Here is the next chapter. Hoping you're enjoying it still as, like I said in the previous A/N on this chapter (before I edited it), this is where my stories start to fail epically. Please enjoy :)
Disclaimer: Not mine, don't sue me
Whispering. Feather light touches. I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by a shroud of the dead. They'd seen my glow. I sighed, getting out of bed.
"I'm going to have a shower," I told them all, "if one of you even sticks a finger through the walls or door, I will banish you as far as I can. Got it?" I asked. The lot of them nodded, some with a look of fear on their faces.
Stepping out of the bathroom, most of the ghosts had disappeared, bored from waiting. I smirked; that was the plan. One girl had waited it out, though.
She had a yellow Minnie mouse nightie on and purple giraffe socks. Her blonde hair ran down her back, and her blue eyes sparkled out of her pale face. Her physical similarities immediately sprung into my mind. She was sitting on my bed, swinging her foot, watching me expectantly.
"Hi," I said, looking at her. She smiled.
"I knew it!" she exclaimed, "you can see me! I've got to tell Chloe!" she went to move, but the lessons Marie gave me came into play. When she found she couldn't move, and she frowned at me.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"Don't tell ANYONE I can see you, or any ghosts at all," I told her, "when the time comes I'll let them know. For now, this is secret," I warned her. A glint in my eyes made her back down from an argument.
We talked for a while, being alone and all, and I found out that her name was Liz. The Edison group had murdered her because she couldn't control her powers. She was a Volo half-demon, just like Juliet. I heard footsteps, and made a silence gesture. She nodded, fading into the wall. Rickie walked through the door.
"I thought I heard you talking to someone," he said wearily. I nearly smirked I finally had a use for Ethel (that thought made her yelp indignantly, but oh well).
"I was talking to Ethel," I said, using my innocent face. It worked, and he shrugged.
"Come down to breakfast; there's bacon," he ordered, stepping out of my way as I raced down the stairs, the delectable scent of bacon filling my nose and making my mouth water.
Derek sat at the kitchen table, chomping his way through a large plate of food. He looked up, a strange emotion flying through his eyes, before going back to eating. I soon joined him, plate piled high with food, and dug in. As I munched away, Jasmines quiet voice filled my mind.
They all fear you she whispered. I closed my eyes, entering my mindscape. The other… I suppose they're personalities now, aren't they? Anyway, the other personalities were mucking around, playing tag or whatever they do in their free time. Jasmine was standing right in front of where I landed.
What makes you say that? I asked her, just as quietly. She just… demanded quiet when one was around her. She shrugged, a secretive smile pulling at her lips.
I'm a Conscientia half-demon, she reminded me. Right, telepath. Got it.
Charlie? Derek entered my mindscape, blinking in surprise and looking around. His eyes found us.
What's happening here? He asked. I shrugged, looking to Jasmine.
Well, now you we're on even ground, Derek she teased lightly, and he looked confused before placing the voice.
You're the one who I spoke to he accused her. She shrugged dismissively, not admitting nor denying that fact. Derek furrowed his eyebrows.
Where are we? He asked. Juliet came up behind him.
You're in Charlie's subconscious mind space she told him, and he jumped. His eyes flicked between Juliet and Jasmine, confused.
And how did I get here? He asked suspiciously. She shrugged her shoulders.
I'm guessing you tried to contact Charlie whilst she was here, so her subconscious brought you to her. I don't know she admitted.
A loud, external noise snapped through my mind.
"Charlie!" it shouted. I winced, tugged roughly out of my mindscape along with Derek, who jumped at his sudden entrance to the physical realm.
"You were both spaced out…" Kit stated the obvious. Duh.
Don't tell him I warned Derek sharply. He'd stopped jumping at least.
Fine came the short reply. Typical.
But we will discuss this later he continued after a pause. Crap. Just when I thought I'd gotten off the hook, too. He gave me a stern glare, and I sighed. Damn he's persuasive.
Kit looked between us suspiciously.
"What's going on that I don't know about?" he asked, the suspiciousness in his gaze flowing into his voice. There's something they're not telling me Kit's voice flowed like a single strand of a spider web into my mind; it was all I could do to not jump in surprise.
"It's nothing; just a coincidence," I lied. I don't believe in coincidence.
~TIME JUMP~
"Alright, what did you not tell me?" Derek was hammering me with questions the moment we were alone. Rickie had gone out hunting, and the rest of the girls had gone shopping, Taking Lauren and Kit with them. I'd pled unwell, and due to my recent… incident, I was given reprieve from the torturous excursion. Derek was 'looking after' his packmate.
"You know about the Jasmine," I started, somewhat shaky. He nodded, scowling. He knew he was being intimidating, and I didn't appreciate it.
"She is the youngest of the half-demons. There are four," his eyes widened, "in my head, and a shaman and a necromancer." I ducked my head. Three, two, one I counted. On zero, he blew his top.
"FOUR half-demons!" he practically shouted. My head shot up, eyes narrowing. Alpha of this pack or not, I'm considered his senior until he completes the change.
He was standing in an aggressive position, stance wide and eyes locked glaringly onto mine. I growled a semi-full growl at the threat. He returned it readily.
"Back down, pup," I growled. It was full-throated, something he wouldn't be able to do until he completed his change. Seth, immediately realising his human's mistake, whined loud enough for Derek to hear, which brought him out of his moment of anger-induced stupidity. Although he was my alpha, he whined an apology and bared his throat in submission. Stepping forward, I bit it to show my acceptance of the atonement. He returned to a human mindset after that, although he was considerably subdued.
"Four," he repeated shakily. I nodded.
"And a necromancer and a shaman?" he repeated again. I nodded again. He sighed, running his hands down his face.
"So, what are their abilities?" he asked. This conversation seemed to involve a lot of questions. I sighed.
"Is there any way I could get out of telling you this?" I asked hopefully. He gave me a half-hearted glare and shook his head. I sighed again, resigned.
"Volo, Exhaustio, Tenubrae and Conscientia," I said, remembering the names easier than I thought I would. He looked up at me with an annoyed expression that clearly said 'in English please'.
"Telekinetic, Fire, Darkness and Telepathic," I mumbled.
"And a shaman and a necromancer," he whispered under his breath, trying to grasp all this. I didn't blame him; it overwhelmed me as well.
"Is that how Jasmine was able to come forward?" he asked tiredly. I nodded.
"Yep," I muttered. All the eyes in my head were on my subconscious figure, and just when I thought it couldn't get any more awkward, it did.
"Hey Charlie," said Liz, appearing from nowhere. I literally fell off my chair, startling Derek and causing Liz to start laughing.
"Don't DO that!" I growled, annoyed. Derek looked at me, confusion painted on his face. I shrugged.
"The necromancer abilities kicked in when I blacked out; I'm talking to Liz," I explained. Liz looked at me like I was mad.
"I thought we weren't going to tell anybody?" she exclaimed, making threatening gestures at Derek.
"Whoah! Calm down, Liz; he's pack. He's allowed to know; he has to," I calmed her. She settled down, but still made the brush fly off the dresser and smack Derek in the back of the head. He rubbed it, scowling, as I tried – and failed – to stifle a laugh. Liz laughed full on, and soon we were both rolling around clutching our stomachs.
In my head, the rest of the girls were doing the same; they found it incredibly funny, seeing the big bad wolf silenced by a tiny pink brush. Then, Rickie walked in. He saw the brush on the floor, me laughing my head off and Derek scowling with his hand on the back of his head. He easily put the logical two and two together, and started laughing with me. Derek just growled half-heartedly, smirking a little. Our good mood was contagious.
"What… happened," asked Rickie between gasps of air, "that made… you throw the… brush at him?" Derek opened his mouth, but Jasmine quickly stepped forward and took control. My eyes turned an icy blue and she glared her best (which was very impressive) at him. He immediately banished all thoughts of what he was going to say, enraptured by the flaming, crystal blue. Jasmine stepped back, allowing me to the front of my mind.
Problem solved she said quietly. I nodded, smiling my thanks.
Hurry up and get out there before your body blacks out she hurried me. I raced to the front of my mind, making it just in time as I saw little black spots dance across my vision.
"We were talking and he annoyed me with his one word answers, so I threw the brush at him," I covered. I hated lying; Ethel whined at me for deceiving my mate, but Arabella started to explain the situation to her quietly and she piped down. Rickie seemed to be able to scent the lie, and his brow creased a little, barely noticeable, but he bought it.
The seconds ticked away in silence, which was getting to me. Jumping to my feet, I ran and got my Ipod from its charging dock and scrolled through the playlists. I selected one of the songs I always used to motivate myself. The slightly techno beginning was the only part of the song that I didn't particularly favour.
Every memory
Every angry thought of you
Makes me certain
What you took away from me
The lyrics played.
'Cause by breaking me
You have made a stronger person
You will see
The boys both spun their heads to me. They had picked up my hidden message. This one was mostly meant for Derek. He nodded, acknowledging my statement. He'd better believe it.
"What's that song called?" asked Rickie. I knew the title, artist and lyrics by heart.
"Broken by Nemesea," I said (A/N: I don't own the song; belongs to Nemesea). He nodded, storing it away.
The song switched; my playlist was on shuffle mode. The hard rock intro played nice and loud.
I'm so sick of me
Being sick of you
And the way you look
All the things you do
You drive me crazy
Drive me crazy
This was one of my favourite songs. Sick by Adelitas Way (A/N: don't own this one either). Awesome song. Derek listened to the lyrics, and a smirk worked its way onto his face. He looked at me, his smile wolfy. 'Uh oh' flashed briefly through my head just before I was tackled to the floor by a green eyed werewolf. The wind was knocked out of me momentarily as I took up the pack challenge. Play fights, scuffles like this, were not uncommon among packs. The song must've given Derek an idea that awakened his wolfy urges. I smirked, throwing him off with my legs and sitting across his stomach, holding his arms down.
He rolled over, pinning me, and my knee connected to his stomach hard enough to knock the air from him but not enough to hurt him. His grip loosened slightly, but that was all I needed. I flipped us again, me on top, using my legs to restrain his this time. My arm, unfortunately, was too close to his mouth, and he bit me gently. I yelped, and he took advantage and threw me off. I was tossed halfway across the room, landing in a crouched position, and turned to face Derek, who was mirroring me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rickie watching on it fear.
I smiled a sharp, predatory smile, my teeth elongating ever so slightly. Derek copied, his teeth the same. At the same moment, we launched ourselves to the centre of the room, colliding with a bang and falling to the floor, scrabbling around, trying to find a purchase on the each other that would give us an advantage. Rickie slipped from the room as two cars pulled up and footsteps entered the house. We were having too much fun to care.
The door to our bedroom was open, and as the rest of the 'pack' filed upstairs, they heard the play-fight and came to investigate. Of course, they all got the wrong idea. Lauren, of course, had a different wrong idea, but they all still had the wrong idea. We stopped, separating slightly, flushed from the excitement of the game and panting from exertion.
"Ugh, shut the door!" shrieked Tory, covering her eyes. Chloe looked on open-mouthed, her face going red. I looked down at my own clothes, and then at Derek's, and saw why; our shirts were little more than pieces of shredded fabric. He grinned at me, and I returned it. Our teeth were still sharp.
"I told you they were dangerous!" shouted Lauren over the muttering. Everyone looked at her.
"Fulfilling teenage urges is hardly dangerous, Lau-" he didn't even get to finish the sentence.
"They aren't fulfilling their 'teenage urges', as you put it; they fighting like wild dogs!" she shrieked, voice getting higher and louder each time she spoke. Derek rolled his eyes, turning his back to the group and grabbing a shirt for each of us out of our respective drawers, tossing mine to me over his shoulder. We both changed shirts, everyone looking on with jaws on the floor as we both stripped in front of them. Simon and Chloe both looked jealous.
"First off," I growled, "we weren't doing any of those things; we were playing," they looked at me blankly. I growled again, and Lauren jumped.
"You've seen actual wolf cubs in a real pack play fighting, right?" there were nods all 'round.
"We werewolves are exactly the same. This is what we do for fun, rather than throwing a ball or something," I explained slowly, like talking to someone who was slow, bearing my still sharper teeth. "Our clothes were torn because, well…" I laughed slightly, and Derek smiled.
"Packs don't really care, and neither do we. Make sense?" I asked, in a tone that you didn't want to say no to. Everyone nodded, and Chloe and Simon looked relieved. Lauren looked suspicious. I huffed in annoyance.
"We weren't doing anything that isn't socially acceptable. Can you get out of the door now so I can go to the kitchen? I'm hungry."
They moved out of the way, and I stalked down to the kitchen. Right now, I wanted meat. I grabbed a half-eaten burger off the tabletop and took it outside, chomping into it with relish. From somewhere in the house, I could hear Simon going off at Tori. Apparently, she stole his hamburger.
I've successfully done that. Is it any good? Thanks for reading, please review. The usual post-chapter A/N's.
~PiptheSnake~