X-Men: Black Fire


By Paradox


BOOK II


3



Cole slammed down the empty glass on the counter and glared at the girl behind the bar. “Get me another one Liz.”

The dark-haired bartender looked from the glass, to the ten glasses lined up next to it, to Cole. “Um, I’m not so sure Cole, that’ll be number twelve. Don’t you think you’ve had enough?”

Cole glared at the women, his eyes flashing momentarily with power. “Do I look even slightly buzzed Liz?”

The woman shook her head, undaunted by the young man. “No, in fact you look completely sober.”

“Then give me another one or I’ll get it myself, and you know I’ll do it too.”

Liz offered Cole a small smile. “Yeah, I know you will.” She reached behind the bar and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels, filling the shot glass before him. “Here, but try to lay off the stuff for a while.”

Cole slammed down the drink and flipped the glass upside-down before setting the empty shot glass back on the bar. He glared at Liz for several moments and then relaxed. The woman was right, he was drinking far too much for ten minutes. Even for him, twelve shots of Jack was pushing the envelope. True enough, the alcohol was already burned out of his system from the amount of magick that coursed through him, but it set a bad example to the rest of the vampires. He was the sheriff of Chicago after all. “All right then, set me up a cup of coffee and keep it coming.”

Liz’s smile widened and she nodded, her black tresses flying. “You got it.” Immediately, she went off to brew up a fresh pot of coffee.

Cole looked down at the empty glass before him and slowly turned it right side up. Reaching over behind the bar, he took up the soft drink extension and pushed one of the buttons. Water flowed from the nozzle, quickly filling the tiny shot glass. With a flick of his wrist, Cole tossed the soft drink extension back behind the bar and looked down into the tiny pool of water. Chanting arcane words under his breath, he allowed the magick inside him to flow out through his fingertips and enter the water in the glass. He gasped softly when he felt the magick course through his veins from his heart to the hand that barely touched the glass. The water started to cloud with swirling, pink smoke. He watched as the smoke wove dizzying patterns in the liquid, finally settling on an orbit of just along the edge of the glass. The water that the smoke had traveled through changed from transparent liquid to something akin to a television screen. Cole watched as images flew by at alarming speed. Nothing was discernible in the chaos that flew by, and Cole gritted his teeth angrily when he could not identify any of the images. “Knock it off,” he growled, magickal energy flaring through his eyes. Almost instantly, the images froze, as though someone had pushed pause on a vcr. Instantly, Cole’s eyes went wide when he gazed upon the still picture before him. It was something of a jumble, there was a collection of four to five men in different garb. Some were in motorcycle gear, some wore business suits. Yet all were intent upon one thing before them, the victim they held pinned beneath them. Cole could not immediately determine who the person beneath the cluster was, but he caught sight of a thick lock of hair and a single eye looking out, fear widening it so the whites clearly showed. The instant he saw the eye, his heart stopped beating for three seconds. Fear and horror tore through his mind, making it whirl. In that moment, he knew who was beneath the cluster of men, and why.

With a roar of pure fury, he hurled the shot glass at the far wall, causing it to explode into thousands of glass shards. The music in the club immediately came to a grinding halt and everyone in the club looked over at the young man, their eyes either wide with surprise, curiosity, or wisely fearful. Cole glared back at them, red energy flickering in his eyes. “You have a problem?” he said low. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the music began once more and people resumed their dancing, conversations, and drinking.

“You really need to lay off the customers Cole, they’re starting to get nervous.”

Cole glanced over his shoulder at the person who stood behind him. “They complaining?”

“No,” the man said, “I can just tell.”

Cole sighed and leaned back in his chair against the bar, his hand absently brushing against the coffee cup Liz had set down without him knowing about it. “How the hell does she do that?” he muttered under his breath as he took a sip of the steaming coffee. “Kitty still up with Priest?”

Ash pulled up a chair and shook his head. “Yeah, they finished up a few minutes ago, but she still wanted to talk to him about something. Probably just catching up and stuff. Her friend Lila’s down here drinking up a storm, though.” He paused. “I think she’s about to try for some stage action.”

Cole looked over to where Ash indicated and couldn’t help but laugh. Lila was in the process of trying to get onto the stage where bands normally performed, but two of the bouncers were trying to convince her otherwise. “Let her up there.”

Ash blinked in surprise. “What?”

“Let her up there,” Cole repeated, “We trashed her opening gig tonight, it’s only fair we give her a shot here.”

Ash shook his head with a sigh and looked back at the rocker. “Cole, she’s trashed. If she gets on stage, she’ll end up falling off and breaking her neck!”

The young mage turned to his coffee and reached into his coat, pulling out a tiny, royal blue felt pouch. He untied the drawstrings on it and withdrew a pinch of black powder. He released the powder into the coffee and stirred the liquid with his finger. Once he was sure the potion was properly mixed, he picked up the cup, held it in his palm, and muttered a few words, extended the cup to Ash. “Give her this, it’ll clean her up good.”

The vampire took the cup and let out a yelp, bobbling the cup and almost dropping it before getting a hold on the handle. “Damn Cole, you didn’t say you heated the damn thing.”

“Oh,” Cole said with an expression of innocence, “Did I forget to mention that?”

Ash grinned widely at his friend and slapped him hard on the shoulder. “Now that’s the Cole I remember.” He laughed and walked off, angling for the stage were Lila was staggering over to the microphone and deftly avoiding the bouncers, all the while giggling hysterically. Cole watched as Ash quickly jumped onto the stage and offered the cup to the giggling rock star. Lila happily took the cup and drank deeply from it. Almost immediately after she had finished its contents, the cup was hurled into a nearby wall, where it shattered.

“Okay,” Lila giggled into the microphone, while simultaneously pushing Ash away, “This song is dedicated to everyone who is about to die.” Cole’s eyes widened slightly. A curious choice of tune for such a crowd. “You’re all going to die!” she screamed, “It’s inevitable! Just let your minds whirl and twist in agony and let it all come out. Succumb to the madness that we all have and let yourself be free!”

Cole was on his feet in a heartbeat, his eyes rapidly flicking back and forth. He quickly scanned the large amount of clientele in the club, hunting for the one person he knew was there. In the meantime, Lila continued to jabber on like a crazy person, threatening to bring back the dead gods of rock and roll and other such nonsense. The young mage began to work his way through the crowd that had gathered around the stage to watch this crazy woman prattle on and on. So far, she had said nothing that was too offensive, and everyone thought she was just some kind of publicity stunt. That wouldn’t last, though.

Almost as soon as the thought went through Cole’s mind, Lila raised her arms to the ceiling and yelled, “Let mutants and vampires rule the world!”

“Son of a bitch!” Cole hissed angrily, drawing two fingers across his lips and snapping out his fingers in a tight sweeping gesture. Almost immediately, Lila’s voice was cut off, like a soundproof wall had been placed in between her and the crowd. Her lips still moved, but no sound emerged from them.

Cole winced as pain rippled through his stomach, but he pushed it away. “Ash, get her the hell out of here, now!” Ash immediately grabbed Lila by the waist and disappeared backstage. Cole looked around at the people who milled about in confusion. “Jackie!” he roared.

“What is it Shadow I mean she was speaking such beautiful words and I really think she was on to something and working together we could create such beautiful art and speaking of art who chose these paintings I mean they have no living color to them and there’s no where near enough blood and intestines to make it seem like anything but trash and -”

Cole whirled and punch out, his fist slamming directly into the face of the man that had suddenly appeared behind him. There was a startled cry as the man in the artist’s smock and rubber shoes fell to the ground. Cole immediately knelt down next to him and grabbed his collar. “Jackie, what the hell have I told you about coming in here during business hours?”

“But Shadow this is Elysium and if a vampire can’t come into safe haven anytime he wants then what’s the purpose of even having Elysium I mean this place needs to be decorated better anyway but still-”

“Shut-Up!” Cole snarled into his ear. “If you say another damn word that might breach the Masquerade, I will personally rip out your heart and feed it to your decapitated head, you got me?”

The man nodded slowly, fear widening his eyes considerably. Cole hauled him to his feet, dragging him towards the stairs. “Where are we going?” Jackie asked, using a complete sentence for the first time.

“We’re going to see Priest.”

“Uh-oh,” Jackie said quietly, “He’s going to be pissed. But, when isn’t he pissed I mean he really needs to take a vacation soon because running a business like his can really be stressful and it really does one good to try and relax occasionally and I should know because I try to relax all I can that’s why I look so young even though I am a vampire and we can’t age anyway by that’s not really the point is it-”

Cole simply drew a finger across his lips and Jackie’s voice vanished.

* * * *

Kitty almost ran smack into Cole as he came charging up the stairs with a babbling idiot of a man in an artists smock and nearly white blond hair that hung passed his shoulders. Quickly moving out of the way, Kitty asked, “What’s up, a trouble maker?”

“More than you can possibly imagine,” Cole responded, heading for Priest’s office, “You may want to listen to this, it concerns your friend.”

Kitty immediately ran to catch up. “Is Lila in trouble?” she asked anxiously.

“No, but she almost just blew your guys’ cover as mutants and the Masquerade sky high. I had Ash get her out of here. He’ll take her back to the hotel until the damn thing wears off.”

“What thing?” the young woman asked, concern no forward in her voice.

“Dementia,” Cole said simply, and kicked open Priest’s doors, ignoring the protests of the guards. “Priest, we have a problem,” he called.

The Prince sighed and took a drag from his cigarette. “God Cole, don’t you ever knock?” He shifted his gaze to the man in Cole’s grasp and slapped a hand over his face and moaned. “Oh God, when did he get out and how the hell did he get in here?”

“No idea,” Cole answered, “But he nearly screwed everyone in this room and ever single vampire in the city.”

“How?” Priest asked, but Kitty could tell he did not want to know the answer.

“Lila was drunk and got on stage, apparently getting ready to sing.” Priest nodded for him to continue. “Well, it turns out she wasn’t drunk after all. Jackie here decided to use his artistic influences to elevate her thinking to a higher consciousness.”

“A sphincter says what?” The vampire said, his eyes wide with complete confusion.

“Jackie used Dementia on her,” Cole spat out.

“Ah shit!” Priest cried, leaning back in his chair and covering his face with his hands. “What did she say?”

“Mutants and vampires should rule the world.”

“Wait a minute,” Jackie intervened, “I never had her say that I mean the world would be so boring if there were no humans I mean we wouldn’t really have any food and we’d always be fighting an everything-”

“Shut up!” both Cole and Priest yelled, immediately shutting the insane vampire up.

“How did he make Lila say those things?” Kitty asked, looking at Jackie intensely.

“It’s a vampire power called Dementia. It allows them to bring out the madness inside the victim, thereby making them more like them.”

Kitty shook her head. “Scary.”

“Yeah,” Priest said, glowering at the insane artist, “But all he seems to do is piss me off. Jackie, how the hell did you get out of the psycho ward?”

“I just walked out.”

Cole cocked an eyebrow. “Didn’t know he was that good in Obfuscate.”

“Neither did I,” conceded the Prince, “Guess I’ll have to reevaluate him.” He glanced down at a few monitors on his desk. “How bad is the damage?”

Cole shrugged. “Don’t know, I shut Lila up with some magick seconds after she started babbling and Ash got her out of there a split second after. I’d say that the only thing we need to worry about is some mutant haters starting trouble.”

“Not many of those in Chicago, but I’ll have the crew keep an eye open.”

“Then I’ll leave Jackie in your capable hands,” Cole said, quickly grabbing Kitty by the arm and dragging her from the room. Just before the doors closed, Kitty heard Priest yell, “Oh hell no Cole, you get back here and take care of this crazy son of a bitch. Cole? Cole!

Cole burst out laughing so hard he needed to use the wall for support. Kitty watched with wide-eyed amazement as the formerly cold and indifferent mage/assassin suddenly seemed so human. “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you genuinely laugh since I got here.”

Cole stifled his chuckles and wiped a few absent tears from his eyes. “I needed it, believe me.”

“So I’ve heard. Have you thought of taking a vacation?”

Cole’s eyes grew slightly serious. “Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a vacation for the sheriff of the city.”

Kitty shook her head and sighed. “Maybe you should change that. I’m sure Ash is more than able to take over the job for a while.”

“Yeah,” Cole agreed, “But I can’t leave the city yet, it’s just starting to rebuild itself. I take it Priest told you about the clan war we had.”

“Yeah. Despite that, you should really try to get away soon.”

“Soon,” he promised, “Once everything is cleaned up and toughened up.”

The two stood in silence for a long time, looking into each others eyes. Kitty felt her heart quicken when his eyes warmed and drank her in, like a man dying of thirst suddenly given all the water he ever wanted. Did she feel the same way? Realizing that she was taking him in just as strongly, Kitty realized that the answer was yes. The shock of it sent a shiver down her spine. “Um, I’d better go and see if Lila’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Cole agreed reluctantly, “I should really try and take care of Jackie before Priest-” Before he could finish, there was the sound of flesh meeting flesh and a window shattering, followed by Jackie’s fading babbling. “Oh well,” he said sheepishly, “Too late.”

The two laughed heartily and parted ways, both feeling slightly more alive than they had a half an hour ago.