Leaps

D walked toward Mayerling. He stopped with ten feet still between them.
“You know, D,” Mayerling said, discharging the words like a sigh, “there’s
no road to the stars after all. But then you knew that all along, didn’t you?”
D didn’t answer.

Vampire and Vampire Hunter discarded hatred and anger and grief, and
readied for battle. Trenchant claws grew from the fingertips of Mayerling’s
right hand. Neither of the men seemed to move, but the distance between
them shrank nonetheless.

A horizontal flash of black shot out, and D took to the air without a sound.
The eldritch blade that howled with the Hunter’s downward swipe hit
Mayerling’s left arm with a shower of sparks. Again the black claws swiped
out in an attack, and again they met only air as D leapt back six feet.

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