It’s the year 2025, and Eve is finally 22 years old. Now fully grown, she’ll no longer need a new pair of pants every passing year, nor will she need her protective bustier to be re-measured every few months. Also, now that she’s 22, she can finally join the ranks of the Death Dealers.

“Mom,” she says, voice firm. Striding into Selene’s office, she stops short of the desk and waits until her mother looks up at her to continue. “Can I please join the Dealers now?”

Selene’s silence drags over Eve’s confidence like a heavy, wet rag. Sighing, Eve sinks into one of the chairs facing the desk and leans forward.

“I’ve been working really hard to control my emotions and to link it to my strength; I’ve also been training daily in combat. I’ve gotten really good – you can ask Jongin!”

Pursing her lips, Selene reclines in her chair and fixes her daughter with a stern look. Eve seems to deflate in front of her very eyes. Selene tries not to laugh.

“Let me speak with Jongin. I’ll decide after my conversation with him.”

Hope renewed, Eve rises to her feet and sprints out of the room with a wide smile on her face. Selene shakes her head and redirects her attention back to the city maps spread out on the table’s surface. With every passing day they fail to find Michael, Antigen’s chances increase. What with the state of chaos Antigen is in, Selene refuses to think of what they’ll do to Michael if they get to him before she does.

A brief rap on the door breaks through Selene’s thoughts, and she looks up to find her most trusted Death Dealer by the frame.

“Come in,” she beckons, and Jongin strides over immediately.

“Talk to me about Eve,” Selene continues, setting her pen down and looking up at Jongin’s dark eyes expectantly. They blink once.

“She really has improved tremendously,” Jongin replies, settling down into the chair across from Selene. “She hasn’t lost control over her strength for the past three months now, and her skills on the battlefront are on par with some of the guys in the squad. I do think she’s ready, Selene.”

“She didn’t bribe you to say any of that, did she?”

Jongin chuckles. “I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Nodding, Selene takes a deep breath and lets it out through her nose before saying, “I guess she can tag along on your next search then –”

A loud squeal is heard outside the doors, followed by the muffled sound of running footsteps as Eve dashes down the hall to find someone to celebrate her victory with. Selene raises an eyebrow and Jongin simply shrugs, a small smile playing across his lips.








“Suit up!” Jongin barks, breezing into the practice room. Zitao promptly drops from the ceiling and Eve lowers the silver sword in her hand until the tip coughs up a thin line of sparks from where it brushes against the graphite ground. “We head out to the North Woods in ten.”

“Pack light,” Jongin continues, “it’s an hour run.” He slots ammunition into his belt and holsters several handguns before strapping on his boots. The leather of his pants cling cooly around his thighs, and Jongin feels adrenaline kick in at the familiar feel.

Heading towards the exit, Jongin turns to face the seven members of his team. “Keep to the fringe of the trees – do not engage with anyone or anything unless you are in immediate danger. We have one objective, and that is to find Michael. Nothing else should interfere, am I clear?”

He doesn’t wait for a response before hoisting himself up to the windowsill and pushing the panes open. The sky is inky blue, void of the moon, and there’s naught a single star amongst the clouds. Muscles contract and tense for the briefest second before Jongin leaps off the ledge – five stories later, the soles of his feet make contact with spongy grass and he breaks into a jog.

As soon as he counts seven pairs of footsteps behind him, Jongin swerves into the tree line and settles into a comfortable speed. The rest of his teammates fall into pace with him, and they head towards the Woods in silence.

Halfway through, Jongin turns his head to see Eve levelling up with him.

“Do you think we’ll find anything tonight?”

“No promises, Eve. Don’t keep your hopes up though – your dad is notoriously good at hiding his tracks, and he never stays in one place for too long.”

Her blue eyes glint in the night as she steels her jaw and nods. They run the rest of the journey side by side, and Jongin can feel various conflicting emotions emanating off Eve and into the night. He doesn’t say anything though; he’s never really been good at saying the right things.

The second they arrive in the Woods, Jongin realises the trip was essentially futile.

“He’s not here,” Jongin says, nose lifted. His irises flood with an electric blue, and a quick sweep of the area confirms his suspicions. “He hasn’t been here for a while. His scent is too faint to trace, and –”

“Here,” Vayer interrupts, and Jongin hones in on the spot Vayer is pointing at. “It’s broken, but I think it’s –”

“The symbol for the abandoned Lycan dungeons,” Eve finishes, voice low.

“Last place they’d think to look for him,” Jongin mutters, straightening from his crouched position. “What with the first generation Werewolves out in the wild and the increasing rate of humans being turned into low-level Lycans...”

Eve rounds on him, eyes ablaze. “We have to go get him. It’s dangerous for him out there by himself! What if the Lycans decide to return to those dungeons? What if –”

Zitao cuts in with a snap of his fingers. “We can’t just up and go, Eve. We need to consult with your mother, and then we’ll have to survey the area for a few days at the very least. Death Dealers are not rash and reckless, and the safety of the collective outweighs our personal wants. You need to remember that.”

Jongin opens his mouth to add onto Zitao’s words, but a distinct scent catches his attention. Because no one else is shifted, they don’t notice, and Jongin finds himself slipping away from the group to follow the scent.

Eve registers Jongin’s absence a few seconds too late. “Where’s Jongin?”








The sight in front of Jongin renders him speechless for a heavy moment. A lone, still Vampire stands tall in the middle of a ring – a ring of wild Werewolves. Jongin counts six pairs of cobalt eyes, and each pair is coupled with foaming jaws of sharp teeth. Instinctively, Jongin reaches for the handgun by his hip, but he’s stopped in his tracks by the soft voice of the Vampire standing before him.

“Don’t,” the solitary figure says.

A Werewolf to the far right takes a step towards the Vampire and Jongin closes his fingers around the grip of his gun.

“Why?”

Cobalt eyes swing around to fixate on him, but Jongin ignores them as he holds his gaze on the unmoving Vampire. Jongin detects no fear, tension, or distress whatsoever.

“Let them,” comes the easy reply. The Werewolf takes another step forward, spittle dribbling past its jaws and onto the dry ground. Confused, Jongin lets his eyes roam across what he can see of the Vampire’s face. Thick hair in need of a haircut shields most of his features, but Jongin makes out almond eyes and a high nose. A sharp chin blends into a relaxed jaw, and it’s only when Jongin lifts his gaze back up to those eyes does he realise what the Vampire wants.

“No,” Jongin says shortly, before proceeding to empty a magazine of silver bullets into the Werewolves, two for each heart.

In the blink of an eye, the Vampire’s face to face with Jongin, noses inches apart. The fire in those bright blue eyes is the first sign of emotion Jongin’s seen, and it sends a thrilling jolt down Jongin’s spine.

“What gave you the right,” the Vampire hisses, “to determine the outcome of my life for me?”

“This isn’t the outcome,” Jongin replies, refusing to look away. “All I’ve done is extended it.”

The blue fades away and chocolate brown takes it place as the Vampire lets go of his frustration. Jongin holsters his empty handgun and tilts his head.

“Come with me?”








Jongin takes a step back just in time to avoid getting slammed against a tree by a very agitated Eve.

“Where did you go? We heard gunshots –”

“You failed to track me down even though my scent’s this strong? Eve, I thought I trained you better,” Jongin comments lightly, dragging the Vampire trailing behind him to the forefront. “I found him. Surrounded by Werewolves.”

The indignant look on Eve’s face fades away to one of surprise.

“Werewolves are here?” Zitao asks sharply, “I heard they haven’t been spotted around here for weeks – I assumed there were none around.”

“I may have actively tried to draw them to me,” the Vampire by Jongin’s side says, shrugging.

Eve gapes. “Who are you? And why?”

“My name’s Sehun. And because I wanted them to find me.”

Jongin holds up a hand and Eve closes . “Not the time. We should head back before the gunshots attract unwanted attention and before the sun rises.”

Zitao’s the first one to start moving. Before long, the rest of the team follows, leaving Jongin standing with a quiet Sehun.

“Can you run?”

“Not for long,” Sehun mumbles. “Haven’t fed in decades.”

Questions explode in Jongin’s mind, but he doesn’t let any rise to the surface. Crouching, he gestures for Sehun to climb onto his back. “Get on.”

“I’m too tall for –”

“Just get on,” Jongin says impatiently. “It’s the fastest way.”

Sighing, Sehun does as he’s told. “Don’t drop me.”

Rolling his eyes, Jongin straightens and tightens his hold underneath Sehun’s knees. “I’ll try my best.”








After slowing to a stop in front of the coven’s gates, Jongin turns his head to find Sehun passed out on his back, his breathing shallow and skin paler than usual. Gesturing for a guard to open the doors, Jongin bolts indoors and makes a beeline for Selene’s office.

Eve is already inside, in the middle of recounting the series of events that had happened during their assignment to a rapt Selene. She stops talking when Jongin steps into the room, and immediately pulls up a chair for Jongin to deposit Sehun in.

“What…?”

It appears Eve hasn’t gotten around to this part of the story yet.

“Found him in the Woods,” Jongin explains, pushing windswept hair out of his eyes. “He was surrounded by Werewolves. I think he wanted to die.”

“Is he injured? Has he been bitten?” Selene asks tersely, gaze flicking over to the lifeless frame draped across the armchair.

“No, he hasn’t been bitten. But according to him, he hasn’t fed for decades.”

Selene relaxes somewhat, and leans back in her seat. “Alright. Let him recuperate in the infirmary until he’s fit enough to move. Then give him some blood packs for his journey.” Turning back to her daughter, she waits expectantly for Eve to continue. Instead, Eve’s staring straight at Jongin.

When Selene registers the fact that Jongin did not verbally acknowledge her orders, she glances over curiously. The Death Dealer is standing by the armchair with his hands held behind his back and a furrow between his brows.

“Jongin?”

“Can he stay?”

She hears Jongin’s nervous swallow loud and clear. Rising, Selene walks around her desk and approaches Sehun’s lax frame. Leaning down, she pushes his hair out of his face and turns his head this way and that. Jongin exchanges looks with Eve.

“Why do you want him to stay?”

Jongin shifts his weight from one leg to another, and Selene doesn’t think she’s seen him this fidgety since the day they’d met.

“I don’t know,” Jongin says, grimacing, “it’s a gut feeling I have. Of sorts.”

Selene looks the Death Dealer right in the eyes – there’s something swimming amongst the depths of them that jars Selene’s heart, and she chances another glance down at Sehun.

“He can stay for the time being. When he’s at full strength we’ll talk again.”

“But –”

“Just focus on his recuperation for now, alright?”

Selene reaches out to squeeze Jongin’s forearm before returning to her desk. Nodding heavily, Jongin bends and lifts Sehun effortlessly into his arms – Eve opens the door for him quietly and he exits, heading straight for the infirmary.








“You’ve got dirt all over your back, did you know?”

Jongin yelps and nearly topples off his chair, saved only by quick reflexes and nothing more.

“You’re awake? But I didn’t hear –”

“I breathe slow even when awake,” Sehun explains, scooting up into some sort of a seated position. The IV drip tugs slightly, and Sehun looks down to see blood being transfused into his veins. “No wonder I’m feeling lots better.”

Jongin gestures to the pile of blood packs on the side table. “I managed to convince them to give you human blood. Should speed up recovery.”

“You didn’t have to,” Sehun says.

“I know. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to.”

Sehun surveys him silently for a few moments before exhaling and sinking deeper into his pillows. Just then, a fledgling enters the room and catches Jongin’s attention.

“Sir, Selene wants to speak with you.” Her wide, gold eyes linger on Sehun’s face, and Jongin gets the hint.

“I’ll be right there.”

The fledgling bows and hurries out of the room in a whirl.

“It’ll just take a while –”

“Your coven leader is Selene?” Sehun interrupts, voice light and even. Jongin notices the imperceptible straightening of his spine, however. “Could I speak to her after you?”








The second the door to the infirmary swings open, Jongin pushes off the wall and skids up to Selene. David, whom Selene had brought in with her, sidesteps them with a slight quirk of his lips.

“I could hear your feet tapping the entire time,” she quips, crossing her arms over her leather-clad chest. Jongin makes a face.

“What did he say?”

“You’re aware he can hear you from here, yes? Regardless, why don’t you ask him yourself – he’s already back to full health.”

Jongin frowns. “Already? But it takes –”

“Why don’t you go talk to him,” Selene presses, and breezes past Jongin.

When Jongin enters the infirmary, he sees Sehun on his feet, pulling a black shirt over his head. He’s taller than Jongin remembers, and the shirt is much too snug across his shoulders.

“I hear the roof is a nice place for chats,” Sehun says, smiling slightly before striding over to the open window and leaping. The soft thud Jongin hears a second later tells him that Sehun’s easily cleared the jump. He follows suit, dropping to his feet by Sehun’s side steadily.

Sehun takes a seat on the edge, and turns to look over his shoulder at Jongin. “Tell me about yourself.”

“Aren’t you supposed to tell me something?”

“Yes, but I’ve just told Selene everything. I need a break from talking. You first.”

So Jongin joins Sehun by the edge, the heels of his boots tapping the walls ever so slightly as he swings his feet. “I was changed by a young Vampire during a town raid around three hundred years ago. Barely eighteen, I think I was. My mother died during childbirth and my father never really cared about me. So I roamed about. Probably walked right into that Vampire’s path, now that I think about it. I don’t know who she was – she died a few minutes after infecting me. I think one of the Elders killed her for breaking coven law. I was brought in – the changing process is absolutely horrible, and still so clear in my mind – and I’ve been here ever since.

“I was a low-level Vampire for the first two centuries or so, until Selene saw me train by myself one night. I wasn’t a Death Dealer back then, and being in the training dens would’ve certainly meant horrible punishments. But Selene saw something in me, and demanded that Viktor made me a Dealer. She trained me personally, and we became good friends pretty quickly. When The Purge began, Selene turned me into a Hybrid just to make sure I could hold the coven down if anything were to happen here – every Vampire in this coven is power hungry, you see, and won’t listen to anyone who isn’t worthy of it. Turns out she made a good choice; her absence for a decade would’ve driven this coven into the ground if I weren’t able to fill her place.”

Faint threads of moonlight bounce off the sheen of Sehun’s cleaned hair, and Jongin feels the urge to brandish a pair of scissors in Sehun’s face and demand for a haircut. But instead, he clears his throat and waits for Sehun to speak.

“I’m close to a thousand years old,” Sehun starts, leaning back on the heels of his hands. “And I’m a direct descendant of Alexander Corvinus.”

Things suddenly start to fall into place – the speed at which Sehun had regained his strength, the fact that he had managed to survive without feeding for decades…

“My father is the fourth son of Alexander – the son he had with a Vampire maid. No one knows about him, for Alexander had made sure that my father’s identity was kept a secret. He was raised as a servant, passed off as a child out of wedlock whose father was unknown. When Marcus and William became the creators of the Vampires and the Werewolves, Alexander sent my father away. For my father’s safety, he said. So my father lived by himself for a few centuries, until he quite literally ran into my mother.

She was a Vampire by transformation, and she was on the run from a Werewolf when they met. My dad – a Hybrid by birth, fended the Werewolf off. I was born not long after that, you could say. They raised me by themselves, and it was just the three of us for the longest time. Until The Purge. I was lucky that I got away. The humans burned down miles and miles of the area around our home. All those centuries spent there, now without a single plank of wood to show for it. I roamed the wilderness after that, no goal in mind, no dreams, nothing. I’d hear snippets of news from humans whenever I dared venture into public, and from what I could gather, things weren’t improving. So after a few years, I delved deeper into the woods. Hunted animals until I just couldn’t be bothered to anymore. Then some time after that, you found me and foiled my plan.”

Jongin opens his mouth to defend himself, but the look in Sehun’s eyes isn’t one of annoyance or anger. It’s a gentle gleam of thanks, and Jongin pushes unnecessary words back down his throat.

“Also,” Sehun continues, shaking his hair out of his eyes, “it turns out I have information you need.”








For the next two months, Sehun trains alongside Jongin. They spend an inordinate amount of time together, sometimes pushing past two straight days in the training dungeons – Sehun to see how long he can go for, and Jongin because he’s in absolute awe. Everything Jongin does, Sehun can do ten times better. His aim is impeccable, able to shoot down a target from tens of miles away without the help of a scope. There are dozens of punching dummies broken into shards by their feet, and by the end of the month, they’ve come to know how each other moves in battle. Sehun predicts Jongin’s next five steps, and Jongin sidesteps all of Sehun attacks easily.

In-between training sessions and during feeding breaks, they learn more about each other. Jongin figures out almost instantly that Sehun is big on cleanliness, refusing to go anywhere barefoot even when they’re indoors, much less when they’re roaming about outside in the wild hunting for kills. Sehun learns that Jongin is a very attentive listener, and will look at the speaker with an ardent gaze as long as he or she still has something to say. Jongin discovers Sehun’s passion for blade wielding a month in, and Sehun teaches him how to hold a sword just the right way for it to be rendered weightless in his hands. Jongin thinks it’s a beautiful art, and that it matches a beautiful soul. It takes a little longer for Sehun to learn that Jongin loves dance, only finding out when he walks in on Jongin dancing to music coming out from headphones clamped down around his ears.

“Captivating,” Sehun had said with a smile when Jongin spied him watching by the doorway. Jongin had yelped before proceeding to yank the headphones down around his neck, and his only reply was to stutter helplessly.

Over time, Jongin learns that Sehun is very gentle when it comes to handling other individuals, a subconscious trait that stemmed from when he was a child and accidentally broke the neck of a wild puppy while playing with it. Jongin also learns that Sehun has very soft hands.

“You don’t have to be so careful around me,” Jongin says, panting slightly as Sehun climbs off him after a sparring session. “I can handle it.”

Accepting Sehun’s offered hand, Jongin pulls himself up off the stone floor. When Sehun makes to retract his hand, Jongin tightens his grip.

“I’m not a puppy, Sehun. You won’t break me that easily.”

“It’s just been a while since I’ve felt this way around someone. I don’t want to… jeopardise anything. Things I treasure seem to leave me very easily.”

“No one’s leaving anyone,” Jongin says firmly. “Now come on. It’s my turn to beat you.”

It’s ten minutes later, when Jongin once again finds himself on his back, wind knocked out of him, does he find out that Sehun has softer lips than hands.

“You can win all of our sparring sessions if I get one of those each time,” Jongin mumbles, and Sehun pushes Jongin’s hair out of his eyes before leaning in once more.








Not long after, Selene stops their sessions and has Jongin working with his whole team once again in order to prepare them for their next mission. Jongin doesn’t see Sehun for the next few days. Selene had assigned Sehun to train under David for five straight days, and although Sehun technically outranks her, he follows her orders willingly. When he does see Sehun again, it’s by complete accident, and he nearly knocks Sehun over as he turns a corner.

Behind Sehun is David – who, for the first time Jongin remembers, is looking winded. Sehun simply grins and pats David on the shoulder as the latter shuffles away.

“Insane,” David mutters, “I’ve never seen anyone move that fast in my life. How…”

“...How was training?” Jongin ventures, and Sehun laughs.

“Good. Feels good to have that much energy and to have places to direct my strength at.”

Jongin gestures down the hall. “I’m heading to see Selene about our next assignment. Would you like to come?”

When Sehun nods, Jongin notices that he’d gotten his hair cut. Finally.

“I like your hair,” he offers, and Sehun smiles at him.

“I like you,” he replies, and Jongin thinks he’d be bright red by now if he could blush. Instead, he settles for looking away from the handsome face in front of him and striding resolutely down the hall. Sehun’s laughter rings loud and clear in his ears. When Sehun catches up and falls into step next to him, Jongin slots his fingers in-between Sehun’s and squeezes lightly.

He gets an equally soft of a thumb across his knuckles in response.








“Michael is heading back to Antigen,” Selene states, leaning against her desk. “We need to get there before he does and make sure he doesn’t screw himself over. He may be powerful, but he’s not going to get far if he’s outnumbered.”

“Back to Antigen?” Jongin repeats, stunned. “But why? What about the symbol for the Lycan –”

“We’ve conducted several reconnaissance missions over the past two months, and Michael hasn’t been sighted in the Lycan dungeons during any of them. So, the sensible thing to do is go with Sehun’s intel.”

“Also, that was a very old marker. He’d already been there to scour the place a few times in hopes to gather information on what the Lycans are up to; he didn’t give me more detailed information about that, unfortunately. All I know for a fact is that he wants to keep Eve and Selene safe,” Sehun says. “As long as Antigen is still standing, all three of them, and ultimately, both of our species, will be in danger. The humans have started to close in on Antigen. Antigen’s cover won’t stay put for long, as humans have relied on their intelligence to stay ahead throughout the second Purge. When Antigen fails to deliver, the humans will begin to investigate. Michael’s taking this chance, while Antigen is weak and without a leader, to weaken the ranks of the Lycans and to throw the humans off our scent in one go. It’s a brave move, I must say.”

He catches the look on Jongin’s face and adds, “I met him. A few weeks before I met you. We traded a lot of life stories. That’s how I knew of Selene.”

“You’ll head out tonight,” Selene instructs. “Get in, clean up the place, and get out as fast as you can. Don’t hover around for Michael; once he realises that we’ve been there, he’ll come look for us. Take your team – and keep Eve safe.”

Jongin nods, and exits Selene’s office with Sehun by his side.

“I’ll meet you upstairs when it’s time to go,” Sehun says, “I’m going to squeeze in a little more training, okay?”

He drops a kiss on Jongin’s temple and is long gone by the time Jongin formulates a response.








“I hope I’m not late.”

Jongin turns around to see Sehun slip indoors, the leather swathed around his legs shiny enough to reflect the fluorescent lights in the room. Shoving a handgun into one of his holsters, Jongin shakes his head.

“You’re not. We’ll be leaving soon though, so grab whatever weapons you want.”

“I’m good with just this,” Sehun replies, patting the hilt of the custom-made sword sheathed down his back. He catches sight of the others’ faces. “Not a big fan of guns.”

Zitao crooks an eyebrow and nudges Sehun’s arm appreciatively. “Classic. I like it.” Sehun grins at that and straps on his chest armour with the grace of a hundred swans. He’s got a really broad chest, Jongin muses. Great for snuggling up against. He should try it out soon.

Eve jostles Jongin’s side with more force than necessary. “Quit staring. You’ll burn a hole in his head.”

Jongin’s almost positive Sehun had heard her – the room is tiny and Eve did not bother lowering her voice whatsoever. The rest of his team’s trying to hide their laughter, but Sehun’s expression doesn’t change. Jongin fixes Eve with a glare before pushing the window open.

“Get serious. We’re leaving.”

With that, he jumps.








One of the lights by the main entrance is smashed, and there are tiny pieces of glass by the door. As he maneuvers around them, Jongin triggers his transformation. Running the flat of his tongue across his canines out of habit, he crouches low and peers into the dark lobby. There are no signs of movement, and there aren’t any potent Lycan scents he’s picking up.

“Clear,” Jongin whispers, and Zitao pushes the doors open.

Their footsteps are quiet on the linoleum, and Jongin orders for them to split up when they reach the stairs.

“Stay in this wing – we go to the East Wing together, understand?”

Eve makes to follow the other group, but Sehun holds her back and shakes his head.

“You stay; I’ll go.”

Jongin watches as Sehun joins the other group, the blade of his sword glinting with every move he makes. Eve nudges him in the side and Jongin refocuses on the task at hand with a shake of his head. The corridor in front of them’s too long for his comfort, but he takes a steady step forward nonetheless.

The first Lycan comes as a shock to them all, but Kelyn sinks a silver bullet into its head and it collapses grotesquely by their feet. By the time the group makes it to the end of the corridor, Jongin’s down one magazine and Eve’s hair has fallen out of its braid.

They’re by the cryogenic labs, and Jongin’s just about to bypass one of the rooms when he registers movement. Stopping dead in his tracks, he holds up a finger and signals for the rest to fall silent.

He moves slowly, inching forward until he’s got a full view of the lab. There’s a figure hunched by the cabinets, and Jongin hears the clinking of vials. The sound of crinkling paper follows, and it’s not until the vial is opened does Jongin become aware of what’s happening. The potent scent of Eve’s blood wafts up his nostrils, and he realises that the figure’s holding vials of Eve’s blood. Acting purely on instinct, Jongin raises his arm and shoots the figure right in the head. It lurches forward, striking its head off the cabinet door, before it falls over onto its side.

Jongin approaches cautiously – the figure is human, but there’s a weird pallor to the skin that bites at Jongin’s mind. Bending to pick up the remaining vials, Jongin wipes up the blood from the smashed vial with a piece of the human’s lab coat and stashes it in his pocket. He passes the vials to Vayer when he rejoins the group, and they clear the rest of the floor.

The West Wing is oddly empty, but Jongin doesn’t dwell too much on it. They regroup with the other half where they had split up before, and venture into the East Wing together.

“Is this… a hospital of some sorts?” Zitao asks in a hushed tone, sounding thoroughly confused. “Isn’t Antigen supposed to be a pharmaceutical company?”

“Yes,” Sehun replies, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. “Yes, it’s supposed to be a pharmaceutical company.”

“Why are there so many hospital beds?”

A crash sounds in the distance, and the Dealers freeze in their steps.

“Are there people in these beds?”

Distracted by the question, Jongin doesn’t notice the figure bounding straight at him. It’s only when a silver blade slices the air in front of his nose does Jongin see the pair of deranged, bloodshot eyes hovering in front of him widen in shock. Then, a split second later, the eyes drop to the ground as Sehun severs the head cleanly off the neck.

Sehun’s eyes are a glowing blue, and his fangs just skim the swell of his bottom lip.

“Focus,” Sehun says, voice riddled with unrecognisable emotions.

The body by Jongin’s feet twitches and he takes a step back.

“What the hell are these?” Eve whispers. Jongin shrugs helplessly. They’ve never encountered these types of humans before – are they even human?

“They’re Hybrids,” Sehun says slowly. “They’re injecting the viruses directly into humans, using Vampire and Lycan blood. Look.”

Sehun points to two almost empty bags of blood hung up on a single IV stand. “They’re doing it simultaneously. And I don’t think it’s working. The human body is rejecting the viruses, resulting in… this.”

Jongin glances down at the decapitated body and feels his lip curl in distaste. A few feet away, a body strapped to a bed spasms violently.

“Are the Lycans behind this?”

“I don’t think so,” Jongin answers. He sniffs the air once more for confirmation. “Humans.”

They transform instantly. Eve leaps up to the ceiling and covers the rest of the team as they fan out, moving too fast for the human guards to react. The first batch of guards fall easily, but as more and more guards swarm in, the team finds themselves running out of ammo. The sun’s due to rise in less than two hours, and if they stay to fight, there’s no way they’ll make it back to the coven in time.

Pulling his sword out of a guard’s stomach, Sehun jumps up to the top of a bookcase and gestures to Eve.

“You need to go now if you want to beat the sunrise. Bring the rest of the team, I’ll stay with Jongin.”

“There’s no way the two of you will be able to handle off these humans! There’s at least a hundred of them in this room, and who knows how many there are on the other levels?”

“Go back,” Sehun repeats, dropping off the bookcase and cleanly slicing three heads off at once. “We’ll work better if we don’t have to worry about you guys. If Jongin and I make it back, consider it a successful mission.”

Zitao catches Jongin’s eye and nods in understanding. “We’ll go. Eve – come on, your mother will kill us all if you get injured.”

Navigating their way to the windows, Vayer flings a chair at the glass panes and dives out into the wild. The rest follow, one by one, until Eve is the only one left. Jongin has to physically manhandle her out of the window.

“Alright,” Jongin says, turning around and ignoring Eve’s shrieks. “How are we going to do this?”

Easily dodging a flurry of bullets, Sehun flits around a group of five guards and makes it back to Jongin’s side before the slashes across their throats fill with blood.

“One at a time,” Sehun replies, and sends Jongin a brief, but encouraging smile. “Think of it as just another training session. Just you and me, as per usual.”








Jongin’s supply of ammunition runs out an hour through the fight. Chucking his empty handgun at a guard’s head, he doesn’t wait to make sure it’s hit the mark before grabbing another guard by the neck and tearing his head off. Stepping aside to avoid the arterial spray, Jongin sprints deeper into the room and finds Sehun in the middle of a bloodbath.

“How many do we have left?” Sehun asks, brows knitted together as he plunges his blade into the soft folds of one’s stomach before sinking his heel into another’s.

“A few dozen,” Jongin says. “And then we can go home, okay?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sehun grunts, flinging a guard through the wall.

It’s another half an hour before Jongin realises that there’s just a handful of guards left. But what he doesn’t realise is that one of them has a machine gun in his grasp, loaded with UV bullets. They won’t kill, but too much of them will certainly impair their abilities.

Jongin tries to keep an eye on the machine gun as he engages with three guards, but despite his reflexes and sheer speed, there’s no way of preventing the slew of bullets that come right for him. Some of them are stopped by the guard to his right, but the rest lodge themselves throughout his body. Pain rips through his muscles, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Sehun whip around in his direction.

“I’m fine,” Jongin calls, slamming a guard into a hospital bed. He hears the snap of a spine and turns away. The bullets are uncomfortable, and there’s one bleeding UV light directly into his bloodstream.

A quick glance around him tells him there’s no one close enough for him to fight, so Jongin focuses some energy on squeezing out the bullets. Two are pushed out easily, but as he works on getting a third one out, a nudge to his temple stops him from doing so.

“Say goodbye –”

The guard’s words are cut off almost comically as Sehun slices the man cleanly in half. The machine gun clatters uselessly to the ground, and Sehun shakes his head before yanking Jongin over to the window.

“You need to stop being so careless; it makes me worry.”

With that, Sehun drops gracefully towards the ground, sword whispering through the air alongside him.








Groaning, Jongin flexes his fingers and glares balefully at the bullet clamped between the tweezers.

“Do we not have a less uncomfortable method for this,” Jongin grumbles, shifting in his seat as the coven’s resident doctor gestures for him to provide her with better access to the last bullet. It’s lodged somewhere near his ribs, and Jongin is not looking forward to her plunging the tweezers in and rummaging about as if she’s fishing for treasure.

“How did you get away without a single scratch?” Jongin asks petulantly, gazing up at Sehun who’s standing by the doctor, weight resting on a leg, and looking quite content with himself.

“I’m just a better Hybrid than you are,” Sehun answers breezily, and the doctor snorts as she pulls out the bullet before dropping it onto a surgical tray.

“All done,” she says, wiping off faint traces of dirt and rolling back on her chair.

Sehun laughs at the expression on Jongin’s face, and Jongin doesn’t exactly want to tell him to stop laughing. There’s a gentle brush of skin against skin when Sehun reaches down to grab Jongin’s hand, and neither utters a single word as they step out onto a ledge and leap up towards the roof.

As sunlight shines down on them, Jongin pulls Sehun into his embrace and closes his eyes against the brightness. Jongin’s cheek is supple against the curve of Sehun’s neck, and solid chests move in sync with one another.