Hellfire | Hayley Marshall

Chapter 11

"Fine," said Davina, before looking at Hayley, as if to ask, 'Do you need something else?' "I should get back to organizing my room."

"Just one question," asked Eisa. "My brother merely announced to me that you'd be staying here, but I am curious, why did you accept?"

"Marcel said to," Davina told her. "I guess this is better than a church attic."

"Wouldn't you rather live in your own home?"

"I can't be out there," said Davina, bewildered. "It's not safe for me. The witches would know if I returned to the house I used to live in."

Hayley raised a brow. "Uh, why are the witches a problem? Last I heard, they're on the path to losing their magic for good."

Davina frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Hayley looked at Eisa to confirm. "Isn't the Harvest now... not able to happen? That crazy witch Agnes is dead, and Sophie was saying something about how now that the last Elder is gone, the Harvest can't be completed."

The young witch paled. "If Agnes is dead, then I'm safe. Marcel would have told me." She looked at Josh, who nodded.

"I heard about crazy Agnes being killed," he said, nodding to Eisa. "Me and a couple other nightwalkers were sent to clean up the mess that was left behind."

"I did not leave a mess," said Eisa indignantly. "I cleaned up the blood I shed after I cut all her skin off."

"Well, you left behind those other witch dude bodies and we had to clean that. Some of our guys saw you actually killing her and they said it was super gross, just like heads and guts." He noted the concerned look on Davina's face. "What? You hate the witches."

Davina wrung her hands together. "Eisa, is she really dead?"

"I should bloody hope she is," answered the Original, "I killed her with my bare hands. Oh, and a knife. Then I burned her. I wouldn't object to showing you the memory."

"But why... why wouldn't Marcel tell me?"

Hayley offered her thoughts, "Maybe he didn't wanna lose his secret weapon against the witches?"

Davina swallowed hard. "He's just using me," she said, before storming away, with Josh following behind, using his jacket to cover his skin from the sun.

Eisa turned to Hayley and shrugged, not sure what they were expected to do about this.

"So," said Hayley, once they'd gone through the tasks that Eisa outlined for the day. "I forgot to mention something Eve told me about the other Crescent wolves. Their natural state isn't being human. Marcel had a witch curse them, so that they'd be stuck in wolf form, except on a full moon."

Eisa hummed. "We'd need to know how the witch he used to cast that spell performed it. I could write a spell, but I can't be sure it will be correct. Kol is far better at these things. Perhaps Rebekah could ask him. Or..." she tapped her chin. "I could arrange for some spies."

That would have to suffice, in the meantime. Eisa compelled a few humans and turned a few new vampires to do her bidding. The humans would monitor in the morning, when they would not be suspected. The vampires, in the evening, to keep them safe from the sun.

"It's the most I could do, unfortunately," Eisa reported to Hayley the following morning, once Elijah and Rebekah were allowed to move in. "Until the witches start to show signs of losing their magic, I cannot hope to subdue any of them and get into their minds."

"Have you ever seduced a witch?" asked Hayley, rummaging through a box that Eisa had retrieved for her. She wanted a dress to be in the spirit of the Casket Girls Festival, something that she could not actually attend.