You guys! I'm so excited! I finally came up with the lore for what Stiles is! I mean, the bare bones of it, but still. I know what you're thinking: "Shouldn't you already know that?" but nope, I just had this story idea and YOLOed it, but things work themselves out as we go.
By the way, this chapter starts to earn the "Morally Ambiguous Stiles Stilinski" tag, just FYI.
(the above technically only applies to Ao3 tags but I'll leave the warning just in case)
September 27th, 2009
"So, what's this really about?" Bonnie asks after they've put in their orders.
Once he'd texted her last night, they'd decided to meet at the Grill the next day. Stiles kept the talk school-related at first, not really sure how to bring up the subject now that he's slept on it, so he's glad she decided to cut right to the chase.
"About the candle thing at the party-" he barely manages to get that out before she interrupts.
"It wasn't anything," she tells him, but her nervous look begs to differ, "I mean- witches, right? They aren't real." her small laugh sounds forced to someone that's known her for years.
"I may have hesitated to say this before," he starts a little unsure, but her slightly hopeful look encourages him to continue, "but I'm pretty sure they are."
"How?" Bonnie's disbelief is only overshadowed by her clear curiosity as she leans forward into the table.
"Because if vampires exist, there's no way witches don't too," he blurts out before he can talk himself out of it. She needs to know the danger, he was already attacked once and could have died, and maybe since she seems to have been slowly getting used to the idea of being a witch she'll be easier to convince.
Her face immediately closes up, "you're not funny."
"I'm hilarious," he contradicts, "but that's got nothing to do with it. Listen, I was in the woods yesterday and this thing just- jumps me out of nowhere, bites my neck then goes away hissing about vervain. It was an older woman that looked right out of a Renaissance fair if they had a special zombie-themed event, and there was this girl with her," he explains under her skeptical gaze, "I mean it! Her eyes were like every blood vessel exploded at once and there were these black veins under them and, y'know, my blood on her mouth. Her mouth with very sharp fangs."
"Right, so where's this neck wound?" She raises her brows slightly, "And why would you have been in the woods at night?"
"It… healed," he admits, realizing he'll have to open up about the whole thing if he wants her to believe him, "because I apparently have a supernatural healing factor, and I was in the woods training my other powers. Well, trying to, since I don't really know what I'm supposed to be. Not a vampire," Stiles assures her since he just said he'd been attacked by one, "not that vampires are all bad but-"
"Stiles!" She exclaims over his voice, sounding both exasperated and amused. "So you're some supernatural creature now?"
"Look, I got bit by this- wolf-ish thing before coming here, it's a whole thing. I can prove-" He stops talking when, while glancing around the room in case anyone was paying a bit too much attention to their conversation, he notices a girl walk into the restaurant and head for the bar. A very familiar girl.
"What?" Bonnie pulls his attention back, twisting her neck to look at where he'd been staring.
"Don't look," he whispers to her, making her look back at him, "I think I just saw one of the vampires from last night."
"Out during the day?" She questions with justified skepticism.
"Sorry I didn't have time to interrogate them about it while getting my neck chewed on," he hisses back before glancing back up at the brunette by the bar.
The girl was once again talking to the jock-looking dude, and it looked like an argument. He tries to focus his hearing on them, curious about what the little vampire - seriously she looks fifteen at most - wants with the bartender.
"Why?" The jock sounds upset.
"I told you, I got what I needed," the vampire, on the other hand, is mostly dismissive, "I don't need to turn you, and I'm definitely not doing it now of all times."
"You promised-" he shuts up when she grabs his arm.
"You'll forget the promise I made," she tells him, "In fact, you'll forget I'm a vampire at all. We're acquaintances, that's all. Now you'll go back to work and forget you saw me today."
"We're acquaintances, that's all," The jock repeats as if in a trance and immediately walks back to the other end of the bar.
What the hell?
"That's getting creepy," Bonnie's voice snaps his attention back to their table, "why are you staring at them?"
"I'm not-" Actually he probably was, wasn't he? He needs to work on that. "I was listening to their conversation," Stiles explains as he stands up, "Sorry, I need to- I'll be right back," he assures her before speed-walking in the direction the vampire is going.
He slips out of the side door only a few seconds behind the girl but doesn't see her even as he looks out at the street. As a last resort, he walks over to the alley behind the grill, but it also seems to be empty. At least that's what he thinks until he's suddenly pushed against the wall, reacting on instinct and jabbing his elbow back into whoever his attacker was.
The vampire from last night gets thrown into the wall, due to him having used his full strength in a panic. He sees her start to stand up and her eyes flicker to the exit of the alley but before she can do that cool blurring-away thing, he manages to grab her arm and pull her fully up and against the wall, pinning her to it with one hand on her arm and the other on her neck.
"Can you stop attacking first and asking questions later?" He requests in a tone filled with annoyance. It's unexpected enough to make her stop struggling.
"What are you?" She blurts out, looking both apprehensive and curious.
"I'll let you know when I find out," he tells her, obviously not meaning it but hoping his supposed lack of experience will help her calm the fuck down.
It works since she huffs out an amused breath, "Fair, sorry about that. I thought you wanted to attack me."
"Why?" He asks, mostly rhetorically, in exasperation. "This is the second time you've attacked me for no reason, are all vampires this trigger-happy?"
"Most of them," She admits, tapping his arm on her throat, "Mind letting me go?"
"Dunno, mind not attacking me again?" He drawls, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"I apologized!" She whines, and it's such a childish tone that he ends up letting her go with a snort, watching her run a newly freed hand over her neck, "Why did you follow me if you weren't going to attack?"
"I just wanted to find out what the hell happened last night," he explains, "also, what did you do to that dude? Is it like hypnosis or something?"
"You really don't know?" She asks with no small amount of disbelief. "You're on vervain."
"Wouldn't ask a literal stranger that's attacked me twice already if I did," he points out, frowning slightly at her observation and remembering the vampire that attacked him had also said something about vervain. "If I'm taking it, I didn't know about it," he admits, before adding, "not that I'll be stopping anytime soon now that I know vampires exist," earning a nod from the girl who suddenly sticks out her hand.
"Annabelle, but call me Anna," she offers and he sees it for the truce it is.
"Call me Stiles," he shakes her hand, earning a slightly puzzled look that's gone in the blink of an eye. "So? Yesterday?"
"I had just rescued my mother from a tomb, where she had been starving for over a hundred years," Anna explains, shoving her hands in her jacket's pockets. "She wouldn't have attacked you otherwise, we don't want any trouble."
Stiles takes a moment to consider the explanation before shrugging, "Alright," who was he to judge a starved vampire when after a couple of missed meals he could probably eat a whole cow? "Was she one of the vampires under those ruins?"
She narrows her eyes at him, sounding slightly suspicious as she asks, "How do you know about the tomb?"
"It's a tomb?" He supposes that makes sense, it is near an old cemetery, "I didn't, I just followed the smoke. How did they end up there?"
Anna hesitates for a moment before apparently figuring there's no harm in telling, "They were locked inside by a witch in 1864, to escape their death when the church was set on fire," there's a momentary pause before she adds, "The key to open it again was a crystal, but I just waited for it to be open and grabbed my mom, I didn't set the fire."
A crystal? Stiles' mind goes back to the Founder's party, the amber crystal Damon had taken from the exhibit, but she hasn't mentioned Damon. Interesting.
"That's fine, I wouldn't want a bunch of starved vampires roaming the streets anyway, might be a bit bad for business," Stiles jokes, feeling satisfied when her serious expression twitches into a slight smile for a moment. "Thanks for clearing that up though. Is your mom better now?"
She just stares at him for a second, frowning slightly, before answering, "She is. I wanted to leave, but… she would like to stay."
"As long as you're not obvious about eat- wait. Oh my god," Stiles can't help but physically facepalm at the realization that hits him, dragging a hand down his face as he elaborates, "Those animal attacks when I got here, they were vampire attacks, weren't they? I thought it was weird that Vicky only had a neck injury-"
"I had nothing to do with that," Anna warns, edging to the side a little to avoid remaining backed into the wall by him, "But animal attack is the standard cover if we're messy enough."
Stiles snorts, thinking about the other vampire he knows, "Oh, I know who it was. Probably," he adds with a hint of doubt since there could be more vampires around that he doesn't know about. They don't really go around announcing themselves.
"You said you didn't know about-" She starts, eyes narrowing in suspicion, but Stiles promptly interrupts.
"I found out about it yesterday too," he fights the urge to roll his eyes because being a vampire hiding from humans probably warrants this amount of suspicion, "Hey, can I get your number in case I have more questions? I left my friend inside, she won't be too happy with me," he asks in a pleading tone. It wouldn't hurt to have a couple of supernatural contacts.
Anna takes a moment to consider, glancing between him and the entrance of the alley, before sighing and nodding. He promptly takes out his phone to add a new contact, smirking as he names it 'Ms Cullen' and chuckling when she glares at him for it. Apparently, not all Vampires are unaware of their current media representation.
They say their goodbyes and Stiles rushes back to his table with Bonnie, who's picking at her salad - apparently their orders arrived while he was away - and looks at him expectantly as soon as he drops back down on the chair. "Sorry 'bout that, it's sorted now." He wastes no time before attacking his sandwich, suddenly much more hungry than before.
"What's sorted?" She asks, sounding on the verge of losing her patience.
Stiles freezes between bites, throwing a sheepish look her way. He opens his mouth to explain before thinking better of it, "Can we finish eating and head to the forest? I'll explain it then, plus I'll show you it's true."
Bonnie focuses a narrow-eyed look at him for a moment before huffing impatiently but agreeing, going back to the remains of her salad. It doesn't take long for them to finish and Stiles gives her a location to meet at, that first spot by the lake and near the forest he'd used the first time. It's near the Lockwood property and closer to the city than the one he'd been at the other day by the vampire barbecue tomb. They part ways to their respective cars - which he figures is a good thing in case she feels like storming off after their talk - and head to the agreed spot.
"Ok, let's see it," Bonnie prompts once they've walked a couple of minutes into the woods.
"Just… don't freak out," Stiles advises, before backtracking, "or do, that's fine, just-"
"Do it already!" She snaps with a nervous laugh.
Stiles promptly turns to face a thick enough tree that he figures won't break before pulling a fist back and putting all of his strength into the punch. There's a yelp from behind him a moment later and he winces at the sight of a squinting Bonnie covering her face from stray pieces of wood, "Maybe I should've told you to stand back," he admits with a sheepish grin.
"What the-" Her eyes suddenly widen and he follows her gaze to the quickly healing skin of his knuckles, prompting him to start pulling out any stray splinters.
Bonnie stares in astonishment for a couple more seconds before stepping right past him, hand reaching for the large dent his fist made into the tree. Stiles finishes cleaning out his wound and just stands there expectantly, waiting for her to say something.
"It wasn't just one candle," She whispers after a moment, back still turned to him, and he thinks he might have missed it if not for his current focus on her enabling his enhanced hearing. "After- there was this whole room with unlit candles, and Carol was being a bi- uh- herself, to the waiter supposed to light them. I tried to do it again, I thought it didn't work but- the whole room just lit up. Every single candle," her tone becomes tinged with a hint of awe and fear.
"Bonnie-" He's not very sure what to say to that besides holy shit, but that probably wouldn't be very helpful at the moment.
She turns back around, slightly nervous but excited eyes meeting his as a trembling smile forms on her lips, "I think I'm actually a witch."
No shit, he thinks to himself, but just smiles at her and opens his arms in an offering. She immediately launches herself at him in a hug, laughing a little hysterically into his chest, "Thank you for telling me, Bon." He says, figuring that if it works for coming out of the closet it might as well work for coming out as a witch.
She lets out an incredulous giggle, "You too, Stiles."
They eventually separate, once she's mostly over the overwhelming feeling of finding out that the supernatural exists and she's also part of it.
"So, about that explanation?" Bonnie prompts, looking around them for a moment before just dropping down on the floor on cris-crossed legs.
Stiles shrugs and follows her example, "The vampire from the Grill, her name's Anna. Apparently, a witch locked a bunch of vampires in a tomb under this church that got set on fire to save their lives and it included her mom, who'd been starving since 1864," he starts recounting what Anna told him, "that's who attacked me, by the way, her mom who'd just woken up after being starved. She apologized for it. Anna, not her mom," he specifies, "They're most likely staying in town, but hopefully, their feeding will be a little more discreet now that her mom isn't starving."
"Their feeding," Bonnie repeats in a slightly incredulous tone, "on people?"
"They are vampires," Stiles shrugs, "I don't see people judging lions for eating gazelles, do you?"
"But- I mean, they should know better," she frowns, "shouldn't they? Weren't they human too?"
"I'm not a hundred percent on how turning works," Stiles admits, since the one journal he'd read with mostly accurate information hadn't mentioned it, "but even if they were people, they're vampires now. It probably comes with a whole other set of instincts," he shrugs, "it would be a bit… prejudiced to judge them for it. Specieist?"
Bonnie snorts at his attempt to pick the right word but does look deep in thought about it, only speaking after a whole minute, "But they could be killing people."
Stiles holds back from blurting out his immediate thoughts, the ones saying that if it's not someone he cares about then he's not gonna make it an issue. It's not that he lacks empathy, at least he doesn't think that's it. He knows that any strangers who end up being a vampire meal probably had family and friends that cared about them… but so do people who die in accidents, who become casualties of natural disasters, who are attacked by animals, or just... Succumb to disease, like his mother. Death is part of life, an inescapable part of it as a whole tomb of roasted vampires can attest to, and it definitely sucks but he's not about to feel guilty about predators doing what they need to survive. People die, it's what they do, and as long as he can keep the ones he cares about alive for as long as possible, he's not about to pick a fight with mother nature.
"They could," he agrees neutrally, "and it would be their prerogative as predators, I think. But I doubt all of them do, just like not all humans go around killing animals to eat and some choose to be vegetarian." Stiles pauses as a thought occurs to him, "Huh, I wonder if there's such a thing as vegetarian vampires. The Cullens made it work," he muses, making Bonnie huff in amusement.
"I'm not gonna be okay with vampires just- going around killing people," she warns him with a pointed look and he just shrugs, "but… I get that it wouldn't be fair to demonize a whole species for their instincts."
"That's all I'm saying," Stiles shrugs, "and vampire diets aside, there's other stuff we should talk about. There's this herb called vervain and if you drink some of it you're no longer vampire snack. It burns them or something, so we should definitely order some for us and our family."
"And tell them what?" Bonnie throws him a questioning look, "Hey Dad, drink this so vampires can't eat you?"
Stiles laughs but does have to admit she has a point, "We'll figure it out," he assures her, pausing to think for a moment before suggesting, "We could mix like, vervain oil with the cooking one, or put some dry bits into-" oh, no way.
"Into…?" She prompts at his pause.
"Into the tea," he finishes with a small frown, thoughts turning to the apple crumble mix his aunt had suddenly acquired from a friend just as he got into town and after the animal attacks had started. "I'll think of something, it depends on the form of it we manage to get our hands on anyway."
"Right," Bonnie lets out a small sigh, "any other potentially life-changing revelations?"
Stiles chuckles at her exasperated tone, "Not yet, but I'll text you if that changes," he jokingly assures her. There's a short moment of silence before he dares to bring up the other important subject, "What are we doing about your witchy powers? Any chance of getting a late Hogwarts letter?"
"I don't think so," she replies with a slight smile, "I'm not sure what to do about it, it's not like there's a tutorial for beginner witches somewhere. I guess… I could ask Grams, but why wouldn't she have told me before?"
"I mean… she did," he winces at the look he earns for that comment, "kind of. She could have been more direct, but maybe she's not strong enough of a witch to show you definite proof? I don't know Bon, you'll have to ask her that."
"I suppose," Bonnie agrees with a shrug.
"I'll look into it too," he's quick to reassure her, "don't underestimate my powers of Google-fu."
She laughs, "Never."
True to his word, Stiles gets to searching as soon as he has a free moment at home. He'd just finished having dinner with Aunt Liz and Caroline – taking the opportunity to lightly question his aunt on the origins of the tea blend to no definite answer – and immediately went up to his bedroom, planting his ass on the computer chair and refusing to leave before ordering some vervain, which turns out not to be a simple quest.
First of all, most people actually call it verbena in the States, but either no one told the vampires that or they're old enough that it was actually referred to as vervain when they learned about it and Stiles is putting his money on the latter. Second of all… the vervain genus contains over one hundred species. How is he supposed to know the right one? It could be a matter of every single one working the same, but that feels like a dangerous generalization to make. He could go with the most commonly found in the States, but what if he was actually supposed to order the most common in Europe, or- Transylvania or something? That single question sends him into another research spiral all by itself.
He's almost ready to call it a night and pick it back up in the morning - or after school - before remembering that herb book he'd let Damon borrow. They'd thankfully traded them back before the whole vampire discovery, so Stiles rushes to find it in his bookshelf and leaf through it until he finds some type of vervain to go off of. He finds what he's looking for near the end of the book, an entry of Verbena hastata that he quickly translates to mean speared vervain in Latin, which states its ability to ward off nocturnal predators that feed on life. Stiles snorts at that description, sounds like vampires alright.
He ends up spending some more time looking through the book, making note of other hidden euphemisms that could hint at something he may want to get his hands on. Aconitum napellus or turnip wolf's bane is described as advised in case of lycanthropy, which makes him laugh once again since that is technically the name of a form of madness involving delusions of being an animal and the writer can't be faulted for simply offering a natural treatment. A most likely lethal one, but treatment nonetheless.
A curious entry about Sorbus aucuparia which when translated from Latin to English makes no sense - in the usual way that only a few scientific names make sense anyway - but looks familiar enough for him to identify as the rowan tree remarks that when in ash form, it is capable of providing a manner of protection against curse-affected beings. It's a bit of a long shot, but so far the book seems to be all about hidden meanings and euphemisms that could actually refer to the supernatural, so he makes a point of remembering to buy some rowan ash as well, just in case.
Amusingly enough, once he uses the correct names for his search, it's not as hard to find out where to buy them as he previously thought. Of course, he remains cautious of what looks like schemes or ads promising some sort of miracle result after taking vervain pills, but the little stores with what looks like hand-made items and some more serious-looking websites grab his attention quite quickly. Especially a small Etsy store called Prostasia, which a quick online translation tells him means protection in Greek. There are twine bracelets with vervain woven into them, and various forms of the herb such as dried, powder, and oil as well as extracts and tincture. The store also offers various types of accessories geared toward protection, all containing different types of crystals and a few with rune-carved wooden beads, though Stiles hesitates on buying anything that supposedly contains foreign magic now that he knows it actually exists.
It takes him a little longer to find the correct type of aconite, and he nearly gives up on ordering any rowan ash – he may as well find his own tree to burn at that point – before stumbling upon an address in Atlanta of someone claiming to sell it, but only through in-person deliveries. He figures it's better than nothing and saves the directions on his phone's notes for later use before going ahead and buying literary every form of vervain Prostasia has to offer as well as a couple of vervain bracelets to hand out just in case, though he can probably come up with a better, less obvious way to accessorize the herb if given enough time. He orders some aconite oil, which is the only form he managed to find so far, and spends some time browsing the store with the aconite - it's called Le Mirage and he doesn't need to know French to understand the name - and he ends up ordering two books from it as well: Manuscrits Malveillants, an old-looking tome which supposedly contains information on a variety of malicious spells cast with the use of writing, as well as Ne Brûle Pas, a smaller and more modern-looking book with a charred marshmallow on fire on the cover that makes it look like a cookbook but claims to contain tips and tricks to avoid being detected as a witch and was very clearly written by someone with a dark sense of humor.
Stiles looks at the confirmation emails from his purchases and sighs.
I should probably sign up for French.
The chapters keep getting longer... but I have a feeling no one's gonna complain about that XD
Can anyone tell me how actual authors keep from ranting about every subtle hint they add to their stories? I've texted paragraphs at two of my friends already and none of them even read my fic, someone help me shut up LMAO.
Anyway, there's some Damon next chapter, just thought I'd let y'all know.