Uh, hi guys. Happy 2015. Sorry it's been a while. Thank you for all your kind and encouraging words. I'm hoping to update a bit more frequently now, although I can't make any promises. For now, here's the next chapter.
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"You're sure it was Malia?" Kira asks for the third time, flopping down on Lydia's bed and looking up at the other girl in confusion. "Like, really, really sure?"
"Absolutely." Lydia nods resolutely, closing the door behind her and facing Kira. "She didn't slow down enough for me to talk to her, but it was definitely her."
Kira doesn't answer right away. She seems to be thinking deeply about it, as she had ever since Lydia had picked her up from school this afternoon. It's been two days since Lydia had woken up in the cemetery (again) and seen Malia in the woods. Since then she'd been involved in a lengthy and very heated internal argument, and had finally decided to let someone in on what she knew. Her options had been fairly limited: she couldn't go to Scott or Stiles, since they were too close to Malia, and she herself wasn't close enough to Isaac or Ethan to trust them with this. So Kira it was.
"Blood," the kitsune says again. "She was covered in blood?"
"Or cranberry sauce," Lydia says in frustration. "I don't know, I didn't get close enough to test it. But from where I stood, it looked like blood."
Kira falls silent again. Lydia starts pacing, and then, realizing that's just making her even more agitated, sits down beside her friend.
"Scott hasn't said anything," Kira says finally. "So if he knows, he's keeping it to himself."
"He probably doesn't know," Lydia says. "If he did, he would've told us about it."
Kira nods, but there's something hesitant about it, like she doesn't quite believe it. Lydia doesn't push the issue.
"Right now it doesn't matter what Scott does or doesn't know," she says briskly. "We need to figure out what Malia's been doing."
"Okay." Kira seems relieved about having a definite plan, some kind of purpose. Even if the path they're about to step onto is going to be rocky at best. She starts to say something, but cuts herself off. "Uh oh," she says instead.
Lydia looks up at her. "Uh oh?" she repeats. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," Kira says, getting to her feet and taking a couple steps toward the door before turning back to her friend, "that you have this look in your eye."
Lydia arches her eyebrows. "What look?"
"Like you're about to tell me something I won't like." Kira folds her arms, looking more wary than suspicious, and Lydia wonders if she's just transparent these days or if Kira actually knows her well enough by now to be able to tell when she's keeping something from her.
"That's because I am," Lydia admits reluctantly. Kira groans. "Hear me out," Lydia says quickly, and the kitsune gives her an obliging, albeit reluctant, nod. "I think I know what Malia's been doing. And I think I know why."
"Okay." Kira seems more interested now, although there's still an air of wariness about her. "So what's the catch?"
It's a theory Lydia's been working on for the past couple days. She hasn't shared it with anyone yet, and she hadn't been entirely sure she was going to – ever. But she can't do this alone, and if she's right, she needs to act quickly. If she doesn't, she'll leave the pack in danger. She may not really be part of it anymore, but she's not going to abandon them.
"You know those girls who've been murdered?" Lydia asks.
Kira starts nodding, and then she stops. Her eyes narrow. "No," she says. "Lydia, please tell me your theory isn't that Malia is a serial killer."
She'd been expecting resistance, but Lydia has the evidence on her side. "It makes sense," she says earnestly. "Here, hang on."
She gets to her feet and retrieves a notebook from under a pile of textbooks on her desk. Gesturing to Kira, she lays it out on her bed and opens it to the first page. Kira sits down beside her and looks at the book, but she doesn't seem thrilled. "What am I looking at?" the kitsune asks. "This looks like a mess."
Lydia's eyes are darting all over the page, reacquainting herself with the facts and her theories. "Oh, right." She points out the different colored lines that link the photographs and newspaper clippings together, and she explains what each of them means. When Kira still doesn't seem to get it, Lydia backs up and starts from the beginning. "Malia was a coyote, right?" she says, and Kira nods. "A wild animal. She literally lived in the woods for eight years."
She pauses, making sure Kira's following so far. When it becomes clear she is, Lydia goes on.
"Scott brought her back, and her time in Eichen House seems to have mellowed her out a bit, but she's still kind of wild," she says, and there are no protests from the kitsune. "I know she's been having trouble with her transformations and with controlling her powers – like Scott did when he first turned."
"But Scott didn't kill anyone," Kira points out. "And Malia's not alone. She has the pack, and she's been letting us help her."
"Has she?" Lydia retorts. "Think about it. She doesn't really talk to anyone aside from Scott and Stiles, and from what I've heard, she doesn't pay attention in their supernatural-or-whatever-they-are lessons."
Again, Kira has no protests. She's starting to look troubled, but she doesn't interrupt.
"So if you were a teenage werecoyote who was full of angst and having trouble fitting into society, what would you do?" Lydia prompts.
Kira scans the notebook again, following the lines, reading the news clippings, examining the photos. Then she looks up at Lydia. "I'd go after people I felt strong emotions toward," she says slowly. "Like hate, or anger, or…"
"Jealousy," Lydia supplies, and by the way Kira's eyes darken she knows she's finally gotten her point across.
"So let me get this straight." Kira points to the book and then at Lydia and back again. "You think Malia's jealous of all these other 'normal' teenage girls, which is making her coyote out and go around killing them?"
"I wouldn't put it exactly like that," Lydia says, slightly defensive, "but essentially yeah."
"Right. And this is based on what, exactly?"
Lydia sighs. "I saw Malia covered in blood, remember? And Deaton said that these murders aren't premeditated – they're vicious. Brutal. Like someone who couldn't control themselves."
"Like a werecoyote who was having trouble controlling her powers," Kira says.
"It makes sense."
Kira makes one of her you're talking nonsense but I'm trying to humor you faces. Apparently deciding to give her friend the benefit of the doubt, she says, "What did Scott say when you told him?"
Lydia hesitates. "I haven't exactly told him yet," she says.
Kira's expression switches to one of you're an idiot and I would be laughing at you if this weren't all so serious. "So you have a theory that one of your pack mates is going around killing people, and you haven't told your alpha?"
Put that way, it does sound bad. Tiredness overwhelms her and Lydia decides that now would be a good time to give up on trying to convince Kira she's right. "Okay," she says, resigned, "don't believe me. But I still think I'm right about this."
"Normally I wouldn't argue with a genius, but…" Kira trails off.
Lydia narrows her eyes. "But what?"
"It's just… I know things have been hard on you lately," she says tentatively. When Lydia doesn't jump in with an explanation or a retort, she asks quietly, "Have you been having trouble sleeping again?"
Although her first instinct is to lie, Lydia pushes it away. "Yes," she admits, and she feels much more vulnerable than she's felt in months. Kira's eyes soften and she looks like she might be about to hug her. Lydia really hopes she doesn't. "Whenever I do sleep, I have nightmares," she confides. "And even when I'm awake, I don't really feel like I am. It's like – like I'm always somewhere between waking and sleep."
"Like you're trapped in your own kind of limbo," Kira muses. "Like a less intense version of bardo."
"Yeah." Lydia avoids meeting Kira's eyes, not wanting to see the sympathy that's sure to be there. She can handle the pack protecting her in actual fights, but she can't handle her friends looking at her like she's breaking their hearts.
"Have you… have you seen Kate again?" Kira's voice makes it clear she's terrified to hear the answer, and Lydia wishes she had better news to give her.
"A couple times," she says, which is only downplaying it a little. Her usual nightmares have been replaced with dreams about Kate – but not the way she used to be. There's something inhuman about her, something almost like a werewolf, and every now and then she'll flex her hands and reveal long, animal-like claws.
"Do you think she's actually trying to come back?"
There's fear in the kitsune's voice, but not enough. Of course there isn't; Kira hadn't been around when Kate was. She hadn't seen her go off the deep end, although she'd been caught up to speed on everything Kate had done. Lydia's heart aches as she thinks of the only two people who would be able to understand why this terrifies her so much. Scott and Stiles had been there through it all – they'd been more involved than her, at the start – and they would understand her terror. But she's not sure how to talk to them anymore.
"I don't know," she says, exhaustion creeping up on her like shadows. Fighting back a yawn, she starts to search the room for her pajamas.
Taking the hint, Kira gets to her feet and puts the notebook on the desk. She even seems like she's about to leave, but she pauses at the door. "Lydia?"
The banshee looks over at her. "Yeah?"
"Do you – do you want me to stay with you tonight?"
Her words are tentative, hesitant, and Lydia knows why. Ever since Allison's death, Kira's seemed less sure of herself, like she's worried people will think she's trying to take the hunter's place. Lydia's not looking for someone to replace Allison, but she doesn't want to be alone. "If you want," she says, as casual as she can, trying to maintain some of her dignity.
Kira seems to understand, and a few minutes later they're settling into bed. Although Lydia's not sure how to say it, she's grateful for the company. She rolls onto her side, trying to avoid jostling her wound, and then her eyes fly open.
She's not in her bed anymore. She's not even in her room. She's in the middle of the woods, up near the Hale house. She hasn't been here often, but she knows the place well enough. What she doesn't know, however, is what she's doing here.
That soon becomes apparent as she starts to pick her way back through the trees. She's only gone a hundred yards when she sees someone up ahead, and even under the pale moonlight she can tell who it is. This time, Kate doesn't keep her distance. She approaches, more quickly than should be humanly possible, and suddenly she's standing right in front of Lydia. This feels more real than the dreams she's been having, although Lydia's mind's been known to play tricks on her before.
"What are you doing here?" Lydia asks, trying to sound brave even though her heart feels like it might break through her ribcage. "And more to the point, what am I doing here?"
"I see you've been following the hint I gave you," Kate says. "About your new pack member's nightly activities."
"You mean how Malia's been killing people?" Lydia says, and it might be her imagination but it looks like something close to admiration colors Kate's eyes. "Yeah, I looked into it."
"Good. Since I know I can trust you and your little pack to take care of that, I need to draw your attention to something else." Kate waits, seemingly for some kind of exclamation of fear or surprise, but Lydia won't give her the satisfaction. "All right, you can be stoic and silent if you want. It won't make a difference to me."
Lydia wraps her arms around herself, suddenly aware of how cold it is out here. And aware of how dangerous. Even before she knew about all the supernatural creatures running around, these woods had always scared her. And now she knows what lurks in the dark, and that's even worse than anything she'd ever imagined. But somehow not quite as bad as the monster standing in front of her.
"I need to show you something," she says, moving toward her.
Lydia backs up so quickly that she hits a tree.
"You need to come with me," Kate says, reaching for her.
Lydia closes her eyes and shakes her head, willing this to be a dream.
"Come. With. Me." The words are a growl now, and they spark something in Lydia.
So she does the only thing she can think of, as loudly as she can.
She screams.
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I'd love to hear your thoughts, so leave me a review and I'll see you all next chapter.