Free Vampire Hunter D: Dark Nocturne Page A

his head fell silent, and the figure by the window moved as if to display how shaken she was.
    Perhaps you are correct. But who would know that there’s more than one of me? That’s something about which I myself am not certain.
    â€œWhen will the other one be here?”
    Soon.
    On hearing that reply, Price turned to D with a terrible light in his eyes. “When that time comes, you’ll only be in the way.”
    It was a challenge.
    â€œI believe I’ll get rid of you now. However, doing it in here would be too unseemly. Let’s make it the garden.”
    Under the pale moon the two of them squared off on a path paved with marble. A stand of trees was singing the music of the night. The wind.
    Which of them would have the advantage here? D was blind. Price was unharmed. However, the warrior’s evil eyes would no longer serve him against the Hunter, and it didn’t seem likely he could defend himself from the swordplay of even a sightless D.
    â€œHave at you!” Price said as he dashed to the right. His broadsword went undrawn as his finger raced across the surface of the remote control he held in his hand.
    The marble blocks beneath D’s feet flipped over. Pushed up by flames, the stones were swallowed by the sky. Five gouts of fire went up.
    He didn’t think that would be enough to slay D. From the cover of the decrepit fountain, Price surveyed his surroundings. The entire garden had been strung with wire finer than a spider’s thread, and if a certain amount of pressure was put on any of those lines, it would unleash a deadly attack.
    The five crossbows he’d rigged sent iron arrows off to the right. When Price realized all of his missiles had been struck down with the most mellifluous sound imaginable, he quickly scattered smoke bombs all over the grounds and held his breath. The ability to completely conceal any sign of your presence was one of the hallmarks of an excellent warrior.
    A black shadow suddenly coalesced right in front of him. As Price backflipped away, cold air knifed into his shoulder.
    Gory blade in his right hand, D charged forward. But the singing put a stop to it.
    The song came from the same warrior who had deep red blood spilling from the shoulder he clenched. It was impossible to ignore the Nobility’s nocturne.
    In a split second, a wide blade pierced the chest of the spellbound D.
    Without a backward glance at the reeling Hunter, Price raced toward the mansion. He’d noticed the hoofbeats of cyborg horses that’d entered the garden.
    The other one—
    The instant he passed D, a hoarse voice from the vicinity of the Hunter’s left hand said, “Oh, you’re a tricky one, all right,” but the warrior had no time to take pause as he headed toward the new arrival.
    __
    III
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    Ry climbed down from the carriage. The vehicle he’d taken from the mayor’s house was pulled by a team of six. Its rightful owner, Amne, and the inhabitants of the subterranean chamber were standing around it as well.
    Price raced over to them. Glaring at Ry, he said, “You or me—which one of us do you choose?”
    â€œIt is not we that choose,” the mayor told him. “The one who arranged all of this set his plans in motion more than ten thousand years ago. I finally realized that just yesterday. Listen to the girl.”
    Beside the mayor, a girl with black hair let a nocturnal grin rise on her lips. It was the daughter that’d been lured away twenty years earlier.
    â€œYou see, when the mayor’s daughter came back, she concealed the girl in that underground chamber. The basement of her own house is actually connected to the area below the concert hall. Her daughter and the other people lured by the song connected the two,” Amne said as if beseeching the warrior. This was the truth that could no longer go unsaid. “And all these people lived on. Without ever drinking blood; merely singing that song