Please read this first:
This is the first thing I've been writing for a LONG time, therefore I'd love some constructive critic. This is also my first ever Fanfic and this is a work in progress. I do not own any of the original Devil May Cry characters, but there are going to be characters in this story that are MY OWN. Please respect that.

*** UPDATE 2016/02/28: ***
I've updated this chapter quite a lot. And I'm working on the last adjustments of chapter 4 that will be uploaded today! I'm so sorry for the lack of updates recently, and thank you so much for your patience! I hope you will be pleased with the updates.

Chapter 1

The stripper in front of him did her best to get his attention, but with little success. Usually he would have given her his full attention – and his money – but now he couldn't get the redhead from his dreams of his mind. Hell even siting here made him feel like he was cheating on her, and she was only a dream; a very life like dream. "Sorry doll, not in the mood to night". He finished his drink and rose from his chair, starting to walk out of the club, as the stripper turned and tried to catch the attention of another costumer.

He sighed as he entered the street, every night for the past five weeks he had been dreaming of her.
"Dreams… this shit is to damn real…" He muttered as he slowly started to walk towards his apartment. The dreams where feeling to genuine and the woman, a faint smile touched his lips as he thought of her again, he had started to actually miss her during his awaken hours. He did not consider himself as the relationship kind of guy but this woman, with her purple-ish blue eyes and a smile that made him want to smile, had gotten him to want to throw his bachelor life in the garbage bin. He chuckled to himself as he kicked on a can that was laying on the sidewalk "I'm losing my fucking mind". At first he had been certain that she was a demon, perhaps some kind of succubus, but he had been wrong. There was no demonic presence anywhere near her, if anything it was the opposite, besides the fact that she appeared in his dreams every night.

He opened the door to his shop, and home, and sighed – it had been a long day. Two jobs, both out of town and the bounty had not been worth the effort. He threw his keys in the small cracked bowl on the table next to the door then he gave his answering machine an annoyed look, the little light that flashed on it indicated that he had a new message. He initially wanted to ignore it but it could be another job – one that actually could bring in some cash. He pressed the button and immediately regretted it as he heard Lady's voice.
"Dante, you still owe…" He pressed the button again to silence the message
"owe you money… at least your costumers pay you." He muttered as he threw his coat on the floor, too tired to hang it on the hanger next to him – or perhaps just too lazy to do so – and started walking towards the kitchen. He opened the fridge and took out a large box of pizza opened it and let out a small sigh of disappointment, only two slices left. "fucking kidding me…" He gave the microwave a glance and he decided that it was too much of an effort.

He lay down on the couch and slowly started to chew on the cold pizza. Not nearly as good as warm but edible. He was too tired to even start the TV.

/ He woke up when she moved away pizza box from his chest and put a blanket over him.
"Hey no kiss? You made it all comfy here… but no kiss, that's rude" he mumbled as he opened his eyes and looked at her; her red hair was up in a messy bun and she was smiling towards him as the light behind her formed a halo around her. "Fuck you're beautiful." He grabbed her arm and pulled her down on the couch.
"Is there any pizza left or did you eat it all?"
"I'm giving you a compliment and all you think about is pizza." He gave her a fake pout. She laughed, damn he loved her laugh.
"Well I'm hungry."
"Me to. Kiss me and I'll order a new pizza."
"Sounds like we have a deal." She smiled and gave him a soft kiss on the tip of his nose. He felt her hand brush against his forehead and she stroke away a few strands of silver white hair from his face before she leaned in and kissed him.
"I'm going to take a shower. I smell like old cigarettes and beer."
"That's what you get for working in a place like that. You should have called me when you got off. I don't like it when you walk home alone in the middle of the night. There's demons out there."
She just smiled and placed a kiss, on his forehead this time. "I'm sorry. I just figured you'd be sleeping. You've been so tired lately."
"Don't worry about me, babe." He kissed her "Go take your shower and I call for a pizza."

She started the water to let it get warm while she stripped out of her working clothes, throwing the dark jeans and the grey shirt in the washing bin. She let her hair out and stepped into the shower. The warm water felt so good against her skin; all the stress from her work just ran off her and her entire body relaxed. She, to put it mildly, hated her job but she didn't want to cut down on her hours; not now when he struggled so hard with non-paying customers. She didn't want him to worry about the rent and putting food on the table any more than he already was.

She turned off the water and reached for a towel. The odd feeling that something was not right, hit her as soon as she put her feet on the cold floor outside the shower. Quickly she wrapped a towel around her body and was just about to leave the bathroom when she froze with her hand on the doorknob. A strange noise, sounding like a wicked mix between an infant crying and a deep growl broke the silence and sent cold chills down her spline. She swallowed and slowly backed away from the door. Starting to fumble for the gun she knew he kept hidden in the cabinet above the sink. She released the safety of the gun, silently thanking whomever that listened that he had managed to convince her to learn the basics of handling a weapon. She kept the gun pointed towards the door holding her breath as it slowly slid open, the discomforting feeling she had felt before grew stronger. The being in the doorway looked like a solid shadow, it started to reach for her with its claw like fingers and she fired the gun. The bullets it did not seem to have any effect on the creature. Instead the bullets just seemed to go straight through it. The panic was starting to build up inside of her, as the creature reached out for her again this time hitting her hand making her drop the gun. The pain was intensive and the cut on her hand from the demon's claws where bleeding pretty heavy. The creature suddenly cried out in pain and disappeared.

In the doorway, where the creature just had been, a larger demon stood; with greyish black skin and electrical bolts wrapped around its entire frame. She took another step back by pure instinct, and tripped over the washing bin.
The larger demon took a step towards her and kneeled down next to her, seemingly inspecting the cuts on her hand. "Are you ok, babe?" the more than familiar voice had a strange echo to it, but she would have recognized it any time which made her freeze all over again.
"Dante?" she stammered his name staring at the demon whom slowly started to turn into human shape. "You're... a?" She couldn't even say it. She knew he was strong and that he hunted demons. She had reflected over the fact that he'd never returned from his jobs with even a bruise, but she had never thought him to be anything other than a human.
"I'm sorry I…" He went silent and looked down to the floor before his eyes met hers again. He was going to say something when she noticed all the blood, and three large gashes running from his left shoulder down his abdomen, there had probably been more than one of those creatures around. The fear she had just felt was gone, instead she felt a wave of panic flow over her.
"You're bleeding!" She reached for the closest piece of cloth she could find, her grey shirt, and pressed it towards his chest. Trying to ignore the pain in her own hand.
"It's ok" She felt his hands slowly remove hers, trying not to hurt her wounded hand any further. "This on the other hand." He reached for a towel in the bottom cabinet at the sink and wrapped her hand with it. Her eyes were still fixed on his bleeding chest only that it was not still bleeding. She touched his chest the wounds where almost completely gone.
"How…" she took a deep breath.
"I'm all right Doll. Don't worry about me." she could feel his strong arms wrap around her body, embracing her into a hug. And for a second she let him, before the images of him – or the demon turning into him – reappeared in her memory and she pushed herself away from him. "What… are you?" her voice sounding a bit more demanding than she had intended to.
"I... ehrm." he looked uncomfortable, his entire body seemed to stiffen a bit. He looked down, staring at the floor. It was not like him to be like this, he always seemed so confident, but now he looked like he was ashamed of something. It pained her to see him like that but she wanted, needed, to know.
"I am... You need to know that I would never hurt you, I'm not like them" he looked at her again without meeting her gaze.
"What are you?"
"I'm half devil." The silence that followed his words was heavy./

She awoken suddenly, her hand aced so much that she felt nauseous and she could still smell the warm blood from his wounds which contributed to the nausea. She looked down at her hand as the wound the demon had inflicted on it slowly started to fade away. It had been one of those dreams – just a lot more unpleasant than usual.
"Just a dream… a dream…" She tried to convince herself as she took a deep breath, and another one, and another – the nausea faded of her for each breath. She lied down again, closing her eyes trying to fall back to seep but she knew it was pointless – she was to shaken, too awake. The nausea came back, this time she could not hold it back with a few breaths, and she threw herself into the bathroom to vomit.

She stepped out of the shower, the water had felt refreshing and had rinsed the last of the nausea away. She wrapped her head in a towel and wiped of some steam from the mirror before she gave herself a tired look.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" She had been dreaming about the same man for five weeks straight, that couldn't be normal? She might have to seek out a shrink or a medium of some sort if this didn't end soon.

Half devil, she had never even heard about such a thing before. Either you were a demon or you were not? And he had said devil not demon? She shook her head, and smiled to herself. No she had clearly just lost her mind, maybe due to all the stress that she had been put through lately; her job, the raise of her rent and the increased demon activity around the entire country it had all just taken its toll on her. She had the night of tomorrow and the day after that which meant she would have some time to rest and relax, maybe that was all she needed. She took a deep breath and faced herself in the mirror again, yeah some rest and it all would return to normal.

She exited the bathroom she gave her bed a tired look and then she checked the clock it was around 8, she had a lot that she needed to get done before her shift started but she could need at least one more hour of sleep.

He suddenly sat up wide awake with both his handguns – Ebony and Ivory – drawn, the pizza box fell down on the floor as a direct result of his hasty movement. He was breathing heavily – the pain still lingered over his chest and stomach as the deep claw marks slowly healed. It took him a few second to realize that it all had been another dream. He lowered his guns and looked around the room just as the old clock on the wall struck eight times. He sighed, the fear in her eyes when she had realized what he was still pained him.

"She's not real for fuck sake…" He let out another sigh and closed his eyes but couldn't really shake the saddened feeling that lingered over him. "Just a very realistic dream." He took a deep breath trying to remember the details from the dream, maybe the demons that had attacked in the dream could give him some clarity to what the hell that was going on.

/He picked up his phone to call the pizza place down the street, just when he was about to dial the number he noticed a slight movement in the corner of his eye. Since the shower was still running upstairs he knew it wasn't her. Slowly he put down the phone and reached for the closest sword. An old sword, that he had hung on the wall since it was long past its glory days, that he had gotten as a payment for a job just a little more than a month ago. As he touched the sword a feint white glow emerged from the blade.

A demon started to rush him, he had never seen this type of demon before. It was a faceless humanoid, but its body where more like solid smoke to its consistence. The demon seemed to slow as it saw the blade in his hand, but too late. He split the demon in half, amazingly easy, as the white glow from the sword grew stronger making the blade look like solid light.

He had slaughtered at least four of the faceless demons, when he heard the gunshots from upstairs.
"Lillya…" There was no way he would reach her in time if he did not trigger. "Fuck" he swore as he changed into his demon form, he moved towards to the stairs. He could not let them harm her even if that meant shocking her with whom he was. Damn he didn't want her to find out like this but he hadn't any choice.
"You might reach her in time now Son of Sparda, but we'll soon find her for real and then you won't be around to protect her" one of the demons had appeared in front of him, its voice seamed to echo inside his head, and it managed to get in a good blow at him – leaving three deep wounds in his chest and abdomen – before he killed it. He rushed up the stairs just so slay the last demon as it reached for her./

He opened his eyes again '...we'll soon find her for real' the demonic voice echoed in his memory and he felt a chill run through his body. He had known since a while back that she was more than just a piece of his imagination, but he had never really settled with the thought that she actually would be 'real'. He had ruled out that out when he determined that she was not a demon, but now he wasn't as sure anymore. And if she was real, he needed to find her before they did. And he didn't even know whom they were. He quickly reached for a piece of paper and a pen, trying to sketch down the main features of the creature, or rather the lack of them.

He rose from the sofa and threw the trashed shirt on the floor before he walked over to his desk. He looked at the bookshelves that lined the wall behind it, and yawned. Just looking at all these books made him tired, but he didn't see any other way out of is, he needed to find out more about the demons. He had been looking through tons of books in his search for her but that had been fruitless, maybe he could find the faceless things at least. With no idea of where to start and just grabbed a random book starting to look through the pages.

/He could feel her eyes on him but he just continued to stare into the ceiling. He wanted to turn to her to hold her; but he had seen how frighten she had been when she found out what he was.
"Dante?" She half whispered and he turned his face to look at her. He almost felt afraid to meet her eyes, he feared that they would still hold the fear he had seen in them before; her being afraid of him was an unbearable thought. But all he saw in her eyes now was sadness, which did sting almost as much since he knew he was the one who had caused it.
"You're going to leave me aint ya'?" He was trying to keep his voice sable but he had a hard time not to tremble on his words. Instead of an answer he felt her body move closer to him and she placed her head on his chest. "Never" she whispered after a while which made him let out a relieved sigh before he wrapped his arms around her./

He awoken with his head resting in one of the books he was reading. He sat up stretching his back and gave the old clock a glance.
"Fifteen minutes…" he said to himself and rubbed his eyes before he continued to read in the dusty book, smiling to himself as he could still smell the scent of her vanilla shampoo linger in the air around him.

Frustration overcame him as he traced the page with his finger looking for any kind of information that could lead him to what kind of a demon he was up against but he had done no progress at all. The entire day had been dedicated to research those faceless demons – but he had found nothing. None of the books he had gone through even mentioned anything similar to those faceless bastards.

He sighed and looked at down at the book in front of him.
"Fucking hate this... there's nothing..." he mumbled to himself as he started to search through the pages of the next book in the huge pile of old dusty books. He did not even know what he was looking for, there was nothing familiar at all with the demons he had faced, nothing that could help him at least pinpoint which region of hell they came from. He sighed again, the pile of books would take him forever to look through alone. He needed help, usually he would call Lady, but since he owed her money he would never get any help from her – instead he called Trish.

"Damn, did you have to rent the entire library?" She was joking but at the moment he did not find it funny, and she seemed to notice it since she took on a more serious expression. "So what are we looking for, and why?"
"Some sort of faceless bastard. Tall, slender humanoid shape, no face. Long fucking claws." He gave her the piece of paper he had been sketching on earlier. "I tried to sketch it up but we both know I'm not an artist." She took the paper, studied it for a while.
"Good enough to give me an idea of what we're looking for, but I've never seen anything like this before. Where did you encounter it?" He doubted for a few second, but decided to tell her about the dreams– leaving out a more than a few details he did not think she needed to know. Like the fact that he, no matter how strange it was, had fallen in love with a woman he had actually never met.
"So... dreams? I mean how do you know it's real? Maybe you've just worked too hard, and that is inflicting your unconsciousness?"
He rose and walked over to the couch, picked up the ripped t-shirt and handed it to Trish. "Here... This was not self-inflicted. Oh and bullets don't bite on the bastards." She studied his shirt, then giving him a slight nod – telling him that she did believe him
"hmm some kind of dream manipulating demon perhaps? How did you kill them, because I guess you did?"
"With an old relic sword, the one over there." He pointed at the old sword that was hanging on the wall. A simple silvery blade, but the handle was shaped like an angel whose wings formed the hilt of the sword. Trish walked over to the sword and started to study it as he buried his head in another book.

"I think I found something... but I'm not sure. Lucis Comendentis - or Angel Venator, the angel hunter." She pointed at an illustration that looked exactly like the demons he had fought. "A demon who hunts innocent souls. It gained its name during the fall of heaven. They can only be defeated by blessed weapons. And the one you have on the wall looked holy enough." She handed him the book and he continued to read silent for a while.
"It can't be that kind of demon, even thou it looks exactly like the ones I saw. As far as I understand they were created to eat the souls of the Angels, as a final weapon of the underworld. Once the angels went extinct – the Angel hunters did as well." he sighed, feeling slightly desperate to find the demon – and to find her if she was real.

A few hours had passed before Trish looked up from another book pointing at a paragraph.
"Here... or no" she shook her head.
"hmm?" he looked up from his book and gave the blonde a tired gaze.
"No… This book says that the Angel Hunters can, if you are powerful enough, be summoned to gather innocent souls, not only the ones of angels, to help the summoner reach a higher purpose. But you sure as hell aint an innocent soul, they would have no purpose of attacking you." She paused, and looked at him as he leaned his head in his hands letting out a loud sigh.
"I'll never find her before they do" he mumbled into his hands, but Trish seemed to hear him anyway.
"Her? Is there something you are not telling me?"
"Erm… well." He didn't see any way to talk himself out of it and decided to tell her about the read head that had invaded his dreams.
"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, and he could feel her stare "You, the bachelor of bachelors, are in love! That's why you are so obsessed. You'd never do all this work without hell of a pay check otherwise." She laughed as he sighed loud.
"No. I'm not..." As soon as he said it he knew he'd say it too quickly. He sighed "Fuck…"
"The mighty Son of Sparda is in love with a dream." She was teasing him. "So I bet the dreams where a bit more frequent than once or twice." She continued while having a huge smile hon her face.
"Can we just focus on this, please?" He was too tired to even think of something clever to counter with, and she was right; he was in love with a dream.
"How often? It could be relevant" she suddenly sounded a bit more serious.
"Every night, for a little more than a month." He looked at the sword again "Now that I think of it, it all started right after I got that sword"
"Ok… That has to be your link to your mysterious dream girlfriend" He gave her a tired look before he turned his head back to the book.

Trish left shortly after midnight. They had not gotten any more information, but at least he knew what kind of demon he was up against. Now he needed to find out why they targeted her, but after yet another few hours he gave up. His eyes were starting to hurt from reading all day and his body felt stiff. He rose from his workspace and started to walk up the stairs heading for his bedroom.