A sharp pain pulled Sophia from unconsciousness and she tried to get her eyes to focus in the gloom. She focused on the item causing the pain an registered that it was a silver knife, she found it being dragged across her arm and her eyes finally snapped into focus.
The hand holding the knife appeared in her view once again and she tried to move her arm, only to find her wrist handcuffed to the chair.
"What the hell are you drinking Anderson that makes you think this could be a good idea?" Eve's voice sounded behind her. Sophia just managed to turn her head far enough to see the failed hunter hovering over Eve and cutting her arm, allowing the blood to flow onto the forest floor beneath the chair.
"John will take your head off Sally if that knife comes anywhere near me again" Sophia told the hunter who was now leaving deep wounds in Sophia's left arm.
"Not if I kill him first, the point is to gather all the hunters together to destroy the local werewolves all in one go, we just needed something to unite them in a specific spot" Anderson explained to Eve as he wiped his knife on her jeans.
"I've noticed the wolves around every corner, watching your every move Sophia, so I decided we could use it to our advantage" Donovan told her as she retreated into the shadows.
"It also means that it gets the pair of you out of the way so we can become better Hunters than Sherlock" Anderson finished.
"You two will never be better than Sherlock, and you do not threaten John and get away with it" Sophia grumbled as the darkness set in. A growl in the nearby shadows and a pair of bright eyes moved closer to the two teens.
"Stop panicking Eve, it won't do you any good. If anything it'll make it more likely to strike faster" Sophia told her panicking flatmate.
"Easy for you to say, you've lived around wolves for the past few years" Eve grumbled as she tried to control the tremors created by her fear. Another growl sounded and Sophia tried to relax, but the snarl that followed sent Sophia into a panic.
"That wasn't a wolf, was it?" Eve questioned, her voice shaking as much as she was.
"That was not a wolf, that was a-"
"Vampire" Eve finished as the creature emerged from the shadows. More movement could be heard in the forest around them as the fight between Hunters and creatures began and Sophia's head began to spin.
"I didn't see this happening, did you?" Eve whispered, feeling dizzy herself.
"No" Sophia replied weakly before she lost her consciousness for the second time that day. Eve joined her thirty seconds later, sending out a mental plea before she passed out.
'Sherlock, John, help'
The vampire weaved through the trees a few feet away from Sherlock and the golden wolf of John. Both paused for a fraction of a second when they heard Eve's mental SOS, but continued the chase again as they realised the vampire they were chasing would lead them to the source of it.
John looked up to Sherlock as they stopped at the edge of the clearing. Sherlock just stared at the battle being waged in front of them, with everyone forming a loose ring around something in the centre.
"John" Sherlock said to the wolf, who nodded and weaved through the fighting crowd to the centre. The gold wolf returned a few moments later and answered Sherlock's next question with a simple nod.
"Let's clear some space" the Hunter muttered. John nodded and sprang into the fight as Sherlock pulled his silver knives out of his pocket and started to make his way to the teens in the centre.
Twenty minutes later, Sherlock and John were lifting the two teens out of the plastic garden chairs. Sherlock pulled his phone out of his jacket an sent a quick text to Molly.
'Get the back door open and the blood ready, they're going to need the transfusion if they're going to survive
-SH'
He slipped his phone into Eve's pocket and followed John on the path out of the forest and to St Barts.
Molly was waiting for them when they got there, holding the door open for them.
"I emptied the morgue, I know it's a bit morbid but it's the only place we wouldn't be noticed" Molly told them as they ran up the stairs.
John carefully placed Sophia down on the empty bench and began clearing the dry blood from her arm, and then using the equipment Molly handed them to sew the clean wounds while Molly started putting the new blood into her body.
Sherlock peeled the remains of Eve's shirt sleeves away from the deep wounds Anderson had inflicted and grimaced as he saw the full extent.
"What's the matter Sherlo-Oh my god" Molly said as she saw what Sherlock had. Molly pulled the blood over and tried to start the transfusion as John started clean the wounds of infection. The morgue was silent while Eve's wounds were cleaned, stitched and bandaged, Sherlock sitting aside with his phone he'd reclaimed from Eve's pocket to allow the professionals to work.
Sherlock's phone beeped three times in quick succession and he reached for it off the worktop.
'Where the hell are you?!
-GL'
'Answer me now Sherlock, you have some explaining to do
-GL'
'Donovan says you have something to do with all the bodies in the forest, and since your vampire is here I believe her. Explain.
-GL'
Sherlock raised his eyebrows at first, then rolled his eyes as he sent his reply.
'Your answer is lying in St Barts, still living but only just, with me, John and Molly in the morgue. Come and meet us if you want answers
-SH'
"Lestrade's going to freak out when he finds out what happened tonight, you make it sound like it was a bloodbath. Oops, bad choice of words" Molly muttered to no-one in particular.
"He already is, Donovan has already tried to pin that mess on me and she's probably only half conscious" Sherlock told her as he steepled his hands and closed his eyes.
When both teens had a strong pulse again and the correct amount of blood in their bodies, Molly let John and Sherlock take them back to Baker Street. She suggested it actually, not only because it would be safer for the girls, but because her next shift was about to start according to the sound of the police vans pulling up outside. Molly was just clearing away the bloodied gloves when Lestrade burst through the doors.
"You just missed them Greg, they've taken the girls back to Baker Street to recover" Molly told him as he looked around the morgue.
"What do the girls have to do with this? Sherlock told me that my explanation was..." Lestrade tailed off as he realised what Sherlock's text had meant. The DI looked around the room and saw the transfusion equipment and the bloody gloves and everything slotted into place.
"What did the idiots do now? If anything happened to Sophia we're going to have a werewolf pack on us" Lestrade said as he dropped his head into his hands.
"You're not" Molly told him as he continue to clear away. The DI looked up at her with a confused frown and Molly explained.
"John told me that one of the wolves that got killed was the pack leader, as well as a few of the higher-ups of the pack, so it's too destroyed to launch a formal attack on a group of Hunters, even if they are rather low in numbers at the moment" Lestrade just stared at the pathologist as the news sunk in.
"So John is without a pack and so is Sophia, so I'm safe from the remaining wolves?" he questioned and Molly nodded.
"The girls can give the full explanation of the evening's events, you can go and ask them about it when they wake up" Molly told him, so Lestrade went to walk out of the door. He had to jump out of the way to dodge the gurney and body bag that one if the lower grade Hunters was pushing.
"Sorry sir, but we've got a lot to come in" the rookie said as he ran back out of the room.
"Good luck Molly" Greg muttered as the followed the rookie out of the morgue. Molly watched him go and started signing the paperwork attached to the first bodybag.
Five bodies later, Molly sank into her chair to have a break. She spotted her phone on the table and reached for it, sending a quick text to Sherlock.
'You so owe me a full explanation for all this work I have to do
MH'
A beep caught her attention after she sent it and she started to dig through the paperwork on her desk. Three minutes later she found Sherlock's phone buried under the mass of evidence bags containing clothes and such.
Molly examined the phone for a moment, then looked at the many body bags around her on tables and gurneys.
"These guys aren't going anywhere, I'll go check on the girls an take him his phone back" she told herself as she put his phone in her pocket.
Twenty five minutes later, Molly was walking out of the morgue, holding her bag in one hand as she pulled her jacket on, quickly checking she had Sherlock's phone still in her pocket, she left for Baker Street.
Sherlock was pulled out of his mind palace by Molly's knock on the door. He pushed himself off the sofa of 221C and wandered to the front door, smirking when he opened it to Molly.
"Taking a break from dissecting werewolves?" he questioned as Molly walked through the door.
"You left enough dead for me to be busy for the next three days, I'm taking a well earned break" Molly replied with a smirk. "Oh, you left this behind" she handed Sherlock his phone and stepped past him into 221C.
Molly stuck her head into Eve's room first, watching the slow rise and fall of the duvet was the only sign of life from the teen. Sherlock stood back and let Molly walk to Sophia's room.
Molly stopped in her tracks at the sound of the low growl, but it cut short as the golden wolf realised it was Molly. Molly smiled and nodded to the gold wolf curled around Sophia's feet before quietly observing the sleeping teen for a moment.
Molly walked out of Sophia's room and turned to Sherlock, grabbing his arm before he walked into Eve's room.
"Lestrade wants answers, he'll be here some time soon to see them" she warned. Sherlock smirked and walked back towards the door of Sophia's room so John could hear too.
"Lestrade has already stopped by, but when I showed him the damage Donovan and Anderson had done to them he stormed out grumbling something about going to talk to Donovan. I'm curious as to why he wasn't going to talk to Anderson, I did see him make it out of the fight"
"He was DOA Sherlock, that's why Greg wasn't going to talk to him" Molly answered and Sherlock nodded in understanding. Sherlock looked to the doorway as the golden wolf slunk off Sophia's bed and wandered over to the pair by the door, Molly could swear he was grinning.
"Oh, I'll sort out tomorrow for you John, Sarah is an old friend, I'll explain everything for you" Molly told the wolf, who nodded to her and walked back to Sophia's bed, curling up and resting his head on her feet.
"I guess I better be going back to work, let me know if either of them wakes up?" she asked as she headed to the door. Sherlock nodded his answer as the pathologist walked out into the rain of London's streets, back to the mess left for her at work.
Sherlock watched her go before he closed the door and returned to 221C, quickly looking in on Eve before he sat back in Eve's armchair and went back into his mind palace.
Sophia blinked at the bright sunlight spilling into the room through the open door, letting her eyes adjust to the sudden light. She tried to turn onto her side but found a weight on her feet, glancing to the bottom of the bed to find a golden wolf curled up there.
Sophia smirked and twitched her foot, causing the wolf to sit up and look at her, groggily at first, but then wide awake when it realised what it was seeing.
"Hey John" Sophia said to the wolf as he walked up the bed to sit by Sophia. Sophia grimaced as he nudged her arm and he looked to her, concern obvious.
"Thanks for saving me, I actually thought it was the end" she told him. His response was to shuffle closer to her side and she chuckled, so she gently moved her arm to rest on his soft back before she dropped into the abyss of sleep once more.
Eve groaned at the sunlight glinting in her eyes, reflected off her bedroom mirror. As she shielded her eyes with her arm she examined the bandages wrapped tightly around them.
"Unbelievable" she muttered to herself, "I didn't think I'd make it out of that one"
"You almost didn't" Sherlock said as he leaned on against the wall. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent a few texts, then dropped his phone on Eve's bedside table and sat on the edge of her bed.
"I guess I have you to thank for my survival" Eve said as she sat up, shifting her pillows behind her.
"Thank the vampire I was hunting, well you could if he wasn't dead. He led us right to the pair of you" Eve laughed at Sherlock and he grinned before joining her a few moments later. John's growl from the next room silenced them to suppressed giggles which faded into a calm silence.
"You sent a text to Lestrade earlier didn't you? He's on his way here?" Eve questioned. The second she said it there was a knock at the door and a golden wolf walked past Eve's bedroom door and walked up the stairs. John, now human and fully dressed, walked back down them a few moments later and opened the door to Molly and Lestrade.
Lestrade nodded to John as he walked past and into 221C with Molly practically running in after him. John heard a thump and muffled cursing come from 221C and walked in to find Eve on her bedroom floor and Sherlock leaning against the wall laughing.
"Why are you laughing?" Molly asked as she helped Eve sit on the sofa.
"He tried to help me off the bed and I told him I could get to the sofa myself. I got two steps and tripped over my slippers" Eve answered dryly as Sherlock laughed even harder. John helped Sophia get to her feet and walk over to the sofa, dropping her down next to Eve as he leaned on the back of the sofa.
Sherlock stopped laughing and walked over to the purple armchair usually claimed by Eve while Molly took Sophia's usual seat. John grabbed a chair from the kitchen and Lestrade took the computer chair from under the nearby desk, creating a loose circle with all eyes focused on the two teens on the sofa.
"You want to know what happened yesterday don't you?" Sophia asked, there was a nod from the rest of the room and Sophia sighed.
"It was after you left to help John and Sherlock with their case" Eve pointed to Lestrade as she spoke. "The rest of the office worked as a team, but it was obvious that Anderson and Donavan were in charge. We locked ourselves in your office and..." Eve stopped and everyone frowned.
"And what?" Molly asked. Sophia and Eve just shrugged.
"We don't actually remember anything else until we woke up in those chairs in the forest with Anderson and Donovan hovering over us with their knives" Sophia told the room. Sherlock and John looked to each other, eyebrows raised in question, shock and concern.
"Why were you there?" Lestrade asked.
"Because they wanted to lure all the creatures together and kill them all at once so they would look like the better Hunters" Eve answered quickly.
"And Donavan had seen the wolves watching me and thought she could use it to her advantage" Sophia muttered as she looked to John.
"They just wanted to keep an eye on you, they didn't think it would cause any trouble" John defended and Sophia waved a dismissive hand in his direction.
"That doesn't matter, back to the explanation" she told him.
"more specifically, their explanations for their actions" Eve cut in. Sophia nodded to her, so Eve continued. "They wanted to gather all of the local creatures together using a bait, meaning us. They wanted to be better Hunters than Sherlock, even doing his job for him if they could and catching his vampire, but if it all went south and nothing turned up then we'd still be dead and that would mean Sherlock would still be without help" Eve summarised.
A heavy silence hung over the room after that and the teens looked around the room's stunned occupants. John's quiet growl and Sherlock's snarl broke the silence and everyone looked to them. The werewolf was almost shaking and Sophia placed a hand over his balled fist while Eve took the knives out of Sherlock's hand. Molly and Lestrade raised their eyebrows as the Hunter and the werewolf relaxed and nodded to the girls, but there was a brief paused and a small nod as the pair looked to each other that spelled trouble.
"Okay, can you guys explain how you came into this?" Eve asked.
"We were on our case when we heard your mental SOS, your last ditch attempt as it were, and the vampire we were chasing led us straight to the fight" Sherlock started.
"We stopped the fight an got you out of there, taking you to Molly, who was ready with supplies by the time we got there" John explained.
"I helped John clean and stitch you up after I started the transfusions, at which point Greg sent Sherlock 3 texts" Molly continued.
"But by the time I managed to get there you'd already been moved back here, I did manage to work out you were the key though" Lestrade finished.
The girls just looked at the people around them, astonished.