Living in Exile

[st_clare]

Dearest Edmund,

Well, I've arrived, and Las Vegas is just as vulgar as I'd expected. My flight landed late, so I got to the hotel at midnight when the lights were at their brightest and most glaring. I've never seen so much neon. The electricity here must cost a bloody fortune.

I have a suite at the Bellagio that the Council is paying for, but I'm going to rent an apartment in the suburbs once I get my bearings. I refuse to live in this city. The desert is bad enough, but if I'm to be exiled to this place I'll at least live where it's remotely civilized.

On the good side of things, I have a meeting with the dean at the local university. My cover job is that of a professor of linguistics, so I'll be putting my education to use as well as doing the expected yearly inspection of whatever Slayer might be in the area. I must admit that I'm rather looking forward to it. As dubious as I am about this assignment after the last time I was in the field, the girl could need guidance and counsel. We have to be good for something, or else what else are we doing here? And perhaps I'll take a lover. There should be someone on the teaching staff at UNLV who's old enough. And stop making that face. I miss you, but I'm not going to go without.

Am I out of my league, Edmund? It took me a long time to get over Allison's death, and I never thought I'd be active again after she was killed. The Council is fairly lenient with the girls, but they don't tolerate failure in us. If I must admit to it, I'm worried that I won't measure up. I'm too old to be sentimental about much, but my calling is very important to me or else I wouldn't have agreed to the decision to send me so far away from home again. I must...I must do better this time.

Well, I must go. It's terribly late and I need to sleep off the rest of this jet lag. Please write me when you can, and I'll keep you in my thoughts.

Yours,
Julianna

Crouching Wolf, Hidden Demon

[wolfs_daughter]

Meditation was the best part of her morning.

Echo had gotten up with the sunrise, eaten a quick breakfast of a bagel and jelly, then sat in the lotus position for fifteen minutes while she shook off the last of her dream and cleared her head. Despite her genetic makeup, she was by nature fairly centered and could find her calm space as long as there was no pretty girl in her immediate vicinity. It was only then that she turned into a blithering moron.

She was imagining a long, empty highway, not unlike the one that had led her to Searchlight, and she pictured herself walking down the center of it as the sunlight of the new morning brewed up another hot day. When this was over, she would take out the trash and clean up last night's dishes, then pad out to the edges of the trailer park and do her tai chi routine. No one would be up at this hour to see her at it, and it wasn't that eccentric anyway. It wasn't like she liked to walk around naked.

The hybrid's inner clock said she'd reached a stopping point, and she unfolded her frame from the position and rubbed at her thigh muscles in case of a pins-and-needles sensation. She was wearing sweatpants and a gray wifebeater, her feet and arms bare for when she faced the budding heat outside. It was good she'd put some bottles of water in the fridge last night, she might need one for later.

Echo put the stopper in the aluminum sink and ran some water into the basin, then added dish soap before putting her plate and cup into the suds. The trailer was small enough that even little messes made the place seem uninhabitable, so she knew she'd have to stay on top of the housekeeping situation. Mama had taught her very well how to clean up after herself, though.

The single door creaked open when she carried the trash bag outside, and she dropped it into the garbage can the town provided. Small rocks pressed into the soles of her unshod feet, but it didn't bother her. There was going to be a grocery run later, she needed some things.

The trailer park was almost eerily silent as Echo reached the fringes of it, and she brought her hands together in a prayerful gesture before pushing air out through her nose. And...begin.

Roulette

[holiday_pirner]

The key clicking into place was the only sound in the deserted hallway of her father’s old building. The foyer door swung open with a push of her gloved hand, the hinges protesting wearily. Her dad had usually been the one to oil them. Holly’s coat rustled around her as she followed that familiar trail: up the stairs, a hairpin right, three more steps and then his door. Wooden, solid, designed to keep bad things out.

She let herself in, closing the door quickly behind her. The brunette kicked her boots off by habit, leaving them on the little wooden shelf next to the umbrella stand. A pair of his loafers were still there. Holly had been there once a week since his death, and while she was now the owner of this flat, she couldn’t bring herself to take up residence in it.

Padding to his humble little study, which began its life as a tiny second bedroom, she realized this would never be home. Holly had fond memories of the place, to be sure. Weekends when she would take the Underground here, they’d order a pizza, talk, watch some ridiculous drama unfold on the television. But her father had never seen fit to tell her the truth, so the idea of living here, living in that lie, was something with which she couldn’t deal.

Still, the prospect of selling or renting the place also made her blanch.

In the small, cozily lit room, Holly decided to try his planner again. The appointments and to-do sections were useless, they were written in some indecipherable shorthand. However, the address and phone book were tidily scrawled and easy to read. The problem was the only names she recognized were of no use to her.

Flipping idly through it, though, she paused, her index finger hovering vaguely. St.Clare, Julianna. The name pricked at something in her mind, not quite familiarity, but...Maybe Holly would have to take a chance. Phone number roulette. She grabbed the handset on his desk, dialing each digit deliberately.

It seemed to ring forever, and then...”Hello, this is Holiday Pirner. I think you knew my father...”

Big Winners

[holiday_pirner]

She had never seen lights that bright before. From the moment Holly’s plane had landed -- after several tedious layovers -- her eyes hadn’t known where to focus. And perhaps that was the point. Las Vegas was like a drug. It took you in, cradled you in light and sound so overwhelming, you’d consider it a privilege to let it drain your wallet dry.

It hadn’t taken long for her to find someone with a certain bag of tricks. A knowing smile, mutual recognition, the exchange of a few newly acquired American dollars, and it was hers. And maybe she’d find someone to share it with, because if you did it with someone else, it didn’t feel like a Problem with a capital P. It was just fun.

So Holly, a little out of her depth, descended in a gilded elevator to the hotel’s very own onsite casino. It was quite convenient, really. She was dressed in a black leather jacket, bandage dress, combat boots. She wandered over toward a row of slot machines, drinking in the surroundings.

( The Best Odds )

NPC Victor written by Stargazer

Ladies' Choice

[daniel_stacy]

“Another gay bar. Why’s it always gotta be a gay bar?”

Daniel scowled and drank his vodka tonic. He had nothing against gays. Freddie Mercury was gay as a three dollar bill and he was a pimp. The trouble with gay bars was that he couldn’t get laid in one. Not by a woman, anyway. Daniel had heard rumors that vampires stopped caring who they boned, but he supposed the heterosexual hadn’t worn off him yet. Privately, he wondered how many years that took.

A track by Chaka Khan had the dance floor packed. He peered through the haze of dry ice for a certain pale face. He had lost track of her on his drink run. Probably wandered to the bathroom looking for easy pickings, he mused. He followed his nose to a corner that reeked of piss.

“Aha! Found you!” He draped his arm around the redhead and gave her a martini. “You know, you are really overdressed for this dump.”

[Thread: Open to Deanna]