Slogging through the 900 page document that was the Argent's Bestiary would have been a challenge even if it wasn't written in Archaic Latin. Google translate wasn't equipped to understand syntactic phrases the way humans did, and Latin texts were full of metaphors that turned translation into a hellish job for people, never mind machines.
First, I'd had to find someone who spoke Latin. It took two hours for me to get in touch with some Latin enthusiast in the department of humanities in some University in England, but when I e-mailed him about this 'story book' I'd been given he was more than happy to translate it for me.
I decided to spend the morning in the coffee shop that had free Wi-Fi and decent coffee while I waited for e-mail after e-mail of translations. They came in bits and pieces, some parts taking longer to translate than others, but every bit of information I got was as strange as the one before it.
Like the wolf, its power is greatest at the moon's peak.
Like the wolf, the Kanima is a social creature but where the wolf seeks a pack the Kanima seeks a master.
The Kanima, a weapon of vengeance, is used to carry out the bidding of its master.
The Kanima was once used by a South American priest who took it upon himself to rid his village of all murderers. The bond between master and servant grew stronger until the will of the master became that of the Kanima's and whoever the priest deemed unworthy, the Kanima served its vengeance.
The Kanima is a mutation of the werewolf gene that cannot fully transform until it resolves that in its past which manifests it.
It was riveting, sure, but it was more worrying than anything. A weapon of vengeance used to carry out the bidding of its master... so we weren't just looking for some giant lizard, but also whoever was controlling it, and then what? Resolve that in its past that manifested it? Did we have to give the Kanima therapy?
My phone ringing distracted me from the laptop and I dug it out of my pocket and answered it without seeing who it was. I didn't even get the chance to say hello before the voice on the other end of the line was yelling.
"You can't do this!" Scott's voice exploded from my phone, angry and frantic. I winced and moved the phone away from my ear, holding it at a distance that wouldn't deafen me.
"Do what?" I asked, bewildered, and Scott gave a frustrated groan.
"Whatever it is you guys are going to do to Lydia - you can't! Derek needs to let me handle this!"
I pinched the bridge of my nose against the impending headache. My eyes were aching from staring at my laptop for so long and Scott's nonsensical shouting wasn't helping. "Scott, I seriously have no idea what you're talking about."
"They think Lydia is the Kanima."
"Who does? Derek?"
"Yes!" Scott was yelling again. "They gave her some of the venom and she - well she didn't react but that doesn't mean anything!" There was a pause before he said, rather desperately, "You have to help me. Please!"
Things still weren't making sense; from the tense conversation I had with Derek last night I'd assumed Jackson was Kanima suspect number 1. "What about Jackson? He didn't become a werewolf either."
"Derek already tested him - he said a snake can't be poisoned by its own venom and since Jackson was paralyzed and Lydia wasn't he thinks it's her!" I sighed, ready to tell Scott that that was pretty damning evidence, but then he said, "They're going to kill her! Derek's already here!"
"Derek wouldn't kill her."
"He will!" Scott yelled again, and I pulled the phone further from my ear. Ow. "Please! I need your help - you can't be okay with this!"
"I'm not." I assured him. "Look, I'll talk to him, sort this whole mess out. He's reasonable, he's not going to kill an innocent girl."
"Just like he wasn't going to kill Jackson because Peter told him to?"
I knew this phone call felt familiar somehow.
"Fine, he's pretty unreasonable sometimes, but -" But what? After nearly drowning Derek was ready to kill the Kanima, but would he really kill an innocent girl that didn't even know she was the Kanima? And if he decided to do it, Scott wouldn't be able to stop him... not alone. "I'm on my way. He doesn't listen to me much but it'll be a show of force."
"Thank you!" Scott said, and then hung up on me.
"Jesus Christ, Derek." I muttered, shutting the laptop and slipping it into my bag. "What the hell are you getting us into this time?"
-x-x-x-
"Thank you." Scott said again once I met him at the edge of the Lacrosse field. Boyd was standing nearby but there was no sign of Derek, and I wondered if that would make things easier.
"Thank me when it's over," I told him as I led the way over to the newest Beta.
Boyd didn't react when we approached apart from a confused frown in my direction, eyes flickering between me and Scott like he was trying to decide how this alliance had formed. "We need to talk to Derek." Scott said, and I let him take the league.
"Talk to me." Was Boyd's rebuttal, and Scott scowled at him.
"Look, we don't want a fight -"
"Good," Boyd didn't quite smile, but I could see the amusement in his eyes. "Because I'm twice the size of you."
"True." Scott said as he sized the other werewolf up. Boyd stood silently, that self-assured expression still in place. "Really, really true. But you know what I think? I'm twice as fast." And before I could say anything Scott surged forwards and tackled Boyd to the ground.
"No!" I grabbed a fistful of Scott's shirt and yanked him off of Boyd, putting myself between them. Jesus Christ. "That's not how we're going this." I didn't know which one of them I was talking to because they were both looking at each other like they wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out the other and a wolf fight right outside the school was the last thing we needed.
I was so concerned with stopping the impending fight that I didn't even notice Derek had arrived until he spoke. "She failed the test."
I remained between the two boys just in case as I rounded on my brother. "That proves nothing."
Derek scowled at me. "You know it does," He bit out. "She's killed people, she's going to carry on killing people, and next time it could be one of us." He glanced at Scott before addressing me again. "You were fine with Peter killing Kate to stop her, and me killing Peter to stop him. What makes this any different?"
"Because they were killing because they wanted to, the Kanima isn't!" Derek opened his mouth, probably to argue, but I pressed on. "I've read the Bestiary, Derek. The Kanima isn't just a killer, it's controlled by someone, forced to kill whoever its master tells it to."
"That doesn't change the fact that she's already killed people and is going to kill more." Derek was standing his ground and I wasn't really surprised, not with how narrow-sighted he could be a lot of the time. "We don't know who her 'master' is, so the only option is to put her down before anyone else gets hurt."
"We're not going to let you kill her," Scott said firmly, and Derek raised an eyebrow. I knew that face, and I was suddenly very aware that Isaac and Erica were absent.
"Who said I was going to do it?" Scott glanced at the school, coming to the same conclusion I had, and I stared at Derek in disbelief.
"How could you do that to them?" I demanded. Derek met my eyes with a blank stare. "What if it isn't her. You'd really be able to live if they killed an innocent girl?" I flashed my blue eyes at him and Derek looked away from the cold, guilty colour. "What if you're wrong?"
"She was bitten, she didn't turn. It's her."
"But you can't be sure!" I was the one yelling now. "What if she'd immune? Has something inside her that makes her immune to things like the bite and Kanima venom?"
"No one's immune!" Derek yelled back. "We've never seen it, never heard of it! It's. Never. Happened."
"What about Jackson?" He had no answer for that, and I pushed on. "He was bit and he didn't turn. So either both of them are Kanimas, one of them is and the other survived the bite but didn't turn, or one passed immunity on to the other and neither of them are the Kanima and it's someone else we haven't thought of. There are too many maybe's right now to know anything for certain!"
All Derek did was clench his jaw.
"I was hoping to convince you, but then again I wasn't counting on it," Scott spoke up, and Derek frowned at him. "You're not the only one who has people working on this."
And with that Scott turned and headed towards the school. I knew I should probably follow him, especially when Derek and Boyd turned to leave, but I remained where I was, caught somewhere in the middle - a limbo of the hellish kind, neither with Scott nor with Derek, just... in no man's land.
I stared at Derek's retreating back. "Don't do this," I tried again, and he stopped but didn't turn around. He was a good fifty some feet away and I wasn't talking loudly, but he could hear me. "Derek she's sixteen. Don't take the chance of making a huge mistake."
His shoulders tightened and his quiet response reached my ears, "I'm not making a mistake." He said, and kept walking.
I watched him go and turned to follow Scott.
-x-x-x-
The sky was darkening into deep blues when I arrived at Scott's house, and when I rang the doorbell I heard four separate heartbeats inside start to race. "Is it them?" Someone asked, and then Stiles' face appeared in the window. He slumped in relief when he saw it was me.
"It's backup." He said, and the door was unlocked and opened just enough for me to slip inside. "I love that you're here."
"What is she doing here?" The image of Peter crouching over a body with blood dripping down his chin flashed in front of my eyes, and I found that I couldn't even look at the girl regarding me coolly.
"She's here to help." Oh perfect, Allison Argent was here too.
"Lydia, come with me." And Jackson. Great, a Hunter and two possible Kanimas in the same house, all of which had the potential to kill me when my back was turned. Go Team Save Lydia.
The two Kanima suspects headed off towards the back of the house, and as soon as they were out of hearing range Allison turned towards me with her arms crossed over her chest protectively. "You're here to help us?"
"I'm here to make sure no one dies tonight," I told the only Argent who wouldn't shoot me on sight. "You shot my brother with an arrow."
Allison didn't say anything, but she managed to hold my gaze and I was grudgingly impressed. Even Scott sometimes flinched when I sparked up my eyes with the blue glow like I was doing now. "Uh, Ginger..." Stiles said carefully, and I let the blue bleed out of my eyes. "What - hey, where are you going?" He asked when I started to walk towards the kitchen.
"To grab something to eat." I told him.
"We need to keep a lookout, they could be here any minute!" The fledgling Hunter argued.
"Trust me," I said, "I'll be the first to know when they arrive."
And I was. I'd only taken one bite of my sandwich when -
Thump, thump, thump.
That heartbeat was almost as familiar as my own.
I gave the sandwich a very thorough bite and joined the other two at the front door. "They're here," I announced, sliding up to the window to pull the curtain aside. Allison looked over my shoulder to see the four figures standing across the street. I really hoped we could avoid a fight, but the sight of my pack standing outside reminded me that they were here to kill a teenage girl, and I knew I'd do anything I had to do to stop them.
No one would be coming out of this with blue eyes.
When Allison whipped out a small crossbow and loaded a bolt I glared, but there was little else I could to aside from rip the weapon out of her hands and smash it into little pieces. I doubted that would convince her I was on her side, and after Allison's assistance in trying to stop the Hunters from killing Isaac I felt confident she wouldn't shoot to kill.
But when the standoff continued and Scott failed to make an appearance, Allison pulled out her phone. "What are you doing?" Stiles asked, curious.
"I think..." she hesitated, biting her lip. "I think I have to call my dad."
"No." I snapped. That would not even begin to de-escalate the situation; if the Hunters arrived they would - at the very least - know Erica and Boys were werewolves, and then they'd know about the entire pack. And right now Derek and I were at the top of the Argent's hit list. "No Hunters, no way in hell. No, no, and no."
"What are we supposed to do?" Allison demanded, a little frantic now the situation was starting to sink in. "They're not here to scare us, they're here to kill Lydia!"
I snatched the phone from her hand and crushed it into little plastic pieces. Allison stared at me at a loss for words but I didn't care - that phone was more dangerous in her hands than the crossbow.
Stiles was getting agitated, hopping from one foot to the other. "I have an idea," he said suddenly, "shoot one of them!"
"No one's shooting anyone!" I snarled. "Are you completely -" And there it was, a sixth heartbeat in the house, a new scent. Isaac was inside.
They'd made their first move.
Gritting my teeth - which were now more fang than teeth - I set off towards the back of the house where I knew Isaac was, my nails sharpening into claws as I moved. He was my friend, my pack, but he was here to kill someone, and if I had to hurt him to help him I would.
We met in the hallway. Isaac's eyes were glowing bright gold as he fell into a crouch; he knew me, knew I wasn't going to move in any direction but towards him. He was ready to attack, I was fully prepared to defend.
"I don't want to hurt you." I told him through a mouthful of fangs, eyes shining bright and blue. He stood his ground.
"Then get out of the way."
I charged him, ducking under his claws and landing a solid punch to his jaw. Isaac spat the blood out of his mouth, eyes blazing, and sent a fist flying towards my nose that missed when I swayed my head to the side. I punched him again, just as hard, in the head with my other hand, following it up with a blow to the stomach that had him doubling over.
The next punch he threw, I let him have. I was starting to feel guilty; the training we'd given them couldn't compare with the years of experience I had over them, and when his fist connected with my temple I aimed a kick at his kneecap. It crunched under my boot and he went down.
The spot above my eye throbbed, but it was watching him grasp at his leg that hurt me. I wanted to come to his aid, help him to his feet and apologize, but I couldn't.
Especially not when Allison yelled my name from upstairs.
I turned to race towards the stairs and Isaac seized the opportunity. He jumped on my back, sending us both crashing to the floor and when his fist connected with my jaw it snapped my head to the side but I saw his next hit coming; I lurched to the side and sent him flying into the wall hard enough to bring several hanging pictures down around us. I had to move - Erica was upstairs, and so was Allison and her crossbow.
"Sorry," I said before I jabbed my fist into Isaac's throat. His hands jumped up to grasp at the tender flesh as he choked; he was incapacitated for a moment and that was all I needed.
I reached the top of the stairs and burst into the room where the two girls were. There was Allison, stupid crossbow in hand, and Erica was lying motionless on the floor.
"What did you do?" I growled, kneeling to push Erica onto her back and assess her injuries, but there weren't any. A glance at Erica's face revealed that she was conscious, eyes flickering across my face, and it clicked. "It's here."
When I turned my gaze on Allison she pointed to the open window where the paralytic toxin was dripping from the pane. Had Lydia changed when no one was looking? Was this the proof that Derek had been right? That didn't matter; what did matter right now was getting the now defenceless Erica out of this house before the Kanima came back and deemed her easy prey.
I pulled Erica into my arms and fled the room, Allison hot on my heels as we raced down the stairs only to run right into Scott struggling against Isaac. I wasn't sure when he'd arrived, but that wasn't important.
There was a Kanima inside the house, Erica was paralyzed, and the humans were getting in the way.
Scott threw Isaac into a wall and he slid to the ground and didn't get back up. As I reached Scott he grabbed Isaac by the collar of his shirt and dragged him towards the front door, opening it with one hand and throwing the unconscious Beta clear across the front yard with the other. With my arms full of Erica I couldn't make a move to stop him, but I did snarl at him when I pushed past him on my way out.
Fuck. That.
Don't get me wrong; right now I was still Team Save Lydia, but I still had a duty to protect my pack, and throwing Isaac's body out the door like he was a bag of trash wasn't something I'd condone in any way, shape, or form.
Derek's eyebrows furrowed as I approached where he and Boyd were standing at the edge of Scott's yard, but I ignored him and placed Erica down gently next to Isaac, who I rolled over to check for injuries. Some I had inflicted, but the majority were Scott's work. He hadn't been as careful as I had, but Isaac was already healing.
"I think I'm getting why you keep refusing me, Scott." Derek said as the Team Save Lydia gathered on the porch. I moved back to stand between the two groups, hoping the fight had ended, but I wasn't confident enough to let my guard down. "You're not an Omega, you're already an Alpha, of your own pack. But you know you can't beat me."
Scott raised his eyebrows. "I can hold you off until the cops get here."
Sure enough, the sound of sirens in the distance could be heard. Derek's smirk disappeared and I hoped that he had enough sense to leave before he became a fugitive again.
A spine-chilling hiss put an end to the standoff. Scott's gang scrambled out from under the porch to join the rest of us in the yard so they could see the scaled menace perched on the roof.
Oh, right. The murder-lizard. Forgot about that.
I automatically stepped into place to flank Derek, but the Kanima didn't seem intent on attacking such a large group. Instead it let out a furious hiss before disappearing from sight with a speed that didn't seem possible at its size.
"Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?"
Everyone's attention turned to the terrified voice that cut through the silence left by the Kanima's departure to find Lydia - frantic, shaken, but very much human - standing on the porch with a look on her face that promised retribution if someone didn't start explaining.
Jackson.
Derek didn't stick around long enough to hear the 'I told you so' I was intending on shooting his way. Instead, he bolted after the Kanima without a backward glance and for a second I considered joining the chase, but with two incapacitated Betas lying at my feet and the sound of sirens drawing nearer, I knew I was needed here.
"Come on," I told Boyd, taking Erica into my arms once more and nodding at him to take Isaac. "Let's get out of here before the cops show up."