Naturally, the first thing you did was go to the police. While they weren’t exactly helpful the first time around, you didn’t really have a choice. You’d been missing for two days and you couldn’t just show back up to work and your life like nothing had happened.

The detectives kept you for several hours, going over your story multiple times, but it never changed. Your fabrication was a mix of the truth and a few carefully planted lies. You told them that you didn’t remember what happened during the two days that you were gone and that you had been unconscious the entire time. The description you gave them of your kidnapper was the same at your attacker. You figured that if a coven of six vampires couldn’t catch him then neither could the cops, even with your vague description. Plus, none of your… rescuers fit that description and that would help keep them off the police’s radar as well. If they even existed in the human world.

You didn’t really know how often they ventured out or interacted with what was supposed to be their food source. Ravi had mentioned something about them “hiding” but to what extent did they actually hide? Did they just stay holed up in that mansion on the edge of town? Did they ever come out and experience little things among you lowly humans?

It’d taken you a good forty-five minutes of walking to reach civilization again. As far as the cops were concerned, you’d woken up within the city limits. Hopefully that would keep them out of the woods where you’d actually emerged from.

You weren’t entirely sure why you were going out of your way to protect them. Truth be told, you could have just given the short, blond description and kept it that. The vampires could handle themselves. It sounded like they’d been doing a good job so far.

Maybe it was just because they saved your life. You’d be another body on the slab in the morgue if they hadn’t come across you. They also could have chosen to just leave you there with no obligation to save you from the amount of blood loss you’d suffered. And yet, they did. They gave you a transfusion and watched over you. For that, you would ignore the fact that someone had undressed you and put in a men’s shirt.

As long as it wasn’t Ken.

The unfortunate side effect of this whole mess was that you were forced to take a very unwanted leave of absence from work. For your “mental health”. The only thing that would really help you and your mentality would be to have something to do to distract you from dwelling on the fact that vampires were real and one was currently after you for who knows what reason. But you were given no choice. One month, full pay, but stay away. “Doctor’s orders.”

So that’s where you found yourself. Lying on your back on the couch, kicking your feet and letting out a whine. It was only day three and you were already losing it.

Knock, knock.

Jumping up to your feet, you ran to the door, eager to see who had come to save you and your sanity. Then you paused. Your stalker was still out there. And, according to the friendly vampires, still wanted to kill you. But it was daytime. That meant you were safe, right?

Peeking through the peephole, you sighed with relief. It was Claire.

“How do you even know where I live?” you asked, elated, as you opened the door.

Claire blew a raspberry at you. “Please. Employee records aren’t that hard to get ahold of.” She held up a bottle of wine, wiggling it at you. “I brought you something to help get you through the tough few weeks that anyone else would kill for.”

Rolling your eyes, you took the bottle from her, eyeing the label. It was a sweeter wine, the kind that you would down in a single evening. “This isn’t going to last, you know that, right?”

“I wasn’t meaning for it to,” Claire admitted. You stepped to the side to allow her in.

The two of you wasted no time opening the bottle and pouring too much wine into a pair of clean glasses before settling down on the couch.

Claire updated you on the goings on at work and how everyone was freaking out when you hadn’t shown up for your shift. Apparently, there were full on debates as to whether or not call the police since you were never the type to just not come in. Finally, Jae had taken it upon himself to come to your house and check on you. When there was no answer at the door, he ran straight to the police. After they couldn’t get an answer, a locksmith let them inside. At the sight of an empty house, you officially became a missing person for a little over forty-eight hours.

Running a finger around the rim of her empty glass and creating a quiet, high pitched whine, Claire cautiously asked, “What, uh, what all do your remember… from, you know, that.”

You shrugged, going into actress mode. “Basically nothing. I was attacked in an alley, somehow he knocked me out. I woke up on the edge of town and walked to the nearest police station. I didn’t even realize that it’d been two days until they told me.”

“That is so weird,” Claire sighed, shaking her head. “And they think it was your stalker, right?”

“Yeah,” you confirmed. “They think it might just be another sick mind game he was playing with me. They’re having a car drive by a few times every hour to check and make sure nothing weird is going on and that he doesn’t break in again.”

“And you changed your locks?”

“Had to,” you grumbled. The locksmith had broken your doorknob in the process of letting the officers in, but at least the city police department paid for it.

“This whole thing is completely insane,” Claire pointed out.

You downed the rest of your wine and started pouring yourself a third glass. “You have no idea.”

**

One of the few things you could still enjoy was your daily run.

For the past week, you’d given yourself a structured schedule to make things a little less insane. After waking up around eight, you ate breakfast, caught up on the morning news, and made your bed before sitting down and reading a chapter or two of your latest book. Around ten o’clock you’d go for your run. The afternoon was more up in the air, changing from laundry to shopping to taking any random bus and counting the stops, anything that would kill time without you sitting around and twiddling your thumbs.

Your stalker-slash-serial-killer friend had yet to make another appearance and you were completely okay with that. No more vampires in your life, just like it should be.

That didn’t stop you from making sure you were home before dark.

But right now, as your feet slapped against the sidewalk, you felt normal, free. You didn’t have to think about the fact that your life had been up-ended. You didn’t have to dwell on the fact that maybe you should have stayed with the six vampires for protection. And you absolutely didn’t let a certain soft and gentle face float around your head.

Nope. Not at all.

You were trying to keep your focus on not running into anyone or anything as you ran through the park. The place was practically deserted, making avoiding people easy enough, and you weren’t sure if that was something you were happy or anxious about.

Just as you were passing a particularly thick group of trees, a hand reached out and pulled you off the path and into the makeshift woods.

Immediately, you went into fight mode, punching and kicking with your eyes closed wherever you could even as your attacker shoved you into a tree trunk. You opened your mouth and took in a lung full of air in order to scream, but your mouth was covered with the hand before you could get out a single sound.

“Seriously, don’t.”

Opening your eyes, you gasped.

Ravi was the one currently using his whole body to pin you against the tree. He wasn’t looking at you, instead searching around to see if anyone had witnessed the altercation.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, he looked back down at you. “You done?”

You nodded and he let you go, taking a step back. Breathing became a lot easier when he wasn’t pressed up against you. You didn’t know if vampires needed to work out or not, but Ravi was certainly no twig.

“It’s daylight,” you pointed out stupidly. There were probably a hundred more intelligent responses you could have chosen, but that, unfortunately, was the one you went with.  

“Congratulations,” Ravi mocked. “You can see.”

The idea of kicking him in the shin - though childish - was really tempting at the moment.

“I thought vampires couldn’t go out in sunlight?” You leaned up against the tree trunk, crossing your arms.

“You humans and your myths,” he scoffed.

You snorted. “Technically, weren’t you human at one point?”

If you expected Ravi to suddenly go solemn or show any sort of remorse for his previous life like more movie vampires did, you were sadly disappointed. The vampire just shrugged as if that little fact was of little consequence.

“I was only human for twenty-five years. I’ve been a vampire for over two hundred and fifty.”

Your jaw dropped. “Oh. Wow. That’s, um, that’s quite the long life.”

Two hundred and fifty years. What would that even like?

“Not really,” he countered. “Ken is around three hundred. N and Leo are even older than that.”

A headache was forming just thinking about the men who looked around your age actually had several centuries under their belt. No wonder Hongbin seemed to cynical. You couldn’t even imagine what living the normal lifespan would be like once you reached that point. In a way, you were a little jealous. He got to witness first hand how the world had changed over the centuries. Then again, those years might have contained some not-so-beautiful scenes.

You cleared your throat, really wanting to just change the subject. “So, um, why exactly did you attack me?”

Ravi rolled his eyes. “I didn’t attack you. I was simply getting you out of the public eye so we could talk.”

“Talk about what?” you frowned.

“Your idiotic decision.”

You marched up to him, trying to look intimidating. By the blank stare on Ravi’s face, you didn’t think you were succeeding. “Look, whether you think it was stupid or not, I couldn’t just sit on the couch in your fancy mansion and wait for one of you to catch the guy so I could go home. I needed to live my life.” You deflated, looking off into the distance as you mumbled, “Except, right now, I can’t even do that.”

“I wasn’t talking about that stupid decision,” Ravi clarified. “However, while the others agree with N that it would have been better for you to stay with us, I lean more towards Hongbin’s idea.”

You gaped at him. “Using me as bait?”

“Yeah,” he answered straightly. “It makes sense. But-” he flicked your forehead like he was scolding a child. “You constantly bouncing around the city is making it extremely difficult.”

“Whoa, wait.” You slapped his hand away, refusing to rub the spot on your forehead no matter how much it stung. “You’ve been stalking me, too?”

“It’s not stalking when we’re making sure you’re not getting killed.”

He… had a point.

“We’ve been taking turns watching over you,” he explained further. “Which is much harder than we ever thought it would be. I mean, do you ever just sit still and let yourself be? Do you really have to constantly be doing something?”

You were feeling very insulted. You couldn’t help it. That was just how you were. You never were able to just sit down and exist. “I prefer to be productive.”

He laughed. “You’ll burn yourself out way before the freak gets to you. Haven’t you ever heard of the phrase ‘stop and smell the roses’?”

You nodded, “Yeah, but you know what the issue with that is? Often times, those people forget to stop looking at the flowers and go on with their lives.”

“Happy mediums exist, you know.”

Your jaw moved subtly side to side. “Not in my world.”

Ravi shook his head, obviously exasperated by your stubbornness. “Whatever. Just, stop going all over the city. You’re leaving your scent everywhere and that’s making it hard to track you. Especially since we’re trying to stay out of sight while we do it.”

“Okay,” you agreed reluctantly. “How about I keep my morning routine, but in the afternoons, I’ll try to keep the running around to emergencies only. Happy?”

“Much,” he smirked.

Bouncing on the balls of your feet, you glanced over your shoulder. You knew you should probably end the conversation there, but one little thing was nagging in the back of your mind.

“When you say ‘we’ve’ been watching you-”

“Don’t worry,” Ravi snickered. “We haven’t seen anything embarrassing. Yet. Trust me, Hyuk would have been bragging about it if he had.”

“That’s not what I meant.”Although, thank goodness that wasn’t the case. “I just meant, if that was implying that all six of you were doing the whole ‘protector’ thing.”

At first, Ravi didn’t answer. He just kept staring at you with those unreadable eyes like he was studying a painting that was particularly hard to decipher. What you would give to know what he was thinking right there in that moment. Was he mocking you? Was he trying to figure out why you were so curious as to who exactly was looking out for you? Did he sense that you were asking about Leo?

You shouldn’t even been asking about Leo, no matter how subtle or underhanded. He was a vampire and you were food. And all you knew about him was his name and his warm eyes. He could have been a serial killer himself before he was turned.

No, you didn’t believe that. In the way that he treated you gently in those few moments you were with him, you knew that he was a gentle soul. And you wanted to see him again.

“All six of us are watching you in shifts,” Ravi finally replied. “So, don’t worry. You don’t have to deal with me for long.”

Somehow, you were a little disappointed in that. You liked the banter that was developing between you two. And… there was something else going on. Perhaps it was just the mystery of him. Everyone else you could pinpoint: N was the leader, Ken, the playboy, Leo the quiet one. Hongbin was the token cynic and Hyuk was the goofball. But where Ravi fit into everything, you couldn’t quite figure out.

“Okay,” you sighed, checking your watch. “I’d better finish this run and then I’ll get back to the house where watching me will be much easier.”

“Thank god.”

Even though you really needed to finish your run, your mouth opened to ask more questions. Perhaps sensing them, Ravi disappeared before they could leave your mouth. Well, that was rude.

“Alright, then.”

The rest of your run was much more relaxing now that you knew they were watching over you. Human police vs scary vampire would only end in you dead, perhaps along with a few others. Coven of vampires vs one scary rogue vampire? Much better odds for you.

For the most part, you kept your promise to Ravi, staying inside your townhome and doing what you could there. After your run, you’d taken a shower and sat down on your couch to watch a few hours of television. Once that became boring, you turned to reading until it was dinner time.

Cooking helped you be busy, focusing on making sure all the steps of the recipe were followed to the tee. It killed a good chunk of time, just like you needed it to. Clean up would take even more time and that was just fine by you.

As you hummed to yourself, you got out all the ingredients you needed to make the meal you’d picked out earlier in the day. Everything seemed to be in order until you double checked the list and realized that you’d accidentally used the last of your eggs for breakfast this morning. You groaned.

With no substitutes available to you, there was only one choice: run to the store. This counted as an emergency in your book.

Putting the perishables back into the fridge, you grabbed your purse before heading out the door. Whoever’s turn it was to watch you would just have to deal with it. The corner store was only about a block and a half away. If they were going to complain about that then maybe they should just leave you alone.

It wasn’t busy when you walked into the convenience store, making it easier to be in and out. Plenty of eggs were in stock so you picked up the first carton, checking to make sure none of the shells were cracked, and headed to the front. But the mistake you made was going to the store hungry.

So, taking a few extra minutes, you wandered around the store, picking up a bag of chips and some ice cream bars to take home as well. The cashier wasn’t even phased as he scanned out the random times. When everything was bagged up and paid for, he handed the goods over and you left the store, headed home.

Once back home, you closed the door behind you and took your shoes off before stepping back onto the carpet you desperately needed to vacuum. Maybe tomorrow.

Making your way to the kitchen in the dark, you tried not to bump into any of your furniture and break the eggs you’d just spent money on.

Something reached out, covered by the darkness, and took hold of your shoulder. Dropping the grocery bag, you screamed.