Unspoken - Book 3 - S.S.

Visionary

"Derek has been MIA." Stiles said, driving his jeep with Diana beside him as he took them both from her house toward Derek's loft. "Ever since... I mean ever since Boyd died, he left and no one's heard of him."

"So we need to find him?" Diana guessed as Stiles nodded. "And for that..."

"For that, we're gonna go talk to Cora and see if she knows anything." Stiles said.

"If Cora knew anything, don't you think she would've done something by now?"

"I mean, maybe." Stiles shrugged. "But it's worth a shot, right?"

"Sure." Diana nodded. "But what about Scott?"

"He's with Allison now." Stiles said. "They wanted to get some more information about the alpha pack."

"Who are they talking to? Deaton?"

"No." Stiles shook his head, pulling back his lips in a line as if uncomfortable with what he was about to say. "No, they went to talk to Gerard."

At that, Diana sighed but chose to say nothing, knowing Stiles didn't like the idea either. Instead, she just let him drive them both to Derek's loft and, as soon as they got there, they found Cora in the living room.

"What are you two doing here?" She asked, as soon as she noticed their presence, her ever present frown making Diana feel a little uncomfortable.

"We came to look for Derek." Stiles said, as Cora rolled her eyes.

"Well, he clearly isn't here, so..."

"No, I meant... We came to look for your help to look for Derek."

"Don't think that if I knew something about it I wouldn't have done something about it, Stiles?" Cora asked, as Stiles sighed, turning to look at Diana, desperately, only to notice the little pout of her lips as she clearly tried to hold back from saying something like I told you so straight to his face.

Noticing the way Stiles was still looking at her, silently begging her to do something, Diana sighed.

"Did Derek ever do anything like it before?" She asked, causing Cora to lift her eyes up to look at Diana as she took another good look at her, before sighing.

"Once." She admitted, standing up from the couch as she moved to stand in front of the window. "He was young, though. The Argents were hunting down another werewolf. They met by chance in the woods and the Argents almost caught him. They shot down the other werewolf, but Derek managed to escape. Actually... Peter helped Derek escape. They were there for two days, waiting. Hiding. That's what we're taught to do when the Hunters find us: hide and heal."

"Okay, so, is two days standard, then, or are we thinking Derek's on, like, some extended getaway?" Stiles asked, unable to contain his sarcasm as Cora almost scoffed and turned around to look at him.

"Why do you care?" She asked.

"Why do I care?" Stiles repeated, exasperated. "Let's see... Because, over the last few weeks my best friend's tried to kill himself; his boss nearly got ritually sacrificed; a girl that I've known since I was three was ritually sacrificed; Boyd was killed by Alphas... I... Do you want me to keep going? 'Cause I can, all right? For, like, an hour."

"You think Derek can do anything about that?" Cora asked.

"Well, since he's the one everyone seems to be after, it's more like he should do something about it, yeah."

"I don't know..." Cora shook her head then. "There's something different about him now. He wasn't like this when I knew him."

"What was he like?" Diana asked, and, before Cora could respond, a new voice was heard from someone climbing down the stairs.