Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 19:48:27 GMT From: Blake Alexander Subject: Tales of the New Phoenix: My Immortal chapter 3 Legal Disclaimer: As posted in chapter 1 of My Immortal. News from the Author: Well, I've been sick. I hate being sick. How about all of y'all? Ok, on to next point. One person e-mailed me. Is only one person reading? I mean, I know I have only a few people that think I'm a ok writer, but hearing from you makes me want to write more. It drives me harder to update. So... please, e-mail me. Posted at the bottom, bellow the chapter, will be titles of the other stories in the Tales Universe. Check them out, they rock! My Immortal Chapter 3: The Sway of Time "Hey Blake, you wanna hang out after my set tonight?" Jason was pulling on his tight leather pants. He managed to do it with grace and ease. Jason happened to be a lycanthrope, more specifically a werewolf, which seems to go hand in hand with super human grace. "No thanks Jason, I'm just going to go home." I said. Jason came over with a gliding walk that screamed inhuman. No where as good as the Vampires that worked here, but better than any human. "You need to get over him." He said pointing to my ring. "Jason, I have warned you time and time again," I stood up and dead faced him. I gave very good dead, blank, face. "don't push this Jason. You will make me angry, and you do not want to make me angry." "Man, the only people I know who can make their face go blank as fast as you are either Vampires, or the people Vampires fear." He said backing away. I sat back down on the bench that was set in front of my locker. I just reached back in and started pulling the things I needed for tonight out. "Blake... what are you?" Jason asked. I had known Jason since I started at Guilty Pleasures. Almost every night since then I got onto the stage and danced, using my telekinetic powers to strip away my clothing and put on a good show. "I'm a human Jason. A human with the power to move things with my mind and cast feelings among people." I didn't look at him as I said it. "I know a human when I smell it, and you're not human." He turned and walked away. I looked into my locker, inside was a CD. I pulled it out and looked at the cover. It was the newest CD by BT. Josh had worked on it. Two tracks had him singing. I listened to it constantly, religiously. I couldn't wait for Josh's new solo CD that Jive kept stalling on releasing. I was, essentially, a teeny bopper. I scoured the stores for anything about Josh and would save it in a scrap book. I went to Josh once, last year, and found him with a man. Actually, I found him with me. The me from this universe, going by the name Benjamin Alexander. What a difference a universe makes. Benjamin is a psychic, dealing with telepathy only. They have a home together in San Jose, of course keeping it secret, and are getting married in three months. I sat back and thought for a minute, back to the night I got here. I couldn't remember anything from before the tunnel except speaking with Josh and telling him I had to go. My memories are scattered and fragmented for the week before that. Since merging with the Phoenix Force my memory had become photographic. I could literally remember every moment I was awake, and also asleep. But since that vampire woman attacked me, it was almost human normal. But Josh, I remembered everything about him. What I couldn't remember is why I felt so compelled to be here in Saint Louis. Once again this dragged me through the muddle that was my memories. Getting to this world, the trip to Saint Lewis, and my first few nights without Josh. And the dream. In my Phoenix uniform, looking onto the shore of our beach, hearing him sing a haunting melody. He appeared before me, a ghost of himself, and I wanted to die. I was frozen in place, and then he faded away. I cleared my head and began donning my outfit for tonight's performance. I was trying something new, that I had thought of flipping through the channels and landing on, of all things, a cheerleading competition. One of the girls had a Ribbon Wand and was dancing around with it, and it inspired me. I took out of my bag about forty chrome blue rolls of ribbon and checked the door to the changing room. It was shut, and with a thought it was locked. I stood and dissipated my clothes and began winding the ribbon around me. Within moments I was donning a suit of chrome blue ribbon, and it was all connected into a single piece. The ribbon being about an inch and a half wide, I looked like a freakish mummy. I walked over to a mirror and looked at my self. With a smile I changed my hair color to a shining metallic blue. I had kept the long hair, and loved how its length caught the light around me. It reached to my shoulders. I added some blue sparkles around my eyes, and made my irises an iridescent blue. If anyone asked, they were contacts. But in the lighting of the club they would shine like cats eyes. I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I made for the door and my set. "And now to sooth your tensions, and bring a sense of completion to your nights, here is Blake Alexander." I didn't much care for the introduction, but them I didn't think that having Willie McCoy in charge for the night was the best idea ever. The stage lighting came up slowly as the song started. It had a simple beat and was easy to move to. I used my powers to make sure the ribbon stayed in place, and let my body move without any limitations. It moved like spandex, and caught the lights with a brilliant shine. Then I kicked my powers in. At my right ankle the ribbon began to spin off of me, following around my leg at a high speed until my leg was naked. It looked like a snake unwinding from a branch, but faster and longer. The ribbon then went down me left leg to the ankle and back up again. I couldn't hear the crowd, but could sense the hunger from the women and the shock at what they were seeing. I moved to the music, and let the ribbon just flow off of me. It was really easy to just let it all happen. Then I spotted Anita Blake. She was walking towards the office and glanced at me. I could sense her shock over my eyes, and also seeing my powers. She stopped and just watched. My left arm was now bare, and the ribbon was now unraveling from my torso. I went back to focusing on my dance and impressing the women. The song was about half over and I was still on time, though Anita showing up had thrown my attention for a loop. The ribbon was now dancing high above my head as I began to spin bellow it, moving in time with the beat. It finally finished unraveling from around my shoulders and I raised my right arm up as if in offering. It quickly unraveled leaving me in a small thong and nothing more. I moved towards the stage edge, the cloud of ribbon following above head. The women then stood up and started screaming my name rushing the stage. The ones that had been to my shows before threw money towards me and I started plucking it into the air with my powers and sent it up to dance amongst the ribbon. Those who were new soon followed suit. I just danced there, hands exploring my chest and thighs. The song reached its climax and I threw my hands upwards and the ribbon exploded into sparkling dust. It fell in a fog around me and I used my powers to pull it all tight to my body, making it into a solid suit of sparkles. I pulled all the money towards me and let it dance around me as the song ended. I turned and walked off the stage, into the wings, with one last glance at Anita. She was whispering urgently to Willie McCoy as I disappeared from view. The background music that played between dancers came on. I got home quickly enough. I locked up my Jetta and headed up to my third floor apartment. I had moved since getting here. The place Jean-Claude set me up with was great, but this one gave me private access to the roof. Yes, I used my powers to help me get it, but I needed it to go up and release my powers every once in a while. Every couple days I would walk up to the roof, change into my Phoenix uniform, and fly up into low orbit. I would then release the Phoenix and fly for a while. It's a good way to release the pent up tension I have. Too bad I couldn't do it tonight. I sat down at my desk and opened my cupboard to the side of it. I pulled out the dusty volume I had been studying. The cover was made of demon skin, the pages from vampire. The text dated back to 1025 BCE and had no distinguishing marks. A cult of demon worshipers wrote it and within it placed all their mystical knowledge. It wasn't the rarest thing in my secret library. I had mystical texts from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and England. A total of thirty texts from 20 civilizations. I searched them out, and used my powers to obtain them. All of them gave mention to forming portals to other realms, but none that matched mine. I turned on the news and went about reading. My head perked at mention of something. "Officials remark that the giant creature is not any known species of bird or dragon. It can be seen in low orbit usually, but has been known to fly towards the Earths Surface. Air traffic has been ordered to steer clear of the creature as it is unknown if it is dangerous." I laughed and went back to reading. It was almost scary how quickly the Phoenix learned to read the languages. Then again, the Phoenix Force is capable of manipulating matter on a subatomic level, what's a couple dead languages? I was awoken the next morning by my doorbell. I scanned who it was and found the person blocked. I let a puzzled expression float across my face and stood up. I walked towards the door, creating clothes on me as I moved, and checked the peephole to find the hall empty. I scanned it again and found a person standing to the right, but beyond that nothing. "Who is it?" I asked. "UPS." Yeah, UPS is always holding a psychic shield up. "Just a moment, I'm not dressed." I shouted back through the door. Then the bullets started. I erected a force field around me and pointed my hand at the door. I sent a force of telekinetic strength at the wood. The door buckled and sent a rain of wood splinters at the guy. A large chunk pinned him to the wall across the hall, but he kept firing. I walked to him, telekinetic shield flashing from the bullet impacts, and took the gun from his hand. He was wearing a ceramic mask, black and white tux, and shall over his head. The suit was in tatters, and the mask cracked. The thing that surprised me was the large piece of door through his chest, and lack of blood. "Seraphine knows of you Fire Demon." The man said. "She has tasted of you and wants more. She is coming for your master, and your powers." I pulled the mask off the man and gasped. He was a zombie. Three hours later I was sitting in my living room with a cup of coffee, and the Spook Squad. The Regional Preternatural Investigation Team, also known as RPIT (pronounced Rip-It), they took care of all the mystical crap that happened. From what I'd heard, the cops that don't play well with others can end up on this squad. Sergeant Rudolph Storr is a very large imposing man. He looked at me for the hundredth time and asked the same question. "How did the door get broken?" "I've told you, I used my powers. They lashed out when he started firing." I couldn't think of a better explanation, and was hoping to avoid using my psychic powers. "Ok, and how is it you avoided getting shot?" He asked. "I don't know, I guess I'm lucky. Listen, I don't know why someone would send a zombie to shoot me up. I don't know why this is happening. All I know is that it is." I said exasperated. "Hey Dolph?" Someone called from behind me. "What is it Zebrowski?" Sergeant Storr asked. "You should take a look at this." He said. I turned around and found him holding one of my mystical texts. "Bloody Hell." I said. I did what I had been avoiding. I stood up and let my eyes light up. I found that having them lit focused my psychic powers. I did a mind hold on all the cops, and implanted the suggestion that I was innocent and unsuspicious. I then wiped all memory of the texts and used my telekinetic powers to send the one Zerbrowski was holding to the cupboard. I then planted the suggestion to overlook the cupboard. I had just finished my mind trick when I sensed someone coming towards the apartment. I turned and knew I was in for it. "Hello Ms. Blake." "I have told you repeatedly to refer to me as Anita, not Ms. Blake." She said without a smile. She, by far, was one of the most difficult people I had ever had to deal with. "Glad you could make it Anita, we saved the corpse for you." Sergeant Storr said. "I noticed Dolph, kinda hard to miss a tuxedo clad Zombie that is pinned to the wall outside." She said. "What happened?" I sighed then told the story for the millionth time. Anita stood still for a moment, and then walked out into the hall. We followed her, and watched as she just stood there. I could suddenly felt a wave of cool energy flow from her. It danced about me and made me gasp. It seemed to have the same effect on Anita, as she spun around to face me. "Anita," Dolph said moving towards her. "what is it? What's wrong?" "Nothing Dolph, nothing. The zombie is dead." She said turning back to the corpse. I began pulling in my powers as tight as I could. I locked myself down in the hopes of avoiding what had just happened. "Obviously Anita..." Dolph started. "No, it's dead even to me. This corpse could be buried two inches bellow me and I wouldn't sense it. It's nothing to me. I've never come across a dead body I couldn't sense." She said. She turned back to me and looked at me carefully. The cops were at my place for several hours after that. They searched, always avoiding my locked cupboard, and kept asking the same questions. Anita stayed on the scene, examining the corpse, looking at the door, and finally settled in to just watch me. The dead zombie, if that isn't a oxymoron, was taken out front and burned. The cops began to file out, until all that was left was Sergeant Storr, Anita, and me. "Mr. Alexander, we will be in touch as soon as we find out any information on this thing." I nodded, and he left. "Now Blake, I know we haven't gotten to know one another well since you got here, but I can help you." I just looked at her, and could sense her wanting to help me. "I don't think you can." I said sitting down on my couch. She walked around and sat down. Her Browning High Power hand gun flashed me from under her coat. "Try me." I took a deep breath and decided how much to tell her. "Something wants me. The zombie said that Seraphine is coming for my master and my powers." She looked at me blank. "What did it mean by your master?" "I don't know. I guess it meant Jean-Claude. He has been a big help in my life since I got to Saint Louis." I ran my hands through my long hair. "I don't want anything to happen to him." "Blake, what is the extent of your powers?" she asked. That is the question I was hoping to avoid. "I would rather not get into that." I said. "Why?" "In time Anita. I can't explain it now, but it could be very dangerous information to share. Both for you and for me." She nodded. We talked some more, and she gave me some tips, and agreed that we both should meet with Jean-Claude that night. Then she left. I walked to my shattered door, shook my head, and walked to my cupboard. Other Stories to Read: "Tales of a Real Dark Night" (The series that started it all.) ~Under the Boy Bands Section "Tales of a Super Hero Band" ~Under the Boy Bands Section "Marvel Knights" ~Under the Celebrity Section "Tales of a Young Mutant" ~Under the Celebrity Section "The Shadow" ~Under the Celebrity Section