Chapter Twelve: Overkill

Place: New Orleans, Louisiana

Time: Midnight, two weeks later

NOTE* Kai is my own original character. And there are alterations to Remy LeBeau. But do not fear, everything will be explained when the timing is right. The characters develop on their own.

Tassles and jewelry swished, swayed, and clanked as the olive skinned brunette fiercely marched across the street. Her long, flowing skirt was just thin enough to let the cool breeze of night give her some relief the the blazing southern heat of day. She kept her eyes straight ahead, trying her best to time her arrival home perfectly. If, in fact, she made it home in a timed manner she wouldn't get scolded. Not that the scoldings she received were ever horribly harsh. She just hated making him worry. She was sixteen and there wasn't too much he could do to keep her from going to a party or taking the night shift at the roadhouse she worked at. He knew this, she knew this. He wasn't her father.

She didn't have parents.

Since the day she was born Kai had no memory of ever having a mother or a father. To be quite honest, she didn't even know her own name. It was quite frightening at times. What if her biological parents had something like AIDS and she would never had known? She got checked once after freaking herself out so badly over the possibility. Thank God she came out clean. But what if they were deliciously rich and could easily drop a hundred grand on their long lost daughter?

Doubtful. Very doubtful.

Kai had always been alone. And for that, she was constantly growing wiser. And with this wisdom she picked up the speed of her walking pace to get back home in time. Curfew, what a terrible idea.

Something clanked in an alley two paces ahead of her to the left. She froze. God damn it. New Orleans was a constant party, which meant it was a constant battle to stay rape free from drunken ass holes. Her hands instantly balled into fists. There was a reason why she wore at least one ring on every finger.

"Cheri, yo' late." The deep Cajun voice from the alley soon became a large, handsome man stepping out of the shadows of the alley. "Yo' make-uh meh worry."

Kai dropped her defense mechanism and let out a sigh. "I told you I was going after work."

"Iz late," he shook his head. "Yo' sixteen. 'Ow many time do Remy have to come track yo' down, petite?"

She cracked a little smile at her nickname. "I'm sorry." She slipped her hand into his gloved one. "Lets just go home. I have tomorrow off. We can go fishing."

Remy squeezed her hand and gave a little nod. "Yo' not go out fo' a week, petite."

Kai's mouth dropped. "Seriously? You're gonna try to play the dad card on me?"

He shrugged, "Some'un have to."

Ouch. She glared at the road ahead of them, "You've never been this protective before. You've never given me a curfew before."

"Dere not beh mutie hunters till now."

A week ago Senator Barack Obama had arranged for a public warning for mutant safety as well as a speech given by Ororo Monroe, the new head mistress of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, explaining that mutants are peace-seeking humans. She expressed the fear mutants have.

"They were so stupid to make it public," Kai muttered, still glaring.

Remy glanced down at her. "Oh?"

"It's not hard to hide from people. It's not hard to keep to yourself, therefore no one bothers you and you can live a remotely normal life."

He stopped walking and faced her, his red and black eyes gently looking into hers. "Remy will nevuh have a normal life."

Kai half smiled, but said nothing. In all complete honesty, she was Remy's escape from his real day-to-day life. He was used as a pawn to his stepfather's Cajun gang of Thieves. He killed people.

"Remember when we found each other?" She smiled, changing the subject to a favorite.

He chuckled, "Mo' like Remy foun' 'oo."

Kai came to New Orleans when she was fourteen years old and on the run from her eighth foster home. She'd dumpster dived for most her meals. Disgusting, but when you're beyond the point of hunger and more poor than a third world country, you don't complain. This was how Remy had stumbled upon her. He was disposing of a body he'd just murdered for his father...and didn't look in the dumpster when he tossed Alan Jackson's cold, stiff, and dripping with blood body inside.

"What the hell?!" Kai had yelled, then started screeching and tearing her way to the top of the garbage pile. Instantly she started puking and freaking out as soon as she toppled out of her dinner spot.

Normally, Remy would have been lost in the shadows and never known to be anywhere near this certain alley. But Kai was small, sickly small. Even he, who was dirt poor and someone else's henchman, wouldn't eat out of a dumpster. " 'Ello?"

Kai's eyes flared at the instant sight of such a large, beautiful man. Wait, not man, murderer. "Oh God, please don't kill me." She whispered.

Remy cracked a smile. "Non, petite. Remy not kill 'oo. Why don' weh sit an' talk?"

She shook her head.

"Petite, Remy not gon' hurt 'oo."

She looked him square in the eyes. "You can't hurt me."

He raised his eyebrows. "Zat so?"

Kai nodded and slowly stood from her kneeling and walked towards him. "Give me your hand."

Curious as he was, Remy held his palm up. His fingers stuck out of his gloved hands.

Slowly, Kai pulled a pocket knife from her jeans pocket and sliced his thumb deeply.

Remy gritted his teeth and glared but didn't make a sound. He watched in amazement as the teenager calmly placed her left hand over his bleeding thumb. A strange sensation came over him as the pain slipped away from his thumb. He felt...full of life! As if everything was his for the taking. He could fly if he kept this high any longer. But then, suddenly it vanished. He looked at the girl. She was smiling. He looked at her hand...it was slashed at the thumb and dripping with blood.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph..." Remy muttered as he watched the injured thumb of Kai's quickly dissolve into nothing as she healed.

Returning to the present, Kai tugged on Remy's sleeve. "Come on, let's go home. I have jambalaya in the cooler."

He grinned at his petite and took her hand again as they walked home together.