Chapter 17: Don't Get Comfortable

It had been a week. A whole week of nothing but dead ends. The only thing that they were closer to, was killing each other. Beacon Hills was small, but the Preserve that surrounded it was anything but. The whole probably-being-hidden-by-magic thing didn't help either. According to Jeremy, Bonnie had done a locator spell with no luck. In truth, the young hunter had reached out to another witch Bonnie knew, one that was alive. She really had performed the locator spell, and it really hadn't worked. The witch tried every spell that Bonnie told Jeremy to have her try, all yielding nothing.

Lydia called Jackson every single day, like clockwork. She wasn't entirely pleased with being told to stay away for her own safety, but their arguments never went as poorly as Stiles and Scott's had. According to Lydia, Stiles was doing better every day, but he had yet to even text Scott. And Scott didn't message him. The further his best friend was from this, the better. And Allison - well, Stiles had pulled a Lazarus and Jackson had never had to call her, so she and Scott were keeping to their agreement. She needed time and Scott was comforted with her being out of danger, even if his heart was hurting.

Boyd was considered a runaway - again. Erica asked Stefan to compel her parents, and he did the same for Jackson's. Isaac was working on emancipation in between strategy meetings and trainings and search parties. Stefan helped. This wasn't his first underage supernatural and he had Liz in his back pocket to phone for advice. Besides, one story from Derek about the freezer and the beatings and Stefan was flashing back to his own berating and abusing father. And Scott, well, Scott got a phone call every day too. His mother was nowhere near okay with what was going on, but agreed her son was safer with the others. The Alphas had yet to make another move, and it was all Derek could do to remind his pack not to get too comfortable with the safety and silence.

Cooped up together in the remains of the Hale house had been doing little for the tension, and the tempers. They had agreed to make the move to Derek's loft after the first full day of no progress.

That had felt enough like giving up to Erica.

What next? They'd start going back to their lives? Leave Boyd to rot, or worse?

She couldn't stand it.

She was nearly a mile deep into the Preserve when she realized what she was doing. She didn't even remember leaving the building.

"You shouldn't be out here alone."

Erica whirled around at the vampire, arms crossing as she continued to stomp away.

"So, what? I need a vampire babysitter?"

"No. Isaac noticed you were gone and Derek sent everyone out to find you."

"I'm assuming 'everyone' didn't include your brother?"

"He left after the usual search this morning."

"Lucky him. Wish I could leave. This is driving me crazy. I can't breathe in there with everyone being so - I don't know. Look, you seem like a nice enough guy. Especially compared to your brother, who is a total douchebag, by the way. And Caroline is - well - sometimes her optimism makes me want to punch things - but she's - okay. And Jeremy, well, Jeremy's just adorable and I totally don't mind accidentally catching him coming out of the shower, but - none of you would be here if Elena hadn't been taken too. Jackson doesn't care. He just wanted to be a werewolf and listens to Derek because he's scared of him, and scared of getting taken too. Scott's just too good for, well, his own good. He'd help anyone. In the beginning, it was just us. Derek and me, and then Isaac, and then Boyd. Just us. But that's not the truth, is it? Because before Derek made us, he had Scott. And Isaac and Scott are pretty much best buds now. What about me? Boyd became my best friend. My first real friend. And what do I do? I get him kidnapped by a bunch of psycho-Alpha-jerks."

The two stood in silence for a long moment, Stefan letting the girl breathe.

"Look, I wasn't there, but from everything I've heard, what happened to Boyd wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was. Not that day, exactly. But before. I'm the one that was scared when the hunters were after us. I'm the one that convinced Boyd to leave with me. He wanted to be loyal to Derek, but we were each other's best friends, so he left, with me. And then we got caught by the Argents and were tortured - and then the Alpha pack came after us. I think that's why they kept targeting the two of us, because we got away that first time. We were only out there, because of me."

Stefan sighed, stepping toward her.

"These Alphas were already planning on going after Derek's pack before that night. They could have targeted any of you."

"But they didn't."

"Okay, they didn't. But does blaming yourself now, does that help Boyd? We all make mistakes, some of them deadly. Some of them we can never take back, no matter what we do to atone for them. You were scared. You wanted to survive. To live. You were a teenage girl who had just been tortured. Who was dealing with being this new supernatural creature and your biggest problems went from facing a chemistry test to facing death every day. You need to cut yourself some slack. Forget about the guilt and focus on getting Boyd back from those 'psycho-Alpha-jerks'."

Erica laughed at his echoing of her earlier sentiment until her shoulders straightened at the same time Stefan's hunched forward.

"Speaking of psycho-Alpha-jerks," Erica swallowed, fear evident in those wide eyes. "Time to hide?"

"Time to run."

The vampire grabbed the girl's hand and the pair sped off into the trees.

"Aren't we leading them straight to everyone else?" Erica shouted over the wind.

"They probably already know where we've been. They've just been waiting for one of you to go off alone."

"I didn't - I was upset - I wasn't -"

"Blame, remember? Isn't going to help us now. Keep moving. We can't fight them alone."

"How many did you hear? I counted three."

"Definitely three. Maybe four."

"Five."

The arm seemed to stem straight out from a tree as it seized Stefan's neck, sending both vampire and werewolf to a stumbling stop. They had been so focused on those following, they hadn't noticed the fifth attacker already in front of them.

Before either could react, the hand released Stefan, snapping off a branch and piercing the vampire's throat. Another branch broke through the small of his back, bending upward and barely missing his heart.

"That's enough!" A female voice hissed through his haze. "He doesn't want this one dead. Leave him. Take her."

Stefan slumped forward, but not before he watched as a pair of identical Alphas carried off a struggling and screaming Erica. He was just making to stand when a pair of strong hands gripped his head, twisting until bones snapped and the body fell.

"That was easy. Why are these things so feared by our kind?"

"Quiet, Aiden! Ennis had the advantage of a surprise attack. In a fair fight, that thing could rip your head off."

"Huh. Good thing we don't fight fair."

A/N: Skipped a whole week, I know. But it's not like anything interesting happened. There's a lot of stuff to still happen so sometimes I'm going to jump to keep up the pace.