"Are you sure you don't want to go with Stiles to check on Lydia?" Scott asked me for the umpteenth time as we all left the school and head towards the parking lot in order to somehow muddle through the rest of the night trying to understand what Gerard wanted with Jackson, or rather, the kanima.
"Right now Stiles is probably the only one she'll talk to. I know her, and right now, Stiles is the best thing for her. Besides, I'm not going anywhere until I know for sure what's going on. That bastard made my best friend cry by killing her ex-boyfriend, so I'm going to make sure he gets what he deserves." I responded calmly yet with a tone brimming with underlying anger. "Hey, zombie-wolf, where's my car?"
"Sorry, not here. I'll return it to you when I have a second spare." Peter promised me so I glowered at him darkly. He better keep his word otherwise I'll be pissed. More pissed than I am right now. So the five of us all piled into the one car, Derek's, and I sat in between Scott and Isaac in the back, feeling a little awkward at being so tightly pressed against the two of them. For the most part the journey was silent, though after I while I decided to get a few things off my chest.
"And you, moron. You still haven't apologised to me for breaking into my house that time and nearly choking me to death." I announced, scowling at the back of Derek's head as he drove. Immediately Scott sat up, paying full attention instead of absently staring out the window.
"You did what?!"
"I was trying to figure out what she was and I didn't like her attitude." Derek answered bluntly, which only pissed me off more so I wiggled my foot free from the foot-well, shifted a little then kicked him in the head. "Ow! Hey!"
"That was one real crappy apology Hale, what you did hurt. You're lucky I was able to make the bruising disappear before my parents saw it. In any case, I'd saved your life twice by keeping you from drowning, so your 'thank yous' also suck. You need to work on that." Looking at Isaac, I wiggled back into a comfortable position. "You were right when you said he had no social skills." Isaac paled dramatically.
"You had to pick a time when we're in a confined space to bring that up, didn't you?" I couldn't help but smirk a little.
"Of course, I love drama and besides, you still owe me for tricking me into thinking you were drowning that time." Snuggling into Danny's sweater, I breathed in the scent of Armani like it were a drug before sighing deeply. I felt tired so I let my head drop against Scott's shoulder since it was broader and therefore more comfortable, deciding to rest for a while. Scott rather nicely lowered his shoulder for me, letting me sleep for a bit until we arrived at the Hale house, pulling to a stop where I woke up with a quick intake of breath, sensing the ceasing of movement. "Hm?"
"You awake sleepyhead?" Isaac teased as he opened the door then held it for me, letting me climb out. Brushing past him he caught the scent of Danny's sweater, making him pause for a moment before looking at me. "You really like Armani, huh?"
"I like Danny in Armani." I clarified, booting the door shut with my foot as we all began towards the house. "It really is too bad he's gay." Isaac snorted behind me, probably shaking his head or something too. Just as I was about to climb the steps of the porch, Derek put out his hand to stop me, drawing me to the side as everyone passed us, though they paused until Derek shot them a glare. "Need something?" I asked coldly, putting up my defences and warily keeping what I felt a safe distance between us. When Derek levelled his gaze with me, I found them oddly soft and meaningful, as if he were actively trying not to be intimidating.
"Listen, I know I was a little out of line back then, but you need to understand it was a tense time for everyone. I needed to make sure you weren't a threat like Jackson is right now, that's why I was harsh with my questioning." He began to tell me, making me frown for a moment before it clicked.
"Was that supposed to be an apology? Jesus, you really are terrible at this, that was awful try again." Annoyance flickered in his expression before he drew in a breath to keep his anger in check. Behind him I could see Scott, Isaac and even Peter lingering, curious to see what was going to happen.
"I was doing what I thought was right at the time, I didn't mean for it to go so far. All I wanted was to scare you into telling us what we wanted to know." Derek clarified, not that it mattered to me any. In fact it made me dislike him more. "I wasn't actually going to kill you."
"Nope, still sucks. Try again."
"If you had just-"
"Nuh uh."
"…I thought-"
"No."
"Will you just-?"
"Nope."
"I'm sorry, okay?!" Grinning victoriously, I skipped forwards until I was right in front of Derek, reaching up to pinch his cheek even as his eyes flashed red and he growled at me like a real wolf.
"There's a good boy, that wasn't so hard was it?" He slapped my hand away but I just smirked, satisfied with the knowledge that I'd gotten under his skin. "But next time you think about laying your hands on me, violent or otherwise, I want you to know this." Suddenly my hand darted out and grabbed the front of his throat, squeezing just enough for it to hurt as my eyes flashed into a luminous gleam of blue and green, swirling dreamily as a shimmer ran across my body, moonlight reflecting on the delicate fish scales that appeared the same moment my nails grew sharp and bone white, drawing beads of blood from his flesh as my voice dropped into a deadly murmur. "You're not the only one with claws from now on."
Releasing him, Derek coughed and quickly took to massaging his throat, the puncture wounds healing quickly as I slid past him. Peter looked impressed, looking me up and down as I entered the house. "Oh shut up." Not in the mood for him or anyone else for that matter, we all walked in where Peter went straight for the staircase.
"I told you, I looked everywhere."
"You didn't look here." Lifting something out from underneath the staircase where it had been hidden, Peter opened the lid of the long flat box then blew away the dust from it.
"What is that, a book?"
"No. It's a laptop. What century are you living in?" Frowning at his nephew, I couldn't help but be amused at the exchange between them. "A few days after I got out of the coma, I transferred everything that we had. Fortunately, the Argents aren't the only ones that keep records." Great, so that means he might have something about the kanima. Let's just hope it explained why Gerard felt the need to have Jackson stab himself with his own claws. A phone started to ring and I looked across to Scott who quickly answered it, walking away slightly so that his voice didn't disturb the others.
"Hey, mom, I can't talk right now." He began then listened to his mom's response, face quickly falling into a furrowed expression as his mom spoke. "What's wrong?" After a few moments Scott lowered the phone and looked at us, the expression on his face already telling everybody that his mom did not have good news. "She says we need to get to the hospital right now. Something's up with Jackson's body."
"Oh that can't be good." I shook my head, groaning inwardly.
"Are we gonna go?" Isaac asked and Derek nodded, telling Scott and Isaac to get down to the hospital to check it out whilst they worked on things from here. I elected to go with the guys, not fancying the idea of being stuck alone with Derek and Peter, one of which didn't like me much and the other just freaked me out just by breathing on account of the fact he should be dead. Peter tossed something in the air at my face which Isaac caught quickly before it could hit me, revealing them to be my keys.
"Your car is at the end of the road by the front gate."
"You sneaky little son of a bit-!"
"Okay, now we're leaving." Isaac clamped his hand over my mouth and smartly pulled me away before I could spout off too many profanities at Peter who smiled sweetly and even blew me a kiss, making me all the more enraged. He had to pull me all the way to my car before I dragged his hand off my mouth.
"Ugh! I hate that zombie-wolf with a passion!" I complained loudly, hoping he could still hear me. With a click of a button my car unlocked and I quickly got in, Isaac and Scott hurrying to also jump inside before I could take off without them. I tore out of there like a madwoman, yet glad to have my car back. I noted that the tank was full, which meant he must have filled up for me after stealing it which was something at least.
"Um…Cordy? You wanna think about slowing down?" Scott asked me as he scooted forwards from the back seat, Isaac gripping onto the roof and the front just to keep him grounded as I continued to hit the gas and accelerate.
"You wanna shut up and let the woman drive? Trust me, we'll be at the hospital in record time." Not at all encouraged by my promise, Scott hastened to buckle himself in as I swerved around a slower moving car and tore off into the town. Just like I said, I had us outside that hospital in about half the time it should have taken us to get there, and whilst the boys were still recovering from the rollercoaster of a ride they'd just experienced, I breezed forwards as fresh as a daisy.
My phone was out and my fingers tapping on the screen to text Stiles, asking him after Lydia before I looked up, noticing that Scott and Isaac weren't with me before turning around and looking back at my car, seeing their terrified faces in the windows. "Oh grow up, it wasn't that bad."
"I think I saw my life flash before my eyes once or twice back there." Isaac breathed, fumbling to unbuckle the seatbelt and stagger out of the car. "You?"
"I'm pretty sure I lost my lunch at some point." Scott agreed. What wimps. Rolling my eyes I hurried into the hospital, following Scott's lead as Melissa directed us on where to go before we found ourselves at the morgue where she was waiting with Jackson's body. Immediately we saw the problem, and she was right to be as freaked out as she looked. Almost his entire body was becoming encased in a slimy cocoon, something a dead body really shouldn't be doing.
"What's happening to him?"
"I thought that you were gonna tell me. Is it bad?" Melissa asked as the four of us just stood and stared at him, unsure of what to do.
"It doesn't look good." Isaac stepped a little closer in order to get a better look, making me gulp back the nervous stone in my throat, and when Jackson's head twitched I let out a tight lipped squeak as we all jumped. "Whoa. Um, mom, could you zip it up, please?" What? Why would you let your mom go near that thing? Way to go McCall. Shaking herself off, Melissa cautiously began to zip the body bag back up, however it caught just under his chin, becoming stuck. Without warning Jackson opened his mouth with a hiss, displaying rows and rows of needle like teeth which made me yelp and dive for Isaac, grabbing hold of his arm in order to be ready to hide as Scott panicked. "Mom, zip. Zip! Zip, mom, zip! Zip!"
With a final tug Melissa got it closed, but that didn't stop Jackson from moving. He jerked occasionally, making this whole situation all the more nightmarish. For a moment we all just stood there in silence, processing what we'd just witnessed until finally, I piped up from where I had partially hidden myself behind Isaac, totally unashamed to admit that I had been prepared to throw him at Jackson first in order to run for safety. "Somebody please call Derek and tell him what's going on. Also…please tell me that this is just all a bad dream?"