xliii. protecting the bait
chapter forty three
protecting the bait
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THE SPARKS that flew from the roof had Odessa Stone shielding her face from them as she tried to grasp what she was actually witnessing at the moment. As soon as she walked through the entrance door, she made her presence known as soon as she saw Theo in her boyfriend's face against the metal gate that was guarding circuits that were sparking everywhere.
"Hey," Odessa shouted, surprising the two boys. She marched right up to Theo and pressed on his chest, pushing him off of Stiles, "get the hell off of him," her eyes moved to the body on the ground, her glare now prominently on the werewolf in front of her, "what did you do?"
Through his shock at suddenly seeing the blonde appear, Theo brought his hands up in surrender, "it's not what it looks like. He was gonna kill Stiles if I hadn't done anything. It was self-defense."
At his use of words, the Stone frowned at him before turning to her boyfriend, "are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No, I'm fine."
The shortness of Stiles' answer rubbed her the wrong way for a moment before brushing it off, knowing he was overwhelmed and stressed over the situation. Odessa also didn't know what Theo and Stiles were talking about in the first place to create the tense energy she felt around her. But she had a feeling she would soon find out.
Before anyone could speak next, faint sirens could be from a distance. Odessa's heart picked up speed at what that could mean. And it seemed Theo thought the same as her, "that's not an ambulance, is it?"
Odessa scoffed under her breath as her boyfriend started to walk toward the body, "Stiles..."
"We should get out of here," the Raeken persisted, fists clenched at his sides.
Stiles glanced down at the body, "we can't just leave him."
"Fine. All right," Odessa narrowed her eyes as she watched Theo as he spoke. The boy almost looked close to tears and she didn't understand why, "let's take him. Someone's stealing the bodies anyway, right? Here's our chance to find out who."
The Ember couldn't help but sigh, the sirens getting louder and closer, "we're wasting time. Whatever we're gonna do, we have to do it now."
"Stiles, come on," Theo pressed, "we gotta do something."
The Stilinski shook his head, still reeling from what had just happened, "you killed him."
"In self-defense," Theo countered instantly. Seeing the unimpressed glances the couple gave him, he defended his actions, "he was going to kill you and me. If we stay, we're either going to have to tell the truth or we're going to need a pretty convincing story. It's your choice. I'm not going to ask you to lie to your Dad."
"Don't worry. I've had plenty of practice."
As the two boys went to the body, Odessa stayed rooted in her spot, arms crossed against her chest. She had never heard someone say the phrase 'self-defense' more in her life. Why was Theo so persistent about justifying his actions? The blonde had a feeling that Theo knew more than he originally led on, but she would know fairly quickly what conspired with her boyfriend and Theo, she just didn't know it yet.
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Odessa, Stiles and Theo seemed to watch Scott McCall's expression carefully as the human of the group uncovered the body of the unmoving boy on the medical table at the Animal Clinic. There were factors the three were worried about regarding how Scott would react to another dead body and how the boy looked. Did he look like he was attacked by the Dread Doctors? The three standing together on one side of the table could only hope.
Theo nodded his head toward the Alpha, "do you know him?"
"His name's Josh," Scott answered, eyes still on the body on the table, "he was a junior."
Odessa closed her eyes for a moment with a sigh. The boy, Josh, was only a year younger than they were. He was so young. All of the Chimeras they were discovering were so young. The blonde watched her boyfriend recover the body with the blanket, wringing her hands together.
Scott stepped back a few paces, leaning against the cabinets behind him, "which one did it? The one with the cane?"
"Yeah."
"What are we going to do with him," Stiles asked quietly, his voice ragged, probably due to it not being used as much in the last couple of days, "we can't just set the alarm and leave. That's how Tracy disappeared. All right, someone's got to stay here with him."
The Raeken sighed, glancing down at his feet, "I'll do it. It's not like I had big a Saturday night planned."
Odessa made expected eye contact with Stiles after she watched his eyes narrow at Theo multiple times, nearly every time the boy spoke up. There was definitely something bothering Stiles more than he was leading on, and Odessa was determined to know what it was and soon.
Her thoughts were evaded by a sound of vibration coming from across her. Odessa watched Scott take out his phone, and the second he laid eyes on the screen, his entire demeanor changed.
"What is it," the Ember asked, though she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.
"Another one. Another Chimera."
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As soon as Stiles parked in the McCall residence driveway, Odessa knew she needed to make her move. Neither of them were leaving the Jeep until she got her answers.
Before Stiles could get out of the car, the Stone had stuck her head out the window to call out to Scott, "hey, Scotty, go in without us. We'll be there in a minute."
Without giving it a second thought, the Alpha nodded before going into his house, keeping the door closed but unlocked for his friends to come in when they were ready.
Before Stiles could utter the question of what she was doing, Odessa got to the point, "what's going on with you? What did Theo say to you back at the hospital that has you all jumpy and on edge?"
Stiles heaved a heavy sigh, knowing there was no choice but to fill his girlfriend in, "Theo knows... about Donovan."
Odessa didn't know what to expect when he finally answered her, but she didn't expect that, "what?"
"He told me he knew about Donovan and how he saw the body. He said that if I don't tell Scott about him killing John, he won't say anything about Donovan. Something about both situations being self-defense."
The Stone took in his words with caution. She'd had an idea in her mind for a while and was worried as to how Stiles would react to it, "maybe it's time to tell Scott."
"Odie—"
"No, just hear me out, please," Odessa interrupted gently, expecting him to object to the idea as he did, "if you explain what happened the way you explained it to me, I think Scott would understand. I did. And he shouldn't hear what happened from anyone else but you," she took his hand that was gripping the steering wheel despite the Jeep being off, "Stiles, he's your best friend—your brother. He will understand, even if it takes some time. I promise."
Stiles seemed to be taking her words into consideration but didn't give her a definite answer. He only nodded distantly before taking back his hand and getting out of the car, going toward the house, not waiting for his girlfriend to follow.
It was Odessa's turn to sigh in her seat, watching him go into the house. She didn't know what was going on between them lately but she didn't like it. It left a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
When Odessa ventured into her house and met not only Scott and Stiles in the former's bedroom, but Liam as well, she was reminded as to what they were actually doing. It was Liam who texted Scott about the next Chimera, a girl named Hayden who was in the same grade as the Beta. And it seemed the girl was in the bathroom because the three boys were huddled around the closed door. Odessa kept her arms crossed over her chest as she walked closer to the boys.
"Hayden? It's Scott," the Alpha started talking through the door once Odessa was with them, "I know that you're scared, but we just... we want to help," when he was met with silence, he turned to his Beta, "I can hear her heart beating. She's really freaked out. What happened?"
Liam shrugged, "she was okay when we got here. I went to text you for two seconds and she locked herself in."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Odessa broke her silence, "she's definitely a Chimera?"
Liam nodded, pursing her lips, "she said she heard a voice saying, 'your condition improves'."
"Okay, that's unsettling," Stiles commented before taking a turn at talking through the door, "Hayden. This is Stiles. Your sister works for my Dad down at the station. Look, just open the door, okay? You can trust us."
With no answer once again, the three boys then turned to the last resort that would hopefully work. Feeling eyes on her, Odessa looked up from the ground to lock eyes with each boy. She sighed, knowing it was her turn.
The Ember knocked on the door gently, her voice softer than the boy's who tried before her, "hey, Hayden. You don't know me, but my name's Odessa. I know you're scared and confused but I can assure you that you're not alone. I know exactly what you're going through and it's not fun. But if you let us in, we can help you, okay?"
After a moment of silence, Odessa sighed in defeat, giving the boys an apologetic glance, knowing she was the last plan they had in getting Hayden to open the door. However, by the time the blonde returned to her spot beside her boyfriend, the door cracked open, creaking as it did.
Scott glanced at his friends before slowly pushing the door all the way open. There, standing in the darkness of the bathroom, was Hayden. Her yellow eyes glowing prominently, fangs and claws out and sharpened.
"I believe you."
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One thing Odessa wished she had more of was a normal free period. There was always something to plan or something to do quickly before her next period that involved the supernatural. She wondered when it would be when she finally used her free period to study.
The next day, Scott, Stiles and Odessa used their free period to go over the plan for the pack tonight in the library. It was pretty elaborate with multiple moving parts so Odessa was rather grateful her free period was being taken over by going over this plan for once.
"We're back to telluric currents," Stiles rhetorically asked as his best friend spread out a familiar looking map. It was the same map the pack used to find out where Deaton had been held by Ms. Blake last year.
Scott shrugged, confident in the plan, "if the Dread Doctors didn't like coming into Eichen House because of them, maybe we can use them to protect Hayden."
"Okay, so, besides Eichen, where's the strongest convergence?"
Odessa watched Scott bring his finger down to point at Beacon Hills High School on the map enthusiastically, "we're standing on it."
"We're going to hide her in the high school," the Stone furrowed her brow at the idea, "for how long?"
"If we have to, all night," Scott shrugged before reiterating, "Liam convinced Hayden not to say anything to her sister yet. She's working a double shift tonight, she thinks Hayden is staying at a friends."
Stiles seemed to be on the skeptical side with his girlfriend, "but it's just a school though. You know, it's not exactly a fortress."
"Lydia's got an idea for that. Remember how Valack quoted Tesla?"
Odessa nodded, remembering what Lydia told her about their visit with Valack while the blonde was trying not to get electrocuted, "frequency and vibration."
"She thinks he wasn't wasn't saying that just to sound smart," the Alpha relayed Lydia's thought process, "she thinks maybe it was a clue."
"To do what?"
"Disrupt their frequency. Parrish took three cell phone jammers from the station. He thinks he can broaden their range of frequency," at the skeptical faces in front of him, Scott sighed, "it's a long shot, but it's the best we got right now."
The bell rang overhead, signaling the three teens it was time to get to class. As Scott folded up the map and left the library after a quick goodbye, Odessa held her boyfriend's arm, making him stop in his tracks to look at her.
"Are we good," she couldn't help but ask, feeling the distance between them that she hated, "you aren't mad at me for last night, right?"
Stiles crinkled his brow at her words in confusion, scoffing a chuckle, "we're always good, Odie. It's you and me," still seeing her wary features even after his reassurance, he leaned closer to whisper, "hey, kiss me."
Odessa chuckled under her breath, a smile finally protruding from her lips as she leaned up to press a soft kiss to his lips. After a few seconds, the couple departed, pressing their foreheads together.
"We're always gonna be good, Odie. I promise you that."
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In true McCall pack fashion, their go-to hiding place from the Dread Doctors was the boy's locker room. Odessa helped Lydia, Malia and Parrish with the frequency jammer... things that the latter of the three brought while Liam and Hayden pushed a set of coat hanger shelves in front of the entrance.
The Stone sighed as she read the last text Stiles had sent her an hour ago. The pack members in the school could not use their phones once entering the school since that would disrupt the frequency jammers. He and Theo were guarding Josh's body in his Jeep parked outside the Animal Clinic. They exchanged a be careful and told each other that they will see each other later, and she hoped that was lived up to.
With her back against a row of lockers, Odessa stayed by Scott's side as Lydia went up to them, keeping her voice soft, "is it me or is Liam not aware of the second part of the plan?"
Scott shifted in his stance, "I'm still not sure if there's going to be a second part."
"Or if it's going to work," Odessa whispered in disapproval. She hated the thought of going through with the second part of the plan. But they were running out of options.
For the next hour, Odessa occupied her time by pacing the locker room. Without her phone or leaving the room, she couldn't really do anything productive. And it was killing her. This was one of the times she wished for action, believe it or not. It was better than waiting for so long for something to happen. The anticipation was giving her anxiety.
As the time went by, not only was her anxiety increasing, but her worry for Stiles. He was with the person who irritated him the most and someone whom he didn't trust. Odessa even volunteered to stay with Stiles and Theo just for backup but the former insisted she went with Scott and the others for Hayden's protection.
Odessa heard Lydia bring up the problem of communication to Scott so she was glad she wasn't the only one who knew how much of a problem that was.
Everyone besides Malia and Parrish, who were standing guard either inside or outside the school, had migrated to one area of the locker room. All with sleep in their eyes. Waiting and sitting around was exhausting, believe it or not. As much as she wanted to sleep, the only reason she wasn't was because Odessa needed to be on alert in case Stiles needed her.
The sound of chains rattling caught the attention of the three older teens as Liam held the chains in his hands, something he found in the duffel bag that Scott brought when they first came into the locker room. Odessa and Lydia exchanged wary glances, they both had a feeling this wasn't going to end well.
"What were you going to do with these," Liam asked his Alpha as he motioned toward the chunky chains in his hands.
Scott shrugged, keeping his answer simple, "brought them just in case."
"In case of what?"
Odessa jumped in, thinking on her feet, trying to take the heat off of Scott, "in case we had a chance to catch one of them."
Liam's eyes widened. It seemed he didn't fully grasp how dangerous the plan was until now. Seeing that, Scott explained in further detail, "if we can't make the school a fortress, then maybe we can make it a trap."
"They're coming for her," Liam nodded toward Hayden, who was starting to wake up, eyeing his Alpha bitterly, "doesn't that mean she's the bait," when no one answered him, he dropped the chains harshly, anger starting to surface.
"Liam," Lydia stood to stand beside Scott in support, "we brought her here to protect her."
"And now she's bait."
"Am I," Hayden questioned, fear laced in her tone.
Scott shook his head calmly, "no. No one's bait. But we can't be bodyguards to everyone every night."
"Then why aren't we talking to Stiles' Dad," Liam suggested stressfully, "why aren't we doing something better than hiding in a school?"
The Beta's attitude was starting to piss Odessa off, frankly. If he had any other plan or suggestion that would be better, then he should say it. Before the blonde could open her mouth and recite what she was thinking, Scott defended his and everyone else's actions, "because we still don't know anything about them or what they want, okay? They're winning and we don't even know what the game is."
Despite the calmness in Scott's voice, Liam only got louder and angrier, "what if they come in here and those things don't work? What if you have an asthma attack again? What are we gonna do?"
Odessa could see Scott was getting impatient with his Beta, "I don't know."
"This plan sucks!"
"You got a better one," Scott took the words right from Odessa's mouth but she chose to stay silent, unlike him, "kids are dying! And she's next. So, somebody has to do something. Somebody has to save everyone. So somebody's got to be the bait!"
The Stone couldn't help but flinch at how loud Scott's voice had gotten. He never yelled like that to someone. Odessa took it upon herself to step forward and grab his hand, using her Ember abilities to help calm him.
Liam sighed once the tension in the room dissipated, "Scott. Promise me you'll do everything you can to save her. Scott... promise."
"I'll do everything I can. I promise."
"Guys," Hayden called in a panic as she shuffled through her bag, "I think I might need a little help right now. I forgot my pills. I have a bottle in my locker. I can't get them, but..."
"I'll get them," Scott quieted her nervous rambling, "what's your combination?"
Odessa followed closely behind Scott with Lydia as the boy unblocked the door. She didn't like splitting up like they were about to do but they had no choice. The blonde swallowed thickly at the dark, silent hallway in front of her. School was so creepy at night.
"Hurry," Lydia whispered to him, "we'll keep watch."
Scott nodded, but before he could start leaving, Odessa held his arm, "please be careful."
With a small smile of assurance, Scott made his way down the hallway and turned down another, leaving the two girls' sights. Five minutes felt like five hours as they waited for his return, his trip to a locker and back taking far too long.
"Scott?"
As Lydia loudly whispered his name into the vacant hallway, Odessa sighed, hating the plan she just formulated in her head, "let's split up and find him," seeing the incredulous look her friend gave her, she cringed, "I know. Horrible idea. You can yell at me about it later."
Odessa was the first to go down the hallway and turn down the same hallway Scott entered on his way to Hayden's locker. The further she walked, the closer she could see a figure standing a few feet in front of her. She slowed to a stop, shock in her veins at the familiar face.
"Silas," the Ember gasped, coming closer to him. She brought her hands up to his beaten face, "what the hell happened to you?"
Even with swollen, black eyes, Silas' blue eyes pierced into hers. They were lifeless, "they hurt me, Odie. And now they're gonna hurt you, too."
"What—"
Out of nowhere, people in lab coats started throwing punches at Odessa, causing the girl to shout in pain. Caught off guard, her footing was unsteady, prompting her to fall to the ground. Odessa tried to cover her face, hiding in a fetal position as the Saviors continued to kick her and shout things at her.
As the shouts got so loud that her ears began to ring, Odessa clenched her hands around her ears to drown out the noise. Bruises began to appear on her body at a quicker rate than normal. Suddenly, she felt a slide on her arm, causing her to scream. Panting heavily, Odessa uncovered herself to look up from her place on the ground, seeing a concerned Scott and Mason, a small knife in the latter's hands.
Realizing what just happened, Odessa exhaled in irritation, "I hate these stupid hallucinations."
The three teens ran quickly to the locker room, only to find Lydia and Malia, and no one else.
"They're gone," the strawberry blonde told the three who bursted into the room.
"Hayden and Liam are gone."
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dun dun dun
sorry for the slow update, starting a new book and it's taken all my time lol
comment & vote <3
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