Chapter Text
"Why is Stiles in charge?" Jackson complained. His eyes flashed blue and he was clearly pissed. "He was the last one bitten, its completely unfair." The pack was sitting in the living room of the Hale house that had recently been completed.
"Jackson, two things you should know," Derek growled. "One, Stiles has been here longer than you even if he was the last one bitten. Besides me, he and Scott have been involved the longest. Two, I'm the alpha and you will do as I say. I say Stiles is going to be in charge and you do what he says. If I find you've disobeyed him while I'm gone, I'll find a fitting punishment for you."
"HA! Take that," Stiles cheered. "But why am I charge, Derek? Why not Scott?"
"I have my reasons," Derek answered.
Derek was going out of town for a few days. One of his parents' old friends contacted him and he was going to see them. He was mostly hoping to get some kind of information that might be useful. Stiles begged to come, but Derek said no and wouldn't elaborate until this particular pack meeting.
"I'm happy with the decision," Isaac said.
"Of course you are," Jackson spat. "You're already in Stilinski's pants, now you'll just think you're screwing the alpha."
Lydia slapped Jackson across the face before swearing and cradling her hand. She hit Jackson often but never learned her lesson.
"I don't want to be in charge," Scott said, "so I'm glad its Stiles. He's the most responsible anyway."
There was a collective agreement except Jackson, who scowled.
"This means that Stiles is officially second in command," Allison said. All the wolves looked at her in shock. "I've read up on it. Theoretically Stiles will have control over everyone else."
Stiles looked to Derek and Derek nodded. Stiles stood and walked to Jackson. His eyes shifted to yellow as he stared Jackson down. Jackson looked torn between submitting and ripping Stiles' head off. He ended up submitting.
"Holy crap that's awesome," Stiles bragged.
"Now, Stiles," Erica said, "you can't be using your new powers for evil."
"Of course not," he agreed. "I hope I don't have to use them at all. But I know someone will make it necessary." He glared at Jackson.
"You're eyes have a little bit of red in them now," Isaac pointed out.
Soon after the meeting, the sheriff and Mrs. McCall showed up. As the only parents who knew about the werewolf stuff, they came and had dinner with the pack once every two weeks. Stiles spent ten minutes bragging to his dad about what had happened before Derek snapped at him and he shut up indefinitely for the remainder of dinner. After dinner, everyone went their separate ways.
The next morning everyone gathered to see Derek off.
"I'll be gone a week at the most," he said throwing his bag into the trunk.
Within minutes he gave a short goodbye, jumped in the car, and sped off down the driveway through the trees.
"Now what?" Danny asked.
Stiles' face contorted into a wickedly evil smile. "Training. Starting with Jackson."
"Hell no," Jackson said slowly and clearly.
Stiles just glared and Jackson reluctantly obeyed.
"Run around the house ten times," Stiles ordered. Jackson took off running. "I'm going to stop him when he comes back, I just wanted to have a little fun," he told the others.
All of them were staying at the house. Mostly because Isaac permanently lived there and they all were uncomfortable with him being alone. Mostly for his safety. It was dangerous because something could attack the house and he would be all alone and it would take time for back up to arrive. Allison had an argument with her dad. She was eighteen and she told him to piss off, not in those exact words.
Chris Argent wasn't bothered by her dating Scott now, but he was bothered when she spent so much time with the others. Or when she wanted to stay the night with the whole pack. He tried to stop her. He hadn't been able to for a while because, even though she was still in school, she threw the 'I'm a legal adult' line in his face.
Things were going smoothly during Derek's absence. That was until the sheriff stopped by three days after Derek left. It wasn't a social call. Unfortunately.
"Dad, what brings you out here?"
"I need help, can you get everyone together?"
Ten minutes later everyone was gathered in the living room.
"What's going on, sheriff?" Boyd asked.
"I realise I've told you guys, especially Stiles, to stay out of police business, but I really need your help. In the last three days, six children have gone missing from their homes. Two per night. There is no pattern and there are no clues. The circumstances are the same each time and every night both kids disappear from opposite sides of town."
"What are the circumstances?" Lydia asked.
"Since its warm, some people leave their windows open. The screens at each home have the same sized holes cut into them. Like I said, no patterns really just children in general. The oldest kid is thirteen, the youngest is six. Both boys and girls are gone, four boys and two girls."
"What do you want us to do?" Isaac asked.
"I'm going to give you the addresses and after nightfall, I want you to snoop around the scene. See if you can pick up scents or anything that the police can't. Maybe there is some kind trail to follow and you can find it."
That's what they did that evening. Stiles broke them into groups. Scott and Allison went together, Stiles and Isaac, Boyd and Erica, and Danny, Lydia and Jackson went as a group. They all went to more than one of the addresses the sheriff had given them. They only found one thing.
"There's no trail," Erica said, "but there is some smell, I don't know what it is."
"Its death," Isaac said. "Trust me, I might've worked in a graveyard before I was bitten, but the smell was still in my nose after I was bitten and I know that smell anywhere. It’s the smell of death."
"The children are dead?" Allison asked sadly.
"I don't think so," Scott said.
"Neither do I," Stiles said. "I think the kidnapper is the one that smells like death."
"We've got work to do and I think we'll be up all night," Lydia said. "I'll get the coffee."
"I'll get the laptop," Danny said.
"And I'll run and get the bestiary," Allison added.
They were up until four in the morning pouring over the bestiary, the records on Peter's old laptop, and old books they had gathered. Everyone was looking for the same key words. Children and reeks of death.
"FOUND SOMETHING!" Allison yelled from her chair in the corner. She was pouring over the bestiary with Scott and he had fallen asleep but jerked awake when she yelled.
"What?" Stiles said anxiously running over to her.
"The aswang?" Scott asked squinting at the computer screen.
"It says the aswang, according to legend, is the spawn of a vampire and a witch," she began. Everyone gathered around.
"So vampires do exist!" Stiles said accusingly.
"Stiles, is this the time?" Scott asked.
"Yes, because I want my answers. Is there an article on them?"
"Stiles," Lydia sighed, "just because one mythical creature is real, doesn't mean all of them are. It says 'according to legend.' That doesn't necessarily mean its where they're really from."
"Anyway, back to the aswang," Allison interrupted Stiles before he could start again. "It’s the spawn of a vampire and a witch."
"So witches are real too!" Stiles said. "I knew it."
"STILES! Please, can we just read this? We'll talk about the damn witches or whatever later, right now the aswang is the problem." Stiles nodded and Allison continued. "Alright, so it takes the form of a woman during the day before turning into this at night."
She turned the screen to show them a hideous creature. "Ugh, that is so gross! She really should moisturise," Lydia cried.
"Moving on," Allison said. "It’s a creature native to the Philippines and is very popular in Filipino folklore. At night it turns into that thing and eats people. It says it eats people in general but the footnote says it mostly takes children because they are easier to capture and put up less of a fight. It only feasts on the new moon."
"That's tomorrow night," Jackson said checking his laptop. "Why take the kids so far in advance?"
"If it only eats once a month it must eat a lot when it does it," Erica said. "So it takes a lot of children and keeps them until the new moon."
"Yeah," Allison said. "And it mostly lives in caves or hallows in the forest."
"There's no caves anywhere near here," Isaac said. "It must live in the woods."
"Okay, here's the plan," Stiles said. "I'm going to call my dad and tell him we're on it. Then we get some rest. Tonight is our last chance before we lose the chance to save the kids. We'll split into groups again. Same as last night. We'll station ourselves on opposite sides of town and keep our ears and noses open. If you notice anything, follow without hesitation and send a text with your location. Any questions?"
The group shook their heads.