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Now, Liam was no stranger to kanimas. He'd seen what Jackson could do now he was half-werewolf with some kanima side features, and he'd heard enough about what he had been like before from Scott to know how dangerous a full kanima could be. Then, of course, there was Tracy, who was dangerous enough even as a lab-made chimera version of a kanima, so yeah... he personally considered himself to be quite well-versed on the matter of kanimas.
This, of course, meant that when one showed up in Beacon Hills once more, paralytic toxin secretion and all, Liam thought that he could handle it without getting Scott involved. He was strong, the leader of the pack whilst the older members were away at college, and if worse came he always had Derek to rely on seeing as how he was rebuilding the Hale house and so was around town at the moment.
He'd gotten Theo to help him out because he figured nobody but him would be too torn up about it if things went horribly wrong and they got hurt, and he trusted himself enough to protect Theo besides, plus he knew he needed the back-up if he wanted to defeat this thing. Theo, for his part, cursed a whole lot and then refused to admit that he could possibly be worried about Liam before agreeing to tag along anyway.
What he hadn't quite planned for, and what his stupidly impulsive brain forgot to remind him of when he managed to convince Theo to go to the school with him at night (because the kanima was totally hiding out in the boiler room there, which was just weird) was that kanimas typically had masters.
Because Liam had terrible luck and Theo had jinxed them by saying this was all going to go to shit on the drive over, this particular kanima's master just so happened to be a potentially psychotic and definitely a little sadistic hunter who had it in for all supernatural beings.
From what Liam had managed to gather in between running for his life and dragging Theo's limp body behind him said hunter's evil genius plan consisted of cleansing Beacon Hills of its supernatural inhabitants before moving onto the next county and so on until eventually he just ordered the kanima to kill itself once he was satisfied with his work. Forget potentially psychotic, the dude was a full blown nutcase, as Theo was only too happy to remind him as his head bumped against yet another corner when Liam skidded around it.
Neither the hunter nor the kanima seemed to be in pursuit but he was definitely not willing to trust his panicked senses and so he continued determinedly towards the exit. This was, of course, not the greatest of Saturday nights he’d had, and he was beginning to regret slightly turning down Mason’s offer of a game night even if it meant third-wheeling because of Corey.
"You know, when I said that I didn't want you to leave me in the room with a kanima, I imagined something a little more dignified than this," Theo huffed, continuing on with his endless stream of unnecessary commentary. "I thought that maybe you would do the honourable thing and protect my fallen body or lure the beast and the hunter away, or at the very least pick me up. Not-" here he let out a little derisive snort of disgust, "-drag me along the floor like a dead body."
Theo, of course, being the leading expert on carting around dead bodies. Liam rounded another corner. There was another resounding crack as Theo's head caught the edge followed by a pitiable whine and five whole seconds of blissful silence. Liam didn't even pretend he didn't do it on purpose this time, just adjusted his grip on Theo's ankles and carried on half-jogging backwards, looking over his shoulder and nearly groaning in relief when he saw the glowing fire exit sign at the end of the hallway.
"You know what? I've changed my mind," Theo huffed, because of course even head trauma couldn't keep him quiet for long. "Leave me here. I'd rather take my chances with the kanima."
"I'm not leaving you," Liam huffed, more than a little out of breath, when a resounding bang followed by the ear-splitting screech of metal echoed around them.
Being in a school at night would always be creepy. Everything echoed, it felt unnaturally empty, and the darkness made the shadows grow and stretch, the strange glow from the signs making everything seem a little eerier than it actually was. Being in a school at night when a kanima and a psychotic hunter who is disturbingly good with a crossbow- as Theo's current state of paralysis could attest for, as the bolt had been coated in the kanima's venom- was downright terrifying, even without the added image of the weird, reptile, lizard thing clawing its way straight through the door Liam had previously been so eager to get to.
"Shit," he breathed, turning back to Theo, who had finally fallen silent. "Shit, shit, shit, shit."
Theo, whose head was stuck facing forward, had a rather dull view of the ceiling and nothing else, so couldn't see the sight that Liam was now cursing at, but he seemed to gather the general picture of it all if his glowing eyes were anything to go by.
So the thought of their imminent death was what it took for Theo to finally lose control. Good to know. Now if only Liam could actually get them out of this alive so he could somehow use this information to his advantage in the future that would be great.
"Look who has finally been caught in the hunter's web," a voice came from somewhere in front of him, and sure enough when Liam glanced up he saw the hunter at the opposite end of the hallway, crossbow held loosely by his side as he regarded them and the kanima currently clawing its way through the door behind them with what appeared to be wry amusement. "The boiler room, of course, would have been a perfectly fine place to kill you, but certainly not as fun. I thought that I would give you a little bit of hope first that you could actually get away. That way it's so much sweeter when I crush you, see. Infinitely more fun than simply tearing you to shreds would have been, though that has distinct possibilities in its own right."
"So you get off on emotional torture," Liam growled through gritted teeth, releasing Theo's ankles and crouching over him, moving in a way so that he could see the kanima out of the corner of his eye even as he glared at the hunter. "Good to know."
"I wouldn't say I get off on it," the hunter laughed, cocking the crossbow towards Theo as he wandered a little closer and smirking when Liam growled and moved to cover him more fully, claws out now and fangs extended, prepared to move at any moment. "I'm not a monster. Not like you. That's why I'm going to give you a choice."
"A choice," Liam repeated.
The kanima had made its way inside by this point, the door a mangled mess of crushed metal behind it as it crept forward.
"Yes," the hunter sighed, then grinned, such a sudden change in attitude that Liam would have been worried if he wasn't already freaked out beyond all measure. "If you leave him, I'll let you go. You can live out the rest of your years without ever having to worry about me or my friend here coming after you. All you have to do is leave him here with us. Just walk away and you get to live."
"I- what?" Liam frowned.
If he walked away then Theo was as good as dead, but he would never just do that, as much as he didn't want to die. He cared about Theo more than he did his own life. Maybe that meant something, or maybe it didn't. He liked to think he was the sort of person who would have stayed no matter who it was that he was protecting.
"Leave and let your friend die here whilst you get to live," the hunter repeated, eyes brighter than ever, crossbow loose and once more by his side, "or stay and die with him. It's your choice."
Liam snarled then, full out and proper, filled with nothing but a yearning to tear out the hunter's throat. The only thing that stopped him was his consciousness of the kanima, now closer than ever, just a few short feet down the hallway in the opposite direction. If he went for the hunter the kanima would get Theo, and he couldn't let that happen.
Then Theo spoke and Liam felt his heart breaking all over again, worse than his realisation of what the offer he had been given meant.
"Leave me," Theo said, and his tone was even, as though he had already made peace with his end; with his choice. "Go, Liam. I'll be..."
He stopped, but Liam heard the echo of the word he'd left unspoken anyway. I'll be okay. He couldn't even finish the lie.
"Liam, go. Call Scott, tell him what happened, and bring the pack back into town. You can't- this is bigger than whatever the hell it is that is keeping you here right now, okay? Go."
Liam hardly ever thought that Theo was an idiot- only really when he was being particularly dense about feelings- but he truly must be if he hadn't even realised why Liam was here. He must be the biggest fucking idiot in the entire universe because-
"I'm in love with you, you-" and here he let out a stream of expletives so vile that even the hunter seemed a little put out judging by his disgruntled expression.
Obviously he'd never had the person he loved tell him to abandon him to certain death. Honestly, Liam wished that he himself hadn't, because it was a particularly horrible feeling that manifested itself in a very real pain as he dug his claws into his palms to try and stop himself from doing something stupid like digging them into Theo instead.
"You should still leave," Theo eventually whispered, a little softer than before but still determined, and still so completely even. There wasn't even a hitch in his breathing, and his heartbeat remained steady, if a little slow because of the paralysis.
"So you can trap me in an elevator and face ghost riders on your own and take bullets for me but I can't do this one thing for you?" Liam finally demanded, standing up straight, decision already made. "You're such a hypocrite."
"Your life will always be worth more than mine," Theo insisted, and he seemed to be straining to do something now when he saw the determined look on Liam's face.
That's when it happened, and if Liam wasn't staring at him so intently he would have missed it. Theo's finger twitched, and then it moved again until the fingers of one hand curled together to form a fist. When he opened them his claws were out, eyes glowing bright once more when they caught Liam's gaze.
"You know what, I think that he's right, Liam," the hunter said, voice ringing in the sudden silence, breaking him out of the daze he had fallen into. "Perhaps your life truly is worth more than his. In that case I retract my previous offer. I think that your heads will make quite the nice gift to your alpha once he returns due to the news of your unfortunate disappearances."
What happened next was a blur of movement. Both Liam and Theo lunged for the kanima as the hunter cocked the crossbow in their direction once more. Even as the bolt flew towards them Theo grabbed a hold of the kanima's tail, wrapping his hands around its hind legs as his body fell, heavy and uncoordinated, still shaking off the venom in his system. Liam caught the kanima in what was pretty much a chokehold, diving over it. The bolt just brushed his side as it buried itself in the kanima's torso and he just managed to grab a hold of its front claws, pinning it as it jerked around.
Though its own venom had no effect on it it didn't seem to take too kindly to having a crossbow bolt fired into it, and it was strong, writhing in their grip. Even as Liam scrambled to use it as cover from the hunter, another bolt thudding into its torso right alongside the second as he slid behind it, helping Theo along with him, the kanima shuddered in their grip.
"Autotomy," Theo gasped, sounding more than a little winded as the hunter's enraged shout echoed down the hallway along with the sound of feet creeping along the floor, each step near silent.
He was getting closer. They didn't have much time at all until he would be upon them.
"What the hell are you on about?" Liam snapped, wincing as the kanima writhed again, a slick, tearing sound coming from somewhere.
"When an animal feels threatened sometimes it casts off a limb or some other appendage. It's typically found in lizards," Theo groaned. "One could argue that kanimas are quite similar to lizards."
“And this is useful because?” Liam snapped, but his answer came not even a second later.
The kanima writhed once more, and Theo let out a groan as he was knocked to the side, the tail coming with him and leaving the back-end of the kanima free. Unfortunately Liam had been relying on Theo a little more than he should have and soon enough he was being knocked to the side as well, crashing into the row of lockers beside Theo with a groan, pain flaring up immediately against the back of his head.
The kanima thrashed, though its balance was thrown off without its tail and it took a while to reorient itself, though as soon as it had it returned to the hunter’s side. Said hunter- and Liam really should have caught his name in all of this, but he was leaning more towards Psycho McCrazy the longer he spent with him- was stood before them now, crossbow in hand and kanima by his side, the very image of death.
“Well, this has been fun,” he said, head cocked to one side as he looked down on them. “I have to say, the added benefit of unrequited love was a nice surprise. Thank you for that, Liam. It just made things infinitely more enjoyable.”
Liam could do nothing but groan, the pain too much, blood slippery over his fingers as they slid over the floor. He couldn’t even remember being cut, but it must have happened during the tussle.
He was fairly certain that his heart stopped beating for a few seconds then though, because Theo was dragging himself up and covering Liam’s body with his own, eyes still glowing as he growled through gritted teeth, so clearly in pain that it was sickening to watch.
“Who said anything about unrequited?” he panted, ignoring Liam completely when he reached up to catch the back of his shirt, trying to pull him down and away so he wasn’t protecting him anymore.
“Oh,” and of course Psycho had something to say about this even when Liam couldn’t think of anything because Theo maybe loves him too and that was way too much information to say that they were about to die and he couldn’t really do anything about it. “Well, then that’s even better! Now you can watch-“ and here he aimed the crossbow a little to the left, where he gap between Theo’s arm and side was, right where Liam was, “-as I kill the person you love.”
What happened next seemed to drag on for several minutes, though in reality it was over in a matter of seconds. There was the echoing screech of metal as the doors were flung open at the end of the hallway, their heads turning to see who the intruders were, and it was Nolan, of all the people to be their rescuer.
It was Nolan, who couldn’t hurt anything, who was fearful of his own shadow. It was Nolan who was the only one who realised they had been missing for a little too long and who had come looking for them in the first place. It was Nolan with a shot gun cocked as he took aim at the hunter and fired without a second thought as the mangled remains of what had once been a door fell shut behind him.
The bullet caught him in the throat, and both Theo and Liam were sprayed with his blood as they scrambled back against the lockers, Liam dragging Theo with him as they watched the hunter fall, crumpling to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
And all Liam could do was watch. All he could do was watch as he held Theo against him. He watched as the kanima turned towards Nolan, as Nolan fell to his knees and dropped the gun, his face pale and his eyes wide as he stared down at his hands. He watched as the kanima approached him and they stared at each other, man and monster, until the kanima turned and fled out of the hole it had made, gone too fast for any of them to do anything about it.
“Liam,” Theo squirmed in his grip, sounding more than a little out of breath. “Liam, you have to let me go.”
“What?”
“You have to let me go, Liam,” he repeated, and it was only then that he realised just how tightly he was holding him, crushing him to him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, releasing him, unwrapping his arms from his torso as he murmured it again, like a prayer. “I’m sorry.”
Theo only nodded before he scrambled to his feet, still a little unsteady. There was blood soaking his shirt, matting his hair and staining his cheek all the way down his neck, but he didn’t seem to care as he scrambled towards Nolan. He was quick and methodical even as he checked him over with shaking hands, and Liam was tumbling after him, ignoring the fallen body of the hunter as it was too much to look at.
“You’re its master now,” Theo was telling Nolan, holding his hands in his own, though he was trembling so violently it looked difficult to get a good grip. “The kanima will listen to you and only you, even if it’s only subconsciously. You only have to think something once, to want something even just a little bit-“
“I killed him,” Nolan interrupted him, stark white now, trembling all over, and it only seemed to grow worse when Liam dropped down onto his knees beside them, covering both of their hands with his own. “I didn’t mean to. I was only aiming for his shoulder, I thought that would stop him, but I killed him.”
“He was going to kill us,” Liam said, in a voice so quiet it was almost a whisper, because nothing he could come up with would ever make this okay, but he had to try. “Nolan, you saved our lives.”
He nodded but his cheeks were wet with tears and he collapsed into them soon after. Liam wrapped his arms around him rather awkwardly, trying not to notice when Theo wrapped one arm around each of them and joined in on the hug that they were now all suddenly a part of. It was warm and a little sticky and Liam was a little too aware of the gun digging into one of his knees, the strong smell of blood that seemed to coat everything, and Theo’s damn arm around his shoulders.
But Nolan needed this and he saved them so he put up with it anyway. Even though he soaked his shirt through with more than blood and there was a damp patch spreading up the collar of his shirt. Which was just awkward. He never liked to see people cry.
He couldn’t have said how long they knelt there like that, but eventually Nolan pulled away and they let him go, arms dropping back to their sides as they watched him scrub at his eyes with the back of his hands, giving them both a smile that resembled a grimace more than anything else.
“So you finally told him, then?” Nolan gave a watery little laugh that seemed to catch in his throat, looking directly at Theo as he said it.
“Something like that,” Theo shrugged a little, not even bothering to block the playful little shove Nolan aimed for his chest.
“Told me what?” Liam glared, glancing between the both of them suspiciously. He never did like to be left out of the loop.
Theo gave him that look- the ‘how dense can you possibly be?’ look that Liam usually used on him- and maybe it was seeing that same look on his face but it may have drove Liam a little bit insane for a while.
Because the next thing he knew it he was launching himself at Theo and punching him square in the jaw, ignoring his pained groan as he fisted his hands in his shirt and then leant down, crushing his lips to his. It was hard and a little uncomfortable and his mouth was filled with the coppery taste of blood but he didn’t care that it hurt and he didn’t care that Nolan was watching them because they were alive.
And it hadn’t really sunk in until then that he had told Theo he was in love with him and Theo still told him to run away and leave him to die.
“You’re a bastard,” he growled, slamming him back against the floor and ignoring Nolan as he tried to yank him away, “And I hate the fact that I love you.”
Then he kissed him again and though it was softer this time it still tasted like blood, but he didn’t care as he hadn’t the first time. He parted his lips and ran his tongue along Theo’s, barely noticing it when Nolan’s hands slid away from his shoulders and it was just them. It was just them and the breathes they shared between them.
“You still should have left,” Theo murmured when he finally pulled away. The bruise on his jaw was fading just as quickly as it had formed, and there was a slightly dazed look in his eyes, as though he couldn’t quite believe what was happening.
Liam pulled away, scrambling back, because he still didn’t quite get it, but Theo followed him up, reaching up to grip his waist, keeping him seated on his thighs. He looked soft as anything as he brushed the back of his fingers against Liam’s cheek, and maybe he did get it after all, because his smile was curiously sad.
“I’m glad you didn’t, though,” he said, pressing a kiss feather light against his forehead. “It probably would have broken my heart if you did. You see, I love you, too.”
Then he kissed Liam for the first time, pressing up against him and pulling Liam down as he cupped his cheek more firmly. They both ignored Nolan’s groan of disgust. They’d at least had the forethought to comfort him from his near-breakdown first after all, so the least he could do was bear with them whilst they made out for a little while.
They’d all been through a lot worse after all.