Declaimer: still don't own 'em.
Quote: "Many people lose their temper merely from seeing you keep yours." --Frank Moore Colby
CH. 2
"Didn't pick up any new scents," Wolverine said.
"Well what could have happened?" Cyclops sighed and sat down heavily.
The meeting had been called. No one now where Jean Grey was. Xavier hadn't been able to pick up her psychic signature, meaning she was either shielded or dead. Everyone was naming off possible enemies or discarding others. Bri stood in a corner studying the group with a blank expression. The shadows in her corner were darker than normal, making her blend in like Nightcrawler was able to do.
"What about your shadow lady?" Jubilee enquired, looking around the room, her eyes almost missed the woman. "Shouldn't she be doing something?"
"If you're all out of ideas, I'll see what I can do." She pushed herself away from the wall. Though many in the room viewed her with slight suspicion, she continued, "I need you all to figure out who was the last to see her and where."
There was a murmuring and it was decided that Storm had seen her last in the hall on the second floor.
Shadow started out the door, "Show me exactly." The entire group followed, curious of what would happen next.
"She was standing here and walking that way, " Ororoe pointed.
After looking around for a moment she muttered something about bad lighting for shadows then focused her attention on the shadow of a table. Only Wolverine's keen hearing could detect a fain hissing noise. "She went downstairs." Bri turned on her heel and marched down the steps, not caring if she was followed or not. She had a bad feeling…something in the shadow was warning her, but she couldn't decipher it.
At the bottom of the steps she stopped again and looked around. "Oh. Good, you have mice."
"What?" Jubilee yelped and looked around, "Where? Get rid of it. It is NOT good, its gross!"
After a deep sigh, Bri explained, "I talk to shadows. Well, sort of. Its kind of like a psychic reading ones mind, but I get impressions more than anything else. Animal shadows are the easiest to read, then plants, then inanimate objects. Your girl's shadow crossed with the plants, but plants don't make good observations…they're rather conceited," no one got the joke so she continued, " Since your girl has psychic shields, I can't read her shadow thru the plant, just the plants. Luckily, a mouse was in hiding in the plant's shadow at the time, making an observation. I can read the mouse's shadow and get a pretty good idea what happened. Make sense?"
Most everyone nodded so she started. Her gray eyes became unfocused and she opened her mouth, "Fire Hair come down. Noise, yep, yep…Bad Thing coming…no noise…not move, nope, nope….Bad Thing here…Fear…Must go…not move…Death…old blood…fear…Bad Thing holds Fire Hair…fear…must go…"Shadow was growing increasingly alarmed and her eyes widened. Now everyone could hear the hissing whispering noise but couldn't depict any words. "Death…Old blood…no noise…must go…can't move…Fear…Must Go!" She jerked back and disappeared into the sudden shadows, stopping the whispering abruptly.
"BRI!" Logan shouted, reaching out but grasping nothing but air where she stood a moment ago.
The woman emerged a few seconds later. She was breathing heavily and sweat beaded her face. "You have Vampires," she said calmly, then, "F."
"What?" Scott was the first to ask.
"F." She said again.
"Ah musta missed somethin'. What just happened?" Rogue asked.
"F…Do I have to draw a fing Picture?!" The other woman snapped. "Fire Hair--that's mouse name for Jean--was attacked. Bad Thing was the vampire and held every living thing in its mind--that's why nothing could move. Old Blood meant it was old, which is probably why none of you psychics or even Wolverine's nose could pick it up. It took Jean. Got it?"
"But why didn't Cerebro--" Xavier made the mistake of thinking aloud.
"Because you're computer don't pick up dead things."
"But vampires are only a mythological legend." Beast pointed out. (A/N: I'm not sure if the X-Men have come across real vampires before, probably, but since I am writer now, they haven't.)
"They play mind games. Most people that come across them either die or don't remember what happened," Shadow sighed as she rubbed her temple.
"Dey're real." the resident Cajun spoke up, "Gambit had a lil' run-in wit one." Shadow glanced shortly at his words.
"With all of our technological advances, I find it hard to believe that no one has a proven record." Beast insisted.
"This is what you have to put up with?" She growled at Logan now. "I'd have killed them in the first week." She turned to the group "It was a vampire. I can't do much today, Possibly tonight, but she has to be back before the end of the 3rd night. I'll be back tonight to tell you what I'm going to find out today." With out waiting for their response, she left them in the hall.
Later that day at supper
The team was gathered around the table to pick at their food and try to strike up meaningless conversations. Bri hadn't shown up yet and every one was suspicious, but careful not to mention their misgivings around Logan.
"Well," Henry McCoy spoke up as he sat down with his meal, "I've been researching vampires and their myths and still have doubts."
"Dey're real." Remy said quietly.
No one objected or spoke for that matter. Jubilee played with her food, not getting a rebuttal for doing so. Ororoe seemed content with just studying it with more interest than should be given to Gambit's cooking. Scott wasn't even present.
Logan sniffed the air and said casually, "Why don't ya have some supper, Bri. Or are ya gonna just sit by the wall all night?"
"You must be getting old Wolverine." She emerged from seemingly nowhere. "I was there 10 minutes before you even smelt me."
"Any news?" Jubilee blurted.
"Plenty. My first business here is almost done. If you're asking about Ms. Grey, not much. None of the main vamps in the city have and humans, against their will that is, so there might be a powerful newbie and the flunkies ain't talking." She took the plate Rogue handed her and continued, "I'll see what else I can dig up tonight, but the picture ain't pretty."
"Why don't you tell us what we're up against, exactly?" Scott asked from the door way where he had stood unnoticed or ignored.
"I told you. Vampire. Probably a group of them. And who said this is a 'we' thing? You superheroes are outta your league. I'm not even sure if you're coming along on the rescue mission."
Scott interjected angrily, "This involves one of the X-Men. We function as a team."
Shadows eyes rose to meet his, "I know that you don't like being helpless, but if you want your team to live, you're gonna have to stay back and let me do my thing."
"Or you could give us the information you're acquired and leave. We can take it from here." Cyclops threatened.
"O.K." Shadow put down her fork and rose to her feet. "Next time you see you're wife, she'll be dead, or, rather, undead. She will be a walking-blood-sucking-soulless-corpse. That is what this vamp is gonna do. He's gonna turn her. You failed to mention that she was one of the most powerful telepaths on the earth. Her power will be multiplied, possibly ten fold, and who ever turns her will have complete control. Do you want that Mr. Summers?" she asked acidly.
"Shadow…" Wolverine, who was also now standing, put a hand on her shoulder, weather it was to restrain her, or pull her out of the way of an optic blast wasn't clear.
"You seem to know a lot about this particular vampire. Which makes me wonder, why exactly are you helping? You made it clear last night that you were only going to tell us who kidnapped Jean. Why stay on?" Storm tried not to sound accusing.
"Because you're all ignorant. And it will get all of you killed. I've seen what these things do and he's," she jerked her head toward Cyclops, "just the fool leader to rush in half cocked, following his heart over his head. Now shut up and let me eat." Dropping back to her chair she continued on her food.
Scott turned on his heal and left, killing the tension slightly.
"Ya goin' soft Shadow?" Wolverine smirked, reseating himself also.
"Don't make me stab you." she growled back.
"Can he really do that to Jean?" Jubilee asked seriously.
"To almost anybody," Bri assured.
Rogue chided, "Don't scare the girl."
Gambit seemed to come out of thought asking, "How do you kill dem?"
"Crosses and anything silver burns them, making them heal human slow. Direct sun light sets them up like a torch. Taking out the heart. Decapitation is the only thing that'll kill the really old ones. They turn to ash when their gone," she answered as if it were normal table discussion, taking a drink from her glass.
"Taking out the heart? As in the proverbial wooden stake?" Beast inquired.
"That works if you're in close. I prefer cross bows, myself. Anyway, I'm off to shake down some baddies. Good dinner. Now I know why you stick around 'Wolvie'." The woman stood from the table and walked out, disappearing into the shadows.
"See, not everyone hates Gambit's cookin'," Remy stated, satisfied with himself.
k, like before, R&R