Kidnapped

Thirty minutes later, the sky had almost darkened to an inky black.

All the street lights had turned on and the interior of the Japanese restaurant was glowing with dozens of tiny cool lights embedded within flameless candles on the tables.

"I'm really worried. Aunt Tien Ha has never flaked out on a meeting before."

"What are you worried about? She is one of the most powerful nuns I've ever met. She can handle ghouls."

"But she can't handle dangerous humans!"

"Why don't we order the food to-go, bring it back to the hotel where we can eat it, and then I will go look for her."

"I can come with you."

"No. It's too dangerous. It's safer if you stay in the hotel. I can go look for her without worrying about you."

Jasmine nodded. She could not sit here and eat, not knowing where Aunt Tien Ha was, and she could not just sit here taking up an entire table from the restaurant.

She looked around and flagged a waitress. While she ordered the food to go, Blake continued his observance of the place.

Everything looked normal, but in various corners, there were hidden dark areas he could not quite see. Plus there were too many eyes that were discretely checking out the very visible, very beautiful woman sitting next to him.

For the umpteen time that night, Blake kicked himself for picking out such a bright yellow dress for her to wear. He should have chosen the darkest, least conspicuous dress, and then tucked her long lush curly hair into a bun.

She was a beautiful woman; a singer with amazing stage presence. Within this dangerous territory, had she been a little bit less amazing looking, it would have made her a bit less conspicuous.

There were too many men sitting around with their eyes on her. He wanted to hover around and check them out but he could not leave Jasmine sitting by herself.

All his senses were on fire and tingling so hard, he could barely hear her softly whispered words.

"…hey…are you listening to me?" Jasmine was whispering again. "I think some guy is staring hard at you. Over there." She indicated with her eyes.

"At me? Nobody can see me."

"He is looking at YOU!" She whispered harshly.

Blake turned his head and stared directly into the eyes of a man that dominated his nightmares.

Oh shit! It was Anh Hai.

"Let's go. Get out of here now!" He snarled, standing up and yanking her arm.

"But our to-go food."

"Go!" Blake began propelling her towards the door.

Jasmine was no fool. If Blake said to go, she went.

They ran out the door and immediately slammed into three guys.

Two of them hit the ground, with bullets in their guts. The third grabbed Jasmine by the waist and pulled her to the side. Suddenly, he got knocked over the side of the head by something hard.

He looked around as blood oozed into his eyes. There was no one, and the woman he grabbed had nothing in her hand. A second later, he was hit on the other side of his head by the same hard object and he slumped to the ground.

Blake grabbed Jasmine and was about to flee with her when five more men jumped into the foray. Three immediately ate bullets and went down.

That left two still alive.

A car screeched in front of them and two more men jumped out at them. Jasmine was shoved into the back seat by one of the thugs while the other three dealt with Blake. This was no random kidnapping. It was a well-planned attack.

She got in one good kick before the door slammed shut and the car drove off.

Meanwhile, Blake was still trying to deal with the three that were around him. Three more rounds and they went down to the ground.

He needed to chase after that car. Jasmine had been kidnapped!

As he looked up, there was a loud clap of thunder. Lightning struck between his eyes and he fell back, losing consciousness.

Before he blacked out, he realized it wasn't real thunder or lightning.

He was a ghoul. Thunder and lightning wouldn't affect him.

This was something else entirely.

☯︎☯︎☯︎

She could barely breathe. Her face was shoved down into the smelly leather seat of the car by a hand that was grabbing onto her hair and not letting go.

There were two men in the back seat with her.

One had just finished shackling her hands behind her back with a zip tie. The other one was shoving her face down in between the cracks of the chair.

Moving and struggling did nothing but make the zip tie dig harder into her wrists. She could feel the wetness of blood on her hands. It was painful but her fear was making her dizzy. She could do nothing if they chose to hurt or kill her at this point.

Horror stories of kidnapped tourists began to crowd her mind and she had to steel herself to hold down the panic that was rising inside her body.

Organ harvesting was a real thing. So was being sold as a sex slave.

She forced herself to open her eyes but found that all she could see were millions of points of lights streaming towards her face, crowding out her vision.

She was passing out.

☯︎☯︎☯︎

It took several seconds longer for her vision to return to normal, but during that short period of time, Jasmine had been transferred from the back of that car into another space entirely.

There was the humming of an electric fan somewhere near her head and the smell of stinky leather was replaced by the scent of plumeria and green tea.

She opened her eyes with a start and looked about the unfamiliar room.

Where was she?

For a moment, panic set in and she sat upright so quickly, she almost lost her balance on the hammock as several bright pillows came tumbling down from their precarious perch all around her.

"You are finally back with us." A voice greeted her from the corner of the room. "I trust you had a restful sleep."

"Where am I and who are you?" Jasmine rubbed her blurry eyes.

Whatever they gave her to subdue her, it was affecting her sight. Her vision wasn't clearing.

Even as bad as her eyes were, she could see the vague blurry body of the man who was coming towards her.

He was too tall and broad-shouldered to be the old gray-haired man at the Japanese restaurant.

All her alarm bells screamed inside her head. She was in big trouble!