Antihero

The wind was blowing through the trees in the forests, a chill on them that was somehow ominous. Snow drifts blew up from the ground, wafting about before they came to settle in random areas around the old stones rising up from the ground in what looked to be ruins of an old structure. A soft howling could be heard, but it wasn't caused by the whipping winds. The sounds seemed to manifest themselves, coming together inside of the stone ruins, growing more intense and menacing, until a tiny red light began flickering about.

Suddenly it pulsed forth, surged from the ground, and exploded outwards around the snow, a power being generated from the burst that held steady as a taloned hand with leathery black skin suddenly sprang forth from the orb, landing in the snow, maggots and centipedes falling from the appendage that pulled itself forth. A low groan sounded, and the creature fell into the snow, steam rising from its body, glistening with unnamed fluids that spilled onto the ground. It's torso was long and somewhat lanky, ribs protruding, but its stomach was concave, as if it had never eaten a single thing, the skin there plastered under its ribs to a pulsing flesh covered organ that sounded a liquid thud even though it was inside of the monster's chest.

It's long, lanky, skull-like face, somewhat akin to a horse, but with long, slender rows of fangs lining its jaw on the top and the bottom closing together like a clamp, lifted slowly, it's body straightening with suddenly, jerky, inhuman like movements, as if it'd yet to gain control of itself or its body. Decay seemed imminent about its being as well, and as it stumbled back into the snow, trying to get a hold on its movements, the light it'd emerged from slowly dyed from the area it'd formed in.

Finally, it pushed itself up, onto all fours, hulking over like a long, lanky beast, short spikes rising out of its spine and down a long tail. The beast had to be about eight feet tall. It slowly lifted its head, eye sockets beginning to glow red, and it leered about the area for several moments. Another wind picked up, and the creature tossed its head back and let forth a loud screech that seemed to click in its throat like a large type of feline might do.

Her mint green eyes opened and she gasped, pupils dilating, staring ahead as the scenery passed by her. Breathing somewhat heavily, Regan narrowed her brows and tilted her head forward, putting her hand on her forehead, suddenly jumping damned near a foot when she felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a voice asking if she was alright.

Looking over, spying Dante in the drivers seat next to her, having glanced at her for a few moments before he'd looked back at the road again, she nodded her head slowly and told him, "Yeah, I'm peachy keen."

"Peachy keen," he drew out, snorting slightly in amusement, "there's a word you don't hear everyday. You sure you're peachy keen? Why not fine and dandy?"

"I'm fine, Dante," she smirked at him, shaking her head. "I just had a bad dream," she sighed. "One of those dreams that leaves a bad taste in your mouth."

Regan spoke the last part as if she'd just admitted to something terrible. Regan wasn't sure what it was, but she just felt odd, and she wasn't actually even sure if she'd had a dream or not. Turning her head, she looked over at Dante, then into the backseat, seeing that Evelyn was playing with some cards Lady had given her and she glanced ahead into the front at Regan. Regan offered the little girl a smile and then she sat forward once again, asking Dante the first thing she wanted to know since there was no clock in his car. Well, there was a clock, but the time on it wasn't right. Dante never set it.

"How long was I out?"

"About two hours."

The scenery passing around them wasn't of city yet, instead, just random exits into small towns and trees or other various landscapes, and Regan watched them all passing by with bored interest. Seemed to her like riding in cars for long periods of time put things into perspective, made you remember why you liked to have one place to stay instead of moving around everywhere all of the time.

"Then we're almost there?"

"Almost," he admitted, "another few exits."

"Good, I hate driving long distances."

Dante had pretty much the same sentiment. He liked his car, but damned if he liked to drive it for long periods of time. Too damned boring for him. The thrill seeker loved a good fight or a means of challenging himself and his mobility, not just sitting behind a wheel to get down the road for anything that took longer than two hours to do. But this instance was different. He was ready to get back to his shop, ready to get back to some real work, as in missions that didn't leave him completely frustrated where he could actually kick some ass on a regular basis, and so this car ride was worth it in his opinion.

So returning to Capulet finally was a good thing. Regan had gotten a hotel room close by his shop, within walking distance anyway, and first he was going to head to his place and check everything there, take a short break, then get her over to where she needed to go. Or that was the general idea so far anyway. But for now, he was nearly bored to tears just like she was.

"How about some music," he asked, reaching out and flipping the radio on. The song had just started, but it was a good one, making him grin, "Hell yeah, Joe Walsh."

"Rocky Mountain Way," Regan also grinned, glancing at him. "Haven't heard this song in a while."

"Me either. Could probably play it a million times and it still wouldn't get old."

"Dante, they probably have played it a million times."

"That's my point."

Smirking, Regan looked up and saw a sign that said 'Capulet City - 100 Miles', and she continued smiling, "This song should help the next hundred miles."

"Especially if it's a two for Tuesday, they might have another one on after this."

"Good point," Regan agreed, looking at the sky and the rolling clouds there in it. It was definitely nice to see the sun again, and feel a little warmth, even though the climate was still cold for so late in the year of course. She also found her head bobbing to the music as it worked into the slow guitar rift that led up to the best part of the song and the waiting suddenly didn't seem so bad anymore. Thank goodness for music.

The next song that wound up playing as the exit to Capulet City came up was 'Enter Sandman', something that Regan could see suiting Dante's profile a bit more closely, though Joe Walsh wasn't too far off. The city looked huge to Regan, and she stared as they came over the large six lane highway bridge leading into town, the towers rising up as if even in the sky with the clouds height, and Dante glanced over at the red head.

"Don't tell me you've never been to the city."

"Once or twice," Regan said, "but not any cities with sky scrapers."

"Well, then welcome to the city, it's a jungle out there."

Somehow Regan knew Dante wasn't joking around, and she looked back out of the windows on the doors. Lady came up on the exit behind them but she took a different route, Marvin in tow just behind her. Seeing the two taking off into a different direction than Dante and herself, Regan asked Dante, "Where are they going?"

"Lady knows some shortcuts," he explained. "And she probably needs to get some gas too. They'll make it to the shop shortly."

With a nod of her head, Regan checked on Evelyn again, asking if she was alright, and getting a thumbs up from the quiet little girl. Reassured, Regan turned to see all of the pedestrians making their way down the road, the cabs driving around them, the walk and don't walk lights, and she wondered just how light up this place got at night. She was starting to feel better that she'd come here. Somehow, she felt she could get really lost from unwanted people, or demons anyway, in such a large place.

Or at least, she hoped so.

Dante continued driving, and Regan, after the third turn, said, "I'm never going to learn my way around here."

"Women have no sense of direction."

"I will not contest you on that, Dante, but I will say at least we know how to ask for directions."

"That's why men don't get lost."

Regan scoffed. Looking back out the window, she told him, "And you didn't know Eddie very well."

"Who?"

"Eddie? The guy who raised me?" She asked, smirking at him, "He never got lost on his horse, no, but in a car, he didn't know how to get out of the driveway."

Dante grinned and they heard a little girl snickering in the backseat. The sound made Regan chuckle, and she reached over to the stereo to turn it down, and once the music was at a lower level, she asked him, "So, Devil May Cry, who came up with that name anyway?"

"Lady, actually," Dante informed her.

"Oh yeah? It's an odd one."

"Well, it was an odd situation," Dante replied simply, turning down yet another road, and Regan saw the sign over the shop before he could say anymore. So, it wasn't on a fancy end of town, somehow that didn't really surprise her, and it was bigger than she'd expected. Once the car came to a stop and the engine was turned off, Regan grabbed the doorknob and she got out, looking back when she heard a group of kids yelling as Dante reached into his trunk and pulled out his guitar case.

"Hey Dante, that your new girlfriend!?"

Dante rolled his eyes, "Shut up and go play on a busy street, wouldya?"

The kids started laughing and Regan shook her head, going to the backseat and reaching inside to pull Evelyn out by grasping her hand. Walking to the front door with Dante, the kids furthered their yelling at him, though it was hard to hear them with nearly every single one of them yelling, and as they got to the front doors of the shop, Regan asked, "Friends of yours?"

Scoffing, Dante glanced back at her, "That's the brat brigade. School's probably out today or some shit."

"Do they do that all of the time?"

The group of kids liked Dante, but they liked to pick at him too because of the things he said to them. It was an odd situation where the kids knew he didn't really mean it, and they all thought it was funny, so they just continued on and on to try and get his attention. Shrugging, Dante replied simply, "I couldn't tell ya," and he opened the doors and walked inside. Regan watched him, then sighed with a slight shake of her head, looking up at the sign over the doors.

"Devil May Cry," she looked back at the doors again, "let's go see why, Evelyn," she smiled at the little girl and then drew her along inside with her.

It was nice, simple, not the most extravagant of places by far, only a slight bit run down as far as current building standards went, but it was clean and Regan could appreciate it. As she looked around at the pool table, the guitar sitting in one of the corners with a couch and a table, on it a television set that looked twice her age almost, she couldn't help but ask him, "I didn't know you actually played the guitar. I thought you just used a case to hide your sword."

At that moment, the phone started ringing, and Dante set said guitar case next to his desk, replying to her, "Yeah, I'll serenade you sometime," with a smirk before he grabbed the phone from its receiver and placed it to his ear. "Devil May Cry."

Drawing her attention away from Dante, Regan looked down at Evelyn who'd tugged on her pants leg and she listened as the little girl whispered to her, "He has a lot of girls on the wall."

Regan looked up to see the pictures Evelyn had just mentioned to her and she smiled. Typical. Looking over at Dante, not really listening to him, she was glad the place was completely unlike she'd thought it'd be, which was messy and, well, just a basic bachelor pad. Though, she guessed the term could be applied here, but in a much different sense.

"Well, he's a guy, and they do that sometimes." Regan explained, glancing down at the desk and the older looking model phone he was using. As she'd looked around, she realized he had a lot of what looked to be antiquities in his shop, pool table, phone, jukebox. He must've had a taste for them. But what had caught her eye wasn't exactly the phone itself. Sitting next to it was a picture of a woman with long blonde hair and a red scarf on, or perhaps a red sweater, Regan couldn't tell, and as Dante hung up the phone, she asked him about it.

"Who's that?" She pointed her finger in a gesture. "She's pretty."

"Who?" He looked. Regan walked over to the desk, leaving Evelyn to pluck at the guitar strings a few times without bothering anything, and when Dante saw what she'd been pointing at, he looked back up at her after sitting down in his chair. "That's mom. Thanks."

Regan smiled, leaning onto his desk on her forearms and looked at the picture more closely. "You have her eyes," she glanced at him in order to compare them.

"Actually, her's were a bit darker."

"Oh, well," she shrugged, "I still see the similarity. Maybe it's the flash of the camera." Turning her head and standing up straight, she was surprised when, as she tried to walk away, Dante put his hand in the back waistband of her jeans, and pulled her toward himself, causing her to fall into his lap. She blinked at him a few times at him after she'd landed and then lifted her brow in question. "You happy to be home?"

"Yep," he smirked, "happy as a pig in shit."

Regan pursed her lips, then muttered his name as she tried to stand back up, but he just tightened his grip. Regan didn't mind honestly, but she had noticed Evelyn staring at them quietly. Seeing the little girl, Dante smirked, not embarrassed one bit and he asked her, "What? Never seen a guy with his girl in his lap?"

Evelyn blinked a time or two and pursed her lips, giving him a look that said either she didn't understand him, or she thought he was crazy. Dante snorted in his amusement over it. But his attention was drawn when Regan told him, "You know, Lady and Marvin will be here any minute. Maybe you should let me up."

"Why? You wanna keep this a secret? Marvin give ya the hots does he?"

Dante's typical grin was in place, picking at her, and Regan's green eyes rolled harder than they ever had. "Actually Dante, it's Lady who gets me going," she looked at him pointedly, "I was only using you to get to her."

Regan had to fight not to laugh and keep a straight face. Dante was just staring at her as if his interests had been peaked as hard as they'd ever been and it was hilarious to see. She was amused by it, thinking about how typical his male appetite for sex was, maybe even more so than the typical guy if the way he flirted so shamelessly was any indication. So the fact that even a hint of a promise of some girl on girl action made Dante give her such a look just cause her to become flat out amused.

"I knew it," Dante told her, shaking his head, "I'm going to have to punish the both of you now."

"Yeah I really see Lady going for that." Regan muttered out, pushing herself off of his lap in his distraction of lesbian fantasies, and she chuckled, hearing Lady's motorcycle outside. Walking over to Evelyn, she took her hand and told the little girl, "This is your first lesson about men, they're easily distracted because women are smarter."

Evelyn smiled a little bit, the door opening behind them by Lady's hand and Marvin held it, telling her to go first instead. After she'd moved inside, she looked up to see Regan and Evelyn standing there, and Evelyn ran over to Marvin with a grin, hugging his leg. Regan watched them, seeing Marvin smiling and lifting her niece off of the floor, seeing that they seemed to be fairly happy together. She didn't mind it at all, but something inside of her broke a little at the sight.

Distracted from her thoughts though, she heard Lady asking, "So, you gonna hang out around here for a little while, Dante?"

"Actually he's planning on punishing us for being lesbians."

"Oh really? Somehow I thought he'd like that kind of thing," Lady replied casually, unknowing what kind of conversation had prompted Regan's line just then, but supposing it came from an attempt by Regan at getting Dante to stop his shameless flirting by telling him they were lesbians. Both women glanced over at Dante and Lady just slipped her arm over Regan's shoulder, "Sorry, girl show only Dante, no men."

"Marvin," Evelyn asked softly, "what's a lesbian?"

Marvin blinked, "A lesbian is a mythical creature that should never be spoken of by children."

"Done this before, have ya, Marv?" Dante asked from his seat behind his desk, looking through his bottom drawer for something.

"My daughter was about the same age as Evelyn," he chuckled, walking further into the shop, seeing the pictures on the wall and somehow guessed this might not be the best place to take a child. He shook his head a bit, "So, anyone hungry? I'll sprint, pizza all around."

Dante glanced up, having found what he was looking for, thinking it was odd that Enzo had followed his instructions and put his mail in the right place for once, though he cringed to think of what his fridge might have looked like in that moment. Anything in there but beer and any kind of sweets. Holding the magazine he'd gotten in the mail while he'd been away however, which had been in his drawer, he told them, "I like how this man thinks."

"Of course you do," Lady rolled her eyes, "your only food group is pizza. And beer."

"It's a damned good food group too, don't knock it."

"Any food group will do right now," Marvin interjected, "I'm starving. What do you guys want?"

"Anything but olives," Dante said, hearing Lady speaking the same line at the same time and he sighed and continued reading. Lady grinned and told Marvin, "The phone's on the desk. But I'm gonna go. I have a few things I want to check out."

"You're leaving?" Evelyn asked her softly, watching as she passed and stopped to look at the little girl.

Lady smiled at her warmly and reached out to pat her hair, "I come and go. But I'll be back around tomorrow. I'll teach you how to shoot some pool, that sound like fun?"

Evelyn nodded her head, smiling back, telling her bye as she left the shop, and then got down when Marvin placed her back onto the floor, standing beside Regan as he went to use the phone. Dante told him to call Andy's, it was a new place in town and he had the number memorized, they seemed to serve pretty good pizza, and it was the one place Dante didn't owe an overly large tab to yet. Once Marvin was on the phone, Regan turned and knelt down, looking at Evelyn.

"So, what do you think of the city?"

"It's big," she whispered softly, having always been very soft spoken, if she even said anything at all, "are we gonna get lost?"

Regan chuckled at her, "Maybe, if we're not careful. But we'll have Marvin to get us back on track." She pushed the little girls hair behind her ears and asked her, "Is there anything you want to do?"

Evelyn shrugged her shoulders, biting her bottom lip, a habit of hers that Regan had realized she'd had, as well as sucking her thumb from time to time, and Regan just nodded, suddenly remembering to ask, "Marvin, do they sell soda's?"

"Yeah," he looked at her.

"Get one for Evelyn, we can take it back to the hotel room too."

Dante knew he didn't have any soda. Just water probably considering his makeshift house sitter and the man's habits, and he grumbled over it inwardly. Putting his magazine down, he stood up to go see just how empty his fridge was after all, knowing it would bother him until he actually looked. Besides, if Enzo had taken a lot of his shit again, Dante wanted to be properly angry whenever the short Italian actually showed up at his place.

Shoving the door to his fridge shut with pursed lips a few minutes later, he sighed, "Figures."

"What's up?" Regan asked, standing in the doorway.

"Just Enzo stealing my shit. I told him once to make himself at home a long time ago and he's like a damned stray dog, he keeps coming back."

Chuckling, she shook her head, having had to deal with people like that before herself. "Well, the pizza's on its way, and the beer, so you shouldn't have to worry too much for tonight."

"Damned good thing too. Maybe my luck's finally changing for the better." He looked over at her and added, "Do you guys have any plans?"

Regan shrugged, "If you mean about when we're going to head to the hotel room, Marvin just left to run an errand actually, but he's coming back. We went in half and he's going to get a rental car. Lady told him there was a rental car place right around the corner, so we'll just pack our things into that car and head to the hotel on our own, you don't have to worry about taking us anywhere."

Dante was somewhat disappointed. He knew it was selfish, and probably horny of him, not that he cared, but he wanted Regan to stay and Evelyn and Marvin to go to the hotel. If she did that though, he knew sleep would be the last thing either of them would get, once again, as if he cared. But he did care about Regan enough to respect her wishes, knowing she'd rather operate on sleep than without it. But he'd, of course, never let onto that, like he never let onto a lot of things.

"Good," he told her, "and the hotel's in walking distance, so you can come by to see me as often as your little heart desires anyway."

"You know, Dante, I could say how infrequently that would be, but I don't want to pop that massive balloon you call an ego. It might explode and kill the world."

Dante grinned, heading toward her and the door, pulling his trench coat off, the black button down he wore beneath it unbuttoned partially, setting his coat on the hanger by his couch. Regan walked into the office as well, seeing Evelyn sitting in the chair behind Dante's desk, staring at the picture on it. "Whatcha see, Evelyn?"

"A pretty lady," she whispered, pushing herself up from the chair automatically when Dante headed over to it and sat back down. Evelyn tugged on his arm when he sat, and she asked, "Why do you have pictures of girls up on the walls?"

"Because girls are pretty. I thought I'd show 'em off." Dante was a little less creative in his responses than Marvin had been, not completely used to dealing with children much, well, except for the Brat Brigade. But that was a different story.

"But she's prettier than them."

Dante looked down at the kid, then told her, "That's why I show her off on my desk."

Evelyn nodded as if in understanding, and then she heard a knock at the door and the squeaky voice of a teenaged kid asking loudly, "Someone order some pizza!?" When his voice squeaked while saying the word pizza, Evelyn started giggling softly.

"I'll get that," Regan smirked, walking to the door and opening it. She pulled in three large boxes with a six pack of beer on top of them, and handed the man the money before she took the two liter of soda in her other hand and then thanked the delivery boy. Once he'd walked away, she realized someone was standing behind him, a short, somewhat dumpy man in a cabbie hat, and she decided not to ask him anything. This was Dante's home after all.

But she didn't have to. As soon as the short man looked up at her, he stared for a minute, which caused her to lift her brows, and he said, "Damn."

"Um, hi?" Regan asked, "Can I help you?"

"Uh," he drew out, staring at the redhead still, "yeah, is Dante around?"

"Regan," Dante called from behind her, making her turn around, "move to the side, I've got a bullet with Enzo's name on it."

So this was Enzo, she thought to herself, but she didn't get a chance to dwell on it. Dante already had Ebony in his hand when she looked back and he was aiming it at the door. "Shit," she exclaimed and backed up, and at the same time, Enzo dove to the side to get out of the way.

"Dante, are you crazy!?" Regan asked him, narrowing her brows as she moved toward his desk with the food, placing it down and watching him continue to aim at the door. Evelyn ran over to Regan and hugged her leg, seeming a bit afraid.

"Regan, is that man a demon too?"

"No," Dante spoke up, putting his gun away, grinning because it was always funny to see Enzo with a fire lit under his ass. "He's just a short guy with some bad habits."

"You are crazy, aren't you?" Regan grumbled out.

"Some people tend to think so," he told Regan, giving her a little wink before he stood up and grabbed one of the boxes of pizza, car lights outside shining into the office as the sun had began to set, signaling Marvin's arrival back at the shop with the rental car. Reaching back, Dante turned the light switch on since it was getting kind of dark, and then he looked at Evelyn, grabbing her and putting her on his desk so she could eat as well, sitting back down in his chair. She sat with her legs swinging off of the side of the furniture and nabbed herself a slice of pizza with a napkin mannerly.

Outside, they could hear Marvin asking, "Hey, you okay?" Apparently he'd seen Enzo hiding out there.

"Is he still aiming!?"

"Who?" Marvin asked, going to the door and glancing inside somewhat quickly.

"No," Dante replied, "tell him to get his Italian ass in here."

Marvin lifted his brows and looked to the other side of the door where the hidden Enzo resided, shrugging his shoulders and walking into the shop. "Damn straight, pizza."

"Do you have any cups?" Regan asked Dante before more could happen.

"Look in the kitchen. They should be around somewhere. I know I have a set of brandy glasses in a case on top of the fridge."

Typical again, Regan thought, just walking into the kitchen to find them. As this happened, Enzo came into the office, and Dante sighed, "I told you to house sit, not clean me dry. Again."

"You were gone," Enzo told him, "it would've went bad!"

"Beer?" Dante asked, "Over how long?"

"Fine, I'll bring you another six pack tomorrow."

Dante chewed on the pizza in his mouth and shook his head at the short man, "You're gonna do more than that." Regan walked back into the room and began pouring Evelyn some of the soda as she munched on her pizza, and Dante continued, "Out in my car, there's several suit cases. I want you to go out there and move all of those into the car that just pulled up, got it?"

"I'm replacing the beer though!," Enzo grumbled, "Why the hell do I have to do that for?"

"Because you're not replacing the icecream or the strawberry syrup you took."

"Damn it," the pudgy man muttered, leaning against the desk with a sour look on his face.

"Enzo, I have a gun," Dante said, smirking when Marvin chuckled at him. "Get to it."

"But I came here to tell you something. I've got a job for you."

"Then consider me closed for the night. I've got a job for you for once. Italian's May Cry, now get out there and put some effort into it, and I don't wanna hear about any damned property damages otherwise it's comin' outta your pay."

"Pay," Enzo grumbled, heading to the door, "what pay?"

"The pay I'm gonna take out of your ass if you don't quit complaining."

Regan was smiling herself, somehow she couldn't help it. She didn't know this Enzo at all, but if he'd taken things he shouldn't have, then she could say that she thought Dante handled it with fine style, though he didn't have to threaten the man with a gun for crying out loud. But Marvin spoke her thoughts, telling Dante, "That was a good one, Dante."

"Thank you, I'll be here all night."

Swallowing the bite of pizza in her mouth, Regan asked him, "Who is that guy anyway?"

Working on his second piece of pizza now, Dante shrugged, popping open his beer cap, "He brings me jobs from time to time. Sometimes they're crap, but when he gets good one's, they're good ones. That's the only reason I really tolerate him." Once he'd finished speaking, he downed a good gulp of the beer.

"Demon hunting, right?" Marvin asked him.

"Uh huh."

"So who do these jobs come from?"

Dante didn't mind the questions. Hell, he liked Marvin pretty decently, he was a good guy, not to mention the man had bought pizza and beer for them, so he didn't mind telling him the answer. "People all over town. Sometimes they think they saw a ghost, I always turn those jobs down, and sometimes they're actually being possessed. Usually a family member contacts me or someone I know like Enzo because they can't go to the police about it. It just depends on the job."

"Not on the money?"

Dante shook his head, "Only if I'm in dire straights. I'm not getting paid for the mission at Black Wing either."

Regan narrowed her brows. That was news to her. "Why not?"

"The guy who put the payment out was your brother," Dante informed her, "I didn't know it at the time though."

"Oh," Regan started, taking a breath, about to say something else when she was interrupted, Enzo coming back inside and telling them that he was done. Dante saw the look on Regan's face as if she were concentrating on some things, and he just decided to let it go for now. Instead, he glanced back as Enzo walked up to the desk and leaned against it, being quiet for the moment.

"So, what the hell's this job you're coming to me at eight in the evening about?" Dante asked him whenever he just stood there and seemed to wait.

"I thought you were closed?"

Dante sighed, "I figured I'd listen for later when I'm open. So what is it?"

"Well," Enzo started, "there's a guy who lives over on Sycamore."

"That's a crap end of town," Dante told him, "not a good way to start out your job description."

"Just listen," Enzo insisted. "He's got a 15 year old daughter named Bridget who's been acting a bit strange lately. He said she seemed to be really happy for a while, and he wasn't sure why, but not long afterwards, she started getting really violent from time to time, even went so far as to hurt an old woman who lived in the neighborhood for being so slow when she walked by pushing her along more quickly and roughly. Though he said she always seems to be sad for what she's done, so he can't figure out why she's doing it to begin with."

"So the kids got turrets, what's your point?"

Enzo rolled his eyes, having gotten used to Dante's cynicism, "My point is that her father got interested and started spying on her, saw her heading down to a boarding house one night and meeting a guy. He said they talked for a while and the man grabbed her arms and it looked like he electrocuted her or something, with his bare hands, and she left not long after that, perfectly fine. He's offering five k's for it. I told him I'd come to see you."

"Okay," Dante started, "so maybe he's got something. Sycamore street?"

Enzo nodded, "You taking the job?"

"I might poke around a bit and see what I can find. Later." Dante shoved the rest of his pizza into his mouth and looked at Enzo, dusting his hands off, "When I'm open again."

"Aye yi yi," Enzo sighed, turning and lifting his hand up, "I'll see ya around, Dante."

Dante let him go and sat his feet on the floor, drinking the rest of the beer in his can and tossing it across the room without much thought and into the trash can. At his casually made movements, Marvin shook his head, "Emergency 911 responding," he spoke sarcastically. "Not interested?"

Dante shrugged, "The guy lives in the crap end of town, you can bet your life 5 k's is all he's got to his name, and I'm surprised it's that much. I'll just pass the information on to Lady tomorrow when I see her, I owe her money anyway, so it should help my debt out a bit. It sounds like a job she could handle."

"Or you could just do it yourself before this kid gets hurt and then give the money to Lady later," Regan suggested.

Dante snorted, "I could, but I'd rather save myself the trouble right now. Besides, I don't trust myself, I'd take the money and not let her know I had it probably. After all, I just got back from a shitty mission anyway, I thought I could use the break." With those words, he began walking up the steps, having grabbed his guitar case carrying his sword on the way, adding, "Just box the rest of the pizza up when you're done with it, and turn the lights off when you leave, alright?" He knew they wouldn't get into anything, and with those words, he shut the door to the area upstairs.

Regan blinked and then she looked over at Marvin and shrugged a bit. Marvin smiled, finishing off his own food and closed the pizza box, "Guy doesn't have a care in the world, does he?"

"No," Regan replied, helping him to finish getting the pizza's together, a box and a half left of the food. "I guess not." She thought about that for a moment, and then pushed it away from her mind, concentrating on what she was doing instead. "Let's just split this up and leave half here for him. If he doesn't have any food, he'll probably be grateful for the leftovers."

Marvin agreed, leaning in to help Evelyn get off of the desk, and he asked her, "You okay? You seem a little down."

"Nah," Regan waved her hand dismissively, "Just thinking about stuff, I'm okay. Let's go see the hotel room we booked, shall we?" Smiling at Evelyn as they started walking to the door, Regan stopped suddenly and she said, "I'll be right out, I forgot something." Marvin nodded at her and he opened the doors, letting Evelyn outside before he followed her, and Regan walked to the bottom of the steps and asked, "Dante?"

No answer. Narrowing her brows, she moved up them quietly and then knocked on the door once she got to the top, "Dante? I forgot to get your phone number here incase I need to call you."

It was silent. Regan waited and asked his name again, then she reached for the door knob and pushed it open. There was a bedroom beyond it and an open window, but Dante was no where to be found, only an open guitar case, empty.

Regan couldn't help but smile at the sight. Sighing, she looked back at the window and muttered, "Break my ass. And you act like you don't care."