He bit down on her neck, slowly drinking the blood from her vein. She let out a sigh of content, closing her eyes as she placed her hands on his shoulders but let herself be held by him.

 

It was an addiction.

 

He loved her blood, she loved his lips on her.

 

Within a few minutes, she felt her legs begin to lose strength, tightening her grip on his shoulders to keep herself standing. He noticed and stopped feeding on her, quickly pulling back and the puncture wounds clean from the blood.

 

His eyes were now a calm shade of silver compared to the red they were earlier. He was alluring and she never hesitated to give him what he wanted. Not that he wanted much in the first place. She smiled at him and he guided her to the couch, sitting her down before taking a seat next to her and holding her close to him.

 

They had met on a peculiarly cold summer night. It was past 10pm and she was leaving a gathering at a friend’s house and was making her way home, not thinking of any dangers that could be lingering.

 

He had smelled her before he had seen her; her scent captivating his vampire instincts as he followed her, fangs already out, ready to take her.

 

She had been approached by unruly drunk men and while she seemed to be taking care of herself better than he would have imagined, his clear animalistic side didn’t like that they were too close. She was going to be his meal after all.

 

And so he approached her, drawing his fangs back so as to not frighten her and he announced to the men that he was her boyfriend, draping an arm over her shoulders. They made noises of dislike but walked away nonetheless, the predatory look in his eyes sending shivers of fear into them.

 

“Thank you,” she had whispered once the men were far enough and he pulled away from her.

 

“Would you like me to walk you home?” he had asked before he realized what he’d said.

 

She smiled at him, nodding once, and suddenly his urge to feed was subsided. He didn’t understand what it meant, not when he always fed on anyone he desired. But he walked her home that night, his want to feed completely gone.

 

They had met a few days later at a bar, her scent once again had prompted their meeting.

 

“What a coincidence!” she had exclaimed and he let out a bitter chuckle (one that she was too drunk to recognize) as there was no coincidence at all to their meeting.

 

“Yes, a coincidence,” he muttered and the smile she gave him radiated a sense of warmth in his cold heart.

 

She had consumed a little too much alcohol for her tolerance and began spilling all her personal stories to him. He listened to her ramble about her day, her friends, her ex-boyfriend who had cheated on her and wanted her back. He felt an anger rile up again, the same as when the men had approached her. He wasn’t sure this time whether he was protecting a meal or just her. This novel feeling was beginning to scare him.

 

“What’s your name?” she had slurred, as he was leading her back home once again, an arm around her waist to keep her standing.

 

“Taehyung,” he responded and she hummed in response, suddenly wrapping her arms around his torso.

 

“Taehyung, you’re really cute,” she said, giggling after speaking her mind.

 

He had finally taken her home and his urges to feed on her were gone once more.

 

They continued to meet by chance and soon their meetings became planned, her taking the initiative to do so.

 

What he hadn’t planned, however, was that the urges to feed on her would come back at him full force. She was rummaging through her purse to look for her house keys and as she pulled them out, her finger was cut by a receipt she had kept.

 

As she winced and pulled her hand back, the beautiful crimson color suddenly sparked his hunger and within a second, he had her pinned to the door, her finger held tightly in his hand as his eyes glowed red.

 

“T-Taehyung..?”

 

Hearing his name snapped him back into reality and all he could feel was regret for letting himself react. He had quickly let go of her and was gone before she could say anything more.

 

Weeks passed and he refused to see her until she decided it was time to confront him and cornered him, as much as a human can corner a vampire.

 

“I’m not scared of you,” she spoke the words softly, “I won’t lie, I was at first. But I’m not scared. Please come back.”

 

He didn’t understand why couldn’t say no. Why he couldn’t refuse her. They ended up at her house and, seeing his bright red eyes, she convinced him to feed on her.

 

“I was reading about vampires,” she had said, “and I’m not sure how much is true, but I know you don’t have to kill me to feed.”

 

“What are you…?” his words trailed off as she began to pull her hair aside and tilted her head so that her neck was exposed.

 

“Just do it. It’ll be okay.”

 

That was when the addiction began.

 

Was he addicted to her blood? The way she melded into him? The way she let out a pleased sigh when he would take the initial bite?

 

None of those mattered, however. Not when she seemed so content being with him. How she never let what he was change the way she saw him.

 

She now lay in his arms, getting the much needed rest after letting him take more blood than usual. She had become his blood donor. He had heard stories of other vampires taking a liking to a human and keeping them for as long as they could. He had vowed to never be that way for he had been turned at the young age of 20 centuries ago and had seen the things humans did and had developed a feeling of apathy, if not hatred, towards them.

 

She had woken up a few hours later to her stomach growling. While he offered to help her make something to eat, he ended up sitting in her kitchen, watching her as she began to cook dinner for herself.

 

He had slowly begun to spend more time at her apartment than he did anywhere else. While vampires didn’t need to sleep much, he found himself laying in bed with her at nights, not wanting to leave her side as she curled into him while she slept.

 

He was beginning to love her.

 

It was a dreadful day when he realized just how much.

 

“You realize she’s mortal, right?” his friend, Jimin, had asked of him.

 

“What does that matter?”

 

“She’s going to die one day and I don’t want you to let yourself get hurt like that. Remember what happened to Namjoon when his human lover died? It’s been almost a century and he still hates talking about it.”

 

“I know, Jimin, I know.”

 

“Don’t let yourself get hurt.”

 

“I won’t.”

 

He had gone back to her house and when she noticed that he hadn’t fed in days, she pulled him onto her couch, joking that since they’d end up there anyway that he might as well drink her blood there. She laughed at his shocked expression and before he knew it, he was leaning forwarding and capturing her smile with his own lips.

 

“I was wondering when you would do that,” she murmured against his lips, only making him want to kiss her more and more.

 

He began kissing along her jaw and finally down her neck as she tilted her head to give him more access. Her blood was especially sweet that night.

 

He became more addicted to her blood.

 

No, he was addicted to her.

 

He was in love with her.

 

He wanted to be with her forever.

 

“Do you think I’m a monster?” he had whispered to her that night as they lay in bed, bare of all clothing and limbs tangled together.

 

“Is that really a question you need to ask?” she had laughed, looking into his eyes with wonder.

 

“I need to know.”

 

“I don’t think you’re a monster.”

 

“I love you.”

 

“I love you, too.”

 

He couldn’t sleep that night even for the few hours that vampire bodies craved it. He lay with her in his arms, his mind racing. If his heart could beat, it would have been racing too.

 

“It’s a question of morals, Taehyung,” Namjoon stated, and Taehyung couldn’t help rolling his eyes.

 

“I’m damned anyway, what do I have to care about morals for?”

 

“That’s my point, Tae. Is that what you would want for her as well?”

 

“What should I do, then? I don’t want to lose her...I’m scared of losing her…”

 

Namjoon sighed as he sat next to Taehyung, a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

 

“I couldn’t tell you that, Tae. I’m sorry.”

 

Taehyung went back to his now shared home with her and waited until she returned from work. He gathered her in his arms, wanting to only hold her, to cherish the moment before he would tell her. She must have noticed his turmoil because she began to soothingly rub his back and let him hold her for as long as he needed to.

 

“What’s wrong?” she asked quietly, seemly afraid of the answer.

 

Should he lie to her? Tell her that all he wanted was some fun with a human being and then leave her? But decades of seeing humans do the same thing made it obvious that it never worked. That she would never live a happy life if he abandoned her that way. She wouldn’t be able to give the love she had inside of her to anyone so freely anymore.

 

“I don’t know if we can be together,” he ended up saying, eyes downcast as he avoided looking into her eyes.

 

“...But why?” she asked, the pain in her voice breaking whatever was left of his heart.

 

“I don’t...I can’t watch you slowly die.”

 

“Then don’t. Let me be with you forever.”

 

His eyes snapped up to look into her determined ones at that.

 

“You can’t - you can’t possibly mean you’d want to become a monster. I couldn’t do that to you. I’ve already tainted you enough -”

 

She cut him off with a kiss and he could feel the tears streaming from her eyes. She pulled back enough only to whisper, “Please, I don’t want to live without you,” before she was kissing him again with more passion this time.

 

She began to guide his lips to her neck and he could hear the way her heart was beating. After centuries of listening to the different sounds of heartbeats, he knew that her’s was a mixture of fear and desperation. And so, he placed a chaste kiss on the skin above her vein and pulled back to look into her desperate eyes.

 

“Think about it, please. I don’t want to live without you either. I know that I can’t do that. I could never be away from you for as long as we can be together.”

 

The tears began to fall from her eyes once more as she pulled him into a hug.

 

“I’m sorry I scared you,” he murmured into her ear, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

 

The topic wasn’t revisited for months and neither of them wanted to bring it up again. They spent their days as usual, she would go to work in the morning and be back at night and they would spend their nights together, not tiring from one another.

 

They were taking a walk through the park one night, hand in hand, when she brought it up again.

 

“Tae?” she asked and when he hummed in response, she continued, “I’ve been thinking about it and I really, truly want to be with you forever.”

 

He stopped walking and turned her so that they were facing each other. He held her other hand as well, pulling her closer to him.

 

“Are you sure that’s what you want? There are so many things you won’t be able to do.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Well, for one, you’ll be dead. The only human-like thing you’d be able to do is look like one.”

 

“Is that all? Because I could live...well, die for that.”

 

He chuckled at her and pulled her into a hug.

 

“Don’t take it too lightly. What about your family and friends?” he held her close.

 

“I don’t know…”

 

“Think about it a bit more. I’m not going anywhere.”

 

“Okay.”

 

It was eerie chance that weeks later he had felt the need to be with her constantly. It must have been some sort of fate in the works that he felt more protective of her.

 

“I have to pee,” she laughed embarrassedly, glancing at him and added, “and there’s a restroom in the cafe across the street. I’ll be back in 5 minutes,” she kissed him quickly before running across to the cafe.

 

He sat on the bench across it, waiting for her return and relief flushed over him when he saw her leave the shop and send a quick wave to him.

 

As she made her way across the street back to him, that’s when he heard it.

 

Tires screeching. A car horn sounding loudly.

 

A single scream.

 

His inhuman speed failed him as he watched with horror, her name falling from his lips as a whisper rather than the yell he wanted. He regained his composure and had her in his arms within seconds.

 

She was dying. He could hear her heart slowly beginning to fail.

 

He couldn’t let her die, not when she had so much more to live for.

 

Not when he had the power to stop it.

 

He held her close and began to run, using his speed to arrive at her home. He lay her on her bed, listening to her breath ragged as she struggled to live. He wouldn’t let her die.

 

He cut open his wrist and placed it near her lips, letting his blood flow down onto her tongue. Vampire blood had the ability to cure, but when the human was dying, it had a different effect.

 

“Taehyung?” she whispered weakly, the metallic taste bringing her back to consciousness as she struggled to open her eyes.

 

“Shh, don’t speak,” he quickly held her hand, cradling her cheek with his other. She learned into his touch.

 

“Am I dying?” she spoke softly, her eyes filling with tears.

 

“Yes and no,” he answered, “but I’ll be here. When you open your eyes again, I’ll be here, okay?”

 

“Okay,” she smiled. Her eyes closed slowly as she took her last breath.

 

She was gone.

 

And now he would wait.

 

Becoming a vampire was not easy. If one doesn’t have the guidance, there is so much terror that could be caused on the human race. The hunger for blood, the hunger for power, it was automatic.

 

Vampires lived for eternity and, though dead, still had the ability to feel emotions. Still felt the human need for contact. And yet, the predator within them had a certain power that was difficult to overcome.

 

It was an eternal damnation. That was the curse of a vampire.

 

And yet, when she began to stir in her bed, Taehyung felt a jolt of excitement.

 

She opened her now crimson eyes, looking into his with a softness he hadn’t seen from any vampire with the hunger she would have been feeling.

 

And so, he leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, pulling back to look at her once more. She smiled, revealing the fangs that had grown.

 

He smiled back, pulling her to her feet and holding her close as they basked in each other’s presence for what seemed like the first time.

 

“Welcome to forever, my love.”

 

And so it began. His new forever.