Chapter 150: Sionnach Scáth

Scott, Allison, Malia, Chris, Victoria, and Stiles followed Lydia deep into the woods, hunting the Sionnach Scáth.

Lydia suddenly stopped. Stiles stepped beside her. "Why did you stop?" He asked.

Lydia replied. "My crows found them. They're not far ahead, in the same direction we're going. The image I saw through the crows' eyes showed a van, a car, and a large trailer."

Chris's eyes narrowed. "Yeah… that's definitely them. Lydia, hurry and take us there. The sooner we deal with them, the better."

Lydia nodded and started running again, with Scott and the others close behind.

Soon, they got close enough to catch the scent of the two Sionnach Scáth. Though they hadn't seen them yet, the moment their scent hit, something primal ignited inside them—an overwhelming urge to kill.

A low growl rumbled from every member of Scott's group. Their eyes glowed red with fury.

Scott growled. "These two bastards are truly evil. I haven't felt an urge to kill like this since Jennifer and her friends… or Cassandra, the Vrykolakas."

Chris glanced at Allison. "So this is the urge to kill you mentioned?"

Allison nodded solemnly. "Yes. Whenever you feel what we're feeling now… it means we're dealing with something very, very bad."

Scott's voice was cold. "Let's go."

---

Inside a trailer hidden in the Beacon Hills Preserve, a man and a woman were butchering a corpse laid out on a metal table. They removed the organs carefully, placing each into glass jars filled with green liquid.

Suddenly, the woman paused and glanced toward the trailer's window. Outside, several crows perched on nearby trees, silently staring at them.

The man said. "Nora, why did you stop? We still have seven others to deal with tonight. We..."

Nora cut him off. "Something feels wrong, Ronan. Look outside. Look at those crows."

Ronan slipped a kidney into a jar. Then he looked outside and saw the crows but just shrugged. "They're crows. Crows are attracted to death. No need to worry."

Nora narrowed her eyes. "When did you get so careless? You can't feel it? The danger?"

Ronan sighed. "You're overthinking..."

"Shut up and listen." She snapped. "Tell me what you hear."

Ronan stopped and listened. The longer he listened, the more uneasy he became. His expression darkened.

"I… I don't hear anything. No insects. No animals. Even the damn crows aren't making a sound…"

Nora's eyes glowed red, turning fox-like. "Something dangerous is nearby. Get your weapons. Be ready to turn into shadow at any moment."

The two of them stepped outside cautiously. Ronan's eyes glowed blue, turning fox-like. The two of them scanned the treeline nervously.

In a low voice, Ronan asked. "Do you see anything?"

Before Nora could answer, a low, menacing growl echoed through the forest, sending chills down their spines.

Then… six pairs of glowing red eyes emerged from the darkness, moving silently toward them.

Nora's face went pale. "Shit. Six Alphas? We need to run."

They turned to flee, but Scott suddenly appeared in front of them in a blur of darkness, using his shadow teleportation. His glowing red eyes locked onto them as he growled. "Going somewhere, foxes?"

Nora quickly raised a gun and aimed it at Scott. The barrel was loaded with bullets filled with a glowing yellow liquid.

"Who are you?"

Scott smirked. "No need for dead people to know who we are."

With a snort, Nora fired two shots.

Scott casually caught them midair. The bullets shattered on impact, releasing yellow liquid that splashed across his hands.

Scott looked down at the liquid, then wiped his hand and chuckled. "Yellow wolfsbane. Smart. But sadly for you, it doesn't work on me."

Stiles stepped forward. "Scott, leave the guy to me. I really want his ability to turn into shadow."

Ronan glared at Stiles. "What do you mean you want my ability?"

Before Stiles could answer, Nora snapped. "Stop talking so much. They know what we are, and they're not scared. Which means they've figured out how to deal with our shadow ability."

Before Ronan could react, Nora grabbed him and threw him at Scott. Then, without hesitation, she turned into shadow and tried to flee.

"Okay, Stiles, he's yours." Scott said calmly. "Allison, the rest of you, get to the van and rescue the people there."

Scott vanished in a swirl of darkness, reappearing in front of Nora's shadow form, he coated his hand in his thunder ability and slammed his fist into her face. The impact sent a surge of electricity through her shadow body, making her turn to her human form and launching her backward through the air. She flipped a few times before crashing to the ground.

Dizzy and disoriented, Nora staggered to her feet and shook her head. Her eyes locked onto Scott—not with fear, but greed.

"What are you?" She asked, breathless. "I don't know any creature that can use both shadow and thunder. Something like you would sell for a very high price."

Her body began to shift. Dark grey fur spread across her skin, her head morphed into a fox's, and her limbs elongated. Her feet reshaped into fox-like paws. Drawing two daggers from her belt, she lunged at Scott.

Scott smiled and thought. 'Maybe I should try my blood control ability.'

He extended a claw and scratched his own arm. Blood oozed from the wound, and Scott manipulated it, shaping it into a chakram. With a swift motion, he hurled it at Nora.

Nora dodged and rushed toward him, daggers in hand. Just as she was about to strike, she noticed Scott smirking. A sense of danger washed over her, and she instinctively tried to distance herself, but she had miscalculated.

The danger hadn't come from Scott directly. It came from the blood chakram he had thrown.

Before she could react, the chakram under Scott's control cut off one of her legs just above the knee. She collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain.

Scott caught the returning chakram and reshaped it into a katana. He approached her calmly and severed her other leg. Then, using his thunder ability, he unleashed a surge of electricity into her body.

The shock forced her to revert to her human form. Her skin began to blister and turn black from the current, and within seconds, she lost consciousness.

Scott knelt beside her unconscious body and inserted his claws into the back of her neck, reading her memories and absorbing her powers. When he was done, he stood up and, without hesitation, he summoned fire and burned Nora's body to ash.

Nearby, Stiles was crouched beside a fallen Ronan, reading his memories and absorbing his powers as well. Once finished, he too summoned fire and burned Ronan to ash. Then he turned to Scott.

"Did you read her memories?" Stiles asked, his face pale. "This guy's mind was… disturbing. I think I'm gonna have nightmares for a week."

Scott nodded grimly. "Yeah. These two bastards were disgusting."

Stiles shook his head. "By the way, did you see the real reason they came to Beacon Hills?"

"I did." Scott said.

Stiles suddenly grabbed him by the collar. "Then why do you look like you don't care? Someone's putting bounties on our heads, Scott!"

Scott chuckled. "You're not actually worried about that, are you? You're just jealous."

"Jealous?!"

Scott smirked. "My head's worth thirty million. Yours is only fifteen. Even Lydia's is twenty-five."

Stiles let go of him. "Damn it. Whoever made this Deadpool, I swear if I find the bastard, I'll make him wish he was dead. Fifteen million for me? Me?! The great Stiles?!"

Scott thought to himself. 'Seems like the Deadpool changed. In the original, I was worth twenty-five and Lydia twenty. But now I'm at thirty and she's at twenty-five. And these shadow foxes weren't part of the original either… Looks like there's more to this than just the banshee Meredith. Well… this should be interesting.'

Then he said aloud. "Okay, let's not talk about the bounties until we get back to the ranch. For now, let's check the trailer. I saw in Nora's memories—they've got four million in cash in there."

Scott and Stiles stepped into the trailer and found Chris and Victoria inside. Both of them looked furious, and it wasn't hard to see why.

The trailer was a horror show.

Jars filled with preserved body parts lined the shelves. Severed heads of shapeshifters, still frozen mid-shift even in death, stared blankly from display cases. Tools meant for butchering supernatural creatures were scattered across bloody tables.

Allison, having helped the seven captured people with Lydia and Malia, left them in Lydia's care and entered the trailer with Malia.

Chris saw his daughters coming and quickly tried to stop them at the door. "Girls, don't come in here. You don't need to see this."

Victoria shook her head. "Let them, Chris. They need to see the ugly side of our world."

Allison walked further inside, eyes scanning the horrific contents. Rage simmered in her voice. "Damn those monsters. How could they do something like this?"

Even Malia, who usually cared only about her loved ones, looked visibly angry.

Allison stared at a corpse laid out on one of the metal tables. "Looks like we were a little late… we couldn't save him."

Stiles glanced over and shrugged. "Don't feel too bad. He was a wendigo. And by the way, there's another one with the seven people you just rescued. We should deal with her too."

Victoria nodded. "Alright, kids. Let's grab everything of value and get out of here."

Scott took charge. "Stiles, get the money and all the books and documents. I'll grab the herbs and weapons with Chris and Victoria. Allison, Malia, go back to Lydia and keep an eye on that wendigo. She's the fat old lady."

After clearing out everything useful from the trailer, Scott walked over to the rescued hostages. He noticed a man standing protectively beside a teenage boy and girl, both about his age.

"Are you Alannah's family?" Scott asked.

"Yes." The man replied. "Thank you for saving us. Lydia already explained what's going on."

"You're welcome." Scott said. Then he looked at the rest of the group. "What about the rest of you? Who are you?"

Three people stepped forward. One of them spoke. "My name is Demarco. The three of us are from Satomi's pack. Thank you for saving us."

Scott nodded, then opened a shadow portal and sent the three werewolves from Satomi's pack back to town.

After waiting a few minutes, he opened another portal, this time to the ranch, and sent Alannah's family through. Chris, Victoria, Allison, Lydia, and Malia followed, carrying the items they had recovered from the trailer.

Once everyone was through, Scott closed the portal. Then he turned toward the old woman who was left behind.

Without a word, he vanished and reappeared beside her, driving his claws into the back of her neck. After confirming she was indeed a wendigo who fed on humans, he snapped her neck and burned her to ash.

Stiles stepped beside him. "So… what do we do with the van, the car, and the trailer?"

"Burn them, of course." Scott replied.

The two of them summoned fire and incinerated the vehicles until all that remained was molten metal.

Afterward, Stiles grinned. "Wanna test our new abilities?"

He turned his body into shadow and smirked. "Try to hit me, but no fire or thunder."

Scott threw a punch, but his hand passed right through Stiles' shadowy form.

"Cool." Stiles said. "Let's see how long I can hold it."

About a minute and a half later, he reverted to normal. "So… about ninety seconds. Maybe two minutes if I push it, but it will consume a lot of my energy."

Scott nodded. "I've got the same shadow ability from that bitch, and I think I gained a new ability too. Watch."

Darkness began to seep from his body, swirling around him. He focused, and it shaped itself into shadowy hands that lashed out and grabbed Stiles, binding him tightly.

But Stiles flexed and broke free with little effort.

"Looks cool." Stiles said. "But it's too weak."

Scott replied. "When I absorbed that ancient vampire's powers, I could create the darkness, but I couldn't control it. Now, after absorbing the shadow fox's power, I can do this. I think the more shadow creatures I absorb, the better control I'll gain. Honestly, I probably shouldn't have let you absorb that shadow fox's power."

Stiles slung an arm around Scott's shoulders and said with a grin. "Come on, we're brothers. You can't keep all the good stuff for yourself. You gotta learn to share with your poor, underpowered brother."

Scott just shook his head with a smile. "Let's head home. We still need to tell the others about the bounties on our heads."

To be continued… 😊