CHAPTER FOUR
Dead wolf

DEREK HALE LIMPED THROUGH THE HALLS OF BEACON HILLS HIGHSCHOOL, STANDING OUT LIKE A SORETHUMB AMONGST THE CROWDS OF CLASS GOING STUDENTS. His confrontation with the annoying jock having not been any help in finding the boy he was looking for.

He slumped against the tiled wall, trying desperately to search for Scott through sound, when he happened upon two girls talking about the McCall boy.

"Its like, getting into a hot tub, someone eventually crops a feel." The preppy voice of the popular ginger instructs as she talks to her best friend.

"So what are you saying?" The softer voice asks, one that Derek assumes is the Argent girlfriend that Scott has.

"I'm just saying, you know, make sure he covers up."

"She's talking about a- erm a condom." A new voice announces, the shy male adding to the conversation, making Derek's ears prick up as he recognises the voice.

"Why hello Nox, no Isaac today?" Lydia smirks, the teasing present in her tone.

"He's in class? I-I don't always have to be with him." Derek could almost visualise how the awkward boy tilted his head, he always had a way of being more physical when talking because of his bad social skills.

"Sure you don't."

"Lydia! My situation?" The Argent girl whines to the other, wanting to get back on topic.

"Yeah, see you guys." The boy says to the other two, Derek goes to track his voice when he is suddenly interrupted by the school bell. He covers his ears and grunts in pain, frustration evident on his face.

A hand places itself on his shoulder, he looks up to meet the soft brown eyes of the boy he had spied on.

"Didn't expect to see you here." The King boy says, taking note of the beta's drained appearance and sickly pale skin.

"I got shot."

"No shit." The boy avoids eye contact, or looking at Derek all together as he continues. "C-come on then."

The two walk out of the school building side by side, Derek grumbling to the other about what happened and then stating how he needed to find Scott McCall. The young looking boy rolled his eyes as the cross the road. He catches glimpse of movement next to him and notices Derek raising his injured arm out to Stiles' jeep.

The mysterious boy attempts to help his friend as he looses his balance, Scott and Stiles coming to aid.

"What're you doing here?" Scott asks the injured werewolf as Nox tries to sit him up. The Stilinski kid eyes the other teen who stopped his car, remaining suspicious of the secretive boy.

"He got shot." Nox answers for the heavily breathing man, having already guessed the situation and why the need for Scott McCall was so great.

"He's not looking so good, dude." The Stilinski boy says, earning a glare from the small King child.

"Why aren't you healing?"

"I can't."

"T-there was probably wolfsbane in the bullet." The chocolate haired teen adds, looking to Scott with an urgent glance.

"That's what she meant when she said you had forty eight hours."

"What? Who said forty eight hours?" The older man said in and out of breaths, the dark circles under his eyes getting darker, or his skin getting paler. Horns of cars in the line-up started getting out of hand, the whole situation frustrating the King boy.

"The one who shot you."

Derek is suddenly hit with a wave of pain, his eyes glowing blue and his claws slightly digging in to Nox's arm. The said boy's eyes widen as he turns to the other two.

"We need to g-get him out of here."

"Help me put him in your car." Scott says to Stiles as the two move to help, placing the injured wolf in the blue jeep, the wolf still had a tight grip on the King boy, who decided it best to stay with the older werewolf.

"I need you to find out what kind of bullet they used." Derek pleaded through the pain, the Stilinski kid getting into the car and waiting for the two to finish talking. Stiles looked out the back of his car, seeing the line of agitated students, he also found the caramel skinned boy in his back seat. Turning back around he rolled his eyes.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Scott asked frantically, looking back and forth in urgency at the crowd that was starting to form.

"She's an Argent. She's with them."

"Why should I help you?" Scott was quite defensive, he still didn't trust Derek, dying or not.

"Because you're going to need him." Nox answered him with a glare, one that Scott was quite shocked at receiving from the quiet boy, the glare said much more than not to question the small King, the longer Scott stared into his doe brown eyes the more he found himself believing that this boy was a lot wiser than his seventeen years.

"Fine, I'll try." Scott mumbled, patting the door of the jeep before looking to his best friend. "Get them out of here."

"I hate you for this so much." Stiles only glared back at his puppy of a friend, not happy at all about being stuck with the two people who he has previously referred to as psychotic.

--

The two boys dragged the older wolf into the vet clinic, the veterinarian not being anywhere in the building.

"What are we going to do?"

"We can't wait much longer for Scott." Nox says as he starts taking off his belt, he puts the belt on Derek's upper arm and tightens it in place. It might not work, but he had hoped to stop the blood flow and therefore the infection.

"You know that really doesn't look like anything some Echinacea and a good nights sleep couldn't take care of." Stiles suggests, getting nervous at the sight of the injury. Derek grunts and continues to breath heavily.

"When the infection reaches my heart it'll kill me." He distractedly states, he was getting more disoriented by the minute. He swiftly turns to the shortest boy in the room. "Isn't there something you can do?"

"I-I could probably use a Caladrius... b-but my journal was stolen." The shy boy flusters and looks a little angry at the factor. Stiles averts his gaze, feeling guilty that he was behind why they couldn't go with the easy road.

"If he doesn't get here with the bullet in time, the last resort..." Derek mutters in a drained tone as starts searching through cupboards.

"Which is?" Stiles asks, sharing a weary glance with the King boy. Stiles takes a moment to further analyse the small boy, wondering what he meant before and why Derek seemed to know him so well.

"One of you is going to cut off my arm." Derek says in the direction of both highschoolers, holding up a small electric saw.

Nox goes pale as he eyes the small weapon, whilst Stiles audibly gulps, freezing in place.

--

The hand saw makes a hissing noise as Stiles turns it on, quickly turning it back off and putting it on the table. Nox puffs up his cheeks as though he was about to puke. Letting out a strained breath he calms down, muttering something under his breath that Stiles almost misses due to the situation.

He shakes it off looking back to the wolf who was now bleeding excessively due to tightening the belt on his arm. "Oh my God! What if you bleed out!"

"I don't know if I can do this." Nox raises his hand slightly, Stiles nodding in agreement.

"It'll heal if it works, so why not!?"

"Cutting of the flesh." Nox starts.

"The sawing of the bone." Stiles continues.

"Especially the blood." Nox gags, crossing his arms and taking a step back.

"What? You faint at the sight of blood?" Derek looks between the two kids.

"Yes!" Nox yells, allowing his panicked self to take over. The other two males flinch at the unexpected volume, before Stiles continues to answer Derek.

"No, but I might at the sight of a chopped off arm!"

"I swear if Scott doesn't get here soon then I'm going to stick a wellman on him." Nox mutters as he grabs Stiles' phone off the table and hits dial on Scott's contact. He got the voicemail and groaned.

"Alright how about this," the older wolf started, looking between the two. "Either one of you cuts off my arm, or I'll cut of both your heads."

"I'm so not buying your threats anymore-" Derek slammed Stiles into the table with his good arm, the sudden aggression causing Nox to drop Stiles' phone. The Stilinski boy began muttering words of agreement.

Derek suddenly hunched over, throwing up black liquid onto the floor.

"Nope, nope!" Nox yelled, speeding over to the sink as if he was about to throw up. "Black isn't Good!" He yells, head still in the sink and facing away from the two.

"What the hell is that!"

"It's my body, it's trying to heal itself," Derek managed through laboured breaths, sweat increasing on his brow as he tries to tighten the belt on his arm.

"Well it's not doing a very good job of it!" Stiles sassed at the dying wolf, looking over at Nox who had made eye contact and was giving him a disapproving look, before almost instantly going back to hurling into the sink. Stiles' own face contorting as if he may follow the smaller boy's actions.

"You gotta do it now,"

"I don't know if I-"

"Just do it!" Derek roared.

Panicked, Stiles picked up the hand saw, muttering curses as he placed the blade on the injured male's arm, placing both his hands on the device and closing his eyes. "Alright here we go-"

"Stiles!?" Nox looked up at the new voice, relief overwhelming himself and Stiles as Scott slid into the room. A silent moment passed as the young wolf looked over the scene, the saw in his best friend's hand, a half naked man near passed out whilst leaning against a table, and a boy with his head buried in a large metal sink. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Oh, thank God!" Nox crawled out from his place basically in the sink, making his way back over to the table.

"You just prevented a lifetime of nightmares..." The taller nerd sighed, visibly relaxing at the presence of the other.

"Did you get it?" The previously terrified boy asks, referring to the magic bullet which he had been quested to bring them. After a few seconds of routing, Scott finally fished out the bullet from his jeans, handing it over to the mystery boy who seemed a lot more confident now that no one's arm was being removed. The slight tremor in the boy's hand made it hard for him to untwist the top as the pressure was getting to them.

"What are you gonna- Oh shit!" Stiles exclaims as Derek slumps to the floor, passed out cold. The loud thud of his head hitting the floor shocked the quaking boy into dropping the bullet.

"Get him up!" Nox demanded to the other two as he dove after the bullet, being thankful of his skinny arms when reaching under the table. He stands back up with the bullet just in time to see Stiles punch Derek into existence, Scott acting quickly to get the older man standing again. "Hold his arm flat." Unscrewing the tip and pouring out the wolfsbane, lighting the substance on fire. The other two watch from their position of restraining Derek as Nox wafts away the toxic blue smoke, scarping the ashes into his hand. Looking to the three, making sure that they had a hold on Derek, and that the said wolf had an understanding of what was happening, "Ready?"

"Nope" Stiles huffed, holding down the wolf's wrist as Scott tackled his upper arm to the table. The King child quickly acted, forcing the ash into the open wound whilst trying to avoid being hit by a thrashing werewolf. "Let go!"

Everyone stepped back as Derek screamed in pain, falling backwards onto the ground as he convulsed with the agony. Within minutes the black veins were disappearing and the wound was healing. Derek stopped screaming and started to come to, everyone else sighing from relief and exhaustion of the stress they were just under.

"That... was awesome!" Stilinski exclaimed, receiving deadpanned looks from the other three males in the room, "What?"

--$--

I'm not late, you're late

happy christmas

>:D