Of Fire And Shadow [completed]

Chapter 12

"You sure you know where we're going?" Scott asked Parrish for the fifth time since they'd left the apartment earlier that night.

Parrish sighed, not bothering to answer. He was following the faint glowing trail left by the butterfly, but hadn't caught up to it yet. Scott and Stiles were getting increasingly worried since they couldn't see the trail, and kept questioning Parrish about it.

"Parrish, I swear to god you better be right about this," Stiles spoke up from the back of the car.

Suddenly Parrish slammed on the breaks, causing Scott and Stiles to fly forward and nearly hit their heads on the windshield.

They both clutched their heads. "What the heck was that for?" Stiles asked, but Parrish was already getting out of the car, leaving the other two boys to follow.

They'd stopped in front of an abandoned warehouse on the far edge of town. It's roof looked like it was about to cave in and many of its windows were smashed, but the butterfly's trail clearly led inside so that's where Parrish headed. He drew his gun and led Scott and Stiles, who were brandishing claws and a metal baseball bat respectively, down several flights of stairs to the basement, where they were met with a padlocked door. The true alpha easily ripped off the lock and the trio moved in to find nothing but an empty dark room with a small orange butterfly sitting in the center of it.

"This can't be right," Scott mumbled, looking around. He glanced at Stiles and saw his own uncertain expression mirrored back at him.

But Parrish could feel that they were in the right place. The trail had led him here for a reason. He took a couple steps forward and carefully picked up the butterfly, letting it perch on his finger. As soon as he touched the creature, his eyes began to glow. That's when he saw it.

In the far corner of the room, the wall seemed to shimmer slightly. Parrish took a few more steps forward until he reached it, and held out a tentative hand. He expected to feel something, like a searing heat or burn, but instead he just felt cold as his hand passed through the veil.

He snatched his hand back quickly, startled, and glanced back at his companions. Scott and Stiles both looked a little confused, but stepped forward when Parrish beckoned to them.

"This is it," he told them. "This is the entrance."

As soon as he said this, the butterfly fluttered off, back in the direction they came. The boys' eyes followed it out the door before turning to gaze at the shimmering section of wall in front of them.

Parrish closed his eyes for a minute, extending his senses. He could feel that Lydia was on the other side of that doorway, but this time she wasn't calling out for him. She was silent, almost as if she didn't want him to come for her. It made Parrish a little uneasy, but he knew he had to do whatever he could to get her back.

"So, how do we get through?" Scott asked Parrish.

"It should be easy enough for me, but I don't know about you two. Thanatos said something about needing a strong connection, and I don't think he meant just with me," Parrish said.

"Then who?" Stiles asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"Lydia," Scott realized, and Parrish nodded.

"We need to connect with who we are here for, and create a sort of tether with the other side," Parrish said. "Think about your unique connections with Lydia, and what she means to you."

Scott, Stiles, and Parrish all stood together and thought of Lydia. They thought about their memories with her, and all the special moments they'd shared with her that brought them closer. She was an integral part of their lives, the glue that held them all together as a group. As a pack.

The hellhound stood in between the two younger boys, and held out a hand for each of them to take. Scott and Stiles looked at each other before grabbing Parrish's hands, silently hoping he wouldn't burn them accidentally. Their joined fingers began to emit a soft orange glow, but it wasn't uncomfortable; it was just a little warm.

Parrish, Stiles, and Scott all took a deep breath, preparing themselves for whatever was waiting for them on the other side. Then, they stepped through the veil.

***

Lydia's eyes flicked back and forth as she took in the space around her. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so she could make out a few more features of the room, including a small device in the top corner that could have been a camera.

She squinted, straining to see more, but gave up after a minute and started to worry more about her bonds. If she could just free her hands, she could take off the gag over her mouth and use her powerful scream to escape, but she couldn't seem to wiggle out of them. She tried to remember what Allison and Chris had told her about their experiences getting out of bonds like this, but she couldn't think of anything that would help. She didn't have anything sharp to cut through the rope, and couldn't reach her fingers around to untie them.

She slumped her shoulders in defeat, her head hanging low. She was useless with the gag over her mouth, for the scream was what gave her power. Without her power, being a banshee was useless. All she could do was tell when someone was going to die. She wished she had Parrish's ability to manipulate fire; he could burn through the ropes easily.

Lydia's eyes opened slowly as a ridiculous thought crossed her mind. She thought back to when her and Parrish were in the woods with Thanatos, and they'd strengthened their connection. Thanatos had said they'd each taken on a bit of the other's power. Maybe that included Parrish's power over fire?

There was only one way to find out. Lydia closed her eyes and channeled her connection to her boyfriend. The connection was very faint, indicating that wherever she was, it was far away from him. She made sure to try not to call him to her, since there was some sort of trap waiting for him, but instead tried to draw on his power and use it. She strained against the bonds, stretching her fingertips wide in a physical effort to draw the mystical power forward.

Eventually she gave up, slumping forward again, and sweating and panting from the effort of calling on their connection from this distance. Tears threatened to spill as Lydia's last bit of hope diminished, until she felt a slight tingling in her fingertips.

Parrish. He was here. She knew it.

Lydia's head snapped up in surprise, sure that only a few seconds ago the distance between them had been extremely great. Now it was like he'd stepped through a door and was a few rooms over, his power radiating through to her.

She shook her head to clear it, and set about channeling his power with a new determination. Their connection was stronger than it had ever been, like a tether binding them together, drawing them closer with each passing moment and allowing their collective power to grow. It took a lot of effort, but eventually a small spark ignited her bonds, sending them crumbling to ash in a matter of minutes. Lydia clawed at the gag over her mouth, ripping it off and breathing deeply before standing up and moving toward the door.

It could only be opened from the outside, but that wasn't really a problem. She gathered as much strength as she could before reaching toward the door and releasing a mighty scream. The force of the scream caused the door to rattle on its hinges and eventually burst open in a cloud of dust and grime.

Lydia stepped out into the hallway cautiously, glancing from side to side, but there were no shadows to be found. The hall was eerily quiet. She crept forward, keeping her head low and her fists up like Parrish taught her, just in case it came to a physical fight. But she met no one.

What Lydia didn't know was that most of the shadows had gathered to meet a very different threat approaching from the opposite direction: a powerful hellhound, a true alpha, and a very determined human all fighting to save her.