Authors Note: Gosh! I'm so happy that the reaction was so positive to my story. I had thought that some of it might seem like fluff, and likewise I'm worried that some of this will seem like fluff but I'm hoping not. I don't know if anyone is even reading this note but I want to thank everyone who reviewed it. I responded to everyone except my very first reviewer because for whatever reason it would not let me so, thank you cocobutterlybonbons for being the first and being so sweet!! I'm a little hesitant to do anything to radical for fear of losing readers, but I have to be true to what's in my head otherwise the story might sound weird. I have all these ideas for possible plot points, which totally surprises me cause I always thought I was a write what's in my head at the time kind of writer but whatever. Thank you again, I hope you like it!(:
On a personal note, just if anyone cares, I totally got a ticket today. From a cop! Yeah for jaywalking!! Who cares about jaywalking? Nobody. I was walking home from school and he just gave me a ticket. So yeah, I just wanted to vent a little, now on to the main event! Disclaimer: none of these characters belong to me and P.S. just because I forgot to say it in the last one, and I'm never writing a disclaimer again for this story, just take it as a given. But I wanted you all to know. And now the main event for real;)
"Chloe!" I heard Liz yell. "Tori's gone! They took her!"
As Liz rushed back in the room with a look of panic on her face, I swore, which earned me a very surprised look from Kit and mocking raised eyebrow from Simon. I reminded myself that they didn't know what had happened, having neither bionic hearing or necromancer powers.
"Something happened to Tori," I explained, looking back to Aunt Lauren. "Who's on the phone?" When she didn't answer I turned to Derek and repeated my question.
"I don't-" he began, and then paused, "I don't know." He looked frustrated. I could only imagine what that was like for him. He was used to having all the answers. For a second, I forgot our situation and became lost in his pain.
It was Simon who snapped me back to reality. "Chloe, what's going on? Who has Tori?" Maybe it was just me but I thought it seemed like he cared more than he would have yesterday. I know he would have still cared, but maybe having Tori as a sister didn't bother him as much as I had thought. He seemed protective and caring like a guard dog. I laughed in my head, maybe we should leave that position to Derek, but he reminded me why I always wanted a brother.
Growing up, most of my friends had siblings. I was always jealous but I never shared it, especially after my mom died. I couldn't imagine putting that burden on my dad with as much as he worked and how stressed out he was. I just always hoped that maybe he would meet someone. She would never replace Mom of course, but maybe I could have someone who was around all the time who I could tell me secrets to; someone that I didn't have to introduce myself to every time we moved.
I knew from Simon that it was hard to move even with a brother, but still, it was an out of reach desire that I never really gave up on.
"Chloe!" Simon again, breaking into my reverie.
"Aunt Lauren," I called hoping for answers. All I got was her back turning to me as she listened to what the caller had to say. "Derek," I turned to him. He was staring intently at Aunt Lauren hopefully waiting until he had enough information to tell me. As soon as he looked down though, Aunt Lauren hung up.
"Chloe, I don't know who that was but they have Tori," Aunt Lauren looked pained but instead of continuing, she pulled Kit off to the side with a hushed, "Can I talk to you outside?" Bewildered, he followed her.
Both Simon and I turned to Derek, knowing that whatever Aunt Lauren was hiding, he would know what it was.
He looked uncomfortable being in the spotlight and shifted nervously. "I'm not sure you should know," he mumbled.
If Derek was keeping secrets then I was pretty sure it was something bad. So I said nothing. Apparently Simon shared my viewpoint though he still looked upset that he wasn't being let in on the secret. Unlike me however, Liz was desperate for answers.
"Chloe, you can't just accept that! We need to know! We can follow them, we can get her back!" she insisted. "They can't have gotten far, we'll just have Derek track them until we find them and-"
"Liz, hold on a second, we don't even know who it is," I reminded her gently.
"Yes we do," a voice rumbled from behind me, "Simon, I… I think it was your mom." Simon looked stunned. "Your birth mom," he clarified, taking Simon's expression for confusion.
"I know who you meant," Simon said, a little peevishly. "We didn't even know where she was. She disappeared when I was only two. That was before I even met you Derek. How could you know anything about her?"
"Well," he paused, I stopped for a second, trying to think back to the last time Derek had looked this distressed. "I've… you know… seen home videos and stuff," he shoved his hands into his pockets, his eyes staring at the ground.
Simon sat down looking baffled. "I just never imagined that I'd ever even hear about her again."
"She's not coming back for you, Simon," Derek said trying to look at his brother's expression. It may have sounded cruel or harsh to anyone else, but I knew that he was just trying to be blunt, keep Simon from getting his hopes up, because if that happened, he'd be crushed, his dreams dashed, when he realized his mother wasn't back for him.
My Aunt Lauren and Kit came back in before Simon could respond, which might have been a good thing because I don't think even he knew what he was going to say. I was so preoccupied with Simon that at first I didn't notice how white-faced Kit was, or that my aunt had begun to speak.
I looked at her, and tried to make it look like I had been listening from the beginning. If she noticed, she didn't say anything.
"Kids, there's something we have to tell you," Kit began wringing his hands looking like this was the last place in the world he wanted to be, as well as with the last people.
The part of me that desired nothing more than to help everyone and make things easier for anyone that I came into contact with forced me to blurt out, "We know."
"Oh," he looked both relieved and annoyed and shot a glance to Derek. "Good. Well there's something else that you need to know, that Derek can't have told you yet," his gaze shifted to Simon, and rested there for the next several seconds before going on to say, "Your mother knew about the Edison Group. I told when you were young that she didn't mainly because I thought she got out of their business. That was the reason she left. She didn't want to go on the run when she knew that all they wanted was you. Your mother is human, but she was a lawyer just like me and the Edison Group was recruiting at that time. They always needed to be prepared for legal action. And so it went. We fell in love, we had you, and they promised an easier life for you. That was all we wanted.
"Obviously we realized that that wasn't the plan at all," he said bitterly, "and so we ran."
When he trailed off, things got quiet, giving me a chance to mull over what had just been revealed to me. My inner voice and I began to argue making me question if I really did have a little bit of schizo in me.
Obviously if he wasn't willing to tell you the truth we can't trust him.
Yeah right, he's Simon and Derek's dad. Of course he's being honest with us. What would he have to lie about anyway?
Oh I don't know, maybe he wants to get back with the woman he loved.
The woman he loved doesn't exist anymore if she would steal his daughter.
She probably doesn't know that she's his daughter, obviously if she was working with someone else, which she is because why else would she want a teenage witch/sorcerer, they wouldn't have told because some kind of moral conflict could have arisen.
Maybe, but I doubt it, if she's working with someone else, which I also think she is, I doubt she really cares about her old life because clearly she knew Kit would be here because that's the only way they could have tracked Tori down. Through him.
My inner voice had nothing to say to that but I could hear her fretting. Finally she came up with something to argue about.
They could have so easily come in and grabbed us too. They could have frozen Derek, so he couldn't warn us, and then grabbed all of us.
Or just shot us.
They didn't just shoot Tori. They want her for something. We need to talk to someone who was involved with the Edison Group. You're a necromancer! Summon up some ghosts!
Or the demi-demon.
But even as I thought it a chill ran through me. I didn't think she had wished me any harm, Diriel. I don't think I could forget her. The full demon that had shown up had forced her to leave, right? Or had that just been a clever ruse to get her out of her contract? But she had promised to help anytime after that I needed it.
Thinking about the full demon sent a chill through me so deep that it made my bones quake. Even a demi-demon, the most powerful thing that I could imagine was frightened of him. I didn't know his name but he had petrified me to my core. The very thought of him made my blood run cold. Also, something the demi-demon had said, I couldn't remember it exactly but I knew, or speculated I guess would be more accurate that he had wanted to sire a child with me. But before I had time to dwell on that, Diriel jumped into my head again. I thought only men demons made children. Everything I had read about them in Andrew's had said demons sired children. That indicated men, but maybe no one had met women demons?
While all of this intrigued me, unfortunately I knew that I didn't have time to think about it. Tori was missing and I had to find her. I decided a good way to do that was by summoning the Diriel, and asking her to help.
Just then I remembered that only Tori and Simon knew about her and maybe Aunt Lauren. And I couldn't imagine that Derek was going to take it well. Summoning a demon? Even I thought it sounded stupid. But I thought it would work, so I wasn't going to let him talk me out of it, not if it could save Tori.
"Derek," I began firmly, determined not to take no for an answer, "there's something that I need to tell you."
Authors Note: I stayed up to finish that for you guys! I'm on the east coast though so some people on my side of the country might already be in bed, who knows? Review it please(: even if you already reviewed the first one. Haha review them all! I'm going to be a monster; I can just see it coming! Look what you all have created!! Thanks again for all of the encouragement!