X-Men: Black Fire

By Paradox

BOOK II

2

Once again, they took the limo to the club. They would meet the rest of the band and the roadies at the club. Kitty had dressed for the occasion, logging onto the net in her room and finding out what kind of place Dock 5 was going to be. According to several personal reports and interviews in the Tribune, the club was going to be a more popular alternative type dance club. Based on that information, Kitty clad herself in dark blue jeans, a black sweater, black, ankle boots, and a black leather jacket with Lila’s name embroidered on the back. It had been a gift from the band several years ago, and Kitty felt it only fitting to wear to Lila’s big opening.

The rocker herself, on the other hand, had dressed considerably different. She wore a lycra black crop top and tight black spandex pants, with black, high heeled boots coming up to her knees. A short black jacket completed the look. When Kitty had first seen the woman, she had reddened with embarrassment. “Jeez,” she had commented, “Aren’t you a little bit uncomfortable in that?”

Lila just smiled and shrugged. “Hey, the look works, what more can I say.” Kitty shook her head and smiled as they went into the limo.

They were still rolling through downtown when Lila looked over at Kitty and asked, “So, why are you in town, really?”

Kitty looked over innocently. “I’m here to see your show, of course.”

“I talked to Logan, Kitty,” she said knowingly, “He said you were going to be here for at least a three weeks. He actually said he thought you might be here for a month.”

Kitty shrugged. “Well, I might be, I’m not sure. I did want to visit my parents, but they’re out of town, and with everything going on with the X-Men and all.”

“Yeah,” Lila agreed, “Seeing your folks might be a bad idea. So, that kills the parent visit, what else?”

“Well, there’s the show,” She paused and thought for a moment, “I don’t know, I figured I’d just wing it.”

Chinney laughed. “Same old Kitty.”

The two talked for a few minutes before they pulled up to the club. From the outside, it looked like a run down building in a dark part of downtown. The words: Dock 5 were in blue neon letters above the door. Two hulking bouncers stood guard at the double doors. All and all, it seemed very nondescript...

...With the exception of the huge crowd that waited impatiently outside. There was no discernible line, just a mass of people all pushing and shoving in an attempt to get a better look at the limo that was pulling up. When the chauffeur opened the door and Lila got out, screams of fans filled the air. People surged forward in an attempt to try and touch the legend, but security personnel appeared out of no where and held them back with much more ease than anyone would have expected. In fact, the security people, who were all in T-shirts with the words: Dock Crew on the back, did not even lift a hand to stop anyone. All they did was look at them and the giant cluster stopped. When Lila saw the effect, her eyes widened and she motioned for Kitty to look as well. When the younger woman joined her side, her eyes widened as well. “They look like their in a trance,” Lila whispered, for the sound had died to the point where whispering was actually possible; that in itself was amazing. “Somehow, I don’t get the feeling that it’s because of me being here either.”

“Yeah,” Kitty agreed, clenching her fists nervously, “I know what you mean. You know a safe place we can jump to if we need to?”

“I can get us to the hotel suite in the blink of an eye.”

“Great,” Kitty breathed, “We might need to.”

The two quickly rushed inside, making their way backstage to where the band was relaxing. As soon as they walked in, the group sat up and waved.

“Hey Kitty, how’s it going?”

Kitty smiled back. “Going good guys, how about you?”

They all sort of shrugged. “We’re ready to rock.”

As if on command, people started chanting from inside the club, their demands for music raising higher and higher. Lila looked over at Kitty with curious eyes. “Boy, they let them in quick.”

Kitty shrugged. “Well, they’re calling for you.”

The rocker smiled and ran her fingers through the shock of black hair. “Too true, you ready to play boys?”

The band each picked up their tools of music and nodded. “Let’s do it,” the drummer said with a smile, and the stepped from the back room. When they took the stage, the entire club erupted in cheer, and Kitty finally got a good look at the interior of the establishment.

The stage was set against the back wall and was a good twenty feet wide, more than encompassing for any band, plus extra. Kitty assumed it was in case the band members wanted to work the crowd a little. There were two good sized bars against the side walls, both of which were currently filled to bursting. Normally, Kitty could tell there would be tables and chairs scattered throughout the room, but they had been removed for Lila’s performance to allow for more population capacity. The dance floor itself was at least forty square feet big, with boxes of different sizes and configurations stacked up on each other in varying patterns. People had already stormed the mini stages and were jumping up and down, cheering loudly.

When Lila saw the crowd before her, a smile like pure energy came over her face. Kitty couldn’t help but smile either, for she knew Lila. With a crowd as big and energetic as this, she was guaranteed to put on a great performance. “Is everyone ready to party tonight?” she yelled into the microphone. An answering roar filled the air, making Kitty’s ears ring. “Then let’s do it!” She nodded at the drummer, who clacked his sticks together four times before the entire group flew into the music. Unable to help herself, Kitty started to dance, the music seeming to take control of her feet and set them in motion. She flung her head from side to side, unmindful of the way her auburn hair flew into her face. It was as though there was nothing worth living for except for Lila’s voice singing out words of promise, praise, thanks, and joy. The whole world seemed to be filled with music, and for a while, people knew happiness.

The musical spell was shattered by the sound of a shotgun blast, causing the music to come to a grinding halt and everyone to freeze in place. Kitty, her mind still whirling with song and color, stood gasping for breath, trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

“All right,” a man in a kabuki mask called out, “This is a robbery for all of you morons. All we want is the cash and no one gets hurt.” He waved the shotgun in his hands and yelled, “Now, everyone get against the back wall and be cool!”

The crowd instantly rushed to comply, some people getting trampled in the process. When Kitty saw a young girl of sixteen get crushed beneath the running feet, she leapt from the stage and rushed over, using her mutant powers to discreetly make her way through the crowd without being trampled herself. When she reached the girl, a quick look indicated a broken ankle, possibly the foot as well. “Are you okay?” Kitty asked as she knelt next to her.

“My foot,” the girl whimpered, tears rolling down her face, “I’m scared.”

“It’s okay,” Kitty reassured the girl, “Everything will be okay and I’ll make sure you get to a hospital.”

“What the hell are you doing?”

Kitty looked up and saw a kabuki mask done in red and white glaring down at her, its puffy cheeks almost comical. “This girl’s ankle is broken,” she tried explaining reasonably, “We need to get her to a hospital before she goes into shock.”

“Screw that,” the mask sneered, shoving its very big pistol into her stomach, “Get yourself and the girl against the wall before we find out what kind of damage a .357 does to intestines.”

Kitty growled deep in her throat, her fists clenched in anger. She knew at least three dozens of ways of taking this guy down, but by doing that, she would reveal herself as a mutant and a member of the X-Men, and that was unacceptable. “Come on,” she tried again, forcibly putting a plea in her voice, “She’s only a kid.”

“So are you,” the mask responded with a kind of knowledge Kitty had heard only a few times before.

“How do you know? I could be the same age as you.”

“I don’t think so,” the mask said, slamming Kitty on the back of the head with the gun faster than any normal human could move. Stars exploded behind her eyes and she slumped to the ground, moaning softly. When she tried to get up, her legs refused to obey her commands, simply laying useless instead. Gotta get up, she thought desperately, or else these guys are going to kill someone.

Looking up at the mask, she glared at it and said quietly, “So, you have to show how tough you are by beating up a girl, huh?”

The mask shook from side to side and Kitty heard a sigh. “Enough of this crap, I warned you.” He put the barrel of the gun to her forehead and tightened on the trigger. With her vision spinning the way it was, Kitty knew she would not be able to concentrate enough to phase out. The bullet would punch through her brain and kill her like any human.

Just as the mask’s finger tightened down, a figure materialized out of the shadows, tackling the kabuki mask wearer and rolling into a crouch next to Kitty. “Are you okay?” a very familiar voice asked.

Kitty shook her head and her eyes widened. “Cole, Is that you?”

Cole looked down at her and his eyes widened slightly before returning to their previous narrowed glare. “Hi Kitty, good to see you again. Give me a few and we’ll talk.” With that, he exploded from the ground, his hands diving into his coat as the five other robbers leveled their weapons.

Throwing his body to the side, Cole dodged out of the way of the bullets and shotgun blasts, yanking what Kitty saw was a pair of Glock 9mm pistols from his coat. He slid along the ground on his side, firing at the group of robbers. The bullets slammed into a few, dropping them to the ground. People screamed, thinking they were dead, but Kitty saw differently. Almost instantly, the fallen kabuki mask wearers rolled to their feet and made a break for the door, one of them yelling, “It’s Shadow, let’s get the hell out of here!”

Cole spun to the right and dumped several more bullets into a robber trying to sneak up on him, yelling, “Ash, get the front!”

“I’m already there bud.”

Kitty looked to the front door and saw the familiar image of a young man with long black hair in a black trench coat standing in the doorway of the club. He held a pair of submachine guns in his hands and a smile on his lips. The robber skidded to a halt and gaped at him. “Oh no, not him too!” one yelled, “Blow out a wall or something, we need to get out of here!” They all scattered as Ash opened fire with the MP-5’s, careful not to hit any civilians in the room. The robbers all split up and started firing at the two, trying desperately to find a way out of the club. While Ash simply took the shots as they came, Cole dodged, rolled, and flipped out of the way, returning fire with every maneuver.

When one of the robbers became confused and rushed right at Cole, the young mage spun and snapped out his foot, catching the masked man in the head with a spinning snap kick. The kabuki wearer was lifted off the ground and spun in the air three times before he hit the ground with a resounding thud. Cole looked up and yelled, “Hammer, do your thing!”

Almost instantly, the floor beneath three of the robbers exploded up, throwing them into the air and slamming them into the walls. Kitty watched as a hulking man with muscles to rival Colossus rose from the hole in the ground. Cole slapped his forehead and shook his head. “Dammit Hammer, I’ve told you before, minimum property damage!”

The big man shrugged. “Sorry, I wanted to make it look cool.”

Cole shook his head once more and fired a couple shots at the robbers, who returned fire. “Dammit, start getting these guys gathered up!” Cole snapped, leveling his guns and emptying both fresh clips into the chests of the remaining two robbers. The robbers fell to the ground and did not move.

Almost immediately, Hammer rushed over to the fallen bodies, scooping them up so fast that Kitty could barely keep up with his movements. When the big man jumped back into the hole, Cole looked over at Ash. “Time to vamoose partner.”

“See you at the shop,” Ash called, ducking out the door.

Cole spun and ran at one of the walls not occupied by hostages, When he glanced at Kitty, he threw her a wink and a small smile, seconds before he vanished into the shadows. Kitty shook her head and got to her feet, looking after where Cole had disappeared. With his magick it was possible that he had simply teleported onto the other side of the wall or walked through it. Feasibly, she could have just phased through the wall and caught up with him. Yet, Kitty knew that if Cole wanted to make a getaway, there was nothing she could do to stop him. This was his part of town and he could lose anyone in the shadows that seemed more a part of him than his skin.

She had just started to say something to Lila when the police surged into the club, yelling for people to freeze that were no longer there.

* * * *

“Where are we going?” Lila asked as they walked out of the club and headed for the limo waiting for them outside.

“A club called Excalibur,” Kitty explained as she slid into the limo.

“Why?”

“I need to see someone about what happened tonight.”

Lila looked at the younger woman and shrugged. “Okay, it’s your call, my night’s pretty much shot anyway.”

Kitty nodded, her face serious, “I know, that’s exactly what I want to know about.”

Lila looked at her friend for a moment, then her eyes widened in realization. “You know something about what happened at the club.”

Kitty shrugged. “I think I do, but I’m not sure. That’s why we’re going to Excalibur.”

“What’s at Excalibur?”

Kitty slid into the limo and reached for the cell phone. “Someone who can tell me exactly what happened.” She quickly dialed a number and waited. “Yes, can I have the number for the club Excalibur in Chicago.” The information operator gave her the number. “Thank you.” After disconnecting from the information number, Kitty quickly punched in the club’s phone number. After three rings, someone picked up the phone. Kitty could hear the sounds of pounding music and voices in the background.

“Excalibur.”

“Yes, is Mr. Priest in?”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Uh, who is Mr. Priest?”

“The owner of the club,” Kitty said as though she were talking to a child.

“I’m afraid there is no Mr. Priest who owns this establishment.”

“Damn,” Kitty hissed, slamming down the phone.

“Problems?” Lila asked with raised eyebrows.

“I’m just getting stonewalled,” Kitty explained, leaning back in the seat and crossing her legs. “This is really starting to get me mad.”

“What were you hoping to find out?”

“I don’t know,” the younger woman sighed, “I wasn’t sure. I’ll get my answers when we get to the club.”


As soon as the limo stopped in front of the dance club, Kitty jumped out before the chauffeur could get to them. She immediately strode to the door, ignoring the way the bouncer moved to block her way. “Excuse me,” the man said overly polite, “But you have to wait in line like the others.

“Get out of my way,” Kitty growled, “I need to talk to your boss.”

The big man looked down at her and sighed, as though a young girl trying to get into the club ahead of everyone was nothing new. “Look, I don’t like to hurt women, but if you don’t go to the end of the line-” He reached down and took hold of her shoulder.

Instantly, Kitty grabbed his wrist and rotated it around, throwing off the man’s balance. She used the advantage and used a hip throw to drop him to the ground. The man hit with a loud thud and he moaned, rubbing his head. “Look,” she said, “Where the hell is Priest, I’m not in the mood for this.”

“Neither is he.”

Kitty spun, swinging her fist at the new voice out of instinct. She connected with a face so solidly it should have knocked the person out for several hours. Instead, the man’s face only snapped to the side and looked back at her. “Now that wasn’t a very nice thing to say to an old friend like me.”

Kitty sighed and slumped her shoulders. “I’m sorry Ash, I’m just not in a very good mood tonight and I’m tired of people playing games with me.”

The vampire smiled sympathetically and put a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, I’ll take you up to see him.”

“What about my friend?” Kitty asked, looking back at Lila as the woman watched the whole scene.

Ash looked at her and narrowed his eyes. “How much does she know about us?”

“She works with the X-Men all the time, you guys won’t even phase her.”

Ash smiled. “Fair enough,” he waved at her, “Come on Lila.”

The rocker hurried up, looping her arm through Kitty’s. As they walked into the club, Lila whispered, “Should I be worried?”

Kitty shrugged. “I don’t know, I need to see what kind of a mood he’s in tonight.”

“Who?”

“Priest.”

Lila shook her head in confusion. “Who’s Priest?”

Kitty allowed the barest trace of a smile to touch her lips. “You’ll see, just don’t get him mad.”

They started up a staircase. “Why not, does he go berserk like Logan does?”

That made Kitty smile. “Worse.”

Lila gulped. “Ouch.”

As soon as they reached the top of the stairs, the two came to a set of double doors, a man holding an MP-5 submachine gun standing on either side. Ash nodded at the men and the two nodded back, one reaching over and opening one of the doors. The trio walked into a luxurious office with plush chairs surrounding a large oak desk. Paintings of obviously expensive taste hung from the walls, surrounding the group with beauty. There was only one window in the room, but it was a large picture one that looked out at the city, its lights blazing in the night. The single seat behind the desk was swiveled so the back was facing the group. “Hey Priest, you got company, you decent?”

The chair spun around and a young man of about twenty-one or twenty-two faced Kitty and Lila, kicking his boots up onto the desk and taking a drag from the cigarette in his hand. “Course not, when am I ever decent?”

Kitty sighed and shook her head. “Same old Priest.”

The vampire Prince of Chicago smiled and bowed his head. “I don’t change for anyone Kit, you know that. Who’s your friend?”

Kitty drew Lila towards the desk. “Priest, meet the rock star Lila Chinney.”

“Hi,” Lila said somewhat timidly. It was Kitty’s show and she was more than willing to let her run it.

“How’s it going?” Priest returned, throwing her a wave.

“Lila,” Kitty continued, “I’d like you to meet Priest, Prince of the vampires of Chicago.”

Instantly, Priest was on his feet, his hand snapping out, grabbing Kitty by the collar of her jacket, and hoisting her into the air. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he hissed at her, “I should kill both of you right now for saying that!”

Kitty’s eyes went wide and she gulped hard. It had been nearly a year and she had forgotten what a temper Priest had. She did remember that he would make good on his promise if it suited him. “Uh, Priest, it’s okay, really.”

“How do you figure?” he spat out.

“Lila’s worked with the X-Men before, she’s dealt with weirder stuff than you guys.”

For several long moments, the vampire glared at her, obviously weighing the options of letting her live. Kitty knew she could phase out of his grip and run, but then the whole city of vampires would be hunting the two of them down. There was no way she could outrun that many undead. Finally, Priest put her down and sighed, dropping back into his chair as though he were exhausted. “Dammit Kitty, next time you plan on bringing someone here to see me, let me know first.”

“I tried,” Kitty complained, “But the idiots you have working for you said you didn’t exist.”

The vampire raised an eyebrow. “Kit, do you really think I would use my name under the ownership title?”

Kitty looked down, her cheeks reddening. Why hadn’t she thought of that? “Well, yeah.”

Again, a sigh. “Okay,” he said, “What’s up?” He indicated the chairs and the two women sat down. Ash moved to the window and leaned against it, pulling out a cigarette.

“There was an attack at the club Dock 5 tonight,” Kitty explained, “It was done by your people. I want to know why.”

“Dock 5 huh?” Priest rubbed his chin, his glassing slightly as he thought. “I got a call from my boys in the PD saying that there was a big shoot out at that place. No one was arrested.”

“Yeah,” Kitty said, sitting forward, “That’s another thing-”

Before another word could be said, the doors to the office flew open and slammed into the wall with a loud bang. Kitty and Lila spun in their seats to see a young man stalk into the room, his black trench coat flapping violently around his legs and ankles. “Priest, we need to talk, now!”

The vampire Prince stood up and smiled. “Hey Cole, you’re just in time to meet our guests.”

“Stow it!” the young man growled, slamming a fist down on the desk so hard the computer sitting upon it jumped, “Ricky and his crew pulled a job on Dock 5 tonight, I want a blood hunt on them now!”

Priest shrugged. “Hey, they’re Rabble, it’s in their nature.”

Cole shook his head, snarling in anger under his breath. “Dammit Priest, they answer to Jessica, and that’s her fraggin’ club!”

“I’ll handle it,” the vampire said quietly.

For a moment, Kitty thought that Cole might argue with Priest or even hit him, but the mage finally backed down, spitting out a curse and spinning towards the window Ash stood at. The younger vampire tossed him a cigarette and said, “I’ve already talked with our guys at the PD, no one will ever know we were there.”

“Good,” Cole said, his anger slowly starting to dissipate, “I’ve got two of Ricky’s boys on ice, maybe they’ll tell us where he is.”

“Hi Cole.”

The young man froze, his heart stopping for a second and then kicking into overdrive. Very slowly, his head turned towards the voice and his steel gray eyes locked onto a pair of the most beautiful hazel ones he had ever seen. Eyes he not seen for nearly a year, until earlier that night. “Hi Kitty,” he said quietly.

“It’s been a while,” the young woman said, standing up.

Cole nodded, his expression growing dark. “Yeah, it has.”

For a long while, neither said a thing. It seemed as though they were trying to communicate their thoughts and feelings by expression alone. When he could no longer take the heated silence, Priest pushed up from the desk and said, “All right. Ash, I want you and Flexor to interrogate the two guys you got a hold of. Find out where Ricky is and then bring him to me.” Ash nodded and left the room. “Cole, I want you to talk to Jess, find out what the deal is and why she had her own club hit just when it was opening. I have a feeling it has to do with money.”

Cole nodded and quietly said, “I’m on it.” He started to the door.

“Hold on chief,” Priest said, “I didn’t mean right now.” Cole stopped, looking at the vampire with a curious eyebrow. “Let her relax and think she’s in the clear. Do it tomorrow.”

Cole turned towards Priest fully. “And just what am I supposed to do until then?”

“Take the night off,” he said with a smile and a wave of his hand, “God knows that you’ve been working your ass off.”

“I want Ricky and Jessica,” Cole insisted, narrowing his eyes angrily.

“You’ll have ‘em, I promise you. Now, get the hell out of here and enjoy yourself for once in your life.”

Cole glared at Priest for several tense seconds and then spun around, storming out the door. “I’ll be downstairs having a drink,” he called back before the door closed.

Kitty and Lila looked after him until the door cut of her view of him and turned back to Priest. “Well, he’s a pleasant fellow,” Lila quipped, “I can see what you like about the guy.”

Kitty threw Lila a hard look and said to Priest, “What’s wrong with him, he was never that cold.”

Priest sighed and sank into his chair. “He’s been under a lot of pressure for the last year. He wanted the job of city sheriff and I gave it to him.”

Kitty cocked her head to the side curiously. “So he’s sheriff of Chicago, he can handle it.”

The vampire nodded. “Yeah, I know, but it got more complicated once I gave him the job.”

“How?”

Priest sighed and took out a bottle of red liquid, pouring it into three glasses. “Something to drink?”

Kitty smirked. “Should I be worried about it being blood?”

The vampire looked stricken, and for a minute, Kitty thought she might have actually offended him. That sent a trickle of fear down her spine. Offending the Prince of vampires in Chicago was not a wise thing to do. Yet when he suddenly smiled, the trace of fear vanished. She should have known better than to think that Priest would take offense to a little comment like hers. “Nah, my blood binding you guys to me just wouldn’t serve any purpose. This is just a little red wine.” He extended two cups to the women.

Lila started to reach for hers and looked at Kitty for an okay. Kitty nodded and took her own cup. “It’s okay Lila, Priest’s a vamp of his word.”

The vampire smiled and put a hand over his heart. “My dear Kitty, you make my heart go pitter patter with your kind words.”

Kitty laughed and took a sip of the wine. “Anyway, you were saying about Cole...”

“Yeah,” Priest said, his expression growing serious once again, “As I was saying, just after Cole took the job of sheriff, a lot of people were giving him grief about him being a mage and not a vampire. There was a lot of teasing and trick playing.”

“And Cole flipped out,” Kitty surmised. She could already picture the young mage growing enraged and begin to kill vampires left and right. She could actually see the bloodlust in his eyes that surpassed even Wolverine’s infamous berserker rages.

“No, he actually didn’t.” Kitty’s eyebrows went up. “All Cole did was call a full blown vampire meeting here at Elysium at three in the morning when the place was closed down for the night, stand in front of everyone, and offer a general challenge to anyone there.”

“What kind of challenge?” Lila asked.

Priest looked over at her and then back at Kitty, his gaze asking her if it would be wise to reveal anything else. Kitty nodded minutely and Priest continued. “It was a challenge for the title of sheriff. If anyone wanted the job, all they needed to do was kill him.”

The rocker winced slightly. “That’s a little excessive, don't you think?”

Priest shrugged. “That’s the way we do things. It tends to keep order and dominance that way.”

“So what happened?” Kitty asked, anxious to find out more about Cole.

“Well, the Rabble next in line for Primogen status stepped up and answered the challenge.”

“And Cole won, right?”

The vampire laughed. “Won? Hell, the boy literally ripped the guy apart from the inside out without even touching him.”

Kitty gasped. She knew Cole was a powerful mage, but... “Cole’s not that strong of a mage,” she stated flatly.

“Bull,” Priest threw back, “That kid’s got so much magick inside him he’s practically bursting with power. I had a couple guys from the magi society come down and check him out and they never made it through the door of the club before they turned and ran as fast as they could.”

“Why’d they do that?”

“Well,” the Prince said, leaning back in the chair, “When I called them up the next day demanding an explanation, they said that there was so much raw magickal energy radiating from him that it was like he was a living Node.”

“A what?” the two women asked.

Priest laughed. “Yeah, that was exactly what I said. I won’t confuse you with the magickal mumbo jumbo, just suffice to say that Cole’s a walking magick battery with the strength of a nuclear bomb that’s about to go critical.”

“My God,” Kitty whispered, “How does he stay sane?”

“He’s been bleeding off magick constantly,” Priest explained, “At least that’s what he said he was doing. From what I’ve been told, he’s been using his magick to teleport from place to place, heal wounds, and generally just been feeding it into the Earth.”

“Won’t such raw magickal energy harm the Earth’s structure?” Kitty asked, the analyst in her coming out. Whenever something weird or unexplained happened, she always reverted to science to find an explanation. So far, her knowledge had served her well, but there was nothing scientific about magick.

“No, Cole says that he’s only returning the energy to where it came from. According to him, the energy he’s getting is coming from the Earth anyway.”

Lila suddenly stood up, draining her glass and setting it on the desk. “Well, I’ve had about as much weirdness as I can take for one night, so I’m going to go downstairs and get plastered.”

Priest smiled and stood up, taking her hand. “Please, have whatever you want and however much you want of it, on me. It’s the least I can do for screwing up your big gig.”

Lila smiled and nodded her thanks before walking out the door. As soon as the wooden door closed, Kitty turned back to Priest, eyeing him suspiciously. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

“Of course, I just haven’t had a chance to talk about it yet.” He refilled both of their glasses and lit a fresh cigarette. “About six months ago, the Warlocks and the Rabble teamed up with the anarchs of the city in an attempt to overthrow me. All combined, they totaled about twenty vampires.”

“That’s not a lot.”

“On the contrary,” Priest said with a wave of his finger, “That was more than half the population of vampires in the city. Well, Me, Cole, and Ash got the Outlanders, Artists, and Blue Bloods together and formed a counter offensive. In the end, we had a real bloody war. The whole thing was something we call a Clan War. It’s when the different vampire clans, basically, got to war.”

“I figured that,” Kitty stated, obviously not liking being spoken to like a child.

“Yeah,” Priest blushed, embarrassed by his oversight, “Well, when it was over, Cole proved to be the major turning point.”

“How?”

The vampire stood and looked out the window, surveying his city. “He basically vaporized ninety percent of them.”

“What!” Kitty yelled, jumping to her feet.

“Oh yeah,” Priest said with a nod of his head, not looking at Kitty, “He’s that powerful. Ever since then, the vampires from down south, the Sabbat, have been trying to infiltrate the city and Cole’s had his hands full.” He turned back to face Kitty. “Needless to say, he’s been under some stress.”

“Yeah,” Kitty agreed, “Are you sure he’s okay down at the bar drinking?”

“Yeah,” Priest said, “He’s been okay for a while. This whole Dock 5 thing just riled him up. That and the fact that you were there didn’t help any.”

Kitty raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

The vampire looked at her quizzically. “You don’t know?” She shook her head. “Kitty, the guy is in love with you.”

Kitty mouth fell open. For several moments, no words came to her mind, only confusion and disbelief. Finally, when her voice obeyed her again, she quietly asked, “How can you be so sure?”

Priest chuckled and walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Kit, I’ve been on this planet for more years than you know. Believe me, I know when someone’s in love.”

“So how do you know?”

“Well, for one, Cole would never been so pissed off about that little gunfight at Dock 5 as he was tonight. Hell, the kid loves getting into scrapes, lets him blow off steam. The only reason he was so pissed was because you were in harm’s way.”

“So maybe he’s considerate of human life?” Kitty offered hopefully.

Priest looked at her for a long time and shook his head. “Cole’s considerate of human life all right, but he’s also more distanced in situations involving them. Trust me Kitty, he’s in love with you, and you feel the same about him.”

Kitty jerked away from the vampire and faced him fully, glaring into his eyes. “What are you talking about? The guy saved my life, of course I like him as a friend.”

Priest made a disgusted sound and shook his head. “You humans, you try to hide your feelings from one another too much.” He looked her in the eye. “Kitty, the one look you gave him when he came in the room spoke volumes. You’re in love with him.”

Kitty spun around and stormed out of the room. Just before she exited the office, she looked over her shoulder and spat out, “You wouldn’t know love if it smacked you in the face.”

After the young woman had left the room, Priest sighed and smiled, dropping back into his seat and looking at the two closed doors. Yes, he knew about love. He had been in love shortly before and after his Embrace, but the feelings had died away, along with the girl he had fallen in love with. “Yeah,” he sighed, “I think I might know one or two things about love.”