A/N: so it's been a while...yeah that's my bad...but on a completely new note I'm dating a guy named Liam now :)

When Mason finally stepped out of the elevator and found his way over to them, he looked ready to take a nap. His eyes dropped slightly out of exhaustion and the moment he saw the two of them grinning at each other, he held up a hand. "Nuh uh. I'm gonna have to stop you right there because I cannot deal with your cute garbage right now."

Katherine just rolled her eyes. "How do you think I felt about you and Corey, hmm?"

"That's different," he huffed.

"How? Because it's gay?"

"Obviously, Katherine."

"I'm confused," Liam sighed to himself.

Grinning to herself, she climbed into the back seat. For Masons sake and the fact that he's dealt with the pile of nasty for her, she'd give him shotgun without complaint. "I know you are, you loser," Katherine beamed. "You're supposed to be."

"Gee thanks," he muttered while Mason just snickered to himself.

From the hospital they drove to the school, now wanting to figure out what kind of supernatural being of hell could cause rats to get all tangled up and die. Naturally, the one place they knew to look for some ridiculously weird things was the schools library as it had yet to disappoint them on information as well as there being a late night study hall. That was Mason's reasoning anyway; she knew it was because he was running low on gas.

Once they parked in his usual spot she slid out of the back seat. Cool wind blew through her clothes in a way that made her cringe, but Katherine ignored it. She'd be inside soon anyways. With her hands stuffed into the pockets of her jeans and her shoulders drawn up, she shoved herself into the space between the two idiots she'd happily do anything for.

Mason and his clumsy hands that tried to put keys in his pocket; Liam with his floppy hair getting blown around his face.

"Hey what'd you do with that rat?" Liam frowned as he rounded the front of the car to join them.

She watched as Mason blinked. "I...lost it. In the fight." He tiredly shook his head. "Melissa is going to kill us."

"Probably," Katherine hummed.

"I don't think we can ever go back there again," Liam grimaced, though the faintest of smile was growing on his face.

Mason scoffed at him. "That might work for you, but what about me?"

"Could be a problem," Liam agreed.

They shoved the blue doors open and stepped into the hallway. The lights were off as they always were at night, but the moment she stepped inside the hairs on the backs of her arms stood up. She paused.

Judging by the look on Liam's face, she wasn't the only one who'd picked up on the fact that something was wrong. His brows furrowed and he'd tilted his head slightly to listen.

"Shit," Mason muttered. He dug around in his pockets for a moment before pulling out his keys. He made a fist around them with the end poking out between his pointer and middle finger.

"Because that's totally gonna work," Katherine muttered, but made her way over to him anyway.

"Look, it's all I've got right now," he grumbled while shooting her a look. "and I don't see you swinging your bat around like a freaking crazy lady."

"It's in the car," she hissed back at him.

But they began slowly moving their way through the halls with Liam behind them, Katherine in the middle, and Mason at the front with his useless key that he insisted would be helpful.

They were about to turn the corner when Liam grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts and yanked them backwards.

Not good, she thought to herself.

"What are you?" Parrish's voice flooded the hall.

Well that's really not good.

"You know what I am," a second mans voice answered the question. She didn't know who it was. "I'm the same as you?"

The look of what the fuck that she exchanged with Mason was identical.

"Then what're you here for?" Parrish asked. "What're you protecting?" Katherine could hear slow footsteps, as if they were moving towards each other. Extra not good. "Was it something you're hunting?" He continued. "Something that got away?" There was a short pause and the footsteps stopped. "Something that got away," he answered his own question.

Slowly, the three of them stepped into the hall behind Parrish. The man on the other end of the hallway was the same one she'd seen in the school earlier that day looking into the science room when the rats had arrived. He was wearing the exact same clothes, looked the same, but there was something much more feral in his eyes now.

Katherine yanked the fire extinguisher off the wall behind them and readied it in her hands, taking a step in front of Mason.

The man let out a faint growl and moved closer to Parrish. "Something you let out," he corrected lowly. "It must be stopped." His gaze snapped o er to them.

"Is he talking to you?" Mason whispered behind her.

Liam shifted. "I hope not."

After loosening another growl from deep within his chest, Katherine watched as the man's eyes lit up in a flaming orange. "Here we go," she muttered to no one in particular. He threw his arms out and was engulfed in flames.

Parrish did the same, and then Liam was yanking her and Mason behind him. "That guys a hell hound," he gaped.

She blinked slowly. "Obviously," she hissed back, letting go of the extinguisher long enough to smack him on the arm.

Then the two were tossing each other around the halls, in and out of classrooms, letting out rags filled snarls. Already their bodies were covered in soot.

"Why the hell are they fighting, I thought they agreed we had to stop something again," Katherine groaned. Her hands trembled on the extinguisher. "And why is Parrish getting his ass kicked? I thought he was supposed to be good at this."

"Shut up," Mason hissed from beside her. "Not the time."

"You shut up," Katherine mocked, but stopped talking anyway.

Then Parrish was lifted on the man's claws and thrown out the doors at the end of the hallway. He slammed into the brick wall of the courtyard outside then hit the ground. The flames in his eyes went out, and he stayed unmoving on the ground.

Oh fuck.

Oh fuck.

Oh. Fucking. Hell.

God dammit.

Shit.

And so many other swear words I can't think of right now.

"Run," Liam bellowed at both of them, snapping her out of her utterly unhelpful thoughts.

"I'm not leaving you," Mason yelled back.

"It's a freakin' hell hound, Mason," Katherine hissed as she grabbed him by the arm and ran.

Neither of them had to stop to figure out what they were going to do. They went back to masons car where he grabbed his bat while she simply kept a tight grip on the extinguisher in her hands.

They slowly crept back into the school.

When they got back to the hallway the man had Liam pinned to the lockers and was saying something, though she couldn't hear what.

In the moment it took her to notice that Mason had moved forwards and tried swinging the bat. The man caught it easily and it began melting in his grip. A split se one later he'd swung the end of the bat out, it sent Mason flying into the lockers, and he hit the ground unconscious.

"Fuck," Katherine choked out.

Her hands were shaking more by the second but she moved herself between Mason and the two as they began swinging claws, Liam flooded with rage. It was just moments later that they had fallen to the ground propped up by lockers on opposite sides of the hall, holding their wounds.

As much as she wanted to run to him she knew Liam would be okay, so as the man started laughing she set her stance more firmly. "It won't stay hidden," he said coldly, an empty grin on his lips as he looked at Liam with out the ferocity from earlier. "It must be stopped."

Katherine turned her attention away from the two of them as Mason began shifting behind her, and she crouched down to give him a brief check for any other injuries. When she didn't find any and he was away, they scrambled over to Liam. She checked him over as well and upon finding the slashes she's seen him get, she decided he was fine.

When she looked back to where the man had been sprawled out, she found the space empty of everything except for a smear of blood covering the locker door he'd been leaning against.

They gave Liam another moment to collect himself before they hauled him onto his feet and helped him get into the boys locker room. After sitting him on the nearest bench he peeled the remains of his shirt off to reveal the slashes across his lower stomach, and the ones taking up his left shoulder. Both looked awful, but definitely could've been worse. "They should be healing faster than this," he choked out.

"It's hell fire," Mason reminded him shakily while Katherine grabbed a handful of paper towels and ran them under cold water. "I mean all things considered, you're doing great."

"Great isn't supposed to look like this," Liam grimaced.

Katherine tossed him the handful of wet paper towels then skillfully popped open the nearest locker and pulled out a disposable plastic water bottle. She filled it with the coldest water water she could and handed it to Mason.

All it took was one look for him to press it to his forehead as an ice pack. "You fought a hell hound on your own, without Scott," Mason reminded him in astonishment.

"I don't want to get used to that," Liam mumbled. He awkwardly towelled the soot off his torso. Then, stupidly, he pressed on his shoulder and hissed.

"Wounds heal," Mason told him shakily. "People move, things change."

"Still hurts, though," Liam agreed quietly.

After a moment of silence, Katherine squared her shoulders. "I'm going to call Scott and then we are going to go home. To my place. So I can keep an eye on the two of you and make sure no one dies. Because if one of you dies I'm going to lose my mind completely."

She didn't give them any room to argue as she moved a few steps away, called Scott and explained the entire situation in under five minutes with only mild rambling. He'd listened and promised him, Malia and Lydia would handle it so the three of them could get some rest.

By that point she was steeling her nerves and burying the panic within her until it was physically impossible to do so. She ushered the boys out of the school and into Masons car where she took the drivers seat and forced Liam to lay down in the back.

The drive back home wasn't flawless as she didn't have much practice with it and swore quietly at every pothole and rock that had Liam wincing, but she got them all home in one piece.

Twenty minutes later she had them both on the couch sharing a box of strawberry PopTarts while Mason downed a pair of Advil with some cranberry juice. When she was sure neither of them would require Melissa, she settled herself in between the two of them and leaned into the couch.

They sat there quietly, Mason with a proper ice pack on his head and ribs, Liam holding the slashes on his lower stomach closed with his good arm, and Katherine with clothes covered in blood that in no way belonged to her, and stared at nothing.

She helped herself to a PopTart with the excuse that she'd spent her money on them, but aside from that they didn't say a word for close to an hour. Finally, when they did, it was Mason who broke the silence. "Shit," he breathed out while blinking.

Katherine nodded slowly, moving her hand to gently rest on top of Liam's. "Shit indeed."