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Luke was tired but he had a ritual before retiring, brushing his teeth, setting the alarm on his phone...

His phone? It was off. He’d turned it off before going to visit the Vampire lair. He turned it on. Messages began to beep at him. One in particular got his attention.

Tiger : Someone was sneaking around onboard our boat. I saw them but they jumped over the side before I could get a good look.?

A shiver went up the back of his neck. Had someone marked him and even now a timer was counting down to extinguish his life?

Luke wasn’t tired now. His blood was pumping with adrenaline as the thought of his boat blowing up around him flashed through his mind. He discarded his shirt and flip flops and emptied the pockets of his shorts and rushed out to the rail. He muttered an incantation then hurled himself into the dark water.

It was impossible for him to see. The water prevented any night time sky from penetrating. He surfaced, snapped his fingers and a burning light appeared. He made a gesture and the light went into the water. He swam around the hull looking for the bomb he figured was there. But there was nothing. He left the boat and searched the bottom of the bay. It wasn’t very deep here. Plenty of fish found his light equally confounding and interesting. There was nothing down here of interest.?

Curious. He got back on board and searched every nook and cranny but could find no sign of a bomb or any other foreign object. On his desk it did look like someone had gone through his papers and things. He could not tell if anything was missing. An idea occurred to him and he left the boat and walked back up the pier to the office.

Inside he checked the security camera. It changed focused every fifteen seconds between the parking lot and the pier. He sped the recording back in time to early in the day then progressed past the time he’d left the boat.

It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. He saw an image of Tiger walking down the pier. In the distance a shadowy figure could be seen on the “Divine Pleasure”.

He couldn’t make much out of the photo. The camera wasn’t that great and the distance was extreme. Yet in the next frame his jaw dropped. An image of the prowler could be seen diving over the side. In what had to be a lucky circumstance the frame of the shot was precisely when the stranger was entering the water.?

Those weren’t scuba fins, it looked like one solid caudal fin!?

Needless to say it took Luke a while to go to sleep. A fish had been on his boat looking through his stuff. A fish?!? Not a fish per se but a merman.?

Now he was really baffled. Why? He thought they lived much further away from the shore, especially one so developed as this area. He’d sleep on it and maybe figure it out later.

(Open tag)

"P-Palyndra?"? Rabbit said distractedly as he checked Roue all over.? "Oh, she's r-real alright.? She's about the realest... uhm..." the little vampire hesitated, trying for a word "...thing," he finally settled on "...you're ever gonna m-meet.? Even if you cain' hardly believe it after.? Kinda like what you're f-feelin' right now."

He hugged Roue back tightly, letting the moment linger as he enjoyed the closeness and the elf's bodily warmth.

"I only know a little about her," Rabbit said after releasing his lover.? "I know she's been around a long time.? And I mean r-really long.? I think she's one of the club's oldest members.? But she's been around way longer than th-that." He chewed his lip as if considering how much he should say. And how much he shouldn't.? "She's kinda like one of the F-Fates the Greeks used to believe in," he said finally.? "She... she can, uhm, see stuff.? I mean like seein' into the past and the future too.? At least sometimes, anyways."

"A lot of people want to see her if she's here, but she's kinda picky 'bout who she talks to." Rabbit regarded Roue with a curious look.? "If'n she let you see her, it means she thinks you're, uhm, interestin'. Which could be a g-good thing, or a b-bad thing.? It just depends on what she sees when she, uhm, you know, l-looks at you.? But be careful.? Especially if'n you ask her any questions.? Her answers usually have a p-price.? And I don' mean m-money."

"Yeah," the slender youth said to Roue's other question.? "I f-found who I was lookin' for.? And she was able to tell me some stuff."? He fidgeted awkwardly for a moment, looking uneasy.? "I had to kinda settle a debt first though, which is why I was gone so long. And I ended up owing her even more for what she told me this time."??

Rabbit looked around in concern, then looked back to Roue.? "Can we go b-back to my room?? I don' wanna talk 'bout it here.? T-too many, you know, ears."

“Thank you for letting me ride with you.” She said. “I’ll go see if I can find some wood.” She said standing to go find some wood. Just as she was starting to move around she heard Sicilien. “He said we are hidden in plain? sight. Whatever is following us knows we are here. They just can’t get to us. So I don’t think it matters about the fire. Besides we need to eat and get some rest. A fire is the only way to go that.”

When he asked about moving Flynn. She deferred to Callie or Chase. She really didn’t know.

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(Charity)

As the sun set, from the caves, mines, and dark spaces throughout the foothills bats set forth, spreading their leathery wings into the night. They clustered near their prey, the swarms of tiny scavengers haunting the dead of Bendo. The flapping of their wings as they twirled and spun in a feeding frenzy, alone with their high pitched voices, merged into a barely audible hum.

More importantly, to Charity, was their 'sight' of the landscape. As she danced and spun she listened to their voices drifting to her on the winds. It was not so much what was reflecting their tiny calls back to them, prey and obstacles, but what was not. Slightly over a mile from Millers Crossing, along the Bendo coach road, was a spherical void in the bat's perception of the night. It appeared to Charity that the skeletal remains of Bendo would reach that void some time between midnight and dawn.

"Found you," she whispered. "My only regret is that you will be downwind of your demise and you will smell it approaching. Sleep well!" Charity laughed.

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(Chase)

His senses were keen, animal like.? In truth of all of his senses he hated his sense of smell most of all.? He could tell when he needed a bath and others too.? But he was able to also sense minute scents, sex, arousal, fear, he couldn’t since anger probably because he was angry most of the time so he could never tell if it was someone else or him.? But some emotions or activities gave off certain scents….including death.? The problem with that was sometimes dead things didn’t stay dead!? Something he was first hand acquainted with.? He heard Flynn and turned to him, hearing his words and his own senses confirmed it.? It moved on the air, something about what the homoculi said that still had him focused on the fact that all of them were needed…so all of them had to die!??

He knew they needed to get to Miller’s Crossing to stop it, but that was going to be difficult if they couldn’t get there!? He had scavenged enough bullets, but he also had a sword in his pack that the woman Etienne might find handy if she was less apt to use a gun.? It might be safe for all, if she wasn’t firearm adept.? He was not sure they were going to be good here.? They needed to be on the move but their protective shield in the form of Flynn needed a recharge.? Chase wasn’t at all sure if he was protecting them he had enough juice to move them just yet either.??

‘This is definitely not how I wanted to meet my maker.’? He smirked to himself and moved to his horse, he grabbed the extra shells and loaded his rifle and guns.? All of those that he had before pulling out his knife that was more akin to a short sword for someone smaller.? He thought about what was possibly about to happen, head shots for the walking dead, knees for a few others.? He was thinking they might have to take off in a hurry and might just have to slow them down in order for the troops to get away.? But whatever solace they were to have would be found in the crossing.

“Then all you have to do is wait then?”? Chase responded to his new comrade loud enough for him to hear and no one else since they were particularly close to one another.

He listened to the woman then her ex and shook his head.? She was right as was he.? But he didn’t exactly have all of his things or he would just give them all some jerky and call it good.? Starting a fire right now was the least of their troubles as the scent increased and he started to become nauseated which meant more than one thing of the deceased coming their way…several more.

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(Callie Carson)

"No fire," Callie said calmly. She tossed some rations to Etienne and settled down to wait.

It was night and Callie sat on a boulder, sharpening her knife, keeping an eye on Etienne to make sure she didn't run, and that neither Chase nor Sicilian bothered her. She also had to concentrate hard to make sure she didn't look at the protective circle Flynn was projecting around them. She could only imagine how hard this was for him to maintain. She hoped it held, or they might find themselves lost, wandering in the desert.

As she sat and busied herself, she suddenly noticed a foul stench, wafting into the campsite from the direction of Bendo. She ignored it at first, but as time passed she realized the smell was growing stronger. Then a grim realization came over her.

Flynn had foretold this. Trouble, he'd said, coming their way.

The only stench she knew that was like this was the dead, when they walked the earth. She sheathed her blade and picked up her rifle before walking toward Flynn, who sat on the ground, deep in concentration. She knelt beside him and leaned in close to his ear.

"Luv," she whispered. "The dead approach. Will this keep them out?"

(Flynn)

The pookah didn't open his eyes.? He didn't need to.? The dead were like a toxic shadow in the dreaming, impossible to miss.??

"No, luv," he murmured, his half-asleep features looking sad.? "It keeps them from... seeing us... but that is all....? If they keep walking this way... they'll pass right through it."? He was quiet for a long moment, thinking.? Finally he murmured "One chance... move me... east... 'bout two hundred yards... everyone stayin' close.... I'll try'n keep the spell up."

"But if'n that don' work... gotta fight..." he mumbled finally, each word seeming to cost him effort.? "Fight for your lives... axes're good... fire's best... sorry, luv..."? He then fell silent.

Tag:? Chase, Callie, Flynn, Sicilien, Etienne, Charity (jumping in periodically)

(Summer)

“True but those places are always a bore.?Plus the people they are always old. They wreck of death...and BenGay. Please they’ve been kind of antsy lately. Always calling the cops and although I want trouble, I want the right kind of trouble, you know. Let’s hit a burger shop. The crowds there gotta be younger...more fun right.“

(Cho)

Cho was in the only all night ice creamery in town.? He was starting to get used to this place rolling up the streets at night.? It after 2am so what was he expecting.? Mardi Gras?? Hmm.? He thought before standing in line and ordering his blueberry pie with chocolate chips.

He was pondering the night and things looked particularly quiet but that meant maybe a visit to the park something to get into for the night, or not?? Maybe he would just finish his ice cream then just head home.? Nothing urgent pressing him and he wasn’t hunting anyone or anything right now so that left him with eating, he was glad he had something to drink at home cause he surely would need something to put him out tonight.

(Autumn)

"I wasn't saying those places in particular," Autumn said as she pulled out her phone to look for somewhere to go. "In the mood for a brain freeze? There is an all night ice creamery that is open. I don't think we have been there yet. Might be interesting." She suggested with a smile, "besides it's give us an excuse to cuddle."

Tag: Summer, Cho

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Scarlett handed Luke another card. She figured he probably no longer had the one she'd given him on their first meeting. She smiled, "Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot," she said. "Get a hold of me tomorrow night, I'm thinking I'll be ready to run a little surveillance on the house where they're staying."

The redhead then turned and headed off to return to her bike and make her way back to her apartment. As she disappeared into the night, she called back to Reardon, "And remember what I said about dealing with my people...I'm not trying to tell you what to do, just offering my advice. Take care."

A short time later she was headed back to her apartment so she could be inside before sunrise....

Luke shrugged, “I’m still angry. That is not going to change. I’ll do everything in my power to help bring these bastards down.”

He nodded at her departing advice, “I hear you, you too.”

Exhausted, he ran back to the marina and slipped back on his boat. The sun would be up too soon and he needed sleep.?

Tag: open

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(Diego)

Diego took a dive off of the diving board.??The water felt good on his body.??He was wearing dark blue swim trunks.??He surfaced with a sigh as the water ran off of his head.??He slicked back his hair and started swimming laps.??He liked to ensure he kept in shape and found swimming relaxing.??It was much better then running.??He paused at the end near Sofia and gave her a smile, before shooting off the edge on his back to swim backwards to the other side again.

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(Antonio)

Antonio kept his other activities to himself.? He rarely if ever brought anyone….anything home.? So when his glorious night was over, he was back in his bed.? He slept for a few hours but after a bit he just laid there. He was contemplating his life and the changes that brought him to this point when his senses heard the splash of the pool.? He got up to look out through the one way glass down at the pool.? He watched his lady and his brother were in the water, then he scouted the grounds briefly and made sure nothing was going on before he went back toward his bed.?

?

He enjoyed the true comfort of his own bed.? He knew before long he was going back to states to cause havoc, the thought put a smile upon his face but even he had to admit he would miss the comfort of his own surroundings.? He agreed to what they said, there was truly no place like home.? Around these people, despite their different backgrounds yes this was his ‘home’ now.? With a pearly white smile he fell back into bed thinking of the last time he didn’t wake up alone…

Sofia

Fifty-five miles south of Santo Cristo Mexico

The late evening sky was blistered by the rhythmic streaks of lightning and the hollow thunder of distant storms.? Sofia lounged by the pool watching the display with interest.

“It’s that time,” She said to those who attended her. “Fredo thankyou for providing the girl.”

The man named Fredo tilted his head. “It is as it should be,” he said in broken spanish.

Sofia stood and walked to the rear of the pool area where a small brick walkway led off into the desert.? She wore her crystal-beaded dress that cut just below her left hip. The dark blue low cut gown accentuated her cleavage. On one leg a sheath held a dagger with an ornate grip.?

She led the procession out into the open desert. Some of those who followed carried torches.?

One hundred feet out they came to a shallow ground that ran in a circle fifty-feet wide. Within the circle a stone pillar stood erect and solitary. A young naked female was strapped to the stone. When she saw Sofia she let out a low whimper.

Sofia crossed the short distance flowing down the course and over to the monolith.?

“Hush child,” she said. She offered a wafer from a pocket. The girl shook her head but the Witch took hold of her jaw with one hand and forced the wafer into her mouth.?

Sofia began to chant in a strange language. Then she slowed the pace and repeated in spanish “Tierra, earth take this gift. Give what you have taken in return.”

Soft blue lights shaped like flower petals began to dance from her fingertips. They floated in the air then began to collapse onto the naked form of the girl.?

The girl seemed to change. Her fear had turned to a soft murmur of pleasure. Her body moved to some silent music bound as she was.?

Sofia knelt in front of the girl and took up some desert sand with her hands then held them aloft and quoted the strange words over and over.?

“This gift we give freely,” Sofia continued in spanish. “Take and I shall gorge on your power.”

The ground beneath their feet shook gently.?

Sofia drew her dagger in a swift movement and sliced open the girl from sternum to bladder.?

A soft murmur arose from those who attended. The girl seemed unaware still moving her head from side to side as her blood dripped heartily into the stone at her feet.?

The ground shook again and a low humming sound grew from all around.

Sofia began to glow in a white sheath of light. Her words grew disjointed and profane.?

Beads of light started to shimmer and circle around her body, they twinkled and sparkled like Christmas lights.

She spread her arms out wide and the lights danced away in a hypnotic dance picking up speed and flying off into the heavens.?

Sofia looked up at her retainer's, eyes bright silver. Then she turned to the monolith and the disfigured body. Hands held wide she brought them together with a loud crackle. Silver flame shot out from her hands and engulfed the body. The body behind the flame melted and bled into the ground like molten glass.

When the last glow faded Sofia turned and walked purposefully back to her hacienda.

Tag: Diego, Antonio

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