Hellfire | Hayley Marshall

Chapter 24

Eisa was on clean-up duty, apparently.

One: destroy the black kyanite stones and tidy up the mess that created.

Two: mop up a load of blood.

"Well, this looks delicious," she said, having come down in the morning and finding a large pool of blood in the courtyard. There were red pawprints heading to the stairs, which eventually turned into human footprints, just as drenched in blood. By the fountain, a dead witch's body remained.

Eisa trotted up the stairs, finding Hayley in her bathtub, covered in bubbles. Beside her, another dead witch's body.

"Yum, yum, yum," said Eisa, moving to get the body and starting to drag it out. "Where did this come from, and why wasn't I invited to eat?"

"I was having a crappy day," said Hayley, "so Klaus took me to out to the Cauldron. Wouldn't you know, we ran into some witches!"

"I'm still quite hurt I wasn't invited," said Eisa, tossing the body over the railing, to have it end up near the other one. "Smells good."

"What, no judgy comment? Elijah was snapping at Klaus about how bad this looks."

"Why would I be judgy? I love killing people. I hope you at least had fun, otherwise, it's not really worth it, is it?"

Hayley cast her a smile. "Could you pass me that towel? I think it's time to transition into the shower."

Eisa removed the towel from the rack, and Hayley, to her surprise, got up before she had even handed it to her. Her naked body, still covered in a bit of blood and especially bubbles, was left on full display for Eisa, who quickly turned away, respectfully.

"You can look," said Hayley innocently, not taking the towel even when Eisa handed it to her. "I wanted to ask, when's the last day of my training?"

Eisa's mouth felt incredibly dry. "Er... I don't... I forget..."

The hybrid took the towel, carefully covering herself. "Klaus and I will be going to the Bayou later," she announced. "He wants me to go talk to the wolves. Do you think we could do our training later than usual?"

Eisa ran her tongue slowly over her lips. "Sure. We'll finish up our training at the end of this week, if time permits. How does that sound?"

Hayley winked. "Perfect."

She would have liked to kiss her right then and there, but Eisa held back. "Anything else you need?" she asked, following Hayley as she moved toward the shower.

"Well, there is one thing, but I don't want to ask you if it makes you uncomfortable."

"At this point, nothing that you ask of me could make me uncomfortable."

"Would you find Jackson?"

"Jackson, the Alpha who went missing after we rescued him from the bombs at the docks? Should I be searching for a corpse or...?"

"Whatever you can find of him. Please. I need to know if he's okay."

Eisa sighed. "I'll do my best. Just make sure to call me, if anything."

The entire way to the Bayou, she was cursing over and over in her head.

"Why didn't you just say no?" she muttered to herself. "You don't want her to find him because then he'll just be in the way. Desperate prick held out for her when he hadn't ever met her, and he just has to show up and cause a problem..."

And yet, she didn't fake her search or give up easily. She was doing this for Hayley, and she couldn't disappoint her. Besides, Jackson was a good man. If something had happened to him, it wouldn't please her.