Maggie frowned as she looked at a cryptic message from her friend and she and Caleb made their way to Scott's. They climbed up the window and entered through Scott's bedroom.
They walked in and heard voices from the bathroom. The boy from earlier, Liam, looked at them with wide eyes.
Maggie glared at them as she pointed raised a hand, readying to utter a spell if she needed to as she stared between her friends. "Three seconds to explain or I spell someone."
Scott turned to her. "Put your hand down. You're scaring him. As for this, well, I panicked."
"Explain this and release the kid," Caleb demanded.
"I can't. I-I bit him."
"You did what?!" Maggie cried. "You panicked and you bit him! Oh my God! If your mother finds out -- Kid, my brother and I'll get you out of here."
"Mm-mm," Liam mumbled.
"What?"
"His name is Liam," Scott said. "Maggie, seriously. Put the hand away. You're gonna scare him."
"I'm gonna scare him. Scott, he's terrified. You have really outdone yourself this time. Stiles, next time don't send a cryptic message."
Stiles nodded. "Though she said it kind of rudely, she's right. This is why I always come up with the plans. Your plans suck."
Scott let out a sigh. "I know. Which is why I called you two. So what do we do?"
The boys took Liam from the tub and set him in a chair. Stiles said, "Liam, we're going to take the tape off your mouth. If you scream, it goes right back on. If you talk quietly, it stays off. Got it? Okay."
Liam let out a painful cry as the tape was pulled from his mouth.
Stiles continued. "Okay, Liam, now you've seen a lot of confusing things tonight. And more confusing things are going to happen because of the confusing things that happened tonight. Do you understand?"
Liam shook his head. "Not really."
"Good. That's good."
Scott frowned. "I don't understand either."
Stiles glanced to his friend. "Maybe you should tell him."
"Tell me what?" Liam asked in a frightened tone.
Scott turned back to him. "Liam... What happened to you, what I did to you, which I had to do in order to save you, it's going to change you."
"Unless it kills you," Stiles responded before noticing Liam's tears. "Shouldn't have said that."
"What?" Liam asked as his breath shook.
"Uh... Uh-oh. Oh. Oh... Is he crying?"
Caleb glared at the boys and pushed them back before kneeling in front of the bitten boy. "Liam, it'll be okay. You're gonna be just fine." His sobbing continued. "Don't listen to them. You're not going to die."
"Probably not," Stiles added.
Caleb shot him a look. "Shut up."
Scott said at the same time, "Stop it."
"Okay, possibly not," Stiles replied, changing his answer.
Maggie stepped behind the young boy and said, "Liam, I'm gonna untie you." She did as she said and looked back at Liam. "Are you okay? Liam?"
Stiles began apologizing. "We're sorry about that. We're really sorry."
He let out a grunt and Stiles asked, "Liam, what the hell is your..."
Liam jumped from his chair and as he did so, he knocked the chair over. In turn, the chair jammed into Maggie's foot and she let out a yell. Liam darted out of the room. "Ah! Get him!" Stiles exclaimed.
The boys ran after him and Maggie followed to stop her friends. Stiles fell to the ground. "Leg! I got him! I got him! I got him, I got him!"
Scott released a deep breath. "Your plan sucked, too."
Liam turned to Maggie. "Is your foot okay?"
Maggie nodded. "My foot will be fine. I'm sorry about these idiots."
Stiles frowned. "Oh, so you're nice to her?"
Liam glared at him. "She and her brother didn't tie me up and hold me hostage! They're the nice ones!"
---
During math the next day, Kira looked over Lydia's notes. "These are your math notes? No wonder Malia is failing."
Lydia frowned as she read her notes. "Um, some of them are my notes. The rest I think might actually be a code."
Maggie raised a brow. "I take it by your tone that you don't remember writing it."
Lydia shook her head. "Not in the slightest. But considering my drawing of a tree led us to the Nemeton, I should probably figure out what it means before it tries to kill us."
Kira shrugged. "Maybe it's like the Enigma Code the Allies used. Remember my dad was a World War II buff? And my mom was, well... in it."
Lydia took a moment to think. "I think it's a variation on something called the Vigènere Cipher."
"Do you know how to crack it?"
Caleb shrugged. "Well, first, we need a key."
As soon as class ended, Maggie and Caleb saw Scott and Stiles talking to Liam. They walked over to them and heard Scott say, "Liam... We're brothers now."
"What?" Liam questioned in a confused tone.
Stiles groaned. "Oh, God. That's..."
Liam frowned. "What are you talking about? We just met and you bit me."
"The bite... The bite is a gift," Scott replied.
Stiles shook his head desperately. "Scott, stop. Please stop." He turned to Liam. "You, you, we're trying to help you, you little runt."
"By kidnapping me?" Liam asked angrily.
"Just to clarify, Scott kidnapped you. Okay? I aided and abetted."
"And she untied me," Liam said, pointing to Maggie.
Scott sighed. "Liam, I've gone through this before. Something's happening to you. Something big."
Liam glared at him. "Nothing's happening to me. Nothing."
Maggie and Caleb sighed and shook their heads.
Later, they met up with Lydia, Kira, and Malia as they tried to figure out what to do with Liam. He'd survived Scott's bite and was a werewolf. One of them suggested that they use Malia's basement and she frowned. "I'm not sharing my basement."
"Actually, it's my basement," Lydia said. "And my mom noticed how you tore it up last time."
Caleb glanced at Lydia. "Do try to remember she's still learning."
Scott turned to him and focused on the others. "But we're going to use the boathouse for Liam. It's got support beams. We can chain him to one of them."
Kira frowned. "But how do we get him out to the lake house if he doesn't trust us?"
Stiles shrugged. "I say if it keeps him from murdering someone, we chloroform the little bastard and throw him in the lake."
"I'm in," Malia said.
Scott gave her a look. "We're not killing or kidnapping him."
"Then let's be smarter," Lydia said. "We tell him there's a party and invite him."
Stiles frowned in confusion. "So you're going to ask out a freshman?"
Lydia shook her head. "No, I'm done with teenage boys. But, if we're playing a trick on someone, we'll have to use the trickster."
They turned to Kira and she frowned. "Who? Me? No way. Not me."
Lydia nodded at her. "Yes, you. You know what they call a female fox? A vixen."
"Me?"
Maggie glanced at her. "Yes, you. You can do it, Kira. Be a vixen."
The bell rang and Kira went to find Liam.
Later that evening, they gathered at Lydia's lake house. Kira and Liam, they found out, were on their way. Scott, Stiles, Caleb and Maggie were huddled together and talking. Scott turned to the group. "I just talked to Kira. She's on her way. She said it's all going to be fine."
Scott let out a sigh. "It's not that. I asked about Liam. I know why he got kicked out of his last school."
Maggie let out a groan. "Seriously. Can't you two leave well enough alone? What'd he do?"
Stiles turned to her. "Knew your curiosity would be piqued. He fought with one of his teachers. He has some serious issues."
"How serious?" Scott wondered.
Stiles held up a picture for them. "Well, that's his teacher's car. After he took a crowbar to it."
As soon as Liam entered the lake house, he saw them and stared at them. "What the hell is this?"
Stiles was first to speak. "Think of it like an intervention. You have a problem, Liam."
"And we're the only ones that can help you," Scott added.
They told Liam what they were and he recapped as he pointed to each of them. "Werewolf? Werecoyote. Banshee. Fox?"
"Kitsune. But fox works," Kira replied as she shrugged.
Liam pointed to Maggie. "Witch." He pointed to Caleb. "Warlock." His gaze turned to Stiles. "What are you?"
Stiles nervously said, "Uh, for a little while, I was possessed by an evil spirit. It was very evil."
"What are you now?"
"Better. Um..."
Liam's gaze turned to the chains. "Are those for me?"
"No, they're for me," Malia answered, showing her steely blue eyes.
"How did you do that?"
Scott gave him a smile. "You'll learn. But first, you need to get through the full moon."
"The moon's already out," Liam pointed out.
"And you're starting to feel something, aren't you?"
Liam's eyes narrowed. "I feel like I'm surrounded by a bunch of psychotic nutjobs. You guys are out of your freaking minds. I don't know how you did that eye thing and I don't care. I'm walking out that door right now! If any of you try to stop me, I swear to God I'm gonna..." He fell silent.
Caleb frowned. "Liam? What is it?"
He turned to face him. "You don't hear that?"
Lydia's eyes narrowed. "Did you tell anyone about this?"
Liam nodded. "My friend Mason." His gaze turned to Kira. "You said it was a party."
"Who did Mason invite?" Stiles questioned.
Kira peeked out the window and said, "Everyone."
Liam dropped to the ground with his claws out. "The floors!" Lydia exclaimed. "Get him off the floors!"
The boys pulled Liam up and Scott cried, "We need to get him to the boathouse. Now!"
"Uh!" Liam groaned.
"Stiles... Maggie... Caleb..." Malia called, catching their attention.
Stiles turned to see that Malia was trying not to shift. "Yeah. Hey... Okay, basement. Now. Now."
Lydia frowned towards the door. "What am I supposed to do with the hordes gathering outside the door?"
Maggie glanced at Lydia. "Who throws the best parties in Beacon Hills?"
She rolled her eyes at her friend's question. "What? Me, obviously."
Stiles turned to her. "Okay, then throw a party."
Maggie followed the others out and Caleb stayed with Lydia.
As soon as they left, they heard a knock on the door. Lydia opened it and a guy asked, "Hey. Uh, are we in the right place?"
"For the party?" another guy questioned.
Lydia put on a faux hostess smile. "Absolutely."
People began dancing to the music and sometime later, an older man came in with a keg of beer.
Lydia walked up to him and said, "Okay, I didn't order a keg of beer. Especially not domestic."
The man frowned at her. "Somebody ordered it. Are you trying to tell me nobody here wants to drink?"
Lydia's eyes narrowed. "Who put this here? This laptop is $2,000 and... Oh, that bottle of wine is $400. How much? What's this extra hundred dollars?"
The man shrugged. "I call that the "Yes, you do look 21 to me" surcharge."
Lydia let out a sigh. "Let me get you some cash."
She handed Caleb two glasses of wine to hold so she could easily grab the money.
When they got upstairs to get the cash, they saw Liam's friend calling out for him. Caleb recalled his name; Mason. "Liam? You up here? Dude, where the hell are you?"
Lydia frowned at him. "What are you doing up here? The party's downstairs."
"I was looking for Liam."
She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, but missing freshmen are a little low on my priority list."
Caleb turned to Mason and said, "I'm pretty sure your friend is downstairs."
He thought of something else to tell Mason and grabbed his arm, forgetting that he was carrying the two wine glasses. They fell to the ground and his eyes widened. "Oh, my god. Lydia, I am so sorry! The carpet."
Caleb leaned down to scrub the wine furiously and Mason put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged him off. "Hey, it's all right. It'll come out."
"I know, I just-" He continued scrubbing the carpet and Mason looked up at Lydia. "Oh. Okay. I'm sorry. Was it valuable? God, your mom is gonna kill me."
She shook her head and Caleb stood. "No. That's not the problem. Nothing in here's valuable. We just put the house on the market. It was supposed to be left without a scratch. It has to be in perfect condition. We need every penny we can get out of this place."
"Lydia, I am so sorry," Caleb whispered. "I forgot I was holding the wine glasses and they just -- Oh God, Lydia. I am so, so sorry."
Mason turned to him. "I'm gonna go get club soda and salt. It will come out. Don't worry."
Lydia nodded. "I know. It's okay, Caleb. It was an accident."
Mason left and Lydia closed the door. She opened it again and they shared a look as she closed it again. She muttered, "Soundproof?"
Lydia made her way to a record player and turned it on. She stared blankly at the wall and didn't answer to Caleb's calls.
Kira ran up to them after some time and noticed Lydia staring at the wall. "Hey. Lydia? Are you okay? What do you hear?"
"The key," Lydia answered quietly. "The key to break the code."
Caleb intently watched Lydia as she typed a certain name into the search bar. ALLISON. A sheet of paper came out and Kira grabbed it. "What is this?"
Lydia looked between the two of them. "It's a list of supernaturals here in Beacon Hills. It's a deadpool. And we're all on it."
Caleb instantly looked for his and his sister's names and saw them on there for 20 million, the same as Lydia, Scott was worth 25 million; Lydia was also worth 20 million, Derek was worth 15 million, and Kira was worth six million.
His brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what it meant.