North Starr

74

Stiles rushed to the station due to the fact that Tracy had been seen there. Scott had gone off to help the sheriff and Stiles saw Lydia lying on the ground with Kira applying pressure to her wound. Melanie had started freaking out. Stiles hesitated and Theo called to him. He pulled off his belt and wrapped it as a tourniquet around Lydia's wound. Stiles walked up to Melanie who practically fell into his arms.

Stiles held her, feeling her shaking body.

He heard ambulance sirens in the distance and looked down at the brunette. "It's gonna be okay, Mellie. Lydia's gonna be just fine."

Stiles glanced to Lydia and she nodded. "Stiles, I'm fine. Help Tracy. Find Tracy. Go."

Theo reassured the panicking brunette. "It's okay. She's all right."

"Come on, Mellie," Stiles said quietly.

"Come on, Melanie," Scott said as Stiles and Melanie followed him down to the basement.

When they got there, they saw Malia standing over Tracy's body. The first thing she said was, "It wasn't me."

"What the hell happened to her?" Scott asked.

Malia hesitated a moment before saying, "There were these people... They had masks. Um, there... There were... Three of them. I think there were three."

"What... What are you talking about?" Stiles asked in a slightly impatient tone.

Malia continued stammering. "They were strong, Stiles. They had a weapon. Stiles, I didn't do this."

"Okay." He and Melanie nodded.

Deaton looked at them. "She's not changing back. We're going to need to get her out of here."

Sheriff Stilinski shook his head. "What, hey... Absolutely not. This is a crime scene. We call the coroner."

Deaton glanced at the sheriff. "I think the coroner might be very confused by this girl's severed reptilian tail."

"I don't care..."

"You should. Unless you're prepared to hold a press conference announcing the presence of supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills."

Stiles looked at the sheriff. "Dad, he's right."

"Maybe at the clinic we can figure out how to change her back, then call the coroner?" the sheriff suggested. "There's a line... There's a line we have to draw."

"Dad, you've already crossed it. More than once."

"Sheriff, please," Deaton said. "Let me help. I've dealt with things like this before."

Sheriff Stilinski nodded and relented. "Just do it fast."

The moment Melanie was able to leave, she rushed to the hospital, followed by Stiles. "Melissa! How-"

"Melanis," Melissa replied. "Calm down."

"How bad is it?"

"Could have been worse. Theo, nice going on that tourniquet. You probably saved her life." Melissa looked to see Scott and Liam appear and then said, "All right. She's about to go into surgery. So it's going to be awhile. Any other supernatural details that I need to know about or do we just stitch her up and hope for the best?"

Kira stepped closer to Melissa. "It was the tail."

Scott nodded. "Yeah, Tracy cut her with the tail, if that makes a difference."

Melissa nodded. "Okay."

She walked away and Malia said, "But it wasn't just Tracy. There were others. The guys in masks."

Melanie didn't want to wait at the hospital, so she followed Stiles to his house and Malia followed. When they got there, they got up to his room and he walked over to his murder board. He wrote "Masked" and "Tracy Stewart" on the board.

Malia noticed something and erased the part about the Desert Wolf.

Melanie got a text from Melissa that Lydia was out of surgery and turned to Malia. "You good?"

She nodded. "Go check on your friend. Stiles, go with her. She's freaking out."

Stiles nodded and drove himself and Melanie to the hospital and entered the hospital.

"Melissa!" Melanie called. "Is she okay?"

Melissa nodded. "She's fine, Melanie. She's resting."

---

Stiles and Melanie made their way to the school. They met their friends in the library and they turned to them. "Did you get in to see Lydia?"

Melanie shook her head. "I tried using my free period, but she's still in the ICU and no one outside family is allowed in. But Melissa's been updating me on her."

Malia slammed a book on the table and said, "We got one thing." It was the Bestiary.

Kira looked at Malia. "Anything in here about half-werewolves, half-kanimas?"

"The Chimera," Scott said.

"Um, what?" Stiles asked with a frown.

"Chimera," Scott repeated. "It's a creature made of incongruous parts. And if Liam said he found two burial sites, it means Tracy's not the only one."

"Who's the second one?" Kira wondered. "And why would they bury them?"

"Deaton thinks it's part of their process."

"The people in masks," Malia stated, remembering what she'd seen the previous night.

Eventually, Stiles felt his eyes closing and he didn't fight oncoming sleep. Melanie had since been taken home per her request.

Malia woke Stiles up and after giving her a nod of thanks, he headed out to his Jeep.

The engine began smoking and Stiles lifted the hood. He wrapped duct tape around another hose. He quickly brushed away the thought of Melanie saying something lightly sardonic, which put him at ease. He felt something slam onto his shoulder and cried out in pain.