Devil May Cry 1. Chapter 1

Shah mat: Hell's Fairytale  
Author's Notes: Shah mat means either "the king is dead" or "the king is ambushed" its of Persian origin. I was introduced to the phase in Catherine Neevile's book The Eight. It's a good book and it gave me the idea to go into what would happen if Dante had taken on the role of being King of the Underworld after his defeat of Mundus. After all, "the king is dead, long live the king." Also Dante is going to start off as being 25 in this story, thus making Mika around seven, when he defeats Mundus.

Thanks: Thanks to Catherine Neevile for writing the book, which had the phase in it that inspire this story. Thanks also to Mae Simris, nikki walker, and kitsunefyu who discussed the plot with me. Also thanks to Kyia Star, my online big sis, who betaed the work for me.

Notes and Warning: When I started writing this story I started getting the idea that the court of the Underworld would be a lot like the old Royal courts with court summoners, parties, gatherings, court politics, etc, etc, etc. Also I am going on the fact that a female is considered an adult when she reaches her first menstruation so it will deal with Mika and Dante having a relationship when she is younger then 18. Guys at and luna ya'll can check the story out at fosff for the unedited version of the story.  
Also as this is an Alternate Universe Dante will be out of character from cannon.  
Just so you know Dante and Mika's relationship goes from Uncle-niece to father-daughter and mentor-student, to lover-lover.

b WARNING THIS IS A DARK STORY AND INVOVLES NIGHTMARE FUEL! WARNING THIS IS A DARK STORY AND INVOVLES NIGHTMARE FUEL! WARNING THIS IS A DARK STORY AND INVOVLES NIGHTMARE FUEL! /b

a fun and addicting game where for every answer you get right they and you donate 10 grains of rice to feed the hungry! WOOT!

Dante walked into Mundus' throne room, tossing the head of the dead king in the air and catching it. He had every intention of taking it to his mother's grave and posting the head on her gravestone as a tribute. Trish joined him and the two of them walked out of the throne room only to pause when they saw hordes of demons waiting for them. Dante reached for his weapons automatically and Trish moved into a fighting position, summoning her lightning powers in preparation for an attack. What happened next surprised them; the demons all got down on one knee and bowed their heads low enough to show the backs of their necks, a show of the ultimate submission.

"The king is dead," one of them shouted. "Long live the king!"

"Long live the king! Long live the king! Long live the king!"

"Okay," said Dante in surprise, turning to look at the blonde lightning demoness standing next to him. "This is unexpected."

"Yeah," muttered Trish, shrugging her shoulders and kneeling before him as well.

It didn't take long for word to spread that Dante was now the Lord of the Underworld, nor did it take long for him to place a new law in action that said, "No demon can ascend to the Human world without written permission from the lord." Dante understood that some demons needed to feed on the life force of humans, that did not mean he was going to let them run amuck amongst their world. It didn't take long after that for several demons to make an attempt on his life and even less for them to realize that might not be such a good idea. After the final attempt on his life he had the twin door guardians, Agni and Rudra, appointed as his body guards.

Not long after the coronation, Dante immediately set about trying to find his brother. What he found after weeks of searching was his twin brother, enchained in the lowest parts of the dungeons. It was a lab and evidently Vergil wasn't the only half breed Mundus had ordered to be experimented on; he was however the only one to survive this long. After finding his brother, he ordered the scientists to undo whatever they had done to them. Once this was finished he had them jailed within the very capsules they had held their test subjects in and within a month they were nothing more than hollowed out shells.

Things started to get rather interesting after that.

With his brother Vergil fully healed and back to his normal self, being a cold hearted jack ass, Dante set about trying to find the twin protégés of his father, Baal and Modeus, to be guardians of his brother. Within a week he learned this was less than ideal; Vergil threatened to behead Baal if the man did not stop bugging him for fights. After that Dante had Baal and Agni switch positions, therefore Dante was placed under the protection of Baal and Rudra and his brother Vergil was under the protection of Modeua and Agni. Dante would put up with Baal's constant nagging for a fight, which cut back after promptly being flattened by his lord and master three times.

The demons of the lower ranks were rather pleased with their new lord, he was after all the only lord who had cared about how they fared. The higher ranking demons for their part were too scared by his overwhelming power, which continued to grow with time he spent within the Underworld; also their daughters were attracted to his roguish good looks and flocked to his bed as their fathers sought to use this to their advantage in Court politics. His advisors and court members constantly pushed him to get married, he had yet to show any signs of wanting such a relationship with a woman, he would much rather enjoy spending his free time enjoying sex with no strings attached as a current lifestyle.

It was Vergil who first noticed it; his younger brother's human side was slowly, ever so slowly starting to erode away and become submissive to his demon side.

Vergil first noticed it when Dante removed the head of someone who had gone against his law of going to the human world without consent and licked the blood from his face with a satisfied smirk gracing his face. He had always been after his younger brother to get him to release his inner devil and it looked like his brother was doing just that. The thought made Vergil smirk.

It was several more incidents just like that over the next few months when something interesting happened, that surprised even Vergil. One of the females that Dante had been thoroughly screwing over the past few weeks off and on had attempted to kill him. When the guards had burst into the room, upon hearing her screams, they had found her on the floor of the bedroom with her internal organs ripped out and spilling around her corpse in an elaborate pattern; not only that but her hands, feet, and head had been removed from her body and were laying in a neat little pile away from their owner. Dante for his part was standing over her, naked, coated in her blood and licking it off his arm with a dark smile across his face. Perhaps what had surprised Vergil the most about the situation was his brother's disposition when it came to women, he tended to treat them differently than he did men, even the females that disobeyed his laws.

It was then that Vergil became aware of how much exactly his younger brother was being influenced and corrupted by the essence of the Underworld. Which all things considered was a good thing. The thought made Vergil happy, well as happy as he could be in the situation, after all no matter how much power his brother had it wouldn't do much good if that was all he had to back him up. After all, there were other things that the demons of the Underworld operated on such as ruthlessness, blood thirstiness and fear. The demons would need a healthy combination of fear of both Dante's ruthlessness and his immense power. Respect was good and all but in such a world it would be worthless without fear to back it up.

A month before the anniversary of his one year reign something happened that cemented itself into the memories of everyone under Dante's rule. Just because he was half human didn't make him weak and he was more than willing to prove it to anyone who thought otherwise. After all, how many men have you seen rip the heads off of their enemies, with the spine still attached mind you, and use it for decoration on his throne? The demon had attempted to poison Dante and he soon learned that the culprit was not alone in the conspiracy. The other culprits were soon found and suffered the same fate that their comrade had faced.

Meanwhile, outside the castle Dante had started a collection of the heads of his enemies and had them displayed outside on the black stone railing surrounding his land, the rest of their bones were being used to decorate his throne and the dining room set; it reminded Trish and the other demons that had been in his immediate service in the past of the heads that had adorned his office walls back on the human world.

A little more than a year since his reign had begun he started becoming more blood thirsty, the demonic essence of the Underworld turning him into nothing more than another Mundus.

It was during the end of a rebellion that the demons finally realized going against Dante was a bad idea. The leaders of the rebellion were kneeling before Dante, with their heads bowed and their hands secured behind their backs with iron shackles. The silver haired male stared down at them with an amused expression on his face. His sword, Rebellion, was balanced over his shoulder as he paced before them allowing the blood of their slain comrades to drip from its tip. He paused in the middle of them and slammed the tip of his sword into the ground crouching down so that he was staring into the eyes of the main leader.

"You should have taken a clue from the others who tried to rebel against me," he chuckled darkly. "You'll lose and I'll win."

"Filthy half-breed," spat the man. "You should be slaughtered like that bitch of a mother of yours."

Dante's dark smile widened and he slammed his fist into the man's stomach, grabbing hold of his spinal cord, and ripping it out through the hole he had made with his fist, dragging the attached head along with it. He hummed a little staring at his new trophy in triumph.

"Looks like the only one being slaughtered will be you and your men," whispered the half breed, his blue eyes alight with blood lust.

He turned his attention to the others, ripping the skull from the spine and dropping it to the ground before crushing it beneath his feet. He ran his gaze over the faces of the captives wondering what he was going to do with the survivors, when an idea slowly began to worm its way into his brain. The dark grin reappeared on his features and he turned his back on them motioning to his generals to gather them up.

"Take them to my training grounds," he commanded walking away. "I'll play with them there."

Later, the only sounds that could be heard from his personal training room were screams and the unmistakable sound of flesh and bone being ripped apart. When Dante left the room, his body was splattered with blood, bits of flesh and parts of their inner organs. Trish, who was passing by the room, glanced inside and smirked at the carnage she saw.

"Wow," she commented to herself. "I didn't even realize that bodies held that much blood within them. The servants have their work cut out for them."

That was how the rest of Dante's reign continued with him ruling over the world with an iron fist.

Morrison's gruesome death, three years after the start of Dante's reign, became clear to him the moment it happened. He opened his eyes, they had been closed while he listened to his brother's report, and straightened himself on his throne, ignoring the questions coming to him from the others in the room, staring off into the distance as the words of the contract he had signed five years ago flashed before his eyes. He got to his feet and grabbed Rebellion as a portal to the human world opened beside his throne room.

"Baal, Rudra with me," he commanded, on his way into the portal.

"Where are you going, Dante?" asked his brother, turning to watch him leave. "The court will convene in an hour and I still have yet to finish the report I need to give you before they arrive."

"There is something on earth I must now claim as my own," smirked Dante, pausing briefly at the portal. "Hey Vergil, keep a watch over things for me while I'm gone, I'll be back in an hour or so after I have claimed my new pet."

Vergil pinched the bridge of his nose, watching his brother disappear into the dark portal before turning his attention to the others in the room.

Dante appeared in the front room of his old friend's house and saw the man lying on the carpet in a pool of his own blood. He looked around the room, sniffing the air delicately for the man's niece and upon not finding her he slipped into another portal.

"Lady," he whispered softly, his eyes flashing red in irritation before heading for the woman's mansion.

Lady stood in her bedroom, watching the little blonde girl sleep in the reflection of the rain drop painted window. She sighed and slipped out the door, heading downstairs for the kitchen to get a drink of water for her parched throat. The moment she shut the door to her bedroom a portal opened and Dante stepped out with his two body guards. The silver haired Lord of the Underworld took a step towards to the sleeping child, who stirred in her sleep before waking up.

"Lady?" she asked, rubbing her eye and looking around the room for her.

"Princess," he responded, walking up to the bed and picking her up.

"Dante!" shrieked the little girl happily.

"Do you want to come stay with me in my castle from now on Princess?"

"Yeah!"

"All right," he smirked, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "Let's go home."

The girl in his arms, closed her eyes and smiling happily, snuggled into his arms. He smirked and ran his hand through her hair a few times putting her to sleep.

"Lord Dante, what's with the human brat?" asked Baal, following his master towards the portal.

Dante's response was halted when a gun shot rang through the air and barely missed him. All three males turned as one look at the female Devil Hunter, Lady. Dante smirked and cuddled the girl in his arms a bit before turning his attention to the woman with the gun.

"Lady," he purred, a smirk forming on his lips. Dante found that his mood was improved now that his new possession was safely in his arms. "You haven't changed one bit."

"Give her back to me, you bastard."

"No," replied Dante, moving his free hand around for one of his guns his good mood suddenly plummeting. His demonic inspired mind recognized her as a threat and potential thief of his possession. "Besides, she's not yours and never was yours to keep. You see she belongs to me now that Morrison is dead."

"Like hell she does!"

"According to this," Dante smirked and released the gun back into his holder to retrieve the contract from negative space. "She does."

Lady stepped closer to Dante, not taking her gun or eyes off of the three men. As she snagged the will from Dante she glanced down quickly to skim the document.

"I doubt Morrison was expecting you to turn traitor on the human race when he made out the will."

"Doesn't matter," smirked Dante. "That's a contract by the way not a will."

"This is a will!"

"A will is in fact a contract, when it's made with a devil. Therefore, she belongs to me now and I will take her with me to my home. She is now one of my possessions and we both know how possessive demons can be. Don't we?"

"You can't be serious!" snapped Lady, her heart was beating in horror and adrenaline. "She is not a possession and you know damn well that a living human being cannot survive living directly within the Underworld without repercussions. She'll be lucky if she doesn't lose her mind!"

"She still belongs to me now," shrugged Dante.

Dante turned back towards the portal and took a step, Lady fired her weapon again this time hitting him in the shoulder.

"Come now that's not very nice and besides," snarled Dante, his two body guards reaching for their weapons and waiting for the signal from Dante. "You almost shot Mika."

"I will not let you take her!"

"You don't have a choice!" snapped Dante, grabbing his gun, Ebony, and pointing it at Lady. "The contract is very clear in that after his death Mika belongs to me. Morrison is dead and thus his niece belongs to me."

"It's a fucking will and it doesn't work when you're living in the goddamned Underworld."

"Will, contract, when it comes to devils, they're the same damn thing," laughed Dante, cuddling the sleeping child again. "Besides, since I'm not technically dead it's still valid. Say good-bye to Mika, Lady. This is the last you'll see of her for a long, long time."

Lady snarled and fired another gun at him, this time getting him in the middle of his head. Dante stumbled back and his two body guards lunged forward, before another shot was fired and Lady collapsed to the ground before she could even pull out her other pistol. The two body guards froze in their tracks and turned their attention back to the master, sheathing their swords.

"All right boys," he said, tightening his grip on the child in his arms. "Let's go home."

The moment the three males stepped out of the portal and back into Dante's throne he was well aware that various other members of his court had shown up in his one hour absence. Whispers started the moment they noticed the small, human child in their Emperor's arms. Seeing human children was not all together unheard of in the Underworld; several children had had their souls sold to various devils by their parents or assorted relatives; one time, a grandfather even sold the soul of his three year old grandson for youth and another chance at living. But those were souls and this was a living, breathing human child composed up of both her body and her soul. There was no historical recording of a child every being brought body and soul to the demon world; probably because this was the first time it had ever happened. The courtiers speculated quietly amongst themselves on what this could possibly mean. One of them even had the nerve to ask his question and indeed the most popular question that was on all their minds.

"Is she your food?" he asked.

That was not the correct question to ask, much less even consider, and thus the unlucky demon found himself without a head, which was promptly mounted on the gate outside the palace. Dante, continued his trek to his throne room where he promptly took a seat and set the small child, still sleeping, on his lap and motioned for the court to begin.

Nevada News

Police report that the dead body of Gabriel Morrison was found today in the front room of his modest home, two miles south of Las Vegas. The body of his niece Michael Morrison, also called Mika, was found missing and witnesses say that a woman known only by the name, "Lady" was last seen with the child. Investigations into the whereabouts of Lady found her dead body in her bedroom of her family's manor. Police are still investigating the disappearance of Michael Morrison who upon her Uncle's death was to be placed into the care of her uncle's friend, Dante. Dante has been reported missing for the last three years. The police are looking into possible mob connections as Mr. Morrison was well known for both shady and respectable contacts. Written by Beryl Edwards


	2. Chapter 2

Shah mat: Hell's Fairytale  
Chapter 2

**WARNING THIS IS A DARK STORY AND INVOVLES NIGHTMARE FUEL! WARNING THIS IS A DARK STORY AND INVOVLES NIGHTMARE FUEL! WARNING THIS IS A DARK STORY AND INVOVLES NIGHTMARE FUEL! Despite the fact that this story will later on deal with sexual relations between an adult male and a sixteen year old female this does not mean that I in anyway condone pedophilia. In saying that in the underworld universe that I have created the laws and rules are different for them and that a female is considered an adult when she has her first cycle.**

Dante tilted his head back and groaned, while he tightened his grip on the hair of the woman between his legs.

"Fuck," he groaned, arching a little off the seat of his throne and into his playmate's mouth.

The she-demon, Salome, was rocking against his leg and groaning against him. He let out another groan when he ejaculated into her mouth before she licked up the semen that slipped between her lips. The silver-haired half demon smirked and reached for her, preparing to thoroughly screw her when Trish entered the room and took the scene with the uncaring attitude of someone who is used to walking on their lord and master screwing someone.

"Trish what is it?" asked Dante, sliding inside the woman.

"It's Mika," sighed Trish, placing her hands on her hips. "She's under your bed and refuses to come out."

"Why?" asked Dante, now ignoring the woman straddling his lap and trying to move despite the vice like grip placed on her hips to keep her still.

"I might have said something to upset her," admitted Trish slowly.

Dante cursed and stood up abruptly, dumping Salome onto the floor and fixing his pants as he followed Trish back to his room, his bodyguards following behind them and their argument drifting from the throne room. Salome cursed in outrage and slammed her fist onto the stone floor. Things had not gone as she had hoped. She watched the four of them disappear down the hall arguing about the brat, and scowled bitterly. Everyone knew that the Emperor's advisors and the Noble Lords were pushing him to choose a queen and create heirs to his throne. That had been Mundus' mistake not to have heirs that would have helped him to stop the son of the traitor Sparda. Word had it that had Dante not brought the human child back with him from that one Human World trip two months ago he would have chosen a bride, along with several concubines, and already had his queen heavy with one heir.

Salome had hoped to have been his bride and queen. Now it seems as if the only way she could fulfill that desire was to get rid of the human pet. Of course, she couldn't be directly involved in the kidnapping that would ruin everything and he knew her scent and what her essence felt like all too well. But she couldn't just hire any assassin for the job, they'd be dead before they even got out of the room and would give her up in no time. That of course left only one option, and that was to hire the nearly extinct Shadow Demon race. Very little people knew about them and the fact that hiring them took a vast amount of money, souls of both humans and demons, a few body parts, and a binding contract. Luckily because of their high price they tended to keep silent over turning in their clients, preferring death then to lose possible future clients for those who knew of them and could afford them. Luckily she knew exactly what to do to contact them. That thought in mind she swept from the room, leaving servants to clean up whatever mess she and Dante had made.

"What exactly did you say to upset her?" snapped Dante, while they were walking down the hall.

"I told her she couldn't see you," replied Trish. "After all you were a bit busy with your current throne warmer and we all know how you feel about corrupting the girl."

"Why, did she want to see me?" he asked, as they turned the corner that lead into the hallway that was connected to his rooms.

Trish shrugged, her shoulders before responding. "She just did. Honestly Dante you spoil the girl. It might have been fine when you weren't her guardian, but now you are and she needs some discipline by you."

"She is just fine the way she is," grunted Dante.

"I think you're spoiling her because the human part of you feels guilty for what happened to her uncle and Lady."

Dante froze before his bedroom and turned around to face the blonde, lighting she-demon.

"Let me make one thing clear," he whispered coldly. "I do not feel guilty about what happened to her uncle or that bitch. She is my property and I will do whatever I damn well please with her."

"Of course," said Trish, after a moment of silence before following him into the room.

"Come now princess," he cooed, crouching down before the edge of his bed. "What's wrong?"

Later_

Dante had always been a light sleeper. Even as a child, all his senses would still be alert to any sounds of danger. He was never sure if this was due to his demon blood or something he had developed in order to stay alive with so many people out for his blood, both demon and human. Either way, it had served him well as the Emperor of the Underworld; he had lost count of how many assassination attempts had happened while he slept, a lot of which had been his nightly entertainment. He stopped keeping them in his bed for the entire night after the second demon bitch had tried to kill him; after that he either kicked them out of his bed or he left theirs the moment he was through with them. His nightly entertainment changed a bit the moment he brought Mika down from the human world. The girl's room had to be made, it had just gotten started on recently since he hadn't expected the girl's uncle to die so soon. Plus the kid had been put through a lot, in the twenty-four hours before she had been brought down to the Underworld with him and others weren't too pleased with him having a human that wasn't food wondering around. There were any number of demons that would be willing to eat the girl if not kill the girl out right. The girl was precious to him due to his human half and in accordance to the will he had signed with Morrison before his new title she now belonged to him by his demon half.

Which is why she had been sleeping in his bed with him until her room was done.

Movement in his room roused him from his sleep, yet experience allowed him not to change his breathing pattern or make the movement of the hand reaching for his gun beneath his pillow obvious. He continued to listen, to the footsteps and breathed in the scent. It wasn't Vergil, nor was it any of their personal body guards. It didn't belong to his two personal assassins Neevan or Trish. The two succubi also doubled as Mika's bodyguards, tutors, and trainers.

The fact that he didn't recognize the new comer in his bedroom caused a thrill to race along his spine, the thought of someone trying to kill him made his adrenaline race and he couldn't help but wonder if they would provide him with a good fight. He heard two other sets of footprints enter his private chambers and he recognized them as Baul and Rudra. He waited for the intruder to get to the foot of his bed before he pointed his gun calmly at the man. That was all it took for the two bodyguards to strike. In the space it took for Dante to blink his eyes, Baul and Rudra had claimed the head of the would be assassin. His headless corpse collapsed to its knees and tipped forward, leaking blood onto his comforter while the head rolled to a stop on the floor.

Dante climbed from the bed, gathered up the still sleeping child, motioned for the corpse to be taken away, and the room to be cleaned while he moved into one of the other rooms, connected to his sleeping quarters. His brother entered, seconds behind with his own body guards in tow. Despite the fact that his brother was probably asleep seconds before entering he still looked put together; something the brothers had inherited from their father. Dante collapsed into a couch, keeping the still sleeping child cuddled against his chest.

"This wasn't the first time someone tried to assassinate you and your human pet," said Vergil, while servants set about cleaning the bloodied bedroom. "Is the little brat worth it in the long run? She is a weakness you should have just left her in the Human world with that mortal bitch you killed."

"I've warned you before about how you talk about Mika," said Dante slowly. "And while I might no longer care about Lady, she still does and I don't want to risk you saying anything about her that would affect Mika's loyalty to me."

"What exactly did you say to her about the woman anyways?" asked Modieus, out of pure curiosity.

"Simply that Lady changed her mind about letting me take care of her."

"Of course," smirked Vergil. "You can't have your little pet know you killed her Auntie can you?"

"Vergil, go back to bed and whatever cunt is warming it," snapped Dante, closing his eyes to sleep.

The older twin snorted and swept from the room, his two bodyguards following after giving a respectful bow to a now sleeping Dante, whose own bodyguards followed them out of the room to retake their positions outside the door. The little girl in his arms squirmed in his arms and blinked her eyes mumbling something.

"Sshh," whispered Dante, cuddling the girl. "Go back to bed."

"Mkay," muttered the girl, before drifting off back to sleep.

"Good girl," whispered Dante, drifting back off to a light sleep himself.

That same night, Salome was brushing her hair when she noticed the shadows in her room acting strangely in the mirror's reflection. She turned around in her chair and watched the shadows take shape into human-like forms. The figures were wearing black pants and a top with black cloths wrapped loosely around their necks for them to pull up when they wanted to remain unseen when out of the shadows. Their dark skin and completely black eyes made them almost impossible to see even outside their shadow forms. She got to her feet and the tallest female, whose long black hair was tied back in a tight braid, stepped forward and bowed with her left fist over her heart; the others in her group dropped to one knee with their left knuckle placed against their heart.

"You summoned us?" asked the woman, straightening up and holding out the shadow stone that dangled from a strand of leather and was clutched between the silver bird claws.

"I want you to steal something for me," said Salome, taking the stone back and placing it around her neck.

"Very well. What is it you want us to do?"

"I want you to steal the little, human pet of the Emperor's," she said, returning to her chair and the act of brushing her hair.

"You want us to break into the castle of the Emperor over a single child?" asked the other woman.

"She annoys me," said Salome, running her brush smoothly through her hair. "Besides, what do you care about who you are hired to capture or kill?"

"This is no ordinary child," snapped the woman. "This is the favorite, if not only, pet to the Emperor. Chances are she is under so much protection getting to her would take much planning and would be a suicide mission."

"Are you saying you can't do it?"

"No, I am saying we will do it but only with the right price."

"I will triple what I was offered to pay you when I summoned you. Under the understanding of course, that should you be caught…"

"We will not betray you should we get caught," reassured the leader. "Should we be caught we will become truly one with the shadows."

"Good to know."

Weeks later_

Trish was working on a piece of cross stitch while watching Mika hold onto one of the bed posts and run around in circles. The blonde child's laughter filled the room, as Neevan kept an eye on the child in between reading the most recent novel by Nora Roberts. As she glanced up from the beginnings of a saucy scene, to make sure the girl wasn't about to hurt herself, she noticed the shadows flickering in odd patterns. She nudged the blonde lighting demon, who let out an annoyed grunt and continued her stitching, before final glancing up when the other she-devil nudged her harder and glanced towards the shadows. The older blonde narrowed her eyes before they shot open and she lunged at the smaller blonde while her companion launched herself at the shadows.

One of the shadows changed direction and launched itself at Neevan while the others kept moving towards the girl, who screamed before she was tackled by Trish, only for them to hack off five inches of Trish's hair instead. The shadows froze in various places about the room while both lighting demonesses moved back to back keeping the girl in between them.

"Who are you?" asked Trish, as the shadows took solid form - beings clad in nothing but black, equally liquid, black eyes betraying nothing of their emotions. "What are you doing in the Emperor's private quarters?"

The question was met by silence and the two lighting she-devils moved into a fighting position when the intruders reached for the weapons.

"You grab Mika," hissed Trish. "I'll hold them off."

Neevan moved to grab the girl, and that seemed to be the signal for the intruders to attack as they leapt into the air and launched themselves at the women. Half of them amassed into one giant shadow and lunged at Neevan. The others either took up positions at the exits or attacked Trish. The shadowy mass slammed into Neevan and Mika and the impact threw the red haired woman into the side of the wall and taking out a few pieces of furniture on the way, before knocking her head back in pain. They both dropped to the floor. Neevan was getting to her feet, with Mika still in her arms, when she was crashed into again. She slammed into Dante's desk, shattering both it and one of her arms. Hissing in both pain and fury she summoned her lighting and bats to attack while she tried to avoid the child in her charge being hit. She had to hand it to the girl she wasn't screaming only whimpering in fear, which seemed to have lodged any screams she would have made in her throat, and pain from the blood leaking from her wounded forehead.

Trish grunted when she was slammed into a couch that gave way beneath the impact of the crash. She flipped over and landed on her feet, summoning her lighting powers to throw some of them at the shadows, which went right through the attackers. One of the individual shadows launched itself at her and she braced herself for the impact. The moment it hit it was a solid mass and now had a human form. She used the impact to her advantage and fell onto her already bruised back before kicking him out the window. She watched in anticipation as a part of the amebic mass broke free from the others and a face formed.

"Get the child!" shouted a feminine voice, before the face disappeared back into the shadows and she rejoined the larger shadow.

"Mika!" shouted Trish, whirling around as she was slammed into the wall and the large shadow entity swarmed Neevan and Mika seconds before she threw them against the other wall with lighting.

Trish watched in horror as the entity left Neevan with the skin from her face and even parts of her body peeled off along with leaving her with only one arm as the one that had been holding onto Mika gone. The large mass split in half with one half moving towards the window, dropping Neevan's arm on the way and merging with the natural shadows to leave the room. The remaining shadows merged with the other group. She gasped when the entity turned its attention to her and lunged forward, she moved into a fighting stance and prepared for the worst. When the shadow swarmed her she was aware of the immense pain that filled her body focusing on her head and her chest. The last thing she saw before she fainted from the pain and blood loss was the shadows leaving.

At the same time in Dante's throne room he was holding a meeting with his advisors and older brother; discussing the recent rumors about a supposedly long-dead clan of Shadow Demons returning to the surface to assassinate Dante. There were also rumors they were being paid by a nobleman who disproved of Dante's choice in his pet, a human. After the oldest advisor had finished briefing him on the newest problems and he had ordered guarde detail upped for his mortal charge until the threat was taken out. The meeting then moved onto laws and who should be executed, released, and kept in prison. Talk then turned to the twins' upcoming birthday celebration.

Something was wrong, Dante could feel it trickling up and down his spine for the past hour or so his suspicions were confirmed when the sound of a bell tolling from the direction of his bedroom where Mika was with Trish and Neevan. He grabbed his sword, leading the way with his brother and several guards behind him. He kicked his door open, freezing at the scent of blood and death along with the site of destruction and carnage he saw before him. Several chairs and tables were either over turned or smashed into pieces. Several vases that had held flowers to make Mika happy were destroyed as well, their flora occupants crushed and demolished about the room. There were several holes in the walls from where body parts and bodies in general had collided. Trish lay on her side missing parts of her scalp and her insides spilling out onto the floor. Neevan lay near the shattered window, missing an arm and it appeared that the skin had been peeled from her face and various other places along her body. The bodies of several dark demons lay about them with missing body parts and their chest cavities ripped open, their hearts now laying somewhere else in the room.

His eyes scan the room for the third occupant and he nearly panics when he doesn't see her.

"Find Mika!" he snapped, waving his hand and sending his troops off in different directions to find the human child of his court. "See to the others!"

Vergil took the lead of half of the army in leading them through the woods, while Dante lead the search in the castle. Pandora, the castle's high physician, was summoned to heal the blonde human's bodyguards. The blonde haired, green eyed she-devil had high hopes for the other two to live without serious scaring or permanent injury. There would be scaring but nothing to serious and they would continue to be beautiful. The silver haired Emperor was pleased with the news, the two she-devils were both two of his finest warriors and the only females he trusted with his precious mortal pet. The castle itself showed no sign of being broken into, save for the destruction in his chambers, and there was no sign of the child anywhere. He pursed his lips and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, hoping that his older brother would have better chances of finding the bastard or indeed the bastards that did this.

Vergil was well aware his brother was having problems finding his precious, human pet. He was also well aware of how much danger a lot of people were going to be should they not find the child or at least one person who knew what had happened to her. His brother was obsessively protective of the girl and gave into her demands far too often. The guards he was leading through the woods had already been stretched to the limits to find the child faster and with no luck so far. Despite this fact, he could hear fighting going on in the distance, with several trees being destroyed. He could see shadows moving by themselves in the distance and he speed up, his two body guards following him.

Meanwhile the object of the search was thrashing around in her dark abyss. At some point she saw a thread of what could only be described as light and she reached for it, shattering whatever it was they were doing to keep her imprisoned and she dropped through the tree branches, scratching herself on the way down. Her screams echoed through the forest and the scent of her blood trickled up through the air. Before the darkness of whatever or whoever had captured her swallowed her back up and she knew nothing more but the darkness.

Vergil froze after decapitating the final shadow demon from the most recent group when he heard the familiar screams of the mortal child. Her fear and blood danced upon his senses and he licked his lips, inhaling the beauty of the combined scents. He slashed the blood from his sword, waved his hand, and led his small group of guards in the direction of the scent and scream. When they reached their destination they stumbled upon a large black mass, and watched as it divided into two with one collection moving on and the other staying to fight. Dante's twin gave the command and his army split up into two as well with half following the running mass and the other staying to fight.

"It ends here," hissed Vergil, his eyes flashing red while he morphed into his demon form.

"No," whispered their dark leader, as the large collection of shadows split up and took human form. "It will never end as long as one of us breathes."

"In that case," smirked Vergil. "We will just have to make sure none of you continues to breathe."

That being said the two groups threw themselves at each other and once more the forest was filled with the smell of blood and death.

To say that Dante was furious would be making light in his feelings about what had happened. Trish and Neevan were for the moment out of commission until further notice, the bastards really did a number on them, Mika on the other hand was still nowhere to be found. That meant that she was still alive, at least she had better be alive, because if she wasn't he was going to find whoever had killed her and skin them alive.

"My little pet," he whispered, staring off into the night sky. "Where are you being held?"

His thoughts were cut off when the doors behind him opened and his smirking brother, smelling of blood and death, walked in followed by his two body guards dragging a man clad in nothing but black, covered in blood. Several of the guards were following him and they were carrying large baskets between them, with blood soaking through the basket's weaving. He smirked and turned his attention to his brother.

"This is the only man we were able to capture alive," stated Vergil. "The others either tragically lost their heads or committed suicide rather than talk. It took a great deal of effort to prevent him from joining his brethren in being one with the shadows."

"Turn him over to Ifrit," ordered Dante, a cold smile on his face. "I hear he has some new toys he wants to play with. Tell him to let me know when he is ready to start. I would greatly like to watch the torture scene to ask some questions of my own. Make sure he is kept in a cell of Eternal Light so that there are no shadows for him to escape with."

Vergil's two bodyguards left the twins' presence dragging the badly beaten Shadow Demon between them and keeping to the light and away from the shadows. Once they had left Dante turned his attention to the guards and nodded to them showing they were allowed to come forward with whatever they had brought with them. The guards came forward with the baskets and presented them all in a row before him, while other guards stepped forward and removed the lids to the baskets to reveal the heads of other shadow demons. His smile grew into a smirk and he nodded in approval waving his hand to signal for the guards to take the heads and place them on the spikes outside his palace. Once they had left he once against returned his attention to his older twin.

"Did he give you any information?" he asked.

"No," answered Vergil. "He did not. Your human charge will be found brother."

"I know," said Dante. "She had just better be alive when we do.

Elsewhere in his kingdom his screaming blonde charge was carried into a darkened room, where she was thrown into a corner, the impact knocked her out cold, silencing her screams, and the captor was joined by Salome who shut the door behind her.

"Wake her up!" snapped the female's voice. "I want the little bitch awake when we stitch her up."

The shadow demon who had captured the girl walked over to their silver haired lord's pet and slapped her across the face a few times. When the blonde child woke up she started screaming again and kicking out at the massive demon male.

"Let me go you jerk!" she screamed, her face red with fury tears of fear and fury streaming down her face. "Dante's not going to be happy with you! Let me go!"

"Shut up you little brat," snapped the male, reaching over and slapping her.

There was a brief moment of silence, before the blonde girl started to scream and cry again.

"Will you shut her up?"

"It's either knock her out or keep her awake. Either way you won't be happy. I don't know why you didn't just kill the little bitch when you had the chance."

Mika took the opportunity to bite the one holding her down on his arm, her teeth broke through his surprisingly weak skin and drew blood.

"Fuck! Little bitch!"

"Would you get the little brat under control and I couldn't kill her because if I did I wouldn't have anything to bargain with."

The man snorted and punched the kid in the side of the face, knocking her out and thus releasing his arm. The female demon snorted in irritation and muttered something about idiot accomplices and how she wasn't getting what she paid for in the bargain.

"Shut up!" snapped the male, ripping off part of his shirt and gagging the girl before he woke her up again. "You're a noble if we get caught you will get off scot free and I'll end up just like any other poor bastard that crossed the half-breed freaks path and pissed him off; besides I am the last of my people so you had better appreciate what we've sacrificed for you."

"Oh please," snarled the female, watching him hull the struggling girl to the table. "You're breaking my heart."

"Like you even fucking have one," snorted the man, restraining the girl to the table with leather straps. "Your idea of a heart is the cunt that's between your legs."

The female let out an enraged snarl, stormed across the room and back handed the man. He laughed as he spat up blood as the cut on his lip healed from when he had beaten down on it from the impact. The wounds on his arm were still healing, seeing how that was the area his species of demon was most weak.

"Come now," he snarled. "Everyone knows the only reason you're doing this is because the little human, brat stole away the man whore's attention from you."

"Shut up and do your damn job if you don't want to join the rest of your people!"

"To be one with the shadows is a great honor," snapped the man. "My dead comrades had more honor then a spoiled, whore like you and that Emperor will ever have!"

"Then prove it and finish the job!"

The man began to mutter curses under his breath while moving over to the small table that had his instruments resting on it. He picked up the needle and the thick, wiry thread before threading it through the needle. He moved back over to the little girl and grabbed hold of her face, so that she wouldn't move when he inserted the needle through the skin underneath her eye and then through the skin of her eyelid to sew it shut. The woman smirked at the girl's muffled screams as she drank up the pain radiating off the girl's body.

"I want to hear her scream," snapped the she-devil, yanking the gag from the girl's mouth.

The woman watched her companion continue to sew the girl's eye lid shut before moving on to the next one. The smell of her blood, pain, and fear aroused her to an entirely different level. She lowered her face to the blonde's own and started to lick up the blood.

"Such sweet blood," she breathed. "No wonder he likes her so much, her blood is so intoxicating in its innocence."

"You are in my light you stupid bitch," snapped the man. "It won't do us very much good if I sew her eyes to her eyelids as well."

"I don't give a shit! Just make the little shit pay!"

"You know since she's not putting out any pheromones it's not her fault you got kicked out of his bed. Maybe you are just getting old? Or maybe the sex just wasn't as good as you had thought."

The female just snarled and backhanded him again, causing the needle he was holding to scrape against Mika's eye. The male cursed but finished stitching up the shrieking girl. He had been saving the mouth for last, like he was told because the demoness wanted to hear the girl's screams for as long as possible. It took him awhile to get started, he finally had to not only hold the girl's face steady but hold her lips closed with some fingers for the first few stitches. After that he used his hand to hold her still while to stop her from thrashing around too much.

The moment the needle pierced through the girl's eyelids she started screaming for Dante before her screams just became long drawn out word less noises. The pain she felt was horrid, far worse than the time she had fallen and busted her head open on her uncle's marble coffee table. It was a long drawn out pain has the needle slide into her eyelid, followed by the thread and then into the bottom part of her eyelids. Every once in a while the needle would scrape against her eyes and she would scream even louder at the new pain she experienced. Blood was trailing down her face, mixing with her tears and sweat.

When the man had stopped sewing one eyelid, Mika lay there panting until he started up on the other one and her screaming started all over again. Until it became muffled as he finally moved onto her lips and the ordeal that only took an hour and felt like an eternity was finally over and she knew nothing.

The Shadow demon was starting to clean off his instruments, when he heard the female she-devil making soft noises in the back of her throat.

"What is it now?" he asked, sighing softly and trying not to kill his employer.

"I want her punished even more," she whispered softly.

The Shadow demon suddenly wished his late leader had never accepted the summons of the Demon heiress before him. He exhaled heavily and turned around to see the she-devil digging her long nails into the child's thighs and filling the air even more with her innocent blood. His eyes flashed red at the sight and smell of it before returning back to black.

"What else do you want to do to the child?" asked the man. "May I warn you my Lady that you are already in dangerous waters and when the Emperor finds out that you hired us to kidnap his precious, human pet your head and mine will be on those spikes outside his palace."

"Your head," whispered Salome. "Will be on the chopping block not mine, he's fucked me thoroughly too many times to want to see my head up there."

"Have you forgotten about his other whores that tried to assassinate him?"

"But I am not going to kill him."

"This is pretty damn close!"

"Just sew the little bitch's cunt closed!"

"That's a little much, besides he's not doing her because she has no hormones to attract him."

"Do as I say!"

"Fine," snapped after a long moment.

The shadow demon stormed over to the child and moved the legs so that she was in a position for her vaginal lips to be sewn shut. For once he was very grateful that the girl was out of it.

"Bring the girl and follow me," snapped Salome, sweeping from the room.

"Yeah, yeah," muttered the man, undoing the straps and carrying the now limp and unconscious girl over his shoulder.

Back at Dante's palace the other living Shadow Demon was being tied down in a cell of eternal light with Ifrit hovering over him and Dante, watching from the corner of the room while his brother lead the search for the girl outside the forest. The man was screaming as the fire demon start hacking off a body part for every question he refused to answer or answered incorrectly. Pandora was also in the room nearby healing the amputated parts of the body so he wouldn't die of blood loss. Right now the shadow demon was missing all the fingers and his thumb on his right hand and he was about to lose his right hand.

"I will ask you again," hissed the fire demon, smoke billowing from his mouth as he exhaled after taking a long drag from his cigar. "Where is the mortal child, Michael Morrison, charge to our Great Lord and Master?"

"Go suck on it!" snapped the male, breathing deeply from the pain in his right hand. "I'm not telling you shit."

"We shall see it's only a matter of time before you break and tell me what I want to know."" chuckled Ifrit, examining his knife and swinging down to cut off the captor's right hand.

The screams and laughter of the two men filled the room and Dante watched as more blood spilled to the ground. The shadow demon had better break soon or else there would be nothing left but a torso and head. But only if the little bastard was lucky, Dante doubted that the Lady Luck was on his side at this very moment. Then again it looked like Lady Luck wasn't on Mika's side either and they were running out of time, Dante knew this. The integration had to be taken up several notches if they wanted anything out of him.

"Ifrit," interrupted Dante, tearing the fire demon's gaze away from his torture victim and turning his blood splattered face to his lord.

"Yes Emperor?"

"Skin him," smirked Dante, amused by the fear that grew in the shadow demon's eyes. "I have been told that if a shadow demon is skinned then he or she cannot become one with the shadows and by the way his eyes are widening I'd say I was right. Let's see how much he wants to keep his mouth shut once he is faced with the notion of his death leading to the end of his existence instead of being able to become one with the shadows."

Ifrit smiled slowly and turned his attention back to the shadow demon, he grabbed the stump that had been attached to his hand and started skinning the man. The laughter of the fire demon was drowned out by the shadow demon screaming in agony and the ignored pleads for mercy.

When Mika became aware of her surroundings again, she was aware that she couldn't open her eyes or her mouth, which prompted her to remember the previous events and why her lips were in so much pain while she tried to scream. She soon became aware of how cold and damp she was and curled into a small ball her whimpers muted by the sewn together lips.

The child had no idea on how much time passed while she was within her circular prison, there was no sun to warm her or moon to cool her, even if there was she was too scared and sick with an infection induced fever to really care about the passage of time. The only thing she knew, when she wasn't too delusional from the fever was her hunger and the pain from the stitches. In the beginning of her stay she had worked constantly to remove not only the stitches from her mouth but also from her eyes; this was all so she could watch for the occasional underworld rat and eat it. Unfortunately the raw meat of the rats made her sick and it didn't help much that THEY would always catch her without the stitches and restitch her back up.

There is only so many times she could handle having her eyes sewn shut and the eyes themselves scraped with a needle before she stopped scratching at the eyelids themselves. For awhile she gave up trying to reopen the stitches in her mouth, before caving in because the desire for survival via food and drink outweighed the desire to avoid the pain. She started training her eyes to track the sound of rats. The raw meat was disgusting, along with the taste of the fur, and it made her sick a fact was worsened when they stitched her mouth back shut. The rats and the occasional rain were the only things she had to live off of but the fever from infections, the raw meat, and exposure to the Underworld's elements were slowly weakening her. She was grateful for the moments were she would curl into a small ball, in the small niche behind the piece of wood she used for a door, and the sleep that would come.

She wondered as she heard distant noises in the background if she would die.

The shadow demon had finally broken, but only after he had lost almost half his skin, and told the enraged Demon Emperor where his precious pet was being held. To hear that one of his former cunts had stolen something that had belonged to him was infuriating. He would make sure she and anyone else who got it into their head to take his pet they became aware of the consequences for the indiscretion.

Later that night Salome's parents were confused as to why they were being dragged from their bed in the middle of the night. Their surprise turned to anger when they realized the Emperor was responsible for them being dragged away from their bed. But they were even more surprised when their daughter was bound and gagged at his feet, her body having sealing spells painted onto her skin.

"Lord and Lady Gaia Terra," began Dante, addressing the couple by the husband's demonic species of Earth Demon. "Though you have been loyal to me, your daughter as stolen something very precious to me and as such you too are being punished."

"What exactly did my daughter steal my Lord and Emperor?" asked Salome's father.

"My most precious pet," answered Dante in a dangerous voice. "And I want her back." He turned his attention to the guards. "Make sure they don't move or do anything. The rest of you spread out and search the grounds."

"My Lord and Emperor," whispered Salome's mother. "I promise you, the child you seek is not on our land."

"That remains to be seen," retorted Dante coldly, joining in the search. "If she is on your land you will all be executed for it."

For the first time in her life, Salome felt truly afraid of the silver-haired half breed that had scorned her for the child.

A few hours into the search Dante landed in the circular prison and looked around, catching sight of a small crevice in one part of the prison. He covered his noise with the back of his hand to cut back on the horrid smell. A scrapping across the stone caught his attention and he watched a rat scramble across the stones near the hole; he blinked as a hand shakily shot out and latched onto the rat's tail. The wooden board covering the hole fell down and hit the familiar hand with a loud smack, but the fingered appendage held fast. His eyes narrowed when he noticed that the arm attached to the hand was covered in scratches and bite marks. He watched in fury as the body connected to the hand came out and that beneath the filth covering the child's head was the blonde hair of the girl it was attached to.

The silver haired male watched the girl readjust her grip on the rat before slamming it into the stones, killing it, and then reaching up to her mouth with her hands and start scraping at the area, everynow and then pausing to sway slightly from her seated spot. He frowned before taking a step closer in order to hook his hands under her arms so he could bring her up to eye level. The rat's corpse dropped to the ground while he started at the state of the girl before him. The girl's eyes and mouth and had been sewn shut, by the looks of things they had been sewn shut more than once, and she was also covered in bruises, more cuts and gashes, and several badly healed wounds which he attempted to examine as she thrashed weakly and moved her arms pathetically to scratch at his face.

"Come now princess," he murmured, softly situating his grip on her so that one arm was holding her and the other one was stopping her hands. "Don't do that, play nice with me my sweet, little pet."

Hearing Dante's voice caused the child in his arms to settle down and wrap her arms around his neck. He brushed her hair from her face to get a better look at the stitching that had been done to her.

"What have they done to you princess?" he whispered softly, brushing his thumb against the stitched up mouth. "Come on, when we get home we'll get those taken out and everything will be all better. Behave yourself while they're getting removed and I'll get you some new stuffed animals."

He leapt out of the circular chamber and landed back in the main room of the manor, his brother and their body guards already had the two people responsible and the spiteful cunt's parents under arrest.

"Your daughter stole something of mine and damaged it," he stated to the father, while running his hands through the trembling Mika's hair. "Therefore you will all be punished for her crimes."

He stared at his former mistress and her parents for a few seconds before turning his back on the kneeling figures ignoring their shouts. He stepped into the carriage that would take him and a frightened Mika back to their castle.

The moment they arrived back at the castle Pandora was there waiting in his rooms for them with two silver trays one had scissors, gauze and two different ointments; the other had a glass of juice and a plate of sugar cookies. Dante took a seat in one of the more comfortable chairs and held onto Mika while the red haired she-devil began to set to work removing the stitches and patching up the wounds. One of the ointments was used to numb the skin down so that she could remove the stitches and the other she used to sanitize the area before and after she removed the stitches and to help the wounds heal faster. After which the older woman handed the child the juice and a cookie. While the child was busy digging into her treat the woman set about giving her attentions to the rest of the wounds on the girl. When all this was done Dante stood up and hands the child off to Vergil and prepared to leave the room to go to the Human World to buy some presents for his precious human charge.

The moment Dante turned around to leave the girl started screaming in Vergil's ear who winced and held her at arm's length.

"Take your pet!" he snapped, over the child's screams and sobs.

Dante scowled and snatched the child from his brother's arms nuzzling her dirty hair so that she would calm down and after awhile she did. The Emperor turned his attention to his brother while he was soothing the whimpering child.

"Vergil, go to the human world and get some stuffed animals."

"Dante you are spoiling her," snapped Vergil, in irritation. "She is nothing more than traumatized buying her presents will not erase what that whore of yours did to her. Your little pet should already know or should be being trained in how to deal with torture. Demonize a therapist if you want but buying her things will not help her deal with what happened."

"I am not asking you to comment on or question my orders!"

For several moments the two twins held a stare down over the girl's head; before Vergil finally backed down, snagging some money from his brother's outstretched hand.

"This child will need some discipline before she is too far out of control."

"She doesn't need discipline!" snapped Dante.

"We'll see," said Vergil, leaving the room. "I hope you don't regret spoiling the brat."

"Bastard," hissed Dante, cuddling the girl as he walked into the bathing room to clean the girl up. "You're not spoiled are you?"

Dante set the girl down to remove his boots, leather jacket, along with his black top before stripping down the girl herself. If the girl screamed at being left with his own twin and with her two bodyguards being out of commission for awhile now he would have to bathe the girl until she could handle being out of his sight. He grabbed the girl up in his arms again and slipped into the waters of his large and deep bath. Standing in the bath he swirled the two of them around and began washing the girl off of the dirt, blood, and whatever else was covering the girl and making her smell.

Singing softly to her while he did cleaned her up. It was while he was doing this that he started having a flashback of when Mika was much, much younger.

Flashback*************************************************************************

It was currently the hottest day of the year, in the middle of drought season, and once again Dante's air conditioning unit had gone out at Devil May Cry. He was currently lying on his couch in loose shorts with a beer in one hand, two more bottles resting on the floor beside him, while his fear arm was draped over his eyes. The two ceiling fans spun around in slow circles, the fastest they could ever turn, and attempted to cool down.

"Damn it," hissed Dante, in annoyance getting to his feet and striding to his deck to pick up the phone and dial Morrison's number. "Shit!" he snarled, slamming the phone down and pulling on his recently discarded top before heading to the coat rack to slip his guns into the back of his waistband. "Neevan," snapped Dante, turning to the bathroom where the she-devil was taking a bath with cold water. "I am going to Morrison's to see if he's there and see if I can't talk him into fixing my air conditioning unit."

"Why not call him?" asked the lighting she-devil from the doorway, clad in nothing but a thin robe.

"I tried, he's not answering; nor is the baby-sitter."

"Maybe she's outside with the baby or maybe she ran to the mailbox," suggested Neevan.

"Anything's possible," shrugged Dante. "Heading out the door."

The moment Dante arrived at Morrison's house he was aware of two things. The first was that there were no cars in the driveway and the second was that he could hear Mika screaming and crying from inside the house. He cursed and raced into the house and towards the baby's room. Where he found her lying on her back, screaming the blonde infant was undoubtedly hungry, burning up, and from the smell of things in desperate need of a change. He picked the infant up carefully and for the first time in his life changed a diaper, to be frank he was rather glad he had seen Morison and his sister, Muriel, change the girl's diapers. He cared the still screaming child into the kitchen for a bottle of formula from the refrigerator to feed the girl.

On his way to the front room he noticed a note on the kitchen table from the babysitter, who evidently had decided to run off with her boyfriend to elope. Cursing softly the silver-haired teenager crushed the note and entered the front room, dropping down onto the leather couch situated himself to properly prop the baby up to feed her. He would probably have to wash her better later on after she was done with her bottle.

When Morrison got home he returned to a shirtless Dante and a recently bathed Mika sleeping on his couch.

End Flashback***************************************************************************

A week after Salome's capture her parents were both beheaded with their heads placed on platforms and their bodies secured to a large X before the palace gates. The dead shadow demons who had been hired by the traitorous she-demon had been skinned and they now flapped in the wind outside the palace walls like banners. No one knew of what had happened to Salome herself, though they could hear the she-devils screams drifting up from the dungeon windows. It was at a large banquet a month after the Pet's kidnapping that they would find out exactly what happened to her or to be more precise what her punishment would be for kidnapping the Emperor's pet.

The nobles of Dante's court stared at the long banquet table as they entered the hall. There in the middle of the table was a nude Salome, the she-devil was stretched out and bound by chains and surrounded by other food and pitchers of wine and blood, along with table settings. The Emperor himself was sitting calmly at the head of the table with his eyes closed and his chin resting on his knuckle. His twin was sitting to his right side drink from a silver goblet of red wine that was mixed equally with blood and he was acting as if the scene before him was a common occurrence. The twins' bodyguards had taken up their positions at the wall behind them, while other palace guards stood were at positions by windows and doors. The Emperor's pet and her body guards were noticeably absent from the banquet.

The moment the nobles were seated at the table Dante opened his eyes and sat up right in his chair, his lips forming a chilling smile that both unnerved and intrigued his guests.

"Lady Salome as been found guilty," recited Vergil, staring down at his drink while he swirled it in his glass. "Of kidnapping, attempted assassination, treason, vandalism of the Emperor's property, theft of the king's property, as well as attempted mutiny, along with others to numerous to mention."

"The punishment for most of these crimes is death of course," said Dante, taking over the debriefing. "But due to the nature of these crimes and how you just managed to piss me off in the long run as well."

"Touching the property of the Emperor in any way that is considered violent or inappropriate is a major crime," picked up Vergil. "Mika may be the Emperor's pet but she is also a member of the court."

"Thus your punishment is as follows, to be skinned alive and eaten," said Dante, his smile darkening at the look of fear that grew in her face. "Until death claims your miserable body to be its own whore."

Dante and Vergil both reached towards the body with their daggers and start skinning a piece of meat off of the woman's legs. The action seems to break the silencing spell that was placed on her and she tilts her head back and screams in very much the same way Mika had done when the child was sewn up.

Meanwhile back in Dante's chambers Mika had convinced Neevan, Trish and Pandora, the child's newest friend, into having a tea party with her and her stuffed animals. The three women and the child, who was decked out in a brand new white and ivory lace dress, along with her entourage of stuffed sat around a circular table covered with a white lace table cloth, a white china tea set with silver trim and light blue calla lilies, the table was also decked out with silver platters that were piled high with little cakes and sandwiches. Neevan poured the tea that would keep the child calm and kept the nightmares away it was a special blend of Chammomile and Underworld spices.

Back in Dante's banquet hall the traitor Salome continued to scream as her former companions and lovers continued to skin her alive and eat her skin, in between drinking from the wine and blood and eating the other food offered. After awhile Dante smirked and pulled back holding his goblet between his hands while he watched his former lover, being skinned alive by his noble subjects.

"Wait," said Dante, his smirk turning into a smile. "Let her heal."

Salome gave him a hopefully look, believing that her past with him as his former sexual partner would save her.

"Then start again," he smiled.

Back in Dante's living quarters the three she-devils and the girl-child were drinking tea and eating the chicken salad sandwiches and chocolate cakes as if they were in a garden instead of a lavishly refurbished stone apartment. The three she-devils were acting as if no one was getting skinned alive in another part of the palace. But not because they couldn't smell the blood, hear the faint screaming of the woman, and of course they already knew they were supposed to keep the little princess entertained so that she wouldn't go in search of Dante and find him skinning the woman. Bad enough how hard it was to keep her entertained when she was determined to see Dante and he couldn't be bothered, especially when he was busy with one of his whores.

The girl was chatting happily with Pandora, who was checking her wounds to make sure they were healing right while Trish and Neevan exchanged dark, amused looks. Evidently the little bitch was getting exactly what she had coming to her. Hopefully Dante, would make do on his promise to save some of the bitch's skin for them before beheading her later on tonight. Of course, he also promised that if things went as planned then they would be able to have their own private time with the woman.

Like the humans were so fond of saying, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Or in their case an arm for an arm, skin for skin. If the two she-devils didn't know any better they would say the human or humans that came up with that idea were actually demons, if not part demons. But no, they came up with that one all on their own. They found it amusing that the humans who saw the demons as pure evil weren't so far away from being pure evil themselves. Hypocrites the lot of them. They pretended to be good and sometimes even better than their fellow humans but in reality the majority, if not all, were just as cruel and twisted as the demons they despised.

Mika's childish laughter broke them from their musings and they turned their attention back to the blonde child as she reached for a chocolate square that Pandora was jokingly holding out of her reach. The girl was bouncing on her toes trying to reach it before the royal doctor returned it to the girl and leaned forward to smooth out the dress.

Back in Dante's banquet hall the demon Lords and Ladies were alternating between letting Salome heal and skinning her alive. The condemned she-devil was grateful that they had started slowing down. Hopefully that meant they were getting full and she would either be released, which from the way Dante was staring at her she seriously doubted. That only left one more thing she would be executed, hopefully after she was allowed to heal again, and her head would join her parents on the outer wall of the palace. But somehow even with that being her last option she didn't think that would be at all he had in store for her. She had after all heard stories of what had happened to those that had harmed or tried to harm the child.

If she survived she would make that brat pay for this nightmare she was in. But sadly she didn't think she would survive much longer. In fact, she thought in between the screaming and pain, she'd be lucky if she lived through the night.

Trish had started reading her Nora Roberts novel again while Neevan had returned to her needle work and Pandora was teaching the blonde child, now in flannel pajamas, chess. Every now and then the two lighting she-devils would take a look around to make sure they would have no more surprises for quite awhile and hopefully at all.

Dante finished the last of his wine and stood up from the table, ceasing all conversations and causing the others at the table to turn to stare at him.

"Vergil," he said, turning to face his brother. "End this with the bitch still alive, I promised Trish and Nevan that they could have a chance to extract vengeance from her for what happened to them as a result of what happened to them when her hired help attacked them. See to it."

Without waiting for his brother to respond the Lord of the Underworld left his brother to end his banquet and returned to his rooms where his precious charge greeted him happily. Things passed as they had before the attack and childhood though changed and aged continued on.

It was several days later in the human world, with midnight steadily growing closer, a gray eyed woman was in her kitchen standing over her stove top and watching the red candles in the pot, waiting for them to soften. Flames from the black and red candles that were standing on every free space available on the counter tops surrounding her flickered and cast shadows along the wall and against her face and red hair. On the counter top beside her were two bowls – one bowl held semen from her boyfriend, taken from the condom he had been wearing two hours earlier, and the other held her own orgasmic fluid.

Reaching into the pot she carefully pulled out the one of candles and carefully removed the wick. She slowly began to mold the wax into the shape of a woman. Placing the wax doll down she reaching back into the pot and removed the smaller candle to remove its wick as well, she rolled it into a ball and pushed a hole into it so she could fill the ball itself with the orgasmic fluids of the both of them. He had told her he would only stay if she was pregnant, well all she had to do was claim a condom tore and that's how she got pregnant, besides condoms were only eighty-eight percent effective. If he didn't believe her a DNA test would well prove that the child was his.

It was with this thought in mind that she closed the hole of the hardening ball and placing the ball and the wax bowl back into the pot to let them soften again before removing them once more to use them to turn the wax doll into what looked like a pregnant wax doll. While she was doing this she concentrated on the fact that she wanted to be pregnant with his child more than anything. She also offered whatever deity or spirit that was listening anything if it meant she would be pregnant with her boyfriend's child including, in what was perhaps a lapse of sanity in her great desire for a child, the souls of her young students. While this was going on the candles flames flickered, grew bigger, and then died as the clock in the hall struck midnight.

She could never know that her pleas would have been answered and that in having them answered she'd have to make good on her promise to hand over the souls of her students.

A few weeks later_

Dante and his body guards were taking Mika through the underworld market; the girl needed her own servants that were her own age and the underworld market was the best place to find them. He was walking past the slave markets when Mika tugged on his arm and pointed towards one of the smaller corrals of children her age in school uniforms.

"Jasmine! Lilith!" she demanded, pointing at the two girls she knew from before she had been brought into Dante's house.

"Are they your little friends, pet?" he asked, moving closer to the small area they were being housed in.

"Yes!"

"Well then precious," he smiled. "Let's buy them."

Nevada News

A tragedy struck today at the Nevada State Elementary and Middle school when an entire group of ten year olds all died of an unknown cause. The teacher, Ms. Tehreap, was released due to insufficient evidence for the deaths of her students. The police have found no signs of poison in the autopsies performed on the bodies and are desperately searching for the cause of this tragedy which as left an entire town in mourning. We hope to keep you up to date on the investigation as the news comes in.


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