Of Fire And Shadow [completed]

Chapter 4

Lydia woke up with a start. Parrish's voice still rang in her ears, calling out to her.

"Jordan," she whispered, and struggled to sit up. It was the middle of the night, and everything was dark, save for the light of the moon shining in through the hospital window. Her mother had gone home for the night after realizing Lydia was going to be fine, so nobody else was there.

Lydia slowly reached over to grab her phone from the bedside table. She had to call Parrish and make sure he was alright. She waited, and waited. Of course, he didn't answer. It would've been so much easier if he had. She tried calling again, and again, but he didn't pick up. She had suspected this would happen, and felt that something was horribly wrong.

Lydia knew she needed to get to him, no matter what, so she called the only people she knew who would help her at this hour, Scott and Stiles. As she waited, she carefully slipped into the extra clothes her mother had brought for her earlier, so she wouldn't have to go in her hospital gown. A few minutes later, a familiar light blue jeep pulled into the parking lot. Scott and Stiles jumped out of the car and ran to her room, nearly tripping over each other in their rush to get to her.

"What's the emergency?" Stiles asked breathlessly, clutching his side.

"Something's wrong with Parrish," Lydia said. "I need to go find him, and I need you guys to give me a ride."

Stiles looked at her like she was crazy. "What is wrong with you?" he asked. "The guy almost kills you no less than a couple hours ago and now you want to rush to his side again?"

Lydia looked at him in exasperation. "If you won't help me, I'll find some other way to get there."

The boys couldn't argue with that, so they each grabbed one of Lydia's arms and helped her out to the jeep since she was still weak from her loss of blood earlier that night. Stiles started the engine and Scott turned around in the passenger seat to look back at Lydia.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked.

"Absolutely," she said. "Lets go."

Stiles stepped on the gas and sped down the street, following Lydia's directions to get to Parrish's apartment. As they drove, Lydia put her head back and closed her eyes, reaching out for any feeling of Parrish. Usually they had some sort of sense about each other; it had something to do with the connection between a hellhound and a banshee, but right now there was nothing.

They were only a few blocks away from Parrish's apartment when Lydia suddenly yelled, "STOP!"

Stiles slammed on the brakes, skidding to a screeching halt as Lydia jumped out of the car.

"What the heck was that!?" Stiles said, getting out of the car and slamming the door shut behind him. Scott followed and they walked up to Lydia, who was crouching on the sidewalk, staring at an object in her hands. It was Parrish's phone.

"Something happened here," she whispered. "Something bad."

***

Thanatos watched as the shadows closed in on the hellhound. "Come on, you can do it," he thought as its eyes began to glow. The shadows faltered as its body was consumed by flames, but they soon regained their confidence and continued moving forward.

"Cerberus," he heard the shadows say, and he knew they wanted the hellhound to submit to them, but whether it was so they could take it or kill it, he did not know.

The hellhound was starting to panic. "What do you want?" he heard it say, its voice shaking.

Its fire began to die as the shadows surrounded it, and Thanatos knew he couldn't leave it to their mercy. He pulled out his sword of adamant and walked toward the shadows. By the time he reached them, the hellhound was on its knees, struggling to stay conscious. Thanatos swung his sword, which glowed white in the presence of the shadows, in a wide arc, slicing clean through the first couple of them. The remaining shadows backed off, retreating into the woods and blending with the shade of the trees.