I'm back! I know you all missed me.
Kayla and Kenhat-Thank you for the very very high compliment, Kelley Armstrong has a wonderful writing style, there's no need to mess with it. And I love Clay, he's such an adorable little over-protective sociopath ^-^ so cute.
Mr.- Totally. They're all cutsy first lovey-without-ever-mentioning-it-to-each-other-because-they-have-low-self-esteemy
Black Heart- I don't know if you've read the Women of the Otherworld series but they are of the *ahem* adult persuasion. Elena and Clay in particular are super hardcore randy and it's something that everyone in the pack jokes about openly. She's not going "you. go screw that thar werewolf." so much as she's urging her to be affectionate and really doesn't know how to be subtle. Seriously, her way of negotiating usually involves a pipe. So don't you worry, I'm not having Chloe throw herself at Derek in a moment of flaming passion where she rips off his clothes (how's THAT for a mental image) because it would be OOC.
Ghost- Hold your horses. Soon.
Greek Freak- =P Neh. Just neh.
Everyone else- You guys are amazing, I've had just about 3,000 readers!!! I'm so lucky to have the amazing support you're providing me. Seriously it's a catch 22, the more you love me, the more I want to write which makes you love me more which makes me... you get the picture. Thank you all so much!
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Chapter 11
Elena returned about fifteen minutes later, articles of clothing missing (nothing essential! … pervs.), hair irretrievably mussed and looking temporarily sated, she told me she had to do paperwork. I tried to imagine it but just couldn't without giggling. I wondered if invoices were like "Clay caught four rabbits on Friday the eighteenth, two more than the allotted number."She then gave me permission to hang out in the greenhouse while I did my reading and made her exit. It was nice to be around plants again. I liked being surrounded by living things and the leafless trees and dead grass of winter had been making me edgy. I didn't think that I could raise an army of zombie daffodils but I so did not want to test it.
I spent the morning reading, but not about werewolves, I needed a break from them. I stopped when Derek brought me a sandwich.
"Hey. Lunch." He handed me the plate and sat in the chair Elena had used earlier in the day. The chair—unlike everything else on the planet that was usually a little small for him while it was a little big for me—fit him just fine while it engulfed me. Convenient werewolf accommodations.
"Thanks." I put my book aside and dug in, it was a BLT with extra crunch which I realized was potato chips.
When I raised my eyebrow at Derek he shrugged. "The rest ate theirs like that, I tried it and liked it."
"It's super tasty, I like it a lot… thank you." I ate quickly so the tomato wouldn't make the potato chips soggy.
"I also brought…" He pulled a little jar from his pocket. "Dessert."
I took the jar carefully. It was a plain unmarked mason jar, about eight ounces with something orangey in it. "What…?" I cracked the lid and was hit with one of my favorite scents in the world. Peaches. "Oh my gosh!"
Derek smiled and produced two forks. "Elena thought you would like them."
I sniffed them, I got the freshness of the peaches—probably canned on the same day they were picked—vanilla bean and a little hint of lavender. It may have been all the talk of scents from the night before but I felt like my sense of smell was a little better than usual. I ignored the fork for the first slice, delicately picking it out of the jar and eating it in one bite.
It was amazing. It was like they had even canned the fuzzy flavor of fresh peaches. I handed Derek the jar and slumped down in my chair.
"Chloe?" He asked, halfway amused and halfway worried.
I held up a finger and swallowed. "Oh god." I moaned.
"You okay?" Amusement won out and his green eyes sparkled.
"Total foodgasm."
He laughed at that. It was amazing how much happier he seemed, grumbly Derek was still special to me, but laughing Derek made my head feel light. I felt like nothing could hurt us again, like we weren't on the run for our lives. At least not for the next few hours.
"Your turn." I urged.
Derek took the more civilized approach with a fork but his eyes still widened when he ate his slice.
"I know right?" I grinned. "Elena has to give me the recipe."
"I can tell you what's in it if you want." Derek rumbled. "If you promise to make this all the time."
I felt my eyes crinkle at that. I would need much much bigger jars for Derek-sized portions. "Speaking of promises…"
"Hmm?" He was eating another slice.
"Hey! Give me those before you consume them all you bottomless pit!" I grabbed at the jar but he held it over my head.
"What promise?"
"You said you'd tell me more about the squirrel!" I had to stand up to get the jar back.
"Oh that." His cheeks colored. "There's not much else to tell."
I walked deeper into the greenhouse, ducking behind a big rosemary plant.
"Chloe?"
"I'm dumping the peaches in the compost unless you tell me about it."
"Chloe there is no compost in here."
"… Fine. I'm scarfing them then." I got another slice.
I had nearly finished it when I saw Derek's shoes coming around the rosemary's plot. He looked down at me, crouched down with a jar of peaches held possessively and grinned.
"You look ridiculous."
I stood and scooted backwards with the jar held behind my back. "I was kinda hoping the rosemary would hide me for a little longer than that. Regardless! I won't give these babies up until you keep your promise."
"It would take more than a rosemary bush to hide your scent." He rumbled, reaching his freakishly long arms around me and plucking the peaches easily out of my hands.
"Great. I'm short and smell bad." I rolled my eyes and started back to my chair, keeping my back to him so he wouldn't see the color rushing to my face.
Derek caught my arm. "I never said you smelled bad."
Our eyes locked for a split-second and I felt that weird fluttering in my stomach, the one that wasn't definitively good or bad, just new and surprising every time I felt it.
"Derek?" A smoky velvety voice came from the door of the greenhouse.
One thing was certain, it was not Elena.
His eyes shifted sideways and he handed me back the jar. I felt like an idiot as I held it, open-mouthed as he turned and walked away. I followed more slowly, taking time to relearn how to close my jaw. When I got back to the chairs I saw a woman talking with Derek, a real red-head—almost burgundy. Her eyes were golden-brown and long and slanted.
As she smiled at him, I felt a curl of something hot in the pit of my stomach that was completely different from the fluttering. I'd never felt so aware of my lack of height and curves.
"Lola is a half-demon, she can temporarily shape-shift." Derek introduced shortly.
"I can almost do it for half an hour now!" She stamped her foot and pouted prettily at him.
I took a breath, now would be the worst time to start stuttering. "Hi." I said.
She smiled again, at me this time, and I couldn't help but wonder if I saw a little bit of mocking in that smile. Lola had the body of a lingerie model, leggy and busty. I felt like I was getting younger just by looking at her. While Derek was looking away she sniffed in my direction and wrinkled her nose delicately.
So much for not smelling bad. I thought, shifting my weight uncomfortably.
"Come on Derek." She wrapped long red-tipped fingernails around his bicep. "You promised to take a run with me."
I felt the pit of my stomach drop somewhere below sea level. I think it was because I hadn't been there for his final transformation and now this woman was acting all kinds of friendly, insult to injury or something.
What is it Chloe? Do you not think Derek deserves to be found attractive by a beautiful woman? I asked myself. After all, Simon did kiss you, it's only fair and you couldn't have honestly thought that the shallow girls would keep their paws off him now that the puberty smack down had been smacked down. I looked at him, having the stray thought that if we could bottle werewolf changes then we would put proactiv out of business overnight.
"I didn't promise you anything." Derek pulled away from her grip gently but firmly, eyes on my face and my inner Chloe did a happy in-your-face-Lola! dance.
"Aww come on D, it'll be fun." She coaxed.
"Yeah go ahead." I smiled with false brightness, caving in to my feelings of guilt. "I was just going to be boring and read some more anyway."
Derek looked like he wanted to argue but he didn't resist as Lola tugged him out of the greenhouse. I watched him be led away with the smile still plastered onto my face. I instinctively didn't trust Lola, though I couldn't quite figure out why. It was either her perfect hair or perfect body. Or her perfect voice.
I realized I'd been standing in the same spot for several minutes and tried to get myself moving. It was like I was swimming in molasses.
"Come on Chloe, get it together!" I muttered to myself, scooping up my reading materials and marching back to the cabin.
I spent the afternoon trying to read, I was to the history of the practical portion of my book and reading about the original Dracula figure, count Vlad "The Impaler" Dracula. He pissed off the leader of the Turkish army keep them away from his castle he killed envoys and scouts in really horrible ways and strung them up on his castle walls. Then summoned their souls back into their bodies so they would hang there screaming, trapped in their rotting corpses. But what really got to the enemy army was that when they took down the bodies and tried to bury them, they would keep struggling and screaming.
They had a powerful spiritual person with them who found that the corpses could be put to rest if they were beheaded, had a stake driven through their heart and were purified with holy water and a cross. Bet you can never guess which myth about immortals THAT started.
Despite knowing how to lay them to rest, the castle unnerved the soldiers so much that many of them deserted if they were ordered to attack it. So it was a super evil thing to do but in a way it worked.
Since then necromancers have experimented with the dismembering technique and found that it did put a corpse back to rest, but it was so messy and took so long that it was only used if the necromancer in question used so much of their power that they were literally tapped out. The cross and holy water weren't necessary but beheading and destroying the heart definitely were. Necromancy was more about magic than biology though so it made me wonder if it actually killed them or just incapacitated them with the souls still trapped inside. The only upside of that was that once the necromancer who raised them died, they would be released. Not much of a bright side there.
I was so jittery after reading that that trying to meditate to calm down didn't work, and pacing agitatedly didn't help much either. Finally I went outside, Nick had been relieved from his post, I guess they finally figured out that I couldn't outrun them, and I walked around the house to the bike, grabbing my big suitcase and dragging it back with me. Inside I had a few changes of clothes, the camping gear including some extra camp food, and my mp3 player.
It usually calmed me down to create soundtracks for movies that I planned out but I was too wound up even for that and ended up just listening to Fiddler on the Roof… yeah yeah, shut up. I like it okay? Sunrise Sunset makes me cry every time.
I did what felt like a hundred jumping jacks and a couple handstands. I liked doing them in smaller spaces to practice my coordination and balance control. You never know when gymnastics will save you from an elite squad of Edison group marines, trust me it's happened.
I showered out of boredom (and to try to smell less like whatever had made Lola wrinkle her nose) and dressed in sweatpants and a pink long-sleeved shirt. I settled into the loveseat with my mp3 player and Pendulum's CD Hold Your Colour playing… Still my brain kept creating images of Lola and Derek together.
In one I imagined that she was a spy from the Edison group, luring Derek away from the house and to a team of commandos with guns. When I pushed that image away I saw Lola shooting him herself with a gun. I was pretty sure that she wasn't that evil, that I just didn't like her because she was beautiful and made me feel small and insignificant.
Suddenly I had a simpler image of her kissing Derek. It wasn't like she was threatening his well-being or anything, but it disturbed me most of all. Next I saw Derek kissing her and my fists clenched in the slipcover of the loveseat.
Get a grip girl! I chastised myself. He's not your boyfriend! He doesn't even like you half the time!
My inner voice had a quick response to that. "But you wish he did."
I looked at my inner voice like it was crazy. I do not wish that Derek liked me, I'm fine with him thinking I'm an idiot and running around with Lola. I felt an involuntary chill run down my spine.
The voice sounded smug next. "Oh I'm so convinced. I bet that if Lola and Derek-"
STOP! I told it. Feeling a little schizophrenic (for real this time).
"You know he is naked when he changes back from being a wolf. I bet Lola didn't mind the view."
"What is wrong with me?" I whispered to myself. "It's not like I'm in love with Derek."