Well here I am again, with another new chapter. There seems to be some kind of Devil May Cry fanfic population explosion going on here. But this time the explosion is a good thing as opposed to population explosions being bad. It's about time the Devil May Cry fanfic section grew a little more. I wait one day for the time when it will hit 700 or something. Wouldn't that be something?
Sure some might not be as good as others, and others will be better than some, and others will make you laugh, while others shall make you cry, but at the end of the day, does it matter? It's the pure variety of everything in the Devil May Cry section that makes me love it to bits.
Why am I talking so much about this? This is totally irrelevant, but oh well. I can be allowed to let my thoughts flow onto paper now and then, right? ^_^
I'd like to point out that he game or any of it's characters from Devil May Cry do not belong to me, nor Chasm, nor Vampy, nor Alaster, nor anyone over here. We simply borrow them, and put them back. They might be a little worse for wear what with the crazy stuff we do to them but hey, we got to have fun somehow! ^_^
Reiko, Steph and Mostro and Remy belong to me however…as well as the traitorous Jaal. Who might soon get his just deserts. And everyone who's waiting for Nelo to make his appearance he'll be coming soon.
Chapter 10
Steph walked downstairs to see Reiko on the couch, face paler than usual. His eyes were closed and his mouth hung open slightly. Trish looked concerned. Dante looked up at the girl as she stood there uncertainly.
'What's wrong with Reiko?' she asked, her voice small. Dante shrugged. Trish looked up at Steph.
'Do you know how long it's been without him taking blood?' Steph shook her head.
'He didn't have any while he was with me. So that's about five days.'
'We only saw him today. We met him about a week ago.'
'Eight days,' said Dante suddenly. 'It's been eight days since he's had any blood.' Steph blinked and looked at Dante, taking in his silver hair, his tired face and how he was still shivering, even now.
'That's not good, is it?'
'Dangerous.'
'So why didn't he take any blood?' Dante shook his head.
'He didn't want to risk anyone's life.' Steph smiled at this and looked back at Reiko but then frowned. He was showing no signs of waking. Suddenly, he stirred and opened his eyes. He tried to raise his head but failed. Dante bent over him, scowling.
'You're a fool,' he said gruffly. Reiko blinked and slowly closed his eyes, moaning softly. The visions continued to play themselves over and over in his head and he blinked.
'That necklace…that jewel…it's a shard of the crystal.' Dante looked towards Stephanie quickly, and his eyes slowly narrowed. Steph backed away, frightened by the change in Dante's icy blue eyes. Trish glared at Dante.
'Stop that. It's not her fault. She probably doesn't even know.'
'If Mostro gets that last shard, then figures out how to bestow himself with power, we'll be killed.' Whispered Reiko softly. Dante smirked.
'Well there's a happy thought.' Steph blinked.
'He wants to kill me because of a gift my grandmother gave me?' Dante nodded grimly.
'It seems that way.' Steph blinked but said nothing else, stunned into silence. Trish turned back to Reiko only to see that he was close to passing out again.
'What are we going to do about him?' she said softly. Dante snorted and shrugged. 'I gave him my blood at the guild.'
'You what?' Dante blinked and gawped at her. Trish nodded.
'He needed it! He was going to die. I could always give some again…'
'No way.' Dante shook his head. Steph silently walked over to Reiko and took the necklace from Dante's hand. The edge of the jewel was sharp. She remembered that she had only started wearing it recently since the demon attack, thinking she could use it as a way of defending herself. She quickly drew it across her wrist, gasping out with pain. For a second, there was nothing, but then blood started to well out of the gash. Reiko's mouth was still half open and without hesitating, she placed her wrist to his mouth and waited. Reiko's eyes slowly closed and he started to feed from her.
She gasped sharply as his fangs sunk in, but not with pain. In fact, there was no pain. She blinked and looked up at Trish but she wasn't looking in her direction. She slowly grew aware of the movement of Reiko's mouth on her wrist as he unconsciously started to take her blood. Her vision slowly began to grow fuzzy, as if she was looking out through water.
'H-help…' she heard herself say as though from far away. Reiko's eyes snapped open at this point and he gasped with terror, hastily healing her. Steph felt someone slowly lying her down and she felt a blanket covering her. Reiko looked up from her when she closed her eyes and whirled about on the two hunters.
'Why didn't you stop her?!'
'We were too busy finding out about this necklace and wondering how to hide it,' answered Trish quickly. Dante walked over to Steph and smirked.
'She'll be fine. Just needs rest. Besides, you hadn't eaten for eight days.'
'What of it?'
'You were foolish not to go out and hunt down a meal.'
'I don't try to take a human's blood! In fact, I hate the idea of it!'
'You didn't seem to mind just now. If you really didn't want it, then you would have clamped your mouth shut, wouldn't you?' Reiko was silent. Trish blinked. 'If someone hates something enough, they won't be forced into it, even if they are semiconscious.' Reiko remained wordless. He slowly looked at Trish, as though asking for defence. Trish knew better than to cross Dante. She had after all, been spared by him on more than one occasion. He could have killed her that day when he had pointed Ebony at her head. But he hadn't pulled the trigger had he? She owed him.
Reiko had turned away by this time, his fangs gleaming still with Stephanie's blood. His eyes had turned about as flinty as Dante's. His hands had clenched into fists.
'I'm out of here,' he said, breaking the silence. Dante shrugged. 'Don't think I won't be back. I have to protect Stephanie from that bastard.' Reiko's voice had lowered so then it was little more than a whisper, deadly and dangerous in its deceptively calm note. Reiko cast one last glance back at them and then headed to the guild. He had felt the sudden need to do something. Something he had been putting off for so many years.
He paused halfway along the dark foggy streets. The lamps gave off pools of light, surrounded by a faint orange or white aura depending on their colour. Reiko narrowed his eyes and froze stock still. Amongst the fog, he could see a dark silhouette, slowly coming closer, transforming from a shapeless dark thing, to a human shape.
'Remy,' he said quietly. He watched as the other sauntered up to his side and stood silently next to him. Reiko said nothing but walked on, Remy at his side still. At last, the smaller of the two vampires broke the silence.
'I was worried about you.' A shrug. 'Where were you?'
'Got burnt.' Remy lowered his eyes.
'…oh…' He looked up again at Reiko, unsure of what kind of mood he was in. Reiko's face was impassive, his eyes were now calm and focused straight ahead, looking neither left nor right.
'Remy?'
'Yes?' The smaller of the two perked up and grinned.
'Leave me alone for a bit. I need to be by myself for a while.' Remy's face fell and then he nodded slowly, turning and then melting into the shadows. Reiko watched him go and sighed as he continued on his way. He didn't know what to do about him. He had often said that Remy was like a brother to him, but he had the sneaking suspicion that Remy wanted to be a little more than that. Nah…that was impossible. Didn't every younger brother look up to his elder sibling? Maybe he was just being bigheaded and arrogant. The possibility that Remy was gay was not a possibility at all. Simple. He just looked up to him.
He found himself standing in front of the deserted guild. A feeling of dread crept into his unbeating heart and he wondered that perhaps this was wrong of him. Maybe he should leave it for another time. No…he couldn't possibly do that. The ache inside his body might go away if he did what he hadn't done. Fighting off his uneasy feeling, he stepped through the wall and found himself in the hall of the guild. Ash was everywhere. He looked around silently, felt his eyes stinging and blinked his tears back. He could no longer afford to cry. It was pointless now. Crying wouldn't bring back the dead.
Slowly, he mounted the steel stairs and pushed open the metal door to the room that he had led Dante and Trish to. The jewels were still scattered all over the table and the floor. Reiko sighed and slowly picked them up, placing them into a pouch that hung from the inside of his long coat. He slowly straightened up, his coat feeling heavier than before and sat down, staring at the table. He pushed at it lightly, and the top came off, revealing that it was really an old chest in disguise. He blew dust off it and then smiled sadly to himself as he traced the old worn out patterns with his fingers. His eyes fell upon the locks and he sighed, wondering if this really would help him at all.
He bit his lip gently and broke the lock easily when he clenched his hand into a fist. Hesitating slightly, as though thinking something from his past was going to jump out and attack him, he lifted the heavy lid of the trunk.
A choked sound tore itself from his throat as his eyes fell upon a photo of the two faces that always haunted him in his dreams. He lifted the frame, and tried to rub at the dirty glass. It was no use. It was far too stained to see clearly. He slowly slid the photo from the frame and sat back, watching the faces in the picture, as though hoping they would come to life and move. No such thing. He blinked as he looked at the time. Half an hour had already passed, and all he had done was stare at a picture from when he had been a small boy. He placed it to one side and then thought again and put it into his coat pocket, where it would always be safe and by his side.
His eyes widened as he spotted a soft cuddly toy. He lifted it out and smiled. Where the photo had been dirty, "Tiger's" fur had remained clean and spotless. Just the way his father had bought it for him the day before they had been cruelly taken from him. At least he still had something that his parents had given him. He still had a reminder…as if he'd ever forget them anyway… He sat down on the couch, still holding the ocelot and sighed, suddenly feeling weary. Thoughts of his parents kept running through his mind. And somewhere, he could hear their laughter, his mother's light and tinkling, like some kind of fairy, delicate and fragile. His father's, deep and powerful, the protector of the small family, which had grown even smaller by the end of the day.
Trish had followed Reiko carefully, had seen how he had ordered Remy to leave him, and watched as he went into the guild. She waited for an hour, and when he did not return she went in after him. The hallway was deserted but when Trish strained her senses, she could pick up Reiko's taint. She followed it and went into the room she had seen before. She stopped at the door and her eyes softened to see Reiko sleeping, holding his ocelot to him like a child, a smile on his face as he dreamt of happier times, of the time before.