Ok, the story finally got moving last chapter and what happens? I get no reviews. I know you're out there, people. I can hear you breathing. Even if you just leave me a word to say "This is sub-standard, shut up Skaye." at least I know it's being read. My little rant over. Promise. Wedding plans for Dante this chapter? Unlikely. It gets pretty messy though, figured we could use some action. Lucia will be back in either next chapter or the one after that and I'm working on her character. Here goes, Skaye.
There was silence in the hall for a whole five seconds. During this five whole seconds, Dante's thoughts raced;
'What the….? Marry? Marry Madeline? Become Lord Dante? Ooh, Lord Dante... She is a pretty girl. An annoying pretty girl, oh no! Need a way out fast. Kill them all? Die? Plead innocence? Plead complete incompatibility? Plead insanity? Might just be insane by the end of this. Help me, help me, help me Lucia… not Lucia again. Madeline's the problem. Must get away from Madeline. I need to think. I need an excuse. I need time.'
The entire table was watching for his reaction. He realised this and straightened up putting on his best convincing smile. He controlled the tremor in his voice as he spoke;
"I, uh, am most honoured by this unexpected proposal. May I just say how flattered I am that you think me worthy of this, uh, incredible privilege. I am however reluctant to accept the responsibility of this position and I would, um, beseech you for more time to consider this. Please."
He applauded himself sarcastically inside his head. The looks he was getting from the vampires weren't all that promising. He clenched his fists under the table. This was what he got for trying to help people… He suddenly longed more than anything else to be back at the Devil May Cry playing Pool or watching the phone which never rang ever or arguing heatedly with Lucia because she just didn't understand sarcasm. Genevieve saved the situation from total disaster by speaking at that point;
"Perfectly understandable, Dante, I see that it is a rather large proposal and one you were utterly unprepared for therefore please take as long as you need to think about it. Now if I may ask everyone to adjourn to the Ball Room for the beginning of the dancing."
The vampires rose as she did and moved in pairs towards the hall. Genevieve escorted Madeline so Dante was free to walk alone. He slouched near the door between one room and the other watching the dancing and thinking with all his might. Genevieve started off the dance, a slightly more up-tempo gavotte, and then came back to speak to Dante. She looked anxious again.
"I must apologise, Dante. I assumed you knew what to expect. I hope I didn't embarrass you too badly."
Dante fumed and thought up about a hundred replies to that each one of which he killed before it left his throat.
"It's fine. I just don't understand why. Why would you want me to marry your, uh, Madeline?"
"We're in a vulnerable position now politically. It may not be enough for this Court that Madeline is the daughter of Rahovart. She is, after all, half human and he never once acknowledged her as his successor in life. She needs a strong consort or she will be challenged and overthrown. She's weak yet. Also I thought it a fitting reward. She is a beautiful girl."
They watched her for a moment as she danced surrounded by her people who, for the moment, adored her. She was vibrant indeed, a flash of white in a sea of red like a lily in a field of roses. She twirled and twirled laughing in an eerily almost manic way. She seemed crazed although if the others around her noticed they didn't show it. As they watched, she grew more violent. She threw out her hands as she danced, her nails scratching the faces and necks of those who danced near her. They backed off. The music stopped as the whole hall began to notice her. She twirled madly, her laughter coming out in screams. Sheshrieked piercingly, still laughing, sobbing, she called the name of her father, "Rahovart! Rahovart!" over and over. Genevieve started towards her but Dante held her back seeing something very wrong. The girl's back was bleeding. Her shoulder blades were leaking blood. As the twirled, they suddenly burst into black wings covered with leathery skin. She spread them above her head splattering all with tiny droplets of blood. She shrieked and shrieked like a banshee blood flowing from her eyes, her mouth and the gaping wounds on her back where the wings had sprouted. She sobbed pitifully and fell to the floor in a pool of her own blood. She shook violently once or twice and then looked slowly up at the door where her mother still stood in horrified silence beside Dante. Madeline smiled calmly despite the blood covering her cheeks and fogging her eyes. It seeped from her mouth as she spoke;
"Good evening mother. Delightful dance, don't you think, Dante? Am I not a beautiful bride?"
Dante strode towards her wishing he was armed with something more than just his purloined knives. She stood again with her hands folded in front of her like a young girl, wings arched over her head and still driping grotesquely with thick blood. Dante pulled out two of the slender knives. The crowd of vampires made to leave but as soon as they got to the door, Madeline soared up suddenly on her new wings and landed in front of them tearing the foremost three's heads off with one monstrous swipe. She smiled again;
"I can't put on a good show without an attentive audience, you know. Now be a good audience and sit still, won't you?"
They stood frozen and shocked. Dante saw his chance and took it hurling the first of the knives at Madeline's back. Without even turning, she brushed it out of the air with one wingtip. Then she whirled around to face Dante, her eyes wide and angry.
"Why do you try to hurt me, my blood lover? You were all saving grace this time yesterday."
Dante didn't let his alarm show.
"I wasn't aware at that point that I was dealing with such a head-case, doll. I thought I'd just wake up the sleeping beauty and go home to my pizza like in the fairy tales."
She laughed a high piercing laugh again and threw the knife back at him. It lodged deep into his shoulder. She advanced towards him spitting out words like bullets;
"Games. It's always games with you, Dante, my gracious Lord. That's why you'll never be truly powerful or great, because at the end of the day it's not about glory or honour or any of the higher ideals. It's just about whether you win or lose and how stylishly you pull it off. Am I right?"
Dante pulled the knife out of his shoulder ignoring the protest of tearing skin and muscle. He wiped the blood from the engraved emblem of the Vie de Marli; Lucia's knives saving his bacon again. He wished he had time to appreciate the irony of that. Madeline circled him leering with her fangs. Dante had had just about enough. He pulled handfuls of the blades out and threw them in blinding succession at the taunting girl. He used up twelve knives, 7 were his own, 3 belonged to Lucia and the other 2 he had taken from the vast armoury upstairs. Not a single one hit its mark. Madeline smiled again;
"Had you taken more time to refine your skill I would be bleeding on the floor by now. Lucky for me your aim is dreadful, darling."
Dante wasgenerally pretty confident in impossible situations but even he knew when to call a time out. And currently he was surrounded by vampires at the beck and call of a mutated psychopath howling for his blood. He was unarmed, vastly outnumbered and not even in his own clothes. Time for the coward's way out. He ran. He bolted out through the nearest door leading from the Ball Room with pursuit hot on his heels. The palace was vast and he had no idea where he was going. Pelting wildly along the nearest corridor, a hand suddenly shot out and grabbed him sending him reeling off balance for a moment. He recovered quickly and stood up again ready to slug the daylights out of his attacker. The face looking down on his was distraught andtear-stained and not for the first time since they'd met. Genevieve. She pulled him down corridor after corridor, through dizzying red rooms and doorways with gold flashing from everything. Then down and down narrow stairs to the green room he'd seen earlier. She bolted the door behind them and slumped into a chair in exhausted defeat. She cried a little and moaned the names of her husband, daughter and a few Dante didn't recognise. She looked up at him standing awkwardly by the door. He had no idea what to do with crying people althoughit seemed to happen a lot around him.
"I'm so truly sorry; all of what has happened is my fault. My Madeline has become a monster. All that remains is to kill her and this may prove impossible. She has the support of the court; she is powerful with your blood now. We will die and she will rule as my husband did with terror and murder. How can we endure it?"
Dante didn't know. The revelation that Madeline had all of his abilities and many of his memories through the blood was an unwelcome shock and it made things a hundred times more difficult. He'd never had to fight someone who knew his next move before he did. Genevieve would have had the same problem and she couldn't even fight. They needed someone Madeline had never met, never bitten. They needed a powerful outsider. Dante needed an ally. The problem was that he could count the number of powerful demon-hunter allies he had on the fingers of one foot.The answerdawned upon him in a bright unwelcome streak – Lucia. He needed Lucia.