Chapter 3: The Lead

Disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry or any of the characters of Devil May Cry.

The inside of the hotel was rather fancy for anyone to bring a hooker to it, but he didn't like the idea of having a client in there. The fancier the place was on the surface, the darker it was on the inside beneath the flowery wall paper and into the deep grime that always lay beneath the surface, a fact that never failed to prove itself and only made Nicholas more wary of the things that surrounded him and his own little world. The gun was in his hand as he crawled silently down the hall to the room that he knew Relena was in with the lead, but he could sense the demon getting closer and in one leap it was on top of the hotel. Nicholas decided that discreet had been thrown out a long time ago and burst into the room, gun at the ready.

The man was no longer much of a man as it's true face had been shown, red skin and horns, the works, and his arms were now carrying a strange dagger that was like a bold squiggly line. It let out a shriek as he got closer and then made a rush for Relena in an attempt to get a hostage, but its kneecaps were blown off before it even got two feet close to her. Nothing was over, the demonic presence was still over the hotel, and the small time punk had a big friend. Before Relena could say a word he motioned for her to leave as he got on the fire escape and started climbing up the pipe to the roof top. It wasn't very original; in fact it was a minotaur demon, one of those bull headed bastards that were sent in whenever muscle was needed. Apparently someone had told them that he was coming, but he would have to wait, no matter how badly he wanted to find out who had given him away.

It leaped at him with a giant axe that was swooped into an arc, but it was easily dodged and Nicholas fired into its gut. The Minotaur's skin was too tough for it to do any damage since they had no effect to his special bullets that were meant to kill demons using holy barriers. Minotaur had a disturbing habit of being immune to holy barriers, but they weren't protected from the fire of a really powerful shot and Nicholas hadn't used his Python in a while. The Minotaur started getting pumped like it was goosed up to its eyeballs on narcotics and it started to lung at him with surprising feats of speed, thrashing around as Nicholas moved from one side to another, making sure that he was not hacked into pieces.

Then the Minotaur reached out and grabbed his skulls, squeezing it until the face crumpled to reveal the face of one of Nicholas's puppets. The puppet in the cloth unwrapped itself to show Nicholas standing with his special gloves on. Each finger of the gloves had blades on them that were eleven inches in length and were very sharp. As soon as the Minotaur knocked the puppet away, it came back and stabbed it in the leg with one of its hidden knives, while Nicholas got behind the Minotaur and draped his arm over its shoulder. It turned to look at Nicholas and he was just giving it a sadistic grin as he used his special gloves to cut its head off.

Dante had both of his guns in their holsters as he casually walked down stairs, expecting to find some kind of demon holding Lady hostage, but instead he found something odd. He found Lady crumpled up into a ball on the floor of his office, her hands covering her ears so that he couldn't call out to her like he wanted to do. Most of the lights were off, except for the light of the jukebox, which was always on. Scattered on the coffee table and the couch were the cards that he use to play with before he decided it was time to kick the habit. The lightning outside lit up the room like a motor round and Dante realized how terrible his office looked. Walking over to her, Dante placed the cards back to where they were and then picked her up to take her upstairs. Outside were the prostitutes working their night shift, the ones not associated with the brothel that was, but Dante rarely associated with them, choosing instead to stay away from those places to avoid the fat Italian named Enzo. Enzo would give him jobs that were un interesting and sometimes dealt with people who he personally hated so he started putting distance between Enzo and himself until he could finally buy the place to run his business. As soon as he had Lady in his bed, minus himself of course, Dante walked down to the office and sat down in his chair. Sleep finally came over him thirty minutes later.

Morning wasn't Dante's time of choice since he did work so late at night and the most he did during the day was sleep because of how dull things were, but now he had to get up and look after his guest. The guest he didn't want, but she was already in his bed and he would have to work with her for sooner or later. Unfortunately, Dante's sleeping habits were not known to his other "partners" and they walked in with a big good morning. Well Relena and Knives anyway, Nicholas gave a silent nod and sat down on the couch while he closed his eyes. He was the most unemotional person Dante had ever seen in his life, which was a bit of a contradiction to his brother, who seemed to be the life of the party. Before he could ask if someone had switched the basinets, Lady walked down the creaking stairs to let him hear the sound of light footsteps on the old wood.

"How could you stand those stairs, just the sheer sound would drive me nuts," said Relena as she covered her ears and tried to finish the puzzle she had started.

"It's good for telling me if something is on the stairs and I've trained myself to wake up at the sound of it," replied Dante as he looked through another catalogue of things he couldn't afford with his checking account right now. He was going to tell her that the puzzle was missing a few pieces, but he didn't have the heart to tell her that because she looked so determined. "Good morning, Lady, did you have pleasant dreams."

"Well at first I didn't, but then I suddenly had the strangest dream that someone was carrying me up your stairs," replied Lady a bit excited by her strange dream, but the only person who was really paying her any attention was Relena. "Those arms felt really safe, they kept me from having any more bad dreams, but then I woke up in your bed when I could have sworn that I was on your couch."

"Wow that sounds like a mystery," said Relena in an excited voice. She fantasized about living some life of mystery and intrigue to break from the mundane life of business economics that she lived, even though she was quite good at keeping her father's old business afloat.

"Dante carried her upstairs in order to take her to some place comfortable, mystery solved," said Nicholas as he spoke for the first time since he had been in Dante's shop, but he was soon quiet again as he laid back on the sofa.

"Well we haven't been getting that far with anything, we thought we had a lead, but it turned out to be some occult freak," announced Knives as he looked at the silent Dante and was unable to determine if Dante was awake or if he was even alive. "So, I guess the point I was getting to was to ask you if you two had found anything that could tell us the whereabouts of Relena's sister. So, have you?"

"Well I pretty much got the same thing that you got except it was just a very weak demon," admitted Lady, who hated not getting anything, but she figured that it was alright since the two brothers hadn't found out anything as well and it would be a cold day in hell before Dante found anything. The man just sat on his ass and waited for someone to point the way.

"How unlike you Lady," said Dante, not bothering to take off the catalogue that covered his face. "It's especially surprising since I just happened to get a lead myself."

"You actually got a lead," asked Lady in bewilderment and started to wonder if it had suddenly gotten very cold or if it was just her.

"Yes, I happened to ask one of the devils I keep tabs on for information and it turns out that there have been sightings of her at an old castle in Spain," said Dante as he shifted in his sheet. "Now then, I believe someone offered to buy me pizza if I got a lead before them. The usual please, and make it a large since other people might want some."

"I hope you choke on a pizza or a strawberry," grumbled Lady as she went to get the phone and place the order. "When did you get luck?"

"What can I say, life's a bitch and I'm her pimp," replied Dante as he leaned back into his chair with a cocky attitude about him. "Anyway, there was something I wanted to ask of you, Knives. That is if you don't mind."

"No go and ask away," replied Kinves as he started to take a cigarette out and lit it up.

"Nicholas isn't your brother is he," asked Dante casually, but the two women in the room came to a shocked realization of the truth.

"So you saw through that lie then," said Knives as he put his cigarette out on an ashtray.

"He also knows the other truth," said Nicholas as he opened his eyes and turned them on Dante. "He knows I'm really a devil."