Friend's bunking up. (Kayla Briggs)

Kayla woke up and reached over to the side of the bed and found it empty and cold. she opened her eyes and looked up to see Cody sitting on the chair. Fully dressed. What first went through her mind was the worst. That he was going to leave her,then she saw the coffee's and she understood. She put on a sleepy smile and looked at him. He looked a bit troubled. "Good Morning. she said then seeing the look on his face again she asked "What is the matter?"

He sat there for several minutes, pondering that question about whether he should tell Kayla or not. On one hand, him not telling her could protect her, so she doesn't walk around knowing and always thinking about it. But on the other hand, telling her could help her know that there could be hunters tracking her and watching her at every turn, make her protect herself better and watch for tails. As his view came up to her face, her eyes opened as she began smiling lazily. "Morning" He replied back as he took the coffee's out of their holder and already had plates set up on the nightstand which he set the muffins on. "No, it is nothing. Really. Nothing that can't wait" He smiled back at her, he didn't really want to ruin the moment by telling her, and then passed her a plate with a muffin on it.

Kayla excepted her food with a smile and took small bites. Between bites she asked "Are you sure?" He looked a little distraught. She finished her food and put her coffee down on the night table next to the bed then went over and sat in his lap. "You don't have to keep things from me."

He knew that she would want something to eat after the night that they just had of all the sex and fun. Cody just had a feeling that it would be a lot of work, which would work up an appetite. He smiled as she nibbled little pieces off the muffin. He didn't know what her favorite kind was, so he just picked up one of each that they had. When she asked him if he was sure, he didn't even really want to reply. There she was, having a nice breakfast after an evening of fun and he was going to drop the bombshell on it with only a few words. As she came over and sat on his lap, and brought it up again, he decided to tell her and cave. Then they could at least deal with it together. "Hm, alright. Just don't freak out, alright?" He asked her, hoping she wouldn't as he continued. "When I was out, getting us breakfast. I sort of ran into an old, shall I say, acquaintance of mine." He said, "The witch hunter that caught up to me in the town after you had left a few minutes before."

Kayla waited for him to tell her and what he said just brought reality on her. "What?" she asked even though she heard him. He may have asked her to not freak out but that was all she could do. She quickly jumped to her feet and started rambling off things she would need to pack so she could get away. "I need my bag and my list of spells." she muttered to herself. Then she stopped dead. Cody. That one word made her turn around and ask a question she never had to ask in these situations before. "What do we do?"

He knew that she would be doing exactly what she was doing right at that moment: freaking out. As she jumped up and began pacing around, all he could do was just look at her. All the things that were running through her head were running through Cody's as well. Except that Cody had a lot more to think about, like the safety of both of them plus now he has a hunter that knows him because she has been tracking him since he lost her at the town. Worst part is, is that they couldn't leave town. "Kayla, calm down. We will find a way" Cody walked up to her and grabbed her hands in his as he looked into her eyes as she turned around to face him. "It is going to be alright. But, I have worse news. We can't leave. If we do she will just keep following us, what we need to do is just end this, or first, she mentioned that there were other witch hunters in town. She didn't say how many, although by her tone I am guessing at least 3 others."

Kayla looked at him and calmed down. She knew as long as they had each other they would get through this. "Well if we can't leave then we what? Fight?" she said mainly trying to stay calm in the situation.

He slowly let go of her hands as he walked toward the window and glanced out it to survey the ground while she was taking to him. Once he was sure it was safe, he turned back around to answer her. "Not necessarily fight. We don't want too many deaths on our conscience. As it is I've never really come close to killing anybody, let alone witch hunters. But, what we need to do is just stay calm, and try to keep a low profile. We've been doing that pretty much our entire life right? Should be easy until we can find a way around this." He told her as he lightly kissed her on the cheek.

Kayla calmed down some more and smiled at the kiss. "Yeah it shouldn't be too hard." she said then walked over to the chair and sat down looking at the floor. Why did life have to be unfair? She finally gets something good in her life and then it turns to crap. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. She thought to herself. Just another person to lose in this world.

He smiled at her reply as he pulled away after the kiss, and watched her sit down in a corner of the room. As he saw her glance down onto the floor, he knew he had made a mistake telling her. "Hey, Kayla. It is going to be alright" He told her, walking over to her and kneeling down on the floor as he brought his hand upto her chin and gently brought her head up to look at him. "We both know now, which means we can protect ourselves and eachother from the hunters"

Kayla looked at him with all seriousness. "You are right we can protect each other." she said. She was worried though. Not for herself but for him. "We both need to be more careful Cody."

He glanced away for a quick second, hesitating as to what she was saying, if anything, Kayla needed more protection then him. She was younger, less experienced, more to live for then himself. "Yes, we do. Today, I feel was just the tip of the iceberg that is to come for this town, so we will need to be ready for when it collides. I've already heard whispers of other witches here, seeing as there are 3 or more hunters, the rumors would have to be true." He told her, looking back into her deep light hazel eyes. "They could help us, or we could help them"

Kayla thought about it "Yeah that would work but we would have to find them."

He looked at her deeply as he leaned in to kiss her, before continuing. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it. I'll take care of it. I am pretty good at spotting needles in haystacks. Infact, there is another witch living just down the row of doors" He told her, as he pointed down a few rooms. "She is about same age as me, so we now have three witches here to fight back with. That is more then enough."

Kayla perked up at this "Oh so there is another witch here?" she asked trying to lighten the mood and smiled "Is she pretty?" she asked pretending to be jealous.

"Yea, another witch." He told her, smiling. Hoping that it would make her a little less nervous knowing that there were another one there to help them out if they needed it. "Hah. Are you jealous?" He asked her, not really knowing which answer she would give. "She is, but not as pretty as you are" He told her, leaning in to kiss her, hoping she wouldn't just want to give up.

Kayla grinned at him"Good answer" she said then kissed him.

He smiled back at her as she kissed him, feeling a sense of love run over him, he slowly pulled his lips away from hers. "But, let us not worry about taking them out or finding the other hunters right now. Let's just concentrate on us and making our magic more powerful, alright? The only thing we really don't want is for our spells to mess up and get our throats slit"

Kayla agreed. "Ok so lets work on more spells shall we?" she asked and got out of the chair she was in. "So shall we work form your book, or work on spells I know?"

He glanced at her as she stood up and walked past Cody a little bit before replying, "Well, do you remember what happened last time we tried a spell that you know? We ended up both getting soaked." He told her, laughing. It was true, he had messed up the water spell and got them both wet. He wasn't sure whether or not they would want to get wet again or not, so he tried to stray away from that. "How about, we just look through my book for now, can read up on certain things that are written in the book."

Kayla laughed "Yeah I would really rather not be drenched with water." she said thinking about the spell that Cody messed up. Then she walked over to the bed and sat down waiting for Cody to get the book. She didn't feel right about just grabbing it herself.

Cody began feeling a little paranoid again, but tried not to show it as the meeting with Scarlet brought back a few memories and feelings he had buried a little bit since he had ran into Kayla again and met Anya next door. He waited for the feeling to pass, which it never really left, before he turned around to face Kayla, who was already sitting on his bed waiting for him to grab his book of shadows. He chuckled a little bit at the thought of both of them getting wet again, and thought it would be rather amusing. Until she changed the subject to the book. Cody soon walked over and grabbed it off the side desk before sitting beside Kayla, lightly rubbing shoulders before opening his book back up. He didn't bother describing the front, seeing as how he already told her about it. Instead, he flipped to the fifth page or so and began reading out the different symbols and what they meant. One was an ankh type that was used to channel good magic through it as sort of a protective barrier, which his family and bloodline were quite proud of. Another was a paragraph describing circles and their magic, which seemed to peak Cody's interest a little bit. He had never heard of 'circles' before.

Kayla sat there listening to the different circles and reading the book over Cody's shoulder then he turned a page and saw a spell that was quite interesting. It was a basic shield spell but it took alot of ingredients and it would take time to actually make the shield. She interrupted Cody by speaking out loud and asked "How would that be useful?"

As she asked him about the shield spell, he wondered what one she was talking about. He glanced up and saw her looking downward toward the symbol of the Ankh and the ingredients for making it a special way. "Well, it would be useful for, say, you are being overrun by hunters, and they already put salt down around you. You can use the ankh to blow it away which would allow you to use your magic. Although it does take awhile to make it ready for use, it works wonders when you do use it." He told her, as he turned back to her and smiled.

Kayla saw looked at him with a smile "Yes I get that but still shouldn't spells be fast yeat effective?" she asked retohrically and glanced at the page again.