The vamp smiled and ran straight past Merrick who made no attempt to stop him; Tara backed away slightly and dropped her stake on the floor. The vamp gabbed her a threw her against the wall, she tried to hold him back but he was too strong and he sank his fangs into her neck, her eyes widened and she screamed out in pain.

Suddenly Tara stopped screaming and started choking as she inhaled vampire ash, she fell to her knees spluttering. She clutched her neck and felt the warm liquid that was gushing from the two small wounds the vamp had left her; she looked up and saw Merrick standing over her holding a stake.

Tara finally regained the ability to breath and took several deep breaths before looking down and realising exactly what it was she was sitting in and what she had inhaled a fair amount of, and for the second time that day threw up. She fell back against the wall she was only a moment ago pinned against and hit her head, she uttered a few annoyed swear words and thought that this really wasn't a good day for her.

"You froze, you hesitated. You have just learnt a valuable lesson, no matter how much training or preparation you get it cannot prepare you for the real thing, you can't fight something you've only seen in movies and books no matter how prepared you are." He reached out his hand to her to help her up "It doesn't get scarier either, just because you know what you're doing or what to expect doesn't mean you know everything. They're stronger faster and more powerful than you, one mistake is all it will take and you're dead. Don't forget this moment."

Tara looked up at him and then to the hand he was extending her and felt the rage boiling up inside her, she slapped his hand away and dragged herself to her feet and began to back away slowly towards the street.

"Y-y-you can stay the HELL away from me," she shouted and turned and ran out onto the street, and before Merrick could do anything she was lost in a large crowd of people.

"Looks like you lost the one mate."

Merrick turned slightly annoyed to the Australian accent that he assumed to be addressing him and was surprised to see that the speaker was a hooded and cloaked figure leaning against a wall, and he had a feeling it was the same hooded figure he had seen that morning.

"That was you on the roof this morning wasn't it?"

"May have been." The person moved from the wall and took a couple of steps towards Merrick, the orange glow coming from one of the apartment windows almost illuminating his face "I have some information you might like to hear."

"Not interested" Merrick turned to leave but the person's next words made him freeze, fear in his eyes.

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After she left Merrick Tara ran and ran and didn't stop until she was at the point of collapsing, she felt ill and drained and weak, guess losing a pint or two of blood does that to you she though. She slowed her pace to a stagger and almost collapsed against the wall of a club, she looked at herself and decided it would be wise to clean up, she entered the club.

As soon as she walked through the door she knew she couldn't have picked a worse club to walk into to clean up in this state; there were circular tables filling the room all facing a stage at one end from which a man was unplugging his guitar and leaving. She saw the sign for the bathrooms and realised she had to walk past the bar behind every single table there to get to them.

She took a deep breath and hurried across the room at the worst possible time, there was no one stage to distract the club's patrons so a few of them got up for the bar or turned around and saw her, she got a few very odd look but kept going nonetheless.

"And now, please welcome on stage one of our regulars Morgan Lacey"

Tara was not sure why this spiked her interest but it did, she turned to look and saw a girl walk on stage holding a guitar, the girl had long blonde hair with dark roots and was wearing a pair of scruffy jeans and a t-shirt and a pair of black rimmed glasses with white stripes down the sides, Tara though this girl must be very interesting and for some reason felt a longing to get to know her. Morgan plugged in her guitar and walked to the microphone, she opened her mouth to speak and her and Tara's eyes met and she seemed stunned for a second, Tara tore her eyes away after what seemed like an age and hurried to the bathroom leaving behind the sound of:

"Ok, this is a cover of a Chris Isaak song and it's called Wicked Games" Tara almost felt sorry the bathroom door had to close because it drowned out the music Morgan started to play.

When Tara had emerged from the bathroom having done the best she could to clean herself up Morgan was just finishing 'Wicked Games' to thunderous applause. Tara decided she wanted to hear some of this girls stuff and decided to stay, she needed a drink anyway; she though alcohol would be a very bad idea considering the blood she had lost.

"Can I help you" asked the barman, She shoved her hand in her pocket and rifles for some change but all she found was some paper and a sinking sense of shame as the barman looked at her expectantly, she was fully aware of her bloody sweater and just asked for a glass of water.

"Ok" started Morgan "this next one is another cover, I'm covering Michelle Branch this time," this comment was met with some scattered laughter, Tara let a small smile escape her.

"It's called 'Goodbye to you' and it goes like this."

Morgan started playing the song and after the first few lines Tara suddenly felt an incredibly powerful sadness take her and she didn't know where it came from, she dropped her glass on the floor and rubbed her eyes trying to remember what was behind this locked door in her mind, her eyesight began to fade to black and the last thing she heard was the sound of a guitar being dropped and people rushing to help her.

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Merrick arrived and the Los Angeles City Museum and made a bee-line for the nearest drainpipe and climbed all the way to the roof and headed for the skylight on the far left, he peered down to see a man with very long jet black hair standing in front of four rocks. Each of these rocks had an inscription on it and a different weapon sticking out of the top. The one closest to the door had a large two headed battle axe, the one next to it had a bow, the next one had an elaborate Katana and the last had a very mean looking broadsword that looked like it belonged to a villain in a highlander movie.

The man standing in front of these stones was at least 6 feet tall and slim, he was wearing all black with a long black cape. His face was pale and his eyes red, he left this room and headed for another, Merrick followed along the roof, skylight to skylight until whatever it was in the museum stopped at a glass cabinet in the Egypt section and raised his hand to break one of the glass cabinets, this was when Merrick made his move; he dove through the skylight, landing on his feet in front of the man-like creature and grabbed it, pinning it against the wall.

The thing regarded Merrick curiously before sending him flying across the room, seemingly using only it's mind. Merrick hit the wall with a crash and fell to his knees, the thing held out his hand to his left levitating a rather vicious dagger and sending it flying in Merrick's direction but he easily avoided it by rolling to the right. He reached up and grabbed two short swords from the wall and threw one at the creature who seemingly turned to mist and the sword went straight through and clattered harmlessly to the floor. Merrick charged at the creature who had now become once again solid matter and swung at him several times with the sword but each blow was a waste as they were easily dodged, on the eighth swing of the sword the thing grabbed Merrick's arm stopping the sword in it's tracks, the creature then drove it's elbow into Merrick's throat sending him staggering back coughing, the thing then swung with full force across Merrick's face sending once again flying across the room, this time landing in a heap on the floor.

Merrick dragged himself to his feet, whipping a speck of blood from his lip.

"Why'd it have to be a shade."

Merrick took up a fighting stance but it was useless, the shade held up his hand, lifting Merrick of the ground and then with a flick of his wrist sent Merrick across the room for a third time. This time however Merrick did not hit the wall or crash to the floor, he was impaled on one of the many metre and a half long spikes that were around the room 20 feet from the floor.

Merrick looked down and saw a metre of cold steel protruding from his chest and passed out. The shade grinned triumphantly and went back to the glass case he was going to smash before being so rudely interrupted.

TBC