The heavy steel door slid open with a muted creak, revealing the eerie stillness of the loft. Isaac, Erica, and Boyd stepped inside, their footsteps echoing against the bare walls. From the dim shadows cast by the sparse furniture, Derek's voice sliced through the silence.
"Go back to school."
Isaac shrugged, his expression a mix of sarcasm and playfull. "We can't. The three of us are incredibly, unbelievably sick."
Derek chuckled dryly. "With what? Brain damage?"
Isaac rubbed his temples. "I have a migraine that feels like a marching band in my head. Boyd—" He gestured to Boyd. "Boyd has explosive diarrhea. And Erica..."
Erica crossed her arms defensively. "I have really bad cramps."
Derek was perched on the steps of the spiral staircase, leaning slightly forward as he tried to suppress a grin. The corners of his mouth betraying him as a reluctant smile broke through.
Boyd piped up. "We're here to protect you."
Derek's amusement turned to warmth as he met Boyd's earnest gaze. "You're here to protect me? Now I'm in trouble," he replied with a teasing note in his voice.
Erica stepped forward, her voice firm and unwavering. "We're not taking no for an answer, Derek. A pack always fights together, no matter what."
Derek looked at them, his expression shifting to one of gratitude and respect. The weight of their loyalty struck a chord within him, and he nodded slowly. "Alright then."
~~~~~
Past the opaque window in the door of Coach's darkened office, two figures meet, a clandestine rendezvous.
Bella pulls away for a moment. "You know I'm supposed to be helping you with your powers, right?"
Lydia bats her eyelashes, "but you are. This will help me de-stress,"
Bella shakes her head and giggles as Lydia pulls her in for a kiss.
Lydia yanks Bella's T-shirt up, pulling it over her head. Lydia moves to kiss her. But Bella takes her chin, turning hef cheek, her lips brushing lightly against her neck as--
the fire alarm begins blaring. Lydia pulls back, hearing the rush of footsteps through the corridor outside.
"Where you going?" Bella asks.
"It's a fire alarm." Lydia says.
Bella shakes her head. "If there was a real fire I would smell it." She takes a deep breath and sighs. "No fire but, Cora get in here."
"Cora?" Lydia asks confused.
The door opens and Cora enters pleased with herself.
"Why did you pull the fire alarm?" Bella asks.
"Because it's fun and I didn't want to walk in on whatever this was," Cora says.
"And you couldn't have called out to me?" Bella asks as she puts her shirt back on.
"I did" Cora nods to herself. "but you were too busy sucking her face you didn't hear so I went for the next best option."
"Right," Bella says now embarrassed.
Lydia giggles amused by all of this. She turns to Cora. "So what did you want."
"The Hyperactive kid is look for you,"
"You mean Stiles?" Lydia asks.
Stiles steps through on the locker room side of the office looking serious. "Yes, She means me,"
Bella looked at him amused 'Did he wait there to make an entrance'.
~~~~
Weaving through the crowded corridor, Scott's phone buzzes with a text from Astrid: Come to the Pack house. Before he can reply he gets another text this time from Stiles: Found her.
Scott begins thumbing a reply when a sound drifts toward him. A familiar tapping. Fingers paused over his phone, he slowly looks up as the rhythmic tapping becomes louder and louder.
Slipping the phone back into his pocket, Scott starts forward, following the tapping along the corridor.
~~~~
In the empty classroom, Stiles opens a box on one of the tables in front of Cora, Bella and Lydia. Peering inside, Lydia removes a planchette from the box as Stiles unfolds a telltale board with letters and numbers on it.
"A Ouija board?" Lydia asks.
"Also called a spirit board. And it's worth a shot." Stiles explains.
"A shot in the dark." Lydia retorts.
"Will you just try?" Stiles asks. "This is for Scott's boss. The guy who's saved our collective asses more than once."
"It doesn't work like that, Stiles." Bella says. "Lydia is a Banshee,"
"As in the wailing woman?" Stiles asks.
Bella nods. "She can predict the death of a person she knows or find the body of a person killed by supernatural means and other abilities she hadn't discovered yet."
"So this could work?" Stiles asks hopeful.
"It would have if Lydia knew the guy really well. The more a Banshee is close with a person like family, best friend, or Pack member the more in tune with their frequency they'll be. This makes it easier to predict the persons death giving the Banshee time to save them or see to the event." Bella explains.
"There has to be a way to safe him," Stiles says.
Bella gives him a reassuring smile. "I didn't say we should stop trying. What else you got?"
"Well, I was gonna give her his keys to try psychometry but that's out of the question so." Stiles takes out a note book and a pencil.
"Automatic writing?" Lydia asks.
Stiles nods. Skeptical, Lydia takes the pencil and presses the tip to a sheet of paper. Bella, Cora and Stiles peer over her shoulders, watching her draw.
"What the hell's that?" Stiles asks.
"A tree." Lydia says. She smiles down at a skillfully drawn leafless tree. Bella frowns her mind racing. 'Why does that look so familiar?' She thinks eyeing the drawing.
"Well that was a bust," Cora says.
Lydia then says something without focusing on her words as she's preoccupied with the drawing. "Honestly, I don't know why you're bothering with me anyway. Especially when it's completely obvious that you should be talking to Danny."
"Danny? Why Danny?" Stiles asks.
"Because last night he was a target..." Scott says. They turn to see Scott walking in, holding his shoulder.
"But he wasn't a sacrifice."
~~~~~~
The five plus Kathrine regroup at the pack house as Scott shows them the text he got from Astrid.
"Did you find Deaton?" Scott asks as they walk into the living room where Astrid, Allison, Athena, Maya, and Akira are seat looking at a map of Beacon Hills.
Astrid shakes her head. "Unfortunately no but we found something that could lead us to him." She gestures to the map. "See this map? Chris has been tracking and marking everything. The bank. The Alphas penthouse. All of the bodies... these marking some of them are where the victims where taken from and where they where found."
Stiles interjects. "Wait hold on a second. There are 12 marking on this map but there where six bodies found?"
"Good eye, Stiles." Maya says smiling.
"What does that mean?" Scott asks. "Did he find other bodies and you guys didn't tell anyone?"
"It means where the bodies are going to be found." Allison tells him. "And one of these other six locations--one of these is where Deaton's body could end up. It doesn't tell us where he's being kept right now--"
"But it's close to figuring it out." Scott finishes. "Can we even get to all these places in time?"
Before Astrid can say something Stiles interjects.
"Maybe we don't have to. Danny was doing a project on something for Mr. Harris's Physics class. And I think it might actually mean something."
"What project?" Scott asks.
"It's about something called Telluric Currents." Stiles says as goes through his bag. Astrid smiles internally as she was about to tell them about the currents if Stiles hadn't had time to go see Danny because of her interference.
"It's a project on geo-magnetic fields. They flow through the earth and can even be affected by lunar phases. Look at this. It's a note from Harris on Danny's proposal." Stiles shows them Danny's proposal page where teacher's notes have been written in red.
Lydia reads it aloud. "Danny, I strongly advise you to choose another subject. The ideas here, while innovative and thoughtful, border on pseudoscience. Not suitable for class."
"Harris wasn't just a sacrifice. He knew something." Scott realizes.
"Now check this out. Allison's dad isn't the only one with a map." Stiles unfolds a normal road map of Beacon Hills. Strange wavy lines have been marked all over it. "Danny marked the telluric currents. And the weird thing about Beacon Hills is that it literally is a beacon. There's tons of energy surging through the earth around this town."
"They match," Astrid says as she takes out a marker pen and put down marks on Danny's. Every mark was on the currents. "If we follow the currents then--" She traces the marker from the clinic all the way to the Bank. "Deaton is here in the vault."
Grabbing his helmet, Scott hurries for the door with the others behind him.
"Scott you go ahead and safe your boss while we head to Derek's to help him with the Alpha pack," Astrid tells him. Scott nods and rushes out.
"You're letting go on his own?" Lydia asks.
"No," Astrid says and turns to Kathrine, Akira, and Maya. "You three go with him," 'Only help him if he really needs it' she continues mentally. "The rest of us we head over to Derek. It's time I showed the Alpha pack why they should have let this silly matter alone."