Chapter 4: Like the chupacabra

Oh noes! Another update! Again thanks to all you guys, for putting up with the good and bad chapters and giing me motivation to finish it. I'm aiming for ten chapters total. Maybe a sequel since the story seems to be going quite well. Animal mangling ahead the gore warning is up. I swear this is getting more and more boring as I keep writing. Was hit by the dreaded writers block but don't worry I got better. This time round I'm going to refrain from the Yaoi.

Dante and Nero spent most of the night chatting about the mission; Dante threw in the occasional witty comment or obscene joke in the middle to which Nero would respond with an irritated expression.

Day light broke, or would have if the town was not set in a permanent mist.

The pair traveled downstairs, the bar was already open at this hour and Slade was serving up some food, the environment was noisy and the chattering of the many customers drowned out pretty much else.

Dante seated himself at the bar table, Nero on the stool next to him.

"So ya do fast food too?"

Slade snorted "Someone's gotta take care of the drunks."

"I see…" Dante picked up a lazily scrawled menu, done in black pen with the occasional scribbled out word "So where's the kitchen?"

"I cook in the back kitchen, well not me alone I have help. 'Scuse me for a sec." He began yelling into the back kitchen, orders and such.

"So what'll it be? It's on the house, only for you two strangers!" Slade seemed to enjoy Dante's presence in this town.

Nero nudged Dante who jumped a little in response "Oh yeah! I was thinkin' could you take a look at my friend here? He got one of those weird marks while I wasn't looking."

Nero lifted his shirt, revealing the snake.

"Everyone's got one..." Slade paused noticing the irregularity "…Just not so dark."

"Ah…thought so." Dante Glanced at Nero "…So I think I'll be ordering now."

Slade scrawled it all down before hastily rushing down to the kitchen, he returned with a whole group of plates giving each one to a customer in the bar.

An hour and two plates of breakfast later, Dante had just finished up eating. Nero had finished a considerably earlier than him, he had ordered the largest stack of pancakes in the freaking universe. Slade either didn't mind or just kept silent opting to keep on Dante's good side.

Nero had chosen a smaller portion partly because his appetite was pretty much ruined and secondly because he considered himself to be less of a pig than Dante.

"Have you wondered what makes your mark so different from the others?"

Nero shrugged "No clue…but I really just want to go home."

"Aww…home sick already?" Dante placed his fork on his now empty plate "I have a theory on why your mark is different…" Dante stopped only to have a few gulps of tomato juice.

"Oh enlighten me wise, wise tutor."

"See, I was thinkin'. There's something that makes you special that's why yours is different..."

"Yeah…"

"Well, what do you have that these people, NORMAL people don't?"

Nero suddenly understood where Dante was going at "Demonic power?"

"Yeah, see aren't ya glad I'm not a dumbass?" He grinned at Nero taking in this one moment where Nero may actually respect what he had to say.

"Yeah…"

Suddenly just as Dante got through his latest glass of tomato juice, someone burst through the door seemingly disoriented and unable to keep control of their limbs.

It was Shawn, who seemed even dirtier than the day before.

"Hey twitchy, what's got you all wound up?" Dante eyed him with amusement; Shawn however was a bit too bewildered to take in what he had just said.

"OH-MY-GOD-THERE'S-DEAD-THINGS-ALL-OVER-TOWN!!!" Shawn was panicked for one and the worlds only came out as dribble, Dante only managed to pick up a few phrases and words from his one sided conversation.

"YOU'LL-FIX-THIS-RIGHT? YES! YOU-WILL! GOOD!" Shawn pulled him to his feet and attempted to force the red clad demon hunter out the door. Nero sighed following the confused and panicky man who pushed Dante to the other side of town.

"Hey calm down twitchy! First you need to explain what the hell is going on, I can't understand your ranting. Seriously." Shawn stopped briefly, only to end up breaking into uncontrollable sobbing.

Nero and Dante could only stand in awkward silence as they watched the young man, bawl his eyes out.

"I-I…S-s-s-saw…" Dante's couldn't understand the rest; it was drowned out by his choking sobs and cries.

Nero on the other hand was growing impatient, he should be the one sobbing uncontrollably, his life hinges on the balance and their biggest lead at the moment was sobbing uncontrollably on the floor.

Beautiful, I'm going to die from old age before he starts talking. He thought to himself as his anger slowly began rising within him.

He walked over to the distressed man "Hey listen, I'm going to keep this short." His frustration was starting to get to boiling point "Now calm down, tell us what it is or god help me…" Nero stopped unable to finish his threat "…Look crying isn't helping any of us, just get on with it." He folded his arms over his chest and turned away from the man.

"O-okay…" Shawn attempted to hold back his tears "…I'll just show you."

Shawn pulled a normal Dante and an irked Nero over to what appeared to be the edge of town, a forest area.

"Just ahead, I was gathering wood…because I have an old fashioned fire place." He was trying to justify his reasons for being in the woods at all.

Dante and Nero stepped into the forest; Shawn refused claiming that he was unable to enter again.

Nero didn't blame him either, there was livestock everywhere mutilated, limbs strewn apart from bodies, ribcages torn open revealing things that should otherwise remain in an animal. Young lambs mostly and occasional calf, these were all newly born.

Nero gazed at a particular lamb, only one of its forelimbs remained attached to its body which was torn open entrails were spread across the floor and its skull appeared to be brutally crushed open, it was garroted as well and vacant sockets only stared back at him, the eyes had been removed in what looked to be a particularly horrible manner.

"Maybe it's some sort of ritualistic killing?" Nero looked at Dante waiting for a response.

"Maybe, Or maybe demons were just having a really picky meal? Look here only certain parts of the animals are missing." Dante was strangely serious.

Nero wandered over to Dante, noting the similarities between the corpses, for one he noticed that they all lacked eyes, and hearts among other various organs.

Nero shrugged, the stench was overpowering it wafted over to him bile could be smelt from a particularly horribly mangled calf; he started to feel his breakfast come back up.

Dante and Nero walked back out of the forest and approached Shawn who was still shaking from his previous encounter with the scene.

"Looks like we have another clue." Dante made his way back; there was something he needed to go over with Slade.

The walk back was strangely silent, Nero having been upset by his predicament and in a particularly foul mood the entire day and Dante wondering about what was going on.

During the entire trip the only sounds came from Shawn who was sticking close to Nero and Dante out of fear of another demon attack.

They reached the bar Slade greeted them watching as both of the white haired hunters sat back down.

"Say…" Dante began conversing with the man straight away "…I need some more info."

Slade nodded, stopping from his work momentarily "What is it?"

"Any mutilations that occur frequently, that we should know about? Seriously I saw this scene in the forest that's put me out of the mood for lamb."

"There was one, but it was in the beginning. You know when things first went down; I think you'd better ask someone else about it. Shawn would know he's the one that found the damn body."

Dante and Nero turned gazing at the youth, who sheepishly backed up a bit unable to make any sort of eye contact with the two.

"Let's talk in private twitchy." Dante grabbed the youth by the arm dragging him to the door, Shawn was shaking looking at Slade with a face that seemed to plead for help.

Dante took him to the side alley of the building "Okay kid. Why didn't you tell us about the other mutilation?"

"Funny how you're the only one who's found any bodies do far." Nero added his arms crossed.

"I guess…I'm just unlucky…" his voice lowered to almost a whisper.

Nero groaned this boy was getting on his nerves.

Dante tapped his foot impatiently, he was eager to get this over with he wanted something entertaining and not something that revolved around annoying detective work.

"So…where did you find it? The body I mean." Nero's expression gave the impression that he wasn't feeling terribly patient and truth was he wasn't.

"Different place, just behind the cemetery…" he was shaking violently

"What were you doing behind the cemetery?" Nero raised an eyebrow.

"Truthfully I don't know myself…I was visiting my nana and then I heard a noise and wandered over…" He paused "…there was Lucas, with his eyes gouged out and everything."

Dante interjected "So, during this entire time…there's been no other killings?" things didn't fit into place; the town was emptier than it should've been and there was only one death accounted for at this point.

"No. only disappearances and that's it." He slowly started to trudge back to the bar his slender form shaking irregularly.

"Kid's crazy." Dante muttered only loud enough for Nero to hear, all Nero could do was nod in agreement.

The pair decided it was time they went to the cemetery, rather than delaying it.

"Ooh, creepy." Dante chuckled; the years had rendered him immune to many things including sinister backgrounds.

Nero gazed around it was a normal cemetery, but still he was glad it was daylight.

They went around following the fence until the reached the back, Dante noted how compared to all the other sides it was clear of most plants.

Nero approached the small clearing, there was little there really, except for a mirror that had been crudely nailed into the fence.

Nero and Dante looked into it, what the hell was a mirror doing all the way out here?

On it the name Sullivan was scratched in on the surface of the glass, ruining what would have been a perfect surface.

Dante peered into it deeper and deeper until he could see something faintly, something that was not his reflection.

"Nero, check it out!" Nero drew his face closer to the glass, and then before he knew it Dante had pushed his back and he went through it, he tensed expecting to collide with the surface, he waited for the painful sensation.

Indeed there was a painful sensation but that was because he had landed face first into what seemed to be a tunnel.

Dante landed behind him on his feet, gracefully and looking like he undoubtedly the more skilled of the duo.

"Ah, portals gotta love them save you the extra mileage on foot."

Nero rose to his feet, glaring at Dante with all his might but he ignored it and moved on.

"So my demon sense is tingling, and I think we've hit the jackpot!"

Nero groaned, following the hunter down the large passage…

That's it for today, sorry I feel like this chapter was quite terrible compared to the rest, yeah I know it's getting old but I feel that each chapter just can't match up to the very first. I'm sorry that it's mostly dialogue and my OCs I really hope they didn't take too much spotlight from our fav demon hunters. No fights and little humor. But I have set up the story the way I want it so far I hope I didn't bore you. Love you guys.