Try (Book Four, Teen Wolf)

Ch. 4: The Benefactor

Stilinski called Derek and me because Scott had gotten into trouble on the roof of the hospital.

"Hey, let's get everyone off the roof," Stilinski told his deputy. "And see if you can stall the ME for five minutes. I've got a couple experts of my own coming to take a look."

"You have experts on teenage cannibals?" the deputy asked.

"Five minutes, Parrish," Stilinski told him.

Parrish got the roof cleared off, the only people on the roof being Stilinski, Derek and me.

Stilinski turned toward us in surprise. "Hey. Uh, I guess you've been there long enough to hear we need to be quick about this." He walked closer, looking down at the teenage dead boy's body. "Scott said he called himself a Wendigo."

"Cannibalistic shapeshifters," I explained.

"But we haven't heard of them in Beacon Hills for a long time," Derek said. "Must have been well-hidden."

I walked closer to Stilinski. "Why did you call me?"

"Because I have a feeling that Scott and Stiles aren't telling me everything," Stilinski answered. "And if Scott won't tell me, I know he'll tell you."

Derek walked closer to a blood stain on the side of the building. "How many people did he say were up here?"

"Just Sean and the ax murderer, who, apparently, has no mouth," Stilinski answered. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Both of us shook our heads.

"There was someone else," Derek told us. "Someone young. And male."

"You can smell his fear?" Stilinski asked.

"And his blood," I said.

Apparently, Stilinski was right about Scott and Stiles not telling him everything.

*

The creature that had killed Sean the Wendigo had tried to kill Peter last night.

Peter leaned against the table, a wound in his chest from a military tomahawk he had thrown into his chest.

Derek put the ax on the table as he walked around it. "The ax was laced with wolfsbane. We don't know the species so we're going to have to burn it out."

I lit the lighter in my hand as Derek stood next to me with a blow torch.

Peter looked at the flame from the lighter. "I think I can handle a little fire." We both smiled sarcastically, Derek starting the blow torch. "Ah, hell."

Derek burned the wolfsbane away, Peter screaming.

*

Peter fell to the floor, breathing heavily. I held out a hand for him, and he took it so I could help him up.

"He said he was after the two of you," Peter told us.

"How does a guy with no mouth say anything?" I asked.

Peter held out a black leather glove with what looked like a voice coder attached. "With this."

*

Scott called me.

He told me he bit someone to keep him alive.

"No," I said. "No, no, no, you did not."

"I had to. I didn't have a choice."