Authors Note: I'm sorry this chapter took so long to get out to you. My Goddess On High this month has been a nightmare. Ok, technically last month for y'all, I'm not sending this out until late May 31. Anyhoo, that's that. I'm thinking of starting a Live Journal Account to keep people updated about the comings and goings of my life, to post other stories I write, and to just bounce ideas off people. What do you all think? Would you read it?
E-mail me about this, and about the story line and how it's going. I need ~feedback~. I need it or I will explode. That happens to me sometimes. (Can anyone guess where I got that quote, or what ~feedback~ is really supposed to say? If you do, I will send you the next two chapters weeks before they are posted.)
My Immortal Chapter 9: Journey
The next few nights were filled with training with my new powers. There seemed to be a slight hint of magic from the fairy queen Sahura, but it was only in that I could make a flower bloom, and make it grow even if it had been cut. Not really an offensive or defensive power, but I had a great bouquet in my living room.
The sun seemed to have no bearing on any of my powers, holy objects meant nothing to me, silver didn't harm me any more than steel, and I healed like a vampire. I had all the strengths of these vampires, but none of their weaknesses. I fed off of Jason once, simply because I started to get sick. I need blood, but I also eat like a human.
Jean Claude taught me about his connection to Anita, a Human Servant, and I immediately thought of Josh. I mean, I'm an immortal now, and I couldn't stand thinking of eternity without him. I knew though the choice was ultimately up to him.
Then again, I did have to get to him first.
"What's his name?"
I startled. I spun around and saw Anita walking into the bedroom.
"Who are you talking about?" I said.
"After you killed Seraphine you said `I miss him so much.' What is his name?" She sat down on the bed. I turned to the cabinet, the one Zerbrowski had discovered. I opened it, exposing dozens of texts, note books, talismans, and on an empty shelf in the middle a picture of Josh.
"His name is Josh." I said taking down the picture and passing it to her.
"Isn't this..."
"Joshua Scott Chasez, JC from Nsync. We met in my world a few years ago. I had only been with him months, but we are soul mates." I smiled picturing him when we saw each other on the moon. "Literally. We had been engaged for a short while when I fought Dasro." I blinked a few tears from my eyes. "I miss him more than I could ever explain."
"Wow." She handed me back the picture. "He sounds great."
"Yeah, he is." I stood up and walked back to the cabinet. I put the picture back the looked at her. "So, I leave soon."
"Yeah. The alignment commences at midnight tonight." She looked down, then I sensed a sudden wave of panic run through her. "FUCK!" She yelled.
"What is it?"
"This shit, it's not only metaphysical but astronomical right?" She asked.
"Yeah?"
"Then that time would be exact. Right?" She said, leading me to her point in logic.
"Yeah..." Then I got it. Time Zones. "Where is the first Watchtower?"
"The Watchtower of the East is just outside Cairo." She said pulling out her phone. She punched in a few numbers. "I need to know the exact time in Cairo Egypt." I waited on her, fighting the urge to start biting my nails. I looked at the clock, it was a quarter to two. "FUCK!" She screamed, angrily pressing a button on the small device, causing it to break. "It's 11:45 at night! You have fifteen minutes!"
I looked at the cabinet I had just shut and its doors flung open. I looked at a dark wood chest setting at the foot of my bed and it opened, contents erupting out. I sent the texts and items I had collected flying into the chest, then shut it. "Anita, thank you for all your help." I pulled her into a quick hug, then stepped back. In a flurry of blue flames I changed into the Phoenix costume. I fastened the Sword and Dagger into their places and looked back at her. "Keep the stuff, sell it, I don't care. Bye!"
"Good bye Phoenix, and good luck!" She screamed as I blasted the glass out of my window, and jumped out, trunk floating at my heels.
I went hurtling straight up and into the clouds. I had learned that I had lost a lot of the powers associated with the Phoenix after my merging. One of the losses I had suffered was speed.
Don't you hate it when life throws you curve balls like that?
I headed in the direction of San Francisco, and did something that held a new feeling. When I let the Phoenix out before, it was like stretching after sitting for a while. Now it was like letting out a held breath. It felt more right. And I couldn't think of the flames as part of the Phoenix anymore, they were me. My wings erupted out, blue flames mixed with black, glowing eerily in the afternoon light. I streaked across the sky, hoping against all odds I would get there in time.
I did get there, but the portal had already been opened. Portal wouldn't fit it though... more like the door to a shining spire of light jutting from the San Francisco Bay had opened, and the ships that were resting at its dock were unloading. The spire was amazing, or rather the Watchtower of the West.
I streaked towards the water at many times the speed of sound. I screamed out and it sounded like the Phoenix Cry. I was a quarter mile from the Watchtower when the spell hit me. It was strong enough to send me hurtling back into the city. I crashed down in a cemetery, gouging a trench in the dirt and destroying many headstones. My trunk was gone. I felt it was the universe making a cruel joke.
"Phoenix, I am the Mage." Came a voice from the air around me. I stood and looked about. "Seraphine was a lesser amongst an order known as the Shadow Council. Our Vampire Council Liaison. We were very unhappy to hear she died." A slash appeared on my suits chest, the blood came an instant later with the pain.
I stood up; my Phoenix flames dancing about, Phoenix face turning three feet above my head in time with my own. "I shall not be stopped Mage!"
"Yes you shall!" Around my Lycanthropes began to form out of the air. A dozen soon became an army, more than I could handle after slamming into the ground and headstones.
I stood and started hurtling them left and right with my powers, but could barely do it. I was in trouble. "Surrender peacefully Phoenix and be spared."
I looked sown at my chest. Blood. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it was the only chance I had.
I stood and rubbed my hand along my open wound. It hurt like hell. I then held my hand, now drenched with my blood, out before me and dripped it in a circle around me. I closed my eyes, hearing Mage start screaming, and focused on the circle. I opened my eyes, now filled with blue-black flames and pushed power into the ground. The circle snapped shut and I focused on making it solid. Flames erupted around me and shot hundreds of feet into the air, a defensive barrier that let me see a distorted view around me.
"I call you forth, departed of earth. I call you to my aid with blood and flame. I call you to my defense, raise and fight for me!" I thrust my hand out, breaking my circle of power, and the flames that had hurtled hundreds of feet into the air shot at the ground and spread like a shockwave. The lycans that had been coming at me were thrown back with the surge of magical energy.
Then they rose. Zombies. Different than the one I had raised with Anita, these were simply animated corpses. I wanted to figure out why, but decided survival was the more immediate necessity. "Stop them! Tear them limb from limb!"
The zombies did as I said, exactly. The lycans were of every shape you could imagine. Wolves and Cats. Bears and Lizards. The zombies, dressed in their funeral finery, attacked. I felt bad for a moment, seeing decayed forms in clothes that were falling off due to the cuts in the cloth made by the funeral home. But I needed the time to escape.
I turned hearing a scream. I female tiger was being literally torn apart by zombies. Her arm was ripping off her body in a rush of blood. Her screaming stopped as an old man bit into her throat. I felt her spirit leave her body, then lost sight of it in the pile of zombies. I launched my self into the air, and started back for the Watchtower.
As I neared I focused a field of flames ahead of me, driving it through the spell that had hit me like a missile. The spell shattered under my strength and I shot for the dock of light.
The ships were empty, but I was pissed. I shot flames at them. They struck and began to eat the ships. Yachts and ski boats fell victim to my rage, sinking quickly from my magical flames vengeance. I stalked towards the doorway that was open in the Watchtower. There was a figure in black robes standing before it.
"Phoenix, you shall not pass." He said.
"Bad movie puns not withstanding, let me make this fucking clear. You are between me and my home, and my soul mate!" My wings stretched wide and the beak of the Phoenix opened and let loose a blasting cry that sent waves shooting outwards from the dock. "Step aside or fall painfully!"
He raised his hand and a beam of red lashed out towards me. I braced myself and raised my hand and focused on making a shield, but I was still not recovered from the crash. The beam hit my shield and I began sliding backwards on my feet. He stopped and I lifted my palm upwards. I pictured a dancing flame of utter cold and it formed in my hand. A dancing ball of blue and black, colder than the depths of space. I threw it at the ground and it slid towards him.
He pointed his hand towards the water, and then waved it at the flame. Water shot from the bay at the flame, only to freeze just short of it. "No!" The Mage screamed as the flame hit his robes. It soon consumed him, freezing him solid as he writhed. The air calmed from our battle. When I reached him I punched him in the chest. His chest exploded in frozen chunks of red, then his whole body fell to the ground in a clatter of frozen meat.
"You were warned." I turned and faced the door. I finally had time to take in the Watchtower. It was hundreds of feet high, and seemed to be constructed of silver light. The door to it was gold though, and somewhat brighter than the rest. I stepped into it, and hoped that the other side was home. But knew that in my life, it was never that easy.
The entirety of my vision was taken up by white. I could hear nothing, but at the same time there was a roar of static. It was the most singular feeling I had ever experienced.
"Who are you?" Her voice was soft, soothing. The fact that I couldn't see anyone to match the voice to was slightly unnerving, but I didn't really mind.
"Who are you?" She asked again.
"I am the Phoenix."
"No, you are not. Who are you?" I'm not the Phoenix?
"I'm Blake."
"No you are not. You are more than Blake, and you are more than the Phoenix. What are you?" Ok, she was starting to confuse me.
"I am a human? But that isn't true anymore. I am a vampire, and a mutant, and a necromancer, and a Phoenix." I looked into that void of white, and realized what she was asking. "I am something new."
Suddenly she seemed to step out of the white. In white linen, with gold accents here and there, she was the epitome of what I thought an Egyptian Queen would look like. "Blake, I have been watching you. I have been guiding you. I couldn't intercede because things that were ordained by the elder gods have begun to happen. It is my decision, though, to tell you what you must do."
"Isis." I whispered.
"Yes my child. You have found the path of the Goddess, have you not?" She said with a smile.
"Yes. How could I not with everything that I have learned. Though..." I let my head hang low. "I have killed. I have destroyed. I don't know how you could not turn your eyes from my when I have done things that go against Wicca."
"My child, my precious child." She tilted my head up to meet my eyes. "You are a warrior of the Gods. It is your destiny to defend and protect. Sometimes this means using ever weapon in your arsenal to do so. Look into any people's history, look into the history of my own pantheon, and you will see that even the gods need to resort to death at times. It is knowing when it is necessary that is the key. But that is not what I have to tell you. You are soon to be ripped from my presence by a powerful spell set upon those." She gestured at the sword and dagger.
"What spell?" I asked.
"One to bring them to someone. You will be brought with them. The casters do not know you are already on your way to them." I looked at her in shock.
"My friends?"
She simply nodded. "Now, you must know. A great power is approaching the Earth. You shall need to face it. Throughout the ages the Dragon and the Phoenix have done battle. The scales have always been balanced for the powers of both are even. You have upset that balance by changing the nature of the powers held by you. What once was primarily based in life has now been mixed with death."
"I can't stand up to something as powerful as the normal Phoenix!" I gasped.
"Not in your present state, no. But, there is a way to increase your strength enough to stand against him. There are blades of power, handed down by the elder gods to the gods, and from us to the mortals. The Sword of my son and Fang of my brother are two of them. There are several more. Find them all, and perform the Great Right within a circle made up of them in Faery and you will attain the strength needed. But you will need to wear this."
She unlatched the necklace she had been wearing. I hadn't noticed it at first, and when she handed it to me it was an Ankh made of a glowing blue gem.
"That will focus the power into you, and not the person you perform the right with. But know this, because of the nature of your vampirism the person with you will have to be your Human Servant."
"How much time do I have?" I asked.
She opened her mouth to answer, but then she began to fade. She looked down at them with wide eyes. "Good bye my child." Then the white faded to black.
As suddenly as it started it stopped. I looked around me and couldn't believe what I was seeing.
"Blake?" Andy said with her mouth hanging open.
"Sis?" I said. I was already starting to cry. She walked slowly towards me. "Are you real? Am I home?"
She pulled me into a hug as I began to sob. "Yes Blake. You're home."
I buried my face in the crook of her arm and began to sob.
That was when all hell broke loose.
Things began to hurtle through the air. I looked around and recognized the place I was in. It was the Hole, but it was all different. Andy erected a force field around us.
"I hate to break up the reunion, and Blake it's good to have you back, but we have a fucking god to stop here!" I turned and saw Jubilee.
"You!" I turned and saw an old man. Well... he was almost an old man. He was translucent, and all white. Think classic ghost wearing a crown. "You will be torn limb from limb! Give up now and it will be fast!"
"Blake," Devin said. They were all here. Alison, Jubilee, Tabitha, Andrea, Devin, but not Josh. "You need to use the dagger. Absorb him. I will open the portal to fire his energy into."
I nodded and pointed the dagger at the ghost man. I activated its power at the ghost man wide eyed and enraged, and he began to flow into the blade in a stream of white light. His cries faded as he did.
I didn't like the feel of his energy. It was powerful, but twisted and filled with hate. Devin muttered a few words, then made a downward swipe with his want. A portal opened to a world filled with mist. I unsheathed the sword and pointed it into the portal. I channeled the ghost man's energy into the sword and fired. When it was spent I lowered my weapon and Devin closed the portal.
Devin walked towards a bank of computers and started pressing buttons. I turned back to Andrea who was just staring at me.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
I related the tale beginning with the Atlantian Chamber. I was up to the attempt on my life by the zombie, leaving out a few things along the way, when Devin finally got main power restored. Then the sirens went off.
"Vampires!" Devin yelled. Everyone started running to doorways. My heart sank when they did. I closed my eyes and cast out my senses. There were no vampires within a half a mile.
Except me.
"Guy's." I said.
"Blake, take the south tunnel. Without Sage up and running we can't lock down the location. On three we go."
"Guy's, stop." They all turned to me. I opened my mouth, bearing my fangs. Everyone gaped, Tabitha dropped her stake. "I was about to explain how I became a vampire."
I went over the fight and my gained powers. "I'm no longer the Phoenix." I concluded.
"What are you then?" Jubilee asked.
"The Shadow Phoenix." I said after a moment. I liked the new name. It was accurate.
"Well, whatever you call yourself, you're still Blake." Andy said pulling me into a hug. "Josh is going to be fucking... completely... words can't explain how happy he will be."
"Where is he?" I asked. My heart was racing.
"He's at the club, preparing for tonight. The place opens at seven." Andy said.
"Ok. I'll see him tonight. First, we need to figure out something." I said.
"What?" Devin asked.
"Well... I'm dead. How are we going to deal with this?" I ran my hands through my hair.
"That's easy enough. I'll contact the Talamasca." Devin said standing. "They'll clear it all up."
"Why them? What about the Watchers Council." I asked.
Everyone went silent. "They were destroyed." Alison finally said. "About a year ago. Evil it self attacked. We were lucky to survive. Many didn't."
"Ok... well... I have a lot to catch up on. Right now, let's take care of my being dead." Devin nodded and walked to the computer.
"I'm going to go check out the Atlantian Chamber." I said finally. "You want to come?" I asked Andrea. She nodded.