Cards of Death

[BLACK BART]

Las Vegas> It was the City of Glitter, fast money and faster women. At Night the neon signs lit up and the city came to life, streets and sidewalks packed with humanity, shape shifters and vampires.

Las Vegas, where futures were made and broken, where lives began and were taken away. A single hand of cards and it all began or ended.

A new evil walked the sidewalks, choosing its victims at random it seemed, but was there random death? Odds said no in the back rooms...Odds said three to one that SHE wouldn't come to this town, where everything was bigger...better...more evil.

I gladly took those odds and matched them, for I had an inside straight on HER. My name here was Ted Forrestor and I had placed a phone call, one SHE wouldn't refuse...Couldn't refuse...

I had called a favor in on the Executioner, and I waited for her now, waiting and wondering what would happen when the executioner played the hand I dealt. I had called in the monster killer, the executioner of vampires, and the evilest of the evil. But I was Death, the name given to me since my early days, after training in an elite unit that taught me every way possible to kill, and then I invented a dozen more.

Las Vegas was neutral ground for all things, dead or alive and it made it a playground where the few rules left were observed cautiously, the alliances always changing, shifting over invisible boundaries. But suddenly something new had arrived, and with a set of rules to it’s own self. It had begun to hunt the dead and the living alike, ending their existence on this planet with gruesome results. We would hunt it together, and in the end would we become the hunted?

Shrugging my shoulders at the mental query I knew it didn’t matter, the hunt was what I lived for, and the ending was unimportant. What I cared about was the strength of the quarry, how many teeth it had, and how fun it would be when I pulled them out…it was what drove me onward, over every obstacle and to bigger and more dangerous prey.


OOC: One for Along Came Mary and I, read and enjoy. Perhaps more parts will open at a later date, but until then try and decide who is the greater monster…

 

[along came mary]

Anita

I stepped off the propjet into the hot, dry Nevada air. I plucked at my shirt, the navy button up that had been entirely appropriate for St. Louis, was fairly ridiculous here. I’d only been out of the air-conditioned prop for five minutes now and yet the shirt was definitely damp to the point of clingy from perspiration. The outline of my shoulder harness was clearly visible and I sighed as I noticed it. It didn’t really bother me, but I knew it might alarm others and right now, I just didn’t need the hassle. I readjusted the shoulder strap of my carry-on as I scanned the horizon. He was suppose to meet me here with a car, but as of yet, no sign. I frowned. I was tired, hot, sweaty, hungry and uncomfortable. Not to mention I’d spent the last three hours in a small jet engine. The knots in my stomach had yet to ease. God, how I hated to fly let alone on a personal puddle jumper.

Things were obviously pretty bad if Edward.. erh, I mean Ted was calling in a favor of me. (I just can’t get used to referring to him as his alias, gah!) Edward, ugh, again, I mean Ted rarely asked for assistance in anything. In all honestly, I can only recall of one instance before and truly, I’d rather not think about that if I don’t have to. If he thought I’m necessary to help him get rid of this ‘evil’ that was infesting Sin City, well then it had to be one bad-assed boogie-man, or woman for that matter – who knew? No one by what little information Ted had shared to me so far, but I had no doubt that we’d be finding out, face to face, in no short order.

 

[BLACK BART]

Ted

The hot air wafted thru the sliding doors as they opened, it's unforgiving tendrils brushing over my sunburned face and thru the hair I now wore short...

Anita had arrived, and as usual had no idea how easily she made it apparent she was ALL woman...or the effect she had on the male AND female population as she passed thru them.

Male eyes turned and tracked her as she flared...Lust filling the twin orbs of each as they followed her graceful figure, the cloth plastered over her upper torso, revealing so much more than just the harness she carried or the pistol nestled within it.

Female eyes followed her as well, eyes showing distrust and confusion...Distrust because they felt her aura and the power it hinted at...the direct approach she had to each problem..or person she faced...and confusion because of feeling as they did with a woman she had never met....

I moved off the pillar where I had parked my back to, a corner that served it's purpose twicefold in letting me see the entire waiting area...and keeping my back safe..moved off and towards Anita as I watched her from behind her and approached her silently...testing her as I approached and pushed my own twin barrelled derringer into her back...

"Despite the entrance you make you need to be more aware of where you are...Anita" I teased, feeling her body tense as her own gun (already drawn) moved to track me...


"And those lightning fast reflexes you now possess wouldn't save you from the loads I have in this"

I grinned and step to her side, now moving in step with her as I ignored the pistol she kept pointed at me...The entire incident going unnoticed by the throng of people that we walked with...

"I have a car waiting for us and we need to get moving, the Master of the City waits for us...and her time is limited"