Chapter 24

As soon as Sage parked up outside Lydia's house, the strawberry blonde shot out of the car without a word. The blonde vampire sighed sadly as she could feel the confusion, anger and sadness through the bond, Sage knew that Lydia was upset- the Martin girl never said a word the whole car ride, even when the huntress wished them both a good night.

Sage's thoughts instantly went to the text message that lit up her phone from Stiles,

We're at some club, Jackson is on his way to kill Danny for whatever reason. You coming?

Sage had two choices to make, she could either go upstairs and fix her relationship with Lydia, or she could go and help her soulmate.

...

I'm sure you guys got this, call me if anything x

*~*

Lydia sat on her bed watching her best friend nervously pace her room, a small part of her was glad that the blonde didn't leave, she wanted answers and she wanted them while she was still in fact sane.

"You gonna keep pacing my room all night or..."

Sage sighed and squatted down in front of her friend, she grabbed Lydia's hand instantly spiking up the nerves in the strawberry blonde.

"Lyds, you went through something really traumatizing at the winter formal-" Sage started but Lydia didn't want to hear it, she began shaking her head and her eyes began to tear up but Sage carried on.

"You're not going crazy Lyds-"

"I am!" The frantic strawberry blonde exclaimed,

"Lydia you almost died."

"Yeah, but being dead is better than being crazy." Sage couldn't hold back her tears as she heard the words from her bestfriend, the person she was supposed to protect at all cost, she pulled the girl into a hug whispering soothing words into her hair before she pulled away.

"I'm gonna tell you something okay, and it's gonna show that your not crazy okay- you'll just be extremely confused and maybe a little scared but I promise you that I won't hurt you. Okay?" Sage said as she gave the girl a hopeful look, Lydia looked at her guardian a little confused but nodded her head anyway.

Sage let out a soft sigh as she began to gather herself, "I'm a vampire."

"Your joking right?!" Lydia asked as she looked at her friend as if she was making a joke but Sage was all but telling the truth.

"Sage, if you don't want to tell me the truth then come up with a better lie." Sage sighed gripping her hair slightly. She turned her back to her friend, she knew the only way for the girl to believe her was if she was to show her the actual truth.

"Sage, come on-" Lydia's words got caught in her throat, she was like a deer caught in headlights as she looked at her bestfriend, the blue-eyed blonde was now staring at her with deep purple eyes with protruding veins staring right back at her.

A small part of her was scared, all of her should have been scared. But from the moment she met Sage, there was something comforting about her- something comforting and protective about their friendship. So she surprised Sage as well as herself when she walked over to the blonde and gently placed her hands on her cheeks as she stared into the eyes of her guardian.

"Mon protecteur. Merci de me protéger."

Sage's eyes softened from the sound of her bestfriend, whatever Lydia was- she knew as soon as she saw Sage's eyes, she knew was staring into the eyes of her guardian.

"I will always protect you."

*~*

The next day Stiles was furiously sending texts to both Jackson parents and Sage, he hadn't heard from the girl since last night. Well, that wasn't exactly the truth, she had dropped him a text this morning saying she had something to tell him and if that didn't rattle the Stilinski boy, then he didn't know what would.

Stiles now had two things to worry about, whatever Sage had to tell him and his dad. He was gonna be in deep shit when or if his dad found out that he stole a police transport van and kidnapped Jackson Whittmore. But of course, he and Scott were only protecting the town of Beacon Hills.

The boy yelped loudly when he felt someone tap his shoulder, "What have I told you Sage?" He yelled to the girl he stood behind him with a slight smirk on her face. "Stop doing that!"

"Doing what?" She asked innocently.

"You know what." He muttered, a pout on his lips while she let out a giggle. Stiles then gave her a questioning look. "What are you doing here? How'd you even know I was here?"

"The bond." The vampire answered with a shrug of her shoulders.

Stiles stared at her with a bewildered look, "Wait, you can seriously find where I am through the bond?"

"Basically. I had the urge to come into the woods, thought it was because I was hungry but it was because your here." Stiles couldn't help but smile and blush from what she had said, but then a nervous bubble rumbled around his stomach.

"Er, you said you had something to tell me." Sage had grown nervous herself, she in fact had two things to tell the Stilinski boy. After telling Lydia about all supernaturals and everything happening in town she also confided in her best friend and told her about her and Stiles and Lydia told the girl that the boy needed to know, so she decided when she next saw him she would outright tell him.

But now here she was standing in front of him she couldn't be more speechless. All she had to say to the boy was that their bond wasn't a guardian bond but a soulmate bond, but she was scared. She had come to the conclusion that she was in love with the human and the nerves were because she wasn't 100% sure the boy would return her feelings.

"I uh— I told Lydia."

Stiles wasn't sure what he was expecting to hear from the girl but it certainly wasn't that.

"Wh-what do you mean exactly?"

"I mean, I told her I was a vampire and everything to do with the supernatural and this town," Sage said to the boy as she silently cursed herself for chickening out and not telling him the real thing she wanted to tell him.

Stiles sighed out a little, he knew it was bound to come out sooner or later, and if Sage thought it was best for her to tell Lydia then there's nothing he can do about that. It was too late now.

"Are you mad at me?" Stiles quickly shook his head from the sound of her timid soft voice, he wasn't used to hearing that from the vampire.

"Of course not Sage, if you thought it was for the best then it was for the best." The blonde smiled a soft boy at the boy, she found that it was the perfect time to tell him but the sound of leaves crunching alerted her.

"They know," Allison exclaimed when she caught sight of the two.

"What?" Stiles looked at the brunette in confusion.

"They know Jackson's missing."

"No, they can't—I've been texting his parents since last night." He said, holding up the phone. "They don't have a clue."

"My grandfather told me his parents went to the police. They know."

Stiles' eyes widened, holding up the phone as if it was a murder weapon. "Oh—" He handed Sage the phone before quickly stumbling towards the van and opened the passenger door to pick up the radio.

All available units, proceed to Beacon Hills Preserve as instructed. Proceed with caution until Sheriff Stilinski's arrival. Proceed with caution.

Stiles stared at the van in horror, his dad was going to murder him. Officially bury him, the buzz-cut boy would die a virgin.

"Stiles, you texted I love you to his parents," Sage stated more than questioned,

"W-what of course I did, that's what you say to your parents."

"Except Jackson hasn't told his parents that he loved them since he found out he was adopted." The vampire pointed out earning a look of shock from the humans.

He took the phone from her hands. "Who told you that?" Stiles asked her in a slight panic realising why his plan had failed.

"Who do you think?"

"Shit, we—we gotta go."

"Go where?" The brunette girl asked from beside him, the boy silently answered her by opening the passenger door for them, as soon as he started up the van he dialled a number before throwing the phone out the window and driving off.

*~*

The Prison van was now parked at Lookout Point and everyone was gathered just a couple yards from it as Scott tells them about what he found out, "If Jackson doesn't remember being the Kanima, he definitely not gonna remember stealing Danny's tablet." Scott said, "Why would he steal the thing if he doesn't even know what's on it?" Stiles asked.

"What if someone else took it?" Allison suggested making everyone look at her, "Then somebody else knows what he is." Stiles said making Scott's eyes widen. "Uh, which could mean someone's protecting him." He states

"Yeah, like the bestiary says, "The Kanima seeks a friend," right?" She asked.

Sage turned at looked at the girl with a frown, "Who told you that?"

"Uh, Miss Morrell, she translated some sentences of the bestiary for me."

"Well, she's wrong." The vampire stated bluntly earning a look of confusion from everyone,

"How do you know that?"

"Because I've been alive for more than a 100 years and all the stories I've heard about the Kanima none of them has ever mentioned it seeking a friend," Sage said as she thought back to the stories she heard over the years.

"Okay, but what about the murders, Stiles said he found that online-"

"Oh that's right, the last story I heard of the kanima was when I first left France, they said that all the victims were paralyzed before being ripped apart. All victims were involved in a murder case a couple of years back." Sage told the teen wolf, it was all too familiar- the only difference was that the kanima tried to attack Stiles.

"I don't know about you two, but I haven't murdered anybody lately," Stiles said.

Romeo and Juliet looked at the vampire with raised eyebrows, "What? I haven't..."

Stiles looked at the girl in disbelief from her wandering words, "Sage!"

"What, I'm trying to remember the last person I killed."

"If she doesn't remember then it wasn't recent. That's progress." Stiles said when he noticed the look on Scott's face. Scott shook his head. "But I —I don't think that it was actually trying to kill us. Remember when we were at Isaac's the first time, it just went right by us, didn't it?"

Allison nodded. "You're right, it just ran off."

"And it didn't kill you in the mechanic's garage." The teen wolf said to his best friend, but Stiles pursed his lips. "Yeah but I'm pretty sure that it didn't because of Sage. But it tried to kill me and Derek in the pool." He reminded them.

Scott raised a brow. "Did it?"

"It would've, it was waiting for us to come out," Stiles added, looking at Sage. "And if Sage hadn't shown up it probably would have killed us."

"What if it was trying to keep you in?" Scott said making Stiles look at him in disgust, "Why do I feel so violated all of a sudden?"

"Because there's something else going on. We don't know what it is. We don't know anything about what's going on with Jackson, or why someone's protecting him..."

"Know thy enemy," Allison muttered, she looked up to see the questioning looks they all had.

"Why are you quoting Sun Tzu?" Saged asked the huntress with a furrowed brow.

"Just something my grandfather said." She replied, thinking back on the conversation she had with her grandfather.

"All right, I got it. Kill Jackson. Problem solved." Stiles said easily.

"Finally." Sage exclaimed, "I'll make it quick, my hand will go straight through his chest he won't even feel a thing. Or I can quickly detach his head from his body. Either way, I'm good." Sage offered as she looked towards the prison transport van, she didn't care if she was the one to kill Jackson.

"See, Sage can do it," Stiles said before a small frown tugged at his lips. "Although maybe someone else should do it. I don't want you killing."

Scott gave them a scolding look as he cut in. "He risked his life for us. Against Peter, you remember that?"

"Yes, but what did we just find out?" Stiles retorted. "He got the bite from Derek. It's funny how he just got exactly what he wanted by supposedly risking his life for us, it's funny."

"Yeah, it doesn't mean he's not still worth saving."

"It's always something with him, though." Stiles countered,

"He doesn't know what he's doing."

"So what?" Stiles crossed his arms over his chest.

"So, I didn't either. You remember when I almost killed you and Jackson? I had someone to stop me. He has nobody." Scott said to Allison remembering that night of the full moon and Stiles shrugged, "That's his own fault." Sage silently agreed,

"Doesn't matter. If we can save him, we should try."

*~*

Sage sat up against one of the trees in the woods waiting for the Stilinski boy, he had told her that he wanted to get something to eat but he would be fine going on his own. Sage watched the lights as she overlooked Beacon Hills. Vampires were bounded by the night and they hated it, not being able to walk freely in the sun was just another reminder that they weren't human.

But Sage didn't hate it, being alone in the woods at night gave her time to think about things. About her past life, about her future. About him.

She never flinched when she heard his footsteps walk up behind her, his scent mixed with the smell of burger and fries wafted her nose as he sat down next to her. Nothing was exchanged between the two but it was a comfortable silence, but as the silence grew so did the anxiousness of the human.

"Why are you so anxious?"

"B-because I feel like your keeping something from me," Stiles admitted, he had been feeling like this for the past couple of days but never brought it up to the girl. But now that they were alone he had no reason not to ask. He just hoped that it wasn't anything bad.

Sage sighed softly before pulling something out of her pocket, Stiles stared down at the dog tag the blonde had in her hand.

"W-where did you get a dog tag?"

"My brother fought in the war, he gave it to me when he first turned- it gave me hope that he would come back to me one day and when that day came and I tried to give it back to him he told me to give it to someone who brings me hope," Sage admitted with a soft smile as she stared down at the dog tag necklace before placing it over the boys head.

Stiles stared at the girl with soft eyes, "I bring you hope?"

"And so much more Stilinski."

They both stared at each other with the same longing look, they both knew what they wanted but Sage still needed to tell him. He had to know.

"But uh," Her gaze fell back on the lights that illuminated the town of Beacon Hills. "It's enchanted, I got a really good friend who's a witch and I asked her to enchant vervain into it."

"H—how did she do that?" The boy asked slightly intrigued.

Sage softly chuckled, "Knowing her she probably melted the plant and drowned the chain in it before saying some incantation." Sage mumbled sigh a small smile thinking of her friend. The blonde was to in her thoughts to realise that the human was staring at her with a soft smile, the vampire never spoke about her family or friends and to just hear a couple of sentences from her brought a smile not only to his face but to hers.

He would make it his mission for her to open up about her past life.

"Make sure you keep it on, it'll keep vampires from compelling you okay?" The human only replied with a soft nod.

Silence washed over the two again, Stiles gently leaned closer to the girl- his fingers laced hers as they both watched over Beacon Hills. The blonde turned to look up at the boy, nerves were bumbling in her but now was the right time.

"Stiles."

"Hmm?"

"I-uh, I found out why our bond is so different from mine and Lydia's." Stiles snapped his head towards the blonde, his Adam's apple bobbing from nerves but he was still intrigued.

"Uh, okay—wh-why?"

Sage let out a soft sigh as her gaze fell on their entwined fingers before they met his hazel eyes again. Blue meeting brown, their fates were already sealed, it was now or never.

"Because. We're soulmates, Stiles."

*~*