Did it matter? Either way, his powers had killed him. I kept telling myself ghosts couldn’t hurt me, but in my gut I knew I was wrong, and here was the proof. Just because you can’t reach out and push someone off a roof, doesn’t mean you can’t kill him.
Your mom had been looking for help for Ben before he died. Our family had some connections in the necromancer world, and eventually someone gave her a contact name for the Edison Group. Only Ben went off the roof a month before she got the message. Later, when I started med school, I contacted them. If they were scientists, they could use doctors; and if I could help people like Ben, that’s what I wanted to do. Your mom wasn’t involved. Not then. That didn’t come until she wanted to have a child.
She’d planned to have kids even after what happened to her brother?
As if in answer to my question, Aunt Lauren wrote:
You have to understand, Chloe, it’s like any other genetic disorder. It’s a risk we accept. If we have a child and she has the power, then we deal with that. Your mother wouldn’t take that risk, though. Not after Ben. She wanted to adopt, but with your father, that wasn’t an option. There were…things in his past. The agencies didn’t consider him a suitable parent. Your mother was miserable. She wanted children so badly. She looked into other alternatives, but they all cost money and at that time, your parents were living in a rat-infested hole downtown. Every penny they earned went to your father’s new business. Then I told her about a breakthrough with the Edison Group. A team had isolated the genes that conferred powers for necromancers. By testing the potential carrier of that gene code and the proposed human parent, we could determine the likelihood that a child of that union would be a necromancer. Jenny was so excited. I ran the tests on her and your dad…and it was almost certain that any child they had would be a necromancer. I tried to persaude her to consider other options, maybe artificial insemination with another biological father. But she was so tired and so crushed that she just didn’t have the energy to consider alternatives. And she suspected I was trying to come between her and your dad, because I’d made it clear I didn’t think he was right for her. We didn’t talk for almost a year. Then, I called her with the most amazing news. A breakthrough, here at the lab. We couldn’t give her a child who wasn’t a necromancer, but we could eliminate the dangers that killed our brother. She could have a child who could speak to the dead on her own terms.
But it hadn’t worked out that way, as I knew. When I started seeing ghosts so abruptly, Aunt Lauren said she’d told herself nothing was wrong. I wasn’t one of the failures—I just needed time to adjust to my new powers. The Edison Group had insisted I go to Lyle House, though, and she’d agreed, still expecting they’d discover I was fine, and then I could be told the truth.
She’d kept believing that until she learned that I’d raised zombies at Lyle House. Still, she told herself it was okay—we’d deal with it. The group had promised that no matter what happened, I wouldn’t be killed. A necromancer wasn’t dangerous, they told her, so there was no reason to terminate me.
Still worried, she’d started digging for answers, just like I had, and she learned the same thing I had—that they’d lied. Apparently, they’d lied about a lot of things, she said, though she didn’t go into detail.
That’s what changed everything for me, Chloe. I know it’s horrible to admit I only realized my mistakes when my own niece’s life was in danger. Until then I’d done what I thought was right—the greater good and such. But, in doing that, I forgot my oath as a doctor, to first do no harm. I did harm and I’m sure I’ll pay the price, but I won’t let you pay it with me. That’s why I had to get you out.
Three final paragraphs. In the first, she said that if I was reading this letter, then she hadn’t gotten away with me. If I’d left her behind, she understood. If she’d been killed, that was the price she’d paid. And if she’d been taken by the Edison Group, I wasn’t to go back for her. I was to keep going and find Simon and his dad, Kit. She had no idea what had happened to Kit. She’d searched the Edison Group files and she was convinced they weren’t involved in his disappearance, but that was it.
She also told me to make sure I wore my necklace—always. I remembered how quick she’d been to get it back for me when I went to Lyle House without it. In the letter, she didn’t say much about it, only that it was supposed to ward off ghosts. But it didn’t. Or maybe it was working, and if I lost it, I’d start seeing a lot more ghosts, my powers running unchecked.
The next bit was about my dad. He didn’t know anything, not even about me being a necromancer. So if I escaped and she didn’t, I needed to stay away from him.
Then came the final paragraph. Three more sentences.
She wanted a child so badly, Chloe. And you are just as wonderful as she imagined. You were the center of her world.
Tears burned my eyes, that old never-quite-healed ache flaring. I took a deep, shuddering breath, folded the letter, and put it back in my pocket.
We’d been there over an hour when Liz came racing in with the news. “She’s not dead. Your aunt. She’s okay.”
From the excitement on Liz’s face, you’d think she’d just learned her own aunt had survived. It didn’t matter that Aunt Lauren was part of the group that murdered her. All she cared about was that this news would please me. Looking at her glowing face, I realized that as good as I tried to be, I could never be as selfless as Liz.
My relief was cut short by a fresh worry. What would they do to Aunt Lauren now that she’d helped us escape? Now that she’d betrayed them. Thinking of that reminded me of another betrayal. Rae’s.
I’d trusted her. I’d vouched for her to the guys, persuaded them to let her join us, and she’d turned us in.
Rae was the one who’d insisted that the boys weren’t coming back. She was the one who suggested I go to Aunt Lauren, who’d talked me into it when I’d hesitated.
I remembered the night we’d left, lying in our beds trying to sleep. She’d been so excited about her powers and not the least concerned about what lay ahead of us. Now I knew why she hadn’t been worried.
Aunt Lauren said Rae honestly thought she was helping me. Betrayal as tough love, forcing me onto the path chosen for me, certain she was right and I was just too stubborn to see it.
Now both she and my aunt were trapped with the Edison Group. Once the glow over her new life faded, Rae would see the cracks and pick away at them until she realized the truth. I hoped she didn’t. I prayed both of them would just hold tight and do whatever the Edison Group wanted until I could return. And I would return.
Finally Liz popped in to tell me that Dr. Davidoff and his crew had given up, assuming Tori and I had snuck past the front gates and were long gone. They’d left a guard behind, keeping watch from some hidden spot, in case Derek showed up, following my trail.
At five, the whistle blew, the workday ending. By five thirty, the building was empty. Still we waited. Past six, past seven…
“It must be dark out by now,” Tori whispered, crawling over to me.
“Dusk, not dark. We’ll give it another hour.”
At eight, we left.
Fourteen
WE SNUCK PAST THE night guard, who was busy reading Playboy in the lunchroom. Liz stayed with him to make sure he didn’t hear us. He didn’t.
Luckily Tori and I had the good fortune to dress in dark clothes that morning—Tori in a navy American Eagle sweat suit and leather jacket, me in jeans and a green shirt. I only wished I had more than this thin jacket. With the sun gone it was freezing, made worse by an icy blast that had to be coming straight across the river from Canada.