"So what does being a demon king entail if its not the same as the human concept?" I asked. "Cats out of the bag you may as well tell me all about it."

He chuckled, "As long as you never repeat it to anyone. There's rewards out for my head. I can't have people knowing what I am."

I agreed not to repeat anything.

"Alright well," he paused trying to think of how to explain it. "I guess it is similar, I shouldn't have said it like that. Like you know, my kind of demons stay separated from the demons on the surface where you were. We prefer to be civilized and organized."

I nodded, he continued.

"My family was one of three founding the floating landscape. We're the 'royalty' because we run it. My friend likes to call me a king but I wasn't. Yet at least. My fathers still alive so I'm not that high on the chain. Thank god, I have the power of a demon king but I don't want that responsibility, that's why I fled."

I gave him a questioning look.

He looked at me ashamed, "My father was in bad shape after a fight. They weren't sure he was going to pull through so it was my time to assume responsibility over the demons. I lasted just days before I cracked, it wasn't something I wanted so I fled. Luckily my father ended up recovering and is able to still fill his role as the leader. I on the other hand am AWOL and can't go back. The moment I get caught, I'm a dead man. I'm a traitor."

"Why didn't you want the role?" I asked.

He sighed heavily and shrugged, "I probably have the same answer as Elijah. I just wasn't fit for the role of leader. I didn't want that much responsibility in my hands, I wanted to be living life to the fullest. Going on crazy adventures and exploring. Taking risks and making mistakes. I think that's why I was interested in this world. Humans think the same way. Lydia's mom was the only person to ever get me to calm down my lifestyle."

He had never really spoken about Lydia's mom before so I had to take the opportunity to ask.

"What was she like?"

"She knows nothing of what I am, I was a regular guy in her eyes until she learned what I did for a living. Even then she still loved me. Her name was Kaylee," he smiled saying her name. "Kaylee was intelligent, she had three degrees. She loved to paint and read. The house was always a mess because she hated cleaning. Kaylee was the kindest and calmest person I'd ever met. She made everyone around her feel at ease no matter what was going on."

"She sounds lovely," I smiled. I don't think I'd ever heard Matt talk about someone that way. She really was special to him. "Have you thought about calling her?"

He shook his head, "It's been probably eleven years now since we last spoke. After what happened to Lydia, she never wanted to speak to me again. I doubt she's forgiven me still."

Matt's phone buzzed in his pocket, he pulled it out and hit answer. "What's up Tess?"

He had his volume low, I couldn't hear what she was saying.

"Give him a few more days, it'll be alright… I'll try to tonight. Can you hold out a few more hours?... I won't she needs some time… That sounds like a plan. Alright we'll talk later."

Matt hung up and put his phone away. He knew I would ask so he went ahead and explained.

"Elijah got called back to his pack a few days ago by Ash to help deal with something. Tess is worried about him since he isn't home yet and Oliver's sick. He hasn't answered his phone and she's exhausted out of her mind with worrying and taking care of Oliver. I'm going to head over there tonight to watch over Oliver so she can get some rest, if that's okay with you. I'm a phone call away if you need anything at all."

I nodded, "Of course that's okay with me. You definitely should help her out. You can go now."

He shook his head, "I need to know that you and your friends will be okay first."

"My friends are fine."

Matt raised an eyebrow at me like I had dodged something he said.

"Chloe I know you and I know what you are and I have been listening to your stomach growling the entire time we've been out here. You're going to end up hurting one of your friends because you're going to be in denial that you've been starving for a year."

I shook my head like he was wrong.

"It's the other reason I asked to talk to you outside. We can go find you some animal blood or something. None of them will know."

I shook my head again. "Emma said she worked in the food services here. She has to have her hands on some for herself, I'd be fine asking her if I need it."

"There's no if," Matt smiled and rolled his eyes at me. "You need it. Go ask her now."

I protested but Matt nudged me back towards the door.

"I'm not letting you procrastinate in denial Chloe. Go ask her now before you have any chance to lose control."

He nudged me again and I knew no protests saying I was fine would work on Matt so I caved. We reentered the house.

"Can we talk to you for a second Emma," Matt said to the group sitting in the living room as he guided me towards the kitchen. Emma got up and came to the kitchen too. It was very crowded in here, the counters were overflowing of kitchen supplies and food boxes.

"What's up?" She asked.

Matt looked at me, he was going to stay here to make sure I asked.

"You said you work with supplying people with food right?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yeah but we have food here Chloe. Take whatever you want."

"Well," I hesitated. "It's not that. Its uh would you have access to…"

Emma figured out where I was going with this and nodded. She grabbed my hand.

"Come with me," she brought me to her bedroom and shut the door behind the two of us. Matt took a seat in the living room. Her room had pale gray walls and clothes strewn about her floor and bed.

"I'm a slob I know," she said as she crossed the room.

Underneath the nightstand between her bed and the wall was a small mini fridge. She opened it to reveal multiple black bottles. She grabbed two out and sat on the bed. I sat down across from her.

"Let me know anytime you need it," she handed me both bottles. I gave her a questioning look at handing me two so she said. "I just assumed its been a long time and you'd need a lot."

"I can't thank you enough," I said shyly.

"Don't worry about it, we're here to help each other."

I wanted to pace myself but I drank an entire bottle in one go.

"Yeah that's what I figured," she gently teased.

"Why do you keep it in here?" I asked.

She shrugged, "I'm sure the guys would have no problem with me keeping it in the kitchen. But I just feel like if I were them I might not love the idea of that being next to my regular food. Plus I don't really like drinking it in front of them anyways. I don't know, I just try to keep it to myself. They don't need constant reminders there's a dangerous creature in the house."

"You're not a dangerous creature," I argue.

She shrugged, "It depends on who you ask. Everyone's got their own opinion."

I looked around, it was only girls stuff in here. Nothing that was potentially Jeremy's. Did he call her a dangerous creature in a fight?

"What happened between you and Jeremy?" I asked gently.

She smiled, "I was wondering if Simon had already told you since you didn't ask sooner. We broke up way back. Before you disappeared actually, it was the day you left Tess's house. I was distraught at the thought of you two being mates and broke things off. I couldn't handle the idea of dating someone else's mate. We spent some time apart, finding ourselves, now we're okay. We're friends."

"You never wanted to get back together?" I asked and drank the other bottle. My stomach stopped growling for the first time in a year.

She shrugged, "He didn't want to break up, he'd take me back in a heartbeat I'd guess. But I just can't date someone else's mate."

"He's not my mate," I shook my head. "We changed together and that's all. It wasn't anything more than that. People were reading way too much into that. I love Derek."

"You sure you're not into James?" Emma teased. "You were passed out cold cuddling him when we got home."

My cheeks turned red, "I was exhausted! The heat from the shower sapped all my energy."

"Sure," she teased laughing.

I turned the conversation back on her, "So you're really not going to give him another chance? He and I are not interested in each other."

She shrugged and took the bottles from me, putting them in a bag next to the fridge.

"I don't know. We've been great as friends."

"Give him another chance," I pushed.

She shrugged again, "I don't know maybe. Let's get some regular food in you too. Who knows how long its been since you ate."

"A few days ago in demon time but I don't know about earth time," I nodded.

We walked back out and Emma suggested dinner to everyone. They agreed. The food was delicious, Matt made sure I ate slow. He was worried about me making myself sick eating too fast. That evening Matt left to go help Tess and Oliver. I wanted to go with but Matt said it wasn't a good time; that I should wait until Oliver and Tess were feeling better.

Simon couldn't help himself as we watched TV, he periodically called Derek. We'd all given up hope he'd answer besides Simon. He even tried calling from my phone. He was about to give up for the night when a call was finally answered.

"Qui est-ce?" Said a woman's voice angrily. Simon looked at me confused.

"Is Derek there?" He asked.

"Arrête d'appeler Derek," she snapped.

"Who is this?"

"Laisse-nous tranquille," she said angrily. There was a voice in the background and she hung up.

Simon called back immediately but the phone went straight to voicemail. She had turned it off. We all looked at each other confused.

"Was that French?" James asked. "How did someone in France get his number?"

Simon shook his head, "He promised he wouldn't change his number. That was someone else answering his phone."

My heart sank. A girl answered his phone seemingly angry with our constant calls. Derek was in France. Seeing a new girl. The heartbreak was evident on my face because James softly asked;

"Chloe? Are you okay?"

The edges of my vision got fuzzy. My heart started racing. I quickly stood up. "I uh need some air for a second."

I rushed out the front door before anyone could stop me and out into the yard. I felt so dizzy I dropped to my knees in the grass. The front door opened and James rushed out after me. He came up to me and got down beside me, arms open. He hugged me. I hugged him back and cried.