everyone, if you like the Darksiders universe, go check out The Abomination Vault. It's a good little light-read novel with far better characterization than you'll get in the games. You'll get some fantastic sassy banter on Death's part, plus Azreal is there, and who doesn't love him? You can find a PDF file of it for free if you know where to look!
Death observed the girl in silence as she led him through the ruined city. Her back and shoulders were tense and she fidgeted, eyes darting back and forth. She jumped at the slightest noise. A frightened animal.
They moved cautiously; already, the concentration of demons and undead humans had grown thicker. The girl didn't take chances and immediately put a bullet though the skull of anything vaguely demonic if it got just a bit too close. The entire time she never let him out of her line of sight, never looking away even as he shredded his way through the hordes in geysers of blood and viscera. Her tolerance was impressive.
"Hey," she finally called to him when the streets were cleared, "It's in there." She pointed ahead of her, straight into the mouth of a dark alley that overflowed with the stench of demons, almost overpowering the tinge of something bright underneath. "I'll uh... watch the entrance.
"What, you're not coming?" Death retorted with an equal amount of snide. She snorted in reply.
"Yeah, no. Another way I stayed alive was to not waltz into demon-infested nests. I'll stay out here, thank you very much."
"Suit yourself, more for me," he strode casually forward, sliced the demons guarding the entrance in half in a flash of steel and went to work.
The girl hung back, peeking around the corner to witness the blood and carnage. It was really almost funny how little of a chance the demons stood against the wrath of the rider.
Squawk! She turned sharply to see Death's giant crow hunched on the bars of a half destroyed bike rack, glaring at her with those mean little eyes.
"What do you want bird?" she snapped at it. Dust croaked low in his throat, and the girl thought it could have counted as a growl. "So what, you scared of the demons so you go after the girl instead?" She demanded and the crow's feathers seemed to bristle. She swore the glare the bird shot her was almost accusatory.
"Who me? I've got the whole 'Last of Humanity' thing going for me. What's your excuse?" Dust's next squawk was so sharp and loud that the girl was afraid that the demons would hear. "Alright, alright, I get it!" she hissed, "Demons are freaky, I understand! I've been running from them long enough to know that." She didn't even know why she bothered talking to the bird, but there was a glint in Dust's eye that gave the impression of intelligence. Dust hopped a bit closer, making a strange clucking sound deep in his throat.
"Alright, look, I think we got off on the wrong foot before," she said casually, pushing herself off the wall and crouching on the pavement to see eye-to-eye with the crow. "How 'bout this? I'll promise not to shoot you, if you promise not to try and peck my eyes out in my sleep. Sound good to you?" Dust bobbed his head in that strange way that birds do, but the girl took that as an agreement.
Guttural screams of rage and pain still echoed off the walls of the alley. "Sheesh, what's he doing in there?" she muttered, moving back to the corner. She almost jumped out of her skin when Dust's weight suddenly settled on her shoulder and he croaked, sounding strangely triumphant. She couldn't see past the wall of black feathers that blocked her vision.
"Geez, you're heavier than I thought you'd be," she told him, and Dust simple ruffled his feathers and looked away as if to say, I don't know what you're talking about. The girl shook her head. "You are the strangest crow I have ever seen."
An earsplitting screech split the air and both girl and bird jumped. The shriek was silenced with a disgusting wet squelch and then it was quiet. Death came strolling from the alleyway, his bare chest splattered with blood and his blades glistening red in the sunlight. A shining white rod was clenched in his bony hand. He raised a brow at the sight of Dust sitting comfortably on the girl's shoulder. "Did I miss something?" he asked and the girl shot the crow a look from the corner of her eye.
"We've kind of come to a mutual understanding. Though I think it was just part of his plan to get a back-up shoulder." Dust gave an offended croak and fluttered up to his normal perch on Death's shoulder.
"Well, I've got what I came for," he gestured with the rod, "The two of you can bond more as we search for the next piece."
"So what is it exactly?" She reached out a tentative hand, her fingers hovering near the shining surface of the rod, but never quite touching.
"An artifact called the Rod of Arafel," Death replied, turning the rod over in his hands, noting the way that light emanating from every inch of it. What was with angels and their need to make everything glow? "Apparently it has the ability to purge Corruption. An angel told me that it would assist me in finding what I'm looking for." The girl's face scrunched up in distaste at the word 'angel'. "Ah, I see you've found that angels are not nearly as benevolent as your people have made them out to be."
"The angels were nearly as bad as the demons at the beginning," she shook her head, her nose crinkled as though she had tasted something sour, "People saw them and thought they were here to protect us. But when they started cutting us down, we knew we were screwed." she pulled away, arms tight against her chest. "I'd rather not have anything to do with them."
"Believe me, if I didn't have to neither would I," he said, sticking the rod through his belt. "But much is at stake if I don't," his voice became quiet until he caught the girl scrutinizing him.
"Come, we still have another two pieces to find." He took off without checking to see if she was following him, but she could hear her struggling to keep up with her considerably shorter legs.
"So, are you gonna like, tell me why you're going on this stupid fetch quest? Or do you just expect me to follow you around like a lost puppy?"
In spite of not actually knowing what half of what she said referred to, the rider supposed he would have to tell her something if he wanted to keep her around. The question was just how much he should tell her.
"It's… a family matter," he said slowly. "My brother is also a victim of this apocalypse, but in the way that the whole mess has been blamed on him. I'm certain of his innocence, but proving it to his accusers has proved more... tedious than I first thought."
"How's that?"
"You ask an awful lot of questions, do you know that?"
"I'd personally like to know what it is I'm risking life and limb for by following you around," she snapped, stepping in front to stop him, "I could always just ditch you instead."
She met his glare quite evenly, only flinching slightly when those fiery eyes locked onto hers. So he still frightened her. Good. He sighed impatiently. "People never do things for free. Remember that."
The girl gave him a heated sneer. "Believe me, I'm aware of that. Just hoping the show is worth the price of admission," she said loftily before she turned around and kept walking.
Death didn't think she would drop it that easily, but there was no doubt she'd try again later. At least he had bought enough time to think up what he was going to reveal to her when next she try to pry.
It wasn't two hours later when the girl began to yawn. She stopped in the street, squinting into the sunset, and stubbornly refused to move even when Death began to argue.
"Time is not something we have on our side, girl," he hissed, "We need to keep moving."
She yawned in reply and rubbed at her eyes, giving the rider an exasperated look. "Look, I don't know how much you know about humans, but we're not built to just keep going and going," she snapped. "I've been operating for the last five days on about 10 hours of sleep and if I don't stop for at least a little while there's a good chance I'm just going to keel over. Either you put up with me getting a few measly hours of shuteye, of you can go on without me!" She crossed her arms and glared coldly. Clearly she wasn't going anywhere.
Death bit back a frustrated sigh. Humans were fragile he had to remind himself. As much as he wanted to leave this liability of a girl behind and continue on his own he was loath to do so. If he left the girl now there was a good chance that he would never see her again. "Fine," he ground out through clenched teeth, "a few hours, but that's it. It is not wise to remain here for long."
"You think I don't know that?" she sneered, "I've been doing this long enough to know the danger." The girl let out a snort and brushed past him, heading for the blown-out shell of a bakery a block down.
"You're making it difficult for me tolerate you!" he called after her. She flicked up her middle finger from over her shoulder
"The feeling's mutual!" She shouted back and left him, still fuming, to follow after her.
She had tucked herself behind the bakery counter when he found her, cast in shadow and low enough to the ground that she was hard to spot, while still being able to peer through the shattered glass display case to see any incoming enemies. Even now she kept an eye out, glaring sharply at Death as he picked his way over a floor covered in splinters of wood. "You just… stay over there, alright?" she pointed to the far end of the building where the wall had crumbled over the edge of a crater, allowing a view of the darkening sky.
"Oh, of course, Your Majesty," the rider quipped, bowing mockingly in the girl's direction, "whatever you say." He scoffed, leaning over the counter to glare at the little human beneath him. "Honestly I don't know why you're so worried. You're of more use to me alive than dead you know."
"Well excuse me for being a little paranoid having a stranger, who by the way is not human, watching me while I sleep! Now get lost!" With that she turned over, ducking her head beneath the collar of her jacket that she was using as a blanket. With a snort the Pale Rider let her be, returning to the crater's edge. There he perched, legs swing out over the steep drop. He would keep an eye out while the girl slept, making sure the likes of demons and the swarm didn't show up while his charge was vulnerable. Dust croaked from his shoulder.
"Why am I doing this Dust?" he asked the crow, "she's being more of a liability than I first thought, not to mention she's just about the rudest creature I've ever met. I would probably be better off without her." There was a squawk before Death received a sharp peck to the ear. He swatted at the bird until he flew off, screeching. "I should have known you'd take her side, you traitor," he growled. It was going to be a long day.
Death checked on the girl frequently, mostly to make sure that she hadn't run off when he wasn't looking. Sure enough though, she was asleep, curled up on herself for warmth. For the first two hours she slept peacefully, her usual hard expression smoothed over in the embrace of slumber. As the third hour rolled around however, Death began to hear whimpers and pants drift over to him. Her once-peaceful face was furrowed and her fingers dug into her arms. Minutes trickled by as the girl struggled against her nightmares, curling further into herself as though she were trying to get away from something. Just as Death lowered a hand to shake her awake, she shot bolt upright with a small scream, rifle gripped in white knuckled, finger trembling on the trigger. The barrel was aimed between the rider's eyes.
Grabbing the barrel, Death yanked the gun from the girl's hand just as it went off, the loud report setting his ears to ringing. Without her weapon the girl coward against the cabinet, pupils blown wide, face slack and white with terror. She shook, breath hitching in her chest, staring with unseeing eyes somewhere over his head. Death gently laid a hand on her shoulder, pulling back sharply when she turned and fixed that empty stare on him. Fear, unbridled and depthless looked out from a face that he was used to seeing pulled into derisive sneers. Again, he reached out for her shoulders, shaking her slightly in hopes of bringing her back from whatever dark place in her mind she had gone to. She whined in reply, clumsy fingers frantically working to pry his hands from her shoulders. "It's me, girl!" he said, low and urgent, "It's just me."
His voice seemed to reach her and the girl blinked. Gradually her pupils shrank back down, color beginning to return to her face as she seemed to force herself to take several deep, measured breaths, in through her nose, out through her mouth until her could feel her wild pulse begin to slow beneath his fingers. Her head shook as she came to her senses and, upon seeing the rider so close to her, snarled and pushed him away.
"I'm fine," she barked, though her voice was still tight, "I'm fine, it was just a nightmare."
Death studied her, the way her hands were shaking and the sweat that was dripping from her face. She certainly didn't look fine. "Do you get those often?"
She bit her lip and looked away, busying herself with wiping at her eyes. "Sort of," came the grumbling reply, "part of the reason I don't get a lot of sleep." She stood and stretched, grimacing as she felt her back click in several places. "That, and sleeping on floors sucks," she mumbled.
"If you're done, we should probably move on." Death was itching to get moving again, knowing that the precious little time the girl slept meant that the horde would find them soon.
She waved him away. "Yeah, yeah," she said, stifling a yawn behind her hand, "go ahead and scout out the block. I'm gonna go raid the pantry and then I'll be right out." She ducked into the bakery's back room and left him to do as she said.
It was the dark of night outside of the bakery and silent as the grave. Not a single cry of undead to be heard. The sounds of the girl rummaging through boxes and cans cut through the still air like a knife. Death felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Something wasn't right.
The girl returned with a symphony of clattering as she slung her bulging pack back over her shoulder. "Hey, you see anything?" she asked as a means of greeting but was quickly shushed by a wave of Death's hand, taking note of the tension set in his shoulders and the stillness with which he stood. Silence fell around them like a shroud. It was as though the very city was holding its breath, waiting for the oppressive silence to end.
Screeeeeeeeeeeeech! The tension shattered like glass as the air filled with the pounding of feet and the raspy cries of the undead.