"i can see them now,
three points at which i let myself down,
i was just a girl,
what's the excuse now?"
word count: 5.9k
Jade balanced a tray of drinks on her knee, opening the door to the animal clinic with one hand, trying to keep the contents of the coffees in their cups. It was relatively early when she had left, the others asleep inside. The group had stayed overnight, taking it in turns to watch over Hayden, making sure she wasn't getting any worse.
She hadn't been keen to stay in a cold vet clinic with people she couldn't stand, listening to dogs barking all night and using a coat as a pillow, but being the lovely twin sister that she was, she waited it out.
She had taken refuge in her car at roughly six in the morning, swinging by her work to help Emery make some apple pies. Coffee was the only thing that kept her sane, so she naturally had to pull into Starbucks on the way back to the animal clinic (although, she would much rather be at home with her fluffy dog, finalising some last-minute details).
Clangs and clatters let her know that everyone was awake, which was expected as it was midday by now, voices drifting through the clinic. Her heart dropped for a second, eyes firmly trained on who had stepped into the waiting room. She didn't know what had possessed her to do it but her hand was out before she could yank it away. "Here."
Melissa blinked, a small frown pulling at the corner of her lips. It was weird to see Jade after they hadn't spoken in the better part of five months. Max going missing had required a bit of cooperation from the two of them. Melissa knew she could have handled the situation better, time apart shining a spotlight on that fact. She wanted to amend her relationship with her niece, too many things said in the heat of the moment. The only thing she could do was admit when she was wrong and try to forgive.
She was finally starting to grasp the concept of how this supernatural world worked. Jade and Max grew up with this lifestyle, doing what was necessary to survive. It was kill or be killed. While she didn't agree with murder, she could see that the pair hadn't been given the same choice that Scott had. He was thrown into it when he was sixteen, spared of the horrors, the extent hunters went to protect the world from the 'vicious creatures.'
She wasn't saying that Scott had it easy, not at all! He had seen it through rose-tinted glasses, to put it simply. He never wanted to hurt anyone and always tried to find a way to save people— that was the way he was brought up.
Jade and Max... had a different childhood. She loved her brother, don't get her wrong, but she had seen first-hand how cruel and mean he got when he was drunk. Elizabeth was selfish for taking that deal with the sorcerer, but if Melissa knew one thing about her sister-in-law, it was that she always had her kids' best interests at heart.
All three of them— Scott, Jade and Max— had been burdened with powers they hadn't asked for. Scott dealt with it by helping others, always looking for the singular good quality in someone. Max... well, coping for him was by drowning his troubles in alcohol. She didn't know how Jade coped with it. She guessed she didn't; that was the issue. She avoided the problem at all costs, turning off her emotions and praying it would go away. In her opinion, feeling nothing was better than feeling pain.
So, Melissa had done some thinking over the last few months. She was changing her views, learning that the supernatural world worked differently, not as black and white as she had originally assumed. She was learning that people (and morals, too) needed to bend before one of their kids broke.
"Have you spiked this with poison?" Melissa smiled, trying to show that she was only joking. She cupped the coffee in her hands, pushing back a curl that had escaped from her ponytail. "Can we talk?"
"No."
Melissa sighed, tilting her head to the side. "Please?" She took the silence as an answer, turning her body on the seat so that she could see Jade's expression (or a lack thereof). "Mija, you owe me nothing; not your time and you certainly don't have to accept my apology. I've been horrible. I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I was out of line for kicking you out when you needed support and I should have understood that you were hurting."
She didn't dare bring up Allison's name. "I didn't get it. Why you did those things; killing those people, hurting them. But I think I'm beginning to. Cass, I don't want you to think that this is some ploy someone's put me up to. I'm not trying to get you to turn your humanity back on. I just... I miss you. And I'm worried about you. I want you to know that I'm here for anything, at any time."
Jade swallowed the lump in her throat, biting down hard on the inside of her cheek. Seriously? A stupid meaningless apology and she was already beginning to crumble? She needed to get a grip. Taking a swig of her coffee, the taste turned sour inside her mouth. Don't you dare cry.
There were so many things that she wanted to say. A paragraph on how each and every single one of them had left her alone. She wanted someone to blame; it was easier that way. It would surely make her plan for tonight a hell of a lot easier if she expelled any emotional connections.
Clamping her mouth shut, disregarding Melissa's hopeful gaze, she walked back into the main room. It was the immature thing to do but her humanity was trying so desperately to come back. She couldn't let it all be for nothing.
Max leaned against the doorframe that separated the two rooms, shooting his aunt a pitiful glance. "She'll come around. She's almost more stubborn than dad. She's still hurt. Give her time, Mel," he smiled softly, a silent reassurance that he was correct. He knew his sister almost better than she knew herself.
The equipment was set up in the room, all ready for Melissa to get to work. Considering they were in an animal clinic, they were working with the (limited) things that they had.
Hayden was lying on a metal table, heartbeat slower than what the werewolves would have liked. Nathan sat beside her, hand squeezing her's every so often to make sure she was awake. Liberty paced, practically wearing down the floor with how long she had been walking. Blair had sent a message half an hour ago, making sure to remind her sister to take Ace for a walk and give Nathan a slice of toast to eat. Even in a jail cell, she still managed to keep her siblings up to date on their responsibilities.
"Hey," Nathan whispered, cupping Hayden's cheek with his hand. Her eyes fluttered open, tears glossing over the honey colour. "You can't die on me. You still owe me a date, remember?" he smiled softly, happy that her lips were cracking into a smile too. "We're moving around your work schedule."
Theo and Scott carried litres of liquids in from the storage room, placing the cooler on the floor to keep everything in check.
Liam pressed his hands into his face, chewing on a nail. "What are you doing?" he asked, watching Jade out of the corner of his eye, the blonde hopping onto a countertop.
Melissa's nurse instincts kicked in, getting the bags of liquids ready to do their job. "It's called chelation therapy. It removes heavy metals from the blood. It can cause damage to the kidneys and Hayden only has one to begin with, so..." she trailed off, pushing a needle into Hayden's hand. She didn't want to give them false hope, yet worrying them would only make the situation ten times worse.
"You're hurting her!" Liam gripped Melissa's wrist, not hearing the bones crackle.
Melissa's breath hitched in her throat, not daring to move in case he snapped her wrist in two. "Ok. And you're both hurting me," glancing at Nathan, she felt a blister bubble on her neck. Apologising sheepishly, Nathan gritted his teeth. He didn't have a clue how his new powers worked (his wings came out when he felt something too strongly) and he hadn't intended to hurt the woman who was trying to save his friends' life.
Max sat on Hayden's other side, squeezing her hand in hopes of telling her that it would be okay. The lies just kept stacking on top of each other. It didn't look okay. He couldn't sit here, telling her that it would all be fine because he had seen those kids screaming and begging for their lives as they were dragged to their death. Pressing his lips together firmly, he took her pain, feeling it pierce through his entire body. It seemed to relieve her a bit, manipulating Liam and Nathan's emotions next so that his aunt would leave all in one piece.
"It's the Supermoon," Scott explained, trying his best to ignore the protectiveness he felt when his friends had hurt his mom. They both cared about Hayden; it was a natural instinct for them to hurt Melissa, even if they hadn't meant to. The Supermoon didn't affect phoenixes (as far as he was aware, which wasn't reassuring due to the lack of knowledge they had been provided with) but it would affect Liam.
"We can feel it during the day. It makes us stronger, more violent." Something deep inside his gut told him that this wasn't going to end well. It was Liam's first supermoon, too. His IED on top of everything else was a recipe for disaster.
Liberty finally gave up pacing, not missing the glare that Jade had been splitting through her. She kind of wanted to live through the night without being killed by her fellow witch. Opting to help Melissa with the medical equipment, she brushed past Theo, busying herself with flipping the bags of liquid over.
Hayden gently grabbed onto Liberty's hand, holding her close, desperate to make sure she wouldn't leave. "Val... my sister... Valerie. I don't wanna die without my sister," her bottom lip trembled. Her sister was all she had left. She didn't want Valerie to blame herself, wondering what had happened, what her last words had been. The only thing she wanted was her sister to hold her in her last minutes."Please. I don't wanna die without my sister."
Scott swallowed hard, heart breaking in his chest. He didn't have a sibling (not a biological one) but if he was the one lying on that table, he would want Stiles, Jade and Max there, no matter what had happened in the past. "I think I know where she is. There's an incident at the school," he said, pocketing his phone. Valerie was a deputy, so his best bet would be to see if she was there first. He didn't know what he would tell her. He'd tell her everything if he had to, so long as she came to see Hayden.
Theo had offered to help get the pack back together for Scott, leaving at the same time to throw off any suspicions. Now, if you hadn't guessed by now, they weren't actually going to gather the pack together. Nothing could go wrong this close to the finish line. Not when they would get their pack by killing Scott McCall tonight.
Liberty didn't want to get sick. She swallowed those negative thoughts, trying to remember what she had learnt in therapy, trying to remember that she was the one in control here. Pulling the blanket up over Hayden, she soothingly stroked her hair out of her face. She was an overly empathetic person— whether she was willing to admit that or not was a different story— so watching Hayden slowly die, all the while knowing that there was nothing she could do, made her heart ache.
She knew how Hayden felt, having an older sister who was more like a mother figure and a best friend rolled into one. A sister who fussed over anything. If she was dying, she would want Blair. Of course, she would want Nathan, too, but she would want Blair the most. Her sister just radiated that sense of peace and comfort, like everything would be okay.
When Hayden grabbed her hand, she knew what it meant. She knew that she would stay with her and if Scott couldn't get Valerie there in time, she would take responsibility for holding Hayden.
⌜ • ° + ° • ⌝
Deputy Clark used her pass key to get through to the jail cells, keys jingling in her pockets as she walked. Today was chaotic; some weird animal destroyed the school, a place she had been since the early hours of the morning, returning to the station on the sheriff's orders.
She couldn't remember the psychologist's name for the life of her, simply knew that her younger brother was in the same class as Hayden (not to mention the fact that the two youngsters had raging crushes on each other). Parrish was laughing at something she said, earning him a playful kick in the leg.
"I have bagels, soda and Sour Patch Kids. The only things that'll fit through the bars," Clark handed the supplies through to the woman who had practically sprinted. She didn't understand why the hell her colleague and his girlfriend locked themselves into a cell overnight (she wasn't interested in finding out if it was some kink, preferring to keep that image from her mind).
The sheriff had cleared it— god, this was scarring her further— so there had to be a reasonable explanation behind it, one that hopefully did not involve sex.
Jordan slouched from his spot on the cold floor, the one he had occupied for the last hour while Blair had been asleep for a 'power nap,' as she called it, waking up fifteen minutes ago when another deputy came to check on them. "Can you let her out?" he gestured with his hand to Blair.
"Have you got your listening ears on?" Blair raised a brow, putting on the voice she used when talking to a toddler, using her free hand to tear open the bag of sour patch kids. She would always choose savoury or sour things over sweet, any day of the week. Emery's apple pies and chocolate fudge cake didn't apply in that case. "I've already told you, quite a lot actually, that I'm not going. So, looks like you're stuck with me. And let's be honest, I'm a barrel of laughs, there could be worse people to be in here with."
Clark laughed, hands on her hips. "Oh, I can just tell we're gonna be friends," she tucked her hands inside her pockets. She was meeting her in-laws, saving the embarrassment that came later on! In a way, she was doing Hayden a favour. Static spewed over the radio, Sheriff Stilinski asking if the food drop-off was done. "Here," she whispered, slipping a thing hand through the bar and sliding a pass card into Blair's palm while her colleagues' attention was elsewhere. "Sheriff told me to give you this. You should be able to reach it from in here."
Blair pocketed the card, safely keeping it in her cardigan pocket. "Thanks for the food," she smiled softly, tapping a rhythm on the bars as the deputy disappeared around a corner. Hopping on the spot, she finally settled back down beside Jordan on the floor, ripping open the package of bagels. "They taste better with cream cheese," she scrunched her nose at the blandness, shooting him a glare when he asked if she was expecting room service.
Her phone pinged once more, Liberty sending the hourly message to let her know they were alive. Her phone flashed, warning her that the battery was low.
In all honesty, Lib and Nathan seemed to be coping relatively well without her. Now, that didn't mean she was going to be hopping on the next flight to Spain for a month. It did make her anxious to leave them alone, but she couldn't keep them wrapped in cotton wool. If she gave them no independence or privacy and was too overprotective, like a helicopter parent, it would drive them away and that was the last thing she wanted to do.
Being locked in a jail cell was relatively alright (apart from the overwhelming fear that if one of them got hurt, she wouldn't be able to help.) Checking in with them kept her nerves at bay, the weight on her chest lighter.
Jordan was good at keeping her distracted, without her even needing to say anything. After giving her a lecture over locking herself in the cell with him (he didn't find it as funny as she did when pointing out that technically he locked her in the cell) and finally calming down over the revelation that he was the one taking the bodies, she still couldn't believe the first thing out of his mouth was that she wanted to go on a second date with him. Seemed like being in a mid-life crisis hadn't affected his hearing.
After getting over the embarrassing confession and arranging a second date that hopefully wouldn't be inside a jail cell, Blair was grateful to be prepared for the worst. Three bottles of water and a packet of percy pigs weren't much, but it had kept them going overnight!
"Am I a harbinger of death?" Jordan asked, furrowed brows creating worry lines that Blair was desperately trying not to flatten out with her thumb. He had time to think it over since last night, not feeling any better about it, the only thing giving him comfort being the chimeras were already dead when he found them. He wasn't a murderer.
"I'm not sure," Blair frowned, tilting her head to the side in thought. "I mean, I think so. That's not a bad thing," she smiled softly, turning towards him. "Look at Lydia. She's a harbinger of death and a total sweetheart."
"Stop, you flatter me."
"I wasn't talking about you," she elbowed him in the ribs, rolling her eyes in amusement. You know, she was convinced his search history was just full of pickup lines and witty comebacks because there was no way he made them up on the spot. She, on the other hand, came up with a response two to three business days later and cursed herself for not thinking of it in the moment. She felt his eyes on her, raising a brow at his wary gaze. "What?"
"Does it help knowing what you are? I know you're not a supernatural, but in general, do you think it helps? Did it help Lib and Nathan?" he spilt out quickly, afraid that if he shut his mouth he wouldn't ask.
Blair clicked her tongue, tapping her sneakers on the floor in thought. People always brought up that exact question. It was hard to give a rock-solid answer, as it varied from person to person, reactions differing, no one's staying consistent. "It depends. I think for some people it makes it a little less scary. It helps knowing there's a reason, knowing they're not going insane. I think it helps Nathan. He kinda has a basic idea of what his powers entail. Lib..." she trailed off with a sigh, pressing her lips together.
"I don't know. Lib's hard to read. Our mom, Saoirse, was a witch, too. I think Lib finds it easier to know what to expect in a roundabout way, even if some things do change. She doesn't have a coven anymore, though, so I think that's hit her a bit hard. I helped her with her powers growing up. Saoirse wasn't an amazing role model in that department, so having a coven who understood her powers made her feel like people understood. They weren't... nice people, some of them. I'm not a witch so I can only give the one-sided 'druid' point of view, no matter how much I try to put myself in her shoes. I think it depends on each person. It helps some, doesn't with others."
"Saoirse. That's an unusual name."
"It's Irish," she chuckled under her breath at his mispronunciation, twisting a ring around her finger. "Trust me, you'd have known eventually. Liberty's accent comes out so much when she's annoyed."
"Did your mom not help Lib control her powers?" he frowned, unable to stop the words slipping from his lips. He found it odd. If your daughter was a witch who had no clue how to control it, surely you would want to do everything you could to help? He didn't know. Maybe that was simply his feelings towards the situation. He didn't know what Saoirse or her relationship with her kids was like, so there was no room to judge. "Sorry. That was prying," he ran a hand over his face, grimacing.
She laughed lightly, pulling his hand away from his face, tracing the patterns with her fingers. "It's okay. She didn't... bond well with Liberty. It's difficult to explain. She didn't exactly like Nathan or I but it was ten times more difficult with Lib. I think she saw too much of herself in her and that scared the shit out of her. Dunno. Then she died. By then Liberty already knew it all."
Blair paused, simply holding his hand now, trying to keep her train of thought. The night Saoirse had died was stormy, lightning continuously striking the sky and creating beautiful patterns. The Wild Hunt. That was actually one of the last things Saoirse had said to her daughter. A myth about thunderstorms, one she had heard millions of times, too. Ghost riders in the sky and black dogs whose eyes glowed—
"Blair? Oh god, I'm sorry."
"No," she shook her head, eyes widening, realisation written all over her face. "No," she repeated, lips set in a firm line, voice full of determination. "You did me a favour. Well, you did yourself a favour. Look, it doesn't matter. I have to go check on something but I'll be right back, okay?" she jumped up, yanking her phone charger out of her bag.
"I didn't mean to upset you, I'm so sorry," Jordan began, feeling guilt twist in his stomach. Christ, this was exactly why he needed to keep his mouth shut. He said the wrong thing, upsetting people he cared about. He didn't have time to question how she got a key card or how she was able to reach the box from inside, too caught up in his apologies.
"Jordan," she spun on her heels, almost sending him flying in her haste to stay on track. Taking his hands in her own, she squeezed reassuringly, smiling in the gentle way she always did. "You haven't upset me, I swear to god. I'm also a pretty bad liar, which you've pointed out, you know I'm telling the truth. I think you just helped me get a step closer to figuring out what you are. I need to check some facts and get Lydia to do the same in the library and I'll be right back. You haven't upset me; promise," pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, pulling on the bars to make sure they were closed, she disappeared around the corner into the waiting area so she could charge her phone. She needed to look at her bestiary.
⌜ • ° + ° • ⌝
"Just hear me out, okay? We don't have to pick him up. I mean, he's a dick!"
"He's my boyfriend."
"That doesn't make him any less of a dick," Lilith grumbled, kicking their legs up onto the dashboard, simply waving Malia's objections off. It wasn't even her car, it was Mr Tate's, so really it was all a big fuss over nothing! They knew she was fighting a losing battle; Stiles was in view up the road, his jeep being towed away after breaking down again.
After witnessing the girl from biology being killed by the dread doctors, both girls stayed at the Argent apartment, neither one of them wanting to be alone. They felt guilty for leaving the others to deal with Hayden, but she was starting to think Malia was right; Lily was also starting to feel the effect of seeing so many deaths. Growing up with Kate and Alex as parents and then living with the alpha pack hadn't been hugs and kisses, yet this was something harder to deal with. These were normal kids being murdered for no reason at all.
Lilith slid into the back seat (quite literally, they couldn't be bothered to get out) as they pulled over to the side of the road. Stiles smiled thinly, thanking them quietly for collecting him. He hated to admit it, but it was at times like this that he was grateful for Lilith constantly talking. It had been a long night, he wanted to sit in silence and contemplate where it had all gone wrong.
"Can they fix it?" Malia shrugged, pressing her lips together. Lilith complained from the backseat that she was ruining her makeup but in her defence, she had to basically be held down this morning while a face of beauty products was applied (she wouldn't admit that it looked really good).
Stiles sighed in annoyance, trying not to take it out on Malia— she had been a coyote for eight years and was still struggling to understand social cues. "Not enough duct tape in the world to fix that thing. Plus, it's got a bad alternator, needs all new belts, the transmissions going. The brake pads are metal on metal," he listed the overflowing list of problems.
"How come you let it get so bad?" Malia's voice was softer than usual, a familiar twinge in her heart, one she felt when she realised that Stiles was never truly hers. He would always be in love with Max, despite the disagreements he would make if someone told him that. Maybe she was okay with that, in a way. It had been nice while it lasted, to pretend that there was something there, but in the long run, there was no use in wasting their time.
"There's been a few distractions lately, if you hadn't noticed."
Lilith sat forward in their seat, clenching her jaw in annoyance. "Don't be so mean. You're not the only one who has a lot going on. We notice things. You think we don't but we do," they sighed, folding her arms across her red patterned shirt. There were a lot more colourful terms of phrase they could have used, deciding against it due to how utterly exhausted he looked. Ew. She hated being empathetic, it felt slimy. It didn't give him a right to be so horrible to Malia, though, especially considering she was the one who was driving.
Malia swallowed hard, trying not to cry. She needed to end this soon. For both of their sakes. There was nothing good coming out of this. They could still be friends, obviously, but it wasn't doing either of them any favours. She needed closure for once in her life. "Am I taking you home?"
"No, sheriff's station. I gotta talk to my dad," Stiles said, scratching his head. "Please," he added, with a prompting kick in the back from Lilith. He hadn't meant to sound so horrible. He loved Malia, maybe not in the way she wanted him to, but he loved her. It wasn't her fault that he had fucked up in so many different ways with so many different people. "I'm sorry."
Malia didn't answer. She kept her eyes on the road, hands on the wheel at nine and two, listening to Lily talk about the new episode of Unsolved Mysteries in a bid to break up the uncomfortable silence between the couple. The sheriff's station came into view, car pulling up onto the curb. Stiles had his hand on the door before she spoke up again. "Are you gonna tell him about Donovan?"
Lilith furrowed her brows, leaning forward, elbows positioned on the two headrests. There was a social aspect to this conversation that they weren't getting.
"I guessed. I saw the bite on your shoulder when you were sleeping," Malia's hair blew in the wind from the open window, heart beating fast against her flannel shirt. Stiles rubbed his shoulder, not liking how this day was going so far. "It didn't matter to me. That's why I never said anything."
Stiles didn't know what to say, clenching his hands together in his lap. "It matters to me," he looked her in the eyes, speaking a thousand words without any more than four. They both knew what it meant, this was bigger than what happened with Donovan. He reached across, squeezing her hand gently, closing the door behind him. He swallowed hard, breathing deeply before going into the sheriff's station.
Lilith crawled into the front seat, for once staying quiet, trying to understand what was going on. "Did he just break up with you?"
Malia took a swig out of her water bottle, running a hand through her short hair that was wavy, credit to Lilith and a curling iron. "I think so." It was for the best but it didn't make it hurt any less. "Wanna stop for a detour?"
"If you want, yeah," Lilith didn't know what else to say, so she plugged her safety belt in, listening to the music. What was she supposed to say? 'It's sad that your boyfriend broke up with you. Wanna make out to get over it This was exactly why Max went everywhere with them, their best friend acting as a translator of social situations. "Is this it?"
Malia sighed, unbuckling her belt and slamming the door closed. "Not exactly." She began the short walk to the cave, knowing where to go without putting a step out of line. It was easy to remember where the cave was. She practically knew the entire woods like the palm of her hand, every corner explored in eight years.
The cave was damp, sunlight peeking in through a gap in the ceiling. Malia leaned down by a familiar rock, picking something off the floor. Brushing some dirt off the doll, she sighed shakily. The longer she stared at it, creepy blue eyes ogling back at her, the red dress still torn from the crash, memories flooded back.
Telling her mom that she wished she was dead, the car swerving, blood— god, there was so much blood. She remembered her sister, Kylie, still holding onto the doll. She remembered the day Lily and the others had come looking for her and take the doll from the car crash. She had been so furious, so upset that they had taken her flowers away from the grave. The most recent memory of what happened that day returned, her birth mother shooting at the car, the reason why they had crashed.
"It's okay," Lilith knelt down beside her, touch gentle as they laid a hand on Malia's knee, keeping her tied to the present and away from those memories. She remembered that doll; it was the one Max and Stiles had taken from the crash site, not yet realising how important it was to the older sister. They paused for a second, sharing a short-lived look with Malia, both of them after hearing the sound of padded footsteps.
Lily pulled a dagger out of their pocket, taking a leaf out of Max's book. A crossbow would always be her weapon, yet a dagger was easier to carry going about their day-to-day business (that didn't mean her crossbow wasn't in the back seat of Malia's car right now). A wolf with grey fur strutted in, transforming into a person before ending up with a dagger in their head (and from what they had heard, Lilith never missed).
"How did you do that?" Malia folded her arms across her chest in defiance, side-stepping in front of Lily in the slightest. She didn't know why, assuming it was simply the coyote instincts in her. Either that or the fact that she truly didn't like Theo Raeken.
"Do you wanna learn? I could teach you."
"That sounds incredibly pervy," Lilith wrinkled their nose in disgust, still not loosening her tight hold on the dagger. It pained her to say it; they were starting to think that maybe Stiles had a point about Theo. They couldn't quite figure out what exactly it was about them, it was something, not a second going by when it didn't seem like they were conjuring up some plan to screw everyone over.
On the subject of Stiles, they made a mental note to figure out what the fuck that conversation about Donovan had meant.
"You're showing me plenty right now," Malia hissed, scowling, not appreciating that Theo was very naked, the only thing covering them being the slight shadow in the cave. Digging her claws into her palms, she tried not to tear out their throat in her secret cave. Narrowing her eyes, there was a lot of suggestiveness in their voice, implying that she was afraid of turning into a coyote. "What? You think I have something to hide?"
Theo tilted their head to the side, playing their cards just right. They knew what would work on the girls, having heard Max talk about nothing else for the last six months. All about how Lilith was hilarious and would speak French at the most random times. How Malia had no filter at all and couldn't keep the same hairstyle for longer than a couple of weeks. "Did you tell Scott you're planning to kill your mother?"
Lilith hadn't known she had been planning that, yet what was the difference? How was it anyone else's business? "My mom's a serial arsonist who I would happily kill— for free, might I add. What the hell is your point?"
"I'm not judging. I want to help you."
"If I want help killing my mother and getting away with it, I'll go to Jade for help," Malia spat, scowling that signature Hale scowl once more. Theo rubbed her the wrong way. It was like having a second Peter, apart from the fact that this one wasn't locked up in Eichen.
Theo walked forward, slowing their steps when they noticed how Malia shielded Lilith once more, a growl escaping her throat, threatening them. "I know that Scott's not gonna help you. I'm trying to help all of you. If Scott can't do it, someone else needs to take the lead. You know they're moving Hayden to the hospital, right? She's still a chimera, there's two we haven't found yet and they're still dangerous. They need help. They need you guys."
Lilith realised that this was what it all boiled down to; overthrowing Scott, taking his place. They decided to keep that one to themselves until she saw Max next, shooting Theo a final glare, knocking shoulders as the two girls sprinted to the car.