Poker Face

Chapter Five

Call

"This is impossible," Lady sighed into the phone.

"Don't say that..."

"No, Dante, I'm serious. It's been a week and we've only been able to track down two of these seals, not counting the ones we already know about. We don't know what kind of time constraint we're under, and if they haven't been sold, they've been moved around to the point of obscurity. Trish can travel at will and hasn't had much better luck than I have."

"Then give up."

"Oh just rape her or something."

"No can do. If you can't do it, then just come back."

"I'm an hour away across the state line, idiot. I can't just bounce off the Underworld like our lightning happy friend."

"Whatever then, Lady. I don't know what you want me to tell you."

"Moron."

Lady hung up.

Dante closed his cellphone and sighed, running a hand through his wet platinum hair. Just having come out of the shower had left him in just his jeans, but Patty was too upset to admire his figure.

Patty looked grim. "This isn't working, is it?"

"Not exactly..."

Patty set down her tea and put her head in her hands. "There isn't any other choice, is there?"

"Look, I'm not going to defile you if you're so against it. It's no fun that way," Dante told her, throwing his feet up on the coffee table. "Why are you so squeamish about sex anyway?"

"It's … it's for married people properly," Patty said sadly. "You might not think so, but I feel like my values are being compromised. I want it to be … out of love. I know that sounds fairytale and silly, but it's the way I feel."

"You don't think I could love you."

Patty snorted. "Not in the way I would want, and not long term. You are untamable, Dante. I could never ask you to settle down, least of all with someone like me."

"I could tell you to get over it because that's a childish way of thinking, but that would be rude, wouldn't it?"

"You're such an ass!"

"I know."

A knock came upon the door. "House keeping!"

"Come in!" Patty called, rising.

A maid came in with a cart full of cleaning supplies and began to throw pizza boxes and beer cans away that were on the counter. Dante eyed her suspiciously.

Patty put a hand to her forehead, clearly stressed. "Dante, I don't know what else to do!"

"You have your options. Fuck, go on a dating site or something, find someone nice."

"Oh yeah, that'll go over real well. 'Well-to-do business woman seeks man whose funny, sweet and respectful to have sex on a first date to prevent the apocalypse.' I'm sure you see my dilemma."

"Forget I suggested it, I'm just trying to help."

"I know. I know, I'm sorry for being so difficult," Patty sighed, leaning against the counter.

Dante was suddenly pointing Ivory at her, and a look of confusion crossed her face before she realized that he was aiming behind her. That split-second passed and she felt the cold steel of a knife against her back.

It was the cleaning lady.

"Thought I smelled devil," Dante told her coldly. "Let her go."

"No can do, Dante, son of Sparda," she hissed, her face warping into a demonic visage as she held Patty hostage, stiff with fear.

"She's useless to you dead."

"Only until I summon my master," the demon cackled. "You figured a lot out, as to be expected of you, but you missed a few things. It didn't matter where the seals were, so long as they were active. It was easy to place them in mortal hands and have their blood and lives be spent to activate them. You yourself activated four, just to be sure they were seals! How rich!"

"I call bullshit," Dante told it. "You would have killed her for the ritual by now if that was all you needed."

"You're right, there IS one thing missing," it leered. "A blood ritual, from a powerful demon... such as YOURSELF!"

Spikes shot out from the floor and impaled Dante, lifting him a clear foot up. He grunted, unphased by the injury, but his blood spilled in copious amounts onto the hardwood floor, lighting up a spell circle in red. The demon put a claw to Patty's chest and the seal on it burst out with more blood, causing her to collapse into the center of the circle with a cry of agony.

"Patty!" Dante flexed and the spikes shattered, and then riddled the demon servant with bullet holes.

"It's too late!" it cackled as it fell and began to smolder in its death. "Mundus will be here in a matter of minutes! It's too late! Tooooo laaaaaaaaaaate..." It crumbled to embering ash, but Dante was already at Patty's side, who was shaking in shock from blood loss.

"Dan...te..." she whispered. Patty went limp.