"Keep running!" Daniel cried.
The pouring rain had caused his clothes to stick to his body, his hair likewise sticking to his head. Ahead of him, running as fast as their werewolf speed let them, were Brett and his younger sister, Lori. A group of Hunters had found the pack and decided to cash in on the dead pool. Everyone had scattered, Satomi telling them all to meet at the Beacon Hills Animal Clinic if they could. The three of them had somehow ended up at the high school, running between the buses. The young teenage girl was terrified. The two were ahead of Daniel, being much faster. Daniel gave a cry and stumbled, feeling an arrow bite into the back of his thigh. Brett stopped, turning as Daniel pulled it from his leg.
"Don't stop!" Daniel cried, motioning him to keep going. "Run!" He felt the wound immediately healing. He sprinted towards Brett, who had turned and did as he was told.
Lori fell and Brett helped her up. More arrows sailed past them, one striking Brett. He gave a cry and staggered. "Go, Lori!" he cried. "Run!"
A Hunter came out from between the busses, forcing Brett to defend himself. Daniel caught up and slammed into the Hunter. He hit the bus hard before falling to the ground unconscious.
"Where's Lori?"
Brett ran in the direction his sister had gone. Daniel didn't know where the Hunters were but he had a bad feeling they were being herded. They finally reached the end of the busses and they saw Lori running towards the lacrosse field.
"Wait!" Brett called. "Wait!" She ran onto the field. "Lori, stop!"
She stopped, allowing Brett and Daniel to catch up to her. One by one the lights on the field came on and Daniel realized they'd run right where the Hunters wanted them. Lori clung to her brother as Daniel pushed Brett behind him. From the home side stands, several lasers pointed at them. Daniel looked down, every single one of them aimed at his chest.
"What's happening?" Lori cried, the terror in her voice.
Both Daniel and Brett knew they couldn't run anymore. They'd been corralled and they knew there was no escape.
"Close your eyes, Lori," Daniel said.
Lori buried her face into Brett's arm as the first arrow came sailing towards him. Only to be blocked by a katana.
"Run!" the kitsune girl cried.
"Go!" Daniel cried.
Brett and Lori didn't have to be told twice. The kitsune blocked the hail of arrows that came at her. A woman, another supernatural, ran onto the field throwing her arm out. The arrows hit an invisible wall.
"Kira! Come on!" she cried.
Kira retreated, the woman doing the same. They ran towards a silver Aspen.
"Get in!"
Daniel knew the driver for a Valkyrie, but there was something different about him. He'd never sensed a Valkyrie like him before. Everyone piled in.
"Go, Devin!"
Devin fishtailed as he pressed the gas to the floor, speeding away from the school.
"How did you know we were there?" Daniel asked, chilled now that he was out of the rain.
"Devin sensed the three of you," the woman said, running her fingers through her wet hair. "We had a feeling you were in danger."
Kira jerked a thumb at the woman. "She had a feeling you were in danger," she said.
"No matter who felt it, you have our thanks," Daniel said.
Devin looked over his shoulder. "Yeah, Scott would have killed us if we left you. And so would Isabel. Actually, she would have just killed me."
The woman gave a snort of laughter. "You just might be right," she said, the amusement in her voice.
"You're the Greenes' boy? The youngest?"
"Yeah, as they've already told you, I'm Devin. It's actually really nice to finally meet you."
"Say that once we survive this."
~~~
Lydia paced back and forth.
"Lydia, why don't you go home?" Parrish asked. "Sean and Stiles are at the hospital. If you don't want to go home, you can go and see them. Or you can help me fill out this incident report by screaming at it because I'm this close to setting it on fire."
Lydia smiled.
"And there it is."
"I didn't actually thank you for saving us."
"You should have let me talk to Stilinski about getting a search warrant."
"How did you know we were there?"
"I didn't. Not until I got there. I was just going to go and ask Brunski about the patients, get some insight on their deaths and what led to their suicides. I wasn't expecting to catch him in the act of trying to kill the three of you."
Stilinski came out of his office at that moment. He sighed when he saw Lydia. "Why are you still here?" he asked.
"What did she say?"
"Hard to tell. There were words. I'm not sure there were actual sentences."
"Great. Nothing."
"I think we need a psychologist," Stilinski picked up the phone and started to dial. "Or a medium."
"Is she even competent enough to be charged with something?"
"She was competent enough to make a dead pool," Parrish pointed out.
Stilinski hung up the phone. "If Meredith is the Benefactor, then that means she was competent enough to blackmail Brunski into helping her and competent enough to use the money he stole to fund her dead pool. This girl's practically a criminal mastermind."
"There's gotta be a reason why she would do this."
"I'm only interested in the why if it tells me the how."
"You mean how to stop it?"
"After what happened to Scott and the others at the bonfire, this thing's still going. The payments could be automatic. And as long as killers are getting paid, and paid very well, that list is going to keep getting smaller."
"We don't just need to stop the dead pool."
"We need to stop the money," Parrish finished. "We need to find the source of the payments."
"Easier said than done," Stilinski added with a sigh.
~~~
Satomi was relieved to see Daniel walk into the back of the clinic with Brett and Lori.
"I thought we might have lost the three of you," she said.
"We had help." Daniel motioned to the three behind him. "They saved our lives."
Satomi's eyes fell on the kitsune. "You must be Noshiko's daughter," she said. "You look just like her."
"I'm Kira," the teenager introduced herself. "Mom told me about you."
"Not my proudest moment."
Kira nodded, understanding. Devin and Lilith were introduced next.
"Is this everyone?" Devin asked, looking over the group gathered in the room.
"Everyone not killed by the virus that nearly killed you." They heard the door open and Daniel sensed a wolf entering.
"Scott's here," Devin said.
Kira went to go meet him. He smiled when he saw her, not having seen her since her mother was taken to the hospital in Palo Alto. She rushed over to him and kissed him, having heard from Devin what happened the night before.
"How's your mom?" he asked when she broke away.
"She's fine. She's healing."
"What about you?"
"Me?"
"Are you okay?"
"Right now? Very."
Scott gave a chuckle.
"What about you? Devin told me what happened."
"I'm fine, thanks to Lindsey and Mason."
Kira smiled.
"Your message said you found Brett and Isabel's dad."
"Actually, I think we found all of them."
"We?"
"Me, Devin, and Lilith." She took his hand and led him into the back of the clinic. "Satomi, this is Scott."
Satomi smiled. "Wish I could have met you under different circumstances," she said.
Scott's eyes wandered to the man next to her. He'd known him as Dominic until Isabel informed him that his real name was Daniel. He'd met Isabel's father without even realizing it.
"Are we safe here?" a blond-haired girl who was clutching Brett's arm asked.
Scott looked over everyone in the room. They looked hopeless, exhausted, and afraid. Lilith had been moving among them seeing what she could do to help them. Devin had moved next to Kira.
Scott turned to the two. "We're going to need help," he said. "A lot of help."
"And we're going to need to move them somewhere else," Devin said. "Deaton isn't going to appreciate it if the clinic gets destroyed when their pursuers find them."
Scott nodded, knowing he was right. "I think I know the place we can take them."
~~~
Malia all but ran to the nurses' station, looking for Melissa. Melissa saw her coming and went to her.
"Malia," she said.
"Lydia said that Stiles was here. Is he okay? What happened?"
Melissa put her hands on the coyote's arms. "First, I need you to take a few breaths and keep calm, okay?"
Malia nodded.
"Stiles' is fine. He has a concussion and the doctors want to keep him for observation."
"Can I see him?"
Melissa smiled. "Of course, you can." Melissa led her to Stiles' room, giving a knock before walking in. "Stiles?"
"Did you find the tape player?"
"No, but you have a visitor." She stepped aside and let Malia into the room. The first thing she did was quickly walk over to him and hug him.
"I heard you almost got killed," she said as Melissa stepped out of the room.
Stiles wrapped his arms around her. "I heard the same about you," he replied.
"Are you okay?"
"Brunski punched me in the face. Turns out he was a serial killer."
Malia pulled away. "That actually makes sense."
The two had known Brunski fairly well during their time at Eichen House, he to protect himself from the nogitsune, she trying to come to terms to her being human again after eight years of being a coyote. It was how they met. Stiles' pulled her from her thoughts, running his thumb across her cheek.
"What about you?"
"We almost got set on fire."
"Everyone okay?"
"Basically. I think Liam is now scarred for life. Scott and Isaac took it in stride."
"Figures."
"How's Sean?"
"They had to run some tests on him since Brunski had a syringe full of pancuronium bromide stuck in his neck and wanted to make sure he didn't have any in his system."
Malia nodded before turning and sitting on the bed. "Stiles, I don't know who else to talk to about something. I can't talk to Derek or Isabel because they have enough to deal with since Derek lost his powers."
Stiles sat on the bed next to her. "Talk about what?"
"It's about Dad. He's been acting really strange ever since we fought the berserkers at the school. He's not the same guy I know. I just don't know how to describe him. You know, I found him passed out of the floor a few weeks ago and he almost killed Devin."
Stiles' eyebrows scrunched together.
"He said he was fine and his heartbeat said he was telling the truth, but I don't know if I believe him. There's something wrong and I don't know what it is or how to help him. I didn't want to tell Scott or the others because they didn't trust him for so long and I don't want them to think he's going back to his old ways."
"He and Kate fought, didn't they?"
"Devin said they did."
"Do you think that Kate could have done something to him?"
Malia shook her head. "I don't know. Like what?"
"Like get into his head."
"I really don't know."
~~~
Between Devin's Aspen and Kira's Toyota, they were able to make one trip. Scott led the way on his dirt bike to the old Argent warehouse. Once they were inside, Devin suddenly froze, immediately recognizing it from the vision he had.
"Devin?" Lilith asked, noticing his sudden halting. "What's wrong?"
"This is it," he whispered. "This is the place I saw in my vision."
"That's not going to happen, Devin. That's why I'm here, remember?" She gave him a smile. "No one is going to die here." She placed a hand on his cheek. "I promise."
"You can't promise that."
"I can and I will. I'm a witch, remember?"
Devin snorted a laugh, a smile playing on his lips. They heard a commotion and growling and darted towards the noise.
"Wait!" They heard Scott shout. "Brett! This is his place. It's his."
Devin and Lilith joined them to see Chris with his .45 pointed at Brett and the werewolf growling at him. To Devin's surprise, Brett backed down going back to stand with the rest of his pack.
"Scott, if you were bringing guests," Chris said, lowering his weapon, "you could have called."
"I didn't have anywhere else to take them."
Chris put his gun back into its place.
Satomi stepped forward. "I know this man," she said. "He may not remember, but we've met before."
"You can trust him," Scott said.
"Do you?" Daniel questioned.
"With my life."
"How do we know he's not like the others?" Satomi asked.
"What others?" Chris asked.
"Last night, there was a whole team after them," Kira explained. She pulled a bolt out of her pocket. "They used crossbows."
Chris examined the bolt, noticing the eagle stamped into the arrowhead. His jaw set, recognizing the symbol of the Falcone family of Hunters.
"They're Hunters, aren't they?"
"Not if they're killing for profit. Not anymore."
"Can they find us?" Brett asked.
"They might already know you're here. Maybe they're waiting for dark."
"They can't keep running," Devin said. "Eventually, those Hunters will catch up to them."
"Devin's right," Daniel said.
Satomi nodded. "We've been trying to get out for days. Everywhere we turn, we find someone new trying to kill us."
"If they're coming, Scott," Chris said. "They're coming for you, too. You're still number one on the dead pool."
"I know," Scott said. "I know Lydia can get the answer from Meredith. She just needs more time."
"Time is something we haven't much of," Daniel said.
"If anyone can get Meredith to talk," Devin said. "It'll be Lydia."
"You two have a lot of faith in this girl."
"Not only is she a Banshee," Devin turned to Daniel. "She's a genius."
"In the meantime," Lilith said. "I think we should call for some backup in case she doesn't get the answers in time."
Scott nodded, pulling out his phone and making a call.