Rogue's Kiss

Hard rock buffeted Remy Lebeau’s ears as he stepped into what had to be the most staggering rave he had ever seen in his life. Walking in he knew immediately that not one person in this room was human. The young thief felt like a moron for not seeing it earlier in the two girls who had brought him here. Maybe it was like not seeing the deadly force of a drop of water until you saw a tidal wave coming at you.

The massive underground cavern must have been as big as two football fields with hundreds of vampires jammed into the space, moving with the rattling bass the shocked his ears. He doesn’t know how de didn’t hear it outside the door. Strobing lights hung in the corners and crevices of the vast space, giving the dancing vampires the snap shots of movement, giving them the demonic appearance they all strived for. Remy could see bars and all over the place, as well as a few corners that seemed to be reserved for making out.

That was until Remy realized that those people weren’t making out. It was humans being eaten. The Cajun saw it happening everywhere in the shadows, he had trained himself to see pretty well in the dark with only a little light and his eyes showed him more then he wanted. It seemed that dark blood flowed everywhere.

A gentle but firm hand turned his horrified face from the carnage around him to a soft ghostly face. Rogue was taking his eyes away from everything but her. She leaned close to his ear, her cool breath on its cup.

“It’s better if you don’t look, there’s nothing there you want to see,” she whispered. He knew why she was stopping him seeing. She didn’t want the thief to see what awaited him at the end of the night.

She was suddenly yanked away by a very excited Merci as another song was mixed into the previous around them.

“It’s our fucking song! Come on! We have to dance to this,” Merci yelled, dragging Rogue to the dancing throng. Remy watched them go and saw the shorter girl reluctantly smiling as she was dragged away to the tune of “living dead girl” by Rob Zombie.

“Figures,” Remy muttered to himself, left alone. He guessed they weren’t too worried about him escaping. As he scanned around it seemed like the only way out or in was the door they had come through and they were probably about a mile underground. The path they had taken here had been sloping downward the whole way.

Remy smirked. It was situations like these, when escape seemed impossible, that he really loved. He reminded himself that he had been in tough corners before and this was no different. Their mistake was giving him time to find a away out. Because if it was there, he would find it.

Further away was a group of people more concerned with getting into the gathering then getting out.

In an abandoned warehouse about a mile up and a mile aboveground, about fifty vampire hunters waited to here the plan for the night, each one tense and ready for the night that was ahead.

Kurt and Rahne were the youngest ones there and got many looks from the other hunters. They were pretty sure they were the only mutants there along with Storm.

“Hey,” Rahne whispered excitedly, pointing to a hard looking man, chewing on a cigar and polishing a knife as big as Kurt’s forearm. “That’s Russle Manchester! He’s the one who cleaned out that nest up in Canada all by himself.”

“And over there is Titan Sanders with Katey Lyons,” Kurt pointed out, looking at a huge man with a tiny woman taking in a corner.”

Rahne laughed nervously and turned to Kurt. “D’ya eva think that we’re a wee bit out of our league here?”” Rahne said, her brogue coming on stronger when she is nervous. Since joining with Kurt and Ororo she had never felt like such a kid as sitting in this room.

“The thought had crossed my mind, lieb,” Kurt replied. His fur felt like it was standing on end with the tension in the room. By practice Hunters did come together in such large groups, afraid their own tactic of attacking vampire gatherings would be used against them. Everybody was on edge but eager for the night to start. They had all been brought here by the legendary Blade, and even to lone wolves like them, that demanded respect.

Just then Storm drifted into the room. A lot of the hunters took note, having heard tails of the mutant that hunted and eradicated vampires wherever they were. She had a reputation for being cold and heartless in her pursuit. Not without reason either. She found her charges and strided over to them.

“Has he arrived yet?” She asked one Storm had reached Kurt and Rahne. A chorus of “nae” and “nein” answered her.

Storm was getting impatient to be off. She had been trying to track down the creature that had killed her son and she was sure to be at this gathering. She had to take it before she slipped through Ororo’s fingers again.

Everybody in the room suddenly went quiet and Rogue turned around to see him standing there in the middle of the room as if he had always been there. He stood above six feet and was already in full battle gear. He looked like he never took it off. And as far as anybody knew, he never did.

“Whistler,” the dark half-vampire rumbled. An old man with a bad limp and long hair came in carrying a case with him. He dropped it on the ground and started to open it to reveal a high tech projector. The lens was facing up which confused Kurt and Rahne until Whistler flipped a switch and a hologram of the sewer systems came up.

“This is where the gathering is happening,” Blade said, getting right to it and pointing to a vast empty space near the bottom of the screen. Nobody had been told the plan before in case someone was captured and forced to talk.

“Everyone will split up into five teams,” Blade went on, point to five separate sewer tunnels on the map. “And use these tunnels close to the roof of the gathering to get into position…”

“And how are we going to get through all that concrete and steel without those suckers noticing?” Russle Manchester asked sarcastically.

“Maybe if you shut up and listen, you’d find out,” Whistler said. Nobody had noticed him leave and return with five duffle bags on a cart.

Whistler looked around and stated

“These here will not only get you in but kill off maybe half the suckers in there all in one go!”