163 CHAPTER 159

Derek could hear the ongoing fight as he neared them and upon his arrival, true to his thoughts, the Darach was something else.

The exoteric way she fought was something he has yet to see among supernatural creatures.

Not lingering on those fading thoughts, he didn't question anything and leapt into the fight, trying to sneak up on the woman from behind but that proved redundant as she easily sensed him coming.

"Tristan, what's wrong?" He asked with a frown marring his face upon taking note of Tristan's out of control emotions.

The Darach looked like she had been run through the mud but no wounds were visible on her, thanks to her healing abilities from the sacrifice of healers.

Tristan didn't answer Derek, only acting on first instincts not to attack him as soon as Derek came into his range.

'She's every bit as strong as an Alpha, maybe even a bit more, but to survive this long against Tristan... Something is up with her.' He surmised after a cursory glance over the both of them.

"I'm not your enemy, Tristan. Neither am I yours, Derek. All I want is to kill Deucalion." She suddenly said.

Derek almost felt like playing mediator between her and Tristan as soon as word left her lips but a mental nudge snapped him out of it.

As for Tristan, he didn't care what was being said, keeping only his eyes trained on Jennifer. He was no longer blinded by rage after being hurt by her a few times but that didn't mean his rage was gone.

It was still there, burning ever so brightly, but he didn't let it take over his mind. 'I am not some wild beast!' His instincts practically told him.

He wrapped a tail around his neck and one around one of his hands, ear elongated and fangs jagged out. His eye sockets looked like dark shades with a pair of shining red eyes.

Comically, a crow perched on his shoulders during his stare down with Jennifer before it flew away to a nearby tree to watch, not at all frightened by the clash of mystic and mythic powers.

Jennifer was the only one who eyed the crow suspiciously but kept her focus on Tristan more than she did Derek.

"If yo-"

SQUELCH!

She panicked and twisted her shoulders a little late as she tried to avoid the spear-like frozen blood that grazed her shoulders, and winced as Derek kicked her on her sides.

One thing, the main thing, she had to watch out for was his blood that was paralytic. In fact everything about him was paralytic.

Thankfully she was well prepared against it but multiple wounds from him were making her sluggish and wearing off the little concoction she had made to stave off his toxin.

She was strong no doubt, stronger than the average Alpha in physicality, but what made her kind, druids, both feared and respected was that they could find the weakness to anything of nature's origin, even those considered taboos.

She grunted as she grabbed Derek's punch and chopped him in the neck, or at least tried to, but he blocked it. She shoved him backwards and clapped her hands together to stop the thin blood scythe Tristan swung at her.

With the guidance of nature's winds with her, she had an easier time disintegrating them but unfortunately for her, the young Primearch wasn't proving to be an easy opponent.

She tried flinging him to the side but before she could do that, the blood scythe between her hands melted into a puddle and suddenly formed binds over her hands.

From the binds, two blood needles went forward and pierced through both of her shoulders.

She shrieked in pain and then in alarm as she felt her blood flowing through the two blood needles back to Tristan.

Tristan looked at her and his throat itched. He had never felt the hunger of wanting to eat someone as much as he did now as looked at Jennifer's kneeling form.

The anger he felt towards her was not one that drove him to just do away with her with reckless abandon, no. He wanted to enjoy everything as he sucked her blood and ate her whole. Such a morbidly tantalizing thought.

Derek sighed as he saw that she was already brought down. Obviously Tristan didn't need his help with the woman but he knew the young teen would agree that they couldn't take any chances when it came to someone like her.

Blood wrapped over her body in a cocoon, leaving only her head open to them as they walked closer.

"Do you think this changes anything? Killing me doesn't change what Deucalion will do to you. You know that!" She scoffed as the two of them stared down at her.

If she had something to say, Tristan didn't want to hear it. He wasn't one to play with his food.

The blood cocoon grew, bringing the slightly scared Darach to Tristan's eye level for him to have an easier time sucking her blood.

"Wait! Listen to- Ahhhhhhhhh!" She screamed as his fangs crunched around her neck viciously as if to each it out, which was what he intended to do after getting a good drink.

He had barely drank anything when the wild thrumming of her heartbeat flowed into his ears.

She was nervous and scared, yes, but as soon as he started drinking her blood, her heartbeat started calming down in relief.

Without even his blood or instincts telling him something was wrong, he instantly pulled his fangs away from her neck, much to Derek's surprise.

He looked at her and saw a triumphant grin on her face as her wild emotions suddenly stabilized into confidence.

"Silver, mountain ash, wolfsbane, even mistletoe are considered a werewolf's weakness, with mistletoe being a general weakness to almost, if not all, supernatural creatures. Even humans." The blood cocoon encasing her started cracking, much to Derek's shock and Tristan's fear that something had gone wrong.

Catching someone that escaped an entire pack of Alphas for years couldn't be this easy, something at the back of his mind told him that.

"What do you think is considered a vampire's specific weakness? I'll give you a hint; it's not mistletoe." As she spoke, Tristan stumbled backwards as he started feeling a burning sensation in his blood.

"While mistletoe works wonders against vampires given that they are taboo creatures, it isn't their most natural weakness."

By now the cocoon had cracks over it and some parts of it were already losing their solidity and flowing to the ground in trails of liquid blood.

"It's a plant that embodies the property of every vampires' bane – the sun. You can feel it already, right? Your insides feeling like they are on fire? It's because they are. All from a single plant." The blood cocoon crumbled to the ground and she stepped out with slightly shaky steps.

Derek stood beside Tristan, having no idea of what was going on but knowing that shielding Tristan was better than attacking Jennifer right now.

"Vervain – the devil's herb." She revealed. "It will burn you to a scorching corpse soon. I'm sure this is a new feeling for you, experiencing the curse of the sun that all, except a select few, vampires are subjected to from birth."

Jennifer clicked her tongue as she saw steaming blood flowing out of Tristan's body as the teen struggled to breathe amidst the burning pain in his blood streams.

"I would have loved to see a vampire die in front of me, but unfortunately time isn't one of luxuries I enjoy." She was already walking away when she stopped and turned to the both of them. "I really have nothing against you, but know that I'm just doing my job as a keeper of the natural balance."

And with that she was gone into the darkness.

Derek turned to Tristan, worried and ignorant of what he could do in this situation.

"Are you okay, Tristan?"

"B-urning." Tristan's voice croaked as he struggled to respond, steam coming out of his mouth as he opened it.

Even in the dark night, anyone could see that Tristan's body was now giving off a faint glow, with his veins being the most noticeable.

Derek was alarmed as Tristan's jaws started turning scorched black like burnt flesh and smoke coming out of it.

Pulling out his phone, he hastily called Malia who was making her way towards them.

"Derek, whe-"

"Tristan's hurt. Bad!" He cut her off with an urgent shout. "Call Argent and get him down here, fast! I'll call Satomi."

"What happened to Tristan?!" Malia shouted through the phone.

Likewise, Derek lost it and yelled back at get. "He's dying goddammit! Try and get Argent here as fast as possible. I'm calling Satomi."

He cut off the call before Malia could get another word in. He hoped she would listen to him and not just waste precious time running here.

Sliding through his contacts, he found Satomi's number and rang her line, only having to wait 3 seconds before she picked up.

"Derek."

"It's Tristan, he got poisoned by something called vervain and he's burning up, literally."

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