Silvern | Stiles Stilinski (Book 2)

Chapter Nineteen: Required Reading

"Chimeras" Stilinski sighed, drawing a red cross over Tracy's picture on his board.

"Two dead chimeras" Stiles nodded.

"And eight new ones" I added.

Stiles agreed, "So that's ten in all"

Stilinski picked a picture up from his desk and began to pin it next to Tracy and Lucas' pictures (Lucas was killed at the Sinema club by the Dread Doctors a few nights before). "I'm thinking maybe eleven," the picture was of Donovan, "Our station tech guys confirmed something for me. They said, both the holding cell lock and the cameras could have malfunctioned because of something electromagnetic. You said that... these guys"

"Dread Doctors" I corrected him.

"Are we really calling them that?"

I ignored him, "So they broke Donovan out?"

He nodded, "That's how they got into Eichen, isn't it?"

"Donovan's a chimera" I agreed after thinking the situation over.

"Yeah, but is he a failure like Lucas and Tracy?"

I shrugged, "If he is, he's probably dead"

I picked up the pen, preparing to cross his picture out, too. Stilinski gently grabbed my wrist and shook his head, "Not until I've seen a body," we turned to look at Stiles, "You're uncharacteristically quiet"

"Sorry, I'm, uh... I'm just trying to think about it. Uh... these are all teenagers, right? So, now, I mean, shouldn't we be trying to figure out why these teenagers? If the Dread Doctors, if they went through all that, burying them, killing them, breaking one of them out of jail..."

"They couldn't have been chosen at random" his dad sighed.

I nodded, "They had to have something in common, something that made them right for this experiment"

Stiles paused, "Something that made them special"

------

We had all gathered at Scott's house, wanting to read the book in a safe environment. "My mom's book club usually had more wine" Lydia remarked as we stood around the coffee table, looking at the pile of photocopied sheets.

"Well, they also probably didn't read books that cause violent hallucinations" Stiles huffed.

Scott nodded, "That's why Malia's here"

"So none of us go running into traffic?" Kira frowned.

The Alpha sighed, "Or worse"

Malia spoke up, "Like what happened to Judy," we all looked at her, I had only gotten through the first few pages, "Chapter fourteen"

Lydia picked up the original copy, "Maybe I should have my mother read it. She might remember a girl with a tail leaping off the ceiling and attacking everyone"

"Hey, and if it works..." Stiles frowned.

"It has to," Lydia interrupted him.

Scott leaned forwards, "What does that mean?"

She paused, "I think I saw them during my surgery. When I look at the cover of the book, it's almost like..."

"A memory trying to surface" Theo sighed.

"Isn't that what Valack wanted when he wrote it?" Kira asked.

Lydia nodded, "If they did something to me, I want to know what it is"

I picked up a copy, sitting next to Lydia. I glanced over at Stiles, who was sat in the kitchen, but he didn't look back. "Anyone feeling anything yet?" Scott asked us.