Donghae peered from the kitchen. His eyes scanned the spacious hall. His brother was laughing about something with a man – a vampire. That was crazy. Why was his brother acting so friendly with a vampire? Even after years of truce, the air between the two species has never cleared completely. Although there haven’t been any fights, any friendly encounters between vampires and werewolves were rare.

When the vampires showed up at their door, Donghae wasn’t even sure what was happening. He had no idea why they had come to his house. He only observed them from a distance with hawk eyes. Donghae couldn’t trust them, not at all. Vampires are known to be fickle. All the stories his late grandfather told him testified to that. If they tried to do anything fishy, he was going to attack them with all his might. That’s why he was watching their every move intently.

Everything was in their favor for now. Five vampires and a room full of werewolves. They could surely outnumber those creatures. Probably that was the reason why Donghae’s brother was at ease. Still, Donghae was quite tense. The moment he had smelt the rusty scent of those blood ers, he was on alert.

“Donghae, what are you doing here?” His cousin, Yuri asked. She was a beautiful werewolf with light brown eyes and sparkling brown eyes.

“Protecting my pack,” Donghae replied, eyes intended on every movement of those vampires.

“How?” She inquired further.

“By keeping an eye on them.”

“What will they do in our territory? Blast this place with a grenade?” She rolled her eyes.

 “Just leave.” Donghae tried to shoo her away. “Let me do my duty.”

Yuri chuckled. Yoona, who was passing by, raised an eyebrow at the two. “What happened?” She asked Yuri.

“Donghae has lost his mind again.” The brunette answered.

“Yeah, what else was I expecting?” Yoona rolled her eyes. That’s how everyone mostly reacted to Donghae. “Let’s go and check out those vampires. They are freaking hot.”

Donghae glared at the two as they left giggling.

“Stupid girls,” he muttered under his breath.

There were three male vampires and two female. One was a tall man who appeared quite young with his healthy yet pale skin. The other one was shorter but pretty good looking. He had to admit, those vampires were a sight for sore eyes. The third one was white as snow. His skin was so pale, it was almost translucent. His hair was a fiery shade of red which seemed strange to him since vampire usually carried dark colored hair with mysterious aura.

Out of the two female vampires, one was cute and extremely pretty. She was young, just like the other vampires while the other woman seemed older than her. She was incredibly stunning too.

Whoever said that vampires were ethereal creatures was true. They were so beautiful. But at the same time, they were dangerous. He was taught not to trust them, ever.

His phone starting ringing, distracting him from his duty of observing the vampires. He answered the call and pressed the device to his ear, not removing his eyes from the targets. The red-haired vampire looked suspicious to him.

“Donghae,” Yunho whispered into the phone. “Come here.”

He frowned. “Here? Where?”

“To my room.”

“I can’t right now. I’m busy protec-,”

“Right now, Donghae!” Yunho sounded urgent. “It’s about the vampires.”

That shut Donghae up. “Can’t you tell me here?”

“No, I can’t. I’ve heard that vampires have sharp ears. They’ll hear you.”

“Okay, hyung. I’m coming.” He whispered and hung up. “I knew these vampires cannot be trusted. What did they do?”

He sneakily left the kitchen and headed to Yunho’s room which was thankfully on the ground floor. It would have been hard to climb upstairs unnoticed with everyone in hall. He ducked a couple of times but successfully managed to escape from the hall and made his way into Yunho’s room.

The room was empty. There was no sign of the man who called him there. He looked around and tried calling his name but got no reply. An unsettling feeling made him nauseous. Paranoia hit him with full force with the scent of vampires still fresh to his olfactory indicators.

“What if… what if those vampires captured Yunho?” He wondered. “They have sharp ears. They must have heard my conversation with him and now they are torturing him somewhere because he found their secret.” He scrapped the nail of index finger against his incisors out of habit. “No! No! No!” He shook his head and spoke with more determination. “I need to do something. I need to save Yunho hyung. I will fight those vampires and rescue-,”

His phone started ringing again and Yunho’s name flashed on the screen. He was relieved for a second but then fear started growing inside him again. “What if it’s not Yunho hyung but those vampires?” He watched the phone ringing in his trembling hands and with courage, finally answered the call.

“What took you so long?” Yunho’s voice came.

“H-hyung? Where are you?” He asked in a timid voice.

“In my room.  I’m waiting for you.”

“I’m in your room. You’re not here.”

He heard a sound of someone from Yunho’s end and a loud bang. “Hyung!” He panicked. What are those vampires doing to my hyung?

“Donghae hyung,” another voice spoke. Donghae frowned.

“Wh-Who?”

“It’s Changmin. Yunho hyung is in my room. You need to come here.”

“Oh!” Donghae finally breathed with relief. Trust Yunho to make a mistake like that. He must have thought that he was in his own room while, in fact, he was in Changmin’s room.

“Hyung, come here soon. We are waiting for you.” With that, Changmin hung up.

Changmin’s room was in first floor and he would have to climb the grand staircase now. That meant showing his face to those vampires. He was not interested in doing that at all. He didn’t want to show them anything of his.

“I can’t go there. I’ll just go outside and climb from the tree.” Donghae muttered. They used to do that whenever they partied out late at night. Though he would always get caught. But Heechul always saved them somehow. Heechul wasn’t around anymore. He had gone to a yearlong world tour two months ago with his husband.

“Don’t worry, Donghae.” He told himself. “You can do this on your own. You’re strong!”

With a sigh, he came out of Yunho’s room, fast walking on his way outside. In haste, he wasn’t looking where he was going, or perhaps the movements of the other person were so fast that he didn’t notice. He collided right into a strong body and reeled back from collision. He almost fell but strong arms wrapped around him and pulled him up before gravity could hurt him.

The first thing that he saw was flaring red hair. They were like fire. But at the same time, so soft and silky. Below the mop of red hair was pale skin, so pale that he would have been able to see the veins clearly if they were there. Perfect dark brows and below those were monolids that ended where dark, long lashes started.

Donghae was frozen for a moment as his eyes met the blackest eyes he’s ever seen in his life. Dark brown iris was there in form of a thin ring. He jumped back from shock and tried to pull back but those arms pulled him back again - the strength of a vampire. He often heard about it, the unmatched strength of the vampires. It was the first time he felt it.

It made him feel insecure and scared.

“Watch where you’re walking!” Cold words spat out from the mouth of the vampire and Donghae gasped. The same arms that once held him were now pushing him away. Donghae stood a few feet away from him, heart thudding crazily inside his chest.

The man scoffed and walked past him muttering “blind dog” under his breath. Donghae heard it clearly. Anger came belatedly.

“Who does he think he is?” Donghae growled. “That bloodsucker!”

He wanted to go after the vampire and teach him a lesson for being so rude but decided against it. If he didn’t show up immediately, Changmin might kill him.

** **

“Changmin!” Donghae knocked outside the window. “Open the door!”

Changmin and Yunho were busy in an important discussion. They were so engrossed with their conversation that they didn’t notice Donghae barely keeping up near the window sill.

“Changmin! Yunho!” Donghae tried again, hitting his head against the glass as he couldn’t risk using h