▬ 𝓛𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼 ▬
Brooklyn ran behind Scott, Stiles, Theo and Deaton as they rushed into the police station. All of them stopped except Theo who rushed into another room as they noticed the streaks of blood decorating the laminate flooring.
As always, Brooke concealed her purple eyes as they took in the room. Tracy had definitely wreaked havoc. Deputies all around the room were just starting to move again as they were no longer paralysed by the kanima venom. They had small to medium cuts on one part of their body from where the girl's tail had swiped at them. One lampshade had been torn from the ceiling and lay in the middle of the hallway.
Objects like stationary and telephones that once cluttered desks were strewn across the floor, some even reaching as far as the front door. Amongst it all was the Sheriff who Brooke and Scott went over to help him onto his feet.
"Brooke!" the girl heard Stiles shout her name from his dad's office, his voice wavering slightly. Concerned, the Hale girl quickly made her way to him to face a horrid sight. One that nearly made her heart stop.
Lydia lay on the floor in the middle of the room. The right side of her stomach and jumper completely coated in her own blood. It was obvious Kira had been applying pressure to her wound because of the red on her hands but now she hand Theo's belt wrapped around her to help.
Brooklyn was ready to drop down to her knees and help the redhead but she glanced back once at the couple of deputies watching from the outside and stopped. Stiles immediately knew what was up and told her, "Just do enough so that, so that sh-she won't, uh-"
He didn't have to say any more for Brooke to understand. She dropped down next to Lydia, her back to the door, and placed her hands on the girl's shoulders. It took some effort but having done it before, Brooklyn was able to pull her shaky hands away when she needed to. Lydia smiled at her a little in relief as well as Kira. Stiles coming to place a grateful hand on her shoulder.
Lydia's mum then sprinted in, panic overwhelming her. Sirens could be heard from outside as emergency services rushed to the scene. Brooklyn and Stiles then got called by Scott and the Sheriff to follow them. They ran down to the basement of the police station, Deaton joining them in the process. They all skidded to a stop when they saw Malia standing over Tracy's dead body.
The werecoyote put her hands up in defence saying, "It wasn't me."
The True Alpha and the veterinarian knelt down next to the unfortunate girl, inspecting her. "What the hell happened to her?" the Sheriff questioned.
"There were these people." Malia started, her eyes watery as she looked Stiles in the eyes, begging him to believe her. "They had mask. Um, there... There were three of them. I think there were three." she rambled frantically, praying they wouldn't think she did this.
"What are you taking about?" Brooke asked.
"They were strong, Stiles." she stammered. Brooklyn's heart broke for the girl it was obvious she didn't want Stiles to get the wrong idea. "They had a weapon. Stiles, I didn't do this."
"Okay." the Stilinski boy replied, pulling the girl into a hug.
"She's not changing back." Deaton informed them from where he was on his knees examining the dead girl's claws. "We're going to need to get her out of here."
"What, hey. Absolutely not." the Sheriff stated. "This is a crime scene. We call the coroner."
"I think the coroner might be very confused by this girl's severed reptilian tail." Deaton responded. Brooke crouched down next to Scott, taking a look over Tracy for herself.
"I don't care." the older Stilinski told him.
"You should." the veterinarian sighed. "Unless you're prepared to hold a press conference announcing the presence of supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills."
The Sheriff scrunched his face up because he knew he had no argument. "Dad, he's right." Stiles admitted.
"Maybe at the clinic we can figure out how to change her back and then call the coroner." Scott suggested.
"There's a line..." the police officer paced back in forth, "There is a line that we have to draw."
"Dad, you've already crossed it. More than once." Stiles reminded.
"Sheriff, please. Let me help." Deaton begged. "I've dealt with things like this before."
After much debating and shaking his head the Sheriff sighed, "Just do it fast."
✄ ✄ ✄ ✄ ✄
Brooklyn waited in the hospital with Stiles, Malia, Kira and Theo. Scott and Liam just joined them as Melissa made her way over. "Stiles." she said grabbing their attention and making the boy flip around.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
"Could have been worse." she told him then looked at the boy behind him, "Theo, nice going on that tourniquet. You probably saved her life by giving her time for Brooke to get there." She glanced around at the group of teenagers now huddle around her. "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 stick her up and hope for the best?" the nurse questioned.
"It was the tail." Kira informed Melissa.
"Yeah, Tracy cut her with the tail, if that makes a difference." Scott added.
"Okay." Melissa said before walking off to Lydia's surgery room.
"But it wasn't just Tracy. There were the others. The guys in the masks." Malia put in.
They all looked at each other. What was going on in Beacon Hills now?
✄ ✄ ✄ ✄ ✄
It was dark by the time Scott and Brooke made it to the McCall house. The True Alpha kindly held the door open for her as Brooklyn walked in with a sigh. Scott turned on the lights making the healer look down at Lydia's blood that had managed to stain her hands. Scott noticed her sombre look, taking her hands in his and placing a kiss on them. He then put his forehead on hers for a couple of seconds before moving his lips there.
They remained like that for a while until they came together in a gentle kiss. "Sorry to interrupt." a voice startled them, the two drawing their lips away from from each other's quickly.
Surprisingly, Deaton made his way into the room. He dropped a leather bag on of the dinning chairs before pulling out a jar that contained a single, long claw. "A werewolf with the talons of an eagle. Possibly a shape-shifter, known in Eastern mythology as a Garuda." he said.
He placed it in the table before pulling out another jar and holding that one up. "Tracy's claws." he told them. "The unmistakable class of a werewolf... but..." he held up part of the skin from her severed tail, "A werewolf who also bears the venom and the scales of a kanima."
Brooke got closer, propping herself on a chair across from the veterinarian and looked at the different jars. "What do you even call that?" she asked.
"Personally, I call it terrifying." Deaton replied. "But at the moment, I'm more interested in how Tracy was able to get across the mountain ash."
"Because nothing supernatural can. And Tracy definitely ticks that box." Brooke said.
"Exactly." the veterinarian confirmed. "So, if Tracy was able to cross the mountain ash and supernatural creatures can't do that..."
"Tracy's not supernatural." Scott finished.
"Yes." Deaton responded, "If she wasn't born and she was bitten, she had to have been made." he deciphered.
"Made?" Brooklyn repeated.
"Someone is trying to make supernatural creatures with non-supernatural means. And whoever they are, they're somehow managing to blur the lines between science and the supernatural." Deaton explained.
"But there's more. Liam said he found another hole out in the woods." Scott commented. Brooklyn had to laugh earlier when the young beta was telling them how he'd fallen in a hole. But it did prove to be helpful so it was a good thing.
"Burying them could be part of the process," the veterinarian stated, "a kind of incubation."
"What are we supposed to do then?" Brooklyn inquired.
"Same thing you've always done." Deaton told them, "Protect your friends. Protect each other." Brooke glanced back at Scott sending him a concerned look, one which he returned.
"What about someone like Tracy?" the True Alpha asked.
"I wish I could tell you." Deaton huffed. "Hopefully, I'll have more answers soon. I'll be gone a few days."
Scott's eyebrows raised, "You're leaving?" he questioned.
"Just a few days." his boss replied.
"We should be pretty worried, shouldn't we?" the Hale girl asked.
Deaton picked up the jar that contained a extract of skin from Tracy's tail. "I've lived in the world of the supernatural a long time. As have you, Brooklyn. But I'm still a doctor. Still a man of science. Something like this happens, it rattles the foundation of everything you believe. Something like this shakes you to the core."
"Something like what?" Scott questioned.
"The rules..." Deaton clarified, "The rules have changed."
Brooklyn scoffed, "Well this just got fun."
✄ ✄ ✄ ✄ ✄
Following behind Stiles and Malia the next day, Brooklyn met up with Scott and Kira around a table in the upstairs part of the library. "Did you get in to see Lydia?" Scott questioned his best friend.
"No. I tried using my free period, but she's still in the ICU and no one outside family is allowed in." Stiles informed him.
"We got one thing." Malia stated, placing the large green book on the table. She slid it into the middle, opening up the cover to reveal the word 'Bestiary' on the first page. The Bestiary contained all records of every supernatural creature ever.
"Anything in here about half-werewolves, half-kanimas?" Kira asked.
"The chimera." Scott said.
"The what?" Brooklyn inquired, a dumb look on her face.
"Chimera." Scott repeated, "It's a creature made of incongruous parts. And if Liam said he found two burial sites, that means Tracy's not the only one."
"So, it's a smart science thing?" Brooklyn whispered to Scott to check.
"Yeah." he nodded back to her, a small smile resting on his face at her cuteness.
"Who's the second chimera?" Kira questioned.
"And why would they bury them?" Stiles added.
"Deaton thinks it's a part of their process." Brooklyn told them.
"The people in masks." Malia said.
Brooklyn let out a huff. This was going to take a while to work out.