All right fine. Your begging and flattery has suckered me in. Quick note. I'm also basing the characters off of a little free e-story that Kelley Armstrong wrote called Dangerous, which if you Derek fans have not checked it out you really should. It's written from his POV, you can find it here .?act=ST;f=136;t=26388;&#top

Ayonne, thanks for your interest, I was thinking that Simon would be a little grossed out by Derek's change, even if he's more concerned about him. The little run in with them in the woods un-romanticized that whole adventure thing.

Kate and Ghost- Thank you, you're awesome!

Love It and Moon Lover- Here it is! No need to hunt me down and gorilla glue me to my laptop!

Greek and Panda- I think I'll gracefully bow out of this one and let Chloe have him :p

Emo Taco, Burning Bright, Body&Soul and Kj- I'm really glad you're enjoying it, that's why I write, I'm a fan who writes for fans so we have something to read while waiting (super impatiently) for that last book!

I'll have chapter five up in a few days, promise.

-Az.

Chapter 4

I woke up feeling like something was wrong. Instinctively I knew it was Derek, I really needed to research that necromancer-werewolf thing. I shot out of bed and considered running downstairs in my pajamas but decided that if Andrew saw me coming out of the boy's room in just my jammies uncomfortable words would be had. I quickly dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and a flannel shirt. I even put on my sneakers and grabbed the heavy black wool coat Andrew had bought for me when the weather started getting cold.

As I ran down the hall and rounded the corner I smacked into Simon who was coming down the third floor hall with a panicked expression.

"W-What's wrong?" I gasped as soon as I had gotten my wind back.

We were already moving down the stairs. "Derek's shifting again, it's only been like nine hours!" We heard a car in the driveway as we reached the bottom floor, Andrew back with groceries. "We should ask him for help!" Simon started turning back around.

"No!" I replied instinctively without breaking stride. "The less people involved the better!"

He hesitated in the hallway before following me. When we got to their bedroom I braked and took a few deep breaths, it wouldn't help anybody if Derek saw me looking scared or panicked when I saw him. I pushed open the door and yanked Simon through by his shirt, shutting and locking it quietly behind us.

Their room was dark and shadowy, I realized that it was because it was snowing outside, not a blizzard but definitely coming down hard. If I were setting up the ultimate anticipatory horror scene I couldn't have made the light spookier. It made the room almost black and white with the only light coming from the window.

A noise drew my gaze in slow motion to the threshold of the boys bathroom where Derek was sprawled halfway through. I hurried to him, making my steps loud so he knew I was coming. He seemed almost unconscious, which I knew was a really bad thing from my werewolf research.

The first thing I had looked up was new werewolf changing—or phasing if we were getting technical. If a werewolf for any reason lost consciousness during phasing they would get stuck in between forms. Which—in case your imagination is not as vivid as mine—is way hardcore icky bad. To the max.

"Derek?" I walked around his prone form as Simon hung back.

Without warning his spine arched backwards and the skin split, spilling jet black fur down his sides.

"Derek!" I rushed around and saw his eyes half-closed and his breathing labored. As his eyes drooped I did the only thing I could think of, I slapped him. "Don't you lose consciousness on me!"

Ok. Let's take a minute here to be stunned. If you asked anyone who knew me before getting my necromantic powers that I would have the guts to slap a guy who could bend me in half, much less a half-changed genetically modified teenage werewolf, in the face/muzzle they would laugh. Timid Chloe smacking around a guy twice her size… yeah, six weeks ago, not gonna happen.

Glowing green eyes snapped open and Derek's lips pulled back from his teeth, bearing white sharpened edges.

"Fine. Be pissed at me." I grabbed the sides of his jaw, jerking his face inches from mine. "Just don't leave me alone." I said the last so quietly that I almost couldn't hear myself. I was sure that my expression was just as surprised as his. I suddenly realized that facing my life as a supernatural without my friend and partner in the unknown as far as our future was concerned was unbearable. I couldn't do this alone and Derek was the only person who really understood that. "Now breathe and remember how to be human."

I knew he was too exhausted to finish the change and he would get stuck if he pushed too hard. He was too smart to try something so stupid and dangerous.

"Come on you idiot, you can do this." I was horrified to feel the prickle of tears behind my eyes as his body slowly started pulling back fur and claws. I looked at the floor and blinked furiously, clearing my eyes before looking at Simon.

He was looking at us with the strangest expression, something like respect, relief and a touch of envy. As I looked at him he settled on relief and knelt next to me.

"He's going to be ok?"

"Yeah. His body is trying so hard to not be human." Anything else I may have said was cut off as Derek pushed himself to his knees and lost his balance, rolling enough at the last minute to rock onto his back. "I'm going to get back upstairs. I think we've got at least six hours before he tries again but I'll check back in three ok?"

Simon nodded and helped Derek into the bathroom. I waited until I heard the shower turn on before rubbing my eyes and heading upstairs, I made it halfway down the hall before I heard someone call my name.

"Chloe? Are you going outside?" It was Andrew. He gave a smile that seemed a little forced but that may have just been paranoia on my part, I smiled back. "Could I talk to you for a minute?"

I hesitated, not sure why but not wanting to talk to him.

"It honestly won't take long."

I couldn't refuse without a good reason and without being rude so I followed him to the kitchen in the back of the house. "What's up?"

"I've been talking to a necromancer I know in Canada, he wants you to go train with him."

My jaw dropped. I knew Andrew was a straight-to-the-point kind of guy but this was blunt even for him. I had to admit I was a little shocked but excited as well, the book was great but training with a real necromancer was too good to be true. Maybe a little too good to be true. I did my best excited expression. "That's amazing! When are we all going?"

"If you want, one of them can ride with us to drop you off. But Simon and Derek will be staying at the safe house while you work on controlling your powers." He said firmly. "It's the safest way. You guys will all be back together in no time, I promise."

"Ok… well I really wanted a couple of weeks to finish the Necromancia and test my new containment things." I pulled up my sleeves to show my bracelets. "I finished them and I can already tell that I have a lot more control."

"That's great Chloe. But you know that without someone guiding you that's just like putting a collar on a wild dog."

I heard the shower shut off as Andrew was talking and prayed that Derek wouldn't look like death when he came out for breakfast.

"It's not my fault that I got stuck with something so disgusting!" I shot back, losing my sweet girl mask in my frustration. Weirdly the shower turned back on, Simon must have been taking a morning shower too. After such a stressful wake-up call I totally understood. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be snippy. I just… I want to try to figure out some of this stuff out and Derek has been doing some tests that should help us understand more about what they did to us." I didn't have to tell him I meant the Edison group, he knew.

Andrew put his hand on my shoulder with a sympathetic look. "I know this is all scary and a lot to take in, but training with someone who knows what they're doing will make all that easier."

I got my expression under control before looking up at him. "If you think that's the best thing to do, then I'll do it. When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow." He smiled at me and squeezed my shoulder in a fatherly gesture. "I assume you want Derek to ride with us? So you can talk about those tests?"

I nodded, trying to keep my face neutral. Andrew had made it very clear that he didn't trust Derek and avoided him whenever he could, that he would suggest that Derek be the one to ride with us over Simon was a little suspicious. But again, it could be paranoia.

I looked up to see Simon coming down the hall to greet us, looking like he had just woken up from a restful night's sleep. He yawned and stretched, grinning at the two of us. "You guys getting breakfast or what?"

I frowned at Simon's hair, which was dry as I heard the shower shut off for the second time. "No thanks. I'm not hungry." I mumbled and went back up to my room.

It was a few hours before my stomach overtook my desire to be emo and I went back downstairs to grab a snack. To my chagrin, Tori was in the kitchen, eating a salad.

"Look at what the cat dragged in." She said, glancing over me. "Would it kill you to put on some makeup? You're disgracing our gender."

"Why? The only people around are us. That's no reason to put on makeup." I looked at her lined eyes and mascara-laden lashes.

"Whatever. I thought you would want to look your best around your boyfriends." She drew out the word, making me shift uncomfortably.

"Nobody is my boyfriend Tori, I am single, a concept that must seem totally alien to you." I grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and washed it off.

I was lucky enough to get twenty seconds of silence before, "So. How's controlling your powers going?" She asked with a mean smile. She idly rolled an orange around the table without touching it.

"Good actually. Now I just accidentally send zombies into other people's beds at night." I bit into the apple and was satisfied by Tori's shudder.

"You are disgusting you know that? Gross powers, gross face, gross personality."

I rolled my eyes. "How third grade can you get? Seriously? You think calling me gross is going to hurt my feelings?"

"Seen Auntie Lauren lately?" Tori shot back with a curl of her lip.

That struck a nerve. I tightened my jaw and glared at her. It still amazed me just how much of an insensitive bitch she really was. Every time she pushed me I wanted to tell her that her father wasn't her biological father. That she had some crazy sorcerer who didn't give a crap as a daddy, but it just wasn't in my nature.

"Get a conscious." I rolled my eyes and walked out the door.

I overheard Simon telling Andrew that Derek was napping because he'd had a bad night's sleep and paused in the hallway. Andrew had never expressed concern for Derek's well being before and the paranoid survivalist in me was already on edge from my earlier encounter with him. Simon passed me and I ducked back into the stairway shadow. He didn't see me and walked out the front door with a basketball in hand. Andrew was silent and I almost peered around the stairs but he walked into the study on the opposite side and shut the door. I crept around the long way, ducking into the dark dining room with an adjoining door to the study and knelt to listen at the keyhole.

"-No it's got to be tomorrow!" Andrew was saying in an adamant whisper. "Those kids are uncontrollable and danger to the others!"

I had the sneaking suspicion that he was talking about us, and by us I mean me and Derek. Tori and Simon could do some damage but their powers never got the better of them on the scale that mine and Derek's did.

I rocked back on my heels and felt my back hit someone's chest. A big chest, with an adjoining hand that had snapped over my mouth moments before I even touched him, smothering my yelp of alarm.