39. Isabelle
Chapter 39
Isabelle
I needed to get off campus to blow off some steam.
I also needed to be by myself. I’m sick of the constant questions of what’s wrong with me and not being able to answer them. My friends mean well. I know they do, but there are some things you can tell them.
Foxie’s Café was my best option because it’s one of the few cafes that close at midnight. It’s also so far away. As it’s quite late I have very little chance of running into anyone.
So here I am sitting here with a large cup of cold mochaccino and a slice of chocolate cake I don’t have the desire to eat.
I ended up here after I offended Annika. I love all my friends but she’s the last person I wanted to hurt.
She came to see me because, like everyone else, she knew things haven’t been right with me.
I refused to talk to her even though she reminded me that I was a good friend to her when she had no one. Despite the reminder I couldn’t indulge her.
I felt so bad because she was the only friend I’d ever had where we connected on a deeper level. I’m not like that with Mackenzie and that’s okay. Mackenzie has her secrets but she presents this strong face to the world as a form of defense.
Sure we talk and tell each other what we need to, but I couldn’t talk to her or anyone about this .
Kade’s parents are dead because of me. Given what happened and how it happened, how am I supposed to thing of their deaths as anything but my fault?
I haven’t even spoken to Dad. I can’t. Not yet.
I’m not a coward. I’ve never been one. But I’m using my human pass and choosing to be a coward because I can’t let people know what I did.
I’ll have to tell my father eventually because he’ll want to know why I’m not with Kade anymore. And I won’t be able to lie to him.
After the whole gallery incident, Dad and I made a pact to be honest with each other. I’m aware I’m withholding information right now, but I need more time.
Time to process, time to think, time to accept the consequences of my foolish mistakes.
Maybe then I’ll be able to figure out what to do. Whatever I choose I know I can’t be with Kade.
My heart squeezes when I think of him and the asshole voice in my head reminds me that he’s waiting for me. Waiting for me to forgive myself.
God, I can’t believe I found somebody to love me in such a way.
And I thought he was a monster. It wasn’t him at all. It was me.
Shit. Tears pull at the backs of my eyes, stinging like acid. I can’t believe this is me. The same girl who willed herself not to cry. I’ve broken down so many times in this week I’ve lost count.
At least one of those times was because I was happy. It was Saturday night at the museum when Kade waved his magical wand and granted me my wish to meet Christian Degas and work with him.
That night was my last happy memory. Throughout the week I’ve tried to get myself back on track, but nothing has worked.
I even missed an opportunity to follow Parker and Lana when I saw them sneaking off campus last night. I wasn’t thinking straight and I was completely unprepared because I was missing Kade so much.
A teardrops on to my arm and I realize it’s time to go back to campus. I can’t break down out here. All alone and depressed in a café. No thank you.
I grab my satchel, slink it over my shoulder and stand.
I make my way out of the café into the cold night air and head down the street to find my car. I had to park in the multicomplex.
“Nice bag,” says a tall man who steps out of the shadows. He has an accented voice that sounds like Eastern European. “Can I talk to you?”
He falls in step with me and my heart jumps into my throat. In the moonlight I can see he’s got a snake tattooed across his face.
“No, thanks. I have to go.” I walk a little faster and so does he.
“Where are you going sweet thing?” He flashes me a leery smile that makes my skin crawl. “Can I come with you?”
“Leave me alone please.” Great this is just what I needed.
“Can’t do that. I’m supposed to pick you up.”
“Maybe she’ll go with me, Sid,” says another voice from the shadows with the same kind of accent. A bulky man steps out of the alley just as we’re going past. “Isabelle might not like you.”
I stop midstride, my brain short-circuiting.
He knows my name.
“I’ll bet she’ll like me.” Another man follows and I realize I’m in trouble.
I was in trouble with just the first guy. It’s not like I can take on any of them.
“What do want with me?” I stutter.
“A very powerful man is requesting your presence,” the middle guys says. “So you can come with us and take the easy route, or we can take you the hard way.”
I don’t want either of those choices, so I do what my instincts tells me and I run.
I bolt forward, but shit, I’m not fast enough. I manage two steps before the bigger guy grabs me.
He clasps his large hands around my neck and I scream.
“So it’s the hard way then.” His rough face crashes into mine.
“Let me go!” I scream out loud hoping that someone, somewhere will hear me, but there’s no such chance of that. There’s no one around.
The other men laugh while the guy carrying me hoists me into the air and places a gun to the side of my head.
“We’re going to have fun with this one boys she?—”
Something wedges in his neck. A knife.
At first his eyes go wide before they go still and lifeless, then I’m falling to the ground.
The men whirl around ready to strike, grabbing their guns.
Kade appears from nowhere. With a knife in his hand he lashes out and goes for guy number three.
The man cocks the hammer on his gun, but that’s as far as he gets before Kade slashes his throat, like a Viking berserker.
Two dead men now lie on the ground.
Kade roars, going after the first guy who spoke to me. That guy seems more skilled in fighting and is able to counter Kade’s blows.
He comes at Kade with a flying kick, but Kade deflects him easily, shocking the hell out of me.
I’ve heard that Knights are trained at a level that are above anything anyone could imagine, but this is the first time I’ve seen it.
Kade moves like an vengeful hell god sent to earth to rip it apart.
Watching him makes me feel like I’ve been pulled into a battle scene in a movie. A minute later Kade stabs the man in his throat and the man collapses next to his companions.
“Isabelle, baby, are you okay?” Kade quickly focuses his attention on me.
I’m shaking so much I can’t answer him.
He picks me up and holds me. I sink into him, loving the feeling of being in his arms. It feels like coming home. But what’s happening?
I was ambushed who three men who wanted to take me and Kade is here.
“What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain everything in a little while. Come with me.”
He doesn’t give me the option to say yes or no, he just takes my hand.
We’re about to continue down the path when a group of men come down the alleyway. They don’t look that different to the guys Kade just dealt with.
“Fuck. We have to run. We have to get to my car.” Kade runs forward, pulling me along.
I run as fast as I can, panic fueling every step. I can see his car across the street. We just need to get there.
But we run right into another trap. More men come from our left.
“Damn it to hell,” Kade hisses.
I know I should definitely panic when I see him panicking.
“Kade.”
“Come Isabelle.”
He leads me down the alley to our right and the men pursue us.
I can’t see us getting out of this.
Terror steals my senses but I press forward, trying to keep to keep going.
We end up on the next street. Just then a car careens around the corner and a masked man in the driver’s seat starts firing shots in the air.
Kade covers me, but we realize that he’s not shooting at us. He’s trying to scare the men away.
It works. He screeches to a stop next to us and pokes his head out.
“Get in,” he shouts.
Without hesitation, Kade and I get in the back seat of the car and speed away, out of danger.
But who is this man?
This masked man.
“Who are you?” Kade echoes the words on my mind.
“I’ll explain when we get to safety,” he replies.
Something about his voice sounds familiar to me. That’s strange though. I don’t know anyone like this— whoever he is.
Kade looks back through the window at where we just came from. We’re far away now but we can still see the men fading out the further away we get.
“Where are you taking us?” Kade asks, holding my hand tighter.
I sense what he’s thinking that he we might have swapped one dangerous situation for another.
“Cabin in the woods,” the man replies. “We should be able to hideout there for a while. We just need to get off the road as quickly as possible and Raventhorn is too far.”
At the mention of Raventhorn, Kade glances at me out the corner of his eye.
This man knows who we are. Just like the men we left behind.
“How did you know the Malina would attack?” Kade asks pressing for information.
“I’ve been watching them. I followed them because I knew they’d lead me straight to you. I’ll explain everything as soon as I can. I have no doubt they’ll try to follow us. I assure you I’m not your enemy.”
Kade gives my hand a squeeze and we look at each other. I’m aware there’s a ton of things here going on that I don’t know and we’re in danger.
The worry in Kade’s eyes tells freaks me out even more.
Minutes later we’re off the main road and driving through the dark woods. It’s so dark we can’t see each other and the only light we have are slivers of the moon here and there.
We pass several thickets of trees and so drive so deep into the woods it feels like we’re going to a different country.
Soon we approach a small log cabin near the lake and the car rolls to a stop.
The man gets out first, then we follow.
“Come on.” He beckons us to go with him.
We do, following him right inside the house.
He switches on the light and proceeds to open the cupboards where he pulls out three shotguns and lays then down on the table.
“I think it’s time you started talking,” Kade demands , scanning over the guns.
“Yes, of course.” The man sighs and hangs his head down for a few beats then he lifts his head and takes off his mask.
I see his face and my stomach plummets through the earth.
I do know him. That’s why his voice sounded familiar.
“You,” I rasp out.
“What is it Isabelle?” Kade asks.
I keep my eyes trained on the man before me on those cold, blue eyes. “He’s the hacker, Kade. The man I met at the gallery who tricked me.”
Kade pulls his gun from his back pocket and points it at the hacker. “You’re working for Nikoli? You killed my parents.”
The man raises his hand and shakes his head. “No. You have it all wrong, both of you. I’m not working for Nikoli. And your parents aren’t dead. They’ve been taken captive.”
Those words come at me like shards of lightning and I feel like thrown on one of those crazy carnival rides where your head spins and your stomach goes up and down in your body.
“What?” Kade mumbles, his hands shaking.
“Your parents are alive, Kade. They’re alive.”
They’re alive.
So I didn’t kill them.