It was Hannah shaking her awake. Lilo shot up on the uncomfortable cot.

“Hannah?”

“What did they do to you? How did they get you? What are you even doing in San Francisco?” The questions were fairly spewing from Hannah’s mouth. She looked distressed, close to tears. At the same time she looked different from earlier. More lively. More animated. Real.

“You don’t know, do you?” Lilo asked, grabbing Hannah’s hands and squeezing them.

“Know what?”

“Hannah, you called me at Scanguards and told me to come down because Blake was hurt. You said he was dying, and you needed my help.”

She shook her head. “Lilo, I’ve been in here, locked up for I don’t know how many days.”

“Honey, they drugged you. The men who took you, they made you set a trap for me, and I marched right into it.”

Tears rose to Hannah’s eyes. “Oh, no, Lilo! I’m so sorry!”

Lilo threw her arms around her friend and pulled her into an embrace. “No, I’m sorry. If I’d been there for you when you needed me, this might not have happened.”

Hannah sobbed. Lilo took her by the shoulders and eased her back to look at her. “Don’t cry. Please. I’m here now.”

“You shouldn’t have come to San Francisco. Now we’re both in trouble. And it’s my fault. I should have listened to Ronny and left with him.”

“Ronny told us everything.”

“You saw Ronny?” Her eyes widened. “How?”

“Blake and his men captured him.”

Hannah slammed her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God!” Then Hannah cast her a cautious look. “How much do you know?”

Lilo sighed. “Everything. Or almost everything. I know about Scanguards, I know about the vampires, the drug Ronny is producing for Norwood, the danger we’re all in.”

Hannah shook her head. “I’m so sorry I dragged you into this. I never wanted you to have to deal with this.”

“We can’t change that now. I don’t blame you, you know that, honey, don’t you?”

“Oh Lilo, I don’t deserve you.”

Lilo ran her hand over Hannah’s auburn hair. “Blake will come for us.”

Hannah forced a smile. “He’s a good man.” She sniffled. “How did you even find out about Norwood and about Scanguards?”

“I went to your apartment, and Norwood broke in.”

“Oh my God! Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head. “Blake showed up just in time. He saved me, and Norwood ran. But he was looking for something. I suppose it was the USB stick you hid.”

Hannah sighed in relief. “You found it! I was hoping somebody would. I was afraid that Norwood would kill me, so I told him that I had evidence that showed what he was doing. I told him I had the formula for the drug. I knew he wanted it so he wouldn’t need Ronny anymore. And that if he killed me, the authorities would find it.”

“But there was nothing on the recording other than Norwood and Ronny turning into vampires. You can’t even tell what they’re talking about; there’s no audio. And we didn’t find the formula for the drug either.”

Hannah winked. “Because I don’t have it. But Norwood didn’t know that.”

“I still don’t understand. You couldn’t have known that you would be kidnapped when you hid the memory stick.”

“You’re right. But after I accidentally recorded Ronny and Norwood arguing, and Ronny told me he wanted out of what Norwood was doing, I had a strange feeling. So I hid the USB stick. I figured if something happened to me, at least somebody would know where to start. Scanguards would know.”

“But didn’t you realize that Norwood would go to your apartment, trying to find the evidence you told him you had? What if he’d found it before we did?”

Hannah shook her head. “I told him because I wanted him to go to my flat. I was hoping that by that time, Scanguards would realize that I was missing, and set up a watch on my flat. I was counting on Norwood going and hoping that he’d be caught by Scanguards.”

“You were right. Except that Norwood was able to escape.” She sighed. “Blake’s worried about you.”

“He’s a good friend.”

“He told me how you two met.”

Hannah dropped her lids. “You probably think that I’m impulsive and irresponsible, but even when he told me that he was a vampire, I couldn’t just let him die.”

Lilo smiled. She’d been in a similar situation. And she hadn’t had the heart either. “Thank you for saving him. If you hadn’t, I never would have met him.”

Hannah’s chin suddenly dropped. “Are you serious?” She shook her head. “You and Blake? How? I mean I don’t understand. You’re not the impulsive one. That’s me. You’re so... so reasonable... and you think everything through.”

“Sometimes things just happen. And there’s nothing I can do about it. And our captors somehow found out about me and Blake, and they used it against me. When you called to tell me that Blake was badly injured, I didn’t even stop to think for a split second. I just acted. You had his car. I had no reason to believe you weren’t telling the truth. I was so scared to lose him, Hannah.” Even now the thought clamped around her heart like a vice and squeezed.

“He’ll come for us,” Hannah said, her voice stronger now. “But now that you’re here, maybe we can figure out how to get out of here.”

For the first time, Lilo let her eyes wander around their prison. It was a large room with high ceilings, bare concrete walls, and a couple of windows high up. Both were painted black. Steel reinforcements, possibly an earthquake safety retrofit, criss-crossed two of the walls. It appeared that this was a room in a warehouse.

Lilo tapped her finger to her lips.

“What would Morgan West do in a situation like this?” Hannah asked, putting her arm around her shoulder.

“I’m not sure even Morgan West is clever enough to outsmart a bunch of vampires. We might have to put our money on Blake and Scanguards.”

~ ~ ~

“Everybody ready?”

Blake looked at his colleagues. They were all standing in a side street behind a large truck in the Potrero Hill neighborhood. Wedged between two freeways, the northern part of the district housed mainly businesses: predominantly warehouses and wholesalers. Farther up the hill to the south, the area was framed by a residential neighborhood.