xx
Elora met Stiles outside of Beacon Hills Memorial, looking more like herself in clothes meant for a twenty year old and not a teacher.
"Scott's with Allison and Cora's with Lydia," Stiles informed her, he and Elora making their way into the building shrouded by death. "We just need to see if we can find anything on Danny that will help."
"Seems easy enough." Elora followed him through back halls, well aware they were sneaking in. "Boyd, Derek and Isaac have a plan going. The alphas are coming for Derek tonight."
Stiles came across Danny's room, giving Elora a soft nod. Quietly they went into the room darker than the rest of the building, shutting the door behind them.
Danny, no less, was peacefully sleeping.
Stiles took one side of the bed as Elora took the other.
Leaning over, the Stilinski boy investigated if Danny was really out of it. "Danny, you awake?" he whispered, shaking Danny's shoulder and lightly tapping his face. "Danny?"
Elora and Stiles both backed up, Danny inhaling deeply before Stiles could backhand him.
"Fff- wow." Stiles caught himself, his heart racing. He winced a little as Danny groaned, glancing over to Elora.
El pointed to the backpack on the chair, staying quiet and nonverbally telling Stiles to go through it.
Stiles went down on his knees, unzipping the messenger bag and parting the sides.
"What are you doing?" Danny mumbled, barely coherent.
Stiles rotated towards Danny, "N- I'm not doing anything, Danny. This is just a dream that you're having."
Elora covered her face, Stiles going back to the bag.
"Why are you going through my stuff?"
Stiles surfaced again, "Right," he whispered, "but only in the dream, remember? Dream. You're dreaming."
"Jesus, Stiles," Elora softly mumbled, running a hand along her jaw.
Danny didn't seem to want to buy it, "Why would I dream about you going through my stuff?"
Stiles popped back up, "I don't know that, Danny, okay? It's your dream. Take responsibility for it. Just shut up and go back to sleep."
Elora had her hands over her mouth, it physically paining her not to laugh.
Stiles stopped his rifling, pulling a packet out of Danny's things.
El perked, "Stiles?"
"Oh, Danny boy, you might've actually found something here."
"Stiles, let's go," Elora urged, night threatening to fall.
Stiles took a last glance to Danny, quickly getting up and taking the paper with him. Leaving the hospital room, he handed it to Elora. "Look."
"Telluric currents?" She furrowed Stiles, her eyebrows raising as they turned a corner. "Like what runs under Beacon? Why was he doing a project on this? It's pseudoscience - way above high school." She handed back the paper, her phone going off. "Call Scott, but I have to go."
"Go where?" Stiles and Elora got outside, the girl starting to part to get to her car.
"Witch business. I'll be quick, just go," she said, starting the engine of her car as Stiles brought his phone to his ear.
Stiles frantically spoke to Scott, watching Elora's car leave the parking lot in a hurry.
Elora felt a pain in her chest that she pushed away, causing her to floor the gas to get where she needed to be.
The woods zoomed past, going out of sight as she entered the downtown portion of Beacon Hills.
For such a small town, the number of abandoned buildings it had was impressive.
Wheeling into the parking lot of one, Elora parked her car but left it on. Her headlights littered visibility as she went around the front and took a place leaning on her hood.
Within minutes, another car came.
"You took your time." Elora stood, her arms crossed over her chest. She didn't seem too thrilled.
"I kept getting reds. That's not a problem you ever have."
Elora very lightly smiled, "Now that you've given a traffic report, why'd you ask me here, Marin?"
Ms. Morrell stood in the light created by both cars, her expression professional like usual. "Right to the point still, I see."
"Old habits die hard," she retorted. "What can I do for you?"
"I was hoping I could get some sort of insight from you," Marin told her. "I was curious if you knew what the pains in your chest are." She held eye contact with Elora. "Brief flashes of pain that go away as soon as they came."
El lifted an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
"Duke said those in your family started feeling it around twenty." Morrell had a fierceness to her, "At least, that was the case with your father, he said."
It was like a stand off, tensions rising.
"Careful, emissary. You should know better than to make a witch mad." Elora had tightened a fist at her side, letting it release slowly.
"Do you know what they mean? The pains?" Marin showed no sign of difference. "Have you connected it yet?"
Elora narrowed her eyes but couldn't get words out.
"Check your phone."
Hesitating, she reached into her pocket and retrieved the device. She swore, seeing a text from Isaac. "The plan fell through," she softly said before it all hit her at once.
"Forecoming death," Marin simply said. "You get a pain in your chest when a supernatural death is about to occur. Deucalion wanted you to know."
"No, he wanted you to stall me." Elora's tone grew harsh and cold, "He knews your little wolves couldn't take me. It's pathetic you have to resort to stalling me to win."
"How long ago has it been since you felt that last pain, Elora?" Marin casually spoke, "It'd be a shame if Derek was already dead, don't you think?"
Elora's hands twisted at the direction of Morrell's car, the twenty year old immediately proceeding to climb into her own car and rush towards the loft.
Marin's shoulders fell in annoyance, her front tires melted and her car off-level. She pulled out her phone, muttering to herself. "Witches."
x x
Elora hardly took the time to shut her door, missing the figures in the parking lot that were heading off towards their apartment above the Argents. The witch took the stairs, darting up to the very top level.
The door was already open, Cora's cries evident before she saw the scene within the Hale loft.
Elora stopped dead in her tracks, her lips parting. She didn't see a terrified Ms. Blake or Lydia Martin staring at her wide eyed.
She only saw Boyd, dead.
"Oh, my God," Elora murmured, catching the attention of both Isaac, Jennifer and Stiles.
"Ellen?" Jennifer asked, trembling in Isaac's grip.
"It's Elora." She put a hand on Jennifer's head as she started walking forward, knocking the English teacher out and taking the memory of seeing 'Ellen' there.
Derek sat on his knees, his face blank and blood on his hands. Cora was half on Boyd, crying with her forehead to his.
It was the most emotion they'd shown since the fire, and it was in the worst way.
Cora looked up when she saw her cousin, changing her expression. "Where were you? Why weren't you here?" She was yelling, blaming Elora. "You could've saved him!"
And Elora knew that was true. The blame was hers. She was well aware.
Elora couldn't respond to Cora. Instead, she put a hand on Derek's shoulder. She turned her head towards the remaining teenagers. "Take Ms. Blake home."
Stiles was first to move, taking Lydia's arm. The redhead was still staring at Elora like something extraterrestrial.
Isaac got up, carrying Jennifer and following Stiles and Lydia back out of the loft.
Elora waved a hand, her palm down. The water flooding the building vanished, everything dry without hesitation to her power. She did the same with Derek, the blood leaving his hands as he made no motion to move.
Cora's breath was the only noise in the room, her tears ceasing into choked sobs then to nothing at all. She felt nothing anymore, sitting on her knees with a hand on Boyd's heart, still hoping for the faintest heartbeat.
But there wasn't one.
"Can you bring him back?" Cora softly asked, her cheeks stained with tears. "Can you do that?"
"You know I can't, Cee. No one has that kind of power," Elora lightly replied, the loft falling into complete and utter silence.
Derek only reached up, holding onto El's hand. "I just got him back," he whispered, one tear falling; rolling down his cheek and leaving a small trail along his tanned skin.
"We need to bury him," Cora said, looking back to Elora and Derek.
"We'll put him in the woods," Derek softly said, looking at the ground. "Tip off the police so they find him. Animal attack."
"Der-" Cora's protesting was stopped when she got a warning look.
"Pack a bag," Elora quietly said to her older cousin before raising her voice for a distraught Cora to hear. "I'll take him."
"I'm coming with you," Cora immediately added, no room for an argument.
"Take my car." Derek stood, feeling empty. He didn't look as he pulled out his keys.
"Two days, minimum," Elora said into his ears as she hugged him, discretely exchanging car keys with him.
Cora, too distracted with picking up Boyd, wasn't aware of the conversation between her brother and cousin.
Elora went to the other side of Boyd, helping her carry the seventeen year old that died in place of his alpha.
Together, Elora and Cora got Boyd's still warm body into the backseat of Derek's SUV. Cora herself got into the back with him, putting his head on her lap.
El shut the door on her, getting into the driver's side. She adjusted the seat quickly and fixed the mirrors. Bringing on the headlights, she left the parking lot of Derek's building.
The car stayed silent, Elora driving out towards the woods and Cora softly stroking Boyd's face. She was humming something that El soon registered as what Talia would sing as a lullaby.
Suddenly Elora hated herself.
Boyd was dead because of her.
She could've ran faster. She could've left Marin sooner. She could've not gone to the emissary at all.
She could've saved him.
"It's not your fault," Cora said after a moment, looking out the window.
Elora didn't reply for a while, turning into the Preserve of Beacon Hills. She parked the car but left the headlights on. She helped Cora get Boyd out, the pair carrying him a little further into the trees.
"Here." Cora stopped them, leaning down to place Boyd's body on the cool dirt ground.
Elora motioned over him for a moment, erasing finger prints and making his wounds a little bloodier. "Do you want to say anything?" she asked Cora, kneeled down and forming a wolfsbane flower just above his head, its roots in a spiral no one could see.
"Would you?" Cora quietly asked her, sniffing slightly.
"Of course," she agreed, picking up dirt in her palm. "Get some dirt, Cee."
Cora gathered dirt and with her free hand, took Elora's. Water brimmed at her eyes, forcing her to look up at the moon.
"Here lies Vernon, best known as Boyd. Student, son, brother. Werewolf. Hero. He saved his alpha's life by giving up his own, and for that we will be forever grateful. He is, and always will be remembered as the strong, loyal and loving beta he was. He was taken too soon, only seventeen with a bright, military future ahead of him." Elora found herself crying too as she sprinkled the dirt over his body. "Rest among the stars in peace, Boyd."
Cora barely finished letting her handful of dirt fall onto Boyd before curling into Elora and breaking down.
El hugged Cora tightly, closing her eyes as she comforted her cousin.
When the supernaturals were at war, there was always carnage to go with it, hand in hand.
- I miss Boyd so much. Honestly I really loved him - Mel xx