Thank you kindly for your reviews so far all two of you, i appreciate it. Here's my second offering and I hope you like it. This is for Jediferret and loveaswellashateforever (i hope i got that right) and also to wish Incubus a speedy recovery. As always characters, names etc. not mine. Changed my mind re - ice cream, cookie dough chip is superior. Bye, Skaye.
Dante spent several uneventful and now lonely and transport-less days reading through the meticulously kept files Lucia had written about her demon-hunter days. He liked the shape of her writing, big copperplate letters which looped evenly between the lines of each page. Every file stated the location, numbers and physical description of each kill. Hell, if he had to count the number of demons he killed! It was enough for him if they ended up dead, never mind trying to suss their average height and power level.
He lived off black coffee and take-out pizza and reflected that his life was perhaps not as good as it could possibly be. Then again, he wasn't dead yet and at least there were no new plans yet in motion to turn Earth into a new Hell with the ultimate power. This was a distinct plus.
Playing himself at Pool one night, he heard a scratching sound at the door and moved for his guns which lay on the desk. The noise grew louder and then the door swung slowly open. Dante aimed one gun at the door; trespassers pissed him off more than just about anything else. Faster than a normal human could have seen, several winged shadowy shapes flitted into the room and swarmed around the stunned demon hunter smothering him in cold clammy darkness. This was a definitely new approach to the house-invasion strategy. They were too close to accurately use guns on so he dashed for the far wall where his weapons were kept with the shadows still attached and starting to attack covering his skin with odd little bites that stung and annoyed him but weren't really in the league of the flesh-burning, bone-breaking pain he was accustomed to.
Dante reached the wall, drew his sword and cut in deft circles around him, blade spinning and ringing like it was weightless. He punctuated every word with a stab and slash;
"Get. Off. Me. You. Little. Suckers. Die."
The shadows emitted shrill shrieks but persisted in their attack drawing blood out of him like pulling wires through his veins.
With another yell of "Diiiiie", he brought his sword slamming down, the point stopping millimetres from his skin over and over again until the shadows relinquished their hold and fled. He chased them out the door killing one en route which resulted in him being sprayed with a charming little fountain of old blood. It smelled terrible and did nothing to improve his mood. He waved his arms and shook blood everywhere spitting it out of his mouth.
Something shining in one of the many pools of red caught his eye, a slightly tarnished and very bloody gold ring. He picked it out of the morass and slouched off cursing to get cleaned up.
After a very thorough shower and cleaning the floor, ceiling and all four walls of his splattered office, Dante sat down again to examine the ring dropped by the creature he killed. It crossed his mind that perhaps he ought to write the whole thing down and add it to the little library of files he was gathering but couldn't at that moment be bothered. Besides this ring was interesting. He'd never been much of a jewellery fan, his amulet was the only piece he really wore and that was hardly out of vanity. But this ring had authority, it's weight and the deep, flawlessly engraved reddish-gold spoke of riches and class. Something the Devil May Cry had never been particularly associated with. Dante tossed and caught it a couple of times as he thought. Blood drinkers who burst when stabbed and carried jewels like this. The crest on the ring was an emblazoned 'R' surrounded by very detailed bats and three-pointed leaves. Definitely a vampire emblem. Not that it meant much to Dante.
He dropped it into a little dish in his desk drawer which contained handful of spent bullets, an ornate metal belt-buckle which he'd been given by a client for ridding it of demonic possession, Lucia's coin and a silver earring in the shape of a dagger going through a ruby red heart which had belonged to Trish during the brief period she'd stayed with him. He'd been a little mystified when she'd just up and left mumbling something about looking for her past.
But that was the past and the past, in Dante's book, was not a good place to be. If you got too busy looking at what was behind you, it meant you weren't looking at what was coming towards you.
He decided he had to look into this vampire thing. Having his home invaded and being plastered with putrid blood was not an offence he was going to let slide. There had to be someone he could ask about this ring. He racked his brains as he finished his disturbed game of Pool and by the time he potted black he had the answer. Lady.
The next day as soon as the sun rose, he set off for a city on almost the opposite coast of the country where Lady had set up shop several years ago as a Paranormal Detective and Hunter doing a little work in research with some other guys into effective weaponry for use against some of the more resilient creatures of the night. It was a job she seemed to have been born for. Dante had kept loosely in touch mainly only calling in if he needed something more specialized for a commission. He went there now and found the place in uproar. He wandered in without knocking or announcing his presence but nobody stopped him. He was pretty much universally known in these parts.
He found Lady at a workbench pouring silvery liquid of the highly-volatile kind into a metal shell. She looked up as he came in and gave him a smile but finished the shell before she said anything, sealing it shut with several small metal screws.
"Bighit you need a little assistance with, Dante? Or perhaps you just swung by to say hi."
He looked serious and flipped the ring to her from his pocket.
"I need one of your antiques guys to tell me about this."
Lady examined it carefully.
"It's nice. Never had you for the jewellery type though."
"It's not mine, a 'client' left it for me. I want to know what they were and where I can find them."
"Smells like blood."
"It's a vampire trinket, I know that. They're like magpies for hoarding shiny things."
"You know it's funny you should say so because Vin told me magpies used to be extensively associated with vampires in the Middle Ages."
"Did he now? Middle Age maniacs believed if you sneezed at the wrongphase of the moonit meant bad luck on your whole family for the next twelve generations. Hey speaking of which, what happened with you and Vin? Last I heard it was going pretty good and now I don't see him anywhere."
She looked uncomfortable and fiddled with the newly-completed explosive.
"Oh yeah, uh, it was going great until about 2 months ago he popped the question and wouldn't give up on the idea despite my most subtle hints. Now he lives in the South of Spain with a dud leg and I live here with a gun under my pillow."
"I'd be interested to hear how that happened but I don't have time. I want to know whatever your guys can tell me about that ring and now."
Lady sighed and slumped into a tattered leather seat.
"I'll see what I can do but it's been a bit hectic around here lately. Demons springing up out of the ground like axe-wielding spring flowers and we're understaffed after a big werewolf hit last fall."
"It's the life, isn't it?" Dante said leaning against the door frame. "I'll just stick around until I know where I'm headed next."
Lady nodded and stood again.
"I'll get you set up with a room and stuff. Paul had his head torn off in the last big raid I told you about so we have a new antiques guy but he's just as good and has the advantage of not being quite so creepy. I'll take your ring to him once I'm done here."
Dante walked out taking the hint and wandered the rest of the building checking out the new additions to the organisation's already formidable arsenal. This place was always worth the trip if only for the firearms.