I'M SO SORRY THIS HAS TAKEN SO LONG. I've had a few problems, life happens... Oh, my God, I'm trying so hard not to leave this story unfinished. Thank you so MUCH for all your patience, for all the people that read and are still reading this. Thank you SO SO MUCH for all the reviews. You're all really nice.

Chapter 10

Dante was in a dreamless sleep, which was really rare, until he moved in his bed and his right arm hit something. Both his hunter and demonic instincts caused him to wake up, sit bolt upright and look around for the possible threat. He and Phoebe still went out with other people even though they had sex frequently. However, he hadn't drunk and hadn't slept with anyone the night before, and the witch would never sleep in the shop. Against all odds, when he looked at the bed he saw the ginger with her face against the pillow wearing one of his shirts. Her left thigh was bandaged. She slightly moved her head to look at him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."

"You should be. You're the creepy watching me sleep." He grinned and Phoebe had a tiny smile on her face. There was something weird about her. "What happened?" Dante laid back down and leaned on his right elbow.

"Nothing. The wound is a bit deep and it hurts when I walk, so I decided to sleep here. That's all." In fact, she went to the shop because she needed to get distracted, but since the hybrid was already asleep, the girl left him alone.

"Pheebs." Dante heard her sigh and hide her face on the pillow again. That was when he saw the marks on it, giving away her tight grip.

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep."

"It's hard to sleep with those wonderful pair of legs staring at me, y'know?" He joked while running his hand through the skin of her right thigh, which kind of worked out, since Phoebe snorted, trying to hold back her laughter. "Was your date that bad?"

She quickly turned her head, staring at him with her eyes widened. "What date?" Then, the redhead closed her eyes once she remembered. "… The one who got stood up. Shit."

"Was the demon that wounded your leg destroying the city or something? Because if he was, I'm gonna be very pissed that I missed the party."

"No." She practically growled. "I just had a lot on my mind. I needed to kill something, I went after any demon, then the son of a bitch hit me, my clothes are soaked in blood and here I am." Only then Phoebe remembered of something he had said earlier. It was her chance to make him leave her alone. "Wait, what about your date or… whatever?"

"She was crazy."

"I still don't know if you draw crazy women or if you drive them crazy."

"I definitely drive them crazy." He grinned. "And well…" Dante started to laugh. "Considering you're the craziest…" The redhead narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth, faking to be offended.

"Seriously, what did she do?"

"She asked me for a glass of water, I told her that she could get it herself—"

"You're such a gentleman." Phoebe mocked while trying to hold back her laugh.

"Then she went to the kitchen, came back with the glass, threw the water on me, called me 'manwhore', threw these at me," He stopped for a while to open the bed table's drawer and handed her a pair of lacy purple panties. "and stormed out. The end." The hybrid started to laugh all over again.

"Oh, so that's where I left those." She said nonchalantly. "You can't really blame her, she probably had already pictured you as Prince Charming."

"… Prince Charming is gay." Dante frowned. "How could she even think that?"

The witch shrugged. "She was raised to think like that. 'Wait for your knight in shiny armor for he's meant to save you from all harm.'" Phoebe rolled her eyes.

The Devil Hunter grinned. "Like I saved you years ago?" He tried really hard not to laugh; the girl hated that subject with all her gut.

"I had passed out." She said each word slowly. "I could totally defeat those demons, but Billy was there and I was afraid he could get hurt." She snorted and hid her face in the pillow again.

"Sure." A long and disturbing silence filled the room. The subject had brought back the doubts in the witch's head, causing her to let out a long sigh that caught Dante's attention. "Pheebs?"

"I can't talk about it, not yet. Not until I'm… sure."

He brushed the back of her head with the tip of his forefingers. "Sweet dreams, Strawberry." Phoebe didn't even complain about being called by that nickname.

When Dante woke up again, a couple hours later, the redhead was nowhere to be seen. He slowly sat on the bed, ran a hand through his bangs to take them off his eyes and looked around. He spotted a white blouse and a pair of jeans tossed on the floor near the door, both half-covered in blood. The hybrid scratched the back of his head and yawned. "Pheebs?" He called out, but there was no answer. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back on the pillow.

"Uhm… Mr. Dante?" The Devil Hunter opened one eye when he heard the unfamiliar female voice downstairs. Fuck, he should have kept his mouth shut. Probably it was just another boring customer with a boring job.

"Sorry, we're not open yet. Come back later." Dante said lazily.

"I'm here regarding the clothes that Ms. Lady bought in my shop." Why in the world would that girl buy stuff and ask for it to be delivered at his place?

"Lady doesn't live here."

"But she asked for the bill to be sent to you."

It took a few seconds to Dante understand the whole situation. Once he did, he opened his other eye, sat on the bed and yelled. "SHE DID WHAT?!" He stood up, left his room, walked down the stairs and looked at the poor shop owner. She was a beautiful dark-skinned woman with light brown eyes.

"I'm sorry, but that's what she said." Her outstretched hand held a small piece of paper. The white-haired boy sighed and took it.

"I know, she's a—" He widened his eyes. "Are your clothes made of gold?!" He didn't even have money for pizza, much less for that. "I'll pay when I have the money."

"Uhm… The redhead who left not long ago told me you should look in your drawer."

Dante rolled his eyes and walked to his desk, opening his drawer. "Look, babe, there's no—" The first thing he touched was an envelope. He opened it and read the note that was inside.

"Lady told me about the bill, I wish I could've seen your face, lol. The money's inside.

— P."

He narrowed his eyes, took the money from the envelope and handed it to the woman. She thanked him and the Devil Hunter mumbled something completely impolite. When she left, he went to the kitchen to search for a lost slice of pizza in his fridge for breakfast.

Billy was hiding behind the kitchen door. The only other person who was home was Erwin and, before Phoebe left, she had told the boy to stay away from him. He had asked why, but the redhead refused to answer. He was trying to keep an eye on the man, who was sitting in the living room with a book in hands and a glass of whiskey on the coffee table. The blond was still trying to figure out if that was some kind of suspicious activity when his phone started to ring, startling him.

"William von Heffner's emergency line." Billy crouched behind the counter and talked in a low voice.

Dante, on the other side of the line, raised an eyebrow. "Wait, isn't that your cousin's phone?"

"Technically, since we're not blood related, I prefer to think of her as an older adoptive sister, even though our birth certificates say otherwise, I know how my heart—"

"It was a yes or no question, kiddo."

"Nope, she hates phones."

The hybrid stared at the tiny piece of paper that had the number written down in a very messy handwriting. "Why do you even have an emergency line?"

"In case of a zombie apocalypse, of course." The next two minutes went without a word while Dante mentally asked himself why he had even asked. "Who's talking, anyway?"

"Dante. Is Pheebs home, kiddo?"

"Oh… Wait, hasn't she told you? She moved out." The hybrid frowned, but the kid ended up guessing what he was about to ask. "She just packed her stuff yesterday and left. She wouldn't explain why, though."

"… And where did she move to?"

"I thought she was moving in to… your place." He said the two last words slowly. The Devil Hunter hadn't seen any bags in his shop, which meant she had no intention of living there. "Does that mean…?"

"I'll find her, don't worry, kid."

It was already dark and there was still no sign of the red-haired witch. A man with the password had called Dante, claiming there was a huge nest of demons inside of a port hangar. He was already getting close to the place and everything seemed completely peaceful, until he saw a red scythe flying in his direction. He quickly caught it by the handle and swung it around, chopping off the head of the red demon that was right behind him. They were humanoid creatures with glowing orange eyes, large horns and spikes on the back.

"This party is too quiet." The hybrid smirked. "Let's heat things up." A ball of flames came in his direction, and he dissipated it with the scythe. "That's exactly what I'm talking about!" He then threw the red weapon at another creature, the tip of the blade perfectly hitting the spot between its eyes. He kicked the hangar door open and dissipated another fire ball, this time with Rebellion. That's when he saw the source of the fire surrounded by a huge number of demons: Phoebe. There were at least fifty of the things. She kicked the face of one of the creatures and threw a bottle of holy water at another that was behind her. There was a large slash on her left arm, causing a good amount of blood to come out of it. "Have you started the party without me?!"

The redhead glanced at him as she threw her dagger at the demon that was now growling in pain because of the holy water burning its skin. "Do you even have an invitation?!" She created a circle of flames around her to keep the demons at a safe distance. One of them, however, was too close and managed to bury the tip of the scythe deep against her left shoulder. Phoebe grabbed her pistol and shot at its head until it dropped dead. She grabbed the red weapon's handle and pulled it out of her skin, letting it fall on the floor then, right next to her feet.

"Check the list, babe." Dante threw his sword in the middle of a group and it swung around, cutting a few of the demons in half. Then he took Rebellion by its handle when the weapon came back flying and stabbed one of the infernal creatures in the stomach. Meanwhile, the witch created a jet of flames and burned a small group to death. She threw another bottle of holy water at a demon that was too close to her as she tried to catch her breath, her right hand over the wound in her shoulder. A bullet flew right next to her head, hitting a creature behind her. She glanced at the hybrid and saw the big smirk on his face. "Were you ambushed?"

"I came here willingly." He arched one eyebrow, but the Devil Hunter wasn't sure if the reason was her answer, or the cold tone in her voice. Phoebe couldn't handle so many demons at the same time and she was well aware of that.

Dante threw one of the demons in the air, jumped after it and cut it in half with a vertical slash. He landed in the middle of the group and lashed out, cutting out pieces of every single one of them. When one of the demons was too stubborn to just die, he would take one of his pistols and shoot it on the head. He rolled on the floor to dodge a ball of fire created by the redhead. She kicked one demon to keep the distance between them and threw her dagger on its left eye. The creature screeched and she took the dagger back, watching as it bled through the hole. She kicked its leg, making it fall on the ground. The hybrid had already defeated all the remaining creatures and got worried as he saw his partner knelt on the ground, stabbing the last demon in a burst of rage. She only got back on her feet when the creature had enough holes to be considered a kind of swiss cheese.

Phoebe was panting and pressing the wound on her shoulder, it didn't hurt, but she knew it was thanks to the adrenaline rushing through her body. The hybrid in front of her tried to joke about something she didn't pay attention to; he had a smile on his face even though his eyes gave away the anger he actually felt.

"I'm fine." She answered without thinking. Dante frowned and dug Rebellion's tip deep on the ground, leaning his elbow on the sword's handle.

"Let me try to understand this… When you're fine you get yourself in a battle you know you can't win. So what do you do when you're feeling miserable?" The witch couldn't look at him anymore, so she turned around and started to walk away. "Where are you going?"

"Home!" She yelled.

"You mean, your parents' house?" He yelled back, trying to find out where she was living now.

"Where else?!"

Dante arched an eyebrow as the redhead disappeared in the distance, someone was lying and he was sure it wasn't the boy. Phoebe had money to rent a place, of course, but nobody would find one so quickly. Also, she would end up mentioning something. Why would she lie, then?

The redheaded witch opened the door of her black and blue Ford Mustang and slowly sat down, opening the glove compartment and taking a small white box with her right hand. She opened it and started to bandage her wounds. Once she was done, Phoebe placed the box back in its place and just sat there, staring at the windshield. She bought the car right after leaving the house with nowhere to go. She couldn't just take her stuff, go to the Devil May Cry, look at Dante and say "hey, guess what? I'm moving in!". Besides, there were tons of cases of people living in their cars; she just needed some good excuse to take showers at other people's places.

Phoebe sighed and leaned her forehead against the steering wheel while tapping her right foot. She was wounded and exhausted, but still couldn't simply calm down and relax, not ever since she woke up in the middle of the night two days ago. Back then, she still had no idea if it was only a nightmare or if the incident of the burning house was haunting her again. Since the scenes that played in her mind were nothing like what Tara had told her, the girl decided to investigate. She found the house, or what was left of it, it was right next to the one she used to live in as a child and her retrocognition did the rest. Now she wished she had just let it go.

The witch jumped and grabbed her pistol when she heard someone whistle right next to her. "A '73 Mustang? Now that's one hell of a car." She immediately recognized the voice and looked at Dante, who was leaning his right forearm on the car roof and had his head inside the vehicle to take a look. "Scootch." He waved at her to move to the passenger's seat.

"What?! No! I just wanna be alone, Dante!" Phoebe started yelling, however, was completely ignored by the hybrid.

"So… You're living in your car." He said nonchalantly as he stared at a big pile of clothes on the backseat. "What's the plan?" The Devil Hunter glanced at the big wound on her shoulder. "Fighting demons until you finally get yourself killed?"

"Oh, right! This is Responsibility 101, by professor Dante." The irony in her voice almost would have made the white-haired boy punch the car roof had he not controlled himself.

"You're not stupid." He said between his clenched teeth.

"Okay, sorry to disappoint you, but maybe I am stupid. Maybe I am trying to get myself killed!" Phoebe didn't realize it, but she was raising her voice with each word until she was screaming. "Maybe I wasn't even supposed to have lived this long!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Dante snapped.

"My father tried to kill me for some kind of ritual when I was five!" The witch was still yelling and there were a few tears falling down her cheeks. The hybrid, in shock, couldn't form any words. "He murdered that family in front of me! I thought I was the one who killed them when I set the house on fire, but they were already dead!" Phoebe took a deep breath, trying to control herself, but instead she began to sob. "Then, Tara lied! She said the whole thing was an accident, that I was friends with the boy who died and that it was all a coincidence!" She banged the wheel with both hands a few times until they started to ache. "I tried to hide, but he went after me, grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the center of a big circle he had drawn…"

The Devil Hunter tried to soothe her by brushing his hand against her forearm, he had no idea of what to say; a parent getting murdered is something, a parent trying to murder its child is a whole different thing. She welcomed the touch, sighed and continued. "He was about to put the knife on my throat when... Someone shot him on the hand through the window. I ran away from him, but that was it. I couldn't watch it anymore." The witch looked down, staring at her feet.

There was an awkward moment of silence while Dante scratched the back of his head, wondering if there was anything he could say to make her feel better. "Move to the passenger's seat." He said all of a sudden.

"What?" She looked at him and blinked a few times, feeling completely lost.

"Just..." He pointed awkwardly at the seat of the right side of the car. "Do it." Phoebe was still confused, but did it anyway. He got in the car and started the engine.

"What're you doing?"

"Taking you home."

"Have you paid any attention to what I just said?! I have no idea of what I'm going to do if I see my father's face again! Or what he would do to me if I let on that I remembered anyth-"

"I didn't mean the house you used to live with your parents."

The redhead was agape for more than a minute, until she finally realized what he meant. She turned her head and stared at the street through the window shield. She expected to see something, anything, that would make her mind start working to form any kind of word.

"I lied about one thing." Phoebe let all the words out in one heavy breath. "I saw more than that, I saw who shot my father." She sighed. "It was Sparda. Your father saved me."

Dante stopped the car so abruptly that the witch's chest hit the panel, leaving her breathless.