"We're looking for something called The Chalice of Shadows," Vergil explained to me as we zoomed along on a motorcycle. Man, when Vergil did the ride thing, he did them right. I had to hand him that at least. The bike practically screamed road rash.
"Sounds like a drinking game," I said above the roar of the wind. I had been bothering Vergil for the last fifteen minutes to get him to tell me what the heck we were doing.
"You've heard of the Holy Grail?" he asked, ignoring my banter.
"You mean, the last supper cup, from the drawing by Da Vinci, or what's his name?" I asked.
"Precisely. The Chalice of Shadows is said to be the anti-thesis of the Grail."
" 'Anti-thesis'? And that means…?"
"It's said that the Chalice of Shadows was baptized in the blood of the children birthed by the prostitutes of the world, and when ultimate good drinks virginal blood from the cup, chaos and the four horsemen will be unleashed into the world," he shifted gears, increasing speed. "It's written in the book of Revelations, more or less."
"Gross," I said. Vergil gunned the engine, running a red light. I tightened my hold on him. He was going to get me killed. "Is that why we're getting the Chalice thingy? To stop that from happening?"
"If you want," Vergil replied in a gruff voice. Okay…what's the catch? Possibly not an Order member, cuter than a friggin model, and he's trying to save the world. Vergil you're a half demon, what are you trying to do and why am I so damning important to it? Damn you demon, quite evading the damn question. Vergil said nothing for the rest of the ride. I nearly swallowed my tongue as he began to weave more closely to traffic, making the bike perform tight, near impossible turns. I held on for my life.Still what he said was unnerving. It fit with what little I knew about demons, including the ones the Order had sent.
We ended up at the old abandoned City Museum. The place looked like a grave yard. Why were we breaking into a public museum in the middle of the night? More to the point, why did we have to break into an abandoned public museum? I mean, would the Chalice be found in the new one if it was so important? And why would something that important be left behind in the first place? That was pretty sloppy of the museum curator. The marble hallways were long deserted, the stones of the building felt lonely and neglected. It felt like a brand new house you've just moved into, minus the new house smell. Now the art relics gone and I could practically feel the dust streaming around my knees.
"Um, Vergil?" I asked my voice echoing through out the room, "What exactly does this Chalice thing look like?" This was boring as hell. I dropped the butt of my cigarette on the ground and squashed it out with a twist of my heel. He glared at me over his shoulder. I don't think Vergil appreciates my cigarette addiction the way I do.
"You'll know it when you see it," he replied. He was moving slower now, examining something in a glass case.
"Is that it?" I asked, looking over his shoulder. It was cup thing. Why was that even here? Man no wonder getting into museums was expensive, they were losing things.
"No." I sighed annoyed. How long was this going to take? According to my watch it was nearly three in the morning. I had to work all day tomorrow-er, today and we still had nothing. Take about a waste time. I looked further on down the hall we were in, nothing but more glass cases with left over junk in them.
"Isn't there any way to make this go faster?" I asked.
"Patience is a virtue," Vergil replied annoyed. Yeah because he had so much of it. I snorted.
"The hell it is." Then I did a running start, and locked my legs in place after I had gone fast enough. I managed a complete 360 turn on my worn out boot heels before stumbling and ending the ride short.
"Impressive for clutz. Are you finished yet?" Vergil asked flatly. I smiled at him sweetly.
"I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't so damning bored."
"I suppose even an idiot like you has to excel at something," he said non-plussed.
"I know you're jealous, but you don't have to take your frustrations out on me," I replied. Vergil didn't respond. I looked up into the star filled night sky.I wasnow in a roundglass domed roomwhere the lesser halls conjoined. The place had so many twists and turns it almost reminded me of alabryinth. It figures Vergil would drag me here.
"Just admit you're jealous," I said as I waited for him to catch up, "It's okay to admit you're bored out of your mind too." Vergil raised an eyebrow as he strode into the circular room.
"Some demons like humans with rare skills, Lauren," he replied smoothly, "if you become talented enough, perhaps your corpse will be found rotting in a dark pit of hell. I'll be sure to mourn the loss of your amazing ability then."
"Oh how sweet," I snapped back. God couldn't he take a joke? …Never mind.
A white ghostly light suddenly filled the room. In the center of the room, Vergil was crouched down over it. I scooted forward to see what he was holding. It looked like a ball of light for a few moments. Then, I couldn't tell anymore, because the light got too bright. Like bright enough to boil my eyeballs, what with the ample warning Vergil gave me. In a moment it was gone, darting down a hallway, like a bobber on a fish line.
"What was that?" I asked, blinking. White spots were dancing in my line of vision.
"A searcher." Vergil straitened up. Searcher? Hmmmm….maybe not everything in the demon world was particularly dangerous. In fact that could be down right useful…
"So we just follow the light and it leads us to the chalice?" I asked. He nodded. Why hadn't he whipped that thing out sooner? "Hey, could I have one of those for my house keys?" Vergil ignored me. Maybe he didn't think I was serious.
"There are others," he said quietly.
"Others? Like other people?" I asked mildly. "Like people who are working or something? That's odd." Wordlessly he gave me the stupid look. "Oh," I groaned, catching on. "Great."
"Yes, that kind of company," he replied, already walking down the hall following the light. Hadn't he said that there would be no demons? Moaning, I followed him.