Chapter 14

If there was one thing that Trish hated, it was people who gave up and quit before anything had even started. So it was that Trish had found herself getting more and more irritated with Dante, who had at some point during the week gone to his bedroom and had never come back out again, not even to eat or even to drink the foul stuff he called beer, the "elixir of life".

Rose was a constant visitor to their agency, and whenever Trish looked at her, she could see a mix of desperation and impatience in her violet eyes.

'Don't worry,' Trish would encourage. 'He gets like this sometimes. He'll snap out of it soon.' At first, her voice had held a confidence which she herself had not felt, and as the days wore on, her remarks had sounded progressively hollow and meaningless. In truth, she had never seen Dante act this way before, and she had no idea what she could possibly do to snap him out of it.

She was scared that he would do something thinkable, but by no means pleasant. She would spend hours outside his door, barely breathing, her ears strained until she caught any sound of movement from within. Sometimes, even then, she dared to open his door and would come face to face with his pale visage, his normally pale sparkling blue eyes darkened and filled with an awful resignation.

Sometimes she'd find him staring disconsolately out of the window, his eyes distant. Other times, she'd find him lying spread-eagled on the bed, staring but unseeing, as though he were blind.

She cried out to him at times, grabbing him by the shoulders and screaming until she had turned hoarse, begging to know what was wrong, and pleading with him to answer, to tell her that at least he was still her Dante somewhere inside the horrible cold shell he had become. But each and every time she did this, Dante's eyes would suddenly narrow and he'd pull away ad force her out of his room before slamming his bedroom door shut. The only way Trish had been able to get him to eat was by placing a plate in front of his door. When she'd return half an hour later, the plate would be empty, and Trish would be filled with a brief touch of satisfaction, which as soon as it filled her, left her feeling empty and even more depressed.

The only thing that could even be considered as remotely positive was the fact that Trish had been able to throw out all of his beer and had Rose to keep her company, which in itself was something of a new experience for Trish; she had never had much female company, to her there was only Dante. Rose was different though, she was actually of a similar mind of Trish, serious about the task at hand and trying to make light of the situation at the same time. The two had slowly become friends but despite this, Trish found that her thoughts were constantly returning to Reiko. She wondered how he was, and then suddenly remembered what his own mission was, to reunite the vampires and the harpies. She remembered instantly that she had told him that they'd try and help. She'd been sadly neglecting her promise.

She looked towards Rose and then smiled at her, an idea creeping into her mind hesitantly, as though afraid of offending the harpy that sat beside her on the couch watching daytime television while sipping sophisticatedly at coffee.

'Rose?' Her companion looked up towards her quickly. 'You said that you were a harpy, right?' She nodded. 'I don't know that much about your race; care to share?' The violet eyed woman blinked at the request before moving so she had kicked off her shoes and was sitting cross legged on the couch, staring thoughtfully at the ceiling.

'Well...' she began slowly. 'Harpies have wings.' She was silent. Trish blinked.

'Is that it?' Rose grinned.

'No. Harpies have black wings.' Trish glared at her but this only earned her a smile. 'It's odd that we have black wings though, considering we're meant to be holy. We are after all, servants of God.'

'Like angels?'

'We're much lower down than angels. Angels are the highest rank before you get to God Himself...but then again there is the whole hierarchy within the angel society too. We're above humans, but below the angels. I guess another thing that makes us lower down than angels is the fact that angels have a pleasanter stereotype. They are, after all, meant to be loving and kind and gentle and sweet and caring and...'

'They are,' Trish said suddenly. Rose paused and looked towards her. Trish bit her lip. 'I...know one...or knew one anyway...' She lowered her head at that point, her face suddenly looking drawn and sad. Rose frowned.

'Are you all right?' Her companion looked up slowly and then nodded, attempting a smile.

'Yes...I'm fine...Can you carry on?'

'O-Of course.' Rose tried her hardest not to show surprise at the hybrid's show of obvious sorrow. She was silent for a moment, but then recollected her thoughts and laboured on.

'Uh...anyway...Harpies have a reputation for being cruel and aggressive and we're also known to be power hungry. We actually don't do much to dispel our reputation. We are like that. We punish those who do wrong.'

Harpies lust for power. Harpies torment those who do wrong.

'I mean, us normal harpies don't care much for power, but the Harpy King and Queen have always been power hungry.'

'King and Queen? You guys have a monarchy?' Rose nodded but then frowned.

'We do have a monarchy...but...' Trish looked towards her curiously as Rose's face darkened. 'But...well...our King went missing...he's the strongest Harpy of all time...and he was different too. I swear, he was more an angel than an angel itself. He was wonderful, and was kind. There's rumours going around that he's been trapped by the Harpy Queen, because she was power hungry, and he just wanted peace, you know?'

'Peace?'

'He wanted the same as what Reiko wants.' She quickly checked herself at that point. Trish raised her brow.

'Reiko? You know him?' Rose smiled.

'We met twice. He saved my life. He told me he wants to get peace.' Trish suddenly felt uncomfortable and something akin to jealousy as she wondered whether Reiko possibly liked this girl. Suddenly, Trish found those violet eyes of hers to be annoying and ugly. Eagerly, she searched for anything else that would lower her beauty and came up with nothing. Rose, oblivious kept babbling on.

'So, he's scared of heights! It's so endearing! It just makes me want to hug him! But of course, I'd never do that. I have a reputation to keep of being aloof. But imagine! A vampire who's scared of heights? He practically turned green! It was so cute!'

'Yeah well it wouldn't have been cute if he puked up on those shoes of yours,' said Trish, determined to spoil the mood. Rose smiled dreamily.

'I really admire him for what he's trying to do.' She sighed happily. Trish sighed too, but for totally different reasons.

'Look, could we just talk about the monarchy again?' Rose poked her none too gently.

'Do I sense a hint of jealousy?'

'No!' Trish fumed.

'You like him, don't you?'

'Of course not. He's just my friend.'

'You're pretty lucky to be surrounded by handsome friends, aren't you?' Trish scowled at her before she blushed and then sighed.

'So what if I like him? I like Dante more.'

'But does Dante like you?'

'Does Reiko like me?'

'Good question...I don't even know if he likes me!' Rose sighed again as she rested her chin in her hand. Trish shrugged.

'This is a stupid conversation.'

'Oh right...you wanted to know more about the monarchy, right?' Trish nodded. Rose thought for a while before she began speaking again. 'Okay, so like I said, there's all these rumors going around. We haven't seen our King for a very long time. Without the King, things have been going haywire. The Queen has been feeding the harpies information about the vampires and nearly all of her subjects believe her. As for me? I think I'm the only one who actually thinks that all the Queen says is a load of crap!' Trish was about to say more at that point when a rubbish bin clattered to the ground, and a cat yowled with displeasure at the metallic sounds the bin made upon impact with the ground. Trish frowned, nerves on edge before she relaxed and tried again to speak. This time, the door was thrown off its hinges, landing with a crash at Trish's feet.

Rose gasped before jumping to her feet. Trish scowled before reaching for her sword.

'I suppose your leader sent you...' she chuckled, her voice low. She crouched low into her fighting stance, trying to imitate Dante. There were six of them in total, all demons that Trish had never had to face before in the whole of her life. They were small cat like creatures, and Trish guessed that they were nimble due to their size. They were black in colour, with amber eyes, the only thing distinguishing them from a normal house cat was the fact that their black fur kept trembling with sparks of blue electricity. One opened its mouth, and the sound it emitted was anything but catlike.

The piercing shriek the demon gave shattered the glass of the windows. Rose covered her ears and winced at the sound.

'Trish? What are those!'

'I don't know...' She broke off speaking to cover her own ears, as all six of them gave vent to their dirge like shrieks in unison. One charged forward at Rose, before swinging around, forming a club like tail seemingly out of nowhere, smashing the harpy into a nearby wall. Rose cried out in pain, blood streaming from one side of her face. Trish whirled around, as though to help her up, before she too, was set upon by three of the demons.

She fired a few rounds into the demons, using her handguns that Dante had made especially for her. Nothing seemed to effect them. She hissed with frustration before she launched herself at them, tired of dodging. The hybrid whirled like a tornado, striking high, striking low, yet hitting nothing but thin air. Finally, one of her blows made contact, at exactly the same time as she too was hit. She fell to the floor, stunned by the blow.

For such small demons, they sure packed a punch.

The other three closed in upon her, sensing victory. Trish's eyes suddenly snapped open, as an amber light surrounded her, yellow sparks flying from her body, her hair lifting from her shoulders in a display of her raw strength. She felt all of her senses lift away from her and spiral upwards in a cloud of darkness as her inner demon began to take hold of her.

The cat-demons snarled and withdrew before launching themselves at her again, teeth gleaming, fangs sharp and deadly, dripping only God knew what. She didn't intend on finding out. She flew up on wings born of hatred before raining down thunderbolts from above at them. Before long, her powers had drained and she found herself back on the ground, with only one of the demons dead.

She gasped as she saw a sudden red blur appear in front of her. Dante. He turned around quickly, pulling her out of the middle of the fight and stood back to back against her.

'What are they weak against?'

'Dante...'

'Later...what are they weak against?'

'I don't know. I only managed to kill one when I was using my demon powers.' Dante growled softly in warning at the demons as they began to circle around. 'Guns have no effect on them.'

'Great...'

'Maybe water?'

'Water...I only have beer.'

'You don't even have beer anymore.'

'What?'

'I threw it out.' Dante's eyes narrowed with anger and his face immediately tightened.

'Trish when this is over I'll-' He had no time to say anything else, for at that precise moment, the demons initiated their attack once more. Dante moved immediately, his sword flashing, stabbing one right through the neck. He jerked his sword out before throwing himself upon another.

The remaining four cats decided to split up at this point so there were two against one. Trish found herself getting clubbed in the back of her legs, bringing her to the ground heavily. The other cat suddenly seemed to grow in side, the blue electricity hat she had noticed earlier pulsating more frequently across it's fur. Soon the cat had grown into a gigantic version of a black panther. Trish groaned softly with despair before she closed her eyes, unable to move as a huge paw pinned her down roughly.

'Dante!' Dante spun around, his eyes widening with shock as he saw Trish's dire predicament. He ran towards her only to have another one of his own demons grow in size and grab him forcefully like a bear. Dante cried out hoarsely in pain as he was promptly electrocuted. He fell to the ground a senseless heap.

The panther snarled as it raised it's other massive paw to come crashing down upon Trish's exposed neck. With her eyes closed, Trish could hear the panther's heavy breathing, could smell its foul breath, could feel its claws as they threatened to pierce her clothing and skin. All of this suddenly stopped with an ear splitting screech. Trish got to her feet quickly to see Rose sitting on the panther's back, her shining silver sword embedded in the panther's throat.

'That's their weak point. The throats are the weak point, I believe.' She turned to face the other, larger panther. 'I hope.' Trish smirked suddenly.

'Let's go.' She ran forwards, feeling her powers rising up again, taking her over. She succumbed to it immediately and flew forwards with amazing speed. This time, the panther was ready, and swatted her down as easily as if she had been a fly. The panther turned to Rose before opening its mouth, revealing its awesome fangs. Rose backed away, recognizing the clear liquid for what it really was. Venom. The panther crept towards her before suddenly before springing forwards, too quick for anybody's eye to see.

Anybody's, that is, except for a vampire's.

Reiko jammed his staff into the creature's mouth, ensuring that it could not close its mouth and became wild with anger and pain, unable to think clearly. The panther snarled and thrashed wildly, knocking itself against the walls. Eventually it soon became worn down and just flopped over onto the ground where it was. Leaving Rose to take care of the beast, he turned, seeing the other two cats moving towards Trish and Dante, both of whom were unconscious, though Dante was beginning to show signs of revival.

Reiko's eyes narrowed before he strode forward confidently, hissing softly at the cats, in the ancient language of vampires. The cats snarled before turning away from their own prey and glaring at him. Rose frowned.

'What did you say to them?' Reiko grinned.

'You really don't want to know.'

'Trust me, I do.'

'I uh...got their attention by insulting their mothers. What else?' Rose glared at him.

'Is it really all that wise to insult dangerous demons?' Reiko blinked.

'They don't look dangerous to me.' At that point, one of them grew in size. Reiko's eyes widened and he took a step back, surprised. Rose rolled her eyes at him.

'You were saying..?' Reiko grinned sheepishly, while trying to keep his eyes on both of the demons at once.

'Well...at least...it...got their attention?' Rose shook her head before yanking out Reiko's staff and throwing to him, watching as Reiko caught it easily before smacking the demon sharply on the nose before running backwards, leading the demon away from his friends.

'Rose. Take care of the other one!' Rose nodded and flew to his aid. Reiko turned to face the other demon and narrowed his eyes but immediately yelped as Rose bowled into him. Reiko staggered forward, feeling claws rip into him immediately before crying out with raw pain and striking upwards with his staff, with all the force he could muster. The demon choked before falling backwards, choking out it's last breaths.

From somewhere behind him, he heard a croaky chuckle and turned to see Dante getting up, pulling Rose to one side before shaking his head as though to rid himself of any pain. He then sighed softly as he prepared to do battle again. This time, he was not beaten back.

Reiko watched in quiet awe as Dante moved like liquid, first in one place, than another. The demon was dead before Reiko was even aware of the blood that drenched them both, in Dante's case, the demons' and in his case, his own. Dante looked around, his job finished before he began to climb the stairs again. Reiko followed his actions before he frowned.

'Don't tell me you're going to go back upstairs to sulk and mope ad waste your life away,' he said sharply, his hazel eyes blazing with anger. He had one hand on Trish's forehead, siphoning her thoughts into his own mind before replacing them. 'You told Trish that a boy died. That was not your fault. That was the dragon's. And if you think staying in your room until this all passes will help, then I'm afraid that you are sadly mistaken. The dragon will remain and the dragon will kill off more innocent people, many of them children.'

'Shut up, Reiko. You don't know.'

'I don't suppose I do, do I? After all, I didn't lose very much when I was a kid. I just had a tyrant kill off my parents for pure fun, that's all! I don't think that dragon's hungry, Dante. I think it's being controlled.' Dante glared at him angrily, causing Reiko to nearly hesitate. The vampire decided to press on, while he had him listening.

'Dante, son of the legendary Dark Knight Sparda, also known as The Legendary Dante. Legend my foot! You don't deserve the title! Look at you, you coward! Why, if I were an enemy of yours I wouldn't stand still and shiver seeing you lying on your bed like a heartbroken teenager. I would laugh! I would laugh and take over this world and kill all these innocent people and plunder the world. Men, women, children, they would all bow down at my feet and beg for my mercy, but I would not show them any.'

'SHUT UP!'

'No Dante! For I'm not your enemy! But there are so many out there who are! And that's precisely what they will do, Dante! They will plunder the world! They will kill the men, the women, the children. Probably even a defenseless puppy or something!'

'You're speaking nonsense.'

'Nonsense?' Reiko laughed wildly at that point. 'Nonsense?! Look in the mirror and then you will see the nonsense of which you speak! A legend sitting around like a weakling! You had a hard time fighting six demons today, Dante. Normally this wouldn't have even caused you to start panting or tire!'

'These demons were stronger than any I have faced.'

'And if you do not get up and fight, then they will become even stronger.'

'I'm not a dragon hunter, Reiko. I fight demons.'

'Well you're going to have to fight this dragon in order to fight these demons. You, Trish and I and the rest of my vampires, or those vampires who wish to join me cannot do this alone. It's this dragon that's been preying on the harpies. I've been asked to form an alliance. I need them to fight with me. I need this alliance! You're going to help me kill this dragon, Dante, or I am going to withdraw what forces I have from this fight.'

'You wouldn't dare.'

'Just watch me.'

'I'd kill you.'

'I sincerely doubt that. Fight with me, or watch the world be raped by these demons.' It was an awful picture that Dante couldn't face.

'Fine...' he said numbly. 'I'll fight. I'll be damned if I'm going to let the world be overrun with demons. But Reiko, if you decide not to fight after this dragon dies, I'll send you to Hell.' This only earned him a smile.

'Sounds like quite the resort.'