Blaine lifts his hands and a red shimmering mist-like light rises from the ward circle around the Nemeton and is joined by an another swirl shimmering red light that flows out of the surrounding trees—presumably from the ward line she and her father crossed earlier—that form into a spiral with Blaine at the center.
"Blaine! Don't do it!" Allison is vaguely aware that Coop is shouting but she ignores it as she hobbles towards her father, knowing that he needs her.
Her dad puts himself between her and Blaine and she can hear him shouting to get away but she ignores that as she grasps her dagger tighter as she gets her second wind and jogs to his side. She dropped her bangstick when Sam kicked her so she pulls out another dagger. This is her fault; she isn't going to compound her mistake by leaving her father alone.
When all the red mist disappears into Blaine, he leaps—almost fluidly, definitely inhumanly—forward and his body starts to shift but not like the wolves. He seems to melt like water as his talons and fangs grow even more pronounced and his skin begins to darken to solid black. Black feather-like things explode from his back and the back of his arms and form a crest around his head. His nose extends to something beak-like yet still retaining the sharp fangs. Bony plates and spikes start to push out of his skin, which seemed to have grown a thick black furry pelt. She suddenly finds herself rooted on the spot. The area around her darkens and grows cold and everything sounds muffled. She is sure her father is yelling at her to run but it sounds like it's coming at a great distance. Worse still she can hear her mother telling her to run away. But she knows that if she moves—and she knows this with absolute certainty—she will die. She knows this isn't rational, that if she stands here then that monster Blaine has become will certainly gut her but she can't move. To move is to die but as the creature stalks forward it seems like death is coming for her anyway.
Allison prepares for the sharp talons breaking into her skin when she sees Coop tackle the creature, grabbing on to its back, miraculously avoiding the spikes. And the spell is broken, the light—oh blessed light!—and the sounds come rushing back. She stumbles but manages to stay on her feet. She is dimly aware that her father was similarly affected as she tries to catch her breath.
Coop is still hanging on to the creature's back—who seems to have shot up an additional three feet—while it just stands there, something that sounds like thunder echo in the clearing and Allison realizes that it's growling.
"Blaine! No! Don't do it! Please don't!" he shouts at him. "Go to Sam! Sam needs you! Ignore them! You can't spill human blood! Don't let them win when we're so close to ending this! Please!"
Allison tears her eyes away from Coop struggling with the monster to look at Sam and sure enough, she can see him take a shallow breath. The relief that cuts through her is so strong it almost drives her to her knees. We're not going to die!
Allison can hear her heart beating fast. She wants to yell at the monster and tell it to listen to Coop that Sam is still alive and not to hurt her or her father but she knows to open her mouth would invite destruction.
Allison wrestles with her fear, it's uncharacteristic and possibly being forced on her. Fortunately all it takes is to see her father still standing with his gun trained on that thing. Both of them know for certain that mere bullets aren't even going to slow him down but she takes inspiration from his courage and finds the willpower to fight back against the fear that is crippling her.
The creature looks at Coop, and for a tense moment Allison wonders if it will kill Coop, when it slowly flows back into Blaine except his eyes are still black, his lips blood-red and the dark veins still pulse under his now pale-white skin.
Blaine turns to face them and Allison can still feel the malevolence in his eyes so strongly she actually takes a step back.
"We give up, okay?" Coop says, to their shock, holding his hands up. Did he just surrender to them? "We surrender! Just let Blaine near Sam, no one needs to die."
Allison is sure that he meant that any deaths at this point will be hers and her father's, not Sam.
"Scott! Stand down! They surrendered!" her dad shouts out. He then nods at Blaine who runs to Sam. Allison sees him kneel down and gently turns Sam over. He cradles him tenderly and she swears she can hear him whine. He looks up at Coop and Coop seems to understand something unsaid.
"Look, I need to get some things from the bag to give to Blaine so he can help Sam," Coop says, hands still up. "You can keep your gun on me, but I don't know if I can hold him back if Sam dies."
Scott and Isaac arrive and Allison lets out a breath of relief.
"Go help your friend," Scott says as he and Isaac put themselves between them and the others. Coop rushes to the bag and brings it to where Blaine and Sam are. He digs in and pulls out what looks like a conch shell the size of a fist and a woven pouch.
"Are you all right?" Allison looks up to see a worried-looking Scott.
"I got my breath back and I think I may have cracked a few ribs," she answers, pushing her guilt down, now is not the time for it. "That guy Sam hits hard."
"Chris?"
"They warded the Nemeton, I couldn't get close enough to interrupt them," her dad answers. "He was fighting to kill, Scott, if I didn't shoot him he could have killed Allison."
"You think it's a trick?" Scott asks, "Getting us to let our guard down while they heal up one of their own?"
"You're the human polygraph," Chris says seriously, "you tell me."
"That Coop guy is sincere," Isaac answers instead. "And Black-Eyed Pea is practically projecting; he's upset about...Sam, right?" Allison nods in confirmation. Isaac continues, "I think at least those two aren't interested in starting up the fight again."
Coop and Blaine have somehow removed Sam's jacket and shirt, revealing a ridiculously defined muscular torso. Allison can see the exit wound and she grimaces seeing how near it is to the heart. She can just imagine the damage the bullet must have caused. Unless Sam heals like a werewolf, they might be facing an enraged Blaine after all. But she can see him breathing—shallow, irregular breaths to be sure—so Sam is still alive. Barely.
As Coop places some leaves from the pouch on the wound, Blaine raises his arm and with one of his talons, cuts his arm open causing blood to spill on Sam.
"What's going on?" Deaton and Danny finally catch up. "Oh good gods..." Deaton says as he sees what's happening.
"Isn't that bad?" Scott asks. "They're using blood."
"He's using his own blood," Deaton answers. "Willingly given, that's why the wards were so hard to break. I assumed they had taken someone else's blood to power it, not his own."
Blaine takes the conch shell and puts it on top of the dried leaves and the wound, the others watch as the blood starts to flow back into Sam's chest. The shell starts to turn blood red and begins to throb. It soon looks like that Blaine is holding a pulsating heart over Sam's chest.
When all the blood flows back into Sam, Blaine takes the conch, which now seems to resemble a heart, and his mouth opens impossibly wide again and he eats the thing in one bite. Allison can hear the squish and some blood escapes his lips. She almost throws up at the sight but forces herself to watch. Blaine then leans down and kisses Sam.
"Oh that isn't right."
Allison is shocked to hear Danny of all people saying that until she realizes that Blaine is not kissing Sam, he's feeding him the blood. Before she can think too much on it, she sees the color flowing back into Sam and she can see him starting to breathe normally.
She also sees Blaine slowly turning back to normal until he's just a boy again. And Allison is pretty sure that they are kissing now. She's knows for sure when Sam's hand reaches up and grabs the back of Blaine's neck and he starts kissing back just as hard.
The tension in the air that screamed "danger!" evaporates and Allison begins to infinitesimally relax. It's over. She glances at her father who feels it too as he holsters his gun. As they stand there catching their breath, they realize that Sam and Blaine are still kissing and a new kind of tension starts infecting everyone in the clearing.
She hears the two wolves shift awkwardly and can feel Danny's smirk even if she can't see his expression and she's so relieved that the danger has passed that she can't help but form a grin herself. Scott and Isaac can be such guys. And if she still wasn't pissed at him for nearly braining her dad with a hatchet, she can admit that seeing Sam shirtless and bloodstained and dirty, locking lips with Blaine—who has the ridiculously longest lashes she has ever seen, Lydia will burst a vein when she sees him—is pretty hot. She sees Coop's face and she almost loses her breath when she sees the gentle, exasperated yet relieved expression on his face. It's just not fair that a man can be that beautiful. And familiar, why is so sure she's seen him before?
He gets on his feet and turns to look at them. He walks towards them, palms up.
"Um, they're going to be awhile," he says apologetically. "Sam needs the reassurance that Blaine is okay."
"Wait, Sam needs reassurance?" Allison couldn't help blurting out. "But he's the one who almost died!"
Coop opens his mouth then closes it. He seems to struggle and then visibly gives up. "It's complicated?" he offers sheepishly.
"You can start by telling us what you are doing here," Scott says, taking control of the situation. His eyes dart to Isaac who steps back—seriously, how someone so tall can make himself inconspicuous is beyond her—and moves off. Allison knows that Scott's making him keep an eye on the other two, who are still kissing. She's got to admire their stamina.
Coop looks at Scott for a minute and then seems to make a decision.
"We came here looking for Talia Hale to get her permission to use the Nemeton to perform a ritual to cure my brother," he says. "When we got here we found out that the Hale pack is no more and that if there are any Hales still around they aren't in town.
"We also heard about all the deaths so we assumed that either the territory has no pack or the territory is being fought over. We thought it worth the risk to come here, perform the ritual and leave, hopefully without anyone noticing until we're long gone.
"It's a cleansing and purification ritual," he says hurriedly, "it isn't going to harm or pollute the Nemeton."
"Your companion nearly killed one of our own," Scott says without inflection.
"I'm sorry but they did attack us first," he says looking genuinely contrite and Allison can't help but look down in shame, she and her dad are going to talk long and hard about this and she'll take her lumps, "and Sam gets...overzealous when it comes to Blaine's safety."
Coop drags his hand through his hair and Allison notices how tired he looks. "Look, I don't mean you any harm but I'm not going to get on Sam's case either. We're being hunted, and the hunt has gone on for months. We didn't know who you were and you came out with arrows flying, I'm not going to berate him for not realizing that you meant to injure and not kill."
"How long can you delay the ritual?" Deaton asks. "We obviously need to talk."
"We have time," Coop says. "As long as we perform it before the moon starts to wax again. But that isn't the time crunch we are worried about."
"You're worried about your hunters," her dad says.
Coop nods. "The longer we take, the more likely that they'll find us. They want Blaine; we're hoping undergoing the ritual will make them lose interest in him."
"We have a lot to talk about but if you convince me and Deaton that what you're doing is above-board, then we'll consider letting you finish the ritual tonight," Scott says firmly. "If either of us isn't sure, then you will have to wait. If it takes longer for us to be okay with this and your window passes, you'll be under my pack's protection until we resolve this and either give you the permission to use the Nemeton or make you leave. Provided you don't harm or kill anyone while you are here."
Allison can see the thoughts flying across Coop's face. He's facing Scott, a kid practically the same age as his brother, dictating terms and the two adults, Deaton and her father, quietly letting him state it. To his credit though, he doesn't seem all that surprised or discomfited. Either he's sensitive enough to feel Scott's alpha status or he isn't a close-minded idiot.
"Make no mistake," Scott continues. "Beacon Hills does have a pack and the Nemeton is under my protection."
There's a moment of silence then Coop breaks out a smile full of relief. "In that case, Alpha," he says, "on behalf of my companions we offer our apologies for our trespass, we meant no disrespect but acted out of ignorance, and we acknowledge your authority over this territory and over the Nemeton."
"Good, then I have your word that you, your brother and his...companion won't harm or kill anyone during your stay here?"
"Yes, you have my word."
"Then welcome to Beacon Hills."
"Thank you," Coop says gratefully. When she sees that relaxed smile Allison suddenly remembers where she's seen him before. Thankfully for her pride, Danny beats her to the punch.
"That's it!" Danny shouts excitedly. "I knew I know you! You're the guy on the Free Credit Rating Today commercial!"
