Chapter IX: Random Acts of Violence
Dante spent the rest of that evening mostly in his room, ruminating over what had happened and what Tess had thrown in his face. It irritated him but at the same time, she had a point. He was partly human, he mostly lived as a human… But he never quite felt like it was equal to his demon half. But she did. And she was so fearless. He'd eventually fallen asleep in his darn clothes and for a change, his sleep was largely dreamless.
The next day, he went out, still trying to sort through his thoughts and exploring the city. He found some Bloodgoyles, loitering near what turned out to be a riot outside a police department. The noise from the angry crowd and the indignant cops covered the sounds of his dispatching the flying scum neatly. He swung by the park to see if Chernobog had returned, but no joy.
He did make an interesting observation, though. The park was more or less right in the middle of where a lot of the unrest in the city was happening. He heard rumors of violent acts on the streets, of over-filled holding cells in the police departments, of frequent uses of excess force and unexpected breaks of sanity. He passed by people rambling about violent nonsense in the street. A woman shot another woman to death over a parking spot. He saw no concrete evidence of demons growing out of people but he felt something hanging over the city itself.
When he'd been poking around an old industrial neighborhood, something caught his attention; a tugging feeling at the edges of his consciousness, like his inner demon pricking its ears at an intriguing sound. He found what looked like a hobo, loitering over the ravaged body of another unfortunate squatter – their apparently shared camp was wrecked. The man still looked relatively human when Dante found him, but the moment he caught sight of the teenager, the poor man's underlying demonic nature boiled over like a bursting pustule, forcing Dante to put him down before he could really prod the creature to try and figure it out.
It left him with the lingering impression that he'd made something angry.
After that encounter, Dante found his way back to the boarding house around the evening and stretched just as the front door swung shut in his wake, then hefted the guitar case higher over his shoulder. He briefly waved at Roy, making his way to the stairs. Roy looked up from the desk where he was writing.
"There you are," he said kindly. "All's well, I take it?"
Dante smiled tiredly. "Yeah, more or less. Just Bloodgoyles, another lunatic and a riot. And that one wasn't even my fault," he quipped, making the older man scoff.
"And I see no curses on you, still. Seems there's been no retaliation yet," Roy added.
Dante's smile turned a bit tart and he shrugged, then went up the stairs. Tess had avoided him since their terse talk and awkward mending of fences, staying in her room. He hadn't even seen her properly, just caught a flash of red vanishing into the door leading to Magda's house that morning.
He passed by the redhead's door and pounded his fist on it, without stopping. He wanted to annoy her – it seemed the surest way to get her to talk to him after yesterday. He went to shower and change into clean clothes and leave his guns and sword in his room. When he was done he passed by her door again, knocking obnoxiously for a second time and carrying on down the stairs to catch Roy again.
"So… seen Tess at all today?" he asked.
Roy looked up over his glasses. "Hmm… you know, she's been awfully secretive since yesterday. She must be getting better at her misdirection wards, because she's right behind you."
Dante whipped right around as Roy smirked, just to come face to face with Tess, who apparently came in from the lounge. She was frowning at him.
"Stop banging on my door, or I'll break it over your head," she said dryly.
"Ooh, that's a look," Dante thought, wincing at her deadpan expression – he was forcibly reminded of the first day he showed up there.
He very nearly smirked at her shirt, though, a dark purple thing with a rather dramatic image of a mutilated heart, clumsily sewn together, with a knife stuck in it, lying in a puddle of blood with the motto 'I Break Hearts' proudly flying over it. She did look very 'grown up' suddenly, with her hair clipped up and her stony expression.
Dante feigned a wince and a lop-sided smile. "Hey, I'm not dead yet!" he greeted her. "Guess you're not completely pissed at me, then."
She crossed her arms over her chest, quirking an eyebrow and smirking. "I'm still mad at you but I can't really hold a grudge at the fact that you're stupid, you can't help that," she said flatly and Dante flinched.
Roy chuckled. "Well well, first word of the day between you and it's insults. Typical!" he said. "Don't you look like an angry vixen. Careful, son, she looks ready to bite your head off."
Dante shrugged. "I don't know, can she even reach my head?" he said, a wide, shit-eating grin spreading on his face as he turned to look at her, just to annoy her.
Tess just rolled her eyes while Roy hooted as he stood up and made for the basement. "Well, I suppose you two have things to talk about. Run along and try not to get killed," he said over his shoulder. "Or kill each other!"
Dante shrugged and after frowning at Roy, turned back around to Tess. "So we're gonna do this charade for long? What's Roy talkin' about, anyway?"
"Well every time we step out of the front door, something bad happens," she said dryly but then let out a put-upon sigh. "You know what, fuck it. Wanna go get pizza? I can't be bothered to cook today."
Dante's eyebrows hitched upwards and his stomach finally got his attention enough to remind him that he was hungry. Pizza. The magic word. He nodded with an eagerness better suited to a small dog that elicited a snort from her.
"Hey, ain't our fault that the whole town's fucked up," he said, shrugging. "What's he take us for, babies?"
"He's not an idiot, Dante," Tess sighed, grabbing her black pea coat from the lounge. "He knows that no matter how much he growls or Grams glares, we're not gonna sit tight like good little kids. Frankly, I'm amazed he lets me go out after what happened at the park."
"Maybe he follows us around. Ya know, cat mode," Dante quipped.
"I would've sensed him if he had," she said, shaking her head.
"Huh, you can? He doesn't know how to get around your freaky radar?" he asked, tilting his head.
He was quietly irritated that he still couldn't sense the old man.
"He's tried. Been trying since I was 10 and he still can't fool me. Where are you going?" she asked, watching him turn to the stairs suddenly.
"Just getting some insurance," he said and trotted upstairs and snatched his guns. "So, where are you taking me, oh evil witch?" he asked with a smirk, coming back down with Ebony and Ivory safely tucked away under his coat. In a rare gesture of courtesy, Dante even held the door open for her.
She shook her head at him. "There's a pizza joint near here that's actually pretty decent."
Dante swung the door closed behind them and marched out after her. "Have they got good pizza? That's all I care about."
His stomach made an angry growl and Dante could've sworn he heard it say 'Feed me!'
"I'm not surprised," she sighed and just walked on.
There was quite a bit of snow left on the sidewalks, mushed and dirty from being trod upon and small piles rose dotted the side of the road where cars and snowplows had pushed it aside to clear the road. It crunched under their feet.
Dante gave her a sidelong look and pursed his lips. "Alright," he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Is there something else wrong now?"
She scoffed without stopping or looking over. "Must there be something wrong? Can't I just, you know, not want to talk to you much?"
"No. If you're not talking, something's wrong. Are you still pissed at me?" he asked, stopping and refusing to move until she spilled the beans.
Tess sighed, stopped and turned around. She idly twirled some hair around her finger. "Yes. I mean, what'd you expect, that it'd just go away like that?" she countered. "Why are you so interested, anyway?" she added pointedly.
Somehow that look she gave him when she said that caught Dante off guard and he sort of went on the defensive, unsure why. "I don't want to get punched again," he lied. "Better safe than sorry."
Tess breathed out and her shoulders drooped. "Eh… it's nothing, really. The usual. Grams just went off on me, again. We can keep bullshitting all we want but she knows what we're getting up to," she said, staring across the street. "Heh, she says you're an awful influence on me and for once… I kinda agree."
Dante scoffed. "Oh I dunno about that, Twig, I've known nothing but trouble since I came here!"
"You like trouble, don't pretend it bothers you," she said dryly. "Anyway, I don't like digging this up again, but wanted to ask you something: Besides the whole 'I thought it would be funny' shit, why the fuck did you kiss me?"
Dante almost tripped over his own feet because he tried to stop and yet keep walking casually at the same time. Somehow. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Why'd you have to bring that up again?"
She rolled her eyes and then jerked her hands upwards in a gesture of despair. "Because it's weird! You don't just kiss people even if it's funny! I need to know for some goddamn peace of mind."
Dante awkwardly bit his lip, a little unsure what to say here without wildly humiliating himself. A dozen smart-ass quips ran through his head and all ran up against a big blaring 'ABORT' command. He was tempted to confess the absurd truth at the root of it but his face felt warm and he had to look away to blatantly lie. "Well it's not because of your looks! You need to work on your temper to—"
Tess just sighed, rolling her eyes. She shook her head, looking down. "Okay, nevermind. I didn't expect a straight answer anyway. You really don't know how to talk to a girl," she concluded, turning back around and walked down the street.
Dante hastened to keep up – it was easy, he had longer legs. "Hey, I'm not trying to impress you," he retorted snidely. Trying to rally, he attempted to discompose her. "I mean, you already love me."
He smiled wide, confident that he was getting under her skin. His stomach gave another command for food and he cringed. Tess' lips twitched a little, but she kept walking. And then Tess countered his attempt.
"Now I wonder, is that maybe wishful thinking and that dumb kiss was you trying to say you love me too?" she said, putting her hands in her pockets.
Dante schooled his face into a wicked smile. Throw his words back at him? "I never said I loved you, Twig! I was just picking on you and we already know how that went. You're the one who gave me cake in the first place!" he said, jabbing his finger at her.
Tess chuckled. "I only gave you cake to be nice, Schnozz," she teased. "If you took it the wrong way, it's not my fault."
Dante looked away and before he could stop himself, muttered: "It's a shame you don't look as good as you bake."
That got a loud laugh out of her, even as she walked. "Okay, so what's the Dante ideal, then? What gets your jimmies rustled, Schnozz?" she challenged. "Let me guess, Playboy bunnies. You look the type."
Dante grimaced at her sourly. She was teasing him. He wanted to shut her up with a witty rejoinder but instead his teenaged indignation grabbed the wheel. "Heck no, I don't care for bunnies," he said with a grimace. "Me, I like girls with a nice, natural figure. Curves aren't a problem but I won't say no to a nice butt!" he said pointedly, outlining an imaginary woman's figure emphatically.
As he'd hoped, Tess' face turned a bit pink and she looked away. "Wow! No comment there," she chuckled. "Too bad I'm too thin for that, huh?"
Dante shrugged, smirking. "Pity for you, maybe! Plenty of fish in the sea, Twig~" he teased. "'Sides, where do you think I go when I'm not around the house?" he asked cheekily, knotting his fingers together behind his head.
He was pushing it, for sure.
Tess instead laughed and rolled her eyes, looking just a little put off. She seemed about to retort when suddenly her smile shrank away and her gaze fixed on something behind Dante. He caught her look and glanced over his shoulder.
In the street behind them there was a group of people, about a dozen, standing in the gloom, all different builds and sizes. They were all dressed in dark clothes and Dante could see they were all wearing hoods over their heads – from hoodies, jackets, overcoats. Though individual across the board they still matched in a bizarre kind of 'uniform'. They just stood there for a long moment, as though studying the pair and then suddenly started to walk towards the pair, slow and deliberate.
Dante narrowed his eyes; these were humans, plain and simple. He could feel it and even smell it in the air. Just humans. He shrugged and without thinking about it, put his arm over Tess' shoulders and motioned to walk on.
"C'mon, slowpoke," he said quietly.
Strangely, Tess did not fight his gesture and even shrank against him a bit. "I think it's a gang," she muttered. "I thought they stuck to downtown…"
She sounded a little frightened.
Dante scowled as a bunch of similarly-dressed people emerged from an alley across the street and advanced towards them. Ahead of them, another group turned into the street, effectively hemming them in and giving them just one way to move: cutting through an open-air parking lot. They were being herded into it.
"The fuck do they want?" he muttered, hesitating just for a moment.
"Remember how we've discussed that people in the city are turning crazy? I heard that some gang or other has been roaming the streets and randomly assaulting people – they beat someone to death last week," she muttered quickly. "Dante, what if it's these guys and we're being targeted—"
His grip on her shoulder tightened a bit and without thinking about it, he pulled her closer, still staring down the ever-closing mob. They were on their own, there was nobody else on the street to witness this and the windows of every building around them were dark.
"Calm down," he said. "We fought off demons; some humans will be a piece of cake. I'm sure you can scare 'em with a curse or two," he added, reaching into his coat for one of his guns. He glanced down at her with a somewhat wicked smile. "Unless you're scared?"
Tess hissed and grabbed at his arm. "I'm not scared—are you shitting me!? Put the gun away, you can't kill them! They're—they're just people!"
He squirmed her hand off his arm, but acquiesced with a grunt as they retreated towards the parking lot, just as the gang intended. Sure, he wasn't ever planning on killing any of these clowns but that didn't mean he couldn't use his guns any other way. The parking lot was mostly deserted, bar a few old cars and the two of them made a beeline for the open gate in the chain link fence opposite the one they'd entered through. The group behind them had now merged, trudging ominously after them at a faster pace. Just before the pair reached the gate, a couple of figures darted out from the nearby street and closed off the escape route by pulling the gate shut.
This forced Dante and Tess to a halt and he finally got a good look at their stalkers. Human, all of them, a mish-mash of young people, from as young as thirteen or fourteen to what looked like mid-twenties and all of them equally grim and dressed in dark clothes. The group closed in on them to the tune of crunching snow and stopped a few dozen feet away from them. Suddenly one of their ranks stepped ahead of the rest and tugged his hood back. It was a young man with dyed blond hair and a smug grin. He was barely taller than Tess but Dante didn't think he was younger than nineteen.
"Well, well, look who it is: the Wicked Bitch of the West!" he chuckled airily. "I thought it might be you. Long time no see."
He was staring right at Tess and grinned broadly; while she seemed to acknowledge him, her expression was something you'd expect her to direct at a vermin.
"Dean," she said dryly. "Hasn't been long enough. I should've recognized the stench from a mile away."
Dante's eyes narrowed as this guy neared. He wouldn't disagree on the stench but it wasn't the simple odor of a slovenly teenager or even the stench of a weed smoker. He could smell blood, faintly but distinctly present, drying somewhere on his clothes. It put the half-demon on edge and he thought that perhaps Tess had a point in being cautious. He narrowed his eyes at him as he called Tess that cruel moniker.
"Did he really just call my girl a bitch?"
The thought had rolled into his head completely unbidden and he almost twitched. He had the absurd but overwhelming desire to draw his gun and blow this idiot's head to pieces for provoking such a weird thought. He practically felt his demonic side begging him to do it. He mentally shook his head at himself.
"Get it together!" he ordered himself. "What the hell are you thinking? Your girl? Since when!? Stop dicking around and don't stoop to their level, you moron!"
Dean appeared oblivious to Dante's growing scowl or Tess' disdain and maintained his smug and taunting smirk. Evidently, the presence of his accompanying mob provided him with ample confidence.
"Yeah, what's it been, two years?" Dean said pointedly. "Your old uncle kicked me out just because we were having some fun."
Tess glared. "Oh, you mean how you tried to turn the building into your personal whorehouse?" she replied pointedly. "All I remember is too many call-girls, too much booze and too much bullshit."
Dante's lips twitched a bit as he resisted a smirk, keeping his eyes on Dean. His smirk seemed to shrink a little.
"Still a cocky little bitch, ain'tcha?" Dean said and then looked at Dante, eyeing him up and down. "So what's that make you, the boyfriend? Didn't think you were into twinks, Tess. Or is he just another tenant in that dump of yours?"
Evidently this was all high comedy for the mob as snickers, whoops and a 'decorative' adjective or called out loud successfully hid the unexpectedly loud grinding noise that Dante's teeth made as he clenched his jaw.
"Twink?!" he thought angrily.
Tess' anger seemed to overtake her initial fear. "Oh please, you brought it all yourself and if you weren't so high all the time you'd have realized, you moron. You think you're some big man just because you've got a bunch of sheep to do what you say – because people with higher brain functions won't."
A few taunting whistles and cackles from the mob made the girl tense against Dante's arm. Dean just chuckled, looking away with a hard, sinister glint in his eye.
"Oh man, Tess. You always had a mouth on ya," he chuckled. "I got news for you, princess: You're in my turf now. You should be nicer to me."
He underscored that veiled threat by hooking his thumbs in his belt suggestively.
Dante didn't quite expect her reaction. "Oooh, I'm scared," she snapped sarcastically. "You must be thanking your lucky stars, Dean, that you have a mob here to protect you because I don't think you could've handled me alone if you tried."
She actually got right in his face and Dante was alarmed to find that the mob suddenly stirred and mutterings from it urged him to strike back. Dante finally had enough and before this could escalate, he pulled her back gently and stepped forward, getting between her and the irritating thug, looking down at him coldly.
"That's enough. Pisses me off when someone's got a bigger mouth than me," he said dryly.
He found the idea of the shorter Dean trying to intimidate him with a glare to be funny and smirked. The thug looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. His discomfort at Dante's taller stature was short-lived and he stepped up to look him in the eye.
"Ooh, got ourselves a hero here," he sneered as his group snickered again. "Look, Shining Armor, you're either stupid or you got balls. Tell you what, you can take a nice long walk or you can get messed up – I mean if you're gonna, at least get messed up for a chick that's worth it."
Dante did not budge and just carried on smirking. "You know, if you had the stones to take me on, you wouldn't even bother with the threats," he chuckled. "Twig's right, you're just a lowlife. So why not have a crack at the 'hero', huh?"
Tess, who had remained quiet, probably out of surprise, hissed at him. "Don't provoke him—"
The entire mob suddenly closed in on them, as though Dean had made some subtle sign, and fell upon them like hungry wolves. Dean had stuffed his hand in his hoodie's pocket and when he pulled it out, he was donning a heavy-looking knuckle-duster which he rammed straight into Dante's face. The rest of the bunch closed in, allowing no escape.
Dante's head snapped back as he failed to dodge or parry the hit from sheer surprise. The next thing he knew, he was the subject of some of the most violent physical assaults he'd ever seen humans commit and as he rallied, he saw a few stones, bottles and even knives making appearances from pockets and coats.
He dodged another punch aimed for his jaw and in the instant it took him to get out of that assault he saw Tess kick a guy in the jewels before she got knocked into the ground by a kick across her back from another guy. She hit the snowy ground hard and then the group of people attacking her closed in around her. Dante grit his teeth, parried another punch thrown by Dean and then knocked the dumbass backwards with a punch to the chest. He dodged around a thug and shoved his way towards her.
His already roused anger went into a boiling point and he snatched one of the gang members by the back of the shirt and unceremoniously sent him head first through the rear window of a car. He found one of the thugs keeping Tess pressed down with his knee on her chest and grinding her head into the dirty snow with his hand. Another person – a girl, no less – was preparing to kick her again. Tess was struggling against her captor but she was quite outnumbered.
Dante pulled his fist back and sent the woman sprawling to the ground in one blow. The man holding Tess down was so surprised that the redhead took her chance, snatched a rock and smashed it into the side of his head and when he reeled back from the blow, she proceeded to kick him, swearing. Dante punched another man to the ground and then did only thing he could think of to protect her from the swarming group that was now fully surrounding them.
He pulled her against him and then forced her to drop down with him so he could shield her with himself – they were too tightly hemmed in to fight back effectively and Dante had had enough. Their resistance had only roused the mob to greater anger and they tried to descend upon them with even more ferocity. Fists, knees, feet all came pummeling down on him but Dante was more concerned with deflecting blows going for Tess and fighting off any attempts of the mob to drag them apart. The last straw was a stone clonking against his head hard enough to draw blood.
Now at knee level to the mob, Dante took advantage of an opening, drew both his guns from under his coat and fired off a few rounds. The first two were warning shots that deliberately missed, but when they failed to dissuade the aggressive swarm, the rest pierced flesh and popped a few knees. The time for mercy was well past, though he still wasn't willing to kill any of them. Tess yelped as the gunfire erupted loudly in the chaos.
"Shit, the kid's packing!"
As soon as the noise registered properly as gunfire, most of the thugs backed off in a hurry. Two or three fell on their backs, clutching wounded legs and screaming in pain. Most backed away, some limping with blood strains blooming along their jeans and shoes. Some were outright fleeing.
Dean had been spared of a bullet, but he'd been knocked down by one of his fleeing flunkies and Dante caught him glaring with grit teeth like a savage dog. "You little-!"
With some breathing space secured, Dante and Tess were able to jump to their feet and fight back properly. Tess kicked one of the thugs who were doubled over right in the face. A crack let Dante know that his nose was broken, as he reeled back and a stream of blood flowed over his mouth.
"You maniac!" she yelled at Dante. "This is not a time to play the hero! And you cannot save my ass by taking all the hits so you can guilt-trip me!"
Dante chuckled as he turned around and pistol-whipped one of the thugs hard across the jaw, sending her sprawling. So she did care! Most of the gang was running away. A few were still around, spurred on by Dean's swearing and threats if they 'deserted'. Dante and Tess were now back to back and he could hear her hard breathing from the excitement and effort. One of the thugs lay on his back, groaning and clutching his throat.
"Had enough, asshole?" Dante taunted his rival with a devilish grin. "Think you can still take me on?"
Dean just glared back, rallying and clenching his fists. "You motherfucking piece of shit…"
Just like that, time seemed to slow to a crawl. The air grew heavy and gritty. Sound dropped off to a background hum and something came upon them. A shade had stretched itself from the corners of reality, from the thin shadows hanging in the twilight and reached out for purchase. Dante froze up. He knew this feeling, what it was, even though he'd never felt it in his life – but he knew of similar feelings, feelings that crept and grasped and whispered. The sky hung low and dark like a giant suspended eye.
Behind him, Tess gasped and he turned to catch her eyes widen and she stumbled backwards, right into his arms as if something had given her a blow to the chest. She grabbed on for support and stared – Dante followed her gaze to find her staring at nothing before she blinked and her hand reached for her face that contorted from pain.
"Something's happening-!" she blurted.
Dante grunted affirmatively. He backed up away from the thugs, who were petrified and seemed to have 'tuned out' abruptly, staring vaguely and blankly ahead of them. Dante felt it happen, the start of a corruption unfurling in the humans and starting to turn them into something other. He cursed. Demons were the last thing they needed right now. He glanced at Tess suddenly, almost expecting to feel the same from her but caught her mumbling a series of sharp, flinty words over and over and a low thrum of power carried over them.
Resistance. Defiance.
It took a load off his chest and he herded her away from the thugs, between him and a sturdy old truck, keeping himself between her and the thugs. The remaining thugs were stock still and they seemed to have become comatose while still standing. But something in them was very much active, trying to dig itself up out of them.
Dante gave Tess a soft shake. "Tess. Tess, c'mon, look at me!"
It was useless; she stared and stared and kept muttering – she was fighting her own battle inside and Dante thought she was actually winning. The unnatural sensation choking the very air started to subside, like the shade had gotten what it wanted and slunk away into the dark. The disoriented thugs started to stir and wobble in place. Whatever it was, it had curled around them all, and left a mark on some before fleeing – Dante could sense the remains, like a stain.
It felt… wrong. It was alive, one thing in all of them, the same foul and angry thing. An insane thing.
Dante scowled. Now he could place it. It felt like the madmen he'd fought before. The same ugly feeling coming from them, the growing demonic influence. Now he'd witnessed how it began. These humans weren't long for the world. He could already feel something eating them from the inside.
Tess snapped out of her daze with a loud gasp.
"S-Something was here!" she uttered, grasping at Dante's sleeve. "It—it hungers! It sits in the dark and it waits and it hungers…!"
She suddenly shook herself down, as if disentangling herself from something. "Argh, my head," she grunted and then scanned the thugs. "Oh fuck, Dante, their auras, they're—"
"I know. They're going crazy. It's demonic power. Like the ones we've seen before," he said, frustrated. "The fuck was that thing?"
"I-I don't know," Tess quavered and ran her hand over her face.
She then glanced to the side and shrieked, shoving Dante aside as Dean lunged at them from the side and swung a switchblade over his head and then down where Dante had stood – the blade struck sparks on the hood of the car right next to Tess. Dean's eyes had rolled back into his head and his grit teeth were creaking horribly as foam built up from his hard breathing.
Dante kicked him hard to push him back. "Do me a favor," he grunted at Tess. "If it means your life, don't save mine!"
He then lunged Dean, ramming his fist into the possessed human's face, sending him reeling. Dante heard the crack of bone but was dismayed to find it meant nothing to Dean – he just snapped back and tried to tackle him. Another of the damned thugs dodged around Dante and seized him from behind, arms under the half-demon's armpits to force Dante's arms up. Dante struggled but found he was fighting against supernatural strength. A third person descended upon him and a fist crashed into his gut, knocking the air out of him.
There was no doubt in his mind now, as he coughed: These thugs were now under the thrall of some demonic influence using them as a conduit, a way to stretch a claw out into the world. Dante could already tell that it was literally eating them from the inside. He saw their bloodshot eyes, the bursting veins pulsing under the skin and the start of hideous changes as bone would start to burst out of the skin and teeth would tear through the lips.
Tess seemed to know too as she made an attempt to assist him; he saw the glow of flame just before she was tackled by a larger girl who grabbed her by the hair and whipped her around to drive her knee into the redhead's stomach. Tess yelped and then struggled against her captor, twisting the other girl's arm in an effort to free herself. Dante heard an ugly pop from the girl's elbow as Tess hit it hard, but her attacker's grip didn't slacken. The two girls fell to an awkward grappling while a man slowly approached with a broken bottle in hand.
He had to divert his attention though as Dean took advantage of his incapacitation to stalk at him with a wicked grin, his eyes visibly shifting to a solid red. Dante struggled, feeling his ire rise to greater heights of rage. His foes were not the only ones changing as he felt his blood pump faster, his voice drop to an angry growl and even his teeth seemed to sharpen as he ground them, trying to throw off his captors' vice-grip holds. His arms flailed uselessly as the hold forced them up. His gun had landed on the tarmac with a hopeless clatter and yet none of his foes seemed to pick it up.
He grunted when Dean raised the switchblade he was holding and plunged it right into Dante's chest, getting a grunt of pain from the teenager. Tess must have seen it because she screamed his name even as she struggled with her opponent. Dean twisted the blade, trying to drive it further in and when that failed, he drew it out with an ugly squelch and wound his arm back for another. That was the end of the line for Dante, who sounded a deep snarl form the bottom of his chest and thrashed hard. He threw his weight backwards, tucked his legs up and stomped hard against Dean's chest, sending him flying. Then he swung his head forward and then back, smashing the back of his head into the face of his captor. Demon influence or no, the impact caused his hold to slack and with a sudden swing of the arms, Dante was free. He grabbed the man who'd been holding him and with an abrupt swing threw him straight into yet another corrupted thug, sending them both sprawling.
He swept up his gun and shot Dean in the knee, destroying the joint and ensuring he'd stay down long enough for him to get some breathing room. Dante was angry, very angry and it was evident. He had to muster every ounce of his self-control to not outright shoot Dean's head to chunks or do something worse. Dante spun around, caught a lunging thug and with phenomenal ease threw him back first against a wall abutting the parking lot, where he collided with a resounding thud and the sound of cracking bones.
He turned just to catch Tess fend off one of her attackers with a burst of flame that send him flailing backwards with his hands over his face, screaming. She was struggling so much that the woman restraining her had to lock her arm around the witch's neck and was close to throttling her but still seemed to be losing her footing as the witch screamed profanities and flailed. The woman attempted to grab her by the hair to control her but Tess angrily bit her captor's exposed arm and twisted out of her hold so violently that she left a bit of her hair clutched in her captor's fingers. Tess spun around, rammed her heel into her captor's knee, knocked her down and then kicked her in the face.
Dante took a step forward to assist her when a thug tackled him from the side and then directed a deformed fist at the boy's face. Dante had a split-second to see the bone spurs erupting through the burst skin before they connected to his jaw in a thunderous punch. He heard a crack come from his jaw and a stab of pain but he rallied and pointed both guns at the thug, putting a bullet each in his hands and a final hail into his center of mass, sending him to the ground. He then spun around again to catch another fist coming his way and with a sudden flick of his wrist he snapped his attacker's arm and fired two bullets straight into his skull.
Tess, having disentangled herself from her attackers, was rushing for him when the creature that had been Dean tackled her with an inhuman screech. They both went down and Tess screamed as she kicked him off her and tried to flee, just to fall down again when he grabbed her ankle with a hand that was rapidly turning into the horrid paw of a beast. Even Dante knew instinctively what she was witnessing; the thug was turning into a demon right before her eyes, faster than any of the rest. Whatever was turning these people, it was focused almost entirely upon him now. Unable to stand, it reached out and dragged Tess toward it, even as she screamed and struggled to free herself, ramming her hand against his face to keep his now gaping maw away from her.
Dante holstered his guns and gave his jaw a punch to knock it back into place properly, a resounding crack indicating his success. He rubbed his chin irritably as he stomped over towards them. A final thug thought to rush him but Dante took him out easily by raising his arm and allowing him to run head first into his arm, whereupon Dante took him down with an impressive lariat and a bullet to the skull.
"Fucking demon influences," he thought angrily. "And why the hell isn't she using fire to get out of that, is she expecting a rescue?" his thoughts carried on without realizing it. "Wait, what the fuck—d'oh, he's too close, she'll burn herself—"
He got to them just as the thing that had been Dean overpowered Tess and pinned her to the ground. He rushed in and wound back his leg. The creature looked up as it heard his approach – its eyes were entirely yellow and its faintly human face was elongated and stretched by a hideous Glasgow grin and serrated teeth. Dante's foot impacted with its face with a nasty crack and a snapping noise. Dante felt bone cave in under his boot and grunted appreciatively. Its grip loosened and it was knocked away with a screech, tumbling to a stop on its back. It lay there for a moment, dazed, then jumped up onto its feet, hunched and panting, still grinning. Crackling noises from the hands heralded large bone spurs erupting out of the familiar form and the jaw dislocated as the teeth swelled to an alarming size.
Dante locked gazes with it, baring his teeth without thinking about it. He helped Tess to her feet and quickly pushed her behind him before he drew his guns again.
"Stay behind me. Don't do anything stupid," he said grimly.
Tess just nodded sharply, glancing around them for any other stragglers. Most of the other gang had now vanished. The few that lay around were evidently dead, the demonic features withering along their bodies and making them look like they'd been dead for far longer than a few minutes.
"This is insane…" she muttered.
The creature cackled, tilting its head sideways, then swayed from one side to the other thoughtfully. Suddenly it dashed for Dante, dodging a direct shot and quite literally pounced on him. Dante swung his arm and smashed the bottom of his gun against the leaping menace, tossing it aside and into the roof of a car with a loud crash. Glass exploded outwards and the tortured squeal of metal accompanied the creature's thrashing as it tried to recover. It rolled off the wrecked car just to get body-checked into it again as Dante charged and dug the barrel of Ebony into its gut.
The gun was crackling with energy.
"Later," Dante snarled and pulled the trigger.
A barrage of bullets, laced with searing demonic power, burst through the creature. It screeched and howled as it thrashed about, the body tensing and twisting in death-throes. Its skin turned completely gray and scaly as it slumped onto the ground. As it crumpled, a wispy black entity, very reminiscent of the one they'd seen before, leaped out of the crumbled body, rearing back to attack before it burst into flames, flailing weakly as it dissolved in midair.
Dante breathed out and put his guns away and turned to Tess. She was breathing hard, staring at the spot where the wisp had risen, hand outstretched.
"It—it was going to hurt you," she said breathlessly. "It was angry."
She let her arm drop to her side, her eyes wide and Dante thought she must still be in a bit of shock. Her eyes travelled at the remains of the creature that had been Dean.
"He's dead," she whispered. "Good."
Dante grabbed her hand. "C'mon."
They fled from the scene, even as the oppressive feeling that had smothered them was rapidly dissipating. They were lucky to not encounter anyone, neither passerby, nor someone from the gang who might've returned. Dante did eventually hear police sirens in the distance but by then they'd ducked into an alley far from the scene. They stopped, panting, and Dante let his back rest against the wall.
"Don't like seeing me hurt, eh?" he half-teased. "You love me, Twig."
Tess stopped beside him with her hands on her knees and absently she whapped his arm. "Shut up—" she muttered, blushing. "But of course I don't want to see you get shredded by some demon."
He tilted his head back, staring at the evening sky between the buildings. "Well for what it's worth, I wasn't gonna sit there and let them talk shit about you," he grumbled.
He rubbed his chest; the wound from his stabbing was gone and he was only left with a relatively small hole in his shirt – and its dark color would hide any blood spatters.
"Hey, are you alright?" she asked, standing straight.
He shrugged. "Right as rain, Twig," Dante said, then absently put his hand out and wiped a smudge of dirt from her cheek. "What about you? They got a few hits in—"
She looked away, her face turning red. "I'm fine. Sore but I'll sleep it off," she mumbled, then looked at the hole in his shirt guiltily.
"Do you wanna go back? Roy, he could—" she suggested.
Dante smiled and flexed his shoulder. "Nah. I didn't come all the way out here and kicked demon butt to go back empty handed. I want some celebratory pizza," he said cheekily.
And then he quipped. "You're cute when you're worried about me."
She stared and Dante was afraid he'd stepped over some line in the sand again but then she shrugged. "Someone has to, I guess."
Dante nearly did a double take and had to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and do so casually. She… cared? When was the last time someone had cared? They silently moved on towards the pizza restaurant again, but they avoided the main road and stuck to back alleys instead. Tess glanced back a few times.
"Those people… there's nothing we could've done, right?" she muttered.
"Nope," Dante said, frowning. "Whatever got in 'em was there to stay. They let it in. There was no saving 'em."
"I… actually knew that guy. And I…I'm not sure that I really care he's dead," she said quietly. "I'd even argue he… he deserved that, stupid bastard."
She shivered visibly. "Does that make me sound… evil?"
Dante laughed. "Hell no, Twig," he said reassuringly. "He sounded like a piece of shit anyway. How'd you know him, exactly?"
She shrugged. "He used to live in the boarding house, a few years ago, with some friends of his. But they caused us no end of trouble. I kind of liked him when he first moved in, he was funny."
She looked wistful for a whole second and then scowled. "Then I realized what kind of idiot he really was and all his antics stopped being funny." She flicked her gaze to Dante. "I was serious about the whorehouse bit. He was awful."
Dante looked away suddenly to hide what he suspected might've been a twinge of… jealousy? Really?
"Fuck's sake, I just offed him," he thought.
He tried to play it off but couldn't stop his mouth from throwing out something dumb: "So… did he like, hit on you?"
He almost ran away or punched himself. Tess gave him a weird look but also… blushed a little. "I…I'm not sure. Like I said, he was weird. I think what he was doing was 'creeping on me' rather than anything."
Dante heard his knuckles pop as he tightened his fist suddenly and he looked away again to hide a satisfied smirk. "What a loser," he muttered.
He felt her staring at him and decided to quickly change the subject before she asked any awkward questions. "You handled yourself pretty good back there, by the way. Where'd you learn that stuff?"
She shrugged. "Roy's been teaching me some things," she admitted. She sounded kind of proud in an awkward way. "He decided that since I don't let him follow me everywhere, I should know how to watch my back. I think he did it to put an end to all the fights we had whenever I caught him tailing me."
Dante laughed. "I didn't think he'd want you getting into that sorta thing! Gotta give the old bat some credit. You're not half bad," he added, smirking.
"I haven't had to actually practice what I know like that before, though," Tess huffed. "I mean… I have beaten up a few people but… you know, not this kind of thing," she added, making a gesture of irritation. "And you! You saw the chance to play hero and you jumped at it!" she chuckled.
"Yeah, a real knight in shining armor, that's me," he said smugly.
They didn't want to admit it, but they were both tense all the way until they finally reached the pizza diner. If they hadn't taken such a massive detour thanks to the gang and their 'scenic route' they would've been there almost an hour ago. They both stopped outside the place to straighten themselves out so as to now get any awkward looks. Neither looked especially roughed up and they could excuse the worse bits away as running mishaps. They stepped inside the cozy place cheerfully enough and Dante even joked about getting his reward for successfully vanquishing their foes.
It made Tess giggle and Dante suddenly felt rather proud about getting that laugh out of her.