A bit of a shorter chapter up ahead! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: These characters belong to the ever so creative Miss Kelly Armstrong

"Chloe!"

Rae's hands were quickly moved and replaced by my aunt's engulfing hug, but I couldn't find the strength to raise my arms to return the favor. After a few seconds, she pulled away and gently held my chin, looking around my face to make sure there wasn't any sort of permanent damage. She tsked at what she saw.

"I swear. There was way too much going on under the noses of those nurses at that house. They're supposed to take care of you, not send you back with even more cuts and bruises."

I opened my mouth to say something, but my throat suddenly felt too dry, and I could feel tears start to prickle in the corners of my eyes.

She turned away from me. "Rae, sweetheart, would you mind giving us some time to catch up?"

She nodded and smiled that same smile she gave Dr. Davidoff, assured that these doctors and nurses only cared about what was best for us.

"Of course! I'll go let the guys outside know. Just a heads up, she's still struggling to remember how everything went down."

Aunt Lauren nodded. "Of course, thank you, Rae, I'll come grab you before dinner starts."

Rae got up and said her goodbyes before leaving the room, leaving me alone with Aunt Lauren. As she sat across from me, brushing the hair out of her eyes and looking tired and worn, I couldn't help but feel happy to see her again. It wasn't until I heard Liz whisper in my ear that she would leave us alone for a bit that that happiness rotted away.

Aunt Lauren was here, working with the people who murdered Liz.

Working with people who believed in superpowers, when she threw me to a group home at the first hint of trouble.

She smiled at me, but when I couldn't smile back, and she sighed. "I know, I've been keeping a few things from you, but it was with good intentions, Chloe. I was honestly hoping that what had happened was an episode, and that it would fade again in time."

"A-again?" I asked quietly.

She nodded. "You might not remember, but when you were little, you were constantly telling your parents about boogeymen in the basement, or the nice old women who would come up to your bedroom and ask you what your favorite color was." She laughed quietly and shook her head. "Your mother was so worried about you."

"You and Mom both knew? And you never thought to warn me? To tell me anything?" I asked, my voice rising slightly. They knew. This whole time, I was afraid I was crazy, or that something was wrong with me, but they knew. And they kept it to themselves.

"Necromancy…" she started, her voice dripping in hesitation, "...is a strange gift. Some are able to handle it, but many aren't. Before you were born, we had a death in the family because of it." She sagged a little at this. "Chloe, you didn't know this, but your mother and I had a brother, too. You see, every power is passed down from generation to generation. Witches, wizards, necromancers… they all inherit their powers, like how a child inherits blue eyes or red hair… Our brother - your uncle - had the same gift you did. But this gift slowly drove him crazy. He was barely 21 when he died…." Her eyes stared off for a bit before she shook her head and continued. "It was a long time after that when you were born, but when you started showing signs, your mother and I were scared." She looked up at me then, almost pleadingly. "We didn't want the same thing happening to you. It's why your mother or I never said anything… We thought that if we could fix it…" She stopped, shaking her head. "Edison group, the group we're in now, offered us a solution. So, about the time you were five or six, we took you here. They promised that they had found a way to block this, and, after the next few appointments, it seemed to have worked. It wasn't until recently, that…" she gestured toward me, not finding the right words to say. I looked down at my hands, having a similar problem

After a few seconds of sitting in silence, I decided what I wanted to say to break it.

"Aunt Lauren…. Do you know what they did to Liz?" I looked up at my hands then to see her face pale, and I felt my heart suddenly grow cold.

"I-" she stopped and swallowed before trying again. "I heard the gist of it. That she was becoming too much to handle, and that she had seriously hurt one of the guards. Dr. Davidoff said that she was losing control, and that it was the only way."

I gave a dry laugh. "It looks like Dr. Davidoff has been saying a lot of things." I couldn't help the bitterness that escaped into my voice. In that moment, I felt that the words belonged more to Derek than they did to me, and a part of me ached, still not knowing whether or not he and his brother were still alive.

"No, Aunt Lauren. Liz didn't put up any sort of fighting. She was crying on my shoulder when it happened." My voice cracked at the end, and I put my head down in my hands, rubbing my eyes. Liz was still with me, in fact, she could still be with others, if they wanted to read everything instead of listening. I needed to keep it together, I couldn't afford to break down, not like when Mom died.

I sighed as I looked back up, my aunt Lauren's face even more pale than it was before. At least I could rest easy knowing that she didn't know it was going to happen, nor did she like it.

"Are the others here? Besides Rae?" I asked quietly. "Or are they gone now too?"

She slowly shook her head, slouching forward and staring at the ground. "No." She answered tiredly. "No, they're still out there. Besides you and Rae, the only other child here is Derek."

My head snapped up at this. "He's okay?" I asked, relief beginning to flood through me.

Aunt Lauren nodded, her gaze hardening somewhat, and I couldn't help but think back to that time where she had showed her strong dislike for him.. "Yes, he's alive. But the last I heard he wasn't cooperating well."

The relief that was flooding through suddenly stopped. If he wasn't cooperating…

I leaned over and grabbed my aunt's hands. "Aunt Lauren, is there any way you could take me to him? Maybe I could talk to him -"

She shook her head. "No, I don't have the authority to be where he is. And even if I did, I wouldn't." She squeezed my hands, looking up at me and her gaze softening. "Chloe, he's dangerous, the farther you stay away from him, the better."

I looked at her, surprised. "Aunt Lauren…" I said slowly, taking my hands from hers, "he's just a kid. Liz was just a kid. I've seen dangerous, and he's not it. Your boss, on the other hand…" I shook my head, removing my hands from hers and placing them on the wheels of my wheelchair. "Did you know that Dr. Davidoff put the gun on me too? It was right before he shot Liz. Instead of hiding away and letting me get shot, Derek came out to stop him."

I rolled a little away from her, my eyes narrowing and my voice hard. "It's not Derek that's dangerous."

I turned my chair around, but before I faced the door, there was one last thing she needed to know.

"That cure that you were talking about," I said, pausing. A short sound of movement let me know that she was still listening, so I continued, "it never worked either." I stated. "I just stopped talking about it."