As we climbed out of Derek's car, Scott unlocked the door ahead for us. He was on the other side, allowing us in, but before he did, he had a question for our Alpha. "What are they doing here?" he demanded as Derek walked into the animal clinic, me and Isaac behind him. My arms were folded over my chest while Isaac had his shoved in his pockets. Neither of us were on board with this partnership, especially the part that involved letting Jackson live. But it was what our Alpha had decided, and as per my promise I was trying to support him. Even if it was a dumb idea.
"I need them," Derek answered.
"I don't trust them," Scott said, although I doubted it. And even if he didn't trust us, he'd work with us, and help us, if it was for the greater good. The guy was such a cliché good guy that it was beginning to make my teeth itch, just being around him and his goodie two–shoes friends.
"Yeah, well, they don't trust you either," Isaac shot back as we walked past him.
"And Derek really doesn't care," snapped our Alpha as well all walked through the open gate that lead behind the counter. Me and Isaac fell silent, though remained in our unhappy stances as Derek turned to Scott. "Now where's the vet? Is he gonna help us or not?"
"That depends," came a voice full of wisdom. I turned along with Isaac who was stood next to me, both of us finding a mysterious man stood in the door way that lead into the back room of the clinic. He had his arms folded like me, but that was probably the only thing we had in common. He was dark skinned, bald, a little facial hair around the mouth and chin, and had the sense of teacher about him. A teacher I might even had liked if he didn't seem so skeptical of me and my Pack.
The vet continued, "Your friend, Jackson. Are we planning to kill him or save him?"
"Kill him," Derek, me and Isaac answered.
At the same time, Scott answered with the contradictory, "Save him." At our opposite answers, Scott turned to us all and repeated, "Save him."
So naturally I repeated, "Kill him," smirking when Scott turned to glare at me. It really was that easy to push his buttons.
"Save him," Scott said again, more firmly. I went to repeat myself again, voicing my opinion, when Derek shot me a look. My mouth closed, and once more I began to pout, turning away from Scott and Derek. I should have known that promise I made him wouldn't have lasted, then again it's not like he was agreeing with Scott either.
"Save him," Scott repeated one more time, finalising it for his boss. Satisfied, the vet – who then introduced himself as Dr. Deaton, to those of us that didn't know him by name – lead us into the back room. He told us to gather around the examining table in the centre of the room. While he collected a tray filled with glass bottles, and strange markings on each of their twist on tops.
With us all on one side of the table, Deaton set down the tray, taking a single bottle from it. As he did, Isaac reached out to take one for himself, when Derek's hand shot out and grabbed his. "Watch what you touch," he said in a simple warning. At first I didn't understand, but upon closer inspection I saw a variety of things inside the bottles. There was powders, little stones, seeds and all sorts. And looking at the symbols on the lids reminded me of the chest Derek had with a similar marking on it, back at the lair. Clearly, this was all supernatural related, and having being told about wolfsbane, it didn't surprise me that there were other things in this world that could effect us, now that we were supernatural.
Which was probably why Isaac then asked, "So, what are you? Some kind of witch?"
Deaton looked at him skeptically, before answering with, "No, I'm a veterinarian." I grinned. If he wasn't so judgmental, I'd probably like this guy.
Letting the bottle he was holding slid back onto the tray before him, Deaton sighed. "Unfortunately, I don't see anything here that's going to be an effective defence against a paralytic toxin."
"We're open to suggestions," Derek replied.
"What about an effective offence?" Isaac cut in.
"We already tried that," Derek answered before anyone else had to. "I nearly took its head off. And Argent emptied an entire clip into it. The thing just gets back up," Derek then went on to explain for Deaton's sake, as the veterinarian began to frown.
"Has it shown any weaknesses?"
"Well, one – it can't swim," Derek answered.
"And while Jackson is Jackson he seems to be effected by his own venom," I added from next to Derek.
Deaton wasn't as interested in that though, focusing more on the swimming angle. "So it can't swim, does that go for Jackson as well?"
"No. He's the captain of the swim team," Scott clarified.
"Essentially, you're trying to catch two people," Deaton said before turning to grab something from one of his drawers. When he did, he turned back to us and held out a strange silver coin. It looked like something from Asia, maybe to do with buddhism. In the centre was a cut out of a man meditating surrounded by crisscross kind of partner that made up the edge of the coin. "A puppet," Deaton continued with his explanation, rolling the coin between his thumb and finger, making the figure inside the coin roll back and forth.
"And a puppeteer," I mumbled out as I watched.
"Precisely," Deaton said before setting the coin down on the table. "One killed the husband, but the other had to take care of the wife. Do we know why?" He was referring to the couple that had recently been murdered, the husband and wife. The police were stumped by it, but Scott and his friends had worked out that the Kanima had killed the husband, but for whatever reason hadn't been able to kill the wife. However, someone else had killed the wife who had been taken to hospital to deliver her baby. From the timeline of events that we'd worked out, the Kanima had killed the husband the same night it ran into me and Erica, although it was only after we encountered it, that it killed him.
Scott was the first one to offer up a suggested answer for Deaton's question. "I don't think Jackson could do it. His mother died pregnant too, and she was maybe murdered. I think he couldn't let the same thing happen to someone else." Made sense to me, but then Isaac brought up another good point.
"How do you know it's not part of the rules? The Kanima kills murderers."
Picking up on what he was saying, I continued with, "So he couldn't kill the wife because he'd be killing the baby, and the baby's not a murderer?"
"Yeah," Isaac said in agreement. "Or maybe the wife wasn't even a murderer?"
"Does that mean your father was a murderer?" Scott asked Isaac.
"Wouldn't surprise me if he was," Isaac said with a shrug.
Frowning, I then pointed out, "But that means everyone the Kanima has killed, has to have been a murderer, with the exception of the wife, who we're guessing the master killed him or herself. Isn't that quite a lot of murderers for Beacon Hills?" There was a silence around the group that suggested maybe that wasn't so unusual. I then reminded myself of the supernatural war between Hunters and Werewolves. "All right, but none of them are supernatural, so you're telling me all these people got away with regular old murderer?"
"Have you seen our police department?" Isaac asked mockingly before Scott gently whacked his arm in warning, shooting him a glare for bashing on his best friend's dad. I could see Isaac's point though. For years his dad had been beating him and nobody – not even the police – suspected anything. Add on the apparent cluster of human murderers supposedly in our town and I found it hard not to criticise the police force either.
"Hold on," Deaton then said, bring the conversation back to how to stop the Kanima as he turned to Derek. "The book says they're bonded, right?" Derek nodded. "What if the fear of water isn't coming from Jackson, but from the person controlling him? What if," he paused, picking up and opening one of the bottles with a fine grey-black powder inside. "Something that affects the Kanima…" Another pause as Deaton poured the powder around the coin on the table, making a complete circle around before stopping. "Also affects its master?"
"Meaning what?" Isaac asked, not quite getting it. Even I only got it a split second before Scott said it.
"Meaning we can catch them. Both of them." Deaton nodded.
"But how?" I asked, frowning. "It's not like trapping it in an enclosed space will trap its master. If that were the case then when Derek slit its throat the master should have died, right?"
"You're right, Dylan," agreed Deaton, as he lifted the bottle he'd just used. "Which is why we'll use this."
"And what's that going to do?" I asked cockily. He smiled a little, before setting down the bottle and gesturing to the coin on the table, still surrounded by the powder he'd poured.
"Try and take the coin," he said. I looked to Derek who nodded, giving me the go ahead. He wasn't giving anything away so I shrugged and went to grab the coin, only to find my hand unwilling to go any further forward. My frown deepened, as I tried to reach over the powder and get the coin, but my hand refused to move any further forward. It wasn't like there was an invisible wall or anything, it was just my hand wouldn't move across the line for whatever reason. I recognised the feeling, knowing I'd felt it somewhere before, but it wasn't as strong and that made it hard to place.
"It's mountain ash," Deaton explained, as he reached over the barrier around the coin and picked it up, dropping it into my hand. "When it forms a complete circuit, nothing supernatural can pass over it, in either direction."
"Meaning if we get both the Jackson and his master inside that ring before we close it–" Scott began to say.
"We'll trap them both," Derek concluded, satisfied that we now had a plan that would work against the Kanima. There was a little more discussion after that, about where we'd trap the Kanima and its master as well as other logistics. Such as the fact that only a human could lay the mountain ash barrier, meaning Stiles apparently.
The venue for our trap would be the rave that was happening tomorrow night, which according to Scott, Jackson was attending after acquiring tickets in a trance like state. Which lead to the assumption that the master wanted him to be there, and after his toy had failed to kill the wife, the idea was that the master would want to make sure the Kanima went through with its kill this time, by being there to supervise. Deaton also provided Scott with a drug to subdue Jackson, so that he wouldn't kill anyone while the barrier was put in place. The rest was left up to Derek to decide before the night, in terms of where he wanted us, his Pack. He said he'd have it finalised before the rave, and then we went home for the night.
I didn't inform Erica of the meeting until the car ride to school the next day. She'd known it was happening, but Derek hadn't wanted her to be there, just me and Isaac. And she'd been asleep when I got in afterwards, so the car ride was the first chance I got to tell her. Overall she seemed satisfied with the plan, but I could tell she was still scared of the Kanima, even if she refused to admit it. I was worried about her, especially after the seizure. She'd never expected that to happen again, none of us had.
We'd slept in her bed that night, she'd needed me and needed her own bed. She'd been better the next day and constantly improving since, but there was still a lingering sense of fear around her. The fear that her nightmare would come back. I was almost tempted to talk to Derek about it, but he wouldn't understand. Plus Erica wouldn't want to be left out, and she wasn't going to admit she was scared, not any more. So I'd just have to be an extra protective big sister if Derek sent her into the rave.
Once we arrived at school, the day went by fairly smoothly. Not much happened outside of a normal school day until lunch, when I gathered Erica, Isaac and Boyd and we all joined Scott and Stiles for lunch. This apparently came as a shock to them, making them both jump a little when me, Isaac and Boyd sat opposite them and Erica sat down next to Stiles on the other side. She shot him a smile, and after the initial shock, he smiled back – before he then remembered who she was and quickly shook himself. It had been enough, and I saw Erica's smile broaden when she looked my way. I winked at her before turning to Scott and Stiles, ready to get down to business.
"So, where are our tickets?" I asked. It had been agreed the previous night that dumb and dumber would handle getting tickets for everyone, including all of the Pack. Derek had promised to pay for all of them later, which was about the only reason Scott had agreed to do it at the time. Now, it was becoming apparent that it had been a mistake to leave that particular task to these two.
"We don't have any," Scott answered begrudgingly.
"You're aware the rave is tonight, right?" Isaac asked sarcastically as he leaned down on the table.
"Yes, we know. It's just…no one's selling." At his lamely delivered response, I shared a look with Isaac, the pair of us smiling smugly before we turned back to the pair of idiots sat next to my sister.
"How the hell do you two losers even survive?" Isaac then asked slowly.
This time it was Scott and Stiles who shared an exasperated look. "Why are we joining forces with them exactly?" Stiles asked, sounding a little befuddled.
"Haven't you heard, Stiles?" I asked playfully with a flutter of my eyelids for that innocent effect. "We're on the same team now."
"And with us on your side, you get access to all our…assets," Erica drawled out in a seductive tone, as she leaned over towards Stiles, sliding her hand along his thigh. And I could tell from Stiles dropped jaw and wide eyes, that she now definitely had his full attention. However, in his haste to get her hand off him, when Stiles tried to stand, he ended up toppling backwards awkwardly and landing on the floor with a thud that caught the whole room's attention.
While Scott looked down to check on his friend, Erica looked to me with a grin which I returned. Progress, was apparently being made. It would just be nice if we could make progress on the tickets at the same time.
"I'm okay," Stiles announced, even though no one cared, as he climbed back up and sat himself back down. Although before he did, he pushed Scott into his original seat and sat down in his, using the most recent addition to our Pack as a buffer between him and Erica. Something which Scott didn't seem to understand as he looked back and forth between the two, frowning while Stiles refused to look in Erica's direction. His cheeks just a little bit more red than before. Erica, seemed very satisfied with herself as she watched the two next to her.
"So, do you guys have any ideas?" Scott asked feebly, looking across to us when he gave up on trying to figure out what was going on between Stiles and Erica.
"We've got a few," Boyd answered, in a tone that said he trusted the pair about as much as the rest of the Pack did.
"As a matter of fact…" Isaac began to say, lifting his head as he watched a group of students go by, tickets in each of their hands. All of us followed them with our eyes as they passed our table. "We might just able able to fix your problem right now." Standing up, Isaac looked to Boyd and then nodded in the direction of the group with the tickets. "Come on, Boyd."
"Wait, what are you going to do?" Scott asked.
"We're going to get the tickets," Boyd said plainly, before Isaac started cracking his knuckles. Scott then proceeded to stammer out a series of noes, which Stiles quickly joined in on as they each reached over and pulled Isaac and Boyd back down to their seats.
"You can't just go and beat them up?" Scott argued once everyone was back in their seats.
"All right, and what was your brilliant idea again?" Isaac asked rhetorically.
I could see this issue wasn't going to get resolved easily, and the longer it went on, the more tense things were going to get between the Pack and its newest member – as well as its newest member's best friend. Derek wouldn't want that, and it would end up effecting the plan tonight. That was something we couldn't afford, so I was going to have to step in like Derek would expect me to at this time. "Relax, boys," I said, raising my hands to both sides of the table. "I happen to know a very civilised way in which we can acquire tickets." All the boys frowned back at me, but I looked to Erica who grinned as she nodded in agreement.
Together, we flawlessly rose from each side of the table and then strode over to the group of ticket holders. The all male ticket holders. It didn't take as much work as I'd thought, being beautiful did tend to make everything a lot easier. A few promises of double dates, a few suggestions of something more – of which would never happen – and a lot of flirting and the boys were practically throwing their tickets at us, promising they'd find more for themselves and met up with us at the rave. We promised to save them a dance, which they were never going to get and then returned to the table where Isaac and Boyd were already standing.
Me and Erica each placed one ticket on the table, and then slid them over to Scott and Stiles. "Two tickets, as requested," I said smugly. "See, there are benefits to this partnership," I said with a pointed look to Stiles, before smiling and waving goodbye, as me and my Pack walked away. Now with the school day almost over, all we had to do was go to the rave, and catch the Kanima and its master. Easy, right?