One
Knights of the SunEven with the scaffolding and the blue tarp surrounding it plus the number of CAUTION signage around, thousands of tourists still take pictures of the church. Dawon can’t blame them; the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Saigon is impressive in its own way, its two bell towers reaching into points towards the clear, blue sky.
A group of tourists jostled him, hurrying towards the city’s post office with murmurs of apology and excuse. Dawon followed them with his eyes and, spotted Youngbin coming out of the building. Their leader caught his eye before blending in with the crowd. Dawon looked to his right–across the street was Hwiyoung, pretending to take pictures of the scenery but the tense line of his shoulders say otherwise.
“One hour, hyung,” Taeyang said stepping beside Dawon. They were both looking up at the church’s bell towers, the place it was supposed to be hidden. “One hour, then I pull you out of there. No questions asked.”
“Of course,” Dawon murmured. “Let’s go?”
Taeyang grabbed a hold of Dawon's arm and an excruciating pain shot up towards his head from where the younger one touched him. Dawon stumbled but Taeyang's hand, switching between warm and cold, steadied him. The light around them bent and refracted, making them invisible to the human eye.
Dawon closed his eyes, feeling his stomach lurch from the entry. Travelling to the shadow dimension has always been a pain in the and no matter how much he had done it, the experience still leaves him weak.
“We’re here,” Taeyang’s voice was only an echo inside his head.
Dawon took a deep breath to try to steel himself for the ordeal ahead and opened his eyes. Rosura, the shadow dimension, is one of the trickiest places in the universe, with things always getting distorted and blown out of proportion and the alternating light and dark can get confusing if one does not have a guide.
“I’ve laid out the path! Hurry and find it,”
Dawon ignored the tendrils wrapping around his ankles as he focused on the task at hand. He took a minute to spot it–a thin, golden thread of light laid perfectly still on the ground. He made his way forward, not letting the thread out of his sight. He worked his way towards the shadow replica of the Cathedral and up towards one of the towers.
Dawon arrived in front of a solid wooden door. He laid his hands flat on its surface, trying to figure out the enchantments used to keep it sealed. After a minute, he smirked, the first two layers of the lock were easy; he took no time to break them; the last one, however, was tricky. It was a complex mix of Alchemy and Enochian, two subjects he didn’t take that seriously. Dawon didn’t know how long he stood there figuring out the enchantments guarding the place until Taeyang bought his attention back.
Thirty minutes, hyung, Taeyang said.
“Thirty minutes! But we’ve only been here for like 10?!” Dawon exclaimed.
Hyung, it's been 30 minutes since you’ve stood in front of that door, Taeyang replied and even though Dawon can’t see him, he can feel the judgement in the other’s voice.
“Okay! Okay!” Dawon said.” Now keep quiet, I almost have it figured out.”
It took Dawon another five minutes, a ton of curse words and a promise to himself to study more before managing to open the door. He was expecting to see something mind-blowing inside the room but what welcomed him was a barely furnished room – a small table near the window, a plain white bed and a red-haired guy sleeping soundly on it.
Dawon hyung!
The panic in Taeyang’s voice made Dawon rush towards the sleeping figure. He touched its hand just as Taeyang started pulling him out of Rosura.
Dawon lay sprawled behind the Cathedral, the lights and sounds of the city overwhelming his senses for a minute. His hand was still holding onto the guy, who was still asleep, as footsteps rang closer and closer. Dawon tried to stand up but he was still weak from the travel fortunately, Hwiyoung's face came into view.
“Hyung! We have to g-!” Hwiyoung looked past him, towards the other figure on the ground. He approached Dawon first, grabbed him around the waist and slung him up on one shoulder. He did the same to the other guy before rushing outside and dumping them both into the backseat of a waiting car.
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From where he was standing, Youngbin spotted the first few figures darting around on top of the buildings. There were only about five of them but he was sure that within minutes, the entire coven would descend upon him. Youngbin sent out a silent prayer that Hwiyoung and Dawon are already on their way to safety.
“Just give it up, Youngbin-ssi,”
There was only one person in the entire world to whom that deep voice belongs to.
“Juho-ssi,” Youngbin greeted as he turned to face the vampire.
Juho’s skin glowed under the moonlight reminding Youngbin of those porcelain statues with their artificial sheen. The vampire gazed past him, towards the city bustling in the night. “You know that I’m the only one stopping them from finding you, right?” he said. Youngbin remained still.
“You really think you could survive an entire coven, Youngbin?”
Youngbin shrugged. “I’ve survived a lot of situations before,” he answered
“That confidence would get you killed one day,” Juho replied, finally looking at him with those blue-violet eyes.
Youngbin smiled and pulled out a broadsword, almost the same height as him, from thin air. “Maybe, but it won’t be today,” he replied.
“We’ll see,” Juho said before jumping on top of the next building. Youngbin felt something lifting from the air around him and within seconds, a number of vampires swarmed and made a tight circle around him.
"Now,", Youngbin murmured.
The space between Youngbin and the vampires started to heat up. On top of his head, something started to rip. Youngbin his sword into it and dragged his weapon down. White light came pouring out of the tear, blinding the vampires. There were some lucky ones who managed to get away but for those unfortunate souls, their shrieks echoing into the night were the only reminder of their existence and even that faded into nothingness.
“Are they gone?” Taeyang said stepping out from Youngbin’s shadow.
Youngbin nodded as he glanced around them one last time. Juho was nowhere to be found.
“Did you get it?” Youngbin asked.
Taeyang nodded.
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Juho noticed the biting chill in the air the moment he stepped inside the room. It almost made him stop and turn around but he knew that doing so would be so much worse. And so he continued until he reached Him, fully aware of Rowoon's worried gaze following his every step.
Kang Chani lounged in a brown leather armchair in the center of the room, both eyes closed as if in deep sleep. Juho remained quiet knowing full well that Chani had been alerted to his presence the moment he crossed the threshold. After about a minute, Chani slowly opened his eyes and found him.
“Tell me what happened,” Chani said.
“I failed," Juho admitted falling down on his knees. He didn't bother explaining himself for Chani would only take that as excuses and the child hate excuses.
Juho watched as Chani stood up and walked up to him. The smile on his face was pure, his eyes wide and shining. Chani stopped a few steps away and extended his hand to him. Juho grabbed it and hoisted himself up.
In the blink of an eye, Chani's other hand grabbed his throat and gave it a tight squeeze that even though Juho is technically dead, it made him grasp for air.
"You know I hate, failures," Chani said with a steady voice. The hand on his neck tightened even more and he felt the cold creeping into his entire body as the seconds passed.
"Chani-ssi,"
Rowoon stepped behind their master and laid a hand on his shoulder. Chani closed his eyes and started to loosen his hands on Juho. The vampire slid to the ground in a huge clump, clutching at his throat.
"You better come up with a plan on how to get it back and fast," Chani warned. "Take care of him," he added to Rowoon before striding out of the room.
Rowoon crouched down and checked on Juho, noticing how the frostbite from Chani's hold was healing slow. "You haven't fed yet," Rowoon stated.
"I did," Juho said, standing up. He wasn't lying; he did feed a little while ago but countering Chani's powers took up a lot of energy and Juho was just glad he had enough or else.
"Come on then," Rowoon said, ing his collar and exposing his pale neck marred only by two small scars that are almost fading.
"Rowoon... no," Juho whispered taking a step back. He was trying so hard to control himself but the scent of Rowoon's blood was so appealing. He glanced at the guy who merely nodded.
Juho's eyes flashed a deep red as he closed the distance between them and without any hesitation, sank his fangs into Rowoon's skin, losing himself in the taste of life for the moment.
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