Domestic life was never a thought in the back of Dante's mind. He did not care for it until he learned he had a family of his own, now he has to go through the rigorous trials of parenting and being a good partner to his beloved Roe. Basically, he h...
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The moment the door to Devil May Cry opened, it brought Cade out of his tunnel vision. He had been in the lead on his game when the bell above the door rang. He growled when he was interrupted, but clients always came first.
Putting the controller down, he swung around in his gaming chair to see who had entered what was previously his father's shop. Taking his headphones off, he got a good look at the visitor and sighed. Of course, the shop looked a hundred times better since he had been handed the deed, but to see a girl looking around at everything he had thrown up on the walls was a little off-putting.
"Can I help you?" Cade was curious as he got up out of his chair and moved to the desk that had been in the shop since before he was born. His father's chair was not as comfortable as the gaming chair in the corner of the room, but it was iconic.
"Nope. Just waiting for someone." She turned her head to look at him and he was able to catch the color of her eyes. A brilliant viridian hazel color that was not something he had seen so much. Of course, brown hair was common in these parts, but hers was the color of chocolate. She had it up in a messy bun. "So, you must be Dante's son."
"What gave it away?" He said, sitting down at the desk and propping his feet up. He looked at her figure, and all he wanted to do was... well he really did not want to go there. She was cute for sure. Her purple tank was short enough to expose some skin on her midriff, which only drew his eyes.
"I don't know... maybe because you look like him." She turned around and put her hands on her hips. "I mean, he is the only one who achieved the rank of legendary in the Guild."
"Wait... there's a guild?" Cade removed his feet off the desk and leaned forward after the Guild was mentioned. He had no idea.
"You mean he never told you?" She rolled her beautiful eyes. "That's lame." She stepped closer. "Well, I guess I'll have to explain." She cleared her throat. "The Hunter's Guild has been around for at least five hundred years. Dante was invited into it out of respect for Sparda, however, he was excommunicated shortly after achieving the rank of Legendary."
"Let me guess, he didn't follow the rules." Cade leaned his face on his right hand. The girl... or rather, young woman nodded.
"Each rank has a reward, so when Dante got to Legendary, he was paid out." She stepped up to the desk. "And I'm not talking small change. Each rank has a payout when you achieve it... legendary happens to be a payout of twenty million." Cade's eyes got big.
"That's it?" He was expecting the payout to be at least fifty million. That and if his father had that kind of money, where did it go?
"Don't be ridiculous, he had five ranks before that one that paid out." She was definitely a fan girl and that was creepy enough. "He achieved that rank in four years. It takes a lifetime to get to the Master rank for a normal Hunter."
"How do you know all of this?" Cade was truly shocked about what she was telling him.
"My grandfather was Guild Master for a while until my parents died." Oh. So she is not a fangirl. That sent a wave of relief through him. "That and I've met Dante. Well, when I was a child anyway. I doubt he'll remember me."
"That makes sense." Cade said as he watched her adjust the two guns on her hips. "And if you think he won't remember you, that's not true. My dad has a very good memory."
"Well, we will just have to see." She held out her hand. "I'm Sarah Reneau."
"Cade." He reached over the desk to take her hand in his and shake it. Her skin was so soft he did not want to let go, but he needed to put his crush aside in that moment. He was not a teenager anymore. "So... uh... you said you were waiting for someone?" He pulled away and ran a hand through his shoulder-length hair.
"Yeah, my mentor said she has a job for the both of us." That was news to him. Then he remembered that Lady had taken on a protégé a couple of years ago at the request of a friend.
"Oh... you're Lady's apprentice. That makes sense now." He watched as she dug into the pocket of her white shorts to produce her phone.
"Yeah, but she's running a bit late." She looked over at the door as if the older woman was going to walk in at any moment. "That's not like her at all."
"She's been late before." He was trying to ease Sarah's worries. "When I was a kid, she was always running behind because of some demon or an idiot. Her words, not mine." He smirked, remembering how Lady always said she had bad luck with men. "Anyway, she just pulled up." He had heard the motorcycle turn down the street a moment ago.
"About time." Sarah let out a sigh of relief and turned around just as the door opened.
"Oh good, you're here." The female demon hunter was dressed in her black jeans with her white button up shirt that was tied in knot at her waist. She was looking more and more like a retired hunter these days. "I ran into an old friend on the way here. Turns out, there's a shop on the south end of town that has what we were looking for." Lady said, walking up to her protégé. "Maybe we can go check it out after you finish this job."
"Yeah, that sounds good." Cade noticed Sarah smile as Lady sat on the edge of the desk.
"Well, Cade, I guess you've met Sarah." He nodded at Lady. "Good. Because she is going to be your partner for a while." There was a sly look in her mismatched eyes that made Cade feel a little uneasy. He knew that look. That was the look of mischief, and it made him slightly nervous. "At least until Nero is ready to get back to it."
"You could've asked my dad to get in on this too, you know." Cade was pretty sure his father was on the verge of hanging up the red coat, but he still needed to let off some steam sometime.
"I did." Lady crossed her arms over her chest. "He said he had more important things to do. Whatever that means."
"I mean, Dante isn't young anymore." Sarah mentioned. "Most hunters retire before fifty anyway." She was really calling Dante old, and to be fair, the hunter was getting really close to fifty.
"Enough about that old geezer, he can go put himself in the old folks home whenever he likes." Lady was still the same when it came to Dante. Sure, the two of them had been friends for ages, but she still teased him on occasion. "On to the job." She pulled an envelope out of her back pocket. "Two weeks ago, a group of urban explorers disappeared in the abandoned Playco factory outside of town." She pulled out four photos of the victims, and Cade immediately recognized two of the individuals.
"Hey, that SlicerX and TellmeLater." He had seen their videos online before. "They go around to all kinds of abandoned places and do live streams. I didn't know they were in the area." Cade was not a huge fan of the two influencers because they tended to stage things for views.
"Well, they just so happened to be live streaming when the whole thing went down." Lady said as Sarah pulled out her phone to look the two live streamers up. As soon as she did, her mouth gapped open as the sounds of screaming could be heard coming from the phone in her hand. "And apparently the whole thing went viral." Cade did not need to see the video to know that the influencers were no longer alive.
"So what's the job?" Cade did not hesitate to ask.
"Get in, exterminate the demons, and find out what happened to these kids." Sounded easy enough. "Sarah is going with you for backup. You don't need to babysit her. She's been on some pretty tough jobs with me before." That was a relief because he was pretty sure he was the one that was going to need babysitting. He looked over at the brown haired girl he absolutely had a crush on even though he just met her.
"Okay, so when do we leave?" Cade could not wait to go on a job with this girl. He wanted to see how fun it was going to be, and hopefully, he did not have to call his father or uncle for a deus ex machina type of rescue mission.
