I promised I wouldn't do it, and I did it. It's been exactly one month and one day since I last updated. I have no excuse.
Disclaimer.
From the very back of the room he watched her in her burgundy dress, tawny curls pinned in a neat bun. She walked onto the stage like she owned it. He smirked. That was his girl.
The pianist began to play, and her alto voice rang out. The notes snaked around him, drawing him in. He listened as she sung of lost love, pouring her emotion into it. He wondered who she thought of as she sang. Her song just gave him even more resolve and fed the fire that burned in his heart, his animalistic side threatening to emerge. Luckily for everyone, both parts of him agreed not to ruin her concert.
A couple of nights later, Scott shoved open the door. Crystal smirked. "Wrong floor, dumbass."
"No, this is it. I'm sure of it."
"That's what you said about the last floor, too."
Scott pulled out the keys, laying his bag on the ground, and pressed the unlock button. He looked up with a grimace. Crystal raised her eyebrows. "Shut up."
"Was I right?" Chuckling, she dodged Scott's mock swipe at her and knocked into the bag on the ground. The milk fell and rolled between two cars. She pointed at the space. "I'm not getting that."
Surprisingly, the milk came rolling back toward them. It was leaking from three claw marks on its side. Scott looked at it, shocked, while Crystal looked in the direction where the milk came from. "Run." A growl filled the air. "Scott, run!"
He did, grabbing her arm and dragging her after him. "Come on." He practically flew down the parking garage with her in an iron grip. She stumbled, unable to keep up. She looked over her shoulder at the lean dark shadow following them.
"Scott, keep going. I can't keep up," she whispered. He gaped at her. "No. It's after you, plus I can take care of myself." Knowing that their attacker wouldn't hurt her was a bonus.
He pulled her down behind a car. "I'm not leaving you," he hissed.
"You have to. No," she added when he opened his mouth to continue arguing. "Listen to me."
He growled, torn. Crystal pulled her jacket off and threw it past Scott's face, not waiting to see it land before she ducked around the other side and headed back the way they came. Car alarms sounded behind her. If she could just get to the door and get back inside, the "Alpha" would have to give up the chase. Heart pounding from exertion, she sprinted around the corner.
Two arms grabbed her and spun her around.
Choking back a gasp, she glared at Derek. He raised his eyebrows. "You're dead."
"I'm not the one you're supposed to be training," she reminded him softly.
Derek pointed, a silent stay here motion, before taking off again. She scoffed. Ten seconds later, a ringtone pierced the air. If she could hear it, Derek definitely could.
"Tell me you're joking," she said to the air. Derek was going to skin him alive.
Thirty seconds later, she heard their voices—well, Scott's raised voice—as they approached her.
"I was fast, right?" Scott asked.
"Not fast enough."
"But the thing with the car alarms—that was smart, right?" the younger werewolf persisted, determined to earn a lick of praise from his elder.
"Until your phone rang," Derek said coldly. He stopped next to Crystal. She looked up at him, raising her eyebrows.
"And how did I do, coach?"
"If I had been the Alpha, you would be dead."
She huffed. For a human, she thought she had done pretty well. Scott stopped in front of them, clutching his cell phone.
"What happened the other night, Stiles's dad getting hurt and everything, that was my fault. I should have done something." Talk about overstating his abilities. How would he have gotten across the parking lot in the span of a second without tipping anyone off? "I need you to teach me how to control this," he continued.
"I was born this way," Derek snapped. "You were bitten. Teaching someone who was bitten takes time. Actually, I don't even know if I can teach you."
Scott looked determined. "What do I have to do?"
"Get rid of distractions." Oh, he wasn't going to like the next part. Derek snatched the phone from him, glanced at the screen, and showed it to them both. "You see this?" Crystal didn't even have to look, but she did anyway. Yep. One missed call from Allison. "This is why I caught you. If you really want me to teach you, get rid of her."
Scott's eyes widened, his gaze turning belligerent. "What, just because of who her family is?"
"Are you forgetting what they did to us?" Crystal gestured between herself and Derek. "To Peter and Laura and Talia and Mike and everyone else?"
"That doesn't mean—" Scott looked over at Derek, who held up his phone. "What are you—" Derek drew his arm back and smoothly tossed it at the wall. "No!"
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Scott kind of need a phone?" Crystal asked.
"I can find him."
"But Stiles, Melissa, and I can't."
Scott glared between the two of them. "He just broke my phone! How are you so calm about this?"
"Derek, will you get Scott a new phone?"
"Maybe."
"He needs it by next week." She turned to Scott. "There. Problem solved."
"I can't believe you!" Scott threw his hands up.
"You're getting angry. That's the first step. You wanna control this, learn how to shift, you use anger. You have to tap into a primal rage, and you can't do that with her around."
Scott's eyes narrowed. "I can get angry."
Crystal's eyebrows rose mockingly. "That's angry? If so, you suck at showing it."
"Crystal, hush."
She bristled. "Don't tell me to hush, Derek Hale."
He ignored her and turned his attention back to Scott. "You can't get angry enough. This is the only way I can teach you. Can you stay away from her?" At Crystal's are you an idiot expression, he continued. "At least until after the full moon?"
"If that's what it takes."
"Do you want to survive? Do you want to protect your friends?" Derek persisted.
Scott nodded definitively. "Yes. If you can teach me, I can stay away from her."
For how long was the question. Crystal gave it until the next day. She clapped her hands together. "Cool. Now that that's somewhat settled, Scott can take the groceries to the car. Derek, come with me." He shot her a questioning look. "You ruined our milk and Scott's phone. The least you can do is pay for a new bottle." And we need to talk, she signed.
He rolled his eyes. Scott smirked. They both caught it and glared at the younger werewolf.
"Scott, groceries. Car. Now." She tossed him the keys and walked off knowing Scott would do what she told him. Thankfully Derek was at the door leading back inside. As soon as they were inside the store, she spoke. "You know he's not going to stay away from her very long."
"I give it two days."
She scoffed. "That's giving his willpower too much credit. I give it until tomorrow, tops." They stopped at the milk section long enough for her to grab a new bottle. "You want anything?" He shook his head. She went to the meats and grabbed a frozen chicken. It hadn't been on the list, but Derek needed to eat something besides fast food and expensive restaurant meals.
"If Scott turns by getting angry, what'll keep him from ripping our throats out?"
"Our?" he repeated.
"Well, I might be around. You know Stiles is going to try to help." She shrugged. "He doesn't trust you."
"I don't care if Stiles trusts me. I care if Scott is willing to do what I tell him."
"Which requires a certain degree of trust. So, how do we keep him from ripping our throats out?"
"He has to find an anchor."
She blinked. "An anchor?"
"Someone or something that keeps him focused, that helps him hold onto his humanity."
"What's yours?"
"Anger."
She laughed in disbelief. "Doesn't that sort of contradict itself?" Oh, wait. It was Derek. He was full of contradictions.
Scott snuck out that night after dinner. Well, not really—he told Melissa where he was going, and it was before nine so he was still able to go out. But he was going to Allison's in strict violation of Derek's instructions. What was worse was that Crystal was so wrapped up in homework and then watching Into the Woods that she didn't even notice until Scott burst into the house in a panic. She paused the movie. "Scott?"
He didn't answer her. She trailed him, watching him lock the windows and the back door on the lower floor before he headed up the stairs. "Scott, what happened?"
"I saw him," he whispered.
"The Alpha?" He nodded, ducking into his mom's room. "Where?"
"Outside Allison's."
She smacked him on the arm. "What were you doing there?"
"Don't start." He checked all the other windows and finally went into his room. She moved to sit in his chair, but as her eyes adjusted she saw a dark shape already sitting in it, revealing someone else's presence in the room. She gasped just as Scott flicked on the light. He jumped when he saw Derek.
"Derek!" he cried. "You need to stop doing that!"
"What did I say last time?" Crystal added. Her heart was still pounding.
Derek ignored their reactions. "Did he say anything?"
"Oh, yeah, we had a nice conversation about Crystal's concert and then we talked about the weather for a bit." Scott shook his head. "No. He didn't talk."
"Well, did you get any feelings off of him? An impression?"
Crystal looked at him curiously. "You can feel emotions?"
"All of our senses are heightened. We don't have to communicate with just words," he explained. "What kind of feeling did you get from him?"
Scott thought it over for a moment. "Anger. He was really angry."
Crystal tensed. "At you?"
This time he didn't hesitate to shake his head. "No. Not at me. But it was definitely anger, especially when he drew the spiral."
Derek rose. "Wait, the what?" His voice was terse. The spiral obviously meant something, but Crystal had no idea what that something was. She doubted Derek would tell her right away.
She was right. After Scott drew the spiral in the air, he asked, "What is it? You have this look like it's important or something."
Derek shook his head firmly, heading for the door. Crystal blocked his path. He huffed. "It's nothing."
"You can't do that," Scott huffed. "You can't ask me to trust you and then keep stuff from me."
"He's right for once," Crystal whispered softly, ignoring his indignant look. She looked Derek in the eye. He was worried. "We buried Laura under a spiral. It's important. What does it mean?"
"You don't want to know."
"Maybe not, but we need to know. Keeping us out of the loop isn't helping anybody." She stepped aside, opening the door. "There's some lasagna left over in the fridge if you want any."
He looked at her for a moment longer before disappearing. She closed the door behind him and leaned against it.
"What was that?" Scott demanded.
"We can't force answers out of Derek. He'll tell us eventually."
"But how long will that take?"
She shook her head. "I don't know."
"Your brother is an idiot."
Crystal looked over in Scott's direction. He was holding a textbook upright and slouching to hide his face behind it. "Oh. My. God."
"He does realize the book's making it more obvious, right?"
"Probably not," she scoffed. She shot off a quick text to Stiles. What the hell? He looks like an idiot.
That's because he is, was the prompt reply. She snickered. He's trying to avoid Allison.
"Dumbass." She looked at Boyd. "He's trying to avoid Allison for some stupid dare."
He rolled his eyes. A kid plopped down across from him and held out his hand. Boyd raised his eyebrows. The kid grumbled but pulled out his wallet and forked over fifty dollars. Boyd recounted the money before he took a set of keys out of his bag and handed them over. "Pleasure doing business with you."
The kid took off, and Crystal turned to Boyd. "What was that?"
He held up a second keychain with a few more keys than the first. "I rent out the spare keys to the skating rink to students for fifty bucks."
"Nice. How do you know they'll bring them back?"
"That's why I have the originals."
She looked over at Scott's table in time to see him take off. Allison followed him moments later. "I am so glad I'm not related to him."
"It's her."
Crystal stopped next to the boys, curiosity piqued. "Who's what?"
"Allison. In class just now, Coach was yelling at Scott and Allison held his hand and he calmed down," Stiles explained.
"So Scott found his anchor," she mused.
"Yeah." Stiles looked pleased, but Scott just looked confused. Stiles sighed at his best friend. "Remember the night of the first lacrosse game? You were freaking out and you heard her voice. It calmed you down. And after that, in the locker room, you didn't kill her."
"She keeps you human," Crystal added.
Scott shook his head. "No, not all the time. Cause whenever I'm kissing her or touching her—"
Crystal grimaced, having an idea where the conversation was heading.
Stiles shook his head and proved her right. "No, that's not the same at all. When you're doing that, you're just another hormonal teenage boy thinking about sex." Scott got a goofy grin on his face.
"Thanks, Stiles. Now he's thinking about it." Crystal shivered in disgust. "I'm out of here."
"No, I'm done now."
"So she keeps you focused—"
"You mean because I love her."
Three pairs of eyes widened, and Stiles and Crystal grimaced at Scott's happy puppy look. "Now I definitely have to go, before he goes and finds a boom box or something."
Scott and Stiles burst into the house later that night. "Crystal, we need you."
She smirked and put down her book. "That's flattering, boys. But one, I'm pretty sure that borders on incest, and two, I don't do threesomes."
They both looked like they would be sick. She snickered.
"No, this is important. I got to work earlier—I was late, I had detention—"
"Is this becoming a habit?"
"Stiles's fault. But anyway, I get to work and I find Derek beating Deaton to a pulp."
The mirth slid off her face. "What?"
"Yeah. He has this crazy idea Deaton's the Alpha."
"And what do you want me to do? It sounds like you stopped him, or you wouldn't be here."
Scott looked at her like she was dumb. "I have an idea. Come with us to the school."
She looked at them warily. "Why?"
"Because you're the only one who can put a leash on Derek," Stiles suggested.
She laughed disbelievingly. "I can't make Derek do or not do anything." Sure, the Hales had always seemed to give her more leeway than they did other pack friends, but that might have been because she was a child at the time.
"You got him to agree to get me a new phone."
"No, he said maybe. There's a difference."
"Whatever. The point is, we need you there to run interference." Stiles waved his hands through the air.
She sighed. "Fine. Where are we meeting him?"
"The school," Scott told her. She went upstairs and slipped on her shoes and on impulse threw the dog whistle around her neck. When she climbed into the Jeep, she found a pair of bolt cutters on the floor of the back seat. She held them up silently.
"We need to get into the school somehow," Stiles told her.
The car ride was silent. When they got to the empty school, they climbed out and Crystal turned to them. "Okay, boys, what's your bright idea?"
"It's a terrible idea," Stiles corrected.
"And you're still going through with it?"
"Do you have a better idea?" Scott asked.
"Well, it would help if I knew the plan," she snapped at the same time Stiles said, "Personally I'm all for ignoring a problem and hoping it just goes away."
Scott didn't answer her question, since Derek's Camaro pulled up just then. Derek climbed out and raised his eyebrows. "What is she doing here?"
"Running interference, apparently." She raised her eyebrows in return, practically a mirror image of Derek except for the fact that her arms were crossed. She didn't notice the boys looking not-so-subtly between them. "Mind explaining why you thought it would be a good idea to beat the vet to a bloody pulp?"
"He's the Alpha. Unconscious, he can't keep himself from healing."
"Oh, yeah. Great thought." She walked over and pulled open Derek's back seat door, climbing in despite Derek's warning growl and tilting Deaton's head to show them the slightly bleeding cut. "Human, and you could have killed him." She ducked out of the back. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe the Alpha was trying to throw you off his trail?"
From the look on Derek's face, obviously not. Scott and Stiles were halfway up the sidewalk by the time they broke their staring contest.
"Where are you going?" she called, irritated.
Scott turned back around. "Derek said I was connected with the Alpha. I'm going to see if he's right."
She ran that sentence over in her head, trying to find another answer than the one she kept getting.
"Please tell me he's not doing what I think he's doing."
"You mean is he going to try to lure the Alpha here?"
She snarled as ferociously as humanly possible. "I am going to kill him. What the hell is he thinking? When the Alpha shows up, does he think we're all going to get out of here intact? Honestly!" She whirled on Derek. "And you. The Alpha's planting red herrings. Don't turn into the hound that gets stuck in a bog."
Derek leaned against the front of the Jeep. Crystal used his shoulder as support so she could hop up on top of the hood, purposefully not looking at him.
"The spiral is our sign for revenge," Derek said finally. "A few months ago my sister got a letter. It was a picture of a dead deer with the spiral carved into its side." Crystal grimaced. "That's what brought her back to Beacon Hills. The vet knows something."
"Deaton."
"What?"
"The vet has a name," she told him, staring at the doors the boys had gone through. "It's Deaton. Use it."
It didn't take long for something to happen. Crystal's ears strained as she heard a horrible sound. "Is that a dying cat?" she asked, appalled.
Derek snorted. "That's Scott trying to howl."
She covered her face with her hands. A second later, a loud rumbling filled the air. Her hair stood on end and she looked at Derek, disturbed. "That was Scott's howl."
It wasn't a question, but he nodded anyway. "I'm going to kill him."
"What the hell is he trying to do, let every hunter in town know where he is?" She leapt off the hood and landed nimbly next to Derek. The boys appeared, grinning madly.
"I'm going to kill both of you," Derek began.
"Congratulations. I think there were wolves in Europe who didn't hear you; why don't you try howling just a little bit louder?" Crystal snapped sarcastically, glaring at the two of them.
"Are you trying to attract everyone in the state here?"
"Not to mention the hunters. The same ones who tried to kill us." She waved between herself, Derek, and Scott.
"I didn't know it would be that loud," Scott said, still smiling slightly.
"It was awesome," Stiles sang.
Derek scowled. "Shut up."
"Don't be such a sourwolf." He looked at Crystal. "Sorry, mommy."
She stalked toward him and whacked him on the back of the head. "This is not a joke," she hissed. They froze, grins sliding off their faces.
"Where is he?" Scott asked suddenly.
She shook her head in angry confusion. "What?"
He pointed. "Deaton. What did you do with him?"
They all turned. Sure enough, the door was wide open and Deaton was nowhere to be seen. An instant later, Derek was rising into the air and coughing up blood. A monstrous shape held him up and growled at them.
Crystal covered her mouth with both hands to keep her scream locked inside her. Scott and Stiles backed away slowly.
"Crystal, come on."
The Alpha threw Derek into the grass and stalked toward her. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe.
It was right in front of her. Her vision was going blurry, so instinctively she inhaled shakily. Red eyes stared into forest green flecked with gold. It moved slower than she would have expected it to, reaching a clawed finger from the hand not covered in Derek's blood to trace her cheek lightly.
"Run," she croaked. "Scott, go."
She could hear them arguing behind her. The Alpha lunged past her in their direction. They bolted for the doors, but the Alpha didn't follow them. Instead he returned to her side in time to watch her sink to her knees.
"Why?" she whispered.
"Why what?" His voice was deep and gravelly.
"Why are you doing this? Why did you kill Derek?" Why are you leaving me alone?
He ignored her first question. "I needed him out of the way. Don't worry," he added as tears dripped onto the pavement. "He'll heal."
Her head whipped toward Derek's body. "He's alive?" she breathed.
The Alpha's head shot up and he stalked toward the doors where Stiles was trying to slip out to reach the bolt cutters. Crystal rose and staggered over to Derek. There was blood everywhere. "Derek." She reached out and shook him roughly. "Derek!"
A grinding sound pulled her attention to the Jeep. The Alpha had ripped a hole in the hood and held the battery in one massive paw. He disappeared again, and a second later she heard glass shatter. She couldn't do anything to help Stiles and Scott now. She looked down at her necklace and the dog whistle that she had completely forgotten about. She picked the whistle up and blew three short, sharp bursts. Derek groaned. "You're okay," she breathed.
"If you call bleeding severely okay, then I'm splendid."
She helped him pull off his jacket and shirt, ripping the latter into strips and doing her best to wrap the wounds. He groaned when she helped him to his feet. It took a while, but eventually they made it to the car. She unceremoniously dumped him in the passenger seat, grabbed the keys from his pocket, and hurried to the driver's side.
"Where's Scott?" he asked as she pulled out of the parking lot.
"He and Stiles are in the school, trapped."
"How are you here, then?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. He was right in front of me. He spoke to me. And then he just…disappeared."
She was so focused on the road and making sure they weren't speeding that she missed Derek's thoughtful frown.
The house was dark when she pulled the Camaro next to her poor car. Melissa had took the keys and told her she would only get them back for school the next week, so she was stuck either taking the bus or hitching a ride.
Not important, she told herself and went to help Derek out of the car. It took another ten agonizing minutes to get him inside and upstairs. They both sighed in relief when he plopped down on her bed. They were silent as she cleaned him up and bandaged him again. Then, to keep herself busy, she went down, heated up the oven, and threw in a frozen pizza. Twenty minutes later she took it out and set it on the counter to cool while she straightened up the living room. She cut it, put two pieces on a couple of plates, and took them upstairs. Derek ate his quickly. Crystal took one bite of hers but it tasted like sawdust, so she gave her plate to Derek.
"Why aren't you healing?" she asked finally.
"I'm healing, it's just taking longer. Any wound inflicted by an Alpha takes longer to heal."
She nodded, then asked what was really worrying her. "Do you think they'll be okay?" Derek didn't say anything, which was answer enough. "What does he want?"
"He wants Scott in his pack." Turning his head, he elaborated. "When a werewolf joins a new pack, their loyalties can't be divided. So, to prove they're worthy of being in the new pack…"
"They kill everyone in their old pack," she finished.
"It doesn't have to happen that way, but most don't want to take that chance."
"So the Alpha wants Scott to kill Stiles?"
"Not just Stiles. All of his friends."
Her eyes widened and she grabbed her phone, dialing Stiles's number. It rang twice before he picked up. "Crystal!"
"Stiles! Are you okay?"
"Crystal, help!" Suddenly three voices were talking on the other end all at once, and she recognized every one of them.
"Hey!" Stiles hollered finally. It was silent for a moment. "Thank you," he continued.
"You okay?" she asked.
"For now." He lowered his voice. "You may want to kill Scott later, though."
"Tell me later. Right now, we have to get you out of there."
"Call the police!" Jackson demanded.
"We tried that," Allison reminded him. "They hung up on us."
"He's covering his bases," Crystal breathed.
"Look, just go to the police and tell this moron's dad that Derek Hale locked us in the school and is trying to kill us."
"Wait, what?" Derek's eyes flashed blue and Crystal's eyes darkened with rage. "Repeat that."
"Scott said he saw Derek Hale kill the janitor, and now he's trying to kill us," Lydia explained.
"Oh, I am definitely going to kill him."
Finally, Scott spoke. "Hush, hush," he hurriedly said. "He's right outside."
"There's a door out of the kitchen that leads to a stairwell," Stiles told them.
"It only goes up!"
"Up is better than here," Stiles said.
Crystal grabbed the keys to the Camaro. "Okay. I'm going to get your dad." She heard loud crashes on the other end before the line cut off.
"Would he kill the cops?"
"Highly doubtful."
She turned to Derek and pointed to the closed door next to her closet. "Bathroom. Anyone comes home that's not me, hide in there." She grabbed the empty plates, threw them in the sink, and left for the sheriff's station.
She pulled the Camaro to a stop a block away and jogged to the station from there. When she opened the door, the very first person she almost ran into was Deputy Graeme. "Is the sheriff here?" Confused, the elder woman pointed in the direction of his office. Crystal brushed by her and burst into the office, where Stiles's dad was sipping what was probably coffee and looking at a file on his desk.
"Sheriff," she said as soon as she opened the door. "Stiles is in trouble."
Sheriff Stilinski was on his feet in a millisecond. "What happened?"
"I don't know all the details. Stiles called me from the high school. He, Scott, Lydia, Allison, and Jackson are trapped in the school with a killer."
"Come on." He was up and strapping his gun and badge to his belt, coffee forgotten. In all of two minutes, she was sitting in the passenger seat of a police car which was speeding down the road with a second police car behind it.
"What the hell are they doing in the school?"
"I don't know." Her phone rang. She dug it out of her pocket and hit speaker. "Stiles."
"Hey, Crystal."
"We're almost there." Sheriff Stilinski turned a corner.
"You got my dad?" Stiles sounded appalled.
"No, I planned on leaving you trapped to die a horribly gruesome death at school in the middle of the night." She rolled her eyes.
"Sarcasm is my thing."
They turned in front of the school. "All right, we're here."
Nearly an hour later, after they had all been questioned and Scott got dumped, they arrived home. Sheriff Stilinski explained to a worried Melissa what had happened, and she ushered them both inside. Crystal went directly upstairs to check on Derek. He was gone. She sighed and sent him a text.
Car's a block away from the station. Get it before they find it. Keys are on my bedside table. Window's open. Stay hidden.
She hesitated before adding one more sentence. Hope you're okay.
She sent the message, unlocked and cracked her window, changed quickly, lay down on her bed, and fell asleep. She would throttle Scott tomorrow.
Well?
In case you didn't read my author's page, I started college this past week so until I find a nice balance for homework, shopping, activities, and writing, updates may take a while.
I'm thinking of taking the story AU either after season 3A or 3B. Season 4 just didn't agree with me. Thoughts?
