...
Alan quickly grabs things while he talks to Scott in rushed tones. "They're coming back, so we don't have much time to talk."
He puts rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab. "Uh, what is that?" Scott asks.
"Rubbing alcohol. You don't want it to get infected, do you?" Scott shakes his head as Alan cleans the wound. "You'll heal the same." Scott grunts at the stinging from the disinfectant. "Just not as quickly, because of Derek."
"Okay, how do you know all of this? Actually, how do- how do you know anything? Is it because of Y/n? Do you know about her?"
Alan tapes a bandage over the wound. "It's a long story. What I can tell you is that I know about your kind and Y/n's kind. Your kind-" he tears another piece of tape with his teeth, "I can help." He puts the tape over the bandage and looks at the body on his table. "This... This is something different."
"Wha-well- do you know what did it?"
"No. But the Argents will. And this is the crucial part. They'll have some kind of record, or book. It'll have descriptions, histories, notations of all the things they've discovered."
"Wha- all the things? How many different things are there?" Scott asks bewildered. Tires crunch on gravel and car doors open drawing both male's attention. Scott hides out of sight to listen in while Alan goess back to the body.
Chris and two other Hunters walk into the back room. Chris clears his throat to announce their presence. "I'm starting to think I need to buy a more prominent 'closed' sign." He turns to them with a friendly smile and Chris scoffs a bit. Him and the Hunters move more into the room as Gerard walks in after them.
"Hello, Alan." Alan's smile fades at the sight of the man and he takes a step back, glancing at Chris who gives him the tiniest of shakes of his head. He didn't tell Gerard about Y/n. "It's been a while. The last I heard, you had retired."
"Last I heard, you followed a code of conduct."
"If you hadn't noticed, this body is one of ours." Chris says.
"I did. I also noticed the gunpowder residue on his fingertips. So don't assume I'll be swayed by your philosophy just 'cause I'll answer a few questions."
"He was only 24."
"Killers come in all ages."
"All ages, sizes, shapes." Gerard agrees. "It's the last one that concerns us."
"How about you tell us what you found?"
Alan goes to the head. "See this cut?" He turns the head to show the thin cut on the back of his neck. Gerard puts on glasses and he and Chris look at the mark. "Precise. Almost surgical. But this isn't the wound that killed him. This had a more... Interesting purpose."
"Relating to the spine?" Gerard guesses.
"That's right. Whatever made this cut was laced with a paralytic toxin potent enough to disable all motor functions." He moves to the side and hovers his hand over the torso in display. "These are the cause of death. Notice the patterns on each side?"
"Five, for each finger."
"Each claw." Gerard corrects his son before Alan continues.
"As you can see, it dug in, and slashed upward, eviscerating the lungs and slicing through the bone and rib cage with ease."
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Chris asks.
"No."
"Any idea at all what killed him?"
"No. But I can tell you it's fast, remarkably strong, and has the capacity to render it's victims essentially helpless within seconds."
"If you're saying we should be cautious, we get it."
"I'm saying you should be afraid. Be very afraid. Because in the natural world, predators with paralytic toxins use them to catch and eat their prey. This prey wasn't eaten. That means whatever killed him only wanted to kill him. In fact, killing may be it's only purpose."
...
Since midday Y/n had been in her Spirit Writing trance, getting completely drawn into the influences of the other world. It's almost dawn when she finally comes out of it. She blinks as if waking up and her eyes dim to e/c as she sets her paint brush down. She looked down at her hands to find dark paint smudged all over them. Her eyes then trailed up to the canvas in front of her, her possible answer waiting for her. What she finds wasn't what she was expecting. Granted she didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't this.
A burned hand digs it's claws into a pale arm. Four lines of red blood starkly stand out against the skin. The scene is dark with only a bit of brightness like moonlight is shining on them. Thin trails of purple energy swirl around the hand and arm, seemingly binding them. Drops of red stain them, blood dripping from another source unseen.
Y/n has no idea what this could mean. The energy is obviously that of a witch, but is it her or someone else? And the blood being drawn. This resembles blood magic but Y/n doesn't even broach the subject in her grimoire. One wrong move and things could go wrong. She's not powerful enough for that. Not ready. So it couldn't be her magic then, can it?
She sighs and slumps in her chair, exauhsted and drained. She got an answer all right, but what the hell is it saying? Deciding she's too tired to think anymore of it she cleans up her things, makes sure her incense is finished burning, turned off her music, unlocked her door and gathered her belongings she left just outside. She turned her phone back on but didn't bother to check if she missed anything. She's just too tired. She changes her clothes and climbs into bed.
It seems she only slept a few minutes when her phone ringing wakes her up. She groans and blindly reaches over to answer without seeing who it was. "Who the hell is waking me up?" She grumbled into the phone.
"I need your help." A gruff voice answered.
"Derek?" She furrows her brows and cracks open her eyes in confusion. "How did you get my number?"
"Doesn't matter. I need you to help me."
"With what?"
"Just get down here." And with that he hung up. She glared at the blank phone screen.
"Who are you to tell me what to do, mister?" She asked no one in particular. She thought about ignoring him but he did come when she went to him to help Scott that one night. I guess I owe him at least a visit. She sighed as she got up and got dressed. Before she left she checked her phone for messages and found several, mostly from Stiles from his tendancy to rant. Apperantly while she was in her spell Scott and Stiles figured out Boyd was the next Beta, they each went to find him, Erica knocked out Stiles and messed up his Jeep to where he had to take it in where he had a paralyzing encounter with the new scaley creature roaming town.
So much happened in just one night and she wasn't there to help with any of it. She could have done something if she was there, she's sure of it. But sometimes she doesn't feel as sure as she did before. With what happened with Peter she's been feeling a bit powerless. She has these abilities but she doesn't use them. What good is a witch who doesn't use her gifts?
She sighs again and shuts off the screen. What's done is done. Just let it go and move on. She hoped on her bike and road down to Derek's 'lair' which apears to be a railway depot. She watches from the sidelines as Isaac repeatedly runs the same path to get past Derek, each time being easily knocked back on his ass. Boyd and Erica watch from nearer to the pair until after another attempt from Isaac Erica jumps from the top of the train car, trying to get a sneak attack on the Alpha but he also knocked her down next to Isaac.
Derek rolls his eyes at the two. "Does anyone want to try not being completely predicatable?" Erica jumps up and jumps onto Derek, arms around his neck and legs around his waist, and makes out with him for a few seconds before he throws her back down. He wipes his lips. "That's the last time you do that."
"Why, 'cause I'm a Beta?" She sasses.
"No. Because I have someone else in mind for you."
"I hope you don't mean my boyfriend or best friend." Y/n finally spoke up and walked into view coming to a stop a couple feet from the Hale. "Why did you call me here?"
"I need your help training them."
"And why should I?" She folded her arms.
"Because I helped you once."
"Yeah, you did. But then you sided with a homicidal maniac and then started turning teens left and right after you became an Alpha. Whatever I owed you became null and void. Me even coming here is more than enough."
"What would you even be able to do for us?" Erica suddenly spoke up making the two look at her. "You're not an Alpha. You're not even a werewolf. You smell different. What are you?"
"Wouldn't you like to know." Y/n gave her a half smile before she turned back to Derek. "I'm sorry, Derek. I can't help you. This is your pack and your mess. They shouldn't have been involved in the first place." With that she left the depot and went back home to get ready for school.
...
"Stiles!" Y/n called once she spotted him down the hall. She quickly made her way to him and hugged him. He sighed and buried his face into her shoulder. "I'm sorry." She said quietly. "I was trying to figure something out and I turned off my phone to focus better. I didn't realize it would take me hours."
"It's okay." His voice was a bit muffled but she still heard him.
"No, it's not. I should have been there. I'm sorry."
He pulled away and put a hand on her cheek. She turned into it slightly with a small frown. "It really is okay. You can't be there every time something bad happens."
"But-" He gives an exasperated sigh and a roll of his eyes before he cuts her off with a quick kiss.
She looks at him startled for a moment before smiling. "Better?"
"Much." She nodded. He smirked at her and put an arm over her shoulder as they walked together.
...
The magic trio sit on the steps together, Y/n and Scott facing each other, Stiles on the step above them looking between the two. "I'm so sorry about the other day." Y/n says to Scott. "I'm trying. We'll get through this. I know, because I love you." Scott smiles. "I love you more than-"
"Oh, my God!" Stiles interrupts. "I can't- you and Allison just have to find a better way to communicate."
"Come on." Scott pleads. "You guys are the only ones that we can trust. Is she coming to the game tonight?"
"Yes." Y/n nods.
"Okay? Message complete." Stiles seems to sigh in relief. "Okay, now, tell me about your boss." Y/n had been told what happened by Alan so she's unsurprised about the mention of her guardian.
"Uh, he thinks that Allison's family keeps some kind of, uh, records of all the things that they've hunted. Like a book."
"You mean a bestiary?"
"That's what I was thinking." Stiles pointed at her.
"What?" Scott asks.
"A bestiary." Y/n repeats.
Scott snickers as he smiles like an idiot. "I think you mean bestiality."
Y/n squints her eyes at him in wonder and confusion while Stiles speaks up. "Nope, pretty sure we don't. It's like an encyclopedia of mythical creatures."
"How am I the only one that doesn't seem to know anything about this stuff?"
"Okay, you know, you're my best friend, you're a creature of the night, my girlfriend's a witch, it's kind of like a priority of mine."
"Okay. If we can find it-"
"And if it can tell us what this thing is-" Y/n adds.
"And who." Stiles finishes.
"We need that book." All three chorus together. They all look at each other. Y/n smiles at the situation as Stiles grabs her hand and pulls her along.
Allison smirks at the pair. "I think you mean-"
"No, we mean bestiary." Stiles firmly cuts her off. "And the two of you, I don't want to know what's going on in your heads."
"Okay, um, can you describe this thing?"
"Probably a book. Most likely old and worn." Y/n offers.
"Like, bound in leather?"
"Traditionally." Y/n nods. Allison gives Stiles another message and when he went to grab Y/n's hand she pulled away and sat down next to her friend. "Yeah, no, I love you and all, but I'm not in the mood to run around." She smiles up at him and he sighs but leaves anyways.
He comes back a while later panting. "Where... Does he... Keep it?" He gasped between breathes. Another set of messages and he's back but with an inhaler that he takes a quick puff of. "You know, drug dealers have been using disposable cell phones pretty successfully for years."
"My parents check every call, email, and text message I send. Trust me, they'd find it."
"All right. Can you get the book?"
"Not without his keys."
Allison leaves soon after and Stiles all but collapse in the seat next to Y/n. "You know, now that I think about it, you could have stayed with Scott while I was with Allison and we could have texted back and forth for them."
Stiles groans and puts his head on the table. "Why didn't I think of that?" Y/n coos and rubs his back soothingly.
Later that night the teens plan to get Gerard's keys during the lacrosse game while he's busy watching it. The crowd groans in sympathy when a beast of a guy from the opposing team knocks two Beacon Hill's players to the ground. Coach blows his whistle angrily. "Come on! Is that thing even a teenager?! I wanna see a birth certificate!" He sits on the bench next to Stiles and Y/n. "Who or what is that genetic experiment gone wrong?"
"Eddie Obomowitz, Coach." Stiles offers. "They call him 'The Abomination'."
"Oh, that's cute." Coach mutters.
"I feel bad for his girlfriend." Y/n winces before tilting her head in thought. "Or boyfriend."
Allison glances at Gerard next to her and feigns being cold. "I knew I should have brought a warmer jacket." She lightly jokes.
"You're cold." He points out. "Here, take my coat." He stands and starts to take off the heavy clothing item from his shoulders.
"Are you sure?" She stands with him.
"Oh, yeah." He helps her put it on and they sit again. When his attention is drawn back to the game she carefully digs in his pockets for the keys. When she has them she notices the flashdrive on his keychain but hides the keys in her grip. The Abomination takes down another player eliciting another wave of groans in the spectators. "Good God, is it always this violent?"
She doesn't answer his idle question as she carefully holds the keys to her side and off the stands. Stiles smoothly walks by and takes them, looking around before heading back to the school to go through Gerard's office. He runs through the parking lot but pauses when he sees someone still in their car. Lydia was crying. He has to go but he can't really leave her without asking what's wrong. "Hey, Lydia, what's wrong?" He asks when he gets close enough but she immediatly rolls up her window. "Lydia, come on." He knocks on the window.
"Just go away."
"What's wrong?"
"Look, I don't need anyone seeing me cry."
"Aw, come on, Lydia." She doesn't answer and he thinks for a moment. "All right, all right. You don't want anyone to see you cry, I get it. But what if I called Y/n over?" He raised his brows in question and she glanced at him in slight intrest. "She's at the game so I can call her now and she'd be here in two minutes. How does that sound?" She gives a tiny nod and he does as promised. He called Y/n and told her about Lydia. She told him to go look for the bestiary and she'd be there soon.
Y/n leaned over and peered into Lydia's passenger window and lightly tapping on the glass. When Lydia saw her she unlocked the car and let her in. Y/n sat down and turned to face Lydia. "Hey, Lydie. A little spastic birdie told me you were upset."
"That's fairly obvious." Lydia gestured to her tear-stained face.
"What's wrong?"
She was quiet for a moment. "You're gonna think I'm crazy."
Y/n shook her head. "Lydia, there is literally nothing you could say that would make me think you're crazy, okay? Believe me, I've seen crazy people. You're definitely not one of them."
Lydia looked over at Y/n's reasuring look and relented. "Fine." Lydia then told Y/n about the things that have been happening lately like seeing a guy walk barefoot through school leading her to the trophy case where she saw a trophy with Peter Hale's name on it. And then seeing a flower stick up out of the ice at the ice rink and seeing Peter underneath it. Most recently her mom waking her up to find blood in her sheets from cut knuckles that she got when she apparently punched a mirror, something she didn't remember doing. "I just don't understand what's happening." She cried.
"Oh, Lydia." As best as she could she pulled Lydia into a hug. "I believe the things you're experiencing because I've had some weird experiences as well. I don't know what they mean but I'm gonna figure it out."
"How?"
She chewed on her lip in thought as she pulled away. She couldn't tell Lydia everything now, there's just no time, but she could tell her a bit. "It's hard to explain without rushing and confusing you more. But I'm not normal, per se."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll probably think I'm crazy now," she lightly joked making Lydia roll her eyes and gesture for her to get on with it, "but... I'm not really... Human."
"What?"
"I'm not like regular people. I can do things others can't."
"What does that even mean?"
"I can't explain now. But I promise I will tell you everything as soon as I can."
Lydia frowned at her. "You do sound crazy... But I believe you."
Y/n smiled in relief. "Thanks."
While Y/n was talking to Lydia Stiles was looking for the bestiary in Gerard's desk drawers but he finds nothing, sending a text to Allison to let her know. Erica soon finds him and drags him to the pools where Derek awaits to question him. "What did you see at the mechanic's garage?" Derek asked.
"Uh, several alarming EPA violations that I'm seriously considering reporting." Derek smiles and looks down at the basketball in his hands, soon punching holes in it with his claws. "Holy God." He tosses the deflated ball to the ground.
"Let's try that again."
"All right, the thing was pretty slick looking. Um, skin was dark. Kind of patterned. Uh, I think I actually saw scales. Is that enough? Okay? Because there's something I really have to get back to." Derek gives him a look and he grunts in frustration. "Um, all right, fine. Eyes. Eyes are, um... Yellowish and slitted. Um... It has a lot of teeth. Oh, and it's got a tail, too. Are we good?" Suddenly the wolves are looking up at the balcony as the creature Stiles described looks down at the three and Stiles notices their looks. "What? Wait, have you seen it? You guys have this look on your faces like you know exactly what I'm talking about." A hissing sound makes him look over his shoulder and the creature screeches at them. "Whoa." Stiles jumps and backs up next to Derek.
It jumps down where Stiles was and Derek growls at it in defence. It swipes at them and knocks Erica into a wall, knocking her out. Derek turns and pushes Stiles away. "Run!" The creature swipes at them again, this time nicking Derek on the back of the neck. He reflexively ducks away and looks around for what happened.
"Derek, your neck." Derek reaches up and soon starts to fall as he's quickly paralyzed. Stiles quickly catches him. "Come on. Come here." He puts Derek's arm over his shoulders and stumbily hauls him away. "Where is it? Can you see it?"
"No, just hurry. Call Scott and Y/n!" Stiles digs into his pocket for his phone but it fumbles and slips out of his grip onto the floor. His attempt to catch it made Derek fall behind him and into the pool. "Stiles, you son a-" Derek yells out as he falls. Stiles looks between Derek and the phone for a moment, weighing his chances of getting it before he drowns but goes for Derek first. He dives down and holds Derek up above water.
"Where'd it go?" He looks around. "Where is it? Do you see it?"
"No."
"Okay, maybe it took off." At that moment the creature screeches again letting them know that, no, it did not in fact take off.
"Maybe not." They wade in the water for a while trying to figure out how to get out. "Will you get me out of here before I drown?"
"You're worried about drowning? Did you notice the thing out there with multiple rows of razor sharp teeth?"
"Did you notice that I'm paralyzed from the neck down in eight feet of water?"
"Okay." Stiles pants as he looks around. "I don't see it." He starts paddling to the edge of the pool with one arm.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Stop, stop." Derek warns. Stiles does so and follows Derek's gaze to see the creature stalking around the pool.
"What's it waiting for?" It circles the pool a while before going to the edge and trying to put it's hand in, but it hisses and jerks away as soon as it makes contact with the liquid, scuttling as far back as it can. "Wait, did you see that? I don't think it can swim." Stiles watches as it circles more. "Okay, okay. Okay, I don't think I can do this much longer." Stiles stares at the phone on the ground and Derek quickly catches on to his idea.
"No, no, no, no! Don't even think about it."
"Could you just trust me this once?"
"No!"
"I'm the one keeping you alive, okay? Have you noticed that?"
"Yeah. And when the paralysis wears off, who's gonna be able to fight that thing, you or me?"
"That's why I've been holding you up for the past two hours?"
"Yup. You don't trust me. I don't trust you. But you need me to survive, which is why you're not letting me go." Stiles stares at him for a moment and then throws his arm off of him. "Stiles!" But his voice is cut off by the water and he sinks.
Stiles quickly swims to the edge of the pool, hesitating when the creature is in front of him. Stiles rushes and grabs the phone as the creature gets closer and pushes himself away just as it reaches him. He swims back to be over Derek, keeping the phone above water, and dials Scott.
"Scott!" He yells out as soon as his friend answers.
"I can't talk right now." Is all Scott says before he hangs up.
Stiles looks at the phone in disbelief. He looks down at Derek in the water and the phone, debating calling Y/n but decides it's no good as Derek's been down there long enough already. He grunts in frustration and tosses the phone away before diving down and retrieving Derek once again. They both gasp for air when they breach the surface.
"Tell me you got at least one of them!" Derek asks. But Stiles' silence answers that for him.
"I'll see you later!" Y/n calls after Lydia as she starts to drive away, both girls feeling a bit lighter having opened up to each other a bit. Y/n smiled after her but it quickly faded into a look of confused shock when she heard a God awful screech. "Stiles!" She quickly runs into the school but she had no idea where the sound had come from. She focused and reached out with her magic, feeling for something to guide her in the right direction, and found she could vaguely feel Stiles' presence in the school, more specifically the pools. She hurried there and skidded to a stop near the pool, finding Stiles holding up Derek in the middle of the water. "Why are you in the pool? What was that sou- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" She cuts herself off when she spots the creature on the opposite side of her.
"Derek paralyzed. That, very bad. Doesn't like water." Stiles quickly explained with short breaths.
"Good enough for me." She nods then turns her focus on to the creature. "So, you don't like water?" Her eyes glow and she raises her hands palm up, manipulating the water into two tendrils that sway in the air. "Lucky me." She jerks her hand forward and the water tendril snaps like a whip at the creature making it shrink back with a screech. She keeps doing this each time the creature moves closer to keep it at bay while she tries to think of a better way to help.
"I can't stay up any longer. I need something to hold on to." Stiles pants.
"The diving boards." Y/n offers as she keeps looking at the creature. Stiles looks over at them and starts to make his way over. With a quick wave of her hand, Y/n helps him out by giving him a boost, getting him to the diving boards with less effort before going back to her original task. He reaches for the handles but his hand slides off. The pair sinks for a moment only to be pulled out by a wolfed out Scott who tosses them on dry land and roars.
Angry, the creature dashes up the wall and dodges Y/n's water whips, tackling Scott to the ground. They growl at each other and it wraps it's tail around Scott's ankle, throwing him behind it and into a mirror. It shatters and Scott falls to the ground, the creaute hisses at him. Scott gets up and grabs a long piece of the mirror, brandishing it as a weapon. The creature slowly stalks forward but stops in it's tracks. It tilts it's head in confusion as it stares at it's reflection in the mirror shard. Scott looks at it in confusion until the creature scales the wall, hops up in the rafters, and crashes through the skylight, running away.
Scott and Allison had figured out that the bestiary was actually a flashdrive on Gerard's keyring. Scott, Stiles and Y/n surround a computer that's propped on the hood of a car as Scott flips through the pages. "Is that even a language?" Stiles asks.
"I think it's Archaic Latin." Y/n muses.
"You know Archaic Latin?"
"No, but I know a bit of classical Latin. Just a handful to translate some pages in my grimoire."
"How are we supposed to figure out what this thing is?" Scott wonders.
"It's called the kanima." Derek speaks up as he, and a now concious Erica, walk towards them.
"You knew the whole time." Stiles accuses.
"No. Only when it was confused by it's own reflection."
"It doesn't know what it is." Scott realizes.
"Or who."
"What else do you know?" Y/n asked.
"Just stories. Rumors."
"But it's like us?" Scott wonders.
"It's a shape-shifter, yes. But it's- it's not right. It's like a..." He trails off trying to find the right word, one that Stiles supplies.
"Abomination."
Derek nods. He goes to walk away but Scott stops him. "Derek. We need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents."
"What?" Y/n looks at him in slight shock.
"You trust them?" Derek asks.
"Nobody trusts anyone. That's the problem. While we're here arguing about who's on what side, there's something scarier, stronger, and faster than any of us, and it's killing people! And we still don't even know anything about it!"
"I know one thing. When I find it..." He turns and starts walking away. "I'm gonna kill it."
~~~
Published: 2/10/21
Edited: 4/12/22