Once the vessel had closed to within fifteen feet of shore, D gave the order to stop in a low voice. As Dwight gripped the wheel, his eyes went wide. He’d just realized that the reason D had made him turn off their lights on the way back was because the Hunter had noticed the Noble on the beach—but in the darkness, and from a distance of more than six hundred feet. His latest command had come when they were fifteen feet from shore, just about to hit the beach.

Leaping easily into the air, D landed on the sand right across from the Noble. Ten feet lay between them.

“You don’t know about it, do you?” asked D, though the way he said it made it seem like he’d expected just such a response. “At any rate, there’s no place for you here. Go back to the darkness.”

Dodging a flash of silver that whooshed through the air, the Noble sprang. Not back, but rather to the side. Into the sea.

“As I expected, you have a problem with water, don’t you?” the Noble laughed in a low voice. “Such is our fate. However, there have been those who’ve endeavored to change all of that. Like myself.”

“Aren’t you coming?” he asked. “If your skills as a bodyguard are of use solely on dry land, I suppose you’ll need to refund your fee. I shall come again. Only next time, it’ll be from somewhere where no one will see me.”

“Well done,” the Noble laughed. “I will favor you with a fight now. You shall have a good taste of Baron Meinster’s power before you are sent to your death.”

Not bothering to lower the blade he used to parry the blow effortlessly, D closed the gap between them. From the upper right-hand side, he made a diagonal slash at the neck of the motionless Noble. The blade met no resistance—the Noble had sunk straight down into the depths. Changing his grip on the sword, the Hunter made a downward thrust, but it pierced only water.

“Take a good look around yourself,” said a voice from underwater. Even with his ultra-keen senses, D couldn’t discern from exactly where it had originated. Worse yet, there was something even D hadn’t noticed up until now. The water that’d only been up to his waist had risen to his chest.

According to various legends that’d been propagated since ancient times, discovering a scientific basis for their own weaknesses was an endeavor that’d garnered every possible effort from the Nobility. To be precise, they sought to explain the destructive power of sunlight, their innate fear of the scent of garlic, and the way they burned from the touch of holy water—-and some of the legends also mentioned running water.

Nobles couldn’t swim, but water itself wasn’t enough to destroy their immortal flesh. Even with lungs full of water, a Noble would have their heart kept beating by their accursed life force. The vampire wouldn’t drown, but would rather fall into a sort of coma. However, even for a Noble, being left in such a defenseless state out on the Frontier was sure to prove fatal. If a water dragon were to chew one to bits, regeneration would be impossible. Worse yet was what would happen if humans should find the comatose vampire . . .

Because of this weakness, Nobles feared and cursed the water, and they hid themselves in mountain strongholds far from the shore. The Nobles who’d ruled this village were among the notable exceptions. And it seemed that of all of them, Meinster alone through his frantic efforts had achieved the results he desired and overcome this defect.

D felt the water around him leisurely forming a circle. While he realized it was due to Meinster’s superhuman abilities, there was nothing the Hunter could do while his foe remained out of sight.

The normal movements of the sea were disrupted as a high wave assailed the Hunter from behind. A mass of water came down over D’s head to swallow him. Or so it appeared for a second, and then he was leaping toward dry land with watery spray trailing behind him.

But look. Wasn’t that fresh blood gushing from his abdomen like a stream? It was a wound from a short spear that’d shot up from underwater.

Attempting to stand up straight again, D thrust his blade into the sea to support his weight.

“That was actually aimed at your heart—but you’re as good as I expected,” the voice said again. “But not this time—”

When the last syllable came out with a faint tremble, a black shape zipped through the same spot where the Noble had disappeared. Its propeller churning water and sand, the boat was turned sideways to shield D from the waves, but its hull rolled almost immediately. Just before it did, Dwight jumped off.

“You okay?” the fisherman stammered, the color draining from his face as he rushed over.

“Get up there,” D said with a toss of his chin toward land as he turned his eyes toward the sea’s black surface. A dozen seconds passed. Breaking his stance, D returned to the beach.

Dwight was grimacing. He’d found the bodies of those who’d been slaughtered. But one look at D’s abdomen left him pale, and he said, “Hey—you need a doctor!”

Grabbing the spear tip where it protruded from him, D pulled it forward. There was the sound of flesh tearing. Dwight alone grimaced, while the Hunter only crinkled his brow ever so slightly.

“I’ll be damned if everyone around me’s not some sort of freak,” Dwight spat, his shock swinging a tad toward hatred. Turning to the sea, he said, “That bastard—he ran off!” His words carried the implication that slamming his whole boat into the Noble had proved effective.

D didn’t reply. It would’ve taken more than that to make this foe forgo a chance to slay D. The way he’d sounded shaken with the last thing he’d said probably held the answer to that question. Some sort of change had taken place within the Noble—the last word he’d uttered had been in someone else’s voice. “Su-In,” he’d said.

“What?!” Dwight shouted as he jumped up. He turned toward the embankment with great haste. “They’re not here now,” he said. He seemed relieved, and the tension drained from his shoulders.

From quite some distance offshore, icy eyes watched as the two men went from the edge of the surf to the embankment.

With the demure laugh of a woman, a man’s voice then said, “I’ve found his weakness! And the sea, of all places, is my home. I eagerly await our next meeting.”

Samon entered the hut. It was a little building used for storing nets and fishing tackle. As the Nobles’ road ran into the village, a narrow strip of shore continued along the edge of it. This was one of three such huts that stood by the edge of the beach.

Closing a wooden door with a broken lock, she heard a low voice from the floor of the fairly spacious room ask, “Did you see him?”

“No,” Samon replied, shaking her head as she approached the shadowy figure who lay there. “How are you doing?”

Crinkling her brow at his self-deprecating tone, Samon pulled bandages and a jar of medicine from the paper bag she was clutching and set them down on the floor. “I’ll change your dressings,” she said.

Caught in Egbert’s spell, the swordsman had fallen from the cliff to where the man-eating fish waited below, but he seemed to have barely escaped with his life. Barely—because while he’d said he didn’t approve of what Samon was doing now, he didn’t seem able to push her hands away as she reached for him, either.

“Try anything funny, and things could get ugly, you know,” Glen told her. “It was one of your colleagues that did this to me.”

“We’ll settle with Egbert sooner or later,” Samon said in an eerie tone as she unwrapped the discolored bandages around the man’s upper body.

After parting company with Glen in the afternoon up on the cliff, she’d gone back to the hideout to wait for Shin and Egbert, but when neither of them came back, she’d paid a visit to Glen’s room. Realizing that he hadn’t been back, she was plagued by an ominous feeling as she searched the area around the cliffs where she’d left him, finally finding Glen laid out on the beach. She’d heard all about what’d transpired from the barely breathing swordsman.

What a sight he was. Not only did he have wounds from Egbert, but he’d also been attacked by the monstrous fish below the cliff. His body could be seen beneath the bandages, where his shoulders and chest were chewed up and bare bone was exposed. By the time Samon found him, he’d already lost nearly two-thirds of the blood in his body. After that, it was a miracle he was still alive at all. The only things that’d kept Glen going this long were Samon’s careful nursing and the almost vindictive way he clung to life. Nonetheless, death was drawing ever closer.

“ . . . see him . . . ?” Glen asked once again. He was slipping in and out of consciousness.

As she changed his dressings, her hands were heavy. Yellow pus seeped from his wounds.

The person she was promising to find was the Noble. Rumors were already spreading through the village that he had appeared the previous night. And only the man who came from the sea could grant Glen’s two wishes—life without end, and the power of the Nobility. In her search for him, Samon had been walking the beaches.

Come to think of it, there couldn’t be any more absurd hope than this. When would she find him? Even if she did encounter the Noble, how exactly was she supposed to make him grant Glen’s wishes? Still, Samon was determined. She wasn’t sure she could even get the Noble to listen to her, let alone convince him to do what she asked. And she didn’t even know whether or not her own power could affect the Nobility. Yet she continued to look for the Noble on behalf of the tortured young seeker of knowledge before her.

This was the same hateful man who’d saved her, violated her, and then continued to seek her out for carnal pursuits as he would a common whore—and yet Samon, fearsome sorceress though she was, felt a fascination for Glen she couldn’t explain, almost as if anything she could do for him would give her life meaning.

Glen was already half-dead. His body was nearly drained of blood, and the flame of life that sheer tenacity alone would not allow to go out was now guttering in the wind. When Samon looked at him, there was certainly a cruel and satisfied spark in her eyes. But despite that gleam, her actions weren’t prompted by some desire to see Glen’s suffering prolonged, but rather because the woman wanted him to live, and wanted to help keep him alive.

Suddenly, Glen turned around. Samon looked down at the floor. Was that really the face of the handsome young seeker of knowledge? Surely he must’ve hit something as he fell from the cliff, because the left side of his face was caved in, and his eye remained sealed beneath a swollen eyelid. His cruelly swollen upper lip revealed his teeth and gums, although half of the former were now missing, leaving him looking like some hideous old man. A chance meeting with him in the middle of the night would’ve undoubtedly made even a fairly bold man faint dead away, let alone a woman.

“Again . . . ,” Glen groaned in a voice as thin as a thread. It was the tone of a dead man, and even Samon’s keen hearing barely managed to catch it. “Go . . . look for him . .. again ...”

Samon nodded. “Understood. I won’t be long. Just hold on until I get back.”

“Go ...,” Glen said, the word slipping from him like a brief gasp before he turned his face toward the floor.

Checking to make sure he hadn’t breathed his last, Samon then got back up and left the hut. If anyone had been there to see her as she did so, they would’ve been utterly paralyzed. A lurid aura welled from every inch of the woman.

Apparently unable to break her attachment to the swordsman, Samon headed off without hesitation toward the sea from which the Noble was rumored to come. Roughly twenty minutes had passed since D and the Noble’s deadly battle on the beach had ended. Once Samon was in up to her waist, she drew her dagger. And what she did next would make anyone wonder what manner of woman she was. Putting the keen blade against her own pale neck, the beautiful warrior woman slashed through the carotid artery with one firm stroke. Something inky spread through the water.

“That should do it. If I die, he dies. The rest is up to fate . . .” Laughing, she added, “A life in hell with him will prove interesting.”

And with that disturbing remark, the woman’s pale figure slowly toppled over into the darkening water. Her now completely motionless body seemed to spread out and dissolve into the sea, while the trail of fresh blood that gushed from her swayed with the approaching waves like a length of cloth.

Glen heard the footsteps of approaching death. The footsteps of a shadowy figure.

His strength was pushed to the limit now as his consciousness threatened to fade away. With all his might, he tried to recall a certain face—the face of a young man far more handsome than himself. Doing so had been the only thing that’d allowed him to survive these last few hours. Hatred roused his consciousness, and curses brought his senses back to life. He couldn’t lose. He couldn’t •let himself die without winning. If anyone was going to die, it would be his opponent in battle, as always.

The gorgeous features didn’t appear before him. The footsteps of the shadowy figure didn’t fade away in the distance. They were steadily approaching. And they stopped right by his ear.

Something cool touched Glen’s neck, but he couldn’t even feel the chill anymore.

By some miracle, this stimulated his cerebrum, setting his nerves trembling and giving him back his sight.

He opened his eyes. The face of a woman he recognized was looking down at him from above. For some reason, she had one hand pressed against the nape of her neck.

“You’re going to get your wish,” Samon said, her voice like frost as it rained down on his shattered beauty.

He was going to get his wish? Then she must’ve found the Noble. But how had she ever convinced him to come here? No, that wasn’t it.

“Just as I was about to expire ... I met him,” said Samon. As she bent over Glen, her eyes were strangely red, and her skin was unusually pale. “I couldn’t get him to bite you. But drinking my blood was another matter ...”

Samon opened her mouth. Two teeth jutted from those pearly white rows like beastly fangs.

Glen’s eyes sparkled. They shone not with fear or loathing, but with immeasurable delight.

What manner of man was this? And what manner of woman? Before Samon’s hands even touched him, Glen had pulled his own collar aside to expose his throat.

Having been struck lightly on the cheek, Su-In woke up. A shudder ran down her spine. From an oddly high place, a monstrous visage was peering down at her. She soon realized it was only a picture. Suddenly, she knew where she had to be. It was a deserted temple on the southern fringe of the village. The monster on the ceiling was an illustration of a guardian of Hell she’d seen more times than she could count as a child. It was devouring people.

“Pretty disturbing picture, isn’t it?” said a voice above her head. Su-In tried to get up, but her body wouldn’t move. Although she was completely consciousness, her nerves remained fast asleep.

“Sorry, but I had to dope you. This stuff doesn’t have any side effects, but you’re not gonna be able to move again until tomorrow night.”

The face of a man she’d never seen before was looking down at her from above. He was smiling. And although Su-In knew she should hate him, she actually felt the waves of turbulence fading within herself. “Are you Ban’gyoh?” Even the way she asked this was composed. “You could say that. My real name is Toto. Nice to meet you. As you can see, I’m a complete gentleman. If you don’t try anything funny, I’ll deliver you home safe and sound.” “And a gentleman kicks a woman in the gut out of the blue while she’s seeing to his wounds?! Don’t make me laugh!”

That was precisely what he’d done in order to bring Su-In there from the embankment. The woman’s voice held a tinge of rage.

Grinning sheepishly, Toto said, “In my line of work, you can’t exactly lay all your cards on the table. You just accept that sometimes you have to get a little rough. Of course, I had a hell of a time after I knocked you out. You ever consider going on a diet?”

“No one asked for your opinion!” Su-In snarled, turning her eyes away indignantly. She then pondered her predicament and an escape route. This was the main building of the temple. Judging by the height and width of the ceiling and the illustrations on it, she was certain that’s where she was. Off to the right side, there should be a row of statues sculpted to match the images on the ceiling. And at the end of that row was a door. From there, it was a straight shot to the front door.

“You think I’d tell you even if I knew?” Su-In retorted, thrusting her tongue out at him.

“No, I figured you wouldn’t. Which is why I’d have to get him to tell me.”

“Who else? See, I’ll trade you for it. As soon as day breaks, I’ll write up my demands and go deliver them.”

Su-In let out a sigh. This was exactly the thing that concerned D when he took her to hide deep in the ruins. However, there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. Moving only her eyes as she scanned her surroundings, Su-In noticed a bag sitting about a foot and a half from her head. The clasp was undone—he must’ve already gone through it. Noticing something else, Su-In said, “Excuse me.” “What is it? You hungry or something?”

“And you’ve already rifled through the contents, haven’t you?” said Su-In.

“An ordinary thief would just dump everything out and check it that way. After all, it’s a lot less trouble that way. And a thief with a bit more manners might pull things out one by one, but then they’d obviously just leave them there.” With amusement in her eyes, Su-In gazed at the Frontier’s greatest thief. “When you were dressed like a priest,” she continued, “I didn’t have the faintest idea you were one of the bad guys. You’re not connected to the group D’s fighting now, right?”

“Did it look to you like that bag was really valuable to me?” Toto didn’t reply.

“What would you do if I told you I knew where the bead was?” “Do you really know?”

“Are you seriously gonna take everything everyone tells you at face value? You have to be the dumbest thief ever.”

“No doubt,” Toto said with a grin. It was a manly smile, the kind that might’ve drawn a coquettish cry from most girls. It brimmed with self-confidence. Though Su-In didn’t know it, “Backwards Toto” was one of the Frontier’s most prominent thieves. “But dumb as I am,” he added, “I like to think I read people pretty well. Now, I don’t know whether or not you know where the bead is, but it’s clear to me you’d die before you’d ever tell me. Which is why I’ve got no choice but to leave a note with my demands.”

“As a rule, I don’t like to waste time or energy. You know, torture’s a pretty tiring business for the person doling it out, too.” Toto paused, his expression becoming so frightening he looked like someone else entirely as he said, “If you keep needling me like that, though—”

Shrugging her shoulders, Su-In redirected her gaze to the bag. “Huh?!” she cried.

Toto turned, too. He’d noticed the look on Su-In’s face. “What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing. It’s just that what looked like a big rat came out from behind one of the pillars and ran off. Maybe I was just seeing things.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing. There’s no danger here in this temple,” Toto said. Yawning once, he laid down right where he was. “Get some rest already,” he told the woman. “We don’t want to be cutting into your beauty sleep.”

“While you were disguised as a priest and had the run of my house, didn’t you ever think of trying to grab me?”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Toto said, shaking his head fearfully. His expression was hardened by genuine horror. “I couldn’t pull anything with a bodyguard like that around. If I’d even thought about it, he’d probably have seen right through me. I was honestly just trying to be friends with all of you.”

It must’ve been a kind of mind control. An outstanding con man was supposed to be able to understand the people he was swindling and pretend to be on their side up until the very last second of the con, and Toto could do that far more easily and skillfully than anyone else. Up until the very end, the people he stole from never even suspected him.

“Then why don’t you just leave things that way?” said Su-In, a sober expression on her face.

“Just keep on being our friend. Or if you feel awkward being friends, then just be one of us. Make up some fake letter of introduction or something—I’m sure you’re good at stuff like that—and get a job in the village office.”

“Spare me,” Toto said, sounding like he was ready to retch. And then he looked at Su-In with amazement on his face. Was she an imbecile or something?

“No one’s ever suggested anything like that to you, have they?” “Go to sleep already,” he told her.

“If you stay in your present line of work, what are you supposed to do when you get old?” asked Su-In. “I can’t help wondering if you’ve got enough money socked away somewhere.”

“Don’t worry yourself about it, you damned dope,” Toto replied. His voice held anger—and agitation. The words of this sea woman had carried a strange weight. You might even call them persuasive.

“You mean to tell me you’re going after it without knowing anything about it at all?”

“It’s all right. I don’t think you’re working for the one who killed her or anything. But I want to ask you about something. Tell me how my sister was when you saw her. When she left the village, I never would’ve dreamed I’d never see her again.”

Without warning, his right hand stabbed into the darkness. Su-In managed to catch a glimpse of the silver flash that shot from it. There was a bizarre squeal, and then it was completely silent. “What was that all about?”

“I took care of your rat,” Toto replied, still facing the other way. And then he agreed to tell the woman what she wished to hear.

Su-In’s eyes were twinkling, as if she were a little girl listening to a fairy tale coaxed from her stubborn but kindly father.

“Has Samon come back?” Egbert asked. More than the volume of his voice, it was the urgency of it that made the other figures in the murky chamber stiffen.

“What are you doing back so soon?” Twin could be heard to say from behind a white lace curtain riddled by the moonlight.

“I’m here,” replied a voice from the door to an adjoining room. “At present, I’m nursing my wounds. I was nearly killed, you see.”

Today, Egbert had spent his time searching for Shin—it was a day earlier that he’d witnessed D killing him. However, when he’d returned to the scene that evening in hopes of at least retrieving his colleague’s corpse, what he found there was nothing more than a doll that resembled a dead body. He was stunned. If that corpse was just another puppet, Shin should’ve long since rejoined the rest of them, whether he’d defeated D or not. But since Shin hadn’t done so, they had no choice but to suspect that he’d taken the bead and run off. It was this very night that the man’s corpse had been discovered off in the distant woods—only an hour earlier.

“A fitting end for a traitor—but who did the deed?” Gyohki asked in a weighty tone.

What fell to the floor without a sound was a tiny rubber doll in the shape of a spider.

“Okay, this is just my interpretation, but I think Shin was using this thing to threaten someone. And whoever it was killed him when he tried to run off with the bead. Who do you suppose would do that?” “Someone who knows the secret of the bead,” Twin muttered. “That’s what I think, too.”

At Gyohki’s words, Egbert’s shadowy form gave a nod at the center of the room and said, “You remember what Gilligan told us? It’s Professor Krolock!”

“Him?!” Twin cried at the top of his lungs. “Well, they say Professor Krolock’s a walking warehouse of information. I guess it wouldn’t be all that strange for him to know about the bead.” “Where is he?”

“At an inn, I’d imagine. He’s probably being a lot more brazen than you’d expect.”

“Why’s he here? You think Gilligan sent him up here? If that’s the case, he should at least stop by and pay his respects.”

“An old man put some strange spell on Samon, too,” said Gyohki. “That’s right,” Egbert concurred. “And I’d bet you anything that was him. With a power like that, he’d be able to get Shin’s poison spider off, and maybe even kill the old puppet master.”

“I don’t know. But I don’t think he could’ve taken it after that.” “Is it still inside the Vampire Hunter’s hand, then?” Gyohki practically moaned. “Very well. Leave him to me.”

“Actually, I saw something interesting this evening,” Gyohki replied. “Which was?”

“I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. Once we have the bead, we can finish him at our leisure. The rest of you will have to give me a hand.”

“Fine with me,” Twin replied loudly, sounding quite satisfied. “But I think there’s one more person who should be here to help us reach a consensus.”

“Samon’s still not back yet?” Egbert asked in a somewhat disappointed tone. “Well, I guess that’s okay. She won’t be making any more of those odd little trips out, at any rate. So, Gyohki— how exactly is this gonna go?”

As the giant leaned forward, the main door suddenly creaked open and a gorgeous woman in a white dress came in.

“Speak of the devil,” Twin said in a tone dripping with sarcasm. “Oh? And what were you saying about me?” asked Samon. With silent footsteps she walked to the center of the room and stood right in front of Egbert.

“Just this—” the giant began to say, and although the impression he got from the familiar face of the lovely woman was somehow different from before, he went on to explain what had been discussed at the meeting that day.

Once she’d heard everything, Samon said, “I see,” and nodded meaningfully. “It was definitely Professor Krolock that made a mockery of me. Not that I know where he is. At any rate, Gyohki, exactly when and how did you intend to do away with D?” “Tomorrow—in someplace he’s not too comfortable.”

“I heard D’s a dhampir,” the woman said. “So he wouldn’t be comfortable—in the water.”

“And yet you think he’ll just stroll out into someplace like that? He’s not stupid, you know. Even if he did, how would you finish him off? At any rate, from what Twin says, it seems he’s hidden the woman somewhere. Do you have some way to lure him out?”

Apparently, the rest of the group didn’t know about the other Twin or what had happened to him.

“I know,” said Gyohki. “We can’t simply invite him to step into Egbert’s kingdom. But he’ll have no choice but to come, you see.” “How?” Twin asked in a tone of boundless curiosity.

“I have something lined up. Come tomorrow, you’ll see,” said Gyohki, putting on airs to the very end.

“But more importantly—Samon, what’s your boyfriend up to?” Although Samon made an indescribable expression there in the murky darkness at Twin’s question, it faded quickly enough, and she replied disappointedly, “He’s not around.”

“I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since noontime. I wonder if maybe he didn’t go off somewhere . . .”

“You’ve been dumped?” Egbert asked, his face turned to one side. “Perhaps,” Samon said without argument as she turned and walked toward a door in the back of the room. “I’m tired. I’m going to turn in early.”

“Whatever you do, don’t waste your time looking for the man who ran out on you,” said Gyohki. “Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day. You’ll have to find out where Professor Krolock is and bring him back here. We’ll dispose of D.”

“No—it doesn’t matter to me either way,” the woman replied. “At least, not now.”

“Looks to me like you’re taking this dumping business pretty hard.” “Say what you will. Good night,” said Samon. And then her silhouette, which suddenly seemed all the more alluring, slipped through the doorway and vanished into the darkness.

Sensing someone sneaking over to the old-fashioned bed where he slept, Egbert awoke. Had he not been a warrior, Egbert never would’ve heard the footsteps of the person coming closer, then bending over by the side of his head. As he turned to face the intruder, he asked, “What do you want?”

Upon seeing the person who’d just pulled back by the light of the moon, Egbert blinked despite himself.

“You’re not a very perceptive man, are you, Egbert?” Samon said reproachfully, having already regained her composure. “When a woman creeps into a man’s bedroom, he should keep his questions to himself and just accept her kisses.”

“What are you up to, Samon?” Egbert asked, his voice carrying more than its share of expectation.

As he sat up in bed, Samon approached him seductively. Egbert had already noticed that the warrior woman wore nothing but a flimsy negligee. Her gossamer gown melted in the moonlight, tracing in black a form so voluptuous it took his breath away. But Egbert’s eyes could also make out her full breasts, her pale pink nipples, and all the tempting contours of her crotch and derriere.

“So, am I supposed to take the place of your boyfriend who ran off? Well, I don’t have a problem with that,” Egbert chuckled. But his voice was a bit indistinct.

Standing by the side of the bed, Samon said no more, but reached for the front of the negligee with her hand. The fabric slid down her like a fog, catching on her breasts for a moment, and then quickly landing in a pile on the floor.

“I’m terribly hungry, you see,” the woman confessed. “I want you. So just hold your tongue and take me.”

No sooner had Samon made that request of him than she straddled Egbert’s groin and wrapped her pale, silky arms around the man’s strapping neck.

“Hey,” Egbert said, but before he could stop her, his lips were covered with something that tugged at them like a leech, yet delivered the sweetest sensation imaginable. A hot tongue slid into Egbert’s mouth, and he didn’t hesitate to suck on it.

Having given him an appreciable taste of her lips and tongue, Samon pulled her face away from his. While her features were twisted with lust, her eyes alone held a cold spark that seemed to mock the man.

Egbert’s hand brushed one of her breasts. “Your tits are like ice,” he said.

“But they burn all the more with my feelings,” Samon replied, pressing her lips to his once more.

From the first time he’d seen the woman’s face, the stouthearted warrior had been drawn by her surpassing sensuality. Perhaps

Samon realized as much, because even on the way to the village, her words and deeds had further stimulated him to such a degree she almost seemed to be provoking him. Twin had probably teased Egbert because he’d noticed that as well. Egbert had loved Samon so much that he’d killed the young seeker of knowledge who’d been her lover—not that he thought that would make Samon his. He’d gone after Glen because the man seemed to be a warped individual intent on tearing Samon apart both mentally and physically. The way things had been going, the giant probably never would’ve confessed his own feelings to her in the end. But now Samon had pushed everything else aside to fulfill the feelings his eyes had always betrayed.

Egbert’s integrity oozed away like mud. But who could really blame him? His powerful arms wrapped around her lithe torso, and his parched lips sucked at the woman’s moist, full ones so hard it seemed he’d twist them right off.

Turning her face away as if to escape him, Samon then bit down on the man’s earlobe.

“You’re incredible. I love you, Egbert,” she said, her feverish tone and moist puffs of breath slowly sliding down to the nape of his neck, then stopping. “I love you best, after him.”

Samon’s mouth snapped open viciously. A pair of fangs glittered there like solidified moonlight.

Just as Samon’s despicable lips were about to clamp onto the man’s throat, she began to gag and choke. A scream spilling from her, Samon clutched at her own throat.

“When did you decide to serve the Nobility?” Egbert said as he brought one hand up to his unscathed throat. His voice brimmed with sadness. “And is that why you forgot all about my power? This whole room is Egbert’s kingdom! Of course, this is the first time I’ve actually had garlic mixed in the atmosphere. That was just a step I’d taken to guard against D and the Noble. I never would’ve thought you’d wind up one first, though.” “You bastard!” Samon cursed as she fell to the floor. “Damn you to hell, Egbert!”

“I really did care for you. I suppose the least I can do is release you from the curse of the Nobility myself.” Taking up the iron staff that leaned against the side of his bed, Egbert stood behind the writhing Samon. Raising the weapon high over his head, he cried, “Die, Samon. Rest in peace.”

As he turned his face down to the contorted Samon with that holy pronouncement, he met her gaze. A blazing pair of crimson eyes. In that instant, sparks of the very same hue exploded in Egbert’s brain.

His staff slid down. When it had fallen to waist level, Egbert shook his head fiercely, and then raised his weapon once again. He had both eyes shut.

“Could you really kill me, Egbert?” Samon managed to utter in a hoarse voice. The stink of garlic still eddied in the night air. The mere act of speaking was pure torture for her. “Were you lying when you said you cared for me? If you weren’t, you’d allow me to follow the path I choose, no matter how far it means I may fall. That’s what I did. All for him—”

“I need you,” the woman said. “I need you if I’m to help grant his wish. We mustn’t let Gyohki and the others go after D. The Hunter’s life belongs to my man.”

As the woman told Egbert how she’d given her own blood to a Noble and become his servant in order to save the dying Glen, her words certainly hit home. Though his iron staff was still poised in the air, he sounded quite moved as he said, “Oh, how I envied him—he’s still alive then, is he?”

Despite all the pain Samon was in, her eyes glittered. Just then, the smell of the accursed plant abruptly vanished from the air.

“I shall love you,” she replied. “Just as I do him. In any way you please.”

For a second, a hue of distress that beggared description drifted into Egbert’s face. However, he quickly made his decision.

The naked female form arose, brushing by the tip of the iron staff as it slowly sank to the floor.

The villagers knew that summer had come—it had risen from beyond the sea in the form of a man in blue. And knowing what his arrival entailed, there wasn’t really much to be surprised about. Though two girls and a young man had vanished the night before, even that couldn’t be allowed to disrupt their summer. A number of family members and other relatives had searched in the woods and ruined lodges with the Youth Brigade and Vigilance Committee so as not to disturb the festival, but their actions hadn’t borne results, and the stakes and javelins they carried shimmered mockingly in the white heat and threw ugly shadows on the blue flowers that covered the ground.

Magic tricks and carbonated drinks, candy and snow cones. Summer still remained in full swing.

Early in the morning, Toto left Su-In behind and exited the ruined temple. He was off to deliver the ransom note he’d written the night before to D.

The watery sunlight made the young leaves sparkle. As the thief swayed on the back of a cyborg horse and looked at the flowers in the grassy fields, his face brimmed with a pure appreciation that was unimaginable given his line of work. After about forty minutes, he came to the part of the woods where the festival was being held. Not surprisingly, everyone was still asleep. The entrances to the performers’ trailers and flexible housing units were all shut tight.

“I hope I can get this taken care of quickly and join in the fun,” To to muttered, but then he suddenly pulled back on his reins.

Roughly thirty feet away, a figure that appeared to be female was standing in the shade of a grove of trees. After further scrutiny, it turned out to be a girl of twelve or thirteen who wore a lemon yellow dress. Pulling back her long black tresses, she tied them with a ribbon the same color as her dress. From the look of her, she had to be one of the traveling performers. But what made Toto’s eyes open as wide as they could possibly go was neither the girl’s features nor her overdeveloped bust line. In one hand, she disinterestedly toyed with something shiny. Bouncing it in her palm, she let it fall on the back of her hand, then let it walk, one by one, down all five fingers. Without a doubt, it was the very bead he sought.

More than questions of why some girl he’d never seen before should be playing with it, more than anything, it was shock and jubilation that filled Toto’s heart. There’d be no need to go to D now—all of his hard work was about to pay off right here. He could gain the girl’s confidence—or slug her if that became necessary—and simply take the bead from her.

Toto didn’t actually know what the bead was worth—that was why he hadn’t answered Su-In the night before when she asked him about it. The only reason he was going to such lengths to try and get the bead was that his instincts as a thief told him it actually had tremendous value. The constant problems that’d been springing up ever since he first met Wu-Lin back at that inn only served to reinforce that feeling. And the people that were involved here were so incredible, he’d never run into their like in his long career as a thief, and didn’t think he was likely to do so ever again, either.

Toto’s spirit had been stoked. There was a fortune to be made here, too. But more than that, he felt his reputation as a thief depended on his beating out all the others and getting the bead first.

But while Toto had decided his course of action, the reality of the situation was a bit harsher. D was always around the bead. From what Toto could see, the Hunter was tougher than any of the others—just unbelievably powerful. As proof, the thief hadn’t been able to do a thing even while his skillful disguise got him into Su-In’s house. If that’s all there’d been to it, he still might’ve managed something, but as he patiently studied D’s behavior, a strange feeling came over him. The Hunter’s beauty was of the kind that would only occur once out of all the boundless possibilities, but an untamed shadow and an undefined sadness hung heavily on his features. At some point, Toto was shocked to discover that he’d started following D around along with all of the women. Toto had left the house both because he sensed his disguise might be seen through eventually and because of this strange psychological state. After that, he’d considered various things and plotted at length before finally deciding to kidnap Su-In.

When he went to wheel his horse around in the girl’s direction, her vivid splash of color vanished between the trees without warning.

There’s someone in there, Toto decided instantly, and he got off his horse. Crouching down, he raced off in the same direction that the girl had gone. The way he could make the sound of his footsteps and every other hint of his presence vanish was pure artistry. Even an insect resting on a leaf wouldn’t notice this man racing by less than four inches away.

He heard a voice. Standing behind a thick tree trunk, Toto poked half of his face out to watch.

The girl was facing a well-groomed middle-aged man with a mustache. Surprisingly enough, the pair was more than thirty feet away from Toto. This wasn’t a forest in the deathly still of night. It was a boisterous summer morn, with birds singing and insects chirping in the grass and bushes and trees. His frighteningly good hearing was one of the things that’d helped earn Toto his reputation as the greatest thief on the Frontier.

“Now, don’t forget what we agreed on,” the girl said pedantically. “Cash in advance.”

The man held out his hand. From it, something shiny spilled into the girl’s palm. Gold coins, no doubt.

“Before we get started, could I have a demonstration of your ability, just to be sure?”

The girl closed her eyes, and the man roughly pressed his right hand to her round forehead. And then—

What a sight it was. In no time at all, the girl’s face became that of someone else. And that wasn’t all. Her height and build also changed, and in the span of two breaths, the person who stood there was—

“Su-In,” Toto said despite himself, though he was ordinarily a master of concealment.

Did that mean the girl was a traveling performer who could change into anyone the man told her to? Not exactly. Toto had already noticed there were some minor differences between this transformed Su-In and the real thing, because the girl had never actually seen Su-In. And yet the only reason she’d been able to mimic the woman with more than ninety percent accuracy had to be because her information on Su-In had come from the bearded middle-aged man—Gyohki. The image he had of Su-In was transmitted from his brain to the girl, where she then began transforming at a cellular level. Needless to say, that image had been transferred through the hand he’d touched to the girl’s forehead. In a manner of speaking, the girl was a metamorph whose shape could be determined by external forces.

“Remarkable,” said the man. “On closer inspection, there are some differences, but from a distance this should suffice. Now, would you say something for me?”

Toto was amazed to hear she sounded exactly like Su-In. If she had a photograph of whomever she was trying to duplicate, she could’ve impersonated that person for the rest of her life without anyone around her ever noticing.

The pair soon got on a cyborg horse that was tethered there and rode off to the west, while another horse and rider followed after them at a distance of sixty feet.

D lay inside the barn. A blanket was spread on the ground, and his upper body rested against the wooden box of life jackets while his legs were stretched out. His longsword was cradled on his left shoulder. He was sleeping.

Descending from both humans and Nobles, dhampirs could operate by either day or night, though for the most part they chose to sleep during the day. The reason for this wasn’t so much that they often worked in a field where they had to do battle with demons by night, but rather because the Noble disposition of their blood prevailed over their human tendencies.

The night before, D had gone to both their hiding place and here after Su-In was abducted, and he’d found the remains of one of the Twins buried out back. Though it was unclear what he thought when he saw the handprint that remained on the man’s neck, the Hunter stopped his search then and went into the bam to sleep.

To look at his handsome countenance, no one would’ve ever thought he still drew breath, but the fact that his features didn’t retain the slightest stress from all of his deadly battles of late was truly shocking. Pain and even death itself were unwilling to mar the young man’s beauty.

Without making a sound, he got up. The light filtering in through gaps in the wooden door turned the dust he stirred into dancing flecks of gold. Shifting his sword to his back, D left the barn. Looking at the steep road that continued down to the beach, he then went straight over to the main house. His left arm hung naturally by his side.

An iron arrow was stuck in the door. Around the center of it was wound a piece of white paper—obviously a letter. Raising his left arm, D smiled wryly before using his right hand to pull out the arrow. Holding the edge of the paper with his teeth, he skillfully untied the string that held it in place, discarded the arrow, and uncurled the letter.

I have the woman. If you want her back, bring the bead to “The Black Lagoon” on the western edge of town at precisely 1:00 Afternoon. This all depends on you.

Staring down at the end of his left arm, D said, “Worthless little bugger,” with a straight face.

That worthless little bugger was writhing on the floor as the first light started creeping in. Of course, the limb hadn’t really started moving until Toto had left; up until then, it’d played dead.

Su-In had noticed it, too. Still under the effects of the drug she’d been given, she couldn’t move her body, though she could still think, and her eyes, ears, and mouth were all working fine. At first, she’d thought it was a rat that looked like it’d been impaled on something had come back to life. But as the light swelled with the dawn, she realized she’d been mistaken.

Pinned to the floor by a foot-long iron stake, the thing writhing as madly as a rat looked like it was someone’s left hand, of all things! A fear that surpassed description filled Su-In’s chest with ice, but then she suddenly understood. When D had come to see her, he’d kept his left hand stuck in his coat pocket the whole time. Though she hadn’t thought to ask him about it, she had to wonder—did that left hand belong to him? But even if it was— “Hey!” someone suddenly called out to her.

It took a while for her to realize the voice came from the hand. Stranger yet, she could recall hearing the same voice before.

“Was that you? You’re some kind of talking hand?!” Su-In exclaimed. At some point, her fear had evaporated, and now she just found it funny. She certainly had plenty of pluck.

“Not at all,” the woman replied. “It’s just—you’re D’s hand, aren’t you?”

“That’s a hell of a question to be asking,” said the hand. “Do you have any idea how much you owe me, you little ingrate? It should be pretty obvious I’m here because I was worried about you. I’m quite conscientious, you know. I try to keep my landlord’s position in mind.”

“Well, I was the one who saved you when that butcher disguised as your granddaddy was about to shave your nose off.”

“I was in your bag the whole time. Down on the beach, I was ready to catch a ride on the priest’s back, but he was good enough to bring the bag along when you folks made a run for it.”

“Oh, then that rat I saw last night was really you—” “Well,” the hand said, “I got out of the bag before he went through it. But he’s a hell of a shot for a lousy burglar. It’ll take quite a bit of work to get me free now. Give me some help here.”

“It’s no use. I got a shot of something and now I can’t move.” “You worthless little bugger,” the hand spat, using the same words as its master while it twisted wildly.

Running through the hand from the base of the middle finger to almost the center of its palm, the stake was sunk a good four inches into the hardwood floor and wouldn’t budge in the slightest.

“Damn,” the hand continued. “Haven’t had anything to eat but wind lately, so I can’t get my strength up. If I only had some dirt or water. Hey, spill some blood or something my way!”

“I’d help you if I could,” Su-In said in a sincere tone. “But you’ll just have to manage something. If you’re really his hand, I find it hard to believe you’d be so stupid or good for nothing.”

“Couldn’t you phrase that a little more gently?” the hand said indignantly. “If I just had one drink of water, I could melt this damn thing or freeze it solid. Shit! I’m useless like this! Doesn’t anyone ever come out here?”

“Not a chance. This is pretty far off the beaten path, so folks rarely pass this way.”

“There’ll be big trouble if we don’t do something. We’d be better off if the thief came back,” the hand remarked. “I hope he gets back before sundown ...”

“He didn’t notice it, but something dangerous is sleeping near the temple. I can tell. I can smell it. When the sun goes down, they’ll get up and they’ll come here.”

Su-In’s mind became ten times more focused. “When the sun goes down . . . You mean Nobles or their servants?”

“Yes, damn it! And not fifteen feet from here. It might take all night for that drug to wear off you. While for my part, I’m malnourished.”

“You’ve gotta do something!” Su-In said in a deadly serious tone. She realized she sounded pathetic. But that’s how strongly humans feared the Nobility.

The hand twisted again, but it didn’t look like it would work itself free in ten years’ time, let alone before sundown.

D arrived at the Black Lagoon at the appointed time. It was an untamed spot about three miles west of the woods where the festival was being held. As the word “lagoon” implied, in days of old it’d been filled with crystal-clear water, but now the land eight inches lower than the road only showed a slight slope down to a circular area about three hundred feet in diameter, and at the very center it looked like a muddy bog. Of course, that was only a trick of the mind—the lagoon’s waters had dried up more than a century ago, and its bottom was now covered with summer grass. Almost in the center of the lagoon there was a small island-like rise about fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, the remains of what must’ve been an actual island long ago. Now it was completely overrun with trees and high grass.

Stepping off the road, the Hunter’s mount took seven or eight steps around the edge of the former lagoon before a voice called out, “Hold it!”

A figure suddenly appeared from the trees that had grown up to swallow the road on the opposite side of the lagoon.

Turning in that direction, D squinted. “King Egbert” had a scarf wrapped around his neck, and he gazed at D with a kind of dazed sadness in his eyes. The summer days were long.

“Glad you could make it. I suppose you thought you could come here and take all of us down at once, did you?”

When Egbert spoke, D knew that his foe wasn’t working with Shin on this. “One of your colleagues has the bead,” the Hunter replied. “Shin, I believe the name was.”

“At any rate, I don’t have the bead. Where is Su-In?” D inquired. “You know a guy by the name of Professor Krolock?” Egbert said. Not waiting for a reply, he continued, “Well, it would seem he’s the one that killed Shin. So you mean to tell me he’s got the bead, then?”

“The woman’s right here,” a voice could be heard to say from the island in the center of the lagoon.

Su-In and Gyohki stepped out from between the trees. Of course, the young performer who’d assumed Su-In’s shape didn’t have the right clothes, so to prevent that from giving away their deception, she was dressed only in her underwear.

“As you can see, we have Su-In. But if you don’t have the bead, there’s no reason for us to let her go. Or were you going to ask us to give her up in exchange for something else?” Grinning, Gyohki added, “Come on out here. I’m sure we can manage something. This used to be a lagoon, but now it’s dry as a bone. Nothing for even a dhampir to worry about.”

Seeing that D hadn’t made a move, Gyohki pressed his right hand against Su-In’s throat. Black claws that resembled scythes stretched from his fingers.

“Don’t you care what happens to your employer? You’re a disgrace to Hunters everywhere,” said Gyohki.

Although Su-In grew pale, it was all just part of the act. The girl was doing this for the ample reward she’d been offered, and because she’d been assured it was all just an illusion. It never occurred to her that Gyohki would be more than happy to kill her if the situation called for it.

While it wasn’t clear if he took the transformed girl for Su-In, D then calmly rode his horse down off the path and onto the dry lagoon. The ground under his horse’s hooves felt like parched soil. Not seeming to be in any hurry, the Hunter advanced slowly, and high above his head, clouds streamed by sedately. Knowing nothing of the killing lust that was coagulating in this wild patch of land, they were simply part of nature’s great bounty in the blue summer sky. But the question now was whether or not D had noticed the black ditch that’d been made all the way around lagoon.

At the same time, the girl screamed and dropped to her knees where she was. In the stand of trees, branches snapped off at the trunk, and one struck the barely standing Gyohki in the shoulder. Even D’s horse planted its feet, trying to brace itself against the amorphous pressure that suddenly assailed it.

With a heavy whooosh!, the whole bottom of the lagoon collapsed. Obviously the foundation had been weak from the very beginning. Deep black cracks appeared on the surface, and in no time at all they swallowed the earth, claiming the entire lagoon. A split second later, D and his horse were unfortunate enough to find themselves sinking up to their necks. Black spray shot up around them. Water.

It was true that the water in the lagoon had dried up centuries earlier. Dirt and dust had accumulated on top of it to form the present surface, and people had forgotten all about the water. However, subterranean sources continued to trickle in, saturating the ground beneath it and displacing a massive amount of dirt and sand to form an underground swamp. And having been born in the area, Gyohki had no doubt discovered this somehow.

Egbert had lifted his gravity attack from the little island, and now Gyohki stripped off his shirt. Naked to the waist, he then dove straight into the depths. As soon as his body broke through the water’s surface, it underwent a transformation. The water seemed to take hold of his hair and stretch it as it streamed down his back. His skin became gorgeous and white, and his powerful chest swelled into full breasts. Still clad in a pair of trousers, his lower body was covered with countless scales, and the end of his tail split in two to splash violently from the water. The figure that was now closing on D with over-arm strokes was clearly a woman— a mermaid!—that once had been Gyohki.

D waited silently in the black water for the product of Meinster’s accursed experiments. However, the Hunter’s body was most definitely sinking in this bottomless abyss. Bubbles rose from the corner of his mouth.

Gyohki zipped closer. His burst of speed was incredible. The second he passed D’s right side, his right hand shot out. Having gone right by, he turned around. A cloud blacker than the water trailed from the woman’s hand, and as if in response, a thick stream of blood rose like smoke from D’s right hip.

“My, but you’re good,” the woman said, but being who he was, D heard it differently—he heard it as Gyohki’s voice.

The woman pressed her left hand to the opposite hip. It was an instant later that little explosions of blood rose in gouts from the same spot. Gyohki stared at the blade in D’s right hand with terror and malice.

“I underestimated you because we’re underwater. But this time I won’t let you get away,” the mermaid muttered with a deadly determination.

Slowly, she/he began to circle D, and a mighty cloud of bubbles spilled from D’s mouth. Following them as they rose, D kicked his way through the water. Beyond the black depths, there lay a muted light. The surface was fifteen feet away.

Looking up at his foe from the depths, Gyohki donned a thin smile as he thrashed through the water. He was closing with the speed of a fish.

When D’s head started to cause ripples on the surface, a woman’s hands seized the Hunter’s ankles and gave them a pull. D was dragged back underwater with incredible force. His foe moved with a speed and strength that was absolutely unbelievable for such a lithe female form.

D’s face was twisted with pain. The store of oxygen in his lungs had reached its limits.

“I’ll let you go soon,” Gyohki laughed as he towed the Hunter toward the bottom. “But you can’t have any air. Drink in the water. Fill your lungs with it. I’ll pull you back down before you can get your face out.”

There was no need to do that. Before Gyohki had even let go of him, D opened his mouth. His throat moved. He was taking in the water. A few seconds passed—-and then he clutched at his jugular. Spasms ran through his body. Then they stopped sharply—Gyohki released the Hunter, and D’s body began to slowly sink to the bottom.

“Three and a half minutes,” Gyohki said to himself. “That’s how long the average dhampir can last underwater.”

Keeping his distance, Gyohki drifted down along with D. Then he brought his hand up to his mouth. Along with some bubbles, his mouth disgorged a wooden stake that was nearly a foot and a half long.

“Those of Noble blood don’t drown,” he said. “I’ll have to put this through you to finish you off.”

Just to be on the safe side, Gyohki watched for another minute as D drifted toward the bottom, then wriggled the fish tail sensuously. Going over to D, the mermaid turned him so his back was to the bottom. Staring at the gorgeous countenance that seemed to sparkle in the black water, he said, “How beautiful you are—and now, as a woman, I only feel it all the more. But if I were to do nothing, you’d destroy us all. So here you must die.”

Raising her right hand, the mermaid prepared to drive the stake home. But surely she couldn’t believe what happened then. The

hand the drowned man used to hold his sword tried to grab her wrist in mid-motion.

“Why, you—?!” she cried in amazement, but a second later her body began to be dragged upward with incredible force. “Just toying with me, were you?!” she screamed, and although she willed every muscle in her body to bring her back down, the rate of her ascent didn’t diminish in the least. In fact, Gyohki rose with such speed there was no time to try anything else before he/she broke the surface, shooting up into the air along with D.

Then the mermaid saw the stern beauty staring down at him/ her, and the black sphere above the Hunter’s head that even now continued to ascend. The balloon was connected to D by a pair of leather straps. Designed to hoist people thrown into the icy sea safely into the air before they froze to death, the balloon was filled with a gas that was lighter than air. D had put on this piece of indispensable lifesaving equipment back in Su-In’s barn. Ever since they’d met under Meinster’s castle, he must’ve known Gyohki would try fighting him in the water. The Hunter may have even known that Gyohki was actually the mermaid.

More than the blade he raised, more than the distant blue sky behind him, it was D himself that mesmerized Gyohki as the Hunter brought his weapon down on the mermaid. What was it that Gyohki saw in that instant?

“Such skill—and that face—” he/she cried out absentmindedly. “Could it be that you are his—” A heartbeat later, as he watched the blade with all the colors of the spectrum streaming behind it slash his/her torso two, Gyohki reached a violent peak, the female upper body and fish-like lower body separating as he/she fell back toward the black surface of the water. Spray shot up.

Using his right hand to pull on a leather strap and slowly release the gas, D gradually sank back to earth. He landed on the road, about thirty feet away from Egbert.

Using his sword to cut himself free of the balloon from Su-In’s bam, D took a quick glance at the rejuvenated lagoon. Although the woman’s beautiful torso had at some point turned back into that of a man, the lower body remained that of a fish, and even now it writhed and splashed in the water. A hue darker than the black water began to spread through the lagoon like a blossoming flower . . .

Egbert said, “One thing you might want to know—the girl on the island ain’t the real thing. Of course, I’m more curious as to whether or not you already knew that.”

The girl’s transformation probably wasn’t good enough to fool D. But had the Hunter walked right into Gyohki’s hands because he saw his foe was about to kill some girl he’d never even met before? Or because he knew what Gyohki’s secret was?

“Just as I thought—you’re no ordinary dhampir. What are you?” Not replying to Egbert’s question, D focused a look that was both vacant and sad on the scarf around the man’s neck as he quietly said, “You’ve been bitten, haven’t you?”

Tiny ripples of agitation spread through Egbert’s face. They then became a look of agony as he reeled backward. He didn’t actually fall over, and as he barely managed to turn around, there was a sharp dagger buried to the hilt in the middle of his back.

“You traitor!” a ferocious voice laden with indignation could be heard to say from a distant stand of bushes. Twin’s voice. “You were acting strangely all morning, so Gyohki pretended to have me look for the professor while he actually had me keep an eye on you. On the slim chance D did make it to the surface, the plan was that you’d pump up the gravity to send him right under again, but you betrayed us. So now you’ll get what you’ve got coming. I don’t know where Samon disappeared to, but we’ll take care of her and the other guy later.” And to the Hunter he called out, “D, we’ll meet again!” Though a wooden stake flew from D’s right hand in pursuit of the voice, only a few verdant stalks rustled before nothing more could be heard.

“He’s not your real concern,” Egbert said as he twisted his left hand around to his back. “Someone else is. A man you already know. I’m heading back to see him.”

“Because a certain lady asked me not to. Go ahead and laugh if you like. If you don’t cut me down now, the Nobility will just gain another member,” said Egbert, his words tinged with a hint of distress.

Of course, this young man wasn’t the kind who could let something like that pass. The fact that Egbert was wounded and that he’d held back from attacking the Hunter were both irrelevant.

A flash of light in all the colors of the spectrum sketched an arc between the two of them. With a shower of sparks, D’s blade was stopped by the iron staff Egbert held braced over his head.

But look at what was happening! The blade had bitten halfway through the staff. D was using one hand, while Egbert was using both. And yet, the warrior who’d stopped the Hunter’s blow was slowly being overpowered, and he’d already been forced to his knees. Was it because Egbert, in his present condition, was at a disadvantage in the abundant sunlight? No, there was simply too great a difference in the power of the two figures from the very start.

As the blade sliced steadily into his iron staff, Egbert actually gazed at it and the gorgeous young man behind it with a deathlike rapture. Perhaps that was the very last bit of humanity remaining in him. Without a doubt, Egbert’s head was going to be split in two in a matter of seconds.

A massive burst of strength shot up from below, and the two forms sprang away to different locations.

But both of them saw the splash. A blackish figure had just leapt out of the lagoon and was running off into the woods. Without a moment’s hesitation, it vanished among the trees.

“It seems the ruler of Hell has decided to give me a little longer to live,” Egbert called out, but as his voice faded in the distance, D didn’t even glance in his direction.

The Hunter’s interest had been caught by something the diminutive figure had held in its hands a split second before it vanished. The dazzling outline that’d glittered in the sunlight had been that of the bead.

As he raced down the forest trail at full speed, Toto coolly considered his next move. He’d gotten the bead. At that very moment, it sat in his right pocket as surely as he drew breath. Naturally, he’d have to take it to a trustworthy expert and have it appraised. Though a number of names popped into his head, and any of them would’ve been fine if he were just out for some pocket money, none of them would be suitable for a major score like this. It looked like he’d have to head into the Capital after all and be introduced to someone he could trust. Fortunately, he had plenty of acquaintances who could arrange that.

If he just let things run their course, the drug he’d given her would probably wear off around 6:00 Night. He couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t be attacked by one of the supernatural creatures infesting the area around the ruined temple, though—that would be determined more or less by the woman’s own luck.

That look of complete faith she’d had in her eye when she’d taken him for a traveling holy man and asked him to perform a funeral knifed into his heart. Once more he heard the same voice as the night before, when she’d tried to persuade him to get out of thievery and settle down in the village. Both were just dreams. Giving his head a shake, Toto tried to dislodge the face of a woman that shone like the sun.

His horse was tethered by the exit from the woods. Once on it, he could be out of this foul-smelling little coastal village in less than an hour.

Even D and Egbert hadn’t noticed him as he went into the water, swam out to the island, got the bead out of the girl’s clothes where they’d been left behind a tree, and swam back again. In fact, things had gone so well, he’d gotten sloppy and made some noise getting back out of the water. But if he was good enough to swipe something without even a Vampire Hunter noticing, he figured he’d be able to stay in the game another thirty years at least.

“Dammit,” Toto muttered as he wheeled his mount around, toward the ruined temple where he’d imprisoned Su-In.

Before he could even begin to wonder what the hell was going on, his thoughts faded like sparks. Toto’s brain now heard nothing but directions given by a bizarre voice.

The bead limned an arc and vanished into the bushes in front of him. A scrawny figure quickly stood up. Professor Krolock. But although the thief knew who it was, his consciousness couldn’t make his body do anything at all.

Bringing his face up to the papery object in his hands, the professor whispered something: “Die. Stab yourself through the heart.” This time, his voice was low and husky—and overwhelming.

Toto felt his own right hand going for the belt around his waist. His burglary tools were stuck in the belt. His hand chose an awl.

The tip of the tool hovering over his chest finally came to rest against his left nipple.

As the cold steel ripped through his flesh, Toto screamed and collapsed against a nearby tree. The strength left the thief’s ankles, knees, and waist in turn, causing him to slide down the trunk.

As Toto lay there, the professor looked down at him with surpassing cruelty, and then quickly turned to peer into the depths of the forest.

“Watching D since last night certainly paid off. Now I’ll be able to make Nobles of whomever I please. Let the fools who don’t know the true use of the bead keep killing each other if they wish. I still have the final preparations to make!”

His tattered cloak fluttering abnormally, the professor ran off toward where he’d tethered his own horse.

After a short while, the thick scent of blood began to hang over the area. And as if it were an invitation, unsettling cries and chirps and rustling started to come from the bushes and the trees.

In the darkness formed by the leaves of the bushes, countless lights winked on, then became eyes set in hideous faces as the creatures slid out through the green grass. “Pan-eyes”—bugs with giant compound eyes on their ash-gray heads. Flesh-eating worms with black spots on their ocher skin. Bristling caterpillars with dozens of glittering fangs. Hopping, crawling, and slithering vilely, they closed on the prone Toto. If the ravenous forest denizens sank their teeth into him, not even a fragment of bone would be left within an hour—-he’d utterly vanish from the face of the earth.

The first thing the flesh-eating worms did was make a beeline for Toto’s ear. There was nothing they liked better than to enter through the ear canal and munch their way through someone’s brain.

But they never would’ve thought the corpse would move. Toto’s right hand flashed out, bisecting several of the worms in midair. No sooner had those pieces hit the ground than the remaining worms pounced on them without a sound.

A “pan-eye” wasted no time in launching itself at Toto’s throat, but a slash from the thief’s sharp tool ripped open the bug’s lizard-like torso.

But that was all the resistance the dying man gave them. Matting the verdant grass as it flopped to the ground, his arm would move no more.

“Dammit... So I end up ... food for the worms ...,” he cursed, his hatred and mortification made into words so they might roll across the ground.

Having finished devouring their bloodied compatriots, it took these insects with no concerns aside from their own instinctive hunger less than ten seconds to recall the other, larger meal.

As the supernatural beasts prepared to descend en masse, something seemed to billow over them. The blood-crazed creatures then retreated without a sound.

A figure in black appeared from the grove across from the thief. The ghastly aura that’d frightened the monsters emanated from D. Quite a way off, there was a young girl. She no longer wore Su-In’s face. And the spot where she remained must’ve been where the stench of blood ended.

D went right over to Toto and took his left hand. The awl in the thief’s right hand didn’t even warrant a glance. To the Hunter, it was something he could take care of with his little finger.

“Hate to tell you . . . but . . . I’m still alive,” the thief said, his bloodless lips twisting into a smile. “Stupid bastard . . . had his chance . . . and had to go and miss the spot. . . My heart. . . ,” he chuckled, “is on the right side ...”

“Professor Krolock . . . whispered something ... to this weird paper . . . and got me to do whatever he wanted . . . Watch out. . . The bead ...” The expression slipped from Toto’s face. “He’s gonna ...” All the strength then drained from the thief’s body.

Taking the man’s pulse, D then pulled out some emergency sheets with his right hand. Made of a highly porous cellophane, they were eight inches square. Even when the bandages came in bundles of a hundred, they weren’t bulky at all The medicated layer could serve as a styptic and an antiseptic, provide nutrients, and act as a heating pad or a cold compress. Out on the road, they were indispensable for dealing with everything from minor colds to major lacerations.

Applying one of the bandages to the left side of Toto’s chest, the Hunter then lay the thief over his shoulder using just his right hand. Seeing how the Hunter easily rose again with this new burden, the girl’s eyes went wide. It was almost as if he were carrying a hollow doll.

As she tottered toward him like a marionette, the expression that came to her face was so rapt it was almost obscene. After all, she’d been right by D’s side ever since he left the lagoon.

“He has a pulse. I’m going to bring him to the hospital, but you can get off wherever you like. And I’ll thank you not to mention what happened today to anyone.”

The girl nodded. The beauty and mysterious charm of the young man extended to the very words he spoke. There was no way she’d be able to refuse him.

With Toto over one shoulder and the girl sitting behind him, D gave a stem kick to the horse’s flank.

Before a desolate expanse of rubble, Professor Krolock dismounted from his cyborg horse. He also unloaded some baggage from his mount—a blanket and a leather bag.

Looking up at the sky, which had begun to take a vague bluish tint, he said, “The sun will be going down soon. What a fitting time for my wish to be granted.”

As twilight descended, the professor began cautiously picking a path through the rubble. Six hundred feet ahead of him loomed the remains of what looked like a castle wall. He knew that beyond it lay a gaping chasm of incredible proportions. His sole concern now was whether or not the coil of wire he’d brought in his bag would be long enough to reach the bottom.

“This is not good,” a voice that sounded both relaxed and tense said from the wooden floor of the room.

There was good reason for her mood—that cryptic remark was all the hand had to say when it broke two hours of silence, and because the light that filled the room had begun to dwindle perceptibly in the last few minutes. The outline of the hand impaled by the metal wedge had also begun to dissolve into deepening blue.

“I told you before, didn’t I? There’s something in this temple. Or rather, someone.”

“Well,” Su-In said, “that guy did spray some odorless monster repellent around the place.”

“It’s still no use. I’ve got a little feeling back ... but I can’t move at all.”

The hand was silent. After pausing for a beat, it then asked, “Would you mind if I deviated from the subject for a moment?” Its tone was so lascivious, it made Su-In’s eyes go wide.

“Yes,” Su-In replied, her tone cautious. There was a look of suspicion in her eyes.

“Well, the truth is, I’m starving. At least, that’s how you’d put it in your terms. Basically, I need nourishment.”

“Don’t be such a tease!” Su-In scolded him, and then her ears suddenly perked up.

Off in the distance—if memory served, it was in the direction of the entrance—she’d heard a sound. Had someone come? Just at that moment, the light coming in through the window began to rapidly fade. It couldn’t be that Noble . . . After all, there was no way he could know she was out here of all places. No, it wasn’t him. It would be someone from the village. But even thinking that, Su-In couldn’t bring herself to cry out for help.

“Hey,” she called out to the hand. “Hurry up and say what you’re gonna say. What should I do?”

“Oh,” Su-In cried. As she flushed all the way to her ears, she glared at the talking hand.

“It’s just a minor inconvenience.” “I don’t see what’s so minor about it! You’re talking to a lady!”

“I think it’d have to be less objectionable than becoming a servant of the Nobility.”

The color drained right out of Su-In’s face at that moment partly because of the left hand’s words, but also because she’d just heard a number of footsteps behind her. The feeble footsteps she could hear somewhere out there were slowly drawing closer.

The world had passed through the blue and was surrendering itself now to an inky black.

“Oh, yes it can. It feels just like them,” the hand said, its tone hard. “Getting back to what I said—can you do it?”

“Your life—no, your very soul—depends on it. You’ve gotta do it somehow.”

Su-In held her breath. The footsteps stopped. Stopped right at the door. They were looking for her. Su-In could tell. But why didn’t they come in? Why didn’t they call out to see if there was anyone there? And why weren’t they even talking among themselves, for that matter? Cold sweat rolled down her cheek.

The sound continued for a long time, flowing into the room. It was probably for the best that Su-In couldn’t turn to look. The figures that stepped from the shallow murkiness like ghosts numbered three in all—two women and a man with blood staining the base of their necks.

“Yes, here,” a girl with red hair replied. She sounded so happy she could weep.

“It’s cold. And I’m hungry,” the third figure—a young man—said sorrowfully. “I want to warm up. But it’s supposed to be summer.”

The trio exchanged glances. And as their gazes intertwined, they fell on Su-In, too.

The three of them started walking again. Their eyes were vacant, and they seemed glazed with the colors of hell. There was no circulation in their lips. And yet they looked red. But that was only due to the color of their skin. Their hearts beat out the rhythm of the night, and the blood in their veins was the hue of darkness. Their breath held the odor of dirt from a grave.

“I couldn’t look if I wanted to!” Su-In said, but she could barely work her tongue now.

Groaning with exasperation, Su-In said, “Hold on. I just need a little longer.”

“We can’t wait any more. I hate to tell you this, but the leader of the pack is only about ten feet from you!”

“Oh, I see you stretched yourself out some. Keep at it. You’ve almost got it!”

Three shadowy figures clustered around Su-In’s body. Su-In could sense them bending over her. Icicles were pressed against the nape of her neck. They were fingers. Fingers pale and cold as ice itself.

“She’s warm,” the young man said. “So warm! Hot blood runs through her veins!”

“I need to drink. A lot,” said the girl with the round face, almost singing the words.

Six hands reached out and rolled Su-In over onto her back. For the first time, she could see their faces.

“Hannah? Clem? Ricardo?!” she cried out in astonishment. “But you’re—Why?!”

“Su-In,” said the young man—Ricardo. Only the slightest surprise could be felt in his hollow voice. However, his youthful face was quickly covered by the lewd smile of a sinful centenarian as he said, “So it was you in here, was it? Your blood is bound to be so very-—”

“Delicious!” the girl with the round face—Hannah—moaned. “When did this happen? When was it? When were you bitten?” Su-In inquired in desperation as she watched Ricardo’s hand drawing closer to her throat.

“Last night. . . The three of us .. . were out picking moonlight grass together, you see,” said Clementine. In the darkness, her red hair looked like a filthy vermilion rag. As her thin lips moved, a number of strands of hair stuck to them, pulled to and fro by their movements. “And then the two of them came . . . They stared at us with those red eyes . . . and we couldn’t move . . . But I see now, Su-In, and you will, too . . . You’ll see just how wonderful this can be. And then all of us went to sleep under the temple’s porch.”

Su-In’s breath had been taken away. Ricardo’s hand grabbed the neck of her shirt and tore it open. Though the rich swells that her white brassiere could barely contain were exposed to the eyes of all three of them, this was no time for embarrassment.

“You smell good, Su-In. Warm. Now there’s a nice human chest! Surely it’s pumping with the freshest of blood. That’s the only regard in which your kind surpasses ours.” Saliva dripped from

Ricardo’s lips, splattering between Su-In’s breasts. “I’ll go first. No one has any complaints, I take it?”

“Just a second,” said a hoarse voice that made the three vampires turn around.

As his glittering eyes bored through the darkness, Ricardo said, “What a strange creature. A hand that can talk! But from the look of things, you can’t move. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained—so once we’re done drinking Su-In’s blood, it’ll be your turn.”

No longer looking at the hand, Ricardo turned back toward Su-In. White fangs bared all the way to the gums, he pressed his teeth to her trembling flesh for a split second before unleashing a cry of surprise and jumping back up. As his crazed eyes fell to the woman’s feet, they found a steaming puddle of liquid coursing in the hand’s direction.

CHAPTER 7

What the hell?!” Ricardo cried as he jumped aside, but he grinned just as quickly. “Are you scared?” he asked Su-In. “I’m not surprised. But you won’t be for long. Just between you and me, I’ve always sort of had a thing for you. Once you’re one of us, I’ll give you a nice long poke,” the boy said in the tone of a veritable fiend.

However, Ricardo’s last remark brought Su-In back to her senses. His crude suggestion stirred an explosion of womanly ire.

“Who the hell would ever wanna be with you?!” Su-In shouted as her right hand whined through the air. The drug that’d kept her paralyzed had worn off—her fury had swept away the last of its effects.

As a well-practiced punch made his cheekbone creak, Ricardo reeled backward. But that was all it did. In the blink of an eye, his face was right back in the same position, and wearing a smirk. While the servants might not be as powerful as the true Nobility, their musculature still had five times the strength of an ordinary person. Now Ricardo—-or Hannah and Clementine, for that matter—could weather a blow from a professional boxer without any problem.

“You bitch! ” Ricardo snarled, fangs bared in his evil countenance. But just as he was lunging for Su-In’s throat, he staggered back-

Ricardo’s blood-spattered eyes reflected the hand crouching on the floor like a pale spider. Beside it ran the dark stain that flowed from Su-In’s lower half. With a low groan, Ricardo fell flat on his face. A knife had gone right through his heart.

Suddenly Clem, who was at the fore, began to glow. Her form was enveloped by pale blue chemical flames. Every bit of color on her was rendered a luminous white, and before the girl could even scream, she fell across the floor as a pile of stark white ash.

Hannah stopped dead in her tracks, and the pale hand raced right between the vampire’s feet.

The two of them made excellent time as they headed for the door in the far wall. There was another room beyond it.

Turning around just in front of the door, Su-In hurled the knife she’d pulled out of Ricardo’s corpse. The weapon flew fast and hard enough to penetrate the skull of a giant killer whale, but Hannah simply clapped the palms of her hands together to stop it right in front of her face.

The two of them made a mad dash into the next room, bolting through it without a backward glance.

They took a right in the corridor—and it brought them straight to the main entrance. Hearing Hannah’s footsteps behind them, Su-In began to tremble. The front door was falling off its hinges.

They burst outside. Gasping, Su-In halted sharply. Thanks to her incredible momentum, she barely managed to keep herself from falling over.

In a moonlit garden where even the weeds that had grown to their hearts’ content looked gorgeous, there stood two figures. Samon and Glen. Even before it could dawn on her that they were both foes of D and herself, Su-In simply recognized them as fellow humans.

“Help me—the girl behind me is a vampire!” she shouted as she pulled up alongside Glen.

Hannah stood in front of the entrance to the temple. Her pearly fangs gnashed together, thirsting for Su-In’s lifeblood in a way that was more detestable than words could convey. “Out of my way,” she growled. “Let me drink the girl’s blood!”

Looking first at Su-In and then at Hannah, Samon asked, “What should we do?” Naturally, her query was directed at Glen.

Not replying to the question, the seeker of knowledge took a step forward. Free of even the smallest injury, his handsome face was immaculate in the moonlight.

The flash of white light that shot up from the young man’s waist mowed right through the girl’s neck. It was just like being in town and watching Old Man Krakow expertly take the head off a salmon with one swipe. After the flash had passed through her effortlessly, Hannah ran about ten feet more with black blood spraying from her body—from the headless torso her legs carried.

When the girl’s body fell at length, Su-In finally noticed Glen and Samon’s complexions. “You . . . both of you, too the

“Stupid children,” Samon said as she coldly surveyed the decapitated remains. “They should’ve restrained themselves until we arrived ... I suppose you killed the other two, did you? After we went to the trouble of showing them a whole new world.” Su-In felt like all of the blood had drained from her body.

Sword still lowered, Glen spoke at last, saying, “When you came out. .. you had something odd with you, didn’t you?”

His voice was as hollow as the abyss. It was the voice of the night. “It’s hidden itself in the grass—what is it, some pet of yours?” With the two of them staring at her, Su-In couldn’t move a muscle. “In a manner of speaking,” a hoarse voice replied from somewhere in the bushes. It sounded like it had its cheeks filled with something or other. Though Samon looked all around them, she couldn’t determine where the voice had originated.

Su-In felt an incongruity. While it was the same voice, it was as different in tone from the one she’d heard in the temple as day and night. The words were filled with immeasurable confidence.

“My, my. It seems I vastly underestimated you,” Glen said as he brought his blade up to his lips. “I sense a frightful power in you. If we were to fight now, even the woman might be in jeopardy.” Samon’s expression changed. She’d just realized she was the one to whom the swordsman was referring.

“As the old me would’ve been,” Glen continued. “But not anymore. The killing lust I get from you feels almost the same—you’re on D’s side, aren’t you?”

“Well, I certainly spend enough time by his side,” the voice responded. “In that case, give him a message. We’re taking the woman. If he wants her back, he’s to come to Cape Nobility tomorrow just as the sun sets. Until that time, we won’t do anything to her.”

Glen’s sword was tilted against his lips. His tongue was touching the blade, licking the blood that clung to it.

With that one word alone, Su-In followed along after Glen like a marionette when he walked off. Samon was pulling up the rear, and once the three of them had vanished into the far reaches of the temple grounds, a protracted sigh could finally be heard from the grass.

“I’ll be damned if we don’t have one serious pain in the ass to deal with now,” said the hand. “I thought about trying to get the girl back, but that probably would’ve got me killed in the bargain. He could even tell where I was hiding. Before, he wasn’t much of a problem, but I have to wonder if you’ll really be able to take him now, D.”

It was twenty minutes later that the left hand finally met up with D—beneath the dilapidated main gate to the temple. After the Hunter brought Toto to the hospital, the thief had regained consciousness and told him where he could find Su-In.

“It really was too bad,” the left hand told D, going on to explain everything that had transpired. It was already neatly reattached to the Hunter’s wrist.

“It’s finally coming down to that time,” the left hand remarked. “It looks like you would’ve been better off leaving the village when you had the chance earlier. A lot more blood’s gonna be spilled. Are you sure you don’t know what that bead really is?”

“And the Noble—what’s he?” the hand continued. “Then there’s the story we heard at the museum. Are you sure there isn’t a link between him and the warrior we heard stayed at Su-In’s house? I’ve already found one. How are you doing on that?”

Giving no reply, D looked off to the left. The horse and rider were halfway up the side of a hill overlooking the sea. There were no trees. White waves shattered against the jet black world, and the undying roar of the surf sang a paean to the north. Summer had come from out beyond the glittering ice floes, as a Noble in blue raiment. And it held a final paintbrush that was now stained with a vermilion hue. But it would be neither D nor the seeker of knowledge who would wield said brush.

“Why did you come here?” the voice asked. “Was it because of the girl murdered in Gilligan’s basement? Because the last word she said was your name? Oh, you just keep getting softer and softer. Can’t break your promise to the dead? Even though it’s the living who get angry, while the dead never say a thing.”

D remained silent as he gazed out at the sea, as if the movements of his heart that the hand described were something about which he knew nothing at all. Perhaps he’d never have a heart of his own for all eternity.

Presendy, the Hunter gave a single kick to his mount’s flanks and raced off on the steep, narrow path up the incline like an ominous black wind.

Su-In lay on the floor of the mud room. She was in Glen and Samon’s hideout in a shack by the sea. Although she hadn’t been tied up, she didn’t move. If she got the urge, she could’ve stood up or even run. But she wouldn’t get the urge. Desire, aspirations, competitive spirit— all the positive aspects of consciousness seemed to have been drained from her eyes when she met her foes’ gaze.

“Girl, there’s something I’d like to ask you,” the sorceress Samon said after a while. Glen sat to one side of the hut and was seeing to his blade. The warrior woman’s eyes gave off a vermilion glow every bit as evil as Glen’s, and as she gazed at Su-In, she made no attempt to conceal the hunger and greed in her gaze and on her lips.

“What would that be?” Su-In replied, seeming to make an effort to somehow rouse her own will.

“You were under my spell once, back in the sheriff s office and at the temple gate. When you were, you showed me a certain man. A man you want to see more than anyone in the whole world, someone you simply can’t forget.”

“A man?” Su-In said, knitting her brow. She remembered the incident. But what did this woman mean, it was a man? It was Wu-Lin. Wasn’t it?

Knowing nothing of Su-In’s own doubts, Samon continued, asking, “How does he fit into this? What’s his connection to the Noble who comes from the sea?”

Despite her semiconscious state, Su-In’s whole body tightened with a terrible shock, and it wasn’t simply because of the completely unexpected suggestion that there was some connection between the Noble and herself. But for an instant, she’d caught a glimpse of the answer through countless overlapping layers of gossamer. She’d seen it with a geometrical, geological precision.

“Don’t play stupid with me,” Samon snarled, baring her fangs. “He’s the man whose loss you mourn more than anyone or anything else. But why was it him? That’s what I want to know. Answer me.”

Samon’s features twisted into an atrocious expression, but it quickly vanished and the sorceress stared intently into the woman’s eyes. Points of light like rubies drilled through Su-In’s eyes and tried to drain the dregs of her soul through them.

Before two seconds had passed, Samon muttered, “Oh ... So, you’re under hypnosis, I see. And a very powerful kind at that. . . erasing memories and clearing up feelings of guilt . . . But not perfectly, I’d say. Wait just a moment. I’ll see what I can find now.”

The rubies became flaming crystals. Su-In’s eyes grew more dazed, while Samon’s face glittered with jewel-like beads of sweat.

Closing her eyes, Samon swayed on her feet. Clinging to a pillar strung with nets to steady herself, she rubbed her eyelids with one hand. When her eyes opened again, they were ablaze with the most malicious delight the world had ever seen.

But what did Su-In have locked away in her heart that would please Samon of all people?

“I saw everything,” said the sorceress. “So that’s what happened, is it? Dear me. I can see why you’d want to hide that. And now, I’ll show it to you, too.” “Don’t!” Su-In cried, frightened without even knowing why. A ghastly fear beyond comprehension was rearing its head from the darkest depths.

“Look into my eyes,” said Samon, holding Su-In by the chin as she brought the woman’s face closer.

“Stop it!” Su-In cried, but her voice faded feebly. Samon’s hands had a grip on her chin, and a blurry white mass immediately began to take shape between them. “Samon of Remembrances”—the name may have had a romantic ring to it, but Su-In was learning now just how terrible the woman’s spell could be.

An outline formed. The eyes took shape. A nose was added. And it wasn’t Wu-Lin. While the face was still far from defined, it clearly was that of a man.

“Take a good look,” the sorceress told her. “Peer into your own soul. And see exactly what you did.”

There was a powerful tug on Samon’s shoulder. Her surprised gasp brought a disruption to her spell, and the image that’d been formed by Su-In’s heart vanished.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?!” the sorceress cried, her shout of shock and anger being absorbed by Glen’s powerful chest.

“What’s the matter? I was simply showing the girl her own true nature. Is there some problem with that?”

Easily knocked head over heels, Samon hit the wall boards back-first. A wooden box fell from above and landed at her feet.

“Of all the nerve,” Samon snarled. “Have you forgotten who it was that kept you here in this world?”

“Yes, I have,” Glen said, his face completely emotionless. A ghastly aura gusted from every inch of his frame, knocking the wind out of Samon.

“Why, you . . . ,” the sorceress groaned fearfully. She’d just realized the young man she’d risked her life and soul to save had, at some point, become something completely beyond her reach. Fear changing to rage, Samon wore a demonic visage as she crept along the wall and made her way back toward Su-In. “You would defend this woman and treat me this way? That’s unpardonable,” she said. “See how you like it when I do this!”

Samon’s mouth snapped open. Her face twisting with the supple speed of a whip, she drove her pair of fangs toward Su-In’s throat as the woman lay on the floor in a stupor.

In a spectacular move, Samon flew through the air, but as she landed again, a blade pressed right against her chest.

“You traitor!” she cried. “You want the woman’s blood .. . You’d have it all for yourself, wouldn’t you?”

Glen responded in a low voice that sounded like he was spitting up his own blood. “I promised I wouldn’t lay a hand on the woman until sunset tomorrow. And having given my word, I intend to keep it.” “How stupid of you to make such a promise ...”

“To you it may be stupid, but to me, it’s more important than life itself! You’re not to lay so much as a finger on this woman until tomorrow,” Glen said, and his blade slid forward.

“If it’s blood you crave,” the man continued, “you can drink your own. But wait—I have something even better to show you.”

His blade danced through the air, and Samon’s clothes fluttered down to the floor like the wings of a butterfly.

This was how the seeker of knowledge rewarded the woman who’d risked her life and soul for his own sake, a woman whose full bosom was now stained with blood?

As the woman stood stock still, the swordsman pressed his lips fiercely to her throat. A stream of crimson instantly began to spill from the space between her skin and his lips. Samon’s face was pointed skyward, and as her expression changed from one of excruciating pain to extreme pleasure, the woman cradled Glen’s head in her arms.

The face that’d been turned toward the heavens fell against the nape of Glen’s neck. So cruel, yet so erotic.

Su-In lay on the floor, unable to do anything but watch as a man and woman who’d both received the kiss of the Nobility began to feed on each other’s blood.

Night was over. The sea breeze bore the scent of summer to the northern village and made the white flowers and the green grass glisten. Performers pulled three-eyed monsters and robots out of thin air while the villagers danced an unfamiliar waltz to music that played in a clearing edged by a pond and fields of flora. Although the bodies of the three missing young people had been discovered in the ruined temple on a hill some distance from the village, everyone involved had been gagged by the mayor’s orders. The patrols along the shore had also been increased. Above all else, the one week of summer had to be gently and secretly protected. Children’s pleas to go to Su-In’s school were met with reproach from stem-faced members of the town council, who informed them that Su-In wasn’t a good woman. A better teacher would come to the school, and they no longer needed such a disreputable person.

Just four more days, they all thought. Summer couldn’t be tarnished. For it was a hopeful season brimming with light. However, even this season had its inescapable consequences. The coming of night was still a certainty.

He was out in Su-In’s barn. Getting up, he went outside and got on Toto’s cyborg horse. There was nothing stilted about his movements. They were as precise as a machine, as beautiful as nature, and as orderly as the universe.

Leaving the road, D turned right. Today, the watch fires flickered on the beach once more. The Noble was almost sure to come. What did he seek? Three years. And this summer, he’d come in search of Su-In. Why in the summer? Perhaps listening to the song of the northern sea had made even the Noble long for the blue season once more.

“Hey there! Hey!” the Hunter heard someone shout in the distance. D stopped his steed.

Dwight was racing toward him on a single-seater hydro-bike. A compact two-wheeled vehicle powered by amplified hydroelectric energy, it was a popular form of transportation in areas near rivers or the sea. Although its top speed was less than thirty miles per hour, it was more than sufficient for traveling short distances.

“Wait up. Where are you going?” the fisherman asked, spinning the handlebars around for no particular reason. “At this hour, would you be going out for Su-In? You’re gonna go rescue her, aren’t you?” Not addressing Dwight’s question, D asked, “What brings you out here?”

When the thief was brought to the hospital for the wound to the left side of his chest, Dwight had been there having his own injuries treated, and D had asked the fisherman to keep an eye on Toto’s condition. After the Hunter told Dwight that this man knew about the bead, he’d agreed to do it without any argument.

“I had one of my men keeping an eye on him, but when I heard the way he was tossing around in bed, I went to have a look for myself. Seems he slammed my guy up against the wall at some point and knocked him out cold. Hurt as bad as he is, he couldn’t have got very far, but we checked everywhere and came up empty. He must be tough as hell. Anyhow, I came out to tell you that.”

Riding alongside the Hunter for a short time on his bike, Dwight then gave a determined nod. “Those sound like words I can put my faith in,” the fisherman said. Then he added, “You better come back alive, too, you hear me? I don’t care if you’ve got Noble blood in you or any of that. So long as you’re still living, something good’s bound to come your way.”

Up until that point, D had been facing straight ahead, but then he turned and gazed quietly at Dwight. “That’s right,” he said. “As long as I’m still living. And Su-In will make it out of this alive, too.”

“I’m counting on you,” Dwight said, extending one hand. But he quickly pulled it back. Even he knew a Hunter didn’t like to use his sword arm for anything else.

Turning off the narrow road, the Hunter advanced down a side path leading into the hills until a wide road appeared. Light could be seen leaking out from beneath its dirt covering. It was the Nobles’ road. The soil that covered it must’ve dried out and been worn away over the years, allowing the surface below to peek out.

Continuing down the road for thirty minutes, D came to the resort area. The shadows of the horse and rider fell on the ground. Only the rider’s shadow was faint. Such was the destiny of those of Noble blood.

A black carriage raced by D’s side. By the blue glow of an electric light, men and woman dressed in formal wear laughed and chatted. The lights were on in every house. Fireworks blazed on their front lawns, and pure spring water spread like the wings of birds in marble fountains. Surely there must be a ball tonight. A nocturnal bird with bones of silver and wings of crystal passed over D’s head. Perhaps the letter it carried was a message of love from some gentleman to a lady.

The wind gusted across the street. A shower of white petals blew from the gardens of all the houses, striking D in the face. He caught one in his hand. It was a grimy scrap of wallpaper.

There was no sign of anyone moving on the road. All of the houses lay in utter darkness, and as the wind blew through their weedy, eroded gardens, they joined it in singing a song of abandonment and decay. It was all just a dream.

Silently D advanced down the white path, and before long the sounds of the sea grew closer—he’d arrived at the cape. Off in the darkness, he could see three figures about a hundred feet away.

Massive stone sculptures of people’s faces lined either side of the road. Since these effigies had been coated to resist the elements, they still retained the same color and form that they’d been given thousands of years earlier.

Once D closed to within forty feet of them, he got off his horse. His hair and the hem of his coat fluttered with the sea breeze.

The central figure was Su-In, while Glen was to her right and Samon to her left. The paleness of their skin couldn’t be attributed to the moonlight alone, and from this D could see for himself the true nature of her captors.

Glen opened his mouth and said, “Not at all surprised, are you? Oh, that’s right—your left hand probably told you all about us. But this is the road I’ve chosen in order to beat you.”

Seemingly under a spell, Su-In wore an expression that showed no signs of any will of her own.

“That is of little consequence. I simply want to settle things with you. And this woman no longer has need of it, either,” Glen said, his voice quivering with jubilation.

“Just as soon as you and I have settled this. Relax. We haven’t laid a finger on her, and we won’t after this is done, either.”

And saying that, Glen suddenly looked up at the sky. The moon was out. It was so perfectly clear, it seemed like it could reflect all the activity taking place on the world below. Glen smiled.

“Lovely moon, isn’t it? It’s a pity we have to fight on a night like this.” With a light shake of his head, he then turned to D again. “But my blood just won’t wait. Even though I’ve been made a servant of the Nobility, my blood alone remains unchanged. What’s more, you can’t very well let me live in my new form.”

Although the Hunter didn’t so much as glance at Samon, her whole body stiffened with fear. D seemed to be saying he’d destroy them both at the same time if necessary.

“No, both of us,” she snarled with bared fangs, but Glen raised a hand to silence her.

“It’ll just be me. There’s not a chance in a million you’ll survive, but should that somehow come to pass, let the woman go on her way.”

“I thought you might say that,” Glen said with a smile that was actually rather refreshing. Had this man ever looked up at the moon and smiled in all his life?

Samon, on the other hand, was utterly exasperated. “If you die,” she said, “I’ll fill your heart again with the blood of the girl and the Hunter. I won’t allow you to die and leave me here alone. I’ll bring you back time and again if need be!”

Amazed, Samon was about to say something, but she quickly nodded her consent. Although anyone could plainly see she had something in mind, no one could tell exactly what it was. Su-In was given a shove against her shoulder, and as the woman staggered forward, a flash of white came before her face. Samon’s dagger.

While it wasn’t clear exactly what effect it had on the woman, it was only a second later that intelligence returned to her round face. Shaking her head two or three times, Su-In may have still been under the effects of the hypnotism, because she started to walk toward D without any hesitation.

“No,” Su-In replied. “I can’t leave you here all alone. I’m staying.”

“Do what you like. Stay if you want to watch how the Hunter dies,” Glen said, his right hand rising from the sheath to the hum of steel. He’d quickly drawn his blade.

Su-In swiftly ran over to one of the stone carvings. No longer even watching the woman, D drew his blade, too. Samon ran to one side like a gust of wind.

Two gorgeous men—and neither of them moving. If Glen was the epitome of deadly determination without affectation as he held his sword out straight at eye level, then the breathtaking sight of D assuming a “figure eight” stance with his blade by the side of his head was just as much the picture of a warrior whose beauty transcended life ... or death. Most likely, anyone would stand there astonished and accept their fate if it were this young man delivering their end.

However, Glen’s eyes glowed with crimson—the color of the Nobility. As he took a step forward, his sword’s thrust had something behind it that hadn’t been there before, and the instant D parried the blade in a shower of sparks, the impact jarred both the Hunter’s arms. Perhaps feeling more than just a ferocious blow, D blocked a quick follow-up strike without ever getting off an attack of his own. In Su-In’s eyes, it looked as if D were entirely surrounded by showers of sparks.

The two combatants moved around, tracing a tight circle. Glints of light flew madly in the space between them, then the two handsome figures leapt away—one to the right, the other to the left. The sea was to D’s back. Su-In was behind Glen’s.

The moonlight revealed dripping streams of black. From D’s right eye. Down Glen’s left wrist. The figures of beauty were frozen in place. The place was so still, even the sound of the wind and the crash of the waves breaking at the foot of the cliff seemed to have been transformed into pure moonlight.

One working with one eye, the other with one arm—the real question was, who would be at an advantage, and who at a disadvantage? D already had his right eye shut, and Glen was managing his blade solely with his left hand.

D kicked off the ground. As he brought his sword down, it was aimed precisely at the right side of Glen’s neck, but the attack was parried by a horizontal slash from the left of his foe’s blade—a blow that knocked both the Hunter’s sword and his arm back against his own chest and left him reeling. Without time to right himself properly, D made a horizontal swipe of his sword at his opponent’s temple. The only thing that allowed Glen to dive to one side and avoid the slash was the new level of power his blood so kindly supplied. D glided closer without making a sound.

D’s sword became a white flash of light flowing toward Glen’s chest. Glen’s sword did likewise. Before the Vampire Hunter’s flash could pierce his chest, the seeker of knowledge drove his silvery streak through D’s heart.