Chapter 27: Time is Not on Our Side
It had been 24 hours.
24 hours of snapping a stranger's bones while she cried and broke her jaw on pieces of metal gags and almost attacked him.
Tyler only knew it had been a full day because they had been given food again. And that only happened once every 24 hours, like clockwork.
Except this time, something was missing. For days, ever since he had been tossed into this prison, his scrap of bread and meat had always come with something else - blood. Of course, it was always laced with vervain or wolfsbane. It kept him sated, but only barely. He hid it from Erica, of course. Now, though, as he stared at her neck from across the room, he feared she was soon to learn just how hungry he could get.
Scott yawned as he shut the clinic door behind him. He rubbed tired eyes as he turned around, and then promptly yelped at the figure that appeared in front of him.
"Too slow."
"Stefan. Thank God. I thought you were Caroline with another pop quiz. She makes my brain hurt."
"You're going to get hurt, for real, with reflexes like that," Stefan frowned. "What have I been telling you?"
"Keep my guard up." Scott lowered his head. "I know. I'm sorry. I was just -"
"Distracted?" Stefan cocked a single brow.
Scott's own brows pushed together before smoothing and he sighed.
"You heard."
"Which, again, you should've heard me listening." Stefan gestured to his car and Scott followed. "He was right, you know."
"You're taking his side?"
"This isn't about sides," the vampire slid into the driver's seat while Scott buckled. "This is about you."
"Me?"
"You're distracted. If it's happening at work, it'll happen in a fight. Your head won't be in it and you won't be ready if and when the Alphas strike again."
"It's not just Stiles. Al -"
"Allison, I know. But Deaton was right. You can't change things with her right now. But you can with Stiles. Why risk more than you have to?"
"Risk? You're worried I'm going to get hurt. Well I'm terrified that Stiles is gonna get hurt - or worse. It's happened. I've seen it happen. I don't want him involved."
"He's already been involved. Which means he is involved. He could be a target. Used to get to you."
"I know!" Scott threw his head back against the seat. "Why do you think I pushed him away?"
"Do you think that makes any difference to your enemies? They know you, so they know how much he means to you."
"What am I supposed to do? Gerard threatened my mom. He hurt Stiles. Am I not supposed to have people that I care about in my life?"
"No, Scott. It's the people that we care about in our lives that give us the strength to fight those that would threaten or hurt us, or them. They give us a reason to fight. And yes, sometimes we lose them, or we hurt them, and sometimes, sometimes they hurt us, but that doesn't mean we cut everyone out. Trust me. I've tried that. All that road leads to is loneliness and pain. You deserve better. Your friend deserves better."
Scott stared across at the vampire in silence as they sped down the street.
"Summer," he sighed. "Just like Allison. I'll wait till the end of summer, till school starts. Give us more time to figure out the Alpha's plan and find Boyd and Erica. But even if we haven't, I'll - I'll talk to him. Apologize."
"Good. But don't wait too long. You never know how much time you have with someone."
"Fourteen hours."
Tyler blinked awake, and immediately flinched backward at the face level, and scarily close, to his own.
"You're really pale, and not in an 'undead creature' sort of way. And you just slept for fourteen hours straight. Can hybrids even get sick?"
Tyler swallowed, wincing at the course curve of his throat.
"What? No comeback? You really must be sick."
She moved to place her palm on his forehead and his hand caught hers.
"I'm just trying to help."
"You can help by going away." Tyler squinted.
"Yes, because there are so many places to go in our one room suite," she waved her hand at the walls, as if he hadn't been staring at them for weeks.
"I'm serious." Tyler pushed her arm away. "Go to the other side of the vault. Now."
"What is your problem?"
"I've been trying to hide it from you. Keep it under control."
"Whoa." Erica leaned back. "Are you going to shift? I thought you said you -"
"I said I'm a hybrid now. Part werewolf. Part vampire. Vampires need to feed."
There was a silence in the room as the weight of that knowledge, and the realization behind it, dropped.
"Oh, oh. I don't understand. They give us food. Why wouldn't they give you blood? What's the point of keeping you here if they're just going to let you die?"
"I honestly have no idea what they want with me. But I won't die. I'll just get weaker and weaker until I dessicate."
"That doesn't sound good either."
"It's like being mummified."
"Yeah. Definitely not good. What can I do?"
Tyler looked at her with a crinkly sort of grin. Not long ago, the girl wouldn't even tell him her name and treated every conversation they had like having a root canal. All he needed to do to earn the werewolf's favor apparently was break her bones a few hundred times.
"Stupid question." She shook her head and shoved her arm in his face. "Here."
"What?" Tyler blinked. "No. I've only ever used blood bags. And those few times I had to resort to the Stefan-squirrel-diet when I was on the run. I've never drank from the vein and I'm starving. I don't know if I'll be able to stop."
"Well, then you should have said something before you were starving." Erica smirked.
"This is serious." Tyler pushed himself up against the wall and away from her. "I could hurt you. I could kill you."
"What have you been telling me this whole time? Control. To control the beast inside, instead of letting it control you. You broke every single bone in your body, again and again to get free from that sire bond. To get control over the shift. So," she rolled up her sleeve, turning her pale wrist toward his lips, "control ."
