CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX:
DARACH

ELAINE AND STILES WERE QUICK to find Lydia, Elaine offering her friend a smile whilst Stiles quickly started talking to her, going on a ramble that made both girl's look at him with slight confusion.

     "You know that there's a temple in Calcutta where they used to sacrifice a child every day? That's every day a dead baby, Lydia―︎every day! Hey, you want to know what today is? It's Dead Baby Day. Oh, no, wait, that's every day, because every day is Dead Baby Day, yay!"

     "Why are you telling me this?" Lydia questioned.

     "Because Scott's dealing with the Alpha twins." Stiles answered, making Lydia raise her eyebrows, waiting for him to explain. "You don't know about the twins?"

     "Alphas?" Lydia asked, glancing towards Elaine who sighed, nodding her head.

     "Ethan and Aiden." Stiles continued.

     "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I knew about them." Lydia nodded.

     "Okay. Okay, good. So, look, he's what I'm thinking―︎I'm thinking that the murders maybe come in threes. Ancient people love things in threes, right? So, maybe first it's three virgins, and then, I don't know. Maybe it's three people who own little dogs?"

     Lydia paused. "I own a little dog." Elaine and Stiles looked at her and she looked between them, shaking her head as she continued forward. "I am not getting rid of my dog."

     "Would you just think about getting rid of your little dog?" Stiles begged.

     "No! And, by the way, you cannot discern a pattern by a single data point, so stop trying." Lydia lightly snapped.

     "Wha―︎okay, so, what? We're just supposed to wait around for someone else to die, then? We're just supposed to sit there and watch them die? Just wait around for them to wither up and die right in front of us?" Stiles quickly fired back, scoffing in disbelief.

     "Wither?"

     Stiles gave her a blank look before huffing. "You know what I mean! Die, in just a hideously awful, strangulating, head-bashing, throat-cutting kind of way!"

     "That about covers it." Elaine nodded her head, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked towards Lydia who paused for a moment before turning to face them.

     "Maybe it's not your job." She carefully spoke. "You said it yourself, they were strangled with a garrote. That's a human thing to do, so. . . maybe just leave the figuring it out part to someone human?"

     "You mean, someone like my dad?" Stiles asked.

     "No." Lydia spoke. "I mean, your dad. The sheriff." Lydia then walked away and Elaine stood there for a moment, pursing her lips as she looked towards Stiles.

     "Stiles. . . maybe she's right." Elaine spoke, immediately grabbing the boys' attention.

     "No, not you too."

     "All I'm saying is that there's nothing supernatural about this. We specialize in supernatural happenings, there's only human evidence." Elaine softly told him.

     "What about when the birds attacked?" Stiles questioned her. "You said it yourself that something was off. That you could feel some kind of magic, you just didn't know what it was."

     "Stiles, I'm fairly new at the whole being a witch thing. It was probably a wrong intuition." Elaine shrugged her shoulders. Stiles sighed, his eyes closing as he lowered his head towards the ground. Elaine bit her lip before grabbing both of his hands, making him look at her once again. "But, it is a free period. So, why don't we take the time to figure out whose wrong and whose right?" Stiles smiled and Elaine smiled back before leaning up and giving him a quick peck on the lips. "And I think I might know just where to start."

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The two pulled up at the animal clinic, entering and closing the door behind him which immediately grabbed Deaton's attention. He appeared from the back, looking at the two for a moment with furrowed eyebrows.

     "You're out of school early." He noted. 

     "Yeah, free period actually, um. . .  I was just headed home to see my dad. He's, uh. . . You know, I guess you probably heard people are kind of getting murdered again. It's his job to figure it out." Stiles started.

     "I gathered as much from the 'Sheriff' title." Deaton responded.

     "Yeah, um. . . You know, but it gets kind of hard for him to do his job when he doesn't have all the information. And we all know he's missing pretty much half the story here, right? So then, Laney and I started thinking, and we remembered someone else who does have a lot of information. Someone who always seems to know more than anyone else around here."

     "You." Elaine spoke. Deaton looked between them for a moment before opening the gate, allowing the two to enter and follow him.

     "All these symbols and things―︎the triskeles, the bank logo, the mountain ash―︎all of it is from the Celtic Druids. And anyone who has ever looked up 'human sacrifice' before knows that the Druids had a pretty big hard-on when it came to giving one up to the gods. You ever hear of the Lindow man? Two-thousand-year-old body found in England? He was found strangled, head bashed in, throat cut―︎three-fold death. They also found pollen grains in his stomach. Guess what favorite Druid plant that was?" Stiles asked.

     They watched as Deaton picked up a jar, opening it and pulling the plant from it to show it to them. "Mistletoe."

     Stiles sighed. "I'm just telling you everything you already know, aren't I?"

     "If you already know, then why aren't you telling us?" Elaine asked, frowning as she crossed her arms over her chest.

     "Maybe because when you've spent every moment of the last ten years trying to push something away―︎denying it, lying about it―︎ becomes a pretty powerful habit." Deaton admitted.

     "All right, so this guy. . . is he a Druid?" Stiles frowned.

     "No. It's someone copying a centuries-old practice of a people who should have known better. Do you know what the word 'Druid' means in Gaelic?" Deaton looked between them and ELaine nodded her head.

     "My mother taught me some on druids." Elaine admitted and Stiles had to reel in his moment of surprise when she had called Rebekah her mother, something she hadn't been able to do since the two had first met. He didn't think Elaine even realized she had done so. "Druid means wise oak. It was the Celtic Druids that were closer to nature than other kinds, believing that they were the ones to keep it in balance. They were philosophers and scholars, but they weren't serial killers."

     "Exactly." Deaton nodded, a proud smile forming on his face.

     "Yeah, well, this one is." Stiles sighed. That's when Elaine's phone started to ring. She picked it up, furrowing her eyebrow at Lydia's name that had popped up.

     "Hey, Lyds, I can't exactly talk right now." However, she was cut off by Lydia's panicked words. "Wait, what? Lydia, slow down." Stiles stood up straighter, giving Elaine a questioning look. "Are you sure he went missing."

     "Not just missing." Lydia denied. "Taken."

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     Deaton, Stiles, and Elaine arrived in the music room where Lydia was standing, the girl having just played the recording that she had found sitting on the desk. "Can we get a copy of this?" Deaton requested. Lydia nodded before working on sending it over.

     "Hey, Doc? Any help would be, you know. . . helpful. . ." Stiles spoke up, glancing up towards Deaton as he dug through the drawers. Elaine stood there by the piano, her hand hovering over the bloody print that was there. She looked around for a moment, pursing her lips. That off feeling covered her body again, like it had with a feather. She just wished she knew why.

     "Each grouping of three would have its own purpose, it's own type of power. Virgins, healers, philosophers, warriors." Deaton started.

     "Wait, wait, wait, wait―︎warrior, could that also be, like, a soldier?" Stiles suddenly asked, making them turn towards him.

     "Absolutely." Deaton nodded.

     Stiles held up a photo of the teacher in an soldier's outfit and his wife, placing it on the desk. "Kyle was in ROTC with Boyd."

     "That's got to be it. That's the pattern." Deaton quickly connected. "Where's Boyd?"

     "He's probably home by now. I'm gonna try and get him on the phone." Stiles walked away, his phone in his hand.

     "Lyds, something wrong?" Elaine spoke up, making the girl blink.

     "No, it was. . ." She denied. "I just thought of someone else with a military connection."

     "Who?" Stiles spoke up, removing the phone from his ear.

     "It's sitting right on his desk. . . the West Point honor code."

     It took a moment before Elaine's eyes widened in realization. "Mr. Harris." The three were quick to exit the music room, making their way towards Mr. Harris' room with Elaine in the lead. She pushed the door open only to reveal the teacher wasn't there.

     "This is just one of many possibilities. He could have simply left for the day." Deaton tried.

     "Yeah, well, not without this. . ." Stiles held up the man's bag before trailing off.

     "Stiles?" Elaine frowned, walking over to the boy. "What is it?"

     "This test is graded 'R.'"

     "This one's an 'H'" Lydia pointed.

     "Elaine, remember how you said the Gaelic word for druid was 'wise oak'?" Deaton asked, making Elaine nod her head. "If a Druid went down the wrong path, the 'wise oak' was sometimes said to have become a 'dark oak.' There's a Gaelic word for that, as well. . ."

     It took a moment before Elaine quickly spelled the words out on the papers, putting them in order before sighing the word. "Darach."

Later that night, Elaine quietly laid on her brother's bed, a book in her hand as she read and he did school work. The storm outside continued to violently rage on, and Elaine would never admit it out loud, but she didn't like storms. She liked to believe it was because Rebekah had left her on a doorstep when a thunderstorm was happening outside, but Elaine had a feeling it was something else. Something she could never quite grasp, even as she grew older. She would always run into Scott's room and stay in his bed if there was ever a storm, she still did so even though she was seventeen.

     Elaine jumped at the thunder, closing her eyes with a soft sigh. Scott offered her a reassuring smile before a knock came at the door. Assuming it was just their mother, Scott called, "Come in, mom."

     However, when the door opened, it wasn't Melissa. Isaac stood there. His t-shirt soaking wet. Elaine closed her book, sitting up in the bed as Scott turned towards Isaac. He glanced between the two before saying, "I was wondering if I could ask you a favor."

     Elaine, having a feeling she already knew what it was, stood up. "I'll call Stiles. You can sleep in my room, just don't touch anything or I will burn you alive." She gave Isaac a small smile, giving him a pat on the shoulder as she walked out.

Stiles had quickly picked the girl up, allowing her to stay over his house like she had done many times before, she sat on his bed, her book back in her hand. She could feel his gaze glance towards her every now and then, eventually making her sigh before she put her book on her lap, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

     "Whatever it is, ask." Elaine told him.

     "What―︎I―︎"

     "Oh, I know that look more than anyone, Stilinski."

     "It's a very personal and insensitive." Stiles warned her.

     "I like personal and insensitive." Elaine shrugged.

     Stiles looked at her for a moment, shaking his head. "Are you. . ."

     "A virgin?" She asked, cocking her head slightly. "I wish."

     "Wait, what." The boy looked at her with wide eyes.

     "Stiles, I lost my virginity when I was fourteen." Elaine answered him. "Mind you this was my rebellion year, and I was drunk off my ass."

     "Who―︎"

     "It was a female." Elaine answered. "Don't remember anything besides the fact that when I woke up I no longer had clothes on my body and neither did the girl laying beside me. That was the only time mom grounded me for like a week because she had no clue where I was."

     "I was not expecting that." Stiles breathed and Elaine smirked in amusement. She narrowed her eyes at him before frowning slightly.

     "That's not all." She pointed out. "What is it?"

     Stiles looked at her for a moment before sighing. "It's just. . . earlier today at the animal clinic when you were talking about druids, you called Rebekah 'mom'."

     Elaine's eyes widened slightly. "I did?"

     "Yeah?" He nodded his head.

     "I didn't even realize I did." Elaine breathed. "I guess from where I grew a lot closer to her those four months. . . she actually started to seem like a mother to me." Stiles placed his hand over hers, Elaine frowning slightly before she looked up at him. He then gave her a peck on the lips.

     "We should get some rest. We have to get up for that field tri p for lacrosse and track team tomorrow." Stiles told her.

     "Yeah." Elaine nodded. The two crawled under the covers and Elaine gave him one last kiss. "Goodnight, Stiles."

     "Night, Laney."

     However, she couldn't fall asleep with the thunderstorm still raging on. Stiles had passed out as soon as he said goodnight, and Elaine laid there in the comfort of his arms, wishing she could just close her eyes, but every time she tried, a loud boom of thunder would make her eyes snap open. She frowned when she realized her phone was vibrating, carefully she forced herself from Stiles' arms.

     "Allison?"

     "Scott's in trouble. Are you at Stiles'?"

     "Yeah."

     "I'm on my way." With that, the huntress hung up. Elaine sat there for a moment before quickly getting dressed. She opened Stiles' window, giving the boy a kiss on the head before quickly crawling out, closing the window behind her so that when he woke up, he would think she had simply left out the front door. She entered Allison's car.

     "What the hell has my brother gotten himself into now?" And with that, Allison drove off.