. Meredith had a way of setting her head down, deciding to give up and then fighting her way back up once more. She wouldn't let it defeat her.

But to see her seem so blank at the house, her grief rendering her useless, it was too much.

Not that he felt it had become his duty to pick her back up. D pondered over the fact that he'd merely meant to speak to her in that room. It had been a visit to remind her of what was important right now. His change of heart came not from her grief. It didn't come from her strength. It came from that single moment, when she looked at him by the window, and she'd smiled when he'd offered to stay.

The inaudible 'Yes' he was unable to utter the day before. He'd found another way to say it.

He'd half expected her to tell him she loved him, but she hadn't. Not even afterward. It was for the best, of course, but it still felt faintly hurtful. An imperceptible sting to his ego and heart, but a relief nonetheless.

How could she love him? They'd only just met. She'd said it too. Not that it had stopped others from declaring their love for him only a day after. He'd be met with suspicion and then accepted. Then, they'd tell him they loved him. He'd reciprocated internally sometimes, but he couldn't have given them anything. He'd even fooled himself into believing he could overcome the lust for their blood once or twice. His fangs had never breached their flesh, but he'd come close. Too close.

The unsatisfied needs in his own blood could be quelled, but he had to push the temptations away.

Meredith had not triggered it, and thus was safe from him. At least, in that way.

There had been more than one morning after in his lifetime. Typically, he'd have been gone by now, but here the circumstances were much different.

When Val came outside to light up a cigarette, D regarded her with his cool eyes.

She noticed him but wasn't startled this time, unlike the night before.

"So, anything happen last night?" Val asked him. She exhaled smoke and looked at the sunrise.

It was a funny question, considering, but D knew she was referring to something else entirely.

"No. They've stayed back. I believe they are waiting until we reach the maze. It will be easier to separate us there." D told her.

"Gencho wants to get there before evening, and I don't blame him." Val spoke, "Is Meredith up yet?"

"She was still sleeping." D said, and then looked away from Val. His expression had not changed.

Val smiled softly. He'd betrayed himself, at least in part.

"I think we'd all know if she were awake by now. She'd be yelling about being hungry." Val stated, one side of her lips pulling harder than the other in a little smirk, "Or maybe not. She seemed pretty torn up about that mutant boy. I remember him. He was in Morrow Valley. He followed her out this whole way, trailing behind us, just to make a martyr out of himself. It's sort of sad and romantic. I just wonder why he hung back so far when he was risking so much? Hell, he survived that storm we all had to hide from, didn't he? I'll bet that wasn't easy. He could have approached us at any point. Meredith would have begged us to take him on board, that I am sure of."

D regarded Valeria Talbot with some interest, stepping around her to look in through the open front door. Gencho and Renshen were already up and going through some duffel bags they'd lugged into the place. Tengen was nowhere to be seen, but D knew where he was. He'd been hearing Gencho and Renshen speaking even as Val spoke to him, and he heard Tengen's voice upstairs, talking to a sleepy Meredith. That second conversation had just started a moment ago.

"There's always a reason a man chooses to hide." D said, placing a hand on the door frame, "Just as there's always a reason a man chooses to give up his life. He loved her, but he knew her well enough to stay back. She'd have considered it an insult to her independence if he'd appeared to save her earlier. This is Meredith's quest. This is her story. We're just all along for the ride."

"That's kind of a grim thing to say, dont'cha think?" Val chuckled, tapping her cigarette to drop some ash, "That's like saying we're all just side characters in a book. I, myself, am much more than that. Hell, this could be my story, for all you know."

Val laughed a little, but it sounded hollow.

"Or yours." She nodded to the Dhampir and D found he'd allowed himself to smirk, ever so subtly.

"I doubt that anyone would find my story very interesting." D said to her, "You should tell your team to move along though. We only have so much daylight before we each Castle Thanos."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll break out the whips." Val threw the butt of her cigarette to the ground after snubbing it into a wooden support beam holding the porch up, "I don't want to get there at nightfall either. And I don't want to wait another day. By the way, I'm.. I'm sorry."

His expression didn't change.

"I didn't think there would be a good time to say it. But yeah, I'm sorry." Val shrugged and then looked off, "I was the one who cast that spell back in the pass. You broke it soon enough, so it doesn't seem to matter now, but I still wanted to apologize. As things are, I mean-"

D heard the sound of Meredith coming down the steps before he saw her, and when she stepped onto her porch she had her hands jammed into the pockets of her coat. She had not worn her gray and white cloak but had it hanging in the crook of her elbow. Her hair was tied back, as usual, her blue blouse left unbuttoned at the very top. She'd changed into a pair of darker gray pants, the seams more noticeable along the outer thighs. Her boots were the same, though she'd shined them at some point recently. Perhaps when she'd been speaking to Tengen.

It felt strangely comforting to D to still smell their union on her as she passed, though he didn't spare her much of a glance. He'd looked at her, but only as she'd been in the doorway. And yet she had smiled at him and kept walking, not lingering one bit. Smart girl.

"I'm gonna grab somethin' to eat from the Bella." Meredith said, "M'starvin' to death."

"That's fine, but we've gotta get movin'." Val told her, "Y'hear that, boys?! Get movin'!"

"We heard!" Gencho yelled back, "Keep yer pants on, Snowflake."

"Maybe I'm not offended by being called 'Princess'." Meredith said as she stepped onto the dusty street in front of the house, "You guys call each other all kinds of things, and it's all from love. So I guess I'll be 'Princess' after all."

Meredith went into the Bella and within a few minutes, just as Gencho, Renshen and Tengen were leaving the house, she was returning to the porch with what appeared to be half a loaf of bread.

"I'm thinkin' you'd better throw in some extra money to pay for all the food you ate on this trip." Gencho muttered, but was smiling. He was lugging a bag on his shoulder and heading past her, "I don't know what I'm more afraid of, facing this Raziel guy or the cost of restocking our shelves."

Meredith was chewing slowly. She'd almost let herself forget what the entire journey was for.

"Are you afraid of finally getting there?" Meredith asked Gencho as he was near the Bella.

"Hm? Nah." Gencho shook his head, pausing to look back at her, "Do a quick head count. We've got the advantage, eh? That guy's completely fucked."

Meredith managed a smile.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Meredith?" It was D speaking and he came up alongside her, "Remember what I told you. Raziel made his choice a long time ago, but some of that was beyond his control. He is what he is, a monster. A monster can choose not to act on its desires though. Raziel did. A lot of innocent people have died. You understand that, don't you? Feeling sorry for him doesn't change what he did."

"I don't feel sorry for him." Meredith said, but she was lying and she knew she couldn't fool D.

"You do, and you need to stop. It's pointless and will cloud your judgment." D sounded almost irritated with her, a tone she hadn't been expecting from him, "I don't expect you to help fight your brother, but I don't want you getting in the way either. You will stand back, do you understand?"

"What?" Meredith blinked at D, turning around to face him.

"Pah-shing!" Gencho called from the Bella, looking out from the open hatch, "I saw that comin'!"

"What do you mean, 'stand back'?" Meredith shook her head at D, "I came all this way to help!"

"You're getting us through the maze. You can open the doors. That is how you are helping, Meredith." D said to her, his eyes revealing his less than happy mood, "It wouldn't be safe for you to-"

"Safe?" Meredith cut him off and D allowed her to speak, "Look, I can keep myself safe. I've already done it a few times now, right? I've been helped, yes. But I've also been covering my own ass. D, I get it, and I know I've kinda been asking you guys to try to resolve this peacefully. I'm also not stupid. I'll fight, and I'll protect you all. You'll protect me too, I know that. Give me the chance to prove myself."

Studying her face, D felt his resolve harden, not crumble. Those big blue eyes and those parted lips. Her red hair was falling into her face and he fought the urge to push her bangs behind her pointed ear. Meredith's cheeks had flushed from her emotions. The chemicals in her blood were riled and he felt inclined to touch her face. Of course, he could not. Not right now, anyway. Perhaps later. Much later.

"I.. I want to say let's let her help." Val muttered, "I know I feel protective of her too, but she's not a kid. All you guys act like she is, and she's not. I don't want her to get hurt either, but you saw how she handled herself before. Just let her."

"Yeah. What Val said." Meredith nodded.

Tengen was near the Bella and his brows were knit deeply. His one visible eye focused on Meredith and then he looked to the Dhampir hunter. He agreed with him, but, he also had a very biased, very unpleasant opinion swimming in his stomach.

"Let Meredith help." Tengen said. It hurt to say it, because he didn't mean it. Being contradictory for the sake of being contradictory, just to argue with the source of his contempt, was agony, "She's got a sword. She can fight. Let her help us take him down."

Renshen wasn't saying a word. He had entered the Bella.

Whatever he felt, he kept it to himself.

There was no way to keep the girl subdued and also have her there with them. D had lost the battle. His insides felt hollow and the shadow of eventuality hung over his mind. There was a sick feeling in his stomach. However, all he did was nod.

"We will all stay together." D said and turned from her.

"D?" Meredith asked softly.

He had stepped off of the porch and was making his way to his horse.

D looked back at her.

"Can I ride with you again?" Meredith tried to smile a little.

***

Having her back in front of him relieved some of the concerns D had, but it also served to fuel other anxieties. He'd made that very painful mistake again, and he could already imagine her death. He wasn't sure how she'd die, but she would.

And if not by Raziel or his witch, then by D himself eventually. When, not if, Meredith assumed her mother's power, she would become a terrifying foe should they cross paths again. Each Black Madam had been a real monster, and he remembered Viranna the Black very well. That red hair and those blue eyes, much like Meredith. Much like Elsira. Meredith was taller, more beautiful and she'd be much, much deadlier. With the vampire blood in her veins, even at half its potency, Meredith would be a force to be reckoned with and the demon which controlled the witch now would control Meredith next.

The image of her looking up at him, his blade run through her heart, materialized in his mind. But it was his Meredith now, hurt and confused while she died. She was asking him why.

It was his own damn fault for making that mistake. And now he was compounding on it. Making it worse. Would he have told her 'No' and directed her to the Bella? He was being selfish and therefore cutting into himself. It would be devastating later, but right now he didn't want to think about that.

He wanted to listen to her tell him about her fighting lessons with Aatrak and how she wasn't afraid.

D leaned in while she spoke, holding the reigns. The Bella was rumbling along beside them as they sped across the dead, open ground. There were shriveled trees, more and more of them appearing the further they traveled. The earth was turning dark and decayed and the sky was a sickly gray. Dim and hopeless.

He had his light in front of him. Meredith didn't seem affected by the grim surroundings at all.

There were stony mountains ahead and in a few hours they would reach them. Still distant on the horizon, they were rising gradually as more ground was covered.

"-and maybe, maybe I could be faster. I get that. It's a work in progress." Meredith was saying, "I'll give it everything I've got, Ok?"

As she spoke, D listened. When she went quiet, looking off at the mountains, D leaned close and brushed her ear with his lips. A very gentle, very subtle gesture to show her that he'd not forgotten what they'd shared. At the same time, he used that moment to speak to her.

"You are strong enough to fight him, Meredith, I do believe you." D told her, speaking into her ear, "I wasn't calling you weak. You have nothing to prove to me. But you must promise me that you'll keep your head together, keep your eyes open."

"I promise I won't go off and do anything stupid, D." Meredith said.

With the Bella to their left, Meredith dropped her right hand down to give his thigh an unseen, reassuring squeeze. D felt no comfort, but he would take what he could get.

"Thank you." D whispered into her ear, "I don't plan on settling your affairs and unfinished business should you be killed, Meredith. That grove in the desert will be our next destination together, but it would be a ridiculous mission for me to take alone. Do you understand?"

"I understand." Meredith said, "And after that, I'll go home, right?"

"Yes, you'll go home." D replied.

"Will you visit me?" Meredith asked him. She turned her head to look back at him from the corner of her eye.

What kind of answer could he have given her? D met her gaze and then nodded, a silent and solemn vow that he couldn't muster up his voice to agree to.

"If I am killed, will you make sure that I'm taken home to be buried?" Meredith asked him then.

"Yes." D answered her.

"What are our chances?" Meredith sounded calmer than her question would have implied.

"It's difficult to say. Whatever witch is protecting Raziel also has demonic ties. There are few demons left in the world, and the ones which linger are very powerful. It is with one of these entities that the witch has apparently made a pact, making her spells harder to break and harder to sense." D told her, "The Runes on your arm, Meredith, are demonic symbols."

"It's a charm. It's not demonic." Meredith scowled and pulled back the sleeve of her left arm, looking at the red swirling symbols, "What are you trying to say?"

"I should have told you before. It doesn't matter now. Just listen." D was speaking close to her ear again, "You know that your mother is The Black Madam, don't you?"

"Yeah. It's her witch's title." Meredith nodded.

The ground was beginning to become harder, rockier and the hills were raising the longer they went. The path ahead would lead them into the approaching mountains.

"The Black Madam is a bloody title. The title of a murderous creature, bent on acquiring power through the means of dark magic and human souls." D spoke to Meredith, "There has been a succession of Black Madams over the centuries, going back for generations. Each one was just as terrible as the last. The first Black Madam sold her soul to a demon in order to keep her bloodline strong. Your mother, Elsira, is not the last in that bloodline. You are."

"My mother?" Meredith shook her head, confused, "Look, you must not have met my mother, I mean, really met her."

"I've met a distant relative of yours, Meredith. She was a Black Madam, and she was a despicable monster. The same demon which took the first Black Madam still serves your line, and will come to you one day. You will have a choice." D felt his last word stick to his tongue, but he was able to force it from his lips.

"D, I don't get what you're saying to me.." Meredith's tone was sharper, her brows furrowed.

"You will have a choice to kill your own mother and take her power." D continued, "Like your mother before you, and her mother, and her mother's mother. Each chose to continue the pact with the demon in order to become powerful, assuming the energy of their own mother and adding it to their own. Each Black Madam becomes more powerful than the last."

"I'm not going to kill my mother." Meredith said, scowling, "D, where the hell did you hear that? I've never heard that in my entire life! It isn't true, and you know it!"

"It is true, Meredith. You've been shielded from so much during your young life, and this is just another harsh reality you've got to face. The Black Madam serves those who can pay her. What she takes as payment, it could be anything. Souls. First born children. Magic artifacts. A life debt. What your mother has done in the guise of Elsie the Swamp Witch would shock you." D went on.

"Shut up!" Meredith suddenly exclaimed, turning to look at D, "Stop saying this stuff! You're wrong! You're wrong about my mother and you're wrong about me!"

There were tears threatening to spill down her cheeks, hovering at her eyelashes.

"I hope you're right." D's response was measured and he fought the urge to stop the horse. She wasn't trying to jump off or get away from him, but she certainly wasn't enjoying his company anymore. If he could stop the horse, sit her down and perhaps talk a bit more in depth, he might be able to mend what he'd just broken. He could not though, and had to ride onward. The tiny, cold incision which had pricked his heart had caused a slow bleed within his chest.

He couldn't lie to her.

"And why.. why would you tell me this now, instead of earlier?" Meredith asked him, turning back to look at the road ahead, "Before.."

"I have much more to lose now if something were to happen to you, Meredith." D answered her, "I'm not going to declare my love for you, and I know that we'll part ways when this is over. However, I want you to know that I care about you very much, and it's painful for me. I didn't want to care about you, but it happened. Telling you the truth about yourself wasn't important to me until I realized how important you are to me. If I hurt you, it's because you deserved to know, not because I wanted to."

Meredith considered his words before she placed her hand on his thigh again.

Her touch was more comforting this time around.
- 12
- 13
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Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlines