Afterlife {Stiles Stilinski Book One}

Chapter 1*

This is me starting over. I need to move on and live my life... well as much as I can seeing as I'm dead. I guess I should explain how that happened and how I'm still technically alive enough to form coherent thoughts.

Let's start from the beginning. My name is Lia Lockwood. Mason Lockwood and Amy Delgado decided to get freaky one night in high school and forgot to use a condom. Guess that came back to bite them both in the ass 16 years later. My mother raised me in Mystic Falls where I grew up alongside my cousin Tyler Lockwood and his family. My so-called "dad" left to live his life and I barely saw him growing up. His brother tried to step in to fill that role, not that it mattered. My only saving grace were the summers I spent with my aunt Melissa McCall and her son Scott. We were very close.

Everything was okay until it wasn't. About a year ago, after my dad came back to town, I learned about my heritage -- not my normal heritage, my werewolf heritage. You see, my family was cursed to be werewolves and turn every full moon. After my father disappeared yet again, I got into a car accident. The other driver died on impact and my werewolf curse was triggered.

I was set to spend every full moon breaking bones and losing control for the rest of my life. In reality, it only lasted a couple months. Klaus Mikaelson came back to town and decided to turn Tyler and I into his little hybrid experiments. We were the first successes. If what I became is what you would call success.

It's almost impossible to control the urges. I was terrible at keeping secrets, especially from my mother. It was hard enough to keep being a werewolf from her, and that only affected me really once a month. Vampirism is something that affects every second, so I told my mother. I thought she would understand and still love me the same. I was wrong.

Somehow she ended up bleeding and I lost control. Before I knew it she was gone.

I did the only thing I could think of. I packed up my house and left the day after the funeral. Klaus was looking for someone named Mikael, so his attention was off me. He didn't get a chance to invoke the sire bond, and hopefully he never does. After what happened, I refuse to tell another soul my secret.

So, that brings me to today. I am standing outside Melissa McCall's house about to knock on the door. She insisted on taking me in after everything. I knock on the door and seconds later Scott answers the door, a weak smile on his face. God, I hate pity. I can't blame him though. "Hey, glad you could make it," Scott says. I wait patiently at the door to be invited in. "Don't be shy, make yourself at home."

I smile and walk across the threshold of the door. It's been over a year since I've seen him. I didn't visit this summer. I said it was because of summer school, but really how could you sneak away to chain yourself up unnoticed in a town like this? "It's really good to see you. Where's your mom?" I ask. Scott pulls me in for a hug. I forgot how warm they were, his arms just wrap around you so tightly.

"I'm right here." She also takes a turn hugging me. She's smaller than Scott, so it's easier to hone in on her heartbeat. I try to ignore it. I couldn't exactly get blood bags through customs without looking like an absolute whackjob. "How are you holding up?" She breaks away, holding just my shoulders to get a good look at me.

"I'm alive," I joke. I force a smile.

Scott seems to sense my exhaustion. "I'll go get your stuff from the car." He makes his way to my car. Liz Forbes insisted on me changing my plates and getting it shipped here and then had me compel her memories of my location away. Scott opens the trunk. I packed up everything in my old room, so the boxes are quite heavy. Scott was struggling with just two.

I watch him struggle for a second, laugh, and then take them from him with ease. "I think I've got it," I say. Scott looks at me dumbfounded. "What? I lift."