hey everyone! so... I posted like an hour ago. and I don't have time to write a monster authors note, since I gotta church this sucker out to post in the morning. I'll add thanks at the end, ok? I'M NOT IGNORING YOU ALL THANK YOUS AT BOTTOM OF PAGE!!! I PROMISE!!!! lol so I'm gettn to it. gotta punch this out. one thing though- holy shit, 20 chappies. can you believe it?!

Knight in Shining Armor

Chapter 20

Xavier led me, Derek, and David out into the forest a few hours after the breakfast fiasco. He hadn't found anything large physically, but in quantity it was huge. On the ground were four birds, two raccons, three squirrels, and a deer. My breath caught in my throat. I stared at Xavier, who shrugged it off. Derek looked sadly at the rotting animals lying on the ground. David looked slightly bothered, but took it in stride.

"I think you know what you'll be doing." Xavier said.

"One at a time?" I asked, hoping I'd be right. I didn't beleive I'd be right, but maybe I would be.

"Yeah right. All of them. You can do it. This is something you want to know. I counted the animals you had on Ramon, you had five. Now you have ten but it'll all be at your own pace, nice and relaxed, with back up. Work slow, no talking, keep them behind the line. You don't need to have them attack anything, I'd prefer it if you didn't and I think Derek and David would too. If you can do this, we're moving on to the next step. That won't be as easy. This is basically your final for level one, got it?" he said, sitting me down. David stood back to watch, smirking. Derek sat behind me, hand on my waist, and leaving a gentle kiss in my hair for support.

"I'm not even going to ask what kind of shit they did to her in her experiments because if she's already raising multiple animals she's a monster. You call this level one? This is crazy." David said. "It took me well over two months to do this. With a single bird. Chloe, we're going to be having a talk later." David said, getting ready to watch me at work.

"Derek's first. You can wait." I said, smiling at him before turning to bring up the mess of corpses.

I let my eyes drift shut and felt my body relax and just barely start to go limp before tensing as the animal spirits came into view. I directed them into each body, cooing and sh-shing (A/N: like when you go 'shhh,shhh' to a baby... I hope you know what I mean) and when I opened my eyes all ten of them were up and staring at me and each other. the birds hopped around each other, and I gently tugged their attention to me. I held out my hand and they hopped up onto it, looking at me curiously and tweeting. I put them back down and looked to Xavier for approval. He looked beyond proud. He nodded at me and I released them, and they all fell back to the ground. I leaned back against Derek, tired, and he wrapped his arms around me. David stood up from leaning on the tree and clapped lightly, amazed. I slowly stood up with Derek's help to keep from getting dizzy and falling.

"That was amazing. That was insane." David said, coming up to me. Maybe Xavier should be your teacher he can keep up with your speed."

"You don't want her going at my speed. If she were in another two months she'd be summoning demons. That was my speed. Now stop badgering my protige." Xavier said, shooing him away. "That was friggin perfect! I couldn't do it better myself. David's right that was some serious shit you had done to you because this is some advanced stuff. Ten animals and with that skill, precision, ans speed would take at least twice the time it took you to have it down, and it still wouldn't be nearly as flawless. Guess what you're on to next?"

"Big animals?" I guessed. Derek laughed at my failing hopeful stare.

"People. David will back me up on this- if you're raising people in your sleep we've gotta get training into you, and damn fast. because I can guarantee when we go after the Edison Group, people are gonna die. If you don't have a reign on that then you'll be summoning all over the place because it's gonna be busy and stressful and you'll be the Niagra Falls of power." Xavier said. David yanked me from Derek and spun me to face him.

"Did he just say you're summoning people in your sleep?" he asked.

"Y-y-yeah... is that bad? I did it once with about 7 corpses back at Lyle House too." I said, nervous at his aggression.

"God damn... you are the Niagra Falls of power. I gotta talk to Kit. You, me, and Xavier- conference after dinner. No arguments. And since you said Derek's always there, he can come, if he wants. It's optional for him, mandatory for both of you, got it?" David said, getting serious. Well, way to freak me out. A+.

"Yes sir!" Xavier joked, standing at mock attention.

"No problem. I'll be there." I said.

David turned and left, jogging back to the house. I told Xavier he'd get to clean up the mess, since he took it out. He tried arguing that I played with them last, but I replied that he wasn't 5 and I was tired and was going back to the house. Derek followed me, holding my hand, and pulling me out onto the hammock. He held me against him, and for about the hundredth time I wondered how he could act so cold at times and yet be this gentle.

"Could we talk now? I have a feeling you're upset." he said. Oh, he knew me so well.

"Not with you." it was 98 percent true. It irked me how he did little to get Jillian to back off, but I understood why. She was his teacher. What was he going to do?

"With Jill." he replied, tilting my heand up gently to meet my eyes.

"Slightly..." complete bull shit.

"I'm sorry. I know it bothers you and it bothers me too, but I don't know what I can do. I mean, yes, I know I could have done things, but she's supposed to be here to help me with anything. I don't want to piss her off too much, since she's here for me." he said.

"I know, I know. I talked to David. I don't know, it just really bothers me and the more I think about it the worse I feel... Xavier and Tori said not to let it get to me, but I don't see how someone couldn't. I mean, we haven't been together long, it'd be easy to-" I stopped, cutting off my sentence before I went into everything I hated most about this situation.

"What if what?"

"N-nothing."

"Tell me."

"It's nothing. I promise." Biggest lie to date.

"No, it isn't whatever you were about to say... Please, just tell me, Chloe." he pushed further.

Dammit those eyes... "...I was going to say... that since we hadn't been together long... It wouldn't be hard to get in the middle of it. And take my place. And maybe that'd be better for you, and I can't stop that, but that doesn't mean I want it to happen. Maybe it would be better because shhe has a lot more in common with her and she can help you a lot more, amongst other things..." I said, and oh how I hated saing it. He looked at me with a slight smirk, and kissed my forhead.

"That won't happen. You want to know why?" he asked. I nodded. "I don't like her as a person that much. And I don't think she can help me that much. She isn't like me. We're different. Like how David isn't sure how to help you."

"Ok... Why wouldn't she be able to help you? I mean I'm only a lot more powerful than he expected. He's not sure how to keep up with me. That isn't your problem." I said, hiding my face in the crook of his neck.

"From what I've read, my situation isn't normal either... It's complicated. For most werewolves... It usually isn't quite this hard to change." he said, tightening his arms around me.

"Then she can help you get through it. More than I can." I barely whispered against his ear.

"I don't want her help. When have I ever wanted help, except from you?" he asked. I just nodded.

He pushed me up so I was looking down at him. He pulled me back down slowly into a deep, aggressive kiss. I was slightly surprised because he'd never shown that aggression before, but didn't have the time to question. He slowly turned to put me underneath him, never moving my lips from his, and without dumping us onto the porch. His fingers pressed against my back hard as he kept me against him. I let my hands run through his dark hair and onto his back. Eventually he let me go so I could breath, since that was kind of important. I met his eyes dazed and happy.

"I don't want that from anyone else either, since I'm assuming that was amongst the 'other things' that you wouldn't tell me." he said never letting go of me eyes. I just nodded. He paused another few seconds before coming down to meet my lips again.

"Derek?" Jillian asked, opening the door. "Oh! Sorry. Uh... David was back, so I figured you were done. I was wondering if we could start our practice?" The look she shot me knotted my stomach. She looked like she wanted to pull me out from under him and never let me touch him again, and that I was the slut. She had the nerve to look at me like that? She was wearing jeans that barely covered her ass and a midriffed shirt! Honestly? And this was my boyfriend!

"Could it wait just a little more?" Derek asked, obviously annoyed. he had caught her glare to me too. "I'm a little busy." Holy crap did he just say that? I could have laughed if I wasn't pissed off beyond all belief.

"I guess.... I was hoping we could get it out of the way now though. But if you insist." she turned to go back inside, but stopped. "Don't take too long. Practice might take a while. I don't have too many things planned, but if any more come to mind..."

Was she really trying to make it so that if Derek wanted a quick and easy practice with her, he'd have to go right now? Really? That was low. Threatening to take forever with him... And she meant it totally different from lessons. She completely meant 'I'll keep you busy for a long long time if you dont come right now. So ditch the girlfriend.' This was crazy. derek looked at me apologetically and got up after giving me one last kiss.

"I'll see you later, ok? Sorry..."

"It's ok. I know your training is important. Tell me how it goes, since I get the feeling I'm still not welcome." I replied. he nodded and followed Jillian out to where I had just been.

As they walked it took a lot not to scream all sorts of profanities at her. Xavier popped up behind me.

"No worries sweetie, You want me to watch her?" he asked.

"Yes, I would love that. Thank you."

He vanished, and I was left alone to seeth.

Don't you just HATE her? Interrupting their makeout session! terrible! anyways, I promised a thank you list...

THANK YOUUUU::::: Felicia Loves Derek Souza, Leah Hunter, RayRayLoves2Read, and xXGhOsTXx for all of the emails, the reviews, the faves, the alerts, the evrything!

well, I leave for school in 15 minutes. I'm not even going home after school I'm heading straight to the church to go on my god damned retreat. (get it? church retreat, damned by god.... anyways...) And, I forgot to do my prelab for the lab we have today... my boyfriend wont be happy since he's my lab partner, so I should probably go get that done. Hope you like the chpater, I told you I was building to more action! Super- powerful Chloe that can and will kick ass! fuck yes. lol so, talk to you guys again on Sunday! I'll have the next chappie up then or monday morning, Ok? TTYL pps, gonna miss hearing from you everyday. luv ya. ~Amanda