Thirteen Skies

Author: apple tea

Pairings: MxF, MxFxM

Warnings: violence/gore, coarse language, sexual themes.

Full Summary:
Demons, hunters, love, death, betrayal. Thirteen worlds; thriteen skies. But nothing is forever, and all worlds must die. The end is just beginning. "Are you afraid yet?" "Never."
There are thirteen worlds, thirteen universes all co-existing without knowledge of each other. And among them, there is only one ‘Genesis’ - an undefined force with the ability to save a dying world…or to bring it to its knees.
Kira, a demon hunter, is determined to find Genesis and restore everything she has known and believed. Teamed with an unlikely partner, a rogue demon named Dante, she will enter a world where innocence knows not; where everything is tied together in a web of lies and hatred under one sky.

What's Playing:
Sequoia Throne - Protest the Hero
Killer - JJ Lin

"How many skies do you see?"

Prologue

--

Girl and man stare at each other in silence, the former speechless and the latter at perfect ease.

A fine mist of drizzling rain separates the world of silence between the two, yet neither takes notice. The girl sits, huddled in the corner of a roughly built and shallow cellar. Blood stains her dress, which is a dirtied colour that may have once been white, yet she appears uninjured. Silver hair falls in tangled locks over her scrawny shoulders, and her honey-gold eyes are haunted beyond her years.

The man sizes her up and amounts to little. Finally, he breaks the silence, drops the first exchange of words between them. His voice is low and smooth, but is laced with what the girl senses as danger.

“Are you afraid?”

The girl feels chills crawling up her spine when she sees his mouth curl at the corners when he speaks; a red split of a smirk on his handsome face. She thinks that it is as fake as his casual question, as deceiving as the devil himself.

The girl, no older than ten, stares back wordlessly with intense honey-coloured eyes, wary. She takes in the stranger: from his raven hair with the long bangs framing his long face, to the slick of rain on his black trench coat, to the evil glint of partly hidden guns at his side.

But instead, it is his eyes that take her in; eyes of the brightest red, the ripest apples, the colour of death.

Demon eyes.

Ch. 1:

--

Kira is running as if her life depends on it.

The fleeing figure in the distance runs because its life does depend on it. Kira follows its blood trail like a predator, her eyes never losing sight of the crimson path left behind for her.

The crumbling city flashes under her feet as she hurdles from one decaying rooftop to the next. The moon, full and pale in the sky, illuminates the surroundings like a night sun. It is as quiet as death, save for the pitter-patter of steps from both predator and prey.

Suddenly, the figure comes to a full halt, stopping on a roof some ten buildings away. Kira’s eyes narrow as its form draws nearer and clearer. The figure evolves hair, long and dark. Eyes, blank and red without pupils. A mouthful of sharpened teeth, stained with blood from the hunk of flesh still in its hand that Kira doesn’t want to identify.

It is a young female demon, still unable to control its instincts. A departed soul which has lost its way.

A dangerous threat.

Kira keeps her eyes cold as she has been taught, feeling the tattoos on her wrists grow cold as they awaken, sensing the approaching fight. The female demon, upon seeing the warning glow of the blue tattoos, howls like an animal and lunges clumsily. Kira side steps it with fluid ease, and makes a cutting motion with her arm. Water, cold and obedient, materializes around the tattoo printed onto her wrist, then cuts like a merciless blade at the demon. Inhuman blood sprays like a fountain, splattering the concrete roof they are standing on and upon both demon and demon hunter. Kira merely blinks, even though deep down she feels as if someone had grabbed hold of her stomach and squeezed, hard.

She is reminded once more of what she has been told, and also reminded that she doesn’t believe that person one bit; you can never get used to killing, demons or not.

But instead of collapsing and disintegrating, the female demon flails away with the wild desperation of a thing struggling to live. It’s breath rasps in the calm night, and Kira feels her fingers dig into her palms as she sends another blade of water its way. It’s really resilient for a Fledgling. Another attack was in order.

Kira lunges.

This time though, the fledgling demon swerves and avoids the offense. Kira feels her eyes widen, even as the demon’s claws sink into her back. There is biting pain, but it is quick and shallow; nothing compared to the fact that she was now tottering on the edge of the building now, ten stories up in the air.

Think fast! her mind screams as the demon advances, blood trailing down from one corner of her twisted lip. It is then that Kira takes a good look at the Fledgling’s face for the first time, and realizes with a clenched heart that the demon might have once been beautiful as a live woman, as a human.

There is no room left to maneuver around the demon, who is now so close Kira could almost taste the blood on it’s breath. Jump.

Jump where? To death.

Kira closes her eyes, opening her senses to the world, to him. She lets out a silent scream. Dante!

Then, with a fluid twist and an arch of her back, Kira falls, her eyes trained on the demon the whole time. Fingers draw out a small sphere from her pocket, and she removes the pick with her teeth. With all her might, Kira hurls the grenade into the air, towards the demon’s looming figure at the edge of the building.

Below her, the ground is coming up fast. There is not enough time to form a buffer with water. Kira reaches for footing, holding, ropes, a wall, anything to break her fall. But there is only air, and the hope that Dante will make it fast enough.

Kira squeezes her eyes shut at the same time a sound explosion rocks the roof of the building, drowning out the pained and dying squeals of the demon. Pieces of the detonated grenade mixed rain down at the same time her back hits something else that is certainly not the ground.

For a moment, warmth and relief floods Kira’s heart and her breath catches inexplicably when she feels the arms cradling her tensed form.

She smells fresh rain, even though the night is clear.

Then Kira twists her head around, and she couldn’t help but grin up at the handsome face. “You came.”

Dante regards her with rust-red eyes, unreadable as always. The long black bangs that frame his face sway slightly with the breeze. His lips lie in a straight line, and even after knowing him for five years, Kira still has to freeze at the sight of his sinfully handsome face.

Then Dante dumps Kira unceremoniously on the ground. “Of course I came. If you die, King will have my head.”

Kira wipes blood off her face and gets up, unfazed and still smiling. For as long as she could remember, reading people’s emotions and the expressions beneath their mask of words was as easy as breathing. But Dante is so far the only one from which she cannot pick up a single trace of leaked emotion. It was strange, but she did not mind too much. After all, he has saved her life too many times to count. They both knew Kira would follow Dante into the darkest depths of hell and back without a doubt.

Kira brushes off Dante's snub like dust on her shoulder and pretends to salute like a soldier. “Target eliminated, Dante-san,” she drones sarcastically, knowing he how much he dislikes that formality.

As expected, Dante allows himself a faint glimmer of annoyance in his eyes to show Kira his displeasure. Then he turns silently with a swish of his cloak. Kira follows without missing a beat, trusting him to lead as always.

A sporadic wind tosses her silver tresses into the air, and she turns her honey-gold eyes up to the clear sky.

The scent of fresh rain still lingers.

So this is my first original story; I usually lurk around Fanfiction. Please leave a review if you enjoyed my story or have any suggestions! Thanks!

- aTea