After Isaac showed up, Derek and I headed out into the forest. "So how exactly had you planned to get to Allison's house anyway? You don't know where she lives." He asked, as we trekked through the woods on foot. "Simple- I would have tracked Erica's scent back to the hunters, and then traced them back to Allison's house." I explained. I glanced over at him as he nodded. We came up on a side road, lined with houses. "C'mon." He said, as he led me to what must have been Allison's house. It was connected to a small metal garage. As we moved silently around back, I noticed a window on the side. "I can get in through the window." I whispered. He nodded. "Look, I'll draw them out of the house and lead them away from you. Meet me back at the house." He said. I bit my bottom lip in reluctance. "Derek, I don't think that's a good idea. There are a lot of hunters here." I said. "And truth be told, getting yourself killed isn't apart of the plan." "Do you have a better one?" He asked. I glared at him, knowing that while the answer was no, this plan didn't seem too bright either. "Fine." I said. He turned to leave but I grabbed his arm. "Just… stay alive." I said, looking into his eyes for a moment. He nodded, as I let go of his arm. He moved around to the front of the house as I began working on opening the window. Luckily for me, it had been carelessly left unlocked. I opened the window and climbed in. This however, was not just a garage. It was an arsenal. Compound bows and arrows. Guns. Tasers. Any weapon a hunter would need, was in these people's garage. "Jesus." I muttered as I began searching around for what I assumed would be wolfs bane bullets. I noticed that inside a sectioned off part of the garage, a wooden box sat on a table. It was engraved with the triskelion symbol used to represent a pack- alpha, beta, omega. A metal frame piece stood in my way of the wooden box I was positive contained the bullets. I lengthened my nails into claws, easily breaking through the lock on the metal piece.
I opened the door and walked in, opening the box to see that in fact, It was full of wolfs bane bullets. I grabbed the box, and quickly made my exit through the garage window, heading back toward the woods. I ran past trees and roots and bushes, easily tracing my own scent back to our previous location. As I came up on the clearing, I saw the house standing in the distance. As I reached it, I heard the sound of Isaac and Erica talking inside. I walked in, and found both Isaac and Erica sitting on the couch. But Derek was no where to be found. "Where's Derek?" I asked, wringing out my soaking wet hair. "Last I checked he was with you." Isaac said. "I know. But we agreed to meet back here." I explained. "Well he's not here." Isaac said. I handed him the box of bullets. "You have to break one of these open, and pour it into the wound." I said, glancing over at Erica who's face was pale and her eyes were red. "It's gonna hurt. A lot." I said, before turning back to the door. "Were are you going?" Isaac called. "To find him." I said, running out the door.
In the woods I had found his scent. It seemed as if he'd been heading toward the house. The problem was his absence thereof. As I walked around a bend, I saw a head of dark hair, and then the rest of him. He sat, slumped against a tree. "Derek!" I yelled, noticing the arrow sticking out of his arm. I ran over to him, falling to my knees by his side. I looked at his arm, taking hold of the front of the arrow and breaking it off. I grabbed the back of it and pulled it out. His eyes snapped open, and he yelled a choked scream of pain, before silently grinding his teeth together. "These god damn hunters." I muttered, as I finished pulling out the arrow. "C'mon." I said, helping him to his feet as we headed back in the direction of the house. "What the hell happened back there?" I asked. I looked up at him to see that he struggled to keep his eyes open. I pulled his good arm around my shoulders, helping him to stay upright. "Let's just say their long distance weapons are pretty long distance." He muttered.
After we returned to the house, I noticed that Erica was looking like her old self once more. "What the hell happened?" Isaac said, as I brought Derek into the kitchen. "Hunters." I said, quickly retrieving the first aid kit from the bathroom and moving back into the kitchen. His wound had yet to heal, and I took it that most likely meant that there had been something on the tip of the arrow. But whatever it was, it couldn't have been the same thing as what was in the wolfs bane bullet- the symptoms were different. While the wound itself was bleeding, the skin around it hadn't turned blue like Erica's bullet wound. And he seemed pale from loss of blood. But not the grayish kind of pale Erica had turned from the effects of the wolfs bane. Which most likely meant his body would just need a little more time to push-whatever this was- out of his system. I wrapped the wound up in gauze and medical tape. "You know, I'm getting really tired of having to patch you up all the time." I muttered, glancing up at him. "Thanks." He said, as I finished taping up the wound. "Isaac, take Erica home. Then go home yourself. Get some rest. It's getting late, and to be honest, I'm gonna have a hard enough time trying to explain this to Louise already." I said. "Who's Louise?" He asked. I sighed. "Just go." I said, hearing the open and close of the front door. I cut an end to the medical tape, and reassembled the first aid kit, closing it before looking up at him. "This, is why I hadn't wanted you to go out there alone in the first place. Next time, It's gonna be a bullet between the eyes. And wolfs bane or not, that's gonna be hard to recover from." I said, hoping off the stool and heading into the living room.
I sat down on the couch for a moment, looking down at the dried blood on my hands. His blood. "This could have ended a lot worse." I murmured, blinking for a moment. A headache began to form at the back of my head. "You know, I should rip off their heads." I said darkly, not even recognizing my own voice and not caring. "I should slaughter them all." I said, getting to my feet as the anger began burning in my chest. "We can't." Derek said simply, leaving the kitchen and joining me in the living room. "Why? They aren't getting it, Derek! There is something, far worse out there, than me or you or anyone else in the pack! The Kanima, is what they should be worried about! And they end up attacking us instead!" I was shouting now, too hostile to hold back the anger. Suddenly he was in front of me, gripping me by the shoulders and looking down directly at me. "Even if we could, that would only make matters worse. We need as much fire power as we can get right now, to take the Kanima out." He said. I looked silently at him. "And if one of us ends up dead? Then what?" I asked. "We won't. Because they'll have bigger problems to worry about then us, when they realize how dangerous this thing really is." He said. I clenched my jaw for a moment, as the anger began dying out of me. On one hand, I knew Derek was right. But the hunters were beginning to become a serious problem- one I couldn't let jeopardize the pack.