Destined (Vampire Awakenings) (7 page)

   “So Isabelle, what do you say?”
her mom asked, her violet blue eyes intent as she studied Isabelle hopefully.

  
Isabelle
wanted to say no, she wanted to
scream
no, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her mother had been so sad after Ethan had told her he had run into Kathleen. The nostalgia, and pain in her
mother’s
voice when she
’
d spoken of her old friend
,
had torn at Isabelle’s heart. This was her mother’s chance to catch up with Kathleen, to spend some time with her
friend
, and to regain some of the time she had been forced to give up. That she had given up for all of
them
. Well, mostly for her father, but for them too. Her mother would do anything for
her;
Isabelle
couldn’t refuse her this simple favor
, no matter how unhappy it made her
. It would only be for a couple of weeks, she could handle a couple of weeks. Nothing bad was going to come of it.
She hoped.

   “Sure mom, no problem.” She had to choke out the words past the painful lump in her throat.

   Her mother beamed at her. “Thanks Isabelle, I owe you one.” More than one, Isabelle thought silently. “Why don’t you guys take some drinks down to the building site,” her mom suggested to the twins. They bounced eagerly off the bed and fled down the hall, bickering over which one of them would get to serve Stefan. “I think they have a crush on him.”

   “Yeah,” Isabelle muttered absently. Her mind
was
already focused on how she was going to get through the next weeks.

   “Are you sure you’re okay?”

   “Yeah mom, I’m fine.”

   “Do you need a hand moving your stuff?”

***

   Two hours later Isabelle was greatly regretting the fact that she had turned down her mother’s offer of help, opting to recruit Abby and Vicky instead. They had done nothing but talk her ear off about Stefan, and how wonderful and amazing he was. She had a pounding headache, and she swore that if she heard his name one more time she was going to scream.

 
Not to mention, they were almost no help at all. She had only packed three bags, and two suitcases to take with her
.
S
he had
already
packed most of the things in her room in preparation for the move to her new home
, so she had very left to take with her
.

   Ethan opened the screen door for her when they stepped onto the porch. He took one of the suitcases from her as he glanced amusedly back at the twins. The
y
were each carrying one small backpack, while she had both of her suitcases, and a bag. “Taking a break?” she asked
irritably
.

   He flashed a grin
at her
as he walked back into the house. “Damn right. It’s hot as hell out there. I can see you have a lot of help.”

   Isabelle sighed wearily as she looked at the
kitchen
tile they had stepped onto. It was covered with dirt and footprints, making it hard to tell that the tile was actually a light blue instead of gray. The kitchen was
pretty much
clean, except for more dirty footprints on the blue tiling, but that was only because they didn’t use it often.

   “Yeah,” she mumbled.

   “Doug’s going to bunk with David, so you’ll have the basement to yourself. There’s a half bath down there.”

   “I know,
”
she mumbled, well aware of
the set up of
the house.

   He flashed another grin as they headed into the living room.
She kept down her moan of disgust; i
t was painfully obvious that a bunch of bachelors lived here. There were two forest green couches that centered around the big screen
TV
on the far wall. Two green reclining chairs were set at an
angle at the end of the couches;
their worn footrests
were
still in the air. The coffee table in the center of the oval was made of dark wood, but the tarnish was faded and scratched, and there were at least a dozen water rings marring it. The screen in the corner had once been a bright white but dust and time had yellowed it, and the picture of a deer in a wild, color filled meadow, had faded. The bright reds, greens, browns, yellows, blues, and oranges were dulled and dingy.

   The room was painted a light cream, but the walls were marred by dirt and fingers marks, and in desperate need of repainting. Dust coated the
TV
, and the light green curtains, making them appear darker. The windows were as smudged as the walls. The bookshelf, in between the two windows on the left hand wall, was cluttered with old paperbacks that had been tossed haphazardly onto it
.
A
ll of them were covered with a fine layer of dust.

   Wrinkling her nose, Isabelle studied the room with mild distaste, wondering how long it would take to clean everything. It would take at least a day to repaint it. “We’re only going to be h
ere for a few weeks,” Ethan said
.

   “I know.”

   He
glanced at her
over his shoulder as he strolled across the room. More footprints marred the old, dark green carpet. It was tattered and worn with age, torn straight to the floor in some places. “So d
on’t plan on redoing everything, and don’t go too crazy with the cleaning.
”

   She shot him a look as he grinned at her
. He
turned to head down the curving wooden staircase to the basement. Sometimes it was nice to have someone
who
kn
e
w her as well as Ethan did, at other times, he was a pain in her ass. “I wasn’t,” she muttered.

   “Liar.”

   “You’re going to have so much fun over here Issy!” Abby cried
enthusiastically
.

   Isabelle rolled her eyes as she stepped into the basement that had been divided by a simple ply wood wall. They were standing in
the
laundry and weight room, both of which she knew were rarely used. Ethan led the way to the door in the simply assembled wall and threw it open. Isabelle stepped in, and groaned silently.

  The room was large, and plain
. The bed was
queen size, with a small wood headboard, and no footboard, it was stripped completely bare to reveal the old, indented mattress. A
TV
sat on an aged
, rickety looking metal stand, both of which were gray with dust. A small window was set in the far right wall, a shabby black curtain hung over it to block out the sun. The door to the half bath was
ajar;
Isabelle didn’t even want to know what it looked like. The entire room was cool and damp, and reeked of mildew.

   “I am definitely cleaning this,” Isabelle said, dropping her suitcase on the dirty, dark cream carpet.

   “I wouldn’t doubt it,” Ethan
muttered
.

   “Ugh
, it smells in here,” Vicky complained
, wrinkling her tiny nose.

   Isabelle crossed to the small set of stairs on the left hand side and sh
oved the storm doors open. Clean
summer air rushed into the room, and she inhaled its fresh scent gratefully. “Could you open that window for me!” she called over her shoulder.

   Abby quickly threw the curtain back and pulled the tiny window down. She stuck her nose into it and inhaled deeply. “Just don’t get any ideas about the rest o
f the house,” Ethan told her
. “You’re going to have a brand new one to decorate
, and scrub,
soon.”
   “Yeah, yeah,” Isabelle said distractedly. Her mind
was
already trying to figure out where she was going to start.

   Ethan groaned as he moved across the room. “
Just don’t have the whole place reeking of flowers, or some other girly scent. We’re manly men here,” he muttered in disgust. Isabelle quirked her eyebrow chuckling softly as he scowled fiercely at her. She was trying hard not to grin as he shook his head and turned away. “Ah crap
, we’re screwed
.
I’ll see you later
.
”

   He fled swiftly up the stor
m
doors
,
still
muttering as he disappeared from sight
.
“Do you want us to help?” Vicky asked
softly
.

   Isabelle groaned inwardly as she nodded. She
may not
want
it, but she was going to
need
all the help
that
she could get.

***

   Hours later, she had the walls scrubbed nearly white again, the rug vacuumed and washed, everything dusted, the bed neatly made, and the room smelling wonderfully of fresh air, and apple. She was a filthy mess, her hair hung in straggly wet strands around her face, and her clothes were dirty and sweaty as they clung to her. Vicky and Abby looked just as bad, fortunately they weren’t complaining any
more, or rattling on about Stefan. Now, they just sat silently on the bed, too tired to move.

   “I’m going to take a shower.”

   They nod
ded as Isabelle
gathered her clothes and headed out of the basement, and up the stairs. Making her way through the living room she went upstairs to the full bath, which was also in desperate need of a good cleaning. She forced herself not to groan as she took in the absolute mess. The sink was littered with small
hairs;
shaving cream was stuck in it and around the edges of it. Toothpaste and toothbrushes were scattered haphazardly around, and the soft yellow of the sink was nearly white from the toothpaste and shaving cream. The floor was filthy, she didn’t even want to look at the toilet, and the shower was mildewed.

   She forced herself not to think about any of it as she took a quick shower, dressed, and left the room before she started to clean it now. It would be her first project tomorrow. She wondered if she could recruit Vicky and Abby again, but she
figured
they were too smart to fall for that again
. They had
only
helped her today in the hope of seeing Stefan, but it was obvious that he was staying at the building site with everyone else. She wondered where Jess was, and if she would be willing to help. She was definitely going to need it.

   She entered her new room again and threw her dirty clothes into the hamper. She would also gather everyone’s dirty laundry tomorrow and do that. While she was here, she was going to make sure that everyone had plenty of clean clothes, and a clean house. She turned her attention back to Vicky and Abby, who looked as if they hadn’t moved an inch.

   “Would you guys want to help me tomorrow?”

   They exchanged quick glances. “Well, we were going too ah...”

   “Don’t worry about it,” she interrupted with a soft smile.

   “Maybe
we’ll stop by later
in the day
,” Vicky offered with a tiny smile
.

   “That’s okay,
”
Isabelle assured them.

   “Isabelle!”

   She nearly jumped out of her skin as Willow’s head appeared in the doorway of the storm
cellar. She didn’t even have to ask, the look on Willow’s face said it all. “Ah hell
,
w
hat did you do now?”
s
he mumbled as she leapt up the stairwell.

   Willow turn
ed and started to run before Isabelle
even reached the top. She followed her around the back of the house and toward the woods. Willow darted gracefully down a trail, easily dodging the tree branches that slapped at Isabelle. Cursing and muttering angrily, she wasn’t paying any attention to where they were going. Willow pulled up abruptly in a small clearing, if she hadn’t reached out and grabbed Isabelle, she would have plummeted right over the edge of the pit in the middle of the clearing.

   Skidding to a halt, her eyes widened as they landed upon the gaping hole that was about ten feet in diameter. It looked grotesquely out of place in the middle of the small clearing. “What the...”

  
“Isabelle!”

   Surprise ripped through her as the small voice came from the hole. She stepped carefully to the edge of the
pit
and looked down. Her heart leapt into her throat, and her blood ran cold as she spotted Julian about four feet down, clinging to a tree
root, his feet dangling in the air. Beneath him were at leas
t a hundred old, deadly looking
wooden stakes. It took her only a moment to realize that he had fallen into a bear trap that had been long forgotten.