Wow, how long has it been? I'm sorry but with school ending, finals, and a cruise I only got back from yesterday, there's been no time for fanfics. Sorry…but at least it's longer than usual.
I used the spare key to slip inside my house, pausing in the entrance way to dump Derek's backpack on the floor. I had barely taken two steps forward before I saw a flash of brown and gold and all my limbs just froze.
"Tori, who is- Chloe, what are you doing back?" Simon narrowed his eyes at me as he stepped around the corner. Tori, who had been the one to put me in a binding spell, removed it immediately and crossed her arms.
"Where's Derek?" she asked suspiciously.
I felt the hands at my sides clench into fists. "Long story. He went to Lyle house alone and by the time I caught up he was already gone." I left out the little ghost bit, not wanting to frighten them unnecessarily. "I bought a bus ticket to come back here to get you guys before we all go to rescue Derek."
They were silent for a minute, deep in thought. Eventually Tori sighed. "How exactly did you get separated? I thought the plan was for you two to both go."
My face turned beet red as I struggled for a believable response. "He…He went ahead b-b-but I g-got lost…"
"Derek wouldn't just leave you like that," Simon said confidently. "Did he get hurt? Or," he swallowed noisily, "kidnapped?"
"No, no, nothing like that! Well, except now maybe…Ok, really, now we just need to focus on rescuing him," I prayed they would let the matter drop.
I almost sighed with relief when they did, though both of their mouths turned down into thin-lipped frowns. "Do you have any idea where they would have taken him?" Simon called over his shoulder as he temporarily disappeared into the dining room, emerging a moment later with two bulging backpacks. Seeing my eyes on them, he explained "we thought it'd be better if we were ready to leave at a moment's notice. So, if you just want to run and grab some things…"
I did, sprinting to my room to grab a handful of random clothes to shove into Derek's backpack, alongside the remainder of the cash.
Stepping back out into the damp early morning mist (me having taken a night bus so as to get back ASAP), we hesitated.
"Now where to?" Simon said as we stood on the front lawn, the dew soaking into our sneakers.
I led them out of the wet grass. "Just outside of Manhattan." I began walking in the direction of the bus stop.
"That's where the Edison Group has their lab?" Tori quirked an eyebrow.
"No," I didn't dare look at their expressions. "That's where we're going to jail."
"What?" they screeched together.
"In the jail there is someone who can help us." I tried to sound more confident than I felt. The article that I had hastily tucked into a pocket seemed to grow heavier.
"Who?" Tori wrinkled her nose, looking disgusted. "I don't want to get involved with any dangerous criminals-" Simon nodded his agreement.
I sucked in a deep breath, bracing myself for what I was about to say. I had no idea how they would take the news. "May Souza."
I kept looking ahead, dimly aware they had both stopped walking behind me, halted by surprise.
"May Souza?" Simon repeated after a moment. Reluctantly I turned to face them, some ten paces behind me.
"Derek's mom?" Tori's mouth was puckered in a little 'o'.
"Yep."
Simon's brow creased. "But she's…she's dangerous. I mean, a total loose-cannon. You should hear some of the stories my dad told me about her when Derek wasn't around to hear them…"
"She's Derek's mother, Simon," I snapped, "She'll want to help us."
"You don't know that!"
"Well, we can't exactly march into the Edison Group HQ by ourselves because in case you forgot, that doesn't work out so well. Where else would you suggest we get help?" I waited fifteen seconds for his answer before turning and striding towards the bus stop. Simon and Tori followed me without further complaint.
Arriving on the outskirts of NYC, we dismounted the bus. A taxi drove us to Gardiner prison, a formidable fortress complete with steel gate. Just driving into the enclosure of tall concrete walls made me feel like I was being caged. At that moment I vowed to myself that whatever trouble I will inevitably get in, I will never let myself go to jail.
Entering the lobby-type room in front, we were immediately approached by a pair of men in identical security guard uniforms. "Can we help you?"
"We'd like to speak to one of the…inmates…" The word tasted funny on my tongue, thick and unpleasantly syrupy. It was hard to choke out.
"Who?" the guard was nonplussed.
"May Souza?" Please still be here, I prayed. Please let her talk to us.
"Your relation to her?"
"Family friend."
They nodded, accepting the lie. Well, I guess it wasn't totally a lie…I mean, I was friends with Derek and she was his family, right? That was the logic I was going to hold in my mind.
We were led down a narrow claustrophobic gray hallway to a long room split in half by a wooden counter and a wall of glass. Every few feet was separated by cubicle-type segments, blocking visitors from each other for privacy There was even two telephone on each counter section, one on each side of the glass, so people could hold conversations with the inmate.
Simon, Tori, and I perched on a cluster of chairs in the cubicle at the very end of the row. As there was only one other visitor, speaking in hushed tones to a man in an orange jumpsuit six rows down, we figured there was a pretty good chance we wouldn't be interrupted.
"Send in Souza," one of the guards spoke into a radio. An affirmative came over the system and then we were forced to wait several minutes until at last an orange figure was hustled into the room and shoved roughly into the chair on the other side of the glass. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the first look at May Souza.
It was hard to believe this was Derek's mother. For one thing, she was petite, only a few inches taller than me and rail-thin. Her son would dwarf her if they were to stand side by side. I wasn't sure if height was a werewolf thing or just a gene thing, but either way he clearly inherited it from his father.
May was also a blonde, honey-colored hair chopped short to curl around her ears. She was deathly pale but that only served to illuminate her eyes, her only identical feature to her son. They were the same glittering green, and equally piercing as she looked us up and down cautiously (or at least as much of us as was visible through the tiny glass window).
I lifted the phone off the hook and placed it on the grimy wooden counter, facing up so all three of us could hear. After a moment's hesitation she lifted the other phone and held it to her ear.
"Who are you?" the words were sharp as if she'd spent the past hour scraping them against a rock to be used as a weapon. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tori even flinch at her tone.
I decided to focus solely on her eyes, even though thy were the most hostile part of her. At least, in that way, I'd be able to pretend I was just talking to Derek. "Are you May Souza?" I answered her question with a question of my own, needing to make sure before I began talking supernatural.
She bit her lip, eyes shifting uneasily between the three of us. While before she had seemed the predator, she now acted like a cornered prey. At last she nodded, jerking her chin down in one sharp motion.
"Derek's mother?" I pressed. Hurt flashed through her eyes as if I had physically struck her.
When she spoke, her answer was a firm, "no." I would have despaired if not for the reaction she gave upon hearing Derek's name. She did know him; the only question that remained was why was she lying about it?
"You don't know him." Another head shake, though it had been more of a tactful statement than a question. I felt like a lawyer.
"No, I don't-"
"Liar." Simon's cheeks flared with heated anger at this denouncing of his foster brother, probably his favorite person in the world now that Kit was a betrayer.
"I-"
"You're Derek's mom and he's in trouble and now you're going to help him." I was both awed and fearful of the steel that had darkened Simon's omnipresent cheerfulness. Here he was, polite little Simon, ordering around a woman in jail.
The head that had begun ducking immediately snapped up. "He's in trouble?"
Tori snorted. "So much for not knowing who he was," she said, just loud enough for Simon and I to hear.
"What happened to my son?" May demanded with the fierceness of any mama bear.
"He was…kidnapped," I half-lied. "By the Edison Group."
She gave a low curse before glancing nervously over her shoulder. "Alright, meet me at the far side of the prison tonight, as soon as it gets dark."
"But you're-"
"In jail, I know." She rolled her eyes at my apparent stupidity. "I can get out."
"How-"
"Just meet me." She hung up her phone, effectively ending the conversation. A moment later two guards showed up: one to escort her back to her cell and one to lead us to the main lobby.
"What now?" Tori sighed.
I leaned in closer to the two of them, dropping my voice to a whisper. "We're going to meet her."
That night found us crouching in the bushes outside a jail. "You know," Simon whispered to no one in particular. "If we were to get caught, tomorrow night we'd be on the other side of this wall."
"Sh!" I hissed. Tor just glared at him.
Not to be deterred, Simon made another attempt at conversation. "So do you really think she'll be able to break out? I mean, I think Chloe may have been taller than her-"
"Simon," Tori spoke through gritted teeth. "If you don't shut up, I will shut you up," she threatened. "Permanently." The tiniest spark of electricity jumped between her fingertips, too low for anyone who may have been watching to notice. Simon, taking the hint, kept silent after that.
We waited for hours, crouching low in the shrubbery until my calves were screaming in protest. Just when I had decided to sit down, noise-causing or not, a muffled thud resounded behind me.
I whirled to see a still orange-clad May dusting herself off, rising from a crouch.
"You just jumped off a twenty foot wall?" Tori raised an eyebrow. May shrugged.
"I'm still trying to figure out how you even got to that part," Simon threw up his hands with confused frustration.
She snorted. "You didn't think Derek got his werewolf powers from his father, did you?"
I looked at her again, really looked at her, straining to see the wolf. Derek I could believe was a wolf. This woman who's body matched my own in both height and bust was one too? I wouldn't have believed it had I not just seen her fall twenty feet and land like a cat (or perhaps more accurately- a wolf). Normal people didn't just do that.
Without another word, May turned and began marching away from the prison, head held high as if she didn't care who saw her. It was almost as if she was daring the guards to notice her and try to stop her. I doubted they'd be successful, even if they did.
My friend and I were more cautious, ducking our heads and trying to scurry along in the deepest shadows. After several minutes on grass, we reached a sidewalk then a bus stop. It being the middle of the night, it was deserted.
"You," May pointed a spindly finger my way. I swallowed noisily. "You have an extra pair of clothes?" Half embarrassed, I fished out a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Giving me a smile so small I might have imagined it, she accepted the clothes and retreated behind a tree to change. The three of us politely looked away, staring down the empty street inside.
"Think we can trust her?" Tori breathed, tilting her head towards me.
It was Simon who answered her. "I don't know. I mean, she seems sane enough, but my dad said she's got a screw-loose-"
"I heard that!" May called, not angrily so much as resignedly. She emerged from the tree, looking out of place in my childish clothes, even though they fit. "Don't believe him, Kit's just biased. I assume you're his son? His Simon? You look a lot like him…"
Simon blinked at her. "I…yeah but how…well now he's…" he gave up explaining and fell silent.
"I knew Kit a long time. Used to even be friends with him, until he stole my kid." What were we supposed to say to that? We didn't.
"So, I know who you are, but what about you two?" she jerked her chin at me and Tori.
"Victoria Enright. Tori."
I saw Tori bristle, ready to deny all ties to her mother if May were to suddenly start cussing her out, but all she said was "Hmm…" before turning to me expectantly.
"Chloe Saunders." If my name rang a bell, she didn't mention it.
"So you're a…"
"Necromancer," I supplied.
"I see." From her expression it was impossible to tell what she thought of this.
At that moment the all-night bus rolled around and creaked to a stop. There were only two other passengers: a weary man in a suit with a briefcase and an elderly woman catching flies. Neither looked particularly threatening but May led the way to the backmost rows of the bus.
"Now," she said as she sat down across the aisle from us, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "Tell me what happened to my son." Her eyes as she glared at us were almost accusatory.
"Well…" Simon glanced to me as if for permission to tell the story.
I gave a little shake of my head. I'd have to be the one to tell her, as it was my fault.
"On the news, it said my dad had commit suicide." She showed no reaction to that, instead keeping her eyes locked on my face. "We…we didn't believe he actually would so we went to my old house to look, you know, for clues…"
"'We' being you, Simon, Victoria, and my son?" she interrupted.
I bit my lip, thinking of Aliena, Liz, and even Rae. "Well, there had been more of us but they…they died."
"Oh." she bit her lip. "They're serious this time."
Not knowing how to respond, I continued with my story. "We found a…ransom note, I guess, telling us to meet at Lyle house."
"The group home."
I nodded, not bothering to ask how she knew that. I wanted to finish my confession as fast as possible. "Derek and I decided to go together, so we wouldn't be…alone," my cheeks turned bright red as I realized she had no idea of the relationship between me and her son. "Simon and Tori were going to stay behind in case we needed backup to escape again. But when we were almost there…" I trailed off as I realized Simon and Tori looked just as intrigued as May. I remembered I still hadn't told them of Derek's trick. I still didn't want to tell them, either. "We got separated."
"How?"
I didn't bother answering her. "He got to Lyle house before me and they…took him. Not knowing where they had gone, I bought a bus ticket to go back to Simon and Tori. We knew we needed help to bust him out, and thought of you."
"Why me? Why not Kit or Lauren?" I gave a little start as she mentioned my aunt's name. So she had known her.
"Because my dad betrayed us," Simon spoke calmly. "And we couldn't think of anyone else. You were our only choice."
"Thanks. I feel so wanted." she gave a wry little smile before her expression immediately darkened again. "But did Kit really…" she trailed off, not seeming to be able to come up with the proper words to conclude the statement.
"He's with the Edison Group now." Simon confirmed, and only someone who knew him as well as I did would be able to see the pain that hung in the back of his eyes.
May nodded ever so slightly as if this made sense. If Simon expected any other condolences, he didn't get it. "And Lauren?"
I thought with a pang of my aunt, God knows where, probably imprisoned. "We don't know where she is."
"And yet you could find me?" May raised an eyebrow.
I didn't bother to reply.
Realizing I wasn't going to respond, May sighed. "Well, thank you for telling me all of this. Now get some sleep. We're going to need it."
Comforted by the parental order I had been given, no matter who it had been given by, I did as asked, tucking my face against the headrest and closing my eyes for sleep.
What do you think of Derek's mother? Sorry if her personality isn't consistent, I was having trouble imagining her. Who woulda thunk Derek has a mommy?s