I wake up abruptly to the sound of something dropping in my room. Looking around my room I see everyone is still fast asleep, what time is it? I glance over at my clock, 5:45 a.m, great.

I stand up and see that my bedside light has fallen over and smashed, I'm going to have to clean that in the morning. I'm about to crawl back into bed beside Derek but I hear a small thud come from out in the hallway, what are my one of my brothers doing awake at almost four in the morning?

Carefully making my way over to my door, I slowly open it, trying not to wake anyone. I peek my head out the door, looking both ways down the dark hallway but see no one. I step out into the hallway and close my bedroom door, I slowly tiptoe down the hallway to the staircase and look down to the dark foyer.

I jump as a loud bang comes from the kitchen area. Quickly running down the stairs, I jolt to a halt into the kitchen and look around for the source of the noise, but find nothing. Entering the kitchen further I keep looking around for any signs that someone might have broken in, but find nothing.

Just as I'm about to make my way back upstairs and to bed a cold chill freezes me in my place, slowly turning around I see a figure standing in the middle of the kitchen, staring at me. They are shrouded in darkness but we hold eye contact for an agonising amount of time before they step forward.

My jaw tightens as the light from outside illuminates their pale face and green eyes. My fists clench and ache at my sides, desperate to punch Ethan square in the jaw and watch him bleed on the tiles.

"You're supposed to be dead."

"And you're supposed to be grounded, but here we are."

He chuckles at his comment while I glare at him. Ethan makes his way around the counter to stand in front of me, he leans against it then pulls the gloves off his hands.

"Get out of my house asshole," I spit at him, standing square on to him, trying to resist the urge to sink my teeth into his neck and drain him of life.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk Evangeline, no need to be so violent," he smiles, all to calm about the situation he's put me in, "I just wanted to talk."

"Then get to it," I sigh, crossing my arms over my chest, refusing to let my eyes leave him.

Ethan pushes himself off the counter and makes his way over to me, stopping an arm's length away. I sink back into myself slightly but not letting him catch onto it, he smiles to himself and puts his hands up in surrender.

"Do you know who I am?" He asks, folding his hands together, a smug smile on his face.

"Ethan Black, a psychopath and serial killer, used to go by the name 'X', a complete asshole who won't leave my house. Want me to go on?" I remark, sarcastically shrugging my shoulders.

"No. Who I am, why I am what I am, what made me this way. Did your mother ever tell you why she and Aiden are so afraid of me?" He muses to himself, admiring his ring.

I clench my jaw and look past him, mum never liked to bring things up from her and dad's past. Whenever my brothers or I would ask to hear stories from when they were young but both of them would always tense up and change the subjects. By the time we were old enough to understand we would stop asking.

"Ah, they haven't," he smirks, walking a bit closer to me, then circling me slowly.

He stops and stands behind, brushing my hair behind my ear. Ethan leans down right next to my ear, his hot breath fans across the side of my face as he chuckles. "I'll tell you the story another time," he smirks.

I furrow my brows and go to turn to face him but something sharp pierces the side of my neck, I slap my hand up to my neck and turn to face Ethan. He smiles and waves at me, syringe in his other hand, I try to lunge at him but the world falls sideways as colourful dots cloud my vision.

Ethan crouches down and smiles down at me, he pokes me and rolls me onto my back. My eyelids struggle to stay open and everything is blurry. "Goodnight Evangeline," he mocks just as my eyelids close as I succumb to the darkness.

* * *

I roll over to face Evangeline's side of the bed but instead of touching her cold skin, I make contact with the cold bed. My eyes snap open to darkness and I don't see Evangeline sleeping beside me, where the hell did she go?

I sit up and look around the room, all my friends are still asleep next around me and unbothered. From downstairs comes a loud bang, like someone falling over. I throw the blankets off me and run out into the hallway, bolting it downstairs.

I run into the kitchen but it's all dark and nobody is there. Something sparkles on the floor, right next to the kitchen counter, I walk over to it and crouch down. I touch it and rub this yellow dust between my fingers, Ismey obviously but why was she here? What has she done with Eve?

Eve!

I hop to my feet and look around frantically for her, but she's nowhere to be seen. I hope for the sake of those idiots that Evangeline has just gone to the bathroom or else there will be hell to pay. My fists clench at my side and I can feel my body getting warmer, a snarl escapes my mouth and my fangs slowly start to show themselves.

"Derek?" Jason's voice sounds from behind me.

I whip around to face him and he's standing there, rubbing his eye, half asleep. His eyes shoot open and he freezes. "Derek, calm down..." he trails, approaching me cautiously.

My fists tighten more and I turn away from him, I try to breathe slowly to calm myself but thinking about Evangeline being taken by Ethan and his idiot squad is only making it worse. Jason's hand comes down onto my shoulder and I look up at him, he smiles down at me and turns me around.

"Derek I can tell something is wrong but we can't talk about it when you're like this," he tells me, holding me by both my shoulders.

Jason helps me take deep breaths and I begin to calm down, within a few minutes my body temperature has dropped back to normal, my fangs have retracted and my eye colour has probably gone back to normal.

"There you go," Jason mutters, smiling at me, "let's sit down shall we?"

Jason walks me over to the couch and sits me down, he walks off then comes back with a glass of water and hands it to me. I tilt my head and look at the glass of water than him, he shoves it in my face and I hesitantly take it.

Jason sits across from me and stares at me, I keep eye contact with him while taking a sip of water. I place the glass on the table and raise an eyebrow at him, Jason squints at me, examining my face.

"Okay, what is your problem?" I ask him, rolling my eyes.

He hums to himself, questioning himself for a second, and leans forward to rest his arms on his knees. "Ya know Derek, I've never seen you so happy," he says, catching me off guard.

I blink rapidly, trying to process this information but Jason continues on his little spiel. "When you're with Evie you glow, I've never seen you do that before. You were always so washed out when it came to the topic of love, but when you saw Evie again on the first day back, you seemed to light up Derek and I've never been happier for you."

Jason looks out the window to the backyard than back at me, I raise my eyebrow at him and he smiles. "Okay, but why are you saying all this Jas?" I question, leaning against the back of the couch.

"Because you need to remember that feeling and you need to be reminded that all of us are here for you, because what I'm about to tell you will piss you off," Jason bites his lips and looks away from me.

My face drops instantly as Jason turns back to look at me. He pulls something out of his pyjama pants pocket and hands it to me, it's a note, from Ethan.

Sorry but Evangeline won't be available for a while, she and I have some business to discuss and I don't want any of you morons getting in my way.

All the best, Ethan Black xo

"She's been kidnapped!?" I yell out, crunching the note inside my fist.

Jason quickly rushes over to me and rips the note from my hand, he tosses it somewhere and places his hands on my shoulders telling me to breathe and calm down.

"Jason how can I calm down when the girl I love has been kidnapped!?" I scream in his face, abruptly standing up.

Jason almost falls back against the coffee table but quickly regains his footing, trying to get me to sit back down. I try to shove him off me so I can go out and look for Ethan and get Evangeline back but Jason tackles me to the floor, screaming something about 'taking the time to think'.

"What's going on here?" Kara's voice sounds, making Jason and I stop fighting for a few seconds.

We look behind us to see Kara standing there rubbing her eyes, Mya and Damon behind her looking down at us. We quickly scramble off each other and stand up, Jason grabs the note Ethan left and hands it to Mya, Kara and Damon both read it over her shoulder.

"My best friend was kidnapped!?" Kara shouts, looking between Jason and me.

Kara runs up to me and begins frantically hitting my chest, screaming at me, "why didn't you save her!?" She screams. I grab her wrists and try to stop her from hitting me anymore as she frantically cries out.

Mya comes up behind her and grabs Kara's waist, pulling her off me. Kara tries to kick at me but Mya puts some distance between us. "You were supposed to keep her safe!" She screams at me, "you were supposed to protect her Derek! Why didn't you protect her!?"

Mya sets Kara down on the ground and turns her to face her, Kara then begins to sob into Mya's shoulder and rants about how we need to save Eve.

Kara's right though, I was supposed to keep Evangeline safe and I failed her. I told her that I prayed no harm would come to her, yet here I am, standing in her kitchen at 6 a.m after finding out that Ethan Black has just kidnapped her from right under me.

I was supposed to protect Eve with my life, I made a promise to myself that I would trade my life for hers if it ever came to that, it should have been me, not her. I know Evangeline isn't weak and she can protect herself but I'm worried that Ethan isn't just going to break Evangeline physically but mentally too.

That he's going to break her soul.

More footsteps enter the kitchen and we all look up to see Mr and Mrs Ryder enter followed by Andy and Liam. They all look at us confused, Damon takes the note from Mya and hands it to Rosalee, in their groggy state they all read the note.

Evangeline's dad, Aiden, looks up at me, his eyes wide but filled with rage. Within the blink of an eye, he has me pinned up against the far wall by my shirt and I'm unable to touch the ground.

"What did you do!? Where is my little girl!?" He yells in my face, shoving me harder against the wall.

"Aiden!" Evangeline's mum yells at him, "that's enough! Derek has done nothing!"

Aiden looks down and then slowly lets me go. My feet touch the cold tile floor and I place a hand on his shoulder, "I'll get her back," I promise him.

"No," he mutters, my eyebrows shoot up in shock, "we'll get the authorities involved-" Aiden turns to address everyone else- "I don't want you kids going after Evangeline, especially if Ethan Black is involved."

We all cry out in protest but Rosalee silences us and says it's for the best that we try to remain as normal as possible, she says that every one should let the authorities deal with this.

Like hell though. It was Evangeline who found out who X was in the first place, it was her who found out everything, all without the help of the authorities, they didn't do shit and they won't do shit now. I look at my friends and nod, telling them to agree with her parents.

I think they understand the double meaning behind my nod because they all reluctantly agree to sit this out. Since everyone is already awake we agree to get ready for the school day, which we all know will be a very anxious one.

* * *

At lunchtime, all of us sit around our usual seats but the table is quiet for a long moment. Jason suddenly breaks the silence by slamming his hands on the table, all of us look up at him to see him grinning like an idiot I know that smile, Jason has a stupid idea that could get us killed.

"So, what's the plan, Derek?" He asks.

I smile back at him, of course, he caught my double meaning, we've been friends since two. "So you caught my double meaning?" I question him and he laughs.

"Of course idiot, what kind of beta would I be if I didn't?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Kara pipes up, waving her hands around, "double meaning? What do you mean?" She asks as Mya stands behind her braiding her hair.

I roll my eyes and knowingly look back at Jason. "We're going to save Eve of course," I scoff.

"But they said not too," Mya pipes up, her voice a bit muffled with a hair tie in her mouth.

"And when have we ever listened?" Jason retorts, taking a long sip of his coke. He then pulls out his notebook that he's been keeping notes in for our investigation this whole time.

We all shrug and begin planning out how we are going to do this, Jason tells us that Eve kept a box full of stuff that she's collected over the past month and a bit that Ethan has sent to any of us.

"Where is it?" I ask.

"Under her bed, she told me," Jason smiles, slamming the notebook closed.

"Then let's go get it, it's bound to have where they are keeping her somewhere," Kara says, jumping to her feet.

We all stand up from our lunch table and speed walk out of the cafeteria, just as the bell rings. Once we get into the hallways we all break out into a jog, running for the entrance, determined to get to Evangelin's place as soon as we can.

Rounding one of the corners I skid to a halt, we all almost slam into each other as we stare at the doors to the exit. Standing right in front of the door is Ismey, in her teacher form, but it's still her nonetheless.

She crosses her arms and smiles at us. My fists ball at my sides and I let out a sharp growl, allowing my eyes to change colour, we all cautiously approach her expecting the worst.

"Where are you going? Class is about to start," she smirks, stepping forward to meet me.

We stand about an arm's length away from each other as I glare down at her. "Move," I growl, relaxing my fists to allow my claws to grow.

"No, I can't sorry," she bites back, her eyes now glowing yellow.

We stand there, glaring at each other for what seems like a long time, her smirking and me resisting the urge to rip her throat out with my teeth. Before Ismey can move a muscle I grab her by the throat and pin her up against the wall by one hand.

She struggles against my hold, choking and swinging her feet, desperate to touch the ground, this brings me some joy. My friends walk past and out the school doors now that I've moved the witch out of the way, I press my claws into her neck, drawing some blood.

I lean in close to her ear and use my other hand to sink my claws into her stomach, she cries out in pain and I smile, good. "Hurt Evangeline and I will rip your intestines out and use them to string you up by the neck," I whisper in her ear.

I let her go and watch her drop to the ground, gasping for air but also trying to stop herself from bleeding onto the dirt school hallway. I smile to myself and turn to join the others outside, determined to find Evangeline.

* * *

We did have to sneak into Evangeline's house, lucky for us Kara has a spare key she made years ago without Eve's parents realising. It's also lucky considering nobody is home, Rosalee and Aiden are at her recording studio and her brothers are at school.

But just to be safe we all silently make our way upstairs to her room. Everything seems untouched and normal, like Evangeline didn't go missing last night. Mya quietly shuts the door and Jason walks over to Evangeline's bed.

He pushes her blankets up and reaches under her bed, he pauses for a second and then drops down, frantically searching under her bed. He looks up at all of us, panic written in bold on his face.

"Jason, what's wrong?" Damon asks, voicing what all of us are thinking.

He looks back under the bed then back up at us. "It's not here," he mumbles, going back to look again.

"What do you mean it's not here?" I ask, joining him on the floor, looking for the box.

"She must've moved it!" He shouts, standing up to look around Eve's room.

We all begin tearing apart her room, looking for the box. How hard is it to find though? Jason said the box is the size of a small moving box, which shouldn't be hard to find but apparently it is.

After ten minutes of searching none of us finds anything, I sit down on the couch at the end of Evangeline's bed, dropping my head into my hands. This is hopeless, why did I ever think we had a chance at finding her? Ethan clearly doesn't want her found and that box was our only hope of getting a simple clue to where she was.

A cold breeze blows through Evangeline's open window and I look up at it. If only there was something, anything, that could tell us where she was then we might have had a chance at saving her.

Something quickly flies through the window and lands with a dull thud in the wall next to her door. We all look at the arrow, then each other, I jump up and pull the arrow out of the wall, a note is attached to it as well. I unfold it and we all gather around to read it.

The Clearing. 05/10/18 at 7 p.m. Don't be late or else you'll never see her again and don't bring the adults into this or she dies.

Hope to see you there, Ethan Black xo

That's this Friday...what is Ethan planning now? Whatever it is, it can't be good, but we have to save Evangeline. I have to save her.

Don't worry my love, I'm coming for you.