A snort came from Tristan as he drove himself and Boyd home while speaking to the person on the other end of the phone that was on loudspeaker.

[I don’t remember you ever sounding this smug, brat.] 

Tristan’s eyes twitched at Derek calling him a brat. He wouldn’t mind anyone else older calling him a brat(as that was what he was to them) but the respect he had for them wasn’t the same he had for Derek. If anything, Derek, to him, was just a slightly older peer. 

[I can already picture the twitching scowl on your face.] 

“Says the person whose human face is not different from his werewolf’s face.” Tristan remarked. “On a serious note, when are you leaving?”

They heard a sigh coming from the speakers. 

[I don’t think I can leave now that I’ve seen what’s coming this time.] Derek finally said after spending days deliberating. [Hopefully we can get it resolved very quickly ‘cause there’s no way I’m letting my pack come back here. I think that stupid root is the cause of everything.] 

“You think?” Tristan scoffed. “It used to be a supernatural beacon before it was cut down. And then Jennifer went ahead and channeled a huge stream of power through it… of course that thing’s got something to do with this.”

[Yeah, whatever. So what’s new?]

Tristan picked up the phone and went through the text that just came in. “We might have found something out, but we’re not completely sure.”

[You do your thing. There’s something sketchy on our end.] Derek didn’t say anything else and ended the call. 

Tristan turned to Boyd who was riding shotgun and patted his shoulders. “I don’t think Erica is coming back any time soon.”

Boyd brushed off Tristan’s hands and sighed, reclining deeper into the seat as he did. “I heard him loud and clear. Maybe this is good, who knows?”

He turned and saw Tristan giving him an inquisitive look that prompted him to sigh loudly this time around. “I’m being serious this time, idiot. If she comes and we try getting back into it, it’ll only hurt us more and make it even more harder when she has to finally leave.”

Tristan nodded. “At least you can think clearly.”

“Yeah yeah.” The downhearted teen hit his head twice against the headrest after which he did a few breathing exercises to clear his head from the jumbled mess of emotions it now was. “So what are you going to do with Kira?”

“I’m going after her after I drop you off.”

Boyd stared at Tristan incredulously as if he couldn’t believe what his best friend just said, because he didn’t. 

“What?”

“‘What’ yo ass!” He looked at Tristan as if this was the first time he was seeing the pale vampire. “What am I going to do if they show up at my house? I’m not a vampire or a werewolf y'know.”

Tristan turned the steering sharply and pulled up to the little driveway in front of his house and looked at Boyd who was glaring at him with a hand on his head that he hit on the dashboard due to Tristan’s little maneuver. 

A few moments and they saw the girls pull up behind them in Allison’s car. 

“Allison will line up mountain ash around the house so you guys will be safe while I go over to check on the girl, and you can call me if something happens.” 

The door of the car was opened by Malia who yanked Boyd out of the seat and took his place. 

…… 

[POV: With Kira] 

Kira sighed despondently as she threw her bag on her bed before unceremoniously crashing into it and proceeding to scream into the pillow while kicking her feet up in the air. 

She took out her phone and looked at the number dialed on her keypad. 

‘911.’

“What do I think I’ll tell them if I make the call? ‘Hello, I think my parents and my classmates are serial killers.’” Even the dry chuckle she had at the thought of calling the authorities sounded bleak. “How can I even talk to them about it?”

Just then, she heard tapping sounds coming from the kitchen counter and tried rousing her confidence to speak to her mom who was probably getting dinner started. 

“Um mom?” She called out as she entered the kitchen but found nobody there or any sign that someone was here just moments ago. 

“Hello fox~”

“Kyahhhh!”

She screamed and jumped in fright upon hearing a weird voice behind her and seeing a scary stranger smiling eerily at her. 

She tried screaming again but found that her mouth was being held shut with a tight grip by the scary stranger who had dark unhealthy sunken eyes, extremely pale skin and the most frightening feature was

 the rows of metal teeth he had in his mouth that was stained with sickly black blood.

She begged with her eyes, tears spilling out as her mind went through a series of dark thoughts that only increased the overwhelming despair that had swallowed her. 

“Hehehehehehehe~” The stranger laughed creepily and used his other hand to rub all over her exposed face, gasping in exhilaration as he did. Especially when he saw her face full of tears and closed mouth of mumbled pleas. “Oh, yes. Such sweet fear. I’ll make sure to savor–” 

FFFTHUUUUM! 

Kira gasped for air the moment her mouth was released, eyes trembling as she saw the scattered kitchen. 

She sat on the floor, legs too weak to hold her up that she couldn’t feel anything below her waist and heart beating wildly as her brain struggled to make sense of what was happening. 

“Well, that happened.” 

“Can’t lie and say this development wasn’t surprising.”

The next thing Kira knew was that she was being scooped up by her classmate, Malia, and Tristan who stood in front of them with his eyes red as he stared at a particular part of the destroyed kitchen. 

‘I’m not going crazy. His eyes can really turn red.’ Her thoughts were all over the place that random thoughts came and went through her head. 

“Trist…”

“I know. I can see it clearly.” 

The sound of that haunting laughter spread out from the kitchen as a hand came out of the rumble, followed by the rest of the body that looked to be appearing out of the ground instead of standing up. 

“Hehehehehehehe… How amusing~” While Kira was frozen in shock and trauma, Tristan and Malia were staring in disbelief at the face before them. “A Primearch and a coyote.”

“Who are you?” Tristan asked, ignoring Kira’s squeak as globs of blood started floating around him. “What did you do with Ethan and Aiden?”

In front of them was a face that was divided straight down the middle by a jagged ashy line with both sides looking completely identical to Ethan and Aiden, the Alpha brothers. 

“It’s been centuries since I last came across a vampire.” The imposter said with a dark laugh. “… you vampires with your high tolerance for pain…. But there’s nothing more soothing than making one of your forsaken species crying out in pain.”

“Yeah?” He was confused by everything he was seeing and heard the imposter saying. Something was horribly wrong and that was a feeling he got from seeing the eyes of the imposter flickering between red and blue. 

The orbs of blood around him shrunk so fast that they emitted red smoke and shot towards the imposter who could only block at such close distance, not that it did all that much since a few orbs pierced a hole straight through the body. 

The imposter only laughed louder as he struggled to stay on his feet, prompting Tristan to attack their rattled form. 

His fist was caught right at the moment it touched the imposter’s head, making Tristan realize that whoever he was fighting had the physicality of the twins’ fused Alpha in their small body. 

‘And fast too.’ He noted, but wasn’t overly worried. 

And the reason for that was the reason why red steam started wafting over his body and his black veins becoming more pronounced all over his body. 

“Get Kira out of here. I’ll try to get this guy out of here, hopefully before we destroy the house.” 

The part of Tristan’s hand the cackling imposter held tore open and skewered his hands through. 

Before he could react, two blood tails came from Tristan’s chest and pierced through him, missing the heart by a few centimeters. 

“DAMNED BLOODBORNS!” 

Tristan paid no mind to their screams and grabbed them before dashing out of the house in a blur before any of the neighbors came around and witnessed a fight they shouldn't have. 

‘He’s not reacting to the pain.’ Tristan noticed when the imposter punched him angrily, forcing Tristan to slam him and drag him along the tarred road, creating a deep trench over ten meters.  

‘The wounds aren’t affecting him, or not enough to impair his movements.’

They were currently on the highway, a risky place where anyone might see them, and down the side of the highway were growing shrubberies that led into the woods. 

‘Just need to get him there and kill him.’

Tristan needed to choose any other option in regards to what was in front of him. 

Malevolence and madness given form. 

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