Hello to my wonderful readers. Many apologies for my absence. I had a lot happening in my life. Our beloved terrier passed away at the sweet age of nearly 14 and a half years and then one of my uncles died shortly after.
Anyways, I have limited access to my mini computer as the battery needs to be replaced. So I will try to work on my stories whenever I get a chance to on my phone. Which means that updates will be slow for a while.
Please enjoy chapter 7 of 'Stalked'.
Gordon Walker watched as in innocent-looking child happily chased a dog through the vacant land. He almost thought nothing of it until the boy launched himself at the dog. The dog turned and chased the child up a tree. What got Gordon was the fact that such a young child shouldn't have been able to climb up a tree with ease, especially since the lowest branches were at least two feet out of reach for him.
The dog vanished from sight and a male returned moments later, "Come on, Sport! It's time to feed you and get you washed up before bed."
"Do I have to," the child whined. "Why won't you guys let me make my own food? I know how from shows and watching everyone in the kitchen."
"Can you lift a pot full of enough food to feed everyone? Without spilling it while trying to get off the chair."
"Not fair, Malik! You know that those things are big enough to put me in," the boy huffed.
Malik snickered, "Let's just get inside before the others come home and we both get busted for disobeying orders."
The boy jumped out of the tree and was caught by the male. Gordon decided to act now that he had found the perfect bait to lure the psychic girly-boy he'd been tracking.
Yugi froze and sniffed the air, "Something smells horrible."
"What do you smell, Yugi," Malik asked.
"Nasty blood," Yugi answered as he scrunched up his nose. "Remember the vampire nest that we helped take down and the people they were feeding on? It smells like that."
Malik nodded, grateful that Yugi had been trained to hate the scent of human blood. "Let's go to the house and stay inside until the others get home."
Yugi agreed and allowed Malik to pick him up. They headed to the house that Ryou had built as a decoy and secret entrance to the bunker. Midway there they were stopped by a dark-skinned male, "Hand over the monster and nobody gets hurt."
"He's not a monster," Malik cried out as Yugi clung tighter to his side.
"You left me no choice," the man stated coldly as he pulled out a dart gun. Malik didn't even stand a chance as he was shot twice.
Yugi's four-year-old mindset took over as he tried to wake his caretaker. The man shot him three times and carried his unconscious form away.
Yugi awoke in pitch black to a throbbing headache. He was secured to a wooden chair by thick chains in a damp basement. A door opened and footsteps were heard descending the stairs. "So you're finally awake, monster. Tell me, what purpose did you serve to that person you were with?"
Yugi bared his teeth, "I've never hurt anyone in my entire life! Monsters hurt the innocent and I hunt the ones who are bad!"
"How about I go back and hurt your little friend?"
"Don't you dare," Yugi growled, his canines lengthening. "You hurt him and I swear that I will end you."
The man chuckled humorlessly, "So you're some sort of vampire? A bit of dead man's blood should make you answer me. I will give you one more chance to answer me. What is your purpose to that person?"
"Eat dirt, vermin," Yugi snapped. "I am not revealing a thing to anyone outside of our Circle."
The man was shocked to hear Yugi's reply. "You leave me no choice, monster."
"When my brother gets his hands on you, you're dead meat," Yugi growled, "you hear me…Dead…Meat!"
"I guess I'll just hide my handiwork with the dead man's blood." The man knocked Yugi out once more so that he could remove all but his under-clothes.
Gordon was shocked to see that the boy was wearing pull-ups. He rolled his eyes, "Great, a monster with bladder issues. Just how young was this thing when it was Turned?"
He retied the boy into the chair and headed out to restock on blood at the local morgue.
Malik had a major headache when he came to after being shot by that stranger. He could faintly smell the stench of the man and inhaled deeply, committing the scent to memory. This man had obviously kidnapped Yugi for some reason and would pay when they found him. He stripped and tied his clothes into a bundle. Malik shifted into canine form and slipped into the decoy house via the doggy-door.
Heading to the basement, Malik went to the furthest point of the room and changed into his human form and dressed quickly. He entered the pass-code into the small number pad beside the hidden door. Once the door opened, he rushed inside and hit the 'Close' button and went through another secret opening that was hidden behind the fridge of the panic-room.
Malik headed to the phone to call the hotel where Ryou and Bakura were staying. Just has he reached out to make the call, the phone rang.
"Malik," Ryou's worried voice said over the speakerphone, "Are you and Yugi alright?"
Malik hesitated, "No! Some freak tranquilized me and took Yugi! Called him a monster!"
"What did he look like," Bakura growled over the phone.
"African American, plaid shirt, reeked of blood according to Yugi's nose. Poor kid was nauseated from the stench."
Malik pulled the phone away from his ear as Bakura began cursing. He managed to pull a name from the long list of swears: Gordon Walker. Malik and the others had heard of him through the Hunter-grapevine. He was a bad Hunter with a vendetta against vampires and didn't care if the Hunter he teamed up with lived or died while working with him. "I got a faint trail," Malik stated. "I'm going to follow it until it isn't traceable. Promise to call from the nearest phone after that so that someone can come pick me up to find out where he might be hiding."
Malik hung up and left a note for his sister and to say that the trail headed northeast. Grabbing a bag of things he'd need for Yugi and himself, namely some cash and a change of clothes, he shifted and ran out. To most anyone, he'd be a service dog looking for its charge who'd gone missing thanks to his 'vest'.
