WARNING: Some portions of the following work of fiction contain
depictions of bondage, torture, rape, and explicit sex, including
same-sex activity. 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.

=================================================================

Heaven's Door

Chapter 2 Taken

"I told Gideon already," urged the bar tender to the tan haired
man before him. "My daughter is not here."

"Oh but Samual. I saw her myself, and such a pretty little thing
too. You know the deal," the tan haired man gazed at him with
dangerous eyes, from behind his round glasses. "Either hand her
over, or provide three girls. You've given two, but where is the
third? Gideon is tired of waiting."

"You've refused the last girls I sent you. What more do you
want!"

"Our client is looking for someone special. He's not going to
accept those little trollops you sent us. Now, where is..." the
young man's eyes went wide as he saw the mirror behind the bar.
He casually turned and watched as a girl in a dark green cloak,
and tight white and blue suite, walked into the bar. She had long
brown hair, as her braided ponytail over her shoulder attested
to, and she wore a pair of fine silver framed glasses.

She removed her cloak from her shoulders, slapping at the hands
of men as they reached for her. She had belts of fine silver
arrows around her body, and legs, and at least three knives that
he could see, along her lower legs. She was beautiful, slim and
shapely. "She's perfect," he said, as he pulled the bar keeper
closer to his face to talk. "Tell me about her. Now! And I may
forget about your pretty daughter."

"Her name is Kale. She's a hunter's woman."

"Excuse me," she said from the end of the bar.

"Yes miss Kale?" asked the barkeeper.

"Mind if I use your kitchen? I'd also like to purchase a few
produce items."

"Mind if I ask why?" he asked, as the tan haired man released
him.

"I have to make a stew," and she held up her slain rabbit,
"before my little friend here spoils."

"Sure, I'll add what you use to your bill."

"Fine. Thanks." She draped her cloak over her arm again, and
headed into the kitchen.

"She sounds like a bird when she speaks, and she cooks too. Oh,
Samual. She's just what my client is looking for."

"She's deadly," he said, remembering the drunk from earlier. "She
crippled a man today. If it weren't for her hunter man, she'd
have killed him!"

"Gideon will break her of that."

"Please, don't. Her hunter is the one who saved our village years
ago. Leave the girl alone. I don't want any trouble from him. He
gives me the creep enough as it is."

"It's either her, or your daughter." The barman bowed his head,
and nodded. "Good boy."



"You make this before?" asked the dark haired waitress.

"Yes. He loved it. Its been a while, so I thought I'd make it
again." Kale finished chopping some potatoes and slid them into
the steaming kettle. "You sure you can use the rabbit skin? I'd
hate to waste it."

"Yes. I use." She replied, as she finished stretching the small
hide on a fram and spreading salt over the raw skin.

"Your accent is very odd," said Kale, as she pealed about a half
dozen carrots. "It isn't like the others of the east I've heard.
Where are you from originally? If you don't mind me asking."

"I not mind," she said, handing down spices Kale pointed to. "I
raised in southern area. My father, not real father. But love me
all the same. He marry mother, some years later, she die with
baby brother."

"Oh I'm sorry."

"No, it years ago now. Thank you, but father come back home.
Brother sick, needed help with bar. Soon after, he die, and
father take over bar. Been here ever since. Stew finish?"

"Almost," Kale stirred the pot's contents and added some peas and
corn. "There. It's a bit much for myself and D, would you and
your father care to have some?"

"Oh please, yes. Smells wonderful. Thank you. You tell mina,
please, now, how to make?"

"Sure. Get some paper and a pen. I'll give you the recipe."



The tan haired man stepped out of the shadows of the barn, into
the light of the torches. "There are two targets," he said to the
men gathered there. "Gratefully they are both in the kitchen.
Remember. They are not to be maimed. Just knock them out and get
them back to camp. Watch out for the brown haired one. She can be
tricky."

"Danton, I thought we were going after just one tonight," said
one of the men.

"Do you think Gideon was going to let that Mina girl stay here?
Please. He wants her regardless. Just do as I say, and we'll be
out before anyone can get help to them. Follow me."

The fifteen men followed Danton around the building to the rear
entrance to the kitchen, tramping over the vegetable garden as
they went.



"Thank you. I make more later. Add to Menu. Hunter's Stew. You
like name?"

"I like it," Kale smiled. She felt happy. She hadn't talked like
this with another woman in a long time. It reminded her of her
dear friend Karla, back home. They were like Mutt and Jeff.
Despite their many differences, they were the best of friends.
Kale only hoped she didn't suffer during the war.

"You ok?" asked Mina, seeing Kale drift in thought.

"Yha. Memories. Good ones, but kind of sad at the same time."

"Lost friends, lost family. Always good to remember." Mina leaned
closer. "You and hunter man, you love yes?"

"We're very close, yes," Kale smiled.

"I ask, what it like? Father won't let men here touch me. But I
want to love. But..."

Kale nodded. "He's protecting your honor." Mina nodded. "When you
find the right man, you'll know." She turned as a bit of water
boiled over from the pot.

Suddenly the door burst open, and someone came crashing through
the kitchen windows. Mina and Kale both grabbed for large kitchen
knives instinctively, but Kale then remembered her daggers, and
reached for them instead. She couldn't use her crossbow, there
wasn't enough room to aim properly for a good shot. "I chop
you!!" screamed Mina, swinging the great meat cleaver at the men
who came at her.

Two of the intruders came at Kale, but fell quickly from kicks of
her powerful legs. But still more men poured in from the broken
accesses. One drew a long sword at the door, and made a dash for
Mina. Kale struck him down, landing one of her daggers in the
side of his skull. Another man grabbed Kale's arem, now devoid of
a weapon, and forced it behind her back. She slashed his leg
deep, and he yelped, staggering to the hot stove. Kale tipped her
stew over onto his open wounds and he cried louder as the hot
liquid ate at the raw flesh.
"STOP!!!" shouted a man above the noise. Kale looked over to
where the voice had come. "Or your little friend here dies." A
tan haired man held the meat cleaver across Mina's neck, her fear
screaming from her eyes, as tears stained her cheeks.

"Hurt her, and so help me..." she warned.

"Gentlemen, relieve the lady of her armaments." The men wrenched
her dagger from her hand, tore the small crossbow from her wrist,
and cut her belts of arrows from her body. "She wont need them
were she's going."

"Mina!" the barman burst into the kitchen and stopped when he saw
his daughter. "Please, you said you'd take the girl, but that
you'll leave Mina here. Please!"

"Sorry old man. Deal's off," one of the other men drove Kale's
dagger into his back, severing his spine.

"Father!!" screamed Mina, grabbing him as he fell. "Father!" she
cried.

"Sorry Mina, I tried. I'm so sorry."

"Take them away," the tan haired man knelt down over Mina's
father. "Gideon doesn't make deals," he said. "Not to worry, Mina
will be well broken in before we sell her. You just keep sending
girls. Or we'll put Mina down naked in the middle of the desert,
just to watch her burn."

"You bastard!" he spat, pulling himself up by his arms.

"Flattery will get you no where."



Something was wrong. The bar was too quiet, despite it being
closed. Then he smelled it. Blood, it came from the kitchen. He
drew his blade and cautiously opened the door. Blood trails out
the back door, a body on the floor with one of Kale's daggers in
his skull, the remains of uncooked stew on the floor. "Do you
think Dear old Daddy came back here?" asked the sym.

"I hope not. But if he did, this isn't like him."

"True, but then what happened?"

D followed the blood trail to the backyard. There he found the
proprietor face down in the trampled garden, dozens of footprints
around him. "Hunter," he rasped, turning himself over. D went to
him. "I know you hunt Vampires, but please, I know you'll take
this job too."

"Take it easy. I'll send for a healer."

"No time. Listen to me. Gideon is a slave master from the south,
he has a gatherer named Danton, he grabbed Mina...and your
woman." D's jaw clenched with rage. "I can't walk, I can't feel
my legs. Please, bring Mina home. Please. I'll give you all I
have. Please."

"There's more. More you're not telling," D could see it in the
man's eyes.

He nodded. "They promised to leave Mina, if I let them take your
woman. She's my daughter. I'm sorry, but they took her anyway.
Please, bring her back. Before I die."
D examined the wound. Kale's dagger still protruded from the
wound. "You'll need a healer to remove that blade. Then I'll go.
But I'll go for Kale alone. If Mina is with her, I'll bring her
back as well."

He nodded. The Hunter was furious that he'd agree to such a
bargin. He understood, but he was a father protecting his child.
What else could he have done? These men were deadly. "Just do
what you can, and for what it's worth, I'm sorry."

D lifted him over his shoulder. "It's worth nothing. If Kale
dies, I will never return here, and you will never see your
daughter again."



Mina woke in the cell and watched as Kale continued to reach
through the bars of the window, to the outside. "We at least 300
feet up, what you doing?" Kales brought her hand back in and
began again at digging into the wound on her right palm.

"D knows how to track a blood trail. I'm trying to lead him to
us."

"We so high, how he follow trail so high?"

"Never mind. Go back to sleep." Just then the doors to the
cellblock creaked open. Kale scrambled across to Mina and got in
front of her. Unable to stand because of the low ceiling, she'd
have to kick as best she could. Close quarters combat was
something she was never really good at. She liked room to move,
room to run if she had to.

Mina coward behind her, as a man, with long black hair and cold
brown eyes, stared in at them, and smiled wickedly pleasant to
himself. "Yes Danto. She is pretty. She'd better be all you said.
My client despises disappointments, and if he is disappointed, so
am I. You know how I get, when I'm not happy."

"Oh trust me, Gideon. She's all I said and more. As an added
bonus, she cooks too."

"Really? Well, I'll have to watch her closely in the kitchen
then."

"She has a few bad habits. She kills people."

"Maims herself too. Look at her right hand." Gideon stepped back
as Danton leaned forward. Blood poured from between her fingers.

"Dam! Healer!!"

"I don't even want to see a scar when it heals. I'll start her
training though tomorrow. What of the other one?"

"Mina, Samual's daughter. Just as delightful as you predicted."

"Good, send her to my room tonight. I want to break her in
myself. And get them out of those clothes!" he brushed past the
healer as he left the cells.

"Yes sir! Tend the tall one's hand. Use small stitches. No
scaring. And wrap her other hand as well so she can't dig at the
wounds. Guards!"


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