Sehun and Jongin were both exhausted after their first trials. It physically took a lot of strength and what they expected for their upcoming trial was something similar, however, always expect the unexpected. 

Sehun awoke with a startle, and he hurriedly jumped up into a sitting position. He blearily opened his eyes and made out Cha Min's face from in front of him. He relaxed a bit, thinking there was no danger but when he looked to his side to see whether Jongin had awoken as well, he found the bed empty. There was coldness to the bed when Sehun lay his hand on the mattress and the bedding at the foot of the bed was ruffled and pulled out as if someone was dragged across it. 

Sehun glanced to Cha Min in fear and worry, not knowing what to think. Cha Min slowly shook his head as if to comfort Sehun while not withholding the truth. "Someone took him in the middle of the night, it appears to be other vampires who subdued him so as to not create a struggle or fight. They left a note declaring they do not believe in interbred marriages and tainting vampire blood any further than what you have already done. They declare that you prove your so called love and come find him before sundown or else they'll sacrifice him in a blood ritual." 

Sehun could not believe this was happening, how could people be so cruel and demanding? Who he loved was his business and no one else should have the right to tell him otherwise. Especially with some lame excuse of tainting his vampire bloodline. He knew what had become of the vampires, ones like him who detached from old customs was actually quite sad now that he had witnessed it himself but him being with Jongin didn't matter at all. 

If they wanted a pure bloodline they should worry about their own family and not all vampire kind. He was completely infuriated with the situation and he resolved to find Jongin no matter what and reak havoc upon these narrowminded fools and teach them not to interfere with anyone else. 

Sehun got out of the bed, Cha Min having moved out of his personal space and given him the chance to get dressed. Sehun quickly pulled on some stretchy clothes that did not limit his movement and quickly washed out his mouth before throwing two mints in his mouth not wanting to waste time. He grabbed his swords and a holster to put it in ready to shed blood and tears. 

He allowed his senses to heighten to their full capacity and went on alert. He did not have the scent capacity of a werewolf. able to distinguish scents with alarming confidence, but his sense of smell was exactly that of a humans, just on a larger radius. Thankfully, Jongin did have a higher smell than most things, given that his pheremones were much more than that of most living creatures.

Sehun attempted to follow it, but it was starting to become difficult and confusing. Jongin and him had spent a large amount of time in this very area training and so their scents were etched into the place thus making it hard to follow especially since Sehun already had to strain just to catch and distinguish his scent in the first place. 

He started to think more realistically and knew he had to go about tracking Jongin in a different way. He began to look for clues that would speak to him about Jongin's whereabouts. 

He jumped and leaped, running to arrive back in his room. The beginning of this whole ordeal seemed like the best place to start. He looked around the room. He saw that Jongin had indeed been sedated given the fact that he was dragged off the bed and the bedsheet only went in one direction indicating there was no struggle or fight from Jongin.

He looked on the ground and noticed something small laying there. Sehun was quite sure that the cave floor did not previously have anything and Jongin and him had been keeping the place quite tidy, especially given the limited number of items they brought along with them and the knowledge that this place was never meant to be their home and that they did not want to even remotely make it a home. Besides, they both felt as if home, the true meaning of the word -a safe haven, a place where you're protected, and loved, warmed by the very atmosphere- home for them was in each other. They provided each other with everything they ever needed and more. 

Sehun bent down to pick it up feeling slightly woozy. He still had enough energy and strength in him to last for hours, maybe more, but he knew that he was not currently at his strongest and that he hadn't fed from Jongin in a day. He only hoped that the physical strength Jongin gave him would be enough, although he knew his emotional support kept him strongest. 

In his hand was a small piece of stone. That in and of itself wasn't too strange and perhaps seemed like a common item to find and behold, especially in a cave. There were small stones and rocked everywhere, but this was a different material. It had a different colour than the cave walls which were dark in comparison to the bright stone, a different texture; smooth unlike the rough and jagged edges of the cave walls, and smelled like it had become part of a body of water. 

Stones typically smelled of earth, they smelled like moss and greenery, however this stone carried the smell of water, like when you pass by a river and can taste the water on the tip of your tongue, when you catch the scent of wildlife and berries, carried by misty air. 

Sehun bent down and checked the floor, he found more of these stones mixed in with ones that came from the cave. It seemed like whoever took Jongin brought in these stones with them. 

He had an inkling of where to go. There was a river not too far from the cave and he was sure he could trace them back from the source of water. 

He took off, running through the cave and then quite literally leaping from the mouth of the cave, not jumping from ledge to ledge, instead flying straight down, off a height too high to safely land, probably too high for a human to survive, but not too high for a vampire. 

He landed skidding a few feet away from the initial drop, and immediately, his knees buckled and he surged forward, flailing around trying to summon his balance before he fell face first on the ground scraping his chin on a sharp rock. It punctured the skin -not as deeply as his ego was from that fall and fail- causing a bleeding gash to form. He winced and attempted to stand up, this time being successful, before brushing off dirt from his clothes and wiping the blood from his chin. 

His energy and abilities were all in mediocre form -he'd like to think if he was in his best form he could have easily landed that jump and took off in a cool run like he envisioned- but his healing capabilites were stalling, this wound probably would not heal completely until he got blood. Sehun normally would have used a blood bag by now, but those were finished and the vampires told him he now needed to rely solely on Jongin to feed, especially given that there was no risk associated to drinking large amounts of his life blood. 

Sehun was going again, running as if nothing could slow him down. He ran and jumped, only tripping and falling a total of three -five, tell no one- more times. What were those fallen tree trunks even doing? He wondered, finally skidding to a stop in front of the river. 

He looked around diligently, trying to find clues that would help him, even going so far as to sniff the air a few times for good measure, but came up short. He followed the river and wondered what was just around the river bend~ He even broke into song, pretending he was Pocahontas. 

Luckily he did spot something fishy, literally. There was a couple of dead fish lying on the ground, they were pulled out of the water it appeared and were left to flop down on the ground a few feet away from the water. Sehun walked over to them and observed they were killed by puncture wounds, it appeared to be claws that cut through but Sehun knew better, on one side was four evenly spaced puncture wounds and on the other was one, more towards one side of the fish. 

This was done by something with opposable thumbs, but clearly had claws. Jongin. Only a werewolf could semi transform, allowing claws to grow from their human hands, thus creating the strange and almost incomprehensible marks. Jongin had left this for him on purpose and the fish were laid off a few feet from each other. They were strategically placed, and if Sehun put them back exactly where they were -he only allowed himself a moment to feel sad for the fish- they lead away from the river and northeast from the cave. 

He followed the direction the fish lead in and began to slow his pace down, not wanting to miss anymore important clues. He noticed a few of the trees had four lines of claw marks dragged horizontally across from it, and this confirmed to Sehun that he was indeed heading in the right direction. He could even faintly detect Jongin's pheremones, but it was hard to pinpoint where it was coming from since the wind was blowing strongly in all directions. 

Sehun noticed the claw marks only lasted a little while. Jongin must have regained consciousness and fought back by the river, even drugged -most probably they drugged him to get him out of bed- before they were able to subdue him again, but not easily, it took them until entering the forest, and even then, more time than that judging by the trees. Sehun thought smugly, before his emotions turned dark and he realized angrily that they must have drugged him again and swore he would hurt anyone who hurt Jongin ten times over. 

He carefully and warily walked in the forest, until he came to an area that looked strange. Upon first glance no one would think anything of it, but when scrutinized carefully, with Sehun being wary of his surroundings and looking for anything out of the ordinary it was clear to see. This place was staged to look like the rest of the forest area, and it was done with such detail and planning that it began to look suspicious. While the leaves on the other trees were beginning to change colours at the very tips, these trees were still green and fresh, they also had much straighter trunks and wider reaching branches than the other trees. The trees with bent trunks and gnarled and tangled branches. Marks of animals and damage taken in stride as compared to the perfection and pristine that was the area Sehun was currently standing in. 

Worst of all, the very ground, the foundation felt different, strange. Like it was pretending to be something it wasn't. As if it was a clever little thing used to telling lies about itself to innocent and disbelieving creatures. As if the very ground posed for innocence when it wanted nothing more than to open up and swallow anyone stupid enough to fall for its treacherous lies. 

That's it. Sehun bent down and pawed at the ground until it revealed a hole big enough to stick his hand through. He reached as far down as he could go, but felt no bottom. He drew a strong and steady breath before beating down on the ground hard enough to shake it. To expose it for the liar and monster that it was. The ground gave away and revealed a long hole. It had a bottom, that much Sehun could see, but it was far enough that no human could even see it. 

Sehun drew in another breath and dropped himself into the hole, trusting himself because with that initial breath, he could taste Jongin's pheremones and knew with every inch of himself that Jongin was here. It was also nearing sundown, he had no time to wait, Jongin's demise could very well be soon and he knew he couldn't hold out much longer, he could feel his energy draining slowly and doubted he could even wield his swords properly, let alone best who knows how many men and he couldn't count on Jongin's strength because who knows what kind of state he'll even be in. 

He landed with a thud, managing to actually land on two feet this time, sliding a bit forward because of the momentum but using that to his advantage to drive himself forward even faster than before, wanting to get there in time. He didn't know how much farther down this underground tunnel Jongin could be. 

It was dark, it had been pitch black for a while since he ran away from the hole he jumped in, the one providing him some semblance of daylight but as he ran deeper into the tunnel, light was beginning to seep into his vision again, but this was no sun or moon light. Instead it was firelight and as he got close to the source, Jongin's face came into view. His heart leaped for joy before he noticed all the bruises and blood that also came into view along with his beautiful face. His mouth was gagged and he was forced down onto his hands and knees in a kneeling position, with his hands and feet tied behind his back. Sehun felt his heart clench in pain. 

He roared his pain out, expressing his sadness and rage for the state Jongin was in, wanting to kill somebody. Before he could do anything, Jongin's binds were cut from a person who emerged from the shadows, but who's face could not be seen in the limited light. This person was aware of that and knew how to keep this to their advantage and remain a mystery. 

Once Jongin was free and ungagged, he was harshly pulled up and then pushed towards Sehun's direction. He came tumbling into Sehun who just barely managed to take the brunt of his weight and keep them both standing upright. Sehun was ready to unleash his pent up rage and frustration onto these savage asswipes leaving it easy for Jongin to take hold of his face and press a firm and insisting kiss onto his lips.

Sehun was confused by this action and didn't know how to respond to the kiss but eventually melted in Jongin's embrace and returned the passion Jongin was giving him. 

Jongin pulled away looking happy and dazed. Sehun frowned despite himself, "Are you okay? I WILL KILL THESE S! WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHO TO LOVE? TO TEST MY LOVE?" He roared. 

Before Sehun could rush into hurting them, Jongin held his arm firmly and pulled him back, shaking his head. The mystery person finally came into view, revealing a familiar face. It was Cha Min. "Congratulations, you have passed your second test. A test that was not in fact out of wanting to test your love for each other. We could care less who you choose to let shove their in you. This is just another test of ours."

Sehun was dumbfounded, he chose to ignore the comment though. "I understand the end result is my salvation and I guess Jongin's freedom from you guys" Sehun muttered the last part, "but did you really have to hurt him?"

Jongin smiled. "This is all makeup. I don't have the slightest injury. Although me leaving clues for you was not in their plan. Although Cha Min mentioned it shows how well we work and since we're both being tested it only helps us. They did give me sleeping medicine to knock me out in the morning when the took me and again when they saw me leaving the clues. Said that they couldn't make it to easy. They also didn't leave any clues on purpose so you were able to rely on yourself and me to find me again. I love you Sehun. I also love that you worry for me when you're not in the greatest shape yourself. Just look at your face! We're going to find our way out of this tunnel, get back to the cave, where you will feed and rest." Jongin said. 

Sehun nodded in agreement, before intertwining their fingers and leaning into Jongin, returning home. 

--

I know this is a couple days late. I'm trying to stick to a weekly schedule if you've noticed. But yesterday was difficult for me, I only got to write around 500 words and most of today I had this splitting headache so I am only writing now. I apologize for being late though...