Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed, or added a favorite! This chapter was supposed to be up around Thanksgiving, but I was slammed with far more work than I was expecting, then had to put this on hold until after my two weeks of finals hell. Anyway, enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

Text messages are "italics and in quotes"

Chapter 43

When Danny and I ran into Deputy Greame as we were leaving Danny's band rehearsal, I could already feel the daze coming. "What are you guys doing here so late?" the deputy asked.

"Practice for our recital tomorrow, why is something wrong?" Danny asked as I leaned against his side. With every death, I seemed to get weaker. I slept more, ate less, and the gashes across my back from Kaden's claws had stopped healing. I'd realized that Deucalion wasn't the one barricading my mind, but he did know how to shield himself from me. I could only guess it was the Darach blocking my ribbons and making my sort of telepathy more and more painful as they grew stronger. "There is something wrong, isn't there?" Danny pressed as we both realized Deputy Greame hadn't let go of her pistol.

"Someone made a 9-1-1 call. All of you need to leave now and if you see anyone else tell them the same thing," the deputy instructed. Danny nodded, herding the others towards the doors as he helped me walk through the oncoming white out. He'd just gotten me into his passenger seat when the darach's chant filled my ears.

"Ami? Ami!" Danny's voice brought me out, and I looked down to see that I'd drawn the locker room shower, fan and all, on a napkin. "What was that?" I let my head fall back against the seat and Danny frowned. "Do you need to go home, to Derek's?" I nodded and he asked no more questions, just drove.

"High school. Please come. Someone called 9-1-1, I heard the Darach. Danny's taking me back to Derek's," I texted Scott, tucking the napkin into my bag.

It wasn't until later when I was curled into Derek's side on the couch that Scott texted me. "Lydia felt it. It was Deputy Greame. Found her body on the school sign." I held my phone out for Derek to see and pulled out the drawing. Once I'd copied it onto a page of my sketchbook, I curled back into Derek's side.

"Come to bed. I know you didn't sleep well last night," Derek told me as he pulled away. Even as he bundled me into his own bed, I didn't tell him it was because Isaac's old bed smelled like Kaden.

The next morning, constant lightheaded dizziness made me glad I'd worn flat boots instead of heels. Death lingered in the halls, blanketing the school so much that I couldn't tell if it was an echo from the past or a hint towards the future. It was like I'd never left the daze from the last Darach attack. When Ms. Blake stopped between Lydia and I, I found myself leaning towards her. Scott pressed back against the hand I had stretched across my desk, temporarily grounding me until he pulled away to talk to Stiles about the emissary.

It was easy enough to send Lydia into Aiden's path after class and tell Scott where to wait for Ethan with Stiles, though I had to sit as a wave of nausea rolled over me. A warm hand rubbed my back, and I looked up to see Kaden sitting beside me. "Are you okay?" he asked, then yanked his hand away as I shoved my grief, betrayal, and pain down his ribbon. "I'm sorry, Ami, but you don't understand. Kali was going to kill me too, her own son. Deucalion saw a reason to keep me alive. I owe him my life." He flinched when I hit him with an image of his own blue eyes and my disgust. "It's kill or be killed as the omega in an Alpha pack, Ami. You must know it's in our nature. Even Derek's first instinct was to kill."

I wanted to throw my rage at him, only for twin bursts of pain to hit the barricade around my ribbons. My gasp of pain was cut short as I leaned over and threw up into the grass behind the picnic table. "Easy, easy, I got you. Who's hurt?" Kaden asked, holding me up with an arm around my waist. I tried to push an image of the twins at him only to retch again. "Ami, show me," he ordered, using his other hand to turn my face towards him. He leeched pain out of me, giving me enough of an opening to slide the locker room into his mind. He grabbed my bag and jogged inside, carrying most of my weight until we reached the others. Lydia reached for me, helping me fall at Cora's head as Kaden wrestled the weight from Aiden's hands.

"Hey! You can't do this!" Ethan yelled. He and Scott were holding Aiden's arms.

"She came at me," Aiden snarled, red eyes fading.

"It doesn't matter! Kali gave Derek until the next full moon. You can't touch him, or her," Ethan insisted. I held Kaden's gaze over Scott's shoulder as Lydia looked up at Aiden. Cora rolled onto her back, letting her head fall into my lap and I winced. She was bleeding from a head wound. Ethan nodded to Scott, then helped Kaden force Aiden from the locker room.

"Hey guys, I think she's really hurt," Stiles told us. He and Scott hauled Cora to her feet as Lydia helped me stand. Cora shrugged Stiles off to take the towel Scott found for her and dabbed at the blood.

"You okay?" Scott asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"She doesn't look okay," Lydia told him.

"I'll heal," Cora insisted, but when she stepped back, she wavered. Stiles' steadying hand got brushed off in typical Hale fashion and she snapped, "I said I'm fine."

"You realize how suicidally crazy that was? What were you even thinking going after them?" Stiles demanded.

"I did it for Boyd. None of you were doing anything," Cora snarled at Scott.

"We're trying," Scott assured her.

"And you're failing. You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around thinking you can stop people from getting killed. All you do is show up late. All you really do is find the bodies," Cora retorted, then turned and left.

"She's definitely a Hale. I'll make sure she gets home," Stiles muttered, going after her.

Scott led Lydia and I out, though I broke away to follow a familiar ribbon. But when I got to the top of the stairs, I found Derek's arms already occupied. I backed away as Ms. Blake started to pull away and didn't notice the wind blowing my scent down the tunnel.

"You feel it, don't you? When the Darach is about to take someone," Kaden asked, forcing me to look up from my sketchbook. I didn't remember sitting on the stairs, but there I was. I'd drawn Mr. Westover's classroom in the history wing, complete with a chalkboard. Instead of the class notes that should have been on the board, I'd drawn a five-fold knot.

Lydia's scream echoed through the school, and Kaden and I looked up. Kaden pulled me upright, keeping his hand under my elbow as we hurried across the building. Aiden had reached Lydia first and had one hand on her back. When Kaden eased me through the crowd outside Mr. Westover's room, we found Scott and Ethan stopped by the security guard. Kaden passed me into Scott's hold, and I showed my brother the drawing. "The last time that happened was Mr. Harris. Anyone heard from him lately? He's gone. And he's going to be the second murder," Lydia insisted, pointing at a number 2 in the far right circle. I hadn't drawn it into my image.

"But Lydia you wrote that number," Ms. Blake reminded her.

"Okay fine I'm psychic," Lydia tried Stiles' explanation, but even as she said it I could tell she didn't believe it.

"You're psychic," Ms. Blake repeated.

"I'm something," Lydia yelled.

"A deputy and a teacher? What's the pattern?" Ethan asked Scott. His voice was low enough that only the wolves in the room heard him.

"I don't know," Scott admitted.

"Alright all of you go home," Ms. Blake ordered, herding us out of the classroom.

I looked down as Scott led me away to a text from Stiles that Cora was being taken to the hospital after collapsing at his house. I held the phone out for Scott to see and dialed Derek. "Ami?"

"Cora went after Aiden today during school. She was hurt, we thought she was healing but she just collapsed at Stiles' house. She's on her way to Beacon Hills Memorial," Scott told him. Derek hung up without another word, leaving Scott and I to watch the sun go down over campus.

Scott's phone buzzed with a call from Allison, and he turned it on speaker so I could listen. As Allison relayed how she and her father had found Mr. Westover and lost the Darach, I texted the news to Ethan and Aiden. When Scott ended the call with Allison and called Stiles, I made myself text Kaden as well. Stiles updated Scott on Cora, then asked, "What about you guys, what'd you find?"

"It's philosophers, as in teachers. Allison and her dad just found Mr. Westover," Scott told him.

"That makes sense. Tara, she wasn't always a cop, she used to teach middle school," Stiles revealed.

"Then the last one's going to be another teacher."

"Yeah, but there's dozens of them, Scott, and they're all headed home."

"No," Scott said as I tugged on his arm and pointed, "they're not. They're all going to the recital."

When I limped into the gym, it felt like everyone was in slow motion as the daze returned. Kaden appeared out of nowhere to help me to a seat at the edge of the crowd, allowing the room to snap back into focus. I watched Ethan fuss over Danny and tried to smile. I would have loved for Danny to have found someone under any other circumstance. "Still nervous?" Ethan asked once he'd pressed an Icebreaker between Danny's lips.

"All good," Danny assured him.

"Okay," Ethan started to step away, and then he proved to both Aiden and I how much he cared. "Listen. If anything happens, find me. Find me first."

"Something's going to happen, isn't it?" Kaden asked as my eyes skimmed over Ms. Morrell to Scott. "Your eyes are going pale again." I turned to him, confused, and he explained, "You were drawing Mr. Westover's room and when you looked up your eyes were pale blue."

I shrugged and turned to look back at Scott, who'd been joined by Lydia. "You get me the time and I'll do something about it, I swear to god, I will," Scott promised. Lydia nodded and took Scott's hand, and I watched my brother squeeze her fingers.

When the music started, I took Kaden's hand. He pressed my sketchbook into my hands, drawing the pencil from where I'd stuck it in my bun of messy curls. When the chant filled my ears, my fingers flew over the page, and Kaden drew a sharp breath. "Who is it? Who does the Darach have?" he asked. I didn't see Scott's head whip towards us.

"Lydia," I gasped as Lydia's ribbon blacked out. Scott and Stiles ran, but there was another image in the way. A music sheet was emerging under my hand as the orchestra began to actually play the Darach's chant. Kaden went to stand, but doubled over as Lydia screamed. It was a wail only the supernatural could hear, though I couldn't see the wolves clasp their hands over their ears. Scott was running again, Stiles chasing after him, and I managed to shove the sound and direction of Lydia's scream down a closer ribbon.

Kaden looked down at the drawings, then at face. I neither felt him stiffen, nor his hands come up on either side of my face to shield my eyes. "Piano," I whispered, and he went to stand but it was too late. The chorus teacher was already falling from her piano bench, throat slashed by a snapped cable.

I remained in my daze as Danny stood on stage and Ethan leaped out of his seat. White blocked my sight of Chris and Isaac chasing Allison through the fleeing crowd to the teacher's body. The chant remained in my head while Sheriff Stilinski took a long knife to his shoulder. Kaden caught me when pain knocked me over as Scott hit the floor of the classroom, coughing up blood and lying still.

Then my hand began to move again, another drawing taking shape. A slashed up face with pale eyes stared up at Kaden and he asked, "Ami, who's being taken?"

My eyes cleared and I looked up at him. "A guardian. Sheriff Stilinski."