Blood Runs Cold

Chapter Two

Peter's timeline of taking care of the corrupted unicorn situation didn't seem to be a particularly quick one, Stiles thought as he sat on his bed a week after getting the ingredients for the spell all set up. It wasn't unusual to hear nothing from Peter for days or weeks at a time but he had imagined that because of the current mess of a situation, Peter would try and get in touch sooner.

"If this is him trying to spite me for getting Chris and Lydia involved I am going to neuter him," Stiles muttered under his breath. "Because that's just great, put your bruised ego over the fact that people are dying."

He was supposed to be studying for an econ test but he couldn't focus on the words. It wasn't the same mind fuckingly terrifying melting of letters that had happened with the Nogitsune; it was just simple exhaustion. He rested his head down on his desk with a sigh, he needed to take a nap but he wasn't going to get one any time soon.

Any leads? He texted Chris and quickly followed it up with, Because I feel like Im abt to lose my mind.

Stiles tried to busy himself with reading and some of the notes he had jotted down in Econ class while he waited for Chris to text back. Usually his notes helped him, they were messy and disorganized, hard to read and barely legible, but to him they were crystal clear. Usually they were at any rate, but because he couldn't catch a damn break, trying to read them was like trying to dig a hole in dry, loose sand. Every word dissolved back to where it started and by the time Chris finally texted back, Stiles had made no progress in his studying.

Nope . Was the simple, one word reply. Clear and to the point, Chris Argent was and Stiles smiled — or rather, he grimaced — at his phone.

He thought about replying, but thought better of it. So he locked his phone and closed his notebook before running downstairs and grabbing a sheet of paper he had hidden on the underside of a drawer.

"On a top ten list of stupid things you've done, Stiles, this is pretty high up there," he muttered to himself. Texting Chris to let him know where he was going was probably a good idea, the only issue being that he would probably ask to come along to protect Stiles.

Im going to peters. The rational side of Stiles' brain won out as he wrote a quick text. Hes probably mad that I got you and lydia involved so if I go alone he might get things moving.

That's a shit plan . Chris's response was quick.

You got a better one??? Stiles texted back.

There was a short pause that Stiles took as Chris wondering whether or not he should drive over to the Stilinski home and tie Stiles down to the bed. I won't go in, but let me come with you .

That was probably as good as he was going to get. It was also probably for the best since Peter has a questionable grip on sanity and had some plan that revolved around him, Smart Stiles told himself. Stupid Stiles told Smart Stiles to go shove it.

Do you want me to text you the address or what?

I'll pick you up, I'm already on my way . Chris texted and Stiles sighed as he read it. After texting a quick affirmative, he deleted the texts from his phone. He doubted that Scott or anyone would go through his messages but it was better safe than sorry.

God, Scott. Hiding this sort of shit from him felt like something worse than betrayal. Scott was so good, so unshakable in his belief that there was always another way, that it made Stiles feel dirty, tainted. The issue, Stiles supposed, was that there probably was another way to solve their current crisis that wasn't a clawed hand through the guy's throat, a bullet to the heart, or a baseball bat to the skull. But the other way would take longer with more people killed. He didn't want to kill people just to kill them, he just wanted to do whatever was necessary to keep the people he loved safe.