Burn Amongst Humanity [D. Hale ]

|VI|

"Magic Bullet"

Casey was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes from the last three late nights, as she went downstairs to make a pot of coffee.

Casey soon heard a pounding knock on her front door and she sighed and shook her head. "Coming!" Casey loudly hollered in the very general direction of her front door, as she was taking her time with the coffee.

The impatient tone of the knocking started to increase and Casey grunted in annoyance, as she stormed over to the door and unlocked it. Casey flung the door open wide and was prepared to holler at whoever it was at the door, only to see that it was Stiles Stilinski and Derek standing on her doorstep.

"What is going on here?" She asked and Derek looked terrible, as she was shaking her head. "Is one of you idiots going to answer me?" She asked.

"I got shot." Derek muttered and Casey raised her eyebrows. "I'm not healing, I can't, it was a wolfsbane bullet." He said as Casey cursed audibly at the words.

"In, now!" Casey said and she waved them both inside, before she slammed the door shut. "A heads-up or even a phone call lasting a second, would have been nice from you." Casey said and she locked the front door quickly as she shook her head. "Basement, both of you, go." She said and she opened the door to the basement.

Stiles and Derek managed the stairs about as quickly as they could do the stairs at the moment, as Casey turned on the lights and she saw that Derek's eyes were flickering between icy blue and brown. "Okay, that definitely isn't normal." She said as Derek staggered.

"No shit." Derek mumbled as he was trying to get his balance. Casey shoves a chair in their general direction, and she was pulling out various bullets in the room, trying to find whatever had shot him. "Still a hunter first and a werewolf friend, to be second?" Derek asked as he sat down and she scoffed.

"What gave it away this time for you Derek? Shirt off, would you?" Casey's questions were clipped and brisk, to the point as she was shaking her head at the various bullets. "What color is the wound?" Casey asked.

"Glowing blue." Derek said and Casey's eyes narrowed, as she reached for more possible cases.

"Like your werewolf eyes?" Casey asked, let out a solid stream of curses as she was unable to find the right one.

"No. More like a,..." Before Derek could finish speaking, Casey heard a retching sound and the sound of something splattering onto the floor, the ground of her basement.

"Derek, what color-" Casey's jaw slammed shut at the sight of the black blood and she was shaking her head a bit at the sight, as worry was threatening to overwhelm her practiced act of being realistic and unemotional. "Somebody really wanted you dead." Casey said.

"How do you know about all of this stuff?" Stiles asked and Casey looked at him. "Why the hell, are you staring at me like I just kicked your dog?"

"You got him arrested, Stiles! If you hadn't gotten him arrested by jumping the gun, then the hunters wouldn't even have known that he was in town. Is this it?" Casey asked as she had just unscrewed a specialty bullet and she walked over. Casey barely flinched at the sight of Derek's arm, as she held out the bullet and he nodded. "All right, you know what you have to do with it?" 

Derek was wincing as he nodded. "Can you do it?" Derek asked as he held a lighter out and Casey caught sight of it and she froze, staring at the lighter.

----

Screaming, howling and a terrible keening scream that was coming from Casey herself, as the flames of the fire were now devouring anything and everything in their path...

-----

"Casey! Casey!" Derek was shouting loudly at her and Casey snapped back to the present after hearing him, as she looked down and she was shaking, as she was trying to quickly control her heartbeat, to bring it back down again from an obscenely fast heartbeat. "Do you have a table down here?" He asked.

Casey tossed all of the bullets and half-finished stuff into little shelves in the wall and she grunted, pulling the table over. "Stiles." She said and Stiles came over to help her, and they lifted the table and brought it over to Derek.

Casey quickly dumped the contents of the bullet onto the table and her doorbell rang out loudly, again. "Oh for fuck's sake, I just cannot catch a break!" She snapped in annoyance.

"It's Scott McCall, the new Beta." She looked at Derek, who spat up a lot more suddenly, of the familiar black blood and she nodded quickly. Casey ran up the stairs and as she looked at Scott when she opened the door, wordlessly pointing at the basement stairs.

Casey shut the door and quickly followed him back down into the basement. "I thought that you were a Sheriff's deputy." Scott sounded all too confused.

"I am." Casey said and she looked at Derek, who was currently being now slapped back to being awake by Stiles, who was punching him. "Let me try, Stiles." Casey said and she clenched her fist and she swung out hard.

Derek woke up with a shout of pain and Casey jumped backward as Derek lit the ashes and jammed them quickly into the bullet wound, as he fell to the ground screaming. Casey's eyes narrowed sharply and she watched the healing process, that kicked into high gear because of the way that particular wound was being healed.

"So how do you know about all of this?" Scott asked and Casey walked over to Derek, holding out a hand to him. Derek accepted the hand up and Casey was shaking her head.

"That one was way, way too close this time, Derek. So, what was your genius plan if I wasn't here?" Casey asked sharply.

"Make me cut off his arm." Stiles remarked and Casey looked at him quickly, before she was looking back at Derek.

Casey punched him in the jaw and at the hit, his head snapped back. "You were going to get him to cut off your fucking arm?! You are completely, completely insane!" Casey said to Derek and he crunched his nose back into place.

"How do you know?" Scott repeated the question as Casey glanced over at him.

"My family leading back centuries, is a supernatural-hunting family. I grew up in Beacon Hills, learning how to hunt werewolves and other supernatural creatures. Derek and Laura saved me from another supernatural creature I was hunting when we were kids." She said.

"I have a question. Did Derek ever smile as a kid?" Stiles asked and Casey glared at him, as the familiar growl from behind her, it was a very good indication how the aforementioned werewolf felt about the question.

"No comment on that, Stiles." Casey said and she shook her head quickly. "Now, would you all just get the fuck out of my basement." She said bluntly.

"How do you know about all of this then?" Stiles asked and she looked at him.

"My family, basically everyone else but me were hunters. Actually, Derek was one of my parents' favorite wolf targets. But for the love of god, you all can get out of here while I clean up."

Casey shooed them out of the basement and Stiles opened the front door and he closed it after them, and Casey was dealing with the blood and the muck after a good hour of just cleaning it all up.

Casey was able to hear the doorbell ringing and she had just finished up with the cleaning and she walked up to the door and silently, she opened it.

Derek looked at her and Casey blinked briefly. "What is on your mind, Der?" She asked quietly.

"Can we talk?" Casey in response, she just pushed the door open wider.