Chapter 7

This is the last warehouse left to check." Victor says as he and Dante begin to approach an abandoned warehouse near the pier just like Andy had told them. Dante couldn't believe he was actually listening to the prick but he had to make double sure that Andy wasn't just a desperate man saying something to save his life, so Dante and Victor started their afternoon by searching all the abandoned warehouse that Alex could find by the piers. After having search fifteen already and not finding anything, Dante was certain it was all just a ruse to waste his time.

Suddenly Victor grabbed Dante's arm and he gestured a confused Dante to look ahead of them. Together they saw three men, at least in their mid-twenties, enter the warehouse. Dante nodded at Victor then they started towards the building. Victor held the door open for Dante then followed behind him. A man stood towards their right in front of another door. Dante approach smelling the air as he went, the large man was human. Strange for a human to be standing in an abandoned warehouse by a random door. Unless it was random, the man could be here guarding something.

Dante finally reached the man who just stared at him. Dante made a move for the door but the man stopped him. The two stared at each other for while before the bouncer asked, "ID?"

"I left it at home." Dante replied hands in his pockets. Victor then stepped forward and said,

"Here you go." The bouncer then opened the door for them. Dante smiled.

"That's cheating you know," Dante said to Victor, "I really wanted him to do something." Victor rolled his eyes and  walked on ahead. Music, heavy with base, could be heard ahead of them. The two men walked down a flight of stairs an reached another door. Victor was the first to enter.

"Andy made us come all the way to a night club?" Victor stated confused as they stared at the crowd of people dancing all over the room to the beat the DJ dropped, hands in the air holding drinks. Dante nodded toward a bar against the left side and the two men headed towards it.

"Two beers please." Victor said to the brunette hostess who nodded and headed over to a fridge behind her. Victor handed one to Dante, which Dante didn't take making Victor frown, "What is it?"

"Something doesn't feel right." Dante replied as he continued to scour the area. Dante spotted the three men from earlier as they looked around them as though not to be seen, they then entered another door and shut it behind them. The moment the door opened, Dante smelled something. Dante scrunched up his nose which Victor noticed,

"What? What did you smell?" Victor asked.

"Blood." Dante said turning to look at Victor. Victor took a swing of his beer then made his way to the door with Dante. They walked through the door and when it shut behind them, they could no longer hear the music from the other side. Dante raised an eyebrow at Victor and continued to walk down the hallway. After a while they could hear slower music playing along with groans and the sound of slurping. The hallway then opened up to a large room with sofas scattered around everywhere. Many people were seated in the sofas, some with their heads tilted and others with their heads buried in the necks of them.

"What is this?" Dante muttered in horror at the scene before him.

"It's a Den." A voice replied beside them. Dante and Victor turned towards the voice and saw Remy standing there with a drink in hand. The liquid in his glass was a dark red colour, Dante could immediately tell it was blood but there was something else in the drink, kind of like it was mixed with something, "Ah," Remy says raising his glass noticing Dante staring at it, "We mix Vodka with it."

Dante snarled and grabbed Remy by the throat, pinning him to the wall behind him. Remy's glass drops to the ground and shatters. The vampires around the room suddenly stop what they were doing to watch the scene happening in front of them. Victor shifts uncomfortably on his feet at the amount of yellows eyes staring at them.

"What is this?" Dante growled.

"The future." Remy replied. Remy tried to chuckle but couldn't get enough air in so it sounded more like a cough. Remy clicks his tongue then says, "All the humans here are here by free will. I guess you could call it free will. A vampire bite is like a drug to them, so they keep coming back. Works out perfectly, don't you think?" Dante tightens his grip on Remy's throat making Remy groan. Remy's face was starting to turn a shade of blue when Victor's voice broke through Dante's revene.

"Dante." Dante's eyes flicker towards Victor who was staring at the vampires in front of them. Dante frowned then turned to look behind him and saw that all the vampires in the room was standing and staring at them with hunger, as though waiting for a command. The humans gone.

"Things are changing for you, Dante." Remy's strained voice whispers into Dante's ear. Dante growled once more then released Remy to face the mob behind him, "Try not to get hurt too bad." Remy says before disppearing into darkness. Dante sighs.

"You take right, I take left?" Victor offers.

"Right then." Dante confirms and moves to face the right half of the room. Dante lifts his hand, then gestures for the vamps to come. Several vampires hiss at Dante before springing into action. Dantes steps to the left to avoid a vamp and punches the next one in the face. The vamp stumbles back and Dante grabs the arm of the next attacking vamp and tosses him towards three other vamps who catch him, meanwhile Victor takes a more physical approach and handles the vamps one by one, breaking bones as he moves along to the next vamp. After a short battle with the inexperienced vampires Dante and Victor stand amongst the groaning vampires lying on the floor. Dante brushes his shoulder off and turns to look at Victor was sad eyes.

"It needs to be done Dante." Victor says reading Dante's mind.

"There has to be another way." Dante says, "These are innocent people victim to circumstance. People who have families."

Victor sighs and bows his head then looks up at Dante and nods, "I'll send them to limbo for now." Dante nods with a weak smile and Victor summons his clouds which cloak the vampires lying on the floor before they disappear. Victor walks up to Dante and pats his shoulder. Dante takes a lighter from his pocket and grabs a bottle of alcohol on a nearby table. Dante tosses the bottle on one of the sofas and his lighter follows. After a while the entire room is set alight and a fire alarm sounds. Dante and Victor head out.

~~~

Nicole and Alex were sitting in the living room playing Uno on the coffee table when Dante and Victor entered the house. Alex stands quickly and heads over to Dante who pushes him away gently.

"What happened?" Alex asks.

"Well, it turns out the warehouse was a some sort of vampire den." Victor answered.

"A what?" Nicole asks making her way over to them.

"A place for vampires to feed." Dante explained. "There were humans there too. The Den was under a night club of some sort."

"And the vampires?" Alex asked.

"They're in Limbo for the time being." Victor says to which Alex nodded, but a confused Nicole asked,

"What's limbo."

"A place of darkness. Like another dimension. It's how I'm able to teleport." Victor explains. He then looks over towards Dante with his hands on his hips, "You should educate her more. I don't want to have to explain everything all the time."

Dante smiles weakly and nods. Nicole notices the sweat on Dante's forehead and looks over at Alex who sighs.

"Good work today." Dante says, "Tomorrow we'll talk to a few of those vamps and find out who's behind all this." Dante pats Alex's shoulder and heads over to the stairs. Alex sighs again and looks at Nicole, he then nods his head in Dante's direction. Nicole nods and walks after Dante.

Nicole reaches Dante's room and stands outside his door. She then places her ear against the door and tries to hear something. She suddenly hears Dante hiss from pain and she opens the door. At first she doesn't see Dante anywhere but then sees the bathroom door is slightly opened and another hiss resonates from it. Nicole walks towards Dante's bathroom and pushes the door slightly more open. Dante is leaning against the basin top, his shirt lifted and he holds a piece of gauze against his side. Nicole can see the blood stain on the piece of cloth. Dante notices Nicole and drops his shirt.

"It's nothing." he says and tries to leave but Nicole pushes Dante back against the table top and says,

"Lift your shirt." Dante sighs but obeys as Nicole gets a clean piece of guaze and pours disinfectant over it, she then begins to pat the wound, which looked like three long scratches, on Dante's side making him wince.

"Tsk tsk tsk. You big baby." Nicole says as she gently tries to clean the wound. Dante looks down at Nicole, at how her forehead creases with concentration and how her hand gently maneuvers over his wound. She pulls the gauze away and makes eye contact with Dante for a second, "What happened? I didn't think the great Dante could get hurt." Nicole mocks.

"One of the vamps caught me with their claws. Only a vampire can fatally injure another vampire. Our skin is too thick for other blades to pierce it, but our nails sharpen when we feel threatened, allowing us to inflict harm on one another."

"Oof." Nicole replies. She then picks up a large rectangular band aid and slowly places it over Dante's wound, "All done." she says and looks up at Dante's big brown eyes, staring down at her. Nicole's breath gets stuck in her throat as she stares intently at Dante's plush lips. Nicole then quickly clears her throat and turns to leave, before she reaches the door she turns around to face Dante but he is already in front of her and approaching, making Nicole walk backwards until she hits the wall behind her. Dante places his hands on either side of her, trapping her between him and the wall. Nicole could smell his cologne roll off his body as he stood there in front of her. Dante slowly starts to dip his head towards her and as though in a trance, Nicole raises hers to meet him. Dante's lips finally meet Nicole's and he kisses her tenderly, longingly and slowly. Nicole's hands travel up Dante's chest until they reach his neck, where they wrap themselves. Dante then picks Nicole up, holding her by her thighs and he presses her further against the wall and deepens the kiss. Dante then twirls backwards, taking a giggling Nicole with him, and heads over to his bed where he lowers himself slowly, Nicole on top of him. Nicole then lifts Dante's shirt, being careful not to touch his wound, and they part for a second as she takes the shirt completely off. With Dante's hands resting on Nicole's hips, he continues to please her with his tender kisses.