\ Author:David http://unlimitedi.net/taxonomy/term/176/all en 23:08 An Hypnotic Encounter http://unlimitedi.net/node/3465 <p><p> <span lang="EN">Slowly, Meredith slid from the booth, checking the way was clear before bolting for the cover of the bar. She had to get out of here, preferably before the cops arrived if she had any hope of actually getting to work tonight. More importantly she had to find Gail and make sure she was okay. </span></p> <p> <span lang="EN"><span style="font-style:italic">Beedle-Beep&hellip;</span> </span></p> <p> <span lang="EN"><span style="font-style:italic">Beedle-Beep&hellip;</span> </span></p> <p> <span lang="EN">&ldquo;Oh, shit! <span style="font-style:italic">Shit!</span>&rdquo; Meredith cursed under her breath as she fumbled inside her purse, trying to find her pager. She quickly shut off the alarm and read the message.</span></p> <p> <span lang="EN"><font face="Courier New" size="2"><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span style="font-style:italic">10-4 U? Meet ASAP.</span></font></font></span></p> <p> <span lang="EN"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2">Gail. Thank-god. It was one of their standard messages when they got separated on a night out meaning she was fine and that they needed to hook up quickly. That last was kind of unnecessary considering, but Meredith&rsquo;s heartbeat slowed to a more reasonable pace just knowing that her friend was safe. </font></font></span></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">&quot;Hello, what treats are they hiding behind the bar? Trust Jasmin to save the good stuff for later.&quot;</span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Meredith&rsquo;s gaze shot upwards, meeting that of the very man she&rsquo;d been trying to avoid. Balthazar Romano leered down at her and she could almost feel the slimy trail of his gaze as it glided slowly up her legs before coming to rest on her tits. For a moment she was thrown, thinking that maybe he&rsquo;d noticed her listening in on his conversation. However, it quickly became apparent, as Meredith rose to her feet and Romano&rsquo;s ogling gaze fell to the hem of her dress as she held it from riding any higher, that he had other, more sordid thoughts occupying his mind. </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">&ldquo;Dream on, Grandpa,&rdquo; she snorted dismissively as she replaced her pager in her purse, easily able to mask her unease behind genuine disgust. This man had not only just faced down a gun-toting criminal, he&rsquo;d struck up a deal with him. Ordering the murder of one of his own employees with as much concern as ordering a Big Mac with extra cheese. Now he was coming on to her while people were still screaming and sobbing all around them?! He really was a stone cold bastard. </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Romano laughed scornfully, &quot;I understand if you aren&#39;t interested, honey, but I am. And I get what I am interested in. Look into my eyes and tell me I&#39;m wrong.&quot;</span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Meredith did look, she gave him her iciest glare, the one that could freeze Satan&rsquo;s underpants. This guy wasn&rsquo;t just a murdering son-of-a-bitch, he was delusional in the extreme. He had to be like three times her age for a start! </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Only&hellip; the more she looked into his dark eyes, deep and bottomless like the depths of the ocean&hellip; the more she felt her determined resolve slip away. It was like having a warm bath after a tiring day, heating her body from the inside and slowly easing out any knots of resistance one by one. The more she continued to look into Romano&rsquo;s eyes, the more she felt like&hellip; maybe he was more handsome than she&rsquo;d given him credit for and maybe she wouldn&rsquo;t mind getting to know him better&hellip; a lot better actually&hellip;</span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-style:italic">*What!? Snap out of it girl!*</span> The voice inside her head was practically screaming that something wasn&rsquo;t right. That&hellip; <span style="font-style:italic">fuck</span> he had to have slipped something in her drink when she wasn&rsquo;t looking! Meredith was usually so careful about that sort of thing, she never accepted a drink she hadn&rsquo;t seen poured and if she ever took her eye off her glass she&rsquo;d get rid of it. But&hellip; wait, hadn&rsquo;t she put down her drink when she&rsquo;d been at the buffet? It hadn&rsquo;t been for long but&hellip; perhaps long enough for someone to slip her a roofie? </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">And after all, if Romano was capable of sanctioning murder, date rape was probably how he got his kicks. </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">&ldquo;You&hellip; bastard!&rdquo; she spat, though even the act of speaking took too much concentration. He&rsquo;d drugged her, it was the only explanation for how she was feeling. Anger flared like a struck match. Her eyes burned with it while her fingers gripped the edge of the bar for support. </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">&quot;There, there, temper, temper!&rdquo; Romano&rsquo;s voice was like honey dripping off the edge of a knife. You could stop one, but not without starting another. &ldquo;Wouldn&#39;t you rather have a nice drink with me rather than fight me?&quot; </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">She did, actually. A drink sounded nice. Especially if Romano would be there. <span style="font-style:italic">*And then what? You know what he wants, just like the rest of them. You weren&rsquo;t big enough or strong enough to stop that happening before. But you are now.*</span></span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Meredith frowned and some of the last lingering flickers of her resolve returned. Blindly she grabbed one of the empty beer bottles on the bar and threw it at him. It missed by miles and smashed noisily on the floor. Romano looked faintly amused, his gaze intensifying as she reached for another bottle, her fingers halting in midair&hellip;</span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Suddenly rough hands grabbed Meredith and pulled her forcefully away from the eyes that threatened to sap her will. Instantly her mind began to clear, like stepping from a dark room into the sunlight&hellip;</span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">&quot;None of that, now, lady! There&#39;s been enough disruption for one night without starting more trouble.&quot; </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">A bouncer had hold of her by both arms and was dragging her towards an exit. Meredith could see another bouncer talking to Romano, occasionally throwing her an angry glare. &quot;Are you okay sir? Did she injure you? Do you want to press charges?&quot;</span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">&quot;Best be on your way, Ma&rsquo;am,&rdquo; the man said in a gentler tone than he had used before. &ldquo;The party is over for tonight, I think.&rdquo; Releasing her arms he pointed to the exit. &quot;Watch your step.&quot;</span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN">Meredith nodded, casting one quick look back at Balthazar Romano as she stumbled uneasily towards the fire door, lit with a bright green EXIT sign. Pushing down on the bar, she heaved open the door and stepped out onto the metal staircase that was the emergency fire exit. The cool night air felt good, <span style="font-style:italic">really</span> good against her hot skin and she breathed it in deeply, clearing out the last of that woolly headed sensation. Whatever Romano had slipped in her drink it seemed to have worn off pretty fast. </span></font></font></p> <p> <font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS" size="2"><span lang="EN">And had only made her more determined to uncover the truth. </span></font></font></p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3465#comments Author:David Author:Louisa Character:Balthazar Romano Character:Meredith Bell Location:Graveyard Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:34:28 +0000 Meredith Bell 3465 at http://unlimitedi.net 22:48 Logan and Pablo on the dance floor http://unlimitedi.net/node/3464 <p><p> Logan&rsquo;s eyes glanced back up the staircase scanning for any sign of Balthazar. If he couldn&#39;t see him then he felt reasonably sure he was safe from gunfire. So much for &lsquo;what bad could happen?&rsquo;, he swore silently, pushing his way past a group of hysteric party-goers.</p> <p> Time for plan &#39;B&#39;. If Logan couldn&rsquo;t be by his boss&rsquo;s side upstairs the only other option was to incapacitate the gunmen downstairs. Plus, the faster he could take down the psychos, the better chance Cadee and Anne had to get out of this bloodbath unscathed.</p> <p> With iron resolve, Logan pushed onwards towards the action. He felt like a salmon swimming upstream, his path considerably slowed by the wave of frenzied patrons doing their best to get away from the shooting.</p> <p> Pablo shoved his way upstream from the front door and ducked around a corner.&nbsp; He pulled the chain on his badge over his head and checked the .45.&nbsp; It wasn&#39;t a full clip but the remaining seven bullets should be enough as long as it didn&#39;t turn into a prolonged gunfight.&nbsp; A pretty girl with a panicked look got shoved into him.&nbsp; She saw the gun and nearly screamed but then she saw the badge. &quot;Thank God you are here! Two nut-bags came in the back and started shooting!&quot;</p> <p> Pablo listened to her politely while trying to see around her.&nbsp; He could hear shots at the back of the room which made her statement irrelevant. There was still a lot of activity inside and he needed to get closer.&nbsp; &quot;I have called for backup, lady, but I have to get you out of here. Head to the door.&nbsp; Keep down.&nbsp; Go!&quot;</p> <p> She nodded sheep-like and started to move when a bullet hit her square in the back.&nbsp; Her blood sprayed over the people in front of her.&nbsp; She laid there on the ground bleeding out while looking at him to do something. He had to pull his eyes away from the sight and did what he could.&nbsp; He kept his head down and charged in while saying a prayer...for both her and him.</p> <p> &ldquo;Watch out!&rdquo; Logan all but tackled a young man who was about to stray into the path of the newest round of gunfire. &ldquo;Look there&rsquo;s an exit there, go! Run now!&rdquo;</p> <p> With a terrified nod, the man mumbled something that resembled a &lsquo;thanks&rsquo; before charging to safety, which now provided Logan with a clear view of the shooters.</p> <p> For a moment, he stopped dead in his tracks, astonished at what lay before him &ldquo;Oh Fuck!&rdquo; One of the shooters was missing the better part of his face and for, all intent and purposes. There was no way he should even be alive. The other assailant, though not as disfigured as his jawless counterpart, had a huge gash running down his back, exposing his gruesome innards. Being employed by Balthazar had opened up a world of crazy, but these guys just topped the scale of weird. Of course, strange or not, Logan had a job to do and he wasn&rsquo;t about to let the crazed zombies get away with this.</p> <p> Fighting his natural instinct, Logan held back, waiting for a break in the gunfire &ndash; sure he was strong and fast, but he sure as hell wasn&rsquo;t bulletproof. Luckily, it didn&rsquo;t take more that a few seconds for the moment he needed and with one final, deep breath, he exploded into a full sprint, straight for the one with an intact head.</p> <p> Completely caught of guard by the speed of his attacker, Kosta had no time to raise any defense before the man connected with a flying shoulder tackle. Both Logan and revenant tumbled to the ground, the force of the impact sending the gun flying harmlessly out of the killer&rsquo;s hand.</p> <p> Quicker to recover, Logan pounced on Kosta, and wrapped his powerful arms around the villain&rsquo;s head, &ldquo;You piece of shit!&rdquo; Logan spat. With one violent twist, there was a sickening crack as he snapped the man&rsquo;s neck. Expecting the man to fall down dead, Logan rolled to a stance facing the faceless wonder.</p> <p> A voice behind him said, &ldquo;Not so fast pretty boy!&rdquo;</p> <p> it was Logan&#39;s to be caught by surprise. He was completely unprepared when the zombie jumped back to his feet.</p> <p> &ldquo;Sitting duck right over here, Zoran,&rdquo; Kosta yelled to his partner while struggling to hold the would-be hero in place.</p> <p> &quot;Hur ghur ghorgee,&quot; the grotesque tongue flapped over the ragged hole of the ghoul&#39;s throat as he raised his machine-gun to point at Logan.</p> <p> The sound of two loud shots rang out through the club.&nbsp; Logan flinched only to see Pablo Sandoval standing behind the bar wielding an automatic pistol in a tow-hand stance.&nbsp; Zoran&#39;s remaining eye looked down at the huge holes in his torso and his eyebrow knotted, &quot;Wiizzg wee,&quot;&nbsp; it said. And aimed at Pablo.</p> <p> Pablo yelped and ducked behind the bar as the glass, bottles, Lexan and neon lighting exploded around him.</p> <p> Logan twisted and managed to get an arm free long enough to grab his attacker&#39;s ear and he pulled, hard.&nbsp; The ear ripped free of the skull and the attacker let go of Logan long enough for him to hop aside.&nbsp; He was about to counter-attack when two burly security guys grabbed the leather-clad thug and began to wrestle him to the ground.</p> <p> Ensuring that his attacker was properly subdued, Logan tossed the dismembered ear and headed towards the remaining zombie. The cop had arrived in the knick of time to save his life, and it was time to repay the favour! <em>D&eacute;j&agrave; vue</em> For the second time this week he and Pablo found themselves fighting side by side, just another weird coincidence to add to the already bizarre chain of events.</p> <p> Logan was about to distract the headless gunman when circumstances did the work for him.&nbsp; A bright flash of light flooded the alleyway alongside the building.&nbsp; The strobing white light turning the dark abattoir of a dance floor into a macabre still-life of bodies and blood.&nbsp; Then the CRACK of lightning that made the window panes shake, crack, and shatter in places.</p> <p> Logan did not hesitate to take advantage of the distraction and with expert precision spun like tornado, his first leg kicking the gun out of the monster&rsquo;s hand, his next kick landing square in Zoran&rsquo;s chest.</p> <p> The beast garbled some form of inaudible protest, but Logan only continued his rampage. No one could argue that fighting a zombie in the middle of a New York party was definitely strange, and yet, the bodyguard couldn&rsquo;t help but feel a strange sensation of what he could only describe as &lsquo;rightness&rsquo; wash over him. The battle, the blood, the mayhem&hellip;it all seemed vaguely familiar and so oddly comforting.</p> <p> &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll find some way to kill you, you Fucker!&rdquo; Logan roared, as he speared the ghoul to the floor and began to beat on the already pulverized head.</p> <p> Zoran, pinned by Logan&#39;s body, reached into a boot and pulled out a hunting knife which he sank deep into his attacker&#39;s leg.</p> <p> Even as Logan paused his assault momentarily a heavy studded boot kicked him hard in the shoulder to knock him to the ground. &quot;Don&#39;t beat Zoran like dat! His head not so good no more,&quot; a heavily accented voice said and punctuated with it a .50 cal. Desert Eagle pointed at Logan&#39;s head.</p> <p> Pablo rose from the bar in time to see the gun rise.&nbsp; Without hesitation he climbed to the top of the ruined bar and launched himself in a dive at Drago. Pablo had no idea who he was, but he was defending one of those...things.&nbsp; They weren&#39;t dead or rotten, so they weren&#39;t zombies.&nbsp; He didn&#39;t know what they were.&nbsp;</p> <p> The security guys had pretty thoroughly pinned the other one and the cops would deal with him soon enough.&nbsp; While behind the bar he&#39;d had just enough time to call dispatch to make sure that his men of the SCU Tactical were being sent rather than the usual NYPD boys.&nbsp; He&#39;d had enough time to specify what was going on in a vague sort of way since he wasn&#39;t sure what was going on himself at the moment.</p> <p> He hit Drago hard enough that he fell over and dropped his cannon, but it ended up with him, Pablo, the thing and Logan all sprawled among the corpses and wounded lying on the dance floor.&nbsp; Drago and Zoran scrambled towards the exit as Pablo crawled towards Logan.</p> <p> &ldquo;Shit,&rdquo; Logan winced, the pain running from his thigh through the rest of his body. The knife was buried deep and it was going to be a bitch taking it out. But out it needed to come, so with gritted teeth, and one deep breath, he tugged with all his might. &ldquo;Arrghggg Fuck!&rdquo; The agony was intense, and it clouded his vision, causing him to recognize Pablo only when he was close.</p> <p> &ldquo;I&rsquo;m fine, and thanks for the save&rdquo; he huffed, applying pressure to the gaping wound. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to make sure those bastards don&rsquo;t get away&rdquo;. With fierce determination, the man struggled to his feet, only to have his leg give out half way up. Pablo was quick, catching hold of the man before he crumbled back to the floor</p> <p> <em>Geez, he&rsquo;s a lot heavier than he looks</em></p> <p> &ldquo;Forget me, they&rsquo;re getting away&rdquo; said Logan, pulling himself free of cop&rsquo;s grasp.</p> <p> Pablo held on despite Logan&#39;s protests.&nbsp; &quot;Let them go.&nbsp; I got a good look at the big one and the other guy isn&#39;t going to be able to hide for long with a head like that. There are people here who need help first, starting with you.&quot;</p> <p> Pablo lowered Logan into a booth and lifted his leg onto the table to examine the wound. &quot;&iexcl;Mi&eacute;rcoles!, This is a deep cut.&nbsp; You need to keep pressure on it.&nbsp; Can you feel your toes?...no nerve damage?&quot;</p> <p> Logan shook his head in pain and Pablo nodded. He went back into the dance floor to check for any other survivors he could help.</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3464#comments Author:David Author:Shaun Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Character:Logan Location:Graveyard Tue, 01 Feb 2011 03:37:29 +0000 mrdave2176 3464 at http://unlimitedi.net 22:41 Alison and Pablo on the Balcony http://unlimitedi.net/node/3452 <p><p>He knew she couldn't hear him over the sounds of the club. Ever closer he inched being careful to stay behind her, in her blind spot. She was leaning against one of the windows looking out over the city at night. Between the lights in the club and the angle of the glass even that wouldn't help her detect him moving ever closer to her. Tonight, Lucinda Graves was his prey. He would have her and she would not suspect him.</p> <p>When he was within inches of her he leaned over her bare shoulder. He placed his lips on the warm skin of her neck.</p> <p>She jumped slightly, letting out a small yelp at this sudden intrusion into her personal space. She guessed - hoped - who it might be, but she couldn't be sure. Without turning her head, she decided it would be fun to speculate.</p> <p>"Hmm, Sven?"</p> <p>He made a "mmm" sound against her neck. Not really an answer wither way. He knew the spot she liked right...there. He passed his tongue over her neck while surrounding it with little kisses.</p> <p>Alison shivered. Now she was sure.</p> <p>"Oh, of course. It must be Logan."</p> <p>He snorted derisively and nibbled lightly at the side of her neck while making growling noises. He set the strawberry mojito next to her on the windowsill.</p> <p>"Ooh, strawberry mojito. I'll bet that's a clue." Alison picked up the drink and sipped at it, enjoying the shivers Pablo was sending down her back. "Let's see... there was a man earlier tonight who brought me a couple of these. Now what was his name again? Pedro? No... Patrick? No, I give up, sorry."</p> <p>Pablo moved his mouth next to her ear, "Your lover, Juan Pablo has baited, hunted and captured you."</p> <p>He moved around in front of her and smiled, "Or at least cornered you. Sorry I've been so scarce all night. But you have been the queen bee in this hive of activity."</p> <p>"Oh, lover is it?" She grinned and moved a little closer, wrapping her free arm around his waist. "And I'm the one who should be sorry. I feel like I've abandoned you. But, you know, that's how these things tend to go." She gazed back at the party that was still going in full swing. "Thank god this place has quiet noooks and crannies like this."</p> <p>With her high heels, she was actually a little taller than Pablo, but even so she leant her head down and rested it on his shoulder and closed her eyes. It felt warm, comfortable - safe. She brushed her lips against his neck, in much the same manner he'd been doing to her moments before. "I hope you managed to stay entertained, at least."</p> <p>"That feels nice. Overfed and over excited, would be closer to the truth. And maybe more than a little drunk. I don't know what they are putting in these drinks but my last two have been bottled water. I practically had to show my badge to even get one of these bartenders to give me water."</p> <p>He held her hand and stroked her palm with his thumb. "It is fun to play dress-up, but I am feeling really out of place. I'd rather be outside. I found the balcony is really nice even though some smokers have been using it. It's less noisy than the club and the night air feels good."</p> <p>"I'm sure we can find a corner that's relatively smokeless. And it'll be nice to rest my ears from this music for a bit," she agreed. Clutching her mojito in one hand and holding onto Pablo's hand with the other, they strolled outside. The fresh night air felt good on her face and she breathed deeply. Only a couple of other people were out here at this point, and they were up the far end. They had most of the balcony to themselves.</p> <p>"Oh, yes, I wish I'd come out here earlier." She turned and kissed Pablo, a light peck. "Thanks for suggesting it." A few paces brought her to the railing and she leaned her back against it, revelling in the respite from the demands of the evening.</p> <p>He settled in to enjoy the moment. Here with his arms around her looking down on the street he felt comfortable. <span style="font-style:italic">I could get used to this,</span> he thought.</p> <p>Shouting drifted up from the street, peppered with gunfire. It was loud and Pablo glanced over the railing to see what it was. <span style="font-style:italic">A cop is never off-duty,</span> ran though his mind. Then a blast of fire blew out of the alley and into the street. Pablo instinctively pulled Alison away from the railing.</p> <p>Even as Pablo tugged on her arm, Alison twisted to see what was going on. <span style="font-style:italic">A reporter is never off-duty,</span> she thought, remembering her words to Pablo in Slàinte. Her first thought was that it was some sort of drunken domestic dispute, but the rattle of bullets and the <span style="font-style:italic">whoomph</span> sound as fire erupted along the alleyway put paid to that. She rooted around in her purse and pulled out her phone, setting it to video as she stepped back towards the edge of the balcony.</p> <p>Pablo glanced around. It was only twelve feet to the ground, give or take. It was the fastest way. "Stand back," he said in his best cop voice and climbed over the railing. He slid over the edge and used the ledge to dangle towards the street. Hanging this way reduced the drop to only six feet or so.</p> <p>Alison stared down at Pablo, the video recording the dying fires in the alleyway, the retreating figures of two people racing into the club downstairs, and the dangling figure of Detective Sandoval hanging by his fingertips off the ledge. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she hissed in a stage whisper.</p> <p>He landed lightly on his feet, pulled out his badge and reached for his gun. Reached for and realized he didn't have it. He looked up at her leaning over the railing with her phone pointed at him, "Trying to get myself killed while saving lives. Please stand back so I don't have to worry about you so much."</p> <p>He peered into the alleway cautiously. Perhaps even more cautiously than he would have if he had had a gun with him. From here he could see a charred corpse and nothing else. Whoever had been running away had gone inside. He spared one last glance back at Alison and then stepped into the alley.</p> <p>The charred body stirred and swore vehemently, "Jebem ti majku! Jebem ti miša! And jebem ti kuću poganu!"*</p> <p>As it stood, blackened clothing and flesh sloughed off revealing bare muscles and bone. Pablo saw a pistol, no longer supported by his smoldering pants, drop to the ground. The charred man wasn't interested in the pistol so much as hopping around angrily so Pablo snatched it up and pointed it at him. "Police! Up against the wall, charcoal man."</p> <p>Alison leaned out as far as she could. It was difficult to see what was going on, but Pablo's words rang out loud and clear. "If someone's hurt, shouldn't you call an ambulance?" she called out. "I'm coming down."</p> <p>Putting away her phone for the moment Alison turned, abandoning her mojito on the balcony ledge, and returned to the noise and hubbub of the party. Now all she had to do was make her way across the expanse of the room without being waylaid so she could get downstairs to where Pablo was. If she'd been dressed any other way, she probably would have taken Pablo's route, but that wasn't an option for her tonight. Putting on her determined face she ploughed through the partygoers, most of whom were thankfully too drunk at this point to pay her too much attention.</p> <p>Pablo was debating using his belt to tie up this ... whatever this was. He looked like a barbecued corpse and smelled terrible. But he was still moving and talking and swearing. Pablo didn't know what "Da bi šel v pizdo materno!"** meant, but it didn't sound good.</p> <p>Suddenly there were sounds of gunfire from inside the club. Pablo glanced up towards the balcony, hoping that Alison hadn’t left yet. "Da bee sel peez doh materno!" he said, or something close to it, and ran back into the lower level of the club.</p> <p><span style="font-style:italic">*Fuck your mother! Fuck your rat! And fuck your infidel house!<br /> **If only I could crawl back into my mother’s cunt.</span></p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3452#comments Author:David Author:Heather Character:Alison Scruggs Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Location:Graveyard Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:49:05 +0000 Heather 3452 at http://unlimitedi.net 19:24 "Waiting for the limo" http://unlimitedi.net/node/3439 <p><p> Pablo waited in his apartment.&nbsp; He had his badge and off-duty gun sitting on the coffee table in front of him and he was considering them carefully.&nbsp; This was a party, there was no reason to carry the piece.&nbsp; But something told him he should.&nbsp; Some instinct said that in a room full of goth crazies in a bar where there had been reports of vampire bites there would be trouble.</p> <p> Alison, however, had been very specific: <em>Be yourself, don&#39;t be a cop for one night.&nbsp; You&#39;ll meet some of my friends and maybe even have some fun. </em>Don&#39;t be a cop.&nbsp; He had been thinking about this for days.&nbsp; How do you not be a cop? You don&#39;t carry a gun.</p> <p> He picked up the badge and slid it into his pocket. Some things were too hard to ask.&nbsp; The buzzer downstairs rang and a voice came over the intercom.&nbsp; &quot;Limousine for Mr. Sandoval.&quot;</p> <p> He punched the button, &quot;Be right down&quot;</p> <p> He removed the clip and checked the chamber before placing the gun back in its drawer and locking it.&nbsp; I&#39;m going to have fun, tonight, he thought.&nbsp; But that damn voice in the back of his head wouldn&#39;t let him believe it.</p> <p> Downstairs the limo looked big enough for twelve.&nbsp; Several of the <em>barrio </em>boys were admiring it.&nbsp; They shouted to him, &quot;<em>Ese carro esta que echa caldo!</em>*&quot; and &quot;<em>En el mundo de la Farandula!**</em>&quot; and he laughed and waved.&nbsp; They were good kids and he knew they were having some fun at his expense. The driver held the door and he slid into the leather seats.&nbsp; Inside was all chrome and black Lexan with neon running lights.&nbsp;</p> <p> There was a bar, tv, stereo system, and bags of snacks.&nbsp; He helped himself to some pretzels and poured a bourbon and sat back in the car to enjoy the ride.&nbsp; He wondered if Alison spent a lot of time rising in limousines and if this was going to be a typical date night for them.</p> <p> Probably not, he finally admitted to himself.&nbsp; She only seemed to release one or two of these books a year and only the last few had been the huge best-sellers that had prompted launch parties like the one tonight.&nbsp; Once again he found it hard to reconcile his memory of Alison the eager young reporter with the big-time author.&nbsp; But that little dinner date they&#39;d had really made it clear that &quot;Lucinda&quot; wasn&#39;t Alison.&nbsp;</p> <p> He liked Alison and for that he&#39;d indulge Lucinda.&nbsp; He hoped that he could offer as much separation between Juan Pablo and Detective Sandoval.</p> <hr /> <p> *&nbsp; Your car gives broth - Slang for &quot;your car is badass&quot;</p> <p> ** You are in celebrity land - slang for he&#39;s in the &quot;big time&quot;.</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3439#comments Author:David Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Location:East Harlem Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:24:25 +0000 mrdave2176 3439 at http://unlimitedi.net 20:43 Alison and Pablo http://unlimitedi.net/node/3436 <p><p>Pablo downed the shot at the bar. <span style="font-style:italic">Let's get this party started</span>, he thought. When the bartender came back he ordered a strawberry mojito for Alison and a Hell-Firetini he'd heard someone else order. Something with cinnamon he suspected.</p> <p>He glanced over his shoulder and saw ‘Lucinda’ swimming through the crowd. He had to make sure not to lose her. <span style="font-style:italic">Again</span>, he thought.</p> <p>Soon the drinks were up and he started the juggling act that was moving through a crowd with drinks. It only took him a few minutes to cross the twenty or so feet to get to her.</p> <p>“Oh, thank you.” “Yes, you're too kind." Titter delightfully at a lewd joke. "Yes indeed, I have a whole new trilogy in mind.” “Absolutely. Lots more sex.” “Oh, Pablo, thank God.”</p> <p>Alison reached the end of a string of well-wishers to find Pablo holding the promised drink for her. It was, indeed, red. She reached for it, then realised she was still holding the glass of champagne that Romano had given her. She juggled the two for a moment before thrusting the champagne into Pablo's free hand. Taking a sip of the drink she sighed in appreciation. "Ah, strawberry mojito. Perfect."</p> <p>Pablo looked nonplussed and Alison felt a pang of guilt. "I'm sorry," she said, leaning her head close to his so they could talk without too much chance of being overheard. "I have a tough enough time at these things, but I've had time to get used to them. I shouldn't have been so selfish as to drag you here. I knew you wouldn't want to hang off my arm while I worked the room." She pecked him on the cheek knowing that it was entirely inadequate as thanks, but it was all she could do right now.</p> <p>He kissed her bare shoulder and spoke back into her ear. "I understand, I really do. I just promise to make you pay for it one night when duty calls."</p> <p>He sipped the Hell-Firetini. Nasty, just like the other one. Sooner or later, he'd find one he liked.</p> <p>“Fair enough, I suppose. If we’re keeping score, we’re one-all at Slàinte, and you owe me one for tonight. Shall I get out the blackboard?” She grinned and took another sip of her mojito. “Try the champagne, if you don’t like that… whatever the hell that is.”</p> <p>“Ok, ok, we won’t keep score, how's that? Except for keeping track of drinks. Where'd you get a champagne? More specifically a non-red champagne?”</p> <p>Alison wrapped an arm around Pablo’s waist and turned slightly so they both faced back more or less the way she’d come. “That’s a whole story in itself,” she said. “I was introduced to this guy who got champagne to arrive as if by magic. Seriously, the waiter was there in about five seconds flat. How he did it in this crowd, I have no idea.”</p> <p>Pablo gave her a look, so she sipped more of her drink and continued. “Anyway, it started out like a normal conversation, but as soon as he found out I was a reporter, he gave me the brush-off. Real fast. He’s supposed to be some sort of businessman, but he got awfully nervous – ever heard of a guy named Romano?”</p> <p>Pablo looked like the champagne had turned to vinegar. "Balthazar Romano?" he glanced around the room, "He's here?"</p> <p>Alison nodded. Somehow she wasn’t surprised at Pablo’s reaction. Just a few minutes in the man’s presence had left an oily aftertaste. “Yeah, he was over there,” she indicated with her head. “But that’s not the best part. You’ll never guess who was with him. Romano introduced him as an associate, but I got more of a bodyguard vibe. I tell you, my reporter’s instincts are screaming at me that something weird is going on.”</p> <p>Pablo looked back at her intently, "Did he gesture at you, or give you anything? This champagne came from him?" His wild-eyed look and frantic tone was more than a little alarmed.</p> <p>"Uh, yeah..." Alison stepped back a pace to really look at Pablo. "Are you okay? Whatever he's up to, I'm sure he didn't put anything in the drink." She shook her head, as if to clear it. "Look, the other bit I wanted to tell you about was who he was with. It's too much of a coincidence. It was that guy... whoa."</p> <p>A couple descended on her, sweeping her away from Pablo. "Lucinda Graves! Oh god, it really is you. We just <span style="font-style:italic">love</span> your books!" the man enthused. "When is the next one coming out?"</p> <p>As she stumbled back a couple of paces to keep her balance, she waved to Pablo. "I'll tell you later, okay? Try not to drink too much."</p> <p>"Watch out for..." but it was too late. She was out of earshot and perhaps even out of reach. He saluted with the Hell-Firetini and casually dumped the champagne onto a nearby tray. Then he headed off the floor. He needed some air.</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3436#comments Author:David Author:Heather Character:Alison Scruggs Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Location:Graveyard Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:47:06 +0000 Heather 3436 at http://unlimitedi.net 21:42 Logan and Pablo in the bathroom http://unlimitedi.net/node/3432 <p><p> Pablo slammed the door of the bathroom hard enough to make two of the men at the urinals jump. <em>That rat bastard</em>, he fumed, <em>How dare he threaten the innocent people at this party in a game of my dick is bigger? I&#39;d win, anyways.</em></p> <p> He splashed water on a towel and wiped his face, the cool feeling on his hot face eased his nerves. He&#39;d had a drink or two too many, he thought. He should know better than to mix work and pleasure. He was here to enjoy himself and goading Balthazar Romano didn&#39;t accomplish anything useful.</p> <p> Logan was still smiling to himself, picturing <em>The Harpee&rsquo;s</em> face, red and ready to blow. Did that girl have a chip on her shoulder or what? <em>But she&rsquo;s got a great pair of legs&hellip;</em>.</p> <p> Squeezing through another set of Lucinda fans, Logan pushed open the bathroom door, only to once again run into the cop - and he did not look happy.</p> <p> &nbsp;&ldquo;Hey buddy, everything ok?&rdquo;</p> <p> Pablo sighed and straightened himself. &quot;Yes, I&#39;m fine. I just let some...thing get to me. I needed a second to cool off. I&#39;m good now.&quot;</p> <p> He forced himself to smile at the young man, &quot;I&#39;m under control,&quot; he said, but he wasn&#39;t sure who he was trying to convince himself or Logan.</p> <p> &nbsp;&ldquo;You know how people get with a few drinks in them, don&rsquo;t worry about it&rdquo;.</p> <p> He couldn&rsquo;t help but wonder why his boss was so adamant that he stay away from Pablo. Balthazar wasn&rsquo;t a bad guy, so why exactly did he have beef with this cop? One thing Logan knew is that his gut told him Lt. Sandoval was one of the good guys.</p> <p> &nbsp;&ldquo;You know, I never really got to thank you,&rdquo; Logan began awkwardly, already semi regretting the words that came out of his mouth. He was definitely opening a can of worms, but some things needed to be said. &ldquo;Had you not been there on Tuesday night&hellip;&rdquo; he let the words trail off.</p> <p> Sandoval could feel the alcohol fogging his mind again, &quot;What? Don&#39;t sweat it, us humans have to stick together. They are out there, you know? Out to get us.&quot;</p> <p> He felt ill. Something he&#39;d eaten, drank, or put up with tonight was having its say.</p> <p> &quot;&#39;Scuse me!&quot; Sandoval mumbled and bolted for a stall.</p> <p> The rush of food and liquor was out in a flash. A second heave finished the deal. &quot;Ugh, I should know better,&quot;&nbsp; he said flushing away the evidence. His mind was clearing.&nbsp;</p> <p> Logan was caught a little of guard by Pablo&rsquo;s sudden turn for the worse - then again, probably a blessing in disguise. He didn&rsquo;t want to dwell on Tuesday&rsquo;s events.</p> <p> &ldquo;Buddy, you alright?&rdquo; he called at Pablo.</p> <p> A mumbled, &ldquo;Fine,&rdquo; came from the stall.&nbsp; He slipped out nonchalantly.<em>Man</em><em>, this night is turning out to be fucking weird.</em></p> <p> Sandoval spit a few times to clear the bits in his mouth before heading back to the sink to clean up. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t you, Juan Pablo,&rdquo; He said to the face in the mirror, &ldquo;What has gotten into you?&rdquo;</p> <p> He made a final check before he, too, exited the restroom.</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3432#comments Author:David Author:Shaun Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Character:Logan Location:Graveyard Sun, 23 Jan 2011 23:11:23 +0000 mrdave2176 3432 at http://unlimitedi.net 21:33 Pablo vs Balthazar http://unlimitedi.net/node/3428 <p><p> Pablo looked into the alcove where Balthazar chatted to a pair of women.&nbsp; One of them looked barely seventeen.&nbsp; <em>That old letch</em>, Pablo thought darkly, <em>I wonder if he&rsquo;s using some sort of glamour on them.&nbsp; Or a talisman.&nbsp; Possibly a potion in the drinks?</em></p> <p> He looked down into his empty glass.&nbsp; His fifth. He made a disgusted face at both himself and his quarry. With the way the booze was flowing tonight he didn&rsquo;t need a potion to make those girls interested.&nbsp; He just needed a smooth line.&nbsp; Pablo fingered the badge. In his pocket.&nbsp; He&rsquo;d promised to behave, relax, be a date and not the cop tonight.</p> <p> But he&rsquo;d been neglecting Alison most of the evening.&nbsp; He&rsquo;d been lurking in the dark corners and around the food like a loser because this wasn&rsquo;t his kind of place.&nbsp; He would have been more comfortable in an Irish pub or an Italian restaurant.&nbsp; He wanted to be listening to a folk-rock band in a coffee shop somewhere with Alison not tarted up at a dance club with Lucinda.</p> <p> And the more he thought about it the less satisfied with the situation he became. And then he was standing next to Balthazar.&nbsp; Sandoval snapped his fingers and the two girls looked at him.&nbsp; He waved at them and they blinked dazedly. &ldquo;Hi Ladies, &ldquo; he said flashing a badge, &ldquo;Do either of you have ID?&nbsp; I&rsquo;d understand if you had to scuttle back to your coats to get some.&rdquo;</p> <p> They looked nervously at each other and then left without another word.&nbsp; Balthazar turned to face Pablo.&nbsp; His brow was knitted and he was not smiling. &ldquo;<em>Detective</em>,&rdquo; he said in a low tone, &ldquo;you seem to have interrupted my conversation.&nbsp; How rude of you.&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;Sorry, Balthy, I didn&rsquo;t know you had brought your grandchildren with you.&nbsp; I&rsquo;ll be more considerate in front of the kiddies next time.&nbsp; Wouldn&rsquo;t want to set a bad example or anything.&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;In that case, Detective, I&rsquo;ll make sure that you live to have some seeing as you seem so eager to raise them right.&rdquo;</p> <p> Sandoval could feel the buzz leaving as the adrenaline began to surge through his system, &ldquo;Was that a threat, Mr. Romano?&nbsp; I&rsquo;d hate to make a scene while we are both having such fun.&rdquo;</p> <p> Balthazar moved a step closer.&nbsp; His shoes were practically touching Sandoval&rsquo;s.&nbsp; The two men stood stick-straight and looked into each other&rsquo;s eyes which were mere inches away. Neither man wanted to provoke the other by leaning in, but neither was willing to back down first.</p> <p> Sandoval was keenly aware of where Balthazar&rsquo;s hands were.&nbsp; He didn&rsquo;t want to risk the mage casting a spell or something.&nbsp; Balthazar as well was waiting for Sandoval to make an aggressive move so he&rsquo;d have an excuse.</p> <p> A perfectly manicured hand slid between them. Both men looked into Jasmin&#39;s ice-blue eyes. &quot;Gentlemen, the booze and the food is free, but I will tell you that starting trouble tonight will cost you <span style="font-style:italic">both</span>...dearly.&quot;</p> <p> Balthazar took the hand and kissed it almost tenderly and wandered away.&nbsp; Jasmin nodded and turned to Sandoval who just glared then turned and stomped away.</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3428#comments Author:David Character:Balthazar Romano Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Location:Graveyard Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:19:39 +0000 mrdave2176 3428 at http://unlimitedi.net 21:04 Pablo and Logan on Balcony http://unlimitedi.net/node/3425 <p><p> &nbsp;&ldquo;Logan, you don&rsquo;t need to hover around all night,&rdquo; Balthazar whispered, as he waved to yet another person he presumably knew. You had to give the man credit, he was an expert at working a room.</p> <p> &ldquo;Just doing my job sir.&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;I know, I know, but how am I supposed to meet any of these gorgeous ladies with a guy like you standing next to me?&rdquo; The sorcerer had one of his mischievous grins plastered all across his face. He slapped Logan on the back and pointed discreetly to a red headed bombshell just a few feet away. &ldquo;If we go talk to her, who do you think she&rsquo;s going to be more interested in, an old man like me, or a young buck like you?&rdquo; Logan smirked, he had a point. &ldquo;Now give a player a chance Logan, go get a drink or something.&rdquo;</p> <p> The bodyguard was hesitant. &ldquo;You sure?&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;Of course. This place is filled with publishing suits and literature groupies, not really the most dangerous crowd. Now I&rsquo;m going to make my move, so skedaddle would you&rdquo;.</p> <p> &ldquo;Alright, but I&rsquo;ll be close&rdquo;.</p> <p> With Balthazar scurrying off after the vivacious redhead, Logan was left standing alone. *This is a bit awkward*. Not sure what to do with himself, he decided to get the lay of the land so to speak. The place was crowded, but Balthazar had a point, no one looked particularly dangerous.</p> <p> &quot;Sorry....excuse me....sorry about that.&quot; Logan did his best to wade through the mass of people, until he noticed a man going through an archway to a more sparse area of the club. Smart guy Logan thought, following him, hoping to get some respite from the crowds. As he passed through the threshold, he immediately regretted his decision. The man he had been following to salvation had stopped to lean against the wall.&nbsp; Even from behind, Logan immediately recognized him. The cop! Fantastic. Was this just another coincidence or was something going on Logan wondered.</p> <p> Sandoval breathed easier now that he was out on the balcony, even though he didn&#39;t smoke, it was clear that this was usually a smoker&#39;s refuge. The beat of the music was still loud but it wasn&#39;t making his temples throb like it had been. He set his drink down on the railing and closed his eyes only to hear a voice behind him.</p> <p> &quot;Hey Pablo, right?&quot;</p> <p> Pablo turned and saw Logan, the strange man from earlier this week that had been attacked by the demons. He&#39;d not stopped to get to know him because of Alison, but he still had questions. It&rsquo;s was a party, it might be better to approach this as a social contact rather than a police matter. Pablo smiled and extended a hand.</p> <p> &quot;Pablo, tonight, Detective Sandoval most of the time. Logan, isn&#39;t it? Look don&#39;t look so stricken. I&#39;m off duty. I had to come out here because if I hear that &#39;unh-chik unh-chik unh-chik&#39; beat for another second I&#39;m going to either have to start dancing or go postal.&quot;</p> <p> &nbsp;&ldquo;Not sure which one is worse,&rdquo; Logan smiled, though he still remained a bit on edge. Balthazar&rsquo;s warning about Sandoval rang in his ear, even though his own &lsquo;spidey sense&rsquo; was definitely not tingling.</p> <p> &nbsp;&ldquo;Funny, I wouldn&rsquo;t have pegged you as a Lucinda Graves fan,&rdquo; he said, trying to make small talk. It was a tough situation - on one hand, he knew he couldn&rsquo;t just excuse himself without drawing suspicion, but on the other, if he stayed and chatted, for sure the topic would turn back to Tuesday night.</p> <p> Pablo laughed, &quot;I&#39;m not. Lucinda is shallow and vain, and I&#39;ve not read any of her books. <em>Alison</em>, on the other hand, is someone I admire and am looking forward to getting a lot closer to in the coming days.&quot;</p> <p> <em>The cop and the reporter together?</em> It was as if the coincidences were just compounding. &ldquo;Well, tonight&rsquo;s probably not the best date night is it,&rdquo; Logan chuckled, taking a quick glance back at the crowded interior.</p> <p> Pablo thought that Logan was glancing over his shoulder uncomfortably.&nbsp; Almost as if he was embarrassed to be seen with a cop. Pablo hated to push him for fear he&#39;d run again, but he had a feeling that he&#39;d be back before long.</p> <p> Pablo leaned back and lifted his drink, &quot;I didn&#39;t think it would be, but it has actually been very entertaining. I&#39;ve been able to see another side of Alison I didn&#39;t know. I&#39;ve been able to be an insider and an outsider tonight. You, for instance, why would you be at this party? What is your connection to either Lucinda Graves or Graveyard Club?&quot;</p> <p> The young man knew the cop wouldn&rsquo;t buy it if he said he was a die hard Lucinda fan, but what was the other option? The club owner was a vampire so it wasn&rsquo;t a good idea to connect himself to her either. Unconsciously, he began to rub his neck nervously. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m ah&hellip;I&rsquo;m actually working tonight. I do security&rdquo;.</p> <p> Pablo nodded, lots of guys work security at clubs, especially if they are strong and have some training. &quot;Nice work, especially tonight,&quot; Pablo tipped his glass toward a cluster of young, half-naked, heavily made-up ladies surrounding the blond giant who modeled the covers of Lucinda&#39;s books.</p> <p> &quot;Of course, if you were doing security, you&#39;d be closer to <strong>her</strong>,&quot; Pablo pointed the other way towards Jasmin who was being a gracious hostess and greeting people as they came in, &quot;or <strong><em>him</em></strong>,&quot; Pablo pointed at a darkened corner where Balthazar was lurking.</p> <p> Pablo&#39;s eyes burned across the darkened room. He talked absently as if thinking aloud, &quot;I spotted him a few minutes ago. I am trying to guess what his interest is in this particular event.&quot;</p> <p> Then he returned his focus to Logan and the moment, &quot;Never mind, It isn&#39;t your problem.&quot; He drained his drink, &quot;I&#39;m going to get another and maybe strafe the buffet again. Have fun.&quot;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3425#comments Author:David Author:Shaun Character:Balthazar Romano Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Character:Logan Location:Graveyard Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:49:38 +0000 mrdave2176 3425 at http://unlimitedi.net 20:23 Alison, Pablo, Anne and Cadee http://unlimitedi.net/node/3413 <p><p> &ldquo;Pablo, there you are.&rdquo; Alison found Pablo filling up his plate, juggling the platter with a glass of some concoction or other. &ldquo;What are you having? I could use one, whatever it is. I didn&rsquo;t think those photographers were ever going to stop asking for me to pose suggestively with Sven.&rdquo; She linked her arm through his and picked an hors d&rsquo;oeuvre off his dish. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve hardly had a moment to talk with anyone yet.&rdquo;</p> <p> Pablo surrendered his something-tini. He thought they had called it a &quot;Blood-tini B-Neg&quot; but it tasted like cherry schnapps. &quot;I&#39;ll say this for your publicity people, this is quite a spread. But as I look around all I see are ribs and elbows on these girls. Do they even eat? I&#39;m sorry I left you to the photographers; I was afraid they were going to ask me to pose with you. I&#39;m a little camera shy.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;I know. That&#39;s why I warned you they&#39;d be here, give you a chance to scurry off to some dark corner to hide.&quot; She grinned at him, her smile broadening further as she saw a familiar face over his shoulder.</p> <p> &quot;Hi there, Anne. It&#39;s great to see you here.&quot; She glanced around a little. &quot;Did you bring your friend Cadee with you?&quot;</p> <p> Anne smiled, happy. She had hoped to get near Lucinda at the party, and had watched her from afar as she did all the publicity shots and met all the important people. She had told herself she would approach Lucinda later in the night, when things got a little less hectic. But then, things got even more hectic, as people kept arriving.</p> <p> So she had forgotten Lucinda for a little while, especially when she caught sight of &lsquo;Mr. Tall and Wonderful&rsquo; and decided she could give him another chance, she was soft hearted like that, only to find Lucinda alone in a corner! Well, not completely alone, she thought, as she assessed the guy with her.</p> <p> &ldquo;Lucinda!! I&rsquo;m really happy to finally get to talk to you!&rdquo; she said, smiling at her idol. &ldquo;Cadee is around, but I lost her. This is packed like sardines in a can! What a success, you must be thrilled!&rdquo;</p> <p> &quot;Cadee? Pablo wiped his hand on a free napkin quickly. <span style="font-style:italic">Our</span> Cadee?&rdquo; he said to Alison then turned to the woman. &ldquo;You know each other?&quot;</p> <p> Surprised, Anne looked at him with more attention. Sure, he fitted the description of the detective Cadee mentioned often enough. Pablo Sandoval, wasn&rsquo;t it? Cadee had mentioned he was Lucinda&rsquo;s date. She smiled.</p> <p> &ldquo;<span style="font-style:italic">Your</span> Cadee? If you&rsquo;re talking about tall Cadee, blonde Cadee, beautiful Cadee&hellip; It&rsquo;s <span style="font-style:italic">my</span> Cadee. I saw her first!&rdquo;</p> <p> Alison chuckled. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s okay, Anne. We promise not to steal her away. I&rsquo;ve only met her the once, anyway, the other night at Sl&agrave;inte.&rdquo;</p> <p> She glanced at Pablo. &ldquo;Anne&rsquo;s one of my best fans,&rdquo; she said by way of explanation. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think she&rsquo;s missed a single one of my book signings.&rdquo;</p> <p> &quot;Glad to meet a fan, I&#39;m kind of the opposite. I&#39;ve never read any of Alison&#39;s books, but I am looking forward to doing that. Are you Cadee&rsquo;s...girlfriend?&quot;</p> <p> Anne laughed, delighted. &ldquo;Oh no no no, Cadee&rsquo;s as straight as they come. We&rsquo;re roommates, known each other for ages. BFF, you know?&rdquo; She looked at Lucinda then, and back to the man. &ldquo;Are you her boyfriend?&rdquo;</p> <p> Pablo looked at Alison with a smile then back to Anne, &quot;Working on it. I&#39;ll have to get back to you on that.&quot;</p> <p> Alison shared a small, secret smile with Pablo. It was still early days, but getting back together seemed to be working out well for both of them so far. She sipped at the red drink Pablo had given her and made a face. She didn&rsquo;t really fancy cherry-flavoured drinks and resolved to get herself something more to her liking as soon as she could get to the bar.</p> <p> &ldquo;So Anne, how did that audition go? Did you get the part? I was keeping my fingers crossed for you.&rdquo;</p> <p> Anne made a face. &ldquo;Not good, actually. Seems Martha Jefferson was not supposed to be petite&hellip; but I&rsquo;m looking forward for another. &lsquo;Shoggoth on the Roof&rsquo;! Can you imagine?&rdquo;</p> <p> &quot;Shoggoth?&quot; Alison blinked &quot;Can one play a fiddle with tentacles, I wonder?&quot;</p> <p> She shook her head. &quot;Well, I hope you get something soon.&quot; She paused for a moment in thought, and glanced over her shoulder where she&#39;d recently been sitting on Sven&#39;s lap while he pretended to bite her neck. She started to say something, but then thought better of it. If the project ever got off the ground, she&#39;d make sure to mention Anne&#39;s name then. There was no point bringing it up now and getting the girl&#39;s hopes up when it may never transpire.</p> <p> &quot;Did you notice our special guest tonight?&quot; she said instead. &quot;I&#39;ve never actually met him in person before, but now I can&#39;t imagine anyone else as Donatien.&quot;</p> <p> &ldquo;Ohhh, yes!&rdquo; Anne cried, and almost bounced, as she tended to do when excited. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe it, he&rsquo;s sooooo tall! I promise you, I wouldn&rsquo;t mind him biting my neck,&rdquo; she laughed, and showed Lucinda the choker she had specially bought for the occasion, it sported two red crystals simulating teeth punctures and a spray of smaller ones falling from it, like little blood drops. &ldquo;Do you think he&rsquo;ll be tempted?&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he would be. He&rsquo;s a bit of a ladies&rsquo; man,&rdquo; Alison said with a wink. &ldquo;What about you, Pablo? Would you be tempted?&rdquo;</p> <p> Pablo turned, startled. Crumbs sprayed from his mouth where he&rsquo;d been stuffing it with food. &ldquo;Wouff wha?&rdquo;</p> <p> Alison merely rolled her eyes, and turned away from him when she heard a new voice.</p> <p> &ldquo;Please, don&rsquo;t tell me you&rsquo;re offering your throat again, Anne. I thought you were over that already. I&rsquo;ve been looking for you all over, no wonder you didn&rsquo;t come back!&rdquo; Cadee said, as she appeared from behind her friend. She then turned to the other two. &ldquo;Hello, it&rsquo;s great to see you! Great party, Lucinda.&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;Hi Cadee,&rdquo; Alison greeted her. &ldquo;Thanks, though most of the organising wasn&rsquo;t my doing. I just have to show up and smile a lot.&rdquo; She nudged Pablo with her elbow and whispered, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve still got cocktail sauce on your fingers.&rdquo;</p> <p> Pablo swallowed his mouthful in one painful gulp and wiped his hand while smoothly dropping his plate on a passing tray. Then he really saw Cadee. She looked nothing like the Cadee in his mind. That Cadee wore t-shits, jeans and an apron. &quot;Wow,&quot; Was what he meant to say but his mouth just sort of moved soundlessly.</p> <p> He took his Blood-tini back from Alison and had a quick swallow, &quot;Ugh, I should know better than to come to a party without eating first. You look great.&quot;</p> <p> He put his arm around Alison, &quot;But Ali...er...Lucinda is still the star of the show.&quot;</p> <p> &ldquo;Thank you, Pablo.&rdquo; Cadee grinned, flattered; the dress had cost a little fortune, but it was definitely worth it, she thought. She looked at Lucinda who shone in a beautiful blue dress, and agreed with him. &ldquo;And she should, Vampire Lady perfect.&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;Oh, please.&rdquo; Alison&rsquo;s blush was quite genuine. &ldquo;I had the help of a team of professionals tonight, believe me.&rdquo;</p> <p> &quot;Money well spent,&quot; Pablo said, &quot;Look, hon, there is an open bar over there that I need to interrogate. Do you want me to get you something? Lovely to meet you Anne, and always a pleasure Cadee.&rdquo;</p> <p> Alison mouthed &lsquo;<span style="font-style:italic">yes, please</span>&rsquo;, and looked suitably parched.</p> <p> &ldquo;See you at the Sl&agrave;inte, detective,&rdquo; Cadee answered, and Anne saluted with her hand.</p> <p> Alison could see Connie gesturing to her from the far side of the room and nodded, holding up one finger to indicate &lsquo;in a minute&rsquo;.</p> <p> &ldquo;Well, it&rsquo;s lovely to meet you both again,&rdquo; she said with a smile. &ldquo;Anne, do you have a card, just in case I hear of any potential jobs for you? And then I&rsquo;m going to have to dash &ndash; my agent is summoning me.&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; Anne replied, grinning, and she started looking for one of her cards in her small black reticule, she was never without them; one never knew when one could need them, like now. She finally found a card and handed it to the woman. &ldquo;That&rsquo;d be great, Lucinda. It&rsquo;s very nice of you. Thank you.&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;It was a pleasure, Lucinda,&rdquo; Cadee said, and Anne nodded.</p> <p> &ldquo;Loved to talk to you. See you around.&rdquo; She smiled again, genuinely happy. This night was getting better and better.</p> <p> &ldquo;Lovely to chat with you both.&rdquo; Alison slipped Anne&rsquo;s card into her purse and glanced over at the bar, trying to catch Pablo&rsquo;s eye, but he had his back to her. She headed off to where Connie had lined up some bigshot to talk with her, and had to hope that her drink would eventually catch up.</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3413#comments Author:Ana Author:David Author:Heather Character:Alison Scruggs Character:Anne Millet Character:Cadee Cloud Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Location:Graveyard Sat, 22 Jan 2011 12:30:03 +0000 Heather 3413 at http://unlimitedi.net 07:28 "Bad Times" http://unlimitedi.net/node/3403 <p><p> Carmine woke with the sun.&nbsp; He showered and got dressed.&nbsp; He worked on getting his eye more-or-less normal looking and sort of arranged the pieces of his skull that were poking out back into place.&nbsp; He packed a bag with two extra changes of clothes.&nbsp; He had been through a lot of clothes the last few days.&nbsp; Momma would be mad he&#39;d lost one bag already.</p> <p> He went downstairs and found some Pop-tarts in the cupboard.&nbsp; Then as he sat in the kitchen eating them dry he saw the pattern on the walls.&nbsp; &quot;NWB&quot; <strong>New West Berlin</strong>.&nbsp; He knew that tag very well growing up in Hell&#39;s Kitchen. They were a group of German and Russian thugs who ran the west-side from 42nd street to the Lincoln Tunnel. He hadn&#39;t really paid a lot of attention last night.&nbsp; He&#39;d been more in shock than anything else. But if they had done this...&nbsp; If they had been in this house and broken all of Momma&#39;s puppies...</p> <p> The Pop Tarts tasted like ash and he spit them out.&nbsp; He reached up to the top shelf of the cupboard and pulled down the tin tea-box that Momma said was for &quot;bad times&quot;.&nbsp; This was the worst time that Carmine could ever remember so he figured Momma would understand.</p> <p> Inside there was a roll of bills.&nbsp; It was a lot of money, but Carmine carefully counted out the money and wrote a note to put in the can, just like Momma had showed him. He then replaced the can and put the bills in his pocket.&nbsp; Carmine threw some crackers and Pop-tarts and some Fruit Roll-ups into his bag for later and left the townhouse quietly.&nbsp; He was careful to look around in case there was Bloods watching the house because he didn&#39;t want to get caught just yet.</p> <p> He hustled down the street.&nbsp; He had to get over to the the Lucky Strike Lanes bowling alley before they opened.&nbsp;</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3403#comments Author:David Character:Carmine Bocelli Location:Hell's Kitchen Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:00:58 +0000 mrdave2176 3403 at http://unlimitedi.net 20:50 "Mamma's not here" http://unlimitedi.net/node/3402 <p><p> Carmine saw the police tape first. Then he saw the broken door and the spray-painted walls.&nbsp; He walked slowly through the living-room and looked at all of the little glass puppies that he&#39;d bought his Momma at the flea-market over the years now lying broken and looking with sad brown eyes in all different directions.</p> <p> He walked into the kitchen and saw that someone had left the refrigerator door open and that stuff had melted into a puddle on the floor.&nbsp; Momma would be furious when she saw that. He went upstairs and found that both his and momma&#39;s bedrooms had been thrown around.&nbsp; There was spray paint here too on the pictures and on the walls.&nbsp; All of Momma&#39;s nice things from her dresser were missing and the mattress was tilted up and had been ripped open on the bottom.</p> <p> His room had been mostly just thrown around but all of his Star Wars toys were gone including the 12-inch Jar-Jar that he had saved all summer to buy. He laid down on his bed and just felt numb.&nbsp; He didn&#39;t know what to do.&nbsp; He didn&#39;t know where to go.&nbsp; So he started to cry and he cried until he fell asleep.</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3402#comments Author:David Character:Carmine Bocelli Location:Hell's Kitchen Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:18:44 +0000 mrdave2176 3402 at http://unlimitedi.net 16:36 "Bless me father for I have sinned" http://unlimitedi.net/node/3393 <p><p> Frieda had been waiting for the SISSY&nbsp; priest Father Gary to ceom to take confessions like he did at 4:00 pm every Tuesday and Thursday.&nbsp; She usually came to confession on Wednesday&#39;s to see Father Herman who was a nice older man and who didn&#39;t&nbsp; SASHAY and MINCE through the church but rather walked with properly reverent movements.</p> <p> She also didn&#39;t like the way that Father Gary seemed to focus on the youth in the church.&nbsp; She saw him trying to get those GANG-BANGERS and THUGS into the church with their SLUT girlfriends and she didn&#39;t see that as proper at all.&nbsp; The lot of them should burn in hell like she was going to as soon as she got through doing the righteous work she had left to do.</p> <p> Father Gary entered the confessional and Frieda stepped up to the door only to have some teenaged girl painted like WHORE wearing a skirt that made her look like a HOOKER jump past her and into the confessional.</p> <p> She stood there for a long few minutes seething with rage.&nbsp; She could hear murmured voices that her mind began to construct into a meaningful dialog:</p> <p> &quot;Bless me father for I have sinned, it has been a week since <em>I last sucked your dick</em>.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Go ahead, sister, <em>I am hard for you now</em>.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;MMlphp slurp mplpht&quot;</p> <p> This was too much for Frieda.&nbsp; To defile the church in this way was beyond the patience of anyone, damned or not.&nbsp; She knew even as she was flinging open the door and plunging her knife into the girl and the young priest that she&#39;d have to come back tomorrow and speak to Father Herman.&nbsp; It would be a longer confession than usual, but there were usually fewer people here on Fridays than on Thursdays.</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3393#comments Author:David Location:Hell's Kitchen Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:16:58 +0000 mrdave2176 3393 at http://unlimitedi.net 19:40 "Unexpected Trips" http://unlimitedi.net/node/3383 <p><p> &quot;Tony, I appreciate you giving me a lift back to the house.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Sure thing, Carmine, just grab a few things though, We have to put you in a safe-house until this blows over, okay?&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Yeah, I understand, Tony, I&#39;m just gonna tell Mama that I&#39;ll be away for a few days, otherwise she&#39;ll worry.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;You do that, Carmine.&quot;&nbsp; <em>That will delay the search for a few days longer at least.</em></p> <p> Carmine walked to the door but paused a moment when he realized it was wide open.&nbsp; The inside had been tossed and there were gang tags spray-painted on all the walls. There was no sign of his Mama.</p> <p> Carmine ran upstairs and still didn&#39;t see any sign of her.&nbsp; He grabbed his bag and threw in some shirts and underwear.&nbsp; He raced downstairs to the street and out to the nice sedan parked there.</p> <p> &quot;Tony, something&#39;s happened to Mama!&quot;</p> <p> &quot;You better get in the car, Carmine.&nbsp; It might not be safe.&nbsp; I&#39;ll go inside and look.&quot;&nbsp; Tony took a handgun out of his jacket and screwed a silencer onto the muzzle.&nbsp; He slipped into the apartment and looked around.&nbsp; He recognized the gang sign as New West Berlin - sort of, it was sloppy and NWB prided itself on the quality of its tags - there were clearly valuable things here that had been left in place as well.&nbsp; This had been staged to induce fear and to frame someone else.</p> <p> He put his gun down and placed a call. Balthazar wasn&#39;t answering his phone, but Tony knew he was in a meeting, he&#39;d leave a message, it wasn&#39;t that urgent, &quot;Tony here, Carmine&#39;s mom&#39;s place has been trashed and someone is trying to frame New West Berlin for it.&nbsp; I Thought you should know.&nbsp; I&#39;m going to see that Carmine isn&#39;t around to report it, but if someone finds her place like this they might go looking for him.&quot;</p> <p> Tony left and locked the door behind him.&nbsp; Carmine was in the back seat looking fretful. &quot;Carmine, listen, there isn&#39;t anything you can do about this.&nbsp; I&#39;ve told Mr. Romano and he is going to look into it.&nbsp; He&#39;s a powerful man and he&#39;s looking out for you.&quot;</p> <p> Carmine nodded and wiped his cheeks.&nbsp; Tony felt bad, but this was the job.&nbsp; He drove into Brooklyn.&nbsp; He pulled into an alleyway and got out. .&nbsp; Carmine got out with his bag.&nbsp; &quot;Head down to the end of the alleyway, there&#39;s a door down there that opens into the safe-house.&nbsp; I&#39;ll be right with you.&quot;</p> <p> Carmine got all the way to the end before he turned back to Tony. Tony was pointing the silenced gun at him.&nbsp; &quot;I&#39;m sorry, Carmine, Mr. B. said to make it quick and painless.&quot;</p> <p> Two shots went through Carmine&#39;s head.&nbsp; One of them dislodged his recently-fixed eye. This, more than anything else that had happened that day is what pissed him off.</p> <p> Tony fired a half-dozen more shots into Carmine before Carmine could wrestle the pistol from him.&nbsp; Tony took only one shot to drop.&nbsp; Carmine wished he knew how to drive.&nbsp; But Tony had a lot of cash in his wallet so he took that and planned to ride the train.&nbsp; As soon as he got cleaned up.&nbsp; Again.</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3383#comments Author:David Character:Carmine Bocelli Location:Hell's Kitchen Sun, 16 Jan 2011 05:31:47 +0000 mrdave2176 3383 at http://unlimitedi.net 16:30 "Adding to the burden of sin" http://unlimitedi.net/node/3382 <p><p> Freida, Magdalena&#39;s mother, knew why she was alive.&nbsp; Satan had offered her revenge on her WHORE daughter and that RAPIST ASSHOLE Carmine. &nbsp;<em> </em>She had killed her daughter and she had tried to kill the fucking MONSTER that had spoiled her sweet innocent child. But he refused to stay dead.&nbsp; Even as she was aware he was choking the life out of her Satan whispered in her ear telling her that revenge was not damnation. She would burn for the death of her daughter to be sure, but she was not adding to her burden of sin to ruin the life of the FUCKER who had damned her child.</p> <p> She would get a second chance. So here she stood in front Carmine&#39;s apartment.&nbsp; Mrs. Bocelli had been a friend at one time.&nbsp; They attended the same church and rode the same bus sometimes to get downtown.&nbsp; But the first time Carmine had tried to touch her little girl, Freida had marched Carmine back to his mother by the ear.</p> <p> Mrs. Bocelli had taken the boy in but had been harsh with Freida in the hallway.&nbsp; &quot;He&#39;s slow, he doesn&#39;t understand sometimes.&nbsp; No reason to call him names and hurt him like that.&quot;</p> <p> <em>It is because of thinking like that</em>, thought Freida, <em>that you have GANGS and TEENAGE PREGNANCY</em>.</p> <p> Freida knocked on the door.&nbsp; Mrs Bocelli opened the door and gasped. &quot;Freida, my dear, you look ... unwell.&quot;</p> <p> By the time she was done, Freida was actually winded.&nbsp; The RAPIST&#39;S mother was easy enough to convince to come back to her apartment.&nbsp; But as soon as she saw blood in the hallway she started to balk.&nbsp; Frieda had to grab one of the marble statues of The Blessed Virgin and hit her a few times to get her to stop trying to struggle.</p> <p> Frieda has tied her to the kitchen table and had toyed with the irony of stuffing the CUNT that the RAPIST had come from with the Blessed Virgin Mary.&nbsp; But she had opted to just slit her open and let her bleed to death.</p> <p> Freida then went upstairs, showered and put on her nice church clothes.&nbsp; She had to go to confession.&nbsp; She packed one of her carving knives in her purse since she knew that the young priest Father NANCY-BOY wasn&#39;t going to let her confess that she had made a bargain with the devil and murdered a neighbor.</p> <p> As she was leaving the flat she though idly, maybe I&#39;ll wait until tomorrow to tell him instead.</p> <hr /> <p> Carmine wandered into Balthazar&#39;s Building.&nbsp; He had on a baseball cap and sunglasses but the guys at the desk recognized him. &quot;Carmine, Mr. Balthazar doesn&#39;t have you on his schedule.&nbsp; What are you doing here?&quot;</p> <p> &quot;I think I&#39;m in trouble, guys.&nbsp; I think I should tell Mr. Balthazar.&quot;</p> <p> An elevator made an extraordinarily loud DING noise and Balthazar stepped into the lobby.&nbsp; He had his usual array of thugs, advisors, lawyers and such with him but he stopped by Carmine.</p> <p> &quot;Carmine, you look like shit.&nbsp; Why are you wearing that ugly hat and those cheap sunglasses?&quot;</p> <p> Carmine reluctantly pulled off the sunglasses.&nbsp; Since yesterday he&#39;d tried to push his eyeball back into the socket but the juice was gone from it and his eyelid was a ragged flap of skin.&nbsp; He wasn&#39;t bleeding and so it looked more like chicken skin than a wound.&nbsp; Balthazar sucked air, &quot;Ow, that looks like it hurts.&quot;</p> <p> Balthazar placed his hand around Carmine&#39;s shoulders and took him off to the side, &quot;Carmine, tell me what are you involved in?&quot;</p> <p> Carmine tried to tell him but the more he said the less sense it made.&nbsp; Balthazar wasn&#39;t getting it.&nbsp; &quot;Look I have an appointment to get to.&nbsp; Tell you what, Tony and the boys here will see that you get cleaned up.&nbsp; They&#39;ll get one of my witches to fix that eye for you and we&#39;ll talk about this later.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Thanks, Mr. B.&quot;</p> <p> Carmine waited by the desk as Balthazar returned to his entourage.&nbsp; &quot;Tony, get the boy cleaned up and looking more-or-less normal.&nbsp; Then drop him off a bride somewhere.&nbsp; If he&#39;s in trouble it can&#39;t lead back here.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Consider it done, Mr. Balthazar.&quot;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3382#comments Author:David Location:Hell's Kitchen Sun, 16 Jan 2011 05:14:03 +0000 mrdave2176 3382 at http://unlimitedi.net 22:50 "After Hours" http://unlimitedi.net/node/3363 <p><p> <strong>Sl&agrave;inte Pub</strong></p> <p> Alison turned to face Pablo, who came up beside her as Cadee left to return to her work. She smiled at him abashedly and said, &ldquo;I hope you don&rsquo;t mind, but I&rsquo;m going to abuse my position now. This isn&rsquo;t my usual thing anymore, but there&rsquo;s a story out there.&rdquo;</p> <p> Pablo&#39;s brow knitted. He had sort of forgotten this aspect of her personality. The newshound. Keeping the secrets of the SCU right after he was recruited to the unit had contributed to them drifting apart.</p> <p> &quot;I suppose if I&rsquo;m going to play cop on our dates I have to expect you to play reporter.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;&#39;Fraid so. A good reporter&#39;s never off-duty either.&quot; She leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek. &quot;I promise I&#39;ll only be a few minutes, I just want to get some snaps. Can I tell your cop buddies out there that you&#39;ve given me an exclusive?&quot;</p> <p> &quot;I suppose,&quot; he said reluctantly. He was certain that they&#39;d give the cover story that they had hastily thrown together. Anything vague or suspicious would be covered by &#39;<em>that information is pending the investigation</em>&#39;.</p> <p> &quot;Just hurry back, I&#39;d hate to ruin a date on account of work, for either of us.&quot;</p> <p> &ldquo;Definitely. If you want to finish off your poppers, I&rsquo;ll be back before you know it.&rdquo; She grinned at him and left him to find his own way back to his original table. Heading to the side door to get her pictures, she realised there was still activity nearby.</p> <p> &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;m not going to hospital!&rdquo;</p> <p> It was the injured man in the booth who was talking. Alison could see that the EMT had more or less finished ministering first aid and was now speaking to someone on his radio &ndash; presumably with the ambulance outside. Seeing the merest of opportunities, Alison slid into the seat opposite the man while the EMT was busy conferring with his colleagues. Fishing around in her purse, she pulled out her digital recorder and set it on the table in front of her.</p> <p> &ldquo;Hi,&rdquo; she said, sliding one of her business cards across to the man. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m Alison Scruggs, reporter. The Detective over there says you&rsquo;re a hero. Would you mind talking to me about what happened? Just a brief statement will be fine.&rdquo;</p> <p> Logan gritted his teeth as the pain in his shoulder flared up. <em>Ah shit</em>. He could just imagine how mad Romano would be if it came out that Logan was somehow attached to this debacle. Low profile was one of his boss&#39;s major mantras.</p> <p> &quot;I&#39;m not a hero,&quot; he finally said, trying to play up the pain so that maybe the reporter would leave him alone. &quot;There was a guy in trouble and I did what I could to help him out, that&#39;s all really.&rdquo; Keep it simple, he thought. Give her one little comment and maybe she wouldn&rsquo;t fish around for more info.</p> <p> Hmm. It was one of these non-talkative types. It wasn&rsquo;t surprising, given his reluctance for medical treatment. Clearly this man had secrets of his own &ndash; but she wasn&rsquo;t interested in those right now. She pushed gently. &ldquo;A guy in trouble? I heard he was on fire. Did you see what happened?&rdquo;</p> <p> &quot;It really happened pretty fast,&quot; he said, trying to come up quickly with some sort of story that would appease her appetite and stop any follow up questions. &quot;I was coming out of here; saw these punks picking on some homeless guy. By the time I got there, the guy was up in flames and the punks jumped me.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Wow. Most people in New York would just look the other way, you know. So what happened next?&quot; Having already got Pablo&rsquo;s side of the story, she knew there was more to it, and wanted to see how closely this man&rsquo;s account matched Pablo&rsquo;s.</p> <p> &quot;Then I did my best to try and fight the punks off and get the guy to drop and roll. I wasn&#39;t able to get to him in time, but I did manage to knock out a couple of the guys before the cops came out to help. They opened fire and it was all over. I was pretty banged up though...like I said, it&#39;s a bit of a blur.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Well, you did far more than most people would. May I have your name for the story?&quot; She saw the frown begin to crease his forehead before she&#39;d even finished asking, and she couldn&#39;t say she was surprised. He&#39;d already tried to refuse the EMT and had refused a trip to the hospital. &quot;I won&#39;t publish it if you don&#39;t want me to,&quot; she added quickly, trying to allay his fears.</p> <p> He sighed, relieved that she wasn&#39;t going to push it more than that. &quot;My name&#39;s Logan... off the record.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Off the record,&quot; she confirmed. &quot;If you&#39;re not going to the hospital, you probably ought to get home and rest soon. Thanks for your time, Logan.&quot;</p> <p> There was no way he&rsquo;d agree to having his photo taken, she knew, so she didn&rsquo;t even bother to ask. Instead, she slipped out the nearby side door that Pablo had used to bring Logan inside, and surveyed the alleyway where it seemed the bulk of the action had taken place. A couple of detectives were already on the scene &ndash; presumably Pablo&rsquo;s drinking buddies, but they were busy directing EMT&rsquo;s who were just zipping up a body bag. Knowing she had scant moments to get a candid shot, she held up her iPhone and grabbed a series of snaps of the alleyway, then zoomed in on the pair of body bags lying on the ground.</p> <p> In the street beyond, she could make out the smouldering wreckage of a car, and tried to edge a bit closer to get a better angle on it.</p> <p> &ldquo;Hey!&rdquo;</p> <p> She turned her head, her press pass already in hand. She lifted it up to show the advancing cop. &ldquo;Hello, Detective. Alison Scruggs. I was just trying to get a couple of photos. I happened to be in the bar waiting for my old friend, Pablo Sandoval, when all this happened. He just gave me an exclusive on the story.&rdquo; She smiled sweetly at the Detective. He wasn&rsquo;t wearing a jacket, so she hazarded a guess. &ldquo;You must be Charley, I suppose.&rdquo;</p> <p> He&rsquo;d looked just about ready to order her back inside regardless of her story, but when she knew his name, he hesitated. &ldquo;Look, you really shouldn&rsquo;t be here,&rdquo; he said sternly.<br /> &ldquo;This is an active crime scene. But since you&rsquo;re Pablo&rsquo;s friend, I&rsquo;ll escort you up a little ways. But then you&rsquo;re going right back inside, okay?&rdquo;</p> <p> &ldquo;That&rsquo;s fine. Thanks, I appreciate it.&rdquo;</p> <p> She got some good photos of the Prius and the attendant pileup, took photos of the Detectives, the EMTs and even sneaked in another shot or two of the body bags as they were loaded into the back of an ambulance. She made sure to get everyone&rsquo;s name and chatted with Charley, getting yet another angle on the story. He spun the same line about a group of guys attacking some homeless man. Finally she flashed a smile at her escort.</p> <p> &ldquo;That&rsquo;s it. I&rsquo;ll get back out of your hair. Thank you so much, Charley.&rdquo;</p> <p> Back inside Sl&agrave;inte, she pocketed her iPhone and recorder, and peered around looking for Pablo. He was back in his original booth, polishing off the jalapeno poppers. She joined him, sitting opposite him, and pushed a half-drunk beer out of her way. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re just about done out there. The bodies were being loaded into the ambulance when I left. Thanks for indulging me. It&rsquo;s been a while since I did a crime scene like this, but I was right here&hellip;&rdquo; She shrugged. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t pass it up.&rdquo;</p> <p> &quot;I wish I&#39;d passed up the poppers. Blecch...they&rsquo;re sitting kind of heavy.&quot;</p> <p> She laughed at his stupid joke and in that moment he remembered what it was that had made him go to all this trouble to reconnect. He missed her, he realized. He&#39;d dated a few women in the last seven years but they&#39;d been short come-and-go relationships. They fit together in their lives but not their jobs. He held hope that time had changed that.</p> <p> &quot;So what would you like to do from here?&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Well...&quot; Alison gazed around the pub, seeing the red and blue flashes from outside reflecting off the mirrors behind the bar. &quot;I&#39;m easy. It&#39;s okay here, but I&#39;d understand if you want to go somewhere else, all things considered. Hell, they may ask you to fill out paperwork or something. We can&#39;t be having that.&quot;</p> <p> She picked up one of the poppers off the plate. They were starting to cool, but were still warm enough. Biting down on it, she grinned at Pablo. &quot;Do you know, I don&#39;t think I&#39;ve eaten one of these since... well, since we used to go out.&quot;</p> <p> <em>No guts, no glory</em>, Sandoval thought. &quot;We could take a cab back to my place in East Harlem.&quot; He let the suggestion hang for only a second before taking the hand she&#39;d been<br /> casually wiping on a napkin.</p> <p> Alison raised an eyebrow. &ldquo;Oh, Mr. Keen, are we?&rdquo; she said lightly.</p> <p> He replied offhandedly, &quot;No pressure. Just two friends. Coffee. I might even have something on the video we could watch. Or...if it&#39;s too late, I&#39;ll gallantly see that you get home first.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;You know, my place is a lot closer than East Harlem. I&#39;m just in Greenwich Village. And I have coffee.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;That makes the gallant part easy,&quot; he said, tossing some cash on the table. &quot;Let&#39;s go. Cab or walk?&quot;</p> <hr /> <p> <strong>2021-05-11 23:20 &ndash; Tuesday<br /> Greenwich Village</strong></p> <p> Alison kicked off her shoes in the kitchen and padded over her hardwood floors to where Pablo sat at the dining table by the picture window. The view from the penthouse loft was impressive, especially at night. She handed a steaming cup of coffee to him and stood for a moment, staring out the window.</p> <p> &quot;I never get sick of this view. New York at night looks like someone&#39;s gone mad with Christmas lights. It&#39;s so beautiful.&quot;</p> <p> She pulled out a chair and sat, resting her cup on a coaster to let it cool a little. It was just a trifle too hot to drink yet. &quot;I owe this all to Lucinda Graves. That, and people&#39;s insatiable appetite for a good vampire story.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Vampires and insatiable appetites go together well,&quot; he said cryptically. &quot;From up here you might think everything was normal. But don&#39;t let this cynical cop ruin it for you.&quot;</p> <p> He dragged his eyes away from the vista, and concentrated on Alison. &quot;How much of Alison is Lucinda?&quot;</p> <p> Alison pondered that one for a moment. &quot;It&#39;s hard to say. When I&#39;m writing, I&#39;m probably as much like her as I&#39;ll ever be. I let my imagination run wild and despite all the horrible things I put my heroine through I almost envy her the exciting life she leads. When I&#39;m out in public as the author of the Darque series, though, it can be hard to keep up that sexy fa&ccedil;ade.&quot; She shrugged. &quot;It feels pretentious a lot of the time, but it&#39;s the image we&#39;ve cultivated and it seems to sell books.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;You don&#39;t have to put on sexy, it is part of who you are,&quot; he grinned at her. &quot;<em>Seductorisima</em>.&quot;</p> <p> She felt a slight blush creep up her neck and she glanced down at her coffee. Deciding it was cool enough to drink she picked it up and sipped at it, using the time to get herself under control. She discarded half a dozen flip lines to use in reply and settled instead for changing the subject.</p> <p> &quot;So what about you? Being a hard-boiled New York cop can&#39;t be easy.&rdquo;<br /> She figured she might as well just take the plunge and ask the question that was uppermost in her mind &ndash; the reporter part of her, at least. She wasn&rsquo;t willing to listen to the other part of her just yet. &ldquo;What sort of cases do you have to deal with, anyway? Your card said Special Crimes - but that could mean anything.&quot;</p> <p> <em>Where did that come from? Damn her reporter instincts.</em> &quot;You know how if a criminal commits a crime over state lines it goes to the FBI? Or if they threaten national security they go to Homeland Security? Or when it is a matter of diplomats and foreign powers the CIA takes the case? We make that determination. We act a central liaison between federal agencies and the NYPD. Our unit was formed just after 9-11 to deal with coordinating the New York enforcement agencies FDNY, NYPD, Border Patrol, Subways systems and City Hall with the US Government. New York does so much that it needs someone to figure out who to call when it goes over our heads.&quot;</p> <p> <em>Wow, write that down, it almost sounded plausible!</em> he thought.</p> <p> Alison blinked. <em>Wow, he&#39;s good. That almost sounded plausible.</em></p> <p> She toyed absently with her coffee cup, her eyes fixed on Pablo&#39;s face. The signs were subtle, but she was sure he wasn&#39;t telling her everything. &quot;Uh huh,&quot; she said noncommittally. &quot;So... what was Code 77? And why would the EMT see something strange? I get the feeling those weren&#39;t just regular thugs.&quot;</p> <p> His expression hardened ever so slightly, and she grimaced. &quot;Look, I know you&#39;ve probably got sensitive material you have to deal with. And you think I&#39;m just being a nosy reporter type. And, well, to an extent I am. But I&#39;m happy to write a story about a homeless guy being attacked by hoods. I just want to know, for myself, what sort of work are you really involved in? If we&#39;re... I mean, if this... you and me meeting up again like this, if it&#39;s what it feels like, then I want to know.&quot;</p> <p> Pablo sat quietly for a long moment.</p> <p> <em>Look at the time; I&#39;ve kept you up too late, already.</em></p> <p> He looked into her eyes and at her face and the soft curls of her hair on her shoulder and remembered what it smelled like in the cab.</p> <p> <em>I&#39;m sorry, that&#39;s classified. I&#39;m sure you&#39;ll understand.</em></p> <p> He watched the steam from her coffee curling past her face and realized she was holding her breath.</p> <p> <em>We have just built this bridge, Alison, do you want to burn it so soon?</em></p> <p> &quot;Alison, if I tell you: am I telling you...or the reporter in you?&quot;</p> <p> <em>Damn you for an idiot, Alison Patricia Scruggs</em>, she berated herself. She let out her breath slowly, her lungs beginning to burn from holding it for that interminable pause while she watched an entire world of possibilities hang by a thread.</p> <p> She reached over and laid her hand on his where it rested on the table. &quot;You know what?<br /> As long as you have to ask that question, I don&#39;t need to know that badly. Please, just tell me that you&#39;re not doing anything that&#39;s going to put you in danger. Well, no more than any cop does, that is.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;The mission is to enforce the laws, preserve the peace, reduce fear, and provide for a safe environment,&quot; he said soberly. &quot;But there are ... obligations that come with that mission that I can&#39;t really talk about with you. Not right now anyways. It&#39;s good work though, Alison, just like it always has been.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;I don&#39;t doubt that for a second, not with you.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;I never thought you did. But part of <em>my</em> mission includes secrets. For what it&#39;s worth, a &#39;Code 77&#39; isn&#39;t my secret; it belongs to a federal agency. It&rsquo;s a pre-arranged message. It means &#39;I&#39;ll be in later to sign the paperwork.&#39; Really.&quot;</p> <p> &quot;Sure it is,&quot; Alison rejoindered with a sly grin, lightening her tone to turn it into more of a joke. &quot;Ooh, I know. You&#39;re Mulder and you&#39;re looking for aliens.&quot;</p> <p> He stared at her for a beat, &quot;That&#39;s a science fiction reference, isn&#39;t it? Sorry, I never got into it much. Just hopeless, I guess. I don&#39;t suppose your appreciation for modern art has improved either, has it?&quot;</p> <p> Alison shook her head. &quot;Nope. I may have to tie you down and force you to watch <em>Firefly</em> in return for you dragging me to a gallery.&quot;</p> <p> He stood up and walked over to hold her shoulders, &quot;I want to try again. We have to remember who we are and discover who we&#39;ve become. It isn&#39;t like starting over, it&#39;s like...&quot; He glanced at his watch. &quot;It&rsquo;s like midnight. It&#39;s tomorrow already. Time to start a new day.&quot;</p> </p> http://unlimitedi.net/node/3363#comments Author:David Author:Heather Character:Alison Scruggs Character:Juan Pablo Sandoval Location:Greenwich Village Location:Slainte Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:47:50 +0000 Heather 3363 at http://unlimitedi.net