I'd found myself going to the gutted out building in the outskirts of town. It was the place Jared and I had found when we were new to town. It had been perfect for training, not much else other than that though.

We'd managed to get some equipment, or recycled pieces of trash that could be used as equipment.

I wrapped my hands in a gauze tape and punched at the foam wrapped pole in the center of the room.

I'd started training Jared in that room. We'd both healed, and he'd been adamant on learning how to defend himself. three weeks straight of nothing but training. I'd worked with him on hand to hand combat, what he should do if he found himself up against a hunter. He'd done fairly well. After those three weeks though, we hadn't done much in the way of training.

I wasn't sure why I'd come back. I had access to much better equipment at The Torch, but I just needed to be somewhere Jared and I had shared, other than the house. We'd only been there a few days before he left, but we'd practically lived in the gutted out room those three weeks.

I could see those three weeks playing over again, like a movie. Every kick I landed on the post in front of me as I taught him the proper technique. I saw him mirror what I did, landing a kick almost identical.

There was no doubt in my mind that he could handle a lone hunter. He knew the basics, and against one hunter, that was all he really needed to know with the werewolf abilities he had.

Sweat slid down my face, and I was hot and cold at the same time. My heart pounded in my chest and I stretched my arms above my head before resting them, folded, across the top of my head. I walked around the post in the center of the room, finding the grungy mat in one of the corners. We had worked there as well.

It was where we had sparred. He'd been reluctant to actually fight against me, even though he fully knew I could take care of myself.

It was the first time I was feeling the full emotional weight of Jared being gone. How he hadn't been back once. Everywhere I looked was a reminder of him, and a reminder of how I'd messed up completely.

I'd done what I did for us. I knew he hadn't liked the idea, but I'd thought that what I was doing could really, truly help. Now there was nothing to help. He'd been gone four days. In a few hours it would be Monday, and I hadn't heard a word from him since he walked out that night.

How could he just walk out like that and say nothing? How could he just completely drop me like that after everything? He'd taken a bullet for me, and I'd risked my life to save him. If we were supposedly meant to be together, then how could it have been so easy for him to just walk out like that without looking back?

My hand lashed out, punching the wall. My fist went straight through the drywall and I retracted it quickly, yelling in pain, cradling the hand to my chest. Pain shot from my knuckles to my wrist and up my arm.

That hadn't been smart of me.

Gingerly, I unwrapped my hand, flinching at the pain still radiating throughout.

There were no cuts thanks to the gauze wrapping, but it was red from the impact. Most likely a sprain, possibly some fractured knuckles. I was likely to see bruising before the morning. Broken and damaged on the outside, just as I felt it within.

I wrapped my hand back up, tighter this time to keep everything still to counteract possible swelling and to stabilize the hand and wrist.

Calculating the distance between where I was and the house, I decided to run it. I hadn't run in a while, and it was about what I'd been used to running at home.

A car sat in front of my house, a black car. I'd debated running the other way. Why would there be a car there? What if it was someone coming after me, or maybe they were after Jared, and thought he was still with me.

Or maybe it was Jared.

A swelling in my chest nearly caused my breathing to sputter out. I'd been pacing myself the entire way, feeling the breaths gradually quicken, but the thought of Jared coming back ruined all the breath training I had, and caused my to push myself faster.

It wasn't Jared though. I recognized the vehicle. It was Isaac.

He opened the door and got out as I approached the parked car.

"Eliza, how is it going?"

"Could be better." I locked my fingers behind my head to help with the breathing issue I was having.

Isaac looked me over once, his eyes assessing everything about me.

"We've gotten wind of witches doing dark magic. There could be a couple of them. They may be connected to that pack we're after," Isaac said.

"And Klarke wants me to go in and kill them?" I laughed harshly.

"Actually, I was coming by to see if you would help me look into them. I don't want to fight them, just see what's going on."

"Listen, Isaac. I appreciate that you want to keep me involved in things or something, but witches aren't really my thing. Tomorrow is Monday, and I'll be back in The Torch doing regular things, whatever that is."

"That's not why I'm here, Electra." The use of my actual name from his lips caused my back to go rigid. "I came because I genuinely thought you could help. This wasn't out of pity, or simply for inclusion. You are a good hunter, a great one even. Your only problem is you let yourself get in your own way."

"I don't know wh-"

"You know exactly what I mean. You go back and forth between ruthless killer and sympathetic pacifist. You don't know what you want to do, and it's going to get you in trouble. I'm not trying to say you should be the ruthless killer, but I'm not saying you should be a pacifist either."

"Isaac,"

"Don't 'Isaac' me. What you did for Klarke, was for him. You did it so you weren't found out. You did it to prove your worth to The Torch, or to Klarke at least. Think about what that means. You were given the week off. You were rewarded for what you did."

"Awesome, I was rewarded for killing someone." I crossed my arms. Anger had started to bubble up again.

"You did what you were told, and it kept you alive, and on the good side of one of the more powerful leaders in our group."

"But it damaged my relationship...possibly beyond repair." I ran my hand through my hair.

"I'm sorry about that, but I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that you were going home and telling your boyfriend about what we do. I'm also not going to ask why he cares at all. The less I know, the better. Now are you going to help me, or am I wasting my time?"

"You said dark magic?" I crossed my arms, shifting slightly.

Isaac nodded once. His eyes were glued to mine. I knew there were all sorts of questions he wanted to ask, but like he said, he didn't want to know. The less he knew the better. And some of it I couldn't tell him, because I wasn't even sure of everything. Mainly when it came to me.

"How are we going to defend ourselves? We don't exactly have magic to go up against theirs."

He rolled up a sleeve, revealing an iron band with a gem in it. It was the blue chalcedony stone, one that was supposed to protect the wearer from evil magic.

"The stone was enabled with a protection spell as well as it's natural properties before being placed in the iron band. If it works the way it's supposed to, it should protect us from the black magic."

Isaac held out another band for me to wear. I slipped it on my wrist, turning it over so the stone was at the center. A tingle radiated through my wrist before moving up my arm.

I went to Isaac's car, opening the door and sliding in. I twisted the band on my wrist as the tingle made it's way up to my heart. I should have been worried. I had more than four years of training that told me never to trust magic, but the feeling the band gave me was one of comfort, not anything malicious.

"Wouldn't the iron nullify the magic on the stone?" I asked as the tingling sensation in my arm faded. It was the magic in the stone working through me, protecting me. A strange feeling of peace settled over me. It was something I hadn't felt since before my mother died and I became aware of the hidden world within our own.

Isaac shut the door and started the car. "Not as long as it's infused before being set into the iron. In that case, the iron locks it in."

"So they won't be able to use their magic on us at all?" I wasn't sure why I was asking. I knew iron was supposed to block a witch's power. We'd had plenty of iron back home, but they'd always been weapons or restraints to keep the witches from using magic at all. I hadn't thought of wearing the iron myself.

"As long as the iron and the stone do their job, that is correct."

I looked out the window as we drove. I'd discovered that Isaac, like me, wasn't one for idle chitchat. It had been one of the things that let me feel comfortable around him. I knew there wouldn't be that feeling of a need to fill the space with talk that meant nothing. If something was said, it was either important, or actual conversation.

"How was your day looking for Layke?" Isaac kept his eyes on the road, his voice only expressing curiosity.

"Nearly got killed. They knew how to fight." I rubbed the back of my head where I'd been hit.

"Why do you think our people have only watched from the distance?" There was a slight smile. He was clearly amused by something, but I wasn't sure what. If I hadn't been able to get through to them, to make them believe I wasn't like Klarke and his people, they would have ended my life.

He could feel the anger seething off me with that strange ability we both harnessed. I knew he could.

"They weren't going to kill you." That upturn of his lips twitched like he was trying to hide it, but just couldn't.

"Really? Because it sure felt like they were. Or they were going to torture me."

"They weren't going to." The smile was completely gone now. No touch of humor left. 

"How do you know?"

"Because they knew you were coming. I told them who you were." 

Isaac's lips pursed as he kept his eyes straight on the road. He'd contacted Layke and her people. He'd told them I was going there, and what I was going there for. He'd risked his position, and if this Klarke was like the Klarke I knew, which he seemed to be, Isaac had risked his life.

"I thought you said you only knew the name." I'd sensed he knew more than he was letting on, but I didn't think that could be possible. 

"I lied. I know Layke and her people fairly well. I'd been one of the people assigned to watch them. I know exactly who they are, and they know me. It took a while, but I gained their trust."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" 

"Because I didn't want to connect myself to what you were doing. I should have, because what I did do was more damning than just letting you know, but I just didn't." Silence filled the space between us again. I didn't know what to say to that, and he obviously wasn't offering up anything else. 

"We're here." Isaac got out, shutting the door behind him loudly. 

Apparently we weren't going for the sneak approach.

"It would be pointless. Even with the bands, their wards would alert them to our presence," Isaac said, once again knowing exactly what I was thinking. It unnerved me.

"Would you stop that?" I said sharply.

"You'd be able to as well if you accepted the gift you had and worked with it instead of ignoring it like you have your whole life." He wouldn't look my way. He hadn't since we got in the car in front of my place. 

"Maybe I don't want to."

"Don't want to understand what people are feeling, to guess what they're thinking, or to embrace the gift we you were given?"

"You seem to know exactly what I'm thinking, so you tell me." I was getting fed up with him. Cousin or not, I was no longer sure I'd be able to be around him. 

"You don't know the answer. That's why you're frustrated with it, Eliza. You don't know how to use it to your advantage. Right now, it's just something you have that you can't contol. You don't understand it or how it works, and that scares you. Ever since you've known about this world, you've been taught that anything outside of the ordinary is dangerous and evil." He turned to me then, his eyes dark. 

"Your anger is all up to you. You choose to be angry at things you don't understand instead of trying to understand them. Even with your werewolf boyfriend." 

My heart stopped. I'd been careful, at least I thought I had. He shouldn't know about Jared. He shouldn't have known a lot of things about me and my life that he seemed to know.

"You have feelings for him, but you can't truly accept what he is. Even if he has no blood on his hands, even if he lays his life down for yours, you can't accept it because you don't understand it, and you were taught what he is, is evil. He could suppress his wolf for the rest of his life, and you still wouldn't be satisfied."

My mouth was dry, and hanging open slightly. I couldn't think of a single thing to say. It was like Isaac had completely stripped me bare and looked at my insides. 

"Now," he went on, "we have some witches to talk to about black magic and lethal werewolves."

*****

Here's another chapter for you all. Apparently Isaac keeps learning more about Electra as each day passes. And even more about Jared. What do you all think about this?

Hopefully I'll have another chapter soonish for you all. Thank you for sticking with me.

Red Assassin