Arc 2

Disclaimer:Stiles was about eight years old when I introduced his character a few chapters ago, so the time jump will be eight years forward to season 1 Episode 1 of Teen Wolf.

Chapter 22

Elena's POV

l sighed with exasperation as l watched Stiles as he eavesdropped on his father. "This is big, Elena! A dead body! "Stiles said, excitedly. He rushed around his room, putting on his sweats.

"Stiles, where do you think you are going?" I asked, following him around his messy room. I ducked out of the way as his slipper came flying my way.

He wiggled awkwardly in his popover hoodie, before looking my way with an excited glint in his eyes. "Obviously, I'm going to go get Scott. Nothing ever happens like this in our town!"He tossed up his keys in the air, before catching them.

"You realize now wrong it is for you to be so happy they found a dead body, right?" I asked StilesI mo"You realize now wrong it is for you to be so happy they found a dead body, right?" I asked Stiles, moving into his path to keep himself inside of his room. "For once, can you listen to your father and not get yourself into trouble?" I said, but my words were falling on deaf ears.

"It's only going to be a peek. In and out. Promise?" Stiles claimed, moving around me to head to his car. I huffed as I thought was I like this as a teenager.

By some miracle, Stiles didn't break his neck as he climbed onto the roof and scared the hell out of Scott. The both of them screamed as Scott faced down Stiles with a baseball bat. Once he got his bearings, he whispered yelled at Stiles as he continued to hang upside down. "Stiles, what the hell are you doing ?" Scott said, still gripping the bat tight.

"You weren't answering your phone ! Why do you have a bat ?" Stiles whispered yell as well, exclaiming wildly at the bat.

"I wonder why Stiles, because you were creeping around his roof like a weirdo." I said, amused by the sarcastic look he sent my way.

Scott dropped the bat, realizing there was no danger other than his crazy best friend. "I thought you were a predator !" Scott said with irritation.

Stiles looked perplexed by the notion as if he didn't drive all the way over for a possible dead boddy in the woods. " A pre… " Stiles laughs before continuing his thought. "Look, I know it's late, but you've got to hear this. My dad left twenty minutes ago, dispatch call. They're bringing every officer of the Beacon department, and even the state police." Stiles explains.

Scott's face scrunched into confusion. "For what?" He questions. Scott steps back as Stiles finally gets down, going into the room. My body disintegrates, only to appear in Scott's room, near the bed. Stiles' eyes flickered over to me briefly before addressing Scott.

"They found a body in the woods." Stiles explained with weird excitement.

"A dead body ?" Scott asked with mild confusion, not matching the energy that Stiles had.

Stiles gave a dead sarcastic look at Scott before saying, "No, a living dead... Yes, jackass ! It's a dead body!" Stiles waved his arms a little.

Scott flopped on his bed, looking up at Stiles. "You mean like murdered?" Scott asked, pushing at his floppy hair.

Stiles shrugged his shoulders at Scott's question. " Nobody knows yet. It was a girl, probably in her twenties…" Stiles said, trailing off as Scott interrupted him.

Scott shook his head as he said. "Hold on, if they found the body, then what are they looking for?"

Stiles smiled. "That's the best part... They only found a half ! We're going." Stiles said as he grabbed Scott's inhaler and tossed it to him. Hearing that, I pressed on my necklace to reconnect with my physical body.

My eyes opened to see the familiar ceiling of my living room. I sat up, looking around and found myself alone. I got up from the couch, grabbing my house keys from the table, before heading to the door. I looked around, before speeding off to where the boys were headed. Like Stiles, this town was relatively safe, nothing on the caliber of murder, unless you count the house fire that happened eight years ago.

It didn't take long to see the red and blue lights in the distance. I sniffed out the air, smelling a rancid, decaying smell. I sped through the woods until it was unbearable. I slowed down, my steps crushing the dry leaves. In the dark, I saw a lump in the dirt. I walked over, squatting down. I brushed back dirt and leaves, seeing pale skin in the darkness. Strands of dull, blonde hair became visible. I sighed with sadness as I looked around. I sniffed the air again, getting whiffs of werewolves from the girl and the surrounding area.

I looked up as I heard a thundering stampede of stags run down the far right of the hill, but in the mix I heard a yell that sounded like Scott. I stepped away as I saw Scott tumbling down the hill, landing on his back. I rolled my eyes fondly as Scott got wrapped up in Stiles shenanigans again. I watched Scott as he searched for something. When I finally remember that Scott was getting close to his body, a chill ran down my spine.

My eyes looked around to see what was alerting me to danger. Large, grotesque shadowed figure charged past Scott, causing him to let out a yell. The figure ran into me, knocking me to the ground. I hissed with pain as I tried to get a better look at the monster. From the smell of it, it was definitely a werewolf.

My guess was confirmed moments later, when a loud, wolf howl was echoing in the quiet forest.

After compelling Scott and checking him over, seeing the large wolf bite on his stomach, I dressed the wound not wanting to agitate his system with my blood while the wolf venom was flowing in him and put him to bed, remembering to erase my presence from his mind. It was after two o'clock in the morning when I returned home to find Giles, clean shaven and dressed down in slacks and a button up that was covered with a sweater vest. He looked me over the rip of his cup, my guess that it was tea. He sat his cup down with a look of concern as he took me in. "You look absolutely disarrayed! What happened?" He asked, pulling out a chair for me.

"Thanks." I said, sitting down with a plop. "The wolves are back and whoever might have turned Scott McCall." I explained, leaning forward and linking my hands together as I looked up at Giles.

Giles nodded as he grabbed a seat as well. "Scott? Your ward's best mate?" Giles asked to clarify. I nodded yes to his question. "But the only lineage of werewolves connected to Beacon Hills is the Hale family and they died in the house fire." Giles said, frowning.

I shook my head. "Remember those two people I saw outside that house? That was Derek and Laura Hale who was outside the house fire. I'm assuming that the one survivor of Hale fire was that man I pulled out, Peter Hale." I said. I shifted slightly, wincing at the broken rib that I was suffering from.

"Are you hurt, Elena?" Giles asked, looking down at my body. Even though I tried to reassure him, Giles got up and came over to my side of the table. "Let me take a look." Giles firmly ordered.

I looked at him for a moment, before giving up. I lifted my shirt up to my bra, revealing a ugly bruise that slowly receded. "It's not as bad as it looks." I mumbled quietly, avoiding the concerned look.

"How long since the attack?" Giles asked, before walking over to get his journal off the counter. He flipped through the pages, before settling on what he was looking for. He looked expectantly, not impressed with my silence. "Don't make me call Dean" He threatened boldly, holding his pen to the paper.

"Little after 11:30 p.m.." I said, pulling my shirt down, avoiding Giles' eyes before they returned to his journal as he dotted things down.

"Your healing factor is getting progressively worse, Elena. Last month, it took you at least two hours, even if you had human blood supplement your body. Are you noticing any other changes, such as aging?" Giles questioned, sitting down at the table.

I shook my head, planting my elbows on the table. "Not that I would even notice. I've only been a vampire a little over ten years. Look, Elijah, Dean, and Bobby have exhausted every avenue to see why I'm retaining magic and nothing has come up. I've come to understand that this is part of destiny and part of some grand plan, Giles." I explained.

Giles sent me a look of frustration. "Not at your expense! If I learned one thing from being in the supernatural is that you could defy fate. Dean and Buffy have defied their destiny." Giles argued.

I sighed loudly at the fact know one ever wanted to explore the cost as to how they defied their destiny. "Buffy lost any semblance of normalcy and had to dedicate herself tirelessly for a cause that wasn't hers in the first place! She lost the love of her life time and again. Angel suffered losses in the name of destiny. And Dean… I can't let anyone else die because of me." Our conversation was cut short when I heard a knock at the door. Everyone I knew had a key to the door, so I looked to Giles, who just shook his head at me.

I winced in pain as I got up from the chair to head to the door. "Who is it?" I said as I reached the door.

"It's me, Elena." A soft voice said that was so recognizable to me that I could pick out of anyone. I frown with confusion as I swung open the door to take in Bonnie, who was engulfed in a large hoodie, black glasses covering her face. She was shaking when she fell into my arms, in sobs. I clutched her tight to me, pulling her into the house.

"Bonnie, what's wrong? You're scaring me." I said as I led her over to the plush couch. She remained tucked away, crying hysterically.

"It's gone. It's gone. It's gone." She mumbled incoherently through her crying. I looked up to Giles, who remained standing in the doorway. I shook my head as I held even tighter to her to provide a sense of comfort.

Giles chose to leave us to give us some privacy. We were finally alone, Bonnie's head in my lap, holding onto my forearm. The one thing that absolutely disturbed was the silence in the room. My fingers brushed down Bonnie's neck gently down to her Carotid and was surprised not to find the familiar, steady throb. I closed my eyes to hone in on her heartbeat, saddened by the lack of response.

Katherine's POV

I wolf whistled as Stiles came into the room, fresh out the shower. He jumped, wide eyes turned to me as I was laying across his bed. "Slow down, tiger. I like to be wine and dine." I teased, growling at him.

"Don't you know how to… let me know you're here, Kat! I am a growing boy." Stiles said flustered, tightening his hold on his towel, turning around to hide his chest.

I rolled my eyes with fondness. "Says the person who Elena and I had to explain wet dreams and masturbation to." I said, turning around as he put on his underwear.

He made a dignified noise, making me imagine that he was blushing like always. "You promise not to ever bring that up ever again." Stiles said, embarrassed.

"I'm your bad conscience, of course I was going to bring it up again!" I said, jumping off the bed. I tossed his plaid shirt at his head, but he caught it mid-air. "My little baby is going back to school. I'm sad." I faked pout, but Stiles was not at all paying attention.

He turned around with a focused stare, holding up two button ups. "Which one do you think Lydia will like?" Stiles asked contemplatively.

I 'hmmed', leaning my head to the side. "The blue one definitely with a side of 0.9 IQ and reject Calvin Klein model looks." I said, sarcastically.

"I like Elena better." He teased, throwing the Navy Blue shirt over his gray t-shirt. I scoffed, but was interrupted by the sound of a knock at Stiles' door. Sheriff Stilinski poked his head in the room, looking around.

"Who… are you talking to?" Noah looked curiously at his son.

Stiles stumbled over his words, rubbing the back of his head. "No one!" Stiles said.

"Have I taught you nothing about lying? It's like I never raised you!" I said, disappointedly.

Noah looked skeptically, but moved on. "You know the drill, Stiles! You are grounded until further notice." Noah said. I looked curiously over to Stiles, trying to figure what he has done without me to get him grounded.

"Dad… dear old Dad-" Stiles patted his father's shoulder, ignoring the exasperated expression planted on Noah's face, causing me to giggle. "Lacrosse tryouts are after school and I can't miss it." Stiles explained.

"Well, you should have thought about that before SNEAKING out the house to go to a possible murder scene in the middle of the night!" Noah reprimanded.

"Would it have been better during the morning?" Stiles said in his typical fashion. Noah pinched his ear, causing Stiles to yelp.

"Not funny, smartass." Noah argued, letting go.

Stiles rubbed his ear, but he didn't let that deter him. "Aren't you the one that said I needed to get involved?"

"OH! Now, you want to listen?" Noah gave his signature look just completely made for Stiles during his shenanigans.

"Your Dad is hot when he's angry." I commented lowly, leaning against the wall.

"Eww!" Stiles said suddenly, forgetting that his father was in the room. I hunched my shoulders in an unforgiving way.

"Eww?" Noah asked, crossing his arms.

Stiles rebounded quickly. "See, this is why I need to be at the Lacrosse tryouts. I'm talking to myself." Stiles said with an innocent look.

Noah rolled his eyes. "Make sure you make your way home straight after tryouts, Stiles." Noah said, walking out the room. Stiles punched the air out of excitement, while I heard Noah say from down the hall, "Of course I get stuck with a weird child."

The day was pretty eventful as I walked behind Scott and Stiles in the woods after they left tryouts. I'm pretty certain that the puppy eyed, clumsy boy I watched grow up is now a werewolf. Besides the smell, Scott was showing off his new acquired moves on the Lacrosse field.

Now, Scott and Stiles have just crossed the creek in the nature preserve as they attempt to find both the top half of the body Scott found the night before as well as the inhaler he dropped in the process. "Stiles, I know I encourage knucklehead behavior, but even this is stupid of you to be searching for a dead body." I said in the midst of their conversation.

Scott skating off his high, speaking excitedly to Stiles. "I-I don't know what it was. It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that's not the only weird thing. I-I can hear stuff I shouldn't be able to hear. Smell things." Scott explained as he moved around, looking for his inhaler.

Stiles stalls for a little bit, looking to Scott with confusion. "Smell things? Like what?" Stiles asks.

"Like the mint mojito gum in your pocket." Scott responds, looking back at Stiles. I could even smell the grotesque flavor from here, reaffirming Scott's heighten senses.

Stiles makes a face as though he thinks Scott is crazy, before responding with, "I don't even have any mint mojito-" Stiles trails off as he checks his breast pocket of his blazer and finds, much to his surprise, that there is a single piece of folded-up mint mojito gum, just as Scott sensed.

Scott raises both of his arms to the side as if to say, 'I told you so!"

Stiles considers this for a moment before he continues, "So all this started with the bite?" Stiles questioned with intrigue, but Scott had a worried look.

"Stiles, maybe you want to be a little sensitive to the friend that was bitten by a wild animal." I said, watching Scott with a watchful eye. The only person I was aware of that could make werewolves and that was Klaus. And that concerned me greatly.

"What if it's like an infection? Like, my body's flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?" Scott asks. Truly a nurse's son.

I give a tink eye, smacking Stiles' shoulder to knock that insensitive smirk off his face. He says 'Ow!' mutely, before straightening up to look serious. "You know what? I actually think I've heard of this- it's a specific kind of infection!" Stiles said.

Scott asks, "Are you serious?" He looks back concerned at Stiles, oblivious that he was poking fun at him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think it's called lycanthropy." Stiles nodded, a quivering laugh at the cusp of his lips at the wide eyed look of Scott. The poor baby was so gullible that it was embarrassing. How did he survive this long in life?

"What's that? Is that bad?" Scott asks with barely veiled panic, but Stiles continued to pick fun.

Stiles says, "Oh, yeah, it's the worst. But only once a month." Stiles walked in front of Scott, stopping him in his path.

Scott says, confused, "Once a month?"

"Mm-hmm. On the night of the full moon. Aroooo!" Stiles starts to howl, immediately starts to giggle in amusement. Scott pushes Stiles away in annoyance, walking away.

Stiles threw his hands up, continuing to walk behind Scott. "Hey, you're the one who heard a wolf howling!" Stiles said, trying to justify his teasing.

"Hey, there could be something seriously wrong with me!" Scott complains, ignoring his friend's antics.

"Okay, obviously I'm kidding. But, if you see me in shop class trying to melt all the silver I can find, it's 'cause Friday's a full moon." Stiles says stopping, watching as Scott looks around, frowning when he doesn't see anything that he was looking for.

"No, I-I could have sworn this was it. I saw the body, the deer came running. I dropped my inhaler…" Scott kicks his feet around, moving the leaves.

My ears perked up as I heard quiet, hunting footsteps heading our way. I moved closer to Stiles, putting myself between the werewolf that was headed his way, but his scent didn't match the one that bit Scott, so that was something.

"Maybe the killer moved the body?" Stiles suggested, helping with looking.

I rolled my eyes at Stiles. "Or God forbid that killer himself is lurking around, Stiles!" I said sarcastically, keeping eyes alert. I saw a flash a black when a godsend of a man came into my view. For a split second, I thought about sacrificing the two juvenile teens that were fumbling around for a damn inhaler. His green eyes looked over the two idiots with an icy glare.

"If he did, I hope he left my inhaler. Those things are, like, eighty bucks." Scott patted his thighs with irritation before finally recognizing they weren't alone.

Derek crossed his arms, glaring at the two teens, but he hyper focused on Scott, who was standing there like a fish out of water. "What are you doing here?" He asked, a harsh tone cutting through the woods.

"He's tall, moody, and sexy. My type." I swooned as I took in every inch, ignoring Stiles painful groans.

"Not now." Stiles whispered awkwardly, but coughed as two sets of eyes laid on him.

Despite that little outburst, the lack of response from the teens, his tone became even irritated. "Huh? This is private property."

Stiles finally sobering up, speaks up. "Uh, sorry, man, we didn't know." Looking between Scott and the man.

The man's attention is focused on Scott, who picks up where Stiles left off to try to relieve the tension. "Yeah, we were just looking for something, but…" Scott loses his nerve when the man's glare. "...Uh, forget it."

Before Scott and Stiles could turn around, the man tosses Scott's inhaler at him before turning and heading back the way he came without a word, giving Scott one last look and seemingly paying Stiles no attention whatsoever. Scott sighs and gets ready to turn back the opposite direction.

"Dude, that was Derek Hale!" Stiles says, stopping Scott from walking off from where they came from. I perked up at that name as I heard about them several times from Elena as she was the one to save one of their kin eight years ago. When Scott looks at Stiles blankly, Stiles' expression becomes incredulous

Stiles waves around as if that would jog Scott's memory. " You remember, right? He's only like a few years older than us."

Scott frowns as he continues to walk, nudging Stiles along. "Remember what?"

Stiles looks back nervously, lowering his voice. "His family. They all burned to death in a fire, like, ten years ago."

Scott looks concerned by this news. "I wonder what he's doing back…" Scott says, mirroring my thoughts.

Stiles scoffs. "Come on." Stiles says, moving along. Stiles finally turns back, and Scott, still looking toward where Derek headed out, slowly follows behind him.

I bursted into the front door, looking for Elena. I walked down the hall, first looking into the living room, but no one was there. "Elena?" I asked out loud, making my way up the stairs.

"Up here." Elena said quietly as she watched her pace up on the second floor. I stopped as I caught a glance of Bonnie asleep across Elena's bed as she was on the phone.

"Kol, I know you want to come down here, but she obviously needs space. I promise to take good care of her, but this will take time. After her mother…" Elena trailed off, looking up at the ceiling. A weary type of sadness lingered on her physical being.

I looked back to Bonnie, now picking up on the lack of heartbeat and the vampiric scent. "I know that you did what you thought best, Kol. I would probably do the same." Elena says.

There were few moments of silence, before Elena responded. "I'll keep you updated, but Bonnie will have to come to you in her own time. Bye, Kol." Elena hangs up the phone, tucking it in her back pocket. "How was school for Stiles?" Elena asks, closing her bedroom door.

"Okay, but we might have a newly turned werewolf that is Scott on our hands. Also, guess who made an appearance?" I asked, looking back at her bedroom door then back to her.

Elena folded her arms, nodding her head. "Yeah, I know about Scott. He was attacked by a werewolf last night when Stiles and Scott snuck out to go see the dead body in the woods. I would have given you heads up, but…" Elena frowned, before taking a deep breath. "Who has made an appearance?" Elena questioned.

"Stiles identified him as Derek Hale and let me tell you…" I fanned myself, a little smirk appeared on my lips.

Elena rolled her eyes, a smile on her face. "Well, I can guess you like what you saw." Elena teased. I nodded my head like a hyperactive toddler. Elena snorted, before continuing. "I think it would be best to approach Mr. Hale, because the last thing we need would be our paths to cross violently." Elena said, leaning back against the wall, looking out the window.

My eyes wandered back to her room, before I asked the question. "What happened?"

There was a beat of silence, before Elena said, "Esther."