Full Moon ☾ Derek Hale

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Chaos Rising (Part 2)

"That's where Isaac comes in. He'll share what memories he does have by—"

"I know how it works." I interrupted, remembering when Peter had sunk his claws into my neck and visited my own memories several months back. 

"Okay—" Scott ran a hand over his face, "How slow does her heart rate have to be?"

"Very slow." Deaton dryly answered.

"Yeah, well, how slow is very slow?" Derek barked in a low voice. He leaned forward, his knuckles wrapping around the metal drum tightly. 

"Nearly dead." Deaton casually answered. My eyes widened even more, my teeth gritting together. It was like drowning in the pool all over again, except 60 degrees colder. A sharp burning ghosted itself across my chest as the memory of drowning haunted me.  

"Nope. No. No! Absolutely not." Stiles interjected. "No. Cant we—we can just knock her out! Just a quick little—" Stiles began making a punching motion. "See if she'll dream up where they're hiding. Seems a lot safer!"

"It is safe though, right? For a human?" Isaac added.

"Do you really want him to answer that honestly?" I sighed.

"No, no not really." He sheepishly replied. Isaac reached forward and grazed the water with his fingers, immediately retracting them in pain as the icy water seared his fingertips.  

"It's too risky, you don't have to do it." Derek refuted an octave lower, looking me straight in the eye. I looked back at him, weighing my options. I could see that he didn't want me to do it. But I knew how desperate he was for answers. 

"I'm not comfortable with this." Scott nodded in agreement with the Alpha.

"Yeah well, you're not the one going in the water. Besides, we need to find them and Stiles' friend."

"We can find another way." Derek agreed. Elsewhere in the room, a piece of elastic snapped. We all glared up, finding Stiles playing with a long, large rubber glove.

"What?" He asked innocently. Scott sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. I sharply inhaled an elongated breath, it was now or never. 

"Okay enough." I began stripping myself of my jacket and kicking off my boots. I was left in only my black dress, and I began to feel naked. A knot formed in my stomach as my heart raced. The clock was ticking and if we wanted to find out what happened to Isaac, the Beta's and Heather, I'd have to take one for the team. I made my way to the front of the tub, my fingers trembling inside my fist. I looked down to the water then back up at Deaton, who gave me a reassuring nod. Scott wrapped his hand around mine and squeezed it.

Now or never.

I lifted my leg over the edge tub and dipped it into the water. A shaky, pained breath escaped my lungs as my foot submerged into the ice. I chomped down on the inside of my cheek until there was blood. The water was painful—so cold it felt like my skin was burning off. I swallowed hard, tensing every muscle in my body as I swung the other leg into the tub. My teeth clenched together hard enough to break a brick. With all the strength in my body, I lowered my body into the tub. My knuckles turned a ghostly white as I held onto the tubs rim. My breathing grew labored as the glacial water bit at my body. Tremors shook my body as I tried to focus on absolutely anything but the cold—fire, summer, the surface of the sun...anything. Every single second thought I had about this ran through my mind. I couldn't do it. I'd go hypothermic in seconds. This was going against every natural instinct a human had.

A warm hand firmly placed itself on my shoulder. The touch of warm skin against my own sent goosebumps down my spine. I looked over, noticing the hand belonged to Derek's. It distracted from the pain for a moment, calming my speeding heart and fading the icy pain. I can do this.