The rain spraying across their poorly built roof is what wakes Jihun up, the smell of dying smoke surrounding him. He can see Heejun sitting across from him on one of their rickety old dining chairs, the wood fraying and paint chipping. There isn’t a fire crackling anymore, but Jihun feels strangely warm in a room that is perpetually dark and cold, the sound of rain being the only indicator that time is still flowing for them.

“How long was I asleep?” He asks, seeing Heejun shift about after realizing he’s woken.

“Only four hours,” he answers. He looks ridiculously small in his oversized sweater.

“Do I want to know how bad it is?” Jihun asks, his body not feeling quite like his own.

“I wouldn’t sit up if I were you,” Heejun snorts, “I think there’s some kind of spell on you, I’m not sure, but you– well, you were blue for a while. Like, literally blue. Your skin and clothes and hair and everything was covered in this weird blue aura or something. I was afraid to touch you at first.”

“I was blue? Why, I don’t–”

“You were glamoured when it happened,” he explains quickly, the furrow in his brow dipping lower. “God, it’s so cold in here.”

“Start a ing fire,” Jihun says, eyes pointing towards the small fireplace in the middle of the living room. “What happened exactly after I was glamoured.”

Heejun grumbles about all the firewood being wet and outside in the rain, but only shifts so that his sweater envelopes more of him. “I don’t know, exactly. I mean, there were two of them so I was kind of preoccupied with the crazy er who kept laughing. I saw you though, from the corner of my eyes. You’d have had to been glamoured to just… Follow that tall one under the bridge. I couldn’t see what happened after that.” Heejun looks down at the floor, his eyes replaying the night over again. “There was a weird siren, it wasn’t exactly loud but that’s what called the vampires off. I ran to you and you were knocked out cold, already blue.”

“I was only out for four hours?” Jihun asks, his hand coming up to clutch at a strangely hot spot on the side of his neck. He’s far too warm for the cold Heejun must be feeling. Despite Heejun’s earlier warning of not sitting up, Jihun tries, his body aching painfully in simply shifting his weight to his arms.

“I told you not to do that, didn’t I?” Heejun snorts softly, watching Jihun without much worry. “You’re bruised practically all over.”

Jihun lets out a groan, falling back down. “What the happened, what did those blood ers do to me.”

Heejun sighs, looking a tad torn at what to do. Jihun sometimes forgets that he’s barely eighteen, a few years just over a decade. They’ve known each other since childhood, but Jihun has long ago lost the image of a Heejun who was rosy cheeked and warm, innocence reflecting in his all too bright eyes. He knows it’s his fault that Heejun isn’t that person anymore.

“As soon as I can move again, we’re finding a new hideout,” he announces, “Those two weren’t the ones we were looking for, but they seemed far too interested in us.”

“Agreed,” Heejun says, his mind caught in the events that transpired just a few hours ago. “They were too… Old.”

Jihun silently agrees to that too. The two vampires who they had tracked were just… Too different from any they had encountered before. The air about them was darker, the way they moved too real and fluid, like they had all the time in the world to perfect stalking prey. It was frightening of course – encountering those two – but the silver earrings he had pierced into his lobes so long ago had been enchanted to warn Jihun of these dangers, to make sure he wouldn’t just freeze up and allow himself to be killed by these monsters.

So why had he been so easily glamoured, he wonders. Why was there this spell or whatever currently placed on him? Why were his wards so uselessly quiet this time?

“Do you think I’m being traced?” Jihun asks, his voice painfully small at the presumption.

“I thought about it,” Heejun answers hesitantly. “If we move locations and they still find us then it’s confirmed that whatever is on you is a trace.”

And oh, yes. Of course Heejun would have already thought that far. He’s had all this time to try and figure out what this thing on Jihun was and if he would even wake up from it.

The vampires, he figures, will most definitely come after them. The way the tall one – Seungjun, he had called himself – loomed over Jihun was far too much. The sound of his voice, low and sweet, painful to hear as he whispered softly down Jihun’s neck, breath strangely hot–

“You’re mine.”

A chill shoots down his spine and Jihun lets out an unbearable cry. His whole body is in pain suddenly, despite being completely still. The memory of being thrown against a wall and then falling to the floor just to be pinned by inhumanly strong arms is deeply imprinted on his muscles and he can feel a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face. Heejun is by his side in seconds, hands frantically moving in the air, unsure where to touch or what to do. He calls out to Jihun, but he can’t respond right this minute, not when he can feel his neck heat up, the burning sensation increasing and his body crying out in pain.

This clearly isn’t right, he thinks, suddenly feeling feverish. This is beyond a glamour or a trace; this is something he’s only ever read before in books. Seen on low budget television shows or heard about from die-hard science fiction fans on the internet. He can’t be– it can’t be this.

The last thing he recalls is Heejun’s voice, shouting out something his mind can’t comprehend as his vision turns black and his mind slips away.

-

There’s a couple of hours left until sunrise, the rain still unrelenting as Seungjun keeps himself perfectly still, perched on the branch of a large sycamore tree just across the street from a derelict house. The rain is annoying to see in, but he can hear the sound of two soft heartbeats loudly enough as if they were right by his ear. There aren’t any other humans in the vicinity, a few owls or squirrels burrowed in their homes, but Seungjun pays them no mind. His target lays right ahead of him.

“You’re getting soaked,” says Inseong, suddenly beside him despite not initially following after the humans with Seungjun. He’s holding a clear plastic umbrella, probably something he picked up along the way; the owner will clearly be upset in the morning to find their umbrella gone. “Yuji is going to complain when you get home.”

“I don’t care,” says Seungjun, grinning. “Aren’t you curious to see what will happen with these two?”

Inseong scoffs, “The short one called me an asshat, I don’t think I look forward to him being eaten by his best friend.”

“They’re best friends?” Seungjun asks, his head tilting in curiosity.

“I don’t know,” he shrugs, “That or lovers.”

Seungjun frowns. He’d hate to be a home-wrecker but what’s done is done. “If you’re offended at him calling you an asshat then wouldn’t you be expectant towards him being eaten by his best friend?”

“No,” Inseong answers simply. “If anything, I deserve to be the one to kill him.”

“Yeah, I forgot how twisted you can be,” Seungjun says, nodding silently to himself.

The other vampire lets out a scoff before rolling his eyes. Right, Seungjun remembers. They’re both monsters.

“Did you really turn him?” Inseong asks one last time, the sound of a single heartbeat increasing frantically from across the way.

“No,” Seungjun answers truthfully, his eyes sad. “I wanted to.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I want him to come to me,” Seungjun says, “Not in the way Yuji makes us come to her. But, I still want to be connected to him somehow.”

Inseong stares at him for a minute, silence passing by them as the sound of the two heartbeats begin to mix with the sound of the rain. “What did you do, Seungjun?”

The grin that breaks Seungjun’s face is a wicked one, white teeth in a perfect row as his fangs slip out instinctively. Oh, he shouldn’t have. He really shouldn’t have, but it was the only thing he could think of, the only way he learned to keep people from leaving his side. “I made him drink my blood.”

“Without draining him?” Inseong asks, and Seungjun revels in the shocked look of the other. “Why would you do that? He could seriously die.”

“Worried for him?” Seungjun teases. Of course, he knows Inseong could care less.

“He’s going to die,” Inseong says. “I thought you wanted him.”

“He won’t die,” Seungjun says matter-of-fact. “Sure, my blood is potent, but he’s a feisty one. He’ll fight it in until the end.”

Inseong lets out a soft snort, his voice almost mocking. “What do you really think will come out of this?”

“He’ll come to me,” says Seungjun, his grin still wide. “He’ll be as close to a monster as he can be. He’ll be alone and hurt and he will come to me.”

“You’re ing insane,” laughs Inseong, but still, Seungjun knows he’s being entertained by this.

Good, he figures. He can drag this out for as long as he wants without anyone interrupting.

-

When Jihun wakes up this time, he feels like he’s just run a marathon and lost. The pain in his body is an aching kind, moving hurts like hell but he at least manages to sit up this time, despite the horrible headache pounding his head in. The sound of Heejun gasping and dropping one of their very few mugs has him glancing over at the kitchen.

“For ’s sake, you’re awake.”

Jihun can’t seem to find his words, his hand coming up to grab at a moist towel still stuck to his forehead. Heejun must have really been worried.

“I seriously thought you were gonna kick the bucket this time,” Heejun says, sliding over to Jihun’s side, broken coffee mug forgotten. He looks more worn down and Jihun can’t help but feel guilty all over again. “It’s been three days this time.”

“I was asleep for three days!?” No wonder his whole body feels like , the couch Heejun left him on is as hard as rocks.

“You wouldn’t wake up, but you were still breathing,” Heejun explains. “Your body felt like the inside of an oven.”

Jihun watches the younger hesitantly bring a hand to his forehead; Heejun sighs in relief.

“Better?” He asks and Heejun nods.

“It physically hurt to touch you. Like, it was like I was getting burned. Nice to know you’re back to normal– well, I mean our standards of normal anyways. Hungry?”

“I–” And then it hits Jihun. Is he hungry? He can smell something cooking slowly on the stove, stew or soup, but it doesn’t spark anything in him. The smell is pleasant, but he has no craving, no painful sting of hunger in his stomach. He feels almost empty. But, if Heejun is correct then he hasn’t eaten for a full three days, he should be starving. Panic slowly begins to set in.

“What’s wrong?” Heejun asks, his face suddenly much closer than before and– and–

Jihun can hear it. He can hear Heejun’s pulse. He can hear the blood flowing in the other, almost as if it were a rushing waterfall crashing over his head. He scurries back, away from Heejun, his body still aching but not as much anymore. A fading pain. What in the world is going on.

“You’re starting to freak me out,” says Heejun, taking a step back as well. “Are you okay, Hun?”

“I-I can hear it,” Jihun stammers, the palms of his hands suddenly turning sweaty. “Your pulse. Your heart. Your breathing. Everything, I can hear it. I can smell the ing stew cooking on the stove even though you never add any seasonings to it. I can feel my body– fixing itself. I can feel the pain going away as if it was never there to begin with. I can hear your heartbeat.”

Heejun has this gobsmacked look on his face and on any other occasion, Jihun would have laughed and made fun of it, but how can he in this situation?

“Maybe you still have a fever,” Heejun says, his hand coming up to press against Jihun’s forehead again and his skin tingles from the gentle touch. “Y-You feel fine. Could this be– whatever it was that vampire did to you?”

Jihun swallows thickly. “I thought,” he fidgets. “I thought I was going to turn.”

“Are you stupid? I was watching you ever since we came back. You’ve been breathing and have had a pulse the entire time. You’ve been alive the entire time. Wouldn’t you have to be– well, you know, before they turn you?”

Dead. He’d have to be dead, drained of all his blood before being turned into a vampire. Heejun would have immediately noticed the second Jihun was no longer alive and would have long ago buried him somewhere far off and desolate if that happened. How could he have rushed to the idea of turning so quickly?

“W-Why am I?” He stammers, trying to find some kind of plausible solution to this. Why is the pain completely gone now?

“You don’t want to– I don’t know, drink my blood or anything, do you?”

Jihun smacks the side of Heejun’s head. “Don’t even say that. That’s disgusting, I have never nor will I ever want to drink blood, especially your’s for that matter.”

“Then you’re obviously not a vampire, you for brains. Not to mention it’s the middle of the ing day and you’d be nothing but dust.”

Oh, he’s right. Jihun can feel the feel warm rays of sunlight sneaking in from the windows onto his skin. It’s bright out, but he can see the blue exposed bits of sky and the green blur of leaves swaying this way and that. He feels fine, even better than when he woke up. The pounding in his head has long ago subsided and his muscles no longer feel the tired pull of strain from moving.

“Why aren’t I hungry?” Jihun asks, but he already knows Heejun can’t give an answer.

“How should I know. It’s like you got all the good things of being– undead.”

Jihun smacks Heejun’s head again and the other whines in annoyance this time. Jihun is not undead. They just cleared this up not two minutes ago. “Stop saying useless .”

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you. You look fine and seem to be doing better than you have in days.”

“Aside from the fact my senses are far too sharp to be considered human and I– wait, you said I was bruised before, didn’t you? Check again.”

Heejun grumbles something, but pulls Jihun forward, yanking his shirt up and inspecting his back for any of the previous purple and green marks that were there before. “Holy ,” he exhales softly. “They’re gone. Jihun, they were huge, like it would have taken months for those to vanish but they–”

“What the is going on,” Jihun says, pulling his shirt back down and standing up to check how well his legs are functioning.

“Do you seriously not remember what happened when that vampire glamoured you?”

“No. That’s the whole point of glamouring, isn’t it? Make them forget, make them numb and blank so you can control them.”

“, does this mean we have to–”

“Look for those bastards? Probably.”

“They were so goddamn creepy,” Heejun says, the corner of his mouth twitching. “We can’t even find the dickwad who– well, how are we going to find these two?”

Jihun stares at the old floorboards of their house, a place they had claimed as their own only two months ago. They had heard rumours of vampire attacks in this town, that was what had originally lured them in. It took them two whole months to track down those two vampires, though in retrospect Jihun suspects they weren’t the ones stated in the rumour. No, those two were just too experienced to be easily caught; to be found by Jihun and Heejun of all people. If anything, they would be found first this time.

“This isn’t a trace,” Jihun says. “But I still think they’ll be able to find us somehow.”

“It’s been three days, Hun. I think they’d have figured out where we are by now.”

“Have you been going outside these last few days?”

“No, I didn’t know when you’d wake so I stayed here. I also haven’t seen anyone either, I mean we’re in the middle of nowhere so that’s a given, but definitely no vampires.”

“Hmm,” Jihun hums in thought. They can’t be that well hidden. Those two definitely would be able to find them, smell them out or something. It wasn’t making sense. They were sitting ducks, even if the vampires couldn’t enter the house, they would still be able to break it down, get to Heejun or him. They could have ended things so quickly. “We should still move locations.”

“Even if we want to be found?”

“Better we find them than they find us first. I don’t like the idea of them having the upper hand.”

Heejun exhales. “There’s that burning pride again,” he says, turning to go back to the kitchen. “My stew over boiled.”

Jihun rolls his eyes, it was going to taste horrible anyways. “We should look for a new place before sundown.”

“Think we’ll be able to find something that fast?”

“We just need to find a place, we can worry about living conditions later.”

“No good, because I want a real working shower this time, I’m tired of having to go to the public bath.”

“Yeah, you stink by the way,” Jihun comments, earning the bird from Heejun.

“You don’t exactly smell like roses either, buddy.”

“The only downside to this all,” Jihun sighs, voice dipped in sarcasm.

-

They’re all packed and moved before evening, a crappy old apartment complex welcoming them. The manager had been crass and rude, but Jihun could have cared less so long as they could move in as soon as possible. There’s only one other resident on their floor, the other rooms being used for storage and Heejun complains about how much junk one manager could possibly have. It doesn’t matter in hindsight, they’ve successfully moved, two duffel bags full of their personal belongings and a box of dishware Heejun had taken from the abandoned house that had been their home for the last two months.

Their room is small, a studio apartment with a narrow closet and bathroom attached. The kitchen (if it can be called one) is nothing but a century old refrigerator and sink. They’ll have to buy an electric stove if Heejun really wants to pursue his cooking career, though their savings at this point are extremely scarce.

“Looks like all we’ll be eating for a while is sandwhiches or ramen,” says Heejun, sprawled across the floor in disappointment. “At least the shower works.”

“We can go shopping tomorrow,” Jihun says, drawing a simple sigil on the floorboard by the entrance to their front door. He takes the small nail in his hand and carves the same sigil on the frame of the only window in the room. It’s an old type of ward he had learned from his dad back in his childhood, something to protect the house from unwanted visitors.

Heejun watches him silently as he finishes up. “We’re gonna have to get jobs, huh.”

“You know it,” says Jihun, albeit reluctantly. He hasn’t had a job since before moving to this town. Their previous hideout had been an abandoned house, no bills to pay despite the water in the kitchen still working. Coming back to modern society was going to be a pain.

“When do we start looking?” Heejun asks, his voice tired.

“More like where, I don’t even know how we’re going to find them this time.”

“Hun, do you really not feel hunger?” Heejun suddenly questions.

Jihun stares blankly out the window. There isn’t a single thing moving outside. “No. I feel fine, I haven’t craved for anything this entire time. It’s…unsettling.”

When there’s no immediate reply he turns to see Heejun snoring softly on the floor, the muscles in his face finally relaxing. He must have been more tired than he let on, probably spending those last three days without sleep. Jihun feels his insides twist. He has to quickly figure this out before he endangers Heejun again.

-

The sun has barely set when Seungjun wakes up, the sleepiness he previously felt before already washing away. He sits up on reflex, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He can’t tell the time exactly, but he knows it’s barely passed seven, a bit early for him to be awake. And yet, he knows that the earlier he’s up the more time he has to spend standing outside on that tree branch of his human’s home, waiting for him to wake. It’s going to be any day now, if Seungjun recalls correctly, the last time this had happened it took less than a week, so by his calculations it should–

“Get dressed,” Inseong tells him, suddenly standing in the middle of his room, a pair of black slacks and a dark navy blue dress shirt in hand. He throws them at Seungjun who catches them with one hand. “Yuji wants to see us.”

“What? We in trouble or something?” Seungjun asks with a light tone. The blank look Inseong gives him makes him straighten up. “Are we?”

“What do you think,” he says, keeping to the blank look. He’s gone in a blink, clearly not up to Seungjun’s antics this night.

He dresses in flash without wasting any further time, letting his fringe sweep over his forehead, the hairs already long enough to brush against his eyelashes. He hasn’t worn his hair down in so long, he’s thinking of getting a haircut by the time he makes it to the overly large living room full of vampires.

“I thought I told you to let him know it was urgent,” says Yuji, tone hard despite her placid expression. Seungjun scoffs. What is she? The queen of their little coven?

“Come here,” she says, though her voice remains unwaveringly calm, her words hold a magic command in them, pulling Seungjun in a lot faster than he’d have ever gone to her. Right, he remembers. She is the queen of their little coven. “Dahye tells me you’ve been leaving every night.”

“Am I not allowed? Sorry, I don’t enjoy being cooped up in here every single night like you ladies do– Inseong included.”

“Even without her telling me, I know. I know you’ve been acting strange ever since the night you and Inseong went out to clean up those pesky hunters. You’ve been preoccupied Seungjun, more so than usual. Something is on your mind and I want to know what it is that has you spending until sunrise outside.”

It’s absolutely terrifying how much she always seems to know despite Seungjun telling her nothing. She waits for him to answer this time instead of forcing it out of him as usual, her pretty little face still as young and fresh as the day she was turned. Will she know if he’s lying?

“I’ve recently adopted a cute little pet,” he says with a soft smile.

Something snaps loudly within the room and it makes Haeryung jump by Dahye’s side. Seungjun had forgotten they were there, but then again, those two are always by their mistress’ side. It takes him a second but he sees the marble underneath Yuji’s feet cracked and crumbling, she must not have liked his answer.

“There’s still a hunter out there,” she says, face awfully calm despite having just broken the floor. “Before tending to that ‘little pet’ I want you to get rid of that hunter. Solji and the others will be regrouping with us by next year and she has those newborns who run rampant.”

“Are we really letting a single hunter bother us this much?” Inseong asks, finally speaking after being silent all this time. Seungjun shoots him a look.

“Yes. He’s not like the others, he seems to have first hand knowledge on not only how to kills us, but drive us away.”

Oh. Seungjun had forgotten. The thing that had separated him and his human in the first place. The siren. Whatever it was had thrown both he and Inseong into a stupor, making them flee before the possibility of capture– or worse.

“That hunter is working with a witch or sorcerer, someone with very potent magic. You two are only a quarter of my age but that should be more than enough for you to withstand most spells, yet something like a siren was enough to drive you away. I want the both of you to track this hunter and end them before Solji’s arrival.”

Seungjun can’t help but scoff at that. They couldn’t do anything the first time and yet she wants them to chase after something they clearly can’t beat. However, it does give him a perfect reason to leave every night without being questioned why. He turns to Inseong who turns back to him, their eyes meeting for a brief second before both vampires bow their heads down in Yuji’s presence. Oh, he’ll follow her orders this time, he’ll find this hunter– but he will go to his pet first.

-

The night is still when he makes it to the house, his mind occupied with thoughts of how they’re going to find this hunter who is in cahoots with a magic user. It doesn’t seem that dire, though he can see the issue with Solji arriving with her vampires, barely turned newborns who can’t be over a decade old. He had hated the idea of cohabitating with them in the past, the very thought of being a babysitter to those he had no obligation to was in no way appealing. Still, if they got out, that hunter would do away with them with ease, that siren was truly an annoyance.

The house is oddly quiet in the night, dark and lonely and Seungjun belatedly realizes that there are no sounds inside. No quiet shuffles or grumbles– no heartbeats. He drops to the ground, not making a single sound as he passes by a window; no one in sight.

They’re gone.

He must have woken during the day then and made sure to move locations before nightfall, before Seungjun could notice anything was amiss. Oh, his human was so smart. So cautious and considerate. So, so foolish.

“Where are they?” Inseong asks, suddenly by Seungjun’s side and the other doesn’t even flinch.

“Honestly, could you stop randomly popping up without warning? It’s getting old…”

“All their stuff’s gone. There used to be a music box on the coffee table.”

Seungjun an eyebrow. “When did you look into their house?”

“You idiot, I could hear it. He would play it sometimes, but I guess you were too busy waiting for the other one to wake up to notice it.”

“Huh,” Seungjun nods, scanning the inside of the house before turning away. “Can you smell it, Inseong?”

“Smell what?”

“He left a scent trail especially for me, It’s practically begging me to follow.”

“I don’t smell it,” Inseong says. “There are still faint traces of two humans here, but whatever it is your nose is catching a whiff of, mine isn’t.”

“That’s because we’re already one. He and I,” Seungjun says, a grin spread on his face.

“Gross,” Inseong gags. “Are you going to them, then?”

Seungjun shakes his head. “Not tonight. I just came here to check up on him, but since he’s already gone, it doesn’t matter. We should go stop by the witch’s house to find any leads on that hunter for tonight.”

“Are you actually planning on following Yuji’s orders for once?” Inseong says, a fake look of shock on his face.

He turns to look at Inseong, eyes teasing and grin mischievous.

“Something like that.”