Chapter: Two
Zara was on the phone with Derek as she vamped down the stairs and made her way to the kitchen, she pulled a toaster waffle out and placed it on a plate and drowned her breakfast in syrup before picking it up and stuffing her mouth. She froze when she heard the sound of a throat clearing, she looked up and noticed Lyla and Lydia in the kitchen.
She quickly swallowed, "Morning guys, Derek say hi." She hits the speaker button.
"Hey guys." He replied through the phone.
"Hi Derek." The twins said simultaneously
"Did I take someone's toaster waffle... again?"
"It was mine this time." Lyla nods before placing another one in the toaster.
"Sorry guys, a vamp's gotta eat." She says before hopping off the counter and grabbing a blood bag, she rips off the top and downs it in just seconds. She grabs a bottle of blood and places it on the counter before tossing the plastic in the bin and placing the bottle in her backpack.
"You guys ready for the first day back?" Derek asked
"Nope." Lyla replies before taking a sip of orange juice.
"I just hope nothing tries to kill me, but I think that's just wishful thinking." Lydia presses her lips in a thin line.
"I just wanna graduate." Zara groans
"And you will." Derek assures her.
"That's if nothing tries to kill all of us."
"You guys haven't had anything happen in the last 6 months, I'm sure you're fine." Derek says
Nobody says a word about the new guy Theo or the random wolf guy with strikingly blue talons.
The twins quickly finish their breakfast before dropping their things in the trash and exiting the kitchen, Zara just sighs before taking Derek off of speaker and pulls her backpack straps over her shoulder. "I gotta get going, Der. I'll call you after school."
"You better," He replies, "I love you, Zar."
"Love you too, bye." She says gently before hanging up with a smile and flush on her cheeks.
She decides to vamp to school instead of taking the Camaro, once she get's there she runs into Stiles who begins going on tangent about Theo and background checks and speeding tickets that he has and just things that Zara's brain has no time to really register at 8 in the morning.
"Okay so what does that mean?"
Stiles stops, "Who speeds?"
Zara raises an eyebrow
"Someone running away from something." He says
"And how many speeding tickets would you have if your dad wouldn't have gotten you out of them?" Zara crosses her arms.
Stiles pauses, thinks, "Uh... seventeen."
Zara grabs his shoulder, "Stiles, if you wanna get dirt on Theo.. speeding tickets is not a good way to start. You gotta dig deeper than that, you need to have proof that he is a bad guy."
"Bu—"
"And no, the gut feeling you and I have about him is not enough proof."
His nostrils flares in annoyance, "Okay, you're right."
"I'm always right, but that's besides the point. I think we need a plan."
"We? Y-You're with me on this?" He asked looking dumbfounded
"Yes, Stiles. I am. I will by your side with everything you should know that. You're my best friend." Zara says punching him in the shoulder.
"Ow! Okay! What's the plan, bestie?" He groans rubbing his shoulder.
"Okay so, we get the whole story, find all the pieces and see if any of them don't fit right?"
He nods slowly, "And... then we can catch him in the act."
"Exactly."
Stiles looks behind her, his jaw tightening. "Speak of the Devil."
Zara turns and notices Theo smiling at them, she sends him a small wave and gives him a fake smile before grabbing Stiles by the arm and pulling him into the school.
"I remember Theo from fourth grade. And that.. that's not Theo." Stiles says as he opens his locker and puts his stuff inside and keeps the things he needs for his first few classes.
"I don't know him, but I believe you." Zara says opening her locker next to him, she still remembers the time her siblings got her locker assigned right next to him to keep an eye on him. She remembers how it made her so nervous because she used to have the biggest crush on Stiles.
All of that, it feels like forever ago.
During free period she was dragged into the boys locker room by Stiles, she was met with Scott and Theo when she walked in. She crossed her arms as she leaned her back against the locker next to Stiles as Theo looked at all of them with a nervous smile.
"Stiles is my right hand in command, I feel like he needed to be here." Scott explains
"And Zara is my right hand so she needs to be here too." Stiles adds
Theo looks at her, "I don't believer we've met."
"So you don't know what I am?"
"You smell... supernatural but I don't--"
Zara bares her fangs, eyes glowing red with bloodlust veins underneath as she hisses.
"Okay, vampire. Good to know." Theo continues with a look of surprise but also fascination.
She retracts her fangs, eyes going back to her normal dark brown, "Zara Undergrove."
"Theo Raeken." he replies with a nod.
"Okay, so.. your story? How you got turned?" Stiles says, the patience in his voice wearing very thin.
He takes a breath before starting.
"I was skating in a neighbor's empty pool, I was trying to do a handplant. Nobody was home, and I'm really not that good of a skateboarder anyway. But I was feeling pretty determined because I completely lost track of time. I didn't even realize it was night until the yard lights came on. Like I said, I'm not very good." he chuckles looking down before continuing.
"On my last try I went down pretty hard, it wasn't until I was sitting there at the bottom and I realized that the board never came back down. It was standing at the edge of the pool gripping the board in it's fist while I stared up in horror, it came at me fast. I barely had a chance to turn around before it bit me. Right here," He mumbles before placing his hand towards his stomach.
"Well.. it wasn't an accident, he wanted to turn you." Scott says
"Right. So, why didn't you join his pack?" Stiles asked with his arms crossed mirroring Zara. "Why didn't he come back for you?"
"Because by the time of my first full moon he was dead." Theo answers
"How'd you figure that out?"
"I met another one of his pack, a couple weeks later. He told me the Alpha that bit me was killed by two of his own Betas." He replies "They were twins." he added.
Stiles, Scott and Zara shared a look.
Aiden and Ethan.
Well.. just Ethan now..
Zara shared a look with Stiles, one that said "I'm not buying this bullshit."
Theo sensed that as he goes to speak again, "Scott, listen to my pulse. I'm telling the truth."
"Or you're just really good at lying your ass off." Zara says glancing at her nails.
Theo looks at her with a frown, "Why would I lie?"
"Because you aren't who you say you are." Stiles says standing straight and not leaning against the lockers anymore.
"Okay." Theo mumbles, then he turns to Scott, "In fourth grade you had an inhaler, I had one too. I remember this day where I ended up in the nurse's office with an asthma attack, a bad one. I was waiting to be taken to the E.R. and you were waiting for the principal. You told me wat would happens if you go to the E.R. for asthma. How they give you oxygen, an IV of prednisone."
Zara wants to choke this kid, he is not gonna get through to Scott by using old memories.
"You made it sound easy. Like everything would be okay. I've been myself this whole time, everybody knows that lone wolves don't make it on their own. I swear I'm that same kid form fourth grade. I was hoping you are too." Theo finishes
Zara's eyes are rolling so far behind her head, next to her Stiles is running his hands through his hair, they both know that Scott is going to feel sympathy for him and accept him into the pack eventually because that's what Scott Mccall does.
He's too fucking trusting.
Then the bell rings.
Theo sighs and goes to pick up his backpack, "I better not be late for class. You're not the only ones I need to make a good impression on." He says with a charming smile that makes Zara wanna bust his lip open.
She does not trust this kid, and she probably never will.
As soon as he leaves, Scott and Zara are given a look from Scott.
"Don't, Scott." Stiles sighs in frustration.
"Guys, we have to give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes." Scott tries to reason
"Not guys like him, I don't trust him Scott." Zara shakes her head.
"We're right, Scott." Stiles says pulling his backpack straps over his shoulders. "There's something off about him, I can feel it, Zara can feel it. I don't know why you can't."
"Lydia's the psychic guys, not you." Scott says before walking out of the room.
"Lydia's not even psychic!" Zara rebuttals
"Yeah, she's a Banshee! There's a difference, Scott!" Stiles yells after him knowing he can hear him in the hallway.
Stiles sighs, "We're definitely keeping an eye on him"
"For sure." Zara replies
Later that day when school is out Zara is pulled to the side by Stiles once again, she glares at him as he hands her a piece of paper. "What's this?"
"A signature, his parent's, or so he says." Then he hands her another one, "Do those look the same to you?" He asked
Zara scans them both, her eyebrows furrowed. She shakes her head, "No. That's definitely different."
"Almost like his parents aren't his parents." Stiles replies
Zara nods, "This is good, we need to tell the pack. They're all in the library, let's go."
Once they walk up to the table they both slam the papers down scaring the members of the pack who were here while a few others were missing. The table consisted of, Isaac, Jackson, Scott, Kira and Malia, and they all looked at Stiles and Zara like they were out of their minds.
"So you guys are working together on this?" Scott says as he picks up the two papers.
"Yeah but that's besides the point, we found something." Zara says
"This one, is Theo's dad's signature on the speeding ticket eight years ago." he points out.
"And then this one, is from his transfer form for Theo to come here, it was from just a few days ago. Guys, those signatures are not the same." Zara points out.
Isaac shrugs, "Looks the same to me."
Zara wants to strangle him and drag his body up and down the library.
"It's a little different, not sure if it's like something that needs to be investigated." Jackson shrugs
"How did you get his transfer forms?" Kira asked
"Did you break into the Administration Office?" Scott asks
Zara looks at him this time, "Did you, Stiles?"
"Et tu, Zara?" Stiles scoffs
She throws her hands up in surrender, "I'm on your side, I'm just wondering."
"No, I did not break into the Administration's Office." Stiles says
Malia raises her brows, "Stiles."
"Okay, I might have broken into the Administrations Office. Can we just focus on the signatures, please?" He says trying to pry the attention off of him and his criminal offense. "They're different." He says separating the papers.
"They're sort of different." Malia says
"They're completely different guys, come on." Zara scoffs
"Look at this, the garlands they don't match. The undulations of the sinuous stroke are totally off. And look, look at this. Perfect example of the Criminal Tremor." Stiles explains.
Zara shakes her head at her best friend, a smile playing at her lips. He really is a teenage CSI.
"So.. now Theo is Theo, but his parents aren't his parents." Kira says as she narrows her eyes in confusion.
"Someone's not someone." Zara replies
"And when we figure out who that someone really is, someone's in big trouble." Stiles responded.
"But no one's done anything wrong." Scott retorted
"Yet." Zara adds
"If Theo's parents are psychotic killers then obviously, we should not trust him, right?" Stiles asked
"My parents are Peter and The Desert Wolf." Malia remarks
Zara runs her tongue along the inside of her cheek as she feels defeated, "Okay, you have a point."
"Zara!" Stiles exclaims
"Sorry! She had a point, I'm still on your side but... maybe.. not on this specific plan?"
Stiles runs his hands over his face, sighing into his palm, "I gotta go." he says before stalking off.
"I'm sorry, Stiles!" Zara yells after him but he just waved her off as he exited the library.
"Go after him so he doesn't do anything stupid." Jackson mumbles
Zara rolled her eyes, "Later guys." she mumbled before running out of the library and towards Stiles' jeep and climbs in the passenger seat.
"What, you here to tell me you're out of the plan?" He scoffs
Zara grabs his shoulder, "Stiles. I will always be on your side, I'm with you."
He scans her before nodding, "Okay."
"Good, now. I need to call my boyfriend before he blows up my phone." Zara says as she buckles up her seatbelt and pulls her phone out of her backpack and dialing Derek who answers almost immediately. They talk for a little bit before they both say their I love you's and then promise to call later before she goes to sleep.
Liam climbs into the back with the forms in his hands, "So what's a criminal tremor?"
Stiles snatches the papers, "Nothing." Then he starts the engine and pulls out of the school parking lot making Liam fumble in attempt to strap himself in.
Zara wanted to kill Stiles.
He made her sit in the jeep for 3 hours with Liam in the back complaining as they watched Theo play video games before they were following him into the woods on foot, he was so lucky she had enough blood today or she would've been murderously annoyed at him. They were hiding behind the trees as Theo pulled something out of his trunk before looking around and closing it and walking towards the preserve.
"I told you guys he was up something." Stiles says
"Stiles we just spent 3 hours watching him play videogames, he better be out here covering up a mass murder." Liam comments
"Agreed, or I'm killing you Stiles." Zara adds
Stiles rolls his eyes, "Let's find out." then he's walking through the trees with the two of them following right behind him.
"You guys still got his scent?" Zara asked
"Don't need it." Stiles says pointing to the footprints of Theo's shoes.
Then Liam suddenly stops, "What's wrong, Dunbar?"
"I just remembered I need to meet Mason at the school gym." Liam says
"Okay, why didn't you just tell him what you were doing?" Stiles asked
"Tell him what?" Liam looked nervous
"Liam, you haven't told him about you?"
"No I haven't." He says shoving his hands into his red jacket.
"Dude, we said it was okay. You need someone like Mason to be by your side." Stiles stated
Liam shrugs with a frown, "It not something that's easy to accept."
"He watched my dad blow up a Berserker, I think the groundwork's been pretty thoroughly laid for acceptance. Scott and I have been through this okay? More than once, it's always better when they know." Stiles explains before grabbing his shoulder and squeezing it in comfort before walking off, Zara following close behind.
"But what if he freaks out? What if he doesn't wanna talk to me? What he tries to kill me with something silver? Or what if--"
Zara stops when hears a loud thud, she turns around and walks back before noticing there was a hole and Liam was now standing in it. Stiles stands next to her and pinches in between his brows. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Stiles, he fell in a hole."
"I swear to god." Stiles mumbles, "Wait.. there he is, get him out of there. And Liam, stop screwing around." He says before walking off.
Zara just rolls her eyes before leaning down and pulling Liam out of the hole, "You okay?"
Liam just nods before chasing after where Stiles went, she follows closely behind and stops when they see Stiles leaning against a tree watching Theo who's standing on the bridge.
"What are you doing?" Zara whispered to Stiles.
"Trying to catch his scent but.. all I'm getting is waves of sadness.. almost like.." He pauses, his eyes widen, "Grief."
Zara watches as Theo drops a flower into the water, his head bowed like he's upset.
"Oh no, we gotta go now." Stiles mumbles as he grabs both her and Liam's arms and begins to walk away from where Theo is.
"What? Why?" Liam asked as he's being dragged
"Just keep up with me, Liam." Stiles urges
After walking for a bit they begin to slow down.
"That's the bridge where they found his sister." Stiles mumbles
"His sister is dead?"
"Yeah, she died when he was 10." Stiles murmurs "He was leaving a flower for her."
"That doesn't sound very evil." Liam replies
"Yeah I know, Liam. God!" Stiles exclaims in frustration.
"Guys." Zara grabs both of them, as she stares at Theo's frame standing on the tree above them.
"Shit." Stiles mumbled as Theo jumped down, he stood up form his crouched position and gave them a smile.
"What are you guys doing?" He asks with the same charming smile as he walks closer making Liam growl causing him to back up a little with his hands raised in surrender, "Whoa. Why do I get the feeling this kid's tougher than he looks?"
Stiles holds Liam back, placing a hand over his arm. "Only when we let him off his leash."
"Stiles, we were in Little League together. Why are you so suspicious of me?" Theo asked
Stiles licks his lips before pulling the papers out of his pockets and handing them to Theo, the boy scanned them and then looked up at Stiles for the explanation.
"One's a speeding ticket signed by your dad eight years ago." Stiles says
"The other one is your forms for your transfer to Beacon High, both signatures are strikingly different." Zara adds
"Huh." Theo mumbles, "I guess they are different."
"Yeah like, signed by two different people."
Theo looks at Zara, "So my dad's not my dad? Like he's an imposter?"
"Something like that." Liam chimes in
Theo sighs as he folds up the papers, "Who do you think I am?"
"We don't know yet." Stiles replies
"You want a DNA sample or something?" Theo jokes with a small smile.
"No, I don't have anything from fourth grade to match it to." Stiles says shooting down his attempt to humor him.
Zara snorts.
"You know, Stiles, I came back here for Scott. But I also came back for you. Someone like you. Someone who's willing to walk into the woods in the middle of the night to protect his friends. I don't have anyone like that, but Scott does." He scans the three of them, "You all do. I know I'm in the right place, I'm meant to be here. I'm meant to be apart of this pack." He says with determination in his voice and finality.
After the unexpected talk with Theo we finally made our way back to Stiles' Jeep Roscoe, but it seemed that we weren't the only ones with the idea of following people tonight considering Scott was standing right next to his bike.
"Find anything?" he asked with a smug look.
Zara rolled her eyes as she leaned against the jeep.
"Nope." Stiles replied before climbing inside.
"I fell in a hole." Liam chimes.
Zara just ruffles his hair making him groan in retaliation.
Zara zoned out of what the boys were talking about but she realized Stiles was ready to go, but the engine just sputtered before stopping. She watched as Stiles slammed the door and walked around the front and pulled the hood up before checking the damage. "Liam do me a favor, get in the car and start the ignition when I say, okay?" Liam walked over to the jeep and climbed into the front seat.
Zara pulled her hood over her head as it began to get colder.
"Stiles." Scott tried
"Be with you in a sec, Liam, try please." He says, Liam tries to get the car to start but it just sputters before stopping again causing Stiles to become more frustrated than he already was. Stiles leans over the jeep as he sighs.
"Stiles." Scott tries
"Yes. We followed him out into the woods, okay?"
"We don't trust him, Scott." Zara shrugs, "I don't regret coming out here, we did it for you. For the pack, Theo is a threat I can feel it."
Stiles goes back to tinkering with his engine before Scott goes to speak again.
"Now are you guys gonna try to at least him the benefit of the doubt?" He asked
"I've given people the benefit of the doubt, Scott." Stiles mumbles
"My entire life was giving people the benefit of the doubt. Don't forget my siblings kidnapped Stiles and kept him from you and I tried to make it seem okay in my brain because I trusted them, and then I realized they were fucking wrong and brought him back." Zara remarks
"Like Derek?" Scott says to both of them, he knew about her past and hating werewolves.
Zara was gonna punch this kid in his face, her jaw tightened.
"Kira? Liam?" Scott continued
"I was right about Peter since day one wasn't I?" Stiles says
"Theo also gives me the same bad feeling that Peter did on many occasions, I tried to ignore it because I thought he may have changed and look what happened? He tried to kill you. I'm not giving Theo Raeken the chance to make it a second time, Scott." Zara spits angrily
"Try it again!" Stiles yells to Liam.
Same result, Roscoe doesn't respond.
"I bet you still think there's something about him that can be saved?" Stiles accuses.
"Maybe." Scott mumbles
Stiles huffs, "Try it again!"
Liam does, same result, jeep will not start.
"Why can't you trust anyone?" Scott asked
And oh my god, is Scott Mccall the oblivious puppy serious right now?
"Because you trust everyone!" Stiles yells before slamming his fist into the jeep angrily, he huffs in frustration as he pops his broken bone back in place before taking a deep breath and tinkering at his engine once more.
"Are you okay?" Scott asked
"I'll heal." Stiles replies sounding distant. "Liam, again?"
Liam turns the key, and this time Roscoe roars to life.
Zara looks at Scott, "He's just trying to protect you from the inevitable Scott, because you being so trustworthy might just bite you in the ass. You can let Theo in the pack, but Stiles and I will be watching him very closely, there's something off with him. And we're gonna figure it out." She gives him one last glance before hopping into the passenger seat and buckling herself in as Stiles climbs in and does the same.
Zara grabs ahold of his hand, "Are you okay?"
Stiles nods, "Yeah, I'm fine. Liam, we gotta drop you off right?"
Liam nods, "Mason is gonna be pissed."
"I'll stay with you, left something in my locker that I gotta get anyway."
When they got to the school Zara goes into the hallway and opens her locker, she pulls out her books and stuffs them into her backpack. Suddenly she sees Mason and Liam running down the hall.
"Zara! There's a wolf coming!" Liam says before closing her locker and pulling her with him.
"Like an actual wolf?" She asked as she ran and turned the corner with Mason beside her, she turns around for one second her eyes widen. "That's a fucking wolf!"
"Yeah I know!" Liam replies before telling Mason to run up the stairs.
Zara throws her backpack down before baring her fangs and hissing at the feral animal, Liam forces out his claws, his eyes glowing amber. They both shared a glance before Liam growls at the wolf making it stop and stare at him in fear before whimpering and trotting it's way out of the school.
Zara retracted her fangs as Liam's eyes and nails went back to normal, She saw Mason slowly walk down the stairs, his lips parted in shock and possibly... amazement?
"There's something I gotta tell you." Liam says nervously
"You're a werewolf." Mason states nodding slowly
"Well.. Yeah.." Liam says scratching the back of his neck.
Then he looks at Zara, "And you're a vampire."
She gives him a shy smile, "Yeah.. I am."
Liam walks towards Mason, slowly like he's expecting his best friend to be afraid.
"What do you think about that?" Liam asked hesitantly
Mason pauses, "In a word?"
Liam nods.
Mason smiles, "Awesome."
—
I DID NOT THINK THIS CHAPTER WOULD BE THAT LONG.
FUCKING HELL.
There is so much dialogue in this episode, like holy fuck.
I am literally at the beginning of season 5b as we speak, I binge this show so fast.
Anywayyyy, until the next one guys.
Byeee.
— Mic ☀︎︎