Chapter 2

Vacation!

I was sleeping soundly, and actually dreaming for once! It was a fairly bad ass dream too! I was an empress on my throne, Lira was a handmaiden, Eio was one of the queen's guard (I treated him like crap!), and poor Xander was my royal advisor! And little Fayde was the adoptive princess; she fits the part so well! I was enjoying torturing Eio by taunting his ridiculous armor, when WHAM! Lira freaking woke me up by jumping on the goddamned bed! Why do I bother locking my door, when she can just pick the lock, is beyond me!

"Wake up sleepy head! Were going on vacation!" she yelled as she jumped like a total moron on the bed, trampling me in the process. Wait did she say vacation? Finally some time to relax with no demons in sight! I rolled off my bed and began to pack, no swim suit, I just swim in my clothes; I can thankfully fit my whole wardrobe in one suitcase... unlike Lira, who has an outfit for every day of the year. I finished packing and went down stairs to see Xander in a hideous Hawaiian shirt, Eio actually wearing shorts, Fayde in an adorable one piece, and Jezalleen making me look hideous... damn demon mom. I was wearing a baggy black tee shirt and denim jeans, Jezalleen took one look at me and said,

"Come now Nerin, are you really going to swim like that?" I looked at myself and said,

"I don't like swimsuits" she waved it off and mumbled that she would change that... god I'm scared now.

We arrived at the private beach, via helicopter... piloted by Eio... is there anything this guy can't do? Once we stepped out onto the heli-pad Jezalleen took my hand and practically dragged me inside. Remember how I said Eio's mom was Jessica Dalin? Well she is his mom, but she's also a demon... one of the few who sided with the demon knight Sparda when he rebelled against Mundus. Her real name is simply Jezalleen, but in this day and age you need to have a last name or things get awkward... so she took the last name of Eio's birth father; yeah Fayde is only his half-sister but that doesn't change how protective he is of her. I don't know if her current husband, Fayde's father, has any idea what they are. Anyway Jezalleen dragged me to her personal wardrobe and dug around for something, while I tried to escape. I didn't get far, a few seconds later she brought out a stack of swimsuits... oh hell... I tried to run but she was expecting this and grabbed the back of my shirt and dragged me into the bathroom and left me there with the stack and locked the door behind her.

"Let me know when you've found one you like! All of those should fit you." She said through the door.

I didn't have much of a choice so I began to look at the five outfits she had given me to try... one was a hideous lime green one piece. If you could call it a one piece, it looked more like a bikini with a twisted bit of fabric across the front! Yeah that ones a no! The next two had barely any coverage up top, and were a definite hell no! The fourth one was like a freaking v-neck all the way to my belly button! But the fifth one was probably the best one out of the stack! It was a simple black tankini with white trim. The top was like a halter-top, which was just barely within my personal limit. I put it on and told Jezalleen that I had made my choice, she pulled me in front of a full body mirror and I was actually surprised... I didn't look half-bad. She then gave me a blue plaid-like beach wrap and pulled me outside. What is with this lady and pulling me around like a rag doll?

We stepped outside and everyone was staring with their mouths wide open... even Eio!

"Ladies and gentlemen... Nerin's new swimsuit!" said Jezalleen with an embarrassing flourish. I walked over to the beach umbrella and sat down next to Lira, who was wearing a forest green bikini with silver accents.

"Oh my god! Nerin you look amazing!" she said embarrassing me even more... the boys were still speechless. I sat there in the lounge chair refusing to move, if I went in the water I would have to take off the beach wrap... which was a hell no! Fayde then walked up to me and asked that I build a sandcastle with her... damn my weakness for cute-ness! I walked up to the spot she had picked to build, and not long after we started Eio decided he would get in the water and took off his shirt... and I thanked god for sunburn! I was blushing like crazy! Even Lira who usually hates him lowered her sunglasses and uttered the only word that could describe him right now...

"Wow..." and she then put a heavy amount of sun block on her face to hide the blushing and joined us in building the sandcastle... very smooth Lira!

Once Eio was in the water and I was back to my senses I decided I would go get some soda for all of us. I walked inside and grabbed one for each of us, but when I reached the sliding glass door I heard a loud thud and a scream; and dropped the soda on the counter. I rushed outside and saw a huge sea serpent with Fayde in its claws! The loud thud was the serpent whacking Eio out of the water and into the wall with its tail. I ran back inside and grabbed my twin handguns, Dusk and Dawn, and ran back out firing full blast at the serpent's head. Once Eio had cleared his head from the impact he dashed inside to get his sword, Betrayal, and came out of the beach house like a bat outta hell! The serpent did the one thing that was a major "No-no" unless you wanna die... mess with Fayde! This demon serpent was toast now that Eio was mad... I hope he doesn't Devil Trigger, he can't quite control it yet! If Eio Devil Triggers then Lira will enjoy killing him! Lira was unconscious, apparently the serpents tail had knocked her into a tree. In the commotion I had forgotten about Jezalleen, she wouldn't be of much use in this fight as her powers derive from the night and it was around noon right now; so I told her to go inside and wait. And when I turned back to the fight I was shocked to see the serpent's tail coming at me with no time to move out of the way! I was thrown into the wall that was weakened by Eio's previous encounter with the serpents tail causing me to go straight through and into the pool house, and I guess I blacked out.

Eio's P.O.V.

I slashed the hell out of that goddamned demon, but it just wouldn't go down! It was really beginning to piss me off! It had already knocked out Lira, taken my little sister, and it was practically immune to being sliced to bits! I slice off a limb and it just grows back, I slice it open and it heals way too fast! I fell back to the beach and just barely jumped over the serpent's tail in time... but I didn't notice that Nerin was in the way! She wasn't expecting the tail and was hit square in the chest, probably breaking a few ribs, and was sent through the wall and into the in-door pool... she didn't surface so she had to be unconscious, I needed to end this fight now! Against my better judgement I unleashed my demon heritage, and activated Devil Trigger. I flew up and sliced the Demons head off, but two more grew back... not good.

"Eio! It's a hydra! Use fire!" Yelled my mother from the beach house, I flew down and grabbed a tiki torch and repeated the slicing of the heads but this time I cauterized the stubs; and as the serpent crumpled to the ground I flew into the pool house and dived into the water.

Lira's P.O.V.

I came to slumped against a tree, what the hell happened? My vision was blurry but I saw someone walk out of a hole in the wall of the pool house with Nerin in their arms, whatever happened she must have fallen in the pool and been knocked out. As my vision slowly cleared, the person began to give her mouth to mouth to get the water out of her lungs. Once my vision was clear I realized it was a white winged demon! I shot up like a rocket and pulled him away from her, at that moment she coughed up water and woke up.

Nerin's P.O.V.

I sat up on the beach and saw the headless corpse of the serpent, next to me was Lira and an oddly familiar white winged demon. Lira was yelling at the demon telling him to leave and never come back or she would kill him herself. The demon then flew off and Lira kneeled next to me and asked,

"What happened? Did Eio Devil Trigger and attack us?" I looked at her aghast, that demon was Eio?

"Lira he saved us! He saved ME! See that dead Sea serpent? He did that! Thats what attacked us!" and I stood up and raced after the white dot in the sky that I now knew was Eio.

I raced through the woods to a secluded beach, where I found Eio sitting on a rock pretty far in the water. He was still in his Devil Trigger, but he hadn't noticed me yet. "Eio, you and I both know what really happened..." I shouted just loud enough for him to hear me. He acted like he didn't hear me, but I know he did. I jumped into the water and swam out to the rock and climbed up. "Eio I explained what happened to Lira, she knows you didn't attack us." He just stayed silent and looked out at the water. I sighed and it was then that he broke his silence,

"Why does she hate me so much? Does she think I like what I am? I hate demons just as much as she does... I hate what I am." His voice was different from the usually smooth sounding voice I was used to; his Devil Trigger distorted it to a harsh, gravelly, almost metallic sound. I placed my hand on his shoulder and said,

"You can't control how you came to be, but what matters is how you live your life! Your not like the demons we slay, you're better than they are! I can tell you would never hurt any of us, not willingly." After all of that sank in, he stood up and made up his mind. He offered me his hand and I took it willingly, and together we flew back to the beach house. To confront Lira and try to get her not to kill one of our friends...

Once we landed Eio turned back to his normal, but still shirtless, form... damn I think I'm blushing again, it would be better if he had stayed that way till I was away. I did my best to ignore him and proceeded in getting Lira not to put a bullet in his brain pan... not that it would kill him but it can't feel pleasant.

"Lira! If you shoot him I will never forgive you! I'll tell everyone your secret!" she looked at me and walked inside angrily... and a thought donned on me, "No you can't cut him to pieces either!" I yelled after her, and she growled from the doorway, with her katanas in hand. Eio laughed at how well I knew her and we walked inside, tomorrow we would have to get rid of the demon corpse... sadly this was one of the non-fading variety of demon. But for now we would try to enjoy what was left of our vacation from in-doors. While Lira would probably find a way to get drunk off her ass, and Xander could kick Eio's ass in video games until dawn, I myself was going to bed!