Derek's POV
I was on my way to death in that animal clinic. I guess that's what happens when you end up at the end 0f the barrel of the gun of your clinically insane ex-girlfriend out for wolf-blood. She laced her bullets with wolfsbane and I was in for it.
Blazing, scorching pain seared my nerves and obliterated my forearm. My veins were black against my paling skin as the poison spread. It burned like fire. God damn. And Stiles, the idiot, was not helping. Scott couldn't find the bullet at Kate's house and now I was dead meat.
"Okay. You know, that really doesn't look like anything some echinacea and a good night of sleep couldn't take care of," Stiles quipped, but I could feel the life draining from me. I was running out of time and I was not in the mood.
"When the infection reaches my heart, it'll kill me," I panted, my lungs tight. There was only one solution I knew of, the pain vibrating in my head as I threw open drawers full of tools in the vet clinic.
"'Positivity' just isn't in your vocabulary, is it?" Stiles huffed as I found what I was looking for and snatched it from the drawer. The metal was a cool relief against my skin.
"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time--" I breathed, turning to hunch over the metal table in the middle of the room. "Last resort."
"Which is?" Stiles snapped, raising his eyebrows.
"You're gonna cut off my arm."
Any blood that had been in Stiles' face drained and his skin turned as pale as mine. His mouth fell open. I fought the urge to growl as I slid him the bone saw and he buzzed it to make sure it worked.
"Oh, my God. What if you bleed to death?" he squeaked, mouth flopping open and shut like a fish out of water. Maybe bleeding to death would be a better alternative than dealing with him. I quickly found an elastic band and wrapped it above where I wanted my arm cut, shuddering as I held one end in my mouth and tied it.
"It'll heal if it works," I said through my teeth and around the elastic. If. There was still a large hole in the plan. It should work as long as he got out all the wolfsbane.
"Ugh," Stiles groaned. "Look-- How about I call Lillian. She knows how to do this."
I shot daggers at the mention of her. "No." Even if I wanted her here I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't even call her. Whatever she'd done when she broke up with me had held until now and I still didn't know what she'd done.
"Alright well, I don't know if I can do this."
"Why not?" I snarled.
"Well, because of the cutting through the flesh, the sawing of the bone, and especially the blood!" he complained.
I finished the tie tight enough to hopefully staunch the blood that would inevitably splurt out. I let my arm drop against the table with a thwack. "You faint at the sight of blood?"
"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped-off arm!" Stiles whined.
"All right, fine. How about this? Either you cut off my arm, or I'm gonna cut off your head." At that point, I knew only threats would work.
Yet he still argued. "Okay, you know what, I'm so not buying your threats anym--"
I'd had enough. I lurched across the table, gripping him by his shirt and slamming him against the top, holding his face dangerously close to mine. I didn't have to say anything more before he was talking.
"Oh, my God. Okay. All right, bought, sold. Totally. I'll do it. I'll do it," he stammered.
I was going to throw up. Shit. I gagged, leaning over the side of the table as Stiles demanded what was wrong. "What? What are you doing?"
A fountain of black blood spewed from my mouth, splattering against the floor like spilled paint. It tasted like battery acid in my throat.
"Holy God, what the hell is that?" Stiles whimpered.
"It's my body-- Trying to heal itself," I choked, resting my head on the table, looking up at Stiles. If he didn't do it I was going to die. Chop off my arm or die. A rock and a hard place. That's what I was stuck between.
"Well, it's not doing a very good job of it."
I was going to die.
"Now. You gotta do it now," I panted, gritting my teeth to weather what he was about to do.
"Look, honestly, I don't think I can."
"Just do it!" I shouted.
"Oh, my God. Okay, okay. Oh, my God. All right, here we go!" Stiles blubbered, buzzing the saw as he inched it closer to my bicep until the blade rested on my skin.
I clamped my jaw. This was going to hurt.
"Stiles!" Scott called as the sound of a door hitting the wall rang through the clinic. My heart lurched.
"Scott?' Stiles gasped as Scott burst into the exam room.
"What the hell are you doing?" Scott screeched, eyes wide at the sight of the saw.
Stiles loosed a breath of relief. "Oh, you just prevented a lifetime of nightmares."
"Did you get it?" I demanded, my words lacking their usual bite. I could barely breathe.
Scott set the bullet on the table with a clank. "What are you gonna do with it?"
"I'm gonna-- I'm gonna--" I breathed, fumbling with the lighter in my pocket as I held the bullet up to eye level, assessing where the wolfsbane was kept in the casing. The world blurred. No.
No, no, no, no, no, no--
I hit the floor and everything went black.
*
Something hard smashed into the side of my face and forced me back to consciousness, and when I opened my eyes I realised it was Stiles. On his knees next to me, he was shaking his fist and wincing. Something like approval briefly passed through me.
Scott was beside him in an instant. "Up!" he urged as he and Stiles took me by my arms and haued me to my feet.
"Give me--" Scott had the bullet in my hand before I had a chance to finish what I wanted to say. I cracked the bullet with my teeth, pouring the dried wolfsbane out onto the exam table. I cringed as the scent of it hit me, my body tensing to recoil out of instinct. I fished the lighter out of my pocket and lit the herb on fire, it sparking and smoking. I quickly brushed the charred bits into my hand, gritting my teeth as I looked at the wound in my arm. Now or never.
I pressed the wolfsbane over the bloody bullet wound, pain exploding through my arm, spreading to the rest of me in two seconds flat. I could barely take in what was happening as I ended up on the floor, my back arching as a roar ripped through me. I tried to remember it was a healing pain, but that didn't help as my body burst with agony.
Just when I thought I was dead for sure, the pain stopped, and I opened my eyes long enough to see the black in my veins retreating before it disappeared completely. I sat up, panting.
"That. Was. Awesome!" Stiles declared, pumping his fist. "Yes!"
"Are you okay?" Scott asked, tilting his head at me like a puppy.
"Well, except for the agonizing pain," I groaned, pulling myself off the floor and locating my shirt.
"I'm guessing the ability to use sarcasm is a good sign of health," Stiles drawled, eyeing Scott.
"Okay, we saved your life, which means you're gonna leave us alone, you got that?" Scott said, and I raised my eyebrows as I turned to face him. "And if you don't, I'm gonna go back to Allison's dad, and I'm gonna tell him everything--"
I bit back a laugh. He had no idea what he was talking about, holding onto the blind hope that his girlfriend would choose saving him over her family's business. If only they knew what Kate had done to my family. Burned them alive. Left my uncle in a coma. "You're gonna trust them? You think they can help you?"
"Well, why not? They're a lot freaking nicer than you are," he shouted.
I narrowed my eyes. "I can show you exactly how nice they are."