Elsa read and reread the text at least six times before she locked her phone and shoved it forcefully back into the back pocket of her jeans, stepping back towards the group just as the Sheriff spoke again.
"I need to wrap up here but you kids better be getting home." He glanced towards Stiles with a stern expression. "…and I mean home, not out following whatever leads your over active imaginations come up with am I clear?"
"Yes sir." Stiles responded, his voice laced with just enough sarcasm that it was noticeable, but not enough that his father could say anything about it.
Kira linked an arm through Lydia's as the girls turned and headed back towards Malia's car. "You want me to drive?" Lydia suggested with a smile. Malia gave the offer a moment's thought before nodding and holding out the keys for Lydia to take. "You coming Elsa?" The redhead called out as she unlocked the car and pulled open the driver's side door.
At the sound of her name being called Elsa blinked a couple of times, snapping herself out of whatever Theo Raeken related daydream – or rather nightmare – she was thinking about. "I uh, yeah I'm coming." She turned on her heel to leave but was stopped by Scott who caught her slim wrist gently with his left hand.
"You might as well ride with us," He explained, behind him Stiles exaggeratedly rolled his eyes. "The girls live on the opposite side of town to us, it makes sense."
Elsa smiled, she smiled at his suggestion, and the way his hand felt against her skin, and after a second or two she nodded. "Yeah that's true. I'll ride with Scott and Stiles, thanks Lydia!" She called out. Lydia pulled a face, a sort of knowing smirk that made Elsa want to blush, and she silently thanked god that it was dark and her complexion was entirely visible.
"See you at school." Lydia chirped as she climbed into the driver's seat of Malia's car. Kira waved from the backseat as they drove off and Malia held her hand out the window in a half-hearted wave.
"Well come on then!" Stiles muttered, jerking his head towards his Jeep that was parked up a little way away from the crime scene. Scott nodded, gesturing with his hand for Elsa to go first, and pulled the door open for her when they reached the Jeep. She smiled as she walked past him and climbed up into her seat, biting back the urge to make whatever feminist comment was trying it's very best to fight its way through her lips. Sometimes, a guy was simply being a gentleman and wasn't trying to suppress her in any way. Elsa Kirsch truly believed in fucking the patriarchy, but as Scott McCall opened the door for her and helped her into the back of Stiles' Jeep her definition of that phrase became somewhat sordidly distorted.
"Are you sure you're alright? I mean I know these last few days have been a lot to take in." Scott asked as Stiles turned the key in the ignition causing the Jeep to rumble into life.
Elsa sighed quietly, turning her blonde head to look out the back window at the crime scene which gradually got smaller the further away they drove from it. "I mean…" Elsa began as she twisted in her seat to face Scott who was watching her carefully from the front seat. "No, not really. I've never seen a dead body before; internally I am freaking the fuck out. I get that this is totally normal for you guys but it's not normal. It's sort of worrying that you're all just okay with it." Scott glanced away for a couple of seconds before turning back to Elsa with a frown.
"None of us are okay with this Elsa…" He said quietly.
"I know, I do, but you're all so much stronger than me. You've been doing this for years; you guys all know what's going on. When Lydia started directing us with that weird monotone voice she had Kira and Malia knew exactly what was happening. I was in the backseat busy hoping we'd pass an In N Out, not wondering whose dead body we were about to stumble upon." She glanced down at her hands, cracking each of her knuckles individually, a habit she'd had since she was a child. She'd thought back then that it made her look tough, ready to fight anyone for her corner of the sandbox but as she sat terrified in the back of Stiles' Jeep she had never felt more weak.
"Hey…" Scott said quietly, clambering out of his seat and into the back of the car alongside Elsa, much to Stiles' protest who swerved the Jeep a little in his confusion. Once settled he gently took hold of Elsa's hand - despite something in the back of his mind telling him that it was perhaps not his greatest idea – and gave it a light squeeze, making note of the fact that her skin felt dangerously warm. "That's exactly the reason why we need you, Elsa you see the world differently to us all. Sometimes a shadow really is just a shadow and there's nothing sinister about it, I think that you are the person that we need to remind us of that." Stiles watched the pair carefully through the rear view mirror but remained uncharacteristically quiet; Elsa on the other hand glanced up from her hands to Scott's face and sighed.
"…and when that shadow turns out to be a crazed murdering were-dinosaur I'll be totally useless." Scott smiled and shook his head.
"You'll get a hold of your powers Elsa, I've got faith in you."
The pair of them stared silently at one another, Elsa's blue eyes looking for something in Scott's brown without really knowing what it was she was searching for. He kept hold of her hand despite the fact that the longer he held onto her the hotter her skin felt against his. She was practically giving him second degree burns and he couldn't have cared less. They were only dragged back to reality when Stiles turned off the Jeep and cleared his throat, turning to face the pair of them.
"We're, uh, here." He said quietly. Elsa glanced at him, quickly pulling her hand from Scott's grasp and using it to tuck a flyaway piece of blonde hair behind her ear. Scott glanced down at his hand, and frowned at the odd sensation of cool that washed over it in her absence.
"Thanks for the ride." Elsa muttered quickly as she bolted out the car and ran across the street to her house.
"Dude…" Stiles teased Scott, a playful smirk flashing upon his features. Scott merely furrowed his brow, giving Stiles' shoulder a light shove as he climbed out the Jeep and headed towards his own front porch on the opposite side of the street to the Kirsch house.
Elsa did her best to regulate her breathing, she wasn't sure exactly what had just happened in the back of Stiles' car but she did know that every one of her limbs felt like they were on fire, and that it was a very real possibility that if she didn't calm down soon that feeling would soon be a reality. The sensation of her phone vibrating in her pocket drew attention away from the pain that licked its way up the skin of her bare arms and so pushing the pain she was experiencing aside she dipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She instantly recognised the number as the same one that had text her no more than an hour ago and despite the fact that a frown furrowed her brows at the sight of it, the fire that threatened to burst from her fingertips was immediately extinguished at the mere thought of Theo Raeken. What an asshole, she thought to herself as she read the text.
UNKNOWN NUMBER:
WE NEED TO TALK
T x
"Not fucking likely." She muttered to herself as she shoved the phone back into her pocket.
"I was afraid you'd say something like that." Theo Raeken's velvety tenors cut through the darkness and made Elsa near enough jump out of her skin. With a yelp she moved to flick the porch light on, scowling at him when she found him lazing on the porch swing that her and Shane had insisted Viktor built when they were ten.
"What the fuck Raeken?!" She demanded; her voice a kind of whisper yell in an attempt to not attract the attention of any members of her family – Shane included. "Why are you at my house? And how do you even know where I live!?" She crossed the porch quickly, moving so that she was stood directly opposite him. Theo stood slowly, not reacting when the swing chair hit the back of his legs.
"I gave Shane a ride home last night." He explained quietly, as though it were nothing.
Elsa opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before she pointed her finger towards Theo. "That I have a fuck tonne of questions about as well, why are you hanging out with my best friend? Why were you at that crime scene tonight? You do realise that you are shady as hell don't you? It's not attractive Theo it's just creepy."
Theo smirked, the kind of smirk that made Elsa want to punch him square in the face, and then he bit his lower lip. Internally Elsa rolled her eyes 180 degrees into the back of her skull, but on the outside her baby blue orbs deceived her, flickering to his lips before locking onto Theo's eyes once again. "But you do find me attractive don't you Elsa?" Even the way he said her name was appealing, she hated him, and she hated the fact that she really didn't hate him even more.
She groaned, taking a defiant step away from him and pointing towards the street. "You need to leave, get the fuck off my porch and don't come back until you feel less like being a murdering gentleman caller and more like answering my questions."
Theo smirked again, but sensing her irritation he did as he was told, gently brushing her arm with his as he moved past her and down the steps of the porch. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Not if I see you first." She snapped back without really thinking, Theo shook his head gently as he laughed before tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans and strolling off down the street. "Argh!" Elsa expelled any further frustration by stamping her feet repeatedly against the wooden decking she was stood on, stopping only when the front door swung open to reveal her uncle scantily clad in nothing but a woman's floral silk bathrobe and a set of glass goggles that made his eyes look magnified to at least five times their actual size. He blinked his eyes, something that would have been quite comical to see had Elsa not been so wound up by the evenings events, and held out a plate of ginger thin biscuits – Pepparkakor his favourite import from back home in Sweden. Elsa didn't say anything, she didn't have to, she was close enough to Viktor for him to know that whatever it was she was going through didn't need talking about just yet, it needed plying with ginger thins and hot tea, and that happened to be something he was excellent at. She took a couple from his plate as she walked over the threshold and straight into the kitchen, Viktor shut the front door behind her and after dramatically flipping his long blonde hair over his shoulder he followed his niece into the centre of their home.
Viktor Kirsch was an incredibly intuitive man, and whilst he brewed a fresh pot of tea his oceanic orbs occasionally flickered to his niece who sat chomping her way through his last packet of imported ginger thins with the determination of a girl possessed. Concern flourished upon his pointed features but he brushed it off with another flick of his golden locks, finally speaking as he placed a cup of tea in front of Elsa. "Did you speak to Shane?" He asked in broken English.
"Hmm?" Elsa enquired as she sipped her tea.
"At school, did you speak to Shane about the events of last night?"
"Oh that," Elsa nodded. "Yeah she said she went to the mall."
Viktor's lips formed a tight line and he sipped quietly on his tea, reminding Elsa very much of something she'd seen on Tumblr once, an image of Kermit the frog drinking which implied her uncle wasn't telling her everything. She never thought she'd be able to thank the blogging website she was mildly addicted to for helping her understand her weird uncles actions, and yet here she was silently thanking the Kermit the frog meme. "Look Vik, I get that you want me to figure things out on my own. But it's been a really long day, its actually been a long couple of days. Could you just do me a solid and tell me whatever it is you're keeping from me?"
"Soon." Viktor promised, taking the last ginger thin from the plate on the counter top before disappearing through the door that led down to his self-contained basement flat.
Elsa watched him leave, her expression one of complete indifference. She was growing increasingly used to people keeping things from her, and at this point she wasn't even surprised anymore. "Oh sure, you take your time." She muttered, pushing herself up off the stool she'd been sat on, grabbing her cup of tea and heading up to her bedroom where she hoped Shane would be sound asleep so she could snuggle up to her without answering 101 questions.
Shane Campbell was asleep, though soundly wouldn't be how Elsa would have described it. She tossed and turned in Elsa's bed, her skin drenched in sweat and her brow furrowed so hard that lines had formed across her forehead. Placing her tea on the chest of drawers Elsa rushed to the bedside, placing a hand against Shane's skin and frowning when she felt the temperature of her, she was burning up. "Shane…come on babe wake up." Her best friend convulsed violently under her touch, her dark eyes snapping open and rolling up into the back of her head before closing again. "Shane!" Elsa shouted, louder this time and with a sense worried urgency. "Momma! Viktor!" Shane's body shuddered under Elsa's touch but no matter how hard the petite blonde tried she was unable to wake her best friend.
Viktor entered the room first, not flinching when the door slammed against the wall behind it and moved quickly to where Elsa was knelt beside the bed. He gently pushed his niece aside, muttering a string of seemingly unrelated words in Swedish, his left hand placed over Shane's forehead. When Lisa rushed into the bedroom a few seconds afterwards she brought her slender hand to her lips in a gasp before immediately wrapping them around her daughter the moment Elsa's smaller body slammed into her frame.
"What's happening to her?" Elsa sobbed into her mother's chest. Lisa stroked her daughters hair gently, doing her very best to soothe her whilst simultaneously raising her brows at her brother. Viktor looked from Shane to his sister and nodded, Lisa took that as a sign to wheel her reluctant daughter out of the room.
Viktor stayed by Shane's side the entire night, burning incense and muttering incoherently until her fever broke and she woke up groggy and disorientated. Elsa had cried when her uncle had let her back into her own bedroom, and had hugged Shane so hard that the brunette had made some snarky comment about not being able to breathe. It was decided the next morning, that Shane would stay home from school despite the fact that she assured them all it was a one off thing, nothing more than a particularly bad nightmare. Viktor had put his foot down, something that was decidedly uncharacteristic of him, and in their shock and confusion everyone had agreed to do as he said.
On arrival at Beacon Hills High School Elsa been quickly whisked away by one Lydia Martin who slipped her arm through the blondes and wheeled her off to the other side of campus where the rest of the pack were already waiting. On seeing the blonde, Scott McCall straightened up a little giving her a quick nod of hello before going back to whatever it was he had been talking about when Elsa had arrived.
"Where's her royal snarkiness this morning?" Stiles asked casually when Elsa and Lydia settled themselves into the small circle of friends. The smile that flashed upon his features told Elsa that his comment was in jest, and not meant in any malicious way at all, but her sleep deprivation and the altogether weirdness of the past few days caused her to frown.
"Shane is at home. She had a bad night last night, something about a really trippy nightmare. I guess her and Oli went a little overboard on the ganja or whatever." Elsa gave a light shrug, "she just needs to sleep it off. She'll be back in school tomorrow."
"Wait, Shane had trouble sleeping?" Lydia piped up, continuing after Elsa nodded slowly. "Tracy Stewart had trouble sleeping; only it wasn't just that. It was a real disorder, it was night terrors."
Leaning against the hood of his Jeep Stiles frowned, "well I guess now she is the night terror especially given that no one can find her." Malia, who was stood beside him gave a quick nod in agreement.
"Okay but Shane getting high and tripping out and Tracy Stewart straight up murdering her own father aren't exactly connected are they." Elsa stated, trying to assure herself more so than anyone else that the two facts were completely unrelated. Lydia shrugged, which wasn't nearly enough of a confirmation for Elsa who looked from the redhead to Scott frantically, as though asking him to back her up.
"Listen," Scott started, "I know that we're all tired and miserable…" He glanced towards Mason Hewitt who was stood between Scott and Elsa, a beaming smile upon his face. "Except for you?" Scott asked, raising a brow.
Mason straightened up. "Oh…sorry, this is all just mind blowing." He gestured with his hand towards Kira "you're a Kitsune, I don't even know what that is!"
Kira nodded slowly. "Yeah, well I'm still learning too."
Mason turned to Elsa with a grin. "…and you! You can set fire to things with your mind; do you know how awesome that is? What are you exactly, if you don't mind me asking?"
"We're not exactly sure on Elsa's genus and species as of yet." Lydia mused quietly to herself.
"Liam..." Stiles addressed the younger student that stood on the other side of Malia. "We said you could tell him, not invite him into the inner circle. Same goes for you Kirsch, how do you keep popping up?"
"Believe me I'm starting to wonder that myself."
"I'm part of the inner circle?" Mason was positively glowing with excitement.
"No." Liam and Stiles said in unison, glancing at each after they'd spoke before turning back to Mason and pulling a face.
Scott took a step forward, tapping his fingertips against the hood of Stiles' Jeep. "Guys, look back to Tracy. She's just one lone wolf, we can find her."
"One lone serial killing wolf." Malia said dryly.
"N-no she only killed one person you know, the other two were mauled." Stiles defended Tracy and from the opposite side of the Jeep Elsa squinted her eyes at him. She was so blown away by how casually these teenagers talked about these things, the only one of them that seemed half as confused as she did was Mason but even then he was way more excited than he was profoundly disturbed – which she found worrying in itself.
"So what are you…we going to do when we catch her?" Elsa asked quietly.
"I say we put her down." Malia, again, with the emotionless comment. Elsa's blue eyes went wide at the thought.
"You can't be serious." The blonde glanced at each face surrounding Stiles' Jeep, Kira and Lydia exchanged a glance that said 'maybe Malia has a point', Liam looked to Scott in a way that reminded Elsa of a kid asking their parents for permission to do something and Mason glanced at all of them before nodding slowly.
"Intense."
Scott, ever the voice of reason, shook his head. "Guys lets concentrate on finding her first. We'll figure out the rest later." With that, the rest of them pushed up off of the Jeep and slowly began to retrieve their backpacks from the floor, readying themselves for a day of schooling.
"What so that's it? Pack meeting over?" Elsa questioned, looking to Scott for confirmation. He nodded.
"Unless you have anything you need to say?"
"Well yeah, actually…more of a question really." Opposite her Stiles dropped his bag back to the floor and the three girls separated from whatever small talk they'd initiated. "Is…is Theo Raeken a good guy or a bad guy? Because like I'm getting totally mixed signals from all of you and I just wanted us all to be on the same page."
"What?" Liam asked.
"Uhmmm…" Malia's thoughts trailed off into silence.
"Seriously?" Stiles asked, pulling a face that said 'obviously not.'
"Well I for one," Mason piped up with a grin "think that he is a very good…looking guy."
Elsa and Malia both nodded, Stiles stared at his girlfriend as though taking personal offence in her agreeing with Mason.
"Okay, let's just get to class." Scott suggested, securing the strap of his backpack on his shoulder.
Elsa nodded slowly, not entirely satisfied that no one had answered her question, but happy in the knowledge that her and Mason Hewitt had a lot more in common now than they did this time yesterday. "Okay fine but Mason has a point, let's bring this up again at next week's meeting." With that the pack disbanded, Elsa linked an arm through Masons and walked with him to her first class. The pair had never spoken before today, but something about his blind optimism comforted reminded her of herself, and that was very comforting.
It was with great reluctance that Elsa settled herself down beside Theo Raeken in her AP Biology class, made even more uncomfortable by the grade she'd received on her quiz. Theo glanced towards his substantially higher grade and smirked, but said nothing, something which only served to infuriate Elsa.
"Nice to see where your priorities are Scott, since you have such a good grasp of the subject how about you lead us in a review of last night's reading?" The voice of their biology professor cut through any silent tension – sexual or otherwise – and drew Elsa's attention to Scott McCall, whose expression currently resembled that of a deer in the headlights. He nodded slowly, frantically flicking through the pages of his heavily highlighted text book as he did so.
"Yeah, sure…" He muttered, somewhat distracted by Liam Dunbar who stood in the doorway to the classroom, waving his hands around like some crazed lunatic.
"Scott?"
"Sorry just looking for the page…" Scott lied, desperately trying to multi-task by doing as his professor asked, and listening to what Liam had to say.
Theo listened too and Elsa noticed. "What did he say?" She whispered, leaning slightly closer to Theo in an attempt not to draw attention to them.
"What did who say?"
"Liam, look I know you have the Spidey Senses as well so just tell me."
"What's in it for me?"
"How about I don't set you on fire?"
"If I really believed that you could do that at will, I might've been scared."
Elsa used the sound of the fire alarm as an excuse to grab her heaviest text book and whack Theo across the arm with it. He smirked and she glared at him.
"Alright, everyone, don't rush it's probably just a drill." Their professor explained calmly, but the way Scott McCall bolted out of the classroom told Elsa otherwise.
In typical Lydia fashion, and in a way that was rapidly becoming the norm when it came to Elsa Kirsch, Lydia Martin linked her arm through Elsa's the second the blonde had gathered her things from her work bench. Wheeling Elsa out of the room along with Kira without another word until they met Liam in the corridor.
"They're taking her to the animal clinic?" Kira asked.
"Yeah to see if Deaton can figure out what's wrong with her."
"What's wrong with her is that she killed to people." Lydia whispered, Elsa nodded quickly beside her. "Her father and according to Parrish her psychiatrist."
"Parrish, the cop? Since when do we get updates directly from the Sheriff's office?" Elsa asked. A hint of a blush formed across the apples of Lydia's cheeks as she shrugged off Elsa's question.
"Isn't there anyone else we can talk to? Doesn't she have a mom or any family?" Kira questioned. Liam responded with a blank look, one that Elsa matched.
"Or her alpha? She's a werewolf…she has an alpha right?" Lydia suggested. "Anyone know if anyone new has moved into Beacon Hills?"
"No…but there's an old one, one of the oldest." A wistful look flashed across Kira's features and Liam and Lydia nodded in agreement, something that only served to remind Elsa just how new she was to this. She literally didn't have a clue what was happening right now. "We know her." Kira explained for Elsa's sake.
"…and her pack." Liam said, somewhat reluctantly.
"Okay, Liam you go and talk to Brett whilst Elsa, Kira and I will go to Tracy's house. Try and figure out a little more about her."
Kira and Liam nodded, and Lydia moved to head off out the double doors that led to the schools parking lot. "Wait!" Elsa called out, making all three of them stop in their tracks. "You're just going to ditch school? I have a Spanish test this afternoon."
Lydia frowned. "Elsa are you coming or not?"
"Uhm, not…I don't have a wicked high GPA like you I can't just ditch school." She blinked slowly, her mouth hanging slightly ajar. Lydia rolled her eyes before nodding reluctantly.
"Fine, we'll text you if we need you."
With that the three of them disappeared out the door, leaving Elsa stood in the middle of the deserted hallway. What the fuck have I gotten myself into? She thought.
A/N: Hey guys! I promised it wouldn't be that long before there was another update, and honestly I'm a little surprised myself that it was so quick. I'm very much back into the swing of Elsa and completely loving her again so here's chapter 8. As usual I really really hope you enjoy it! If you could review/follow/fave then that would mean the world to me. As always I'm over on tumblr (where my url is lydamartin) and if you ever want to post anything about Elsa on there if you used the tag 'Elsa Kirsch' then I'll see it because it's one of my tracked tags. Again thank you so so much for the continued support for this fic. I hope you like the direction its going, let me know your thoughts!