Tethered // Teen Wolf // Isaac Lahey

FORTY-ONE

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KOREY

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"Korey—Korey, stop!" Chris frantically tried to grab at my hands as I paced around Deaton's lab, pulling at my hair.

"I couldn't do anything, I couldn't help, I—I was completely— completely useless!" My heart hammered so hard I couldn't hear anything else.

"It's not your fault, Korey," Deaton held his hand out carefully, his eyes following me. "You're not well right now, Korey. You need help—"

"Isaac needs help!" I whirled on him, throwing my arm out, "Stiles is missing and apparently possessed by an evil fox spirit! He called me asking for help, and then, he disappeared an—"

"Korey, there's a very good chance that the one who called you wasn't Stiles but the Nogitsune," Chris murmured, finally managing to grab a hold of my arms, "there was nothing you could have done for Stiles or for Isaac. Right now, there is something you can do for yourself, though."

I sniffed harshly, turning my head to Deaton, "Did you... did you get the test results?"

Deaton took a hesitant step towards us, "I did, and I found what I was looking for."

"I think I speak for all of us when I say good news would be preferred right now over bad," Chris huffed, pushing me backwards until I sat down in one of the plastic chairs in the room.

"Then you're in luck," Deaton moved to stand in front of me, beside Chris, "my earlier theory was confirmed."

"If you think part of me dying is me having good luck, you have a pretty twisted concept of good luck," I blurted flatly.

Deaton smiled weakly, shaking his head, "Your blood confirmed one thing for me, and that was that one part of you is being repressed."

"Repressed?" Chris breathed out, his hand landing on my shoulder, "Not dying?"

Deaton sighed softly, walking away from us to grab the file he'd built up on me, "The first few trials showed a conflict between the two types of blood. Initially, it appeared that the black blood, the dying blood, was consuming the healthy blood, slowly destroying it."

Chris's hand on my shoulder tightened, "I'm not hearing the good side of this, Deaton."

Deaton turned the page of his file, "I'm getting there. By the third test, I started noticing certain anomalies. The destroyed healthy blood began to regenerate again, completely healthy once more."

"Okay..." I looked up at Chris, "that's good, right?"

Chris nodded quickly, "Of course," he turned to Deaton, "Right?"

"Yes," Deaton confirmed, "it disproved my first theory that the second bite, the beta's bite, was being eradicated from her body."

"What does that mean?" I mumbled, my hand tightening on Chris's, "Can I be fixed?" I had never loved my enhancements and the way they added danger to my life, but now, those enhancements could save Isaac, Stiles, and a lot of people.

"It means, rather than poisoning the second bite out of your body," Deaton flipped the file closed, "you're blocking it. You're blocking Archie's bite."

I blinked at him blankly, my fingers nervously twitching, "I... understand every word in that sentence, separately, but as soon as you combined them, I was lost."

"Okay," Deaton came closer, crouching down in front of me before sighing softly, "Korey, when Archie died... you memorialised him in your mind, and you refused to accept his death, in turn, refusing to accept his existence in a w—"