Wow, guys. Thanks for all the reviews and follows. They're much appreciated. I honestly had no idea that these characters (Erica, Isaac, and Boyd) and this pairing had as many fans as it does. Cool, cool, cool.

Edited because I'm an idiot and despite watching numerous episodes numerous time, I wrote Erica's eyes as being a colour they are in fact not. Thanks random, nameless reviewer, but you really don't have to point out my mistakes anonymously. Carry on!

A Long Shot - Chapter 2

The dance floor was exhilaratingly crowded by the time Erica set foot onto it. Sweat-slicked bodies moved in time to a beat that pumped hard and fast through dozens of speakers, pounded through the floor, and shuddered up through the souls of her feet until her very body pulsed with it. Tossing her head back and raising her arms above her head, Erica's hips moved with every beat of the heavy bass as she wove deeper into the press of bodies to be absorbed by the crowd, to be lost in it.

From his perch at the balcony bar, Isaac kept a watchful eye on Erica as she moved with sinuous grace through the packed dance floor, stopping only for brief moments when a hand would catch her hip to pull her closer. His keen werewolf sight allowed him to see the amused glint in her eye and the flirty smile she bestowed on each momentary partner before pulling herself away with ease and sensual grace. She wasn't to be deterred from her goal and Isaac couldn't help but smile into his drink every time she left yet another disappointed dancer in her wake.

Erica moved to where the dancing was heaviest – to that sweet spot between the largest speakers where the bass pumped hardest and the beat pulsed so heavily she could almost feel the rhythm replace the beat of her heart. Since being bitten, Erica had relished in all the wonderful ways it had changed her life; increased speed, agility, and strength were all amazing things to have and she benefited from them on a regular basis, but the ability to walk onto a dance floor in a club illuminated only by rapid flashes of multicoloured light and not fall to the ground in an epileptic fit was by far the best part of being a werewolf.

That probably wasn't right and Derek or Isaac or Boyd wouldn't hesitate to point out all the other more important aspects to her new lifestyle, but with her body utterly exhilarated by the music, Erica found that she really couldn't drum up any spare energy to care. After years of being a captive of her own body, this was how she chose to be set free.

She felt fingertips skim across her hips. As she allowed herself to be pulled back against a warm body, Erica recalled fleetingly that she was supposed to be mad at Isaac. Not only had he essentially forced her to change out of her first choice outfit and into a pair of skin-tight leather pants when he'd insisted that they take his motorcycle, but he'd actually expected her to bring in some tag along he'd picked out of the line outside the club. She probably wouldn't have minded the latter so much if it hadn't been Rebecca Donovan; the girl who'd once been the single most vile contributor to the daily events that used to make her life a living hell at school.

But the body pressed up against her back was definitely not Isaac's. With the heavy mix of sweat, cologne, and sweet perfume mingling in the air, Erica found it impossible to rely on her sense of smell, but unless Isaac had grown a rather shapely pair of breasts during the last couple of hours, Erica was pretty certain he was still up at the bar. She allowed her head to fall back onto her new companion's shoulder and savoured the delicious friction along her skin as their bodies moved with the new and slower rhythm.

Isaac unconsciously leaned slightly forward over and raised an eyebrow. A wicked smile slowly crept across his face and he tossed back the rest of his drink is one swift gulp. Mentally, he considered the chances of Erica not clawing his face off if he were to join her and her dark-haired friend on the dance floor. Until Erica had turned on him, furious, after they'd entered the club and reamed him out for suggesting they bring Rebecca in with them, he hadn't known about the history between the two girls. He and Erica hadn't exactly moved in the same social circles prior to their transformations. He hadn't exactly moved in any social circles. It had been especially difficult to have any friends when he'd been the one everyone pitied for having coming to school sporting a new bruise each and every week.

Isaac scowled at the thought and for a brief moment wished he hadn't downed that last drink so quickly. He could have used that last little bit to burn away those particular memories of his father.

Turning his attention back to the writhing mass of bodies and flashing lights below, he suddenly noticed Erica had turned around and was looking straight back at him. He raised both eyebrows and with a tiny quirk of his lips, acknowledged her by lifting his empty glass. She smiled back at him, all traces of her earlier snapping fury gone. She darted her tongue out to wet her bottom lip and sent him a long slow smile to match the seductive sway of her hips against her partner's. She beckoned with her head an invitation as her hands reached back to pull the other girl's lips closer to her exposed neck. A quick jolt of lust reminded him how sensitive a spot that was for her.

Isaac's hand tightened around his glass, but he made no move to join her. Instead he mouthed an innocent, "Who me?" and grinned when her eyes flashed amber for the briefest of seconds.

His grin faded when Erica whispered something into the other girl's ear that caused her to raise her dark head away from Erica's neck and smile seductively in Isaac's general direction. Without Erica's eye sight there was no way she could actually spot him in the sea of flashing lights and dark bodies, but it was enough for him to catch her wink at him with eyes so dark they appeared black. His stomach clenched. Erica's own bright eyes laughed at him from beneath heavy lids as she continued to move in time to the beat against her partner and he was up out of his chair, empty glass abandoned, and halfway down the stairs before she could so much as toss her head back and laugh.

Making his way as quickly as he could through the crowded club, Isaac alternated glances between where he was going and the pair on the increasingly crowded dance floor.

So he wouldn't lose them and spend the next hour or two trying to find them again, was what he told himself.

Finally reaching the edge of the dance floor, a struggle to his left caught his eye and he couldn't help but quickly glance over. He'd just been about to plunge into the swarming sea of bodies, but the sight of two burly men crowding a smaller figure into a dark corner was enough to make him pause. Isaac watched, a familiar tightness growing in his chest, as one of the larger figures grabbed the smaller one roughly by the arm, jerked him practically off his feet to snap something in his face Isaac couldn't make out above the blaring music, and proceeded to drag him off towards a dimly lit, employees-only corridor.

Isaac looked around for security, but no one else appeared to have noticed the altercation. Looking back towards the dance floor, Isaac quickly realised that in those few seconds he'd lost sight of Erica. She'd probably have a few choice words for him later for abandoning her, but with only a small pang of regret he quickly changed direction, pushing his way determinedly through the crowd towards the corridor the three figures had taken.

As Isaac moved away from the masses of people and towards the emptier back corridors of the club, Erica moved her body to the harder rhythms the DJ had begun sending throughout the club. The dark-haired girl she was dancing with tugged on the low waistband of her pants. Looking up at the taller girl, Erica shook her head when the girl gestured with a nod of her head, a seductive gleam in her bright eyes, for the two of them to make their way off the dance floor. Erica felt a long, slow pull from inside out as the girl ran her hands down over her back, her hips, her ass, but as much as she wanted to act on the delicious surge of lust, Erica didn't quite want to lose the adrenaline rush of the pulsing dance rhythms just yet. Erica let go and shook her head again. With a wide apologetic smile, she spun back around to face the DJ and missed the quick flash of surprise on the girl's face before she was absorbed back into the dancing crowd.

Erica figured it had been about four songs since she'd graciously forgiven Isaac for his earlier indiscretion by inviting him down for the pleasure of her company and he remained nowhere to be found. Slowing her movements, Erica swiveled her head around, trying to see over the heads of other dancers to spot the distinct dirty blonde curls of her fellow werewolf.

He'd probably been grabbed by Rebecca and her overly-sequined mini-dress and was off being inexpertly groped, a small voice mockingly reasoned inside her head, but Erica couldn't quite shake the feeling that that wasn't what had happened at all.

Growing up, her mother had liked to sweetly joke that she was, in fact, a little psychic. Her seizures had always come with a warning, an aura, a tinge of the metallic taste of blood in her mouth before she would lose consciousness and control of her body. To help her see some sick sort of upside to her illness, Erica's mother would call it her superpower.

Now she knew better, but that didn't change the fact that the longer she spent looking for Isaac and not finding him, the worse her stomach tightened itself into knots. Erica knew she wasn't psychic, but maybe this was some weird side effect of being betas in the same pack. Derek had explained very little aside from teaching them how to protect themselves, but he'd always emphasised the importance of one's pack.

Maybe, Erica thought to herself as she began snaking her way off the crowded dance floor, this sixth sense about the other pack members was a part of that.

With no other information to work with, Erica decided to start her search at the last place she'd seen him. Keeping an eye out for him as she carefully picked her way through the crowd towards the stairs leading up the bar, Erica missed the hand waving to get her attention. She'd climbed the bottom step when a tight grip on her wrist forced her around. Erica reached blindly for the railing with her other hand to keep her balance, her eyes flashing once before she could control herself.

"Careful there, blondie," her dark-haired dance partner from earlier said, one perfectly sculpted eyebrow raised in amusement. "You do that to the wrong person and you'll find yourself in pieces before you let out so much as a whimper."

Erica gaped at the girl. With the benefit of that one step, they were now eye to eye. Erica stared, shocked into speechlessness, into eyes so dark a grey they appeared almost black and bottomless and endless. The longer she stared, the less she found she cared about finding Isaac, and the more she wanted to just fall into their infinite depths for an eternity. It was as though a fog had come rolling into her mind and wiped everything from it but those deep, dark, endless pools.

A hard shake snapped Erica out of the daze. She felt the other girl's nails bite into her wrist so hard they drew blood. The pain helped to steady her further and Erica welcomed it. That unsettled feeling in her stomach was back and along with it came a stab of fear at the realisation that this girl was a lot more than just the phenomenal dancer she'd appeared to be earlier.

Erica struggled to break out of the girl's tight hold, but the girl held firm.

"Look, you need to let go so I can -" Erica struggled to gather her thoughts long enough to finish her sentence, but it was just so hard to grasp onto the words she was having difficulty forming with a tongue that felt two sizes too big for her mouth.

Nails bit into her wrist harder. Erica gasped from the pain, but finally stopped struggling. Her head was clearing more rapidly now and while her heart was still racing, she could think a little more clearly.

The girl nodded as she watched Erica blink the haze out of her eyes, the deep brown shining more clearly than it had mere moments before. She bit back a sigh and waited for Erica to regain all of her faculties. When she did, the girl allowed herself to gently pull her hand free of Erica's wrist.

"Good," the girl said as she wiped the blood indelicately off on her short skirt. "Now, you need to go help your boyfriend."

Erica frowned in confusion. "How do you know Isaac?"

"Is that really the most important thing right now?"

Erica shook her head.

"Good," the girl repeated. "You need to go to him because he's gotten his pretty little ass involved in something it never should have even been near." She gestured with her chin over to a side corridor in the other direction from the bar.

Erica narrowed her eyes at her, but stepped off the stairs and around the girl with a nod of thanks. The sense of dread that had come over her earlier was back with a vengeance and this mysterious dance partner of hers wasn't exactly making it lessen by being horrifically cryptic. There were dozens of questions bubbling up in Erica's head, but the feeling that Isaac was in danger was growing so quickly that it was becoming impossible to ignore.

"Hey."

This time Erica was stopped with a lighter touch to her wrist. She turned her head to glance back out of the side of her eye, now anxious to find Isaac.

The girl lowered her head to speak directly into Erica's ear, her long dark hair falling in a curtain around their faces and blocking out the rest of the club.

"When you find him, you grab him and you get out of there," she said with quiet earnest. Her voice was calm, but there was sharpness in her tone. "Don't stay and make chit chat with them, do you hear me? Don't piss them off. Nothing good ever came of that for anybody, not even for werewolves."

Erica sucked in a ragged breath. How did she know?

"You get him and you get out, blondie," she repeated one more time before pulling away.

Erica spun around, questions spilling from her lips despite her rising panic, but she'd somehow already melted back into the crowd.

Taking a deep breath, Erica began moving again in the direction the girl had pointed. The empty corridor looked innocuous enough if a little strange being that the club was packed and it was typically exactly the sort of space that eager couples would be taking full advantage of, 'employees only' sign or not.

Her heels clicked against the cement floor and echoed off the walls. Erica stopped. She realised she couldn't hear the music any longer which shouldn't have been possible given that she had only taken five steps down the hallway. Looking behind her, she could still see people dancing to a beat she could no longer hear. Slowly she turned her head back around, inhaling sharply as she did, and swallowing the bubbling panic in her throat back down.

She kept her gaze locked on the single door at the end of the hallway as she resumed walking. This was starting to resemble something out of a horror movie. All signs pointed to this ending very, very badly for her. Nothing good ever happened to the pretty blonde who opened that first creepy door in a dimly lit corridor.

But you're not just a pretty blonde, are you, a firm voice declared in her head.

Erica snapped her claws out with a flick of her wrists. She couldn't feel it happening, but she knew her dark eyes were glowing bright yellow. More confident that she was capable of handling whatever mess Isaac had gotten himself into, Erica's steps were more certain and less tentative as she walked those final few feet to the door.

Breathing heavily through her nose, Erica reached with one clawed hand to turn the door handle and with the other she slowly pushed the heavy metal door open.

A lone light bulb spread weak and garish pale yellow light on the rows of metal shelves that stood along the walls on either side of the room. Directly beneath it on the dirty cement floor laid Isaac face up, bloody, and beaten. The collar of his black button down shirt was ripped, buttons were missing, and his black pants were dirty and torn at both knees.

For one brief terrifying moment, Erica thought he was dead and suddenly it was as though the air around her had become too thick to inhale. Her heart seized. She stood frozen in the doorway. When she saw his chest rise and fall with a shuddering breath and caught the deep beat of his heart, she surged forward towards him with a heavy gasp.

Two steps away from him she hit solid air and was thrown backwards. Groaning, she sat slumped against the suddenly closed door for several seconds as she struggled to regain her breath. Slowly, she got back up on shaking legs and moved more slowly this time towards Isaac's prone form.

"Isaac?" She whispered. When he failed to respond, she tried again louder. "Can you hear me?"

Not wanting to take any chances, Erica reached out with one tentative hand to feel for whatever it was that had knocked her back. She watched Isaac stir on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard him moan softly. She might not be able to get close to him, but at least she could talk to him to find out what had happened.

Her hand bounced back and Erica pulled it towards her chest. She came to a halt. Her fingers tingled, but she counted her upright status as a win.

"Isaac?" She repeated. Her hands and the rest of her were shaking, but her voice was firm. "Isaac, what happened to you? What's going on here?"

Isaac groggily raised his head out of the small pool of his own blood and saliva on the floor. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his fuzzy vision, and managed to croak out only two words that helped to explain exactly nothing before his head thudded against the floor and he lost consciousness once more.

"Fucking fairies."

Feedback, of any kind, is always appreciated.