A/N: It's a long one! Hopefully, that makes up for my terrible updating schedule lately.
I'm uploading this now in celebration (woohoo!) of the new Teen Wolf season starting tonight (or tomorrow morning, for me), and to thank you all for being so patient with me, for how slow I've been. Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.
Massive thank you to KittyCatKitty for the beautiful review! I absolutely loved it, thank you so much, and I'm really excited to hear how much you're enjoying the series, and how much you love Amber, too.
I don't own Teen Wolf. Shock Horror.
"Hold on a second," I tried after a few long moments of panicked silence. Rebekah moved to get out of the car, and I took several large steps back. "What do you mean? I ain't done anything, I ain't said a word."
"Then please explain to me why the Sheriff's son is snooping in the mythical creature section of the library archives," she inquired, and I couldn't help but choke out a laugh. Of course this problem would be Stiles' fault. Why would I think otherwise?
"His best friend is a werewolf," I said, shrugging. "He was probably just looking up some lycanthropy lore, or something."
"That's not what he told the lovely old lady who worked there," she argued, tipping her head and raising her eyebrows.
"Oh, lord," I murmured as a horrible thought struck me. "Please don't tell me you tortured a poor old woman."
Rebekah scoffed, shaking her head. "I didn't torture anybody, Hayward. I'm a vampire; I have incredible hearing."
"My name ain't Hayward," I clarified, which she really didn't seem to appreciate.
"And I don't care," she mocked, widening her eyes. "I just thought you should know that our deal is off, so you and your loved ones have enough time to prepare for the oncoming storm that you just unleashed."
"I told him to drop it. I thought he was going to, I swear," I begged, holding my hands up again.
"Well, he hasn't, and I feel like I'm on the run again."
"Again?" The glare on her face had my mouth clamping shut. "Sorry. But I'm serious, I told him to drop the vampire subject, and I honestly thought he had. I didn't tell him to do that."
"I'm not suggesting you did," Rebekah said, folding her arms over her chest and popping out a hip. "However, it was your responsibility to keep an eye on your friends; you didn't, and now they're snooping."
"One friend is snooping," I corrected, holding up a lone finger. "And I will get him to stop, I promise."
"I don't trust your promises," she glared. I suppose she really had no reason to.
"Rebekah, Stiles can snoop all he wants, but the only person he's going to come to with any of the information he finds is me," I pointed out, desperate for any lifeline. "I'm the one who brought up the subject of vampires in the first place, and everyone else thinks I'm crazy. Anything he finds out, I can shoot down, and eventually he'll give up."
Rebekah narrowed her eyes at me, shaking her head ever so slightly. "Don't lie to me."
"I ain't lying," I tried to say, but the second I opened my mouth, Rebekah had a hand in my shirt and backed up against the side of Daddy's car, her face threateningly close to mine. "I'll tell him everything he knows is wrong," I promised quietly, swallowing hard. "He'll never find out about you."
"And he'll also never give up, will he?" she demanded, huffing and stepping back just enough for my shoulders to slump in relief. "I don't doubt you'll do everything in your power to stop him to finding out too much, if only in fear for your family's safety. But you lied to me when you said he'd give up."
I tipped my head and whined a little. "He can be a little persistent," I admitted, shrugging a shoulder. "Especially when it comes to a big mystery. He is his father's son, after all."
"Then I suppose you better hope he has a change of character in the very near future," Rebekah decided, stepping back again. "Because if he ever even gets close to figuring all of this out, I can promise you that you will find that boy with a hole in his chest. Am I clear?"
It took a second, but I managed to nod. Rebekah smiled, pleased that she had gotten her point across, and nodded towards the car I was still leaning against.
"The keys are in the ignition," she told me, strolling over to my car. "I'll get your car all fixed up, and you can pick it up in the morning, but it's probably best if you get going now; it's getting rather late."
"You messed with my car," I guessed as she lifted the hood and smiled at me over her shoulder.
"Obviously," she admitted. "Coincidences like this don't just happen, and I spent the summer with a cute boy that knew rather a lot about cars. I picked up a few things along the way." I nodded, huffing at my own impeccable luck, and jumped when my phone began to ring from the bag on my shoulder. I pulled it out, keeping an eye on Rebekah as she turned to rest against the front of my car, watching me expectantly.
"Jackson," I greeted, hoping he couldn't hear the tremble I felt in my voice.
"Hey, Amber, listen, don't freak out," he instructed. Too late, I thought. "Danny's in the hospital."
"What?" I asked, my eyes shooting wide just a second before I turned to Rebekah. Seemed she had gotten a little ahead of herself.
"He's fine, McCall's mom was a badass, apparently, and he's gonna be totally fine," he promised, but I was too busy glaring at the vampire a few feet from me that was looking all-too innocent for my liking. "And, um, also, we think two doctors are possibly being sacrificed as we speak." I huffed, rubbing a hand over my forehead. This was all too much for me to handle right now. "We're at the hospital."
"Okay, I'll be there soon," I told him, and hung up without a goodbye. "What did you do to Danny?" I asked Rebekah, not moving from my place against the car. Rebekah pursed her lips.
"Oddly, nothing. Your friend's trip to the hospital was not my doing," she said, shrugging. "Not this time, anyway. Although, I do think it adds a nice sort of symmetry to our conversation, don't you?"
"No," I answered without missing a beat. She smiled. I ignored it.
"You really should get going," Rebekah suggested, turning around again to face my car. "It sounds like I'm not your only problem."
I snorted. "Not even close."
I pulled into the hospital parking lot in Daddy's car about twenty minutes later, and that's only because the traffic had pretty much cleared – thank the lord – and I'd put my foot down the entire way there.
"I thought you said you'd be here soon?" Jackson demanded as soon as I jumped out of the car, having recognised it when I pulled in, I assume. Apparently, even my quickest wasn't good enough.
"I got here as soon as I could, Sonny," I said, rolling my eyes and slamming the door shut. "It ain't like I live next door." Not that I had ever made it home, but he didn't need to know about that.
"And why are you in your dad's car?"
I rolled my eyes again and darted around him, making my way to the front of the hospital, where I could see Scott and Stiles with the Sheriff. "I couldn't get it to start," I said carefully. I couldn't outright lie to him, he'd know about it, but I did technically have trouble starting my car. After it had been tampered with and broken down on a deserted road, but still.
"What's going on?" I asked Scott and Stiles when I reached them, now separated from the Sheriff and Scott's mom.
"My dad's taking Melissa's statement," Stiles explained, watching the pair carefully. "About the doctors that never showed up."
"They're definitely sacrifices, right?" Scott said, looking at Stiles as he nodded.
"Yeah, the ones Deaton mentioned; the healers."
"Two down," I counted, tipping my head. "We've still got one to go."
"What about Danny?" Scott said, shrugging. "He threw up mistletoe."
"Someone poisoned him with mistletoe?" I asked, frowning heavily. Who would even think to do that?
"Yeah, and that's not a coincidence," Scott continued, his face confused, and a little worried. "If he hadn't been with Ethan, he probably would've died. But Danny's not a healer."
"And it's not like he was kidnapped," Jackson piped up. "It's not like the others."
"Exactly," Scott agreed, nodding. "I think-"
"Hey, can you hear that?" Stiles asked, nodding over Scott's shoulder to where his dad had the phone at his ear. Both Jackson and Scott turned, concentrating for a second before I saw Scott's eyes go wide.
"They found a body."
"Where?" Stiles asked immediately.
Scott waited a second, concentrating again. "Around the back of some diner, just off Oakwood road. It's the attending," he said, nodding with his words. Stiles nodded with him, watching as his dad seemed to say a quick goodbye, before calling over a deputy and racing off to his cruiser. They waited until he had driven out of sight before they rounded on me.
"What?" I asked, wanting to take a step back under their stares.
"We have a job for you," Scott said, smiling.
"A job," I repeated, raising an eyebrow.
"A request?"
"Better," I nodded.
Stiles huffed and rolled his eyes. "Listen, we need you to do your weird little witchy thing," he said, wriggly his fingers in some terrible representation of magic. "We need you to figure out what happened, like with the deer, and the birds at the school." I frowned.
"And you expect me to traipse through a crime scene to go and touch a dead man's body?"
"No, actually," Scott objected, shrugging. "I figure we can start a little easier, at least until his body is in the morgue and easier to get to."
"Awesome," I muttered sarcastically, rolling on the balls of my feet. "But the other doctor is still missing," I pointed out. "We don't have a dead body for me to touch."
"Welllllll," Stiles drew out, wincing a little. "That's not exactly true." Scott smiled at me sweetly, before pulling something out of his pocket very gently, holding out his hand for me to see.
"There ain't no way in hell that I'm touching a dead moth."
I don't know how they did it, but Scott and Stiles managed to convince me to touching a dead moth.
The scenario went pretty much the same way the others did; Stiles dropped the moth into my hand, and then it was like I was somewhere else. There wasn't any fear with this one, though.
"What do you mean, they weren't scared?" Scott had asked me, after Stiles had taken the moth back.
"I mean, it ain't as though they were running from something," I explained, jumping out from where I had been sitting during my little trance in Stiles' Jeep. "This time was different, almost as if they were being told what to do. Like they were being controlled."
"Well, I guess that makes sense," Stiles shrugged, staring down at the moth in his hand. "Darachs were driuds, right? And druids have that... connection with nature. Maybe that's something a Darach can obtain, more power to influence that kind of thing." He looked up at me then, a strange look on his face. "Can you do that?"
"Can I steal free will from innocent creatures and force them to do my bidding?" I confirmed, raising my eyebrows in judgement. Stiles nodded, and I tipped my head, suddenly kind of curious. "I don't know, I've never tried it."
"Okay, we should go and check out the crime scene," Scott said, nodding at Jackson, who nodded back quickly.
"Yeah, sure, let's go," Stiles agreed, moving to jump in the Jeep when Scott stopped with with some aborted noise of disagreement.
"Actually..." He looked between Stiles and Jackson, looking almost guilty. "I meant Jackson and I."
"Wha-" Stiles complained. "Why?"
"Well, no offense, Stiles, but... you're not exactly stealthy," Scott pointed out truthfully. "And I don't really want your dad finding us at two crime scenes in one night. He's suspicious enough of all of us; we don't need to add to that."
Stiles pouted, glared at the smug grin on Jackson's face. "Fine," Stiles grumbled as I smacked the back of my hand against Jackson's stomach, frowning at him, chastising him, when he turned to question me. He rolled his eyes, but otherwise dropped the grin. "Just keep me updated," Stiles told Scott, pointing a finger at him.
"Of course," Scott agreed, smiling at his best friend before he and Jackson turned towards the latter's Porsche, parked a few spaces across. I hung around until after they had disappeared, Stiles moaning the entire time about Scott replacing him with a 'hairier, more arrogant' best friend. Stiles' words, not mine.
"Speaking of snooping in on things you shouldn't be," I started, after I was sure Jackson and Scott were out of earshot. "I thought you were going to drop the vampire thing."
Stiles immediately stopped grumbling to frown at me. "How did you know I haven't dropped- and I just gave you all the confirmation you needed, didn't I?"
I raised both of my eyebrows for a second, letting him know he was right, and he sighed, shaking his head at himself.
"Every time, Stilinski," he murmured, angry with himself. He looked back up at me with a sheepish look, and shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't believe you when you said you had seen your mom. You pretty much confirmed you'd lied about it, and I know you know how terrible this group does when we lie to each other." I looked away, biting my lip. He was right; people have died because I lied, even when I was doing it to protect others. And who was I to decide that my friends and family deserved a life more than all the people who had died at Jackson's hands? "And then, all of a sudden, after just a few hours, you decide you've changed your mind about vampires?"
"People can make mistakes, Stiles," I tried, crossing my arms over my chest and turning back to him, chewing on my lip as I shrugged. "I was wrong about a vampire being in town."
"That's another thing," he added, gesturing at me with an open hand. "I know you well enough to know that you'd rather face down the entire alpha pack alone than admit that you're wrong."
"Stiles..."
"I get it, you're trying to throw me off the scent. You're thinking that if you say you don't need me to look into the vampire thing, I won't."
"I needed you to look into the vampire thing, like, a week ago," I argued, kind of pissed now. "And yet all you did was mock me!"
"I didn't-"
"Yes, you did, Stiles," I cut in, shaking my head. "It's like you deliberately do the complete opposite of what I ask you to do."
"Oh, yeah, okay," Stiles scoffed. "Because I've never done you any favours. None, whatsoever."
"Friends don't do each other favours, they do things for each other because they care."
Cue more scoffing. "Please, I had to force you into this 'friendship' with the threat of death if we didn't get along," he said. I wasn't really expecting a comment like that. I also wasn't expecting that pang in my chest. "That's not friendship, or caring. That's barely putting up with someone for another person's benefit."
I nodded, pursing my lips. "Right," I said, swallowing heavily. Stiles eyes fell closed, and he sighed. "I'm gonna go," I managed to tell him, pointing towards Daddy's car and marching off. It was only a second later that I heard him running up behind me.
"Amber, I'm sorry."
"It's fine," I said, shrugging, but not stopping as I neared the car.
"It's not fine."
"It's fine, Stiles," I tried again, pulling the keys out of my pocket and unlocking the car with the press of a button.
"No, it's not, I didn't mean it."
"Then where the hell did it come from, Stiles?" I asked, finally turning to look at him as I stopped by the car. In his defense, he did look pretty sorry about it.
"You were lying to me," he said quietly, barely looking me in the eye. "I was angry."
"And you should never forget what someone says to you when they're angry," I murmured, nodding. "Because that's when the truth comes out."
"I didn't mean it," he said again. I shook my head.
"You hated me, Stiles," I pointed out, and he couldn't argue with that. "You hated me for almost two years, and that don't just go away."
"We hated each other," Stiles corrected me. "You hated me too, and you can't have it both ways; if that rule applies to me, it applies to you, too." I tipped my head; he was right, of course. I had hated him, and it wasn't like that had disappeared overnight. It had faded a little with each near-death experience that we had shared, but the feeling hadn't really ever disappeared. Thinking about it now, I feel like it was more likely that it had crossed some very fine line, from one extreme of the spectrum to the other. And right in that moment, I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it. Except, I did feel just a little bit sick.
"I really need to get home," I managed to choke out, around the lump forming in my throat. Stiles didn't argue this time, instead stepping back to allow me to open the car door with a very blank look on his face. When I closed it behind me and turned the key in the ignition, I rolled the window down. "Let me know what Scott and Jackson find, okay?"
Stiles nodded. "Yeah, sure," he murmured, staring at the car door instead of me. Well, this wasn't awkward at all. "What happened to your car?" he asked suddenly, a frown on his face.
I bit my lip. By this point, lying had to be something I was getting good at. "It wouldn't start when I tried to leave the house earlier on," I said. "Dad let me borrow his." Stiles blinked, nodded. "I'll, uh... I'll speak to you later, then?" Stiles nodded again, took another step back from the car, turned on his heel and carried on walking away. I rolled up my window, drove off, and I made it half way home before I started crying.
After my run the next morning, picking my car up on the way back, I felt like I'd pretty much exorcised all of the bad feelings from yesterday out of my body. I needed to be reasonable, and calm. I was a witch, and having bad judgement or holding grudges isn't the best idea when I have that kind of power running through me. I was still learning to control it, really, and too much bad emotion like that... well, it couldn't end in anything other than complete horror. So I just had to get over it. I thought I was doing pretty well, right up until I pulled into the school parking lot, and seriously started considering skipping, and just going straight back home again.
"Am," my brother said slowly, carefully, in the seat beside me, his door wide open. We'd pulled in a solid three minutes ago, and I still hadn't gotten out. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah," I answered, my voice a little too high pitched for my liking. I cleared my throat, and tried again. "I'm just reevaluating my future life choices, and wondering whether any of them depend on me graduating, or if I can just go home, climb under the covers and stay there."
Josh was quiet for a second. "All of your future life choices depend on you graduating," he pointed out, and damn it, he was right. "I mean, I'm sure Dad would be more than happy to have you stay at home for the rest of your life, but it ain't exactly like that's what you want."
"But I also really want to not be here right now," I whined, staring out the front window.
"What happened yesterday?" Josh asked, turning in his seat to face me.
"I don't want to talk about it." I couldn't talk about it. Not about Rebekah, not about Stiles. Not with Josh.
"You either talk about it, or you go to class," Josh decided, folding his arms over his chest and waiting. I pursed my lips, thinking about it, and huffed.
"Fine," I muttered, grabbing my bag from the backseat. "I'll see you later." I jumped out of the car, slamming the door behind me before Josh could complain. He followed me and complained, anyway.
"I meant you should talk about it!"
"Then you should have made that clear, huh?" I called over my shoulder, clicking the button on my car key to lock the car, and storming into the building. Jackson was waiting for me at my locker. "Hey, Sonny," I greeted. He rolled his eyes at the nickname in response. "How'd it go last night?"
"It was gruesome," he answered honestly as I put most of my books away. "But other than that, it didn't really tell us much. We're waiting on Stilinski."
Brilliant.
"How's Danny doing?" I asked, moving the conversation swiftly along. Jackson shrugged.
"He's doing okay. You know our Danny; he's a fighter."
'That he is," I agreed , slamming my locker door shut and falling into step beside Jackson as we wandered down the hall towards home room at the sound of the bell. "Did you find out how on earth he ended up getting poisoned with mistletoe?"
"No, we're still stuck on that one," he admitted, shrugging a shoulder. "But at least we know it wasn't part of the sacrifices."
"What about Ethan?" I asked him as we walked into Harris' classroom, and took our usual bench. "Do you think it was him? Do you think it was the alpha pack?"
Jackson shrugged again, leaning his elbows on the table, his head in his hands. "I don't know what's going on. We've got people trying to kill us from every direction, and I'm starting to lose track." I laughed bitterly. I knew that feeling.
It was only a minute or so later, just seconds before the second bell rang, that Scott and Stiles came in through the door, and I immediately turned my attention to the scenery outside the window.
"Good morning," a voice greeted a moment later, and I turned to see the friendly face of Miss Blake at the front of the class. And Scott and Stiles' heads at the bench in front on me. Great. "As you all know, Mr Harris is still missing... uh, I mean sick." She shook her head, moving along quickly. "Anyway, I'm filling in while we all hope and pray for a more qualified substitute to take my place. Let's get started, shall we?" She turned, facing the board, and Scott and Stiles immediately spun around in their seats.
"Okay, so my dad said the ER attending wasn't strangled, but he did die from asphyxiation," Stiles told us, as I focused on the notebook in front of me. "They just don't know how."
"Do you think the on call doctor could still be alive?" Scott asked.
"I don't know," Stiles replied, probably shrugging. "But there's got to be at least twenty other doctors in that hospital. Any one of them could be next."
That second, a buzzing sounded from Scott's direction. He immediately crouched to take the call without drawing too much attention to himself, and left Jackson, Stiles and I alone in each others company. Which was great fun.
"It's Deaton," Jackson informed us, a frown on his face as he listened in on Scott's phone call. Then his eyes went wide. "He's a healer."
"What?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Deaton, he's not a doctor, but he's still a healer."
"Please don't tell me what I think about your about to tell me," I told him, as Scott turned back to us with a stunned, scared look on his face.
"Deaton's going to be the next sacrifice."
Scott had made a run for it approximately two seconds after telling us what had happened, and Miss Blake just watched him sprint past her with a gaping mouth. Stiles went soon after, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he went. When Miss Blake looked over to us for some sort of explanation, I just shrugged.
"Explosive diarrhea," Jackson decided to inform both her and he entire chemistry class. She nodded then, a little taken aback, but otherwise understanding. Jackson looked pretty pleased with himself. He looked even more pleased a minute later, when Stiles came back into the room, and was stopped on his way to his seat by Miss Blake, who looked very concerned. Stiles glared at Jackson for a second, placated Miss Blake, and returned to his seat, glaring at Jackson once more. "Are you feeling any better?" Jackson asked, all concern.
"I called my dad," Stiles told us, rolling his eyes at Jackson. "He's on his way to the animal clinic now. We can meet them there after class."
"I knew school was a waste of time, today," I murmured to myself, shaking my head. "I knew it."
Once the bell rang again, signalling the end of first period, I jumped up, grabbing my books and shoving Jackson along too. We made it out the door, and in the hallway, as Stiles carried on towards the parking lot, was where Jackson uttered the most devastating words I've ever head.
"I'm gonna stay here," he said, shattering my heart into a million pieces.
"What?" I asked him, my eyes wide. "Why?"
"Someone needs to tell Lydia and Allison what's going on," he said, with logic that I couldn't really argue against. "If you guys find anything out, let us know, and we can meet you if you need us."
"Are you..." I pouted. "Are you sure you don't want to go? I mean, I can stay and tell them."
"Amber, Deaton means a lot to you," Jackson said, rubbing a hand up and down my arm. "I know you're worried, and he's gonna be fine, but you should be there with Scott right now." He was right, obviously. Surprisingly. When did Sonny get so smart?
After Jackson left, I trudged along the hallway towards the parking lot. Stiles and his Jeep were already waiting at the bottom of the steps, ready to go.
"Where's Jackson?" Stiles asked when I opened the passenger side door and hopped in.
"He decided to stay behind and find Lydia and Allison," I told him, avoiding eye contact like my life depended on it. "Let them know what's going on."
I could see Stiles nodding from the corner of my eye. "Brilliant," he muttered, pulling away from the steps and racing through the parking lot. My sentiments exactly.
I have no doubt in my mind that the short trip to the animal clinic was the single most awkward journey I have ever encountered in my life.
Neither of us said a word. Neither of us looked away from the road in front of us. Aside from Stiles' hands on the wheel and his feet on the pedals, neither of us moved. It was horribly uncomfortable, and sitting there, realising just how uncomfortable it was between us... It kind of broke my heart a little.
The awkwardness eased a little once we made it into the clinic, with the noise of the bustling deputies washing over us relaxingly. We headed straight through to the back, where Scott stood with the Sheriff. They both looked over when we approached them, and the Sheriff put his notebook away.
"What are you two doing here?"
"We came to help," Stiles said, eyeing his dad like he was daring him to question his helpfulness.
"Amber, I didn't even know you knew Dr Deaton," the Sheriff said, raising his eyebrows at me. I nodded.
"He's an old friend of my mom's," I said, both telling the truth and using one of the two things that men won't touch with a ten foot pole. "He's been helping me... through things, lately." The sheriff nodded slowly, pursing his lips.
"I get why you're all here, but right now, the best thing you can do is go back to school," he told us, looking at us all pointedly in turn. "We're doing everything we can." He nodded at us, and turned, marching off to do his job. All I could think was that I wasn't doing everything I could.
And then I was being hustled into one of the animal holding rooms, Scott shutting the door quietly behind us. I was busy cooing at one of the kittens in a cage when Scott turned back to us.
"We have to tell him," Scott said, and that certainly grabbed my attention.
"You mean, like, tell him, tell him?" Stiles asked, his eyes narrowed, judging. "Or tell him something else that isn't telling him what I think you want to tell him?"
Scott tipped his head. "You know what I mean."
"Do you remember how your mom reacted?" Stiles pointed out, getting angry. "She didn't look you in the eye for, like, a week."
"And she got over it," Scott continued, his eyes pleading. "And it actually made us closer."
"I don't know, dude," Stiles sighed. He was watching his dad through the glass, his eyes sad. "I mean, look at him. He's completely overwhelmed as it is."
"He's overwhelmed because he has no clue what's happening," Scott argued, trying his hardest to convince his friend. I was staying firmly out of it. "He's got people dying in his town, the town that he's supposed to protect, and it's not his fault that he doesn't know what's happening. He's gonna find out sooner or later."
"Yeah, but..." Stiles swallowed, still watching his dad. "Is now really the right time?"
"Is there ever going to be a 'right' time?" Scott asked, his eyes wide. "Amber, help me out here."
"I am trying to stay out of this," I told him, focused solely on the kitten in front of me.
"You can't stay out of this," Scott said, desperate. He raised his eyes at me, pleading, and I huffed.
"Don't you think I'm a little biased?" I pointed out. "I have yet to tell my daddy, because I'm terrified of what will happen when he finds out."
"Exactly," Stiles agreed, gesturing a hand at me. I closed my eyes.
"On the other hand..." I heard a groan interrupt me, and I could only assume it was Stiles. "Josh knows, and since he found out, he's been hoarding wolfsbane like nobody's business." I shrugged apologetically at Stiles. "He's learning how to protect himself."
"I can't tell my dad," Stiles said, running a hand through his hair.
"What if not telling him gets someone else killed?" Scott demanded.
"What if telling him gets him killed, huh?" Stiles blew out a long breath, put his hands on his hips. "Okay, look, I get that Deaton has been like a father to you," Stiles allowed, shrugging a shoulder as he looked at his best friend. "I get it. But this is... Scott, this is my actual father. I can't..." He blew out a long breath again when his voice broke, and stared at the floor. "I can't lose both of my parents, okay? Not both of them."
I looked away then, staring intently at the kitten meowing quietly to keep myself from crying. It really wasn't working that well.
"You're right," I heard Scott say, followed by a long, suffering sigh.
"No, I'm not," Stiles said, blowing out another breath. "I'm not right. I'll tell him."
"I'll help you," Scott promised already backing away towards the door.
"Wait," I stopped them, confused. "You meant right now?"
"No time like the present, right?" Scott said, raising his eyebrows at Stiles, who shrugged and nodded.
"Stiles," I tried as he walked past me, and stopped, a hand pulling on his hair again. "You don't... you don't need to do this."
"People are dying," Stiles said with a bitter laugh, looking at me properly for the first time since last night. "And we don't have a clue what we're doing." He sighed heavily, and turned to follow Scott out of the room.
Then they both stopped suddenly, backing up into the room, and when I looked up, my french teacher was locking the door behind her.
"Okay, listen closely, all of you," she ordered, and what the hell was going on? "No sheriff, deputy, or detective is going to be able to find him."
"You don't have to ask us for help," Scott cut her off, and she tipped her head in response.
"Actually," she corrected, smiling. "I'm trying to help you. If you're going to find my brother, then you're going to need to seek out the supernatural. We all know that Amber might have a few tricks up her sleeve," Miss Morrell pointed out, gesturing me with a tip of her head as I stopped beside Scott. "But failing that, you're going to need to use the one other person that has a habit of stumbling across things that most others never would. Someone who's been hearing things, that no one else can hear..." I looked across Scott to Stiles, the same look of realisation on his face that I was sure was on mine.
"Lydia."
As soon as we'd made it back to school, Stiles had gone straight for Lydia, while Scott and I had tried to find a quiet classroom and a map. We ended up in one of the science classrooms, ripping down a map of Beacon Hills from the wall where it was pinned, and spreading it over a table.
"Okay, what do you need?" Scott asked me, staring at me with wide eyes from across the table.
"I need quiet," I told him, and he snapped his mouth shut with a sheepish smile. I laughed. "And Deaton's blood."
Scott sagged. "How are we supposed to get that?"
"Okay, let me rephrase," I corrected myself. "I need the blood that runs through Deaton's veins. The same blood that he shares with his relatives." The widening of his eyes told me he got what I was saying. "Say, a sister?"
Scott nodded. "That I can get," he said with a smile, before darting off out the door and around the corner. I waited patiently for him to return. And then I waited not so patiently. I sat there waiting for ten minutes until the door swung open again, only Scott wasn't there.
"I hear you could use my help," Miss Morrell greeted, shutting the door firmly behind her.
"Where's Scott?" I asked her, suspicious.
"He's a little busy," she told me, wandering over and taking Scott's seat across the table from me.
"He's too busy to find his boss?"
"Deucalion is here," she sighed, widening her eyes at me as my mouth dropped open. "And if he finds me here, helping you, he'll kill us both. So I suggest we get on with this." I nodded, not arguing in the slightest. "What do you need from me?"
I pursed my lips. "Your blood," I admitted. She raised an eyebrow.
"Not what I was expecting, but alright." She raised from the seat to rifle through the cabinet behind the desk, pulling out a sharp scalpel. Then she returned to the table, taking her jacket off and holding an arm out over the map. With a nod from me, and the slightest wince, she sliced a deep cut into her forearm, near the elbow, and turned her arm so the blood dripped onto the map, pooling in the center. I grabbed some tissue from the desk at the front of the classroom, handing it to her when I was sure there was enough blood. "Now it's your turn," Miss Morrell said, nodding at me as she pressed against the cut.
I blew out a long, nervous breath, closing my eyes. I just hoped Lydia was doing well on her end, because if this failed... I didn't want to find Deaton's body.
"Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous," I muttered under my breath, holding my hands out, splayed over the map. "Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous. Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas-" I cut off, gasping at the sudden, white hot pain in my shoulder. I looked down at where I felt the pain, moving my cardigan aside to see the blood dripping from a short slice between my shoulder and my collar bone.
"What the hell is that?" Miss Morrell asked, her eyes narrowed.
"It's Scott," I told her, pulling my cardigan back up over my shoulder to cover it. "I think his meeting with Deucalion ain't going too well."
"You're linked," Miss Morrell said, not asking anymore. I nodded, and closed my eyes again, returning to my stance over the map.
"Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous," I continued, blowing out a long, slow breath as the pain continued to demand my attention. "Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous." I heard the door slam open and my head whipped up to see Scott backing up against the door again, closing it.
"Have you found him?" I shook my head, looking down at the pool of blood in the middle of the map, one trail of blood stemming from it, heading towards the river. "Deucalion said something about 'letting the currents guide us', if that helps."
"It doesn't,' I sighed, closing my eyes. "It also doesn't help my concentration when you're getting stabbed."
"I thought you had control over that now," Scott said, sounding confused.
"When I'm focusing on a spell, when I'm doing magic, my body weakens," I explained to him, my eyes still closed, my hands still hovering above the map. "And my control over protecting myself from stuff like that weakens too. Now shush, I'm trying to save your boss here." I waited a second, but I didn't hear another peep out of Scott, so I nodded, and continued. "Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous. Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous. Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita-" I cut off again, this time due to a blinding pain in my head. I winced, heard myself whimper quietly.
"Amber?" I shook my head at Scott's question and blew out a breath, chanting through the pain.
"sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous. Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous. Phasmatos tribum nas ex veras, sequita saguines, ementas asten mihan ega petous. Phasmatos tribum-"
"Amber," Scott cut in again, shoving at my shoulder so I moved away from the map. I glared at him until he nodded at the map. "You can stop now." I looked down, seeing the two pools of blood, connected by a branch in between; one in the middle, where it had dripped from Miss Morrell's arm, and one further right, on the other side of the river that ran through town. I leaned over to wipe at the blood, to see where it had gathered.
"It's the bank," I read aloud, smiling. "He's at the bank."
"So that's why someone tried to kill Danny?" Stiles asked me, after I'd told him what Deucalion had told Scott. "Because he knew something that somebody didn't want him knowing?"
I nodded. "Something about currents, I don't know." I rolled my shoulder, wincing a little at the pain. "We need to go to Derek's. Like, now."
"Isaac and Boyd are there," Jackson told me, standing behind Lydia, who looked pretty done with the Hale sat beside her.
"They said they had a plan," Cora informed me. "Someone should go with Scott."
"By all means, be my guest," I told Cora, gesturing back out through the door I had only recently walked through. Even that small movement pulled at my shoulder. "You're much more likely to catch up with him than I am, anyway, but Scott asked me to go to Derek's, and that's what I'm going to do."
"Are you bleeding?" Lydia asked out of nowhere staring at me with narrowed eyes. I looked down, seeing the blood seeping through the knitting in my cardigan. I gestured to it with a huff.
"Scott got into a fight with the demon wolf, or whatever he calls himself, got himself stabbed and I was... focused on other tasks."
Lydia raised both eyebrows at me. "Did Scott also happen to get punched in the face? Because I was referring to your nose." I frowned, lifting a hand to wipe at my nose. Lydia was right; when I pulled my hand away, there was blood smeared along it. I swallowed.
"That's not right," Stiles said from beside me, shaking his head.
"Are you feeling alright?" Jackson asked me, narrowing his eyes in concern. I nodded.
"I feel fine," I told him honestly. Then I tipped my head. "Well, I feel fine now. But during the spell, I got this splitting headache-"
"And you didn't stop?" Stiles demanded, his eyes wide.
"I was so close, I couldn't stop."
Stiles scoffed. "Feeling that sort of pain when you're doing a hard spell is one thing, but when you're doing one a second grader could manage? You should have known something was wrong."
"Nothing is wrong, I'm fine."
"You're bleeding," Stiles cut in, gesturing at my face.
"I am fine, Stiles, drop it." He huffed, glaring at me a little. I think the glare may have come from the reminder of the argument we had last time i asked him to drop something. "Where's Allison?" I asked, suddenly remembering who was missing from this equation.
"She's at home," Lydia answered, looking between Stiles and I warily. "She was looking for something to help find Deaton."
"Okay, Lydia, you go to Allison's," Stiles ordered, pointing at her, then to Jackson. "You try and catch up with Scott. Cora, you go to Derek's. I'll go to the hospital and try to find out what Danny knows, for future use, and you..." he said, turning to me. I had a feeling I knew where this was going.
"I ain't going home," I argued, before he could even say anything.
"Yes, you are."
I folded my arms over my chest. "No, I am not. I ain't going to sit at home and rest while everyone else gets to help."
Stiles glared at me again, and I raised an eyebrow, challenging him. Eventually, he broke. "Fine!" he bit out. But you're coming to the hospital with me; it's the least stressful situation we've got."
I growled. "Fine. Can we go now?"
Stiles barely spoke to me on the way to hospital. I wasn't sure whether it was out of remaining awkwardness between us, or because I had royally pissed him off. Either way, the ride was only slightly less uncomfortable than the one to the clinic had been earlier this morning. He also didn't speak to me when we got out of the car and made our way to the elevators, nor on the journey up and over to Danny's floor. I hated it, but I'd also sort of caused it. Well, Rebekah had initially caused it, and Stiles when he didn't do as he was told, but I put us on the Vampire Express, so... Yeah, all of this was my doing. Which did wonders for my mood.
"Danny," Stiles whispered after I closed the door behind us. It was dark in the room, the blinds drawn closed, and Danny had seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Right up until we'd entered, at least. "Danny, are you awake? Danny?" Stiles continued to whispering, thinking it okay to slap Danny's face lightly a couple of times. I rolled my eyes.
"Are you kidding right now?"
Stiles glared at me. "We need to make sure he's asleep." Stiles turned back to Danny, pulling his hand back to give Danny one last, much harder, tap to the face. Danny stirred then, and Stiles jumped back, the both of us holding our breath until Danny settled again.
"Nice one," I breathed, nodding at Stiles. He just rolled his eyes. I pushed past him to Danny's bag, sitting on the floor beside his bed. Rifling through it, I pulled out his tablet, unlocking it and handing it to Stiles. "See if there's anything on there," I told him. I heard a scoff behind me, and I whipped my head around to raise an eyebrow at him. "Do you have a problem that you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" I asked him, to which he just glared at me, before eventually turning his back and snooping around on the tablet like he was told to do.
"What are you doing?" a sleepy voice asked us then, and I stilled, panicking.
"Uh..."
"We're not doing anything, Danny," Stiles said in a quiet, soothing voice. I turned to him, my eyes wide, and he shrugged, nodding along to his own idea. "This is just a dream that you're having."
It seemed to work, and Stiles breathed a sigh of relief, gesturing for me to continue my search.
"Why are you going through my stuff?"
I huffed, letting my head fall for a second as Stiles groaned a little. "Only in the dream, remember?" Stiles said, soothing voice lulling Danny back to sleep. "Dream. Dreeeaming." I huffed out a quiet breath, nodding as Danny quietened again.
"Why would I dream about you going through my stuff?"
"I don't know that, Danny, okay?" Stiles snapped, voice still just above a whisper. "It's your dream; take responsibility for it." I looked at Stiles over my shoulder, shaking my head and silently judging him. He frowned at me and waved me off. "Shut up and go back to sleep." I continued to shake my head as I pulled notebooks out, rifling through them page by page. Danny settled again, staying quiet this time, and I heard Stiles' groans and mumbles growing more frustrated every second that he didn't find something.
"Wait, Stiles, I think I found something," I said quietly, pulling out a wad of paper, the front page declaring it a research proposal on telluric currents.
"That was what Deucalion meant, when he told Scott to follow the currents," Stiles pondered aloud, taking it from my hands and rifling through it. "This has to have something to do with all the bodies."
"Danny, you clever, clever boy," I whispered, watching him sleep with wonder.
"Yeah, the guy's a genius," Stiles muttered, rolling his eyes and moving to hold the door open, gesturing out into the hallway. "Now let's go already."
I marched through the door and pulled my phone out of my bag, calling Jackson, and waiting all of half a ring before he picked up.
"Have you got to him yet?" I asked immediately. Jackson sighed.
"No, I've just pulled up to the bank, and it's all locked up, I can't get in."
"You need to go over," I told him, pulling the phone away to put it on speaker. "That's how Scott and Derek got in last time."
"There's a shaft that runs down into one of the vaults," Stiles said in the general direction of the phone as we rode the elevator to the bottom floor. "They climbed up to the top of the building, made their way down the shaft, and then broke their way through the wall. It should all still be open."
"Okay, alright, I'll find a way up, and I'll call you guys back when I find him." He didn't bother saying goodbye, just hanging up as we left the elevator and rushed through the hallway.
"Now are we going to Derek's?"
Stiles grumbled a little before answering me. "I'd still really prefer it if you went home," he admitted, tipping his head in surrender when I raised an eyebrow as we left the building and marched through the parking lot towards his car. "But I didn't figure that would be happening anyway, so yes, we're going to Derek's."
"Finally," I muttered, jumping up into the Jeep, Stiles a second behind me. "I don't like that we haven't heard from anyone."
"The fact that no one has called to say that everything has gone to shit and they need help suggests to me that everything is fine," Stiles said, speeding through the parking lot and out onto the quiet road. "For the time being, at least."
"Or, they all died before they even knew what was happening," I suggested, waving a hand. "That is another possibility."
"A really dark possibility," Stiles groaned, looking at me with a concerned face. "What is wrong with you?"
"I'm just being realistic here, Stiles."
"Pessimistic, is the term I think you're looking for," he corrected me, shaking his head. I rolled my eyes, turning to glare at him.
"Fine, whatever, either way, we should have gone to Derek's first."
"The first place you should have gone was home, like I told you to," Stiles argued, glaring right back at me. "Besides, Isaac, Boyd and Cora are at Derek's; we're not really going to add much to that equation when it comes to protecting Derek."
"Oh, so we should just leave them to it?" I asked him, shrugging like it was no big deal. "Just let the werewolves, who, by the way, generally depend on their animalistic instincts over human reason, deal with this situation on their own?"
"Amber, what could you even do to help them?" Stiles demanded, head whipping from the road to me, then back to the road again, over and over as he tried to get his point, and his glare, across. "You did a simple locator spell, and you started bleeding."
I groaned. "It wasn't that bad, Stiles."
"It doesn't matter how bad it was. It happened, and it's not supposed to with something that basic." Despite my arguing, I knew Stiles was right. I shouldn't have been bleeding, I knew that the second Lydia pointed it out, but with everything else going on... People were going to die. I could deal with my nosebleed later on. "Something is wrong, Amber."
"I'm fine, Stiles."
"You're not fine!" Stiles shouted, slamming a hand against the steering wheel. "Damn it, Amber, if you hurt yourself with a locator spell, how much damage would you do to yourself if you tried to fight off an alpha, huh? How about a whole pack of 'em?"
"Stiles-"
"I am not going to let you kill yourself trying to save everyone else," he said, in a voice that told me there was no point arguing. "So I'm going to let you go to Derek's, but only if you do exactly as your told. Am I clear?"
Stiles turned to me, hid eyebrows raised challengingly. I just nodded, a little dumbstruck.
Stiles nodded back, pleased with my submission.
"Good," he murmured, and we both turned back to the road just in time to see the blonde stood right in the middle of our path seconds before Stiles served to avoid her. My head made sickeningly loud contact with the window at my side, and then everything went black.
A/N: There is just so much drama in Beacon Hills!
I'll try and keep to my schedule from now on, every two weeks, but if two weeks from today, I haven't posted, please bare with me, it'll be up as soon as I'm satisfied with the finished product.
I love you all, and I'll see you next time. Stay fetch!
(yeah, that's a terrible outro. I think I'm keeping it)
