As the sun began to sink below the horizon, Jaejoong began to fret once more. Without being told, Taekwoon knew it was time to go. He quickly rounded up Wonshik and Jaehwan (the latter still annoyingly cheerful), telling them they were leaving the place that had been their home for several, long months. With a quick word from Jaejoong, they left the mansion, yanking the hoods of their cloaks up to protect their faces from the last rays of sunlight filtering from the blood red sky.

“We should feed,” Jaejoong said, barely ten minutes into their trip.

“We fed two days ago,” Taekwoon frowned slightly, confused.

“We should feed now too,” Jaejoong glanced back at him. “There are people camping nearby. They won’t mind,”

Wonshik let out a snort and a chuckle. “They never do,”

Jaehwan laughed. “That’s because hyung sings like an angel and Jaejoong is an angel,”

Feeling embarrassed, Taekwoon turned just enough to swat the younger across the head. Jaehwan laughed, pushing the offending hand away.

“How many?” Taekwoon asked, turning back to Jaejoong.

“Six adults, four children,”

“Don’t touch the children,” the eldest said without hesitation. Even if he was a vampire, he still harboured that protective love he’d always felt towards young mortals. They were far too innocent to have the blood drained from them. It made him feel ill that there were vampires that specifically sought out children, simply because the young blood ‘tasted sweeter’.

“They won’t wake,” Jaejoong promised. “Just don’t make too much noise,”

The coven slowed to a jog as the scent of the humans began to reach them. They fanned out, Taekwoon and Jaejoong approaching from the front while Wonshik and Jaehwan split up, looping around the sides of the campsite and ducking into the bushes to wait, near silence falling around them like a blanket. Not a single cricket chirped in the forest; the only sounds were the crackling of the small fire and the cheerful banter of several voices from the campsite. The smell of roasted marshmallows lingered in the air, faint, but prevalent to the vampires.

Still tucked safely in the bushes, Taekwoon began to sing softly, his soft, ethereal voice echoing through the trees. The tune was wordless, but it didn’t need anything more. It was powerful enough as it was. The chatter from the campsite cut off abruptly, a few of the voices asking who was singing, but as Taekwoon sung louder, they stopped questioning the out of place sounds.

Without ending his song, Taekwoon motioned Jaejoong forward. Without hesitating, the striking vampire slid into the clearing, allowing the humans to see him. They stared, both men and women transfixed as he stood just on the edge of the tree line. He smiled, showing his perfect teeth, his fangs invisible from the distance they were at. He beckoned them, a gesture so welcoming Taekwoon thought anyone would’ve fallen for it. The humans stepped towards him, their eyes locked on Jaejoong, refusing to look away.

Taekwoon was still singing as he stepped out of the bushes, waving Jaehwan and Wonshik from their hiding spots. Pocket knives glinted in their hands as they stepped up behind the humans. Helpless beneath the spells, the humans barely flinched when the steel cut into their wrists, the vampire’s lips the blood from their veins. Their wounds healed with several , but they passed out immediately afterwards, pale and silent. The knives passed between hands and soon, Jaejoong was drinking deeply along with Taekwoon, a soft humming still coming from the latter’s throat. When the morning came, the humans would remember nothing, though they would be a little sore in their wrists where the knife had cut, even if there would be no mark.

Wonshik laid the last human back in their lawn chair and stood up straight, the last of the blood from the corners of his mouth. He stepped back towards the waiting group, brushing the shock of white hair off his forehead.

“Where to next?” He asked.

“We keep going,” Jaejoong replied. “These people will be okay. We can leave them like this,”

Taekwoon nodded, glad at the very least wild animals wouldn’t bother them. They didn’t need to be responsible for indirectly killing them. It would’ve ended up being no different than biting them, which they never did because of the venom contained in their teeth. If they bit every human they drank from, there would be a serious surplus of vampires in the world. It didn’t mean every vampire did what Taekwoon’s coven did. Many vampires simply bit a human and drained every drop of blood from their veins. Of course, that also left a body trail, which made it easier for them to be tracked by vampire slayers. Taekwoon preferred to use knives and not kill the humans he fed from. It also made it easier to drain blood into bottles to save for later if the thirst was mild. Collecting and saving blood was a rather common practice in their coven, but if they were travelling, they didn’t have that luxury. Their feeding habits had kept them alive for many, many years compared to most of their brothers and sisters who’d been tracked, caught and killed because of their rather foolish habits.

Leading the way, Jaejoong continued onwards through the trees. Taekwoon kept his eyes on the younger vampire, feeling the blood steadily strengthening him. He really hadn’t needed it just yet, but it was nice all the same. Jaejoong must’ve had a method to his madness, as he usually did. Taekwoon just wished he would talk soon. He was seriously starting to become anxious, especially since Jaejoong was leading them to the very edges of their claimed territory. Another mile or two and they’d be in the range of clans of known slayers, some of them so skilled, they only needed a handful of people to function.

I really hope you know what you’re doing, Taekwoon thought numbly, starting to regret even trusting the younger this time around.

...

Yoochun had forgotten he’d even lied down when he was being shaken awake by Junsu. With a groan, he rolled to the edge of his bed, fumbling for the silver tipped wooden stake on his bedside table. He sighed heavily when he missed and bumped it with his fingers. It rolled off the edge and clattered to the floor.

“Well you’re dead,” Junsu said tonelessly, making Yoochun snort.

“Get out,” he grumbled.

Junsu laughed. “Get up, Yoochun,”

Dragging his legs out from under the warmth of his blankets, he stuffed his feet into his shoes and grabbed his fallen stake, snatching his vest off the back of the desk chair. He had more stakes tucked inside the garment. A slayer could never have too many stakes. Junsu even had four of them tucked in his pants, two on the outside of each leg.

Stifling a yawn, Yoochun headed out of the room with Junsu and down the stairs, meeting up with Gikwang and Dongwoon who looked equally as groggy.

“Let’s do this,” Dongwoon said, almost drunkenly, making Gikwang snicker slightly.

They slid out the door and headed towards the train yard, rubbing their eyes and yawning wide enough to make them resemble snakes. When the finally reached the train car housing the imprisoned vampire, they greeted their fellow slayers and sent them back towards the house. Hongbin cast them a sleepy smile before heading on his way. Yoseob looked beyond relieved to have the shift over. Very quickly, he jumped onto Junhyung’s back, making the other boy stagger slightly. After a quick moment of readjustment, Yoseob was being piggybacked towards the house.

“Keep an eye open,” Hakyeon said, the only one who still looked even somewhat awake. “The crickets went silent about half an hour ago. They started chirping again, but still,”

Junsu nodded. “We’ll keep an eye out,”

Hakyeon nodded, his brow furrowed. “I’ll probably be up for another few hours. So if something happens, send a runner and holler,”

“We will,” Gikwang promised.

Nodding and offering a slight smile, Hakyeon turned and headed after the three who were wandering back towards the house. Yoseob looked to have passed out on Junhyung’s back.

Climbing up into the shipping crate once again, Yoochun took a seat on the edge, dangling his feet over the side. Dongwoon hopped up beside him and did the same while Gikwang and Junsu clambered up the ladder to sit at the top. Keeping one eye on the woods surrounding the area, Yoochun took a breath and turned towards Dongwoon, offering a slight smile.

“Good morning,” he said quietly.

Dongwoon snorted and shook his head, twirling his stake between his fingers. “No kidding,” he mumbled.

Trying not to think of the vampire lying unconscious with Hyunseung’s rod in his chest, Yoochun turned his eyes up towards the sky. He silently thought about the number of times he and Jaejoong had taken watch together. They would often chat quietly, swapping made up on the spot stories or playing word games. Though it distracted them from the actual watch itself, they both knew there was usually very little to worry about in the night unless the crickets stopped. A silent forest was a deadly forest. One of the major signs of a nearby vampire was the choking silence that suffocated the air. The animals knew there was something...unnatural in the nearby. When there was, they hid, tucking themselves away and remaining perfectly quiet out of pure fear. Most humans didn’t know the signs, but slayers did. The more vampires nearby, the more complete the silence truly was.

Dongwoon began playing some sort of game with his fingers, bending them one by one in a rhythmic pattern while mumbling softly under his breath. Wondering what he was doing, Yoochun couldn’t help but copy him.

“It’s a trick,” Dongwoon explained. “My mother taught it to me. It helps you know when you’re dreaming,”

“Really?” Yoochun asked.

Dongwoon nodded. “You come up with a pattern and you repeat it over and over again while you’re awake. Mine is middle, pinky, index, ring, thumb. I’m challenging myself to not bend my other fingers while I do it,”

“How does it help with dreaming though?”

“Well...when you have waking habits, you tend to dream about them too,” Dongwoon explained. “So in your dream, you’ll find yourself doing this,” he bent his fingers in his pattern again, “you’ll see it, and it’ll be just a little bit off. You’ll know you’re dreaming,”

“Wow, that’s...impressive,”

Dongwoon nodded. “It’s always helped me because I’m prone to nightmares. Now I know when I’m dreaming so I can’t be as scared,”

“I’m sorry to hear that,”

He shook his head. “It’s a rough business, this vampire slaying,” Dongwoon confessed, folding his hands in his lap. “Honestly, I’ve always been one of the weaker slayers. Things haunt me in ways they don’t haunt Gikwang or Yoseob,”

“What about Hyunseung?” Yoochun couldn’t help but ask.

“You heard the story then?” Dongwoon asked.

“Just a little,” Yoochun replied. “Junhyung said his family was killed,”

“Yeah, Hyunseung had it rough. A vampire killed his fiancée who was pregnant with his child. She was eight months pregnant when she was attacked. It...might’ve been the same one that attacked your clan,”

“The red eyed one...” Yoochun mumbled.

Dongwoon nodded. “Honestly, I don’t think Hyunseung sleeps. Ever. If he does, it’s probably not restful. He’s too wired and full of hate,”

Yoochun nodded. “I would be too,”

“You don’t seem to be,” Dongwoon said calmly. “Considering a vampire took your friend and your whole clan...you’re not like Hyunseung,”

“I guess...it’s because I’ve always just felt...Jaejoong was alive,” Yoochun confessed. “As long as he’s alive, I feel like everything’s going to be fine, even if I lose everything else,”

“You must’ve been really close,”

Yoochun nodded. “We are. This is going to sound weird, but...I’ve always been convinced he was my soul mate,”

Dongwoon chuckled. “Nah, that’s cool,”

“We joked about it a lot,” Yoochun confessed. “It annoyed the hell out of Junsu,”

“I’ll bet,” Dongwoon was grinning now.

“He would always tell us to get a room,”

He raised an eyebrow that time. “Wait, were you...?” he didn’t finish the sentence, but Yoochun knew what he was implying.

“We weren’t dating,” he simply said. “Just really close. And Junsu was really just joking around. He would tell us to get a room even if we were just hugging,”

Dongwoon snorted. “Cute,” he turned his gaze back towards the forest, glancing around. Yoochun did the same, listening to the sound of the crickets and smiling slightly. They really had a sweet sound. It put him at ease.

As though a switch had been flicked, the chirping faded away. Yoochun felt his heart clench as he gripped his stake tightly, jumping to his feet and peering towards the forest, craning his neck around the side. The rustling coming from Dongwoon, signalled he was doing the same. The sound of two bodies thumping into the top of the crate told them Junsu and Gikwang had flattened themselves down, searching and watching.

The chirping didn’t start back up again, but worse than that, there were no signs of anything. Trying not to tremble, Yoochun once again peered from out of the crate, his eyes locking onto a stretch of thick bush seven tracks away. Swallowing, he saw a branch rustle, and a moment later, the vampire emerged, his golden hair shining in the moonlight, his skin glowing like polished marble. It took his breath away, and Yoochun immediately felt an inescapable urge to rush to him and touch him wherever he could reach.

The vampire raised his head, his eyes like sunlit leaves meeting his almost immediately. Yoochun felt his throat tighten, tears burning at the back of his eyes. Nothing was the same anymore, and yet, Yoochun knew exactly who he was looking at. The name spilled from his lips as he half stepped, half fell from the shipping crate, whatever common sense he’d harboured all his life gone in a single second.

“Jaejoong,”

Dongwoon’s hand grabbed his shoulder roughly, snatching him from the enchantment. He heard the faint sound of a body hitting the ground from a height and the whip of a bush in the direction of the house. He immediately knew either Junsu or Gikwang had just leapt off the crate and started running back towards the others. He was almost certain it had been Gikwang. Junsu could never have made a jump like that; he generally never liked heights to begin with.

The vampire took a few steps towards them, raising his hands up in surrender as the smallest of smiles graced his features. Yoochun wanted to cry.

“Yoochun,” the vampire’s voice was like the warmest sound of a wind chime, lilting and mysterious.

“You’ve changed,” Yoochun rasped.

“I know,” Jaejoong confessed, bowing his head. “Believe me, I couldn’t do anything to stop it. He had me tied up,”

Dongwoon was on edge, his eyes darting from Yoochun to Jaejoong and back to Yoochun, confused and wondering what he should do.

“I’m not going to hurt anyone,” Jaejoong said, folding his hands in front of him. “Though I guess you don’t quite trust me because I’m a vampire,”

“What are you doing here?” Yoochun questioned, knowing full well the other slayers would be here any second. “Do you have any idea—”

“I know what’s going to happen,” Jaejoong said calmly. “The other slayers are going to come through that bush over there and try to kill me, but they won’t. I’m too fast. All I want is for you to listen to me and hear me out. If you don’t trust me, everyone at your camp is going to die,”

“What are you talking about?” Dongwoon swallowed.

“I’m talking about the red eyed vampire. Tomorrow night he’s going to attack, and he’s going to kill everyone. Well...almost everyone,”

“What do you mean almost everyone?” Yoochun questioned.

“He’ll leave two of you alive. More specifically he’ll kidnap them and turn them into vampires, like he did me,”

“How do you know all this?”

“Because I’ve seen it,” Jaejoong smiled slightly. “My coven leader is about to come out of the bush,”

No sooner than he’d finished the sentence, a second vampire emerged from the woods, his golden eyes gleaming in the moonlight as he stared accusingly at Jaejoong.

“What the are you doing?!” He hissed.

“Trust me!” Jaejoong said, turning towards him. “Please!”

The vampire opened his mouth to say something else but his head quickly whipped in another direction. Yoochun glanced to where he was looking, seeing the last of his slayer clan emerging from the bushes, led by Gikwang. In an instant, Hyunseung had hefted a wooden spear and hurled it towards Jaejoong – the attempt to kill him, just as he promised. His hand whipping out, Jaejoong turned to the side and caught the wooden shaft of the spear and stabbed the silver tip into the ground in a single breath.

“Listen,” Jaejoong said sharply. “I know it’s hard to believe. We mean no harm. Tomorrow night, the red eyed vampire is going to attack, and he’s bringing an army with him. He’ll kill everyone, and he won’t hesitate. Please trust me,”

“You ask us to trust you,”

Yoochun whipped around, seeing Junsu approaching at last, his dark eyes accusing.

“How can we?” Junsu whispered. “Just because we were friends once doesn’t mean we are now, Jaejoong. You’ve become a monster, and you know it. How dare you come crawling back to us expecting us to trust you?”

“J-Junsu-” Yoochun gasped.

“And Yoochun, you’re a goddamned fool for approaching him. Have you forgotten our training?”

“I know,” Jaejoong said before anyone could speak again. “It’s hard to believe. But it will happen. Yunho will come for Changmin and he’ll kill all of you and enjoy every second of it,”

“Yunho?” Yoochun frowned. “Changmin?”

“Changmin is the name of the vampire you have chained up in there,” Jaejoong pointed to the metal crate containing the imprisoned vampire. Yoochun blinked in surprise. Nobody had told Jaejoong that was where the unconscious vampire was.

“The one he calls ‘hyung’ is Yunho, the red eyed vampire,” Jaejoong went on. “I want Yunho dead as much as you slayers want to kill me. He turned me into this, and before you even start to think I’m untrustworthy, know that I too was once a slayer. Before I came this, I killed many vampires. I never asked for this, and if I could change it, I would. Give me this chance and let me aid you. You won’t kill Yunho without me,”

“No,” the golden eyed vampire whispered. “Jaejoong, you...? Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“You didn’t need to know, Taekwoon,” he replied simply. “All you need to know is that I have no interest in killing you, Jaehwan or Wonshik. Yunho will be the last vampire I slay,”

There was certainty in Jaejoong eyes, as though this was his final gambit. He knew what he was doing, and he knew everything would be alright. Yoochun knew he would follow Jaejoong to the ends of the earth. His words had always contained truth, and at this moment, he knew his words still held truth.

Sliding his stake back into his vest, Yoochun held out his hand. “I’ll trust you, Jaejoong,”

Smiling, his old friend reached out and shook his hand. His skin was cold as ice, but Yoochun didn’t flinch. “I knew you would. You always have, soul mate,”

Yoochun couldn’t stop the grin from splitting his features or the tear that dropped from his eye.

.

.

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A/N: Sorry again for the delay~! Life kept me a little busy and distracted – plus a few sleepless nights in a row didn’t help either. I had little to no energy to edit, nor the motivation to do so lol but hey, I did a mass continuity edit of the entire story (and came to the realization that maybe I should add another warning to the story - it's not traditional addiction but it's addiction all the same), and finally fixed this chapter up as best as it’s probably going to get. Though it’s definitely not my favourite chapter in the whole story (I would probably say it’s my least favourite) I hope you enjoyed it anyway~!

Thank you for reading~!

Love

~starlitskies