Note from Author: MY GOD I LOVE THIS CD!!! GO BUY JC'S CD!!! IT'S SO FREAKING GOOD!!! On other notes, I've been really busy with school. I'm behind. I fell behind thanks to family Drama. So... wish me luck catching up.
My Immortal Chapter 5: When The Sun Sets
Anita Blake is the local vampire executioner. She just happens to be dating the Master Vampire of the city, and is the sometimes sweetie of the Alpha Werewolf for the area. At least she goes for the best. She is also one of the most powerful Animators in the US. This was a new thing for me considering Raising Zombies isn't a lucrative business in my world.
I shut down my internet connection having finished my internet search on the Executioner, as she is known, having found nothing I hadn't learned working at her boy friends club throughout the last years. I stood and stretched, looked at the clock, and decided it was time to get ready to go to the club.
I walked to the door and remembered that my manager hadn't replaced it yet. I looked at my closet door, which had a lock, and it looked the right size. I scanned the hall, and finding no one, used my powers to replace my front door with my closet's. I stepped outside, locked it and headed to my car.
Waiting next to my car was a lycanthrope. How did I know this? His eyes were reptilian. "Hello Roger." I said walking towards my car.
"Blake, how nice to see you. I have some news for you." He said.
I eyed him. Roger is not a good looking man, but has a killer body. His skin is a pasty white that always makes me think of a dying man. His hair is blond, and doused with enough grease to start a fire. It was the clothes that threw me for a moment. "Where did you get the money to buy a leather outfit. Did you rob a bank?" Roger is always broke. He deals in petty info. You need to find something on the black market, like say a book on demonic sorcery, and he can tell you who to talk to.
"Actually, that's why I'm here. You see, someone wants you. And they paid me a lot of money." He said with a smile.
"A lot of money for what?" I asked putting my keys back in my pocket.
"To stand here and keep you from looking behind you." I had all my attention focused on roger, and wasn't expecting the base ball bat that slammed into the back of my head.
When I came to I was in a dark room. Scratch that, dark rooms always have the hazy light. I was surrounded by pure, pitch black. I stood up and lit my eyes, furious. I could hit my self for pulling the Phoenix Force so far into me that I couldn't sense someone attacking from behind.
With my eyes lit I could see I was in a cave. There were stalactites and stalagmites littering the cavern, and tunnels in various places. I knew we were outside the city proper, and that I was in trouble.
I was standing inside a triple set of brass rings. Between the outer and center ring were Egyptian symbols, and between the center and inner ring Lothoros Demon symbols.
All the symbols had one thing in common. I was within a circle of entrapment.
"How DARE you attempt to hold me!" I bellowed. I put enough energy into my voice that the cavern vibrated, sending some of the more precarious stalactites falling to the floor with a crash. I put my hand up to the edge of the circle and was met with a crack of energy that sent my hand hurtling backwards.
I scanned the cavern and could sense the presence of several minds, though that was the limit inside the circle, and all of them were hiding from my view. Very well', I thought, I'll just have to give them something to look at.
I let the Phoenix Force expand out of me. It hit the barrier and the barrier started to glow white against the pale electric blue of the Phoenix flames. Not being able to expand outwards, the Phoenix flames shot upwards within my prison. I lifted a few feet off the ground and closed my eyes. I focused on my powers and closed my eyes. The Phoenix let out a great cry as its flames hit the top of the cavern. I knew that I needed to disable the rings before I could escape so I turned my attention back to the symbols.
"You are a greater power than I gave you credit for." I turned and saw her. The vampire I had fought when I first arrived in my weakened state. "Does your master know the limits of your powers?" she asked.
"I have no master." I said. I turned back to the rings and focused on the first symbol. Each ring had a total of nine symbols, all grouped in three. I focused a current of power on the symbol and watched as it went from cool brass, to molten metal, to vapor. It took at least three minutes. The vampire watched me do the whole thing.
"You have accepted Jean-Claude's aid, thus placing you in a lesser position. You are also under his employ, which is another point against you." She said this as I reached the third symbol. It began to melt, but it took far longer. She started to laugh. "You think you can break it in this way? It will take you hours, even with your vast powers. And I am on my way to challenge Jean-Claude. I want his seat, and with it his power. And also yours, Phoenix."
"You shall not have my powers."
"But don't you see? I will." She turned and walked towards the cavern exit. "Save your master and his court if you can, but know it shall spell your demise if you do."
She left with her minions, and I doubled my efforts.
The sun was already down when I left. I was still dressed in the sweats I was wearing when I left my apartment. I took to the sky with a single beat of the Phoenix wings, and sped towards the Circus of the Damned, the only place that this challenge could take place.
When I was half way there I pulled in the Phoenix Force, and darted high above the roofs. I landed quickly, sending out a vast suggestion to look away from me, and ran towards the entrance.
As I ran I scanned the circus, and found Anita and Jean-Claude in the largest of the tents. I ran to it, darting around people and food stands, thinking of the absurdity of vampires owning a circus that displayed all things preternatural, and hit the entrance of the tent at a dead sprint.
Seraphine stood on the other side of the tent with her minions around her. Jean-Claude stood to the other with Anita, Richard the Werewolf Alpha, Miccah the Wereleopard Alpha, Asher the second in command of the vampires, and all the Were's and Vamps they could muster. I strode in, wearing my sweats and tank top, and walked straight towards Jean-Claude.
"What are you doing here?" He asked angrily as I hopped the wall that surrounded the center ring.
"I'm here to help. She wants me. She is here for me. Let me stand beside you." I said.
"What?" He screamed at me. Anita turned on me with a blank look, but I could sense anger there.
"I just wanted to hide until I found my way home." I said. My voice cracked and I hated my self for it. "I just want to go home."
"Very well, though you do not match our display." He said.
I looked around. Everyone was wearing black with lots of leather and skin. On the other side, it was all vintage Victorian, right down to Seraphine's ash-gray gown.
"Jean-Claude, have you prepared your display of power for us?" She asked from her seat across the way; a black throne.
Jean-Claude sat down in his seat of silver and velvet. It matched his black clothing which was accented in silver thread. "You have given us no time to prepare, Seraphine. You have set us at an extreme disadvantage." He said. I skimmed his mind and found slight fear there. He was afraid. I turned to Anita and sensed it too.
I turned towards Seraphine. "I will give you a show, demoness." I said striding towards the center of the ring.
"Blake, you are out of line." I heard Jean-Claude growl angrily.
I turned towards him and found fire in his eyes, literally. "You need a show of blind power. A display to show what your forces have to offer if she decides to get out of line. I promise you, when I am done she will think long and hard before coming against us."
He stared at me long and hard, then nodded.
I stepped into center ring and looked upon the black and blue flames bleeding from Seraphine's eyes. There was an eerie wind flowing from her. It was cold and coated with power.
I closed my eyes and released the barriers I had set up to cage my powers. I felt my senses flow outwards, and sent them to my locker at Guilty Pleasures. I found what I wanted and pulled it free and sent it hurtling along hallways, out a window, and through the sky towards us. I had moments before it got here. I also searched for what I would need here and found the system rigged perfectly in the tent.
I turned my attention back to Seraphine and focused on her. "This world is quite different from mine. My world is filled with beings of great power. There are demons, witches, wizards, and of course vampires. To even the playing field humans evolved. I am what my people call a mutant. Born with a gene called the X-Gene, I have the ability to read, and control, other people's minds. I can also move objects with a mere thought. It is because of this that a supreme being from the stars entrusted me with her child. I am more than a man, I am more than a mutant." What I called to me arrived. I sent the copy of BT's "Emotional Technology" to the CD player that connected to the tent's sound system. I set it to play "Paris" and shut down the lights to the ring. We were bathed in darkness, save the flames coming from Seraphine and Jean-Claude's eyes. "Tonight, you see what I truly am."
The song started playing and I began to walk around the ring. I knelt down every few feet and placed my palm to the dirt. As I brought it up I formed tall white candles. I moved quickly, planning out the entire show in my head to fit the 8 minute song, and stopped when I had twenty candles set and burning with orange flames. I then began walking about creating burning candles that were suspended in the air.
When there were 5 candles around me total, forming a pentagram, I stopped and went to the center of the field and faced Seraphine.
2 minutes and 45 seconds into the song I sent the floating candles circling me clockwise. When BT sang "Burning of a million torches", I raised my hands, palms down, and the candles on the grounds erupted in blue flames and became 4 foot gothic torches. I heard a few people gasp when this happened.
I changed all the flames to bright blue and spun the candles faster. About 4 and a half minutes into the song the tempo stepped up and the floating candles erupted into balls of floating blue flames. About 5 minutes in the song slowed and I closed my eyes. I stretched my hands out wide and began to float into the air. I got about 5 feet up and just hung. BT started singing again and I opened my eyes, which were now as bright as suns. 6 minutes in, the balls of flame hurtled at me and began eating away my clothes. I floated naked, hair being pushed about by flames. Then with a bright flash I was in my Pheonix Costume of black leather and weapons of silver and wood.
I fell to the ground and as BT's voice became robotic and began changing my surroundings. The tent became crystalline and the ground became golden. The ring fell to dust and the stands turned to structures of spun glass. Everything twinkled with inner light. Giant spires of glass erupted around the ring, leaving openings where the groups were gathered. When BT's voice became silent I turned my sun bright eyes on Seraphine and the Phoenix erupted out of me with a deafening cry. All the crystal and glass vibrated and sang with the power coming from the Phoenix. I dissipated the Phoenix Flames, but left whips of cool plasma dancing about me. I lifted both hands straight up and called the Sword of Horus, and Fang of Set to me. They crashed through the crystal ceiling sending a rain of shards down. I caught the sword and dagger, and sheathed them both. Then I turned to the fallen crystals and sent them back to the ceiling and fit them in place, and bonded them back to their positions.
I turned the lights back to full, letting them cast prisms of color everywhere through the crystals, and walked back to Jean-Claude.
"Now my outfit matches." I said motioning to my leather suit.
"Indeed." He said with a look of shock. I looked at the others and was met with awe. I turned towards Seraphine and found her smiling at me.
"I was hoping you would do this Fire Demon. You see, I am the one that shall show my powers here tonight." She strode into the center of the arena I had created. "Your powers are vast indeed Phoenix." She took out a small jar with a cork stopper. She pulled the stopped free and a Fairy flew out. It circled about her with a silver dust falling. "Sahura, princess of the Red Forest Clan, do as I bid and your son shall not die. Form a circle around the inside of this tent now." The fairy flew around the interior of the tent with red dust falling from her leaving a heavy circle of glowing red around our two groups, trapping us within.
"Return to me Sahura!" Seraphine commanded. The pixie hovered in front of the Master Vampire and she smiled in our direction. "You see, like you Jean-Claude, I am a master of my own city. I am Master of San Francisco. And like you, human servant, I am a Necromancer." She snatched the pixie from the air, and held it in her hands. "And I work magic best when there is death and blood." The fairy, barely taller then the vampires hand was across, fought but stopped fighting when the vampire slit her throat with her nail.
The fairy's blood fell to the ground and there was an audible snap of magic in the air. Anita gasped and fell to her knees. "And to show my power," Seraphine bellowed at the top of her lungs, glowing with magic, "I shall steal yours Phoenix. You have fallen into my trap!" She held her hand out towards me and I felt her sucking the Phoenix Force from my very soul. I screamed, as did the Phoenix, as she ate my powers.
"Seraphine, you acknowledge he is under my rule, and you openly attack him!" Jean Claude bellowed, standing. "This is an act of war between us!"
"I don't care! When I have his power I will rule all!" She was almost finished eating the Phoenix out of my body, and there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it.
"Attack! Stop her!" Jean-Claude yelled. His forces started running at her, and hers ran to meet them. But I couldn't move. The flames from the Phoenix formed a direct line between me and Seraphine.
"You will not do this." I gasped, feeling blood flowing from my nose and eyes.
"I already have." She laughed in my head. Then it was gone. The Phoenix was gone. The flames faded, and I was me again.
"NO!" I screamed. I stood shakily, and felt so empty. So cold. I looked around. Two of Jean-Claude's vampires were being torn apart by Seraphine's Were-Animals. Now that I could see them changed, they looked like Birds. That must have been why it was so easy for her to call the Phoenix from me, birds are her animals to call.
I then had an idea. I had been studying magic for months in hopes of learning how to escape this realm. Her powers were tied into the circle of power until she broke it. I took out the Fang of Set and ran to the edge of the circle. Jean Claude was fighting his way to her. I yelled at the top of my lungs at her.
"Seraphine, do you know what the Fang of Set does?" I screamed showing her the dagger. She was glowing now with her dark flames, forming the Phoenix around herself.
"No mortal, I do not, nor do I care!" She said cackling.
"It takes power." I yelled smiling. She turned towards me, shock written on her face. I plunged the dagger into the edge of the ring, embedding it in the golden stone I had made moments before. The rush was instantaneous. The Fairy magic flowed into me first, it's sweet life filled energy made me light headed, then I felt her magic. The magic of cold and death. I t flowed into me and I couldn't stop it. I had thought I could just take the Phoenix back, but I was taking all her powers. The Phoenix started flowing in along side her powers, and I could hear her screaming in the distance. I focused on the flow of power. I pulled the Phoenix in as fast as I could, but then felt a third power flow into me. One I didn't understand. When I felt all of the Phoenix inside of me, I ripped the dagger out of the circle, and fell onto my back.
Then I realized what I had done. As soon as I did I felt it start. My mutant powers started battling with the powers of Necromancy. The Phoenix powers were battling with the powers of a Master Vampire. Where my mutant powers had been a sort of cooperative force with the powers of the Phoenix, Seraphines powers which I had stolen were fighting for supremacy. Then the Phoenix did the only thing it could think to do. It absorbed the powers. It accepted them into itself, but it couldn't do it alone. I closed my eyes and reached for the Phoenix. It had always been a secondary mind within me. Another entity that I shared space with. If I left it to take these cold powers into its warmth, I felt it would die. So I took it into me completely.
My body burned and I screamed. My body then felt as cold as death and I stopped breathing and shook. Then I felt my body change. My heart stopped beating, and I developed vampire fangs. My skin went cold and my heart started to beat again. I opened my eyes and saw the world anew.
I stood and felt different. I ripped my glove off to see my cold skin, and saw skin as white as ivory. I had become a Vampire.