"Slipping through my fingers."
Max bit the bullet, knowing it was best to do this sooner rather than later. Looking for Cora and Boyd could wait a few minutes. This was more important. He grew more anxious at every ring that it took for her to answer the phone.
Hello?
"Hi, is this Serena?"
It is, who's this? Sorry, I just got a new phone recently so I don't have most of my contacts
Christ, this was going to hurt. Here she was laughing and he had to break the worst news to her. "It's okay. This is Max, I'm Erica's friend. I was the one with her when she facetimed you. Also, this is random but are you driving?"
Oh, Max! Hey! How are you? No, I'm at home. Is everything okay? Is there any news about Erica?
"Um- yeah. Yeah, there is."
Hello? Are you still there? Is something wrong?
"Yeah, I'm still here. I'm really so, so sorry to have to tell you this, especially over the phone. Uh. Um- today the police found Erica's body." Strangled sobs and strings of words were leaving Serena's mouth on the other end of the phone. He swallowed the lump in his throat, his voice breaking as he continued. "She's dead Serena, I'm so sorry."
What happened? God, why is this happening?
"They're still not sure what her cause of death was. I'm so incredibly sorry."
~
"This doesn't make any sense," Derek said. They'd just received a very concerning call from Stiles who was with Lydia.
"When does anything ever make sense?" Max sarcastically remarked. When did anything ever go right in this stupid town?
"The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there! How are they moving so fast?" Derek continued, ignoring the fact that Scott was talking over him. "They can't be that fast on foot!"
"They killed someone!" Scott said firmly. "Some totally innocent kid is dead. And it's our fault."
They were quiet, no one knowing what to say. It was their fault. How come they couldn't save anyone? It felt as if the second something was going good, it all slipped away. Like sand slipping through your hands.
"It's my fault," Derek sighed.
"We need help."
"We have Isaac and Max now."
"I mean real help." He ignored the offended looks on the two boys faces. How dare he. They were real help! "They're too fast for us, for all of us. They're too strong, too rabid."
"We'll catch them."
"What happens if we do?" Isaac asked. "We gonna just hold them down until the sun comes up?"
"Maybe it would be easier just to kill them," Derek admitted.
"God, are you stupid! You are not killing two of my best friends! Do you not think we have enough murders and killings happening in this town without you going and adding to the pile?" Jade exclaimed, her eyes glowing purple in anger. The forest seemed to make her eyes illuminate around the place.
"She's right. Killing them isn't the right thing to do," Scott added, placing a hand on Jade's shoulder, as if telling her to calm down.
"But what if it's the only thing to do?" Isaac asked. He wasn't exactly fond of killing Boyd- he couldn't speak on Cora, as he'd never met the girl. But what if it was the only option? Many more people would die if they didn't do something. "If we can't even catch them, what else do we do?"
"Find someone who knows what they're doing."
"Someone like an Argent," Max commented.
~
"You're tracking them by print?" Chris Argent questioned, kneeling down on the floor. He was originally reluctant to help the group, but after some persuading and seeing what damage the werewolves had been doing, he agreed. "You've been wasting your time. There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man. And if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's and these..."
"Are Cora's," Isaac interrupted. Ha. He knew his stuff. He wasn't just some dumb, hot werewolf. Well, he was hot, but he wasn't dumb.
"Nope. They're yours."
Isaac tripped Max up, knocking him to his feet after the boy had started laughing. He soon regretted it after getting a dagger to the ankle. Peter was right; someone needed to take those things off him.
"Nice to know that you can take care of yourself," Chris commented, gesturing to the weapon in Max's hand. "You trampled Cora's the second you walked over here. Listen, I know the three of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that puts you in a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in."
"They've put the pedal to the floor while these three aren't even hitting the speed limit," Jade sighed. The werewolves needed to use their senses to help, rather than resisting it. Well, maybe resisting the urge to kill people would be helpful. They had enough casualties on that side of things.
Chris nodded, grateful that at least someone was understanding his description. "Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves can track their prey by up to 100 miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. We can draw them to us, or into a trap. Full moon does give us one advantage. They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared," he threw out pairs of binoculars to the group. "Remember; we're not hunting wild animals. They can use their human side to their advantage too. When's the last time you saw your sister?"
"She's standing right next to me," Max noted.
Jade rolled her eyes at her brother's stupidity. Jesus.
"Nine years," Derek answered. "We thought she'd died in the fire."
"Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" He sighed when Derek shook his head sadly. "Scott? How confident are you in your skills?"
"Not very confident, but Jade's already tried a locater spell which didn't work. Honestly though, most of the time I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell."
After the group came up with a plan, they all headed in their separate directions. Their plan was to set up a trap for the werewolves in the high school. There wouldn't be anyone in there at this time, so it was a perfect plan. They were all running around the woods, placing emitters into the ground, which would direct Boyd and Cora to the school.
Max threw one into the ground, him and his sister sprinting at full speed. Jade was really considering joining cross country this year. She'd be in with a good chance considering the amount of running they were usually doing.
A whooshing sound flew through the air, an arrow puncturing itself in the tree next to them. They cast nervous glances at each other, picking up their speed. It wasn't an option to stop, they had to keep going. Jade fired an emitter into the ground, but yelped in pain when a piercing feeling shot through her arm. Max and her were both cursing in pain, still running. "Keep going," she hissed through gritted teeth. She turned her head to see an arrow lodged into her shoulder. Fantastic.
~
Jade and Max staggered onto the school grounds, stopping next to Chris and Scott. Jade waved her hand, healing Max.
"What the hell happened!" Scott exclaimed. He rushed to his cousins, helping them sit down on the floor.
"I fucking hate hunters. And anyone with arrows for that matter," Jade hissed. She bit her tongue till she drew blood. Taking a deep breath, she ripped the arrow out in a swift motion. She waved her hand again, a bandage appearing in her lap. Quickly, she teared it open with her teeth before wrapping it tightly around her shoulder. She couldn't waste her magic on something that useless; not when they were about to trap some werewolves. She took the arrow, throwing it into Chris' car. Maybe it would come in handy later. Allison might know something about the type of arrow.
A howl came from not too far away, Max and Scott running off without another word. Jade jumped into the hunter's car, doing up her seat belt. "Don't get rid of that, I want it for something," she said as Argent began to drive recklessly.
He swerved to avoid crashing into a car, which Jade was beyond thankful for. She'd had enough car accidents to last her whole life. He beeped the horn like a maniac, catching Cora and Boyd's attention. They snarled before running into the school. The two people in the car let out a sigh of relief. Their plan was working.
That was, until the two rabid werewolves decided that they didn't want to stick to the script. No, instead of going through the school, they went on the roof, going over the school.
Frantically, they jumped out of the car, stopping beside Scott, Isaac and Max.
"Well, that didn't work. What's plan B?" Max sighed, running a hand through his hair.
Derek came bolting through the school, meeting with the others. "The red doors, someone has to get them open."
"I'll go, I'm fast. Jade comes with me because she gets bonus points for being able to open the door and because she's fast too," Isaac said before the two started to run.
"This wasn't how I expected meeting Boyd again would go," Jade commented.
"Yup, not in the slightest."
They turned a corner, to be met with bolts of light being shot from the top of a bus. When they looked more closely, it was arrows being shot at Boyd and Erica. The two werewolves covered their eyes, entering the school. Jade waved her hand, the doors sealing shut. They let out a sigh of relief, looking around to see who their helper had been. Allison was standing proudly, a smirk playing on her face.
"See you at home!" the brunette yelled before heading off.
"Thanks, bye!"
The witch and the werewolf laughed lightly and then they went to meet back up with the others. Hopefully the plan had worked out in their favour.
They ran through the corridors, praying that they wouldn't have to hurt Cora and Boyd. That was the worst scenario at the moment. Another one that was a close second, was the scenario that the werewolves were going to tear them to shreds. Just like the guy at the pool.
They jumped back in surprise. Max took a swig out of a flask before lowered his gun as the group of three communicated silently. "Everything go okay so far?" Max asked, reloading his gun just in case.
"Yeah. Where's Scott and Derek? I thought they were meant to let us know when-" Jade's sentence was cut short when a roar echoed throughout the building.
It had sounded like a growl of pain. Who was hurt? Was it Boyd? Or what if it was one of the Hales? Or Scott? Hopefully the answer would be none of them, but it didn't seem that way. This wasn't going to end well if they didn't do something, and if they didn't do something now. "The sun's coming up," Isaac exclaimed as they went down some flights of stairs to a basement.
They entered the room to be met with a sight that they genuinely hadn't expected to see. Derek was on his knees with his sister and his beta laying on the floor beside him. His shirt was torn to bits and he was covered in blood all over his face and body. "There was a teacher. I'll take care of her. Get them out of here," he ordered.
As the others done as they were told and picked up the betas, Jade closed her eyes, slowly healing Derek. She began to feel faint, so she took that as a sign to stop.
There was no point in exhausting herself because then she'd be no help at all. And that was one of the feelings she hated the most.
~
"It looks like an arrow tinted in wolfsbane," Allison frowned. She took another chocolate from their bag as she examined the arrow. "It's a good thing you're not a werewolf."
"So... whoever shot it was probably aiming for a werewolf?" Jade asked, placing the arrow on her desk. Allison was right; thank God she wasn't a werewolf.
"More than likely. They were probably a hunter too," she replied, her face distorted in confusion.
"Okay, well we can deal with this problem tomorrow. I currently want to watch Strictly and eat this," Jade sighed, sitting back on the floor.
"Where does all my alcohol keep going?" Melissa shouted up the stairs. The girls raised their brows, ignoring the question. It hadn't been them anyway.
It was a couple hours later after their conversation about the arrow. The two girls were trying to sleep, but it wasn't possible for either of them. They could tell because the bed kept creaking when they were tossing and turning.
Jade sighed, turning to lie on her back. Too many questions were running through her head, none of them she could find the answer too. Why was someone shooting a wolfsbane arrow in the woods? Yeah, woods were common places for werewolves to be, but why would you waste an arrow laced with it when you didn't know for certain what you were shooting? Unless... maybe whoever had done it was shooting it in a warning. What if their intention wasn't to kill a werewolf, just to warn whoever it was that they were there? And that maybe next time they wouldn't miss?
"Jade?" Allison whispered, staring at the ceiling.
"Yeah?"
"This is random, okay, but I'm bored. When you die, what animal would you want to come back as?"
"Probably a lion. They're really confident and fierce and just overall badass. They also have really cute cubs. I don't really like the part of killing deers or things though. You?"
"A butterfly. A butterfly that has blue wings and a cool pattern. Kind of like a blue pansy butterfly. They're pretty and you always see them. I want to be as beautiful as a butterfly, even if it's not in this life."