Chapter 40
The drive to Lydia's was silent. I focused on trying to get Lydia home. She hadn't said a word, just looked outside the window as we drove. I kept glancing over to her to make sure she wasn't about to yell at me, but she didn't. What she did do was turn to look at me once we parked outside her house and spoke calmly.
"So what happened back there?" Lydia asked arms crossed across her chest.
I turned off my car and just unbuckled my belt before I spoke with a sigh, "Remember when I told you I would tell you everything? I think it's time I do that, but what I tell you, you can never tell anyone. Not only will it lead to people involved getting hurt, but people close to them that have nothing to do with it will have it worse."
Lydia's face fell from her slight anger in the calming storm found inside her eyes as she whispered, "You're scaring me..."
"I know," I told her, turning in my seat to look at her fully, "But what I am going to tell you is the truth, so do you trust me?"
Lydia looked deeply into my eye, trying to see if I was lying to her, which I wasn't.
Closing her eyes she nodded, "I trust you with my life."
"Okay, no pressure..." I tried to make light of the situation.
I took a moment to think of the best way to tell Lydia but in this situation, ripping off the band-aid was the best way to do it. I told her about the supernatural world I was raised in. Along with telling her that there were those that are born into it and there were those that were bitten and turned to the creature they represent. The worse part was the part about telling her that my father was the one trying to kill us all in order to get his hands to power and revenge.
"Your dad was the one that attacked us that night?" she breathed out, laying on her bed.
We had moved ourselves to her room once I had told her the main things. We had sat in silence for a bit as she tried to collect every detail I had told her. To my surprise, she was handling it perfectly.
"Yeah," I sighed, "He thought that attacking you would get me to join him, but I told him no. He decided to turn the tables in order to get Stiles to do what he asked... That only lead to us being the hospital. I was healed as soon as I woke up, but you seemed to be healing like normal but the bite didn't kill you."
"You think I am something?" she asked.
I nodded, "I do. Especially from what you have told me was happening to you. I just haven't figure out what yet..."
"Is there a way to figure it out?" she asked again.
"Through the bestiary..." I told her, "You know the one that I was looking at during free period. The one in archaic Latin."
"You have it with you?" she asked, "Maybe I can read through it a bit."
"Before I do that, can you do me a solid and try to translate one portion before you have a full range of it?"
"Sure," she shrugged, "I mean it will help me in the long run."
I smiled and told her I would be right back. I rushed to my car with my bag and got back to her room. Presenting her my laptop, I allowed her to go about it. It wasn't the first time she had done it. Once she opened up my pdf file, she began to scroll to the name I had instructed her to. As she began to read through the first part, my phone went off.
"Danny?" I answer, "What's up?"
"Hey, I'm heading to our usual place, I was wondering if you can be my wing woman," he told me.
I looked over to Lydia who looked over to me with a questionable look on her face. Lydia was close to Danny but not as close as Jackson and I were. When I dated Jackson, Danny came to our circle. He and I were buddies, always telling each other our secrets. He was the first one to know about my feelings for Stiles and kept it to himself. That was loyalty at it's finest.
"Go," Lydia motioned me out of her room, "I might be a while with this."
"You sure?" I asked her.
She nodded and went back to my laptop.
"I'm on my way Danny," I told him before hanging up the call.
I said goodbye to Lydia and rushed back out of the house and into my car. I tried to get a hold of Stiles and Scott to inform them about the change of plans from my end. It didn't take long for me to get to the gay nightclub that I frequent with Danny. Once I got there, I looked over my make up but noticed the ruined top. With an eye roll, I got out of my car and went to the trunk. I have been collecting clothes back there from my many staying over at people's places, so I knew I had something to make myself presentable.
Pulling out the red leather jacket I forgot inside, I took off my ruined top, and threw the jacket on. Making sure to zip up my jacket halfway up, I walked over to the line. As I walked up to the familiar form of Danny, my heels announced my arrival to him/
"There's my girl," he laughed, "Nice outfit."
"Last minute," I laughed, looping my arm around his arm, "So what's the occasion?"
"My boyfriend dumped me and I want a distraction," he said in a weak voice.
I gave him a reassuring smile and replied, "Say no more."
---
Once getting through the line of other patrons, and the questioning of the bouncer, we got through the door. This was our usual place for Danny to look for someone. I was only here to help, so I normally spent it just sitting at the bar and getting to know the many bartenders that work throughout the shifts. We came so often that I had gotten to know the bartenders by name.
"Two shots of whiskey, Elijah!" I called out to the smiling bartender.
He only nodded and began to pour our drinks. Once presented our drinks, Danny and I made a toast and downed the auburn drink in one go. Now with a drink in our systems, we looked about the club dance floor to find a good guy for Danny. It wasn't long before he gasped and turned toward the bar.
"Oh no..." was all he said as he tried to hid his embarrassment.
I looked at the spot he was looking at beforehand to only find his ex with a new guy.
"Fuck that guy," I growled, "You can do way better than that prick."
"I don't know, Juliette," Danny sighed as he looked back to his ex flirting it up.
I glanced about the dance floor only to find a guy eying Danny. From what she can get from the ogling, I already knew he found him attractive. With a smile, I nudged Danny and motioned him to the guy in question.
"How about that cutie?" I spoke up, "He seems to be eying you pretty hard."
"You think?" Danny looked at the other guy, know trying to hid he was looking at Danny.
"Hell yeah!" I laughed, "Go! I'll be over here."
Elijah brings me my usual drink as we watched Danny flirt it up with the cutie. They quickly go into the sea of peoples and I turned back into the bar, no longer able to see him. Taking a sip of my drink I looked about the bar only to stop at the sight of a familiar person on the other side of the bar. It was such a surprise, I almost sip my drink out.
"Elijah," I called over the bartender, "Put that guy's drink on my tab."
"Are you sure?" the eyes Stiles a bit.
I give him a wink and he just laughs. I watch him go about the bar to get the drinks that Scott and Stiles had ordered which to my enjoyment, they had a pair of cokes. Calmly, I walked around to the other side and slid into the barstool beside the boys.
"Those are paid for," Elijah smirked as he pointed to a guy on the other side of the bar and then to me.
I tipped my drink to him before he went about his night.
"Hi, handsome," I laughed once Stiles looked over to me, "What brings you on the wrong side of the neighborhood."
Stiles eyed my outfit before he did a double-take on my chest.
"Are you topless?" he exclaimed getting Scott's attention.
I pushed Scott's face away from me as I smirked toward my boyfriend, "Eyes, Stiles. Now, what are you guys doing here?"
"Why are you here?" Scott asked regaining his focus from his momentary curiosity.
Stiles nodded, "We thought you were going to stay the night with Lydia?"
"Danny needed a wing woman," I shrugged, "So, here I am."
"Do you usually come here?" he asked.
I nodded, downing the rest of my drink, "Yeah, whenever Danny wants to get a distraction I come with. Not a lot, but there were enough times to be known by the usual bartender team. Anyway, why are you guys here?"
"Jackson," they both answered, "I think he's after Danny... but maybe he's here to get to you since you were with him."
"We need to look for Danny and get him out of here, just in case, then," I stated, starting to look around for my friend.
"Hey," Stiles called out beside me, "I found Danny."
I followed his finger and noticed him dancing away with the same guy that was crushing on him. I couldn't help smile at the sight of him doing good with the new guy. That quickly ended when I noticed what was above him.
"I found Jackson," I stated, motioning to the ceiling.
"Get Danny!" Scott exclaimed.
"What are you gonna do?" Stiles asked.
Scott brandished his claws to us and Stiles just nodded. Taking Stiles' hand, we began to weave through the sea of dancing guys. Stiles called out to Danny, but the music was making it hard for anyone around them to hear what he was trying to say. I let go of Stiles as I began to push anyone out of the way when the fog machine hid Jackson from view. I finally got to Danny as something fell on beside us. So fast, but I knew what happened.
Jackson had nicked the back of my neck.
Danny and I fell to the ground, paralyzed.
Stiles rushed to our side as he tried to move me to my back. I grunted in frustration as I forced my body to move. Like before, I felt like waves of paralyzed go through me, but It wasn't as bad as before. It seemed like my body was getting used to the toxin and making it easy to get out of it.
People were screaming now, but I slowly moved my hand to Stiles' wrist as I told him, "Call the ambulance."
---
The paramedics arrived not too long ago and I sat on the back of one of the three that came to pick up those that ended up being paralyzed. I was wrapped in a blanket as I was shaking from the toxin still present in my system. I had told Stiles to go along with Scott to get Jackson out of here.
No one needs to see a naked Jackson.
I noticed Scott talking to Danny as he was being rolled out of the club. Stiles had rushed back to me after making sure to have Jackson in the back of his car. I smiled over to him as he began to make sure I was okay.
"I'm fine," I laughed at his motherly state, "Get Scott and leave before your dad comes."
"Okay," he nodded, "Call me when you get home."
"You go it, babe," I smiled.
I watched Stiles take Scott from his arm as they rushed back to the powered blue jeep. Letting out a sigh of relief I closed my eyes for a small moment only to roll them. Noah had just arrived at the scene and of course, he had to stop in front of Stiles' car. Throwing the blanket off of me, I got up from my spot and rushed as fast as I could toward the arguing Stilinskis.
"What are you doing here?" Noah asked his son as he crossed his arms impatiently.
I stood by Stiles, earning Noah to also glare at me in disbelieve. I noticed he wasn't as surprised as one would be, but then again me and Stiles tend to be in the wrong places at the wrong time together.
"Uh," Stiles began, "Well, dad. There's a conversation..."
"You're not gay!" both Noah and I exclaimed.
"Wha-" Stiles looked at us, like we were the crazy ones, "I could be."
"Not dressed like that," Noah stated.
I crossed my arms at Stiles, "After what happened between us, I'm sure you're not gay."
"This is the second crime scene that you two have just happened to have shown up on?" Noah scoffed, "And at this point, I've been fed so many lies, I'm not sure I know the kids standing in front of me."
I hung my head in shame.
"Now, what the hell is going on?" he pushed the topic.
"Dad, I-" Stiles began but paused.
"The truth guys," he looked between the both of us.
"We were with Danny..." I finally answered, "Danny wanted a distract after his break up. I was with him when the attack happened. I called Stiles soon after. That's why he's here and why I'm here. I'm sorry, I know I should have told you where I was since I'm staying under your care for a bit."
"Well," Noah nodded, "That's really good of you guys."
"Can we get out of here?" Stiles took my hand.
Noah nodded but stated, "Yeah, but Juliette needs to go home. Your mom has been worried."
I glared at the thought of going home to my mother.
"Can't I just stay with you a bit longer?" I asked, pleading really.
"Sorry, kiddo," he sighed, "Your mom was adamant about you going back home. If things don't change, you can come back, but for now, you have to go home."
"Fine..." I sighed.
Stiles and I watched his dad go over to the crime scene. Stiles gave me a hug and a kiss on the lips before he rushed back to his car. I watched him drive away with Scott and a naked Jackson. I sighed and walked over to my car. With a moment to myself, I prepared myself for what was going to be waiting for me at home.