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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3612206" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter One-hundred-seventy-four, “The Slayer”, Thursday, June 15th, 6:45 P.M. Kate asks, "Kevin, would you be able to get that door open? Maybe with the hammer you have for driving stakes?" Tomlinson glances out the window and says, "We could get Jeff Mills to kick it in, he's strong enough and is right outside with his firefighters. He already knows about these creatures." "I'll bring him," Kate said and went back down the stairs to look for Jeff Mills. It took her a few moments to locate him and get his attention. "Jeff, we're looking for survivors in the Headquarters, but we can't get past some of the debris, can you give us a hand?" Certainly," Jeff states. He heads inside and back up the stairs with Kate. When Jeff Mill enters Nakomo points to the door on the left. "That one." he instructs. Minerva impatiently fiddles with the vial of holy water in her pocket, while praying to the gods to keep them all safe. Jeff steps up and kicks the door open. The door flies inward towards the darkened room. The room is furnished with a bed and a long mirrored dresser identical to the one that was in Fisk's house. Kate exclaims, "Oh, not again. We can't just set off more dynamite, we might need a crowbar after all." Her eyes fell on the mirror. "We should get the windows uncovered, but that's not going to help much. Could we use that mirror to reflect light in from the hallway?" "It is going to be dark soon." Minerva says as she tears the curtains down. "We are running out of time." She looks around the room for something that can be used to pry the dresser open. "I could attempt to cast a silence spell and we could get out of the way of the dynamite if we had to." As Minerva pulls down the third curtain a black bat that had been curled up upside of it flies across the room and out the door into the hallway. Kate quickly points the wand at the bat and fires. Kate's missiles strike the bat but it continues onward down the corridor and towards the staircase down. Kate ran after it, firing again. The bat ducks out of Kate's field of vision as it flies down the stair below towards the main room. Nakomo chases it down the stairs and aims his arrow ands shoots. Minerva communicates with Luna. "Luna, Do not let the bat get out the door." While Chester is attempting to wake the two prisoners he sees Minerva's owl Luna rapidly fly into the building from the opening in the back. Chester whistles, "Where's Minerva's owl going in such a hurry?" He looks around and finds no one he can trust with guarding the prisoners. "Dang it. Tomlinson wanted me to guard the back. But I have to bring these guys in. Come on, get up." Hank Hill says, "I'll take them Deputy, I'm going over to the Jail anyway, do whatever you have to do." Kate continued down the stairs after the bat, ready to fire the wand as soon as she could see it again. Just in case, she pulled out Tom's pistol as well. If she couldn't see it again until she was visible to others she would try the pistol instead. Nakomo's arrow strikes the flying rodent but unlike the magical arrows given to him by Diana this is a regular arrow and glances off of the leathery wings to no effect. The bat reaches the bottom of the stairs and flies into the main room temporarily out of Kate and Nakomo's field of vision as they are both still on the staircase down. Kate continued chasing as fast as possible, with both wand and pistol in hand. Luna dives toward the bat and attempts to grab it in her razor sharp talons. The claws latch onto the bat and draw blood. The rodent then begins to change, transforming back into a human form, which is too much weight for Luna to hold. Luna lets go and flies to the ceiling. communicating to Minerva what is happening. Minerva stake in hand, runs for the stairs. Nakomo reaches the foot of the stairs and sees the bat transforming into a man. The owl releases him and he falls towards the floor, landing almost cat-like with his hind legs and one arm extended. Outside, Chester doesn't hesitate. "Thanks, Hank. That's mighty kind of you. Elmer's wanted for the Condon's Bank job." Chester gives him the keys to the manacles and rushes into Liberty party headquarters. He arrives in time to see the bat change into a man. Kate and Nakomo made it to the bottom of the stairs on each others heels. The bat was gone, in it's place was what at least looked like a man. He quickly rises to his feet, the deep scratches on his shoulders where the owl held him healing over as they watch. He is naked and short, standing perhaps five-foot-six, with a long uniquely trimmed beard. Kate arrives immediately behind Nakomo, recognizing the man as being same one from Messier's photograph. Kate checked to make sure no one outside their group could see her before she fired the wand again. Kate checked to make sure no one who shouldn't see was looking and raised the wand. A prayer that was more feeling than conscious thought went to Diana, a desperate plea for this to end, then she fired the wand. Chester then arrives on the scene and fires his revolver at the man. Chester's bullet connects but bounces off of the man. Kate's wand blast strikes but to minimum effect. The man gives her a toothy smile, the fangs showing, and says, "Uncle Colin was right, you are an interesting group!" Kate dropped the pistol and pulled out the derringer. When this vampire mess had begun she'd removed the sleep bullets in exchange for the magical ones. She yelled for Kevin even as she fired the magical bullet at the creature. Kate's shot misses. The creatures takes a step forward that is more of a glide than an actual step, him sliding across the floor towards Kate and Nakomo his arms outstretched and says, "You can do me no harm, you haven't the power. Now you are all mine." Minerva rushes down the stairs faces the vampire and fires her rifle with the sleep bullet in it. The bullet penetrates the skin and blood is visible. He flings his wrist backwards and she sees a large semi-solid hand appear in the air before her strikes her as it knocks her back up onto the stairs, the rifle falling to the ground. "And they send a novice priest against me! What fools you are!" Tomlinson arrives at the top of the staircase and the vampire bursts out laughing. Kate hopes him being closer will give her a better chance and fires again. Nakomo throws caution to the wind when the vampire knocks over Minerva and rushing toward him throws holy water in his face. The water strikes the man's face as he casually steps to the side and swings his hand down, grasping onto the back of Nakomo's belt and tossing him across the room and into Chester as though he was a rag doll. Chester grunts when Nakomo hits him and drops his pistols. He draws his magic Bowie knife as he gets up from the floor. "You OK, kid?" To the vampire, he says, "'Uncle' Colin was right. We are very interesting." Another missile flies from Kate's wand striking him until the semi-translucent hand jumps up and closes over the wand, yanking it from Kate's hand. Tomlinson says, "Minerva....I....I can't move, my feet feel frozen in place." Minerva holds out her holy symbol and prays feverishly to the gods to turn this evil creature. Kate dove to the side as if she were trying to hide, then ran for the fading daylight near the door, grabbing for the mirror in her pocket. The vampire Mortimer Turner laughs again this time at Tomlinson and says, "Did you think that you could harm me watcher! You are no slayer! I will..." His speech is then interrupted when a silver platter flies across the room from the front doorway, striking the forehead and drawing blood. The vampire pivots around in a move that would make a ballet dancer proud to see who his new opponent is. Standing before him, still attired in the suit that she wore to work, a silver candlestick clutched in her left hand, is seventeen-year-old Shannon O'Hara. In her Irish accent she exclaims, "Looking for me?" Kate took advantage of Shannon's arrival, trying not to think of what it meant for Meghan’s daughter. She dove behind her outside, then tried to catch the fading sunlight with her mirror and reflect it into the room unto the creature. Chester yells to Shannon, "Get out of here, girl. This isn't a game. This man is very dangerous." He charges the vampire. The sunlight strikes the creature, causing it pain and requiring it to leap across the room and out of Chester's immediate reach. The creature reaches to throttle Shannon but she casually steps aside and strikes it in the back of the head with the candlestick, knocking it towards the ground. She kicks up, ripping the side of her gray suit skirt with the kick connecting to his chest. The creature is propelled upward as though shot from a cannon, striking the ceiling and falling back downward. Shannon has already moved beneath him and swings the candlestick upward, striking it's head as a baseball player would swing at a ball as he flies backward, striking the wall near the stairs and slumping to the ground, temporarily dazed. Chester's jaw drops. Apparently they aren't the only interesting ones in town. Chester looks around for anything to use as a stake. He finds a piece of banister that'll do in a pinch. He rushes over to the stunned creature. Minreva sees her opening and charges in with a stake aimed at the heart. She connects with the creature's chest but misses the heart, the stake sticking inside of his chest. Shannon leaps across the room, kicking the creature into and through the south wall. It flies outside and into the final rays sunlight, bursting into flames. The flaming creature charges back into the building still aflame and lunges forward while screaming "DIE SLAYER!" Kate lifted the derringer and fired again as soon as the creature was close enough. Kate's shot is perfectly aimed, the magical bullet going through the creature's heart. It crumbles onto the floor and says with it's dying breathe "Colin...will...avenge...me." The flaming husk continues to burn, starting to set the floor on fire. Minerva picks her way past the smoldering vampire. Leaving the fire for someone else to put out she makes her way over to the slayer "Well done Shannon O'Hara." Tomlinson finds that he can move again and descends the staircase. Jeff Mills and Jake Cook follow, both of them having also found their legs frozen in place before. Tomlinson approaches Shannon and says, "We have much to talk about young lady." Kate stood stunned for a moment, amazed she'd managed to strike the creature. Eventually the danger of the fire sunk in and she looked around the room and ripped down another drape to smother the fire. Jeff stops her and says, "Relax Kate, my firemen are outside with the fire wagon. Why don't you all head out and we will take care of it." She nodded, noticing for the first time her hands shaking. "Thank you, Jeff." Kate scrambled through the room, retrieving her wand and Tom's pistol before following the others toward the door. Kevin Tomlinson was standing with Shannon, an odd look on his face. "Thank you, Shannon," she said, stopping near them. "I guess you know now there's a lot more to the world than most people think. And to us. If you ever want to talk..." She started to move on, then stopped. "And don't worry, I won't say a word to your mother." Chester picks up his guns from where he dropped them, then walks over to Shannon. "You fight damn well, Shannon. Guess that makes you the Slayer we've heard about." Shannon says, "I...I guess. I was just coming home to the boarding house from the bank when I suddenly felt different, and compelled to come here. I sensed that I needed silver, so borrowed the platter and candlestick. I guess I should return them before Mrs. Hooten thinks they were stolen." Kate adds, "After they get a good cleaning, at least. Talk with Mr. Tomlinson, Shannon, he can tell you more than any of the rest of us. As I said, if you ever want to talk you know where to find me. For the next hour I think that's going to be Mrs. Gilson's bathhouse." Chester adds, "I'm sure glad you came by. We would have been toast without your help." He smiles. "If Mrs. Hooten gives you any grief, I'll tell her I asked you to. You should go with Mr. Tomlinson, he'll fill you in on what just happened. I have to get back to the office." Then Jake falls behind and lets the others go down the stairs. He quickly disappears back upstairs. He searches the open rooms rather rapidly, being careful not to disturb the large dresser in what appeared to be Turner's room. He is looking for anything unusual, interesting or valuable. Not spending more than a couple of minutes in each room, he then comes quietly and non-chalantly down the stairs and blends into the crowd and disappears out the door. Kate said a few words to the others, not wanting to just run off. After a minute she began a long, slow walk back to her house for some clean clothes before heading to Laurie Gilson's, hoping she would be open. Gilson's is indeed open and Laurie is happy to see Kate. In the process of greeting her Laurie Gilson makes it a point to wave around her shiny new engagement ring from Judge Lacey. Kate kissed Laurie's cheek and hugged her. "He's an excellent man, I'm sure you'll be very happy. It's good to see you so happy now." She let go and stepped back. "I'm sorry, I'm all dirty." Not to mention bloody. "I could really use that bath." Oblivious to any blood on Kate Laurie leads her to a room where Jules Heurta has just drawn a bath. Thank you. When I'm clean and rested you'll have to tell me about when Mr. Lacey gave you that," Kate said with a tired smile. Laurie sailed out of the room leaving Kate blissfully alone. She pulled off the dark, elaborate dress carefully, trying not to peel off skin along with it. Despite the lure of the steaming water, she took a moment to examine the cuts and just forming bruises on her arms and neck. The corset and layers of skirts had protected the rest of her body. With her body exposed her pregnancy was obvious, probably because she had been so small to begin with. She sighed and carefully stepped into the tub, lowering herself gingerly into the water. She washed her hair, then let it hang outside the tub while she got the rest of the days grime off her skin. The shaking of her hands and the days stress slowly melted into the water and she soon found herself nodding off in the warm water. Chester makes his way over to the Marshall's Office. Hank Hill is there along with his friends Josiah and Morgana Arcadiam, Sureshot Sam and the half-orc Louie. Deputy Rodriguez is also present and has locked Moore and Koontz into the same cell with Ike Clanton, with Wyatt Earp in the other cell. Earp is conscious now, a blanket draped around his otherwise naked body, with visible bruises and scratches on his face, arm and shoulder. Marshall Berg arrives shortly thereafter. Hank Hill lowers his voice and whispers to Berg and Martin "Glad you're here. We thought we'd stick around until you two got here since Clanton told us that Rodriguez and Earp were close friends. We had the others put in with Clanton, figured it wouldn't be safe to put any of 'em in with Earp." Chester says to Hank and the others, "Thanks. Earp has been a slippery one." Chester opens the cell and puts Koontz and Moore in the cell with Clanton. "There you go, nice and comfy. I don't expect you want to share a cell with Wyatt here. Koontz is wanted for robbery and assault. Moore is here for hiding Elmer in Hamilton Fisk's house." Berg thanks Arcade's Gang for their help and the five depart. He tells Chet "With four of them in here, and with who knows for friends, we should keep two of us on duty at all times, probably one inside and the the other out of the porch with the door locked in between." "I agree. I'm going to check them for sorceress items." Chester frisks the prisoners for potions, belt buckles and the like. Jake walks over to Pierre’s gun shop. He waits until there is no one else in the shop and passes his badly damaged Colt across. He asks, "Can she be saved?" Pierre examines it thoroughly and says "Oui, it can be saved, but I haven't the skill. The man in Mexico who helped Jeff with that hand canon could do the work. I might know of one or two others with the skill. It would probably be less expensive though to just purchase a new one." Jake shrugs. "I expected as much. Pity. Please remove the grips, I will keep them for sentimental value. Can I purchase a box of your special Colt 45 ammunition? It has been a busy week and I seem to have used my previous purchase all up." Jake grins, "You may be glad to hear the number of Cowboy gang members and their associates are now far fewer, thanks in part to your fine workmanship." Pierre says, "You can, but they are expensive. I charge $ 100 for each, but you can get a box of a dozen for an even $ 1,000." Jake raises an eyebrow at the price, "Glad I get the good customer discount." He sighs and says, "Here is $400, I do not carry that much on me. I will get the rest at the bank tomorrow if that is acceptable." After he finishes with Pierre he goes to his house and gathers up his poker clothes and heads over to Gilson’s for a bath.</blockquote>

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