Chanyeol doesn't pride himself on taking Baekhyun's night shift.

Certainly, because Baekhyun can barely pass as a vampire anymore; and most probably because it's a night-time shift, and night-time shifts are never much to gloat about. In any case, Baekhyun's patrols often ended up with him shadow-travelling back to the apartment dead drunk, or with a human girl that would mysteriously disappear the next morning after Baekhyun had completed his... ministrations.

It isn't as if Chanyeol can sleep anyway; it's a full moon, and vampires tend to avoid sleeping whenever possible.

But Baekhyun groaning and slamming his forehead against the other side of Chanyeol's bedroom door doesn't help, either.

"Piss off, you incompetent wanker," Chanyeol mumbles, rolling over to stuff his face into his pillow. The former lets himself in, taking two staggering steps forward and one step back before collapsing limply, face-first, onto the floor. "Damnit. Just keep your hands out of your ing pants for one night, would you?"

There's no reply, largely because Baekhyun is well and truly wasted. Chanyeol lets out a colourful stream of profanities before rolling out of bed, running one hand through his silver hair. Craning his neck forward to spit a carefully-aimed globule of phlegm onto Baekhyun's immaculately polished shoes, he weaves his arms through a crumpled white button-up and kicks the door open.

Kyungsoo greets him with a bad-tempered grimace, canines flashing in the moonlight streaming through the open window. "Remember, it doesn't take much to kick his useless off the team," the younger points out, a toothpick jutting out from between his teeth. "Minseok-hyung doesn't care, as long as he gets what he needs, and Suho-hyung would be more than happy, considering how much of a pig Baek is."

"You already went on patrol?"

"No. I was thirsty."

"Human?"

"Succubus. They're easier to get rid of."

Chanyeol rolls his eyes and digs through the cupboard for a piece of bread, stuffing it into his mouth. "Thought you were on bad terms with one of them. What was her name again? Said she'd tear your throat out and wear it as a necklace the next time you met?"

Kyungsoo snorts. "Ji-eun? She can't get enough of me," he drawls confidently, snapping the toothpick in half with a sharp click of his jaw. "She's one of the defects, too. If she weren't half-siren, I would've flipped her off for a human." He climbs to his feet and joins Chanyeol by the counter, pouring a mug of stale coffee. "But you know how it is with succubi. They live off love, and she's –"

"In love with you?" Chanyeol bursts incredulously, a grin curling the corners of his lips. "I wouldn't stake my dignity on it, Soo. I've seen gargoyles that stand more of a chance than you do." The younger drives a pointed elbow into his rib, tipping the rest of the lukewarm liquid down his throat with a murderous glare. Chanyeol simply huffs, leaning his head against the cool surface of the fridge.

The sky is strangely devoid of clouds tonight, allowing the moon to shine down in her full glory. White light paves the streets, illuminating the yellowish-gold of a passing cat's slitted pupils. "It hasn't been this clear in a while," Kyungsoo observes casually, scrubbing the inside of the mug with a soggy sponge. "You thirsty? We can ask Suho-hyung to fill for Baek's shift."

Chanyeol shoots him a grateful look, unhooking one of the moth-eaten jumpers from the rack standing beside the laundry door, pulling another over his head. "Thirsty doesn't begin to describe it," he admits, gripping Kyungsoo's frosty hand in his and closing his eyes in preparation. The younger doesn't flinch.

"Oh, and hyung? Siren blood makes me tipsy. Just a friendly reminder."

"Should've told me earlier."

And then the shadows swallow them up into nothingness.

Their arrival seems to be unexpected, to say the least.

As soon as Chanyeol's feet land on solid ground, the other vampires in the room – Chanyeol recognises Minseok, Suho, Sehun and Yoongi, among the few faces he can see in the crowd – turn around warily, despite his soundless entrance. He catches a fair-haired female fledgeling, barely a week old, flutter her eyelashes at him alluringly; another one, male, and slightly older, stares at him with a stiff combination of awe and jealousy. Yoongi, on the other hand, offers nothing but an offhand glance and a short, barely noticeable nod of acknowledgement. Sehun bows quickly, nudging the male fledgeling with his elbow and raising his eyebrows expectantly.

Chanyeol lets a sharp smile grace his lips as the boy strides over, eyeing him unabashedly. "Chanyeol-hyung," the youth says, finally dipping his gaze respectfully. "I've heard nothing but the highest praise about you." He straightens up for half a second before nodding to the shorter of the two, much to Sehun's chagrin. "I like to believe that the rumours are true about you too, Kyungsoo-hyung."

The boy's female companion glides over, a thin camouflage jacket hanging off pale shoulders. "I apologise. Sungmin has yet to be trained in proper etiquette," she murmurs politely, inclining her head ever so slightly to the side, allowing a curtain of bleached platinum-blonde hair to fall elegantly over her shoulder. Kyungsoo's mouth twitches up in amusement as Sungmin shifts awkwardly, revealing the two raw puncture marks on his neck. "My name is Areum. This is my acquaintance, Sungmin. It's a pleasure to meet you. Allow me to apologise again –"

"No need," Kyungsoo interrupts, holding up his hand. Chanyeol resists the urge to laugh aloud as Areum's smokey grey eyes flick up in surprise. Sungmin's posture takes a sudden turn for the worse as Kyungsoo continues, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across his mouth, "We don't expect anything from fledgelings, nor do we expect you to survive this first patrol. Do excuse us."

Not waiting for an answer, Kyungsoo jams a finger into Chanyeol's ribs and gestures towards the far corner of the room. Chanyeol winces, takes one last peek at Sungmin – whose jaw is basically touching the floor at this point – before following in Kyungsoo's lead. The second there's a sizeable amount of distance between them, the shorter of the two snickers. "Did you hear that? They're talking like we're in a church, for 's sake," he says, rolling his eyes disbelievingly. "I'll bet you fifty dollars that Sungmin won't make it past the fishery."

"That's not fair," Chanyeol protests, flicking his bangs out of his eyes dismissively. "The fishery's full of ghouls, and the kid's barely out of Transition. They'll rip him apart."

Kyungsoo grunts. "And for good reason. Bloody hell, Chanyeol, did you hear the bull coming out of his mouth? I've heard nothing but the highest praise about you," he imitates, waving his hands around theatrically. "Tell me, what is there about you that's worth praise? The fact that you killed an entire colony of sprites because they took your pork cutlets?"

Chanyeol narrows his eyes. "I feel inclined to inform you that those pork cutlets were expensive," he replies petulantly. "And they didn't even eat them. They just threw them into the pond for the fish. The fish, Kyungsoo."

"So what? Doesn't mean you go on a killing spree."

"At least I don't leave souvenirs everywhere I go. It's like playing hide-and-seek with a shedding dog, except you shed condoms."

The younger releases a bark of laughter, but before he can return the insult, a voice that sounds remarkably similar to Minseok's booms above their heads, magically amplified. "As usual, I'm in charge of the night patrols tonight," the eldest begins, speaking into a ball of ember-orange light bobbing slightly off his palm. "I believe you've all been briefed? If not, listen up, because I'm not repeating this again..."

Minseok's voice blends with the background noise as Chanyeol lets his eyes wander. The high-ceiling chamber itself is small and slightly bent over, like an old man hunched over a cane. Countless years of weathering violent storms and equally as violent invasions have made the Bunker the safest – and oldest – vampire haven in Seoul. There's no reason for any mortals to regard the hideout as suspicious either; from the outside, the Bunker doesn't look any different from any of the hundred-or-so abandoned churches peppering this side of the city. The view out of the stained-glass windows beneath the overarching mezzanines is barely visible in the nighttime murkiness; all Chanyeol can make out is the narrow gap between the trees fringing the path leading to the neighbouring theatre. The lush forest surrounding the Bunker teems with wildlife, both natural and supernatural. He'd had the luck to spot a greatwolf once – entirely different, he'd learned, to the vampire's sworn enemy, the werewolf – peering in through the westward window with a fully-grown deer limp in its enormous jaws. A flash of dusty gold and electric blue, and then it had melted into the darkness as quickly as it had materialised.

A sharp jab to Chanyeol's stomach snaps him out of his daydream. Recognising the soft, swishing sounds of shadow-travel springing up around the room, Chanyeol lets Kyungsoo maintain his glower as he takes his hand. "You weren't listening, were you?" he asks pointedly, the pupils of his eyes beginning to shrink and grow thin. "We're going mermaid hunting."

"Mermaids? Minseok-hyung must be desperate. Those things are ing feral."

Kyungsoo grins.

"I'd say the same for you, Chanyeol. At this point, you'd drink anything, wouldn't you?"

The port is eerily silent.

On second thought, Chanyeol muses, flipping the hood of his jumper over his head to ward off the biting cold, this place has always been like this. The crashing of waves against the disintegrating seawalls drown out any traces of conversation around him. Kyungsoo is walking beside Yoongi, their heads bent close together, immersed in a heated argument. Suho and Xiumin are dishing out extremely last-minute instructions to Areum and Sungmin, who are nodding, shoulders held tight against their ears. Sehun is walking alone, both earphones in, dancing rather rigidly to music that only he can hear.

Which leaves Chanyeol alone on the side of the pack, listening to nothing in particular.

They turn the corner with a collective pattering of footsteps. The dome-shaped roof of the fishery looms ahead, twice as imposing in the darkness.

In the daytime, the most dangerous things one could find by the port-side are the sharp-shelled mussels that pock the seawall like shiny, black pimples, the top-heavy holiday cars packed with surfboards, plastic sand pails and shrieking children, and the occasional alcohol-ridden drunkard. Even then, one could traverse the whole length of the rocky beach without much obstruction. It could almost be called pleasant.

At night, the port is a different story altogether.

A retrieval team had left, roughly four months ago, to pick a load of raw meat from the local butcher – because how could the vampire population keep feeding on fresh blood without leaving a trail of bloodless bodies in their wake? The pot-bellied man had been more than complacent under Minseok's compulsion, but the retrieval team hadn't returned until Suho returned to the lighthouse and found them.

Or rather, found parts of them, scattered here and there. "The remains," he'd reported gravely, "of an ambush by a pod of deprived mermaids."

Sungmin's voice jerks Chanyeol out of his temporary lapse in concentration. "Hyung," he whispers. Chanyeol raises an eyebrow at the way he's shivering. The fledgeling clearly hasn't gotten used to the loss of sensation. Sungmin doesn't seem to notice Chanyeol's deliberate gaze as he continues, hesitantly, "I do hope this expedition isn't putting Areum or I in danger?"

Chanyeol purses his lips, trying his hardest to ignore the ringing in his head; a side-product of the boy's lilting, vaguely posh accent. Tell him, says the voice in his head. Tell him about the savage, flesh-eating mermaids. "Danger?" Chanyeol answers incredulously, sticking his hands into his kangaroo pocket. "Look, if you're not eaten by the mermaids, then you'll die from the rocks. Or the cold, if you're lucky. Didn't the hyungs tell you about how to hunt?"

The boy shakes his head, a tremulous sort of fear in his eyes. "They told me that our vampire instincts would save us if we were lucky," he mumbles dishearteningly. "I don't know... perhaps Areum and I should have stayed back at the Bunker."

At that, Chanyeol's brow furrows in annoyance. "Come on, Sungmin. There's a limit on how idiotic you can be," he says irritably. The younger boy lowers his head shamefully, and Chanyeol almost feels sorry. Almost. "If you go without fresh blood for any more than three nights after Transition, do you know what can happen?" Sungmin shakes his head. Chanyeol sees his eyes dart up to Areum, who's trying and utterly failing at starting a conversation with Sehun. Biting down to stop himself from taking the boy by the shoulders and shaking him, he deadpans, "You'll turn into a ghoul. And everyone, including you and Areum, knows what a ghoul is – right?"

"Well, judging by what you've just told me, a ghoul is a vampire who has trespassed his hunger – or should I say thirst? – threshold, no?"

Chanyeol feels the urgent need to slap the know-it-all attitude out of the boy's voice. "That's right. And?"

"And –" here, he swallows a mouthful of saliva with an audible gulp – "They'll feed on anything. Humans, vampires, mermaids, centaurs. Whatever else there is."

"Even werewolves," Chanyeol joins, humming in agreement when Sungmin shudders in revulsion. I'm glad something of the vampiric gene has been bred into him. The arrogant prick thing must be selective. "I'm okay with seeing what happens when a vampire bites a werewolf, though. Want to give it a try?"

Sungmin doesn't get the morbid nature of the joke until the silence stretches out a tad too long. An awkward smile to match the awkward silence tugs at his cupid's bow lips. "No, I – that isn't funny, hyung," he replies weakly. Chanyeol snorts. "I've read my fair share of mythology, hyung, and from what I've gathered, the only thing that can possibly result from a vampire-werewolf blood transfusion is a –"

Chanyeol suppresses the desire to shout at the sky in gratitude as Minseok halts, sending a hushed ripple through the group. Sending what he hopes is a reassuring smile in Sungmin's direction, Chanyeol pushes to the front, halting at Kyungsoo's side. "Be careful," Minseok warns. The eldest leans to the side, muttering an order into Suho's ear. The ash-blonde vampire nods and dissipates into the darkness lu