41. Bella – An Escape
Chapter forty-one
Bella – An Escape
Charles isolates Adrien at his mansion and administers the sedation and Lucy’s pill. Two vampires, Ricon and Edvardo, stand guard and watch over him.
Darius drives me back to the clinic, sees me in and then leaves to deal with the vampire politics at The Cliffs.
“Keep your phone near and call or text about anything, Bella.” He looks worried as he kisses me and leaves. I make my way in and greet Charlie and Finn.
“All quiet. Nervous but quiet,” Finn reports.
“Finn, you get some sleep and I’ll take over here.”
“No way, boss. I can handle one more night. You are the one who needs sleep. You look awful.”
He has a point, Bella, Charlie chimes in.
“We’ll trade off tomorrow, then,” I mutter. "Thanks."
I don’t even remember falling into my bed upstairs and sleeping with Charlie curled at the door. Sweet, blissful sleep.
--
The clinic wakes me with silence. Not normal silence. Wrong silence. The kind that feels like something has already happened.
I sit upright instantly, heart hammering. Charlie lifts his head sharply from the rug. Something’s wrong. Something's missing. I run downstairs barefoot, Charlie thundering behind me. I’m moving before my brain fully catches up.
“Finn?” I shout.
No answer.
Then …“Oh no!”
Tom’s isolation room door hangs partially open. Blood smears across the wall beside the window where the latch has been torn clean off. He went out the window.
The cold fog pours slowly into the room. Finn stumbles from the hallway looking half-awake and horrified.
“What happened?”
“He’s gone!”
Finn freezes.
“Oh God!”
Charlie moves slowly toward the wall, sniffing the blood. Then his ears flatten. I force myself closer. There’s writing scratched into the wall beside the broken window. In his own blood. Not words exactly. More like clawed desperation. But I can still make it out.
HE CALLED ME.
A cold wave rolls through me. Finn stares at it too.
“Oh,” he whispers weakly. “This is catastrophically bad.”
Outside, somewhere beyond the fog, before the sunrise, before we can safely go out, Tom is wandering.
And being called to the monster.