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Being caught up on my work for most of the semester made it a lot easier for me and Lydia to skip school than the others, but I was still groaning on Tuesday morning when several teachers cautiously asked me if I was all right and to inform me that class participation was a requirement for passing the class. I assured them all that my absences were in fact excused. They act as if I hadn't turned in a ton of extra credit already. Not that Harris had offered any when he was around.

It was tough for all of us to act as if we were miserable in front of the twins when we were all so happy we were okay. True to their word though they didn't interact with us at all giving us time to "mourn," and for Derek to join their pack. I had finally told Lydia the reason we all didn't want her to hang out with Aiden and she shrugged.

"So he's been in both our pants. So what? Plus I highly doubt he's going to hurt me, I think he's catching feelings," I just sighed and shook my head. For someone so smart she could be so stupid.

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I was studying with Stiles, even though I was all caught up, and he was very distracted by trying to cop a feel "Stiles! Down boy!" I told him laughing as he pouted "Coach is going to kill you if you don't get this economics paper done…..on the right subject,"

"Hey! My essay on the correlation between chest hair and education was journal-level awesomeness!"

"We were supposed to write about how the increase in minimum wage could affect us!"

"Please you know he just picks subjects based on the news whereas my chest hair and education paper was technically about economics because….."

"Men with hairier chests were more likely to have a successful high-paying job. I know, you and Coach argued back and forth for 15 minutes and you told him that you were sorry that the results didn't apply to him despite his body hair. You almost got detention for a month,"

"I was just trying to be supportive," I groaned and was thankful when his phone rang so we didn't have to talk about chest hair. He started to talk urgently to whoever was on the other side of the phone "Okay we will be there. Quick, it was Lydia she's at the school and has one of her feelings," I nodded rushing around gathering our stuff while Stiles called Scott and I called Allison.

"Where is she?" Stiles asked Allison who was waiting for us in front of the school.

"Over here,"

"It's the same thing. Same thing as the pool. I got into the car heading somewhere totally different and ended up here. And you told me to call you if there's a dead body," Lydia told us obviously freaked out.

"You found a dead body?" Stiles squawked.

"Not yet,"

"Not yet"? What do you mean "Not yet"? Lydia, you're supposed to call us after you find the dead body," He told her exasperatedly.

"Oh, no, I'm not doing that again. You find the dead body from now on,"

Scott sniffed the air and turned as Stiles talked "How are we supposed to find the dead body? You're always the one finding the dead body!"

"Guys. I found the dead body," Scott interrupted and we all looked to find the police officer Tara laying across the High School's sign with blood dripping down it.

Stiles took one look at who it was and the smell of panic radiated off of him as he forgot to breathe. I started to get worried when he began to hyperventilate. I forced him to kneel down and cuddled him to me petting his hair as I called the station.

"Sherriff?" I asked when he picked up his phone.

"Yes, who is this?"

"This is Arielle sir…I need you to come to the high school right away,"

"Hi Arielle, we already have an officer at the high school, is this about Stiles or do you have a crime to report?"

"I am so sorry," My voice cracked as Stiles gave a panicked sob "It's officer Tara, she's dead I think. Stiles is with me and some of our group,"

I heard him barking orders in the background "Arielle stay on the line with me until we get there, I want you and everyone else to go lock themselves in a car until we know if the killer is still there. And Arielle?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Take care of my son,"

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Sherriff Stilinski had asked one of us to take Stiles home with us that night since he would be away for most of it for the investigation. He didn't want Stiles to be alone. I volunteered but Scott said he and Isaac could use some guy time anyway so I let it go.

Now I watched from down the steps of the school as the Sherriff caught his son spying on him. He was obviously tired, sad, and stressed.

"Dad, they killed Tara. You know, how many times she helped me with my math homework when I had to wait at the station for you?" Stiles asked blinking quickly to get rid of any tears that may fall. I just wanted to hold him and hug the Sheriff too as a wave of sadness fell over him. He nodded and cleared his throat.

"Just, uh, get to class, okay?" He said and walked away while Stiles stared at him dejectedly. He turned and I smiled at him walking up to him.

"You alright?" I asked him softly.

"Yeah, I guess….I don't know. I just need to find who's doing this,"

"You always do," I told him and grabbed his hand so we could head to English.

We slid into our seats as class began. "Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes, all tools the writer uses to tell their story," Mrs. Blake told us while walking around the class, she stopped next to Lydia and looked at the picture she was drawing "Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many hidden talents,"

"You and every guy I've ever dated," Lydia responded nonchalantly much to Mrs. Blake's embarrassment.

"Oh, um, well, that was an idiom, by the way. Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture," She told us looking at Stiles and Scott in a very obvious way that made me glower "They're phrases that only make sense if you know keywords. Saying "jump the gun" is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race or a phrase like "seeing the whole board."

"Like chess," Stiles muttered and Mrs. Blake looked way too happy at his input.

"That's right, Stiles. Do you play?"

"Uh, no. My father does,"

"Now, when does an idiom become a cliché?" I tuned her out when Scott leaned over to talk with Stiles.

"I think I can get to Ethan. I'm pretty sure I can make him talk,"

"What do you want to do that for?" I silently agreed.

"The druids are emissaries, right? So what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?"

"Okay, first of all, I cannot believe that we've gotten to the point where a sentence like "what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?" Actually makes sense to me," I snorted and Mrs. Blake turned to look at me.

"Yes, Arielle?"

"Sorry, nothing, just a sneeze," I lied.

"Second of all, we're gonna have a huge problem getting to Ethan,"

"What's that?" Scott asked.

"Going through Aiden. Ever since he's been back at school, they're always together. How are we gonna separate them again?" They both turned to look at Lydia.

She looked annoyed "What now?"

"No!" I hissed all three looking at me "Did you forget the part where he says he's going to kill her?"

"What so you can make out with him?" Lydia asked hotly.

"I don't care about that! I'm just worried about you!" She looked rightfully abashed.

"Really I can handle this," She told me and I finally relented…..which means I was with the boys to go talk to Ethan.

"Scream if you need us," I told her in parting. We finally caught up to him on the stairwell "Ethan hold up, we need to ask you some stuff"

"Why are you even talking to me? I helped kill your friend. How do you know I'm not gonna kill another one?" Scott and I controlled our heartbeats but Stiles' sped up. I almost panicked thinking he was going to give away the fact they hadn't killed Boyd.

"Is he looking at me? Are you threatening me? You know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to break off an extra large branch of Mountain ash, wrap it in wolfsbane, roll it in mistletoe, and shove it up your freaking..." I snorted and watched his erratic movements, it really it was attractive.

"Whoa, Stiles, okay. We get it," Scott told him making a calm down motion that snapped me out of my admiring of Stiles "We're talking to you because I know that you didn't want to kill Boyd. And I think that if something like that happened now, you wouldn't do it again," He decided to ignore both Stiles and me snorting in disbelief.

"You don't know what we owe them, especially Deucalion. We weren't like Kali and Ennis when we met him. We weren't alphas,"

"What were you?" Scott asked and I rolled my eyes, cue the violin music, we had a sob story coming.

"Omegas, in actual wolf packs, omegas are the scapegoat, the last to eat, the one who has to take the abuse from the rest of the pack," There it was.

"So you and your brother were, like, the bitches of the pack?" Stiles, of course, had to ask which made Ethan glare.

"Something like that," Scott asked what happened "They were killers. I mean, people talk about us as monsters. Well, they were the ones who gave us the reputation. And our Alpha was the worst of them,"

"Why didn't you guys just fight back? Form Voltron wolf, you know? Kick everyone's asses?"

"We couldn't, we didn't know how to control it back then,"

Scott came to a realization "Deucalion taught you,"

"And then, we fought. We took down the whole pack, one-by-one. And by the time we got to our Alpha, he was begging for his life. And we tore him apart. Literally," wow.

"What about your emissary? Are they all dead? Kali and Ennis' too?"

"All of them except for Deucalion's,"

"You mean Morrell?" questioned Stiles.

Suddenly Ethan grabbed his chest in pain and cried out "What? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Scott asked him frantically.

"Not me. My brother,"

"Crap, Lydia's with him!" I took off immediately, twisting through the halls to get to Coaches office because that's where she always takes her conquests. I burst through to see it empty but the revenge spiral on the door to the locker room told me I'd find them in there. Scott had caught up to me just as I opened the door and witnessed Aiden hit Cora over the head with a weight, a really big one. Scott and I ran forward to grab the weight off of him while Ethan roared in his face.

"You can't do this!"

"She came at me!"

"It doesn't matter! Kali gave Derek until the next full moon. You can't touch him or her," He gave us an apologetic look as he ushered his brother out of the locker room.

Stiles was gently looking at Cora's head wound "Hey, guys, I think she's pretty hurt," He helped her up and to the sink where she dabbed at it with a wet paper towel. Cora stepped back and her legs buckled a bit causing Stiles and Scott to steady her "You okay?"

"She doesn't look okay," was Lydia's input.

"I'll heal," She told us gruffly but Stiles had to immediately catch her again, "I said I'm fine,"

"Do you realize how suicidally crazy that was? What were you thinking going after them?" Stiles questioned her.

"I did it for Boyd. None of you were doing anything!"

"Cora, Boyd is fine now," I told her wondering if that weight had hit her harder than I thought.

"He wouldn't be if you hadn't done your weird bubble healing thing! He would have been dead! I felt him slipping away! And you're not doing anything about…anything!"

"We're trying," Scott told her dejectedly.

"And you're failing. You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around, thinking that you can stop people from getting killed. But all you do is show up late. Besides Boyd, all you really do is find the bodies," She told us snidely, now everyone looked even more upset.

"She's definitely a Hale. Mm. I'll make sure she gets home," Stiles said going after her. I started to protest but realized I had no reason to so I shut up.

"I have to go talk to Morrell," Scott told us making a quick exit.

"I need to go do something," said Lydia distantly walking off. I threw my hands up in the air.

"I guess I'll just go to class,"

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That plan didn't work out. Not ten minutes into class I, and the whole school, heard Lydia scream bloody murder. When I got to her she had announced to everyone she was psychic. I groaned as the crowd outside the room laughed and people started to whisper. She seemed embarrassed so I walked up and told Mrs. Blake I would take her home. She nodded and I led Lydia out, but when we got into the car she didn't want to leave. "What if we go get out hair done?" I asked dreading it at the same time "That way we can kill time and yet not be so busy that we can't go if we need to," She reluctantly agreed.

"Are you finally going to cut your hair a little? Cause yours is getting almost crazy,"

I touched my curls softly "My father thinks it's practically a sin to cut my hair,"

"Yeah well, he's not the one who's going to be sitting on it if it grows another half inch,"

"Fine! Not too much though," She seemed to relax more when we got there and insisted we get the works, hair washed cut, and colored for her then styled whereas I was leaving out the coloring. We giggled and laughed as she somehow convinced the lady who owned the shop to give us champagne which I promptly declined and requested water instead. Lydia pouted at me but let me do it. When we were done her hair looked almost the same but just a little trim and highlight and my hair was cut about five inches in the back and nearly ten in the front giving my hair a little volume and interest.

"We have to go back to the recital, you know that right?" Lydia asked me and I sighed.

"Yeah, okay. You didn't drink too much right?"

"Please one glass of champagne is not going to do anything to me,"

"Um, Lydia before we go…I think I know what you are," I told her nervously.

She sighed "I don't really want to get into whatever it is, I announced to the whole school I was psychic and I can't take any more false assumptions," I guess I could understand that.

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We walked into the hall stepping next to Scott, a shiver went through my spine at how creepy everything looked. Plus I think we all knew something bad was going to happen tonight, even if a teacher hadn't been taken just hours ago.

"I thought you were going home?" Scott asked us.

"I can't. I don't know why I am the one that keeps finding the bodies, but maybe if I just stopped trying to fight it, I'd find them before it happens, maybe with enough time for someone like you to do something about it," Scott grabbed her hands and looked at her seriously.

"You get me the time, and I'll do something about it. I swear to God, I will," It felt like I was intruding so I decided to step outside for a second to get some air. Allison, her dad…and Isaac were coming through the doors. Isaac quickly stopped to hug me and I threw him a questioning look about Allison. He shrugged and then went to go follow her. Scott was not going to be happy. I heard the music get intense so I went back in, and Lydia was gone. The music was getting so loud and fast-paced that I was getting anxious, so I went to go find Lydia. The school was so creepy at night and I was trying to not choke on my anxiety….more horror movie set-ups.

I heard Mrs. Blake's voice in her classroom which was odd because she was supposed to be the host of tonight's recital. Something wasn't quite sitting well with me. I ran to the doorway as I heard her "Actually the girl who knew too much," When I reached the doorway though I heard a scream. It was so powerful I fell to my knees and had to cover my ears. When I drew them away I was seeing things blurrily, but I could see the blood on my hands, and could feel it trickling from my ears. I gasped, my hand reaching onto the ground to steady myself as I saw heels clicking toward me.

She gave a disbelieving laugh "Unbelievable. You have no idea what you are, do you? The wailing woman. A banshee, right before my eyes. You're just like me, Lydia. Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it. It's too bad, though... And too late, but first, let's take care of your friend here,"

"No, please.." Lydia cried and called for someone to get up and run. I think she was talking to me but my hearing was off and my vision too.

I was dragged by the scruff of my jacket over to a chair that she dragged out next to Lydia. I was gasping for breath still, feeling like the wind was knocked out of me. I was tied next to her and a garrote came around my neck. She paused and leaned down to look at me. "I can feel the power radiating off of you. You know, maybe if I had started with you I wouldn't have needed to kill anyone else, besides virgins of course because I know you've gotten your hooks into Derek before," Lydia was pleading with her as I felt the garrote tightening around my neck "You can die happy though, Arielle. Because of you, I might not need to kill anyone else. Because of your sacrifice, we can rid the world of the Alpha pack, put right wrongs done, and save more lives," She tightened it even more. I could feel the cut of the rope on my neck as my vision blurred more and my breathing was cut off. My legs kicked out in panic as a last-ditch effort, and I could hear Lydia crying my name "One last sacrifice," My vision was going black now and I saw the blade coming toward me.

Like it was in slow motion I saw Sherriff Stilinski pointing a gun in our direction "Drop it!" I think he said. Then the knife was thrown at him and hit him on the right side of his chest. Scott was there roaring in full view of the Sheriff. He attacked Mrs. Blake full-on, but she did something and must have used some kind of magic to push him away from her. He instantly passed out. My vision was still darkening but I saw her push the desk in front of the door. The Sheriff sat up and pointed his gun again "There was a girl. Years ago, we found her in the woods, her face and body slashed apart. That was you, wasn't it?"

He shot at her and she cried out but kept coming at him, her wound healing instantly "Maybe I should've started with philosophers, with knowledge and strategy. Healers... Warriors... Guardians... Virgins," She kissed him and then they were gone when Stiles got through the door. My vision finally blacked out and I could feel myself stop moving, even so, I could hear a little of what was going on. I heard Stiles call out for his dad desperately and Lydia screaming for them to help me. The restriction was off of my neck finally.

"She isn't breathing," Scott called out and I felt warm lips on mine breathing hair into my mouth and hands pressing quickly into my chest. I gasped for air but lay there, I think my eyes were closed but honestly, I couldn't tell up from down anymore. I could hear people talking to me but I was just tired.

"Sorry Arielle," I heard Scott say and then I felt his nails digging into my thigh. I shot up trying to scream but nothing came out of my sore throat. I could feel myself heaving and panicking my hands going to my throat.

"You're okay, he just did that to trigger the healing," Stiles told me frantically grabbing my face to look at me "Jesus, your ears are bleeding," I tried to speak but I couldn't, just coughed. I saw Scott cut away Lydia's bonds and she slid next to me crying and holding me to her.

"Scott she's going to need some water. Arielle, I am so sorry, I couldn't hold it back! I had to scream and then you couldn't fight back, I am so sorry," I tiredly reached up and held her head closer to me and pet her hair.

Scott came running back in with water. I drank it greedily and gasped out "We have to warn Derek," No one bothered arguing with me they just got me up and we got to the loft as quickly as possible. I had healed enough that I could get up the steps on my own but very slowly so Scott picked me up anyway. Outside there was some crazy wind, the thunder so loud that it hurt to hear and you could smell when lightning hit.

We went tumbling into the loft. Boyd and Derek jumped up from the desk with papers spread out around them "What the fuck happened?" Derek growled taking me from Scott despite my protest. He set me gently down on the desk, the whole scenario giving me Deja Vu about when he first started to show he cared.

The boys stumbled over themselves trying to explain what happened as Derek checked me over. He seemed to get the gist of it though "Jennifer did this to you?"

"Yeah, and they should have let it happen," I said accusingly much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

"How can you say that?" Stiles asked confused and the answer seemed to dawn on Lydia. She shook her head.

"It's not your fault he was taken," She told me and tears rolled down my face. Everyone else was just looking between us waiting for answers.

"I am so sorry Stiles," I told him brokenly, his eyebrows furrowed "If everyone had let her kill me….she wouldn't have taken your dad. She said I had enough power that she wouldn't have to kill the other sacrifices. It's all my fault!" I sobbed. I felt multiple arms around me.

"I don't blame you, Arielle," Stiles told me "She chose to take him instead of you so there must be some reason behind it," Derek cocked his head.

"A car just pulled up downstairs, everyone hide. You too Boyd," He kissed my forehead and passed me over so Stiles could help me hide quicker.

The door to the loft was opening and Mrs. Blake was running in exactly like a damsel in distress "Derek? Derek, where are you?"

"Right here," He called coming out from his bedroom opposite where we were watching. She ran to him throwing herself in his arms.

"Thank God. Something happened at the recital. At the school. Okay, I need to tell you before you hear it before you hear any of it from them,"

Derek played dumb "From who?"

"Scott, Stiles, Lydia. They're gonna tell you things. Things you can't believe. You have to trust me, okay? You trust me," I noticed she didn't mention me. Maybe she assumed I was dead. Which made me angrier.

"What is it?"

"Promise you'll listen to me," Now she sounded super desperate and really suspicious.

"I promise," He told her and she kissed him. She froze mid-kiss and pulled away.

"They're already here, aren't they?" I let Stiles and Scott step out without me, creating a more dramatic entrance later, they both glared at her "So... they told you it was me? That I'm the one taking people?"

"We told him you're the one killing people,"

"Oh, that's right. Committing human sacrifices? What, cutting their throats? Yeah, I probably do it during my lunch hour. That way, I can get back to teaching high school English the rest of the day. That makes perfect sense," She scoffed

"Where's my dad?" Stiles asked, from where I was I could barely see the tear roll down his face and my heart clenched.

"How should I know?" She asked him and turned towards Derek pleadingly "Derek, tell me you don't believe this,"

"Do you know what happened to Stiles' father?"

"No," She told him. Her heartbeat was almost steady, but I could tell Derek could see Stiles' face how broken up he was.

Scott stepped up "Ask her why she almost killed Arielle and Lydia,"

"Lydia Martin and Arielle? I don't know anything about that," She denied.

"What do you know?" Derek asked her gruffly.

"I know that these boys, for whatever misguided reason, are filling your head with an absurd story. And one they can't prove, by the way," She told the boys snottily.

I finally stepped out and she gaped at me "I guess my word doesn't count for anything then? Well, I might have a solution to that," I held up a bottle to show her.

"What is that?" She asked.

"My boss told me it's a poison and a cure... which means you can use it... and it can be used against you," Scott nodded at me to open it.

"Mistletoe?" She asked angrily. I smiled as I threw the powder at her. She began to change in front of us and we all saw her face transform into a scarred mess that screamed at us before she changed back panting. Derek looked at her shocked. When she looked at him with a side eye and ran for it, he grabbed her by the neck "Derek, wait, wait! You need me,"

"What are you?" He asked angrily claws extending.

"The only person who can save your sister. Call Peter. Call him!" She gasped out. He whipped out his phone still holding her tightly. Peter answered and they talked back and forth. Basically, Cora was dying with mistletoe in her system. Derek broke his phone in half and started to strangle her lifting her off the ground.

"Derek. Derek, what are you doing?" Scott asked

"Her life... it's in my hands!" Mrs. Blake gasped out. Stiles pleaded with him to stop "Stilinski, you'll never find him," She told Stiles. I snarled but moved forward grabbing Derek's chin.

"Der, you have to listen to me okay," He looked at me "Let her go, we can save everyone but you have to let her go, you can't kill her. Not yet," He gave a shuddered breath and dropped her on the ground where she hit hard.

"That's right. You need me. All of you," She told us raising her head and smiling creepily and smugly. I still had a bad feeling about everything.