Disclaimer - I do not own Teen Wolf or anything related to it. I only own my original character Tahlia and her family, and anything else that seems out of place.
Also thank you to those that have favorited and followed this story. Please don't forget to check out my other 3 Teen Wolf fics, the Fire & Ice series.
Tahlia is about to run head on into a lot of trouble in the next several chapters. But she could use some reviews, she's starting to get mad and when she does it gets nasty.
xoxo Tiearney
Tahlia and Allison are at her house when the teen gets a phone call from Lydia. They rush out to Tahlia's truck heading for the school. On the way Allison calls Scott and Stiles to have them meet the girls there.
The two girls pull up finding Lydia standing in front of her car, she is shaking like a leaf in a tornado. They all turn as Scott pulls up on his bike, Stiles screeching to a halt beside him in his Jeep.
"Where is she?" Stiles asks the wolf.
"Over here." Allison calls out as the girls walk up to them.
"Lydia?" Stiles asks concerned as he sees Lydia shaking.
"It's the same thing. Same thing as the pool. I got in my car heading somewhere totally different, and I ended up here. And you told me to call you if there's a dead body."
Stiles is shocked, "You found a dead body?"
"Not yet."
"Not yet"? What do you mean "not yet"? Lydia, you're supposed to call us after you find the dead body." Stiles tells her.
Lydia shakes her head, holding up a finger. "Oh, no. I'm not doing that again. You find the dead body from now on."
Stiles is flabbergasted, "How are we supposed to find the dead body? You're always the one finding the dead body."
Tahlia is the only one noticing something has captured Scott's attention. He hollers to the others. "Guys, I found the dead body."
Laying upon the top of the school sign in the middle of the courtyard is a female body. Blood pouring down the sign, pooling on the ground below.
Tahlia recognizes the woman. "Oh, my God. It's Tara."
The next day the group heads to school minus Allison, which no one but Tahlia knows why she isn't there. Stiles is still distracted thinking about all the times that Tara had helped him with his homework at the station.
He and Scott sit in class listening to Ms. Blake carry on about idioms and how they become clichés. She keeps eyeing the two which makes them wonder why, like she knows something that they don't. Although she did see her boyfriend turn into a werewolf the other night as well as Boyd die, so maybe she has a reason to look at them that way.
Scott and Stiles talk about how they can get to Ethan, they realize they need someone's help to distract Aiden who has been attached to his brother's side since they returned to school. Both boys turn their attention to the desk behind them where Lydia sits drawing yet another tree in her notebook. She looks up noticing their attention on her and sighs.
"Now what?"
Lydia meets up with Aiden in Coach's empty office. Instead of hooking up like they usually do, they end up discussing Aiden helping Kali kill Boyd. Aiden confesses that even though he is an Alpha, he can't tell Kali no, he must do what she says. Suddenly a spiral is cut into the glass of the door window.
"What the hell is that?" Lydia asks watching as Aiden's jaw sets. "Derek."
In another hallway Scott, Stiles and Tahlia stand speaking to Ethan. "Why are you even talking to me? I helped kill your friend. How do you know I'm not gonna kill another one?" Ethan says looking at Stiles.
"Is he looking at me? Are you threatening me? You know what I'm gonna do?" Stiles pushes off the wall, moving towards Ethan. "I'm gonna break off an extra large branch of mountain ash, wrap it in Wolfsbane, roll it in Mistletoe, and shove it up your freaking—"
Scott pushes Stiles back before he can finish, "Who, Stiles, okay. We get it."
Tahlia smirks as she steps in between the wolf and teen, facing Stiles. "Down boy. Relax. He's not gonna do a thing."
"We're talking to you because I know that you didn't want to kill Boyd. And I think that if something like that happened now, you wouldn't do it again." Scott says.
"You don't know what we owe them, especially Deucalion. We weren't like Kali and Ennis when we met him. We weren't Alphas."
"What were you?"
"Omegas."
Downstairs Aiden steps out of the Coach's office, he's determined to face Derek. What he finds instead, is Cora. She attacks the Alpha slashing her claws down the front of his chest.
"In actual wolf packs, Omegas are the scapegoat, the last to eat, the one who has to take the abuse from the pack."
"So you and your brother were like the bitches of the pack?" Stiles quips causing Tahlia to hide her smirk behind her hand.
"Something like that."
"What happened?" Scott asks.
"They were killers. I mean, people talk about us as monsters. Well, they were the ones who gave us the reputation. And our Alpha was the worst of them."
"Why didn't you guys just fight back?" Stiles asks. "Form Voltron wolf, you know? Kick everyone's asses?"
"We couldn't, we didn't know how to control it back then."
"Deucalion taught you." Scott says.
"And then, we fought. We took down the whole pack, one-by-one. And by the time we got to our Alpha, he was begging for his life. And we tore him apart. Literally."
"What about your Emissary? They're all dead? Kali and Ennis' too?" Scott asks.
"All of them except for Deucalion."
"You mean Morell?" Stiles asks.
Suddenly Ethan grabs his chest, Scott steps forward, "What? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"Not me. My brother."
Downstairs in the locker room, Ethan has grabbed Cora by the throat and thrown her across the room. She lands on the floor, slamming into the wall underneath the sinks. Aiden growls his fangs bared as he picks up a 100 pound weight walking over and standing above Cora.
"Aiden, stop! Stop!"
The Alpha ignores Lydia as he raises the weight over his head and then brings it down. It makes a sickening crunch as it connects with Cora's skull. The Beta falls to the floor at Lydia's feet, the girl crouching over the wolf. "Stop!"
The others rush in, Scott and Ethan grabbing Aiden, while Stiles and Tahlia kneel down beside Cora checking on her.
"Aiden! You can't do this!" Ethan yells at his brother after Scott wrenches the weight from him.
"She came at me!" Aiden says his fangs snapping.
"It doesn't matter! Kali gave Derek until the next full moon. You can't touch him or her."
Aiden sees the look Lydia gives him, he shakes his head as Ethan pulls him from the room.
"Hey, guys, I think she's pretty hurt." Stiles says looking at the wound on her head, that doesn't seem to be healing.
Cora stands walking over to the mirrors, she grabs a cloth and tries to clean up the wound.
"Are you okay?" Stiles asks her.
"She doesn't look okay." Lydia says.
"I'll heal," Cora says with a sigh, she steps back from the mirror wobbling, the boys step forward to grab her but she shrugs them off. "I said I'm fine."
"Do you realize how suicidally crazy that was?" Stiles asks her. "What were you thinking going after them?"
"I did it for Boyd. None of you were doing anything."
"We're trying." Scott says answering for his sister.
"And you're failing. You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around, thinking that you can stop people from getting killed. But all you do is show up late. All you really do is find the bodies." Cora turns and walks out.
Stiles steps forward, "She's definitely a Hale. I'll make sure she gets home."
Tahlia leaves the teens heading out to her truck, she got a call from Chris updating her on several things he found. She pauses as she sees Jennifer slinking out of the school and heading down to the tunnel area that leads out to the field. Being a huntress Tahlia easily makes it to a position she can watch the woman without being noticed. A figure steps out from behind the far wall, Tahlia knows by the build it's Derek.
Jennifer smiled as she saw him, running into his arms. He caught her holding her tight, kissing her hard.
She pulled back exhaling, "Where the hell have you been? And don't say that you needed to be alone for a while because that is the single worst excuse ever."
She looked up into his face seeing the pain on it. "Oh. God, I'm sorry. You really did need to be alone, didn't you?"
"I'm here now. And you were safe. Trust me."
"I haven't felt safe, partially because the evil twins are walking around school like nothing happened."
"They're not gonna hurt you."
They both smile… Until the bell rings. The woman sighs, "Some days, I just wanna take a sledgehammer to that bell."
Derek smiles, "Why don't you just come back with me?"
"I can't. I've got three more classes and I put this recital together tonight. I organized it to honor the losses at the school and—and now, it just sounds really stupid, doesn't it?"
"No. It sounds perfect."
The two kiss once more and then the woman takes her leave. She's still smiling as she walks back up the stairs leading to the school.
"Well aren't you two just a match made in heaven?"
Jennifer startles hearing the voice behind her, she turns finding Tahlia leaning against the side of the school. Tahlia watches as a glint appears in the teacher's eye and her smile turns into what the huntress can only translate as an evil grin. Tahlia knows there is something off about Jennifer and what better way to find out than to rile the woman up.
"Jealous?"
"Of you?" Tahlia chuckles shoving herself off of the wall and striding towards the woman. "Please. I'm twice the woman you are. You see, that whole damsel in distress thing, really outdated don't you think?"
"Perhaps, but Derek seems to like it."
"Derek's old fashioned that way. I think a woman should be able to take care of herself. Derek may not always be around." Tahlia tips her head, "I'm really good at reading people and something tells me that there is much more to you than meets the eye. Am I right?"
"100%." Jennifer steps up in front of the huntress, towering over her by about three inches. "But I don't mind it when people underestimate me, it gives me the advantage."
"Well, that is something we agree on. I don't underestimate anyone, but Derek does. So I'm just giving you a friendly warning. Derek is my friend, I have seen him go through too much heartbreak and I will not allow you to hurt him." Tahlia matches Jennifer's glare with an icy one of her own. "If you even think of causing him pain, I'll cut out your heart."
"You overestimate yourself Tahlia."
"And you underestimate me. That will be your fatal mistake, Jennifer. Derek cares for me, so please don't give me a reason to kill you and cause him to hate me."
"He does care for you, but he loves me. So don't think for a second you can drive a wedge between us. I'm not going anywhere."
"I have no intention of splitting the two of you up. You'll do that all on your own, and when you do, I'll be there to watch you fall. You don't scare me Jennifer. In this world, you're the prey and I'm the hunter."
Tahlia's head snapped to the side, clearly she had struck a nerve with the woman. Jennifer turned, storming back inside, Tahlia smirked wiping the blood drops from the corner of her mouth. There was something not right with Jennifer and Tahlia was determined to find out what.
Scott meanwhile goes to see Morell and find out what she knows. She informs him that she is the one that is controlling the Alphas, keeping them from killing Derek and the rest of the group. She tells him that Deucalion both wants him in his pack but is threatened by him as well. He wants to turn Scott into a killer but once he does, Scott cannot be a True Alpha. Scott will either willingly become a member of the pack or Deucalion will make a killer out of him. Scott informs her that will never happen. She sits back in her chair smiling, she tells him that he is already doing it, he's playing right into Deucalion's trap. And while Scott is trying to figure out what to do next, Deucalion is thinking ten steps ahead.
Stiles is headed to his home with Cora, he received a call from Allison telling him what she and Isaac found out in her father's office. Now with Cora's help he aims to tell his Dad everything.
An hour later Tahlia is standing in a classroom along with Jennifer who seems to be irritated by her presence which causes the huntress to smile. In between them stands Lydia and Aiden. Behind them on the chalkboard is a drawing of a 5 fold knot, a number 2 in the far right circle that Lydia drew during one of her episodes. Two security guards stand behind them.
"I don't get why no one's calling the police?"
"They're gonna make an announcement over the P.A." Jennifer starts to say but the red-head interrupts her.
"That's not gonna do anything! I told you, he's gone. Like the others, taken."
"Okay. Look, we're just trying to understand, okay? All we know is that Mr. Westover didn't show up for class."
"And the last time that happened was Mr. Harris. Anyone heard from him lately. He's gone." She walks over to the chalkboard pointing at the number. "And he's going to be the second murder."
"But, Lydia, you wrote that number."
"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Tahlia snaps. "He's missing, along with all the others that ended up dead. It's worth looking into."
Lydia sighs, "Okay, fine. I'm psychic."
"You're psychic?" Ms. Blake snarks.
"I'm something!"
Tahlia looks over to see Scott and Ethan standing it the doorway surrounded by other students. "A deputy and a teacher?" Ethan asks. "What's the pattern?"
"I don't know."
Stiles in the meantime was trying to convince his dad of everything that is going on. Of course, the Sheriff thinks he's absolutely crazy when Stiles tells him that Cora, currently sitting on the bed, is a werewolf. Before Cora can prove it, she faints. The two rush to her sides, calling an ambulance they take her to hospital.
Allison convinced that her father is the one killing people, sets out with Isaac to find out where Mr. Westover find a point on the telluric current map that matches one on Argent's map.
"FYI, if your dad tries to kill me, I'm gonna defend myself."
"If my dad tries to kill you, you'll be dead."
Isaac scoffs, "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
Suddenly Isaac stops, "Whoa."
"What?" Allison asks.
"I smell blood."
"Where? What direction?"
"I don't know. I'm not that good at this yet. But I think it's…" He points ahead of them and the two begin forward, Allison pulling out one of her ring daggers.
"Allison."
She keeps walking, "Allison, wait."
They see the teacher ahead of them strapped to a fence, a creature standing behind him. Allison wastes no time, running forward.
"Allison, don't!" Isaac says running after her.
"Get down!" Chris says running out behind them, guns drawn. He fires at the creature as it turns to run.
"Help him!" Chris yells to the two teens while still firing at the creature.
"It's Mr. Westover." Allison says.
"It's our History teacher." Isaac says, his uncertain eyes meeting his Alphas.
"We were wrong. It's not Guardians as in Law Enforcement." Allison says.
"It's Philosophers as in teachers." Scott says on the phone with Stiles, "Allison and her father just found Mr. Westover."
"That makes sense. Tara she wasn't always a cop. She used to teach middle school."
"Then the last one's gonna be another teacher."
"Yeah, but there's dozens of them, Scott, and they're all headed home."
"No." Scott says standing outside of the school. "No, they're not. They're all going to the recital."
"You've been tracking the killer on your own this whole time?" Allison says looking to her dad.
"Yeah, and I was this close. Could've caught him if the two of you…"
"So it's my fault?" Allison asks approaching her father. "That you've been lying to me for the past two months?"
"You wanna tally up the lies, Allison? I don't think you're gonna come out ahead on that one."
"Hey, just a thought? Maybe right now, isn't the best time for a little family meeting?" Isaac suggests. "There's still one more teacher."
"The recital." Chris says.
"Guess we're going after all." Allison quips.
At the hospital Stiles is following his father through the halls to the front doors, still trying to convince his father of the things that are really going on in Beacon Hills.
"What did you see the night at the bank the night when Scott was trying to save Deaton?"
"Nothing."
"Dad, you saw him healing himself after he tried crossing the mountain ash."
"I don't know what I saw."
"You saw something that you can't explain."
"Stiles, I have seen a lot of things I can't explain in this town. That doesn't make 'em supernatural and it doesn't make 'em real. They just found another body. That's real. And that's the lead I'm following."
"Yeah, and another teachers gonna die if you don't start listening to me."
"I am listening! I have been listening!" The Sheriff yells.
Stiles finally gets it, "You just don't believe."
The Sheriff holds up his finger, shaking it he turns to leave.
"Mom would've believed me."
At the recital, Scott is standing beside Tahlia, the two of them looking over the crowd. They see the twins and Ms. Morrell in the crowd. He turns to his right and sees Lydia, "I thought you were going home."
"I can't. I don't know why I am the one that keeps finding the bodies, but maybe if I just stopped trying to fight it, I'd find them before it happens, maybe with enough time for someone like you to do something about it."
"You get me the time, and I'll do something about it. I swear to God, I will." Scott tells her his voice full of conviction. Lydia nods taking Scott's hand in hers, squeezing it.
Derek sits by Cora's bedside holding her hand in his, his mouth resting on their hands, his eyes shining with tears.
"Derek?" Cora mutters, opening her eyes.
Derek jumps up from the chair, moving up by her face, "Hey. Hey, I'm here."
"What's happening to me?"
"I don't know. But I'm not leaving, okay? Not again."
Cora nods closing her eyes as Derek kisses her forehead.
Out in the lobby, Sheriff Stilinski is speaking to Scott and Rayne's mother. "The records would be over ten years old. I just need to look over a couple files."
"If this is about the murders, you'd need a court order for that." Melissa says, as the Sheriff sighs. "Or someone like me that's willing to bend the rules for a handsome face." She sets a pad of paper and a pen on the desk. "Give me the details. I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you."
Allison, Isaac and Chris arrive outside of the school for the recital.
Inside Lydia gets a text from Aiden, 'Need to see you right now.' He looks around finding her, he nods. She gets another text, 'Life or death!'
"It better be." She says walking away from Scott and Tahlia.
Behind the wolf and huntress through the doors walks Chris, followed by Allison and Isaac. Scott turns to look at them, he gets a nod from Allison, but Isaac looks slightly worried because he's with Scott's ex-girlfriend. The three continue around the room.
Back at the hospital, down in the morgue, Melissa is showing the Sheriff what she has found. "There was a patient just like you described. Slash marks all over the body. Doctors thought it had to be an animal."
She sets down one set of charts. "Oh," She picks up another one. "But there's something else. Something happened at the same time that was even stranger."
Inside the assembly hall Stiles has joined Scott and Tahlia. Aiden is fumbling around, searching his pockets. Ethan notices, "What's up?"
"Nothing. I just think I lost my phone."
"Birds?"
"Hundreds of them. While the patient was in the O.R. struggling to hold on, hundreds of birds were flying into the walls, windows, like they were committing some kind of mass suicide."
"Or like they were sacrificing themselves."
"For what?"
"Not what. Who."
Lydia meanwhile is headed to Ms. Blake's classroom, looking for Aiden. She hears the same music she heard when Mr. Harris went missing.
"You recognize it don't you?"
Lydia gasps turning to find Ms. Blake herself behind her, she hits Lydia in the head with a stick, knocking her out.
Tahlia heads out the same way she saw Lydia go. Shortly after the red-head had left she noticed Ms. Blake was missing as well, that sent a rise of suspicion through the huntress. Tahlia crept silently down the hallway, she heard movement coming from a classroom. Glancing up through the window Tahlia can see Lydia sitting unconscious in a chair. Seeing no one else around Tahlia nudges the door open and slinks inside, her gun in her hand.
Just as she reaches Lydia a sound from behind gets her attention, she barely sees the cord that comes over head. What she does see is the hands holding the cord out of the corner of her eye. She quickly raises her free hand to her throat catching the cord as it is pulled taunt.
"Whose the damsel in distress now Tahlia?" Jennifer chuckles into the huntress's ear.
"It's about to be you." Tahlia says placing the tip of her gun against Jennifer's leg and firing a round into the flesh.
Jennifer yelps dropping the cord, Tahlia then elbows her in the stomach and again in the face knocking the woman down. She turns around aiming the gun at Jennifer's chest, but the woman raises her hand sending Tahlia flying through the air and crashing into the wall behind Lydia. The huntress lands face first on the floor, her gun sliding underneath the desk in front of her.
She hears Jennifer approaching her and shoves herself to her feet, swinging a leg round she knocks Jennifer to the floor. She quickly jumps on top of the teacher pinning her arms down, but Jennifer raises her head up catching Tahlia in the face. She takes the distraction, rolling the huntress underneath of her and raining punches down onto her face and abdomen.
Tahlia manages to knock Jennifer off of her with a punch to her temple. She then wraps her legs around the woman's neck squeezing as tight as she can. Jennifer panics as the huntress cuts off her air supply. She fumbles blindly for anything to aid her in getting free. She manages to free the knife in her waistband and with a swift movement she jams it down into Tahlia's thigh.
The huntress screams as Jennifer frees herself and stands up. Tahlia reaches down, taking hold of the knife and pulling it from her flesh, a scream leaving her throat. Before she can retaliate Jennifer smashes something over her head and all Tahlia sees is darkness.
Scott and Stiles run out front of the school, the two of them yelling for her.
"Lydia?" Stiles yells.
"Lydia!"
"Lydia!"
"Anything?" Stiles asks the two wolves as they search the grounds with their wolf vision and their hearing. "She's not answering texts." Stiles says checking his phone. "What do we do? Scott?"
Tahlia rouses herself, noticing first she is suspended by her wrists from the ceiling. In front of her she can see Lydia beginning to come around. The huntress tries to pull herself up, her breath coming in short gasps. Her leg is throbbing, she can feel the sticky blood soaking through her jeans.
Lydia comes to, touching her head, she sees blood on her fingertips, in front of her kneels Ms. Blake, "What are you doing?"
"What's necessary." The teacher says. "I'm still surprised none of you seem to get that. You call them sacrifices, but you're not understanding the word. It's derived from the Latin Sacrificium, and offering to a deity, a sacred rite. A necessary evil.
"Stop." Lydia says weakly.
"Oh, I wish I could. But you don't know the Alphas like I do."
"Please, stop."
Ms. Blake stands up walking around behind the teen girl, "But you, Lydia, you're not a sacrifice. You're just a girl who knows too much. Actually, a girl who knew too much."
She wraps a cord around Lydia neck, the girl puts one of her hands up to keep it off her throat.
"Lydia, don't!"
Suddenly, Lydia shrieks as loud as possible.
Four people grab their heads as they hear the scream. Scott drops to his knees as Stiles eyes him, "Scott?" Isaac covers his ears as he stands next to Chris. And the twins cover theirs in the audience. Even Derek hears it at the hospital.
Lydia stops after a moment, her body drained of energy, she whimpers as her hand falls to her lap. Ms. Blake drops the cord and walks back around standing in front of Lydia.
"Unbelievable. You have no idea what you are, do you? The Wailing Woman. A banshee, right before my eyes. You're just like me, Lydia. Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it. It's too bad, though… And too late."
She walks to Lydia's right side, duck taping her arm to the chair.
Lydia cries, "No, please…"
She duct tapes her other hand down, then moves behind the girl and turns the bar tightening the cord around Lydia's neck. The teen gasps, choking. Ms. Blake pulls out a knife, "One last Philosopher."
Inside the auditorium, the possessed orchestra is playing the song that Lydia heard when the teacher was taken. Everyone in the crowd is unnerved, looking around wondering what is going on. Suddenly a string on the piano snaps, slitting the teachers neck open, killing her. The band stops playing, the crowd starts screaming and running for the exits.
"Allison!" Chris yells as she runs down to the stage, Isaac following them.
Allison sees a white substance dripping from the woman's mouth, "Mistletoe."
In the room, Ms. Blake is just about to slit Lydia's throat when—
"Drop it!" The Sheriff is standing, gun drawn.
Tahlia and Lydia let out a breath of air. Ms. Blake smiles, she throws the knife, it embeds in the right side of the Sheriff's chest, he drops his gun as he falls to the floor. She hears a loud growl and looks up to find Scott fully shifted, eyes flashing.
He rushes the teacher, jumping over the tops of tables towards the front of the room. Scott swipes at her with his claws, she dodges hitting him with a flat palm in his chest. He flies back across the room and lands in a huge pile of chairs. As he hits the floor face first, a gush of blood spills from his mouth.
Stiles comes to the open door, Ms. Blake sees him and with a touch of her fingertips, she pushes the desk over slamming the door shut in Stiles' face. The Sheriff takes the moment to grab his gun and point it at Ms. Blake, "There was a girl. Years ago, we found her in the woods, her face and body slashed apart. That was you, wasn't it?"
"Maybe I should've started with Philosophers, with knowledge and strategy." She advances on the Sheriff who fires a shot into her thigh, the hole instantly closes. "Healers…" She grabs him by the knife and lifts him up, he drops the gun as she shoves him back into the stacks of chairs. "Warriors…" She rips his badge off his shirt, "Guardians…" Crushing the badge in half with her bare hand. "Virgins." She kisses the Sheriff, then suddenly before his eyes she turns into the hideous Darach creature.
Stiles finally pushes his way into the room, as Scott stands up clutching his stomach. They run over to the busted out window, Stiles calling out, "Dad?"
The two boys run over to the girls, Stiles freeing Lydia and Scott cutting down Tahlia. The huntress crumples to the ground. She looks up at them gasping for air, "Derek. We've got to get to Derek."
