Lexington Darke

From Legacy of Dracula

A vampire hunter, Lexi was initially recruited by the Order of Iscariot, but split with them and is pursuing a solo career on the advice of Elanor Fieldhouse.

Contents

Appearance

Lexi is 19, 5'1", and above average weight. She is half Japanese, and tends to follow the current Japanese fashions, although moderated slightly so she doesn't stand out too much when she travels. She wears a lot of jewelery, including 7 gold crosses on a chain about her neck, a silver pentagram on a chain on her left wrist, and a brass one on her right.

She moves gracefully, but also quite cautiously, and is always looking around her. As soon as she spots any trouble, she quickly pulls back all her chains and charm bracelets so they hang in pockets, inside her sleeves or behind her where they can't catch on anything. It only takes an instant for her to tie her hair back and produce a straight oriental-style short sword, which she holds in her left hand. She always keeps her right hand on the ornately gem-studded brass scabbard, and keeps the blade drawn by only an inch or two until the moment she strikes.

Background

Lexi was a normal kid, slightly below average in intelligence, but not particularly dumb. She did get teased quite a lot in school because of her mixed ethnicity, and her tendency to subconsciously imitate her father's Germanic accent.

Outside school, she quickly found that she excelled in Taiji Chuan. Singled out for her abilities rather than her race, she poured more effort into mastering the various techniques and meditations, and soon surpassed many of the adults at the same school. At 14, with an incredible degree of control over her own body and mind, she began learning 'hard' martial arts as a way to further improve her focus and test her limits. 2 months later, she would never be bullied again. On her 17th birthday, she took her final test in Shito-ryu karate, attaining a shodan rank in her favourite style (a feat she had already accomplished or passed in judo and wing-chun). However, at this point she seemed already bored with martial arts, claiming that to progress further would not give her any further inner development. She chose to seek other styles again.

The Jewel in Darkness

It isn't clear quite what happened between Lexi and Akodoji Taro, as she refuses to discuss the events of one winter night, and there were no other witnesses. It is believed that Akodoji, an older student from the school where Lexi chose to study Iaijutsu, found her demeanor offensive. He was reported as telling his friends that 'a beginner should act like a beginner', and he was going to show the foreign girl that 'with all the inner harmony and discipline in the world, a girl should still be submissive towards a man with a sword'.

Classmates said that they believed Akodoji would try to frighten the girl, showing off his skills to break that icy calm. Others said that they thought he might do something more extreme, that they had been genuinely afraid for her safety, but were too afraid of Akodoji, who it was rumoured had little concern for rules about weapons and armour, and saw the various schools of swordsmanship with which he was proficient as an excuse to get what he wanted.

The Jewel in Darkness was the only heirloom Lexi's mother had inherited, her once-noble lineage now severely reduced. It was an ornamental scabbard, which family legend said had contained a silver chokuto (a reward for a soldier who would never again need to guard his life with a real one), until Lexi's great-grandfather had had the blade melted to pay a debt while keeping the reminder of the family's proud past.

The young woman probably grasped the scabbard from its mounting, hoping that the possibility of a real sword would be enough to keep Akodoji away from her. However, a headstrong young man, sure of his own abilities and holding a more functional blade of the type favoured by certain gangs, would not be easily cowed.

When Gregor Darke came home late from work, he found a patina of fresh blood across the walls and floor. A young man's body lay in the hallway, cut cleanly in half from his collarbone down. Lexington sat in a meditative pose, shaking slightly but with no trace of blood on her, holding a silver-bladed sword which should never have been able to keep such a fine edge. Akodoji's head, hands and wallet (as well as most of his blood) were never found, making a positive identification quite difficult.

The Priesthood

Lexi ran to the local Catholic church, although she had never been Christian. She asked the priest to protect her from her father's rage, give her somewhere to stay. She didn't even think about the police until Father Dan asked for her confession. But luckily for her, this church was currently acting as the base of operations for a group from the Order of Iscariot, self-proclaimed holy warriors hunting down a vampire who had been praying on the local homeless.

Lexi was quickly recruited, and demonstrated an amazing talent for quick learning in many of the skills used by the Order's agents. She was taught that she was possibly the descendant (or reincarnation) of a legendary figure some 600 years previously whose title translated as "Slayer of the Dead", and that it was fate which had led her to encounter the Order. She would apparently be the first Slayer in 3 generations to unlock her potential.

It should be noted that the White and Red Gospels make no mention of this slayer, nor are any other contacts within the Order familiar with the legend. It is entirely possible that the whole story was invented to help recruit Lexi and her apparently limitless killer instinct. Some detractors who believe her abilities to be satanic in origin also question Father Duncan's assertion that Akodoji Taro was a vampire, the fact which enabled Lexi to overcome her guilt and rise to become a true Slayer.

Relationships

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