Chapter Two

Figuring it Out

*Derek

Derek watched as the creature jumped down between them and knew immediately that it wasn't a werewolf, he couldn't tell what the hell it was to be honest. It had shiny grey skin, large yellow glowing eyes, bat like ears, and its head was abnormally large for its lanky form. Skinny or not, it looked dangerous with its long metallic looking claws. It was like nothing he's ever seen before, but that didn't stop him from running at it, his fangs bared and his claws extended. He slashed at the creature's chest, cutting through its flesh easily. He was momentarily mesmerized by the black blood gushing out of the wound; what the hell bleeds black blood?

The creature took advantage of the momentary distraction and jumped at Derek, knocking him off his feet. It bared its teeth at the werewolf as it straddled him, a webbed foot placed on either side of his chest and it sneered. "Different" it hissed as it seemingly studied Derek's morphed face. It leaned in closer and took in Derek's scent. "Same" it hissed a moment later, before seemingly smelling Derek again.

Derek grimaced when the creature smelled him, and tried pushing it off. He was almost able to, but the creature hissed and grabbed his neck before he could get up and away from it. He got slammed back into the ground and he could feel the creature's claws penetrating his skin, the smell of his blood filling the air.

The creature smelled the air before licking its lips a few times revealing that it had rows of needle-like teeth, "Delicious" it hissed and leaned over Derek's body again. The creature looked as though he was about to lick him when it suddenly went limp, its body just collapsing onto Derek.

*Stiles

Stiles panicked for a moment when he saw Derek go down, but then remembered the bat in his hand, he gripped it tightly and took a few steps closer, not sure if this was really going to be a good idea or not. When he finally decided to just go for it, it looked like for moment he wouldn't even need to. Derek had it taken care of, of course he did, he was Derek. Then it went south and he was being pinned down again, so without even thinking about it he ran at the creature and hit him on the back of the head as hard as he could, and luckily it was enough to knock the creature out. He watched as the thing collapsed onto Derek as limp as a rag doll. He whooped with success "That was awesome!" he said with a goofy smile and hurried over to Derek to help him up.

"Shut up" Derek grunted as he pushed the creature off of him and took the boy's helping hand. He pulled himself up onto his feet and looked down at the thing that had attacked them. He growled for a moment before extending his claws, "Might as well kill it while it's out" he said and looked at Stiles for a moment before turning back to the creature. He stared for a moment before pushing the thing onto its back and slashing it's throat with his claws.

Stiles had wanted to protest but couldn't bring himself to. He wasn't Scott, he didn't believe that everyone could be saved. This thing, whatever it was, killed dozens of people. Whatever Derek decided to do he'd stand behind, it was better than letting the thing live. Before he knew it, there was the sickening sound of Derek's claws cutting through the creature's flesh, it's black blood gushing everywhere. He couldn't watch so he looked away and walked over to a nearby tree, wanting to be away from the creature in general. "So does that mean it's done then?" he asked and glanced at Derek, who was wiping his hands off in the grass.

Derek looked over the creature, "Has it ever been that easy before?" he asked skeptically and looked over at Stiles as he brought his hand to his neck and felt the lacerations the creature caused.

Stiles shook his head slightly, "No, definitely not," he said and looked down at the lifeless thing lying before them, "But it's dead, right?" he asked, wondering it Derek could hear a heartbeat.

Derek nodded slightly, and pulled his hand away when he felt the wounds had healed completely. "Yeah it's dead; I can't hear a heartbeat or anything." he said before sighing "You wouldn't happen to have a shovel in that shit Jeep of yours, would you?" he asked. They couldn't just leave the thing here, this was an active crime scene. They actually would have to do a lot of cleaning because he was pretty sure he bled on some of the grass. He would rather not be a fugitive again.

Stiles glared at him, "My Jeep is not shit" he snapped and walked away from the werewolf. "and yeah I do," he grumbled and walked back towards his car.

*Derek

Derek stifled a laugh when the human boy got riled up by his comment about the stupid Jeep. "Whatever you say," he said with a smirk before following him back to the car. He watched as Stiles unlocked the trunk doors and waited as he dug out the shovel, hoping he had enough sense to bring more than one. He might be a werewolf but that didn't mean he was going to do all the work.

"Here," Stiles grumbled and thrust a shovel at him, guess he was still mad about his comment, not that Derek cared. It also looked like the kid was smart enough to bring more than one, cause he was carrying one as well.

"Thanks," Derek said and flashed a smile before turning to walk back to where they left the creature. Before they could even walk two steps, though, there was a deafening screech.

"What the hell was that?!" Stiles said, and Derek could hear his heartbeat pick up with panic as he froze and started looking around.

Derek was about to say he had no idea when he saw the creature crouched down off in the distance. Blood dripped from the still gaping wound in its neck before it gave another blood curdling scream and then was gone.

Derek cursed and ran after it, but he couldn't hear anything. Sure he heard Stiles scrambling behind him, but nothing else. So with a frustrated sigh, he stopped walking and roughly grabbed Stiles and kept him from moving as well. "I can't hear anything over you, you idiot" he snapped angrily and shoved him to the ground before focusing his hearing. He still couldn't hear anything though, how was it possible that the thing moved quick enough to already be out of hearing distance? He swore under his breath and looked around, but the creature was nowhere to be seen. He glared at Stiles for a moment, blaming him for it getting away. He shook his head slightly before walking away from the human and back toward the Jeep.

Stiles pushed himself up off the ground and grumbled angrily as he walked back towards the Jeep. He glared at Derek a moment before picking up his shovels and bag. He tossed them in the back of the Jeep before climbing into the driver's seat and starting the car. Then he uncharacteristically remained silent the whole drive back to Derek's place, he knew it was a bad idea to involve him. The asshole was impossible to work with.

Derek could smell how pissed off Stiles was, and he actually kind of felt bad about pushing him to the ground now, not that he would ever admit that. He gave the human a small glance before climbing out of the car, barely having enough time to close the door before Stiles pulled away. Yeah, tonight was definitely going to bite me in the ass later.

Derek sighed softly before turning around and walking back up to his loft. After a night like tonight he was definitely ready for bed. He slipped his shirt off over his head and tossed it aside before taking his jeans off as well. Once he was in nothing but his boxers, he walked over to his bed and crawled under the covers. He stared up at the ceiling, going over the night's events for almost an hour before sleep finally overtook him.

*Stiles

Stiles sighed softly as he pulled into the driveway of his house, his dad's car still nowhere in sight. He must still be at the police station, which wasn't unusual; he had a lot of late nights there. He climbed out of his car and limped towards his house, something he'd hid from Derek. The werewolf already thought he was weak, didn't need to give him another reason to think it. Besides, it didn't hurt that bad and he also didn't want him to know that it had happened when he pushed him down, because that would have just been great.

Stiles hurried up to his room and tossed his bag on his bed again. Then he just went to the bathroom and stripped out of his clothes. He tossed in the dirty clothes hamper before stepping into the shower. He let the hot water run over his body for a moment before lathering some soap in his hands and starting to wash himself.

Stiles finished with his shower and quickly dried off before walking to his room with a simple towel wrapped around his waist. He dropped the towel once in his room though, and pulled on a clean pair of boxers before grabbing his sweat pants and pulling them on as well. He then climbed into his bed and climbed under the covers. Sleep overtook him quickly, only a few thoughts of the night going through his head.


The next morning, Stiles woke up with a groan, really not wanting to get up but knowing that he had to. Well, he didn't have to,he didn't have anything to do other than trying to figure out what was going on around town. He wasn't looking forward to working with Derek again, but he knew he still had to. He'd just end up getting himself killed if he didn't have the werewolf's help.

Stiles pushed himself out of bed and begrudgingly walked over to his dresser and started getting dressed for the day. He pulled on a simple pair of blue jeans and white t-shirt, with a small flannel over jacket on. Then he kind of tiredly stumbled out of his room and over to the bathroom. Where he brushed his teeth and styled his hair, making himself look at least sort of presentable.

Stiles finished up in the bathroom before going downstairs and into the kitchen. He pulled the pizza box from last night out of his fridge and ate about five slices before putting the remaining ones away. Then with a sigh, he grabbed his stuff and headed out the door. His dad's car still wasn't in the driveway, and Stiles wasn't even sure if he had come home last night. That had happened before as well, but it was pretty rare.

Stiles pulled to a stop in front of Derek's building a few minutes later, he was again just sitting there, lightly tapping his fingers on the steering wheel; trying to decide if it was a good idea to even go up there at all. As much as he wanted to figure it out, and as much as he needed the help, last night really hadn't gone well and he would really rather not have a repeat of that. Then again, he'd have to talk to him eventually, and sooner was better than later.

Stiles climbed out of his truck and made his way up to Derek's loft, he knocked on the door softly and waited for the Sourwolf to answer it.

*Derek

Derek grumbled when he heard the Jeep pull up the road. He pushed himself out of bed and went to look out the window. He saw Stiles sitting in his Jeep and he could tell from all the way up here that the boy didn't really want to come up. "Great," he mumbled before getting dressed in his usual dark colored theme. Just as he finished pulling on his leather jacket, he heard a knock at his door. "Guess he decided to come up after all," he grumbled before walking over to the door and opening it. "Hello Stiles,"

Stiles smiled before walking into the apartment and over to the couch. "I brought my laptop so we can look over the bestiary" he said getting right to it. He pulled out his laptop and started tinkering on it.

Derek sighed and nodded slightly, "and you couldn't do that on your own, why?" he asked as he walked over and sat down at as well.

Stiles rolled his eyes, "It will go faster if we both look," he said and pulled a older looking laptop out of his bag and handed it to Derek. "It's on there as well. It's my old one so it might be a little slow," he said.

Derek nodded slightly and turned the thing on before looking at Stiles again, "Am I just suppose to know where it is on this thing?" he asked.

Stiles sighed softly and looked over at Derek. "It'll be right there on the desktop," he said and looked back at his own screen. "Think you could handle that?" he asked a bit sarcastically.

Derek sighed and waited for the computer to finish turning on. Sure enough, it was right there on the desktop, like he said it would be. 'Bestiary' in big letters. He doubled clicked on the icon and started searching for everything he noticed about the creature last night. There was a surprisingly large number of creatures with similar features and traits. It took them hours before they even came close to narrowing it down to just a few.

"I think it may be an Ahzi," Stiles said and looked over at Derek with a smile. "It has the same features as the thing we came across last night and it also says here that it's movements are completely undetectable by hearing, but that it has a very distinctive smell" he said, though he hadn't actually smelled anything, probably because he was a human. "Also says here that's it's not actually a shifter like you. It's a type of phantom or some legends say demon" he said and skimmed the passage a little more. "the translation here is a little funky, but it says something about needing to be summoned, that it's controlled, relatively anyway, by someone," he said and frowned slightly before looking at Derek. "So anyone could have summoned that thing, if that's even what it is," he said and sighed with frustration.

Derek nodded slightly. "Does it say anything else?" he asked, because he wanted to make sure they had the right creature and it had to match everything for them to be sure.

Stiles nodded slightly, "Yeah, it talks about it bleeding black blood," he said and looked over the passage again for anything he might have missed. "Though it does say here that the summoner has to have some link to the supernatural, so it can't just be a human," he said, glad about that. It at least narrowed the list a bit, Derek could sniff out other supernaturals. "But I don't know about the rest, really confusing" he said and sighed softly. "We should really try and get a hold of Deaton. He would probably be able to make better sense of it," he said and pulled out his phone, thinking about calling Scott and asking if he had a number for Deaton, though that would just raise questions and he didn't want him to get involved.

Derek nodded, agreeing with him even though there really isn't a way to get in touch with the vet unless he wanted you to. He was a very mysterious man and he still didn't completely trust him, he didn't care if Scott and his mother both guy was just weird. "Let's go check out the clinic one more time before calling Scott," he said, because he saw Stiles staring at his phone and, well, there was only one person who might have Deaton's phone number.

Stiles nodded slightly and shoved the phone back in his pocket "Let's go," he said and shut down his laptop before standing up and shoving it in his bag. He did the same to the one Derek had been using before walking out the door and down to his Jeep.

"Someone's in a hurry," Derek muttered under his breath and followed the human out of his building and out to the crap Jeep. He got into the passenger seat and buckled up before Stiles pulled out into the street and drove towards the clinic. "When did you go and see if he was around?" he asked.

"Umm, about four days ago," Stiles said and nodded slightly. "Yeah, I did a lot of debating about calling Scott before your name popped into my head" he said and shrugged slightly.

Derek nodded "I see," he said a bit thoughtfully and looked back at the road, letting the rest of the ride to the clinic be silent, didn't have anything else to say.

*Stiles

Stiles took Derek's cue and remained quiet for the rest of the drive. It wasn't as tense this time, which was good. When he finally pulled to a stop in the clinic's parking lot, he killed the engine and got out. He examined the dark building before walking over to the door. He peered into the glass door for a moment before trying to open it. "Locked," he said and shrugged slightly, turning around to see Derek walking towards him. He sighed softly and leaned back against the door. "Now what?" he asked.

Derek shrugged "I don't know. Call Scott I guess," he said, though he hoped Stiles had enough sense to lie to him. Derek didn't need Scott down here getting into trouble as well.

Stiles nodded slightly and was about to pull his phone out to do just that when the door suddenly opened and he was falling backwards. "Oh god!" he gasped and looked down at his chest to see Derek holding onto his shirt.

Derek heard the door creak before it actually opened, giving him time to grab onto Stiles before he fell through the doorway and hurt himself. He clutched his shirt and let him hang for a moment before pulling him back up to stand on his feet. Then without even saying anything he pushed past the human and into the Clinic. "Hello," he called, able to clearly hear a heartbeat now.

Stiles ran in after him, nearly running into Derek, stopping himself just before colliding with the bigger man. "Do you hear anything?" he whispered.

"Yes, I suppose he does Stiles," came a voice from the back room. A moment later, Deaton walked into the front from the back and stood behind the mountain ash counter. "But it's nothing to worry about I assure you," he said with a smile. "Though I do believe we have a problem."