Thunder and Blood

11

Percy

Stiles and I lead Scott into a room, letting him rest on the metal table in the middle. 

"Where's Kira?" Scott asks between breaths. 

"She went to get something from the front." Stiles replies, studying Scott's wound. He looks at me, knitting his eyebrows. "You're not injured?"

I shake my head. 

"What are you?"

The question takes me back. "What?" 

"What are you?"

How do I answer that? "Percy Jackson?" I say.

He blinks, but the name doesn't seem to register. What had Scott said? This boy had been obsessed with me? How? He doesn't even know my name. "No." He says. "What are you?"

"Human?" I respond. "I'm human."

"Good." Something on his face changes, becoming harder. Like he's lost all emotion. I'm about to ask him what he means when he hits me across the face. I fall to the floor, hard, I lay there, gasping for a breath. I roll onto my back, feeling blood drip down my face, either from my nose or lip. Maybe both. 

I look up at Stiles. Not Stiles. Void. 

He has his hand wrapped around the hilt of the sword in Scott's stomach, and he twists it. I can only hear bits and pieces of what he's saying over the roaring in my ears. 

"You see, the nogitsune feeds off chaos, strife, and pain." He grips Scott's shoulder. "This morning, you took it from Isaac, then you were about to take it from coach... but he stopped you." I realize Stiles is talking about me. I had stopped Scott from taking coaches pain, it didn't feeling right. And I'm glad I did. "Then you took it from the dying deputies at the station."

I rest my head on the ground, regaining my senses, when I see something out of the corner of my eye. 

A hand. 

I look over, recognizing the bracelet. Kira. 

Stiles continues talking to Scott. "You took all that pain. Now," he says, "you're going to give it to me."

Kira is lying on the ground, but she's not dead, I can feel the blood circulating throughout her body. She's just knocked out. I push myself up onto my elbows, tenderly touching my swollen jaw. 

Dam. Stiles has a hard punch. 

He twists the sword some more, Scott cries out in pain. 

Pain. 

That's what he wants. 

Pain. 

I get up just as Stiles finishes taking the pain he had inflicted on Scott. He notices me too late. I hit him over the head with riptide, not hard, I don't want to hurt Stiles. But hard enough. He staggers back, right into the awaiting arms of the bald veterinarian. Deaton. 

Deaton injects Stiles with a neon yellow serum, and the boy goes limp in his arms. 

"What was that?" I ask, capping Riptide. 

"Wolf Lichen. Poisonous to foxes."

"That's what he is? A fox?" I let him pass as he walks towards Scott. 

"A dark kitsune, a rare Japanese spirit." He grips Scott's shoulder. "Scott, this is going to hurt." And he pulls the sword out in one quick motion. 

I try to ignore Scott's pained breathing. "Did the wolf lichen kill him?"

"No. It just put the nogitsune to sleep." He pauses. "For now."

"For now?"

"Void will come back, but until he does, we have to find a way to save Stiles." He walks over to check on Kira. "It won't be easy, figuratively, we're trying to-" 

I finish his sentence. "We're basically trying to save Stiles from himself."

"Exactly." He looks at me. "But I do have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"Who are you?"

I smile. "Percy Jackson, at your service."

Deaton's eyes go wide. "The Percy Jackson?"

I stare at him. "How do you guys even know me?"

"You're famous, you have been for years." Scott pipes in. 

"That's... reassuring."

Deaton glances down at Stiles. "We need to get him out of here. Her too. Scott, are you able to lift her?" He asks, nodding at Kira. 

"It's healing, slowly, but it's healing. I think I can."

"Percy, you and I will take Stiles. Try not to drop him."