The Reckoning By 331

Okay, when I said pick one and review, I actually meant tell me which one you picked and put it in your review. Only one person actually told me what they wanted (thank you kenhat!), which I do appreciate, but I would like it if more people told me what they would like in their reviews. It doesn't have to be long, just say 'I liked ideas # 7 and 16' and anything else you want to say. That would really help. Oh, and just so you guys know, I might be starting another story (I'm not stopping this one anytime in the near future, so don't worry)(I mean I will eventually, but just not anytime soon). It will be another Darkest Powers one, but it will be after they beat all the bad people (the Reckoning shows there's more than just the Edison Group) and go back to their lives. And Derek and Chloe probably haven't happened yet. So you have something else to look forward to besides the updates on this story. So, just keep reading, and keep reviewing!!!!!

And I'm sorry for waiting so long to update, but my brother broke his clavicle (collar bone), so I haven't really had much brain space for writing. But he's out of the hospital and going back to school on Monday, so I can just relax and write. So, enjoy!!!

This is what happens after the Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

I do not own anything and it all belongs to Kelley Armstrong. I am just using her characters and adding a few of my own.

Chloe's POV

Oh my god. Oh my god! What if things got worse?!?! What if I got so out of control I got hurt?!?! Or worse, what if I killed people?!?! I was standing there in shock for so long I didn't notice Derek come in.

"Chloe?" I shrieked and tripped and fell on my face. Derek chuckled and helped me up.

"That never gets old. But anyway, are you okay? You look kinda pale." He helped me sit down, and he sat in the chair next to me. I tried to look less pale. He didn't need to worry. I was probably going to be fine, and telling him would just cause problems, so I tried smiling. No success.

"I thought we agreed to tell each other everything, regardless of how the other might feel." He looked at me frowningly.

"Um, when exactly did we agree to that?"

"Last night."

"Oh, yeah. But I don't have anything to say. It's just my hair and the lighting in here. It makes me look paler. I wonder what color I should get it dyed. What do you think about purple?" He glared at me.

"Chloe?" he half growled.

"What?" he just sat there scowling at me. I sighed.

"Fine. Read this." I picked the book up off the floor from when I had dropped it in my shock. I flipped to the chapter I had been on and passed it to him. I watched his face turn from annoyed to unreadable. I waited a minute or two, but he didn't move.

"Derek?" I poked him. Nothing.

"Derek? Hello? Earth to Derek! Come on, you're scaring me!" He shook his head, and then looked at me. He looked freaked. His eyes said everything. I felt tears coming, and as soon as he saw them, he jumped out of his chair, scooped me up and hugged me tightly. I cried into his chest.

"Its gonna be okay, Chloe, you're gonna be fine. Nothing will go wrong, everything'll be fine." It was more like he was reassuring himself than me, but him just being there was enough, so I just kept hugging him. He loosened, and pushed me back so he could look into my eyes. I couldn't help just staring into them, and he stared back, and we went on like that for at least a century. Or a minute. Could've been either. Finally I broke the silence.

"What are we gonna do? I don't want to die! I just want to be normal, and live a regular life, where I don't have to worry about dying from mutated genetics, or crazy scientists with guns! Where I can just be with my friends and be with you, and...and...." I erupted into a fresh round of tears, and Derek just hugged me again and rubbed my back. When I believed I had finished, I looked up again. Then Andrew called me, saying Tori and Sarah needed to give me a makeover for the mall trip. I sighed, and Derek just scowled.

"Should I even go to the mall?"

"I'd rather you not, but if you get your hair dyed, you might be safer, so I think you should." I sighed again.

"Okay, but what are we gonna do about this? We can't just ignore it. Things could get bad."

"Chloe, I promise if things get bad, I'll be right there to stop it." He smiled at me, like a real smile, that lit up his whole face, and my stomach decided it wanted to be a Japanese acrobat. I pushed up on my tiptoes and pulled him down, and kissed him for almost 60 seconds, then squeezed his hand and went off to find Tori and Sarah. His last facial expression made my heart ache to leave, being so beautiful, but I had to endure pretty girl time with Tori and Sarah, so I kept walking.

They found me in the kitchen. I had walked two feet when I was ambushed. You'd think I would find them, since I was the one looking. Yet, in their worlds, that's not how it works. Both my arms were grabbed from behind and I was wheeled out of the kitchen backward and up the stairs into a gigantic bathroom. I was pushed into a chair and the next thing I knew my face was being poked and fluffed and powdered all over.

"Wha—–!"

"Shh! Stop talking or you'll smudge!" Tori's voice came from somewhere above me. I stayed silent with my eyes closed until they were done.

"Okay, open!!" Angie?! What was she doing here? I thought it was just Tori and Sarah! I opened my eyes and looked in the mirror. 'Whoa, that couldn't be me, could it?', and 'who the hell is that?!' was what was running through my head. I had blush and purple eye shadow and black eye liner, and I looked fabulous with the pale pink lipstick. Angie was bouncing with energy beside me, and Tori and Sarah were standing back, awaiting my response.

"I..I.. I love it!" I said. Angie squeaked with delight. But Tori and Sarah looked at each other, and Tori nodded and grabbed my hand. They led me down stairs into the kitchen. Everyone was there. Except Derek. People ooh and whistled, and then slapped each other for whistling. I turned scarlet.

"Wow, Chloe, I knew you were cute, but I didn't know you could be that hot!'

"Dude, she has a boyfriend! Even though, she does look pretty nice,"

"Both of you, shut up! She looks fine! Way better than you, anyway!" and so erupted the quarrels. Then Angie, Tori, and Sarah pulled me out of there and down towards the library.

"Now's time for the real test. Make sure to send wolf boy a gag for me," and with that, Tori pushed me into the library, where Derek was absorbed in reading. He looked up as I walked in, and his mouth dropped to the floor. Again, my face was scarlet. I looked down at my feet. Well, at least I knew looked pretty. But would it prevent people from recognizing the girl on the wanted posters under the reward sign for half a million dollars, that I was sure was in every police station on the east coast, and had been on the news many more times than once (well, almost sure. I had been avoiding watching the news for exactly that reason.)? I heard Derek get up, and the next thing I knew, we were kissing. I put my arms around his neck and he slid his around my waist and pulled me closer. I smiled and pushed harder. Unfortunately, having lungs means we have to breath, so we ended up panting in a chair, me on his lap. Derek had pink lipstick on his lips, which got me laughing, and at first he was confused, but then caught his reflection in the window, and it was his turn to be scarlet. I was rolling on the floor. He started laughing too, and then started chasing me, which ended up becoming a game of tag in a maze of book shelves. Eventually Tori and came back in and bitchily stopped us by tripping me, and then Derek racing over and picking me up, and then carrying me out after Tori (much to my dismay, yet being in his arms made it a little better). She redid my lipstick on the way back to the kitchen. When we arrived, Derek swung me down onto my feet, and we sat on the couch. Everyone else was already gathered. Andrew stood up.

"Okay guys, we're leaving for the mall in 20 minutes, gather what you want to bring, and meet us out front and we'll divide you into the different cars." A lot of us went upstairs to get what they wanted to bring, but since I had nothing and was already wearing a sweatshirt, I just kept sitting. Derek, Shane, Simon, Caleb, and Mike stayed in the room too. We all just watched some random TV until Andrew shepherded us outside. In the first car was Anna (driver), Lacie, Tori, Sarah, and the twins (Honda minivan).In the second car was Mike (driver), Damien, Joey, Simon, and Andrew (Toyota Highlander). And in the last car was Arabelle (driver), Derek, Shane, Angie, Caleb, and me (Chevy truck). Shane had a pickup truck too, but the adults wanted us to go all together, so they didn't let him drive it. It was an interesting ride. Angie was playing some kind of puzzle game involving some blonde kid in green with a sword and a hourglass, that I knew but couldn't remember the name of, and she was moving in all directions while doing so. Example: if she was trying to kill something evil onscreen, her unoccupied limbs would try to kill us (unintentionally of course). Caleb just stared out the window from the backseat, and Shane, Arabelle, and Derek where having some kind of argument about that show Deadliest Warrior. Apparently Shane thought a gladiator could so totally whoop a ninja's ass, but Derek and Arabelle agreed that the ninja's agility and long range weapons would definitely crush the gladiator. I on the other hand just sat there uncomfortably, wondering if I was ever going to be noticed. But then I got bored and tried talking to Caleb.

"Hey," I said. He didn't look up, just kept staring at the blurry trees going by.

"Um, Caleb? Hey!" I said a little louder. He glanced my way and grunted, which I took as a disgruntled 'What?'. Then I was about to ask him something when Angie's hand hit me in the back of the head as she exclaimed

"OH MY GOD, I DID IT! I beat the stupid flying zombie sister things!" right into my ear. I cringed as Caleb smirked and went back to staring out the window. I rubbed the back of my skull as I tried again.

"Um, Hey Caleb, what are you gonna get at the mall?" He looked at me again, this time actually answering me with words.

"I think I'm probably gonna go look for some good books, then maybe wander a bit. Why?" it was the first time he actually spoke to me. His voice was lower than I expected. But then I shrugged and answered him.

"I thought if you were gonna just do whatever, you could come along with us. I'm going to need someone sane to talk to if this keeps up for the whole trip," I said as I gestured to the rest of the car. He nodded.

"Whatever. But don't expect me to rush into dressing rooms with you and hold onto your purse, you got Derek for that." He went back to looking out the window. But, I didn't have a purse, and if I did, why would I have Derek hold it? Weird sentence. I turned back to the front. Derek had stopped arguing with Shane and Arabelle and was staring at me. I looked up at him and smiled, and he half smiled back and squeezed my hand. I hadn't even noticed he was holding it. And it was kinda tight. (just so you can visualize this, Shane and Arabelle were in the front, Angie, me, and Derek were in the middle, and Caleb was in the back. If you're looking from the front of the car to the back, then Angie was on my left and Derek was on my right. From my position, Derek was on my left and Angie was on my right. Just so you can see it. And Caleb was looking out the left window in the back.) I leaned onto his shoulder and he put his arm around mine. And we sat like that the rest of the ride. Shane eventually took out his i-home, and he connected Arabelle's i-pod to it, so we took turns picking through songs. Apparently, Shane was more of a metal kind of guy, whereas Arabelle liked rock music, or anything she heard while playing guitar hero. Derek and I were more of a Daughtry kind of people, Angie was too interested in beating the squid thing called Bellum (I remembered what it was called. Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass. It's a continuation of Legend of Zelda Wind Waker. Both great games. I love all the Zelda Games. I even have most of them. The only ones I don't have are the ones for game boy advance. I only have Link's Awakening and Four Swords for game boy advance, and I'm stuck after getting out of the castle. Personally my favorites are Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, and both Nintendo 64 Zeldas (Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask). Phantom Hourglass is a very close second, and then Spirit Tracks is third, and then Four Swords for Game Cube, after that the first Zelda ever for Super Nintendo (just called Legend of Zelda, since it was the first) and then the rest of the Zeldas I haven't played.), and Caleb didn't care. So by the time we had gotten to the mall, I decided I was glad I didn't comment on what kind of music was better, because it had erupted into another argument via Shane and Arabelle.

The mall was big. Like bigger than any mall I had ever been to, and I lived in New York. We met up with the others in the parking lot, and we made JCPenny the rendezvous point for when we were going to leave. It was 2:00, and we had until 5:30 to shop. We were given debit cards by Andrew, saying each one had $300. Tori and Sarah ran off almost immediately, and Arabelle and Anna took the twins in the direction of the toy store. Angie pulled me over to shop with her, Damien, Lacie and Joey, and Derek followed behind with Shane. Simon and Caleb came walking over and grabbed Derek back, and I waved as he pulled in the other direction, while Shane walked with them laughing, and Joey raced after them saying he didn't want to clothes shop but would come back and eat with us in the food court in about an hour or so. We walked over to Nordstrom's, and Angie pulled me into the thicket of the store. We tried on some pretty ridiculous stuff from the dress section, while Damien kept complaining we should go look at something we actually might buy, and Lacie telling him to shut up as she tried on a sparkly indigo ball gown. Then to Damien's dismay, we forced him into a ballgown, and then dared him to go ask out the clerk, who happened to be a goth guy. The only way we got him to do it was Lacie holding his designer shoes next to a fireball while threatening to torch them, so he quickly put on the shiny silver stilettos and waddled very unladylike over to the checkout line. Then he tripped and fell on clerk, and turned crimson, which made the rest of us laugh hysterically. He then proceeded to ask him out, and then the clerk dropped him, which made us roll on the floor, causing those who weren't staring at Damien look at us. He picked himself off the floor and limped over to us with a scowl.

"When we get back to the house, you are so dead. And if you ever make me do anything like that again, you'll wish you were never born."

"Um, Damien, the back of the dress was unzipped the whole time. Nice underwear, by the way," Lacie smirked and began another round of laughter as Damien stomped past us into the dressing room and slammed the stall door shut.

After we finished goofing off, we went for some real shopping at abercrombie and hot topic. Lacie and Angie helped me pick out a whole wardrobe, and then Damien helped me put back some of their more 'extreme' selections, and picked out some great accessories that really flattered my body type. Angie got some black laced tutus in all different colors, and some awesome converse sneakers, while Lacie went for the graphic tees and scarves and strappy heels. Damien got some hats and some great skinny jeans that looked really good with his neon ties. Eventually we got hungry, so we made our way over to the food court. The guys were already there. Derek and Shane had gotten enough to feed China, and Caleb and Simon were sharing some fries. Joey was pretending to eat a hamburger as he slid some ice down Derek's shirt, which caused him to jump up and try to extract them from his shirt like they were mice. They all laughed at him, and then Derek grabbed Joey by the collar and pushed him against a pillar that held up the ceiling (big, marble, rectangular, can't miss them). Joey cowered like a wimp, and Derek poured a bottle of ketchup down his shirt and then squished him up against the wall. So in the end, Derek was cold and Joey got wet and sticky. And got his shirt ruined. We walked up laughing. Simon waved us over, and Derek looked up from laughing at Joey's disgust and saw me. He smiled. I stopped breathing, and being me, I also tripped. Derek jogged over and grabbed me before I hit the floor. He chuckled.

"You really have to learn how to walk," he laughed. I scowled.

"At least I'm pretty,"

"You are that," and he kissed me. It was short and sweet. I heard and smirk form behind.

"Could you move? I want to eat something before I lose my appetite." Ah, Tori. She and Sarah brushed past us towards the others. Derek ordered me a milkshake and some fries, and we sat at the end of the table together. Angie and Lacie sat down beside me, and Damien and Joey across from them. Everyone else sat at the other end. Joey and Angie started up a fry war, which got the rest of the table involved. Derek, Simon, Caleb, and I finally just got up and moved to another table.

"So Chloe, did you get some good stuff?" Simon eagerly asked. I smiled at him.

"I got enough to clothe the entire homeless population in the entire state of New York. Assuming, of course, all the homeless people are my size."

"We got some good stuff too. Did you know that Brookstone's has these chairs that......" and so began the half an hour long conversation on the weird luxury electronics that were totally useless but sounded really cool. Eventually the fry war of the other table ended, and it was time to go get my hair dyed. Everyone came to see the results. Derek held my hand as we got closer to the hair place. Everyone waved from the waiting area as I was led into the back of the salon. The lady let me sit in one of those swirly salon chairs. And she treated me like I was eight. Kept calling me dearie. It was actually pretty annoying. But I let it slide, and just picked my hair color. She laid the chair back, and put a smock thing over me (thankfully, it was not a kiddie one, it was just black), and I just closed my eyes and hoped it be over quick. Lots of unknown liquids and bad smelling gels went in it, and it all felt squishy and weird in my hair. When she finally just rinsed it I was glad. I looked in the mirror and gasped. My hair was light brown. It complimented my face wonderfully, and it was silky and straight, and the wispy haircut I had, that looked too kiddie with my original strawberry blonde hair, and creepy with my badly dyed black hair, looked great. I glowed. The lady took me back out front to everyone else, and they all oohed and ahhed and made stupid jokes and whistled and told me tips on how to keep the color potent. I mostly just looked at my feet as I tried not to blush. Derek took my hand and I looked up as he smiled at me. I smiled back while Shane, Joey, and Simon made kissy noises, Lacie, Angie, and Damien slapped them, and Tori gagged while Caleb and Sarah both stood impassively. After that, we split up again. Tori and Sarah moved off quickly, Shane, Joey, and Simon went over in the direction of the electronics store, and Lacie and Damien said they were gonna go buy some stuff to prank Joey with. Caleb said he wanted to go to the bookstore, and I didn't want to see him go off by himself, so I offered to go with him, and Derek and Angie jumped to go too. I grabbed a candy bar from a vendor (and paid for it, I don't steal unless it's necessary), and we headed out. We ended up just going to Borders, because the only other option was Barnes and Nobles, and while their stuff is newer and they have some stuff Borders doesn't, Borders tends to have a broader selection. Angie wander over to the manga section, and Caleb seemed to disappear into thin air (figuratively, he's not that kind of supernatural), leaving me and Derek to peruse the young adult/teen section. I found the next House of Night book I hadn't read yet, and then went to see if they had any of the Claidi journals by Tanith Lee (great books. I read them all at the library, and I've been trying to buy them so I don't have to keep going back to get them. Right now I only have # 1 and 4, but I ordered 2 and 3 on Amazon, and they should be delivered sometime this week. I can't wait. Claidi just escaped from the wolf tower with Argul, and she's going to marry him when she gets abducted on her wedding day, and Argul thinks she's left him! And then she meets Venn at the scary Rise place where she's taken, and he got the idea from another source that's she crazy and thinks that she wanted to come there. The place is scary with mechanical people and animals and hybrid species of animals, people and plants, and rooms that move on their own. And she has no idea how to get back to Argul, though for some reason Venn (whose a prince by the way) kinda reminds her of him, which makes her miss him all the more! It's such a great book. I can't wait to read it again!). Unfortunately, they didn't, and I was putting a book back when I felt hands around my waist. I shriek and kicked backward, and I heard a low grunt of pain and a curse.

"You really gotta stop doing that," Whoops. Derek. I turned and helped him up.

"Sorry! Are you hurt?"

"Not really, I'm fine. So may I resume what I started before you kicked my knee?" I turned red, and he smiled. He leaned down and kissed me. I put my hands around his neck, and he slid his around my waist. He bent me backward into a dip, and I chuckled and kissed him back. So romantic, kissing in a bookstore. We continued on like that for a minute, until Derek's head shot up abruptly, and I felt my support withdraw, and I went crashing to the floor. Moment over. I rubbed my side and sat up. Derek was looking off to his right, which was obscured in my line of sight by a bookshelf. His nostrils were flared, and her did not look happy. He smelled something. I shot off the floor and grabbed his arm.

"Derek? What's going on?" He slowly turned his head, and I saw panic in his eyes.

"Werewolves."