'So,' I said. 'Seems you're going to be stuck with me for a while'. He smiled. A real smile that lit up his whole face.

'Good,' he said. He pulled me against him. Then he bent down, breath warming my lips. My pulse was racing so fast I could barely breathe. I was sure he'd stop again and I tensed, waiting for that hesitation, stomach twisting. His lips touched mine, and still I kept waiting for him to pull back. His lips pressed against mine, then parted. And he kissed me. Really kissed me—arms tightening around me, mouth moving against mine, firm, like he'd made up his mind that this was what he wanted and he wasn't backing down again. I slid my arms around his neck. His tightened around me and he scooped me up, lifting me off my feet, kissing me like he was never going to stop, and I kissed him back the same way, like I didn't want him to ever stop.

It was a perfect moment, one where nothing else mattered. All I could feel was him. All I could taste was his kiss. All I could hear was the pounding of his heart. All I could think about was him, and how much I wanted this, and how incredibly lucky I was to get it, and how tight I was going to hold onto it. This was what I wanted. This guy. This life. This me. I was never getting my old life back, and I didn't care. I was happy. I was safe. I was right where I wanted to be.

Beckoning

Chapter 1

The next day I woke up with a big smile plastered across my face, just thinking about Derek got my heart racing and my lips curling into a big smile. I was sure I looked like a right fool, but I didn't care. All I cared about was the life I have now. Of course, we will go through some ups and downs, now that we're on the run-but I think, with the amazing people I am with now, we'll be able to get through it. All of us.

'What's up with you?' I jumped, then I turned towards the voice-ok maybe not all of us-it was Tori, her eyebrows were arched waiting for an answer.

'er-I-I-nothing'. I said quickly. Tori then looked at me, and then as if realizing something she smiled, a slow knowing smile, her eyes glinted with mischief.

'Your smiling because something happened yesterday? Hmm? Maybe you and Derek have finally...oh, I don't know? Kissed!'

'Tori!' I exclaimed. My cheeks were surely bright red now.

'What!' She asked innocently. 'So, tell me how'd it go?' I picked up my pillow and threw it at her. I laughed when it actually hit her right in the face; she just sat there on her bed for a full minute with her mouth gaped open like a gold fish-as if she couldn't believe I actually did that. Then she shook her head picked up the pillow and threw it back at me.

'Pillow fight!' next thing we knew Liz (our poltergeist friend) charged towards us, wielding quite a large pillow. Tori dove to her right seeing a floating pillow heading her way. I ducked for cover-it went on like this for awhile, until we heard a snort from the bed near Tori's. We turned towards the sound and saw that Aunt Lauren stirring from her sleep. We all tried to be quiet, stifling our giggles, but it was too late Aunt Lauren woke up and turned her head slowly towards us-and we all bursts into fits of laughter. Aunt Lauren just shook her head and smiled. She looked over at me and her smile widened.

We all headed downstairs to the little cafe across the street to have our breakfast. Liz said she wanted to wander around a little and will be back later. We headed for the biggest table at the back, which was partially hidden and near the window. Derek hung back, letting Simon, Kit, Aunt Lauren and Tori go in front of us.

Derek's hand brushed mine, making my heart speed. He looked down towards me and smiled. I blushed and smiled back. Aunt Lauren took the seat near the window and Tori sat next to her-they were chatting away about something. Simon sat opposite, next to his dad; they were both in some kind of discussion. When we approached the table Simon and Kit looked up, Simon smiled, I smiled back, and Kit looked a bit taken aback but recovered and said hi. I took the seat next to Tori, whilst Derek took the seat next to Simon. They both went into some guy discussion about something or the other. I turned to Tori and we spoke about normal things like the weather.

A tall, pretty waitress with micro mini skirt-which I thought should be violation of the law to wear in public places-sauntered towards us, chewing her gum loudly.

'What ya'll havin?' she asked mid chew, sounding bored. She scribbled our orders and stalked off-15 minutes later our orders were in front of us-and for the first time I was actually looking forward to digging in to a proper breakfast after weeks of granola bars.

'So where should we head first?' Simon asked Mr. Bae after taking another bite off his muffin.

'Well, we'll have to plan our trip, of course, but first we need to print those peoples' information out so that we know where we'll be heading and who to rescue'. Kit turned towards Tori. 'You still got that memory disk?' Tori put her toast down on the plate, wiped her hand on the paper napkin and reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a small disk.

'Yep.' She waved the red disk and smiled and handed it over to Kit.

'Good.' Kit then turned back to sipping his coffee and talking to Aunt Lauren, who was drinking her tea. It seems weird that we're going to try and rescue other subjects, who may or may not know that they were part of a major experiment.

After breakfast we headed to the nearest library to print off the information of the subjects' whereabouts. We then headed back to the Motel and sat around Kit, in the guys' room.

'It seems the closest area with another batch of subjects is in Ohio, Mount Vernon.' Kit announced after scrutinizing the sheet of paper, which we were all huddled around.

'Ohio, here we come!' Tori shouted without much enthusiasm.

'Well, we can pack up and go after dinner, we do need a little rest' Aunt Lauren suggested.

'Yes, your right.' Kit agreed nodding his head. So we all went off on our ways to pack up our essentials (the essentials we picked up this morning from the nearest dollar store, which sells everything from itchy, uncomfortable clothes to over powering-smelling toiletries) before dinner.

'Chloe?' I turned to Aunt Lauren who stood behind me looking all nervous. 'You ok with this? I mean, I know it's not the life any teenager asks for, but...'

'Aunt Lauren its fine. Am fine with it'. I said. She gave me a small smile and hugged me, then went back to packing her bag.

'Why do we have to buy these horrendous looking clothes-they don't even look like my size! These clothes will make me look like a runaway' Tori moaned holding up a very horrendous looking t-shirt.

'Er-Tori? We are runaways, plus fashion is so not the main thing to worry about now' I pointed out.

'I know but rescuing other supernatural whilst in rags doesn't really make us look like we're saving them, more like kidnapping them-and anyway if someone dressed in this' she shoved the t-shirt at my face 'comes up to me and says your a genetically modified supernatural, and you should come with us-I'd give them the finger and tell them to book a room in a nearby mental institute'.

'Hmm, you got a point'.

After we packed and had our dinner we checked out of the motel and climbed into the van (now cleaned up...a little), and set off to Ohio.