Vampire Hunter D Volume 18- Fortress of the Elder God Read Online Free Page B

and Jan found his arm crushed against his torso just as he was about to raise his sword.
    Overhead, a black shape soaked up the sunlight as it zipped along. One of the tentacles coiled, trying to catch hold of it. It was rebuffed instead. A second and third entered the fray. Deftly averting them, an arrow of black iron flew with supersonic speed at D’s face, piercing the center of the writhing mass of tentacles. Reeling back without a sound, D tried to extricate the arrow with both hands, but it wouldn’t budge. The tentacles had already released the people. It was obvious that they danced in the throes of death at the bidding of their host.
    When D finally fell over, one of the men avoided the still-twitching tentacles and went over to him. It was Bierce. Obviously the deadly arrows that had pierced D had been unleashed by him in midair. Like the others, he’d had both arms tied up by the tentacles, which now twitched on the ground in numerous pieces. They’d been torn apart. The question was, how?
    The warrior looked down sternly at D in his death throes.
    Just then, Jan came over clutching his throat and cursed, “That son of a bitch was lying when he said he was a Vampire Hunter. Damned if he wasn’t one of the monsters!”
    “No, it’s not him.”
    “What?” Jan exclaimed, and he wasn’t the only one with the wrathful look of a demon on his face.
    “He was different somehow. Somewhere along the line we got duped. By more of these things, I guess.”
    “These things? What the hell are they?”
    “Things is the only way I can describe them. Looks like those aerial photos didn’t catch all the strange stuff on the ground. Are all of you okay?” Bierce said to the group behind Jan.
    “Yeah. I’ll survive.”
    “Keep the Stows and the kid back there,” the warrior told them.
    “Why—”
    “Looks like this guy isn’t all right.”
    Following Bierce’s gaze, Jan flinched, and then immediately let out a gagging sound.
    The massive form of the sheriff lay on the ground. Rather than strangling him, their foe had chosen to do something else. His head, ripped from his broad shoulders, sat on the ground about a foot and a half closer to the two men than the lawman’s body. It was facing them.
    “Wish we could bury him, but we don’t have the time. We can have a funeral for him later. If we make it, that is.”
    “You’ll jinx us with talk like that,” Jan said, his body seeming to quiver with a sort of helplessness.
    “You scared?”
    “Hell, yeah. I can take care of myself against humans, but I’m no good when it comes to monsters.”
    The warrior grinned wryly. “Well, at least you’re honest.”
    “That’s my best point. We’re counting on you now, you old warrior. You’re our only hope.” When the mobster looked back at the rest of the party, his face was indeed pale. “At any rate, let’s get going.”
    The two men began to walk back to the rest of the party. Everyone was facing them. Weizmann, the Stows, Maria—their expressions all changed suddenly. The instant he recognized it as a look of fear, Bierce twisted his upper body around. He raised the arrow he still held in his left hand. But he didn’t get a chance to throw it.
    Behind him stood the faceless D. His wounds hadn’t been fatal. However, his body was enveloped in white smoke, and the tentacles that spilled from the hole in his face rained down on the ground. The broken tentacles had started to dissolve. A stark, silvery tip protruded from the chest of his black coat.
    When the body began to melt away and collapse as if it were hollow, the two of them saw the young man in black who stood there with naked steel in hand. This was the real one.
    Such awe and terror coursed through Jan’s body that he literally shook. But he didn’t even know what sort of terror it was.
    “We’re saved . . .” the mobster said, somehow managing to keep his knees from buckling.
    “You came back?” Bierce asked, returning the arrow to his