Title: Awake and Alive
Author: d0ntbleenk
Fandom(s): Teen Wolf/The Vampire Diaries
Ships(s): Allison/Scott, Allison/Caroline, Lydia/Stiles, and More

Chapter Four

The sound of her cell phone ringing was loud enough to wake her from the deep sleep Lydia had found herself in that afternoon. She opened her eyes sleepily, brows furrowing in annoyance at the disturbance as she pushed herself up into an upright position, rubbing her neck tiredly as she reached down into her purse and pulled out her phone. Squinting at the bright screen, she saw it was Allison and with a sigh, answered the call.

"Lydia! Where are you? I've been trying to get a hold of you all day -"

"Geez, keep your pants on, I'm fine." The redhead, ran a hand through her hair. Really, she was more than fine. Lydia didn't know how long she'd been asleep, but it must have been just long enough for her to feel completely refreshed now - and she could tell that it was still night out. It was only then, as she looked out of the window, that she realized that she was not in her own house.

"Lydia? Hello?"

The redhead slowly got to her feet, glancing warily at the couch she had just been passed out on and the empty room around her. "Hey, you're not busy right now, are you?"

"It's 11:45 at night, Lydia, of course I'm not -"

"Great." Lydia said promptly, her voice lowering slightly and urgently. "Now do you think you could pick me up, say, right now?" She picked up her bag, slipping it slowly over her shoulder. "I think I'm at the Salvatore boarding house."

"What on earth are you doing there?"

Lydia opened her mouth to respond as she turned to head for the door, but she found herself momentarily at a loss for words. Standing across the room, leaning casually against the frame of the doorway was a dark-haired man watching her carefully. A smirk spread slowly across his lips and she swallowed hard. "I'll explain later," she told her friend hurriedly, and then hung up without waiting for a response.

It was all Allison could do not to speed on her way to the Salvatore boarding house - the new one, that stood in a neighborhood amongst other houses, full of innocent people with no clue about their new neighbors. Well, she didn't really have much of a clue herself, but with the whole thing about the ring and how scared Lydia had sounded on the phone near the end she couldn't help but become a little suspicious of the two brothers living there.

"It's a left at the next intersection," Stiles instructed, looking up from his phone and at Allison, who was gripping the steering wheel and staring ahead at the dark road with purpose. "Are you sure you don't want me to call Scott?"

"I really don't need him fighting all of my battles, Stiles," Allison told him sharply, pressing her lips together. "I can protect myself. My parents hunt werewolves for sport, remember?"

Stiles sank down in his seat, deciding not to question her response. He had half a mind to text Scott anyway, just so they'd have some back up and so he'd have a little more peace of mind than a seventeen year old girl with a crossbow would, but he didn't really want to upset his ride home.

He was really starting to regret letting Caroline drive off with his Jeep.

"There! That's it." Stiles said finally, pointing at the largest house on the street, at the very end of it and with almost all of the lights on inside.

"Wow," she breathed, staring up at it for a moment before pulling up to the curb outside of a house down the street and shutting off her car and climbing out. "You know, I'm still surprised that Caroline didn't want to come with us." She opened the back door and grabbed her mini-crossbow.

Stiles shrugged, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. "Yeah, well she's got a lot of problems of her own."

As they walked towards the house in silence, Allison thought back to the events of the last hour; of everything that had happened in the woods. Her hand still throbbed slightly from the cut she'd received when she fell, only further reminding her of her momentary clumsiness and the weird look in Caroline's eyes when she'd started backing away. What had that been all about? Did Stiles know? And would he have told her if he did?

She didn't have much time to think about it, however, because a minute later Stiles' hand was on her arm, holding her back. He looked like he'd heard or seen something - she wasn't sure which but she didn't have a chance to ask. "Wait here." He told her, before moving towards the house.

Allison furrowed her brows as she watched him, but once he was a good distance away, she was more than aware of the fact that she was standing in the middle of the dark street alone. At the slightest sound of movement, her eyes scanned the darkness in alarm. She turned around, raising her crossbow, but there was nobody there. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her nerves, but something still seemed off. Something wasn't right. Allison took a step backwards and ran into something solid. Her eyes widened and she spun around, and the last thing she saw before it all went black was the all too familiar face of Stefan Salvatore.

When Allison came to again, she found herself in the passenger seat of a car. Her car. A little disoriented from being knocked unconscious, it took her a moment to gather her thoughts - this proved to be much more difficult considering the headache she now had as well. She groaned, straightening up in her seat, before freezing when she saw who was driving.

"Where the hell are you taking me?" Allison demanded, dropping her hand from her head and glaring at Stefan in a mixture of suspicion, fear, and confusion. She looked over her shoulder at the backseat in a panic, only finding it empty. "And what have you done with Stiles?"

"I'm taking you home. I dropped your friend off earlier, when you were still asleep -"

"Asleep? Last I checked you knocked me out cold."

She saw his jaw tighten as he clenched his teeth, still staring ahead at the road. "It was the only way I could get you to leave." Stefan replied simply.

"You make it seem like I've been stalking you for weeks," Allison shot back incredulously. "I was trying to find my friend. She told me that she'd be there and wanted me to pick her up. Her name is -"

"Lydia," he finished with a sigh. "I know."

"You... you know?" Her eyebrows pulled together then, and her head continued to pound, trying to process this information. He hadn't seemed like much of a threat to her until now - until he'd practically admitted to kidnapping her best friend. "Okay, I can't do this. Pull over."

He looked over at her, alarmed. "What -"

"PULL OVER!"

Without further hesitation, Stefan pulled the car over to the side of the road - a heavily wooded road that seemed like it led nowhere at all - and before he'd even turned off the car Allison had scrambled out into the fresh air. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down but it was hard when everything was so complicated.

Stefan got out of the car as well, looking at her over the hood of it. "Okay, I know what you're thinking right now, but -"

"No. You have no idea what I'm thinking right now." Allison shot back, brows furrowing.

"Fine. Enlighten me, then."

She looked at him for a long, careful moment, before exhaling and accepting his challenge. "Well to begin with I think you're just some creep that is up to no good with my best friend. It might be just you, or your brother, or both of you, but whatever it is it needs to stop." The last part of her rant seemed to lose its conviction, and the way he rose his eyebrow at her made it clear that he'd noticed the change, too.

He shut the door to her car and walked around to the other side slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. "It sounds to me like you already know what's going on."

"I..." Allison struggled to form a response almost as much as she struggled to tear her gaze away from his. She swallowed, shutting her eyes and shaking her head. "I have my suspicions... but they're just that."

"Are they?"

She rose her eyes back to his face, surveying his expression for a long moment. She knew just what he wanted to hear from her, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. "Yes." Allison told him simply, before pushing past him on her way back to the driver's side of the car.

"You should be more careful," Stefan called after her.

"And you should stop preying on teenage girls," Allison quipped as she opened the door to her car. She stopped just before getting in, looking back at him and tilting her head. "Seriously, how old are you, anyway?" But instead of answering, he merely smiled.

She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling back, before climbing into her car, starting the engine and driving off. When she glanced up into her rearview mirror, he was already gone.