Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Fifty-Six
**3rd Person POV**
This made Ashton furious, not enough to commence a nationwide search for Gabriella but to begin a palace-wide search for her because he believed that she had hidden herself somewhere in the palace. He commanded his guards and maid to search every corner of the house for her and he vowed that Gabriella would certainly regret what she had done today.
It did not take long to figure out that Gabriella was not in the palace. Ashton's first thinking was that she had been kidnapped by one of his enemies and they would soon demand something in return for her release but a quick investigation made him realise that such was not the case. In his frustration, he went to their room and noticed that the window had been left open.
It was the first time, he considered the possibility that she had escaped.
Gabriella continued her journey at the break of dusk. She had changed her disguise so she could better blend with the local people. She arrived at her father's palace at dawn. She found that the palace was locked and there were guards surrounding the palace. The atmosphere around the palace told her that something had happened in the palace; something bad.
She did not go into the palace through the only entrance that seemed open and was now heavily guarded. She circled the palace and found a quiet spot covered with ivy. It was through this wall that she was able to enter the palace. She knew that at this time, most of the palace would be going to sleep as they were vampires.
It was not her wish to wake anyone or cause a stir.
However, she had not gone very far when someone said, “Freeze!”
She stopped at once and tried her best to place the voice but she could not.
“Turn around, slowly…” instructed the voice. She did as she was told and was confronted with a very young face. She figured that the man must be about the same age as her. She was not fooled by his eyes which twinkled with innocence, she could see past the veiled naivety.
“I saw you scale the walls, why are you sneaking into the palace?” demanded the young man. The more she looked at his face, the more she realised that the young man was actually somewhat familiar. She had seen the face somewhere but she could not remember where or when.
“You are a werewolf, are you not? What are you doing here? This is a private place,” Gabriella demanded. It was so private that even the guards did not come near it. It was also hard for anyone who was not intimately familiar with the place to scale the walls she had just scaled.
“You are the one sneaking in. I believe there is a proper way to enter the palaces,” came the young man's response.
Gabriella could sense that although young, this was a man who was used to having his way and she noted from the way he stood unblinking under the sun that he was a werewolf. This felt strange to her. She knew that werewolves had come to attend her wedding but they ought to have left the palace by now. She sensed though that it had something to do with the palace being under lockdown.
“Who are you?” Gabriella asked him.
“I should be asking you that,” returned the young man.
Then suddenly and without warning, the young man grabbed her arms and turned around while holding her in his arms.
She was very surprised and still in shock when she felt him collapse in her arms.
Vampire guards suddenly stormed into the medium-sized dining hall where the Council of Elders and some werewolves were having a conversation. Elder Thaddeus was furious at the intrusion because they had burst into the meeting as though the werewolves were some criminals.
“What is the meaning of this? How long do you expect that we put up with this insult?” he demanded.
“Someone has been shot. We need to do a headcount of the werewolves that it cannot possibly be,” explained one of the guards. This infuriated Elder Thaddeus all the more. “What about the headcount of the vampires in the palace? Huh? How can you conclude that the shot was fired by one of us?”
The confusion that married the guard’s face made it clear that he had not considered it at all a possibility.
“With all due respect, Elder. We do not experience these things in the absence of werewolves,” came the guard's response.
“You have counted us, that shit did not come from one of us. Who are you accusing us of killing this time?” asked Princess Charlotte with sarcasm.
“We do not know. We only heard the shot being fired,” said the guard.
The guards left after that and the werewolves did a headcount. They were missing two persons for the Council of Elders had summoned all the werewolves in the palace irrespective of status to have a talk with them.
There were two werewolves missing in their midst.
****
Azrael slowly opened his eyes. He had heard the gunshot but he had not been hurt. A quick examination of the room and the look on Kristoff's face told him that the shot had not come from the gun which Kristoff held.
“This is not the murder weapon,” it was Azrael who said so. He had been convinced that Charlotte had been responsible for Major Drieden's murder. He could not help but believe so because on the night Major Drieden had died, he had seen a woman enter Charlotte's room with a gun.
His hatred combined with his lust for his friend's beloved had made him blackmail her and when she had refused, he had been waiting patiently for her room to be searched.
“You don't know that,” said Kristoff. For the first time since he had seen the gun, Kristoff attempted to dismantle the gun.
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