He was wrapped in complete darkness, a suffocating pitch-black that his breath away.  Seemingly lying on his back completely paralyzed, he could only see what was in front of him.  Nothing.  Or so it seemed.  Closer and closer he could make out two red glowing dots.  Closer and closer.  Fear tugged at his heart.  They were no dots.  Eyes.  Red glowing eyes that had no body for the dimness also cloaked the creature that was slowly closing in on him.  He screamed.  Or so he thought he did, for no sound came out.  Closer and closer until the luminous blood red orbs were upon him until all he could see was red.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Yuta woke up in a flash, his chest heaving from having held his breath for too long.  His entire body was covered in a slick coat of sweat, and his bed was not salvaged from his sweat bath.  Yuta sat up in confusion, sure that the banging was not from his dream, but from reality.  His suspicions were confirmed when he heard a man’s deep voice shout from outside his door, “Yuta, he’s gone! They kidnapped the prince!  We need to leave immediately!” 

Taeil?  They kidnapped Taeil?  

Yuta sprang from his bed to rip open the door.  Face to face with the prince’s tall, muscular bodyguard, he observed Johnny was just as pale as Yuta felt. 

“What do you mean he’s gone??  Weren’t you outside his door all night??” asked a wide and crazy-eyed Yuta.

Johnny looked down at his feet and muttered something about the bathroom.

Yuta gripped his messy mahogany locks in frustration.  “Ok alert Doyoung as I get dressed.  Tell him to ready himself and get to the stables as soon as possible!”

Yuta turned back towards his room and dressed in a frenzy.  He hurriedly packed the necessities the trip would require and raced through the palace to get to the horse stables.  After readying his and everyone else’s horses, he took a necessary breath and finally paid attention to his surroundings. 

It was dawn.  The sun had barely risen over the horizon, producing an arrangement of orange and yellow rays that were breaking through the darkness in the sky.  The air around him was moist and the grass dewy.  The perfect summer morning if it had not been for the prince’s capture

Not long after his musings, Johnny and Doyoung burst through the stable doors.  All three mounted their respective horses, and with a quick strike of the reigns, they bolted out of the stables, across the drawbridge, and through the dusty town roads. 

After reaching the outskirts of the city and finally onto the forest trail, Yuta numbed mind began to unthaw.  He needed to make a plan of action before they just burst through their doors like chickens with their heads cut off demanding for them to hand over their precious prince.  The only problem was that Taeil was always with Yuta to help him create their strategic actions.  This time around, Yuta was alone.

Damn vampires.  Yuta tightened his grip on the horse’s reigns.  Ever since the Mirotic War in the TVXQ era, the human nation trained a special unit of vampire slayers to defend their country from the vampires, and that’s exactly what Yuta, Taeil, Johnny, and Doyoung were for this EXO era.  They were this era’s vampire slayer unit, named NCT.  And as soon as King Baekhyun hands over the crown to his son, a new era will begin and will be called NCT until Taeil’s son takes the thrown and so on.

Yuta shivered and pulled his cloak closer to his body.  The morning air was still chilly as they raced through the forest path.  Two days.  It would take approximately two days to reach the vampire’s castle.  They would have to make camp tonight to stay fresh for the fight that would take place in the next couple days. 

Hours of speechlessness passed and finally night fell.  Yuta signaled for the other two to stop.  They needed to find a safe place to make camp.  Traveling at night was too dangerous in vampire territory.  Vampires had the upper hand because of their nocturnal vision. 

Yuta peered at his comrade’s haggard faces.  He finally broke the silence as they traveled into the forest.  “I’m sure he’s fine.  Try not to worry about it until we reach the castle.”  The other two nodded, clearly not convinced. 

They found some flat grassy land big enough for them to lie down on and built a fire.  The boys had picked up dead sticks since entering the forest and laid them in a circle in the middle.  Once they had the fire going and the horses fed, they all sat down with a sigh. 

“My cousin… he’s such a gentle and kind person.  What could they possibly want with him?” Yuta ruffled Doyoung’s blonde head of hair in hopes of calming down his usually talkiative friend.

“I wish I could give you an answer, but I really don’t know.  He’s strong, though.  No matter what they do to him, I’m sure he’ll come out of it fine.”  Yuta continued to console him. 

Since this morning, Johnny had not looked Yuta in the eye, always carefully observing the ground with his long brown locks covering his face.  “Yuta.”  At long last he met his eye.  “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.  I- I should’ve been there.  Or else this wouldn’t have happened.” 

Yuta had never seen this side of Johnny before.  His friend was usually a funny and carefree kind of guy.  Definitely the mood maker of the group.  Yuta sighed. 

“It’s no one’s fault.  Even if you were there they would have easily overcome you with their surprise attack.  Plus, everyone has to go to the bathroom at some point.  You’re only human.” 

If Yuta had known this was why Johnny had been acting strange all day, he would’ve told him that a long time ago so the guilt didn’t eat at him the whole ride here. 

Johnny seemed to have digested what Yuta said.  He still seemed fidgety, though.  “Yuta,” he spoke softly this time.  “Do-Do you think we can do this?  Save Taeil and have all of us come out alive?”

Ah, so that’s what it was.  This was exactly what Yuta had worried about the most.  Vampires were stronger and faster than humans.  As professionally trained vampire slayers from birth, they could easily take on a normal red-blooded vampire.  The four of them had gone on many missions before, usually to save humans from rogue vampires.  But never had they taken on a royal blue-blooded vampire.  The royals were at least twice as powerful as the red-blooded common vampires.  And where were they heading?  Straight into blue-blood territory. 

Real vampires are different from mythical vampires.  They age and live normal life cycles, just like humans, and physically they are extraordinarily beautiful and slim with amber colored eyes. 

“You know what.”  Yuta lied down in the grass and looked up at the sky.  The stars seemed to shine brighter than usual tonight. “What happens… happens.  We’ve trained all our lives for this moment.  We’ve done all that we can.  Taeil knows that.  We know that.  Destiny will guide us tomorrow.  And whatever happens, well… happens.” 

The others followed Yuta’s example and fell on the backs.  Yuta heard Doyoung let out a soft “wow” as he also peered up at the sparkling night sky. 

The boys lied there for a while in silence, only the crackling of the fire being heard. 

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seriously thought about death.” Johnny hesitantly whispered.  “It’s kind of… scary.  I keep asking myself if I’ve lived a good life?  If I would have any regrets?  And I think of what I’m most thankful for.  The only answer that keeps coming to my mind is you guys.  I’m so blessed to have met you and to have been friends with the best groups of guys in the world.”  Johnny started getting choked up at the end of his last sentence, and Yuta also noticed Doyoung sit up to hug his legs against his chest.

“Guys.  Come here.  Let’s sleep together tonight.”  Yuta opened his arms for Doyoung and Johnny to come to him.  Slowly the two of them scooted over to Yuta.  Yuta let out a sigh of relief as he held his closest brothers in his arms.  “I love you guys.   We’ll be fine tomorrow, so please get some sleep tonight, okay?”

Slowly the three of them lied down and cuddled together with the warmth and love only true brothers could give each other. 

Yuta woke up at the break of dawn, relieved he didn’t have his usual nightmare about the red glowing eyes.  Ever since he could remember, he had always had the same nightmare.  At first it was once every year or so, but as he got older it was becoming to be monthly and sometimes even weekly. 

Sehun had always been there to help him through the nightmares when he was little.  Even though Yuta was not of royal blood, he grew up in the castle.  When Yuta was a baby, a traveling Sehun had found him on a muddy forest path.  Apparently his parents were merchants who traveled from city to city to sell goods.  That day they were attacked by a rogue group of vampires.  Yuta was left barely alive until Sehun stumbled upon him that one fateful day. 

Sehun was one of the EXO unit vampire slayers from the generation before Yuta and brought him to the King.  King Baekhyun took Yuta in and left Sehun to train and care for him.  Sehun was his father figure and mentor growing up.

He couldn’t have asked for a better childhood.  Sure, he would’ve loved to have had his real parents still living with him, but Sehun did a great job of taking their place, and plus he had the three best of friends growing up with him.  Queen Taeyeon also went out of her way to visit him sometimes. 

The only repercussion of that one fateful day was that because he was almost dead when Sehun found him, his heart was severely weakened.  To this day he has to take a pill daily or else his heart would fail him.  Sehun couldn’t stress that enough.

Deciding it was time to wake the others, Yuta shook them both until they started mumbling incoherently.  “Come on guys.  We have a long day ahead of us.”

They both seemed to have remembered the situation they were currently in when he heard them both sigh and sit up.  They washed up by the nearby stream and ate a bit of dry bread before heading out. 

It was another beautifully chilly morning as they continued on the forest path.  Yuta noticed they traveled faster than he thought they would, so their current ETA was sometime later this evening.  If all went well, they would sneak in at night, grab Taeil, and put as much distance between them and the castle as possible.  Somehow the humans had obtained a map of the vampire’s castle, and Yuta had a copy and was studying it on the ride there. 

About an hour before they would enter the village limits, Yuta had them stop to tell them the plan.  There was a sewer system they would be able to enter from the back of the castle.  The sewers would lead them to the first floor of the castle.  From there they would have to find their way to the dungeon of the palace where they would most likely find Taeil. 

“If we get split up or if one of us dies or gets taken, flee immediately.  Don’t feel the need to take revenge because that’s not what we’re here for.  Our lives matter the most.  Our goal is for as many of us to make it out alive as possible.  Promise me this.”  Yuta commanded in a more serious tone than usual. 

“But-“ Johnny began.

“No buts.  Promise me right now or we’re not moving an inch from this spot.”  Yuta stubbornly stuck out his chin.

“Ok.”  Johnny and Doyoung reluctantly muttered.

The boys waited until night fell upon them before they left for the city.  Yuta didn’t want to arrive until it was late into the night.  Even though vampires were more nocturnal than humans, they couldn’t see as well as they could in the daylight.  They grew more tense the closer they got until they could see the castle looming in the distance.

Their city was eerily similar to their own.  The outer part of the city was the slums, and the closer they got to the castle was where the richer noble vampires lived.  They had left the horses outside the city so they could travel with more stealth.  They moved from dark alley to dark alley until they got to the castle walls.  It seemed their city was a lot smaller than their own.  The boys didn’t see a single vampire on their way through the eerily quiet city.  

Yuta led them to the back of the castle walls until he found the sewer grate they were supposed to climb through.  Metal bars were blocking them from entering.  Johnny and Doyoung looked at Yuta questioningly. 

“Johnny.  You and I are going to pull on it at the same time and see if it budges.”  Yuta and Johnny were both unnaturally strong for humans.  Doyoung wasn’t near as strong, but he made up for it in speed.  Luckily, Yuta was graced with both characteristics.

“3 2 1 PULL.”  The two fell on their butts as the bars easily slid off the frame of the grate.  “Well that was easy.  I thought we would’ve had to break it open, but it just slid right off!”  The boys smiled and high-fived each other.  Things were already looking up for them as they crawled into the sewer. 

Johnny was really tall and broad-shouldered, so it was an uncomfortable journey for the large boy.  Doyoung and Yuta easily crawled through the slimy and smelly walls.

They were on their hands and knees for about 10 minutes before they saw the beam of light from the exit of the sewer.  Yuta and Johnny slid the grate off just as easily as they did the first one, making as minimal sound as possible.  Yuta poked his head out and realized they were in a community bathroom.  He motioned for the other two to climb out as well. 

Swords in hand, they tiptoed to the door.  Yuta put his ear up to the hard wood to hear if anyone was on the other side.  He heard nothing, so he slowly turned the handle with a sweaty trembling hand and pushed the door open.  The boys were now standing in an empty hallway.  According to the map, they needed to turn right and then take a left at the nearest turn.  Yuta was at the front and Doyoung at the back, checking to make sure no one snuck up behind them. 

A few twists and turns later they made it to the stairs.  They started down the stairs until they saw movement.  The boys froze and held their breaths. Two guards walked past the bottom of the stairs without even taking a glance at them.  Yuta’s heart was beating so hard he could’ve sworn they would be found just from the sound of his own heart beating.  A couple seconds later Yuta signaled to continue down the stairs. 

As they finally reached the bottom of the stairs, a hand reached around the corner and grabbed at Yuta’s throat.  Yuta yelled out in surprised and swung his sword at the offending hand.  His sword missed by less than an inch.  The boys backpedaled up the stairs as the two guards gave chase

Johnny and Doyoung turned right, and Yuta turned left at the top of the stairs.  Both guards went for Johnny and Doyoung, so Yuta went back down the stairs in search of Taeil.  Johnny and Doyoung would have no problem handling the two red-blooded vampires.  Yuta immediately took a right towards the dungeon.  They were already found, so he would have to make a quick search.  Yuta raced past with no awareness or care for any other creature in the world except for his best friend, Taeil.  He wasn’t leaving without him. 

Those two guards must’ve been the only ones in charge of the dungeon because there wasn’t another soul in sight.  Breathing hard with a hammering heart, Yuta reached the dungeon.  Empty.   It was absolutely deserted.  No wonder there was only two guards down there.  Yuta was starting to lose hope of ever finding his friend when he ran into Johnny and Doyoung on his way back to the stairs. 

“Did you find him?”  Johnny wheezed out.

Yuta shook his head.  “The guards?”

“We knocked them unconscious and hid them in that bathroom.  Didn’t want to cause any unnecessary deaths.”  Yuta nodded in approval at Doyoung’s assessment.  Yuta agreed.  Killing was a last resort.

“Let’s continue on the second floor.  There’s one more place he might be.”  The boys followed Yuta back up the stairs.

If Taeil wasn’t in the dungeon, then he was probably being held in a guest room?  At least Yuta hoped.  There were two problems with this.  The guest room was near the royal’s rooms on the second floor.  The second problem was that also meant they were even farther away from their only exit. 

Reaching the second floor was no problem, but Yuta was feeling very jittery.  It must be the royal’s power seeping through the walls.  He could feel it.  Yuta turned to look at the others.  They were just as aware and tense as he.  But there was one presence Yuta could feel more than the others.  He could even pinpoint the source.  Yuta felt drawn to it.  His heart was telling him to find it while his brain was screaming at him to run.  He never remembered Sehun telling him of the possibility of being physically and mentally drawn to a vampire before.  This worried Yuta more than anything else. 

Suddenly, they heard shouts behind them.  Three red-blooded guards were closing in on them from behind.  They were so close! Just another hallway and they would’ve gotten to the room! Yuta was torn.  Johnny must’ve seen his friend’s indecisiveness because he gestured for Yuta to go. 

“Yuta, we can handle them!  Just go!  Find Taeil!”  Doyoung and Johnny turned around to fend off the three attackers.  Yuta didn’t hesitate for another second.  He ran in the opposite direction:  closer to the source that had been drawing him in and hopefully closer to Taeil. 

Yuta turned the last corner and immediately stopped in his tracks.  A blue-blood.  He didn’t have to see his blood to know.  Raw power was radiating off of the vampire, but that’s not what stopped Yuta.  It was his beauty.  Never had Yuta ever seen a being so flawless or intoxicatingly handsome.  The vampire had wild frosty white hair that framed his perfect face.  He had a bit of a square jaw that was so sharp it would probably cut Yuta’s figure if he ever dared touch it.  The most captivating attribute was his gorgeous amber eyes framed by thick dark eyebrows, and his stare was piercingly cold.  Yuta felt in front of him.

The feeling was even stronger.  Yuta was so utterly drawn to the male.  But one step closer meant death, so Yuta didn’t dare move.  The blue-blood simply stood in the same spot with an unchanging expression.  At least a minute had passed before the beautiful male started walking towards Yuta.  He was frozen on the spot.  What could he do?  With just a flick of his wrist the blue-blood could kill him in an instant. 

Yuta could no longer think straight.  His instincts were starting to take over.  That one dominating instinct fully took over his brain.  When the vampire was finally within arms length, Yuta’s hands moved on their own.  Yuta grabbed at the taller man’s styled silver hair and crashed their lips together. 

The vampire must have been shocked because it took him a second to respond.  His response wasn’t what Yuta was expecting.  Instead of flinging him off and killing him on the spot, he started kissing Yuta back, lips moving against his.  All other thoughts left Yuta’s mind except for wanting to taste more of the silver haired vampire. 

Even though Yuta had initiated the kiss, the other male was already claiming dominance.  He grasped Yuta’s shoulders and him against the wall, pressing the full length of his body against Yuta’s.  This turned him on even more, sending heat down to his lower regions.  Not wanting to lose completely, Yuta bit down on the man’s lower lip.  The vampire opened his mouth at the shock of the bite and Yuta slid his tongue in to taste the inside of the blue-blood’s intoxicatingly wet cavern. 

Yuta had brief make-out sessions with random guys on the streets, but never had they kissed like this or tasted this good.  Yuta let out a moan as the vampire assaulted Yuta’s tongue with his.  Not a single spot in either of their mouths went unlicked.  As the tongue battle died down, the silver male on Yuta’s lower lip, drawing out another mewl from Yuta.  This caused the male to grind his hips into Yuta’s.  His legs wobbled on the spot, so the blue-blood grabbed Yuta’s perky with both his hands to both keep Yuta standing and to rub their hardened lengths together even more.  Yuta broke his lips away from the vampire’s to catch his breath, so the vampire took the opportunity to assault his neck instead. 

At this point, the silver male was literally humping Yuta up against the wall while Yuta was lost in all aspects of any thought.  Everything felt so good.  He had never felt this hard in his entire life.  Nothing else mattered.  No thoughts of Johnny, Doyoung, or even Taeil could cross his mind now.  All that mattered was this beautiful vampire in front of him, lust pounding through his veins.

Yuta cried out as the vampire picked up speed and on a sweet spot on his neck.  He reattatched his lips to Yuta’s to silence his cry.  If the kiss was heated before, it was nothing like it was now.  Hands were dangerously roaming and were blissfully rubbing.  Yuta was close.  He was so close.  Yuta clawed at the vampire’s back for more friction, and the vampire’s hands wandered underneath the fabric of Yuta’s shirt.  Yuta shivered as he ghosted his finger over his hardened nub.  The vampire bit down on Yuta’s lip, causing Yuta to finally come with the loudest scream he had let out that night.  The silver male didn’t let Yuta go until he too came, and he collapsed in an exhausted heap on the floor of the hallway.

Yuta was suddenly incredibly sleepy.  Everything from the past two days had finally caught up with him as he struggled to keep his eyes open.  The last thing he remembered were the glowing amber orbs closing down on him.