Dalton had survived the gunfight in Cordoba... barely. A local woman of the village had found him after the rest of his friends had left. He had meant what he had said to Lee in Hard Edge... he was retiring... from all of it. What better place to start over than Mexico. He fell in love with her... his Mariya and ends up having a daughter. When he dies she is sent back to the US and first finds the two old men who she is named after and they teach her to be the noble outlaw... lady gunslinger just as lethal with a smile as a knife rifle or gun. Taught by the best she becomes the best and finds herself the target of none other than the son of her mentors and adopted grandfathers former youngest outlaw protégé Bryce. Bryce son however became a sheriff in Hard Edge just like Dalton had been. Then his path crossed hers this beautiful lady gunslinger... what is a sheriff to do...[/I]
Torrance Lee Dalton. Lady Gunslinger
Draw... Torrance barked out standing before her. She stared down her name sake and went for her gun. The expected thrown hunting knife found its mark pinning her arm by the shirt sleeve to the porch support behind her. Then the glass bottle on the fence behind him shattered as she had popped a derringer out of her sleeve and fired.
Good aim Lee called out. Glad we ain't on your bad side young lady and proof we have taught you all we can to survive her in the west.
Lee's wife looked over from her chair. You can not return to Cordoba... promise us you will not return there.
She nodded to them and smiled a reverent smile to them. I will not go back to Cordoba... any time soon. I want to see the town father called home... and enjoy... my freedom here in America.
Lee and Torrance just looked to each other and shared a knowing nod. They had trained her well and be it bank train or stagecoach she would be victorious.
After weeks of wandering and knocking over a bank here and there she had found her way days after her wanted poster to Hard Edge. Riding in she made her way to the saloon and nodded to the bartender who fixed her a whiskey. She saw some drovers hassling other patrons and looked to the bartender. Need some help with that pest problem friend? She lifted her head a little and gave the bartender a better look at her face his expression quickly changed and an almost frightened nod was all he offered. She smiled slammed her shot of whiskey and turned to face the trouble makers.
Well now gentlemen... looks like you all need a lesson in manners. So here it is... you can leave or... you can leave.
Seeing it was just a woman a couple of them stood up the third guy went to grab for his associates but it was too late. The largest of the three went for his gun only to end up with a bullet in his hand.
Don't be stupid boys I asked you nicely to leave so let's try this again.
The situation ended the expected way the three drovers with bullets in their hands and then in their chests and the mystery woman long gone except for her hat with a bullet hole in it and a soft linger of perfume on it to by the time the Sheriff arrived.
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Walker Dalton Naylor... Sheriff
The latest wanted poster landed on his desk as the rotund mayor glared at him. His dad had told him what had happened in Hard Edge when he rode with Lee and Torrence. The mayor seemed to know the tales too since he lived them. Walker just nodded and smiled till the man left. He glanced at the clearly rebuilt wall where Dalton had blasted his way to retirement and back info the fray. Sounded like they really knew how to live. Shame he never got to meet Lee Torrence or Dalton. Maybe one day when this town gets too boring or pompous he might let them relive Dalton's retirement performance. He even had a little three stick roll of dynamite waiting for that day in the gun safe.
When he finally looked at the poster and saw a woman staring back at him he was stunned. If her picture was that beautiful just how much more stunning was she in the flesh. Reading the name almost gave him a chill. Her last name was Dalton... no way... couldn't be any kin to... then again her names was Torrance Lee Dalton. Could dad have been wrong... No had to be a coincidence. He sat staring at the picture on the poster wanting her to come to Hard Edge but hoping he would never have to meet her.... even the law is only human after all.
The mask too sparkly and ornate for anyone to realize her true identity but Sheriff Naylor sure seemed like he was trying to figure it out. Repeatedly she found herself in his arms twirling around the surprising ballroom in the Mayor's home. The pompous Easterner family had built this over glorified dwelling two generations ago and simply added to it as the fashions dictated.
She spoke very little as it was far to entertaining listening to the sheriff talk about the town and surrounding area and his entrapment in her eyes an how he normally never attended things like this.
His partner had been kidnapped. He was sure of it. She had been undercover and her target had been attacked and nearly wiped out and when they were shown the crime scene and the survivors the local police bad picked up or hauled to the hospital and she was nowhere to be found. He however was determined to find her.
Her eyes finally opened or at least tried to... It was clear somewhere deep in the back of her mind that she had been drugged. One moment she was sitting in the office of the club her target owned when gunfire roared out. Body guards trying to hurry her to the escape tunnel leading to the private level of the garage then more gunshots and a burning feeling in her neck and shoulder... then nothing.
Well now Marco I won't have to kill you for giving her too much. I always said my traitorous nephew bad good taste in arm candy.
The room was swirling around it felt like her body was swirling around opposite of the room. Suddenly a shadow human in shape came into her hazy view.
Welcome back my dear... I do apologize for Marco he gets a little... Overzealous with the injection. Welcome to your new home MY dear!
With that whoever was attached to the voice locked a rough and brutal kiss to her lips before speaking again...
Detective Franklin Brandt was a decorated cop... Always appeared by the books upstanding cop. He looked perfect on paper. Beautiful young wife 15 yrs his junior with her own hobby that turned into a little cash. A model for local artist academy. Their life behind closed doors was her nightmare to endure his delusional fantasy and hunger for rape. He never left a visible mark on her but he also had no plans of ever giving her freedom. Another addiction was gambling... Poker night which has on a couple of occasions ended in her paying his gambling debt.
Her only break from his dark cruel hungers was when his son would come home to visit due to being in town or nearby on business. His son was just a couple of years younger than her and never seemed to be any the wiser about what happened when he was away. His son had sit in on poker night from time to time when he was in town. Bis son had his own secret or two like his boss not realizing he was the son of a cop and his dad not realizing that his son was a mob hitman, or that he has been plotting to steal his "stepmother" away from the old man. What will happen when daddy dearest slips up and he learns the truth about what happens to his biggest fantasy at the hands of his father.
She was a unique blend of beings even in the world of myths and legends. She was a unique balance of like her parents and different.
A sex drive that would tire them both out.
A wanderlust and no desire to ever settle... Ever.
She had even been rumored to have killed when some faction tried to direct her into a "political" situation or marriage.
Information for her was little more than fodder for what the mortals thought she was.
Alexis Mathara... The writer who bad never met a genre she didn't like. She seldom if ever made her way to the enigma of a city her parents called home... At least for now.
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He was nothing like his parents. Or at least he wanted to believe that. He viewed their lives after be was grown as settling for nothing... Maybe not even each other. He loved them be just couldn't u derstand them. He had a rather surprising job as far as they were concerned but it worked for him. A well respected psychologist and artist.
"__________" a young archeologist/historian obsessed with a painting his grandmother had found when an ancient castle had been unearthed. A simple enough painting of a woman in a strange gown.
His grandfather was never able to learn anything about the painting it's subject nor the castle lost deep in a mountain believed to be uninhabitable get a grand castle had been reclaimed by the mountain none the less
She had slept peacefully for centuries till humans found her home. It didn't take long to get used to this new age much less find her place among the artists and dreamers once more only now they made far more money and were knkwn all over the world not just their respective countries. Acting seemed to be where they seemed to love her the most. Roles of historic nature either true or the amazing fantasy of some writer. She always seemed to blend into the part. Especially now... Approached to do a historical myth movie she was told she would be working closely with the only person who has a decent understanding of the myth of the Bloodstone castle. This was too good... A movie about the myth and legend of what was actually her life.
She had no way of knowing that this would also bring her enemies back from the shadows of oblivion.
She could kill her publisher. Why in the hell did that idiot agree to let some pompous Hollywood director turn one of her books into a movie much less one of the book series. Now she had been dragged back to a place she never wanted to see again. Her books made millions she had no need for the additional money from a movie. She really didn't need for the director and his crew to be so determined for her to be involved in set costume casting and everything. It had taken her centuries to build up this reclusive world and in one insane sentence her publisher destroyed it...
She'll do it.
Oh she'll do it she will string her publisher up. Spare the world her original plan of embracing him. Now here she sits in a casting office waiting to see who they think should play the "character" who truth be known had been her lover so many centuries ago.
Once a month Baynor Academy holds Tutor Auctions. As a way of helping students and raising money to aid the different departments. Tutors can only be Juniors, Seniors, grad students or professors though it is mostly only the younger professors who participate to be auctioned off. The Dean of the department that the money earned will help is the auctioneer that month. Special groups on campus can get in on the auctions to raise money for their group. Those auctions sometimes have a theme to them.
Student headed auctions have one distinction. The student in charge of the auction gets "first dibs" on those that sign up to be auctioned off. Also auctions that are group support have other incentives as well.
Four 2 hour tutoring sessions and an escort to an on campus party or some other seemingly innocent offer for example.
It is a blessing that most humans think that the strange beings and fantastical creatures are simply some writers over active if not drugged up imagination.... Luckily... However they sadly would be wrong on many counts. So many creatures and strangely gifted or cursed beings have lived among the humans since time out of mind. The various writers and Hollywood movie makers who seem to thrive on such types of movies and stories in fact have at some point and time crossed paths with one of those beings or in the case of writers simply boredom of centuries of living causing temporary insanity to tell a story they don't think the humans will care about... No such luck
Hollywood has exposed more than anyone else to larger audiences and the humans gobble it up as fiction. Gaining their information or ideas from drunk stuntmen or women,. A voice coach being recruited to help with a movie who weaves the tale of how or why a creature would have a certain sound.
So now I work more "freely" among the humans reflexes to make a cat look like a sloth with and hearing to rival most of the animal kingdom my order calls brethren. That's when I met him... A splendid and curious human who was the lead in Hollywood's most revealing movie about secret orders, creatures who call the night home and other such fantastical creatures. I am sadly saddled with being the stunt double for some petty pampered princess who barely k owe how to treat anyone as anything more than props in her prissy little world. If only were could be as open as we are in the humans movies... Pampered princess would be ribbons scattered to the wild and I would not require so much blood to hold my temper and tongue.
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Ekaterina was pissed and Gia the actress she was stunt double for was to blame... Again. Dominic Grant had fought long and hard to build a professional friendship with "Kat" and this spoiled daddy bought and paid for career actress was always within a hairs breath of ruining it. If it wasn't for the fact that the studio demanded Gia Marks be in the film or else Dominic would have fired her ass the first day.
"Kat" was pacing while Gia whined to his assistant how she would never have made a jump look like that and could she make Kat the stunt help do it right like she would. Dominic could hear "Kat" growl under her breath for the pampered little princess to do her own stunts next time. At sits end Dominic walked over to the other star of the film.
You work more with Kat than anyone. We can't lose her on this and I can't fire Gia. You get her to stay and my next movie you get first pick for the leads.
Long before Boston and her pack Ishari had been little more than a lab test by demented humans. Scientists and soldiers... But how had they learned of her kind? It didn't matter really how but what they did with that knowledge. Imprison so many different kinds... Including one that held the scent of death about her. Ishari they seemed to take great entertainment in trying to bring the killer to the surface and keep it there... Even in a child. Years droned by till her mind finally in a violent act of self defense... Splintered. They now had their killing machine... Killing them. Wiping out everything in some last ditch effort to escape. Once the carnage was done the one who held the scent of death stood over the physically and mentally shattered Ishari and told her she was not meant to die there but to find her true pack in the new world.... As immortal as the warrior soul she possessed...with a family... And purpose. She told Ishari that the spirits had told her about Ishari and how to help her. Then kneeling by the shattered young woman the death stench woman hugged her and then... darkness. Days later soldiers had found the base that looked more human war torn than wild animal berserker rage.
One soldier saw a paper crumpled in the death stench ones hand and quickly scooped Ishari up and carried her into a tent and soon she was in a crate with the same soldier and another couple of people arriving in Boston. Slowly carefully due to her fractured mind they began to teach her how to survive among the mortals were creatures and vampires.