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Meier shoved the irritating Dhampire away from him, breaking the contact between his wing blade and the hunter’s sword as he registered the female bounty hunter making her escape with Charlotte slung carelessly over her shoulder.
He started after her, only to stumble back as two of the columns fell, blocking the path to the door she had taken.
“NO!” he roared, enraged, spinning to face D once more.
“This is your doing, I do not even have her body to take with me now,” he snarled.
D got unsteadily back to his feet, bringing his sword up once more as he faced the enraged Vampire, only to see Meier’s eyes narrow at him, his head cocking assessingly to one side.
“You are wounded, and yet you would continue to fight me? You will die,” he pointed out.
“As will you, when this place comes down, as long as I can keep you from escaping until then, my death is a small enough price to pay,” D told him tightly, silently cursing both Carmilla and her lightning bolts, and Meier’s observational skills.
“I think not,” Meier moved lighting fast, his steel clawed hand knocking D’s sword to clatter off across the cracking floor as he pressed his wing blade against the Dhampire’s throat.
“I think it is you who will die, this time. How many have you killed, hmmm, hunter? How many of the Noble houses have fallen to your sword, Dhampire?”
“Not enough,” D hissed through his teeth.
Snarling his displeasure at the answer, Meier hurled D into one of the few columns that remained standing, hard enough for it to start crumbling, to start toppling down toward the half breed who was trying to struggle once more to his feet, his hair falling unchecked around his face as his hat had been knocked off by the impact.
A chunk of falling marble slammed the Dhampire back to the floor, and this time, he did not try to rise again. Meier strode over, intending to make sure he was dead, and rolled him roughly onto his back. The silken curtains of hair fell away from D’s face as Meier rolled him over, and the Vampire’s eyes widened in pure shock as he saw the face un-obscured for the first time.
“The prince?” he whispered, stunned.
He sensed another block of falling masonry, and without thinking about it, altered his cape to shield himself and the unconscious Dhampire from it as he continued to stare down at him. What could have made the prince, the only son of their lost king, turn to killing his own kind in defense of humans?
The castle was starting to come apart faster now, and Meier knew D had been right about one thing, they would both die if they stayed here, his eyes tracked to the ship, the one that had given him so much hope of a peaceful life with Charlotte, and as he thought of her a fresh wave of grief and anger crashed over him, maybe they should die here, if he had remained with her, instead of going after this persistent hunter, she would not be dead, Carmilla would never have been able to play her games with her.
/x/
Leila paused in tying Charlotte Elborne’s body over the saddle of the Dhampire’s horse as the rumbling from the castle intensified, and glanced over seeing the rocket ship trying to force its way free against the still falling flow of rubble.
“So, Meier got away,” she sneered, spitting disgustedly into the dust.
“At least I suppose that means I don’t have to worry about the Dhampire coming after me for taking you,” she said to the horse.
It would come in useful to cart the body back to where they had left the tank. She could take care of Grove, and then get the girl back to her family, lucky they had insisted on dead or alive for the return of the girl, the bounty would take care of hiring a new team to work with.
Grabbing the reins, she tugged the horse into motion, keeping one eye on the rocket as it finally got clear of the castle and started to power up into the sky, the lights finally getting lost among the stars.
“I hope you have the sense never to come back here, Meier, I will kill you the next time,” she told the sky.
It didn’t matter for now, there were plenty more Vampires out there to be hunted down, although she did feel a slight twinge of sadness that the Dhampire would not be able to keep his promise to bring flowers to her grave when she died.
/x/
D tried to force open heavy eyes with a soft groan, his hand searching automatically for his sword before he was conscious enough to register that whatever he was lying on, it was not a cold marble floor, and the rumble and shake around him was not a crumbling castle.
“Be still, your injures are still healing.”
The smooth, urbane, deep voice woke him far faster than anything else could have, and he rolled off the surface he was lying on with a growl, maintaining his feet by sheer force of will as his eyes searched out his sword.
“Are you always so stubborn, or is it just me who brings it out in you?”
“Meier,” he snarled, registering that his sword lay on the floor on the far side of the white haired noble.
“This is not the time or place to fight, and you are in no condition. Lie down before you fall down, Prince,” Meier told him dryly, allowing the autopilot to take over and turning to fully face the Dhampire.
“Do not call me that,” D growled, rage surging in him.
“Why not, it is who you are. Tell me, why is the son of our noble king roaming the world killing those who always served our Lord Dracula so faithfully?”
“Faithfully? Faithfully? They murdered him, there is hardly any faithful service to that,” D spat viciously, his eyes starting to glow and his fangs lengthen as the old, buried rage started to surge and burn anew at the reminder.
“Murdered?” Meier asked disbelievingly.
“Yes, murdered. He sought nothing more than peace between the Vampires and the remaining humans, he wanted them to be given time to recover and flourish once more, but the so called Noble Council decided that they did not want humans flourishing, that they did not want their cattle to grow in numbers enough to force the dark creatures into the shadows once more, they had grown to like ruling over them. The last time Dracula convened the council they made a plot, and they carried it out, murdering their King, poisoning him with garlic and sliver salts on the blades of their daggers. I held him as he died, feeling every moment of his agony, and I vowed to him then that I would spend the rest of my life ending theirs,” D growled, his fangs now fully extended.
“They murdered our beloved king?” Meier seemed unable to get past that revelation; he sat down in the seat behind him, his head dropping low for a moment.
D finally realized where he was and glared at Meier.
“You had no right to bring me, take me back, now,” he snarled.
“I cannot, the course is locked in, it is irreversible, and had I not brought you, you would be dead by now, what good would that do your vow?”
“I…what am I to do, their tyranny must end?” D whispered, sinking back to sit on the soft couch he had awakened on.
“The grip of the nobility on the Earth is already weakened beyond reversal, there are more and more hunters emerging every day. They will fall without you. However…”
“What?”
“I heard that many of the old Council members fled the Earth for the City of the Night, when the Dhampire hunter emerged and started killing those who should have been invincible to a half blood. Perhaps not abandoning your fight, but…relocating it?” Meier offered hesitantly.
“…?”
D looked at him blankly, and Meier sighed.
“I loved my King, prince. He was a just ruler, and to find that we lost him, that the world descended further into chaos for the selfish whims of a few greedy nobles, they do not deserve to exist. I will help you, where I can. If…if you would have me of course,”
“You would help me hunt down and kill the nobility, out there?”
“I will help you avenge our King.” Meier confirmed.
“I…agree,” D said slowly, hesitantly holding out his right hand. Meier slowly clasped his wrist, feeling the strong fingers close around his own wrist, as he looked steadily into the eyes of his prince.
/x/
Two thousand years, to eradicate every last trace of the treacherous clans who had murdered Dracula, D mused, sitting on the steps of the sleek space ship, watching the sunset.
He had found when they reached the City of the Night that there were others like him, half bloods, born of true love, and his feeling had mellowed, no longer wanting to kill every Vampire, he had redirected his attentions only to tracking those who had murdered his father. It had sped things up considerably; he smiled, watching the sun drop below the horizon.
“What will you do now, D?” his symbiot asked.
“He will learn to relax, and enjoy his life,” a mellow voice replied before D could open his mouth, Meier stepping down to sit beside D as the sun dropped low enough to be safe for him.
Meier tangled his fingers in the mass of dark hair, tuning D’s head so that he could capture his lips in a soft kiss. It had taken him 300 years to win D’s trust enough to allow him to even begin to seduce him, but it had been worth it, their bond was strong, deep and powerful.
“Is that not right, my King?” Meier murmured into the kiss.
“I told you, if you persist in calling me that, I will ensure everyone calls you my Queen,” D murmured back.
Meier snorted in amusement, once D had permitted his sense of humor to surface, it had turned out to be just as dry and twisted of that of his symbiot.
“So, Earth,” he said, finally breaking the kiss and leaning against D, looking out over the lush, rolling fields in the last faint traces of daylight.
“Yes, I thought we should come and check here, before returning home,” D told him, resting his dark head against his mate’s pale head.
“And?”
“It is clean; I sense no trace of darkness here, only the bright pulse of humanity.”
“Good, then let’s go home,” Meier said, rising and pulling D to his feet.
The inhabitants of the City of the Night would be glad to have their King back permanently, now that the hunting was over. They stepped back inside the space ship, the door closing behind them as the pilot prepared for launch.
The End.