"Do we have anything on the occult?" The librarian asked, as if he didn't understand the question. "Do you mean like Twilight?"
"I mean, like, books about the history of witches and werewolves and stuff," Danny clarified as he fidgeted.
"We don't. We're a school library, and my name isn't Rupert Giles."
"Who is that?"
Danny walked away from the circulation desk and sat down at a table with his laptop. All he could find about werewolves was basic information and bad fanfiction. There was nothing about that Kanima thing Scott told him about, either. The only people who seemed to have any answers were the same ones who were inspiring all of his questions and he honestly didn't trust any of them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Danny watched Scott and their teammate Isaac trading comics and laughing. After learning about the existence of werewolves, it didn't take Danny long to figure out who in the school was one. They seemed to almost be set apart from the rest of the populace if you knew what to look for.
TW
"This is a halberd. It's not used much anymore, but since you don't have a gun license and my dad would kill me if I gave you one of ours, it's best to start you out slow," Allison said as she showed the pole weapon to Lydia. "Since you're new to this, though, we're going to start you off with a bo staff."
"bo staff? You don't trust me with a stick with a knife duct taped on the end?" Lydia complained as Allison tossed her an unadorned wooden staff.
"No, I don't," Allison answered simply as she grabbed her own staff and readied her pose. "I want you to learn from my mistakes. Lethal force should be a last resort."
Allison guided Lydia through how to hold the weapon, what stances offer the best offensive and defensive strikes, and how to assemble one that could be broken down into a more easily concealed form.
"The great thing about wooden arrows is that they can't be picked up by metal detectors," Allison explained. "And neither will one of these."
"So that's why you use a crossbow."
"That and my dad won't let use a gun, either," Allison smirked.
"Ass," Lydia laughed as she packed her disassembled staff into her backpack. "Thanks."
"Not a problem."
TW
Stiles watched his best friend watch someone else. The fact that it was their secret new compatriot only made him more nervous. He'd been the one to help Scott through his werewolf and Allison troubles, and the fact that he wasn't telling him anything about the Danny situation beyond it existing worried him. The last time something like that happened Scott was working with, and against, Allison's crazy grandfather. It did not go well.
"Sucks that lacrosse season is over, huh?" Allison asked as she sat beside her boyfriend in the school's cafeteria. "So, what were you up to last night that was so important?"
"Where were you during home room?" Scott asked as he turned his head to look at her. "Lydia crying in the bathroom again?"
"...something like that," she answered evasively.
People assumed he was dumb, but Stiles knew how to read people and he could tell that Scott and Allison were keeping secrets from each other. He didn't like it. When people kept secrets in Beacon Hills, other people usually died.
"So... what's the plan for tonight? Looking for Erica and Boyd, or you two ditching me to go make out?" Stiles asked after a minute of uncomfortable silence. Neither answered. "Okay, then. I'm gonna leave you two here to brood while I go do something interesting."
Scott looked at the floor as Allison looked at the ceiling. He had packed his lunch but left it in his locker. She had bought her but wasn't touching it. After a long sigh, Scott finally looked up. He didn't look at Allison.
"She killed herself because of me."
Allison blinked but kept her eyes on the ceiling. "Scott, please don't. Derek bit her, not you."
"Derek bit her while saving me. She was killing me and he saved me. She found out about us from my mom," he confessed.
"What am I supposed to do with that, Scott? Hate my mother? Stop hating Derek?" Allison growled as she moved around the mashed potatoes on her tray. "At the end of the day, my mother is still dead and my dad still won't talk to anyone."
Neither one said anything further. Allison got up and walked away, leaving her uneaten food on the table. Scott stood up and walked to another table where someone else sat alone.
"She can't know," Scott told Danny. "None of them can know why we killed Jackson."
"I told you that," Danny all but whispered. If he hadn't had his wolf hearing, Scott doubted he would have heard him. "They can't know that we killed all of them. Can you imagine what they would do? Not just to you, but to me."
"Nobody is going to find out about you, Danny. I promise. I haven't even told Stiles what happened."
Danny shook his head. "But you told him something happened, and he won't stop until he finds out what."
Scott grabbed Danny's hand. "Listen to me, nobody is going to find out. There is so much weird stuff going on that it's impossible to trace it back to you."
Looking into Scott's eyes, Danny managed a weary smile. "It's nice of you to try, but we both know that you can't keep a promise like that. Someone will figure it out eventually."
"Someone already has."
Both boys looked up to see Lydia standing at the end of the table. Her arms were folded and her nostrils flared.
"What did you hear?" Scott asked meekly.
"I know you brought them back, Danny. And I know you killed them, Scott. I know it all."
Danny let go of Scott's hand and stood up. "We shouldn't be doing this. Not here."
"Tonight, then," Lydia ordered. "I'll text you where and when. No Stiles or Allison."
TW
"She's late," Danny said as they waited at the ice rink. "She's late and this is a weird place to meet."
"It's not that weird," Scott told him. "We came here once. Lydia had a freakout on an epic scale."
Before he could explain just what it was that happened, Lydia opened the door to the rink. She glanced around before shutting the door. "If I find out you two brought anyone else here..."
"It's just us, I promise."
The three sat in the bleachers. Lydia made sure to sit a row ahead of them. "I don't know if Scott told you, Danny, but I have a special relationship with the undead."
"Werewolves aren't the undead. That's, like, vampires and stuff," Danny said before being shushed.
"It's also zombies. Lycanthropy is a disease, I know. I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about how so many of the graves in town look like they were dug up. From the inside," Lydia said as she stared at the ice. "Allison's father and the police both think it was either Derek Hale's pack or grave robbers, respectively. But I know you two did it. What I don't know is what it was."
"How do you know?" Danny asked. "How do you know we did anything?"
"Because I know that Jackson died twice. When he came back after being hit by Stiles' car, he came back wrong. And that's why you killed him, Danny. And you had Scott help you with the rest."
Scott covered his face and sighed into his hands. Of all times, Lydia would pick now to be lucid intelligent.
"It's called the Necrostone and it's a family heirloom," Danny confessed. "It's supposed to bring anyone that died an unnatural death back to life. I guess that includes werewolf victims. I only used it the one time."
"Why did you use it?" Lydia asked quietly. "Where is it now?"
Scott cleared his throat. "I took care of it, Lydia. And you don't have to know why Danny used it. Just that he did. Now how did you know about us?"
"I saw you snap Allison's mom's neck, Scott. Weeks after they buried her, you broke her neck and dragged her back to the cemetery."
"He had no choice," Danny said in a pleading voice. "Like you said, Jackson came back wrong. And so did everyone else. You just didn't notice the others because they were trapped underground for days."
"So, what, they were mindless zombies? Then why wasn't Jackson? Why did you kill him?" Lydia's voice broke, but her composure did not.
"Because it wasn't Jackson," Scott answered so Danny wouldn't. "It was Jackson's body. It was his voice, his memories, but it wasn't him."
"And how do you know that?!" Lydia screamed as she slammed her fists onto the chair. Danny was crying and unable to say anything.
Closing his eyes, Scott swallowed the lump in his throat. "We know because Jackson tried to kill Danny. I happened to be in the area, but whatever was in Jackson's body overpowered me easily. Danny killed him by stabbing him in the neck and severing the spinal cord."
Danny was sobbing and rocking back and forth. Scott put a hand on his shoulder which Danny latched onto with his both of his own.
"So, how do you know it wasn't just the Kamina coming back?" Lydia asked in a quiet voice as her eyes bore into the back of Danny's head. "Whatever happened to your not killing mantra, Scott?"
Scott didn't answer because he didn't have one.
"Can you at least tell me about the Necrostone?"
"That's not it's real name. We don't know what it's real name is," Scott answered since he knew this one. "It was the name of an artifact in a comic book. It seemed to fit the situation."
"The situation is zombies and murder, Scott. A comic book? Really?" Lydia scoffed as she blinked away tears. "Do you know if you killed them all?"
"It's not murder, Lydia. These aren't people. They're something else."
"Do you even know if it's stopped, Scott? Danny? Are more people going to 'come back wrong'?" Lydia asked as she stood up. "What the hell did you do, you idiots?"
She stormed out of the bleachers, but stopped when she reached the floor. "I'm not telling Allison. Yet. The last thing she needs is to find out you've ruined her life even more."
Lydia left the ice skating rink, slamming the door behind her. Scott just cursed himself as he held a crying Danny.