Night and Day

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"Funny, seems to me like games are what you excel at." Ebony replied thinly. She too was aching, but Frost's magic was already corrupting her feelings. Love had been twisted into nothing more than animal desire.

"You wouldn't be a danger if you drank a little each day." Glenda replied. "Take care of yourself, and there is no danger."

"Weren't you employed here to keep the vampire students safe?" Marie growled, already searching for her phone to try and call Julian.

Ebony got a rather frosty feeling from Jack himself now. "Sure you were." She sneered, finally sitting up.

"Katie is a day student, remember? There is little I can do for the child while I slumber. She is your daughter after all." Malik said simply. 
Julian didn't answer. The phone went directly to voicemail.

"Believe what you will. You always do." He said softly. "When were you going to tell me you'd run into Frost before?"

Marie huffed loudly when Julian didn't answer. "I'll wake Ebony. She can help us find her sister." She remarked, already striding ahead of Malik.

"You never asked." Ebony replied, just as evasive as her father as she glanced around for her boots.

"Good luck to you. It seems you do not need my help." Malik said, turning to leave.

"On the book shelf." Jack told her, knowing exactly what she was looking for. "I didn't think I would have to ask. I would think you'd just tell me things that are so worrying. "

"That's right... I can't trust you wont take anything more from me." Marie whispered, though she continued to walk.

"Why?" Ebony asked bluntly, though she wasn't looking at Jack. "You want very little to do with me, and all of a sudden I'm supposed to get my touchy feelies on?" She snorted. "Whining about problems doesn't solve them. Julian made that quite clear to me."

If Marie turned back, she would find that Malik was gone and she was alone. But not for long. Alma came into the room, a black bag on her shoulder. "He said you'd need these things. As well as me." She told the other woman setting the heavy bag on the table. "Call Tobias, you know he loves her." 


Jack nodded, glad he'd had Julian teach her. She'd learned more than he'd expected her to. "Are you prepared for what's coming? Your dream...it still concerns me you know..."

"That's why the boy would be a hindrance." Marie whispered, feeling somewhat overwhelmed. She had tried calling Ebony's cell several times, but got no reply.

"Well it shouldn't." Ebony replied thinly once she had her boots back on. "It's my business, not yours. I don't need babysitting, not after all this time." It seemed there was a long way to go before she considered Jack any kind of father figure.

"You won't get the girl on the phone. Why would you after the way you treated her? She is her father's daughter now and there is nothing you can do about it." Alma pointed out. 

"It's not like I had a choice in all this." Jack said darkly. "You're still blaming me for your mother. The bitch didn't even tell me you existed. You have to know I'd have gone to hell and back for you if I'd known."

"She is nothing like him!" Marie insisted, though she knew that was a pointless lie. "She's just... confused. The girl has always been rather wayward, she just needs to see him for the monster he is." She added, still unable to understand why Ebony had spared Jack all those months ago at the guild.

"Do I?" Ebony asked bluntly. "Even if you didn't know I was your daughter, you still should have treated me with respect! Instead you were just like everyone else the whole time I was at that school; you treated me like I was worthless!"

"Hardly. Especially since you made her that way. She believes she is that way and it will not change anyway time soon." Alma pointed out. 

"I was making you stronger and better than you were. That's more than your own mother offered you." Jack told her darkly.

"I made her nothing!" Marie snapped. "The girl was trouble from the moment she could walk!"

Ebony glared hatefully at her father, then shook her head. "Do you have any idea what it was like for me growing up? Watching Marie and Cyrus shower Katie with love and affection, while I was forgotten about? I didn't want to be stronger, I just wanted to know I had a parent who loved me!"

"We are wasting time." Alma pointed out, holding up the black bag to her. "Your daughter will end up back in the hands of Jack if we don't hurry." She added. "Give up on calling your youngest. You will see her soon enough. Is this everything you need?" 

"You would have had I known and you certainly do now." Jack told his daughter, his eyes locked on her own. "You are the only thing I have ever truly cared for."

Marie glared at Alma, but nodded her head anyway. She didn't like how Malik and this demon seemed to know things she didn't when it came to her family. "Why are you helping me?"

Ebony shook her head sadly in reply. "Yet somehow I don't believe you." She whispered. "You care about power, just like Frost."

"Because he commands it." Alma said softly. She didn't even look at Marie. "Another day, another master. But...Brock is gone. I don't care to fight anymore." 

"I care about a future for my daughter." Jack said, turning his back on her. Once upon a time that had not been the case. He had mauvered the world to please himself. A part of him still wished he was doing things that way.

"Brock... That was the man Jack took from you, wasn't it?" Marie asked, her voice softening when she realised how much this other woman didn't wish to be there.

"What if I told you I didn't want a future?" Ebony breathed as she stared at her father's back. "What if I told you I just want the present, and a life with at least a little love in it?"

"Tobias and Jack. It's a long story. I guess you don't remember it." Alma told her, holding up the black bag. "Brock was your partner before he was Julian's. Not that it matters now. He's gone. Come on. I have to keep you and your daughter safe." 

"Love doesn't exist. Haven't you figured that out yet?" Jack snorted.

Marie closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. So many things she didn't remember. "I'm sorry." She breathed. "There are a great many memories it would seem I am no longer in possession of."

Ebony pursed her lips together when her father spat those words at her. "Then I guess family don't exist either." she replied. "I've not really got much else to say to you. I have a score to settle, and I don't need anything from you. I never have, I never will."

"It does not matter. Remembering the man will not bring him back. Trust me. It has never worked for me." Alma laughed bitterly. "Do you want me to call for the wolf? The master vampire will be angry at first but it's probably better that you have your true partner with you. Julian is avoiding you right now over some comment about Ebony. Brock often said he was worse than a woman. I'm sure you agree with that." She smiled ever so slightly. 

"You are going to get yourself killed, girl." Jack snapped. "Don't be an idiot. Love is not a requirement for life. That's what is keeping Frost from becoming all powerful. She is held back by her desire to have that wolf love her. It will never happen and it will destroy her one day."

Marie nodded her head. "I can relate to that." She replied with a sad smile. "I just hate fluffing that man's ego, and admitting I need him to find Katie... Well he will never let me live it down." The red haired woman admitted, still not realising her youngest was also gone.

Ebony could at least relate to one thing Frost was feeling. She couldn't blame the other woman for wanting Julian, she had fallen for him the moment they first met. Of course, she couldn't have ever told Julian that. "Frost already has what she wants." She told her father sadly, believing that if Julian had felt anything at all for Ebony herself... He would have been the one to save her from the other other wolf.

Alma's smile brightened. "Indeed. I don't know how he remains to self assured even when he is so leashed by the witch. He cannot run as the others wolves do." She added, now digging through the bag for a phone. "Call this. He will answer no matter what." 

Jack nodded. "Her leash on him is almost visible at this point. She's going to destroy them both with it. Have you ever seen a rope catch on fire? Most fascinating." He chuckled. "Feel better?" He patted her shoulder, thinking he'd gotten them past the spat.

"What? Why?" Marie blurted rather loudly. Clearly she was not happy that someone else had the means of being able to contact her own partner even when she couldn't.

Ebony practically snarled at Jack and shrugged his hand away; it seemed he had a lot to learn about the temper of teenage girls. "Not really. Katie is still out there."

"Because the phone belonged to Brock." Alma told her, pulling out a long silver gun and looking it over. "One can't ignore a phone call from a long dead friend. Right?" The demoness fixed yellow eyes on the human woman and smiled sadly. 

"She will be fine. I know where she is. She is not being hurt. Yet." Jack said darkly, his fingers curling in on themselves.

"A heard headed idiot like Julian? He would probably try." Marie snorted, though she was already dialing her old friend and long time partner's number.

"Where is she?" Ebony demanded hotly. "I wont let you, or whatever monster you gave her to, hurt her!"

"Brock." Like Alma said the phone was answered immediately. Julian sounded strange, as if he were desperate for something...or someone... "Buddy...Is that you? I knew those bastards couldn't kill you." 

"Not telling." Jack said darkly. "Now that I know you're working against me. I'm not telling you a damn thing!"

It seemed like minutes passed before Marie could move her lips or even make a sound. She heard both the joy and the desperation in Julian's voice, and it damn near killed her. "No, Julian... It's Marie." she managed to breathe. "I... I need your help. Katie is missing, and Ebony wont answer my calls."

Ebony stared at her father, believing more than ever that his words about wanting a future with her were indeed nothing but lies. "You need me." she informed him. "I'm only alive because of this damn dirty witch blood I have inside of me! All thanks to you! You think I don't know how it works? Only the women get the power, and that pisses you off!"

Another full minute passed and Julian sighed deeply. It wasn't hard to tell that he was trying to hide his disappointment. "Let me get rid of Frost and I'll be on the way." He murmured, hanging up the phone before she could agree or disagree. Alma took the phone and threw it on the ground. It shattered like an unwanted mirror. The little demon turned away, unable to look at it. Yet another part of her former lover was gone. 

"Actually, I could care less. I have your sister's blood." Jack said with the wave of his hand. "Your magic is useless. You'll never learn to control it. You're scared of it and so is everyone else. That's never going to get you anyone else. Why would I want any part of that? Try being a vampire. Then you'll know real power." The moment the words left his mouth Jack was sorry. But it was far too late. He'd already said it. He'd become a hateful monster to Ebony as well. He'd probably just made yet another enemy.

"I'm sorry." Marie found herself whispering after some time in silence. "I'm sorry for everything Jack did. I'm sorry for any pain Ebony caused you for anything she did with Raife, even if he didn't know who he really was."

That was the very last thing Ebony needed to hear right then; not only had she not been good enough for her mother, the father she had never known thought her sister was better than her too. "I have only one regret... Not listening to Julian. I should never have spared you... You never deserved such a mercy." She breathed, stepping around Jack to head for the door.

Alma held onto herself, her eyes tightly closed. "It's not your fault any more than it's Ebony's." She breathed. "She just wanted love. Isn't that what all your kind want? It was stupid of me to think that I should have it too. Its what got him killed. Jack told him to go to Tobias. Brock was trying to free me so that we could be together..." 

"And yet you were stupid enough to give it to me." Jack hissed, watching her go. "That's right, run. I will handle this mess. You are your mother's daughter after all."

"She is her father's daughter, Ebony isn't capable of love." Marie replied, just as Jack was making the same comparison to her. "She was never supposed to be born." She added, sounding rather heartless. "All of the Saunders bloodline had been male for as far back as anyone could remember."

"If that were true, people would fall over themselves just to be near me. Just as you did with her." Ebony replied, sounding rather defeated. "I'm not afraid to die, you were the one afraid to lose my power." She added, then stepped through the door.

"There's a thing called fate, Marie. It's a horrible, vicious bitch for lack of a more refined word." Alma placed a had on her shoulder and all at once they appeared, with Julian, outside a decrepit house. 
"Damn it, Al! You know I hate that! The wolf hissed, refusing to look at Red.
Alma smile ever so slightly, "you are both wasting my time and the girl needs help. The house is filled with former Hunters."