Chapter 92

Chuck swallowed down a mouth full of eggs as he looked at Kahlan. "We know who they are?"

She took a deep breath. "They don't know who took Aaron, but they know where some of them hang out."

Rossi looked at her. "And you think those hunters are just going to tell you about Aaron or rollover on the ones who took him?"

She smiled. "We're just going to watch and listen to begin with, then we'll figure out what to do," she said simply, but then her expression turned hard. "But if need be, they will be made to talk. They are only human, after all."

Rossi took a small step back and had to fight down the shudder that wanted to go through him at the evil in her eyes, but he quickly nodded. "Ok."

Then her face went blank and she left to go back to the kids.

After watching her leave, Chuck's eyes found Rossi's. "I'm not sure I even want to see what she will do to them."

Rossi took a deep breath and nodded. I know I don't want to.

XXXXX

Hotch looked at the other being locked in the cell with him. It was hunkered down in the far corner so Hotch couldn't tell exactly how tall it was, but he could tell that it was covered with brownish scales. He wondered if it was truly reptilian or if was wearing something made out of scales, and he was careful not to think anything bad about it because he didn't want another being who had the ability to read his mind to get pissed at him for his ignorance. It hadn't even looked up when Red had brought Hotch in, and Hotch wasn't sure if it was scared or just ignoring what was going on. He swallowed. "How long have you been in here?"

No response.

"You got a name?" Hotch tried again as he watched it. When it still didn't move, he wondered if it could even hear him. "Hey!"

The thing's head slowly lifted, and when it's eyes with their diagonally slashed black pupils surrounded by neon green locked with Hotch's, it opened its mouth and emitted an ear-piercing shriek.

Hotch's hands flew to cover his ears as he groaned.

The shrill noise only lasted a few seconds, but it echoed through the passageways for several more, and Hotch finally uncovered his ears as he took a deep breath. "Alright, I won't bother you again," he told it as he held up his hands, and then the thing lowered its head again. Jesus Christ!

"Cut that shit out, you filthy bugger!" Red yelled as he stepped into view and slammed a metal club against the bars making Hotch flinch because he hadn't realized the big man was there. "Or I'll send you to the processing room to become tomorrow's bia!"

He started to turn away, but then he noticed Hotch staring at him. "What are you looking at, git?"

Hotch just shook his head and looked the other way. He wasn't sure how long he'd have to deal with the man, and he really didn't want to spend it being abused by him, so he thought it best to keep his mouth shut.

The leprechaun giggled that high-pitched, squealy giggle and then smiled. "That's what I thought."

Hotch mentally huffed, and the man finally walked away. Once he was out of sight, Hotch sighed and then sat down. It left his arms completely above him, but he didn't think it would really bother him. And God knows how long I'll have to wait. He leaned his head on his arm and sighed again.

XXXXX

When the door opened to the old dive bar and everyone turned to see who was walking in, Chuck mentally winced but took a deep breath and made his way to the bar. A rough looking, burly man behind it looked Chuck up and down and frowned. "What can I get you?"

"Just a beer, anything on tap," Chuck offered as he dug into his pants and pulled out a waded-up bill.

Once he got it, he took a long drink of it and then looked around the bar. When he noticed one group people giving him a once over, he nodded to them and then turned back to his beer, and he mentally smiled when one of the guys got up and approached the bar right beside him.

"Give us another round, would you, Smitty?"

The bartender nodded and grabbed several mugs from out of the freezer.

The man beside Chuck looked at him. "Haven't seen you in here before."

Chuck took another drink of his beer and then shrugged. "Just passing through."

The man's eyes roamed over Chuck a little more, and then he leaned in close to him. "So are you done with the hunt, or are you tracking something?"

Chuck turned questioning eyes towards the man, but he laughed and pointed at Chuck's chest. "The tat is a dead giveaway, man."

Chuck glanced down. His dirty, button-up shirt's first few buttons were undone and a tattoo was clearly visible on his chest causing him to mentally smile. Before the BAU had gotten called away for a case, they had helped Kahlan and them get ready for the hunters, and most of that was Reid telling them about everything he'd learned from the books Jamison had taken off the hunters in Hawaii.

According to Reid, a lot of hunters had them because the tattoo supposedly stopped the barer from being possessed. Kahlan had figured it was also like a badge of honor for them, so she'd gotten Garcia to draw one on Chuck with henna ink right where it could possibly be seen without it being too obvious.

Chuck grimaced. "Tracking, and it hasn't been easy."

"What you after?" the man asked.

"Vamp."

The man winced. "How long you been after it?"

Chuck inhaled deeply. "Going on two weeks."

"And you're doing it alone?"

Chuck huffed. "Didn't start out that way."

The man's face morphed from sympathy to rage. "The son of a bitch got your partner?"

Chuck swallowed audibly. "First Mitch and then Stewie." He hit the bar in anger. "That's why I can't stop. I have to pay that bastard back!"

A blonde woman came out of the door behind the bar with a tray laden with plates. "Your food's up, Chandler, you want it here or over at the table?"

The man beside Chuck noticed Chuck eyeing the food and then hooked his thumb towards the table. "At the table, please, Carrie." He grabbed the beers Smitty had set down in front of him and then looked at Chuck. "You wanna join us, man?"

Chuck glanced down at the waded up five-dollar bill he had put on the bar and then shook his head. "Nah, but thanks."

"Come on, my treat. You can rest and refuel, and maybe we can help you figure out how to get your vamp," Chandler offered with a gesture to the table.

After the Schewels had searched all the hunter's pockets, it was obvious that hunting was not a lucrative business, so Chuck was using being broke in his cover. He bit his bottom lip and then shook his head. "Thanks, but I don't like owing anyone anything."

Chandler smiled. "Then maybe you have something for sale? Maybe you got something I need."

Chuck smirked. "I have a few things." They had loaded up his jeep with most of the stuff from the trunk Rossi had gotten from Jamison.

"Then come on," the man insisted and led the way to the table.

XXX

Outside in Cam's van, Kahlan smiled as she watched the feed from the video recorder in one of Chuck's shirt buttons. "He's in."

Cam nodded. "Yep, they're just a group of roughnecks, and Chuck fits right in," he offered and then looked at her. "So did Hotch's cover story work?"

She nodded. "Yep, the team played it up perfectly." She and Rossi had come up with the idea of Hotch being called out of the country by Interpol wanting him to go undercover for a case. It took calling in several favors that she'd been saving up from important contacts on both side of the Atlantic, but it had worked. The team all went in pretending to be innocently oblivious of it, and the DNI had even signed off on it so it was working. With him supposedly being undercover, no one would be able to contact him so they knew no one would even try. It was also an open-ended assignment, so if they couldn't find Hotch right away, it would be alright. She just prayed that they could find him before anyone got too suspicious.

Cam reached over and squeezed her knee. "You know Chuck will be able to get any and all information those idiots have, so keep your chin up, woman. We will find him."

She took another deep breath and gave him a small smile. "I know, I just hope it's soon."

XXXXX

After about an hour, Hotch heard movement coming down the passage. Is that them coming to get us, or is that more new captives being brought in?

He didn't have long to wonder as several beings came into view. His eyes grew wide as he stood up and looked at them. He guessed the first three were dwarves. He'd seen a couple fantasy movies with his wife that had the short, stout species in them, but he had no clue what the beings were behind them.

The first one was more of a blob than anything, and Hotch couldn't tell if it was actually walking or slithering. It was green, covered in slimy bumps, and hideous.

The being behind it was humanoid and female. She either had black tentacles growing out of her head or really strange hair, and they were coiled loosely around her body but did nothing to hide her nakedness. As soon as her eyes locked with Hotch's, he quickly looked away from her as his cheeks turned red.

There was one other being at the back of the group, but Hotch couldn't tell what it looked like as it was covered in a long black cloak that even hid its face.

The being behind it, though, the one who was ushering the little crowd down the passageway made Hotch do a double take. It was a skeleton. A walking skeleton. He wasn't sure what it was a skeleton of because it was definitely not human, but it was made out of nothing but bones and carried a long-handled battle axe. It was also talking. How it could even move was beyond Hotch, and he had to wonder if it was a certain species or just the animated bones of one that used to be alive.

Once the dwarf in the front got close to the cell, the skeleton guard shoved the beings to the side and went to the door. He pulled it open, and Hotch frowned. Was it even locked?

"Get in there!" it screamed and then shoved the shortest dwarf through the door causing it to fall at Hotch's feet. He tried to reach down and help it, but the chains on his wrists prevented him. The others rushed in and helped it, though, as the rest of the prisoners slowly made their way into the cell.

Once they were all in, the skeleton slammed the door and went back the way it came leaving all of the beings in the cage to quietly look at each other and their surroundings. The blob thing moved first, and as it moved past Hotch, he scooted over as far as he could. The sucking, squishing sounds it made as it moved over the stone floor and the horrendous smell emanating off it mixed with its grotesque look, and they all made Hotch have to fight the urge to throw up. It went to the corner by the reptilian thing and shrank down about five inches.

Hotch shook his head and moved back to his original position so the chains weren't pulling on his arms. When he bumped into someone, he turned. "I'm sorry, man," he offered with a little smile hoping the dwarf wouldn't think he'd done it on purpose.

"Man?!" the thing yelled as its hands went to its hips. "Do I really look like a man to you, knucklehead?"

Its chest had puffed out when its hands went to it hips, and Hotch saw cleavage in the 'v' of its shirt. "Ahh. . . no, sorry. My mistake," he tried.

She huffed. "Damn ignorant humanoids! Think anything with a beard is male," she muttered and then pushed her companions to the far corner all the while still complaining.

Hotch wilted a little. Way to go, Hotchner! Alienate them all why don't you? They. . .

He was pulled out of his thoughts by something sucking up against his back. "I like a man in chains," was whispered into his ear as a black tentacle wrapped around his left leg and slinked up. He gasped and rose onto the balls of his feet to keep it from pressing into his manhood as he turned his head and looked at the strange woman. She smiled as another tentacle wrapped around his chest from the right. "You look like you could use some pleasure," she said as her arms wrapped around him, too.

"No, thank you," he offered as he tried to pull away from her, but she moved with him. When he was pulled to a stop by the chains, a light laugh escaped her as the tentacle between his legs rubbed over him. He shifted his pelvis, and while that got his manhood away from the tentacle, it put his ass even tighter against her.

"Are you sure?" she asked in a seductive tone as her hands roamed over his chest. "I am very adept at giving pleasure," she led as her lips ghosted over his neck.

He shuddered but shook his head. "I'm sure you are, but I really don't want do to that."

She pulled back and looked at him with genuine confusion on her face. "Why not? I can sense your body wants it."

He took a deep breath as he straightened himself out to his full height. "I don't like doing things like that in front of others. I prefer my pleasure to happen in private."

She glanced at the others in the cell and then sighed as she released him completely. "Maybe we can find a private corner another time, then."

He forced a small grin. "I can't wait."

She nodded and moved to the other side of the cell and sat down against the wall. As she pouted, Hotch prayed that there weren't any dark corners anywhere in the whole place.

*pictures added to the site. the tales of hoffer dot weebly dot com.