Chapter 7: On Behalf of Halwyn
Several weeks passed, and another full moon approached. Scott had accepted Daphne as part of their group, but others were less willing. Derek stared at her inscrutably as she was shown their hideout. Parrish promised meet them there after his shift.
"She can help with Alec," Scott reasoned with the older werewolf.
"She has no control of her abilities. Abilities we don't understand. She doesn't even know what she can do. It's been two full moons, and she's made no progress with anyone."
Daphne scowled. "I have to work in the morning, so I can't be out too late. I don't have to be out in the woods though. I can just be background support."
Derek looked unamused. "Until you think Parrish is in danger and go after him without a plan—"
"Derek," Scott warned.
"—and without knowing anything about what you're getting into."
Scott faced him sternly. "What happened to Alec was self-defense."
Defensive was certainly how Daphne felt in that moment.
"Self-defense that would have been unnecessary if she hadn't been there."
"That's enough, Derek."
"I'm going to take a walk." Daphne frowned. She knew he was only trying to protect the pack, but she didn't know how to prove herself to the beta, and it frustrated her to no end.
"I'll go with you," Scott offered.
"No. I'll call a lyft or something."
"Uber's the better option in Beacon Hills," Derek said pointedly. He wanted her to leave, and she felt suffocated in his presence at the moment, so she was happy to oblige.
She was two blocks down the road about to order an Uber when a man she didn't recognize joined her on the opposing sidewalk. She stopped and stared at him for several seconds, hoping to scare him off or gauge his intent, but he stared back, unblinking.
Five seconds passed, and then she saw it. A flicker of orange behind his eyes.
The third hellhound.
He took a single step into the street in her direction, and she bolted toward a hopefully more populated road. He was on her in seconds, grabbing her forearm and slamming her into the rough brick behind.
His hand seared into her arm, and she spat in his face. "You're the reason Cerberus was banished."
"That's all you recall? Do you remember so little of me?"
"I know everything I need to know. You hated him enough to destroy his life." Daphne writhed with gritted teeth.
"Destruction was never my intention."
"Oh, really… because none of this would have happened if you had just kept your observations to yourself."
"A hellhound is neither good nor evil. We are guardians of the supernatural. Forces of balance. It was my obligation to inform of his wrongdoing." He loosened his hold. "Are you not pleased at the outcome? Is not his assimilation with the deputy to your advantage?"
"Don't pretend to understand what it means to love someone," she growled.
"I am Orthrus, brother of Cerberus. If you trust nothing else, trust that I did not seek his downfall."
"You bastard. You let him rot in a tree stump for twenty years and just now decide to pay a visit?"
"Your emotions regarding the past are of little concern to me, and I was up to this point unaware of his previous refuge. As far as the gods are concerned your lifetimes on earth will serve as banishment. I am here on Halwyn's behalf."
"Halwyn? But he died." Lydia and Malia had relayed the sad tale.
"Hellhounds are amortal. He resides within the underworld and will soon rejoin the Wild Hunt."
"Alive…" she breathed. Lydia would be happy to hear it.
"As you are a part of the pack that defeated the Anuk-ite, he wishes you to know that you are in danger."
"I'm not a part of Scott's pack. I just barely got past the awkward friend phase."
"The Alpha sees you and Cerberus as more than that."
This stunned Daphne. "But how am I in danger?"
"All I know with certainty is that your life hangs in the balance. You were reborn in human frame - a frame that can evolve given the right circumstances."
"I can be… a lampad?"
"You will not be found in Hecate's favor again, but you are still a nymph."
"I don't know what that means anymore."
"Discover it. Your life hangs in the balance."
He burst into flame, and Daphne wriggled away before her clothes burned in tandem. He disappeared among the flames, and every pent up feeling poured out of her. She sank to the ground, letting weeks buried emotions and tears pool onto the collar of her shirt.
Derek observed a part of Daphne and the hellhound's confrontation from the end of the block. In spite of not trusting Daphne to hold her own in a pack of shapeshifters he wasn't about to let her get herself killed. If what the hellhound said was true, she and Parrish were part of the pack whether they consciously accepted it or not. As she climbed into an Uber and disappeared, he realized that he would protect her when push came to shove.
Doug Graham stared at his ex girlfriend in silence from a parked car as she exited a different vehicle and stepped into the apartment complex in which she lived.
So this was where she'd been hiding. Location tags were a beautiful thing, but public records were better. She'd gotten a job at the local art museum as a curator, and her name had been added to the deed of an apartment she shared with the local deputy. God bless the internet. It didn't take long for him to find exactly where she lived and worked, and given the week, he'd be able to fill in the gaps. He deserved to know why she bailed on him over Spring Break and what made this Jordan Parrish so much better. He lifted a bottle of whiskey to his lips and stumbled out of his car toward the nearest motel. He'd see her again soon.
Lydia sat in her apartment in Cambridge with a glazed expression on her face. She heard the sound over and over, unrelenting on a loop. Metal scraping against metal in an eerie screech, like a cat's claws scraping against a chalkboard.
Her phone buzzed, drawing her from the trance. It was a text from Daphne. Halwyn is alive. Relief seeped into her veins, and the premonition was shelved in the recesses of her subconscious. She couldn't worry about every warning of death around her, or she'd go mad. She'd savor this moment of Halwyn's life and not worry about death until tomorrow.
Don't worry, Parrish will be in the next chapter. Thanks for reading! -V
