The World Next Door, Volume 1 — Greg Krehbiel

Geof Franklin gets the late-night phone call every parent dreads. His son is missing. As he chases clues as to Alek's whereabouts, he discovers a world within a world right in the middle of downtown Washington. Hidden Village, a fun and engaging computer game, turns out to be a recruiting tool for a system of “clans” made up of people with very rare abilities and personal characteristics, who live their own lives and by their own rules. Despite repeated warnings to stay out of clan business, Geof seeks to find why Alek has joined the elf clan, and what the clans are up to. In the process he meets and falls in love with Jen, a Hidden Village player, and the two of them continue the search for the secret of the clans. In The Underground Escape, the second book in the series, the hi-tech gamer clan has become the mortal enemy of the elf clan, and the first elf war begins. Geof and Jen have become entangled clan business and find themselves right in the middle of the deadly conflict between the elves and the gamers. Loyalties are tested and alliances are formed as other clans take sides