Isaac was always awake and up first, and today was no exception. He made them coffee and some sandwiches before going back into his room to take a shower and get dressed in his work outfit. Bella was usually up by then, but when he returned to the kitchen, she still wasn’t there. Concerned, he walked over to her room and knocked on the door. “Bella?”
“I’m calling in sick!” Bella whined as she nestled herself deep underneath the covers. She was feeling like she had the worst hangover she’d ever had, despite them not having drunk the previous night and werewolves couldn’t get drunk due to their metabolism.
“Okay,” Isaac let out a slight chuckle. “Want me to put your breakfast on your nightstand?” He wasn’t sure why it took her so long to reply, maybe she was sick, but they never got sick. Did something go wrong with her acceptance of him? Had he been wrong for pushing this? To have reasoned her into this? Something she initially didn’t want, at all?
“No,” her voice came back muffled. “I’ll get something later.”
“Okay,” he said quietly as he walked back to the kitchen, grabbed a couple of sandwiches and his coffee before going downstairs. For a good ten minutes, he anxiously tried to analyze the situation, resulting in him getting anxious and destroying the empty mug he was holding for holding it too tightly.
What if he had broken her? What if, instead of having saved her, he had now broken her? It didn’t make him any better than her ex-boyfriend. He was pacing in his kitchen, tugging on his hair with one hand while fumbling his phone with the other. It had been a while since he had been this anxious. This afraid. He couldn’t call Peter, because Peter would kill him for ruining her. He couldn’t call Argent, because Isaac was supposed to be doing good things, and this wasn’t a good thing. But he had to call someone. Without even thinking about it, he found himself dialing Derek’s number from memory.
“Who’s this?”
Isaac blinked for a moment and then realized that he had never given his phone number to any of the Beacon Hills people after having changed it numerous times. Because he wanted to avoid Beacon Hills so badly. When Isaac wanted to speak, he could only squeak before composing himself enough. “It’s Isaac,” he said, letting out a deep breath. And another breath.
“Something wrong with Bella?”
Yes, of course, he’d think that. Because Isaac wasn’t capable of saving or making sure someone was safe. Oh, why did he call Derek? “Forget it.”
“No, I’m not going to forget it, you’re calling me for a reason. Calm down.” Derek spoke calmly and Isaac could hear him shuffle a little, no doubt he had woken him up. It was freaking early.
“Sorry to have woken you.”
“Isaac. Don’t worry about waking me up if something is wrong with my sister.”
“I think… I think I may have broken her. I didn’t mean to! I mean… all I asked was for her to be my Alpha and… now she’s not coming out of her bed, she’s sick, she says and I broke her! What if I pushed her too much? What if she really wasn’t ready for this? What can I do to fix this? I’m supposed to keep her safe, not break her!” Isaac rambled as he still paced through his kitchen. “You can come and kick my ass. I ruined your sister.”
“Relax, calm down,” there was a hint of humor in Derek’s voice. “You didn’t break her or ruin her. Are you listening?”
“Yes…”
“Okay, first of all, this conversation will stay between us. You and me. No one else will ever learn from this conversation, not even Argent.”
“Okay. Good. Yeah… that’s good,” Isaac let out a sigh of relief as he finally stopped pacing and leaned against a countertop instead. “You’re not mad at me then?”
“I told you, you didn’t break her. How can I be mad at you for not breaking her? No, things have worked a little bit differently, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing. I bit you, I turned you and I trained you. I was your Alpha from the get-go until I let you go and pushed you towards Scott, and he accepted you easily, without you asking or him asking, didn’t he? Because he was grateful for you joining his pack, to make him stronger and fight grandpa Argent, the Kanima, and Void-Stiles.”
“Okay?”
“Now you’re in a state of peace. You and your new Alpha. Forget that she’s my sister for a moment, she’s the person you’ve decided to fully trust and that likely hasn’t been easy for you. There’s no doubt in my mind that Scott and I ruined your ability to trust so easily, and I am sorry for having played a part in that. But for you to trust her with your whole being, that is something major. For both of you. You don’t have any pressing matters and she hasn’t been looking for a pack, because you’re both safe. Despite you going about and end up in traps meant for Scott.”
“I don’t get it.”
“She has some adjusting issues, that’s all. She’ll be fine. I promise you that. Right now she’s likely overwhelmed by your new bond. You’re used to having a bond with an Alpha, but she’s never had that experience, remember? She found out she was a werewolf and an Alpha literally on the same day. She’s never been in a pack before.”
Isaac was quiet as he tried to process everything that Derek had said. “I don’t think she wants you and Peter to join her pack, Derek.”
“And we don’t want to, our life is here. It’s also safer for Bella not to have us in her pack. Not only because of the hunters, but you know how Peter is. He claims to be reformed and not after power anymore, but I don’t trust him around Bella. We’re fine being omega’s.”
Isaac blinked, knowing it made a lot of sense what Derek had just said. A big brother looking out for his baby sister. Isaac never knew that Derek could have so much… heart. Maybe it was true what Argent had said about him, that he had changed.
“But right now, Bella’s suffering from information overload, Isaac. Likely just like you at the moment, because of what I’m telling you, but she’s adjusting. Had the situation been different, like the both of you being in danger or continuous danger, it would have likely been easier on her, as it would have been for survival.”
“It still is.”
“I suspect you’ve found a bunch of people who make things easier on the both of you,” Derek was smiling again, Isaac could tell. “And I also suspect it wasn’t easy for the both of you to let new people in. But you two don’t feel threatened, so that’s why this situation is unique to the both of you. You’re happy in life. So don’t worry, alright? She’ll be alright. As will you. But you getting anxious doesn’t help her right now.”
“I haven’t been this anxious for a very long time.”
“The other reason why it may be difficult for her right now is because one or both of you have feelings for each other. Unresolved feelings, deep feelings. You know, the relationship kind of feelings.”
Isaac started to laugh, shaking his head as he tried to dismiss the notion. “One of the friends we made here actually tried setting us up on a blind date of sorts with one another and she freaked out. I doubt she would have any feelings for me and I never thought of her like that…” he said, even though he knew as he said it, the words felt empty.
“Liar,” Derek laughed. “I saw you here, you had fallen for her on your trip from Forks to Beacon Hills. Admit it. You were just too scared and untrusting to act upon it.”
“Yeah, whatever,” he replied. “Thanks, Derek.”
“No problem. You can always call me, you know that, right? I’ll never tell a soul, I promise.”
“Yeah, okay. Sure. See ya,” he said as he disconnected the call. He didn’t even have time to process the phone call he had just had as his phone started ringing again. “Peter, good morning.”
“Ah, I timed it right then. I need you to grab Jeremy, and maybe Alaric, and take your van to South Carolina. Bring supplies. Food, clothes, shit like that. One of our safehouses got burned to the ground and they moved to a new house, but they need supplies. You’ll be going in a heavily hunter infested area, it’s worse than that trip you did with Bella. You need to help this family of wolves because they’re protecting something very rare, an Ikiryō.”
“What the fuck is an Iky-whatsy?”
“An Ikiryō is a creature from Japanese folklore; it’s a spirit that can leave a living human’s body to go and haunt their enemies or people or even places. Very powerful. This one isn’t quite potent, but important nonetheless. Imagine the hunters getting their hands on her.”
“That’s really gotta mess with Lydia if it ever got around her,” he snorted. “Can we send it to Scott?”
“No, they’re staying in South Carolina, Isaac. You’re going over to help and get rid of some of those hunters. No more no killing. That’s what Scott does. No killing, but this has to end. They’re getting out of control. This time, you can fight back. So take Jeremy and Alaric with you. Be a good soldier.”
“Yes sir,” Isaac nodded. “Send me the address, and I’ll have us going in an hour or so after stocking up.” He disconnected the phone, cleaned up the mess of the mug and went upstairs to get some clothes while he shot off a few messages to Jeremy and Alaric. Seeing that breakfast was still untouched, he knocked on Bella’s door again. “Bella?”
“No.”
“I’m heading out with Jeremy and Ric for a couple of days. Want me to call Myriam back or will you be fine on your own?”
“Caroline,” she muttered, not in the mood for Myriam. It was likely that she was still licking or sucking Klaus’ lollipop. “Be safe.”
“Always! I’ll text you tonight, okay? I’ll leave the doors locked so don’t worry about the B&B.”
“Fun.”
Isaac scribbled down Derek’s number on a piece of paper and placed it near the sandwiches with a note saying ‘if you need help, call him’ before he left the apartment and headed to his van to go and pick up Jeremy and Alaric.
“Hey, loverboy!” Jeremy greeted him as he climbed into the van. “Caroline couldn’t stop talking about your date! She said you two looked content after you talked things through!”
“What?” Isaac blinked at him. “What are you talking about?”
Jeremy began to look uncomfortable for his eager happiness for his friend. “Uh, so, the date night she and Myriam set up for you two didn’t go so well? I’ll tell you this, those two were working hard the past week to put something together they both agreed on.”
“Date, as in relationship?” Isaac shook his head laughing. “Cute!” Jesus fuck, did the whole world wanted them to be together?
“Yeah, dude. Um…” Jeremy suddenly felt like he wanted to be anywhere else but there after what he’d overheard Caroline and Myriam discussing that Bella admitted her feelings for Isaac. “You know what, just forget it.”
“We did discuss something else, though, something important, so I guess it wasn’t all a failure,” he shrugged as he looked at Alaric who was bringing his own arsenal of guns. “You know, I have plenty in this van.”
Ric sighed, glancing over his supply. “Yeah, but in my experience, you can’t trust your own or other’s stuff. And you never know what the other side may be using to push their agenda. I’ve seen some utilize allies that you wouldn’t think they’d get along with until they had no more use for them so I’m going in expecting some supernatural in their ranks.”
“Great! Let’s go to Richmond to get supplies and then make our way down to South Carolina,” Isaac suggested before starting the car and putting his phone on the carkit to call Caroline.
“Yay! You’re officially off the market now!”
“I wasn’t aware I was on any market,” Isaac replied. “In any case, we’re still happily single and I would appreciate it if everyone would stop with pushing us into things we’re not ready for.”
“Wait, I’m confused because obviously there must be a miscommunication somewhere because I know that —-”
“Caroline. Enough,” Jeremy interrupted. “Let it go and talk to Bella about it later.”
“Yeah, uh, could you go to Bella later to make sure she’s alright? She wasn’t feeling too well this morning,” Isaac asked Caroline.
Now the vampire was certainly thoroughly confused. “What? I thought your kind doesn’t get sick. Hell, the wolves like Klaus kind that I knew rarely did, but did.”
“She’s not sick, she’s not feeling well.”
“What did you do?” Alaric asked curiously.
“That’s between me and Bella, I just need Caroline to go over and make sure she’s alright later on,” Isaac replied as he tightly gripped the wheel. Fucking Peter sending him off like that. Now. Creating a distance between him and Bella. Whereas he believed he should be home to take care of her.
“Yeah, alright, but I swear, if you’ve broken my friend, I will kill you, Isaac.”
“I was assured that I didn’t,” he muttered. “Thanks,” he said as he disconnected the call and continued to drive towards Richmond.
~o.O.o~
By the time Bella finally managed to drag herself out of bed it was well past noon, and the coffee on the table cold, the sandwiches stale. Grumpily she slammed the coffee machine into making another cup for her and sat down on one of the chairs to drink it once it was done. Her head still felt so heavy, but the feeling had lessened somewhat after Isaac had left.
It still felt like the hangover from hell. She had seen Isaac’s note with a phone number scribbled on it, and she just knew it was Derek. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to call her brother. Maybe he knew what was going on. Did Isaac even know?
“Who’s this?”
“Me,” Bella grunted as she took another sip of her coffee. “Your stupid sister.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Derek laughed. “But please enlighten me, why are you stupid?”
“Cut the crap, Derek, there’s no doubt Isaac called you.”
“Sorry, but you know as well as I do that Isaac still doesn’t like me. Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “Sure feels like it. It’s like I have the hangover of the century and it’s not going away. Or slowly. I mean, I can form somewhat coherent words now?”
“What happened?”
Bella smiled then as she recalled Isaac’s bravery. “Oh, he was so adorable when we were talking about this, so brave, so… trusting. So… different. I mean, I’ve been trying to get him to open up more, coax him out a little, but this? This is a whole new level.”
“You had sex? Bella, that’s no reason to call me! That’s gross!”
“Fuck you,” she countered. “No, he asked if he could be my beta.”
“Wow.” Derek sounded impressed. “That’s… huge. For him, and you! I take it that you accepted him?”
“Yeah… but I think something went wrong. I feel like shit. Isaac made it sound it was easy.”
“It’s never easy, no matter what situation you gain a beta for your pack. It might have a bigger impact on you because you’ve never lived in a pack before. You don’t know what it’s like and yeah, that’s not your fault.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have done it,” she muttered. “What if I fuck him up? What if I turn out to be like you or Scott? I can’t see him get hurt, but he assured me that I wouldn’t, but how could he know?”
Derek sighed over the line. “I doubt you could ever make the same mistakes that I did, or come close to Scott’s idiocy. That’s because you’re asking these questions now, to me, prove you don’t have it you to hurt him the way we did.”
“He was so anxious this morning, it hurt. Like… physically.”
“Yeah, that will take time to get used to and learn to tune emotions out. It was probably a lot of him sensing you being off as well so it had it going around in circles. Either way, I’d say if there is anything you two need to get off your chest, do it soon or you will likely go crazy before you can get a handle on your new abilities.”
Bella opened her mouth to say something but instead took another sip of her coffee to swallow her words. Eventually, she found a more diplomatic way of saying it. “I doubt he’s ready for that. It took him so long to open up and let me in. And now this, I mean, that was like… so special for him to—”
“Bella, I may not know you as well as I’d like to get to, but I do think I know Isaac pretty well. He does hide his emotions very well and he had to learn that early on from his own father, but he’s head over heels for you. But you can find that out for yourself without saying a word when you get close to him.”
“Hypothetically speaking, does it really make it such a difference if we sort this out?”
“You’re an Alpha. You’re not supposed to feel those kinds of emotions for your beta unless you’re together. It’ll mess you up if you don’t act on them, and this is not to push you right into his arms, especially if you don’t feel the same way, but it sounds to me that you are pretty crazy for him, too.”
“You reckon he’s ready for that talk?”
“Ready or not, this is something you need to discuss. Like now.”
Bella bit her lips as she toyed with her coffee mug. “I kinda can’t. He’s out on a job that he said will probably take a couple days.”
“Of course he is,” Derek sighed. “As soon as he gets home, you sit him down, you hear me? I don’t want you to go insane. Until then, you can enjoy your extra strength and stamina and get used to your intensified emotions, get a grip on them.”
“You’re giving me advice on being an Alpha? Really? I’m still working on wrapping my head around this whole phone call actually happening.”
Derek laughed then. “I know that I haven’t been a good Alpha, but I have been one. I can tell you what’s best to do and what you totally shouldn’t. But you and I both know that you won’t ever make the same mistakes with Isaac like I have. He was just a tool for me, a kid who was in a crappy situation and who I could make my beta to do my doings. He’s not that to you.”
“No, he’s not a chew toy,” she said angrily.
“You’re going to be alright, Bella, just believe in yourself, your capabilities and your feelings. But do sit him down to have ‘the talk’ when he gets home.”
“Yeah, thanks,” she said as she disconnected the call and poured herself another coffee. This were going to be a long few days with Isaac gone.
The entire trip to South Carolina had been spent in uncomfortable silence, apart from the occasional conversation between Alaric and Jeremy and the stops along the road to take a piss or fill up on gas. Isaac just wanted to get the job done and head back home. For some reason, this felt like a trip anyone else could have made and Peter was simply trolling him or something.
They had supplied the safe house and made sure they were secure and armed before they started to clean up the town. Isaac wanted to kill at least five of those hunters. Alaric was still a bit on the fence about really killing another human being, but what if they’d come for his girls? He’d likely kill them anyway then. But still, it wasn’t right.
Isaac tore right into the first hunter they encountered by accident, clawing the guy’s neck and slicing the carotid artery in one easy swipe before he unhooked his gun and headed straight into the group of hunters. They were all decked out in Kevlar vests, army boots, guns, the works, and this had all the signs for this to get out of hand, fast. “Isaac, fall back!” Alaric commanded in a soft voice, but loud enough for Isaac to hear it, but the werewolf ignored him and kept walking in, seemingly undetected.
“Jacques, long time no see,” Isaac said to a younger hunter. “Why are you always making the wrong decisions, huh?” He slapped him on the back, laughing, before pulling him out of the group of hunters, more to the side. Friendly. But he wasn’t. He slammed him against a wall, causing Jacques to cry out in pain and alerting the rest of the group that something was going on. Grinning, Isaac started to punch his former friend to a pulp before releasing him once he was unconscious.
When he turned around, he saw red dots all over his torso and shrugged before pulling a grenade out of his pocket, pulled out the pin and threw it into the group before running off, laughing. Alaric and Jeremy quickly hid behind a dumpster while Alaric shot Jeremy a look. “Don’t look at me, man, sometimes he’s enjoying himself a little bit too much!”
The explosion of the grenade sent various hunters flying, body parts flying through the air and landing on top of roofs, even biological matter was flung against the walls. The remaining hunters who weren’t injured or dead then ran after Isaac. Jeremy got to his feet and disturbed the dumpster they were hiding behind, which collided with the emergency stairs above them and a head fell right on top of Jeremy’s head.
“Classy,” Ric commented as he kicked the head away from Jeremy. “You okay there?”
“Oh yeah!” Jeremy grinned as he ran after the group of hunters that were now chasing Isaac. “Keep up, old man!” They often used this tactic with less harmful weapons, such as a flashbang grenade and then cornering everyone and tying them up, but this was fun. Fun, and Isaac was mental. Bella was going to kill the both of them for getting into trouble.
He wasn’t as fast as Isaac, and he found him being pounded on with fists and bats, but Isaac fought back and he was fighting dirty. “Hey man, leave some for me!” Jeremy called out as he ducked when someone took a swing at him.
By the time they had knocked everyone unconscious with several broken limbs, both Jeremy and Isaac were black and blue from their work out. Sore, too, but also ecstatic. During the drive out of town, the adrenaline started to wear off and Isaac lost control over the truck when he felt a sharp pain from multiple places over his body. Because of the reaction, he jerked on the wheel and steered the truck right off one of the mountain sides and the world fizzled out.
~o.O.o~
“No, Jeremy, there must be another incision somewhere,” Alaric said as he held the feverish werewolf down. It had been an easier job with him knocked unconscious, but now that they were burning off the wolfsbane and mistletoe, he started to come back to his senses, but still yelling in pain.
The truck was a total loss, everything was spread everywhere, including the weapons and some of the food they had brought with them. It was a miracle that all three of them survived. If it hadn’t been for Jeremy wearing the Gilbert Ring, he would have died the moment he had been impaled by a pane of glass. Thankfully, Jeremy had found his way back quite quickly while Alaric dealt with the unconscious werewolf after removing the glass out of Jeremy’s body. Alaric shouldn’t have survived the crash either, but he believed that his girls snuck a sneaky protection spell on him on his way out.
Isaac was nearly undressed now as they were looking for more cuts that were purple and black. The wolf was sweating and incoherent. He screamed and then whimpered before screaming again. Once they were both satisfied they had found every incision, the wolf passed out again and Jeremy and Alaric could take a breather.
“Yeah, so there’s no way we can get out of here,” Jeremy said as he looked around. “We kinda need Isaac to take us up, and he’s not doing well. He’ll take at least two days to fully heal with those broken bones of his.
Alaric sighed and shook his head. “I don’t think that’s gonna be happening. See if you can find one of our phones around. Call the school. If you find his first, call Bella.”
“Oh, she’s going to kill us,” Jeremy said as he moved and went to look for their phones.
“At least we’re still alive for her to get her hands on us. But I think she’ll be more interested in Isaac and I know crap about their type of wolf. She’s gotta know something or someone we can call to find out how to help.”
He nodded before finding Isaac’s phone. “Well, here goes nothing…” he said with a wince as he sat back down again and unlocked the phone before finding Bella’s number. He put it on speaker phone so he wouldn’t be the only one to suffer her wrath.
“Hey, when are you coming back?”
“Uh, Bella, it’s Jeremy.”
It was quiet for a moment and Jeremy could hear a breath getting sucked in. “What happened?”
“Well, first off, everyone’s alive and mostly in one piece…” He tried to ignore the snarling on the other end of the phone. “Look, it was a routine job. We just didn’t figure they’d lace their weapons with mistletoe and wolfsbane. Isaac was driving and ah… sent us off the road. There is no way that we can get back up there without Isaac’s help and he’s gonna need a few days to recover… he’s pretty banged up.”
“I don’t know a damned thing about mistletoe and only the basics about wolfsbane!”
“No, that’s okay, we burned it out of his system, but the crash broke a bone… or twenty… or something…”
Bella groaned before speaking. “There’s no way any of us here will get to you in time. Let me try calling someone who should be at a base we have set up. I’ll have to call my brother to see if he will tell me anything that might help him because I’m in over my head here. I just took him on as a beta two nights ago so I have no clue what to do.”
“Oh, that explains your relationship status,” Jeremy muttered as he scratched his head. “And what you talked about on date night.”
“Yeah, whatever Jeremy. Let me make some calls and go collect the guns and shit, don’t want those things laying around for when the cops show up eventually!” Bella then disconnected the call.
~o.O.o~
“Motherfucker!” Bella exclaimed as she was sitting opposite of Myriam and Caroline. Both girls were keeping her company today and they were just drinking coffee before they’d go to the movies, but that had to be put on hold now.
Both Myriam and Caroline had heard the conversation, of course, with their vampire hearing. “I think the burning of the wolfsbane and mistletoe out of Isaac’s system would suffice, so don’t worry about that,” Myriam assured her. “Want me to get Klaus and find us a car to start making our way down there?”
Bella blinked when her phone beeped with a message from Peter. We’re on our way, arranging a car from the safe house. I’ll have them back to you by tomorrow. “Well, apparently that’s not needed,” she said as she threw her phone on the table, before grabbing the phone again and dialing Peter’s number.
“Bella, I’m running to get your people out of a nasty situation, Jasper is with me, what’s up?”
“You fucker! This was supposed to be a routine mission!”
“I didn’t know this would happen. I don’t always get all the information like that. Shit gets fucked up sometimes and if I had known, I would have planned for contingencies. Believe me, I’m no more happy than you are because I might actually care for the dog. Just don’t tell him I said that. I’ll take it to my grave.”
“How badly is he hurt?”
“Don’t know until I get there, but I’d recommend calling your brother, asking him about broken bones and confirm the burning of mistletoe and wolfsbane with him. Now, can I continue running towards your beau?”
“Thank you,” she said softly as she disconnected the call and dialed Derek’s number instead, she felt a panic rise in her chest as the phone rang.
“Hey, Bella! What’s up?”
“What do you do when you get stabbed by mistletoe and wolfsbane?”
Derek was quiet on the other end for a moment as he could hear the panic in her voice. “You take a lighter and burn it out of every entry point in the body, why?”
“How does a wolf heal from broken bones? Like – a lot of them. The kind when you drive a truck off a cliff kind of broken bones?”
“He did what!” Derek exclaimed loudly, shocked.
“Shhh! You’re not around those morons and the other blood relative, are you? They all don’t need to know! And yes… I need help…I have someone going to get him but I don’t know what to do and the others aren’t that familiar with us.”
“No, I’m home alone,” he replied quickly. “We usually heal on our own, depending on the severity, it could take a couple of days and it’ll be quite painful. Maybe his bones need to be set, that will require some strength and some guts. I don’t think you should do that, so I hope you have strong people around you. He will need his rest, though. Want me to come over?”
Bella glanced over at her friends and hesitated. “No. While we are getting along okay and I’m okay with these calls right now, I can’t risk this base and Peter to find me. Maybe we can do something somewhere in the future, I don’t know.”
Myriam smirked. “You could always come visit New Orleans. Nik would love to see you! It’d be a real blast!” she giggled.
“Are you kidding me? Klaus will eat him alive!” Bella shot at her friend. “No!”
“Is your brother hot?” Myriam asked in turn. “Then we can set him up with this wolf bitch that keeps trying to move in on Klaus.”
“Myriam, stop it,” Bella glared at her. “Yeah, uh, let’s hope that Isaac will heal fine… he should be healing faster now that he’s a beta, right?”
“It all depends on his injuries and if his wolfsbane poisoning has been accurately treated.”
Caroline nodded. “I have every confidence that Alaric did what was supposed to after learning about that. It wasn’t that far of a stretch from the wolves we typically work with.”
“But Bella? I’m glad you’ve surrounded yourself with people who know their things. Let me know how he gets on, okay? I can’t do much from here other than being here for you.”
She couldn’t help but to smile. “Thanks, Derek. It does mean a lot. I’ll get back to you when I know more about how he’s doing.”
~o.O.o~
Isaac let out another groan as he was propped up against the truck. “You need to move me,” he said softly as he kept his eyes closed, wincing as he tried to move.
“Ah, we’re not moving you anywhere, buddy. You have a lot of broken bones,” Jeremy said as he took a bite off the apple he had found. They had rounded up all the guns and weapons Isaac had in his truck, which were a lot, as well as Alaric’s were in another bag for easy pickup. “And we’re waiting for the cavalry.”
“Gotta move,” he replied as another shock ran through his body. He let out a cry of pain when he decided to flop to his side and wanted to roll away but passed out again.
“Fucker,” Jeremy muttered as he pulled Isaac back up. “What part of don’t move is hard to understand? What if his back’s broken?”
Alaric stared at him, considering how adamant Isaac was in the short time he was conscious. “Maybe he was able to sense something we can’t?” he suggested, looking around for some unseen threat.
Jeremy sighed as he put his hand against the truck to push himself up and winced when a shock came from the truck. “The truck is static,” he muttered as he went looking for the source, but the truck was kitted out with a lot of electric stuff. The hunter made his way over and reached out, pulling his hand back quickly. “Yeah, let’s move him over by the tree. That ain’t right.”
“Sorry, Isaac,” Alaric muttered as he, too, got to his feet and pulled on the young man’s legs to make sure Jeremy could pick up the top half of his body. He heard some bones crack again. “Yeah… this is not good.”
“Hi!” a strange voice sounded from next to them all of a sudden. When Alaric looked up, he looked at the sparkling form of a Cold One. “The name’s Peter, I’m his boss,” he said as he pointed at Isaac.
“You’re a Cold One.”
“Yep,” he said as he hoisted Isaac over his shoulder. “And I know the sun’s out, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.”
Another one appeared shortly after and went over to the truck to assess the damage. “Bells is gonna have his hide for this one. I’m glad that I don’t have to see her for a while yet.”
“I think Isaac will have a harder time coming to terms with the destruction of his truck than she will,” Peter said as he grabbed a bag filled with weapons. “But she might not let him outside and play for a long time.”
The blond Cold One smirked. “Perhaps, but she’s living with the pup now and you said she’s Alpha? Knowing the girl, she rides her emotions pretty hard so she’s back and forth from an anxiety attack until you get him back to her. Phone call to brother or not.”
“Yeah. You’re gonna wait here for the car so they can get back?” Peter nodded as he put the bag down on the ground. “Torch the truck?”
“Yeah, we’ll clean up,” Jasper agreed and watched as his brother take the unconscious werewolf away from the place. “Right then, the name’s Jasper and I’m going to bring you up that mountain one by one,” he said with a nod. “And then we wait for the car. Oh, don’t be so confused and worried, your boy’s gonna be fine in Peter’s care,” he said dismissively before first bringing the bags up and returning to grab one of the men. “Who’s up first for a piggyback ride?”
“Your kind is gifted?” Alaric said surprised.
“And you win the washing machine!” Jasper cheered. “Well, some of us are gifted. Peter knows things, I can sense and manipulate emotions… I know a mindreader, a seer… Not the greatest decision I ever made in my life there.” He shrugged before bringing Jeremy up first and getting a grenade out of one of the bags before handing it to Jeremy. “Throw this down when I get your friend, okay?” He grabbed another grenade and headed back downstairs.
Jasper looked at the truck for a moment and moved it a little bit so that the gasoline that was leaking was more visible. “You’re lucky this thing didn’t explode with the short-circuiting going on.”
“Yeah, Isaac wanted us to move him.”
“Oh, but that’s because his kind can’t heal when they’re being electrocuted,” Jasper said simply as Alaric hopped on his back. He pulled the pin out of the grenade and threw it inside the truck before running up the hill where Jeremy threw his grenade down as well. The two grenades, with the gasoline, made a huge bang and a beautiful big bonfire. “So…anyone got any marshmallows?”
