"Dante, is it?" The bartender and the Vampire Hunter sat in the bar, making small talk amongst the usual chatter of evening.
The teenager gave a nod, taking a sip of his drink. He set the cup down with a sigh. He was about to speak when a middle-aged woman sat down next to him, blonde hair peeking out from the hood she wore.
"I'll take the usual, Tom," she said, tapping her fingers nervously on the table. The bartender nodded and filled up a glass with some sort of strange-looking alcoholic beverage. Dante peered out at it for only a moment before looking away. But just as he was looking away, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"D, is that you?" The woman said. He turned to look at her. There, under the dim light, shone the woman's face. Jovial blue eyes sparkled against a slightly aging face, the corners of her eyes a bit creased and the lines on her mouth a bit deeper than a youth's.
"Sorry," Dante said, not adding the part about him being his father.
"Oh, forgive me," the woman said, looking at the table where the bartender set down her drink. Dante hesitated, then went on to say:
"He's actually my dad." The woman automatically turned back to him, her eyes wider than dinner plates.
"Really?! I didn't know he had a son! Wow... time flies," she said with a smile, looking down. She looked back at the boy. "You're a spittin' image of him. Well, except... now that I notice it, your eyes. Were they your mother's, perhaps?"
"Yep," he said with a nod. "That's what they tell me."
"...Tell you?" the woman said after a moment's hesitation. "You mean you never..."
"She passed away when I was still a baby. Along with my dad."
"Oh, heavens no," the woman said. "I'm sorry... I'm very sorry. You have my condolences." She furrowed her brow. "You know, people said things about him being dead but... I just didn't believe it. Even after 20 years... It still hasn't hit yet. But now that I hear it from you..." She frowned. "What on earth happened to him? From what I knew of him, he was indestructible."
"They said my grandfather killed him." After another 'aww' of the woman, he continued. "You said 'from what you knew of him'. Did you know him well?"
"Not really," the woman said, looking down at her drink. She traced the top of her cup with her index finger. "You see, we sort of tagged up together to fight this Noble... He'd taken some guy's daughter. Man... I lost a lot those few days. All of my brothers, my hopes and dreams..." She looked up with a smile. "And a few chunks out of my body, here and there, if ya know what I mean." The two shared a chuckle. The woman sighed, still smiling.
"D patched me up... Twice. He really did care, even if he didn't seem like it a lot of the time." She suddenly changed thoughts. "What's your name?"
"I'm Dante Lang," he said with a small smile. She grinned and held out her hand.
"My name's Leila. Leila Marcus."
--
"So tell me about yourself. What brings you to this little ol' town?" The two had paired up after their meeting in the bar to walk along the dusty main street, Dante walking his horse and Leila wheeling along her motorbike.
"Well, I'm looking for a few Nobles to fight, so I'm just scanning the area."
"A Vampire Hunter, huh? No wonder," Leila said with a grin. "Just like your daddy." She paused. "I've given up those days..."
"So, you were a Hunter, too, then?" Dante asked. "That's why you teamed up with Pops, right?"
"Right," she said with a smile, which soon faded. "Oh, I almost forgot. There is a Noble in this area... He lives up a few miles... over those mountains," she said, pointing toward a group of purplish-black mountains against the sunset. "I'd have done it myself, but I'm a retired Hunter. I mean, I'm just worn out." She chuckled dryly. "But, if I had the strength, I have a whole lot of reasoning to back me up..." She narrowed her eyes. "They say he kidnaps girls and takes them to his castle. You know, like the Hidden. I heard that he took a girl just about a month ago. Can't remember her name though. But the Noble... his name is Lucius. Can't say for a last name though, but--"
"Wait..." Dante said. "Did you say Lucius?" Lucius. Master Lucius. That was the name of the man in his dream... Was that a coincidence or what? Lucius wasn't a very common name.
"Yeah... Why?"
"N...No reason." Dante looked away. Was the fact that this Lucius guy had taken a young girl about a month ago, the same time that he started having the dreams about a "Master Lucius" and a nameless girl, sheer coincidence? Or was it something more?
"Well, no one else as taken it up, right? The job, I mean," he said after a while. Leila nodded.
"That's right. Well..." She looked away for a moment. "I didn't want to tell you this to scare you or anything..." She looked back at him. "But there was someone. Right when she was first taken. The brother. The brother of that girl went to save her." She swallowed hard. "They say they found him... decapitated. And it wasn't a weapon, either, that did it. Not a blade or anything. The head was... ripped clean off its shoulders." She shuddered. Apparently she was a bit squeamish, but something like that could've easily scared anyone. "No one's tried it since. Even her own parents have given up on her." With that, she looked down at her feet, giving a disgusted look. Dante looked down as well. That obviously wasn't something very comforting to talk about, so he decided to change the subject.
"Well, I'm going to do it anyway. It looks like there's no one standing up to this guy anymore, so I'm gonna do the job."
"Like a kid standing up to a bully in a schoolyard," Leila said with a smile. "I hope you're prepared."
--
Hmm, I guess the news of the "coincidence" came a bit quickly, eh? Sorry about that, but I don't know how I'd introduce it any other way. Anyway, please review! I loooove reviews! I'm curious as to why my readers of Between aren't reading this story! Hmm... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you!