Chapter 5

Stiles leans back in his chair and rubs his eyes to try and clear the fuzziness. He has been on a roll and between his new books, his old ones, and his online resources he has made some serious headway on the witch problem. He had found out that the dolls were probably part of a curse designed to ensnare the soul of a person, the person who touched it, so that the witch could draw on their power and werewolves would have more power than normal people. He also found a possible solution, a way to break the link between the curse and the victim by using a blend of Mistletoe, Holly, and Moly which he found in a text that referred to Odysseus using against Circe. He had also figured out that the symbol was associated with an old coven that had been suspected of several incidents in the south. He had even called a friend of Martinique's in New Orleans who had confirmed that these were 'bad juju' and he warned Stiles to be careful.

Stiles picked up his phone to call Derek with the information he had so far but the Alpha didn't answer so he called back. On the third try, Derek finally answered, obviously very annoyed as he answered "What?"

"Derek, I got some info for you about witches" Stiles starts off only to be cut off by the werewolf.

"Stiles, not now. Deaton is trying to help Erica but she is reacting badly to it, she's having a major seizure" Derek snarls and Stiles can hear the struggle in the background.

"Put me on speaker!" Stiles yells and hears the click as he does so despite Derek's growls. "Doc! I found a possible way to break the curse!" he yells out.

Stiles hears the older man voice, frustration clear despite his usual stoic demeanor "I am trying something now Mr. Stilinski" he grunts out just as Erica screams again.

"Did you include Mistletoe? Holly? Moly?" Stiles calls out and when he says the last item he hears the druid suddenly swear.

"Moly?" Deaton's voice is suddenly louder like he is closer to the phone.

"Yes, Moly was used by Odysseus to fight Circe. It is supposed to break the link between a witch and her target, preventing her magic from affecting the target if the person chews on it. Mixed with the other ingredients, it should break the link between the doll and Erica" Stiles explains quickly.

Suddenly Deaton is gone and Stiles can hear noises in the background when it suddenly goes quiet and he can't hear anything. "What's happening?! Someone say something dammit!" Stiles yells after the quiet goes on for too long for comfort.

"Deaton used your mixture and" Derek pauses and Stiles hears sounds of happiness and possibly someone crying "…it looks like it worked" Derek says. "The curse appears to be broken, Erica is conscious. She is still banged up as she wasn't healing, but it looks like she will be okay" Derek says sounding relieved.

"Good work Mr. Stilinski" Dr. Deaton's voice comes back. "I didn't think of Moly as it is not used by Witches or Druids. I was lucky that I had some on hand in my bag that I was studying" he admits sheepishly. "I am sure Ms. Reyes will be very grateful you found it" he says sincerely.

"Glad I could help" Stiles says sincerely. "I also found some stuff on the sigil. I will email it to you Derek. Seems that it is associated with a coven of dark witches, the Comeau family from New Orleans. Really nasty. I will send you what I have" Stiles says and hears a slight grunt and a mumbled 'thank you' before the phone disconnects.

"Your friend is safe?" Stephen asks even though Stiles knows he was listening to the whole conversation.

"Looks like it" Stiles says slowly with a trace of heat in his voice "but I am not happy with them. Everything I read suggests that that doll was a trap designed to siphon powers from the victims to power something dark and definitely not friendly" Stiles said looking at the sorcerer.

"Agreed. I would also imagine that if they put that many at that tree, they expected to catch a group…maybe a pack even" Stiles felt his blood go cold at that thought. "They may have also put them in other places to catch other victims. Have you heard of any other people affected like your friend was?"

Stiles freezes at that thought. What if there were more victims? If they aren't dead or injured, his dad probably wouldn't be involved and may not even know. If the targets were not supernatural, Derek and the pack would also probably be out of the loop. The hospital! Picking up his phone he quickly dials Melissa McCall's number.

"Stiles? What's wrong?" she asks sounding tired. Ever since Melissa found out about the supernatural she had been doing good not to lose it and had adjusted pretty well to the craziness though he knew she would prefer not to have to deal with all of it. She was still arguing with Stiles about telling his father about all of it.

"We have a witch problem and just managed to get Erica uncursed. But it wanted to check to see if anyone else had showed up with similar symptoms. She was unconscious and unresponsive, but appeared to be having seizures" Stiles detailed how Erica had reacted.

"Stiles" Melissa's voice was low and urgent. "We have had seven people admitted in the last two days in some kind of comatose or unconscious state. Two of them have died during convulsions and we can't find any cause" she whispers.

"I'll tell Deaton, he might be able to help" Stiles says and shoots Derek a text about the other victims at the hospital. "This is getting out of hand, we need to do something" he says looking at Stephen floating over his bed.

"I agree. These witches seem intent on causing harm. They are draining lives and energy to do something and breaking the link to the young werewolf will deprive them of enough power that they will probably act rashly to replace it. I think I saw something in one of your books that may help" Stephen moves to settle in Stiles' body and they combined their thoughts and quickly Stiles found what the sorcerer had been thinking about. There was a treatise on the natural flows of energy in an area, the telluric currents, and how magic disrupted those flows.

Going to his back yard, Stiles sat on the ground and did his breathing to focus and center himself and he sent his awareness into the nearest current. One of the key things that Stiles had going for him that the witches probably didn't was the fact that Stiles was born and raised in Beacon Hills which meant that this was his home territory and the energy of the place recognized him and so his touching the currents caused almost no reaction. He let his awareness flow along the line until it branched and Stiles felt his mind branch as well. In a few minutes he was touching lines all over the county, connected to them like a spider sitting in his web, allowing the sensations and vibrations come to him.

"Now, imagine the currents like the water on a lake. See how it moves naturally, how it flows along its beds and channels that were created naturally? We are looking for something moving against that natural flow" Stephen instructed him.

Stiles was visualizing the whole of Beacon County in his mind, he felt calmed when he saw the comforting blue green flow of the telluric currents as they moved naturally when he spotted the aberration. A flash of red so dark it was nearly black, moving against the healthy flow. Stiles allows his senses to drift and he suddenly felt sick, nauseous, and repelled but he still forced himself to push closer. He could feel over a dozen of these dark wells, that sick energy pulsing like a sore and leaving a blight in his mind.

"That is it. You found the witches" Stephen confirmed Stiles' suspicions and the teen pulled his senses back to normal and took a moment to deal with the rush of dizziness that overwhelmed him. "You should be able to 'drink' of the healthy telluric currents to recharge your energies" Stephen suggests and Stiles follows the man's thoughts and reaches down, dipping a mental 'hand' to the clean energy and suddenly he feels a boost like he had just pounded a triple shot expresso!

"Whoa!" Stiles exclaims happily "that was amazing!" He smiles and pulls out his phone and saw there were no new messages. He tried calling Derek again to advise the alpha but didn't get an answer this time. "They must either still be dealing with Erica or going to the hospital" he mutters.

"If they break the other connections, the witches will be severely weakened. They probably tied their coven to the curse and any rebound will make them vulnerable" Stephen informed Stiles as he follows the teen's thoughts.

"So if we were there when they got that backlash, we might be able to act" Stiles said with a slow, predatory smile. These witches hurt Erica and killed two people, driving them out would be a very good thing. He isn't going to wait for Derek!

Grabbing his bat and his keys, Stiles heads to the jeep when he feels a sigh from his passenger. "What?" he asks and Stephen just laughs and says he will explain later. Stiles nods and drives towards where he felt the witches were located. He drives for about twenty minutes before he realizes that they must be in the woods next to the abandoned meat plant that closed about ten years ago. "Why would they be here?" he wondered.

"With the number of animals that were killed in this place, the blood and residual life energy would have seeped into the very earth and could act as a foundation for their dark magic" Stephen tells him.

They get out of the car just as Stiles hears a scream of fury and pain and races around the building towards the noise. He moves through the trees until he comes upon a clearing, a large open area and Stiles rushes in, bat held up, and slams to a stop. Inside the large clearing he sees the dozen or so men and women, all wearing robes and feathered masks, in a circle with most of them either on the ground or looking unsteady. The last link must have been broken and the coven had just been caught in the backlash!

"Hey!" Stiles yelled out and saw several of the figure look at him in surprise. He spots one in the center, surrounded by chalk drawings on the ground and a hell of a lot of candles, who looks at him while her hands twist on the dagger she's holding. "Your coven is done for in this town. I'll give you one chance to get the hell out" Stiles growls fiercely but apparently for naught as the woman in the center starts laughing.

"You stupid boy! I don't know how you broke our curses but you have put yourself at our mercy. We can sacrifice you in this place and that will give us more than enough power to gather more victims and we will complete the summoning rite. Seize him!" she yells and several of the others move towards him, one who holds up his hands that are suddenly surrounded by sickly pale light that makes Stiles feel somehow both sick and offended.

"Protect yourself!" Stephen warns and Stiles holds up his hand to summon his shield when his ring, Seartate, suddenly glows with a blue white light. Stiles watches in shock as the man with the glowing hands shoots out a ray of light that is drawn down into the moonstone. As Stiles watches, he realizes that the light isn't being sent to the ring, but rather the ring is pulling it out of the guy, draining him. He sees three others start to glow and all of a sudden beams of light are being pulled from them as well, being absorbed into the ring.

Just as quickly as it started, it ends with the four falling down looking utterly betrayed. "What did you do to us!" one of the men screams at Stiles. "You stole our magic!" he wails. Stiles is just as surprised by the turn of events and doesn't know how to reply or what to say. The other witches look just as confused.

"Fascinating! Witches, while all sharing abilities, do not share the same power source. Like their affinity for trinities, there are three powers that give witches their abilities and covens, light and dark, tend to have a mix of all three to maximize their effectiveness. The Moon witches are powered by the moon and, like the moon, their power waxes and wanes. Some magics are more effective if they are cast during the correct phase of the moon. Star witches draw their power from the stars and while ever present and constant, they lack the strength and impact of the Moon witches. They are consistent though and have the benefit of being unaffected by things like eclipses. Finally there are Earth witches which draw their power from the earth itself. Their power is strong and powerful, but inflexible and often unyielding. They are not creative like the others but rather they are the muscle of the coven. Your ring apparently severed the connection of the coven's moon witches, taking their magic from them" Stephen said sounding intrigued while Stiles wishes he would save the lesson for later.

"Kill him! The coven leader screamed and Stiles saw everyone pull out knives and daggers, no one appeared to want to risk their magic not realizing that Stiles probably couldn't affect them the same way he did their brethren.

The first two witches rushed him and Stiles summoned his magical shields and slammed both of them, sending them sprawling across the field. "Sorcerer!" the leader screamed in fury and Stiles focused on a piles of rocks nearby and sent them flying towards two witches running at his side, braining both of them and sending them to the ground. The next few minutes the witches try just about everything to get close enough to Stiles to stab him but he keeps blocking them with the magic shield, as well as a whip of magic that Stephen explains easily enough that he is able to use it to great effect and he even manages to 'convince' several trees to send their roots to trip up the witches.

"You fools!" the leader screeches as her hood comes down and Stiles see the wealth of jet black hair on the woman's face, a face twisted with hate and fury. She grabs one of her coven members and without warning, she drives her knife into the woman's heart. Most of the other witches don't see it, but two that do nod in agreement and each of them quickly grab another witch and stab them. Now all three of them are glowing with stolen power and the other witches are scrambling to get away from not only Stiles but those three.

The leader sends a blast of smoke and fire at Stiles that he deflects with his magical shield only to barely get it back to block the green lightning that blasts at him. The three witches keep hammering him with fire, lighting, and shadows when Stiles changes his strategy and, drawing on the telluric currents, he creates a globular shield surrounding him on all sides as the witches scream in frustration and step up their attacks. "Any advice would be welcome!" he asks his mentor and sees the astral form of the Sorcerer Supreme rise up and hover beside him.

"They are flush with power from sacrificing their own coven members. I believe that there is a way that you will can turn their power back on them, drawing it through yourself down to be cleansed in the telluric lines, and then channeling it back to the caster, pure and refined" Stephen says carefully.

"I can do that?" Stiles asks in disbelief but Stephen just nods and comes back inside and Stiles sees exactly what the man is suggesting. He also sees what Dr. Strange wasn't telling him. He would be not only risking his own life by doing this. If he faltered, then their magic would overwhelm him, burning him from the inside out. And even if is successful so that he doesn't die, when he channels it back, he is certain that there will be no way that the witches would survive that power coming back to them. If he does this, he would be killing them.

Stiles swallows nervously and is not sure he can do this. He knows if Scott were here he would refuse trying to find a peaceful solution. Peter wouldn't hesitate to kill the whole coven for threatening the pack. Stiles remembers a passage he read in one of the books on necromancy about how people justified killing. The book didn't give any answers, but it did make Stiles really think about it. He and Stephen had also discussed how Stephen had defeated his first foes by having them sucked into the dark dimension. Stephen was definitely pragmatic; they were a threat to the world, now they weren't so it was a win.

Stiles had struggled with the idea of his magic killing anyone because he knew that his dad truly believed in his role as a law man. That brought him back to Scott and his view of the world in clear black and white terms. For him, there was no grays but that wasn't really true was it? What he did to Derek during the Gerard affair? His willingness to risk others for Ally? No, Scott might believe that he was acting in a morally superior manner, the truth was that he never really had to face the fact of evil. Stiles had seen the crime photos of the Hale fire that showed the few remains that didn't burn as well as more than a few others that had shown Stiles that evil was real.

Peter? Derek? What would they do? Easy, they had killed before to protect and defend their pack and their territory. While most of their foes were supernatural, something that Scott seemed to have a lower standard of concern for protecting, they didn't hesitate to deal with humans who were just as monstrous as any boogie man. Peter had killed from a mix of insanity and an overwhelming demand for revenge, but whiles Stiles didn't agree, he also understood why the man had done it and couldn't say that he wouldn't have reacted the same if someone had killed everyone he loved. Killing Kate was definitely not a bad thing to Stiles, he was more certain than ever that she was a monster who was way worse than Peter ever was and that was when he realized his answer. He would fight for people, supernatural or human, but once he knew that they were monsters from their actions? Then he felt no qualms if it became necessary to end them.

These three witches had not only just killed their own coven members for power and to murder others, they also killed at least two people, hurt and almost killed five others and Erica. Stiles focused on Stephen's instructions and dropped his shields and grabbed for the telluric lines tying him to them and was suddenly engulfed in a burning flow coming at him from the three witches attacks as well as the line of power from the lines that all slammed into him and all he could do was hold on and trust. He gritted his teeth as he struggled to tie all the magic together and suddenly the circuit snapped into place and Stiles was almost knocked over by the sudden lack of pain and the frightening clarity he suddenly gained. He saw the three Comeau witches and got flashes of their lives and actions and they were nothing short of horrifying. Marie Comeau, the leader of the coven, was as dark a witch as she could be and had killed dozens on her quest for power. She planned to use the power of the curses to twist and control the nemeton to allow her to summon a shadow creature that would serve her like a pet as she fed it human lives and souls. Francis Comeau, her younger brother, was just as bad preferring to use his powers to overwhelm innocent victims, feeding on their pain and fear often sending them home unable to speak of their treatment at his hands if he didn't kill them outright. Orville Comeau, a cousin of the siblings, was cruel, twisted, and just plain vicious. He enjoyed hurting and killing and was planning on killing his cousins to steal their power the first chance he got.

"Stiles, are you okay?" Stephen asks the teen, unable to touch his mind while the boy was in the magical loop.

"Yes. I'm ready" Stiles answered and then he completed the spell and cycled the energy between himself and the lines until it had built up and then he sent it back to the Comeau's, now cleansed, without the darkness that infected every breath of the dark witches. Stiles watched as each of them realized what he had done and desperately tried to break free but it was far too late for any of them. The magic hit them full on and raced through every single cell in their bodies, lighting them up like a solar flare and when the light faded there was nothing left but three scorch marks and the faint smell of smoke.

Stiles dropped the magic and the clearing went dark. He looked around and saw the stunned faces of the remaining witches. Of their coven, three were now burned to ash, three were killed by their own coven members, and of the seven remaining witches three had been rendered powerless, the witch Francis killed was one of witches that Stiles had de-magicked.

"You will leave" Stiles voice cut through the clearing was as cold as ice as he surrounding himself with his shields. "Anywhere west of the Rockies is my territory and if you are still here in 24 hours, you will not live to see 25. GO!" he roared and the witches screamed and ran, every witch for themselves, dropping their daggers and other items in their haste to escape the terrifying figure before them.

"Impressive. Why didn't you kill all of them?" Stephen asks him softly. Stiles can feel the curiosity and understanding from the other man but there is something else there. Like he is being tested.

"I killed the three because I didn't have a choice though I wish I could have stripped their powers instead like the ring did to the others. But I am not going to kill unless I know it is the only option. I suppose I could have turned them in to the police but I am betting that with their coven's power broken, the magic that they used to hide their crimes will also fade and maybe they will face mortal justice. Either way, it is not for me to play that role" he says with a sigh. "I'm just a teenager."

Stiles feels Stephen's satisfaction with that answer. "Let's go home. I think that tomorrow I have some ideas for some spells that will be very useful for your pack. But you need to sleep first." Stiles smiles and heads to his jeep determined to stay awake long enough to shower first!

Ricardo ducked the bottle that Deucalion had thrown at him with uncanny accuracy for a blind werewolf. He had joined the Alpha Pack when they had come to his old Alpha's territory last year and the Alpha of Alphas had convinced him to kill his former alpha and take his power. Deucalion convinced him that he would be in a position of power and influence but it seemed that the Demon Wolf already had his generals in the brutish Ennis and psychotic Kali. The twins were his secret weapons that he unleashed on packs unexpectedly. He and Lisa had both joined later, she had also overthrown her Alpha, but she seemed more than happy with the chance to kill and terrorize others, following Kali along eager for the other woman's approval.

Then in Los Angeles, Kali and Ennis had bitten a half dozen thugs to become their betas for this trip. Deucalion liked having them create new betas for a fight and then kill them later to take that power. Ricardo was more and more convinced that he should have run instead of staying but it was too late now, his fate was tied to Deucalion. His old Alpha had been cruel and controlling, but some of the others in the pack had not been too bad. Deucalion didn't care, he wanted only the strongest wolves in his pack and Ricardo was convinced that the man wanted to create an army for his war with some enemy that he never talked about.

"Where are they?" Deucalion demanded of his wolves and smiled fiercely at the quivering betas. They might be thugs, murderers, and criminals before, but they still trembled before the demon wolf and his fury.

"They are keeping their heads down. We heard that the Argents had captured two of the betas that were apparently deserting Hale, but that appears to be bad information" Kali told him. "They got free and as far as we can tell they are back with the Hale runt."

"What about human members?" their leader asked looking towards the twins, his dark glasses reflecting their contorted faces.

"So far we identified three possibilities. The Argent girl appears to be the girlfriend of the omega" Aiden reports. "We aren't sure what the connection between Hale and McCall is."

"The three betas; Lahey, Boyd, and Reyes appear to be focused on pack and the other one Jackson has two humans that he hangs out with, but we are not sure whether they are in the know or not. Danny Mahealani appears normal and a friend but it's Whittemore's girlfriend that we are not sure about" Ethan tells him.

"Why? What makes her special?" Deucalion asks the young Alpha. He himself had gotten a strange sensation when he passed the girl in town a few days ago.

"As near as we can tell, she was bit by Peter Hale, but she isn't a werewolf" Ethan explained, his confusion clear on his face.

"If she was bitten, she turned or died" Kali stated flatly. "Obvious she isn't dead or a wolf, she wasn't bitten."

"We know" Aiden said sullenly. "But there is a lot of students at the high school that saw her after she was attacked and they all agree that it was a bite. She was in the hospital for a few days before she wandered off and was found walking in the woods naked. We smelled her and she definitely isn't a wolf…but she doesn't smell entirely human either."

"We will have to get more information. Contact Peter Hale" Deucalion said looking at Kali "see if we can get any information from him. He was always desperate for power and now his nephew has the Hale Alpha power so let's see if we can convince him to take it and become an alpha in his own right again." Kali nodded and headed out.

"Were there any other possible pack members?" Deucalion asked the twins and sensed that they were holding something back. "Well?" he asked as his eyebrow rose in anticipation.

"There is one other possibility, but when we smelled him, we could only sense faint traces of the pack, barely more than he would have gotten passing them in school. The only reason we considered him is that he is McCall's best friend. Kid's name is Stilinski" Aiden tells him.

"The son of the sheriff?" Deucalion's question surprises both alpha twins, they hadn't realized that about the spaz they observed. "We will have to be cautious with that one, we do not want to involve the humans if we don't have to, at least not yet. Pay special attention and see if anything changes."

Deucalion looked at the beta cannon fodder and smiled wickedly. "I want you all to find out everything about the families of the other betas. Do not draw attention to yourselves, but we need to know how to pressure them and killing a parent or sibling will often motivate a young beta to obey" he ordered and Ricardo felt a bit sick at the enjoyment that came into the beta's eyes though he was careful not to show it. "Ricardo, you and Lisa investigate the police in town, especially the sheriff. I want to know where he lives and if there is any sign that he knows about us." The alphas nod and leave the demon wolf sitting in the warehouse that they had taken over to consider his plots and plans in the silent darkness.