After quickly taking care of Hunters stationed in the building, along with a pale Stiles who looked as if he was one bloody comment away from throwing up, the group of diverse teenagers made their way to the basement of the building.
The basement looked deceptively similar to every other abandoned building's basement but Tristan's next word told them that they were in the right place.
"Gerard's scent is getting a little thicker. Something is definitely under this building."
Even Scott and Malia agreed with his comment as they could clearly pick up on Gerard's scent. "He's right. There must be something here to take us below."
Stiles rolled his eyes sarcastically and pointed at a bug infested shelf at the side. "And let me guess, that shelf is a secret mechanism with a door behind it that will take us down to the bunker below?"
Malia walked up to the shelf and ripped it apart before turning to Stiles who everyone was now looking at weirdly.
"Come on now, don't look at me like that. That shelf had to be the obvious and cliché thing in this setting." He rolled his eyes in false exasperation as he tried to hide how smug he felt in that moment.
"Well he's not wrong." Tristan said. He aided Malia to pull open the door behind the shelf which revealed an old elevator that went down.
He took a deep inhale and nodded. "Gerard is definitely down there and I can smell a suffocating amount of murderous emotions and tons of blood."
Allison looked worried, same as Scott, but for two entirely different reasons. Stiles gulped nervously and asked tentatively.
"When you say murderous emotions, just how intense are we talking about?"
"The kind that wishes to separate your flesh from your bones while making sure you're still alive to feel every inch of your body being sliced to thin filets."
Stiles shivered in horrific fright at Tristan's words and that stone cold expressionless face of his made what he described even more terrifying.
He could only grumble to himself and hold back his grievances and followed the group into the elevator as they went down to the source of the 'murderous emotions'.
'Yep. It's definitely Derek.' He silently thought as the grumpy wolf was the only one he knew, apart from the two psycho teens in front of him, who fitted Tristan's description of murder.
Malia and Scott winced as they finally perceived the full brunt of blood that permeated the air here.
"I can't get a good direction with all this blood in the air." Malia scrunched her nose as she tried searching for either Isaac and Eric, or Derek, but she couldn't pick a scent trail.
"I've found Isaac and Erica, and I don't think they look too good based on what I'm sensing." Tristan informed.
He didn't let anyone ask him any questions and simply led them as he tracked the room the two captured, and definitely tortured, betas were kept.
Under his special sensitivity to blood, he had no problem with finding them despite how saturated with blood the air was.
He would have been lost just like Malia and Scott if he tried finding them with just his nose.
Even with how cold he looked, he along with the others, widened their eyes in surprise as they saw the utterly battered bodies of Isaac and Erica in chains, weakly dangling from a thick metal block that kept them suspended a few centimeters from the ground.
Allison covered her mouth as she gasped in shock and disbelief of the horrible sight in front of her. Malia was mostly in disbelief but there was also a healthy dose of shock mixed in.
Stiles and Scott mirrored Allison's reaction in every way, and while Tristan was just as shocked as them, he quickly regained his composure, at least a semblance of it, and hurriedly went to help them.
"Malia!" His voice broke them from their stunned stupor while Malia came over to loosen the chains holding them up.
"W-what is this?" Allison's voice shook but no one had the luxury to answer her question as they all were helping in trying to bring them down.
Seeing they were wasting time they couldn't afford, Tristan used his claws and cut the chains holding Isaac which prompted Malia to do the same to Erica.
"They are barely alive, Trist! What do we do?" Malia asked as she noticed that they were barely getting sufficient air into their lungs even after the chains were caught.
Tristan's brows furrowed as he thought of a way to help them to at least get their breathing in order. Only after that can they begin healing.
"Is this what Hunters do to any werewolf they catch? Tie them up an torture them to their last breath?" Scott asked softly as he looked at Allison.
Allison's already pale face was already ghostly white at this point and she subconsciously shook her head at Scott's question, despite the evidence pointing to the contrary.
"No, we don't. I.. I.. We only go after werewolves who kill innocent people. I-"
Her words were cut off by Tristan's cold voice. "But they haven't killed anybody, have they? Even if they have, it would be the Hunters who came after them in the first place."
She had absolutely nothing to say to refute Tristan's words.
Tristan paid no attention to her and kept his focus on Isaac who looked more battered up than Erica. "Malia, let's try taking a bit of their pain. Just enough to kick start their healing. The intense pain they are feeling right now is why they can't even take a full breath."
The ability to take away someone's pain, even heal them when it's advanced enough, was something that was exclusive to only a few supernatural species, with the most being were-creatures.
Luckily it was something Tristan could also learn. Not everyone in their pack knew how to do it, some were even unaware of it, but Malia and Tristan along with Brett and Lori were able to make Satomi teach them how to do it after Elias had unknowingly let it slip one time when he was telling them stories of his youth as a werewolf.
They didn't delay anymore and concentrated wholly on what they were doing, and the others smartly kept quiet and watched them do whatever it was that they were doing.
They however became alarmed when they saw dark veins appearing all over Tristan and Malia's bodies, even letting out pained grunts.
They had wanted to stop them but stilled their steps as they saw the chest of the two tortured werewolves visibly going up and down as they took in large breaths.
Isaac was the first one to open his eyes and they saw that it was a shining azure blue.
His kept taking in deep breaths but looked as if something was stuck in his throat that he reflexively hit the ground with a strong force that his weakened body could not have possessed.
While the others were startled by his actions, Erica also jolted awake and when she opened her eyes, they saw that it was still golden but that didn't remain for long.
They were astonished to see the golden glow in her eyes receding until it took on the same beautiful shade as Isaac's blue eyes.
And then they opened their mouths.
None of them expected the loud roaring howl that Isaac and Erica let out for a few seconds before slumping back into unconsciousness, which was when Tristan and Malia stopped taking any more of their pain.
The two of them coughed violently as they let the two betas go.
The others waited until they had their breathing in order before they asked.
"Are they okay, now?" Stiles asked the two of them with concern spread across his face.
"We took their pain, a sufficient amount of it that would let their body start healing itself. They still have a long way to go before complete recovery." Tristan explained.
Scott's eyes widened in surprise as he had no idea that they could do something like that. 'I should probably ask them to teach me how to do that after we get out of here.'
"While it's all good that they are not going to take their last breath in the next ten seconds, we should hurry up and look for Derek because I'm positive that that shout of theirs echoed throughout this entire place to the building above."
Stiles' reminder, though unnecessary because they already knew that, prompted them to hurry up.
Being their best tracker, Scott supported Isaac against his body and let Tristan sniff out Derek's trail.
Due to being lightheaded from the intense pain he took from Isaac, his senses weren't spread out like they had been and when he caught the scent of somebody entering the room, it was already too late.
"I don't think anyone will be leaving until I say so."
They all looked shocked as they saw Gerard standing behind Allison who jumped in shock.
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