...
Y/n clenched her jaw as she felt a tingle in her fingers, figuring it was the force she was using by pressing down. But she couldn't let up. Her hands were now over Kira's as the two girls pressed on Lydia's wound, trying to stem the bleeding as much as they could until help could come. She could hear the Sheriff and his deputies as they started to regain feeling in their bodies, soon after hearing the approach of four people.
Scott hesitated at the doors to the station when he saw blood on the floor through the slightly open door. He rushed in with Stiles, Alan, and Theo behind him. Scott went to Clark as she helped Noah stand up again. Stiles froze when he saw the blood trail, his mind running with terrible scenarios as he followed it to another room. The momentary relief he felt when he saw Y/n wasn't hurt was dimmed when he saw it was actually Lydia that was injured. Y/n looked at him with a helpless expression before Theo pushed past him, pulling off his belt.
Y/n stood up and backed away, not needed anymore as Theo kneeled by Lydia and used the belt as a makeshift tourniquet. She bumped into Stiles who gently grabbed her arms as she looked between her blood soaked hands and her dangerously pale friend. Alan walked around a desk and noticed Tracy's severed kanima tail lying on the ground. He shrugged off his jacket to cover the limb, calling Scott over as he did so. Natalie walked into the bullpen and spotted the bloody trail, her eyes widening in fear as she pushed past Stiles and Y/n to see Lydia on the ground. She rushed forward and knelt by Lydia's head, gently caressing her sweat-damp hair as she cringed in pain.
"Stiles, Y/n." Scott called, hovering by the door that would lead him towards the basement area, but they didn't budge. "Guys." Y/n kept her eyes on Lydia while Stiles turned to glance at Scott. "Guys, come on."
Lydia smiled up at the witch as Theo spoke. "It's okay. She's all right."
"Tracy." Lydia's voice was barely above a whisper. "Y/n, I'm fine. Help Tracy."
"Guys." Scott called again.
"Go."
"Come on, Y/n." Stiles gently urged, and that seemed to be enough to get her to move again. Stiles went to help his dad walk, following Scott with Y/n and Alan into the back of the station.
They found Tracy unmoving on the ground with Malia standing over her, the coyote quickly holding her hands up in a placating gesture. "It wasn't me." She said. Scott gave her a quick look that showed he didn't really believe her before he moved closer to look over the young girl.
"What the hell happened to her?" Noah asked.
"There were these people. They had masks. Um, there- there were- there were th- three of them. I think there were three." Malia stammered as her panic started to get the better of her.
"Malia, what are you talking about?" Y/n asked and Malia turned to her sister with pleading eyes.
"They were- they were strong, Y/n. They had a weapon. Y/n, I didn't do this." She insisted.
"Okay, it's okay." Y/n calmly spoke, hoping her tone would ease the girl.
"She's not changing back." Alan said, looking at Tracy's hands that still had claws, and her face that still sported kanima scales. "We're going to need to get her out of here."
"What- hey, absolutely not." Noah immediatly denied. "This is a crime scene. We call the coroner."
"I think the coroner might be very confused by this girl's severed reptilian tail."
"I don't care."
"You should. Unless you're prepared to hold a press conference announcing the presence of supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills."
Noah frowned in disatisfaction, upset with the situation. "Dad, he's right." Stiles agreed with the vet.
"Maybe at the clinic we can figure out how to change her back, then call the coroner?" Scott offered with a question.
"There- there's a line. There is a line that we have to draw." Noah spoke, his voice conveying his frustration.
"Dad, you've already crossed it. More than once."
"Sheriff, please." Alan gently pleaded. "Let me help. I've dealt with things like this before."
Noah shook his head, unable to believe what was happening, or believe that he was about to agree albeit reluctantly. "Just do it fast." Alan nodded as Scott and Y/n moved to help him carry Tracy's body out of the station.
After that was done the teens all gathered at the hospital to see how Lydia was. Liam followed Scott into the building as he told the Alpha about what he, Mason, and Brett had found. "Tracy was buried?" Scott repeated.
"In a hole." Liam nodded. "Buried alive. Crawled out. Then we found another hole."
"Who was buried in that one?"
"I don't know, but I think we're gonna want to find out." They went in to the elevator and got onto the floor where their friends were waiting, arriving just in time as Melissa came to give everyone an update.
"Y/n." The woman called, making Y/n turn to her with worried eyes.
"How is she?"
"She could have been worse. Theo, nice going on that tourniquet. You probably saved her life." Y/n glanced at Theo with those words. He shouldn't have had to, she should have been able to heal the wound enough to where it wasn't fatal if not fully. It took Melissa's voice to pull her from her darkening thoughts again. "All right. She's about to go into surgery. So it's going to be a while. Any other supernatural details that I need to know about or do we just stitch her up and hope for the best?"
"It was the tail." Kira spoke up.
"Yeah," Scott started, "Tracy cut her with the tail, if that makes a difference."
"Okay." Melissa nodded and left to do what she could.
"But it wasn't just Tracy." Malia reminded. "There were the others. The guys in the masks."
"We'll figure it out." Y/n assured her while Scott and Stiles shared a look.
When there was nothing else anyone could do, the pack split off, each going home to recoup from the night's events. Y/n had gone to the clinic to talk to Alan about her magic seeming to have some kind of block when she found him looking a bit shaken. She asked him what happened and he told her about what he had found. Tracy had the claws of a werewolf, but the venom and scales of a kanima, something that shouldn't be possible. You're either one or the other, not both, yet Tracy was made to be. Alan had also examined the eagle talons that had come from the werewolf that attacked Scott the night before senior year. He thought it could possibly be a garuda, a shapeshifter from eastern mythology, but he wasn't sure. All he really knew at this time was someone was trying to make supernatural creatures by non-supernatural means. Someone has changed the rules, and something like that can rattle anyone.
"You're leaving?" Y/n repeated, brows furrowed as she looked at Alan.
"Only for a few days." He promised. "I'm hoping I can find some answers for what's been going on." Y/n frowned a bit as she looked down at her hand, Lydia's blood still staining it from her failure to heal her. "Is something wrong?" Alan's concerned tone made her look up to see eyes that matched.
She shook her head as she let her hand drop to her side. "No. I'm just worried. What if something happens to you?"
"I'll be careful. I promise. I want you to do the same, though. Someone has tampered with the foundations of the supernatural, and don't know what that could mean for everyone, including you."
"I'll be careful." She repeated his words, managing to flash a smile before Alan pulled her into a hug. Although the smile faded when he couldn't see her face. She wanted to tell him about her magic, but she knows that would mean he would have stayed to try and help her, and she couldn't do that. If he could find something that would help all of them, then it was worth having to deal with the magic thing herself.
After Alan left to talk to Scott about what is going on Y/n washed her hands and left as well. Not wanting to be alone that night she went to Stiles' house. She let herself into the household, using the key Stiles had given her, and when she got to his bedroom door she found him standing at his glass board having just wrote Tracy's name. Stiles spotted her through the glass, giving her a little smile as she walked around and into his arms that he held open for her. They stood there for a moment, just holding each other, both needing the physical comfort that came when they were together.
Y/n sighed in contentment, her eyes peeking open to look over the board, stopping where he penned 'Who is the Desert Wolf?' She gently slipped out of his hold and moved over to it, taking the dry eraser and removing the question from the board. "What are you doing?" He wondered.
"Malia asked me to do it earlier. She said it's too dangerous now."
"Is she sure?"
Y/n lightly shrugged. "She seemed pretty sure." Malia said it was too dangerous, but Y/n suspected that her sister wasn't going to give up the search herself. She wasn't exactly sure how the coyote was going to manage it by herself, but Y/n promised Malia she would be there for her if she ever needed anything.
Stiles took her hand then, and she turned to see his soft gaze. "How are you?" She knew what he was really asking, 'how are you doing about Lydia?'
She just lightly shook her head, shoulders slumping as exhaustion seemed to creep up on her. "Tired." She finally answered. He pulled her back into his side, pressing a kiss to her forehead that made her eyes flutter shut at the feeling. He then gently tugged her towards his bed, the both of them laying on the sheets together. With her head on his chest and his arms around her, the couple fell into a fairly restful sleep, something very much needed after everything that's gone on so far.
...
Scott and Kira sat in the upper level of the library, pouring over their study books. He looked up when he saw Stiles, Y/n and Malia coming up to them. "Did you get in to see Lydia?" He asked.
"No." Y/n shook her head with a sigh.
"We tried using our free period but she's still in the ICU and no one outside family is allowed in." Stiles informed.
"We got one thing." Malia added as she sat the hard copy of the bestiary on the table they were sitting at.
"Anything in here about half-werewolves, half-kanimas?" Kira asked.
"The chimera." Scott suddenly said making Stiles look at him.
"Um, what?"
"Chimera. It's a creature made of incongruous parts."
"In Greek mythology it's a fire-breathing creature with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail." Y/n added making Scott nod.
"And if Liam said he found two burial sites, it means Tracy's not the only one."
"Who's the second chimera?" Kira wondered.
"And why would they bury them?" Stiles followed up.
"Alan thinks it's part of their process." Y/n said.
"The people in masks." Malia named. Everyone shared a glance before they got to work, reading the bestiary and any other book they thought could help figure out who these masked figures were. By the time night fell Scott got a call from his mom asking him to meet her at the hospital so he and Kira had taken their leave, Stiles had fallen asleep on the wendigo page of the bestiary and Y/n skimmed over a book with a chapter about the Beast of Gevaudan, idly scratching the nape of her neck while Malia stared blankly at a far wall, clicking a pen in her hand. Malia glanced at the object in her hand, the action prompting the memory of one of those masked people plunging a huge needle into Tracy's neck before injecting her with an overdose of modified mercury. She frowned and put the pen down before gathering her things.
"Where are you going?" Y/n wondered, the coyote's quick movements catching her attention.
"There's something I want to check out." Malia said as she stood up. "You can come if you want."
Y/n lightly shrugged. "Alright. Give me a minute, I'll catch up." Malia nodded and went off ahead while Y/n turned to her sleeping boyfriend who was on the verge of drooling on the pages of the bestiary. "Stiles, Malia and I are taking off." She gently nudged, only recieving a mumble in response. "Stiles, hun, wake up and go home, okay? I'll meet you there later." More mumbles met her ears and she just huffed a laugh as she lightly shook her head. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before gathering her own things and following her slightly younger sister out of the library.
Malia had led them to Tracy's home, still sectioned off with police tape, and in to Tracy's room. Malia hoped to find a clue of some kind to who the mysterious masked murderers were. The girls each moved about the room, eyes slowly skimming over the dark drawings on the walls, the knicknacks on the desk and shelves, until Malia spotted a small paperback book sitting on the desk, a small case sitting on top of it. She moved the case and found a sticky-note obscuring the cover.
Here's the book you asked for. Cheesy stuff, but still a fun, scary read.
Malia removed the note and nearly gasped at what it revealed. A drawing of the masked figures she saw that day sat under a simple, bold title that seemingly named them. The Dread Doctors. "Y/n, look." She called, and the witch walked over to look over her shoulder. "This is them. These are the people I saw."
"'The Dread Doctors'?" Y/n read aloud, brows furrowing at the cover as she rubbed nervously at her neck. Something about it made her skin crawl, creating a small ache in her temples. What the hell was this thing and why did Tracy have it?
~~~
Published: 5/4/22