As Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Gambit boarded the X-Jet for our mission to see Constantine in Los Angeles, Gaia, wearing a cast on her leg and riding in one of my wheelchairs, came up to me and asked why I was wasting time with Vampirella rather than trying to rescue Cable from the Sentinel. I assured her that Cable was a big boy and could take care of himself, where as Vampirella was extremely sexy and needed a favor.

I boarded the plane and two hours later was back in California. I had Nightcrawler search the internet for Constantine's location. This rather simple task seemed to be taking a rather long time. Scanning his mind telepathically, I soon found out why.

"Kurt! You know the FBI monitors those sites! Stop that at once!"

"Oh, um, I must have clicked the wrong link. I don't know how-"

"Just get off there and find Constantine," I told him.

His office listing was in downtown LA. Cyclops set the X-Jet in stealth mode and hovered down to the roof of the rather decrepit brownstone in the rather seamy part of town in which it was located. We found his apartment and entered.

His head turned slowly towards us. "It's a little early for Halloween, isn't it?" he asked in a dry raspy voice.

"My name is Charles Xavier and I am here to help a friend. I need the Book of Eibon."

His head slowly nodded as he stubbed out his cigarette and lit another.

"You know you smoke like that and you're going to get cancer," Cyclops told him.

"Been there, done that," he answered. Turning to me, he continued, "Your friend, she's not a half-naked vampire/alien by any chance, is she?"

"As a matter of fact, she is."

He continued nodding. "Then not a chance. You don't know what that book can do."

"I know that a friend of mine has great need of it and I will be leaving here with it." I could feel Cyclops and the others bristle in surprise at my forcefulness.

Constantine fixed me with a hard stare. "You really don't want to get too attached to that one, doc. People close to her have a way of dying."

"I can take care of myself. I need that book."

Constantine took a long puff on his cigarette and sat silently, staring out the window. Finally he said, "Just can't do it. Sorry. Thanks for coming. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out."

The anger rose up within me and I reached out psionically to dominate his mind. To my surprise, there was a protective shell around him that I couldn't penetrate. He smiled at me and pulled a wooden totem from his breast pocket. With a loud "snnikktt," Wolverine popped his claws.

Just then a strange mist formed over the center of the table Constantine was sitting at. He sprang up and backed away as a rift opened in the mist. A huge screaming beast with leathery wings and giant fangs flew out and charged at him.

Cyclops blasted the thing optically full on. The monster was sent crashing across the room but it quickly got back up and let out a terrible shriek. The noise was deafening. It charged straight at us now.

Wolverine was the first to recover. Just as it was about to tear into a doubled over Cyclops, at the very last possible moment, Wolverine's claws sank deep into the creature's torso. It screamed again, but this time it was a death howl.

As the now lifeless carcass crashed onto the tiled floor. Constantine looked over at me and then walked over to the table. He opened a drawer, pulled out an ancient looking tome and tossed it on my lap.

"I hope you know what you're getting into, doc."