Thank you all for continuing to support this story. The updates have been slower than expected due to something very positive happening in my life, but has considerably cut into my writing time for the time being and possibly the next few weeks. I'm hoping writing time will pick up in the future and I'll strike the right balance.

Also, if you haven't heard, sometime in the future of Sam & Cat, Freddie, Jade and Robbie will appear. I will be the first to admit that it will be interesting to see Freddie and Jade really interact (AU versions of themselves as S&C is AU to both shows), assuming the actually do and there isn't some harebrain reason they won't interact that Dan could pull like he did in iParty with Victorious.

Rating: K+


Chapter 4

West Residence
Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Jade gnawed on her thumb nail as she paced back and forth in the kitchen. She glanced over to a clock in the kitchen and saw that it was past midnight. It was the fifth time that she looked at the clock since he called to say that he was on his way home—back to their house. She was annoyed that he was out this late, but she understood the necessity. However, it was harder to explain to Ian why Freddie wasn't there before he went to bed as he was really starting to bond with Freddie after their father had taken off in search of Ian's mother.

She was pulled out of her thoughts with hearing the automatic garage door open and the soft rumble of the garage door opening. She opened the door to the garage and watched as he pulled the beat up Charger into the parking spot. The garage door rolled down to a close as he exited the vehicle. As he walked the steps up to the kitchen passed her, Freddie haplessly smiled. "I called."

As the door swung back behind her, Jade crossed her arms under her chest and gave him a disapproving smile.

He returned with a curious expression as he cautiously replied, "What? I called, what more did you want me to do?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. I know, I know, I was just…"

He softly teased, "Were you a little worried?"

The corner of her lips turned down and answered with a nearly flat tone while she closed and locked the kitchen door, "I was not worried. I was mildly concerned."

He surprised a smirk at seeing her poor lie while she walked over to the kitchen island and took one of the stools. He quickly followed and took a seat on the opposite side of her as she asked, "So what did you find out?"

The handsome teenager confidently smiled as he spilled, "The book is still in L.A. I confirmed that if someone had it, they were smart and being very cautious."

Having been filled in before Freddie and Dusty started interrogated the deadite, she asked, "Why would they care about the music awards? Are demons into that thing?"

Freddie looked back with a lost expression. He awkwardly chuckled out, "Maybe whoever has the book has a thing for music?" He blew out his breath and continued with a somewhat perplexed tone, "I don't know. The deadite just taking up and maintaining the person's life isn't something I've ever heard of one of them doing."

"You believed it?"

"For the moment, yes. The way we worked it over… we went all 'Zero Dark Thirty' on it as Dusty called it. They can inflict the pain, but they can't take it. We got all the information we were going to get out of it."

"You sure? It could just be lying to you."

"Maybe, but contrary to what people think, torture unfortunately does work…"

Jade made a sour face and looked down at the island and hesitantly brought up, "Even if it was a demon, you don't have a problem doing that? That's pretty dark—even for me—in really torturing something."

"Dusty's father has unfortunate experience in that area, but we looked at it in a more practical aspect. We weren't inflicting pain just to inflict pain, but to find the book. Hurting it to find the book and prevent more of its kind or something worst out is a far better alternative in not doing it is allowing for the chance of one of them swallowing Ian's soul. It is a matter of perspective."

A shiver went through her as in her mind's eye saw a grotesque vision of Ian being possessed by one of those abominations. She had seen the last one Freddie had tracked down and it looked like something out of someone's worst nightmare. She took a breath and pushed the image out of her head so she could asked, "So, you sent the thing back after you were done?"

"No, Dusty smite—smote it. Smote is the past tense of smite, right?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

He softly chuckled, "Anyway, it's not coming back and it's not going to be able to warn anybody that we're the one that got to ask the questions."

She rubbed her forehead. "That's a relief. You're already on the top of their kill list." She looked up and continued, "What about the girl? Is she okay?"

"Yeah. We dropped her off at home. It was pretty traumatic for her, but she was grateful for us not just getting it out of her, but killing it… she's probably going to be in therapy for a long time…"

"You mean a strait-jacket if she tells a shrink the truth… then the rubber room."

"I don't know what else to do to help her. Maybe Dusty knows someone she could talk to that's been through that sort of thing. I don't know."

She nodded and a silence fell between them, neither sure how to slip into another conversation after talking about torturing a demon and the traumatic experience of being possessed by one. Jade glanced down at the kitchen island and hesitantly brought up, "Ian was disappointed that you weren't here before he went to bed."

"Sorry, I'll check on him."

He got up from the stool and headed upstairs without another word. She let her eyes follow him towards and up the stairs and she didn't realize a small smile formed on her face.

Freddie peaked inside the room to see the child peacefully asleep. Ira had climbed on the bed at some point during the night to snuggle close to the child and Ian had wrapped an arm around the back of the 'dog's' neck to use as a Teddy Bear. Ira lifted his head up when he sensed more light spilling into the bedroom.

Freddie patted the dog's head as he knelt down beside the bed. "Shhh Ira. I'm just checking on him before I head for bed."

The child stirred and opened his eyes while smacking his lips, "Jadey?" He took a few seconds to focus his eyes and recognize Freddie. He softly murmured, "I thought you'd be back before I went to bed?"

He apologetically whispered, "Sorry little guy, I just… I just had to take care of some grown up business. It took longer than I thought. I'll make sure I'm home tomorrow night to read you a story."

Ian nodded his head and yawned then snuggled his head back into the pillow. He brushed over the child's head with the palm of his hand and stood up. He turned to head back out, but was stopped when he saw that Jade was standing at the threshold of the bedroom. He paused for a moment to see her, really see her as he had been more focused on updating her with what had happened than paying attention to her physical appearance.

She may have still had her green highlights in her hair, but she was free of her makeup and facial jewelry. She wore a simple tank top and sweatpants. She looked… natural and beautiful—though she had always been to his eyes.

He smiled… and unexpectedly felt a wave of nervousness go through him as if he was meeting Carly for the first time. He didn't notice that she was bashfully looking away as he cleared his throat then awkwardly commented, "Well, it's late and you two need to get a good night's sleeps. I'll see you in the morning."

He slipped past her resting her upper right arm and shoulder against the doorframe and the parted door.

Her right hand caught his left as he passed the threshold, stopping him in an instant to meet her eyes. She gently squeezed his hand and whispered, "You have a goodnight too."

He nodded then regretfully pulled away and she watch him head for his room. She cracked a soft smile then slipped into her room and closed and locked the door.

She walked to the foot of Ian's bed then slipped up behind Ian and pulled him close with a kiss to the crown of his head, willing to keep the monsters at bay. The child relaxed in the warm embrace of his mother…

Shay Apartment
Seattle, WA

The soft ringing from her PearPhone caused the Carly to stir from her sleep with a groan. She rolled over in bed to her nightstand to see her phone blinking a soft light. She pulled herself up and picked up her phone. She took a sharp breath from recognizing the number and tapped the accept button.

She quickly answered, "Freddie? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. I just wanted to update you."

She groaned out as she looked at her dresser clock, "At nearly one in the morning? Couldn't it wait until the morning?"

"This is one update I thought you'd want to hear: The book is still in L.A."

Carly shot up straight in her bed. "What?"

"The book is still here."

Carly nearly shouted to wake the entire apartment, "You found it?!"

"Not yet, but we captured a deadite a few hours and questioned it."

Her mouth dropped opened and whispered out in disbelief, "You interrogated one of them? You could actually do that to one of them?" The idea of holding one for any particular amount of time other hacking it to pieces or finding a way of driving it out was a completely foreign concept to her.

"Yeah, it wasn't much use though other than figuring out that some smart has control of the book."

"Someone's using the book? Someone knows how to use it without becoming a deadite?"

"Apparently."

"But you don't know where or who has the book?"

"No, it didn't know where the book was. Whoever has it knows how to use it and keeping the underlings in the dark to his or her plans."

"Are you sure? They aren't exactly the most truthful things."

"Yeah, we interrogated it pretty thoroughly."

"Where did you find it? There's a plan?"

"We found that it had taken over an employee at the Boomerang Theater, the theater that Jade's going to perform next weekend. It was just living the girl's life for some reason."

"Living her life?"

"Yeah."

Her brow knotted and she commented with a soft whine, "They don't do that."

"This one did under the orders of whoever is controlling the book. It's just not random violence and terror or releasing Dagon, there's something more to this."

"This is bigger than we thought. Do you need me and Sam to come down there?"

"No, not right now. I'm not sure what you could do in the meantime that we're not already doing…" He chuckled, "Already busting a few demonic heads and I'm sure Sam is busy with the ones up there."

"She certainly is. The local vampires have figured out that Ridgeway and everything around it for several blocks is off limits. Sam's on a kick on trying to clear out every nest in Seattle. She wants everything out there to be too afraid of coming to Seattle."

She heard him blow into the mouthpiece of his phone then he continued with a fearful voice, "Are you two cleaning out nests? By yourselves?"

"What's with the concern? We've handled nests fine before you left."

"Sorry. On Sunday Tori and Beck went by themselves to clear a nest without telling the rest of us and we showed up just in time to prevent them from being ambushed. There's been some tension recently between Jade and Tori and Tori feels she's having to pick up all the responsibilities of being a slayer even if it means doing things without Jade or the rest of us."

"Jade doesn't like being a slayer."

"Do you?"

Carly bowed her head and remained silent for a few seconds then reluctantly answered, "Not really."

"I guess Buffy screwed over a lot of people."

"It's not something I would have ever dreamed up in thinking I would ever have to deal with."

She heard his soft chuckle on the other end of the phone, "I understand that…"

"Yeah, but once the book is gone, you'll have your normal life back."

"No I won't… it doesn't change the fact that you're a Slayer and Sam's a Cambion. I'm not just going to sit on the sideline while you 'battle the forces of darkness'."

She quietly retorted, "I don't want to be a slayer for the rest of my life."

"I know and that's why you've got to make your own path free of all this mess just like Jade."

The pair separated by more than a thousand miles paused in silence.

Freddie broke the silence, "Just stay the safe and don't be reckless—please remind Sam of that. Just because she's the scariest thing in Seattle, that's not a license for her to be reckless."

The brunette Seattleite snorted a laugh, thankful for the distraction, "I won't… I'll keep Sam out of trouble."

"Good to know. Well, I think I've interrupted your sleep enough and it's an early morning for me too, 'night Carly."

"Goodnight Freddie. Be home soon."

His soft laugh brought a softer smile to her lips, "I'll try."

Mason Thornesmith Residence
Los Angeles, CA

Mason took a sip of the red liquid from his wine glass then looked to Eli with mild annoyance standing on the other side of his desk in his study. "You didn't learn anything from her?"

"We had to leave her behind. They killed half my people in less than a minute with metal weapons—metal, not wood. Freddie was just as strong as any of us and the other guy could toss us around like we were rag dolls. Are they slayers? I thought only girls were slayers?"

The record producer sat the glass down on his desk then walked around the heavy oak piece of furniture. "No they are not slayers, but they are just as dangerous or more so." He softly growled then commented, "No point in getting yourself killed… so they have the girl?"

"Yeah and the probably know where the book is by now."

Mason turned to his desk and pressed a button on his phone, "Chelsea, I want someone staked out at Jade's and Tori's houses right now. I want to know if anyone leaves either place."

Eli curiously asked, "Why are you putting someone at their houses?"

The music company owner patiently answered, pleasantly surprised that the abomination in front of him was actually thinking instead of just reacting, "Because if he knows where the book is located, then he's going to gather his friends to make sure he can retrieve the book and get out alive. Having two trained slayers as backup would be the most sensible thing to do."

The teenage vampire nodded his head and asked, "What if they get the book?"

"Then I'll just have to find a subtle way of getting it."

Sikowitz's Classroom
Hollywood Arts High School
Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Hollywood Art clique was gathered with the eccentric acting teacher in his classroom several minutes before the first class of the day. Freddie quickly explained what happened the previous night including revealing the regretful news about what happened it Eli.

Beck leaned back in one of the colorful chairs and slightly squinted his eyes. "So after you were done, you just killed it? We could have interrogated as long as we wanted."

Freddie snapped back, "Every minute we let it live or not exorcise it from her is another minute that it could torment her. We had to get the information quick—not just for her benefit, but with whatever the book will be used for. It didn't know where the book was or who had released it, just that whoever controlled the book knew the right spell to have it be under the command of who controlled the book."

Beck blew out an unnecessary breath and suggested, "Maybe Mason has the book? The thing was working at the theater."

Jade countered, "For reasons it didn't even know why it was told to perfectly mimic the woman's life for no one to be suspicious? Why would Mason plant a deadite in his own company?"

"Maybe he's run out of vampires to staff key positions? There are times where you'd want something more than just human. There could be more than one—maybe a dozen."

Jade pointed out what she thought was the biggest flaw in his argument, "And not let the thing know who the boss was? Counter-productive much?"

Tori quickly followed up, "It's not knowing that is the problem. This much doubt is dangerous. I don't think you should perform. Beck's right, we don't know how many more of them could be at the theater."

Jade gave her a cold stare, but patiently answered, "Tori, don't use this as an excuse to sabotage me. If you don't want to perform, that is your choice. Don't try to ruin it for me."

The brunette sat up in her chair and sharply retorted, "I don't want to sabotage you. I'm just concerned for you. I don't want something to happen to you. It can't be a coincidence that one of them was there and you're going to perform."

Beck countered, "Tori is not trying to sabotage you. She's just concern with your association with him…" He glanced to Freddie and softly finished, "…all your associations."

Freddie looked back at him with a slightly guarded expression. "Why are you looking at me?"

The vampire ran a hand over his mouth then hesitantly answered, "Maybe if you hadn't come to L.A., we wouldn't be worrying about this."

Jade was quick to the defense her house guest, "They didn't follow him, he followed them. We'd still be dealing with them whether Freddie was here or not."

Sikowitz blew out a breath and hesitantly suggested, "That's something we could debate endlessly, but the point is that I agree with Tori. I think you should reconsider performing. Maybe it's not safe to associate with Mister Thornesmith anymore."

The pale slayer gave the Watcher/her teacher a harsh glare and stated in a crisp voice, "Well it isn't your choice. I'm performing." She stood up and turned to leave while calling over her shoulder, "I'll be back for class… maybe."

Tori looked to Sikowitz with a worried and near desperate expression for help after Jade exited the classroom.

The acting teacher shook his head while Freddie pinched the bridge of his nose before following Jade out of the classroom.

Neutronium Records
Los Angeles, CA

Jade decided to skip Sikowitz's class and decided to do something productive: inform Mason about what happened last night and the potential threat. They may have labeled her a traitor for approaching him with what she wanted to reveal when they carried so many doubts, but it was a calculated risk and one where she didn't have much patience for their hypocrisy.

Freddie had decided to tag along and the pair was quickly escorted into the office.

Mason sat behind his desk and suppressed his own enthusiasm with the obvious news they were to deliver and asked with a fatherly concerned voice, "Jade, Freddie I got your message. What's the urgency?"

The future songstress quickly answered, "We found something out last night—well Freddie did."

The record owner narrowed his gaze and looked to Freddie and asked, "Found what?"

"One of your employees at the Boomerang Theater was possessed by a deadite. We questioned it thoroughly, but it didn't know who released it or why it was told to possess one of them."

Mason rested his laced fingered hands in front of his face and knotted his brow in annoyance. "I would have appreciated a call sooner."

"It was late—"

He looked to her with mild annoyance and disbelief, "Late? I'm a vampire."

She was sharp to return, "Well I'm not and I needed my sleep and you're active during the day."

Mason simply frowned in return and continued, "Do you still have her?"

The Seattleite answered in a guarded tone, "No, we took care of the demon and sent her home. She's shaken up, but relatively fine. It didn't really torment her. It was far more concern in not raising anyone's suspicions."

"I didn't think that was their typical M.O."

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow.

Mason smirked, "I'm old Mister Benson. I have learned a few things in my old age. May I ask you what you found out?"

He glanced over to Jade to see if he should reveal what they had learned—which wasn't much. "From her? Nothing, other than the demon was commanded to maintain the woman's life perfectly until told otherwise."

"By whom?"

"It didn't even know, but it must have been someone that knows what they're doing with the book. Plenty of people have accidentally released demons—on those around them, on themselves, but this person understands the book well enough not to be a victim of it."

Mason looked a little disbelieving as he inquired, "Is that possible? I thought the book was more of a cruel joke by demons to just get themselves released by some poor, unsuspecting soul."

"It usually is, but at some point it had to be written by worshipers of the demons and they were left alone. Whoever has the book right now might be one of them."

"A dark cult? They are always a pain in the arse." He shook his head then continued, "I'll have to increase security and use some of my… personal employees to sniff them out." He looked to Jade and finished, "I'd like you to have some security."

The dark curly haired teenager questioned, "Body guards?"

He nodded. "As heartless as this sounds, it is the truth: you are an investment to this company and I don't want one if these 'deadites' to have a lucky shot at you since you're associated with Mister Benson here."

Jade gave him a cold stare, bordering on looking to him as if he could be her next target. "You think this is because I'm friends with Freddie?"

"Why else would they be sniffing around the theater? Do they just like to see a good performance without paying?"

The dark beauty quickly answered, "I don't know, we don't know, but we're going to find out, but in the meantime—"

"In the meantime I hope you will maintain your level of caution as you assured me earlier and take the security detail I'll arrange for you."

Jade looked at him unconvinced, but Freddie whispered, "I think the security is a good idea."

She snapped her head and frowned. "I don't need a shadow that I could constantly trip over."

Freddie leaned over to whisper, "What about for Ian? You personally take him to his class at preschool, you're over there during your lunch and you personally pick him up from the classroom—he sleeps in your room. I know him having a shadow would be a stress off of you."

Jade still looked unconvinced as turned her gaze towards the record producer. "But will they be any use? Deadites aren't your average the mill demonic creature. They're as tough or tougher than demonic vampires without the stake weakness. They're pretty hard to put down especially if they don't know what their doing or freak out."

Mason crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. "Automatic weapons with consecrated bullets? I have survived for a very long time and know the tools of the trade. Yes, the bodyguards would be quite effective against anything that could come after you or your brother and they won't have the moral concern of struggling whether killing a possessed person verses the safety of your brother."

She looked to Freddie for his opinion or second opinion.

He nodded his head and answered, "I think it's a good idea."

The dark haired girl looked back to her boss and answered, "If you want to give me security then my mother and brother are a packaged deal with me, especially my brother."

He put on a soft smug expression and answered, "That's perfectly acceptable and now that is taken care of, let's look at this on a practical manner in defending ourselves against whoever has control of the book. Jade and her family will get security, but want about the theater?" He looked to Freddie and asked, "Could you ward the theater?"

"A public place is quite difficult to ward by its very nature."

Mason frowned. "Fine, the extra security will have to be enough to literally sniff them out, but finding the book would be the best solution. If there is anything I could do to help…"

The 'Promised One' continued, "We keep hitting the street for any word of where the book could be located or who could have it, but right now the deadite was our first and only lead at the moment."

Mason turned to his phone and spoke, "Well let me get on those security arrangements and let you get back to tracking that book down… except for Jade who I hope will be in the studio to finalize her song so she can start rehearsing either later tonight or tomorrow night."

"I'll be back here this afternoon after school…" She glanced to Freddie with the sudden dread of whether that was the right decision rather than go out with him to help track the book down.

Freddie however, dissuade those conflicted feelings, "She'll be right here to practice after school… which I think we should be getting back to. Sikowitz may overlook missing his class, but our last classes of the day may not."

Mason suppressed a smile at seeing Jade's relieved expression from Freddie's words, grateful for the support of Jade keeping her priorities straight. "I'll see you this afternoon to check on you, but in the meantime, I hope you two have a nice afternoon."

Jade waved as she turned, "Thanks."

Freddie politely nodded as he followed the slayer out.

The pair entered the elevator and Jade hesitantly gazed at her companion while the doors closed. "You don't trust him?"

Freddie glanced up at the spot in the ceiling he expected a camera then trusted that it didn't have an audio recorder as he answered, "I don't know him Jade."

"So it's not the vampire thing?"

"No. Having the book by anyone is dangerous that's why it needs to be destroyed, once and for all. Beck might have a point, but I'm not going to make the assumption either way. If I did… I'd just go ahead and kill him… along with Beck for just being a vampire. Someone having it now that can actually command the demons that are summoned, that's a whole new level of trouble that we've never have had to face and that is what has me concerned, not what that person is."

She softly breathed and nodded along with his words as they rode down silently.


Author's note: The tensions between them thicken and lines may have just started to be drawn…