It didn't take long to find a hotel and check in. Larten used a fake alias to check in under: Vur Horston. Apparently, it was a name he used to use quite often before he became quartermaster, yet another thing Darren found himself dumbfounded that he never knew about. He tried to ignore the twinge of pain he felt as he kept uncovering new things he didn't know about his own father. For years, Darren had been told by other vampires who knew them that the way Larten acted around him was so different from anyone else and had mistook Larten's warmth and affection towards Darren as a sign that he was somehow closer to Larten than anyone else. Now Darren realized that he knew almost nothing about his father's past or interests. This disillusionment caused Darren to remain silent as they checked in and went to their room.

Once inside, Larten took charge immediately. "There are still a few hours until sunrise. Darren, you and I should use this time to scour the area to look for the hunters' base."

Darren, still questioning his relationship with his father, nodded and replied impassively, "Alright."

"What about me?" Lucas asked.

Larten didn't dwell on Darren's sudden change in mood and looked toward Lucas. "No offense, but Darren and I will be able to work faster cover more ground on our own. You should rest here and we will be back with our findings by dawn."

Larten and Darren left the hotel and began searching high and low for any signs of a vampire hunter's base. They searched abandoned buildings, underground sewer systems, and anything else that looked deserted or unkept. All potential leads brought them nothing.

As they flitted from rooftop to rooftop, scouring the city from above, Darren tried pushing down his feelings so he could focus, but it still nagged the back of his mind. He told himself that he was being dramatic and nothing actually changed, but didn't it though? Once he realized how shockingly little he actually knew about the man who raised him, it was impossible to ignore and go on as if everything was the same as before. Now he had questions: what did Larten do before becoming quartermaster? How did he come by the Cirque Du Freak? Why did he never tell Darren stories from his life? Was he keeping it from him for a reason? Why did Darren never think to ask about any of it before?

Larten paid close attention to Darren as they searched. He could tell something was wrong, and he tried to think about what it could be. It seemed to be about more than just the vampire hunters. Between seeing Jimmy and checking into the hotel, something made Darren recede into his own thoughts, but he did not ask about it until they walked back to the hotel, empty handed.

"Are you alright?" He asked delicately.

Darren continued to look straight ahead and replied with strained coolness, "Of course."

Larten stopped Darren with a firm grip on his arm, making Darren face him. He looked into his son's eyes analytically.

"Stop," he said. "Something is bothering you, and it's enough to have you distracted all night. What happened since leaving the morgue that has you so upset?"

Darren met Larten's eyes and sighed, "You used to be part of a traveling circus."

Larten's eyebrows furrowed. "Yes…and?"

Darren took his arm back and took a deep breath. "And you know Lucas's family going back to his grandfather. You used to go by the name Vur Horston, you have an exotic spider that will do tricks for you, and there are all these other things that I never knew about. You had this whole life before Vampire Mountain and didn't tell me about any of it!"

Realization dawned on Larten. "Darren, I do not talk about my life with most people."

"I know," Darren groaned. "You are very private. I get that, but I just thought that I maybe was…"

He trailed off and looked down, suddenly embarrassed. This whole thing suddenly felt silly. He did know how private Larten was and speaking out loud made him feel as though he were a child having a tantrum.

"You thought you were an exception," Larten finished for him. His tone was calm, but sympathetic.

"No-" Darren started, "well… a little. I guess what bothered me the most is that I couldn't think of why you wouldn't want to tell me some of this stuff. Do you not fully trust me yet?"

Larten sighed. "My reasons for keeping my life from you have nothing to do with trust."

"Then what is it?" Darren asked carefully.

Larten took a moment before answering, "I always wanted to be someone you looked up to and could be proud of. There are many things from my past that I am ashamed of and there are things that are still painful to think about. I am afraid that if you knew some of the things I've done, you would not think of me as highly as you do."

Darren's face fell. "I can't think of anything that could make that happen."

Larten said nothing.

Darren shifted where he stood. "I never want to make you uncomfortable or pressure you to reveal things before you're ready. Whatever happened in your life, it lead to you being who you are today. That's who I look up to. Of course it's your choice whether you want to tell me or not, but I'd be honored to hear your whole story."

Larten put a hand on Darren's shoulder and smiled.

"I do trust you," he said. "I promise, when this is over, we will sit down and I will tell you anything you wish to know."

Darren smiled. "Thank you."

When they got up to the room, Lucas was sleeping, curled up on one side of the bed facing away from the door. Darren and Larten shared the other bed and slept through the day. Darren woke up first. When he sat up, he yawned and looked around. The blinds were closed so he couldn't tell how long he'd been sleeping, but he did notice Lucas' bed was empty.

Darren felt his stomach drop. He got up and darted to the window, He slowly started to peel back one of the curtains, but the bright sunshine made him wince and snap it closed again. Creeping towards the door, he cracked it open and peered into the hall. There was no one on either side of the hall. Darren closed the door again and went back to the bed he shared with Larten.

He started to shake Larten awake. "Dad? Dad!"

Larten groaned. He peeked one eye open and looked at Darren. "What is it?"

"Lucas is gone."

Larten rolled on his back and rubbed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Darren sighed. Larten had always been slow to wake up. He remembered all the times his father would snap at him growing up when he would wake him up too early.

He shook Larten's shoulder one more time. "I mean he's not here."

Larten shot up when Darren's words finally hit him. "Where did he go?"

Darren rolled his eyes. "I don't know, but the sun is still up and I peered into the hall. There's no one out there."

Darren quickly got dressed and went down to the lobby to see if Lucas was there, but he was nowhere in the hotel. Darren went back up to the room and rejoined Larten.

"Do you think someone took him?" Darren asked.

Larten started pacing as he thought. "I doubt it. If the vampire hunters found us and got into our room, they would have killed us."

"Unless they are using him as ransom so they could get their serum back,"" Darren countered.

Larten hummed pensively. "It is possible, but I do not think we should jump to that conclusion just yet."

"Then what do we do?"

Larten stopped pacing and looked over to the window. "When it gets darker, we will go out and search for him."

Darren sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was about to suggest asking hotel staff if they've seen anything when they heard the door unlock.

Larten and Darren both jumped up and turned to the door as it opened. Lucas strolled in holding a plastic bag and a small stack of papers. When he saw Darren and Larten, he smiled and greeted them,

"Good! You're up!"

"Where were you?" Darren asked.

Lucas waved the papers he was holding. "I was at the library looking for vampire hunters."

Larten frowned. "You thought they would be at the library?"

Lucas shook his head. "No, but I was able to use the library to find places where the base might be."

"It is no use," Larten replied. "Darren and I searched every deserted building in the area and found nothing. The vampire hunters must have moved on."

Lucas clicked his tongue. "I'm not so sure about that. I woke up and you two were already asleep, so I went out. I was walking around not really knowing what I was looking for at first, and this woman noticed me wandering. She was an older women sitting in the park down the street. She asked me what I was doing. At first I said I was just exploring the city, and she started talking to me. Her name is Mabel Vanderbilt. She was telling me about how she lived in this city for years and how this park was her favorite and how she always fed the birds and chatted up Felix from the deli on his morning run."

Larten quickly grew impatient. "Is any of this relevant?" he snapped.

Lucas cleared his throat. "Sorry. This woman is important though."

Larten nodded.

"Anyway," Lucas continued, "As she going on and on I realized something. This is an old women whose lived in her town for years. She was able to tell me details about everybody's lives because she spends so much time people watching in the park. If there was any suspicious activity going on, this woman is the one to ask."

Larten raised his eyebrows in interest and Darren leaned in slightly.

"I pretended to be new in town and I asked her if there was any interesting gossip happening in town. At first, it was nothing interesting. Who is sleeping with who, someone got pregnant with someone else's baby, yada yada yada. But then, she mentioned a carpet and fabric design store that opened up not too long ago. She went in almost as soon as they opened and she said the business felt off. She said they had very little samples and everything that they had was out of stock. For a new business to be out of everything right as they open? That's strange, right? Mabel went back there a few more times and it was always the same. For months, not only was there very little on display and nothing in stock, but all the samples and display pieces were the same. She was particular suspicious of the man that worked there. She said that he was very rude and the man who stands at the desk was always very serious and he was a big guy with a bunch of tattoos. She said that he "wasn't the type to be a carpet salesman". Mabel thought its a front for some kind of mob, but I thought maybe these are our vampire hunters."

Darren sat up straight. "You didn't go, did you?"

Lucas scoffed. "No! I'm not stupid. I did go to the library and used their computers to look up the property tax records. I went to the county assessor's website and typed in the address Mabel gave me into their website. Luckily, a lot of commercial buildings have their records available for public view and look what I found."

Lucas grabbed the stack of papers and pulled one out and held it out to Darren and Larten. Darren took it and started scanning through it.

"What does it say?" Larten asked.

"It's a bunch of ownership information and a list of leasings." Darren's eyes grew wide as he reached the bottom of the page. "It's been leased to Steve Leonard for the past 3 years."

Darren and Larten looked at each other.

"That has to be where they're based out of right?" Lucas said.

"It would seem so," Larten responded.

"I know I've told you this before," Darren said, "but Lucas, you're a genius."

Lucas smiled proudly.