To all those reading the Modern Mage storyline, this happens over chapters 17 & 18 and may take up share of 19 as well. I'll sleep with Thomas More about that once the aspiration for 19 comes to me. I wanted to let everyone see a different view than St. Andrew's as well as masking something that wouldn't have fit in the residuum of the story based on the face that Modern Mage is being writer as though Andrew is explaining his past times to the subscriber. I used bother third person tale and some beginning somebody in the chapter here to differentiate what he was thinking at first as well as allowing me to explicate some of the hind story for those who read this and haven't read the sleep of the Bodoni font Mage and existence storey. Hope everyone enjoys a different take on thinks in the public of Magick and Monsters that I am attempting to get you all into.

Gabriel Roarke had been a Hunter for over a decade, ever since he recovered after his mob was attacked by a vampire. To be more precise after that wight had killed his parents and then turned his sis forcing Roarke to drink down them if he wanted to live. He had spent six month in a hospital recovering from physical wound he'd received from surviving that night and cleaning up the passel so that he didn't go to jail for slaying. He didn't tell the police or the doctors, nursemaid and psychiatrist that the infirmary about the vampire because he didn't want to be placed in a genial psychiatric hospital either.

At the end of his time recovering from the harm Roarke was taken in by a young couple instead of being placed in a government home. While thankful for that he was unsure why they took him in until dinner party of the showtime night in his new menage. It turned out that they had known about the supernatural and realized that what happened to his family unit was a lamia flak. They began to explicate that their family had been a long line of hunting watch, dedicated to protecting humanness from the things most don't even believe in. They started training him, not just in how to fight but hot to remember as well. Over the class of four years they had trained hum, taken him out on search and treated him as though he was their own youngster. They made sure that he also got a proper schooltime teaching allowing him to qualify for college. Just after his eighteenth birthday while shopping for supply before he left for college the lamia that had attacked his home tracked him down again. That dark the vampire attacked again killing both of his shielder. He killed the vampire that night himself. After that Night he decided not to go away to shoal but to get search and recruiting new hunters to train.

For six years Roarke had been hunting and killing every supernatural being he could track down. It didn't issue what variety they were. He focused mostly in areas where had found hoi polloi disappearing or being murdered. He excelled at ferreting out those animate being that hid in plain stitch sight. Over time her train sources of selective information on the web and made contact with other hunters and witnesser. After that he started to get to a greater extent and Sir Thomas More information on existence he couldn't have found himself. info that told him not only where to regain these goliath, but what variety her was dealing with. He couldn't believe his fortune in finding this beginning of information. That source had created a problem for him earlier today.

He got information about a target in Las Vegas who was said to be a danger not just to the citizenry in the urban center around him, but to others around the creation. Roarke spent near of his time hunting in Ireland, Scotland and England but would locomote abroad when there was a menace that would necessitate the time and travail. He had hunted in the United State Department a few metre but had never traveled to Las Vegas before. The informant contacted him anonymously as usual with the target information. The butt was a magic user, powerful at that. The software documentation sent tied him to a string of slaying around the city and in nearby State claiming that he was using blood deception to increase his power. The targets address was provided with the other information, along with the implication that he was nearly completed the ritual meaning he needed to be stopped quickly. Roarke booked transit to Las Lope de Vega and shipped the gear he would take by air freight the future day. Within the workweek he was in Las Vegas and picked up his gear mechanism. He would normally throw taken time to scout the target and make sure that he could get in and out without any problem, but from the cater information he just didn't have the sentence before this guy started killing more people.

Roarke got to the localization on the dark of Feb first to see his target area get back at the theater with a flyspeck red haired charwoman that there was no information on in the files. The driver of the car that brought them there discharge baggage and took it in for them. He could see from his lieu several people inside the house when the room access was opened. It looked like they had come back from some form of trip and having a receive home company from his perspective. Roarke watched the house as the nighttime went on. Around one or two in the break of the day most of those Roarke had seen left the house. He continued to look on the house until morning. rightfulness before break of day Roarke got out of his truck and started to move toward the household expecting the occupier to be sleeping after the late evening.

He got halfway across the property to the door moving from top to cover when he paused for a moment. He had about thirty invertebrate foot of space to cut through with nothing to fudge behind when he continued to approach. He wasn't aware at that present moment that the next few instant were going to change perception of realism forever. He pulled the steel he inherited from his guardians before standing up. The sword was refuted to be a invaluable artifact that can stop almost any kind of Magic used against the somebody wielding it. He stood up and started across the unfold ground when the strawman room access opened and out stepped the man he was after.

Standing before Roarke was the monster that he was sent after, a person tough than any he hunted before. This man had killed more ingenuous people that any early supernatural creature he had tracked down and had the high-handedness to step out and savor a sunny morning as though there wasn't a care in the humanity. Roarke's determination was one of his big and deadliest assets and upon seeing he target he charges intending to end this quickly. Within the 1st couple of whole tone the man looked unconcerned, but it quickly changed to confusion as he dodged the swing of the sword and rolled away. Roarke firmly believed that this man was truly a monster simple by the fact that he was homo and made the alternative to put down lives for his own addition. vampire needed origin to inhabit and were soulless, lycanthrope were wild uncontrolled savage, other supernatural creatures hadn't even started out as human and while they needed to be destroyed you couldn't apply them to human morals. When a man decides that he would rather kill for ability, money or any other reason they made themselves sorry monsters than those born to it.

The monster he faced scanned the expanse, likely looking for assistance in fighting Roarke off in club to save his own scummy life. He spoke up,"What do you desire here ?"

Roarke's reply was orchestrate and even, no sense of fury or choler in his tone. Roarke kept his emotions in check when he hunted. He didn't kill out of anger or retaliation ; his motives were as pure as he could make them. He hunted to protect human race for the monsters as his guardian had taught him."Your fountainhead,"was the reply.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it won't be that easy. Walk away, leave me and my champion alone and I'll do the same for you. I don't want you suddenly and you don't want to die,"was the reply from his prey. Did this monster really believe that it would be that simple to make it ? Did he not see the determination on Roarke's face ? This man was a Sir Noel Pierce Coward praying on the weak to gain power and thought 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 sure that he wouldn't be killed himself he decided that this man would not know to vote down anyone else either. Roarke was determined that either he would outlive this fight or neither of them would. With that outlook he knew he was the most dangerous kind of enemy anyone had ever faced.

"brand your choice and let's get this over with,"the monster relied with a lack of solitaire. Roarke was more than willing to accommodate him if he wanted to die. He started to shut down with the aim again, staying on the formal of his feet ; trying to be ready for anything this man before him could do. The foeman moved far faster than he was expecting and sidestepped past Roarke, opening length that he didn't want to give him. He still knew that he wasn't faster than no of the other matter he hunted and therefor the monstrosity would die. Roarke closed again quickly, swinging to break this man's body at the waist. His mark dodged, dropping into a crouch and sweeping at Roarke's groundwork. Reacting instinctively he started to jump over his opposition's leg but was caught briefly by the attack. He landed on his back instead of flipping out and away, turning the landing place into a drum 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 vote out you, I figured that was obvious by now,"Roarke replied, letting his tone grow shadow and menacing.

"That division was obvious diddley ass. What I want to have intercourse is the reason you chose to try and kill me ? I've never done anything to harm you or yours that I know of, so why am I your target area ?"Roarke was shocked by this reply. Did this demon really have the gall to call him a jack ass ; and why was it that so many of his targets had tried to make for sinless when faced with their own mortality ? Own up to what you do in life and admit your due was his philosophy ; 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 range with a jab to the throat. Immediately after that his opponent followed up with a knee to the groin. Roarke's only thought was that this man didn't just know how to fight he knew how to win a fighting. Roarke couldn't call option it dirty fighting as his guardians had stressed from the outset that all was fair in lovemaking and war. His Step-Mother for lack of a well term used to say"You can fight by the rules or you can fight to win. I would rather you fight to win."Right after the attempt to bedaze him the foeman shoved him and backed up to gain some space instead of following up which worried Roarke as he had no true cognition of what form of major power this man could bring to bear.

When Roarke got back to his feet his foeman was now armed with two foresighted thinly metal bars. They were each about thirty inches long and looked about an in or so thick. When they closed again, Roarke had his target on the defensive. If for nothing else, Roarke had to make his opponent credit for being a fighter. They went back and forth for several minutes, both of them tiring but luck was with Roarke as his target seemed to be fading faster. The man turned the table forcing Roarke to oppose himself even more as he sought a way through his breeding and skill with the broadsword. As they continued this pernicious dance Roarke heard a phone toward his left hand but kept focused on his opponent. The man looked away toward the door as his torso turned toward the space between Roarke and that audio ; that was the opening move he was waiting for. Roarke whipped the brand in from the side of meat slicing a line across the man's abdomen leaving a trail of blood flowing behind its passing.

"Andrew ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !"a woman's voice screamed. The prey stepped back turning sideways to come at his position opened up from Roarke's attack on him. He switched the grip on the sword and drove it up towards the mark side driving it in just below the rump rib. Roarke's heart was lifted as he knew he was successful in his pursuance to wipe out the fiend. Roarke's elation was scant lived however as this monster 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 respond to the attack Roarke's articulatio radiocarpea were crushed by one of the alloy bars as the other contacted the English of his mind. He was ticket with dying as long as he knew that his prey had been eliminated before he could cause any more harm. Those were his dying persuasion as he lost consciousness.
********************

Those were some of the idea flowing through my principal as I drove away from that Lapplander star sign late that evening. Among the others were the facts that I wasn't abruptly as I should have been ; I had been knocked out at the mercifulness of a man I thought to be a monster. Not only had I not been killed for attacking him, Saint Andrew and his wife Sindee had treated my wounds and spoke to me. I didn't want to listen at first but I was a jailed audience initially. They had treated me better than I would have treated an foeman. They were trying to convince me that not all supernatural beings were iniquity freak, that some of them were even out to help protect the man raceway. They had reasonable arguments for their point of view. When I asked them why they didn't just let on the truth to the human raceway with the grounds they gather they told me that mankind wasn't ready to admit the truth. I had no real logical argument for that but before I could continue had me gainsay my own program line by asking how I found out about the supernatural world. I told him the stallion verity of what happened to my family and I when I was only xiv. By the prison term I finished telling them the story they simply cut the circle tying me to the death chair and fed me while we continued to talk.

I turned out that I may have been helping to bring about the destruction of people that I made it my mission to protect. Andrew told me that he was Mage, not just some human who gained access to great power ; that Mages abilities were rude and not the final result of last and destruction for power. I don't know what to cogitate of everything he has said because it is so different to what I have spent the shoemaker's last twelve years believing. When I left his home he told me to consider thing through, walk some and I might find oneself what I need as I go. When I get back to the hotel I intend to do just that. One of the things I have to think over is whether I want to depart this city in peace with him and his allies to protect it or to ally myself with him against this strange enemy he told me about. I pulled up to my hotel gentleman's gentleman, dropped off the car and started walk, wandering and thinking. I had no estimate where I was going as this was my first stumble to the city of Las Vegas, but I knew I could regain my path back or call 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 Sojourner Truth I was shown was at war with the reality I had known. It's not prosperous to present the truth and your own misconceptions about it but it needed to be done. I kept walking, not paying tending to the streets, and just letting my foundation direct the path I walked. My focus was on finding what I needed to in order to work through the disarray I was feeling. Somehow after being out walking for an hour or so I found myself in front of the doors to a golf club. Looking at the augury I saw it was called the existence. I figured I could use a drinkable and stepped toward the door before I even noticed the line going down the block. The ostiary looked down at me as I stepped up and placed a hand on my berm to stop me from entering. That's when I noticed the ancestry and realized I wasn't likely to get that boozing after all.

As I turned to walk away I bumped into another man stepping up to the door beside me. He was taller than me and dressed well. He was wearing what looked like impost tailored clothing. lightlessness linen slacks, a atomic number 27 blue silk shirt with the top two buttons undone, a linen jacket matching the pants and a gracious span or custom leather boots. He had brown hair and the palest grey eyes I had ever seen. What was most excise about the eyes is they looked like they had seen more chronicle than anyone else I had ever know and he looked like he was only a twosome years my senior. Between him and the doorman, I was more intimidated by this stranger. I realized that while I had been evaluating him he had been doing the same to me and I had to respect that. He held out his helping hand to me,"I'm President Arthur lord, and you are ?"

I reflexively took his hand and shook it,"Gabriel Roarke sir ; a pleasance to meet you."I'm not sure why I said sir except the facial expression in his center and the way he carried himself seemed to command obedience. I've met a couple people that had standardised bearing but nobody that grabbed my attention like he did.

Chester Alan Arthur turned to the doorman,"E. G. Marshall, I'm going to take Gabriel here in as my guest 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 find it's conductive to thinking affair through and finding what you need. First drink on me."

Arthur opened the door and waived me in ahead of him. It was such a gracious crack I couldn't bring myself to reject ; besides my walking and just going where I felt I needed to be led me to the threshold. I decided to go along an open creative thinker and go in. When I entered I was struck with just how great this place really was. The bar area wasn't much larger than any of the taphouse back base, but the bar domain was just the beginning. There was a nightspot behind the main bar through a soundproofed Plexiglas wall the appeared to stretch out an full closure. If the owner and the background of its sizing weren't enough to impress me, the security system organization would sustain. I've seen military initiation with lupus erythematosus security and protection than this place. I followed Arthur to a with child table in the center field of the main bar area that had a reserved mark on it. He motioned for me to sit as he took the president facing the door with his back to the bar.

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

The use of weapons is strenuously discouraged, lawbreaker will be Penalized. For those of you who don't have two nous cells to form a idea the above means"YOU clout IT, YOU EAT IT ”, This Policy is strictly enforced

Arthur looked at me and where my center 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 much of what was out there and now from his smile that he didn't let what he saw break him down. I hope that one day I'll be able to say the like affair. While we were sitting there a bantam young adult female walked over to the table with two deoxyephedrine and a watch crystal decanter wax of an amber colored liquid. She set the two glassed between Arthur and myself before pouring the drinks. She then placed the feeding bottle on the board before stepping away. As I was watching her I could see her evaluating me much the Same as Arthur and I did to each former and I got the opinion that this woman would not only obliterate for Arthur but die for him as well. Whoever this man is, he not only inhale obedience he commanded loyalty as well. The charwoman was just over five foot and could have been More than 125 pounds or so but she carried herself with the thanksgiving of a dancer or fighter and I had my guess as to which.

"Gabriel, if you care to bring together me, this is a very old and rarefied cognac that it would be my delight to ploughshare with Irish gentleman such as yourself."

"Thank you Chester A. Arthur, it would be my pleasure."I took the potable and didn't correct him about calling me Roarke as I preferred as I was here at his cordial reception. I took a sip from my drink and felt the liquor sunburn slowly down my pharynx and warm me from the inside.

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

I chuckled briefly before responding,"I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you. At the very least you may cogitate I'm wino or crazy."

President Arthur turned his read/write head to present me and stared directly into my eyes as he replied,"You may be surprised. I learned a very longsighted sentence ago as a bartender that I needed to keep on an subject brain about the truth of the world. Besides, many people that show up here seem to possess something they need to verbalize out even if it sounds a bit strange. Just because I sit out at the tabular array more often than working the stupefy doesn't mean I'm no longer a bartender. Speak up about what's on your mind, if it sounds a little screwball I'll attribute it to the drunkenness and call you a cab when we're done."

The way he spoke and the tranquillise acceptance in his center made it light to voice at least some of my thoughts. I figured I could shroud the wide strokes without giving him the details that would put me in a mental institution."Have you ever known that you were doing the rectify thing because you knew how the humankind worked only to take the Sojourner Truth play and flavour you over the school principal ?"I asked him.

"Since truth is a congeneric term as we subscribe to our own perspective ; that has happened to me on no less the a twelve affair. I learned a new fact each time. Knowledge is about fact and wiseness about accuracy. The truth can change as often as we do as people. It's the facts that we need to learn that cause the truth to be re-evaluated. take on for deterrent example, as a kid I never believed in any of the monsters in the moving-picture show until I saw my first one. I knew the trueness was they didn't exist before I was exposed to the fact that they were real number,"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 interest perspective on truth and facts….."I fell silent for a moment as my brain was catching up on what he just said."Did you just say that you know that the teras from the flick exist ?"

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

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

Arthur smiled at me before he answered,"low gear is that you wound up at my door and only those who need to incur this situation if they haven't been invited. Second is that you carry yourself as a warrior in a prison term and place where there aren't many left in the globe and since you're completely human I would assume you were a hunter. The only way a Hunter would go far at my threshold is if they were having some form of crisis or faith or some former such issue they need to work out. third, and what made figuring out the starting time two easier is a reciprocal acquaintance gave me a heads up about a young man who he sent wandering with the estimate planted on letting the walking templet him to what he needed."

I looked him directly in his disconcerting regard and asked,"St. Andrew ? He knew I would roll up here ?"

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

I answered quickly and from store as not to bias the answer by over thinking things,"I saw occupy bar and nightclub with good security amount in place to protect the property and patron from any possible situation including an invasion by a hostile nation. I saw people sitting around having conversations and drinkable without the grim mood you see in a lot of bars and clubs. I saw people dancing and smiling, moving on and off the dancing base. I saw that beautiful Brigham Young dame who brought the cognac over evaluate me as though I may be a threat and saw that she was more loyal to you than I'd ever to be able to properly put into words."

"Very observant for the quick glances you took. I will also have to tell Sam about the compliment you paid her in your assessment."He smiled and continued,"Now, take another smell around. Take your time and look closely. run down just the bar room if you want to lead a look through the glass to the order and tell me again what you see."

I did as he instructed, taking my time to do this right hand. I paid aid to every detail I could blob letting my focus linger on the terpsichore floor beyond the divider. I looked over the client and the faculty, looking for anything that I had missed in my scan of the room when I entered. By the metre I was finished looking around I'm sure my jaw was hanging open in shock at what I was seeing around me. I almost didn't believe my own eyes."There are all form of supernatural beings in here along with mortal ; Supernatural beings that actively war with each other. I can see at to the lowest degree a couple of Vampires shooting pool with a couple of lycanthrope over there. I can see some being in here that I can't positively identify as to what they are. I don't read how there can be so many supernatural existence in this one city, let alone this one construction without them trying to shoot each former and the place apart as well. How is it that no one violated the insurance above the bar ?"

Again a smile spread across Chester Alan Arthur's boldness,"I'll explain as best I can and maybe it will help oneself you resolve your own identity crisis. first and foremost, when I opened this place initially, it was just the bar dowry that we're sitting in. That happened long before I knew what existed beyond the scope of my cosmos. I later came to sleep together a lot more about the Truth and the facts of what goes on in this globe. Among the dissimilar occult races there are traditionally places to meet between rival clans or tribes or whatever mixer grouping that species gather themselves in to. These places have many names selected by the race in question, but it is always inert territory and the linguistic rule are not to be broken. The more popular term for these lieu is an Elysian Fields. I would strike this to be a reference to the Elysian Fields from Greek mythology as they were a place of paradise standardized to heaven in other religious belief. Either way, I believed that while the unlike races had placed where they could meet to solve out issues between their own sort, there was no place to get together with another race where they could peacefully discuss things without it generating into another bloodbath. With the power I had and have grown into overtime I turned my little 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 most who come here just savour the prospect to relax and be who they are, not what they are expected to be. Take the pool biz you pointed out. They are playing dyad, but it isn't Vampires versus werewolf, they're rent evenly. That table in the corner over my articulatio humeri with the two men playing cheat and having a give-and-take ; one is a Mage and the other a Technocrat. Outside of this place they are mortal enemies because they have different opinion. In here they discuss their belief in Hope of opening the early person's eyes to the the true as they see it. And Samantha whose allegiance to me you commented on ; I owe her my life several times over and not once has she allowed me to thank her or repay her with any kind of party favor beyond the friendship we share. She is older than me by an Holy Order of decades even though she appears younger. She is a Warrior of exquisite skill, a loyal and beloved friend, a intimate and ally as well as a kind hearted woman once you get to have intercourse her. Sam just also happens to be a vampire. The get-go think you need to think about is that just because some writer put something in a book because they didn't understand and were afraid of a niggling truth doesn't mean they were powerful. Now, don't get me faulty and arrogate they are all goodness law abiding people no affair what they are. Like humans, the supernatural have some that are born honorable and will always be so and some that are pure evil and like it there. The sleep of the universe of supernatural existence falls somewhere in the greyness area and should be treated as they treat others."Chester Alan Arthur's grin turned from openly friendly to one of roguishness. He reached up into the air next to me and made a sound like methamphetamine or alloy snapping then reach out like he was handing me something before continuing,"Now that I have completely broken your hold on reality I need to make my bartender a break while you think though all that has been revealed to you today. If you have interrogation or need to talk let me bonk. If you need a drive back to your hotel, George will have you a ride unless I'm free 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 decanter to the bar with him.

So there I sat, a Hunter in the centre of a club good of the animal I had hated and hunted for 12 years. I thought about seeing just how effective the staff could be a enforcing the arm 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 duad of vampire feeding, but the people they were feeding from offered their necks and wrists to the lamia in interrogation. So there I continued to sit and attempt to accommodate my finally twelve years with the last twenty four hours. Not an well-to-do task and one that had my ego taking a beating at the way I was used by my witnesser. As much as I wanted to blame it all on the mystery someone, I had to take the blame for not researching the targets myself and allowing myself to be used as a weapon. I can't tell you how long I was sitting there in that professorship, struggling with the the right way solvent 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 topographic point and found it fitting. It was a place for all those in existence to go and loosen up without needing to defend senseless wars, worry about being killed simply because of who or what you were. It was also a reminder of the gold to strive for ; a peaceful existence. I still had to go back to see Saint Andrew the Apostle and discuss what the early option he was offering. That however could expect until the next day as I'd already been up around forty 60 minutes or so now and needed to rest .