i. TATTOO
○ ○ ○
CARTER FELT IRRELEVANT.
There could have been many reason as to why Carter felt that way, but there was only one. Allison and Lydia had completely ignored her, like she had been that ugly Christmas sweater your grandmother had given you. Carter hadn't expected them to particularly thrilled when she told them that her and Scott kissed, and that she's had feelings for him for quite a while, at least she wasn't lying. Allison hadn't returned any of her texts even though she was in France, and Lydia had been acting like Carter never existed.
And that was why Carter found herself sitting next to Stiles Stilinski in a tattoo parlor, watching as Scott McCall got himself situated in the chair preparing himself to get a tattoo. He had said that he needed it as a reward, the reason of the reward was unknown to Carter and Stiles.
Carter tapped her left foot irritably, Stiles shifted through a thick book filled with sketches. Approaching them was a burly man with a thick beard, he held the drawing that Scott made of the tattoo he wanted, looking down at it in amusement.
"Boy," the man mused sarcastically, "it's a good thing you drew me a picture."
"Hey, Scott," Stiles called out, the two teens glanced over at him as he turned the book around to show them an image that looked remarkably similar to the Kanima. "Sure you don't want something like this?" Scott gave him a look. "Too soon?"
Carter rolled her eyes before reaching out and smacking the back of Stiles' head.
"Noted," Stiles muttered, rubbing his head with his hand, continuing to flip through it while the burly man began to set up his station. "I don't know, man, are you sure about this? I mean, these things are pretty permanent, you know?"
"Seriously, Stiles?" Carter asked in disbelief, her anger and frustration getting the best of her.
Scott's grin only grew, "I'm not changing my mind."
Stiles nodded, realizing that he wasn't going to be able to talk Scott out of getting a tattoo, "Okay, but why two bands?" Carter tilted her head, envisioning the tattoo on Scott's arm, coming to the conclusion that it would look pretty sweet.
Scott shrugged, "I just like it."
"But don't you think your first tattoo should have some sort of meaning, you know, or something?"
"Getting a tattoo means something," Scott countered.
"I don't think that's-"
"He's right," the burly man announced, cutting Stiles' sentence short. "Tattooing goes back thousands of years. The Tahitian word tatua means "to leave a mark," like a rite of passage."
Scott then looked toward Carter and Stiles and said: "Yeah, you see? He gets it."
Stiles huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, "He's covered in tattoos, Scott, literally." He deadpanned.
Carter solemnly nodded in agreement, it had been true. The man was literally covered, he had two sleeves that branched across his chest, some even rose up onto the sides of his neck and head. Carter wasn't against tattoos at all, so she wasn't going to try and convince Scott not to get one. And, she knew that it would look remarkably hot on him anyway.
The man thoroughly cleaned and shaved Scott's bicep, holding the tattoo machine, "Okay, you ready?" Scott anxiously cleared his throat, rubbing his hand on his pants while nodding stiffly. "You, um, ain't got any problems with needles, do you?"
"Nope."
With that, the man started up the tattoo machine and the sound of buzzing filled the air. Stiles leaned over and watched with an expression of disgust. "I tend to get a little squeamish though, so..." Stiles then crumbled to the ground in a heap of unconsciousness.
Carter rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
Over an hour later, Carter shoved her way into the backseat of Stiles' jeep, she wasn't exactly content or comfortable, but she never was when she sat back there. Scott getting into the passenger's seat while Stiles climbed into the driver's seat, angrily yanking the door shut, holding an ice pack to his head.
Carter chuckled softly, watching as Stiles held the ice pack securely. Scott now had a thick layer of white gauze separating his tattoo from the rest of the world, making sure that it didn't get infected.
A pain expression flashed across Scott's face, Stiles glanced down at his friend's arm in concern, "You okay?"
"Kind of burns," Scott stated, staring down at his arm.
"Yes, you just had your skin stabbed about a hundred-thousand times with a needle," Stiles pointed out, Carter rolled her eyes again. She stopped herself mid-roll, she needed to be careful or her eyes were going to fall out of her head, she thought, thinking back to what Derek used to always tell her.
"Yeah, but I don't think it's supposed to feel like this," Scott sighed. He then let out a strangled groan through his teeth, jumping in his seat. "Oh, God. No, it's definitely not supposed to feel like this." Another cry escaped his lips, "I gotta take this thing off."
"No, no, no, no, Scott. Scott, please stop." Stiles begged, an expression of disgust etched on his features. Ignoring Stiles, Scott ripped the bandage off.
Stiles squirmed away, pressing his back against the jeep's door, trying to get as far away from Scott as possible. He needed to man up. Carter watched in confusion, the area around the tattoo was a deep red, the black ink slowly fading away until it vanished into Scott's skin.
"Oh, no, what?" Scott whispered, "No, no, no, come on."
Scott watched his arm sadly, almost like he was going to cry. Carter felt saddened, she didn't like seeing Scott that upset. She had known how badly he wanted to get that tattoo, he had been talking to her about it for the past few weeks.
"It healed," Scott mumbled, his tone soft.
Stiles exhaled, "Thank God. I hated it." Carter and Scott both looked over at Stiles in disbelief, unable to comprehend what he had just said after Scott kept telling them how excited he was to get that tattoo, only to have his heighted healing make it disappear forever. "Sorry."
Stiles then started his jeep, the three of them sat in silence as they drove down the road. Carter's mind subconsciously wander onto how the first day of school tomorrow was going to be like. Wondering if Allison and Lydia would even talk to her after not doing so all summer, wondering if they would even look at her.
"Have either of you talked to Allison?" Stiles asked softly.
"Nah, we agreed to give each other the summer," Scott began, glancing at Carter briefly before he continued: "No texts, no calls."
"Well, you see-" Carter mumbled, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. "Allison and Lydia seemed to have formed this pact as to where they're no longer on speaking terms with me."
Scott's shoulders stiffened, instantly knowing why. They had talked about it a little, not so much about the kiss, but what they were going to tell their friends.
It had been a summer of confusion for Carter, but for Scott, he had been completely oblivious. He had just been basking in the blissfulness and he didn't think anything was wrong.
"So then how do you know she won't be back at school then?" Stiles asked, stopping the jeep at the red stoplight.
Scott scoffed, shaking his head, "After everything that happened, I'm not sure she's coming back at all." Carter let out a sad sigh, wanting nothing more than to repair things with Allison and Lydia.
Stiles glanced out the window next to Scott, his eyes widened, yet the other two teens hadn't noticed his alarmed demeanor. "I think she is. I'd say pretty definite, you know. Like one-hundred percent."
Carter and Scott both hadn't yet caught on to what Stiles was referring to, the teen soon pointed a finger toward the window. Carter and Scott glanced over, seeing Lydia and Allison both residing in the car stopped next to them. Carter just silently watched as the two girls laughed, but soon came back to her senses, letting out a gasp before ducking under the window.
Stiles and Scott both glanced back at her in confusion; Carter didn't want to see either girls at that moment. She was stuck in a dilemma, all she wanted was her friends back, but she was absolutely terrified to confront them.
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I can't see them, not now. I'm not prepared." Carter mumbled, continuing to shrink down in her seat. "Can we just drive, please, Stiles?" Carter begged, burying her head in her hands.
"Carter, it's a red light," Stiles pointed out.
"Stiles, just go!" Carter hissed.
"I think we should talk to them," Stiles suggested. "I just think we should say something."
Scott shot Stiles a hard glare, knowing that the whole thing would become real awkward real fast if the three of them talked. Talking to his recently-made ex-girlfriend and his potential girlfriend wouldn't make anything better in his opinion.
"Stiles, come on," Scott pleaded. "Just drive."
Ignoring Scott, Stiles leaned across Scott and reached out for the window-crank, the window soon rolled down, allowing him to shout at the two girls.
"Oh, my God, dude, no," Scott muttered.
"Hey!" Stiles shouted, Lydia's car sped off down the road. He looked out the window in confusion and murmured: "You know, they probably didn't see us."
They waited a few seconds, until the light flashed from red to green, Stiles began to proceed down the road once more. Stiles' jeep followed directly behind Lydia's car.
"What are you doing?" Scott demanded, panic settling in their chests.
"I'm driving," Stiles stated matter-of-factly.
"We're right behind them."
"Okay, well, do you see any turns?" Stiles asked, raising a brow as he continued to drive down the dark road.
Stiles had been right. There were no turns in sight, the only thing they could do that would cease their following would be stop in the middle of the road.
"I don't want it to look like we're following them," Carter retorted, sitting straight up and popping her head between the two seats.
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
"I don't know, anything."
With that, Stiles slammed his foot on the break, the jeep's tires screeching as the vehicle skidded to a stop of the wet asphalt. They stopped, but none of them spoke until Lydia's car pulled to a stop as well.
Before anyone could get out of their car to make the first move, the sounds of Allison and Lydia screaming began to pierce the air. Scott, Stiles, and Carter were able to hear it all the way from inside the jeep. The three shot out, well, Carter had to wait until Scott got out before she could slither her way out, but that was beside the point.
Once they were all out of the jeep, they rushed over toward Lydia's car as fast as they could. The two girls frantically scrambled out of the car as well, Stiles instantly took Lydia's side whilst Carter ran to Allison.
"Are you okay?" Carter asked her in concern.
"It came out of nowhere," Lydia exclaimed, her voice was shaky and filled with fear.
"I'm okay," Allison replied weakly.
"Well, I'm not okay!" Lydia shouted. "I am totally freaking out! How the hell does it just run into us?"
Scott and Carter slowly made their way to the front of the car, approaching the deer that was half lying on the hood, half crashed through the windshield.
"I saw its eyes right before it hit us. It was like it - it was like it was crazy." Lydia mumbled, tears welling up in her eyes.
"No, it was scared," Scott whispered, and he hesitantly placed his hands on the dead deer's neck. A surge of emotions coursed through him at the contact, "Actually, terrified."
○ ○ ○
The morning of the first day of junior had been completely uneventful and normal. There were no painful hot-flashes or random injuries - surprisingly. Everything was blissful, except for that fact that Boyd and Erica were still missing. Carter had offered her help to Derek, but he simply told her not to get involved.
Carter was seated behind Stiles, the two bickering about Star Wars, waiting for their English teacher, Ms. Blake, to arrive. Lydia and Allison soon walked into the classroom, Carter visibly stiffened. Lydia took the open desk to the left of Stiles, and Allison quickly realized that the only open one left was in front of Scott.
The two girls swiftly avoided making eye contact with Carter. She just wanted to make things right between her and her friends. Suddenly, the only sound in the classroom was an eruption of ringtones. With furrowed brows, everyone pulled out their cellphones to see that they had received one new text message.
""The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway, leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness."" the woman, who walked into the classroom, read aloud. She was an overall pretty person. Ms. Blake gave a smile, she nodded softly, setting the phone that was in her hands behind her on the desk. "This is the last line to the first book we are going to read. It is also the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone."
Unlike everyone else, Carter wasn't going to be the moron that actually listened and something bad ended up happening. With that thought, she began to wonder why Isaac hadn't replied to any of her texts or calls. She couldn't help but grow worried. She wasn't getting any Pheanix feelings, but still.
For the most part, the class was uneventful. Carter wanted to hurry and finish the assignment that had been given so she didn't have homework.
"Mr. McCall?" Ms. Blake called out, making heads shoot up.
Stiles watched in confusion as Scott gathered his things, he conversed with the teacher before the two disappeared into the hallway. Stiles turned back to do his work when he got distracted by Carter groaning in pain under her breath. He slowly turned around in his seat and saw that Carter had gone noticeably pale and a layer of sweat formed on her face. He could faintly see a large stain of crimson forming on her shirt from underneath her jacket. Immediately, concern washed over him, especially when she brought her hand to her side and pulled it back to see that it was covered in blood.
At that exact moment, a trail of blood slowly seeped out of her left nostril. Carter brought her hand up to her face to wipe it away, but the blood only smeared itself over her lips.
"Carter?" Stiles whispered.
"Isaac," Carter mumbled, realization settled on her features. "I-I don't understand, though. This wound happened hours ago and I can feel that it has already healed on him." She pressed her hand even harder on the wound.
"Don't you normally get some sort of warning before stuff like this happens?"
Carter bit her lip, suppressing a groan, "N-Normally."
"Okay, what if it's like, the same thing as the deer, or Lydia's dog?" Stiles suggested. "You know, like, how animals start acting weird before an earthquake or something. Maybe your abilities, or whatever they are, are doing the same thing?"
"Meaning what? There's going to be an earthquake?" Carter questioned, pressing harder on the wound to try and stop the bleeding.
"Or...something," Stiles insisted. "I just - maybe it means something's coming. Something bad. I mean, your weird hot-flash-thing always mean something bad is about to happen."
Carter opened her mouth to tell him that she hadn't experienced one since Jackson died, but before she could, the painful heat surged powerfully through her. Her hands shot out, her right one covered in blood, to grip the sides of her desk - attempting to distract herself from the pain.
"S-Some...something's about to hap-happen," Carter panted out, the words felt like fire on her tongue. She gripped the desk tighter, fighting off a cry of pain as the heat became stronger and more intense. Carter took note that the surges of warmth were the hottest they had ever been - worse than when she first experienced them.
Before Stiles could ask, something slammed against the window next to Lydia, everyone's heads snapped toward the sound. On the window was a large blood spatter, a black-feathered bird began to slide off the window. It seemed as though a dark bank of clouds covered the sun, dimming the light, but if they were to look closer they would've saw that it had been a swarm of birds.
Ms. Blake set down the piece of chalk and walked toward the wall of windows. A fearful expression etched its way onto her face. All of the birds were flying toward that classroom in particular. Stiles and Lydia turned to glance at Carter, half expecting her to know what was happening.
But Carter couldn't meet their eyes; she moved her hands away from the desk and brought them to her head. She pressed hard on her temples, blood smeared on her cheek where her hand rubbed it. Her head was pounding, the hot-flashes made her body tremble.
Another bird smacked against the window, leave a blood spatter, but also cracking the glass. The birds continued that, until one broke through the window, glass showered upon the students. Birds continued to fly in rapidly; the entire class erupted into fits of hysteria.
"Get down, everyone!" Ms. Blake shouted over the noise of squawking birds and screaming students.
Stiles grabbed Carter's arm, pulling her down to the floor when she felt the talons of a bird slice across her entire face, she cried and clutched her face in pain. Stiles' eyes widened seeing three long slashes cut into her skin. Carter felt them healing, but blood covered the majority of her face.
Several minutes passed before the commotion ceased; shards of glass, blood, and feathered bodies now littered the floor.
When Carter stood up her knees buckled as a severe feeling of lightheadedness rushed to the surface, Stiles instantly wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from falling. "How's your side?" Stiles asked quietly.
Carter untangled herself from Stiles, slowly lifting up the right side of her bloodied shirt - no wound, only tan skin and dried blood. "This day has been seriously screwed up."
Ten minutes later, the police and paramedics arrived. Carter was perched on a desk, an EMT crouched in front of her, shining a small flashlight in her eyes. Carter almost growled at the pain the small light caused her head.
"You're all clear, Ms. Hale."
Carter nodded, absentmindedly scratching at the tried blood on her face. She hadn't let the EMT clean it off, in fact, she didn't let him touch her at all. Her abilities had been so strange that day, she didn't want to accidentally burn him like she did to Scott.
Carter craved normalcy.
She stood from the desk, slung her bag over her shoulder before she approached Stiles.
"Ready to leave?" Stiles asked.
Carted nodded eagerly, running a shaky hand through her hair. "Let's get out of here."
The two of them made their way out of the classroom, Carter instantly pulled her phone out. Finding it necessary to call Scott and tell him what had just taken place. Carter held her phone to her ear, moving toward a more secluded area.
When Scott answered, she didn't even let him speak. "We got a serious problem at school. Ms. Blake's class-"
"Hey, can you tell me about it later?" Scott asked, Carter was taken aback, Stiles was making obscene gestures, trying to get her to tell him what Scott was saying.
"Uh, well, no, pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion." Carter explained, panic settled in her chest considering that all of them had a feeling that something worse was approaching - and fast.
"All right, then meet me at Derek's."
"Derek's house?" Carter repeated, her dark eyebrows furrowed. "What? What the hell are you doing at-"
"Just meet us here, okay?"
Carter sighed in defeat, "Stiles and I will be there soon." She hung up, shoving her phone in her back pocket. "Looks like we're going to visit my big bro."
"Wonderful."
○ ○ ○
When Carter and Stiles arrived at the Hale house, they were bombarded with questions. Well, Carter was. They immediately noticed that she had blood all over her, and when they asked why she wouldn't let them clean it off, she told them she was afraid of hurting them. Derek handed her a small wash cloth and she immediately began to rub at the dried blood on her face.
There was still a pain her side, where Isaac's injury had been - like it was still just below the surface of her skin as if it hadn't completely healed, but she decided against telling them.
Once everything had been explained, they moved to a table, Scott and Derek sat while Stiles and Carter stood.
Derek's eyes flashed red, "Yeah, I see it. Two bands, right? What does it mean?"
"I don't know, uh, it's just something I traced with my fingers." Scott said, beginning to draw two circles in the dust upon the table.
"Why is this so important to you?" Derek asked softly.
"Do you know what the word tattoo means?"
"To mark something," Stiles cut in, winking at Derek while Carter shook her head.
"Well, that's in Tahitian," Scott pointed out. "In Samoan, it means "open wound" I knew I wanted to get a tattoo when I turned eighteen. I always wanted one. I just decided to get it now, to make it kind of a reward."
"For what?" Derek asked.
Scott hesitantly glanced up at Carter, then looked back down. "For not jumping into things with Carter. I didn't want to make her Allison's rebound - I wanted the relationship to grow slowly. But, four months later, I'm fighting to keep myself from diving into another relationship. I know I'm still hurting from Allison and I breaking up. It still feels like a-"
"Like an open wound," Carter finished, finally putting the pieces together. He wanted to take things slow - not use her as a rebound.
Derek stared at Carter for a few moments, realizing that he wasn't going to be able to stop the relationship from happening. He might have been the protective brother, but he still wanted her to be happy.
Derek reached out and grabbed a torch, "I'm warning the both of you," Derek began, glancing between Carter and Scott. "Carter won't get the tattoo, just the pain. The pain's gonna be worse than anything you've ever felt."
"Pfft, please," Carter mocked in amusement, recalling the night when Jackson killed himself - that was the worst pain she'd ever felt.
"Oh, that's great," Stiles mumbled.
"Do it."
Derek lit the torch, an orange flame burning from the tip.
"Oh, wow. That's, uh, that's a lot for me. So I'm gonna take that as my cue. I'm gonna wait outside." Stiles began to walk toward the door, Derek extended his arm and stopped Stiles.
"Nope. You can help hold him down," Derek instructed, Stiles groaned when Derek shoved him toward Scott. Carter sunk down in the chair next to Derek, preparing herself for the pain.
The moment the flame reached Scott's arm, Carter saw red. She screamed and writhed in agony - her and Scott's eyes began to blaze unnatural colors; both of them letting out bloodcurdling screams.
○ ○ ○
Carter woke up before Scott, she rubbed her arm trying to work out the numbness. Scott gasped suddenly, causing Carter to jump. He gazed down at his arm, a smile on his face to see the two black bands were permanently burned on his arm.
"It worked," Scott breathed out, Carter smiled softly at him. Derek moved and helped Carter to her feet, feeling extreme warmth when he touched her. Scott grabbed his long-sleeve white shirt, quickly pulling it on over his gray tank; he rolled up the sleeve to admire the tattoo more. Carter and Stiles walked alongside him.
"Well, it looks damn permanent now," Stiles pointed out.
"Yeah," Scott murmured, pulling down his sleeve. "I kind of needed something permanent. Everything that's happened to us, everything just changes so fast. Everything's so...ephemeral."
"Studying for the PSATs?"
"Yep."
"Nice."
Scott grabbed the doorknob, pulling it open but paused to examine the front of the door. Rather than being it burnt-brown, it was now bright red.
"You painted the door," Carter pointed out.
"Why'd you paint the door?" Scott asked.
"Go home, guys," Derek warned. Carter automatically knew that something happened. Everything that had been happening with the animals - and her - they were all connected to whatever was beneath the paint.
"And why only one side?"
Scott allowed his claws to extend, allowing one to run along the paint, chipping it off. A thick black line is revealed. Scott began to use both sets of claws to scratch the red paint off the door.
"Scott," Derek warned, rushing over toward them, but it was too late. Chips of red pain were flying everywhere and the black symbol revealed.
A black triangle with three lines extending out before taking a sharp turn. Carter tilted her head to the side, something about the symbol was familiar, she just couldn't place where she'd seen it before.
"The birds at school, my abilities faltering," Carter began.
"And the deer last night," Scott added, "just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the Alpha." Realization settled in. "How many are there?"
Derek looked down, sighing, "A pack of them. An Alpha pack."
"All of them? How does that even work?"
"I hear there's some kind of leader," Derek replied. "He's called Deucalion. We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac, and I have been looking for them for the past four months."
Carter's heart began to race, rubbing the sore spot on her side. She knew that Isaac was safe, injured, but safe - for now.
"Let's just say you find them," Scott stepped toward Derek. "How do you deal with an Alpha pack?"
"With all the help I can get," Derek answered. Scott, Carter, and Stiles all looked at one another, knowing all too well that they were the help.
"Where is she?" A familiar voice asked. Carter glanced over to see Isaac sitting up, and suddenly, the pain Carter felt in her side vanished - as if it were never there. "Where's the girl?"
They all looked at Isaac in confusion, Derek asked: "What girl?"
○ ○ ○
DISCLAIMER
I, vxidmccall_, DO NOT OWN THE "TEEN WOLF: THE SERIES" OR THE MOVIE. ALL RIGHTS GO TO THEIR RESPECTFUL OWNERS. I, vxidmccall_, DO HOWEVER OWN CATERINA DANIELLE HALE AND HER RELATED PLOT LINES.
IT'S FINALLY HERE! THE FIRST CHAPTER OF DANGEROUS LIAISONS!!!
im actually really, super duper, excited about writing this story for you guys. so, please, feel free to comment your opinions, thoughts and predictions. i love hearing from you guys!