“I don’t get why we have to wait for them,” Rosé grumbled to Jiwoo as she sat polishing one of her throwing knives. She pouted seeing a scratch on one of the knives and shoved it back into the pouch at her hip frustrated. “I know they’re your...friends or whatever, but you’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself.”

Jiwoo chuckled softly as she tied up her boots and adjusted her foot to make it comfortable. “Obviously I’m not that great at it. I let myself get taken by four vampires.” She looked down at her feet and twiddled her thumbs in her lap. “It’s just...they understand more about rogue vampires than we do. And I’m more than positive that Jackson oppa won’t let me go by myself.”

Rosé crossed her arms over her chest and threw herself back against the couch cushion. “How do you know that you can trust them?”

Jiwoo glanced across at her partner carefully thinking about her response. Rosé has every right to be suspicious of them. They’re strangers. Strangers who happened to be vampires. “Because,” Jiwoo replied slowly, “I’m still alive. They didn’t kill me. Bambam is the least threatening person in the entire world. Jaebum oppa, Youngjae oppa...they’re both kind. They’re all good people. I heard their stories. Jaebum oppa only wanted to do good after his change. He saved both Youngjae oppa and Bambam, gave them both a second chance. Bambam stayed the same person he’s always been…”

“And what about Jackson?” Rosé didn’t sound convinced yet. In fact, she sounded even more hostile than before. Maybe she thought Jiwoo was just making excuses for them to try to make them seem human when they obviously aren’t.

“Jackson oppa wants to keep the promise he made to my real brother. He was there with him through his last moments.” Jiwoo frowned trying not to get choked up at the thought. “He… listened to my brother babble on and on about me. Probably for hours every day. He saved me when that monster in my brother’s body tried to kill me. He’s a good person, Rosé.”

Rosé pursed her lips tightly and looked down. She still didn’t seem convinced.

“Look,” said Jiwoo, “I know you have trust issues with vampires ever since what happened with Jennie but please, try to push past it with them.” Jiwoo reached over and grabbed one of her partner’s hands, squeezing it tightly. “I would’ve been dead if it weren’t for them. Or worse, I could have ended up like Jungkook. Hell, you guys would’ve been dead if it weren’t for Bambam. All I’m asking is for you to at least try.”

Rosé stared into Jiwoo’s eyes for a long time before sighing. “Fine. I’ll try for you. But if any of them step a toe out of line, I swear, I’m going to carve their hearts out.”

Jiwoo laughed at her friend’s statement and nodded. “Alright. Thank you.”

Just then, Bambam came walking into the living room with Yugyeom after him and moved to Jiwoo’s side. He held out her weapons and gear to her. “Here. You’ll need these.”

Jiwoo grinned taking them from him excitedly. “Thanks.”

She stood off the chair she was sitting on and proceeded to tug on her gear.

Rosé shifted her gaze over to Yugyeom and frowned. The daggers he had at his hip looked different. They weren’t the daggers he came with. “Are those new daggers?” she asked.

Yugyeom grinned and pat their hilts. “Sure are.”

“You get new weapons too,” Bambam said holding out a pouch to Rosé. “Throwing knives.”

Rosé slowly took the pouch from him, her eyes widening when she looked at them. “What…These are expensive…and gorgeous… W-Where did you get them?” She looked up at Bambam her eyes shining with glee.

Bambam shrugged. “Jaebum hyung got them. He wanted to thank you guys for your loyalty to Jiwoo and to compensate for your troubles to find this place. He noticed your weapons were all outdated and worn down and got you all new ones.”

“Wow, that’s...I’ll have to thank him.”

“He got Mark hyung a new gun too! And Lisa got a new sword! He’s so nice,” Yugyeom exclaimed with a grin.

Rosé chuckled, her fingers playing with the new knives she received. “Yeah, I guess he is.”

“He also said he got them because he appreciates your understanding for helping us out even though we’re vampires. He knows how difficult it could be to help out a bunch of strange vampires.” Bambam rubbed the back of his neck. “He really appreciates all the help. We’ve been alone at this for a long time.”

A smile grew on Rosé’s face and nodded. “Of course we’ll help. This is what vampire hunters are supposed to do. Get rid of the vampire threat. We wouldn’t be doing our job if we sat back and let the rogue vampires take over, would we?”

“Couldn’t have said it any better.” Jiwoo grinned at Rosé’s words. She was glad to see full trust in her partner’s eyes.

“Hey,” Youngjae said, poking his head into the living room. “You guys ready? It’s time to go.”

The hunters and Bambam filed out of the living room meeting up with the others by the front door. Jaebum glanced at the group doing a headcount and frowned. “Where’s Jackson?”

“Here.” Jackson popped up behind Jiwoo and Yugyeom and saluted to Jaebum with two fingers. “I’m here.”

Jaebum rose an eyebrow scanning Jackson. He noticed something different about his fellow vampire. “You look like you had a good rest.”

A sly grin played on Jackson’s lips as he hung an arm over Jiwoo’s shoulders. “Refreshing.”

Jiwoo giggled softly and nudged Jackson in the ribs. “Shhh.”

Jaebum made a face of disgust looking at the two of them. “Right. Anyway, we should probably hurry. The rogue vampires might be up to—”

There was a gust of wind that blew into the house. All the vampires in the room were on high alert when a thick smell of blood wafted in the air instead of the smell of the forest.

“Something’s happened,” Bambam said. “We have to hurry. It smells like it’s coming from headquarters.”

“What? What smell?” Mark frowned.

“I don’t smell anything.” Lisa tried to sniff the air to see if she could smell what they could, but with no luck.

“Blood,” Jackson replied. “The rogue vampire’s attacked the vampire hunter’s headquarters. We have to go now.”

The vampire hunters all, in their state of shock, were quick to bolt out of the house after hearing that. Their friends, their home was being threatened. They had to act fast before everything they ever knew was gone. They all had to hurry before it was too late.

The hunters and the vampires were all running together down the path hoping to not run into any distractions when they bumped into Joonhyuk and the two hunters he had brought with him.

Jiwoo’s eyes widened. “D-Dad...what...oh, you’re safe. Thank god—”

Joonhyuk said nothing and he looked at everyone behind his daughter. “Hm, disobedience and fraternization with the enemies. I should just exile all of you.” He glanced back down at his daughter. “I’m disappointed in you.”

Jiwoo frowned and looked down without saying anything. Jackson growled low and stepped in front of her. He opened his mouth to say something when Jaebum put his hand on his shoulder.

“Jackson, don’t.”

Joonhyuk tilted his head as he studied Jackson. “Killing my son wasn’t enough for you that you have to keep my daughter as your little snack?”

Jackson growled again, his eyes flashing a threatening red. The two hunters behind Joonhyuk both wielded their weapons causing Youngjae and Bambam to be put on alert, both baring their fangs.

“Please, listen to us,” said Jaebum. “We all must hurry and return back to headquarters. Something has gone wrong.”

Joonhyuk scoffed, his eyes locked with Jackson’s. “What makes you think you can give me orders? Who are you to tell me what to do, you damn leeches?”

Jaebum pinched the bridge of his nose, cringing at the insult. “Jackson, just do it.”

Jackson smirked as his eyes flashed a bright red, the two hunters and Joonhyuk all were quickly put in a trance. “Listen up, s. Come with us back to the vampire hunter’s headquarters. The rogue vampires have attacked and you’re wasting our time by being such heads.” He pushed Joonhyuk in the forehead with his finger out of annoyance. “Especially you. Now come on. We don’t have much time. We’ll be lucky if we get there and there are survivors.”

Joonhyuk and the other two hunters turned around and headed back down the path with the others following them.

“I can't believe you just did that,” said Mark. “How can you just stand up to him like that?”

“What? You guys scared of him or something?” Jackson rose an eyebrow.

“Uh, yeah. Kinda.”

“He seems to just be all talk and no action to me.” Jackson grabbed onto Jiwoo’s hand tightly. “You have to stand up to him some time.”

Jiwoo stared at the back of her dad’s head and sighed. “One day…”