Character(s)::Peri and Stone Word Count::2,046 Trigger Warnings:: Child abuse mention, faked death, death mentions @mythandmonsters and @bewitchedandblessed tagging both of you for reasons
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It wasn’t often anyone called her saying they had something “important” to discuss, so Peri was more than a little anxious when Riley called saying just that. He had sounded almost nervous on the phone and it had set her on edge. She knew his dad did his best to keep that kid boy safe and she honored that with all of her ability. Not just because his dad had trusted her to come around when she was a kid, but because Riley and her younger brother had been best friends. What kind of sister would she have been if she didn’t honor her brother’s memory by taking care of the person he had found actual happiness in?
Nothing looked out of the ordinary when she pulled up, the lights were on, the barely town quiet. The only sounds she could hear were the engine idling and breeze through the desiccated leaves as the Autumn evening stretched into night. The air was turning colder, but she hadn’t bothered to turn on the heat as she sat there, running through a mental list of supplies before killing the engine, plunging the car into a softer shade of shadow.
She had her guns, a few knives, a handful of smoke bombs, but if something had managed to get in here and take out any of the more seasoned pros, what the hell chance did she have?
Peri closed her eyes and counted to ten, shaking off the paranoia that came with the the job. Riley would have found some way to let her know if there was a threat. Some code word or phrase that would have been more out of context than anything else he could have said.
Paranoia kept hunters alive, but even now, nothing felt amiss.
Sighing, she slid from the car and shut the door, not bothering to lock it. If anyone was stupid enough to go through her car here, of all places, that was their problem more than hers.
“Riley? What the hell is so goddamn important that my ass just drove three goddamn hours to get here?” she called out from the front door, figuring she was fine to just walk in since she was expected. That kid always told his dad when he knew anyone was coming so she knew the odds of her getting shot were slim. Not zero, they were never zero with other hunters, but slim enough to be worth the risk.
“Riley? Dude, we are too old to play hide and goddamn seek!”
With the gap in their ages, she had almost always been a little too old for his games, but Stone had always been the perfect person for him to play with. They had both been young enough when Peri started hotwiring cars and dragging her little brother here with her. Especially in situations where their father had been in a particularly nasty mood.
When she heard the shuffle of footsteps, she threw her arms up in the air, muttering finally under her breath and turning to give him shit only to see someone else standing in the doorway at the far end of the room. There was something...hauntingly familiar about the guy, almost like seeing a ghost. He almost looked like what she had thought Stone might have grown to look like, if he had gotten the chance.
“I’m looking for Riley? He called me?”
It had been Stone’s idea. Have Riley call Peri and come up with some bullshit excuse to get her there. If anyone should tell her that he was alive, it should be Stone personally.
Even with it being his idea, his nerves were getting the better of him the longer she sat in her car, waiting to come in. Enough so that when she finally did cross the threshold, Stone’s nerves had been frayed to the point of almost snapping.
Her voice was almost the same and after a few moments more of hesitation, he stepped out from around the corner, lingering in the opposite doorway and staring at her.
Her hair was shorter than it had been when he died, styled more to her general appearance. She had never liked having her hair longer, but their mother had always refused to her cut it. He remembered the hairstyles she would look up at the library when she would drag him with her, intent on making sure he had access to literature that wasn’t work related and it gave her time to flip through magazines. He had spent hours watching her try out different styles to make her hair look shorter than it was, helping point out when things weren’t even.
It was the least he could do when they were younger, given everything she had done for him.
“I... I asked him to,” he finally mumbled, looking more and more like he was about to bolt. But instead, he swallowed the lump in his throat and let out a shaking breath, a weak, watery smile gracing his lips as he sniffed.
“Hey, Per.”
It wasn’t until he spoke did everything hit. His voice was deeper than it had been the last time she had seen him, but there were only a small handful of people that had ever called her Per and all of them knew her brother too.
But this had to be a joke. It was impossible. Her little brother was dead. Yet here she was, standing in the safe place that boy had ever known, staring at a guy that looked almost the right age, maybe a little younger, that sounded like him, looked like he should have looked, calling her by the shortest version of her name that only he and his friends had used for her.
“Who are you?” she demanded, refusing to believe what she was seeing. How could she when it had been fifteen years?
Stone had expected that, especially after Riley’s reaction to him showing up. But it didn’t make it hurt any less or quiet the fear that he had held over his sister pulling a gun on him.
“You know the answer to that, Per,” he answered quietly, holding his hands out to where she could see them, showing he was unarmed. He usually was anymore, despite Chase making sure he stayed well practiced in firearms. It was just safer for him not to carry with how jumpy he had been at the house.
“Rogers faked my death, took to me to a friend of hers after...after dad sent me out on my own like that.” After I got bit danced on the tip of his tongue, but Stone couldn’t bring himself to admit it. Not to her, not like this.
Her lower lip trembled and Peri was taking steps forward before she could even consider what she was doing. “Why would Delia Rogers fake your death? What reason would she have to intervene in the business of any other hunters?”
But deep down she knew the answer. Almost everyone knew Delia, but no one knew how old the woman was. She looked young, but most hunters she knew had worked with her at some point or another over a span of too many years for her to look that young.
“Unless... No.” It made sense. Del hunted rogue werewolves more than anything, rogues and freshly bitten but no one knew what she did was the newly bitten. There were never police reports of missing people or bodies found when she went on those hunts.
“Unless she was a shifter and I got bit,” he offered, unable to look at her as he spoke. When he finally did lift his head and meet her gaze, his eyes had gone over to wolf amber, a quiet admission of the truth.
Peri stopped dead in her tracks, eyes going wide when she saw. When the initial shock subsided, she took a couple steps back, shaking her head as if that would make this nightmare go away.
“Per, please...please don’t go away. I...I missed you,” he whimpered, hating just how small he sounded when he spoke, practically begging her not to leave him. It had been hard enough to lose his humanity, but losing his brother and sisters had nearly shattered him.
His entire life had been uprooted and he had been taken to a new home, with people he didn’t know, only one of which being human, when he hadn’t wanted to be alive at all anymore. Not after the beating their father had given him when he had begged the man to let him walk away and stay with Riley.
He knew Peri’s punishment for taking him there in the first place had been a beating of her own and then being forced to stay home, preventing her from being his back up like she should have been for that hunt. Hell, neither one of them should have been on that one, but Greg hadn’t listened to reason, even when their mom had tried to tell him it was going to get him killed.
“Peri, please...”
“They told me you were dead, Stone. DEAD. Do you have any idea what it felt like? Like I had fucking failed you? Only for you to be telling me you’ve been alive this whole fucking time?” Her voice had started quiet, growing with every word until she was screaming through her own tears.
“How fucking long has Riley known? I just saw him a couple goddamn months ago! Do you know what it was fucking like to lose you?!”
He took a chance, crossed the room and closed the distance. He was taller than her now, like she had always sworn he would be.
“Peri, I couldn’t reach out. Do you really think dad would have let me live once he found out what had happened?” he asked quietly, wanting to hug her but not knowing he was allowed. “And if dad didn’t, aunt Georgia or uncle Scott would have. Or they would have made you do it. You know I’m right, Per.”
She hated that, hated having her little brother be the voice of reason. But it was the truth, even Peri knew that.
“I loved you so goddamn much and you left me. I never would have done that to you, Stone.”
“I know. I wasn’t supposed to survive. I almost didn’t but Del found me, took me to Chase Holden of all people. He covers it good, but he married a goddamn cat and they adopted a bunch of not human kids. I didn’t want to be alive after what dad did to me. What he threatened to do to me when I asked if I could stay here with Riley,” he confessed, knowing he hadn’t even told Riley that last part. “I know you never would have left me, Per, but I was a kid and I was tired of being scared and being hurt. I couldn’t...I couldn’t take it anymore.”
The admittance hurt, but she understood. She had felt that way more time than she could have counted over the years. Especially after losing him and Nebula and their mother.
“I would have protected you.”
But she knew she couldn’t have, not then. She was still a kid herself and had never been one to make waves or stand up to their parents. She had tried once, as a child, and once had been more than enough for her. She had never been as a brave or as ready to fight as Stone had been.
“Per, you couldn’t have. Just like I couldn’t keep River and Bo safe. Just like Riley couldn’t keep me safe even though he wanted to just as badly as you did.”
She wanted to argue, to say she would have taken him away and found a safe place for him, but she knew he was right.
Before she could speak again, Stone wrapped his arms around her, clinging her like he had when he was a little boy and she was the only kindness he really knew.
“I’m sorry, Per. I’m sorry,” he whispered, trembling as he broke down completely.
It wasn’t until Peri hugged him back just as tightly did he feel like maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay.