"Please remove your shoes and socks."

"Remove our shoes and socks?" I asked. My eyebrow rose. She was crazy. 

"Yes," the High Priestess of Wilde said. "This is a sacred room, and what we do requires grounding. Because we won't be performing this outside with the elements, it's even more crucial to be as in touch with all elements as much as possible."

"Just take them off," Isaac whispered to me. "We need their help. Just do as they say."

"Pretty sure that phrase has gotten people killed before."

Isaac gave me a stern look before taking off his own shoes and socks. I followed suit, though I wasn't happy about it. 

The marble floor was icy against the bottoms of my feet, and a hum flowed through the ground and into my body. It was an energy similar to what I'd felt flow through me when the coven leader had attacked me in the other room. It was magic. It flowed through the very walls and floors of the home. 

The thought unnerved me, but we had gone to them for their help, magical help. I couldn't shy away from the very thing we were there for. 

"You," the woman pointed toward me. "Kneel in the center."

I looked at the center she was talking about. It was a giant pentagram outlined in black on the otherwise white floor. 

A wave of panic flowed through me. Pentagrams and magic were always things I'd learned were evil. While I hadn't come into contact with many witches during my time, only one in fact, not counting this coven, I'd learned that all things associated with them should be avoided. Even though 

"You'll need to take that bracelet off. It's properties will interfere with our magic."

I fingered the metal and stone secured around my wrist. I didn't want to make myself vulnerable to her again.

Isaac touched my shoulder and I jumped. He nodded and I reluctantly freed my wrist of the weight, my only protection against the women in the room. 

"Why do I have to be in the center?" 

"Because you're not as attached to the end goal as he is, and you're mind is more susceptible." There was a smirk with her last words. She thought I'd be easier to manipulate than Isaac. 

I wanted to protest, to let her know just how wrong she was, but I was in no position to do that. We were at their mercy, and she had just been in my head not too long ago.  

"You go to the alter. Step into the water and concentrate on the information you desire." She shooed Isaac over to the pond at the front of the room with the alter.

"You must enter the circle of your own free will."  

I rubbed my hands on my pants to get rid of the clamminess, and taking a deep breath, I took my first step inside the circle. The hairs on my arms stood on end and a pulse went straight through me. It was the magic that connected the circle. 

At the center, I lowered myself onto my knees as the Coven leader made her way directly in front of me. She glanced around the circle, receiving a nod from each witch in turn signaling their ready. 

Her words were but a whisper, certain to fall short before reaching Isaac's ears. "You think I fell pray to your act out there, but it was you who fell into my trap."

Before I had the chance to register or act to what she'd said, her fingers grasped at each side of my head. Her nails imprinted at my temple, just below my ear, the corner of my jaw, and at my neck, leaving her thumbs to rest over my closed eyes. 

A flare went from my scalp all the way to my toes and I felt stripped bare. It was like a worm was wriggling around inside my mind and I could do nothing to stop it. I was frozen, not out of fear or shock, but due to magic. Maybe I would be paralyzed forever. 

two scenes played before me, mixing together until it was impossible to tell which was which. A pack of wolves, no, they were humans, but they felt like wolves. They were the pack we were after. Plotting their next attack on the human world. In just a few days time they would be ready. 

But where were they?

Jared. His face flashed before me again. But he wasn't alone, he was with another woman. They were in each other's arms, his chest bare. She had nothing but a bra on. The look in his eyes so tender. He'd looked at me like that just once, when I'd broken down at Durin's safe house. 

The pack once more took precedence as they dispersed. The frame followed as they left the building. They were surrounded by trees. 

"I should have known better than to even try with you. From that first night it was obvious you were nothing but a monster." Jared's words filtered over the image I was seeing. I tried to shake my head but it was stuck. No movement allowed. 

"Please," I whimpered. 

The pack dispersed through trees. They were thin in that area. There couldn't be that many wooded areas around London, and I wouldn't think they would stay that far from their home. 

"You only ever bring death, destruction, and pain wherever you go. Our relationship was no different. It had been a waste of my time. I could have moved on long ago if I wouldn't have filled my head with all that mate nonsense."

I felt the hot sting of tears at the corner of my closed eyes. I could do nothing but watch as the events passed and hear that disappointed voice. The one that finally gave up on me. And here I was, in London by myself, forced to be someone I wasn't all because I'd been foolish enough to think it would be worth it to run away from everything I knew to be with a werewolf. 

Finally, one of the members passed by a sign giving away their location. 

"You'll never be worthy of love, Electra. You're cool heart isn't capable of such a luxury."

The pressure on my head released and my body crumpled over, my head connecting with the cool ground. "Why?" I sobbed. 

Water sloshed in the distance, and feet slid across the ground as Isaac made his way over to me. 

"I wanted you because I thought you would be interesting. A huntress who came in here and faced down a coven of witches, the leader no less. But you're just as predictable as any other human. Afraid of rejection, of the one you want not wanting you back, of not being worth of such a thing. Quite a bore."

"You said you were going to help us," Isaac snapped. 

"I did, little sensitive. You must have your abilities turned off. I never said I wouldn't have my fun while I helped." The High Priestess of Wilde placed her hands behind her back as she looked down at me, my eyes turning up. 

"Oxleas Wood," I said. I felt like I was going to vomit, but I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of that. it would be like she'd won. Won some sick, twisted game. No, that wouldn't do. 

I sat back on my heels and smoothed my shirt before getting up in one swift movement. Why this witch was determined to make me live through the Hell of losing Jared over and over, I wasn't sure. It must be some sick game she liked to play. 

"On the contrary dear," she said reading my mind, or my face. "It was just your deepest, darkest fear. You're insecure in your newly found love. You're afraid that it was a mistake, and that it won't work out. That your lover will discover you're not worth the time it would take to break you of your dark habits."

"He isn't my lover," I snarled, remembering how anytime he'd tried to advance things I'd stopped him. I never knew why, but maybe it was because I was afraid I would mess up or that he would realize I wasn't worth it. 

"This would say otherwise," The woman's nail brushed against the nearly invisible mark on my neck, and the heat flared up. A heat like I felt every time I was with Jared, like she'd activated whatever it was we had. Could he feel this like I could?

"Well I'm starting to think that was a mistake," I snapped as I smacked her hand away. "You've done more than enough, I believe we will be leaving now." I started to walk away.

"Is that any way to thank the person who just gave you your biggest lead without having to spill blood on the ground?"

I suddenly felt naked again, like she'd seen everything inside my head, every little thing I'd ever done. She knew what I'd had to do to get the information for Klarke. 

"Thank you for your gracious hospitality, High Priestess of Wilde," Isaac said with a bow. 

"Don't suck up to that witch bitch. She doesn't deserve it." I turned back to her. "I may be afraid I'm not good enough for a guy, a person I went half way across the world to be with, but that doesn't mean I'm scared of the likes of you. I've killed things like you for years. You don't scare me. What you saw in my head means nothing. On the street, I would be your worst nightmare."

The woman gave me a look that said she didn't believe me. I didn't care what she thought, my record held strong. I hadn't been killed, and I'd gone up against some nasty creatures during my time. 

I didn't need her to believe me. 

As I left the building, I still couldn't shake the empty feeling. She'd really done a number on me. I needed to find Jared. I couldn't just keep away like this. It was eating me up inside. 

But that meant I had to find out where he was. I could try to use the tools of The Torch, but if I did that, then others may discover Jared and what he is. I would have to play it close, maybe ask for Isaac's help. 

"What happened in there?" He asked. 

"She pulled out my greatest fear all while showing me where to get the pack. She wasn't lying. She did help...while having her own little fun while she did it."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm a hunter."

We both knew that wasn't a real answer to the question. It was a stand in answer meant to fool people into thinking nothing could phase us, but we were human. And Isaac was a sensitive. 

"We have three days before they make their next attack," I said. 

"And what is their next attack?"

"That I don't know. I just know where they are and when they're going to act next."

"We should tell Klarke."

I wanted to argue, but knew there was no point. Klarke was the leader. We could tell Steele, but there was no doubt Klarke would hear, and be at the forefront of the charge when we went out again. 

I sighed and we made our way back to Torch headquarters. 

**********

Here we have our next chapter. It would seem this High Priestess just doesn't want to leave Electra and her broken heart alone. One more prod and she may just fall apart. 

We'll have to see what happens next time when Klarke finds out what's going on with this werewolf pack. 

Until next time,

Red Assassin