SPELLBOUND
〈chapter twenty-seven〉
Hayden, who was still watching Deucalion, pulled out her phone and noticed that she had 11 missed messages, all coming from none other than Mason.
The most recent message:
Mason: It has to be NOW.
Hayden sighs before stuffing her phone back in the pocket of her jean jacket. She starts to pace back and forth, unsure of what to do next. Deucalion notices this and comments on it, "Five texts in two minutes? Someone's trying to get your attention."
Hayden rolls her eyes at Deucalion. "Maybe you should go?" Deucalion points to the pump injecting wolfsbane into his veins, "I'm obviously not going anywhere..."
"Could you please shut the hell up?" Hayden snaps at Deucalion, she was already conflicted on what to do, and she definitely didn't need his comments.
Deucalion smiles in satisfaction, it was clear to him that he had gotten on her nerves. "I have a feeling you and I are going to be friends, Hayden. I think we're going to discover a lot of common ground beneath our feet."
Hayden's phone buzzes once again in her pocket. Mason was once again spamming her with messages. Hayden sighs, if Mason was asking her for help then that must mean one thing, they were in trouble. And if they were in trouble, then Ivy was also in trouble. The thought of her best friend getting hurt was not something she wanted to experience, especially if she could help stop it.
Hayden rushes over to the table when she notices a large syringe laying on it. The syringe was full of Tracy's kanima venom. Deucalion picks on what she's about to do and becomes concerned. "Now is that really necessary?"
Hayden turns around with the syringe gun in her hand and smiles at Deucalion. "It's kanima venom from Tracy - enough to paralyze you for a couple hours." Hayden walks towards him and Deucalion sighs. "If we're going to be friends, Hayden, you really need to learn to trust me! Ivy trusts me, and you should as well."
Hayden gives him a snarky look before injecting the contents of the syringe into a port in Deucalion's IV tube. The kanima venom started making its way towards Deucalion' system and immediately paralyzes him, causing him to groan.
"Now I trust you," Hayden smirks as she rushes out of the operating theater to go help her friends.
✯☾✯
Scott retracts his claws from Meredith's neck as she telepathically whispers to him, "Save her." Scott nods in agreement as he turns around to see her cell door slide open. Standing on the other side was the big intimidating burly guard. Scott freezes for a second before standing protectively in front of Meredith.
The guard's eyes roll back as he falls face-first onto the ground. Scott notices two very exhausted teenagers on the other side of the door. Liam had his first raised as Ivy stood behind him out of breath.
Scott was both shocked and impressed by their actions, and also the unconscious guard on the ground.
"Oh! Is he out?" Liam asks as Scott takes another look at the guard on the floor. "Yeah..."
Liam nods in relief, "Okay," before falling sideways onto the floor.
Ivy rolls her eyes before lightly smacking her face. "Liam..." She drops onto the floor to check up on him.
✯☾✯
"We need to find Parrish," Scott informed the couple.
"I can help with that," Ivy stated as she placed her left hand on the wall and closed her eyes. She focused all her energy, just like Theo had taught her, on Parrish. She opened her eyes and started zooming through the halls of Eichen House, until she eventually landed on Parrish, who was currently asleep on a bunch of stairs.
Ivy zoomed out as she returned to her current location and took her hand off the wall. "Found him."
Scott and Liam followed Ivy down the halls of Eichen, still unsure on what Ivy had just done with her magic. Eventually, the trio find Parrish unconscious on a stairwell.
Scott tries to shake him in order to wake him up. "Parrish? Parrish! Parrish!"
Parrish finally awakens and is surprised to see Scott and Liam. He is even more surprised to see Ivy with them, seeing as he had been told that Ivy was on Theo's side for the moment. "How did I get here?" He weakly asks the trio.
Liam hesitates before answering, "We don't know. Ivy led us here, also the burning smell was kind of a giveaway."
Scott urgently changes the subject, "Parrish, listen - Eichen's in lockdown. There's no way for us to get out unless Plan B works."
"Plan B? What's Plan B?" Parrish confusedly asks. Ivy slowly raises her hand, "Uh, I also would like her to know what Plan B is?"
"Don't worry about it." Scott quickly informed both Parrish and Ivy. Ivy sighs, she wasn't sure if Scott wasn't telling them what Plan B was because of the fact that Ivy was still on Theo's side. "Right now, we need you to find Lydia?"
"Me?" Parrish surprisingly asks.
"Actually, not completely you... We kind of need the other you," Liam states. "The Hellhound," Scott adds as Parrish's eyes widen in shock.
"Speaking of the hellhound, is there any way you could exactly remember which of my friends you burned? That sort of information could be really useful right about now," Ivy stated as her neck begins to become charred. Ivy touches her neck and winces in slight pain.
Parrish stares at her with shock, "Did I do?"
"Indirectly, yeah."
"Indirectly?" The hellhound confusedly asks.
"Long story short, you burned one of my chimera friends, which indirectly also burned me because the three of us are magically linked. So any chance if you remember whether it was Corey or Josh you burned?"
Parrish frowns, "Sorry, I don't remember." Ivy lets out a defeated sigh. She hated not knowing which of her friends was suffering.
✯☾✯
Meanwhile at the morgue inside of Eichen House, Malia and Josh lay a badly burned Corey onto an autopsy table. Corey was currently whimpering in pain from his burns as Kira laid unconscious on the floor.
"Why isn't he healing?" Josh worrily asks Malia.
"Maybe he can't. Maybe it's too much. Or maybe it's the pain," Malia stammers.
Corey groans in pain as he takes rapid shallow breaths. Josh becomes overwhelmed "He's going to die, isn't he?" Josh immediately terrified at the thought of Corey dying, and his terror heightens as he remembers the fact the two of them were magically linked to Ivy, meaning that she too was in the same state as Corey.
Malia hesitates as she focuses her werecoyote hearing on Corey, "His heartbeat is getting slower."
"What do we do? You can't heal him, can you?"
"No... But I can take his pain. It could help. It might even get him to start healing."
"Then do it!" Josh commands getting extremely worried about his friends by the second.
"You first," Malia states as she gives Josh a hard look and points towards Kira.
"Look, Corey's not the only one injured, okay. The two of us are magically linked to Ivy, right now, meaning that Ivy is in the same state as Corey right now. They could both die!"
Kira's body releases several bolts of foxfire causing both Malia and Josh to reflexively duck, and avoid getting hit by the foxfire.
✯☾✯
Meanwhile back at the stairwell, Ivy feels her chest starting to close in and slowly suffocating her. Ivy drops onto the ground, landing on her knees, as she holds onto her chest with her hand.
"IVY!" Liam yells and is immediately right next to her on the ground. Scott and Parrish both look alarmed as Ivy continues to struggle to breath and as more burn marks spread through her body.
"What's happening?" Liam desperately asks.
"One of their heartbeats is getting slower." Ivy groans in pain as she starts to writhe. "The pain, fuck, it's getting worse. It's like they're close to death."
Liam looks at both Scott and Parrish before looking back down at Ivy with fear. "What happens if one of them dies while they're linked to you?"
"I-I-I don't know," Ivy stammers. "Like I said I casted an imperfect spell. If Theo was here right now, he'd probably grill me on the fact that I casted a spell without fully mastering it."
"You haven't mastered it?" Scott worriedly questions not likely the fact that Ivy casted a spell, without being fully aware of the consequences that may come along with it.
Ivy smiles weakly and shrugs. "Whoops."
✯☾✯
Back at the morgue, Kira bursts out a couple more bolts of foxfire and begins to spasm as though she was having a seizure for a moment. Malia sighs, knowing that they can't waste anymore time.
"Alright, we go at the same time."
Josh scowls before nodding his head in agreement. He walks over to Kira's body and kneels next to her. He reaches towards her hands that are resting on her lap and allows his hands to hover over them to grab a sense of the electricity coming off her.
"You ready?" Malia asks. Josh looks up and nods. Malia reaches out and wraps her fingers around Corey's injured arm. Corey winces in pain when Malia's skin makes contact with his burns. "Alright, here we go."
Malia begins to accept Corey's pain as blackned blood vessels run through her fingers and make their way up to her arm, Malia grits her teeth as she welcomes the pain.
Josh, on the other hand, has gripped onto Kira's arm and begins to absorb her electrical energy. The electrical energy is too strong for Josh, which causes him to groan as the energy surges throughout his body. Josh roars at the top of his lungs as the foxfire crackles around his body.
✯☾✯
Back at the stairwell, Ivy was still on the ground on her knees as more pain began pumping throughout her body. Slowly some of the pain starts to ease from her body. It almost felt as if someone was taking away pain from whichever chimera boy was injured by the hellhound fire.
"You bloody asshole," Ivy snarks as she feels a surge of electrical energy coming through.
Scott, Liam, and Parrish all look at one another in concern, not knowing who that comment was made for.
Ivy screams as electrical energy surges throughout her body. Liam tries to reach out for her, but Ivy tries to stop him. "No, Liam, don't touch me."
But Liam ignores her warning and tries to wrap an arm around her, before he is shocked by the electricity flowing through her body and is thrown backward.
"I told you not to touch me," Ivy stated as electrical energy continued to flow through her. "I'm going to kill Josh. Fuck, how much enegry is this kid absording?" Ivy says to herself as the three boys in front of her, watch with worry as foxfire crackles around Ivy's body.
✯☾✯
Eventually, Ivy calms down from the surge of electricity and hellhound fire burns, and with the help of her boyfriend, she is able to stand up once more.
"How are you feeling?" His tone full of concern, he hated seeing Ivy in pain. "I'm fine, for now," Ivy picked up on Liam's concern. "I'll live, don't worry." Liam nods, though he isn't very convinced by her answer.
Scott and Liam search the nearby janitor's cart for something that can help them turn Parrish back into the Hellhound. The pair find a lighter and an aerosol can of some kind of cleaner. It was perfect to help create a fire to help shift Parrish into the hellhound. Though both Scott and Liam looked reluctant to harm Parrish.
Ivy sighs before rolling her eyes as she takes the lighter and can from both Liam and Scott. "I'll do it."
Parrish looks at her anxiously as he grits his teeth in preparation, "Do it!"
"My pleasure," Ivy lights the lighter in her hand before spraying the cleaner onto the flames. It turns into a steam of fire that hits Parrish. Ivy slightly enjoyed the thought of burning Parrish, after all he had burned Corey and indirectly also burned her as well. After the whole electricity surge, Ivy had figured that Corey had been the one to be seriously burned since there was no Josh would have been able to absorb that amount of electricity if he had been burned by the hellhound fire.
✯☾✯
Still at the morgue, Corey, who is still badly burned but now is in less pain thanks to Malia, gets help from Josh. Josh helps Corey onto his feet. "Where's Ivy?" Corey asks Josh.
Josh just gives him a shrug, "No clue. But you know Ivy, I'm sure she's fine."
Corey nods as both chimeras turn to the girls in front of them with curiosity. "Anyone know how we're supposed to get out of here?"
"This place is still in lockdown," Malia explains as Corey looks over at the door with concern.
"It's not just locked," Kira warns.
"Yeah, I can feel it too," Josh adds, sensing the electricity running through the metal door blocking their way out.
Corey starts to panic, "What are we supposed to do? Just wait here?"
"There's a Plan B. We've got a guy on the outside in case this happens," Malia reassures Corey.
Corey frowns, "Who?"
"Mason," Kira answers.
Josh lets out a skeptical laugh as Corey's eyes widened with disbelief, "Mason's going to unlock the lockdown?" Corey was a bit surprised by the fact that the boy he was crushing on hard was going to be the one to get them all out of his hellhole.
"How's he going to do that?" Josh asks.
"He's got the blueprints of the building, and he has the full map of Eichen's electrical system. All he has to do is get into the transformer shed behind the building," Kira tells the two chimeras.
The chimeras share a look of concern with one another. "Don't worry, Mason knows exactly what he's doing."
✯☾✯
Outside of Eichen House, Mason was leaving multiple very panicked voicemails to Liam's cell as he looked over at the photograph of the transformer shed.
"Liam, call me back. Dude, I have no idea what to do, and I'm panicking. I'm completely and totally panicking. I drove around this building, like, four times, and I can't find this transformer shed. Well, actually, that's partially right, and because I found where the transformer shed is supposed to be... but, it's not a shed anymore. It's a wall. Like, a very big wall. So, I mean, I tried calling Ivy and she isn't answering any of my messages. So I tried Hayden and she isn't here, and I heard alarms go off, and now I don't know what to do. So, Liam, just call me."
Mason sighs as he hangs up the phone. He tries messaging Ivy once more in hopes of her coming to his help, but the messages aren't going through, so he shoves his phone back into his pocket. Little did he know that Ivy was just as much trapped inside as Liam and the others were.
✯☾✯
Mason gets inside his car and straps himself in with his seatbelt. As he tries to psych himself up in order for him to succeed with what he's about to do.
"Okay, here we go. Gonna ram the wall. Gonna ram it with my car. Just... smash through it. Take out the power, and save my friends. Whew. Here we go. Alright. Just... ram it, and destroy my beautiful car that my parents brought me on my birthday... But I'm gonna save my friends."
Mason puts the car in drive and places his hands on the wheel ready to go, "Here we go. Ram the wall, alright." Mason takes a deep breath.
Hayden arrives just in time and stops Mason from going any further, thus scaring him in the process.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Mason becomes relieved to see Hayden. "Oh, thank God! I have been calling Ivy, but she's not answering. Also, can we use your car?"
Hayden scoffs, "Are you kidding? A car is not getting through that. And Ivy's inside Eichen with Theo and the rest."
"Wait, she is? Okay, but do you have any better ideas?" Mason frustratedly asks, still strapped inside his car.
Hayden steps away from Mason's car. A look of determination overflows her face as she gets an idea. She was going to use her werewolf and werejaguar powers to help her get up the wall around the transformer shed.
"Uhh," Mason quickly gets out of his car and chases her. "Hayden...?"
Hayden ignores him and starts walking backward trying to make enough room for her to get a running start.
Mason realizes what she's planning to do, "Hayden..."
Hayden silently psyches herself up.
"Hayden? Wait. Whoa, wait, Hayden! Whoah, whoa, wait!"
Hayden continues to ignore Mason as she runs as fast as she can and performs a high jump, high enough to get over the wall and safely land on the other side.
Mason is full of panic as he watches Hayden jump over the wall. "I'm in." Hayden calls out, relieving Mason's nerves.
Mason quickly pulls out the blueprints out of his pocket, "Okay! Umm... Okay, there's two red levers. You're going to pull them both."
Hayden doesn't respond so Mason calls out to her again, "You see them?"
Hayden hesitates before answering, "I see ten."
Mason frowns, "Two."
"No, ten. There's ten red levers. What do I do?" Hayden frustately replies not knowing what to do with the ten red levers in front of her. Mason doesn't answer, causing Hayden to panic a bit more, "Mason? Mason, what am I supposed to do?" Mason just stands on the other side of the shed, completely speechless.
✯☾✯
Ivy, Scott, and Liam are all following Hellhound-mode Parrish down the hallway as he leads them back to the closed unit entrance where Scott, Liam, and Ivy had taken down the security guards.
Parrish's body was covered in almost what looked like lava veins that made his look like it was crackling. His eyes were glowing orange, as he continued on leading the trio.
"Parrish?" Scott anxiously asked, though Parrish just kept on walking. Ivy gave the two werewolves by her side a strange look.
"How's he gonna get through the mountain ash?" Liam voiced the question that they were all thinking.
Parrish's body eventually burst into flames as he walked through the doorway that held the mountain ash barrier. Parrish's hellhound fire begins to fight against the mountain ash and make his way through.
Scott, Liam, and Ivy walk up to the barrier, only to realize that it's completely gone. Parrish had broken the barrier.
"You got to be kidding me! Seriously, all he had to do was burn his way through, I could have tried that!" Ivy crossed her arms across her chest as Liam placed his arms on her shoulder and pushed her further in as they followed both Parrish and Scott.
✯☾✯
Parrish leads the group to the underground sewers, and they end up finding Lydia just on time. Parrish grabs Stiles by the shoulders and forcefully throws him behind him. Scott catches Stiles before he hits the wall.
Parrish bursts into flames as he wraps his arms around Lydia as she screams as loudly as she can. Liam protectly wraps his arms around Ivy.
Scott, Stiles, Liam, and Ivy all cough loudly from all the dust that was created by Lydia's scream and Parrish's fire. Parrish walks towards the group carrying a barely-conscious Lydia.
"Where to?"
"This way," Scott begins to lead the group out of the tunnels.
✯☾✯
Back at the transformer shed, Hayden and Mason were still struggling with the levers.
Mason was looking over at the blueprints of the electrical system, as he's trying to figure out what to do. In the end, he decides to just screw it.
"Hayden, just pull them all. Just pull them all!"
✯☾✯
Now it was Liam's turn leading the group to an exit. "There's a gate up ahead," Liam tells them.
"What about Mason?" Scott anxiously asks.
"Wait, is Mason Plan B?" Ivy asks, but everyone ignores her. Ivy huffs as she crosses her arms.
"He's on it! Trust me," Liam reassured Scott, ignoring his girlfriend, but not by complete choice.
"Well, if Mason is Plan B. Then there's no need to worry. I'm sure he has this!" Ivy stated, mainly to herself as it seemed everyone was ignoring her. "Rude."
✯☾✯
Hayden shrugs to herself as she decides to listen to Mason's advice and begins to pull all the red levers down. Mason lets out a sigh of relief when all the corrugated metal window covers retract as the lockdown is finally over.
✯☾✯
"I swear your plans are even more complicated than Theo's," Ivy mumbles to herself as she follows the group through the tunnels.
Liam runs through the tunnels as fast as he desperately cans as the group struggles to catch up.
"Liam, slow down!" Scott warns. "Liam, wait," Stiles adds.
"Jesus, Christ slow down, Li," Ivy also adds, having a harder thing catching up, due to the burn marks all over her body.
Liam bets the group to the exit, which is an electrified chain-link fence and gate. They all nervously watch Liam place his hands on the fence as he uses his werewolf strength to break the door open.
"I told you!" Liam tells the group with a satisfied smirk on his face. Ivy rolls her eyes as she walks past Scott and Stiles and grabs onto Liam's wrist and pulls him forward. "Now is not the time to be showing off, Li."
✯☾✯
Meanwhile at the morgue, Josh was trying to test out his electrical strength on the other as the transformers turned off.
"He did it!" Corey states in excitement.
The door finally unlocks and Josh is able to push it open. Malia grabs Kira by the hand, "We gotta get to Stiles' jeep!" With that the two girls leave the morgue.
Josh waits for Corey to make his way towards the door. "Come on, we have to find Ivy!"
✯☾✯
The entire group, consisting of Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Parrish, Liam, and Ivy all crawl their way out of the underground sewers.
Parrish looks at Lydia with full concern, "Can you stand?" Parrish gently places Lydia onto her feet, while still keeping a hold on her. Malia and Kira exit the jeep. "Is she okay?" Malia asks, taking in a look at Lydia's current state.
"No, we need to go. Give me the keys," Scott instructs Malia as Ivy keeps a worry look on Lydia, not liking her current state. She hated seeing Lydia like this.
Ivy turns her head away for just one second and the next thing she knows Parrish is falling face-first onto the jeep as he groans from the pain that comes with the newly deep claw marks slashed onto his back.
The group comes to see that Tracy, who is now half-transformed into her Kanima form, is now holding Lydia in a choke-hold.
"Sorry, she's coming with us." Tracy gives Ivy a smug expression. "I knew you were bound to betray us. Wait till I tell Theo that his little favorite can't be trusted."
"Okay, Tracy, just wait -" Scott tried reasoning with the Kanima chimera, but Ivy placed her hand on Scott's shoulder, showing him that she got this.
While still maintaining a hand on Scott's shoulder, Ivy raised her other hand slowly, not wanting to do anything that might put Lydia in any more harm.
"Tracy, don't do this! The plan was to get Lydia to me. Theo never wanted Lydia for himself. He was getting her out for me. You know what he really wanted, and it wasn't Lydia. Trac, don't do this. Just hand Lydia over."
Tracy smirked, "No can do. I'm really tired of having to listen to you. I think it's time we show Theo who you really are. So, I'm taking her."
Tracy was annoying Ivy by the second. And the fact that she was still holding onto Lydia in a choke-hold was angering Ivy. And the chimeras knew better than to get Ivy angry.
Scott felt a wave of energy leaving his body and he turned to see that Ivy was channeling energy from him. He didn't think that Ivy knew what she was doing, as she seemed too focused on trying to get Lydia away from Tracy.
Ivy let out a sigh as she felt her magic forcefully pumping throughout her body. She knew what was about to happen if Tracy kept on getting on her nerves.
"Tracy, you out of all people should know what happens when I get angry. And you know it's never ever pretty." Ivy let go of her hold on Scott's shoulder as she gracefully accepted all the magic around her.
Ivy started breathing heavily as she felt her arms darkened with black veins, as her eyes switched to all black. Ivy stomped her foot on the ground, as the rest of her magic did the work and black smoke surrounded her.
Everyone surrounding Ivy took a step back, not wanting to be in her way. Tracy's eyes widened as she took in Ivy's form, but still wouldn't release her hold on Lydia.
"I'm not going to repeat myself so I suggest you let Lydia go," Ivy threatened as her voice got deeper. Tracy finally let go of Lydia. Lydia ends up falling forward, but luckily Stiles stepped forward and caught her just in time.
"Ivy..." Tracy tried pleading but before she could continue, Natalie Martin had sneaked up behind her and electrocuted Tracy with one of the Eichen guards' tasers. "Could someone please get my daughter out of this hellhole?" Natalie Martin begged as she watched Tracy's body fall to the ground.
"Ivy," Scott called out, trying to get Ivy to calm down and return to her normal self. He was starting to see why Ivy refused to come back. He could sense the fear she had of herself.
Ivy, still in her dark magic form, turned to Scott and Stiles, "Get Lydia out of here, please." Scott and Stiles nodded as the pair got into the Jeep and drove off to the animal clinic.
"IVY!" Josh and Corey called out as they reached the front of Eichen House. They stopped in their tracks when they realized that Ivy was covered in black magic. "Shit," Josh muttered as he walked closer to Ivy.
"What do we do?" Malia asked, slightly freaked out over Ivy's current state.
"Liam, hold her," Josh instructed and Liam wasted no second and immediately wrapped his arms around his girlfriend's body. Ivy struggled against Liam's hold. "Liam, hold her." Liam rolled his eyes, "I'm trying, but my girlfriend's currently stronger than me."
Josh grabs Ivy's hands. "Ivy, I really don't want to do this," Josh begged, in hopes that Ivy would come back all on her own.
Ivy trashed against Liam's arms, "Let me go." Ivy commanded. It was clear that the black magic was taking its hold on Ivy. It was also clear that Ivy couldn't fight against it all by herself, after all, she was still trying to heal from the hellhound fire burns.
Josh sighed, "This might hurt." Ivy had a couple of foxfire streaks surrounding her from when Josh absorbed from Kira's body, so Josh decided to use that against her. He absorbed the electricity from her before sending in a power wave in order to help fight back against the dark magic's hold on her.
Ivy spasms as though she was having a seizure before going completely still. The black smoke surrounding her evaporates and the black veins on her arms vanish. Her eyes open for a quick second, returning to their normal color. Liam loosens his grip on her. Ivy's eyes close back once as she falls unconscious onto Liam's arms.