The attack was happening in the main school building. Vampires and guardians were actively fighting around the entrance. For a moment, Stiles froze. There were almost twenty Vampires and half as many guardians. And to see so many Vampires together... Stiles allowed himself a moment of shock, and then jumped into the fray.
There was one guardian near a side entrance, fending off three Vampires. He was battered and bruised, and the body of a fourth Vampire lay at his feet. Stiles lunged for one of the three. She didn't see him coming, and Stiles managed to stake her with almost no resistance. That was lucky.
Kira meanwhile was electrocuting the others. The guardian's face reflected surprise, but that didn't stop him from staking another Vampire. Stiles got the third one.
"You shouldn't have brought her here," the guardian said as they moved to help another guardian. "Half-breeds aren't supposed to get involved with this."
"Half-breeds should have been involved with this a long time ago," said Kira through gritted teeth.
The rest was a blur. Kira and Stiles moved from fight to fight, combining her magic and his stake. Not all of the kills were as fast and easy as the early ones had been. Some fights were long and drawn out. The other guardian stuck with them, and Stiles honestly lost count of how many Vampires they took down.
"There's two of you." The words startled Stiles. The speaker was a Vampire who looked like he was still seventeen. "I can smell two of you, but I only see one."
"Yeah, yeah," Stiles mumbled. "I'm possessed by an evil spirit. Big deal." Stiles tried to hit the Vampire's heart with the stake, but he dodged. Then something shoved into Stiles from the side, another Vampire. Stiles stumbled but managed to drive his stake through this Vampire's heart. He turned back to the first Vampire and Kira helped taking him down.
The fighting continued. Scott hovered at the back of Stiles' mind, the bond telling Stiles he was okay. Aside from that, Stiles let battle lust consume him. He had one goal and one alone: kill Vampires. He lost track of time. Only the Vampires he was currently fighting at any given moment mattered. And as soon as that one was gone, it was on to the next.
Until there wasn't a next one.
Stiles was sore and exhausted, adrenaline burning through his body. Kira stood beside him, panting. She hadn't engaged in physical combat like him, but she'd used a lot of magic tonight, and that had taken its own physical toll. Stiles looked around.
"We gotta find another one," he said.
"There are no others," a familiar voice said.
Stiles turned and looked into Malia's face. She was alive. All the fear for her he'd held back burst through him. He wanted to hold her as close to him as possible. She was alive — battered and bloody, yes — but alive.
"You have a little blood," Kira pointed. "Everywhere."
"It's not mine." Malia's gaze held Stiles' for just a moment, but in that brief glance, he saw love and concern — and relief. She'd been worried about him too. Then Malia turned and gestured to the eastern sky. The horizon was pink and purple. "It's nearly sunrise. They're either dead or have run away," she told him. "What you two did—"
"Was stupid?" Stiles suggested.
"—was amazing," she finished. "You killed most of them."
Stiles looked around, shocked at the number of bodies lying on the ground. They had killed Vampires. They had killed a lot of them. They had defeated the monsters.
Then he noticed something that made his stomach twist. "There are more than just Vampire bodies there," he said in a small voice.
"We've lost a lot of people," Malia confirmed. "In more than one way."
Kira frowned. "What do you mean?"
Malia's face was both hard and sad. "The Vampires killed half-breeds and humans. And some... some they carried away."
It wasn't enough that the Vampires had come and attacked them, that they'd killed half-brees and humans alike. They'd also carried some off. It was something they were known to do. Even they had limits on how much blood they could drink at once. So they'd often take prisoners to keep as snacks for later or even to turn into more of them.
Whatever the reason, it meant that some of the people might still be alive.
Students, half-breeds and humans, were gathered up once certain buildings leaving the guardians to assess the damage. Stiles wanted desperately to be with them, to help and do his part, but they made it clear his part was over.
It still seemed unreal. Vampires attacking the school. All this time, was that what Erica had been trying to tell him? How could it have happened? How could she have known? Stiles had to find out.
It took only a couple hours for them to get a casualty count, but waiting while those reports trickled in felt like days. Fifteen half-breeds had been killed. Twelve guardians had been killed. A group of thirteen, both half-breeds and humans, had been taken away. The guardians estimated that there had been close to fifty Vampires. They'd found twenty-eight bodies. The rest appeared to have escaped.
For that size of a Vampire party, the casualty count was still lower than one might have expected. The early warning had saved them. The Vampires had barely penetrated the school's inner grounds when Stiles warned Harris. The school had gone into lockdown quickly.
The Vampires never made it into the main building largely thanks to Stiles and Kira. One of the dorms had been invaded though — the one that Scott lived in. Stiles almost had a heart attack when he heard it, even though he could feel that Scott was fine. The attacking group hadn't gotten far into the dorm, thankfully, but there had been casualties.
One of them was Boyd.
Stiles sat with his friends in the cafeteria. No one had much of an appetite and all conversations were conducted in low whispers.
"When the Vampire got in downstairs, he and some other novices went down to help," Scott explained. He kept his head down and Stiles could see how much he hurt.
The cafeteria disappeared. Stiles stopped seeing any of them. All he could see in that moment was that room back in Spokane, that room where they'd been held. They'd tortured Boyd and nearly killed him. That experience had changed him forever, affecting the way he now conducted himself as a guardian. He'd grown extremely dedicated as a result, but it had cost him some of the light and laughter he used to have.
He'd worked so hard to protect Scott and others, risking his own life in the attack. Stiles had been nowhere near the dorm when it had happened, but he felt responsible — like he should have watched over Boyd. Surely he owed it to Erica. Erica who had died on his watch and whose ghost he hadn't seen since she'd warned him earlier. He hadn't been able to save her, and now he'd lost her best friend too.
Stiles shot up from his chair and shoved his tray away. Fury blazed through him.
"What's wrong?" asked Scott.
Stiles stared at him in disbelief. "What's wrong? Do you seriously have to ask that?" In the silent cafeteria, his voice rang out. People stared.
"Little guardian, you know what he means," said Lydia, trying to steady him.
Isaac, who was sitting with them, added: "We're all upset. Sit back down. It's going to be okay."
For a moment, Stiles almost listened to him.
He's using his powers on you, the Trickster pointed out. Don't let him.
Stiles glared at Isaac. "Stop trying to control me. I already have someone in my head. And it is not going to be okay — not unless we do something about this."
"There's nothing to be done," said Scott. Stiles turned his back and marched away. Scott called him back; he was worried about him. He was also afraid. Now that he'd lost Boyd, he wanted someone else with him — a selfish feeling Scott tried to shove away.
Stiles stormed out of the commons and into the bright light outside. The guardians' meeting wasn't for another couple hours, but that didn't matter. Stiles needed to talk to someone now. He sprinted to the guardians' building and bumped into someone he knew quite well.
His fury turned to surprise. "Dad?"
Guardian Stilinski stood there by the door. He looked the same as he had back during the holidays. "Stiles."
"What are you doing here?"
"Replenishing the numbers. They've called in extras to reinforce campus."
Replacing the guardians who had been killed... All the bodies had been cleared away but Stiles could still see them when he closed his eyes. With his dad here though, he realized he had an opportunity.
"We have to go after them," Stiles said. "Rescue the ones who were taken."
His dad regarded him carefully, a small frown the only sign of his feelings. "We don't do that kind of thing. You know that. We have to protect those who are here."
"What about those thirteen? Shouldn't we protect them? And you went on a rescue mission once."
His dad shook his head. "That was different. We had a trail. We wouldn't know where to find this group if we wanted to."
Stiles knew he was right. The Vampires wouldn't have left an easy path to follow. And yet Stiles knew someone who could know. "Do you know where Malia is?"
His dad gestured toward groups of guardians hurrying all around. "I'm sure Guardian Tate's busy here somewhere. Everyone is. And now I need to go check in. I know you were invited to the meeting, but that's not for a while yet — you should stay out of the way."
"I will... but I need to see Malia first," he insisted. "It's important."
"What is it?" his dad asked suspiciously.
"I can't explain yet... It's complicated. Help me find her, and we'll tell you later."
His dad didn't seem happy about this, but he helped Stiles find Malia, who was studying a map of campus and planning how to distribute the newly arrived guardians. There were enough people gathered around the map that she was able to slip away.
"What's going on?" she asked as she and Stiles stood off to the side of the room.
"I think we should launch a rescue mission," he said.
"You know we—"
"—don't usually do that, yeah. And I know we don't know where they are... except, I might know how to find that out."
She frowned. "How?"
"Erica's locked out now because the wards are back up, but somehow... I think she knows where the Vampires are. I think she could show us where they are."
Malia seemed unsure. "Suppose this is true... You think she can just lead us? You can ask her and she'll do it?"
"Yeah," Stiles said. "I think I can. I've been fighting her all this time, but I think if I actually try to work with her, she'll help. I think that's what she's always wanted. She knew the wards were weak and that the Vampires had been lying in wait. They can't be too far away from us... they had to have stopped for daylight and hidden out somewhere. We might be able to get to them before the captives die."
"But Erica isn't here. You said she can't get through the wards. How will you get her to help us?" Malia asked.
"Take me to the front gates."
After a quick word to Chris about 'investigating something', Malia led Stiles outside, and they walked the long way to the entrance to the school. Neither of them said anything.
The guardians monitoring the entrance were surprised by the request, but Malia insisted it would just be for a moment. They slid the heavy gate open, revealing a space only big enough for one person to get through at a time. Malia and Stiles stepped outside.
A headache almost immediately built up behind Stiles' eyes, and he started to see faces and shapes. It was just like in the airplane. Here he could see all sorts of spirits. But he no longer feared them. He was in total control.
"Go away," he said to the gray, looming forms around him. "I don't have time for you. Nor the space. Go." He put as much force as he could into his will and his voice, and to his astonishment, the ghosts faded.
Another battle he'd won.
A faint hum remained with him, reminding him they were still out there, and Stiles knew if he let down his guard even a moment, it would all hit him again.
He peered around. There was only one ghost he wanted to see.
