Don't let me go down this road again
We both know where this ends
In a storm of feeling, I'm so unappealing
I can't play these games
A Part Of Me – Neck Deep
"He isn't answering his phone!" Stiles sounded out of breath, even though he wasn't running but instead merely behind the wheel of his car, foot pressed hard onto the accelerator. "Why the hell isn't he answering his phone?!"
"Maybe he's getting lucky," I suggested lightly, absently rifling through my satchel for my thermos of blood. The car went silent, and I glanced up to see Lydia frowning at me from the passenger seat and Stiles glaring at me in the the rearview mirror. "What?" I asked defensively, pouting back at them over the backseat.
"Dammit," my human cursed when Scott's phone went through the voicemail again. Suddenly the brakes screeched as Stiles slammed his foot down on them. "Is that-?" he began, cutting himself off as his heartbeat began to rise in fear.
I was out of the car and by an unconscious Scott's side before the human or banshee could so much as unbuckle their seatbelts. "Scott?" I called, gravel from the road digging into my knees, though I cared little. I reached forwards, lightly slapping the wolf's face as Stiles tripped over to me, Lydia close on his heels. "He's alive," I assured them, listening closely to the sound of his steady heart. "Scott!" I shouted, slapping him harder.
"Come on, Scott!" Stiles barked from his other side.
It took another minute, but finally Scott's eyes peaked open and he peered up at us blearily. All his memory seemed to come back at once, and he gasped, flying into a sitting position. "Barrow! He-he took Kira!" he stammered frantically as we backed up, giving him space to recover.
"We know, he was after her the whole time," Stiles replied as calmly as he could.
"We have to do something!" he shouted, and I moved to my feet, reaching down to tug him up to his.
"Juliet can try and track them, you call Isaac and Allison and see if they have any leads," Stiles dealt out tasks like he was a natural born leader. I didn't like being told what to do (a common thought I had these days), but I did it, however much begrudgingly, anyway.
I did a quick but thorough sweep of the area, but all I could smell was the rotting stench from the school and the overpowering and stinging reek of chemicals. This would have been enough, if they hadn't used some method of transport that cut off the trail. I kicked a garbage can in anger, watching with pleasure as it flew across the road and landed in a rose garden.
"Anything?" Scott asked when I returned, having just finished his conversation with Isaac.
"Nothing," I shook my head.
"We have to think of something, he's gonna kill her!" Scott growled, clearly distressed.
"I knew he was there," Lydia spoke up, drawing our attention. "How did I know that?"
Stiles bristled in confusion. "Because you heard the flies, right?"
"What do you hear now?" Scott asked eagerly, stepping forwards impatiently.
Lydia paused. "Nothing," she admitted with a sombre look on her pretty face. "I feel like I can do this," she said after a moment. "But I don't know what to do. It's like it's on the tip of my tongue, but I don't know how to trigger it."
She stalked away, clearly needing space. Her heart raced as she began to work herself up.
"I swear to God..." she murmured in distress, eyes wet as she tugged at her hair in frustration. "It literally makes me wanna scream."
I felt a flash of sympathy for the girl, she was so new, she needed help to learn to master her abilities, but I hadn't the slightest clue where I could send her. "Okay, then scream," Stiles said suddenly, stepping towards the distraught girl. "Lydia, scream."
The sound was loud and piercing. I'd never been so close to a wailing woman's scream before, and holy shit, did it hurt. The sound cut through my head like a knife, and I winced at the force of it as it hit me. It lasted for all but a few seconds, and I realised I had stumbled back into Stiles, who snaked an arm around my waist for support.
Then there was silence so intense that it only made my head ache more. Lydia was frozen, staring off into the distance with her head tilted like she was listening to something only she could hear. Slowly, her head lifted until it was angled up at the sky. I tilted my own head back, eyes sweeping the constellations that I could barely see, looking for answers. "It's not flies," she told us, sounding out of breath, like she'd just run a marathon. She spun around abruptly, and both boys jumped about a foot in the air in surprise and wariness. "It's electricity," she said with a large, pleased grin, taking no notice of the boys' fright.
"Barrow was an electrical engineer," Stiles spoke up, and I could see the cogs in his head whirring over and over. "He worked at a power substation."
There was a beat. "What substation?" Scott demanded.
"I don't know," Stiles stammered for a moment, desperately trying to come up with the answer. "Uh – the one on the edge of town, in the industrial district...I think!" he shouted suddenly, the information coming to him in a flash.
Scott whirled around to catch my eyes. "Jules," he said bracingly, even as I shifted my weight to the balls of my feet in preparation for the command. "Run."
The power station was easy enough to find, and when I got there I could hear a muted conversation happening inside, along with the fierce hum of electricity. I paused for a moment, summoning my strength and agility, mentally preparing myself as I headed inside the building.
"Why does your blood smell like something crawled into your body and died?" As witty-one-liners went, I could have done better, but my focus was split. The man – Barrow, I assumed – spun around, one hand holding a lead out to the side, electricity sparking from the end like flames. "You alright, Kira?" I asked the girl over the buzz of the power.
"Juliet?!" she yelled back, staring across at me incredulously, clearly having no idea why, of all people, the weird goth girl from her History class was the one to show up.
"You're one of them!" Barrow said, narrowing his beady little eyes at me and shifting his stance, clutching the glowing lead tighter.
"Not quite," I responded calmly, taking a few steps forward. Electricity didn't render me useless as it did wolves, it was just a giant pain in the ass. "But if you like my friends' glowing eyes, you're gonna love what mine can do."
He surged forwards, but I wasn't in the mood, and with one well-aimed hit to the head, he went down like a deadweight, falling to the cement floor with a crack.
Engines roared from outside the station. I could still hear Barrow's heartbeat, and figured I should get the girl out before I painted the walls red with his blood. One thing was certain, he wouldn't be leaving this station alive.
"It is Kira, right?" I asked to confirm as I crouched down beside her, ripping at her bindings.
She shot me in incredulous look as I freed her, and I winced uncomfortably.
"I'm not good with names," I continued quietly, reaching down to take her hand and help her up.
"What are you doing here?" she asked in pure confusion. Her expression suddenly changed to one of panic as she caught sight of something over my shoulder. I looked back, meeting Scott's eyes through the dark. Barrow slithered out from the shadows, having recovered from my hit, and Kira cried, "Scott, no! Look out!"
The electricity was enough to send the young alpha flying back into the metal gate surrounding the room. As soon as Scott was no longer a threat, Barrow turned to us girls, stalking towards us like a predator hunting it's prey. He had no eyes for me, focused completely on Kira who was hyperventilating from behind me. I shifted my weight so I was in front of the innocent girl, my fangs sliding into view as I growled protectively.
"Don't!" Scott all but begged from the floor. "She's not the one you want!"
"Stop, before I have to put you down," I warned the man. He barely blinked, continuing to wander forwards, lead held out threateningly. I groaned in annoyance, finally darting forwards and ducking under the weapon, landing a hit to his gut that made him grunt, then a smack to his head that should have had him seeing spots.
"Juliet!" Kira yelled in alarm.
As I heard her footsteps rush towards me, thinking she would in some way save me, I spun around, shouting, "Don't!" It was too late, Kira rammed into us with a grunt, and everything exploded in a haze of bright, headache-inducing white.
I got a taste of what Lydia had been hearing all day as the only sound I could hear was the irritating hum of electricity. My entire body stung, like I was a human bitten by a hundred-thousand fire ants. I groaned, attempting to flex my fingers as I began to recover.
"Motherfucker," I grumbled furiously, blinking up at the cement ceiling blankly as my body slowly healed itself, watching as the bright, white like flickered against the rock.
I pushed myself up, my head humming unpleasantly. I spun around as quickly as I could, searching for the source of the blinding light. Kira stood in the corner, hands held out as she seemed to, somehow, draw the live electricity into her palms with all the ease of a fish breathing in water.
It seemed to last an eternity, but finally the lights disappeared, sunken into her skin without leaving a trace of a mark.
Fury filled me as I saw proof that this girl was anything but a regular human.
What did she know? What did she want?
"Jules!" Scott shouted, seeing the deadly expression on my face before it had even fully formed. He shoved himself to his feet, glancing over at Kira who suddenly looked terrified. "Stop!" he ordered, but I was barely even paying enough attention to catch his barked word.
"What are you?" I demanded the girl, grasping her by the shoulders and slamming her into the metal mesh blocking the machines from the public. She yelped in fear, eyes widening as she began to shake.
"Juliet!" Scott growled, appearing at my side and grasping my shoulder, attempting to yank me back and away from his new crush.
"What. Are. You?" I repeated, putting an order in every syllable.
"I-I don't know!" she responded, and though her heart was racing, it didn't stutter with the guilt of a lie. She was telling the truth.
"How did you do that?" I barrelled on furiously, my forearm braced across her throat, not cutting off her air, but very obviously showing I was able to should I decide to.
"I don't know!" she insisted, eyes filling with tears.
"Juliet, that's enough!" Scott snapped, grasping me by both shoulders and prying me away from the shaking girl.
I let him pull me back, glaring at him the whole time. "How do we know she's not a threat?!" I pressed, my green orbs narrowed at his puppy-dog eyes.
"You're scaring her," he hissed at me quietly, and I glanced back at the petrified girl, feeling a stab of guilt that I refused to acknowledge. "Go find Stiles and cool down," he ordered me, and though I could see sternness clear across his features, there was also understanding, which definitely hurt more. "Now, Juliet."
I wanted to make a comment about how he wasn't my alpha, but I'd admitted to being a member of his pack more times than I could count, and I couldn't pick and choose the times it applied to me. With a reluctant and resentful glare I spun around and stalked from the room. "Make sure she keeps her mouth shut when the cops give us the third degree," I murmured, quietly enough that only he would hear.
I didn't look back to see him nod, but I knew he would do so anyway, he knew the risks exposure posed.
"Stiles?" I asked loudly, slipping from the main room and into a large, empty space that remained unused. I spotted him in the centre of the room, his back turned to me as he seemed to stare into the inky darkness. "Stiles?" I asked again, a deep and unsettled feeling appearing heavy in my gut like an anvil. He was too still. "Stiles!" I snapped, thankful my voice didn't shake with fear.
He didn't move. I was at his side in the next second, and my hand clasped down on his shoulder, turning him to face me. "Jules?" he asked cautiously, blinking at me tentatively like I'd been the one acting strange.
"Are you okay?" I asked immediately, eyes roaming his form, looking for anything to explain the disturbing feeling I'd just experienced.
"Yeah," he said, gaze clouding over for a long moment before he refocused on me. "What happened?"
I hesitated, wondering if I should address what had just happened, before deciding there were more important things to focus on. "Barrow's dead and Kira's supernatural."
Stiles paused, digesting my words. "Can you repeat that last part?" he asked with a furrowed brow.
I started again, going through everything that he had missed. By the time we could hear the sirens blaring in the distance, I'd mostly forgotten about the strange incident that had just occurred, focused on keeping an eye on Kira and everything she said to the police.
"So, Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school. Someone left him a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira, then Barrow took Kira to a power substation and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her, which blacked out the entire town."
We paused, taking in the flimsy cover story we'd created.
"...sounds about right," Stiles murmured with a nod.
"How'd you know he'd take her to a power station?"
I winced, okay, so the story had a few holes. "Well because he was an electrical engineer," my boyfriend continued, and I threw my legs into his lap as I got more comfortable where I was squished in between him and the side of the couch we were all piled onto. "Where else would he take her?" he countered, hands finding their place on my knees.
"That's one hell of a deduction there, Stiles," McCall responded curtly, eyeing him with nothing but suspicion.
"What can I say? I take after my pops, he's in law enforcement," Stiles shot a wink to his father, who chortled loudly, quickly covering the sound with a few heavy coughs that made me smirk. I pressed my lips together to hide it, enjoying seeing the Agent get exactly what he deserved.
"Stiles, just answer the man," John murmured once he'd collected himself.
"We made a good guess."
"And you just happened to have your girlfriend along for the ride?" he asked through narrowed eyes. "Why would you let her into that kind of dangerous situation?" he questioned, and though I knew he was only trying to get a rise out of me, I still couldn't help but snap back.
"Nobody lets me do anything," I told him through a snarl. Stiles' hands tightened their grip on my knees, thumbs rubbing soothing circles over my cool skin.
"And why are you dressed like Little Bo Peep?" he asked, clear revulsion on his face.
"First of all, I'm Alice Liddell, you uncultured swine," the sheriff smothered another snicker, making me hum with pride, "and second of all, the combination of Halloween and this being a free country gives me a free pass to wear whatever the hell I want," I responded, my voice mockingly sweet.
Agent McCall shot me a look that told me exactly how little he liked me before finally leaving me alone and turning to Scott and Kira. I was glad to be out of the spotlight, leaning into Stiles' touch but keeping my eyes fixed on the Agent, watching his every move. "What were you two doing?"
"Eating pizza."
"Eating sushi."
They paused awkwardly, eyeing each other before replying in opposites, making his father's eyebrows shoot to his hairline skeptically.
"Eating sushi and pizza," they finally corrected themselves, looking angry at how suspicious they sounded.
"You believe this?" he asked John over his shoulder incredulously.
"To be honest, I haven't believed a word Stiles has said since he learned how to speak," the sheriff responded, and I was glad he'd found a way to at least answer somewhat honestly. "But I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time, and the girl sitting there is very lucky for it."
The Agent narrowed his eyes at the 'lucky' girl, who was clearly our weakest link. "Kira," he began reproachfully, giving her a chance to come clean. "Is that how you remember it?"
All of us leaned forwards, but none more than me. I met her eyes, a warning in mine. She gulped, but the sound was soft enough that nobody but Scott and I picked up on it. "Yes," she finally responded, heart hammering in her chest as she looked away from me nervously. "Could I get my phone back now?" she asked, and I found it odd that that was her first thought.
"Sorry, but no," McCall responded cooly.
We were all silent. "Can we leave?" I asked, merely a curtesy. Literally nothing could stop me from walking out of the room at any point.
He narrowed his eyes, looking like he more than anything wanted to say no, but couldn't find a plausible reason to do so. "Okay," he finally nodded reluctantly, and we all stood to our feet before he could change his mind.
The others filed out of the room, but Stiles hung back to talk with his dad. Not wanting to leave but not sure if I could stay, I hovered awkwardly in the doorway. "We're gonna head home," he told the sheriff, who nodded his head.
"I have to stay here for another few hours," he replied quietly. "But I'll be home before dawn."
"Do you need me to bring you some food?"
"I'll be fine. Get some sleep, Stiles." He paused, glancing over at me knowingly. "You too, Jules," he added. I had been looking away so it didn't seem like I was listening in, but clearly the jig was up. I turned back to them, smiling to cover a wince and waving at him politely. "I'll see you at home."
With that he turned back to his paperwork, dismissing us, though not unkindly. Stiles walked to the door, nudging me out over him. We slipped passed a frowning Agent McCall, nodding politely at the officer at the front desk before slipping out into the parking lot, moving directly over to the Jeep and climbing inside.
"At least Kira stuck to the story," Stiles said conversationally as he started the car, turning out onto the main road. "She'll want an explanation tomorrow, no doubt. What're we gonna tell her?"
"It's up to Scott," I answered with a shrug, and he nodded in agreement.
We were silent the remainder of the drive, no sound filling the car but the soft notes of some kind of modern, indie music, guitar strings reverberating through the cab.
It was silently decided that I would stay with Stiles, and he pulled into his driveway, turning the car off and sliding out onto the grass. I toed my shoes off at the door, grateful when my feet slipped from the small heels and onto the flat floor, tugging my jacket off from my dress and hanging it up on a hook.
We ended up in the shower, one of my all-time favourite places to end a day with him. We were both exhausted, and managed to get through it as efficiently as possible, minimal groping involved in the process. Stiles' hands felt like pure heaven as they wound through my hair, rinsing out the shampoo from my raven locks, and I leaned my head on his chest as the soap ran off our bodies. He was so exhausted that not even my naked and wet form could get his heart racing, and his eyes were fluttering shut.
We collapsed into bed, and I nuzzled into his pleasant heat, affectionately brushing my lips across his throat.
This is where I belonged, and I wasn't going to let my slip up cost me.
A/N: One of my shortest chapters, and really just a filler if I'm being honest. Now, onto business:
I know I say I'm always gonna write all these stories and only few of them get posted – every story I've talked about will be put up, just give it time. Speaking of story ideas, I've got another one. This time I'm thinking Doctor Who – and bare with me – a time stream jumper, Doctor/OC one. Now I know that there are dozens of stories like this floating around, but I've always adored the idea, and I've got some ways I think I could make mine unique.
So, my question to you is, is there any interest? Side note: I wouldn't do many episode re-writes, I'm thinking more of original adventures, with some cannon stuff mixed in - and it would be very romance-based, as are all my stories. Please let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas or requests, now's the time, because I'm laying out all the groundwork for the story.
Thanks for putting up with me so far, and be assured that there's still loads to come from me.
