Atoning (Darkness Rising 3.1)

"Mike said it just takes longer with werewolves." A soft thud. "And there he goes. Better lie down, kid. That's a long way to fall, and you're going to hurt yourself--"

A bigger thud as Derek slumped to the floor. The man sighed. "I tried to warn him. Okay, two down, two to go. Send out the rest of the team. If the necro and the wolf are here, then cat-girl and the witch-hunter won't be far behind."

The door shut. I scrambled up. Liz was kneeling beside Derek. As I crawled over fast, he opened his eyes. Then, he rose, sitting, and gave himself a shake, blinking hard.

"You're all right?" I said. "That sounded like a hard drop."

"Yeah, I gotta work on my pratfalls. Having my hands tied doesn't help."

He blinked harder, lips curling in a yawn.

"The sedative?" I whispered.

He nodded. "It's not enough to knock me out, but I could really use a nap." He made a face. "Just give me a couple minutes." He shook himself and then peered over. "You're okay?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, should have asked that first. Definitely a little fuzzy."

"Are you going to be all right?"

"Eventually. Just hope they don't come barreling through that door in the next five minutes." He craned to see his hands. "They've done a good job with the bindings. I'll need to be more awake before I can snap them."

"Liz thinks she can help me untie mine. If I can do that, you can save your strength."

"Hey, Liz."

"Hey, sleepy," she said, smiling. "You're a lot friendlier when you're tired, you know that?"

I relayed the message. He only chuckled, his eyelids flagging. Liz hunkered down, watching him, her head tilted.

"You've both learned a lot, Chloe," she said. "But one lesson he's not picking up? That you can take care of yourself. I mean, it's really sweet that he worries about you and looks out for you. You don't want a boyfriend who doesn't care. With Mitchell-- Oh, wait. I haven't seen you since Mitchell finally asked me out. On a date. A real one. We went to..." She trailed off and made a face. "Sorry, brain-flit."

I laughed under my breath. We weren't the only ones who'd changed in eighteen months. When Liz finally accepted she wasn't coming back, it had marked a change in her, too. She wasn't the girl I'd met, flighty and a little bit, well, unfocused. There were still hints of that girl, though--the brain-flits, as she called them, her mind temporarily zigging down another path.

"As I was saying," she said. "As nice as it is that Derek watches out for you, you'd have both been a lot better off right now if he hadn't come charging to your rescue."

"He didn't," I said. "It's part of the plan. It's safer for me and Rae on the inside if he's here for muscle. Also, his nose can help us find Rae's mother. But if Rae showed up with both of us in tow, it'd have looked suspicious. So we did it this way."

"He faked coming after you so he'd get captured. Good plan. But now that I'm here, I can find Rae's mom for you. You guys hang tight and sleep it off. We'll spring this trap as soon as I get back."

Eleven

Liz was gone exactly the right amount of time--long enough for Derek to get a wolf-nap and for Rae to stir from her sedated sleep, but not so long that I started worrying our captors would reappear any second.

"Found her!" Liz said when she popped back in. "Oh, hey, Rae. Been a while."

I conveyed the greeting. Rae looked abashed. They hadn't exactly been friends in Lyle House. Well, Rae hadn't been friends with Liz. I think Liz had considered herself friends with everyone. To Rae, Liz was just a blond ditz. I'm sure that would have changed if she'd believed me about Liz's death, but she hadn't, and this was the first time she'd "seen" Liz since that.

"I'm really sorry that..." Rae cleared her throat. "I mean, obviously, I'm sorry you're..."

"The word is 'dead,'" Derek said.

Rae scowled at him.

"What?" he said. "You were trying to avoid saying it, which only makes it worse. She's dead. The Edison Group killed her. It was a shitty thing to happen to anyone, but even shittier for Liz. She was--is--a good person who really didn't deserve that."

"Aww," Liz said. "That's so sweet. Tell him that's sweet. And that I totally take back anything less-than-sweet I've ever said about him."