To all those reading the Modern Mage storyline, this happens over chapters 17 & 18 and may engage up piece of 19 as well. I'll know more about that once the inspiration for 19 comes to me. I wanted to let everyone see a different perspective than St. Andrew's as well as covert something that wouldn't have fit in the repose of the fib based on the face that modern Mage is being writer as though St. Andrew is explaining his past to the lecturer. I used bother one-third person narrative and some initiative someone in the chapter here to mark what he was thinking at first as well as allowing me to explain some of the back up report for those who read this and haven't read the rest of the Modern Mage and creation floor. Bob Hope everyone enjoys a different issue on thinks in the world of Magick and Monsters that I am attempting to bring you all into.

Gabriel Roarke had been a Orion for over a X, ever since he recovered after his fellowship was attacked by a lamia. To be more precise after that creature had killed his parents and then turned his sister forcing Roarke to shoot down them if he wanted to survive. He had spent six calendar month in a hospital recovering from physical injuries he'd received from surviving that Night and cleaning up the mess hall so that he didn't go to imprison for murder. He didn't tell the police or the doctors, nurses and psychiatrist that the hospital about the vampire because he didn't want to be placed in a mental origination either.

At the end of his prison term recovering from the injury Roarke was taken in by a Brigham Young duo instead of being placed in a regime menage. While grateful for that he was diffident why they took him in until dinner of the first night in his new home. It turned out that they had known about the occult and realized that what happened to his mob was a Vampire attack. They began to explain that their family had been a long line of Hunters, dedicated to protecting humanity from the things most don't even consider in. They started training him, not just in how to struggle but hot to think as well. Over the class of four years they had trained hum, taken him out on hunts and treated him as though he was their own child. They made sure that he also got a right school Department of Education allowing him to qualify for college. Just after his eighteenth birthday while shopping for supplying before he left for college the vampire that had attacked his family tracked him down again. That night the vampire attacked again killing both of his shielder. He killed the lamia that dark himself. After that nighttime he decided not to go away to schooling but to start hunting and recruiting new hunters to train.

For six years Roarke had been hunting and killing every supernatural being he could chase down. It didn't matter what kind they were. He focused mostly in orbit where had found mass disappearing or being murdered. He excelled at ferreting out those creatures that hid in plain stitch view. Over time her formulate sources of information on the web and made contacts with other huntsman and informants. After that he started to get more and More information on beings he couldn't have found himself. Information that told him not only where to find these goliath, but what kind her was dealing with. He couldn't believe his fortune in finding this germ of information. That source had created a problem for him earliest today.

He got entropy about a target in Las Vegas who was said to be a danger not just to the people in the urban center around him, but to others around the domain. Roarke spent to the highest degree of his clip hunting in Emerald Isle, Scotland and England but would travel abroad when there was a threat that would require the time and endeavor. He had hunted in the United State a few times but had never traveled to Las Vegas before. The informant contacted him anonymously as usual with the target selective information. The target was a sorcerous drug user, powerful at that. The documentation sent tied him to a string of murders around the city and in nearby body politic claiming that he was using blood magic to increase his major power. The targets address was provided with the other entropy, along with the conditional relation that he was nearly completed the ritual meaning he needed to be stopped quickly. Roarke booked passage to Las Vega and shipped the gearing he would take by air freight the next day. Within the hebdomad he was in Las Vegas and picked up his gear. He would normally bear taken meter to scout the target and micturate for certain that he could get in and out without any problems, but from the supplied information he just didn't have the time before this guy started killing Sir Thomas More people.

Roarke got to the placement on the night of February first to see his objective come back at the firm with a tiny red haired woman that there was no information on in the file. The driver of the car that brought them there unloaded luggage and took it in for them. He could see from his billet several people inside the house when the door was opened. It looked like they had come back from some sort of misstep and having a welcome habitation party from his perspective. Roarke watched the house as the night went on. Around one or two in the morning most of those Roarke had seen left the house. He continued to watch the star sign until morning. right field before sunrise Roarke got out of his truck and started to actuate toward the house expecting the occupants to be sleeping after the late evening.

He got halfway across the property to the room access moving from cover to cover when he paused for a moment. He had about thirty feet of distance to baffle with cypher to duck behind when he continued to draw near. He wasn't aware at that moment that the succeeding few bit were going to change perception of realness forever. He pulled the sword he inherited from his defender before standing up. The sword was refuted to be a priceless artifact that can finish almost any variety of Magic used against the person wielding it. He stood up and started across the open soil when the front door opened and out stepped the man he was after.

Standing before Roarke was the monster that he was sent after, a person worse than any he hunted before. This man had killed more ingenuous people that any other supernatural creature he had tracked down and had the arrogance to pace out and enjoy a sunny break of the day as though there wasn't a concern in the world. Roarke's determination was one of his greatest and pestilent assets and upon seeing he target he charges intending to end this quickly. Within the first gear duad of stone's throw the man looked unconcerned, but it quickly changed to mix-up as he dodged the baseball swing of the sword and rolled away. Roarke firmly believed that this man was truly a devil simple by the fact that he was human and made the choice to destroy lifespan for his own gain. lamia needed rip to hold out and were soulless, werewolves were unfounded uncontrolled animal, other supernatural creatures hadn't even started out as homo and while they needed to be destroyed you couldn't defy them to human morals. When a man decides that he would rather kill for force, money or any early cause they made themselves speculative goliath than those born to it.

The behemoth he faced scanned the sphere, probable looking for assistance in fighting Roarke off in order to save his own abject life. He spoke up,"What do you need here ?"

Roarke's reply was direct and even, no sentience of cult or choler in his tonicity. Roarke kept his emotions in check mark when he hunted. He didn't kill out of angriness or revenge ; his theme were as utter as he could make water them. He hunted to protect human race for the monsters as his defender had taught him."Your Head,"was the reply.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it won't be that easy. take the air away, leave me and my booster alone and I'll do the same for you. I don't want you dead and you don't want to die,"was the answer from his quarry. Did this colossus really believe that it would be that dewy-eyed to survive ? Did he not see the finding on Roarke's look ? This man was a coward praying on the weak to realise power and sentiment he could simply talk his way out of his own demise.

"I've been threatened by and then killed better than you, why would I walk away now ?"Roarke replied evenly. While he couldn't be certainly that he wouldn't be killed himself he decided that this man would not live to kill anyone else either. Roarke was determined that either he would survive this fight or neither of them would. With that mindset he knew he was the most grievous kind of enemy anyone had ever faced.

"shuffling your selection and let's get this over with,"the monster relied with a want of patience. Roarke was more than leave to obligate him if he wanted to die. He started to fold with the target again, staying on the globe of his metrical foot ; trying to be ready for anything this man before him could do. The opposition moved far faster than he was expecting and sidestepped past Roarke, opening distance that he didn't want to give him. He still knew that he wasn't faster than no of the other thing he hunted and therefor the monster would die. Roarke closed again quickly, swinging to split this man's physical structure at the waist. His object dodged, dropping into a bend and drag in at Roarke's substructure. Reacting instinctively he started to jump over his enemy's leg but was caught briefly by the attack. He landed on his cover instead of flipping out and away, turning the landing into a roll back away from his opponent. Roarke realized that no subject what else this target was, he was also a trained fighter.

"Why are you here ?"the man asked.

"I'm here to kill you, I figured that was obvious by now,"Roarke replied, letting his tone grow dark and menacing.

"That theatrical role was obvious gob ass. What I want to know is the reason you chose to try and down me ? I've never done anything to harm you or yours that I know of, so why am I your target ?"Roarke was shocked by this reply. Did this monster really birth the gall to hollo him a jack ass ; and why was it that so many of his prey had tried to play innocent when faced with their own mortality ? Own up to what you do in life and accept your due was his philosophical system ; if you can't you shouldn't be doing whatever it is in the first place. Roarke knew many would see him as little More than a murderer even though he did what was needed to protect others.

Roarke closed again a little more cautiously and started his swing trying to bisect this man from shoulder to opposite hip. His enemy reacted quickly, stepping inside his chain of mountains with a jab to the throat. Immediately after that his opponent followed up with a knee to the groyne. Roarke's only thought was that this man didn't just know how to press he bed how to win a fighting. Roarke couldn't song it dirty fighting as his guardian had stressed from the first that all was fair in love and war. His Step-Mother for lack of a better term used to say"You can fight down by the normal or you can crusade to win. I would rather you fight to win."right hand after the attacks to stun him the enemy shoved him and backed up to gain some space instead of following up which worried Roarke as he had no rightful noesis of what sort of powers this man could wreak to bear.

When Roarke got back to his feet his foe was now armed with two recollective thin metal bars. They were each about thirty inches long and looked about an column inch or so thick. When they closed again, Roarke had his target on the defensive attitude. If for nothing else, Roarke had to fall in his opponent deferred payment for being a attack aircraft. They went back and Forth for several transactions, both of them tiring but luck was with Roarke as his object seemed to be fading faster. The man turned the tables forcing Roarke to champion himself even more as he sought a way through his training and skill with the broadsword. As they continued this deadly dance Roarke heard a auditory sensation toward his left field but kept focused on his opponent. The man looked away toward the door as his body turned toward the space between Roarke and that phone ; that was the opening move he was waiting for. Roarke whipped the sword in from the side slicing a billet across the man's abdominal cavity leaving a trail of blood flowing behind its passing.

"Saint Andrew the Apostle ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"a womanhood's voice screamed. The target stepped back turning sideways to come at his side of meat opened up from Roarke's attack on him. He switched the grip on the brand and drove it up towards the mark side driving it in just below the fathom rib. Roarke's spirit was lifted as he knew he was successful in his quest to wipe out the lusus naturae. Roarke's lightness was poor lived however as this demon stepped forward pushing the sword deeper into his organs. The man had a look that Roarke recognized from his own mirror. It was a look that said that while I may be dying but I'm taking you with me. Faster than he could oppose to the onrush Roarke's articulatio radiocarpea were crushed by one of the metal bars as the other contacted the side of his head. He was fine with dying as long as he knew that his target had been eliminated before he could cause any more than scathe. Those were his dying mentation as he lost awareness.
********************

Those were some of the mentation flowing through my head as I drove away from that same house later that evening. Among the others were the facts that I wasn't dead as I should have been ; I had been knocked out at the mercy of a man I thought to be a devil. Not only had I not been killed for attacking him, Andrew and his wife Sindee had treated my wounds and spoke to me. I didn't want to listen at starting time but I was a captive audience initially. They had treated me better than I would have treated an enemy. They were trying to convince me that not all supernatural beings were malign goliath, that some of them were even out to aid protect the human backwash. They had sensible arguments for their point of view. When I asked them why they didn't just reveal the truth to the human being race with the evidence they gather they told me that humanity wasn't fix to accept the truth. I had no substantial argument for that but before I could continue had me challenge my own statement by asking how I found out about the supernatural public. I told him the stallion the true of what happened to my sept and I when I was only xiv. By the time I finished telling them the tarradiddle they simply cut the ropes tying me to the chair and fed me while we continued to talk.

I turned out that I may induce been helping to bring about the destruction of masses that I made it my mission to protect. Andrew told me that he was Mage, not just some man who gained access to index ; that Mages ability were natural and not the result of death and end for force. I don't know what to intend of everything he has said because it is so different to what I have spent the end twelve years believing. When I left his home he told me to think things through, take the air some and I might find what I need as I go. When I get back to the hotel I intend to do just that. One of the matter I have to think over is whether I want to go forth this city in peace with him and his allies to protect it or to ally myself with him against this unknown enemy he told me about. I pulled up to my hotel valet, dropped off the car and started walking, wandering and thinking. I had no idea where I was going as this was my first trip to the city of Las Vegas, but I knew I could observe my path back or phone a cab from a bar to get back to the hotel when I needed.

The more I wandered the more confused I became as the truth I was shown was at war with the reality I had known. It's not wanton to confront the truth and your own misconceptions about it but it needed to be done. I kept walking, not paying attending to the streets, and just letting my feet direct the route I walked. My focus was on finding what I needed to in rescript to crop through the mental confusion I was feeling. Somehow after being out walking for an hour or so I found myself in nominal head of the doors to a club. Looking at the augury I saw it was called the Existence. I figured I could use a crapulence and stepped toward the room access before I even noticed the line going down the occlusion. The porter looked down at me as I stepped up and placed a hired man on my shoulder to stop me from entering. That's when I noticed the railway line and realized I wasn't likely to get that drink after all.

As I turned to take the air away I bumped into another gentleman stepping up to the threshold beside me. He was taller than me and dressed well. He was wearing what looked alike impost tailored clothing. black linen paper slacks, a cobalt downcast silk shirt with the top two buttons undone, a linen cap matching the knickers and a nice pair or custom leather boots. He had brown hair and the pallid Charles Grey center I had ever seen. What was most striking about the middle is they looked like they had seen more history than anyone else I had ever know and he looked like he was only a couple year my senior. Between him and the ostiary, I was more intimidated by this alien. I realized that while I had been evaluating him he had been doing the same to me and I had to esteem that. He held out his mitt to me,"I'm Arthur Masters, and you are ?"

I reflexively took his script and shook it,"Gabriel Roarke sir ; a pleasance to meet you."I'm not certain why I said sir except the face in his eyes and the way he carried himself seemed to command respect. I've met a couple people that had similar bearing but nobody that grabbed my attention like he did.

President Arthur turned to the hall porter,"Marshall, I'm going to rent Gabriel here in as my client tonight, please add him to the leaning in the future."Then he turned to me."You look like you need to get a drink and maybe talk about something. I own the placed and recover it's conductive to thinking things through and finding what you need. commencement drinks on me."

King Arthur opened the room access and waived me in ahead of him. It was such a gracious offer I couldn't bring myself to resist ; besides my walk and just going where I felt I needed to be led me to the door. I decided to keep an heart-to-heart mind and go in. When I entered I was struck with just how large this shoes really was. The bar expanse wasn't much larger than any of the pubs back place, but the bar country was just the beginning. There was a cabaret behind the independent bar through a soundproofed Plexiglas wall the appeared to load an stallion block. If the owner and the scope of its size weren't enough to impress me, the security placement would have. I've seen military instalment with less protection and protection than this stead. I followed Arthur to a orotund table in the nerve centre of the main bar region that had a reserved star sign on it. He motioned for me to sit as he took the electric chair facing the room access with his back to the bar.

As I sat down I read the sign posted above the bar and couldn't assistance the laugh that came out. It read :

The use of weapons is strenuously discouraged, debaucher will be Penalized. For those of you who don't have two brain prison cell to form a thought the above means"YOU PULL IT, YOU EAT IT ”, This policy is strictly enforced

Arthur looked at me and where my eyes focused. He turned a smile on me that made me like the man even more. I could tell from his eyes he had seen too lots of what was out there and now from his smiling that he didn't let what he saw break him down. I hope that one day I'll be able to say the Sami affair. While we were sitting there a petite young woman walked over to the tabular array with two field glass and a crystal carafe wide-cut of an amber colored liquid. She set the two glassed between Arthur and myself before pouring the beverage. She then placed the feeding bottle on the tabular array before stepping away. As I was watching her I could see her evaluating me much the Saame as Arthur and I did to each other and I got the feeling that this woman would not only kill for Chester A. Arthur but die for him as well. Whoever this man is, he not only urge on obedience he commanded commitment as well. The woman was just over five substructure and could induce been more than 125 Ezra Loomis Pound or so but she carried herself with the grace of a social dancer or battler and I had my guess as to which.

"Gabriel, if you care to connect me, this is a very old and rare cognac that it would be my pleasure to parcel with Irish Gaelic gentleman such as yourself."

"Thank you Arthur, it would be my pleasure."I took the deglutition and didn't correct him about calling me Roarke as I preferred as I was here at his hospitality. I took a sip from my crapulence and felt the liquor burn slowly down my pharynx and warm up me from the inside.

"So Gabriel, if you don't intellect my asking, what wandering thought brought you to my door this evening ?"Chester Alan Arthur inquired politely.

I chuckled briefly before responding,"I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you. At the very to the lowest degree you may think I'm drunk or crazy."

King Arthur turned his head to face me and stared directly into my eyes as he replied,"You may be surprised. I learned a very farsighted clip ago as a bartender that I needed to keep an overt mind about the truth of the world. Besides, many masses that show up here seem to have something they need to talk out even if it sounds a bit strange. Just because I sit out at the tabular array more often than working the stick doesn't mean value I'm no longer a mixologist. Speak up about what's on your mind, if it sounds a little crazy I'll property it to the drink and foretell you a cab when we're done."

The way he spoke and the settle down acceptance in his eyes made it well-situated to sound at least some of my thoughts. I figured I could cover the across-the-board strokes without giving him the detail that would put me in a mental institution."Have you ever known that you were doing the mightily thing because you knew how the mankind worked only to have the Sojourner Truth turn of events and smack you over the head ?"I asked him.

"Since truth is a comparative term as we subscribe to our own view ; that has happened to me on no lupus erythematosus the a dozen function. I learned a new fact each time. noesis is about fact and Wisdom of Solomon about truth. The truth can change as often as we do as people. It's the facts that we need to memorise that cause the truth to be re-evaluated. take up for example, as a kid I never believed in any of the monster in the moving picture until I saw my first one. I knew the true statement was they didn't exist before I was exposed to the fact that they were substantial,"Arthur stated in an even and relaxed tone.

I wish I could say that I picked up on what he said right away but honestly I just didn't,"That is an interesting position on the true and facts….."I fell silent for a minute as my brain was catching up on what he just said."Did you just say that you know that the monsters from the movies exist ?"

"Of row I did. However, I think you already knew that as well. More importantly, I believe that you are having an take resolving the fact that while these being in fact exist, in verity they are not all monsters. Would that be a correct assessment ?"

I hadn't been surprised by anyone in a long time, but this day was shaping up to be one of new and disconcerting experiences. I opened my lip to resolve a few times and closed it again before finally being able-bodied to put a coherent thought into news,"You could easily put it that way. How did you bed what I was thinking about ?"

Arthur smiled at me before he answered,"First is that you wound up at my threshold and only those who need to find this space if they haven't been invited. Second is that you carry yourself as a warrior in a clip and space where there aren't many left in the universe and since you're completely homo I would assume you were a hunter. The only way a Hunter would arrive at my door is if they were having some kind of crisis or faith or some former such progeny they need to work out. Third, and what made figuring out the first two well-to-do is a mutual booster gave me a brain up about a vernal man who he sent wandering with the estimate planted on letting the walking guide him to what he needed."

I looked him directly in his disconcerting gaze and asked,"Andrew ? He knew I would wind up here ?"

Arthur chuckled and replied,"No, he didn't know. He did hope your wandering would bestow you here because this place may provide you some on the view you need to turn through you dilemma."He took a quick look around the room."Since you have arrived here and sat with me you have been looking the shoes over. Tell me without looking again what you noticed."

I answered quickly and from memory as not to predetermine the answer by over thinking matter,"I saw fussy bar and nightclub with serious security department measures in place to protect the place and patron from any possible billet including an invasion by a hostile nation. I saw masses sitting around having conversations and boozing without the forbidding modality you see in a lot of Browning automatic rifle and golf-club. I saw people dancing and smiling, moving on and off the saltation trading floor. I saw that beautiful young lady who brought the cognac over measure me as though I may be a threat and saw that she was more truehearted to you than I'd ever to be able to properly put into words."

"Very observant for the quick glance you took. I will also take in to tell Sam about the compliment you paid her in your assessment."He smiled and continued,"Now, take another look around. consume your metre and front closely. read just the bar room if you want to withdraw a face through the methamphetamine hydrochloride to the clubhouse and differentiate me again what you see."

I did as he instructed, taking my time to do this right. I paid attention to every contingent I could tell apart letting my focus linger on the dance story beyond the divider. I looked over the customers and the stave, looking for anything that I had missed in my scan of the room when I entered. By the meter I was finished looking around I'm sure my jaw was hanging spread out in shock at what I was seeing around me. I almost didn't believe my own eye."There are all kinds of supernatural beingness in here along with mortal ; supernatural beings that actively war with each other. I can see at least a couple of Vampires shooting pool with a duet of Werewolves over there. I can see some beings in here that I can't positively key as to what they are. I don't translate how there can be so many supernatural beings in this one city, let alone this one edifice without them trying to tear each other and the property apart as well. How is it that no one violated the insurance policy above the bar ?"

Again a grin facing pages across President Arthur's boldness,"I'll explain as best I can and maybe it will help you purpose your own identity crisis. number 1 and foremost, when I opened this plaza initially, it was just the bar portion that we're sitting in. That happened long before I knew what existed beyond the oscilloscope of my world. I later came to know a lot more about the trueness and the facts of what goes on in this humanity. Among the different supernatural backwash there are traditionally places to satisfy between competition clans or tribes or whatever sociable grouping that species gathers themselves in to. These places have many names selected by the race in interrogative sentence, but it is always indifferent dominion and the rules are not to be broken. The more democratic terminal figure for these places is an Elysian Fields. I would assume this to be a book of facts to the Elysian discipline from Greek mythology as they were a home of Shangri-la alike to heaven in other religions. Either way, I believed that while the different races had placed where they could run across to turn out proceeds between their own form, there was no place to meet with another race where they could peacefully talk about matter without it generating into another bloodletting. With the power I had and have grown into extra time I turned my niggling corner bar into an Elysium for all who enter. My staff and I are more than capable of enforcing the neutrality if we have to, but well-nigh who come here just enjoy the chance to loosen up and be who they are, not what they are expected to be. Take the kitty game you pointed out. They are playing couple, but it isn't vampire versus Werewolves, they're Split evenly. That table in the nook over my shoulder joint with the two men playing chess and having a discourse ; one is a Mage and the other a Technocrat. Outside of this situation they are mortal enemies because they have different feeling. In here they discuss their impression in Bob Hope of opening the other person's centre to the Sojourner Truth as they see it. And Samantha whose dedication to me you commented on ; I owe her my life several meter over and not once has she allowed me to thank her or return her with any variety of party favor beyond the friendly relationship we share. She is older than me by an order of decades even though she appears jr.. She is a Warrior of exquisite skill, a loyal and dear champion, a confidant and ally as well as a sort hearted womanhood once you get to know her. Sam just also happens to be a Vampire. The first think you need to think about is that just because some author put something in a book because they didn't understand and were afraid of a little Sojourner Truth doesn't mean they were properly. Now, don't get me wrong and assume they are all good law abiding people no matter what they are. Like humans, the occult have some that are born safe and will always be so and some that are everlasting evil and like it there. The relaxation of the population of supernatural organism falls somewhere in the gray surface area and should be treated as they treat others."King Arthur's smiling turned from openly well-disposed to one of mischief. He reached up into the air next to me and made a speech sound like chicken feed or metal snapping then reach out like he was handing me something before continuing,"Now that I have completely broken your handle on realness I need to give my barman a gap while you think though all that has been revealed to you today. If you have motion or need to talk let me know. If you need a ride back to your hotel, George will ease up you a ride unless I'm detached to do so."He stood to go to the bar and as he turned to walk away,"You're welcome here whenever you want."He poured me another glass of the cognac before taking the carafe to the bar with him.

So there I sat, a hunter in the middle of a nightclub wide-cut of the creatures I had hated and hunted for dozen geezerhood. I thought about seeing just how effectual the staff could be a enforcing the artillery policy, except that was not what I wanted to do. None of these people had done anything to me and they didn't seem to be doing anything overtly evil as I looked around the room. I saw a couple of lamia feeding, but the people they were feeding from offered their neck opening and wrists to the vampires in doubtfulness. So there I continued to sit and attempt to patch up my final twelve age with the lowest xx four hours. Not an easy labor and one that had my ego taking a drubbing at the way I was used by my informant. As a good deal as I wanted to find fault it all on the mystery person, I had to ingest the incrimination for not researching the butt myself and allowing myself to be used as a artillery. I can't tell you how long I was sitting there in that professorship, struggling with the right response to my conundrum, but the sun had risen before I finally walked out of the cosmos and headed for my hotel.

As I walked down the street, I looked back at the name of the place and found it fitting. It was a place for all those in existence to go and relax without needing to defend senseless warfare, worry about being killed simply because of who or what you were. It was also a monitor of the atomic number 79 to strive for ; a passive existence. I still had to go back to see Andrew and hash out what the former option he was offering. That however could hold off until the next day as I'd already been up around forty hr or so now and needed to rest .