...
Allison took Lydia home while Derek chased Jackson in his kanima form on foot and Scott, Stiles and Y/n followed in the Jeep. Stiles braked in front of a fence with traffic spikes in front of it. "What do we do now?" Stiles asks just as Scott gets out and scales the fence, running to the action. After fighting with Derek and getting shot by Chris the kanima runs away with Scott following. He trails him to a club called Jungle and Scott peeks around the corner, trying to spot anything. When he turns he jumps at the sight of his friends right behind him. "Sorry, I'm sorry." Stiles quickly apologized for the scare.
"You'd think being a werewolf we wouldn't have snuck up on you." Y/n teased a bit and Scott sighs.
"Did you see where he went?"
"I lost him." Scott says.
"What? You couldn't catch his scent?"
"I don't think he has one."
"Y/n? What about you? Can you like track him some how? Sense his presence or something?"
She shook her head. "It's weird. It's almost like he doesn't have a presence at all. Like he... Doesn't exist."
Stiles sighs a bit in thought. "All right, any clue where he's going?"
"To kill someone." Scott said.
"Ah. That explains the claws, and the fangs, and all that. Good. Makes perfect sense now." Scott gives him a look. "What? Scott, come on. I'm 147 pounds of pale skin and fragile bone, okay? Sarcasm is my only defense."
"I'll protect you." Y/n winks at Stiles with a smile making him return it with a slightly flustered nod.
"Just help me find it." Scott snapped a bit.
"Not 'it'. Jackson."
"Yeah, I know. I-I know."
"All right, but does he know that?" Stiles wondered. "Did anybody else see him back at your house?"
"I mean, I don't think so, but he already passed Derek's test anyway."
"Yeah, but that's just the thing. How did he pass the test?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe it's like an either or thing. I mean, Derek said that a snake can't be poisoned by it's own venom, right?"
"When's the kanima not the kanima?" Y/n caught on to what he was saying.
"When it's Jackson." Scott realized.
Stiles looks around and then up, soon backing up a bit and waving his hands in front of him to catch the others attention. "Uh... Guys." They looked at him and then stood next to him to follow his gaze. "See that?" They see the kanima's tail as he slips into the building.
"He's inside."
"What's he gonna do in there?"
Scott got a whiff of something and looked at the line of people going to the club. "I know who he's after."
"What, how? How? Did you smell something?"
Scott nodded. "Armani." Y/n smelled the aftershave just as she looked at the line, spotting Danny just as he's let inside.
They go around to the back and Stiles tries the door but it's locked. "Aw, come on." He moves to the side as he looks for another way. "All right, maybe there's, like, a, uh- like, a window we could climb through," Scott looks at Y/n and she gives him a gesture saying 'go ahead' letting him rip off the handle, "or some kind of..." Scott absently hands the object to Stiles. "Handle that we could rip off with supernatural strength. How'd I not think of that one?" He lets the handle fall as he follows the two inside, closing the door as much as he can behind them.
The three walk into a lively club where a mass of bodies dance to loud music under strobe lights and colored lasers. Y/n looks around and raises her brows in surprise that, not only is there a whole bunch of men, some of them are doing impressive things like aerial silks. Scott looks around as he comes to a grand realization. "Dude, everyone in here's a dude. I think we're in a gay club." He turns his head to see Stiles practically surrounded by drag queens, a couple of them gently stroking his hair or arm.
"Man, nothing gets past those keen werewolf sense, huh, Scott?"
Y/n laughs at his predicament, taking his hand and pulling him away. "Sorry, ladies, but this one's taken." She blew a kiss to the group before she, Stiles, and Scott make their way to the bar.
"Three beers." Stiles orders as soon as they get there.
"Actually I'll be fine with a water, please." Y/n corrects.
The bartender nods at her and sets a water in front of her. "I.D.'s." He asks the boys. They pull out their wallets and hand the items over. The bartender looks at them and then the boys before laughing a bit. "How 'bout two Cokes?"
"Rum and Coke? Sure!" Stiles smiles and bobs his head to the music a bit, but relents when the bartender just looks at him. "Coke's fine, actually. I'm driving anyway."
Another bartender sets the two Cokes in front of them. "That one's paid for." He said to Scott with a look and a nod to across the bar where they see a guy raise his beer in greeting.
Scott looks at Stiles with a shit-eating grin. "Oh, shut up."
"I didn't say anything." He denies.
"Yeah, well, your face did." He angrily takes a sip of his drink.
"Aw, are you jealous?" Y/n teases and then props her elbow on the bartop and gently rested her chin on her hand, giving Stiles a sultry look. He glances at her and does a double take, the straw falling from his lips. "Do you want me to buy you a drink, handsome?" She lightly trailed a hand up his arm. He nearly spilt his drink when his hand suddenly let go but he quickly righted himself and played it off. She smirked when she heard the slight racing of his heart and gave him a wink before they all turned to survey the crowd.
"Hey, I found Danny." Stiles said after a minute.
"I found Jackson." Scott was looking up and found the kanima crawling through the rigging on the ceiling. Jackson was dangling right above Danny. "Get Danny."
"What're you gonna do?" Stiles asks. Scott extends his claws in answer. "Works for me." The three merge with the crowd. Y/n tried to stay near Stiles as they looked for Danny but there were too many people moving and dancing and they got separated.
"Shit." She cursed under her breath. She'll find him but right now she needs to find Danny. She looked around and she moved past the dancing bodies. "Danny!" She called. "Danny!" She pushed past more people. "Dan-"A hand grabbing her arm silences her and she follows the arm to see a boy. Brown hair, familiar blue eyes. The fog machine turns on making the visibilty even lower. "Who are you?" She says it almost to herself but he seems to hear her as he smiles. He tugged her forward so that she was inches from his face and she looked at him with wide eyes. His form seemed to twitch, like two images switching back and forth. Between the boy and Peter Hale.
"It's almost time, little witch." He said.
She gasped and jerked away from him, ripping her arm from his grasp as she stumbled back. She gasped again when she bumped into someone, whipping around to find Danny. "Y/n? What are you doing here?"
She pushed away the shock from her encounter just then. "Danny, we need to get out of here, now!"
"What? What are you talking about?" He asks confused. The kanima is now walking through the crowd, using the fog to keep cover. He swipes at people as he goes forward, paralyzing people left and right. People scream and start running around, trying to get away. Y/n hears the whistle through the air behind her and she turns around but the kanima is gone already. She turns back and Danny is on the ground paralyzed.
"Jackson!" Scott calls. Derek appears, wolfed out and ready. The kanima screeches. "No, don't!" Derek ignores him as he digs his claws into the kanima's body, he screeches in pain. The crowd realizes that people are on the ground and back up as some check on them.
"Y/n!" Stiles calls and she turns to find him just behind her. "Your neck. It's just like when Derek was cut at the pool."
She furrows her brows and reaches up to the back of her neck, feeling the sleek cut there. "But I feel fine. I'm not paralyzed."
He shakes his head. "We'll figure it out later. We need to find Scott." She nods and follows him out of the club where he saw Scott leave. They run out and follow a trail of blood to Scott kneeling over a bloody Jackson who has shifted back to his normal form and stark naked.
"What do we do with him now?" Scott asks. The answer to that is to carry him back to the Jeep and lay him in the back, throwing a blanket over his lower body. Scott went to check on Danny as he's wheeled out on a gurney by EMT's. When they start getting in the car Y/n tries getting in the back but Stiles stops her.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing?"
"Getting in the back?" She responded unsure.
"No. You're not getting in the back with Jackson who tried to paralyze you! And is naked, by the way."
Y/n rolled her eyes but Scott looked at her confused. "You got cut?"
"I guess so." She turned so Scott could see the cut. "But as you can see, I'm fine. I guess being a witch means not only does an Alpha's bite not affect me, but I'm immune to kanima venom."
"Besides the point." Stiles cut in. "Y/n is not sitting back there with him." "Oh, my God. Fine. Scott, get in the back." Scott sighed but did as asked, Y/n climbing into the passenger seat a second later.
"I couldn't get anything out of Danny." Scott then informs.
"Okay, can we just get the hell outta here now, before one of my dad's Deputies sees me?" They nod in agreement and Stiles turns on the Jeep ready to drive, but Noah pulls up in front of them in his cruiser a moment later. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God! Could this get any worse?" Jackson groans then. "That was rhetorical!" Stiles yells back at him.
"Get rid of him." Scott says.
"Get rid of him? We're at a crime scene, and he's the Sheriff."
"Do something." Stiles groans and flails his arms in frustration before climbing out to meet his dad half way. "Hey." He greets.
Jackson stirs and groggily starts to sit up. "What's- what's going on?" He mumbles.
"Jackson, Jackson, be quiet." Scott coaxes him back down.
"What're you doing here?" Noah asks his son.
"What do you mean what am I doing here? What? It's a club. It's a club, we were clubbing, you know? At the club."
"Stop saying club." Y/n says to herself as she listens to Stiles ramble.
Noah looks back at the building. "Not exactly your type of club."
"Uh... Well, dad... There's a conversation that we-"
"You're not gay." Noah quickly shuts that down.
"Wha- I could be!" Stiles says mildly offended.
"Not dressed like that."
"Well, what's-" He glances down at his clothes.
"And not with the way you dote over Y/n."
His head shoots up then. "Wha-I don't. I don't dote on-on her." He denies but Y/n and Scott smirk at each other when they hear the uptick signaling Stiles' lie. Noah goes to move towards the Jeep but Stiles stops him. "Uh..."
Jackson moans sleepily as he picks up his head again. "Jackson, be quiet." Scott pleads. Jackson sighs and lays his head down.
"This is the second crime scene that you just happened to have shown up on. And at this point, I've been fed so many lies, I'm not sure I know the kid standing in front of me. Now, what the hell is going on?" Noah demands of his son.
"What's happening?" Jackson starts to sit up again.
Y/n huffs a frustrated breath before turning to face him. "Jackson." Her firm voice makes him look in her eyes which glow. "Sleep." Her eyes flash, the color reflecting in his eyes and he falls back again unconscious. She turns back front just as the Stilinski's look over. Her and Scott smile and wave at them.
"Dad, I-I-" Stiles starts to try to explain.
"The truth, Stiles." Noah looks at him firmly.
He sighs. "The truth, all right. Well, the truth is that we were here with Danny. Yeah, 'cause he just broke up with his boyfriend, so, you know, we were just trying to take him out and get his mind off things. That's- that's it."
Noah is silent for a moment and then nods as his expression visibly softens. "Well, that's really good of you guys." Stiles smiles a little. "You're good friends." Stiles smiles more and gives him a pat on the arm before going back to the Jeep and driving away from there.
They speed down the road trying to figure out where to keep Jackson. "Uh, what about your house?" Stiles says to Scott.
"Not with my mom there. We need to take him somewhere where we can hold him long enough to figure out what to do with him. Or long enough to convince him he's dangerous."
"I still say we just kill him."
"We're not killing him." Y/n and Scott chorus.
"God! Okay, okay. I got an idea."
"Is this idea illegal?" She asks.
"By now, don't you think that's a given?"
"Stiles." She groans.
"Well, we don't have anything better right now." She sits back with a huff knowing he's right.
It's daylight when Jackson stirs awake and lifts his head only to hit it on something metal, the suddeness of it enough to fully wake him. He quickly glances around and finds he's in a metal compartment and he's cuffed by the wrists and ankles to the floor. He huffs angrily. "STILES! MCCALL! Y/N!" The three look at the police prison transport vehicle that Stiles commandeered and they parked in the middle of the woods as Jackson yells from inside. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
Stiles stayed with Jackson, trying to convince him he's the dangerous kanima, while Y/n and Scott go to school to keep up appearances. Scott, Y/n, and Allison had a class together and Allison tried to take the chance to tell him that her grandfather was asking a bunch of questions and about the new cameras being put up, but a new teacher coming in made her shut her mouth.
"I'm afraid your teacher was feeling ill today, and had to leave early." Victoria Argent said as she made her way to the desk. "So, unfortunately, you're stuck with me as a substitute." She glanced at her daughter before turning to the rest of the class. "Can anyone catch me up to speed on where we are?" She turned to Scott. "Mr. McCall, how 'bout you?" Scott cleared his throat as he pulled out the proper books. For the rest of the class Y/n stayed silent and reserved, something that's become second nature when dealing with strangers and dangers.
After school Y/n went with Allison to Stiles while Scott went to check on Danny and try to figure out why Janima tried to kill him. Stiles was leaning against the transport truck using Jackson's phone pretending to be him to eliminate suspicion. Rustling made him look up and to the right, trying to figure out what the sound was. When he looked left he jumped back with an "oh, my God" at seeing the two girls.
"They know." Allison blurted.
"What?" He asked.
"They know Jackson's missing."
"No, they can't. I've been texting his parents since last night. They don't have a clue."
"My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. They know."
Y/n looked pointedly at the phone and Stiles held it up by two fingers as if it suddenly become volatile. He handed the phone to Allison and ran to the door where he practically dove in to turn on the police radio.
"All available units proceed to Beacon Hills Preserve as instructed. Proceed with caution until Sheriff Stilinski's arrival." He looked at the girls with wide eyes. "Repeat: proceed with caution."
The three climbed into the front seat. "Where are we going?" Y/n asked.
"Somewhere very far from this." He dialed a number on the phone and tossed it out the window before speeding off. Not long after Scott came back with his findings.
"If Jackson doesn't remember being the kanima, he's definitely not gonna remember stealing Danny's tablet." He said as the four walked a distance from the truck.
"Why would he steal the thing if he doesn't even know what's on it?" Stiles asked.
"What if someone else took it?" Allison offered.
"Then somebody else knows what he is."
"Which could mean someone's protecting him." Scott said.
"Like the bestiary says, 'the kanima seeks a friend,' right?" Allison asks.
"Okay, hold on. So, somebody watches Jackson make a video of himself turning into the kanima, and then just erases part of it so he wouldn't know? I mean, who would do that?" Stiles wondered.
"Somebody who wanted to protect him?" Y/n guessed.
"There's something else. You said the only thing you found online about the kanima is that it goes after murderers. What if that's actually true?" Scott asked Stiles.
"Well, no, it can't be. Tried to kill all of us, remember? I don't know about you three, but I haven't murderered anybody lately."
"Well, I-I don't think that it was actually trying to kill us. Remember when we were at Isaac's the first time, it just went right by us, didn't it?" Scott asked Allison and she nodded.
"You're right, it just ran off."
"And it didn't kill you in the mechanic's garage." He turned to Stiles.
"Well, yeah, but it tried to kill me and Derek in the pool."
"Did it?"
"It would've. It was waiting for us to come out. Y/n had to do her magic thing to keep it back."
"What if it was trying to keep you in?"
"Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?"
"Because there's something else going on. We don't know what it is. We don't know anything about what's going on with Jackson, or why someone's protecting him."
"'Know thy enemy'." The three looked at Allison. "Just something my grandfather said." She brushed off.
"All right, I got it. Kill Jackson. Problem solved." Stiles said.
"We're not killing him, all right?" Y/n said firmly.
"He risked his life for us. Against Peter, you remember that?" Scott reminded Stiles.
"Yes, but what did we just find out? He got the Bite from Derek. It's funny how he just got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us, it's funny."
"It doesn't mean he isn't worth saving." Y/n sighed. "I'm not gonna be the first to sing any praises about the guy, but Lydia sees something in him, and if she thinks he's got at least a sliver of humanity in him, I'm gonna help."
"It's always something with him, though."
"He doesn't even know what he's doing."
"So what?"
"So, I didn't either." Scott defended. "You remember when I almost killed you and Jackson?" He directed to Allison. "I had someone to stop me. He has nobody."
"That's his own fault."
"Doesn't matter. If we can save him, we should try."
When night fell Allison got her car so she and Scott could sit together as they watched Jackson while Y/n and Stiles went back to her house to try and possibly find something she missed in her grimoire. Y/n groans and flops back on her bed, letting her grimoire fall onto the mattress. "There's literally nothing that makes sense or gives clear answers." She complained. "When I write my pages, I'm gonna make them comprehensible with no secret meanings whatsoever so that my decendants are not as confused as my ancestors have made me."
"Your pages?" Stiles asks curiously from beside her.
"Yes, my pages. The ones I will write when I learn something new that isn't already in my grimoire."
"Is that what's in it? Pages written by your ancestors you said?"
She sat up with a nod. "Everything they knew they put in here." She held the grimoire up in show.
"I remember you said you made this?"
"So full of questions, aren't we?" She teased with a half smile before nodding again. "I did. It's a sort of coming of age ritual for my kind. When a witch turns 13 she makes her own grimoire and fills it with the knowledge of her mother's or an older witch's own grimoire, adding to it if they ever find something new. It's a very personal item. Each one is made exactly the way the witch wants, from the embeleshments on the outside to how many pages in a signiture are on the inside." As she explained this she had a soft smile on her face, lightly tracing the shapes on the cover of her grimoire. "We're so connected with our grimoire that when we die, after it's contents have been passed on, it's burned with us as like a final goodbye, a final release from the physical plane."
She looked up at him to find him already looking at her with eyes filled with wonder and curiosity. "You keep saying 'she'. Are witches only women? Are there no male witches?"
She shook her head. "No, there are no male witches. It's all female. If a witch has a son and daughter, only the daughter will inherit the gifts. A witch's son has never inherited the gifts nor has the children of a witch's son. For example, if, say, me and you had a daughter, she'd be like me, a witch. And if we had a son, he'd be like you, human." Stiles seemed flustered at the idea while Y/n smiled warmly. She looked back down at her grimoire then, her smile fading as she sighed a bit. "How nice it must be to be human." Her tone was quiet and wistful.
"What do you mean?"
"If I was human I wouldn't have to worry about hiding my magic. I wouldn't have to keep a mental map of all the new cameras in school. I wouldn't have to look over my shoulder for a Hunter discovering me. I could just be a normal teenager with normal problems like how much I'll have to study for midterms or what should I wear to impress my boyfriend." She shook her head with a small huff of laughter.
"Y/n. I wouldn't change a thing about you. Even the magic part." She looked up at him in mild surprise. "What you can do is incredible. I'm literally blown away every time I see you do something. It's just another reason to love you. And... And I do. Love you, I mean."
"You love me?"
He nodded. "And you don't have to say it back, I know it's a big thing and-" Already sensing needless rambling she cut him off.
"Stiles."
"Yes?"
"Shut up." She leaned forward then and kissed him. He instantly reciprocated. Every kiss they shared was like the first, it was electrifying and sent sparks through her whole body. Something in the air shifted when he brought his hand up to the back of her head to pull her closer, letting the other trail to her waist. His fingers traced mindless patterns on the bit of skin that was exposed from where her shirt raised slightly. It left her breathless and nearly dizzy with desire. She pulled away for a moment and rested her forehead on his. "I love you." She breathed.
His smile was brighter than the sun before he went in to kiss her again. These kisses were more heated and almost desprate to show how much those three words meant to the other. And they did. Giving everything one could in intimate moments such as these. Moments where every kiss, every touch, every sigh and moan said 'I love you'. Moments where the lights have faded to silvery darkness, but there's no need to see with their eyes. Not when they know this person like the back of their hand, where they know every curve and angle. Not when they're commiting every touch to memory. The new feelings and new places they're exploring of each other with each other. Even when the fire of desire dwindled to embers of satisfaction, and they were snuggled together and dozing under the sheets, these moments also held whispers of those eight letters.
It was dark outside, late at night, when Y/n stirred in her sleep. She suddenly sat up with a gasp, her hand clutching the sheets to her chest. Stiles woke up at the sudden movement and when he saw her distressed state he sat up as well. "Y/n? Are you okay?"
She shook her head. "Something's wrong." She quickly started to get dressed, tossing his clothes to him as she went.
"What is it?" He also started to dress.
"I don't know, but something's happened." She couldn't explain it but she could feel it in her gut, and she's learned to listen to it. He didn't ask questions, he trusted what she said. They got in the Jeep and she directed them to the Preserve where they found an empty police transport vehicle. Jackson got out.
They went over to Allison's car where she and Scott were asleep in the back. Stiles knocked on the window startling them awake. "You guys might wanna come take a look at this." He said. After a moment the couple got out and the four went to the truck.
"I've have to tell my father." Allison said. Scott walked away a little, thinking. "Scott. He's going to kill someone."
"Okay, tell him." Scott agreed. "Tell him everything."
"Scott, I gotta tell mine too." Stiles said.
"This is all my fault."
"It's not." Allison shook her head. "But we have to tell them. We're just a bunch of teenagers. We can't handle this."
"You're right."
"How are you gonna make your dad belive all this?" She asked Stiles.
"I don't know."
Scott turned to look at them, his eyes glowing yellow. "He'll believe me."
Y/n sighed. She figured the parents would have to be clued in at some point, she just hoped it didn't have to involve her, but she knew it would. "And me too."
"Are you sure?" Stiles looked at her in concern.
She nodded. "It's hard to dispute two supernaturals." Her own eyes flashed purple to prove her point. To protect those I care about, I'm willing to do anything.
Allison went home while Scott, Y/n and Stiles go to the Sheriff's station to talk to Noah. "Could you buzz us in? I gotta see my dad." Stiles asked the officer at the front desk. The man did as asked and Stiles opened the door, but he hesitated going in.
Y/n took his hand and he looked at her. "It's gonna be okay." She reasurred. He gave her a nod before turning and walking towards the office. They all paused, however, when they saw Jackson on the couch in Noah's office, Mr. Whittemore standing near him. Jackson smiled at them when he saw them.
"Scott, Stiles, Y/n." Noah stepped into view. "Perfect timing. Have you met Jackson's father, Mr. David Whittemore? Esquire."
"That means lawyer." Jackson spoke up. The three glanced at each other at that.
~~~
Published: 2/14/21
Edited: 4/12/22
Extra update because HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! Although I didn't originally plan it, when I figured it up I specifically wanted this chapter to be on Valentine's day Ãwà because of the â¨special⨠moment and all. I hope you have a nice Valentine's day! No matter if you have a boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other, friend, pet, rock, I'm claiming you as my valentine today! Eat some food you like, watch a show or movie you enjoy, read a book you love, take some naps, listen to some music, or something else you enjoy! I hope you have a good day/night! Love you all ð¥°