Author Note: A big thanks to 666BloodyHell666 and RikkuDevil for being the only reviewers for the last chapter that was updated. Thanks for your support.

A Devil's Instinct

Treasured Blood

Had Lady known that the place was almost impossible to get out of without any means of superhuman strength, she never would have ran away. She tried to head in a straight direction and to avoid turning down any side hallways, but by now she had no other choice.

The darkness that loomed inside the building was getting thicker, heavier, as if it was trying to drown her within its grasp. The blue-flamed torches were long gone, having disappeared where Dante and the demon had been dueling. Though their light was hard on the eyes, Lady greatly wished she had even one of the torches right now, anything to give her some clue as to where she was headed.

Water dripped from the ceiling, landing in small puddles below. The noises bounced off the walls of the tight hallway Lady was currently walking blindly through, only aiding in making her feel all the more helpless. She stayed close to the charred black walls, talking cautious steps. To run into anything in this darkness would be fatal.

It was impossible to know how the fight between Dante and the demon turned out. At the start of her run she was able to hear them, but now there was nothing but dead silence. As she continued to blindly walk down the winding hallway, she came upon an empty space. Fumbling, Lady decided to stick to the wall and began her journey down yet another hall she had not intended on walking through.

"This is hopeless," she said through clenched teeth.

Her voice echoed loudly throughout the hall, making her cringe. Anything could have heard that, giving away her position. She had no idea where that pathetic demon was right now, but if he was close by she was doomed.

Dante better have destroyed that freak, Lady thought. I can't even see where I'm going. This is so frustrating!

Splash!

Something landed in one of the puddles created from the leaking ceiling. Lady automatically froze, her hand barely touching the wall, her legs burning to move, to run away as fast as possible. She listened intently for any form of movement.

There was nothing.

Something cold brushed over her shoulder. Lady spun around, prepared to strike whatever it was that was playing games with her. When there were no other movements, no attack towards her, Lady turned slowly back around.

Then, surprising Lady tremendously, an ice-cold hand clasped over her throat. She struggled to break free, kicking her legs as hard as she could toward her attacker, but to no avail. She could feel the air being choked from her lungs as she helplessly lashed out, hoping that she'd be able to get the bastard whom was so intent on ending her life.

Straining with all her might, Lady took her last few breaths before slipping into a dark place, even darker than the one she was currently in...

She could hear soft movements from all around as she slowly regained consciousness. Fluttering her eyes open, Lady could faintly make out the dim ceiling above her through thick eye lashes. There were strange patterns on the ancient roof, some of which appeared to be paintings that had faded with time. There was a scene with a bloody angel fighting hordes of demons, all of which were armed to the bone with razor sharp weapons. It was beautifully drawn, but disturbing in nature.

Lady took her eyes off the morbid paintings above and decided to see if she was able to move. Instead of feeling her normal clothes move with her body, she felt a silk-like fabric instead. Pushing herself up enough to see what she had been clad in, Lady was in awe at the silk dress that now fit her body almost perfectly.

Black silk covered her from her feet up to her shoulders. A thick lace skirt jutted out from the bottom while very fine and detailed beadwork was woven into it. There was gold sewn into the dress everywhere. Starting from the lace skirt, it wove up and around her figure like a golden breeze with spots of crimson red here and there. Finally, where the beautiful fabric ended, it was bordered with black lace and beading, just like the skirt.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Lady turned sharply to the side, facing her attacker. It came to no surprise to the demon hunter that Dante's opponent stared at her with his vivid red eyes.

A smirk crossed his darkened features. Wounded, he had managed to find his prey wandering around pathetically. Humans were so weak and useless. This one, on the other hand, had a purpose to fulfill, and that was to take place in a very short amount of time.

Lady scowled, her eyebrows knitting close together in anger. The dress no longer felt smooth against her skin but ugly and disgusting. She wanted out of it and if that wasn't going to happen, there would be hell to pay.

"Listen up," Lady spat. "You let me out of this thing right now!"

"I'm so, so sorry, but that cannot be done. You see," the demon said, stepping aside to show Lady a strange contraption he had been working on before she woke up, "That dress is a very special piece for what I have in store for you."

"And what would that be?

The demon eyed his invention as if it meant the world to him.

It was shaped like an over-sized needle with strange designs carved delicately into it. Gears were on the sides, but Lady knew not of what they were for. They hung off the side of the invention as if they were waiting to latch on to something.

Lady moved her hand from where it was on her makeshift bed and saw tracks for where the gears would be moving. That strange thing behind the demon was for her and Lady did not like that one bit.

"Oh, that is something special I've been working on for many years," the demon said, answering Lady's question. "You'll see what happens when I decide to get it working."

"Well I want to know now!"

"Patience, you pathetic creature!" The demon moved away from Lady and began to work on his invention some more. He purposely turned his back to Lady and went straight back to work.

"You better let me out of this place! When I get out of this stupid dress I'm going to kick your ass!"

The demon continued to work away. Lady noticed that some of his movements were stressed, which told her that Dante had definitely got a few hits in before the demon ended up here.

Wait... Dante. What had happened to Dante? Why was the demon here, but Dante was nowhere to be found? Had he lost the trail of the demon or had something else happened...?

"Hey!" Lady yelled, startling the demon.

She tried to stand up, to give the demon a good beating, but it was then that she realized there was a thick cement brace across her waist that prevented any further movement.

"Where is Dante?" She demanded. "What the hell did you do with Dante?"

She recieved no answer from her attacker. Instead, the demon continued to work on the strange object in front of him. Though it looked out of this world, it was simply meant to draw enough blood from Lady to open the portal to the demon world.

"You have no idea where you are, do you?" The demon asked, ignoring Lady's demanding questions.

"I'm in a portal to the demon world. You plan to use my blood to open it, yadda, yadda, yadda."

The demon was quite surprised. "How do you know this?"

Lady shifted herself as comfortably as she could so that her back was laying flat on the ground. "Let's just say that I've had my share of experiences."

"Well, that doesn't really matter now, does it?"

Lady glared at the ceiling while the demon went back to work. It was impossible to move against the cement brace that was binding her to the portal below, so the most activity she could do was to think.

Had Dante been killed in the fight? The demon didn't appear to be too injured so that was a possibility. But, knowing Dante, he could basically withstand anything, especially a worthless demon such as the one that was keeping her in such a morbid room.

"What the hell did you do with Dante?"

The demon remained silent until Lady began to thrash about. She kicked at the air and fought against the brace that was holding her down. The silk dress immediately became dirtied and creased, something that greatly upset the demon.

"What are you doing, woman?" He leaped from his position in front of the blood extraction device and was standing above Lady, a small handgun pointed at her as a warning.

"You can't possibly use that gun against me," Lady sneered, staring at the weapon the demon held. "That's my gun, you stole it from me."

"I don't care. Stop moving, you're ruining that dress!"

"Go ahead, shoot me."

"What? You don't want to go back to your precious half-breed?"

"Shoot me!"

The demon fumbled with the weapon, but decided he didn't even need the device he had been working on to draw enough blood for the portal. A bullet to any vital spot would work nicely.

"Okay, you asked for it!"

Lady smirked as the demon pulled the trigger. A loud shot echoed throughout the morbid room and a loud shriek as the gun backfired directly into the demon's face.

"What the hell was that?"

Lady laughed coldly. "What an idiot. That gun only works for me. If anyone else tries to use it, well, you know what happens."

"You stupid bitch!"

"Well, that's what you get for stealing. Learn some manners."

Satisfied, Lady watched the demon whirl about as blood oozed from his wounded face. At least the blood extraction could wait for a while.

Maybe Dante would have enough time to get here before she was no loner a part of this world...