Note: This is the 19th part of the “Home Is Where the Spark Is” series. To understand better what’s going on, we recommend reading the previous entries. Enjoy!

Fandoms: Teen Wolf, Sterek

Characters/relationships: Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale, Alan Deaton (mentioned), Marin Morrell (mentioned), original characters

Rating/category: supernatural, post-Teen Wolf, canon and non-canon elements, slash, M/M, Sterek, aged up characters, Spark Stiles, Magic Stiles, Emissary Stiles, Emissary in training Stiles, detective Stiles, matured Stiles, Alpha Derek, epic romance, love, magic, soulmates, Mate bond, Emissary bond, werewolves, past trauma, past abuse, hurt/comfort, emotions, fighting, betrayal, PTSD, anger, werewolf lore, emissary lore, secrets, wit, sarcasm, smut, oral sex, anal sex, rough sex, sex toy, top Derek, bottom Stiles

Summary: The mates finally manage to track down the hostile alpha and are preparing to confront him and work as a unit to drive the intruders out of Beacon Hills. But along the way there are some things uncovered that they will have to deal with. Rather sooner than later.

Disclaimer: This is a product of our imagination and was written only for entertainment and fun. We don’t profit from this fanfiction and we mean no harm or disrespect against any real person, culture or custom that might appear in the story. All original pictures or edits and fictional characters used in the story belong to their respective owners and credit goes to them.

Just Jim edit

Home Is Where the Spark Is
By Just Jim & Useless-girl

19: Emissary – Part 1

As much as the couple had enjoyed spending their time together to heal and get reacquainted with their bodies, there was work to be done, a lot of work. They had picked up the boxes the next day with the items scavenged, and as interesting the old Hale magical book was to Stiles, it had to wait to delve into fully, now that they had found a way to confront Zepar. They weren’t half-assing it, they had gone back to the abandoned distillery for a few days through the vault to get the training Derek needed. The alpha didn’t want to take chances and assume that the one time was enough to battle against an ancient werewolf who had gotten so used to magic that he was practically breathing it.

Honestly, their search had only raised more questions in them. Why was the Hale symbol on a bag of the Stilinski attic? Why was the book in the vault a book only Stiles could open and read? What did it mean that there had been a Spark in Derek’s family as well? There was more going on here, and they most likely were held accountable for things which had happened in the past. Derek still felt that this was all a setup. That Stiles was meant to become a Darach, not to do evil, but to do good and that’s why they were tested. They had to get to the Druid Council and get answers. There was only one way to do that though, and it was through Zepar himself. Before they would be thrust in yet another test, before others would get in harm’s way to see how Stiles would be able to hold himself together. Derek could think of various ways to break them into insanity which wouldn’t cost him his life, but it would cost Noah’s life, possible Beth’s.

The Druid Council had proven themselves to care about the balance of magic and the Nemeton, not the balance of lives. If Derek was right with his theory, then all the innocent lives Jennifer had taken had been part of her test of the Council. And they had never once decided to concern themselves with the alpha pack, nor the way the Beacon Hills pack back then had struggled with the Darach and Deucalion. What was worse, they knowingly were fine with Jennifer killing, with her using her magic to ensnare Derek. Needlessly to say, the Hale wasn’t a fan at all.

So the current plan was to figure out where Zepar was, and pay him a surprise visit, make him take them to meet with whoever was leading the Council. They had a right to talk about what was going on, to handle this without more bloodshed. Well, a little bloodshed because Derek was going to make Zepar bleed, he was owed that much. Then they could delve into the Hale book and the box from the attic, and the whole fact there was a traitor in their midst relaying information to the Council.

And cake tasting. Because could they at least have that much in preparation for their wedding? Derek didn’t have a suit yet, but he designed the invitations and they had been sent out. He had made sure to ask his best friend to be his best man, had gotten the paperwork in order, had gotten them a minister of sorts. Stiles had made sure they could have the wedding party in the backyard of the Stilinski home and gotten them a catering order since there weren’t going to be many people there. Still, it was almost a month away, they had done very little together.

“Stiles! Can you stop sending your magic my way? The runes are itching,” Derek grumbled at his mate who was brimming with way too much magic in order to take down the alpha.

"Oh... sorry," Stiles looked up from the kitchen table which was cleared off so he could spread out a big map of Beacon Hills and the Preserve. He had no idea that the magic was doing that to his mate so he concentrated a bit on pulling it back to stop the itching of the runes.

Looking back down on the map with the crystal Derek had given him in the vault dangling from its chain in his hand, Stiles huffed. "The kind of tracking spells that would only require a cleansed crystal like this aren't working. I'll have to bring out some bigger guns," he explained. He was after like half an hour of dangling the crystal over the map in hopes of using his concentration and magic to make it zero in on Zepar's location. "He is definitely using some kind of a cloaking spell either on him or the place where he stays and that's why I can't find him."

Putting the crystal down, he flipped open one of his emissary books and ran a long finger through a few pages before he found the right spell and tapped against the page, murmuring more to himself. There were some vials of strangely colored liquids and ground up spices in glass bottles as well as the old mortar from his mom's trunk. For a moment Stiles' hand hesitated over the small bag with the Triskele and rune stones in it before he listened to his instincts and busied himself with tossing pinches of the ground up herbs in the mortar, checking on the book as he went along.

It was crucial for their next step to find and surprise the hostile alpha and he felt the pressure to do so. Which in turn made his magic act up a bit and Stiles was more restless than usual.

"I can't fail with this. We have to find him and teach him a lesson before we extract some information from him. We have to use our element of surprise." Hence the drawn together curtains in the kitchen so no spy could guess what they were doing.

Derek had been skeptical when Stiles had insisted on putting some kind of curtains to the door in the kitchen leading to the stone balcony, the door he himself had installed and had picked because it was glass and black metal. It was a good looking door fitting the loft, so he hadn't understood why there had to be a curtain in the corner to use to hide the door. Derek wasn't the curtain kind of guy but now, when they were being watched, he had to admit curtains were actually useful. At least Stiles didn't throw him an 'I told you so' besides a knowing look when the curtain had been drawn.

"If you can't find him, we'll find another way. It's not a failure if you don't." There was always another way, it just meant they hadn't found it yet. He didn't want Stiles to think this was all on him, when it wasn't. It was a good plan sure, but that didn't mean they wouldn't come up with other good plans. Like draw him out even though that would mean they'd lose the element of surprise. Derek had seen the glance to the seidr stones in the bag, but he was glad it wasn't used. It was a different kind of magic they knew too little about.

The alpha didn't like how it had been hidden away in a wooden chest werewolves couldn't touch, because it meant it was of significance. Currently, he was doing nothing helpful, he stayed out of the way and observed as their kitchen table had turned into a scene right out of Harry Potter. It was useful, having a spell that hid people, one Derek was going to ask Stiles to look into in the near future. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Stiles just snorted on the 'not a failure' comment but didn't get into a lengthy monologue on how it'd feel like that to him. After all he was the druid and Emissary here, he had to be able to perform such basic spells like finding someone hidden by magic. Even if there was a twist in this case when it came to Zepar, thanks to the magic that protected him. But Stiles kinda got a taste of said magic and he believed he'd be able to locate such a magical disturbance in their territory, no matter how small said disturbance might be. Well, some more practice in tracking someone like that would've been good, but they worked with what they had.

"You can give me your finger so I can draw a few drops of your wolf-blood if you don't want me to accidentally cut off mine with my mom's ritual blade..." he half-joked, holding up said blade which was indeed bigger than the one Stiles used before. But it felt... right in his hand. Like it belonged there. He could kinda feel the power pulsing in it.

First it was weird touching the objects from that trunk, but by then... that has started to change. As if the contents of that trunk were talking to him. Or rather resonating with the magic in him. Which was probably the case, but he was going to look more into that. And soon.

All ingredients were in the mortar, only the blood was missing by then and Stiles looked at his mate questioningly.

"Sure, at least when mine comes off, we can attach it again," came the deadpan sarcasm as Derek eyed the large blade which looked more like it was made to cut into arms instead of fingers, especially in the human's hand. Stiles was good at using his gun, better than Derek was. If anything, Derek sucked at it so yeah, he'd trust the other with that without blinking. But knives? Those were a whole other caliber of weapon. It was progress for Stiles to ask for his finger though, so he took what he could get instead of ending up in the ER with the tip of a finger in a bag of ice.

"Or maybe you can use the palm of my hand seeing as I'm not sure how good you are at stitching my finger back on." Derek had anesthetic, he could numb it all up, even for a werewolf, and Stiles could go to town but... avoiding all that hassle would be preferable. It would take time to get it all done.

And it wasn't the first time he provided blood when there was blood needed for spells, non-specific blood, Stiles would use Derek’s since he healed the cut almost right away. Blood magic was powerful, this kind of magic needed it as sacrifice. At least it didn't need animal sacrifices. Derek knew how that would go, Stiles wouldn't be able to slit some bunny's throat or gut it and they'd end up with even more pets. Because Stiles knew Derek would let him too.

Stiles gave Derek an exasperated sigh and eye-roll to that and waved Derek closer. "Well, let's hope it won't get to that. I get a bit queasy from too much blood and reattaching lost limbs..." he shot back on a sarcastic tone but flashed a small smile at his mate.

Then he simply took Derek's hand to lead it over the bowl and carefully cut his finger with the tip of the surprisingly sharp blade. He counted the ten drops of blood as they fell into the bowl then lifted the bleeding finger to his mouth to lick it off. It came off as if he did it without paying much attention but it was actually a requirement of the spell. Using Derek's wolf blood was also something that both helped to locate another wolf and amplified the spell because his blood was fused with Stiles' magic.

After letting the already healed finger slide out of his mouth, he used the tip of the blade to mix the ingredients together and started chanting the words of the spell. Once he was done with that, he put the blade down on the table and dipped the pointy end of the crystal into the mix.

As he let it dangle from its chain and moved it over the center of the map again, the blood curiously didn't drip on the paper. It seemed to stuck to the stone, defying gravity.

Then he steadied his hand and took a deep breath before he began slowly moving the crystal over the map. It was a game of patience and concentration, picturing Zepar in his head as he was working on ruling out the different areas, his eyes and fingers glowing in amber.

"I'm supposed to feel the crystal being drawn to the right spot and it should start swinging in a circle when I get close," he informed Derek but didn't take his glowing eyes off the map and the crystal.

Even a general area of where they were supposed to look would help, because Derek couldn't use his nose to track the alpha, he was able to hide his scent. That didn't mean sight and hearing wasn't going to work. Even if he was hiding in a crowded area, they would comb through it slowly and carefully to get the results they needed. It was about time they were able to turn it around on Zepar, who had been able to take them by surprise twice now, resulting in them not going anywhere by themselves anymore. And being away from Beth to keep her safe. This had to end.

But there was no blame if this didn't work, Stiles was still learning, he couldn't know everything yet. Nor was he going to get everything right at first try, something the human refused to acknowledge because he took his role as Emissary to the small pack very seriously.

"So why wouldn't this work on getting to whoever is leading all these attacks?" Derek was all for giving the smug alpha a beat down, eagerly even, but in the end he had been another pawn in a ploy. It would be more satisfactory to go after the one who had ordered it in the first place.

Stiles thought his reply through while he continued moving the crystal over the map. No results yet. Which was kinda frustrating, but he knew he had to be patient since this kind of spell might need some time to take hold.

"I believe because the 'Leader' is a very strong druid. I had a taste of their power through Zepar, because it's fused with him. It should probably be enough knowing the resonance of that magic to track down a weaker druid, but this one is good. Maybe even specialized in covering their tracks and that's why the magic on Zepar gives him that ability too since he's using this 'Leader's' magic..." he mused. "Also, this spell requires of the caster to know the name and face of the one you want to track. We know the name and that smug mug of Zepar so I can focus on his face while doing this spell. We don't know how this 'Leader' looks like or what their real name is. It's a little bit like Nightcrawler in the X-Men movies. He needs to know the place where he wants to teleport, otherwise he could fall off a cliff or something. In my case if I tried to track this 'Leader' without the required information, I might get too sucked in and get lost in the magic or get false results. Not to mention that even if I somehow managed to take a peek of their whereabouts, they might notice me and repel me and my magic, which could be damaging to me on a mental and spiritual level," he explained then paused, humming to himself.

"It seems he isn't anywhere in town so let's try moving to the surrounding areas," the emissary murmured and concentrated more since their options and chance of success were narrowing down rapidly, so he also strengthened his belief that they could find him.

Right, so that was a no. Derek nodded to the explanation, having the ability to pick from Stiles' long rants what information he needed. It was always remarkable how that busy brain worked, how much was going on in there which showed when there were those long talks. These tracking spells meant they had to know what to track or Stiles would get lost, which would be a bad thing, especially considering the power the one had they were, ultimately, up against.

Quietly he watched his mate do his thing, to see if he could find Zepar, and crossed his arms as he leaned back. In situations like these he wasn't much of a talker, didn't want to distract from the task at hand. One that wasn't as easy as it had seemed when the human had suggested it. Maybe there were better ways, but that would mean contacting Deaton and that wasn't something they were going to do. As long as they didn't know who had relayed all the information, nobody outside the pack was to be trusted.

Deaton had helped them a lot over the years, to think he'd be the one was... not a good thought. The thing with druids was the fact they always had a hidden agenda and they didn't know how infested they were in keeping the 'order' of things. Whatever that might mean.

Stiles wasn't surprised about not getting any response from Derek. He was very used to that by that point, plus he could feel that the wolf understood his explanation. So instead he focused on the task literally at hand and continued with his concentration. After a while he began muttering to himself. It wasn't really clear what he was saying as it could come off as gibberish. In fact, it was that strange language from the black book. The one Stiles had never heard of or studied and was surprised that he was able to read it fluently in the book. But it seemed it was ingrained deeper into him than one might expect. Not that he noticed that he was using it.

But it seemed the murmuring was perhaps helping, because he felt a light pull in his arm, wanting to guide his hand to the left. Experimentally, he went with it and his glowing eyes widened for a split second as the crystal finally moved on its own for the first time.

Leaning a bit more over the table, he watched it begin to draw an even circle in the air. Slowly at first then getting a bit faster as the circle began narrowing down. Excitement flooded the Spark as he slowly moved his hand towards the western outskirts of town where some weekend houses were situated at the edge of the Preserve and town with a pretty view on the latter.

Holding his breath back, he felt the magic zing down through the chain that connected him to the crystal and the stone suddenly stopped over a spot, a single drop of the bloody mixture dropping onto the paper.

"Think this is it! Think we found him!!" he sputtered and focused on ending the spell before putting the crystal down to the side, eyes never leaving the spot. "That sly wolf... He picked a good place. Remote enough not to have many around, but also close enough to town and running along the edges of the Preserve to move fast and undetected," he patted the tip of his long index-finger against the map near the mark.

With how much effort Stiles had put into this, it had to be it, there was no way it wasn't the spot they had to get at. It wasn't that far from the town, not that distances meant much to werewolves, let alone alphas or the ones like Derek who could shift into a full wolf. A car was slower since it had to deal with the established roads and the things which slowed it down; while in a remote area like Beacon Hills, there was a lot of short cuts. In all likelihood, the area was going to be warded and they wouldn't have much of a drop on him with their scents and heartbeats.

"Plenty of trees and animals to somewhat hide us but he's old enough to pick us out of all that." Remote meant nobody around. It complicated their stealth approach considerably. Not even shifting into his wolf form would help. Derek smelled like wolf and there were no wolves here in this part of California, not many. So it would still alert Zepar. “So unless you know how to teleport us like Nightcrawler, we are going to need to make a scent blocker."

Derek hated those, because they were offensive to a werewolf with how important scents were to them. But this was for a good cause so he'd make do with them. Anything to get the drop on Zepar. Them arriving there would be unexpected already but completely useless unless they'd get close enough without being noticed.

Stiles snorted and finally glimpsed up at his mate, straightening up over the map to fold his arms in front of his chest. The magic was pulling back, leaving his fingers and eyes look normal again. "Unfortunately, I'm not on the level yet to open portals like Dr. Strange. But never say never," he rolled his eyes and grinned before patting his chin with his fingertips, lost in thought for a moment, his mind running a mile a minute as usual.

"Lucky for us, though, I thought about the need to cover our presence and scents and I am on the level where that should be possible. The presence part we had practiced with Deaton before and last night I did study stealth tactics that can come in handy to confuse a wolf's sensitive nose," he reached up to gently boop Derek's nose. "Yay for not being able to sleep in the middle of the night?" he snorted and slid his hand down onto Derek's warm chest for physical contact. "Don't worry, the ward and potion I'll use on us won't influence your werewolfy senses. The base of the potion had enough time until now to be ready for the next steps I have to do with it. I'll need like an hour to finish it in the greenhouse. Then we can pull up a more detailed map on my laptop and talk about our strategy," he lightly patted Derek's chest and beamed up at him. "See? Having an emissary and druid as your mate can be quite useful..."

Derek wasn't sure what to think of it all… the way Stiles seemed to pick up everything so easily, as if he had all these powers and spells to himself for years already. As if it was all something that came so naturally. Usually when that happened, there was going to be something happening to balance it. That much gift and power in one body wasn't good, and he didn't think Stiles even saw it. Jennifer would be influenced by healing, it had tired her out enough for them all to take advantage of it. It seemed with Stiles, they could only overload him into an explosion. It made the wolf see that the Druid Council might have a good point, even though their execution to make it happen sucked.

"Yeah…" Derek agreed quietly, knowing he couldn't let his doubts show, not when they had but an hour to get ready for the fight they had been training for. So instead he kissed that beaming face and smacked him on the ass. "Go get ready while I put on some clothes I don't mind losing." It was a given he was going to end up with ruined clothes and now that he had time, it was nice to, for once, not lose the good stuff.

"Ohhh!" Stiles giggled from the slap on his ass and sent Derek a dirty smirk. "Losing clothes. That's something I usually like to hear... in a different situation, of course, but yeaaaahhh...." he grinned. He was quite riled up from the magic and the successful tracking spell. Maybe tonight they will be able to finally put an end to the careful way they had to live lately and the separation from Beth. It was high time, because both of them were fed up with these precautions and being watched all the time.

"So you need anything to take with you? If I have an hour, I might as well make sure we have everything we need." Instead of brooding the entire time.

"Hm... I was thinking that I might take that amazing carved bat you gave me. I already spelled it, but I doubt you can touch it without gloves since it's carved from a rowan tree. Otherwise I'll take my gun with wolfsbane bullets just to make sure. And some mountain ash to trap him. And I expect the place to be warded so I'll have to do some ward-breaking without alerting him. That'll be a bit tricky but I don't need anything else for that just my magic..." he mused. "So... nope, you just change your clothes and wait for me while being sexy," Stiles grinned and rolled onto his tiptoes to kiss Derek. "And most importantly... don't get too injured tonight. I have plans with you after we defeat this asshat," he whispered onto the soft lips before licking between them. The magic was in balance, but that didn't mean they weren't drawn to each other most of the time.

And with that Stiles waltzed towards the spiral staircase, glimpsing back at his wolf with a promising little smirk on his face before climbing upstairs.

Yeah, even with gloves Derek wouldn't be able to pick up the bat. He was still training to handle the mountain ash with his fingers, let alone be able to handle a bat magically spelled to harm werewolves. So yeah, Stiles had a point about him not able to pack or help much. At the little smirk thrown at him, Derek smiled back and moved to get his shirt off, giving a glimpse of flesh to his mate before he moved to bedroom to put on some old jeans and t-shirt. It didn't take him long, it wasn't like he had a lot of clothes to begin with, and five minutes later he had an hour to kill.

He spent it cleaning up the kitchen table and packing all the used herbs for Stiles back in the jars they were supposed to go into. Derek had made a tray from wood where the jars fit in without sliding off when carrying it, to make it easier for the human with all the stairs here. He cleaned up the map and the potion used. He even knew how to cleanse the crystal without influencing it with negative energy. Another fifteen minutes passed.

Using the map's coordinates, he pulled up Google Maps to see if he could get a closer look at the area. Unfortunately, only the town had been made virtual to walk through but the cabins were rented out and the website had many pictures posted for possible guests to see the inside of them and the area they'd be renting. And that made it way easier to know what they'd be dealing with. The cabins were all different, so they didn't know fully what the one was called Zepar was using since the website didn't post the exact locations. He was pretty sure Stiles would be able to find more pictures for them, maybe guests who had been there had posted on Instagram or whatever was used these days. Derek wasn't into social media, didn't follow all the hypes like TikTok and all that kind of idiocy. The falseness of all those media wasn't something he was up for.

Meanwhile upstairs in the greenhouse Stiles was working on finishing the potion which was going to hide their scents and presence temporarily. He followed the instructions closely to make it work perfectly. It was the first time he did something like this but his potions usually came out right for the first try, thanks to being the perfectionist he is with attention to details. With his ADHD mind it was refreshing to discover that studying herbs and brewing potions and concoctions and performing spells proved to help him focus, which has always been hard with his brain condition.

Smiling satisfied when the thick potion took up the described muddy green color, he distilled it, letting it drip into two small glass bottles. Letting it rest a bit, he quickly cleaned up. He was confident it was going to work. After closing the bottles, he quickly re-read some marked spells in the leather-bound note book he had started back when Deaton had invited him to their first practice. His collection of the spells and runes and useful information has been growing in separate entries. He knew witches had such spell books too and his was showing his progress, which in turn made Stiles proud. He was far from the vulnerable and (in his opinion) often useless human he used to be.

Satisfied, he rejoined Derek downstairs by his laptop. "Okay, gorgeous. What have you found?" he asked, putting the bottles on the table and stroked the wolf's back, pressing a small kiss against his cheek. Stiles was starting to buzz with restless energy because of their task ahead.

"I dug up some photos of the area so we're not going in fully blind. And I've called the company of the cabins to see if there's more in use at the moment. Which there are. Our heart beats won't raise immediate suspicion when we're in the area." It also made it harder, of course, noise-wise when fighting Zepar but that was a problem for later. Noah and Parrish had been made aware of the fact there might be some noise complaints coming in. "It means we have to be careful."

And careful wasn't exactly their middle name. Derek would destroy property easily due to his strength in a fight, he roared and howled and Stiles was a spaz, so they were both elephants trampling their ways in a fight. Outside of fights, Derek was a silent creeper, nobody would notice him if he didn't want them to.

"I didn't grab your weapons, because your bat doesn't like me even with gloves. Obviously I'm not worthy."

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