Right, back to the dark haired brooding ninja of bloodlust

HUGE EDIT...SORRY people...in timed order to avoid confusion...I've removed the Jay chapter until later, apologies.

In case anyone was wondering: this chapter comprises two days. Misako arrived roughly a day and a half later after Nya finished her shift...the same shift that she had seen Jay.

So the latter part of this chapter alludes to the fact that it's now almost three days. Five in total since he's been missing...

Oh, cos, I'm a child that grew up in the 80's baby, I wrote this to Alphaville and their song Forever young. For the feels mostly, but then a vampire, never ages, so it just kinda stuck.

Thanks to RandomDragon, BunnyTheNinja and Master of Cupcakes XD


Saturday evening flashback

Location: Donald's home

Cole had woken up at sun down. And since that time, he had been trying to make it up to Lloyd that he would do all in his power to find clues pertaining to Jay. Furthermore, he'd promised to keep his fangs away from everyone in between.

The master of energy had accepted, begrudgingly, though with Zane acting as the mediator, he soon accepted and chose to wear a garlic necklace, as some sort or strategic deterrent.

The awkward meeting was further interrupted by the appearance of Misako, for she had walked in and thrown her arms around her son with such vigour Cole was sure she'd have tried to crush the garlic cloves too. Lloyd still hadn't managed to tell her the reason he was favouring wearing the smelly onion, she had questioned it though. He even had it under his pillow, in case his mother took it off him as he slept.

Moving on from that, he had spent the night before with Star as well, though she still hadn't fully told him anything of real value. Just the same old "I can't tell you," nonsense. And the obligatory type of relations that you would expect with two young lovers. So, since getting back at 5am that morning, Cole had been sleeping. It was true, he adapted well to this whole sleeping during the day, like a pro.

He was so good at it that Kai thought, if Cole could control his cravings, that maybe he could consider applying for a night job. But the earth master quickly shrugged the idea off because, still being in the honeymoon period with Star, he was with her as much as he could be, strangely enough not just for closeness. This being, when he wasn't out dozing in the car whilst Zane, Lloyd and Nya continued to look for any clues.

They hadn't found anything at the video store either. It turned out to be 'cleaner than clean' which was dubious, even the tax forms were up to date and the accounting was spot on. Zane had noted the odd few late videos and customers who had refused to pay the fines, but nothing on the owner nor his staff. They were clean, the store was clean, the only thing that wasn't clean, were the signs of breaking and entry, which Zane had to repair in super quick time to avoid any local security being made aware of their illegal entry.

That had been a long night and another dead end, but these leads were being ticked off, slowly but surely.


Sunday evening

Location: seating area Donald's home

"Who would like garlic bread to go with their chilli tonight?" Misako called from the kitchen.

A few groans could be heard from the living room. "Yes, uh Mom," Lloyd said, almost too quickly, His eagerness to fill his system with as much garlic as possible was making him a difficult person to sit next to, let alone sleep in the same room as.

"You really like your garlic don't you Lloyd?" Misako smiled, shaking her head, "Just like your father too, he was a connoisseur for the stronger tastes. Though, I rather think he favoured wasabi and garlic fried rice."

It was Misako's second night here, though she insisted on causing no trouble to their current sleeping arrangements, she had chosen to shack up in the local motel. She wanted to feel worthwhile and that she wasn't being a hindrance to Donalds' already 'fit to bursting' abode. So she had joined Zane and Donald in the kitchen. Taking her individual place at the only work surface that still had untouched ingredients. She knew from experience that Zane worked to a certain timed perfection. So, typically, he was measuring and dicing the salad and dip sticks for the meal. Amazingly, they were all the same size. The blonde haired guy was a complete perfectionist, OCD with it too.

"What about you two, will you be eating with us tonight?" She asked, poking her head round the corner, baguette and buttered knife in hand. "Nya, you look a bit peaky."

"Can I help at all," Nya said standing up, feeling lost. "I need something to do." Rather than wait for an answer, she padded her way into the large kitchen with any plates and scattered crockery she could find.

"Of course," Misako beamed, never one to turn down an offer of help. Cooking for this many ravenous eaters required a considerable amount of time, money and food.

Kai watched her go, he could see the pain in Nya's eyes...He knew she wasn't letting go, this was despite him and Zane speaking to her, to state that it may have been her mind playing tricks on her, to help her through the grieving process of which they were all slowly travelling through with varied levels of heartbreak and depression.

"I'll have a small bit Misako, uh please," Kai said, turning quickly to face her, "no garlic bread though,"

"So uh, Cole," Kai turned to face his brother who now seemed to favour sunglasses in the house as his new fashion accessory, his laid back attitude didn't seem to be grating on the fire ninja anymore. Though the spiky haired young man was starting to see the appeal of sunglasses, his eyes were irritated by something. He wasn't sure if it was the garlic bread that Donald was cooking or the fact that Misako who had arrived a few hours ago seemed to wreak of lavender parfum.

"You realise it's mid evening, you don't need to wear those now do ya?" Lloyd said as he sat opposite Cole with his garlic medallion necklace.

Kai moved closer, "you know these guys you hang around with?"

Cole grinned, "David, Dwayne, Paul and Marko?" He said, turning his abnormally pale face to view Kai's own.

"Yeah them," Kai said quietly, "Don't suppose they know where Jay is do they?" He asked, just throwing it out there to see if Cole would reveal any huge clues.

"David rarely speaks, Dwayne brags, Marko moans but..." he paused, "-Paul mentioned some stuff about a group of girls he goes to see."

"I don't suppose you know the address?" Kai said, "-would be quite handy if you could somehow pry that information from him or even your girlfriend, if she knows?"

"I could ask, supposed to be going there later anyway," he made the mistake of taking a deep breath in. The smell was almost too much to bear and Cole stood abruptly. He crinkled his face with the pungent stench of garlic that was attacking him from all sides, though it wasn't bad enough to warrant him barfing on Kai, he was certainly close to it, so he made his way across to the main front doors.

"You're going now?" Kai quizzed, a frown apparent.

"You're not eating with us Cole?" Misako asked with a concerned glance. She hadn't seen him eat anything at all.

It was for want of trying either, Cole hadn't eaten anything substantial since Jay had vanished. He simply couldn't stomach it, the thought gave him stomach cramps. Nibbling on saltine's seem to help but even that foodstuff wasn't giving him the sustenance he needed. "No," he turned to look back at Kai before looking at Misako. "Sorry, I've got a prior engagement to attend to," he said, as politely as he could without offending. "Maybe later, save me some?" He suggested.

He opened the door and, to Cole's surprise, a man was standing there on the door mat. This older looking man had a definite shifty look about him. Though Cole noted him to be dressed like a middle aged man who was trying too hard to be 'in with the cool gang'.

"Who are you?" Cole asked, grabbing his jacket from the coat and hat stand to his right.

"My name's Max, I'm the owner from the video store," He stated and stood back respectfully.

"You're lucky it wasn't Kai who answered the door, he'd have pummelled you, after yesterday."

"I came to apologise for my staff's behaviour," he said in response. Choosing to ignore the perceived threat, "I hear she was less than helpful."

"You could say that, yeah," Cole had stepped fully outside and had closed the door behind him, not even allowing Max entrance cross the threshold. "If you want to apologise, go for it. I've got somewhere I need to be." He growled, barging past Max as the latter just stood and stared after the angry black haired teen.


A few hours later and the brooding master of earth had arrived at the boardwalk, he'd chosen Jay's bike, it was faster. But more than that, he'd chosen it because he felt closer to Jay when he rode it. The thing oozed his style, his favourite colour, lightning bolts, even his initials. It was his pride and joy, seconded only by his girlfriend, the love of his life. Then there was the jacket he'd come home in. Though it was Jay's, it hadn't left his bed. The master of earth had it next to his pillow for some form of security blanket.

Furthermore, he didn't want to talk to Nya... And, to be fair, she hadn't spoken to him. Just moments of civility and the odd greeting to make each other aware that they still existed. Then there was that heart wrenching feeling that he didn't want to admit that Nya might have made it up in her state of denial. Truthfully, he didn't want to admit that Jay was dead because that would be in acceptance of it and in accepting it, Cole knew that he himself would be be solely to blame.

He would be to blame for his best friends death.

It had been almost a full week and the more that time passed, the more resentful he became of David. He knew he was being lied to, even Star was keeping things from him and that was something he didn't like.


If it was even possible, Cole was seething now. He was absolutely furious when he had barged past the queue to the carousel where he could see David and the guys with smug grins on their faces.

Walking down to them, he grabbed the smallest first and yanked the startled Marko back.

"Hey, whoa," Marko grumbled, straightening himself up, clicking his neck in some macho style.

Cole had done it for a reason. Mainly, so he could be face to face with David, the so called leader of this gang. "Where is Jay?" Cole snarled, with a vicious repose as he grabbed hold of David's leather lapels from his long black trench coat.

"I know you guys know something about Jay," He turned his gaze to Paul, "you know something about him, dontcha?"

Cole had just travelled to the cave, expecting to see Star because, though she didn't want to divulge what Cole might be, she had been hinting at knowing more about Jay's disappearance, alluding to the fact that, again, these were more secrets she couldn't tell him. Her previous vagueness in answering questions gave him no reason to suspect that Jay was anything but alive.

Until now!

Star's disappearance was a mystery. She lived with these guys, in a filthy cave, they obviously had something to do with it. And the more he thought about it, they probably knew about Jay too.

"Where is she?" Cole growled, his grip on David's coat was strong.

David called off the pack of hounds, otherwise known as his brothers with a simple flick of his hand. He didn't attempt to pry Cole's hands off him either, though he could have done so quite easily had he needed to. Instead, David looked at him with a wicked smile, and blew the mouthed cigarette smoke in Cole's face.

The anger was further exacerbated in Cole's eyes with the appearance of a grin and the subsequent sound of sardonic laughter coming from David's smug face.

"WHERE'S STAR?" Cole repeated louder, now in Davids face. He was close enough to see the swirling calculating, blue of David's eyes.

David pulled his arm upwards with ease, placing it condescendingly on Cole's shoulder. He laughed again, noting that Cole's gaze hadn't left his because the half vampire wanted answers. "Take it easy Cole."

Cole was aware that he was outnumbered, but his defiance won out and his bravado came back full force, allowing him to resume a tighter grip on David's coat lapel, "Where's Star, David?" He enunciated the latter quite clearly and there was a succinct level of vitriol with each short word spoken.

"Cole, you ever wanna see them again," he paused briefly and grasped Cole's jacket with both hands, pulling him forwards with each word spoken, "-you better come with us, right now!" He warned, none too subtly. The smile from his face dropped as he released Cole's jacket. David wasn't forcing him as such, but he was testing to see if he'd follow through with the second test.