Rome.

The birthplace of christianity and ironically...  A shitload of brutality.  It was amazing how so many people overlooked that little fact.  Always fascinated with the wonderment of the Vatican or the architectural genius that is the Colliseum.  Forgetting as their hungry eyes rest themselves on works of olden man.  It wasn't christianity or artisans that built this city, but the blood of those that were deemed enemy or more simply...  wicked.  How many poor souls cried out from beneath these city streets as herding tourist feet trample them underfoot.  Just how much blood flowed to create the mortar that built these marvels of mankind.  Perhaps no one knew or cared.  No one except for the ghosts of the past.  Those unseen spectres that cry out night after night for some sort of vengance that will never come.  It was maddening to one onlooker in particular and tonight..  he would make someone remember and then they would know exactly how much pain that his kind had to endure beneath the yoke of christian humanity.

"Can I help you sir?"

Her voice cut like a knife through his private thoughts, rending them asunder with the utterance of so few words.  He cringed slightly and shook his head as he spun around to face the slender human female behind the desk.  Pitch dark eyes never settling but continuously roaming each and every inch as if those midnight pools would gobble her up.  She wasn't as beautiful as her liliting voice would have had him to believe.  Plain.  Standing there in her straight lined buisness attire of an almost slate grey.  Her blonde hair pulled up into a tight little bun that sat like a crown atop her head.  There was, however, one saving grace to this homely exterior.  Her eyes.  Something akin to azure glass or perhaps pristine blue waters swirled about the pencil-point pupils and for a moment, Malice found himself staring.  Interesting. 

"You may at that..."  His voice flowed like silken honey from kissable lips, his voice a near whisper that held promise of wonderful nighttime activites and from her startled reaction, he knew instantly that she wasn't used to this sort of... speaking.  He smiled and tilted his head to the side as he reached up and sifted a hand through inky disheveled hair, those magnificent pools of glistening darkness swallowing up reaction and embarassment.  It was amusing that this female was so very easy to manipulate.  Even from across the desk he could scent her arousal and it caused him to shiver with a hunger that went far beyond the bedroom.  It reached deeper inside of him and tickled his inner-self.  Nudged the monster that sat just beneath the surface.

"Ex-Excuse me?  Um...  I mean that...  Well, can I help you with your reservation, sir?"  By this time, her cheeks had taken on a bright shade of red, the heat from her apparent condition creeping slowly up her neck to fill out the rest of unimpressive features.  Still, it was those eyes that drew his attention and how they began to glisten with the need she had of him and he imagined what she was thinking at that very moment as eventually those onyx twins met with crystal blue.  Did she imagine him atop her, his endowment burined to the hilt within her as she rocked up on narrow hips to match his rhythm?  Or was it she who was in charge with her slender body positioned perfectly above his hips, pinning him beneath her grinding motions?  Either way, he knew what she was thinking and he managed to play it coy. 

"Of course you did..  I-I'm sorry that I took that in such a...  horrid direction."  He tilted his head downward, focusing his eyes on the toes of his knee high leather boots.  Hell, he even worked up a slight blush to add flavor to the whole act. 

"No no.  It was me who took that to mean.. Um..  Well, you know what I mean, right?  I apologize."  It was her turn to make her voice barely audible as if she was trying to hide what she was saying from him.  Of course, she could have mouthed the words but he would have heard the gentle exhalation of her breath with each syllable and picked the words from them.  It was one of his many talents.  A rat didn't get where he was unless he knew more than his fair share of tricks.  Sighing, he pulled his eyes from the floor and met her own for a second time and this time, she smiled.  Now was the time to reel her in.  She had bought his shy-boy routine hook line and sinker.  She even swallowed the hook.  Smiling himself, he stretched a tattooed arm across the desk and offered her his hand.

"No hard feelings, eh?"

She laughed softly and took his hand, giving it a gentle shake.

"None whatsoever."

He nodded as she released his hand and for a moment, he let his index finger trail along her palm.  She shivered beneath his touch and again, he could scent her beneath that pencil skirt she was wearing. 

"The name's Malice, darlin'."

"Jessica."

The smile he wore grew wider and he gave the barest of nods as he shifted positions to allow him to rest comfortably against the desk's ornate edging.  His slender body leaned forward so that elbows would prop his slight weight and in doing so, caused the fabric of his shirt to stretch ever so tightly against the corded musculature of his upper torso.  He wasn't a big man by any means, but what he did have was toned and very well taken care of.  It had to be.  In his line of work, his body meant money and if it wasn't in tip top shape, then well...  He didn't even like to think about that possibility.  That's why he made it a point to keep in shape.  After all, it made seduction all the more easier, right?

"Pleasure to meetcha, Jessica.  Hope that I didn't cause too much trouble with what I said.  Sometimes I don't think before I speak..  Just a bad habit I haven't quite broken yet."

"The pleasure's all mine...  Malice, is it?  It's okay...  Sometimes I run off at the mouth myself.  My friends tell me that I talk too much, but I just let it go in one ear and out the other.  Sometimes, I wonder if people even listen to what I'm saying or do they just nod their heads and act like they care.  It's a problem that I have with some of the guys that work here.  They act like they're my friends, but when I ask them if they remember a certain part of a conversation we were having a couple of days before, they just shrug and shake their head.  It's a curse I guess."

A slender brow arched itself high on his forehead as she rambled on about problems in her daily life and Malice couldn't help but smile.  It was a wonder how humans survived at all.  What with their willingness to share information with strangers so readily.  Never knowing if the person that they're speaking with could use such tid-bits to harm them.  It was...  useful. 

"That's horrible.  I would never ignore you, darlin'.  Never in a million years.  Hell, you could talk forever and I would still find the time to listen to you."

Again that blush rose high in her cheeks, turning her otherwise pallid exterior a rather pleasant shade of crimson.  He had her then and by the way she began to look at him, he knew it to be fact.  Sighing softly, he pushed himself up and away from the counter as he fished around in his pocket for his wallet.  It was time to leave her haning.  Leave her wanting more and after a few moments, he produced the documents needed to obtain a room.  Passport, ID and all those other little goodies that made security so much easier.  Lucky for him, every single piece of identificaton he had was manufactured.  Nothing to trace him.  Just a face in the dark.  It was the only way he'd have it.

"I hate to trouble you, but could you maybe find me a room in your nice hotel?  I've been all over this damn city and can't find a room anywhere.  If you do, I'll treat you for dinner tonight, alright?"

She stared at him for a split second as if she were pondering some ancient riddle that could never be solved and after a moment or two, she grinned and began to tap at the keys of her computer.  He watched her intently, his eyes absorbing every single little move she made.  Every breath she took.  Every simple nuance of her body's languauge was recieved and filed away somehwhere in his mind for later use.  He laughed quietly and folded his arms neatly across his chest.

"There's one room available and it's a luxury suite.  The rate's three hundred a night plus whatever charges you incur during your stay."  She looked up at him finally with a dim hope shining just beneath the desire in her eyes.

"That'll be perfect."

Instantly, it was as if someone turned on the heat in the room and he had to take step back.  The anticipation of the events that would take place was stirring his beast and he was fighting to control it.  Swallowing thickly, he quickly wiped away the sweat that had begun to accumulate along his brow.  It was too soon to think like that.  She hadn't officially agreed to come along for the ride of her life and he didn't know if she was really up to it.  Oh yeah, she wanted him but her reaction to such subtle flirtations was less that favorable.  He inhaled deeply and composed himself as she retrieved the keycard from beneath the desk and slid it through the machine, magnetizing it.

"Here you go.  Room three twenty.  Third floor and second door on your right.  Can't miss it."

She grinned and held out the slim white plastic rectangle for him to take and he couldn't help but notice that she was visibly shaking.  Interesting.  Reaching outward, he took the card between index and thumb as his remaining digits found themselves briskly touching her hand.  Meeting her eyes, he smiled and canted his head to the right.

"Tonight.  Come to my room and we can have the time of our lives."

She laughed and gave a curt nod.

"I'll be there with bells on."

He laughed softly.  A joyful and delicate sound that slipped lips and floated on generated breeze.  He laughed and turned away, his footfalls leading him to a brass doored elevator where he stopped and pressed the button marked with an upward arrow.  Tonight the games would begin anew. 

Tonight...

There would be more dead bodies.