| The Hunted |
When Theo turned onto Jeremy's street, Liam finally smiled. He'd been looking out the passenger's window the whole ride, neither of them saying a word. Instead of being nervous about capturing and potentially fighting a supernatural cat, he was giddy. He kissed me back. Within seconds they pulled up behind two parked cars across the street from the Kim's house. As they came to a halt, Mason, Corey, and Nolan exited the former's car and Hayden from her own. The two boys exited the truck and walked up to their friends.
"All's been peaceful here. Everything good with you?" Nolan asked first of his former co-captain.
"Yeah," Liam said, still smiling.
"You seem better," Mason said, smiling back at his best friend.
"I am better," Liam replied. "Things are working out."
"You seem...excited," Hayden said, taking another blink of her eyes as she assessed his chemo-signal.
The werewolf shrugged. "I'm ready to be done with this. We know what we're up against now. All we need is to set things in motion."
"It sounds like you have a plan," Nolan said.
"I do," he said, smiling sinisterly. "I'm gonna' go in, smoke it out. Hayden, you wait up front. You're fast so you can chase it down. Theo, you'll go to the back; do the same. I assume you can still transform into a coyote?"
"I retained that, yeah," the chimera said.
"Corey, you'll wait in the car, stay invisible. Run it down if need be."
"Just don't hit me," Hayden added.
"Nolan, you'll come in with me. Secure his sister." His former enemy nodded, pulling his lacrosse stick out from the foot of the car. "And Mason—"
"Oh, I'm on it," his best friend said, holding up a large white bag filled with a black powdery substance.
"Let's do this, then," Liam said. He and Theo exchanged a look before the chimera took off towards the backyard of one of the neighbors, planning to sneak around the back under cover of the woods. Liam started for the front of the house, Hayden scooting up next to him while Nolan followed behind.
"Can we talk after this?" she asked him.
"Um, yeah, I guess."
"Just...I know after the Hunt...okay."
"Okay."
Hayden stopped, crouching down on the front lawn, watching as Nolan passed her. The two boys moved to the front door as Mason slowly moved around the house, having already passed in front of the former chimera in the front. Liam pulled out his phone and typed a message into it just before ringing the bell.
"Hey," Jeremy said, only cracking open the screen door. "Um, my sister's here so now's not—" He stopped upon seeing the outheld screen.
/ You're in danger /
He looked at Liam, then to Nolan, and then to Hayden. "Yeah, sure, come on in."
"We won't be here long," Liam said. "I just thought I'd say hi to your mom. I haven't seen her since we've been back."
"Right," Jeremy said, playing along. He led them down the hall and off to the right, scratching at his hip before finding his mother and an unfamiliar face in the family room. Nolan hung back at the corner of the room, concealing his lacrosse stick behind the wall.
"Hi, Mrs. Kim," Liam said, smiling apprehensively at her.
"Liam, how wonderful to see you," she said, something minutely off apart from the consistent smell of rotting. Nolan's nose twitched, even his human nose picking up on the powerful smell of perfume and odor suppressants.
"This is, uh, my friend Nolan," Liam introduced.
"And this is my older sister Nena," Jeremy said, the living girl waving at the pair.
"Where's Shun?" Liam said, patting Jeremy's back and squeezing tightly at his shirt.
"Oh, he ran off a second ago. You know how he spazzes out sometimes."
"Oh, I do," Liam confirmed.
Bzz bzz.
Liam looked at the message from Mason.
/ Almost there /
"So, Mrs. Kim, did you tell Jeremy what happened after you left for Beacon Hills?" Liam said, earning a wide-eyed look from his newer compatriot.
"Something good, I hope," Nena said, looking at her brother.
"I…" Jeremy stuttered.
"Your mother-in-law died," Liam answered.
"How—" Nena started.
"She was poisoned," Liam supplied. "I don't know if you were already under its sway," he continued, looking right at the dead woman, "or if this happened after, but she's dead."
"Liam," Jeremy said. "Stop."
"You need to leave," Nena added, standing. As she did, Lena Kim pushed her daughter hard, sending her on a collision with the corner of the coffee table; she would have smacked her forehead on that edge had it not been for Liam's dive. In a continuous motion, the dead woman charged her son, shoving him before making for the back door, Nolan freezing for a second too long to intercept her as she ran outside. Upstairs, they heard a window shatter and then a howl.
"It's running!" they could hear Hayden yell from out front. "Shit!"
Nolan helped Jeremy to his feet while Nena and Liam slowly got to theirs.
"I got the mom!" Theo yelled.
"What the hell, Liam!?" Jeremy screamed, Nolan forced to hold him back from attempting to deck the werewolf.
"It's your fucking cat!" Liam yelled. "It's behind everything!"
"What!?" Jeremy yelled back defensively.
"Deaton called it a nekomata," Nolan injected.
"Are you both mad?" Nena yelled, coming up next to Liam and slapping him.
In turn, Liam turned and glared back at her, however, with his shining blues. "He knows what you are, too," Nolan said to Jeremy as his sister backed away slowly. "He said you're becoming a bakeneko, that you're both connected."
"He's swapping places with you," Liam said. "He wants to steal your body."
"Liam," the werewolf heard. He turned and saw a very naked Theo standing on the edge of the woods. In his arms was a very limp and seemingly lifeless Lena Kim.
"Stay here. Do not follow me out back," Liam warned them both. "Actually, take them to the stairs," Liam said to Nolan. His former co-captain nodded, looking at the siblings before they reluctantly followed. Liam slipped outside and gathered up Theo's discarded clothing after having transformed. Theo gently placed the woman's body down in time for the werewolf to come up to him, averting his eyes all the while.
"Thanks," the chimera said, leaning forward and planting a kiss on Liam's cheek, earning a blush from the werewolf. He slipped into his clothes and shoes and looked down at what had been Jeremy's mother. "When I got close to her, she looked back at me and just crumpled to the ground."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that. I didn't touch her until after." Theo crouched down and pointed. "Here, there's a slash mark across her neck. It was covered up by makeup; you can see some of the caking smudged off. I think that's what killed her." Theo paused. "It's a big gash. The spread of the claws is the size of a human's."
"So it's already bipedal then. Shit."
"Mom? Mama!?" They both turned to look and found Nena Kim running towards them, Nolan running out after her. Mason came running down from the side, Jeremy after him. "You killed her!"
"Shhh," Theo tried, looking left and right for any nosey neighbors. "She was already dead." Nena pulled out her phone, crying as she tried to dial 911. "I don't think so," Theo said, glaring at her as he tore the phone out of her hands. "They already think your brother's involved. You want him to go to jail?" he said, getting in her face. Liam grabbed lightly at his shoulder before Jeremy arrived and took his sister into his arms. "She went missing. For two days. And suddenly, out of the blue, she shows up yesterday. She acted like nothing happened right?" he accused the bakeneko. Jeremy didn't answer, but he didn't have to. "Your little pet, it has powers."
"Fire being one of them," Hayden said, appearing from the side of the house with Corey, one of her sleeves missing and the skin on her upper arm slightly blackened. "We lost it."
"Who are you people?" Nena asked, glaring at Theo.
"Protectors," Liam affirmed, looking out around his friends. "A lot of bad things happen here. Supernatural things. We fight them off. Protect this town. Each other."
"He's a werewolf, Nena," Jeremy said to her, putting a few inches between them. "And I...I guess I'm something, too. But Liam...I promise he's good...he ended grandma's pain." Liam turned around, unable to look at anyone, though he could feel the gazes upon him. "She was suffering. For weeks. And we couldn't take her in...with grandpa and papa, they might've arrested us. We already knew she was poisoned and...he helped her."
"Liam…" Mason said, sympathy pouring from him.
Theo patted the werewolf's shoulder. "We need to get the body to Deaton," he said, looking at Mason. "And you," he continued, gaze switching to Jeremy, "you need to come with us. He's got some questions for you. Some you'll want answered."
/ | * | * | \
"Your surmise happens to be correct," Deaton said, looking up above the top of his glasses at Theo. He looked back down to continue inspecting the gash across Lena Kim's throat. "I'll run a DNA test, but it's not too soon to say that the nekomata did in fact carry out this attack."
"I still can't believe this," Jeremy said, his voice strained from the aftermath of sobbing all the way to the clinic. He stroked at his mother's hair, her eyes gracefully closed.
Liam placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, feeling quite sick himself. "You'll get through this," he said, looking around the room, each of his friends empathizing with this tragedy, imagining someone they loved in this very position.
"To ensure that your future gets brighter," Deaton began, "I need to ask you some things, some of which might sound accusatory but I assure you, they are not."
"Okay," Jeremy said.
"Have you ever noticed anything peculiar with your cat? Especially in the last several months?"
"No, not really." As he paused, his expression scrunched. "Well, maybe?" He paused again, thinking back. "There were a couple days where I could've sworn he was missing his tail. Like, there was just a nub. Like it got cut off or something."
"Jeremy, he doesn't have a tail," Liam confirmed.
"What?"
"He doesn't. He never did, at least not since I've seen him."
"That's...he has a tail!"
"Jeremy," Nena started, having entered the back room finally, her makeup disastrous from the amount of crying she'd done. "He doesn't."
"How long ago was this?" Deaton asked.
"I don't know."
"Try to remember. It's very important."
"I mean, I came to stay with him just under three months ago," Liam tried.
"A little before that then?" Jeremy said.
"So, possibly four full moons ago," Deaton stated rather than asked.
"How is that—"
"This transitionary phase has rules, and like many shapeshifters, these rules revolve around the lunar cycle. If Shun has been a nekomata for four full moons, you have less than 15 days to find him and stop him before he becomes a human and you become a cat." The color in Jeremy's face drained completely. "If not, you have a month and 15 days, as yesterday was just a full moon. But, there should be a way to determine where you are with this transition. Have you noticed anything strange physiologically? Vision. Reflexes. Any physical signs?"
"I mean, I don't think so."
"Are you sure?" Liam asked.
"Like, where would I even start?" he said, right before lifting up the front of his shirt.
"What's that?" Hayden said, pointing to the side of the exposure.
Jeremy lifted his shirt up more and to his shock the sides of his abdomen were covered in thick black hair, almost thick enough to start forming a pelt. "No...no, no, no…" He looked up in horror at Liam.
"This isn't new," Deaton said, removing his gloves. "May I?" Jeremy looked from his friend to the veterinarian, the horror remaining as he slowly nodded. "Try and keep breathing," the druid reassured. He tugged back up on Jeremy's shirt, who took it and lifted it as high up as possible, taking to looking at the ceiling in disbelief. "None of you were involved with Scott when the kanima incident happened. When the first time Gerard tried to start a war." He looked up at them from examining the thick almost-fur before straightening up and patting Jeremy's elbow. "The kanima had a master. Better, Matt was controlling Jackson. They attacked the sheriff's station. Matt was on a quest for vengeance, but he broke the rules that go along with being a kanima master. He started exhibiting signs of becoming what he utilized. He started becoming a kanima himself. Stiles told me his side was covered in scales, the very same that the kanima's body was covered in. In your situation, Jeremy, this is unfortunately part of the rules. More importantly, you have until the new moon to prevent this from taking control of your body."
"This is crazy," Nena said, throwing her arms up erratically as she walked back out of the room.
"It's too much," Jeremy said, still pale and in a state of shock.
"We're gonna' help you," Liam assured him. "All of us," he said, looking around the room at his friends. "Whatever it takes."
/ | * | * | \
He parked his truck in the same spot as every time before. It'd been some time, but once again it called. He got out, leaving the engine and the lights on. He walked around the back and gently retrieved her body. He didn't know her name. He wasn't even really aware of what he was doing, though unlike the past, he would remember in the morning. Holding her bridal-style, he walked barefoot on the branch, pine, and debris-covered ground of the reserve. He walked into the treeline, past its shallow barrier, and up to the large center of his world.
The nemeton.
He stepped up to it, placing her lightly on its center before stepping up. He sat, crossing his legs and letting his eyes burn orange as flames burst from his body, circumambulating the stump in an homage to the sacred force. The body began to scorch, forcing him to bury his face in his hands once again. The flames would do their job, but the duty that called him became no less taxing each time. Their faces would haunt him until his final day.