Back to school

  EMBER HAD BEEN LET INTO THE SCHOOL to sneak a little birthday surprise in for her niece. She happened to know the people who worked in the office from her high school days, and they happily obliged in letting her enter the school. Now all she needed to do was find Allison.

Granted, wandering the halls was probably not the greatest idea but, it brought back quite a few memories. It was these halls that she had gotten her heart broken, made close friends, made enemies, and it was the place she sought comfort in when things were beginning to be too much to handle in school.

"Where to look, where to loo—" The Argent woman stopped in her tracks as she watched a familiar figure walk into the mens locker room, her heart almost dropping at the sight of him.

Derek Hale.

Maybe there was some part of her that was imagining things. She had been thinking of Dante and the Hale's since she moved back, it was a good reason, right? However, the woman knew she wasn't going crazy enough to be seeing things, yet.

She patiently waited for a few minutes until the door opened back up, the man turning in the exact direction that she had been standing.

"It's you." Ember gulped, her heart beating rapidly as she set the cake and gift in her hands gently on the floor. "You're—... you're alive."

"No thanks to you." Derek half smiled sarcastically, letting out a deep breath. "If you ever cared even a little bit about me or my brother, you wouldn't tell your family."

"I won't." The Argent girl cleared her throat lightly. "I never wanted to hurt either of you, I swea—"

"Well, you killed one of us, so." The Hale man looked away, an obvious and almost frightful anger energy pouring through him. "Mission accomplished."

"Dante? You mean, you mean he's dead?" Ember ran a worried hand through her hair as she walked closer to the blue eyed man, carefully reaching out to him. "I'm sorry, I really meant it, I just had to do what my family asked of me and I—... I."

"Save it." Derek quickly backed away, his jaw clenched tightly. "I just need to know you won't say anything about me being here, to anyone. I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have to."

The Argent woman felt both a twinge of sadness and anger at the statements, her fists balling up slightly.

"You? Hurt, me? The last time I seen you, you couldn't hurt a fly." Ember quipped, her eyes narrowing. "Don't ever threaten me again because we both know that I can kick your ass across this school and still keep my manicure perfect."

"Want to test that theory?" As Derek spoke, it seemed as if he was having a horrible day, however, as the hunter blood ran through the young woman's veins, it completely won her over.

"Why not? I'm sure it'll be over quick enough." As the Argent woman shrugged, the man across from her flashed his eyes, not scaring her one bit.

She had looked into the eyes of what her family deemed monsters, and all she seen was beauty.

"Your move." Derek nodded in the girls direction, a smile creeping up on her lips as she reached into her shoe, grasping a small knife she kept there. "Is that all?"

As he spoke, she through it forward, the dagger crashing into the locker right next to him, on purpose, of course.

"If I wanted that to hit you, it would have." Ember narrowed her eyes. "Have you had enough of pretending to be the big guy yet, buddy?"

Her taunting only made the man angrier as he ran forward at her, throwing a punch which she quickly dodged. She swung her fist back and it connected, but only lightly as he grabbed her arms in return, twisting them behind her back. The Argent girl winced at that, closing her eyes shut lightly before she pushed him back using her body.

Then, she kneed upward between his legs, keeping the man off balance. That gave the girl the time to then knee him in the stomach and give him a punch directly in the face. Finally, as he hunched over, the girl walked behind him, holding his arms firmly behind her back, letting a blade from in her sleeve fall down into her hand as she held it to his neck.

"Like I said, if I wanted to kick your ass all over this school, I would." Ember spoke harshly as she released him, pushing the man forward. "Now do you want to tell me why the hell you are in my niece's school? And don't give me a bullshit answer."

"It's none of your business, Em. It's better if you stay out of this." Derek held his hand out. "Trust me."

"Trust you? You just tried to fight me!" The Argent woman lowered her voice as she seen students coming down the hall, quickly taking the knife out of the locker next to her before hiding it. "Not to mention that little attack the other night at the video store, but I went there, and I seen what happened."

"I know you went there, I saw you there." Derek responded impatiently, letting out a sigh.

"So you are the one who did it?" Ember stepped closer, almost closing the humongous gap between them as she leaned one arm against a locker. "You became what they wanted you to be? I can't believe that I even tried to trust a wolf, any wolf, I mean you are all just—"

"Killers?" The Hale man rolled his eyes. "Emmy, if you'd just shut up a minute, i'd be able to tell you that it wasn't me, that's why i'm here. I'm trying to find out who it was."

"Oh." The Argent woman awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, totally, that makes sense."

"Just stay out of it, and if I find out what's going on." Derek sighed as if he was hesitant to even trust the girl, with good reason. "I'll let you know, okay?"

"What about Kate? I mean, she's been really hunting for whatever it is out there. What if she thinks it was you? It's the order of things, I can't tell her what to do." Ember placed a frustrated hand on her face, her heart beating rapidly against her chest.

It was like, no matter what she did, there was always two sides, and neither of them seemed right to her. They always tugged her back and forth, pulling her every which way. In the end, nothing happened but confusion, and a hatred for herself she couldn't begin to explain.

"Help her." Derek shrugged lightly, placing a hand on the girls shoulder to steady her heart. "If she comes for me, help her."

Well, guess you could say there was no tugging anymore.

  IF ANYBODY KNEW KATE IT WAS HER SISTER. Like clockwork, later in the day they were going to the Hale house to harass someone, anyone. The place brought back painful memories, especially now that the Argent girl knew Dante was dead.

"He wants us to wait." One of the other hunters reminded Kate.

"So i've been reminded." The older Argent women tilted her head to face him. "To death."

"Maybe there is a reason for that." Ember knew it was practically impossible to be logical with her older sister, but it was worth a try.

"It means we're not allowed to kill him." Another man cut in.

"But it doesn't mean we can't say hello." Kate responded to them, the look in her eyes like she was ready to kill as the group walked forward toward the house.

Once they reached the front of the house, one of the men quickly kicked the door in, all of them looking carefully at their surroundings. The barrel of Ember's gun was pointed at the ground as she looked up the stairs, hoping Derek wasn't there. She couldn't hurt her friend, she didn't want to.

"No one home?" The shorter hunter man asked, Ember wasn't good with names, and she didn't really care for the men who worked for her brother so, it made sense she didn't remember who they were.

"Oh, he's here, he's just not feeling particularly hospitable." Kate responded smugly.

"We should just split up and look for him that way." The younger Argent suggested, in hopes she'd get to him first.

"Maybe i'll find him burying a bone in the backyard." The short man joked, laughing obnoxiously.

"Really? A dog joke? We're going there, and that's the best you got? If you wanna provoke him, say something like, too bad your sister bit it before she had her first litter. Too bad she howled like a bitch when we cut her in half! Or, sorry we burned your hound of a brother, he belonged in hell anyways!" Kate yelled, trying to make the man angry.

What she did was piss her sister off.

Suddenly, a growl came out from somewhere in the house. Something came flying at the shorter hunter, completely knocking him out before the Argents looked up to see Derek growling at them. They both stayed calm, however, the man next to them grew nervous and tried to shoot, the Hale man jumping forward before kicking him to the ground.

"Kate." Ember warned, holding out her hand as she seen her sister take out a weapon, built especially for wolves. "We aren't supposed to kill him."

"I'll just hurt him a little." The older sister spoke, smiling confidently as he ran at her, rendering him useless at she shocked him with the weapon in her hands, the man falling to the floor. "Wow, this one grew up in all the right places. I don't know whether to kill it, or lick it."

"I'd say neither." The younger Argent said, glaring at her sister, "he already took our men out, let's just go, Chris doesn't want us here—"

"Because he hurt our men, I can kill him." Kate laughed as Derek crawled over to a couch nearby. "The poor idiot fell right into my trap."

Once he got near the couch and tried to pull himself up, she shocked him again, but harder this time.

"Oh, 900,000 volts." Kate sighed. "You never were good with electricity, were you? Or fire, which is why i'm going to let you in on a little secret and well, maybe we can help each other out. Yes, your sister was severed into pieces and used as bait to catch you. Unpleasant, and frankly a little too texas chainsaw massacre for our tastes, right, Em?"

"I would never torture someone like that, no." Ember shook her head lightly, her eyes soft as she looked at Derek struggling on the floor.

"See?" The older Argent turned her attention to the wolf, smiling. "Now, here's the part that might really kick you in your balls. We didn't kill her. You think i'm lying?"

"Wouldn't be the first time." Derek finally responded, struggling to form words.

"Aw, sweetie." Kate pouted, walking slowly over to the man. "Why don't you just listen to me heart and tell me if I am? Okay? We... didn't... kill... your sister. Do you hear that? No blips or upticks. Just the steady beat of the cold, hard truth."

"It isn't us to cut someone up like that." Ember added in with a sigh.

"We found bite marks on your sister's body, Derek. What do you think did that? A mountain lion?" Kate closed her weapon, tilting her head to the side. "Why aren't we helping each other out? You might as well admit what you've been guessing all along, which is, the alpha killed your sister. All you have to do is tell us who he is, and we'll take care of him for you. Problem solved, everybody goes home happy. Unless, you don't know who he is either. Wow, guess who just became totally useless?"

The Argent woman turned and Derek quickly ran away as she started shooting through the wall.

"Well, that went well." Ember mumbled, folding her hands across her chest.

  EMBER KNEW THAT DEREK would not go home so soon after what had happened. So, she went to the one place she knew he would be, an old tree house in the woods she used to go to with him and Dante. When she said that she was best friends with them both, she truly was.

Even if it started as a rouse.

"I thought i'd find you here." The Argent girl spoke as she climbed up into the tree house carefully.

"Well, you did." Derek mumbled, shaking his head slightly. "What are you even doing here?"

"Checking on you after what happened." Ember rubbed the back of her neck. "I wanted to do something so bad, I just can't stand up to her."

"Yeah, well, I told you to do what she wanted." The Hale man shrugged, looking away from the girl. "It's been years and things are still practically the same, huh? Her running your every move, us up here..."

He trailed off, shaking his head as he seen a picture of Dante hanging up on the wall.

"I came back for my niece, not her." Ember frowned lightly, running a hand through her hair. "I haven't seen my sister in years."

"Since it happened." Derek added on, finishing what they were both thinking about.

"I ran away, and eventually they found me but I was too old for them to drag me back." The Argent girl shrugged slightly, letting out a light sigh. "I've been traveling since then, trying to find my calling or my purpose or whatever you want to call it."

"and did you?" The Hale man asked carefully, never making eye contact with her.

"Not even close." Ember pursed her lips, shaking her head. "I can't find myself if I don't know which direction I want to go in life."

"So what direction do you want to go?" Derek finally looked up, holding the picture of his brother in his hands.

"I don't know."

AUTHORS CORNER—
Heyyyy, I finally got a new chapter out as requested, and I kinda enjoy this one the most so far (even though i'm not too sure about the first part)

Thoughts on Ember and Derek?

Hope you enjoyed!