Hellfire | Hayley Marshall

Chapter 23

September 2, 2012

Hayley was one of the best students Eisa had ever had.

In the four months since their training had begun, the hybrid proved that she was worthy of being taught.

She was determined. She was angry. She remained focused because she knew that all the things Eisa was teaching her were going to help her, the next time anyone dared to try and hurt her daughter.

"There you go," said Eisa, staggering back as Hayley managed to bite into her. "You're—" she wheezed a bit, "getting a lot better at this."

Though Eisa knew nothing about how hybrid powers worked, she'd encouraged Hayley to explore it on her own. Everyday, in a secluded area of the Bayou, they'd practice fighting techniques, having Hayley work on making her turning painless and fast.

Eisa allowed her to bite and scratch and attack her as much as she needed, in order to learn. It usually left her mauled and needing to get her neck snapped so she wouldn't attack Hayley (which was great practice to make sure she knew how to do that to an enemy). It wasn't a terrible ordeal, though, because Klaus was allowing them to continue training, out of respect for what Hayley needed to feel better. This meant they got to take water bottles full of his blood to heal Eisa when she really needed it.

She liked to hold on as long as she could. It was good practice for her. Hayley, initially, hadn't been too happy with Eisa offering herself up to be bitten constantly. But Eisa had quoted, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,' and Hayley relented. After all, as Eisa put it, this was helping her gain the upper hand against Klaus. She would eventually develop a tolerance to wolf venom, and it would be harder for her brother to subdue her.

Whenever they weren't training, Eisa was working. She would check in often with Isela, who would send them secure video footage of Hope to keep Hayley and Klaus feeling motivated, especially on full moons, when Klaus was weakened, and Hayley was forced to remember how she would never again turn on the full moon unless she wanted to, all because her daughter had saved her life.

It was a horrible reminder, at least on Hayley's end. She was depressed constantly, and Eisa knew why. While Hayley didn't have a sire bond that connected her with Hope, she had been turned by her, and her loss, the distance between them, the guilt of not being able to protect her daughter better despite the baby being the one who helped Hayley live after she'd been killed and thought permanently dead, it was all too much. Hayley's connection with her daughter was stronger than that of a typical mother and child. It made her sadder. Angrier. And with the heightened emotions, it wasn't doing any wonders for her mental health.

Eisa tried to spend as much time with Hayley as she could, even outside of training. Sometimes, she'd come home after spending hours observing the witches, trying to find out what they knew. So far, they all thought Hope was indeed dead. What struck her as odd was that two new witches were hanging around the French Quarter Coven more often. Vincent Griffith of the Tremé Coven and Kaleb Westphall from the Algiers Coven, seemed to be new members, and they were working quite closely with Esther. While Kaleb struck Eisa as a harmless kid, there was something about Vincent that unsettled her.

They were helping Esther, who, while still in the body of Cassie, was helping Francesca make new moonlight rings for any wolf that swore loyalty to the Guerreras, and acknowledged Francesca as their Alpha. Thankfully, these new rings didn't diminish Klaus's strength any further, but the twelve original rings that were made were leaving him incapacitated every full moon since Hope's birth.

At the very least, it didn't seem that Esther suspected that her four children knew that she was in Cassie's body. Which was good, because they had no idea where the white oak stake was (it had disappeared the night the Guerreras attacked), and they knew they needed more time to think up a plan that would guarantee success. With all that extra time, Eisa did her best to keep Hayley sane.