A pair of amethyst eyes watched as a pair of boots rushed past their hiding place. The boy to whom they belonged to looked at his friends, "It's safe to go now guys."

Three small figures left the safety of their makeshift home to look for something to eat. One of them, a boy with snow-white hair found a small group of stray animals near the garbage pile. "Guys, I've found some," he told the other two who were looking in the alleyways next to where he had found the animals.

The blonde looked at him and his find, "Good job Ryou. Oi, Yugi, Ryou found some. It may not be much, but at least it'll help. You found them so you get first pick."

Ryou nodded and grabbed a medium-sized lab mix before hiding in the shadows to feed. "Malik," Yugi said, "I'll wait until you get which one you want since I was the last to get here."

Malik nodded and picked a tan dog, leaving Yugi to pick a grey-colored one. The three boys watched the entrance to 'their' alley while they fed. They really didn't want to get caught by hunters or others of their kind. You see, the three boys were vampires.

But they were different from their kind for a few reasons. First, they refused to feed off of people as they felt that it was murder when the 'others' killed off the victims for a 'meal'. Second, the boys retained their innocence, even though they had been changed. This made them both valuable and a danger to their race.

Once they had finished their makeshift meal, Yugi suggested that they head back to their 'home' so that they weren't caught by the 'others' or the hunters. Ryou and Malik nodded in agreement. They buried the remains of their meals and left to head back to their hideout.

"This is getting ridiculous," a blonde boy complained. "How can we sit here and wait until a valid report comes through about a vampire being spotted in our district?"

"Settle down Joey," his friend with tri-colored hair told him. "Pacing like that will wear you out so that when we do get a report, you'll be too worn out to help hunt."

As he said this a fax came through. Tea grabbed the sheet, "We're in luck. A resident just discovered the recently buried remains of three dogs in the park. She says that they were drained of blood."

Joey scoffed, "It's probably kids playing around again. I mean, what self-respecting vamp would drink dog blood and then bury the remains?"

"We should still check it out before sundown," the second boy replied.

Just before they could get up to collect their gear, the library doors burst open and two more males rushed in. "Did you guys get the latest report," the white-haired boy questioned the first group. "Marik says that there were a few more reports if the same nature."

"Bakura's right," Marik added. "I overheard a man at the store say that he found the buried remains of three dogs about a week back. Another person in the checkout lane told him that she found the same thing around three days ago. Someone, or something, is killing dogs and they're doing it in sets of three."

The tri-colored haired teen sighed, "Well let's go check out the validity of this report. If it's what we think it is, then we'll look for the culprit."

"Atem," Tea said as the boys were getting ready to leave, "Don't forget the weapons. You know, just in case."

He nodded and grabbed one end of the weapons trunk while Joey took the other end.

Later…

"There are the remains, Hunter," the husband of the woman who made the report pointed out. Atem nodded and the group walked over to the site. Tea had brought Tristan, Duke, Odion, and Ishizu in the other vehicle to help in case it was a vampire they were after.

Atem knelt down next to one of the corpses, "It's hard to determine whether it was a vampire that did this."

"What do you mean," Tea asked him.

Atem pointed to the dog closest to him, "Look. The fang marks are too small to possibly belong to a vampire. Besides what Joey said earlier is partially true. No regular vampire would feed from animals aside from predatory ones. There may be something I'm overlooking though."

"Is it safe yet," Malik asked Yugi.

Yugi shook his head, "There's a large group of people coming. I can tell from the voices and footsteps that they might be a bit in passing."

Yugi sighed and sat up to lean against his spot nearest their exit. He and the other two were barely 16 when they had been changed. Even before their 'second life', they were best friends. Ryou was the first of their group to vanish. Yugi and Malik looked for him for two weeks before Yugi was taken. Then about two days after Yugi's disappearance, Malik discovered their fates when he had been caught by the same creature that took his friends away.

The creature gloated that he changed his friends into his 'children' and that Malik would share their fate. Shortly after waking and realizing that he was different from before, Malik ran away from the monster. Less than a year later, he ran into two boys while looking for something to 'eat'. It turned out that they were his best friends and that they had hoped that he had been spared their fate.

Yugi snapped out of his memories and looked though the opening. "It's safe to go out now," he announced.

"Finally," Malik breathed. "I hope that we can find a meal closer than last night. No offense Ryou."

"None taken, my friend," he replied as they slipped out.

The three teens turned their attention to finding their meager meals. This was their nightly habit, watching as people cut through their alley and then leaving when it was momentarily cleared. They then looked for a group of stray animals, picking out only dogs as they had just enough blood to satisfy their needs but not enough to slow them down. The boys always stayed within sight of each other, for safety reasons, while they looked. Then after feeding, they would dart back to their home.

This time, Yugi found a group of large stray dogs. But these dogs were tougher and trained to fight back by their former owners. He realized that these dogs were going to attack before the other two got there. Yugi screamed and ran as the dogs attacked. He ran past Ryou and Malik before they realized that their friend was in danger.

They tried to follow the little vampire and the vicious dogs, but Ryou tripped and Malik stopped to help him get up. The few seconds they took to get up made them lose sight of the direction Yugi took trying to lose the deadly mutts.

Atem sighed, "It looks like we're in for a long night. There was an attack not far from here. A vampire was spotted over on Main and Light. He was described as wearing a leather jacket, black jeans, and was wearing a bandana."

"It sounds like Keith is on the move again," Bakura stated. "If I remember correctly, he's worth about 75,000 dollars."

They then heard a scream and saw a small figure being chased by large dogs. Atem sighed, "Bakura and Marik, you're with me. You guys go on ahead to see if you can catch Keith while we try to get the kid out of danger."

The group nodded before departing. Atem took off after the pack of dogs.

Yugi had managed to lose the dogs but realized that in the process, he had gotten too far from their safe zone. He wrapped his cloak tighter around him as he realized that this was when the 'others' came out to hunt. He heard footsteps and darted into an alley, hoping that it wasn't a dead-end.

Unfortunately, it was and there were no fire-escapes to help get out of there. "Well, well, well. If it isn't a lost little boy," a cold voice gloated. "Would you care to join me for dinner?" Yugi shook his head. "That's too bad, because I'm hungry and you look tasty enough to eat."

The vampire grabbed Yugi by his cloak, causing his hood to fall off. "What's this," the vampire asked, amused at the collar round the boy's throat. "It looks like you gift wrapped your neck just for me. I'm so going to enjoy this."

As the he tried to remove Yugi's collar-like choker, he put up a struggle. "Let me go," Yugi pleaded.

Just as the vampire prepared to undo the buckle, smoke filled the alley. The vampire dropped Yugi as it started to affect him. Yugi tried to stand up, but his legs failed him. "Why's the kid being affected by the vampire knockout gas," a blonde boy asked as Yugi blacked out.

1/22/2014

Edited...Tweaked the timeline a bit. Wanted to make better sense.

7/7/2015
Edited...Added lines to separate changes of events, noticed error.