Edward drove in silence, not even bothering to glance at the
girl sitting beside him. He knew that there was no need, for while he and Mel
were allies, and would back each other up in a fight, they would never be
friends. Besides Mel always seemed perfectly content to be left alone with her
thoughts. She had already been briefed on the situation in St. Louis, enough to
be able to do her job: her job to act as bait in order to kill a psychotic
rapist. She fit the criteria for one of Olaf's victims to the "T",
only 5'3", petite, with brown curling hair down to her waist, but she
wouldn't be as easy to kill as all the others. Now that Edward realized it, the
idea that Olaf would be able to kill Mel was almost too funny. Mel would be the
victor in the scuffle no doubt about it, hell Edward wasn't even sure that he
would be able to defeat her in a fight. So why was he bringing someone he
wasn't sure he could control into a definitely deadly situation? Because he
desperately needed to find out how she would side if it came time to change the
guard inside the guild. She would make for a powerful ally or a terrible enemy,
either way he should be prepared. The Arch and skyline of St. Louis came
rapidly into the view of Hummer's windshield. It was time to put the plan into
action: protect Anita from Olaf in her venerable condition, and if he hoped
correctly, leave a skilled operative in place to lay in wait for the springing
of the trap.
Mel sighed inwardly as the hummer rolled to a stop at a light.
The phrase "Dull as Midwestern dirt." came to mind when describing
St.Louis in her mind. No famous fashion designers, no beach, no organized crime
syndicate, no crazed and wild hippie rocker people here. Dull, dull, dull. Just
then she saw something that caught her attention, stepping out of a club
interestingly called "Guilty Pleasures" was a very aesthetically
pleasing young man. Long auburn hair in a braid down his back, broad muscular
shoulders under the lilac tank top he wore, bishonen features and a very nice
firm but under the oh-so tight jeans that he sported completed the package
deal. "If there are more of these here I might be able to stand it here in
Biblesburg." Realizing that her face was pressed up against the window of
the Hummer in order to get a better view, Mel tried to regain a bit of her
composure. This so wasn't going to work with the "All business stone cold
assassin girl" image that she was trying to go for here. She glanced over
at Edward to see if he had noticed and was going to smirk at her about it the
entire rest of then trip.
Luckily he hadn't so Mel relaxed a little bit. She hadn't
had nearly as much practice at the whole emotionless thing as Edward had, and
he was not about to let her forget it anytime soon. They had driven out of the
city proper and were cruising through the suburbs now. "Cant have the
Mid-west without suburbs now can we." God how she missed LA. The insane
half remembered canyon parties, the sweaty pouty rocker boy gods, the burritos
at three am when you were between clubs, And the people. The people that you
could actually feel living, struggling, loving, despairing, dying. It gave you
kind of this electric felling in your bones that was unmistakable. The suburbs
were were rapidly fading now, developments beginning to space out, until it was
simi-rural. Edward turned down a road obviously he knew exactly were he was
headed. Looking at the farms Mel became homesick for a distant past, lifetimes
ago. Realizing that such things were unobtainable now, Mel tried to focus on
matters at hand. protecting the Executioner from Olaf was easy enough. Figuring
out how to stay and wait was a little bit more challenging but not impossible.
Which was a big difference to the things that came after that on her to do
list. Edward pulled up to a drive now and turned in. He drove up the gravel
path to a decent enough two story house with a pleasant little front garden
where a blond man on the roof was being yelled at by a woman on the ground
holding a gun. She was very petite, very angry, and very pregnant. Ah the
Executioner.