The Second Night [Cheyenne]

[Cosimo Alessi (DELETED 6612)]

"No," Cosimo said with a laugh. "Not the countryside. There was water, a dockside village. And then the cities," he said, waving his hands vaguely in the air. When his mother died when he was nine, he went to live with his father, and their life had been a nomadic one. Con jobs were bigger and better in the cities, where they could blend in with the crowds and disappear more easily. He was not sure what about him could have made this man think that he was from the countryside.

"You will find many are foreign to Harper Rock. I think that the supernatural, it draws people to this city. Like a magnet that they cannot detect," he said. He often wondered why so many foreigners ended up in this small Canadian city. For Cosimo, it had been a cousin of a cousin, a distant 'friend' who'd tried to brainwash him. For five minutes, Cosimo had become an unfortunately bad Paladin.

"There are more than just the vampires. There are other creatures, and there are places to hunt them. These are the places that I can show you, so that you can further understand," he said.

[Cheyenne-Rosewell (DELETED 9415)]

"Why am i not surprised by this?" he murmured in response to the fact that there were creatures other than vampires who roamed the night. He'd always had a feeling that humans and animals weren't the only creatures who walked the earth, but it had been a bit muted by everyday, mundane life.

"I've always been a quick learner, or so my teachers have said," the Frenchman admitted. "I don't think I'll have much trouble adapting to this new way of life." he glanced at his feet momentarily in thought, then gave a visible, yet minute startled movement, his mocha skin (inherited from an ancestor who had been Native American) paling.

"Mon dieu," his jaw fell open. "Where the bloody **** did my shadow go?" His surprise was further evidenced by the more colorful snippet of vocabulary which he so rarely let come out of his mouth.

[Cosimo Alessi (DELETED 6612)]

Cosimo wondered at his luck, that he should have fucked up so badly and yet his new charge, this young man with his French accent, was already taking it in his stride. To be told that not only was he a vampire, but there were other creatures in this city that couldn't be considered human -- and he could only say that he was a fast learner and that he would adapt. Here Cosimo thought that he would have to placate a violent and vehement anger, or in the very least watch as his newest fledgling walked away. He got neither.

Only when Cheyenne startled at the sight -- or lack thereof -- of his shadow did Cosimo come to his senses. He straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat, glancing down to the ground where the shadow should be mingling with Cosimo's own. Indeed, there was none to be seen. The Mystic nodded. This, he had heard of. Where? He couldn't remember. But he knew enough vampires that one of them, somewhere, either were lacking shadows of their own or had told him what it meant.

"Ah, si. It is funny -- a lack of a shadow. It means that you are a Shadow. You walk the path of the shadow. We vampires, we have paths. I am a Mystic. It is what gives me the power to cause the earthquake. You are a shadow, which will mean that you are capable of abilities that I have no knowledge of," he said, slowly. Whether or not Cosimo knew of them, though, they would figure it out together.