Chapter 31: Hour of the Wolf

Cora was pacing the length of the loft's living room, rocking Jason in her arms as she occasionally looked over at the night sky through the window. She had been alone with her son all day as Derek moved to stake out Ruben's home so he confront him. A part of Cora wanted to feel sorry for Ruben when her brother got his claws on him but the most part was upset that it wouldn't be her laying it out on him. She had actually liked that guy. Started to think that he could be someone she might be able to trust with everything, including her big secret. And the entire time, not only did he know but was working her the whole time. For Oscar.

Yet, despite this new revelation, there was still something else worrying her. Cora didn't know what it was though. It was like something inside her was telling her that something had just changed. She didn't know what it was but she could just tell that it was something closer than she would want it to be. She had a feeling that Derek felt the same way. And...maybe Jason did too. He seemed troubled in the way that he was staring up at her. The look in his eyes, it matched what she was seeing up in her reflection off the living room window.

But she snapped out of all of that when she heard footsteps approaching from outside the main door. Seconds later, it opened and Derek stepped in. He didn't seem very happy.

"Well?" she asked, readjusting Jason in her arms.

"Nothing," Derek huffed. "Ruben never came back from wherever he had gone to last night."

"Where do you think he is? Are his parents worried?"

Her brother shook his head. "His foster parents, and they didn't seem too concerned or surprised. From what I could make out, they were tried calling him a couple of times but reminded themselves that its nothing new and decided that he was just in one of his 'moods' again." He said that part pointedly.

"Moods?" she grunted. "What were they talking about?"

Derek moved to the fridge and pull himself out a bottle of water. "They didn't say and I wasn't going to just go in and ask them." He then went and took a frustrated gulp of water and he threw the cap off. "I can't even begin to guess, unless there's something about your boyfriend that you didn't tell me, beside the usual that is."

"I told you, Ruben's not my boyfriend." Cora huffed as she rolled her eyes. "We hadn't even really kissed, though that wasn't from a lack of trying."

Unamused, Derek rose his voice. "Can we get back to the point?" he hissed. "What do you think these moods Ruben goes through are?"

Cora moved to stare out of the window, at the dark horizon. Ruben had always seemed so calm and mellow. Not someone who really had issues or internal problems. Then again, after everything that's come out in the last 24 hours, what did she really even know about the guy?

"I have no clue," she muttered.

Derek then moved to take another drink of water and then sighed. "Well anyway, we might not know where Ruben is, but I think we could easily guess with who he is with."

She let out a frustrated puff from her nose. "Oscar. Why would he do this?"

"He's a teenage boy sneaking around for an alpha, it's pretty obvious why. He's fishing to get the bite."

That made Cora narrow his eyes. "Yeah, I guess you have experience using that tactic, don't you?" That made Derek narrow his eyes back at her as memories of Jackson came back to him. "But I didn't mean Ruben, I was talking about Oscar. Why go through all this to try and get closer to a baby?"

"It's not the baby, it's the baby's parents that I'm sure he's really after."

"How can you be so sure?"

Derek moved to go and throw himself into the couch. "For the last couple of months, Oscar has been fortifying his pack with new members by picking them out from stronger than average humans. Like Charlie who was in the army. Then he starts meeting with other alphas and their packs in the American northeast."

"He's building up a power base," Cora nodded. "Making his pack bigger and stronger and trying to build alliances."

But Derek shook his head. "I don't "alliances" is what he's concerned about. I think he wants their allegiance. To have complete authority and power over."

Cora shook her head and sat directly across from him. "You mean, like Mom?"

"Probably, though something tells me Oscar doesn't plan to take just an authority approach like she did."

Derek's dropped his gaze as he thought of the wisest and bravest woman he had ever known. The alpha that all other alphas turned and looked up to. The one they would go to for help and would help her if she called. She was a real force to be reckoned with if she wanted to be. But then Cora stepped in and pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Okay, wait, if Oscar is trying to secure a place as the reigning alpha of this region, how does Jason fit into his plan? That still doesn't make any sense."

Derek looked over at his baby nephew fidgeting in his sister's arms. "I think we both know it does Cora. Until now, Oscar has only suspected the truth about Jason's father. If Ruben has confirmed it for him, then it's safe to say that, in the long run, that connection would make Jason become the ultimate leverage."

When Scott heard that Stiles was gone, he quickly went off for the Sheriff's room. He got inside to find that Stiles' scent was there. It was coming off his dad and seemed fresh. He had just been there. Scott then moved his eyes over to look at Stilinski and he immediately saw the difference in the man from how he was earlier that day. His skin seemed to have regained a good bit of color and his breathing and heartbeat seemed normal and healthy. Scott moved to put his hand over the guy's wrist. His hand started to run with black veins as he siphoned some pain but it made it suck his teeth as his chest burned red hot with his own pain and he pulled away.

"I'm sorry," he softly said to the man.

"You don't need to worry about him." Scott turned around and saw Argent was standing at the door frame, his eyes looking over at the resting man. "He's going to be alright now."

Scott let out a deep breath and nodded as he looked back at his friend's father. "Yeah, I know. Whatever that chimera did to him is gone. The smell of pain and death isn't around him so much anymore."

"Then he should be back on his feet in two or three days. He's a very strong man." Chris then moved to stand next to him. "Clearly a trait he passed on to his son. To be honest, I rather thought he'd be here right now."

That made Scott sigh and drop his gaze to the floor. "Yeah, you're not the only one."

Scott moved to grab his phone, to try and call Stiles again, when his hand felt a chain wrapped around his phone. He pulled it out and saw that it was the pendant he found before. Argent's eyes focused on it.

"Where did you get that?"

Soon enough, the both of them were off at the morgue as Chris was looking down at the crushed pendant underneath one of their giant magnifying lenses.

Chris sighed as he examined the hunk of metal with some pliers. "It's completely ruined," he said, mournfully. "There is no flattening or hammering it back into shape. You say that Stiles did this?"

"Yeah and when I found it, there was a hint of his blood stuck to it. I guessed he must've squeezed and crushed it in his bare hand. That's your family crest, right? On the big center part there?"

The most unbent part of the pendant had the symbol that he'd seen before on some of the shells that Argent used from time to time.

He then stopped fiddling with it but kept his gaze down on it. "Yes. I engraved it on myself. I had made this pendant for Allison."

Scott's face fell a bit. "Oh." He didn't know what else to say.

"I started working on it a little after the two of us came back to Beacon Hills last year. When Allison decided to try and re-forge our family's sacred code, I thought the best way to symbolize that was to re-forge our family's prized heirloom."

"Wait, do you mean her silver pendant?" Scott could remember the time that Allison had first shown it to him after Kate had given it to her.

Chris nodded. "I melted it down and worked it into a new image for Allison to carry as she moved to carve out a new legacy for our family. A legacy of protectors instead of hunters. I struggled for weeks on the design and I finally settled on a shield. Then, when I left her to make her silver arrowhead, I realized that my final design was incomplete so I went to add in an arrow in the back to finish it for her." He pulled out his phone and he opened a photo of the pendant in its finished state and showed it to Scott. "I was hoping to have it ready when she presented me her arrowhead but...that never happened. She never even knew I was working on it."

Scott stared at the pendant and thought that it was quite a beautiful piece of work. He couldn't help but think it would've suited Allison perfectly. He then blinked and then cleared his throat.

"So, why did I find it in Stiles' room?" he asked in a low tone.

"Because I gave it to him." Chris straightened himself up. "Right after the Deadpool was stopped. He's been wearing it on and off ever since. Well, until now, apparently."

Scott didn't know what surprised him more. The fact that Argent gave Stiles something so personal, or that Stiles actually accepted it.

"What? Why would you go and give it to him?"

"You know, when we first learned of the Deadpool Sheriff Stilinski thought I might've had a hand in organizing and setting it up. And after he was attacked by that mercenary group, Stiles went and accused me of seeing his place on the list, and isolation, as an opportunity to get rid of him with you or anyone else not being the wiser. I figured that the pendant would be a good way to start building a bridge between Allison and I with Stiles."

The original grudge between Stiles, Allison and her father. The anger and blame he still carried for everything that happened during the Kanima's rampage even when it wasn't their fault as they had been lied and used by Gerard. A situation which Scott could empathize with now as Theo had lied and used him in the same way.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay, Scott, You don't have to apologize for him," he said, waving it off. "I don't blame him or his father. To tell the truth, they both could've been very right. With my motives and their evidence, I could honestly see myself being guilty and doing what they accused me of. Though it seems that the Sheriff holds me fully responsible while Stiles holds both me and my daughter equally responsible."

"You and Allison were tricked. He's got to know that wasn't any of your-

"Yes," Chris cut Scott before he could finish. "It was. I threatened him and his father. Allison shot and poisoned him. Then we kidnapped him, chained him up and left him to be tortured and killed. Scott, being deceived and manipulated to do something to others doesn't mean that you're not liable. You still made the choice to do those things and your actions still impacted the lives of the people you were set against. Learning the truth of the deception and manipulation doesn't magically change or lessen anything that you did. Or mean that no fault lies with you."

Scott felt himself be rooted to the spot. For a moment there, it almost felt like Argent wasn't talking just about himself and Allison, but to him. Gerard tricked Allison into hurting Stiles, he'd always accepted that. Still did. Yet...she still hurt him. Scott remembered his dive into Stiles' head where he saw him chained up in the Argents basement, stabbed and bleeding, hearing Allison's voice proclaim that Scott would support her. Which he did. Then he remembered what he heard Theo say to Stiles back at his house. How Scott wasn't his best friend as he didn't even fight for him. Had just believed Theo's lie without a doubt just because his heart rate had been steady during his story about him and Donovan. He remembered that Stiles had been through the same thing with Kate. She had lied and spun a story about Scott, but Stiles hadn't believed her, even though she had made sure her heart rate had been steady.

It was a test, a test of friendship. One that they both took and it's clear that Stiles passed with flying colors and Scott flunked stupendously. Why? Why had Stiles not believed Kate for a moment but he had believed Theo so easily? Scott then remembered that Lydia, Liam, and probably Malia had felt something, pain, in their heart when Scott had cast Stiles out. Had he hurt them all too? Was he really just as much fault as Theo in all of this, he didn't know. But the one thing that Scott did know was that he had to find a way to make this right.

Scott had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't realized that Argent was still talking.

"I liked to think we were making progress. I know it took a lot for Stiles to admit all the things he did, to me of all people. How he's still dealing with everything from that night, and from his possession."

Scott tensed up. "Wait, still? What are you talking about? Is something still wrong with Stiles?"

Chris sighed. "I think that's something you and he need to talk about." He then moved and grabbed the pendant's chain. "What I don't get is why Stiles would do this. This doesn't feel like it was meant to be malicious. It's feels more like lashing out."

"Like Stiles lost control," Scott said with a nod.

"Which you don't sound very surprised about. Scott...what's going on?"

Scott moved and took the chain and crushed pendant from him and looked at it for a moment before pocketing it again. "A lot more's happened over the last few days then I got to tell you over the phone.

Hayden was sitting tensely at the bench in the Sheriff's station as everyone around her was moving around in a frenzy. After she had led her sister and her fellow deputies to the bodies, she had insisted on her coming to the station for her to fill out an official statement. That was all part of the plan. Yet, what wasn't was seeing Liam and Mason there. The looks on their faces as they had seen her. It was like they didn't know what to make of her. To be honest, she didn't know what to make of herself either.

"Hayden," her sister said suddenly, snapping her out of her thoughts. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just a little tired that's all. Are you going to take me home yet?"

"Unfortunately there's still a lot more to do about all this. And with the Sheriff gone and Parrish missing, we're kind of stretched here."

"I can get home by myself," she said insistently. "You don't have to worry about me."

"Seeing as how you found over half a dozen bodies out in the middle of the woods, I can't help but worry."

"Valerie," Hayden moaned.

Her sister looked at her for a moment and then deflated. "You're lucky I'm too tired to argue with you right now. Fine, but go straight home. And call me as soon as you get there."

She nodded and then moved to head on out. Hayden barely made it ten feet from the door when she sensed that she wasn't alone.

"Well, how did it go?"

She looked over and saw Theo Raeken step out of the shadows and flanked by Tracey, Josh and Corey.

"It went fine. I did and said exactly what you told me."

He nodded. "Good. That should keep everyone busy for a little while."

"So, what happens now?" asked Josh.

"For now, Hayden you go home. Corey, Josh, you too. Tracey you stay with me though." Seeing as how she was implicated in the death of her father, she didn't really have a home anymore.

"And then what?" asked Corey.

"And then you act like everything is fine. I'll tell you what happens next when you need to know. And stay away from Scott and Stiles. You leave them to me. Got that?" he said, dropping his voice a bit and his body tensing up in a threatening tone.

The four of them nodded and they all started to head off. Hayden stayed there for a moment, dreadfully recapping everything that had happened before she moved to run on home.

Stiles was sitting on Virgil's couch, looking over to where Virgil had left a bottle of beer on the coffee table in front of it for him as he was sitting on a squishy armchair across from him, sipping on a bottle himself. Things had been quiet between them for a few minutes, with Stiles looking at the bottle and Virgil looking at him. Stiles couldn't help but think that the only thing missing was the sound of a clock ticking by in the background.

Virgil finally broke the silence and looked over at the bottle on the table. "You going to drink that beer or are you just going to stare at it."

"It doesn't matter. I can't get drunk."

That made Virgil's eyes widen. "Can't get drunk?" There was then a slight pause and then Virgil snort. "Damn, that's really gotta suck."

Stiles let a laugh loose, just out of nowhere. "Yeah, you're definitely right. I think I only felt what it was like to get drunk, what, maybe one time." He then moved to take a sip of the beer and found that he didn't even feel a thing. "Oh, man would I like to be that way right now," he said mournfully through his laughs.

"Guess I'll have to get drunk enough for the both of us then," Virgil said, guzzling down the remainder of his beer.

It almost felt...foreign, to just laugh. After what has happened to him the last few days, it started to feel that he wouldn't even really smile again, let alone laugh. But it didn't last too long, and after it ran it's course Stiles found himself sobering up.

"I guess I just don't know where to officially start all this." The last time that Stiles went through something like this had been with his father over a year ago and he couldn't remember how he had started it then. All he could remember is having a chessboard handy and Cora there to help.

"Well, how about we start with the fact that you're a werewolf." That made Stiles stiffen up and Virgil rolled his eyes at him. "Oh come on, it's pretty obvious. Last night with the hair, teeth, claws, tail. Kind of a dead giveaway. And I've seen plenty of werewolf movies so,' he shrugged at that last part.

"Okay." That was easy. More easy than Stiles could've predicted and he couldn't help but feel a little tense from it. "You seem to be taking all this very well after only one night."

But Virgil narrowed his eyes. "One night? Honestly, I've kind of had a bit of hunch something's been going on for quite a while now. A two year spike of animal attacks, mysterious accidents, murders and deaths. Not to mention people going off about big animals running through the streets, hearing howls through the streets at night and people swearing to have seen man lizards and shadows of disappearing giants. It's not exactly hard to start thinking that there's something going on in this town. Last night just finally helped to fit the pieces together."

When Virgil put it like that, Stiles guessed that it shouldn't be so surprising. He could see himself coming to the same conclusion after all this time if he hadn't already been in the thick of it from the start.

"Well, this is actually easier than I thought it would be."

"Hey...can you show me? You know-"

Stiles let out a big sigh. He had seen this coming, but he found himself not minding at all. Stiles blinked his eyes and then let them flash their bright blue glow before his face started to slowly shift and soon enough, Virgil was staring at a shifted werewolf. His eyes looked over the pointed ears, the newly grown fur sideburns, pointed nose, fangs and he saw that there were claws at the ends of his fingertips. Stiles then scrunched his face as he then moved to shift himself back to normal. Virgil just sat there, stiff and staring even though the image was gone.

"You good?"

Virgil began to blink as he began to take deep breaths. "Uh, yeah. Just...whoa. Hang on, that's not what you looked like last night. You were less Lon Chaney, more Underworld."

"Yeah, well this whole thing is more complicated than Hollywood lets you think."

"Is it because last night was a full moon?" he realized.

"Maybe. Honestly, that was kind of new for me too. I don't even know how I did it or even what I did."

"Well, what you did was save my ass from whatever hell that thing that attacked the shop was. I mean it completely tore through the place, and everyone in it. I tried to get away but it caught up to me fast. It towered over me and was ready to rip me to pieces. I was goner, and then you went and showed up."

"I did?"

"Yeah, you threw that thing away from me before it could finish me off. I mean you were clawing, biting and crawling all over that thing like you were some wild-

"Beast," they both finished together.

"Yeah," Virgil nodded. "Exactly."

Stiles took a moment to take it in. It looks like he hadn't hurt anyone after all. That was a relief. But, what did? "This other thing, the one that killed all those people, what happened to it?"

"I don't know. I mean, I ran for cover as you two were going at it until it finally just took off and left you unconscious by a wrecked van. That's when I saw you turning back into, well you."

"This other creature. Was it like me?"

Virgil shook his head. "No, not really. That thing...it didn't like anything like you. It was, huge and horrible. Kind of like a demon from right out of hell."

Stiles then stood up from his chair. "I need you show me where."

Mason and Liam were over in Liam's room with Mason pacing around while Liam was sitting down on the floor at the foot of his bed.

"So, that was her, right?" Mason breathed out. "Hayden's alive."

"Yeah, she is," Liam mumbled.

"You were right," he gasped. Mason then froze in his pacing. "But, she was dead. I mean, we saw her. Me and Ms. McCall, we saw her die right in front of us. We brought her body to you and you held it. Right before Parrish took her away like all the others."

Liam was looking down at the palms of his hands, unsure of how to feel right now. It was all surreal for him. Hayden was really alive! These hands had only held Hayden's...cold and dead body just one day ago.

"But isn't dead," he mumbled.

"Liam, we have to tell them. Scott and the others."

"No," Liam said quickly.

Mason could see that Liam was still guilt-ridden from what he had tried to do to Scott. But this was something that they couldn't just keep to themselves. Especially when they didn't know what it meant.

"They have to know," he tried to say.

"I know!" Liam then let out a frustrated puff before he started to fidget a bit uncomfortably. "I know, yeah but...maybe they don't have know, not right now."

"And what if she's not the only one. I mean, we saw them. Hayden's body was just one of four that were missing from all the nemeton. Corey, Tracy, and Josh. They weren't there either. Does that mean they're back too?"

"I don't know!" Liam sputtered out.

Mason sighed as he watched Liam shrink into himself. Scared and confused, they wondered what they were supposed to do now.

Scott didn't see any lights on at the Stilinski house as he pulled into the driveway on his bike. It was passed three in the morning so he guessed Stiles must've been asleep now. After he got the spare key that Stiles hid, he let himself inside and moved up the stairs. He got to Stiles' room but when he flipped the light switch, he saw that there was no one there. Stiles hadn't come back home.

The place was exactly the same as it had been when he and Malia had come in here to try and track Noah Patrick down. When they were there, Scott had moved the crime board back to where Stiles had usually kept it as Malia had dug through the shredded papers and files until she found the list of potential chimeras that Stiles had made. Yet, the place hardly looked any better. Scott moved to try and tidy up some of the stuff that Stiles had thrown off his desk like his computer, lamp and printer. As he moved to pick up the comforter from his bed, Scott noticed that there were some broken pieces of glass on it. He then saw that there was a shattered picture frame off to the side. Picking it up and brushing the clinging glass aside, he saw that it was the photo of himself and Stiles that Stiles liked to keep over on top of his dresser.

He took a moment to let himself look over how they looked here. In their lacrosse uniforms, on the bench, smiling over at the camera. Before chimeras, nogitsunes, kanimas, hunters and werewolves had come into their lives. As he stared at their smiling, carefree faces, Scott's jaw started to harden up and he then let out a hard roar as he moved and threw the frame across the room where the rest of it shattered apart.

Chris Argent was sitting in front of Melissa, shirtless, as she was looking over his arm where there were large but faded scars from Stiles' claw marks were dug in. At a part of his bicep, her thumb and forefinger were applying pressure, going up and down his arm. He was mildly flinching as she pushed down.

"How bad does it hurt?" she asked him as she sent another gentle push.

Chris just let out a deep breath. "It just stings a little bit. I've just been feeling an ache every now and then and yes, I have gone to the doctor, but I just wanted to have a second opinion, that's all."

"Really? Well, given your x-ray, the nerve damage should be causing you a lot more pain than an ache," said Melissa, looking over to where an image of Chris' arm was hanging. "Especially considering the added stress you must've put on it tonight."

"Yeah, well it looks works than it is."

"Right, and I guess it helps when you drug yourself too." That made Chris stiffen as he caught her eye. Melissa rose her eyebrows at him. "Come on, you think I wouldn't notice the injection mark you have over the vein." She then ran her gloved thumb over where there was a small bruise there. "I'd say a fresh injection was made a few hours ago."

"It's not drugs. Just a little something I made to make sure I don't distracted or slowed by the pain."

"Pain suppressants are a drug. How often do you take it?"

"Not all the time," he quickly defended. He could see that she thought he was becoming an addict, like the previous doctor had thought. "Just whenever I need to do something strenuous. And given the three Frankenstein knockoffs that I had to help face down that managed to toss aside two local alphas and their packs so easily, I couldn't afford to be delicate."

Melissa drew in her lips a bit. "You know, instead of trying to suppress it, you should consider looking into getting this operated on."

But Chris shook his head. "If it was just physical, then yes, I could. But when Stiles did this to me, he had been poisoned by my father's special wolfsbane toxin. It seeped into his claws and he imbedded it into both the nerves and the bone of my arm. No operation will remove it. Besides, I can't run the risk that it will make me unable to fight the way I need to, like I had to tonight."

Her face then softened. "Thank you, by the way. For coming and helping Scott and his friends."

He nodded. "When Scott called me, he told about that the Dread Doctors had been causing. Though, he neglected to tell me about everything that's been happening. I honestly don't know if I'll even be able to make much of a difference."

"It still terrifies me. My son was dead. And this wasn't some trick or plan of his. He had been attacked by his friend Liam trying to kill him before Theo came and finished the job." Her voice then began cracking. "If Scott wasn't the alpha, he could still...actually be-"

She went and started to break into silent tears as she turned away to begin weeping at the horror of the concept. A moment later, she felt an arm wrap around her and she turned as Chris moved to pull her into his embrace.

The van pulled up in front of the auto shop and Stiles got out of the driver's seat with his eyes wildly going left and right, taking in the scene. The whole area was quiet. It may be the dead of night but there wasn't any sign of any far away cars or even the sound of crickets. It was like everyone and everything was avoiding this place. As for the actual auto shop, it looked like a bomb had gone off. Several bombs. There was a turned over minivan with windows shot out right in the middle of the front parking lot. There was also a gigantic hole at the side of the building with debris scattered about. The smell of blood was also thick in the air.

Virgil got out of the passenger seat and moved to look over at where he had been at the mercy of that monster. He could remember feeling its warm, putrid breath as if towered over him and prepared to kill him. He then gasped as he felt a tap at his shoulder.

"Ah," he jumped but settled down when he saw it was just Stiles.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just-"

"Yeah," Stiles mumbled. He got it. The anxiety coming off Virgil was intense. Less than a day ago, he had almost died here. "This is where it happened?"

He nodded and then pointed over at the spot. "That's where it had me. Right before you just came out of those trees over there and started going all out."

Stiles looked around and noticed a dark spot of dried blood nearby, though the scent didn't match Virgil. "Was there someone here?"

"My boss. That's where...he was a total ass but, no one should have to go like that."

"Wait, what happened to his body?"

"Well, maybe the cops got to them. I mean, it has been a whole day. There were like a dozen people here. One of them must've called 911 before-"

But Stiles shook his head. "No, if the cops had been here then there would be police tape and markers covering every corner of this place. But it looks like no one has been here in hours."

Stiles bent down and focused as he moved to run his hand over the darkened spot of pavement. He gasped as he was assaulted with a horrific scene of a man running for his life. His fear was so strong and only got stronger the moment before he was mauled by a colossal monster. He started coughing as he came back into himself.

"What the hell?" Virgil said moving to help Stiles to his feet.

"I saw it. That thing, as it killed him. Sometimes, when people's emotions are strong enough, it leaves an imprint or a scar behind that I can tap into and see what had happened to cause it. That guy was running for his life and was about to die so his fear was strong enough to easily let me see what happened."

"Okay, if I wasn't freaked out I would think that was kind of neat."

"I saw it. That creature."

"Was it a werewolf too?"

Stiles didn't answer. He wasn't sure what that was. Yet, for some strange reason, Stiles couldn't help but feel that it looked familiar.

They went inside and further checked the place out. Just like outside, the inside was a wreck. There were claw marks on the hoods of some of the walls and even cars inside. One car had the roof caved in where Virgil explained that whatever attacked had jumped on top of it. The smell of death was thick in this place. Blood was splattered everywhere and there also some puddles of it like the one of Virgil's boss outside. But, there were no bodies seen anywhere.

"Someone took the bodies."

"What? Who would come here and just take the bodies without telling anyone?"

Stiles narrowed his eyes. "I have a pretty good idea."

A mauled and torn up corpse was gently set down on top of a small pile of them as the collector looked down at them all with glowing, fiery orange eyes. The eyes of Jordan Parrish. His upper torso was also glowing with veins stretching everywhere like there was a fire just below the skin. The bodies seemed to be blending together so it couldn't really be said how many he had collected so far. He surveyed them all for another moment before he turned and moved to head on out. The dark part of him could feel that there were going to be much more for him to see to.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I hadn't been feeling well over two weeks ago and I had put a hold on my writing to recuperate. I'm feeling better though and I hope this chapter was worth this wait. Looks like Scott got a good slap of sense here, even if was indirect. Looking back, I think Scott's shortcomings come from the fact that everyone seems to try and cushion and protect him from the harsh realities and demands of life. They always want to console him or make him feel better. Honestly, I think that's what helped made him so easy to fold to manipulation and be fooled and used by so many people. The only character who's ever really tried to help Scott with being straight and forward I think has been Morrell. Leaders need the cold, hard truth from time to time or they won't be able to take care of and protect their team and people.