164 CHAPTER 160

Derek ran as fast as he could with Tristan who he wrapped in his clothes so that he could hold him without burning himself.

As of right now, all of Tristan's jaws were burnt off, as well as different parts of his body.

Derek understood that it was because Tristan quickly stopped drinking and he was trying to combat the vervain in his system with his blood, which was proving hard to do, that he wasn't a burnt up dead crisp by now.

Tristan's nose down to his throat was burnt up and Derek had to use his hands to douse off any flicker of flames that came alive on the burnt part of Tristan's body.

"Hold on, they are almost here!" He said.

Of course he had wanted to feed Tristan his blood but Tristan refused it, vehemently struggling in pain to do so, so he refrained from trying to force feed the vampire his blood.

Who knows how vervain also affected werewolves?

"I can see them, they're this way!" Derek breathed out in relief as she heard Malia's voice, along with the familiar presence of Isaac and Erica way behind her.

"Tristan! No!" Fear gripped Malia's heart tightly as she saw the state of Tristan's body.

"Where are they?!" Derek didn't stop for her as he continued carrying Tristan closer to the nearest party who could help.

"Oh my! Argent is right behind us." Isaac hurriedly answered as they caught up to Derek. "What the hell happened to him, Derek?"

"She laced her blood with something called vervain. A vampire's equivalent of wolfsbane."

"Yeah, no man. Wolfsbane doesn't do that." Erica winced and averted her eyes from Tristan's burnt form. It was a gruesome and irritating sight.

For the entire run, Malia kept quiet, barely, as her eyes and eyes were focused on Tristan's body and his slowly beating heart.

"Argent, over here!" Derek yelled as he caught the man's scent.

As they caught up with Chris, one glance at Tristan had the stoic man's expression drawn taut.

"Put him on the ground now!"

Derek did as told and laid Tristan gently on the ground, revealing his burnt arm in the process, which caused both Isaac and Erica to wince.

"Can you help him?" Derek asked with a serious look on his face, both he and Argent staring at each other.

Chris looked at Tristan again and slowly shook his head. "I haven't dealt with any vampires in my life, and though I know what vervain is, I have no idea how it was used, until now that is."

Malia knelt beside Tristan, the current conversation not at all important to her ears. She softly took hold of Tristan's hands that were partially burnt and didn't hesitate for a moment before she started taking some of his pain.

"Nnrrrng…" She whimpered as searing pain assaulted her nerves, pain unlike what she had ever experienced, but she refused to let go even as she felt like she was being burnt alive from the inside.

Tears freely flowed down her eyes and blood covered her lips and chin from trying her best to hold in the scream from the pain she was feeling.

"He's dying! Fucking do something! Anything!" Derek yelled, slightly losing his temper but he quickly drew the reins on them.

"If there was something I could do, I would do it." Chris replied, his voice kept to a calm level. "Honestly with how little we know of vampires, there isn't much we can do in the first place. We don't even know if it's possible to survive vervain."

He glanced at Tristan who looked half dead and Malia who was trying to take away his pain in tears to the point that all her veins turned black.

"Malia, stop. Any more than that and you would be endangering the both of you." Chris said with a despondent sigh. He exchanged glances with Derek's betas and instantly they tried to pry Malia off Tristan but she struggled stubbornly. Not agreeing to let go of his hands.

She couldn't even let out a sound as pain wrecked all her senses and numbed her nerves. It got to the point that she started spasming out due to her taking too much pain than she could handle, which was when they finally managed to pry her off him.

"You said he refused your blood, right?" Chris suddenly asked to which Derek nodded.

"Do you have something in mind?"

Chris looked contemplative as possible hypotheses ran through his mind. How lucky he was that he let Allison stay behind to tend to Lydia or his little girl would have broken down in an anxious fit upon seeing the like this.

"My father told me something the first time we fought with… a vampire." He gave Tristan a certain look. "Basically even among vampiric creatures, Bloolborns are something of a special bred. Just like their name, most of their abilities revolves around their connection with blood; either theirs or their prey."

"Where are you going with this? Mind sparing us the lore for later, because in case you forget, he's still dying." Isaac interrupted him while pointing at Tristan who was letting out pained hums as increasing plumes of smoke left his body.

Chris sighed, understanding Isaac's words of impatience but he had to let them understand in case something went wrong.

"Allison told me that Tristan once told her how different blood carries with it different tastes, and the more evolved the individual, the more enticing the blood feels to him."

"Where are you getting with this?" Derek asked.

"Let me finish and you'll see." Chris' remark had a certain bite to it but Derek didn't react to it. "If the blood tastes better depending on the individual, meaning other supernatural creatures, why is it that they are still drawn to human blood? Why is it that they have less resistance to human blood despite its 'dull' taste than they have to other supernatural creatures. They crave regular human blood more than they do any other thing."

Derek held his hands for Chris to stop speaking as not only him, but Isaac and Erica too, we're getting confused.

"What exactly are you trying to say? That he prefers human blood to mine, even if it might help him?"

"Not exactly, but basically, yes." Chris nodded. "Your blood might react with the vervain in his veins due to the supernatural nature of it."

Their eyes went up in realization and they all turned to look at Chris who was now sporting a hard expression on his face.

"Nnrrrng."

They turned to see Malia groaning as she was now finally waking from her seizure. Erica helped up and held her against herself to prevent her from falling.

"Trist…" She murmured, her heart breaking as she saw his increasingly worst state. She managed to pull her eyes away from Tristan and looked at Chris with a genuine and apparent pleading expression on her face. "Please… H-h-he is dying." She begged with a cracked voice amidst sobbing hiccups.

She was normally a very strong and straightforward girl, prideful even, but none of that meant anything when it came to Tristan.

Normal people might not understand, but Derek knew the importance of imprinting on someone. It rarely ever happens to werewolves, but anytime it does, the bond created from it was so strong that it was almost impossible to break.

Chris suddenly found himself in a somewhat tricky situation.

Though he was learning from Allison on keeping an open and unbiased mind in regards to supernatural creatures, especially the boy and girl in front of him, the fact that he was actively helping them without any incentive felt a bit unnatural to him.

"They are not your enemies, Chris. Neither are we. You know that as well as I." Derek said to him after picking up on the man's emotional spectrum.

Chris grunted and rolled up his sleeves, mumbling somewhat irritably. "I could have gone without the reminder."

He took a deep breath as he knelt down at Tristan's side, taking a good look at the dentition of the boy's razor-sharp fangs.

Holding up his left hand above Tristan's mouth, he covered his nose with his other hand to ward off the smoke but not before opening a cut at the side of his palms.

Fresh blood trickled down in drops onto Tristan's mouth for half a minute but so far not a single reaction.

This continued on for a few minutes but Tristan's body remained unreactive in any way that would tell if the blood was having any sort of effect on him.

Malia was already tethering on the verge of despair, a few seconds from jumping over its treacherous ledge, when a croaking sound came from Tristan's burnt throat.

"Careful boy, don't force yourself to swallow it." Chris said softly, even going as far as bringing his hand closer to Tristan's mouth.

To Malia's hopeful prayers, the glow on Tristan's burning body started receding and so also did the smoke.

Chris had to make another cut on his palms and hold it over Tristan's mouth, and when it was clear that his throat was now healed enough to take in a gulp without pained groans, he brought his palms down on Tristan's slightly opened mouth.