Chapter three
"So what you're saying is that you know that there was someone else out there?" Jackson said as he leaned forward in his chair. "How do you know?"
Stiles looked at his pack and swallowed. He didn't really want to tell them that he'd tried something he never thought would work and that he had meditated himself into re-playing the situation. That seemed farfetched, even for him.
Derek took a step away from the wall he was leaning against and straightened up. "I smelled something out there and told Stiles."
Stiles whipped his head around to look at the beta. "What?"
Derek ignored him and concentrated on Jackson, who was watching them with an unconvinced frown. "The scent was duped somehow, but it was there. Between the bushes to our left."
Scott frowned. "Are you sure?"
Derek just levelled him with a look before walking over to his chair to sit down.
Isaac, who had been looking intently at Derek while he was talking, sat up with a surprised look in his eyes. "You're lying!" He looked at the rest of them. "He's lying. Why would you lie to us about something like that?"
Stiles noticed the hurt flicking over Isaac's face while Lydia got up from where she was seated and threw her hand out towards Derek. "If he's lying, then there's probably a reason. But something is going on that he's not telling us." She looked between Derek and Stiles.
Too perceptive that one, Stiles thought fleetingly.
Lydia pursed her lips and blinked a couple of times. "What I care about knowing is; who was this person that was hiding? Who is the person who uses that witch to help him? Or her."
The pack looked at each other. No one knew the answer to that.
But Isaac continued to look at Derek with a betrayed expression and Stiles couldn't handle that look on Isaac. Not from the guy that had actually come back here because Derek, his first alpha, had come back.
"Guys." Stiles cleared his throat while Derek looked at him with big eyes. "Guys, I was the one that found out there was someone out there besides us that night."
"You?" Erica said and Stiles nodded.
"Yeah, me."
"But- how?" Lydia asked, cocking her head.
Stiles scratched the back of his head and grimaced. He would have liked to have kept this to himself for a little while longer. At least until he knew what it meant, exactly. He didn't want to tell them only to let them down when they understood he knew shit about how he managed to do the things he did.
"The thing is, when I went to college I met a lot of different people. People who knew about the supernatural stuff that we've had to deal with." He smiled a sad smile. "We're somewhat famous out there, for all the shit we've been handling in this town actually."
"We are?" Erica said, smiling a bit.
"Yeah, but anyway; I met a guy named Simon who's a warlock. He taught me how to meditate. I'm not even taking my Adderall anymore. I don't need it. Because of what he taught me. He said he could sense something in me, not quite a spark yet but almost." He paused and tried to find his words. "I don't know how this will progress, but I've managed to protect myself through-" He stopped before trying again. "To put it simply; I've managed to do that with concentration and belief in what I'm doing. I," He looked at Derek, who just nodded in support, and continued. "I have my ways. I don't know how to explain it any better than that."
He looked around the room, on his friends, and all he could find was acceptance. Well, some of them seemed a little surprised, but this was new to them.
Scott put a hand on his shoulder and Stiles turned his head to look at his best friend. "Deaton told me a few years ago that you had something. It worked along with the wolvesbane several times, right? So, he told me that you might, one day, ignite the spark in you or something like that. And it seems to me that you already have."
"He said that?" Stiles spluttered. "Well, it would be nice to know about that, dude!"
"I know. But he made me promise not to tell you. At least not back then."
Scott looked a little apologetic but Stiles sighed deeply. "I'll have a talk with him tomorrow."
"Anyway," Allison said. "Back to the person that was hiding. What can you tell us about him?"
"Her, actually." Stiles mumbled and froze. He hadn't known that until he said it. Shit, this was way over his head.
"Well, her. What can you tell us about her?"
"She is the one that will revenge a loved one. That's all I got. I felt an extreme grief, enough to make someone insane from it." He looked at Lydia that was resting her hands on her hips.
"Well, then. Who could she want to revenge?"
"I don't know," Stiles said, feeling a little better after telling his friends about what had been going on with him these last couple of years. He still couldn't believe no one had noticed, but he had become pretty good at hiding things. And lying, something he didn't like doing to his friends. Honestly, he couldn't lie to them because hello werewolves. But he had eluded a few facts.
"Maybe it's someone who we've encountered," Lydia said with certainty. "It has to be someone who we've met not that long ago."
"We'll check out our books," Stiles said with a smile.
They had started writing everything down a few years ago, it was a lot of things that had happened and they had figured out it would be wise to put it in writing should they need to look back into it.
And now that came in useful.
"Alright. I think that's enough for tonight," Scott stated with a nod.
After a while it was only Scott, Stiles and Derek left at the loft.
"Why didn't you tell us what you were going through, Stiles?" Scott asked, sipping a beer on the couch.
"Dude, don't overestimate my so called spark." Stiles grinned but Scott just kept looking at him so he tried answering the question. "I don't know. It just felt like something I needed to do on my own, you know." Stiles ended up saying and looked at his friend.
"I get it," Scott smiled. "I'm just glad you told us. I better get home; mom's probably waiting for me."
"Shouldn't you move out soon, Scott?" Stiles grinned. He knew Scott was looking for a place to live with Allison. But he couldn't help but mock him a bit. Best friends still had some prerogative to do that.
"Well, you still live with your dad so," Scott said, not missing a beat. "See you later, dudes."
Scott had grown into his true alpha-ness and it showed in how he led his pack. But to Stiles he was still the dude with the dopey grin.
Stiles looked over to Derek, who was sitting by the windows.
"Why didn't you tell them?" Derek said after a beat.
"About my tattoos?"
"Yeah." Derek got up and walked over to the couch where Stiles was sitting.
"I don't know. It's hard to explain." Stiles shrugged. "It's personal, kind of."
Derek nodded. "Okay." He sat down next to the human and looked over at him. "They'll see them though. One day."
"I know. It's not like I'm trying to hide it from them forever."
Derek gave him a small smile and Stiles hoped the wolf wouldn't notice the skip in his heartbeat.
The door to the loft slid open and Cora walked in. "Hey." She came over to them and lifted a brow. "What's going on?"
"Nothing. I'm about to head home." Stiles said and got up.
"Don't leave on my account. I'm just getting something to eat then I'm off to bed." She said and walked into the kitchen, leaving them alone.
Stiles fished his keys out of his pocket and watched as Derek got up as well. "See you tomorrow, Stiles."
"Yeah. 'Night."
Two days later they had several suggestions on who it was this woman wanted to revenge. But they couldn't narrow it down to more than three people. Or creatures.
One was a vampire, but that was highly unlikely to be the right one. He'd travelled alone and didn't come from a nest or anything. A vampire omega sort to speak.
The other one was a man who could transform into this slimy, stinking thing no one knew what to call. With him, they had no idea if this man could be the one that was to be revenged, seeing how he had been in his slimy form when they had met him. He'd been feeding on blood from kids and then absorbing their bodies into this slimy-blob-shaped thing so that nothing was to be found afterwards.
The third one was a woman. A hunter, who had been close to killing both Erica and Isaac a few months back.
But Lydia had her doubts. She couldn't let the thought of why Isaac and Erica had been targeted. She had told the rest of the pack about how the witch had talked about needing their powers. And from the information that Stiles had found the witch needed claws, strength and the other heightened senses werewolves had. To revenge a loved one.
Stiles was sitting on his bed thinking it over, when he straightened up and got over to his whiteboard.
"If they needed the powers of werewolves, maybe Isaac and Erica were just a convenient choice. Maybe it's not directed at us at all. Lydia really is a genius."
He fumbled with his phone in his rush to call Scott, but ended up connecting the call as he stared at what he'd written.
"Hey Scott!"
"It's Derek. What is it?"
Stiles looked at his phone. He could swear that he'd meant to call Scott. "Hey, man. I thought I called Scott. But anyway; what if Erica and Isaac was targeted just because they were werewolves."
"That's not exactly news, Stiles." Derek said on the other end and Stiles kept walking around in his room.
"Yeah, but what if the revenge isn't directed towards us at all? What if- and here's the real question- what if they just needed the powers to go against the ones who really wronged them. And with the powers they could get strong enough to revenge this loved one. Whoever that may be."
"Alright, Stiles, I need you to talk slower. I can't understand half of this," Derek said a little more alert now.
Stiles repeated it and waited for Derek to answer.
He heard Derek start his car before he answered. "I'm coming over. You might be on to something. Call Scott, tell him about your theory."
Then he hung up.
Stiles looked at his phone. "No goodbye or nothing. Not that I'm surprised." Then he called Scott and told him the same thing.
"Are you sure?" was Scott's reaction.
"I think so," Stiles answered. "At least it's a probability."
"I don't know, Stiles. It seems pretty.. far off."
"Really? Really, Scott? Well, do you have other theories? I'm trying here."
Stiles loved his best friend. Always had, always would. But sometimes it was hard not to be a little hurt when his friend dismissed Stiles ideas as easily as he did.
Scott was a good alpha, but he was also a bit new in the game. Even after four years.
Derek walked into the bedroom while Scott was contemplating what to do with Stiles' theory.
Stiles grinned. "Using the front door and everything," he mumbled even if Derek glared harder than he had in a long time.
"What?" Scott said and Stiles sighed.
"Nothing, Scott. Just- think about it, alright? Talk to you later." He hung up and looked over at Derek.
"He didn't think it was worth checking out." Derek stated, not asked.
They both knew their alpha well.
"What do you think?" Stiles asked slowly.
"I think we should see if some other packs near our territory have killed someone who could fit our case."
Stiles felt relief surge through him. He knew it showed by the way Derek ducked his head and turned towards the whiteboard. Sourwolf still had some trouble feeling like a part of a pack and when someone showed they were grateful for something he said or did, he still became a little embarrassed.
"I'll make some calls." Derek said after a while.
"Thank you." Stiles said quietly and went over to his laptop. This would be a long night.
"Why is this so difficult?" Stiles tried to push the uneasy feeling away, but couldn't help but to think about Scott, who in the end had come to the conclusion that Stiles might have had a point, and was now two towns over meeting with the two packs that could be on the 'to revenge'-list.
Next to him, Boyd just glanced at him before looking back on the road.
The whole pack would go to meet up with Scott and Derek, who had left a few days prior to inform the two packs about their suspicion and to warn them.
Stiles leaned back in the passenger seat and closed his eyes.
Derek was the one who had managed to get in contact with the packs close to Beacon Hills, and who had gotten them to share information about the things that had happened in their territory. The Hale name still held respect for most werewolves and opened quite a few doors. Or information in this case. And if it hadn't been for Derek trusting Stiles hunch, then this would never had come to play.
The Lester-pack had informed Derek about a warlock they had killed after he had tried to kill the whole pack in his desire for power. The other pack, the Chandler-pack, had just killed a woman named Haley, who had been stealing people's energy. She had been something as rare as an incubus, but instead of feeding of sexual energy she had started taking energy, as in all human energy, from people in their town. She had killed at least seven people. All of them in their mid-twenties, when the energy is on its highest. The Chandler-pack was known for rarely killing people who trespassed into their territory. They were hard but fair and held a great amount of respect from other packs because of that. So Stiles had no doubt that killing this Hayley-lady had been their last resort.
Stiles was curious about having so many werewolves in one place. Too much hotheaded people. And with three Alpha's in one place- Stiles felt somewhat nervous. Even if Scott had called to tell them how well his meeting with the two other alpha's and second in commands had gone.
But they were gathering because there was a worse threat against one of their packs than some growling and fighting between packs.
"We're here." Boyd said and while Erica woop'ed as a large house came into view.
Stiles held his breath as they parked the car and got out while at least thirty sets of eyes were on them. There were people sitting on the porch, on the lawn and the stairs leading up to the house.
Werewolves. Stiles thought and felt his shoulders relax minutely as Derek made his way down the stairs and towards them.
"You're here. Scott and the two other alpha's are waiting for you in the living room," A small pause. "Stiles."
"What?"
Erica rolled her eyes, although it was pretty fond. "He was talking to you."
"Why are they waiting for me?"
Derek stepped a bit closer and met his eyes. "Because you're the one with the theory and the-" he stopped and lifted a brow. "-and the encounter with the person working with the witch."
Stiles opened and closed his mouth several times before squaring his shoulders and nodded at Derek. "Alright. Lead the way."
