โ™ก ๐—–๐—›๐—”๐—ฃ๐—ง๐—˜๐—ฅ ๐—ฆ๐—˜๐—ฉ๐—˜๐—ก๐—ง๐—ฌ-๐—ฆ๐—œ๐—ซ โ™ก

โ™ก ๐™ฉ๐™–๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™š ๐™ค๐™› ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช โ™ก
๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ seventy-six

99 problems

โ”€โ”€โ”€ ๏ฝฅ ๏ฝก๏พŸโ˜†: *.โ˜ฝ .* :โ˜†๏พŸ. โ”€โ”€โ”€

Dallas Garcia felt the cold metal locker scrape against her back, clutching her books close to her chest and chewing on her bottom lip in contemplation. Her nails dug subconciously into the paperback cover and plucked the stitching. It wasn't until Chimera misted her nose and blocked her throat did she perk up from her slouched position.ย 

Her hand reached for the leather-cladded back that entered her view. Gold rings gleamed under the overhanging lights while veined hands blotted with blue storms that fizzled around her bloodstream.ย 

However, it didn't end up pressing against it, but hovering above while her eyes held a porcelain stare. Theo stiffened. His breathing halted in his chest and his lips rose into a snarl that Dallas almost didn't hear. "I can't move." He hissed. "You do know that my Chimeras could be here in seconds, right?"

She scoffed sarcastically. "Oooh, do your worst." she laced her hands together instead. "I only want to talk."

"So you took away my free will to make sure I'd listen? Clever."

Running her tongue across her lips, Dallas bit back a sarcastic smile. Her hand raised slightly to waft away the mind-control and watched as Theo's shoulders relaxed before her eyes. His pained breathing eased out, as did his speech through gritted teeth, and eventually he turned to her.ย 

"You look better." Theo cracked his neck. "For a pin-cushion."

Dallas wasn't exactly feeling comical. Especially since she could still feel the cold steel slice against her collarbones and the harsh gloves pinning down her wrists. It was a memory she wished she could bury - and Theo, - someone she wished she could bury with it.ย 

She began inspecting him with her eyes.

"You don't."ย 

His eyes rolled but lips stretched out into a cheshrie grin. "Sweet as always."

Dallas hummed disappointedly. "You only think so because of the hypnotism." She waited a moment before speaking again. "I want my blood back."

She wasn't expecting him to laugh. Truth be told, it was the very last thing she was expecting. Her eyebrows immediately knitted and a sour taste coated her tongue. Theo reacted like she had told him the greatest joke of the century, splitting his lips into a chuckle and tossing stares across the room.ย 

"Oh, you're serious." He inhaled sharply through his teeth. "You're lucky being a Siren requires you to be pretty and not smart."

If Dallas rolled her eyes any harder, they'd pop out of her head and scuttle across the floor.ย 

"I'm not asking nicely, Theo. The only reason I didn't rip your heart out and eat it infront of you was because I wanted to be good enough for Scott's pack." She soured. "I've had alot taken me because of those choices. Without his nagging voice in the back of my head telling me how wrong it is, what'd you think I'll do?"

Theo felt her corner him against the locker but felt no discomfort in it at all. "I'm hopeful for quite a few things."

He tried to straighten his posture but felt her hand shove him back into the locker. "I'm not going to be the little side-piece you want on your pack, Theo. Nor the fixer upper Scott thinks I am. My priorities are my priorities and it doesn't belong in this little tetesterone competition you two have. Give me my blood or I'll give you all your Chimera's decaptitated heads instead."

Theo couldn't help but stretch a smile. "So this is the Siren that Scott has been so insistent on smothering." He teased. "Did he finally fuck up and lose her as an ally? If so, is the position still open?"

"Tsk, sorry. From this point, anything I do represents me and me alone." Dallas gave him a quick one-over with her eyes.ย 

"You need a pack to protect you."

Dallas straightened out his jacket and tapped her hand against his chest. "Shucks, but I already have one. We all share the same last name."ย 

Dallas turned to leave but Theo knocked his head to the side to gain her attention. "How is this going to convince me to hand over the one ingredient to make a nicer, more loyal Siren?"

She smiled until the edges of her lips touched the apples of her cheeks. "Cause with me out of the equation, you might actually stand a chance."

Dallas remembered the hollow feeling in her stomach when Klaus told her about her father. How much time she wasted trying to be on the better team when she should've been better at protecting him. There was multiple opportunities she messed up by being the bigger person. She didn't want to be bigger -- and she didn't want to be better.ย 

That meant accepting her losses. It meant accepting bitter defeat. It meant everything she had given towards the sick world was for nothing. The way Dallas was offering up doll parts of herself made her feel incomplete.ย 

There was no greater cruelty in the world than giving your all and it still not being enough.

Theo cocked his head to the side in a thinking motion as she remained silent. His bottom lip juttered out and eyebrows raised. "You're not helping Scott?" He quirked a brow. If Dallas made someone feel such fire when she was spitting insults at them, how would it feel to be the object of her affections? "Finally jumped from that sinking ship?"

Theo talked awfully big for someone with such a punchable face, she thought. If she angled her fist right, keeping her rings facing outward, maybe she could hit him hard enough that his next words would end up as incoherent mumbles.ย 

"I could sink both of these ships and not bat an eye." She muttered. "Fortunately, I don't care about either."

He could hear the sarcasm drip from her tone and bit back an inapproriate comment. Dallas was always so infectiously... intense. Sometimes, when he was younger, he always imagined she hid horns underneath the curls in her hair. All those times she spent skating rewarded her with a cold tone and the storms she swam in granted her a certain type of lightning that would glint in her eyes whenever she snapped.ย 

Dallas, on the other hand, thought Theo had become an amalgomation of everything she hated about boys. Dressing himself up in leather jackets like it gifted him some time of badass-ery. Wearing aftershave so thick it practically suffocated her lungs. The gel in his hair wasn't nearly as messy as she'd like. He wasn't as tall - scrawny - or dark haired. He didn't handle sarcasm as well. His eyes .. too blue. Too cold.

"Is this your complicated way of asking for a truce?"

"Keep me and my family out of it -- give me my blood - and then..ย mi casa es su casa."

He remained silent. Like he was considering it. Dallas took that as an answer in itself and stepped back.

Theo chuckled dryly and tugged at her wrist as she tried to walk away. "I'll consider it. But for the record, I can easily beat Scott." he narrowed his eyes. "Let me show you how."

ย She glanced down at his hand. Stiles hated the idea of Theo even being around her. Talking to her? Touching her? Dallas wouldn't be able to eat what was left of him.

Her chest heaved and throat closed up at the thought. She pulled her eyebrows over her eyes and snatched it from his grasp. "I can walk myself."

Theo remained silent. Which was big for him. Dallas ignored the chew toy infront of her and how he pressed all of her buttons like an excited child in elevator. Instead, she hugged the book closer into her chest for a dull sense of comfort.

"Then follow along, Ariel."ย 

She groaned. The Little Mermaid jokes were just as annoying from his mouth than any other.

If there was one thing her and the redhead shared in common, it was the sudden desire to run into the arms of a dark-haired idiot. Dallie frowned - and she couldn't even do that.

โŠฑ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€เฎ“เน‘โ™กเน‘เฎ“ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ โŠฐ

Derek Haleย swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat as he approached the Garcia residence. Scott was right. There was something dark that clung to the air and suffocated you with every whisp of air you dared to take. His leather jacket felt far too tight on him, as did his skin, which felt oddly uncomfortable upon his bones.

The door was unlocked, he noted. The handle was loose, almost pulling the wood from its hinges, and the paint scratched around the edges. His knuckle tapped it open. "Jim?"

"James, you here?" He took a step inward. "Anybody home?"

His eyes scattered to the broken fragments of the dinner table and the traces of blood across the floor. Derek knelt on the floor, breathing in the putrid scent of death and doom before a shadow cast over him.

The werewolf hesitantly rose his eyes to the man looming above him. His hands were bunched up in his pockets and a toothpick balanced between his teeth. James ran his eyes over the Hale momentarily before speaking.

"You paid me a visit?"

James watched as Derek rose to eye level. "Where's Dallas?"

The vampire grinned as he didn't answer his question. "Not here." He plucked the wood from his lips. "But I, on the other hand, seemed shackled to my humble abode."

"You're a vampire, James."

The Lawyer straightened his posture as he brought the whiskey bottle to his mouth. "Oh, I know that look. You disapprove."

"Vampires are scum of the earth psychopaths, so yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled."

James didn't respond to that. Instead, he took a daring step closer until his tattered clothing brushed against the zipper of Derek's jacket. His eyes flickered to his lips - stare burning intently - before dragging them back up to his iris.

A cold sensation pricked his bottom lip and dragged it down to reveal his bottom row of teeth slightly. It didn't take Derek long to realize it was the tip of the bottle. "You look like you need a drink." James hummed, placing it between his fingers.

Jim turned away. His torn white button-down wafted over his shoulders and fell to the floor while he pulled a fresh t-shirt over his bruised abdomen.

Derek Hale remained still for a moment before clearing his throat and slamming the whiskey bottle on the table. "We need to talk about Dallie, Jim." he swallowed thickly. "She's gonna end up trusting the wrong people."

James fumbled with his belt buckle while tossing his head back in an eye roll. "I am not the suffocating parent. Marilyn is. Dallas was perfectly fine the last time I saw her. Fully content with being morally grey and whatnot."

The werewolf found himself with a stutter. One from his words, the other from his actions. "What.. what do you mean, fully content? Talk her out of it. Be a dad, James. Not a drunken-"

"Scum of the earth psychopath?" He beamed from behind his glass. "How I love it when you degrade me."

Derek pressed his lips together impatiently.

"I can't, I'll burst into flames the moment I step out that door. I'm no use to anybody dead."

The werewolf blew the hair from his forehead while the cogs behind his brain twisted and turned wearily. He then pulled the leather jacket from his shoulders and tossed it to the vampire's face. James coughed at the strong aftershave and wet dog aroma he'd never noticed before and sent him a quizzical look.

"Come on, Dracula, I have an idea."

โŠฑ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€เฎ“เน‘โ™กเน‘เฎ“ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ โŠฐ

Cold. That's what Dallas could recall from leaning against Theo's car. Her elbows propped up on the hood while eyes burned into the leather clad back of the Chimera. "And what exactly am I waiting for here? Other than your dwindling sense of self respect and a repeat in questionable fashion choices?"

Theo didn't bother to look at her. "Girls in glass houses shouldn't throw stones-"

That was enough to sew up her lips. Atleast for a few seconds. "I'd like to throw a few at your face."ย 

He grinned bashfully before stretching forward to lean closer to her face. "Scott doesn't have what it takes to be Alpha. He doesn't understand the necessary kill. He's never had to beg for acceptance. Scott has never spent a moment being saw as nothing but a villain, Dallas. I have. I understand being the black sheep." He glanced at her figure in the reflection of the shiny hood. "You were even before you were bit. I remember."

Dallas thought back to a time when her and Theo were friends. She was well aware how odd that sounded considering their position now, but they were. He was simply a listening ear to her problems. "Living up to their expectations is harrowing, isn't it?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Well, your expectations are nada, so, not much to worry about there."

He seemed greatly amused by her insults. "What made you drop from Scott's side?" Theo decided to ignore them. "Or am I just catching you in a generous mood?"

His steady gaze remained on her. Dallas wasn't quite sure what to do. She missed the friend she had in Theo. Sure, he'd throw a thumbs up to all her worst decisions and was no morally better than her, but he was right. Black sheeps often flocked together. It made the punches of self-scrutiny hit a little softer.

Although, Stiles Stilinski; her moral compass, always wanted better for her. Believed that she didn't need to actively try to be better. He was always confident enough she already was. He made the punches of self-scrutiny completely disappear.

With her family's life hanging on the line though, Dallas didn't have time to compare. Sticking her head in the sand was her least favourite thing to do, especially since it left specks of ignorance in her hair, but it was her only option. Scott would criticise her for hurting those who hurt her. Theo was all for it, but perhaps took it a little too far.ย 

There was rarely anybody in the middle who could excuse reasonable murder but be sensible about it.

"Because I prefer only having one Hybrid to worry about." She tapped her fingernails against the silver hood after leaving a gap between her answers. "The other needs my full attention."

Dallas watched another Chimera exit the building, tripping over the steps while lavender light soaked up his features. Theo turned his head to him before taking a quick second glance at the Siren.

"Lucky guy." he muttered. "How much did you take, Josh?"

The other Chimera managed to blurt out a reply. "A lot." he eyed Dallie suspiciously. "And I don't feel a thing."

Theo rose the hood and attached two clipped wires. "You wont. Your body heals too fast."

"Yeah? Then maybe you should have left me for dead."ย 

Theo brushed up against her shoulder as Dallas quirked her head at the boy. Drugs never enticed her. However, she understood the empty feeling of hollowness after death and its lasting effects on the body.

"Or maybe you just need to feel something else." he approached him, live wires in hand. "Something better."

Dallas felt her eyebrows knit. A smirk toyed his lips as he clipped their ends onto the ignition and watched the electricity crackle the Chimera's body. His eyes gleamed purple. Body flamed like a live firework. Theo could help the cackle that left his lips. "How does that feel?"

The excited snarl made the Siren's spine shiver. Theo nodded to her but kept his eyes locked on the electrified Chimera. "Told you I could beat him."

Dallas swallowed as she stepped away from the car with crossed. "Yeah," she felt her heart race in her chest - worried for both Scott and everybody in the pack she cared for. "By making monsters."

โŠฑ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€เฎ“เน‘โ™กเน‘เฎ“ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ โŠฐ

Scott winced he pressed the cotton-ball against his open wound. Blood soaked up the fluffed white and smeared it across his skin. His sink was cluttered with dirty red-stained wet wipes and tissue. Stiles approached the bathroom door with an awkward wave and a tense silence.

"Still not healing?" Stiles mumbled out.

"Sometimes it just takes a little longer." Scott brushed off his worry.ย  "I talked to Malia, by the way."

"Good news?"

"Bad, actually. She won't help because Dallas won't help.. which, you know, doesn't help." he then allowed a soft silence to take over as he pulled a fresh shirt over his head. "I'm just hoping Derek pulls through."

Stiles nodded along shakily. Dallas was stubborn. Insistent. Even Derek Hale himself couldn't make her budge on decisions like that. His hands fumbled together as he stepped into the doorway of the bathroom. "You heard about the guy who got killed out at the communication towers, right?"

It was Scott's turn to nod.ย 

"I think I may have figured something out." He pulled out his phone. "Take a look."ย 

Scott noticed it was security cam footage. It was of some kind of car park. Scrambled enough that you'd barely notice, though. Before he could open his mouth and ask why it seemed to important, Stiles commented. "This was when the technician first arrived." he pointed to the black figure flickering across the screen. "You see him going in?"

Another car pulled up, a figure accompanying it and disappearing into the building also. "Then Deputy Clark goes in."ย 

Scott couldn't prepare himself for what happened next. Rampaging through the doors with black smoke lining its feet and paws pouncing against the floor, a large black creature bursts onto the screen. "And then something really big and really fast comes charging out."

Scott didn't dare interrupt the focused Stilinski. "And now comes Clark." He tore his gaze from the phone and onto the human's tense movements for a second. "Eventually, technicians's body is carried out by paramedics."

"Okay, what am I missing?"

It was times like this Stiles Stilinski really wished he was talking to Dallas Garcia instead. "Scott.. two people go in. Three come out. I checked all the footage. Not a single person enters that building before the technician the entire day... so where does that something really big and really fast come from?"

Scott felt the world settle on his shoulders. "There's another way in."

โŠฑ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€เฎ“เน‘โ™กเน‘เฎ“ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ โŠฐ

James Garcia huffed as Derek's leather jacket draped over his messy gelled hair as it protected him from the blazing sun. He could feel the heat swipe across his nose - which was partially from the intense heat of the giant fiery ball in the sky - as well as Derek Hale's snickers.ย 

"You can stay here until I figure out how to let you outside without exploding." He tossed his keys on the couch. "Try not to pollute the area too much with your undead stench, kay?"

James kept the leather jacket over his head and blinked his very tired eyes. "What? With those stupidly big windows?"

"That's what curtains are for, Jim."

"I may have an undead stench but the wet dog smells coming from you right now, Derek, are absolutely horrific. How Dallie copes with the lot of you, I'll never know." James huffed. He sat down on the couch before tossing the jacket aside and tossing his head back onto the rest.ย 

"Speaking of the devil spawn, where is she? Scotts' filling my head with rumors that she's linking with a hostile Chimera. You and I both know she doesn't fare well with manipulative boys."

"Well, I tried to eat Scott, so, I'd presume I'm not in a good position to be giving her advice on how to behave."ย  He noticed Derek's glares. "Have you got any bourbon? I'm terribly thirsty. I feel like Satan has shoved a cactus down my throat and left it there to rot."

Derek shook his head at the newly turned vampire. He was always so melodramatic. Vampirism only made his bad qualities evidently worse. He pulled his jacket back over his shoulders as he spoke.

"You're craving blood. If you get the sudden urge to bite someone, go for Peter."

Peter Hale appeared at the top of the stairs. "You're not leaving him with me, are you?"

"I have a stubborn Siren facing an indentity crisis to worry about. Along with an unknown vampire biting people, a Chimera threatening to take over Scott's pack, three Dread Doctors, a personal issue that James has with the sun and to top it all off, I have no idea how I'm going to fix any of them. So yeah, you're on vampire babysitting duty."

Peter shoved his hands in his pocket. "He reeks of death."

Derek placed the keys between his teeth. "It's a common Garcia trait."

โŠฑ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€เฎ“เน‘โ™กเน‘เฎ“ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ โŠฐ

Dallas wasn't sure why Stiles wasn't picking up. Maybe he had bad reception. Maybe his phone was on silent. So she texted too, that fruitless also. Maybe he forgot to reply. Maybe his keyboard stopped working.

Maybe he was simply ignoring her. Dallas frowned. She hoped it wasn't that one.ย  It's not like she sided with Theo -- she simply asked for a truce. In no way did that correlate to her calling him Alpha and nodding her head at everything he said. It was a mutual understanding that she wasn't getting involved - and would rip heads off from either side of the fight if they made her lose another thing to their insolence.ย 

Dallas was admitting that she'd never be good, so why bother trying to live up to those expectations when all they brought was dishonor and disappointment?

After all, killing was the most basic primal instinct when it came to survival. It was a dog eat dog world and Dallas had enough sharp teeth digging into her neck to remind her of it.

Still, a text would make her feel a little chirpier.ย 

Silent treatment is beneath you. Her fingers tapped frustratingly against the keyboard. As no response came, it became evidently clear that it definitely was not.

Dallas dropped her phone to her chest as she sat on her windowsill. Her room didn't really feel like her room anymore - just the place where she slept - as the faint sense of home only correlated to Stiles and his own four walls.

Dallas felt the walls of her own shake slightly as the door below slammed. "Dallie?" A voice called out. Her eyes widened as she realised it was Derek's. "Are you here?"

Without thinking, the brunette spoke. ".. No."

There was a silence. Then a fitting array of stomps working their way up the stairs. The scent of dog drew closer and made the Siren knit her eyebrows before pressing her nose against her pillow.

"You're luckily you heal fast because I'm going to kill you." He muttered from outside her bedroom door. "But before I do that, can I come in?"

"Also no."

The door opened anyway. "What were you thinking?"

"About what?" Dallas quirked a brow. "Your outfit? Terrible.. Scott's pack management skills? Horrendous. Theo? In general? Exhausting-"

Derek waited patiently until her sarcasm stopped. "About leaving James unattended after he's just been bit." He scolded her with a parental tone. "He needed you, Dallie. And you ran to buddy up with Theo Raeken instead."

Dallas gasped. "You've spoken to Scott, haven't you? I know that because that's exactly something Scott would say." She shook her head disappointedly. "I went to rectify some of this shit because right now, I'm the only person dealing with it."

"Language-"

She sat up. "Klaus bit Dad. He told me so himself after he robbed the Fork from me and boasted about me having Mikaelson blood." Dallas gritted her teeth. "I was an idiot for thinking any of those vampires could be trusted."

Truth be told, Dallas was disappointed in trusting Elijah. He saved her life. He tried to save Sheriff Stilinski's life, too. She often thought that despite the unfortunate card life had dealt him, he had a good soul. Atleast, until she came home to see her father with bitemarks in his neck and blood staining his shirt with neither of the Mikaelson brothers to be seen.

"You knew there were vampires in town and you didn't think to tell me?" Derek responded, hurt. Dallas was supposed to trust him with anything. He was her godfather, after all. Those weren't just nonsense words to him or ink on random paper. It meant something.ย 

"I didn't think you'd understand." Dallas shrugged. "I thought I could handle it."

Derek took a seat beside her. "Dallas, you're not meant to handle it. There's no shame in admitting that you're in over your head."

Guilt crept up on her. Maybe that's why her dad was dead. She let her introverted ways get the better of her and it came at the cost of everybody else. "You know Theo isn't to be trusted, right?"

She didn't respond but fiddled with the stitching of her jeans. Dallas didn't care about Theo. She didn't care about Scott. Quite frankly, she found herself sitting in the midst of her own guilt that her father would never be her father again.ย 

"If Scott would've just let me kill-" Dallas swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat and refused to let tears gather in her eyes. "I could've stopped all of it from happening. Every bit."

Derek knew not to push. He knew Dallas quite well by now. There were certain things she could talk about for hours and other things she couldn't bare to think. This was somewhere in the middle. All the Hale could do was let her know he'd support her nonetheless with his mere presence and unbroken silence.ย 

"I can't help Scott." She wiped beneath her eyes with the edge of her hand and forced a normal tone. "I won't. I can't get involved or else it breaks the truce. It's the only thing keeping Sybil and Seline from Theo's radar. Mom too."

"But will you tell him something for me?"

Derek nodded.

"Theo isn't planning to play fair."

โŠฑ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€เฎ“เน‘โ™กเน‘เฎ“ โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ โŠฐ

Stiles Stilinski tried his best to ignore the buzzes in his pocket as his phone lit up with texts. He knew who they were from. He knew exactly what they were about. Replying? A little difficult when you and your bestfriend are pointing torches around a murder scene in the middle of the night.ย 

"You see that?" Stiles nodded.ย 

Scott shrugged. "All I see is blood."

Stiles flickered his flashlight towards the red scratchmark tracks. "Look where it leads to." He followed with the shine of the light until Scott dropped beside the closed metal cabinet.ย 

There was strains in his strength. As were there creaks in the cabinet. With tensed muscles and portruding veins, the cabinet top finally thudded open beneath his hands. Scott took a moment to breathe before trying to lift it.ย 

Stiles noticed his struggles and joined the other side with worry stinging his gaze. "Okay.. one.. two.." they both grunted. "Ah, three!"

Beneath the toppled over cabinet was a hole in the floor. One that connected to a steel ladder and an underground tunnel system. Shards of torn metal and broken pipes circled the entrance, like whatever had scuffled through held very little regard for its own destruction.ย 

"We're gonna have to go down there, aren't we?" Stiles winced.

"Yep."

He turned to the Alpha sheepishly. "You first."

โ˜† word count:ย 4,572. โ˜†

a/n: send some love this chap and yall might get another update tonight

Bแบกn ฤ‘ang ฤ‘แปc truyแป‡n trรชn: AzTruyen.Top