"Sorry, Lahey, but I'm more of a cat person."
Vera Pérez is no stranger to the supernatural. Growing up alongside the Hale family has kept her fairly well-informed about the creatures that lurk in the darkness. However, she didn't become one of thos...
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( anchors, pt. i )
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IT'S TWO IN the morning when a series of frantic knocks sound on the front door of the Pérez household. Vera wakes groggily, peeling her eyes open to reveal her dark bedroom and blinking against the fog of sleep clouding her brain. At first, she decides to ignore it, then remembers that where she lives, if someone is banging on their door at this hour, something is probably wrong.
She prods a sleeping Hades off of her stomach and fumbles for her glasses— now with fixed lenses from when they'd cracked in the root cellar. Her surroundings sharpen as soon as she puts them on. After tossing her blankets aside and sliding her feet into her slippers, she yawns and starts to head into the hallway.
Mai is already answering the door. She'd thrown her robe over her pajamas, her black hair messy from sleep and eyes drooping with fatigue. As Vera walks down the stairs, her mother peers through the small window beside their front door and immediately opens it once she sees who is on the other side.
"Dominic?" she questions in a voice that sounds exhausted but concerned. "¿Estás bien?" Her spine abruptly straightens as she notices something, her gaze sharpening while her motherly instincts kick in. "What's wrong?"
Vera's heartbeat quickens. She hurries toward the door, poking her head over her mother's shoulder to see her best friend on their porch in his pajamas. Dominic's face is paler than usual. His features are contorted with what looks like pain, tears clouding his eyes and running down his cheeks.
"I'm s—sorry, I know it's early," he says with his jaw clenched so his words come out clipped, "but I need a ride to Deaton's."
"Are you sure you don't want the hospital?" Mai asks. "Tell me what hurts."
Dom hesitates before slightly lifting the hem of his white t-shirt. He turns around and motions for Mai to lift it up. She grasps the material uncertainty, her brows pinching as she slowly draws it upward. She reveals nothing but the muscular planes of Dom's back at first, but when she reaches the upper portion, she and Vera both suck in gasps of surprise.
Something is moving on either side of his spine. Whatever is trapped inside pushes against the confines of his skin, stretching it before receding and trying again in another spot. Dom trembles from the pain of it, his muffled sobs causing Vera's heart to splinter.
Mai pulls his shirt back down and turns to her daughter, all traces of fatigue vanishing from her face. Her dark eyes are sharp. "Get him to the car. I'll call Alan."
