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WARNING: Some portions of the following work of fiction contain explicit sex. If you are under 18 (or whatever age is appropriate for your location), HIT YOUR BACK BROWSER BUTTON NOW. If you find explicit sex offensive, please don't offend yourself by reading further.

The full disclaimer for this work of Vampire Hunter D fanfiction is at the beginning of Chapter 1.

Author: Charlotte MacFarlane
Email: duckey@ns.sympatico.ca
Feedback: Please, yes, lots.
Forward to others: would be flattered if you did.
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Of the Heart

Chapter 6 Shattered hopes


'Those idiots, they're so blind. Can't they see they headed for the ruins? Oh well. Let them chase after dust balls.' She pulled off toward the decaying buildings trying to get her four-wheeler to move faster, but no luck. 'mmm only one set of tracks. Damn! Now who's the idiot?' she stopped her machine, got off and removed her helmet to see & hear better. 'Where are you?' she perked her long triangular ears to all the sounds around her. "Very clever," she called loudly. "Only one of you is here. I know it's you. All I want is the baby!"

She could faintly hear the footsteps of a horse, but could not see it. 'I need to get higher.' She scanned the shell of the town's bar & inn and made her way to the upper balcony. Her ears twitching at every sound. "You can't get away," she called, trying to scare out whoever had the baby. "I can track you anywhere!" she looked to a shadow across the road & drew her gun. "Come on Bitch," she hissed quietly, "All I need is one good shot."


D had followed in the shadows of the ruins as the woman examined the area around her. "Very clever," she called out tauntingly. "Only one of you is here. I know its you. All I want is the baby!"

"She's one of KD's people," said the sym. quietly.

"I'm not giving her up!" D hushed. He followed her as she made her way to what was left of the Bar & Inn of the town. As she climbed to the upper level, he followed in a single leap, landing soundlessly behind a pile of debris, behind her. Slowly and carefully he moved closer.

"You can't get away," the woman called again. "I can track you anywhere!" Something then caught her eye, and she drew her gun at it. "Come on Bitch. All I need is one good shot." D looked down to what she was aiming at. From between two old buildings, a massive tumbleweed rolled out, blown by the wind. At once she fired six shots into the helpless deceased plant life. "Shit! Damn bushes." As she turned, D rushed out, sward drawn, and slapped the flat of his sward across her gun arm. The sting of the strike caused her to drop her gun, and he forced her back at the end of his blade. "Shit!"

"If you are the best tracker, than all you will be is a minor annoyance." The morning breeze billowed D's cloak out from around him, giving the strange girl a good look at his long muscular frame, before the wind died down.

'mmm nice,' she thought. 'Damn it, mind out of the sewer Trexa, you're not on your back any more. You're a tracker, act like it!"

"Who are you? And why are you following me?" he didn't want to face possibilities, he wanted facts. There was less worry that way, and he'd be better able to work out how to deal with this woman. And to face what her presence meant.
"My name is Trexa. I'm a tracker among my people. I've been hired to track down a baby born to Densa & Rilu of the Shendra clan," she leaned against the railing, to show D she wasn't leaving, and that she wasn't threatened by him with his drawn sward, even though she was. Somehow she found it very exciting.

D regarded her as she spoke. She had whitish blond died hair, just past her shoulders. There were wisps of black hair in the lower layers near her cheeks, which waved out across her face in the breeze. She was slender and full breasted, wearing a lavender and gray patterned suit, with heavy boots. A belt around her waist held her gun holster on her right, with ammunition pockets around the rest of the belt.

She didn't present herself as a hunter, or tracker, or whatever she called herself. Her every move, every gesture, even the way she looked at him, screamed seduction. 'A whore turned hunter? Wonderful,' he thought.

"This is what I know," she continued. "One, the men who took the baby are dead. The baby is gone, again. The tracks of your boots, those of your horses, and those of another, were around the wagon after it crashed.

"Two, you and your woman are parents of a baby that you must buy milk for, and every human wants to kill the baby.

"Now, I draw this conclusion. You and your woman came upon the wagon, the adults already dead. How? I really don't care. The baby was in the back. You figure, hey, we need money and supplies, the parents of the kid can give us those. Thus you hold the kid for ransom, but you're having trouble locating the family of your meal ticket. Right?" She smiled, satisfied. 'Damn I'm good.'

"Wrong," he scoffed, lowering his sward. She suddenly lost her smug smile. "you really need to get better at this. You've leapt to so many conclusions; I'm surprised you haven't done yourself in. Yes, we found the baby. Yes, we need supplies to continue our journey north. No, we are not holding the child for ransom. She's...she's in good hands."

"Then give her to me, so I can take her back to her family."

"I can't!" D couldn't believe his voice. Trembling, and he could feel his eyes warm and begin to tear. He tilted his hat down so that this whore turned tracker, wouldn't see this. 'We're going to loose our daughter,' he thought. 'This is going to shatter Kale.' "The baby isn't here."

"Where is she?"

"I don't know."

"Then lets go find her."

"Not you. You won't be able to get close to her. And even if you did, Kale wouldn't give the aby to the likes of you."

"And what makes you say that? I'm the kid's species. I know that kid better than you."

"Maybe so. But Kale is her mother!"

The woman stood up straight. "No Way!..."

"Right now, Kale is KD's...the child's mother, and she's thinking as a mother. Protecting her child. That's all she cares about right now. And if you try to take KD...the baby,...she'll kill you."

"Just let her try."

"I've seen her angry," he said, remembering the coldness of Kale when she took revenge on Gideon for what he'd done to her. "You don't want to go there."

"Ok, Fine. Tell that to Densa & Rilu. The parents who are so grief stricken, they can't think, eat, or sleep. They can't even search for their own child. That's how distraught they are."

"Take me to them," he sighed, pointing his sward to the ladder affair of boards she used to climb up. He picked up her gun as she made her way down.

"Kale isn't going to let go of KD that quickly," the sym. whispered.

D wiped his tearing eyes as he made his way to where he'd come up. "I know. She's going to hate me."

"Then why do it?"

"What?"

"Keep the kid, and head north, and inland, like you have been."

"I can't," he snapped, landing on the floor below.

"Why not? It isn't like they can't have more little rug rats."

"That's not the point. KD's parents are alive. They want her back."

"Then why not give the kid to the tracker wanna be?"

"Because Kale won't give the baby to anyone other than the true mother."

"And you're going to put them together aren't you?"

"I have to. Nightmare!"

"Why?"

"Because Kale will run other wise. She'll see me as one who wants to take her baby away, and she'll run...even from me."

"You think so?"

"I know so."


The cliff continued on high and steep, and no signs of caves for shelter, Max's hoof beats echoed off the cliff face. Then the road turned again, towards a valley with a few trees scattered around it. Kale opted to take shelter in the trees till D caught up. There sheltered by great spreading evergreens around her, and a great weeping willow in front of her with it's branches reaching the ground, she settled and continued KD's interrupted breakfast. "You were so brave, my girl," she smiled, as the little girl eagerly took to her bottle. During the run, Kale had stored the bottle down her shirt, thus the milk had warmed somewhat, and was more welcome than the cool milk the first time it was offered. "I'm very proud of you. Not to worry though. Daddy will be here soon."

"Sense when did you have a baby?" Kale spun around, her crossbow formed and arrow loaded. "Whoa! Its us!" said the man.

"Lunk! God You scared me."

"Sorry, come on Kat, honey."

"Don't!!" Kale shouted, "I don't want you any closer!"

"Gees Miss Kale, what's gotten into you?" the red haired man asked, as he let the branch he held go. It swung back and knocked over Katlyn as she tried to limp passed the limb.

"LUNK!!! You asshole!!"

"Kat! Sweetie, oh god, I'm sorry." Kale couldn't' help but laugh. If these were the best highwaymen of the area, people had little to worry about, they'd probably kill each other before too long.

"Watch the language. There's a baby here."

"So I heard," called Kat. "Last time we saw you, you didn't have one. Can we come closer, please?"

"No!!"

"Gees, alright, you act as though we'd kill the kid. Fine, fine, be that way. OWE!!! Lunk, I swear your brains are in your dick!!" Kale shot an arrow into the ground, only an inch from Katlyn's hand.

"I warned you about the language."

"Ok, ok...Man you really are pi...er...miffed aren't you?"

"Kale, what is going on? Where's D?" Lunk helped resettle Kat where she landed, to make her more comfortable.

"People are after us," she confided, making sure KD had her bottle secured for her to drink from, while she reloaded her crossbow.

"Why?"

"Because KD is different! And people around here don't seem to like that."

"You've got a mutant kid!" Katlyn practically screamed.

"You try anything and so help me..."

"Hey take it easy Kale, we're not gonna hurt you, or the baby."

"Yha, right."

"We're not from around here," called Lunk, stepping out of the trees. Again Kale trained her bow on him. "I mean it. I'm originally from Brisalla. Katlyn is from Donrath. About three days from here."

"Yha, prove it."

"I know the Inn and Tavern owner," Kat called, "His name is Sam. Samual Stence. He's got a daughter named Mina. She speaks with an accent 'cause she's from further south, along the shores I think."

Kale lowered her bow for a moment. "I know Sam, sort of. I know his daughter too."

"How is she?" Kat asked, as Lunk returned to her to help her to where she and Kale could talk face to face. "Last time I saw her, she was wondering what it was like to be with a man. Said her dad wouldn't let the guys at the bar touch her. Not that I blame him. She's a sweet kid."

"She's dead," Kale sadly announced.

"What? How?" Lunk and Kat sat down near the woman, and Lunk spread a blanket around each of their shoulders to help keep them warm. The sun was higher now, but the air was still cold, and he doubted that Kale would let him start a fire.

"She was kidnapped by desert slavers, they killed her." Was all Kale could say.

"And Sam?"

"I don't know."

"She was a good kid. I liked talking to her whenever we were in the village. I'm really gonna miss her. How do you know that she'd dead?"

Kale said nothing but motioned for Max to lower his head. From the secure compartment on his neck, she pulled out the storage box for her smaller arrows, only it held a more solemn cargo. "These are Mina's ashes," she said, pulling a small flower from the ground and lacing it under the string holding the box closed. Katlyn and Lunk just looked at it, then Kale returned it to Max's neck.

"Look," Lunk began, "this is crazy sitting out like this. There's an old animal Den in the hill back there. We spent the night in it. You're welcome to stay there too. We could start a fire there, and if anyone came along, you and the kid can hide in the cave, and we can steer them away." Kale just stroked Max's face.

"Lunk is right Kale, though I'd hate to admit it. You and the kid are in the open here, even if you are in the trees. If there's a mob after you, don't you think you better keep the kid safe? And it would be safer in the den, where you'd be sheltered."

Max nudged her, as though he agreed with what Katlyn was saying. "Alright," she said as she rose. "But if anything goes wrong, you two are dead."

"Hey, would we steer you wrong?" asked Lunk, raising his hands wide in asking, letting go of Katlyn. She dropped back to the ground, in a painful heap. Lunk just stared sheepishly down at her.