I can smell it on your breath, I can see it on your neck

CHAPTER TWO —
smell of death

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

IT WAS ALMOST NIGHT by the time Scott had left with Braeden. Something had hit Stiles' jeep, but sundown was coming soon so Scott and Braeden had to get to the church on their own.

"Lydia, could you please hold the light still for a second? It's really hard to see anything if you keep shaking it like that." Stiles said snarkily as he was bent under the hood of his jeep, Lydia was standing to his side. The two of them had been bickering for a while now, and as the sun got lower, the worse it got.

"I'm shaking it like this because we're in the middle of nowhere with your broken down jeep and we're being attacked by yet another razor-clawed monster. And I'm terrified."

He glanced at her for a second before responding, "Well, just be slightly less terrified. And hold this." He shoved a part to her and she grabbed it. When he couldn't give her an exact answer to her question about what it was, she muttered under her breath.

Malia and Kira stood watch, Kira with her sword in hand as Malia gazed around. "Anything?" Kira inquired.

"It's too hard to see, we should have brought another flashlight."

Kira thought for a moment and walked back towards the jeep. Using her sword, she focused the beams of the headlight and glanced, only to see a figure duck behind a rock. Her face scrunched up, "Did you see that?"

Malia didn't answer before her eyes glowed and her teeth elongated. Releasing a growl, she charged forward to where the figure had been crouched. Her name was called out by Kira as she chased after her.

"Hey, Malia!" Stiles shouted and he moved from the jeep, intending to go after her as well. Lydia snapped at him and shook the flashlight, "You, fix the jeep!"

He moved again, ready to leave her behind as well. "Stiles, focus!", she told him and he grunted in response, staying. He shot her a look of exasperation before continuing with his tools.

Kira walked with her sword raised in defense, "Malia?" The sound a twig snapping sent her swinging and turning, only to almost strike Malia as she approached.

"It's me! It's me," Malia raised her hands in the universal sign of caution.

"What happened? What's out there?"

The werecoyote turned behind her, gripping her side, "I don't know, but it is big and fast. And it cuts deep." Her hand moved the tear in her shirt as Kira glanced at the gash. A thud nearby sent them moving back to the others, in fear of what was lurking in the darkness.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Another half hour passed before there was a rustle that came from the vast area of dirt surrounding them. Everyone looked around skeptically, all wondering if it was going to be some kind of animal or something that would cause them more problems than they already had.

Malia shifted and a familiar scent hit her nose. "It's not the thing from earlier, it smells a little different."

Everyone braced themselves, wondering what they were going to do; Scott still had yet to return and they were still in the middle of nowhere safe. Before they could react, a hand appeared and slammed against the side of Stiles' jeep, startling them. Turning to look at where the noise came from, there was a figure hunched over in the dark. For a moment, no one moved and then the head of the figure looked upward.

It was a girl, her dark hair was limp and dirty across her bare arms and pale, lifeless face. There was one hand around her middle, her shirt was torn and barely holding on, but she gripped it against her chest tightly. Her voice was shaky, "Help, please," it sounded as if she hadn't had water in days.

Before they could react, she collapsed onto the ground as if her legs could no longer support her. Kira jumped to attention at that, snapping out of her confused trance, which in turn snapped everyone out of it. Stiles spoke first as Kira got close to the girl on the floor, "Kira don't, we don't know what's happening!"

"It doesn't matter, look at her, oh my God." Without waiting for anyone else, she knelt down and felt for the pulse of the girl. It was sluggish but there, Kira took a closer look at the girl, she was skinny and frail looking and her skin was cold to the touch, almost as if someone had dumped her in ice water.

"Will someone help me here please, we can't just not do anything!"

Against his better judgement, Stiles moved and reached inside his jeep for a flannel dumped in the back seat. He tossed it to Kira, who in turn, wrapped it around the girl's shoulders. Moving around towards the side where Kira sat, a hand grabbed his arm; it was Malia. He glanced at her, wondering what was wrong, but she said nothing, instead choosing to stare at the unconscious girl with furrowed brows. With a breath, she released the grip she had on his arm and he continued to move forward.

Lydia had also moved and she stopped alongside Malia; the banshee and the werecoyote on high alert, a chill of death crawling up their spines.

Kira had begun to use a part of the flannel to wipe the girl's face when Stiles got close enough to really look at the girl on the ground. A wave of nausea went through him. For a moment, he thought he may have been delusional, the heat of Mexico getting to him already. But with them, it was unlikely considering everything they've gone through. There was no mistaking who laid there, no one ever mistook Maeve Walton.

"Oh, my God," the words came out as a whisper, full of disbelief. He stood for a moment, unmoving from the shock.

Seeing his reaction, Lydia moved to him and was rendered speechless after seeing Maeve as well. She was the first to react though, her gasp ignored as she moved to the ground. "Maeve?!" She reached forward but stopped before touching her, afraid to hurt her.

Kira looked at her in bemusement, "You know her?"

It was this that snapped Stiles out of his stunned position, "Yeah," he released a breath and answered, "That's-that's Maeve Walton. She goes to school with us."

It wasn't much of a surprise that Kira didn't know about Maeve, she was new in school after all. Couple that with their disastrous few months...she wasn't too aware of anyone outside of their group.

Maeve released a groan when Kira moved her hands and one half of her shirt opened. Kira's eyes widened at the amount of blood that had caused the other half to be melded to her abdomen. There was a large cut from just above her belly button, that dragged up to just below her breasts. It had to have been deep considering the amount of blood that was on her and to Kira, it looked as if someone was cutting her open.

Looking at it though, it was like someone had stitched it up, considering how it was...healing, for a lack of a better word. But the lack of physical evidence made Kira doubt anyone had actually stitched the poor girl up.

Moving from her thoughts, she turned back to the three behind her. "Do we have a first aid kit? This looks bad, like, risk of 'infection-and-death bad'."

Malia was the one to speak this time around, although her words were a bit muttered, "She already looked like 'death-bad'."

Stiles made a noise in the back of his throat before responding to Kira, "No, I don't have one."

"You have a car, without a first aid kit?" Lydia side eyed him a bit critically, then continued speaking, "Seeing as how much shit we get into, I figured you would have one since some of us don't have miracle healing abilities."

"Yeah well, I'll get one as soon as we aren't dealing with shit." 

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Finally, Stiles had finished with his jeep and they were back on the road. Kira had taken it upon herself to tend to Maeve before they moved her into the car.

"You, you, please don't do that ever again." Stiles waved his hand about as he spoke to his girlfriend, keeping the other hand on the wheel. They hadn't discussed what happened before they found Maeve but this time was as good as any, it seemed.

"Do what?"

He sighed, "I...I thought you just took off. I thought you were running."

Malia's face bunched in confusion, "I was running."

Shaking his head, he spoke again, "No, I mean like I thought you were leaving." This time, he actually looked at her. Lydia and Kira sat in the backseat silently, letting the couple in the front talk this out.

"I wouldn't leave without you." Malia's voice held conviction and it shocked Stiles for a mere moment, "Really?"

"I would never leave without you," she gave a slight shake of her head and they shared a look before she turned to look at the two girls behind her (she didn't count the unconscious one), "Them I would leave."

The sweet moment ruined, Lydia rolled her eyes and Stiles said, "Uh, yeah, it's a work in progress."

Kira snorted and Lydia stared at Malia's cut for a second, "That doesn't look so good."

"It's okay," Malia shrugged.

"Are you sure? It looks deep." This time, it was Kira who said something.

Malia sighed, "I can feel it healing."

Lydia spoke, "You didn't see anything?"

"Barely. It had a strong scent though." Stiles looked at her, curiosity maring his features as he drove, "Like what?"

His girlfriend only looked out the window before answering, "Like death. Like, her." The her, in question, laid in the backseat resting against Kira's shoulder. The rest of the ride was silent after that.

By the time they had arrived at the church, Braeden and Scott were walking out, dragging someone with them. The group jumped out of the jeep, leaving Maeve in the back, draped across the seats.

"Is that him? Is that Derek?" Malia inquired.

Stiles' face contorted, like he had no idea what to say. "Uh, sort of."

At this, the figure between Scott and Braeden looked up. Staring at them was in fact Derek Hale, the only issue was that this Derek wasn't the right one.

EDITED & REPUBLISHED : june 2023
A/N : maeve will be featured a lot more in the next chapter, this was just to set up where we're going from here. kira and maeve's friendship will be super cute, i know it was like a one sided interaction here but writing them came naturally for me :)