Prologue
One Year Ago…
"Baby, mama needs you to go to sleep." Adelei the Absolute gently whispered to her adopted son Dante. The little death-demon recently learned how to speak and was taking the opportunity to tell about his exciting day at daycare. Adelei found this very cute, but was very tired and wanted to go to her own bed soon. As the Sirenae Halfling stroked her fingers through the black hair of her son's head to soothe him, Adelei began to grow impatient. "Sweetling, mama's tired and I'm glad today was good. But you need to sleep." Adelei whispered again to the little tot.
"Yes, mama. Can you sing to me then?" Dante replied as he snuggled closer to his mother on the bed.
"Okay baby only one song though." Adelei said with a slight giggle as she kissed Dante's forehead. Adelei began to sing an old Sirenae lullaby to the dozing demon toddler. While singing, Adelei thought about how lucky she was to have found Dante. It was three years ago in the Death-Demon plane; Adelei was searching for leads on her evil twin brother, Argyle. The bastard had betrayed Adelei and had become a notorious soul-stealing warlord all in one month. She was forced to take the assignment of defeating him and restoring the Sirenae honor.
As Adelei walked around looking for leads on her brother she spotted a crying newborn baby in a filthy dump. Adelei searched for a note but found none, so she took the squealing baby and searched for an orphanage instead. After two hours of searching, it turned out orphanages didn't exist in demon planes. After looking at the cute baby, Adelei swore angrily and decided to keep the kid. So she found a demon family and paid them to make Adelei a how-to book on demon babies and she was off.
Three years later, Adelei was raising the child as her own and named him Dante from Dante's Inferno. She thought it was funny at the time and the name stuck. Adelei raised the demon tot in a secluded town in Southern Louisiana with a nice neighboring witch as the only Lorean within miles. The witch gave Dante a concealing charm for his small horns, so he could blend in at daycare. Adelei took a cover job as a Zumba teacher, while secretly on the side was a small time hit woman for humans. No one made a fuss about Adelei except she was the only Hispanic-looking individual in town, which kind of made her stick out. Besides that everyone grew to love the unusually hot, quirky, single mom.
When Ade noticed her son was finally asleep, she slowly got out of the bed and tiptoed out of the room closing the door. "Hello Lele." A deep voice quietly purred behind Adelei. She turned in anger knowing that voice was from her brother Argyle, ready to punch him the face. Suddenly Adelei found herself slammed against the nearest wall, her arms and legs restrained by a black, human-shaped smoke cloud. One word came to Ade's mind, spooks; black, deformed souls manipulated into Argyle's thugs. Ever since Adelei's brother found the scepter of Hades, he has been able to do numerous things with souls. Argyle's favorite, steal and/or manipulate souls of children and the damned.
"Gigi." Adelei said calmly. Even though the twins were nemeses for years, they still used each other's nicknames. Argyle smiled evilly at his sister's struggle to escape.
"My dear sister it's been awhile." Stated Argyle as he began slowly pacing near Ade.
"Yeah well you're a hard dude to find Gigi." Adelei with a snarky reply as she attempted to break the spook's grip.
"No, I think you got busy my sweet sister. So tell me who's the lucky man?" Argyle asked as he lightly stroked Ade's jawline. The feeling gave her the creepy chills; Adelei found out Gigi had a thing for her only a few years ago. The idea obviously disgusted Ade, but she knew she had to tread lightly for the sake of Dante.
"Please Gigi, if there was a man in my life you would've known about him a long time ago." Answered Ade as she looked into her brother's eyes with annoyance.
"Oh really, that's not what the sleeping demon spawn is telling me Lele." Argyle said teeth clenched and eyes glaring in jealousy. Ade began to panic. She knew her brother wouldn't accept the truth and if Argyle did he would still consider Dante as a threat. Gigi could kill Dante at just the thought of Adelei utilizing all her time for the kid. At any rate, Argyle was going act rashly and Ade had no way of stopping him. Half of her Siren's voice was taken by Argyle and any other act of violence could possibly harm Dante.
"I found the him as a baby in the slums and I took pity and adopted him. There's no one else Gigi." Adelei slowly explained hoping for some sort of miracle.
"Lies! How could you choose a demon child that is not even really yours over me!" Shouted Argyle as he punched the nearest wall, creating a hole.
"Mama?"
Adelei tried to hold back her tears as she looked behind her brother to see Dante holding his Blankie in hand. His eyes were full of confusion and fear, not sure what was going on.
"Hi baby, mama needs you to go back to your room now." Ade whispered to Dante in a panicky voice.
" Mommy what's going on?" Dante questioned, his voice trembling.
"Mommy is talking to your Uncle Gigi about important matters, just go back to bed mama will be there soon." Adelei tried to explain to her beloved son. Argyle looked amused watching this whole thing, which pissed off Ade immensely. She would've done anything at this moment to rip her brother's head off if she could. "Gigi please," Adelei began to plead, "We can all be a family together." For a few seconds Argyle actually looked like he was going to consider this offer, but then his eyes became empty making Ade's anxiety attack worsen.
"I should be the only family you need." Argyle growled as he picked up Dante and pointed the Scepter of Hades to the toddler's heart. A red glow came from the scepter as Dante began to whimper and cry. Everything became soundless to Ade as she screamed and fought to save her son. Suddenly, all Adelei could see was her son's lifeless body in Argyle's arm.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screeched Adelei as Argyle laid Dante's body on the floor and disappeared with a flash along with the spooks.
