Natasha Romanoff braced herself for the hit.

The tension from the onlookers was near palpable.  Never had they seen such a display of skill and cunning as they did this early spring morning.    Some of the crowd had been watching her for hours, wondering how long she could keep this up.  Surely someone in authority would come to investigate, but no one had as of yet.  At last, though, it seems the lady’s luck may have finally run out, as her opponent seemed to have her in dire straits.  The murmurs died down as they all waited for what might be the conclusion.

“The lady in black draws a three, giving her 21.  Dealer has 20.  The lady wins!” the dealer exclaimed as he turned over the card he had dealt Natasha.  A roar erupted from the crowd as an enormous stack of chips was pushed in front of her.  The dealer shuffled his two Kings and her cards off the table.

Natasha took the crowd surrounding the blackjack table’s congratulations in stride, nodding her head and mouthing ‘thank you’.  The crowd cheered even more when she called a waiter over and, placing several chips on his tray, announced a round of drinks for all those watching were on her.

As the waiter was inundated with drink orders, a man pushed through the crowd toward her.  Natasha's keen eye immediately recognized him for what he was.  She put up her hand before his face before he could even speak.

"I certainly hope you are not here to ruin my well-deserved vacation by accusing me of cheating," she said, facing her newly dealt cards.  Face up was a seven of clubs.  She peeked at the face down card.  Queen of diamonds.  Natasha then glanced at the dealer's face-up card.  It was a king of clubs.

"No, ma'am," the man said.  He was muscular with very dark hair and features.  He wore a black pin-striped suit that looked to be professionally tailored.  Natasha thought he looked like he had stepped right out of that film that Clint* loved so much...Goodellas.  "Mister Santoni would like the pleasure of meeting you.  Oh, and I would suggest staying with that hand."

Natasha looked sideways at him with a slight smile barely curling one corner of her mouth.  "Then you most likely would have lost."  She motioned for the dealer to give her another card, and the dealer flipped over a four, giving her 21.  The crowd again roared in approval as the dealer turned over the face-down house card: the 10 of spades, giving the dealer 20.

Natasha stood up, revealing a full-length black dress.  She turned to the man who had been addressing her.  "I trust my chips will be taken care of, Mister...?"

"Romita.  And yes, ma'am.  They'll be waiting for you when you leave.  Now, if you'll be so kind as to follow me?" and Mister Romita turned and began to lead her across the casino floor.

"Are you sure you're not going to put me in some small room and, how does it go, 'work me over' to get me to admit I had cheated?" Natasha asked as she followed Mister Romita.

Without turning, Mister Romita replied.  "Nobody gets away with cheating here at The Everlasting Nights.  Nobody has ever gotten away with cheating here."

Natasha chuckled.  "Of course, if someone did succeed in cheating you, it would mean you probably never knew they had done so."

As they passed by a craps table, Natasha bumped into a man about to shoot the dice.  He dropped them onto the ground and Natasha quickly bent down and scooped them up.

"Oh, I am so sorry," Natasha said apologetically, holding the gentleman's dice in the palm of her hand.

The shooter reached out and took the dice from her.  "Quite all right, miss.  It's never bad luck to have such a beautiful woman bump into you.  Perhaps we'll 'bump' into each other again before the night is over, eh?"

Natasha winked at him as she resumed following Mister Romita.  "Perhaps."

After a few more moments of crossing the floor to a set of stairs set into the far wall of the casino, Mister Romita turned toward Natasha.  "Just follow the stairs and it will take you to Mister Santoni's office."

"Thank you," Natasha replied as she put her foot on the first step.  "Oh, and you may want these."  She grabbed Mister Romita's hand, and dropped a pair of dice into his hand.  "These are the loaded dice the man I bumped into had been using all night.  I switched them with a regular set when I made him drop them.

She then proceeded up the stairs, leaving Mister Romita with his jaw open.

The room was pretty much what one would expect.  The wall facing the casino was a giant one-way window, so that the occupants of the office could look down upon the casino floor without the patrons knowing they were being observed (or at least where they were being observed from).  Red and black wall-to-wall carpeting covered the floor, and a few paintings ordained the remaining walls.  All still-life portraits, Natasha noted, and none of them originals.  The only pieces of furniture were opposite the mirror.  Merely a large metal desk, with one chair behind it, and two in front.  A fairly plain room, but Natasha suspected that most of the business done here was less than officious.

Since no one was waiting for her, Natasha wandered to the see-through mirror, and looked through her faint image being reflected on the glass to the floor of the casino.  Like so many of those below, she had come to this city of gaudy colors and non-stop cacophony to try and, for a while at least, forget her recent troubles.  Unfortunately, all these distractions still seemed unable to lift the melancholy from her soul.  For the first time in many years, Natasha felt tired, and unsure with what to do with herself.  Perhaps it was time to--

"Miss Romanoff, I am pleased you have decided to meet with me," a sudden voice from behind said, startling her.  Not an easy thing to do, for sure.

She turned around, and sitting on the corner of the desk was a man.  Around six feet tall, dark features and hair, and dressed in what appeared to be an Armani suit.  "Handsome," she thought, and smiled slightly.

With a smile of his own, the man stood and approached her.  In the corner of her mind, she noticed that he almost seemed to glide across the floor, his steps not even seeming to imprint upon the carpet.

"Ah, where are my manners?" he asked as he approached.  "I should not have snuck up on you like that.  Please accept my apologies."  He grasped her hand lightly, bent, and kissed it gently before rising again.

"You appear to be quite the gentleman, Mister Santoni, I presume?" Natasha remarked, noting that he still held her hand in his, and she making no move to remove it.

Santoni chuckled slightly.  "Heh, I apologize again.  Yes, Miss Romanoff.  I am Guiseppi Santoni, the owner of this gaudy establishment."

"I take it from your delightful accent that you are from...Sicily?" Natasha flirted.

Guiseppi's brown eyes lit up.  "You are quite correct!  Your reputation is well-deserved, it seems."

Natasha found herself staring deeply into his eyes.  "What reputation is that?" she asked some breathily, somewhat to her own surprise.

"Heh, why your reputation in the espionage business," he said, obviously catching onto her double entendre, but not acknowledging it.  "Most people just assume I am from Italy...or New Jersey."

Santoni continued to peer directly into her eyes.  She knew it was a horrible cliche, but she felt as if he were peering into her soul.  The world around the edges of her vision seemed to blur out, and she seemed unable to draw her gaze away from his.  She felt him tugging her slowly closer to him by her hand, and she did not resist.  Natasha began to feel a need for this man she had just met minutes ago, and for some reason this did not bother her.

Santoni continued, his voice dropping to almost a whisper, yet it was the only sound Natasha could hear, each syllable rippling through her.  "Yes, you are truly a remarkable woman, Miss Romanoff.  Beautiful, intelligent, and obviously a woman of refined taste.  Truly a worthy choice..."

With that, he jerked her against his body and began to suckle her neck.  She gave in willingly, closing her eyes and filling her nostrils with the scent of him.  Natasha thought she would give this man her life, if he but asked her to.  They spun around, Natasha's dress billowing out slightly.  She opened heavy-lidded eyes, and once again saw her ghostly reflection in the window overlooking the casino floor...

...and only her reflection.

The world suddenly snapped back into focus, and immediately dropped down, flipping Santoni head over heels halfway across the room.  Natasha continued to roll back into a standing position facing away from Santoni.  She quickly turned toward where he lay on the ground.  Surprisingly, he was laughing.

"Ha Ha Ha!  Like I said, truly a worthy choice," he continued to laugh as he stood back up, brushing himself off.

It was then that Natasha felt something wet on her neck.  Without taking her eyes off Santoni, she rubbed the wet spot on her neck, and looked at her fingers.  Blood.  Her blood.

"No relection...blood sucking...you are a vampire, no?" Natasha asked, getting into a fighting stance.

Santoni wiped a small drop of Natasha's blood from his cheek, and licked it slowly before answering.  "...And a very old one, at that.  You definitely have a strong will to break the power of my gaze.  But do not think that you shall escape me, Romanoff.  For too long I have fed on mutts and strays to avoid attracting attention.  I want to feed on a purebred, and you fit that role admirably."

"You will forgive me if I do not make this easy for you," Natasha almost snarled, angry at herself for almost falling victim like an amateur.

Santoni began to approach her almost leisurely.  "Ah, but you were so ready to give in just a few moments ago."

Enraged and embarrassed at his comments, Natasha leapt at Santoni, but her outstretched hands slid through him as if he were made of smoke.  Her momentum carried her through him, and she crashed into the metal desk and chairs behind his immaterial form.

Santoni's hazy form sharpened as he rematerialized.  Natasha quickly regained her footing and looked around.

"I am sorry, my dear, but there is nothing to use in here as a weapon that would hurt me.  The furniture is metal, the frames on the pictures are plastic, and the only door out is steel. Now," he said and snapped his fingers.  Smoke billowed in from under the door and materialized as two more finely-dressed men on either side of him.  "You can give in now and we shall make your final moments pleasurable ones.  Resist me, and we shall make things...painful."

Without a word, Natasha grabbed one of the overturned chairs, and charged the three vampires.  With a laugh, they dematerialized again, their forms resembling wisps of smoke.

"I told you, you cannot harm--eh?"

Santoni was surprised when, without pause, Natasha ran right through him and his bodyguards toward the other end of the room.  He turned just in time to see The Black Widow reach the picture-window and swing the sturdy steel chair.  The window shattered, and glass rained down on those gathered on the floor beneath.  People stopped their gambling and looked about, wondering what the commotion was.

The Black Widow dropped through the large hole down to the casino floor.  Above, Santoni almost seemed delighted.

"I must have her!  Bring her back to me!"

One of his bodyguards turned to Santoni.  "But people will see us.  It's by keeping low that we've survived all these centuries!"

Santoni's smile turned into a scowl.  "I...want...HER!  And I'll destroy this whole town to get her!  Now GO!"

As Natasha landed on the casino floor, she quickly took off her shoes, since they would have been impossible to run in.  She had all of her gear in her car, which was in the underground parking garage several floors down from where she was at.  She started to run through the crowd toward the stairwell, when she began to hear people screaming even louder than before coming from behind her.  She stopped and turned.

People were scattering out of the way of two wolves charging her way, snarling and snapping at anyone getting in their way.  Seeing innocents in danger, and knowing she couldn't outrun the two creatures anyway, The Black Widow stopped to face them.

The first wolf leapt at her, but Natasha dropped her shoes and grabbed it by it's fur.  Using it's own momentum, she slammed it onto a gaming table she was next to.  But as she turned to face the second wolf, it slammed into her, pinning her to the floor.  It's slavering jaws dripped saliva onto her face.

"Don't think you will survive this night, woman," the wolf growled gutturally at her.

The Black Widow grabbed one of her dropped shoes, and immediately jammed the spiked heel into the creature's left eye.  It howled, jumped off her, and staggered back, turning back into human in the process.  Natasha climbed back to her feet in an instant, and heard the first vampire, also back in it's human form, rushing at her.  She ducked under a swipe from it's arm, and thrust the heel of her hand into the creature's nose.  There was a loud 'crackle' noise as its nose broke and cartilage was pushed into its brain.  Green ichor shot out of its nostrils as he fell to the ground, twitching.

A hand suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her about.  The first vampire stood there, it's green blood still pouring out of the hole in its eyesocket.  Natasha noticed how he looked less human in his obvious rage.  She could see the extended canines as he growled at her.  The slightly larger than human eyes, and the fingers that seemed to end in talons rather than nails.

"We are immortalsss, woman," the creature said, hissing slightly as it did so.  "Try as you might to kill us, and we will heal.  Evade us and we will track you down by the scent of your blood. So you may as well give up now!"

Natasha slumped her shoulders and looked forlorn.  "Yes.  Yes, I can see there is nothing I can do."  She looked back up at the creature, who now had a smug look of victory upon its face.  "May I at least have a final drink, as is customary by my people?"

"I...don't see why not.  Sartori likes a little alcohol with his meals," the creature said with smug humor.

Natasha looked quickly around, and saw what she was looking for.  On a craps table just a few yards away was a discarded drink.  She picked it up and approached the vampire, the ichor draining out of its eye reduced to a trickle by now.  She pulled the little umbrella out of the glass and raised it to her foe.

"To immortality."

The creature puffed his chest out at the Widow's toast.  When he did so, she took the little umbrella that she had gripped tightly between the middle two fingers of her other hand, and plunged it with force into his chest.

The vampire's look of smug satisfaction immediately turned into one of confusion, then disbelief.  He then fell to the ground and did not move.  Natasha stood over the inert creature, and poured her drink on him.

"Perhaps it was not a good idea spending the extra money for the wooden decorations over the plastic ones, no?" she quipped, relaxing for just a moment.

She then heard the other vampire, the one she had broken the nose of, start to moan slightly.  He, too, was now healing and would soon regain consciousness.  Natasha glanced around, and found a nearby overturned stool.  She picked it up and smashed it back onto the floor, causing it to shatter into many bits.  She picked up one of the broken, jagged legs, and shoved it into the recovering vampire's heart.  It opened its eyes and let out a howl before it, too, died.

All was quiet, the crowd that had gathered stunned and confused at what they had just seen.  Before Natasha could explain who she was or what was going on, a loud clap emanated throughout the hall.  The crowd parted from where Natasha had come from, and the well-dressed form of Sartori slowly walked toward the Widow.  He slowly clapped his hands together several more times.

"Truly magNIFicent," he exclaimed, a smile beaming on his face.  "You are everything I had read and heard about over the years, and more.  I had been worried that my brethren had grown soft and complacent in our decades since we settled here in Las Vegas.  That we had grown accustomed to the trash and chattel that flow through this modern day Gamorrha.  I see I was correct.  What we needed was a challenge!"

Natasha held another jagged-edged leg from the wooden stool menacingly.  "I guess your brethren failed their challenge.  As shall you!" she threatened.

Sartori stopped about 10 feet away from the Widow, and looked down at the two vampires she had staked.  "Oh, yes.  These two fools here did.  But I think you misunderstand, my dear.  When I said 'brethren', I didn't merely mean these two..." and he spread his arms wide before him, toward the crowd.

Natasha looked around, and what she saw horrified her.  About every fourth person in the crowd, be it casino worker or tourist, were grinning broadly, surreptitiously showing her their fangs.  Dozens alone in the crowd around her.

The Black Widow immediately shot forward at Sartori, prepared to stake Sartori.  He seemed to be the leader here, and she knew the only chance she might have would be to kill him first.  However, Sartori backhanded the makeshift weapon out of Natasha's hand faster than she could see.  Before she could recover, he grabbed both her wrists and pulled her close to him.  She struggled, but he was just too strong, and she didn't have any leverage to use against him.

He placed her ear next to his mouth, and whispered.

"I have lived for hundreds of years.  I have killed hundreds even before I decided to 'retire' here and start my business.  As I did so, many others of my kind came here, some to live, some...for fun.  The only rule was that we did not expose ourselves openly.  But I think that it is time to change the rules.  I think tonight we shall make the Strip run red with blood.  Tonight we shall hunt.  And you will be my hunt.  But to make it sporting, for me at least..."

Sartori released her hands, drew even closer to her ear, and whispered even quieter than before,

"Run."

To Be Continued...

Next Issue:  All sorts of Vampire-y goodness as the Black Widow must somehow stop a city full of Undead!  Plus, we'll catch up with Yelena Bolova and perhaps another goodie or two!