At this point y'all should really just be used to me giving Nero a rough time. For anyone who didn't catch it in Mockingbird, Drew is my tragic Scalebound boy. That matters in this chapter and really only this chapter. And since that game got canceled, I am going to make up rules and no one can stop me.

I was too hungover to let the phone ring more than once. Yanking it from the cradle, I let it fall beside my face on the desk. "Yeah?" my voice was a rasp. Even though I needed the money, I hoped it wasn't a job. It was way too early for work. I glanced at the clock to confirm that only to see that it was well past 4 PM.

"Is that how you always answer the phone at your own business?" Vergil's dry tone responded from the tinny line. "It's no wonder you never have any money."

"You know, unlike some people, I have to pay my own bills." Sitting up, I scrubbed the last traces of incoherence from my face and stuck the phone between my ear and shoulder. I could just about hear him grinding his teeth through the line. "So what's up, Verge? Or did you just get antsy after not getting to insult me for a few weeks?"

"Well, you know I thrive on your suffering." A smile tinted his voice, and I snorted. "But it seems I need a favor. There's an obscene traffic jam outside the coffee shop I usually wait at. Looks like it goes on for a few blocks."

"Must have been some ugly wreck," I said. "If you're at the coffee shop, then it must be Friday." Wednesday had definitely happened, but I didn't remember Thursday as well.

Vergil let a beat pass before answering. "How astute of you. I do hope you're sober. I need for you to go pick up Nero. By the looks of this, I would arrive up to an hour late."

"That place is across town from me. I would still get there after five. It would be faster to just have Mom drive into town and get him."

Once again, Vergil went silent to let me know I'd said something wrong. "You're an idiot," he confirmed.

Squinting, I rolled my thoughts around until I narrowed in on the problem. "Oh right, the trip." With Mom and Dad out of the country for their thirtieth anniversary, I didn't have anyone to pass the responsibility onto. "Alright," I sighed, realizing I had no escape. At least I could dip between traffic on my bike. "I'll get the kid, but you owe me a pizza."

"Very well," he snarled.

The traffic was just as bad as Vergil suggested, a gridlock that stretched out for a half-dozen blocks. Even the cars going around the worst of it managed to make the alternative routes slow. Well, slow for everyone else. I was able to weave through the snags, keeping an eye out for any cops. In any other case, I wouldn't have worried about them. I knew the city well enough to outrun them, but I couldn't grab the kid with a swarm of flashing lights on my tail.

At least I'd get to see him for my troubles.

Well, I'd get to once I found him anyway.

I was late, of course, even with all the reckless driving that Vergil didn't need to know about. By the time I arrived, the parking lot had cleared. During the other rare instances of Vergil letting me get the kid, I'd watched all the band nerds file out with their oblong cases, but now, I saw no kids waiting, not even Nero.

The place was empty.

Two men stood across the street. One of them was as tall as my dad and looked kind of familiar.

They both kept looking at me.

"Weird. I've never seen your dad late before, but I guess a lot of people got picked up late today," Drew said, his arms crossed and his trumpet case at his feet. "But your dad is weird. Always early."

"He'll be here," I said as I dropped my eyes from the men looking my way again. They would talk for a while and then glance at me. The younger one looked kind of nervous, but the tall one kept smiling. Something about them made it feel like I couldn't breathe in enough.

"You're not going to get in trouble for waiting late with me, are you?" I asked Drew. I hoped not. I didn't want to be alone.

"Nah, she doesn't care. Probably isn't even home anyway. I can wait."

That would have made me feel better if the men hadn't started to cross the street. The younger one followed the tall one. I wanted to run, but I had to wait for Dad. He would be there soon. If I went to hide somewhere, he wouldn't be able to find me. I needed to make sure Dad could find me.

Besides, I wasn't scared of anyone. I was just shaking because I was mad.

Drew's eyes narrowed at the men. When his hand grabbed mine, I jumped. "Come on," he said, pulling me back toward the alley I'd always seen him disappear down on his way home. "Let's go wait at my place."

I'd never gone to his house before. "But my dad-"

"He'll find us. Hey, do you know those guys?"

"No, I don't think so. Do you?"

"No." Drew's lips set to a thin line as he tucked his trumpet under his arm and pressed his right hand to his chest. Drew always wore long sleeves and a glove on his right hand, even when it was hot outside. I'd seen why once when some demons attacked us. As a blue-green light glowed from under his shirt and between his fingers, I wondered if the men were demons too.

I'd never seen one disguise itself as human except for Nonno. But if he could do it, other demons probably could too, the really strong ones. Demons felt different to me, though. Like a heavy smoke, I could always feel them close.

The men's footsteps echoed behind us, and Drew pulled me faster. We were running by the time we popped out on the other end of the alley. I saw the van headed toward us in time to dig in my heels and yank Drew back. I thought it would keep driving, just go by so we could keep running, but it stopped in front of us.

My violin case cracked against the ground as a strong arm wrapped around my middle and some cloth was pushed over my nose and mouth. No matter how hard I kicked and fought, I stayed caught. I started to feel kind of heavy like I was swimming.

"Are you really sure about taking them both?" the guy at my back sighed.

"We'll figure out which one we need later. This is our best chance," the tall one said. He had grabbed Drew and pulled him toward the open van, but Drew's hand kept crushing mine. I thought he might break it. "Come on," the tall man said to the one holding me. "They can stick together if they want. It's-"

A roar echoed in my ears, the ground shaking under us. "A demon?" the tall man said, frowning. "We don't have time. Credo, just put the thing down and let's get going."

The tall man yanked me into the grip of his arm. Drew looked over at me from the other, his eyes heavy and his breathing slow. I probably looked the same. My eyes wanted to stay shut every time I blinked. I couldn't move right anymore, just rolling around like the time Evie drank too much on her birthday.

"He'll get 'em," Drew mumbled as his demon showed up in a blur. Actually, everything was blurry, but I'd seen Thuban before. He looked like a dragon, wings and fangs and all that. Smaller, though, like a big dog. I was sure the shiny sword-looking thing was no match for a dragon, but I heard a screeching cry just as Drew whimpered and gasped for air.

When we dropped to a cold floor, Drew's hand slipped from mine.

The entrance to the place was locked, no sign of anyone inside. "Fuck," I grumbled. Vergil should have listened to my suggestion of putting a tracking chip on the kid. Unlike me, my brother was the type to always be on time. Nero might have gotten sick of waiting and wandered off somewhere. I would have done the same thing as a kid. Hell, I would have done that now.

As much as the kid liked to explore, though, he wouldn't have gone too far in an area he didn't know. The last time I'd taken him uptown to see the shops, we'd gotten separated in the crowd for no more than five minutes. That was long enough for him to be trembling like the temperature had dropped when I found him. Eyes wide, he'd clung to my coat while insisting that he wasn't scared of anything. I had to buy him a pretzel and some ice cream before he would relax. But I understood. Some memories were just that strong. They could drown you in an instant.

When I heard a clatter from the nearby alley, I realized the kid could have been hiding. He was bound to insist that he was just waiting there, not hiding. The kid was the worst liar I'd ever seen.

As I darted down the alley, the scrambling sound increased. It wasn't sneakers or small hands; instead, I found claws struggling for purchase against the concrete. A shining, pale blue eye snapped toward me as I drew my guns from my back. Someone had almost gutted the reptilian demon, and it lay collapsed on its side. A slur of grumbles and growls erupted from it. Its wings flailed. It couldn't have been much of a danger in a state like that. In fact, I didn't think it was a danger to me at all. If anything, it was trying to talk to me, desperation in its inhuman eyes.

"I feel like we've met," I said. "You're… that demon that's bound to that other kid, Nero's friend." I couldn't remember his name for the life of me, but I remembered the way his arm was coated in scales and veins of the same pale light that ran along the demon's hide. I'd seen the beast crush another demon's skull between its massive fangs while standing guard in front of Nero and his friend. And I'd seen the way Nero's friend clutched his shoulder against a gash that the demon had gotten on its own shoulder.

The two were bound by their lives and to their deaths. "Damn," I said. "What happened to your kid?"

Stupid question since the demon couldn't answer. It turned its eyes toward the road nearby and jerked its jaw to the left.

"Couldn't have walked away on his own," I realized. "Something took him."

The demon snarled, snapping its head down in a nod. Its tail, curled around some black objects, dragged the things my way. As they scratched against the pavement, I recognized their shapes - instrument cases, one for the friend's trumpet and one for Nero's violin.

A chill spread through my veins, my heart racing as I remembered how Nero always stayed glued to his friend's side when they were together. "Nero is with him," I said, and the demon nodded even though I already knew that would be the case. Either Nero had chased after his friend, or something strong enough to take down the demon had nabbed both kids. I doubted Nero would have left his violin behind willingly.

"You're bound to your kid. You can track him, right?" I demanded from the demon. As soon as it nodded, I darted back to my bike. Mom was always shoving vital stars into my hands anytime I visited, and Vergil didn't want his kid near my bike unless I carried first aid equipment, so I grabbed one of the dozen vital stars from the pack. I'd given Dad vital stars before but never any other demons, never one so inhuman.

The demon's razor fangs snapped down so close to my hand that they scraped against the palm of my gloves. As I snatched my hand back, the demon renewed its struggle to stand. "Hey, you have to give it a second," I said. "You'll just keep your wound torn open if you don't let it heal."

It snorted like an irritable bull, shaking its head free of grogginess or my words. I had to jump back to keep it from bowling me over as it shot out toward the street. Trying to turn made its feet slip out from under it again, but it leaped back up and was out of view before I could yell, "Shit! Wait!"

No way in hell could I ever keep up with that galloping demon on foot, so I raced back to my bike and skidded off after it. The two of us must have been a sight to see for the people we tore past. Though not as fast as my bike, the demon whipped into turns and kept a breakneck pace that almost landed me in an ugly crash on more than one occasion.

I tried to stay focused on the idea that I would get Nero and his friend back. I would just find them with the people who took them and get them back. Break a few skulls and save the day, just like always.

Except, I'd seen enough grisly scenes to know that wasn't always the case, and as the demon led us out of the city and toward barren backroads surrounded by trees, my hands tightened on the handlebars. Through my building rage, I felt sick. Nero needed to be okay when I found him. He had to be. And if someone or something had put even a single a bruise on him, they would have a slow death.

The demon stumbled at one point like it had tripped over some tree roots. I had to slow down to keep from overtaking it as it limped a few steps before unfurling wings, wider than I was tall. With two harsh flaps, it shot up between the overhanging branches and continued on overhead.

It was a pain in the ass to try to follow it that way without crashing into a tree, at least until I realized we were headed toward the massive column of smoke rising in the distance.

I was definitely going to throw up.

The fire was on the outside of the forest, a smoldering wreck of a van just off the road. No one seemed to be inside. God, I hoped no one was inside.

The demon had found a kid, though, unconscious and far from the wreckage. Just one kid and not my kid.

My whole body felt like lead as I realized I was going to have to tell Vergil that something had taken Nero again.

I couldn't move without everything spinning, but I sat up anyway and waited until I could see straight. Deep breaths just barely kept me from throwing up. My hands were stuck behind my back from some kind of tie, and my shoulders hurt the more I tried to pull on it.

"Are you feeling alright?"

It was the voice of the young guy who had hurt Thuban. I blinked hard to see him clearly as he kneeled down in front of me. He looked as old as the high school kids who had their orchestra concerts after ours. With short brown hair and brown eyes, I didn't sense anything from him that wasn't human.

Drew was still lying beside me. His hands were tied behind his back too with some thin piece of plastic. His face was the same color as his hair, and he was still breathing wrong. He wasn't going to die, was he?

My sight blurred again, this time from tears, but I blinked them back. I would not cry in front of these people.

"You should lie down, or you might fall over," the young guy said, starting to reach for my shoulder. I turned to bite him, but he jerked his hand back.

A laugh from behind me made my skin feel cold. "Whoa, easy there." The older man's hand landed hard on my shoulder and pushed me back to the floor of the van. I could feel it rumbling under my cheek. We were going somewhere. Another man must have been driving up at the front, but I couldn't see him.

"Looks like the drug didn't hit you as hard. That's good," the older man continued. "Think we might have overdone it with your friend."

His voice was so nice, like the way Nonno always talked, but his hand gripped my shoulder like teeth biting down. "Let go!" I yelled.

Drew's eyes shot open, flashing pale blue for an instant. "Hey!" He sat up and glared over his shoulder at the older man, but a hand grabbed his shoulder too and smacked him back down.

"Goodness, you boys are all fire." The older man's eyes crinkled when he smiled. His hair was blond like dry grass, and he still seemed human, but at the same time, he didn't. Something about him made me feel like I needed hide from his eyes. "Now then, which one of you is Nero?"

My eyebrows pinched. What a weird question.

"I am," Drew said.

My eyes shot wide, but he looked calm, his eyes harsh.

"What? No, I am!" I tried to fight against the grip on my shoulder again, but the man squeezed so hard I thought my bones might break.

"He's lying. It's me."

"No! I'm Nero!"

"I'm Nero Sparda."

"That's me!"

The older man burst into laughter. "Oh, you're really doing this? It is cute, but we don't have a lot of time. What do you think, Credo? How should we proceed in a case like this?"

It sounded like when Dad asked me a test question from one of my books. The younger man, Credo, blinked and cleared his throat. "Uh, I would test their knowledge of… our destination. The real Nero would react, right?"

"It's a good idea, kiddo. Fifteen points."

"Only fifteen?" Credo mumbled.

"Problem is, then the other kid knows where we're going, and that's an issue. So we'll do it this way. I'll give you one more chance, boys. Which one's Nero?"

We answered at the same time, and Drew still said he was me. My heart jumped up into my throat as the man flicked out a pocket knife, but he just used it to cut the plastic off Drew's wrists. Maybe he figured it out, or maybe he thought Drew was me.

Then he took Drew's arm in his hands and snapped backward it at the elbow.

I screamed. Drew screamed louder, curling in on himself and yelling until his voice seemed to tear apart. Tears filled his eyes as he hissed air between his teeth.

"Oh my god, sir." Credo's voice shook.

"Sorry about that," the man called Sir said. He sounded sorry, but he wasn't. I didn't believe it.

"How dare you!?" I'd heard Dad say that before. It didn't sound as scary when I said it. Before I could try to bite his stupid, evil face, Sir caught my shoulder again. The world rang when my head hit the floor.

"Easy there. I didn't want to have to hurt anyone, and I don't want to have to hurt anyone else either. Now, which of you is Nero?"

Even though his eyes were open, Drew didn't seem awake anymore. I wanted to yell at them, to fight and kick and scream, but my mouth was too dry. All I could do was whisper. "I'm Nero. Please don't hurt my friend again. Let him go. Please. Please ."

"Well, is that true?" Sir asked Drew, but Drew just breathed a sob. Sir clicked his tongue, and the plastic around my wrists snapped off. "I need a confirmation." Rough hands gripped my arm, but another set closed over them.

"Sir, wait!"

From the corner of my eye, I could see Credo shaking as much as I was. "Just let me try something, alright?"

Leaning back, Sir shrugged. "Go for it, kiddo, but make it quick. We're almost to the car."

I couldn't move. I just laid there, still waiting for pain to hit me. Credo placed a gentle hand to the top of Drew's head. "Can you hear me?" Credo asked. "Can you tell me your name?"

Drew breathed a quiet whine, so I spoke for him. "That's Drew," I said. "He's my friend. Please let him go."

"Nero, don't," Drew murmured. I could see all his pain in his eyes.

Though I felt like my arms and legs turned to jelly, I crawled closer to Drew.

"Can we let them stay untied until we get to the car?" Credo asked.

Sir shrugged. "Your choice. Six points."

Credo sighed, but at least I got to hold Drew's hand tight until the van stopped. He was asleep by then. When Sir grabbed my arm again, I froze up. A needle jammed into the crook of my arm. "Careful how much you give him," Credo said. "He's so small."

"Eh, he's a demon. He'll be fine."

"Not a demon!" I said. Some kind of clear liquid pushed into my arm no matter how much I tried to pull away. Even after Sir pulled the needle out, he wouldn't let go of my arm. I had no way to run when the back doors of the van opened. Nowhere to run to either. We were in the middle of nowhere, and the sun had gone down. The chilly night air sank into me.

Credo tried to pick up Drew without hitting his backward arm. "Sorry, sorry," he kept saying under his breath.

I started to feel too heavy for my legs. So heavy. So tired. "Poor kid," I heard Credo say as warm arms wrapped around me and scooped me up.

"That's not a kid," Sir said. "Remember that. Put him in the trunk. We need to go."

Considering how utterly reckless he was on that bike, Dante should have been able to return to the house before I did. The longer I waited there alone, the more I tapped my foot and drummed my fingers against the arm of the couch. He'd better not have taken Nero to that shop, but then again, with how much time had passed, that may have been better than the alternative.

I tried not to think about it. No one answered when called the shop again.

By the time I heard the bike rumbling outside, I was so tense that I had to keep myself from tearing the doorknob off as I rushed outside to meet him. I froze as soon as I was out, trying to look the picture of calm. Not that it mattered. Dante could always see right through me.

He turned toward me with hesitance. When I saw the darkened anxiety in his eyes, my chest grew tight. If Dante had a reason to look upset, then something was very wrong.

As Dante pulled off the helmet on the boy at his back, the demon bound to Nero's friend Drew shot down from the sky with something black clutched between its claws and in its mouth. I felt like pieces to a puzzle were slipping through my fingers.

"You have the wrong child." My voice was void of the anger I tried to summon. "You were gone for so long. How did you get the wrong child?"

Drew's left arm was in a makeshift sling tied from Dante's coat. His right held tight to Dante as my brother tried to lead him from the bike. My fists shook at my sides, my desperation for answers growing, but I had to bite my tongue. With Drew's eyes wide and misted, I was certain a loud noise would startle him. I'd never seen him that way before. He was a rambunctious child and a bad influence at times. Now, he looked small as he pressed to the demon's neck. It gave him the thing from its claws - a trumpet case. Dante took the violin one from between its teeth.

"Someone took Nero," Dante said as he looked over the scuffed case. "I don't know who. I couldn't track them. He was gone before I got there."

My brother would never have let anything happen to Nero, not without letting himself be torn apart first. I knew that. I'd seen it. This wasn't Dante's fault.

But I wanted to grab him by the throat and demand he fix this. Someone needed to pay for my son being taken again. Questions flashed through my head as I struggled to keep my breathing steady. All that kept me from snapping was Drew's weary voice cutting through my thoughts.

"They grabbed us both," he said, hugging his trumpet like a stuffed toy. "But they wanted Nero. Couldn't tell us apart. They kept asking."

"Let's go inside, kid," Dante said with a sigh. He wasn't supposed to be so damn resigned. He should have been out looking for Nero. I should have been out looking, but I let Dante tug me back inside.

As Drew recounted what happened, I fought down the burning desire to shatter everything nearby. I would have razed that house down to its foundation had I let myself slip for even a moment. Nero was gone. My son had been taken and we weren't doing anything about it.

Dante watched me throughout Drew's story. He stood between me and the boy, and I couldn't fault him for the caution. I wasn't mad at Drew. I wasn't. But I was furious with everything. I couldn't think straight. The world was crumbling around me.

"If they were demons, they would have known which of them was Nero, would have been able to smell his blood," Dante said once Drew's trembling voice tapered off. The demon bound to the boy lay across his lap on the couch like some oversized cat as Drew curled over it, hugging its neck.

"Humans," I said. "Humans who were strong enough to harm a demon and ruthless enough to harm a boy took my son. Whoever they are, they're dead men now."

Conflict screwed up Dante's expression. I was not so weak. Both Mom and Father had sat us down at different times to explain why we shouldn't kill humans, but I saw no difference between these humans and demons. Besides, they wouldn't be the first I'd killed. Just another stain on my marred record.

"Maybe they weren't really after Nero." Dante's tone darkened with accusation. "Maybe they were after you. Maybe they want revenge for someone you killed before. I always knew that damn job of yours would come back to bite us."

Tension jerked my shoulders back, my eyes wide as fury clawed its way out of my chest. "You're going to blame this on me? I've always covered my tracks. There's no way-"

Unless he was right. I bit my tongue hard enough for the taste of blood to fill my mouth. I had more enemies than I could count. This could have been for revenge or ransom. I had no way to know, but I could not accept all the blame.

"You should have caught them," I snarled. "You should have been able to get to him, and you couldn't even do that." I so desperately wanted a fight, wanted him to tear into me. I felt like a starving dog.

But his shoulders sank under my challenge. "I know. I'm sorry."

That wasn't what I wanted. He wasn't supposed to take the blame. No, nothing was going right. I'd lost all grasp on reason. With a harsh sigh, I brushed my hand back through my hair. Drew 's accusatory eyes flashed between us. His fear had vanished, replaced with the irritation Nero had picked up from him in recent weeks.

"You're both stupid," he said. "It's not nobody's fault 'cept those bastards that took him."

It seemed Dante wasn't lying when he claimed innocence of muddying Nero's vocabulary. I'd found the culprit.

"If you're not gonna go look for him, I'm gonna." Drew kicked his feet, but the demons showed no indication of moving. "Thuban! Get off! We're going to find Nero! I've gotta find him. I have to."

"Kid," Dante sighed. It was then I noticed the tears in the boy's eyes, his shoulders trembling. Dante stepped up to him and dropped his hand to the boy's silver hair. "You just focus on healing up. We're going to get Nero back. No matter what, I swear we'll get him back."

"We will," I whispered more to myself than them. "We have to."

Because I could no longer think of a world without him.

I couldn't think of anything but getting him back.

And killing every last person who'd taken him from me.

During Mockingbird, a couple commenters theorized that Fortuna was responsible for Nero disappearing, and I was like "No, but wouldn't that have been a good idea?"

So kudos to y'all. Here's that story haha.