Okay, sorry I'm a day late, I've been busy, busy, busy! And I have to admit, I'm a tad bit disappointed. A whole week and only 3 reviews? That makes me depressed and not one bit eager to update again. But I will grudgingly accept it and move on and post chapter 3. Hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I'm not Kelley Armstrong, so I don't own the Darkest Powers series. End of story.
Chapter 3: Perfect
When Chloe woke up the next morning Derek had already left. It saddened her that she didn't get to see him before he had to go, but that was how it always was. Sometimes she woke up when he left and he would kiss her on lips or forehead, tell her good morning, then order her back to sleep, orders which she would normally obeyed almost instantly. But other times she would sleep right through his departure and wake up with his place in bed beside her cold. It always saddened her when this happened, Derek was never selfish enough to wake her when he left, and when she woke up alone, she could still feel the ghost of his presence there beside her, but it was a sad thing because it was where he had been and wasn't anymore.
But her sadness never lasted long because she would see him when she left her room. He would either be in the kitchen or on the way to the bathroom, or just walking around the house without a purpose, but she would always see him. But not today, she thought glumly, because we're in a motel, not a house.
With a sigh she heaved herself out of bed - trying not to wake Tori who had taken up Derek's space in the bed - and stood, stretching out her arms and back, her toes digging into the carpeted floor. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand, it read 6:36.
"Jessa." Chloe knew the werewolf would wake up at her voice.
Jessa groaned and shoved her head under a pillow.
"Jessa, when are we supposed to leave?" Chloe asked, assuming the werewolf would know, or at least hoping she would.
"Who cares." Jessa's voice was muffled and groggy, "Go back to sleep, Chloe." And Chloe watched as the werewolf's breathing slowed and she fell asleep in a time span of 5 seconds, something that Chloe could never accomplish, now matter how tired she was.
Chloe sighed again and walked to the bathroom. The curtains on the windows were drawn, which meant that the room was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing. She stubbed her toe on the leg of Jessa's bed, making an extremely loud thunk! sound. Chloe heard Jessa growl, having accidently woken her up again.
"Sorry." She whispered, but Chloe wasn't sure if Jessa heard before falling back to sleep.
She was preparing herself to walk into the bathroom, her mind sending her flashes of the murder scene from the night before while she told herself that it was just a bathroom and she wouldn't see a thing, when there was a loud knock on the door to their room.
"For the love of Christ!" Chloe heard Jessa exclaim, "Can't a girl sleep for five minutes without being woken up?" Jessa got out of her bed and marched over to the door that Chloe was unlocking, "Back up, let make sure it's not a kidnapper or something." Jessa grumbled irritably, waving Chloe out of the way.
Chloe stepped away and Jessa flung the door open and Derek stood there waiting for them. He smiled at Chloe and was about to say something when Jessa snapped, "This had better be good."
Derek looked a tad bit startled, but then said, "We're leaving in a half hour, make sure you're ready."
"Okay. Bye." Jessa slammed the door and stalked off back to her bed, "Chloe, wake me when you and Tori are ready to go." And then she was back to sleep.
Thankfully Derek didn't knock again, because Chloe was sure that would've sent Jessa on a rampage. Instead, she opened the door and slipped out into the hallway, making sure she left it open just a tiny bit so she could get back inside. Poor Derek looked like he was in a state of shock, and Chloe laughed and put a hand on his arm, "It's okay, she's just not an early morning person."
Derek eyed the door, "You don't say?" He shook his head and smiled at her. Chloe loved his smile, mostly because he didn't smile that often. But when he did smile, when it was a genuine smile, it brightened his whole face. It was such a huge contrast to his normal serious and calculating demeanor, it made her feel good when his eyes brightened with laughter, when his skin seemed to glow with joy. And it made her feel even better when it was directed towards her because it meant that she was the cause of his happiness, that she was the reason his world wasn't cold and serious. It just made her feel good.
He grabbed her in a hug and kissed her forehead, "How did you sleep?"
Chloe closed her eyes, drowning comfortably in Derek's presence, "Fine, better than I thought I would anyway." Derek tilted her head up and kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, gently with his lips, she could feel the happiness radiating off of him.
"That's good," He said moving his lips down to her throat, feeling his warm breath on her skin, causing her eyes to flutter without her consent.
"Mmm-Hmm..." Chloe agreed, trying her best not to faint from pure bliss as his lips traveled up her neck.
And then they both abandoned all pretense of having a conversation as Derek kissed her full on the lips. Chloe was lost in a blissful bubble full of happy rays of sunshine and music as Derek kissed her. It seemed like both forever and just a few seconds before he broke his lips away from hers and he looked at her, his eyes bright, his lips wet, and she blushed, unable to believe that she had just been making out with him in a public place, even if was a motel hallway.
"You should go get ready." he murmured, nudging her towards the door to her room.
"Nope, I'm good." She tightened her hold around his neck, her arms having somehow gotten up there at some point, and she balanced on her tip-toes to keep them wrapped around his neck as Derek straightened up to his full height.
"I'll see you soon." He kissed her one more time on the lips before dropping his arms from around her and breaking free of her grasp with almost no effort. Darn werewolves and their super strength.
Once Derek had disappeared back into his room Chloe turned and went back into her own room, sighing sadly, but smiling all the same, happy with her wake-up call.
The next half hour was a blend of yelling at Tori to wake up, hurrying to get dressed and presentable, and trying to keep quiet so Jessa could sleep, which was really hard to accomplish. But when their half hour was up the three girls were all walking out of the motel and towards the car, bleary-eyed, impatient, and tired, but there nonetheless.
Once everyone was loaded up in the car they all promptly fell back to sleep.
Chloe had her head pressed against Derek's chest, his arm around her shoulders. She was so unbelievably bored. She was really starting to get tired of all of this driving, whether it was to keep them safe or not, she no longer cared. She had tried sleeping, that tended to pass the time, but once they stopped to eat lunch, she was unable to sleep anymore. She had spent some time talking to the others, but then Jessa and Simon secluded themselves by listening to Tori's i-pod and Tori decided to take another nap. Her and Derek had talked for a while, but then he became preoccupied with watching everything they passed outside the widow, probably memorizing the roads they took if they ever needed to retrace their steps or something.
So now Chloe was stuck to her own thoughts as the minutes ticked by. She preoccupied herself by mentally composing a letter to the President explaining why Kentucky should be moved closer to New York.
Mountains. Chloe was never the star in her Geography class, but she was pretty sure that there were no mountains in Kentucky. But of course she was proved wrong as soon as they crossed the Virginia-Kentucky border.
When she mentioned this out loud, Kit answered her by saying that only Eastern Kentucky had them, that the further west they traveled the less mountainous the land would become.
The scenery fascinated Chloe, and she shifted in her seat so she could watch it all pass by. The roads snaked through the mountains that towered above them covered in green vegetation, and Chloe could imagine what kind of movie she could film here, maybe something set in the 40's the plot revolving around the poverty then. Hmmm...
Then the mountains slowly transformed into hills the farther they traveled. Chloe never knew land could be so hilly. Looking out the window she could see hill upon hill upon hill, one rising up behind the other, fading into the distance until the land converged with the sky. She composed a list of all the different movies she could film here, what kind of shots she could take to show the scenery and how she would take them.
Then they entered Lexington, the race horse mecca of the US, and things became more interesting. By then Tori was awake and Jessa had tired of listening to music, so all three girls entertained themselves by looking out at the horses as they passed. Lexington made Chloe feel like a little kid again, on the sides of the roads were pastures upon pastures of horses, and you had to look quickly out one window the turn to the window on the other side for fear that you might miss something. So the girls contented themselves with gazing out the window, shouting whenever they saw a horse so the other two could see it too. And it was springtime so they saw multiple foals prancing around their mothers, all tiny and cute.
But once they were out of Lexington things became boring again.
"We're almost there." Kit kept saying over and over again, which became real old after the first half hour, and even worse after the second one. But to Kit's credit, they did hit the afternoon traffic, so things went a bit slower, which was just what everyone wanted.
Tori had been complaining from the beginning, of course, that was just Tori. Chloe could tell that both Derek and Jessa were getting restless, they were shifting in their seats and having trouble focusing on anything; maybe it was a werewolf thing, maybe they had been in a confined space for too long and needed to get out and get blood running through their limbs again. But whatever the reason for their restlessness, neither of them said anything, always the polite werewolves, more concerned about others than themselves, and at this moment both of them wanted to get to the next safe house as soon as possible.
It was late when they finally arrived, the sun had set and the moon lit the sky, and everyone was tired from sitting in the car all day long.
Chloe stumbled out of the car, her legs numb and her body didn't feel connected with her thoughts. She would have fallen had Derek not caught her, saving her from a face full of gravel.
"Thanks." She mumbled, then yawned right afterwards, closing her eyes as tears appeared.
"Come on." Derek wrapped an arm around her, supporting her weight, keeping her from falling as the walked up the gravel drive-way to their new home.
The house was quite literally in the middle of a forest, a long gravel drive-way that looked ancient leading up to it. No other houses were in view and Chloe doubted that there were any for miles around. The house itself was a two-story brick house that looked at least a hundred years old, and Chloe wondered if she would be seeing any ghosts in there. She shivered at the thought.
Derek rubbed his hand against her arm, to warm her, without even looking down at her. His head was turning back and forth, his nostrils flared, his eyes searching the forest that was just beyond the yard, surrounding the house in every direction. Chloe knew he was on the look out for anything unusual and more importantly anyone unusual.
Glancing behind her, Chloe saw that Jessa was wide awake and doing the exact same thing as Derek.
"I'll circle the house quick," Jessa murmured, turning her head to hear a sound somewhere far off in the distance, "Don't let anyone separate." Derek nodded and Chloe watched as Jessa took off in a silent jog and disappeared around a corner of the house.
With Jessa and Derek acting so cautious, Chloe suddenly found herself fearing what she couldn't see. Had someone managed to follow them? Were they waiting for them in the trees around the house? What if someone really was out there? Was Jessa going to be okay? Derek stopped walking, his head cocked, listening to something. They were still a few yards from the front door, and Derek held out an arm, signaling them all to stop. He frowned, he was definitely listening to something.
"Try going into the forest and checking for a scent trail, anything recent." Chloe heard Derek say. She sent him a questioning look, not sure if she should talk or not. "Jessa says there's something wrong." he answered her, not whispering and his stance relaxing, telling everyone everything was okay, there was no one out there, nothing to fear.
Then Derek rolled his eyes, "Jessa says that something isn't wrong, it just feels wrong to her, and that the most recent scent trails are from a family of rabbits, a deer, and a groundhog, so we have nothing to worry about."
Chloe nodded, and relaxed a bit, happy to know that their safe house was still safe, glad that she would soon be in bed and asleep with Derek beside her.
Chloe didn't hear Jessa, but she saw her shadowed figure as the werewolf slowly jogged her way out of the forest beside the house. She stopped next to Simon and took his hand, Simon kissing her forehead gently.
"Nothing?" Simon asked, looking down at her.
"Nothing." Jessa replied, resting her head on his shoulder, "But something still feels weird. I don't smell anything, and I don't hear anything, and nothing seems unusual, but something still makes me uneasy."
"Uneasy how?" Kit asked, frowning thoughtfully.
Jessa shrugged and made a face, "Just sort of a 'don't go there' feeling. It's toward the toolshed in the backyard, on the very edge of the forest, and it gets worse the farther into the trees you go. I can't explain it."
"I'll go check." Derek said, and he removed his arm from around Chloe. She gripped his hand, causing him to stop.
"Be careful." She whispered quietly, so only he could hear her. He gave her a warm smile, a smile that made her stomach flip, and bent and kissed her lips softly.
"I will." he whispered, before backing away and silently running around the corner of the house and out of sight.
"Oh, come on!" Tori groaned, "You stupid werewolves take forever! I want to go inside and sleep!"
"Shut up, Tori." Chloe, Simon, and Jessa said in unison, which caused Tori to huff and puff and cross her arms dramatically, but she stayed silent.
Chloe rang her hands nervously, shivering in the night air, suddenly cold without Derek's arm around her, his body against hers. She waited anxiously for him to return, knowing he wasn't really gone for as long as it felt, but she was worried. Werewolves had strong instincts, in them lived the animals that humans had long thought inferior, but that animal inside them had base instincts. That animal knew when to fight, when to run, and when something was wrong. If Jessa sensed something was wrong, then odds were something was wrong. And the thought of Derek walking into trouble worried Chloe.
She remembered how she felt just months earlier, watching as Derek ran after the three werewolves that had cornered them in the forest after Jessa's first transformation into a wolf. She remembered how worried she had been, knowing that somewhere past her range of perception, Derek was fighting and getting hurt. She remembered how Derek returned, bearing new cuts and bruises, saying Jessa was hurt. And then how Jessa spent hours fighting for her life afterwards, her life blood seeping out of her, how devastated Simon had been.
She remembered how she had almost lost her best friend, how Jessa had almost died, and now all she could do was think if Jessa's and Derek's roles had been reversed.
What if Derek had been the one who had been seriously injured? What would she had done? Chloe wasn't sure. Even just the thought of Derek dying right before her eyes made her want to break and fall to pieces. If Derek died what would she do? What could she do?
She loved him. She loved him with all her heart, and even though they fought (it was Derek, of course they fought) and even though they shouted and argued, in the end she still loved him. She didn't want a boy she could just wrap around her finger and order to do whatever she decreed; because that meant that he would no longer be the boy she fell in love with, he would just be her puppet.
What she wanted was Derek. She wanted to know his point of view and what he thought. She wanted him to be himself, however annoying it was at times; she wanted him to be the boy she fell in love with in the first place. She wanted him to listen her ideas, her thoughts, and her fears, wanted to hear his opinions on what ran through her head. She wanted him to question her actions and plans, causing herself to notice the flaws in them that had before remained hidden to her. She wanted him to be Derek and only Derek, because that was all he ever could be and that was all she ever wanted him to be, and that was why she loved him.
And so Chloe shivered in the night air, the moonlight casting weird shadows on everything, making their new house look slightly scary. She waited for Derek to return, but minutes ticked by and she became more and more worried as her thoughts of losing him redoubled inside of her head. What if Jessa was wrong and there were enemies out there, lurking in the forest, waiting to pounce when he was busy looking for the source of Jessa's 'bad feeling'?
She glanced at Jessa, her friend looking pale and beautiful in the moonlight. Jessa was gazing out past the tree line, an unreadable expression on her face as she searched the forest. She didn't look worried, Chloe concluded, but then again werewolves were good at disguising their feelings when need be. But if Derek were in trouble Jessa wouldn't be standing there, and Jessa would be able to hear if something happened to him, right?
As if she felt Chloe's eyes on her, Jessa looked away from the trees and glanced at Chloe, who was watching her worriedly. Jessa instantly guessed what was going through Chloe's head and smiled, "It's okay, Chloe, he's fine. He's just making a wider circle of the perimeter, making sure everything is alright. He should be coming back soon."
And in less than a minute Derek was jogging out of the forest and back to her. He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her close to his chest, rubbing his hands up and down her arms, trying to stop her from shivering.
"Did you find anything?" Kit asked, as Chloe closed her eyes, laying her head against Derek's chest as warmth seeped back into her.
"No." Derek replied, running his fingers over Chloe's face, "I didn't feel what you felt Jessa, and I went farther out than you did, but I didn't pick anything up that felt unusual."
Jessa frowned and gazed out into the forest, her eyes searching for something that wasn't there.
"Maybe you're just tired and your sense are muddled. It is pretty late, and you woke up early this morning." Simon said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Maybe..." Jessa's voice said she didn't think so, her eyes still glued on the forest.
"Well, I'm about to pass out form exhaustion." Tori said, "Can I go inside now?"
And after both Derek and Jessa quickly searched the house everyone was aloud to go inside. Jessa and Chloe shared a room again, and so did Simon and Derek. Aunt Lauren, Kit, and Tori all had their own rooms. Chloe quickly dressed in her nightclothes and brushed her teeth, not afraid of seeing a murder scene in the bathroom after having gotten Jessa's reassurance that there were no residuals in the house having checked when she and Derek were making sure the house was empty.
When she was ready for bed, Chloe went to find Derek. He was alone in his and Simon's room, looking out the second story window and into the forest beyond.
He didn't turn when she entered, but she knew he knew she was there. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his back, absorbing the warmth of his body.
"Are you going to bed?" She asked him, which really meant, are you going to come into my room later?
Derek turned and drew her towards his chest, running his hands up and down her back gently, "I will, but I want to check over the house some more before I do." Chloe knew what that meant. It meant he was going to go outside and guard the house until Jessa came outside to relieve him of guard duty, taking over his job until dawn. The two werewolves always did that for the first few days in a new house. They never fully believed they were safe, not after the incident a few months ago with Jessa almost dying. They would guard the house at night for about a week before believing they were well protected and that the guard duty wasn't needed.
"Okay," Chloe said, backing away from him to head to her own room to sleep, trying not to sound disappointed.
Derek didn't let her go, but brought her up in a hug, squeezing her waist tight, pressing his lips gently to hers in a warm gentle kiss that always surprised her in contrast with his huge form. Then he set her down, looking deep into her eyes. She looked just as deeply into his, his own dark in color from the lack of light. His eyes seemed so warm and full of held back happiness that she was reminded once again how she was the one who managed to bring this big teddy-bear manner out of him, replacing his usual serious disposition. "Good night, Chloe." he murmured.
"'Night." She replied, a small smile on her lips, her heart warm and jittery. She turned and went to the door, and her bed.
She was exhuasted, but as she faded into unconsciousness she remembered her thoughts from earlier: Derek was Derek, and he was perfect and wonderful and all she ever wanted.
Anyone else enjoy that? I thought it was pretty good. Going a bit deeper into Chloe and Derek's relationship. So... please review... if anyone is reading... I would love it... it would make my day... give me an incentive to finish writing chapter 4... which I still haven't finished... which means it will be posted whenever it is finished... which means you might have to wait more than a week for this one... Sorry...
Thanks- Cheerfully Blue