Vampire Hunter D Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Hunter D: Demons and Angels ❯ Demons and Angels: An unsettling explanation ( Chapter 2 )

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D's hand tightened on his sword hilt the moment the knock sounded. He was off the bed in an instant and standing beside the latch side of the door.

"Hunter D?" It was the Lady Sara's voice. "The servants had other duties. I have brought your dinner."

He tripped the latch without relaxing the grip on his sword. The door swung forward and he stepped forward along with it. His sword gripped firmly, was held behind his back.

Lady Sara stepped through portal as if D wasn't standing right next to her with a naked blade ready. She placed the tray on the table. She was no longer chained. Nor was she still dressed as a priest. She wore a night gown. "I see you have rearranged. I was very young when this room was mine but in later years I found as you have that it was not suited for ease of movement. But I will not keep you. Good night."

She was gone as quick as she had come. Standing where he had been D knew for certain there was something unearthly about that woman. It wasn't just her beauty or the grace with which she moved. It had something to do with the way she seemed to anticipate his movements and the way she seemed to know what he was thinking. It was the way she looked at him with those perfect green eyes. It was like she was measuring his soul.

"I know you don't want to listen, but somehow I felt better when she was chained to the wall... D?"

D shook his head. He would get to the bottom of this tonight. No reason to stay in this place longer than necessary. He looked at the tray on the table. It looked harmless enough. There was a soup thick with vegetables, a small loaf of bread, and a bottle of wine as well.

D moved to the table and placed his left hand over soup.

"Bloody slave driver! It's hot but that's about it. Let me check the wine." D poured some into the glass provided. "Good year, but nothing there. How about the bread?" D palmed the loaf. "It's fine. You can drop it now. You're squashing my nose."

“So we're going out tonight eh? Sounds like fun. None of this waiting for stuff to get us in the quiet of the night. We'll be out there slashing and piercing and ridding the world of vampire scum."

"Scouting, we'll be feeling out the situation." D finished the wine and taking the bread for later, let the room. Setting his hat in place D left the Manse.

"So exactly how do you intend on finding the March guy?"

"The usual way. Look for the dark creepy mansion on the hilltop."

"You just left one."

D actually smiled. "That is exactly the mansion we will be gathering information on." Muffled questions came from his clinched left hand. D ignored them. Something else had caught his attention.

D was walking from the mansion down to the village. In doing so he passed a cottage with an open window. The voices caused him stop and listen to the conversation for a moment.

"Mama I don't want to go to sleep, the vampire will come and take me!" The voice was that of a young boy, still a child from the sound of it.

"Do not worry Jean Paul, you will be all right. The Lady Sara has sent for the best hunter and he will take care of Ramius March once and for all." Her tone was soothing but D could not mistake the blind faith she put in this hunter she had never met. It intrigued him. "Until then I will protect you."

"Do you think the hunter will bring back Philippe?" Hope, there was so much of it in the child's voice.

Standing at the edge of the window D could see the woman shake her head. He could just make out the tears in her eyes. "I don't know, my son. I just don't know."

There was a sniffle from the little one as he tried very hard not to cry. "I miss him mama."

The mother gathered her son in her arms, "I miss him to Jean Paul, but we must have faith. Hunter D is here and you have heard the stories about him. He will save us."

"Tell me again mama. Tell me how he defeated the evil Carmilla. Please?"

The mother laid her son in his bed and tucked him in for the second time. "Not tonight," she said, "I have many chores yet to do." She kissed him on the forehead and bent to blow out the candle on the bedside table.

"Mama," the little boy asked trying desperately to fend off sleep, "why didn't Lady Sara kill the vampire?"

"She tried, but he is very strong." She blew out the candle. "Good night." Then she closed the door to the little boy's room.

D was still standing by the window lost in thought when the young mother hailed him from behind. She was dressed in a simple cotton sleeping gown. Her feet were bare and her brown hair hung in a heavy braid down her back.

"Are you lost? Lady Sara lives in the Chateau de la Ange," she said pointing back the way he had come. "As for Ramius March," she turned and pointed to the opposite side of the valley, "he resides just beyond that ridge, in the monastery."

D's interest was finally peeked by this vampire he was here to kill. "A monastery?" Like before he knew, she would continue without anything more from him. There were advantages to vampiric ancestry.

"Yes. It had been deserted for many years but two years ago March moved in and the forest around it began to turn dark. Later he began kidnapping children. Never young women or men. Always children. But I'm sure you know that." While she talked about the children, tears touched the corners of her eyes. "If you want to know more about the monastery you should talk to Ruis. He lives down by the river. He remembers the monks that used to run it. He might be more help." She turned to go back in her house but paused halfway inside the door. "Thank you for coming Hunter D." The door closed quietly behind her.

"A woman in a nightgown. Now that's gotta spark some urges. Come on. I know you were thinking about it. It's a classic."

D clenched his left hand tightly into a fist. The comments stopped. D's thoughts were on more important things. The monastery was an interesting development. It would have to have been desecrated for March to enter. What had happened there that had defiled the holy ground so much that a vampire could walk freely across its threshold?

And more interesting was the comment made to the little boy about Lady Sara. Why didn't Lady Sara take care of the vampire, indeed? More important, why didn't she tell him she had tried? Who was this woman?

D shook his head to clear his thoughts. He should be worried about the vampire. He walked down the hill to the house the young mother had pointed out. The small shabby house was on the very outskirts of the village. Set apart from the rest of the houses it was surrounded by a low stone wall. The gate was made of twisted iron. Worked into it was another cross.

To a full vampire this would have posed a problem, however D had very few of their weaknesses. He simply pushed the gate open and walked up the path to painted green door. He was about to knock when an old man's cranky voice called out to him.

"I know yer out there. If yer comin' in don't linger. Just open the door and come in."

D nodded and entered. In side was an older man with white hair. Age had not dimmed the sparkle in his bright blue eyes. Though he may have stood straighter in his youth, D would bet the old man was stronger than most men in the village.

"Sizin' me up huh? Well I guess I can't complain. Folks have been sizin' you up since the moment you rode into to town." The old man gestured to a pot on the stove. "Coffee?"

D shook his head no.

"I suppose your kind don't need much in the way of food. You'll have to forgive us. We don't know much about vampires and half bloods `round here. We know demons alright but vampires and their kind are new to us."

D's normally calm expression changed into one of surprise for just a moment. "Demons?"

"I figured they'd send you to me eventually." The old man indicated a chair, "Would you like a seat?" D shook his head and the old man continued. "My name's Ruis. I've lived in this village my whole life. Lady Sara helped bring me into this world. My mom gave birth to me at the monastery on account of the nun there was the only midwife we had in our village. Lady Sara was livin' with the monks on account of her parents being killed in a fire not long after she was born." Ruis smiled slyly. "Now you might be wonderin' why the Chateau does not have any damage to it. Well it weren't where they died. The fire was in the stables. They went in there to save the stable hands that had become trapped behind a fallen timber. The stable hands made it out but Lady Sara was left with no parents."

The lack of fire damage on the walls of the Chateau was the last thing on his mind. The old man was deliberately taking his time but from his account Lady Sara was far older than she appeared. Yet there had been no strange scents. She was not a werewolf or a vampire. There was a chance she could be a half blood but somehow D didn't think so.

"Lady Sara lived with the monks 'til some strange things happened there when I was about six. I remember it well. My mother had sent me to the monastery to fetch Lady Sara. Our neighbor was sick and Lady Sara was a good healer. However when I got the monastery the place was on fire. Next to the fountain in the courtyard sat Lady Sara. She was nearly naked. It looked like someone had pulled her clothes off. She was cradling the oldest monk, Brother Michael, in her lap. She was just sitting there while tears ran down her face. She saw me and tried to hide her nakedness. There wasn't much left of her dress though. The flames were starting to work their way across the courtyard. I called out to her. I screamed that we had to leave. I took her hand and pulled. I was then that I noticed Brother Michael was dead. His head hung at a funny angle. Finally I managed to get Lady Sara to follow me. We stood there together and watched as everything that wasn't stone burned. The town's people saw the smoke and gathered around us. I was still holding Lady Sara's hand. My mother and some of the older women in the village wrapped her in a blanket and took Lady Sara back to the village. Everyone decided that bandits had attacked the monastery. No one asked Lady Sara what happened to her and she didn't tell us. She moved back into the Chateau and started taking care of the village's problems." Ruis took a long drink from his coffee mug.

"Now Lady Sara's never been anything but good to us. She takes care of the villager's needs and makes sure we all eat and have enough firewood for the winter. She ain't like the rest of the nobility. Guess that's why folk s never really had a problem with the fact that she don't age."

D stood for a moment absorbing the old man's story. "What do you think happened to your Lady when you were six?"

Ruis sat for a moment staring into his coffee cup. "Well I'm just an old man. I don't remember things as well as I once did. But it seems to me that bandits would have stolen valuables. Not just slaughtered the clergy and left Lady Sara sittin' there in the flames."

D was just about to ask the old man about what he knew demons when a woman screamed outside. D made it to the door and was racing to the street just in time to see a young man streak past. In his arms was cradled the boy he had seen earlier, Jean Paul. The man carrying him was nearly translucent; he still had a baby face too.

D vaulted the gate and whistled loudly for his horse. Bending to the ground he placed his left hand over the path of the ghostly figure.

“What are you trying to kill me?!”

“What can you tell me?”

“Vampire and something else. Something older, stronger.”

D stood up.

“You don't want to do this D. It's too big, I can tell. I think the old fart was right.”

“Demons.” D said it with a sense of something approaching excitement. He'd never dealt with Demons. Vampires were predictable. But Demons, this would be a challenge. His horse flew down the road toward him. It did not stop. As it whisked by D grabbed the saddle horn and pulled himself aboard.

Settled in the saddle he thought, “This could be fun.”