Chapter eleven: I stopped writing titles at this point

"This is a really bad plan," Scott said. The group, sans Stiles, was gathered at Allison's place around a table with the map of Beacon Hills on it. They were moving the evidence for the murder of Katashi, also known as silverfinger, which supposedly contained a scroll with information on how to exorcise a Nogitsune… all caught up?

"It's not that bad," Lydia said.

"It's not that good," Ethan added.

"It's really bad," Isaac said.

Truth is, it didn't really matter, because we only managed to succeed at step one of our plan: attaching a GPS tracker to the armoured vehicle. Kira had just put it on when Parrish, a new deputy, got out of the building.

From quite a distance away, hiding behind the cars in the parking lot, I could see him head for the passenger seat. "Okay, let's get out of here." Instead of getting in, he pulled out his gun and started looking around.

"We have to do something," Scott whispered as he started walking to the back of the car, towards Kira. Just then, the back doors of the van flew open, and a huge man jumped out, smashing Parrish's head against the floor of the van.

"Who the hell is that?" Scott asked, voicing my thoughts.

"Kincaid," Allison said.

Isaac shifted uncomfortably. "Previous assistant to Katashi. Werewolf." He, Scott, and Allison slowly snuck towards the van as Kincaid started rummaging through the evidence. Meanwhile, I flew up onto the sheriff's station.

"We're going to need that finger," Scott said, just as Kincaid held up a shiny piece of metal. Allison stood next to him, crossbow pointed.

Kincaid smiled. "Why should I give it to you?"

"There is a briefcase in there with 150,000 in it," Allison said.

"The scroll inside this prosthetic finger," Kincaid said, slowly putting the object in his pocket, "is worth three million." Behind him, Kira was slowly climbing onto the front of the van and making her way over the roof. Oh no.

Scott took a step closer. "Give me the finger." He closed his eyes and sighed. "You know what I mean."

Kira jumped from the roof onto Kincaid's back, but he easily tossed her off. He looked up, revealing fangs and glowing blue eyes. "I guess negotiations are over." He roared and leapt forward, flinging Allison towards a brick wall as Kira scrambled away. Isaac rushed after Allison to make sure she was alright. Kincaid turned to Scott, who fell to the ground within seconds of fighting.

"I see you have the eyes of an alpha," he said with a smirk, "but where is the strength?"

I was about to jump down when Ethan's voice called out: "Up here!" Opposite from me, the twins jumped off of the roof and started pummeling Kincaid. With a sigh, I flew down and landed right in front of him just as the twins had flung him into a corner. Using his disorientation to my advantage, I grabbed one of his arms and dug in my claws. Deep enough to make him feel it, but not enough to make him pass out.

"I wouldn't move if I were you," I whispered. I guess he was familiar with ravens, because he listened. I looked over my shoulder. "Scott?"

"I think he's got the message," Scott said, making his way over and taking the silver finger out of Kincaid's pocket. He nodded at me, and I pulled my claws back out. Ethan and Aiden looked ready to protest, but Scott stared them down. "We are here to save a life, not end one." With that, he took out the scroll and dropped the prosthetic to the floor.

~o~

The next day, the sheriff called and asked me to come to the Argents' apartment immediately. I was in the middle of research, but there was an urgency to his request that I couldn't refuse.

"What's going on?" I asked as Allison let me in.

"Eichen House called, Stiles has escaped."

I sighed, but wasn't surprised. "So what's the plan?" I asked this as I entered the study room, where the sheriff, Chris and Derek stood gathered around a table full of nonlethal weapons. I frowned at Isaac's absence, but there was an urgency in the air that didn't leave much room for questions.

"Our best shot right now is for Derek to pick up Stiles' scent at Eichen House," Chris said.

Derek shook his head. "We did this already. He disappeared, we followed his scent in an attempt to look for him, and then walked right into a trap at the hospital."

"He's getting us to repeat the same moves," Chris said.

Allison frowned. "So what do we do? Wait for him to come to us?"

"He still needs protection from the Oni," I said.

"Scott's working on that now, with Kira," the sheriff said.

"That's not what I meant," I said, "If he needs us, why not tell him where to find us? Skip this whole chasing game. If he is still Stiles, he'll just come to us. And if he's not… look, this thing wants to play games with us. The only reason he's still here is because he likes this. Us, trying to save Stiles."

"You're trying to outfox a fox?" Chris asked before shaking his head.

I smiled. "Don't forget: ravens are tricksters too."

But the sheriff shook his head. "We can't just do nothing." I looked around the room and saw the others agreed. I sighed.

"Fine. You go on your wild goose chase. I called Jason yesterday, I think I found something that might help us. Something that can trap a nogitsune. He's on his way now, I'm flying over to meet him halfway. If you do find Stiles, let me know. I will be there as fast as I can."

Another advantage flying has over driving: you can text while doing it! As long as you don't drop your phone. The group chat was active with updates and communication all day. The sun was already starting to set when I got the text asking me to come to Derek's loft.

And what a scene I walked into. The sheriff had a gun pointed at Chriss, who had a gun pointed at Stiles. Isaac was helping Derek get up from the floor, and Allison stood watching with wide eyes as the others all screamed at each other.

I let them be for a second as I took out what Jason had gotten for me: a pouch of ash from a Japanese epaulette tree. I grabbed a handful and flung it down at the door opening. It lined up perfectly, just like mountain ash did. That was one exit covered… now for the other one. When I looked to the opposite side of the room, where the exit to the balcony was, I saw that Stiles was staring right at me, but his eyes were cold. Deciding I didn't have a second to waste, I flew over the others and threw a second hand of ash in front of the door before I had even landed. I threw the rest of the pouch out, sighing in relief when the ash fell perfectly to align with the windows.

"I hope I didn't miss out on too much of the fun," I muttered as I threw the empty pouch on the floor.

"No," the nogitsune said, "the real fun is just beginning." As he spoke, the last rays of sunshine fell behind the skyline. "You see, you're not here to kill me." The shadows of the window panes began to shift and twirl together, forming four oni. "You're here to protect me."

"Big shocker," I muttered under my breath as I pulled out my own gun and fired at the oni closest to me. It turned and raised its sword at me. They say you should never bring a knife to a gunfight, but bringing a sword to one is honestly not that bad of an idea. Especially if bullets can kill you. As soon as the oni got into melee range, my gun was useless and I had to resort to using my claws. Considering the oni weren't even alive, those didn't help me much either.

I dared to cast a glance out of the corner of my eye, seeing that the nogitsune was still standing in the middle of the room. Not moving, just taking it all in with a smirk on its face. This millisecond of distraction was immediately punished by a well-aimed strike against my arm. The cut was deep, but nothing that wouldn't heal over time. I managed to keep the oni busy for another minute or so until it suddenly vanished. I looked around the room, seeing that all the oni were gone. Derek had a big gash in his back that was bleeding quite heavily, but the other seemed unharmed.

The nogitsune was standing in front of the door, with its back to the room. "Epaulette ash?" It scoffed. "Really?"

"You're still in the room," I said.

It smirked. "But for how long?" In the distance, I could hear a motorcycle approach the building. I took out my phone and called Scott, even though he probably wouldn't pick up anyway. Everyone was slowly inching towards the nogitsune, who didn't seem bothered by it at all.

"Don't get too close," I warned them, just to be sure. Then, my call connected. "Don't get into the loft!" In the hallway, I heard footsteps slow down.

"Why?"

"I put ash in the doorway that's keeping the nogitsune in, but it's standing right at the doorway. If you come through, it will just use you to break the line." That was what I would do, anyway.

Scott and Kira appeared on the other side of the door to the loft, but didn't get too close. "Now what?" He asked.

It took Isaac, Derek and Chris to pin down the nogitsune and hold it so I could use my claws to knock it unconscious. I knew it would probably fight it off much more easily than a human, but I didn't dare dig as deep as I would for a werewolf. As a result, there was no telling how long he'd be out. Allison started collecting the Epaulette ash, and Scott and Kira entered the room.

"Good job," he said, nodding at me.

"I'm just glad I didn't spend all those hours researching and a hundred dollars on nothing," I said, "What's the plan now?"