A/N: Chapter contains blood, forced bloodletting, an very bad allusions to ytimes. Please forgive the author. Also, shoutout to Mel over on twitter for making such amazing fanart! I hope you don't mind me using them!

 

The left side of the bed dipped and Irene’s eyes immediately snapped open, taking in the familiar musky scent that seemed to cling to Wendy like glue these days. She remained still, her fingers tightening around the blankets and she held her breath, Wendy’s cold toes sliding down her calves and her fingers going under Irene’s shirt, the tips of them pressing into her stomach slightly. The muscles clench involuntarily and Irene’s eyes slipped shut when Wendy’s lips nipped at the back of her neck, the brunette shifting away blonde hair to trace the nape with her tongue.

 

Wendy apologised softly, her fingers trailing upwards.

 

“Sorry, I’m late again.”

 

Irene moved her hand and grabbed the wandering ones underneath her shirt, Wendy pausing her motions, her breath hot against wet skin.

 

“It’s fine. Just go to sleep.”

 

An exhalation of breath had Irene shivering and regretting her words but she forced herself to turn her face towards the pillow, Wendy pulling her in closer, mouth flush against her neck. There was a beat of silence, Wendy’s breathing slowing down and then the air was stagnant, Irene opening her eyes to a moonlit room, Wendy fast asleep with her arms tight around Irene’s waist.

 

She turned her head to look at her girlfriend, her nose picking up the other scent that was masked beneath the soap they both shared. Moving slowly, she turned her body around, her eyes scanning Wendy’s steadily slimming face and she palmed a disappearing cheek, the smell of blood clogging her nostrils.

 

A smell that has accompanied Wendy a lot the past few months.

 

She closed her eyes and shook away the thoughts of horrible things, only opening them when Wendy’s smile was the main picture in her mind.

 

(Shaking away the thoughts of metal and death clinging to Wendy like a second skin.)

 

She opened them, staring at Wendy’s beautiful face when a flash of blue caught her eye, her gaze moving up from the brunette’s nose. Cerulean winked at her before disappearing, Irene suddenly seized with fear and she fisted Wendy’s shirt, her face buried into Wendy’s neck. Wendy’s grip around her strengthened and her girlfriend pulled her in closer till they were inseparable.

 

Irene did not sleep.

 

*

 

Wendy opened her eyes just as Irene sat on the bed with her bottle of lotion, blonde strands sticking wetly on her as her towel covered the rest of her body. Fingers flitted past the hem of the towel, where the ends barely covered her only half her thighs and Irene whispered a soft greeting, Wendy edging closer and closer, her eyes darkening as they roamed over pale skin.

 

“Morning, love.”

 

“Morning.”

 

Wendy didn’t say much after that, merely taking the bottle from Irene and taking over what Irene was about to do, squeezing out a generous amount of lotion onto her palms before rubbing it against Irene’s skin. The blonde let out a small gasp when the brunette’s lips followed the path her hands made, Wendy insistent on continuing what Irene had stopped yesterday.

 

(It has been months since they had slept together.

 

Months since Wendy had come home smelling like blood and Irene had stopped their touches from venturing further for fear of what she would find.)

 

A haze long missed clouded her mind, the towel slipping slightly and it was all Irene could do to keep from falling into the seduction that was Wendy.

 

A flash of blue and the stink of metal forced their way to the forefront of her mind and Irene inhaled sharply, pulling away from Wendy’s mouth, the brunette making a big mark on her neck.

 

Wendy blinked confusedly, her pupils still blown and she lowered her hands, questioning in bafflement.

 

“W-what is it?”

 

Irene palmed the sore area near the junction of her jaw, sure that it would stain red (and wide), her other hand taking the lotion away.

 

“Nothing.”

 

Wendy looked at her disbelievingly and moved closer, her palm hot against Irene’s thigh.

 

“It’s not nothing. Look, JooHyun, it’s been months since we -  you’ve never refused my touches before.”

 

Irene inhaled, still smelling the stench of dried blood and she exhaled her statement quietly, Wendy’s eyes widening in response.

 

“Because you’ve been smelling like blood.”

 

Wendy was flustered, this much Irene could tell from the sudden twitch of the hand on her leg but Wendy betrayed nothing else, her voice tight as she spoke.

 

“JooHyun.”

 

The warning was clear but the dam had been broken, months of wondering whether Wendy was cheating on her, whether Wendy was committing crimes every night spilling from her lips.

 

“And I found specks of blood from your clothes last night. It’s not the first time.”

 

“JooHyun.”

 

“Just give it to me straight? I just want to know the truth. I can’t- I can’t kiss you while wondering if you were kissing someone else. Or if I’m kissing you for the last time because you’re involved in something dangerous.”

 

Wendy’s frown deepened and she rushed to assure Irene, her hand cradling the blonde’s jaw.

 

“I’m not cheating on you. I would never do that.”

 

Irene closed her eyes, unable to take the stare Wendy was giving her.

 

“Then you are doing something dangerous.”

 

There was silence.

 

She opened her eyes again, this time avoiding the brown pools she could spend ages drowning in.

 

“And you brought someone over yesterday, didn’t you? One of your gang members?”

 

Wendy’s forehead furrowed even more and the gentle hold on her face tightened, Wendy speaking in a rush.

 

“Wh-what? I didn’t bring anyone to stay over yesterday?”

 

Irene tore her gaze away from Wendy’s forehead and was floored by the sudden influx of fear bleeding into mahogany, Wendy’s lips tight and pale.

 

“But... But there was someone in our room yesterday. They were looking at us. Staring at us. With blue eyes. That was as much as I could make out.”

 

Wendy’s hand left her face and the one on her leg gripped so hard, it had Irene wincing, the brunette moving past her to grab the phone on the bedside table. She dialed a number, her body lifting from the bed and she went to their closet, Irene staring at her with open when she started tossing clothes into a bag, throwing over a set of clothes over to Irene.

 

“Hyun, get dressed- Hi, yeah, my location has been compromised. You need to come get us.”

 

Wendy spoke in hushed tones after that, Irene pulling the blue sweater over her head and shimmied into the jeans, her feet cold on bare ground.

 

The fear that was choking her last night came back full force because she had never seen Wendy looking that frantic, the brunette slinging the bag over one shoulder, her arm reaching around and pulling Irene close to her. They left the apartment in a hurry, Wendy locking the front door and pasting a yellowing parchment on it, the faded words indecipherable to Irene.

 

A black car was waiting for them at the entrance of the complex, a tall girl with flowing black hair and sharp eyes at the wheel. She stared at Irene when Wendy ushered her into the vehicle quickly, looking back on the road when the door snapped shut, Wendy gesturing for her to drive.

 

Irene looked out the window, staring at the home she had built over the past year, whispering a soft goodbye.

 

(She had a feeling she would not be coming back to that life.

 

Not when Wendy’s arm hadn’t stop shaking around her waist.)

 

*

 

They were placed in a warehouse that had been partitioned to mimic a house, albeit a house with wire fencing coated in gold paint and bars that looked like silver over every window. There were more people like the girl who drove them there, two of which were just as serious as the driver, another two gracing Irene with a smile so big, it settled the uneasiness that had accompanied the fear in her heart.

 

The older smiling girl, JinRi, led her to a furnished room, bare but homey and she had told Irene to rest for a while, the younger girl, Yeri, hovering outside the door.

 

And then Irene was all alone.

 

Wendy did not come to see her for an entire day after that, no explanations as to why she was forcefully uprooted from her home, barely any concern coming her way.

 

Irene took place in a corner of the room, a comforting mechanism that had followed her since childhood, when the darkness held monsters and nightmares and parents were too tired to soothe her. She hugged her knees tight, pulling the oversized jumped over her legs and she buried her face beneath the collar, cocooning herself in a blanket of darkness. The heat of her skin reminded her of the sun and the sounds of her breathing reminded her that she was still alive and she sat there, waiting and waiting for the terror within her to subside.

 

She only realised she had fallen asleep when someone shook her awake, her eyelashes brushing against her numb knees lightly. She lifted her head out of the cocoon, Wendy’s worried look greeting her, a hand on her shoulder and another by her right thigh. Irene blinked blearily, feeling like she had swallowed a bottle of sand and her neck cracked loudly due to staying in one position for too long. Wendy’s fingers trailed down to her neck, to where she had made a mark this morning and she asked gently.

 

“How are you feeling?”

 

Irene took in a deep breath, the air cold in after hours of breathing recycled air within her sweater and answered back blankly, avoiding Wendy’s question with a statement of her own.

 

“You’ve been doing something dangerous and it has reached us.”

 

Wendy flinched back as though she has been hit but she didn’t rebut, her jaw tight with tension.

 

Irene looked away, her eyes tracing the slight crack on concrete floor.

 

“I think I deserve to know what’s happening.”

 

There was a long moment before Wendy answered her, Irene mapping out the crack to the wall opposite the bed, the line blossoming into an almost cross like shape on grey background.

 

“Vampires.”

 

Irene took a second to collect herself, not wanting to snap at Wendy and turned her face upwards, meeting very serious dark eyes.

 

She repeated the word, slight disbelief, mostly anger coating it but her tone was stable.

 

“Vampires.”

 

Wendy nodded, looser now that she was sure that Irene was not going to yell at her.

 

“Vampires. I- We hunt them. I’ve ... I’ve been doing this for years before this but I stopped when I...”

 

Wendy trailed off, the hard look on her face giving way to something that drew an ache from Irene’s chest. She inhaled sharply and suddenly, Wendy’s face was crowding her, lips barely meeting in a kiss, her knees falling open to accommodate Wendy’s sudden need for closeness.

 

“I met you. And I stopped because I wanted to come back to you.”

 

Irene saw the truth in her eyes, the love that has always been present since the day they bumped into each other in that bookstore and she nodded, her words coming out in a jumble.

 

“B-but...you ... the past few months...”

 

Wendy’s eyes always held the answers to the universe for Irene and this time was no different, the waves of affection washing upon the brown and Wendy nodded, her cheeks red and guilt painting her expression, her response almost inaudible.

 

“They asked me to come back. Just for a bit. Because there was an olden vampire on the move. And they were targeting young women, beautiful women. I wanted to-”

 

The silent plea, the I wanted to keep them away from you, was clear behind earnest eyes and Irene closed her own, memorising the rise and fall of Wendy’s chest and the taste of love on her lips.

 

She responded the only way she knew how, unable to push away the comfort Wendy still offered like a raft amidst the waves of a broken sea.

 

“Don’t lie to me again. Okay?”

 

The brunette’s relief was felt through her every action, one hand sliding beneath Irene’s thigh, the other arm wrapping around her waist and the younger woman carried Irene easily, her spectacular strength explained through the brief story earlier as she carried Irene to the twin bed. They dropped on the bed heavily, Wendy’s face finally pulled into a smile that Irene has always loved on her face and she kissed Irene breathlessly, her promise breathing life into Irene’s lungs.

 

“Okay. Okay. Anything you want.”

 

She cupped Wendy’s face, fingers splayed out against prominent jawline and she struggled to keep up with Wendy’s ferocity, the brunette’s tongue pushing past her teeth and hard against the roof of . She gasped when fingers found their way underneath her sweater, taking in more of Wendy with every ragged breath as the brunette continued to envelope every single one of her senses, until Irene’s vision had nothing but Wendy in it.

 

Wendy whispered against kiss bruised lips reverently, fiercely, even as they parted to pull Irene’s sweater over head.

 

“I’ll do anything. Just to keep you safe.”

 

Irene managed to choke out her reply just as Wendy’s teeth clamped down around the mark from earlier, working on it ravenously as Irene dug her fingers into Wendy’s shoulder.

 

“Then-ngh- you be safe. That’s -SeungWan- that’s all I want.”

 

Wendy nodded, sitting up to pull her shirt off and she cupped Irene’s face tenderly, her kisses less bruising and giving life and more loving and taking away the breath from Irene’s lungs.

 

“Anything. I will do anything.”

 

A hand trailed down Irene’s bare stomach and then it was just SeungWan, SeungWan, SeungWan.

 

*

 

Wendy still went out early in the morning and came back late at night.

 

The only difference now was that Irene stayed up waiting for her, fingers fisted around the edges of her sweater, her bottom lip a constant hostage between her teeth as she sat between JinRi and Yeri, both of them guarding her silently even though the safehouse was supposed to keep out all intruders. She’d sit and stare blankly at the golden cross hanging in the common area, praying to whatever deity out there that Wendy would come back to her, return with the scent of blood on her skin and the aches of a job well done, falling tiredly in her arms.

 

And every night, she would whisper her thanks straight onto reddened skin, their love-making slow but passionate, gasps and moans kept behind fierce kisses and sweat stained sheets. The mark on Irene’s neck never had the chance to heal because it was where Wendy would continuously make her promises, tongue and teeth pulling at bruised skin, burning love straight into her veins. Irene returned the favour by scorching her love straight onto Wendy’s prominent lips, fingers playing them like a well worn piano.

 

Tonight was no different, their room heated from their passion and silent gratitude that the both of them were alive, Wendy more so than Irene.

 

Irene propped her chin on an unmarked area of Wendy’s bare chest, her eyes boring holes onto Wendy’s face, her fingers at a collarbone.

 

“Will we ever go back to how we were?”

 

There was a flash of guilt behind brown eyes but the lie they both needed to hear fell from Wendy’s lips easily, the brunette threading soft touches onto Irene’s scalp.

 

“When I find the ones responsible for this and rid them from this earth.”

 

Though it was a lie, Irene could hear the determination behind them, the strength to make her words true and it had Irene pressing a soft kiss over Wendy’s beating heart, her blonde hair slipping from between Wendy’s fingers when the younger girl gasped.

 

“Okay. Please stay safe.”

 

Wendy nodded, this time her answer not a lie and she twined their fingers together, her lips lingering on Irene’s fingertips.

 

“I will.”

 

They stayed in that silence for a while, a small refuge from the suddenness that was their lives now, Irene distractedly trailing her tongue up to Wendy’s neck. She buried her face there, taking in the metallic scent that had become a comfort now and the steady pulse of Wendy’s beating heart lulling her to sleep. Wendy shifted to accommodate her, their bare legs tangling together and their hands never unclasping.

 

Wendy spoke against her forehead, words filled with regret and pain.

 

“I may have to go off for a few days the next time we’re out.”

 

Irene hated the idea of it.

 

(It meant sleepless nights filled with worry and cold sheets that may represent her future should the gods above decide that they weren’t going to listen to Irene anymore.)

 

But she nodded, knowing that Wendy would never back out without feeling like she had let someone down, even if Irene had requested for it.

 

She nodded because it was what Wendy did and it was one of the many things she loves about Wendy.

 

“Alright, Wan. Just come back to me.”

 

Wendy sighed against her, body soft and pliant, lips parting in a soft kiss against her skin.

 

“I know. I don’t want to- I’ll be thinking of coming back to you.”

 

It’s a I want to stay but I can’t and a I promised you the world in a box and I’ll give it to you.

 

Irene tucked the words in a crevice of her heart and she whispered against Wendy’s neck, her free hand Wendy’s back.

 

“I know. Just go to sleep, Wan.”

 

Wendy nodded, her nose buried in blonde hair and they both fell into a light sleep.

 

Irene woke up at intervals to make sure she didn’t miss Wendy leaving.

 

*

 

It was the second day without Wendy when Yeri suddenly stood up, her back cracking loudly as the girl exclaimed, her eyes bright with the promise of adventure.

 

“We should go out!”

 

It sounded like a good idea to Irene, who has been feeling slightly claustrophobic in the warehouse without Wendy around but she shook her head, remembering Wendy’s warnings about venturing outside when the vampire with blue eyes had a hold of her scent.

 

(She asked Wendy to come back to her.

 

She has to be waiting when the brunette does.)

 

JinRi looked equally apprehensive but she pulled out a phone from her pocket, tossing it over to Yeri who caught it without looking.

 

“Before we make any decisions, maybe we should ask SooJung.”

 

Yeri nodded, a flash of fear and respect on her face and she dialled quickly, giving Irene a quick smile.

 

“We should go out, you need some concealer for that hickey of yours, it’s really- Hello?”