Chapter 48
I: Isaac stopped throwing after Seth gave him the compliment. He looked down at the knives and then turned to Seth. "Honestly, I think the muscle memory is the only aspect of my life I seem to connect with. I must have trained so much that the memory is literally built into my body. So why can't it be that way with Jess? If I truly loved her, then how the hell could I have forgotten that love? I want to be with her, Seth. Right now, all I can think of is going forward with the marriage. I need you to convince her to marry me. If we truly love each other, then my memories will come back just like with muscle memory. The more I hold her, love her, spend time with her, the more I will remember of our love. Tell her to marry me. Let's go forward with the wedding."
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"I need you to understand that when conducting an investigation, everyone is a suspect until they are ruled out. I wanted to rule you out first, so forgive me if that came across incorrectly. If you wish for the best with Isaac, then we both are on the same accord. I will bring you to him now, this interview is over." He leaned up and lifted his hand to escort her and he tossed her leftover food items in the trash. "Maybe we can find you some real food. Let's go." He walked with her back to the training room where Isaac and Seth were talking. They stopped when the two of them approached. "Zack." The man asked for his attention, and Isaac turned and walked a few steps away with him. "I know all of your memories aren't clear yet. But I recorded this for you so that you will have it. It's the first few interviews I conducted, along with some words of my own. Be sure to listen to it when you have time. Tonight, after she goes to sleep, give me a call so we can talk privately about this. We need to find the person that did this to you."
Zack nodded slowly. "I want to know who is responsible, but I don't think speaking with you privately is going to make Jess feel safe. Why don't you come over for dinner and we can discuss what you have discovered together with her present?" He asked.
Luke smiled. "If that is what you want, sure. But I warn you, Jess is not fine. She may say that she is, but she doesnt appear so to me. You need to be careful not to put more on her than she can bear. I will see you both tonight." Luke shook hands with Zack, and he left.
Isaac came back over to Jess and Seth. "He is coming over for dinner to discuss the case. Jess let me take you home. We need to talk." Isaac took her hand.
B: Seth looked at him. "You trained every day since you came to the Institute. I believe you were 12. And as for Jess she will still marry you. She loves you more than anything, but with this mark on you." He motioned to the tip of the mark on Isaac's chest. "You two cannot marry. It is a binding mark. It is a sign you are loyal to someone else. Whoever had you marked you with that. Which will be of use since those strong marks like that will have a tie to both you and the person it was marked by." Seth said with a soft voice. He was sad that the mark was on Isaac and was not given to him by Jess. It meant more than just that he was loyal to the person. It could mean he married her in secret since he was brainwashed there.
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Jess nodded. "It is okay. But I did forget something." She said as she remembers what stopped her and Isaac from making love. Before he led her away, she took a deep breath. "Isaac has a Loyal To mark on his chest. He is bound to whoever took him." She then followed him to Isaac. She looked at Luke and nodded, but when Isaac suggested dinner, she looked at him. His place was a mess, she had not really cleaned it since he went missing. When Luke said those words, she looked at him. "Luke, I can handle this. If it means helping Isaac, then I will do whatever it takes. I won't let my emotions get in my way. I went to Paris to learn and I did." She said before he left in a hushed but angryish tone.
When Isaac said they needed to talk she nodded. "We have a lot to talk about." She said simply. When he took her hand, her heart skipped a beat, but she smiled and nodded to her brother. "See you around Seth."
I: Isaac said goodbye to Seth, and he took Jess with him out of the Institute, and they took the short walk back to his apartment. He didn't speak while they walked, and the silence was practically killing him, but he had too much on his mind. He opened his apartment door and continued to hold Jess hand as he led her inside and then gently escorted her to sit on the couch. "I will call and order something quickly, then you and I can talk before he comes."
Isaac went to order some food, and he came back to sit beside Jess, and he brought with him his leather jacket and set it down on the table. "So, I have a few ideas, some ways that I can possibly retrace my steps and find out who the hell did this to me. I understand it is probably against the rules, and I won't suggest it tonight unless you are aware of it. I want to contact the wolves to retrace my steps. I have my clothes I wore that night, and their sense of smell when transformed is really strong, and I know that means they can lead me back to where I was taken."
Isaac then pulled out his tablet device. "In here I remember that I kept lots of contacts, people who used magic and things that most Shadowhunters hated to talk about. I think they can help me break this stupid rune or at least find a way around it. All of this is completely off the reservation when it comes to the rules given by the Institute, and I won't be able to keep my position if I do this. I wanted to talk to you first and see what your thoughts are." He sighed when he was done and turned to her, and he gently took Jess' hand. "Please tell me Jess. If I break the rules, which seems to be the only thing I can do at this point...will you let me? I don't want you to break them with me, you have too much to risk. But me, I'm not the man I was before, so I have nothing to lose except you."
B: Seth and Jess said goodbye quickly as Jess was taken out of the Institute. She walked next to Isaac but not to close nor did she attempt to hold his hand. This broke her heart deeply, but she knew that it would take a while for them to get back to where they had been before his disappearance and his memory loss. She hoped and prayed that his memory would return to him, but she wasn't going to get her hopes up only to have them shatter around her again. When Isaac took her hand in his thought her heart swelled and she held it tightly back, not too tightly he would notice but, in her heart, she was death gripping his hand in hers. She took a deep breath when they entered the apartment. There were so many memories here, yet it felt like a stranger's house because of everything that had happened the last few months. Jess sat on the couch near the arm and kicked her shoes off and curled her legs under her, now very thin body. The pictures all around the room showed Jess and Isaac as healthy adults and seeing Jess in person today you would think she had a very bad illness. When Isaac spoke, Jess turned to look at him. "That will be fine." She said with a small smile. She didn't know what he wanted to talk about or what he was ordering, and truthfully, she didn't care. She was just happy to see him alive and well....okay maybe not well but at least he was healthy.
When he began to speak about his plan to figure out how to find who had done this to him, she almost blurted out no. As she began to think about it, she realized that's exactly what Isaac would do. She had even gotten in touch with a wolf, despite her past with them, to try to find him. "Isaac, that is actually a very smart idea. I know someone in the werewolf community who may be willing to help us, but I am not one hundred percent sure he will. I can ask him tomorrow." She said softly. She didn't really want to explain why she knew a werewolf or how she knew he may help them. If she had to, she would.
Her eyes went back to him when he pulled out the tablet. She was surprised that he remembered the tablet he had kept hidden in his apartment. They were the only two who knew where it was. When he told her, he might lose his place and position in the Institute she wanted to cry. "Isaac, let's not make any plans about that until we can talk to my....friend. He may be willing to help us. If he won't I can see about the Alpha. He may if I give the right deal, which I know what he would want." When he said he had nothing to lose but her she took his hand in hers. "If you break the rules, I will break them with you. Isaac we may not be married, but I made a vow to you. I will stand by your side no matter what. If that means getting kicked out of all Institutes...then that is what I will do. Sure, I will miss it, but if I have you then nothing else matters to me. Will you at least talk to my friend before we make a decision?" She asked with a pleading gaze.
I: Isaac nodded and he looked to the tablet. "Fine, I will talk to your friend. This is good that we are actually moving forward in a good direction. I was afraid you wouldn't agree with me, leaving us in two separate sides and that would only make becoming your husband a harder route for me."
Isaac sighed and set the tablet aside and he turned to her. "I want to thank you for doing this. The last time I remember being supported by someone it was probably in my childhood. I don't understand why all of my memories are slowly coming back, yet the memories of our relationship is completely blank. Whoever cursed me is more jealous than wanting me to fall in love with them. I really need answers. Excuse me, I need to make some calls. You should contact your werewolf friend, and I will contact my own."
Isaac stood and went to another room to pull up his contacts. He called a friend or two, and it was a long story he had to explain to each one about his disappearance. He finished his calls and came back to Jess, and he sat down and waited for the food to arrive.
B: Jess looked at him. "Isaac I will do anything I have to, to get your memories back. You can't live not knowing who you are or what you are. It would end in you dying." She said with a small voice near the end. She hated thinking about Isaac being dead. She had pictured it and dreamed it so many times. Each time she did she would search for him for three days without sleeping, eating, or even resting truly. When he turned to her she looked at him. "Isaac I would do anything for you. I want you to know that." She nodded at what he said. "Yes, that may be so. Whoever did this had to be jealous of something in your life, if that is our love then it will be hard to find it." She nodded when he left the room.
She got out her mundane phone and sent a text to her friend. Moments later her cell rang. She picked it up and smiled. "Marcus, I was hoping you would want to help." She listened to the other end and nodded. "We can do it later tonight. Say around midnight to be safe for you and us?" She waited and smiled. "See you then Marc." She said and hung up her phone and looked at Isaac. "Marcus....my werewolf friend said he would help us." She said as Isaac sat down. She hoped Isaac hadn't heard her call Marcus Marc. It would bring up questions and she wasn't ready to talk about all the time she spent with the werewolf.