I sat in a chair in the vets waiting area with Scott, the both of us waiting for Derek to arrive. It was dark out, so much so that you couldn't see three feet in front of the door. Scott stood up, no doubt sensing Derek and walked towards the door with me trailing behind him.
"What's he doing here?" were the first words Scott spoke when he opened the door, spying Isaac with his hands in his pockets standing behind Derek.
"I need him," Derek answered shortly. His eyes found mine. "What's she doing here?"
Scott gritted his teeth. "I need her." He scowled at Isaac as they entered the shop. "I don't trust him."
Isaac sauntered in, his eyes snagging on me as he passed, hand brushing mine. "Yeah well he doesn't really trust you either."
"Derek doesn't really care," Derek said.
I snorted. "And Y/n is finding all of this very entertaining."
All three werewolves threw me a glare and I flashed them all a charming grin.
"Where's this vet?" Derek demanded. "Is he going to help us or not?"
A voice came from the doorway of the back room where, as I turned around, Deaton stood, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. "That depends." Deaton was around 5 7' with dark skin, bald head, and a dark goatee. I'd met him earlier when we were waiting for Derek, and he had been particularly interested in my being a witch, giving me some tips on how to save my energy while performing spells. I didn't know where he'd learnt them from, but they sounded useful so I'd filed them away for later.
"Your friend Jackson," Deaton continued. "Are we planning to kill him or save him?"
In unison Derek and Scott answered, though their answers were quite different.
"Kill him."
"Save him."
Scott shot Derek a reprimanding look as he repeated, "save him," and Derek stared at Scott before rolling his eyes in defeat turning to Deaton as if to say 'I'd love to kill him but this idiot here thinks we should save the good for nothing little shit'. Or maybe that was just what I was thinking. It was hard to tell.
I looked to Isaac, amused, and we shared a look, silently laughing at our pack leaders going head-to-head. Deaton nodded and beckoned us to follow him as he led us to the back room where there was a steel table. We all stood around it as Deaton put a tray down, filled with different sort of herbs and powders in glass jars.
Isaac took the spot beside me, casually putting an arm around my waist as he observed the tray with curiosity. I hid my smile, the feeling of his arm around me sending my stomach into a frenzy, only to start silently panicking at what this meant. He'd done it without so much as a word, meaning this was just something we would usually do, but where did that put us relationship wise? What was going on between us?
I scowled at the thoughts, knowing it wasn't the time to be thinking about it, and pushed them to the side, focusing on the present.
With Isaac's other hand he reached out to pick up one of the jars but Derek stopped him, grabbing his hand like an adult babysitting a toddler.
"Watch what you touch," he warned, dropping Isaac's hand.
I didn't even try to hide my smile this time and Isaac rolled his eyes when he saw my expression, giving me a little nudge.
I watched as Deaton searched for a jar and, when he eventually found it, picked it up, the container filled with a greyish black dust.
"So, what are you, some kind of witch?" Isaac questioned, leaning forward slightly.
I stared at him incredulously, feeling a tad insulted. I was standing right there for God's sake, but no, ask the veterinarian if he was a witch.
Deaton's eyes flicked to Isaac, unimpressed. "No, I'm a veterinarian. The only witch here is the girl standing right beside you."
Isaac sheepishly looked at me but I ignored him, still miffed from his question. Why didn't he ask me if Deaton was a witch? Because then I could have easily informed him that there were only female witches and that only one witch lived at a time, meaning since I was a witch he obviously couldn't be.
But no, ask the near stranger over you girlfriend. Sort of girlfriend. Half girlfriend?
Deaton put the jar back down with a sigh. "Unfortunately, I don't see anything here that's going to be an effective defence against a paralytic toxin."
"We're open to suggestions," Derek said.
Isaac's hand lightly traced my side as he said, "what about an effective offence?"
"No we already tried. I nearly took its head off, Argent emptied and entire clip into it and-" he looked to me, "-the witch Argent threw it against the wall with enough power to break it's back. The thing just gets back up."
Deaton frowned at the unsavoury information. "Has it shown any weaknesses?"
"It can't swim," I offered.
Deaton turned to me. "Does that go for Jackson as well?"
Scott answered before I could. "No. He's captain of the swimming team."
Deaton took the information in, staying quiet for a beat before speaking. "Essentially you're trying to catch two people. A puppet and a puppeteer. One killed the husband but the other had to take care of the wife. Do we know why?"
Deaton looked at us expectantly.
"I don't think Jackson could do it," Scott said. "His mother died pregnant too and she was maybe murdered. I think he couldn't let the same thing happen to someone else."
"How do you know it's not a part if the rules, like what Stiles said. The Kanima kills murders?" I asked.
Isaac, catching on to what I was saying, continued my sentence. "If Jackson kills the wife then the baby dies too."
"Does that mean your father was a murderer?" Scott asked.
Isaac turned distant, memories flashing through his mind before he said dryly, "wouldn't surprise me if he was."
I glowered, reminded of my burning hatred for the dead man. If he wasn't already a corpse I'd hunt him down to make him one myself.
"Hold on," Deaton said. "The book says they're bonded, right?" Derek nodded. "What if the fear of water isn't coming from Jackson but from the person controlling him? What if something that affects the Kanima also affects it's master?"
"Meaning what?" Scott asked.
"Meaning we can catch both of them."
. . .
Stiles drove Scott and I to school the next day, parking the jeep rather hazardously in one if the school parks.
We got out as Scott said. "There's got to be some other way to get tickets, right?"
He was talking about the rave dilemma, and how the tickets to it had sold out. I tried not to feel disappointed, because Scott was sure the Kanima would be at the rave on Friday, which meant I'd have to go there as a witch, not just me like Isaac and I had planned to.
"It's a secret show. There's only one way and it's secret," Stiles said as we started walking away from the jeep.
"Hey," we all turned to find Matt walking up to us. "Any of you guys know why no ones getting suspended after what happened the other day at school?"
"Just forget about it, nobody got hurt," Stiles answered.
Matt stared at him incrediously. "I got a concussion."
Stiles rephrased what he said. "Nobody got seriously hurt."
"I was in the ER for six hours," he retorted.
Stiles rolled his eyes. "Do you wanna know the truth Matt? Your little bump on the head is about this high-" Stiles leaned down to the ground, his hand centimetres above the floor. "-on our list of problems right now, okay?"
"Don't be rude," I chided, shoving Stiles before turning to Matt. "Are you okay?"
Matt gave me a half smile. "Yeah, I'm fine now. So you didn't get any tickets last night either?"
I shook my head as Scott asked, "are they still selling?"
"Uh, no, but I managed to get two online," Matt said. "You should keep trying though, sounds like everybody's going to be there. I might be able to get one more for you though, Y/n, depending."
I smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you for the offer, but it's just these two who are missing some."
"Oh well in that case," Matt gave a little wave and left, just as the two boys turned on me.
"What was that?" Stiles demanded.
"Yeah, what do you mean you aren't missing one?" Scott added.
I sighed. "I was already going there with Isaac, though now we'll be fighting a Kanima there."
Stiles scrunched up his nose. "Better than any alternative with him."
I scoffed, rolling my eyes as I continued walking, the other two following close behind me.
"I don't like him," Stiles continued, gesturing to the back of Matt's head. "Are you sure about this?"
Scott stopped walking, turning to Stiles. "Last time, whoever's controlling Jackson had to kill somebody because he didn't finish the job, so what do you think they're going to do this time?"
Stiles opened his mouth but sighed, knowing Scott won. "Be there to make sure it happens," he muttered sullenly.
We went to school, the three of us parting ways as Scott and Stiles had lacrosse practise. I went to my first class, finding it strange that even with a beast on the loose I still had to attend high school classes. How did Scott and the others handle it? I could barely concentrate on the teacher, my mind going through different life and death situations that might happen at the rave, yet I was expected to act as if this pop quiz was the bane of my existence? That I needed to get a good score to get into a good college, because that's all I thought of for the future?
I remembered what it felt like to focus on school. To have that be your entire life, your entire future. With Kate, I needed good marks, I needed to excel, so I focused on that. That was all I was aware of, all of my problems to do with getting good grades and making my adoptive mother happy. Now I had to worry about blood thirsty supernatural creatures and a war between two different species that I was supposed to have an active part in.
How fast times change.
The bell rang and I got up, having learnt nothing in the class yet not caring. I exited the room, eyes downcast as I thought of our plan tonight. I was so busy in my thoughts I nearly didn't notice Isaac waiting for me by my locker, leaning against it with a smirk.
"Lost in the clouds?" he asked when I went up to him.
I rolled my eyes but smiled, though it dimmed when I remembered tonight. We hadn't talked about it, losing our night to the supernatural, but I knew we were both thinking about it.
"I guess you've heard the news about the party?" Isaac asked, a grim smile on his face. I nodded and Isaac sighed, grabbing my arm to tug me closer to him. "I'm sorry we can't go and hang out be just us for the night."
I smiled leaning, into his touch. "We'll just have to do it some other time."
Isaac grinned, offering his hand. "Can I walk you to class?"
I smiled, grabbing his hand and letting him lead me through the halls, hand in hand. I glanced up at the boy, my heart doing a little somersault seeing how happy he seemed in that moment.
"So does Stiles know about us?"
I blinked. "What?"
Isaac shrugged, still looking ahead. "He's just been like, glaring at me, constantly. I thought it was just because we were against each other but then we started working together and he still looks at me like I've violated his little sister or something."
Oh my god.
I was going to kill Stiles.