By: Mystic Redfern

The alley across from 53rd street was dirty, and smelled just plain disgusting. He was on his guard at all times; he knew what to expect. Any place that was concealing such an operation would have to be protected pretty heavily. And, Aria had confirmed this when she had spoken about the shifters around the neighborhood and the werewolves guarding the entrance. He had weapons of all sorts concealed well all over him. Such included a silver knife hidden in an opening he had created right along the cuff of his left sleeve on his jacket. Not to mention the steel knives in his belt and other delicately sharpened weapons, all used to do one thing, kill. But there was one weapon that he didn't like carrying. It was a wooden knife, one that could easily take his own life if used against him. But he knew that he could be encountering vampires, so it was necessary that he have it. Still, even carefully hidden in its sheath along his pant leg, made him feel vulnerable since if he dropped it accidentally during battle, it could be easily taken and used to kill him. What a laugh that would be, being killed with his own weapon. Adrian sighed and walked silently out of the alleyway and into the adjoining street.

Alleys were much better than streets to travel by. They were darker, and concealed you, unlike streets which had street lamps and left you vulnerable and exposed. But the funny thing about this particular street was that it lacked street lamps. Adrian knew why, nearly all Night World inhabitants; especially vampires, could see oh so much better in the dark. He walked quickly and quietly, trying to conceal himself the best he could in case any shifters decided to jump out and *get* him. Adrian had been walking a while. It turned out that the warehouse was at the opposite end of 53rd street from where he had parked his Harley. He slowed his pace for a second, then stopped and looked around. As soon as he stopped, he knew it was a mistake. He felt the mass of what felt to be a large cat land on his back.

Darn shifter, he thought. Should have known I wasn't slick enough to pass through such a guarded area without being noticed by at least 1 shifter. Adrian struggled as the cat clawed at him mercilessly. He turned over and tried to grab the knife on his pant leg. Too far away. Not enough time to get to that one, he thought suddenly. The cat, as he had seen after turning over, was a mountain lion. Interesting thing to shift into he thought to himself. The cat was hissing and scratching him. He was forced to roll over many times to stop the cat from tearing his eyes out. The mountain lion was about to lunge onto him again and probably stop playing with him and kill him, when Adrian finally got a knife out. He had been able to slip the knife from the hole in his jacket near the cuff, and was now standing up and holding it tightly, his breathing ragged and quick. He rolled away from the lion just as it hit the ground. With lightning speed, Adrian jabbed the cat in its stomach. The cat howled and lay on the sidewalk in pain. It suddenly shifted into its human form. It was a man, who had gold hair and amber colored eyes. He looked up at Adrian and his eyes changed from pain to pure hatred. He tried to get up and attack him, but he was too badly injured.

Adrian had never unsuccessfully killed someone instantly. The faster the better was his motto. That way, you didn't have a chance to feel the least bit of sorrow for them. He used the handle of the knife to knock him out. One strong blow to the head did it. He wasn't sure of the extent of the shifter's injury. He wasn't sure if steel killed shifters, but the one thing he was sure of was that he didn't want to be around him if he woke up. Adrian kicked the unconscious shifter into an alley and continued his short travel to the end of 53rd street and to the warehouse.

The next few minutes were uneventful, no more shifters attacking him. But his jacket was ruined, his shirt the same, not to mention the scratches on his face, back and chest. But those were healing even as he walked in his normal fast pace. The warehouse came into view, about a short block away. He started to be even more careful about where he walked and how much noise his boots made. The dangers were getting more multiple he knew, as he neared his final destination.

A few (thankfully) minutes without being attacked passed as Adrian approached the entrance to the warehouse. He had smelled the werewolves a block away, and now his nose was suffering even more immensely from their rank stench. They were sitting on either side of a boarded up door, the entrance of course. He quickly turned and headed to the other side of the warehouse to look for perhaps a window to enter through. He of course didn't expect to get too far. Werewolves could smell better than any vampire on the planet. But he did expect to get a little farther than the sidewalk next to the side of the building.

It happened so suddenly that Adrian couldn't even notice the wolf's presence behind him in time to be able to prepare himself for a fall or blow. In what must have been a nanosecond, the wolf had pounced onto his back. Boy was his back starting to hurt. This wolf, though, instead of playing with him, seemed to be the kind to cut to the chase and kill its prey. Its mouth was about to tear out Adrian's throat, when he suddenly whipped around and punctured the wolf with his trusty silver knife. It had been in his sleeve, but not as securely placed inside of it. It had almost automatically slipped out of the opening in fact, right when his body had come in contact with the ground. Adrian jumped up and glanced down at the wolf. This time, his precious instant killing method had worked just the way it was supposed to. The wolf was in its human form, a black haired dirty man, and dead as a doornail. Adrian quickly pulled his knife out of its chest and cleaned it on his jeans. Replacing it in its proper place at the same time, he walked over to a boarded up window on the side of the warehouse. It was easy enough to pry open with his own strength, the boards loosely nailed and rotting. He glanced around his surroundings, and, satisfied that all looked to be clear at the moment, stepped inside.

The warehouse was dirty, and moldy. It almost looked empty, but of course there were the stairs over in the corner, no doubt leading to the floor that held the psychics whom he was about to make pay.
Before climbing the stairs, he checked the downstairs just so he knew what the place looked like in case he needed to escape somehow. All the halls and doors led to nothing but ruin and garbage. Well, he thought standing in front of the stairway, this is it. But, it wasn't.

A crash of the entrance door exploding surprised Adrian. He had forgotten about the werewolf!
But there was no time to be angry with himself for his stupidity, for the wolf was running into the hall where he stood. At least he had a bit of a warning this time. Still, not enough time to pull out his trustworthy silver knife to slay the enemy. The wolf bounded towards him, as Adrian rolled out of its way and into a safe room for the moment. The wolf was on him again in a second. Unlike the other times of being attacked tonight, he was pounced ontop of face up, instead of on his poor back. Adrian got lucky. The wolf must have had a sudden predatory urge to howl, which he did, which made him lift his head up. "Thought ya could get me that easy did ya?" Adrian thought to himself as he quickly killed the wolf and threw him off of himself. The howl hadn't even been sounded, thankfully. Adrian was too quick to let him do that and alert the inhabitants of the upstairs even more.

Adrian quickly got up, retrieved his knife, cleaning it in the process, and brushed himself off, giving himself a minute to recuperate. "Now to get down to real business," he thought with a savage smile forming on his face. Adrian checked himself, and began to walk down the hall and up the stairway.

go to part 7

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