A/N: Warning for major character death...

Waking up to find himself in an unknown bed, Mingyu looked around for Wonwoo, growing frantic when he didn't see him. "Wonwoo?" he asked, startled when it came out as little more than a croak. "Where is Wonwoo?"

"Mingyu..." Seungchul leaned forward into Mingyu's line of sight, his expression carefully blank. "There was nothing we could do for him." He held up a hand as Mingyu opened his mouth to speak, cutting him off. "He's at a hospital, before you start carrying on," he continued tiredly. "We have no facilities for wolves, you know that."

"Where? I need to be with him," Mingyu croaked, struggling to sit up and then falling back with a gasp of pain. That had hurt. "Seungchul, they can't..."

Seungchul's hand was pushing him back down onto the bed. "They can look after him just fine," he murmured firmly, his hand still on Mingyu's shoulder. "They will tell me when he's ready to see you, and then you can go. Until then, you will have to stay here and recover yourself."

"What happened?" Mingyu asked, closing his eyes and sighing. "Someone hit us... the car exploded..."
 
"Yes," Seungchul said shortly, his eyes narrowed. "It was deliberate." He looked at Mingyu, then sighed. "The hunters are getting bolder and targeting us directly." He looked away. "And those who work with and for us."

"Is that why you took Joshua away?" Mingyu asked, opening his eyes to stare at Seungchul. "Were they after him?"

"One of the reasons, yes," came the reply, Seungchul's attention on the phone in his hands. "And to keep him away from you until you calmed down." He looked over at Mingyu thoughtfully. "But the target in this case was Kris, actually," he added, nodding at Mingyu's look of surprise. "I don't think they knew you were with him or they would have planned for it and made sure you were both dead too."

He shrugged. "And if you're wondering, they did kill him. Not even we can withstand a crash like that, and the fireball that happened after..." Not that he was going to be all that upset over it; Seungchul hadn't liked the older vampire any more than Mingyu did. "And Junmyeon is having fits all over the place. Blaming you, of course, but even he can't deny it was the hunters who were behind the crash."

"I had to help Wonwoo," Mingyu murmured, shrugging. "I couldn't do anything for Kris; he was too tangled up in the wreckage for me to get out, even if I wanted to. I had to get Wonwoo out of there, so I did." He looked over at Seungchul. "How did you find me? I don't remember anything after calling for help..."

"We have our ways," Seungchul replied, tapping his nose. "We knew roughly where you were going, so it wasn't hard, if you think about it." He smiled at Mingyu's look of surprise. "Did you think we didn't know where your... where Wonwoo lives?"

"I wasn't thinking about that," Mingyu replied quietly, looking down at his hands. He noticed the ring of white light around his wrist was faint and flickering (again) and it worried him. "Are you sure he'll be ok?" He held up his wrist for Seungchul to see, the older vampire's eyes narrowing.

"Let me make a phone call," Seungchul murmured, pulling out his phone and getting to his feet. "I will let you know..."

Watching Seungchul leave, Mingyu didn't know what to do or how to feel, and it scared him. The idea that Wonwoo could die still terrified him, but if it came at the hands of hunters... He would make it his mission to take every single one of them out in revenge, before following Wonwoo into permanent death. The feeling was amplified by the fear that Wonwoo would die without him being there, Mingyu's chest feeling tight with fear and other emotions until he thought he was going to pass out.

Seungchul came into the room and went to the bed, pulling Mingyu to his feet. "We're going to the hospital, now," he said quietly, not giving Mingyu any time to think about what was going on. "Move..."

Before he could protest or argue or do anything at all, Mingyu found himself in Seungchul's car, hurtling down the road to a hospital that surprisingly wasn't too far away from where they'd just been.

"Come on," Seungchul urged him, pulling him out and into the hospital. "No time to mess around."

"What's going on?" Mingyu asked, finally finding his voice. The further into the hospital they went, the more noise and people there were, and the more worried and afraid he became. "Seungchul, please. Tell me what's going on. You're scaring me."

Without stopping, Seungchul sighed. "You need to be there," was all he would say, nodding to a doctor who'd appeared and shoved a strange-looking outfit at him. "Here, put this on, and do it quickly."

"Seungchul, please..." Doing as he was told, Mingyu couldn't help but feel faint, terrified of what he was going to find. "Don't..."

"Put it on and come on..."

Zipping up the protective suit and pulling on the gloves the doctor handed him without a word, Mingyu was led into a room where Wonwoo lay on a bed, bandages wrapped around his head and various machines slowly beeping around him. His eyes were closed and his body was still. Too still.

"No," he murmured, turning to Seungchul with pleading eyes. "He can't. He can't do this to me. I tried so hard..."

Feeling sorry for his friend, Seungchul pushed him toward the bed. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing more they can do for him," he murmured, hating the look on Mingyu's face. The younger vampire looked devastated. "We arranged this so you could be with him when..."

"Are you sure there's nothing anyone can do?" Mingyu asked desperately, feeling Wonwoo's heartbeat getting slower and slower as he watched. "Please... he can't die." He turned to Wonwoo, carefully taking the young man into his arms and holding him close. "Wonwoo, fight, please. I love you, and please, don't do this to me..."

"Is there not any way to turn him? I know he's a wolf, but... there has to be something..." He looked at Seungchul, barely able to see him for his tears. "We didn't get to spend much time together at all..."

"I'm sorry," Seungchul repeated, shaking his head sadly. "His body was already too weak and the injuries were too much for him. And there is no way to turn a wolf, you know that as well as I do."

He got to his feet, gesturing to the others to leave the room. "We'll leave you to have some time privately," he murmured, then let himself out, closing the door behind him and leaning on it with his eyes closed. No matter how many times this happened to his friends, it still hurt.

"Wonwoo," Mingyu murmured softly, rocking the young man in his arms and sobbing heartbrokenly. He kissed Wonwoo gently, Mingyu's heart breaking even more when he didn't respond. "Please fight this. Don't die on me. You've never even told me you loved me..." And that hurt even more. He knew Wonwoo cared, that much was obvious, but had he even loved him?

At his words, Wonwoo's eyes slowly opened, though they remained unfocused. Reaching up with a shaking hand, he cupped Mingyu's face and smiled. "I do love you," he whispered, his voice barely a breath. "I'm so sorry..." His eyes closed and the hand dropped, Mingyu's heart stuttering in pain.

"No, Wonwoo... don't. Please, don't..." he begged, shaking Wonwoo to try and wake him up again. "You can't just say something like that and then leave me alone like this! Please..."

Screaming in pain, Mingyu felt like he was going to explode from grief, still rocking Wonwoo's body in his arms. He didn't know what else to do, his mind so consumed with grief, pain, and guilt - he should have insisted on sitting in the front. Then maybe Wonwoo would have lived.

Seungchul heard Mingyu's scream, his head bowed. They would have to work hard and find those responsible, and then deal with them. These hunters couldn't be allowed to kill innocent people like this. While it was true Wonwoo was a wolf, he was still innocent, never having killed anyone that they were aware of.

He pulled out his phone. "Heechul, they got Wonwoo too..." he murmured, looking sad and tired, and almost every bit his true age. "I'm sorry. Mingyu is with him, and I wouldn't suggest trying to separate them right now..." Listening intently to what the alpha pack leader had to say, Seungchul sighed. "Don't worry, we intend to deal with them. If we need you, I'll let you know..."

Groaning internally as Heechul continued to talk, Seungchul sighed again. "Fine, I'll wait for him, but he'll have to be able to work with vampires," he replied, then closed the call, shoving his phone in his pocket, then sitting on a nearby seat and putting his head in his hands. Joshua hadn't mentioned any of this. Had he even known? Then his phone rang again and Seungchul scrambled to answer it.

"What!" he snapped, then went pale. "What? When?" he demanded as the caller relayed the reason for the call, his voice going rough with suppressed emotion. "How? You were supposed to make sure that didn't happen!"

The hunters had gotten to Joshua as well, the young human's body found floating in the Han river, despite the fact that Jun and Jihoon were supposed to be watching him. To other humans, it would have appeared as a suicide, but they knew better.

"Get Jun and get to the hospital," Seungchul said, his voice hard. "You can make up for it by watching Mingyu instead, and make sure you don't up this time, Jihoon. A wolf is coming to help, so you'd better play nice..."

His eyes narrowed at Jihoon's response. "I don't give a that you don't want to work with a wolf. You are going to, or I'm cutting you loose and you can take your chances with the hunters, because if this is what it takes to stop them, then I'm going to do it. Heechul has promised me he can and will work with us, so the least we can do is the same. Now get your over here, or else..."

Hanging up on his friend, Seungchul told himself to breathe, desperately wanting to cry, to scream like Mingyu had, to punch something, to do anything to make the pain of Wonwoo and Joshua's deaths go away. He hadn't even known Wonwoo, but his death had hurt Mingyu, perhaps beyond bearing, and that was too much for him. The hunters would pay, and they would pay dearly. Enough was enough.