Hate Because | Theo Raeken

Chapter Thirty-Two

Darcy sat on the edge of the overlook, her feet hanging over a drop she could barely see the bottom of. She wasn't scared- she'd faced a lot worse than heights.

It was almost the same as the last time she'd been there, back at the start of the year when she and Liam were chained to the tree under the full moon. That felt so long ago, but it'd only been a little over a month. She thought of how they'd joked of vampires, what the semester would bring them- they would never have guessed where they'd be now.

Plenty of the moon was visible in the sky, given the supermoon had only been a day ago. The air was brisk on the lookout point, the wind sweeping in from over the city, but she was too wrapped up in her thoughts to notice the chill it brought.

The dead man's face from her nightmare hadn't left her mind; she was sure she'd never seen him before either. His ominous words echoed in her ears.

"Save them before it's too late."

Why her?

Darcy sighed, pushing a hand into her eyes like that could make it all go away.

"Trouble in paradise?"

She turned, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest with fear. At the familiar sight of Theo, her body relaxed but then she tensed up again, realizing that it was Theo. He was standing a few paces away, way out of arm's reach, and buried in the shadows of the trees.

Darcy quickly picked herself off the edge of the cliff and stepped closer. "What are you doing here?" Anger crept into her voice- this was the first time she'd seen Theo since before she'd died. 

"I'm just out for a walk," he replied with a glint in his eyes. 

"Were you following me?"

"Doesn't feel so good, does it?"

She flushed at the reminder of how they'd stalked him that night. That felt like forever ago too, back when their biggest issue was Stiles's obsession with being right. Well, good for him, because he was.

Darcy clenched her fists at her sides as Theo made his way closer, his stride confident and relaxed. When he stopped before her, a barely contained smirk clung to his lips like he found her glowering amusing.

"Why are you here, Theo?" she asked. 

His face didn't change at her accusing tone. "I happened to be in the neighborhood. Is that a crime?"

"When your name is Theo Raeken it is."

He scoffed. "Oh, don't be so mad, Darce."

"It's Darcy. Only my friends call me Darce." If she even had those anymore; she frowned at the thought. 

"Fine, if you wanna be like that."

Darcy ground her teeth against each other. "You literally killed him, Theo."

"Who, Scott? That didn't last very long, though, did it?" The resentment in his voice made her want to smile.

"I think fifteen minutes is long enough."

"And how long were you dead before I saved you?"

She took a step back in shock, her mouth almost dropping open. "What are you talking about?"

Theo laughed at her surprise. "What, did you think it was just luck that brought you all back? You know how the Dread Doctors keep themselves so young and flourishing." He tilted his head slightly and looked at her. "Or don't you?"

She did know, and it made her skin crawl to think that she'd been injected with the same green liquid she'd seen them use so many times before. "I remember everything," she spit out. "Why did you bring me back? I didn't ask you to."

Theo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because being dead was so much better."

"Better than having to see you kill Scott."

"Well, it was supposed to be Liam, but he couldn't even manage to do that-"

Before Darcy could register what she was doing, her fist collided with Theo's jaw. She watched his head whip to the side, a small burst of blood leaving his mouth. He fell to the ground, hand coming up to hold where she'd broken the bone. He looked at her, amusement evident in his eyes.

Theo had once made her feel like just a teenage girl with a crush because of those eyes. Now she stared into them and only saw the boy who had helped in her own kidnapping, killed Scott, and broken their pack maybe beyond fixing.

"Now, that's the Darcy I know," he said up at her. "Maybe it's a good thing I broke up your little gang; I think they made you soft."

She stood there, chest heaving with anger and hands curled into tight fists, but she didn't swing at him again. With one last look full of malice, she said, "Quit following me, Theo." She started walking forward, making a wide arc around him.

"Let me know when you figure it out!" he suddenly called after her.

The dregs of her fast-fading anger gave way to curiosity. She turned to see him standing, hand on his jaw to hold it as it healed. "Figure out what?" she asked, almost not wanting to hear his answer.

"Why you think you have to save everyone."

Darcy's heart stuttered in her chest. He knew something about her, about her nightmares and her sleepwalking. But she was done asking Theo for help, so she gave him one last hard look and walked away from him.

Nursing a healing jaw, Theo watched her go until she faded from view. The amused look on his face had faded and he didn't understand why it felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest.

Theo Raeken didn't feel guilt- the Dread Doctors had made sure of that. Any piece of humanity he'd had before he watched his sister die had been taken away with his old heart. So why did he, the first successful chimera, feel the slightest bit bad?

Theo furrowed his brows, digging his fingers into the meat of his jaw. The pain reminded him of what he was, what he'd become.

A monster. 

- 

Author's Note: 

Short chapter y'all, I'm so sorry😔, but in better news, this book has almost 7k reads and 260 votes?? That's crazy!! Thank you all so much for reading and following along, and I'm pretty sure these next chapters are going to be way longer so stick around for that!

Once again, thank you guys! Stay safe and drink some water<333