Liam suddenly yanks his arms upwards until the handcuffs stop him. The metal clanking noise sends Stiles into another fit and he almost cowers into my side until he realizes what the noise was. Liam's whole behavior has quickly escalated in the past thirty minutes.
There was a thin layer of sweat over his face along with his heavy breathing. His head is angled downwards and hands are tightly latched onto the bench on either side of him.
"Whatever you were gonna teach me..." Liam breathes heavily and lifts his head up to reveal gold eyes.
Oh, shit.
"I think you better start."
I worriedly glance at Stiles and Derek. We were about to have a raging werewolf on our hands if Liam doesn't learn to control himself. With Braeden behind the wheel, I hope she knows how drive with us being possibly mauled in the back.
"Liam, you with me?" Derek attempts to grab the young wolf's attention. "We have a mantra that we use. You repeat it, you focus on the words. It's like meditating. You say the words until you feel control coming back to you."
"Okay." Liam sucks in a breath. He fidgets around on the bench, like he is struggling to remain in control. "Okay, okay! What are the words?"
I lean forward and tap the triskelion in Liam's clenched hand. "Okay, Liam, look at the triskelion." I calmly speak to him. Scott's not here to help him, so I'm taking the crown for the time being. "See the symbol? Derek has a tattoo on his back, it's the same thing. Each spiral means something."
Stiles stares off in at the metal. "Alpha, beta, omega."
Derek nods his head at me in approval before he rushes to speak to Liam, who is on the verge of completely losing it. "It represents the idea that we can always rise to one and fall back to another. Betas can become Alphas."
"Alphas can become Betas." Stiles chips in.
Liam continues to pant, "Can Alphas become Omegas?"
Derek nods twice. "All you have to do is say the three word and with each one, you tell yourself you're getting calmer, more in control. Go ahead."
"Alpha, Beta-"
"Slower." Derek commands.
"Alpha...Beta...Omega..." Liam carefully says the words with his eyes shut. Loud groans come from him. "Alpha...Beta...Omega.." He continues to repeat the mantra over and over again.
"Good. Say it again." Derek orders the younger beta. "Remember, every time you say the words, you're getting calmer."
This time Liam says it, his voice amplified and sounding on the verge of being terrifying. "Alpha...Beta...Omega."
Stiles mutters something under his breath and actually cowers into my side this time. His feet are pulled up on the bench while trying to get further away from Liam.
"Say it again."
"Derek, I don't think the powerful talisman of self control is working." Stiles readjusts himself on the bench.
"Liam, say it again!"
I look from Derek to Liam. This whole yelling at him thing does not seem to be working.
Liam starts to say it again until he decides to lose it. He tries to jump up from the bench, which sends the van lurching to the side. Everyone grabs onto something to keep themselves from being thrown around the van. Liam breaks one handcuff on his wrist.
"Derek?" Braeden calls back to us, clearly worried with all of the noise coming from behind her.
"I think we're gonna need to go a little faster!" Stiles shouts to her.
"Keep going!"
"Derek, I don't think Alpha, Beta, Omega is resonating with him." Stiles yells over the consistent growling in the back of the van. He flinches when the other cuff breaks and Liam is free of restraints.
"You know any other mantras?" Derek shouts back, struggling to keep Liam under control.
Liam lunges forward with his claws reaching for Stiles' throat. Not knowing what else to do, I grab a dagger from my jacket, cross to the other bench, and straddle Liam's lap. The whole movement throws Liam off guard for a split second and I use that surprise to hold the dagger to his throat.
"Liam, I strongly suggest you calm down because one small move and the dagger will cut into your skin."
Liam visibly sits much calmer, but his harsh breathing only seems to get worse. I had no intention on hurting him and if he did move, I planned on moving the dagger away from his throat. This was just a way to get him to sit still. He tilts his head away from me, growling repeatedly.
With my left hand, I cup Liam's cheek in my palm not giving him a choice to not look into my eyes. "Liam!" I yell above his own growls to capture his full attention. "Liam, what three things cannot long be hidden?"
Liam's hand stretch out on either side of me for one of the guys. He doesn't try to attack me, though.
"Damn it, Liam. I'm not a werewolf, but I am your Alpha while Scott is gone." I slide my thumb to the other side of his chin. "Now, what three things cannot long be hidden?" I demand in a strict voice.
Liam barely calms his arm swinging and breathing to choke out the words, "Sun...The moon...The truth."
I nod my head in encouragement. "That's it. Say it again."
"Sun...The moon...The truth..."
Each time Liam repeats the new mantra, his own body visibly relaxes. Slowly, I withdraw my dagger away from his throat and hand it backwards for one of the guys to grab it. Once they slide the dagger out of my grasp, I rest my hand on Liam's shoulder with my left hand still cupping his face.
"Derek?" Braeden calls out again.
"We're okay." I reassure her with my eyes locked on Liam's. I smile at the young wolf. "Keep going."
"Sun...Moon...And the truth." Liam repeats. His voice returns to normal and his chest isn't rising and falling so quickly anymore.
A few minutes later, the van comes to a stop. I would call that good timing. Braeden climbs out of the driver's seat to walk around and let us out.
"I can't believe I did it." Liam scoffs. His eyes begin to widen in realization when he really notices that I've been straddling him this whole time.
Stiles grabs my upper arm to help maneuver myself off of the teen wolf. I move back to sit beside Stiles again.
"For a minute there, I thought I was gonna tear the three of you apart." Liam bobbles his head.
I grab the dagger out of Derek's hand and slide it back in the pocket of my jacket.
"Yeah. That wouldn've made for an awkward ride home. So, thanks." Stiles says.
I grab my bow from where it fell to the ground at one point. "Think you can bring the same level of control and strength inside La Iglesia?" I loop the quiver over my back.
Liam throws his right hand down, claws extended.
"Alright. We might actually be able to do this." Stiles states, sounding quite surprised by saying that.
Derek is the first to somewhat stand in the back of the van and open the back doors since Braeden never did it. The sound of bones clanking together has me spinning on the bench, just in time to see a Beserker throw him out of the van.
"Derek!" I scramble to jump out of the van, quickly drawing an arrow to shoot at the back of the Beserker. The arrow hits the bone that protects the Beserker. Switching weapons, I grab the gun that I've learned to always keep on me because Parrish and my dad give me hell for not having one.
Braeden appears by my side with a shotgun in hand. We shoot at the Beserker to stop it from attacking Derek. Stiles and Liam shrink back in the van. Braeden continues to shoot the Beserker and manages to make it move away from Derek.
I rush to Derek's aid as he slides down to the ground, gasping in pain. "Derek?" I fall to my knees beside him unable to tear my gaze away from the multiple stab wounds in his chest. "You're okay, you're okay."
Braeden crouches down beside me, examining his wounds. She glimpses at me and both of us know that this is not a good situation. There's blood on his lips, too.
"How bad is it?" Peter asks from behind us.
Derek arches his back in pain. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Just get to Scott."
"Derek-
"Just find him." Derek cuts me off. "We'll be right behind you. Go." He lifts his hand up weakly to point from Stiles to me. "Go, Clara!"
"No, the deadpool-" I think back to when Derek's name was a password to break the code. Banshees predict death and Lydia predicted his name. I can't lose him.
Derek weakly grabs my hand in his on the sand. "I can feel myself healing." He lies straight through his teeth.
"You're so full of shit." I start to silently cry. "Derek, I know we agreed to move on, but that doesn't mean I still don't care about you. You're not allowed to die."
"And I won't." Derek gazes back into my eyes. "I'll still be here when you come out with Scott and Kira. I promise."
My heart breaks as Stiles and Liam urge me to stand up and start to pull me away. Lydia predicted Derek's death. She predicted it. I know we agreed to move on from each other, but that doesn't mean I want him to die.
"Braeden, keep him safe." I tell her. I shake my friend's off of me and reach around to bring my bow in both hands. "Okay, listen. We're going to find Scott and Kira and then we're getting Derek to the hospital. Got it?"
As an Argent, we are taught how to keep our emotions in check not allowing them to mess with our thinking when it's most important. I roll my shoulders back and take a deep breath. I need to make my sister proud right now. I can save everyone. I've done it before and I can do it again.
Unfortunately, Peter leads the way through the church and takes us down a random tunnel. He abruptly stops in the middle of the tunnel. "Okay, everyone stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop!" He commands all of us. "We gotta figure out where we are then we gotta figure out how to find Scott and Kira."
An annoying beeping noise goes off from Stiles' pocket. He gives off a look of disbelief and struggles to get his phone out of his pocket. "How do I even have service?"
"Stiles." I glower. Now is not the time to take phone calls. Too many lives are on the line.
"Hi, dad." Stiles answers his phone, immediately grimacing. He wanders a little ways down the tunnel. "Okay, dad, I know you're angry."
My tongue pokes against the inside of my cheek. I walk over to Stiles, plucking the phone right out of his hand. "Hi, Mr. Stilinski. I know you're angry at Stiles for leaving when you told him not to, but you can ground him all you want when we get back."
"Ground him? Ground him? I'm going to hobble him. Now, please tell me he's alright. Tell me that all of you are safe."
I press my lips together. "Would you like me to lie?"
"Oh, god. Okay, tell me what I can do. How can I help?"
"I sent Parrish and Mason to the school to look for Lydia and, now, none of them are answering their phones. Please go find them." I hand the phone back to Stiles.
Liam holds his arms out. "What do we do now?"
Malia forces Liam to duck down by the back of his neck. "Duck!"
Without thinking, I grab Stiles' arm and make both of us duck. A Beserker appears out of nowhere.
"Get back! Go!" Peter repeatedly shouts for us to run in the opposite direction. "Go, go, go!"
All of us race through the tunnel to escape the Beserker behind us. I glance over my shoulder once to make sure Malia is in the very back. Stiles is only human. Peter leads us into a bigger room with pillars that are barely standing. This whole place is rundown.
Malia tosses the katana to Stiles. "Go find Kira and Scott!" She points at Stiles for me to follow him. "Go!"
I urge Stiles to run in a new direction while they stay back to fight the Beserker. Peter disappeared somewhere and I don't want him to find them first. "Come on!"
XXXX
Okay. Last update for the night. It's nearly four in the morning. I should really get some sleep.
Clarek may be over, but I do keep giving you guys moments between them. Derek is on the verge of dying. Of course Clara would be upset about leaving him.
The story is almost over. I can't believe it.
Question: How do you think the next chapter will go?
So, yeah!