The Search Begins (Stan Davis / Open)

[Annabelle Rowan]

(OOC Note: I was under the impression this club was for vampires too... if not, give me a holler and I'll post elsewhere LOL)

It was really a genuinely horrible night. There was not a shred of cloud in the deep Texas sky. The stars were bright, the moon was brighter. Annabelle preferred cloudy days. In a way, it was like the night was sharing her misery when the moon was all clouded over. And misery enjoyed company.

Annabelle had been awake for a few hours, it was probably around midnight. She had made her rounds to the local abortion clinic, that she had become familiar with. Anna gave the f**king humans money for their dead babies and she fed from their carcasses.

Humans always said how bad vamps were, but yet here they were, secretly destroying their babies and selling them to a crazy vampire. Honestly, she wished that vampires hadn't mainstreamed, then she could have all the real, live babies and virgins she wanted without having to pay for it... Killing and draining a live baby was much better than draining one that had been dead for awhile.

Either way, her special thirst was quenched. Way better than that s**t they called TruBlood. Vampires were drinking that garbage like it was a fine wine. It was expensive for being so d**n nasty. The Japs might've thought they got it right, but they only got it wrong.

Whatever the case was, she didn't have to drink it and that's all that mattered.

Anna had found her way to Dallas precariously, based on a tip from a vampire in Oklahoma that had said a man by the name of Stan Davis was knowledgable--more knowledgable than the royalty of Oklahoma. He could perhaps lead her to her sister. And what debt she would be in if he knew.

As much as Anna hated how vampires lived sometimes, she knew that she would be dead if she didn't fulfill on a debt. And in all of her selfish glory, she wanted to live.

Dressed in a deep blue, conservative dress, that shadowed her old existence as a settler, Annabelle slumped her way to the Bat's Wing. She had gotten an additional tip that the sheriff of Dallas was here tonight. Just what Anna loved: a deep, dank club full of people just as powerful, if not more powerful, than herself. Those scoundrels better not pick a fight with her, else she'd have her way and have them dead.

Anna adjusted her hair, which was in a tight bun on her head, again in old settler fashion. She moved inside and after a short verbal fight with the bouncer, she was allowed in.

She asked a random vampire inside the busy club where Stan Davis was and quickly he redirected her attentions toward his spot. Without even much more than a thanks, Anna stalked over, with only a scowl on her face.

[Stan Davis]

The Bats Wing, more like the Bats Arse. Stan had made some close loyals at the club but it did not keep him that entertained when he went. Tonight was a little different, he felt like being in the light, possibly speaking to a few ladies. He went, accompanied by his second, the lovely Isabel. Hugo had opted to go, but Isabel and Hugo were off doing their own flirting and such, that whole stupid human vampire lovers idea. It was pretty disgusting.

Still, it was fun to hook up every once in a fortnight. Traditionally, he was dressed in a cowboy get-up, with a black button up shirt with a crimson red weaving around in small details. He was wearing jeans and a giant belt buckle that the typical "Don't Mess With Texas" with the Texan flag behind it. Although he was not originally from Texas, it had become a much warmer home than Russia had ever been to him. Upon his head was a black cowboy hat and upon his lips was a satisfied grin, the night was not going too terribly.

He mentally reached out to one of his vampires, Joseph, who approached him at the call. "TruBlood," Stan huffed, keeping his eyes pinned on the crowd. As a good little vampire would, Joseph stalked off to get his Sheriff a TruBlood. In his return, Stan caught a glimpse of a particularly peeved off, yet quite beautiful vampire. She seemed to just bombard up to him as if she owned the bar.

"Well, well, well," he said, looking truly amused. "Haven't had anyone approach me with such determination in quite a time, little lady," he smiled, offering her a seat in front of him.

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[Annabelle Rowan]

To be rude was in Anna's nature, that was for sure. However, she was dealing with the jackassery that was the rules of the vampires. She deeply bowed before straightening out once again and accepting his seat. Somedays, she wished she could glamor vampires too, that would make her job all the more easy. However, she could tell just by looking at him that this was an older vampire than herself. Even if she could glamor vamps, there was no way she was going to glamor this sausage.

The only thing the two seemed to share in common was their southern appeal. Annabelle liked living in the past, in her roots, rah-rah rebel pride all the way. At least it would make it less awkward to talk to the sheriff.

"Yes... well," Anna held back the urge to vehemently roll her eyes at him. This man must have loved his position with the kind of cocky, better-than-thou aura he was streaming.

"I have important things to ask. I come from Oklahoma... I don't know how long I will be in your district, sir, but I don't plan on bein' here longer than what I have to be," Annabelle groaned in her southern accent, "I am Annabelle Rowan. I'm looking for my sister, Belle. A vampire from Oklahoma told me you are smart, that you could know."

Was smart the right word? Probably not. However, her vocabularly hadn't been honed much more than the eighth grade when she was in her youth. She was too busy helping her parents to get a proper education. Even though a good hundred years had passed, she still didn't pursue anymore education, but that was why she wasn't leading Dallas or Oklahoma City for that matter. If Belle ever wanted her to try night classes, she would of course. Then again, Belle could say "jump" and Anna would say "how high" and then jump twice as high as she said.

"She's the kindest vampire you ever did meet. Passionate and sweet would be good words for her, I think. She looks just like me only younger with darker hair," Annabelle added.

Anna sincerely hoped that the sheriff knew. It would break her unbeating heart to know she had followed a dead lead. Where would she go from there if no information turned up? It would just be more of a big old goose chase.

While she waited for a reply, Anna placed her hands in her lap, like a lady should, and focused on the sheriff.

[Stan Davis]

This young vampire had a flame that she only fanned when she became a vampire. There was an uncertain glint in her eye that indicated that even though she would show him the respect he deserved as sheriff, it was only for one reason: this sister of her's. No matter, he would not enjoy waving her away from his presence, she was very good looking, but he would not ever give up information with a tip of his hat. While he tried to remain a gentleman, he was still in charge of quite a bit of information and it was over his dead body that he'd just give that out (har-de-har).

"Young man, get this lady some blood," he said, taking in her words but without so much as a nod. "How do you take your blood?" he asked, ensuring that he would not mess up and give her some Red Stuff when she clearly deserved the finest the Japanese could supply: TrueBlood. As he waited for her to give the command, he propped his feet up on a chair next to him and placed his finger on his chin, gently petting his beard as he thought.

"Belle Rowan?" he sort of whispered, as if he did not expect anyone else to want to know what he was thinking about. "Pretty young thing if I recall correctly. I ain't quite sure where she's been but I know I have seen her," he concluded. Of course, there was more information, but he would not share this with an outsider unless she proved herself.

Every vampire had a little they'd hold back and being Sheriff of a big place like Dallas meant he had quite a bit more to hold back. It was not like he was enjoying this, but there had been the occassional rebel who only wanted to cause problems and like hell if Stan would stand (so punny) by and let that happen. It appeared this girl enjoyed Oklahoma much more than Texas, which did not bother Stan that much, but he would have rather wished she kept her mouth shut about subtle preferences. Texas was his home, didn't need to be anyone else's, but don't mess with Texas.

"You gotta understand, darling," he said, drinking some of his TrueBlood. "I may know your sister, a little, but I don't know you. I appreciate you calling me 'smart' for maybe knowing of your sister, but I'd have to be a lot smarter than just knowing a doll's name to be Sheriff of this town. You'll need to do more than talk to get information 'round here."

[Annabelle Rowan]

The sheriff asked what kind of blood she liked. She had to refrain from saying "virgin, even better, baby would be best." In fact, she wanted to decline, but couldn't. It would be brash. Mama taught her to not decline a present, especially from a southern gentleman. But this guy was a southern rocky mountain canary, as far as she was concerned. Still... there was only so much rudness the sheriff would tolerate before booting her right outta Texas.

It was time to see if little Mister Stan Davis wanted to be nice or not.

"Do you have AB Rh negative?" She pried, raising one eyebrow.

If she was going to drink that crap, she might as well have what she considered the "best", but when it came to the fake blood, that was like saying horse maneur was much better flavored than cow pies. Whether or not they had it, Anna didn't care. She wasn't hungry, she had drained enough from two human babies to need anything more.

Although Anna had been around long enough to learn to read people, she couldn't read the vampire before her. When he spoke of knowing Belle, she didn't know if he was lying or not. For all she knew, he could be blatantly pulling the wool over her dark eyes and she would never, ever know. But sheriffs had to keep up some sort of integrity, at least Annabelle hoped.

Stan then continued, as she wanted him to. More and more her organs were starting to boil, at least they would if she was still alive. d**n vampires and their favors. It was always favors, always. If she had a living breath, her chest would have been heaving in anger.

Anna looked down at the table as her lips puckered into a fiery formation. After composing herself, she looked at Stan. Her gaze said "drop dead" over and over. She had to remind herself this was for her only friend, her only ally against the rest of the world. Her only relative. Her only blood. Both her daughter and her sister.

"Yea', I should've figured something like that was in store. You vamps of Texas are no better than the ones in Oklahoma. If you do everything so big and better and crap, I'm thinking this favor will be bigger and better than everything any ol' vampire in Oklahoma coulda thought up," Annabelle fumed, "but you tell me, is what you want worth whatever information you got about my sister?"

[Stan Davis]

AB Rh negative? Someone with exquisite taste. Of course, this would not require Stan to stand up and he just waved his hand for someone to go grab it for him. At least she did not order any Red Stuff, the cheapest of the cheap, but still, synthetic blood was not much fun. If she wanted to feed on a human elsewhere, that was allowed, but unfortunately, there were laws surrounding the bar that not even Dallas's own sheriff should break. He did not mention anything else about the blood.

Everything was all a game to Stan, until she compared Texas to Oklahoma and she could hear a few insults towards his home state mixed in there. You vamps of Texas are no better than the ones in Oklahoma. If you do everything so big and better and crap, I'm thinking this favor will be bigger and better than everything any ol' vampire in Oklahoma coulda thought up. "Excuse me?" he suddenly changed his tone and seemed to just growl at her. "No better than Oklahoma?" he boamed.

In order to not cause a scene, he leaned in his chair forward to her and snapped. "Listen here, sweetheart, next time you try looking for your so long lost little sister, I would start by not insulting the Sheriff that you are trying to gain information from," he snapped, his fangs extended. His outburst caused his nest mates to turn their attention to him. "Now when I say jump, when you're in my area, you should d**n well jump to the moon or you'll be banned from this here place. Believe me, toots, don't mess with Texas," he growled, unable to resist. In certain situations, it just called for that cliche.

"So now you're losing my attention. You can either be escorted outta this bar and never show your doll face here again, or you can come up with your own d**n idea on how to make me listen again." With that, he stood up and moved over to the bar. If she really needed to know information from him, she would need to follow him to the bar.

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[Annabelle Rowan]

Annabelle might not have been book smart, but she was definitely street smart, often times her street smarts overriding her brash anger. This was one of those times. She could see him clearly seething. Annabelle wasn't going to back down by removing her gaze from him, but she certainly wouldn't try to kick his jolly redneck ass. That would be the immediate death of her.

However, her own fangs slid out as she let his insults roll against her brick wall of a personality. She understood he was angry but she didn't really take in anything that he said because all Anna could think about was stabbing him through the heart with a big, Texas-sized silver stake!

She heard him say something about cleaning up her act before asking him a question, then he stalked off towards the bar. What a drama queen, as modern day folks said. Anna watched him leave, her coal eyes following him as he left. She then glanced around at the vampire patrons and flashed her fangs at them to tell them to mind their own d**n business.

Would she swallow her pride? Hell, it'd be hard not to. Anna would spill blood if it meant finding her sister again, and she pitied the fact that he was so much older and a sheriff, else she'd beat him up bad. There was no other choice. She had to make friendly with him.

She had to calm herself down so that her pearly fangs would retract back into their spot before asking his forgiveness. Once her anger level had gone down substantially, she got up and slowly walked towards the sheriff again, much like an abused dog walks back to its owner.

Anna walked up beside him and leaned against the bar, taking her True Blood from the bartender. She took a drink of it before speaking.

"I don't apologize much, cause I just don't like anybody. I think you'd be mad too if you just couldn't find someone that meant a lot to you, ya know? It makes people do crazy things and say even crazier sh**," Anna spoke quietly this time, and made only a bit of eye contact.

"The one d**n thing we have in common is that we are both children of the south and we love the south. Texas... Oklahoma, we all fought the same war 'gainst the North. My uncle served and he gave me a good pride in the South for that," Anna tried to gain a similar bond, in hopes of cooling off their tempers, "I mean jus' look at me."

She motioned towards her clothes, which were very old era with a slight modern twist and her hair which was a traditional settler bun.

"Now... I do need your help, sir," Anna shrugged, becoming more desperate, "I have no else place to try."

[Stan Davis]

Just as anyone who has lost someone dear would do, Annabella attempted to make amends with Stan. She approached him and began a human talk, all about how it drives her nuts to not know where her sister is. Stan had not really had anyone that close to him, not since he was a human, anyways, but then again, he did not have a sister, so what did he know? He knew not to talk back to his superiors, not matter what situation, well, truth be told, he still talked back. A low growl escaped his throat and he turned to look at her.

It was true, she did look like a settler. Yet if Stan were to walk around in the clothes he was most comfortable in when he was a human, he would be wearing giant fur jackets with a mink hate. The Texan look fit him the best. "Actually, I am not a native to the South," he corrected her. After all, there were so many older vampires that had not come from America, since you had to be at least over like 300 years old, and that was how old America was. Unless he was an Indian or Mayan or Aztec or anything like that, he could not have been born in Texas. No matter what, however, he had made his home in Texas and had come to love the cowboy boots much better than the fur boots, fur never really brought out his good looks.

"But Texas has been a wonderful home," he agreed. The South was much more kind than the North, from what he could tell. Plus, d**n nearly never snowed around these parts. "Fine, since you've swallowed your pride, I'll indulge you," he nodded. "Last I heard of this sister of your's, this Belle, she was off to Louisiana," he said, drinking some more. Man he sure as hell needed a rare human to feed off of. Maybe when he got home...

"I heard she went to Area 5, the Sheriff there is Eric. You would need to speak to him, he may know of where she is now. She did not stay here for that long." He finished off his blood and called one of his vampires over to replace it.

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[Annabelle Rowan]

When Stan mentioned he wasn't from the south, Annabelle had awkwardly shifted, hoping she didn't strike yet another raw nerve. It just further confirmed that Stan was much older than herself. She tried to wait patiently, as he spoke, and listened with perky ears. Any amount of information she could soak up was good.

Stan told her she might be in Louisiana. Oh, hell. Another foreign, southern state she'd have to visit. She did not let her qualms show through her eyes, but instead looked at the bar surface. He finished with telling her about Area Five and a man named Eric. Great, more hoops to jump through, when she probably already had to make up a favor for this Stan Davis for the information he gave her.

She tapped her index finger on the bar and looked to Stan, "Thank you, sir. I must act in good favor and be in the debt to you, I reckon. I know that much at least. Is there somethin' I can do for you right away now or should I just consider myself in debt to the first bank of Stan Davis."

Her humor, as small as it was, was terrible and very dry. She had already spoken the words before being able to stop herself, the way she said it was not in an offensive way, but this sheriff seemed very brash and hotheaded, there was no telling how he'd take her joke. She cautiously drank the remainder of her True Blood before meeting his eyes.

[Stan Davis]

((Sorry, been working on the MotM and CotM so I've fallen behind. So sorry))

Her facial expression changed, as if uncertain, she must have really thought he was originally from the South. Although this may be an insult to some, he found it rather complimenting, it was nice for people to tell him that he really could pull off the Texan look. He died in Russia and he had done much traveling throughout Europe and such, but he had to realize that even though his past few many decades had been in Texas, some of the newer vampires had not even left America. What if she had never left Oklahoma? Now he could not believe that.

"If you don't have any way of gettin' there, I have to head out there anyways, maybe you'll tag along?" he said it more of a firm possibility rather than a question, but being a sheriff he was not used to being questioned. Although this one was rather different, she was constantly piping up with something new, even if she did need to be put back in her place, at least she did that gracefully.

If only he did have a first bank of those who owed him a favor. There were quite a few vampires, humans and shifters who were in his debt. "If anything happens on the trip and you save me or pay me back in any way, consider your account in my bank settled," he joked in a scruffy voice. He drank some more of his True Blood, honestly, he had quite a thirst, but this night he wanted some real blood. After all, he did have a long journey to endure soon enough.

Typically, his trust would be in Anubis Air, but with what nearly happened to Sookie when she had flown out to help him with his missing old sheriff, she was nearly kidnapped, right under their noses! He would have none of that. Of course, maybe he would trust them again, but just not for the next few weeks. His journey was going to be made by a human, two humans at that. In fact, two glamored humans who could not turn against Stan. So far, there would only be one coffin in the back, but the humans could make room. Plus, Stan figured the journey could be made before the sun set again. Fall asleep in Dallas, wake up in Shreveport, sounds like a plan.

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[Annabelle Rowan]

What was this? He was asking her to go with him to Shreveport? It would probably be a good idea, as she wasn't familiar with the layout of Louisiana and a sheriff, regardless of the area or state, would know more than her. Besides, she owed a debt now, and the way he said it suggested she had to go. On the inside, Anna groaned, but she had to remember that this might just lead her one step closer to Sister Belle.

He listened to the remainder of his words and crossed her hands behind her back, thinking. She dipped her head for a moment before bringing it back up. Anna was trying so hard not to show distaste for the sake of the sheriff, she wasn't sure if he'd ever quite met a vampire as "mean" as some would call her, as herself. Hopefully, he'd met meaner, so that her behavior wasn't way out there.

"I figger you want me to go with you, I'll gallivant with you than... when are you fixin to leave, sheriff?" Anna asked.

If he boldly said 'now', she might give him the evil eye, but she'd go with. Though she certainly smelled and looked funnier than a yankee on the yahoo. A shower and a change of clothes would be in order before she moseyed along with him.

[Stan Davis]

Stan kept his gaze on her while she processed everything and took in everything that she said. For someone that was bitten not too long ago (compared to Stan) and even more, bitten in the South before the War, she was quite educated. It was rather surprising. He had not heard that word in quite a while. Refreshing... "I'm thinking I'll leave tomorrow, when the sun rises. I'll have my humans take care of us, don't worry, they'll be glamored first just to make sure," he said.

"Of course, if you don't want that, then you can always just have a favor you owe me, you're choice," he said, almost making a sighing noise, but he could not unless he was able to breathe in the first place. He finished up his drink and placed it on the bar for the bartender to put up. It was time for him to leave, he had to deal with some V dealers back at his nest and that always was a lot harder than he really enjoyed. Some of them were pesky, plus, he needed to deal with two who claimed they were siblings and had a human who could pay off the bounty on their head. This human was apparently in Shreveport too, another reason to go there.

Still, he needed to have more fun with those two before heading out and leaving them to Isabelle. She always had more of a heart than she did, she would have to if she were in love with her human, Hugo. Pathetic. Standing up, he spoke again, "if you come, meet me here tomorrow, maybe an hour before sunrise and we will begin our journey, for now, I've gotta go deal with some idiots," he said, dipping his head in a low bow. "Pleasure," he said, not even dealing with the bill, he did not need to, one of his inferiors would.

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