A Bench Beside the Pond in the Park, Wednesday Night

[bitten_notshy]

It was dark by now, but one of the few advantages of recent events was that lack of light no longer posed a major bother for Jack. He'd slipped out of Ronan's house and gone on a long ramble through town that ended, for no particular reason, by the pond in the park. A few ducks as nocturnal as he was were still stirring, sleepily pecking at bits of

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[glacial_witch]

Karla wasn't drawn toward the sound of someone singing. Day like today, that was only to be expected. But that voice and that psychic scent--and what in the Darkness had changed in it? Karla couldn't tell, just knew it had changed--had her changing directions to track down the male who owned both.

"Kiss kiss," Karla said after Jack stopped communing to the duck. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes."

Speaking of, those eyes were running over him right now, assessing the damage. Whatever'd happened to him had been enough to send Emma running, after all.

[bitten_notshy]

"One for sore ears, too, I'm afraid," Jack said apologetically. He could carry a tune, but little more. "God, I'm glad you found me. I was waiting to call people until I could do it without song lyrics."

And she was getting a hug, just as much as Kate had. He was having a hugging kind of day.

He looked fine: A bit more muscular than he'd been a month before, if anything, and there was no lingering stiffness in his movements.

[glacial_witch]

Karla had no problem hugging him back--clinging, a little, if he didn't mind. She'd been worried, ever since getting Emma's mass text. So worried, she nearly risked a burning at the stake and Sebastien's wrath to visit anyway.

The fact that Emma would strip her shields and make her think she was a bug for a week was the only thing that stopped her from making that damn call.

"Nonsense," she said. "I'm glad to see you're all right. I was worried." The muscle, she attributed to flinging himself in the middle of a revolution. It was the change in his psychic scent that was confusing her still. "You don't look any worse for wear, though. I guess I owe some of the doctors and nurses in your time a few apologies."

[bitten_notshy]

"Ronan took care of some of the last of it, and it turns out I heal fast," Jack said, and there was only the tiniest bit of bitterness in his tone.

He'd let her cling for a moment before he went into the rest of the story.

[glacial_witch]

"Ronan got to help?" Karla protested, pouting a little even as she hugged him again. If he'd needed a bit of magical Healing, it meant he was playing a little loose with the details. "I told Emma I could be subtle if I needed to be!"

Which Jack would probably believe as much as Emma had.

"Are you really okay?" she asked, finally letting him go so she could look at him again. "What happened?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I know you can," Jack lied reassured her as he stepped back. "Ronan's accent blended more easily, and we knew we'd see you soon. I promise it wasn't personal."

Paris was delicate; there were sorcerers from at least three sides who very much wanted to get a better look at Jack, and a laser focus on Sebastien even before that. Having anyone from Fandom at all had been a risk.

He sighed. "There's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time. I might be a little bit cursed."

[glacial_witch]

His explanation soothed what ruffled feathers she'd had, and then his comment about a curse had her completely unable to focus on anything but that.

"Cursed?" she asked. "Cursed how?"

She was a witch, but cursing wasn't something Craft did.

[bitten_notshy]

"Er," Jack said, and looked out across the water and away from Karla. "... bitten by a werewolf."

It wasn't getting easier to say, just faster.

[glacial_witch]

"Unholy water
Sanguine addiction
Those silver bullets
A last blood benediction"

Karla blinked once or twice in surprise. Both because she'd never heard Type O Negative in her entire life (and couldn't identify the lines she'd sung if someone had asked), and because Jack's announcement whut.

"You were...does that mean...you?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Nobody knows!" Jack's voice was sharp, and he clenched and unclenched his fists before talking again. "Everyone says they think so, probably, I smell like wolf, but because they're meant to be extinct and the one that bit me was technically a ghost there's no way to be positive until I -- well, until I transform. Or don't, I suppose, unlikely as that seems."

He gave her a very controlled smile. "It has not been the very best week of my life."

[glacial_witch]

"I can imagine," Karla said, unfazed by his outburst. She offered him another hug instead. It probably wasn't the most helpful reaction, but it was all she had at the moment. Even if Jack was a werewolf, that didn't change how Karla felt about him. So, hugs it was.

"Umm..." Karla's gaze dropped to her feet. "Do you...I mean, you know I can sense stuff about people, right? I...you..."

Dancing around the subject wouldn't change anything. She took a deep breath, raised her eyes, and said, "Your psychic scent has changed. I noticed that before I even noticed your singing." It was hard not to add the instinctive, I'm sorry.

[bitten_notshy]

"And my psychic scent has changed," Jack said, as if adding to the previous inventory.

He'd give her the hug, but it was going to be accompanied by a long, quiet string of Czech profanity as Jack worked to get himself under control. When he was done with that:

"So. I have a month to figure out what the hell I do with this."

[glacial_witch]

On the bright side, now Karla knew some Czech words?

...Karla was not going to mention this as a 'bright side' to him. Not out loud, anyway.

"Do you want to tell me more about what happened?" she asked, gesturing to the bench. She had some magazines to deliver to Jono, but that could wait awhile. However long Jack needed.

"Darkness creeps in like a thief and offers no relief
Why are you shaking like a leaf
Come on, come talk to me

Ah, please talk to me
Won't you please talk to me
We can unlock this misery
Come on, come talk to me"

Karla was just going to sigh, now.

[bitten_notshy]

One of the advantages of Jack's education was that he could curse in a great many languages, true.

"I suppose it's an interesting story," he said, shrugging and settling in on the bench. "Let's see how far I make it without bursting into song. Anyhow, so when we got to Paris Sebastien managed to get us a meeting with the prime minister to negotiate for official support of the revolution."

His tone went dry. "Don de Ulloa had forgotten to mention he was a French national hero -- one known to be wampyr -- a hundred and some years back. Apparently he didn't think it relevant."

Jack was still (and likely always would be) miffed with Sebastien on that point.

[glacial_witch]

Best of luck with that 'not singing' thing, Jack.

"So, did that work for him or against him when it unexpectedly came out?" Karla asked wryly, tucking her knees up underneath her while she listened.

[bitten_notshy]

"Please allow me to introduce myself," Jack sang, in his best version of Sebastien's Spanish accent. (Which wasn't far off.) "I'm a man of wealth and taste. I've been around for a long, long year..."

He smiled. "The prime minister was quite excited to meet his boyhood hero. Don't ask me how they knew Sebastien wasn't lying, it didn't occur to me to ask at the time. Anyhow, so between that and the fact Doctor Garrett is both nobility and quite a notorious sorceress, he was willing to offer us a bargain. Government support if we killed the beast that had been taking three lives a month in Paris for well over a year."

He paused there, and glanced to see if she was following.