Chapter 7: siblings and painful memories.
Thank you for your kind reviews. I'm glad you liked the eye thing. (I'm notorious for being a Trish-hater myself!) Here's another chapter for ya. It's actually longer! Wow!
Rayne still couldn't believe Dante had touched her. Usually, if anyone touched her, they were trying to impale her or something. Being touched by the world's most notorious demon slayer had made her at least a tiny bit nervous. He'd refrained from talking to her after the incident (he couldn't think of any excuse for that one), and had gone to a different room in the tower, which Rayne simply called Xerx's labs. Her train of fuming thoughts was interrupted, however, when someone looking a lot like Dante stepped into the room. It was funny, the way he kept looking at her like he was trying to get her to burst into flame. Finally, Rayne had to stick her nose in and find out what was up.
" What, did you just change clothes or something?" she asked, indicating his differently colored coat. Or had it always been blue? He was unresponsive, so Rayne asked him another lame trivia question.
" Woo-hoo. Earth to Dante. What's the deal?"
Finally, she got his attention. He responded at the mention of the name.
" Ah, you know my brother, do you?"
" Brother? Just who are you?" she asked.
" I am Virgil Sparda. You must be Kagan's daughter."
" Technically speaking, yes. What the hell do you want?"
Her answer was received in the form of a bullet grazing her arm.
" Oh, shit!"
Readying her blades, Rayne lunged at her attacker, slicing open his arm. He looked down at the wound in surprise.
" Been a long time since I saw my own blood."
Dante paced in his tower room, greatly disturbed by his newfound attraction to his companion. It was going to be increasingly difficult to focus with her hanging around. He was about to have even bigger problems than a crush, however, when a shadow portal appeared behind where he was standing. He didn't notice the black-haired female that stepped out of it, either.
" My, at least that mongrel sister of mine has good taste."
Dante turned around to see Rayne notorious backstabbing sister, Ephemera.
"May I help you?" he said sarcastically.
" Certainly. You may save me the trouble of killing you by doing it yourself."
"I'm thinking not."
"Very well, then."
A pair of blades and a swirl of shadows came flying towards him. He just barely blocked the attack with his sword.
Rayne pushed down on the button on the communicator for the thousandth time. Come on, answer damnit! She hissed under her breath. She finally got an answer, just after Virgil hit her in the side with an attack.
" Now's not a good time." Dante answered, sounding like he was in the middle of something himself.
" Got big problems. Some guy who looks just like you is trying to chop me up." Rayne said, dodging another attack.
"Small world. Some crazy shadow bitch is trying to chop me up."
" Shadow bitch? Oh, no. That's Ephemera."
"Family?"
"Yeah. Here's the deal. Destroy the shadow portals. That's how she regenerates. And get over here once you get the chance. Gah!" she was cut off, and Dante heard her scream in pain. Fun, and shadows. He looked around, and saw at least six of them. Now his only issue was keeping Ephemera at bay while he figured out a way to destroy them. Like in the room where they had encountered the phantoms, the beams on the ceiling were unstable in here. Now if only he could find a way up there.
Rayne wasn't having much luck. Her speed was barely enough to keep her from dodging Virgil's attacks. Even then, he kept getting her in the side, and she was lacking energy. She backed into a corner, trying to talk her way out.
"Can't we…talk this out or something?"
No answer. Just evil grinning.
"Didn't think so. Well, I hoped I wouldn't have to do this." She said, closing her eyes in concentration. Her blades began to glow with a wicked reddish aura, and everything appeared to be moving in slow motion. Not only did this give her an edge speed wise, but it gave her other attacks a little extra kick, too. Returning her opponent's grin, she flew at him with every ounce of strength she had left.
" Tough girl," he said before blacking out.
Man, was this bitch persistent! Dante hustled to get out of the way as Ephemera launched towards him in a spiral pattern. He was still contemplating how to destroy the portals, when he came to a realization. Duh! He was half demon he could transform and destroy the portals any time he wanted. After this was finally accomplished, he jumped down to deal with his target.
"What are you smiling at, half-breed?" she sneered. She cried out in surprise as a bloody projectile hit her leg. She whipped around to see Rayne, pointing the Carpathian Dragons at her.
"Will you get over the whole half breed thing?" Rayne said annoyed.
"Dhampir…I thought Nelo Angelo dealt with you?"
"see, that's what you get for thinking." Over her shoulder, Rayne gave Dante a kill-her-now look. Ephemera was too distracted to notice the demon slayer sneak behind her, and didn't realize he was there until she had Alastor shoved between her shoulder blades, black blood spewing out everywhere.
"May I?" Dante asked, his sword poised to finish her off.
"Knock yourself out."
As Ephemera's head rolled across the floor, Rayne asked Dante about his family.
"so, has your brother always been evil?" she asked, grinning slightly.
"No. when I was younger, Mundus killed my mother and took Virgil under his wing. The woman you met a while ago, Trish, is Mundus' recreation of my mother. I don't know if his murder of my family was for revenge, or what. My father had defeated him a long time ago, and I thought I'd dealt with him on Mallet Island."
" Well, at least you had a family…" Rayne said almost inaudibly.
"What about you? What's your deal?"
"Kagan, the one who's trying to bring your enemy back, is my biological father. He's the creator of countless vampires. I was the first half blood he created. All of the other siblings' mothers were pureblooded vampires, too. Mine was human. She never wanted what he did to her…"
"What?" Dante asked, urging her to continue.
" He raped her, then came back a couple years after I was born. The bastard drove her insane and murdered her. Then, as if that wasn't enough, he murdered her family, too, so I'd have no choice but to join him. Someone raised me after that, and I joined with Brimstone. I met Kagan again, twice after that. Both times I failed to kill him. Next time though, I'll get him. I'm going to cleave his head right off of his fucking shoulders!"
"Well then, we should get going. We've got a resurrection to stop." Dante said, changing the subject.
"Tch, yeah. Who knows what could happen if he fuses with that wacko?" Rayne said sarcastically.
Dante smiled then. Somehow, through all the crap she did, Rayne managed a sense of humor. He admired that in a woman.
For you, my reviewers, I shall give you a special treat. I am going to write you a sequel to this as soon as it's done. I'll provide you with a preview at the end of this fic.I wrote a lot this time, eh?Watching Tom and Jerry really gets brain juice flowing.
