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Kalanna Rai
Assassin for Hire
Joined: 21 Jan 2006
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 Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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Any other suggestions? Poll goes up tomorrow.
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:46 am Post subject: |
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I'll reread the story again, I usually get lost, so hope you don't mind. I have an idea a converstation with a human would turn badly. I want to see an outcast. 
*hold on* Ok I'm going to read this tonight offline. And I'll give my ideas on how I see vampire stories. 
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Fenris
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| Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm sorry that I can't give out a well thought out suggestion. My brain doesn't function to well on Tuesdays. Or any day before three o clock. Bust wonderful chapter , funny too.
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Lilith
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Joined: 10 Feb 2007
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Location: Happily curled up in a Daemon's lap
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Kalanna Rai
Assassin for Hire
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Location: The Frozen North
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| Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:29 pm Post subject: |
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Okay, the poll is FINALLY up. Can I get some votes from the folks who might still be out there?
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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Kalanna Rai
Assassin for Hire
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Topics: 173
Posts: 3102
Location: The Frozen North
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| Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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*leaves present under tree* Enjoy!
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Chapter Sixteen: The Sword and the Gun
"Travis, a word with you?"
Slowly the vampire turned, flicking roan hair from piercing eyes, hands tucked nonchalantly in his pockets as gaze came to rest on the young woman who clutched her clipboard tightly and bit at her lips nervously. He debated smiling for a moment and decided he'd better not bother. Like so many these days she'd 'accepted' the vampires but she didn't exactly like it. Jumpy, nervous, the stress shadowing her eyes as fear gave her perfume a sharp and bitter air. "Miss Laroche, how may I be of assistance?"
She flinched at his words, as if there were some physical impact. From the corner of the room Greg cleared his throat, tapping his watch as if to remind Travis of something pressing. In actuality it was for the timid Miss Laroche, reminding her that Travis was important, busy, and that his time came at a premium. Somewhere inside he chuckled at the almost overprotectiveness of it. As if he were Greg's own private vampire. The boy and his silly, annoying, uncomfortable crush.
"Ah, yes. I just wanted to make sure that you are availible for that luncheon with the President and the Secretary of State on the 15th. Your assistant was less than helpful on-"
He held up a hand to cut her off, smiling to distract her as she flinched even harder. "Miss Laroche, Greg is less than helpful because I plan my own itenerary. It's a quirk of mine." Hand reached into the pocket of his suit, pulling forth a little black book, fingertip flicking through the crisp pages until he reached the desired one and nodded. "Ah yes, I can just make a late lunch with them and please, will you ensure we don't have a repeat of last month's bloody fiasco? A nice bisque would be sumptous. Perhaps a pudding?"
Humans were very slow to change their minds on some things. The last dinner he'd attended had featured a 'Bleeder' a human so desiring of vampires that they were willing to spill blood into cups and pitchers so that the vampire might drink. Indeed there were several new 'catagories' of humans that revolved around vampires. The terms were insulting, much in the way of racial or sexual slurs, but that hadn't stopped them from sticking. Or from causing no end of problems.
In the new termonology someone like Greg, who willingly served and aided vampires without any coercion, was called by the unimaginative title of 'vamp lover'. Those who actually had intimate relations with vampires were called something far more lewd and vulgar. Those who cut themselves so that a vampire might drink were 'Bleeders' and those who let the vampire actually bite them to draw the blood were called 'Pets' as they were usually kept as such.
Violence broke out regularly, discrimination was practiced against anyone even remotely connected to the vampires. And heaven forbid you were spotted sporting a pair of fang marks in the wrong area. Vampire security and self control could only do so much, there were of course a few incidents. Deaths where the body was found punctured and drained did nothing to help relations. Humans pouncing on younger vampires, grown cocky now that they no longer needed to hide, and driving stakes through their hearts or downing them in a hail of automatic gunfire.
Travis himself had recived more than his fair share of death threats. Nasty and insulting e-mails had turned up on his computers. The threatening phone calls had stopped when he replied to them with laughter and polite conversation, he truly feared those individuals very little. Still, in the past three months humans had attempted to take his life. Once they'd nearly succeded. He might heal quickly but there was only so much healing one could do when they were missing their head. Luckily the would-be sniper had not counted on Travis' speed. Once he had heard the bullet, dodging it had been sheer simplicity.
He was brought out of his recollections by the soft tap of Greg's finger on his shoulder. "Travis, I hate to interrupt your thoughts but we really should be going. I'd rather not get caught in another patrol sweep tonight."
He nodded, hand reaching up to tap the gem that rested against his chest, fiddling with the pendant until it flashed as he desired. Left hand brushed against the sleeves of the armored shirt, straightening a few wrinkles, before lifting to readjust the fedora on his head. Hazel eyes flicked to Greg's worried face and he nodded. "Alright, let's collect Gunner from next door and be on our way."
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Greg sighed as he followed Travis broad back out into the night. He kept his head down, thinking about the usual things. About scheduals, destinations, travel times, meetings, arrangements...his life had become so busy. But Travis had needed an assistant and Shelly could not fill the position. It was hard enough for her, her pro-vampire veiws barely tolorated in the art world, almost not tolorated outside of it. There wasn't much room in society yet for vampires and the people who accepted them.
It was easier for him in a lot of ways, he had nothing to lose. He was already gay, already in love with a vampire or well better to put it he was attracted to the vampire, love was a bit strong a word. He jerked his thoughts away, flicking his eyes out into the darkness, catching sight of something. "Travis is there-"
The staccto sounds of gunfire ripped through the night before Greg could finish his sentance. The dreadful sounds of bullets impacting flesh echoing from ahead of him as the automatic rounds pummeled into Travis. A spray of something warm and wet misted across Greg's face and it didn't take a genious to realize it was blood. Travis blood.
The vampire dropped to one knee as the clicking noise of empty guns mixed with the laughter of their weilders. Slowly five men, humans, dressed in leather and camoflauge moved out of the shadows of the nearby overpass. "Lookie lookie boys! Looks like the great Travis Rose isn't so damn great afterall...a few pounds of lead certainly slowed him down didn't it?" There were chuckles and nods to greet the words of the bald man, surly their de facto leader.
Travis was making a horrible gagging noise, a wet hacking sound. And as Greg looked on in horror the vampire heaved a wad of something meaty and blood covered into one upturned hand. The other was still braced against pavement that now gleamed wetly, damp with the blood that dripped and trickled from the hunched form. For a moment Greg didn't know what to do, knowing that the moment Travis was gone so was he.
But a new sound rose, stifling the laughter of the would be assassins. The men in their leather and camo, shirts proudly reading the 'HUMANITY LEAUGE' going deathly silent as a new laughter rose. It rattled and wetly wheezed, sputtering in a liquid manner. But it was growing clearer by the moment, growing in volume. And it was coming from Travis.
The vampire began to stir, to move, standing unsteadily as the horrified members of the miliatant 'Humanity Leauge' remaind frozen. The hand that had braced against the pavement now rose, two long fingers stirring the gorey wad that filled the palm of Travis's other hand. "Pitiful dogs. Didn't your masters teach you anything before they let you loose? Guns are a woefully poor weapong for killing a vampire." The two long fingers fished around in the pulpy mound a moment more before pulling away, holding something up in the dim illumination of the streetlights...a bullet casing.
Travis flicked it away negligently, tipping his gore filled palm to the side as he did so. The meaty mound broke apart as it fell, hitting the ground with a wet squish and a series of plinks. More bullet casings. And then a sweet sound Greg recognized filled the air, the musical hiss of swords being drawn. The blades rose, glimmering and glittering, their steel pure and unsullied for the moment. And Travis spoke again in mild, almost amused tones. "No, for killing a vampire the weapon of choice has, for centuries, been the sword."
By the time those words had finished registering in Greg's ears the blades were no longer pure, no longer clean, the gleam along them reflecting blackly off shed blood. Eight mounds lay where four men had stood, their forms neatly bisected by blades swung with inhuman speed and precision. The bald man was gone, his throat laid open so savagely the bones of the spine could be seen. It was not the wound of a sword and Greg didn't need to dwell on the cause more than a moment. "He angered me, so I ripped it out." Such a mild tone of voice for such horrifying words.
Instead he surveyed the devistation of Travis clothes, blinking in startled surprise. The front of the long duster, the front of the shirt were gone. Shot so many times they'd been obliterated. Instead only the pale gleam of the vampire's torso was revealed and Greg looked up quickly. His face was clean, a spot of blood at the corner of his mouth the only sign that Travis's lips had recently been in contact with the substance.
Abruptly the vampire turned and, with a hacking noise like a cat with a hairball, heaved up another handful of casings. This time though, mercifully, they were shimmering and clean of debris. He scattered these on the pavement as well, heedless of the drawing crowd. "I dislike firearms. I'll be coughing up shells for a week at this rate."
"Travis...you're alright?" He couldn't believe it. Just simply couldn't believe that the vampire could take this much damage and yet...the shells he spit out and discarded were the only evidence of it. He was a-
"Monster? Of course Greg. I've not lied, not hidden it from you, nor dissuaded you from that idea. I am a monster. I draw my existance from the lifesblood of others...and a few other food substances. This," he gestured to his healed torso "is but one aspect of my monsterous physiology."
True, Greg knew all this. It's just it had never really hit home before. He'd always seen Travis display his abilities in situations that were beyond the mundane. But any human mind could grasp the horrible reality of having guns open fire on someone. Which is what put the abilities in a sharper focus for Greg. "But...couldn't you have dodged them?" Travis moved, moved faster than the eye could see. Couldn't he have just stepped aside and let the bullets fly?
"I could have Greg. But where would that have left you?"
For a moment he stared into hazel eyes, caught like a rabbit in the stare of a hawk. It was true. Had Travis stepped aside from those bullets then Greg, who'd been following behind, would have been obliterated in a rain of hot metal. Had Travis been wearing normal clothing, not the reinforced duster, it was likely the bullets would have gone all the way through his flesh and beyond anyway. Luck, and the vampire, had kept Greg alive for another day.
"Wait...you mean to tell me you deliberately allowed yourself to be injured...instead of a human?"
Both of them turned to face the speaker, an older woman in a creme buisnessuit heading a growing throng of news cameras. There was a flit of emotion across her face as she recognized them, or perhaps just Greg as Travis was not photogenic. "Travis Rose I presume. Well well, your tolorance is quickly becoming legendary. Was this another lesson in 'co-existance'?"
Travis shook his head, smiling tiredly. "This was a lesson in humanity. Those calling themselves the 'Human League' want to protect humanity from vampires. I am a vampire wanting to protect humanity from vampires. The difference between our methods...mine do not usually put the innocent in the path of danger ma'am."
There were authorities on the scene, all human, scratching their heads as to what proceedure should be followed. There was a crowd of well dressed, wealthy humans pressing against the barriers of law, order, and common sense. Perhaps it was a sign of trouble to come that the Humanity League had chosen an upscale buisness district to unleash their destruction in. Perhaps it was a sign of desperation.
Greg didn't know. He didn't care to know. As Gunner arrived, looking like a cross between a Secret Service agent and a German mafia kingpin, to usher them away and snarl 'no comment' into the horde of microphones pressed his way, only one thought dominated Greg's mind.
Why had Travis done it? Was there more to the vampire's decision than he'd admitted? Or was Greg just holding out foolish and childish hope once again?
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Alright folks, an interesting dp for all of you to chew on. What reasons could Travis have had for saving Greg's life again? Are they the rosey thoughts that Greg is having, of love and feelings deeper than friendship? Or is it friendship indeed? Could Travis actually be plotting something, fooling the world with charm and smile? Only you know.
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Happy Holidays and a Merry IFmas everyone! Hope you liked.
_________________
"It's not just about living forever...the trick is living with yourself forever..."
"Music makes you braver."
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