Here you go. Long chapter, just as I promised. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter 6

As Atem smelled the oncoming of night, he told the guilty part of himself that the sleeping drug was important to keeping the girl—Yugi—safe. He couldn't leave her just to come back and find she had wandered off alone in an unsavory part of the city where anyone could find her, other vampires included.

Still, he was surprised at how readily she drank up the hot cocoa he gave her. She had only picked at the her food, which was to be expected. But the way she hugged the warm drink to her mouth unnerved him. It was almost as though she were seeking comfort from the sweetness.

And then, as her eyes had been closing, she met his and he knew she knew he had drugged it all along.

He stayed a good half hour after she had fallen asleep before finally leaving, locking the door tight behind him. Then he reached out for the shadows, curled them about him, and took off to the sky for the last place he had the trail of the vogue vampire. He found no pleasure from watching the city lights pass beneath him, or from the chill, nearly freezing air against his face. In fact, his usually clear, sharp mind was rather muddled with half-formed thoughts.

Really, there was nothing for him to feel guilty for.

The trail was a day old, now, and difficult to pick out beneath the multiple layers of scum the city tended to blanket over everything. He had to covertly get on the ground several times, like a dog. Twice he almost got hit by a car, as the extra speed he had gotten from Yugi's blood died down, which was a pity as he had been using it to cover the ground he had missed. Lucky for him the vampire seemed to linger near the back of a barred up pawn shop for a while. The scent thickened, as did the pounding of his heart.

Just as he thought he might be reaching the end of the trail, he came to the side of the Domino river, a sad, polluted thing encased by cement and sticky grass. Taking hold of the shadows again, he spread his wings and took to the other side to find the scent, but found nothing over several miles of shore.

The aching of his wings, which weren't built for long flights, brought him back down to the muddy ground, cursing.

"Do boats even go this far upstream?" he wondered aloud, eyeing the murky waters. Old and new warehouses crowded the shores further East towards the ocean, but here the river was narrow and hemmed by chain-link fences, streets, and a mixture of shopping malls and old apartment buildings. It wasn't the poorer parts of town Atem was use to, but neither was it all that rich either.

Figuring he should keep moving, in the case the gunsman from the night before should catch up with him, he stretched his wings for one last flight and took towards the ocean, where the warehouses might prove as a good hide out.

Just as the first of the metal warehouses spread beneath him, his screaming wings brought him back down, refusing to go any further. He tucked them back into his flesh and pulled his shirt back on, keeping an eye out for any discrepancies that might try to hide in the darkness. Built for the night, his vision pierced through every shadow, using the light from the moon like the noon day sun. Even so, the spaces between the tall, riveted metal buildings gave plenty of hiding spots for ambushing.

He took a deep breath. Rust. Metal. Water. Fume dyed cement.

And there, on the very edge of it, a familiar pungent smell, like melon that had been left out to mold.

Atem smirked wide. The tips of his lengthening fangs nicked the edge of his lips. Buried hunting instincts shot to the surface as he undid carefully placed mental holds, brightening his vision and bringing the scent of his prey to a vivid burning. He put took off his shoes and jeans to reduce noise and set them behind a set of old wood pallets and shrunk into the shadows.

Time seemed to lengthen. Each corner he rounded brought possibility. It just pleased him all the more that he couldn't make out the warm scent of live human. That meant he could go all out, and his instincts whooped with glee at the new freedom.

Countless corners later, he found him in an empty warehouse.

The vampire had a crazed, long mane of platinum blond hair that shone in the moonlight. He had his back to Atem and his focus to something between his feet as he sat on a long, short crate. Atem could smell something like blood off of him, but an old blood. Even so, it made his mouth water. He thought of the sweet, soft young woman waiting for him back home and the thought nearly turned him off from his prey entirely. But he still had his mind, along with the strength to school his instincts back to the target at hand.

Now the question: should he attack without warning or be chivalrous? This being was, after all, as self-aware as himself.

Then he took another whiff of the sweet blood on him and knew better. This one had killed.

"I can smell you."

Atem froze.

Yet the platinum blond vampire didn't look in his direction. He just kept doing whatever he was busy with, elbows jerking out with each shift.

"Even starving, I doubt one of your caliber would hunt down something like me when there is a city to be had. Best you get to the point."

Atem pushed himself to a stand, despite the desire of his instincts to stay low, quicker, faster.

Now would be the best time to attack. Sudden, and quick.

And yet a niggling in the back of his mind told him this vampire might more than he expected. And should Atem get injured again, he may very well kill Yugi off on returning home, if he didn't kill someone on the way. If only her blood had lasted him till this point.

Some spittle fell out as he opened his mouth to speak.

"You tore apart those people on the news." His elongated fangs made it difficult to speak.

The other man must have heard it, for he said, "Ah. You really must be hungry. And by your tone it would make sense that you are. Yami Atem. You've come to kill me."

Atem jerked back into a crouch, hackles raised. A part of him was surprised, but most of him wasn't. He had been around the block a few times.

The man put down whatever he was holding and turned about. He wore a simple, off-white shirt and jeans, but his eyes glowed a bright, fluorescent red, and the whites of his eyes had darkened to the color of dried blood.

Atem drew a step back. It was good that he had waited. This one was old. Very old. And therefore, very dangerous.

"I can smell her on you," he said in a low, snake-like hiss. A flash of purple tongue darted out to lick his lips. "Like butterscotch and lavender. You're hypocrisy is delicious—unless she's still alive? Oh, I bet she is. It's so…fresh."

Atem looked about, mind racing. The vampire's age changed everything. It was almost always the younger vampires that went on these gruesome killing sprees. The old ones got to live as long as they did because they knew better. After all, humans outnumbered them a million to one. But the longer Atem took in the other's traits, the more the vampire's age began to show, though to the untrained eye he would have looked like any other man in his twenties.

The blood red eyes caught Atem's, arresting his gaze.

"Oh, you're a little one," the vampire purred. "Cute."

"You need to quit these murders of yours. It's going to cause trouble for the rest of us." At least his fangs had pulled back to make it easier to talk, if only by a little.

"On the contrary, it's going to help quite a bit. So, if you're smart, you'll leave me to my business."

Atem couldn't help but growl, deep in his chest. After spending the better part of the month hunting down this guy? "I can't. You've killed innocent people and defiled their bodies. You're a monster."

"And so are you!" he crowed. "You really are cute."

Something metallic caught the corner of his eye and he gave an inward smirk. Speaking of young vampires…

"Fine, I can get drinking their blood," Atem continued. "But why did you have to tear them apart and make a scene?"

"Because it's easier to get to the parts I like that way? Honestly, a cute little thing like you wouldn't understand, so runalong. Don't make me tear you apart too."

"I'm not a child. I was twenty-four when I changed."

"And that's the height you have to show for it? Seriously, move along. I have things to do."

And then the vampire gave his back to Atem.

Atem took a quick glance in the rafters, just in time to see something shift out of sight, and the very, very thin silhouette of something that could be a rifle barrel.

Before he could think better of it, he leapt forward with the bare remains of Yugi's blood given strength into the vampire's shoulders. Using the momentum, he swung the other vampire around, exposing his chest to the rafters, just as a snap of thunder broke through the air. Dark, old blood spurted out and Atem's back hit the ground.

Just as quickly the old vampire was on him, face peeled back to reveal the mouth of razors, each tooth sharpened by a hundred years of human feasting. The gums had gone gray pink, and the lips stretched and stretched until they disappeared and all he saw was white.

Atem kicked with a yell. Enough of Yugi's blood remained to unseat the older vampire and roll from beneath him. Bullets threw up concrete as they pattered after him. As one grazed his shoulder, he screamed, "Shoot him! Not me!"

The old vampire, all fangs and lolling purple tongue and blond hair whirled towards the rafters, his front bathed by his own blood. Atem blinked and the monster was air born, leaping up to the rafters thirty feet above them like a cat. He heard a shout and the putter of bullets against the metal roof.

"Idiot!" he spat, even as he sprinted to the nearest metal support beam and scurried up it, claws squeaking as they grasped the metal.

Just as he reached the rafters, a body fell from them, twisting in mid air to land on their hands and feet. A rifle spun away just as a streak of white dropped like lightning. The gunsman ducked too late, getting a chest full of ancient claws and teeth.

Atem flung himself out. He tore his sore wings free from his back and shot into the ancient vampire's side and off of the huntsman.

Then it was a flurry of claws and screeching as the old vampire fell upon him instead. His human mind wasn't enough to keep up with the speed and his instincts took over, bringing his dripping teeth and claws onto any bit of flesh he could reach. White, blood stained shirt fell away with strips of tan skin, but the old vampire's flesh underneath was hard as stone.

Pain slashed through him. An arm gave way as teeth found a good chunk of his shoulder, bone included. Then an eye. A foot found his gut and clawed away at the muscle.

A bark of gunfire. The old vampire vanished.

And a new hand, much warmer than his adversary, yanked him up to his feet.

"Fly!" they shouted.

Atem spread his wings obediently, but he had brought them out at the wrong time and the delicate membrane and bones of one had been torn to shreds. Blinded by instinct, he only realized it after a few fruitless attempts to fly.

Another bark of the gun and the hand was pulling on him again, yanking him into a run. At least the muscles of his legs had been untouched, as he found his footing once again and shot out of the warehouse after the gunsman, what bit of his tattered wing he couldn't bring in flapping behind him like a banner.

He heard a beep. Then a low growl from his companion. "Mokuba."

A high, distant hum kicked to life. Just as he heard an inhuman screech of fury from the old vampire in pursuit, he heard a nearing, tell tale putter of helicopter blades. The animal that had taken over his mind balked in confusion, but what little he had left of his consciousness kept his legs running after the other tall, young vampire ahead of him.

The puttering became a full out roar from above, and Atem found the younger vampire dropping back to fling an arm around his middle. Atem squirmed and gnashed his teeth, alarmed.

"Hold still, midget, I'm trying to save our lives!"

Atem snarled, baring his teeth, and started clawing at the arm.

"Screw it."

Something tight wrapped about his throat. It cut his snarl short just as the vampire's arm took hold of the back of his torn shirt.

Then the ground fell away from beneath them. Far, far, far away, the loud puttering coming with them.

The next thing Atem knew he was holding an empty plastic pouch in which he had been sucking desperately on. Alarmed, he threw the pouch aside, coughing as his throat cleared and his teeth retracted. The loud puttering hadn't left, but surrounded him, as well as the metal walls of what could have only been the inside of the helicopter.

The tall, brunette vampire from the night before sat on the other side of the carrier, holding another plastic pouch of what could only be blood. He watched Atem with a flat, dry expression, and tossed the pouch into his lap.

Atem tried to leave it there, desperate to learn what had happened during his lapse of consciousness first, then felt the pang of his torn wing and lifted that pouch to his waiting fangs as well.

Blood. Human blood washed down his throat. It was cold and had a stale taste to it, but he melted with relief nonetheless.

The tall vampire tossed over a set of heavy headphones, having put a matching pair on his own head. Once Atem had finished off the pouch as well, he put them on his.

"Who was that?" asked his sort of savior.

Atem felt along the side for the mouthpiece and pulled it down.

"A very, very old vampire who I've been tracking down for the past few weeks. He's the cause of that string of bear attacks, the ones who were torn apart."

"I gathered that much. How do I know it wasn't you?"

Atem gaped at him.

"You went through all that to save me—"

"—Because you saved me," he said sharply. "I don't do debts. But we're even now, so I plan on shooting you in the head once you give me the answers I need. Why's a thing like that in the city? What's brought him here? If he's old he probably has other places to be or a brain to realize he's asking to be killed."

Atem managed a wry grin. "Saying you're going to kill me once you've got your answers doesn't give me much incentive to keep talking."

"Then I'll just kill you now." He pulled out a rather thick looking pistol from underneath his leg and leveled it at Atem's eyes.

Atem raised an eyebrow.

"Blow out my brains and it won't kill me," said Atem slowly.

"Blow out your jaw and it will leave you writhing for eternity for want of blood," said the man, calmly. "Unless you're going to tell me that even that heals in time? I wouldn't know. I'm new at this."

"Obviously," said Atem, taking in the very human sheen of the other man's blue eyes and his still somewhat sweet scent. "I'm impressed you haven't gone on a killing spree yourself. You seem to be right at home in your faculties."

"Blood banks are a wonderful thing. Now, if you wouldn't mind," He cocked his gun.

Atem narrowed his eyes. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much. From what I know, old vampires don't do killing sprees. They're old because they refrained from doing just that, and as one ages their need for blood decreases as well. They're durable, though, and more monster than human when put on the defense. If we had stayed there, the two of us would have been shredded in only a matter of time."

The other man's eyes jumped from one of Atem's to the other. Atem didn't move a muscle, nor did he look at the pistol.

"Why were you hunting him?" he asked.

Atem snorted. "Wouldn't you? He's killing people left and right—innocent people. Not to mention it's sort of my hobby to put down vampires, which is why I don't blame you for hunting me down. The less vampires there are in the world, the better."

That gave the other man pause. The barrel of his gun glanced up, more towards his scalp than his eyes, as the young vampire lowered his steely blue gaze to get a better look at Atem.

"That's rather humane coming from the mouth of the monster who changed me," he said, slowly, with a paced, solid quality.

Atem frowned. "Excuse me?"

"At the Blue Obelisk night club, May 29th at about midnight, I pulled you off a girl in a backroom and you took to me instead. You sucked me dry and when I woke up in my home, I had a rather severe taste for people and attacked the nearest one. Don't tell me there's someone else in the city with your stupidly dyed hair and red eyes attacking people."

Atem blinked again and cocked his head to the side. This vampire did look familiar, though Atem couldn't place from where.

"I'm sorry," Atem said carefully. "I don't know if you've experienced this before, but when the bloodlust gets too much instinct takes over and turns off conscious will. It's like blacking out."

"Then you should have drunk enough from me to come to," the other snarled, baring his teeth. The pistol returned to his face. "You don't honestly expect me to believe you."

Atem threw up his hands, though kept his expression calm. "Look, if I bit you, I don't remember. I try to subsist on animals, and I've learned a way to sort of direct my bloodlust towards back alleys and places with less people. I don't think I'd ever purposely wander into a crowded club. Besides," he couldn't help but smile a little here. "After thirty years, every vampire's eyes turn red."

For a long space of time, they stared one another down.

Then, much like one puts down an enormous weight, the other vampire lowered his gun.

"It takes the fun out of it if you don't look even a little bit afraid." He reached for a black cooler besides him and took out another blood pouch. Rather than offer it to Atem, he bit into it much like a Capri Sun juice pouch and leaned back, scowling.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you?"

"You better be," he muttered around the plastic. How he didn't spill a drop was impressive.

Atem took his chance to breathe as the other vampire had his meal and watched out the nearest window as light from skyscrapers passed, along with the blinking red of a few radio towers. Once the other had tossed aside the empty plastic pouch to lick his teeth, Atem dared to ask where they were going.

"Unless you have any qualms to being my prisoner, my place."

Atem flinched. "Yes, I do."

"Funny. I take that back. I don't care."

"I have someone at my place who needs me. You can't just take me—"

"Yugi Motou, I presume?" he asked, startling Atem for the second time in the past hour. "Yeah, I've got a rather annoying mutt at home who won't leave until she has her. It will make things easier if you give me your address so I can pick her up."

But Atem didn't like the sounds of that. While the old vampire had been a force to be wary of, young vampires were unpredictable and volatile. The idea of Yugi being in his grip, let alone Atem being his prisoner and prey for who knew how long, did not appeal to him in the least. And while it would make it easier for Atem to dispose of him the moment he decided to do something stupid, this young man's access to firearms—and a damn freaking helicopter—told him the likelihood of him having the upper hand enough to do that was slim indeed.

He moved to his side, trying to make it look like he was simply shifting to a more comfortable position. As he did so, he let his farthest hand lay fingers on the bottom side of the helicopters sliding door and sent the thinnest, most concentrated tendril of shadow he could manage loose.

"Why make me a prisoner?" he asked conversationally. "Why not just kill me now?"

"Because you're the only coherent vampire I've met up to this point," said the man, stretching out his long legs. "And, as I've said, I'm new to this. I want to milk your brain for anything I can use before I go after that crazy old, undead thing. Also," a wide smirk, not unlike the old blond vampire's, stretched across his face. Atem thought he even saw a fleck of red streak across his iris. "Revenge is best served warm and preferably squirming."

The end of the shadow tendril hooked onto a stream of air. A metal latch.

"Thanks for the blood," Atem said.

Before the other could choose to respond to that, the door flung open behind him and Atem fell out into cold, pure sky.