  We explore the possibility of obtaining heavy hybrid stars within the
framework of the two flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with 8-quark interactions
in the scalar and in the vector channel. The main impact of the 8-quark scalar
channel is to reduce the onset of quark matter, while the 8-quark vector
channel acts to stiff the equation of state at high densities. Within the
parameter space where the 4-quark vector channel is small, and the 8-quark
vector channel sizeable, stable stars with $2 M_\odot$ and above are found to
hold quark matter in their cores.
