~Theo POV~
"Damn you, Theo! You knew how I felt about you cornering her up! You are not supposed to make direct contact!"
Liam's ranting was getting on my nerves in a way only he could. I hadn't harmed one pretty, little hair on Rachel's head, and he was acting like I'd slit her throat.
"Subtlety isn't exactly my strongest suit." I smiled at him. "You know damn well what I mean. We are all aware of EXACTLY what your idea of finding things out is! What you NEED to do is listen to instructions." "From a wolf younger than me? Psh, please."
Liam growled.
"Could you guys shut up maybe?" Mason said, "The things we're doing are a shot in the dark to begin with. We don't need you screwing things up, Theo."
"Look, you guys study deeper into this logically, that's what you're best at, right?" I asked Mason, and included Corey, "What Liam and I need to do is run interference. Did you get Melissa's message earlier?" "Yes. Another body turned up in the morgue, this one a girl. She was 18 years old. Eight. Teen. This killer has no preference, or mercy." "Which means," I said, "we can't be stuck here fighting over dumb shit while the thing has free reign. What I did was to provide a clearer view of Rachel. I didn't hurt her, only provoked her. As much as I hate to admit it, Liam was right. Her eyes never changed."
Liam's shoulders released of their tension, and I couldn't understand why that pissed me off, but it did. "Don't think she's out of the woods yet on my part," I growled at him, "she is still a suspicious person! She reeks of anxiety and fear, and that doesn't exactly scream innocent. If you saw past your nose and her curves, you'd see that."
I turned to leave the room, but Liam took me by surprise by shoving me out the doorway. I hit the pavement of the parking lot hard, fueling the rage already growing within me. I felt my eyes change and I saw red, and with that, my body began to tingle with the need to change. I stopped myself from going that far, but turned to face Liam, who was already in an attack stance.
"Come at me again, let all that rage fly. It's all you're good at anyway." Liam's roar of fury brought forth one of my own and I flew at him, punching him in the stomach, but he didn't stay down as long as I had expected, and instead took a swing at my nose. Not that again.
I dove and the blow landed on my left shoulder blade instead, but I drove him into the ground. Once he was pinned, I drew back to break HIS nose. I felt the wolf and the coyote powering this…
"STOP IT!" Mason screamed, breaking my concentration and Liam threw me off and stood up. "If you two could stop being dumbasses for two seconds! Look!"
Mason turned his phone around to let us see. I wiped blood off of my cheek, not sure whether it was mine or Liam's, and glanced at the text on the screen.
From: A. Deaton
6:16 p.m.
May have found a possible creature! Meet at vet's station at 6:30.
"Well, that's good at least." I said, rolling my arm to test my sore shoulder, regardless of the pain dwindling by the second. "Thank God, maybe he found out something, anything, which can help us stop it." Liam said, "Let's go."
None of us said a word on the way there, which was fine by me. Seemed to me all that Liam had to say anymore was bullshit, and Mason and Corey never spoke on basic level anyway, it was all tech stuff and big words, both of which had no interest to me.
Once we pulled up to the doc's place, we climbed out and went in, locking the door behind us. "What have you got, Doc?" Liam asked.
"Alright, so you said the bodies you saw, they had green veins, right?" He asked, giving his usual timid, deep thinking look. "Yeah, they were swollen, like, very visible and a sick green color. Also, their throats were ripped out."
"What if they weren't ripped out at all?" "What?" I asked. "When you checked the throat and neck area, were their signs of trauma? Like claws, or even teeth, and been involved? Think about it."
I thought back to the bodies I'd seen. Now that he mentioned it, no, there hadn't been any marks to indicate a fight had occurred. The flesh hadn't been ripped, torn or even punctured. "No, the throat was just…open, and raw looking."
"That's where the green veins come in. According to things I was able to dig up, my guess is that the green color came from poison. Acidic poison." "Are you saying this thing has a bite that melts throats?" Liam asked, his eyes the size of soccer balls. I felt myself growing uneasy.
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Could it be another version of the kanima?" I asked, "I mean, it had a paralytic poison already, if it evolved, or was changed into a chimera, could it have caused that?" "There's nothing like that on record, but, with the things I've seen stroll through Beacon Hills, I've tossed all written knowledge aside. I couldn't be sure it's a kind of kanima, but your guess is as good as mine. One thing I do strongly guess though, is that it's reptilian. However, this is only a guess." "Okay, so we look for reptilian eyes and features. We'll poke around some more. Thanks for all your help, Doc." "I will continue to search for answers. Meanwhile, please stay safe." "Will do." Liam said, leading the way out.
"Okay. That was helpful. Now, we need to tell Melissa."
~Rachel POV~
"Okay, well, your temperature is low grade, and that could mean possible infection, but it could also just be because you're hurting. We will monitor that while you're here. Is there any pain here now?" I asked the current patient. "N-no," she sniffed.
My patient was a 12 year old girl named Helena Rodgers, and she had taken a spill from her bike onto some broken glass in the street. Her arm was deeply cut and required stitches, to which I was administering as gently as possible. It had taken a bit to get her numbed up and it had made my chest hurt to watch her cry.
I took a deep breath and pushed the needle through the first time, and began to quickly and neatly sow her up. Melissa stood behind me, watching intently, but gave no criticism. A knock on the door startled us both.
"Melissa."
I forced myself not to take attention from Helena's arm to greet Liam. I needed to pay attention to her wound. "Hey Liam," I tossed at him from my bent pose. I assumed he didn't hear me, and when I stopped for just a second to look up, I was shocked to see they, including Melissa, had stepped out the door.
"Okay, you need to tell Chris about this. He might an idea about what's going on."
"That's what we thought too. He-"
Stop listening in, this isn't your business, I told myself, and went back to closing up Helena's arm. I had to admit that I was curious as to who Chris was, and what they needed to tell him.
I tied off the fifty-third stitch on little Helena's arm and just to be safe, disinfected it once more. "Alright, Helena," I said as sweetly as possible, "you're all done. Do you want me to tell your mom she can come in now?" She nodded and I stood, going to get her mother who was sitting outside the door.
"Mrs. Rodgers?"
"Hello, Rachel," Theo's voice said behind me, like he'd just been waiting for the opportunity to pester me, "I've got to say, black is your color."
Ignoring him, I walked out the door a little ways and motioned once more to the woman slightly down the hall, and thankfully, I caught her attention. "Your daughter's stitches are finished. All you have to do is finish the paperwork in here and you're free to go. You may see her now." "Oh, thank you so much, Ms. Brodie!" She said, rushing before me and I went after her. I couldn't avoid Theo's eyes on the way back, no matter how hard I tired. Once he let Mrs. Rodgers pass, he stepped in front of the door and leaned against it, slipping his hands into the pockets of his black leather jacket and giving me a smile.
"I don't have time for you, Theo. My patient is waiting for my go ahead." "Eh, they'll understand. Pretty girl, talking to a handsome face, they get the picture." "Yeah…well, I am not interested in talking to a handsome face, or you for that matter, now move."
"Oh, but you didn't say please. Didn't your mother teach you your manners?" He crooned. "Theo, I'm done being polite. Move the fuck out of my way, now." "You're cute when you're threatening me. I'll catch you later…sweetheart." He threw over his shoulder as he walked off.
If I hadn't had patients waiting on me, I would have leapt on his back and beat his skull in. I bit my lip hard to fight my anger, then released a breath I'd taken in slowly and walked through the door.
"Okay, so Helena, you try to be careful, okay? Don't want any more accidents," I gave a soft smile and touched her shoulder for a second, "I have a prescription for some painkillers for her, miss. She might not even need them, but we're all different with pain tolerance. I will let you judge."
"Thank you so much for tending to her, Ms. Brodie. You've done a fantastic job!" "No problem," I said, "be careful going out."
Melissa came rushing back in seconds after the door clicked shut behind the Rodgers. "Damn, I'm so sorry Rach, Liam needed to talk to me about something. That wasn't professional of me at all." "It's fine. I got her arm tended to and gave the prescription from the doctor. She was set."
Melissa smiled and went get the next patient when I stopped her with my quick, and what I hoped was innocent, question. "Melissa, who is Chris?"
Her smile softened, and her cheeks took on a glow…even her eyes shimmered slightly. I suddenly felt like I no longer needed to know, as that was too intimate a look. But she answered me anyway.
"Chris…is my husband."
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