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CHAPTER THREE

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"FIREFLIES"
OPEN WOUND - BOOK 2
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     ANTI-HERO. A word used for those who conventional heroic attributes. They're not bad people, they are just people who usually don't care for saving lives or being the hero of the story. Blaze was one of those people. He didn't want to kill anybody (not literally anyways), but that didn't mean he wanted to run around town saving every live that danger decides to go after. People died every day, it's just the way the world worked, and he was okay with that — when it's not anyone he cared about.

Blaze cared about his friends and whatever family he had left, and he would go to death lengths to help them but when it came to other people who had little meaning to him, he just couldn't find it in himself to go through hell and back to save them, especially when it came to risking his life.

As Scott and Derek run through the woods hunting down Boyd and Cora in hopes of trying to stop them from killing innocent people, Blaze helped but at a slower and less cared paced. Instead of running head on, he decided to use his hearing which appeared to be working better than most full moons in order to find them.

The only flaw with how good his hearing was tonight was the fact that he could hear everything. Every leaf that ruffled on the tree branches, every squirrel that ran, every swirl of wind that breezed past him. It was hard to focus on one thing when he could hear everything that once. Which is another reason he was walking instead of running; him runner made it even worse to hear anything.

Closing his eyes, Blaze focused all of his hearing on trying to pinpoint Boyd or Cora (who he was still confused as he heard she was dead). Ignoring the winds, leaves and cars, he managed to catch screaming. Children screaming. At least 2 of them.

Blaze run in that direction knowing one of them had to be close. He slowed down when he seen a Boyd standing around a shed. Blaze could sense Scott was already here which led Blaze to quickly go over to them and grabbed the younger boy before they left before Boyd could see them.

Neither of them said anything until they reached the main road as the children cling onto them, "Are you alright?" Blaze asked Scott who nodded and pulled out his phone to call Derek.

"Are you guys, okay?" Blaze asked the children who softy nodded and stayed close to them in fear of what they thought was a monster.

"You lost them?" Derek asked once he picked up the phone.

"Yeah; I kind of had too. I'm with Blaze." Scott spoke.

"Wasn't exactly the plan." Derek stated.

"I know, which is why I think that we should stick together. Trust me, he's too strong, too fast, and way too angry for one person to handle. We've got to do this together." Scott said as Blaze nodded in agreement. They may have been werewolf's longer, but Boyd was bloodthirsty which made him stronger.

"Look, I'm at the trails by the entrance to the preserve. Can you two meet me here?" Derek asked.

"Yeah. Just got to drop something off first." Blaze called out looking at the boys who wouldn't let go of him.

"Let's get you guys home." Scott smiled at the little girl as they brought them home before making their way to Derek who called Isaac to help them.

"Is it them?" Blaze asked looking down at the footprints in the mud.

"We're not the only ones that decided to stick together." Derek says.

"Is that gonna make it easier or harder to catch them?" Scott asked him.

"I don't know." Derek sighed.

"Derek... I saw Boyd try to rip two little kids apart. Are they gonna do that to everyone they find?" Scott asked Derek, a feeling of dread filling him as Blaze remainder quiet.

"Everyone and anyone." Derek told him as he walked past him leaving Scott with a frown and a bad feeling which Blaze saw.

"Hey, I'm sure everyone will be fine. They have Scott McCall trying to stop them." Blaze smiled playfully in hopes to making him feel better. Seeing a down look on Scott's face was just downright depressing and not one you see often.

"When did you become so optimistic. You've been dead set on not helping us all day." Scott chuckled.

"I said I wasn't helping Derek or Boyd, I never said I wasn't going to help you." Blaze shrugged with a small smile dancing in his lips that made Scott smiled and look down.

"Do you hear that?" Scott's happiness fell when he heard screaming.

"Boyd and Cora." Blaze said before they both took off again where the screaming was coming from which led them to what looked like a camp site and a girl screaming while fighting for her life.

Scott and Blaze showed up just in time as Isaac was thrown into a tree by Cora. Scott kicked Cora down before she got up and run off with Derek and Isaac following after her.

"Are you okay?" Blaze asked the girl who had seen everything and had stepped away from them when they tried to get close.

"What?" The girl cried.

"Are you alright?" Blaze asked her again s she slowly nodded.

"You need to get out of here, okay? Get out of the woods. Get out of here as fast as you can." Scott quickly told the girl before they turned around and left to find Derek and Issac. Stiles had called them to inform them about the dead body Lydia had found at the community pools.

"Are you sure? Is Lydia, okay? Do I need to come?" Blaze asked, ready to run over their as soon as possible.

"She's fine and Yep. Throat ripped out, blood everywhere. It's like the frickin' shining over here. Two little twin girls come out of the woods, start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not gonna be surprised." Stiles ranted into the phone.

"Can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?" Scott asked his best friend, praying that it wasn't Boyd and Cora who had killed him.

"Make sure it was them? Scott, who else is going around ripping throats out?" Stiles asked in disbelief.

"Please just do it." Scott sighed before he turned his phone off and faced the others.

"This doesn't make any sense. The public pool is all the way on the other side of the woods. We haven't tracked them anywhere near there." Derek said in confusion.

"Derek, they killed someone." Scott stated.

"How are they moving so fast?" Derek said not wanted to focus on what Scott was saying.

"Derek."

"But they can't be that fast on foot." Derek frowned.

"They killed someone. Some totally innocent kid is dead... And it's our fault." Scott said sternly but felt more guilt than anything.

"Ah, what?" Blaze looked confused at that. How the fuck was this their fault? It most definitely wasn't his.

"It's my fault." Derek told him and Blaze couldn't agree more. He was actually surprised Derek listened to anything he said because he could've sworn, everything he told the Hale just went out in his ear and out the other.

"We need help." Scott stated.

"We have Isaac now." Derek nodded at Isaac who was leaning standing next to him.

"I mean real help." Scott says, making Isaac look offended and Blaze giggle. He had no idea what happened to Scott over the past few months but this whole new look and attitude was Blaze's new favorite thing. Especially the blue shirt he was wearing that made him want to — Blaze. Stop it. "They're too fast for us, for all of us. They're too strong, too rabid."

"We'll catch 'em." Derek said, being ever the most optimistic person in the room (in the forest actually).

"What happens if we do? We just gonna hold them down until the sun comes up?" Isaac scoffed.

"Maybe it would be easier just to kill 'em." Derek sighed in defeat.

"First thing I agree with you like ever." Blaze nodded.

"Killing them isn't the right thing to do." Scott reminded them making Blaze roll his eyes. Okay fine. Not the attitude. This is why he doesn't date. He can handle peoples looks not their dumbass minds.

"What else can we do? We might not be able to catch them." Blaze told Scott.

"Find someone who knows what they're doing." Scott says.

"Who?" Derek asked him.

"Someone who knows how to hunt werewolves." Scott said.

"Wow, I actually taught you something. Thinking things through before potentially getting someone killed. I'm so proud of you, McCall." Blaze smiled as he wrapped an arm around Scott's shoulders and hugged him close making Scott laugh and push him away.

"I only got annoyed with you yelling at me all the time." Scott rolled his eyes playfully.

"I talked, you're the one who went to the yelling actually." Blaze shrugged unbothered knowing he was right. He actually couldn't remember but he was sure Scott always got angrier first and started to yell.

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In the past year, Blaze had met many dangerous things, but he had yet to have a gun pointed at his head — well that was until they tried to talk to Chris Argent who always keeps a gun on him and ready to shoot.

"Uh, hi." Scott greeted awkwardly. Argent sighed when he seen who it was but kept the gun pointed at them as he was told what was going on.

"First of all, why would I care about anyone related to Derek? And second, I don't know this kid Boyd. I don't even know his last name." Argent stated.

"Boyd is his last name." Scott told him.

"What's his first name?" Argent asked curiously.

"Vernon." Blaze snorted, "Makes you understand why he goes by Boyd."

"Eh. And just curious, is there a reason the gun is still pointed at me at us, especially me?" Scott asked him.

"Well, there's probably still some part of me that wants to shoot you." Argent said honestly.

"You already shot me so put the gun down." Blaze rolled his eyes.

"Wait what? He shot you. When?" Scott's eyes widen in surprise making Argent and Blaze wince forgetting that he didn't know about that yet.

"Scott, Blaze, I watched my father brainwash my daughter... Almost turn her into a killer. That world... your world decimated mine. My wife, sister, father, my entire family. Why would I ever step foot in it again?" Argent put the gun down and stepped closer to them.

"The same reason you stepped foot in it in the first place. To protect innocent people against people like us. Are you really going to give up on that because you finally faced what you've done to lots of other werewolves with families?" Blaze raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm sorry. I can't help you." Argent sighed as he turned around to leave.

"Um... Do you think you could do us, like, one little, tiny favor?" Scott asked sheepishly making Blaze confused on what favor Argent could provide him and reminded even more confused when he had asked for a ride.

"What are you doing?" Blaze whispered to him.

"Just follow along." Scott whispers back as he got into the passenger seat and Blaze sat behind him and allowed Scott to fulfill his plan.

"Left or straight?" Argent asked. Blaze's eyes widen and a proud smirk appeared on his face once he realized where they were going.

"Left. Sorry. It's right around the corner. That parking lot there. Yeah, just a little further up, right here." Scott nodded as they arrived at the community pool, and it was filled with police cars and an ambulance readying to take the dead body away.

"Thanks again for the ride." Blaze said as they went to get out when Argent grabbed Scott arm.

"They did this? Boyd and..."

"Cora."

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"Where's the last place you saw them? You're tracking them by print?" Argent dropped a bag on the ground in front of Isaac, Derek, Scott and Blaze who stood in front of him.

"Trying to." Scott nodded.

"Well, then, you've been wasting your time. There's only one creature on earth that can visually track footprints, and that's man. And if you're not trained like me, you have no idea that this print is Boyd's and these..." Argent explained.

"Cora's." Issac said confidently from where he was leaning against the tree.

"Nope. They're yours. You trampled Cora's as soon as you walked over here. Listen, I know the three of you are focusing half your energy on resisting your own urges under the full moon, but that puts you at a severe disadvantage to Boyd and Cora, who have fully given in. They put the pedal to the floor where you three are barely hitting the speed limit." Argent informed them.

"So, what do we do?" Derek asked him.

"Focus on your sense of smell. Actual wolves are known to track their prey by up to a hundred Miles a day by scent. A trained hunter can use scent to track them. If the wind is with them, wolves can track a scent by a distance of two Miles, which means we can draw them to us... Or into a trap. Full moon does give us one advantage. They'll have a higher heat signature, which makes them easier to spot with infrared." Argent said while passing them all binoculars.

Blaze looked around the woods with them, stopping when he seen a figure by a tree. It looked like a girl based on the long hair. He dropped the binoculars to look with his own eyes, but nothing was there making him huff, "Awesome." He muttered.

"Just remember, we're not hunting wild animals. Underneath those impulses are two intelligent human beings." Argent said making Blaze snicker.

"Boyd worked at an ice rink, trusted a random man named Derek because he wanted more friends and got his ass hunted down by an unexperienced 17-year-old hunter, and kidnapped for four months. Doesn't scream intelligent to me." Blaze spoke, dropping the binoculars from his face and seen they were all giving them deadpanned looks.

"Blaze, please stop talking." Scott asked nicely as said boy huffed. Everyone loves honesty until they suddenly don't.

"It's suppressed, but it's there, reminding them how to mask their scent, how to cover their tracks, how to survive. When's the last time you saw your sister?" Argent looked off the cliff as Derek stood beside him.

"Not in years. I thought she died in the fire." Derek shook his head.

C.H. The same initials Blaze saw in the household. Cora Hale.

"Do you feel like you have a lock on her scent?" Argent asked him but Derek shook his head. "Scott, Blaze, how confident are you in your skills?"

"Honestly, most of the time, I'm trying not to think about all the things I can smell." Scott said.

"Is anyone else's hearing like turned up to 100 tonight? My smell is fine, but my hearing is crazy tonight." Blaze asked them but the three other werewolves' all shook their head having no problem with their hearing.

"Maybe your still getting used to it." Scott shrugged not having an answer for him and didn't think it was that big of a deal.

"All right. The problem is when they breach the woods and h*t the residential area. Once they're past the high school, they're right in the middle of beacon hills." Argent told them.

"They're not gonna kill everything they see, are they?" Isaac asked him.

"No. But there is an important difference to recognize. Wolves hunt for food. At a certain point, they get full. But Boyd and Cora are hunting for the pleasure of the kill, for some primal apex predatory satisfaction that comes from the ripping of warm bodies to bloody shreds. And who knows when that need gets satiated?" Argent advised.

"We can't kill them." Scott shook his head.

"What if we can't catch 'em?" Blaze sighed.

"Then maybe we just need to contain them. There's no one in the school at night, is there?" Argent asked them.

"You want to trap them inside?" Isaac asks.

"If there's somewhere with a strong enough door, no windows or access to the outside." Argent nodded.

"The boiler room. It's just one large steel door." Blaze offered. He knew the room well enough, so did his one-night stands when he was bored during school.

"You're sure the school's empty?" Argent asked him.

"It has to be. There can't be anyone there this late, right?" Scott answered.

"These are ultrasonic emitters. It's one of the tools we use to corral werewolves, pushing them into a direction we want them to run. Gives off a high-pitched frequency that only they can hear." Argent opened his truck and pulled out the emitters and turned it on.

"God, no kidding!" Isaac grunted.

"Can you turn that off, please?" Blaze glared at him as the ringing shoot through his ear making him wince.

"These are gonna drive them to the school?" Derek asked holding on of them in his hand.

"And then it's up to you to get them into the basement." Argent nodded at him.

"Does anyone else want to rethink the plan where we just, uh, kill 'em?" Isaac blurted out as Argent handed them two emitters each.

"Wow, agreeing with you and Derek tonight. I really am a changed person." Blaze said sarcastically.

"It's going to work. It'll work." Scott said confidently.

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Blaze set the emitter down on the grass in front of the school. He had no idea if this would work but out of all the plans they have come up with, this seems to be the only one that he was confident in. He didn't want to admit it, but he was curious on who this Cora girl was and wanted to meet her. Hopefully she wasn't like Derek or Peter. They don't need any more of them.

He made his way around the school meeting up with Argent and Scott, "We all set?" Blaze asked them as Scott nodded.

"Do you see that?" Argent asked them, starring up at the firefly above them.

"Yeah, it's a firefly." Scott nodded.

"No, no, I know, it...--" Argent cut himself off.

"What?" Blaze asked in confusion. He never seen the man look so confused in his life. he almost looked uneasy.

"It's, uh... it's very unusual. The uh, California fireflies aren't bioluminescent." Argent informed them but the boys remained confused on what that meant, "They don't glow."

"Does that mean something?" Scott questioned.

Before Argent could answer, loud howls were heard making their heads snap in that direction.

"They're here." Blaze stated as Chris left in his car and Scott stayed with him.

"Why do I feel like something is going to go wrong at least once tonight?" Blaze asked.

"Let's not jinx it." Scott told him not wanting to think of the chance of anything going wrong. Which in fact happened when they heard Cora and Boyd jump on stop of the roof instead of going through, "They're not going through the school... They're going over it."

The three of them ran to the entrance where Derek was waiting for them, "The rear doors, someone has to get them open." Argent said when Derek took off.

"Someone has to drive them inside." Scott stated.

"I'll go." Argent said holding one of his taser weapons that made static buzzing noises.

"No, I'm faster." Isaac said before he left.

"Let's go inside." Blaze said as they ran inside to find Derek once Isaac had gotten them inside.

They all met up in the hallway facing Cora and Boyd who growled and were ready to attack them.

"Come and get us." Derek stated before they took off down the stairs and towards the boiler room as Boyd and Cora ran after them. They rushed down the stairs and ran inside of the room, the pair following after them just as planned before they shut the lights off making made them slow down.

Scott and Blaze grabbed fire extinguishers and turned them on as Derek turned the lights on, taking the raging werewolves by surprise. As Cora and Boyd fought through the smoke, Derek, Scott and Blaze ran back up the stairs and through the door, bolting it shut once it was closed.

Derek leaned against the door as they tried to slam the door open but there was no vail.

"Did that actually just work?" Scott asked once they heard quietness on the other side.

"Holy shit." Blaze laughed. This game of chase was way better than staying home.

Derek moved to sit down, tired from tonight's events as Scott leaned closer to the door, using his hearing to listen inside, "What do you hear?" Derek asked him.

"Heartbeats." Scott stated as Blaze decided to listen in as well. If his hearing decided to be this good tonight, he might as well use it.

"Both of 'em?" Derek asked him.

"I hear 3 of them." Blaze blurted out with wide eyes.

"Me too." Scott nodded.

Derek stood up for a moment before walking closer to the door, "What are you doing?" Scott asked in a hushed tone.

"Close the door behind me and keep it shut." Derek said.

"You go in their alone, and you're either gonna kill them or they kill you." Scott said not liking this turn of events.

"That's why I'm going in alone." Derek looked back at them before he unlocked the door and went inside. Blaze locked it as soon as he was inside.

Blaze sat on the stairs while Scott stayed in front of the door.

"I wonder how Cora survived that fire. I mean Peter survived and look what happened to him." Blaze wondered aloud, hoping to distract Scott from the fighting and the howls coming from inside the room, "Or why she never came looking for Derek. Surely she would've known he was alive."

"Or maybe she thought he died too." Scott shrugged.

"You can figure that out. His name is in the records and we and "we" as in you made him a wanted fugitive over the country. Surely she saw it on the news." Blaze shrugged.

"Scott! Blaze! The suns coming up." The pair heard Isaac yell to them.

Scott opened the door as Isaac came down the stairs and they all ran inside to see Derek blooded and his shit ripped on his knees with Boyd and Cora's unconscious bodies next to him.

"There's a teacher. I'll take care of her. Get them out of here." Derek panted tiredly.

Scott and Isaac grabbed their bodies and to them to Dere's loft while Blaze left Derek to deal with the teacher as he walked to the entrance of the school to leave. Stiles had texted him, asking him to meet him at the hospital with Derek so he was getting a drive from Argent to meet them there.

"Is everyone safe?" Argent asked him.

"Yeah. A teacher was almost killed but Derek has her." Blaze nodded as they walked through the grass over to his car. Blaze was just about to get in when he caught sight of a familiar blonde watching him from the trees near the forest.

"Blair?" Blaze said in confusion. He was wondering what she was doing and why she was at the school so early and hiding out of sight. As if the blonde had heard him, she quickly turned around and left as if she was never there.

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Blaze stood in the Morge with Scott and Stiles, looking down at his bubble bath friend Heather who was dead, strangled to death, bashed in the head dead.

"So, Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?" Scott asked him.

" You're gonna wish they did." Stiles said, fixing the blanket over his friend's face.

"Why?" Blaze asked in confusion.

"I'm not exactly sure yet..." Stiles stated, "The other girl who was out in the woods, Emily? Eventually, they're gonna find her. She's one of them. Emily, Heather, that guy Lydia found at the pool? All three were virgins. And they're all gonna have the same three injuries-- strangled, throat-slashed, head bashed in. It's called the three-fold death."

"So, if these aren't random killings, then what are they?" Scott questioned.

"Sacrifices..." Stiles sighed, "...Human sacrifices."

Blaze stared at Stiles for a moment, blinking in surprise before he sighed in relief and closed his eyes, "Thank god I'm a slut."

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