Alone • Liam Dunbar

Twenty-Eight

Blood clung to my hands as I scrubbed the floor of the McCall kitchen.

It had seeped into the hardwood, staining the planks a muddy crimson. The body of the chimera that Kira had allegedly left here to rot on the island, her katana planted in its abdomen, created quite a mess. I had experience with cleaning up aspects of murder, but my usual solution had been to burn the evidence after burying the bodies, not go through tedious acts like this.

"It couldn't have been her," Lydia says, watching my movements with blank eyes.

Theo, Malia, and Stiles all sit beside her at the kitchen table, the three of them doing the same. They had offered their help, but I refused. I didn't want them to get blood on their hands in any sense of the words, and I truthfully needed the distraction from my thoughts of Liam and Hayden.

"It was her sword," Malia counters.

"Anyone could have stolen that," Stiles cuts in.

I do nothing but listen, focusing on wiping the floor and then wringing the gathered blood out into a bowl of cleaning solution. I wouldn't be able to completely clean the now-tainted grains, but I didn't want Melissa and Scott to come home to a bloodied kitchen.

They were at the station now.

Melissa needed to give her statement to the police as she had been the one to discover the body. Upon our earlier arrival, she only stayed long enough to check Stiles and I's conditions before leaving, deeming that I wasn't concussed and he wouldn't die from smoke inhalation. Scott went with his mother, wanting to give his mother his support, as well as be with Kira as she remained in custody for possible homicide.

Another reason I remained silent was that I didn't want to believe Kira was capable of such a thing. I had always resented the idea of my friends becoming killers; becoming like me, and now it seemed as though my worst nightmare might be a reality.

I couldn't even imagine Kira hating someone, let alone taking their life. It didn't matter who they were. Kira had the same affinity for peace that Scott did, it's part of the reason why they loved each other so much, and why they could occasionally be annoyingly optimistic.

"But she has been losing control of her powers lately," Malia replies.

"That doesn't mean she's become a psycho katana-killer," Lydia snaps lightly.

"What if it was self-defense?" Stiles suggests in a low voice. "The chimera could have attacked her."

"Then why would she leave the body like that?" Malia says. Her tone lacks superiority, she's merely curious. That does nothing to ease growing tensions, though.

"Malia," Stiles says slowly. "This is Kira you're talking about. She wouldn't do this."

"Not willingly," the coyote agrees, making her boyfriend fall silent.

Theo clears his throat, saving us from the awkwardness that had begun to settle in.

"Did Mason text any new updates?" he asks.

"He should be here soon," Stiles replies. "We have to get a book ready for Corey."

"Scott's should still be in his room," Lydia says.

Corey was a fellow sophomore at Beacon Hills High and also happened to be another chimera.

Mason discovered him when they ran into each other yesterday. They bonded over their near-death experiences with Lucas, both of them facing off with the spiky-armed teen. Though, it had only been Corey who actually felt the sting of his venom. That made it all the more daunting when he bore no signs of damage from the attack. He was fully healed.