The Huntress

by TheLiteraryEscapist

The first installment in the Argent Chronicles. Follow Adrianna Argent, the demigod daughter of Kate Argent, as her mother's murder forces her to choose a side between the hunters she's always known and the wolves of Beacon Hills. Is she a friend, or a foe? Or, perhaps, neither? (Takes place during MTV's 'Teen Wolf' Season 2 and between the Lightning Thief and the Sea of Monsters.)

4. Chapter 4

4-Abomination

T hey'd lied to her. All of them had kept things from her. Which meant that they knew she'd lied to them about Lydia, which meant she was totally screwed.

But they'd still lied and despite the fact that they might have been a little bit justified in keeping the truth from her, seeing as she'd been more than unstable as of late, Adrianna knew that she really could have helped them, had they told her about it sooner.

The hunter lying on the vet's operating table with his chest shredded to ribbons, could have used her help. He could have been alive right then, telling them everything they needed to know, if Gerard and Chris and Victoria had trusted her.

"I'm starting to think I need to buy a more prominent 'closed' sign." The dark-skinned, bald-headed veterinarian stated from the opposite side of the pony wall separating the inside of the clinic from the waiting room.

"Hello, Alan." Gerard greeted friendly enough, leisurely walking inside the clinic to stand beside the dead hunter's body. He hadn't looked at Adrianna since inviting her to come along. Even he knew when he made mistakes, although he'd never admit it. "It's been a while. The last I heard, you had retired." He told the vet.

"Last I heard you followed a code of conduct." The man retorted smartly. There was something about the man that screamed wisdom. He reminded Adrianna of a younger, more human version of Chiron.

"If you hadn't noticed," Chris interrupted. "This body is one of ours."

"I did," Deaton shared calmly, not at all concerned that he had three of the most dangerous hunters, not to mention most of the Argent family, in his operating room. "I also noticed the gunpowder residue on his finger tips." All of them simultaneously looked at the body. Adrianna felt ill at the sight of the carnage. "So don't assume I will be swayed by your philosophy just because I'll answer a few questions." He finished, walking to the other side of the table, opposite the hunters.

Breathing raggedly, Adrianna's hand seemed to move with a mind of it's own, locking onto the dead hunter's arm tightly. Lightning seemed to course through her veins as the last moments before his death replayed in her mind.

"He was only twenty four." She realized brokenly. For the life of her, she couldn't stop the terror that the man had felt before death from entering her own system. It felt like she'd swallowed knives. Tears came to her eyes.

What's wrong with me? Adrianna thought, as Deaton, Chris, and Gerard gave her strange looks. She hastily removed her hand from the body. She hadn't noticed how cold she'd become.

"Killers come in all ages." The vet eventually recovered enough to say, still regarding her cautiously.

"All ages, sizes, shapes." Gerard agreed, placing a possessive hand over his granddaughter's shoulder. "It's the last one that concerns us."

Deaton and Gerard stared at each other. It was clear that the vet didn't want to acquiesce so easily, and Adrianna had the sudden thought that perhaps they'd have to torture him in order to learn what they wanted to know. Her unexpected resolve to inflict harm upon a man she'd never met before then, startled her stiff.

"How about you tell us what you found?" Chris broke the tension.

Turning on the bright, examination light overhead, Deaton slipped on some gloves before turning the dead man's head, exposing his neck. "See this cut?" He asked them, lightly pressing on the base of the man's neck, where the skin was broken. "Precise." He observed. "Almost surgical."

Leaning further forward, Deaton didn't seem at all perturbed by the blood staining his gloves. "This isn't the wound that killed him." He shared. "This had a more interesting purpose."

"Relating to the spine." Adrianna guessed. She remembered a particular lesson her mother Kate had given her when she'd first picked the broadsword as her weapon of choice. She still had the scars to prove it.

"That's right." Deaton informed her, glancing up into her eyes in a way that made her feel like he could see much further than just that. "Whatever made this cut, it's laced with a paralytic toxin, potent enough to disable all motor functions. These are the cause of death." His hands migrated down to the man's abdomen, over the wounds that had sliced clean through the man's vital organs and flesh.

"Notice the patterns on each side." He instructed them, placing his fingers over each of the fissure-like injuries. His hands fit into the tracks easily, there was one jagged wound for each finger.

"Five for each finger." Chris spoke for them all.

"Each claw." Gerard corrected. His hand was still clasped over her shoulder; not painful, but a constant reminder that he had control over her. She shrugged his hand away, ignoring the way her grandfather's eyes narrowed.

"As you can see, it dug in," Deaton explained to them. "Slashed upwards, eviscerating the lungs and slicing through the bone of the rib cage with ease." He finished, dropping his hands at his sides.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Chris calmly asked. The pallor of his face was enough for Adrianna to know that he was hiding his unease.

"No." Deaton responded, staring at Adrianna in shock as she answered the question, at the same time, with a very different reply.

"Yes." She said confidently. In fact, she'd seen many things similar to this before. None of them were ever human. None of them were the types of supernatural creatures her family was used to dealing with.

Gerard's smiled, satisfied that bringing Adrianna along was a good decision after all, despite the trouble she'd caused him lately.

"Any idea at all what killed him?" Chris questioned again. Even he didn't seem sure who he was asking.

"No," The vet chose to respond as Adrianna bit her lip in thought. "But I can tell you it's fast, remarkably strong, and has the capacity to render its victims essentially helpless within seconds."

"If you're saying we should be cautious?" Chris remarked, slightly miffed by the lack of confidence implied in the other man's statement. "We get it." He told Deaton, who was now taking off his soiled gloves.

"I'm saying you should be afraid." The vet expounded. "Be very afraid." He warned. "Because in the natural world, predators with paralytic toxins use them to catch and eat their prey. This prey wasn't eaten." He pointed out. "That mean whatever killed him only wanted to kill him. In fact, killing may be its only purpose." He theorized.

"Don't worry, Doc." Adrianna assured as Chris and Gerard made their way out of the clinic. "I know what I'm doing." Looking over her shoulder at her grandfather and uncle, who were now waiting for her near the door, she felt a conniving smile light up her face. Now she had the advantage and she planned to use it to it's full potential. "We know what we're doing." She amended.

As she turned to leave, Deaton caught her hand. "Kate's daughter, right?" He asked her.

A spike of dread impaled her heart. "How'd you know that?" She hostilely interrogated him.

"Familial resemblance." He waved off her anger. "Just be careful." He warned, ostensibly concerned for her safety. "Don't let what happened to your mother, happen to you."

Gerard called her name from afar, beckoning her to follow them. She swallowed thickly. "Too late." She muttered weakly, racing out of the room as soon as Deaton loosened his grip.

She was already a puppet to her grandfather, perhaps even more so than her mother had been. At least when Kate had stepped out of line, she never had to be afraid of what Gerard would do to her. The same couldn't be said of Adrianna.

For all she knew, she was one mistake away from a bullet to the brain.

#-#-#-#-#

As his betas charged at him once more, Derek refrained from groaning aloud. He was getting tired of the teenager's incompetence when it came to winning a fight. Neither Isaac, Erica, or Boyd for that matter, could manage to maintain full control over themselves now that they were werewolves, let alone knew how to use their claws, fangs, and super strength properly.

Perhaps biting kids who had problems hadn't been as good an idea as he'd originally thought.

Shoving aside Erica as she charged at him head-first, and knocking Isaac over the back, sending him tumbling to the ground, Derek felt an angry growl break free from his throat.

"Does anyone wanna try not being completely predictable?" He furiously proclaimed, standing over his too-easily defeated betas with disapproval. They'd never survive if he couldn't teach them how to at least defend themselves.

Erica suddenly threw herself at him, surprising him just a little bit, and wrapped her legs around his waist, pressing her lips to his as though she wanted to devour him. Derek's mind wandered for a moment.

He thought of the last person that had kissed him—he thought of Kate. Her copper hair, the smell of her perfume, and the feeling of her body pressed up against his in a time when he'd allowed himself to be led astray by the conniving blonde.

And then, something strange happened. As his heart filled with guilt and the acidic bile he associated with anger so intense, he saw red, he remembered her green eyes—so astute and troubled. The way she'd carried herself, strong and capable. He recalled her softer features—the slight point to the end of her nose, the light dusting of freckles just beneath her cheekbones, and the subtle curve of her frustratingly distracting lips.

For a split second, the thought occurred to him that he was no longer ruminating over Kate, for the similarities—though there were many—were offset by the stark differences.

With Erica's lips still clinging to his with bruising force, he realized that he'd been thinking about Adrianna, Kate's daughter.

Fear, self-hatred, shame, anger, and something else he hadn't felt in a long time forced him to return to the present and roughly shove Erica off of him. She landed on the concrete floor with a groan and Derek could have sworn he heard bone snapping.

"That's the last time you do that." He warned, wiping his lips with the back of his palm. They were tingling. It didn't help to keep his thoughts away from dangerous huntresses—dead and alive.

"Why?" Erica demanded an explanation, leaning on her elbows as her body healed from the harsh impact. "Because I'm a beta?" She wondered.

He stared at her, then Isaac, and lastly, the empty spot next to the two where his latest beta, Boyd, should have been. "No," He gruffly replied, placing his hands on his hips. "Because I have someone else in mind for you."

"Are we done?" Isaac complained, also still lying, exhausted, on the floor. "I've got about a hundred bones that need a few hours to heal." He bitterly snarked.

Derek hadn't forgotten for a second what the young teen had been through, but coddling him and keeping him from harm wasn't going to do him any good when he came face to face with the Argents. No matter how much it hurt Derek to do so, he knew that broken bones would be the least of Isaac's problems, soon enough.

"Come here." He beckoned the boy, who looked at him with suspicion, but did as he asked.

Securing both hands around Isaac's arm, Derek slid his hands in opposite directions, like turning the cap on a particularly stubborn milk jug, and snapped the boy's bone, just below his elbow. The resounding crack and following groan made him sick to his stomach.

He felt like he'd kicked a puppy.

"A hundred and one." He told Isaac, instead of apologizing, like he knew he should have. "You think I'm teaching you how to fight?" He asked the pair staring at him in horror. "Huh?" He pressed.

He'd be the monster. The cruel teacher that everyone hated, if it saved their lives. Hell, he'd done much worse for people less worthy. "Look at me!" He roared, when they refused to meet his eyes. "I'm teaching you how to survive!" He tried to tell them.

"If they wanted us dead why aren't they coming for us now?" Isaac spoke up. He was the quietest of Derek's betas, but also the bravest. "What are they waiting for?" He trailed off, letting his question hang.

Derek knew he wanted to remind everyone what had happened at the sheriff's station, when Kate's daughter had let them go. That perhaps, not all hunters were as bad as Derek had been telling them. He'd seen the way Isaac had looked at her. He'd smelled the boy's intrigue and attraction.

It was dangerous for Isaac to become so obsessed over a huntress like Adrianna, who was Gerard's right hand woman. It might get him killed. It would definitely get him hurt.

"I don't know." Derek settled for as an answer. Even he was aware that admitting such a thing to your pack wasn't always wise, but he was out of options. He needed their help, their cooperation, their trust, and the only way to gain it, would be to prove to them that he had their best interest's at heart.

"But they're planning something," He continued. A bad feeling begun to boil in his gut, as he thought about why Boyd hadn't come to train. Of all his other betas, Boyd seemed to be the least loyal to him. "And you, especially," He motioned to Isaac. "Know that's not our only problem."

"Whatever that thing is that killed Isaac's father," He told a confused Erica. "I think it killed someone else last night. Until I find out what it is, you all need to learn everything that I know." He reminded them. "As fast as I can teach you."

He didn't feel the need to say anything to Isaac, at least directly, about certain brunette huntresses and their lost knives. The narrowed stare he sent the boy's way should have been enough.

Derek knew what it was like to fall for an Argent. It wasn't something he wanted his beta to experience. Certainly not when Derek himself wasn't sure what he thought about Adrianna.

#-#-#-#-#

"I'm so sorry about the other day." He panted. "I'm trying. We'll get through this." Holding an unsteady hand to his chest, Stiles tried to ease his racing heart. "Uh, I know, because I love you." He stuttered out. "I love you more than—" He broke off, shaking his head, clearly repulsed.

"Oh, my god." He exclaimed, leaning against the wall beside his amused best fried. "I can't—" He tried to say, much to Scott's delight. "You and Allison just have to find a better way to communicate." He settled for telling the boy beside him with a slightly crooked jaw.

"Come on," Scott encouraged, looking just a bit worried that Stiles would actually quit on him. "You're the only one that we can trust. Is she coming to the game tonight?" Sadly, Stiles knew he was telling the truth, so, with an accusing glare, he set off back to the school playground to ask Allison.

"Yes!" He told Scott once he'd run all the way there and back. His legs burned from the exertion. "Okay, message complete." He proclaimed with finality. "Now, tell me about your boss?"

All day, Scott had been torturing him with limited details about how his boss, Alan Deaton the vet, had helped him to heal after the confrontation with Derek and his new betas. Stiles could barely contain his curiosity. Scott had never gone this long without spilling the truth. That in itself promised that whatever Deaton had said or done, must have been important.

"He thinks that Allison's family keeps some kind of, uh," Scott begun, struggling to explain himself. Stiles' knee jumped repeatedly in his impatience. Finally grasping the right words, Scott continued, much to Stiles' relief. "Records of all the things that they've hunted. Like a book." He told the spastic boy.

Pressing a few thoughtful fingers to his chin, Stiles nodded his head as he confirmed his theory. "He probably means a bestiary." He shared with Scott, who gave him a strange look.

"What?" He asked, sounding dumber than he had in—well, the last ten minutes. Stiles only felt a little bit bad about rolling his eyes and huffing exasperatedly at his friend. Scott had it coming, after all, when he'd agreed to be friends with Stiles.

"A bestiary." He waved his hands animatedly, trying to make his friend understand.

Smiling lopsidedly, Scott looked oddly pleased with himself. "I think you mean bestiality." He corrected Stiles, nearly causing the gangly teen to smack him over the head with the first thing he could find. Sometimes, Scott really ticked Stiles off.

"Nope, pretty sure I don't." Stiles arrogantly retorted. He was angry that Scott didn't trust him. "It's like an encyclopedia of mythical creatures." He added smartly.

Scott's chin dipped as disappointment seemed to set in with the truth. He was right—again—just like he always was. "How am I the only one who doesn't know anything about this stuff?" Scott whined, disheartened.

"Okay, you're my best friend," Stiles explained, clapping Scott's shoulder in an awkwardly comforting way. "You're a creature of the night, it's kind of like a priority of mine."

"Okay," Scott planned, having gained back some of his courage. "If we can find it, and it can tell us what this thing is—"

"And who." Stiles added.

As the two best friends who were, now more than ever, like brothers to each other, traded glances, they both met the same conclusion.

"We need that book!" They both exclaimed.

Stiles knew this would mean more time for him as a messenger because he'd have to ask Allison where it might be. One apologetic glance from Scott was all it took before he set off once more.

"I think you mean—" Allison started to correct, just as Scott had, once Stiles had explained their idea, but never got to finish.

"No," Stiles interrupted with certainty. "I mean bestiary. And the two of you," He told her incredulously. "I don't want to know what's going on in your heads."

Staring at him with a mixture of confusion and shock, Allison took his weirdness in stride. "Okay, um. Can you describe this thing?" She asked him, looking around herself warily.

"Uh, it's probably like a book." He stated the obvious, internally cringing. "Old, worn." He added helpfully.

"Like bound in leather?" Allison suggested, eyes lighting up as though she'd seen such a book before. Stiles felt hope, for the first time that day, that perhaps their stupid plan would actually work. Even though they didn't actually have much of a plan at all besides finding and stealing the bestiary.

As he ran through the school's corridors, slamming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs that Scott was sitting on, Stiles took a few moments to catch his breath. He was already getting tired of running around the school like a maniac.

"Yes." He blurted to Scott, clutching his throat where the air was burning his lungs. "Seen her grandfather—with a book like that." He breathed.

A little while later, he found himself bending over his knees near Allison asking, "Where—does—he—keep it?" In halting pants. His face twisted in agony as the girl answered and he was forced to propel himself back to Scott.

He wondered why the superhuman, immensely strong, incredibly fast, werewolf couldn't have done this instead.

"She says—has to be—office." He choked out. Scott was trying very hard not to laugh at him. Stiles had never before felt so used, or so certain that he wanted to make Scott repay him somehow.

"You know," He couldn't help himself from telling Allison on his three hundredth trip in a row. "Drug dealers have been using disposable cellphones pretty successfully for years."

"My parents check every call, email, and text message I send." She stated helplessly. "Trust me, they'd find us."

Sighing in defeat, Stiles nearly collapsed as the wind changed directions. He'd never been this tired in his life. Well, besides the times when he was either running for his life, or training for lacrosse under Coach Finstock's supervision. That man could be scary when he wanted to be.

"Alright," He agreed, moving past his suggestion and back onto the record they desperately needed. "Can you get the book?" He asked her hopefully.

"Not without his keys." Allison replied just as someone sat down beside her on the swing set.

"What book?" Allison's cousin questioned, scaring Stiles' out of his wits and causing a very unmanly squeak to perforate the air between them. Adrianna scared him, maybe even more than Gerard did.

"Oh, um—" He stuttered guiltily. "Nothing, nothing at all." He detrimentally proclaimed. He wasn't under the illusion that the cunning huntress believed him, but he could at least hope that she wouldn't figure out what they were doing, before they could do it.

"Really?" She asked, oblivious or disinterested in Allison's restraining hand on her wrist. Her pale face was practically glowing. She looked like one of the models Stiles always saw in magazines Lydia liked to read—airbrushed to perfection. There wasn't so much as a blemish, dark circle, bruise, or mole in sight.

It was like she'd eaten the magical vitamin gummy bears his father had tried to trick him into taking, by saying that they'd make him into a better version of himself.

Suddenly, Stiles found himself considering whether Adrianna Argent had been bitten, because she looked even better than Erica did. She almost didn't look human anymore.

That was until she slapped the side of his head irately, to draw back his attention. Snapping her fingers in front of his face, she rolled her eyes at him. "I'm talking to you, numb nuts." She snapped.

Definitely not a werewolf, but also, not entirely human. He realized as the whites of her eyes, particularly near her tear ducts, seemed to glow purple.

#-#-#-#-#

Never before in her life had she been more grateful for the torture that was detention. It was the reason why Adrianna, her cousin, wasn't at the game and hadn't been able to continue pressing them for details on their plan to steal Gerard's bestiary.

Sitting down on the freezing bleachers next to her grandfather, Allison's breath puffed out in a cloud of steam. It was perfect. The plan she, Stiles, and Scott had thought up would be sure to work, especially since the weather was cooperating.

"I need to warn you, by the way," Gerard stated, shuffling beside her to get comfortable on the rock hard benches. "You might need to be a little patient with me."

Allison's brow furrowed as she tried to react calmly. Speaking with her grandfather was still taking some getting used to. Especially when she thought about Adrianna, who was serving a detention with Mr. Harris for protecting Erica, back before she'd accepted Derek's bite and become a werewolf. It made her feel guilty, yes, but Allison was also aware that her cousin had a mean streak that was becoming more prominent the longer she stayed in Beacon Hills.

"How come?" She found herself asking, mainly to pass the time and relieve some of the tension that had accumulated around them. She focused on the lacrosse players warming up near the sidelines, to distract her thoughts from her troublesome cousin.

"I'll probably have a lot of questions, seeing as I've never actually seen a lacrosse game before." He explained. The muted colours of his argyle flat cap reminded her that he was an old man. She felt a sense of security, in that fact.

Beneath them, as the game begun and the fans cheered or groaned as their team fought for victory, Allison heard the coach complaining whether or not one of the opposing team's player's was even the right age to be playing on a high school team.

Glancing around her, barely noticing the struggle her boyfriend Scott was facing, Allison decided that it was time to enact their well-thought out plan. She shivered dramatically, huddling deeper into her thin sweater.

"I knew I should have brought a warmer jacket." She chastised herself, rubbing her arms to try to bring some heat back into the limbs. Thankfully, her fingers were cold as ice, so when her grandfather's hand slipped into hers, he couldn't tell that she was lying—or at least exaggerating the truth.

"You're cold," Gerard realized, already shrugging out of his outermost layer. "Here, take my coat." He offered.

Looking at the very warm, very thick, black overcoat, Allison shyly licked her lips and ducked her head. "Are you sure?" She asked him, when all she really wanted to do was reach out and wrap the material around herself, the colder she became.

"Of course." Her grandfather promised as he draped the too-big coat over Allison's shoulders.

Slipping her arms into the sleeves, she sighed in relief. "Thanks." She said, truly meaning it. She was careful to wait a few more minutes before delving into the pockets and retrieving the keys within.

As Stiles covertly walked in her direction, between both sets of bleachers and towards the near-empty school, the loud crash of two bodies colliding distracted Gerard long enough for Allison to hand the keys over to Stiles. Giddy excitement settled in her racing heart as her participation came to a close.

"Good god," She distantly registered Gerard saying, horrified. "Is it always this violent?"

"I can't feel my legs!" A lacrosse player Allison didn't recognize shouted out in pain. She bit her lip, raising her shoulders in a dismissive shrug.

She would have thought that Gerard, being an experienced hunter, would be accustomed, even desensitized, to brutality and gore. It seemed like lately, everyone was taking Allison by surprise. She just hoped that she'd be ready when the time came, to distinguish who her friends and enemies were.

#-#-#-#-#

Her fingers tapped impatiently against the grimy desk. It had been over four hours since school had been let out and still, she was here, trapped in the biology classroom, serving a detention that should never have been given to her in the first place.

"Are you even allowed to do this?" She found herself asking Mr. Harris, the lanky man with rectangular glasses Adrianna found herself at the whim of.

He'd been sorting through paperwork the whole time, not paying more than a second's glance her way, but now, he looked up with a raised eyebrow and haughty expression. It was as though, all that time, he'd been waiting for her to crack.

"Why yes, I can." He patronizingly informed her, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "In fact, you should be happy that you weren't expelled, thanks to the violence you displayed in this school."

And then, with a small, hardly there, condescending smile, he returned to his work, grading other people's papers and assignments. Adrianna felt her temper rising dangerously high; like a pot that'd been on the boiler for too long. Steam nearly shot out of her ears.

"I'll have you know that the violence I'm here for," She mocked, taking none of his superiority. His murderous past came to her in whispered segments—she smelled the sharp tang of blood in the air. "Was in fact an act of justice. But if thinking of it as a childish outburst helps you sleep at night—helps to drown out the screams of those you've helped to kill—then go right on ahead and keep believing that."

For a second, all Mr. Harris did was stare at her, blood draining from his visage and making him look almost like a ghost. Then, he dropped the red marker he'd been using to grade assignments, and stood up abruptly, causing his chair to screech against the tile floors.

"How dare you!" He cried indignantly, face burning with shame and anger. "You have no right to accuse me of such things!" He continued, slapping his hands against the desk forcefully, the shock wave rippled through the silence.

Adrianna leaned back in her chair, pleased with the man's ire. Mr. Harris seemed to notice that she wasn't afraid, as he took a deep breath, and tried to express himself again; this time trying to strike real fear in the cold girl's heart.

"Who do you think you are, that you can get away with not only assaulting a fellow student, but insulting and accusing your teacher of—of." He stuttered for a moment, swiping his hand beneath his nose to wipe away the droplets of perspiration. "Unspeakable things." He finally decided on, stepping back from his desk and taking a seat once more.

His question hung in the air, making it feel oppressive and thick, but Adrianna didn't mind. She let him sit there, awaiting an answer, for a whole minute, before she spoke.

"Mr. Harris." She begun, steepling her calloused fingers together patiently, as though she were the elder and he the rebellious child. "It is Mr. Harris, isn't it?" She asked, but continued on without an answer. "You see, my grandfather is the principal of this fine school, and he is the reason why I haven't been expelled." Adrianna admitted.

Mr. Harris sat straighter in his chair, placing both hands on either armrest, no doubt preparing to stand and slap her for her impertinence. Adrianna merely extended her pointer finger in warning, and a force bent the air around the teacher, making him stay where he was.

"Nuh, uh, uh." She chastised, smirking devilishly. "I wasn't done." She reminded him. The teacher was staring at her with wide, terrified eyes. He had his suspicions about the normalcy of some of Beacon Hills' residents, but he'd never thought to meet one in person, let alone piss one off this badly.

Adrianna tilted her head to the side, still keeping Mr. Harris immobile, as death whispered in her ear. It spoke to her of screaming men, women, and children, burning to death. It told her of a night spent drinking and divulging secrets to another with a more nefarious mind. For a long moment, she was quiet as she heard the one name she hadn't expected to be mentioned.

"Kate Argent." Death informed her apathetically, as she stared at Mr. Harris with a strange sort of confusion. "He helped Kate Argent to kill them." It said to her—they said to her and she knew it to be the truth.

Shock ricocheted in her mind, rendering her speechless. In her disheveled state, Mr. Harris was released from her grasp and he hastily stumbled out of his chair, running straight for the door.

"Wait!" Adrianna called desperately, images of her mother speaking with a slightly younger Harris tinting her vision black and white, but the teacher did not stop. He fumbled with a set of keys to unlock the door, but did not have enough time before Adrianna stalked up to him, shoving him into the wall nearby and knocking the air from his lungs.

"I said, wait." She growled, pulling him up to his feet by the lapels of his cheap suit and slamming him once more into the wall. "Why don't you people ever listen?" She muttered to herself, her hands turning as cold as ice and bleeding out into the warm body of Mr. Harris. He shivered beneath her fingertips and she reluctantly let him go before she did something she'd really regret, like kill him.

"What, what—" Mr. Harris stumbled over his words. "What are you?" He finally asked.

Adrianna flexed her stiff fingers, regaining some control over the rage that had taken control. She smiled at the teacher, smoothing down her hair as she calmed down some. "That's not what should concern you right now." She told him, roughly snatching the keys from his slackened grip. "The thing you really want to know, is who I am."

"I don't-" He stuttered, looking at the keys she'd stolen like, if he'd been braver, he would have snatched them back. "I don't understand." He eventually managed to admit.

Adrianna smirked cruelly, just like her mother, and tapped the man on the chin. "Oh sweetie," She sighed, purposefully sounding like Kate. "Don't you know who my mommy is?" She asked him, giggling foolishly as Mr. Harris' eyes widened exponentially and his skin seemed to turn green.

"No," He muttered, horrified. "She's dead." He tried to comfort himself. "She's dead and she never had any—any." He trailed off, staring at her and realizing that everything he'd thought, had been wrong, because in the light of the moon, with anger burning in her eyes, she was a spitting image of her mother; of Kate Argent.

"There you go, butterfingers." She congratulated him, slapping him on the shoulder none too gently. "You've figured it out." She exclaimed, unlocking the door with ease and walking outside.

"For that," Adrianna told Mr. Harris as she stood outside the classroom. "I'll let you live."

And then she slammed the door shut and locked it securely, throwing the keys over her shoulder. Inside the room, beyond the small glass window that was inset into the wooden door, Mr. Harris slammed his fists against the unmoving door.

"What's wrong with you?" He cried indignantly, turning the knob brutishly but finding that it would not budge. "Are you insane." He accused her.

Turning around and beginning to walk away, Adrianna blinked angrily as her eyes started to sting. "I don't know." She admitted to herself, staring at the ground and wondering when she'd become even worse than her mother.

Shouts up ahead, near the pools, caught her attention and she shook off her somber mood, picking up her pace to investigate. Perhaps she was a monster, worse than the things her family hunted, but she'd be damned if she let that define her.

Besides, Harris deserved what he'd gotten.

#-#-#-#-#

He hadn't looked at her in the eyes ever since she'd kissed him. She wondered if it was something deeper than the excuse he'd given her, because she would have bet anything that for the first few seconds, he'd even kissed her back.

Prowling the empty, dark hallways of her school, Erica followed the voice of Stiles Stilinski as he plundered their new Principal's office.

"Book, book, book." He called out as the sounds of papers shuffling and drawers opening and shutting let Erica know that he was searching for something. "Nothing here." He stated, texting disappointedly, just as Erica reached the half-open door.

"Oh my—"Stiles broke off midway as he faced her, watching her the way a nervous rabbit kept it's eyes focused on the wolf ahead, snapping it's jaws and baring it's fangs.

"Hello, Stiles." She greeted, letting one of her hands hang at her side, claws extended, while the other sat at her hip. The boy turned a few shades paler. It must have been because of what had happened between them yesterday—what with her disconnecting his car and knocking him unconscious, not to mention stuffing him in a garbage bin.

It didn't take much more than an encouraging growl for Stiles to raise his hands in surrender. "Follow me." She told him, moving forwards and snatching hold of his arm, dragging him behind her whether he liked it or not. "Derek wants to see you." She finished menacingly.

"Ah!" Stiles whined as her claws dug into the soft meat of his pale, bony arm. "Ah! Ah!" He repeated in pain as Erica lead him to the pools and to Derek.

"Stiles." Derek pronounced as the boy lost his footing and nearly fell, before righting himself. Erica made her way over to Derek's side, pretending not to notice the sudden frigidity between them.

Meeting eyes with both werewolves, Stiles gulped nervously before responding. "Derek." Much as Erica's alpha had just done.

"What did you see at the mechanic's garage?" Derek asked, lightly bouncing the basketball in his grasp nonchalantly. Erica could hear Stiles' heart rate increase subtly.

"Uh," The boy uncomfortably muttered. "Several alarming EPA violations that I'm seriously considering reporting." He lied pathetically.

With a small noise of dissatisfaction, Derek clutched the basketball in both hands, extending his claws threateningly and deflating the ball slowly.

"Holy god." Stiles breathed and she didn't need to hear his heart to know he was scared out of his wits.

"Let's try that again." Derek instructed; tossing the destroyed basketball at his feet, it landed with a flat smack against the tiles.

"All right," Stiles relented, his fingers twitching at his sides. "The thing was pretty slick looking." He described, voice rising in pitch and speed as he got excited. "Um, skin was dark, kind of patterned." He added. "Uh, I think I actually saw scales." He told them, standing perfectly still.

"Is that enough?" He mocked, gaining some of his courage back. Erica smirked as the boy trailed on. "Okay, because I've got somebody I really need to talk to—" He said, waving his arms at his sides uselessly before being interrupted by Derek's threatening gaze.

"All right!" He exclaimed, grunting in frustration. "Fine, eyes. Eyes are, um yellowish and slitted." Stiles explained, gesturing with his hands to get his meaning across. "Um, has a lot of teeth." He seemed to remember, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully, but Erica hardly noticed as her stare was drawn above the boy, where Derek was looking, transfixed.

"Oh!" Stiles recalled. "And it's got a tail, too."

The creature on the balcony above was just as Stiles had described it, with scaly skin, yellow, slitted eyes, a mouthful of teeth, and a tail almost as long as it's body. Erica felt a tiny sliver of doubt poison her heart as she wondered whether she'd be able to take this thing, even with her new enhancements.

"Are we good?" Stiles impatiently asked, oblivious to the monster behind him. "What?" He finally caught on, glancing between the two as he begun to realize that neither werewolf seemed to be paying attention to him.

Erica's palms felt damp from sweat. She remembered in crystal clarity what it felt like to be helpless. She'd thought that with the bite, she would never feel that way again, but the fear and uncertainty pumping through her veins said differently.

"Wait, have you seen it?" Stiles' voice boomed, too loud to Erica's ringing ears. "You have this look on your faces like you know exactly what I'm talking about." He naively stated.

The reptile creature chose that moment to strike, climbing over the railing of the balcony and landing on the tile floors in a crouch, tail swishing about it's body as it screeched. Erica felt her eyes burn as they turned yellow.

Despite her reservations, she bent her knees and prepared to fight. With barely a sideways glance her way, the creature swatted her aside, straight into the adjacent wall with bone-jarring force.

"Run!" Derek commanded as Erica shook her head, trying to recover from the harsh impact. Erica's heart felt a thousand pounds heavier as she realized that even Derek, who was a powerful alpha and much more experienced at fighting than her, didn't believe he could win a fight against the creature.

She started to get up to follow Derek and Stiles, but as she did so, a barely recognizable stinging increased at the base of her neck and she found that her limbs no longer obeyed what she told them to do, and so she fell back to the floor, paralyzed.

Tears slipped out of her eyes as she compared the sensation to her seizures. It was too similar to bear and so she cried out, using what was left of her strength to reach her sluggish arms outwards, begging the others for help as she saw the creature dart past her and towards Derek and Stiles.

"Derek, your neck!" Stiles shouted, alarmed, as the alpha began to sway on his feet. "Hey come on!" He yelled again and then, as they scrambled to outrun the creature, they fell into the pool with a splash and disappeared from Erica's limited field of vision. She felt a pit of dread form in her stomach. Now she was truly alone.

"Where is it?" She heard Stiles ask, "Can you see it?" she thought he said, but the words were nearly drowned out by a rather strange hissing noise that appeared to be coming closer to her position. Her vision was blurry, probably from the bump on her head, and so she didn't see the creature approaching until it was too late.

Rising over her, the reptile-like creature hissed loudly with it's claws extended. It's abnormal yellow eyes trained on her defenseless form and she knew that it would not show her any mercy. Just as Erica held her breath and the creature was ready to strike, the double doors leading into the pool swung open forcefully and parted for the raging force that was Allison Argent's cousin.

"Get away from her, ugly!" She called out confidently, standing with her legs far apart and her shoulders squared defiantly. She was not armed, but that didn't seem to worry her any. In fact, she sounded like she waltzed into public buildings and challenged supernatural creatures everyday.

If the gleeful smile on her face when the creature turned on her, hissing angrily, was any indication, she might have even enjoyed it.

#-#-#-#-#

"Yeah, I'm talking to you!" Adrianna yelled again. Her blood was rushing steadily and the dark, heaviness in her chest abated for a moment. "Come on!" She goaded the reptile-like creature that had been standing over Erica's paralyzed body. "Come at me!" She screamed, lifting her hands from her sides in a display of aggression.

With an angry hiss, the Kanima lurched towards her and she barely had time to drop to her knees and roll underneath the beast before it was upon her. Adrianna felt a laugh bubble in her throat and escape without her permission. Even to her own ears, she sounded deluded.

As the Kanima whirled on her, frustratedly flicking out it's forked tongue as it gauged her new position, Adrianna retrieved a freshly sharpened, celestial bronze dagger from her boot.

"Is that all you got?" She taunted it, keeping her eyes on the unpredictable creature at all times. Adrianna knew it was faster than her, but it was also clumsier. If she kept track of it, she could possibly outmanoeuvre the Kanima without getting paralyzed.

Screeching indignantly, the Kanima swiped it's claws at her, but she managed to catch it's scaled arm with her knife, drawing greenish blood. The Kanima recoiled, much like a snake, cradling it's injured arm closer to it's body. In a few seconds, the cut healed and Adrianna couldn't help sighing.

This is going to be more difficult that I thought, she readily admitted to herself. At least the supernatural creatures from her world didn't heal when you hurt them—at least, most of them didn't; there were, of course, exceptions.

Holding her knife out by her side, Adrianna widened her stance and bent her right leg, extending her left to the side in a near-crouch. She drew in her right arm in a tight fist and protectively placed the arm with the knife in front of her.

With renewed vigour, the more stunned than injured Kanima moved to attack once more. It's tail swatted at her first, but she was able to side step the appendage. Then, as the animal realized that it would have no choice but to fight her up-close, the Kanima bared it's pointed, razor sharp teeth, and charged her.

She only had a moment to understand the stupidity of her idea, before the solid mass of the reptile shapeshifter impacted with her relatively fragile form. Her lungs seemed to collapse but she grit her teeth and held her ground as the Kanima took hold of her arms and wrestled to avoid the knife she was struggling to hold onto.

Adrianna had always been very good with close-quarter combat and so she knew exactly how to extract herself from the Kanima's hold. The only issue was that she'd only ever been able to overpower other people. The Kanima was an entirely different story.

Ducking her head to avoid the tail, Adrianna felt a sudden burst of strength that allowed her to push away the Kanima's arms and plunge her knife into it's chest. Groaning from the effort, the creature's eyes widened as the blade pierced it's scaly hide and Adrianna broke free from it, stumbling on her feet.

Before Adrianna could feel overly accomplished, the Kanima narrowed it's eyes on her and, without looking, extracted the blade from it's chest. Adrianna watched as the deep gash healed within a matter of minutes and the Kanima stared at her in a silent challenge, waving it's tail this way and that as it crouched near the floor.

"Well that's just great." Adrianna voiced, placing her hands on her hips in disappointment. "You know that was my favourite knife." She spoke to the creature, recalling that she'd lost the knife's pair at the ice rink.

Screeching loudly, seemingly pleased with itself, the Kanima abruptly lifted the knife, before slamming it into the tile floor, twisting the blade with effortless power and snapping the knife in half.

"You didn't just do that." Adrianna furiously exclaimed, feeling her control slipping over her powers as the large, echoing room that stank of chlorine and unwashed clothes dropped in temperature by several degrees.

Her vision seemed to tint purple and black as she fearlessly came at the Kanima with nothing but her hands. For a second, her doomed fate seemed to lift, as she held her own against the creature much stronger than her. She blocked the Kanima's claws with the meat of her elbow and kicked at the creature's shins, eliciting pained, or annoyed shrieks.

Holding her arms up like a boxer, Adrianna punched the Kanima square in the face, but instead of having the disorienting effect she'd been counting on, the Kanima merely blinked, narrowing it's slitted eyes at her and, apparently reaching the end of it's tolerance for abuse, vaulted Adrianna off her feet, towards the pools.

She slid on the tile, coming to a stop mere centimeters from the water's edge. Her head slammed into the metal railing leading inside the pool and her skull pounded painfully. "That wasn't very nice." She muttered beneath her breath.

Looking around to regain her bearings, Adrianna saw Stiles and Derek treading water to stay afloat, only the human had his arm wrapped tightly around the werewolf, as though Derek couldn't swim and needed Stiles' support.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Derek asked her, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. It was then that she understood that he'd been paralyzed by the Kanima. "You should run," He insisted. "Before it kills you."

"Thanks for the concern, honey." She mocked, straining to sit up as the world tilted around her. "But I think I can take him." She finished, shaking her head a bit before standing up, holding onto the railing for support.

As she was distracted, still smirking lopsidedly at Derek and Stiles, the Kanima slammed into her already weakened form and Adrianna didn't have time to heed the boy's frantic warnings before both the creature and her stumbled into the pool.

Fighting with the Kanima, who seemed to become distressed as the duo sank further and further into the deep end of the pool, Adrianna felt a strange, panicky sensation begin in her lungs, which constricted painfully after less than a minute beneath the water.

With her last moment of cognitive thought, Adrianna pushed the frightened Kanima off of her, and the creature clawed it's way frantically to the surface. Her body felt weightless, but her thoughts were anything but. All of a sudden, she understood why the panic and fear had begun.

Sinking to the bottom of the pool and colliding with the tiles beneath, Adrianna realized that the sensation of holding her breath was exactly the same as being waterboarded.

Her body convulsed without her consent, fearfully clawing at the water around her as bubbles of air escaped her nose and mouth, floating to the top, far above. She screamed as the water tried to suffocate her in her memories.

Blood leaked from her scratched and torn limbs, tinting the water around her pink, but she paid it no mind as she tried to maintain in control, fiercely reminding herself that all she needed to do was push off the bottom and rocket herself to the surface. Once she breathed air again, everything would be alright.

Except it wasn't.

Clean, fresh, exhilarating air slipping past her lips and filling her cramped lungs made everything worse. It was just like the moments of torturous pause, when Gerard would allow her head to lift above the water, but the bag over her head would stick to her face and the threat beneath her would steal away what little air she could breath.

This time, when she screamed, it pierced the air and rung in her ears. She floundered to stay afloat, kicking and clawing at the water for purchase, but she found none. Adrianna hardly noticed when the Kanima fled, just as terrified of the water as she, because she was too busy drowning.

Suddenly, her fingers caught onto something solid and with all her remaining strength, she held onto it and pulled herself closer. Voices began to filter through the haze covering her mind and she realized that the something, was in fact a someone.

Adrianna's arms were firmly wrapped around Derek Hale's shoulders as she fought to keep her head above the water. She heard him cursing and complaining as Stiles' cried out in panic.

"Don't let me drown!" She pleaded, still lashing out frantically and beginning to take the others down with her. "Don't let me drown. Don't let me drown. Don't let me drown." Adrianna chanted.

Her last thought before Derek Hale's head slammed into hers, knocking her out cold, was that Gerard had finally done it. He'd finally broken her.

#-#-#-#-#

"What the hell was that?" Stiles screeched loudly, regaining his water-treading rhythm as the three of them resurfaced. Derek felt his nose beginning to heal from where he'd broken it against Adrianna's head.

"That," He informed the weak, defenseless, spastic, easily-intimidated boy who was currently the only thing keeping him alive, rather patronizingly. "Is what happens when you panic."

Derek tilted his neck as far is it would allow to look at Stiles. "Don't panic." He reminded the teenager as he heard Stiles' heart racing faster and smelt his increasing fear.

"But—she's" Stiles stuttered, staring at Adrianna's closed eyes and tipped back head. "She's a hunter." He provided as an explanation. "Hunters don't panic." He mumbled feebly.

"Well, apparently, this one does." Derek supplied unhelpfully. Even in her sleep, Adrianna's pulse was elevated and her eyes flitted back and forth beneath the lids.

"Why?" Stiles asked, also looking at the girl.

Derek felt a strange sort of concern rising within him, similar to how he'd felt when one of his betas was in trouble. "I don't know." He admitted, but he already had a few theories.

Minutes passed in silence and the creature did not reappear. Derek wasn't oblivious to Stiles' laboured breathing and weakening limbs. He knew that the boy couldn't keep two people and himself afloat forever.

"You get me out of here before I drown." He growled out, his chin and then his lips temporarily dipping beneath the water before Stiles put on another burst of strength.

"You're worried about drowning?" Stiles panted. "Did you notice the thing out there with multiple rows of razor sharp teeth?" He asked, his voice turning shrill.

"Did you notice I'm paralyzed from the neck down in eight feet of water?" Derek roared, his patience running thin. Being so helpless bothered him almost as much as depending on Stiles did.

"Okay," The pale-skinned boy announced after scanning the perimeter of the pool. "I don't see it." He told Derek, already beginning to drag the werewolf and the unconscious hunter towards the edge of the pool.

"Wait, wait, wait." Derek commanded as the creature suddenly became visible exactly where Stiles was heading. "Stop, stop!" He shouted, afraid of what might happen to him now that he could no longer move. If the creature had defeated him so easily while he still had full control of his limbs, he could only imagine what it would do to him now.

The creature crawled across the edge of the pool, regarding them with cold, reptilian eyes, but it did not attack. It's shadow flickered against the wall, imitating it's every move.

"What's it waiting for?" Stiles asked, taking them further back into the rippling waters of the high school pool.

After a few moments of prowling the deck, the creature grew impatient and reached forth it's clawed hand, but when it's digits came into contact with the water, it shrunk back, hissing angrily and skittered a few feet back.

"Wait, did you see that?" Stiles exclaimed. "I don't think it can swim." He theorized.

Derek recalled the creature's reaction when it had been dragged down with Adrianna. It had seemed just as scared of drowning as she had. Perhaps the only thing keeping them alive, was the thing that might kill them all, if Stiles' didn't keep them above the water long enough for Derek to regain control over his limbs.

"Okay, okay." Stiles admitted minutes later. "I don't think I can do this much longer."

Derek had his head tilted back, next to Adrianna's, as they floated unsteadily near the surface. "No, no, no." He reprimanded forcefully as he noticed Stiles looking over where he'd dropped his phone at the side of the pool.

"Don't even think about it." He warned. The creature was still out there and he couldn't swim by himself, not to mention keep the huntress afloat.

"Would you just trust me this once?" Stiles frustratedly asked.

Panic infused into his bloodstream, making his chest constrict painfully. Derek remembered what he'd told Stiles, but he couldn't help the fear from spreading as he yelled. "No!"

"I'm the one keeping both of you alive, okay," The gangly teen tried to convince him. "Have you noticed that?"

"Yeah." Derek breathlessly responded, feeling an angry frustration boil in his gut, directed at the stubborn boy. "And when the paralysis wears off," He added. "Who is gonna be able to fight that thing; you or me?"

"And so that's why I've been holding you up for the past two hours?" Stiles debated, voice strained. "If anyone can fight that thing and win," He added, ever the smart one. "It's Adrianna."

Derek tried not to feel offended by the boy's lack of trust in him. "You don't trust me," He uselessly tried to persuade Stiles to stay. "I don't trust you. You need me to survive, which is why you are not letting me go." Derek said.

Stiles stared at him and Derek could almost see the cogs turning in the boy's brain, debating whether Derek was really as valuable to him, compared to the risks of swimming towards the phone and calling Scott for help.

Roughly shaking his head as much as he could, Derek felt ice cold fear stab his heart as he saw resolution glint in the boy's eyes. "Stiles!" He shouted, but it was too late, the teen had already let go of him and Adrianna, making a mad dash towards the pool's edge.

Now all that Derek could do, as he sunk deeper and deeper into the water with Adrianna close behind him, was hope that Scott picked up and could get the three of them out of this mess. Otherwise, they were all screwed.

#-#-#-#-#

One of the worst ways to wake up after having your head bashed in by a particularly thick skulled werewolf, Adrianna discovered, was to return to consciousness without the ability to breath.

Her eyes snapped open an instant before her body collided with the bottom of the pool for the second time that day, and just like before, she found herself losing it.

Trying her best to hold onto what was left of her composure, Adrianna looked up at the top of the pool, where Stile's legs kicked at the water to stay afloat. He was alone.

What happened? She wondered idly, already feeling her brain compressing painfully from lack of air and terror sickness—it might have also been due to the concussion she definitely had.

As her air ran out and she struggled to keep herself from breathing in, Adrianna clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as an agonized wail slipped past her lips in nothing more than bubbles.

Why can't I just keep it together? Adrianna balefully thought. Why can't I be brave? I'm better than this; stronger than this. But a small, indistinct part of her mind whispered that she really wasn't; that she was just a girl that had played with fire, and now she was finally getting burned.

Across from her about two feet, she blurrily made out Derek Hale's paralyzed form. He was regarding her with ruby red eyes. Part of her was comforted that he too was afraid, but the majority of her just felt even more horrified that her fear was legitimate.

Digging her fingernails into the tiles beneath her, hardly noticing when the skin tore and began to bleed, Adrianna tried her best to hold herself to the bottom of the pool. She knew that the moment she reached the surface, she'd have no chance at keeping her senses intact. Air was like a catalyst. At least down here, she was only drowning; not reliving what Gerard had done to her.

Water pressed against every orifice, threatening to filter into her nose and down her trachea, all the way to her lungs; killing her. She scratched even more furiously at the pool floor as she thought about exactly what drowning would feel like.

Distantly, she recognized that Derek was trying to mouth something to her. She didn't know what, but she could guess that he was chastising her for freaking out and not helping him instead.

Placing both hands over her ears, which pounded and felt like a thousands tons of pressure was weighing down on her, Adrianna curled into a ball as fearful tremors racked her body.

It's not real, she told herself as her lungs threatened to burn her alive. It's not real.

"Oh but sweetie," A voice suddenly said to her, sounding loud enough to be right next to her. "It is real."

Adrianna knew that voice, perhaps better than she did her own. Despite everything that she'd done and all the things that had threatened to tear them apart, Kate would always be her mother.

"Mom?" Adrianna moaned weakly. Tears slid down her cheeks as she uncurled her head from where it had been bowed close to her chest, to look upon the kneeled over form of Kate Argent.

She felt her mother's scarred, agile fingers slide through her hair, pushing it away from her face. "It's me Addy." Kate confirmed, smiling sweetly in a way Adrianna had rarely seen.

"But," Adrianna fumbled, staring at her beautiful, healthy mother in awe and disbelief. "You're dead." She muttered, confused.

"I want you to focus on me." Kate told her, instead of answering. "Don't pay attention to anything other than my voice."

Shaking her head, Adrianna reached out to touch Kate's arm, but stopped herself. If this was a dream, she didn't want it to end. "I don't understand." Adrianna voiced, her head feeling light. "I was drowning." She added, recalling in sudden, vivid clarity the feeling of water all around her.

"I am drowning!" Adrianna realized as Kate's form became transparent and shimmery, like a mirage, and the cold, oppressive water came back into focus. "No, no, no, no, no." Adrianna's voice quivered as she refused to accept the truth.

"Sweetie, Addy." Kate called, trying to regain her daughter's attention but sounding far away and too weak to do so. "Kid!" She finally yelled, a growl making itself known in her voice, as it had when she'd been alive and real.

Adrianna abruptly stopped her complaining and furrowed her brow, still scared, but now forcing herself not to think about anything other than Kate.

Smiling now that she had her attention, Kate placed a hand on her hip, reaching out with her spare one towards Adrianna. "You really gonna let Gerard win?" She asked, and the way she said it, reminded Adrianna of a time when she'd been training, and Kate had said the very same thing.

"He's better than I am at this." She replied, just as she had then, when she'd been knocked down for the seventh time in a row.

"Listen kid," Kate lectured strictly, taking hold of Adrianna's chin so that she had no choice but to look her mother in the eyes. "You're my daughter." She admitted. "And no daughter of mine is gonna take a beating from a guy that's over fifty years older than her."

Adrianna thought that, even though her mother had been speaking about her training with a broadsword, the same could be applied to her sudden, debilitating fear of water.

Kate smirked, the same way she'd always done, the same way Adrianna had seen herself do at times, and let go of the girl's chin. Her fingers seemed to waft away in clouds of murky smoke.

"Then stand back up," Kate told her, already beginning to sound muted. "And kick the old man's ass for a change." She prompted, disappearing without a trace.

All that was left was the water, her panic, and the desire to surpass her human weakness. She clenched her fists until her nails cut into the flesh of her palms and she bled. Slamming her hands against the tile floor beneath her, she screamed as the temptation to inhale became nearly unbearable. But then, she shut her eyes and found that, deep down in what was left of her heart, there was no fear.

Slowly, like a child taking it's first steps, Adrianna crawled across the bottom of the pool, towards Derek Hale. His stare was questioning, but she paid it no mind as she gripped onto both of his shoulders and shot up to the top of the pool.

Breaking the surface was another challenge altogether, but her resolve was absolute, and her stubbornness helped her to overcome the trauma. It also helped that she literally bumped into Stiles once she'd reached the top of the pool. The clumsy teen gasped pathetically before staring between her and Derek wondrously.

"What the hell?" He cried indignantly. "I dropped the phone to come get you!" He accused, pointing somewhere beneath the surface of the pool. Adrianna glared at him as blood trickled down her nose, invading her mouth with acidic copper.

"Which one of you knocked me out?" She asked seriously. Derek was extremely quiet as Stiles gaped for an answer. "Whatever." She dismissed eventually, although the answer was quite clear to her.

"Tell me you got him?" Derek asked after some of the tension had receded between them. Stiles was still swimming alone, with much less effort, and it was Adrianna that now held up Derek. He didn't seem very pleased about that fact.

"Um," Stiles muttered, sounding slightly stricken. "No..." He trailed off as Derek glared and Adrianna huffed disappointedly.

"What do you mean, no?" Derek voiced dangerously as Adrianna begun to scan the poolside.

"I mean," The spastic, freckled, extremely pale boy suddenly exclaimed with attitude that surprised Adrianna. "That he said he didn't have time to talk, and then hung up." He explained, raising his voice. It was clear that Derek wasn't the only one mad at Scott's inability to pick up a phone.

"You know what," Adrianna abruptly decided, loosening her grip on Derek, he turned his angry glare, which had morphed into one of fear and daring, onto her. "You loser can stay here, in the middle of a pool, exhausting yourself until you drown." She pointed out to Stiles in particular, who gulped nervously. "But, I, for one, am getting out and finding my way home."

She passed Derek over to Stiles then, who grunted and sunk several inches in the pool once the added weight had settled back onto him. Adrianna, with shaking fingers and a racing heart, still holding tight to her mother's advice in order not to freak out, hastily made her way to the edge of the pool.

"You can't fight it!" Derek yelled to her, his sentence half garbled from the water that threatened to consume them both.

Placing both hands on the solid tile floor in front of her face, Adrianna felt her strength returning and the panic receding until there was nothing but the distant memory of it.

"Watch me." Adrianna called back, lifting herself up and out of the pool quickly and standing at the ready for the Kanima to attack her again. Only this time, she knew she could win. She was desperate after all and if Gerard had taught her one thing, it was that desperate people were dangerous.

#-#-#-#-#

"Come on!" Adrianna screamed as the creature materialized from out of the shadows. "Bite me!" She taunted, swinging her hands at her sides as her heart raced comfortably fast, this time, and adrenaline made her vision sharp and focused.

The Kanima hissed at her, but did not charge. It seemed that it had remembered their previous duel and it was anything but eager to get back into the pool. Adrianna couldn't say she blamed it.

Instead of waiting for her opposition to make the first move, Adrianna did so herself, sliding across the wet tile floors and fearlessly attacking the beast. It hissed in what might have been surprise or outrage, and immediately fought back, but Adrianna was not easily defeated and she'd learned her lesson not to get distracted.

Catching the Kanima's tail as it tried to slash at her exposed neck, Adrianna pulled with all her might and toppled the reptile off it's clawed, scaly feet. It yelped and hissed defiantly as Adrianna somersaulted over it's temporarily disabled form and kicked it in the face. Her own head felt just a little bit less painful as her revenge set it.

Unfortunately, as her excitement got the better of her, the Kanima was able to grab hold of her foot mid-kick and twist. Adrianna felt bone snapping and heard it too. She screamed in pain and stumbled, but did not fall.

The Kanima, back on it's feet, regarded her keeled over form thoughtfully, almost in respect, as she regained her breath. It's forked tongue flicked out and tasted the charged air between them and Adrianna narrowed her gaze on the creature, determined not to lose.

"You think a broken ankle's gonna stop me?" She asked the Kanima as it tilted it's head, seemingly understanding what she was saying. Testing her foot with a slight amount of weight, Adrianna grimaced as white hot pain shot up her entire leg.

"Think again." She told the creature as she gritted her teeth and stood straight. Something in her ankle crunched and agony nearly blinded her, but she was able to stand, although wobbly, and that was all that mattered.

The Kanima seemed to raise it's nonexistent eyebrows, impressed, before swiping a clawed hand her way. She wasn't anywhere near fast enough to dodge, so she stepped closer to the creature instead, pummeling it's rock solid chest with nothing but her bloodied knuckles.

Surprisingly, she was able to deal a fair amount of damage, eliciting painful hisses from the Kanima before it dug it's claws into her shoulders and pushed her into a nearby wall. It snarled, inches from her face, and she placed her hands on the creature's chest, pushing it away as their nearly equal strengths struggled for the upper hand.

Adrianna's nose began to bleed from the effort and her eyesight became blurry. She sunk her drastically shorter, but still damaging, fingernails into the Kanima's scaly hide and mucus-like, green blood trickled down her hands.

"Get off of me!" She screeched, jostling her body this way and that to no avail. The Kanima held fast, beginning to overpower her trembling arms. Adrianna thought of her mother, Gerard, and of all the other creature's she'd fought and won against. The Kanima would not defeat her. Not today.

With a muted cry, Adrianna found power and strength from a place deep within her heart and her arms stabilized their shaking as she slowly overpowered the Kanima. With widened eyes, the creature flew to the ground at such speed, that it sailed across the pool deck, straight into the opposite wall where a Kanima sized crater was formed in the broken tiles.

Adrianna heaved, sweating profusely, as she smirked tiredly and advanced; now the superior force in the quarrel. The Kanima hissed at her as it limped to it's feet, but it was clearly hurting as it favoured it's left side. Adrianna knew that she had to strike again soon and strong, otherwise the Kanima would heal before she had a chance to defeat it.

Slamming the heel of her palm into the Kanima's seemingly injured side, Adrianna was rewarded with the loud, rewarding snap of what might have been ribs. The Kanima hissed angrily, swatting both arms at her from either direction but Adrianna had the sense to duck and, using her good leg to support herself, kicked at one of the Kanima's legs, but it was not done yet, dodging gracefully and slapping her to the side with the tail she'd foolishly forgotten about.

Landing on the ground with a painful grunt, Adrianna tested her jaw as pain bloomed in the area. Blood pooled in her mouth and she spit out phlegmy globules of red saliva before she could choke on it.

"Damn," She muttered, as the Kanima flicked it's tail back and forth, pleased that it had inflicted damage upon her. "That tail of yours is a real bitch." She swore, pushing her soaked-through hair over her shoulder and wiping her bloody lips.

Screeching, as though laughing, the Kanima charged her, pressing her back to the ground and dragging her all the way to the far wall, which had a large, shiny, polished glass window inset about four feet off the ground. It picked her up as she kicked uselessly, digging her thumbs into it's bony shoulders but not having as much luck as she' d had before, and slammed her into the window.

Adrianna felt warm, slick blood seep out of her back as pin pricks tingled all over her back from shards of glass that had embedded into her soft flesh. All around her, fragments of the window lay scattered and, as the Kanima hissed once more and lunged at her, she took hold of a particularly long shard and stabbed the creature with it.

It moaned in agony, scrambling away from her as it clutched at it's side. It was then that Adrianna noticed Scott McCall, crouched low on one of the pool's diving boards, in full werewolf form, growling a challenge at the Kanima.

Battered, bloody, but not beaten, Adrianna nodded at the boy as she stood with great effort. Together, they took on the Kanima, slashing with claws, punching with swollen fists and kicking at anything they could, Scott and Adrianna corralled the beast against the wall she'd found herself trapped against only a few moments ago.

Scott, like herself, picked up a chunk of glass and held it at the ready as the Kanima hissed, cornered. He held the weapon askew and away from his body—Adrianna knew he wouldn't be able to hold onto it for long if he fought with it like that—but before any more violence or blood could be dealt out, the dim moonlight outside caught on the glass and reflected back at the Kanima as it saw it's own reflection.

The Kanima recoiled and shuddered, hissing and clawing at anything it could as it suddenly scampered up the wall and out of the rooftop skylight, disappearing from sight.

Adrianna breathed deeply before she felt her knees turn to jelly. She would have fallen, had Scott not reached out to steady her. Stiles and Derek, apparently out of the pool and no longer paralyzed, walked up to them.

"Are you alright?" Her temporary ally asked her. Adrianna tried not to think about what she'd just learned. Of course, she'd has suspicions, but she'd never actually wanted to believe that Allison's boyfriend was a werewolf. It seemed now, she had no other choice.

"I'm fine." She succinctly answered, pushing away from him only to stumble again on her rapidly swelling ankle. "Damn it." She swore as Scott placed a hand on her bicep once more. "This is so embarrassing." She muttered bitterly, aware that her mother and grandfather would have her head if they could see her show this much weakness. Then again, she had fought off a Kanima, so she figured she'd earned at least a moment or two of reprieve.

Derek regarded her silently, now standing on his own, as he examined her from head to toe. Scott handed something to Stiles that she recognized as a USB drive, suspiciously similar to Gerard's portable Physiologus.

"Where'd you get that?" She questioned the spastic boy as he pocketed it quickly, sharing a meaningful glance with Scott.

"Get what?" Stiles replied, ostensibly naive. She didn't buy it for a second but followed the others out of the pools without another word. There'd be a time and place for questions, but then and there wouldn't be it.

#-#-#-#-#

Scott rifled through his best friend's jeep for the laptop he knew Stiles always kept there. He glanced out of the foggy windshield at the others nearby. Stiles and Adrianna were standing close together, while Derek and Erica were still exiting the school, taking the steps two at a time.

He'd fought alongside Allison's cousin only a few minutes ago, and yet, he still couldn't believe what he'd witnessed. She'd been strong and fast and extremely capable of reducing the creature to a pulp with her bare hands. Scott hadn't even noticed that she'd been seriously injured and weapon-less until after the fight, when she'd nearly fallen flat.

"Did you find it?" Stiles asked him impatiently and Scott redirected his attention to finding the laptop before either one of them realized he'd been staring.

"Not yet." He called back, looking over at them from the corner of his eye, he saw Adrianna huff exasperatedly and place her hands on her hips as she leaned most of her weight against the car. "Okay, got it!" He suddenly pronounced as his fingers brushed the ridged top.

Pulling it out from under the seat and into his arms, Scott carried the computer over to Stiles, who set it onto the hood of the car and, trying to appear casual, slotted the USB into one of the ports.

A faded white page with fancy letters popped up in a language that was completely foreign to him, scrawled like Scott had seen old documents from Greek and Roman times. Stiles and Scott looked at each other, confused.

"That's it," Stiles complained. "That's the—" He broke off as Scott glared at him, pointing his chin out towards Adrianna who had yet to glance over at them, too busy glaring at Derek and his beta. "History project." Stiles said instead, sounding demoralized as he too realized that they couldn't read it.

"Is that even a language?" Stiles asked as Scott squinted at the screen. Frustration leaked into Scott's usually optimistic mood, making him place a tired hand across his forehead.

"So," Adrianna spoke out of the blue. Beside him, Stiles shivered. "I see you've gotten your hands on a copy of my family's Physiologus." She commented idly, as though the five syllables of gibberish she'd just said didn't boggle Scott's mind.

Apparently, he was the only one who was confused, as Stiles turned three shades paler and snapped the top of his laptop closed. "No," He stuttered. "That's not what happened at all." He tried to explain as Scott furrowed his brow, even more lost than he'd been before. "Scott here," Stiles continued, slapping Scott's shoulder roughly, but was silenced as Adrianna raised a blood-stained hand.

"Enough of your excuses." She sounded irritated. "Tell me, does Gerard know that you've stolen it, or are you so dimwitted that you thought you could get away with such a crime, unpunished?" Adrianna asked.

Her words slipped off her lips smoothly, as though she had a knack for pronouncing strange, unrecognizable words. Scott would have wondered if she could read the bestiary for them, had he not caught the gist of what she'd just said.

"How—" He started, but thought differently a moment later. "Can't we all just work together?" He pleaded. "How are we supposed to figure out what that thing is without your help?" He rhetorically questioned.

"It's called a Kanima." Derek spoke as he and his beta approached. Scott could see Adrianna's hackles rising as he understood that she understood that she was surrounded by three werewolves. Shaking his head, he tried to think clearly, but found that his state of confusion could not be remedied.

"You knew the whole time?" He heard Stiles indignantly ask.

"Don't be stupid," Adrianna interrupted before Derek could speak for himself. "Of course he didn't." She told them, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, and you did?" Derek retorted hotly, stepping forward like he wanted to throttle the huntress. "That thing kicked your ass the first time and then, after you got over your mental breakdown, you still couldn't properly fight it."

Scott felt his brow pinch as more information he didn't understand muddled his thoughts. What breakdown? He wanted to ask, but seeing the hostility rising in the air at the mere mention of it, decided against it.

"Firstly," Adrianna counted off on her fingers, glaring hatefully at all of them. "You didn't do much better than I did." She directed at Derek, who remained silent, presumably because she was telling the truth.

"Secondly," She continued with just as much fervour. "I saved your life." She remained looking at the ornery alpha. "Don't you forget that." She reminded him sternly, like she was lecturing children.

"And thirdly," Her voice was strained as she skipped over an explanation for her supposed breakdown. "I believe that, if my memory serves me right, I was the one that actually fought the Kanima and won, at the end." She mocked them, sounding so much like Kate that Scott felt his mouth grow slightly slack.

If he hadn't believed that she was Kate Argent's daughter,—the fiery, angry, violent, murderous huntress—he certainly did now.

"You only survived because Scott saved your ass at the last minute." Derek excused. The two of them had a stare-off, as though none of the others present really mattered. Scott felt like there was a bomb waiting to go off at the bottom of the bitterness and hostility.

"Let me tell you something that you will never hear me say again," Adrianna finally spoke, sounding dangerously calm. "I will never, and have never, needed anyone's help to kill the supernaturals around me. Their blood stains my hands and their dying wails ring in my ears. I do it by command and I do it swiftly and without mercy." She informed them, behind Derek, Erica looked like she was going to be sick, Stiles wasn't much better.

Scott noticed Derek's intensely loathing expression begin to diminish, being replaced by what might have been shame and pity.

"I have been raised as a weapon," She continued, voice straining with emotion. "And anyone who doubts my ability to act as such, will find themselves at the edge of my sword, begging for forgiveness from a heart I no longer have."

The silence, then, once she finished speaking, was more deafening than anything Scott had ever heard. He wondered what the Argents had done to her, to make her so closed-off; to make her do what she claimed she had.

"No," Derek admitted to Stiles previous question, stopping the awkward tension from escalating further. "Only when it was confused by its own reflection."

Scott looked over at Adrianna but found that her head was hung low, refusing to look any one of them in the eyes after her sudden confession. "It doesn't know what it is." Scott guessed.

"Or who." Derek agreed somberly.

"What else do you know?" Stiles piped up. He hadn't taken his eyes off the huntress, whether out of fear or curiosity, Scott wasn't sure.

"Just stories," Derek shared. "Rumours."

Frowning, Scott realized that Derek wasn't as all-knowing as he claimed to be, when it came to the supernatural world. "But it's like us?" He questioned, remembering how different the Kanima had been to anything he'd ever heard about.

"A shape-shifter, yes," The eldest werewolf verified. "But it's—it's not right." He told them. For some reason, his gaze slipped away from Scott, towards Adrianna. "It's like a—" He struggled to describe, something softening behind his eyes as the battered girl played with her fingers, still declining to meet their gazes.

"An abomination." Stiles finished. Scott remembered that Coach had called the oversized lacrosse player that had nearly cost Beacon Hills the game, the very same thing.

If Scott hadn't had enhanced hearing, he wouldn't have heard Adrianna scoffing as she breathed, hoping no one heard her. "Like me."

Derek's expression tightened once more and he turned to leave without another word. Scott called out to him. "Derek?" He beckoned, still wanting to talk about things that had been left unsaid. "We need to work together on this." He repeated. "Maybe even tell the Argents." He suggested.

Adrianna perked up, staring at him in disbelief. "You trust them?" Derek asked incredulously, pointing towards the girl sitting on top of Stiles' jeep.

"Nobody trusts anyone!" Scott blurted, finally having enough of all the secrets and lies that had been shared between the two sides; between Allison's family and his kind. "That's the problem." He expounded, gesturing between Adrianna and Derek for further emphasis.

"While we're here, arguing about who's on what side," Scott said with certainty. "There's something scarier, stronger, and faster than any of us, and it's killing people and we still don't even know anything about it." He finished loudly, out of breath.

"I know one thing," Derek stubbornly told them. "When I find it? I'm gonna kill it!" He roared.

Adrianna smirked, hopping off the hood of the car and walking past Derek, slapping his shoulder patronizingly on the way. "Good luck with that." She scorned, before trekking out into the parking lot as though she intended to walk all the way home.

She disappeared into the forest before Scott could dwell on it further. Only then did he realize that she hadn't been limping.

#-#-#-#-#

His granddaughter returned home late at night with blood covering her hands and staining her clothes. Gerard hardly had to ask to know what had happened, but he had to admit, it had surprised him to find out that most of the blood was in fact, hers.

Gerard had thought he'd trained her better than that but apparently, even Adrianna Argent, demigod and by far his finest weapon, was human; imperfect. As she sat beside him in the car they'd used to drive to the hospital, he reminded himself that she hadn't been a total failure.

Despite her disheveled appearance, Adrianna wasn't injured and the information she'd been able to relay to him had almost been worth the disappointment he felt knowing that his hold over her was slipping.

She'd told him that Scott McCall was a werewolf, which he'd already figured out, and that the creature responsible for killing one of his hunters was a Kanima. Gerard already had a variety of ideas as to what he could do with such an animal, the majority of which involved Adrianna's complete and total loyalty.

Which brought him back to point. She'd left something out. He could tell by the way her fingers twitched impatiently and her lips constantly bent and pressed together.

"Go over it again, for me." He told her, watching as the old, dark grey Volvo pulled up in front of the hospital with Scott himself behind the wheel. Adrianna huffed irately, but did as he asked.

"I got out of detention," She started. "I heard what sounded like a fight and ran in that direction. Then, I fought the Kanima, got my ass handed to me," She swore casually, cringing as Gerard glared at her.

"Language." He reminded her strictly, before waving his hand for her to continue.

"Anyway," She said dismissively. "After that, I got stuck in the pool for a while and then I went up against the Kanima again, with Scott's help this time, and we managed to scare it off."

Gerard didn't like it. Hearing it one or two, even three times, hadn't changed that. The way she'd so readily cooperated with Scott, even after realizing that he was a werewolf, shook Gerard to his core. He couldn't trust her if she didn't chose her side.

"Was there anything else you neglected to mention." He finally spoke, tapping his weathered, slightly wrinkled hands against the steering wheel impatiently. Adrianna looked out the window instead of meeting his gaze. Her brow was furrowed as he saw her debating whether to tell him the whole truth.

"There is one thing you should know." She told him plaintively, speaking quietly but clearly.

"And what's that." Gerard prompted, trying not to permit his excitement to show in his tone or expression. He couldn't have her catching onto his plan. It was vital for his survival.

"They stole your book." Adrianna's voice was thick with emotion. Perhaps sadness, perhaps outrage; he could never tell with her. It was one of the things he both loved and hated about her. She made an excellent double agent but he wasn't always sure how she really felt.

Finally meeting his intense gaze, Adrianna's lips quirked in an amused little smile. "Scott stole your Physiologus but they don't even know how to read it." She shared, running a hand through her slightly damp hair. He noticed that she wasn't wearing her jacket. It spiked concern within him.

"Then they're as useless as they are stupid." He was apoplectic and his normally deep, resonating voice cracked under the strain of his fury. "I need to know, Adrianna," He found himself saying. "Can I trust you?" He asked.

Her eyes widened and her fists clenched. She didn't answer right away but when she did, he didn't have to deal with the nonsense Allison had put him through. "Absolutely." She had conviction in her voice.

"Good," Gerard replied, pleased with himself. "Then do this for me." He told her, holding out the handle of a serrated blade for her to take. He looked from her, to the young beta that had just gotten out of his car, and then back. Adrianna nodded but did not speak.

As Gerard climbed out of the car and his granddaughter followed behind him, towards Scott, he felt the familiar adrenaline buzz in his veins that he'd become accustomed to since he was eighteen years old and trusted with his first solo hunt. Soon, he understood, it would be Adrianna's turn. But not yet; not until he'd gotten what he needed from her.

"Don't move." Gerard warned as they came within a few feet of Scott and Adrianna, after a short moment of indecision that Gerard internally frowned upon, pushed the knife within the beta's stomach, inches from his lungs.

"Even though I can practically feel the tissue around the blade already trying to heal," Adrianna added, slipping into her own smartly crafted shell—so similar to her mother's—as easily as one took a deep breath. "You never know with a beta."

"Besides," Gerard felt his voice lighten with his pride. "We'd lose this perfect picture." He gestured between them. "The kind old grandfather embracing his favourite grandson after hearing good news from the doctor, and the supporting sister-in-law close behind with nothing but kind words and heartfelt wishes."

Smiling cryptically, Gerard placed his own hand over Adrianna's and pushed the knife in deeper. Scott grimaced but didn't cry out. "That's right." He admitted, delighted to have fooled the boy. "I can play the nice, doddering grandpa who likes to cook and tell stories and be sweet and charming, and trust me, I can do it far better than you playing 'average broken-hearted teenage boy'."

Gerard twisted Adrianna's trembling hand and took note, with some degree of discontent, that she'd missed all of his internal organs. "Are you listening?" He demanded of Scott, taking note that the boy had glanced over towards the hospital doors, no doubt looking for help.

"Yes." The beta spat through clenched teeth. It seemed even the most innocent and gentle of werewolves, had a darker, more barbaric side.

"Perfect. Now, you're going to do me a favour one of these days," He informed the boy, holding the knife fast as he felt Adrianna's hand try to pull back. "And you're going to do it, because if you don't, this knife goes in her." He gestured towards the woman exiting the hospital. Melissa McCall; the boy's mother.

"Scott?" He asked as the werewolf's angry gaze remained trained on the dark haired woman only a few yards away from them. "I truly believe that it's so much easier when bad things don't have to happen to good people." He said to Scott with false sympathy. "Don't you agree?"

"Yes." The boy answered tightly. Gerard felt a thrill of satisfaction at the power he held over a creature such as Scott. All it took was a little bit of pain and a well placed threat to gain the upper hand over those stronger than you; Gerard had learned that long ago.

Removing his hand over Adrianna's, his young protege quickly extracted the knife. As he turned to walk away, he caught her silently apologizing to the injured, resentful beta. "Adrianna." He reminded her sharply from his position some feet away.

She needed no further prompting to trail behind him all the way back to the car, but Gerard knew that there was a part of her inches away from snapping every form of control he had over her. It was a part he needed to silence immediately.

"It's cold out." He told her, opening the back passenger's door instead of his own to retrieve the leather jacket he'd given her after Kate's funeral. It had belonged to the woman herself and he knew, without a doubt, that it was important to him for more that just it's sentimental value.

"Here, you left this at the house." He held out the jacket for her to wear, freshly dried after her tussle with the Kanima in the pools. "I had it washed for you." He explained as she took the coat and hesitantly sniffed the fabric in her hands.

"Thank you." She smiled, slipping her arms into the sleeves before getting into the front seat.

Gerard nodded his head, sadistic pleasure forcing his lips into a wide, joyous smile. Now, she was all his. Now, his plan was foolproof. The best part was that she wouldn't even know he was using her until it was too late.