kiss you // S.S.

Chapter thirty: undynamic duo

XXX

If someone had told Leo last week he'd be breaking into a building that looked like a rejected set from a horror movie, he would've laughed in their face. But here he was, dropping from a ceiling vent into what could only be described as an abandoned mausoleum with office chairs.

Dropping through a narrow vent shaft from the ceiling, he used a surge of his red chaos magic to cushion his descent. The air warped faintly around him as he touched down with practiced silence, a new trick he'd been working on ever since his psychotic mother had demonstrated just how easily she could throw him like a ragdoll. Flight, or whatever you could call it with his telekinetic powers, was one of the few upsides of surviving that trauma.

He crouched low, eyes adjusting to the dim, decaying space around him. The building looked like it hadn't been used in years. Tall, crumbling ceilings arched above him like the ribcage of some long-dead beast. The stale air smelled of mildew and metal, and through the shafts of moonlight bleeding in through broken windows, Leo could just make out the scattered remnants of what this place used to be with overturned chairs, broken desks, rusting chandeliers that hung at odd angles, their crystals barely catching light anymore.

He swallowed hard. He hadn't told anyone where he was going. Not even Stiles. That fact hit him harder now, the silence pressing in thick around him like a warning. Still, something had led him here. An intuition he couldn't ignore.

His boots made no sound as he padded down a wide corridor. He heard before he felt it. A soft, almost too careful footstep behind him. His body moved before his mind caught up. His red energy surged through his veins and burst to the surface as his eyes glowed red, arm snapping out with lethal precision. In one fluid motion, he yanked the stalker forward and slammed them into his waiting palm, fingers wrapping tightly around their throat.

"Leo—it's me!" Allison's voice rasped out, panic and surprise filling her wide eyes as she clawed at his hand.

Leo exhaled through his nose, the heat of adrenaline cooling as he released her with an irritated grunt. Allison dropped to the floor, coughing and rubbing her throat as she tried to catch her breath.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Leo asked coldly, stepping back as his fingertips continued to pulse faintly with red energy.

"The same thing as you, probably," Allison said, straightening with effort. "That woman from the high school who left bruises on me and Lydia... there's a symbol. It belongs to this bank. I had to check it out."

Leo crossed his arms, eyes narrowing. "Okay, and that explains what exactly? Why you're here? Alone? Because that still sounds like a terrible idea."

"Why? Because I'm not some type of powered person? Or a werewolf?" she snapped, narrowing her eyes.

"Because you're you," Leo shot back.

Allison's face tightened. "I apologized for what happened last year. I meant it."