Instead of going with Scott after school to find Liam like she had wanted to, Sydney was forced to go home with Stiles. No matter how much she begged, which was a lot, her brother refused to let her go look for her missing friend, claiming that it was too dangerous. She knew that Stiles was still pissed at her after the day before, when she totally, and quite accidentally, forgot to respond to his text messages asking if she was okay. She had a feeling that this was partly why her brother forced to her to come home with him.
She didn't speak a word the whole way home, her gaze focused on the trees as they zoomed past, her mind swarming with thoughts that caused her head to spin. She was worried about Scott; what he was doing was extremely dangerous. He was risking his life, along with taking the risk of being caught and thrown into prison. And, no matter how hard she tried, Sydney could no longer find herself to trust Garrett to keep his word. But, most of all, she was worried about Liam. She had no idea where he was- hell, she didn't even know if he was alive or not. If Garrett really did take him, the killer that she had once thought to be one of her closest friends was capable of doing anything.
Almost as soon as Sydney stepped foot inside her house-which was around 5 o'clock, thanks to Stiles' frequent and "very important" stops at various stores- her phone began ringing. She didn't even bother to check the caller ID, ripping it from her pocket and pressing answer before holding it to her ear.
"Did you find him?" Honestly, it would have been embarrassing, and also quite weird, if she had not been talking to Scott after all. Though thankfully, the familiar voice that belonged to her brother's best friend spoke through the speakers, causing her spirits to lift dramatically.
"Get to the animal clinic, now. I found Liam."
And then the line went dead.
>>
"Is he okay? Where is he?" Sydney didn't even bother greeting Scott, Dr. Deaton or Mr. Argent- whom she had not seen since he fled to France with her former best friend, Isaac Lahey- before bombarding the trio with questions. She pushed past Scott and into the animal clinic, her heart feeling as if it were about to be ripped from her chest at any given moment. Her alarmingly loud voice had broken through the tense silence that had fallen over the animal clinic for several moments, causing all three men to jump in their shoes.
"He's unconscious right now," Scott explained from behind her, grabbing onto her arm to stop her from going any further. "We need to let him rest. He had a long day, Sydney."
Though Sydney ignored what her friend was saying, tearing her arm out of her grip and continuing through the animal clinic frantically. She pushed into the exam room, causing Dr. Deaton and Mr. Argent to jump once more.
"Hey, Sydney," Mr. Argent greeted her kindly, though she only acknowledged him with a small wave, her eyes glued to the unconscious figure laying on the metal table in the middle of the room. Liam's eyes were closed, his skin pale, and not to mention shirtless, with a large gash running down his chest. Yellow tinted puss was seeping from the wound, which was red and irritated around the edges.
Naturally, Sydney stepped towards the table, standing over the unconscious boy with her hand raised, ready to heal him with whatever energy she had left after her agonizingly long day. Though, as she slowly lowered her hand towards Liam's bare chest, Dr. Deaton grabbed it, shaking his head in a sympathetic way.
"I would not waste your time," he said softly, though sternly at the same time. "The blade he was stabbed with was laced with wolfsbane. You will be unable to heal him."
Blinking rapidly, Sydney nodded, withdrawing her hand and tucking it in the pocket of Liam's hoodie. She pursed her lips and bit the inside of her cheek nervously, turning to Scott, "Is he going to be okay? What happened?"
As Scott searched for the right words to say, Sydney took a seat in the chair that was- quite conveniently- beside the metal table in which Liam lay on. Without even really thinking, she grabbed his stiff hand in hers, entwining their fingers the best she could, and looking down on his face. He looked almost peaceful- the way his eyebrows were pulled together slightly, as if he were dreaming of something important, and his lips were parted slightly, the sounds of his ragged breaths falling from them every few seconds. Sydney couldn't help but blame herself for whatever happened to Liam. She felt as if she could have stopped it in someway. Whether it was chasing after him, or searching for him after he turned up missing, or even stopping Garrett somehow. She felt as if she should have done something.
She listened in silence as Scott explained everything to her. He started from when Garrett and him went to attain Violet from the prison transport van, only to come across it wrecked in the middle of the road. Sydney's heart dropped to her feet when she learned that the sheriff was in the wreck, and she made a promise to herself to make her dad a nice breakfast in bed that weekend. Scott told her that Garrett had trapped Liam inside a twenty-foot-deep well after stabbing him with a dagger coated in wolfsbane. By the time he was finished, Sydney was having a hard time controlling herself; she knew that her eyes were shining their bright blue color, judging by the looks on Argent's and Deaton's faces.
"I swear-" she growled as she flexed her free hand. "-the next time I see that son of a bitch, I'm gonna-"
"Sydney," Scott cut her off suddenly, his eyebrow cocked. "Garrett's dead, remember?"
Sydney blinked rapidly, forcing her glowing eyes to return to their natural color, and laughed rather awkwardly, "Oh, yeah. Sorry." Her gaze traveled back to Liam, her thumb rubbing over his hand absentmindedly. "Can we just get on with saving him? Because I don't exactly like how deathly cold he's feeling right now."
Deaton pursed his lips and nodded, stepping up so that he was standing beside the shaken-up girl. He held up a scalpel in his hand, raising an eyebrow, "I hope you don't have a sensitive gag reflex."
Sydney scoffed, rolling her eyes, and, with a flick of her wrist, forced her claws to appear at her fingertips, "Trust me, these claws have done enough damage that I'm at the point where I don't even have a gag reflex anymore."
Deaton chuckled, sparing a quick glance at the girl before lifting the scalpel and carefully cutting a deep line down the center of Liam's chest, to the left of where his dagger wound was located. Almost immediately, a yellow mist floated from the fresh wound, evaporating into the air like a mist in the night sky. Deaton raised an eyebrow at her and, taking this as her signal, Sydney sat up straight and placed a hand on Liam's bare chest. She closed her eyes, sucking in a deep breath, as she slowly felt her energy being drained from her body. She could feel the two wounds in Liam's chest slowly beginning to heal themselves underneath her touch. When she opened her eyes once more, the wounds were gone, only to be replaced by a layer of fresh skin. Unable to hide the smile that stretched across her face, the exhausted girl wrapped her arms around Liam's body and buried her face into his bare chest.
"I don't want to keep watching people die," Scott spoke from right beside her, his voice a low growl. Without looking at him, she knew his eyes were glued to his unconscious beta, and that he felt a longing to protect him, as every alpha felt towards a member of their pack.
"I'm not sure you have much of a choice about that," Mr. Argent said somberly, and Sydney knew that he must have been thinking of his own daughter, Allison. He rested a hand on Sydney's shoulder and rubbed it gently. She looked up at the ex-hunter behind her, a small, thankful smile spreading across her lips.
"Maybe I do," Scott said with a shrug.
Deaton raised an eyebrow at the boy, a worried expression on his face. "That's a lot of burden to carry, Scott," he warned. Her hand still placed on Liam's chest, Sydney looked between the trio around her, taking in their conversation the best she could, as healing Liam had sucked the last of her energy right out of her.
"I don't care," Scott said with a curt nod, Sydney's head snapping towards him once again. His eyes met hers, a determined look on his as he spoke promisingly. "No one else dies."
Sydney found herself smiling at his words; he knew how much they meant to her, how much of a weight she carried on her small shoulders. Being the healer of the pack meant that she had a lot more responsibility. She needed to be there for everyone, just in case they needed to be healed painlessly. She wanted to protect everyone, though she knew deep down that she would be unable to save all of them. And that was a lot for a fifteen year old to handle.
"Everyone on that list, everyone on that dead pool. It doesn't matter if they are wendigos or werewolves or whatever," Scott's firm and promising voice broke her from her troubled thoughts. "I'm going to save every single one of them, and I know Sydney's gonna help me through it all."
Sydney nodded firmly, holding her friend's gaze determinedly. Though she had a feeling in the pit of her stomach. A feeling that told her that the promise they just made- it was going to lead one of them to their deaths.