Teen Vamp

Chapter 4 - Who Can Calm The Savage Rage?

***DEREK***

Well. I knew this day was coming. Leaving the teenagers free to roam my loft has meant they've read the lore, and now Stiles is calling me out for not telling him everything.

I show his text to Skylar, who clicks her tongue sadly. "I wanna help him too," she says, "but if he's so desperate...I don't wanna see you kill him."

"Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of." Maybe it's because he was the one plain old human in my pack for the longest time, but Stiles is more like a little brother to me than any of the rest of them. He has to understand why I'm trying to protect him...but he's right, I can't protect him forever.

"Don't be afraid." Hunter smiles as he comes around from behind my back and Skylar's, where he's been looming over us to read the text. (Even though he's barely an inch taller than I am, he seems taller because he's so lean. Never would've guessed a guy who probably weighs twenty pounds less than me could intimidate me.) "If I know Stiles, and I think I do-"

"Biblically?" I laugh bitterly. "Don't answer that. Rhetorical question."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. But listen - Stiles is a strong guy. Stronger than you give him credit for. My advice, Derek? Turn him, immediately. If you let him die, you know you're the first one he'd come after, right?"

"I know." But I can't risk it, not now that we've got another active investigation going on. Maybe when we finish dealing with Renard Senior, I could get the job done.

Now as for his victim's friend...

Jordan Parrish sits in the Sheriff's office, nursing a cup of coffee. I hope, for his sake, it's decaf - he looks freaked out enough that he really shouldn't be straining his heart. Though given how fit he is - he fought in Afghanistan, the Sheriff told me earlier, and came back no worse for wear - I'd be very surprised if his heart couldn't handle the extra jolt.

"You wanna go in?" I ask Skylar.

She nods once, lips tightened.

"All right. Hunter, stay outside. We'll call you in if we need you."

He pouts as he sits in the nearest chair, manspreading to the best of his ability - and given how tall and gawky he is, it's not inconsiderable, his ability. "Might as well have stuck with Stiles."

"Trust me, we might need you."

"Yeah," Skylar chimes in. "You're easily the best charm-talker out of the three of us."

"Sweet of you to think so, but something tells me that unless our man here subscribes to 'don't ask, don't tell,' I'm probably not his type."

"Not everything is about sex, Hunter." Without another word, I open the door, standing aside and letting Skylar in first. She flashes me a short glare - whoops, strike one against me. Stupid me, I let myself think she'd automatically be okay with me being a gentleman. Well, I'm just being polite, like my parents taught me.

Of course, Skylar has to spoil that glare with a really slow, even seductive wink. Which I want to return, so badly, but I have to get down to business. And what bad business this is going to be. I'm so bad with people in general, it's not even funny. Everyone calls me out on some kind of social awkwardness, and that's putting it mildly. I'm all too aware of my tendencies to either make too much eye contact or none at all, with little middle ground. Also, my way of violating people's personal space, which I think might stem from slowly un-learning that concept after years of solitude.

"Jordan Parrish?" I stand just inside the doorway, with Skylar standing off to the side so Parrish can see me. "I'm Derek Hale." I hold out my hand.