Kidnapped by Vampires ✔ (The Broken Trilogy Book 1)

Chapter Forty-Three

When morning came, the halls were mostly deserted. This gave me an opportunity to go down to the basement and check out the cells. I made it to the stairs unnoticed (which was quite a feat considering I still don't know my way around) and opened the door when I heard someone clear their throat behind me.

I turned around to see Ethan staring at me. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and judging by the look on his face he had bee following me for a while.

"Any particular reason you're going down to the basement?" he asked.

"I just want to see if anyone was left behind."

"You mean your little vampire friend?" He pushed himself off the wall and walked to where he was facing me. "Everyone was taken. Jay, Charlie, even some captives who weren't nightwalkers. Ellis doesn't want us to have anything."

I shook my head. "I just wanted to help him." I leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. "He was my only friend when I was there. He's the one who helped me escape."

"How did you escape?" He asked. "You never told us."

I patted the floor next to me and he took a seat. "Kayla, the girl I fought in the woods, offered to get me luxuries if I let her feed on me. I managed to gain her confidence so she wasn't so guarded around me and I got her to bring me my backpack so I could put food and water in there for when I ran home.

"Jay was the one who gave me the push I needed though. He told me that vampires don't have their powers during the daytime, so I knew I could take her down as long as the sun was up. Then that morning, I knocked her out and locked her in the cell and made my escape."

I recalled the weird conversation I heard in Ellis's office and wondered if that was something they needed to know.

"Amazing," Ethan said. "You managed to escape a vampire den without any training? You are definitely your mother's daughter."

"Yeah... wait." My thoughts were racing and going over everything of my escape. "If I locked Kayla in the cell, how did she get out?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I read the reports and they said they found your friend down there."

"He must've gone down to free me when the fighting started." Even though he knew the consequences of letting me out, he was still going to do it. And I let him sit down in that cell and starve. 

"We need to find him. Who knows what they're doing to him?" I stood up, but Ethan pulled me back down.

"We don't know where they are. We have no way of knowing where they went. And you don't know how to track."

"But we have to do something!" I racked my brain for an idea. "Couldn't we search the house they were in or something? They wouldn't be there anymore."

"The cops have been all over it."

"Maybe a few days ago, but probably not right now."

He laughed, then saw I was serious. "You're crazy."

"And you're annoying, but I don't want to sit here while everyone else is doing their part. Especially since everyone is so worried about Ellis and not who he's hurting in the process."

Ethan looked up to the ceiling and shook his head. "There must be something wrong with me." He stood up and offered a hand down to me. "Alright, let's go. But we shouldn't go alone."

***

Ethan and I stood outside Vince's door and knocked. It took a while for him to answer and when he did he looked like an entirely different person.

Usually, Vince didn't put much effort into his appearance. At least, I haven't seen any since I've met him. His hair had a natural bedhead look and his clothes were casual jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt. Now his hair was slicked back and tamed, and he was wearing a nice non-ripped pair of jeans and a black button-up shirt with loafers.

"Who are you and what have you done with Vince?" I asked.

"My dad will be here any second and he's not a big fan of the lazy look."

"Sorry about that," Ethan said. "Good luck." He went to shut the door, but I stopped it with my hand.

"Wait, you could always meet your dad later. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if it was for professional reasons." I smiled to try and convince him to listen.

"What 'professional reasons'?" he asked and crossed his arms.

"We're going to go check out the Rutherfords' house and see if we can find a lead on where they went."

Vince looked over at Ethan and he held up his hands in surrender. "Don't look at me. It was her idea. I told her there were cops."

"Days ago. Now there might be one patrol guy or whatever and we can easily distract him," I said. They really needed to come because I couldn't do it on my own. Then I remembered the test Moira put me through two days ago with the crystal. "Or maybe we don't have to distract him at all."