Hi everyone! Thank you so much for all of the new follows and favorites, this is seriously amazing. I apologize for the slight delay, I actually just got back from my honeymoon! Updates should come a bit faster now, and things are about to start heating up.

Disclaimer: As usual, I own nothing from Vampire Diaries or Teen Wolf, nor any music that might be mentioned.

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CHAPTER 4

Around 8 in the morning, Annabelle heard a knock on the door and paused, stopping the punching bag as it swung back to her. She grabbed her water bottle and walked to the front door, opening it to reveal Isaac leaning against the wall.

"Isaac? I'm about to get ready to leave for school, what's up?" Annabelle said lightly, out of breath still from training.

Isaac took in her appearance, namely the lack of shirt and the way the sweat clung to her body and worked to stay focused.

"Mind if I hitch a ride to school with you?" he asked with a grin.

"What? Since when are you going to school?" Annabelle responded while stepping aside and letting him in.

"Since I convinced Jackson to take back what he said about me arguing with my dad the night he was killed," Isaac said easily.

Annabelle stared at him incredulously, not believing him for a minute. Then she saw his face light up even more and she let out an excited laugh.

"Are you serious? That's great!" Annabelle exclaimed while sweeping in for a hug. Isaac hugged her back closely, not caring about the sweat. She stepped back and grinned at him.

"I'm going to take a shower then, just sit tight," Annabelle said before running up the stairs and getting ready as quickly as possible.

Isaac and Annabelle walked into school together and he came with her to her locker before separating to meet up with Boyd. Annabelle walked into history in a good mood and sat down after waving to Stiles. He turned to her immediately.

"So my dad talked to Jackson and-"

Annabelle held up a hand and smiled at the boy as he glared at her hand.

"I already know, " Annabelle said matter-of-factly.

"Oh. Right yeah, you probably found out first I guess," Stiles said with a frown before turning back around. Annabelle frowned back, though he didn't see because it was at the back of his head, and tapped his shoulder. Stiles turned back around, eyeing her warily.

"I was thinking...Did you wanna come over tonight? Maybe look at those grimoires that I have for anything on the kanima?" Annabelle asked, trying to cheer Stiles up. It worked because his eyes lit up instantly and he said yes enthusiastically.

"Wait, won't Isaac mind if I come over?" Stiles asked, sobering up quickly.

"Why would he mind? And even if he does, it's not his place to care," Annabelle said with a raised eyebrow.

"Aren't you two together?" Stiles asked. Annabelle narrowed her eyes at him in annoyance.

"We're enjoying each other's company, that's it," Annabelle said, annoyance coloring her voice. Stiles opened his mouth to respond, but the bell rang before he could, which was probably a good thing because Annabelle would've ripped him a new one if he had said anything else on the subject.

Annabelle walked into chemistry with Scott and Stiles, annoyed when they stopped in the doorway to talk instead of sitting.

"Derek wouldn't kill her without proof," Scott said assuredly.

"So then he tests her like Jackson, right? But when and where?" Stiles responded with.

Annabelle cleared her throat pointedly and they looked at her. She simply nodded to where Isaac and Erica were slowly entering the room, smirks evident on their faces. Scott and Stiles immediately scramble to sit on either side of Lydia and Annabelle watches them before heaving a sigh and rolling her eyes at their antics. She turned and took a seat next to Allison, casting a wary look at Isaac before starting up a quiet conversation with Allison. He just grinned back at her before turning and giving Stiles and Scott a smug look.

"What's going on?" Allison asked quietly. Annabelle turned to look at her concerned face.

"Erica and Isaac are going to test Lydia to see if she's the kanima. Scott and Stiles are being spastic about it, as they do." Annabelle said coolly, leaning back in her seat as she watched Mr. Harris get up to start class.

"Einstein once said 'Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe.' I myself have experienced infinite stupidity," Harris said while not-so-subtly pausing next to Stiles. Annabelle rolled her eyes at the man.

"So to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're going to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one, or in Mr. Stilinksy's case, less than one. Erica, take the first station. You'll start with…" he trailed off as almost every hand belonging to a male student was raised. Annabelle scoffed at this, watching as Erica soaked in the attention with a smug smile.

"I didn't ask for volunteers. Put your hormonal little hands down.. Start with Mr. McCall," Mr. Harris said, and that was the first thing Annabelle actually appreciated that came out of his mouth all semester.

Mr. Harris switched everyone around until Annabelle was put with Stiles at the desk behind Lydia and the experiment began. Annabelle picked up the bottle of blue liquid and measured out the correct amount, pouring it into their beaker. She could feel the nervous energy radiating off of the boy next to her and she turned and peeked at him.

"Would you calm down? You're driving me nuts," Annabelle said sharply while looking at what the next step was.

"You need to do something, something witchy," he said quickly, practically bouncing in his seat.

"What do you want me to do? We don't even know how they're going to test her," Annabelle said quietly.

"Set Isaac's jacket on fire or something," Stiles said. Annabelle thought for a moment, giving a noncommittal shrug in response.

"Actually, I could do that," Annabelle said before pouring the sugar into the beaker next.

"Wait seriously?" Stiles asked with excitement in his eyes. Annabelle glanced behind her to see that Isaac had been listening the entire time, his eyes wide at the idea of being set on fire. Annabelle turned back to the front with a smirk and looked at Stiles.

"It's not like he doesn't deserve it with how he's acting...But I won't do it. It wouldn't exactly be inconspicuous," Annabelle said with another shrug. Stiles groaned loudly and Mr. Harris called for partners to switch. Stiles got up quickly and sat with Lydia, who shot him a disinterested look. Annabelle felt the air shift beside her and turned to find Isaac smiling at her as he settled in his seat. She raised an eyebrow and shot him a scathing look before turning back to the experiment.

"So what exactly is your plan here, hm?" Annabelle asked. Isaac just grinned at her before grabbing the test tube out of her hand and taking over. Annabelle stared at the ceiling in frustration for a moment before turning to make sure he didn't screw anything up.

"It's so much fun to keep all of you guessing about what we're going to do," he said with a small laugh.

"Stop that," Annabelle said bitterly while shaking her head, and Isaac looked at her questioningly.

"Stop trying to be the 'cool bad boy'," she said while looking at him with a disappointed expression. He leaned back in his seat and watched her carefully.

"You don't like bad boys?" he asked with a smirk. They didn't notice that Stiles had turned his head slightly and was watching them.

"The last guy I dated acted like a self-obsessed dick too and that didn't end well for either of us," Annabelle said with a hard look at Isaac. His eyes softened and he leaned towards her, placing a hand on hers where it sat on the table.

"It's just an act Annabelle, you have nothing to worry about," he said softly, his exterior changing to the sweet boy that she saw when they were alone. For a moment, Annabelle almost fell for it. Almost.

She leaned forward towards Isaac and gave him a cold smile back, eyes narrow.

"It was all an act for him too. It changes nothing," she said before ripping her hand from his and turning back to the experiment. He stared at her incredulously before sitting back again and not saying a word. Stiles turned back to the front quickly when Annabelle shot him a look.

Harris called for partners to switch and Annabelle watched as Isaac stood, pausing to look at her one last time, and took the seat next to Stiles and Scott took the seat next to her.

"You okay?" he asked with his usual kind eyes.

"You heard that huh?" Annabelle asked. He didn't respond, just shrugged and sent her a sad smile. They worked quietly, listening to the conversation happening in front of them.

"If you hurt one perfect, strawberry-blonde hair on her head, I'm going to turn your little werewolf ass into a fur coat and give it to her as a birthday present," Stiles threatened. Annabelle smirked at this as she worked.

"Really? Because I've never been to one of her big invite-only birthday parties. I did ask her out once though," Isaac explained.

"This sounds like the beginning of a heartfelt story. I'll pass thanks," Stiles said sarcastically.

"It was the first day of freshman year-" Isaac started.

"And you thought everything was going to be different in high school, but she said no," Stiles finished sarcastically.

"That's right. She even laughed and told me to try again when the bike I rode to school had an engine, not a chain," Isaac said with a bitter laugh. Annabelle winced at this, her dislike for Lydia growing.

"Unrequited love's a bitch. Maybe you should write about it in english. Channel some of that negative energy," Stiles said while gesturing wildly with his hands like he usually did.

"Nah I was thinking of channeling it into killing her. I'm not very good at writing," Isaac said while turning to Stiles with a handsome smirk. Annabelle froze at that in alarm, surprised that Isaac would want to go so far as to kill Lydia.

"And switch," Harris called out and Annabelle watched Isaac closely in disappointment as he sat next to Lydia. Stiles moved to go to their table and Mr. Harris stopped him in irritation.

"Now this last part of the experiment, I'm sure you'll all enjoy. You can eat it," Harris said with mock excitement a few minutes later. Annabelle watched as Lydia moved to take a bite of the sugar crystal from the experiment.

"Lydia!" Scott shouted while standing up. She stared at him in annoyance, stopping abruptly from eating the candy.

"What?" she asks confusedly.

"Um...nothing," Scott said before sitting back down. Lydia bit into the candy and nothing happened.

Well crap, Annabelle thought with irritation. If it was possible to like Lydia any less, Annabelle would.

"Derek's outside waiting for her," Scott said as they all rushed into Coach's office.

"You mean waiting to kill her?" asked Allison frantically.

"If he thinks she's the kanima? Then yeah, especially after what happened in the pool," Scott said matter-of-factly.

"But it's not her," Stiles said adamantly.

"Stiles… She didn't pass the test. It's gotta be her," Annabelle said softly, placing what she hoped was a comforting hand on his arm.

"It can't be her," Scott responded in denial.

"It doesn't matter, Derek thinks it's her. So either we convince him he's wrong or we figure out how to protect her," Allison said.

"Maybe there's something in the Bestiary to prove that he's wrong? I could also check my grimoires, see if there's a spell that can help reveal a person's true nature," Annabelle said quickly.

"That book is 900 pages and written in archaic Latin," Scott said hopelessly.

"Plus you have like 20 grimoires, there's no way you could find anything that quickly," Stiles added.

"I actually think I know someone who can translate the Bestiary," Allison said.

"And I know a spell that can narrow the search down in my grimoires, I'll leave early from school," Annabelle added.

"I could talk to Derek, maybe convince him to give us a chance to prove it's not her," Scott threw in.

"Okay great, what should I do?" Stiles said while bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation. There was silence as everybody thought for a moment.

"Go with Annie, she'll need help searching through those books," Scott said. Annabelle nodded in agreement.

"If anything happens, you guys let me handle it," Scott said shortly.

"What does that mean?" Allison asked.

"It means you can't heal like I do. I don't want you getting hurt," Scott said simply. Annabelle watched as Allison reached into her duffel bag and pulled out a compact crossbow, locking it into place with a flick of her wrist.

"I can protect myself," she told Scott with a meaningful look. Annabelle nodded and looked at the girl with a newfound respect.

When Scott and Allison started getting all weepy and gross, Annabelle turned to Stiles to go over the plan. She stopped short when she saw him grab the discarded crossbow, notching an arrow, looking at it in fascination. Suddenly, the arrow went flying towards Scott and he just barely caught it in time. Everyone was quiet as they watched Stiles slowly put down the crossbow.

"Sensitive trigger finger on this thing…" Stiles said quietly. Annabelle rolled her eyes at him before digging in her bag for her keys.

"Here," she called out to Allison before tossing the keys to her Miata at her.

"When you're done here, get Lydia and take her to my house. We can protect her there," Annabelle said before grabbing Stiles and turning for the door.

"Wait, I don't know where you live," Allison said quickly. Annabelle just smiled at her easily.

"Check your right jacket pocket at 3," she said simply before leaving Allison and Scott looking after her confusedly.

Annabelle and Stiles ran into her house, taking off their jackets and haphazardly dropping their bags by the front door.

"Okay so what are we gonna do?" Stiles said when they faced the wall of grimoires. Annabelle simply closed her eyes and held her hands up, palms facing the books. She muttered what sounded like Latin to Stiles and after a moment, 5 books flew out of the bookcase and opened, causing Stiles to jump.

"Witches are creepy," he said before grabbing a book and looking at the page it had opened to.

Annabelle only smiled at him before grabbing a book herself and sitting on the arm chair, lighting a fire in the fireplace with her mind. Stiles jumped again at that before sitting in the other arm chair, leaning away from the roaring fireplace.

They flipped through the books for the next half hour quietly, occasionally showing each other different spells. At one point Annabelle thought she saw a spell, but it turned out to be a dud. She sighed heavily while slamming the 3rd book shut and tossing it on the floor in frustration.

"Hey did you know there's a spell to turn salt into sugar? Might be good since you put a ridiculous amount of sugar in your coffee" Stiles said jokingly, holding up the book to show her. She shook her head at him with a fond smile before standing and grabbing her book bag. She came back and sat on the floor in front of the fireplace, tearing a piece of paper from one of her notebooks and scribbling her address on it. Stiles watched her, coming closer to see. Annabelle crumpled the piece of paper and held it delicately in her hand, imagining the note in the pocket of Allison's jacket. With a whoosh, the paper disappeared from her hand and Annabelle opened her eyes again to see Stiles' confused expression.

"So cool," he murmured to himself. They sat and chatted for a while, Annabelle asking about Stiles' childhood, listening to him talk about his mom. He clearly missed her desperately and Annabelle was sad that someone like Stiles had to live through losing his mother. He didn't deserve that.

10 minutes later, her door slammed open and Allison was pushing Lydia and Jackson inside. Stiles immediately stood and went to the door, locking every lock and glancing outside worriedly. He turned back to the girls and saw Lydia's confused expression.

"There've been a few break-ins in the neighborhood. And a murder. It was bad," Stiles said in explanation of his weird behavior.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Annabelle said with a pointed look at Jackson. He glared back at her and didn't say anything.

"He's here to help," Allison said placatingly. Annabelle just narrowed her eyes at him before grabbing the grimoires and placing them back on the shelves.

"Lydia follow me, I need to talk to you for a minute," Jackson said suddenly, leading her up the stairs.

"Not my bedroom," Annabelle called up after them.

"Uh guys," Annabelle heard Stiles say shakily.

She came up behind him and glanced out the window, noticing 4 silhouettes watching her house. She narrowed her eyes as she recognized Isaac standing among them. He made eye contact with her and a flash of doubt showed in his eyes, but Annabelle ignored it. She stepped back from the window and turned to Allison.

"Call Scott," she ordered.

Allison, Stiles, and Annabelle paced in front of the front door and Allison pulled out her phone again.

"What are you doing?" Stiles asked her.

"I think...I think I have to call my dad," Allison said with worry.

"But if he sees Scott with you… You and Scott-" Stiles started.

"I know, but what are we supposed to do? They're not here to scare us, they're here to kill Lydia," Allison said hopelessly.

"I've got an idea, just shoot one of them," Stiles said quickly.

"Are you serious?" Allison asked in surprise.

"We told Scott we could protect ourselves, let's prove that to him," Annabelle said, agreeing with Stiles.

"Which one?" Allison responded with.

"Derek, shoot him. Preferably in the head," Stiles said without a second thought.

"No way, an alpha can easily catch an arrow. Go for Isaac, he's their next best fighter," Annabelle said with narrowed eyes.

"...I don't see him," Allison said after peeking outside.

"What?" Annabelle said before pushing her aside and looking for herself. Sure enough, Isaac was gone and Annabelle just barely caught the smirk on Derek's face. There was a commotion behind her and Annabelle turned to see Isaac grab Stiles and toss him against the bookshelf, grimoires falling on top of him.

"Great," Annabelle muttered sarcastically as Allison raised her crossbow, only to have it knocked out of her grip. Isaac grabbed a handful of her coat and threw her across the room. He turned to Annabelle and stopped abruptly, sizing her up. They looked at each other for a moment before they both scrambled for the stairs. Annabelle got there first, hopping onto the first step and glaring at him challengingly.

Stiles shook off the books and turned to watch the showdown.

"I don't want to hurt you," Isaac said with his hands out in surrender.

"Good, that'll make this easy," Annabelle said before kicking him directly in the chest. He stumbled back, but before he could recover Annabelle followed him and landed two quick punches to his abdomen.

Isaac groaned before reaching out to grab her. She spun and ducked underneath his arm before shoving him into the wall of the kitchen. He recovered faster this time and turned towards her again, seeming to take the fight a bit more seriously. He came at her and she ducked and tried to kick his legs out from underneath him, but he grabbed her by the wrist and spun her into a chokehold. She tried to pry his arm off but he was stronger than her.

"Annabelle please, stop," he said desperately. Annabelle didn't listen, instead hooking her ankle around his and flinging both of them onto the ground, landing on top of him. She scrambled out of his grip and turned quickly only to find that Isaac was knocked unconscious. She sighed in relief before leaning against the wall and keeping her eye on him.

"Are you okay?" Stiles almost shouted, running over to her and checking her over. She pushed him away, breathing heavily with her hands braced against her knees.

"I'm fine Stiles, don't worry," she said slowly. Just then, Scott ran into the kitchen.

"What's going on? Where's Allison?" he asked in a panic. Annabelle turned and searched the room, not noticing that Allison had disappeared.

"She went upstairs to check on Lydia. You should go check on her," Stiles said, not taking his eyes off of Annabelle. Scott ran upstairs, not needing any convincing to check on Allison. Annabelle and Stiles stared at each other for a moment before laughing quietly.

"That was awesome," he said to Annabelle with a grin. She smiled back at him and went to go get some water. Scott walked down a moment later with Erica in his arms and Annabelle watched as he opened the door and tossed her onto the yard. Annabelle set her glass down and walked to the door, standing on the porch and watching Derek's reaction as Isaac was also thrown at his feet.

"I think I'm finally getting why you keep refusing me Scott. You're not an omega. You're already an alpha of your own pack," Derek said with a hint of respect in his voice.

"But you know you can't beat me," Derek finished.

"We'll see about that," Annabelle said quietly. Derek glanced at her with mild irritation, no doubt remembering her frying his brain.

"We can hold you off until the police get here," Scott said as the sounds of sirens in the distance reaffirmed his statement.

Suddenly there was a scurrying sound and Annabelle looked up to see the green lizard from the other night climbing on the side of her house. The kanima makes eye contact with the others and gives a terrifying shriek before darting off into the night.

"The bastard scratched the paint on my house," Annabelle said first, breaking the silence.

Isaac and Erica had regained consciousness at this point and Derek turned to them, ordering them to move. Just as he was about to leave and chase after the kanima, Lydia runs out the front door.

"Would somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" she said with tears in her eyes.

Everyone stared at her for a moment before turning to look at where the kanima disappeared to.

"Jackson," Scott whispered.

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