For your patience my darlings I give you... a Chloe's POV chapter with fluff! Woo!
Simon, Derek and I stared at Haven. Her entire face had changed, there was still the hint of a dimple but otherwise her mouth was completely different. Her face structure without the roundness of her cheeks and chin her cheekbones was high and even her eyes were shaped differently, heavy-lidded but almost cat-like.
"I uh… I used to look mostly the way I just did… in middle and high school." She flushed and rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably like it was sore.
"Say what?" I stared openly. "What the…? How…? Huh?"
Savannah walked over to us with a smirk. "Meet our best undercover agent."
A loud crack made us jump and I looked back to Haven who was wincing and rolling her neck and shoulders, then straightened seeming a few inches taller. And here I was so excited about having a friend close to my height.
"What are you?" Simon asked, with no traces of disgust just complete bewilderment.
"A shape shifter." She picked up her bag, carefully tucking away a picture. "Can we go?"
"Like… a werewolf?" I looked at Derek with a frown but he shook his head. "Half-demon shape shifter?"
"New species." He said softly. "Rare. Really rare."
"Yup. Only other shifter still alive is a psychopathic murderer in the Cortez's custody." Savannah added cheerfully. "Bringing the grand total up to four that we know of, but hey, you're only the second generation… you know, it would be really hard to find other shifters, since you never look the same and all."
"Yup. The wonderful thing about Tiggers." Haven smiled but there was a definite spark of anger when she looked at Savannah. "Maybe someday we can compare ancestry, see who's got more bad apples in their family tree."
I tried to squelch the annoyance I felt with Savannah for being callous, reminding myself sternly that Haven was not my friend, just some agent using me when it suited her needs. Still, I couldn't seem to forget the fact that she had helped me with my senior project without asking anything in return. And I couldn't help but notice that she gave Simon a shuttered but regretful look, like she didn't like the way things had gone.
Savannah saw the look too and her mouth curved in what could generously be called a smile. A really scary calculating smile. I didn't think that Savannah was evil, but she did seem to act purely on impulse with very little interest or concern to the consequences of her actions.
"We're clear to leave." Haven waved at a guy who had ducked in to catch her attention and we all filed out the back door.
"So. Simon, are you going to come up to Stonehaven this summer?" Savannah asked casually. "I'll be there for a week in July, studying with Jeremy."
I shot a look at Simon but Derek scooped me around to his other side effortlessly, separating me from the others. When I glared at him he shook his head subtly and tilted a nod at Simon. I looked again, this time without the unchecked urge to protect and saw Simon giving her his token grin. I felt a self-satisfied smirk myself when I saw that it was the smile he'd developed over the past year, guarded and not touching his eyes.
"You know. I am planning to go to Stonehaven this summer since my brother is… you know, the Alpha's son. Thanks for letting me know when you'll be there though, now I know when to plan my visit to the California School of Arts."
Haven choked back a laugh and I noticed her veering away from us.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" I asked sharply.
"I left my car here earlier, I wasn't sure when everything was going to go down so…"
"We're coming with you." I said adamantly.
"I have room for one more on my bike." Savannah offered with a trace of smile still curving her lips.
I felt a surge of Derek's power, anger, white-hot. I hadn't realized how much he didn't like Savannah either. With his power came a wave of that mixed energy, where his and mine were completely and irrevocably tangled and I felt his anger like it was my own. I took a few shaky breaths, trying to reign in the lycanthropic instincts. "Simon. Get in the car. Savannah… just fuck off okay?"
Lycanthropic power: 1, Chloe: 0.
Haven unlocked the doors to a Toyota corolla and Savannah kicked her bike into gear and waved, completely unperturbed.
"Shotgun!" Derek said when she'd left, faltering as I glared at him. "You're not going to make me origami myself into the backseat are you?"
I glared some more.
He sighed.
We got in the car and I waited until Derek was in, making sure he wasn't going to make a break for the front seat. Then I climbed in after him, curling into his side. Despite everything I still felt the familiar thrill at touching him. I traced a hand over his stomach, slipping fingers in between the buttons of his shirt so I could feel his skin.
I felt a lick of his power again, not angry this time but still like a heat wave across my skin. While his body stayed a few degrees warm—I blame the fur coat—mine was always just a few degrees cool, probably something to do with my power having to do with dead things and ghosts and stuff.
It had been almost a week since I slept with his bare skin against mine—as the night before he'd kept a blanket as a barrier, not trusting yours truly to keep her mitts to herself—and I desperately missed the contact. I moved slightly so I'd be blocking the view of anyone who looked back from the front seat and unfastened a button in the middle of his shirt.
He caught my hand and I met his eyes, letting him see how much I missed touching him, how I missed running my hands along his body, and how little last night had done to ease that longing. If anything it had made it worse. His eyes burned the way they did when he was close to changing but I knew from experience that it just meant his body was very VERY stressed, and that only happened when he needed something. It could be the need to change or it could be this need, the aching desire to be as close to me as possible. I knew how it felt because I felt it too, like I'd die if I went another second without touching him.
He let go of my hand.
I slid it into the gap I'd made in his shirt, tracing my nails down the cut of his stomach muscles, then across his body until I found the line of his hip and ran my fingers along it, dipping just a fingertip into the top of his pants, only far enough to feel the material of his boxer-briefs (my choice, I like them so much better than boxers) but it was enough. I could feel the rapid rise and fall of his breathing as he struggled to appear like he was listening to Simon and Haven's conversation while actually trying to keep his mate from ripping his clothes off.
He pulled my hand out of his shirt and I dug my nails into his side, raking him gently as he disengaged me. That earned me a scowl, the effect of which was lessened by that burning desire in his eyes. I smiled slowly, feeling powerful and sexy and wicked all at the same time. He narrowed his eyes and I knew the tables were about to turn.
"Wait a minute, if you can look like anybody… how old are you exactly?" I heard Simon ask and changed my focus, curious despite myself.
Derek took full advantage of my distraction, snaking one arm behind my back, fingers stroking down my side and sliding his other hand up my thigh.
"I turned twenty-two in April." She glanced in the rearview mirror. "Christ you two, would you keep it above the waist?"
We jumped guiltily and Derek dropped his explorative hand but kept the other around my waist. I looked at the mirror suspiciously.
"Hey… wait a minute, you can't see-"
"Nope, but I figured." She grinned and I stuck my tongue out at her.
"You were probably right, it's like they're magnetized." Simon griped. "Worse than a thirteen year old boy with his first porno mag."
"Speaking from experience are we?" Haven grinned at him, sliding so naturally back into the persona of the friend I'd made that I couldn't help but wonder if that really was her personality, not just an agent doing her job.
Simon sighed dreamily. "Ah Jugs… how I miss thee."
Haven laughed. It was amazing how different she looked, I guess that kind of came with the territory of being a shape shifter… you know, shifting shape and all.
I looked at Derek to catch him sniff and frown, giving me a thorough once-over. "Who's bleeding?"
"I'm good. I'm assuming Chloe's good since you're not throwing a hissy fit. That leaves you." Simon looked at Haven. "Are you all right?"
"Oh yeah, no big, just need to swap some bandages when we get to somewhere with a bathroom." She glanced around at us, everyone giving her narrow-eyed assessing looks. "… What?"
"People in our family don't really get minor injuries." I said, checking her for any missing limbs.
"Seriously, it's just a small cut. Probably won't even need stitches." She sighed when we didn't look convinced. "It was a silly amateur mistake, one of those idiots knocked one of my knives out of my hands and while I handled his buddies and got in a side-swipe. I got lucky, barely a nick."
"Sounds like you got really lucky." Derek commented idly while squeezing me with one arm, knowing my history with knives. And guns. And claws. And flying shrapnel. Hell there wasn't much that hadn't scarred me.
"So what do you really look like? I mean like your true face?" I asked to change the subject.
She shrugged. "There's only so much I can change, and growing up I didn't know what I was so when I broke my nose or fell flat on my face…"
"It stuck." Derek supplied, getting interested now.
"Yup. No one could figure out why my flesh would stay that way and after awhile I started looking a little like Frankenstein."
"That must have been so scary." I said.
She shrugged again. "As shitty as it is, sometimes it's an advantage to not be pretty in the foster system. I got lucky and got a scholarship to California State and in my first year I sort of figured out what I am."
"How'd you figure it out?" I asked, lacing my fingers with Derek's.
"I majored in ceramics and sculpture." She grinned and Simon laughed. "So I got pretty good at shaping new faces."
"So why this face? You said that the other was based generally on what you looked like in school." Derek looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Surely you have a control, one basic shape."
"The picture." Simon said suddenly. "Is that what you use?"
She hesitated, then nodded. "I'd go crazy without something to remind me, this is the closest thing I have to a 'true' face." The last was directed at me.
We pulled up to the house and when we walked in Kit appeared in the hall quickly, looking worried.
"You haven't been gone that long, did something happen?"
Haven waved. "Hi Mr. Bae."
He stopped, frowning like he recognized her voice or her face but not both together.
"You have some explaining to do." Simon glared at Kit and he winced, looking like he was mentally running through things he could be in trouble for.
"Kit, this is Haven Smith." I introduced shortly, watching for his reaction.
"Oh! … Ohhh…" Kit looked between all of us, settling on Haven. "You're in charge of the on-location investigation at the school right? Do you need a way to get in or something?"
"Ah. Well… you see… Savannah Levine was put in charge of getting in touch with you about a month ago…"
"A month…?" He trailed off, giving her a sharp look. "Meaning what exactly?"
"We just busted three dealers and their main supplier about twenty minutes ago."
"Oh." He looked taken-aback. "Well… why don't you come in and catch me up."
"I'm going to go change into something less girly." I announced. "Don't go over anything I haven't heard yet!"
"Wait… I don't have to wear the suit anymore?" When I shook my head Derek beat me up the stairs, taking the steps three at a time.
I laughed and followed as Simon, Kit and Haven walked to the kitchen. I made it to the top of the stairs before I was swept up and pinned to the wall outside my bedroom. Derek's mouth met mine and I wrapped my legs around his waist, grabbing his coat and pulling him as hard as I could into the kiss, hard enough to feel his teeth and I ran my tongue over his sharper canines, eliciting a groan from him that made every inch of me tingle.
"This… is… a really… really… bad idea." He murmured against me, punctuating the words with hard kisses that started with a bite on my earlobe and ended at the base of my throat.
"Agreed." I jerked his face back up to meet mine and kissed him deeply as soon as I could reach his mouth. "But don't ever stop." I pulled back long enough to actually look at him, breath ragged and lips still parted and waiting to fit perfectly against my own again.
He shook his head sharply, trying to focus and looked down so I couldn't capture his mouth again. It took him a moment to realize that down was where my breasts lived and even though they weren't by any means big they were pressed in between our bodies with the only route of escape being the top of my dress.
He stared, frozen in place, then slowly raised his eyes to mine and I knew he was a goner.
"Derek… honey… remember how this is a bad idea?" I gasped as he lifted me higher on the wall, holding me there so he could move his mouth lower.
"Don't care." The words were a growl that never failed to turn me into jello… okay, maybe jello with like twenty gazillion nerves that all happened to be on fire at that particular moment.
"Derek." I tried to snap at him to get his attention but he chose that moment to brush his fingers up the back of my neck, tangling his hand in my hair and pulling my head back to expose my whole throat, and his name came out as a moan that didn't help the situation at all. "O-oh Christ, c-crackers!" I managed to gasp the safety word even as his fingers found the zipper on my dress.
That stopped him for just long enough to remember that we were supposed to be downstairs finding out why his dad had hired a shape shifter without telling any of us. I wriggled to get down and he stilled my hips with his hands, shaking his head slowly.
"Do. Not. Move." He managed to get the words out even if they were barely distinguishable from a growl.
I stayed still until I felt him start breathing again.
"You got it?" I whispered, my own vocal chords still more interested in moaning than talking.
He nodded and let me slide down, backing up so I wouldn't rub against every inch of him on my way down, which would have been kinda counter-productive. He moved a hand over his mouth and nose and I knew from experience that his control was at the breaking point if he had to stop himself from smelling me.
I slipped into my room and shut the door, falling against it with a frustrated sigh, one that Derek no doubt seconded a hundred times over. I felt him lean against the other side of the door, could picture him trying to explain to the half of him ruled by instinct and primal urges that there was a time and a place for those urges and now was not that time.
I smothered a laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. The person I was bonded to for life, essentially my soul mate, was separated from me through a door because neither of us could keep ourselves in check for twenty seconds.
"I don't see what's funny about this." Derek's deep voice came through the door.
"It's either laugh or scream in frustration sweetheart." I responded and pushed away from the door with a sigh, unzipping my dress and letting it drop to the floor.
I heard a muffled oath and knew that Derek could hear me undressing. While part of me wanted to drag it out and tease him further the part of me that wasn't a bitch knew that that was not one of my more brilliant plans.
I considered my shoes for a second, they were strappy and had taken me like ten minutes to put on and I decided that getting different clothes took priority. I pulled on one of Derek's shirts and carefully slipped on sweatpants over the shoes, tying and double-knotting the drawstring before telling Derek I was decent.
I was sitting on the bed, one foot perched on the edge with the leg of my pants pushed up over my knee so I could unlace the darn rubiks cube heels when he opened the door, having changed into jeans and a t-shirt, he took one look at me and shut it again with more curses.
"Why the hell didn't you take those off first?" He said when he got his language PG.
I stared at the door. "I didn't think they were the main cause of the problem. Also they take a freakin rocket scientist to get on and off so it's going to take me a minute."
"Goddamnit. I'm taking a really really cold shower. You can tell the others I'll be down in a minute." He stomped huffily down the hall.
I stared at the door for a few more seconds, then dissolved into helpless giggles.