This chapter is sooooo long. I tried to make it not drag on and worked in a little bit of Starlet (Stiles and Scarlet's ship name).
It seemed like I had just fell asleep when my alarm went off in the morning. I remembered that I had cross country practice this morning so I had to get up two hours earlier. I sighed before sitting up and realizing that I wasn't alone in my bed. I would've screamed out if I hadn't saw a spattering of brown hair on the pillow and a gangly arm tossed over his head.
"Stiles, it's time to wake up. We have practice today," I said, pushing on his shoulder and trying to wake him up. "Stilinski, it's time to wake up!"
"Mhmm, ten more minutes," he grumbled, rolling over and tossing an arm around my middle. "Come back and cuddle up with me."
I felt my cheeks heating up as he pulled my back to his chest and his breath hit the back of my neck. I knew he wasn't aware of what he was saying, but it didn't stop me from being embarrassed by his actions. I was about to break out of his grip, or that's what I told myself, when Scott burst into my room.
"Hey, there's practice in fifteen minutes! You guys better get up and stop snuggling," he shouted and I could hear him giggling like a school girl.
I got up and ran into the bathroom where I'd stashed my things last night. I guess I should explain why Stiles was in my bed this morning, shouldn't I? Well, after we finished everything up we all crashed here. I was still a little freaked out because someone was sacrificing virgins and I was one. I didn't want to be alone even if my only protection was Stiles, he was better than I would be on my own.
I quickly pulled on my outfit and twisted my hair up with my bangs held back with a headband. I walked into my bedroom to see that Stiles was just tugging his t-shirt onto his body. I missed seeing any good parts, but his pink cheeks made me feel warm inside.
"Sorry, I forgot you were in here," I lied, grabbing my bag of school clothes off the bed. "What time is it?"
"Time for us to be on the road," Scott said, tossing me an apple and Stiles a granola bar. "We have to be a practice in ten minutes and Finstock will kill us if we're late."
We all met out at the beginning of the running trail, girls meeting up with the boys. Coach was talking about something, but I wasn't listening to a word coming out of his mouth. Everyone lined up so I followed behind Stiles and stood between him and Scott. I saw that two twins were on either side of Isaac, and I could feel Scott tensing up.
"What's wrong?" I whispered, leaning into him. "Who are those twins with Isaac?"
"Those are two of the alphas from the pack, the ones who almost killed Isaac," he explained quietly. "Stay with Stiles, I'm going to go try and talk to them."
I nodded and when we started running, I loped carelessly beside Stiles. I knew he was slowed down to try and keep up with me because he was taller with longer legs. I glanced up and saw Scott running after Isaac quicker than humanly possible, but I knew that was normal for my brother.
"Isaac has too much of a temper and too short of a fuse sometimes," I said to Stiles after they both disappeared with the alpha twins. "I love him to death and I care about him, but it's true."
He was about to respond to me when we both heard a loud scream. I started full-out running towards the sound with Stiles a little bit ahead of me. I pushed myself harder until we were both in the middle of the hoard of students.
I looked at what they were looking at and saw what had caused the girl to scream. There was another body tied to the tree by what looked like a leash, but I wasn't getting any closer to find out.
"Why aren't you all still running? I didn't give you an okay to sto- oh sweet mother Mary," Coach swore as he caught up to all of us. "That's a dead body."
"Yeah, he's a senior," someone said to the Coach, making him pale.
I turned to Stiles and whispered, "Do you see the threefold death in there or is it just me?"
He nodded just as the cop cars pulled in. Another scream tore from behind us as a blonde girl ran toward the body. It clicked in my head then that she had to be his girlfriend and I recognized her from the hallway. Her name was Ashley, she complimented my outfit on the first day.
While the ruckus was happening, I snuck closer to the body with Isaac, Stiles, and Scott. I knew they were trying to find something that led them to the alphas while Stiles and I looked for something out of place.
"I'm sure that the twins did this. There's no other explanation," Isaac seethed, his eyes flashing gold. His voice was absolutely guttural when he growled out, "I want to rip them apart."
"I don't think they're the ones to blame. I mean, I'm not defending them at all, but I just don't think it's them," I said, taking his hand in mine and trying to calm him down.
"I agree, there is a definite lack of werewolfitude in these murders," Stiles said, studying the body as he spoke.
"I don't know what I believe yet, but I'm not counting anything out. I want to know more before I go out for blood," Scott answered, always the referee.
After a ton of heckling from Mr. Harris, I switched into his normal level physics class. Lily told me that it was a pansy move, but I really just wanted to pass this year. Maybe I was quitting, but I wasn't going to focus too hard on that detail. It was also a big plus that I had it with all the guys, Lydia, and Allison.
I sat next to Isaac and felt him tensing next to me. I glanced over at him and saw that he was clenching his jaw and his hands were fists under the table. I gripped one of his hands in both of mine and tried to calm him down as best I could. Like I told Stiles earlier, he was too hotheaded sometimes.
"Isaac, don't do anything stupid. They're not worth it," I heard Scott whisper from the desk behind ours. "They're just trying to get a rise out of you."
He growled at me and I felt his claws break the skin of my hand so he could tear his out of my grip. He jumped up to his feet and asked Mr. Harris to go to the bathroom abruptly.
"I have to go, too!" Scott shrieked quickly, jumping up and almost knocking his desk over in his haste.
"Not even if your bladder suddenly exploded and urine started to pour from every orifice on your body," Mr. Harris replied in an annoyed voice.
"Mr. Harris, I'm about to recreate a scene from Saw back here if I don't go to the bathroom right this second!" I screeched, jumping up and running towards the door before he could answer me.
I made it outside just as one of the twins slammed the other's head into a locker and tossed him at Isaac's feet. I quickly ran over to Isaac to make sure that the twins hadn't hurt him. I heard the door open again and saw the entire class spill into the hall with Mr. Harris in the lead.
"Mr. Lahey, Miss McCall, lunchtime detention for both of you!" he said, handing us both pink slips. Then he glanced down at the bloody boy on the floor, "Jesus, someone take him to the nurse or something."
I groaned and pushed Isaac back into the classroom when he tried to get at the twins again. The last thing I wanted was for him to do something stupid and get our detention extended.
After we sat back down, I glanced at my hand and saw that it was bleeding. I groaned and clenched my fist tightly to stop the bleeding until class ended and I could go to the bathroom.
I washed all the dried blood off and made sure the wound was clear before getting the first aid kit out of my backpack. I started packing it not long after Scott was bitten, I was always prepared for anything lately. I bandaged my hand up and went back out to meet Scott at his locker.
"What are you two looking at?" I asked when I saw him and Isaac glaring at something down the hallway.
"Aiden's asking Lydia out on a date," Scott breathed.
"I'm sure she turned him down because she loves to play with boys' emotions," I said snarkily before I could stop myself. They both look over at me so I quickly said, "Let's go, Lahey, we've got freakin' lunchtime detention."
We were supposed to organize the janitor's supply closet and when we got there I saw Allison already inside. I raised my brows before walking up to her with Isaac trailing behind me.
She must've saw my questioning gaze because she explained quickly, "I fell asleep during French class and Ms. Morrell gave me detention."
I nodded and left her and Isaac inside the closet for a second to grab a box of cleaning supplies. Just as I stepped back into the closet, the door slammed shut and I heard something fall in front of it. I tried to open the door, the knob would turn but not open the door.
Isaac came up beside of me and tried to push the door open with his werewolf strength, but it still didn't budge. He started beating on it and I heard his breathing getting labored. I instantly remembered the ice chest that he got locked in and knew he was having flashbacks of it, too.
"Hey, everything's okay, Isaac. We're going to be just fine, I promise," I said calmly, trying to grab his wrist in my good hand. "I can text Scott to come help and we'll be out in a couple of minutes. You just have to calm down before you hurt some-"
He pushed me off of him and I ended up slamming into one of the shelves. Pain exploded along the back of my head and I felt everything go a little bit fuzzy before I completely blacked out.
I heard people talking around me, but I couldn't seem to get my eyes to open. I finally took a deep breath and forced them open to see that Stiles and Lydia were on either side of me. I glanced around and realized that I was in the nurse's office and had a blinding headache.
"Hey, you're in the nurses office right now," Stiles whispered to me, rubbing his fingers over my hand. "Scott got all of you out of the closet and found you unconscious on the floor. Needless to say, he almost killed Isaac, he would've kept going if Allison didn't stop him."
I forced myself to sit up and gripped Lydia's hand when the room spun around. She held onto me as I tried my best to stand up, only to lean back against the bed when the room started to spin even faster. I felt a stinging sensation in my hand and remembered that Isaac had also cut my palm earlier today. Oh boy, he did a number on be today it seems.
"Okay, you're not going to move so I'm going to tell you what I've learned about the guy on the tree, Kyle. I asked his girlfriend if he was a virgin, which got me slapped, and found out that he wasn't. Then I saw Boyd put something on his memorial and found out that he's in ROTC," Stiles said, helping me sit back up on the bed and rubbing my knee absentmindedly as he spoke.
"You've always had the gift of being super subtle," I laughed, biting my bottom lip.
"Yeah, I'm aware. Are you aware that there's a temple in Calcutta, India where they once sacrificed a baby every day? Every day was dead baby day," Stiles said, trying to change the subject.
"What does sacrifice have to do with anything? Why are you telling us this?" Lydia asked in frustration. "I just thought we were going to get Scarlet an-"
"Which leads me to think that these sacrifices are coming in groups of threes. That's why Kyle wasn't a virgin, he's the start of the next group," Stiles went on like Lydia didn't even speak.
"It's impossible to discern a pattern from a single data point," I replied as the room slowly stopped moving. "Which means we have to find someone else in the same group as Kyle."
"This isn't either of your jobs, it's the cops'. They should be worrying about this and you guys should be taking care of Scarlet's injuries and going to class," Lydia said, helping me stand up.
"The FBI have been called in now, my dad's not leading this investigation anymore because they think that Beacon Hills has a serial killer," Stiles explained, keeping close to me as we walked.
I knew there was more to what he was saying, but he didn't want to get into it. I knew I should've pushed him further, but I couldn't find the energy.
"I'm going to go to class, please be careful and don't get hurt again," Lydia told me, hugging me before heading towards the music room.
"I'm going to go talk to Deaton about all of the sacrifices. Do you want to come with?" Stiles asked, gesturing towards the door as he spoke. "I'm kind of iffy about leaving you on your own, stumbles-a-lot."
I flipped him off but followed him out to his Jeep. I had a free period right now anyways, it wasn't like I was going to miss anything important. The drive to the clinic was quiet, the only sound was the soft music playing through the speakers. I took the time to try and figure out what was up with Stiles and me.
He had been really protective of me since the ride home from the party at Heather's. I loved it, don't get me wrong, but it was just odd. He wasn't even glancing at Lydia anymore whenever I was around them. I refused to let myself think that meant he had feelings for me, I wasn't going to get my hopes up.
I walked into the clinic with Stiles and saw Deaton was standing there, waiting for us. It was sort of creepy, but it was normal behavior for him. I couldn't help but flashback to when we all thought he was the alpha that bit Scott. I just wish we knew what he was because he sure as hell wasn't completely human. He knew way too much to be human.
"I'm sure the two of you are here because you've realized that the murders are sacrifices," he said. "You're the smart ones, the clever ones who find the patterns whenever others can't see them."
"Well, we're here for that and because I have a dilemma," Stiles said, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. "The FBI's here to help my dad with these cases and I can't help but think it's unfair. They're going to think that he's incompetent because he doesn't know what's going on because it's supernatural."
"Everything that I've found in the murders points to Druids, a religious group that nothing's really known about but a lot of people have speculated about them over the years," Deaton explained. "It's like the case in England known as the 'Lindow Man.' An ancient body was discovered in 1984 with mistletoe in his stomach and the same threefold injuries of the murders that are happening here."
"You seem to know a lot of stuff that you haven't told us," Stiles points out, pursing his lips.
"I've spent the last 10 years trying to push something away, denying and lying about it has become a powerful habit of mine," Deaton said with a smile. Then he switched back into storyteller mode, "Whoever's killing these people isn't a Druid, they're just copying the old practices of people who should've known better.
"In Gaelic, the word Druid means 'Wise Oak' because they were close to nature and philosophers, not serial killers," Deaton finished right as Stiles' phone rang.
He talked for a few minutes before hanging up and telling us, "That was Lydia, she says that the music teacher has been taken now, too."
We ran to the music room as soon as we got the school and met up with Lydia. She played something on a phone that sounded like chanting. I leaned forward and listened to Deaton start talking.
"Each to the groups of three have its own purpose: virgins, healers, philosophers, and warriors," he was interrupted by Stiles who was looking at the teacher's desk.
"Hey guys, I found the connection with Kyle and the teacher. He was in the military," Stiles announced, holding up a picture for us to see. "With that being said, I think we should look out for Boyd because he's in ROTC, too."
"Mr. Harris was in the military," Lydia said, moving towards the door.
We all ran down the hallway to his classroom only to find it empty. His briefcase was still sitting on his desk along with the tests that he was grading. Everyone else was looking around while I glanced through the tests. I was actually looking for mine and when I found it, I got really confused.
"Okay, I know Mr. Harris doesn't like me, but I don't think I deserve a D on this quiz," I complained. "I actually studied for this quiz! Wait, this one has an R and this one has an H… Those aren't grades…."
I looked through the rest of the tests and found two A's and a C on a couple other papers. Deaton quickly put the papers into the order of "DARACH" like that made sense.
"What's a Darach?" Stiles asked, just as confused as I was.
"Darach means 'Dark Oak.' It's a Druid that went down the wrong path," Deaton answered.
Great, we just got rid of the Kanima and now we have a crazy dark Druid running around along with a pack of alphas. Oh great.
I put a lot of my personality into Scarlet's character and I hope she comes off as genuine.