Damon POV

For the past two days, I hadn’t heard from Kiran. I didn’t think anything was wrong with him, but it still made me nervous. The texts didn’t get answered. The calls went straight to voicemail. No updates, no ping of a location, no confirmation that he was still out there tracking her.

Briefly, I wondered if Axel had gotten to him.

Fuck.

I tried not to spiral, but the silence pressed on my chest like a stone. Kiran wasn’t careless. If he wasn’t answering, it meant something was wrong—or it meant something was close.

Then, on the third day, he finally answered. One-word text: "Fine."

A minute later,...