Cameron

The crowd had mostly dispersed now leaving only me the police and Alara's friends.

Her friend Haifa was crying fat tears streaming down her heart shaped face, I wasn't really good with emotions so I didn't know how to handle the crying girl before me, "Hey, Haifa, it's ok, I'll find her," I tried my best to console her. Through her tears she sniffed and nodded.

Roan glared at me, "This is all your fault," he had deep black skin and a winning smile but deadly eyes all the same.

"If she had never gotten involved with you she wouldn't be missing," he gave me a scowl that showed how deep his hatred ran.

"You think I wanted this for her?" I bit out gritting my teeth to keep the anger at bay. I couldn't keep wasting time here.

"I'll find her," I repeated a strong sense of resolve in my words by Roan didn't seem to believe anything I said.

One of the police officers walked over towards me, he recognised me immediately, "Mr Grayson, we will do everything in our power to retrieve Miss Mortello."

I nodded stiffly having little to no hope in the police force.

Once I reached my car I slammed the door shut and sped off to the place I dreaded to go.

I pulled into the driveway of the Mortello household, the trimmed green plants and heavily scented flowers coming into my field of view as I edged closer to the door.

I didn't even need to knock before Theodore Mortello came barrelling out of the door, his gun raised and venom in his eyes, "Give me one reason I shouldn't fucking shoot you," his voice was gritty and the grasp on his gun tightening with each threatening word.

"You don't want to shoot me Theo,"

"Fuck you," he spat, "My sisters with you for a day and you've lost her already. You were supposed to protect her."

"That's why I came here, I swear I will find her. Whatever it takes." I tried to keep my tone as cool as possible not wanting to aggravate the tempestuous brother.

He still didn't lower his gun he made his way closer, "If anything happens to her I won't hesitate to put a bullet through your skull," it was after this final statement he lowered his gun but not before glowering at me one last time.

"I'll search for on the west side, you take the east, any sign of her you call me, immediately, I don't trust you to find her on your own."

He turned to walk away but before he could leave I called out.

"It's the Bloodhounds, it has to be,"

Theo stilled with his hand gripping the edge of his car door, "Are you sure?"

I nodded slowly and before any other words fell from my mouth he was gone his car speeding away with a definitive screech of the tyres.

The Bloodhounds were very secretive with their base just as we were, no one truly knew where their base was. But what they had done would be seen as an act of war on both us the Vipers and the Mortellos.

There would be blood to be spilt for what they had done.

It was then I saw my phone light up and ring with an incoming call, the number was private, "Hello," my voice was gruff and teetering on the edge of frustrated. I didn't have time for any of this.

"Ah Grayson," I stalled at the voice it was so very familiar a deep undercurrent of arrogance seeping into every word, "I think I have something that belongs to you,"

It was Dane Laurier the leader of the Bloodhounds, "Where the fuck is she?" my voice was harsh and demanding.

He laughed languidly, "And she thinks you don't care about her," at the words I had to make the decision to play if off as though I didn't. It would put her in more peril if it seems like I cared for her.

"You taking her is an act of war and you know it, I don't give a shit about her but what I do give a shit about is people taking what's mine," I seethed.

"Oh what bold words, you really expect me to believe you don't care, maybe I'll send her finger in the mail and then we'll see how much you really care,"

My heart stilled at the threat and image of a dismembered finger came at the forefront of my mind. My grip on the phone tightened as I sucked in a breath, "Damage," I deliberately used the word instead of hurt to further convince him that I saw her as nothing more than something that belonged to me, "her and you will have hell to pay."

I could almost hear him smirking, "Aren't you even going to ask what I want?"

"No, because you're not going to get it."

"I don't want money Grayson, I want you. I want you begging on your knees in front of me. I want to watch as the blood drains from your face. But I could settle for something a little less violent,"

"What?" I gritted out. I mages of pummelling that smug look off of his face.

"You'll find out very soon. Meet me at Coven's Church at 8 sharp don't be late," and the line went dead.

I cursed under my breath and revved up my car speeding towards the base. I met Leo there who had yet to find any sign of Alara.

"And what about tracking her phone?"

He led me towards one of our best hackers who only went by the name Echo, he was typing furiously at his keyboard the screen lit up with white text on a black background. His nimble fingers flew over the keys a look of abject concentration on his face.

His glasses slipped slightly on the bridge of his nose and the only time his fingers left the keys was to push them up and back over his eyes.

I leant slightly closer trying to make sense of the mass of words on the screen, a few moments later and image popped up out of the code presenting a map with a grey trail showing the movements of what I assumed to be Alara's phone.

"The trail goes dead here," Echo pointed at the screen where the grey line cut off abruptly, "This must have been where they threw her phone out, but it gives us a general idea of what part of town she is likely to be."

I looked more closely to see if I recognised any of the buildings around where the trail cut off and I spotted something, "Wait is that Coven's Church,"

Echo zoomed into where my finger was pointing at and sure enough it was Coven's Church. A church that had long since been abandoned that had received its name from the sheer number of witch trials they held there in the past the name was supposed to be ironic given the purpose of the church was to weed out witches or spawns of the devil as the clergy would call them rather than be a sanctity for Witches as a Coven would be.

"That's exactly where Laurier told me to meet him, would he really be stupid enough to do it in the place where he has her held,"

Leo shook his head, "No I doubt it but it must be close."

"Or this could all be a red herring," Echo began to explain, "They could've dropped her phone there and driven miles away for all we know."

This was hopeless, my brain churned trying to think of any other way of possibly locating her, that's when I remembered the phone call, I dug out my phone and flicked to the recent calls, "Echo even though this number is private can you trace back the call?"

I handed him the phone and the moment he looked at it a wide grin spread over his face, "Yes Cam, yes I can."

I let out a breath of relief, "If you can track that then we can know exactly where Duke made the call from."

Leo's eyes widened with realisation, "And then we have them."

"It will take a while to trace but it is possible, because it's a private number and not a completely unknown one I can track it, there is always a little trace of something because your phone needs to know what phone to connect to. Even though you can't see the number somewhere deep in your phone lies the number or otherwise there would be no call."

"Can you get it done before 8 today?" I urged.

Echo glanced at the time. It was currently 16:53.

He furrowed his brows, a crease forming at his lips as he mentally calculated how long it would take, "It will be tight but I think I can."

"Good," I turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Leo called out.

"To get Alara back."