Slightly Tempted (Slightly Series, Book Four, Teen Wolf)

CHAPTER EIGHT---Time of Death

You ever have a dream that's actually a memory?

That's what I was having now.

"All right, Stace, let's go," Dad said as he and Stiles helped me out of the car in front of the house.

"Hey, hey, hey, let go," I told them, pulling away. "I was shot, not killed."

"Stacie, you were shot and nearly killed," Stiles replied.

"Exactly! Nearly, not actually."

Scott looked around like he had heard something or like he felt something off.

"Scott?" Dad asked. Scott looked behind us warily. "Scott!"

I heard the branch breaking as someone came out of hiding, a gun pointed at us.

"Get down!" Scott told us, pushing us behind the car, all of us behind the car.

The assassin fired.

Dad pulled out his gun, looking behind the car, shooting at the assassin. The assassin got hit in his arm. He fired toward Dad. Dad took shelter before turning around and firing again.

This time, Dad caught him right in the chest, in his heart.

The assassin's dead body fell to the ground.

Dad looked back at us as we all started to get up. "You guys all right?"

Stiles nodded unconvincingly. Scott led the way out of hiding.

I looked down at the assassin's dead body as I stood above it, a knife in my hand.

The assassin wasn't dead. He had a bullet proof vest. I could see it from behind his clothes. He tried to pull the gun on me.

I stomped my foot on his wrist, making him let the gun go, kicking the gun away. He tried to sit up. Dad shot him in his head, killing him for real this time.

I looked back at Dad. "You might wanna call Parrish."

"Yeah," Dad said, seemingly guilty. "Right before I have to talk to the County about taking his life." He looked up at us. "This plan of yours, I don't like it." He looked at me. "And you're not being apart of it. You need to get better. Be safe. While Stiles and Scott take care of this plan, and I am talking to the County, you will be safe."

"Really?" Stiles asked. "Where will she be safe?"

°

I could see the two memories of Simon, PSAT test teacher assassin guy, and the assassin who had tried to kill us outside our own home, their heads with bullet holes on their foreheads, with their guns aimed at either Stiles, Scott, Dad or me . . . Or Violet with her thermo-cut wire about to take off my head while I had held a knife up to her throat . . .

I sat up in the bed I was in abruptly with a quiet gasp, realizing I wasn't in the dreams anymore.

Dad, Stiles and Scott hadn't wanted me to be alone while I got better, so I wouldn't be a sitting duck. So they took me to someone we knew could win a fight against an assassin.

I looked around the dark loft, the wall of windows behind me.

Thinking about the dreams of guns and bullets, I touched lightly on my stomach, where I had been shot, over the shirt and the bandage.

I looked over at Derek sleeping on the couch. He had been shot at the hospital by an assassin before Satomi killed her. I saw a small spot of blood on his white shirt over the spot where he had said he had gotten shot.

In confusion, I slowly got up, walking toward him. I knelt next to the couch, looking up to his sleeping face before hesitantly pulling up his shirt.