Luminescence

[Cerani]

Note: This is a one on one roleplay based off of certain characteristics of the TV show Moonlight. So this means that we are not sparkly vampires, nor can we be struck down by holy water or dusted by sunlight. Eat your heart out Buffy. ^.^

There are a lot of things in this world that a lot of people just don't pay attention to or give any credit. Such as vampires. Vampires have been around longer than we've had myths about them, and no one really knows where they originated. But that's beside the point. Tonight, in a residential district of Las Vegas, the bright neon oasis in the Mojave desert, someone stalks the sidewalk. He's not one of the creatures that go bump in the night, if that's what you're thinking. No, it's a tad more normal than that.

But the kill is still the same.

On a quiet corner, a woman and her late night groceries pause to peer into the dark. "Hello?" Nothing answers and all is silent except for the hustle of constant traffic. She waits a few moments longer, not wanting to test fate, and then finally moves on. Such a big mistake.

He closes in, and before she notices anything off, plunges the blade in deep. But the idiot's missed anything important, and stabs again. She screams and startles him. Oh no, the neighbors have been alerted, it's time to get the hell out of there. He drops her to the ground, buzzed from the fresh kill, and runs off with a slight grin. A few streets down, he tosses the weapon down a drain. And then he's gone.

You'd think the night will never be the same, but it's just getting started.

[Silver]

"Last night a young woman, now identified as Annabelle Turner, was found dead with two knife wounds in her neck. Police investigation combined with mixed details from the witnessing neighbors state that the killer was a man, somewhere in his late twenties to mid thirties according to his height. Police investigation also states that a small trail of miss Turner's blood leads outside one Lance Donavan's house. Is Mister Donavan to blame for this late night hit and run? Or is he being framed for some unknown reason? We'll have more on this story as it becomes available, I'm Anne Walker with HotTopic."

Click.

He closed the page before the video finished its total runtime, the young man's eyes remained emotionless. http://www.hottopic.com/Recent/Nightmare_on_Raindance. He sighed, looking over the details in the printed article this time. Quickly skimming through the details he sighed once more, moving his hand from the mouse and keys and laying his head in his hands. Rubbing his temples, he was obviously in a deep state of thought, as if he was the one in charge of figuring out who the murderer was.

In truth he was, he and Ash, A and A PI. They had been hired by the accused's family to prove him innocent, but at the current time Archer wasn't finding anything. Anne Walker, who had made the report for HotTopic, had little to no information that was useful for them. Lifting his head and returning to the topic, he turned to a knock on the door.

"Come in."

[Cerani]

Ash growled at the closed door and kicked it harder this time. "Archie, open the damn door."

He shifted the boxes of files he was carrying, all of them casefiles. Stupid house and the lack of organisation. It meant when either of them wanted to research something in said files, he had to lug around unwieldy boxes of the thick manila folders. Usually three to four of them. Hence why he couldn't open the door himself.

"Hey, open up before I drop one of these things!"

[Silver]

"Oh quit your whining Ashley."

Archer force himself to his feet and over to the door, one hand going back to his temple. The other quickly opened the door, only to have the hand on the temple fall to his waist as he stared at his partner in disbelief.

"You're kidding me. You've got to be kidding me."

Taking all of the boxes from the older looking man, Archer quickly set them aside, and stared once more at his partner. He was complaining over that. He had the strength of two bodybuilders and then some, and he's complaining about a few boxes of files. A slight glare left the younger looking's eyes for a moment before he turned and sat back at the computer.

"HotTopic has no new information..."

[Cerani]

Ash sighed. "How many times do I gotta tell you not to call me that?" He waved any further comment off and shook his head. "That gossip station ain't gonna have anything. Not yet, anyway."

He started pilfering through the files, scanning them over with a practised ease. He wouldn't admit it, but he missed the days where all he had to do was saddle up his horse, load his revolver and shotgun, and chase down the bad guy. Of course, even then, things weren't as simple as they seemed. The younger vampire came across the file he was looking for and slid it out from the others.

"Here. Lance Donovan." Ash laid the file open in front of Archer. "Guy's some kinda well to do businessman. You thinking what I'm thinking?"

[Silver]

"Of course. With a multimillion dollar casino like the Circus Circus, could there really be any other mindset?"

Archer clicked open a new page, away from the HotTopic for the moment, rapid typing filling the room in seconds. A new page pulled up, http://www.circuscircuscasino.com/home/, the window filling with bright flashes of multicolor from video stream and annoying loud music. Gritting his teeth, Archer clicked on the small sound icon and turned it all the way to zero and muted it. His expression of annoyance faded, another click as he made his way to news about the owner.

"Not a thing. Not surprised... it'd be bad business."

[Cerani]

"Of course. It couldn't be easy."

Ash turned away from the screen and leaned back against the counter. He chewed on the inside of his lip slowly, beginning the deductive thought process.

The murder seemed fairly straightforward. Stab a random woman on the street to get your jollies off. Run the opposite direction and ditch the weapon. The blood trail lead up to the gate of Donovan's house. But that's where everything wasn't so straightforward. Why only up to the gate and not up and over? And where was the weapon?

The simple fact of the matter: they needed more information. With only the police report, some photos, and a little online research, they didn't really have anything.

"We need to see the scene. You up for it?" Ash glanced at his partner, trying to remember the last time Archer had fed.

[Silver]

"We'll need it."

Click the little red circle in the corner he closed the laptop, turning around and sighing slightly. He really wished she was here, she could have found them all the info they would have needed for this simple case. But alas, she wasn't here, and so he would have to get over his dislike of field research to figure this out. Putting the laptop in a backpack, he slung it over his shoulder and left the room that served as their "base of operations".

"You coming?"

[Cerani]

"Yeah." Before he turned for the door, he gazed towards the window, out at their home for the next couple decades. Vegas. He smirked. Who'd have thought it?

He turned away and followed Archer out, already gearing himself for a little bloodhounding. And oh, did that bring back memories. 1865, in a grand theatre, up in the Presidential Box. Or, for him, down with the rest of the audience. A loud shot and a crazed man jumping down on the stage, shouting something about tyranny in Latin. That bastard and his buddies were damn hard to find, and one even lived to tell the tale up to and after the turn of century. Bastards, all of them.

Ash shook himself out of the memory. They had things to do now, in this century.

"So who's driving?"

[Silver]

"Your car, you drive."

Archer pressed a button on the garage wall and was in the car in seconds flat, literally. Laying his head against the window he closed his eyes and brought a hand to his temple not against the glass. He wouldn't move, he wouldn't speak, at least not totally, not now. He wouldn't ruin his train of thought, though it really wasn't focused on this case.

Why couldn't things be as easy as they were in the Antebellum? Or during the 20's? Why couldn't they just find some obvious clue left behind by a stupid crook and lock them up?

"Take a left up ahead..."

[Cerani]

Ash periodically glanced at his partner. You don't live with someone for as long as they had and not know crap tons about how they operate. As he took the left, he thought about how to approach the other and if it was even a good idea to do so. 'Maybe not, but I'll probably regret it later too.' He slowed the car a bit so it would take them that much longer to get to the scene. "You okay, man? Look a little preoccupied." He only hoped it was about their new case.

[Silver]

"Headache." Archer said plainly, lifting his head from the window and removing the hand from his temple. "Criminals sure have gotten smarter over the years." he spoke with slight disdain as his thoughts looped the details of the case in the back of his mind, as he was used to doing. "I mean," he let out a sigh and directed Ash to turn right with one of his hands "they've gotten harder to catch. They don't make as many mistakes." He let out yet another heavy sigh as they pulled up to the crime scene, freshly separated from the public by a line of tape. "Certainly not like our glory days..." he said bitterly as he got out of the car.

[Cerani]

"No shit." He replied, putting his precious car into park, not bothering with the keys. Anybody stupid enough to steal his vehicle would swiftly come to regret it. The smell of blood wafted to his nose. No specific memory came to mind, more like several flashes and ghosts lingering in his head. 'Okay, really, stay out of lala land.'

Ash approached the scene, checking to make sure he had his wallet with him in case any cops still lingered about. Come to think of it: "One thing I do miss is not needing these stupid P.I. licenses." He ducked under the yellow tape. "You remember when we had that little shop in New Orleans? And we ran the agency from in there?" They hadn't needed a license then, early 1900's. Nowadays it was required or they'd have to pay fines and/or sit in jail. Something about general negligence and danger to civilians. A bunch of crap if you asked Ash.

His focus turned on the sidewalk as he stopped next to it. Sure enough there was a trail of droplets leading right up to the gate, where it just quit. Ash's head tilted, his stance seeming that much more predatory as he did so. He gazed casually either way down the street checking to make sure no one was looking before he walked right up to the gate and stuck his nose through. There was a source nearby. Ash closed his eyes, concentrating his other senses. "Archie, I think somebody dropped evidence somewhere round here. Smells like . ." The vampire took in a good whiff of the air. "Cotton and synthetic blend. Jacket I think." He turned back to his companion, waiting for the other's input.

[Silver]

Archer's eyes sharpened as he looked around, taking a breath to clear his mind of his unimportant thoughts. After all, there was no use complaining about the present and trying to revel in the past; doing so would not further the case. When he let out the deep breath he had taken, he moved over to the gate taking a whiff himself, nodding slightly. "That sounds about right."

He took another whiff, closing his eyes in the process. It was definitely a jacket, that much he could tell; but there was something else. Sweat maybe? It made sense, whoever did it had to take off pretty quickly from what he remembered Hot Topic's interviewees saying. While criminals may have been getting smarter, most seemed to forget one important detail. Witnesses.

"Hot Topic mentioned the neighbors; witnesses." He opened his eyes and turned around to face the surrounding buildings.

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