Sehun stared down the empty street. Adrenalin rushed through his body. Where were they taking Baekhyun? And what were they going to do to him when they got there?

His cell phone started to play I’m a Barbie Girl, courtesy of Luna again. Sehun jerked the cell out of his pocket and hit ‘Talk’. ‘Baekhyun?’ he asked, knowing even as he said it that there was no possible way it was his friend.

‘No, it’s me. Yuri.’

Yuri. The last person he’d expected. Sehun hadn’t thought she’d ever want to talk to him again.

‘You have to get Baekhyun out of Malibu. Right now,’ she told him, her voice tight with tension.

‘Too late.’ Sehun looked down the street again, as if somehow, magically, the SUV would come speeding backward toward him and the whole abduction would happen in reverse, leaving Baekhyun standing next to him.

‘Two guys just snatched him. I was right there, but I couldn’t stop it.’

Yuri didn’t respond. But he could hear her breathing. ‘I know where he is,’ she said finally.

‘Where? Tell me.’

She hesitated.

Come on, come on, come on! Sehun urged silently. He didn’t have time for this. Baekhyun didn’t have time.

‘Meet me at Kris’. At the gazebo in the side garden,’ Yuri instructed.

‘I’m on my way.’ Sehun started toward his car.

‘And, Sehun? Don’t park where anyone can see you,’ Yuri finished. She hung up before he could respond.

Sehun parked a block away from Kris’. He cut down to the beach, figuring there was a less chance of him being spotted if he approached the house from that way, rather than from the front. Although it occurred to him that all those decks and balconies would give anyone who happened to be looking a perfect view of him. He just had to hope no one had picked this moment to enjoy the ocean views.

He ran along the sand, his feet sinking into it with every step. Sehun usually loved running on the beach, but right now he wanted some nice hard asphalt. A surface that would let him get some speed.

Sneakers wouldn’t help either, he thought as he veered toward the rough wooden logs that served as stairs up the side of the cliff. A layer of sand had got between his Tevas and his feet.

Sehun pounded up the steps and raced over to the gazebo. Yuri was already waiting, her long, inky hair fluttering in the breeze coming off the ocean.

‘Thanks for calling me,’ he said when he reached her. ‘So what gives?’

‘Kris asked me to call,’ Yuri told him. ‘He thinks he owes you for saving his life in that fight with Suho,’ she continued. ‘Kris doesn’t like to owe anybody.’

‘He doesn’t owe me. He saved my life, too. But right now I’m not going to turn down his help,’ Sehun answered. ‘Where’s Baekhyun?’

‘Kris wanted you to get him out of town.’ Yuri twisted her hair into a knot to keep it from blowing in her face. ‘But I really don’t know what you can do now that it’s too late for that.’

‘Just tell me where he is and let me worry about the rest,’ Sehun said impatiently.

Yuri gave a reluctant nod. ‘He’s been taken before the Council.’

Questions exploded in Sehun’s head. ‘The what?’

‘The DeVere Heights Vampire Council,’ Yuri repeated. ‘It’s this group that makes decisions about things that involve all of… of us.’

‘Why would this council care about Baekhyun?’ Sehun demanded. ‘Is it like steal from one of you and you steal from all of you?’

‘What Baekhyun took was something that belonged to all of us, in a way,’ Yuri explained. ‘The Wus keep the chalice because they are one of the oldest vampire families, but it doesn’t truly belong to them. It’s a sacred relic that has been used in our ceremonies for centuries.’

Nice one, Baekhyun, Sehun thought. The Wu house is stuffed with expensive crap. And you had to grab some precious vampire artefact!

‘So what are they going to do with him?’ Sehun paced around the gazebo. He couldn’t stand still. ‘He’s already sold the thing, but we have a lead on getting it back. We just need a little time.’

‘I don’t know,’ Yuri admitted, her eyes even darker than usual – dark with apprehension. ‘That’s what they’re deciding right now. But it doesn’t look good. That’s why Kris wanted you to get Baekhyun out of town before they found him.’

‘Where is Kris?’ Sehun demanded. He and Sehun weren’t friends. Sehun didn’t know if Kris was actually friends with anyone – even any of the vampires. But Kris had power and, rightly or wrongly, he felt indebted to Sehun. Right now, Sehun could use that.

‘He’s at the meeting,’ Yuri replied. ‘He’s on the Council now. That’s why the chalice was out of the bank vault in the first place. It was used in the ceremony to inaugurate Kris into the Council, the night of the party. The party was just to hide the fact that all the vampires were gathered. There was even a member of the High Council at the house that night.’

So that’s why there was extra Kris-adoration at the party, Sehun thought. ‘Okay, well, where does the Council meet?’ he asked. His mind was racing. Maybe he could talk to the ‘Council’. Explain that he had already been to the pawnbroker. That no matter what, he and Baekhyun would get the chalice back.

Or was it too late for talk?

‘If I tell you that…’ Yuri let her words trail off. She pulled her thin sweater tighter around herself.

‘I get it. The Council could come after you,’ Sehun filled in for her. ‘Look, I won’t tell them who I got the information from. Just tell me where they are.’

‘I don’t care about me,’ Yuri burst out, her voice ragged with emotion. ‘But if you try to interfere with the Council, they could kill you. I can’t let that happen, Sehun. It might be too late for you to save Baekhyun. But it’s not too late for me to save you!

Her words were so unexpected that Sehun felt them like a punch to the gut. After all that had happened, he was amazed that Yuri actually cared. In the midst of the current crisis, part of him still found time to be ridiculously pleased that she did. But it didn’t change anything. He reached out and touched her arm. ‘Yuri, he’s my best friend. I can’t just…’ He shook his head. ‘I can’t.’

‘In the Garden,’ she said simply.

Sehun’s eyes darted around the gardens surrounding the gazebo.

‘No, up there.’ Yuri pointed to the roof of the Wu house. Sunlight glinted off huge panels of glass.

Sehun frowned. He’d been on the top floor – all over the top floor – with Chanyeol, and yet he hadn’t seen those massive skylights. And, even at night, all that glass would have been impossible to miss.

And then suddenly, he got it. He and Chanyeol hadn’t actually been on the top floor at all. There was a whole other floor in the house. That’s why he and Chanyeol had seen the vampires go upstairs, but hadn’t seen anyone there when they went up themselves.

‘Go home, Yuri,’ Sehun said, his eyes fixed on the roof.

‘What are you going to do?’ she asked anxiously.

 He turned to look at her, and couldn’t resist running one finger down her soft, pale cheek. 'Don’t worry about me. Just go.’