CHAPTER 32

For those wondering about Tristan's vampiric traits like his weakness against silver mentioned two chapters ago and the effect of sunlight on him, his weakness against the nst silver is not as apparent as you might think.

Just like wolves, just because they are weak against silver doesn't mean that they can't touch it or anything like that. I mean, it's not as if Scott and Derek are deathly afraid of it throughout the series.

The reason why silver is considered a weakness, I believe, is the way it is processed into weapons. A silver might hurt Tristan, but not to the extent a silver bullet would as the later will be more poisonous.

The same analogy applies to wolfsbane, mountain ash and other weakness supernatural species have. They can touch it but when it's processed into a weapon of attack, it completely changes. Some lore believe it's because of faith of something g lie that but whatever, that's just how it is I this story.

And as for the the sunlight, the more Tristan goes without drinking blood, the more it becomes unbearable for him. He can stay a few days but over a week and he'll be suffering intense sunburn, 2 - 3 weeks and he'll pretty much be the Ghost Rider, at least for now. He's still a fledgling if we are to go by vampire rank or whatever they call Lowry vampires.

I hope this clears out a lot of confusion.

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[Malia Tate POV]

She looked at the marked test sheets on her hand and cringed hard at the bold 'F' that was plastered in red at the top of it. She just couldn't understand why Maths was so hard. 

"Remember, the Parents-Teacher meeting is to be held in a few days, so make sure you tell your parents to attend, or give a reason for absence." The teacher's gaze hovered over the class and paused a bit at a few specific students. "And there are some of you, 'special' cases, so I hope your parents are in attendance."

As if! Malia snorted at the teacher's words since she knew her 'parents' definitely weren't going to be in attendance. 

Elias might if he was aware but there was no way she or Tristan was going to let him know. 

What of Satomi you say? Malia would rather fail all her subjects than even let a whiff of the meeting reach her ears. She didn't care one bit about the Teacher's meeting so there was no need to fret over it. 

The ringing of the bell elated the depressed students and drove the teacher out of the class while they prepared to depart. 

"Malia, wait up." Some girl called out to her and stuffed her cursed books inside her bag. 

She looked in the direction of the girl who called her and found her in the midst of two other girls. Since she wasn't in a hurry, she nodded and made her way over to them at the edge of the class. 

"What's up?" 

The girls looked at Malia and then looked at the girl in the middle in some sort of signal language. 

Experiencing a dose of betrayal from her friends, the girl rolled her eyes and said to Malia. "You and Tristan. Are you guys dating?"

"Yes." Malia nodded. 

Hearing Malia's quick and casual reply, the girl sighed in disappointment. "I totes thought you guys were some sort of besties or something."

Malia looked at them weirdly since she was sure that her relationship with Tristan was not a secret matter. They've kissed quite a few times in the hallway, so anyone should have known if they asked around. 

"Is that all, then I'm going." Without waiting for them to reply she walked out of the classroom. 

She had barely made it out of the classroom when she almost bumped into someone but was quick to dodge due to her reflexes. Unfortunately for the other person, he didn't have an instantaneous reaction like Malia. 

Jackson Whittemore did not know how to react when the girl he almost bumped into by mistake spun a half circle and dodged him, causing him to smack the other side of the wall and groan in pain. 

"Watch the hell where you're go--" His words halted to a stop as he got a good look at the girl he almost ran his mouth off at. 

"What? You're gonna say something?" She asked in a tone that dared him to, causing the prideful team captain to sew his mouth shut. Somehow, he felt some sort of apprehension towards the girl. 

"N-nothing." He turned around and left. His left hand ran up the nape of his neck as he felt a headache from the four puncture wounds he'd received from that Derek Hale bastard earlier on the day he'd crashed in front of Stilinski's car. 

Malia ignored Jackson and went her way. She had to admit that high school was really boring the hell out of her.

Can't something fun happen every once in a while?

She walked past a class and couldn't help but twitch her lips and she smelled the musk of sex basically oozing from despite the closed doors. 

One thing was certain – high school students sure were wild. It was as if the safety was turned off as soon as they left middle school. 

Cursing her sensitive nose, she ignored the faint clapping sounds that filtered out of the classroom and dragged herself further away from it. 

She walked towards the library, intent on trying to read some books and see what she could understand, but an intriguing conversation entered her hearing distance. 

"Why wouldn't you want to join? Is it stress? You know my nephew dealt with severe anxiety once. I told his dad to take him camping..." Coach said to the perplexed Tristan. "And he ditched him for three days."

If Tristan was put off by the man's words he didn't let it show on his face. 

"Is it some sort of structural problem? I once couldn't get it standing for six months. I was this," he made a gesture of pinching two of his fingers together, "this closer to being an eunuch. It was all or nothing for me."

Malia laughed as she saw the slight shiver that passed through Tristan's body as he heard Coach's last sentence. 

Tristan shook his head in another attempt of rejection of the impassioned coach's recruiting efforts. "I'm sorry, Coach Finstock. I don't think I want to play lacrosse."

Coach crossed his arms and looked at the cocky teenage boy with pursed lips. "Then at least give me a reason." He said. 

Tristan sighed and wondered why he had to be stuck with this man, while Malia amused herself with his suffering. 

"… I might end up injuring someone."

"Seriously? Anger issues?" Now Coach was looking at him with clear disdain as if he couldn't be more pathetic. "That's all the more reason to play lacrosse. All you have to do is direct that raging and burning feeling of pure unadulterated malice against your opponents. Problem solved." He clapped his hands as if he just solved a problem that should have been obvious. 

"Critically." Tristan added. 

Hearing his words, Coach took a cautious look laced with curiosity at Tristan and whispered. "How critical are we talking about?"

"Permanently maimed."

Coach reeled back in shock and asked. "You're kidding right?" Hoping it would be some teenage lie or lame bragging. 

"No."

"Good heavens. You're getting help?" He might be crazy but he wasn't stupid. 

"… Yes." Tristan lied. 

Having listened enough, Malia left them and made her way to the library that was just above the stairs. 

… 

Going home after school hours, Malia declined the ride home, even Allison's, as she wanted to get a feel of running through the woods and though Tristan wanted to join, he knew he couldn't since he had to drive the car home and get working on their dinner. 

Malia wasn't like him who got most of his nutrients from her blood. She was more human than he was, which was why he took up cooking in the first place, to repay her. 

Cooking for Malia was one of the most important things he did on a daily, taking it as some sort of ordained task he couldn't skirt on. 

Malia couldn't help but take in a deep breath as she walked through the path that led further towards the Preserve. 

If one were to compare the influence of both Tristan's and Malia's supernatural nature on them, Tristan would win on the bestial end while Malia was more animalistic. Being out in the wild was her comfort zone. 

She broke off into a sprint and couldn't help the grin that formed on her face as the wind aggressively opposed her motion with a gentle caress. 

There was such a thrilling sensation in just running through the huge trees and grass but she had to admit that it would have been more fun if she was naked. There was nothing like letting the wind touch every part of your body as you ran at the speed of a car. 

Unfortunately, she couldn't do that during the day. She's done it a few times with Tristan but he prefers running in the least amount of clothing, like just pants, than going through the forest on full commando. 

She pushed herself off the ground and swung herself further ahead with her unnatural reflexes and caught a branch, using it to do another backflip swing forward. 

Landing on one crouched knee, she wanted to break off into another run again but the wind that blew right at that moment stopped her. 

It felt wrong. 

She focused her erratic senses around her and finally realized while the natural forest felt off. 

The animals. 

She couldn't sense any animals, not even birds, around her in any direction. 

Taking a deep breath of air, he finally understood the reason due to what she smelled. 

"It's fear."

She turned around and saw Derek standing a few meters away from her with a dead dog in his arms. 

"The animals are fleeing the area since their natural instincts are warning them of an apex predator lurking around their home." He said as he took in deep breaths. 

Malia nodded at his words since she too understood. It was also the reason why no same animal would tread around the den of a tiger or a pack of wolves. 

"It's the Alpha, isn't it?" It was a rhetoric question since they both knew the answer. "And him?" She asked, pointing at the dead dog the older werewolf was carrying. 

"Probably ran away due to fear and ended up be stampeded by a panicking herd of deers." He nodded and turned around to leave. 

Watching Derek leave, Malia sighed as her mood got ruined due to what was happening and started making her way through the forest to go home. 

It didn't take her long to get home with her speed and also the discomfort she felt as she spent more time in the forest. 

Walking through the door, the first thing she saw Tristan drinking her refrigerated blood from a chalice she had gotten him a year ago in amusement. What was a vampire without a chalice?

"You sure took your time." He noted. 

"I was distracted." She simply replied and took the chalice from his hands. "Please get me a drink." 

He left, but instead of going to the refrigerator, he went to their basement and came back after almost a minute with a small plastic packet that was filled with blood. His blood. 

Vampires weren't the only ones who feasted on humans – werewolves, werecoyotes, were lions, wendigos and a host of other creatures preyed on humans. 

There was a reason why werewolves hunt after all. 

Malia didn't start to drink Tristan's blood out of some skewed form of love or trying to understand what he felt when drinking blood. She just did because it was a part of every night creature and she had a very willing partner. 

Pouring it into a tin cup, he passed it to Malia who gave him back his chalice. 

"The forest was weird."

"Hmm."

"You knew about it?" 

"Of course. How could the lack of prey and the stench of primal fear escape me? I'm afraid things will remain like this until the Alpha calms down."

She calmly accepted his words and took a drink from her cup and exhaled deeply at the euphoric feeling that vibrated through her body. 

She had tasted human blood but she had to admit that Tristan's blood was a step above it in every way. 

She emptied the content of the cup and handed it over to Tristan and went to their room to take a bath. 

Looking at her reflection on the mirror in the bathroom, an image of an older her and Tristan briefly took her vision but it quickly went away. 

She didn't need to worry because they had all the time in the world. 

Other than what she felt in the forest, there was also a feeling deep within her, a very personal one, that things were about to become hectic around here. 

"Stop thinking of useless things! It's irritating me!" She snickered at Tristan's shout, knowing that he probably might have smelt her feelings. 

She discarded her worries and turned on the faucet. 

No matter what happens, nothing was going to stop them from opening their weapons shop. 

I know some might be weirded out with the fact that Malia drank blood and I just wanted to let you know that even the beta in the second season of the series ate someone's liver and kidneys.

It was never said anywhere that werewolves don't drink blodd or eat flesh and Malia being a werecoyote doesn't make it any different.

So yes, werewolves eat flesh just like vampires drink blood. And no, I'm making Malia have a craving for either. It's just something I dumped there for a little bit of controversy.

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