CHAPTER SIX
CALLER ID

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     Alana Jane waited in the library, hoping that this time Theo would actually show up, especially after he insisted on buying her lunch to make up for flaking on her. She tapped her pen against the edge of her biology textbook as she read over everything on the page for the second time. Her notebook was turned to the notes she took in class and a pink highlighter was sitting right on top of it.

     "I'm here," Theo said and Alana Jane looked at him as he sat down in front of her.

     "You're here," she said as she put her pen down. "Tutor me."

     "Straight to the point. I like that," Theo smirked and Alana Jane rolled her eyes but she couldn't help but smile herself.

     "You insisted on paying for lunch so I had high expectations that you would actually pull through this time," she said while leaning over the edge of the table.

     Theo smiled as they started working on the assignment they were given and Alana Jane glanced at all her highlighted notes. She knew she wasn't too dumb for the class but apparently she needed to prove it to her teacher. Maybe Theo really could help her and maybe it wouldn't be so horrible. The first study session was a bust but now they're actually getting something done so she could actually improve for the first official test.

     "How many things do you need to highlight?" Theo asked as he pointed to the page that had more pink ink then Alana Jane would like to admit.

     "Anything that is important to know," she replied as she shrugged her shoulders. "Which is pretty much everything."

     "Fair enough," Theo chuckled and Alana Jane smiled tightly as she continued working on her assignment.

     About two hours passed with asking questions and Alana Jane throwing a crumpled up piece of paper at him whenever he would make a smartass comment, which was pretty much all the time. It felt like her brain was going to split in half by the time she was halfway done with her assignment and she leaned back in her seat as she looked at the ceiling. She was starting to get tired from trying to absorb all that information and sighed as she ran her fingers through her hair. School really was starting to get to her and she had been involved with pretty intense things in her lifetime.

     "I need to take a nap when I get home," Alana Jane said while craning her neck, feeling and hearing all the cracks.

     "Let's just call it a day," Theo replied as he started packing his stuff and Alana Jane nodded as she packed hers.

     Both of them stood up and left the library and Alana Jane sighed as she looked at Theo. "Thanks. You know, for your help so far," she said and Theo smiled.

     "No problem," he replied as he started heading to his car. "See you tomorrow."

     Alana Jane pursed her lips as she got inside her car and put her bag in the passenger seat. Once she was ready to go and had the radio softly playing, she started driving home so she could try and take a nap before finishing the rest of her homework. As she stopped at a red light, she thought about what Stiles said when he and Liam were outside her house. He said that they needed her to look inside someone's head and see what they were planning but she refused and told them to leave. Her hands gripped the steering wheel as she thought about it. Usually, when Stiles said something, he turned out to be right. Maybe it wasn't one hundred percent of the time but most times he was right and the odds were usually too high to ignore. For all she knew, this could be one of those cases where he was right and somebody was up to something no good. She would have to talk to him about it at school but right now, all she wanted to do was sleep.

     As soon as the light turned green, she stepped on the gas and made the rest of the way home just fine. "Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad," she said when she saw her parents sitting in the living room.

     "How was school?" her father asked and Alana Jane shrugged her shoulders as she just kept walking to the stairs.

     "Just like any other day. Chattering kids and crappy teachers," she replied.

     "How was your study session with that boy?" her mother questioned.

     Alana Jane pursed her lips as she turned around and looked at her parents. "It was alright. I got half my biology assignment done so there's that," she answered while her mother nodded.

     "As long as you're actually studying and not doing any of that," her father said and Alana Jane's nose scrunched up while she shook her head.

     "Jesus, Dad, we're just studying. How does that even work its way into your mind?" she asked and her father just shrugged her shoulders.

     "Ignore him, sweetie. You should take a nap, you look tired" her mother said.

     "Thanks, Mom. That is exactly what I was about to do," Alana Jane said as she went up the stairs to her room and put her back down

     Once she laid down on the bed, she kicked her shoes off and turned around to lay on her stomach with her face buried in her pillow. Eventually, she did fall asleep and when she woke up, it was night and her room was completely dark. She scratched the back of her head as she walked over to the light switch to turn it on and yawned as her phone rang. She dug through the pockets of her jacket until she found it and answered before it could stop ringing.

     "Hello?" she asked while rubbing her eyes.

     "Alana Jane, before you hang up, I just need you to listen to me," the female voice on the other end said quickly but Alana Jane just squinted her eyes in confusion.

     "Who is this? I didn't check the caller ID," she replied.

     "It's Kira. Yukimura. Kira Yukimura," the girl said and Alana Jane sighed.

     "Now I definitely know who it is," she said as she yawned again. "What is it?"

     "We need your help," Kira said.

     "Who's 'we'?" Alana Jane questioned with one hand on her hip.

     "Me and Scott and before you hang up, there are people's lives on the line. I will tell you what I know so far but you need to forget about your grudge with Scott and get to Sinema. We're heading there right now," Kira said.

     Alana Jane sighed as she closed her eyes tightly. "Fine. I'm on my way," she said before hanging up.

     Once she had her shoes back on, she went downstairs and her parents were still in the living room. Her mother noticed her heading towards the door and called out to her and she stopped and turned around. "Where are you heading at this hour?" she questioned.

     "A friend called. Said she needed my help with an assignment that's due first thing in the morning," Alana Jane replied, hoping her parents would believe the lie.

     "It's already dark out," her mother said.

     "I'll be taking the car and I'll be home as soon as I'm done helping her," Alana Jane sighed as she opened the door. "I'll be back soon."

     Once she was in the car, she started driving to Sinema where Kira told her they would be. As soon as she got there, she pulled out as much cash as she could from the cup holder since she was going to have to pay to get in and locked the door before rushing to the entrance. The person who answered was a girl, one of the students from school and Alana Jane gave her the cash before she was let in.

     Inside the club, there were neon lights, male dancers and people getting drunk and sweaty from dancing so close to one another. The music was loud enough for her to feel the vibrations through her feet and get her skull vibrating as well. "Alana Jane!"

     Alana Jane turned around and saw Kira and Scott walking up to her. Completely ignoring Scott, she looked at Kira who looked pretty panicked. "I'm here, now tell me what's going on," she said.

     "I think we're dealing with a half scorpion and half werewolf chimera. Not sure about the werewolf part but he is definitely half scorpion. He attacked some kid with venom in an amount that should've killed him but he's alright now and he said he would be here," Kira explained quickly and the corner of Alana Jane's mouth twitched.

     It was always something. They couldn't even go six months without something new coming up but she got the feeling this wasn't the beginning or the end.

     "There's more, isn't there?" she questioned.

     Before Kira could answer, Scott turned around and started heading to another area of the club. Kira and Alana Jane quickly followed and ran through the beads and saw a boy with stingers on his arms and the back of his neck pinning Liam to the floor. Another boy sat against the wall with a bloody wound in her side and another boy stood in the corner watching everything go down.

     "You're a little late!" Liam shouted and Alana Jane stepped forward with the purple energy currents at her palms and fired right at the boy, knocking him off Liam.

     When the boy with the stingers got up, Scott ran up to him with his claws out and both were swinging at each other while Kira took out her sword. Alana Jane still had the purple energy currents surrounding her hands and looked at Kira who took a swing at the boy with the stingers once Scott was out of the way. He kept blocking her sword with his arms and she then kicked him into the wall. Before he could regain his composure, Alana Jane used her power to lift him off the floor and throw him halfway across the room. Once he was down, the energy currents disappeared from her fingers but she noticed an orange flame the shape of a fox surrounding Kira's body. She charged at the boy, yelling in Japanese and raised her sword, ready to deliver the final blow but Alana Jana shot a purple stream at her which knocked her over while Scott called her name. The flame vanished and Scott looked around at everyone who was in the room.

     "Is everyone okay?" he asked. No one said anything but Alana Jane noticed the boy's fingers twitching. "We need to get him out of here. Liam, give me a hand."

     Both of them grabbed his arms and his legs and started lifting him. "Wait!" Alana Jane warned them but something shot right into the boy's chest.

     Everyone watched in shock as they looked towards the roof and saw three men—or creatures—in metal suits and masks standing there. "Why did you do that?" Scott asked in horror.

     "His condition was terminal," one of them said in a robotic voice.

     "What does that mean?" Scott questioned.

     When they didn't answer and started to turn around, he repeated his question but the same one who said the boy's condition was terminal simply said, "Failure."

     As they turned around, Alana Jane projected an energy blast at them but they were gone as quickly as they appeared. She looked at the dead boy with stingers in his arms, wondering how it all came to this.

     "Kira, I need you to tell me everything that's been happening," she said as she looked at her. "Start from the beginning."