Five days later – Edward’s POV

No one could find her. No one. I tried to. I followed her scent right out to the side entrance. I had found her graduation peignoir, robe there. So her kidnapper had definitely taken her that way. But her scent wasn’t outside any farther than the door. It was just her peignoir, robe dumped there. It was like she had vanished off the face of the Earth.
Mitchell couldn’t trace her. He had been able to trace Charlie because of Charlie’s abilities and when Charlie gave up his abilities he couldn’t find him. When Mitchell tried to trace Kayla he came up a blank. Mitchell a dit that only happened when the Azdi had donné up their abilities, like Charlie, ou when they were dead.
Even Alice couldn’t find her. Every time she looked for Kayla all she could see was an impenetrable darkness. What did this mean? Kayla was locked in a dark room ou something much worse? Was she dead? Everyone assured me she wasn’t but I couldn’t help thinking it. Her death haunted my thoughts every seconde of the jour and if I could dream her death would haunt them too.
I sat in her room. I couldn’t stay in Charlie’s living-room for a moment longer. Her mother and Darren were staying in Forks until Kayla was found and we were supposed to be positive for their sake. But I didn’t want to be positive. I didn’t feel positive. I felt like my cœur, coeur had been ripped from my chest. I didn’t know what torture she was enduring, I didn’t even know if she was alive! I was going crazy in my own mind! And I wasn’t the only one. They may put up the positive front but Jacob and Charlie were thinking exactly like me. Charlie tried to shield me from his thoughts but sometimes his defences slipped and I caught all his pain. Jacob couldn’t hide his and hardly came over to Charlie’s because I was always here. He didn’t want to montrer me he was weak but I wouldn’t think that. I may not like the pup but feeling pain like this doesn’t make toi weak. It shows you’re human, that toi still have some ounce of humanity left in you. It shows toi have a cœur, coeur and you’re not a cold, empty shell.
“Edward?”
So Lost in m thoughts I hadn’t heard Charlie enter Kayla’s room. He was watching me and for the first time I saw concern in his eyes for me.
“How toi doing, son?” he asked me, sitting on the lit suivant to me.
I didn’t answer. Words could not describe the agony I was enduring.
“I feel the same way,” he said.
“Will she come back?” I asked, even though fearing the answer.
“Of course she will,” he replied too quickly.
“But will we save her in time ou will they just dump her body somewhere?”
My inner thoughts and fears were spilling out now. I couldn’t control them. Every scenario that I had thought of I was telling Charlie. He didn’t look horrified at the scenes I was describing even when most of them involved Kayla dead. He only looked at me with worry. What must I look like? I was the most dangerous predator in the world and here I was - an emotional wreck.
“She can take care of herself,” he assured me. He put an arm around my shoulders. “She’s half vampire remember. She’ll be tough like you.”
“She just disappeared,” I a dit quietly. “As if someone had shimmered with her, like Mitchell does.”
“But Mitchell didn’t take her,” Charlie said. “Jacob was with him the whole day.”
We sat there in silence, none of us knowing what to say.
“Edward, you’re right,” Charlie a dit suddenly, excitement in his voice. “Someone did shimmer with her.”
“What do toi mean?” I asked, confused. “Wouldn’t someone have seen it? We questioned everyone in the hall, no one seen her leave. They didn’t see anything.”
He turned to me and I could see he was almost jumping.
“Shadow Hunters. Creatures used par Jenzis in battle ou to retrieve items that they cannot get themselves. They are exactly what they are called. Shadows. But they although they look like shadows they can also become invisible and any object ou person they wish. No one can see them.”
I understood what he was saying and hope rose in me.
“So no one would have seen her taken,” I said. “The Shadow Hunter would have been invisible and then made Kayla invisible.”
Charlie smiled and looked triumphant at his logic. But it still didn’t answer one question.
“Why didn’t Alice see them take her? Invisible ou not Alice would have seen Kayla suddenly disappear.”
“Shadow Hunters are shrouded par a charm to enhance their invisibility.” Charlie spoke casually as if everyone knew this. “It’s to protect them from psychics and people that have visions like Alice. Alice would have seen the jour planned out exactly as if Kayla hadn’t been kidnapped. I bet she even saw Kayla at her graduation party.”
I smiled at Charlie. He looked so happy now that he knew who had kidnapped her. It was such a relief knowing that she hadn’t vanished off the face of the Earth. But we still didn’t know where she was.
“Yes we do,” Charlie answered my unspoken thought. “If someone had shimmered with her we wouldn’t have. But Shadow Hunters took her and I only know one person who uses them.”
“Loren.”
He nodded. “And the Shadow Hunters can only shimmer to and from a fixed point in their master’s castle.”
“Castle?” Loren has a castle. Hold on, all Shadow Hunter masters have castles?
“Every Jenzi has a castle,” Charlie looked at me like I should know this.
“Of course,” I nodded like I did know. “Do toi know where it is?”
“No. Loren has many castles.”
Any hope I had evaporated.
“But like I said, Shadow Hunters can only shimmer to and from a fixed point in a castle,” Charlie said. “Mitchell will know which château it is.”
Things were suddenly looking brighter. I wouldn’t feel whole until Kayla was sûr, sans danger in my arms but I could feel myself coming together enough to fight. I would fight to the death for Kayla’s safety.
“Charlie, can I ask toi something?”
“Sure, son.”
“Why wouldn’t toi let me help?” I asked him. “At graduation when I wanted to find Kayla, toi wouldn’t let me. Why?”
“I knew toi wouldn’t have let the guy walk away,” Charlie answered. “You would have ripped him apart and shredded the pieces. toi wouldn’t have left me anything to interrogate.”
I nodded.
“It wasn’t because I hate you. I don’t hate you, Edward.”
“I don’t hate toi either,” I replied, smiling. “So when do we storm Loren’s lair?”