Fractured Bonds [Book Three]

06: Choking Hazards

"So, the Walcott's were the first. At least the first that we know about," Stiles starts to tell his father as he, Scott, Sky and Ariel surround his desk at the station. "Four murders. Sean, his brother, and their parents. They were killed by a professional assassin called The Mute."

Ariel shivers at the mention of that particular assassin, even more at the memory of Sean's blood bleeding into the white of his shirt.

"Weapon of choice, a military tomahawk. But then The Mute was killed by Peter Hale after he tried to blow up Derek with a Claymore mine. Next was Demarco. He delivered a keg to the party at Lydia's lake house. And got decapitated outside his car."

"Right under our noses," Sky mutters.

Stiles nods, "And then last night, twenty three year old Carrie Hudson." he finishes.

Scott sends Ariel an encouraging look and she places a piece of paper on the table, showing the list Lydia had decoded, "It's a dead pool," Scott explains. "A hit list of supernatural creatures. This is only part of it. The rest still has to be decoded."

"Who found this list?" the Sheriff questions.

"Lydia," Stiles answers.

"How?"

"She wrote it," Stiles tells him. "Actually, she transcribed it. Without realizing it."

Ariel nods, "I found her in a daze. She can always hear things we can't."

"Banshee?" 

Stiles nods, "Banshee."

"Beautiful," Stilinski sighs. He takes a closer look at the list. "All right, what are these numbers next to the names?"

"The price of our lives," Sky answers dryly.

"We're getting to that," Stiles waves her off, pointing to his father. "First, you need to know that the code was broken with a cipher key."

Sheriff frowns, "Wait. You mean, like a keyword?"

"It's actually a name." 

Scott hesitates for a moment, before he tells him, "Isaac."

"Which is really strange," Ariel points out, the reveal of his name being the first key a surprise. "Why his name?"

Scott frowns, "During the full moon, when Chris turned up and helped me with Liam, he said he didn't come alone," he reveals.

Ariel's eyes widen, "Is Allison here?"

"No," Scott shakes his head, almost sadly. "He actually didn't tell her about Kate, so she's still at school in France. But he did tell Isaac, who flew in with him."

"So where is he?" Sky asks. "I haven't seen a single scarf flapping in the wind since he left."

Scott sighs, "That's the problem. A few nights ago, Chris left him for a couple of hours whilst he went to get some weapons out of storage, and when he got back, Isaac was just gone."

"Just gone?" Sky repeats, not understanding. "As in he was taken, or he ran off?"

"We don't think he ran."

"His name broke a third of the list," Stiles tells his father, who looked a little confused.

"Which is even more worrying now," Ariel adds, troubled. Something was very, very wrong. "We need to find him as soon as possible."

Scott nods in, "Yeah. And now we think there's two other cipher keys."

"Which will give us the rest of the names," Stilinski catches on. "So how do we get the cipher keys?"