The apartment felt empty for a while after Carlos left. He’d run of with his tails between his legs, cursing and swearing the entire time. But he’d made no comment about his money, so Dante quietly promised himself he would cash those checks as soon as possible. There wasn’t enough time to get anything done now, but still enough time that it went by dreadfully slow.

Dante sat on the couch, an apple in hand. He could feel the poison in it, now. Not just a simple, mundane poison, but an actual curse caused by magic. Or voodoo, as Carlos called it (as he ran out of the apartment cursing and swearing). Eventually, Dante returned the apple to its basket and, after giving it some though, found a small duvet and covered the basket and the poison.

Gwen sat silent for most of this, curling up in the armchair, staring at the floor. She didn’t speak until Dante sat back on the couch and addressed her.

“You should probably leave,” he said, not looking at her. Looking at the same spot on the floor as she did.

After a moment, she looked over to him. “Where would I go?”

Dante shrugged, seeing her eyes on him out of the corner of his, but refusing to look back. “I don’t know. I’m sure you could find somewhere. But you shouldn’t stay here.”

“Why not?” she said, now looking down to the scratchpad in her hand. “You’ve got one more person today.”

Dante just shook his head. “I don’t care. Send someone my way, someone who can pay, and we’ll call it even. You don’t have to work for me anymore.”

She snorted, though it was soft. Subdued. “I hardly even go one appointment in and already you’re firing me? You didn’t see my notes, even. I mean-”

“No,” Dante said, eager to cut her off. Stop her from talking. “I could care less about the notes, honestly. But I’m not the kind of person you want to stick around if you value your life.”

“Why?” Gwen asked, edging off her seat to get closer to Dante. “Are assassination attempts common?”

“Well, no, not exactly.”

“Then why should I be worried?”

“Let’s say someone is trying to kill me, do you really want to be caught in the middle of it?”

Gwen shrugged. “They’re after you, not me.”

Dante sighed. “It’s not just that. I’m sick.”

“I noticed.”

“I wasn’t questioning that.” He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself, and took a breath. “Look, I’m not just sick, I’m deathly ill. People have died from this before me, and eventually I’m going to die from it, too.”

Again, Gwen shrugged. “How does that affect me?”

“It’s contagious. How do you think I got it?”

Another shrug. “I figured it was, like cancer or something. Cancer’s not contagious.”

“Well, this is.”

“What’s it called?”

“It’s not cancer.”

“But what’s it called?”

Dante bit his tongue as something nasty made its way to his lips. After a moment, he settled himself and spoke. “Demon Curse.”

Gwen stared blankly at him as her brain processed what he’d said. As if trying to figure out if she knew what that was. As if trying to figure out if he was bullshitting her. Finally, she snapped back to reality.

“That doesn’t sound contagious.”

“It’s just a name,” Dante said. “Just like Demon Drug is just a name.”

“So you’re sick on the curse and I’m addicted to the drug,” she said. She didn’t catch that she’d just admitted to taking it, so Dante let it go. Not like he didn’t already know that, anyway. “What have I possibly got to lose by sticking with you?”

“Your life.”

“I’m going to lose that anyway,” she said. “Sooner or later.”

Dante sighed a moment, then set his jaw and crossed his arms. “So, convince me why I should keep a suicidal girl around?”

“Woman,” she said. “I might look-”

“Twelve.”

“Seventeen,” she said, setting her own jaw. “But I am twenty-three. And who better to have for company? You do need company. Someone’s out to kill you, possibly? And you might die of the most ominous as fuck disease ever? Then who better to keep around than someone who doesn’t give a shit about that?”

Dante watched her a moment, brow flat, eyes dropping. “You just want a place to stay.”

“Of course,” she said. “But I’ll be decent company, and I’ll work for you. What’s so wrong with wanting a place to stay?”

Dante sighed and ran his hand back through his hair. “Fine. Alright. But I don’t much want to stay here any longer, so if you don’t mind cancelling my other appointment for today, that would be great.”

“With what phone?” she said as Dante stood up.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Try a pay phone or something.”

Gwen rolled her eyes. “Alright. When should I schedule it for?”

Dante shrugged. “I don’t care. That’s your job, now.”

“I don’t know your schedule.”

“Pick a morning, then, I think I’ve left those open for the most part.”

“And bring me a copy of your schedule,” she said. “If you want me to do my job right.”

Dante just nodded, because he wanted to leave. “Sure. We’ll make spreadsheets.”

“I’m sorry?”

He watched her a moment to see if she was joking. When it was obvious she wasn’t, and had no clue what a spreadsheet was, he sighed. “You’re going to be fantastic, I can tell. Now come on, I’m locking up.”

He moved to the door, but didn’t hear her follow. He turned around when he reached the knob to see her sitting exactly as she had been, arms now crossed.

“And where do you expect me to go?”

“I honestly don’t care.”

“Then let me stay here.”

“Okay, sorry, I lied. I care a little. Not here,” he said. “And you’re not following me home, before you get any ideas.”

“Why not just let me stay,” she said, getting to her feet. She moved a little closer to him, and Dante imagined shooting her out the front door and holding her down while he locked the door. He didn’t. “I mean, I could watch the place for you while you’re gone. Keep an eye out for any other gift basket droppers, maybe figure out who Nyx is. I’m used to living in the shitter, so it’s not like I’ll run up your electrical or heating. It’s going to be empty, anyway. I mean, then you know I’ll be here on time, right?”

Well, I was rather hoping to just be rid of you, but that’s apparently not going to work. Dante took a deep breath, as he had to when he needed to agree to something he very much disagreed with, and set his jaw.

“Fine. But you only get one chance. Screw this up, and I’m kicking you out, understand?”

She gave him one sharp nod. He felt uneasy about opening the door, but after deciding that it really didn’t matter what some stranger did to his secondary property, and that he could repair any damages she might leave behind for him, he turned the knob and headed out. He didn’t get the door shut before Gwen ran up to it. He turned around and she gave him a half-hearted smile.

“Yeah, before you go, what’s this guy’s number?”

Dante crashed into the couch when he got back to his apartment. Phineas stood in the kitchen, the blinds pulled closed. He munched on something, but Dante didn’t bother to see what. For someone who didn’t need to eat, he sure ate a lot.

“Back so soon?” Phin said, looking over to Dante with a mouthful of something crumbly.

Dante just sighed and reached for the remote. The TV was already on, but Dante didn’t care to watch whatever movie it was Phin had on. He found a news station and turned the volume up. Mostly so that he could ignore anything Phin said.

The woman jabbered on about some crime in some area of town Dante didn’t much care about, but he soaked everything in, just to know. Phineas came over and sat on the arm of the couch, inches from Dante’s feet. Impossible to ignore.

“I don’t get why you watch this mundie stuff,” he said, fishing another piece of some kind of food out of his hand. He popped it into his mouth, his eyes glued to the TV.

“You watch it, too,” Dante said, not taking his eyes of the screen, hoping Phin would let it go.

“Mm,” Phineas said, swallowing his crumbs. “But not like you do. It entertains me. You actually want to know what’s going on.”

“You never know when something interesting is going to happen.”

“I suppose,” he said. “But just go outside and see it happen. Especially with Winterfest going on. Not a damn day goes by some nutcase doesn’t do something insane.”

“Winter will do that to you,” Dante said, not really listening anymore. Mostly trying to figure out what was going on onscreen. Someone was being interviewed, and Dante smiled inwardly at the thought that Phineas wouldn’t understand their thick french accent.

“I need you again tonight,” Phineas said. “By the way.”

“What for?”

“Just backup. You know, nothing new.”

Dante sighed. “I’m really quite useless at the moment. I had a big customer today and I had to cancel my other appointment.”

Phineas snorted, and Dante knew he couldn’t pull anything on Phin. He’d been at this for too long.

“We’re not going right now, anyway,” Phineas said. “You’ve got time. Besides, it’s not like you’ll need to do much. It’s a human customer. I mean, I could probably handle it myself, but I like the company. Please?”

It wasn’t a question, and Dante knew it. Even if he said no a thousand times, Phin would have Dante walking out the door to his aid. Phineas didn’t understand no. He didn’t understand not getting what he wanted.

“Are you heading out soon?”

“As soon as the sun’s down,” Phin said. “You can let me know when that is.”

“Give it a few hours.”

“Good,” Phin said, now smiling ear to ear. His eyes stayed on the TV but his mind wandered elsewhere. “Then we have lots of time.”

Dante blinked and looked over to Phin, cocking an eyebrow. “Time for what?”

Phin just shrugged and popped the rest of his food into his mouth, freeing his hands. Dante sighed and rolled his eyes as the TV droned on, now nothing more than background noise.

He couldn’t look at Phineas as they walked into the city park. There was something about the obviousness of his gate that forced Dante to look away. Even in the dark, he could see nothing but. The trees around him, slumped live oaks that created a tunnel around them, were easier to look at, though they always gave him chills. Why anyone would hang out here was beyond him, especially at night. Then again, if they were trying to avoid someone like Phineas…

He looked back to Phin because he had to. There was a spring in his step, slightly altered by some discomfort. But he was more than cheerful, and he knew it really didn’t have anything to do with the bust tonight.

“I would complain about you walking behind me,” Phin said. “Except that I’d like to think I know what you’re doing back there.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Dante said, although he was sure he was doing exactly what Phin guessed.

“You’re blushing, I can tell.”

Dante snorted, but it wasn’t convincing.

“So there’s a ball some night in the near future,” Phin said, sticking his hands in his back pockets. Dante rolled his eyes and looked away.

“There are a lot of those during Winterfest.”

“But this one’s for the supers,” he said. As if they were superheroes.

“And who’s throwing it?”

“Who the hell even knows? But we should go.”

“Why?”

Phin shrugged, his back muscles clearly defined through his shirt as they shifted. Dante didn’t need to be able to see his face to know there was a smug grin on it.

“It’ll give us an excuse to dress up. Besides, there is nothing more attractive on you than sugar skull.”

Dante rolled his eyes, thankful Phin had his back turned.

“Well,” Phin said, before Dante could open his mouth to answer. “Almost nothing.”

Dante’s hand flashed up to his neck at this, and a full blush rose to his cheeks. Thank God he was so pale, a blush on him made him look healthy again. He tried to keep his tongue between his teeth as he felt at the wound. He did his best to heal it, but it wouldn’t mend completely. Something about vampire venom kept wounds from healing properly, even with magic. He knew he’d be able to get rid of it by the end of the night, but for now he felt as if he was attending a black tie event with a giant hickey. But of course Phin would call attention to it. That was what he did best. That was why it was there in the first place.

Trying not to sound too embarrassed, Dante went for a topic change. “So you want to go out just to dress up?”

Phin shrugged again, dipping his right ear to his shoulder. “What other reason is there to go out? Other than to make some new contacts of course.”

“Of course, it’s always about business, isn’t it?”

There was a smile in Phin’s voice, and he could see it prick up his left ear. “Well, mostly business.”

They kept walking and found the poor soul under one of the live oaks, huddled in on himself, as if to keep himself warm. Phin approached him with a great grin on his face. Dante approached with his regular disinterest, unable to decide whether to keep his hand over his neck or not. He took it down reluctantly and stood just behind Phin as he started his routine.

He didn’t pay attention, because he never payed attention, and looked around the surrounding woods. Something felt uneasy about this place, and he wasn’t sure if it was just the trees he didn’t like or something else. He heard Phineas pull out his needles and looked back to the kid to see how he was taking it. The kid shook in his bones. Dante would bet anything that boy didn’t let Phin stab him at all. Of course, this would upset Phin, as the item wouldn’t be as valuable as one worth dying for. Dante didn’t care; it meant leaving sooner.

And he really wanted to leave, too. His stomach knotted, and he could feel something moving the magic around them. Very subtle, but no human could do that. It wasn’t an intentional shift, like someone moving through water. Dante could sense the ripples, and they were circling him and Phineas.

“Alright!” the boy said. “Here, take it!”

Dante looked back only half a second to catch a glimpse of the object. A pocket watch. A least a tad more impressive than the ring the wombat kid had had. He looked back to the trees again, this time trying to locate the source of the movement. It was no good. The ripple came for all around them, masking any origin.

“Thank you,” Phin said, stepping back and knocking into Dante. Dante stumbled back a step, but Phineas managed to play it off as if nothing had happened. “Should you need anything else, you know where to find me.”

Phin turned to walk away, so Dante followed, still watching the trees, still anxious. The ripples got louder, more frequent, and he felt them on his fingertips without even trying. Phineas, of course, didn’t notice. He never did.

“Well,” Phin said. “That was relatively easy.”

“You knew it would be,” Dante said, trying to sound calm. It didn’t work, though, and Phineas turned to him with his brows furrowed.

“What’s wrong?”

Dante didn’t get a chance to answer. The shadows moved around them, and they flew apart as though they’d been at the epicentre of an explosion. Dante fought to get back to his feet, but Phineas landed on all fours. He crouched low, looking around him with all the alertness of a proper vampire. Dante couldn’t match him, but did his best to get back up and figure out where the ripples came from.

“Behind you!” Phineas said as he rushed forward. Dante turned but wasn’t fast enough, flying back suddenly and hitting into Phineas’s arms. Phin caught him easily and propped him back up.

“What is it?” Dante said.

“I was about to ask you.”

They watched the shadows again, Dante’s stomach in knots. They were back to back now, but he knew this would do them no good. Whatever it was out there was faster than either of them, and at least somewhat powerful. Maybe as powerful as Dante.

They turned at the same time to a noise on Dante’s left.

A man stood there, watching them, a skull painted on his face. Dante swallowed hard.

“Run?”

Phin didn’t answer with words, instead took off at a dead sprint. Dante rushed behind him, but he couldn’t nearly match Phineas’s speed. He fell over soon after he’d started running, and looked up to see the painted face hovering over him.

Phin ran back before anything happened, knocking the body off Dante. He pulled Dante to his feet and hauled him forward, trying to get Dante to move as fast as him. Dante couldn’t, though, and soon a piercing pain started up in his chest. He had to stop running, and it was just as well that the skulled phantom appeared in front of them just as the pain migrated from his lungs to his arms and legs and forced him to keel over.

“Who the hell are you?” Phineas said, taking a step back to be at Dante’s side.

Dante looked up through the pain to see the man approaching them, his eyes black, his visible skin as pale as Dante’s. He opened his mouth to a gleaming set of white teeth and started towards them.

“Hades.”

Dante had heard enough. He lifted his hand and, with all the strength he had, gather the magic around them and forced it at the man. He didn’t care what it did, as long as it did something. The man moved slower, like forcing his way through viscous air. Finally, he was struggling and grunting, his jaw tight. Dante focused the energy, and exploded it outwards. It only took a second for the wave to reach the man, and in a flash of black he exploded into the air, nothing but particles.

“Did you kill him?”

Phineas nelt at his side now, holding him up by the shoulder, his eyes flashing all over him to make sure he was okay. Of course Phineas wouldn’t see anything, though. Everything Dante felt was somewhere inside of him. He stretched out his back as he tried to suck in air. His arms and legs were still blistering sore, but without the threat of whoever the hell that was, he could at least de-stress enough to start to feel better.

“No,” Dante said. “I can’t kill anyone with magic. One of my limitations.”

“Decided by who?” Phin said, trying to help Dante to his feet, though he wasn’t ready yet. “Yourself, or the council?”

“It’s just something I can’t do,” Dante said, managing to get the words through his teeth. “Give me a minute, I can’t breathe.”

Phineas stopped pulling on his arm long enough for Dante to get his wind back. He focused on clearing out his lungs, but magic did no good. He could numb the pain sometimes, as in his arms and legs, but he couldn’t numb his lungs; he needed them to work.

“Do you need-”

“No,” Dante said, before Phineas could get anything out.

“No, I’m serious, you can hardly-”

“I’m fine.” He didn’t raise his voice but he felt like he had. Phin backed away an inch, but wouldn’t get any farther from Dante’s side. He was back again in an instant.

“You know,” Phin said. “I mean, there is another way…”

Dante shot him the darkest look he could manage. The darkest look he’d ever felt on his face because he could feel it in his gut. “No. I will not do that.”

“Don’t make it sound like such a bad thing,” Phin said, trying to sound mock-hurt, though he was too serious to pull off a joke.

“It is a bad thing,” Dante said. “I will never do that.”

“What?” Phin said. “What are you saying about me?”

“You didn’t have a choice, did you?” Dante said. “But if you’re giving me the choice, the answer is no.”

“It would save your life.”

“It would kill me!” Dante said. “And I’d rather die from this fucking illness than become a vampire. It’s nothing against you, it’s just a personal choice.”

“Sounds personal,” Phin said, looking to the ground.

Dante sighed, his brow furrowed. “Come on,” he said. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have said the same thing if you’d had the choice.”

“I would have taken it,” Phin said. Dante snorted. “I’m serious! Knowing what I now know, I would definitely choose to change rather than die.”

“Well, I don’t.” Dante sucked in one last bit of air and straightened himself out. Phin helped him, though he didn’t want to seem like he needed it.

“The offer remains open,” Phin said, mostly under his breath. “If ever you change your mind. It’s as easy as a little exchange of blood.”

“Are we done for the night, then? Are you good?”

Phineas looked around, watching the shadows, suddenly very leery of them. “You said you didn’t kill him, right?”

Dante just shook his head.

“Think you might be able to stick around for a bit longer, then? Just in case he comes back?”

“I doubt he will,” Dante said. “What did he call himself? Ha-”

“Sh!”

“What?”

Phin looked at him, his eyes frantic. “Don’t say his name!”

Dante looked at him a moment, blinked, then frowned. “Really?”

“Just don’t, okay? Don’t encourage him to come back.”

“What, it’s not like it was a demon or anything.”

Phin gave him a look, one that would have accompanied blood draining from the face could Phin have looked any more pale. There was no humour there, only fear. Dante sighed.

“Fine, I’ll stick around for a bit. But I do have to sleep tonight.”

“Of course,” Phin said, trying for a smile. “Just for a bit, then.”

Next Chapter: Gwen