White Devil Mountain (9 page)

“D, do you mean to say becoming one of the Nobility is a form of living?”

“Perhaps it’s a new life.”

“Don’t kid me.” Vera smacked her right fist down on the armrest. Though a sharp pain ran all the way up to her shoulder, she didn’t notice it. Her whole body was hot. She wasn’t even aware that this was due to her anger. “And just how did you reach that conclusion? Those who are bitten by Nobles and join their ranks—they share the same loathsome thirst for blood, and seek it out. If that’s not a demon, what is?”

“Your kind also dines, do they not? Nobles drink blood—where’s the difference?”

“There’s a huge difference. They drink
human
blood! The person they feed on dies once. Then they become one of them. They’ll never know rest for all eternity.”

“Dying and then rising again. You wouldn’t call that a new life?”

“It’s not life. Nobles and their former victims aren’t alive, but they’re not dead either. They’re known forever more as
the living dead
.”

“What of the Nobles, then?” D inquired in a tone that remained as still as a winter’s night.

“They’re—” Vera began, but she had nothing after that.

“Do you know whether or not they too have died and come back? Have you ever considered this: if they were dead from the very start, yet they moved, and thought, and even created a civilization, wouldn’t you consider them a new form of life?”

The doctor shook her head vehemently. Her thoughts wouldn’t gel. D expressed a view that she couldn’t deny had occurred to her before. However, now she would give anything to crush that heretical doctrine.

“Nobles can’t walk in the light of day.”

“There are exceptions.”

“Nobles sleep through the day in coffins.”

“And humans sleep through the night in beds.”

“They drink blood.”

“Humans eat meat. But when they take a life, it can’t rise again.”

“The life that rises again is cursed! Just like the Nobility!”

“Condemning the existence of the Nobility without understanding them isn’t the sort of thing anyone who professes to be a person of science should be doing.”

“I know the Nobility better than anyone.” Vera’s voice suddenly became low. “My mother was employed in a Noble’s mansion. They paid her salary, and they promised her that no one would suck her blood. The master of the house kept that promise. But the first time one of his guests laid eyes on my mother—well, she tried to run, but her throat was torn open, and she died. I’ll never forgive the Nobility.”

“My, my!” a hoarse voice remarked in amazement.

In the clever eyes of the doctor, hatred swirled in dark whirlpools.

Instances of Nobles hiring humans for a set period of time and then returning them to their homes were extremely rare outside the Capital. In the present era (when the meanings of the terms BC and AD had been lost), records existed of the contracts entered into from the year 5000 to 7500—with the stipulation that blood not be drunk—and the number of humans employed by the Nobility in that time frame totaled 7,628 for the entire Frontier. A large number of contracts were destroyed by Noble-hating humans, so precise numbers weren’t available, but roughly ninety-five percent of those contracts were satisfactorily completed—a fact that was in those days (and in the present as well) a major blow to scholars of the anti-Noble faction. At that time, the traditional view that the Nobility saw human beings only as food was badly shaken. However, for all the scholars of the pro-Noble faction who asserted that the Nobility’s cruelty and blood drinking were an inescapable destiny imprinted in their very DNA, some twenty-three hundred years later new excavations had unearthed truths that came as a great shock. Thanks to other contracts and the journals of Nobles from that same time frame, it became known that for every contract completed satisfactorily, three times as many had been horribly breached. After that, the anti-Noble faction’s predominance was unshaken, and continued so in the present day. As far as humans were concerned, the Nobility were demons who’d ruled over them for nearly ten millennia.

“They’re the same,” D said, his voice flowing out in a low tone. As always, it was cold and boundlessly dark. “Science isn’t satisfied with merely observing phenomena. It’s the spirit of finding the truth that lies behind them—in demonstrating facts. You might even say it’s supported by the imagination. Have you never considered, Doctor, that it’s possible for Nobles and humans to live together?”

“Huh?” Vera replied, apparently dumbstruck. “Excuse me?
What?
” The doctor shook her head fiercely. “Wait just a minute. Not once have I—”

“Don’t lie.”

The doctor froze. D’s words would gouge out her heart and lungs, turning blood to ice before it could spray forth. “I’m not lying. You’re wrong. Why do you think I’d lie?”

“I can tell from the way you’ve been looking at
this
guy ever since we met.”

The doctor blinked stupidly. D’s voice had become the hoarse tone of another person entirely.

“Your average person just kinda loses themself in the sight. But underneath that, there’s a fear they can’t hide. A racial memory carved into humans’ bones—not even you can do anything about that. But the way you look at him is different. You’ve got the look of someone who understands him. Fundamentally different from those in the pro-Noble school, who are merely superficial, you have the eyes of one who’s struggled to understand the true nature of the Nobility and ultimately wrested free the truth. Even the tragedy that’s befallen you can’t shake that. No matter what evil purpose it might be put to, the truth of E = mc² doesn’t change. You know it.”

Vera was stunned. It took her a good ten seconds before she could say anything. “No . . . Now
that’s
a lie . . . As long as I live, I’ll hate . . .”

Her body began to tremble. The shaking grew finer and finer still, and then her body became a blur. She had surpassed the limits of the human body’s ability to shake.

“What in the world is she—” the hoarse voice muttered in amazement. “A physical and mental transformation brought on through molecular vibrations—I’ve never seen the like.”

What was taking place in the body of that ordinary country doctor?

At any rate, the shaking gradually subsided. Her blurred outlines resolved into one, the tremors themselves ceased, and Vera flopped back against the sofa.

“What the hell? Don’t make such a fuss over her.”

Despite the hoarse voice’s objections, D picked Vera up and laid her flat on the sofa.

“Leave her be. Dirty little tease,” the voice grumbled.

“When the spirit and flesh separate, do they both stay the same as they were before?” D asked.

“Nope. Some say they become like a whole different person. But I haven’t seen it for myself.”

“In what way?”

“Let me see . . . The most ordinary woman in the world could turn into the greatest liar of all time, or something like that, I guess?”

Nothing from the Hunter.

“This is serious, like holding a snake to your bosom. One of them’s a woman and a warrior at the same time; the other’s a doctor. Both of ’em consciously hate vampires. One alone could be trouble, but if the two of ’em were to team up, that’s about as dangerous as it comes. Why not put her down here and now? Ouff!”

As D was squeezing his hand into a fist, Lilia and Dust came running in, having sensed something unusual. They had longsword and club in hand. As for Crey—it seemed he was sleeping.

“What in blazes happened?” Dust asked, looking down at where the semiconscious Vera lay on the sofa.

“Not a thing,” said the hoarse voice. “She’s sleeping like a baby.”

“What? I got up for this?” said Lilia, letting out a great yawn.

No sooner had the killing lust left Dust than D asked, “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Lilia listened intently, then blinked a few times and said, “Nothing—what, is there something outside?”

“I can’t see anything,” Dust said with a shake of his head as he peered out the window.

“Must’ve imagined it.”

At that hoarse remark, Lilia shrugged her shoulders. “Troublemaker. If you’re going to put the bite on someone, try to keep it quiet.”

“The doc—what happened to her?” Dust asked from beside the sofa.

“Just a tad anemic,” the hoarse voice replied. “She’ll be fine soon.”

“That’s not it. It’s not anemia, with that color in her face,” Lilia interrupted. Training a sharp gaze on Vera’s neck, she continued, “Her carotid artery’s fine, but just to be safe she should be stripped naked and checked. After all, we’re dealing with a dhampir here.”

“You did this to her?” Dust’s eyes gleamed.

“I suppose I did,” D replied, this time in his own voice.

“When the doctor wakes up, I’m gonna ask her what happened. Depending on the answer, you might be in a world of hurt.” His rough hands tightened on his club.

“Nothing happened,” Vera said, sitting up on the sofa.

“You okay, Doc?” Dust asked, stealing a glance at her before quickly returning his gaze to D.

“Just a little anemic. I’m not much good in the cold. Lilia, I’ll thank you to choose your words more carefully.”

“What’s this—you’re on
his
side all of a sudden? Well, that must be because he’s so damn handsome.”

“
Excuse
me?” The doctor’s wrathful countenance made the warrior woman shrug her shoulders.

“Okay, I’m sorry. That was out of line. But Mr. Bodyguard, you should look the doctor over from head to toe.” Swishing her tail, the Huntress returned to her room.

“You can go too, Dust.”

“But—”

“I’ll be fine. He doesn’t seem to have much interest in humans. Particularly in women.” Vera was even able to smile at that. “Surely you don’t really suspect he’s sucked my blood, do you?”

The giant of a man gave D a withering glare, looked once again at Vera, then promptly left.

“Ain’t that a cold guard man. We’ve got a vampire panic here, and he’d walk away from the culprit and the victim?”

At the disgusted tone of the hoarse voice, a bitter grin rose to Vera’s lips. “It’s okay, don’t trouble yourself about it. Forget that—what could’ve happened to me?”

“Nothing. You just fainted from anemia. You should call it a night. I’ll sleep out here.”

“I really do like this voice better than that other one,” Vera said, scratching her head. “And you intend to watch over the child as well? But you’re the one who needs to rest. Doctor’s orders.”

“Have it your way.”

As if his previous remark about sleeping there had been a fabrication, D headed for the door. He stepped out into the hall. It wasn’t a narrow passageway. One touch of a switch on the wall and a window opened—or rather, it came into being. Sunlight-loathing Nobles still liked to enjoy the night scenery. However, the existence of windows would let in the light of day. This was the resulting compromise.

Gazing out at a world where the blizzard raged like a crazed white demon, the hoarse voice said, “They’re out there, aren’t they? Tomorrow our trip’s gonna be rough.”

Naturally there was no reply. No matter what kind of trip it was, it could do nothing to deter this gorgeous young man from his course—or so his silence seemed to declare.

The window closed.

A number of presences that’d stayed frozen while D gazed at them finally began wriggling around out in the snow again but were immediately swallowed up by the howling blizzard.

The Ill-Fated Search

chapter 4

I

P
erhaps you could say the good omens continued. It was just shortly after daybreak that sunlight and blue sky began spreading behind the blizzard. About the same time, Lourié woke up. His color had returned, and his mind was sharp. He gave them a smile that suggested his body was in good shape as well.

“Sure you’re not in any pain?” Vera asked, to which he answered in the affirmative, nodding exuberantly. After some reflection Vera called Dust over and said, “Our friend here is going to bring you down off the mountain.”

“I don’t want to go,” the boy replied, pursing his lips tightly and shaking his head.

“Well, to be honest, you’re just slowing us down.”

“I know that. That’s why I started up alone in the first place.”

“Going it alone is all well and good, but if anything were to happen to you, we’d have to go rescue you. You’re not alone anymore.”

“Please, just go on ahead. That way, if something happens to me, you won’t know about it. All you have to do is keep moving straight ahead, and not turn around.”

“You know we couldn’t do that.” Vera let out a sigh. Her patience was wearing thin. Yet the boy had an earnestness to his manner that tempered her anger. “When we found you, you said you’d come looking for your father who was lost up here, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Is that really all there is to it?”

“Yes—why do you ask?” Lourié had lowered his gaze for a moment, but now he looked at the doctor again.

“There are other people in the village who’ve had family go missing on the mountain. There are parents who’ve lost children. But you don’t see them out searching at this time of year.”

“You’re right.”

“Yet you try to make the climb with a blizzard raging—well, at any rate, we’re with you there. But you said you’d search for your father alone. I believe you’re serious. And that’s what worries me. So, did your father really just disappear?”

“That’s right.”

Vera looked the boy in the eye. He immediately averted his gaze. The doctor knew what that meant in an instant, but not the details. Pressing the matter any further would only make the boy more recalcitrant.

“I guess we have no choice then.” Vera heaved a sigh. “At the moment, it’s possible to safely go down the mountain.”

She turned toward the door and started to walk away. Her course took her behind Lourié. The doctor’s right hand came to rest on the base of his slender neck, where she pressed the anesthetic gun she’d hid in her sleeve. Quickly catching the boy as he slumped forward, she had Dust lay him on his back.

“Get him down quickly,” she told the man, filling him in on the decision she’d made the day before.

The giant nodded. Even so, he hesitated. “I’m supposed to be guarding you, Doc.”

“If the boy were to do something stupid, it’d put me in danger as well. Getting him back to the village is the very best protection you can offer me.”

The giant said nothing at that.

“Please. Leave while the others are still sleeping.”

“Roger that.”

“And once you’ve done that, you’re not to come back here. Am I understood?”

Silence once more from the giant.

“Please. I don’t want you to end up like your daughter. Your wife cursed me to her dying breath.”

Again, nothing from Dust.

“What’s more, if anything were to befall you, it would pain me for all my days. And I’d hate those in the village office who picked you as my protector.”

The doctor spat out her confession like a gout of blood, but it didn’t bring so much as a twitch from the stony face of the giant. All it wore was a cold blankness that surpassed even hatred.

What had happened between the doctor and her protector?

“I’ll be back,” Dust said flatly. He understood what the doctor was saying but didn’t agree with it; that much was plain to Vera as well. To him, Vera was someone to be protected and nothing more. Toward that end, it would be best to bring the boy home. He’d decided that, and nothing more. “But if I don’t make it . . .”

“Don’t worry. I’m capable of defending myself. Besides, if it comes to that, I don’t think the other three will leave me to my own defenses.”

Dust fell silent, proof he doubted Vera’s claims. Two Hunters and an outlaw—when push came to shove, they seemed to him to be the last people in the world who’d give a thought to anyone else’s safety. However, about ten minutes later the village guardian left the Noble’s refuge with the soundly sleeping Lourié on his back.

Before even five minutes had passed, Lilia got up, came into the room, and said, “Hey, where’s the kid?” But before she’d even finished saying the words, the Huntress got a gleam in her eyes. “Don’t tell me you sent them back to the village.”

“It’s still close enough to go back. Besides, the boy’s just going to be in the way later.”

“Looks like you’ll be even more trouble, Doctor!” Lilia spat venomously. “Do you think this is a secure area? All night long I sensed things moving around out there. You’ve as good as sent them to their deaths!”

“It can’t be . . .” Vera heard a series of regulated explosions within her—the sound of her heart.

“When exactly did they leave?”

“About five minutes ago!”

“Then we might still be in time. I’m heading right out after them. You stay here. D?” she called out. “D!”

Still shouting toward the door, the Huntress moved into the living room with the gait of a predator about to pounce on its prey. Before ten seconds had passed, she returned, saying, “He’s not here.” She groaned the words, as if biting off a chunk of her own fate. “What the hell is he doing?”

At this point she put on her poker face. “Well, that’s one or two fewer children around. Good riddance, I say!” And with that, she added, “This is a hell of a way to roll out of bed. I’m going to go see if I can catch up to them. It sure would help if the big fella was carrying some sort of radio, though.”

“Unfortunately, no.”

Lilia clucked her tongue and slapped the hilt of the longsword she carried.

At that point Crey poked his sleepy-eyed head in and asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”

“The right man at the right time!” Lilia said, looking fit to lick her chops with anticipation.

“Come again?”

–

Before they’d gone five hundred yards Crey was grumbling complaints to himself. Something about how he hated wandering around out in the cold. “I’m tired. And I like it back at the refuge.”

“That’s
my
refuge, thank you. If you fancy pitching a tent outside tonight, by all means, go on back.”

“You lousy bitch. That’s extortion.”

Ignoring the way the outlaw bared his teeth, she looked off into the distance for footprints in the snow. “The tracks are here, no problem. At least we’ve got something to go on. If you call yourself a man, stop your bellyaching and follow me.”

“Shit!” Crey said, and as he did so he made a strange face. “Hey, what about that son of a bitch D? Come to think of it, he wasn’t in the refuge, but there’s no tracks from him either. Wonder if the jerk ran off in the dead of night.”

“No.”

“You sound pretty damn sure of yourself.”

“Over there!”

Crey focused his eyes in the direction Lilia had indicated with a toss of her chin. Just where an incline began, two figures were headed toward them.

“Why’s there two of ’em?” Crey said, and then he swiftly tensed, and at the same time understood.

The two figures at the bottom of the incline slowly took the form of D and Dust. Lourié was over Dust’s shoulder. When Dust’s rough features became discernible, the outlaw said, “Was the big fella’s face always that red?”

“This is bad!”

Lilia broke into a run, the snow tripping her up. Not only Dust’s face, but his whole upper body as well, was stained with fresh blood.

“Is the kid okay?”

Dust nodded. A flesh-toned plaster had been applied to the split in his forehead. It was an antiseptic product. Vera had most likely given it to him.

“And the boy never the wiser—lucky little brat,” said Lilia.

On Dust’s back, Lourié slumbered peacefully, not yet roused from the anesthetic.

Quickly turning her gaze to Dust’s face, she said, “That’s not such a serious wound. Who gave it to you?”

“Snow bugs.”

That was a kind of three-foot-long insect that built its nests in the snow. Due to their being entirely white, they were hard to pick out. Their weapons were teeth and claws. Both were sharp, for carving smaller insects out of the ice, but due to their sluggish movements, a well-equipped human could hold their own against up to five of them.

“How many were there?”

“A good five dozen.”

“And you got off with just that?”

Dust gave a toss of his chin to the figure of beauty beside him. “I’d put down thirty-two, and number thirty-three got me. That’s when he came along.” His expression and tone were the very picture of unsociability, but there was a glow of gratitude in his eyes.

More dazzling than the snowfields, the one he referred to kept his silence.

“They may be a little on the slow side, but those claws move ten times faster than a man. And there he was, taking out five at a time, six swipes of his sword to finish the lot without taking even a scratch. I’m not sure which one’s the monster. I’d never seen what a dhampir could do before.”