Book Zero The Sacrifice

by Bloodlines DMC

Book Zero of the Bloodlines Anthology. Set a year after DMC3 and ten years before Book One. Look in the prologue for a more in depth synopsis of the story. Dante x OC - Please R&R and enjoy! !

3. The Shootist

Chapter 2 - The Shootist

Regan was carrying a cup of tea to the kitchen table, one at which Dante was sitting, and she pulled out her chair before she sat down. "It must've been about five years ago that the owner of this place passed away," she told him in reply to the question he'd just asked.

After the scene at the track with the mechanical bull named Hellraiser, Regan had told Dante to meet her in the lodge later, in the kitchen, so she could fill out some paperwork if he really wanted to work there as a wrangler. Dante had declined at that point, until he'd been able to talk to her more personally, to let her know the job would only be temporary. After all, if he was going to be on a wild goose chase, which this case really did seem to be turning out to be, he would definitely need something to do while he was there. And besides, the job of a wrangler seemed interesting enough to keep him occupied when things were calm, cool, and quiet. Not to mention it got him on the inside of the ranch much more deeply where he needed to be in order to find things out.

Regan had needed to get some of her own work done after the entire scene herself, and once she was finished, she went to the kitchen, joined by Dante a short bit later, when he'd asked her exactly how old she was. Giving him the reply of 21, the same age as him, he told her she seemed to be a bit young to own her own ranch. So Regan had given him the reply about the former owner who'd passed away, and after she'd sat down, the warm mug of tea between her fingers, she went on, "He raised me for most of my life, his name was Eddie Horton, and when he passed away, he left this place to me in his will. Jack helped me run it until I was legally old enough to take over it. It's really my favorite thing to do too, so I'm glad I got it, though I'd rather have Eddie back than this ranch."

Dante could agree with her on that, though he wouldn't say so or let her know what he'd been thinking about. But he was curious, well, just a slight bit, and besides, if it let him know what the hell was going on around here, then it was worth asking. "You weren't related to him?"

Regan shook her head, "Nah, my parents died when I was five, they were also wranglers, Eddie's best friends, he was my legal guardian. They were out one day with a herd of mustangs and were trampled in an accident. After that, my older brother pretty much split, he was fifteen, a lot older than me. I never saw him since, and neither did Eddie, so it was just me and him."

Regan had taken to shifting through a few papers by the time she'd finished her statement, looking them over one by one until she found the one she needed, and she then sat them neatly before her. Tilting her head quietly, she asked Dante as she continued to stare at them, "So, do you mind a question?"

Dante shrugged, "Shoot, sweetheart."

Snorting at the endearment he'd used, she asked him without pause, "Why a wrangler? Don't tell me you were just driving through town, stopped here, and decided to waltz on in and want to become a wrangler. Something had to make you have at least thought about it before."

"I'll be completely honest," Dante told her, "I have never thought about it before. I'm just looking for something temporary to get me through until my next job comes to me."

"Ah, a drifter I see, looking for a temporary trade," she mused with her green eyes still on the paper, then took her pen and marked the box next to the word 'temporary'. Looking up at him, she smirked, "kind of like a mercenary, huh?"

"Exactly," Dante told her, knowing she had no idea how close to the truth she really was, then he heard some shooting taking place off in the distance breaking through his thoughts. He ignored it for the moment however, after all, there was a bunch of cowboys around here, and Dante got the feeling that he knew they all had guns on them. So he just got back to the topic at hand. Looking at the files, he informed her, "And I don't exactly like doing paperwork."

Regan snorted, "Well, you asked for a job, now didn't you?"

"I asked for a job, not an interrogation."

The comment made Regan chuckle slightly, knowing exactly how he felt. That was the one thing she didn't appreciate about running this ranch, all the paperwork she had to do along with it, and for several months now she'd wanted to hire an office manager, but she just didn't have the money to do it. Tapping her nails against the desk as she looked the information over that she'd already gotten from him before they'd even sat down, she asked him, "How old are you?"

"Twenty one."

Alright, Regan thought, filling out the paper where his age was concerned. The shooting sounded again, and Dante narrowed his brows, curiously asking, "What the hell is that?"

"Target practice," Regan informed him, "some of the guys like to line bottles up and shoot at them. Favorite past time," she smirked, filling out the things on the paper that she already knew about him such as his race and that he was a male. "By the way, you've got some pretty nice guns yourself. Where'd you get 'em?"

"Made 'em," he told her, reaching into his coat and pulling them out. "Do you know how to shoot?"

"If I didn't, I wouldn't call myself a cowgirl," Regan smiled, then looked back up, eyeing the guns that he'd set onto the table for her inspection. "Do you carry these everywhere?"

"Even when I'm drunk," Dante told her without shame.

Shaking her head, Regan guessed this guy was either damned paranoid, or he was really trigger happy. She hoped he wouldn't try to get drunk one night here and start shooting at people or something. But despite his egotistical arrogant streak he seemed to have so far, he also struck her as a pretty nice, somewhat level headed guy, so she didn't think she'd have to reprimand him at the moment. But the day he did get out of line in that fashion, she would put him through hell and high water. But she noticed the names etched onto the sides of the guns, and she asked him, "Ebony and Ivory?"

"What about it?"

"You named your guns?"

"I name all of my weapons."

"Isn't that kind of pointless?" She asked him curiously, watching him to see what his reaction would be.

"Why would it be pointless? You put a piece of yourself into 'em when you do that, makes 'em more special."

Dante wondered what the woman would think about that, whether or not she would scoff or take it to heart; it would show him what kind of person she was. Regan turned her face back down to the two guns sitting on the table, and then she smiled, nodding her head, "I like that. Ebony and Ivory. It's nice." Her words were genuine, and she smirked. But she knew she needed to get back to the paper work so she could get it over with, and she glanced back at them from the twin weapons after she'd had the thought and asked him, "Should I just list this place as your residency considering you're just moving through the area?"

"Sure thing, babe," Dante sat back and lounged on his arms behind his head against the wall. "And you can go ahead and list indefinite as my time being here on the job. By the way, why's that damned horse so important?"

"Fargo?" Regan asked, glancing back up at him. When she saw his nod, she set her pen down. "Well, he's an American Cream draft horse, they're pretty rare, and his owner is a wealthy horse racer who wants to have him trained properly."

"So he wants to turn him into a race horse then, huh?" Dante asked.

"No," Regan shook her head, "draft horses aren't really ridden too much, well, not raced anyway, they're too heavy for it, they just pull things, you know, plows, carriages and so on."

Dante got a little confused, "Then why the fuck do you wanna ride it?"

Smirking, Regan replied, "Well, he has to be trained before he can be used for mechanical work, and that's part of training him. I'll put it like this. The man is rich, and his daughter is the one who adores American Creams, she puts them into horse shows to win money, so if daddy can get her one, he will, and I need the money pretty damned badly. I don't care how much he's trying to spoil a little rich girl," she finished, then looked back at the papers again, filling the rest of them out.

Dante had grinned at how she'd put that. He was coming to learn more and more that Regan seemed to be a down to Earth and very outspoken girl. In a way, she kinda reminded him of Lady, but not as completely hard ass as his partner devil hunter could be. Still, he appreciated Regan's personality like that, and while he had the feeling his relationship with her while he was here would probably not wind up that much different from his partners, at least he knew better now, from Lady, how to deal with that kind of attitude and persona.

The firing in the distance of the guns sounded again followed by a few yells, distracting him from his thoughts on the pretty woman sitting before him, and Dante looked out of the window to see if he could tell what was going on. But sadly, he couldn't really see what they were doing, and he told Regan, "Do the guys around here like to bet a lot?"

"Oh yeah," she replied, "all the time. Why, thinking about going out to shoot some?"

"Read my mind," he told her, grabbing his guns. Putting them back into their holsters, he added, "Have fun with the paperwork, sweety, I'm gonna go check out the shooting range."

Regan groaned, rolling her eyes as Dante left her there. "What an ass," she muttered, completing the first side of the paper, putting down lies for the answers just to get it finished. She briefly considered putting down something insulting, but sighed when she remembered she had to handle this professionally at least. She could just get him later for the constant endearments he'd been using with her, she considered, and filled out the rest of the sheet before standing up to go join him.

After all, she'd promised Jack she'd come out there too once she was done.

Jack was taking his own turn now, using a Colt Python to shoot at some cans lined up on the fence across the way from them, and Bill and Marcus were sitting, once again, on a fence behind them all, overlooking the entire scene. Three shots went off in a row, and all three cans went flying into the air, causing the guys to chatter and grin at each other over their words when Dante came wandering up. Having seen him, Bill smacked Marcus's arm to get his attention, and looking back, Marcus chuckled, "Well, well, if it ain't the new kid."

Dante moved to the fence and easily swung himself up onto it, looking up at the cloudless sunny sky for a moment, and then off into the distance where the cans were. "What's happenin'?," he asked the two, and glanced over in their direction.

"Just a round of shootin'," Bill told Dante, "Jack's the best shot we've got here besides Regan, and a couple of the boys from West Springs thought they could give him a run for his money."

Dante glanced over at Jack talking to some of the guys that were apparently from a different area all together, and as they spoke with each other and someone else in the distance had set the cans back up on the fence, one of the guys from West Springs moved in to start shooting. There were four cans now, and Dante watched the man taking all of the cans down, making them fly into the air with each shot he took.

"They're doing pretty good it looks like," Dante replied. "How's the bet work?"

"Well, they start off betting five bucks on one can. If both cans are hit by each man, they stick their money into the hat," Marcus told him, pointing out the white cowboy hat he held in his hand. "Then they add a can for each round, and add five more bucks for each can they hit after that, upping the ante. If someone misses, the opposite gets their money."

"We're at four now, what's the pool?"

"Fifty five dollars," the younger guy named Bill told Dante. "Jack's won two hundred before."

"Sounds like a pretty good get up," Dante replied, rolling his eyes at Marcus when he spit some more tobacco onto the ground.

Reaching into his jacket, Dante pulled out a stick of gum and he held it out to Marcus, who glanced at it, then back at him. Suddenly he grinned and started laughing, calling out to one of the boys, "Get this man a damned beer!"

Dante couldn't help his own grin over those words. This place was turning out to be pretty damned sweet. "Hell yeah, I'll take two," he added.

"Heads up," they heard a woman's voice in reply from behind them, and a beer can flew from a cooler where she'd been standing and at Dante who caught it without much warning.

As he looked back, he saw Regan come walking up, opening her own beer and drinking a good bit of it. Dante lifted a brow, couldn't remember the last time he'd seen a woman chug a beer like that before, one of those wine coolers, yeah, but most women he knew didn't really like beer too much. Once she was done, she set her beer on the top of the white wooden fence a bit away from him, and then climbed up onto it.

Dante watched her as she swung one leg over the side, the rail between her legs, and as she leaned forward to throw over her other leg, he couldn't help, being a man, noticing how her breasts billowed together for a moment at the collar of her v cut shirt. All in all he'd have to give this broad a ten. For one, he specifically liked that red color of her hair, and for another, she had those damned green eyes. He suddenly wished she would have been a much older chick, or one of those homely ones. The last thing he wanted right now was a hot female distracting him. Though, at least if he got frustrated he'd have some eye candy to look at.

Swinging her other leg over, she turned and jumped from the fence, then landed on the ground as if she'd done it a million times before. Once she'd grabbed her beer from the top of the fence again, she called out, "Marcus, this beer tastes like shit, what'd you get, something from bum fuck Egypt?"

Bill started laughing, "He got the light, he forgot his damned glasses again."

"Jesus Christ, glue them to your face, Mark," Regan laughed, "and drink up, we need more cans, I plan on getting in on this."

Dante was completely loving this conversation. In fact, he got the feeling he was going to fit in here as if he'd been raised around this kind of shit. Glancing at the beer can he held, he shrugged over it being light, and just opened it, taking a long drink afterwards. Once he was done, he glanced down at Regan as four gun shots went off in a row from Jacks Colt, and as Marcus and Bill started hooping and hollering, Dante asked her, "Care for a bet?"

Regan looked up, lifting a brow. Figures this joker would wanna bet her whenever he'd found out she was wanting to get in on some of the shooting. But as fate had it, she didn't have any money she was willing to bet at the moment, and so she only replied to him with a little smirk, "As much as I'd like to accept, I'm not going to do it for money."

"Fuck money, sweetheart, we can do it for sport."

Regan lifted a brow as she stared up at him. There he went with those damned endearments again, and this time, he had to use them in front of her workers, didn't he? With a sigh, putting her beer on top of the fence that was about as tall as she was, she grabbed the top of it. Dante watched her, hearing Bill's snicker, and he wondered what she was up to. She put her boot on the bottom of the fence, then climbed up, coming to the top where she got her face even with his, and she leaned in, saying, "Better yet, tell me how this sounds. If I win, you can't ever call me one of those stupid little nicknames again. They're irritating."

Dante lifted a brow at her, but he didn't lean back from her, and in fact, he just leaned in even closer, "What if I win, cupcake?"

Regan pursed her lips, not letting his continued nicknames irritate her for the moment, thinking it over, all the while trying not to smile because of Bill and Marcus behind her making faces. Reaching up, she swept her hair over her shoulder, thinking of saying something along the lines of paying him twice as much as his job was worth, but she didn't have the money to do it. So instead, she asked, "Well, what would you like, Slick?" Her voice was suggestive if nothing else.

"Oh I don't think you wanna know," Dante replied, looking her over for a moment, "though I'd love to tell ya." His words were just as suggestive as her own.

Could he be anymore annoying, Regan wondered. Hooking her booted foot into the back of the fence, she crossed her now free arms over her chest as she used her foot to hang from and considered it, waited on him to give a response as well. When he remained quiet, she finally told him, "Fine, then I'll just say a handshake," with a grin on her lips, knowing that wasn't what he wanted.

"What about a kiss," Dante asked. Hell, if he was going to get something, he may as well make it good.

Regan lifted a brow. Bill and Marcus both started telling her to go for it, and Regan eyed them, then Dante. "Why the hell do you want a kiss for?"

"Because you're a hot little bag of redheaded goodness that I think must taste pretty damned good."

He just had to do that, didn't he? Use every name in the book he could think of in one line to make her as irritated as she could get. While they stared at one another, and though Regan never showed it on her face, Dante could still see her eyes turning from a mint green to an emerald, and he gave her the most arrogant smirk in the world that he could muster over it. That just made her even more mad, but she still didn't comment on it. Instead, she pushed herself back, and jumped down, then told him, "Alright, a peck."

"A full kiss, on the lips," Dante interjected, "otherwise no dice."

"Fine," Regan threw out faster than he'd thought she would. "Sounds like a deal to me." She held her hand out. Dante looked her over from where she stood on the ground, then he grinned and reached out, taking her hand. They shook on it, and both of them went back to watching the guys taking shots at the cans again when a man from West Springs missed. Some people booed, some cheered, and Regan, despite her current irritation at Dante, started clapping, "Go Jack! Woo!"

"Looks like it's our turn, sweet cheeks," Dante told her as he jumped down, "better get your lip gloss ready."

"Better get your names right," Regan replied, giving him a look when he glanced at her that said she was just as cocky as he was. Then she added saucily, "Excuse me," and she walked past him, calling out, "Jack, new kid's gonna go against me, get some more cans set up would ya."

Jack blinked, then he asked, "For money?"

"For a kiss," Dante told him incase Regan tried to skirt her way around what his prize was, and he added just so he could make sure he'd rubbed salt in the wounds, "Line 'em up nice and pretty for me so I can get to the good part."

Jack stared. For a kiss? Damn, dude hadn't even been there a day yet and already he was talking Regan into giving away kisses for a bet. Either she was really impressed by him, or her prize, if she won, was something she really wanted. "Alright," Jack replied somewhat slowly and drawn out, unable to remember a time Regan would have ever agreed to something like this, moving off to get the cans lined up the way they should be, and Dante pulled out Ivory, swinging her around in his hand, twisting and turning her skillfully as Regan watched.

He was trying to intimidate her on purpose, she knew that much for a fact, as she watched his skillful movements with the gun, the way he tossed it into the air and then caught it without even looking at it, and she shook her head. Yeah, he could do all of that, but could he shoot was the real question. Stepping up, she reached out and caught his gun when he tossed it again, then she spun it around her own fingers, swinging it behind her back, and turned it so that the handle was facing him, holding it out to him. "You gonna shoot or play around, Slick?"

Dante couldn't help his grin, and taking his gun back, he told her "Lady's first, doll."

"Oh," Regan nodded, "then in that case," she held out her hand, "be my guest."

The guys on the fence started laughing, and Regan gave Dante a smug grin. Dante just looked up, nodding his head, and told her, "Hope you're a lesbian then, cause you're gonna be kissing this lady pretty soon." Without hesitating, he took a random shot at the can on the fence and it flew into the air without a second thought.

The guys cheered, and Regan turned, the she pulled her own gun from her belt, a silver Colt something like Jack's, but bigger than his. Dante nodded his own head in approval, looking across the gun, but he asked her, "Need a big one so you can hit stuff, right?"

"From what I see, yours isn't so small either, Slick, maybe you're compensating."

The comment had been given without hesitation. Dante wasn't even about to let her get away with that. "Oh I can easily prove that I'm not," he told her, taking his belt buckle, and she, without looking at him, aimed her gun in his direction. Dante grinned and stopped what he was doing, holding his hands up, "Don't get mad because I'm not afraid to prove it."

Regan rolled her eyes, snorting through her nose before she just turned her gun and shot at her own can, knocking it off of the fence without a problem. "Then don't insult my accuracy, it means more to me than your stupid male pride."

"You're pretty harsh," Dante sighed, shaking his head, then turning to the fence while he waited for the men to line up the cans again. "All the better," he smirked, thinking to himself that the bitchier they were, the harder they fell.

One by one after that, the cans went down. As had come to be expected by the wranglers hanging around in the area who'd seen Dante performing his nicely skilled feats that day, he was no shoddy marksman. Knowing this was going to be a good show as their bosslady wasn't a slouch by far herself, the beers were passed around and cracked open.

Lines of bottles went up in smoke fairly quickly. When the beers ran out, they were replaced, and the people continued cheering the two on. Personal money bets were made on them, and as each round passed, the people collected or lost their money. By the time the two shooters got to the ninth line of bottles, Dante had pulled out both of his guns and, aiming, he shot one after the other, each can going up quickly in succession, and when the last one flew into the air, he shot it out of the sky, then looked at Regan and shrugged with a smirk. Regan shrugged to, then she suddenly aimed up over his head and took a shot as a can was coming down toward him, saving him from getting hit just to show off her own skill. Then she tilted her head and raised her brows. Bill actually fell off of the fence laughing at them.

"Ya know," Jack said as they got the line of ten bottles set up for the two shooters, "I don't think I've ever seen Regan make it to ten, someone's always missed before then."

Marcus, whom Jack was talking to, started nodding his head, watching everything going on completely before he shoved the stick of gum Dante had given him into his mouth. Jack started laughing at him because he knew where Marcus had gotten the gum from, and then he downed some of his drink, watching Dante and Regan standing out in the yards, having their shooting contest. He thought it was fair to say he liked the new guy pretty damned good.

Regan was reloading her gun at that time, and she'd noticed that Dante never seemed to reload his. She could only wonder why and how he didn't, but she decided not to ask as the next line of ten cans was put up on the fence. Dante sighed, looking them all over, and he told Regan, "It's time to bring this to an end, sweety, pucker up."

Regan groaned inwardly at the mans words, but she'd grown to somehow believe that Dante had earned his arrogant streak so far. Still, it didn't merit him rubbing it in everyone's face, did it? Letting it go for now, she just watched the guy taking a few steps forward, and he told her, "Watch and learn, honey," ready to win his prize, and while a kiss with Regan wasn't something he was completely pining over, he still wanted to let everyone know exactly how good he was with his guns, no matter how much he'd proved it to them so far.

Regan watched Dante doing the same quick shooting up to the tenth can, and then he tilted his head and his gun slightly at the final one, taking a shot after a moment of hesitation. The can was hit near the very base of the bottom, and it flew up into the air at a high arc, over the yard they stood in. While it flew through the air, Dante aimed Ivory in his right hand and took two shots quickly. As the can spun again, he aimed Ebony in his left, and waited for only a moment, then took five more shots. The can went spinning through the air and Dante flipped his guns back into his harnesses as the can landed in front of them and onto its side.

Across the front of the can was a smiley face made from bullet holes.

Everyone started yelling different things out, creating a roar that made Dante turn and bow in front of everyone. Suddenly the crowd started shouting, "Kiss, kiss, kiss," over and over again in a chant. Regan went wide eyed and looked back at everyone in disbelief, though there was a smirk on her face that was slightly mortified. She glanced at Dante and he just grinned, turning his head to her, then leaned over and puckered up. Regan rolled her mint green eyes up and put her hand on his forehead, pushing his face back. Several people chuckled as she did, and she moved toward her own cans to take them all out. While she knew she couldn't shoot a smiley face into a can that was flying through the air, all that mattered was that she hit them all, and she planned on doing that without a problem.

Regan tuned everyone out, staring at her targets, even when her name was chanted after the kiss lines that had been thrown out by the people, taking a deep breath. She drew up her gun, pulling the trigger, hitting each can as she slammed the palm of her hand onto the hammer of the gun she held again and again, taking the next line out in succession. But perhaps she'd been a bit too nervous by the crowd having chanted about Dante getting a kiss, about the fact that she hadn't made it to ten cans in a very long time, about how damned good at everything the guy seemed to be so far. Once she was out of bullets, the line had come down, all except for the last can, which was wobbling now. Apparently she'd only nicked it.

The crowd got silent, and in her head, Regan nearly screamed at the thing to fall over, while Dante waited for it to stand in place. Everyone just watched, wondering which way the can would go, and as the long moments drew out, seeming much longer than they actually were, the can suddenly settled on its bottom side again, still perched upon the fence as if it hadn't been hit at all.

A jumbled mess of shouting came from the crowd when the can settled back down, and Regan closed her eyes tightly, clenching her teeth together. The disappointment she felt was shadowed out by the reminder of the kiss she got when everyone started yelling it at her and Dante again, and a wave of embarrassment washed over her. She could not believe that this guy she'd only met earlier in the day was about to get a kiss from her when all along he'd been the one who was annoying her, and not vice versa.

With a sigh, she turned to everyone and shrugged, then looked at Dante. "Can I borrow one of your guns?"

He'd strolled over to her and when she asked him that question, he asked her, "What for? You've already lost."

"I know that, Sherlock, I just wanted to kill that can for making me lose."

Dante gave her a grin, then asked, "Planning on turning it on me afterwards?"

"Nah, too many witnesses," she smirked, hiding her embarrassment over the fact that she'd just lost and was about to have to give him a kiss.

"Well, if it's any consolation, I've only seen one other girl who can shoot as well as you do. So don't feel bad. I'm just–" he suddenly stopped when Regan smacked her fingers over his mouth. He lifted his brows.

"If you said that damned good one more time, I'm going to use your gun to shoot myself," she told him, grumbling slightly, and then pulled her hand away, "besides, do we really have to kiss in front of all of these people?" She asked him, hoping they wouldn't.

"Don't you wanna please your fans?" He asked her, grinning arrogantly, yet somehow handsomely, at her.

"I don't have any fans," she replied, "but you seem to draw a crowd wherever you go. I wonder why that is."

"Wonder later," he replied, taking her hand and pulling her around suddenly, dipping her back, causing her to gasp. "Just give me my rewards. I don't bite, hard anyway."

Regan wanted to cuss him out. She wanted to push him away, even if it meant her falling onto the ground. She stared at him somewhat evilly, but knew he was right and that a deal was a deal. In that moment, she completely hated herself.

"I'm waiting," he told her.

Regan wanted to tell him he'd be waiting a while, but deciding to get it over with, she took his arm and leaned up. She could have had a worse fate, she thought in that moment as she moved closer to him, and he could've been one of those ugly, fat guys that sweat even when they were just walking. One who chewed tobacco, as Regan herself thought that was a disgusting habit just like Dante did.

The crowd was shouting and waiting, someone yelling above the others, "Lay it on 'im, Regan!," which made everyone else laugh, and Regan smirked, then she whispered, "you're an asshole," before she leaned up and kissed him, meaning for it to be quick, but finding herself unable to pull away. Apparently Dante had sensed her incoming quickness about it, and he put his hand on the back of her head, holding her into place to keep her from going anywhere, and everyone started cheering. Why did Regan suddenly feel like she'd been betrayed, she wondered briefly. But soon enough, even though the kiss lacked any kind of complete stimuli such as tongue or whatever else you could throw in there, she forgot about everything going on around her.

When the kiss finally did end, she felt a slight bit lightheaded, and gasped when Dante pulled her back up to stand straight on her own, reaching up and grabbing her hat before she could lose it. She just smirked a bit, and then shook her head and yelled out at the cheering crowd, "Are you happy now?"

While they continued their yells, Dante said, "I know I am, you've got a damned soft pair of lips. Wanna go for round two?"

"Ugh," Regan groaned out, walking away from Dante before he frustrated her anymore than he already had, and as she walked off, she heard him calling out to her, "Thanks for the fun, sweetheart, I look forward to next time."

Regan signaled Jack, and called out, "Give me your gun."

Jack threw his gun to her without question, guessing she'd wanted to refill it for him since she actually had ammo on her and he'd lost about five shots from the contest he'd had, and he was surprised when she turned it on Dante, pulling the hammer back without question, and she caused Dante to duck when she'd pulled the trigger. Suddenly, the can behind him which was much further away now due to where she'd walked too after she'd left Dante standing there went up into the air, and looking, back, Dante cussed, "Shit," before turning his head at her again. "What the hell?" He asked her.

"Since I lost, I'm just gonna have to find another way to train you not to call me those names, aren't I?" She asked, smirking at him before she tossed Jack's gun back at him, and then she started walking away from the yards, grabbing the last beer from the cooler and opening it to take a long drink of it as she walked toward the ranch.

Dante watched her, and he scoffed slightly, watching the woman who was moving toward the establishment now. Train him? My ass, he thought to himself. Then he caught himself looking at her ass again, and he rolled his eyes. He really needed to find a girlfriend, he thought to himself, one he didn't meet on a shitty, wild goose chase mission. And speaking of wild goose chases, it was getting close to sundown, and Dante had yet to see hide nor hair of any kind of demon or demon worshiper for that matter, well, that he could tell anyway.

This was getting ridiculous.

One thing was for sure though, wild goose chase or not, Regan seemed to be one hell of a woman for a simple human. She might not've been a fighter or something along those lines, but that's what made her so impressive, the fact that she hadn't spent her life learning how to slay demons like someone like Lady had, and yet she'd still managed to pick up on a few things, such as shooting, and manage to kick a lot of ass at it. Then she had the guts to tell him she'd find a way to train him not to do something. Smirking, Dante thought to himself that he'd have a hell of a lot of fun seeing what she'd come up with in the future.