Isabel was leaning against the wall watching Deaton work.
"How many times was the electricity used on him?" Scott asked.
"I'm not sure," Isabel answered. "Several times from what I could hear. She only hit him with it once when we were in the room together."
"What did Kate want with both of you?" Stilinski asked.
"Vincent convinced her that he would get the Calaveras off her back. I think he told her he'd kill them for her."
"Will he?" Chris asked.
Isabel shook her head. "He never keeps his word. And he doesn't give second chances. Kate is as good as dead to him now. You saw what they did to Jared and the other wolf that escaped from Derek."
"Were the other murders, the kid and Martin Williams, were they killed by Vincent?" Stilinski asked.
"Or all five."
"You knew all this time?" Scott asked.
"I suspected but I wasn't sure. It wasn't until one of the wolves told Jared that someone wanted me alive after they caught me that I realized that Vincent sent Romero and his pack after me. Hunters killed Romero and Derek killed three of his pack. The Valkyrie did the rest."
"Why did the Valkyrie want Derek?"
"They didn't. Kate took it on herself to take him too. She probably figured he'd track me down anyway. I think she wanted Derek's Alpha."
"You knew he was a werewolf?"
"I knew you were too. From the moment I met you. Both of you. I just wasn't sure which one of you was the Alpha." Isabel looked at Scott. "I realized it was you when you made Jared back down with just your stance and voice."
"She's good," Stiles said.
"I also know Stiles is the only one in your pack that is human."
"Do I just give off the 'I'm completely human' vibe?"
"You just don't give off the 'I'm a supernatural' vibe. Sensing another supernatural is one of my talents. Werewolves, kitsunes, and coyotes I can sense right away. Others it takes time to figure out."
"I don't know what you did, Isabel," Deaton suddenly said. "But it worked."
Isabel gave a breath of relief.
"What exactly did you do?" Scott asked.
"My blood has a healing property to it. I've done it with countless humans, but it's the first time I did it to a wolf. I wasn't even sure if it would even work."
"But you did it anyway," Kira said. Isabel nodded.
"Risk and reward," Scott said, remembering what Coach Finstock had once said in economics class.
Isabel looked at Scott. "I hoped the reward outweighed the risk. I risked that it wouldn't work in hopes that it would."
"What are you?" Chris asked.
Isabel looked at Derek. The dagger wound already looked smaller now that his healing process had finally triggered. "I was going to tell him the night that Kate took us. I promised him when we got out of that I would tell him the truth."
"All of you don't need to be in here watching Derek heal," Deaton said. "Everyone but Scott and Isabel, go wait in the waiting room."
Stilinski chuckled. "You heard the doc. Let's go."
~~~
Parrish was standing outside, leaning against Stilinski's car.
"Overwhelmed yet?" Stilinski asked, leaning against the car beside him.
"I just had a confirmation about Beacon Hills I suspected for a while. The fact that we have werewolves and Valkyries and Banshees running around... Takes a little bit to really sink in."
"Yeah. When we were having the sting of murders last year, I was at the end of my rope. It was after Tara died. Stiles comes to me with Derek's sister, Cora, telling me there was something he needed to tell me. He used a chessboard to try to explain. I think Cora came along to help Stiles convince me that everything he was saying was the truth. I really hadn't believed a word that came out of his mouth since he started talking."
Parrish chuckled.
"So you can imagine what was going through my head. I think Cora was going to shift to show me that werewolves were real, but she fainted and we ended up taking her to the hospital. And trust me werewolves and hospitals don't really go together."
"I'm sure."
"Stiles was still trying his hardest to convince me that everything he said was true. I didn't believe him. I thought it was just too far-fetched. Stiles and Cora had told me that the killer was a dark Druid. They called it a Darach, but they didn't know who it was. But they did tell me their theory that the Darach had been attacked and left for dead. I will admit I yelled at Stiles about him wasting my time. He used his mother against me."
"What did he say?"
"'Mom would have believed me.' I knew I had to look into what he and Cora had told me. Melissa helped me find what I was looking for. About this time, I had a call at the school about one of the teachers being killed by a snapping piano string. I don't know how I ended up in the classroom in time to save Lydia, but I found out that night that everything Stiles had said was true. Especially when Scott showed up all wolfed out."
"Wolfed out?"
"It's what Stiles likes to call it when the wolves do a full transformation."
"Oh. Has Scott always been an Alpha?"
"No. The first time I saw him in his wolf form he was what they call a Beta. He had golden eyes. I was told that Scott's the rarest of werewolves, a True Alpha."
"How rare are they?"
"Once in a century rare. Deaton explained that a True Alpha is a Beta that rises to Alpha by his character, morality, and sheer willpower. Derek was there that night and witnessed the whole thing. The Darach, a woman named Julia Baccardi, who was going by the alias of Jennifer Blake, had used the ash of a tree called Mountain Ash to protect herself from the werewolves."
"Wait, Jennifer Blake? The teacher that went missing? And why Mountain Ash?"
"Yeah, turned out she had been left for dead by one of the Alphas in this pack of Alphas and she was sacrificing people to gain power so she could destroy them."
"How does that work?"
"What?"
"A pack of Alphas."
"No idea. Ethan might know. He was a part of it. As for the Mountain Ash, most supernatural creatures can't cross it. It's like a barrier of some kind. I think Lydia is the only creature that can."
"So what is Lydia?"
"Stiles says she's a Banshee. She can sense when someone is about to die. She was perfectly normal until Peter bit her. Stiles said his bite didn't turn her, but it didn't kill her. They thought she was just immune to the bite but it seemed to have triggered her Banshee abilities."
"So Peter was an Alpha?"
"I think so."
"Ethan told me that only Alphas can turn people into werewolves."
"Um, I think so. I'm still really confused about all this most days."
"Peter was an Alpha once, yes," The two police officers looked up at Chris. "He bit Scott the night you found part of Laura Hale's body. I'm not proud to say we used her remains to lure Derek back to Beacon Hills."
"Why?" Parrish asked.
"At the time, I was a Hunter with the code of 'We hunt those that hunt us'. We were sure he knew who the Alpha was that we were hunting. Derek has never killed one of us. He's never killed a human. Not since reaching adulthood."
"What do you mean?"
"Derek has steel blue eyes when he's transformed, not the normal yellow like Scott had. A wolf only gains that when they've taken an innocent life. Personally, I don't think he took that life on purpose. But we also aren't sure if the life he took was werewolf or human. Kate, on the other hand, broke that code on several occasions. Starting with Derek's family."
"So she did start the Hale fire," Stilinski said.
Chris nodded. "It's also why any quip about his family riles him. That fire killed eight people and left only three survivors. No four, I keep forgetting about Cora. Peter was so badly burned that it took him six years to heal. Derek and his older sister, Laura, weren't home at the time. Something that saved their lives. Derek never told me how Cora survived. He'd spent six years thinking she was dead until he found her in the bank vault being held captive by the Alpha pack."
"How does one become an Alpha?" Parrish asked.
"With the exception of Scott, by killing another and taking the power or from inheriting it. From what I understand, Laura became the Alpha after Talia was killed in the fire. Peter killed her and became the Alpha before biting Scott and then going on a killing spree. Scott, Derek, Allison, Stiles, and Jackson managed to stop him, saving my life in the process. Derek killed Peter and became Alpha."
"So if Derek killed Peter..."
"I have no idea how. Allison thought that he'd somehow used Lydia's Banshee abilities to resurrect himself but she never gave me the details. From what I understand, Derek sacrificed what made him an Alpha in order to save Cora's life. Which put him at a disadvantage against the Alpha pack. Betas don't have a very good chance against an Alpha."
"And Scott became the Alpha after Derek."
"By pure willpower and moral character."
"So what really happened with all the events leading up to the sheriff station being attacked by demon ninjas?"
~~~
Derek's eyes opened slowly and he reached for the wound that he took for Scott.
"Welcome back to the land of the conscious," Deaton said.
"How...?" Derek started to ask. His skin didn't have a mark on it. "It wasn't healing."
"You have Isabel to thank for that," Scott said, taking Derek's hand and helping him sit up.
Derek then leveled a look at Isabel. Isabel dropped her eyes. "We need to talk. Privately."
"Can you stand? Because outside will be the most privacy we're going to get with the entire pack and their allies in the clinic."
Scott helped Derek off the exam table and Deaton handed him a sleeveless shirt. Once Scott saw he wasn't going to fall over, he released him and Isabel and Derek went outside. Braeden was leaning against the building watching Stilinski, Parrish, and Chris as they were talking.
"Go inside," Isabel said. "I'll explain everything to everyone in a minute."
The three men and the mercenary went inside. Chris hesitated a moment at the door. He could see the anger in Derek's eyes. Derek nodded at him and Chris went inside.
"You couldn't have told any of us?" Derek snapped the moment the door was closed. "We've been scrambling for months trying to figure out what we were dealing with when you could have told us at any time."
"Well, for starters none of you even asked if I knew anything!" Isabel snapped back. "You were more concerned with protecting me from Romero's pack than to even think that I could possibly have known about the Valkyrie. You should have realized that I knew more than you thought I did when I told you I knew Romero was a wolf."
"After Michelle's death, you should have told us then!"
"I was trying to protect you! I tried to tell you that being with me would only get you hurt. And it almost got you killed. Twice!" Isabel stepped away from him. "You're angry because I didn't just volunteer a secret about myself?" She turned back to Derek. "When you didn't trust me enough to even tell me what I already knew."
"Because people around me get hurt when they know."
"People like Paige? Jennifer?"
"How can any of us trust you now that we know you're one of them?"
"I'm not one of them!" She flashed her eyes. "I'm not the one killing people! Have you not noticed a major difference between us by now?"
"Isabel, I watched you turn a stick into a quarterstaff and then turn the two halves into a pair of swords. Not to mention you suddenly sprouted claws."
"Talons."
"What?"
"They're talons, not claws."
"Whatever they are, you share the exact same qualities as them."
"I'm not killing people, Derek! I never have killed anyone with the exception of the Valkyrie I killed to protect you!"
"I don't even know who you are, Isabel. If that is even your name. I don't even know if I can trust anything you have ever said. How can I know that you didn't use me, too?"
Isabel's jaw set and she turned and went back into the building. "Chris, I have a new entry for your bestiary." This caused several looks among the others.
"So you do know about these things?" the Hunter responded.
"I know a lot more than your Emissary does."
The whole crew gathered around the exam table, Isabel in the middle flanked by Deaton and Scott. Derek leaned against the far wall with his arms crossed.
"You're well aware that you're dealing with Valkyries," Isabel said. "The reason that the Argents, or any Hunter for that matter, know nothing about them, is because they didn't become a nuance until recently. Valkyries were warriors once. It's where the legends about them talking slain warriors to Valhalla started. Over time, they faded into legend and when religions began to charge, they became angels to those that took up the Christian faith. The Valkyrie kept the balance much like the Druids do. Shortly before I was born, something changed. More and more Valkyrie started to use their gifts to do evil things. You're aware that they can literally turn anything into a weapon. But what you don't know is how to slow them down and stop them."
"Electricity seems to work," Kira said.
"True. It does slow them down considerably. You're aware that a Hunters favorite tool against wolves is electricity?" The wolves nodded.
"Very aware," Peter said, glancing at Derek.
"They use electricity on werewolves because it not only slows them down, but at certain watts will keep them from healing, transforming, or even takes away their strength. It works the same way on a Valkyrie. Another way to slow them down is with nightshade."
"How much will it slow them down?" Chris asked.
"Nightshade to a Valkyrie is like wolfsbane to a werewolf. And just like Nordic Blue Monkshood will kill a wolf fairly quickly, Crimson Nightshade does the same for a Valkyrie. And it's just as rare."
"So if we used the nightshade against the Valkyries, we can slow them down?" Ethan asked.
"Even more so with the Crimson," Isabel added.
"We don't happen to have Crimson Nightshade, do we?" Scott gave Braeden a look. "What?"
"Is there any way we can defeat them without resorting to poisoning them?" Scott asked.
"And there he goes with being blandly moral again," Peter snarked.
Isabel shook her head. "The four of them that are left are too far gone down their path that there is no way to save them. Once their eyes go green, it's too late. There's no turning back from what I understand."
"How do you know all of this?" Stiles asked.
"You seriously haven't figured it out yet?" Derek asked. Isabel gave Derek a look.
"I have a suspicion that Lydia may have been right the entire time," Scott said.
"The reason I know so much about the Valkyrie, Stiles, is because I am one."