People were asking what who I had in mind to play Electra/Eliza with red hair... I have the same person in mind, but I decided to do a little edit for you all. I gave Lyndsy Fonseca red hair and green eyes so you could all have a little image of what she would look like. I did the edit because I <3 you all lol. I learned how to do hair just for you. Image is above... Now onto the story!!
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When I walked into the room, James was standing mid-stride, frozen stiff. When his eyes rested on me I could see his entire body relax and he came straight toward me.
He wrapped his arms around me tightly, I had no room to move. I wasn't sure what to do, it wasn't exactly something that I was used to. I'd had hugs before of course, but nothing like this. Nothing that held all the pent up tension he'd been carry the past hours.
"I was so worried about you," he said into my ear and released me.
"I'm okay. Everything is okay. It was only a bite and a scratch. Everything was taken care of well enough that I shouldn't get an infection, but who knows."
"I'm not just talking about that ghoul, El. You went straight into the lion's den. I was worried they weren't going to let you out."
"To be completely honest, I was worried about that too."
I sat the envelope down on the desk and took a seat on the bed. Since the nerves had started dying down, I'd noticed just how exhausted I truly was.
I looked out the window to the pink sky, the sun was starting to rise. The entire night was gone.
"I need a shower and some sleep. You look like you could use some sleep as well," I said noticing the dark circles that were starting to form. He looked truly awful, and I felt bad that I was the cause of it.
I stood up then, right in front of James and looked down, meeting his heavy gaze.
My hands cupped his cheeks and I lowered my head down until our lips met. It was a soft yet hungry kiss and I couldn't believe what it brought out inside of me. I'd admitted it a few times to him, what it really was inside now, but I felt like I needed to say it again. I felt like after everything that had happened, everything I'd been through and everything that I'd put him through, I needed to say it, and I needed to say it right.
"I love you...Jared."
I saw the reaction in his eyes at my use of his name. I think it created more of a reaction than anything else ever could have. I knew changing identities and using those names, even behind closed doors, was hard on him. I knew that he felt like he was losing sense of himself, I'd witnessed that from the other day with his wolfish breakdown and my not so mid life crisis.
I wore my new identity like a favorite coat, one I never wanted to take off again, he wore his like a tight leather skin that he couldn't breathe in and couldn't wait to tear off.
"I love you too, Electra."
Our words had been like a whispered promise. So low that it barely carried from the space between us. A promise that began and ended with us.
As that promise floated into the silence, I turned and made my way to the bathroom.
Soon the steam started to fill the room. I watched as my reflection slowly started to distort from crystal clear to a foggy, barely-there shape. My palm pressed to the wall next to the edge of the mirror before I pried my eyes away and turned to the sanctuary of the hot water.
I could feel my fears, my anxiety, everything that had been building up, seep from my body as the hot water pounded against my skin. It washed down the drain along with the suds.
I turned the water off and got out, towel drying myself. The steam swirled around me still as I ran the towel through my hair. I still wasn't used to the color or length change.
I took the contacts out, putting them in their container with solution and wrapped the towel around my body before padding out into the room. I changed into a t-shirt and shorts before slipping into the bed beside James who seemed to already be asleep.
He mumbled slightly and his arm wrapped around me before a sigh brushed against the back of my neck and his breathing continued at a slow, restful pace.
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I woke the next morning of my own accord. I stretched my legs out and rolled slightly as my eyes started opening.
"Hey," I said in a sleepy drawl. "What are you doing?"
"Watching you sleep."
James was still in bed laying next to me. I stretched some more and groaned before looking back up at him.
"Well that doesn't sound creepy or stalker like at all," I said with a playful nudge.
"It's not like there's much else to do locked up in this room," he said with a dismissive gesture.
"Gee. You really know how to make a girl feel special," I rolled my eyes and he smiled.
James leaned forward and kissed me. I could feel the growing connection there. Each time we kissed or touched it got harder and harder to pull away. I was fairly certain it had something to do with the bond that we had started that day I'd let him mark me. That had been over three months ago.
James' hand slid from my hip, around to the small of my back. His fingers slipped under my shirt, touching bare skin and the fire sparked from the kiss turned into a roaring flame within me.
My heart picked up pace and our bodies got closer with the sensation flowing between us. The tension, the passion, it was tangible. His hand slid further up, my shirt moving with it.
I fought through the haze in my mind and forced myself to pull back.
"What's happening?" My voice was just a breathy whisper.
"From the fear I smell on you, I think you know what it is," he whispered back.
"I want to hear you say it though. I want confirmation."
I was actually scared to death to hear him say it, but I needed to know for sure.
"It's the bond calling on us, pulling at us to complete it."
"Does that mean that we have to?"
I still wasn't sure if I was ready to take that step. The implications that came with completing the bond were nerve-wracking. It was essentially me telling him that I trusted him with my heart, body, and soul. I did trust him but I wasn't sure if I was ready to take the final step.
"We don't have to do anything you don't want to do," he said in a whisper. I could see just beneath the surface though, it was something he wanted. He wanted to disintegrate all barriers between us. Part of me did want that too.
"I just don't know if I'm ready." I'd said it more to myself aloud than I'd intended it to be for him, but I felt his hand squeeze mine tightly.
"Then I'll wait for you to be ready." James leaned in and pressed his lips to my forehead. We stayed like that and I closed my eyes, taking in the sensations it invoked in me.
"So are you going to tell me what happened while you were in the hornet's nest?" He asked.
"Right." I nodded and we separated a bit. "Everything apparently checked out. You're werewolf guy did his job well. They dropped me off and gave me that envelope, I was told it will have everything I'll need for when I report on Monday."
"What's in it?" I could still feel James' tension. It didn't matter that the first encounter had gone off without a hitch, it was still The Organization.
I got up and picked the envelope up from the desk.
"I also learned something interesting," I said as I made my way back to him.
"What's that?"
"They aren't in contact with The Organization back in the United States."
James' brows rose and I nodded.
"That was my reaction too, well, internally anyway. Apparently the U.S. group took a radical turn from the group's original values. The way that they behave isn't how the people here are. They believe in giving everyone a chance to prove they can be decent people no matter their race."
"El, that seems a little hard to believe. Are you sure they weren't just trying to lure you in?"
"What motive would they have for that? I'd gone to them, and they don't know me or my situation. To them I'm just Eliza Jacobson, a girl from California vacationing in London for an extended period of time who just happens to know of the supernatural world."
James shrugged and I turned my attention back onto the packet in my hands. I pulled on the opening and dumped the contents out in front of me.
There was a large packet, which looked to be rules and guidelines for being with them, a smaller packet that looked to detail my first week, and a small plastic card with my face and name on it. It was a badge to get into the facility.
The smaller packet had details on getting into the facility. I had the option to call someone to take me in the first week, or if I went myself, I had the information on how to get into the building and where to go exactly.
"Where is this place?" James asked.
"Basement of MI6."
"You're kidding me."
"Nope. I couldn't believe it when they'd taken me there either. It seems like the most high profile place to be, well, just shy of the castle I suppose. Heck I'm pretty sure there are tours that take you near the building and point it out. Not very secretive."
"And they just gather in the basement."
"Yeah, and they watch everything. I mean everything. I saw the screens when I was down there. Every move people make, it's recorded."
"So they've seen us."
"We've been on camera. The chances of one of them are slim to none," I said dismissively. "There are so many screens down there, and there aren't but three or so people watching. I'm sure they don't really pay attention unless it looks like something's wrong."
I could tell James wasn't happy at the thought, but he also trusted my judgement.
"So what does your first week look like then?"
I looked down at the papers, flipping them and analyzing what was on the pages.
"It looks like a bunch of assessments. shooting, combat, field work, that sort of thing. I guess they want to get my skill level before they put me out there."
"What are you going to do?"
That was a good question. I wasn't sure what I should do. Should I pretend to be a lower skill set than I was, or should I go in as myself? There were pros and cons to both sides.
If I went in as myself, I would score fairly high and would hopefully be trusted with weapons sooner. But it would also look suspicious. How would I have prepared myself? How would I have built up those skills? I'd told them that I trained myself, but would I really have been able to train myself that well?
On the other hand, if I toned it down a bit I could still score relatively well and it wouldn't draw unnecessary attention to myself. I just wasn't sure what level they wanted their operatives to be at before the entered the field, and I was pretty sure I'd do well in the field for them.
"I feel confident about this group. I think I could be there for a while," I said.
"Is that really a good idea?"
"Think about it. They believe in giving supernaturals a chance to prove themselves. That means they don't run around killing every single one. If that's the case, then they won't hunt you down. That's if they even find out that you're a werewolf. If I work with them, then I'll be able to get a steady source of income. We'll be able to move out of this hotel room and maybe into an apartment of our own."
That stopped me in my tracks. I'd just suggested moving into an apartment together.
Sure, we'd been living together in a hotel, but that seemed completely different than actually getting a place to call our own. If we did that, then we would actually have our own place. A place to call home, one where every day I would walk in and go home to James.
It wasn't the life I had imagined I'd have. I never really thought much about having someone to go home to, but if I had, that person never would have been a werewolf. But there I was, sitting in a hotel in London with a werwolf mate, both of us with different identities.
"How about we just take this a couple steps at a time," I said feeling anxiety swell up inside. "We'll see how the first week goes. I'll analyze what's going on and see if it would be okay to stay. If anything gets to be too dangerous for us, we can leave."
James nodded at that. I knew he'd been able to feel the shift in me, the way my heart had picked up speed.
"So you're free until Monday, then you get sucked into work?" He asked trying to lighten the mood.
"That's what it looks like. I'll probably see if they have someone who will take me in the first day, but I need to get transportation set up. I'm not sure they'd be thrilled with the idea of me taking a cab in, and I'm not so sure I'd be thrilled to get in one again."
James chuckled and shook his head.
"Well we did get money from trading in that car before we left. We could always use the time to go car shopping I suppose."
"I'm not normally much of a shopper, but going shopping for large, shiny things does seem fun," I said with a smile. "How does the account look?"
"I checked it yesterday. It looks like Alex put some more money in there. I got an email from her too. She said our parents had been back in town. She covered for me, but apparently they barely noticed I was gone."
I frowned at his words. I knew his family had been a tough spot for him. His parents had rarely been home since his sister and him were younger. Their stay-in nanny had practically raised them until their parents decided they were old enough to raise themselves and cut her loose.
I knew being in a different country from his sister was hard, and it was probably even worse realizing that your parents barely noticed your absence.
I gave him a hug and we stayed like that for a moment, not talking, just silent in the embrace.
After a moment he pulled back, pushing everything back down.
"Lets go get a car I suppose."
I crinkled my nose.
"It's going to have the steering wheel on the wrong side."
"Not only that," he said with a smile. "But you're going to have to drive on the other side too."
I gave James a blank stare. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do this.
"I think you're going to be my chauffeur from now on," I grumbled.
"Come on now. If we're going to set up a life here, you're going to have to learn how to fend for yourself...I mean get yourself to work."
I rolled my eyes at him and got dressed. He did the same and in a little bit, we were ready to set out shopping.
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Finally back after the long break. I'm glad to be able to get a chapter in again.
The Huntress started its Feature today on Wattpad, which is pretty exciting.
Well... Let me know what you thought of the chapter and of these two.
It seems Eliza is having a little bit of trouble giving James the last little bit of herself... That's pretty understandable I'd say. Well... We'll just have to see what happens.
Thanks everyone!!