"Lady Selene! how delightful of you to accept my invitation."
The pale, black-clad woman had seemed to materialize suddenly out of thin air, right in the middle of the crowd that had gathered in the garden courtyard just outside his estate's auditorium.
"Tread lightly, Shaw," she replied. "I have merely come to hear more about your proposal. Nothing more."
"Of course, of course," he said, offering her the crook of his arm. "Perhaps we should retire to a more discreet location? " he nodded to the two men he had been speaking to before the ancient mystic had joined them "-- Professor McCoy, Dr. Rinehart, please excuse us. I look forward to sometime soon picking up where we've left off."
As they walked away, Henry McCoy turned a dubious eye back to his fellow guest. "I don't think the Council is going to find much use for this foundling of yours, Ludwig. I ran the blood tests myself. She is neither mutant nor inhuman..."
"Impossible!" the aforementioned Dr. Rinehart responded. "I have witnessed her abilities myself."
"So what? If she is so exceptional, well, why wouldn't she be a candidate for admittance into our little group, rather thanyou?"
"She is but an addled patient. She is not yet able to act with either wisdom or foresight without the proper guidance."
"Even better for us!" McCoy asserted. Rinehart was not sure whether or not it was offered in jest.
"Nonsense," the doctor countered. "I will offer a demonstration of what my ward is capable of."
Henry McCoy shrugged.
"Fine. Turn her loose and see what happens. If you can prove a benefit to our cause, then perhaps there might be a place for you at the Council table." McCoy said to him.
The crowd was moving back into the auditorium from the open veranda, having been alerted that the intermezzo was concluding and that the next performance was to begin shortly. As both men turned and followed, McCoy spotted Sebastian Shaw and Lady Selene as they entered the gallery together.
He made one last observation to Dr. Rinehart before his thoughts turned back to the orchestral performance.
"You'd better hurry, old boy. The seats are filling up fast."
* * * *
"Hey, Gwen'" he said, opening the front door for her.
"Hey yourself," she responded, stepping into the small, comfy place where Peter and his aunt lived in Queens.
Things had been looking up for Peter Parker in the several months since Mary Jane was gone. Aunt May had been there for him, just like always. But now there was Gwen.
Gwen Stacey... he hadn't even known that they went to the same high school, let alone that they shared something... else. They were both, after all, very different from other people.
From the night he'd first met her, near Central Park, he knew there was something about her. He was glad that she hadn't been harmed in the fights with the Roughnecks or the Masters of Evil or that goth witch's posse. It was even better that the Air Force guys hadn't noticed when he'd spirited her away and taken her home that night.
Surprisingly, to himself, he'd checked up on her soon after. And again. And again. Concern soon became friendship, and friendhsip soon became something more.
And seriously, how many other teeneagers had Date Nights like this? The first time they went to see a movie together, they stopped a mugging in a nearby alley. Last weekend, it was an armed robbery at the convenience store where they were buying snacks. Who knew what the city might give them now.
"You kids behave tonight!" Aunt May admonished them as they headed out the door. The teeneagers looked at each other with secret, knowing smiles.
* * * *
The acrid air of the City was heavy with hate, burning Fenris' heightened senses. And yet, it's familiar haze was a welcome reprieve. His sojourn in deep space had left him surly, and he needed to hunt. The City was not the north woods, but it was still fertile ground.
Only the prey was different, not the chase. Nor the conclusion.
As he tested the smells and sounds all around him, he soon detected a familiar presence that darkened his countenance.
Aneksi, it's time, he thought to himself, telepathically letting his companion know it was time to swing into action. The ghostly sorceress would track him as he went, bringing the others along to his location. He leapt down into a darkened alley, commencing the hunt in earnest.
(published October 3, 2015)
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