Hey guysa im back! i know your probably cursing my very being for taking so long i apologise this chapter is the longest one to date so i hope that makes you less inclined to shoot me. I'm trying to keep the updates at least semi regualr but as you can tell it aint happening i swaer i'll try and be quicker with the next chapter

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot... I wish i owned Jarrod though...pouts...

Reviewers:

Rhiannon Aurorafai: Thanx for the review. In answer to your question...Thomas could yeah but i'm not sure its in the way you think. I can't give too much away it'll spoil the plot. As for not liking him...well hes really a nice guy. Kinda. Sorta. As long as he keeps his hands off Kate... lol Jarrod might have some compitation! Hope you like the new chapter! Read on!

Midnight-Pixie: Thanx for the review. I tired to update when i gotback but i've changed this chapter so much it now no longer even remsembles anything like my orginial draft. However itis longer than the other chaptersand i do like this chapter hopefully you will to. Read on!

Fantasygirl721: Thanx for the review! Thanx for the heads up on my sentances. I've tried to improve it and i hope this chapter is better i can't promise anything though. Hope you like the new chapter read on!

Entertainedbygrass: Thanx for the review. That chapter was loads like Ever After i hadn't thought about it until your review but i hope u liked it all the same. As for Jarrod and KAte being together all i can say to that is all in good time. ;-) hope you like the new chapter read on!

Memories

Chapter Four: Jarrod

I had meant to wait for Kate in the cloakroom once I entered Ryan's house. This plan went down the drain as friends from school greeted me. I had hoped that my appearance would disguise me but my long hair caught me out and I had to stand and talk to them like I wanted too.

I found myself pulled into the main room and wished that I'd been more forceful and waited for Kate.

Where the hell was she anyway? I glance around and wished I'd never been talked into doing this. Why the hell did I let her talk me into letting her into coming alone?

I didn't pretend to not to know why she had insisted on it. Of course I knew. She wanted to prove a point to all those she went to school with but coming alone didn't prove that.

Just coming proved that. Damn her and her pride. I knew Kate, she'd be terrified approaching the house but of course she'd never tell anyone that. I shook my head.

I'd been in there about half an hour and talking to people with an enthusiasm I didn't have. I kept glancing at the door and people kept coming in but they weren't Kate.

I frowned where was she? I glanced around again wishing again that I'd never been talked into this. I glance at my watch and bite my lip. I know she should have been here by now. Even if she was stalling, even if she was talking the smallest, slowest steps she could take she should have been here now.

Had she stood me up? Anger began to take hold of me filling my senses and masking my thoughts before I realise just what it is I'm thinking.

Thinking that Kate had stood me up was just beyond stupid. It was totally ridiculous. Such thoughts did not even cross her mind. She would not do that to me.

As I began to see sense the anger, that had no right to be there in the first place, drained away but began to be replaced almost immediately with panic.

What if she'd had another vision? My mind was telling me that she'd have called me. But my panic was beginning to take over and I wondered if she had would she have been able to call me.

Real terror began to take over and I made my way back towards the doors with the intent of going and finding her. Even if she was just too scared to go in that was fine.

But I had to know she was ok. She should have been here by now. I was pushing through the ever-increasing crowd. Who knew that Ryan's house was this big? When everything jus seemed to stop.

Everyone was looking behind me. I'd turned because someone had shouted me and then seeing everyone was looking at something I couldn't see I turned round.

My breath caught in my throat.

Whispers broke out round me but I paid them no attention. My gaze was fixed at the top of the stairs.

Kate was stood in the doorway and in that moment I couldn't find a word to describe how beautiful she looked. She was beyond beautiful she looked absolutely stunning.

And she looked nothing like the Kate I knew to be underneath. She was wearing the dress she had told me she was going to wear but Jillian must have altered it because it looked the same and yet it looked totally different.

Her hair was swept up into an elegant twist and she was wearing a mask covering most of her face but I knew it was Kate. It was in the way she stood.

She had no idea how beautiful she looked. She was still the same awkward Kate underneath and that made me want to smile and frown at the same time. Because she was the same Kate I had come to know and respect but she had no idea how beautiful she was and that was because of the people around me.

I started to make my way to the stairs to meet her as the whispers swirled around me. No one knew who she was and I had no intention of letting them in on the secret.

That was my secret. And she was also my date.

I was about to ascend the stairs when I realised that Kate was with someone. Or rather this someone was talking to Kate and Kate was trying her best not to look baffled.

I wasn't sure how I knew she was baffled; I guess being around her so much meant that I was aware of what she did and how she acted in certain situations.

This situation was a dead give away since she felt out of place and out of her depth.

I looked closely at the guy, yes it was a guy, and yes I was jealous. Jealous as hell in fact but I was trying not to think about it. Kate didn't belong to me. I wished she did but she didn't and so I had no right to feel jealous.

That didn't mean I didn't though.

Kate was my friend, she was more than that, at least I wanted her to be but of course she knew nothing of this and was totally oblivious to the fact I wanted t be more than friends.

The guy was Thomas Clay one of the guys that knocked about with Pecks and Tasha and I wondered what the hell he was doing talking to Kate. He'd never paid her a second glance before.

And then it occurred to me that he probably didn't know it was Kate. She looked totally different and totally stunning, not that she didn't to me anyway.

Oh jeez have you heard me? I sound like some lovesick puppy. Jeez! The point is that I want for from Kate than I believe she is willing to give and seeing her talking to another guy made me really jealous.

It was stupid really because I knew Kate knew nothing of this and I could tell from the way she was talking that she wanted some support. And once again I wished I'd waited where I told her I would.

"Hey Thomas you trying to steal my date?" I asked a pointed look in his direction. I expected his face to drop and he to be in absolute shock at whom he was talking to but instead I was the one who got the shock as he said, "What if I was?"

Kate and I stared at him. "Excuse you?" Kate asked in a voice I had hoped she would never find an excuse to use on me.

Thomas turned and smiled, "Come on Kate I knew it was you the entire time you were talking to me. Do you think I was that dense?"

"You've never had a word to say to me before." Kate said her eyes narrowing through her mask. "What the hell has possessed you to want to now?"

I'd never heard speak like this. To be honest I was never sure she would ever have it in her. She had never said anything to any of them before.

Thomas lifted his eyebrows as though he was impressed with her speech. "Even if I had wanted to say a word to you before you would never have let me Kate. Come on I mean you aren't exactly our best fans."

That seemed to bring Kate round. And she said, "No I'm not. I came with Jarrod I will leave with Jarrod and if you want to be my date you can do what he did and ask me instead of just assuming."

Then she turned to me and smiled. "Hey." "Hey," I smiled and then said, "Later Clay." And took her arm and walked her down the steps into the dance.

At that moment a slow song graced us with its presence and the entire party slowed down. "Wanna dance?" I asked.

Kate seemed to have morphed back into her shy, self-conscious self because she looked at the ceiling, anywhere but me really and then shrugged and said, "Yeah, if you don't mind."

I smiled and shook my head. I put my arms round her waist and force her to come in closer. She looked awkward for a moment and then she put her arms round my neck and smiled at me.

"There." I whispered in her ear. "That wasn't so scary was it?" She smiled again and blushed.

We moved slowly around to the music and talked quietly about nothing. Nothing was easier than taking about something because something would bring us onto Kate's nightmare. And as much as I would have liked to go through the facts again I knew right now Kate simply wanted to forget it.

And right then I had to agree with her. Right then it really didn't matter. We were just like normal teenagers at a dance on a date.

Oh yeah, right.

Except of course it's not a date is it? We're friends and Kate wants nothing like that from me.

Okay so normal but not as normal as I would have liked it. That's cool. I can live with that. I'm with her and we're having a good time. That's all I'll ask for at the moment no more, no less.

I smiled at her and she moved a little closer. My heart jumped. She's going to kiss me I thought!

Yes, yes, yes!

Our faces were inches from each other and I only had to move my head and I would be kissing her…

But then there was an explosion like a gunshot and Kate's eyes went wide and she spun round.

"No. Not here, not now." She whispered.

I looked up at the top of the staircase.

"No." I whispered.

I could feel the magic ricocheting round the room and it wasn't the good kind that was I used to feeling around Kate and Jillian it was the black kind, the kind I had felt around Ranuk.

I gulped.

Then I realised Kate had disappeared. "Kate No!" I screamed as she ran towards the steps to meet the intruder's head on.

I tore after her.

I could hear her casting against the black magic encasing us and even as I barricaded my mind I could feel the magic clawing for purchase. They would not gain access.

I gathered all my magic to me in preparation to strike as I caught up with Kate. "KATE!" I screamed.

She didn't look back but a ball of white light hit the front intruder in the chest and he crumpled to the floor.

"Kate!" I yelled again casting a shield round myself as a ball of magic came flying at me. Even through my shield I felt the sheer evil in that magic. Kate was almost at the stairs now and I was too far away.

I kept running but now I was right under them and they were raining down balls of energy on me and I was having to block everyone in the room as well as myself.

The problem was they were screaming wanting to escape but not sure why. Kate and I were fighting a silent battle that only she and I could see.

These people were clever. They had hit us when we not only least expected it, but also least wanted an attack.

Kate was still ahead of me.

How in hell was she running in that dress?

In those heels?

I didn't know but however she was doing it she was managing quite easily. Why was I thinking about this now?

What I wanted to know was what the hell did she think she was doing?

Didn't our experience with Ranuk teach her anything? She knew we worked better as a team. As a team we were safer.

What was she playing at?

I needed to get to her and what's more I knew that the people around me where not safe so I thought of the strongest illusion I could think of and put all my heart into it and in seconds there was a black panther screaming amongst my class mates.

More screaming but thankfully the room was clearing.

What the hell was Kate playing at?

I found out a second later when the intruders swarmed round her and a ball of black light hit her in the chest and she catapulted off her feet and hit her head on the banister.

"KATE!" I screamed. She fell to the floor, she wasn't moving. My heart was in my throat. Oh god, Oh god, Oh god.

No, not after everything we've been through! I was fighting an oncoming tide of people and then I realised that the magic in the room was preventing me from getting to Kate. They were stopping me from making any progress, making me weaker.

They had not got into my mind but I realised they didn't need too. It was a distraction! All they wanted was Kate and I wanted to know why! What could Kate, really, possibly have done to them?

The dream….

This had to have something to do with that. I struggled against the flow of magic. It was so black and foul I could taste it on my tongue. I wanted to gag.

Kate! I called with my mind. I push against her mental barrier and feel nothing. No answer, No life.

"No!" I whisper.

I keep pushing and then, so small I almost miss it I feel a small burst of life. She has a pulse. She lives. My heart nearly bursts from my chest. Before I can celebrate anymore the intruders swarm around us.

I don't know what happened next really, oh I remember it, I remember it well I wish I didn't remember quite so well but I do.

I just have no idea what happened.

I'll try and explain it. They were dressed in black cloaks and masks and fuelled by strong magic. They positioned themselves round Kate and set black crystals around her still form and I watched in horror as a cage was formed from magic.

"No!" I screamed.

Everything seemed to go hazy then. I only seemed to have one objective. I didn't care about anything else other than Kate. I was outnumbered and caught in the crowd rushing to the stairs spurred by my illusion. But I didn't care.

I get thinking about it now, my illusion was useless the intruders were not there for my peers. They did not have to waste their energy in hurting them. they had come for one purpose and one purpose only.

I punched and snarled and threw any type of magic I could at them. I felt power rise from within me and it seemed to explode from within me and I had no control over what happened other than I knew I wanted Kate back.

Every time I seemed to flag I looked at the sickening black cage and I felt bile rise in my throat. Kate would never survive that and so I battled onwards. I found it got easier as my screaming peers left the room.

My panther had worked. Nothing was penetrating my brain properly all I could think about was getting to Kate.

I slashed, cursed, punched, snarled, parried and lunged but no matter how many I got through there was still more coming at me and in the end I ended up pinned to the floor twenty feet from where Kate lay.

I yelled at my attacker and I kicked and I screamed but they didn't move. Then my worst nightmare came true the doors blew open as if by a storm of my own making and a man came strutting in. He looked human, but the black magic surrounding him made me think he was anything but. I retched as the black magic hit me full force in the chest.

There was only Kate and I left in the room and the demon strutted past Kate noting the cage and nodded before walking towards me his black eyes full of triumph.

"Who are you?" I spat. He smiled. "I am Balthozar." I gagged. I had heard of Balthozar. When Kate and I had studied further into understanding our powers and the balance between good and evil.

And if Balthozar was here that that did not bode well.

For anyone.

He looked human. A guy about thirty dark hair and even darker hair about 6"2 in a black suit. But he wasn't. He wasn't human. He was something else entirely.

"What do you want?" I whispered. He laughed.

"I thought that would have been obvious." He motioned behind him to where Kate was guarded. As I looked she began to come round. "Kate!" I yelled. Balthozar punched me across the face.

"She is beyond your help now." Balthozar whispered. I knew he was probably right. I could never fight him off.

Not alone.

But I was never going to give up hope either.

"Jarrod?" Kate said in a quiet voice as if she was forcing herself to stay conscious and I guess she probably was.

"I'm here." I said aloud and with my mind. Her head turned painfully slowly at the sound of my voice and her light blue eyes caught my green ones. She tried to hide the pain but it radiated through her being.

But I knew she was hurting there was no way for her to hide it from me. I knew she was hurting and she knew it. And she knew it made me angry. Please don't get hurt. She whispered in my head.

But how could I just do nothing even with the odds I had when her life was in danger. I hadn't run from Ranuk when she had been in danger and I wouldn't run now.

"Good night Jarrod." Balthozar whispered.

With a swipe of his cloak he was gone and so was Kate.

I choked back a sob. I was alone and I had failed her.

Again.