Kidnapped by Vampires ✔ (The Broken Trilogy Book 1)

Chapter Four

Ethan ran across the war room to get to his mother's office. "I think I know a way to get to the Rutherfords," he shouted as he entered the room.

His mother looked at him and gave him the death glare. She was sitting on the couch surrounded by other members of the council and probably in the middle of an important meeting, but Ethan didn't care. He knew of a way to track them down.

"Ethan honey, could you come back later? We're in the middle of something."

"Mom, this is important. I know how to find them!"

"Let the boy speak, Moira," one of the council members said. They all turned their attention to Ethan who walked over and handed today's paper to his mother.

"This girl, Mia, she went missing last night only two hours after we shot Ellis. Her friend said she went to go get something from her locker and never came back."

His mother scanned the article. "It also says that she's ran away before."

"Yes, but she left a note that time and did it after a huge fight with her parents. This time: no note, no fight, no reason to run away." He ticked off the points on his fingers as he said them.

His mother shrugged. "I'm not sure how much of a lead this is."

"Trust me. This is a big lead. I'll look into it myself and let you know if anything comes of it." His mother looked unconvinced. "Please, we need to be exhausting all outlets in order to take them down."

The councilmembers all exchanged looks and then nodded at Moira. "Alright," she said. "But I want you having backup. Take Lauren and Ben with you."

Ethan smiled and quickly left the room before his mother could change her mind. Lauren and Ben were waiting for him back in the training room for the good news.

"She went for it," he announced when he entered. Lauren and Ben jumped up and cheered. "Because the other councilmembers made her."

"Oh," Lauren said.

Ethan sighed and rubbed his forehead. "She hasn't trusted me since the full moon incident."

"Dude, you went out hunting werewolves in only your underwear with a shotgun," Ben laughed.

"It was my swimsuit, and I would think you valued me taking down an assailant more than me remembering to put on clothes first."

"The 'assailant' was the woman you were swimming with," Lauren added.

"She was a vegetarian. What was I supposed to think?!" Ethan yelled. He was never going to hear the end of this.

Lauren and Ben eventually stopped laughing.

"Okay," Ethan said. "So, I'm allowed to go forward with investigating this and my mom wants you guys working with me."

"Sounds good, where do we start?" Lauren asked.

"With the last person who saw her."

***

Ethan, Lauren, and Ben arrived at Grant High School. School was out, so the only people there were kids in after school programs.

"Can you believe that some people enjoy coming here?" Lauren asked. Since the three of them were hunters, they were homeschooled. And they never talked to anyone outside of the hunters unless they were investigating.

"It would be weird not knowing what your purpose is in life," Ben added.

The three of them made their way to the band room and found sixteen girls flipping flags around with a man at the front of the room clapping to the rhythm.

"Are you sure this Gabby girl is here?" Lauren asked.

"It said in the paper that they had finished winter guard practice when Mia disappeared," Ethan said.

They waited until the instructor gave the girls a five-minute break and then approached Gabby.

"Do you mind if we talk to you for a minute?" Ethan asked. Gabby took a long drink out of her water bottle before responding.

"About what strange-man-I've-never-met-before?" she asked.

"It's about Mia."

Gabby looked over Ethan's shoulder and saw Lauren and Ben standing in the hallway. "What about Mia?"

"My friends and I might be able to find her, we just need you to tell us a few things."

"Like what?"

"Like what kind of mood was she in before she left?"

Gabby looked at the ground then back up at Ethan. "She was doing fine, if that's what you're asking. I don't know exactly who you are, but I'm going to trust that you're the good guys. She had gotten over whatever happened to make her run away and she was happy. She went to go get her math book out of her locker and I didn't see her after that."

"Where is her locker?"

"Hallway A. Number 122."

"Thank you." Ethan turned around to join Lauren and Ben in the hallway when Gabby shouted something after him.

"Listen, if you are the good guys, bring her back. Okay?"

Ethan nodded and then took Lauren and Ben to hallway A where they looked for her locker.

"Found it!" Lauren said. "Locker number 122."

"Great," Ethan walked over and touched the door while his friends stepped back and let him work. "Good, the cops haven't touched this yet. I still got a feeling of her."

"That's because cops only investigate disappearances after 24 hours," Ben said.

Ethan tried to get a feeling off the door and sensed a sense of someone in a hurry. "She was rushing."

"Well, it was eight at night and she was probably trying to get home."

Ethan closed his eyes and let the feeling take him where Mia went. He stepped in exactly the same spots she did and stopped in the same spot she did. Only he didn't fall down. "She fell down here. She ran into someone."

"Who?" Lauren asked.

"That's not how it works and you know it," Ethan replied in a sing-songy voice. He then felt a jolt in Mia's steps, where she was bound and taken. He followed her steps down the hallway and out the door to the parking lot. He felt her every struggle and every kick as someone dragged her.

He arrived at an empty parking spot and sighed. Of course, the car wouldn't still be here.

"So, where did she go?" Lauren asked.

"Into a car, that is probably miles away by now."

"So, get a sense of what car was here."

Ethan shook his head. "You know it doesn't work like that. If I tried to sense what car was here, I would get what car was here last, which was probably a different car."

"So, don't sense the car, sense what Mia saw. What did she feel? Was she cramped like in a car, or was there room like in a van, or was it open like in a truck?"

Ethan closed his eyes and tried to regain Mia's presence. It was dark and there was little room for her to struggle in. "It was a car. With a trunk."

He tried to get a sense of what she saw. It had worked other times before, but he had passed out whenever it happened.

"There's a license plate," He said and struggled to read it. It was dark and Mia was fighting hard so his vision was shaky. "MK67P-" and then Ethan fell to the ground.