Disclaimer: Last time I checked, owning the books and renting some DVDs from the library didn't actually give you official rights to the characters used in those books or DVDs. If I owned the rights to any of the series involved in this story then you wouldn't actually be reading this story. You would have watched it on TV or read it in a book. Besides I'd be rich. I'm not rich.
Kyla thought, reaching out a hand to Isaacs other arm. She didn't know Isaac that well, but seeing a kid suffer wasn't something she was all that keen on. Kyla had a bit of a gift with normal wolves. They were one of the species of wild animal that her mother held control over. She had healed a few before when they got injuries during hunts or battles. Taking a deep breath, Kyla sought out for the glimmer of supernatural energy that was Isaacs wolf genes and funneled in a bit of her natural power to give his healing process an extra kick.
Black spots swam momentarily n front of her eyes as the energy raced down her fingers and in to Isaac. She tuned back in to the conversation when Allison said, "How do we get what's in Stiles the hell out of him?!"
Scott heaved a deep breath. "I'm working on it," he promised tiredly. "For now though, we all need to get to school."
Allison nodded and they both began to leave. "I'll see you guys later," Kyla promised. She stuffed her hands in to her pockets and got up carefully to keep herself from shaking. It had been a while since she had healed someone other than her self. Honestly she had forgotten how much energy it took. Not to mention she was out of practice.
"Are you all right?" Scott asked with a hint of concern in his voice. The alpha had apparently decided to adopt her in to the circle of people that he cared for. Kyla took that as a good thing. Having werewolves that wanted to protect her a bit were a huge improvement from werewolves that wanted her very very dead.
"I'm fine," Kyla brushed off. Maybe if you took fine to mean Freaked Out, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional sure. "I just haven't been sleeping very much. I'm going home and going to bed. I already turned in my homework for today." This was actually completely true. Kyla tended to do her homework in large batches and turn it all in at once. Time in which she could actually do homework was unpredictable enough for this to be a god plan. Her teachers attributed it to gymnastics and dyslexia.
She walked out the door with the two other teenagers. "You guys be careful, alright?"
"You too," Allison returned. Then the two disappeared to reunite with Scott's mother Melissa and be on their way to school.
Kyla stumbled her way out the doors of the hospital to a quiet bench at the front and let her legs collapse under her. Digging through her pack for food left her with two granola bars and a packet of beef jerky. She ate it all and washed it down with a very measured piece of ambrosia. The empty feeling in her stomach faded away as the food hit it, and her shaking eased exponentially.
With a tired thump, her head fell back against the back of the stone bench. Her head felt weirdly light and fluffy and she groaned. The food hadn't been enough, and Kyla didn't dare taking any more godly food. Her temperature had already begun to jack up from the half square of ambrosia. If she had to guess, she would say that her blood sugar was probably swimming in a pit near Tartarus.
A slight prickle flashed across her skin and Kyla's eyes came open. She found Derek Hale looking down at her with a look that she could almost say was level with concern. When he saw her eyes open his face carefully rearranged it's self to blank. "Are you alright?" he asked.
Kyla nodded. "Fine," she needed to stop saying that. She pulled herself up in to a slightly more dignified sitting position. "What are you doing here? Visiting Isaac?" It was the explanation that made the most sense. Werewolves were extremely pack oriented. If a pack member was hurt they would all crowd around it and take care of it.
Derek nodded. "I spent the last few days trying to find Stiles. I thought I should come by." He was still a bit concerned for the girl's health. He had come out of the hospital and caught her scent. When he had found Kyla herself her heart rate had alarmed him. It was shallow and fluttering like a bird's. Since he had come over it had begun t level out slightly. "Shouldn't you be at school?"
"I'm skipping today," she said with a shake of the head. "Going to school is normal but according to reputable sources skipping is apparently normal too. I just can't win with this stuff." Her eyes landed on the car keys clutched loosely in Derek's hand. "Where are you headed?"
After a miniscule metal debate Derek ended up telling her the truth. "I found a sonic emitter in my loft. I'm guessing you know what that is." Kyla nodded in response to the semi-question. Sonic emitters were devices that hunters used to chorale certain animals in to the place they wanted by giving off particular frequencies. Shadowhunters used them occasionally, and she had seen one or two involved with hunts with her mother. "The only person around here who uses them is Argent," Derek continued. "I owe him a bit of a visit."
Kyla straightened her legs until they hit the grass and pushed herself up with her hands. "I'm coming to then," she said. "I've never met all human hunters before. Well, apart from Allison."
It was almost like she could see the private argument going on in Derek's head. Well, she couldn't see the specifics, but there was definitely an argument going. "Fine," the werewolf finally decided. One side of him evidently having won out over the other. "My car is I the parking lot."
"Excellent," she said. Walking when she felt as drained as she did was just not a great plan. The fact hat Derek had actually brought a car and not just ran there using werewolf abilities was a relief. "Over the river and through the woods to a hunters house we go."
The house turned out to be an apartment. They entered by breaking in which Derek accomplished with a level of expedience that Kyla very nearly questioned. She followed Derek through the house to a room with a leather chair behind a large wooden desk that Kyla guessed was Mr. Argent's study.
Before they had gotten in to the apartment, Derek had pulled an object that Kyla recognized as a sonic emitter from the trunk of his car and tucked it in to his jacket. He buried the point of the emitter in to the wood of the desk and then hid himself behind the door. Thus utilizing the time honored method used by many people who wished to completely freak people out.
Kyla followed his lead and tucked herself away in a shadowy corner near the window. She could have used a Glamour, but the main point of her coming to Argent's apartment was so that she could try to meet and talk to the man. Being invisible had the tendency to make conversing a little bit difficult.
They didn't have to wait long before Kyla noticed Derek tense as the elevator dinged to a stop on their floor. Kyla noted a weathered face, ice blue eyes, salt and pepper hair, and a gun clutched tightly in both hands before Derek spoke. "Lose something?" The two men launched in to fight and Kyla simply watched. She had learned from watching Jace and Alec that fighting between to parties where neither one of them were actually that set on hurting the other seemed weirdly beneficial in terms of macho male bonding.
The fight came to a halt with Derek's claws at Argent's throat and Mr. Argent's gun pressed against Derek's temple. "Why are you breaking in to my apartment?" Argent asked. Not an unreasonable question given the circumstances.
"Why are you leaving emitters in my loft?" Derek returned immediately. What Kyla gathered from this exchange was that both men appreciated getting straight to the point without beating around the bush. Frankly she didn't understand why the two weren't already working together. They seemed to have a similar approach to dealing with problems.
"I have no idea why that would be in your apartment," Argent replied coldly. He jerked the gun away from Derek's temple and displayed the fact that his finger was no longer on the trigger. He must have been telling the truth because Derek's claws retracted and he turned to face Argent as the hunter walked around the back of his desk. "I spent the entirety of the last two days trying to find Stiles."
Kyla determined that this was probably the right time to enter the conversation. "There seems to be a lot of that going around," she said, coming out of the shadows and offering Mr. Argent her right hand to shake. The Voyance rune showed clearly against her skin there. "I'm Kyla."
Argent's eyes flicked down, taking in the mark before shaking her hand slowly. "A Shadowhunter," he concluded. "I wasn't aware that this was Clave business."
"Technically it still isn't," Kyla explained. "No official Clave members are involved. This became my business a few nights ago when Agent McCall got stabbed in the chest by demonic ninjas. Human blood has been spilled. That makes it my business. It doesn't really have to be Clave business, though I have reported to the Inquisitor Robert Lightwood. I'm friends with his kids. Have you had any luck finding Stiles?"
"No," Argent said bitterly.
"Me neither," Derek admitted. There was a very brief moment of silence. Kyla could almost sense an alliance being internally debated inside both heads. "Okay," Derek said finally. "We're both trying to find Stiles. Mind telling me what you're going to do if you find him?" It was a loaded question.
"That depends on which Stiles I find," Argent said grimly.
Derek nodded, and Kyla sensed that the exact same thought running through both heads. Whatever I have to do.
Argent's eyes landed on the safe that was sitting on the shelf. He walked over to it and examined it carefully. "Broken," he concluded. He reached forward and pulled the door of the safe open. Inside was a large silver case with a combination lock on the handle. It was the kind of case that Kyla had thought only existed in action movies. "This isn't mine," he said. Argent reached out and carefully removed the case from the safe. He moved to put the case down on the desk, keeping it level the whole time.
When the case was opened it revealed large evenly organized stacks of money. "How much do you think Is in there?" Derek asked archly.
"One hundred and fifty thousand," Argent answered immediately. "But it doesn't make any sense. We didn't take their money."
Kyla hadn't been fully brought up to speed on everything that had happened so she felt the need to ask her next question. "Exactly whose money is it?" maybe she was missing something, but she was pretty sure having large cases of money that didn't belong to you wasn't exactly typical of most people. Unless you were a bank robber that was.
"A Yakuza named Katashi," Argent explained.
"Yakuza as in the Japanese Mafia?" Derek checked. He didn't sound like someone who was all that surprised by what he was learning. After being thoroughly embroiled in the supernatural his whole life not much really was. he sounded like someone who was just trying to straighten out all of the facts of a situation. Though from the sound of it this Katashi was no stranger to the supernatural either.
Argent nodded in confirmation. "Yeah," he said. "He had a nickname-"
"You mean something like..." an unfamiliar voice said. Suddenly Kyla got the same feeling she always got whenever situations were destined to get way more difficult for everyone involved. Whatever happened next her day was about to get a lot worse. All three of them whipped around to see several FBI agents standing in the doorway. She guessed that the speaker was Scott's father from his hair and eye color. The guy looked pretty good for someone who had recently been stabbed through the chest. "Silver Finger?" he finished. Holding up an evidence bag.
Twenty minutes later, Kyla found herself handcuffed to a bench in the Sheriff's Department between Mr. Argent and Derek. Deputies bustled around them as phones rang and papers were sorted through hurriedly. She was actually putting a good amount of effort in to not falling asleep. Being friends with Percy meant that she had seen the inside of one or two police stations. Once you had seen one you had pretty much seen them all. The food she had gotten earlier hadn't been enough to replace the energy she had expended trying to help heal Isaac. Her head was starting to feel slightly fuzzy.
"Miss Drawright," Agent McCall said coming in to view with a file. "Your file indicates your a minor and you have a few different emergency contacts. I'll need you to indicate which one of them belongs to your parents and or legal guardians."
"Um..." Kyla said. "Yeah getting in touch with my parents might be a little bit difficult. My biological father is kind of very dead and my non-official foster parents are out of the country. If you could find my biological mother in time for her to be here and be useful you would be the first ones to do it in about five years. Ten if we're being realistic."
Agent McCall frowned at her. "Well I don't know for sure but I'm guessing that your mother is probably still where she was six years ago when you and a few of your friends blew up the Saint Lewis Arch and wrecked a bus in New Jersey." He paused a moment as though trying to let that sink in for dramatic effect. "Now regardless of your parental situation we can't interview you without an adult present.
Kyla rolled her eyes. "Okay one, why would that be an incentive for me to tell you who to contact? Two; I'm technically emancipated so, if you're going to do something do it. And finally three," she bit at her lower lip and injected the right amount of fear and insecurity into her voice. "When I was eleven my friends and I were kidnapped and dragged across the country by a terrifying," she let her voice shoot up a half octave and crack a little. "Biker man. It was an extremely traumatic event for me to think about. I would hate to have to sue the FBI for purposefully inflicting mental distress."
Derek's eyebrows shot up as he heard the show Kyla was putting on. Her voice was vey convincing. If Kyla hadn't already made it clearly that she wasn't the kind of girl to break down crying he would have been sorely tempted to bring her a glass of water and a box of tissues. He watched in semi-amazement as her lower li quivered, in the next moment tears had begun rolling down her cheeks.
Agent McCall sighed, looking uncomfortable. He mumbled something about paperwork he had to do and skulked away.
The tears stopped and Kyla rolled her eyes. The toughest tough guys in the world still hadn't learned how to deal with emotional teenaged girls. She could be highly convincing when she wanted to be. That was one of the things that had made her friends with Jace Herondale. The two shared an equal ability to talk themselves in to and out of trouble. Piper had always told her that she had her own brand of Charm Speaking.
"Alright," Argent said resignedly. "Any ideas as to why Stiles would want to frame us for murder?" Kyla just shrugged. The closest contact she had ever had with the real Stiles had been sitting in the same class room as him.
"Honestly I didn't think Stiles was smart enough to frame us for murder," Derek said, sounding slightly irritated. Kyla refrained from pointing out that according to Google both Stiles and Scott had already gotten him arrested for murder once and made him the subject of a statewide manhunt at one point.
Argent frowned. "To be honest I'm not exactly sure that's why we're here," he said ominously Kyla groaned. There were statements that you could make in kind of bad situations that made those situations better, and there were statements made in bad situations that jus made them more shitty. What Argent had just said made their situation more shitty.
He glance out the door. "McCall is going to be back here any minute, probably to talk attorneys." Derek shrugged and looked down at his feet. if he wanted to he could hire an excellent attorney. In fact, he could hire several excellent attorneys. However, it was something he would like to avoid if at all possible. "Say you agree to let a minor represent you."
Derek looked at the hunter as though he had gone insane. 'Why would we trust your attorney?" His tone made it clear that it was something he had absolutely no intention of doing.
"More importantly," Kyla piped up. "Why would we want a minor to represent us? Half of the minors I know couldn't defend the Big Bad Wolf in a trial against the Three Little Pigs," she glanced at Derek. "No offense."
"I'm not calling my attorney yet," Argent hissed. "I just want more time."
"Time for what?" Derek asked. Kyla was understanding that Derek wasn't the kind of person to take someone's word for it. He was suspicious of motives because people normally had bad ones. Almost no one ever did things just for the hell of it. Every action had a motive, and every motive was questionable until it was proven. Kyla understood this point of view. Most people she knew including herself shared it.
"To figure out what we're actually doing here," Argent answered.
Derek was not generally a hugely patient person. He had gotten better with his patience as a teenager when it became clear that it helped not wolf out and kill people. That being said, waiting was not his favorite activity.
Twenty minutes in to this lovely wait handcuffed to a bench in the Sheriff's Department, Derek felt a slight, warm weight settle on his shoulder. Glancing down he found Kyla's auburn hair spread across the dark material of his leather jacket. With a frown, Derek focused his hearing in on her heartbeat. It was fluttering at an unstable rate. His eyes focused on her, her chest was rising and falling unevenly. Her breathing sounded off.
With a tiny bit of maneuvering, Derek managed to twist his hand so that it was wrapped around hers. If he could take pain from her then he could start to figure out what was wrong. Derek focused on extending his healing abilities out towards her. In the next moment, pain was slipping from Kyla's fingers and up his arm. Black lines traced their way up his veins. The usual sharp sting throbbed through his body momentarily.
Then suddenly something shifted. It was as though he had been completely absorbed in Kyla's head, feeling everything she was. His eyes burned vaguely and a slight throb pushed through his forehead. Derek's mouth felt dry, and strangely enough he could taste something like grapes. His head felt dizzy and disconnected. Kyla's breathing eased slightly and Derek let go of her hand with a slight start.
Derek stared at the Shadowhunter girl in shock. If she had been feeling this bad ever since leaving the hospital it was borderline amazing that she had been able to focus on anything at all. He was forced to reevaluate his perspective of Nephilim pain tolerance. One thing was confirmed though, the sooner they could get out of there the better.
He twisted his hand again, examining the chain connecting his left hand to the bench. Pulling slightly confirmed Derek's suspicions about the strength of the chain. "I could get out of these easily you know?" he informed Argent.
"So could I," the hunter replied. "However I'm not interested in being the subject of a state wide manhunt."
As someone who had been the subject of a statewide manhunt, Derek could honestly say that there were worse things. At least to him. Of course, not everyone had been stuck with all of the horrible life events that he had. For example most people didn't have to worry about the possibility of being shot and poisoned on an almost daily basis. Manhunts were really just annoying. "Well," he said shifting impatiently. "I am not interested in being the victim of a seventeen year old being possessed by a psychotic fox."
Kyla lifted her head, the warm weight disappearing from Derek's shoulder. "And when I woke up this morning I wasn't interested in spending my day handcuffed to a bench in the Sheriff's Department, yet here we are. Isn't it incredible how interests change?" She shifted in her seat and Derek saw a silver pencil-like object drop in to her left palm. "I can draw an Open rune on the handcuffs if that's the route we're going with."
"Just give me a few more minutes," Argent hissed as Derek shifted to get the right leverage to break the handcuffs. Derek had long ago perfected the art of ignoring people he didn't want to listen to. It was part of how he had survived siblings and how he kept himself from killing Stiles. "Derek!" Argent whisper yelled.
"Fine!" Derek hissed exasperatedly. "But if something happens, don't expect me to risk my life trying to save yours." Argent just sighed and went back to scanning the room. Kyla looked up at him with bottle green eyes and nodded once as though his logic made sense to her. She didn't seem like the kind of person who had ever expected anyone to risk their life for hers. Her life was more centered around a group of people who could best protect each other by protecting themselves. Kyla's eyes drifted shut and she leaned her head back against the window behind her.
Argent glanced at Kyla in concern. The hunter was looking at her in a way that reminded Derek of the way his father had looked at him or his siblings the few times that any of them had gotten sick. When that look appeared it was normally followed up with a hand to the forehead and orders to retreat to their room so that the rest of the family wouldn't be contaminated. If the hunter's hands weren't chained to the bench, Derek was willing to bet he would be checking Kyla's forehead for a fever.
A few minutes later deputies began running everywhere and phones were wringing off the hook. Derek noticed Kyla's left hand contorting absurdly to draw an opening rune on the metal of her handcuffs. The angle had to be painful, and Derek knew enough about Shadowhunters to know that the Voyance rune on her right hand meant she was right handed.
"What's happening?" Argent demanded to know from he deputy that had come to open his handcuffs. Derek began hurriedly scanning through the room for the source of the panic. He tuned all of his senses away from what was directly near him. With slight difficulty he blocked out the roses and moonlight smell of Kyla, and the wolfs bane and gun powder smell of Argent. His senses quickly picked up the smell of bolts, screws, and explosive coming from somewhere behind him. He spun as much as he could and looked through the window to the Sherrif's office. A large cardboard box sat on the desk. "What's going on?" he heard Argent ask dimly. "Get down!" he shouted, flattening Kyla and Argent to the floor as shrapnel rained down around them.
Derek collapsed sideways as the dust began to settle. One of his arms was still pinned underneath Kyla's midsection. He heard her whimper very slightly as she rolled slightly, bringing her nearer to his chest. Derek watched as Kyla reached up with her right hand to grip her left. He stared in horrified realization that the handcuffs were still attached to her wrist. Her wrist had probably fractured when he had tackled her to the floor.
Kyla set the joint with a small pop and grimaced. She drew a shaky iratze with her left hand and Derek watched the bone knit back together. "It's okay," she said weekly, catching his eyes. "it's fine. Rather have a broken wrist then be blown up."
Derek shut his eyes and nodded weekly. He pulled himself up with difficulty and stumbled. It didn't matter that his healing was supernatural when he had been that close to an explosion. It was still a lot of abuse to put his body through. Argent caught him quickly. "Are you alright?" the man asked. Derek could actually hear a surprising level of concern in his voice.
Derek felt Argent's hand on his shoulder pull him forward, inspecting the damage to his back. It was a sign of just how much damage he had taken that Derek was tired enough to let someone else guide his movements. It was actually weirdly comforting to be able to shut his eyes and trust that the person near him wasn't about to endanger his life.
He knew that his back was probably a mess. He could feel pieces of shrapnel embedded in the leather and a few of them had punctured the skin of his back. A few drops of blood had leaked from the injuries and slid down his spine. The small wounds were kept open by the shrapnel still in his skin. As soon as that was removed the cuts would heal.
Argent let him move back again and Derek felt his other hand land on his shoulder. Pulling his eyes open felt like extremely hard work but he did it anyway, meeting Argent's icy eyes. "You saved my life," Argent acknowledged.
Derek nodded, accepting the hunter's best version of a thank you, and communicating his own version of a your welcome. He gestured to Kyla, who was trying to stand. "Help her," he said. Argent immediately moved to her side and braced an arm behind her shoulders.
"I'll be fine," Kyla managed to say. "The iratze takes energy, and I didn't have a whole lot to spare at the start of the day. If I can get some energy together I'll be fine."
"Alright," Argent said. His hand returned to Derek's shoulder and he found himself being guarded towards the door. Derek's ears distinguished the sounds of Scott and Stiles talking. He would have to catch up with the two teenagers later. Argent paused momentarily next to a broken vending machine and scooped up two power bars and a red Gatorade. He handed them to Kyla who nodded gratefully.
She ripped open the power bars and consumed them quickly. Then she unscrewed the cap on the Gatorade bottle and chugged half of it in a few gulps. Personally Derek ha never been a fan of Gatorade. When something was distinguished by color instead of flavor there was definitely something up, but you couldn't argue with the electrolytes.
Derek felt relieved when Kyla's breathing smoothed out. Her heart rate returned to a quick steady rhythm as the protein and calories hit her system. Her body temperature seamed higher than normal, but Derek thought that that could probably be attributed to the healing rune she had applied.
"Hey wait!" a deputy called, running out after them. "You three are still suspected of murder."
Kyla groaned and her head fell sideways on to Derek's chest. She buried her head in his jacket. "Half of their building just blew up," she muttered in to the leather. Derek could feel her breath ghosting across the fabric of his shirt. "Half of their building just blew up and they're worried about us. Gotta love human law enforcement."
Derek hesitated for a moment before he lifted his hand and began brushing small pieces of debris from Kyla's auburn hair. He lowered his head and said quietly, "another reason I'm glad I'm not human."
"How many of those do you have?" She muttered.
Derek sighed. "Way too many to count."
A/N: What do you guys think? I'm sorry about the delay in posting this. I had to put down the dog I've had for eleven years yesterday, and I didn't feel like writing very much. I hope you guys liked the chapter! Review for me!xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo