Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 03:11:57 -0600 From: The Other Immortal Subject: "Phoenix" 1/1 With an alias like mine, it had to happen sometime... "Phoenix" Susan "No Life and Loving it" Schaefer (c) 1996, S. Schaefer part one of one How humans could tolerate coffee was one thing Nick would never figure out. Nat was sitting across from him, drinking a cup of the vile stuff. It was bitter, it was disgusting, it purposely burned. Worse yet, Natalie's was flavored. Something called "Butter-Coco Rum Delight". The name was enough to sicken him. It was worse after she'd dumped all that fake cream powder and the sugar in it. It looked like something from the morgue, to be honest, all brown and slimy and wet. He tried to lose himself in Non Sequitur, failed. The stench kept coming up and punching him in the nose. Natalie looked up. Nick was slightly green. "Are you okay?" She took another sip of pseudo-mud. "Yes." Out-and-out lie, but she was enjoying herself. Might as well let her. Unfortunately, almost everyone else in the outside cafe was having the same thing. One man was eating a danish. Even Schanke would have called him a pig, what with the packets of creamer the guy had dumped on (creamer! On pastry!). He took huge, nauseating bites, drooling and dropping drumbs on his shirt. A glob of raspberry filling jiggled on his pale blue tie. "Uh, Nat, I'm going outside for a minute." Okay, he was already outside. He meant away. "Okay. Don't forget I have to be back at work in half an hour." "I won't." Nick had to force himself not to run or to do something nasty to the man with the danish. In a few seconds he was in fresh air. Just for the sheer pleasure of it he took a deep breath. And stopped. He smelled blood. Human blood. Listening for trouble he heard it, far off, in an alley a couple of blocks away. He glanced around. No one there. Nick took off towards the sound. He found it. A large man had cornered a small young woman. He held a knife in one hand and his "gun" in the other. The woman had been stabbed in the shoulder, hence bloodsmell. "Do, it, darlin'," he muttered. "Daddy'll have a nice surprise for ya if ya do." She said nothing, just stared at him with an acid glare. It wasn't enough to protect her, Nick knew. He landed at a full run, tore through the alley and hit the man at full force. But he'd estimated wrongly: as he hit, the knife tore through the woman's throat. Blood burst over the walls of the alley, painting them sunset. The woman didn't even have time to react before she fell straight forward. A soft crunch sounded when she hit; a shard of her larynx bounced and landed a few inches away. The man, however, was dead even more quickly, crushed between a brick wall and Death. Nick kicked him out of the way, rushed over to see if, beyond hope, there was still life in the young woman... There wasn't. There was no way she could be alive. Carefully Nick ignored the huge pool of life growing around the woman's head. Really, this close, she was more of a girl than a woman. And she was dead. It was his fault. If he'd only thought... Slowly he started to pull out his cell phone for help. He never got to. Light suddenly burst up around him. It roared, like fire. When he looked he saw that the young woman's body had been engulfed in flame. His preternatural terror of the stuff was overwhelmed by fascination. This was no normal fire, not by cause, not by appearance. In the bright white flames (oh, god, like electric alabaster!) he saw the woman's body lift from the bloody cement. It hung there in the pyre. Suddenly all the blood around her and on the walls ignited. Nick backed away from the deadly wall, hands protecting his face. Still, he kept an eye on it. The tongues flickered and twisted, began to coalesce. He couldn't tell the shape at first for the brightness, but even that soon dulled next to the glory of it all. The wall became a pyramid, the pyramid a mountain, the mountain... Became a massive white bird, eyes golden, talons shining in their own light. It shrieked. Nick could see the woman's body being lifted by invisible strings inside the bird. Her arms lifted like the wings. Her clothing dissolved, was replaced my a golden mist. Suddenly her eyes opened. She gasped, and when she did the fire ran into her... She dropped lightly onto the concrete. Nick saw a slight flutter of gold-white feathers which dissappeared like mist. The young woman lay there, naked body coated with a fine golden dust. She breathed heavily, eyes shut. A small pile of ash lay under her. "And how did you explain this?" LaCroix uncorked one of his special bottles. No matter how far Nicholas ran, he would always return for advice. "Well, the guy had a lighter on him, so I just said he ripped her clothes off and burned them. I explained what happened to him as adrenaline." He shrugged. "It sounded good at the time." Nicholas absently took a swig of the bottle LaCroix held. He recognized the contents, and quickly set it down. "I've never seen anything like it. I've never even heard of that." "Yes you have, Nicholas. You recall the legend of the Phoenix?" "But that's a myth!" This was absurd. He'd almost rather not know if it was coming to this! "Nicholas," LaCroix poured himself a glass of 'wine', "to humans, vampyres are a myth. If so, what are we?" Nick didn't know how to answer. He had to think about this. Flames (pun intended), comments, and virtual Zippos to the address in the sig. Cousin "Susan" Phoenix phoenix@ionet.net **MSTie Mad Scientist Somewhat-Extraordinaire** *I'd be nothing if not cold.* ~~~Nigel THE VAMPYRE GRILLE The Secret's In The Sauce!