Anna's fingers tapped against her lips as she looked down at the book she was reading. She'd already read it a few times actually, but it was one of her favorite books growing up, so sometimes she'd found a sense of comfort in returning to the world she'd resided to as a child when things were hard for her. In the moment, things weren't necessarily bad, but recently that just seemed to be the bare minimum she was reaching for. In the midst of all the things swarming her current life, she'd been guilty of hiding her nose in that said book for an escape from reality, just for a little while at least.

Her eyes began to move a little faster with the pace of the story and her fingers swiftly reached down to turn the page when a knock radiated from her window. Jumping a little at the sudden noise, Anna pressed a hand to her chest to calm her now speeding heart. She didn't want to admit that she'd been a little on edge the past few nights, not only because of the kanima. Every now and then she'd feel a chill run along her spine or have a dream where she could feel the presence of another being near her, and sometimes she could even see it out of the corner of her eye. It was the same paralytic feeling she'd encountered at Deaton, the vet's, place just a few days ago. She'd kept her mouth tight about the whole situation- besides Isaac. The last thing she wanted was to cause another commotion, and besides, she felt like what remained of her family didn't need another dilemma on their hands. Tallula was already balancing bills and her new job despite the fact they had everything from their parent's will and magic to supply them with money right off the bat. And as for Cato- well, there was no telling how much help he'd really be. Either he'd fix himself up into perfect shape or break down into pieces scraping his life up with the same fingernails housing dirt and coke underneath them. Anna didn't really want to take any chances. Her siblings meant the world to her, they were the only family she had left, but while she could she was going to keep everything that happened in Deaton's place hidden until it proved to be something she couldn't handle. That was final.

Getting up from her bed, the witch consumed a force of power into her hand, keeping it hidden but at the ready. Anna walked over to her window and took a quick peek outside, a gasp escaping her lips as a face appeared in the glass frame, a smirk growing on it the second it saw Anna's surprised expression.

Anna unlocked the window and pushed it open, sticking her head out to come face to face with none other than Isaac. "What are you doing here?" She whispered-yelled at him in a seething mother tone.

"I came to see you." The werewolf replied in complete obliviousness- or at least it sounded so, but the grin on his face and fire in his eyes spoke different words than the ear had heard.

"It's ten o'clock on a school night." Anna deadpanned with a cocked head.

"Then we can go straight to sleep if you want." Isaac replied casually as he climbed through the witch's bedroom window without her even inviting him in. "Or are you studying again? Because that works for me too. What is it? Chemistry, algebra two honors?"

Anna scoffed as she shook her head with rolled eyes, fighting a smile off of her face desperately. She shut the window and turned to the boy. 

"You're an idiot, Isaac Lahey." That smile wasn't fought off her face anymore.

"You've called me worse." He shrugged as he returned her grin. He examined the gleeful expression she wore as she walked towards the bed. He liked it. It suited her.

Anna laughed as she sat down on her bed again, Isaac laying down in front of her comfortably as if it were his own room. It wasn't unusual though, whenever he'd come over in their freshman year he'd make himself at home- of course it took a little bit, but he'd gotten used to it. Besides, the new bite gave him a surge of confidence he would've never experienced last year.

"The Eye of the Dragon, Stephen King." Isaac read aloud as he slid the book Anna was reading closer to himself. "You're never gonna put this one down, are you, Annie?"

"No," Anna leaned down to get her face closer to his as she tugged it back, a layer of amusement swimming in her voice as she teased him. "Is that such a bad thing?"

Isaac's eyelids fluttered for a moment as they wandered across the pink shade of her lips, every bump and every cut, every bit of the delicious skin he so wanted to taste for himself. But he pulled his eyes upwards, meeting the girl's instead as they watched him carefully.

"No." He whispered. His voice seemed caught in his throat, like a wall was blocking any sounds from leaving it. A small yet flustered smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he soaked in every bit of Anna's beauty, using every bit of strength in him to not reach up and slide his hand along the curves of her face to keep her steady if he were to kiss her.

"What?" Anna asked with a small grin on her face. Instantly Isaac snapped himself back into reality, pulling away not even more than a millimeter.

"What?" He responded innocently. His face felt tingly- though he didn't know if it was because of the amusement he felt upon seeing her obliviousness or because of the recent wave he'd just experienced where he nearly gave in to the urge to kiss her.

Anna sat up to her full height, catching her lip between her teeth as she turned her head to the side to hide the flush running from her neck and down beneath her clothes, instead watching the wind blow the leaves around on the tree outside her window. They looked so refreshed in the cool of the night air, and they seemed as if they were enchanted to dance around lively and free. It felt strange, how something so small made her feel so happy and content, something that had absolutely no meaning unless you indulged yourself into the workings of her brain to see the world the way her eyes had been programmed to. She wished she could feel like those leaves looked every moment she was present in, to feel like her mind was an empty safe space regarding no worries, to be ground to the exhilaration she was granted with when given a break from reality, a step closer to peace.

"What are you thinking about?" Whispers. Rasping whispers against the shell of her ear that ran through the depths and curves of her body until the meaning of Isaac's words made sense to her restless mind. Anna could feel his body next to hers, but not like before. He was sitting beside her now, so close that if he just moved an inch closer their skin would be pressed together, the heat from their own beings morphing into each other's to blow up into a fiery flame that burned them in a pain that felt so intensely good it became a craving.

Anna's head turned back to face Isaac, no shock coming to her when her nose brushed meekly against his from their close proximity. Isaac wasn't stupid. When it came to her, he suddenly knew everything there was that a person could possibly know. He could read between the lines of her words, he could put the pieces of her soul together to solve the puzzle that was her, every facial expression and every emotion that radiated from her had a sentimentally deep meaning behind it that Isaac could explain using a poet's voice. So when she opened her lips to speak five simple, mediocre, words, he knew exactly what she meant, and exactly what he had to do to make her feel.

"I want to feel free."

Isaac instantly closed the gap between them, his lips hooking onto Anna's with a passion so intense and heavy you could physically feel it in the room. His hand snaked its way into her hair, gripping the roots to keep a hold on her while the other went around her back to support her body weight. Anna didn't even pretend not to notice the way the hand that was on her back slipped under her shirt so that Isaac was now touching her bare skin, in fact, it encouraged her to grab the collar of his own clothing to pull him closer than he was before, leading to them both falling backwards into her diorama of pillows.

His eager lips drew themselves from her mouth and across the glass of her skin, down to her neck where the heat of his breath raised Anna's body temperate by what felt like a million. Her spine reacted feverishly to Isaac's actions as it lifted slightly off the bed, hinting to the boy above her to remove the material covering her upper half from her body. He did so within seconds, her head and arms disappearing into the holes of her shirt before reappearing to attach herself to Isaac once again. The feeling of his heated kisses being left around her skin left Anna's eyes closed in ecstasy, her hands tangled in the mess of curls on his head. 

In a moment of blinding confidence, Anna switched their positions, legs on either side of Isaac's body as she seated herself in his lap and kissed his now plump lips yet again. She didn't fail to notice the whimper that fell from his mouth as she shifted her hips against him and tugged gently at the roots of his hair, the submissive sound making a faint grin appear on her face momentarily. His tongue drifted across her own, the sweet taste leaving Anna's lungs empty, breathless as they escaped into the air around them. Isaac's arms hugged her body closer to his, his hands covering up a large portion of her back, leaving the rest of the bare skin shivering out of lack from his touch. 

Breathless, Anna pulled away, breathing deeply as her forehead fell against Isaac's. Her hands fell from his hair to his face, softly caressing his skin as she inhaled deeply. Isaac, who despite the girl on his lap's pause for breath, wasn't interested in waiting much longer. His appendages moved from Anna's back to her waist, manipulating her body to move against his own, creating friction between the lower halves of them both. His mouth fell to the upper part of her chest with a groan, moving away the material of her bra with his thumb as he took it upon himself to kiss the forbidden part of her body with eager motivation. Anna's head fell backwards, her hair decorating her back with messy brown locks as Isaac's name left her lips in a frantic whisper. Once she'd managed to pull herself together, she angled herself forward again, lips coming to Isaac's ear as she spoke pleadingly to him.

"Stay tonight," Her voice was angelically hoarse. "Stay with me."

Isaac's head lifted from Anna's chest before passing the boundaries of 'too close' with her face again, nose brushing against hers as he breathed with a flourish of lust and exhaustion against her skin. "Do you want me to?"

Anna looked into his eyes, the ocean blue hues colliding with her own as his magnified pupils stared at her with adoration. Her jaw was slackened as she swallowed, a thin layer of sweat shimmering on both their necks and heat radiating furiously and immensely around their worked up bodies.

A weak smile lifted the corners of her mouth as her eyes closed with a nod. "Yes."

...

Goosebumps appeared across Anna's skin like a field of flowers as the spiked chill of morning's air ran through her room and glided amongst her arm. She inhaled deeply, legs twisting in the sheets of her bed as her eyes cracked open the slightest bit, her room lit in a pale blue due to the early hour she'd awoken in. Safe in the warmth of her bed, Anna sat up a little bit, rubbing her eyes to rid them of sleep as she looked over to her curtains that blew freely in her room due to the wind passing through her window. Looking down beside her, Anna noticed the messy ruffles in her covers, signaling a rushed departure. In the detail of that morning, the witch sighed softly, a new feeling possessing her mind as she hugged her arms around herself. Isaac wasn't there, and she was alone.

"I told you that red's totally your color," Lydia remarked as Anna shut her locker door, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder. "At least more than that purple on your neck. That just makes you look like a horny teenage girl." 

The brunette sucked in an embarrassed breath before fixing her hair desperately to hide the hickeys left along her skin. "Do you really need to point that out?"

Lydia shrugged as they began walking to their chemistry class only a few doors down, the shouting around them dying out as the period began to inch its way closer to starting. "No, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"

Anna scoffed, pausing before answering as she went over the redhead's sentence in her mind. Friend. When the two first met, they most certainly did not get along, as Lydia had been a little sharp to the witch because of her belief that Anna wanted to get with Scott, but then softening her blows a bit after realizing that Anna's brother was the 'hot guy' she'd seen around the school campus with some other boys. When Lydia revealed this information to the brunette girl, she'd been violently disgusted, and also had to explain Cato didn't actually go to Beacon Hills High, he just didn't have an interest in going to any university, along with all the trouble they'd recently gone through he just didn't have the motivation to learn anymore. Anna had also kept an eye on the girl after catching her hallucinating Peter Hale at school one day, and after that, they'd kind of relied on each other for a little support and relief from all the dangers the unexplainable supernatural had been throwing at them.

"One that would save her friend from dying of embarrassment in front of the whole school." Anna muttered back to Lydia's previous response. After waking up that morning, she didn't really think much about how her late night antics would affect the coloration of her skin, vulnerable for anyone to see. All she thought about was going to school, studying more about the topic of the kanima, and the fact she woke up alone in her bed, obviously realizing Isaac had left at some point in the night.

Lydia hummed. "Don't worry, I'll cover it up for you in the bathroom later."

Walking into the classroom a few minutes early, the two girls grabbed a table seating two in the front. Anna gathered her chem books from her bag, placing them on the surface of the furniture she sat at. She waited patiently for the bell, her leg bouncing anxiously on the floor, but she didn't exactly know why. She just felt a little ticklish twist in her stomach, an instinctive response to when her subconscious seemed to grab a hold on something her eyes were blind to.

A hushed conversation drew Anna's eyes from the table and up to the front of the room where Stiles and Scott began to walk in, the words 'Derek, kill, and proof' making her eyes narrow. When they noticed her and Lydia, their shoulders seemed to sag a little in relief as they rushed forward, Stiles in specific carrying the look he wore when he was about to spill a whole bunch of beans out of the bag. Just before they reached the girls' table, both boys' gazes were snapped to the back of the room, jaws slacking and inaudible curses forming in their mouths.

Anna's eyebrows furrowed and her lips parted in confusion before turning around to see the cause of Scott and Stiles' nervous body language. As soon as her eyes landed on them, Anna felt an invisible, overstimulating pressure crush her lungs until she nearly doubled over, head feeling heavy and about to fall from her shoulders as she made eye contact with the two.

Isaac and Erica stood in the doorway at the back of the room, leather jackets covering both of their t-shirts. Before Anna could even form words in her mind the pair began to walk forward, trying to maintain the seats behind her and Lydia, only to be halted as Stiles and Scott sprinted forward like marathon runners to claim them first. Taking the closest chance next to the table behind the brunette girl, Derek's betas sat down in the chairs behind the ones on Anna's right, where Allison just arrived.

"What the hell is going on?" Anna whipped around, facing Scott and Stiles with brunt confusion. The werewolf opened his mouth to explain when a voice cut his sentence short.

"Einstein," Spoke Mr. Harris. "Once said, 'two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.'"

The insufferable man walked around the classroom, his body seeming to waltz around the heavy tension that was slowly rising in the room. "I, myself, have encountered infinite stupidity." He patted Stiles on the back, and in that moment the young witch found herself, for once, agreeing with the teacher's idiotic remarks.

"So to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're going to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one- or, in Mr. Stilinski's case, less than one." Lydia hummed from beside Anna, turning to face the boy with a smug grin. Despite the ignorant, innocent, behaviors happening to her left, the girl felt her heart beating rapidly and profusely through her chest, sweat beginning to coat on her skin a little. If the circumstances weren't so suspicious and dire, she would have been over the top excited that Isaac was finally allowed back in school- but he wasn't supposed to be. Clearly, something had happened last night, and within a fast snap of inexistent fingers she made it her job to figure out what was going down- hopefully- within the next forty minutes.

"Erica, you take the first station. You'll start with..."  Mr. Harris cut his ramble, only to run off as every hand beside Anna, Scott, Stiles, Allison, Lydia, and Isaac's flew into the air like clockwork.

If only they knew, Anna thought.

"I didn't ask for volunteers." The science teacher snapped. "Put your hormonal, little, hands down. Start with Mr. McCall."

Anna's body tensed. She didn't trust Erica, not in the slightest. She just hoped her trust in Scott would be enough to have the rest of the period run smoothly. She picked up her head and looked over at Allison, whose face ran ghostly white and expression dropped franticly within a matter of seconds. Anna pressed her lips together in pity, you didn't need to be the smartest person alive to know that the new werewolf wouldn't respect one's relationship with her new status. 

"All right, next two..." Mr. Harris looked around again. "Anna and Evie."

Anna's eyebrows furrowed at the foreign name, body turning before her head as she looked backwards to see who the other girl was, catching gazes with Isaac in the process. His eyes were squinted in slight confusion as he looked back as well, both of their eyes falling on whoever Evie was.

Chestnut brown hair was layered gently around her shoulders and back, the front pieces held by what Anna guessed was a hair tie out of view. Her skin was a golden tan and her eyes resembled enchanted honey swimming in the rays of sun that beamed against her face. The only problem, was the glare she cast towards the witch as she got up to walk over to her.

By the time Evie had reached the witch's table, Lydia had gotten up and been partnered with Allison, leaving the two girls alone.

Inhaling a deep breath before turning to make eye contact, Anna opened her mouth, trying to smile warmly at the girl beside her to ease any tension that might cause any unnecessary problems. "Hi, I'm Anna."

"Evie." The girl said with no trace of any friendliness in the slightest. Instead, her eyes wandered all over Anna, as if studying her to find a crack or imperfection in the girl, but the Forester let her. If Evie was suspicious, there was nothing Anna could do about it except do her best to prove she wasn't anything the other girl had to worry about.

"So, are you new here?" Anna began to make conversation, sliding a worksheet closer to her to examine the directions. She picked up a vial and held it steady as she awaited the other girl's answer, gaze still stuck on the paper.

"Yes." Evie said, voice completely monotone. She made little effort to help, yet it would look like she kept busy, as her hands roamed the table, touching different bottles and materials as if she were hard at work.

"Oh nice, where'd you move from?"

"Hood River. Oregon."

Anna nodded with a warm smile. "Well, how are you liking it here?"

"What's it with you and talking so much?" The dark haired girl spoke up suddenly. Her voice wasn't snappy or sharp, it was almost like a mockery. When Anna turned to look at her in shock, her snarky expression was shimmeringly apparent, like a fresh painting with glorified empowerment. Her eyes were squinted and her lips were poised in a manner that said she was ready to keep going if Anna was.

"Uh," Anna laughed a little awkwardly, not really sure what to say back. "I guess I can stop if you want?"

Evie hummed, not answering. Anna faced forward again, shaking her head a little with newfound annoyance next to her new partner. She mixed the chemicals as supposed to, emptying powders into liquids and sliding little tabs under a microscope, not daring to say another word to the girl next to her. But, it wasn't Anna that spoke next.

"I can tell that you're mad." 

"I'm not mad." Anna replied with knitted eyebrows, pausing her work to look over at Evie. "I just thought that you wanted to stop talking."

"I never said that." The tan skinned girl replied, making Anna's expression morph into that a parent would make when a child out fooled them in the stupidest way possible. "Besides, I only wanted you to stop talking. I never said anything about me."

Anna scoffed, watching the timer on Mr. Harris's desk to see how much longer she was stuck with the moody teenager beside her.

Forty-two seconds.

I can survive that, Anna thought to herself supportively. She watched out of the side of her eye as Evie picked up a container housing a pale blue liquid in it, tilting the glass as the chemical nearly spilled out.

"Are you going to help, or are you just going to sit there and mess with the order I purposely put the chemicals in?" Anna asked out of blunt annoyance. 

"Woah there, Miss Cliche, didn't mean to ruin your strict code of organization so soon." Evie raised her hands innocently before dropping the glass back onto the table, shaking the surface momentarily.

"What?" The lighter brunette asked, shaking her head yet again as an effect to the other girl's words.

"What? You don't see yourself, your type? The perfect grades, teacher's pet, band kid?"

"I am so not in band." Anna snapped defensively with a pause. "And I am definitely not a teacher's pet."

"No, you're right, you're a lot more of the scandalous type. Super clear, gosh, I should've seen that from the beginning!" Evie exclaimed, eyes going wide in false surprise.

"What? What are you even talking about?" The witch sat up straight, completely disregarding their current science work to try and read into Evie. A sudden suspicion poked at her when she failed to do so.

"I mean, these bruises on your neck say other wise." The other girl sucked her teeth as she pushed Anna's hair out of the way, only to have her hand swatted at desperately. 

Ding.

"Tell yourself whatever bullshit you believe." Evie stood up abruptly, walking to her left and sitting down, leaving Anna at their table, only so slightly stunned. 

"What the hell was that about?" A new, deeper, and absolutely male voice appeared out of thin air. A new body dropped into the seat beside her, pushing another boy out of the way first with a sneer as he stole the seat next to Anna.

"Don't ask me, no idea." Anna murmured.

"Huh," Isaac commented as he picked up the chemistry sheet and squinted and the directions. "Yeah, no clue what this means. I'll gladly watch you, though."

Anna snatched the paper from him with a sigh, turning to face him. "What the hell are you doing here? Did you forget you're literally on the face of every 'wanted' news paper right now for accused murder?"

"About that, I was officially cleared this morning." Isaac said, with raised eyebrows, his voice mirroring a 'what do you know!' type of tone.

Anna did a double take, nearly dropping the tube she held in her hand. "What? How?"

"Jackson took care of it. What a guy, right?" The blue eyed boy grinned cheekily. He scanned her face for any shift in emotion, but all he was left with was the same look of utter confusion, shock, and concern. "What, are you not happy I'm back?"

"Are you crazy? Of course I'm happy you're back, this is amazing! I just- I don't get how Jackson cleared your name so suddenly and with no reason to." Anna reassured him.

Isaac paused, mouth open slightly as he chose his words carefully. "I'm just a very persuasive person."

"You didn't hurt him, right?" Anna lowered her voice, leaning closer to the wolf seated next to her.

"What? No, no, he's fine. He's great actually, just did me a huge favor. He's gotta feel awesome for that." 

"Wait- when did this even happen? I mean, you didn't mention this last night." The girl said with furrowed eyebrows, cheeks going a little pink from embarrassment. 

"I was going to tell you, but I just got a little caught up in the moment." Isaac admitted with a slight stutter. 

"Oh." Anna said quietly with a nod of consideration as she averted her eyes back to the table, fingers tapping against it rhythmically.

"That's actually why I came over in the first place." He continued. "I wanted you to be the first person to know."

Anna's fingers stopped mid-motion, a smile beginning to grow on her face. "You did?"

"Yeah," Isaac swallowed, the whole 'cool guy' persona fading away into nothingness as he gazed into her eyes. "And I wanted to spend some time with you too."

Anna scrunched her lips together, a beam tightening her face up as she stared at him. Even without meaning to do so, Isaac's whole existence made her day so much better, and she'd only been talking to him for a minute. As she turned her head to look back down at a bottle containing some foul smelling liquid, she saw Lydia, who sat with Scott, the two seeming to be in a heated conversation.

"So, is there anything you're planning to do on your first day back?" She tried to inch her way closer to the topic she'd heard Scott and Stiles discussing earlier that period.

"Maybe skip lunch with you, if you're up for it?" Isaac replied back casually, unscrewing a bottle cap she'd pointed to and handing it to her.

Anna laughed, shaking her head as she measured the proportions in the lab carefully, eyes flittering up to the timer.

Fifty-nine seconds.

"What about Erica? Don't you think she'd be a little bummed that you're leaving her all alone on your first day back?" Although her tactic was to try and get Isaac to reveal his true intentions of what he was doing that day, Anna found it difficult to erase the jealousy bubbling up from her throat.

"Oh, she can handle herself." Isaac said nonchalantly. He was either blind to the fact Anna was trying to force information out of him, or he was just extremely tight lipped. Beyond that, he knew the girl too well, and could certainly sniff out the tight strings in her voice when talking about the blonde. "Besides, I'd rather hang out with you."

Not quite satisfied, the blue eyed girl tried a more blunt approach. "Could Lydia come, too? She's just been feeling really down about Jackson lately, I promised I'd sit with her at lunch today."

Isaac made a face of disapproval. "Since when were you and Lydia friends?"

Anna shrugged. "Few weeks ago, maybe?"

"Huh, didn't see that coming. I thought you hated her." The boy replied back, eyebrows up and nodding as if pondering the situation.

"I never hated her." Anna scoffed quietly.

"You dared me to ask her out last year as a joke." Isaac deadpanned.

"Well yeah, because I knew she would reject you- and it was a bet, not a dare, so..." The brunette pointed out, resting her chin on her fist.

Isaac rolled his eyes, not answering her as he filled up a testing tube to a three way mark and examined it, clearly having lost interest in the conversation. That was one thing about the boy Anna had caught onto quite quickly when they first became close the previous year, when he became bored with a conversation, he just simply stopped replying. If the girl didn't find it so annoying, she might actually think his little gambits were kind of cute.

"Hey," Anna rested her hand on his arm, drawing his attention back to her. "Just promise me you'll be safe, yeah?"

The werewolf opened his mouth, but no sound came out, it was apparent he couldn't tell her yes, because then he might be lying to her, and he hated lying to her- under any circumstance. But on the other hand, he'd felt a twinge of regret for what he needed to do under Derek's instructions, because Anna had just made a new friend, and he might be the one to take that away from her.

As he'd let his tense muscles relax and began to explain, the timer rung again, signaling for him to move. He got up, no other words said. With a ruffle to her hair, he moved onto the next station.  

"Derek's outside waiting for Lydia." Scott said as he, Anna, Stiles, and Allison shuffled into a closet right after the bell rang.

"Waiting to kill her?" Allison asked, a heavy breath escaping her lips as she leaned against a desk crammed into the small room.

"If he thinks she's the kanima, then yes." Scott replied. "Especially after what happened at the pool."

"It's not her." Stiles interjected fiercely. 

"Stiles, she didn't pass his test." Anna pointed out. "If that's not solid evidence I don't know what is." 

"No," He shook his head, turning around. "It can't be her."

"It doesn't matter, because Derek thinks it's her. So, either we can convince him that he's wrong, or we've got to figure out a way to protect her." Allison said. She looked between the three of them desperately.

"Well, I really don't think he's gonna do anything here, not at school." Scott added.

"What about after school?" The huntress whisper-yelled. Her eyebrows were knitted in an expression of distress, her emotions written all over her face like an open book. To her words, Scott had no reply.

"What if we can find a way to prove Derek wrong before he gets to Lydia?" Anna suggested. Her proposal was not a strong one, but it was better than complaining in a school closet.

"Yeah, by three o' clock?" Stiles rolled his eyes, running a stressed hand over his head.

"There could be something in the beastiary." Allison shrugged. 

"Oh, you mean the nine hundred page book written in Archaic Latin that the one person here who understands hasn't even started to look at?" Stiles raised his voice, agitation and exhaustion scratching at his pipes. "Good luck with that."

"What- I told you to send me the pages, you never did!" Anna argued to the indirect insult hurled at her from out of the blue. This was true, the night they'd received the ancient book containing all the information they needed, the witch contacted the Sheriff's son, instructing him to send her the file so she could begin to read and translate it. He'd replied with an 'okay', only to never send it to her at all. The girl had already indulged herself into the other history books on the supernatural her own family had possessed in search of any really useful information- to no avail so far-, that she'd forgotten to ask him again. All she'd picked up from her own texts were little stories or passages on other creatures that mentioned the kanima, but nothing that could offer them anything salvageable on it.

"I fell asleep, I told you that." Stiles snapped back.

"No, you didn't." Anna scoffed. 

"Uh, yeah, I did. Do you need me to pull it up? Because I will." The buzz headed boy's hand flew to his back pocket, beginning to pull out his phone.

"Whatever." The witch shook her head mindlessly as she turned to the other two people in the room, a look of blatant annoyance smacked across their faces. "I can go through the beastiary before school ends and see if I find anything."

"I can talk to Derek." The werewolf offered. A start, they were reaching that at least. "Maybe convince him to give us a chance to prove that it's not her."

In a silent agreement, all four heads nodded. Anna didn't know if the few hours she had left in the day were going to be enough to skim the beastiary to find the knowledge on the kanima they so deeply seeked, but she prayed they would be. They didn't really have any other choice.

"But if anything happens, you guys let me handle it okay?" Scott broke the silence. His tone of was drowned in concern as he began to take all the weight onto his shoulders once again.

"What does that mean?" Anna asked softly, eyebrows furrowing as she shook her head a little bit.

"It means you can't heal like I do." The raven haired boy answered. Looking around at the deadpanned faces surrounding him, he sighed, arms slightly lifting before dropping in defeat to his side. "I just don't want you guys to get hurt."

"I grew up in a battle trained, bloodthirsty, coven of witches with one of the most powerful reputations in history." Anna said with a raised eyebrow, a smile twinging at her lips to let the wolf know she was only teasing. "I think I got it covered."

"Besides," A voice joined in after a sharp click. Allison faced the group, crossbow loaded and held in the air as she made overpowering eye contact with her boyfriend. "I can protect myself."

Anna was a little surprised to see an armed weapon hiding in the girl's bag, but was still impressed, nonetheless. She felt a glimmer of pride in her chest, proud of the huntress's ability to stand up for herself instead of falling victim to the role of 'damsel in distress'. To the witch's left, a little bit behind the rest of them, Stiles blew out a breath, hands on his hips as he silently marked his agreement with the girls.

Scott swallowed, looking down before nodding. "We have until three." Turning to lead them all out the door, the werewolf walked towards the exit, hand reaching for the knob until he snapped back around, catching an arrow in his grasp as bewilderment covered his face like a mask.

Knowingly, Anna sighed and Allison looked backwards at Stiles, who's jaw was dropped in fault as he hurriedly shoved the weapon back into the huntress's hands. 

"Sorry... sensitive trigger on that." He stammered, a weak smile decorating his lips for a faint second.

"I'll keep an eye on him." Anna assured Scott and Allison, the both of them nodding their thanks as Scott opened the door to leave, Allison following in suit.

"Wha- what does that mean?" Stiles asked, a defensive front bluntly coming forward.

"It means that you and I are going to the library. You're helping me search the beastiary."  The witch said with a sarcastic smirk. 

"Do I have to remind you that I don't speak a single word of Latin?" The buzz cut boy protested. He grabbed his bag and ran after the girl, who'd already began her withdrawal from the room.

"No, but you did say that you wanted to be a detective, right? Well, welcome to your first unofficial official case, Detective Stilinski." Anna heard a hesitant pause from behind her, followed by a quick intake of air, knowing that meant another string of what was probably more fussing from the boy. "And no complaining, this is for your girlfriend. Not mine. Got it?"

With a grumble under his breath and a roll of his eyes for most likely the hundredth time, Stiles followed behind her without another word said.

"'Like the wolf, its power is greatest at the moon's peak. Like the wolf, the kanima is a social creature, but where the wolf seeks a pack, the kanima seeks a master.'" Anna frowned as she looked at the paper. She'd been sitting in the library with Stiles for the past half hour, the two of them studying the beastiary hungrily as they searched for any valuable information they could find. Recently, they'd figured out the obvious- a creature capable of carnage and violence, and also takes the shape of some sort of reptile. Despite this that they'd already known, though, they'd also found out that is was used as a weapon of vengeance. It carried out the dirty work for it's master, in usual cases mauling the victims to death until their blood stained the floors they'd spent their final moments on. 

Anna and Stiles had still yet to find other dire pieces of information, such as weaknesses or deeper facts regarding the bond between the master and the kanima itself. Nevertheless, the witch was still remotely satisfied with what the two had dug up already within the matter of time they'd worked with.

"Alright, great, so all we know is that we're working against two people here. Fantastic." Stiles said from beside Anna after she'd read the previous line. It was basically just summing up everything else they'd learned, no additional help being added.

The blue eyed girl shook her head as she skimmed the pages some more. "We still out number them."

"Yeah, four teenagers and a homicidal lizard with a nanny that's killed, like, what? Five people already?" Stiles scoffed as he slumped in his chair, his raise in volume earning him a few dirty looks from around the room.

"I think you're being a little dramatic." Anna looked up from her studies as she eyed the boy who's expression immediately resembled a teapot about to blow. Before any outburst erupted from him, though, his phone rang. Shooting the witch a death glare, he pulled the device from his pocket and brought it up to his ear.

"Hey, what happened with Derek?" Stiles asked eagerly as the voice on the phone replied. In a flash, his eyebrows furrowed, then his eyes popped, and his jaw slacked intensely. "W-what do you mean? Like, right now?"

Anna stiffened as she watched Stiles interact with Scott on the other side of the phone. She moved into the boy's line of view as she shook her head a little, motioning for an update. Holding a finger up, Stiles paused, taking a deep breath.

"Shit. Okay, meet us there, alright? As fast as you can. Me and Anna will get them and go." Stumbling as he did so, Stiles shoved his phone into his pocket and began to pack up their belongings like he was racing a clock.

"Stiles, what happened? What did Scott say?" She asked earnestly, as she started to help the frantic boy put their stuff into their bags.

"Get Allison on the phone now, tell her to bring Lydia and Jackson. We're going to Scott's house." His voice was low, but rose with every word as his anxiety began to shine through his layers of skin. He dropped a notebook, cursing as he bent to pick it up.

"Hey, calm down." The witch placed her hand on Stiles' arm as she tried to slow his pace, but if anything it made him more riled up.

"I'm calm, I'm fine! We just-" His eyes flitted around the room before leaning in closer to her. "Isaac and Erica are on their way right now. Derek isn't doing anything to Lydia, okay? They are."

In that moment, it was almost as if time stopped- but not in a way that benefited their situation, that would give them more time to take a breath and steadily work things out like they needed to. It was as if Anna was the only one caught in the glitch in time, she felt stuck, like what Stiles just said had stopped her life and her body, leaving only her mind intact yet useless. Denial hit Anna like a wave, drowning her in disbelief and throwing her into an inescapable current of confusion. Isaac wouldn't kill anyone. Isaac wouldn't kill anyone. Isaac wouldn't kill anyone. 

"Isaac wouldn't kill anyone." Anna said slowly, as if testing the words in her mouth. Yes, yes, that felt right. Isaac wouldn't kill anyone. But then, why did she feel like she was submitting an answer onto a test that made perfect sense, yet she knew was going to be wrong? 

"Then why is he going after Lydia? Anna, Isaac isn't the same guy you were dating last year, okay? He's different now, he's with Derek, and he isn't gonna stop until she's dead. So just call Allison up, I'll do the speaking if you need me to. We just need to get out of here for right now, alright?" Stiles had now gathered his wits together, roles reversing completely as he studied the expression drawn across the witch's face.

With a hesitant nod, Anna dug her phone out of her pocket and typed in Allison's name with shaky fingers. She brought it up to her ear as the faint sound of ringing grew louder, but she couldn't decipher whether it was the phone or the empty ranges of her brain dancing with the echoes inside of her on replay.

"Hello?" Allison asked suddenly, pulling Anna out of her trance. "What happened, is everything okay?"

"No," Anna said. Her voice was trembling, like she stepped out of a frozen lake and was shivering in a blanket as the wind froze the droplets on her skin. Steadying her breath, the witch spoke again. "Isaac and Erica are looking for Lydia, get her and Jackson and bring them to the library, we can go to Scott's house, but we have to leave right now."

"You mean they're planning to kill her? Right now?" The girl on the other end of line asked worriedly. Anna could hear a shuffling of what she assumed was Allison leaving wherever she was.

Anna inhaled deeply, not wanting to admit it, trying to find another excuse as to what Isaac was really up to, but she couldn't. "Yeah, yeah I think so."

"Alright, me and Lydia are coming. We'll get Jackson and meet you guys there in five, okay?"

The brunette girl nodded, although she knew Allison couldn't see her. "Yeah, sounds good."

~~

It took approximately seven minutes and forty-three seconds for Allison, Lydia, and Jackson to meet Anna and Stiles in the library and leave faster than the speed of light. Despite Lydia's attitude and not so very light-hearted confusion, it was a pretty smooth departure. Compared to her mild freak out from earlier, Anna had calmed down a bit and pulled herself together, putting her priorities first. 

Shutting the door to Stiles' jeep, Anna stepped out onto the sidewalk the car was parked against, instantly feeling a sense of relief as cooler and fresher air filled her lungs. It wasn't exactly comfortable sitting squished in the backseat with Lydia and Jackson while they grumbled and argued.

"If we're studying at Scott's house, then where's Scott?" The redhead asked, her voice tinged with a hint of accusation. It was apparent she knew something was being shielded in the shadows from her, something that everyone else knew but her. She walked in front of Stiles, who had his hand on her back and was scurrying her along in a not so discreet way.

"He's on his way," Anna assured. "He just... forgot his notebooks in the locker room."

"Why would he put his notebooks in the locker room...?" Lydia replied with a disgusted expression, though the witch couldn't tell if it was from Scott's stupidity in decision making or Anna's in coming up with excuses.

"Yeah, that's a great question, Lydia. Why did Scott forget his notebooks in the locker room?" Stiles quipped as he shoved the keys into the door, throwing Anna a look in which she returned nastily.

Shuffling into the house, all five teenagers stood a little uneasily as Stiles slammed the door shut, sliding the lock into place immediately after. He drew back the white lace of a curtain as his pupils peered the road outside nervously, after a few seconds standing up straight with a nod. All eyes looked towards him, three of which were silently scolding him for the lack of a nonchalant persona.

Lydia raised her eyebrows suspiciously, to which Stiles just shrugged. "Uh... there's been a few break-ins around the neighborhood."

Awkward silence filled the air like a thick fog while Anna, Allison, and Jackson averted their gazes, becoming intensely interested in random vases or tablecloths. A rough sound pierced Anna's ears as Stiles dragged a chair to the door and hooked it under the knob with a satisfied huff.

"And a murder." He added once Lydia eyed him again. "Yeah, it was bad."

"Lydia, follow me." Jackson said. "I need to talk to you about something."

Despite the relief Anna felt from the feeling of walking on thin ice while bearing wrists covered in rocks disappearing, the blue eyed girl felt a lump appear in her throat as she looked toward's the other girl's face. Lydia's eyes grew softer and her chest seemed to tighten, as if a little bit of hope sparked a match inside of her. Anna hadn't failed to notice the way Jackson treated her. Sharp tones, sudden actions, harsh exertions of force to her physical body, yet Lydia still always seemed eager to wait for him, like she was there whenever the situationship was ready to come back.

It hurt Anna's heart to see her follow him up the stairs.

"Jesus..." Stiles muttered once the pair was out of earshot. He leaned against the door, head back as he ran his hands over his face.

"What do we do now?" Allison asked from Anna's right. The raven haired girl's fingers were picking at her lips, the skin red and irritated as she messed with her own flesh out of pure stress.

"Hey," Anna laid her hand gently on her shoulder. "It's okay, let's just wait for Scott to get here. We'll figure something out."

"Yeah, I don't think we have time for that." Stiles muttered. He was staring out the window again, but this time, his expression bore that of defeat, not nerves. The sky was darker and the chill from outside began to seep under the doorway, creating an illuminating, cold, atmosphere in the room. Anna felt her bones dissipate in her body, her heart dropping into her stomach. "They're already here."

a/n -  started off this chapter with a little more action then usual as an apology for this update taking so long, i published intros for a new fic and i'm writing the first chapter which i despise doing sm. anyway, new character introduced!! i'm super excited to begin anna and evie's storyline cus it's gonna be smth pretty different than a usual 'friendship' per say... also act like jackson wasn't w danny and matt in the library during that period, he was just repping it in gym instead alr?? cute! once again i appreciate all the love and patience u guys are amazing thank u <33