CHAPTER THREE

Daryl squinted at the three men that had set up their camp beside him. He didn't know why they chose to set their tent with him instead of the others. Sure, he was a wolf like the alpha and the boy, but in his experience, he was still an outsider even amongst other wolves. Seeing nothing but wary curiosity he decided to answer.

"Don't know why the crazy fuckers are keepin' 'em. Heard one a 'em tossin' chickens in, like theys feedin' the things," revulsion clear in Daryl's tone. "Been keepin' an eye on it when not out lookin' fer the girl. Long as no one goes near 'em they stay quiet."

"You know this place isn't safe, right? And I'm not just talking about the cannibal corpses in the barn," Harry stated.

"Ain't stupid. No walls and all these animals are just ringing the dinner bell. Don't know how they's not had a herd blow through here yet. Why're y'all set up over here? Figured ya'd want to do some socializin', seenin' how's people're in short supply nowadays."

Stiles laughed. "Harry and Derek socialize? That's never going to happen. So, I guess I should go over that way before Junior and Dangle decide to come here." Three blank faces looked back at him. "Oh come on! Reno 911?! Comedy Central? Really? Uncultured heathens!"

"Didn't have a TV most of the time," Derek rolled his eyes, like Stiles should already know this…he did.

"Wasn't allowed to watch TV when I was at the Dursleys'. Never seen much use in it after, since electronics don't work well around my type of magic," Harry shrugged. "Had one room set up for Teddy to watch movies and stuff when he was younger."

Daryl watched the others for a moment before replying, "Never bothered paying fer cable, waste a money. 'Sides, I'd think they'd be more like Roscoe and Ennis."

"Don't you dare insult Roscoe like that! She's better than those tin badge cops could ever dream…probably seen more action, too," Stiles declared totally affronted. "The bald one could compete with Ennis tjough. Got the same attitude." Daryl looked at him like he had lost his mind.

"Roscoe is the name of his JEEP," Derek explained. "Deathtrap on wheels. I don't know how the thing is still running. It's all duct tape at this point. Hell, it was all duct tape a decade ago."

Daryl cringed at the thought of yet another vehicle held together only by duct tape.

"Ennis was a roid raged bald wolf with more fleas than brains. Derek killed him when he attacked us. And, don't act like you didn't rebuild her after moving in," Stiles said, pointing an accusing finger. Derek replied by raising a single eyebrow. "And with the eyebrow of death, I am off on my mission." Stiles saluted the other men and began to skip to the other camp.

Daryl watched Stiles move across the yard with a squinted stare. "That boy ain't right, is he?"

Harry and Derek both laughed.

"I have thought that for over a decade," Derek smirked.

"That's actually probably his greatest power," Harry said, at Daryl's confused look, he continued. "Stiles makes you see this happy go lucky guy, that couldn't lie if his life depended on it. But really, he's one of the smartest people I've ever met, if not the smartest. His brain runs so fast his body doesn't always keep up, which makes him look like a klutz…adding to the harmless facade."

"Don't let the clueless motor mouth fool you," Derek defended at Daryl's dubious look. "By now, he's already profiled everyone over there around him. He's building plans on how to defend, assist, or kill as the situation demands. And don't think he won't kill if needed. He's scary with a gun."

"Not to mention he has his spark to fall back on in an emergency," Harry added.

"What the hell is a spark?"

"Magic," Harry said slowly, as if unsure.

"Ain't no such thing as magic," Daryl denied.

"The dead are walking and you howl at the moon," Harry deadpanned, while Derek chuckled.

"I don't fuckin' howl at the damn moon, asshole."

"Okay, sorry," Harry placated, hands up. "But magic is real. How can you not know, surely you met a druid or wiccan at some point. As the saying goes, like calls to like. In this case, being other should have called to other not fully humans."

"Met a few people thought might be into that voodoo shit. Seen a chupacabra once. Don't know nothin' 'bout sparks or druids," Daryl answered, chewing on the corner of his thumb. "Never spent much time round people, theys didn't like me, an' I didn't have no need for them."

"Well, Stiles is a Spark and I am a Wizard."

"The hell's the dif'rence?"

Harry grinned at the gruff question. "Basically, it depends on the way you are able to access and use magic. Druids, Wiccans, Sparks, Wizards, some creatures, all access magic differently. For this though, we just need Sparks and Wizards. A Spark is basically wish magic, think of it like a fire…it gets started with some type of combustible…or wished into existence for this, the wish is the spark that ignites the fire …it can burn for different amounts of time and intensities, but eventually it's going to burn out. You'll have to rebuild it with more combustibles and add another spark before you have another fire. Wizarding magic is like the magma under the surface of the planet. It's always there, and if you know how you can access it at will. It might explode sometimes, but there is always more right below the surface, just looking for an outlet."

"Right. So, sparky over there is a house fire and yer a damn volcano. Why didn't ya just say that, instead all-a that other nonsense?" Daryl rolled his eyes. Harry and Derek burst into laughter.

"There's more to it than that, but that works for now," Harry grinned. "You said it was always you and your brother before. He a wolf too?"

Daryl studied the two men with him for several moments. He finally decided to answer since they didn't refer to his brother as if he were already dead. "Nah, Merle ain't a wolf. Got lost in the woods when I was a kid. Got bit. Never met who bit me. Was lost fer nine days. Wiped my ass with poison oak, itched like hell for weeks. Made it home and made a sandwich. No one even noticed I'd been gone. Merle was in juvie at the time. When it all got too much, I'd take off to the woods. Merle helped some when he was around, which wasn't much, when I was young. He was in an' outta juvie, then went into the army." Daryl was sitting on the ground facing them, thumb being chewed aggressively, and knee bouncing quickly. He took a deep breath before continuing. "Ma was already dead, burnt in a house fire; said she fell asleep smokin', so much liquor spilled in that house, weren't no wonder place went up with her in it. I'd been tryna play with the neighbor kids, watched the place burn. Ain't nothin' good to say about Pa. Damnit, the hell I tell ya all-a that?"

Harry gave him a sympathetic smile. "Like calls to like. My parents died when I was a year old fighting the darkest wizard in history. I was left with my mother's sister and her family. The Dursleys didn't like anything that didn't fit in with their idea of normal…and my mom was by no means normal by their standards. I was already doing accidental magic, so they used whatever means they could come up with to stamp the magic outta me."

"When I was fifteen I had a girlfriend, I wanted my mom to bite her but mom said no. Stuff happened, other alphas were in our territory. One of the alphas ended up attacking her and bit her. She rejected the bite and she asked me to kill her to end her suffering. Obviously that messed with my head. So, when a new teacher started flirting with me a few months later, making advancements no teacher should be, I didn't care. She turned out to be a hunter. I realize now she was grooming me, and she would drug me with wolfsbane when we had sex so I would tell her things I would never normally tell anyone. She was able to seal our home with wolfsbane and mountain ash and burn it and my most of my family to the ground. My oldest sister and I came home from school while it was burning. They found my uncle with burns over eighty percent of his body; wolfsbane was in the burns, he was in a coma for six years slowly healing and going insane reliving the fire. We thought my youngest sister died, but she got away and made it to another pack in South America."

"Damn. What about Sparky?"

"I lost my mom when I was eight," Stiles said, plopping down beside Derek. His sudden appearance causing Daryl to flinch.

"He likes to use his magic to hide himself, no heartbeat, no smell, no steps…used to drive me crazy. Learned to listen for his heartbeat to disappear…then I knew he was up to something."

"No fair telling my secrets," Stiles pouted. "Anyway. My mom had frontotemporal dementia. At eight, I got to watch my mom lose her mind. She called me evil, said I was killing her. She tried to kill me a couple of times before dad put her in the hospital. The good days were almost worse than the bad…cause it just made it hurt so much worse when it did go bad. I was alone with her when she died, dad didn't leave work to come to the hospital. Next few years, I took care of the house, bills, shopping, dad…while he lived in a bottle. My best friend's mom finally did an intervention, threatened to take me. It got better-ish. I mean, what mentally healthy fifteen year old drags his best friend into the woods to look for half of a body, right?"

"Dafuq?" Daryl demanded, then he got a contemplating look on his face, cocking his head to the side. "The right or left half?"

Stiles burst into laughter. He quickly got control of himself as Derek gave him the stink eye. "Oh my god. Sorry big guy," Stiles pat Derek's shoulder. "Sorry, really should not laugh at that. It was the top half, but what I did not know at the time was that it was Derek's older sister. And with the limited maturity I have gained over the years…I fully admit we were total assholes for that. And Sourwolf, you were a saint to put up with all the shit we put you through after."

"Damn. Did they find out what happened?" Daryl asked, no matter how much he was internally telling himself to stay outta these people's business.

" My uncle's crazy nurse lured her back. He was coming out of the coma, but was all wolf no human; at least according to him. He killed her for her alpha power. Although he claims he didn't know it was her and just attacked what he thought was an invading wolf. Then hunters found her body and cut her in half to lure me back. They wanted to make sure they killed all the Hales. They did not succeed."

"So, do you lose your eyebrows when you shift too, or is that just a Hale thing?" Stiles asked to break the tension that had been building.