Pandora's Charm

Started October 12, 2009, by Andrea "Dearlady" Brink.Story rated M (mature, 16 years and up) for action/adventure, language, sexual content, and Pixy Profanity.

Summary:

Wolverine has virtually no memory of his life before the past ten years, when he reluctantly came to join the X-men at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. As fragments start to come back to him, he is constantly haunted by visions of a dark haired woman he believes he killed. He reaches out for help from the only one brave (or stupid) enough to help- Rachael Morgan (bounty hunter/runner, witch, and alleged demon consorter), and her vampire business partner Ivy, and pixy partner, Jenks.

Together, they try to return Wolverine's memory with the elusive Pandora's Box Charm. Which of course means that, once again, Rachael is stuck dealing with demons.

Spoiler Potential:

Though this story is somewhat linked to the "Wolverine: Evolution" movie released in 2009, it technically it takes place after all of the X-men movies, and after the "White Witch, Black Curse" book by Kim Harrison, released in 2009. I highly recommend that you watch the X-men movies first, and read the books by Kim Harrison to have a better background with all of the characters involved. Major spoiler potential otherwise!

Sneak-peeks from the upcoming story:

Logan tossed in bed, sleeping restlessly as his unconscious mind fought to recall the events of his life that had been lost. Visions of a dark-haired woman kept flashing though his mind. She was telling him a story of the moon and her lover, of the wolverine.

He turned over to his side. He remembered walking up to a car in the woods. There were three huge gashes in the metal on the hood. The car was empty, and he remembered feeling panic at seeing this.

He rolled over onto his back and for a moment slept. Then the woman's face came rushing up at him out of the darkness. She was covered in blood, and he held her in his arms. He jerked and woke, sitting up in the bed, screaming in the darkness, claws extended into the bed. He heard feet come running across the carpet, and the small lamp on the nightstand flicked on beside him.

"Logan, are you okay?" He tried to calm his breathing again as he shook his head. A feminine hand was placed near his shoulder, then quickly pulled away before making contact with his skin.

"It was her again, wasn't it?" she asked. "Yeah," he answered, still breathing heavily. He glanced up and saw Marie standing there in her nightgown, looking very worried and wanting to comfort him, but holding back. He looked down at his hands, and the lovely new set of six deep holes he had just put into the bed. Wincing, he yanked his claws out of the springs and retracted them. At least he didn't have a waterbed, he thought wryly. He looked back up at Marie and saw her looking very lost, not knowing what she should do.

"It's okay," he told her, gesturing for her to join him on the bed. "Logan, I can't. You know the vaccine is wearing off." She was starting to regain her mutant powers again, even though the "cure" the government had given her several years earlier should have taken care of those permanently. For some mutants who had accepted the cure and later regretted it, or been unwillingly administered it, it was a life-saving miracle. For Marie, it was like a death sentence. Even though they now had shared a room for over a year, she had taken to sleeping in a twin bed tucked along the wall to avoid needlessly touching him as they slept. She was terrified of what might happen if her powers came back fully while she slept. He waved her protests away and scooted over on the bed to make room for her.

"You're not that strong yet, and I can handle your power pulling. Sit." Clearly reluctant, but obviously wanting to comfort him, and seek comfort in return, Marie sat on the bed next to him, and gave him a long hug. She ran her hand through his hair as she leaned on his shoulder. The contact was electric, especially since it had been weeks since she had last touched him. "I'm sorry that you're having nightmares again," she whispered. "They're not nightmares, Marie. I know something happened, I just don't know what." Frustrated, he fell back onto the bed.

"I know they're not," she replied quietly, running her hand across his bare chest and abs, "but you don't know what happened. Things seem like they're slowly starting to come back. Try not to worry about things until you do know what happened." "Much easier said than done," he looked at her. "Well.." she looked at him, "maybe I can help take your mind from things." Emboldened by his reassurances that he could handle her draining pull, or simply spurred on by their need for each other, she reached down and kissed him deeply, one hand playing with his nipple, then wandering lower beneath the covers. "Ooh," he growled. "Maybe that would work."

He reached up and shut off the light on the nightstand, and pulled her to him in the darkness.

_______________________________________________________

I grabbed the mail and quickly walked inside, shutting the heavy front door to keep the cold out. I flipped through the envelopes, decided they were all junk, and tossed them on to the plant-strewn desk Jenks had taken over.

"Rachael, is that you?" Ivy called from the kitchen. "Mmmhmm." I could smell Italian cooking, and as she walked out to the foyer the smell of spaghetti trailed along with her vampire incense. I don't know why humans were so afraid of tomatoes- they tasted so heavenly. Ok, so maybe the fact that they once carried a virus that wiped out nearly a third of the human population had something to do with it. Still. "Anything good?" she asked as she flipped through the mail I left on the desk.

"No, it's just junk and bills. Where's Jenks?" I asked and hung my coat up, relishing the silence in the church. "His whole clan is upstairs helping groom Bis. He yelled at them for waking Matalina." She scrunched her forehead up as she read the return address on one envelope. "Did you read this?" she asked, already knowing I hadn't as she opened up the envelope. It had a fancy-looking crest on the front and the feel of the heavy paper alone told me these people had money. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters? Her eyes grew larger as she read the letter. "I think you should read this." . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Really, I'll be fine on my own. I think you guys should stay here and watch after the church," I protested. I was just going a few hundred miles away. Alone, yes, but I was a big girl. Nevermind the facts that I was now blacklisted by everyone for being labeled a black witch (which I wasn't. Not really) , for consorting with demons (which I only had to do to save my friend's and my own ass from time to time), and that I had an honest-to-goodness black witch out there after me.

Looking very harassed, Bis came down from the belfry, covered in little pixy boys and girls, relentlessly attacking his short fur with miniscule combs and brushes. I think the pixy children thought that if they groomed him faster, they could get back to doing what they wanted to faster, so there small chunks of fur floating down from the ceiling as he joined us.

Jenks rubbed his wings together in a harsh sound and all the children went scattering up into the belfry. Bis looked immensely grateful to be rid of the "attention."

"I want to come with you, Mistress Witch," he told me from the ceiling. He would have come down and settled on my arm if I had offered it, but every time I touched him, I could see all of the ley lines in Cincinnati, and it was a little disconcerting. "Ugh. I'm a big girl, this is a simple run. I'll be fine. Keep an eye on everything here," I argued. "Tinks's titties, Rache." Jenks hovered up to my eye level, laughing. "The church will be fine without us. Anyone who would come here isn't after the church, they're after you." Gee, thanks Jenks, I thought. "We're all coming with you, Rachael." Ivy told me in a tone that would brook no argument. I gulped as I thought of the trouble that a blacklisted witch, an often irate and instinct-happy vampire, a curious and hotheaded pixy, and a shy but powerful gargoyle could get into when mixed with a school full of mutants. I sighed. Maybe I would be safer going alone after all.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .