***DEREK***

There’s a few things people think are true about vampires. Most of them are myths, of course, like vampires themselves are supposed to be. Yeah, I know I’m saying that as an equally (supposedly) mythological werewolf, but that’s beside the point.

One of the things that is true about them is the fact that they’re not able to enter buildings uninvited. Which means I can have the door to my building wide open, with a vampire girl standing just a few inches shy of the threshold, and not run the risk of being attacked. Even as the morning sun pours onto her from behind, which can’t be doing her any good. Even that black hoodie she’s wearing won’t be enough to filter out all the UV rays, and vampires have very, very light-sensitive skin. It’s a shame to ruin it - this vampire is actually very pretty.

Except when she’s glaring at me, her lips curled in a half-disgusted, half-angry grimace. “I really do need to talk to you, you know,” she says in her British accent. “We know about the Alpha Pack, Derek Hale. And we know you’re not any more keen to have them around than we are.”

“I dunno what you’re talkin’ about,” I say with a casual shrug. Inside, though, my pulse is starting to accelerate. Why would a vampire coven know about an Alpha Pack coming to Beacon Hills? Vampires normally avoid California anyway. Even Northern California is too sunny for them. They prefer clouds and rain, which is why there’s a lot of them up in the Northwest. And also why I’ve never actually gone to the Northwest - because why get into an unnecessary fight?

“You know, vampires can smell lies too,” she says, crossing her arms and continuing to sneer at me. “You’re not gonna bullshit me here.”

“No, but I’m also not gonna tell you what you seem to wanna hear,” I say, matching her sneer as best I can. “Since when have we gotten along, anyway?”

“That’s a presumptuous thing to say,” the vampire girl says. “We’ve never gotten along, ‘cause we’ve never met before.”

“But you know my name anyway. Am I really that famous?”

“Hah! Try ‘infamous.’ That’ll be closer to the mark in describing you Hales.”

I look over the vampire girl’s shoulder as I see Stiles’ familiar borderline-rust-bucket of a Jeep pulling into the entrance to the warehouse. Why the vampire girl was able to cross that door but not the one leading to the stairs (and, by extension, my loft), I’m not sure. But then, I have to admit that because I’ve never really dealt with one of her species before, I’m not so well-versed on their lore. Uncle Peter would be a better source of information, but I’d much rather not go to him if I can help it. I think he’s still got some hard feelings after I had to kill him and take his Alpha power away.

“So you’ve heard of my family,” I say. “Did you also hear about the fact that they all died in a fire six years ago?”

“Clearly not all,” the vampire points out. “What about you? And your uncle, as disreputable as he is.”

Stiles climbs out of his Jeep, armed with the pair of stakes I’d asked him to pick up at Deaton’s office. “Toss one to me,” I say, holding up my left hand - which I’ve covered in a leather work glove to protect myself from the harmful effects of the mountain ash.

“Good morning to you too,” Stiles says. Of course the kid has to give me lip. He hesitates before throwing the stake over the vampire girl’s shoulder. I’m forced to lean a long way forward before I can catch it. Then I point the business end at the vampire girl.

“Really?” she asks, raising her eyebrows.

“Stiles, get behind her,” I say, ignoring her angry-duck noises of protest. Stiles follows my order and points the stake at her - blunt end first. He then looks down, sees his mistake, and corrects himself with a nervous laugh. I, meanwhile, sigh heavily at his flash of ineptitude.

“Now you can come in,” I say to the vampire girl. “But no funny business, ¿comprende?”

“Sí, comprendo,” she says, looking between me and Stiles with a distinct look of fear on her face.

I’m momentarily thrown by her response. But then, there’s no reason why she shouldn’t know Spanish just because she’s a vampire. Sure, they wouldn’t have a great presence in Spanish-speaking countries, because the climates tend to be too warm for them. But that’s not to say the only foreign languages they get to learn are Romanian and/or Russian. (Unfortunately, I had to read Vampire Academy in my high school days, because the vampires in that story were said to be the closest match to the real thing. Seeing this girl, I’m guessing she’s of the type that inspired the Moroi in those books. Tall, lithe, graceful. Not alabaster-skinned, though.)

I back away and allow the vampire girl to come in. The whole time, I’m walking...well, not really backwards, but about halfway between that and a sideways Hammertime-walk. I have to keep my stake trained on her, but I also have to be able to see where I’m going. I’ve not been living here long enough to really be familiar with the layout of this warehouse.

“All right,” I say as soon as we’re all in the loft and I signal Stiles to lower his stake before he breaks something. I, however, keep mine aimed at the vampire girl. “First things first-”

“‘I’m the realest, realest,’” Stiles says in a really bad impression of a southern accent.

I turn away from the vampire girl long enough to glare at him. “Why did you have to quote...that?”

“Just tryin’ to defuse the tension, my good man,” Stiles says, grinning unabashedly.

“With Iggy Azalea? Seriously?” Even the vampire girl looks disgusted as she says this. Speaking of which, I still don’t know her name. Since I don’t want to keep calling her “the vampire girl” forever, I finally do the polite thing and ask her name. “Skylar Renard,” she says. “Yeah, I’m aware my name is French for ‘fox.’ Don’t use that as another excuse to hate me.”

“So what brings you here, Skylar Renard?” I ask, flexing my fingers around the stake. It’s actually pretty awkward to hold it in a gloved hand, but I’ve got no choice. It’s the only way I can hold it without getting poisoned.

“You already know why I’m here,” Skylar says, crossing her arms and glaring at me all over again. “Because of the-”

I hold up my hand until she shuts up. “Not in front of the kid, okay?” I say.

Stiles narrows his eyes. “Hey, I’m an equal member of this pack, you know.”

“Not when you’re a human, you’re not,” I point out. “Besides, this is something just for me and mine to deal with. Not you, Stiles. And certainly not for vampires.”

“‘You and yours?’” Skylar scoffs. “You have no children. And your species’ misbegotten reproduction method doesn’t count. Do you really care for your Betas as a true father cares for his sons and daughters?”

“We can reproduce like humans too,” I hiss. “Don’t get sanctimonious on me.”

“Then let’s discuss the problem we’re all facing,” Skylar says. “In a calm, non-lethal manner, if you please.”

“Fine,” I grumble. “Stiles, you can stay. You probably would’ve eavesdropped anyway and gone to Scott and Allison to let them know what’s goin’ on.”

“Oh yeah, speaking of Allison, did you know she got bitten by an Alpha?” Stiles asks.

I almost drop the stake in my surprise. “What?” I ask. In my head, I’m thinking, Oh shit. They’re gettin’ even more belligerent than I thought.

“Yeah, that’s about how I reacted too,” Stiles says. “Glad to see we’re on the same page.”

“Who’s Allison?” Skylar asks.

“A friend of ours,” Stiles says.

“The daughter of hunters,” I say. “Don’t worry - they tried to corrupt her, and failed. Of course, the fact that I bit her mom and indirectly drove the bitch to suicide doesn’t exactly endear me to her and her family.”

“And she was bitten by an Alpha?” Skylar asks. “One from that Alpha Pack, I’d assume?”

Stiles perks up upon hearing what I wanted to keep private. “Alpha Pack? Does that mean what I think it means? Shit, just when you think things aren’t bad enough...we must really be bad-luck magnets around here, you know what I’m sayin’?”

“Please don’t talk out loud,” I say.

“Yeah, you’ll lower the IQ of the whole street,” Skylar quips.

“But I’m right, aren’t I?” Stiles asks. “This Alpha Pack’s gotta be hella bad news, right?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Yeah, and if they’re taking new victims, they must wanna really flex their muscles. Which would mean they’d wanna take me out, ‘cause I’m the main obstacle to their dominance here-”

“And as much as we don’t enjoy having werewolf packs running around,” Skylar says pointedly, “having a pack of murderous Alphas would be even worse. Which is why I’m here - the leadership of my coven sent me to do recon, see if we need to intervene.”

“‘Intervene,’ she says,” I say with a loud snort of laughter. “You’d kill my pack as well if you weren’t careful. And something tells me you wouldn’t be careful.”

“Ouch, that stings,” Skylar says with an angry, sarcastic pout.

“So does your joke about ‘running around,’” I say. “That’s not what my pack and I do.” My phone rings, and I stop to answer it - the call’s coming from Scott. “What’s up?” I ask, holding the phone up with my free (left) hand - which I’m not used to doing, actually, since I’m a righty. “You got anything from your little run through the woods?” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Skylar roll hers.

“We tracked down the Alpha,” Scott says. “I think. He’s holed up in your old place, and he’s tagged the door with this weird triangle symbol. Does that mean anything to you?”

“Yeah, it does, but I can’t explain right now,” I say. “I’m busy tryin’ to talk to a vampire.”

“Talk to her, right? Not interrogate, or torture?”

“Yes, my wannabe-superhero friend. We’re just talking.” I glance over at Skylar for another moment and see her roll her eyes again. “If you can get me a picture of the Alpha, send it to me. We’ll see if I can recognize him.”

“Just a sec…” I hear the clicking sound of a smartphone camera going off.

“Wait, how far away from this Alpha are you?” I ask. “I hope they didn’t just hear that.”

“What the hell?” Scott whispers. “There’s two of them?”

“Just send me the damn picture and get out of there already!” I yell.

On the other end of the line, I hear a faint growling. Whoops, my bad. I shouldn’t have yelled like that. I think I just blew my pack’s cover. I mentally curse myself. If my hands weren’t full, I’d smack my forehead right now for good measure.

“Shit, they’re onto us! Run!” Scott yells. The sound of teen wolves running scared, digitized by the cheap speakers on my phone, filters into my ears.

“Get to Deaton’s office!” I bark into the phone. “You’ll be safe there!” I give Scott just enough time to acknowledge my order before hanging up - just as the picture he sent me arrives. Unlike Scott, who has the latest trendy phone like all good little teenagers, I have a bare-bones dumb-phone, mostly because I have no real use for smartphones anyway. Therefore, his picture-text takes forever for my phone to process, and even longer to open.

But open it does, allowing me to get a look at the Alphas. At first, I think, Holy shit, am I seeing double? But then I realize the two muscle-bound, blandly-handsome guys in the picture are identical twins. One of them is turned a little away from the camera, but the other is facing it (possibly unintentionally), and so most of his face is obscured by the red lens flare of his werewolf eyes. But I can see enough of his face to confirm my suspicion about the identical-twin thing.

“So it’s true that werewolves can’t take a photo properly, innit?” Skylar asks. I jump, realizing she’s managed to get behind me without me noticing. “Twins, are they? I bet they can meld their bodies together, too. I’ve heard of some case of twin wolves doin’ that somewhere in...oh well, it’s not important.”

“Everyone, follow me,” I say. “We’re gonna go to Deaton’s office and meet the others.” I grab the keys to my car. “Stiles, can I trust you to drive this thing?”

“More than you can trust me to aim a stake at this one,” he says, jerking his thumb at Skylar. “It’s against my code to stick things in hot girls. Unless it’s my-”

“We don’t wanna hear it,” I say, slamming the door open to further interrupt Stiles’ increasingly inappropriate rambling. “After you, my dear,” I say to Skylar with a flourish in the direction of the door.

“Ooh, such a gentleman,” Skylar says mockingly. “Is this gonna be a routine with you? I should warn you, the last bloke who tried to be all chivalrous with me, I bit him and drained him of three pints.”

“I dare you to try that on me,” I snark back. “I’ll heal too fast for you to kill me that way.”

“Sure you will.”

“You’d have to have Scott help you with that,” Stiles says as I toss him the keys.

“But Scott’s more about taking the pain, not healing,” I say. When we get to my Chevy Tahoe, I open the door for Skylar once again. She flashes her fangs at me, but doesn’t follow through on her biting threat. Instead, she sits in the second-row seat and buckles up while I come around to the other side and point the stake at her again.

Stiles has a bit of trouble driving my car, because it’s so much bigger and more unwieldy than his Jeep. But, to my eternal surprise, he manages to get it to Deaton’s parking lot in one piece.

It doesn’t stay that way for long, though. Because we’re soon met by the two Alpha twins, their eyes blazing red, wolf faces already coming out. This is exactly why I decided to meet at Deaton’s - because I didn’t want the pack to lead these bozos to my front door. I’ve had enough trouble dealing with one less-than-wanted guest today.

“Get inside!” I shout to Stiles and Skylar as the twins approach the back of my car. They then proceed to take off their shirts - show-offs - and then do something really disturbing. Their bodies join together. Clearly, I don’t mean that in a “knowing thee Biblically” sense. They literally become one huge super-wolf. Holy shit, but Skylar was right. Although I don’t think I understand how they’re still wearing pants - and then, with a crash, the super-wolf punches through the back windshield, shattering it.

“Go!” I yell at the others, using my free hand to push Skylar out the door that much faster. Then I pull open the driver’s door and drag Stiles out by his arm before moving him in front of me, putting myself between him and Skylar and the angry super-wolf.