He was cold, exhausted, and hungrier than he cared to admit, and the last thing Seunghyun wanted when he and Siwon finally managed to slink back to the warmer safety of their ‘home’ was to deal with any sort of trouble.  Especially when everyone should be sleeping, but as soon as they transformed back to their human forms – a process that took much longer than he thought it should have – and stepped in, the Alpha sensed something was wrong.

                “Seunghyun!” N chirped in muted surprise, glancing at the still sleeping Sulli and Taekwoon before he and Kiseop got up to retrieve what was left of the blankets so they could give them to the returning wolves.  “I was starting to get worried,” he admitted, flinching when the Alpha snatched the cloth away and huddled under the fabric.  “Is everything alright?” he asked, glancing between the two when Seunghyun didn’t give him much to go on.  “You guys were gone for a lot longer than we expected,” N added, wringing his hands with a tense look on his face.

                It wasn’t even that Seunghyun was annoyed with the vampire, but something felt off and he had no patience for it this morning.  Especially not with the weird tracks they’d found on their patrol…  “We had to check something out,” he explained in a tired voice, rubbing at his eyes with the back of his fist, the blanket balled tightly in his palm.  Without another word, he drifted closer to the dwindling fire, soaking in the warmth for a few breaths.

                Siwon followed suit with another blanket around his shoulders, courtesy of Kiseop, and huffed.  “Something weird’s going on out there,” he shook his head, working his jaw around a yawn he didn’t want to succumb to.

                At the sound of additional speaking, Sulli hummed on her cot, shifting in place until she could focus on who was present.  “Seunghyun?” she murmured sleepily, blinking through squinty eyes while she peered their direction, almost as if she could sense her Alpha’s presence.

                On swift feet, Seunghyun moved to her side and knelt close, running a reassuring hand over the back of her head.  “It’s alright, Sulli,” he promised in a soft, deep voice, conjuring a wan smile for her to see.  “Just go back to sleep.”

                The crippled wolf sniffed once and nodded, already half asleep again.  “Okay,” she hummed, shifting her shoulders to nestle further against the firm surface, the blanket pulled up to her chin.

                Seunghyun exhaled slowly, staying where he was to listen for anything else that was going on.  The sense of wrongness hadn’t abated yet but it didn’t seem to be affecting anyone else much.  He was about to stand up when he noticed a glimmer of light flickering off Taekwoon’s open eyes while the younger wolf peered up at him mutely.  The Jung had no cause to stay near Sulli like he did; they weren’t kin after all, but he watched out for her when Seunghyun couldn’t and for that, the Alpha was grateful.  To show his appreciation, he gave a solemn nod towards the resting male, who tipped his head in acknowledgement and promptly settled down to sleep again.

                They were certainly living in strange times indeed.  He got to his feet and rounded on N who was busy trying to pester Siwon for information futilely.  Irritated by the gnawing tension dancing on the edge of his senses, he approached the vampire intently.  “What’s wrong?” he asked with a head tilt towards the back, unable to place his paw on the problem.

                For a moment, N looked mystified as he followed the wolf’s gaze, briefly distracted from his attempts at bothering Siwon.  “Nothing that I know.  Unless you’re referring to Kangin’s group still being gone.  Kyu’s group made it back just before nightfall and everyone else is accounted for and resting,” he shrugged, looking to Kiseop to see if the other vampire had any idea what he meant.  The Cha simply shook his head, shoulders rising and falling once.

                “Nah,” Siwon waved off the explanation, his nose wrinkled as if he sensed something too.  “It’s something else.”

                Though he couldn’t be sure himself, Seunghyun cocked his head to the side, ear itching as he tried to make sense of the feeling of tension that continued to tickle his awareness.  “There,” he hummed, turning his full attention to the dark recesses of the halls where subdued voices were starting to rise as whoever the speakers were approached.

                Siwon drifted closer to his Alpha with a speculative look on his weary face, fighting another yawn while they both watched Sunhwa come pacing out of the back with her head down and hands balled into tense fists, a cloudy expression on her shadowed face.  “Uh oh…” Siwon exhaled, making a face as he took a step away and settled down next to the fire, hunkering under the blanket to see what would happen next, and stay out of his Alpha’s way.  Although, both stiffened at the first, intelligible words they heard.

                “Sunhwa!” Daehyun’s voice snapped from the rear, low but sharp.  “I’m tired of you being their !” he hissed, visibly stalling when he was the first to notice Seunghyun standing in the entrance cavern, never mind Siwon, the vampires, and the confused but reawakening Sulli and Taekwoon.

                Sunhwa stopped in her tracks, back ramrod straight at the words.  She looked up as if to turn and growl something in return but then froze completely, paling at the sight of the Choi Alpha.  For a second, she looked very much as if she wanted to bolt back to the safety of the room, an expression of shame and despair flickering over her features.  “Seunghyun,” she murmured, belatedly firming her shoulders like she was ready to defend herself, though she caught her bottom lip between her teeth and waited, gaze flickering back to an equally uncertain Daehyun.

                The Alpha took a long look between the pair and mentally sighed.  He knew Daehyun and Sunhwa were a pair; he also knew there’d been rumors of something else going on.  And right now he really didn’t want to deal with it, but… that’s what Alphas did.  Even when they weren’t his pack members.  Mutely, he gestured for them to join him at the pitiful fire and waited when the two wolves hesitated on moving.

                 When they continued to delay, N drifted towards Sunhwa with a concerned look back at Daehyun.  “Are you guys-”

                “N,” Seunghyun growled a low warning, giving the vampire a long look to let him know he really shouldn’t interfere.

                Affronted at the interruption, N teetered on the edge of shooting something back until Kiseop quietly moved in to pull the other vampire to the side, patting him on the shoulder in consolation.  It did little to prompt either Sunhwa or Daehyun to move again until the latter finally cleared his throat and edged closer, pitching his voice low but steady as he gestured for them to move towards the fire.

                She finally tore her gaze away from Seunghyun, expression still conflicted, but when she looked at Daehyun, her jaw firmed and wide brown eyes filled to the brim with tears that didn’t yet fall.  “You said it was alright,” she finally spoke while moving towards the fire, arms crossed in front of her protectively as she positioned herself closest to the opposite wall.

                “I know,” Daehyun growled, a gruff and annoyed sound that made Sunhwa flinch as if he’d struck her.  Seunghyun hissed through his nose, the precursor to a growl, but didn’t say anything and Daehyun visibly calmed himself.

                 “There’s still a chance,” she whispered thickly, her voice tense.  The Alpha noticed her arms trembling from how hard she was holding on.

                “Sunhwa…” Daehyun sighed, drifting closer slowly, continuing when she didn’t move away.  “I just want you to stop.  It doesn’t matter,” he assured her, taking another step.

                Sunhwa shifted away automatically and snapped at him, “Of course it does!”  She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.  Instead, she whimpered and swiped at her eyes with a shaky hand.  “It’s not like they mean anything either,” she explained with all the shame and despair Seunghyun had seen on her face a moment ago.

                Daehyun snarled under his breath, crossing the distance quickly so he could grab her shoulders and spin her around, forcing the shorter wolf to look at him, or at least face his direction.  “I’m not fool enough to think they do, but every time…” he trailed off, searching for the words as he struggled to make sense.  He took a short calming breath, glancing nervously at the small audience they had, before he bravely went on, lifting Sunhwa’s chin with his fingers so she would finally meet his eyes.  “Every time, they look at you like you’re theirs and you’re not!” he bit sharply, teeth clacking together in his emphasis.

                Seunghyun and Siwon exchanged tense looks while N seemed enraptured by the scene and Kiseop watched on with his typical, impassive expression.  Sulli and Taekwoon were trying very hard to pretend they couldn’t hear everything that was said but it was obvious neither of them would be sleeping anytime soon either.  Obviously, Daehyun and Sunhwa knew more than Seunghyun did about the whole situation and it was getting frustrating with them dancing around the topic specifically.  He cleared his throat and leveled a questioning glare at both of them, silently demanding some sort of explanation.

                Inadvertently, his look drove Sunhwa closer to Daehyun as she mutely asked for support and managed to keep from crying by biting hard on her bottom lip.  When Daehyun wrapped his arm around her shoulder and drew her against his body, she sniffed and took a shaky breath.  “I’m broken.”

                “We don’t know that,” Daehyun scowled, his expression dark, though he didn’t put up much of a fight to refute her.

                When neither spoke to clarify more, Seunghyun frowned and then groaned quietly as N added his own explanation.  “She can’t get pregnant.”  He immediately fell quiet again and retreated to hide behind Kiseop when the Alpha leveled another perturbed glare on the vampire.  He certainly didn’t need help figuring pack issues out from a blood er.

                But Sunhwa merely made a distressed, confirming sound in the back of and nodded.  “I can accept if it’s just me, but… what if it’s not?” she finally cried, body shaking with suppressed sobs.

                Daehyun’s eyes softened and he pulled Sunhwa into his arms, holding her tight as he cupped her head against his shoulder and pressed his lips to her hair.  “It’ll be alright,” he promised, carefully not looking at the other wolves present.  “It’s enough that you tried.  But no more.”

                “But…”

                “Please,” Daehyun whispered, closing his eyes.  “I can’t watch you keep getting hurt anymore.”

                His words finally undid her and Sunhwa broke down in his arms, unable to hold her tears back any longer.  The display made Seunghyun uncomfortable and he was glad when Daehyun carefully led them back towards their shared sleeping quarters, all fight gone from them both.  “N,” he murmured, catching sight of the vampire peeking around Kiseop with steady, but strained eyes.

                “Yes?” N replied hesitantly, unsure what the wolf wanted from him now since he’d kept shooting him down earlier.

                With a glance at Siwon, who was wearing an uncertain expression himself, Seunghyun went on, “Sunhwa’s been sleeping with other partners.”  Uncomfortable with the statement, N appeared as if he wanted to hedge around it but finally he nodded in reluctant agreement.  “How many?”

                N made a face at the question, clearly not happy with it.  Eventually, he sighed with a glance at Kiseop and stepped around the other vampire.  “It’s not like there’s been a lack of volunteers,” he shrugged, wincing at his words.  Seunghyun didn’t appreciate it either and N flinched before he went on.  “Other wolves.  Humans.  Wolf-kin.  Anyone that might… um...” he gestured uselessly as he tried to think of a polite way to say impregnate the wolf.

                Seunghyun raised his hand to stall him, a frustrated frown on his face.  Siwon picked up the questioning though, clearly disturbed by the topic.  “But if Jieun can breed, why wouldn’t Sunhwa be able to?”  His eyes immediately trailed down the cave system where the others were all sleeping, including Sunny.

                “Because she got sick,” Sulli surprised them as she sat up in bed, chewing her bottom lip with one hand resting self-consciously against her stomach in turn.  “We all did,” she added, glancing at the wolves present.

                Seunghyun raised a hand to stall anyone else’s response.  “Which means what?”

                Sulli looked to Taekwoon for support, just as distressed by the possibility, and he sighed before patting her shoulder with his good hand.  When he spoke, his voice was soft but firm, the expression tight with resigned acceptance.  “We were never told what the side effects of the virus would be.  It’s possible even the humans didn’t know the full extent.  But it was created to wipe the werewolves out.  They never said how quickly,” he finished with a depressing air of finality that sank in like a physical blow.

                “No,” Siwon denied immediately, shifting in place with agitated energy.  Seunghyun couldn’t blame him.  If the virus rendered them all sterile, by default or design, then the wolves could very well die out even if they survived this god forsaken war.  It was not a prospect he favored at all.

                Sighing heavily, he shook his head and ran fingers through short hair, pausing to rub the tension out of his neck.  “It doesn’t matter right now anyway,” he sighed, ignoring the dark glare from Siwon.  “Surviving is the first step and that includes figuring out if we need to worry about the thing that made the newest tracks we found.”

                “Eh?” N and Kiseop blinked at the same time, faces clouded with concern.  Sulli and Taekwoon focused on the Alpha again, expressions tense with concentration.

                “I don’t know what made them or what it could be, but it smells wrong and it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he explained with a nod towards Siwon who grudgingly agreed.

                “Was it coming this way?” N asked, ready to call the alarm if he needed to.

                “No,” Seunghyun huffed in dry amusement.  Stupid vampire.  If the thing was coming their way, he would have warned them all himself.  “But I don’t know what it’s capable of or if there are more.”

                “So we need to be ready for anything,” Taekwoon murmured solemnly, looking between the two Chois who nodded in agreement.

                N groaned theatrically and smacked his face with both hands, distorting his features when he dragged his fingers down to tap at his throat.  “Now what?!”

                “I wish I knew,” Seunghyun sighed as he turned to look at the door, beyond which held the cold, harsh land they now called home, and something else he wasn’t sure they were ready for.

~~~~~~

                “You know, I’m glad it’s warming up at least a little bit but why does the sun have to come out now?!” Kangin growled from under the protective covering of his portable shield, the device throwing a large shadow for him to hide beneath.  For a wonder, the clouds had actually cleared enough to accost them with light that had the additional irritation of reflecting off the snow covered ground in the moments when it broke through.

                Next to him, Youngjae winced at a particularly bright flash, hand raised to shield his eyes from the rising glare, though his elbow was tucked close so it wouldn’t get burned from above, giving him an awkward, short-armed, Tyrannosaurus Rex appearance; it would have been funny under different circumstances.  “It had to come out sometime.  And at least it’s manageable,” he shook his head, casting a glance back at the rest of their group.

                Zhou and Ren were running side guards, scanning in every direction, while Jinki held the rear, keeping his eyes and ears peeled for whatever they’d heard when they were in the city.  Ground bound by the unpredictable appearance of the sun, Himchan trudged at the back, willingly carrying their burden from the hospital with as much care as possible.  There wasn’t much worth salvaging, since most had been picked over by humans and scavengers, but they’d been able to break into a couple more secure places, clearing large sheets of debris with relative ease where others would have struggled far more.  His face was pinched in concentration as he focused on putting one foot in front of the other over the deceptive ground, intent upon not tripping.

                “Besides, I’d rather deal with it than whatever that thing was earlier,” Youngjae shuddered, kicking at a stiff snow drift in front of him and nearly tripping when it proved to be a covered tree limb.  “Dammit!”

                Kangin laughed at his misery but then shook his head.  “I know what you mean.  Have you ever heard anything like it before?” he wondered, peering at the older Cho hopefully.

                Disappointingly, Youngjae shook his head and huffed in irritation.  “Not really.  I mean.  If I really listened, I might have been able to figure something out, but I was more worried about the trouble it probably wasn’t worth.”  He turned back and shouted at the Cha.  “Himchan!  Are you sure you saw something in the water?”

                Himchan scowled at Youngjae and snapped, “For the hundredth time!  Yes!  I wasn’t seeing things, Youngjae,” he grumbled, frowning harder as he sidestepped the branch the other vampire had tripped over.

                “I don’t think anything is following us,” Jinki called from the rear, his attention mostly diverted on their back trail, but it was obvious he was still listening to them as.

                “We shouldn’t invite trouble where there is none,” Zhou urged with a nervous glance around, tall, lithe form hunched under his cover when his height worked against him, leaving his feet and ankles open to the light if he stood up straight.  For the moment anyway.  In a short while, it wouldn’t matter since the sun would be more overhead, or hidden behind the clouds, but he dealt with it in stride.

                “I’m not saying it would have been trouble, I just prefer to know what these things are.  Or at least what we’re up against,” Kangin grumbled in annoyance, crossing his arms over his chest and making a face at another beam of light that passed over the ground nearby.  “Go away already!” he snapped irritably, shoulders slumping when it seemed another patch opened up and passed by, just to spite him.  Youngjae chuckled at his reaction and then slowed, making Kangin look over suspiciously.

                “What’s that?” he asked aloud, pointing at a strange, flattened mound not that far from them.  It was odd enough by itself but at irregular intervals around it, he also noticed thin, protruding things sticking out from the snow, looking very much like some sort of single whisker.

                Warily, the group of vampires slowed down and then stopped as they all appraised the object.  “Was that here before?” Ren asked with a furrowed brow, looking around as if trying to sight on something familiar.

                “It’s hard to say,” Kangin huffed, scratching at his hair in confusion.  Shadows fell over the group again when a large cloudburst overtook them, giving him reason to pull the guard down so he could move more freely.

                “I don’t think it was,” Youngjae shook his head, hedging closer to the nearest thing sticking up while he took his protective cover down too.  “We would have remembered it.”

                “Not if we didn’t go this way before,” Kangin rolled his eyes.

                “But we’re following the same path,” the other Cho argued defensively, crossing his arms as he studied the mound and the whisker like thing.

                Himchan shifted nervously with the pack making additional rustling sounds when the supplies moved with him.  “Guys.  We should just keep moving.  You know they’ll want these supplies as soon as possible and I just want to get home,” he pleaded, close to whining but they were all of a similar mind.

                “Just a second,” Youngjae waved, making his way close enough so that he could poke at the whisker thing with his index finger.  “I just want to see real quick,” he added, chewing on his bottom lip in thought.

                “Um.  Youngjae,” Kangin cleared his throat, keeping an eye on the mound before he cast an uncertain look at Zhou and Ren who both looked tense.  And Jinki was wrinkling his nose like he smelled something but couldn’t figure out what it was.  “I think Channie’s right this time,” he added, earning a bright smile from the Cha who was more used to the Chos having stubborn, inquisitive heads.

                “One minute guys,” Youngjae murmured despite their obvious desire to move on.  “I swear I’ve seen something like this before,” he spoke as if to himself, squatting next to the filament.  Determinedly, he reached to grab it with a tense expression on his face.

                His fingers curled around the object.  Something under his feet quivered.  “Watch out!” Jinki screamed, bolting across the distance to shove Youngjae forward as the ground heaved.

                “Jinki!” Kangin roared when the Shim promptly disappeared within the interior of the thing that clamped shut around him.  Spines hidden beneath the snow interlaced together around the edges and something nearby moaned, setting Kangin’s hair on end.

                “Help me!” Youngjae shrieked where he frantically pried at the thing.  It didn’t take Kangin long to figure out why.  One of Jinki’s hands was caught between the edges where a spine had impaled his palm.

                Muffled screams came from inside and in a moment of horrified understanding, Kangin realized it was a monstrously large Venus fly trap.  “Get him out!” he commanded as they all flocked towards the oversized plant.  The group moved to comply but something moaned again and nearby, other buds promptly snapped closed with audible claps as the mound in the center shifted.

                “Ren!” Zhou shouted, ignoring the mass nearby, intent only upon getting Jinki out first.  “Grab and pull!” he commanded, leaping to the opposite side so they could both pry the jaws open with a combined effort.

                Kangin inhaled sharply as something rose up, shedding snow like some sort of erse snake skin, revealing a jumbled mass of knitted roots, what looked like the remnants of a car, and other pieces of debris he wasn’t able to identify immediately.  “Fly!” he wheeled on Himchan, pointing at the Cha with wide eyes before he spun back around to help the Songs.  His hands split open on the spines, coating the sharp surface red and biting to the bone, but he grit his teeth and roared, gaining strength when he saw Jinki struggling to get free through the small slit.

                “It’s moving!” Youngjae warned just before the bud shifted, jostling all their grips and threatening to shrug them off with Jinki still inside.

                “Get me out!” the Shim shrieked in a panicked, pained voice, impaled hand finally coming free when Youngjae helped him.

                “No!” Kangin snarled, digging his feet into the ground as the pod shifted, trying to draw closer to the main mass.  “The stalk, Youngjae!” he hissed, seeing the growth writhing up from under the snow like the other ends were doing, resembling some strange medusa.

                Youngjae wasted no further time as he let go of Jinki’s hand so he could stab frenzied talons into the stalk between his feet.  Electricity surged, crawling over his body as if it were alive, and Youngjae growled with a feral sound when he funneled every bit of power he could into electrocuting the thing.  Kangin felt the charge travel into his hands but the plant bore the brunt of it, lurching from the effect and then losing strength as the commands coming from the main body were overridden.

                “Kangin, go!” Zhou snarled while he readjusted his grip to press down further, keeping the jaws open with Ren holding onto the other side.

                Trusting in their strength, Kangin let go and jumped forward, catching Jinki in his arms as he used the momentum of his leap to yank the other man free.  He felt resistance briefly, a sticky sort of hold clinging stubbornly, then they were free and bowling into Youngjae, sending them all tumbling to the ground.  Youngjae’s electrical charge failed and the pod snapped free with a pained cry from the Songs, clapping shut despite Zhou and Ren’s hold before dragging through the other trio, sending them careening apart.

                Dazed but otherwise unharmed, Kangin shook his head and pushed himself to his feet, stumbling like a drunk man.  “What the ?” he blinked, finally getting a good look at the thing shifting to place the full weight of its regard on them.  He couldn’t see any eyes but it felt as if the thing had no trouble seeing them whatsoever.  Rather unnervingly, he got the distinct impression they were all potential prey to this thing and it made him not look away while he used his peripheral vision to shuffle over to the Shim.

                “Jinki,” he whispered, touching the curled up body and flinching in surprise when his fingers came into contact with something sticky and charred; blood and the scent of burnt clothes and skin assailed his nose, making his stomach turn.

                “Dammit,” the Shim hissed through his teeth, stirring when touched.  “It tried to eat me,” he groaned, getting to his feet with Kangin’s distracted assistance.

                “Guys, get away from it,” Zhou murmured, keeping his tense voice low and all movements to a minimum when the thing simply seemed to regard them, not hostile but definitely not friendly.  The wary tentacles with slightly open traps waving around was threat enough.

                “Come on,” Kangin urged, still ignorant of the full extent of Jinki’s wounds while they backed away slowly, becoming more and more aware of a prevailing smell of blood and wrongness as the battle high and panic eased up.  This close, they certainly didn’t need Jinki’s heightened senses to get a better idea of what the strangeness was: wolf, vampire, human, and something acrid that could only be radiation, but Kangin could also detect undertones of earth and fresh air, untainted by the crap all around them.

                Nearby, Youngjae was blinking awkwardly, apparently disoriented but on his feet.  His body twitched here and there and he seemed to be muttering under his breath.  “Youngjae,” Ren whispered, daring the possible danger to carefully pull the other Cho out of range while the monstrous growth held its ground.

                “Watch it!” Zhou warned with a quiet hiss as the closest four began to move away and the tentacles hedged closer, traps weaving from side to side not unlike a cobra’s head.  “It’s following us,” he added just as softly when the entire mass crawled over the ground, maintaining pace with them while they moved.

                “What’s it doing?” Ren asked in confusion, keeping a pliant but otherwise unresponsive Youngjae moving while Zhou held his distance at the back in case he needed to jump in like he had before.

                “I’d say studying us but I don’t know why,” Kangin murmured, shifting his grip to hold onto Jinki better, acutely aware of the pained sounds he made from the change.  “Hang on, Jinki,” he urged, his lips nervously.  “Zhou.  Is the path home clear?” he asked without looking away, trying to get a sense of what the thing was or wanted.  There was a strange sort of sentience in its presence and Kangin didn’t think for a minute it was just some mindless plant, even if it was based off a Venus fly trap.

                “Yes,” the Song confirmed tensely, a note of uncertainty in his voice.

                “Good,” Kangin nodded, risking a glance at Ren and Youngjae.  “Can you take care of him, Ren?” he called, carefully tightening his grip on Jinki, warning the vampire of the change that might come.

                “Yeah, I’ve got Youngjae,” Ren agreed with false bravado, his voice unnaturally high despite the confidence he tried to evidence.

                The strange grinding, creaking sound the monstrosity made when it moved was beginning to get on Kangin’s nerves and he shuddered.  “Listen up.  On the count of three, we turn and run.  Got it?” he explained in a terse, commanding voice.

                “I can’t run,” Jinki groaned, clinging to Kangin with desperate fingers.

                “I’ll carry you,” he immediately responded.

                “We’re good,” Ren promised with a shaky voice this time, nerves making him unsteady.

                “I’ll make sure you guys get clear,” Zhou explained in a firm tone.

                “No,” Kangin shook his head.  “No more playing hero today,” he snapped without looking back.  “Help one of us if you need to do something but we’re all running,” the Cho explained in a voice that brooked no argument.  He could feel Zhou’s resistance to the command since it went against his nature as a Song, but he didn’t say anything again.  Taking the silence for acceptance, Kangin nodded to himself and started to count down.  “One.”  His strides lengthened just a touch and the creature followed suit.  “Two.”  It kept pace with them.  What if they couldn’t outrun it?  Almost angrily, he shoved the doubt away and prepared himself.  “Here we go, Jinki,” he warned, giving the vampire one more heads up.  “Three!”

                Snow scattered as the vampires gathered their comrades and sprinted away, their feet digging trails in the loose powder.  The groaning, creaking sound continued right on their heels until Kangin was aware of Zhou moving to his back where a hand solidly propelled him forward.  They drew abreast of Ren who was struggling with finding a more comfortable hold on Youngjae and then it didn’t matter as the taller vampire shoved them all along, protecting them as best he could under the current orders.  “Go, go, go, go, go!” he chanted in their ears, doggedly driving them on with seemingly inexhaustible strength.

                And even when they could no longer hear the monstrosity at their backs, when Kangin might have eased up and called a reduction in speed, Zhou continued to press them onward, getting them as far away from the perceived danger as he could.  All Kangin could do was listen and hope that Himchan would keep going to make it home safely.  Someone had to get back, even if they didn’t.

                Not that he personally had any intention of letting some mutated plant get the best of him.  It would be a cold day in hell when that happened.  Then again, did their current environment count?

(a/n: We finally got to check back in with Kangin's group to some rather interesting developments and close calls.  Though it looks like we have some more bad news for the wolves.  They just keep getting the short end of the stick don't they?  >.>

Personally, I enjoyed getting to see a couple more of our other characters with a bit of character development.  And Taekwoon got to talk!  *flails*  So it wasn't a huge scene or anything but I found it immensely satisfying to hear from someone who's been there for a while without saying too much.  Also, the title of this chapter has a lot of significance to the overall story line so feel free to take any guesses if you'd like.  Theories are always fun to hear!

Thank you for taking the time to read and if you're inclined, comments are always welcome.  Take care and please look forward to the next chapter!  I'm aiming to check in with our other Hunters if at all possible.  ;)  Wish me luck!  Woot!)