Liquid Silver

Ten

Jem's phone rang before she could begin to consider the possibility of more than one person being buried alive out here in the dark, where no one would find them. She didn't want to begin to consider the idea of those people, corpses, crawling back out of their graves. 

She answered it just before the second ring, the boys looking on expectantly. "Stiles?"

"Jem where are you? Are you okay?" His voice was urgent enough to make her hair stand on end. 

"What? I'm fine, I'm in the woods"

"The woods? Jem it's the middle of the night"

"I'm fine, I'm with Liam" Jem knew mentioning Brett's name wouldn't give her big brother any comfort whatsoever, but still winced as the pair of boys shared a look, Brett in slight disdain and Liam a sheepish glance. 

"And everyone's okay?" He asked again, still as urgent as the first time. 

"Stiles, everything's fine" She insisted, trying to sound as convincing as she could. She glanced back down at the hole. "There's something we found though. Can you come get us, it's about Tracey"

"I'm on my way already" Jem didn't question her brother, imagining the jeep was already tearing up the road. "But Jem..." he hesitated, and Jem realised she was hanging onto his words, a knot in her stomach which only tightened as he finished his sentence. "Jem, Tracey's dead"

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They were only waiting about five minutes before the blue jeep was blowing up dust in the distance. Brett had left with Mason five minutes earlier to go back to the high school so he could collect his bike. He wasn't crazy about the idea of leaving her with Liam but in all fairness, Jem had more right to worry since he was going off with Mason, who she suspected actually fancied the boy. 

It wasn't a case of mistrusting him at all, but she knew Brett had a history before they'd met, a history of girls and boys that is. All the same she held onto his words when he told her to be careful, making her promise to call her when she could, he didn't care if it was 4am. And of course, he kissed her before ducking into Mason's car for another nervous joyride, making sure Liam could see.

Jem didn't understand the reservations he had about her being with Liam alone. The boy was like her brother, literally, pack was family. Obviously teenage boy hormones, werewolf or not, felt differently about leaving their girlfriends alone with other guys. Jem knew it wasn't her that he felt uneasy about, but rather this ridiculous life sworn enemy that was Liam Dunbar.

They didn't speak much while they waited. Jem was fidgeting, nervous about why Stiles had been so anxious on the phone. More nervous about how Tracey had died. She could tell from the way Liam was so deep in thought that he knew something was up as well. He was able to sense when something bad was happening, far better than she could.

When Stiles skidded to a halt metres away from them, he didn't even stop the engine. "Thank God" He'd sighed quickly before beckoning them both into the car quickly. Jem remained clueless as he reached over to hug her quickly as soon as she slid into the passenger seat. "I was so worried" He gushed, flooring it back down the hill again. 

"What the hell is going on Stiles?" She studied him, faltering as she noticed the gash through his shirt, blood around the material on his chest. It couldn't have been bad if he was back up and moving, but she still got a fright.

"She was a kanima, we think"

"Who was a kanima?" Liam asked from the back, just as lost as Jem was.