A/N: Hey! So it has been a while but I'm back. Now while I was finishing the edits on this I was watching Peter Pan and I just wanted to share that! Let's see, I wanted to ask all of what you think about my writing. Do you think it's improved? Gotten worse? Please tell me, and also tell me what you think I could improve upon DON'T FORGET TO TELL ME IN A REVIEW! Anyway, on to the shout outs…

To readeatsleep, moon-called-princess(;D), Dawn War, Lulubelle09, FireflyDancer, ChumChumMizzyLover, SweetDreamzz3116, Bookninja15, Anna, Katie Black15, xxRUBYxx, and Sara thank you all for the reviews, you guys are all the most amazing people in the whole flip-a-dipping world!

murrey-2012:Thanks for the review! Derek will be coming back…well, why don't you just read and find out? Okay.

bookfreak9123: Thanks for the review! 1) Your list of reasons were very long…made me dizzy. 2) What if I said Chloe's missing memory wasn't just about Derek? 3) Astuliap is going to be mad at Chloe because of reasons that will be discovered later! 4) The plan was a very thought out idea that Chloe put into action with help from others. 5) Knowing Tori and Kit, do you think they will try to avoid Chloe's questions? Hmm, maybe. 6) Derek is doing really, really…not going to tell you! 7) Derek doesn't go after her because he doesn't know where she is, her scent stops off at the end of the road, how do you suppose he goes after her? 8) Maybe some kind of magic is keeping him away, not sure… (But of course I know what's keeping him away), 9) I can't answer that; you'll just have to read and find out. 10) Does Derek ever visit Chloe? No. 11) What about Cailey? 12) Does Cailey know about the wolves? No 12) Cailey's powers are…read closely, I think I've said it before. 13) Uh-no. 14) I think I answered all your questions if not than ask them again!

FireflyBlizzard: Thanks for the review! There might be some Derek in this…read on!

suzi1811: Thanks for the review! Your review made me laugh…keep being funny and guessing all my tricky-tricks!

BeachBallofLove: Thanks for the review! I know the Demi-demon deal is confusing but I think I really had to put it in, sorry! Derek and Chloe will meet soon, but if I have them meet right away then there would be no story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Darkest Powers.


(Jason Pov)

"Bro, you've really got to get up." Sam tried for the umpteenth time to get Lucas—uh, err, I mean Derek—into the house. I've got to admit that this whole Lucas-not-really-being-Lucas thing was creeping the bejeebers out of me. I mean, you think you know a man, like really know a man, and then he cracks the bomb on you and boom everything's different. Not to sound like a girl or anything but you just cant do that. Relationships are built on honesty…or some other crap like that.

"C'mon, man, let's go inside. My hairs all wet and if I stay out here any longer I'm going to be forced to shake it dry like a dog." This at least earned me a snort. And from Lucas—no, Derek—that was as close to a laugh as you could get when he's in a sketchy mood like this.

Really nothing new was happening; I had gotten April to call Sam after a few minutes of staring at Derek with my mouth hung open, catching flies, from his confession. Sam had come rushing over in his "artistic" car—really it was just a car with different pieces of his art spray painted on. So Sam got out of his car, he took one look at Derek, and he did this weird thing with his hands and I go flying back a few feet. Not that it hurt me, because it didn't, but I never knew he could do that. Yeah, Derek was forgetting to tell me a lot of things: his brother being a sorcerer was just one of the many.

"Derek, man, this whole situation is scaring the hell out of me," I said not trying to make light of the situation. "It's making me go insane. But I'm still your Beta and I care about you, man. So right now I'm strongly suggesting that you get up and walk your ass inside."

Sam gave me a once over. I didn't like the way he was suddenly looking at me. Like he thought this whole thing was my fault. Which, to some degree, I could say that this thing was my fault. Derek did get a whiff of this Demi-Chloe girl off of me. Mostly he got it off Cailey…but I'll take part in the blame for this. I told Sam that, too. I think that might have been partly why he eased up on the spells. I didn't try to pull the blame on someone else; I took responsibility for my actions.

So Sam, ever-so-graciously, allowed me to take the reins, doing the exact same thing he had done seconds before. I don't know if he thought I was going to do it better or what, but let me tell you, it didn't help anything. In the end we were still left outside, by the gravel filled, pot hole packed road, pissing our pants trying to get him to move.

So, taking a break while I waited for Derek to do…anything, I listened in on the people safely tucked away inside. I could hear the big mahogany grandfather clock go off, signaling the new hour. A few snores whistled softly, which was reasonable for this time of night, but a higher number of creaks, due to the constant movement of two-hundred plus pound werewolves, were going off around the house than usual. I could only guess that was because of Derek. Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats because the Alpha wasn't acting to standards. And when the Alpha started to act off, people freaked.

The amount of freaking out was probably also intensified here by about ten degrees because of past experiences. Something similar—using the term similar very loosely—happened to the last pack Alpha and that's how we lost him. It was just plain luck that we had found Derek before…

Well, let me just say, when a pack doesn't have a leader, things take a turn for the worse.

I zeroed back in on the house and allowed my acute hearing to drift me into different conversations. A tiny voice stood out from the rest. It would whisper words and laugh lightly, but I could hear the fear behind it all. The voices around it would croon and bend to its every word. Love filled the voices that soothed, but worries penetrated the last notes.

A scuffle of footsteps had me turning to look at the house. My body was held strong as I locked eyes with a little girl. Soft brown hair attached to a round face that jutted out with concern stared back at me. Her lips formed words so soft that they could have been mistaken as the wind blowing. She said, "Daddy, please come back."

I feared that her plea would be passed over with out a second glance. Derek was so completely consumed with his other problems that the world had faded black to him.

That was why when I heard the rough voice of my leader speak up, I was surprised. The words were low, barley comprehendible, a replica of his daughters. Lowly and maybe only to himself, he growled out, "I'm going."

Sam scuttled back over to my side hearing what he questioned might actually be his brother speaking up after such a long silence. He had left to pace the edge of the forest, muttering words and kicking balls of dirt. Derek was still crouched down, but now he had his head held high. His eyes had a faint hint of redness and his face was caked with dirt. He was transfixed on the window that Cailey had just stood at, his body turned to the side to allow him a better view. Though occupied by his thoughts and incessant searching of the window for whatever he was so expectant to find, his left hand absently traced pictures into the dusty old dirt road.

His face ashen white, he kept searching the window. Sam, as the go-happy optimistic guy he was, was taking the movement of him drawling and turning it into a "good sign." Apparently if Derek is drawling than, wooop-di-do, the world was going to be alright after all. I on the other hand, knew better. In one of the metal health books April checked out from the library, I had read a passage clearly stating that you can draw, write, and even sometimes talk while not being in a completely mentally stable state of mind. Its just like sleep-walking, its possible to drive while sleeping, talk to another person while sleeping, or make yourself a sandwich all while sleeping; that meant it was very possible that Derek was drawling while still in the sort of depression type condition.

I tried to get this through Sam's thick head but he was just as stubborn as Derek and he refused to listen. So, instead of giving up like we both should of a little more than a millennia ago, we sat talking to each other, sometimes to Derek, and came up with our own decipherings of the dirt drawn picture.

"Maybe it's a sign or logo," Sam suggested, "The heart could be the pattern and the S could be a brand name…"

I stared at him dumbfounded. The picture that Derek had drawn, and was now retracing, was a heart with four arrows through it at and right smack dab in the middle of it all was a capitol "S". I didn't seem very likely to me that the Alpha of the Syracuse pack would draw anything in the dirt except maybe an escape plan, defiantly nothing as simple and, let's face it, stupid as a logo with a heart in it. "What brand, Sam? Because, I don't know about you, but I've never in my entire life seen a brand name that looked like this."

Sam shrugged, trying to act all nonchalant, his voice low and face downward watching Derek's moving hand he muttered, "I don't know…"

"No, no, I've got it! I'll bet you have a million dollars it means Superman! Derek always did love watching those reruns with Cailey. Right Derek? That's what your drawling, Superman."

Sam didn't respond to my comment. For minutes it was quite. The wind blew, rain poured, dirt was turning to mud as the puddles grew larger. In a matter of hours this little sprinkle was going to be turning into as full blown storm. But maybe with a little more rain I could get the dirt from my face and cloths.

Out of sheer boredom I started to puff my cheeks in and out. With my right hand I stirred the dirt around, mixing it together. Swipe, I smear the dirt under my eyes giving me the macho-tough quarter back look. Swipe swipe, I took two more swabs of dirt and rubbed them down my cheeks.

"So you found out?"

I looked up. "About what?" I knew what he meant. About Lucas being Derek. Yes, I knew all about that, all about the little lying game he'd been playing.

"About Derek." It didn't make sense that he would lie to me, to our whole pack. Why would he have to any way, we could be trusted…at least most of us could. Travis might let it slip accidentally; he wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

"Uh-yeah. He told me."

Sam huffed loudly. "That's just like him. He'll get on me about it everyday, 'don't tell anyone,' 'don't forget,' then he goes and blows it himself. You hear that Derek? This time it's your fault."

I really didn't know what to say to that. Every time I had seen the two brothers together they were playing around, two happy guys joking, kidding. Never had I seen them mad at each other—no, I take that back, I had seen Derek mad, Sam was the one that never got angry.

We spent that next five minutes silent again. The wind, picking up, had my head bobbing as it whistled in my ear and blew a gust rain. Water from the blow flew into my eyes rendering me blind for seconds that seemed too long. I raised my right hand to clear them and when I opened them slightly, peeking through the bottoms of my eyelashes, the symbol in the dirt was gone and Derek was rushing into the house, Sam throwing himself up, wobbling behind him.

Well, shit. What did I miss?


The inside of the house was warm and inviting. It cleared my head and shook my body with love, okay maybe that was an exaggeration, but it felt seriously good after being out in the that damn rain for so long. From the entrance where I was standing the house was lit brightly and sounds of voices pounded through the walls. With a flash of the eye I watched as Sam rounded the corner into the living room, then with a, thump-thump, bound up the stairs. His footsteps made my head ache more with each pound of the steps. I swear he has the loudest walk ever.

I whipped my head to the side, shaking water on a nearby picture frame and kicked off my shoes dirtying my hands with mud. My shirt was the next thing that went, leaving me to hope that my pants would soon follow—because they were wet, not for the other reason. Though, getting some action wouldn't be that bad. I had had a long day and I was already so close to the bedrooms… With a few words I could be locked away in a room, with the love of my life, living the paradise…

But it was wrong to be thinking that. My best friend just told me he was a different person and then he freaked and then he ran to go do who-knows-what…actually, maybe I do need some—no, stay focused.

I ran into the bathroom next to the biggest pantry of the house—altogether we had three. If I was quick I could make this a two-stop trip. With a speed faster than I knew I could attain, I washed my face with scolding hot water, dragged a towel from the cabinet to dry my face, and jogged to the room next door and grabbed five granola bars plus a Gatorade to extinguish my unforgivable stomach pains, and finished my great feat by scaling the stairs in under five seconds.

I followed the trail of scents to the room in the very far back; all while plowing down my granola and downing the Gatorade in two gulps. The door was painted royal blue from the top to the bottom and tiny stars hung from the doorframe, making the entrance look mystic and magical; a fitting response for the kid that lived inside of it.

A blast of emotions hit me as I strode through the door, causing me to stumble back exactly three and a half steps before rushing in again, with a curious head. Almost everyone was huddled in the large room around a small perimeter of ten feet. At the center of this all was Cailey, in her SpongeBob SquarePants nightgown, letting tears spill over her cheeks, squeezing a small cut.

Derek was next to her holding her shoulder with a grip so tight that it would have left finger prints on any regular human. His eyes were searching her face with wide eyes taking in her shaken form. She curled back against him, turning her face into his muscled chest and started to pool tears there instead. His immediate response was to pull her chin up and demand to know what happened.

It came out in a wavy curve of stutters and gasps but she managed to say, "I-I was w-watching…movies with April and D-Dale and …" She took another big gulp of air and restarted, "And I got up t-to see you and w-when I came back to the c-couch I tr-tripped over something a-and…" She let her words take a sudden drop as she clutched her arm to her chest.

Bree took a step out of the crowd, closer to Derek. Her lips were pressed into a tight line and wrinkles covered her forehead. Her expression showed just how much we all cared about Cailey.

"Lucas," Bree said, using his false name, not knowing his real identity, "When she tripped, her arm was cut on a piece of glass."

Lucas's head snapped up to Bree. She didn't cower back, she was part of the family, she was use to us wolves and our intimidating looks. "How," he growled while pulling Cailey a little closer to his body.

Her eyes dropped to the floor and she twisted her ankle around in a nervous way. She raised both of her eyebrows and opened her pink lips to start her explanation, but Colton—another pack brother—beat her to the chase.

"It was my fault," he confessed. He put his hand on Bree's shoulder and she stepped back into Dales waiting arms. She settled into his embrace and closed her eyes holding his hands to her heart.

"I was fooling around with Travis when I knocked into Bree," he shot Bree an invisible apology before adding, "she was cleaning at the time and when I bumped her she dropped that vase that Cailey made in first grade." Derek narrowed his eyes at him, waiting for more.

"Cailey heard the crash and came over to see what happened and when I tried to keep her from seeing, she pushed past me and tripped over my feet. She fell right into one of the pieces of glass and that happened." He pointed to the short gash just above Cailey's wrist.

Derek moved from his spot cradling Cailey, to having her laid down on the bed with her arm held out for him to see. He inspected her body listening in on her heart beat, feeling for bumps or bruises, until he came to his decision. He turned his head slightly, motioning for Sam, and said two things: "Get" and "Lauren."

Sam rushed out of the room, following orders from the person he had been so irritated at only minutes before, pushing past people and thudding down the stairs. I heard the door whoosh shut from downstairs, and then his loud pad of feet fumbling down the pathway to the little house behind the garden.

The room was silent until he came back. April shouldered her way to my side and took my hand, entwining her long fingers through mine, and stood completely motionless next to me. Derek and Cailey watched each other, Derek smoothing back her hair and Cailey holding on to his arm so she wouldn't loose him.

After a few minutes more of the same motions playing over, I heard the sounds of two people approaching the house and entering loudly. Being the Beta that I am, I could hear better than the rest of the pack, not as well as Derek, but good enough. So the whispered conversation going on between Sam and Lauren was no problem for me, but everyone else would have had to really strain their ears to hear.

"I don't know what's going on with him. He's acting strange," Sam said.

"What do you mean strange?" A woman's voice asked. Lauren was a relative of Derek. I wasn't exactly sure how they were related but when Derek became Alpha he insisted that she stay with us because of "family relationships." She had refused to actually live in the house with us but was content with the piece of crap shed out back behind the gardens. We remodeled it for her, and since, we barely ever saw her. She was like a hobbit that lived behind our house, no one bothered her and she didn't bother us. Though, occasionally, Joshua or his mate, Stephanie, would see her while picking vegetables or flowers from the gardens. They would say she would sit in a rocking chair on her front porch or wonder her "yard" aimlessly. But we all had strict orders to, "just leave her alone," so we all but forget that she was there most of the time.

"I don't know, I mean, he sat in the rain for more than two hours and… he said he smelt her."

"What!" Lauren gasped.

"Now Lauren, don't get too excited we—"

"Simon, if it's her then we can all go back normal. We can move away and start over again. Forget this whole incident."

"No, Lauren, we couldn't. And I don't even really know that it was her."

But—"

"Shh, no more, they'll hear us."


A/N:Hey guys! So I hope you liked. I'm going to do a quick update if I can get 18 (Yes 18 I'm moving up each time) reviews by eight o'clock on Thursday Feb. 3; the update will be anywhere from 8:30 to 10:00. So remember to review and thank the snow because that's what has given me two snow days worth of time to finish this! R&R please!