“We have a problem.”

N did not want to hear that after getting home with Hyorin. They’d had a great time together. He’d managed to get her mind off what had been troubling her. She’d been smiling and laughing all thanks to him. And now there was a problem that would undo all of that.

“What do you mean?” N asked Leo as the heat demon lead the way to the basement.

“One of them got away,” Leo explained, “I turned by back for one second and he got up and sent Hyuk into a wall. Before I could turn around, he’d done the same to me. Ken and Hongbin showed up and he took off.”

“Don’t know how he managed to cut the ropes,” Hongbin frowned, handing over the severed ropes to N, “but he did.”

“You look worried,” Hyorin said, bending down so that she could get a better look at the wind demon that’d been left behind during BamBam’s escape.

“Once my master knows where I am,” the demon confessed, “and that I’ve let you know who you’re dealing with, they’ll have no further need for me.”

“But you’re master can’t touch you if you’re here with us,” Hyorin tilted her head in confusion, “so why are you scared.”

“My master can still manage to hurt us,” he said, “no matter how far away we are.”

“I don’t understand,” Hyorin told him, a hint of fear creeping into her voice.

“Let’s go,” Ravi said, pulling her away once he heard the fear in her tone, “N hyung put in a lot of work getting your mind off this guy’s master. I’m not going to let that work go to waste.”

As he led Hyorin back to the main floor, she looked back. The wind demon looked so scared, petrified at the idea of what his master was going to do to him. Hyorin honestly didn’t want to know what would be done to him.

--

“Two days and nothing,” N scowled down at the wind demon, “no sign of your master. No sign of your brothers. No sign of anything. Do you know what I think?”

“No,” the wind demon shrugged, trying to sound like he didn’t care, “but I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

“We all think you’ve been lying,” Ken said, “You probably don’t even have a master, let alone a contract. When you told Hyorin all of that, it was just to mess with her. To hurt her mentally.”

“But we aren’t going to let that happen,” N growled, “we will never let you or your brothers hurt our master.”

“Cut to the chase,” Leo sighed, “just let me melt him into a puddle of goop and we’ll be done with it.”

“Let them be,” Hongbin patted the elder’s shoulder, “they’re working off stress. This guy scared Hyorin. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want to see him suffer a little before we take him out.” Leo said nothing, instead settling in to watch the show N and Ken had planned.

Suddenly, the wind demon started screaming in pain. VIXX jumped back in shock, looking at each other expecting one of the others to say ‘oh, that’s just me guys.’ But no one took responsibility and they all turned back to the enemy demon. Maybe he hadn’t been lying after all.

The demon fell over onto his front, allowing for VIXX to see the blood that was starting to stain the back of his shirt. It looked like claw marks where being made across his back by hundreds of invisible claws, minus the shirt getting ripped apart as well.

“What’s going on?” the six turned to find Hyorin starting to come down the stairs, Yong Guk close behind her.

“Get her out of here,” N yelled, but not in time.

N watched as Hyorin’s eyes widened in horror at the sight before her. Even as Yong Guk pulled her back up the stair steps, Hyuk and Hongbin rushing to help, her eyes remained locked on the wind demon. Blood was starting to stain the floor and to make matter’s worse, claw marks started to appear on the demon’s arms which were in plain view because his shirt had short sleeves. Looking at the cuts on his arms, one could get a very good idea of how his back must look.

“Darn it,” Ken hissed, trying to hold the wind demon still, “how is this happening?”

“I’ve never heard of a demon that could do something like this before,” Ravi growled, moving to help the sound demon, “creating wounds like this without being in the room? How is this possible?”

“Worry about that later,” Leo ordered, “right now we have to make sure he doesn’t die on us.”

N simply watched his brothers’ work, passing Leo whatever supplies he needed to treat the claw marks. Eventually, new claw marks stopped appearing but the damage had been done. The wind demon could barely keep his eyes open and his cries of pain had died long ago. Leo and N shared a look, knowing that the wind demon would likely not make it through the night in his current condition.

“Let me heal him,” all four turned to find Hyorin rushing down the stairs, Hyuk and Hongbin close behind trying to pull her back.

“No,” N told her, grabbing her arm and keeping her away from the wind demon, “you’ll wear yourself out yourself healing him. Healing that much damage could even drain you so much you’d get hurt.”

“I can’t let him die,” she argued, trying to pull away, “please let me heal him, N.”

“Alright,” N finally gave in, “but the second it starts to drain you, I’m pulling you away. Got it?”

She nodded and rushed to the wind demons’ side. VIXX watched as their master focused on healing their enemy.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Hyuk whispered to Hongbin. The empath shrugged, but silently hoped that the wind demon managed to recover from his injuries. Hyorin would be devastated if he died despite her attempt to save him. N and Leo shared a similar thought. It would do their master no good if the enemy demon died. Silently, they swore to kill him if he dared to die on them.

“He’ll be fine now,” Ken told Hyorin a little while later, “you healed the worst of his wounds. He’s going to be alright, so you can stop now.” Hyorin looked reluctant to stop, but did as asked when she realized she was starting to feel tired.

“Let’s go,” N said, taking her hand and leading up to her room, “you need to rest. We’ll deal with all of this again in the morning.”

A/N: oh my, how did JB’s master manage to do that to him? But good thing Hyorin managed to heal him, right?