Ash’s feet were really starting to hurt. The Bangtan boys could really do well to invest in a car. Or at least a horse or something. Even though she was dressed rather comfortably, Ash hadn’t really counted on it being so cold. After she and Jungkook exited the warehouse that the vamp gang BTOB stayed in, they started making their way back. The wind bit at her bare arms and she hugged herself, visibly shivering. It hadn’t been a fun two days. You know, one minute you’re just eating dinner, talking to your friends and a couple of vampires and the next minute, their vampire friends bust in and start beating on you. Then ghouls show up and they just trash the place. Rude. Clearly, vampires and ghouls were not very domesticated.

                Jungkook was waiting at the end on the block for her to catch up. He walked a bit fast for her; he was a few inches taller and obviously not as tired as she was since he had fed from Layne earlier that day and Ash hadn’t had anything to eat since the evening before. As she caught up to him, he seemed to realize that she was cold. He took in her shivering form and without a word, shed his leather jacket and handed it to her.

                She looked at him. “What?”

                “Take it, it will keep you warm.”

                Ash didn’t think twice about it as she grabbed it. It wasn’t until he had turned to start walking again that she realized what a nice and odd gesture it was from a vampire to a human. She pulled that jacket over her. It was obviously too big for her; the shoulders were built for a wider person and the sleeves passed her finger tips, but nonetheless, Ash felt a warmth inside of her that wasn’t from the jacket.

                She smiled silently to herself and shuffled to catch up to Jungkook. He was really handsome. All of them were of course. It must’ve been a thing that if you die and are reborn as a vampire you become immensely attractive. His face was angelic, which seemed ironic considering that vampires could be considered a form of demon. His eyes were dark, just like that rest of his friends’ and his nose had this cute little curve to it at the end. His dark hair was tousled by the breeze. He seemed completely unfazed by the wind, even though Ash found herself pulling the jacket around her tighter to block it out.

                Ash knew that it was dangerous to be involved with vampires in the first place, but she trusted Rae’s judgement. Still, the truce didn’t justify getting close to them. But Perrie seemed to really trust Taehyung. The way she ran to his rescue when Lex was ready to kill him had been extremely telling. Then again, she could just be suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Even so, Ash’s eyes gravitated to Jungkook’s back. He looked pretty well built and strong, but not quite as strong as some of the others maybe. Thinking about that led to Ash thinking about muscles. It’s not a big synapse leap, come on, don’t judge, anyone would make that connection. However, at the thought of Jungkook’s muscles, Ash’s eyes traveled to his now exposed arms. Sure enough: biceps. She felt her face grow warm despite the cold. The warmth in her chest was still there like a softly humming heater. She wondered briefly, if she should be concerned about this new heater.

                “I can’t feel cold anymore.” When he suddenly spoke, Ash squeaked in surprise.

                “I wasn’t staring!”

                “What?”

                “What?”

                Jungkook had peaked over his shoulder at her outburst, but turned back around, shrugging it off. “I said I can’t feel cold anymore, or warmth. I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like.” He slowed his pace so that they walked together. He glanced at her, wrapped up in his jacket. “Can you describe it to me?”

                Ash was watching him. “Uh…” She thought. “It stings. A little bit. The cold stings your skin. You know like ‘Jack Frost nipping at your nose’?”

                A small smile tilted the corners of Jungkook’s mouth upward a bit. The heater in Ash’s chest turned up a few degrees. She wanted to see a real smile from him. But she wasn’t funny, or at least she didn’t think so.

                “And the heat?”

                Ash thought for a moment before saying, “Like a warm embrace.”

                Jungkook’s smile vanished from sight. Ash’s heart fell. She wanted to keep the conversation going. Yeah, he was a vampire, and they were technically supposed to be enemies, but they were under a blood oath truce. She shouldn’t feel guilty for wanting to get to know a vampire. And to be honest, it wasn’t like she had come into much contact with living, er, unliving vamps being that most of her time was spent in the cellar making weapons rather than going on patrols. She was curious. “So Jungkook, you said that you’ve forgotten what it feels like. Does that mean that you were changed into a vampire?”

                Jungkook nodded. “Yeah. I’m still a fledging actually. I’ve only been a vampire for a few months.”

                “Wow really? A fledgling? That’s really cool!” He gave her a strange look. “What made you want to be a vampire?”

                Jungkook shrugged one shoulder. “I have reasons. No one I considered family, no one really to look out for me. And you know vampires have a strong gang bond. I thought it would be nice to belong somewhere.”

                “So you let yourself be turned into a vampire just so you could join a gang? You know the Guilds are like that too, family-like groups and all.”

                He looked a little uncomfortable. “There are other reasons too.” His awkwardness was evident as he quickened his pace again, leaving her behind.

                Ash knew that she was pushing her boundaries, but she couldn’t help it. “Like what?”

                Jungkook suddenly stopped and Ash’s nose was introduced to his back. “Mmmf! What?” She said, falling back a bit.

                “Shh!” Jungkook hushed her. His eyes were scanning the area. Even though it was the middle of the night, the moon offered plenty of light to see by. She caught a glimpse of Jungkook’s eyes, his pupils were dilated to the point that his brown irises were barely a sliver of a rim around them. He was looking for something. It occurred to Ash that maybe he had heard something. She began scanning the area too. She saw a lot of old buildings. This part of town was particularly run down. It was never cleaned and rebuilt after the war tore through this city. Then the vampire gangs basically claimed this area as their own, so the humans never bothered to come near again. Most of the buildings had all broken windows, and all of them were dark.

                “Jung-”

                He covered with one of his hands. Ash ignored his rudeness when she caught sight of where his gaze was. Across the street, just inside one of the opened garages, a gnarled decaying body of a ghoul was untangling itself from the floor upon noticing them. It made some strange clicking noises in its throat as well as some choked gurgling sounds. Ash’s heart was thundering in her chest. She was barely aware of the way Jungkook was slowly moving her behind him so that he stood between her and the ghoul. Shadows from the edges of the garage the ghoul was sitting inside limped into view. More ghouls.

                “Ash,” Jungkook said under his breath. “Do you have any weapons on you?”

                Was that a real question? She always had weapons on her. She reached under her shirt and detached the rowan stakes from the band wrapped around her torso. She slipped one of them into his open palm.

                “They’ve already seen us. If we start running, they’ll just come after us.”

                “What if there’re thousands of them, like all of the times before?”

                “Then we’ll run. But right now, I only see a few. We can take them.”

                The first ghoul was drooling a disgusting yellow, flemmy color. All of the sudden, it charged them. Jungkook struck and it went down easily. It was followed by several more and Ash and Jungkook worked as a team, covering each other’s backs as they sliced one down after the next. There were enough of them to keep Ash busy, but they weren’t quite overwhelmed. Somehow or another, through the fighting, Jungkook and Ash had made their way into the garage where the little createns were coming from. Ash was out of breath by time they stopped coming. Jungkook turned to her, bloody stake in his hand and he took her by the shoulders and met her eyes.

                “Are you alright?”

                She couldn’t speak yet, so she just nodded. He did something that really surprised her. He pulled her into a hug. That was a little strange considering they barely knew each other and he was a vampire and she was a hunter of vampires. Like for a living she made weapons specially design to kill his kind, so yeah, strange. But she found herself leaning into his hug, thankful for just the feeling of physical support, realizing that was all the hug meant. They stayed like that only a minute before Jungkook began sniffing. Literally sniffing. He released Ash and began wondering off into the warehouse, nose in the air and sniffing loudly.

                “Jungkook?” Her voice questioned. She looked outside at the moonlit streets, thinking this was a horrible idea, and then followed him deeper into the building. “Jungkook!” She whispered, not wanting to wake the dead. No really.

                There was no light in the warehouse whatsoever, and she didn’t have the vampire vision that Jungkook did, so Ash cloncked into a few walls and knocked over a couple of stray chairs, not being very sneaky. “Ow! Jungkook!” She whispered angrily. Something fisted the shoulder of Jungkook’s jacket and yanked Ash. She screamed, but Jungkook’s hand was covering again. He held her in front of him so that her back was pressed up against his stomach.

                “Shh!” He hushed her again.

                Now that her heart was at a slightly less alarming pace, Ash was aware of the cool draft at her feet. “What is it?”

                “It’s an underground tunnel.” He said flatly.

                “What’s down there?”

                She felt Jungkook shrug. “I…I don’t know.” He sniffed a few more times. It almost smells like…” He trailed off, as Ash felt him leave her and move towards the draft.

                “Jungkook!” She clung to him, not wanting to get lost again. “Like what? It almost smells like what?”

                “But it’s not possible.” He continued to move down the tunnel, dragging Ash along with him as he ignored her inquiries.

                “What’s not possible? Jungkook, what is it?” She was in total darkness. Ash couldn’t even see Jungkook who’s back was literally two inches away from her face. Despite her blindness, she was able to discern that from the decline and the rapidly dropping temperature that they were traveling deep underground. Jungkook sniffed out loud several times, following his nose and taking Ash with him as she clutched to the back of his shirt. She really didn’t like being so in the dark-literally. Her hand squeezed around the stake that she had kicked ghoul with, but she was beginning to really regret not bringing something more useful, like a flashlight. That’s when it occurred to her that she was always carrying a flashlight in the form of an android.

                Ash stopped abruptly, forcing Jungkook into a halt as well. “What?” He said, turning to her.

                She fished into her back pocket and produced her phone. “I can’t see a thing.” See the flashlight, which was accidentally aimed right at Jungkook. He hissed loudly, clawing his face and fell backwards. “Jungkook!” Ash exclaimed, kneeling next to him. She put her hand to the side of his face. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I just couldn’t see.”

                “Yeah, well now I can’t see!” He hissed, eyes still clamped shut. Ash mumbled a few more apologies, helping him up. He covered his eyes with his hand again and stumbled to the side of the tunnel, leaning against a concrete wall.

Ash looked around. “Where are we?” There was nothing but concrete on all sides, and darkness at either end of the tunnel.

“I don’t know.” Jungkook said, blinking several times, trying to regain his sight. “I mean I didn’t know before, but now I really don’t know.”

“Okay, I said I was sorry, you big baby!” She grabbed him by the wrist. “Let’s go.” Now with her leading the way, they continued down the tunnel. Jungkook continued to moan and whine as he rubbed his eyes. “Rubbing them will only make it worse.” She said.

She could’ve said a lot more, but the tunnel suddenly opened up to a massive dome shaped room. Ash’s jaw came unhinged. She lowered her phone, not needing it any longer. The space was illuminated with funky colored neon lights. Green, pink, blue, and black lights, which brought out all of the white on her, hung from the walls, and high ceiling, and rafters. Large contraptions occupied most of the space. Ash’s curiosity was louder than her common sense and she approached the closest one. At first it looked like a metal container, then she moved around to the front of it and let out a short screech. Her phone flew from her hand and smashed into the concrete, breaking into three pieces. She barely noticed. Her mind was too captured by the vision before her. Both hands were covering and her body shook. Jungkook was at her side the instant of her outburst.

The containers had a Plexiglas front, displaying the contorted body of a female ghoul floating in water. A tube was shoved down its throat and ran up to the surface. The ghoul noticed them and watched them with hungry dead eyes. It lurched forward and banged against the glass, trying to get to them. A similar thud sounded behind Ash, making her jump around. Another ghoul was beating against the glass of its container, trying to reach Ash and Jungkook. Her eyes wandered around and realized that there were more containers than Ash could count.

“Jungkook,” She breathed. “I think we’ve found were all of the ghouls are coming from.”

Jungkook began moving through the room. “Then that means,” Ash followed as he weaved his way through the containers with ghouls banging their head senselessly against the glass. They came to the center of the dome-shaped space, where the containers cleared away in wake of a throne. There were five beautifully decorated chairs, pedestaled on a series of steps, leading to an elevated platform.  Each one was a bit different. The first was brown and wide with spikes, the second was thin and gold, and middle was made of stone with a pointed back, the fourth was the color of rusted copper with the skull of a bull attached to the back, and the last looked like it and been constructed out of pipes and ropes and had the wheel of a ship pinned to the top. The sight was actually pretty impressive. “We’ve also found the other pureblood.”

“Five purebloods?” Ash asked in disbelief, turning to Jungkook.

“No,” He was shaking his head with his hands at his temples. “This doesn’t make any sense. They were killed by the hunters. They can’t be…they’re all dead.”

“Most of them.” Ash’s blood froze at the sound of a new voice echoing off of the concrete walls. She and Jungkook whirled around looking for the owner. Then she saw him. Ash grabbed Jungkook’s arm and faced him in the direction she was staring so he saw him too. It was difficult to make him out with all of the strange lighting and the fact that he was chilling on a shadowed ledge several feet from the ground. Ash felt Jungkook fall back a step.

“It….it can’t…no. You’re dead.”

“So are you.” The man retorted.

“I mean dead, dead. As in not supposed to be moving dead.”

As if to rub in the fact that he was in fact moving, the man lifted his hand and held it in front of his face, turning it, as if he was inspecting it. “Nope, still moving.”

Ash turned to Jungkook. “Jungkook, who is that?”

The man stood and casually stepped off of the ledged he’d been sitting on. He dropped several feet before landing gracefully on the ground. He strode over to the throne, stomping up the stairs in heavy metal spike studded combat boots and torn up black skinny jeans with about a billion chains dangling from them. He wore a white tank top with a dozen black crosses and a ridiculously extravagant fur coat that was falling down, off of his shoulders. He turned around at the middle, stone chair and fell back into it unceremoniously, kicking his feet up over the right arm.

“His name is Jiyoung Kwon.” Jungkook’s voice shook. On the throne, the man ran a heavily ringed hand through his bleached blond fauxhawk. “He has a more common street name that everyone knew him by.” The man cast his dark eyes down on Jungkook.

“Say it.” His whisper carried down to Ash and Jungkook.

The fledging swallowed loudly before whispering in a shaky voice. “G-Dragon.”

Ash’s heart stuttered in her chest. Of course she’d heard the name. Every vampire hunter had. The notorious G-Dragon and his family of purebloods. Five impossibly powerful brothers who together, essentially were the cause that this city was brought to its knees and left in ruins. His family was the pureblood powerhouse known as Big Bang, until they were slain by the Guild. Or supposedly slain.

G-Dragon, or Jiyoung, smiled down at Jungkook. He had a surprisingly sweet smile for someone responsible not only for the destruction of an entire city, but also the murder of thousands of innocent humans who were forced into a change they didn’t want and as a result, became ghouls.

“How are you still alive?” Jungkook said breathily. “And your brothers, are they…”

“Dead.” Jiyoung finished. “They’re all dead.” He held his hands out in a shrug. “It’s just me!”

“How?”

“I’m a pretty talented individual.” He waved his arm in a wide arc around his body and he vanished. His voice spoke from directly behind them, causing both Ash and Jungkook to jump. “I’m a master illusionist.”

“Like Taehyung.” Ash thought out loud.

Jiyoung frowned, not seeming to like the comparison. “I’m a bit more practiced than that hatchling. Please don’t lump me together with someone so young again.” He pushed through them to get to his throne again.

“Ji…G-Dragon!” Jungkook exclaimed suddenly. The pureblood the second to top step, a hand on his hip. “I’m an admirer of you and your family. The power that comes with your name, it’s awe-inspiring. You were the reason that I wanted to become a vampire!”

“Jungkook!” Ash’s jaw hung open. “How can you look up to someone so evil? He and his brothers decimated the city, murdering hundreds of thousands of people!”

Jungkook turned to her. “You don’t understand! You don’t understand how humans have ruined my life! They have no sense of loyalty, of honor! They don’t care about the people they’re committed to. My father, he never loved my mother the way she loved him. He had a string of lovers on the side. What’s worse! He didn’t bother to hide it! My mother and I both knew, but she loved him so much that she forgave him every time. Until she couldn’t take it anymore, sharing the man she loved with so many other women. She hung herself. She abandoned me the way my father had abandoned us both! Vampires are different. When they fall in love, they love that person eternally. Their sense of loyalty and honor is unrivaled by any other creature on this Earth. And you,” He turned back to G-Dragon. “To be such a creature, and so powerful, to be able to make all of the filthy humans suffer the way they deserve, it’s justice!” G-Dragon smiled down at the fledging, his wicked eyes sparkling.

“He’s killed all of these people in here and then used them to attack us and your gang!” Ash tried desperately to reason with Jungkook, but her words fell on deaf ears.

“I like you, fledging. And I could always use some faithful company.” G-Dragon held a hand out to Jungkook. “How would you like to work alongside me?”

Jungkook gasped. “Me? With you?”

“Jungkook! Jungkook, please, don’t do this!”

G-Dragon smiled his alarmingly sweet smile again. “I could use some help now and then.” He stretched his hand out further.

Almost as if in a trance, Jungkook reached out and took Jiyoung’s hand. “No! Jungkook!” G-Dragon began leading him up the rest of the stairs to the throne. “Jungkook! What about Bangtan! What about Namjoon! They took you in! They became you’re family when you lost yours. G-Dragon’s been sending ghouls out to kill them! Is this how you repay them for everything they did for you?! What about all that talk about loyalty?!”

Jungkook hesitated at her words. He looked over his shoulder, down at Ash. Then he turned to Jiyoung. “Why did you send those ghouls after Bangtan?”

G-Dragon looked at Jungkook. “The truth? You said it yourself. Big Bang is a powerful name. We were the ruling purebloods in this city. Then after my brothers were murdered and I went into hiding, Kim Namjoon moved in, and then he was the new pureblood. There’s only room for one pureblood in this city and I was here first. I need to eliminate the competition. Then, once I have the faithful following of all of the vampires in the city again, the next target is the Guild that took my brothers from me.” As he spoke, G-Dragon’s voice took on a deep, angry tone.

“But, Namjoon…” Jungkook glanced back down at Ash. “He took me in when no one else would. I can’t just betray him; I owe him everything!”

Jiyoung’s heavily ringed hands gently cupped Jungkook’s face. “Jungkook, Jungkook,” He cooed. “I understand. And you’re sense of loyalty is admirable. Truly, it is. But didn’t you say, that I’m the reason that you wanted to become a vampire in the first place?” He waited for Jungkook to respond with a nod. “So don’t you actually owe everything to me?”

Jungkook seemed to think about this deeply.

“Don’t listen to him Jungkook!” Ash shouted. The stake in her hand almost slipped from the sweat forming on her palm.

Jungkook ignored her and met Jiyoung’s eyes. “You’re right. I do owe you everything. Without you, I would’ve never even bothered to seek out Bangtan. You take precedent.”

A slow smile s its way onto G-Dragon’s face. He gestured to the throne next to his, offering Jungkook a seat. Hesitantly, Jungkook sat. “No!” Ash screamed. “Don’t do this! G-Dragon! Jiyoung! Let him go!”

“I don’t know you, so it’s rather rude of you to speak so informally to me.” G-Dragon turned his head to look at Jungkook next to him. “You want to prove your loyalty to me? We’re going to turn her into a ghoul.”

Jungkook’s face dropped. “Wait, what?”

G-Dragon disappeared from his seat and suddenly grabbed Ash from behind. He pinned her arms to her sides so that no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t fight him off. Something weird happened. A random flash of white exploded her vison and then she was staring at the spot she had just been standing in from a higher vantage point. G-Dragon had Ash perched on his lap and he nuzzled her neck from behind, making her skin crawl. A thick shiver traveled all the way down her spine. “Jungkook, I’m going to turn this girl into a ghoul. I want you to show me that you’re loyal to me, by sitting and watching like a good subordinate, do you understand?”

Jungkook’s eyes flashed to Ash’s. She watched as a battle waged in his mind. She didn’t get to see who won because at that moment, Jiyoung’s fangs tore the flesh at open and she screamed out. He wasn’t exactly gentle. And he was messy. The pureblood attacked and crushed her body, immobilizing her so all she could do was cry out. She prayed for Jungkook to do something, but when he didn’t she knew who had won the battle. She gripped the stake and drove it into G-Dragon’s thigh, being it was the only place that she could reach. G-Dragon hissed. He broke away from , grabbing the stake, and tore it from him leg. He tossed it down the steps and dove back in. Ash cried out. A choking noise that faintly sounded like Jungkook’s name escaped . The edged of Ash’s vision darkened as she felt the strength leaving her body. It was terrifying, slowly being drained of life. Her struggles were getting weaker and weaker. The last thing she was aware of before the darkness flooded in, was the sound of Lex, screaming her name.