Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 17:18:51 GMT
From: Blake Alexander <writemeastory@juno.com>
Subject: Tales of the New Phoenix: My Immortal chapter 5

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.