“Damn it all!” N cursed as Lay pulled pieces of wood out of his shoulder.

“Sorry,” the werewolf was quick to apologize, but under his breath he muttered about how N was a baby.

“What was that” the vampire hissed, glaring, “I didn’t quite catch that. Something about me being the guy who’ll rip your head off for talking ?”

“N hyung, behave,” Ken and Ravi laughed, shutting up seconds later when the older glared hatefully at them.

N was feeling several things right then and none of them were good. He was in pain from the wood stuck in his shoulder. Wood was deadly to vampires thanks to Song Mihyun’s magic and the stake that he had taken for Bora had splintered into dozens of little pieces once it hit him. For Lay to remove each splinter, he had to dig his tweezers into the wound, opening it up more and bringing more pain then N already felt.

The red haired vampire was also worried and jealous, two emotions that he was trying to focus on in hopes it would dull the pain. Bora was gone, looking for whoever had fired the stake in the first place and she’d gone with Luhan of all supernaturals. Sure, N had been hurt and the rest of their vampire family was a little more conserved with getting him to a safe place at the time, but she could have taken Tao with her. Or Kris even though the two weren’t that close. Suho would have been a much better choice, too.

But Luhan?

The blond werewolf had a major crush on her and everyone knew it. Even Bora knew it – at least he thought she did. N highly doubted Luhan’s crush would ever be returned, mostly because Bora wasn’t about to fall in love with someone who would die of old age, but it still irked him when he was them together. Heck, in the time he’d known her, she’d only fallen in love once and that romance ended so badly that she’d sworn off love completely. A wooden stake to the chest often had that kind of effect.

“We’re here,” Luhan called and all the worry N had been feeling vanished.

“You’re back,” N smiled slightly when Bora appeared beside him thanks to her vampire speed.

“How’s the shoulder?” she was answered by a curse as Lay removed another splinter.

“That makes twenty so far,” Lay told her as he dropped the bloody piece of wood into a bowl that was already filled with pieces of bloody wood, “This might take a while. I don’t know how deep they all are.”

“You’re going to have to cut deeper then,” Bora frowned, looking over the wound herself, “no wood can be left behind.”

“Got it,” Lay left to collect the tools he would need to open up N’s shoulder.

“Did you find who attacked N?” Suho asked, grabbing a warm cloth to clear N’s shoulder up a bit.

“Yeah,” Luhan sighed, “it was those stupid hunter brothers. And the target was Bora, not N. This was just a warning.”

“Obviously,” Ken rolled his eyes, “like a simple stake could kill Bora. N should have just let her take the attack. At least she wouldn’t be cursing and threating poor Lay every two seconds.” Ken and Ravi started laughing again at N’s misfortune, but this time N didn’t bother to glare at them.

“So that’s all this was?” Suho gestured to N’s mutilated shoulder, “a warning?” N’s shoulder was a mess and he was in severe pain, all so that the Kang brothers could say ‘we’re here, watch your back.’ Suho couldn’t wrap his head around how evil someone had to be to do something like that. (A/N: Isn’t Suho just so sweet and caring?)

“We need to look into them,” Kris frowned, his thoughts following the same path as Suho’s.

“I said that to Luhan,” Bora smirked slightly, “I guess great minds to think alike.”

“We need to know if they have allies and where those allies are,” Leo voiced and everyone jumped slightly. When he rarely spoke, it was easy to forget he was even there in the first place.

“Right,” Kris nodded, “they let you find them, right? They were waiting for you?”

“Yes,” Bora frowned, “they either have allies waiting to attack in their place should they die, or we just got played for fools and they’re alone.”

“We have to know for sure,” Kris fell silent after that, trying to think of a plan.  

“I’ll see what I can dig up,” N hissed as Suho’s cloth got too close to the edge of his wound, “once I’m all healed.”

“I think we should take a more hands off approach to this,” Bora explained, “Those two hunters want to kill some of us more than others, so they’ll be paying more attention to that ‘some of us.’ If they realize we’re checking them out, then they’ll try to hide things.”

“So it’s best to send in the people who they aren’t paying as much attention to,” Kris nodded, following her logic. Killing the original three vampires was the main target, but killing vampires like N, Leo, Gayun, Ken, and Ravi would boost their cred among their fellow hunters even more. The same could be said for him and Suho, the co-alphas of their pack.

Because they were such valuable targets, the Kang brothers would keep a closer eye on them. You never knew when you’d get a great head shot after all. With the chance of surveillance so high, the chance of their research being found out was equally high. Once the Kang brothers knew what they were looking for, they could hide information or provide misleading clues.

No, best to send those who wouldn’t be noticed.

“They have no reason to keep tabs on Jina,” Bora suggested, “she’s only a hundred and she hasn’t done anything to draw attention to herself. Hunter’s always love taking down vampires who have made a name for themselves through very long lives or through killing sprees. She has neither, so no one should care about seeing her dead.”

N noticed Leo twitch slightly at the mention of the youngest, but kept silent. it was no secret to the red head that his old friend had a soft spot for the girl, although he wasn’t sure if romantic or sibling feelings behind their relationship. However, it was clear that Leo did not like the idea of Jina being sent off by herself to look into the hunter brother’s past.

“I’ll send Sehun with her,” Kris inclined his head towards the youngest werewolf, “with any luck, those two hunters don’t consider him a threat and aren’t paying him any mind. Is that alright with you, Sehun?” The rainbow haired youth nodded before asking Leo where Jina was and if she had any plans over the weekend.

A/N: I wonder if anyone saw this possible Leo/Jina pairing coming. Not saying I’m for sure going to do it (we’ll just have to see how her time around Sehun goes). Anyway, I’m going to be giving Bora, N, and Luhan some time off for the next chapter and let Jina and Sehun take the spot light (I’ve been neglecting those two too much and need to make up for it), hopefully you guys will enjoy that. Thank you so much to my wonderful subscribers. Please leave a comment in the comments section so I can read what you guys think!