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He also couldn’t risk a car wreck. Mila’s family showed up before Mila and Gio could exchange souls. Without a piece of Gio’s soul, Mila was as easy to kill as the average human.

The phone in his back pocket kept ringing and vibrating. He was probably getting a ton of calls and texts from everyone he’d left behind. He didn’t care. His only focus was getting Mila back.

He kept a few cars between him and the van. When the van got on the 5 Freeway going south, he considered that they might be taking her over the border into Mexico. That would make it much harder for him to follow.

Thankfully they merged onto the 905 heading into Otay Mesa. When they got off the freeway, he wasn’t surprised to find them driving through an industrial area with no traffic to hide in. Carter was forced to stay far behind to keep from being noticed.

He turned a corner but didn’t see the van. He almost panicked, then shut the bike off and listened. Without the bike running, he was able to hear the distinct sound of the van’s poorly running engine. Starting the bike back up, he hurried in that direction and caught sight of the van turning on an unmarked road into an airport.

Pulling over again, he watched the van roll up to a hangar, wait for the massive front door to roll up, then drive in. While the door was open, he saw a lot of men inside and thought there might even be a truck with some kind of big gun in the back.

These weren’t ordinary kidnappers, they were some kind of armed militia. What did they want with Mila and Bec? It made no sense.

Abandoning the motorcycle, he made his way around the perimeter of the airport until he could approach the building from behind. There were a few planes parked at the airport, but he couldn’t see anyone moving around. The place felt deserted.

When he got close, he stopped, looking for any hidden cameras. He spotted several small ones mounted high on the building's exterior.

Damn it, he wouldn't be able to sneak any closer.

He couldn’t smell anything but humans in the area. They weren’t a rival wolf pack trying to take territory or a sliver of naga shifters. That made it all seem so much worse because he and Gio could reason with a slither or pack, but humans?

Remaining half hidden by a small embankment, he pulled out his phone. There were dozens of text messages and missed calls from Mila’s siblings, but he ignored them all and called Gio.

“Where are you?” Gio answered, his voice full of anxiety. “I’m at the restaurant with everyone, but they say you ran off, and Bec and Mila are missing. What happened?”

Carter quickly told Gio everything. Gio remained quiet, but Carter could hear a lot of voices in the background as he explained.

“Wait there,” Gio ordered after Carter finished. Gio’s phone beeped, telling Carter there was another call coming in. “Mila is calling me. I’ll call you back.”

He hung up before Carter could say anything. Before he even had a chance to debate trying to get into the hangar, Gio was calling him back.

“Gio?” Carter asked, feeling deep fear blossoming. He was too far away to feel Gio through their soul bond, but he instinctively knew there was more bad news.

“They asked for money,” Gio said, his voice flat and emotionless.

Carter didn’t understand. “Money?”

“They said I needed to come alone and bring money,” Gio explained. “They know I’m a vampire.”

It only took Carter a second to understand. “Tooth-pullers.”

“That’s what I think also. Why else would they send me their location, which is the same place your phone is saying you’re located?”

Fear for all of them made it hard for Carter to think straight. “There are cameras all over the perimeter, and they’re heavily armed inside. What are we going to do?”

“Give them what they want,” Gio said. “Me and a bag of money.

Mila

“Shouldn’t I have a gun?” Brad asked. “Come on, Dave. I should have a gun too. I’m in as much danger.”

“No,” Dave said. “You’d end up shooting one of us by accident. When things get going, stay out of our way. You can help with clean-up after it’s over.”

Mila could see Brad wasn’t happy with that answer, but Dave’s frown said the conversation was done.

With Brad over by the front of the hangar trying to talk someone into giving him a weapon, there was no one close enough to hear them talking. Mila wiggled back until she was close enough to Bec to whisper.

“We need to do something,” she said, keeping her eyes on the men. “Gio and Carter are going to walk into a trap and get slaughtered.”