A/N: This is the first Secret Circle fic I've written. Hope you like it!

Reflections of a Traitor

It wasn't supposed to be this way. It was supposed to be simple. Come to Chance Harbour, kill the witches, and move on. Forget about everything connected to Chance Harbour. Leave his past in the past, where it belonged.

Of course, that couldn't happen. Nothing was ever simple in this godforsaken town. It was why he left in the first place; to get away. He hadn't wanted to stay when he'd come back, but he'd been ordered. You didn't disobey orders. And really, the orders were quite simple. Nothing he hadn't done before. Except now the game had changed. He knew these people. He'd feuded with Adam, he'd dated Faye. He couldn't help wondering what would happen if Nick were still alive. Would he have been ordered to kill his own brother? Would he have let it happen?

That's what scared him the most about the person he'd become. He lived his life with no emotions, standing by as his humanity ebbed away with every kill, powerless to stop it. He told himself repeatedly that it was for the best. Witchcraft was what killed his parents, and eventually Nick. He had no immediate family left because of it. It wasn't a gift, like everyone seemed to think. It was a curse, and eventually it would kill the rest of them too. Before he came here he had himself almost convinced that he was doing the witches a favour by working with the hunters. The methods they used to kill before he came along were crude. He was helping, in a way; making it easier, better. He wasn't pure evil.

At least, that was what he thought before he met her. She changed his entire perspective on the life he'd chosen to lead. She made him feel again. At first he ignored the pull he felt towards her, but it was too strong. Her power drew him to her like a moth to flame. She intrigued him, and he wanted nothing more than for her to trust him, despite the fact that he was completely untrustworthy. He hadn't even felt this way about Faye, as much as it made him sound like a complete jerk.

So he found himself killing Simone, deviating from the code he'd stuck by so diligently all these years just to protect her. He tried to convince them to stop the ritual to kill the Circle, playing it off as because of her possession of dark magic instead of what he truly felt for her. He recognized within himself an inexplicable desire to protect her, and he couldn't shake it. It was why he planned on taking her away from Chance Harbour that night; away from the witch hunters, and from the Circle that she would soon regret bringing all this trouble to, even if it wasn't her fault. He would protect her.

He followed this desire right until the very end. Now, standing on the boat as it headed out of the harbour, his gut twisted and knotted with every meter they travelled. He stared at her standing back on the dock with the rest of her Circle, and had another realization. He might feel that strong pull towards her, but he didn't belong with her. She could fight the dark magic inside her. She could overcome the evil her father thrust upon her, while he'd chosen a long time ago to turn his back on his heritage and willingly embrace a life of murder.

He'd chosen it again tonight, although for different reasons. He only stood on the boat as it drew further and further away from her so that he could keep her safe. He needed to know what the hunters would do next, and the only way to find out was to stay with them. Besides, after everything that had gone down, there was no way staying would be an option now. He'd betrayed them, betrayed her, and he would be a fool to think he'd ever be forgiven for it.

He'd made his choice to leave a long time ago, and now he was forced to stick with it, even though, taking his last glimpse of Cassie Blake's silhouette on the dock as the boat rounded the bend and took them out of sight, his last realization was that this was the one time he wanted to stay.

A/N: So, what did you think? It was a spur of the moment type thing, so I hope it's not terrible!