Chapter 10

I: Isaac fumed red and he tried to cover her mouth. "Be quiet! He doesn't know about you yet!" He tried to strangle the words from her mouth, and he grabbed her to his chest to quiet her. He didn't mean to manhandle her, but Derek would not be lenient with her the way he was!

Derek heard the commotion and burst through his bedroom door and ran to the staircase. "Zack?" He called out to him and Isaac released a growling breath as he squandered Jess with a single hand over her mouth. "Zack?" Derek began down the stairs again and Isaac released Jess and pushed her behind him. Derek came down the stairs, and he swooped his long black hair to the side of his face with the shake of his head. "What's going on?" He folded his arms and leaned to the side. "Who's that?" He lifted his face upward to Jess.

Zack shook his head slowly and simply stared at his brother. "No one."

"No one? So, you were hiding No one in the closet? And, you are hiding No one behind your back?" Derek didn't know why Isaac had to blatantly lie. It was not like the guy had an issue.

"Forget about it." Zack turned and began to usher Jess out of the door.

"You Are bringing her back, right?" Derek said calmly.

Zack grit his teeth and stopped. "Yeah..." He said firmly.

"Good." Derek turned and went back up the stairs and Zack pushed Jess out of the door and slammed it behind them.

B: Jess gaped at Isaac. "NO ONE!" She yelled. She walked away and sighed angrily. She stormed away. As she walked, she heard a door slam, but she did not turn to see who it was. She walked out of the building fuming. "Oh yeah, Jess, allow him to talk you into coming back to the damned institute, kiss him, let yourself fall in love with him....way to go you stupid girl. You just had to....you are so stupid." She grumbled to herself.

She walked out the main door and walked out into the street. "I'll just go to the damned institute and turn myself in." She grumbled and walked towards the institute. Her eyes were on the ground. Her mind was on her stupid actions and her faults. She wished she had never allowed herself to get in the potion with Isaac. She sighed as she walked along. Her heart was broken, and she cried softly. "I guess I will have to use the broken-heart rune....it will hurt but I have to." She sighed as she looked up in the institute gate.

She walked in and was immediately taken by three male shadowhunters and then to the leader. She sighed and looked at him. "Alexander, I am here for my punishment." She said sadly. "I just want to let you know my brother had nothing to do with this. He tried to bring me in but each time I slipped past him and got away. Please only punish me. I will even take double punishment, if needed." She sighed and looked at Alexander. He just looked at her and nodded. "Very well." His raspy voice rang in her ears.

"Your punishment will be a month of cleaning the institute, three months hunting probation meaning going hunting with a group of men to bring in vampires, werewolves, and demons for questioning, and you will also be punished with several weeks of pain runes." Alexander said harshly. "After that we will see if you have learned. If not, we will go from there." He said and dismissed her to her room which would be locked 24/7 until further notice. She sighed as she flung herself onto her bed. "At least Isaac don't have to hide me from everyone." She sighed brokenly.

She took out her stele and sighed. "I guess I'll put it on my wrist." She sighed and began to draw the rune on her wrist. She flinched in pain as it burned into her skin. A fourth of the way through she passed out and lay there brokenly with a tear streaked face.

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I: When Isaac finally left, he saw that Jess was gone. Damnit! He told her that he would help her, if she just gave him a chance! Zack ran ahead in a jog, his head going left and right to find out what was going on, and what he could do to stop her from getting out of his grasp. If the Institute found out that he had her, then lost her, he would be in it for good. Zack couldn't risk someone else finding Jess and she tell them the truth. Zack raced as fast as he could, even using runes to find her. He could not find her anywhere.

When he finally was at his wits end, that was all he could honestly take. His heart had fallen because she had heard his brother, and he knew it had broken her heart and shattered their friendship. He should not have cared, but he did care. Zack never wanted to hurt her, and he never meant to allow anyone else to hurt her either. He didn't know what else to do, so he went to the Institute before it could get any worse. Going up to Alexander was going to be hard for him, and he knew that if he didn't address all of his lies soon, it would be far worse for him. As he ascended the stairs, he overheard one of the Shadow Hunters talking.

"She brought herself in. I honestly can't believe it. She said that Seth had nothing to do with her decision and that she would take double punishment for-" When the hunter began speaking Zack turned on his heel and grabbed the guy by the arm.

"What did you say!?" Zack said vilely. "What happened? What did Jess say?" He grits his teeth as he demanded an answer and the guard yanked his arm.

"She said she would take double punishment so Seth would not be punished. Get off its Zack, her punishment was not even that bad. She was given three months of hunting probation and a month of cleaning. You are acting like it's a death sentence. He locked her in her room so there is nothing you can do about it anyway."

Zack shook his head and began to walk away.

"I'm glad Alexander put his foot down. I am sick of so many hunters thinking it's okay to walk out on their duty, and their partners. Gladly he sentenced her to several weeks of pain runes so she wouldn't be able to slither out of this."

When Zack heard the last part, he glared with furious anger. He stormed into the Institute, his body heaving as if he was trying to hold in his rage. When he got to her door there were Shadow Hunters outside. He slipped to the side and took a deep breath to cool himself down. He turned back to go to her room. "So, she turned herself in?" He asked with a nonchalant smile. He walked to her door and motioned for them to unlock it. As if anyone would honestly say no to Isaac Bryant. They opened the door and he went inside her room and shut the door behind him.

Isaac was fuming with so much anger for what she had done. He wanted to express how terrible this was for her to do, but when he saw her body passed out his heart completely broke. He went to the bed to grab her up into his arms. He could see what she was doing, a half-written rune. When he saw what it was, it reminded him of his own heartbreak rune that he had written long ago, and the reason why he wrote it. "Jess..." He couldn't believe he had hurt her this badly. He was cruel, and for the first time she was a woman who deserved the love in Zack, not the anger or the unkindness. He could not imagine her punishment, weeks of pain runes. How could she ever survive that if she couldn't even finish the one, she started to heal her own heart.

Isaac lifted her to his chest and hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry Jess. Please forgive me. I will never hurt you again." Zack looked at her sleeping face and he fought back tears of pain. She would be punished severely for what she had done, and he wished that he could somehow save her from it. Zack lay on the bed and he pulled her body close to his and he held her against him. He closed his eyes as he placed her head on his chest so she could sleep in peace before she was taken for her punishment.

He had to find a way to save her.

He had to find a way to protect her.

He loved her, and he didn't want to let her go.