Soul of the Night
Chapter 6 – Guilty Conscience
Walking a few steps behind Derek through the woods, Sam had her arms wrapped around herself, clutching onto Derek's jacket that he'd give her out of his car when they left the bank.
Her clothes had been badly shredded in the fight against Boyd and Cora.
Sam's eyes drifted up to the full moon shining brightly through the parted clouds in the night sky.
She'd been so lost in her head that she hadn't even realized Derek had come to a stop to answer his phone until she slammed right his back.
With a groan and a stumble from the impact, Derek shot her a look over his shoulder to which she gave him an apologetic look.
"You lost him?"
Derek said into the phone.
Sam blew out a heavy sigh and leaned back against the rough bark of a nearby tree.
Rubbing her hands over her face she tried to focus her senses.
They were out there trying to track Boyd and Cora, stop them before they maimed or killed anyone.
Or at least that's what Sam was trying to do -but the current majority of her focus was on keeping her own animal side under control.
That; and trying to ignore the anger she could feel coming off Derek every time he looked at her.
"Sam and I are at trails by the entrance to the preserve, can you meet us here?"
Derek asked Scott over the phone.
When she heard the phone call end, Sam shifted on the loose dirt and leaves under her shoes.
She didn't have to face him to know Derek was damn neared staring a hole through her.
"What?"
She relented, looking up and meeting his gaze.
Derek shook his head from side to side then looked away.
For a minute Sam thought he was going to give her the silent treatment until he finally said, "I don't get it. You walked right into that bank, Sam. Right through the front door -by yourself. After you texted me and lied that you were going home."
"I didn't lie." Sam defended, "Not intentionally at least."
"That makes it so much better-"
"I saw Allison's car at the bank!" Her voice raised, "I just didn't want her getting herself killed. And in my defense, she's the one who walked right through the front door first."
"Yeah?" Derek's brows raised, "So you thought, what? You'd just follow her inside and walk right into a trap?"
Her jaw tensed and she bit back the urge to point out that he'd punched his way through a wall right into the very same trap.
"But I should have known," Derek dropped his arms down to his sides, "I mean you didn't listen to me last year when Isaac got arrested and you walked right into the police station after I told you hunters would be there!"
"Well, Derek, maybe you should start trusting me enough to let me in on these plans so I can with you instead of having to take off on my own."
Her human blue eyes started to glow their werewolf blue.
Derek's eyes fell to where her hands were clenched into fists at her side, blood running from between her fingers as her claws cut into the palms of her hands.
He didn't want to fight with her for many reasons, not only was it a full moon which caused all emotions to be heightened -especially negative ones; but they also needed to put everything they had into finding the two betas.
"It's not a matter of not trusting you," Derek stepped closer and lowered his voice some, "You know I trust you -above anyone else."
His head tilted to the side with an expression like she should have known that.
"I do know that." Sam's shoulders sunk with guilt.
She didn't even know why she'd said that.
Moon influence and wanting to pick a fight?
Taking a shot at him that she knew would hurt?
"I know it's not about trust." She reiterated, "But Derek, come on. You don't want me getting hurt, I know."
Her expression softened from the angry scowl she'd been wearing, "But when you're out on some mission risking your life for our pack, it's not fair to expect me to wait it out. We're stronger together anyways."
She had a point. The entire purpose of his building his pack, to begin with, was to gain power, they were stronger together.
But things were different when it came to Sam, they always had been.
He was more protective over her for obvious reasons -and not having a clue what was going on with her lately, had him not just worried but scared.
Scared of losing her in one way or another and maybe the need to protect her was clouding his judgment of the bigger picture.
~()~
"I don't get it." Isaac said with a shrug as he stared down to the footprints in the mud, "They didn't even know each other, why would they be sticking together?"
"They were locked up for months together." Sam exclaimed with her arms tossed out to the sides as she looked at him, "They probably got pretty close during that time."
Isaac shook his head and looked around, his gaze stopping on Scott's back as the werewolf stood facing away from the group while talking on the phone with Stiles.
With their heightened hearing they were able to hear Stiles on the phone, saying that Lydia found a body at the local pool. The victim had his throat torn open.
"Throat ripped out. Blood everywhere. It's like the freaking Shining over here. If two little twin girls come out of the woods and start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not going to be surprised."
When Scott ended the call and turned back to face them, Derek said, "It doesn't make any sense. The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods, we haven't tracked them anywhere near there."
"Derek, they killed someone."
Scott repeated.
"How are they moving that fast?" Derek continued.
Sam nodded her head in agreement, "They can't be moving that fast on foot!"
"Guys!" Scott raised his voice to get their attention, "I saw Boyd nearly rip apart two little kids earlier."
"What was this guy even doing at the pool so late?" Isaac questioned, earning a dumbfounded look from Scott who stammered, "I… I don't… does it matter?"
When none of Derek's pack answered him, Scott tried to drive the point home, "Some completely innocent person is dead and it's our fault!"
Derek's arms dropped from where he'd had them crossed over his chest to hanging limply at his sides.
The only person he felt was to blame for this was himself.
He'd first starting feeling like a failure as an alpha when two of his four betas decided skipping town sounded better than sticking around to fight the hunters with him.
Then they'd gotten kidnapped by the alpha pack; which he also felt guilty for.
Word spreads pretty fast whenever there's a new alpha and he felt like he should have anticipated something like this.
Not to mention he hadn't even known his own younger sister was alive.
"It's my fault." Derek vocally accepted all of the blame.
Sam's heart sank at the look on his face. He was hurting, being eaten up by regret.
Reaching down, she took his hand and intertwined their fingers, leaning softly against his side as she did.
Derek looked over to her, another jolt of pain hit him right in the core.
He was pretty sure she had barely slept in more than a week, it seemed like the pills Deaton had given him for her hadn't helped -though she'd tried to pretend like she was asleep.
He had no idea how she was still even standing at this point, let alone managing to keep in control under the full moon -and yet there she was, trying to comfort him.
"We need help." Scott reasoned with them.
"We've got Isaac." Sam reminded him, nodding past Derek to where her pack-mate was standing.
"I mean real help," Scott argued without realizing how it sounded until all three of them shot him a look.
"They're too fast for us." Scott continued to plead his case, "Too strong… too rabid-"
"We'll catch them," Derek said confidently and Sam nodded in agreement.
Scott let out a sigh as he looked at them, his eyes falling to their joined hands for a brief moment.
He knew usually Sam could be easier reasoned with than Derek, or anyone else in her pack for that matter -but she was either going along with whatever her alpha said, or whole-heartedly believed what he was saying.
"What's the plan if we do catch them?" Isaac questioned, "We hold them down until the sun comes up?"
He swallowed down a laugh at the idea.
"Maybe?" Sam shrugged.
The truth was she had no idea what they'd do if they managed to catch them both.
"Maybe…" Derek repeated Sam's words but then considered, "Maybe it would be easier just to kill them."
"What?" Sam gasped, No!"
"Killing them isn't the right thing to do." Scott protested.
"What if killing them is the only thing we can do?" Isaac asked.
"You're saying you want to kill Boyd, really?" Sam's nostrils flared with anger at the idea.
"What about the other one then?" He pushed.
"No!"
"We don't even know her, Sam." Isaac pointed out.
"Oh my god, Isaac." Sam motioned with her free hand towards their alpha, "She's Derek's sister! We're not killing her."
"I mean he already thought she was dead this whole time, right?" Isaac countered.
Scott whipped his head back and forth, watching the two betas argue.
Then he looked at Derek who was staring up to the sky with a look of irritation on his face.
The back and forth was an all too regular occurrence with them both living at his loft.
"Fine!" Isaac caved, "We won't kill them, but what are we going to do? We've been out here for over an hour and didn't catch them."
"We find someone who knows what they're doing," Scott suggested.
Sam felt Derek's grip tighten on her hand when he asked, "Who?"
She had a pretty good idea they all already knew he was about to suggest Allison's dad.
"Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves," Scott answered.
~()~
"Tracking them by print?" Chris Argent guessed as he knelt down to get a closer look at the shoe prints in the mud that the wolves had led him to.
It had taken some convincing to agree to help them find Boyd and Cora.
Scott ended up taking him to the crime scene at the pool to get how serious the situation was.
In the end, he'd caved.
He'd lost nearly everyone in his family to this world in one way or another and he didn't want to see anyone else go through that.
Scott looked to the heavy bag of equipment that Chris had dropped to the ground, then back over to the shoe print as he admitted they hadn't been having much luck with the tracking.
"You've been wasting your time." The hunter informed them, "There's only one creature on earth who can visually track footprints and that's man. And if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's and these-"
"Are Cora's?" Isaac smugly guessed.
"Nope." Chris eyed him, "They're yours."
Looking down confused, Isaac tried to square his shoe up beside the print to see if that checked out or not while Chris continued, "You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here."
"Listen," Chris started as he rose to his feet, "I know the four of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon…"
His voice trailed off as his visual scan of the group stopped on where Samantha was swaying slightly, her hands clenching down at her sides.
"Okay, some of you might be focusing more than half..." He leaned down some trying to catch her line of sight as she was focused on staring at the ground.
"She's fine." Derek immediately defended.
"I've had control since my first full moon." Sam explained, but her voice came out with a growl as she added, "Thank-you-very-much."
"Yeah, but I mean lately with the nightmares and the-"
Isaac's eyes widened and he stopped talking when he saw both of them staring him down.
Awkwardly, he cleared his throat and scratched the side of his neck as he agreed, "Yeah, she's totally fine."
"Either way," Chris continued, "Using any of your energy for that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora who had fully given in. They've got the pedal to the floor while you're all barely hitting the speed limit."
"So what do we do?" Derek questioned.
"Focus on your sense of smell."
Chris explained that actual wolves are known to track their prey up to one hundred miles a day by scent.
That a trained hunter can reverse that and use scent to bring the wolves to them -right into a trap.
Sam listened as he told them they needed to remember they aren't tracking wild animals. That even with their human side dormant, it's still in there and Boyd and Cora would tap into it. Reminding them to mask a scent, cover their tracks, and how to survive.
"When was the last time you saw your sister?" Chris asked Derek.
"Not in years." He admitted, "I thought she died in the fire."
"You feel like you have a lock on her scent?" He questioned.
Derek shook his head no.
Glancing over to where Scott was standing, Chris asked, "Scott, how confident are you in your skills?"
"Honestly?" The teenager breathed, "Most of the time, I'm trying not to think about all of the things I can smell."
Samantha and Isaac both nodded in agreement with him.
~()~
After running full speed ahead, jumping up and flipping over a large tree branch, Sam landed perfectly on the ground and stabbed the ultrasonic emitter into the ground.
The plan they'd devised was to corral Boyd and Cora to the school, lure them in and then lock them down in the boiler room until the sun came up.
It was the only way they could keep everyone safe; both the people of Beacon Hills and the frenzied werewolves.
Sam was getting ready to press the button on the top of the emitter to sound off the high-pitched frequency noise but then she stopped when she realized she wasn't alone.
Slowly she rose to her feet and turned around.
Facing a seemingly empty patch of woods, but she could feel someone watching her from the darkness.
"I thought you were told to sit this one out, little wolf."
She heard Peter's voice before she saw him step out of the shadows into a clearing.
"Yeah, well, this has turned into an all-hands-on-deck situation." Sam adjusted her grip on the other ultrasonic device that she still needed to place, "You could help."
A smile spread over his lips. Expression distorted from the shadows cast down from the trees above.
"Why would I waste time doing a thing like that?" He questioned.
"Oh, I don't know…" Sam feigned a thoughtful look, "Maybe because your niece, Cora, is still alive."
With a sigh, she quickly followed, "But then again you killed your other niece, Laura, so yeah… Why would you care?"
Turning around she started to walk away but stopped when he called after her, "Coming from the one who killed her own father? What's that saying? You know, the one about glass houses and throwing rocks?"
Sam spun around her eyes glowing blue as she faced him.
His head cocked to the side, cold blue eyes coming to life to match hers.
Blinking back to her human eyes, Sam's face scrunched up as she asked, "What are you even doing out here?"
"Trying to find Derek." Peter answered, "Offer some words of wisdom."
Sam laughed.
"What?" Peter asked, forging a look of hurt, "Why is that no one ever wants to listen to me?"
"I don't know..." Another laugh slipped out as Sam shook her head, "Maybe because all of your plans usually involve killing people, Peter."
His expression fell, a look mirroring concern took over his features -but she didn't buy it for a second.
"You know better than anyone that sometimes that is the only way to ensure your own survival, Sam." He took a step closer to her, "Some people don't get it. They don't understand it. But real survivors, like us-"
"Nope." Sam took a step back, putting distance between them, "I'm nothing like you."
Peter watched her with squinted eyes.
She was so quick in that insistence. That she somehow had taken a higher road than him.
As if they both hadn't killed their own family members for self-preservation; for survival.
Sam turned to leave again. Determined to put distance between herself and Derek's uncle.
"Where are you going?" He called after her.
"To save Boyd and Cora." She answered over her shoulder.
When she looked back in front of her, she had to come to an abrupt halt to keep from running into Peter.
Backing up with an unsure expression she looked around them, "Leave me alone or I'll scream and-" She started to threaten.
"You could." This time it was Peter's turn to laugh, "And Derek would most certainly come running -but it would only cause him to worry about your sanity even more."
Holding a hand out to the side of his head, he spun his finger around, a silent gesture to call her crazy.
Glancing to the side with a thoughtful expression, he added, "Plus, I thought you wanted everyone's attention on saving Boyd and Cora."
Sam looked around again, the feeling of isolation creeping up like tree roots from the ground, ensnaring her limbs and crawling up her spine.
As Peter started to walk in a slow circle, Sam turned to follow him, not trusting to put her back to him for a second.
He smiled as he caught a scent from her; fear.
Though she was trying to hide it well.
"You don't think I'm going to hurt you… do you?" He questioned with an amused half-smile.
"I don't know." Sam answered honestly, "There's some reason you tracked me down in the middle of the woods -alone."
"Because I want to ask you something." Peter said, continuing the shark circling walk, "But it's hard to get you alone. You are always with my nephew."
Coming to a stop he shot her look and asked, "Is it even healthy to spend that much time with someone else?"
He smiled to himself at hearing the low growl under her breath.
These kids, he thought to himself, absolute open books.
They make it just too easy to get under their skin. They're practically asking for it.
"Ask." Sam's brow arched, "What is it you want to know?"
"Oh…" He blew out a breath, toying with her, "Are you seeing things while you're awake too or still just in dreams?"
The tough mask she'd been wearing cracked.
He heard her heart start to pick up speed.
"What?"
The word was more air than voice as it left her body with the remaining breath in her lungs.
She hadn't told anyone about that. Not even Derek.
"How long do you think it was between when you saw Erica be killed in your dreams and when it actually happened?" Peter stared her down, "A matter of days? A week? Long enough that you could have saved her if anyone would have taken what you saw seriously?"
Sam's head was spinning. Suddenly it felt impossible to force air into her aching lungs.
"What are you talking about?" She stammered out with a dry mouth.
"Now you want to talk to me?" He stopped walking and faced her, "When mere minutes ago you were threatening to scream."
"You know something, don't you?" Her chin quivered ever so slightly, "What's happening to me?"
With a smirk he tilted his head to the side, the shadows engulfing half of his face.
"Unlike everyone else, I don't think you're going crazy, Samantha."
"What's happening to me." She repeated. Trying not to let the desperation she was feeling show but she was doing a poor job at hiding it.
Her mind went back to the first time she'd ever met Peter when he'd showed up at the Hale house the same night Boyd and Erica had planned to leave town.
The comments he'd made, taunting Derek about his shortcoming as an alpha but making it a point to say the only thing he'd done right was turning her.
"Think about it," He pushed, "Imagine the kind of power you could hold. The sort of foothold you could get over your enemies if you knew their moves before they were made."
"Yeah." She barely managed to choke out, "Except that the nightmare I had when I saw what happened to Erica almost killed me. My body temperature dropped… Derek and Isaac didn't even know if I was going to wake up. It was hell."
"Hmm," He hummed rather apathetically, "Everything comes with a cost."
"You knew, didn't you?" Sam accused, "When I first met you… the comments you made-"
"Did I know something was different about you?" He interrupted, "Yes."
"But what makes you think Derek didn't?" Peter suggested.
"He didn't." Sam defended without a second thought.
"It all always comes down to power. The power he killed me for. The reason he started building his own pack." Peter continued, "You really think he didn't pick you for a reason?"
"He's not like you," Sam argued.
She wasn't sure why she hadn't turned and ran at this point.
She'd probably missed the time mark she needed to plant the second emitter, for all she knew they'd already trapped Boyd and Cora in the school and she was wasting precious time talking to Peter Hale.
"Maybe Derek hasn't told you everything."
Sam opened her mouth to argue with him again but before he could, Peter was ready with the next seed of doubt to be planted.
"Did he tell you what has to happen in order for him to join the alpha pack?" The moonlight shining down through the trees danced in his eyes, "What happened in that bank vault tonight was no accident. Deucalion set the stage for Derek to get rid of baggage. This is just a change of scenery." He motioned around them.
He could see it was starting to click. That she was realizing the point he was trying to get across.
"We're talking about a pack of alphas, Samantha. What did you think happened to all of those betas, hmm?"
Sam took a stumbling step back, trying to push everything away that he'd just told her.
She needed to talk to Derek.
She needed to help save her pack.
Taking a deep breath, braced herself for the pain, and triggered the ultrasonic sound emitter in her hand then stabbed deep into the earth.
Using the crippling effect it had on werewolves to her advantage as it caught Peter off guard and she made a break for the high school.
Running as fast as her legs would carry her and not wasting a single second looking back.
Getting in through a classroom window that had been left open on the first floor, Sam made her way down the stairs to the boiler room entrance.
Following the sounds of snarling and growling, along with a stomach-turning scrape of claws against metal.
Just another version of nails on a chalkboard.
She made it to the entrance of the room right as Scott and Derek both ran out so fast it nearly knocked her over.
Scott pushed her to the side as Derek slammed the door shut and locked it.
Turning around, Derek leaned against it as he tried to catch his breath and asked, "Where were you?"
"I-" She started to say.
"We barely got them in the school." Scott leaned against the brick wall and told her how Isaac lost them for a short time before they finally got them in the school.
"I'm sorry." Sam apologized looking between them.
Even if Peter had made it a point to corner her in the woods, she could have gotten away at any time.
Not only did she know better than to listen or trust anything he said, but Peter always had some kind of plan of his own, and keeping her there for so long was a part of it.
But at the same time, he was the first one who seemed to know anything about what was going on with her, and selfishly that had outweighed everything else for a short time until she came back to her senses.
"I got distracted." She excused, " I didn't get the second transmitter down like I should have."
"Distracted?" Scott looked confused, "By what?"
"It's not important." Sam shook her head, looking back to Derek as she apologized again, "I'm sorry. You were counting on me and I screwed up."
"It doesn't matter." Derek finally stepped away from the door now that the two betas had stopped trying to bust their way out, "You're here now."
He looked her over, "You okay?"
"I'm…" She started to say then stopped as she eyed Scott.
She wished they were there alone so she could ask Derek about the many things that his uncle had told her.
"Yeah." She managed a small smile, going for the simple answer and deciding she'd talk to him more when they were alone.
Derek's brows lowered but before he could question her further, his attention was pulled over to where Scott had his ear pressed against the boiler room door.
"What do you hear?" Derek asked.
"Heartbeats," Scott said.
"Both of them?" Derek could only hope at this point that they would turn against one another.
"Actually… three of them." Scott turned to face them.
The horror dawning on them all that they had just locked two bloodthirsty werewolves in with someone else.
Probably a staff member who was burning the midnight oil.
Derek walked up to the door, closed his eyes, and focused. He heard the same thing Scott did.
Three distinct sets of heartbeats.
"What are you doing?" Scott asked when he saw Derek start to unlock the door.
"Lock the door behind me. Keep it closed." He instructed.
"You go in there alone… you're either gonna kill them or they kill you." Scott tried to reason with him.
"Which is why he's not going alone," Sam spoke up as she stepped up beside Derek.
"Sam…" Derek started to say as he looked over at her.
He saw the spark of defiance in her eyes, knowing that he was going to tell her no.
But she was determined and the truth was she was right about them being stronger together.
"If I told you to stay out here?" He guessed.
"Not a chance. I'm coming with you." She asserted, "You get Boyd, I'll try to hold off Cora."
"Guys!" Scott's voice raised with panic, "They were getting the best of us at the bank."
"It's almost sunrise." Derek tried to make his voice portray some degree of hope, even if he wasn't currently feeling the most optimistic.
With another deep breath, he jerked the door open and darted inside before he could lose his nerve; Sam was right on his heels.
Scott slammed the door shut behind the pair and locked it like he'd been told.
Sam stopped beside Derek inside of the boiler room, the snarls and growls echoing back off the cement and metal of the room, sounded much more imposing than they did on the other side of the door.
"Sam?"
She heard Derek whisper beside her.
When she turned to face him, he caught her off guard. Pulling her against him and pressing his mouth to hers.
"I love you." He breathed out, their faces so close his lips brushed against hers when he spoke.
Sam's heart skipped a beat; maybe two as the danger really started to set in.
Possible last words. Death bed confession.
The air felt a little thicker than it did seconds before.
She reached up, her hands laying against where his were still resting on her cheeks, "I love you too."
A/N - Thank you so much for reading! I really hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
You can find chapter update posts and various edits to go along with Sam's story on my tumblr at: twofacedharveydent
I'd like to thank: xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, monkeybaby, Zella and SmellYourScentForMiles, for taking the time to review since my last update.
Getting feedback and knowing there is still interest in Sam's story is what keeps me motivated. So please, if you're liking the story so far, leave a review and let me know. ^_^