WARNING! This chapter includes blood and violence. 

Last time:

Cringing, Minseok wrapped one hand in a nearby towel and reached for Kris. With the other, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. Thanking every higher power he could think of for speed dial, he set about calling a manager while lifting Kris out of his own sick.

“Minseok-ah? Did you find him?”

“Yeah, about that, hyung. I think we’re going to need a doctor…”

Chapter Four

“Alright,” Chanyeol said, rereading the text on his phone. “We are all under strict instruction to head back to K’s dorm. Noona will be bringing Tao and Luhan some blankets and pillows, but as of right now, no one but Minseok’s allowed in M dorm.”

“And Kris?” asked Kai.

“Is the reason we’re not allowed in,” Chanyeol said. “Apparently duizhang is sick. Vomit virus.”

“Yeah, okay, not risking catching that,” Baekhyun said. He shuddered dramatically. “Camp out?”

“No,” Luhan interrupted. “Not for all of us, anyway. Taozi needs to be in a real bed—don’t argue, baobei. You’ve been spending too much time in the gym. You need to take care of your back.”

“He’s right about that,” Baekhyun said, squeezing Tao’s shoulder. “Kyung-ah should sleep in a real bed, too. You know how he gets about insomnia.” He and Chanyeol exchanged dark looks.

Kyungsoo frowned. “Then Chanyeol-hyung should be in a real bed, too. He’s been working extra hard on dancing.”

“Can’t have you locking up!” Kai agreed, nodding sharply. “Chanyeol, you and Tao take your and Baekhyun’s room. Kyungsoo has his bed, and Sehun can have mine. Luhan and I will sleep on the floor in the living room.”

Chanyeol’s phone beeped again, and he looked down. “Sounds good, I guess,” he said. “Plus we’re getting tomorrow off—management wants us to all get looked over by someone with a medical degree.”

“Joy,” Kai deadpanned, flopping back against the floor. “Can we go? Only, with ten of us in one apartment, it’s going to take hours for us all to shower tonight.”

He’d barely finished the thought before Tao was on his feet and racing for the door.

---

Kyungsoo woke with a start, hearing loud voices through the wall. Groaning, he pulled his pillow over his face. Seriously? He understood that whatever they were dealing with was difficult, and he didn’t envy them in the slightest, and yeah, he’d probably have been whining like a baby in their shoes. But the late night arguments were really starting to get out of hand. Especially when you took into consideration the fact that there were ten of them all crammed into the one apartment tonight, and no one could escape to another dorm for the quiet.

On the other bed, he could hear Sehun snuffling, starting to wake up. Well, that just wouldn’t do. The maknae had been under way too much stress lately—see exhibit A, hair-pulling catfight with his best friend, exhibit B, in public—and even the managers would admit that he was being worn to the bone. Hard as they had all worked to get Sehun calmed down and asleep tonight—and since when had that had to be a team effort?—Kyungsoo refused to let Suho, Chen, or Yixing’s tempers ruin it.

Rolling over, he threw his pillow to the end of the bed and sat up. Kyungsoo didn’t bother with slippers, just winced as his bare feet hit the wooden floors. Warm as the rest of the building was, these floors were frigid. Still, he steeled himself and left the room, being extra careful not to make a sound with the door.

In the hallway, the argument was far clearer. Yelling, growling, snarling—what were they thinking? His own temper starting to rise, Kyungsoo knocked on the closed door.

There was no response.

After a moment, Kyungsoo tossed caution to the wind and pounded on it, closed fist, full force. He waited a half-second and, hearing no response, threw open the door. “You idiots,” he started, words hissing out between clenched teeth.

He was cut off by an obscene howl. The caged wolves thundered forward on all fours, a mess of fur and fangs and claws.

Kyungsoo’s eyes widened, his heart racing. He tried to step backwards as a large, tan body flew at him, but stumbled. He was falling, he was falling, the wolf—one of his friends—was falling on top of him, fangs bared, claws sharp…and then pure fire was cutting through him.

---

It hurt.

Oh, god, it hurt. He was burning. Sharp threads of fire were tearing through him, cutting him in half. He had a belly of flames and agony. He clapped a hand to the screaming hole of his gut and felt slick bloody and the rough edges of a clawed-open wound. Kyungsoo instinctively grabbed tighter, trying to hold himself together, and that was when one of his fingers slid in to the open gash. Oh!

He screamed.

---

Kai, woken by the arguing, knew he couldn’t ignore it any longer when Kyungsoo’s scream tore through the dorm. Leaping to his feet, he raced down the hall, yelling for everyone else to stay where they were, Luhan, lock yourself in the bathroom.

He was treated to the sight of Kyungsoo falling back against the floor, one hand clutched against the bloody mess of his belly. Kai had a moment to realize that the darker color he was seeing was his friend’s internal organs before he, too, was falling to the floor, hands landing in a spreading puddle of red, knees thunking on the hard wood, gorge rising in his throat.

Fur thundered past him on clawed paws, and he flinched away, not wanting to see blood-stained muzzles and white teeth and know, know, that one of these wolves, one of his friends, one of his brothers, had just killed his best friend. Kai spared a moment to be grateful he’d told Luhan to lock himself up in the bathroom; how much more damage could they do tonight? Catching Kyungsoo’s free hand, trying to ignore the sticky-slick of blood between their palms, he forced himself to smile at his friend. He didn’t say anything, knew that if he opened his mouth the nauseated horror would all come vomiting forth, but he couldn’t leave Kyungsoo alone. Not to die. Not like this.

He didn’t see the approaching wolf, didn’t hear the low growls over the sound of his heart racing in his chest and his breath screaming from his lungs. He felt the bite, though. Sharp teeth sank into his hip, sank in and held, crunching into oh, god, what could only be bone, and then something—someone—was shaking him. Kai creeled, and the sharp sound leaving him was so high and so loud, he didn’t even hear the door opening.

---

“Jesus,” Kang Daesung breathed, looking around the gory mess. “Jinki-ya, do you need me to get hyung in here?”

“I might,” Jinki said, grimacing with the effort of controlling ten minds, three of which were not entirely human, two of which were in agony. He was grateful that he’d had the gumiho over for the night. Not just because it meant he was well-fed and his powers at their strongest, but also because Daesung’s abilities included a little emotional manipulation, himself, and he knew others who did it to live.

“Let go of the normals,” Key said, stepping over the spreading pool of blood, back from investigating what was going on. “I’ve convinced them to stay where they are. Except for Luhan—Daesung, I’m going to need you to…” He made a face. “Charm him, I think.”

Daesung’s bright smile stretched inhumanly wide across his face. “How aware do you want him?”

“You can him on a forest floor for all I care, hyung,” Key said, “but I really think it’s in his best interest not to see the crime scene going in here, and god knows we’re going to need the bathroom.”

Nodding, Daesung slid past him, that peculiar slink to his spine saying he was pulling all of the gumiho to the surface. If he was pulling in that much power, he was probably planning to give the trembling man locked in the bathroom the full benefits of gumiho charm, meaning that Luhan would be stoned out of this planet and glamoured within an inch of his life. But that was no longer their problem.

“And what about the crime scene?” Jinki gritted out. He was starting to sweat.

“Have you got the wolves back in control of their minds?” Key asked.

“No! You can either have them riled with the moon and bloodlust, or you can have them crippled with guilt, or you can have me running their minds. Pick one, Key!”

“Get them logical, but restrain the guilt, if you can,” Key said, thinking quickly. “Let go of the injured ones—I’m going to do a little tricking.”

He darted away, kneeling beside Kai, above Kyungsoo. As Jinki’s pheromone-and-psychic whammy lifted from them, he watched their eyes widening as they came back into their own realities. Before the pain and fear could register, though, Key took over. Snapping his fingers, he let all the chaos in the night charge him up, and he focused that power back on the two young men in front of him. The charm locked down, hard.

Kai fell to his rear, muscles suddenly loose. “Hyung?” he whispered.

Key grinned at him, dizzy and sweat-soaked from the momentary action. “Cut your nerves,” he explained. “Hurt?”

Kai shook his head. “You were the one—?”

“Jinki-ya was,” Daesung replied, stepping back through the hall, Luhan cradled against his broad shoulder. “Incubi can hold minds, sort of. He’s got the others.”

“Am I going to change?”

“Yes,” Daesung said, blunt as a brick. “And so will Kyungsoo.”

“If he lives,” Key muttered.

Daesung kicked him. “He’ll live,” he said. He nodded to where Kai sat on the floor, then to where Jinki had calmed the other three. Suho was still in his full wolf form, as was Chen. Yixing was human, and looking ill.

“How?” Kai asked.

“One of them is going to bite him,” Key said, realizing what Daesung was aiming for.

“And they’re all going to clean the wound,” Daesung said, nodding. “The extra saliva, plus the life-threatening wound—the change will take, and fast.” He shifted how he was holding Luhan. “I’m going to go put this one to bed, and then I’ll be back. On four paws.”

“Is he—?”

“Gumiho,” Key explained, half-watching Daesung explain the plan to Jinki. He looked away when the two men kissed. “And a hell of a lot older than any of the rest of us. Your packmates will listen to him.”

“I listen to him,” Jinki said, laughing humorlessly as he approached. Chen and Suho slunk at his heels. “Kai-ya, do you think you can stand?”

“He can stand,” Key said. He squeezed Kai’s hand, then passed it off to Jinki.

Jinki winked at Kai, then hoisted him to his feet. He let the younger man sag against him, and held him close as the wolves edged closer.

Kai closed his eyes when Chen’s fanged mouth opened. He had seen enough tonight. He really didn’t want to see this.

(For background about what Daesung and Jinki are doing in the same place at the same time, more than the--hurrhurr--obvious, be sure to check out The Taste of Your Lips (I'm On a Ride). But DO be aware that it's rated M.)