A/N- My thanks to everyone that has been subscribing to the story and author alerts. My inbox has never been this full! I am happy to present Chapter Four and I hope everyone likes it. Please consider sharing it with your friends and link to it on every Teen Wolf/Sterek blog you can thank of!

Derek had to be outside. He needed to feel the wind and smell the scents of the forest surrounding his house. Stiles' taunts had become more petty and he was messing with all of them now. When he had walked out he was telling lies about Scott and Erica in an effort to break Allison.

The Alpha was biding his time, waiting for the insults to come back to him as the demon grew weaker. It would lash out and spill the secret that Derek had only just come to realize and accept. Having everyone, especially the enemy, know his private thoughts made him uncomfortable for reasons he couldn't exactly figure out. His calm shattered when he heard screams coming from inside.

Derek ran back into the room. Allison had a broken off piece of the chair lodged in her shoulder. Derek turned back to Stiles as the demon continued to pick apart the wooden chair as his eyes scanned everyone in the room. Derek ran for him but Scott stopped him from stepping into the sigil and breaking the barrier which would have allowed the demon to escape.

"He's just trying to distract us from our goal. Ignore him."

"I'm fine," Allison said, pulling the chunk of arm rest from her shoulder. The cut was deep but the bleeding had already started to slow and coagulate as her father put pressure on the wound. "See, it's just a scratch."

Derek sighed. He had almost given the demon exactly what he wanted. He turned to Gerard who looked like he hadn't slept in a week. "Why aren't you chanting?"

"I need a break. The ritual must be done precisely or it won't work. I'm reserving my strength."

"We need to get this thing out of Stiles now! There has to be another way."

"Not unless you know how to reconnect a severed head. Our options are limited as I told you before. You chose the long way so now we wait for the next stage to begin." A sharpened chair leg flew at Gerard's head. Derek reached out and stopped it before it connected. He tossed the wood into the corner and turned back to Gerard. "I just saved your life. Don't make me regret it."

"Come on, Derek. Allegiances can awesome, right? Sometimes even downright hot. Hey, like that time you banged Kate! Of course, she was just using you to filet your family. Wow Scott, you'd better keep an eye on Allison. Crazy runs in the family. Ask her mother of you don't believe me."

Allison ignored him and she rested her head on Scott's shoulder. She was tired and she closed her eyes to sleep but Stiles wasn't having it. He screeched loudly and tossed a handful of splinters in their direction. "No napping, slut."

"This would be easier if he forgot how to use his mouth. I guess he picked the wrong person to possess for that to happen."

"Ouch, that really hurts Scott. Why don't we go back to talking about you and Erica and why you haven't hit that yet. Or have you?"

Gerard reached for the second book and started chanting in a whole new language. Derek watched closely when Allison's mother started sprinkling holy water onto Stiles, keeping her distance from flying shards of wood. "I sure hope you all didn't use washable marker to draw this little sigil. I'd hate for it to all just wash away." Stiles swiped his hand over the sigil but the ink didn't smear, to his dismay. He cursed under his breath and then glared at Gerard.

"Hey Grandpa, when are we going to talk about your big bad secret? Like that time you killed that girl because you thought she was a werewolf. That was classy." He didn't stray, continuing his chanting with precision even as Stiles showered him with small dull shards of wood. He looked to Allison who had finished cleaning the wound in her shoulder and he prepared another.

"This is getting old, demon. Shards of wood aren't going to do much damage."

"You're right, Derek. Let's talk about you for a change. Tell us, how did it feel when you slid it into Kate? I imagine she faked a pretty good..."

"Next time someone gets possessed we sew their mouths shut," Derek said, glaring at the guy he loved and hating what had taken possession of him.

Stiles stood up from where he was sitting and he pounded at the barrier but the invisible force still kept him in. He was sweating now and panting as Gerard's words grew more rapid. Stiles pulled off his shirt and started to undo his pants. "Keep them on, demon. We don't want to see Stiles naked," Scott said.

"Maybe you don't, but someone in this room does," he said. He stopped taking off the jeans and sat back down. He used the shirt to wipe the sweat off of his face. "That's right. Someone in this room has the hots for Stiles. Isn't that right, Christopher?" Allison's father ignored him.

"Your games are getting old."

"Yes, I've spent far too much time here," Stiles said. He took the shirt that had soaked up his sweat and he held his right hand over it, chanting something that Derek, even with his enhanced hearing, couldn't quite make out. Then he started rubbing the glowing shirt on the sigil and within seconds the barrier was gone. Stiles stood up and laughed as everyone rushed for him.

"I may be weaker but I can still do what needs to be done!" Now free, he grabbed the last large chunk of wood and shoved it into Gerard's chest. "Time to die, Argent. You can all thank me later."

Derek had his arms around Stiles again but the demon was weaker and had more to lose. It was using Stiles' body to thrash violently and his leg connected with Mrs. Argent's chest and sent her flying backwards. She connected with the wall hard and fury took over as she reached for the holy water and tossed it all on Stiles' chest. He screamed as it burned his flesh and his agony gave him a burst in strength. He shoved Derek away and escaped into the shadow of the corner, vanishing from the room.

Allison and her father were kneeling over Gerard as they realized there was nothing they could do. Stiles had killed him and even though it wasn't his fault, Derek knew that the look in Allison's mothers eyes meant he was now in a lot of danger. He turned to Scott. "Where would Stiles go to be alone?"

Scott tried to think but aside from going to his house to hang with him, he came up empty. "Maybe to the school? I don't know." Derek cursed and ran out of the house leaving them to clean up the mess they had caused. He wasn't going to let the demon inhabit Stiles any longer. He was going to do what had to be done. He transformed, his clothes tearing off of him as he took off running towards the center of made it to the school in record time and entered through the boy's locker room, pulling one of the lockers open and searching for clothes now that he had returned to his naked human form. "Doesn't anyone leave clothes in lockers anymore?" He hit the jackpot on his forth try, pulling a pair of freshly washed sweatpants, a faded Simple Plan t-shirt, and socks out of the metal box. He put them on quickly as his face twisted from displeasure when he caught the scent of melted flesh and sulfur.

Derek followed the scent to one of the chemistry rooms. Stiles was kneeling over a sink as he peeled burned flesh from his body. Where the skin was torn new, healthy skin began to take its place. "It's time for this to be over."

The demon laughed as he turned and faced Derek. "It's funny that we're meeting like this, Derek. Stiles had a dream about a scene very close to this just after I started taking him over."

"Leave Sties. Take me instead."
"Don't be stupid. The hunters wouldn't pause to kill me in your body."
"They could try, but I'm strong and fast. I'm the Alpha, remember?"

Stiles looked weak as he leaned on one of the stools at the table. He was still in pain from the remaining burns on his chest. The demon seemed less confident but Derek knew it was likely to be more dangerous. "You needn't remind me of that fact."

"Take me. Stop hurting Stiles. I'll give you control willingly."
The demon roared with laughter, suddenly back to full health. "You really are quite dense, aren't you? Werewolves have an immunity from demons. Did you really not know that?"

Derek shrugged his shoulder. "I was hoping you didn't."

"When are you going to stop trying to trick me? I have possession of Stiles and as you saw, sigils can't contain my power. There is only one way to expel me and we both know you won't do it." Derek wanted to respond but he couldn't. An arrow flew through the window and landed in Stiles' shoulder, pushing him forward off the stool and onto the floor. The demon cursed as blood began to pour from the wound.
Derek looked through the window and saw Allison holding her bow with Scott by her side.

Derek growled for what they had done and his eyes were red with anger. "Its okay, Derek. The arrow was dipped in the Kanima's slime. It should still affect Stiles even though he's possessed."

Derek looked down at Stiles and he could tell that Scott was right. The arrow was sticking in the wound and he pulled it out and applied pressure to the wound to keep him from bleeding out. He started thinking about what the demon had said and his heart fell. Scott and Allison made their way into the room as Derek kneeled over him.

"What are we going to do now?," Allison asked. Her grandfather was dead and Derek didn't have time for her family to learn the exorcism procedure as they went along, especially when the demon still had so much power. He looked up to Scott with eyes full of sadness and Scott shook his head. "No! Derek, you'll kill him!"

"We don't have a choice. We won't get this chance again. Besides, it's killing Stiles every minute he's in control."

"I said no," Scott said, moving closer. Derek growled and he warned Scott not to challenge him. The beta took a step back even though Derek wasn't technically his Alpha. "No...please, Derek. There must be another way."

"The demon is trapped inside of Stiles because of the Kanima's venom. It's cut off from its power but it won't last forever. If it regains his strength we may never be able to save Stiles. Now it knows what we're capable of. Do you think it's gonna let us live when we pose a threat to its plans?"

Scott looked like he wanted to cry. Allison was crying. Derek was feeling guilty and ashamed of just thinking it. He wanted nothing more than for Stiles to live but he knew that being subjugated by a demon wasn't the life he wanted for himself. Derek turned Stiles over onto his back and he looked into eyes that seemed so foreign to him. His hand moved up and covered Stiles' nose and mouth and he applied pressure to cut off the air. His body began to shake slightly but the venom still had a hold on him.

Scott collapsed onto the floor and Allison moved to him, wrapping her arms around him tightly as the sound of Stiles' heartbeat slowly faded. Derek watched as consciousness slipped from the demon and he used his hand to close Stiles' eyes even while he kept his other hand steady. He was crying now too, along with Allison, and his thoughts were on what he was doing. The wolf was tearing to get out. To stop him from finishing this task. To stop him from murdering his love.

Derek pulled his hand back a minute later when Stiles' heart had stopped. A black cloud no larger than Stiles was expunged from his body like a magnet of opposite force was shoving it out of him. The haze hovered for a moment and then began to scatter around the room before vanishing entirely. Allison dropped the bow and moved close to Stiles. "That was it, right? The demon was killed."

Derek couldn't talk. He couldn't even think. He just stared at the clock as this time forever locked into his mind. It was 10:37 and this would forever be the time that he killed the love of his life. Allison had other plans.

She immediately started CPR, pumping Stiles' heart in between a series of breaths to restart the oxygen flow. She continued for minutes until Scott took over, not caring about the prospect of his lips meeting Stiles' if it meant bringing him back to life. Allison laughed and pulled Derek from his haze as her fingers pressed into Stiles' neck. "I feel a pulse!"

"Derek, you have to give him the bite." Derek remained still as he listened to Stiles' renewed heartbeat. "Derek! Turn him before we lose him again!" Derek shook his head, refusing to do it. "He doesn't want the bite."

"He will if it will save his life!"

"I'm calling an ambulance," Allison said, reaching into her pocket for her phone.
"How are we going to explain what happened to him?"

"I don't care! He needs a hospital."

Derek looked at him as he remained still, the venom still working through his system. He signed, knowing that even if he did give Stiles the bite the venom would just hold it at bay. He moved suddenly, scooping Stiles into his arms and he took off running. The hospital wasn't far and he knew that it was Stiles' best chance. He ran through traffic, avoiding vehicles that honked as he weaved through them while running as fast as he could with Stiles in his arms.

Scott's boss was waiting for Derek at the edge of the hospital's parking lot.

"You can't take him to the hospital, Derek. Put him in the car."

Derek did as the veterinarian directed and he slid into the seat next to Stiles. "Scott called me and told me what happened. I'm taking you back to the clinic."
"Can you help him?"

"I'll do my best," he promised, speeding down the road toward the clinic and Stiles' only hope.