Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
                                 "Blood Ties"

                              by Troy A. Stanton
                        (sailormoonv@sailormoonv.net)


(Author's note: This fanfic follows the events of the original stories "Winds
  of Change" and "Final Hours" (both written by me), and also incorporates a
  few elements from the story "Drawing Blood" by Catherine B. Krusberg.  I
  have her permission to make use of her work as a source of material, so
  anything 'new' you see in here about D's past with Doris that didn't happen
  in the movie is most likely her original plot material.)

* * * WARNING:  This story contains graphic violence and adult content, please
   do not read beyond this point if you are easily offended by such things.



     It took a moment for the sound of the doorbell to register on his mind,
resulting in a reflexive blink as it drew him out of his studies of what the
ancient human world was like before the coming of the red moon.  A second sound
promptly followed the first, a very quiet grunting noise that he might not have
heard had he not been a dunpeal, the half-breed child of a noble vampire and a
human woman.  The best of both worlds, many had murmured in the distant past,
and yet the worst of both worlds at the same time.
     "Galen," he said in a tone of both warning and concern, already starting
to rise to his feet in the hopes that she would remain where she was.  He knew
he was already too late, as the quiet grunt he had heard moments earlier had
been hers, but there was still hope that he might prevail this time.
     "I've got it," Galen huffed calmly as she finished the somewhat ponderous
process of getting out of her favorite chair and rising to her feet, the task
made somewhat difficult by the moderate swelling of her abdomen.
     The faintest of sighs rose up from D's chest.  "You shouldn't be...." he
started to say before being cut off by a dark glare from his bride.
     "Spare me the chivalry, D," she grumped as she started to move towards the
door.  "Being pregnant doesn't make me an invalid who needs to be confined to
bed for most of the day.  Besides, I need to use the bathroom anyway so I had
to get up sooner or later.  Now relax and settle down, okay?" she added as she
padded out of the study in almost near-perfect silence.
     D sighed silently to himself again and slowly sat back down at the desk,
casting a weary glance down at the ancient tome opened before him.  The doctor
in the human village had assured them that Galen was in perfect health.  After
admitting she knew little of dunpeal pregnancies in terms of verifiable medical
facts, the doctor went on to explain that it was likely that Galen wouldn't be
overly burdened by it as a fully human woman would until around the eighth or
ninth month.  However, the doctor sternly added in a tone that was directed at
the both of them, that didn't mean she should be allowed to exert herself too
hard even if it was within the capacity of her body to do so.
     That had led to five months of minor and low-key arguments between them,
with the protective side of D's nature trying to get her to take things easy
and Galen's free-spirited nature bristling at the attempted imposition of any
sort of constraints.  They both understood the arguments for what they were,
however, which is why neither of them took it personally in the slightest and
why the 'arguments' rarely lasted for longer than a minute or two at the most.
     Much to his discomfort, D found himself to be on the losing side of such
discussions as of late simply because of Galen's recent tendency for subtle yet
testy responses.  While it was easy to chalk it up to an abundance of hormones,
which is what she would admit to whenever they 'kissed and made up' later, it
still nonetheless only served to reinforce his quiet but firmly-seated notion
that women as a universal whole were dangerous entities because of their highly
unpredictable natures.  More so when they were with child....
     D sighed quietly to himself yet again as he sat back, absently looking
around the room that was part of the home they had constructed after growing
weary of years of constant travel around the planet.  All but hidden deep in a
dark forest and several miles from the nearest human village, it offered them
a sense of privacy and seclusion from the rest of the world that had long ago
become tired of the dominating presence of vampires.  He and Galen were thought
to be the only dunpeals left alive, and it had been years since anyone could
remember having or even hearing of an encounter with another vampiric entity.
     Having been solitary for virtually all of his adult life, D had adapted to
the quiet life fairly well once he learned how to relax instead of needing to
keep a constant eye on every dark corner and pool of shadow around him.  Galen,
however, was far more socially-inclined than he was and often took short trips
to the village to socialize and even indulge in a minor amount of gossip with
the other women.  Entrenched in their zone of comfort, it wasn't too long after
the finishing touches had been put on the house that a somewhat different kind
of restlessness enfolded them.
     Galen was the first to give voice to the idea of becoming a mother, to try
to bear a child to not only preserve their unique heritage but to also change
their lives for the better.  D was quite resistant at first, having dedicated
not just his entire life but his very existence to ending the dark curse of
vampiric evil in the world.  Having Galen at his side for several years had
shown him that there was still hope for their dark blood, that he didn't need
to take that final step of cleansing by extinguishing her life and his own.
However, it had still taken a considerable amount of conversation and effort
for him to finally open up to the notion that he would not be doing a great
disservice to either his past or the world by bringing a new life into being,
one who would share in his dark blood and likely have the same blood-hunger.
     He looked up as she returned, raising an eyebrow at the soft smile on her
pale blue lips.  It was her exotic beauty that tipped off any observers to the
fact that she wasn't what she seemed to be.  A pair of bluish-green liquid-like
eyes looked back at him, seeming to soften as she approached.  Her hair was a
mane of blue-green, the color fading back and forth in each individual strand
as if it couldn't make up its mind as it grew out.  To most others she seemed
to be simply a beautiful dunpeal, but D knew that the true cause of her beauty
lay in her grandmother's Barbarois mutant blood.
     She wordlessly held the letter out to him, a simple envelope that had been
sealed with wax.  The front of the letter bore only a single inked character,
indicating that there had been no need to address it for delivery by others.
She waited until he accepted it before leaning over to kiss him softly, their
lips melding together almost instinctively for a minor eternity.  Even with as
long as they had been together and as often as they shared that simple but
deeply intimate gesture, it never ceased to amaze them how the sensation could
be so spine-tingling unique and yet offer them a level of comfort that neither
of them had been able to fully express into words.  "I'll be back," she said
softly before she stood up straight and left the room again.
     D watched her go before turning his attention to the letter, carefully
studying the ink and script of the single letter 'D' on the front.  It still
bothered him on a subconscious level about how everyone viewed him as being a
hero and a legend for ending the vampire reign, and how one only needed to put
his name on a letter for everyone in the postal system to know how and where to
deliver it to.  Usually any such letters for them were really for Galen and
held at the village tavern until she collected them, but it was not an unknown
for the ones addressed to D that came from afar to be hand-delivered to their
house for immediate perusal.
     Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, save that the hand who had inked his
name on the front had done so with a somewhat flowing script, he flipped the
letter over to examine the back.  The seal was a thin blob of ordinary red wax
that bore no markings, suggesting that it wasn't from one of the few people he
had kept in contact with since settling down.  The bottom half of the envelope
was covered in a series of tiny stamps and written notes, letting him know what
cities and towns the letter had passed through and when.  Tracing the path of
such deliveries was remotely entertaining for him, having a fair idea of how
much time any given letter should need to span the distance between any two
cities or townships and speculating as to why a particular 'hop' was either
late or early.
     Westfield to New Meadow, for example, usually took three days to cross by
wagon but only two by horse.  Seeing that the hand-written date next to the
New Meadow stamp was two days after the Westfield mark indicated that it indeed
had been delivered by horse for that leg of the journey, not an overly unusual
event given the tendency for the delivery carts that normally carried mail to
be delayed by bad weather.  However, judging from the number of cases where it
had taken less time between hops than expected, it seemed that the letter had
been apparently been given a high priority despite the lack of markings to ask
for such speed.
     <Someone's in a hurry,> a voice said, audible in both the air around him
and in the depths of his mind.  <Willowvale to Westmarch in two days?>
     "Or they just think so," D replied quietly.  Years ago he would have been
upset and even resentful of the symbiot's intrusion into his silent thoughts,
but life with Galen had a considerable mellowing effect on him.  It seemed to
have had an impact on the entity embedded in his left hand as well, as it more
often than not kept to itself these days.  D sometimes wondered if that was
because of the time it had spoken up to make an ill-welcomed comment several
months after his blood-marriage to Galen, only to set off a blistering tirade
from his bride that to this day still made his ears burn when remembering just
what she had said to it and how it had been phrased.  She had apologized later
for her outburst and things between them had settled into a decent friendship,
but D couldn't help but notice a considerable drop in the level and pointedness
of its commentary since then.
     <Most other people wouldn't mind such prompt and expedient mail service,>
it pointed out.
     "I'm not like other people," D countered, casting a glance at his hand.
     <No shit?> it replied with a deep chuckle that made his entire arm vibrate
gently for a few moments.  <And here I was thinking that....>
     "Enough," he said calmly as he used his right hand to break the wax seal.
There was a time and a place for such banter, and even he had to admit that he
more often than not had the time for it, but the delivery of the letter at such
a rapid pace bothered him somehow.  It was at least a full week ahead of the
usual delivery times for originating in such a remote city, essentially on the
other side of the continent going east as the proverbial crow flies, and he was
fully aware that only gossip and bad tidings travelled at unholy speeds.
     And he knew that *nobody* wrote to him simply to gossip.
     The letter was a simple one, bearing the date it was first penned and done
so in the same script as the lettering on the envelope.  A cursory glance at
the bottom-left edge of the envelope revealed that it has been posted the day
after it was written, likely indicating that the sender had written the letter
in the evening and had it sent out the following morning.  Setting the empty
envelope aside, he unfolded the rest of the letter and began to read.

                *               *               *               *

D -

   If it means anything to you, Abelyne passed away three days ago in peaceful
sleep.  Her daughter said she had left behind a will of sorts, and that one of
the items mentioned was that she wanted a letter to be sent to you, thanking
you one final time for helping her live the life she enjoyed in peace until
the very end.  I told her that I would write the letter to you myself, as she
and I were the same age when we went through it all together back then, and I
know that I myself am not too far removed from my own eternal peace.
   I know this may sound sudden to you and you may not even remember us, but
deep in my heart I know that you do.  I too wish to thank you for the chance
to live my life as I have these past sixty years, a life that was just as you
said it would be.  Know that word came to us last year that you had finally
found someone to open your heart to, and know your marriage was viewed by the
both of us as a cause for mourning even as we celebrated it with smiles.  I
might have written then to wish you well, but I felt you didn't need to be
bothered by a meek voice from the distant past.  I only speak now because my
dearest friend's voice has finally fallen silent, and so I wished to let her
use my voice to pass along her final words of thanks to you.  Her words, and
now my own.
   If it cannot be said enough, then let it rest with this much:  Thank you.
Thank you for saving our lives, our hopes, and for teaching us to dream once
again.  Thank you, D.

                                                     All my love,
                                                     April Rose

                *               *               *               *

     It was several minutes before D could bring himself to fold the letter
back up and rest it atop his lap on the envelope.  The name had meant nothing
to him until he spotted the carefully inked sigil beneath it, written in the
ancient language once used by druids.  The icon meant 'moon-kissed' and could
be interpreted several ways depending on how it was used.  But in this context,
it was all too clear what it symbolized.... and whom had written the letter.
A distant part of his mind was absolutely amazed at how a simple thing like a
name could suddenly trigger so strong of a memory that it all but blotted out
his other senses while the visions replayed themselves in his mind's eye.  The
mental review was a blessedly brief one before he could refocus, but it was
more than enough to leave him feeling a little haunted on the inside.
     A startled blink and a reflexive glance upwards revealed the presence of
his bride, standing in front of him with a look on her face that was as curious
as it was uneasy.  Perhaps she knew him well enough by now to tell at a glance
how he was feeling or if something was bothering him, but being able to catch
him so completely unawares was a warning sign they both knew painfully well.
A lapse in focus happens to everyone, but when it happens to a hunter like D
who more often than not could hear a fly passing gas in the next room over, it
was a very strong indication that whatever was on his mind was not pleasant.
     "D?" she asked softly, almost tenderly as she tried not to worry about the
look she had seen in his dark eyes moments ago.
     "Words from a forgotten friend," D assured her in a gentle but somber
tone.  "Nothing more."
     "Not bad news, I trust," she replied as she cast a quick glance down at
the folded letter.  She was curious about the contents, of course, but wouldn't
make any deep inquiries or otherwise press the issue if he could convince her
that it really wasn't anything to be concerned with.
     D's gaze followed hers down to the rectangle of parchment in his lap, the
softest of sighs drifting up from his chest as he contemplated the merits of
letting her read it.  Not that there was anything objectionable in the letter
itself, but rather the dark memories that it would disturb and the quiet but
probing questions that her curiosity would compel her to gently inquire about.
     Had it been any other incident like it in his past, he would have spoken
about it with little more than a few moments of contemplative thought first.
Even this one he would have been willing, though not enthused, to share with
her, to relate a small slice of his own dark past and a source of one of the
many voices that had haunted him for so long.  However....
     D sighed yet again as he allowed his gaze to wander slightly, looking up
at the swelling of her abdomen that clearly indicated she was pregnant.  Not
that he was worried about emotional distress on her part or something about the
telling of the story that could somehow influence their unborn baby, but that
having to remember what he had said and done back then was the absolute last
thing he wanted to do right now.  Especially in the presence of the soon-to-be
mother of his child.  Not after being reminded about what had happened to him
back then, when he had encountered both April and Abelyne sixty years ago....
     "D?" she prodded quietly, her expression becoming more concerned with each
moment that passed by them in silence.
     <D, you might as well get it out of your system,> it spoke up in what for
it was a rather subdued tone.  <Not that you let it wake you up screaming in a
nightmare or anything, but....>
     "Enough," D said quietly, more out of simple force-of-habit than anything.
He looked up as he felt her touch, the lightest of pressures on his jaw tilting
his chin up so that his dark eyes met her liquid blue-green eyes.  Even as he
studied their flawless depths, they seemed to flicker with the faintest of red
highlights for just an instant.  He knew that it was becoming harder for her to
keep complete control of her Barbarois blood as her pregnancy continued, her
mutant heritage manifesting itself by giving her a distinctly insectoid look
that also became apparent when she was severely stressed.
     "Are you sure you're going to be alright?" she whispered softly.  "I'm not
going to pry into whatever secrets you keep locked away in your past, D, as we
both have such things to deal with, but just keep in mind that I'm always here
for you if you need me."
     D closed his eyes briefly, wondering not for the first time why it always
seemed to be so damn hard these days to keep anything from her, to hide behind
the veil of armor and isolation that had served him so well for the literally
countless years of his life before their lives had crossed and fused into one.
"A friend has passed away," he said quietly.  "Peacefully," he added, almost as
an afterthought.
     Galen's eyes immediately became sorrowful.  "D, I'm sorry," she murmured
as she carefully leaned over to give him a hug.  She held onto him for a number
of moments before edging back, blinking as he reached down to pick up the short
letter and offer it to her.  Their gazes locked for a moment before the softest
of smiles brushed her lips, prompting her to lean forward once again to give
her husband a tender kiss.  "You sure?" she whispered, letting her lips brush
against his lightly as she spoke.
     "And if I said no?" he replied, causing her to blink with surprise.
     "Well...." she hedged in a slightly uncertain tone.
     <D, make up your mind,> it sighed quietly.
     "Quiet," both D and Galen said in the same instant.  An odd moment of
silence followed as they glanced at one another before a sheepish blush tinted
her cheeks.  "I love you, D," she purred as she picked up both the letter and
the envelope.  She then turned around and moved to carefully sit in his lap,
prompting him to edge away from the desk to accommodate her.  She waited until
he had a secure grip on her weight and that she wasn't squishing anything of
importance before nuzzling his cheek and unfolding the letter.
     D said nothing as she silently read the delicately-inked script, wondering
just how he was going to explain things to her.  They had long ago forged an
understanding about his past, one that easily dwarfed hers by a factor of eight
if not more.  She was permitted to ask him anything she wanted about his past,
but he wasn't under any obligations to answer her.  Any answer he gave would be
truthful, of course, as it simply was not in his nature to lie or otherwise be
dishonorable in any way.
     He glanced over at her as she looked up from the letter, an odd sort of
smile forming on her face.  She wordlessly leaned over to kiss him deeply, one
arm sliding behind him to both hold him and rebalance her weight in his lap.
Her reaction was a puzzling one but he responded to her regardless, letting the
seemingly natural affinity their lips had for one another play itself out at
its own pace.
     "Let me guess," she murmured softly once they finally parted enough to be
able to look into one another's eyes, "You rescued them from the dungeon of a
dark vampire lord?"
     So it begins, D thought to himself as he took a deep breath.  "Somewhat,"
he replied.  It obviously wasn't the answer she had expected to hear, as she
promptly blinked hard enough to create tiny microscopic ripples in her liquid
eyes.  Such a minute reaction would have gone completely unnoticed had he not
been studying them intently, suspecting that he might have garnered just such
a response.
     "Somewhat?" she echoed in a fairly incredulous tone.  "It's a yes-or-no
answer, D, either you rescued them or you didn't."
     He looked back at her in uneasy silence, knowing that the truthful answer
would only pique her curiosity with an unusual intensity.  He was fairly sure
that it had already been done so, and that prolonging the inevitable was just
going to make it that much more difficult to talk about later.  He sighed very
softly to himself and was preparing to draw in another breath to speak when it
spoke up for him.
     <It's complicated,> it said with an audible sigh of its own.  <Well, it's
not really *that* complicated once you take it apart under a microscope, but
you get the idea.>
     "I'm listening," Galen spoke up in a perfectly neutral tone.
     It sighed again before it wiggled slightly, producing a sensation in his
hand that was akin to a tap on the shoulder.  <D, you might as well speak up
about it.  Yes, she might laugh for the first few seconds, but honestly.... who
better else to share in such things than your beloved bride?>
     "Enough," D muttered as he closed his eyes.
     "D?" she spoke up carefully.  "I promise not to laugh if you'll tell me."
     "They told everyone I rescued them," D spoke up in a muted tone, almost
too quiet for even Galen's sensitive hearing to detect.  "That is not to say
they're lying, as I doubt they would have been freed like that if it wasn't for
my presence.  What they didn't mention was that they had to rescue me first."
     He wasn't sure what it was that he heard, just barest hint of the ghost of
a whisper tickling the very edge of his hearing.  It was enough to make him
open his eyes and look up at her, finding a somewhat surprised look on her pale
features.  He didn't find any indication that she was amused in the least by
the confession, a minor realization that comforted him just slightly.  It was
one thing to be teased amid the bonds of love that they shared, such things
almost always accompanied by a distinctive twinkle in her eyes, but it was
something else entirely to find humor in the blackened ashes of his past....
and his pain.
     Her tongue flicked out briefly, just enough to moisten her pale blue lips.
Whether done out of nervousness or genuine dryness was hard to tell, but D
found it to be a faintly ominous event.  "D?" she spoke up quietly a moment
later.  "Do you think you can tell me about it?  The whole story, I mean," she
amended.  "Context tends to be important in such cases."
     "If you wish," he replied without emotion, or so he thought.
     She paused as she sensed the undercurrent of emotion to his words, a deep
and haunting timbre that spoke of an incredible amount of pain and suffering.
"How long do you think that story would take to tell properly?" she whispered,
absently chewing on the edge of her lip.  She wasn't concerned with the actual
length of time given their ageless lifespans, but she knew that she probably
couldn't afford to spend too much time curled up in his lap like this.  Or at
least, not when she was six-months pregnant....
     "Hours," D replied, his voice still all but devoid of warmth or feeling.
It was how he used to speak when they had first met, not so much uncaring as
impersonal and deeply withdrawn.  Drawing him out of his shell had taken quite
some time and more than a little noteworthy effort, but as with all old habits
it sometimes became impossible to avoid slipping back into when it seemed that
life not only had you by the balls for one reason or another but needed to have
her nails trimmed back something fierce as well.
     D almost blinked hard enough to be heard as he was answered with a fairly
low-pitched purr, followed by a deep kiss that raised the hair on the back of
his neck.  A bright orange flag immediately went up in his mind, trying to warn
him that she suddenly seemed to be in a playful mood.  While that in of itself
wasn't too much of a driving concern these days, it made very little sense for
her to be inclined to be playful given his obviously darkened mood ten seconds
ago.  Unless, of course, she was now up to something....
     "I have an idea," she purred in a husky tone.  A somewhat wicked smile
crossed her face as she only received an obviously wary sidelong look from him
in reply.  "Why don't you carry me upstairs and put me to bed?  That way, we
can both be resting comfortably while you tell me your story...."
     It took him a moderate amount of effort not to sigh, shake his head, roll
his eyes, or otherwise give any overt indication of his mild disbelief with his
beloved bride.  They had made love on an almost nightly basis since that first
night they laid together on their way to visit the grave of her mother.  Life
on the road had only impacted that when it came to crossing the ocean, as she
had discovered that the constant motion of the ship made her just queasy enough
to not be in a mood for passion.  Settling down had likewise virtually no real
impact on things.... or at least until she had first whispered in half-horror
and half-delight one night that her period should have happened already.
     The blood-test had been simple enough, and D honestly couldn't say he
remembered much of the following five nights simply because his head had been
spinning so hard from the realization that she was pregnant with his child.
When the initial shock had worn off to the point of allowing their lives to at
least try to return to normal, it had all but shocked him when she sought to
make love to him.  A very awkward conversation ensued, followed by her almost
literally dragging him to see the doctor the following morning to explain what
the 'problem' was.  D then sat rather stoically through a ten-minute lecture
about how to have sex during stages of pregnancy and why it was quite alright
for them to do so.  The return trip home had been done in perfect silence, but
he had only made it perhaps six steps inside the front door before ending up
one degree shy of being raped by her right then and there on the staircase.  He
got the message after that and their love-making returned to a somewhat normal
albeit exceedingly gentle and careful degree.
     "Well," she said in an off-handed manner, breaking through his veil of
introspective thoughts again, "If you don't feel like carrying me upstairs, I
suppose I can walk there on my own...."
     A faint chuckle filled the air as D promptly stood up, scooping her up in
his arms in a single fluid motion that barely disturbed her sense of inertia.
The soft sound of amusement was neither his nor hers, but given the way he was
holding her it would have been all but impossible for the symbiot to make any
further commentary about the odd quirks and happenings that occurred within the
bonds of love between the dunpeals.
     "You know I love you, D," Galen purred very softly as she rested her head
on his shoulder, a soft and gentle smile of both love and anticipation forming
on her pale blue lips.  A very faint giggle rose up from her chest as she saw
the look in his eyes as he cast a brief glance at her.  She knew he didn't know
what to say in a situation like this and was no doubt asking himself yet again
what he had gotten himself into.
     Well, she told herself with a mental shrug, if he doesn't know by now, I
doubt he ever will.  Which just makes it all the more fun, she added with an
even quieter giggle to herself that drew another uneasy look from him as he
carried her up the stairs towards their bedroom.

                *               *               *               *

     D cast a remotely amused look at her as she absently snuggled up against
him, not so much half-asleep as joyfully immersed in the loving afterglow of
their gentle love-making.  Even someone as emotionally obtuse as he was could
see there was an almost literal glow to her, a seemingly radiant aura of peace
and love and contentment surrounding her that could dazzle a blind man.
     She was curled up on her side with her back to him, making a very soft
buzzing sound to herself that sounded almost exactly like a honeybee's wings.
Most of her pale skin had darkened to a woodland brown coloring, a result of
her Barbarois heritage unconsciously manifesting itself.  The skin of her hands
and feet had darkened further and started to gnarl like the gripping ends of an
insect's legs, though she still retained enough mental focus to prevent them
from ripping through the sheets or otherwise clawing at anything.  Or anyone.
     A simple kiss on her bare shoulder doubled the volume of her soft buzzing
purrs, causing her to tilt her head back slightly to lean against him.  The
movement revealed the distinctly insectoid and angular lines of her face, a
pair of sensory ridges evident on her forehead that weren't there previously.
Her eyes were still three-quarters closed, but even through the slits of her
eyelids he could make out the dark red and multifaceted shape of her eyes.  To
an outside observer she would have appeared to be more than a little alien and
quite obviously inhuman, but to D she was still every bit as beautiful as she
was in her human form.
     It wasn't the first time she had 'slipped' into her insectoid form when
highly relaxed, usually from making love but sometimes from something as simple
as having her back gently scratched, but D was very much aware of how it had
been happening more and more frequently since she conceived.  Not that he had
the slightest problem with it, as she was who she was, but they both had to be
a little careful at times about where they ended up afterwards.  In bed was the
usual location for such things, being nice and comfortable, but more than one
set of bed sheets needed to be replaced or otherwise mended following a hasty
or careless movement of her insectoid form's claw-like fingertips and toes.
     <D?> she buzzed softly as she began to very carefully stretch, her voice
tainted by a metallic undertone and somewhat distorted.  <You're an absolutely
wonderful lover, you know that?>
     He cuddled close to her, slipping one arm around her waist to lightly rest
on the curve of her abdomen.  "Be that as it may," he replied in a soft tone,
"It still takes two to make love like that."
     <I know,> she purred as she took his hand in her own, squeezing it gently
before pulling both it and him further over her body to rest against the soft
swell of her breast.  <But you have to admit you're the one who's been doing
all the work lately.>
     "I guess the humans were right after all," D said in a calm voice, causing
her to twist her head gently to look at him.
     <About what?> she inquired in a faintly cautious tone.
     It took him a surprising amount of effort to keep his expression perfectly
composed.  "No good deed goes unpunished," he deadpanned.  He watched in quiet
amusement as she first blinked in slight confusion before she fully understood
what he was trying to say with his rare attempt at humor.  As expected, she
immediately developed a case of the giggles that made her body jiggle in a most
appealing fashion.
     "D, don't do that," she chided him with a smile that was nowhere close to
being disapproving, the lines of her face slowly smoothing out and returning to
her usual human shape.  "You.... know it.... hurts to laugh.... like this...."
she said, gasping softly even as she continued to try to suppress the series of
soft giggles that plagued her whenever he deliberately tried to be funny.  He
wasn't sure if she was amused by the humor itself or by the attempt, but the
end result was still the same and thus more than worth the occasional effort.
     He remained silent as she gingerly rolled over onto her back, cuddling up
even closer to him and rubbing her cheek against his.  She paused and glanced
down at their naked bodies, making a slight face as she flexed her leg and saw
where the bottom edge of the blankets had wound up.  Sighing very quietly, she
began to turn her focus inward and exert her vampiric will.  Her skin seemed to
turn pale all at once as she subdued her mutant heritage, returning her hands
and feet to normal.  She then crooked a finger at the blanket, using the power
of her will to animate it just enough to make it start to crawl up her leg like
a living entity.
     D glanced down as he noticed the fabric move, raising one eyebrow as it
continued to move upwards until it settled into place around their waists.  It
was a power they could both exert on inanimate objects if they focused hard
enough, though it was rare that he bothered to do so as he viewed it as a sign
of laziness.  He wasn't going to argue with her about such a trivial thing,
however, especially when he knew that she wasn't being lazy by letting her will
handle such a task instead of taxing her physical body at this point.
     A soft touch on his cheek caused him to look over at her, just in time to
witness her eyes finish the process of melting from insectoid red to her usual
liquid-like bluish-green.  The look on her face was one of both tender love and
open satisfaction, obviously still very much content after their love-making.
Yet at the same time he thought he could see a subtle glimmer in her otherwise
flawless eyes, suggesting that she hadn't forgotten about the letter.
     "Something on your mind, my love?" she murmured quietly to him, letting
her fingertips idly trace the contours of his lips.
     "Always," he replied quietly, making sure not to accidentally nip her as
he spoke.
     A fairly coy smile brushed the edges of her lips.  "Not this one again,"
she said in a fairly bemused tone.  "I thought we fixed that thinking problem
of yours a few years ago."  It was a bit of an old joke back when his soul was
heavy and his thoughts were clouded with uncertainty over the future, not just
his but hers as well.  That had all changed with her presence in his life, but
old habits were still sometimes hard to break.
     "Perhaps," he replied quietly, gazing into her eyes with a somber look.
     "D," she whispered very softly as she pulled him down for a gentle kiss.
"You don't have to talk about it if you truly don't want to.  You know my love
for you won't be changed in the slightest if you don't feel like talking about
a painful part of your past."
     He said nothing as he closed his eyes, once again asking himself if he
really felt it was worth mentioning.  The dark part of him said no, but the
other part of him, the human half that had first awoken with Doris' touch and
later strengthened by Leila and Galen, said that he couldn't deny his beloved
bride her soft-spoken request to be given a glimpse into his darkened past that
he had never deigned to mention before.
     He heard a voice start to whisper quietly in his mind's ear, a ghostly
memory of the past that seemed ready to haunt him like the countless voices of
others in his past, voices that had all fallen mercifully silent after he had
pledged his life to Galen during their quiet blood-marriage ceremony what felt
like a lifetime ago.  The whispering voice wasn't Doris' or Leila's or any of
the other women in his past, but instead was Galen's voice, reminding him of
what was first said when she asked about his thoughts of starting a family.
     Enough, he told himself firmly, trying to thrust the memories from his
mind before they could truly haunt him.  He knew that he would have to open up
and tell Galen about the incident alluded to in the letter, lest the self-doubt
and second-guessing start tearing at his soul once again.  It had taken him a
literal eternity to silence the spectral whispers in his conscience the first
time, and he would just as soon not give them the chance to return and torture
his dark soul anew.
     His sigh took them both by surprise, he at how loud it was and she at how
heavy it seemed to be.  Their eyes met for a brief instant before he allowed
his to close, not wanting to let her see any more of his inner pain than he had
to.  "Galen...." he started to say very quietly.
     "You don't have to if you don't want to," she interrupted softly, reaching
up to squeeze his hand and resting her head on his shoulder.
     "You know time has lost almost all meaning to me," he found himself saying
in the quiet, almost empty tone he often used when speaking to others before
her arrival in his life had opened both his eyes and his heart.  "I don't truly
remember how long ago it was, but sixty years may be about right.  There were
not too many nobles left then, and the growing number of human vampire hunters
was starting to force the remaining vampires into hiding.  One or two remained
out in the open, as it were, in defiance of both them and myself.  I was able
to encounter one of them in his castle atop a continental ravine, a noble by
the name of Baron Simon Winters.  Defeating him was not the hardest battle I
had ever fought, but it seemed his death was only the beginning of my troubles.
While I was under the impression that I had taken care of everything when the
castle began to crumble around me, I soon discovered that I had somehow managed
to completely miss learning about a very important detail...."

                *               *               *               *

     She had remained motionless in the shadows for hours now, not wanting to
run even the slightest risk of having her movements betray her.  The sun was
brushing the edges of the horizon, slowly bringing the long summer day to what
appeared to be an uneventful close.  And it was that very same lack of activity
during the day that bothered her greatly.  She knew that only a fool would try
to attack the castle during the night when Baron Winters was at the height of
his power, which meant that any such attack would be made during the day.  And
she knew, she *knew* that such an attack was coming today.  So why hadn't it
started yet?
     A faint beep suddenly registered in her ears, the distinctive sound of the
outermost tripwire sensor being set off on the lone road leading away from the
vampire's castle perched on the edge of a truly epic canyon.  The lay of the
land was such that the only way to approach the castle was via a very dusty and
twisted road from the east.  A stone archway had been built over the road on
the outskirts of the castle domain, serving as both a gateway and a watchtower.
The terrain between the archway and the castle was heavily mined, making it an
almost guaranteed death-sentence to try to traverse unless you did so slowly
and kept to the very center of the road, thus becoming a fairly easy target.
     A second beep soon followed the first, indicating that the second sensor
had just been tripped.  The timing between the two of them indicated how fast
the target was moving, and having them go off so close together could only mean
there was a fast-moving horse on the road heading towards her position.
     So close to nightfall, she thought to herself as she darted towards the
open crack in the stone masonry that overlooked the road.  The slender shape of
her rail-gun was scooped up in an instant, her fingers reflexively slipping the
safety off as she started to charge the capacitors.  She normally would have
used a crossbow for something like this, but given the extreme tension of the
situation she thought it was best to use the most powerful weapon she could to
make absolutely sure that one shot would do the job.  She had heard about him,
of course, so she knew that the odds were slim she would be allowed to get a
second shot off if things went awry.
     The rail-gun beeped quietly to itself to indicate it was fully charged a
bare instant before the third tripwire went off, warning her that her target
was approaching the ridge in the distance.  It was her intention to take the
shot as soon as she could after he crested that ridge, knowing that it would
take even a galloping horse a full five seconds to traverse the distance and
duck under the archway where she couldn't shoot.
     She braced the rifle against her shoulder and laid her cheek against the
cold metal stock, closing her left eye as she peered through the target-scope
with her right eye.  Her quarry came into view an instant later, a dark figure
riding a dark horse at a thunderous pace towards the castle.  Took you long
enough, she thought to herself as she exhaled and centered the cross-hairs on
the figure's chest.
     The pressure of her fingertip against the trigger had barely started to
increase when the rider suddenly jerked hard on the reins, causing the mount to
rear up and momentarily spoil the shot.  That didn't bother her at all, as she
knew she only had to wait that extra half-second for the horse to drop back to
all fours before she could shoot again.  The mount did precisely that, and she
once again took a brief moment to make sure she was centered properly before
starting to squeeze the trigger again.
     Much to her surprise, the figure reached up and made a fierce grabbing
motion, pulling apart the dark tunic.  The sight of at least two buttons being
popped was a minor distraction, given the way they twinkled slightly in the
light of the sun as they spun through the air, but what was impossible to miss
was the way the parted tunic left a pair of feminine breasts prominently bared
and tinted bronze by the setting sun.  The realization slammed into her mind a
moment later, knowing that the target she expected was very much a man and that
the bare chest she had been a quarter-second away from blowing a hole through
thus most likely belonged to her older sister.
     "You stupid bitch," she muttered to herself as she took her finger off of
the trigger and slipped the safety back on, still peering out through the scope
to try to make out any recognizable details.  A truly heavy sigh rose up from
her chest as the rider snapped the reins and started to charge forward again,
her face quickly resolving into a familiar visage once she got close enough.
     She grumbled quietly as she stepped back from the sniper niche and sat
down, absently resting her rifle against her shoulder.  The sound of thundering
hooves reached her ears a moment later, reaching a powerful crescendo before
audibly skidding to an abrupt halt.  The wooden sounds that followed meant that
the horse was being put into a hidden underground stable so that nobody would
immediately be able to tell that the archway was currently populated.
     The small access hatch at the far end of the archway's parapet seemed to
explode upward as it was thrown open with a tremendous force, allowing the dark
rider to scramble up onto the top of the archway.  She hadn't bothered to try
to close her tunic, letting her pert breasts swing freely in the warm evening
air.  "We've got a problem," she said without preamble as she darted halfway
across the parapet, pausing only to scoop up a pair of binoculars and training
them west towards both the castle and the setting sun.
     "Nice one, sis," the sniper growled, causing the other woman to pause and
glance over her shoulder at her.  "You hauled ass across the road all dressed
in black, and on a dark horse to boot.  If you hadn't pulled your shirt open
like that when you did, I'd have blown you halfway back to the village."
     The older woman glanced down at her half-ruined tunic and sighed softly.
"Yes, that just occurred to me when I rounded the bend.  The horse was the only
one I could find that was already saddled, but I'll take the blame for picking
out the blouse this morning."  She paused and looked back up as she refocused
on the situation at hand.  "Pearl, I think he got past us," she confessed as a
weary look crossed her features.
     "What?" Pearl said as she shot to her feet, her eyes widening.  "You have
to be joking, I've been out here all day and the sensors haven't picked up so
much as a tumbleweed," she protested.  "There's no way he came by here!"
     The other woman sighed quietly and turned back towards the castle and
looked through the binoculars again, trying to see if she could spot anything
out of the ordinary.  "He left his horse in the village," she said quietly.
"And I spoke with three people who swore to me that they saw him themselves.
He's here somewhere.  He has to be," she added softly, almost too softly for
her sister to hear.
     "Coral, listen to me," Pearl said urgently as she gestured to the display
panel imbedded in the wall.  "This thing hasn't chirped once so far, and I've
tested it twice.  Here, watch," she added as she raised her rail-gun up to her
shoulder and flipped the safety off.
     Coral remained impassive as the trigger was pulled, resulting in a sharp
twang of energy as a slender needle-like projectile was spat out from the end
of the rifle at a truly unholy velocity.  The air made a very distinct humming
sound as the hyper-sonic projectile tunneled through it, moving faster than
either dunpeal could follow as it traversed the full length of the minefield
and sailed into the canyon on the other side.  A series of strident chirps
immediately started up as the network of motion-sensors was set off, drawing a
line on the map that traced the precise trajectory the projectile had taken
through the minefield.
     "See?" Pearl said in a faintly edged tone as she silenced the alarms and
reset the various sensors.
     "So he didn't pass through the minefield," Coral countered gently as she
cast a level look at her sister.  She paused and shivered lightly as the wind
gusted for a brief moment, teasing her exposed nipples with what to her felt
like a warm caress.  "Oooh, that was nice," she purred quietly before shaking
her head to refocus again.
     "Sis?" Pearl spoke up with a faint sigh.  "There's no other way into the
castle.  Unless you want to try scaling the edges of the canyon, but he'd be a
sitting duck and then some.  Especially in broad daylight," she added darkly.
     Coral shook her head gently.  "No, he wouldn't bother with the canyons.
However, he might have given the crypts in the village a try," she sighed as
she continued to peer through the binoculars.
     "The crypts don't go through to the castle," Pearl pointed out.  "Father
himself spent a century probing every single crack and corner in there.  Okay,
so they go pretty deep underground, but they don't go *that* deep or extend
anywhere close to as far as they'd need to go to reach the castle catacombs."
     The elder dunpeal sighed quietly and turned around to face her sister,
absently leaning back against the edge of the parapet.  "What if something was
overlooked?" she said in a carefully modulated voice, trying to sound calm and
reasonable without upsetting the other woman.  "This is D we're talking about
here, who knows what sort of secrets he knows?  Remember, Father didn't build
this castle, some other noble did quite some time ago and a lot of the really
old ones have all sorts of secrets and surprises built into them.  Like the
room behind the fireplace in the den, for instance.  Surely you remember how
we....  Eh?" she said as a low sound brushed the edges of her vampiric hearing,
causing her to cock her head at an angle.
     "Sis?" Pearl said in a quiet voice as her face became dangerously pale.
"I heard it too.  That.... that sounded like it came from the castle."
     Coral immediately turned around and held the binoculars up to her eyes, a
frown forming across her face as she saw a faint plume rising up from one of
the western towers.  "A gunshot, perhaps?" she said absently.  She blinked as
she saw another plume waft up, a second soft boom reaching her ears after a
brief delay.  "No...." she said, her voice perfectly flat with disbelief.
     "Sis?" Pearl prodded in a faintly wavering tone.
     More dust plumes began to rise up from the castle towers, accompanied by
a series of percussive booms that weren't powerful enough to shake the land yet
were still strong enough to be clearly heard.  "You've got to be kidding me,"
Coral moaned quietly in resignation as she lowered the binoculars, knowing what
the vibrations meant.  She cast a sidelong glance out of the corner of her eye
as she felt a hand touch her elbow, seeming to be shaking slightly.
     "Coral?" Pearl said quietly, her voice now openly trembling.  "Why is the
castle shaking like that?"
     "Sometimes I hate being right," the elder dunpeal said softly, closing her
pale yellow eyes as more plumes of dust began to rise up from the castle.  The
ancient edifice was soon obscured by the rising wall of dust and dirt, but the
sound of creaking and crumbling stone could still be clearly heard.
     "Oh, god," Pearl whimpered as a single tear formed in her aqua-blue eyes.
"Sis.... Father's dead, isn't he?  That's why the castle is falling apart, it's
because we failed and the hunter got him, isn't it?"
     "You're a crafty bastard, D, I'll give you that," Coral murmured softly to
herself as she continued to listen to the sounds coming from the castle in the
distance.  "Okay, so Father wasn't much of a warrior and was too proud for his
own good, but still.  Rest in peace, Father.  Wait," she said as she opened her
eyes and lifted her head up, glancing over at Pearl.  "That means the title is
my problem now, right?  Baroness Winters now, am I?  That might actually be a
good thing, now that I stop and think about it.... *HEY!*" she yelped as she
was forced to avoid a vicious punch that would otherwise have slammed into her
jaw and likely knocked her completely off of the parapet.  "Pearl!"
     "How dare you say such a thing!" Pearl raged, her vampiric fangs bared and
her eyes almost literally glowing a cherry red color.  "He just murdered our
father, and all you can say is that it's a good thing?"
     "Pearl, listen to me for a moment," Coral said in a soothing voice.  "I'm
just as upset as you are over Father's death, but let's be practical about it.
Yes, the castle is falling apart because he's dead, and yes, D is likely to
blame for it.  Now here's what I meant.... if I'm the Baroness now, it means
that he'll be coming for me next.  You still with me?" she prodded carefully.
     It took Pearl a few moments to get her rage back under control, her eyes
still glowing like burning coals.  "And having him hunt us down one by one is
a good thing?" she snarled, seeming to still be struggling with her temper.
     Coral made a dismissive gesture.  "Please, of course not.  However, if we
do this right we can have a really, really nice welcome planned for him when he
comes for me.  Look, we both tried to warn Father that D was in the area, but
he blew us off and look what happened," she added, making an absent gesture to
the billowing cloud off in the distance.
     Pearl reflexively glanced towards the source of the constant rumbles and
booms of collapsing stone, her temper coming dangerously close to the breaking
point once again.  "He's dead," she snarled quietly to herself.  "I'll rip him
open with my bare hands if I have to, but I *will* feast on the blood in his
veins before bathing in what's left of his life-force...."
     "Now, now, let's not be hasty," Coral spoke up in a somewhat light tone,
drawing another dark look from her younger sister.  "Bathing in blood is such
a waste, and we both know what happened with Carmilla.  Besides, you don't want
to kill him right away, Pearl.  No, you want to watch him suffer for quite some
time," she purred in a suggestive tone.  "Just imagine staring into his eyes as
he is oh-so-slowly broken on our little rack, drinking in his pain with every
little fun game that you get to play with him...."
     "Sis, don't do that," Pearl growled flatly, absently reaching down to rub
the back of her left hand.  She knew it tended to ache whenever her sister's
voice took on that honeyed echo, but the reason for just why it did so eluded
her.  Her hand was perfectly fine, but she knew an accident long ago had seared
away part of the back of Coral's left hand, forcing her to replace it with a
flexible metal plate of some unknown origin.  While her elder sibling usually
wore gloves to conceal the implant, such as the riding gloves she had on, it
was not an unknown for her to show it off for one reason or another.  Pearl had
long suspected that the tendency for her own hand to itch and throb gently was
a side-effect of some sort of charming influence, but she saw no reason to ever
try to discuss it.  Besides, Coral really did have some of the greatest ideas
whenever inspiration struck her....
     "Look, I've got an idea, but it'll need some work first," Coral said in a
neutral tone.  "However, we have to capture him alive."
     "Good luck," Pearl growled, turning her head to spit over the edge of the
parapet.  "Tell you what, if you get to him before I do, subdue him any way you
want.  If you can," she added in a warning tone.  "If I find him?  He's dead."
     "Fine," Coral sighed quietly as she reached up to gingerly massage the
bridge of her nose.  She paused as a new sound reached her ears, a distinctly
heavy sound of metal rasping against metal that seemed oddly familiar.  "Hey,
was that the portcullis being opened?" she asked the open air as she turned her
attention back to the cloud of dust.
     "What?" Pearl gasped as she whirled around to look west as well.
     Coral blinked as she thought she glimpsed motion within the veil of dust,
quickly raising the binoculars to let her focus a little more closely.  She saw
nothing at first and was about to chalk the sound up to the collapsing of the
front entrance when a carriage suddenly emerged from the cloud.
     "Sis!" Pearl yelped.
     "I see it," Coral replied in a low tone as she tried to zoom closer.  The
edges of her mouth tugged down in a sharp frown as she made out the blonde face
of one of her father's slaves holding the reins, a defiant and feisty woman by
the name of Celene.  Both Coral and Pearl had suspected her of being the leader
or at least the driving force behind a series of very subtle acts of rebellion
against their father's rule, but so far nothing had been conclusively proven.
The situation was made harder by the Baron himself, as he was interested in
'charming' the woman without having to use any of his vampiric powers as a sort
of test of his 'prowess' and hence paid very scant attention to his daughters'
words of warning about the blonde human.
     Well, so much for his experiment, Coral thought to herself as she tracked
the motion of the carriage.  A series of blurred shadows could be seen in the
curtained windows, suggesting that more slaves were riding inside the carriage
on what they thought was their way to freedom.  "Think they'll be able to make
it past the minefield without killing themselves?" she wondered aloud.
     "Even if they do," Pearl replied in a chilling tone, "They won't get past
me.  Think a single salvo will be enough?" she inquired as she leaned her rail-
gun against the wall and moved to pick up her crossbow.
     Coral paused to watch out of the corner of her eye as Pearl opened up a
small box, picking out a pair of bulbous attachments that could be fitted over
the tip of a crossbow bolt.  "I'd aim for the back axle first, myself," she
replied indifferently as she returned her focus to the carriage.  "You'd need
a second shot for the driver, but I think you'd want to take it anyway.  It's
Celene holding the reins, by the way."
     "Oh?" Pearl said, pausing briefly before carefully screwing the explosive
tip into place and loading her crossbow.  "You're right.  Two will be enough,
one for the axle and the second one just for her."
     "Tsk tsk," the elder dunpeal murmured to herself.  "You're a vindictive
one, Pearl, you know that?  Wait," she suddenly said in a sharp tone as she saw
a second horse emerge from the cloud of dust that continued to billow up from
the collapsing castle.  She stared at the dark rider intently before it finally
sank into her mind.  "It's him," she whispered in awe.
     "Eh?" the other woman said, still focused on tipping the other bolt with
the explosive warhead.
     "D," Coral said simply as she lowered her binoculars, still staring at the
carriage as it began a cautious turn to the right to remain perfectly centered
on the road.  "He's following the carriage out.  Pearl.... hold on for a few,
okay?  They're coming this way, but they're taking their time in doing so.  I
think we've got a few moments to think about what to do before they get here."
     "Coral?" Pearl said very slowly, her voice clearly filled with unease.
"Don't be stupid.  D's deadly, we both know that.  There's no way we can take
him on, even if it's two against one.  I say just shoot him now and be done
with it.  That way we can both get stinking drunk and spend the rest of the
night pissing on his corpse without needing to worry ever again about waking up
one evening to find the tip of his sword hovering over us and ready to gut us
from crotch to gizzard."
     "Oh, I don't know," Coral murmured very softly to herself as an odd smile
touched her lips, reaching up to lightly brush a fingertip over her exposed
nipple.  "I wouldn't mind having the tip of his.... sword hovering over my
crotch...."
     Pearl blinked as she caught the sound of her sister's voice but couldn't
make out the words.  "What was that?" she inquired in an uneasy tone.
     The other dunpeal remained silent as she stared at the approaching horse-
drawn carriage and the lone rider following behind it.  They were making a turn
to the left now, and she figured that they had perhaps another thirty seconds
to go before they would be on the straight portion of the road and essentially
free of the minefield.  Her right hand came up to absently tap the back of her
left wrist, her fingertips dancing back and forth almost as if she were idly
playing a piano as she thought.
     "Pearl, we can do this," she suddenly spoke up as she made a decision.
     "Do what?" Pearl replied with open wariness.
     "Capture D alive.  Or at least try to," Coral amended with a shrug before
she turned to her sister, reaching out to grab her by the collar so she knew
she had her full attention.  "Listen carefully," she said in a low tone, her
pale yellow eyes taking on a faint gold luminescence.  "You focus on dealing
with that bitch Celene and the others, D is mine.  Do NOT shoot at him unless
he gets past me, is that clear?"
     "Your funeral, sis," Pearl muttered with a soft snarl.
     A knowing smirk crossed Coral's face.  "Trust me, little sister," she said
in a faint purr, leaning forward to kiss her on the cheek before letting go and
turning around to the sensor control panel.  "Okay, keep low," she said as she
lowered her voice and crouched down.  "Soon as the carriage goes through I'll
drop the portcullis and trigger the ballast charge, so don't worry if part of
the archway collapses."
     "Whatever," Pearl replied with a dismissive shrug as she carefully brought
her crossbow to bear and crouched low in the sniper niche.  She tensed as the
sound of galloping hooves reached her sensitive ears, knowing that the carriage
was now only seconds away from the archway and the slaves from their freedom.
     Not on my watch, the dunpeal promised silently as she carefully exhaled.

                *               *               *               *

     He would have been far more wary of the situation if he hadn't been so
preoccupied with his thoughts.  The secret entrance to Baron Winters' castle
had been right where the decrepit diary had said it would be, hidden inside a
particular sarcophagus near the back edge of the crypt.  The tunnel leading to
the catacombs had been filled with forgotten horrors that he would just as soon
forget about himself, though there were less of them now after he had to fight
his way past a number of them.  And as for what he had found waiting for him in
the catacombs themselves....
     He frowned lightly as the carriage in front of him suddenly seemed to pick
up speed now that the road had straightened out.  He fully understood their
burning desires to escape the vampire's domain, to be free of him for the rest
of their natural lives, but he had also explicitly cautioned their leader not
to throw caution to the winds as they made their escape.  She had assured him
that the road was safe once they got past the archway and that the minefield
ended before that, but he was still uneasy with the smoothness of things.  He
had rescued countless slaves from innumerable vampires before, and the way out
afterwards was more often than not just as dangerous as going in....
     The archway loomed ahead as they continued forward, a small and fairly
low-lying stone construction that was maybe thirty yards wide from end to end.
It was more of a ceremonial gateway than a literal one as it straddled the road
like a stony barricade, as one didn't need to go very far off the road to go
around it should the gate be closed for whatever reason.  However, given the
fact that the terrain behind them was known by everyone to be heavily mined, it
would be a brave soul indeed who dared to leave the safety of the road without
a discernible reason.
     He wasn't quite sure what it was that made him tense up without warning
and slow his borrowed horse's pace, but he soon realized that his instincts had
done so for a very good reason.  The carriage plunged through the archway at a
rapid pace, barely spending more than a second inside it before emerging out
the other side.  He was only moments away from entering it himself when the air
seemed to shout with a sharp report, the unmistakable twang of a crossbow being
fired from somewhere.
     What happened afterwards almost came too quickly for even his extremely
honed combat senses to process.  The iron grate of the portcullis started to
descend, the dull spikes at the base missing the back end of the carriage by a
rather wide margin and causing D to reflexively rear his mount up to stall its
forward momentum.  Failing to stop the carriage didn't seem to matter as the
back window was promptly blown out by the crossbow bolt, letting the projectile
sail inside where to D's horror it erupted into a ball of fire that decimated
the stolen vehicle.
     The sound of the blast, however, couldn't fully drown out the sound of
something else exploding almost directly above him.  A purely reflexive glance
upwards revealed a large slab of stone outlined in a dozen tiny sparks as the
mortar was shattered by blasting caps.  Freed from its anchorings, the massive
overhang promptly plunged downwards before he could react, catching both him
and his still-rearing mount out in the open to shatter his senses.
     Gotcha, Pearl thought to herself with a truly evil smile as she watched
the doors of the carriage blow out in a spectacular fashion, accompanied by a
literal wall of blood and gore.  She wasn't sure how many slaves had been in
there, but she was quite sure that their bid for freedom had just been denied
with extreme prejudice.  And as for you.... she thought as she stood up and
quickly reloaded.  Yes, you, she added as she saw the blonde picking herself up
off the road where the blast had thrown her.  She zeroed in on Celene's head
before lowering her aim slightly, waiting until she had looked up and exposed
the curves of her neck before sending the second explosive-tipped bolt towards
the hollow of her throat.  Her father hadn't been able to charm his way into
being able to sink his fangs into that delicate expanse of flesh, but now she
would ensure that Celene's virgin throat would not remain intact for long....
     Coral ignored the clanging sound of the portcullis hitting the ground,
knowing that dropping it hadn't been anything more than a simple attempt at
making sure D wouldn't be able to escape with any ease.  What she found she
couldn't ignore, however, was the sound of bones snapping and flesh imploding
as they became squashed beneath a half-ton of free-falling stone.  "Aw, shit,"
she snarled to herself as she jumped up and promptly leapt over the edge where
the stone had been blown off, landing only a few feet away from where it had
left a minor crater in the road surface.
     She paused for a moment as she heard the crossbow twang a second time,
casting a quick glance over her shoulder just in time to witness an explosion
of crimson mist that scattered bits of flesh and blood in a wide radius.  I'll
bet that had to sting, she thought absently before she returned her focus to
the way the slab was resting on the ground at an angle.  She winced at the way
a sheet of blood and viscera had been squirted out from beneath it, suggesting
that her attempt at catching D alive had not gone according to plan.
     She was about to cuss again when she heard a faint moan coming from under
the slab.  She darted over to it without thinking and braced herself as best
she could before heaving upwards on the slab.  The effort required to move it
was far from a trivial one, even with her vampiric strength, and she had to use
every ounce of power that she could muster to flip it up and over to flop back
down on its other side.
     "Gross," she muttered to herself in disgust as the damage became exposed.
It was clear that the horse had taken the brunt of the impact and that its
internals, or what hadn't been liquefied, were now very much external and what
was left was probably no thicker than a pancake.  And as for the dark hunter
who had been riding it....
     Another weak moan caused her to blink hard, realizing that he was still
alive and seemingly intact.  "Holy shit, I don't believe this," she breathed in
a bare whisper as she lunged forward to examine him, scarcely able to fathom
that he had not only survived being squished by the slab but that he was still
hanging on to semi-conscious.  "Absolutely incredible....."
     "Did you get him?" Pearl called out from atop the archway as she carefully
leaned over to survey the results of her sister's plan.  She blinked at the
carnage and winced, recoiling slightly from the sight of so much raw gore.  The
blood didn't bother her in the least, but there was just something nauseating
about seeing some creature's abdomen compressed to a thickness of maybe two
inches and the formerly solid contents splattered around like so much gelatin.
"Eww, I think you got him...."
     "Guess what?" Coral called back over her shoulder, giving her sister a
truly delighted smile.  "He's alive."
     "Bullshit!" Pearl gasped, blinking hard in disbelief.  "Look what it did
to his horse, how the hell could he have survived that?  His chest *has* to be
flatter than my ass now...."
     "I told you to trust me," Coral cooed before turning to look down at D.
She blinked hard as he moaned again, his eyelids fluttering slightly as if they
were about to open.  She paused to think for a moment before sighing and gently
shaking her head to herself.  "No, I don't think I can risk having you wake up
just yet," she murmured as she tugged her left glove off, exposing the metal
plate imbedded in her skin.  It covered the back half of her hand, extending
back to the mid-point of her lower arm and forward over her knuckles to the
first joint in each finger.  The metal seemed to be unusually pliant, adhering
to the curves of her hand like normal skin and able to flex along with her
fingers without any resistance or stiffness.
     She blinked as D made a soft hissing noise to himself, parting his eyelids
just enough to try to see what was going on around him.  He seemed to be quite
dazed at first, trying to focus on the clouds above him before his eyes tilted
just slightly to the right to look at her.
     "On the other hand," Coral said softly to D as she flexed her left hand
before curling it into a fist, "Sometimes I just love being right.  Sorry, D,
but this one really is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.  See you in the
morning," she added in a soft, almost tender whisper before she drew her arm
back and belted him as hard as she could in the jaw.
     The world was already badly fragmented to begin with, or at least it was
to D's damaged perception, and the blow across his jaw only served to shatter
it into tinier pieces as his mind was sent spiraling down into the dark depths
of unconsciousness.  He thought for a moment that he felt a gentle touch on his
lips, as if a feather-light kiss was being given, before everything faded out
and he finally slipped into a merciful, painless void of empty silence.

                *               *               *               *

     Even though dunpeals were only half-vampire and could rely on their human
side to protect them from things that would weaken if not outright kill a noble
vampire, they were still sensitive to exposure to the sun.  As such, they still
retained the preternatural awareness of full vampires in regards to where the
sun was and instinctively knew when it crossed the horizon to either rise or
set.  The tingle produced by each event was unique, and it was the slightly
more ominous sensation of the rising sun that finally drew D's mind out of the
abyss and back into some semblance of awareness.
     Another innate awareness that both vampires and their dunpeal descendants
shared was a sensitivity to their depth within the ground.  A vampire in need
of healing instinctively sought respite in the cool embrace of the earth, as it
was both the creator and host of the circle of life that sustained all living
creatures.  The notion of needing to sleep in coffins was viewed by vampires as
being the longest-running joke in the history of life, as all they truly needed
was protection from the sun and the occasional immersion in the ground.  It was
thought by some that a coffin was simply an economical solution to both, as it
was quite dark when you were buried underground in one, but very few vampires
bothered with coffins except to use them as travelling beds when on an extended
journey for one reason or another.
     It was this 'earth awareness' that brought him a faint feeling of comfort
as he very slowly and painfully clawed his way back up to consciousness, able
to tell that he was currently underground.  That wasn't to say he was buried in
a dirt-filled pit or anything, but that it was unlikely he would have to be
overly concerned about immediate exposure to the sun.  And if what he thought
his body was trying to tell him was anywhere close to being true, he had very
little reason to believe he had the strength to survive the searing rays of the
sun for longer than a few minutes.
     "Sis?" a very faint voice registered on the slowly congealing fragments of
his mind.  He couldn't even tell if it was a male or female voice, let alone
who it might have belonged to or where it was coming from, but he took another
small measure of comfort from the fact that he could still hear.
     "I'm working on it," another voice replied as a new sensation registered,
this one of something brushing against his foot.  He would have stopped to try
to focus on it if he thought he could spare the energy.  Right now his main
goal was to try to identify and quantify the searing agony in his chest.  It
was exquisitely sharp, ebbing and flowing just slightly with every breath he
managed to take.  He carefully began to dredge the mental sludge that was his
memories, trying to remember what had happened to him recently.
     "Work faster, I think he's waking up," the first voice prodded in a flat
tone.  It became clear that the voice belonged to a woman, though there was
little else that he could tell by the sound alone.
     "Almost done," the second voice promised, also resolving into that of a
woman's.  A sharp sound registered on his ears at the same time a cold feeling
was reported in his leg, followed by the feeling of motion as it was jerked to
the left before becoming still again.  "There, done," the voice said, seeming
to sigh quietly with relief.
     The carriage, D suddenly thought as the memories slowly began to return.
The fragmented edges of his mind began to assemble themselves as he started to
walk himself through the distorted images, slowly clearing them up into focus
as his consciousness began to reassert itself.
     "So now what?" the first voice prompted.
     "Listen carefully," the second voice replied in a low tone, seeming to be
tainted with a dangerous edge.  "He is mine, and we will do things my way.  I
will let you play with him all you want, I promise, but here are the ground
rules.  One, leave his face alone.  He's quite handsome and I'd rather not see
him marred.  Two, same goes for his balls.  Hands off and don't break them in
any way, understood?"
     "What?" the first voice said in open surprise.
     "You heard me," the second voice growled.  "Just don't do it, okay?"
     "Spoilsport," the first voice sulked.  "Any others?"
     "Just one more, a simple one.  Don't kill him."
     "But sis...!  ERK!"
     "Do.  Not.  Kill.  Him.  Am I clear?" the second voice said clearly.
     "Ow, let go!"
     "AM I CLEAR?" she repeated in a glacial tone.
     "Alright, damn you, I won't kill him!  Ah.... damn, Coral, what's with you
all of a sudden?" the first voice demanded, rasping just slightly for a moment.
     A truly dark chill crept down D's spine as he realized that he had been
captured somehow after leaving the Baron's castle.  The memories were still a
tangled jumble, but he kept seeing a mental image of a carriage racing down the
road with him following it.
     "He's mine, dear sister, and I'll explain it all to you later.  For now,
let me deal with him until I'm sure he can handle your skilled touch," was the
honeyed reply, the final words seeming to be edged with coy amusement.  "Don't
look at me like that, I've never broken a promise to you before, now have I?
You'll get to play with him soon.  Now settle down.  Oh, and pass me that, will
you?  Thank you, Pearl," she purred after a moment.
     The carriage, he thought again as he struggled to both remember and cope
with the continuing burning in his chest.  He was pretty sure that something
was either broken or had been recently broken and was still in the process of
mending.  Unfortunately, there was so much pain that he wasn't sure where it
was coming from save that it seemed to be confined to his upper chest.  The
surging of pain every time he inhaled, even as shallow as possible, was not a
good sign either.  He didn't think his lungs had been punctured or collapsed by
whatever had wounded him, but as long as he could still breathe properly and
not suffocate the 'why' was a secondary concern at best.
     A sudden cool sensation across his face jolted him into a slightly higher
degree of consciousness, briefly drawing his mental focus away from his chest
injuries and attempts at remembering what had happened in the recent past.  It
felt like someone was brushing a damp cloth across his face, an oddly welcome
sensation that helped him refocus his sense of direction.
     He realized that he was lying face-up on his back, and that whatever he
was lying on felt to be padded just slightly.  A few simple twitches of his
arms and legs resulted in the discovery that he was essentially spread-eagled
and that something distinctly cold was around both his wrists and ankles.  The
overall mental picture was not one he found to be comforting, as he doubted he
would be in that position if he were being tended to by any sort of physician.
     "D?" a soft voice murmured quietly, seeming to be very close to him.  "I
know you're awake, or at least you're somewhat conscious now.  Can you try to
open your eyes for me?"
     His mind had recovered enough to the point where he was fairly sure that
he wasn't in a good situation, his instincts warning him that he was probably
in significant danger.  Nevertheless, the soft-spoken request was still rather
reasonable given the fact that he would have to have a look at his surroundings
sooner or later.
     The task was unusually difficult for some reason, his eyelids seeming to
weigh far more than normal and felt like they were glued together.  He kept at
it, however, and soon they yielded to his will to part just enough to assure
him that he wouldn't be blinded by further efforts.  Visual focus was another
matter entirely, as everything was very much a blur to him, but he knew that he
had to take things one step at a time.
     "There we go," the voice purred softly as there was the sound of something
being dipped in water, followed by the cool sensation of something wet brushing
against his throat.  "I see what they meant by their depths.  Very enchanting,
if I may say so myself."
     D paused to try to decide what to make of her response to his efforts, not
certain if it was a good thing or not.  Figuring that he had little to lose at
the current moment in time, he closed his eyes for a moment to try to gather
his strength before forcing them open enough to let him see properly.
     It seemed an eternity passed before the gray blurs resolved into distinct
blobs of color, slowly reshaping into discrete lines and curves as his eyes
adjusted to the low level of light.  A small motion off to the side caused him
to reflexively focus on it, squinting slightly until the details were finally
brought into focus.
     She was smiling gently as she gazed back at him.  There didn't seem to be
anything out of the ordinary at first, a pair of pale yellow eyes framed by a
silky mane of soft light gray hair.  It wasn't the kind of gray associated with
old age, but rather a pale silvery hue that was far richer in tone as it seemed
to shimmer faintly with reflected light.  Her face was rather young, making her
seem to be on the heavy side of twenty but not still not too far removed from
her youth.  He would have thought little else about her had he not caught a
glimpse of the points on her ears, not the sharp prominences of noble vampires
but still obvious enough to indicate she had vampiric blood in her veins.
     A dark chill swept through him as he realized that she was a dunpeal like
he was, which meant that he was in very serious danger right now.  The memories
suddenly rushed back at him as if a switch had been thrown, remembering how he
had been following the carriage out after slaying Baron Winters.  The memory of
the carriage exploding in front of him chilled his blood even further, but what
truly turned his insides into an icy slush was the memory of being caught under
the falling overhang as it was blasted off the rest of the archway.  How he had
retained consciousness after that was nothing short of a miracle, but it had
been enough to let him catch a glimpse of his captor and the look in her pale
yellow eyes....
     Eyes that were now looking at him again, widening slightly as she saw the
flicker of recognition that he knew had flashed across his own eyes the instant
his memories had returned.  He suddenly realized that he had made a very grave
mistake in his research earlier about Simon Winters and his descendants.  He
had made sure to account for all of his vampiric children, born to the noble
vampiress Lady Valentina Winters, but he had never found any indication that he
had sired any children on humans.  Tried to, if what two of the female slaves
had whispered about was true as they shivered at the memories of what they had
been forced to do, but no other children had been mentioned.  And for whatever
reason, it simply didn't cross his mind to stop and ask the slaves if they knew
of any other relatives of the recently departed Baron....
     "I see you're more than a little awake," the voice said, gently drawing
him out of his thoughts and refocusing him on his current situation.  "I'll be
honest, I'm surprised you've recovered this quickly, but then again I'm still
amazed that you even survived to begin with.  Can you talk, by chance?"
     D closed his eyes briefly as he tried to draw in enough breath to at least
attempt to speak.  The effort was a costly one, sending a searing wave of agony
across his chest like a wave cresting over the shoreline.  All that emerged
from his lips was a muted gasp that might not have been audible had she not
been focused so intently on him.
     "I guess not," she replied in a disappointed tone as she let her eyes roam
across his upper body.  "Oh, well, I'm sure you'll find your voice soon enough.
How are you.... oh, my," she said as she brushed a hand across his chest, only
to reflexively draw it back as the contact caused him to hiss sharply.  "Yes,
I would imagine you'd be a bit sore after all that.  Here, let me get a good
look, hmm?" she purred in a silken tone as she very carefully unbuttoned his
tunic and drew the fabric aside.
     "Damn," a distant female voice said softly as the woman hovering over him
took a step back, her pale eyebrows arching clear up to her hairline.
     "Wow," she breathed quietly as she studied the extensive bruises that left
the skin of his chest a mottled pattern of blue, purple, and black.  "And to
think you had all night to heal that, too.  Maybe it did collapse something,"
she said over her shoulder, casting an uneasy look at someone D couldn't see.
     "Told you," the other voice replied simply.  "Seriously, seeing what it
did to the horse?  I know his armor felt pretty solid, but even tempered metal
like that can be compressed under that much weight.  Even if he didn't break
anything, I know every single muscle fiber in his chest got bruised.  There's
simply no way he could have avoided that sort of damage."
     "Still," the pale-haired dunpeal sighed as she turned her attention back
to D.  She paused and blinked as she saw the level of focus in his eyes, her
own narrowing slightly in suspicion.  "D?" she murmured.  "Now I know you're
awake, and I'm willing to bet you've got your marbles sorted out by now, too.
Say something, or at least give me an indication you can understand me."
     "Wh...." D rasped softly, almost silently as he tried to force his voice
to work.  The searing agony in his chest made it hard for him to draw in enough
breath to make his larynx vibrate but he persisted in the effort until he had
enough air to force the sounds to form.   "Who.... are...."
     A gentle smile touched the edges of her soft lips.  "That'll work.  As to
who I am.... I'm surprised you even have to ask, D.  Hm?" she added as she saw
the look in his eyes, sighing quietly as she realized that for whatever reason
he truly didn't appear to know.  "Oh, now I'm disappointed with you, D, truly.
And here I thought I was next on your list.  No matter," she added lightly as
the smile returned to her face.  "I am, or at least now I am, Baroness Coral
Winters, daughter of his lordship Baron Simon Winters.  You did recently meet
with him, I trust?" she said in an almost lilting manner.
     D narrowed his eyes slightly, not entirely sure what to make of her rather
odd behavior.  Most other vampires and dunpeals would be raging at him by now
after the death of one of their own at his hands, but she didn't seem to be
overly concerned by that little detail.  Granted there had been a few who had
thanked him for sparing them the task of disposing of their troublesome elders,
usually the noble children of a particularly long-lived vampire or vampiress,
but something in the back of his mind was warning him that she wasn't one of
those proverbial bitter apples.
     "C'mon, sis, just get on with it," the voice spoke up in the distance.
     Coral sighed quietly and craned her neck to peer over her shoulder.  "I
said settle down," she said in an openly patient tone before turning back to D
and making a casual gesture with her chin.  "My younger sister Pearl," she said
by way of explanation.  "Oh, don't worry, you'll get to know her pretty well
soon enough, but one thing at a time.  How's your memory holding up?" she asked
as she leaned forward slightly to study the hideous bruises on his chest again.
     "The carriage," D whispered, trying not to let the pain show in his voice.
He very carefully tried to flex his arms and legs as discreetly as possible,
attempting to get a feel for the specifics of his situation.
     "Ah, yes, the carriage," Coral mused as she glanced down, studying the way
his hand twitched gently.  "Well, what can I say, D?  Sometimes you need to use
a firm hand to remind your slaves of their place at times.  Okay, so maybe my
dear little sister missed the rear axle that I suggested she aim for and hit
the window instead.  Not that I think it was an accident, as she is quite the
hawk-eyed sniper with that crossbow of hers, but mistakes do happen.  And as
for Celene...." she said before trailing off, shrugging her shoulders in absent
dismissal after a few moments of empty silence.  "Had my father been smart he
would have had his way with her ages ago, as all men do with human slaves they
lust after, and then killed her once she became unruly so she couldn't pose a
future threat.  In any case, I'm not about to even pretend to cry over the loss
of a rebellious bitch like her.  Oh, I'll admit that her death was.... a little
over-the-top," she added in a light tone before giving him a predatory smile,
"But to each their own style when it comes to executing treasonous slaves."
     D said nothing as she returned to studying his chest, trying to keep a
firm grip on the roiling of his stomach.  There had been seven humans in total
he tried to rescue, though one had perished inside the castle when part of the
roof collapsed before he could reach her.  The remaining six, led by Celene,
had led him to the stables in the castle courtyard where they quickly made use
of the Baron's carriage and horses in their bid for freedom.  It was not the
first time such an escape attempt had been thwarted, but it still sickened him
to contemplate how callous and uncaring his kind could be when it came to such
things.  Humans were all but powerless against vampires and their evil ways,
and yet they were still routinely cut down in cold-blood on a whim for sport or
even casual amusement.
     His kind, D thought bitterly as he glanced over at Coral, feeling the dark
rage trying to ignite itself yet again.  He knew that all the vampires were
related by blood to one degree or another, or so the legends went, but he knew
that he had absolutely nothing in common with any of them save for the hunger
for living blood needed to sustain his darker half.  He rarely found anything
in common with other dunpeals as well, despite being half-human themselves and
thus likely sharing the same capacity for emotion and feelings as he had.  No,
almost to a man they were just as heartless and soulless as their 'noble' kin,
little more than breathing masses of sinister evil given flesh and fang.
     "Damn," Coral said quietly in admiration, obviously impressed by the sheer
amount of damage done of his chest that he had managed to survive.  "They said
you were unstoppable, D, and I'm starting to think they meant literally.  Let
me see what else happened to you," she said as she started to undo the rest of
his buttons.
     "Hey, sis?" Pearl spoke up suddenly.  "I have an idea.  If you want to
strip him or something, why don't you let me handle that?  It'll be a snap,"
she added languidly, her words accompanied by the sharp sound of what sounded
like a whip being gently cracked.
     Coral blinked hard and twisted around, giving D a fairly decent view of
her body in profile.  The dark blouse she wore seemed to have been carelessly
closed, three of the five button-holes empty where a fastening would normally
be.  That left a modest portion of her decollete exposed but not indecently so,
revealing a swath of pale and seemingly flawless skin.
     "I don't know, Pearl, that might be a little rough on him," she replied in
an uneasy tone.  "I would imagine that his back isn't in much better shape."
     "You said I could play with him," Pearl countered as there was another
whip-cracking sound.  "Come on, you want to see him suffer just as much as I do
after what he did to Father.  Just think of this as a warm-up.  If he screams
too much or can't handle it, I can always stop and you can grab a knife or a
pair of scissors to finish the job."
     "You do have a point," Coral admitted as she turned to look back at D, her
right hand absently rubbing the back of her gloved left hand.  "What do you
think, D, ready to meet my charming little sister?" she inquired lightly.  "She
isn't what you would call experienced with men, but I'm sure you'll be able to
cope with her attentions.  Here, up you go," she added as she stepped back and
tugged on a lever behind his field of vision.
     D blinked hard as the entire surface he was lying on began to tilt at an
angle, slowly rotating forward ninety degrees until he was essentially standing
on a small shelf.  With his new perspective, he immediately noticed that he was
in a dungeon of some sort, and that his wrists and ankles were bound to the
edges of the padded frame by metal chains.
     A searing pain immediately erupted from both his chest and his ankles,
suggesting that the heavy armored plates in his boots hadn't been able to fully
protect them from being crushed by the falling rock.  He didn't think that they
had been broken or shattered at any point, but there was enough pain to suggest
that it was doubtful he would be able to walk on his own within the immediate
future.  As it was, it was hard enough with his weight on them without having
to scream or otherwise make a sound to indicate he was in significant pain.
     He cast a brief glance over his shoulder as best he could when a heavy
clicking sound reached his ears, able to watch with his peripheral vision as
the padded surface he had been lying on was split in half and folded back to
rest against the sides of the frame.  That left his back open and exposed, as
he was essentially left chained between two large metal columns.
     The sensation of something cold pressing just below his chin enticed him
to turn his head back around, finding himself almost nose-to-nose with a rather
beautiful young woman with aqua-blue eyes.  As with Coral, it took him an extra
moment to realize that she too was a dunpeal, the hallmark points on her ears
all but masked by the short shock of extremely fine and pale blue hair.  The
coloring was so pale as to almost appear white if seen under a strong glare,
though not easily mistaken for the white hue of a woman many decades her elder.
     Pearl pressed slightly harder on the handle of her whip, forcing D's head
to tilt back slightly so she could gaze into his eyes.  "Yeah, I see what you
mean about his eyes," she finally said in a neutral tone.  "I'm not sure I'd go
so far as to call them enchanting, but they do have a depth to them you don't
find in many others.  So you're the legendary vampire hunter, hmm?"
     D remained silent as he gazed back at her, trying to get a feel for what
she was like.  While Coral was somewhat hard to read, if only because he had
yet to decide what to make of her rather erratic behavior, it was quite clear
to him that Pearl openly hated him.  The spark of anger in her eyes appeared to
be kept in careful check at the moment, but he had encountered that very same
spark in the eyes of countless others and knew that her rage could be unleashed
on him in an instant.  Whether her current level of control stemmed from her
own will or was a result of Coral's influence was unknown, but he knew that he
would have to find out fairly quickly if he was going to have even the faintest
of hopes of making it out of his situation alive.
     Not that his prospects appeared hopeful.  The explorative tuggings he had
attempted earlier warned him that the metal bonds had been fastened with almost
no wiggle room whatsoever.  Even if he had not been bound, his strength had
been all but obliterated by the falling rock and the subsequent concentration
of what little energy he had left to focus on healing himself.  Then there was
the fact that the odds were two-to-one against him.  While that was nothing to
be concerned about under normal circumstances, he was both unarmed and without
his protective armor at the moment while they were clearly prepared to deal
with him should he even look like he was going to try something.  He had been
in quite a number of hairy situations before where the initial odds of survival
were not encouraging, but this was the first time he could remember being in a
situation that seemed to be truly hopeless.
     "Not a talkative one, I see," Pearl observed calmly as she tapped the butt
of her whip against his chin before taking a step back and reaching for the
front of her shirt.  The outfit she wore was not too different from Coral's,
consisting of a dark-colored blouse and contour-hugging pantaloons.  As he
watched, the blouse was quickly unbuttoned and drawn off to reveal a sleeveless
black undershirt that left her well-muscled arms bare.  The shirt was more than
a little tight in the front, outlining both the moderate swells of her petite
breasts and the subtle points of her nipples.
     "Showing off again, Pearl?" Coral mused lightly as she took a few steps
back to observe from a distance.
     Pearl cast a sidelong glance at her older sister as she cast the blouse
aside and started rolling her shoulders.  "It's called freedom of movement,
sis," she replied in a faintly edged tone.  "Hard to wield a whip properly if
you don't have enough room to move your arms.  And after that stunt you pulled
last night with your shirt open like that, I don't think you've got much room
to talk about showing off."
     "Yes, well," Coral sighed as she glanced down at the front of her blouse,
one hand coming up to absently tug on a loose thread where a button had once
been, "Like I said, it was the first thing that came to mind when I realized I
might have looked like D from a distance.  It worked, though," she added as she
glanced up to give her sister a meaningful look.
     Pearl just rolled her eyes at the ceiling.  "Be glad I'm your sister and
not someone who would either be sexually aroused or traumatized by the sight,"
she muttered before grabbing the tip of the whip in her left hand and snapping
small segments of the material to test it for tensile strength.  Her gaze fell
back down to D's chest, causing her to pause for a moment before reaching out
to firmly press a fingertip against his chest where his sternum was.
     To D, it was like being struck by a bolt of lightning.  Sparks flooded his
vision as the pain coursed through his entire body and he was unable to keep
himself from gasping aloud between clenched teeth.  The world took on a blue
cast a moment later as his vampiric side began to thrash against the power of
his will that normally kept it dormant, his canine teeth elongating into the
prominent points of a vampire ready to use them.
     "Pearl...." Coral said in a tone that was laced with a subtle warning.
     "Just checking, sis," Pearl replied in an unconcerned tone as she removed
her finger and studied him carefully.  "Okay, so maybe I'll have to start with
his back after all.  No big deal, he won't be able to tell the difference soon
enough...." she said as she walked around to stand behind him.
     Coral tilted her head slightly for several seconds before blinking hard.
"Oh, Pearl, wait just another few moments, okay?  Silly me, all this excitement
going on and I haven't even told D anything about our little playground," she
said, chuckling quietly to herself as she moved forward to stand in front of
him.  She reached out to touch his chin, tilting his head up slightly to look
at him for a few moments before making a gesture to the chains that bound him.
     "Take a good look at those chains, D," she purred softly.  "Know what they
are?  Adamantium links encased in pure, tempered titanium.  It took quite some
time to gather enough adamantium for something like this, but Father was kind
enough to acquire it for us as a sort of gift.  We had to have it reworked on
our own, of course," she added, "But you would be amazed at how simple that was
once we found the right humans with the right metalworking skills."
     D felt an icy chill slide down his spine as he cast a wary glance up at
his wrist.  Even when in perfect health and with his full strength it would
have been quite difficult for him to break or otherwise bend something crafted
from tempered titanium.  But if what she said about the links having adamantium
cores were true, however, then breaking them was well beyond him.  He knew very
little about the exact metallurgical nature of the extremely rare ore, but he
had heard from a few blacksmiths who had worked with it how it was extremely
difficult to temper but was virtually unbreakable once crafted into a shape.
     "Look around you, D," Coral purred quietly, her thumb coming up to lightly
stroke his chin.  "It took Pearl and I years to make this place, even with the
help of a few dedicated slaves.  It was more for Pearl's enjoyment than mine,
but we both have found enough entertainment in it to make it all worthwhile.
The rack you're tied to?  Adamantium and titanium, just like the chains.  I'm
not sure how strong you really are, as we both know certain stories become....
embellished over time, but I don't think even you can break free from them."
     He scowled slightly as she leaned closer to him, letting her lips brush
against the edge of his ear as she continued to speak very softly.  "Do us both
a favor and don't try to break them, either," she breathed.  "I really, really
would rather not have to kill you if you managed to ruin them.  Now be a good
boy and go play with Pearl.  You and I can play later," she added, her voice
almost fading away to inaudibility as she very lightly kissed his ear.  She
then stood up and took several steps back, crossing her arms over her chest and
nodding her head at Pearl.
     "He's all yours, Pearl," she said calmly.  "Remember, don't hurt him where
I told you not to hurt him, and don't kill him.  That would really spoil the
fun," she added with a disturbing smile.
     "Alright," Pearl replied as she uncoiled her whip and took a measured step
back, trying to gauge the distance between her and the bound dunpeal.  She took
a second step back as she decided it was better to play it safe and hefted the
shaft of her whip carefully.  "Hey," she suddenly said, seeming to pause for a
moment.  "How far can I go with this?"
     "Hmm?" Coral said absently, keeping her focus on D.  D glanced back at her
briefly before focusing on the wall in front of him, blinking in surprise as he
saw his sword resting on a small shelf.  Everything else of his was likewise
spread out across the shelf, his hat and cape neatly folded at one end while
his boots and armor were stacked at the other.  Between them were his belt and
chest bandolier, both still laden with pouches and various devices that he had
found uses for at assorted times in his vampire-hunting career.  There was far
too much space for him to reach across while he was still bound in chains, but
the mere knowledge that it was relatively close at hand was enough to ignite
the faintest of sparks of hope in his hybrid heart.
     "How much do you want taken off?" Pearl inquired carefully as she studied
the broad expanse of D's back with a critical eye.
     "Let him keep his skin, by all means," the yellow-eyed woman replied as
she started to purr very quietly to herself.  "But you can take everything else
off if you want.  Easy on his ass, though.  There's nothing wrong with a solid
spanking, but you really don't want to whip the shit out of him in a literal
sense, now do you?"
     Pearl blinked before casting a disturbed look at her sister.  "Thanks for
the visual, sis," she grumbled before flicking the whip behind her and taking
a deep breath.  She exhaled slowly as she focused her senses, zeroing in on the
spot right between D's shoulder blades.  She waited until her lungs were almost
empty of air and her body was perfectly steady before bringing her arm forward
in a sharp movement.
     D's hearing was extremely acute, a skill he continually honed whenever he
could as it helped him detect vampires who tended to move in almost perfect
silence whenever hunting something.  Thus it was all but impossible for him to
miss the way the air seemed to hiss just slightly as the whip sliced through
it before the pliant tip was jerked to a sudden halt to produce the trademark
cracking sound.  It was like a thunderclap when compared to the relatively soft
hissing of the air an instant ago, and the sudden tensing of his body in the
anticipation of feeling the blow only made his nerves that much more sensitive.
The expected lash across his back never fell, however, instead feeling a puff
of air tease his shirt as the tip of the whip fell short by maybe an inch.
     Coral's eyebrows promptly arched up as she noticed that D didn't seem to
have reacted in the slightest.  The cracking had sounded somewhat odd to her
equally sensitive ears as well, prompting her to lean slightly to the side as
if she were trying to examine his back.  "Pearl?" she called out in a curious
tone, wondering if she was missing something.
     The pale blue-haired woman simply shrugged in casual dismissal.  "Relax,
that was just a ranging shot," she assured the other woman.  "C'mon, sis, you
know I don't miss in a setting like this.  Which is more than can be said for
your skill with a whip...."
     "Just get on with it," Coral grumbled, her face twisting into a sullen
pout for a few seconds before smoothing out as she looked over at D again.
"Siblings," she muttered soft enough for only D to hear.  "You try to learn how
to do things their way and never hear the end of it when you happen make a few
mistakes after having borrowed their favorite slave for target practice."
     It took D a moderate amount of effort not to openly snarl at her casually
callous attitude.  It was people like her that had started him on his darkened
path in life, witnessing the constant pain and suffering of innocent humans at
the uncaring and sometimes openly sadistic hands of vampires.  Some he had made
a vow to destroy regardless, those who had taken part in the assault on his
father's palace that triggered the global catastrophe known as the Blood Wars,
but far too many others had failed to show the slightest regard for the value
of human lives, innocent beings whose sole crime was living under the yoke of
vampiric evil.
     You should know better, D had sometimes been tempted to shout out to the
other dunpeals he had encountered who were just as evil and merciless as their
noble ancestors.  You who have a human parent and human feelings, you should
know this is wrong, you should know that human lives are equally as important
and precious as our own!  But that urge to confront them and try to open their
eyes had long ago faded, trodden down by encounter after encounter with such
evil creatures that eventually extinguished any lingering hopes of redemption.
He then vowed to destroy them all, both vampires and dunpeals alike, so that
the humans and their world could be free from the ten-thousand year reign of
terror caused by the continued existence of that evil hunger for blood.  He
knew that he himself would have to follow them into the maw of oblivion as well
for the world to be truly free of his blood, but it was a price he was willing
to pay for the greater good.
     The hissing of the air suddenly snapped him out of his darkened thoughts,
catching him off-guard.  He didn't have time to quietly curse himself for his
lapse in attention before his back jerked beneath the onslaught of pain.  The
gesture had been little more than a reflex as the stinging sensation wasn't all
that great, the very tip of the whip grazing his flesh as it rent the fabric of
his shirt.  There was a sudden silence that lasted for maybe four beats of his
quickened pulse before the air hissed again and another exquisitely fine needle
of pain was felt in his upper back.
     "Whoops," Pearl said casually, causing Coral to blink.
     "Whoops?" the other woman echoed, giving her an uneasy look.
     "I just realized what his shirt is made of," Pearl replied with a faint
gesture of her free hand.  "It's that expensive stuff from the northeast, the
really soft but sturdy kind.  I'll bet it cost him a pretty coin or three, but
I'll also bet it was probably worth it and then some.  Oh, well," she added
with an empty sigh before slowly refocusing and drawing the whip back.
     "Oh, that stuff," Coral commented as she nodded, pausing as D was whipped
again.  "I had a nightgown made from that once.  You weren't kidding about the
price, but it lasted for quite a number of years.  Smooth, too.  Not like silk
or satin, mind you, but it...."  She paused as another sharp crack was heard,
this one causing the corners of D's mouth to visibly twitch.  "It served its
purpose fairly well.  What just happened?"
     "He moved," Pearl explained in a casual manner, as if they were talking
about the weather.  She drew her whip back and lashed out again, unable to keep
herself from smiling as D twitched again at the contact.  "I'm doing the best
I can, of course, but the difference between hitting his shirt and hitting him
is pretty miniscule.  As long as he holds still, however, there won't be any
sort of problems to worry about.  So how'm I doing, D?" she called out in a
light tone as she lashed out again, this time deliberately letting the tip edge
forward a fraction of an inch farther than she needed.
     Unlike the previous strikes, which has been quite sharp but confined to
discrete points on his back, the latest blow etched a burning line of fire just
under his left shoulder blade.  The jolt of pain forced him to almost literally
bite his lower lip to keep himself from making any kind of noise, not wanting
to give her the satisfaction of making him cry out.  He had the very bothersome
feeling that if the experience were to last for too much longer, his willpower
wouldn't be able to fully withstand the constant jolts of pain.  He was still
suffering heavily to begin with, given the still-searing feeling in his chest
and the fiercely protesting nerves in his ankles, and he knew that even he had
his limits.
     "D?" Coral spoke up, seeming to be faintly amused by something.  "Silence
is golden and all that, but you really should speak when someone else asks you
a question.  It's rude not to, you know," she added.  "Especially when she's
holding a whip...."
     "I'm not worried about it," Pearl said as she lashed out yet again, this
time barely grazing his skin as she continued to methodically cut a horizontal
line across the back of his tunic.  "He'll be singing soon enough.  Now there's
a thought for you," she said as she paused for a moment before drawing the whip
back behind her.  "Think he's the kind to sing in the shower?"
     "Ooooh," Coral purred softly to herself, casting a brief glance over at D
as he reflexively twitched beneath the precision blow.  "Don't say things like
that, it gives me the really soft shivers just thinking about it.  Let's get
him housebroken first before we can wonder about such things, okay?"
     "Whatever, sis," Pearl sighed as she flicked the whip across his back at
a slight angle, leaving another small tear in his shirt.  She paused to study
the new rent for a moment before curling the edges of her lips down in a small
frown.  "You know this is going to take awhile, right?" she grumbled.
     "You wanted to do it that way," Coral reminded her.
     Pearl wrinkled her nose before pausing to deliver another carefully aimed
blow to D's upper back, inflicting an identical tear parallel to the first.
"Yeah, but not too gently.  Hey, do me a favor and take a peek at his back for
me and let me know what kind of condition his skin is in.  I don't want to move
now that I've got the distance ironed out," she explained.
     "Alright," Coral purred quietly, casting a somewhat sultry glance at D as
she approached.  She paused to lightly brush her fingertips over his arm before
reaching around him, slipping a finger into the surprisingly straight and even
tear in the back of his shirt to pull it open.  "Oooh, now look at this," she
cooed as she pulled her finger down, letting Pearl see the patch of skin for
herself.
     "Great," Pearl replied with a wicked smile, delighted to see that his back
was virtually undamaged.  She would have to change that, of course, but now she
knew she didn't need to hold back nearly as much.  "Step back, I think it's
time to pick up the pace a little bit."
     "Mmmm," the gray-haired woman hummed softly to herself as she glanced over
at D, studying the look of controlled pain in his eyes.  "You will, I trust,
let me know if my darling little sister is being too rough with you?" she said
in a low, almost husky tone as she briefly ran her hand along his arm.  "We
don't want her to wind up with the wrong kind of reputation, now do we, D?"
     D remained silent as he glanced back at her before refocusing his gaze on
his sword.  He knew that it was likely he was going to be tortured for quite
some time and that he needed to conserve as much of his strength as possible.
He had been injured countless times before, sometimes almost winding up on the
doorstep of death itself, but never before had any sort of captivity been like
this.  Brutally beaten until he was senseless, yes, and another time having a
spike driven into his chest that missed his heart by what had to be a fraction
of an inch, but never had he been deliberately toyed with like this.  They had
all known it would have been too dangerous to do so, as every moment he was
conscious was another moment he had to possibly escape and come back to exact
his own brand of vengeance on them.  So why were these two sisters taking that
risk by torturing him like this?
     His moment of reflection was abruptly ended by the hissing of the whip,
only instead of feeling another needlepoint of pain he found himself having to
cope with a jagged line of fire that spanned the full length of his back.  The
burning sensation was intense, almost as if a knife had been drawn across the
skin at a moderate depth.  Oddly enough, he could tell from the throbbing that
followed that his skin hadn't been broken by the blow and would likely only
bruise and swell up.
     "Easy, Pearl," Coral cautioned as she watched D jerk against the chains,
his back arching as his muscles spasmed from the fiery pain.
     An exasperated sigh rose up from the other woman.  "Do you want to try to
do this?" she challenged in a level tone.  "Just grab a chair and sit down to
watch the show or something.  He'll still have his skin on when I'm done, so
relax."
     Coral said nothing as she watched her sister wind up again to deliver a
second blow to D's back, the sound of several inches of the whip's surface
slapping across both fabric and skin making her twitch slightly.  She often
found it quite the experience to watch Pearl ply her skill with the whip, the 
application made with such exquisite precision and care that could easily be
elevated to an art form.  The results could also be viewed as works of art, a
fully-dressed human being stripped of clothing one shred at a time with very
few marks left on the skin to indicate how her skin has been so deliciously
bared before their eyes.
     The strokes that she observed being delivered, however, were far cries
from Pearl's usual delicate touch.  D's body rocked with each blow that landed,
leaving behind long tears in his tunic and spasms of pain on the hunter's face.
She was sure that Pearl would keep her word and that the flesh of his back
wouldn't be split open like a ripe melon, but there was just something about
the look in her eye and the way she was gripping the whip that said she wasn't
in a mood to be gentle.
     She edged herself to the side after a few minutes of watching the tip of
the whip lash out again and again, trying to see what it was doing to him.  It
was obvious that her sister knew what she was doing, as the upper part of his
shirt was almost completely shredded now as if a giant cat had came by to use
him as a scratching post.  The blows were being directed lower now, close to
the base of his spine as he continued to be methodically stripped in a most
painful fashion.
     The silence in the room became almost eerie as time went on, broken only
by the rhythmic cracking of the whip and the creaking of the metal chains as D
continued to rock with each blow.  Pearl seemed to be completely focused now,
her eyes half-closed and barely seeming to breathe as she directed the whip in
a calculated fashion.  D remained silent as well, much to her surprise.  She
knew that a human would have screamed himself hoarse by now, but the dunpeal
somehow managed to remain stoic save for a ragged rasp in his breathing.
     Coral cast a glance to her side as she sensed motion in the distance, one
eyebrow arching up as she saw the door open silently.  A young girl poked her
head into the room, her crisp blue eyes widening dangerously as she realized
what was going on.  Her gaze fell on Coral as the baroness made a curt gesture,
indicating that she should find something else to do.  Her slave nodded to her
in understanding before she promptly vanished from sight, the door being eased
shut a moment later to close with only the faintest of metallic rattles.
     The sound, faint as it had been, was enough to cause Pearl to pause in
mid-motion, cocking her head sharply towards the doorway.  "Hm?" she hummed in
a low tone.
     Coral sighed softly and made a gesture of dismissal.  "It was just Abby,"
she explained.
     Pearl snorted to herself before she flexed her arm gingerly.  "I told you
she needed to be locked up," she growled, mostly to herself before hefting the
whip once again to deliver an unusually vicious blow to the seat of D's pants.
     "Hey, hey, hey, easy there," Coral protested calmly.  "And leave Abelyne
alone, okay?  She's a good girl."
     "Pah," Pearl countered as she delivered a second, less-powerful blow to
D's bottom to create a perfect X-mark.  "That's what Father said about Celene,
remember?"
     "Father was blinded by lust," Coral pointed out, raising an eyebrow as her
sister changed the focus of her attacks up to D's left shoulder.  "Now what are
you doing?" she prodded carefully.
     "Forgot the sleeves," Pearl replied as she began to lightly flick the tip
of her whip up and down the length of D's arms, turning what was remained of
his left sleeve into so many thin and ragged strips of fabric.  "And tell me
you don't have your own lusts for your slaves like that."
     "Oh, here we go again," Coral muttered as she sighed softly.
     "Remind me was she doing to you last month when I tripped over you two out
on the west tower?" Pearl said in a pointed tone as she finished whipping the
fabric off of D's left arm and started in on his right arm.  The blows left a
trail of torn fabric down to his elbow before they paused, Pearl turning her
head to give her sister a piercing look.  "Well?" she prompted flatly.
     "Like I said," Coral said as she looked away to study a set of rusted
manacles hanging from chains set into the mortar in the wall, "She's a good
girl who knows how to serve her mistress.  If she wishes to please me further
after sharing her blood with me, why should I deny her such desires?"
     Pearl just rolled her eyes before resuming her efforts.  "That's what men
are for, sis," she muttered.  She continued to flay the remaining fabric off of
D's arm before a sudden thought popped into her mind, causing her to freeze in
mid-motion.  "Sis, about what you said about not ripping his balls off...."
     "Don't worry about it, Pearl, I said I would explain things later," Coral
replied in a honeyed tone, drawing a glare from her younger sister.  "We both
know men are delicate creatures when you finally pin them down, and they tend
to treasure their manhoods very much.  So much so that I wouldn't be surprised
if they simply died with their removal.  Be that as it may I'm not about to
risk it in this case, so for the moment you will steer clear of injuring him in
that location.  Understood?" she added, her voice turning from charming and
honeyed to tempered steel in the span of a single heartbeat.
     Pearl simply rolled her eyes again.  "Sure, sis, whatever you say," she
replied absently as she flexed her wrist several times before hefting the whip
once again.  She paused for a moment to gauge how much she had left to do and
how much space was around her.  "Coral, do me a favor and step back a bit.  I
want to try something new."
     "Oh?" Coral inquired in a faintly uncertain tone as she edged back several
measured paces.  "Like what?"
     "Show you in a sec," Pearl promised as she took a single step backwards as
well and began to breathe deeply.  She closed her eyes briefly while she turned
her focus inwards before raising the whip once more, starting to sway it back
and forth until the tip rasped against the stone floor in a rhythmic pattern.
She then seemed to pause for an instant, taking a deep breath that expanded her
chest in a truly inviting fashion before suddenly exploding into motion.
     Coral gasped and took a step back as the whip started to lash out faster
than she could track, striking the side of D's leg before the tip was whirled
around to snap at his other leg like a vicious and hungry cobra.  The strikes
were as incredible as they were brutal, slapping along not just the fabric of
his pants and the flesh beneath but also striking the metal support columns
hard enough to make them resonate like tuning forks.
     The scent of blood filled the air a few moments later as Pearl continued
her frenzied onslaught, her expression twisted into one of bestial fury as she
continued to lash out as rapidly as she could.  Tiny flecks of crimson began to
spackle the floor around D as his trousers all but disintegrated beneath the
powerful blows, exposing badly-abused flesh and abraded muscle that began to
ooze tiny rivulets of blood.
     "Pearl!" Coral snapped as her sister seemed to slip deeper into the sudden
burst of rage, her aqua-blue eyes clouded by glowing red corneas and her fangs
bared as she gritted her teeth.  The muscles of her arm were visibly taut from
the frenzied exertions, making Coral wonder if something wasn't starting to
kink by now and that Pearl was using the pain to spur her own anger on in a
dangerous vicious circle.  "PEARL!" she called out again, actively debating her
chances of being able to intervene without getting herself hurt by the still-
flailing whip or the fury that was driving it.
     Pearl spun on the ball of her foot in a full circle before lashing out one
final time, the tip of the whip swinging out in a wide arc and coming close
enough to Coral to make her leap back with a startled hiss.  The whip came back
around to catch D in the side at the very top edge of where his pants met his
hip, sending a lengthwise split through not just the trousers and the underwear
beneath it but also leaving a gash in his side that immediately began to bleed
at a slow but steady rate.
     The impact threw D against the other support column hard enough to bruise
his shoulder and essentially knock the wind out of him.  A harsh noise rose up
from his throat at the contact, not quite a cry of pain but still nothing that
he could have hoped to suppress.  An almost inhuman veil of silence arose once
the chains quit creaking, broken only by Pearl's heavy panting and the soft but
still audible rattling of D's breath trying to re-enter his lungs.
     "Damn you, hunter," Pearl snarled very softly as she started to raise the
whip again, only to jerk to a halt as Coral's hand grabbed her wrist in a grip
that sent sparks of pain shooting throughout her arm.
     "Pearl," Coral said in a dangerously calm voice, her pale yellow eyes all
but masked by the golden glow of her corneas.  Her vampiric fangs, described as
tiny when compared to her sister or another vampire but still just as sharp,
were barely visible as they peeked out from the edges of her lips.  "What do
you think you are doing?"
     It took the other woman a moment to get her breathing under control to the
point of allowing her to talk properly.  "I want to hear him scream," she said
in a deathly cold voice, her lips barely moving.  "He killed our father, and I
want to hear him suffer before he dies."
     "I'm not going to say this again," Coral countered, increasing the power
of her grip until Pearl's lip curled back in constrained pain.  "Do not kill
him.  I need him alive for now."
     "For what?" Pearl demanded, her voice dropping to barely a whisper.
     Coral stared at her younger sister in silence, her eyes narrowing down to
mere slits before she abruptly let go of Pearl's wrist.  "I already told you I
would explain it later," she said, her voice audibly straining to remain calm
and seemingly collected.  "In any case, I captured him and so he is mine to do
with as I please.  I don't mind if you have your fun with him, but you will do
so by my rules.  You've never been a problem-child, Pearl, and I don't think
you really want to start being one now," she added, her voice smoothing out and
changing pitch to take on a honeyed aspect.
     Pearl snarled quietly to herself as she rubbed her aching wrist, feeling
her pulse throbbing in the bruised veins where Coral had gripped her.  Her arm
was aching fiercely now as well, obviously a result of her sudden slippage into
rage at the desire to hear D scream.  His silence in the beginning was quite
expected, being as strong and resilient as he was, but his continued silence
after being exposed to pain that should have had even the most hardened of men
crying out in pain and possibly even begging for mercy gnawed at her.  She felt
she was owed his pain after killing her father, and while nothing she could do
to him could ever bring her father back, there was still something to be said
for the satisfaction of revenge....
     "Pearl," Coral said quietly, seeming to give her a gentle look.
     "What?" Pearl growled, still massaging her left wrist.
     "It's late," Coral replied softly, reaching up to lightly brush her hand
over Pearl's bare shoulder.  "The sun rose an hour ago, and we're both still
keyed up from what happened earlier.  You should think about going to bed soon.
Don't worry, D will still be here for you to play with once the sun sets," she
cooed with a tender smile.  "I promise.  Besides, it'll give both you and him
time to rest up.  The whip-marks should have healed by then, don't you think?"
     Pearl's eyes narrowed even more, unable to shake the feeling that she was
somehow being manipulated.  Her sister had a point about bed, however, as they
both had been up since sunrise the previous day.  Besides, D wasn't going to be
going anywhere, not while he was bound by those literally unbreakable chains.
But she still wanted to have some measure of satisfaction first....
     "I still want to hear him scream," she finally said in a low tone, all but
daring her sister to try to mollify her.  "He can still bleed for me.  Just let
me use a dagger on a non-vital area, I want to hear how he sings...."
     "Pearl...." Coral sighed quietly as she briefly ran her fingertips through
her flowing gray hair.  She paused to stare into her sister's eyes in silence
before sighing very quietly again.  "Alright," she said in a subdued, almost
sullen tone.  "One strike in a non-vital area.  And I don't care if he screams
or not, one strike and that's it.  And Pearl?" she added before she reached up
to lightly cup her chin in a gesture that was partly a squeeze and partly a
soft caress.  "If he dies...."
     "Trust me, sis," the other woman assured her calmly as she jerked her chin
free from Coral's grasp and crossed the room.  The whip was casually flicked to
wind up in a neat coil in her hand, hanging it from a small hook on her belt.
She went over to the shelf where D's equipment was and studied it for a moment
before removing one of the daggers from his belt.  She made a soft noise of
appreciation as it slid free from the holder with a quiet rasp, revealing an
intricate design on the blade that raised her eyebrow in curiosity.
     "Hey, sis?  Come look at this for a moment," she said as she turned around
and held up the blade, blinking as she realized that Coral hadn't moved and
still had her back turned to both her and D.
     "I'll.... take a look for myself in a moment," Coral said quietly without
turning around.
     Pearl frowned lightly before glancing down at the flower-like engravings
on the dagger before shrugging in dismissal.  "Yeah, whatever, sis," she said
as she advanced towards D, absently hefting the blade in her hand to test it
for balance.  She stopped directly in front of him, pausing to glance down at
the tattered remains of fabric that still clung to him.  There might have been
enough left of his shirt to make a decent handkerchief if you gathered it up
and sewed it together to make a square, though it probably would have been more
stitches and thread than actual fabric.  His pants were likewise shredded into
near-uselessness, though a rather large expanse still remained intact around
his groin where she hadn't dared to try to use the whip.  The elastic was quite
broken on the one side and the rest split into utter ruin, however, which made
her wonder what was keeping that last handful in place to preserve his modesty.
     She took her time in examining the rest of his body, part of her wincing
on the inside at the way his entire chest was still a solid wall of black and
bluish-purple bruises.  The size and composition of his muscles were obvious
now that his skin was exposed, and it was pretty much what she expected to find
given his legendary kind of strength.  A voice in the back of her mind was
whispering an urgent warning that she couldn't afford to let him to regain any
of that strength back lest he pose an immediate danger to her.  Even now, with
his body half-broken and chained down by a metal amalgam that was every bit as
legendary as he was, she sensed that he was still a very serious threat.
     She reached out to grab his jaw, forcing his head up so that she could see
into the dark depths of his eyes.  Her own eyes narrowed slightly at what she
saw reflected back at her.  Pain, certainly, but he was still quite lucid and
seemingly in control of himself.  His pupils seemed to flicker slightly as he
focused on her, the rasp in his throat smoothing out as he visibly tried to
rally his strength.  If he knew what she intended to do, which she was pretty
sure he did, he was doing a damn good job of not letting any sort of emotion
show or otherwise giving her any indication that he was overly concerned.
     "I'll be honest, D," Pearl said very quietly, unable to keep a slight hint
of admiration out of her voice, "You are, without a doubt, the toughest nut I
have ever tried to crack.  But even the toughest of nuts will break when the
right hammer is applied.  You killed my father, and for that you will suffer
like no living being has ever suffered before.  That I promise you, D.  When I
am finished with you, you will beg me with tears of blood to let your life slip
from my fingers and into the cold embrace of death.  But for now?" she purred
softly as she swung her arm back, "I just want to hear you scream."
     Coral closed her eyes as she heard the subtle rustle of Pearl's undershirt
moving with her arm, followed by the sound of a dagger being sunk into flesh.
A truly sharp gasped echoed throughout the dungeon, the hissing sound of one
who suddenly found himself in an incredible amount of pain but yet was using
every fiber of his being to suppress it, to keep himself from crying out.  It
wasn't something she wished to contemplate or visualize, but she knew that it
was necessary for her to allow if she wished to keep her sister under control.
     Pearl blinked in surprise and amazement, first glancing down to see the
full length of the blade imbedded in D's abdomen, then looking back up to see
the look in D's eyes.  She could almost watch the pain impulses travelling over
his optic nerves, surging with each beating of his heart that jostled his lower
organs just enough to sear the nerves with unspeakable pain.... and yet there
still burned a spark of determination, a fierce gathering of his willpower to
fight against the mortal agony and not make a sound.  The sound of his teeth
grinding together and the rasping of his labored breathing were well beyond his
level of control, but he still refused to cry out in pain even as the dagger
continued to throb slightly in her grip.
     "You have to be shitting me," Pearl said quietly in a tone of disbelief,
more than a little unnerved by his resolve even as his lifeblood began to seep
across the hilt to coat her fingertips.  A very soft sound could be heard a few
moments later as his blood began to drip off the end of the hilt to form a tiny
puddle of crimson.  "Just who the living fuck are you, hunter?" she breathed.
     "Pearl?" the subdued voice drifted from several feet away, sounding to be
unusually tired for some reason.  "You forgot to say the magic word."
     Pearl blinked at her sister's tone before glancing back to D, trying to
figure out what she was talking about before it finally hit her.  "Oh, I get it
now," she purred in an evil tone.  "You know, sis, you're absolutely right, I
forgot all about that.  Scream for me, D," she said as she readjusted her grip
on the dagger and braced.  "Please," she added with a truly malicious smile as
she twisted the blade as hard as she could.
     Coral flinched as the unholy sound filled the room, obviously a result of
D's body finally having been taken past its limits of tolerance for pain.  The
scream was one that was likely to leave his throat raw if not a bloody ruin, a
sudden outpouring of every molecule of air in his lungs.  She wasn't sure how
long the scream went on, the sound seeming to last for an eternity without any
sort of interruption before finally falling silent.  For a moment she feared
that the life had been driven from his body by the experience, but then she
heard just the faintest of sounds from over her shoulder, not quite a rasp of
breath being drawn but not quite a sob either.  Regardless of what it was, it
was enough to assure her that he was still alive.
     "Thank you, D," Pearl said calmly, a truly dark smile still visible on her
lips as she savored her victory.  "I guess there's something to be said for
manners after all."  She glanced down at her hands and very carefully let go of
the dagger, leaving it fully imbedded in his abdomen.  Satisfied that it would
stay put for the moment, she carefully examined the blood that coated her hand
before tentatively bringing her fingertips to her lips.
     "You don't want to do that," Coral said quietly, her back still turned to
both D and Pearl.
     Pearl froze in mid-motion, the tip of her tongue barely an inch away from
the crimson nectar.  "Why not?" she inquired warily as she slowly lowered her
hand and tried to figure out why her sister looked so tense all of a sudden.
     "You remember what Father said about blood-marriages and how they were
performed, right?" Coral said, her voice sounding weary.  "That and you don't
know how strong his blood is.  It could end up dominating you."
     Pearl glanced over to where D lay half-slumped, unable to move very far
because of the chains around his wrists.  "Yeah, alright," she found herself
saying after a moment, realizing that her sister probably was not making idle
commentary about the potential strength of D's blood.  "Well, in any case, I
got what I wanted.  At least for today," she added in a faintly ominous tone as
she glared at D.
     "I'll see you tonight then, Pearl," Coral said, almost too softly for her
sister's vampiric hearing to detect.  "Sleep well."
     Pearl paused to try to make sense of her sister's mood.  Granted that was
not an easy task given Coral's whimsical nature and tendency for sudden shifts
in mood, but at least those usually had some reason or method behind them that
triggered the change.  But as for why she seemed to be so withdrawn all of a
sudden was beyond her imagination.  "You too, sis," she replied in a slightly
uneasy tone.  "Try not to have too much fun with him, okay?"
     Coral remained silent as she listened to the soft footsteps making their
way across the floor.  The door creaked slightly as it was first opened, then
closed just as gently to leave her alone in the dungeon with D.  She finally
opened her eyes and sighed very softly, trying not to imagine just how much
damage Pearl had done to D and how long it would take for him to regain his
strength.  Or at least enough of it for her purposes....
     Her footsteps where whisper-quiet as she turned around and moved over to
stand in front of him, her lips tugging down sharply in a scowl as she saw that
the dagger had been left in his abdomen.  A small pool of blood had already
formed on the metal plate beneath him, continuing to be fed one drop at a time.
     "Damn her," she murmured as she reached out to grasp the hilt.  She paused
as the gesture caused D to inhale sharply, his lips once again pulling back to
bare his vampiric fangs.  Taking a deep breath to steel herself, she braced her
hand against his chest and yanked the blade out of his abdomen.
     The moan that followed was enough to make her skin crawl, sounding as if
he had wanted to scream again but simply didn't have the strength to do even
that much.  That was not a good sign in her view, as it suggested that he was
a lot closer to death than he seemed to be.  She didn't bother looking at the
blade as she set it aside on a small table, exchanging it for the small cloth
she had used earlier to rouse him.
     "D?" she murmured as she carefully tried to wipe the blood away from the
wound in his abdomen.  She watched nervously as it began to seal itself, his
regenerative powers seeming to take an eternity by her standards before the
flow of blood eventually stopped.  She knew the internal damage wouldn't be
repaired so quickly, but at least he wouldn't be losing any more of his blood.
     "I'm sorry about that, but I kind of had to let her do that," she said to
him in a quiet, almost subdued tone as she dipped the bloody rag in the bowl of
water and started to gingerly rinse his chest.  She paused as he made a very
dry rasping noise and glanced around for something to use as a cup.  Seeing
nothing immediately available, she settled for scooping up a handful of water
from the bowl and splashing it against his lips.  "Easy," she murmured as she
spent the next couple of minutes giving him handfuls of water to help quench
his burning thirst.
     "There you go," she purred as she rinsed the cloth again and carefully
started to clean his upper back.  "You'll be alright, D.  Believe me when I say
I'm not going to let you die on me.  You're just a little too important to me,
now that I have you.  Damn, you're a tough one," she added as she noticed how
the welts on his back had already started to heal.
     She blinked hard as she heard him whisper her name, a sound that was all
but incomprehensible given the way his throat rasped as he forced out the pair
of syllables.  "Don't," she said quickly as she came back around to the front
and ran the cloth over the base of his throat.  "Don't try to talk, D, I know
you're not up to it yet."
     She blinked again as he somehow summoned the strength to lift his head up,
just enough to look into her pale yellow eyes.  "Wh.... what.... do.... you....
wh.... want?" he rasped.  It was obvious that the effort was costing him dearly
in terms of pain, his corneas starting to flicker blue in time with his pulse.
     "D...." Coral started to say before falling silent, one hand reaching up
to lightly touch his cheek.  The gesture was a gentle one, almost like a caress
as her fingertips lightly probed the spot on his jaw where she had struck him
last night.  The faintest of smiles brushed her lips as she continued to study
him, still not believing that she had actually managed to capture him.
     She finally drew in a breath and looked him in the eyes, almost choking
with anxiety at how intently he was looking back at her.  "As I told my sister,
I'll explain it all to you later," she said, her voice scarcely more than a
whisper.  "But know that I have no wish to harm you.  I've dreamt about being
able to meet you for years now, ever since.... well," she said as the smile
briefly faltered before reasserting itself, "Let's just say I've been waiting
for just the right moment.  Waiting, all this time...."
     Even through the haze of pain that threatened to send him over the edge
and into the abyss of unconsciousness at any moment, he could still sense that
there was something very wrong with her whole demeanor.  His initial impression
of Pearl had proven to be accurate in terms of her hatred for him and her own
fires of rage, but understanding Coral continued to be an elusive task.  Maybe
it would all make sense once his body healed enough so that he could stop and
think like a rational and sentient entity once again, but right now he was
simply in too much pain to both think and keep his vampiric side under control.
The latter was far more important to him, as he knew that it was liable to be
the death of him if it got out of control and tried to go on a rampage in his
current environment.
     He paused and refocused on her as she giggled very softly to herself, a
look of idle amusement reflected in her eyes as she tilted her head slightly to
study him.  "You're absolutely amazing, you know that?" she murmured quietly as
she picked up the cloth and started to tenderly rinse the dried blood off of
his arm.  "I've seen her flay a battle-hardened knight before, and he screamed
his throat apart after only going through a third of what you just did.  I'm
quite impressed, D, you are everything that the legends have said and more."
     She giggled softly again before the cloth slid down to his abdomen, very
carefully passing over the angry red mark where the dagger had been thrust past
his kidneys and narrowly avoided shredding his intestines.  An icy chill ran
down his spine as her hand moved lower, her fingertip slipping inside the edge
of his ruined underwear and giving the elastic an experimental tug.
     "Oops," she purred very softly as the material fell away from his body as
a single unit, apparently held in place only by its weight, friction, and maybe
even a touch of static electricity.  He was essentially naked now, save for a
few small scraps of cloth that still clung to his arms and shoulders, and he
only needed a single glance at the look in her eyes to know that it was not an
accident that she had forbidden Pearl from injuring him in the groin.
     "Well, well, what have we here?" Coral cooed as she leaned over to him,
her lips almost brushing the shell of his ear as the cloth was dunked in the
bowl of water once again.  "I guess the rest of the stories are just as true,
then, hmm?" she said as he felt the cloth brushing over his waistline where the
elastic had been.  "But then again, I already knew that.  I see you know what
I'm talking about," she added coyly as she caught the look in his eyes as her
hand very slowly worked its way downward.
     "Rest assured, hunter, I will not hurt you," she said, letting just a
single fingertip trace the length of his manhood before bringing the damp cloth
back up to very carefully try to brush against his chest.  The pressure of her
hand in badly bruised territory caused him to hiss slightly, resulting in her
jerking back in a startled motion.  "Well, not intentionally," she amended with
a slightly embarrassed look.
     He remained silent as she edged back to study him, her gaze seeming to
wander across the whole of his body.  He was only faintly surprised when her
gaze didn't linger on his exposed manhood, continuing to roam around at random
before coming to rest on his own eyes once again.  A truly dark chill shot down
his spine as she gave him an odd smile, the faintest of twinkles forming in her
eyes to suggest that she was up to something.  And if his instincts were even
remotely close to being correct, he was definitely not going to like finding
out just what it was that she ultimately wanted from him.
     He blinked as she suddenly yawned, a faint frown forming on her lips as
she turned her head to one side and discreetly covered her mouth.  "Oh, my,"
she sighed as she turned back to give him an apologetic look.  "I do believe I
may be getting too old for this kind of thing.  Granted I'm only a hundred and
thirty, but staying out in the sun all day and then staying awake through the
entire night to keep working until sunrise isn't something I can do like I used
to when I was a little girl.  No matter, sleep will come soon enough and I'll
bet you could use a nap yourself right now, hmm?"
     D was probably sure he had enough energy by now to speak out and ask her
a question, or at least get enough words out for her to understand him, but he
remained silent as she headed over to the series of levers that he could barely
see out of the corner of his eye.  He supposed that he might have been able to
see them better if he moved his head, but right now he didn't want to risk even
the slightest loss of energy from muscle movement unless he had to.  He could
literally feel his insides mending, one fleshy fiber at a time, which bothered
him greatly as he couldn't ever remembering being that badly injured before to
where the regeneration could be measurably felt.
     There was a clicking sound and suddenly the floor beneath D's feet opened
up to reveal a truly deep tunnel.  The realization made him jerk back slightly
in a reflex before his mind clamped down on the initial fear of falling.  Had
he been standing on the floor he would have been sent tumbling into the tunnel,
but he was still chained to the metal columns and support shelf.  He blinked as
he suddenly saw light at the bottom, realizing after a few moments that he was
suspended over a tunnel that opened out over the bottom of the continental rift
where Baron Winters' castle had been situated.
     "Yes, it's a long drop," Coral assured him as she carefully peered over
the edge.  "This whole place used to be volcanic at some point, and the room
we're in now was a lava bubble that solidified ages ago.  All we needed to do
was refurbish it a little, shore up the floors and walls for ambience, and our
little playground was born.  The tunnel used to be a lava tube, and as you can
see it stretches the full length of the canyon cliffs here.  It makes for a
great garbage-disposal system, don't you think?" she purred as she picked up
the chunk of his pants that she had pulled off him earlier and tossed it into
the void.
     D couldn't help watching the fabric as it fluttered through the air on its
way down, seeming to take forever before it flashed in the sunlight and finally
disappeared from view.  It had to be at least two thousand feet straight down,
if not more, and not something he wished to contemplate falling into.  Perhaps
he might have stood a remote chance of surviving the fall, depending on how
close to the canyon wall he could remain to try to brake or otherwise control
his freefall, but in his current condition....
     A second clicking sound caused him to look up, first up towards her, then
up higher still as a bright light suddenly lanced down from the ceiling.  His
skin immediately started to tingle moments later as he realized that the lava
tube continued up through the ceiling and that a hatch of some sort had been
built into it.  The hatch was open now, allowing the bright rays of the sun to
shine down into the tube and illuminate him in its searing light.
     "As you can see," Coral purred softly, "The tube goes clear through the
lava bubble and up to the top of the canyon.  Mmm, that's bright," she added as
she held her ungloved hand out in the light.  "You'd be surprised at what you
can do with a few mirrors in just the right places.  In any case, D, I'm going
to have to leave you here like this until I can come back for you once the sun
sets.  Oh, don't look at me like that," she sighed as he glanced back down at
her sharply.
     "You see," she said quietly as she reached out to stroke his cheek, "I
know how strong you are, D, and I can't risk letting you regain your strength
just yet.  Don't worry, it'll be overcast soon, so you won't have to worry
about heat exposure just yet.  Okay, you might wind up with a bit of a sun-tan
before nightfall, but I think it would look good on you," she purred as she let
her fingertips trace the outlines of his arm muscles.  "But I'll take care of
you once the moon rises, I promise.  You can trust me, D," she murmured as she
leaned over to kiss him.
     He jerked his head back to avoid letting his lips contact hers, ignoring
the sudden creaking of his neck joint and the sparks of pain that the movement
caused.  She paused and blinked at the gesture, easing her head back with a
look of surprise in her eyes.
     "D, don't do that, I'm not going to bite you," she said demurely as she
leaned forward again.  She sighed as he again resisted the contact, twisting
his head to one side with a grimace of pain as the tendons in his neck made a
rather hideous cracking sound.  "Very well," she said as she leaned back, her
expression slipping into a truly disappointed pout with a quiet sigh.  "But do
think about it, okay?" she whispered as she reached up to squeeze his arm.  "I
won't be truly ready for another few days, but still.... think about it?"
     He remained silent as she stepped back, holding onto his chains with one
hand for balance and stability so she wouldn't fall into the gaping tunnel that
lay open beneath his feet.  "I'll send Abby to check on you in a few hours,"
she said quietly as she gazed at him, an unknown emotion starting to form in
her pale yellow eyes.  "She'll close the roof if the sun is too strong.  Try to
sleep well, D, for tonight is going to be.... fun," she whispered, a chilling
smile brushing her lips.  "I promise."
     It was all D could do to remain impassive as she turned away and left the
room in silence, her footsteps barely making any noise whatsoever.  The door
seemed to creak ominously as it was opened, allowing her to step inside the
archway before pausing to cast a final look at him.  He wasn't entirely sure
what to make of the way she smiled at him and wiggled her fingers in a wave
before she vanished from sight and shut the door behind her, but the way the
door clicked loudly a few seconds later spoke volumes of his true situation.
     <D?> it spoke up in a very uneasy voice after a few moments of silence.
     "Quiet," D managed to rasp in a broken whisper as his eyes closed.
     <For god's sake, D....> it tried to say.
     "You must stay quiet," D said, ignoring the burning agony in his throat as
he forced his vocal chords to work.  "If they find you...."
     <Yeah, I think I got the picture thirty minutes ago,> it replied in a very
quiet voice.  <Look, just stay quiet and listen to me for a few, okay?  Here's
the bad news, she wasn't kidding about the composition of those chains.  Pure
titanium smelted around pure adamantium cores.  If you're thinking about trying
to break them somehow?  Don't bother, it just ain't going to happen.
     <But get this.... not all of it is what they think it is,> it added, the
faint note of hope in its voice causing D's eyes to open just slightly.  <The
chains on your left wrist are like everything else.... but not the bolts that
attach them to the band around your wrist.  The other sets are titanium, but
the ones here were replaced with carbon-tempered iron.  You *might* be able to
pop them if you had your full strength back, but you'd be just as liable to
snap your wrist in half as well.  I don't recommend hinging any plans around
it, but it's still a weakness to keep in mind.>
     "Thanks," D murmured as he closed his eyes again.  The information wasn't
as useful as he had hoped, but like the knowledge of his sword being relatively
close at hand, it was still just comforting enough to help take the edge off.
"Can you reach my gear?" he rasped.
     <Uh, not by any stretch of the imagination,> it sighed.  <I think she did
it on purpose, too, just to tease you.  D, all jokes aside, you've got to keep
an eye on her.  Pearl is just like any other rabid dunpeal you've dealt with,
but I've got a *very* bad feeling about Coral.  You know she's got some kind of
controlling hypnosis power going, right?>
     "How so?" D asked softly.  The sunlight beating down on him wasn't too
strong, or at least not yet, but it didn't need to be strong to concern him at
the moment.  Unless the clouds came soon, he well and truly didn't think he
could withstand a full hour of sunlight before heat exposure would overcome him
and that would be it.  Had he been otherwise healthy he might have been able
to recover from heat exposure with the right assistance, but with his grip on
the warmth of life currently little more than a rapidly-fraying thread....
     <I felt it as a tingle in my nervous system, which we both know is quite
different than yours,> it explained.  <That's actually a good thing, since I'd
have been screaming louder than you were had our nervous systems been fully
linked.  D, about that....> it suddenly said in a concerned tone.  <Look, with
as long as we've been together and all....>
     "Quiet," D murmured softly.  Already the sunlight was making his skin itch
and burn, and he knew that it would only continue to erode what little control
he had left.  "Just stay hidden until I need you."
     <D....> it said in a pained whisper.  <Just.... hang in there, okay?  Not
that we have much of a choice, all things considered, but....  Eh?> it said as
D's chest convulsed once before becoming still again.  It remained silent for
several moments before it finally dared to speak again.  <D.... tell me that
wasn't a laugh at what I said.>
     D said nothing as he tried to force his mind to shut down, attempting to
enter a dormant state akin to sleep.  The pain in his body would guarantee that
true sleep would evade him for some time, and the constant exposure to sunlight
would only further add to his problems, but he knew that he had to at least try
to conserve as much energy as he could.  Perhaps the night would offer some
sort of respite from the mortal agony he was in, and at this point he would not
have refused the relief of death.  He had long ago come to terms with the idea
that one day he might make a mistake in his quest or simply be out-powered by
one of ancient nobles he sought to destroy.  That his demise would appear to be
at the hands of another dunpeal and a woman at that only bothered him slightly,
or at least the first part.  He knew how strong dunpeals could be, being one
himself, and he had long known that women were extremely dangerous entities.
     <D?> it said, the voice seeming to be quite distant and fuzzy now as he
felt his consciousness starting to slip.  Granted it was a deliberate action,
or so he dearly hoped, but no doubt that it would upset the parasite in his
hand who likely wasn't aware of his thoughts.  <Stay with me here....>
     It seemed to take forever for his body to go numb enough for his mind to
fade to black, finally allowing him some measure of relief from the constant
searing pain of his flesh and broken body.  Part of him knew that it wasn't a
good development, as feeling pain meant you were still alive.  But still, even
he needed a respite from such duress, didn't he?  Surely everyone knew that a
dunpeal like him had his limits.  Hadn't Pearl proved that?
     Pearl.  He had seen the look in her eyes when she had stabbed him and he
refused to cry out, sacrificing every remaining thread of his willpower to keep
his breath in his lungs and his pain in that iron box.  Twisting the knife had
broken him, of course, but there had still been that glimmer of respect and awe
in her eyes....  Could he use that?  Coral seemed to be able to control her, so
that meant her willpower was pliant.  Perhaps he could use that....
     Perhaps he could.  Use Pearl.
     Perhaps.
     Per.  haps.
     per....

                *               *               *               *

     "Stay strong, D...."
     He wasn't sure he had heard the words to begin with, let alone who might
have spoken them or how long ago.  He vaguely was aware of the passage of time
as he slowly drifted back up from the depths of near-oblivion and into searing
consciousness.  The pain had never truly left him, but it was as if a switch
had been thrown and the feelings all rushed back to him as a single unit.  For
one bleak moment he feared that he would succumb to them and what was left of
his mind would be driven back over the precipice into total oblivion.
     The pain remained with him, however, an oddly comforting feeling that was
an undeniable indication that he was still very much alive.  Whether that was
a good thing or not was very much open to debate, but he had neither the energy
nor the willpower to spare for such an internal philosophical argument.  All he
was capable of at the moment was existing in a sea of agony that very slowly
began to recede, one white-hot needle of searing pain at a time.
     Eventually he became aware of a sound, a low and rhythmic thrum that was
more felt than heard.  It surprised him to realize that it was his own heart,
the muscle continuing to beat at a steady and unceasing pace.  A distant part
of his still-awakening mind knew that he had almost perfect mastery of how his
body operated when he focused hard enough, but that his heart was one of the
few aspects of him that he had never been able to directly control.  Influence,
yes, but not command or dominate.
     An eternity passed as he simply listened to the steady mantra, the sound
never once ceasing or wavering in the slightest.  He knew that his heart would
fight to the very end to continue beating, sacrificing all else until there was
quite literally no energy left in it for the next contraction.  The knowledge
that his heart continued to beat started to revitalize his mind, knowing that
if an uncontrollable force like his heart could continue to persevere in the
face of constant nerve-searing agony, then he could do so too.  Granted he was
comprised of far more than simply his heart muscle, but he had learned long ago
that when there was a will, there *was* a way.
     He began to reach out with his mind, seeking to embrace everything that it
could.  The pain was the easiest to focus on, of course, but he soon could feel
impulses that were almost but not quite masked by the constant flood of agony.
His skin hurt like hell, but he could tell it was still largely intact.  Burned
by exposure to the sun and mostly bruised from being whipped, but still whole.
     His chest felt.... odd.  The constant fire of his cracked ribs had faded
down to a dull roar, sort of like the burning embers left behind after a fire
consumed most of the fuel around it.  It took him a moment to realize that the
sensation was variable, as if it were actively coming and going.  It took him
longer still to realize that it was doing so because someone was touching his
chest carefully, probing him for any indications of a reaction.
     That was enough to prod his mind into almost perfect consciousness in the
blink of an eye, awakening his senses so quickly that he was almost immediately
stunned by the flood of information that came back at him.  The end result was
that he wound back up in a mild daze before things very slowly began to resolve
into some semblance of order that his mind could process effectively.
     "Oh!" a feminine voice exclaimed softly in surprise as D twitched and drew
in what sounded like a very painful breath of air.  "Are you awake, D?"
     His eyes parted of their own volition, resulting in a blur of color that
required several slow blinks to resolve into a modicum of focus.  A dark swath
of deep purple finally took shape in front of him, accompanied by slender pale
tracts of color that confused him until he realized that he was looking at the
torso of a woman wearing a purple evening dress.
     "My, you're awake early," the voice commented.  "Well, maybe not," she
added as the unique tingle of the setting sun suddenly shot through him.  The
feeling was almost lost amid the constant waves of pain still besieging him,
but it was still distinctive enough to make itself known.  The simple knowledge
that the sun had set brought him an immense feeling of comfort, knowing that he
was safe from further burning for at least another ten hours or so.
     Or so he thought.
     "He seems out of it," another voice commented idly.  There was a slight
pause as he heard a faint rasping of metal, like a lid being unscrewed from a
jar before the voice added, "Here, this will wake him up for sure."
     "Pearl?" the first voice suddenly said in a concerned tone.  "Wait, what
is that.... PEARL!!"
     For an instant, D thought she had simply splashed the front of his chest
with room-temperature water.  That would have made sense, as water tossed on a
sleeping individual tends to wake them up painlessly with only a minor mess to
cope with.  When his skin suddenly seemed to ignite and burn like it was being
seared by the sun itself, however, he realized that it hadn't been ordinary
water splashed against him but water that had first been boiled beneath a solar
convection mirror and later imbued with spiritual energy.  Holy water.
     Had he been prepared for such a drastic surge in pain, he might have been
able to stave off the throat-rending scream that erupted from his chest with
all the force and grace of a panicked stampede of cattle.  The rest of his body
thrashed back and forth in a reflex, trying to throw off the shackles that kept
him bound and wipe off the liquid hellfire that ran the length of his chest.
So intense was the unholy pain that he almost missed the sharp curse from the
first woman as she frantically splashed ordinary water against him to try to
rinse the acid-like holy water off.
     Her efforts only changed the focus of the pain, letting the worst of it
abate from his chest while forcing the liquid to flow down and coat the rest of
his abdomen and legs to make the previously unaffected skin burn like it was
on fire.  Unlike his chest, however, the pain didn't linger for very long as
Coral continued to scoop out handfuls of water to dilute and rinse away the
lingering traces of the holy water.  Eventually the majority of the intense
burning passed, leaving behind seared and aching swaths of flesh that almost
literally glowed a bright pink color.  Drained by both the primal scream and
the burning pain, D half-collapsed and hung as limply as the chains would allow
him with his mind once again teetering on the brink of unconsciousness.
     "What the hell did you think you were doing?" Coral snarled as she turned
on Pearl, grabbing her by the front of her dark blouse.
     "He's awake now, isn't he?" Pearl replied in a tone of feigned innocence.
     "I will not say this again," Coral said in a very low tone, audibly trying
to temper her anger with a note of reasonableness.  "He is *mine* and I will
not have him crippled before I'm finished with him.  If you can't play by my
rules, little sister, then I'm afraid you can't play with him at all."
     "What the hell is your problem, sis?" Pearl demanded with a faint snarl,
reaching up to try to break her sister's grip on the front of her shirt.  The
gesture was abandoned after a few moments when it became obvious that Coral had
no intentions of letting go just yet.
     "The problem, my dear Pearl," Coral said quietly in an odd tone, "Is that
I need him alive and intact.  Give me a few days and then we can talk about how
to dispose of him, but not before then.  Stop and think what has been done to
him so far.  First crushed, then whipped, then stabbed, then left out in the
sun for longer than I had anticipated, and now this?  Where did you get that
stuff, anyway?" she added in a genuinely curious tone.
     "You'd be surprised by what you can find being sold in the village," Pearl
replied tartly as she made another attempt at loosening her sister's iron grip
on her blouse.  "Look, he's still quite alive and I got to hear him scream once
again, that's all I wanted from him.  You're the one who said he should be kept
weak so he can't hurt us, so why are you getting all uptight on me when I do
just what my big sister wanted me to do?"
     Coral growled dangerously before she released her grip with a slight shove
that rocked Pearl back on her heels.  "You know, Pearl, I've never made it a
secret that I envy your skill with certain weapons.  Maybe I just got the short
end of the stick when it came to such things, but you've always had a certain
finesse that I never could match.  However, in spite of all that, you don't
seem to understand that you also need to use a very delicate touch when doing
something like this.  You can't use brute force because the slightest mistake
or miscalculation can kill."
     "So what's the downside?" Pearl muttered as she cast a dark glare at D.
She paused and felt the faintest of chills run down her spine as she realized
that he was looking at them, his dark eyes barely open but still seeming to be
lucid enough to be aware of what was taking place around him.
     Pearl's attention was returned to Coral when the other woman reached out
to lightly take hold of her chin, gently twisting her head around so that their
eyes met once more.  "I need him, Pearl," the gray-haired woman whispered in an
almost velvety tone.  "I will explain it all later, I promise, but for now all
that you truly need to know is that I need him alive for the present.  Yes, you
are right, he does need to be kept weak enough to not be able to resist us, but
he still needs to have some strength left available to him for later.  Let me
make you a deal, dear sister," she purred in a honeyed tone.
     "I'm listening," Pearl growled quietly as she felt the back of her left
hand start to itch all of a sudden.  Maybe it's just an allergic reaction to
that tone, she found herself thinking.  It's possible, as Father was allergic
to carnations and other vampires had been known to be allergic to the damnedest
of mundane things....
     "If D gets to be too unruly, you can come put him back in his place using
whatever means you desire," Coral breathed huskily.  "But as long as I can keep
him on a suitably short leash, you can't use anything that would hurt him.  Too
badly," she added with a faint giggle.  "You can slap him around like a cheap
whore if it pleases you, but I am quite serious about no injury being done to
his face.  He has such a handsome look, don't you agree?" she purred.
     Pearl cast a glance towards D, one ghostly pale-blue eyebrow arching up as
she saw the corner of his mouth twitch just slightly.  "Perhaps," she allowed
in a neutral tone devoid of any hint of emotion.  "But on one condition," she
said in an edged tone as she looked back at Coral.
     "Depending," Coral replied, surprised by her sister's response.
     "If you do decide to kill him?  *I* get to handle that," Pearl stated as
her eyes seemed to blaze for a brief instant with crimson fire.
     Coral blinked at the vehemence in her sister's voice before sighing and
seeming to wither slightly like a delicate flower exposed to desert heat.  "Oh,
all right," she yielded in a weary tone.  "You can kill him should it come to
that.  I wouldn't start holding my breath anytime soon, though," she admonished
the other woman in a moderate tone.
     "Fine," Pearl agreed as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest and
cast yet another dark glare towards D.  "He's awake, you know," she pointed out
almost absently as she started to study the odd splash-pattern of reddened skin
on his chest and upper legs.
     "Yes, I know," Coral murmured as she briefly glanced at D's body as well.
"I'll be with you in a few moments, D, I still have to finish taking care of
some minor business first," she called out, giving him the faintest of smiles.
     "Such as...?" Pearl prompted without taking her eyes off D.
     "We need to do something about the road," Coral said, gesturing over her
shoulder to what seemed to be the ceiling.  "It'll take a construction team a
few days to put the ballast rock back in position and cement it in place, but
at least we can start by cleaning it up and patching the road surface.  Did you
see the crater that was left when it fell?"
     Pearl promptly blinked hard and cast a startled look at Coral.  "What?"
     Coral sighed and turned to face her sister.  "Surely you remember how I
dropped part of the archway onto D yesterday?" she prodded in a patient tone.
"Well, it's still sitting there and the horse carcass is probably starting to
reek now.  Since we don't want that stink to filter its way down here, to say
nothing of the buzzards and flies it'll draw soon, we need to dispose of it and
get it all cleaned up.  The carriage remains, too," she added lightly.
     The edges of Pearl's lips turned up slightly.  "I'll just need a dustpan
to clean up what's left of Celene, but I see what you mean about the rest of
the mess.  Let me guess, you want me to take care of it, right?"
     A quiet chuckle rose up from Coral's chest as she smoothed her hands over
the front of her satin gown.  "I'm sure you can... entice a few strapping young
men from the village to help you in your task," she purred in a honeyed tone.
"You can probably even offer them a piece of a sexy young blonde as payment for
their diligent efforts...."
     Pearl threw her head back and laughed, a somewhat dark and sinister sound
that sounded distinctly cruel to D's ears.  "Oh, Coral, you are so wicked at
times, you know that?" she said, giving her older sister a distinctly feral
grin that exposed the very tips of her fangs.
     "What can I say?" Coral replied with an exaggerated shrug.  "It runs in
the family."  The two sisters shared a distinctly dark laugh for a number of
moments before Coral made a slight gesture with her chin.  "You may as well go
now while the night is still young and the farm-hands are still awake.  I'll
take care of D, so he should be somewhat refreshed by the time you return to
play with him some more."
     "Mmm hmm," Pearl said absently, her dark humor almost evaporating in an
instant as she glanced back at D.  She paused and cast a sidelong glance at her
sister as Coral took her hand gently, giving it a soft squeeze.
     "You need to relax," Coral murmured quietly.  "There is much he and I need
to talk about first, or at least once his throat heals again, and I did promise
you that you could play with him some more later.  But you know how men are,
they give you five minutes of entertainment and then they need to rest for an
hour or two afterwards," she observed with a wicked twinkle in her eye.
     "Something like that," Pearl muttered in reply as she glanced away.
     "Have Abby come down here with the mud I asked her to mix up on your way
upstairs," Coral said as she squeezed her hand gently before letting go and
taking a step back.  "Our guest here looks like he could use a bath."
     "I'll bet," the aqua-eyed woman said absently as she cast another brief
look at D.  She started to turn away to head towards the door when she stopped
and turned the other way, heading instead over to where D was chained to the
metal columns.
     Coral's eyebrows promptly arched up as Pearl seemed to study him for a
moment before drawing her hand back to deliver a back-handed blow to his cheek.
The blow was hardly a powerful one, but it was still strong enough to rock him
sideways and into the support column before hanging limply again.  "Hmm?" Coral
inquired with a loud hum of curiosity.
     Pearl turned around and gave her sister a shrug.  "You said I could slap
him around like a cheap whore," she pointed out in a casual tone as she started
to cross the room towards the door.
     "Aye, that I did," Coral admitted frankly with a slight shrug of her own.
She waited until she heard the metal door closing behind her before she shook
her head to herself and sighed loudly.  "Oh, what am I going to do with her?"
she asked aloud, more to the room in general than to D.  "No matter.  So let's
see how you're doing this evening, shall we?" she said as she strode over to D
and tilted his head up, peering into his eyes.
     A quiet grunt rose up from her throat as she could clearly see where every
drop of the holy water had come into contact with his skin.  Nobody was quite
sure why such things affected vampires and dunpeals with equal measure, burning
both like liquid sunlight to sear the skin and leave them dangerously weakened.
All that mattered was that it did, which made it quite a dangerous substance to
handle for those with vampiric blood in their veins.  Even werewolves, who were
tainted with a completely different kind of blood-curse and thus were all but
immune to that which could injure or kill a vampire, tended to tread carefully
when around even the smallest of vials of the purified and sanctified water.
     "D?" she said quietly, pausing just slightly as he lifted his eyes up to
look directly at her.  "I'm sorry about what happened earlier.  I didn't know
she had picked up some holy water or I would have forbade her from using it.
She damn near splashed it on me as well," she groused as she cast a glance at
her left hand, blinking as she saw a tiny freckle-sized red mark on her skin
where her elbow-length glove ended.  "Oh, I guess she did splash me after all.
Odd that I didn't notice until now....  Hmm?" she added as she heard the door
creaking open, lifting up her head to discover her favorite slave entering the
room holding a rather large ceramic urn.
     D cast a reflexive glance towards the source of the sound as well, feeling
the contents of his stomach start to congeal into an icy slush.  Women tended
to be the favorite kind of prey for vampires of both sexes, and so it didn't
surprise him to see that Coral's slave was female.  What bothered him deeply
though was how young the girl looked, seeming to be fifteen if that much.  Her
attire bothered him even more, or rather the lack of it as she was essentially
wearing only a gauzy loin-cloth held in place by a thin silver chain wrapped
around her slender hips.
     "Coral?" the girl piped up, her voice marred slightly by the strain of
carrying the urn as she carefully walked across the floor.  D realized that she
was barefoot as well, which explained her ginger steps as she crossed the cold
stone flooring.
     "Over here, Abby," Coral said as she stepped forward to take the urn from
her, almost effortlessly carrying it back over to where D was chained.  The
girl cast a quick glance at D while her mistress' back was turned, a look of
unease evident in her vibrant blue eyes as she regarded him carefully.  If she
was bothered by her seven-eighths or his complete nudity, she didn't give him
any indication of it.  Her flaxen hair had been brushed out and tied off behind
her with a simple blue ribbon, making her seem more like a china doll than a
child slave.  Her breasts, no longer hidden by the mass of the urn, were little
more than subtle swells topped by fairly large nipples that jutted out in stark
contrast to the rest of her shallow curves, further emphasizing D's assessment
that she was still more of a child than a woman.
     A quick glance at the girl's throat chilled D's blood even further, able
to make out the subtle network of scars on both sides where she had been bitten
in the jugular more than once in the past.  He thought he saw a faint mark on
the right side of her neck, suggesting that she had recently been bitten by a
vampiric entity.  He felt it was horrific enough for anyone to have to endure
the kiss of a vampire once in his or her life, but to repeatedly be leeched of
the life-blood in her veins, especially at such a young age....
     "There we go," Coral purred as she straightened up and turned around to
give Abelyne a gentle smile.  "Thank you, Abby, that should be all I need for
awhile.  Wait, where are the brushes?" she asked as she twisted around to peer
inside the urn.
     "Inside the urn," Abelyne replied as she absently reached over to scratch
the back of her left hand for a moment.
     "Never mind, I see them," Coral said as she turned back around to smile at
the young girl again.  "If you want, you can go ahead and tell April to start
breakfast for the both of you.  I'll probably be down here all night, so don't
worry about waiting for me.  Just have her set aside a portion for Pearl and
I'll handle things myself if I get too hungry or anything.  Oh, and do let her
know that dinner last night was absolutely wonderful.  I take it she used those
Westfield potatoes?"
     "I think so," Abelyne replied, keeping her gaze on her mistress.  "I'll
have to ask her to be certain, though."
     "Expensive, but worthwhile," Coral commented with an absent nod.  "We'll
have to see about getting some more before the season is out.  In any case, you
should go back upstairs now.  I'll let you know if I need anything else."
     "Okay," the young girl replied before casting the briefest of glances over
at D before turning to leave.  She froze in mid-motion as Coral noticed the
look and called to her.  "Yes?" she said as she glanced back at the baroness.
     "You don't need to worry about our guest," Coral purred in a silken tone.
"He's not going to harm you or anyone else.  Run along now."
     "Okay," Abelyne replied in a carefree tone as she turned away and left the
room, apparently without thinking further of the matter.  The loincloth seemed
to flutter slightly as she padded across the stone floor, offering alert eyes
a few brief and tantalizing glimpses of what little flesh she had that wasn't
out on display to begin with.  The door creaked slightly behind her as it was
shut, leaving Coral alone with D in the underground dungeon.
     Coral purred quietly to herself as she turned her attention to the urn and
carefully extracted the pair of heavy brushes inside.  "It's almost a shame how
good girls like her are awful hard to find these days," she mused as she dabbed
the larger of the two brushes in the mud to scoop up a blob.  She then turned
to D and was poised to smear the mud over his arm when she saw the dark glare
he was giving her.  "Something on your mind, D?" she inquired carefully.
     She waited patiently for him to answer, a small frown crossing her face as
he turned away and remained silent.  She cast a glance down at the mud-coated
brush she was holding before sighing and setting it back inside the urn.  She
then moved over to stand in front of him, gently tilting his head up so that
their eyes met.
     "D?" she said softly.  "I know you have a reputation for silence, even in
the face of adversity, but you need to answer if someone asks you a question.
I take it you don't like my pretty Abelyne?"
     "Why do you keep her as a slave?" D whispered, his voice dangerously raw
and tinged with pain as he gave Coral a look that was clearly unfriendly.
     Coral shrugged absently, the casualness of the gesture causing D to blink
in response.  "She was an orphan when I encountered her," she replied as she
leaned forward, just enough to reach into the urn to retrieve the brush.  "What
was I supposed to do, leave her to die in the ruins where I found her?  The
same goes for my darling little April as well, both found all alone late at
night in places where they almost certainly would have become werewolf food or
something before the week was out.  Certainly you know just how wonderfully
delicious a young girl's blood tastes, hmm?" she mused lightly as she started
to spread the mud across D's arm.
     "A young woman's blood, perhaps," D rasped as he cast a suspicious glance
at the dark clay-like mud being brushed against him.  "But not a child's," he
added, allowing a hint of his anger to color his tone.
     "Oh, they're hardly children now," Coral replied absently as she focused
on her work, trying to spread an even coating of the mud across his skin.  She
paused to scoop up more of the mud before continuing to speak.  "April will be
eighteen soon, stunning creature that she is, and my dearest Abby just turned
seventeen.  Yes," she added as she saw D blink in surprise.  "She's older than
she looks, but most think she is still merely a precocious child of twelve or
thirteen.  Permit her to have enough sugar and she acts like it, too," she
muttered with a somewhat rueful chuckle as she scooped up more mud.
     "I hope you don't mind me doing this," she said conversationally as she
continued to coat his arm with the hydrated dirt-and-clay mixture.  "I'm not
about to unbind you to let you rest in the embrace of the soil just yet, but
we've discovered that a mud-bath goes a long way in restoring the vitality of
youth.  And not just because it absolutely obliterates wrinkles in the skin,"
she added with a faint giggle and a somewhat sultry glance.
     D said nothing as he cast a glance towards his equipment in the distance,
absently trying to gauge the distance.  He finally settled on twenty-five feet
before sighing silently and closing his eyes, trying to rest.  The pain from
being splashed with holy water was all but gone now, save for a few unusually
sore spots on his chest where he had also been hit the hardest by the falling
rock.  The searing agony of his ribs had likewise faded in intensity, though
he could still feel it quite keenly whenever he tried to draw in a deep breath.
The constant weight on his ankles, however, seemed to be preventing them from
trying to recover, resulting in a constant barrage of needle-like twinges of
pain that made it hard to focus his thoughts for any great length of time.
     "So what do you think of my sister?" Coral spoke up as she finished with
his left arm and moved behind him to start working on his right shoulder.  She
paused after a few moments when she realized that he hadn't tried to reply to
her yet, using the blunt tip of the brush to poke him in the lower back in the
general area of his kidneys.  "D, I asked you a question," she prodded in a
somewhat unamused tone.
     "She's no different from any other dunpeal," D spoke up without bothering
to open his eyes, his tone utterly devoid of any hint or semblance of emotion.
     "That doesn't sound encouraging," Coral observed lightly as she continued
her work.  "Surely there has to be something about her that sets her apart from
the others of our kind that you've met.  Honestly, how many other dunpeals have
you met that are skilled with crossbows and whips like that?"
     "Several," D replied after a slight hesitation.
     "A pity," Coral sighed.  "And here I was thinking that my little sister
had been given a truly special gift.  Oh, well, she's still special to me and
Father.  Well, I suppose I should say to just me now, seeing how Father isn't
with us any longer.  A shame, really," she sighed as she scooped up more of the
mud and continued to coat his arm, carefully wedging some of the material in
the very narrow gap between the adamantium band and his wrist.
     D would have cast a slightly disturbed sidelong glance at her had his eyes
been open, trying to figure out what to make of her attitude.  He still didn't
think that she held any animosity towards her vampire father, but her lack of
concern or caring over his death made him wonder about her state of mind.  It
was something to think about, and seeing how there was very little he could do
about his present situation he didn't see any reason not to try to devote his
mental focus to figuring her out.
     "Ah, dammit," Coral sighed as she stepped back, causing D to open his eyes
and glance over at her.  "I knew I shouldn't have picked a dress for this."
     A simple glance down at her slightly extended leg revealed the cause of
her concern, a small dark speckle of mud that had dripped off at some point to
land on her evening gown.  He dismissed it as inconsequential and started to
close his eyes again when she made a rather ugly snarling noise to herself,
sounding more like an upset werewolf than an irked dunpeal.  Already wary with
the situation, he kept his eyes open so that he could follow her movements.
     "Hell with it," she sighed as she reached up and placed the brush in his
right hand.  "Hold this for me, will you?" she said absently as she took a
short step back and reached behind her to try to grab the zipper.
     Startled by the move, D absently kept his grip on the brush as he watched
her pull the zipper down to the base of her spine.  The dress was promptly
slipped off of her shoulders and pushed down far enough to where she could step
out of it, leaving her clad in a dark purple bra and matching panties.  Both
undergarments appeared to be made out of the same satin-like material as the
dress, shimmering faintly in the dim light cast by the torches spaced out along
the dungeon walls at regular intervals.
     She carefully folded the dress and set it aside before standing up to look
at him, a coy smile brushing her lips as she noticed his attention.  Her boots
were made of black leather and came up a few inches past her ankles, while the
elbow-length glove on her left arm appeared to be lambskin.  "You like?" she
purred softly, almost seductively as she carefully posed for him, letting him
see the majority of her curves.  "D?" she said in a faint lilt as he once again
remained silent.  "Come now, be honest with me.  What do you think?"
     "Purple suits you," he rasped quietly, keeping his eyes on hers.  He knew
there was a number of things that he could have said that would not have been
either a lie or aggravating to say, but something in the back of his mind was
warning him to still tread as lightly as possible until he got a better idea of
what her state of mind was like.
     "Mmmmmmm, thank you," Coral purred as she moved to take the brush from
him.  The reminder of the forgotten brush almost came as a physical shock, not
believing that he had been able to forget about such a simple thing as what he
was holding in his hand.  The analytical portion of his mind immediately edged
the threat potential up a notch and suggested that he try to be more vigilant
in the future.  Granted he had rarely been distracted before by a woman who had
cause or otherwise felt the need to undress in his presence, but the symbiot's
warning about how she seemed to possess a hypnotic controlling power of some
kind suddenly took on a higher note of importance.
     "Pearl seems to think it clashes with my eyes," Coral continued in a soft,
almost seductive tone as she resumed the task of covering D's body in mud.  She
finished his arm with a simple flourish and took a step back to try to decide
where she wanted to start next, dipping the brush in the mud before smearing
the dark sludge across the base of his throat.  "But both April and Abelyne
have said they like the effect as well.  Not that purple is an ideal color to
begin with, or so they say, but I think they know fashion when they see it.
And I'm glad that you do as well," she added as her voice softened by several
degrees, almost becoming inaudible.
     D remained silent as the baroness began to quietly hum to herself, her
mind obviously drifting at random as she painted line after line of the dark
mud across his neck and upper chest.  She had coated half of his chest before
she blinked hard, a thought visibly forming in her eyes that snapped her out of
her reverie and back into cohesive focus.  She glanced up at him in concern for
an instant before she carefully reached out to lightly tap his sternum with a
fingertip.
     "Oooh," she winced as D made a soft hissing noise at the explosion of pain
that swept across his chest.  "Still a little tender, I take it?  D?" she added
in a faintly edged tone when she didn't get an immediate response.
     "So it seems," D said in a neutral tone, not wanting to give her any sort
of indication as to just how badly he was still hurt.  The pain wasn't nearly
as bad as it had been earlier in the day when Pearl had pressed against him,
but it still was sharp enough to indicate that he likely still had a few small
fractures in his ribcage to mend.
     "Yes, I can imagine," she murmured before she edged back and raised the
brush to swipe across his chest again.  She paused before the mud-coated tip
could make contact, another sudden thought springing to mind that D could see
in her eyes.  She craned her neck to peer over her shoulder, casting a look at
the suit of dark armor that was lying on the far end of the shelf where D's
equipment had been gathered together.  "That reminds me," she said in an uneasy
tone as she turned back to him, her pale yellow eyes filled with both concern
and mild curiosity.  "That armor you were wearing.... what exactly is it made
from?  The plating, not the weave holding it together," she amended.  "I've
never seen anything like it, and believe me when I say I've run across some
very exotic metal amalgams before."
     D cast a glance towards his armor, wondering how best to answer her.  It
would have been a lie to say he didn't know, as he once needed to have part of
it replaced after exposure to a truly vile acid.  Fortunately it hadn't been an
overly vital component and so he had continued to use the damaged armor until
he had been fortunate enough to encounter a metalsmith who was able to identify
the proper mix of metals and recast the ruined plates.  However, he wasn't sure
he wanted to impart that information to her given the fact that it was more
than likely that he would have to combat her directly at some point.  Whether
the odds would be in his favor by then was in of itself seemingly unlikely, but
he had learned that every fraction of the odds still in his favor made things
just that much more likely to go the way he needed them to go.
     "It was my father's," D spoke up just as her expression darkened and she
started to draw in a breath to chastise him for not answering her.  He had very
little reason to be cooperative at this point, but he also know that he would
only make his situation that much worse if he wound up antagonizing her.
     "Ah," she said quietly, casting another brief glance over her shoulder at
the form-fitting armor before returning her attention back to her task.  "It's
pretty solid, I know that much.  That's probably what saved you from the same
fate as your horse," she added, giving him a somewhat unsettled look as she
reminded herself of the distinctly gory scene.
     He cast the briefest of glances over at her before closing his eyes and
trying to shut out the outside world.  The mud was starting to have an effect
on his arm where it was starting to dry out, easing the burning feeling of his
sun-seared skin and starting to restore vitality to the muscle tissue beneath.
He doubted the minor recuperative effects would do much in of itself, but he
had to remind himself that even the tiny amounts of elemental life-energy that
he could absorb from the earthen mixture was still a lot better than having to
keep using his own dwindling supply of energy to heal the damage.
     The faintest of growls rose up from his chest as she resumed smearing the
warm mud across his body.  He knew that his energy reserves were dangerously
low at this point and the prospects for recovering that energy were not overly
encouraging.  He wasn't truly at the danger point yet, the point where neither
his willpower nor the strength of his human side could keep his vampiric nature
fully contained, but he was also painfully aware of just how thin the margin
was right now.  He had both heard the stories and seen the after-effects of a
vampire gone mad from blood-hunger, the once-keen intellect reduced to a mere
spark of bestial hunger that lashed out at everything and everyone around it in
search for that life-sustaining blood.
     The slightest of tickling feelings caused his stomach to twitch slightly,
refocusing his mind on his current situation.  Coral had already painted the
entirety of his chest and was working on his lower abdomen, a look of amusement
forming on her face as she realized that he had reacted to having his navel
accidentally tickled by the brush.
     "Just a little ticklish, are we?" she purred in a coy tone as she brushed
around his navel again, resulting in another subtle but still visible twitching
of his abdominal muscles.  "It's okay, D, I'm ticklish too.  In fact, if you
came at me with a pair of feathers and knew how to use then, I'd probably be
helpless and very much at your mercy.  You would be gentle with me, I trust?"
she added as she looked up at him with a twinkle in her eyes.
     "Maybe," he replied in a hollow tone, narrowing his eyes slightly as he
dearly hoped she wasn't slipping into a playful mood.  He could handle combat,
he could handle vampires and werewolves and all the horrors of the night that
were associated with such entities, but he still found it quite unsettling to
try to deal with a woman who was in a playful mood.  Especially one who was
dressed in just her underwear and had him in a most untenable situation, or at
least untenable from his perspective....
     "Maybe," she mocked softly with a knowing smirk on her face as she resumed
coating him in mud.  "Come now, D, why so vague about your intentions?  I've
heard the whispered stories about you and your oh-so-gentle touch when you let
a woman take you to bed.  I even spent a few years researching them, just to
make sure," she added, giving him a faintly chilling smile as she noticed the
look of sudden unease that crossed his face before he could mask it.  "And not
once did any of your.... companions describe it as anything other than gentle
and tender."
     It took D a moderate amount of effort not to sigh or give any outward
indication that his blood temperature felt like it had just dropped by a good
thirty degrees or so in the span of a few seconds.  It had started when he had
accepted a contract from the Elbourne family after Charlotte was kidnapped by
the vampire Meier Link, a payment of twenty million if he could either bring
her back to them alive and unchanged by vampirism or peacefully put her soul to
rest if she had been transformed.  He hadn't been the only vampire-hunter hired
for the job, however, and soon he came into contact with Leila and the Markus
brothers.
     In the end, only he and Leila survived to explain the story to others.
Charlotte had not been the damsel in distress as everyone had feared but had
fallen in love with Meier and willingly went with him to try to reach Castle
Chaythe, the home of the legendary vampiress Carmilla.  The plan was for them
to use her shuttle to reach the City of the Night, a massive space-station that
hovered high over the planet where their love for one another could be allowed
to play out without interference from others.  Carmilla, however, had other
plans and had preyed on their hopes in order to try to reanimate her physical
body and return to corporeal existence to once again terrorize humanity.  The
Markus brothers had fallen one by one to various traps and ambushes along the
way and Charlotte had died in Meier's arms after being taken by Carmilla's evil
hunger for blood.
     D had allowed Meier to live, watching impassionately from a distance as
the vampire took Charlotte's body up with him to the shuttle and from there
fulfilled their dreams of leaving the planet together.  It had been a deeply
bitter experience, more so for Leila than him, and it had haunted them both as
they tried to make their way to a town where they would part ways.  At least
that had been the idea until Leila passed out from exhaustion in his arms just
as a sandstorm approached, forcing him to seek shelter.
     Being confined together in extremely close quarters for two days ended up
changing them both for the better.  Leila was finally able to extinguish the
dark fires of vengeance in her human heart, and it was with her help that he
was finally able to realize what it was to truly be human, to open his heart to
another and have his soul touched in return.  She had needed to seduce him to
finally make the full connection and the memories of the encounter were one of
the few that he continued to treasure to this day.
     Near the end as they held one another she had asked him to make a promise
to give other women the same chance that he had given her, to open up to them
and not refuse their willing offers of blood or the pleasure of their bodies.
Leila then went on to explain about human needs for comfort and reassurance
after going through truly dark times, such as the ordeal they had gone through
with Meier Link and Carmilla, and how she felt that he would be learning more
about his own humanity even as he helped others by reaching out to them.  At
the time he hadn't truly grasped the significance of the promise but made it
nonetheless, seeming to bring her still-wounded human spirit a great amount of
comfort and solace.
     "It's part of being human, D," she had explained in a soft voice as she
held him.  "It helps comfort us in a time of need.  It reminds us that we're
alive, that we haven't lost our hold on our humanity like so many of those
creatures out there.  We know we have needs they don't, needs they can never
have.  The need to touch and be touched, to hold and be held, to love and be
loved.  A need to make love, to take and be taken," she added softly as she
reached out to him once more....
     Many years and several encounters later, however, he was all but ready to
smash his skull against the nearest solid object whenever he thought about it.
Not that he disliked winding up in bed every so often with a woman he had just
freed from a vampire's clutches, but rather it was the social implications that
was driving him up the proverbial wall.  Word had circulated for centuries of
how he had never expressed an interest in women like that, even in situations
when it was made bluntly obvious as to what they wanted from him.  Not even a
month after the first night he had to fulfill his promise to Leila, however,
word of the encounter had spread with almost terrifying speed across much of
the landscape.  By year's end, literally every human village and town he came
across was aware of the change in his demeanor, attracting more than a little
casual interest from a number of women who were curious about him.
     He could handle being viewed with open suspicion because of his dunpeal
heritage, he could deal with the sometimes hateful comments of humans who were
intimidated by his silent and seemingly uncaring demeanor, and he could easily
cope with the truly vicious actions of some other vampire-hunters who wanted to
prove themselves by 'besting' D in a contest of one kind or another.  But what
he still had yet to figure out in the dozens of years since he had fallen in
love with Leila and made that promise to her was just how to handle the coy,
sultry, playful, and sometimes openly brazen attentions of women who wanted to
sleep with him just to see how accurate the gossip and rumors were.  Normally
that didn't bother him too much, as he simply chalked it up to the inherent
unpredictableness of women as a species, but every so often a less-than-comely
woman would try to cozy up to him and make a suggestive comment that would sour
his stomach at the mere *thought* of having to share a bed with her....
     His mind suddenly disconnected itself from the rest of his body for the
briefest of instants, akin to a phonograph needle skipping over a scratch in a
vinyl record as it spun past.  That prompted a mental blink as he tried to
refocus on his surroundings and figure out what had just happened.  He quickly
realized that the momentary disconnect had been caused by the sensation of the
mud-coated brush sliding across his manhood, ostensibly to continue to coat his
body with the slightly-revitalizing earthen mixture.
     "I see that got your attention," Coral purred with a faint smile as she
continued to paint his anatomy, glancing up at him with a fairly wicked twinkle
in her eyes.  "You looked like you were zoned out on me for a few moments, and
I was starting to worry that you were going to pass out or something.  I don't
suppose you'll tell me what's on your mind?"
     He simply closed his eyes, not wanting to converse with her unless he had
to.  Her demeanor continued to bother him the more he thought about it, knowing
that she was up to *something* but neither knowing nor truly wanting to know
what exactly it was.  He knew he would find out sooner or later, but for once
he found himself wishing that it would be later instead of sooner.
     His eyes snapped back open as she reached out to grab his testicles in a
gentle but firm grip, sending up all sorts of warning flags in his mind.  He
doubted that she would actually injure him, but the gesture still sent a primal
shiver of uncertainty and perhaps even fear down his spine.  One of the other
things he had learned from his encounter with Leila was that when a woman had
you by the genitals, even when it was with a warm or inviting touch, it was
definitely *not* the time to argue with her over anything.
     "D?" Coral said in a somewhat flat tone, her lips compressed into a thin
line of unamusement.  "You are irritating me now with that silence of yours.
As I said, I have no wish to hurt you, but let's get something understood right
now.  If I ask you a question, hunter?  I expect an answer from you.  Are we
clear on that?" she inquired in a neutral tone, giving him a gentle squeeze in
an unmistakable gesture of warning.
     "If you insist," D replied in an empty monotone.
     "Oh, I do, believe me," Coral purred softly as she very gently massaged
the sac of flesh.  "You'll find that things go.... much more smoothly if you
respond to me when I talk to you.  Pearl, too, though I doubt she will be of a
mind to ask as nicely for a response as I am.  Manners, you know," she added as
she gave him a final squeeze before letting go and taking a single step back to
resume her work.
     D was more than a little grateful when she fell silent after that, her
gaze becoming slightly unfocused and distant again as she started to coat his
thighs with the hydrated mud.  He wasn't sure what she was thinking about all
of a sudden, but it was still better than having to endure her questions about
his own thoughts and what he was like.
     Seeing that she didn't appear to be inclined to speak in the immediate
future, he closed his eyes again and turned his focus inward, trying to assess
his body's condition and response to being slowly ensconced in a veil of soil
and clay-like compounds.  The stinging of his sun-burnt skin was almost gone
now, as were a number of aches and pains in his shoulders.  The surface pain in
his chest was likewise receding at a slow but measured pace as the bruising was
allowed to heal.  The deeper muscle-related injuries continued to throb and
ache intensely, however, warning him that he was not anywhere close to being
out of the proverbial woods as far as his injuries went.
     In another time and place, he found himself thinking, he might have been
able to enjoy the mud-bath experience.  He had heard of it being done as a sort
of luxury skin-treatment in some of the more better-off human townships and
those communities built around thermal springs.  The more he thought about it,
the more intrigued he became by the possibilities.  Being immersed in a pit of
warm mud and later rinsing it off with a hot shower sounded far better than
burying himself in a dirt-filled pit and later wading through a lake or a pond
to get the worst of the trail-dust off.  Of course, he rarely had time for such
luxuries as there was almost always one more human down the road ahead he had
to rescue before having to confront her vampire captor....
     "There we go," Coral purred as she stood up and took a few steps back to
study the mud-covered half of D's body.  She giggled quietly to herself before
looking up at him, the faintest hints of a blush tinting her cheeks.  "Sorry,
D, but you look absolutely wretched covered in mud like that.  Still, it's the
best I can do under the circumstances.  Okay, time to take care of your back,"
she said as she walked around behind him, pausing only to scoop up another glob
of mud from the urn.  "How are you feeling?" she inquired before he felt the
cool sensation on his upper back.
     It took D a moment to decide how best to reply to her.  "Weary," he said
calmly, settling for a somewhat nondescript statement of truth.  He was indeed
more than a little exhausted and worn-out, but he still saw no reason to give
her any sort of indication as to just how depleted his strength was.
     "Anything specific, by chance?" she inquired absently as she used a series
of broad strokes to paint his skin.  She paused and glanced up at him as she
didn't hear an audible reply, her eyebrows arching up slightly as she realized
that his head was twisted to the side just enough to give her a truly dark look
out of the corner of his eye.  "Well?" she prodded him carefully.
     "Use your imagination," D allowed himself to say, letting the faintest
hint of contempt color his tone.  She was hardly the first one to play games
with him like this, and he found his level of tolerance to be sorely tested by
her continued casual demeanor.
     Coral seemed to be genuinely surprised by his response, blinking in mild
disbelief before tilting her head at a slight angle to study him.  "I'm not too
sure about that, D, as I can imagine an awful lot," she replied in a calm and
steady tone.  "I don't suppose you have anything specific you'd care to say?"
     He narrowed his eyes at her, suddenly getting the chilling feeling that
she wasn't intentionally feigning ignorance about his pain and suffering.  If
that were true, then it would mean that she was either a psychopath who simply
didn't care enough to notice or a mentally unbalanced individual who was quite
incapable of making the proper associations between cause and effect.  Or more
likely one who was dangerously casual about which associations she chose to
make....
     "D?" she said in a low tone, a dark snarl starting to form on her face as
he remained silent.  "Answer me."
     "What do you want from me?" D inquired, moderating his tone so that there
wasn't any hint of contempt or antagonism that could be detected.  He realized
that if she indeed was mentally unstable, then he would have to play along with
her little games until he figured out how to deal with her.... and how not to
accidentally step on any landmine issues that might set her off.
     "I said I'll explain later," she sighed quietly, seeming to withdraw just
slightly as she scooped up another brushful of mud and smeared it across his
upper back.  "Later tonight when I rinse the mud off of you.  It needs time to
set and dry out," she added absently.
     They both paused and glanced towards the door as it creaked loudly to let
the scantily-clad figure of Abelyne slip into the room.  She quickly crossed
the distance at a rapid pace, seeming to be in a haste for some reason.  "Is
something wrong, Abby?" Coral said in a concerned tone as she took a step back
from D.
     "April said the village elder is here to see you," the girl puffed as she
reached out to brace one hand against the support column D was chained to.  "I
think he just wants a formal meeting since you've got the title of nobility.
I didn't stop to ask April about the details," she added sheepishly.  "She just
asked me to find you while she entertains him since she's dressed and all."
     "Oh, yes, I would imagine he would be keenly interested in asking what I
plan on doing," Coral murmured to herself with a quiet sigh.  "I completely
forgot about that.  Oh, well," she sighed as she tossed the brush into the urn
and moved over to the half-empty basin of water.  "Give me a moment to wash up
and get dressed, and I'll be right up.  Sorry, D, I'll have to finish up your
back later," she added in what seemed to be a genuinely apologetic tone.
     Abelyne risked a quick glance at D's back before turning to look at her
mistress.  "Coral?" she said in an uneasy tone.  "If all you're doing is giving
him a mud-bath, I can finish it up for you while you're dealing with Mister
Largo," she offered.
     The baroness promptly froze in mid-motion before glancing over at her
youthful-looking slave.  "Abby?" she said in a dangerously calm tone before
stepping back and shaking the water from her hands.  "I'm not sure that would
be a good idea."
     "I can handle it," Abelyne assured her as she scampered forward to scoop
up Coral's dark purple dress.  She quickly unfolded it and snapped it once to
try to remove any trace of dust before kneeling down at Coral's feet, holding
the dress open for her to step into.  "I've done it for you and Pearl before,
so I know how to put it on smoothly enough.  That and I know you don't want it
to dry out before it's evened out."
     "Mmmm," Coral hummed quietly in a noncommittal tone as she stepped into
the dress, lightly resting one hand on Abelyne's shoulder for support as she
did so.  A look of sultry delight crossed her face for a brief moment as the
dress was slid up and across her skin, carefully tugged and tucked into place
before the zipper was snugly closed.  "Mmm, thank you, Abby," she purred as she
turned to give her a soft smile before leaning over her.  "You are such a good
girl...."
     Abelyne's eyes closed as she tilted her head back, accepting the gentle
kiss from her mistress.  "I'll take care of him for you," she promised in a
quiet, almost dreamy tone.  She yielded to a second, deeper kiss before opening
her eyes once again.  She carefully watched Coral's progress across the room
and out the door, exhaling very quietly as the metal door was closed with a
faintly ominous thump.
     She seemed to shake her head violently for a moment before she turned to
focus on D, absently reaching up to scratch the back of her left hand.  "You're
the vampire-hunter everyone was talking about earlier, aren't you?" she asked
in a low tone, suddenly no longer seeming to be as innocent and carefree as she
had a few moments ago.  "The one who killed Baron Winters."
     D regarded her carefully before parting his lips to speak.  "I am," he
replied in a perfectly neutral tone, wondering if this was some sort of trap or
attempt at deception on Coral's part.
     Abelyne slowly nodded her head in understanding.  "April said she thought
it was you," she said in an openly uneasy tone.  "I was.... busy earlier so she
came down to check on you instead.  I'm sorry about the sunlight," she added,
almost in a whimper as if she feared his wrath.  "I can't disobey Coral.  I
have to be a good girl for her."
     "I know," D said gently, figuring that the girl was very much under the
baroness' hypnotic influence.
     Abelyne cast a nervous glance towards the door before she quickly padded
over to the urn and picked up the brush, scooping out a large dollop of mud.
"How bad are you hurt?" she asked very quietly as she started to spread the
mixture across his back, picking up where Coral left off.
     D hesitated for a few moments, still suspicious of the conversation and
the motives behind it.  Part of him doubted it was scripted, as it would mean
that Coral would have to have been acting since the beginning.  The paranoid
part of his psyche, however, was still insisting that he couldn't trust her
just yet.  Maybe he would have reason to change that, but for now his sense of
caution would have to take precedence over his other instincts.  "Don't worry
about me," he spoke up in a calm and measured tone.
     The constant movement of the brush on his back seemed to pause for a few
moments before resuming.  "....D?" she finally spoke up, her voice little more
than a frightened whisper.  "I know I can't help you, but April might be able
to since Coral doesn't.... love her," she said after a noticeable pause.
     D twisted his head slightly, just enough to bring her into the very edge
of his peripheral vision.  He really didn't want to look at her directly given
her state of undress, but he still wanted to keep a relative eye on her for the
moment.  "What do you mean?" he prodded, hoping he had misunderstood her words.
     A slight frown tugged on his lips as the brush on his back started to
tremble before it was brought under control.  "Coral loves me," Abelyne said,
her voice still unsteady and almost inaudibly soft.  "She often lets me hold
her when we sleep.  She kisses me when I ask her to, but she hasn't kissed
April yet and won't let Pearl kiss her either.  I can't disobey Coral and I
can't help you, but April might be able to."
     D closed his eyes for a brief moment and tried not to either snarl or
shudder with revulsion.  It was obvious that she was very much under Coral's
charm, perhaps not so much her hypnotic powers but simply the innately powerful
charisma that most vampires had.  It was that kind of 'natural' charm that made
it all too easy to bind humans to their will, wooing them as one would another
he wished to possess as a lover.  Thus blinded, their victims came to believe
that they did love their captors, willingly offering themselves in every way
conceivable in order to please them.  Rescuing humans who had fallen under such
an enchantment was always the hardest on him, having to first endure their rage
at having their 'beloved' taken from them, then trying to soothe the grief and
horror of realization once they were able to come to their senses.  However, he
could remember where more than one human was beyond hope of recovery, little
more than empty shells of broken spirits who continued to breathe but no longer
experienced any true life or emotions in the ruined husks that was all that
remained of them and their humanity.
     "You shouldn't worry about it," D spoke up in as gentle a tone as he could
manage.  "The business I have with Coral and Pearl isn't a danger to either you
or your friend.  You should stay back and not get involved in it."
     "I'm not worried about myself," Abelyne replied softly as she continued to
paint lower.  "April.... isn't happy here.  I know I shouldn't say such things
as Coral won't like it, but.... can.... can you find a way to take April with
you when you leave here?" she suddenly blurted out, her quiet words spilling
forth in a torrent that was almost incomprehensible.  "I know Coral loves me,
but I'm worried what will happen to April if Coral doesn't love her too...."
     "Don't worry," D said calmly, the lingering doubts in his mind suddenly
evaporating like so much fog beneath the sun.  "I'll look into it when I can."
     It seemed like an inane thing to be saying, calmly discussing the rescue
of a young girl from a pair of dunpeals while he was currently stark-naked and
not too far removed from death's doorstep while he lay bound in a dungeon by
literally unbreakable metal chains.  It was still something he felt he had to
do, however, compelled by honor to try to reassure an obviously frightened and
enslaved young girl.  Yet another innocent at the mercy of a vampire....
     The image of the carriage exploding in front of him suddenly returned to
his mind, turning the pit of his stomach into an icy void.  He had tried to
save them too, only to watch in horror as they were mercilessly slaughtered
almost literally in his face.  He would have gone first to lead them out had he
not been uneasy with his knowledge of the precise boundaries of the minefield.
Letting Celene go ahead of him had not sat well with him at first, but he felt
that he could trust her knowledge of the terrain.  Indeed, she had very much
justified his decision to trust her after skillfully navigating the minefield
without incident, but he wondered just how different the scenario would have
been had he been in the lead instead of following the carriage when they made
their approach to the supposedly abandoned archway that none of them said they
could ever remember being used or manned....
     Enough, he told himself as he closed his eyes.  There was nothing he could
do about the carriage and its passengers now.  Perhaps others might have found
a measure of peace and comfort in the knowledge that they most likely didn't
suffer and that they died as free men and women instead of slaves of a despotic
tyrant like Simon Winters.  All that was left for him to do was continue his
seemingly endless work of trying to bring an end to the menace his kind posed
to the innocents of the world.  His kind....
     We are bound in blood, you and I, a voice rose up from the dark depths of
his mind, taking on the slender and distinctly cold beauty of a countess he had
killed some time ago.  How can you betray your own kind like this, D?  Yes, my
flesh and yours are not of the same lineage, but we are both kin in blood!  You
claim we are the ones who are blinded and uncaring, but what do you see in the
mirror when you look at yourself?  Does the kiss of the sun not burn you?  Are
your teeth not sharp?  Is your thirst not for the blood of others?  How can you
justify slaughtering your brothers and sisters like this, D?  *HOW?*
     He was spared the ordeal of having to answer the ghosts of his past by the
unmistakable feeling of another instantaneous sensory disconnect, almost as if
his mind had stopped to hiccup for a brief moment.  It took a moment to realize
that it was caused by another tickling feeling from the brush, only this time
it was inside his thighs and dangerously high up.
     Abelyne froze in mid-motion as D turned his head to look at her out of the
corner of his eye.  "I'm sorry," she apologized as her cheeks started to turn
bright crimson, "But you need to be completely covered by the mud for it to
work properly.  Please don't be mad at me, Coral will be upset if I don't do
this the right way...."
     D just shook his head gently.  "I was just surprised, that's all," he said
quietly, turning back around to stare over at his equipment in the distance.
He blinked hard as the thought sprang to mind, wondering if she had enough
free-will to retrieve something for him.  The idea was dismissed almost just as
quickly as he realized that he didn't have anything among his gear that could
possibly have any effect or impact on either tempered titanium chains or their
adamantium cores.
     The lockpicks? he suddenly thought as he cast a quick glance up at his
wrist.  His second moment of hopeful inspiration was crushed just as easily as
the first when he realized that there wasn't any sort of locking mechanism that
could be finessed, the bands held together by a series of bolts that appeared
to require special tools to unscrew.  Or at least tools tough enough to not be
shattered by the torque when the titanium bolts started to resist any such
force being applied.
     The other sets are titanium, the symbiot's voice suddenly spoke up in his
mind as he remembered its words earlier, but the ones here were replaced with
carbon-tempered iron.  You *might* be able to pop them if you had your full
strength back....
     "There, all done," Abelyne said as she put the brush in the urn and took
a few steps back, casting a critical eye on both her handiwork and Coral's.
She paused for a moment before stepping around to examine his front as well,
making sure that the mud was both applied evenly and smoothed out so as not to
crumble easily once it dried.
     The faintest of inaudible sighs rose up from D's throat as he noticed her
gaze lowering down to his midsection, resulting in a fairly moderately blush
springing to her cheeks.  It was not the first time a young girl had been given
the chance to study his naked body, even as unintentional as was the case now,
and in almost every case the result had consisted of two things: a blush of one
degree or another, and a significant rise in their levels of sexual desire.
The former was of no concern to him, as it was a simple and completely natural
biological reaction to a number of emotions.  He supposed that it should have
equally applied to the latter, as it too was a natural reaction.  But for all
that he was wary of playful women and how dangerous they could be, he knew that
the level of danger was all but dwarfed by the level posed by a playful woman
who was also in an amorous mood.
     She glanced up at him and the blush promptly tripled in intensity, making
the sharpness of her blue eyes and the golden-yellow of her hair stand out in
starker contrast.  "Coral should be back soon," she managed to murmur as she
turned to look towards the door, reaching up to rub her left wrist without
thinking about it.
     D said nothing as he closed his eyes, more out of a sense of offering her
a semblance of modesty than anything.  She seemed to be comfortable with her
state of undress, though he couldn't be sure how much of that was the influence
Coral had over her.  That wasn't to suggest he wasn't appreciative of her body
in a purely objective sense, as she was quite beautiful despite her dangerously
youthful appearance, but there was a time and a proper place for such things
and he was all too aware that he was in neither.
     "Are you alright?" she suddenly spoke up, her soft voice sounding worried.
     He opened his eyes to glance up at her before nodding slightly.  "I am,"
he assured her, not wishing to worry her with his current situation.  He knew
he was a far cry from being 'alright' in any sense of the word, but he knew
that he was very slowly edging back from the abyss of oblivion, one tiny step
at a time.  Already he could feel the restorative effects of the mud seeping
into his energy-starved body.  Granted it was not a truly significant amount,
as large amounts of elemental energy like that could only be drawn from contact
with the ground as a single, unified entity, but like drops of rain into a
water barrel for collection every little bit did help in the long run.
     Abelyne cast a quick glance towards the closed door before she hesitantly
edged closer to him until she was close enough to touch him.  "I'll.... I'll
ask April if she can find a way to come down here to talk to you herself," she
said, her voice slipping into a frightened whisper as if she feared being seen
or heard talking to him.  "Please, D, don't worry about me, but you have to
take her with you.  You have to," she pleaded as she looked into his eyes, her
own eyes seeming to be ready to fill with tears.  "She's not happy here and I'm
worried about her...."
     "I'll do what I can," D said calmly, looking at her and trying to project
a feeling of comfort and solidarity.  On the inside, however, he was trying not
to cringe at the thought of being anywhere close to a crying woman.  It was bad
enough that he didn't understand women's emotions when they were in a normal
frame of mind and understood them even less when they were crying, but there
was the added danger of the fact that tears burned his skin as if they were
droplets of holy water.  "You have my word of honor," he added.
     His words seemed to reassure her greatly, soothing the subtle trembles in
her body and letting a faint smile touch her lips.  "Thank you," she murmured
as she started to reach up to touch him.  She froze as she heard the door start
to open, quickly taking a step back and lowering her arms to her sides.
     D felt a faint chill course through his blood as Coral returned, holding
a slender silver goblet in her gloved hand.  She seemed to be a content mood as
she calmly crossed the floor to stand next to her slave, absently reaching out
with her other hand to caress the back of Abelyne's neck.
     "I just finished," Abelyne spoke up calmly, a somewhat hazy and dreamy
look returning to her eyes.  D wasn't quite sure if her shift in mood was faked
or not, but he had the suspicion that it partly due to being exposed once again
to Coral's innate charisma.
     "Mmm, have you now?" Coral purred as she slowly walked around D to examine
him from every angle.  "I see that you have," she said demurely after a moment,
bringing a smile to Abelyne's face that soured D's stomach.  There were only
two instances where he could remember seeing that kind of smile on a human's
face before, and the first was right after they had injected themselves with
any number of mind- and mood-altering drugs.  The second, of course, was when
they were dominated by a vampire and were basking in the satisfaction of having
pleased their master to one degree or another.
     "Very well done, my lovely," Coral murmured softly as she came back around
D and moved to stand close to Abelyne, leaning down to nuzzle her cheek gently.
     It took D a moderate effort not to visibly react to the tableau taking
shape in front of him.  The look on Abelyne's face was nothing short of bliss,
tilting her head slightly so that Coral's lips brushed her cheek further back
towards her ear.  A hand reached up to very lightly caress Coral's neck with an
almost feathery touch, very gently guiding her lips down to the side of her
throat where the scars were.
     Coral kissed her throat tenderly before lifting her head up, twisting her
neck just enough to glance over at D.  A truly chilling smile formed on her
lips as she noticed D's obvious unease with the scene.  She then deliberately
moved around to stand behind her slave, still leaning over to let her lips roam
up and down the faintly pulsing expanse of Abelyne's bared throat.
     "Coral?" Abelyne whispered very softly, still caressing the side of her
mistress' head in an unmistakable gesture of gentle urging.  Her other hand
slid up to brush against her bare breast, gliding a single fingertip around the
dark circle of her areola in a deliberate motion.
     Coral raised an eyebrow as she saw D's face darken considerably, almost as
if he was daring her to take the young girl on the spot.  The faintest of dark
smiles brushed her lips as she allowed her vampiric nature to assert itself,
elongating her vampiric fangs and infusing her corneas with a soft golden glow.
A simple tilt of her chin brought the points of her fangs into contact with the
girl's throat, very lightly raking across the skin without breaking either the
soft flesh or eye-contact with D.
     Only those with a vampire's super-sensitive hearing could detect the very
soft and subtle creaking of the chains as D became tense, his hands curled into
tight fists as he began to unconsciously strain against the titanium bonds that
imprisoned him.  The faintest of blue glows became discernible in his eyes as
his vampiric half started to assert itself, barely held in check by his will.
     "Coral?" Abelyne whispered again, her nipples visibly tightened from the
excitement and anticipation.  Her fingertip ceased the slow swirling motion and
moved up slightly higher up, gently rolling and pinching the hard and throbbing
nub between her thumb and forefinger.
     The baroness chuckled very softly to herself as she leaned closer to her
slave, letting the softness of her lips brush across the girl's throat.  "Not
now, my sweet," she said in a very quiet tone.  "I still have things I need to
do, and we both know business has to come before pleasure.  But later tonight,
I promise you," she added as she moved up to kiss her ear, her ungloved hand
sliding around to gently squeeze both Abelyne's fingers and the nipple captured
between them.
     The attention seemed to send a shudder through the young girl, almost as
if in a gentle orgasm.  "Please?" she whimpered, her lips tugging down in an
almost heart-rending look of disappointment that only D could see.
     Another soft chuckle rose up from Coral's throat as she leaned back, her
hand leaving Abelyne's breast to touch her chin.  "Later, my sweet," she purred
as she tilted her chin so that their eyes could meet.  "Just think of the wait
as adding the sweetness of anticipation.  You did a wonderful job with the mud-
bath which saved me a bit of work, so don't think I'm not grateful.  I'll make
it up to you later tonight," she purred in a honeyed tone as she leaned forward
once again.  "I promise...."
     Perhaps Coral might have been able to hear the soft snarl of contempt and
anger that rose up from D's throat, but it was most likely drowned out by the
volume of the hum of pure pleasure Abelyne made as Coral kissed her, a deep
melding of their lips that seemed to take both women's breath away.  D found
the sight to be almost physically nauseating, not because it was two women who
were kissing but because he knew that Coral was taking full and open advantage
of the young girl.
     "Go on," Coral murmured softly as she edged back and stood up straight,
her gloved hand still carefully holding the silver goblet well away from their
bodies.  "The sooner I take care of this means the sooner I can come see you
again, my sweet...."
     "Okay," Abelyne replied, giving her a dreamy smile before she turned and
left the room, seeming to shiver slightly for no apparent reason.  D watched
her carefully as she left, able to catch the way she started to rub her left
hand just as she left the room.  The door was gently closed behind her a moment
later, the soft metallic sound seeming to echo unusually loud in the room.
     "Like I said," Coral said in a somewhat sultry voice as she took a few
steps closer to D, "Good girls like her are so hard to find these days.  I take
it you're like my sister and don't approve of such tender things?" she inquired
lightly, gently swirling the contents of the goblet around.
     "I don't think your sister and I have anything in common," D managed to
reply without snarling or baring his fangs.  The faint blue glow in his eyes
faded a moment later as he got a firmer control on his darker half.  "And no,
I don't approve of anyone preying on innocent young girls, even under the false
guise of tenderness or love."
     Coral seemed to wince slightly at the rebuke.  "Oh, such harsh words," she
sighed, apparently genuinely disturbed by his comment.  "I've taken good care
of Abby since she came into my possession."
     "Humans are not possessions," D stated, giving her a flat look.
     "Odd, they've been ruled by the nobility since longer than any of us can
remember," she pointed out, making a gesture with her goblet.  "And I'll bet it
was that way long before you were born or even an idea.  Just how old are you,
anyway?" she inquired absently as she took a careful sip from the goblet.
     D narrowed his eyes even further before replying.  "I don't remember."
     "Come now, D," she chided him, giving him a faintly disappointed look.
     D simply shook his head, knowing that he was telling the absolute truth.
He had long ago lost track of the ancient calendar used to record his birth,
the days and years and even centuries having slipped past him in the interim
largely without notice.  His present awareness of time consisted only of the
turning of the seasons, adjusting his equipment and supplies based on what the
weather patterns were likely to be in the months ahead.
     "That's sad," Coral observed with a faint sigh.  "I'd almost go so far as
to say depressing as well.  Okay, so maybe I'd be just as depressed to see the
years rack up after the second or third century, but still.... you can't know
where you're going to go in the future if you don't know where you've been in
the past.  Or when," she added lightly.
     D knew that the wisdom in her words was quite correct, and had he not come
to believe his future lie only in the embrace of oblivion he might have kept a
better eye on where he had been so he could look forward to where he otherwise
might be going.  It was, he reflected a moment later, probably the reason he
had given up trying to reconcile the old calendar to the one most humans used
these days.  If neither the future nor the past mattered, what use was it to
waste the energy being concerned with keeping abreast of what arbitrary point
in time you were at between the beginning and the ultimate end?
     "In any case," Coral said conversationally as she edged closer to him,
"Abby was right about the village idiot simply wanting to say hi now that I'm
the one who rules the region.  He said the crop fields were a little shaken up
from the collapse of the castle and that everything was now.... how did he put
it?" she mused as she briefly stared off into empty space.  "Dustier than his
wife's sense of humor, or something to that effect.  I'll have to admit I had
a bit on my mind and wasn't paying close attention to the rambling old fool,
but he did give me a nice bottle of wine as a gift.  Care for a taste?" she
added as she held the silver goblet up to his lips.
     D cast a wary glance down at the amethyst fluid as it rippled slightly in
the goblet.  A very subtle sniff indicated that it was a rather fragrant wine
and didn't appear to be tainted with anything.  He figured that it was safe to
drink after noticing her sip it earlier, but the hair on the back of his neck
was still at rigid attention.
     "I'll pass," D said calmly as he glanced up at her.
     "D, don't be such a sourpuss," Coral admonished him gently as she drew the
goblet back.  She glanced down and gently swirled the wine around before taking
a measured sip.  "Mmm.  It's probably no more than three years old, but it has
the most wonderful aftertaste to it.  Try it," she urged softly as she brought
the goblet up to his lips again.
     Several moments passed in silence as D kept his gaze on her, not making
any motion to accept.  The edges of her lips started to tug down slightly as
the silence went on, her mood slowly darkening at his continued resistance.
     "D?" she finally said calmly with a faint undercurrent of disappointment
to her tone.  "What's the problem?  You do drink wine, don't you?"
     "I'm naked and chained down in a dark dungeon," D said in a matter-of-fact
tone that was both empty of emotion and flatter than the surface of an anvil.
"I'm not inclined to do you any favors or otherwise play games at the moment."
     A soft sigh rose up from Coral's chest as she took a step back, absently
taking another sip of the wine.  "It's not like I have a choice, you know," she
pointed out, not seeming to be apologetic in the slightest.  "Pearl likes to
play to a captive audience when she shows off her skills with weapons, and I'm
pretty sure turning you loose without the proper restraints on your activities
would be unhealthy for both her and I.  You do want to kill me now that I'm the
Baroness, correct?" she prodded carefully.
     "Unless you change your ways, it may come to that," D said as he tried not
to fantasize too hard about being able to run her through with his sword right
now.  He knew that he would indeed have to kill her at some point in the near
future, especially if she seemed ready to continue her father's cruel ways.
     "I'm not sure what you mean by that," Coral admitted with another casual
sip of the wine, "But I'm still getting the feeling that you don't like me for
some reason.  And believe me when I say everyone knows what happens to nobles
whom you don't like," she added in a faint tone of both warning and unease.
     D raised an eyebrow in dry and remote amusement at her words.  "It's hard
to like someone who uses children as slaves and abuses others for pleasure or
amusement," he pointed out in a flat tone.  "Many would call that evil."
     "Oh, not this argument again," Coral sighed in open resignation.  "D, you
know as well as I do that things like 'evil' and 'good' are both very relative
exercises in judgment.  Some of us think what you do is evil, hunting down and
killing your own kind in a one-dunpeal attempt at genocide, but I'm sure you
believe that what you're doing is good, right?"
     "To kill without cause is evil," D countered quietly, giving her a level
look.  "To harm innocents is evil.  Righting an ancient wrong and freeing the
world from the darkness of our tainted blood, however, is not evil."
     Coral's pale eyebrows arched up slightly.  "Righting an ancient wrong?"
she echoed, seeming to be slightly amused by the notion.  "Oh, do tell."
     D sighed on the inside, knowing that it would be extremely difficult to
explain things to someone who hadn't studied the ancient archaeological records
of what the world was like ten thousand years ago, before the rise of vampires
as the dominant life-form on the planet.  His father had collected a number of
artifacts and relics from that era and as a child D had found them to be more
than a little intriguing.  They had all been destroyed when his father's palace
fell during the Blood Wars but the idle fascination with them had remained with
D during his adult life, pausing in his journeys for a few moments when time
permitted to study an ancient ruin or historical area whenever he passed by.
     "Surely you know about the red moon," D spoke up, trying to get a feel for
both her historical knowledge and how much interest she had in discussion and
debate.  He wasn't about to waste his breath if all she wanted to do was toy
with him, but she was indeed open to negotiation about his fate then what did
he have to lose at this point?
     She gave him a disturbing smile as she moved over to the control levers,
pulling the one that opened the ceiling hatch.  D cast a glance upwards as it
opened, blinking in surprise as the mirrored surface of the tunnel was promptly
flooded with a dull crimson light.
     "The red moon," Coral said with open amusement.  "Yes, I think I've seen
it before.  A big red thing in the sky, right?  Larger than the big white thing
in the sky?  Is this what you're talking about?" she added with a gesture of
her goblet to the distorted reflection visible halfway up the tunnel.
     D gave her a classic 'we are not amused' look before carefully drawing in
a deep breath to speak.  "Ten thousand years ago, the red moon didn't exist in
the evening sky," he explained slowly.  "It wasn't until it was summoned here
from another world that it began to influence the humans, corrupting a number
of them into mutants and allowing vampires to emerge from the shadows."
     "Oh?" Coral said, turning to give him a surprised look.  "How interesting.
I'll admit my knowledge of history probably pales in comparison to yours, but
what you've lived through would mostly qualify as ancient history in my book,"
she observed with a chuckle and a twinkle of amusement in her pale yellow eyes.
"Go on," she added as she tilted her head at a slight angle.
     "The world was reshaped, but not just because of the new moon's gravity,"
D continued in a weary tone.  "The vampires quickly dominated the planet and
enslaved the human survivors, thus beginning ten thousands years of pain and
unjust suffering.  The summoning of the moon was no accident, and thus neither
was the aftermath of evil that covered the world in darkness that continues to
this day.  That was the injustice, the ancient wrong."
     "Ahh," she replied with a slow nod, a faint hint of a smile touching her
lips.  "So you simply seek to undo what is done, then?  Turn back the clock by
ten thousand years and destroy all that our kind has accomplished since the
beginning?  Bring an entire race to oblivion," she said slowly as she advanced
on him, one measured step at a time.  "And that will.... what, bring back the
ancient humans?  Undo their so-called pain and misery?"
     D narrowed his eyes dangerously at her as she stopped in front of him,
barely less than a foot away.  "What is done, is done," he said in a low tone,
unconsciously straining at the chains.  "I can't undo the deeds of the past,
but I can try to make sure the evil of the past remains there.  This world has
suffered beneath the yoke of vampires long enough, it needs to be freed once
and for all."
     "Evil of the past," she purred very softly, taking another sip of wine.
"How quaint.  Tell me, hunter, did my father have anything to do with this....
summoning of the moon?  Was he responsible for the reshaping of the world or
this veil of darkness you believe we are all living under?"
     "Of the moon, no," D replied calmly.  "But he spread his own darkness to
those he enslaved and murdered.  How many innocents suffered and died because
of him, either by his own hand or by those who followed him?  How many others
have likewise suffered and died because of those just like him, drained of
blood to slake the hunger of vampires and cast aside like so much garbage when
they were of no further use?"
     "Countless, I would imagine," Coral replied with a shrug of indifference.
"However, that seems to be the natural order of things in life, the proverbial
food-chain.  Surely you know what I'm talking of, the predator and the prey.
It is as old as life itself, the strong shall live and the weak shall die.  I
see that philosophy bothers you," she added as she saw D's lip curl back before
he could control the dark emotions raging inside him.
     "That works for animals," D spat back, almost literally spitting as he
continued to reign in his temper.  "It works for those who are innocent, who
don't know any better and don't have the capacity to comprehend concepts beyond
hunger and thirst.  But humans are not animals, they are every bit as sentient
and intelligent as vampires imagine themselves to be."
     A faint chuckle rose up as Coral regarded him carefully.  "You might want
to rethink that last one," she pointed out in an openly amused tone.  "Oh, I've
met some fiendishly smart humans before, trust me, but the majority I've met
are about as intelligent as a rock in a box.  It often makes me wonder how they
managed to exist before we came along, but that's a topic for debate at a later
time.  I'm sorry, D, but I guess we won't be seeing eye-to-eye on this one for
quite some time," she apologized with a shrug and another sip of her wine.
     "However," she added as she raised the goblet to peer over the rim at him,
"That doesn't mean we can't behave like civilized people and simply agree to
disagree.  You are, after all, as noble as I am in spite of our births to human
mothers.  Not that I'm saying having human blood is a bad thing," she allowed
as she lowered the goblet and held up her ungloved hand, studying it carefully.
"After all, that is what allows us to exist in the sun without turning into a
pile of ash after a minute of casual exposure.  Which is good, as I happen to
like watching sunrises.  It's quite pretty the way it turns the sky all pink
and orange like that, don't you agree?"
     "Maybe," D said quietly, suddenly aware of a change in his condition.  The
reflected light of the red moon continued to shine down him, focused by the way
the surface mirrors were set and concentrating the resulting lunar radiance on
his mud-covered body.  Perhaps it was just his imagination, but it felt like he
was starting to heal faster on the inside now that he was being bathed in the
blood-colored light.  "But I'm not exactly a morning person," he added quickly,
deciding it might be best if he were to stall her so that he could spend more
time in the moonlight.
     "Oh, the irony," Coral murmured as she shook her head slightly.  "Imagine
that, a dunpeal who isn't a morning person.  Not that either I or my sister are
morning people either," she admitted lightly with a soft smile, "But it's still
the thought that counts.  How's the mud?"
     "Drying out," D said, casting a glance at his arms.  "It should fully cure
in another hour or two."
     "Mmm," she hummed absently as she took another sip of wine.  "I had hoped
it would dry faster.  Oh, well, no matter, I'll peel it off of you once it sets
properly.  You know, D," she said in a faintly hesitant tone, prompting a wary
look from him, "Scarecrow look aside, you really don't look too bad like that.
I'm almost tempted to ask to borrow the lithograph from the village.  Oh, I'm
just teasing you," she sighed as she caught the look on his face.  "Honestly,
D, you need to relax a little."
     It took him a considerable amount of effort not to sigh or shake his head
at her casualness.  "Under the present circumstances," he said in a perfectly
neutral tone, "That's going to be more than a little difficult."
     "Mmm," she replied softly, seeming to be more of a grunt than a hum.  She
took an absent sip of the wine before pausing in mid-motion, starting off into
empty space to think for a moment.  "D?" she said as she refocused and looked
up at him.  "How about if I make you a deal?"
     "I'm listening," he assured her, wondering what she was thinking.  He was
fairly sure that she was a borderline psychopath who genuinely didn't make the
connection between her actions and the sufferings of others.  Part of him still
thought that it was deliberate callousness on her part, either because of her
upbringing or her own dark tendencies, but in any case he knew that she was far
more of a danger to both him and the humans than someone like Pearl or even the
late Baron Winters.
     "I will unchain you and let you do as you please," Coral said in a very
slow and deliberate manner, "But only if you promise me two things.  First, you
can't try to hurt or act against either me or my sister in any fashion.  That
means you can't kill us," she added in a pointed tone.
     "And the second condition?" D prompted in a moderate tone, knowing that he
couldn't possibly agree to her 'deal' because of the first point alone.  While
he might indeed be able to spare her life depending on how she treated others,
there was very little hope of redemption for a twisted soul like Pearl.  As 
long as she continued to delight and revel in the pain of others, she had no
place in this world and was thus needed to be returned to the abyss of oblivion
that she and her kind had come from so long ago.  Her kind and his.
     "Second, you can't leave here or try to escape me," she said, giving him
a soft smile that chilled his blood.  "Oh, I'll take you out with me whenever
the mood strikes, but I can't have you just blithely running off or otherwise
left to your own devices and machinations.  You'd be a safety hazard," she
added in a stage whisper, her eyes twinkling with impish amusement.
     "You don't ask much, do you?" D observed dryly, prompting a very quiet
giggle from the other dunpeal that failed to amuse him in the slightest.
     She shrugged and crossed her arms, absently swirling around the last bit
of wine in her goblet.  "Try to consider it from my point of view," she replied
with casual indifference.  "If I let you loose without those two promises, you
will probably try to kill me before hunting down Pearl as well.  And even if
you don't, you'll still leave here to keep killing our kind.  I'm afraid I just
can't let that happen, D," she added with a sigh that almost seemed regretful.
     "What makes you think I won't do that even if I promise you?" he prodded
quietly.  He was fairly sure by now that the concentrated light from the red
moon was indeed helping him recover.  He wasn't sure why it was doing so, but
he figured that he would have ample time later to try to come up with some sort
of answer that was both plausible and easily tested.
     "You will," Coral purred in a honeyed tone, giving him a sultry smile as
she approached close to him.  "I know you, D, and I know about your reputation.
A man of unshakable honor, many have said.  Not once in my research did I ever
hear even the slightest hint of a rumor that you ever broke a promise made in
good faith.  I know you'll keep your word if you give it to me in this case,"
she breathed, leaning over to let her lips brush against his ear.  "I know I
would be putting not just my life at stake by trusting you like that, but my
sister's as well.  And you know what, D?  I do trust your word that much."
     "I'm flattered," D said in a hollow tone devoid of any emotion.
     "Mmmm, I'll bet you are," she murmured huskily.  She paused for a moment
before edging back, giving him a curious look before craning her head to look
up at the crimson-tinted tunnel above them.  "Oooh, that feels weird.  Do you
feel anything, D?" she inquired, giving him a faintly concerned look.
     "I'm not sure," D replied in a measured tone.  "It's hard to feel much in
this sort of situation."
     "We can solve that, you know," she prodded him gently, reaching out with
her ungloved hand to tilt his chin back slightly.  "All I'm asking you is to
promise me you won't hurt me or Pearl, and that you won't try to leave me."
     "I'll think about it," D said calmly, giving her a look that was extremely
difficult for her to read or interpret.
     She sighed heavily to herself in open resignation, her breath brushing his
cheek in a gentle exodus of warm air.  "Very well, D, I'll let you think about
it.  I don't see why you would need to, however, as I really am not asking very
much of you at all.  Or am I that abhorrent to you that you wish only to kill
me and be done with it?" she prodded in a slightly uncertain tone, as if she
wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.
     "Let's just say that actions speak louder than words," D spoke up calmly.
"Evil is as evil does.  Should you continue to do evil, then I will indeed seek
to strike you down like all the others."
     "I see," Coral replied very quietly in a subdued tone.  "I don't suppose
there's anything I can do to change your mind?"
     "There is," D said as he gave her a piercing look.  "Simply do no evil."
     "I see we're back to the discussion about what constitutes evil," she said
in a neutral tone as she stepped away from him.  "Apparently we're going to
have to sit down together at some point and iron it out between us until we're
both on in agreement about what truly defines 'evil' in this world."
     D said nothing as he closed his eyes and exhaled softly, not wanting to
continue the discussion.  He had lived his entire life with the understanding
of what the differences were between good and evil, and he strongly doubted
that she would have anything to say that was either new to him or was valid
enough to make him sit back and re-examine his own values.
     "Very well, hunter," she said in a faintly cool tone, "We shall speak of
this another time then.  I shall return once the mud has set," she said as she
moved past him.
     The sound of her footsteps remained awfully close, prompting D to open his
eyes and glance over to where she was moving.  "Coral," he spoke up quickly as
he saw her reaching for the lever that would close the ceiling hatch.
     "Mmm?" she inquired with a faint hum as she glanced over at him, one hand
resting on the lever.
     "Would you leave that open for me?" he said gently after a brief pause to
decide how best to phrase things.  He was about to say more when she jerked on
the lever, closing the hatch and cutting off the glow of the red moon.
     "Make those promises to me first, D," she said in a faintly edged tone as
she turned away from him and headed for the door.  "Then we can talk about what
kind of.... favors I can do for you."
     D said nothing as she left the room.  As he expected, the door made a soft
creaking noise as it shut, followed by a loud click as the locking mechanism
was engaged from the other side.  Sighing quietly, he turned his focus inward
and closed his eyes, acutely aware of the subtle emphasis she had put on the
word 'favors' moments ago.
     <D?> it spoke up after the room was deathly silent for a few moments.
     "You must stay quiet," D murmured softly.  "The room may be monitored."
     <It's a dungeon, D,> it scoffed quietly.  <Besides, I checked earlier and
I'm not sensing any sort of electrical devices anywhere around here.  Look, I
don't know if you've started to pick up on this, but I'm pretty sure that your
lovely captor is, shall we say, missing a few buttons.  And I'm not talking
about yesterday's blouse, either,> it added dryly.  <Damn, those were some nice
breasts out on display when she decked you.  Not that you would have noticed or
anything, but still.  I wouldn't mind giving those beauties a taste-test....>
     "Quiet," D growled, more out of a simple reflex than actual irritation.
     <Just listen for a few, okay?> it sighed.  <Maybe I'm missing something,
but Coral doesn't sound like she's playing with a full deck.  Either that or
her blood is cold enough to make a snake's blood in the dead of winter seem to
be warm in comparison.  Pearl's just evil to the core, but Coral has some very
serious issues.  If I were you, D, I'd worry more about her than her sister.>
     A very quiet grunt of agreement rose up from D's throat, knowing that if
the thing in his hand had picked up on it as well then it wasn't just his own
perception and judgment reaching that conclusion.
     <Also, in case you hadn't noticed, she's working that hypnosis power of
hers pretty hard,> it continued, causing D to open his eyes and glance up at
his hand.  His left hand, he suddenly realized with a hard blink.
     "How so?" he inquired carefully.
     <That's.... a good question,> it admitted.  <I'm not quite sure what it is
or how it works, but my nerves have been going haywire whenever she uses that
voice.  You know, the slinky, sexy, come hither and I'll please you if you'll
please me first tone.  It's hard to miss, really.  Well, maybe you could miss
it as you tend to ignore women who try to cuddle up....>
     "Enough," he muttered.  "I know what you mean.  Can you counteract it?"
     <Er, in case you hadn't noticed,> it replied in a somewhat tart tone, <Her
wily wills have been affecting *me* and not you.  Notice that your hand isn't
itching like everyone else's when she gets all lovey-dovey?>
     "How bad is it?" he inquired, suddenly leery at the prospect of having the
symbiot fall under her sway and start working against him.
     <Hah, please,> it chuckled quietly.  <Believe me when I say that you'll be
putty in her hands from normal feminine charms long before she'll be able to
dominate me with her will.  After all, you've never been able to do so, right?
And don't tell me you've never tried before, either,> it admonished him.
     "Let me know if you encounter any difficulty resisting her," D instructed
as he closed his eyes again.  "I'll see if I can change her focus.  As I said,
you need to stay silent and undetected until I need you."
     <Yeah, yeah,> it sighed quietly.  <So I take it you're going to try to do
something about April and Abelyne, then?  April was down here earlier when you
were five-sixths unconscious, by the way, and she didn't appear to be under
Coral's dominion.  Or at least not as bad as Abby is, poor thing.  She's cute
as hell, though, you have to admit.  Oh, for a taste of such sweetness...>
     D ignored it as it prattled on quietly to itself, no doubt trying to cheer
him up with the reminder of its presence.  Not that it wasn't working, as D was
extremely grateful it was with him.  The commentary could be dispensed with,
but for once in quite awhile D was more than willing to put up with it so long
as it didn't reveal itself to anyone else.  He could handle being tortured, or
at least up to a certain degree, but the thought of being unable to protect it
should it be discovered galled him far more than the thought of Coral feeding
on the crimson nectar in Abelyne's veins.  For all that it annoyed him on an
almost constant basis, the symbiot was more than just a powerful and useful
ally.  It was quite literally a part of him now, and one that he would just as
soon not have taken from him.
     A muted grumble rose up from his chest as he thought of Abelyne and Coral.
The girl was clearly enchanted by her mistress' vampiric aura, as nobody in
their right mind would willingly seek to have their blood taken from them like
that, or at least not with such excitement and fervor.  A number of women had
eagerly offered him their blood in the past, mostly as thanks for saving them
and sometimes even out of genuine curiosity, but to a woman they had all been
wary of the pain that would result of his acceptance.  And with good reason, as
a majority had confessed afterwards that they wouldn't have done so had they
known just how bad it would hurt.
     The dark memories surged up from the depths of his mind without warning.
The pain in Doris' blood as he fed from her, the first time he had ever dared
to take blood from a human before.  She had cried out when he pierced her but
tried to keep the noise to herself, the pain audible only as the softest of
sounds that D's sensitive ears had almost missed.
     Leila had likewise cried out in silence as he bit her thigh, the singing
of the tension in her body serving to convey the depths of her pain every bit
as effectively as a vocal cry could.  The pain was likewise palatable in her
blood, fading one agonizing degree at a time as he sipped the dangerously hot
fluid that welled up to coat his tongue.
     The other women he had yielded to had likewise reacted similarly, some
remaining perfectly quiet while others cried out softly and shed tears of raw
pain.  One by one their faces drifted past his mind's-eye, permanently etched
into his memories by the force of their human wills, their human desires, and
their human souls.  All had painfully sacrificed their blood for him, and yet
they had all smiled and thanked him in the end, even as they wiped the last of
their tears away.
     So why would Abelyne be any different? the darkest part of him thought.
Why couldn't she gain pleasure from letting Coral feed from her?  Or use her?
She may seem like a child, but she is not.  What if she is one of those who
finds pleasure in her own pain?  Is it evil to revel in pain, even if it only
your own?  Where is the wrong in this if she is willing?
     <D?> the quiet voice cut through his darkened thoughts.
     "What?" he murmured as the faces and voices suddenly receded back into the
depths of his memory like a dark tide flowing back into the sea.
     <What are you thinking about?> it inquired in an unusually cautious tone.
<You had this god-awful look on your face a few moments ago, and quite frankly
it scares the hell out of me when you get that look....>
     "What kind of mud is this?" D asked calmly, not in a mood to try to share
his own personal demons with it.  He opened his eyes later as he felt a very
odd sensation in his palm, glancing up at his wrist as he tried to figure out
what to make of it.
     <Mmm, mmm, good stuff,> it hummed, causing D to grimace at the realization
that it had used its tongue to scoop some of it up for analysis.  <The clay has
a high salt content, but otherwise it's quite tasty.  I'm not sure about how
it compares to a dirt-nap, but rest assured that you've been covered in far
worse mixtures of dirt before.>
     Sorry I asked, D thought with a silent sigh as he closed his eyes and
tried not to think about what else was going to happen tonight.

                *               *               *               *

     He opened his eyes again at the sound of the lock being withdrawn, shortly
followed by the now-distinctive creak of the door being opened up.  He watched
with only remote interest as Coral wheeled a small cart into the dungeon room.
It became clear as she got close enough for him to hear that it filled with a
liquid of some sort, presumably water as it gently sloshed back and forth.
     An icy chill slid down D's spine as he made note of the look on her face,
a distinctly pleased and almost rosy look of satisfaction.  It took a moment
for him to figure out the reason for his unease, able to see the faintest of
traces of red around the corners of her mouth.  Both the glance and the smile
she gave him as she wheeled the cart next to him only added to his discomfort,
knowing that few things put vampiric entities into relaxed and openly cheerful
moods like a leisurely meal of fresh blood.
     "So how are you feeling, D?" she purred quietly as she set the wheel brake
to make sure the cart wouldn't roll away.  "Is the mud helping any?"
     "The sunburn should have healed by now," he said in a neutral tone.
     "Oh, that's good," she replied with a warm smile.  "The last thing I need
is for you to come down with a case of heat exposure on me.  Has it all dried
out yet?" she inquired as she leaned over to examine his back.
     "I haven't checked," D responded neutrally.
     She paused as she finally picked up on the subtle undertone to his reply.
"It's not irritating you, is it?" she inquired in a faintly worried tone.  "I
know some kinds of mud tend to itch and chafe when it dries, but I've never had
any problems with this mixture before."
     D simply closed his eyes, knowing that had been a wall in front of him he
would have been sorely tempted to bang his head against it.  He had dealt with
his fair share of mentally-unbalanced people before, but never could he recall
being forced to endure a disassociative disorder as strongly as Coral seemed to
be suffering from.  If you could call it suffering, he thought to himself in a
rare fit of sarcasm, remembering the words an intensely chaotic but still sane
young human woman had told him once a very long time ago.
     I don't suffer from insanity, she had said, giving him the exact same type
of predatory grin that had genuinely scared the werewolf during the stand-off
less than five minutes ago.  Trust me, I enjoy every second of it....
     He opened his eyes again as he heard a faint rasping sound, lifting his
head up just in time to watch the baroness remove a pair of scraping tools from
a tiny drawer set into the opposite side of the cart.  Both had flat edges on
one side, but neither looked to be sharp enough to inflict injuries unless they
were applied with significant force or pressure.
     "Let's see what we've got," Coral purred quietly to herself as she tapped
the edge of the larger tool against his bicep.  The dried clay-like coating
immediately fractured where it was struck but remained in place.  "Oh, good, it
dried all the way through," she observed as she used the smaller tool to pry a
small piece of the hardened material off.
     D remained silent as she promptly slipped the flat edge of the first tool
into the gap, using it as a sort of wedge to edge between the mud and his skin.
A simple tug broke off a fairly large chunk of dirt, falling to the floor with
a muted thump to expose more of his skin.
     "Yes," she cooed as she methodically started to pry the dried mud off of
him, letting the fragments pile up on the tunnel cover at D's feet.  "I do love
this stuff.  It's drawn from a river delta well to the east of here and mixed
with seawater before being dumped into sealed storage containers for transport.
It almost always dries out by the time it makes it this far west, but all you
need to do is add a bucket or three of rainwater and it softens right up.  I'm
not sure what makes it so unique from other mud mixtures, but I've never seen
anything else that revitalizes the skin quite like this stuff does.  Both Abby
and April use it as well, but not quite like Pearl and I do," she added with a
soft chuckle as she continued to break the mud apart and discard it.
     "Tell me about April," D impulsively spoke up, surprising them both.
     Coral paused to give him a faintly uncertain look before she resumed her
task of breaking the mud apart.  "My darling little April," she murmured softly
to herself.  "I guess I shouldn't say 'little' anymore, as she's an inch taller
than I am these days, but she's been with me since she was.... oh, I'd say nine
or ten.  She's a good girl and rarely gives me any trouble.  She's quite the
chef, too, far better than Abelyne is.  Not that Abby doesn't try," she added
with a faint sigh, "But things just turn out better in April's hands.  Even
Pearl likes her cooking, which I assure you is saying something," she chuckled.
     "So how many other slaves do you keep?" D asked in a level tone, keeping
his eye on Coral's hands as she moved over to work on his other arm.
     "Before or after you killed the rest in the castle?" she inquired in a
faintly arched tone, casting a sidelong look at him before resuming her work.
     D blinked at her tone, feeling a faint chill of unease work its way down
his spine.  "I'm not the one who destroyed the carriage or went out of my way
to deliberately target one for assassination," he pointed out in a dark tone.
     A faint huffing sound rose up from her chest.  "Talk to Pearl about that,
not me," she said primly.  "I was busy trying to deal with you at the time.
What I meant was you grabbed Celene and her rag-tag band of traitors, but what
about those in the east tower?  I keep Abby and April with me whenever I'm out
travelling, but the rest were quartered in the east tower when I don't need
their services.  You didn't get them out, now did you?"
     The realization hit D in the chest with the force of a mace, his breath
silently leaving his lungs in a shocked exodus.  He had scouted the castle as
best he could, knowing he had to get everyone out before going back in to kill
Baron Winters, but Celene had assured him that they were the only group.  And
as with the minefield, he had taken her at her word and trusted her to lead the
slaves to freedom.  All of them....
     Enough, he told himself as he closed his eyes.  He had found one of the
slaves in the hallway and was quickly taken down to where Celene and the others
had been imprisoned.  He had been in the process of escorting them out to the
courtyard stables when Baron Winters had attacked, braving the last rays of the
still-setting sun to try to stop him.  D had no choice but to engage the baron
right then and there, yelling for the others to run for the stables while he
did his best to buy them some time.  The baron had pressed his attack with an
intense ferocity, however, leaving D little choice but to end things as quickly
as he could.  The ancient castle had started to decay before the desiccated
remains of the vampire had finished crumbling in on itself, forcing D to make
a break for the exit while he still could....
     "Why so quiet, D?" Coral said demurely as she finished his other arm and
began to pry the dried mud off of his chest.  "Don't tell me this is the first
time the famed vampire-hunter and champion of humanity failed to save a few
humans from being crushed to death by tons of rock and rubble...."
     "How well does news of your failures sit with you?" D spoke up softly as
he opened his eyes to look up at her.
     "Mmm," she hummed absently.  "I suppose you have a point.  I've never been
much of a graceful loser, to be honest, but I'm not as bad as Pearl.  Okay, so
I'm out four slaves," she sighed.  "They were all cute, but I'm not going to
drown my sorrows in a bottle of wine over the loss.  Especially when the wine
will probably cost me more than they did," she added with an absent shrug as
she carefully pried a large chunk of clay off of his pectoral muscle.
     It took D a few moments to quit gritting his teeth at her attitude and
draw in a slow breath to respond.  "Do you know what the difference is between
good and evil?" he asked her in as calm of a tone as he could manage, ignoring
the burning pit of anger flaring up in his chest.
     She paused in mid-motion and regarded him carefully, one pale gray eyebrow
arching up.  "No," she finally said calmly.  "Enlighten me."
     "Good feels remorse over their actions, or inactions, when it results in
the death or suffering of innocent people," D replied in a low tone, his eyes
narrowing.  "Evil does not."
     "I suppose," she allowed as she resumed her work.  "Although I don't see
how you can think of me as evil when you're the one who killed my father and
thus condemned them to death when the castle came down around them.  Or does
that mean your idea of freeing slaves is to free them from their lives?" she
prodded carefully.
     D simply looked away from her and stared at the far wall, a haunted look
forming in his dark eyes.  "I do the best that I can," he said in a hollow
tone.  "I have always accepted the consequences of my actions, both deliberate
and unintentional, but I do not accept unconditional blame.  If you would hang
their deaths on my conscience, then know that I likewise hold you responsible
for putting them in jeopardy to begin with.  The difference between you and me,
however," he added as he turned to look at her with a truly blistering look of
fire in his eyes, "Is that I regret such things no matter whom is to blame."
     Coral simply raised an eye at him.  "Who's to say I don't regret it?" she
countered in a mild tone as she continued to remove the mud coating.  "I'm not
about to let such things haunt me in my sleep, however," she added.  "Things
like that happen, D, and all that can be done is to try to make sure they're
not repeated if it can be helped.  Oh, wow," she purred a moment later, the
abrupt shift in tone from brisk to somewhat sultry causing him to blink at how
sudden her mood had changed.  "I see the bruises are healing nicely."
     D glanced down at his chest as best he could, idly making note of the fact
that most of the purple-and-blue bruises had indeed faded.  The flesh directly
over his ribs was still visibly colored and it was easy to tell where the worst
of the damage had occurred.  His chest muscles, however, were still quite sore
and tender, sending up small but sharp jolts of pain whenever he inhaled beyond
a certain point.
     "Yes," she continued to purr, setting aside the scraping tools and using
her fingertips to gently pry the remaining dirt clods away from his abdomen.
"You've healed quite nicely, hunter.  Very, very nicely...."
     A small flag went up in D's mind at the continued shifting of her tone,
going from sultry to coy and husky.  He still wasn't sure why she was keeping
him chained as a prisoner, but he was starting to get the impression that she
had a few ideas in mind that he probably wouldn't like.  The fact that she was
deliberately caressing him as she worked only increased his unease, as it was
obvious that she was in a playful mood all of a sudden.
     Enough, he told himself with a silent sigh, briefly closing his eyes as he
tried to gather his courage together.  If she did have something in mind, it
was best that he find out about it now while he still had enough time to think
and possibly even do something about it.
     "Coral," he spoke up quietly, causing her to pause and glance up at him.
"You promised me earlier that you would tell me what you wanted from me.  I'd
like to hear that explanation now, if you don't mind."
     The baroness immediately froze in mid-motion, silently staring into his
dark eyes before sighing quietly.  "Yes, I did promise you that," she murmured
as she took a step back and picked up the scraping tools again.  "It's a long
story, D, just to warn you," she said as she moved around behind him to resume
her work.
     "I'm listening," D assured her in a tone that was empty of emotion.
     "I've always preferred the blood of other women," Coral said quietly as
she worked.  "I can't help it, it just tastes far richer than the blood of men.
That's why all the slaves I've ever owned were women.  Well, long before I had
either April or Abelyne I had a slave named Elora.  She was sixteen when she
came here, a truly beautiful creature with soft brown hair and eyes like a pair
of dazzling emeralds.  Her blood was so rich and sweet, I'm surprised I never
hurt her by savoring too much of it.
     "About a good six or seven years later, I noticed a sudden change in the
taste of her blood.  At first I thought she had taken a drug of some sort that
did something to the flavor, and believe me when I say we had a very long and
serious conversation about it.  As it turns out my darling little Elora had had
one too many encounters with one of my father's slaves, a stable boy who was
about the same age as her, and had become pregnant."
     D's blood immediately turned as cold as ice at the realization.  Vampires
universally preferred to feast on the blood of the young, as it was full of the
vitality and exuberant energy of youth.  It was said among some, however, that
the ultimate treat to be savored was the blood of a young pregnant woman, laden
with not just her own life-energy but that of the unborn child as well.  To D
the thought was a physically revolting one, almost to the point of nausea, and
more than one vampiric entity had likewise expressed distaste at the notion of
violating a pregnant woman's veins when she was fulfilling her 'sacred role' as
the bearer of future life.
     "I found it to be.... utterly fascinating," Coral continued, her voice
softening considerably as the memories returned.  "She feared my father's wrath
and begged me not to let either her or her romantic interest come to harm.  I
have to admit I was tempted to have him killed for taking liberties with my
darling little slave.  After speaking with him in private shortly after the
initial discovery, however, he managed to convince me of the sincerity of his
feelings for her and made a very solemn oath that he would always try to be
there to help care for Elora and their child.
     "What followed was probably the most intriguing year of my life.  I let
Elora carry her child to term and studied her the entire time, curious about
how such a thing went.  I quit feeding from her, of course, as she needed the
blood and energy for her child, but I occasionally drew small samples from a
vein in her wrist to taste what it was like.  D, it was amazing," she purred,
pausing in her work and leaning forward to rest her cheek against a patch of
skin that had been cleared of the dried mud.
     D frowned and cast a sidelong look behind him at the gesture but otherwise
remained motionless.  "Go on," he prodded quietly.
     "Her blood grew richer and richer with each month," Coral sighed as she
straightened up and resumed her work.  "Even those tiny samples I took, little
more than thimblefuls of blood, were sweeter than honey and richer than the
finest of chocolates.  She began to figuratively glow from the sheer amount of
life-energy contained within her, making her look all the more beautiful.  I
remember one time just holding her in my bed, marvelling at how her skin looked
and how soft and supple it was beneath my fingertips.
     "Her body changed, too, but that is expected to a degree.  I have to admit
that I had no true idea how large to expect her breasts to swell or her belly
to grow, so measuring her from one week to the next was.... oddly exciting,"
she confessed with a blush.  "At one point I almost feared she was carrying
twins, but the doctor I summoned to examine her assured me that there was only
one child.  When asked how she knew this, I was simply told to listen."
     An icy chill slid down D's spine as she sighed longingly and pause to rest
her head against his back again.  "D, you can't imagine what it was like that
night," she murmured quietly.  "Elora was laid out in my bed and I must have
spent the entire night with my head pressed to her, just listening to the very
quiet but distinctive sounds within her womb.  I could hear a tiny heartbeat,
and when it moved I could hear her body moving with it.
     "Elora went into labor right around the time the doctor expected her to,
giving birth to a healthy baby girl.  The process was just a little unsettling
to watch, but I'm grateful to have witnessed it nonetheless.  When tiny baby
Jenna was first handed to her father, the stable-boy Thomas, you should have
seen him break down and cry.  I found it absolutely amazing at what sort of
emotional impact a newborn had on others, myself included," she added in a
faintly wry tone.  "Even Pearl was intrigued by her, although she refused to
even consider holding her or anything.
     "Oddly enough, part of the glow of motherhood remained with Elora even
after Jenna was born.  I eventually released her from my service and persuaded
Father to release Thomas as well so that they could focus on being parents.
They were married shortly thereafter and allowed to move to a village not too
far from here where they lived peacefully as a family.  Or at least until the
village was decimated by a pack of rampaging lycanthropes a few years later,"
she sighed quietly.
     "What did you do about them?" D inquired quietly, wondering how she had
reacted to news of the probably violent death of her former slave.
     "About what, the werewolves?" Coral replied absently as she resumed the
task of removing the dried mud from D's lower back.  "Not too much, really.  I
made arrangements for a shipment of silver ore to be delivered to the village
blacksmith and had him rework it into silver crossbow bolts for Pearl.  As you
can imagine, the pack was promptly exterminated during the next full moon."
     D had to suppress a soft sigh of resignation at her words, knowing that it
was possible for the lycanthropic disease to be purged from infected humans and
that it was likely a bunch of newly-infected innocents had been slaughtered
along with the original group of werewolves.  He wasn't about to second-guess
the situation, as he hadn't been there, but he would have laid moderate odds
that Pearl hadn't bothered to even consider capturing any of them alive with
the intent of seeking to cure them of their shape-changing disease once the
moon had waned and the danger passed.
     "In any case, the whole experience with Elora made me realize something,"
Coral continued quietly.  "Granted it had been quite captivating to study her
on an almost nightly basis since she learned she was with child, but it wasn't
until I actually held little Jenna for myself that I.... I found myself...."
     "Wanting a child of your own," D spoke up when she trailed off, trying not
to let the horror of realization show in his voice.  The puzzle pieces suddenly
fell into place, leaving him filled with a dark dread the likes of which he had
never felt before.  It was enough to turn his blood into a frozen slush that
left him dangerously numb inside, fervently wishing with his entire being that
he was mistaken in his conclusions of what she wanted from him.
     Her fingertips slowly slid across his upper back, lightly caressing skin
that had already been freed from the mud.  "I see you understand," she murmured
very quietly, almost too softly for him to hear.
     "I don't," D replied calmly.
     "I think that you do," she countered gently as her hands slid lower along
his back until they encountered his buttocks.  She squeezed the exposed flesh
gently before starting to break apart the remaining dirt clods.  "In any case,
D, you're right.  It took awhile for it to truly sink in, but I decided that I
would like to have a child of my own.  Someone I can care for and teach and
love.  The next question, naturally, was not so much how as whom.  Whom did I
wish to have a child by.  It's actually a fairly important question, once you
stop and think about the implications.
     "Should I lay with a noble?" she continued as she stepped to the side and
knelt to start working on his legs.  "My child would then be more vampire than
human and thus probably couldn't survive exposure to the sun.  What about a
human, then?  I actually gave that consideration and discussed it with a human
doctor only to have him point out that he hadn't heard of any such children
being born to a human and a dunpeal.  Or a vampire and a dunpeal, for that
matter," she added with a sigh.
     D blinked hard at her words, suddenly realizing that he couldn't remember
having encountered any such entities himself.  Noble vampires were like humans
in the sense that they could bear children of their own kind, giving rise to a
number of bloodlines like the noble offspring of Simon and Valentina Winters.
Vampires and humans could interbreed as well, with the result being a dunpeal
like himself, but apparently dunpeals couldn't interbreed with either vampires
or humans.
     It startled him to realize that he had never stopped to think of or even
contemplate the matter.  How many women had he rescued from dunpeals where they
had been used as sex-slaves, and yet not a single one had ever become pregnant
during their captivity?  Countless women had been impregnated by vampires under
identical conditions, usually against their will, but never once by a dunpeal.
And the reverse was also true, female dunpeals never conceiving a child by male
humans they had seduced or otherwise used by various means.
     In one sense, it relieved him greatly to realize that he no longer needed
to worry about unintended consequences from keeping his promise to Leila.  Not
that he hadn't taken steps to begin with to ensure that such unions would not
be fruitful, mostly through the use of condoms, but there had been occasional
instances in which that option had not been available and refusal was likewise
not what he could have considered a viable option either.  The night he spent
with Leila herself, for example....
     "I'm not sure when you came to mind," Coral spoke up softly, not so much
disrupting his train of thought as shattering it into chilling fragments.  "I
realized my only true option was another dunpeal like myself, but I also knew
that I had to be a little selective about my choice given the wide disparity
among our kind.  I just had to look at the differences between Pearl and myself
to see a perfect example, despite having the same parents."
     D felt his blood grow colder as she stood up and moved to stand in front
of him, her gloved hand coming up to caress his jaw.  "What can I say, D?" she
murmured softly, her eyes seeming to be unable to meet his as she spoke.  "What
mother doesn't want the best for her child?  I want a father who is both strong
and gentle, concerned and caring yet unafraid to do what he feels is the right
thing to do.  It took a couple of decades of searching for prospects before I
came to the conclusion that.... you.... were my best hope."
     "I'm flattered," D replied in a tone that was utterly empty of emotion.
     She finally looked up at him, seeming to be hesitant as she studied the
depths of his dark eyes.  "I didn't think it was possible at first, as everyone
knew you were.... I won't say frigid, but cold and distant," she murmured as
she reached down with her other hand to lightly caress his abdomen, pressing
inward against his skin gently to let her break apart more of the dried mud and
brush it off of his body.
     "Then of course there was the matter of how you seem to be bent on killing
every single one of us, vampire and dunpeal alike," she sighed.  "That put a
damper on my.... thoughts of you, but it all came back to me when I saw you
following the carriage out of the castle yesterday.  I knew then that I had a
chance, that if I could capture you alive then you and I could sort out things
between us, that you would then be willing to share with me what you've shared
with so many others in recent times.
     "I knew of the stories, of course," she continued softly, "About how you
would allow a woman to seduce you for a night after you both went through some
dark trial or trauma together.  I was as curious about it as the next woman, of
course, especially about why you started doing so after a supposed lifetime of
isolation, and so I tried to do a little research into it.
     "For six years I travelled across most of the continent, trying to follow
the rumors to their source.  I soon began to meet some of these women whom you
had allowed to seduce you and got to talk with them.  Cassandra.  Megan.  Cori.
Cheyenne.  They each had their own stories to tell, and they all mentioned two
things.... that they were rescued from a vampire, and that you allowed them to
find comfort in your arms because of a promise you made to a woman who seemed
to hold a special place in your heart a long time ago.  A promise you made to
a woman named Leila," she whispered, giving D a slightly predatory smile as she
saw the almost electric shock of recognition in his eyes.
     D remained perfectly silent, trying not to let the rush of memories become
a distraction.  He had indeed kept his promise to Leila, even after her death
and his fulfillment of his second promise to her.  After her burial and once
the other mourners had departed, he had left a bouquet of white flowers on her
grave as she had asked him to when they were both in pursuit of Meier Link and
Charlotte.  He had saved a single petal from that bouquet and preserved in a
crystal shard, weaving it into the clasp around his knife belt.  To others it
was simply a beautiful decoration, but to him it was a memento mori of her love
and a reminder of all that she meant to him.
     Coral said nothing for several moments, looking down at her ungloved hand
as it moved lower to brush against the base of his manhood.  She very carefully
began to use her fingernails to break apart the mud coating, not wanting to be
rough or accidentally scratch him in such a sensitive and tender area.
     "I tried to find where this Leila lived and pay her a visit," Coral said
softly, glancing back up at him when she heard a soft but exceedingly sharp
intake of breath.  "Oh, don't worry, I wouldn't have harmed her or anything, I
just wanted to speak with her myself, that's all.  Unfortunately all I ever
found was a white marble tombstone in a valley not far from the eastern coast
of the continent.  I was able to share a few words with her granddaughter when
I arrived, as she was just leaving after a brief visit, but she said she had
only met you once and really knew nothing of what had transpired between you
and her grandmother."
     D just grunted very softly, having little reason to believe Coral had lied
about spending so much time trying to research the details of his promise.  He
hadn't kept the truth from the other women, feeling compelled to let them know
just why he was accepting their often quiet offers of both their blood and the
warmth of their bodies, and so it didn't surprise him that Leila's name had
become known to others actively seeking such information.  He was all too aware
of where his one-time lover rested in eternal sleep, and the flowering valley
region that was home to her descendants was indeed where Coral had said it was.
     Which meant that the baroness was quite serious about what she wanted from
him.  And if things kept going the way they were going right now, he had very
little reason to believe he was going to be able to walk away from this one in
the visible future.  He had no intentions of cooperating with her, of course,
but as Pearl had already proven his body could be broken beyond the power and
control of his will.  And when he added Coral's distinctly unbalanced state of
mind to the equation, the results he kept getting were far from comforting.
     He cast a reflexive glance down as he felt her fingertips very delicately
rub the tip of his manhood, brushing off the last traces of dried mud.  He was
not in a mood for anything and the deep chill in his blood was more than enough
to ensure he wouldn't be reacting to her touch anytime soon, but it was still
a situation he would really, *really* rather not be in right now.
     "D?" she murmured quietly as she let go of him and took a step closer.
"Tell me what you're thinking right now?"
     "I'm thinking you're out of your mind," D replied calmly, deciding it was
best to try to jolt her out of her fantasies of him.  Just as he expected, she
blinked hard enough to be heard and jerked her head back slightly as if she had
been lightly slapped.
     "What?" she blurted out, clearly surprised by his words.
     "You had me whipped and chained in your dungeon," D summarized in a flat
tone.  "I'm still sore from being crushed by the rock you dropped on me, and to
be honest I'm still upset about the deliberate and callous murder of the humans
in the carriage.  Even if you ignore all of that, I'm not even remotely close
to being interested in giving anyone a child, let alone to someone I'm not sure
I would be able to trust to raise a tank of fish properly."
     She simply stared at him in open disbelief for a number of moments before
a very faint giggle rose up in her throat.  A second soft giggle soon followed
the first and it wasn't too long before she was laughing quietly, her gloved
hand still lightly touching his cheek.
     "That's amusing," she finally said, giving him a soft smile that disturbed
him greatly.  "Okay, so the time Pearl and I went spear-fishing when we were
children was an absolute disaster, but that was ages ago and I've learned a lot
about fish since then.  And if all else fails, my darling little April can cook
them to an absolutely delicious golden perfection."
     D tensed as her other hand came up to hold his face firmly in place, not
leaving him room to move or edge away.  Another soft giggle rose up from her
chest as she leaned forward to bring her lips into contact with his, giving him
a very light kiss.  "It's okay, hunter, I'll be gentle with you," she murmured
in a honeyed tone.  "I've been keeping track of my temperature every morning
for ages, so I know when it's time to start stocking up on the feminine items.
I'll be ready for you in two days," she breathed in a husky tone.  "Possibly
three depending on how cooperative my blood is.  But now that I have you here?
It should cooperate just fine...."
     "What makes you think I'm going to give you a child?" D prodded, trying to
keep a straight face and not either cringe or throw up.
     An odd smile crossed her face as she ran a gloved fingertip over his lips,
very lightly tracing the soft contours.  "You will, hunter," she murmured in
the honeyed tone that D suspected was related to her charming influence.  That
he had yet to even feel the slightest twinge was a mixed blessing, meaning that
he wasn't in danger of falling under her influences but he was still worried
about what it was doing to the symbiot in his hand.
     "I've waited years for you," she breathed as she moved her fingertip and
leaned forward to kiss him softly again.  D held perfectly still, not making
any attempt at avoiding her but not yielding to her in the slightest either.
If she noticed his unwillingness to be kissed, she didn't give any indication
when she leaned back with a faintly smug smile of satisfaction.  "But as with
all things, business does come before pleasure.  You're still somewhat dirty,"
she observed as she took a full step back and studied his entire body with open
admiration.  "But that's what the water is for.  Clean water, I assure you,"
she added with a faintly sour grimace.  "I still don't know how Pearl managed
to get her hands on that much holy water, but I assure you that it won't be
happening again.  Just give me a moment, okay?" she said as she turned to the
cart and opened the drawer again.
     D just sighed and closed his eyes, knowing that his situation had just
became significantly uglier.  It was clear to him that Coral was essentially
insane, not able to understand that he didn't want to give her or anyone else
a child despite her supposed understanding of his intent to rid the world of
the taint of vampirism.  So how could she possibly think that he would spend
virtually his entire adult life doing such a thing and still be willing to
father children to carry on the same dark blood that he felt needed to be cast
back into the abyss of oblivion?
     He did his best to ignore Coral as she dipped both a brush and a washcloth
in the water before starting to scrub his body.  The water was distinctly warm
and scented with a very light fragrance that reminded D of a field of flowers.
It wasn't strong enough to constantly distract, a minor fact that D was quietly
grateful for.  Being chained in a dungeon and informed that you were liable to
be raped was one thing, but reeking of an obviously feminine scent was simply
adding insult to injury.
     Rape.  It was not something people tended to think of happening to a man,
as it was almost universally a case of a man forcing himself on a woman instead
of the other way around.  However, it was not unknown for a physically strong
woman to take matters into her own hands, more so when it was a vampiress who
was intrigued by one of her human slaves.  The power of their charisma and the
naturally weak wills of men for such things usually ended up with the man being
an active participant at the end, but not always.  And now that D was stripped
naked and chained down so that it was impossible for him to escape or otherwise
offer effective resistance....
     Could she do it? he found himself thinking.  The force of his will was
considerable, even when applied to control over his own body, but he knew that
even he had his limits.  His body had its own instinctive notions of how things
should work, as all living things did, such as how far it can be pushed before
protesting in strident terms.  While his willpower could usually overcome that
to a certain degree, he knew that there were two things he simply couldn't hope
to prevail against: the fight for self-preservation, and the fight for life.
While the former was very much a survival instinct, the latter was of a more
primal and basic nature and included not just his own life but the universal
desire of life as a fundamental entity for propagation.
     He knew the battle would ultimately be lost if she was persistent enough
and if he truly had no means of offering physical resistance to her.  Granted
he could thrash around to make the task difficult for her, but he wouldn't be
able to actually go anywhere and would only drain his strength in the attempt,
to say nothing of possibly inflicting even more injuries on his already-wounded
and still-healing body.  If she managed to get him inside her then that was it,
as he knew his body would succumb to the sensations sooner or later and cause
him to orgasm.  Whether or not that would result in a conception was another
matter entirely, but by that time the question would be quite academic.
     D did his absolute best not to think about what he would do if she indeed
became pregnant with his child, not sure he would be able to bring himself to
kill her.  Killing the child, unborn or not, was very much out of the question
as it would be a true and genuine innocent in the conflict.  Not that he had
the slightest idea of what he would do with it, assuming things ever got to the
point where he would have to be concerned with its welfare, but the whole idea
was simply a gallon of gasoline thrown onto the raging fire of chaos swirling
around inside the dark recesses of his mind.
     "Ugh," Coral huffed quietly, the edge to her tone drawing D out of his
thoughts to refocus on his surroundings.  "Such a mess.  Hang on, let me dump
this stuff," she said as she moved over to the control levers and pulled.
     D shivered faintly as the floor below him suddenly spiraled open, sending
the pile of discarded and dried mud chunks plummeting into the tunnel below.
It was almost impossible for him not to watch as it soon disappeared from view,
vanishing into the darkened canyon that he was kept chained above.  The tunnel
was sealed a few moments later as Coral shoved the lever back into position,
causing the metal covering to spiral shut into a solid floor surface once more.
     "There we go," Coral purred softly as she returned to the cart and resumed
the task of brushing the remaining dirt off of D's body.  "So how's your skin
feel?" she inquired as she started to briskly scrub his back.
     He would have ignored her had he not felt it would have been hazardous to
do so.  "Clean," he said simply, knowing that it was the literal truth.  His
skin felt a lot better after being revitalized by the elemental energy he had
been able to absorb.  The same couldn't be said for the bruised muscles lying
beneath his skin, but it was still better than nothing.
     "I would hope so," Coral replied with a quiet chuckle as she moved the
scrub-brush lower.  "If it's any consolation, the whip-marks on your back have
healed as well.  Well, except for the one on your hip...."
     D cast a mild look out of the corner of his eye as he felt the washcloth
slide over his hip, right where Pearl's final stroke of the whip had landed to
rend both skin and fabric.  The contact with the damp cloth sent minor sparks
of pain up along his nerves that were easily ignored as inconsequential.  Much
to his discomfort, the washcloth was then slid around to scrub the inside of
his thighs with a gentle but firm touch.
     "Such muscles, D," she purred softly to herself as she worked.  "And such
hardened skin," she added as she brushed her fingertips across his thigh in a
caress that was dangerously close to a tickle.  "How long have you been riding
horses like that?  Oh, wait, you don't remember time very well," she sighed as
she suddenly remembered.  "I still think that's a pity, D."
     "Time is what you make of it," he pointed out quietly, closing his eyes to
try to better focus his senses.  Her soft touch on the inside of his thighs was
already starting to produce that faint tingle in his blood that he had come to
identify as a precursor for arousal.  It would take far more than a light touch
to overcome his willpower, of course, but he knew that every little sensation
was like a drop of rain hitting a sandcastle.  Eventually it would erode the
foundation and the castle would crumble, it was all just a matter of time.
     "Mmm, tell me about it," she mused absently as she paused to rinse both
the brush and the washcloth.  She cast a quick glance over her shoulder to get
an idea of what she had left to do, a somewhat coy smile crossing her face.
She then set the brush aside and made sure the washcloth was both dirt-free and
warmed up a little before carrying it back over to him.
     D had started to open his eyes even before he felt the washcloth's scented
heat on his manhood, but the sensation prompted them to open faster.  He cast
a glance at her and felt a chill sweep through him at the distinctly playful
look in her pale yellow eyes.
     "So how are you feeling, D?" she murmured in a honeyed tone as she washed
him in a rather intimate fashion.
     "I've had better days," D replied in a noncommittal tone.
     "Have you now?" she purred quietly with a gentle flex of her fingers.  "If
that's the case, then I think I might be able to help improve your mood...."
     D blinked and swallowed hard as she started to massage his manhood, a look
of what might be described as casual lust forming in her eyes.  "Coral...." he
started to say in a warning tone.
     "It's okay, D," she assured him, her hands never ceasing their motions.
"I know I won't be ready for you for another couple of days.... but there's
nothing wrong with a little practice, right?"
     D's mind promptly went into a hyperactive frenzy as he tried to think of
a way out of his situation.  A flash of insight came to him and he was about to
tell her that he was still quite sore and that her touch was hurting him when
she leaned forward, melding her lips to his in a searing kiss that caught him
completely off-guard.
     He wasn't quite sure what precisely happened then, as his mind suddenly
experienced a momentary disconnect for some reason, but the next thing he knew
he was having to fend off a minor invasion as the very tip of her tongue slid
between his lips.  The feeling was extremely electric and more than a little
erotic, resulting in an increase in the temperature of his blood.  The kiss
went on unchallenged for another moment before he finally was able to scrape
together enough focus to lean his head away from hers, breaking the contact.
     "Coral...." he started to say in a low tone.  His voice was cut off in his
throat as her hands gently squeezed his manhood in a gesture that was both a
warning and a caress.
     "D?" she said very softly, her voice little more than a honeyed whisper as
she gazed into his eyes.  A faint gold luminescence was evident in her corneas,
a result of her allowing her vampiric half to exert itself freely.  "You don't
need to fight me, I'm not going to hurt you.  Far from it, my dark hunter.  Now
just relax and let me take care of everything...."
     There was very little he could do as she leaned forward again, brushing
her lips against his before moving off to the side to kiss the firm lines of
his jaw.  His own vampiric side promptly began to struggle against the bonds of
his willpower as she started to nuzzle his throat, sending a series of shivers
up and down his spine.
     D quickly found himself in a crisis, not able to split his focus to keep
his vampire blood caged and maintain an iron control over his body's response
to her gentle ministrations at the same time.  A distant part of him doubted
she was doing it deliberately or was even aware of his attempt at controlling
his body's reactions, but that still didn't help him one damn bit.
     A dark shiver that came too quickly to suppress ran through him as she
kissed his throat, letting her fangs brush against his skin.  The feeling only
further increased the fires of his vampiric side, causing it to thrash against
his will like a beast against iron bars.  He could feel those dark tendrils
starting to leak through the proverbial cracks, very slowly infusing a faint
blue glow in his corneas and causing his gums to itch where his vampiric fangs
resided when they weren't needed or called upon.
     He was seriously considering giving up the proverbial ghost when she edged
away from him, the golden glow quite prominent in her eyes.  Her hands slid up
the length of his body from his groin to caress his chest and face, giving his
senses a much-needed reprieve from her attentions.  His sense of relief proved
to be short-lived, however, as she took another step back and reached for the
back zipper of her dark purple dress.
     As focused on very specific internal control as he was, he didn't bother
to try to conceal his surprise when the dress slid down her body to leave her
as naked as he was.  The rational part of his mind, or what was left of it at
that point, suggested that she had discarded her undergarments earlier when she
had taken Abelyne's blood, a visual that was violently quashed and ejected from
his mind an instant later.
     The primal look remained in her eyes as she flexed her ankles slightly,
slipping out of her boots as she stepped forward to press her body against his.
All that remained was the lambskin glove on her left hand, a minor curiosity to
absently ponder until a truly chilling thought suddenly slammed into the center
of his mind with the force of a baseball bat.
     What if she has a symbiot in her hand? he thought as he felt his blood
slow to a crawl.  He himself had once been dressed in only a solitary glove
when on the cusp of intimacy, back when Doris had bade him to join her in bed
and he hadn't been able to refuse the call of her woman's blood.  It had been
ages since he had bothered to keep the thing confined by gloves, as it not only
complained at regular intervals but it interfered with several of its sensory
powers and he was forever having to take it off for one reason or another....
     His worries of her having a symbiot of her own was shortly put to rest as
she reached up with her right hand, gently slipping the glove off and setting
it aside on the utility cart.  A soft smile brushed her face as she reached up
with her now-ungloved left hand, casually brushing her fingertips against his
lips before turning her hand over to repeat the gesture with the metal implant
that he barely had time to realize was there before it was touching him.
     A sensation unlike anything D had ever felt before promptly flooded his
veins, seeming to both tingle with electricity and burn with an icy fire in a
truly bizarre fashion.  He knew at once that the odd metal implant was the most
likely source of Coral's hypnotic influence, explaining why the left hands of
her victims would throb and itch.  However, now that it was in direct contact
with him instead of being exerted from a distance where the effects would only
be felt by his symbiot....
     "So what do you think, my dark hunter?" Coral purred softly in a tone he
couldn't remember hearing before.  Her voice seemed to throb and echo inside
his mind like a ghost, seeming to caress his ears as it slipped inside to tease
and tickle the core of his soul.  "Do you like what you see?" she whispered.
     His eyes were immediately drawn down to the soft curves of her naked body.
The gentle swells of her breasts were not overly prominent but would still make
a very nice handful to hold.  Her nipples, visibly tightened to what he thought
should have been an almost painful intensity, seemed to throb just faintly in
the open air, begging to be touched and tasted.  Further down was another soft
mass of pale silvery hair, ultra-fine strands that did very little to conceal
the velvety folds of her sheath from the admiring eyes of others, a haven that
he would soon be allowed to enter to bask in the unearthly pleasures of delight
found only in that most sacred of gardens....
     "You're beautiful," D found himself saying before something clicked deep
in his mind.  He knew it was very much the absolute and obvious truth, so what
was the problem with him saying so?  Something clicked in his mind again, not
so much of an idea trying to spark but a very subtle prod of some kind.  Almost
as if something was inside his mind....
     Warning him that he was falling under her influence.
     Which he was.
     Idiot.
     The realization was sharp enough to allow him to rally his mental focus,
breaking free from the deep harmonic in his mind that was trying to lull him
into a complacent void.  He knew that it had been the psionic thoughts of the
symbiot in his hand trying to reach out to him without speaking up, making use
of the tiny segment of the nervous system that they both shared to reach him.
     He had barely reoriented his mind to his surroundings before he was thrown
back into half-chaos again, this time by the feel of her nude body pressing
against his in a distinctly suggestive fashion.  The metal plate was thankfully
removed from his lips a moment later, serving to reduce the level of mental
uproar he was struggling to control.  The rest was effectively subdued when she
pushed herself off of him with a gentle thrust of her hips that came close to
impaling her sheath on his manhood.
     D blinked hard as the world largely came into focus a moment later.  She
was moving around behind him, reaching up to unlock the padded flaps and move
them into a closed position behind his back.  He realized that he had lost the
fight with his body somewhere along the line, his pulse throbbing in his ears
in time with the gentle pulsing of his manhood as it jutted out at an angle
from the rest of his body.
     The world promptly tilted back without warning, the frame he was chained
to slowly rotating until he was flat on his back.  The change allowed his body
to rest on the padded backing and take his weight off of his ankles, producing
a welcome feeling of relief from the constant pain.  The shift in weight also
produced a new host of minor aches from stiff muscles that hadn't been allowed
to stretch or move, but he was so used to such minor pains that they barely
registered on his consciousness.
     His reprieve was short-lived as she returned to his side and climbed up
onto the flat padding, giving him a distinctly mischievous look as she moved to
straddle his waist.  "I knew you'd want to cooperate with me," she purred as
she reached down to grab his rigid member, very gently massaging it.
     "I don't," D blurted out in a level tone, actively straining against both
the metal chains and her largely unwelcome touch.  It would have been a bit of
a lie to say it was completely unwelcomed, as the singing of his hormones in
his bloodstream made her intimate touch feel more than a little pleasurable.
Not that he was interested in pleasure at the moment, but simply that his body
had other ideas and that it no longer wanted to cooperate with his willpower.
     Coral simply raised an eyebrow in amusement.  "Oh?" she said in a tone of
mock-surprise.  "So what's this then?" she inquired with a playful tug that
sent an undeniably delightful shiver through him.
     D paused for the briefest of instants to consider his options.  He could
fight her as best he could, which would have been laughably futile and would
accomplish nothing constructive.  However, he suddenly realized with an almost
electric jolt of insight, if what she said was true and that she wouldn't be
ovulating for another couple of days, then there was very little risk that she
would conceive today if he yielded to her desires.  But could he handle that?
     He remained silent as he gazed back at her, not bothering to try to erase
the dark look on his face as he tried to sort his thoughts out as best he could
under the circumstances.  A sudden veil descended on his mind as if a switch
had been thrown, bringing him a measure of peace as he decided on the path he
would take in this.  If push came to shove.... or if push came to thrust, as
the thing would no doubt have phrased it if given the chance, D thought in a
truly rare moment of gallows humor.... he would rather see his own life ended
before allowing himself to run the very real risk of impregnating Coral, even
if forced into the act.
     His mental focus was promptly shattered as Coral moved forward, holding
him steady with one hand while she pressed her sheath against the tip of his
hardened manhood.  The amount of resistance was negligible at best and D soon
found himself exquisitely ensconced within her depths in the span of a single
heartbeat.  Unprepared for her to make such a rapid and decisive move, he was
unable to control his reaction as he both gasped and moaned softly at the wave
of pleasure that crashed over him like a tidal current on a beach.
     "D...." Coral gasped in an almost haunting moan as she rested her groin
against his, her eyes three-quarters closed and a blissful look on her face.
She carefully braced her hands on the padding on either side of his ribs, not
wanting to risk putting her weight on his still-healing chest.  A simple flex
of her hips backwards almost pulled him free from her before she reversed her
motion, this time taking her time in sliding down the length of his flesh as
she used her internal muscles to squeeze him.
     D simply closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, taking a small measure of
comfort in the knowledge that his choice had already been made.  He would save
his energy for when it would count the most, fighting against her even if it
would mean his death to avoid releasing his seed inside her when she was at her
most fertile.  But for now, he could afford to yield to her lustful greed as
the danger wasn't truly significant.  Yes, it was possible her timing was off
and that her ovaries were about to or had already released an egg, but given
the seeming intensity of her desire for a child he had little reason to believe
that she had been anything other than vigilant to the subtle clues of her own
body as it progressed through its cycle of fertility, her own circle of life.
     He allowed his eyes to open slightly as she whispered his name, her voice
clearly marred by the intensity of passion and lust she was experiencing as she
worked her body against his.  The world was tinted a mild shade of blue as his
vampiric half continued to slowly break free from the cage of his willpower, a
phenomenon that tended to occur whenever he was intimately occupied.  It rarely
was enough to trigger the full transformation and cause his fangs to emerge,
but it still tended to bother him with the way it distorted his perception of
the world around him.
     His eyes closed once again as he felt his body responding to her, keenly
aware of that truly wicked grip her internal muscles had on his manhood as she
continued to withdraw and impale herself on him.  There was precious little he
could have done to respond to her attentions even if he wanted to, given the
tightness of the chains that bound him and left him with virtually no wiggle
room.  He realized that it was probably a good thing he was tied down, as he
could still feel a ghostly echo of her hypnotic influence resonating inside his
mind, urging him to reach out to caress her, to taste her, to take her.
     "D?" she whispered huskily, reaching up to carefully stroke his chest with
her right hand.  She waited until he opened his eyes to look at her before she
readjusted her weight and leaned forward slightly at the waist.  "I want to see
if something is true or not.  Do you mind?"
     "You didn't listen to my objections before," he replied, trying to keep
the worst of the bitterness out of his tone.  "I don't see why you'd want to
listen now."
     Much to his surprise she immediately slowed her pace, letting the weight
of her body impale her sheath on his throbbing manhood before leaning forward
to put her weight on her wrists.  She gently eased herself up a few inches only
to just as slowly slide back down again, her breath drifting up from her chest
in a deep sigh with each slow thrust.  "Objections, D?" she echoed in a tone
that he couldn't immediately read.
     He took a cautious breath, not entirely sure if he should let himself get
his hopes up or not.  "I don't want this, Coral," he said carefully in a level
tone.  "I don't want to give you or anyone else a child.  Or even 'practice'
for that matter," he added in a faintly edged tone.
     She tilted her head slightly to study him, her hips still moving in a slow
but steady rhythm.  "How can you say that?" she whispered, seeming to be quite
surprised.  "I've been waiting years for this.  You are mine now, hunter," she
cooed as she began to pick up the pace again.  "You would be dead if I hadn't
captured you, as my dear, sweet sister surely would have used her rail-gun to
kill you.  No, I need you, my dark hunter.  You are the only one who can give
me a child, the only one strong enough to be worthy...."
     D suppressed the urge to snarl as he glanced away, realizing that he was
wasting his breath trying to reason with an insane mind.  Her increase in the
pace of her rocking motions was starting to light the proverbial fuse, setting
his blood on fire with the intense tingles of an impending orgasm.  Perhaps he
might have been able to fight it, to stave off his natural biological response
to such pleasure for a number of minutes, but that would only prolong his....
what, agony?  Suffering?  Could pleasure truly be classified as torture?
     There were far worse things she could be doing to him, he admitted with a
truly heavy sigh of resignation.  And to be honest, Coral was doing a rather
good job of pleasing him.  Or rather pleasing them both of them, if the way she
was starting to growl softly to herself was any indication of how close to the
edge she was.  He certainly couldn't take any credit for anything, as all he
could doing was lie there like a sack of wheat and sport the proverbial sundial
for her own selfish pleasures.
     He paused as he caught motion off in the distance, glancing over towards
the door to find Pearl standing in the open archway.  He figured she must have
just arrived a quarter-second ago, as her eyes were still in the process of
widening in surprise and shock as she realized what was going on.  Her mouth
fell open for a moment before it set into a truly furious snarl, her aqua-blue
eyes suddenly igniting like red-hot coals as her vampiric nature erupted into
full prominence.
     Her simmering gaze shifted slightly and D found himself almost physically
recoiling from the sheer intensity of the evil look directed at him.  If such
looks could kill, then both he and Coral would have been reduced to piles of
ash in an instant.  Much to his surprise, she quickly turned away and left the
room instead of charging in to unleash pure havoc as he feared.  That only gave
him a brief moment of comfort, as he quickly realized that he would undoubtedly
be confronted with her rage later rather than sooner, and much like a volcano
the longer such hatred was allowed to simmer the more violent it would be when
it finally erupted.
     The volcano metaphor suddenly proved to have apt timing as Coral drew in
a deep breath and almost literally slammed her groin against his in a sharp
thrust, contracting her internal muscles as tightly as she could while forcing
D's manhood to squeeze past them.  The result was an almost quadrupling of the
erotic sensation of having him inside her, both from her perspective and his.
The sheer intensity of pleasure impulses seemed to sear their nervous systems
in an instant, obliterating what conscious thoughts had been running through
their minds at that particular moment in time.
     Their orgasms were almost simultaneous, his seed promptly surging out from
his manhood in a geyser-like fashion while her own spasms were triggered by the
sensation of him pulsing inside her.  Conscious and rational thought was quite
literally impossible for either of them for a number of seconds afterwards as
they tried to recover, and had she not prepared for it earlier she would have
collapsed onto his chest like a lead weight.  As it was, she had started to
twist to the side when she had tried that muscular technique she had overheard
being whispered between women in a very quiet corner of a bar once, a notion
that intrigued her with the possibilities but she hadn't been able to test out
for herself until now.  The end result of her motions was that she would up on
her left elbow in a quivering heap that missed compacting his ribcage beneath
her weight by little more than an inch.
     It took a few seconds for D to recover from the intense daze, his vision
slowly fading from a blinding white back down to a moderate blue as his mind
began to process nerve impulses correctly.  He wasn't quite sure what she had
done to him, but it was not unlike the same tactic Leila had used on him the
first time they had made love back in the cabin during the sandstorm.  The ache
registered on his mind a moment later, warning him that his manhood had just
been significantly abused by friction despite being amply lubricated by the
exquisitely warm wetness of her sheath.
     He blinked as he felt his hand shake slightly, realizing a moment later
that it was the thing wiggling back and forth in a subtle motion to try to get
his attention.  He immediately clenched his hand into a fist, the usual sign he
gave to tell it to stop doing whatever it was that was annoying him.  D had the
feeling that it was simply trying to get him to refocus on his surroundings,
but he felt that now was not a good time for it to risk detection by trying to
rouse him.
     "Coral," he rasped, pausing as he noticed how raw his voice sounded.
     "My god," she whispered very softly, the upper half of her body lying in
a heap next to him.  Her sheath was still firmly impaled around him, her inner
muscles holding onto him as best they could while she panted for breath.  Her
whole body was wracked with gentle tremors and spasms, suggesting that her
climax had been far more intense than she had anticipated.  Normally that would
have impressed D, or at least a somewhat remote part of his mind, but given the
fact that she had essentially raped him....
     "Coral," he said again as he tried to edge out from beneath her.  It was
an exercise in futility, as he literally had no place to go in any direction,
but he still persisted in the very faint hope that it would convince her to get
off of him.
     "Mmmm, give me a moment," she murmured as she slowly rose back up to put
most of her weight on her lower body again.  She seemed to wiggle her hips in
an odd way before settling back down, keeping his still-throbbing manhood deep
inside her.  "D?" she breathed, giving him a truly dazed look as her chest
heaved in a most inviting fashion.  "Please don't take offense at this, as I
don't normally use such language.... but holy fuck," she moaned blissfully.
     D had to briefly fight the impulse to grunt softly in agreement, knowing
that it had probably been one of the most intense orgasms he could remember
having.  A part of him genuinely regretted that it had to have happened under
the current circumstances, as in another time and place he might have truly
enjoyed the experience of being dominated like that.  It wasn't the first time
he would have been on the bottom like that, as Leila had certainly showed him
how wonderful it could be, but with things being what they were with Coral....
     "D?" she murmured as she gingerly settled her weight on her knees, still
keeping him inside her.  "Are you alright?"
     "I suppose so," he replied in an empty tone, glancing up at her and not
bothering to mask the somewhat unhappy look on his face.
     "You suppose so?" she echoed, giving him a rather bemused look.  Her left
hand came up to briefly brush her hair out of her face, giving D a somewhat
decent look at the metal implant on her hand.  He blinked as he thought he saw
something reflected in the smooth surface, a faint flickering that could easily
have been a result from the way the torches in the room wavered slightly as
they continued to burn.
     "I'll let you know when I'm sure," D replied calmly, prompting a very soft
giggle and a gentle smile from her.  "I have a question I'd like to ask you,"
he continued, figuring that he had very little to lose by asking at this point.
     "Mmmmmm," she purred as she briefly squeezed her internal muscles, almost
causing his eyes to pop out of his skull at the sensation.  "D, I'll be honest
with you.  I haven't been a virgin since I was twenty and I've never been what
you would call an overly celibate girl, but you are absolutely the best lover
I have ever had.  Trust me," she murmured as she leaned over to give him a very
deep kiss that he didn't react to, gently jiggling her body to let the points
of her nipples brush against his chest.  "You can ask me whatever you want, my
dark hunter," she added as she leaned back and settled her weight against his
groin once again.
     "I'm curious what happened to your hand," he said in a moderate tone, as
if he wasn't concerned about his current situation in the slightest.  He was,
of course, but he was reflexively walling off his emotions while he tried to
get a better understanding of his own thoughts and feelings about what had
just taken place.
     "Ah, yes," she said, sighing softly as she glanced down at her left hand.
She raised it up slightly to study the smooth metal implant before reaching out
to very lightly rest her fingertips on his chest, letting him get a close look
for himself.  "Nobody is perfect, D," she murmured sadly as she glanced away.
"Much like Pearl prefers her whip and crossbow, I prefer a pistol whenever the
situation permits.  An old flintlock model," she amended as her cheeks took on
a pale blush.  "One powered by gunpowder in the breech."
     "Brave," D commented absently, knowing just how dangerous such weapons
were even in the hands of experts and weaponsmiths who knew how to build them.
     "What can I say, I like the way it gets attention," she admitted as her
blush darkened, still not looking up at him.  She glanced down at her chest and
reached up with her right hand to cup her breast, using her thumb to trace the
outline of her areola.  "To make a long story short, I was in the process of
loading a charge when the breech-lock slipped and created a spark."
     D blinked as she held up her left hand and made a gesture as if she were
holding an imaginary pistol.  He nodded in understanding a moment later as he
could imagine how the gunpowder would have exploded and just where the fiery
burst would have impacted against her hand.  "I see," he said calmly.
     "I don't know why it never healed, but after a few days I realized that I
needed to find a way to protect it," Coral whispered softly before she sighed
quietly to herself.  She lightly ran the tip of her finger over her throbbing
nipple before sighing again and moving her hips back, letting him slip free
from her depths.  She then moved to lay next to him, curling up on his right
side and ignoring the awkward way D was spread-eagled from the chains binding
his wrists and ankles.
     "So where did the metal come from?" D inquired as he ignored the way her
head rested on his shoulder and studied the implant.  He narrowed his eyes as
he again thought he saw something etched on its smooth surface, only to vanish
an instant later as he tried to focus on it.
     "I'm not sure," she admitted in a quiet murmur, suddenly seeming to be
sleepy.  "A trader passed through the village shortly after the accident and he
had a small sheet of what he claimed was 'fabric metal' he had found in an old
ruin.  It was very light and malleable, able to bend and twist yet remain quite
solid to the touch.  Intrigued, I purchased it and had the village blacksmith
reshape it for me with the intent of making it into a glove that would protect
my hand.  There wasn't enough of it for a full glove, so he used it to make the
backing and used some scraps of sandworm hide for the rest.  It fit nicely when
I put it on, but then the metal suddenly dug in to my skin and I couldn't pry
it off.  The hide portion eventually fell away, but the metal remained behind.
I eventually gave up trying to get it off and just got used to it.  It looked
strange at first, but it hasn't let anything hurt my hand since."
     D blinked hard and cast a suddenly leery glance at the implant, wondering
if he had been right the first time in the sense that she had picked up a very
different kind of parasite than the one that resided in his own left hand.  If
that was indeed the case, it was the first he had ever heard of such a metal
entity in all his travels.
     "Unique," he commented after several moments of silence.  He blinked as
she lifted her head up and leaned over, a very soft purr rising up from her
throat as she gave him a deep kiss.
     "D?" she murmured softly once the kiss was broken.  "Please promise me
what I asked you earlier, that you won't hurt either me or my sister and that
you won't ever try to leave me.  After making love to you, I don't want to ever
lose you.  You truly are everything the legends have ever said about you."
     D cast a sidelong glance at her, still not believing that she wasn't able
to understand that he wanted nothing to do with her like that.  "I don't think
I can do that," he pointed out in a neutral tone.
     "Mmm?" she murmured as she looked at him, her eyelids starting to droop.
It was obvious to him that she was more than a little tired all of a sudden,
leaving him with the feeling that further conversation was probably just be a
waste of breath.
     "You look tired," he pointed out, wondering what sort of reaction he would
get from her.
     A faint chuckle rose up from her as she leaned over to lightly brush her
lips across his.  "What can I say, D?  I wasn't prepared for you to feel *that*
good.  Mmmmm, god," she added as she shivered lightly.  "I can still feel how
hard you came inside me, and believe me when I say it was without the doubt the
most intense feeling I have ever felt before in my life."
     Great, D thought with a truly sickening feeling as he saw the dreamy look
in her eyes.  He realized that perhaps it might have been better for him to
have tried to resist her earlier, as it was likely that the experience would
only fuel her twisted desires to use him to conceive a child.  While the notion
of a woman desiring a child in her life wasn't anything unusual in of itself,
even for a dunpeal, he found it to be extremely bothersome to contemplate how
she was trying to have *his* child by force.  And unless he could come up with
an alternate plan soon, preferably one that didn't involve his death, she just
might succeed in getting what she wanted.
     She purred softly as she leaned over to kiss him gently.  "D?" she said
very quietly, her voice taking on a soft honeyed undertone as she tried to use
her charming influences.  "If you make those promises to me, I'll be able to
free you so you won't have to stay here all day.  I know I wouldn't mind having
you in my arms as we fall asleep in my bed...."
     "I'm sure you wouldn't," he spoke up dryly, giving her a faint look of
contempt.
     Her expression seemed to crumple slightly into sadness.  "So you're not
going to promise not to hurt me?" she whispered.  "After what we just shared?
D, I know you're not heartless or cruel like that.  Please, promise me...."
     It took him a few moments to decide just how to reply to her.  "Let's just
say that I have a number of reservations against being bound by such things,"
he replied in a calm tone.
     She seemed to study his eyes in silence for several moments before finally
drawing in a subtle breath.  "It's Pearl, isn't it?" she murmured in a sullen
tone.  "You won't promise me not to hurt her because you're mad at her."
     "I wouldn't say I'm mad at her," D replied carefully.  "But yes, I have my
doubts that I could trust her to end her harmful ways and change her attitude
towards humans."
     A chill started to run down his spine as he noticed her eyes starting to
fill with tears.  Much to his unease, she leaned forward to kiss him yet again,
causing him to instinctively brace for the stinging sensation that would result
from her tears dripping against his skin.  A sense of relief washed over him as
she leaned back with no evidence of any tears having been shed just yet.
     "D, please think about it?" she pleaded softly, reaching up with her left
hand to brush her fingertips against his lips.  Another icy chill crawled down
his spine as he feared she would touch him with the implant again, exposing him
directly to her charming power that seemed all too capable of dominating him.
"I want you to stay with me, to help me raise the child I know you will soon
give me.  Two days, my dark hunter," she whispered as she gave him yet another
soft, almost tender kiss.  "I can hardly wait until I'm ready for you, and I
know you won't disappoint me.  Please, just relax and think about it, about how
you'll be able to hold her after she is born.  Or he," she added with only the
faintest hints of humor to offset the somber and saddened look in her eyes.
"I don't care if it's a boy or a girl, just as long as I have a child.... and
you.  Please think about it, D.  I'll be back down once the sun sets to take
care of you.  I promise.... my love," she breathed, her voice so soft that he
almost wasn't sure that she had spoken those last two words.
     D said nothing as she uncurled herself and moved off of both him and the
padded backing in silence.  She moved over to her discarded clothes and scooped
them up, not bothering to put them back on.  She seemed to hesitate briefly as
she glanced down at the exposed metal of her implant, tilting it slightly to
study it in the light before casting the briefest of looks over her shoulder at
him.  She then turned and left the dungeon chamber without a word, her bare
feet making no noise that he could detect as she padded across the room to slip
out the still-open door.  The door squeaked closed a moment later, followed by
the deep clicking noise of the lock being engaged.
     <D?> it spoke up after it was sure the coast was clear.
     D frowned and cast a glance up at his hand, knowing that the voice sounded
to be more than a little rattled.  "What?" he said quietly, trying to silence
the echoing voice in his mind.  He could hear Coral whispering those two words
over and over again, acutely aware of the look that had been in her eyes when
she gave him that final glance before leaving him alone in the chamber.
     <You.... didn't hurt anything in that, did you?> it inquired cautiously.
<Look, you know as well as I do that good sex is absolutely fantastic, and that
bad sex is still pretty damn good when you get your rocks off, so let's just
skip that whole aspect and focus on the real problem.  How are you feeling?>
     D cast a truly disturbed look at his hand, unable to twist his palm around
to look directly at it but knowing that it could probably somehow 'see' the
dark glare anyway.  "Sore," he admitted.
     <You enjoy it?> it asked calmly.  <Hey, hey, settle down,> it added in a
hasty tone as D's expression twisted into a truly dark snarl.  <Look, I'd have
played along as well and with a smile on my face to boot, so don't think I'm
trying to needle you or anything.>
     "Then remain quiet," he said in a faintly edged tone, trying to get the
minor flaring of his temper back under control.
     <D, listen carefully for a moment, okay?  That metal in her arm?  I'm not
sure why I didn't notice it earlier, but the moment she took that glove off my
Astral senses lit up big-time.>
     "Do you know what it is?" he asked as he closed his eyes and took a deep
breath, trying to calm his body down.  A faint tingle shot through him without
warning, causing the corners of his mouth to twitch faintly as he recognized it
as the warning sensation of the sun starting to rise above the horizon.
     There was a faint hum in his mind for a number of moments, almost as if
the thing was sighing very quietly to itself.  The sound wasn't one that he was
able to hear in the air, but instead felt along the mental half of its voice.
<I'm.... trying to remember something,> it finally spoke up.  <A long time ago
we passed through a series of islands, one of which had that dead zone around
it that glowed at night.  You know what I'm talking about, right?>
     "I do," D replied as the distant memory returned.  It had apparently been
the site of a disaster of some sort, probably caused by the destruction of an
ancient legacy-era energy source.  The blast had left a truly massive crater in
the ground that to this day was still little more than a blackened pit.  It was
surrounded by a ring of dead land where nothing could grow in the soil and was
actively avoided by both wildlife and intelligent life.  A shallow pond formed
by rainwater in the very center of the crater gave off a faint and distinctly
eerie green glow whenever the sky was dark.  He hadn't bothered to enter that
tainted land, and not just because of the plethora of local rumors about how
anyone setting foot inside the crater became infected with a fatal disease that
killed within days, or how the water was really alive and would turn anyone who
touched it into a zombie.  It was obvious that none of his vampire quarry would
ever seek to hide there in such a lifeless land where the dead earth couldn't
sustain them, and so he knew that he didn't need to bother searching it.
     <Well, I'll admit I wasn't paying too close attention to anything other
than that *really* chilling energy field surrounding the place,> it went on,
seeming to shudder briefly at the memory.  <But for some reason that chunk of
metal reminds me of that place.  The trick is, I haven't the faintest idea why.
I mean, it's not giving off that same kind of energy or even anything like it.
In fact, I'm pretty sure I've never actually seen any sort of metal like that
at all.  It just shows up as this big bright beacon on my Astral senses, and
that alone is enough to worry me.  Not knowing *why* I can feel it like that
only makes it that much worse.>
     "That might be the source of her charming power," D spoke up, trying not
to shiver at how easily it had dominated him earlier.
     <Might be?> it countered with a dry chuckle, drawing a dour look from D
before he closed his eyes again.  <D, I felt it mold your mind like dough in
the hands of a baker.  Now we know why that poor girl Abelyne is so thoroughly
under Coral's thumb.  I mean, if you had the devil's own time trying to resist
such a power, how do you think a mere human girl would have fared?>
     "Enough," D murmured, trying not to think of it and failing.  The image of
Coral's smile when she had entered earlier continued to haunt him, the corners
of her mouth still stained with faint traces of crimson that could only have
come from drinking blood.
     His eyes snapped open as he heard the sound of the lock being withdrawn,
glancing over towards the door as it creaked open a few seconds later.  He felt
a pit of ice form in his guts as Pearl entered the room and carefully closed
the door behind her, a dark look of brooding still evident on her face.  Her
eyes had lost their vampiric glow at some point but still seemed to simmer with
barely-controlled anger as she gave him a truly irritable look.
     He reflexively curled his hand into a fist, knowing that he didn't need to
prod the symbiot to keep silent but doing so anyway just to make absolutely
certain it would remain quiet.  The sound of her footsteps could be heard a
moment later as she made her way over to where he was chained down, seeming to
take her time and moving with a measured pace.  Her hands were empty and he
couldn't see a weapon hanging from her belt, but that didn't give him much in
the way of comfort as he knew that his own stash of weapons were still on the
shelf not more than a few paces away.
     She reached the bank of levers and pulled the center one, slowly bringing
the frame back into an upright position.  D did his best to keep his expression
unchanged as his weight was shifted back onto his ankles, resulting in a series
of sharp stabbing pains that indicated they still had a significant amount of
healing left to do.
     "You know what?" Pearl said in a measured tone as she moved to stand in
front of him, her mouth still compressed into a thin and bitter line.  "I have
absolutely no idea what to think of either you or Coral at the moment.  I know
I've walked in on my sister and some guy before, so it really isn't anything
new, but this one just leaves me speechless.  What happened?"
     D raised an eyebrow as he regarded her carefully, not entirely sure what
to make of her demeanor.  It was obvious that she was quite pissed at him, but
he was also getting the impression that she was genuinely curious about what
had taken place.  Surely she of all people would know.... or would she?
     Ah.... damn, Coral, what's with you all of a sudden? her voice echoed in
the depths of his mind.  He's mine, dear sister, and I'll explain it all to you
later, Coral had replied.  Sis, about what you said about not ripping his balls
off....  Don't worry about it, Pearl, I said I would explain things later....
     He winced as her arm lashed out, the back of her fist glancing off of his
cheek hard enough to bounce the back of his head against the padding.  "Answer
me," she demanded as the fiery glow of her vampiric side flashed into her eyes,
illuminating her aqua-blue irises with a crimson aura.  "What happened?"
     "Didn't your sister tell you?" he replied calmly, bracing himself for a
second blow.  He winced again as she leaned forward against him, bringing one
knee up to painfully rest against his inert manhood while she grabbed his chin
in an iron grip.
     "Do not play games with me, hunter," Pearl snarled in a low tone, her lips
pulling back slightly to expose the tips of her vampiric fangs.  "Not unless
you want to say goodbye to your little friend," she added with a sharp jab of
her knee into his groin.
     D couldn't help the tiny droplet of sweat that crawled down the back of
his neck, knowing that the truth was just as liable to set her off as anything
else he could have said.  "Coral wants to have a child," he replied in a low
tone.  He paused for the span of a heartbeat as Pearl suddenly blinked, the red
glow vanishing from her corneas as if a switch had been pulled.  "And it seems
she wants me to be the father."
     Pearl blinked again before her expression darkened.  "Bullshit," she said
in a soft growl as she leaned slightly closer to him, a faint flickering of red
starting to return to her eyes.
     "Go ask her if you don't believe me," D countered flatly, returning her
gaze with an unflinching expression.  Their eyes locked in tense silence for
what seemed like a minor eternity before she very slowly edged away from him,
shaking her head to herself in denial.
     "You've got to be shitting me," she breathed.
     "Let me ask you this, then," D spoke up quietly, still giving her a very
solid look.  "Why would I bother lying when all you would need to do is ask her
for the truth?"
     Pearl snorted quietly with contempt.  "Easy, to try to save your ass," she
snarled in a low tone.  "And we both know how men like you would lie, cheat,
and steal to bed a woman.  I've heard the stories about you, hunter."
     "I doubt you have," D replied calmly.  He quickly braced as best he could
as Pearl lashed out again, the back of her hand connecting with his jaw hard
enough to briefly make him see sparks.  Her hand came back to grab his chin in
a fierce grip, forcing him to look up at her.
     "Are you calling me a liar?" she snarled in a dangerously soft tone as her
lips curled back to bare her vampiric fangs.
     D simply gazed calmly at her as his thoughts suddenly organized themselves
with startling clarity.  "I'm not saying you haven't heard stories about me,"
he countered, deliberately keeping his tone steady to suggest that her anger
wasn't fazing him in the slightest.  "The truth of what those stories have said
is another matter, however."
     "Really, now," she said, her voice almost literally dripping with scorn.
     "Whom do you think would be more credible?" he pointed out.  "A nameless
patron in a tavern talking of whispered rumors and decade-old stories that she
overheard from someone else, or the words of someone who was actually there and
knows first-hand what truly took place?"
     Pearl narrowed her eyes as she stared at him before making a soft huffing
noise deep in her throat.  "Alright, then," she spat.  "Tell me about Meryl."
     D closed his eyes briefly as he searched his memories.  "A werewolf hunter
who slew the minion of a noble vampiress named Rebecca D'Caden," he replied.
"Enraged by the loss, she led a hunting party after Meryl and her companions.
One was able to escape the ambush, which is how word reached me of what had
taken place.  He hired me to free the rest of his team, though by the time I
arrived at the castle two days later only Meryl was still alive.  Freeing her
and fighting our way out through Lady D'Caden's traps and counter-attacks took
another day.  Lady D'Caden pursued us into the forest and ambushed us on the
trail with her remaining forces.  It was all we could do to fend her off until
the sun rose, allowing me to finally put an end to her and her pet werewolves."
     Pearl nodded, having heard that much already.  "Keep going," she prodded.
     D narrowed his eyes slightly.  "It was nightfall when we reached her home
town.  I was wounded from the effort and asked to borrow the couch to rest for
the remainder of the night.  I awoke later to her touch and didn't resist her
desires, giving her what she wanted from me.  Her companion, however, the one
who had hired me, had apparently been a former lover at one point and didn't
take kindly to hearing her confession a few days after I left.  He started the
rumor that I had forced myself on Meryl, taking advantage of her weakness when
she was wounded and thus not in her right mind."
     A faint sneer crossed Pearl's face.  "Right, of course she came to you,"
she drawled.  "And you can prove your innocence, I trust?"
     "What did Meryl say?" D asked simply.  "Or did you not bother to ask?" he
added as Pearl seemed to sober up slightly and remained silent.  "Regardless of
what you or others think of me, Pearl, I know what I am and remember all that
I've done in my life.  You are free to believe what you want to believe, as it
won't disturb my conscience in the slightest."
     "Conscience," Pearl spat, bringing her hand up to grab his chin again.
"You of all of us have no room to speak of having a conscience.  After all that
you've done to our kind, your own blood?  How many vampires have you killed, D?
How many of your own brothers and sisters have you murdered?" she demanded.
"For all our desire and need for blood, your hands are the bloodiest of all."
     "If I didn't have a conscience," D replied calmly, "Then why else would I
have done this?  Yes, I have cast countless vampires back into the abyss that
spawned them, and it is conscience that drives me to continue to do so until
this world is free from the taint of evil in our blood."
     He grimaced as she shoved her palm against him, throwing him back against
the padding in a sharp gesture that kinked a shoulder muscle.  "You dare," she
seethed through gritted teeth.  "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill
you here and now for your crimes against us."
     "Who's us?" D asked.  "The family of your human mother, or the dark blood
of Baron Winters and your half-siblings born to his noble wife?"
     It immediately became obvious that it wasn't the best of things he could
have said to her.  She seemed to blink in surprise for a fraction of a second
before a truly unholy rage filled her eyes, the crimson glow of her corneas
flashing with such an intensity that it made him squint against the forceful
glare.  The punch that she promptly threw caught him by surprise, not that he
wasn't fully expecting it but simply because her fist moved faster than even
his finely-honed combat reflexes could pick up on and thus allow him to brace
for the bone-jarring impact.
     His whole body rocked with the blow as it tore along his jaw, slamming him
against the padded backing hard enough to give him a very light concussion.
His shoulders promptly screamed in protest as they were pulled back only to be
jerked to a sudden halt by the metal chains holding his arms, coming close to
tearing a few tendons.  The bitter taste of his own blood started to fill his
mouth as the inside of his cheek was torn open by the blow, a rather revolting
sensation that required a concerted effort to not immediately spit out.  As it
was he couldn't stop a small rivulet of blood from oozing out from the corner
of his mouth, flowing down to collect in droplets on his chin that then fell to
splash against his chest.
     "You dare," Pearl growled, her whole body trembling with rage that she was
barely able to keep in check.  Her hands kept clenching and unclenching as she
fought against the burning desire to simply tear him apart with her bare hands,
to coat both the floor and her in his blood.
     "Why do you let me live, then?" D challenged quietly, his tone unchanged
from the steady tone used moments earlier.  "If you think I've committed a
great crime and are convinced of my guilt, then why haven't you executed me?
Surely the world will thank you for putting an end to such a menace as myself."
     Pearl scowled at him, trying to figure out just what the hell was going on
all of a sudden.  "What, you wish to die so soon?" she demanded.  "Oh, believe
me, hunter, you will not be getting off that easily.  No, you will suffer for
a great long while before I will even think of letting you die," she said as
she shook her head slowly.  "Your guilt is obvious, D, but your punishment will
not be death but pain instead.  Lots and lots of pain...."
     D glanced up at her for a few moments before he took a measured breath.
He craned his neck forward as best he could and turned to one side, spitting
out the blood but making sure that none of it got even close to her.   "I see
your sister has as much control over you as she does over Abelyne," he spoke up
calmly, as if he were commenting on the weather.  He then braced himself for a
second outburst of her temper as best he could, knowing that he would indeed be
in for a significant amount of pain.
     As expected, the taunt briefly shattered her control over her temper.  He
closed his eyes as hers suddenly ignited with rage again, idly wondering where
the blows would land and only partially concerned if he would survive them.  A
searing pain immediately erupted across his jaw on the other side, followed by
the sensation of the room spinning as the punch knocked him back against the
padding once more.  Another pair of blows followed, each landing on alternate
sides of his chin that twisted his neck painfully and left more blood flowing
from the corners of his mouth.
     It took a few moments for him to summon the strength to open his eyes once
the blows stopped and his sense of balance was allowed to stabilize.  He cast
a bleary glance up at her, making note of the look of barely-caged fury on her
face as her chest heaved sharply with each ragged breath.  He lifted his head
up slowly, waiting until he was sure that he had solid eye-contact with her
before letting a small smile of triumph form on his bruised and bloody lips.
     The gesture seemed to completely catch her off-guard, resulting in a very
hard blink at the realization that he was smiling at her.  It was hardly the
look she expected to receive from him, and it was enough to both throw her rage
off-balance and make her suddenly question his sanity.
     "What?" she demanded in a low tone, her voice marred by a tiny measure of
uncertainty at the unexpected development.
     "You have quite a temper," D murmured, trying to keep his voice steady and
even.  Both his lips and his jaw immediately began to protest being forced to
move, sending waves of agonizing pain shooting across his entire face.  "Such
raw anger must make it difficult for you sometimes, always wanting to lash out
and destroy everything around you.  I would imagine it makes it difficult to
find and make friends."
     Her face immediately twisted into a vicious snarl, baring her fangs yet
again as she visibly teetered on the edge of another outburst of rage.  "You
know absolutely nothing about me, hunter," she hissed as her clenched fists
started to tremble from tension once again.
     "I know you're a dunpeal," D reminded her calmly.  "Believe me when I say
I know more about you than you think I do.  After all," he added as he lifted
his chin up defiantly, "Aren't you and I related, having a vampire's dark blood
in our veins?  Or do you think Coral is the only one who understands what that
darkness inside you is doing to your thoughts and state of mind?"
     He quickly had to brace himself as she exploded into a spinning kick, the
heel of her boot slamming into his stomach hard enough to drive the air out of
his lungs in a mad exodus.  His senses suddenly grayed out for a few moments
before slowly returning as he was able to draw in a ragged and suddenly very
painful breath.  He didn't think that any significant internal damage had been
done, but he knew that he probably hadn't mended enough on the inside to be
able to withstand too much more punishment.
     He allowed his eyes to open into narrow slits as she grabbed his hair and
hoisted, yanking his head up so that their eyes could meet.  "Keep talking,"
she growled, her jaw set so firmly that he suspected it had to be aching quite
painfully by now.  Not nearly as painful as his own jaw was feeling, of course,
but she still had to be feeling the tension to one degree or another.  "For a
supposed legend, you sure aren't too bright.  Go on, insult me again.  I want
a reason to kick you in the balls next," she whispered with a cruel smile.
     "Why do you need a reason?" D replied, unable to keep the rasp out of his
voice.  "Why fight the rage inside you?  What stays your hand, Pearl?"
     She seemed to hesitate slightly, her eyes narrowing as she stared at him
and tried to figure out why he was goading her into hurting him.  "You're up to
something," she finally said in a very soft tone.
     "You can't answer the question, can you?" D replied in a tone that was
equally as soft.  He ignored the warning snarl in her throat as she tensed up
again and continued.  "I know there is a struggle inside your heart, Pearl, one
that rages even as we speak.  Part of you wants to kill me, to use your fangs
and slice open every vein in my body."
     "Damn straight I do," Pearl hissed, unconsciously baring her fangs again.
"And you deserve it for what you've done."
     "So do it," D replied calmly.  "Prove me right.  Give me the satisfaction
of seeing you surrender your humanity and becoming nothing more than an animal
in a lustful frenzy.  Go on," he prodded her as she snarled and drew her fist
back before halting in mid-motion.
     "You must be mad," she breathed hoarsely, her fist wavering as her arm
remained dangerously tense from remaining cocked back.
     "I'm not the one shaking like a rabid dog slipped from its leash," D said
in a neutral tone, hoping that he would be able to break through the veil of
rage that was blinding her.  "Go ahead, Pearl, hit me for the insult.  Show me
who is the better person."
     He felt the faintest of twitches in his left hand but ignored it, keeping
his concentration on the intense look on Pearl's face.  It was obvious that her
rage was only being held back by the thinnest of threads of control, but he
could see the briefest of flickers of emotion in her eyes as she struggled to
keep that thread from breaking.
     "You're still fighting on the inside," he pointed out gently.  "Something
is keeping you from lashing out.  Do you know what that is, Pearl?  It's your
human soul."
     "You know nothing of me," Pearl breathed through clenched teeth, her fist
still poised to lash out in an instant.
     "Then show me what you are," D said simply.
     He waited patiently for her to react or at least give him some indication
that his words were reaching her.  He knew that whatever she did now would be
the deciding factor in how the rest would play out, either giving in to the
rage inside her and likely killing him or stepping back to listen to whatever
else he might say.
     His expression remained perfectly composed as she very slowly lowered her
arm and stood up straight, her chest still heaving from raw tension.  Her rage
was still very much present, the crimson glow in her corneas seeming to pulse
slightly with her heartbeat, but he sensed that the thin thread keeping it in
check had just gotten slightly stronger.
     So it begins, he thought as he very gingerly drew in as deep a breath as
he could tolerate.  He knew that he only had one chance to truly reach out to
her, to try to awaken the tiny spark of her humanity that he knew still burned
within her hybrid soul.  He also knew that he would have to continue to push
her to the very edge in order to reach her, and that a single mistake or error
in judgment could quite easily be his last.
     "I see I was wrong about you after all," he spoke up, allowing his body to
visibly relax as best he could.  "I haven't met many other dunpeals who didn't
act like rabid animals, bent only on killing and spreading destruction to all
those around them."
     "Is that why you hunt us?" she rasped.  "You see us as animals?  Mere game
to hunt at your leisure?"
     "I take no pleasure in what I do," he said, lifting his head up to give
her a firm look that caused her to blink.  "There is no leisure to be found in
putting my life at risk every single day that I still breathe."
     "Then why do you do it?" she demanded darkly as she folded her arms over
her petite chest.
     D sighed quietly and shook his head gently in resignation, dropping his
emotional guard to let her see his weariness.  "I have no choice," he said in
a quiet tone.  "In all my travels and for as long as I have existed, I have yet
to meet a noble who didn't view humans as property or livestock, mere slaves or
cattle to be used for a purpose and discarded without a second thought once
they were finished with them."
     "And?" Pearl prompted him.  She blinked and unconsciously stepped back as
D looked up at her, the sheer intensity of emotion in his eyes sending a dark
shiver throughout her blood.
     "Your mother was human," D said in a low tone.  "She gave you life.  Does
that not mean anything to you?  Or do you view yourself as being born from an
animal and never looked back once you emerged from the sanctity of her womb?"
     The burning rage suddenly gripped Pearl with an intensity that worried D,
her body becoming as rigid as steel and the vampiric glow in her eyes becoming
almost searingly bright.  She very slowly raised a hand, pointing a trembling
finger at his chest as she struggled to speak coherently.  "Do not," she said
in a tightly-controlled tone, "Speak to me of my so-called mother."
     Her words suddenly sent a dangerous chill down his spine, realizing that
he had most likely stumbled across a part of the source of her rage and not in
a good way.  He knew he still had to press on, however, no matter how bad the
situation looked to be.
     "What did she do to you, Pearl?" D inquired calmly.  "What could she have
possibly done to make you hate her and humans so badly?"
     He could see the thread starting to break, becoming thinner and thinner
with each passing moment.  She suddenly took a sharp breath, and for one brief
instant D thought that her temper had finally snapped.  A very ragged whisper
followed shortly afterwards as she exhaled through her nose, giving him a tiny
measure of hope that she was still able to control her inhuman rage.
     "Nothing, D," she finally rasped through gritted teeth.  "My mother did
absolutely nothing.  You say she gave me life, but she did no such thing.  She
died when I was still in the womb, and my father had to free me from her body
before she dragged me into the grave with her.  I had no mother, and I was
certainly not born from one," she spat, her entire being rigid with tension.
     D blinked before he could recover his composure, knowing that his uphill
battle had just turned into a mountain.  He looked at her in uneasy silence
before he slowly nodded his head in understanding.  "How old was Coral when you
were rescued?" he said, hoping that he wasn't pushing things by asking.
     "Four," Pearl replied in a truly dark tone.  "And she doesn't remember her
either.  Not a face, not a name, nothing.  We didn't have a mother, only our
father.  And now, thanks to you, we don't even have that much," she snarled as
her temper started to flare to the breaking point once again.
     "I share your pain," D said calmly.  He tensed up and braced as she became
a blur, lunging forward to slam her fist into his abdomen in the same spot her
boot had impacted a few minutes ago.  The blow had virtually identical results,
causing his lungs to deflate almost to the point of collapse and rendering his
senses all but useless for the span of a few seconds.
     "You know nothing of pain!" Pearl screamed at him, her face flushed with
primal anger.  She seemed to struggle for a moment before she lashed out again,
her fist slamming into his guts once more as her snarl of rage echoed unusually
loud in his ears.
     D wasn't sure how he managed to hang onto consciousness long enough for
his body to recover and start to function once again.  His breath made a very
odd hissing sound as he inhaled, sending intense jolts of pain across his chest
like so many lightning bolts.
     "My.... mother...." D tried to say, fighting against the pain of trying to
both breathe and speak, "Was raped.... and murdered.... by vampires.  My....
father.... was later.... killed by them."
     Pearl suddenly paused to take a very sobering breath, his words seeming to
blunt the edges of her vampiric rage.  "Is that why you hate us, D?" she said
in a low tone.  "Is that all this is?  Simple revenge?"
     It took D a few moments to gather enough energy together to lift his head
up, trying to fight the urge to throw up as his stomach continued to roil from
her attacks.  "Not revenge, but justice," he hissed as his body was suddenly
wracked with a series of tremors and spasms.  "Justice against those who would
murder innocents for their own amusement, who would rape women and burn human
children alive for the sole crime of living on land owned by a rival vampire.
Justice against an evil that should never have been released upon the world to
begin with, justice that has been denied for ten thousand years while countless
millions have suffered and perished beneath the rule of the nobles.  You claim
I am the one who is evil for trying to rid the world of our blood, but what of
your crimes, Pearl?"
     "My crimes?" Pearl snarled back as her eyes lit up once again.
     "How many humans have you killed, humans that you are related to because
of your human blood?" D demanded hoarsely.  "If I am related to vampires like
your father simply because of vampiric blood, then why aren't you related to
humans like my mother because of your human blood?  How can you condemn me for
what I have done without condemning yourself as well for what you've done?"
     Her breath suddenly seemed to snarl in her throat, leaving her standing as
still as a marble statue.  She stared at him in edged silence for what felt
like a minor eternity before she very slowly raised her hand, extending a lone
finger to make a very subtle gesture.
     "Do not try to compare us," she said in a low tone.  "I may have the blood
of a weak human woman in my veins, but I am not like them or you.  I have not
made it my purpose in life to prey on my own kind, to hunt them down and make
them cower like rats before butchering them."
     The faintest of snorts rose up from D's chest, little more than a spasm
that could easily have been mistaken for a cough.  "You're right in the sense
that you're not like me," he replied calmly.  "Unlike you, I have respect for
my origins.  And if you think I deliberately make anyone suffer for any reason,
then you haven't been paying attention to what anyone else has said.  Or do you
think I find pain and suffering to be as exciting to watch as you do?" he added
in a faintly challenging tone.
     Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she stared back at him, her body once
again starting to tense up with anger.  "Alright, hunter," she spat.  "Tell me
what everyone has said about you that I seem to have missed."
     "There is no honor in making others suffers," he stated.  "This world is
overflowing with enough pain and misery as it is.  It would be an injustice for
me to willingly or deliberately add to it, and so I don't do it.  I've learned
many things during my life, and the one thing that stands out the most, the one
thing that sets me apart is my honor.  Without it, I'm no better than the evil
I've tried to subdue my entire life."
     "Honor," Pearl sneered.  "Tell me, D, what honor is there to be had in
killing your own kind?"
     "What defines my kind?" he countered in a level tone.  "You seem to have
nothing but contempt for your human mother, so why shouldn't I look down on my
vampire father?"  He waited for her to blink in surprise before he continued.
"Like you, I can't undo the circumstances of my birth, but neither will I try
to deny it.  Humans like my mother are the ones who taught me about concepts
like honor and love, and how actions speak louder than words.  I didn't become
a hunter of vampires simply because of what my father was, but rather because
of what he and the others did, both to each other and to innocent humans like
my mother.
     "I was barely an adolescent when the Blood Wars began, a series of brutal
and senseless wars among the nobles.  When unable to directly strike at one
another, they often turned their rage on the human villages that populated the
domains of their opponents, humans whose sole crime was living under the yoke
of their 'masters.'
     "I saw it all from my bedroom window, the horizon turned orange from the
flames of burning villages.  I saw houses torn apart by werewolves and mutants,
the occupants drug out into the streets to be violated and murdered.  Children
were brutally tortured for no reason, women violently raped until they couldn't
scream any more, and not a single noble stepped forward to try to protect them,
not even the ones who weren't under siege."
     D paused for a moment as he saw a dark flicker of emotion in Pearl's eyes.
He knew his own expression was openly haunted at the moment, unable to shut out
the ghostly voices in his memories as they once again rose up to torment him.
     "My mother...." he started to say before his throat briefly closed up.  It
took him a moment to refocus his mind and force himself to relax before he was
able to continue.  "My mother, my human mother, tried to forbid my father from
retaliating in kind, and for awhile she was successful because of the strength
of her human love for him.  But then she was kidnapped by an opposing group of
nobles, seeking to hurt my father through her.  She...."
     D wasn't quite sure why his voice quit working again despite his efforts,
his eyes closing of their own volition a moment later.  Much to his surprise,
he felt a gentle touch on his chin, tilting his head up slightly.  He took a
deep breath and forced his eyes open, finding himself being studied by a pair
of aqua-blue eyes that were only tinted with a lingering resentment instead of
being overshadowed by a crimson veil of rage.
     "Go on," she said in a neutral tone that he wasn't able to read.  "Tell me
what they did to her."
     "We found her body on the palace steps three days later," D managed to
say, his voice barely more than a broken whisper.  "Naked, beaten, raped, empty
of blood and life.  She had been defiled in every way possible, a woman who had
never raised her hand or acted against a noble in her life.  What had she done
to deserve such a fate?  All she had done is loved my father with her entire
human heart and bore him a child, the ultimate fruit of such love."
     D felt a faint chill creep into his blood as he noticed the dark emotion
flicker in her eyes again, suggesting that something he had said was striking
a very deep chord within her.  "As you can imagine," he continued after a brief
stretch of silence, "My father didn't take kindly to that act and immediately
unleashed a brutal attack on whose whom he suspected were behind it.  That led
to a chain-reaction that ultimately resulted in his death, but not before most
of the planet had been cast into ruin by their actions."
     "I know how the Blood Wars played out," she assured him in a flat tone,
the edges of her mouth still curled down in a frown.
     They both glanced towards the door as it creaked open and a young girl
wearing the simple garb of a peasant entered, coming to a sudden halt once she
realized that the room was occupied.  Her hair was a rusty shade of red not
unlike dried blood that contrasted sharply with her sea-green eyes.  She was
carrying a copper goblet that sloshed slightly at the way she abruptly stopped.
     "What is it?" Pearl snapped as a faint snarl rose up from her throat.
     "Forgive me, mistress," the girl said softly as she made a hasty curtsy.
"Lady Coral asked me to give this to her.... guest," she said, hesitating for
a fraction of a second on the last word, making a gesture with the goblet.
     "And what is it?" Pearl demanded, the harshness of her tone drawing a dark
look from D that she didn't appear to notice.
     "Water, mistress," the girl replied, clearly uneasy with the situation.
     D glanced back at the new arrival, suddenly reminded of the fact that he
hadn't eaten or been allowed to drink anything recently.  As if on cue, he felt
the faintest of rumblings from his stomach, a less-than-subtle reminder of his
body's current condition.  A casual tingle in his crotch registered an instant
later, a very quiet message from his bladder that it was starting to become
full and needed to be emptied soon.  The faintest of disgruntled looks passed
over his face briefly as he became aware of the sensations that had been quite
overshadowed by the constant pain and events within the past day or so.
     "Bring it here," Pearl ordered, her eyes remaining fixed on the girl as
she quickly approached and meekly held the goblet out for inspection.  She cast
a quick glance inside before reaching out, taking the goblet from her with a
none-too-gentle jerk of her hand.  "I'll take care of it," she assured her with
a faint sneer, casting a distinctly cruel look of amusement towards D.
     "Thank you, mistress," the girl replied with another brief curtsy before
she turned away and started to leave.
     "April," Pearl suddenly spoke up, seeming to relax as she folded her arms
over her chest.  She cast a sidelong glance at the suddenly uneasy expression
of her sister's slave before looking back at D, a dark smirk crossing her face
as she took an idle sip from the goblet.  "Tell me what you know about our....
distinguished guest," she mocked with a soft chuckle.
     April blinked and cast an openly nervous glance towards D, uncertain what
to make of the situation.  "H-He's the vampire-hunter known as D, mistress,"
she said, her voice wavering slightly.
     Pearl huffed slightly and took another sip of the water.  "Surely you know
more about him than that, girl," she prodded in a dark tone.
     "Mistress, please," April whimpered quietly, giving Pearl a look of pure
terror.  "I don't know anything else about him, only that he is a dunpeal like
you and Lady Coral are...."
     "Pearl," D spoke up quietly as Pearl's expression suddenly turned dark.
He gave her a moderate look as she glanced at him, figuring that she was about
to vent some of that seemingly endless rage at April and trying to divert her
attention to him.  "Surely the daughter of a noble like you shouldn't have to
turn to a mere slave for such information.  Or do you expect a girl like April
to be as knowledgeable as you are?"
     He could tell in an instant that his attempt at being a decoy had worked,
her eyes narrowing and starting to flicker crimson once more.  "I was merely
seeing how wide-spread your so-called legend is," she snarled in a low tone.
"And apparently it's not as great as you think.  Return upstairs," she added
flatly, not taking her eyes off of D.
     "Yes, mistress," April blurted out as she made another quick curtsy before
leaving the room at a rapid pace that wasn't quite a run.
     Pearl continued to glare at him in heavy silence for a number of moments
before the corner of her mouth twitched up in a faint smirk.  "Cute, D," she
said as she took another sip of water.  "Not that I think she's the ignorant
wench she would like us to believe she is, but at least she knows her place."
     "Her manners must make you feel important," D commented in a neutral tone,
his eyes still locked on hers.  "But then again, I've never had to resort to
being a bully to garner the respect of others, either real or imaginary."
     It didn't surprise him in the least to hear the sudden groan of imploding
metal, casting an absent glance down at her hand as the goblet was crushed in
a white-knuckled grip.  "I see you have a lust for pain," she said in a very
soft tone akin to a whisper.  The goblet was cast aside with a flick of her
wrist, sending a cascade of water across the floor as it bounced before rolling
into a corner.  "Come, vampire-hunter," she snarled as her hands curled into
fists as she advanced on him, "Let me satisfy that lust for you like you did
for my sister...."
     "If you think you can truly hurt me, go ahead," D replied calmly, causing
his left hand to twitch briefly before becoming still again.
     She paused for a moment, one pale blue eyebrow arching up in both surprise
and mild amusement.  "I see you forgot how easily I made you sing yesterday,"
she growled in a mockery of a dulcet tone.  She glanced over at the utility
cart and moved over to it, picking up the dagger she had left imbedded in his
abdomen the day before.  The blood had long dried out, leaving it coated with
streaks of what could have been mistaken for rust from a distance.
     "Physical pain is one thing," D replied, seeming to be unconcerned as she
approached him with the dagger held tightly in one hand.  "But you could make
me scream until my voice dissolves in a gurgle of blood and still not get from
me what you truly want."
     "And what is that, hunter?" she inquired with a soft hiss as she leaned
forward, her nose almost touching his as she held the tip of the blade just
beneath the large vein on the underside of his manhood.
     "Respect," D said simply.  "True and genuine respect instead of the hollow
echoes you're used to seeing from those who cower around you.  Go ahead and cut
me if you think it will do anything, but I can assure you that it won't.  You
can obviously force me to cry out in pain, but there are some things that can
never be obtained by force.  Respect.  Honor.  Love.  So what are you waiting
for, Pearl?" he added as she remained both silent and motionless.  "Go ahead,
prove me wrong.  Cut away my flesh.  Spill my blood.  You can strip me of my
life like you did my clothing, but you can never strip me of my honor."
     Her eyes remained narrowed as she stared at him, the heavy veil of silence
broken only by the very soft rasping of her breathing.  She continued to stare
into his eyes as she moved her hand slowly, dragging the tip of the blade down
along the length of his thigh.  She stopped after a few seconds and glanced
down at what she had done, her eyebrow twitching slightly as she realized how
deep the wound was and how much blood was flowing from it.  A quick glance back
up at him showed that his eyes hadn't changed in the slightest, still focused
on her with an intensity that continued to disturb her in a way she had yet to
truly figure out.
     "What?" she demanded, her voice little more than a muted whisper as she
edged the tip of the dagger back just far enough to give the wound a chance to
close on its own.
     "Take your time," D said in a perfectly calm tone, as if the searing pain
radiating up from his thigh was inconsequential at worst.  He knew it wasn't,
of course, as the added blood loss was the last thing he needed right now, but
he continued to project an outwardly calm presence so as not to give her the
satisfaction of seeing his pain.  "I can wait until you're finished playing
pointless games."
     Pearl visibly paused for a moment before glancing down, making absent note
of the way his upper thigh was essentially covered in a sheet of blood now.  A
small pool of blood had formed under his foot where the crimson liquid had ran
down his leg in a minor cascade, oozing forward until it began to drip off the
narrow shelf and onto the metal surface of the tunnel covering.
     She looked back up at him with a wary look in her eyes, clearly not sure
what to make of his resistance.  "What the hell *are* you?" she breathed as she
took a single step back, still tightly gripping the dagger.
     "The same thing you keep telling yourself that you're not," he replied in
a level tone, "One born from the seed of darkness and given life by a human
woman.  I may have my father's physical attributes, which we both know are far
superior to that of any human's, but both my soul and my heart are human.  That
is what keeps me going, Pearl, not my vampiric blood but my human spirit.
     "Consider this," he pressed on as he saw her expression change.  "If what
you believe is true, that half your blood is weak because of its origins, then
aren't all dunpeals like that?  That we are weaker than our vampire ancestors?
And if we are, then why is it I've been able to defeat so many of them?  Tell
me how it can be that a half-vampire like me can overcome so many full-blooded
vampires unless I was their equal in strength and power?  And if only half of
that strength came from my father's blood, where did the rest come from?"
     She remained perfectly silent and motionless for a number of moments, her
eyes never once leaving his as she considered his words.  "I have no idea," she
finally said, her lips barely moving as she spoke in a somewhat subdued tone.
     "I think you do," D countered in a tone that was equally as quiet.  "You
just don't want to change your mind about humans since it would mean you were
wrong.  There is no shame in being wrong because you didn't know, Pearl.  I've
been wrong before and I had the courage to admit it.  It saddens me to hear of
your mother's death, as it appears that you never got the chance to be exposed
to the human love your mother would no doubt have shown you and your sister."
     "Do not speak of her," Pearl growled in a very low tone, her eyes starting
to flicker with rage again.
     He simply gazed back at her with an unreadable expression, absently trying
to ignore the faint hollow roaring in his ears from the loss of blood.  "Now I
know why you're so angry with the world," he said calmly.  He didn't react as
she lunged forward to press the tip of the dagger against the hollow of his
throat, breaking the skin just enough to cause a single droplet of blood to
well up and start to slide down his chest.
     "You know nothing of me," she hissed flatly as her body shook with barely-
controlled rage.  "Nothing!" she barked again.
     "I know enough," he replied.  "You don't care enough about your mother to
show her memory even the slightest respect.  Even animals treat their own blood
better than that."
     "Shut up!" Pearl snapped as she drew her fist back, slamming it into his
jaw hard enough to leave an instant bruise.
     "You are without honor, Pearl," he murmured as he closed his eyes.  "And
I have no reason to respect those who don't even have the decency to honor or
respect the ones that gave them life to begin with."
     He kept his eyes closed as her fist slammed into his jaw again, once again
coating his tongue with the bitter and metallic taste of his own blood.  "What
do you know about honor?" Pearl snarled.  "You are nothing, hunter!  Nothing!"
     D tried to ignore her as best he could, turning his focus inward while he
braced for the onslaught of rage that he knew that was coming.  He figured that
seven seconds at most had passed before it began, her fists lashing out in a
series of powerful blows that he tried to roll with as best as possible while
continuing to shut her out and deny her a reaction.
     His senses soon began to gray out, his mind beginning to retreat from the
pain and agony of remaining conscious during the ordeal.  The blows were quite
powerful but not enough to break any of his bones.  It surprised him to realize
that none of her attacks had landed in vital areas or places that could have
further crippled him, making him question the nature of the fury that he was
trying to weather.  Had it been a truly mindless rage he expected he doubted he
would have been left alive, which made him believe it was more of a case of
extreme frustration for one reason or another.
     He had no idea when it finally abated, fully expecting to feel the sting
of the dagger slicing open flesh to spill blood and cause him to cry out as he
had been forced to do previously.  It was a metal sound that finally caused him
to open his eyes slightly, a curious echoing noise that took a few moments to
resolve as the sound of his dagger being thrown against the wall and clattering
back to the floor.  A sharp boom followed shortly afterwards, the sound of the
door being slammed shut with enough fury to rattle both him and the chains that
he hung from.
     The air was dangerously still for some time, broken only by the quiet and
ragged sound of his breathing.  The constant thrumming of his pulse in his ears
continued at a steady pace, assuring him that he was still alive for the time
being.  However, he wasn't about to place any bets on how much more he would be
able to withstand in his current condition.  Whatever respite the mud-bath and
exposure to the light of the red moon had given him was long gone, leaving him
even more depleted of energy than he had been before.  What was worse was the
loss of his life-force, both from the blood that had been spilled and when he
had succumbed to the pleasures of Coral's sheath.  Granted that essence of life
wasn't something he could use for another purpose, but his body would continue
to try to create more of it by instinct and simple biological design, drawing
off what little energy he had left and leaving him all the more drained.  Such
a thing could even kill him, as one only needed to look to the animal kingdom
to see countless examples of males dying after mating, sacrificing themselves
to deliver as much life-energy to their mates as was possible.
     <D?> it spoke up in a very quiet and openly worried tone.
     It took him a few moments to find the energy needed to speak.  "Quiet," he
murmured, his voice barely audible to his own ears.
     <D, for god's sake, what the hell did you do that for?> it protested in a
soft but clearly rattled tone.  <I know you like to keep a stiff upper lip in
the face of adversity and all, but why'd you deliberately piss off Pearl?  You
knew she would go psycho-berserk on you....>
     "She wants my respect," D replied softly, trying not to breathe any deeper
than he had to.  He had taken several blows to the chest that had come close to
cracking his ribs again, and one blow in particular had almost compressed his
sternum to the point of impacting his heart and his lungs.  The pain of his
chest expanding with each breath was almost exponential in intensity, seeming
to sear him once he got beyond a certain point and essentially driving the air
back out of his lungs.
     <So what did goading her into using you as a punching bag accomplish?> it
inquired in a leery tone.
     "I wanted to show her that force couldn't do it," he replied.  "That she
would have to try something else if it was to be obtained.  I have the feeling
that she won't get much sleep today thinking about it, and that she might be
back down here to see me before Coral does.  Maybe even before the sun sets."
     <Oh, brilliant,> it sighed in heavy resignation.  <So she'll not only be
pissed from earlier, she'll be cranky to boot from being short on sleep.  Good
thinking, D, I like your style.  You might get us killed yet.>
     "Enough," D muttered softly, pausing as he suddenly found his conscious
mind starting to lose focus and waver.
     <Uh, D?> it spoke up, the tone once again becoming openly worried.  <Not
to sound like a sissy or anything, but do you have any idea how bad you look
right now?>
     "I know," D said simply.
     <Do you also know how we're going to get out of this one?> it prodded in
an uneasy tone.  <I hate to say it, but you're hurting pretty bad, D.  If you
don't stop pushing Pearl's buttons like that, the next right cross that she
decides to toss out could very well be the one that punches your ticket.  I've
never been fully clear on how you view death and beyond, D, but I for one am
not exactly looking forward to finding out the hard way.>
     "Have you figured anything else out about Coral's implant?" he whispered.
     <Huh?> it said, caught off-guard by the change in conversation.  <D, that
strip of metal is going to be the least of your worries if you keep on running
your mouth.  Don't get me wrong, both I and everyone we've ever met have been
trying to get you to open up and talk a little more and all, but you might want
to seriously think about shutting up for a day or two.  I'm well and truly not
kidding, D, you're not up to.... uh, D?  Hey, stay with me here....>
     D found himself unable to answer it for several moments as his mind became
a blur.  Things refocused a few seconds later but a deep chill remained in his
blood, warning him that he was on the brink of slipping into unconsciousness at
any given moment.  He knew that perhaps it was best for that to happen, as it
would give his mind a chance at recovering from the sensory burden of pain it
had been laboring under, but he also knew that there was the very real risk
that he might not be able to claw his way back up into consciousness again.
     <D, listen to me,> it said, the voice sounding unusually faint in both his
ears and in his mind.  <If April comes back down here and I'm sure she's alone,
I'm going to try to talk to her.  I know it's a risk, but.... dammit, stay with
me!> it hissed as D's senses briefly grayed out again.  <She's not under any
influences like Abelyne is and she can probably help.  If nothing else, she can
get you some water which I know you need right now.  Food might be asking a bit
much, but if she could try to give you water earlier....  D?  D!>
     His senses suddenly grayed out again and remained that way, leaving him
suspended in a quasi-ethereal frame of mind that wasn't too different from what
one feels just before falling asleep.  The waves of pain that had besieged him
on a constantly basis slowly receded like an ebbing tide, taking with it shades
of brightness until the gray finally faded down to a cool, comforting black.

                *               *               *               *

     The images that blurred past what remained of his mind did so in a jumble,
not stopping long enough to be identified or processed in a rational way.  He
thought he heard snippets of song intermixed with fleeting tastes and ghostly
sensations of touch and warmth.  It was a voice he knew yet couldn't remember
or place, the light feelings bringing him a measure of comfort even without
knowing why.
     The kaleidoscope of images and sensations continued to flow past him in an
eerie montage, leaving him unable to identify or even isolate anything specific
but giving him a sense of peace and solace nonetheless.  It went on for what
felt like hours before the blurs suddenly sharpened into focus, dragging him
back into a suddenly tortured existence of pain and suffering as they resolved
into something he could recognize.
     A pair of sea-green eyes was watching him very carefully, seeming to be
only a few inches away.  The sensation of something both cold and warm at the
same time registered next, feeling it brush against his lips.  The taste that
soon followed, however, simply could not be mistaken for anything else.
     Blood.
     The world was cast in a blue veil in an instant, his vampiric side not so
much waking up as surging forward into exquisitely sharp focus to take total
and absolute control.  He swallowed the mouthful of blood and strained forward,
able to smell the amount that remained in the cup.  His senses slowly began to
awaken as the vessel was tilted, allowing more of that most refreshing of red
nectars to wash over his tongue and slake a badly-aching thirst.
     <Told you,> a voice said very quietly as the pair of eyes seemed to triple
in diameter at the forcefulness of his reactions.  <Nothing rouses a vampire
like the smell of fresh blood.>
     "D?" a feminine voice whispered softly, sounding to be one degree short of
openly frightened.
     <Give him a moment to wake up,> it said carefully.  <That first jolt is
usually just a reflex.  You with us now, D?> it prodded as the world started to
make sense.
     D blinked as the dark beast within him started to relax, momentarily sated
by the cupful of blood.  "Wh...." he panted, wincing at how raw his voice both
felt and sounded.  "What...?"
     "I can't stay long," April said in a hushed whisper, casting an extremely
nervous look over her shoulder towards the dungeon door.  "But I couldn't try
to bring this to you until Pearl went to bed.  Here, finish it," she said as
she tilted the cup, emptying the last portion into his mouth.
     D blinked and nearly choked at the sudden rush of fluid, managing to force
himself to swallow it before he could spill it.  He could feel it starting to
revitalize him already, his body eagerly breaking it down to absorb the life-
energy it contained.  It probably wouldn't be enough to truly restore him, but
it was enough to blunt his hunger and edge him back from the brink of death.
     <D, are you alright?> it inquired cautiously.
     "Th.... thank you," D managed to rasp as his eyelids started to droop of
their own accord.  His vampiric side was starting to become dormant again and
he knew that he was still dangerously weakened from his wounds.
     <Try to bring some water in a couple of hours, please,> it said to her in
a quiet tone.  <But again, only if you're absolutely sure the coast is clear.
He said something earlier about how he thought Pearl was going to be more than
a little restless, so she might be up and about when she usually isn't.>
     "I'll do what I can," April promised in a shaken whisper, still keeping a
very worried eye on D.  "D, you have to stay strong," she urged him, one hand
coming up to squeeze his arm before stopping herself, not entirely sure how he
would react to the gesture.  "Once Coral finds out what Pearl did to you, she
will make sure it won't happen again.
     <Let's hope so,> it muttered darkly.  <In any case, you should head back
upstairs.  I'll keep an eye on him for you,> it assured her.
     "Thank you," April replied, casting a brief look of slight awe at the face
that was embedded in D's left hand.  Still not completely sure what to make of
it, she turned her attention back to D and took an unsteady breath.  "Please,
D," she pleaded quietly.  "Just stay strong until we can figure something out.
We can do this, I know we can."
     It took D a great amount of effort to lift his head up, just enough to be
able to look into her eyes before nodding slightly.  "Thank you," he said very
softly, unable to say anything more as a truly fierce ache suddenly returned to
his jaw.
     The faintest of blushes tinted her cheeks as she nodded back at him before
she turned around and quickly left the room, trying to do so as silently as she
could.  The door was eased shut and locked behind her, the soft sounds barely
registering on his still-sluggish senses.  A sense of profound weariness came
over him a few moments later, forcing his eyes to close and slowly dragging his
mind back down towards the empty gray abyss once again.
     <D?> it prodded carefully.  <Come on, stay with me here....>
     "Give me a moment," he murmured as he tried to make a good-faith attempt
at rallying himself.  The sharp pains in his chest was starting to fade as he
started to make use of the infusion of blood-borne life-energy, dulling down in
intensity to join the literally countless other heavy aches that left him more
than a little tired.  All he wanted to do right now was take a nap, to try to
let his body refresh itself and repair the damaged muscle tissue in peace.
     <You're scaring the shit out of me, you know that?> it sighed in a truly
weary tone.  <I may not be tied too tightly to your nervous system, but I could
tell just how close to death you were a few minutes ago.  Remember back when
you were shish-kebob'd on one of your silver werewolf spikes by Count Renard?
Same feeling, D, and let me tell you it's not a pleasant one.>
     "Tell me about it," D replied absently, trying hard not to remember how he
had been able to feel his heart brushing against the spike with each throb.
     <Err, D?> it said in an unusually hesitant and tentative voice.  <You want
to save your breath and leave the ironic sarcasm for another day?  I mean, I
suppose it is a good sign that you're feeling a little bit better and all, but
you really should leave that to experts like me....>
     D forced his eyes open, just enough to let him cast a sidelong glance up
towards his left wrist.  His eyebrow twitched up a fraction of an inch as he
heard a very soft laugh in his ears, feeling his palm vibrate slightly.
     <Made you look,> it chuckled.
     He closed his eyes and allowed the faintest of ghostly smiles to touch the
corners of his mouth for a moment, feeling a measure of comfort from knowing
that it was still with him.  Indeed, it obviously had been able to talk to
April earlier and caution her against his instinctive reaction to the smell of
blood, sparing her a significant amount of horror.  Not that she didn't appear
ready to drop the goblet during that first instant, but he knew that it could
have resulted in a far worse reaction.  Like a scream that would have let Pearl
know a slave was doing something she shouldn't be doing....
     His moment of humor promptly passed as he thought about the blood he had
been fed.  He wasn't sure where it had come from, but it had still been quite
warm to indicate that it hadn't been drawn more than a few minutes ago.  That
might have suggested it was hers, but he couldn't discount it having been drawn
from Abelyne's veins somehow.
     <D?> it inquired cautiously as it picked up on the soft grunt that had
risen up from D's chest.  <Something bothering you?  Well, something new that
sprang up in the past five minutes, rather,> it amended sheepishly, acutely
aware of the constant pain D was in.
     "I was just thinking about the blood," he said quietly.  He opened his
eyes to glance up at his hand as it laughed very softly to itself again, making
him wonder what could possibly be so amusing.
     <It was hers, though you missed seeing it drawn,> it replied, seeming to
sober up but still remain remotely amused.  <She didn't want to make a cut in
a place where it could be seen, so she borrowed your dagger and opened up her
blouse.  Mmm, I didn't know the underside of a woman's breast could be so....
juicy like that,> it purred.
     D blinked and cast a startled glance at it before looking around the room.
He usually kept two daggers on his belt for various purposes, and the larger
one had been the one Pearl had used to injure him earlier.  He spotted it where
it had apparently been thrown in a fit of frustration and rage, a small arc of
blood splashed around the tip where it had been flung.  His other dagger was
still in his belt, although it looked like it had been hastily put back into
place.
     <Now there's a thought, D,> it continued in an absent tone, as if it were
daydreaming about something.  <You'd need to be super-gentle, of course, but
what would it be like to open up a vein just above a woman's nipple to feed?
*OW* D!  Easy!> it protested as D's hand suddenly clenched into a tight fist.
     "Quiet," D said in a low tone as he closed his eyes, keeping the tension
in his hand for another few seconds before relaxing.
     <It was just a thought,> it muttered in a sullen tone.
     He didn't bother to chastise it further, as they both knew that he would
never dare to do such a thing.  A woman's body was sacred to him, being the
bearer and nurturer of life, and it was only with her permission and at her
express invitation that he would approach her for anything resembling intimacy,
be it for the pleasure of love-making or the much deeper sharing of both body
and spirit to feed.  Even so, there were still some places on a woman's body
that were sacrosanct, places where her life-energies had to be strong in order
to fulfill her role as a mother and care-taker of her child.  He might allow
himself to please her with his touch or the kiss of his lips in those areas,
but never with the kiss of his vampiric hunger.
     Nothing, D, Pearl's voice suddenly drifted up from the depths.  My mother
did absolutely nothing.  You say she gave me life, but she did no such thing.
She died when I was still in the womb, and my father had to free me from her
body before she dragged me into the grave with her.  I had no mother, and I was
certainly not born from one....
     He shuddered to himself at the image, trying not to imagine being forced
to rip a woman's womb open to free the child inside.  He knew that doctors were
forced to do so on a regular basis, a process known as a Caesarean section, but
that it was always done under carefully controlled conditions and with extreme
care taken at all times.  But having to take a knife to the body of the woman
who was carrying your child, a child not yet ready to emerge and who would be
'born' in a sea of blood from the process, blood in amounts that would drive
any vampiric entity to the brink of hunger-madness....
     Could an infant remember that? he found himself wondering.  Human babies
couldn't, of course, and he strongly doubted that Pearl herself could remember
the ordeal, but what if it left an imprint on her vampiric side, underdeveloped
and quiescent as it was in children born to such parents?  Child-birth was a
bloody event to begin with, but rarely was it *that* bloody when things went
the way they were supposed to go.
     <D?> it prodded gently.  <You're getting that look on your face again.>
     The quietest of grunts rose up from his chest, knowing that he had to
address the issue sooner or later.  "I was thinking about Pearl," he said in a
muted tone.
     <Coral's not enough for you all of a sudden?> it sighed.
     He ignored the idle comment and continued as best he could, knowing that
he really shouldn't be talking giving how badly bruised his jaw was but still
wanting to speak his mind while they were able to do so alone.  "I don't think
I can reason with Coral," he replied.  "But Pearl might start to listen to what
I have to say a little more closely.  I think she knows her anger isn't normal,
but she doesn't know what to do about it or what might be causing it."
     <Oh, god, D,> it said, sighing so heavily that it caused him to open his
eyes and cast a suddenly worried glance up at his hand.  <Look, I know you've
got this spark of hope lying around somewhere that you'll be able to open the
eyes of other dunpeals and all, but let's be honest here, okay?  Pearl is as
evil as they come, and no amount of heart-to-heart talking is going to get her
to quit having mild orgasms when inflicting pain and suffering on others.  Er,
not literally creaming herself, mind you, or at least not that I can tell, but
I'm just saying,> it added quickly as D cast an unamused glance up at it.
     "I think she just needs to be shown what its like to be human," he said
softly, more to himself than to the symbiot.
     <Umm....> it hesitated.  <You know what, I'll just shut up now, seeing how
I'm not in the mood to get squeezed like a grapefruit.  Let me know how it goes
and try not to piss the bitch off this time, okay?>
     D cast a truly glacial look at it, having a fair idea of what had gone
through its mind a moment ago.  Doris had touched his humanity back then, when
the lure of her woman's blood as it flowed with the phases of the moon had been
too strong to resist.  He ended up taking her virginity.... and she his.... but
somewhere along the way he had realized that he was still every bit as human as
he was a vampire.  Sorting out the myriad of unknown emotions and thoughts in
his mind had taken centuries afterwards, but that initial spark of realization
was one of the most fundamental and defining moments of his life.
     Could it work? he found himself thinking as he closed his eyes and tried
to idle his body as best he could under the circumstances to enter a state of
forced dormancy not overly different from sleep.  Granted seducing her was not
an option even if the notion had appealed to him, but what if he told her about
his life and his past in a way she might be able to relate to?  Could he open
her eyes to her own humanity that way?  Perhaps that might indeed work.... but
how do you explain or describe the warmth of a human's love when it had never
been felt before?  The easiest way would have been to compare it to the love of
one's mother, but if she hadn't been able to have that much in her life....
     But what about Coral?  What did she truly mean to Pearl?  He didn't have
any siblings, or at least not to his knowledge, and so he never had that kind
of family presence in his life.  But Pearl did, not just her own true sister
Coral but the other children of her father born to his noble vampiress wife,
Lady Valentina Winters.  Their step-mother, he realized a moment later as it
suddenly hit him.
     Interesting, was the last thing D found himself thinking before his mental
efforts paid off and his body gently slid into a dreamless sleep, drawing his
mind down with it and sparing him the worst of the pain he was still in.

                *               *               *               *

     The process of waking up seemed to take forever before he finally slipped
free from the bonds of self-induced and almost casual hibernation, allowing the
nerve impulses in his mind to once again be processed by something other than
simple autonomous reflexes.  The pain was the first thing to register, a series
of low-level aches that seemed to pulse and throb in time with his heart.  The
only sharp pains he could immediately discern were in his ankles, reminding him
that they couldn't heal as long as he was forced to keep his weight on them.
     A very faint grunt rose up from his chest as he continued his slow return
to full awareness, realizing what the shift in pain meant.  It was the part of
healing that he truly hated, not the sharp, lightning-like stabs of agony that
came and went in an instant at the slightest movement, but the deep and truly
tiresome monotone aches of mending muscles.  It was the kind of throbbing ache
that could be felt throughout the body no matter how you twisted or tried to
adjust your weight around it.  And it never seemed to end or relent, just a
steady mantra of subtle pulses from *everywhere*.
     A slight tinkling sound registered on his ears, causing him to focus his
efforts and force his eyes open.  The sound soon revolved to be the very soft
and delicate sound of a washcloth being dipped in a basin of water.  It took
several moments for the image to fully resolve, a pale washcloth tainted with
a rust coloring as it was held by a gloved hand.  His eyes reflexively tracked
its movement downward where it continued to clean off his thigh, studying the
gentle motions of the hand that guided it before following the length of the
arm up to its owner.
     "I see Pearl paid you a visit after I went to bed," Coral said softly, her
lips pulled down in a mild frown as she continued to clean the dried blood off
of his thigh.  "And I see she wasn't overly gentle with your face, despite what
I told her.  How bad does it hurt?" she murmured, her eyes remaining downcast.
     It took D a few moments to speak properly, his first attempt at moving his
jaw resulting in a truly fierce ache that threatened to drive the air out of
his lungs.  His second attempt at speech was a complete failure as his voice
was overshadowed by the coarse rasping noise that emerged from his throat, a
sound not unlike two sheets of wet sandpaper being rubbed against one another.
     "I'll heal," he managed to say after a third attempt, his voice raspy and
still dangerously dry.
     "Sure you will," she replied, her tone sending a brief shiver down his
spine.  She turned to her side and picked up a silver goblet from the cart with
her ungloved hand, leaning forward slightly to rest the rim against his mouth.
"Here," she said simply as she tilted it to let the liquid brush against his
lips.  She was about to resume scrubbing his leg with her other hand when she
realized that he hadn't taken any of the liquid yet, blinking once before she
lifted her eyes up to meet his.
     "D?" she said softly as she saw the look of resolve in his eyes.  "It's
just water, which I know you need.  Drink it," she urged in a whisper as she
continued to hold the goblet at a slight angle.
     D continued to look at her for several moments before finally allowing his
lips to part, letting just a tiny portion of moisture to enter his mouth.  He
waited for several seconds to make sure that it wasn't laced or tainted with
anything before swallowing, grimacing as his throat suddenly seemed to burn
from the muscular motions.
     "Yes, you're dehydrated," Coral murmured as she continued to try to get
him to drink the water.  "I sent April down here earlier with some water for
you, but obviously it wasn't enough.  I may have to punish her for letting you
dry out like this," she added.  She blinked and almost jumped back as D's eyes
darted up to hers in an instant, looking at her with an intensity that made her
shiver briefly.
     "She's not the one I would blame for my condition," he rasped calmly.
     "No, she's not," Coral replied, giving him a level look.  "After all, all
you need to do is promise not to hurt either me or my sister and not to try to
leave me.  Once you do that, D, you wouldn't need to be bound in chains."
     A faint huff rose up from his chest as he returned her gaze with equal
measure.  "So it's my fault I'm here, then?" he murmured.
     "D...." Coral started to say before leaning back and sighing quietly with
resignation.  She tossed the washcloth back in the basin and gently set the
goblet back down on the cart, reaching up with both hands to gingerly rub her
sinuses.  She then looked up at him in silence for a few moments before leaning
forward to rest her cheek against his shoulder.
     "D, don't do this to me," she murmured softly, reaching up to brush a pair
of gloved fingertips over his lips.  "I'm.... still trying to get over how
intense yesterday was, so I didn't get much sleep.  I know I'm a little cranky
now, especially after seeing what Pearl did to you, but please.... don't be mad
at me.  You know why I have to do this, why I can't risk letting you go until
you promise not to hurt me or Pearl."
     "What time is it?" D asked in a neutral tone.
     "Sunset should be any moment now," Coral replied, tilting her head back
slightly to study the side of his face from a different angle.  "Yes, I know
it's entirely too early for either of us to be up, but after making love to you
like that.... what?" she prodded as he gave her a sidelong glance out of the
corner of his eye.
     "You should go back to bed," he suggested in an utterly unreadable tone.
     "In due time, my dark hunter," she purred suggestively, moving her hand
down to caress the expanse of his chest.  She caught herself before she could
make contact with his bruised skin, casting a resigned look at the pattern of
black-and-blue imprints that were too evenly spaced to be random.  The nature
of the marks puzzled her briefly before she looked down at her own hand, the
realization setting in once she curled her hand into a fist and noticed how
spaced apart her knuckles were.  "Damn her," she whispered to herself, her coy
mood evaporating as quickly as it had come.
     She lifted her head up as she heard the door creaking open, arching up one
eyebrow and casting a somewhat frosty look towards her sister as she entered
the room.  "Pearl," she called out in a level tone, pausing slightly as she
realized that her younger sibling looked to have quite a lot on her mind.
     Pearl stopped in her tracks and blinked, obviously not expecting to find
anyone else down in their dungeon 'playground' at this hour.  "You're up early,
I see," she said as she made her way over to where D was chained to the support
frame, the edges of her mouth turning down in a scowl as she took note of the
way Coral had been resting her head against him.
     "The same can be said for you," Coral countered as she stood up straight
and rested a fingertip on D's jaw as lightly as she could, pointing to the dark
bruises that all but masked the lower half of his face.  "I don't suppose you
have anything to say about this?"
     Pearl glanced at the bruising on D's jaw and blinked, her pale eyebrows
arching up almost to her hairline.  "I didn't think he'd bruise *that* badly,
sis," she said in a carefully crafted tone.  "But you did say that I could slap
him around if I wanted to, right?"
     Coral narrowed her eyes slightly.  "Maybe I should start slapping you with
my fist like that, then," she suggested in a fairly ominous tone.  "I thought
I told you not to injure his face like that.  And surely no amount of slapping
could have left his leg covered in blood, now could it?"
     "Settle down, Coral, I didn't break your little screw-toy," Pearl growled
back.  She paused slightly as her sister promptly blinked hard in surprise, her
pale yellow eyes widening slightly.  "Oh, yes, I know," she added.  "I finished
the clean-up this morning and was coming to tell you about it, but you seemed
to be a little.... busy.... with him at the time," she said in an edged tone of
contempt.
     "Oh...." Coral said in a very quiet tone, a truly heinous blush rising up
to turn her cheeks scarlet.  She cast a quick glance at D before the tint to
her cheeks darkened slightly, leaving her more than a little flustered.  "Um,
well.... what can I say, Pearl?" she stammered, giving D a somewhat wan smile
of embarrassment before looking rather meekly at her sister.  "I was going to
wait at first, but.... you know I was never one for patience...."
     "Coral?" Pearl said in a dangerously calm voice as she crossed her arms as
tightly as she could over her chest, trying to ignore the sudden chill in her
blood.  "Why are you keeping him here?" she asked slowly.
     It seemed to take Coral several seconds to remember how to talk, giving
both D and Pearl several uneasy and deeply embarrassed looks before she finally
drew in a deep breath.  "Well.... to be honest, my dear sister.... I.... I need
him to.... well.... to give me a child," she finally blurted out, averting her
gaze from everyone else.
     "WHAT?" Pearl demanded, her jaw falling open.
     "Pearl, don't look at me like that," Coral muttered as she started to pace
the room nervously, her right hand rubbing and twisting her left wrist as she
moved back and forth.  "You remember how it was when Elora became pregnant, how
alive and healthy she became."
     Pearl blinked hard and cast a truly unsettled glance towards D, her unease
deepening as she saw him staring back at her with an unreadable expression.
"Sis, that was how long ago?" she spoke up carefully, unable to look away from
D's intense gaze.
     "I know," Coral sighed, seeming to be unaware of the exchange of looks
between D and her sister.  "But I just can't help thinking about it.  I mean,
you never wanted to hold Jenna so you don't know what it's like, but when she
looked at me.... I.... just can't explain it," she sighed in quiet frustration.
"But you saw how it affected Thomas and Elora, how being parents changed them."
     "Maternal instincts can be strong," D spoke up quietly, drawing the focus
of both women.  "I'm not sure how strong it tends to be in nobles, but human
women tend to manifest very strong maternal feelings when an infant is present.
Even when the child is not their own," he added.
     "That's nice to know, D," Pearl replied briskly.  "But we're not human."
     "You have human blood in you," D countered calmly.  "And I'm sure Coral
can tell you that it seems to be enough to garner her interest in motherhood."
     Pearl cast a quick glance at her sister, her stomach doing a back-flip at
the dreamy smile that was being directed at the chained dunpeal.  "Right," she
said, clearly unconvinced at his words.  "Sis, you're starting to nauseate me.
You're serious about wanting a child?"
     "Why wouldn't I be?" Coral replied, giving her sister a genuinely curious
look.  "I am a woman, after all, and as we both are reminded each month our
bodies are quite capable of bearing children.  So why not?"
     Pearl just slowly shook her head in disbelief, realizing that what D had
said earlier was very much the truth.   "Wait, wait," she said, making a rather
shaky gesture with one hand.  "Okay, I can handle the idea of you wanting to
have a child, that's not the problem."
     "So what is the problem?" Coral prompted lightly.
     "WHY HIM?" Pearl blurted out, jabbing a finger in D's direction.  "Holy
shit, sis, could you have picked anyone more dangerous?  He's a *killer* who
hunts people like you and me!  Of all the people in the world to get knocked up
by, why him??"
     Coral sighed softly and reached up to massage the bridge of her nose.  "As
I told him," she said gently, "I wanted the father to be the best there was.
Who else is stronger than D, hmm?  Nobles cringe at his name, even the old ones
like Countess MacDara and Count Niles.  That tells you what kind of power he
has, and that's the kind of power I would want for my child."
     "Coral?" Pearl said slowly and clearly.  "You really, really need to stop
and think this one over very, very carefully.  The only reason we're still even
alive right now is because of those adamantium chains, and the moment those get
taken off?  We're dead," she stated firmly.  "He's going to kill us."
     "Not necessarily," Coral replied, her tone turning honeyed as she moved
over to D to run her ungloved hand along his arm.  "If he promises not to hurt
us or try to run away, he can be unchained and allowed to move around."
     "BULLSHIT!" Pearl gasped, startled by the realization that her sister had
even given the notion any thought.  "If he's loose, we're dead!"
     Coral simply smiled at her younger sister.  "Ask him why he's still tied
up," she said lightly, gently stroking D's bicep.
     Pearl seemed to freeze like a statue before she very slowly shifted her
focus over to D, suddenly aware of the intensity of his gaze on her once again.
"Alright, hunter," she said in a low tone as she felt the temperature of her
blood drop by what felt like a good thirty degrees.  "Tell me why you're still
tied up."
     The softest of sighs drifted up from D's chest before he gingerly inhaled,
still able to feel a sharp stabbing in his bruised chest.  "Your sister wanted
me to promise two things to her," he explained quietly.  "First, not to try to
harm or act against either her or you, and second, to not try to escape from
her control.  Needless to say, I refused to be bound in even more chains."
     "You must be joking," Pearl said, giving Coral a disturbed look.  The look
she got in return turned her blood even colder, realizing that her sister was
being quite serious about unbinding D from the chains if he made that promise
to her.  "What the hell, Coral?  How can you possibly trust him like that?"
     "Honor."
     Both Coral and Pearl blinked before glancing over to D in unison.  Coral
had been drawing in a breath to speak when D said the single word, allowing her
to remain silent.  Pearl seemed to be stunned by the notion, carefully moving
forward until she was within arm's-reach of him.
     "What do you mean?" she demanded in a low tone.
     "Your sister knows how much I value honor," D explained, lifting his head
up to give Pearl a piercing look that caused her to edge back just slightly.
"Not just my own, but the honor of others as well.  I don't make promises I'm
unable or otherwise unwilling to keep.  I cannot in good conscience keep such
a promise, and so I haven't bothered to make it nor will I lie about it."
     Pearl cast an unsettled look towards Coral before returning her focus to
D.  "So let me get this right," she said in a very careful tone.  "My sister
has what the humans call a 'brain fart' and decides to offer to let you out if
you just make a simple promise to her.  And you said no?"
     "That's right," D replied simply.
     "And I was starting to think *she* was touched in the head?" Pearl gasped
as she leaned back and started to laugh.  It was a somewhat bitter sound that
lasted for several seconds before she started to sober up, looking back down at
him with a mild smirk of disbelief etched on her lips.  "Humor me for a moment
here and tell me why you didn't say yes and turned on her the moment you were
free from the chains."
     D snorted quietly to himself and shook his head.  "That would have been a
dishonorable thing to do," he replied calmly.
     "So?" Pearl countered.  "You could have killed the both of us and nobody
would ever have known about it."
     Both women blinked and edged back as D's head rose up sharply, a dark
scowl marring his face as he gave Pearl a look of open contempt.  "Quite the
contrary," he said in a level tone.  "*I* would have known.  As I tried to tell
you earlier, nobody else can take away or taint my honor.  Only I can do that,
and not just breaking a promise made in good-faith but turning around and then
betraying the one it was made to would be so dishonorable as to be despicable."
     Pearl glanced over at Coral for several seconds, trying to get a feel for
what the other woman was thinking before shaking her head slowly.  "I guess I
just don't get it," she admitted calmly as she looked back at D.  "If I were in
your boots, I'd have done that in a heartbeat."
     "I would expect nothing less from you, Pearl," D replied calmly.  "But I
doubt anyone would have considered offering you the same deal.
     The aqua-eyed woman immediately narrowed her eyes, her hands starting to
clench into fists.  "And why is that, hunter?" she growled in a low tone.
     "Because you are without honor," D said simply, giving her a neutral look.
"You only understand concepts like strength and domination.  Might makes right,
as some have said.  The strong shall live and the weak shall die."
     Pearl simply raised an eyebrow, casting an absent glance over at Coral as
the gray-haired woman silently moved over to the cart to pick up the silver
goblet of water.  "You say that like it's not the truth," she pointed out.
     D glanced up at her for several moments before he closed his eyes.  "And
who gets to argue the opposing view?" he countered.  "Certainly not the weak,
as they don't get the chance.  Hence all that's left are the dominant views of
the strong.  That doesn't make it any more right or any less wrong."
     "Whatever," Pearl said with a dismissive gesture.  "What's that?" she said
to Coral in a muted tone.
     "Water," Coral replied as she took a casual sip.  "Speaking of which, you
have a bit of explaining to do," she added in a tone of faint warning.
     "About...?" Pearl prompted.  She paused as Coral simply pointed to the
crushed copper goblet lying several feet away.  "Oh, that.  He pissed me off,"
she replied with another gesture of dismissal.
     Coral raised an eyebrow, giving her sister a distinctly unimpressed look.
"Be grateful I'm not as easy to 'piss off' as you are," she rumbled darkly.
"That was part of the set we got from Grandma Kaitlyn ages ago, remember?"
     "I'll take your word for it," Pearl shrugged.  "If you're getting that
upset over it, I'll have the village blacksmith hammer it back out later."
     "Mmm hmm," Coral hummed absently to herself as she studied D again.
     "Pearl," D said quietly, causing the other woman to cast a wary glance at
him.  "I take it nobody has ever tried to explain the concept of honor to you?"
     "Someone probably did at some point," Pearl said as she crossed her arms
over her petite chest with an almost silent huff.  "I probably just blew it off
as nonsense, since I haven't needed to worry about it so far."
     D remained silent for a number of moments, his eyes still closed as he
briefly turned his focus inward to see if he could control or otherwise ignore
the throbbing aches and pains that were besieging him.  The worst ones were in
his jaw and along his upper chest where she had struck him with force.  Had he
been human it would have likely broken several bones if not killed him, but as
a dunpeal who was both hardier and capable of regenerating his wounds, all her
blows had done was abuse the living hell out of already-sore muscles and skin.
     "I remember the first time my mother took me with her when she needed to
talk to the village elder about something," D spoke up in a soft voice, causing
both women to take an unconscious step forward to better hear him.  "He was a
quiet man whom my father respected as a trustworthy and wise man, one able to
tend to the needs of the village with little oversight.  He had a number of odd
things in his house that caught my eye, one of which was a glass bottle of some
unknown fluid.
     "When I asked him if I could examine it closely, he said he would allow me
to do so but only if I promised not to open it or break it.  He went on to say
that he trusted my mother implicitly, and that by extension he could rely on my
honor to take care of it.  I asked him why my mother's trust mattered when it
was in my hands, and he simply smiled at me and had me sit down on the floor
with him.
     "'I know of you, D, but I don't know you,' he said.  'Normally when you
first try to trust someone you don't use something valuable like this.  After
all, they could break it.  However, I trust your mother's judgment, and if she
believes you can be careful enough with it then I will trust you and give you
the chance to demonstrate your honor by keeping your word.'
     "I remember looking at the bottle for awhile before asking him what would
happen if it got broken by accident, and he just laughed softly to himself.
'Two things,' he said.  'First, I will be deprived of a rather precious gift
your father gave me.  The second, however, is that I won't be able to trust you
again in the future, nor will anyone else.'
     "I asked him why nobody else would trust me, and he smiled at me.  'Honor
is like a spider-web, D.  Each strand is difficult to build and can be broken
quite easily.  For example, say I trust you with the bottle.  One of two things
will then happen, either you will break it or you will return it intact.  As I
said, I only know of you, I don't know you for myself.  The only way I can get
to know you is to trust you with something and see how it plays out.  If I were
to trust you once and you break that trust, then I see no reason to trust you
a second time.  What's more, others will hear of it from me, as people like I
and your mother talk with one another.
     "'D made a promise and broke it, they will say.  Why should we trust him
when he broke his promise to old Heyworth?  That will be your reputation, then,
passed from one person to another.  But what if I were to trust you and you did
not break that trust?  It would mean I could trust you again, knowing that you
didn't break it the first time.  Others too would hear of it and be willing to
trust you as well.  He made a promise and kept it, they will say.  They won't
know who you are, D, but they will know of you.  They will know of your honor
and reputation, all based on the words of others, and sometimes that is all
that is available to measure how a person is.
     "'And honor, D, is knowing when to make a promise and when not to.  You've
asked to hold this bottle, and the condition for doing so is not dropping it or
breaking it even by accident.  If you know you cannot do that, or know that the
risk is too great that it might be dropped, then there is no shame in changing
your mind.  There is honor in that, too.  He knows his limits, they will say,
he knows when he can trust himself.  We know that if he asks, we can trust him
because he wouldn't ask if he wasn't sure of himself.
     "'That is honor, D, that is the spider-web of trust,' he said as he stood
back up.  'The trust between you and me is but one single strand, tied to all
the others by similar bonds of trust and faith.  A broken promise can ruin your
honor like a broken strand can ruin an entire web.  Maybe the web will not come
down at first, but sooner or later it will fail and the threads around it will
start to weaken and snap as well.  I will trust you because I know I can trust
your mother, using the strength of her strand to start the process of building
your own thread.'"
     D finally opened his eyes and lifted his head up to look at them.  Pearl
seemed to be deeply contemplative of something, almost but not quite lost in
deep thought.  Coral was giving him a soft smile, a sort of knowing look of
approval that chilled his blood.  He could almost hear the thoughts about how
his beliefs would influence her child, leaving him wondering if there was any
other way out of his situation other than killing her.
     "That was beautiful, D," Coral murmured as she moved over to him, bringing
the goblet up to his lips.
     "Thank you," D said quietly.  He cast a measured look at her before taking
a single tiny sip, just enough to wet his tongue and ease the dryness that was
still plaguing his throat.  He glanced over at Pearl and was mildly surprised
to see that she was still lost in thought.  "Pearl," he spoke up gently.
     "Interesting concept," Pearl admitted as she seemed to snap out of her
thoughts.  "However, I'm still not really sure how it ties in with what you
said earlier."
     "It's simple," D replied calmly, tilting his head away from the goblet to
indicate he didn't want any more.  "As I said, only what I do can influence my
honor.  Actions speak louder than words, and nobody can force me to break a
promise or dishonor myself.  And regardless of what anyone else thinks of me,
I will always know the truth.  That might not mean anything to you, Pearl, but
as I said, I have a conscience I have to deal with until my life is ended.  My
honor is what sets me apart from everyone else, and without it I am nothing
more than the bloody-handed killer you believe me to be."
     Pearl remained quiet as she studied him, absently watching as Coral tried
to get him to drink more of the water.  "Problem, hunter?" she spoke up as she
caught the look D cast at Coral, causing the other woman to raise her eyebrow
and remove the goblet from his lips with a faintly upset look.
     "Consider the circumstances," D said as he glanced over at her.  "I'm sure
you would have a few problems of your own if you were in my position."
     "A position that can be changed with a few simple words, D," Coral spoke
up in a quiet tone.  "All you need to do is promise me not to hurt me or my
dear little sister, and promise me you won't ever try to run away from me."
     The faintest of huffing noises drifted up from his chest.  "I admire your
focus and dedication towards a goal," he murmured.  "However, you still have
some room for improvement when it comes to confronting reality.  You're asking
too much of me, and so I have to decline your offer."
     "D, how can you say that?" Coral pleaded softly, seeming to be genuinely
upset by his refusal.  "After what we shared last night?"
     "Ugh," Pearl muttered to herself as she glanced away, trying to get the
visual out of her mind again.
     "Oh, now what, Pearl?" Coral sighed as she turned around to give her a
pained look, absently swirling the goblet's contents around.
     Pearl just rolled her eyes at the ceiling.  "Nothing, sis," she said in a
tone as flat as paved asphalt.
     "You can tell me, Pearl," Coral spoke up, her tone turning honeyed as she
gave her sister a coy smile.  "You know I've never made fun of your thoughts."
     "Ugh," Pearl grunted again as she absently started to scratch the back of
her left hand.  "It's nothing, really, just my skin crawling from walking in on
the two of you," she said, casting a dark look at D.  "I still say he's far too
dangerous to be keeping around for casual itch-scratching."
     "Oh, here we go again," Coral moaned softly as she craned her head back to
study the ceiling.  "Look, you know why I'm keeping him here and I'd hardly
call that a casual reason.  Besides, when was the last time you had someone in
your bed working out those really deep muscle kinks?" she added pointedly.
     "Gee, I don't know, sis," Pearl shot back in a poisonous tone.  "When was
the last time you let me bring someone in here without you screwing them first
and killing them before I can get a chance to have my own fun?"
     "It's not my fault he died!" Coral protested in a plaintive tone, giving
her sister a truly apologetic look.  "I didn't know he had a weak heart, okay?
Besides, he was the one who started it with the comment about my breasts."
     "He was chained up," Pearl growled.  "He couldn't have done anything on
his own."
     "I got you a new one, didn't I?" Coral reminded her gently.
     "He didn't interest me like the first one did," Pearl countered darkly.
"Even less so after you bedded him too."
     "Oh, come on, you said you didn't want him so I figured why let him go to
waste?" Coral sighed.  "You have to admit you're not easy to please, Pearl."
     Pearl snorted in contempt and turned around, her gaze coming to rest on
the shelf full of D's equipment.  "And you're far too easy to please, sis," she
grumbled.
     The gray-haired woman just rolled her eyes and glanced over at D, pausing
as she saw the look of patient suffering on his face.  "I'm sorry about this,"
she said very quietly to him, reaching out to rub his arm gently.  "But still,
she's my sister, so what can I do?"
     He remained silent as the tingle of the setting sun shot through him, a
very subtle sensation that instinctively brought him a measure of relief.  He
knew that if things got worse tonight, he would be spared the ordeal of being
seared by the rays of the sun.  What was better, he might even be able to get
one of them to open the ceiling hatch again and let the light of the red moon
shine down on him.
     "Ooooh," Coral purred as she briefly wiggled her hips.  "That tickled."
     "Like I said, sis," Pearl muttered darkly.  "Entirely too easy to please."
     Coral cast a bemused glance over her shoulder.  "Tell me you don't like
feeling that as well," she challenged with a faint hint of a smile.
     Pearl paused and cast a sidelong glance back at her elder sister.  "That
depends on what feeling we're talking about," she replied in an edged tone.
     "Oh, listen to you," Coral sighed.  She drew in a breath to say more when
the door creaked open, allowing her slave to stick her head inside with a very
uneasy look on her face.  "Is everything okay, Abby?" she called out.
     "Mister Largo is here to see you again," Abelyne replied quickly.  "April
is keeping his occupied in the foyer."
     Pearl just shook her head to herself.  "I don't see why Father never had
him replaced with someone who has a functional brain," she groused.  "I'd be
surprised if he knows how to wipe his own ass without having to ask for help."
     "He's a good man, Pearl," Coral sighed as she moved to set the goblet down
on the cart before starting to cross the room.  "A little needy, yes, but he's
quite loyal.  Try not to hurt D this time, okay?" she called out in an edged
tone as she hovered in the doorway, one hand reaching out to caress Abelyne's
neck.  "I'll be back shortly."
     "Sure, sis," Pearl replied in a hollow tone.  She waited until the door
creaked shut before shaking her head to herself.  "They just don't make puppets
like they used to," she sighed, casting a wry glance at D.  "So now it's just
you and me again, just like last night.  Shall we pick up where we left off,
then?  Go on, entertain me," she said with a faint sneer.
     "In another time and place, I might consider it," D spoke up, giving her
a neutral look that effectively erased her expression.  "However, I'm starting
to get the impression that you wouldn't know what to do with me."  He did his
best to ignore the very subtle wiggling sensation in his left hand as he found
himself almost nose-to-nose with a very icy pair of aqua-blue eyes.
     "Oh, and what have we here?" she breathed very quietly in a glacial tone.
"More insults, hunter?  I would have thought that you would have figured out by
now just how bad an idea it is to try to insult me like that, but perhaps you
need a refresher after your nap...."
      She scowled as D lifted his head up to frown at her.  It wasn't a broad
or obvious gesture, just a faint curling of the very edges of his lips.  "Don't
you get tired of the anger, Pearl?" he inquired softly, seeming to study her
intently.  He blinked once as she reached down to grab his crotch in an iron
grip, squeezing both his manhood and his testicles as she leaned even closer
towards him.
     "You know nothing of me, hunter," she whispered as she started to tighten
her grip.  "I don't know why you keep thinking you do, but unless you want to
be singing in a very high pitch for the rest of your life, or what little of it
you will have left when I'm done with you, I suggest you hold your tongue."
     D did his best to remain stoic and composed despite the very uncomfortable
sensation he was experiencing.  "Who hurt you that badly, Pearl?" he asked in
a low and measured tone.  "Who was it that hurt you enough to blind you with
rage and leave you angry at the rest of the world?  You say I don't understand
you, but compared to me you know nothing of anger."
     He remained silent as the dark fury returned to her eyes, igniting them
with crimson highlights and causing her whole body to tremble as she struggled
to keep a grasp on her temper.  Her hand continued to maintain a very tight and
painful grip on his groin, making it surprisingly difficult for him to breathe
properly.  Her lips very slowly pulled back as she continued to fight against
her dark anger, allowing him a glimpse of her vampiric fangs.
     "You.  Know.  Nothing," she said very slowly and distinctly, her voice all
but masked by the way her teeth were grinding together.
     "I was a century younger than you are now when they came for me," D said
in a muted tone.  "Vampire insurgents who sought to strike at my father through
me, just as they had done with my mother.  I was able to kill the three who
slipped past the palace defenses and confronted me in the hallway.  Once I had
healed, I left the palace on my own to pursue those who were attacking us, a
decision made in anger.  I killed three more before they learned of my presence
among them and they scattered to the winds.  Still angry, I began to hunt them
down, one by one.
     "The anger stayed with me for years before burning out," he continued in
an empty monotone.  "I still pursued them, eventually widening my hunt when I
came to understand how vampires viewed the humans living in their domains.  To
them they were nothing more than cattle to feed on or slaughter on a whim, mere
tools that were to be used and cast aside at the end.  Nobody stood up for the
humans or spoke out against the vampire lords, not a single vampire or dunpeal.
I found that I could not let that pass, that I could not dishonor the memory of
my mother by letting her kind be reduced to something less than human."
     "And so you decided to kill us all?" Pearl growled in a soft tone.
     "Not all," D replied quietly, his eyes never leaving hers.  "Only to those
who willfully bring harm and misery and suffering to humans."
     "And let me guess," Pearl sneered, "Nobody measured up to your high and
mighty expectations?"
     "No," he said softly, almost sadly.  "In the days following the attacks on
the palace, I was too angry to care.  I simply wanted vengeance and justice.
As time went on and I travelled around the planet, the fires of anger and hate
inside me cooled.  I realized then what needed to be done, and for me to be
able to do that I had to set aside that hate so I could focus properly.  Rage
blinds the mind, Pearl, and unless I could see what I was doing I knew it would
get me killed in short order.  But when I cast aside my anger.... I ended up
making a terrible mistake."
     Pearl narrowed her eyes slightly as D suddenly trailed off, his own eyes
seeming to lose some of their focus for a number of moments.  "What mistake?"
she prompted in a faintly-edged tone.
     He blinked and refocused, looking up at her with an unreadable expression.
"I'd like to make you a deal," he said calmly.  "I'll tell you about that part
of my past, about the mistake I made that took the rest of my life to correct,
but first I need you to let go of me and open the tunnel cover beneath me."
     "Why?" she demanded in an openly suspicious tone, giving his manhood an
overt warning squeeze.
     "I haven't urinated in two days," D replied in a perfectly calm tone.  "My
bladder can't hold out for any longer and I figured that you wouldn't want me
to piss on you or otherwise stink up your dungeon with the smell."
     Pearl blinked and cast a reflexive glance down at her hand, making note of
the way she was holding him and where it would all go if he suddenly let loose
without further warning.  "You wouldn't dare," she said in an ominous tone.
     "Try me," D said simply, giving her a somewhat stern look.  "The humans
have a saying.... when you have to go, you have to go."
     She gave him a level look in uneasy silence before she made a very faint
snarling noise to herself and released her hold on him.  "Very well, hunter,"
she said as she absently brushed her hand against her pants before striding
over to the array of levers.  A rather rough tug on one caused the floor to
spiral open beneath D's feet, exposing the tunnel and canyon floor below that
was still faintly illuminated with the last vestiges of sunset.
     "Thank you," D spoke up as he promptly made use of the now-open tunnel,
unable to prevent himself from making a quiet sigh of relief that any man since
the dawn of Time would have been able to easily identify and relate to.  The
process seemed to take an unusually long time before D's bladder was finally
empty, allowing him to relax a little on the inside and bringing him a small
but psychologically-important feeling of relief.
     A dry chuckle rose up from Pearl's throat as she waited to see if he was
done.  "Maybe I should be glad that I didn't kick you in the balls," she spoke
up in a faintly sarcastic tone.  "Do you need me to jiggle that for you, or can
I close the hatch now?" she added, giving him a somewhat cruel smile as he cast
a dark look out of the corner of his eye.
     "I'm finished," he replied in a perfectly emotionless tone.  "Thank you
for your kindness."
     A dark frown promptly crossed her face as she jerked hard on the lever to
reseal the tunnel.  "Why do you continue to insult me, hunter?" she demanded as
she moved back to stand in front of him once again.
     D simply raised an eyebrow at her.  "I was not insulting you," he replied
in an even tone.  "I am actually quite grateful for the gesture.  We both know
you didn't need to do that, though it would have been unpleasant had you not
done so.  Even the smallest of gestures of kindness deserve to be acknowledged
and thanked as a point of honor," he added as he closed his eyes.
     "I'm sure," she replied dryly as she crossed her arms over her chest.
     D sighed very softly to himself before taking a breath to speak.  "As I
had said earlier, I made a serious mistake when I cast aside my anger," he said
in a low but measured tone.  "I tried to subdue all emotion, the better to keep
myself in a rational state of mind and not be provoked to reacting to whatever
was happening around me.  Perhaps that might have worked had I been a noble,
but I'm half-human with human emotions.  Suppressing them isn't as easy as you
would think, as it is the strength of their emotions that makes humans so....
human," he said softly.
     "I eventually shut them out completely, ignoring the emotional impulses
and chaotic thoughts as I continued my hunt for those vampires who had attacked
the palace.  I existed that way for the longest time, though I can't say it was
truly living, a quiet and often tortured existence dedicated to a single goal.
I was.... nothing, merely a breathing automaton who hunted vampires wherever
they hid as they spread their dark misery to humankind.  Many humans I met said
I was without a soul, that I had forsaken my mother's blood just as much as I
had forsaken my father's.  I had not intended to do so, but I learned too late
that I couldn't deny a part of me without denying the whole of me.
     "It wasn't until recently that I was reawakened to what I truly was....
not just a vampire-hunter who happened to be a dunpeal, but one who was given
life by a human woman and thus possessing both her human soul and her human
spirit.  I didn't so much learn as remember what it was like to be human again.
Not just to laugh at humor, to appreciate beauty, and to find warmth in others,
but to be free of things like hate and unjust anger.  I learned what it was
like to be loved by a human again, and in doing so I learned what it was like
to love one for myself.
     "'It's part of being human,' she said to me.  'It helps comfort us in a
time of need.  It reminds us that we're alive, that we haven't lost our hold
on our humanity like so many of those creatures out there.  We know we have
needs they don't, needs they can never have.  The need to touch and be touched,
to hold and be held, to love and be loved.  A need to make love, to take and be
taken.'  I had my mother's love as a child, but it wasn't until recently that
I came to know and understand the other kinds of love that existed and the ways
that it could be expressed and shared."
     He fell silent as she reached out to him, her hand very lightly touching
his jaw and tilting his head up so that their eyes could meet.  He wasn't at
all surprised to see that the dark highlights of her vampiric side were gone,
replaced by a largely unreadable look in her aqua-blue eyes.
     "So let me get this right," she finally said.  "You got pissed off when
they tried to kill you, so you started killing them in retaliation.  That I can
understand perfectly, but then you.... what, simply quit caring or something?"
     "I let my anger and hatred go in the wrong way," D replied quietly.  "I
let go of all of my human emotions, both good and bad.  In essence, I cast away
my humanity.  All that I held onto was my honor, always doing what was right
because there was no other alternative for me.  I knew that if I lost my honor,
then I would have thrown everything away only to end up just as uncaring as the
rest of them.  I still cared for the humans, but in the wrong way.  I saw them
through the lens of a stranger, not as one of their own."
     "You're a dunpeal, D," she pointed out, still holding his chin up.  "You
aren't one of them."
     "No, I'm not," D agreed, causing her to blink with surprise.  "I'm no more
human than I am a vampire, and that is how it was for most of my adult life.
But I finally learned that just because I was half-human doesn't mean that I
can't feel like they do.  The human emotions within me are just as strong as
the ones in any other human's heart.  And just as strong as the human emotions
that burn within your own heart, Pearl.  Your only problem, if you can call it
that, is that nobody ever taught you what those emotions are, or what they can
do for you."
     Pearl narrowed her eyes as the briefest flickers of crimson flashed in
their depths.  "I don't need weak human emotions," she said flatly.
     "Perhaps," D replied softly, "But the human part of you yearns for them
nonetheless.  That was a pain that remained with me for most of my life, a need
inside that I didn't know how to cope with or satisfy.  I learned to ignore it
as best I could, but as I learned the hard way you can't deny part of yourself
without denying everything else.  I know it hurts you to admit it, and believe
me when I say I wish there was something I could do for you in that regard, but
neither of us can change the tragic circumstances of your birth."
     He narrowed his eyes slightly as her grip changed without warning, sliding
down to grab the base of his throat in a firm grip that started to put a mild
amount of pressure on his carotid arteries.  "Do not speak to me of that," she
snarled in a low tone, a faint glow infusing itself into her corneas.  "I am
nothing like that weak human that conceived me and gave birth to Coral."
     "When was the last time someone told you that they loved you?" D asked in
as calm a voice as he could manage.  The pressure on his throat was starting to
make his pulse pound in his head, making it somewhat difficult to focus.
     Pearl's lips pulled back in a snarl, baring her vampiric fangs.  "I don't
need such pathetic human assurances," she spat.
     "Maybe not," D allowed cautiously.  "But it makes you angry to see others
sharing in it, doesn't it?  How did you feel when you saw Elora holding her
newborn daughter?  And what of your father's feelings for your step-mother,
Lady Valentina Winters?"
     The world suddenly took on a dangerously gray cast as her grip tightened
hard enough to restrict both his trachea and the arteries in his throat.  A
truly frightening rage sprang into Pearl's eyes, giving her visage a hellish
cast as she seemed ready to tear his throat out with her fangs.
     "That woman is *NOT* my step-mother!" she yelled at him, the veins on her
forehead starting to bulge from sheer blood pressure.  "You *DARE* try to...."
     D wasn't quite sure what happened after that given the way his senses were
blurring out because of the lack of air in his lungs, but things suddenly made
sense again a few moments later once the crushing pressure was removed.  Much
to his surprise he discovered that Pearl had withdrawn on her own, a look of
truly unholy rage burning in her eyes as her whole body was wracked with small
spasms.  He did his best not to rasp as he inhaled, greedily sucking in cool
air to try to ease the burning in his chest.
     "I will say this much," she rasped in a harsh tone, seeming to be barely
able to keep her rage under control.  "You did us a favor by killing her, and
I assure you that only my father stopped to say a prayer for her soul.  But do
not speak to me of that woman ever again."
     "How did she hurt you, Pearl?" D asked very softly and carefully, knowing
he had found another source of her unholy anger and that he had to tread very
carefully with her.  "I told you what the insurgent vampires did to me by what
they did to my mother.  Tell me what she did to you that hurt you so badly."
     "What's it to you, hunter?" she shot back, gritting her teeth once more.
"Is it not enough that you insult me?  Must you mock me even further?  Would
you have me hold you as my sister did and slit my throat open for you so you
can drink my pain all the easier?"
     It took D a moment to decide how best to reply to her, knowing that not
just what he said but how it was also delivered would be of equal importance.
"You say I don't know you," he spoke up quietly.  "So tell me who and what you
are, then.  You already told me about your birth, and I already told you that
I am saddened to hear of it, but do you think I hold you in contempt for it?
That I hold your birth against you when you had nothing to do with it, no sort
of control over it?  The actions of others can't change who you are, Pearl,
only you can do that through your own conscious choices.
     "And as for holding you.... let me tell you what the village elder told me
once," he said, prompting a startled blink from her.  "He said to me, 'I know
that one day you may change your mind about our kind and think differently than
how you do now.  That is normal and expected, for all people change over time.
All that I will ask of you is this.... if you will not hold us in your heart,
then at least do us no wrong and bring us no harm, as our lives are but a small
measure compared to yours but can be burdened with just as much and with less
time in which to cope with them.  Give us this much peace, as we have never
brought as much harm to your kind as they have done to us.'
     "If you cast aside your contempt for humans and do not harm them from this
moment forward," D said as he looked squarely at her, "Then I can embrace you
like the sister I never had.  If you not just acknowledge the human heart and
soul that exists within you but open them both to others, to learn to live and
love as they do, then I can embrace you as the lover Coral seeks in me.  I do
not want your death, or Coral's, or anyone else's, but I will fight to protect
the humans from those who knowingly and willfully harm them for their own evil
and selfish reasons.  It really is that simple, Pearl.  It always has been.  I
just never found another vampire or dunpeal who was willing to agree not to do
any further harm to humans.  You don't have to love them, you don't even have
to like them or deal with them.  You just can't hurt them or make them suffer
any more than life has already hurt them and made them suffer."
     "What do they know of pain and suffering?" Pearl whispered, her eyes once
again restored to their usual aqua-blue hue.  "They live a century at most and
that's it.  What do they know of true pain?"
     "So tell me," D replied quietly.  "Tell me what Valentina Winters did to
you that made you hate her so, not just her but all of life itself."
     The crimson glow of rage returned to her eyes for a moment before it began
to fade like the last flickers of a dying ember.  It seemed a minor eternity
passed before her petite chest finally expanded with a deep breath.  "Like my
so-called mother," she said in a dangerously quiet tone, "Baroness Winters did
absolutely nothing.  She viewed Coral and I as commoners, no better than the
human slaves she kept for herself.  She didn't dare order us around as such, as
my father wouldn't permit it despite his.... feelings.... for her, but she did
absolutely nothing for us.  She moved heaven and earth for her own children,
giving them what they wanted, but nothing for Coral or myself."
     D nodded slowly in understanding, figuring that had been the case.  "And
what of the others?" he asked carefully.  "The children your father had with
her during their marriage."
     Pearl simply shook her head in disgust.  "Bastards," she spat.  "Every
single one of them.  Rose was the only one who would talk to us, as she was
just as ignored by her brothers as we were, but she still treated us like dirt
beneath her oh-so-noble feet.  I suppose I should thank you for killing them as
well," she added bitterly.  "The only thing that kept me from carrying them out
into the sunlight while they slept was Coral's insistence that Father would be
mad enough to kill the both of us if it ever happened."
     "Why didn't you simply leave the castle?" D inquired softly.  "Surely you
could have once you became of age."
     "And go where?" Pearl snapped, giving him a look of anger that had little
to do with her usual dark rage.  "We are dunpeals, D, who else would accept us?
Humans?  They would just as soon kill us.  Other nobles?  They would abuse us
far worse then that woman's children ever did, not needing to pretend to be
bound by taboos of blood like.... like...."
     D suddenly felt his blood chill as Pearl trailed off, her voice failing
her for some unknown reason.  Something was dangerously wrong with what she had
said, suggesting that he had found the true source of her rage, but it wasn't
something he could immediately pin down.  Unless what she meant by taboos of
blood wasn't related to vampires but instead meant....
     "Pearl?" he spoke up carefully.
     "Enough," she said, her tone suddenly empty and devoid of emotion in an
eerie echo of how his own voice was when he was withdrawn.  "There is nothing
more to be said, hunter.  You killed not just them but my father as well.  I'll
not mourn for their loss, but you will still pay for my father's death.  Pray
that you give Coral the child she wants soon and permits you to die, as I will
promise you a great deal of pain and suffering until she is finished with you."
     D raised an eyebrow at her, knowing that the abrupt change in conversation
meant that he indeed had gotten close enough to the mark to rattle her.  "What
makes you think I want to give her or anyone else a child?" he inquired archly.
     "How should I know?" Pearl countered darkly.  "Keep putting it to her like
how you did yesterday and she'll get knocked up sooner or later, though, so you
might want to start...." she said, trailing off before starting to laugh softly
to herself.  "Well, I was about to say start keeping it in your pants, but it
looks like that's not an option right now, is it?" she said with a cruel leer.
     "Believe me when I say pleasing her wasn't my idea," D pointed out.  "In
fact, I wasn't even asked if I was interested or otherwise given any options."
     It took her a moment to react, his statement seeming to stun her into an
unsettled silence.  "What?" she finally said, seeming to be just as suspicious
and untrusting as she was startled and uneasy.  "Explain," she demanded as he
gave no indication of speaking further.
     "I thought I said it clearly enough," D replied in a faintly-edged tone.
     "Humor me," Pearl prodded, giving him an openly suspicious look.
     "I did not want to have sex with your sister," he said.
     Pearl merely tilted her head at a slight angle.  "Let me get this right,"
she said slowly.  "You're trying to tell me she *forced* you?"
     "That's right," he said simply.
     "She raped you?" she breathed, a faint smile touching her lips.
     He narrowed his eyes before nodding once.  "That's right," he repeated.
     "*BULLSHIT!*" she gasped as she threw her head back and laughed.  It took
her several seconds to calm down to the point where she could get her laughter
under control and look back at him.  Seeing the look in his eyes only resulted
in a second burst of laughter, the somewhat coarse but hearty sound seeming to
echo within the stone confines of the underground dungeon.
     The laughter finally faded away, being replaced with a series of muted
chuckles that seemed to leave her speechless.  "A-Alright, hunter," she managed
to gasp out once the worst of the spasms of humor passed.  "I'll admit it, you
got me.  You made me laugh.  That was a good one.  She raped you," she chuckled
before dissolving into another fit of laughs that left her gasping for breath.
     "You say that like she's never done that to a prisoner bound in chains
before," he pointed out in a calm tone, as if he were talking about the weather
instead of his recent ordeal.
     "Oh, please," Pearl said as she rolled her eyes.  "She's screwed a few of
the fuck-toys she brought down here for me to use as target-practice, and I'll
admit I watched her once or twice from a distance, but they all *begged* for
her touch, every single one of them.  You can't force a man into something like
that, they'd just deflate like balloons if they didn't want to keep it up."
     "And how much experience with men do you have?" D inquired.  He ignored
the momentary flicker in her eyes and pressed on.  "Stop and think for a moment
about a lesson you yourself made all too clear earlier.  The body can be made
to do what the will doesn't want, and even the strongest of willpowers can be
broken.  It all depends on how it's done.  Or to borrow your crude phrase," he
added darkly, "How the right hammer is applied to crack the nut."
     "You *must* be joking," she scoffed, giving him a smirk.  The look on her
face started to fade after a few moments as she stared into the dark depths of
his eyes, suddenly getting the uneasy feeling that he was being quite truthful
with her.  "Alright, hunter," she said, no longer seeming to be amused, "Tell
me how it happened."
     "You're right in the sense that men are weak when it comes to sex and the
pleasure that can be offered by a willing woman," D said carefully.  "However,
keep in mind that the body has its own instincts.  You jerk back when you are
burned.  You cough when your lungs are irritated.  You cry out when you are in
significant pain."
     "And you shoot your seed when inside a woman," Pearl finished for him, a
dark sneer crossing her face.  "But tell me how she gets it up for you if you
don't want to."
     D snorted very softly to himself in contempt.  "As I said, the body has
its own ideas and the willpower can only accomplish so much when distracted."
     "Really...." she purred in a mockery of a husky tone.  She cast a brief
glance down at him before she leaned close, pressing herself against him as she
reached down to run a fingertip across his manhood.  "Somehow, hunter, I just
don't believe you.  But go ahead, make it hard for me," she breathed into his
ear as she started stroking him.  "Then tell me you don't want to take me like
you took my sister.  Let me hear you lie...."
     "I see you really haven't dealt with men before," he pointed out in a mild
tone.  He waited for the flash of anger to cross her face like a stormcloud
before continuing, "It doesn't work that way.  I know you're just toying with
me, so there's no desire or reason to think anything will happen.  Coral was
quite serious with her attentions last night, however, and that was rather hard
to ignore.  I assure you a simple touch isn't going to get you anywhere."
     She frowned and edged back, casting a cautious glance down at the inert
flesh she was holding.  "So you say," she said in a neutral tone.
     "Let me ask you this," he countered, ignoring the sudden movement in his
peripheral vision.  "Why would I want to do her any favors after being stabbed
and tortured by the both of you?"
     "To fuck her, of course," Pearl replied promptly.  "Why else do men lust
after women, other than to have their way with them?"
     "You tell me," D stated in a low tone.  "Or am I supposed to be lusting
after you as well, simply because you're a woman?"
     "You know what, hunter?" she purred as she stepped closer to him again,
her hand working against his groin in a surprisingly gentle way as she pressed
her modestly curved chest against his.  "I think deep in your heart, you want
me too.  You just want to spread my legs and fill me with your lust like you
did Coral, the same kind of lust that made you cooperate with her last night.
How else could she 'force' you, hmm?" she inquired lightly.
     "Why don't you ask her?" D said in a perfectly casual tone.  "She's right
behind you, I'm sure she'll answer your question."
     In another time and place, he might have enjoyed the sudden tableau of
frozen motion.  Pearl blinked hard enough to be heard and quit breathing, her
eyes narrowing dangerously to stare at him before casting a truly uneasy look
out of the corner of her eye.  She glanced back at D and was about to make a
comment when she heard the faintest of coughs behind her, causing her to once
again quit breathing and her expression to turn dangerously pale.  It took him
an incredible amount of effort to keep his face perfectly devoid of expression
as Pearl slowly turned around, finding herself face-to-face with a very unhappy
Baroness Coral Winters.
     "Hi, sis," Pearl said in a very small voice.
     "Pearl?" Coral said in a tone that was both calm and chilling at the same
time.  "Do I even want to ask what you're doing to him this time?"
     Pearl cast a quick glance at D before shifting her focus downward to where
her hand was still wrapped around his manhood.  "You wouldn't believe me if I
told you," she muttered as she quickly let go of him and edged away.
     "Probably not," Coral admitted casually, her lips still seemingly frozen
in a look of severe disapproval.  "But after dealing with the village idiot, I
could use a good laugh right now.  Humor me," she added in a neutral tone.
     Pearl sighed softly through her nose and cast a dark glance at D before
shaking her head slowly.  "D was trying to tell me he didn't want to screw you
last night," she said in a very carefully-controlled voice.
     "Please," Coral scoffed quietly.  "Of course he did, why else would he
have been so delightfully hard and waiting for me?  Isn't that right, my dark
hunter," she purred in a honeyed tone as she moved past Pearl to lean against
him, reaching up with her ungloved hand to stroke his cheek.
     D ignored the knowing smirk on Pearl's face and glanced down at Coral.
"Actually, I didn't," he said calmly, causing Coral to blink hard.  "I told you
point-blank that I didn't want it.  I've no desire to give you or anyone else
a child, Coral, you just chose not to listen to me."
     "D, how can you say that?" Coral whispered, seeming to be genuinely upset.
"I know you enjoyed making love to me like that.  In fact, had you came any
harder you might have hurt me.  That'd be interesting to explain to a doctor,
wouldn't it?" she said as she turned to give Pearl a look that was just as
amused as it was embarrassed.
     Pearl blinked and gave her a truly dubious look, clearly unsettled with
the way the conversation was going.  "If you say so, sis," she replied in an
absent tone, casting an uneasy glance over at D.  "So I take it our 'honorable'
vampire-hunter was just trying to blow smoke up my ass earlier?" she prodded,
adding a hint of sarcasm to her words.
     "No, he's just confused," Coral said with a gesture of dismissal.  "He
knows he wants to give me a child, but I think that being left out in the sun
for too long earlier may have been too much.  He'll heal soon enough, though,
won't you, D?" she purred as she reached up to stroke his chest gently.
     "You're delusional," D said calmly.
     Coral paused to regard him carefully before sighing quietly.  "Pearl, what
did you do to him this time?" she inquired in a bored tone as she glanced over
at her younger sister.
     "I didn't do anything," Pearl protested, giving both D and Coral a truly
disturbed and confused look.  "We were just talking."
     "Indeed," D spoke up before Coral could say anything.  "She mentioned how
strained relations were between the two of you and your father's wife," he said
carefully, giving Pearl a neutral look that might have been taken as a warning.
     "Oh, that bitch," Coral sighed quietly, glancing away for a few moments as
she wrinkled her nose.  "Val wasn't much of a mother, if you ask me, but what
could we do?  She was married to Father, so it wasn't like we could ignore her.
Not that she really paid any attention to us either, mind you, but still."
     "It's none of his business, sis," Pearl spoke up in a flat tone.
     "I suppose not," Coral admitted with a soft sigh as she rested her head on
D's shoulder for a few moments.
     The edges of Pearl's lips tugged down in a dark frown as the gesture was
noticed, glancing over at D to judge his reaction.  "Do me a favor, sis," she
said in a faintly edged tone.  "Let me know if you want to start snuggling up
to him again so I can go find something less nauseating to look at."
     "Oh, listen to you," Coral fussed as she made a face.  "You sure didn't
mind sticking around to watch when I had Gregory down here back then."
     "That was how long ago?" Pearl growled back, her cheeks taking on a faint
but still noticeable pink tint.  "Trust me when I say I know how it's done now,
so I don't need to waste my time watching you make another mess."
     "Tsk, such a prude," Coral teased with a knowing smirk.
     Pearl narrowed her eyes dangerously as she tightly crossed her arms over
her chest.  "So sorry if I'm not as promiscuous as you are," she replied in a
distinctly frosty tone.
     Coral simply shrugged a shoulder in absent dismissal.  "I still think you
need to let your hair down every once in a while, my dear sister," she cooed in
a honeyed tone.  "It might loosen up a few kinks and improve your disposition
in the process."  She blinked and suddenly seemed to sober up, giving Pearl a
faintly uneasy look.  "Or was that what I interrupted a few moments ago?"
     "You've *got* to be kidding me," Pearl protested darkly.  "I'm still quite
tempted to ask April where she keeps the steel wool so I can scrub my mind of
the visual of the two of you doing the horizontal tango.  And knowing precisely
where you've been, why would I want to screw him after he screwed you?"
     "Pearl," Coral said, her tone suddenly as cold as liquid nitrogen, "Don't
start with me.  I can understand if you're a little jealous, as I'm still quite
surprised myself that I was able to capture him, but there's no need to be so
insulting."
     "Jealous of what?" Pearl demanded as her eyes started to flicker with very
faint crimson highlights.
     D remained silent as he listened to the two sisters arguing, knowing that
it was best to stay out of the proverbial line-of-fire.  There was something
about Pearl's mannerisms that was setting off a warning flag for some reason,
though it wasn't immediately obvious as to why.  Granted it could have been
about her temper, which seemed ready to boil over yet again, but he had the
unsavory feeling that it was something far more subtle and sinister than that.
     "Pearl, just be honest with me, okay?" Coral sighed quietly, giving her
sister a somewhat pleading look.  "I'm not going to be mad or upset if you say
you're interested in him.  I mean, I know I am, and I can easily see why he
would appeal to you as well."
     D could easily see the sudden change in Pearl's expression, almost able to
feel for himself the chill of realization flooding her veins as she figured out
what her sister was suggesting.  "Riiiiiight," she said slowly, giving D an
uneasy look.  "Yeah, sure, sis, you got me.  I just want to feel his manly arms
around me as he makes me all aquiver with girlish delight," she said, almost
literally dripping sarcasm on the floor.
     "I'll think about it," Coral smiled gently, causing both D and Pearl to
blink hard.  "What, you don't think I'd ever share with my sister?" she added
as she saw the stunned look on Pearl's face, a look at only grew more shocked
as she realized that the gray-haired woman was being perfectly serious.  "Oh,
come now, Pearl, when have I ever been selfish like that?  I mean, I've let you
play with him so far, haven't I?"
     "You're kidding, right?" Pearl said slowly, her cheeks taking on a faint
green tint as she looked to be visibly fighting a sudden wave of nausea.  She
cast a quick glance at D and felt her blood grow even colder at the look on his
face before he could finish recomposing himself.
     "Trust me, you'll love him," Coral purred in a silken tone as she turned
back to D, giving him a gentle and almost loving smile as she started to run
her gloved hand up and down his chest.  "Granted I'm not finished with him by
any stretch of the imagination, but stop and think for a moment.  You saw how
big Elora's belly grew with her child, right?  Surely the same will be with me,
and so he certainly won't be able to please me when I'm like that.  So why not
allow you to make use of his services when I can't?  I might even let him give
you a child as well, if you ever decide to want one," she added, looking up to
give D a suggestive wink.
     D glanced over at her, seeing not just the playful look in her yellow eyes
but the glimmer of insanity as well.  He very strongly doubted his situation
would last long enough to worry about Pearl giving thought to the idea, but he
was hoping that Pearl was starting to become aware of the fact that her sister
wasn't thinking rationally any more, or at least when it came to him.
     "Coral, are you alright?" Pearl spoke up in a guarded tone, giving both D
and her sister suddenly suspicious looks.
     "Actually, no," Coral sighed heavily, causing Pearl to blink hard.  She
gave D another soft smile that chilled his blood before she turned to look at
her openly uneasy sister.  "Like I said, I'm still a little.... breathless, I
guess, from making love last night.  Intense doesn't even being to describe how
it felt," she whispered, seeming to shiver briefly at the memory.  "Part of me
wants to take him again tonight, but I think it would be best if he was allowed
to rest and marshal his strength for tomorrow.  He's going to need it," she
added in a honeyed purr as she reached back slightly to caress his manhood in
a quite unmistakable gesture.
     "Why, what's tomorrow?" Pearl inquired, still giving her an openly uneasy
and suspicious look.
     Coral made a soft humming noise of pleasure to herself, her fingertips
still toying with the sparse patch of D's pubic hair.  "Remember when you asked
why I took my temperature every morning?" she murmured.  "It's to help me keep
track of my body's cycle.  And tomorrow, my dear sister?  Tomorrow my body will
be ready for him," she whispered huskily, giving D a coy sidelong look.  "And
I want him to be just as ready for me."
     D turned to give Pearl a classic 'yeah, right' look before shaking his
head to himself.  "I don't see that happening, Coral," he said calmly.  "Given
my feelings on the matter, I'd take my own life before I allowed myself to be
in a position to spread the taint of our blood to a new life."
     "Nonsense," Coral cooed quietly as she turned her full attention to him,
now using both hands to caress the curves of his muscled chest.  "I've waited
years for you, D, surely you can't deny me this now that I have you in my life.
I promised I wouldn't hurt you, didn't I?  You won't have to worry about being
killed, hunter," she said, her voice turning honeyed and sultry as she leaned
in to kiss him.
     Pearl remained perfectly silent and motionless as she watched D twist his
head away, seeking to escape Coral's kiss.  The battle became futile as Coral
brought her hands up to hold his head in place, keeping him steady while her
lips gently worked against his for a number of moments.  The whole scene was
enough to truly disturb Pearl, causing her to wonder just what the hell was
wrong with her sister all of a sudden.  Surely she could tell that he wasn't
joking about not wanting to sleep with her again or make her pregnant?  After
all, if he hunted their kind for vengeance, why would he want to have a vampire
child of his own?
     "Hey, sis?" Pearl found herself saying in a hollow tone.  "I thought you
said I could kill him later."
     "I said if it ever came to the point where we had to kill him," Coral said
calmly without turning around, her eyes still studying D with eerie tenderness.
"Like I said, dear sister, don't hold your breath.  It would be such a shame to
have to hurt a man like him.  A man, and soon to be a father...." she purred,
more to herself than to either Pearl or D.
     D looked over at Pearl, their eyes locking in uneasy silence for a number
of moments.  He could tell that Coral's words were bothering her just as much
as it was him, though he couldn't discern if that would change anything.  She
continued to stare back at him before she let her gaze drift slightly downward,
first to her sister's gloved hand and then to what that hand was gently rubbing
and massaging.
     She glanced back up at him and narrowed her eyes, almost as if she were
daring him to react to Coral's intimate touch.  A faint chill crept down her
spine as D continued to look at her with an unreadable expression, apparently
not interested in passion at the moment given the way his body failed to react.
     A faint footstep behind her caused her to whip around, the sudden surge of
tension and anxiety draining away as she saw April very timidly standing in the
open doorway holding a large wooden goblet in both hands.  "M-Mistress?" she
called out in a meek voice, seeming to be afraid to intrude into the dungeon or
otherwise disturb the pair of dunpeal sisters.
     "Mmmm?" Coral hummed as she peered over her shoulder, briefly pausing her
tender ministrations.  "Oh, yes, thank you so much, April," she said as she saw
the steaming cup her slave was holding.  "I completely forgot about that."
     April cast a very hesitant look over at Pearl, seeming to quail slightly
as she got a dark glare in return before she quickly carried the goblet over to
where Coral was standing.  "I just took it off the stove," she whispered in a
shaky tone, holding it out to the silvery-gray-haired woman.  "It might still
be too hot to drink."
     "Better too hot than too cold," Coral mused as she let go of D and turned
around to accept the heavy wooden goblet.  She paused to take a quick whiff of
the steam before smiling warmly at her slave.  "Ohh, this smells good.  I hope
you saved some for the rest of us," she added with a twinkle in her eyes.
     April quickly nodded.  "The bread will be ready in a few moments and I had
Abelyne set the table for you and Lady Pearl."
     "You best not let the bread burn, then," Pearl spoke up in a flat tone,
casting a dark glare at the suddenly-cowering woman.
     "O-Of course not, mistress," April replied.  She cast a brief glance at
both D and Coral before making a hasty curtsy.  "I'll see to it right away,"
she blurted out before rapidly exiting the room, leaving the door open in the
same position she had found it.
     "Pearl, you shouldn't be so mean to her," Coral said casually as she very
lightly blew on the steaming cup, seeking to cool it slightly.  "April's a good
girl and she very rarely makes a mistake when it comes to cooking.  Honestly,
when was the last time she burned anything?  When she didn't let Abby help her
out," she amended quickly with a faint blush.
     Pearl frowned and was about to reply when she caught a whiff of the heavy
scent in the air.  "Wait, what's that smell?" she inquired, cautiously taking
a deeper sniff.  She blinked as her mouth promptly started to water, realizing
that the aroma was more than a little tantalizing.
     "Just some beef broth I asked her to bring me," Coral replied, still very
lightly blowing on the cup.  "She spent most of the evening working on some
sort of roast and I asked her to save some of the broth for D.  You're probably
hungry by now, aren't you?" she added as she glanced over at D, swirling the
contents of the goblet around to speed up the cooling process.
     "Thank you for your concern, but I'll pass," D replied calmly, trying to
ignore the way his stomach was suddenly twitching at the smell of the broth.
It would have been a lie to say that it wasn't making him hungry, but he wasn't
about to put himself in a position of having to be fed by Coral if he could
avoid it.
     "Come now, D," Coral purred in the honeyed tone that D had come to dread
hearing from her, knowing what her controlling influence could do.  "My darling
little April worked so hard on this, surely you don't want to insult her by
refusing to at least sample it?  Granted it is still just a little too warm,"
she admitted with a faint look of surprise down at the cup, watching the cloud
of steam continue to waft up with enthusiasm, "But it will cool down enough to
be savored safely in another minute or two."
     "It smells good," Pearl observed, casting an almost wistful glance towards
the dungeon exit and the stairs that would take her back upstairs to where the
dining room was.
     "It does," Coral agreed.  She glanced down at the cup and brought it up to
her lips for a very cautious sip, wincing slightly as she realized that it was
still quite hot.  "Mmm.  Tastes wonderful, too, though she obviously wasn't
kidding about taking it off the stove before bringing it down here.  You should
go on ahead, I'll be up in a few minutes."
     "Pearl," D spoke up quietly, drawing slightly startled looks from both
sisters.  "I'd like to continue our talk later, if you wish, but there are a
few questions I'd like to ask Coral first.  Rest assured I'll be here when you
are finished with dinner," he added, giving her just the faintest looks of dry
and sarcastic humor.
     "No doubt that you will, hunter," Pearl replied in a perfectly neutral
tone.  She cast a quick glance at Coral and the goblet in her hands before she
snorted softly to herself in contempt.  "Try not to make a mess," she added in
an unreadable tone before she turned and left the room, her footsteps sounding
unusually heavy to D's sensitive hearing.
     "Should I ask what you two were talking about?" Coral inquired as she took
a second quick sip of the heated broth, wincing as it came dangerously close to
scalding her tongue once again.
     "What our mothers were like," D replied, giving her an unreadable look.
     "Mmm," Coral said in a noncommittal tone.  "That must've been a one-sided
conversation, then, as neither of us remember her for ourselves."
     "So what happened to her?" he asked gently.
     A sudden veil of guarded emotions seemed to pass over her face as she gave
him a measured look before glancing away.  "She was eight-months pregnant with
Pearl when she had an accident," she murmured.  "Her neck was broken, but that
happens when one tumbles down two flights of stairs.  Father was able to save
Pearl from death somehow, though he never answered me as to how exactly he did
so.  Well, in any case, Pearl pulled through and went on to become the lovely
woman that she is today, though she tends to get a little moody whenever she's
reminded of that little footnote of her life."
     Her casual description and demeanor made D's stomach cringe slightly, just
enough to blunt the edge of the ravenous hunger that had started up the instant
he had caught a whiff of the beef broth.  He had eaten his fill before he had
embarked on his trek into the village crypts, of course, as he knew it wasn't
likely that he would be able to eat anything during the journey, but that had
been quite some time ago.
     "What can I say, D?  I don't remember her," she sighed softly, casting a
somewhat glum look at the stone walls.  "You would think that a four-year-old
would be able to remember something about her mother, but the memories just
aren't there.  No matter," she said with another sigh, turning her head at the
last moment to direct the outflow of air over the rim of the goblet.  "Damn,
how hot did she make this?" she fussed as the broth continued to steam.
     "So what did your step-mother have to say about it?" D asked in a very
careful tone.  He figured that Coral wouldn't be nearly as explosive as Pearl
would be if upset by the question, but he still wanted to tread carefully.
     Coral suddenly paused in mid-motion, the goblet only a few inches away
from her lips as she went to taste-test the broth again.  "What did Val say?"
she asked herself, her brow furrowing slightly as she tried to think about it.
"Oh, yeah," she grumbled quietly as it finally clicked, taking an absent sip.
"Apparently Mother was a little on the well-endowed side to begin with, no
doubt what first got Father's attention, and only got bigger once she became
pregnant.  Val said something about how she seemed to become top-heavy and had
almost killed herself during her first pregnancy doing the exact same thing.
Something about how steep stairs tended to be rather unforgiving like that."
     D suddenly felt his blood go cold, putting together a dark picture that
made him shiver on the inside.  He knew what Valentina Winters was like after
confronting and killing her a number of years ago.  Not so much cold as very
cool and calculating, he could picture her being quite upset at the discovery
of her husband impregnating a human woman, not once but twice.  He could also
see her trying to discreetly arrange for a fatal 'accident' to occur, one that
would appear to be genuinely plausible and not draw any suspicion to her.  He
himself had heard of more than one tragic tale of a pregnant woman losing her
balance on a staircase that had led to harm to either her or the life she was
carrying inside her.  Or to both....
     "I'm sorry," D murmured with genuine sincerity.
     "Thank you," she said quietly, looking up to give him a tender smile and
a nod of understanding.  "I have to admit I'm a little.... upset with her, but
not for dying on us.  Accidents happen, and it's not her fault.  But she could
at least have given us the ample-chest genes she apparently had," she said with
a faint chuckle, reaching up to smooth the fabric out over her chest.  "I mean,
I guess I'm doing okay, but Pearl tends to be a little self-conscious about her
breasts not being what you would call attention-getters."
     She sighed quietly as she glanced down at the broth, blowing gently on it
before taking another cautious sip.  "Took it long enough," she muttered as she
nodded to herself in satisfaction and moved to hold the goblet up to his lips.
"Here, give it a try and let me know if it's still too hot.  It really is quite
delicious," she added, giving him a gentle look.
     He made note of the look in her eyes and was about to refuse when he felt
a very faint twitch from his left hand.  He narrowed his eyes as he tried to
decide if it was trying to warn him of something or if it was starting to fall
prey to the charming influence she could exert.  "No doubt that it is," he said
very carefully.  "But I'm going to have to pass for the time being.  Not to be
disrespectful to April or her cooking, but I don't know what she made it with
and I'm not about to eat anything that I might potentially be allergic to."
     "Mmm," she hummed quietly to herself, lowering the goblet and casting a
suddenly uneasy look inside.  "I don't think she used anything exotic," she
said in a faintly uncertain tone.
     "Who said it had to be exotic to be an allergen?" D pointed out.
     "Ouch," Coral sighed, wincing slightly.  "Yes, you're right.  Pearl and I
managed to avoid picking up Father's allergy to carnations, but she still gets
a little edgy around flowers.  I'll go ask April how she made this," she added
as she started to turn away.
     "Coral," D spoke up, causing her to pause and turn around.  "You should go
ahead and eat dinner while it's still warm.  Just ask April to come down and
talk to me for a brief moment, I'm sure knows everything she used and in what
amounts."
     She raised an eyebrow at his request, giving him a slightly cool look in
response.  "I'm not sure that's a good idea," she said after a brief pause.
"The poor thing is a little on the flighty side and I don't need her getting
spooked by coming down here again.  Especially when no-one else is around to
keep her calm," she added in a faint warning tone.
     "Bring her with you when you're done, then," D replied simply.
     "The broth will be cold by then," she pointed out.
     "Believe me when I say that is not a driving concern," D said dryly.
     A faint smile brushed her lips for a moment.  "Alright," she said, making
a gesture with the faintly-steaming goblet.  "I'll do that, though I'll ask her
to reheat this for you first.  Gently reheat it," she added wryly, casting a
glance down at the gauzy wisps of steam that continued to waft up.  "That, and
ask her why she made this so dangerously hot."
     "I wouldn't worry about it," D suggested.  "As you said, she appears to be
a decent woman who doesn't often make a mistake.  And mistakes do happen," he
added carefully.
     "Aye, that they do," she agreed with a faint sigh.  "Oh, well, no matter.
I will be back shortly, my dark hunter," she purred softly, giving him a look
of casual coyness.  She continued to study him for a moment before she turned
away, a somewhat disturbing smile forming on her face before her back was fully
turned to him.  Her footsteps seemed to whisper softly as she crossed the room,
standing out in contrast to Pearl's heavy steps earlier.  The door was left
open as she exited, the sound of her footsteps fading away a moment later.
     <D?> it whispered as softly as it could manage.
     "Stay quiet," he murmured back, making a fist to keep it silent.
     <Real quick,> it replied carefully.  <The broth is fine, though heavy on
the onion flavoring, and I think Pearl just got a clue as to how screwed in the
head Coral is.>
     "I think I can work with Pearl," D spoke softly, casting a glance over at
the open doorway.  "Though it will likely take more time than I have.  How are
you holding up against Coral's power?"
     <Like I said,> it chuckled dryly, <You'll succumb to her feminine charms
long before that power can dominate me.  And yesterday doesn't count, as I felt
how her metallic touch played hell with both the wiring and the plumbing.  Oh,
and good call with not pissing on Pearl, that probably would have gotten you
killed on the spot,> it added with another soft snicker.
     "Quiet," he said softly, casting another glance towards the open doorway.
     <D, if you have any ideas on how to get us out of this one, I'd feel a lot
better knowing about them,> it pointed out.  <Granted I'm keeping my eyes open
for what happens, as it were, but I can't do much of anything to help if I'm
kept in the dark here.>
     The faintest of grunts rose up from D's chest as he closed his eyes, still
keeping an ear out for any sound to indicate that someone was returning.  "I'm
still working on that," he admitted, his voice barely more than a whisper.
     <Keep working,> it suggested dryly.  <Oh, and speaking of working things,
I'm starting to get the feeling that Pearl....>
     D's breath caught in his chest as he heard a soft sound, the noise causing
the symbiot to abruptly fall silent.  The sound persisted for several seconds
before fading away, causing him to stop and wonder just what the hell it had
been.  It hadn't been a footfall or the sound of movement, but rather a deep
and almost metallic sound that seemed to echo faintly.
     <Wind,> it spoke up quietly.  <Blowing through the canyon and over the end
of the lava tube below you.  Pitch it another octave lower and we couldn't have
heard it, but still.  Scared the hell out of me too,> it admitted with a sigh.
     "If you were going to suggest that I try to seduce Pearl...." D started to
say in a low tone before falling silent as the thing in his hand twitched.
     <D, I think her loving and caring siblings did something to her,> it said
with a faint shiver.  <I mean something really bad.  Maybe they messed with
Coral as well, which might explain her blown mental fuses, but I think it was
mostly done to Pearl.>
     "Sexual abuse?" D spoke up, trying not to grimace at saying the words or
the thoughts behind him.
     <Think about it.  Coral has issues that the others might have picked up on
and tried to exploit.  They start playing games, Coral discovers that she likes
it and goes along not realizing that it's wrong, they try to drag Pearl into
things....>
     "Or Pearl stumbles across something that scars her soul," D murmured.
     Humans? Pearl's voice suddenly echoed in his mind.  They would just as
soon kill us.  Other nobles?  They would abuse us far worse then that woman's
children ever did, not needing to pretend to be bound by taboos of blood....
     <Stumbling into things indeed.  Or rather down them.  Trust me, I can see
a number of staircase jokes being made by her half-brothers and half-sister,>
it muttered with a dark sigh.  <And neither Coral or Pearl would know that they
were being mocked.  Accident my.... er, well, you get the idea,> it added in a
faintly abashed tone.
     "I'll ask her about it," D decided calmly as he closed his eyes.  The were
opened a moment later as the thing in his hand twitched violently, almost as if
it was having a momentary seizure.
     <D, you are kidding?> it said.  <Push her buttons like that and she'll go
apeshit again.  And in case you haven't been paying close attention to what
your battered and bruised body has been telling you for hours now, you simply
don't have the strength to endure any more physical abuse.  Sipping some of
April's blood helped, definitely, but that was what, a mouthful at best?  Two?
Hardly enough to revive you or let you recover that much energy.  Goddamn, she
had the perkiest pair of nipples I've seen in years,> it murmured softly with
an almost longing sigh.
     D just sighed quietly and clenched his hand into a fist, taking a small
measure of satisfaction from the way the thing's sigh was transformed into a
gasping grunt of surprise and discomfort.  "Quiet," he said once he was sure it
had fallen silent.
     <Sure, D,> it grumbled softly, its voice somewhat distorted by the way it
was compressed.  <Whatever you want.  Just drink the broth, okay?  We both know
you need the energy more than you need to score defiance points against Coral's
misguided notions.  Just ask for a mint when you're done, I'm not kidding about
the onion content....>
     D ignored it and closed his eyes, turning his focus inward to try to sort
out his thoughts.  It was obvious that Coral was insane and that no amount of
logic or blunt refusals would change her mind.  It was likely that Pearl had
noticed her sister's state of denial as well, given the look on her face when
Coral had brushed off his words about not wanting to give her a child.  Being
offered his 'services' once Coral was pregnant had also likely made Pearl stop
and truly question the situation.  He would have to ask her directly to find
out for himself just how unsettled the aqua-eyed woman was, and no doubt risk
igniting her dark rage in the process, but it was a risk he felt worth taking.
     But would it be enough to help him? he found himself thinking, wondering if
he really wanted to hear the answer.... or find out what would happen to him if
it couldn't.

                *               *               *               *

     He opened his eyes and lifted his head up as they returned, able to hear
their footsteps several seconds before they entered the room.  He figured that
Coral was in a fairly pleasant mood, judging from the soft smile on her face
and the way she carried the gently-steaming goblet in her gloved hand.  Pearl
was obviously withdrawn, her expression a darkened mask of guarded emotions
that indicated she was thinking heavily about something unpleasant.
     It was the look on April's face that bothered him the most, the young girl
seeming to be clearly terrified as she followed Coral's footsteps like a second
shadow.  Her sea-green eyes remained on his as she moved, however, her hands
tightly clasped in front of her and seeming to tremble slightly.  She jerked to
a halt as Coral stopped, taking a hasty step back to avoid accidentally bumping
into her mistress.
     "Take it easy, April," Coral said in a soothing tone, reaching out with
her free hand to brush her fingertips across April's cheek.  The young girl
remained perfectly still for the gesture, but it was obvious to D that she all
she wanted to do was run screaming from Coral's gentle touch.  "He just wants
to know what you used to make the broth."
     The rust-haired girl gave D an uneasy glance before she looked down at the
floor, her lips starting to tremble as they parted.  "I used a beef roast for
the base," she whispered.  "It was simmered in a mixture of onions, bay leaves,
cloves, thyme, parsley, and peppercorn."
     D nodded gently.  "Nothing harmful, then," he said.  He waited for her to
glance up at him before he added, "I apologize for refusing it earlier, but I
wanted to make sure I wouldn't have an allergic reaction to it."
     "It was good, April," Coral assured her with a gentle smile.  "You should
head back upstairs now, if only to keep Abelyne from making a mess with the
dishes.  I'm sure D will enjoy it as much as we did," she added, giving D a
small smile.
     "Yes, mistress," April said, giving her a quick curtsy before making a
rapid exit.
     "APRIL!" Pearl suddenly called out, causing Coral to flinch slightly from
surprise and the sheer volume of her sister's voice.
     "M-Mistress?" April whimpered as she promptly reappeared in the doorway,
her face turning dangerously pale.
     "Close the door," Pearl instructed in a level tone.
     "Yes, mistress," April replied, giving her another quick curtsy before
disappearing from sight again.  The dungeon door was promptly eased into the
closed position, the hinges protesting softly before the door clicked shut.
     "Must you have yelled like that?" Coral spoke up, absently rubbing the rim
of her ear.
     "Whatever, sis," Pearl muttered darkly as she leaned back against the wall
and crossed her arms tightly over her chest.
     Coral raised an eyebrow at the brusque response.  "You're in a mood all of
a sudden," she pointed out.  "Don't tell me that you had a problem with what
April cooked for us.  That honey-butter she made to go with the bread was quite
delicious, and I know you like beef to be slightly undercooked."
     Pearl cast a dark glare at her sister.  "Dinner was fine, sis, honest."
     "So why the stormy look?" Coral inquired archly.
     "Gas cramp," Pearl replied, causing the other woman to blink hard.
     "Ah, yes, that.... would put a girl in a mood," Coral said in a delicate
tone, casting a faintly apologetic look towards D.  "Okay, umm.... just don't
do anything.... combustible, okay?" she added, giving Pearl a sheepish look as
a moderate blush started to creep up across cheeks.  "The torches are still lit
and all, and you know how dangerous fire can be...."
     "Right, sis" Pearl muttered, giving her a dour look before turning her
focus on D and seeming to withdraw even more.
     "I'm just saying," Coral insisted in a fairly light and delicate tone
before she likewise turned her attention to D.  "Anyway, here you go, D," she
said as she stepped over to him, bringing the warm goblet up to his lips.  "I
told you she didn't use anything exotic or dangerous," she murmured.
     D studied the look in her pale yellow eyes for several moments before very
softly sighing to himself and taking a measured sip of the beef broth.  It was
quickly made obvious that the thing hadn't been joking about the level of onion
flavoring, seeming to tickle his sinuses as he swallowed.  The broth was quite
warm though not dangerously so, making it easy for him to drink without worry
about any internal damage being done.  He couldn't taste anything other than
what April had said was in there, finding the very subtle aftertaste of the
cloves to be quite pleasing.
     He drained the goblet of the broth at a moderate pace, not wanting to gulp
or otherwise rush the process but likewise not wanting it to last any longer
than absolutely necessary.  It was easy to notice Coral's smile as he drank, a
small and quiet but distinctly smug smile of victory.  It wasn't enough to make
him suspect that the broth had been tainted by anything, but instead merely
reinforced his concerns about her intentions towards him and how she would try
to dominate him in order to make him see things her way.
     "Thank you," he said in an empty monotone as he tilted his head back to
indicate he was finished.
     "My pleasure, hunter," Coral purred softly as she leaned forward to give
him a soft kiss that he decided was best to hold perfectly still for.  "After
all, you will need your strength soon and I certainly can't have you wimping
out on me, now can I?" she breathed huskily.
     He cast a quick glance at Pearl, more than a little unsettled by the stony
look on her face.  It was obvious that she was thinking about something, either
what he had said to her or what she had witnessed for herself, but the nature
of her suddenly brooding thoughts was a mystery to him.
     "I have a favor to ask of you," D said carefully as he looked at Coral.
     "I'm listening," Coral assured him in a cool tone.
     "The mud you applied yesterday seemed to work as you said it would," he
explained.  "I'm not sure why or how, but surely you've noticed how it helped
me heal the skin bruises in a single day.  I'd like to know more about it for
future reference."
     "Mmmm," Coral replied, the sound emerging more as a grunt than as a hum.
"I'm not sure I can help you there, hunter, as I told you everything that I
know about where it comes from and how it's kept hydrated.  Speaking of which,
we might have to make arrangements for another shipment.  We're down to how
many barrels now, five?" she asked, giving Pearl a questioning look.
     "Four," Pearl spoke up in a flat tone.  "You traded one last month to that
merchant for supplies and electronic parts, remember?"
     "Oh, yes, that's right," Coral murmured as she nodded her head absently.
"Still, considering what we paid for the mud to begin with and what those parts
were worth, I still think we got a very fair deal for them.  Mmm, and I see you
managed to pick up a few more bruises somehow," she added in an edged tone as
she looked back at D's chest.  "I wonder how that happened."
     Pearl just raised an eyebrow as she noticed Coral's sidelong glance in her
direction.  "It's not my fault he's fragile," she observed with a faint sneer.
     "I'm sure," Coral replied dryly as she glanced over at the forgotten urn
that had been brought down yesterday.  She moved over to peer inside, arching
an eyebrow up as she saw how much remained inside.  "Hmm, I think we've got
enough left for another bath if you want.  Certainly enough for your jaw," she
added as she glanced up at his face and sighed.
     D risked a quick glance over at Pearl before looking back at Coral.  "It
would be appreciated," he said calmly, still fully aware of the profusion of
deep aches residing in most of his muscles.  He didn't like having to ask her
for any sort of relief or otherwise let her 'take care of him' to further her
delusions, but at this point he felt his chances of escaping her dungeon would
be better if he could regain as much of his energy as he could before having to
make a 'do-or-die' stand.
     "Very well," Coral purred, giving him a warm smile as she reached into the
urn to pick up one of the forgotten brushes.  She paused at how heavy it felt,
poking it into the mud base a few times to test the viscosity.  "Mmm, it needs
to be rehydrated again.  I should make you do this," she added as she cast a
mild look over her shoulder at Pearl.
     "Didn't you bitch about the last batch of mud I mixed up?" Pearl pointed
out in a dark tone, leaning hard against the wall.  "Besides, I thought you
didn't want me touching your little screw-toy."
     "Pearl, what am I going to do with you?" Coral grumbled as she put the
brush back into the thick mud.  "There's a difference between helping me give
him a mud-bath and making love to him.  I don't have any problem with letting
you help me with the former.  In fact, I'd be grateful for the help," she added
in a serious tone.
     "We'll see," Pearl replied before falling silent once again, giving D a
distinctly uncertain and studious look.
     "Anyway," Coral muttered with a brief rolling of her eyes.  "I'll be right
back with some rainwater to remix this," she promised as she gave D's arm a
brief squeeze before heading towards the door.
     D watched her go, keeping his eyes on Coral's figure before turning to
look at Pearl once the baroness had left the room.  "I take it something's on
your mind?" he spoke up in a quiet tone.
     "Astute observation, hunter," Pearl growled back, seeming to hug herself
as she leaned harder on the wall.
     "Your sister is quite the generous woman," D observed, making sure to keep
his tone free of any emotional influences.  "I know I wouldn't be able to share
a woman's bed with a sibling, if I had one."
     Pearl scowled and pushed herself off the wall.  "Don't get your hopes up,
hunter," she said in a dark tone.  "I'm not interested in you like that.  All
I want from you are your screams of pain and suffering."
     D allowed the faintest of smiles of amusement to cross his face just long
enough for her to notice.  "Is that all that interests you these days, Pearl?
The pain and misery of others?  Surely you weren't always this bitter."
     "What's it to you?" she challenged in a low tone as she approached him,
stopping once she was close enough to touch him.  "Or am I supposed to be all
hot and bothered by the thought of being able to submit to your lusts?  Oh, and
such an honor it would be," she continued, her voice turning sarcastic as her
lips twisted into a scornful sneer.  "Being able to bed the legendary D like so
many other women have.  Tell me, hunter, just how many women have you taken?"
     D simply raised an eyebrow at her.  "I don't keep a notched belt, if that
is what you're getting at," he replied calmly.  "I should be able to remember
if given enough time, but the number is not as great as you would think."
     "I'm sure it's not," she said, narrowing her eyes slightly.
     "I take it sex bothers you?" he asked, instinctively tensing up on the
inside in case his question set her temper off.  He realized an instant later
that he had hit the proverbial nail on the head, watching as her aqua irises
seemed to contract slightly before abruptly dilating outwards as a fierce red
glow started to infuse itself into her corneas.
     Her eyes closed a moment later as they heard the sound of footsteps, her
jaw remaining firmly set as Coral returned to the room with a large cup of what
was likely rainwater.  The gray-haired woman paused for a moment as she sensed
her sister's tension before moving over to the mud urn.
     "Everything alright, Pearl?" she inquired as she carefully began to pour
the water into the urn.  She stopped after a few moments and set the cup down,
picking up the brush with her gloved hand to stir the mixture around.
     "Fine, sis," Pearl replied in a flat tone, opening her eyes to give D a
dark look.  The red glow had left her eyes, leaving behind a pair of aqua-blue
irises that remained firmly fixed on D's expression.  "It's just the gas cramp
being a literal pain, that's all."
     "Yeech," Coral murmured.  "Well, just.... take it outside if you think you
need to get rid of it the easy way.  A little more should be enough," she added
to herself as she knelt down to pick up the cup of rainwater.  She poured out
a small measure of the liquid before setting it down again, her gloved hand
still swirling the clay-like mixture around to soften it up.
     Pearl continued to glare at D before she made a soft huffing noise and
glanced away, crossing her arms tightly over her chest in a gesture that struck
D as more protective than it was contemptuous.  "So what's the plan for the
rest of the night, sis?" she spoke up in a perfectly neutral tone.
     "Mmm, a good question," Coral admitted as she continued mixing.  "I was
thinking about cleaning out the storage room up top," she said absently.  "I'm
not sure how long that would take, as we probably need to sort through all that
junk first, but we should be finished long before dawn.  Besides, the mud needs
time to dry and all after it's put on, so we'd still need to find something
constructive to do in the meantime.  And before you ask, I'd rather not let you
play with him while it's drying," she added in a firm tone, casting a reproving
glance over her shoulder.
     Pearl opened her mouth to say something when she suddenly paused and gave
D an appraising look.  "Alright," she said slowly, her lips slowly curling into
a cruel smile that immediately made D wary.  "I can take the mud off once it's
dry, though, right?"
     "Pearl...." Coral sighed heavily in open resignation, giving her sister a
truly weary look.  "The whole point of the mud-bath is to help him heal the
damage you did the last time you played around with him."
     "Oh, don't worry, I won't leave any bruises," Pearl promised in a silken
tone, giving D an openly feral look.
     "Pearl...." Coral said in a warning tone.
     "You can trust me, sis," Pearl assured her with a dark smile.  "No whips
or sharp edges, I promise."
     Coral raised an eyebrow.  "Uh-huh," she said slowly, pausing to glance
down at the mud mixture.  "Well, the mud feels to be ready.  Not too thick and
not too watery, either.  It might be a little cold, though," she admitted as
she suddenly thought about the temperature.
     "He'll be alright," Pearl purred, mimicking the honeyed tone that Coral
tended to use.  "Won't you, hunter?" she added, giving him a coy look.
     D gave her a very guarded look before slowly drawing in a breath.  "No
doubt that I will be," he said in an emotionless and empty monotone.  "In any
case, unless you used fresh glacier run-off to remix the mud, I doubt that it
will be cold enough to pose a hazard.  I'll let you know if things become too
uncomfortable for me," he said, glancing over at Coral.
     "Fair enough," Coral replied with a gentle smile.  She paused to pick up
the cup of rainwater and move it over to the storage cart to keep it out of the
way before returning to the urn.  "I take it you want to help me with this?"
she said to Pearl as she fished both brushes out.
     "Sure, why not," Pearl replied, still using an obviously fake sultry tone.
She gave D a look that made him seriously wonder what she was up to all of a
sudden before she moved to accept the offered brush.  "So how do we do this?"
she inquired in a normal tone, seeming to slip out of whatever mood she had
been in moments ago.
     "You can coat his back," Coral replied as she scooped up a glob of mud and
moved to stand in front of D.  She reached out to touch his chin, tilting his
head back several degrees before very carefully applying the mud to his jaw.
     "Coral?" D suddenly spoke up, causing her to pause and glance up at him.
"You may wish to change into something more suited for such work," he pointed
out.  "Surely you remember what happened to your dress yesterday."
     "Mmmmm, that's right," Coral purred softly, taking a step back and giving
him a distinctly playful and coy look.  She continued to study him carefully as
D felt the padded surface behind him split and open up, swinging away on hinges
to expose his back half.  Her silence persisted until D heard the soft clicks
of metal locks being engaged, keeping the padded halves locked against the
metal support columns he was chained to.
     "Pearl?" she murmured, keeping her eyes on D.  "You want to come over here
and give me a hand for a moment?  D's right, I already got mud on one dress so
far, I certainly don't need a second one to get dirty."
     "Hm?" Pearl replied, seeming to be surprised by the request.  She blinked
as Coral simply gestured to the back of her dress, still giving D a warm and
coy look.  "Uh, sis, are you sure you...?"
     "It's alright, Pearl," Coral said demurely.  "He already made love to me
yesterday, so it's not like it will be anything new.  He can look," she added
in a soft whisper, licking her lips slightly.
     "Right...." Pearl said slowly, giving D a look that was both suspicious
and uneasy at the same time.  She tossed her brush back into the urn and moved
to stand behind Coral, pausing briefly to give D another dark look of unease
before reaching up to grab the zipper to Coral's dark blue dress.
     D kept his face perfectly composed at the distinctive sound of a zipper
being parted in a fluid motion.  The fabric remained in place for a moment
before Coral slowly inhaled, expanding her chest to increase the tension and
force the material to move slightly.  It did so with a soft whispering sound,
seeming to glide across her shoulders like a ghost before sliding down her body
in a gentle cascade of dark blue to leave her clad only in a matching pair of
panties.
     "Mmmmmmm," Coral breathed, her voice more of a moan than a hum.  "Thank
you, Pearl," she whispered huskily as she turned her head to the side, giving
her sister a soft kiss on the cheek that briefly startled her.
     "Anytime, sis," Pearl replied in a faintly uneasy tone, casting a brief
glance down at Coral's now-bare shoulder before looking over at D.  The edges
of her lips tugged down in a slight frown as she saw that he was still focused
on her instead of on Coral's bare breasts as she had expected.  What? she found
herself saying, her lips moving to form the word but her voice failing to work
for some unknown reason.
     Her frown darkened as he glanced over at Coral before closing his eyes,
seeming to dismiss the visual without the slightest hint of concern.  Coral
didn't seem to notice or otherwise care as she took a step forward to step out
of the dress that was puddled in a dark circle on the floor.  Pearl's eyes
narrowed again as she watched Coral reach up to tilt D's head back, letting her
spread the cool mud across his bruised jaw once again.
     Shaking her head to herself, she returned to the urn and grabbed her own
brush, scooping out a large dollop of mud and absently splattering it against
his back.  Her lips curled back a moment later as the force of her motion was
enough to send tiny droplets of the dark brown mud all over the place.  She
kept her eyes on the dark blotch she had made on his back before very slowly
looking down, her lips setting into a thin and flat line as she realized that
there was now a small but still visible spot of mud on her blouse.
     "Pearl?" Coral inquired cautiously as she leaned to one side, suddenly
aware of the stillness following a rather wet splattering sound.
     "Quiet," Pearl groused as she took a step back, still looking down at the
fleck of mud adorning her blouse.  She paused and glanced upwards as D turned
his head slightly, just enough to let him look out of the corner of his eye.
He seemed to study her for a moment before he turned his head away, his face
remaining perfectly impassive.
     "He did warn you," Coral spoke up, the faintest of smiles brushing her
lips as she carefully applied more of the mud to D's jaw.
     "Thank you, sis," Pearl replied in an acidic tone as she threw the brush
tip-first into the urn like a large dart.  She cast a truly dark glare at D's
back before she snarled softly to herself and started to undo the buttons on
her blouse.  She quickly stripped it off and cast it aside, leaving her clad in
the same kind of form-hugging undertunic that she had been wearing yesterday.
She moved to pick up the brush when she caught the faint twinkle in Coral's
pale yellow eyes, causing her own to flicker slightly with dark rage.  "What?"
she demanded in a flat tone.
     "It'll wash out," Coral assured her in a languid tone as she returned her
focus to D's jaw and upper chest, very gently coating his pale skin with mud.
Pearl simply snarled to herself as she retrieved the brush and started to smear
it across D's back, glancing up at the back of his neck to see if he was trying
to look at her again.
     Time quickly passed in eerie silence, broken only by the wet sounds of the
brushes scooping out more mud at irregular intervals and spreading it across
his skin.  D seemed to be ignoring them both as they worked while Coral was
soon lost in absent thought, a soft and distinctly tender smile evident on her
lips as she methodically coated her prisoner with the hydrated mud.  A mask of
dark emotions seemed to be permanently implanted on Pearl's face, marring her
beauty with something that wasn't quite a scowl but was nonetheless nothing
that could even remotely be considered pleasant.
     All three of them seemed to refocus in the same instant as the door was
opened, allowing a flaxen-haired girl to poke her head inside with a somewhat
weary look on her face.  "Coral?" she called out in a faintly apologetic tone,
not seeming to be fazed in the least to see her mistress dressed in only her
underwear again.
     Coral blinked in surprise before sighing heavily.  "Abby, please tell me
that fool Largo isn't here again," she spoke up.
     "I'm sorry," Abelyne said, giving her a truly saddened look as she stepped
into the room to join her, appearing to be dressed in a slightly different
version of the essentially-nothing outfit she had worn the day before.
     "Oh, lord," Coral sighed in resignation as she gave Pearl a look that was
just as weary as the one on Abelyne's face.  "What could he possibly want now?"
she muttered.
     "A very slow and painful death," Pearl suggested calmly as she returned
her focus to D's back.  She paused as she saw how much she had already done and
craned her neck slightly to peer over D's shoulder.  "How much do you have left
to do?" she asked carefully.
     "I'm down to his navel," Coral replied as she tossed her brush into the
urn and stepped back, quickly taking a hop forward when she realized that she
was in danger of stumbling over her slave.  "Abby, don't do that," she gently
rebuked the young girl as she quickly scrambled out of the way, still holding
the discarded dress.
     "Tell you what," Pearl said, her tone becoming perfectly neutral.  "You go
see what the village idiot wants and start in on the storage room once you're
done with him, assuming you're not going to pull his toenails out or something.
I'll finish up here and come upstairs when I'm done."
     Coral paused to give her a faintly uncertain look, blinking and arching
her back slightly as Abelyne slid the dress up to her shoulders.  "Ooooh," she
purred softly before shaking her head to refocus.  "Sure about that?" she asked
as she gave D a somewhat distracted look.  "Cleaning out the storage room isn't
a high-priority or anything, just something that's on the list of stuff that
needs to be done one of these days.  It can wait if you...."
     "I can take care of it," Pearl interrupted with a slight gesture of her
brush.  "It's not like he's going anywhere on us and we'll have to let it set
soon enough anyway."
     "True," Coral admitted, holding still as the zipper on her dress was very
carefully resealed.  "Mmm, you have a light touch, Abby," she cooed softly,
turning to give her slave a gentle smile.  She glanced back over at Pearl and
D before sighing quietly.  "Alright, my dear sister, he's all yours for the
moment.  Just don't hurt him, okay?" she added in an edged tone.  "No scrapes,
no bruises, no dents, nothing."
     "Settle down, sis," Pearl grumbled, casting a somewhat dark look at her
elder sister.  "Just go see what that fool wants this time.  Maybe he's trying
to flirt with April and just needed some excuse to come up here and see her,"
she suggested with a casual shrug of a shoulder.
     "Eww," Abelyne whispered softly to herself, shivering lightly.
     "Eww, indeed," Coral added, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the visual.
"He has to be old enough to be her grandfather."
     "He looks it, too," Pearl pointed out sourly as she scooped up another
glob of mud and continued to spread it across D's lower back.  "Anyway, like I
said, the sooner you see what the hell he wants now, the sooner he'll go away
and leave us in peace.  Or the sooner he'll have eternal peace if he insists on
bothering us for trivial reasons," she added in an ominous tone.
     Coral just shook her head and ushered Abelyne towards the door.  "Lead me
not to temptation, my dear sister, for I can find it myself," she sighed as she
left the room with her slave in tow.
     "I'm sure you can, too," Pearl muttered darkly to herself.  She moved to
paint another line of mud when he twisted his head slightly to glance at her
out of the corner of his eye.  "What?" she demanded in a flat tone, narrowing
her eyes at him.
     "I was simply wondering why you're being so helpful all of a sudden," he
replied quietly as he turned his head back around.  "Or is it simply so you can
try to torture me once it dries?"
     "You'll find out soon enough, hunter," Pearl promised him as she resumed
her task, flicking her wrist to sharply slap the mud-coated bristles against
the flesh of his backside.
     "Explain to me why the pain of others pleases you so much," he said as he
closed his eyes.  "Surely there has to be something else that makes you feel
good on the inside.  Or is that all the pleasure you've ever known?" he added.
He carefully twisted his head to glance at her again when she remained silent,
making note of the dark look on her face as she visibly struggled to keep a
firm grasp on her temper.
     Her eyes slowly opened and refocused on his back before glancing up to
find him looking at her.  A faint crimson tint immediately flashed into her
corneas as she narrowed her eyes down to mere slits.  "I'm not going to play
your game this time, hunter," she assured him in a flat tone.
     "What game would that be, Pearl?" he inquired softly.  "Trying to get to
know you?  To understand your pain?"
     "You couldn't possibly understand me if you tried," she snarled, her hand
tightening around the brush hard enough to start to warp it.
     D glanced away from her and twisted his neck back around, seeming to sigh
very quietly to himself.  "Maybe not," he murmured.  "But what harm is there in
trying to do so?  Or do you hate yourself that much that you don't want anyone
else to try to know you as well?"
     The brush was thrown into the urn hard enough to splatter the remaining
mud out in a wide arc, leaving a curious spray-pattern on the ground a few
inches away.  "Don't even pretend you know me," she seethed as she moved around
to stare into his eyes, her hands curled into fists.  "You know NOTHING of me."
     "I know what I see in front of me," D replied, letting his eyes move down
to examine her carefully in a deliberate manner.
     "What?" she demanded in a low and dangerous tone, her lips edging back to
expose the tips of her vampiric fangs.
     "So when was the last time anyone told you that you were beautiful?" he
inquired in a somber tone, looking back up into her eyes.  "Or have you never
wanted anyone to look at you like that?"  He continued to look at her as he
felt his hand twitch gently, almost as if the parasite was shaking its head to
itself in resignation.
     "Oh, is that it?" she whispered as her expression turned cold.  "You got
to ogle at Coral for awhile, so now you want to leer at me as well?  Got your
nuts all warmed up seeing Abelyne prancing around like the little slut-slave
that she is?"
     D narrowed his eyes slightly.  "Do I look excited to you?" he said simply.
     The corner of her mouth twitched in a spasm before she glanced down, able
to see that he wasn't aroused in the slightest.  "So what do you want, hunter?"
she demanded as she looked back up at his dark eyes, her own eyes blazing.
     "Just an answer to my question," he replied calmly.  "Nothing more."
     She gazed back at him, her jaw working back and forth in a grinding motion
that made D absently wonder just how much more he could coax from her before
she snapped and put a true end to things.  "I don't know, hunter," she finally
spat.  "I don't pay attention to such things.  Men only compliment women like
that when they want something, and we both know what that something usually
turns out to be."
     "Be that as it may," he said carefully, "I think you're beautiful, but I'm
sure you'll construe that as a demand for something despite my intentions."
     "And what would you have me believe your intentions to be?" she snarled,
her eyes narrowing even further as she gave him an openly untrusting look.
     "All I want to do is open your eyes, Pearl," he said softly.  "Not every
man you meet is a rutting boar who views women as mere sex-objects to be taken
and discarded once they're satisfied.  Your father may have been that way, but
I assure you that I'm not."
     A faint chill ran down his spine at the way her fists suddenly tightened,
pulling the skin so taut over her knuckles that he thought she stood a good
chance of splitting it open if she kept the pressure up for too long.  "Why
should I believe you?" she hissed softly, seeming to barely be able to speak.
"You think I didn't see the way you looked at Coral earlier?"
     "So I looked at your sister when she undressed," D countered gently.  "Or
should I say, when you undressed her.  But isn't that what she wanted, to show
me her body?  Tell me she didn't do it deliberately."
     "Oh, I know she did," Pearl said, nodding her head slowly.  "But she's
always been like that, showing off to try to get attention from others."
     "So if being watched is what she wanted, why are you angry that I did so?"
he inquired evenly.  He waited for several moments as she remained silent, her
dark expression remaining frozen in place as she looked at him.  "Or are you
really angry at her instead of me?"
     "I don't know what you're talking about," Pearl replied in a voice as cold
as liquid nitrogen.  "Coral is my sister, she and Father were the only true
family I had.  And now, thanks to you, she's all I have."
     "What did they do to you, Pearl?" D asked softly, knowing he was treading
on very thin ice right now.  "What did the rest of your father's noble family
do to you and Coral that made you hate them so?"
     "Nobles," Pearl spat harshly.  "There was nothing noble about them, D, not
a single goddamned thing.  And like that bitch of a woman that spawned them,
they did absolutely *nothing*."
     "Meaning they just stood by and watched someone else hurt you," he said.
It all clicked into place an instant later at the haunted look on her face, a
truly dark look that left him feeling cold on the inside in a way that he had
rarely felt before.  "Pearl...."
     "Shut up," she said, her voice barely more than a ghost of a whisper.
     "They let someone hurt you," he breathed.
     "Shut.... up...." she hissed.
     "They brought someone in to hurt you," he murmured, his eyes never leaving
hers as he could clearly see the raw pain forming in her blood-red eyes.  "To
hurt you for their casual amusement."
     "Not another word, hunter," she warned as she slowly raised her fist, her
entire arm trembling from the sheer tension and rage in her body.  "One more
word and I'll kill you, Coral's desire for a child be damned, I swear...."
     He looked into her eyes, knowing he was right on the very edge of things.
He could remain silent and let her anger bleed off on its own, or he could take
that final step and confront that burning caldera directly, to either unleash
it in a burst of violence that would likely kill him or finally break through
the wall of isolation that he knew she had been hiding behind for most of her
life now, a veil of armor that he himself was all too familiar with....
     "They had someone try to rape you," he said, almost too softly to hear.
     Her body convulsed once before becoming still again, save for the rigid
tension in her raised fist.  The glow in her eyes seemed to ignite like the
core of the sun before draining away, letting him see the faint glimmers of
tears forming.
     "Try to?" she said very softly.
     "Pearl...." he said, allowing his sickened horror to color his tone.
     "No," she countered, very slowly shaking her head as her tears began to
silently fall.  "No, he didn't.  Oh, he would have that day, but you know what,
hunter?  Their friend would have succeeded in raping me if it hadn't been for
Coral.  And do you know what she did to save me, hunter?"
     Her arm fell to her side as she advanced on him, her eyes all but masked
by the flood of tears welling up.  She stopped barely inches away from him,
leaning forward until their noses almost touched.
     "Do you have any idea what Coral did to spare me from being raped?" she
whispered in a broken tone.  "Do you know how she saved me from being violated
by that vampire's lust, from being robbed of my virginity?  Coral, my sister,
my only real sister.... offered herself to him in my place," she said as her
voice finally failed her, the tears spilling down her cheeks in earnest.
     If there was one thing D absolutely hated in life above all else, it was
dark moments like this.  It was bad enough that vampires existed to begin with,
spreading pain and misery and suffering to all around them, even to their own
kind.  But worst of all were the crimes inflicted against women, crimes that
were knowingly and deliberately perpetrated in the most heinous fashion against
the most sacred of beliefs.  It was as if they were compelled to desecrate and
blaspheme in the most foulest manner that which had once been revered and even
worshipped as pure and holy.
     "Pearl," he said softly, almost tenderly.  He waited until she finally
lifted her head up to look at him, her aqua-blue eyes tinted red once again.
It wasn't the crimson rage of her vampiric side, but rather the duller kind of
red that came fr