Author's Notes: Wow, I've gotten great feedback from everyone with this! I guess this means I can't think up creative ways to torture Lovecraft for hooking me on the misadventures of Anita and the undead hottie brigade. Anita Blake and company = Laurell K. Hamilton. Jubilee, Angelo, Gen. X, and X-Men = Marvel. No money here, sorry.

The incident I'm referencing is one of the Generation X issues....don't remember which one and I don't have my collection with me. I assume that in the Anitaverse Dracula (from MU) would have been "taken care of" since he'd be bad publicity. Praise languidly bathed in, flames used to make smores. Ever onwards! ~ Jeanne M.

*** = change in POV

Otherside

chapter two



The phone shrilled throughout the apartment, prompting muttered curses from the bedroom as Jubilee groggily fumbled her way into the kitchen, where they had left the cell the night before. "'Alo?"

"Is Angelo Espinoza there?"

Jubilee froze, eyes going wide as she came fully awake. "Um, I'm sorry ma'am, I don't know anyone by that name. You must have the wrong number."

"This is his cousin, Anita. He called my step-mother from this phone." Jubilee could hear the other woman's suspicion clearly. "Angelo is supposed to be dead, and I get a call saying he needs my assistance. Now, zombies don't make phone calls, so that makes him a living person, or he's become a vampire, a disavowed were-animal, or some other monster of the night. I don't know or care who or what the hell you are, and I'm not in the mood to play games. Put Angelo on the phone."

"The name's Jubilee, lady, and I live here. And Angelo isn't a monster. Try a mutant." Jubilee hoped her sneer carried over the phone. "His momma don't have a very high opinion of the Gifted, so Ange decided to skip town and play dead."

***

I was silent for a moment while I tried to process that bit of information. Mutant. Her 'dead' little cousin was a mutant who had successfully passed himself off as deceased for a number of years, sounded like he had a rather spirited (female) roommate, and now he was in enough trouble to give her a call. This was getting more and more interesting. "Look, Julie, I apologize for calling him a monster, but can you tell me what's going on?"

"Jubilee. Not Julie. Ange kinda made a dead-dude stand at attention, as in blood and rising and shit. Major bad mojo. He knows more, lemme wake him up." I shook my head, trying to process the girl's rapid babble as I could dimly hear footsteps and the sound of a door opening. "Ange! Wake-up! Yer cousin's on the phone, looks like Torres was good fer somethin' after all." She heard a muffled protest, and what sounded like a pillow being thumped against a body. "Dude! She's on the phone NOW." There was the dead air of a phone being passed, and a half-hearted cough.

"Yeah. I'm here." Masculine, slightly nervous. It *sounded* like the Angelo she remembered.

"Ange, it's Anita."

"Hey."

"Hey yourself. What possessed you to call Judith? You know I'm in St Louis."

"Si, but I don't chill with the vamp crowd, and your home phone number isn't listed. Couldn't leave a message at your work since I'm "dead" and Jubilee wouldn't make a convincing legit customer. Your boss only passes on calls from cops or big money, and we ain't neither."

"Good point. What's the deal, Angelo? That girl....Judy...?...said something about zombies."

"Jubilee. Si, I know, her parents musta been drugged out hippies or something." I wince at the shriek from the other end of the phone, and Angelo's curses as the sound of something hitting flesh carried over the line. "It's short for Jubilation. Jubilation Lee. She's my roommate/business partner."

"Ahem."

"Oh yeah, and my girlfriend." I can almost picture the tips of his ears turning red. "Um, so, I kinda got myself cut while hanging out in a graveyard, and got a visitor of the undead-type. I managed to convince it to go away, but I don't know if it'll stay down."

"Yeah, I'd say you need help."

"I don't need help, Anita. I need an expert opinion. Is this thing going to stay in its grave, or come after me since I raised it?"

"So you blew your cover and called me?"

"Not exactly.....I doubt Judith keeps track which of us 'devilspawn' die or anything. Your family can't blow my cover, and you won't."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"'Cause you like trouble, Anita. An' having a 'dead' primo agrees with your sick sense of humor. I'm dead, so I can't get in trouble for the shit that you pull and blame on me." I made a non-committal grunt. I was NOT admitting to that. "Now is my new friend going to rise again or not?"

After a half-hour or so going over the finer points of accidental animation, I somehow managed to reassure my paranoid cousin that no, it wasn't going to rise again. "Angelo?"

"Yeah?"

"This wasn't a freak accident, you know."

"Sure it was. I stay out of graveyards, don't bleed on dead people, and I'll be fine, right?" I don't answer. "Anita.....you aren't helping me feel any better."

"Ange, I can raise the dead without blood. There's a remote possibility that you can do the same. Necromancy runs in our family."

"Whoa, step back amiga. Are you saying I can do that funky shit you do?" He doesn't sound happy about it, and I don't blame him.

"I hate to break it to you, but you just did. Not everyone can raise the dead, you don't just slash some chicken's neck and get instant-zombie. It takes a certain talent, which you obviously have. You need to find a teacher somewhere, unless you want to wake up one night and find a decayed creepy-crawly in your room."

"All animators must be registered." His voice sounds suddenly empty. "I can't do that, Anita. Not without buying a new identity, and I don't have the cashflow for that. I let my momma know I'm alive, and it'd break her heart. Besides, I already got people trying to kill me. I don't need people knowing where I am."

"What do you mean?"

"I was a hood before I died, primita. I got a criminal record. Mis amigos are no good. I'm a 'mutie' with friends in the wrong places. Bein' me ain't healthy. I'm a ghetto-raised Hispanic male living with his Chinese girlfriend, both of whom are tryin' to keep under la policia's radar. Understand?" I hear the frustration and bitterness in his voice, and try to figure out what to say that won't sound condescending.

"Okay, so you're in a bad spot. Got that." Something clicks in my brain. "That's why Jubilee initially told me I had the wrong number."

"Yeah. We've got this place under the names of Angelo and Jae Ramos. But those ID papers won't stand up to the scrutiny they'd get if I had to register as an Animator."

I take a deep breath. I can't believe I'm about to do this, but..... "Can you get out to St Louis?"

"Que?"

"You heard me. I can't do anything out there. I probably can't even get out there." Which is all Jean-Claude's fault, but Angelo doesn't need to know that. "But if you can get over here, I can probably set you up with a teacher. One that doesn't report their students to the government." There's silence for a moment, then I hear him cover the phone with his hand and say something to Jubilee. I hear muffled angry voices, and a door slam, before he comes back on the line.

"Anita?"

"I'm still here."

"There's one problem with that."

"Money? I'm sure I can dig up enough for you two to catch a Greyhound out here."

"No. It's Jubilee. She......she don't like vampires. She hates them. And, well, you know you're national news, right? The Executioner of St Louis dating the city's Master vampire? She got nothing against you, Anita, she just can't be around a vamp without itching to dust them."

"I see." I know my voice has gone bitchy, but I can't help it. "The little Chinese delinquent, who is in an inter-racial relationship with a mutant, is racist against vamps. That's a little ironic."

"NO!" The anger vibrates across the line. "Anita, before vampires went legit, we had one attack the school that Jubilee and I attended. Not just any vamp, a big dude going by the name of Dracula. Ring a bell? He was so psycho his own kind killed him. He was after a friend of ours. Jubilee....she didn't take it well, okay? It spooked her good. She's had some major fucking shit in her life, and, well, she's never going to be that defenseless again."

"Oh." Good one, Anita. Way to look like a major insensitive bitch. "I can't come out there, Angelo. The Master of Los Angles probably won't let me. Basically, any city with a Master vamp in residence won't let me anywhere near."

"There's something you aren't telling me."

"Yup."

"Okay." This is what I've always loved about Angelo, his willingness to go along with whatever is thrown at him. "So I somehow have to convince Jubicita that the St Louis vampires aren't going to try and bite her?"

"Can you put her on the line again?"

"Yeah, hang on." He sets the phone down, and I hear steps receding from the phone. I use the lull to walk to the kitchen and pour myself a mug of coco. I needed the chocolate boost. A moment later there's the scuffling noises of it being picked up, and I hear a nervous cough. "Um, yeah?"

"Jubilee, I promise you, there's not a vampire in St Louis stupid enough to try and hurt you."

There's a pause, and I can tell she's trying to wrap her mind around that. "Lady, vampires are like people. They're just strong, fast, hard-to-kill undead people. I can deal with the strong and fast, been-there-done-that sort of shit. It's the how long it takes me to kill them that worries me. There's always some dumbshit trying to prove he's hot-stuff by taking out a mutant, or looking for an easy meal. How can you guarantee that one of them's not going to take a fancy to me?"

"Because they're all too scared of me." I grin into the phone, letting her process that information. I like her. She's not scared of vampires because they're dead, she's worried because she doesn't know how fast she can kill them. Smart girl. "Jubilee, I'm the Executioner."

"I know. So?"

"So. I don't have a problem blasting off body-parts of vampires that annoy me. You're with me, that means you're under my protection. I don't take well to people that fuck with my people."

"Yer relationship with the undead Playgirl Playmate doesn't deter them?"

I choke on my coco, prompting a laugh from Jubilee. "I don't deny that my relationship with Jean-Claude helps, but he doesn't stop me from killing people that annoy me."

"Just so long as fang-face isn't dictating who you slice and dice." Oh yes, I definitely like her. "I'll let Angelo come on one condition."

"What's that?"

"I get to come, and I'm carrying a nice, hidden, silver-edged knife at all times. I know it won't kill them unless I hit just right, but it'll slow them down."

"I can't promise you that you can keep it at all times, but I promise we'll put up a hell of a fight before you have to hand it over."

"Good enough. If you had promised, I'd have known you were lying. We'll be there, and I promise not to kill anything without proper provocation. Here, I'll let you talk to Angelo again. ANGE!!!!! Pack your bags, we're moving. Here, you talk to her." I blink as the phone changes hands again, attempting to unravel everything she had said.

"Hey."

"Angelo, is Jubilee a mutant also?"

"Why?"

"She said something about knowing if I lied, and vamps liking a challenge with mutants. I don't care if she is, I just feel like I should warn Jean-Claude if I'm bringing a trigger-happy weapon to town."

"I thought you were a trigger-happy weapon."

"Touche. You know what I mean."

"Yeah, but she's not a full telepath, if that's what you're asking. She's just good at knowing when people are lying. She's a pyrokinetic."

"Shit. Please tell me she's not going to panic and send people up in flames."

"She won't burn people accidentally. She's got a strong hold on her abilities. It's not flames.....she kinda creates globes of exploding plasma by detonating the air on a sub-molecular level. At least, that's how our profs *thought* her powers work, but they're not totally sure...."

"I don't need a lesson on mutagenic biology, I just needed a yes or no as to whether she could control it."

"Yes. She's never let loose, not even when people piss her off and try to kill her. She's only blown up a few buildings."

"That's not reassuring."

"It's not supposed to be."

I sigh, rubbing my forehead. "Fine. So she won't kill anyone accidentally. How about you?"

He snorts. "Anita, you don't gotta worry about my mutant powers killing someone. Take my word for it. Now, how do you plan on getting Jubilee and I out to St Louis?"







End Chapter Two........
Coming up......Asher and Jason and the were-leopards, oh my! :)