Chapter 20: Luck of the Draw

Jihoon’s little hint of suspicion pooling at his gut began to flood the moment Seungcheol had pulled out the black magic book, the item which he had been practically harassing his charge to let him study for god knows how long. Now, after laying out a whole ing table of human delicacies for him to eat, cause… god-because he wanted to say thanks? Now was the time he chose to give in to Jihoon’s persistence?

None of it sat right, especially not Seungcheol’s annoying, happy-go-lucky grin. This wasn’t the first time He’d saved this dumb human’s life, so what was with the sudden explosion of gratitude?

He couldn’t exactly call out Seungcheol for being kind alone, Seungcheol has always been nice, but… This didn’t feel right. Seungcheol had moved to sit beside Jihoon, placing the book along their thighs as they searched through it. When Seungcheol leaned his shoulders in, pressing slightly against him, he’d scoot away. Then Seungcheol would close the gap again, and again, until Jihoon was leaning into the arm of the couch feeling on the verge of losing it.

Every possible language had been tested, to no avail. Not that it mattered much, and at least they had weighed out every possible mainstream language in the books. It sort of felt like they'd grabbed a pile of hay from a stack and tossed it to the side. Sure, there's less hay, but it doesn't make finding the needle much easier. Jihoon flicked his eyes up to Seungcheol after hearing him sigh, feeling his chest spike to see that the human’s eyes remained planted on him.

Usually, when Jihoon looked at Seungcheol he felt comfortable, if not complacent with getting lost in the complexity of those big brown eyes. Why did they look so empty today? Even though Seungcheol was smiling like a moron as he usually did, his eyes were shallow, somehow bland. It was… disturbing.

“How are you doing?” The human shifted, facing Jihoon more head-on with an expression he couldn’t place. “Are you…faint? Or anything? You lost a lot of blood yesterday, maybe I should...”

When Seungcheol raised his hand, Jihoon moved before his mind could process the jab of mistrust he felt in his stomach, eyes blown wide. He collected himself quickly, furrowing his brows as he stared pointedly up at the human, heart thudding. “What the is up with you? You’re creeping me out...”

Seungcheol stopped, mouth bumbling.

‘Creeping me out’ was immensely understating it. Seungcheol was acting like a complete stranger, like...

“I- I am?”

Jihoon scoffed, flicking away from his wrist. “Don’t act stupid, Seungcheol. The food, the studying, plus… You’re just acting odd.”

He rubbed at his neck, looking away with an embarrassed expression. Very, very suspicious. “Is it really that weird to you?”

“Are you being serious, or has your brain lost function’s from being temporarily dead? Seriously, what’s up with you?... And don’t you dare say this is all just a way to say thanks, I’m not buying that bull.”

Seungcheol went silent for a moment, eyes shifting back and forth from the demon and his hands. “Nothing’s up, I just wanted to do something… for you..”

Jihoon rolled his eyes, letting out a breath. He would smack Seungcheol If his arms didn’t feel like sore, wet noodles at the moment. “Fine, so let’s ing assume the food and the book are thankyou gifts. That doesn’t explain the sudden personality warp.” He frowned, leering doubtfully. “You’re acting so ing… nice?” He squinted, unsure of how to put the feeling into words.

Seungcheol gaped, offended. “Wha- I’m nice! When am I not nice to you? I’m always this nice!”

“However the hell you act usually, it’s not like this! It’s like this weird… manipulative vibe.” He eyed the table skeptically. “Are you trying to bribe me with food or some ? You know, just because it worked with Jeonghan once, doesn’t mean I’ll do whatever the hell you want if you throw some chicken at me. I’m not a ing dog. Just what do you want from me?”

Seungcheol’s eyes were wide in surprise, cheeks tinted pink as he struggled to respond. “I wasn’t, I swear… I just-” , how was he supposed to explain? He couldn’t very well go out and say it. ‘Oh sorry! I was following a cat training manual to win your affection, you caught me!’ Woozi would have his head on a spear before he’d even had the chance to explain that it was Jeonghan’s idea, that bastard. That’s the last time he takes love advice from him! “, I don’t know…”

Seungcheol reached JIhoon’s gaze once again, feeling his heart skip as the demon peered up at him curiously, as if searching for the answers to his suspicion within his eyes. He felt himself anchoring back on his hand when the demon began to lean in closer, squinting.

He was really close, to the point that Seungcheol was holding his breath at the back of his throat and praying to heaven that his heart would hold-out a bit longer. Woozi stared into his eyes, frowning. “You’re not lying?”

Seungcheol let out a breath, mouth falling open. “Really, I don’t even know what I’m doing. God, I just feel…” He gulped, eyes flickering down as the demon’s breath ghosted against his skin, the space between them feeling relentlessly smaller. “I feel…”

“You feel strange, right?” The demon questioned, expression pointed.

“I… yeah, I guess it’s kind of a strange feeling.”

Woozi leaned back finally, holding a fist against his chin in thought, oblivious to Seungcheol pulling his soul back into his body as he calmed the burning of his face. He hummed quietly, taking everything Seungcheol had said and molding it into a plausible explanation.

Seungcheol gulped. Could it be that Woozi had actually figured it out? Was he that obvious?

“I think I know what’s happening.”

, he did, didn’t he? Oh . “You do?”

The demon bit his thumb, gnawing on the nail in contemplation. “My blood… I think it’s having an effect on you.”

…“What?”

“I’ve been worried about it for a while… But, since I’ve never been able to test the capacities of demon blood before, I wasn’t sure. I think it must be affecting you, more than just physically.”

Seungcheol blinked a few times, dumbfounded. “I’m fine, it’s not…”

He sighed, frowning. “Seungcheol, last time you drank my blood, how did you feel? Honestly?”

He did think about it, looking back for a moment despite his fluster. “I just felt… good, I guess. It wasn’t like I had changed, though… It was just sort of invigorating.”

“Seungcheol, think harder than that, please. Use your ing brain, don’t you remember what you did?” Seungcheol shut his mouth, feeling a pang of guilt in his chest. “I’m pretty ing sure that time in the basement was the only time you’ve ever been violent with me, or at all. Plus… Not this time, but last time you went crazy your eyes were open, like you were awake, but... it didn’t look like you. They were empty, and dull…”

Woozi looked up at him again, eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Your eyes kind of look like that now, Seungcheol.”

The human stammered. He wasn’t ‘empty’, if he was empty, he wouldn’t be so ing hurt to hear Woozi say that.

“Seungcheol, you feel it, don’t you? The affect of the blood is stronger this time.”

“How do you know?”

Woozi frowned, tugging at the hairs of his tail with anxious fingers. “Last time I felt tired, but… today is worse, way ing worse.”

He looked over the demon’s appearance again, raking his eyes over translucent skin and tints of purple. Woozi did look bad, Seungcheol had noticed it earlier of course… After losing as much blood as he did, wasn’t this to be expected, though? “Are you okay? I mean, I can see why it takes a toll on you, but-”

“-No, I’m not ing okay. I feel like I’m dying, and I didn’t feel this ty last time. So, what I’m saying is… The effect is stronger, maybe it will get stronger every time we do this, if I end up having to save your again.” He held the bandage on his arm insecurely. “I had barely recovered my healing after last time, I think it would have taken another good week for it to return completely. This time, it could take months. , maybe it won’t return at all.”

“Is there anything I can do? I mean, I can try a healing spell on you.”

He huffed. “There’s no point. Even if I heal, my healing ability won’t return.”

Seungcheol ran a hand through his hair, feeling frustrated. “God, what do we do then?”

Woozi bit his lip, pressing his fingers against the divots of his wound, feeling pain spike along the open cut. “We need to figure out a way to reverse this.”

~

Seungcheol sat through Mr. Lee’s lecture anxiously, tapping his fingers against the side of his desk as his eyes switched back-and-forth between grains of chalk falling against the edge of the board, and the agonizing droning of clock hands. After that mess with Woozi yesterday, every resolution he’d built up in his mind began crumbling to the ground. His energy, his uninjured skin, his emotions, were any of these thing’s genuine? Was it all just some strange, internal repercussion of drinking Woozi’s blood?

He didn't feel different, like Woozi had said... He felt good, but that's just because he was healed. It shouldn't be strange that he was expiriencing happiness from a healthy body, that's just natural... He didn't feel like it was stronger this time, either. In fact, the effects even felt weaker when he thought about it. The first time he'd had Woozi's blood, it was like he was on drugs. His mind, his body, everything felt energized. Maybe it was just because the blood had literally brought him back from death, it was working harder so the affect was weaker.

He couldn't just eliminate the possibility that it was changing his personality completely though. Maybe it was, perhaps the blood was to blame for Seungcheol being dumb enough to follow Jeonghan's stupid plan... and to blame for his blind confidence... , just blame the blood for everything. If that was the case, they needed to find a solution. Not just to fix the side-effects he was experiencing, but to help Woozi, too, who despite keeping his fire-cracker of a personality, was looking like some kind of a zombie.

A cute zombie, but a zombie nonetheless. Seungcheol was unsure about a lot of things... His trust in Jeonghan, his personality, were all ambiguous. There was one thing he was sure of, though. His feeling for Woozi weren't some ed-up, artificial result of the blood, he wasn't going to believe that. And before he finds his balls and manages to confess, Seungcheol was going to prove it.

Without having any actual demon experts to ask about such a thing, how the hell were they supposed to figure this blood situation out? All they had to go on were ancient documentaries, and crazy demon theorists from the internet. Seungcheol had actually looked into it last night, and god, demon fanatics were absolutely ing nuts. There were forum pages where people discussed the best-cough-the iest-cough-demon species out there. Legitimately, these people who knew absolutely zero real information on these illegal monsters, wanted to them.

And Seungcheol felt absolutely floored to discover how relatable the blogs were. Not that he was ever going to join in on the online discussions, but somehow knowing he wasn’t the only human in the world who experienced this ~forbidden attraction~, was somehow comforting.

All ersions aside, though, they weren’t in the least helpful about finding insight on demon blood. All he found when he’d looked it up were vague reports of demon blood being used to heal soldiers, the cases of humans dying from defensively adapted demon blood, and more crazy, online creeps who had a kink for it.

He didn’t need a bunch of anonymous dudes on the internet describing the pleasurable effects of demon blood to him; gross. Seungcheol already knew that it tasted nice, and made him feel good, he knew that all too well…

He shook his head, feeling his face flush as his mind wandered. Now was not the time to fantasize. He needed to focus on reaching a goddamn solution.

After discovering the internet to be an absolute flop, Seungcheol found himself with only one chance left…

Mr. Lee.

After all, he’d given that demon lecture before, so he must know some stuff… Plus, he taught them world history sometimes, and the only recent time in history demon blood had ever been used was during the war. He had to know something… In the least, he’d be able to give him some insight. When his teacher began to dismiss the class, Seungcheol sat back in his chair, watching the other students leave with a strange sense of unfamiliarity. Usually he was the first one out the door, so hanging back as he waited to catch his teacher alone felt pretty odd.

By the time everyone had left, Mr. Lee was watching Seungcheol from his desk with a skeptical look as he packed up his briefcase. Seungcheol in his courage, walking up to his teacher with a smile forced on his face.

“It’s rare that you have question’s after class, Mr. Choi.”

Seungcheol held back the need to roll his eyes, letting out an awkward chuckle instead. “I just… wanted to ask you something about my history essay topic.”

His teacher actually appeared to look less smug, and more genuinely surprised at that one. “You already have one?”

“Sort of…” Seungcheol scratched at his neck, feeling insecure. “I want to do it on the role of demons during the war, but I’m having trouble finding legitimate information.”

He hummed, smiling. “It’s no wonder. You’ve chosen a rather controversial topic, Seungcheol.” Mr. Lee scratched at the stubble around his chin, looking vaguely cursory. “I can tell you anything I know the answer to, but there isn’t much information out there.”

“Anything would help, but… I especially want to write about how they used the demon’s abilities outside of conflict.”

Mr. Lee’s eyes widened slightly, a strangely intrigued look compared to how dull and monotone he usually was. “Ah, are you referring to their healing abilities?”

“Yes! Exactly, do you know anything?”

He chuckled, squinting amusedly. “You’ve been doing your own research, I see. I That isn’t generally covered in regular curriculum.” Seungcheol bumbled for a moment, rushing for an excuse, but Mr. Lee beat him to the punch. “I happen to have studied demon abilities back in my days as a university student. demonology theorist minor studies, in fact. But since you came to my informational demon seminar, you must already know that.”

“Ah, right… yeah, that’s why I’m asking you.” Seungcheol let out a chuckle. , life would be a lot easier if he could just focus during class. When had his teacher told them something as important as that? How many dilemma’s could they have avoided?! How annoying.

“So, what would you like to know?”

Seungcheol shuffled his feet, feeling anxious. It felt as though he was giving away his secret just by asking this, but he had to remind himself that the teacher merely treated this subject as education, not life advice. “Just… everything about their healing abilities.”

Mr. Lee straightened up with a smirk. “Well, the healing abilities of demons has been common knowledge since the ancient times of black magic users. Back then, it was believed that by drinking the blood of a demon, one would gain immortality, supernatural strength, and even psychic abilities. Though, it’s also been reported to be addictive enough to drive men to the brink of madness.” Mr. Lee pulled out a book from his desk, flipping through the pages. “Of course, after world war three most of those facts were proven to be rumors.”

Thank god for that one.

“Many North Korean soldiers were interrogated during the war, and from them we have created a more accurate description of demon abilities. They were used regularly to heal North Korean soldiers, and after being tested, there were no cases of increased physical strength, nor any madness. By record, consumption of demon blood increases a humans natural healing ability to incredible levels. It doesn’t only heal wounds, but also diseases, and mental illness. Because it takes affect through the whole body, it can feel to many that they are happier, more awake, even more confident because of the way that it heals the brain.”

“Wow…” So that’s why he always felt so good after drinking it? It was healing his depression, too?

“It’s unbelievable, I know, but the North Koreans reported real-life occurrences of this. They celebrated demon blood as being ‘morale in a bottle.’ Not just utilized for injury, but also in treating PTSD victims. It’s one of the reasons why the North Koreans nearly won, because after each battle all remaining soldiers were able to take a shot of demon blood and be back in working condition by the next day. They weren’t able to use it long, however.”

“Why not?”

Mr. Lee was smiling, unaware of the anxious twisting of Seungcheol’s stomach. “Well, the more blood they took, the weaker the healing affects became. And eventually the demons began to simply die-off.”

Seungcheol felt his heart drop in his chest. “They… died?”

“Yes, well, the number of soldiers were well above the number of demon’s they kept around for healing. They took blood constantly, It’s believed the demon’s body wasn’t able to keep up with the strain.”

He only took blood twice… Woozi wouldn’t die from that much, right? Still, his sickly appearance was starting to become immensely more worrisome for Seungcheol. They definitely had to find a solution to this.

“You said the healing effects started to wear off, why is that?”

Mr. lee hummed, turning to the chalk board. “Well, think of it like this. Demon blood isn’t inherently healing. We learned this after they began to die, because demon’s started to develop defensive traits in their blood. Such as acidity, or poison.” He drew two tubes on the board, labeling one as blood, the other as healing. “We have theorized that demon blood, and their healing abilities come from two separate sources in their anatomy. Because it’s not only their blood which heals, blood simply carried the highest, most easily accessible amount of healing. There have been reported cases of people experiencing healing effects from saliva, tears, flesh, , etcetera.”

He wasn’t about to think about that last one, definitely not, no ing way.

“Scientists have named this mysterious healing element which demon’s possess; Percuro Cantharus, a goblet of regeneration. When demon blood is drained, the blood reproduces naturally. However, the potency of the Percuro in the blood is separate, therefore it will regenerate at a different rate, often much more slowly. This is because the Percuro must travel through the demon’s entire body, not just the blood stream. In fact, it’s been theorized that Percuro Cantharus is connected to a lot of the elements which give demon’s their powers. Their incredible regenerative abilities, as well as the traits which vary by species, are all linked to Percuro Cantharus. Mind you, this is only a theory since no actual scientific research on the matter has been done.”

Seungcheol gulped, watching as Mr. Lee sketched out two levels of liquid in the two tubes to show the difference. “Mr. lee, I’m wondering…”

He stopped. “Yes, Seungcheol?”

“Are there any theories on how to speed up the reproduction of that Percuro stuff?”

Mr. lee cupped his chin, pushing his mouth to the side as he thought about it. “I have researched that a bit, however, the information isn’t reliable. The theory hasn’t exactly been tested, for obvious reasons.”

He could only imagine the worst possible scenario’s in this moment. The sacrifice of a into a volcano? a crazy ingredient that would take months of treacherous adventuring to collect? , what was the use in imagining these theories? “What is it?”

“Well, because Percuro Cantharus is connected to the supernatural abilities of a demon, it’s been assumed there is only one way to fuel it.” Mr. Lee began to color in the tube on the board, filling the one marked ‘healing’ straight to the brim. “That is, by feeding them.”

~

“By feeding him?” Jeonghan’s eyes wandered over to Woozi and Seungcheol with a skeptical expression. Despite being on the couch together, there was an obvious air of awkwardness hanging between them. Considering the theme of the mission Jeonghan had sent him on yesterday, it really had to make him wonder where things had gone wrong. His plan should have been foolproof! “Woozi eats a lot. If that was the thing that healed him, I’m pretty sure we’d have figured it out by now.”

Seungcheol let out an exasperated breath. “Not literally, Hannie. Mr. Lee said people have theorized that feeding demon’s will regenerate their healing powers... But not like… with food.”

“What, then?” Woozi was staring up at him questioningly. For some reason his inhuman attributes seemed to stand out today, and Seungcheol found himself watching the demon’s tail sway off the edge of the couch like a pendulum from the corner of his eyes.

“You know, like… Cross-roads demon’s feed on souls, some demon’s feed on human flesh… human energy..” Seungcheol’s voice became less certain as the list went on, watching Jeonghan’s eyes widen in realization.

“You don’t mean…”

“I do. So, the only way to do it is to feed Woozi, somehow...” He gulped, turning to face the demon in the room intently.

Woozi, clueing in on what they were insinuating, found himself grabbing the end of his tail in an anxious fist, ceasing it’s relentless swaying. “, don’t look at me as if I’d know… I don’t fit into any discernable species, I’m mixed… And I don’t have any powerful abilities that require fueling, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“But… we know what species your parents are, right?” Jeonghan eyed the two of them curiously. “So, if you’re a mix of them, we should be able to figure it out.”

Seungcheol nodded. “I thought so, too. Like, maybe we can just test them all in a trial and error thing, you know? It’s just…”

“Yeah, big problem dimwit. I don’t even know what the it means to ‘feed it.’ I’ve never had to ‘feed’ my demon powers, there's never been any point before.”

Woozi huffed, crossing his arms, and looking away.

“Well, do you know how your parents feed?” Jeonghan questioned, a bit uncertain about his wording.

“I know, but… I’ve never seen them do it. They don’t bring their work home.”

They considered something like that to be work? Seungcheol shook his head, ignoring his useless curiosity for now.

“Okay, let’s start with your dad.” Jeonghan smiled kindly. He understood how much Woozi hated to talk about his family, but this was kind of important.

The demon fidgeted in his seat, clutching his tail as he conjured up the courage to explain. At this point, he trusted them, he really did… It just felt uncomfortable. “My dad is half kasha, half Naga as you know… Kasha demon’s feed on the corpses of those who have committed grave sins. Naga demons retain a poison in their fangs, used to kill those who are truly evil… So, It’s like a ‘two birds with one stone’ thing. He kills them with poison, then eats the corpse.”

Seungcheol and Jeonghan stared at Woozi, mouths agape.

Woozi turned to Seungcheol with round eyes, unfazed, as if he hadn’t just given out the most horrifying imagery Seungcheol had ever had the displeasure of imagining. He continued to pray he would never meet Woozi’s father… The idea of a giant cat-snake monster hunting him down for committing the horrible sin of lusting after his son felt all too possible. “That’s not… something we can test, I think… I don’t want to die.”

The demon scoffed. “Why would you die? My father only kills those worthy of an eternity of suffering, you’re hardly at that level.”

“That’s sweet of you.”

“Shut up!”

Jeonghan cleared his throat. “Let’s just save the whole ‘murdering people' thing for a later date, okay? What about your mom?”

Woozi stared at his feet, looking a bit shy. “My mom is Half necromancer, half succubus. Necromancer’s gain their strength through the aid of summoned souls, and Succubus…” He stammered, face turning red. “Succubus… they feed on… god, do I really have to say it?”

Seungcheol froze when Woozi turned to him with a pleading expression. He’d forgotten, he’d actually seriously forgotten about that. God, how could he forget Woozi was one-forth Incubus?? His emotions were mixed, did he even want that to be a possible solution?

Jeonghan snickered, watching as his friend seemed to blow a gasket at the very idea. “No, I think we get it. Do both work for her, then?”

“Well, she’s a necromancer and a succubus, so rather than gaining power from spirits alone, she… Gains it from their… ugh, you know.”

Seungcheol furrowed his brows, confused. “She gets it from ghos?-ack!”

Woozi elbowed him in the stomach, scowling. “If you’re going to be an about this, don’t ask me to talk about it! ing ert…”

“God, I’m sorry, I was just trying to clarify!”

“So, the way they feed, it’s like a mix of the two species?” Jeonghan cut in, finally breaking out of his thoughts and looking between Woozi and Seungcheol. “That mean’s you should be a mix of all four, right?”

Woozi sighed. “Not necessarily. My parent’s genes are split perfectly in half, but for me all my species-specific traits are too vague for any of them to be dominant. It’s like a lucky draw, cause my abilities are closer to my dad, but my appearance is more like my mom. Really, there’s no way to know for sure without figuring out my powers…” The demon frowned, staring at his feet with a solemn expression. “And I hate to break it to you, but I’ve been trying to figure out that out since I was born.”

“Damn..” Seungcheol fell back on the couch, feeling hopeless.

Jeonghan hummed. “Why don’t we try to figure out your powers, then?”

“Did you not hear me? It’s impossible, my parents have already tried everything to awaken them.”

He smirked, brushing silver hair behind his ear thoughtfully. “But, we’ve never given it a try. I think in the end it all amounts to taking the traits you have, and fitting them into a potential ability, right? It’s at least worth trying, right Seungcheol?”

Jeonghan was smiling at him, and somehow he could feel something mischievous in that innocent expression of his. Whatever he was planning, Seungcheol didn’t like it, not one bit. Hadn’t he said it just yesterday? That was the last time he took advice from Jeonghan!... Yet, this did seem to be the only option they had. Seungcheol sighed. “I think it’s the only shot we have, Woozi…” He gulped back his feelings as the demon leaned back on the couch with his arms crossed, glaring up at Jeonghan with an exasperated expression.

"How do you expect to awaken my powers? What could you possible do that I haven't tried?"

Jeonghan looked between the two of them keenly. Operation 'figure out if Woozi has any demon powers' was important for two reasons in this instance. One, it could be the solution to Woozi looking like the crypt keeper, and get him back to the energetic demon they were used to. Two, it might just be the thing that helps close that gap between his two favorite idiots. Either way...

It was bound to be interesting. "I have a few idea's."

A/N: I have a big plan for the next chapter :) hoho