The dull throb of a hangover made opening my eyes a chore, but my phone was buzzing on my nightstand, making itself difficult to ignore.
I opened one eye to glare at the ID, but I didn't recognize the number. Ignored.
For a while, I tried again to go back to sleep, but now it was the silence that was too difficult to ignore.
It was after ten already, so there was a text from Nico ("feeling better? :c"), and that missed call. No voicemail. Their loss.
As I replied to Nico's text, something still felt off to me.
Where was my Celaeno's voice? I was painfully aware of the things I'd said the previous night, the confession of my contract's details to Vergil… I knew she would still be angry, but I expected to hear her scolding me first thing after waking.
I reached under my pillow for the dagger. I ran my fingers over the sheathed blade, a tender gesture that I wondered if she felt. I could still feel her. She was just… out of my reach. I put my face in my hands as I ran through the previous night's events in my head.
After a call from Dante, I lamented the fact that humans and demons didn't observe the same calendar. I had no plans, but I didn't exactly want to ring in the new year with demon hunting.
"I would do it myself, but it's just a few streets over from your apartment, right?" he'd said, referring to the nest of empusa that had indeed opened up only a couple of blocks away from me. I would reach it before anyone else could, so I agreed.
I chased my self-inflicted and entirely deserved hangover with more pickle juice than I really cared to drink at once, at the same time pushing aside the high turtleneck I wore to trace the pale outline of my contract mark. I could feel her, but… even though she was intentionally shutting me out, I could also feel frustration and anger rolling off of her in waves. I had royally pissed her off, that much was obvious, but there wasn't much time to think about that when there was work to be done.
The ride to the abandoned home not far from my apartment building was painfully silent as well.
From the look of it, the empusa had settled into a small house with a huge yard; all had fallen into disrepair. When I first moved into my apartment, it was up for debate whether the house's owner was simply reclusive or if it was really empty. Now, there was no question. The lawn was overgrown, with peeling paint flaking off the building in dusty chunks around it. The windows on one side were covered with multicolored particle board. No one had lived here in a long time, probably longer than since I arrived.
Not that the ants were very afraid of humans at all, when they could easily outnumber them. I tried not to think of that as I looked for a way in.
Unfortunately, unless I wore Celaeno's armor, I couldn't detect the demons myself, but I had Celaeno's dagger with me, as always. I hoped a whole nest, even a new nest, would be noticeable enough even to a human, but with the dagger, I was able to point myself in the right direction.
I hiked myself up over the chainlink fence, worried about how I would look trying to break into an abandoned house. The boarded windows would probably be the easiest way to get in, except that I didn't have any way to remove the board without hurting myself. The boards looked relatively fresh too. I wondered if the owner, or current owner, had previously had trouble with trespassers.
I moved quietly through the yard, and around the perimeter of the house, thoroughly not enjoying the grass that tickled the sides of my denim-covered legs. On one side of the house, the board had been removed already. Definitely by human hands, as the board was lying in the grass beside it, carefully propped up against the building. I wasn't excited about the idea of running into other humans while I was working, but that opening would have to do.
Before I even entered the window, a certain smell hit my nostrils again, causing me to retch and recoil from the window. I doubted very much I would find any other humans there, on second thought. No matter how many times I smelled it, I would never get used to it. Empusa naturally carried a rank smell of corpses about them, but this was new, I knew it. If the house had been disturbed by trespassers before, that problem had probably solved itself.
The stench was even worse the closer I got to the window, so I covered my face with my turtleneck. Rolling down the sleeves of my jacket for a little extra protection, I crawled into the open window. If the empusa didn't know I was here already, they probably would know soon.
The room was coated in layers of dust, the flooring a water-stained carpet that was warped and raised up like ripples in a pond.
In the center of the room were a couple of old wicker dining chairs, one with a torn up hole where the seat should have been. To the side was a pile of garbage - bags of chips and bear cans, on top of a heap of crumbled, caved in ceiling.
I looked down at my feet to see the shattered remains of something made of multi-colored glass. The smell of old smoke was also present, clinging to the walls somehow, mingling with the smell of death in new and unpleasant ways. I couldn't identify the object that was even more crushed up as my boots crunched across it, but I could put two and two together.
The uneven flooring threw me off at first, but I kept my footing as I moved into the living area, or what looked like it. The carpet gave way to wood that was in dire need of a new finish.
In this room, the dust wasn't as thick, and the scuffed up floor had clawmark trails leading in and out of a hole in the center of the room.
The nest wasn't actually on the lost, but underneath it.
Trying to scope out the area alone, when this nest had clearly been here longer than we had realized was a bad idea.
I pulled out my phone and grimaced as I prayed that someone was still around to answer Dante's phone.
Despite the voice in the back of my head (my own, not Celaeno's) that hissed at me to prepare for the worst, Dante picked up after the fourth ring.
"Devil May Cry," came his greeting - intended for a customer and not myself.
"Hey, it's me again. So I'm standing in front of the empusa nest, but they've already burrowed under the house," I said carefully, moving back away from the entrance to avoid attracting attention. "They're just empusa, but this might not be a one person job after all."
I could almost hear Dante's grin over the phone. "You can't handle a few ants on your own? But I hear you. I'll send over Nero. Kid's probably bored out of his head, since he hasn't had anything to sharpen his sword on in a while."
After seeing Nero with his girlfriend at the party, I sort of doubted that was all he lived for - but he took himself seriously and would be here as soon as he could.
But there was someone who could get to me even faster .
"What about Vergil?" I asked. "He knows where my apartment is, so he'd probably get here before Nero."
I felt another wave of jealousy and anger pulsing from Celaeno. It was enough to make me dizzy.
"Vergil?" Dante made a kind of blow-offy 'pfft' noise with his mouth. "Yeah, I don't know about that. Guy gets a phone as a gift and he has no problem making himself scarce. He might answer if you call him, but I'm not going to rely on that if you need backup."
I paused. "He has a phone?"
"Yeah, I got it for him, cause he's hard to get ahold of, but he's already ignoring it," he said. "I gave him the numbers of everyone working around here because I figured it would come in handy and he'd never call anyone unless it was an emergency - so never, most likely."
"Oh, that includes your number. I probably should have asked you if it was alright first," he added, but he didn't sound very apologetic.
I recalled something Vergil had said as we were leaving the party the night before. "Expect a call in the morning," he'd said, but I didn't think he'd meant he would call me himself.
I wondered if that's what the missed call that woke me up was.
"Don't worry about it," I murmured, more worried about the empusa than Dante giving out my phone number. "I'm not the one who has a problem with him."
"You're probably right. I should let Lady know too," he said, thoughtfully.
I rolled my eyes at him, but I was sure Lady's reason for disliking him was fairly sound, given what I knew of her history.
But thinking about it a little more, I didn't want to get myself into more trouble with Celaeno either. Nero wouldn't let me down, if he could help it.
"Nevermind that, I'll just wait for Nero outside, okay?" I snorted, ducking into the room with the two chairs to sneak back outside.
Dante gave a low hum and then hung up, leaving me by myself again. I brushed away a bit of glass with my foot, then crawled back through the window.
I fiddled with my phone. Maybe I should have asked Dante what Vergil's number actually was, just to prove my theory. Even if I thought to ask, I really wasn't interested in pissing off Celaeno anymore than I already had. For some reason, the idea of calling a number just to see who answered made me nervous, too, even if it did turn out to be his.
My phone beeped, a text notification from Nico, updating me on their ETA.
They were close, but I had too much time to be trapped in my own head.
Time ticked by for about eight minutes while I imagined all kinds of horrible scenarios. I thought I could hear the scratching of thousands of claws writhing in the ground underneath my feet. I worried that there was no way to please Celaeno, as things currently stood. I wondered about whoever had come here before, only to be dragged into the empusa nest after being killed. The ants were mainly interested in human blood, to gift to their queen, but the smell still lingered in the house in the corpse's absence. Out of anxiety, I went back to muffling the scent with my sweater.
When they finally arrived, I'd had enough of trying to cope with the silence without Celaeno. Thank god neither of my coworkers were particularly quiet.
I heard the rental car pull up, and leaned around the corner of the building to see. I waved my hands at them to get their attention.
The rental car was bland, tan, and safe. As the two of them got closer, I realized Nero had crammed his sword's case into the back seat. His gun was neatly tucked into its holster as he retrieved the sword, and remained there even as he jumped the fence, clearing it with more ease than I ever could alone.
Nico leaned against the fence, waving at me, but it was clear that this was as far as she went.
"Sorry to call you out here on New Year's Day," I said as I moved away from the window for him to crawl inside.
"You won't catch me complaining," said Nero, putting his hands up. "But if anything happens to me, Dante's gonna get an earful from Kyrie."
Nero produced something from his pocket, a metal gauntlet which he clamped over his own hand, snapping it into place with a satisfying pop of his knuckles.
"What's that?" I asked, blinking as I watched him.
He looked surprised for a moment, like he'd forgotten it was unusual. "This? This is called a Devil Breaker. Nico made 'em for me special back when, uh. When I lost my arm."
A red flag went off in my head, but that didn't stop me from opening my mouth as soon as we had entered through the window and were standing in the dining room. "...What do you mean you lost your arm?"
I really didn't want to pry into something so obviously private, but I was pretty sure what I could see of both of his arms were flesh and blood.
He looked a little conflicted as he started to answer, a response I should have expected. "Um, I thought Kyrie told you about this already? That was back a year or so ago when Vergil stole the Yamato back from me."
I stopped near the living room entryway, lowering my voice as I tore my gaze from the entrance to him. "She didn't tell me your own father cut your arm off. Even if he didn't know you then, that's not exactly a convincing argument."
He looked a little embarrassed. "I got better," he started to say, but he finally set his eyes on the nest as he shuffled around me, and went silent.
"Don't worry about all that," he said instead, after a moment. "It's all complicated, but we're kind of dealing with it in our own weird ways. Vergil is a real bastard, but after growing up in an orphanage, somehow it's kind of nice knowing that I have a father. I guess."
Whoops, whoops whoops.
Vergil might have needed to patch things up with his family, but I really needed to keep my mouth shut.
"I'm just surprised. This is the first time I've heard about what happened in any detail, I guess," I admitted. I tried not to think about the time I had thought that Vergil's son was not already in his early 20's. Honestly, he was probably more well put together than any of us. "Let's just take care of the infestation, okay?"
I went first into the sloping tunnel, since it was originally my job.
Interestingly, there was no sign of the corpses that made the air in the abandoned house so unbearable. Also interesting, this fact brought me no comfort.
Unlike the beetle-like demons that had made off with Celaeno's dagger, the empusa were quite easy to find, since they strayed so close to the human well more often than not.
As we descended into the nest, they took notice, and they weren't exactly happy about our presence, either.
Nero brandished his sword, a flurry of sparks raining as he revved its unique engine, and I pulled my dagger from its sheath.
I faced no more than two or three straggling empusas, but suddenly I had an even bigger problem.
I couldn't transform.
As the nearest empusa reared up at me, I was frozen. It chattered at me noisily, drawing back its claws, until something snatched out of the air.
I took that as a signal to move, my only choice to run away from the small group I had previously expected not to pose a threat at all.
"What the hell are you doing?" asked Nero, as the empusa that was snatched out of the air was dragged towards him. He had already cut down his own portion of the demons.
Apparently, the phantom limb that pulled it away before it could attack me belonged to him, in the form of glowing, claw-ended wings that extended from his back and shoulders. I didn't have too much time to marvel, given the current situation, and honestly, I was wondering what I thought I was doing too.
"Something's wrong," I said, inching closer to him. There wasn't a lot of room to put more distance between myself and the empusa, even though this entry chamber was more spacious than the hallways leading away from it.
"I can see that," he huffed, pausing mid-sentence to swing at one of the group I'd abandoned.
I was careful to be out of his way, but suddenly his movements were stiffer, and it was obvious that he was trying to avoid me as well. Good for me, but stifling for him.
Besides that, I couldn't quite remember if Nero knew anything about Celaeno or not, but I was certain he had never seen me transform. If Celaeno wouldn't let me defend myself, I decided I wasn't above trying to tell him despite the rule that bound me from revealing her existence.
Frankly, I thought I deserved to be angry, and to be able to ask for help. This was far more serious than whatever Celaeno imagined would happen if anyone knew her.
"Celaeno is mad at me, and I can't transform right now," I explained, the words coming to me with more ease than I expected. "The dagger isn't a very good weapon by itself, without her power."
I felt like I was just in the way, but I didn't need to say that. If he thought so too, he had already noticed.
It was a frustrating dance, avoiding injury but staying within a certain proximity to him that I wasn't in danger of being attacked by the empusa either.
They really were a pathetic match for him, but part of culling an entire nest would mean seeking out and killing its queen, and anything we encountered on the way. The most useful thing I could do in this situation was to hand the job over to Nero entirely. Things might stay this way, until I sorted my mess out.
"Celaeno…" said Nero, planting his sword in the solid earth. "That's the name of the demon you're contracted to? What'd you do to piss her off, anyway?"
I leaned back from him sheepishly, watching the last of the empusa shudder as it fell. I was still thinking of the previous night's incident in question, with more clarity than I wanted to recall it with.
"It's nothing really important," I said, shrugging a little. "We're just having a disagreement right now, I just didn't think it would go this far."
It seemed silly at best, or maybe even inappropriate, to tell him what the reason she was angry with me really was, mostly because the reason was that she was angry that I was getting too close to his father.
Nero nodded, shuffling his feet absently as he wrung the grip of his Red Queen. "I guess you should probably head back then. Not that I mind the company or anything, but I'm not about to let you get hurt down here, if I can help it."
I was a little embarrassed, only because he was obviously trying to be nice. "Yeah, it'll probably be easier on you if I just go. Thanks for coming to back me up."
He pulled his sword back out of the ground and swung it over his shoulder.
"Don't let anyone give you a hard time for having to back out, okay? If you can't protect yourself, you've got to do what's best for you," he added, nodding at me. "Don't feel bad about it."
I smiled weakly back at him, but even though the kind words didn't go unappreciated, I was worried about more than just the job.
Folding my arms, I turned away to climb back out of the entrance. The only way to go was up and out.
How could Celaeno do this to me? I entertained the idea of her feeling just as betrayed as I did, but brushed it away quickly. I considered my life to be a little more important than a broken promise.
It was in her best interest to keep me alive - purposely endangering me to end the first half of our bargain was a direct violation of the contract too. Maybe this was what I should have expected, for trusting a demon, but I didn't want to believe that. Celaeno had been good to me, even if she was being immature at best in the current situation.
I passed the empty, clearly handmade dog house quickly, once I was outside, my mind going blank when I heard the sound of agitated insects buzzing from within. My skin prickled in grim anticipation that I would have the bad luck to be stung by a bee after all of this. That was the last thing I needed, I thought as I jumped the fence again.
Only then did I register Nico waving at me as she stood up from leaning against the rental car, clicking her tongue like she had been trying to get my attention for a while.
"Earth to Medea," she sang, waving her hand in my face even though I had already spotted her. "You hear me?"
I shook my head, brushing her hand away with a small laugh. "Sorry, I was thinking about something. What did you say?"
"Yeah, no kidding!" she said, rolling her eyes with a smile. "I asked you what's going on- where's Nero?"
I glanced back at the house. "He's fine. I came back because I can't transform, and I'm not helping anyone by putting myself in danger."
Nico tilted her head, blinking at me. "Huh. Any clue what's going on?"
I shrugged again. "Yeah, I know why she's mad at me, but she's not usually like this."
Nico gave me a small nod. "Nothing a little communication can't fix. You'll be back out there once you get your shit together again, right?"
I nodded back, but I needed some advice on the subject that only one person could give.
"I'm gonna give Dante a call and let him know what's going on. I'm not too sure how long I'm going to be out of commission," I said, starting in the direction of my car.
"See you around, I guess," she offered. "Hit us up when you're feeling better. We're gonna go drinking before we leave town. You in?"
The invitation surprised me. I didn't think we connected that well, being older than the three of them, but Nico seemed like she was friendly with just about everyone.
Then, I remembered Vergil's words the night before. I wasn't going to let it happen again.
"Only if by 'drinks' you mean coffee. I'm trying to avoid a repeat of last night," I sighed. "I thought Kyrie didn't drink, anyway?"
"I can't blame you for that; you looked pretty miserable. And no, but she likes to come with us. One of us has to be responsible once in a while, right?" she laughed. "Let us know when you want to get coffee, then?"
I laughed a little at her persistence, and agreed to give her a text. Really, I had more important things on my mind, but her energy was refreshing.
At that point, I got in my car and headed directly for Devil May Cry. I needed to talk to Dante, but with any luck, I would find Vergil there too. He was the only one with any real experience with a contract - even if his were totally different from mine.
I arrived just in time to find both of them standing in front of the shop. Both of them were putting their swords away, and both looked worn out, sweat beading on their furrowed brows.
Rolling my window down as I parked beside them, I leaned out the window. "Is this a bad time?"
Vergil's Yamato glinted in the sun as he sheathed it, then he stomped inside. Clearly I had interrupted something, but his frustration was with Dante.
"I'm going to use your shower," he said, shutting the door behind him.
I didn't bother hiding my surprise from Dante, who slid over to me like Vergil hadn't even spoken.
"We were just wrapping up. This arena isn't exactly big enough for us to go all out, so this is actually a pretty good time," said Dante, snorting. He peered down at me, fussing with his ponytail. "Aren't you supposed to be balls deep in an anthill right about now?"
"God, I hope not," I said, rolling my eyes. I opened my door to get out as Dante untied his hair and stepped out of my way. "But that's sort of why I'm here."
I shut the door, then turned to lean against the car with a sigh. "So… Celaeno isn't talking to me right now, and I don't think I'll be able to work for a little while until I deal with her."
He scratched at his stubble thoughtfully. "You would have called me, if that were all."
Yeah.
Arms crossed, I tilted my head in the shop's direction. "Well… it's just that he's the only one I know with any knowledge of demonic contracts. I thought you said you didn't know where he was?"
"I told you, if he wants to hide, he's pretty good at staying hidden. Maybe you should ask him what he's been up to, if you wanna know," he said, shrugging. So he'd lied, but it sounded like Vergil had asked him to cover for him. Weird.
"I just came to get some advice," I said, rubbing my neck. "You gave him my number, but I don't have his, so it's not like I could call him myself…"
Dante paused, then opened his palm. "Give me your phone, I'll add it for you. Trust me, he won't mind."
Reluctantly, I passed him the phone, setting it up so he could type the number in. He squinted at the keys slightly as he typed, frowning as he fiddled with it.
"You didn't ask for my advice, but I'm going to give it to you anyway," he said, passing the phone back to me. "You should learn to not have to rely on her power alone."
He batted the back of his fist against my shoulder gently, very much coming down from an adrenaline high. "You've got the muscle for it - it's just a matter of how you use it."
I shoved his hand away, snorting. "I'm a little more fragile than you are. Without Celaeno, I would have been in trouble a long time ago."
"Sure, but it's not like most of us don't have at least a little human in us," he said, a relenting shrug. "My brother has been at this longer than I have, but even though we were both pretty young when we realized we were a little different from the neighbor kids, most of my powers didn't start showing up until I was older. And you know Lady - a human can do more than you do now without any power at all."
I couldn't imagine myself pulling off half the stunts that Lady did, but I really doubted it would kill me to learn how to actually fight. At least, I hoped it wouldn't. Nevermind that I'd never even held a gun before. I'd declined many weekend hunting trips with Jay's father, and now I was hunting far more impressive targets than he ever had. Shame.
"Yeah, I probably should look into it," I hummed. Maybe Lady wouldn't mind giving me some pointers.
Dante nodded a bit, then started for the door. "You can come in, but he might be a while. I've never met anyone who liked standing under running water as much as he does."
He opened the door, but paused to grin as I followed him through the threshold of the building. "Of course, I bet he'd come out sooner if I cut off the hot water before he uses it all."
My brain conjured up the image of Vergil, flying out of the back rooms, fully transformed and with his sword pointed directly at Dante.
"I'll just wait," I said quickly. "I don't need to antagonize him to get his attention."
Dante chuckled, making his way to his desk as I took a seat on the couch nearby.
It felt a lot like how I had first met the two of them. Then, I had been hoping for Dante to answer my call, but now it really was Vergil I was waiting to see, with purpose. Both times, I ended up waiting on the couch, while Dante went about his day.
The air in the office was a little chilly, though it was colder still outside. A haze seemed to fall across the room from the steam that played at the air from under the bathroom door. It did little against the cold, but it carried a clean, pleasant smell of warmth. Very welcome, after the interesting combination of scents I'd encountered in the empusa lair.
Settled on the leather couch, I was starting to feel a little drowsy.
Without even noticing at first, a hand on my shoulder nudged me awake.
I thought it was Dante at first, but when I opened my eyes, I was staring up at Vergil.
Since he was freshly showered, I had to dart my eyes between him and Dante. They almost looked identical, like this. Dante's hair was longer and shaggier, and Vergil was a little leaner, but it did make me have to think twice, especially since they were dressed similarly in long sleeved shirts, denim and leather pants respectively.
Seeming to sense what I was thinking, Vergil stood up a little more stiffly and brushed his hair back. Messier than its usual shape, but he no longer looked like someone had sprayed Dante down with a garden hose.
"You wanted to talk to me?" he asked as I got to my feet.
I mentally prodded at Celaeno again, to the same result as before, then nodded.
"Yeah, I just need a little advice, and then I'll head back home," I said, feeling a little groggy from falling asleep. I wondered how long it had been since I drifted off.
Vergil took a step towards the front of the store, then looked sideways at Dante.
"Would you like to talk on the roof?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the stairs that led to the living area of the building.
I agreed too eagerly, and followed him to the shop's second floor, and then to a small metal hatch in the ceiling.
As he opened it, he stretched past me to shove the hatch open, then lowered the stepladder up to the roof. I could smell the cold air mingling with the scent of soap and shampoo, and I tried not to look him in the eye as he offered me to go first. I let him go ahead of me, then climbed up behind him.