A/N: At long last, here's Chapter 8. I take full responsibility for this being so late, aside from being insanely busy, I also had terrible writer's block, but fortunately the lovely and talented Briee took pity on me and gave me a hand getting this chapter finished. Chapter 9 should follow pretty quickly. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: We are not Kelley Armstrong, we don't own Darkest Powers, we make no money from this.

I was an idiot. I was a big idiot. I should go off and set up a little idiotic kingdom full of other idiots, but I would be the queen for the simple reason that I am SUCH AN IDIOT!

Only then did I realize that I had half-shouted the last few words aloud and I was now getting some pretty strange looks from passersby on the street. Sighing, I reluctantly squared my shoulders and headed into a coffee shop. Tori was waiting at a table, her hair shoved carelessly out of her face as she created code in a frantic, staccato rhythm.

"Your hot chocolate is waiting," she said without looking up, gesturing at the counter. "It's been paid for."

"Thanks."

The guy behind the counter was a Justin Bieber lookalike, and I had to hide a grin as he "casually" tossed his long bangs out of his eyes before handing me my drink with an extremely friendly smile. "My name's Tom," he said, not letting go of my cup. "If there's anything else, I'm all yours."

Yikes. I'm pretty sure my neutral, people-friendly grin turned into a ok-dude-back-off sort of look. Derek always says that I shouldn't be so afraid to be more direct, but it just goes so against my nature. Ugh. Even thinking of Derek just made me mad all over again, and I yanked my cup out of Tom's hand with a sound that had Tom recoiling and Tori's head coming up in shock.

She stared at me the entire time I marched over to the table and threw my bag into an empty chair with a little more force than necessary.

"Ok, either wolfie came back and saw that tool drooling over you or you just growled at him."

Crossing my arms petulantly felt a little juvenile, but I had seriously had it with guys these days. I had a boyfriend who was mad at me for trying to protect him like he was always trying to protect me, a clueless father I was trying to protect from my crazy life, a pervy demon wanting to make whoopy, a peeping-Tom ghost harassing me and now Tom, all of them slowly driving me insane.

"Yeah, well, I've had it with men right now," I grumbled, staring at my reflection in the window.

Tori smirked, and I heard several little clicks as she saved and shut down whatever she had been working on. When she was done, she closed the lid of her laptop and focused. That's one good thing about Tori; when she pays attention to you, she really pays attention.

"Ok," she said, wrapping her hands around whatever high-octane caffeinated drink she was currently abusing. "Give me a quick run-down of what we know, then tell me what happened with Simon today and we'll figure something out."

Taking a deep breath, I watched my reflection as I pulled myself together, digging down for that iron core that had gotten me through the early days of discovering my powers.

"Here's what I know: I killed Mark. His soul is now bound to me in some sort of sick way. We've tried every possible banishing spell that we can get our hands on and we can't get rid of him no matter what. I screwed up by not telling Derek right away, but then it felt like it was too late. Then, my best buddy Valefar decided that he wanted to assume human form and make little demon-necro babies with me. I – obviously - told him hells to the no. He offered to possess Derek instead, seeing as how I supposedly wouldn't mind getting knocked up with demonic spawn if it was by him, but then that would add a werewolf component to the demon-necro babies, and wouldn't those just be the most messed up kids ever." A breath before I continued. "He possessed Derek to try and prove that I wouldn't mind the whole possession thing. Derek now knows there's something really wonky going on and is frustrated with me because I'm not being straight with him. And now I really need to talk to him, and I really wanted to go to Stonehaven to talk to Jaime this weekend and…and…" Furious with myself, I burst into tears, getting even more upset at my inability to hold them back. But even as I hated myself for the weakness, it just felt so good to let it all go, to freak out a little bit and admit that I was in way over my head.

"Ok." Tori's expression didn't even change; I had to give her credit for not pulling a shock-and-awe on me. "You wanted to talk to Jaime this weekend, right?"

"Yes." I pulled a couple of napkins out of the dispenser and blotted my damp cheeks. "I was just really hoping to confront Valefar or Mark with her next to me and able to see them."

Hissing erupted from the cappuccino machine over in the corner, which partially covered Tori's snort. "Hello, Chloe, this is the digital age calling."

Frustration made my temper a little shorter than usual, and I found myself snapping back, "Yeah, Tori, I know how to use a freaking computer, ok?"

A couple of years ago that would have triggered a full-on rage directed at yours truly, but now she just grinned at me, her fingers toying with a stray lock that was curling around her neck. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd be such a bitch." Clasping her hands, she lifted her eyes to the ceiling. "I'm so proud!"

"Get to the point," I grumbled, tacking on a "please" as a belated attempt at politeness.

"Skype her," she said simply, instantly dropping the act and getting back to business. "Wolfie's obviously not going to be any help, and you don't really have time to get to Stonehaven before your deadline with what's-his-face tonight."

Crap. I hadn't realized how late it was…Valefar had given me until tonight to answer him. Remembering that, I wanted to cry again, but instead I sighed and grabbed my purse.

"You're right. Let's go back to my place so we'll have some privacy."

Justin Bieber/Tom eyed me from under his bangs with a tentative half-smile, but I just slung the strap of my purse over my shoulder and waited impatiently for Tori by the door.

We got back to my place and Tori set everything up. I then texted Jaime and asked her if she was free to Skype. Within half an hour, she was online and our video call was set up.

"So why couldn't a simple phone call work?" Jaime asked after we said our hellos. "And why is your boyfriend here sulking? When I asked him why you hadn't come along, he got moody and mumbled something before stalking away. Rude, if you ask me."

"He's mad. He knows I'm hiding something from him."

"Are you pregnant?"

"No!" I all but screamed.

"Sorry," Jaime said, laughing. "It's just the first thing that popped into my head. Is this about the ghost thing?"

"Mainly, but I have another problem. See, there's this demon…"

"Say no more. They are tricky devils. Want you to do their bidding because as much as they think they are all powerful, without necromancers, witches and warlocks, well they wouldn't get too much accomplished in this world. Except produce offspring of course." Jaime stopped for a moment. "Did a demon want you to have his babies?"

"How did you know?"

"Back in the day… Wow, that makes me feel old…Anyways, back when I was just coming into my powers, I had a run-in with a demon who offered me something that I really wanted and asked me to have his baby in exchange. He took on the form of this nice Spanish-looking man, but the eyes were all wrong. I managed to get him to help me in exchange for something else, but it took some convincing for him to leave me alone."

"Valefar - the demon - tried coming to me as Derek."

"You mean he took on Derek's appearance?"

"No, he possessed him. I never told Derek what happened but he knows something's up. I think that's part of the reason why he went up to Stonehaven without me."

"Not that I'm taking his side," Jaime said, "but I kind of see his point. He's upset that you're keeping something from him. Do you blame him?"

"No, but it doesn't stop me from being hurt."

"By being truthful with him, you could have avoided him being hurt and in turn indirectly hurting you."

I knew she was right and I told her so. "Unfortunately, though, acknowledging that I screwed up doesn't solve my demon problem. He told me he can make Mark go away for good. In return, he wanted me to spawn his child. I told him no. When he possessed Derek, I told him to let him go, that I would do whatever else except that."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because none of the banishing spells worked against Mark. He always found a way to come back."

Jaime was silent for a few moments and I wondered if my computer had frozen. "I need to call some people. I'll call you back later."

We said our goodbyes and I asked Jaime to ask Derek to call me, since he was ignoring my calls. She told me she would see what she could do and logged off.

Sagging in my chair, I looked over at Tori.

"Think we'll get to kick some demon butt?"

Within an hour, Jaime called with a plan, though it was still in the developing stages. The witch and warlock couple she called - I think their names were Paige and Lucas - were going to look up spells that could help, but they knew more or less what had to be done.

Our plan was in place and I was ready, but Valefar never showed. I heard Mark's voice trying to talk to me, but it sounded far away. I put the volume higher on the t.v. to drown it out and by the time I was ready for bed, he was silent.

The next morning, I was uneasy about Valefar's no-show. What could it mean? Had he decided not to make a deal with me? Had something kept him away? What did demons do with their spare time?

Since I had no answers to these questions, I decided to try Derek's cell again.

"Hello?"

"Hey." The casing of my phone creaked from the pressure of my grip on it. It was so good to hear his voice.

There was silence on the other end. "How are you?"

"Tired," I replied. "I haven't slept well since you left."

"I'll be back tonight."

"I know. I was hoping I could see you."

"I don't know when I'll be home."

"Oh." It was my turn to be silent. "Well if you're home early enough could I stop by?"

"I'll come over."

"Promise?"

"I'll see what I can do."

He was brushing me off. "I would really like to see you tonight. I wanted to talk to you about some things."

"Yeah, sounds good." In a softer tone, he added, "I'm sorry about leaving you behind. I have to go. We'll talk later."

As I listened to the dial tone, I was shocked. Derek rarely apologized. Could he truly feel bad about leaving me behind? Did Jaime mention something?

That evening, I waited impatiently for Derek to call me. As much as I wanted to get him on the phone as soon as possible, I knew that if I shouldn't push it. He was hurt and I needed to fix things, but he needed to come to me. I knew it was the right thing to do… but that didn't mean I liked it.

Around ten, I shut off the light and got ready to go to bed. As I crawled between the sheets, I heard someone come into the house. Thinking it was my dad, I peeped my head out of my door into the dim corridor. "Dad?"

"It's me." The deep voice of my boyfriend registered and I was shocked. He never used the key I gave him to get in. He liked the ritual of knocking and being allowed in.

"Derek," I said, relieved. "I'm glad you came over."

"I wanted to see you," he said. I moved over so he could come into my room. As soon as I had closed my door, Derek was pressing me up against it. His lips crashed into mine and I could feel his desire pushing against me. He kissed my neck and bit it softly. His hands went up my shirt, igniting my skin and he cupped my bare breasts.

I moaned as he rubbed his thumb against my nipple. Pulling my shirt off, he placed his mouth on the hard nubs and I could feel myself getting turned on.

Derek got on his knees and started kissing my stomach above the waist of my shorts. His hands moved up my legs.

"Derek," I moaned, "look at me."

He did as I asked. But when his eyes met mine, I recoiled. The light coming from the window shone directly onto Derek's face. But his eyes weren't the green I was used to.

They were orange.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" I screamed, wrenching my body away from him. My arms flew to cover my chest as I backed away in a panic.

"See how easy it was? You obviously want him. It could have been so easy to give you my child and you would have never known." With that, Derek's body crumpled to the ground.

I ran to him, no longer caring about my partial nudity. Clutching his head, Derek looked up at me with confusion and fury in his eyes.

"Chloe? What in the mother fucking fuck was that?" It was colorful swear, one I might have laughed at if it wasn't directed at me and the situation wasn't so dire.

"One minute I'm getting into the car to come talk to you, the next, you're standing in front of me half naked." He looked down at his pants. "What the hell is going on?"

Kneeling next to him, I took a huge breath. "Derek, we need to talk. I've been keeping something from you and I'm sorry."