I was standing, back resting on the metal desk, in what I now knew was an animal clinic. After Scott had filled me in on everything from Lydia, the banshee, to some guy named Peter's mysterious volt full of bearer bonds that had been stolen – the 117 million suspected of being used to fund the hit list – the three others, who had been standing outside listening intently to every word, came in.

I had so many questions for all of them, but it was clear they had many for me too. I couldn't let them do all the talking, they would never trust me, so I decided that the truth was best. Derek seemed the most suspicious of me. I had learnt from Scott that he was also a werewolf and that didn't surprise me. I wondered how many more of them there might be.

'So are you gonna tell us what you are or what?' Derek said bluntly. He seemed agitated that no one else had brought it up and also the fact that he had no idea. I knew enough about werewolves from previous run ins with them to know they had great instincts, but not when it came to me. At Derek's question, all eyes turned to me and I knew what I had to do.

'It's not really a what…' I trailed off, not sure how I would explain this. 'It's more of an ability, something I can do.'

'What do you mean?' Scott asked, obviously curious.

'I'm not like you guys, a shapeshifter I mean. I guess I'm more like your friend Lydia, it's Lydia right? The banshee?' I said. I was starting to ramble and I needed to focus.

'So you're a banshee?' asked Stiles, looking more suspicious than any of them. It almost made me laugh how much it was clear he didn't trust me one bit.

'No, umm,' I carried on, looking around for something I could use, 'it's probably easier if I just show you.' I found a scalpel in a draw and pulled it out, flicking up the blade. I took a deep breath before running the blade along the full length of my arm. In a split second, the wound had healed itself completely, and I wiped off the blood with my sleeve, revealing no scar or marking where the blade had cut straight through my skin.

The other's stared for a second, the older man I had yet to learn the name of looking the most puzzled, but above all fascinated by what he had just seen. Derek, however, did not share the same look of amazement.

'That's it? You can heal really fast?' I narrowed my eyes at him. He was so different from the kid I had met only a week ago, I wondered what must had happened to cause him to become so sour and bitter towards people.

'That's it?' I repeated his words icily. This guy was really getting on my nerves now. 'It's enough to get my name on that list, isn't it? It's enough to have two attempts on my life only today!' They looked at me, bewildered for a second, probably because of my outburst. I felt so drained after today, all I really wanted to do was go home and take a shower.

'Wait,' Stiles started, 'did you just say two? Who was the other one?'

'Some freak with no mouth turned up at my apartment this morning.'

'The mute,' Derek said grimly, 'he was the one who killed the Walcott family.' I widened my eyes at this. I felt like all the missing pieces of my puzzle were coming together now, well maybe only a few, but it still helped.

'Yeah, well he buried an axe in my back earlier. And got me arrested.' I said angrily.

'Tomahawk.' The words came from the awkward teen who was nodding his head.

'What?' I asked him, annoyed by his sudden interruption.

'It's called a tomahawk,' he said, gesturing to his own back with wild arms as if there was something stuck in it. I sent him a look that shut him up instantly and caused him to stumble backwards a few feet.

Scott was the next one to speak. 'So uh, how much damage can you heal from exactly?' he asked, but his face had this look on it that said he didn't really want to know the answer. I stared at him, not really wanting to answer. 'You said your ability was enough to get you on the list, but it's also enough to get you at the top of it – with the highest price,' he said. I admired his logic. 'So how much damage can you heal from?'

'A lot,' I said, only that wasn't exactly the truth.

'Even death?' the new voice startled me. It was from the older man. His voice was soft and his face told me he was genuinely intrigued by my abilities. It also told me that he already knew the answer to his question. I didn't say anything from a few moments, no one did. They just all stared at me, waiting for my answer. 'Cyanide.' He said simply, all eyes in the room turning from me back to him. He held a small needle and syringe in his hand – I guessed Derek must have picked it up from the station before he brought me here. 'That's what the 'deputy' injected you with earlier. But, you already knew that, didn't you Alexia?' He asked. It was strange hearing my name come from another person's lips. I so rarely told anyone my true identity now, but the fact that I didn't have to lie to these people felt kind of nice.

'Yeah.' I said, not really sure how I should continue. 'Who are you? Are you like their fairy godmother or something?' I said, a sarcastic quality to my voice.

'No, I'm a veterinarian. My name is Dr Deaton.' I laughed at this, I shallow, unreal laugh that was filled with bitterness. He sure was knowledgeable about the supernatural for a veterinarian.

'So what?' Stiles said, and I braced myself for the next part of his sentence, 'You're like immortal or something? You can't die?'

'No I can die. Trust me, I can die. I just find it a little tricky staying that way.'

'How old are you?' Stiles asked, he looked like he had so many questions, but I didn't feel like answering them all tonight.

'19.'

'How did you find out about your ability?' Derek asked. 'How do you know so much about the supernatural?'

'That's a story for another time,' I said finally. I really needed to get home and have a shower. I made for the door, but Derek beat me to it, grabbing my arm roughly. 'Would you mind taking your little werewolf paws the hell off me!' I seethed at him. Who did he think he was? He couldn't keep me here, none of them could.

The wolf made no effort to move, so I kicked in right in the stomach with the heal of my boot. He let go almost instantly. I heard a deep growl rumble in his chest, causing me to smirk. I don't know why but pissing people off always gave the greatest sense of satisfaction. I was good at it too.

'Enough!' Scott shouted. 'If we want this to work, we're gonna have to work together, which means we need to trust each other.' He looked tired, and exasperated, like trust between his pack was all he ever worked for.

'I don't trust anyone,' I said coldly, brushing my sleeve off from where Derek had grabbed me.

'Well good, because none of us trust you,' Derek replied, glaring at me with his deep green eyes. I groaned in annoyance, not feeling like anything I had said this whole time had gotten through to any of them.

'Let me just be clear on one thing, I'm not here to make friends, or be part of your pack or whatever you've got going on here,' I said, gesturing at all of them with my hands. 'I'm here to stop whoever's trying to kill us, that's it. I'm outta here as soon as this is over.' With that I turned around and strode out of the room, pushing through the reception desk area and through the gate.

But one thing caught my attention just before I walked out of the door.

'Scott,' Stiles started, 'did you see that?' the teen asked his friend.

'Yeah,' the alpha replied, 'she walked straight through the mountain ash.'


The next day I found myself back in my apartment. It was early and I had been woken by the relentless sound of my phone ringing. At first I had decided to ignore it, the number was unknown and I couldn't think of anyone anyway who would be calling me. But after the sixth time it went off, I had to answer it, just to stop the noise from driving me crazy.

'What?' I said angrily down the phone, hoping to scare the recipient shitless just so they would hang up.

'Is uh… is this Alexia,' the familiar voice said, and I groaned down the phone at the irritating teen.

'Stiles? What do you want? And how the hell did you get my number?!' I all but yelled at him down the phone.

'I uh… was wondering if we could talk? I can pick you up in my jeep?'

I smacked my hand against my head. What had I gotten myself into? I wanted nothing more than to hang up and crawl back into bed, but I knew he would just keep calling and calling.

'Ugh fine, sure,' I said, giving in.

'Good, cause I'm outside.' I whipped my head around and stumbled out of my room, coming face to face with my new door. At the window stood a teen with a phone to his ear; he was pulling and goofy smile and waving awkwardly at me through the glass.

Groaning again, I hung up the phone and yanked the door open. He greeted me with a 'hey' that made it sound like we were friends. We weren't friends. He also didn't hesitate to walk straight into the living room without an invitation, plopping himself down on the couch, making himself comfortable.

'By all means, come in,' I said sarcastically. He ignored my comment, instead staring at my attire of a tank top and tartan pyjama shorts, along with my hair tied messily on top of my head in a bun. His eyes widened.

'Oh, did I wake you?' he asked, sounding vaguely worried he was being an inconvenience, which he was.

'No, I've been up for hours,' I said, narrowing my dark eyes at him. He seemed not to notice the sarcasm again and instead took this opportunity to look around in my apartment.

'Hey, how did you know where I live?' I asked, puzzled at how he could have just turned up on my door step.

'My dad's the Sheriff.' That's all he needed to say. I stayed glaring at him for a few more minutes before angrily excusing myself to go and change, but not before telling him to stay put – I didn't want him snooping around.

I quickly threw on a pair of black jeans, a top and my leather jacket, picking up my boots on the way out of my room and shoving my feet into them when I reached the front door. Stiles, noticing I was ready, scrambled to his feet, almost tripping over the corner of the couch. He raced over to me before abruptly stopping just outside the doorway. I wondered if he always moved like he couldn't control his limbs. I was given my answer when he stumbled over the trash can, falling flat on his face.

I didn't bother to wait for him, striding down the steps to the ground floor, huffing as I passed him on the floor. He caught up with me quickly and showed me to his baby blue jeep. I noticed a figure in the passenger seat, scruffy brown hair piled on top of his head. It was Scott.

He greeted me pleasantly enough as I slid into the back seat and we made our way onto the main road.


'So, the Walcott's were the first. At least the first that we know about. Four murders. Sean, his brother, and their parents. They were killed by a professional assassin called The Mute. Weapon of choice, a military tomahawk. But then The Mute was killed by Peter Hale after he tried to blow up Derek with a Claymore mine. Next was Demarco. He delivered a keg to the party at Lydia's lake house. And got decapitated outside his car.'

I was currently sat behind the door to the Sheriff's office, listening to Stiles explain the events of the past few days to his father. He had yet to introduce me into the story, probably waiting until the Sheriff understood everything that had happened so far, before he decided to throw me into the mix.

'And then last night, 23-year-old Carrie Hudson.' Stiles continued, explained the next person to be picked off the list.

'It's a dead pool. A hit list of supernatural creatures. This is only part of it. The rest still has to be decoded,' Scott chimed in.

'Who found this list?' the Sheriff questioned.

'Lydia.'

'How?'

'She wrote it. Actually, she transcribed it. Without realizing it,' Stiles explained.

'Banshee?' the Sheriff asked.

'Banshee.' I almost laughed at the interactions between Stiles and his father, they were very comical.

'Beautiful. All right, what are these numbers next to the names?' the Sherriff asked.

'We're getting to that. First, you need to know that the code was broken with a cipher key.' Stiles explained. Scott had explained to me the previous afternoon about how the list was found by the banshee. I wondered what it would be like to meet her – would she scream at the very sight of me? I had heard rumours about banshee. They could sense death, feel it with every pore of their skin, and, especially after yesterday, I reeked of it.

'You mean, like a... Like a key word?' asked the Sheriff.

'It's actually a name.' the teen replied grimly.

With a sigh, Scott mumbled 'Allison.' The word was filled with sadness and grief, but also fondness and love. I had yet to learn the meaning of this name and who it belonged to. I had a feeling her and Scott were more than just friends.

'Her name broke a third of the list.' Stiles clarified. 'And now we think there's two other cipher keys.'

'Which will give us the rest of the names,' said the Sheriff, starting to put together the piece of the jigsaw we didn't quite know the full size of. 'Okay. So how do we get the cipher keys?'

'Same way we got the code.'

'Lydia. She's been out at the lake house all weekend trying to find the other two key words.' Scott finished. Now that the Sheriff was up to date, well almost, it was time for him to ask questions. He pulled out a copy of the hit list, or Dead Pool as Stiles was now calling it, and scanned the names.

'You didn't know about Demarco or Carrie. Hmm?' the Sheriff mused, 'And what about these other three names on the list? Uh, Kayleen Bettcher, Alexia Marshall and Elias Town. They werewolves too?' I cringed a little at the sound of my own name as I considered making a run for it out of the station. Stiles had informed me in the car that we needed to tell his father about me, and I had reluctantly agreed. Now, however, I was having second thoughts.

'I don't know about Kayleen or Elias,' Scott started, clearly not sure how to approach this.

'But you know Alexia?' the Sheriff asked.

'You could say that,' Scott said under his breath, but if it was loud enough for me to hear, the Sheriff certainly would have too.

'You've met her too actually,' Stiles chimed in, trying to save his friend.

'I have?' the Sheriff asked

'Yeah, but she went by a different name. Katherine Crester ring any bells?' Although I couldn't see I could tell the Sheriff must have raised his eyes brows, followed by a sigh as he sat down in his desk chair.

'I'm not going to like where this is going am I?' There it was, that was my cue to leave.

'Well hopefully you won't mind too much...' Stiles started, and I could hear footsteps approaching the door I was behind, 'because she's right outside.' I had no time to run, I had to face the Sheriff whether I liked it or not.

The door swung open and I tentatively stepped inside, the Sheriff eying me up and down suspiciously. I let Scott and Stiles do all the talking, explaining about my ability, including the explanation of how my apartment came to look like the set for a horror movie. He seemed to accept everything they were saying, but still looked at me with distrustful eyes.

'Alexia,' the Sherriff started, 'I trust that you're not planning on getting arrested again anytime soon.'

'Yes Sir,' I said politely.

'And you understand that I can't release the firearm you were carrying back to you?' he asked and I noticed Stiles' head snap towards me. Seriously, was it such a big deal that I had a gun?

'Yes, I understand,' I said, sending Stiles a glare.

'Okay, well I can let you off this time, tell the others it was a misunderstanding,' he said with a sigh. I nodded at him in thanks and he visibly relaxed, excepting me as just another citizen in his town that needed to be protected.


AN: So Alex had finally me everyone (well almost...)

Are you guys enjoying the story so far? What do you think will happen next?