Destined (Vampire Awakenings) by Brenda K. Davies

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.
       “Oh crap !”
       Isabelle dropped to her knees and scooted to the edge of the whole. Julian stared at he r with wide, pleading blue eyes; his black hair was matted to his forehead with sweat and dirt. “Isabelle help me,” he begged.
       “Hold on Julian, don ’t you dare let go of that root . ”
       “Tell me something I don’t know, ” he replied miserably.
       “No need to be sarcastic,” she muttered as she dropped to her belly and scuttled closer to the edge. She leaned into the hole, reaching for him, but he was even further down than she had thought. “Damn,” she muttered, wiggling further over the edge. “Willow, grab my ankles!” she yelled.
       When her ankles were grasped tightly she wiggled a little further out so that she was half in, and half out of the hole. “Julian grab my hands!” she gasped, barely able to breathe from the pressure on her stomach. He hesitated for a moment and then reached up and seized hold of one of her arms. She grasped his tiny forearm tightly, her hands digging into his flesh. “Now the other one,” she encouraged breathlessly.
       He bit into his bottom lip, fear evident in his wide eyes, and pale face. He released his hold on the root and seized hold of her other arm. Isabelle let out a sigh of relief as she grasped him tightly, her hands enclosing his small forearms. “Isabelle!” Willow gasped. “You’re too heavy!”
       Dismay ripped through her as she struggled to breathe. “Don’t you dare let go!” she yelled.
       “If you let go I will haunt you for the rest of my afterlife!” Julian shouted.
       Isabelle cocked a n eye brow as she stared down at her brother. He stared back at her, pale and trembling. “That’s a threat,” she mumbled. “She already has to deal with you for eternity; she might take her chances on you not being able to bother her in the afterlife.”
       His eyes widened even more, and she hadn’t thought that it was possible, but he became even paler. “That’s not funny!”