┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐
chapter twenty-eight!
COYOTE CATCHING 101
└─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

( more bad than good, pt. ii )

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

VERA DUMPS HER backpack on the floor immediately after entering her house. The action creates a loud thud in the otherwise empty home, announcing her arrival to nobody except her cat— her mother is still at work. The sound of Hades' paws pattering against the hardwood floors makes her mood brighten in an instant. She bends down to greet him as he comes into view, his tail high and welcoming meows filling the air, so she can scratch him under the chin.

"You have a cat." Isaac doesn't say it like a question, more like a statement that holds more weight than it ought to. He edges inside and shuts the door with his foot with his wary gaze locked on the orange animal. Hades, intrigued by the newcomer, steps forward to thoroughly investigate Isaac's shoes.

"Yes, and he's my pride and joy, so if you don't like cats, you can get out and find a different ride to the preserve," Vera shoots back without missing a beat. Her voice holds no mirth because she's not joking— she'd once had a classmate come over to work on a project and had felt mortally wounded when they'd pushed Hades away in disgust.

"I have no opinion on them," he replies, still staring at the cat, who has decided that Isaac's aura is suitable and has started to rub against his shins. Seeing such a tall guy being so cautious around a small cat is almost enough to make her laugh. She smirks instead, rising to her feet.

"A wolf is afraid of a cat? That's ironic." Vera walks around to the front of the nearest sofa, plopping down onto the cushion and immediately tucking her legs underneath her. She closes her eyes with a sigh and leans her head back against the cushion. "Peace and quiet. Hard to come by in this town."

"It won't last forever," Isaac unhelpfully reminds her, making her crack one eye open to glare in the direction of his voice. His footsteps make it easy to track his movements from the foyer to where Vera sits. A pressure on the other cushion indicates he'd sat down. "Whenever Allison's ready, we'll be on our way to somehow do the impossible and hope that coyote is Malia and not, like, a regular coyote."

Vera lifts her head up and opens her eyes. "Stiles was right— you really do need to work on your optimism."

"Yay, I'm sniffing pee," Isaac sarcastically drawls, producing a syringe filled with a few milliliters of yellow liquid from his backpack at his feet and then shoving it back into the front pocket. "I'm having the time of my life. Really feeling like this is where I peak. How's that for optimism?"

She puts a fist over her mouth in an attempt to stifle a horrid snort. "Werewolf perks: smelling pee. Sometimes I'm glad I turned into a glorified ghost."

"We'll see if you still feel that way the next time I have to carry you along since you can't keep up on foot."

"For the record, you chose to do that. I did not force you to."

"Whatever you say, Pérez."

"That's literally how it happened, you asshole."

Isaac's mouth twitches with a small grin, his eyes dancing with amusement. "I know, I just like making you angry. It's funny because it's so easy. You have opinions on things nobody should have opinions about."

"I do not!" Vera insists, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff.

"My science folder for school is blue."

"That should be green and you know it. Green is a science color! It's the earth and nature and—" Realizing she has walked right into Isaac's trap — or more like flown into it face-first — she abruptly cuts herself off. He's holding back his laughter but his shoulders shake with the effort to constrain it. She lightly punches him on the shoulder in outrage. "You're a jerk."

"You're just annoyed that you proved my point, which is even funnier," he says. "You small people have so much wrath inside of you."

"Says the same guy who's unnecessarily pessimistic twenty-four seven."

Isaac raises a brow. "Oh, are we back to that again?"

"We are."

"I think you're running out of arguments."

"I think—" Vera stops herself once she comes to her senses and realizes how close they've gotten. They're facing each other on the sofa, leaning forward in the heat of their banter, and their faces are so close that she can see the details in the very same ice-blue iris she'd painted in art class. The afternoon sun still provides enough light into the house so they hadn't turned on any lights upon their arrival, but the angle they're sitting at cuts a shadow along his cheekbone, making it even more prominent than it already is.

Isaac processes their proximity as well and swallows. He continues to hold her gaze until Vera pulls her lips into a line and he tracks the movement with his gaze, then quickly moves back up to his eyes as a flush creeps up his pale complexion. It gives her a surge of confidence.

Isaac questions, his voice barely above a whisper as if afraid of shattering the moment, "What do you think?"

"I think you need to shut up."

Vera places a hand on the side of Isaac's face as his falls to her hip. She tilts her head, not even thinking, only following the fiery sensations lighting up inside of her — the fervor of their back-and-forth quips, the heat of the moment, her pounding heart — and lets her eyes flutter shut. It happens so quickly but also seems to take years for them to inch closer until their lips just barely brush against each other, the faintest of touches.

And then both of their phones vibrate at exactly the same time.

They freeze, wondering if the moment has been ruined. Vera pulls back just enough to look at Isaac in silent questioning. He shrugs, leading to them leaning in again, only for their phones to start buzzing at annoyingly rapid successions that they can't possibly ignore.

She sighs and eases away enough to pull her phone out of her back pocket. Isaac does the same with his, reading the texts they'd both received— and are actually still receiving.

STILINSKI added you and LAHEY to a group chat.

STILINSKI: we're ready so i really hope you guys aren't boning

STILINSKI: ANSWER THIS IF YOU AREN'T BANGING EACH OTHER

Missed call from STILINSKI (2)

STILINSKI: STOP

STILINSKI: ANDNDNSK

STILINSKI: SMDMANA

STILINSKI: HJHHA

Missed call from STILINSKI

STILINSKI: ALSK

STILINSKI: A

STILINSKI: A

STILINSKI: A

Vera scoffs as the messages continue to roll in. She's half-tempted not to respond in order to continue stressing him out, but she isn't that mean, so she quickly types a response before he breaks their phones.

VERA: shut up stiles

VERA: we're not boning

"How is he even sending these?" Isaac asks as he scrolls through the multitude of messages that the boy had managed to send in a matter of seconds. "Isn't he having trouble reading?"

"Autocorrect and text-to-speech, maybe," Vera replies.

STILINSKI: somehow i don't believe you

VERA: do you think we stopped mid-bang to text you back?

STILINSKI: idk, isaac has been very quiet

LAHEY: shut up

Vera snaps a photo of her giving Stiles a rude gesture that relies heavily on her middle finger and sends it. Then, she locks her phone and looks at Isaac. "Guess we have to go now."

"Yeah," he replies. He makes no move to get up from the sofa.

His gaze suddenly seems too intense for Vera, but she refuses to look away even as the reality of what they'd almost done sinks in. Oh God, she'd almost kissed him. The same guy who made her want to bash her head into the wall six months ago. But even as a part of her feels a bit mortified, another part is upset that Stiles had interrupted. Something had felt really right at that moment.

She quickly leans forward and plants a kiss on his cheek before she can think twice about it. Then she stands and walks toward the door as if nothing had happened, grabbing the keys to her motorcycle from one of the hooks beside the door. There aren't footsteps behind her to signal that Isaac had followed. When she turns, she sees him still sitting on the sofa, stone-still with shock, his eyes wide. It makes her bite down a snort.

"You gonna sit there all day?" she asks him teasingly. He snaps out of his daze at the sound of her voice, quickly getting to his feet and following her out the door to her bike.

Isaac has gotten more comfortable with riding on Vera's motorcycle after a few attempts. Before, he'd grip her so tightly it was like he feared she'd throw him off of the bike, but now he seems to trust her. Mostly he complains about her hair hitting him in the face. When he does, she pretends to swerve and causes him to jump in panic, only for her to immediately correct their course with a snicker.

They arrive at the preserve to see that everyone else is already there. She quickly parks beside Scott's bike and yanks her helmet off to see Dominic wiggling his brows suggestively. Her eyes narrow in warning, making him grin.

"Anyone else think we might be doing more harm than good?" Lydia questions anxiously. She's the only one in the group with stiff posture, her hands curled into fists at her sides and slightly toying with the short hem of her skirt.

"We're trying to keep a father from killing his own daughter," Scott reminds her.

Isaac, ever the pessimist, chimes in, "Actually, we're trying to keep a guy from killing a coyote who is actually his daughter, who we don't know how to change from a coyote back to his daughter."

Vera rolls her eyes so hard the action is nearly audible. How had she been about to kiss him only twenty minutes ago?

"And again with the not helping," Stiles says. The taller boy makes a face at him in response.

Scott turns toward Allison, eager to get them back on track. "Did you bring it?"

She opens the trunk of her car and pulls out a tranquilizer gun with an extremely long, thin barrel. Vera doesn't want to think about the number of werewolves who have been poisoned with that very object. Chris Argent hadn't been friendly toward Derek and Scott upon his arrival in Beacon Hills— in fact, he'd tried to kill them multiple times before retiring from his job as a werewolf hunter. She reminds herself that they're using the tranquilizer to reunite a family.

Scott hands her the vials of xylazine and allows her to load the gun so the darts are ready. Allison appears outwardly calm, but Vera knows she must be anxious about whether or not she'll be able to accomplish this task. Having her skills yanked out from under her has taken a blow to her self-esteem.

"Anyone find a Coyote Catching 101 manual?" Dominic questions from his place beside Stiles. It's almost amusing how short he looks in comparison to the raven-haired boy, standing at several inches shorter than him. It makes him the shortest guy in their group since he's barely taller than Allison.

Nobody responds; they all look at him in disdain.

Gunshots pierce the air, making everyone in their group jump. Judging by the echo and weight of the sound, they sound like they'd come from a larger gun that needs to be re-loaded between each shot— probably some sort of rifle. Vera's heart drops into her stomach. Is that Mr. Tate, out here trying to shoot Malia in coyote form? He couldn't have any worse timing.

Scott immediately starts up his bike and jumps on it, his tires moving effortlessly across the packed dirt. Stiles protests, "Wait, Scott!" but his words are lost over the sound of the engine. Isaac takes off after him on foot. Vera doesn't have time to start up her motorcycle, and her larger bike wouldn't do well to weave between the trees anyway.

She uses a short burst of flight to move her along faster, but she's still no match for a werewolf's speed. Scott's twists and turns through the forest are difficult to keep up with. Soon, the sound of his engine is a mere echo, and then she can no longer hear it at all, nor can she see Isaac.

Vera stops once she realizes how stupid this idea was. She doesn't have a means of tracking Malia, she never could have hoped to keep up with the boys, and what is she going to do if she finds the coyote with nobody else around? Expect it to follow her back to wherever the hell Scott is so he can possibly transform it back to a human?

God, her life is so weird.

Vera glances around at the still woods, the orange-colored leaves crunching under the soles of her shoes as she turns. Her eyes search in every direction but she still can't find a sign of the boys. Unfortunately, Scott's tires hadn't left visible tracks due to the dead leaves being so flat. She could try to play detective and search for Isaac's footprints, but she doesn't have the patience and it would probably be a waste of time.

"Scott?" she yells, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify the volume of her voice. "Isaac?"

Nothing except a gunshot answers her back. Vera's instincts propel her into action once again, her blood turning to gasoline in her veins as adrenaline takes over every rational thought. Her feet pound against the forest floor, nearly causing her to slip on the leaves before she regains her balance again.

After a few seconds of panicked running toward the sound of the gunshots, Vera takes a step and feels a strange pressure under her foot. It's a reflex that she becomes intangible and throws herself forward, barely managing to become solid again before she smacks into the earth and catches herself on her elbows. Something metal makes a sickening snap! sound. Vera looks over her shoulder, moving her hair out of her face to see a bear trap half-hidden by the dead leaves. Its metal spikes had clamped together when she'd unknowingly activated it. If she hadn't had powers, those spikes would be buried in her calf.

"Vee?" Dominic's voice calls from the way she'd come. "Vera, where are you?"

"Here!" she shouts in reply, voice half-shaking from fear and shock.

He comes into view from around a cluster of trees and instantly breaks into a sprint when he sees her on the ground. His wide eyes examine her for injuries. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"No," she says, allowing him to help her up. "Just almost had that damn thing take my leg out."

Vera points to the trap. Dom sucks in a breath. "Yeah, I was coming to warn you about those. Stiles' dad said that Tate put them everywhere."

As soon as he finishes his sentence, a bone-chilling scream of pain echoes through the woods. Vera and Dominic both freeze at the sound of it.

"Isaac," they both realize in sync.

Vera glances down at the animal trap and then takes off running again, her eyes flickering between the ground and what's ahead of her. Dom's footsteps indicate he's following. His athletic abilities make him catch up with her easily, both of them sprinting hard in the direction that the scream had originated.

They eventually find Isaac and Allison. The former is hunched over on the ground, anguished breaths escaping his lips as ragged pants. Allison has the magnifying glass of the tranquilizer gun held up to her eye. Vera's eyes trace the position of the barrel to see it aimed at Mr. Tate, whose back is to them as he points his hunting rifle at the snarling coyote.

Allison fires a shot and misses. Vera and Dominic reach them, their chests heaving from exertion, to survey the chaos. She has three chances to hit the man. If she doesn't, Vera might have to go over there with her invisibility and knock him out, but she'd prefer not to get close to a crazed guy holding a gun.

Vera doesn't risk glancing down at the trap embedded in Isaac's leg yet. Instead, she focuses on Allison, who's also struggling to control her breathing. Her voice is desperate when she mutters to herself, "Come on!"

A second shot. Vera doesn't see where the dart lands, but judging by her crestfallen reaction, it had been another miss. She places a hand on Allison's arm. "Deep breath. In and out, come on."

Allison obeys and takes a deep breath through her nose, then exhales through her mouth. Vera nods. "Good. Now tranq that son of a bitch."

The girl nods. Vera helps her position her arms and prays that the shot will make it. Then, she realizes she doesn't need prayers at all— it's Allison, and she'll make it. Vera has complete and utter faith that she will.

Allison pulls the trigger a final time after whispering something in French under her breath. Tate lowers his gun and glances down at the tiny dart fixed in his shoulder. His brows pinch in confusion at the sight of it. The weapon falls from his hands as they slacken, his legs taking the blink of an eye to fold underneath him as he passes out.

"Yes!" Vera throws her arms around her friend's torso, pressing her cheek hard into the sleeve of Allison's army-green jacket. Her eyes squeeze shut from the force of her excitement. A half-laugh of disbelief bubbles from Allison as she reaches up to hug her back.

Dominic fist-pumps and reaches over a still-injured Isaac to give her a high-five. But their joy fades when she glances through the scope of the gun and delivers bad news.

"She's gone."

"What?" Isaac asks.

"She's gone. Malia— she was right there, and now she's gone."

"I blame Vera for scaring her off," Dom says.

Vera rolls her eyes. There's no way of finding Malia again if the only person among them who can track her has a bear trap stuck in their leg. Vera walks around Isaac's hunched form to the side of the trap, cringing at the sight of crimson staining the leg of his pants where the spikes have dug into his flesh. His hands are coated with it too, his slick fingers attempting to pry the metal from his skin to no avail.

"Dom, can you melt the metal?" she asks.

"Uh, maybe, but I wouldn't want to try that while said metal is in Isaac's leg," he replies. "Also, that would be really freaking hot, and I would risk, you know, burning him."

"Yeah, you're right. That was a stupid question."

Isaac's teeth grit together as he grabs onto both ends of the trap and pulls, the cords in his neck straining with effort. He releases it with a gasp and places his bloodstained hands on his knee to catch his breath.

Vera glances to Allison for ideas since she always seems to have one. But the girl shakes her head, her eyebrows pinched in worry as she assesses the severity of the injury. "We could try wedging something to pry it open, but I don't have anything strong enough."

Shit. Vera doesn't have anything else to offer.

At that moment, a werewolf's roar echoes throughout the entire preserve, causing all of them to jerk their heads up in that direction. Something supernatural stirs in her gut at the sound. It affects Isaac the most, causing his eyes to burn a bright amber and giving him the strength to break the bear trap with a scream. Dominic and Vera quickly catch him when his leg crumples under his weight and makes him fall to the side. Thick rivers of blood trickle down the metal and some droplets spray outward from the force of the object's removal.

Isaac's chest heaves with rapid pants, his body slightly warm from exertion. Vera can't imagine that kind of pain— even for a werewolf, it has to be intense.

"Yay, Scott!" Dominic cheers. "Gross, Isaac."

Isaac shoots him a half-hearted glare, making Dom shrug.

"We should cauterize it," Allison suggests. "He'll heal anyway, but that will accelerate the process."

She grabs a piece of metal from the broken trap that doesn't have Isaac's blood on it, then holds it out to Dom. The boy takes it uncertainly with his forehead wrinkled in confusion. Allison nods to Isaac. "Roll your pant leg up to the top of the wound."

Isaac smears even more blood on the dark fabric of his jeans as he rolls it up, slightly grunting in pain when it tightens around the puncture wounds. One quick glance at the torn flesh has Vera turning her head to look the other way even as she continues to hold Isaac up with her own body. He's leaning against her front, both of her hands pressed to his shoulder.

"Oh, that is gross," Dom complains, his face twisted in a cringe. "That is just disgusting."

"Heat it up," Allison instructs him without paying attention to his complaints. As expected, she's concerned yet calm, thinking rationally through the situation. "It should glow a dull red. Ideally, we'd disinfect everything first, but we don't have anything for that."

Dom glances down at the small piece of metal clenched in his fist. His face pinches in concentration, his eyes squeezing shut as he summons the powers within him. After a moment, his hand bursts into flames. He lets it burn for a few seconds before opening his palm to reveal the piece glowing a faint, red hue.

"It'll hurt like hell," Allison tells Isaac.

"Just get it over with," he says in reply.

Dominic glances at the injured boy. "For the record, after this, you owe me your life."

He extinguishes his hand and presses the scalding metal onto one of the holes in Isaac's leg. Vera cringes at the quiet sizzle of burning flesh as the wound closes, a horrible, strange stench invading her nose. Allison's voice is drowned out in Isaac's screams as she continues to walk Dominic through the process.

Vera spends the entire time with her head turned away, her nose buried into her shoulder, and her eyes squeezed shut almost to the point of pain. By the time it's over and she blinks them open again, colors dance in her vision. The air around them is warm from the heat of Dominic's fire and the burning scrap of metal. But the wound is closed, so they've done their job. Well, Dominic and Allison did their job. Vera had just spent the entire time trying not to puke.

"You think Scott did it?" Dom asks in reference to the roar they'd heard.

"I hope so," Vera answers. "That was badass."

"And weird. Is that feeling gonna happen every time he does that, now? Because, to be honest, I really didn't like it. I don't know how you guys do this."

Allison shakes her head jokingly and starts to get to her feet. Tate is still unconscious — the tranquilizer will be enough to keep him out for a while — so they only have to worry about getting Isaac back to their parking spots. And since he's the tallest out of all of them, that is definitely going to be a challenge.

________

a/n:

this chapter is kinda short kinda boring and came out later than i wanted it to but life got me fuckt for a minute so that's my excuse. next week is my last week of actual class and then i have *shudders* final exams, so i'll probably halt any updates until they're over.

i'm not even sorry about the almost kiss!!!! almost kisses make the actual one even better and you can't tell me otherwise!!! but stiles' reaction was probably my favorite part of the chapter, especially since i can imagine dom watching it all unfold and making sure stiles' messages are spelled correctly

this is literally stiles and vera:

—kristyn

( word count: 4.1k )