listen to: take it back - norah jones (david andrews remix)
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After Econ I made my way through the halls to the library, needing a quiet place to think during my free period. Scott was too busy to notice that I had slipped away by myself, but he didn't seem to care. Maybe he finally saw that I wasn't going to hurt his friends, so he didn't need to keep me around 24/7.
As I walked through the halls of Beacon Hills High School, I played my usual game; winking at freshmen boys and making them drool over me. I wondered when I would get tired of seeing how easily my aura could attract anyone.
I suppose I would never get tired of playing my silly little games with humans. They were too much fun.
My heels clicked against the floor as I made my way into the library, but the sweet sound my shoes made wasn't the only thing I heard.
"I want one."
"Which one?"
"The straight one, of course."
I knew it was Lydia and Allison. There goes actually trying to study in peace.
In front of me was Danny, who I recognized from my Econ class. He accidentally bumped into someone in front of him, and I avoided the collision, making my way towards the redhead and brunette.
"Blaise!" Lydia exclaimed. "Are you free this period?"
I nodded but she was already out of her chair and moving towards the boys she wanted. I sat down next to Allison, who was looking up symbols on her computer. "Who is she talking about?" The brunette pointed me in the direction where Lydia was headed.
Turning around in my seat I laughed to myself, seeing it was the twins we saw yesterday that Lydia was after. Yet again, as I looked at them, I got the strange feeling that I had met them before. One caught my eye and looked at me funny, but I just smiled at him, confusing him even more.
"What if it's not a symbol," Allison muttered to herself, picking up Lydia's coffee cup, "what if it's actually a logo?" She looked up to see that the strawberry-blonde was still gone from her seat.
"A logo," I repeated. "Allison, I think you're right."
She searched on her computer. "Do you know what logo it could be?"
I shook my head sadly, and she continued to type into the search engine. "Can I borrow your phone? Maybe I can search too."
"Good idea," the brunette said, and handed me her cell. I held it awkwardly in my hands, not really knowing the proper way to type on the touchscreen. I heard Allison laugh softly, and she placed the phone so both of my thumbs could reach the keyboard at the same time. "Have you never seen a Samsung before?"
"A what?" I asked. "I've seen smartphones before, I just never have had a use for them."
"You're like a grandma, Blaise," Allison sighed, laughing to herself. I smiled along with her as I tried to type in the search bar for logos in Beacon Hills.
Soon, Lydia sat down across from us again, smiling with pure joy. "Did you get what you wanted?" I asked, giving her a small smirk. She furrowed her eyebrows.
"Of course. I always get what I want," she said, smearing some new lip gloss on. My smiled never faded. I was beginning to really like the strawberry-blonde.
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Allison gave us a ride back to her place so we could study for Chemistry after school. I wasn't going to study, of course, because I had already gotten a Master's Degree in the class. It was 1962, if I remember right, when I had graduated from an elite college in France.
Of course, that was when I didn't have anyone to protect, and nobody had called for my assistance.
Ah, yes, I remember. University of Bordeaux. What a lovely campus.
"So, should we pick something up to eat?" Allison asked. I looked out the window, seeing the sky was turning cloudy all of a sudden.
"Hm," Lydia murmured. "Chinese?" My eyes landed on the veterinarian's office as we drove by it. "Blaise?" I kept my eyes on the building, a strange feeling washing over me.
Then the pain came.
It had moved to my lungs this time, not my stomach. I clutched my chest as I tried to keep in my agony, but it was no use. I couldn't keep it in.
I screamed.
And my scream wasn't any normal one. It was high pitched, high enough for animals and the supernatural to hear. In fact, it wasn't a scream at all: it was the Shadow Phoenix's caw.
Allison had stopped the car by now and both girls were trying to calm me down. I clamped a hand over my mouth, trying not to scream again. But the sense of danger was still there. It was coming from the vet's office.
"Blaise!" Lydia said. "Are you okay?"
I shook my head. "Y-You stay here," I stammered, getting out of the car. "Stay here. I'll be back."
The girls just stared as I half stumbled, half ran towards the vet's office.
I burst through the door and followed where all the noise was coming from. The examination room.
Crashing into the room, I saw that Scott, Stiles, and Derek stood here. There was also a boy in a metal tub full of ice and water, sitting up suddenly just as I walked in. "I saw it! I saw the name!" the boy yelled. He looked around at his friends for reassurance, but instead they were looking at me.
"What the hell are you doing here, Blaise?" Derek snapped.
I took a deep breath, the danger fading as well as the pain. "Is someone dead? Did someone die?" I rambled.
"Well, Isaac was near death," Scott said. "Why?"
Stiles widened his eyes at me, helping his friend out of the ice bath. "You can feel it, can't you? The danger? That's the noise you and Scott heard, Derek. It was Blaise. She screamed for Isaac."
I looked around at the boys who stared at me. "Who is this now? Blaise?" one asked. He wasn't a boy, but a man. I assumed he was the doctor here.
"Yes," I answered.
"And what are you exactly?" he asked. "I'm Dr. Deaton. Maybe I can help you with your abilities. Are you a new werewolf?"
I squeezed my eyes shut, too shaken up from the sudden danger and pain to reply right away. I guess my game is over.
"I'm the Phoenix, doctor," I said flatly. "And I don't think I need help with my abilities, thanks." I leaned against the wall and dismissed my words. "Just worry about the boy you almost killed."
The boys stared at me for a second, taking in my confession. Then they turned their attention back to Isaac.
Isaac shivered in the towel wrapped around him. "It's Beacon Hills First National Bank. It's um, it's an abandoned bank and they're keeping them locked inside the vault."
Everyone was silent as they took in the information, except me. "Isn't this good? Now we know where to find them!" I exclaimed. Derek shot me a glare even though Isaac looked just as clueless as I did.
"You don't remember what you said right before you came out of it, do you Isaac?" Stiles asked, stepping forward.
"No," Isaac said, shaking his head slightly.
"Uh, you said when they captured you that they dragged you into a room? And that there was a body in it," Stiles explained.
"What body?" I asked, looking at Stiles intently.
"Erica. He said it was Erica."
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Derek was the first one to dismiss the fact that it was one of his pack members, and I was the first one to leave. Stiles tried to get me to stay to help figure out a plan but I shook him off, too tired to think of anything. Also, Allison and Lydia were still waiting for me outside in the rain. So I left the boys to figure something out.
Allison let Lydia and I stay the night at her place for the night after studying, but I didn't sleep at all. It was hard for me close my eyes, knowing that I was supposed to protect Scott and Derek's friends, but one of them was already dead in a bank vault.
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I informed the girls of what was happening as I sat in the back seat of Allison's car, mindlessly picking off the red nail polish Lydia had painted on last night. I also had told them that I was the Phoenix, but I kept the rest of my abilities a secret. There would be a better time and place to tell everyone what exactly I was here to do.
"So..." Lydia said as we got out of the car, "mystery girl leaves a bruise on our arms that turns out to be the logo for a bank." The strawberry-blonde snickered. "What'd she try to do? Get some investment advice?"
Allison didn't seem amused by her joke. "Not at this bank. It's been closed for years."
"Why aren't you telling Scott?" I asked.
"Because, according to someone, I need to find something real," the brunette said, opening the trunk. Lydia shrugged and looked away, but I caught a glimpse of a crowbar that sat under Allison's purse. I shook it off and didn't say anything about it. The brunette could handle herself.
"Which reminds me," Allison continued. "I can't drive either of you home today. I have an errand to run after school."
I walked beside the brunette and studied her, wondering exactly what errand she had to do.
Smelling the stench of werewolf, I turned my head the other way to catch the sight of Stiles and Scott getting out of the old, blue Jeep. The girls walked away from me as I stopped in the middle of the street, listening in to their conversation.
"...Derek's at five," Scott finished. I jogged over to them, cutting off their path to the front doors.
"I want in," I said strongly.
"Of course not," the werewolf scoffed.
I raised my eyebrows. "And why not? You know what I am. You know I'm not hurting your friends. The more supernatural strength you have, the better."
It was a stare-off between the Beta and I for what seemed like a long time, until Stiles cut us off. "She's right, Scott," he reasoned. "We need all the help we can get."
I smiled at the boy. "You know, Stiles, you're smarter than you think."
"Fine," Scott said. "Meet me at Derek's house around four-thirty and I'll show you where the loft is. We'll come up with a plan there. But right now, we have English."
"Sounds great," I said, my smile never fading. "I think I'll be a great addition to the team." I walked in front of them, making my way to first period, excitement running through me.
Finally. Something fun is happening around here.
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It sure was a long ass day at school.
But finally the time came where we were in Derek's loft, figuring out a plan.
Stiles had laid out a big map of Beacon Hills National Bank on the table and we all huddled around it. "Okay. So, here-" Stiles pointed to the map, "-this is how they got in. It's a rooftop air-conditioning vent. It leads down inside into the wall of the vault, which is here." He circled the place named 'vent' with a red marker.
"Okay? Okay," Stiles continued. "One of the robbers was lowered into this shaft. Now, that space is so small that it took about twelve hours to drill into that wall-which is stone, by the way." He glanced at Derek, Scott and me. "Then, throughout the rest of the night, they siphoned the cash up to the guys back on the roof, through that one little shaft on the wall," he finished, slapping his marker down, as if he were the first to finish a test. "Boom."
"Can we fit in there?" Scott asked.
"Well, only if you skipped breakfast today," I answered with a smirk. When Scott just stared at me, not understanding my witty joke, I said, "I'm just kidding."
"You might be able to fit only if you skipped lunch too," Stiles added. He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I laughed. At least someone understood humor.
Derek shot Stiles a glare and the boy continued. "Of course you'll be able to fit, nit-wit. Just very, very barely. And they also patched the wall, obviously, so we may need a drill of some kind. I'm thinking maybe a diamond-bit-"
"Forget the drill," Derek interrupted.
"I'm sorry?" Stiles asked, looking at the sour wolf.
"If I go in first, how much space do I have?"
Stiles just tapped his fingers on the desk, probably wondering how Derek could punch through a wall that it took twelve hours for people to drill into. I was thinking the exact same thing. I mean, I could punch through anything, but Derek? Maybe.
"What do you think you're gonna do, Derek? You think you're going to punch through the wall?" Stiles mused, turning towards the Alpha.
Derek gave him a fake smile. "Yes, Stiles. I'm going to punch through the wall."
"Okay, big guy, let's see it. Let's see that fist. Big o' fist. Make it, c'mon," Stiles rambled. I shook my head and mentally face-palmed as Derek reluctantly put his hand into a fist and showed him. "Put it out there. Don't be scared. Big bad wolf, yeah, look at that."
Stiles put his hand up and put Derek's fist up to it. "See this? That's about three inches of room to gather enough force to punch through solid-"
Derek rammed his fist into Stiles' hand, causing the boy to fall against the table with an "Ow!"
"Burn," I said with a snicker. The sour wolf gave me a satisfied smile.
Stiles paced around, shaking his hand. "He can do it! He can do it," he muttered.
"I'll get through the wall," Derek finally said. "Who's following me down?" He glanced at the man who was sitting on the steps, the only guy I still didn't know the name of.
"Don't look at me," the man said, innocently. "I'm not up to fighting speed. And honestly, with Isaac out of commission, you're not looking at very good odds for yourself."
"What about me?" I piped in, but they ignored me.
"So I'm supposed to just let them die?" Derek said.
"One of them is already dead," the man stated.
"No way are we letting them die," I said, sending a glare at him.
"Do I have to remind you what we are up against here? A pack of Alphas," he continued. "All of them. Killers. And if that's not enough to scare your testicles back into your stomach, try to remember that two of them combine bodies to form one giant Alpha." He looked up at the ceiling. "Sure, Erica and Boyd are sweet kids and they are going to be missed."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't be such a dick," I snapped.
"Can someone kill him again please?" Stiles asked, standing across from me now.
"Gladly," I said, sending the man a smile.
He just glared at me. "Who the hell are you, anyway?"
"I could ask you the same question."
He rolled his eyes. "Derek. Seriously? Not worth the risk."
Risk. The word seemed to be the theme of the day. "What about you, Scott?" Derek asked.
The Beta stared at the map. "I don't know about Erica, but if Boyd's still alive, we have to do something. We have to try."
"That's the spirit!" I beamed.
"But who's the other girl?" Scott asked, almost to himself than to anyone else. "The one locked in there with Boyd?"
There's another girl? I didn't know that.
"So," I started, "where am I going to go while Derek's down in the vent punching through walls?"
Derek frowned at me. "You'll be here, in the loft."
"What?" I snapped, looking to Scott. "That's not-"
"Derek, we need all the help we can get," Scott said, repeating Stiles' words from earlier. It felt nice to have someone sticking up for me.
"No way am I letting her try to save anyone," the Alpha said, shaking his head.
I stepped closer to him. He was taller than me by about six inches, but that didn't matter. "Look here, wolf man. If you knew anything about what I am, you would know that my job is to protect people. The damn Nemeton drew me here so I could protect your pack," I said, voice dangerously low. "Are you going to let me do my job, or are you going to be the stubborn wolf who gets killed by his own Betas?"
I let my eyes glow the deep purple they were, and I could feel Derek tense at the sight of them. "You're not coming," he said. "I don't know what to think about you, Blaise, and I don't know whether to trust you or not. So, if you try to follow us, I will kill you."
I stepped away, allowing him to have the pleasure of thinking he had beaten me in my own game. "We'll see about that," I muttered, but he didn't hear me as he started walking out of the loft. Scott shot me a glance that said sorry, but he still followed his Alpha like the good little pup he was.
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Of course I wasn't going to follow after them right away. I would let Derek get his ass beat for a while, then I would swoop in and make sure he wasn't mangled to death.
But for now, I just had to wait.
Stiles chewed his thumb by the windows, watching the rainfall. "I can't take waiting around like this," he admitted. "You know, it's nerve racking. My nerves are racked. They're severely racked. Racked." His voice wavered on his last word.
I knew how he felt. I was used to being in the action, not waiting for it to come to an end. It really sucked.
"I could beat you unconscious and wake you when it's over," the man said from the couch. Now I could see his resemblance to Derek. I guessed he was the psychotic uncle Derek had talked about before.
I took a seat on the table. "Who are you again?" I asked him.
"Peter Hale, former Alpha," he said. Former? "What about you?"
Before I could answer, Stiles interrupted. "You think Erica's really dead?" There was something in his voice that told me he knew Erica personally.
"Do you think I really care?" Peter answered nonchalantly.
"Wow, you're a bigger dick than Derek," I said, snickering.
Stiles continued to speak his own thoughts and ignore our banter. "I just don't understand the bank though. Okay, like what--why wouldn't they chain them up in some underground lair or something? They're an Alpha pack, right, so shouldn't they have a lair?"
"They are werewolves, not Bond villains," Peter snapped. I began to imagine the many ways I could kill him right here and make it look like an accident. It soothed my nerves.
"Wait a sec!" Stiles said, getting more and more excited. "What if they're living there? You know? Like maybe the bank vault reminds them of their little wolf dens!"
"Wolf dens?" Peter and I asked simultaneously.
"Yeah, wolf dens! Where do you live, Peter? Blaise?"
"In an underground network of caves hidden deep in the woods," Peter replied. I tried to hold back a laugh.
"Woah, really?" Stiles asked. Wow, this kid was gullible.
"No, you idiot," the former Alpha replied. "I live in an apartment downtown."
"Well, Stiles," I said, standing from the table, "I did live in an underground tunnel once in..." I put a hand to my head, trying to think of the date. "Ah! Yes, I remember!" I said, snapping my fingers. "I lived in an underground tunnel in Belgium around 1567. Good times."
Peter shot up from his sitting position. "The year 1567?" he asked. Stiles had the same surprised expression.
"No, dumbass, the letter 1567," I snapped. "Yes, the year 1567. I mean, where else would I go? The Duke of Alva's army had just entered Brussels' border, and a war was about to start in Belgium. Maybe you should sharpen up on your history."
"How old are you, Blaise?" Stiles asked, stepping closer to study me.
"I am 714 years old," I said. The last time I told anyone my age was in Athens, and as I remembered Castor, my thoughts saddened.
"How is that even possible for a werewolf?" Peter demanded.
I turned away from Stiles to look at him. "It's not, Peter. I'm the Shadow Phoenix, not a wolf."
"You're kidding," he scoffed.
"Am I?" As I asked the question I stepped back, taking my jacket off. I closed my eyes and willed my power to course through my body. Then my wings grew from my back and I stretched them to their full length for Peter and Stiles to see.
I glanced back and admired them. They were a jet-black color while the bottom feathers were crimson red. I had always loved my wings, and apparently so did Stiles, because I felt him stroke the feathers.
"Are these real?" he whispered. I laughed and folded them behind me.
"Of course," I said gently, smiling at him. "A Phoenix has to fly sometimes." I was sad that my little secretive games with Scott and Stiles were over, but I liked opening up to them. Maybe they would finally trust me.
Stiles took his hand away from the feathers and coughed. "Anyway, back to the point. What I was saying earlier just proves that there is something up with the bank." He started to pace around again, while Peter kept staring at me in shock.
"714 years," he whispered to himself.
"And why wait around until the full moon, huh? Why not just kill them whenever they want to?" Stiles continued.
"Maybe they think it's...poetic," I suggested.
"No, they've already had three full moons to be poetic," Stiles said.
Peter sighed. "And here you are, only having one full hour to be so annoy-"
"Three full moons," I said, interrupting Peter. "What are the walls made of?" I walked over to see the front of the map, but it said nothing about the materials of the building.
"I don't know, maybe like wood and brick," Stiles said.
"No," Peter said, starting to understand where I was going with this. "The vault. The vault walls. What are they made out of?"
Stiles and Peter stood beside me as I looked over the map. "Where would it say that?" I asked, while Peter went through the other papers. "Stiles, where would it say the materials? The type of stone?"
"Oh," he said, whirling around. "Here."
I groaned when he slammed a big pile of papers on the table. "Seriously? You can't just...Google it on your phone or something?" I whined, thinking back to the library with Allison.
"You're 714 years old," Stiles said, "shouldn't you have the ability to read as fast as lightning or something?"
I just snickered. "That would be really cool, but no. I read like a normal person."
Peter flipped open the stack of papers. "I can read quicker than most," he said, starting with the first page.
I snorted. "What do you do all day to be able to read that fast? Read Better Homes and Gardens for Werewolves?"
The wolf ignored me.
"There! That's it," Stiles said, pointing at the tenth page.
"Wow, already?" I asked.
Peter read the line he was pointing to out loud. "Dandelion."
"Is that awful? It sounds awful," Stiles said, looking to me.
My eyes widened as I realized what was happening. "Get Scott and them on the phone, now!" I demanded. Dandelion isn't a good sign. Hecatolite is dangerous.
"Okay, I'm doing it! Why?" Stiles stammered.
Peter answered for me. "Boyd and that girl aren't going to kill each other," he said. "They're going to kill Derek and Scott."
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hello lovelies
sorry for such a long chapter, but I had to put in a sneak-peak of Blaise's past. it wasn't much, and there will be more revealed in later chapters too. I can't wait to show to you guys what she has done in the past and who she's met. honestly, I just like her history because she's a total badass.
stay tuned for the next update :)
-kati