Isabelle - The Secrets of Avelina Chronicles 6

Chapter 17: Finding Isabelle

Eaven heard the creak of the gate opening behind her, felt the rush of hope that swept through her as Isabelle turned, hoping he was coming back to her. He saw the monster stepping through her gate, shrouded in black, nothing more than a shadow to his dream eyes. Isabelle ran to the cottage and struggled to close the kitchen door behind her. She couldn't turn the latch and, as Eaven's dream mind panicked for her safety and told him to wake up, a hand pushed the door open.

She tried to close the door again, but the hand was in the way. The monster was too strong for her to hold back.

Isabelle screamed.

Eaven woke, shaking and not know what was real and what was a dream. The one thing he knew, was that he was afraid for Isabelle. He had to make sure she was safe.

-

Sarus took his task of finding Isabelle seriously. For two days he searched every inn, every hovel and every farm building in Charlesville, Avelina and Somerhalder, looking for the young girl who had disappeared. To his frustration, there was no sign of her anywhere. It didn't make any sense. No-one in town had seen her or known she had ventured out of her cottage for the first time in her whole life.

Where had she gone?

Sarus was beginning to believe she had been kidnapped and was either being held hostage or that someone who wished to hurt her, had succeeded despite Eaven's best efforts at prophesying her demise. Bryony couldn't be involved, as she was locked in her chambers within the clan house. She had refused weeks ago to go on the traveling tour with her father and mother, to give his medical lectures to the nearby clan houses. Now she was enduring her punishment within the safety of Damian's walls. But if Bryony wasn't involved, Sarus had no other clues to work from.

On the second day, he decided to go back to the cottage to see if her attacker had left any sign or clue as to who they were or why they wished to hurt Isabelle. As far as he knew, she meant very little to any vampire or lycan, except Eaven. The young Lordling had a strange attraction to her that was nothing to do with the call of his people, but Sarus couldn't think about that.

As soon as he reached the cottage gate, he shut his mind off to everything else and focused entirely upon his search for clues. The places was a mess, from the second he stepped through her garden gate. It was as if a hurricane had swept through the cottage, determined to leave nothing in its wake. Flowers and herbs were strewn across the path, dirt and blood was everywhere. When Sarus came to the door that led straight in from the garden to the kitchen, he saw long claw marks on the wood as if an animal had been scratching at the closed door to get it open. The sight disturbed him.

The inside of the cottage was just as bad. Furniture was turned over and there was blood on the walls and on the stairway banister. Bloody hand prints and shoe prints raced across the floor and walls as if someone had fallen and needed to lean on the wall to get themselves to their feet again. Some struggle and pursuit had gone on in that cottage that Sarus didn't understand. If Eaven had been with him, he would have asked if he could distinguish the blood from Isabelle's. But the poor kid had gone for a nap two days ago and slept right through. This task was Sarus' alone.

When he finally came to the bedroom, he noticed that of three large double wardrobes, only one had its doors closed and he began to wonder. When he had gone to see Isabelle and first discovered her missing, he had so panicked that Eaven's prophesy had come true, that he ran through the cottage shouting Isabelle's name, asking if she was all right. He hadn't thought to check inside a wardrobe cupboard that barely seemed big enough to hide a girl nearly twenty years old. Now, he wondered if he had been stupid all along.

The moment Sarus opened the wardrobe doors, Isabelle screamed and flew at him, trying to knock him over and escape. But he had been prepared to find her inside. He caught her around the waist and only managed to keep her from running by pulling her to the floor.