Stiles Stilinski

The thing about kanimas is that they're supposed to be super-rare, maybe one-in-a-generation. Most people, if they get the werewolf bite and their body rejects it, they die. It takes a special kind of mental unwellness to turn into a kanima instead. And Stiles has already been there, done that when Jackson transformed into one back in Beacon Hills.

So someone explain to him why he's staring one down in the middle of an otherwise deserted park. (So he was practicing some soccer drills on his own and it got late. So sue him if he kind of doesn't want to suck when he has a cute guy and the cute guy's family in addition to his dad vowing to watch him play.) For a second, he genuinely wonders if this is some kind of waking nightmare, and he glances down to count his fingers as a check (ten, no more and no less). In that time, it gets in way too close, and Stiles straight-out sprints for his bag to grab his phone and the little vial of emergency mountain ash he keeps with him at all times.

He has Billy's number dialed and his thumb on the top of the vial to flick it open when he feels a slash against his back, meaning he has a few seconds before his body stops responding. He hits the call button and throws the opened vial in the air as his muscles go slack and he drops to the ground. He doesn't think anything breaks, but he lands on his shoulder painfully hard and that's something he's going to have to deal with if he survives the next few minutes. Through some miracle of luck, desperation, and probably magic, the ash lands in an unbroken circle around his body, and he squeezes his eyes shut and believes with all of his might that a handful of wood ash has the power to protect him from the supernatural.

It works. The kanima hisses as it slashes at the barrier a couple times, and as Stiles watches it, he realizes that there's a voice trying to talk to him from his phone. It landed about a foot from his head and he must've managed to hit speaker before he dropped it, thank god, because there's absolutely no way he could pick it up right now.

"Hey, Billy? I really need your help right now, like - SOS."

As predicted, it does not take his dad long at all to get him out of Beacon Hills with a heartfelt declaration that Scott et al are welcome to come visit them any time they want, but Stiles is not setting foot in Beacon Hills again for as long as Noah Stilinski has a say in it. Stiles would argue, but they had these arguments the first time around when they moved to Neptune, and if he's being honest - well. He feels guilty as hell about leaving his pack again to deal with the absolute insanity that is Beacon Hills on their own, but also kind of relieved to have the place in his rearview mirror again. It's cowardly, he knows, especially given his personal responsibility for its state of heightened danger, but hell, maybe he's a coward.

His dad gives them both the day off work and school for a couple days while he heals up, which works out okay because then he has the time to send Veronica some notes on The Supernatural: What's Real, What's Not Real, and What She Should Know, careful to slip in information on kitsunes because he's more or less decided he's going to tell her the truth. When he sees her next, probably, unless he chickens out, cause now that he knows she knows the truth about werewolves, she should probably also know the truth about her boyfriend being an unwilling killer.

He didn't technically undersell his injuries that much over the phone, but the bruising is pretty visible and his arm's going to be in a sling for a couple weeks. Technically he doesn't have to come to the door to meet her when she gets to his house since his dad has it handled, but he does anyway, moving stiffly and offering up a slightly sheepish smile when he sees her. "Hey."