When the Vampire Lord known as Mayerling kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy village leader, the leader hires D to bring her back. But unbeknownst to D, there is another family of hunters already on the case, the Marcus family. Brothers Borgoff, Grove, Nolt and Kyle, and their sister Leila, are already on the case.
The problem is that none of them really have much of an interest in getting the girl back. They are more interested in killing Mayerling, the Vampire. And if it means getting him, they'll gladly kill the girl as well- or even use members of their own clan as bait or traps. Especially Leyla, who is their sister, but also their whore, used to service the brothers despite her own protests.
However, Mayerling and his captive aren't just fleeing blindly into the night- they are seeking a specific destination- a spaceport they can use to get offworld. D warns them that they don't know its condition, but Mayerling ignores him. He promised to show the girl the stars, and he will keep his promise. But to keep the Marcus brothers off his trail, he'll do just about anything-including hiring the three best fighters from a clan of mutants- to give them a chance to escape.
Leila seems trapped by the actions of her brothers and her situation, but when she begins to fall for D, she starts to see that she is the one who can choose what she wants to be- she doesn't have to be only what her brothers want or need her to be. Can she escape from the grip of her only remaining family before the entire Marcus clan is wiped out? And what of Mayerling and his love? Is there any hope that their journey can end happily? Or is the dream of a vampire and a human in love too fragile to sustain hope?
Given that the plot of this book (manga and novel both) became the basis for the second Vampire Hunter D movie, Bloodlust, you can pretty much guess how it ends. But those who have seen the movie might be surprised at some of the changes from the book to the movie. But the focus of the story goes from the hunters to the hunted quite quickly. As unlikely as it may seem, the Vampire Lord is actually very clearly in love with the human girl, and she with him.
Her father may have cast her out for loving Mayerling, and hired the hunters to get her back, you get the feeling that it wasn't out of love for her so much as to punish her and keep her from the man/vampire she loved and chose over her father (and the rest of her family if she had any- we don't see them). So in the end, when Mayerling is dying, rather than be parted from him, she makes a choice to follow him into death- at least as noble an act as his rescue of her from the bosom of her family.
Reading this manga may have shown it to be filled with fighting and hatred, but the story is really about love. Love, as shown by the Marcus clan, can take on some very twisted forms, but the pure love of Mayerling and his love shines through it all, and in the end, Leila is free to give her love where she wills. And D? He rides off alone as he always has been, as much an enigma as ever. Recommended.
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