CHAPTER 163

Tristan stood outside of his house with both of his hands spread out as he basked in the soft glow of the morning sun. He could feel some sharp prickly feeling on his skin and his temperature was a bit on the high side, but apart from that he was fine.

"Never knew you'd miss the sun, eh?"

A teasing voice behind Tristan said and the vampire simply nodded. As a coldblooded mythical creature, one whose natural antithesis was the sun, it was obvious that he wouldn't be that fond of the sun but that couldn't be more false.

Oh he loved the freeing sensation the night gave him but something about the sun made him feel grounded.

"So how is it? Feel like turning into a human-shaped bonfire?" Brett asked jokingly which made Tristan snort.

Going back to the stinging feeling of the sun on his skin, though a bit irritating as if it was a skin allergy, it wasn't nothing he could endure. It would continue like this for a couple of days at most.

"I think I'm good to go. I think I can start toning down my blood intake from now on." Tristan remarked as he stepped back into his house.

Today was Friday, seven days after the incident, and it had taken the additional blood pooling effort of Brett, Lori, Jiang, Tierney and Demarco for five straight days before he could once again feel the rays of the sun against his skin without burning up to a flaming crisp.

Because of his condition, Brett, Lori, Jiang and Tierney crashed at their house, crowding the whole place but Tristan never let out a voice of complaint.

"Looks like our introverted leech is up already. Mornin' Tristan, mornin' Brett." Lori came out of the other room yawning and scratching her eyes as she regarded Tristan and Brett.

"Hey there, Lori. Sleep well?" Tristan asked as he glided to the kitchen to pour out a mug of coffee for her.

"Thanks for the fix." She nodded and took the cup of exactly what she wanted with gratitude. "Ahhh~ Hit just the right spot."

It was only after taking a few more sips did she notice someone missing. "Where's Jiang?"

"Dunno." Brett shrugged. "I think he said something about meeting up with some friends of his."

"Is Tierney up?" Tristan asked Lori, seeing as how her roommate was yet to come down. Jiang and Brett had to sleep on the couch as they let the girls use the room.

"Nah. I doubt she's waking up early today. I think you thoroughly sucked her dry last night."

Tristan managed the twitch that came across his face at Lori's choice of words and refused to point it out.

"Can you guys cut it out? What's up with you people and getting up early every morning?" Malia's grumbling complaints sounded out of their room, followed by an annoyed growl that prompted the werewolf sibling and resident vampire to let out amused chuckles.

"Why don't you guys go freshen up while I heat up the leftovers from last night."

Taking the empty coffee mug from Lori, he went back into the kitchen to whip up something simple for breakfast from last night's scraps.

Half an hour later, the whole house was up and seated around the dining room having breakfast as they discussed what was happening.

"The Sheriff's been taken. I think it was last night." Brett said, surprising the others at the table.

"In other words, she's about to be done with the last sacrifice. It'd be a severe pain in the butt to face her at that time." Malia commented absentmindedly with a hard look on her face, the others nodding to her sentiment.

"Any reason why she waited this long?" Tierney, being the one most out of loop, asked curiously.

"I think they said something about her waiting for a full moon or something." Tristan offered.

"An eclipse. Precisely a lunar eclipse." Malia corrected which earned her surprised looks from the whole table. "What? Allison said it."

A lunar eclipse, especially one at midnight, was a natural phenomenon that had a supernatural effect on certain lunar supernatural creatures. Werewolves being a prime example.

For the duration of the eclipse, all werewolves are stripped of their powers and they become normal humans until the eclipse is over.

With one right around the corner, it made sense to think that she'll use it against Deucalion to kill him once and for all, something they wouldn't have known if not for Deaton warning them.

"And we still have no clue where she's holl'd up?" Lori asked in worry. Her vampiric brother was almost killed by a druidic witch with a hate boner for his species. Of course she'd worry.

"Stiles, Allison and Derek's pack have been trying to find the Nemeton but there's been nothing yet on that front." Tristan told her but that didn't do much to alleviate her worries.

If Jennifer attacked Tristan during the lunar eclipse then the entire pack would be powerless to help him.

"Isn't that the tree both of you were looking for a while back? Why the sudden interest in the stump of an ancient tree?" Tierney looked curiously at Tristan and Malia, having no idea where a tree fit into everything.

"Apparently it's some voodoo hotspot for druids and their ilk, probably because all the ley lines in Beacon Hills intersect under it." Tristan said, sounding a bit annoyed after remembering their wild goose chase for said tree. "Grandma also said that that's where she found us so we think it might point out something about my past, before Malia."

"Oh. When you put it like that I suddenly remember how you were growing up- Ouch!" Tierney glared at Lori who suddenly smacked her on the back but the reproach on the younger girl's eyes made her realize why she was smacked.

"It's okay. I don't think either of us minds. And you could say I was pretty clueless as a child." Tristan said, causing Brett and Tierney to chuckle with a snort.

"Try literally clueless."

Breakfast continued in such a light manner with them talking about what had been happening in Beacon Hills for the past weeks and where it was leading to.

"So are you guys going to look for the Nemeton?" Brett asked while Tristan was doing the dishes and the boy replied with a noncommittal hum.

"Other than trying to kill Jennifer without her killing me first, I don't think I have anything else planned." Tristan responded.

"Well, good luck on your tree hunting. I'm already running late so catch you guys later." Brett said as he hurried to school while dragging a whining Lori behind him with Tierney following along for a free ride to where she was working.

With the both of them left in the house, they wondered what they should do.

"Either go to school, start our search or sleep in." Malia stated the available options they had to choose from.

"With the Sheriff down for the count, I doubt the others would want to attend classes today. And Allison is probably freaking out in fear of her dad getting nabbed."

Her words had merit to them and even if Tristan wanted to just lay back and enjoy a normal sun-filled day, he couldn't because he had the feeling that some kind of mark was on his back and a prey was stalking him. All this did was fuel his paranoia to new levels.

"Well then, we should get on it." They had little time as is and the fact that Tristan could only move at night for the past week when everything was strangely silent had put them more at the back foot.

Unlike Deucalion and Jennifer Blake who had specially sculpted plans and contingencies, all he and Malia could do was react to anything that happened to them.

They were not smart enough to plan intricately like their elders and friends so they used the one thing they had in spades – their adaptability.

They ran through the woods, two pairs of matching red and blue eyes that shone in the shades of the trees, back and forth as they slowly cased the Beacon Hills Preserve, sometimes slowly down for walks if one of them got tired.

"Satomi couldn't find the Nemeton even when she looked. She said something might be wrong." Malia said during one of their walks.

"It doesn't matter." Tristan said lightly. "Three things cannot long be hidden; the sun, the moon, and the truth."

"And the truth." They both said.

Tristan briefly thought of Lydia who he last heard had gotten herself together, still a bit shaken, and thought maybe he'll ask Boyd after school.

As they continued their search, sniffing, looking and sensing for anything that might point them in the direction of an old stump that according to Satomi 'you'll know once you see it', Tristan abruptly stopped and started looking around them curiously.

"Got something, Trist?" He nodded.

He pointed at the direction they just walked in from, "The air, it's subtle but it changed. It happened a while back but I brushed it off." As if convincing himself, he walked back a couple steps while sniffing the air, stopped and marked the ground.

"The air changed around this spot."

Malia, still confused, let it show on her face and her words. "What's up with the air?"

"Remember at the vault when I told you that she had a certain wind smell? It's not the same but I doubt it's a coincidence."

Maybe, just maybe, they were on the right path for once.

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