Chapter Text
“Haha… come on, you mustn't really think that I’m gonna let you off the hook that easy.”
“Alright, you got me. I won’t steal your H.B.C.”
“Thank you, Luciel. That’s the least that you can do after I nursed you back to health like a cute baby birdie! You ask nicely when you want to have some of my food, okay?”
“Aye, aye, captain! May I pretty-pretty please have some of your H.B.C.?”
“Mmm, sure, space cadet, this time I’ll share with you. Next time, though, I might change my mind about sharing with you.”
It had been a few months since this girl had saved him from meeting an untimely end and he had settled into her life as if she had been the puzzle piece that he had been missing. As if he was supposed to be there the entire time. Minji was a sweetheart and had allowed him to come and see her whenever he wanted a break.
He would find himself coming to see her more and more throughout the time they had met. It would be at least once a week at first but it had soon turned into him practically living at her place for half of the week.
Luciel had found safety in the household of Minji Cho. She was a kind and caring girl that had left the family business of hunting behind as soon as she could escape. She had been raised to end the undead lives of monsters that she did not see the monster within.
She did not believe that all vampires were evil creatures but she understood Luciel’s drive but she did not judge him for what he did. But, she did inspire him to look more deeply into what was happening around him when he was on a hunt.
Were they truly causing problems or were they just trying to survive?
Most of his cases from his agency were given to him because people were dying and things had to be covered up. But, there were a few that made him… question things. It didn’t stop his drive to get rid of them but it did make him uneasy.
You had to cut yourself away from the fact that these beasts were once human to be able to do the job they did. Vanderwood made that clear with him when they told him how they had to kill people they once knew because they were changed. So, that notion combined with the humanity that Minji asked him to look for?
A recipe for disaster, honestly.
Humanity was supposed to be one way. The undead was supposed to be another way. It was supposed to be black and white, lines are drawn at the center and nothing more and nothing less. Hearing that someone could have faith in what was supposed to be a growling monster in the dead of the night was enough to make you think.
Minji swore up and down to him that not all vampires were to blame for the disasters. She had been rescued by one when she was young, she wouldn’t go into detail, but she made it clear that the vampire that saved her had a big heart. Their eyes had not been those of a monster, she claimed, they had been warm and full of concern.
How could you ever think they were evil and simply that when one saved a little girl?
Luciel didn’t understand but he didn’t argue with Minji’s opinion. He had simply been taught to believe another thing than what she had been taught. He had seen blood-red eyes and he had felt claws against his throat too many times to think otherwise on the matter. Minji would not lie to him, but the fact of the matter was—
Vampires had come too close to killing him more than once for him to think they were anything more than monsters.
Nevertheless, he continued to march forward and do the job that he had sworn to do no matter what.
He tried to push that notion away when he was with Minji. He wanted to enjoy the time that he got with her and he refused to waste a second. She needed to be kept away from everything that he was involved in. Nobody knew about her at all, not Vanderwood, not the agency, not the RFA members that he had come to know over the past few months.
He would keep it that way.
Love was a liability in his field. Having a family or loved ones meant that if a vampire knew what was close to you… they would destroy them one by one, or worse… things he didn’t want to even consider as an option.
He would not put her in danger and he would not let anyone get their hands on this woman. She deserved to be happy and to know a life without distress. Minji had had enough when she was a child and she had a right to enjoy her life. He made sure that she was safe. No vampires or humans would make trouble for her again as long as he was around.
After all, Minji was just too perfect and too kind for him to ignore.
Her hands on his face when she fretted and coaxed over his wounds had been enough to cement his need to have her near him. Any person that saw him dressed up and bloodied and yet had the kindness to take him home to help clean him up was a true saint. She thought that he was cute and wasted no time making that fact known.
As a matter of fact, in his state of delirium, she had commented that he was pretty, no matter what he identified as. If he had been in the right state of mind, he would have been tongue-tied and flustered by those words.
Minji just knew how to make a situation feel less like a mess and more like it was going to be okay. It had taken her a while to get him stitched up but she managed to take care of everything in a jiffy. She made a hell of a nurse. When he asked later how she knew how to do that, she only had a sad look in her eyes, when she said she learned when she was a young girl.
He didn’t need to know more after that.
When he kept coming back to see her after she helped him, it was with the excuse that he needed to be patched up, but he knew that he could have handled it himself. He felt indebted to her kindness but she would not take anything from him. So, he offered his services when he did come around to see her to make up for it.
She easily got a cute maid to clean up her apartment.
Hanging around Minji was easy. It was easy to talk to her and he had nothing to worry about except just being himself around her. She didn’t ask questions and she didn’t pry but she did let him know that anything could be on the table if he needed to vent. He didn’t dump things on her but he did like that she was happy to listen.
Today, for example, she was gladly giving him a distraction from his last mission.
Her blonde hair was tucked back into a high ponytail and a sweater had been tossed over her shoulders when he showed up early in the morning with a few scrapes and bruises. He cleaned himself up and she cooked breakfast in the meantime. It was no different than any other time that he had found himself in her company.
Minji teased him and played around when he ate.
It was warm and filling, so much unlike what he had often made for himself. Quick, fast, and easy. That was the way that he lived his life and tasting something that had been made low and slow with love tasted all that much better.
“Better?” Minji smiled when he practically licked the plate clean.
“Much,” Luciel nodded.
“I’m glad to hear it,” she took his plates from him and began to clean them in the sink. Her back was to him as she hummed underneath her breath. “You should probably get some rest too, okay? I don’t think you’ve had any tonight. You can borrow my bed for a while.”
“Only if you join me,” he said, rising from the table.
He strode across the room and rested his hands around her waist with his forehead resting against her back. Minji was a little taller than he was, so he couldn’t quite peek over her shoulder but he could do this. Press his lips against the back of her neck to make her shiver and laugh.
“Luciel!” she scolded him, “What happened to waiting for marriage?”
“I just wanted to cuddle,” Luciel chuckled. “If you want to do more, I don’t think that would be all that hard either, baby.”
She made her own sputtered sound when he pushed her buttons, groaning and giggling at his attempts to knock her off her feet. “Don’t tease, Lucy. I’ll make you pay for these crimes later if that’s the game you want to play.”
“Oh? Is my kitten dangerously close to thinking on the dark side?” he asked her with a smile. “I dare say that’s the most sadistic thing you’ve ever said to me.”
Minji turned around in his arms and wrapped her arms around him, “Well, you did wake me up earlier then I’m used to… and you know I’m awake when the sun rises on the horizon, Lucy. You should make it up to me somehow if that’s what we’re playing, and I think cuddling is a fair price for me making you breakfast, don’t you think?”
“Alright, alright. I owe you,” he caved.
“That’s what I thought,” she said.
The two of them erupted into laughter together as the cicadas hummed outside the window of her apartment. It was a lovely moment and something that he had longed craved. Enjoying the warmth of somebody’s love is something that he never thought that he would ever be able to experience but being here was enough for him.
Feeling Minji’s arms around him was all that he needed to keep on living.
She made no judgments, she only sought to ensure that he was taking care of himself like he promised he would do. Luciel could not have felt happier than he did when he was with Minji.
He prayed this time he had with her would not ever come to an end. A few years of living in peace like this was ahead of him from this point but this moment of bliss would not last forever, unfortunately. As a matter of fact, it would be three years before this momentary reprieve would be forced to come to a close.
And Luciel did not know the storm that was awaiting him at the end of this tunnel.
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
Three years.
It had been three years since Lila had been attacked that faithful night and Saeran had no choice but to transform her into a creature like himself to save her life. He did it during the heat of the moment, and he had not known if it would even work to save her life.
He had gotten lucky and gotten to her just in time to induce the process.
The back of his mind was still haunted by the sight of her small body, parlor, and nearly torn to shreds on the dirt like a broken toy left to rot, her hair dampened and clumped up with dried blood leaking from her head, and her brown eyes almost looking through him as she tried to croak something that he could not understand.
How he had desperately gripped her hands and had to sink his teeth into every part of her body that he could reach as her pulse started to slow down more and more by the moment.
It had taken nearly two weeks for her body to come to grips with the venom that he had injected and when she awoke, brown eyes gone and replaced with a ruby red, he feared that she would feel the same thirst and lack of control that he had been pressured to give into. Yet, she stared at him, obviously parched but she was still there.
The woman that he had come to love was still inside of her body.
She was just a little different now. No longer a petite human who was clumsy and constantly getting hurt because she did everything for her family. She was now a creature of the night, a vampire just as he was, damned to live forever and survive on the blood of others to live. She was no longer hurt, however, and that was what made the guilt lessen.
Lila had been suffering, so terribly, and had it not been for him, she would have been dead long before he came into her life. They were both okay with this fate as it was now. He had no choice, and she had no choice of what would come. But, they had each other and as long as they had each other, things would be okay.
At least, Saeran wanted to believe that.
After he had taken the time to help her quench her thirst as best as he could, the two of them talked about what had happened that night. He had wanted to know who had harmed her and nearly left her for dead. Lila could remember nothing but green eyes and blonde hair before she started screaming and her vision went black.
Saeran’s stomach twisted in knots when she said that.
He knew who had tried to harm the woman that he loved and he knew that neither of them was going to be safe if they stayed in this place. It was at that point that he had to be honest with Lila about who he had run away from and why.
Some of the details… he couldn’t talk about them at length, not even now.
But, he let Lila know that he had been changed against his will one night and been used as a science experience more or less for a few months. How Rika would not stop until he went back to that place on his accord and that he was the reason that she had been hurt.
The guilt of that still bothered him, even to this day.
Now, they were living on the run, going town to town, and exploring the world together as normal as they could seem to the eyes of humans. To anyone that caught a glimpse of them during the evening, they would have seen an average couple holding hands, but if they looked hard enough on a bad day they would see red eyes.
The thirstier you are, the more red appears, after all.
Today, Saeran was trying to sort out where they should go next as they had been staying in this most recent location far too long. It was the season where the sun stayed out for such a long time and it was hard to travel at night when your hours were limited.
They made the best of it, though, it just was not always easy if eyes were starting to be raised.
Animal blood only sustained a vampire for so long and it would run out of their system much quicker than the blood of a human.
Still, neither of them wanted to use that option unless they had no other choice but to do that.
“Saeran,” she said, reaching over to brush her hand against his leg. “You need to rest.”
They were sitting together in their dingy hotel room on the bed as Saeran poured over his phone to see what he could find. It was hard to hide the trail when both of them were up against an entire group of vampires instead of simply one. They knew what to look for and they could only hide so much when they made a mess.
“Technically, I don’t need any rest,” he said, quietly. “I realize you’re concerned but I promise I’m alright. As long as you’re with me, I never tire.”
“That’s always your excuse,” Lila leaned her head against his shoulder. “I know you can handle yourself but you’ve been taking care of us for such a long time. It’ll be alright. I’m sure you’ll be able to find the next safe spot from them.”
“About that…” he trails.
Lila frowns.
Saeran looks back at her with that look in his eyes that says he’s got something to say that he’s not happy about saying. He hesitates and then speaks. “About that, I think I have something but I need to go ahead to scout things out first. It’s too dangerous to take you with me because of that last close call we had.”
“So you want me to wait here for you,” she said, quietly.
He shook his head. “No, I know you would hate to do that. I have a meeting spot that I’ve ensured is safe that I want you to head to. I can’t leave you here knowing they could already be onto us. I don’t put it back her to send hunters, either. So, I need you to keep moving while I make sure that we have a safe place to go.”
Saeran interlocked his fingers with her own.
Hers were still so small in his. But, there was a firmness in them now that was not there when she was a human. She could fight off anyone she wanted to if it came down to it, but he did not want her to have to go to that means. As long as he could protect her, she would not have to fight.
“You’re strong,” she affirms. “I’m so proud of you, Saeran. You’re always protecting us and I know how hard that is.”
“I’m stronger with you,” he murmured. “I would be nothing without you.”
“And I would not be here if not for you,” Lila said. She meant it, she meant every word of it. She was happy that he had saved her life. She did not see what he did as him taking her life away, if he had not acted to save her, she would have died.
He saved her, and that was how she saw this.
They shared a kiss.
It was a brief one, with them both pulling away momentarily before leaning back into to steal another and another and another. When they were together in this way, it was like electricity was coursing through his veins. He couldn’t resist being close to her and she couldn’t stop herself from trying to cling to him.
Perhaps it was because they both understood that life was not a given. They had to live each moment like it was the last one they would ever share. It would be this way until Rika and her group were taken down and they could live in peace.
It would happen, it would have to happen.
“I don’t want to leave you,” Saeran chuckled when she pulled back. Her forehead pressed against his own. “You make it so hard to leave.”
“It’s so you’ll come back to me,” she reminds him with a smile. “Now, tell me what I need to do and I will do it. I trust you, Saeran.”
So, he gave her everything that she needed to know. How she would have to travel and how he would meet her late in the night. It was too far for her to make the walk on foot so she would have to travel during the day to get there but as long as she did as she normally did and covered herself, it would be alright.
Saeran would walk and use the cover of the woods to make sure there were no tracks or markings that would leave to either of them.
They separated that evening with her in a taxi and him setting off on foot.
Saeran would scout everything out and ensure that there were no signs of Mint Eye, and Lila would go to a safe area that he knew had no hunters or vampires to speak of. It was supposed to be very simple and nothing more to it, but life had never been kind to these two.
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
Luciel was pissed.
There was no way to say this beyond those simple words. He was angry and not even the wrath of Satan would be enough to describe what he was feeling. Luciel had let himself become complacent in his new life and his guard was too far lowered.
They had taken the one person that he cared for and held her like a toy in front of him as a trap. Minji had been kidnapped and was now being used to lure him into a trap. He had come back from a mission only to find Minji’s home in shambles and a note left for him that simply read: You do have a weakness, hunter .
They had taken the woman he loved and now he did not know what he was going to do. No, he knew what he was going to do. He was going to hunt down every single one of them and rip them limb from limb until they were unrecognizable.
He was going to make sure that they never did anything ever again just for looking at her, but if they hurt her—
Nothing was going to stop him from destroying every vampire he saw.
He hated them.
He hated them all.
They had taken everything that he had left and now, he had to fight to get it back. He did not even know if they would keep her alive for long. A human in a den of vampires? They would kill her or worse, change her just to spite him if it came down to it. Minji was strong and she knew how to protect herself but one human against a group?
Odds were not in her favor.
He told Vanderwood that he had a mission to do that had been given to him alone, and then he set off to destroy the vampires that had taken her from him. They had left him a location to go to but only that, and he would have to buy himself time with this so his boss wouldn’t know what he was doing and that he had been going against the agency’s orders.
It would not last for long, the lie, that is.
So, he had to do this fast and hard. It was only a matter of time until she got hurt or he got caught and he wasn’t going to lose against the clock, not again. He had protected his baby brother and he was not going to lose Minji too. He may not be able to see Saeran, but he can see Minji, and that means he has to protect her.
He followed the note to the exact location and found himself a desolate town late at night. It was foggy out and the conditions were poor. It wasn’t good for human eyes. He made sure to park his car and take out what he needed before exiting and starting to scope out the place. The town was his only clue and he had nothing else to go on.
It was hardly populated by any means, and that struck him as odd. Most vampires stick to big cities for their targets. It was better for them to go undetected. Murders and crime happened all the time in a city, but not in a small town.
They were trying to ensure that Luciel couldn’t bring backup or get help, weren’t they?
It wasn’t going to stop him from killing them. If anything, it made it better because he was going to make sure they were screaming until the end. For every injury and the wound he found on Minji, he was going to inflict it back on them tenfold.
Luciel looked around, but there were hardly any people in town. He found himself checking each face he walked past for the telltale markers but they were all humans. That made him feel like this had been a dead-end, making him groan and grit his teeth in frustration. He eventually stopped and turned into an alley.
He made his way to the end of it and turned to make a right for the next block but he walked right into a girl. She was short, much smaller than he was. He almost mistook her for a kid but he figured out real fast that she was a woman. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, his voice a little hollow as he found forced joy to not be easy at the moment.
“It’s okay,” the voice replied. “It happens.”
He offered her his hand to help and when she stood up, she looked at him and blinked. It was like she knew him, she was tracing his face with her eyes and then something clicked. “Saeran?” she asked, her brows feathered.
“I thought you said that you were going to be back by sunrise. How did you get here? Was there trouble? Please, tell me you didn’t run into any hunters. We barely got away from them the last time, are you hurt?” her voice is pained, worried, and panicked.
Luciel finds that he can only stare at her in shock. She said the name of his twin brother, and she seemed like she knew him. She wouldn’t have said that to a stranger and she would not have looked at his face like that if she didn’t know it.
His mirror image.
Then, he realized, she mentioned hunters. That was when he noticed her eyes were not entirely brown. There was a glimmer to them that was tinged in red as if she were a…
No, no!
All thoughts of Minji are put on hold as he turns his rage onto this woman. Luciel can’t stop himself from slamming the woman against the concrete wall to the right of them with a hard shove.
Her back collides and she lets out a loud wince but pushes back against his hold with a firm grip that is not human. He is bigger than she is, and he had the upper hand with the way his fingers are around her throat. It takes him a split second to pick up his stake with his free hand and press it against her skin as she visibly panics.
She looks into his eyes and finally notices that the color is not green, “You’re not… Saeran…” she breathes, horrified.
“No, you monster, that’s my brother,” he hissed with such venom in his voice it almost burned. “Now, tell me how in the hell you know who he is, vampire . I am already looking to kill the first vampire that fucks with me. I’m going to give you till the count of three or I’m going to drive this into your undead heart and leave you here to burn in the fucking sun.”
She struggled against his hold but it was no use, no matter how hard she kicked against him, he would not let go. This was a hunter, and this hunter was ready to kill her and leave her for dead just like that. She and Saeran had come into contact with hunters before but he had made her go ahead and refused to let her see what happened.
But this was the true power of a hunter. They trained for years to kill vampires and Lila, now a vampire and years away from her humanity, was a target for people like that. She did not want to die, not again… not like this!
“Please, stop!” she pleaded with him. “I can explain everything if you just give me a moment, I promise, I won’t hurt you!”
“I can’t say the same for myself, monster,” Luciel growled.
“Saeran didn’t tell me he had a brother,” she tried to reason with him but it was not getting her anywhere with him. “Look, he’s important to me too! I’ve been with him for a few years now. He’s going to be here soon, I told you I was waiting for him! We’ve been together for a long time now and he’s been protecting us from—”
The stake in Luciel’s hands pressed just a smidge harder against her chest. It was silver, and it burned like hell. It burned almost as hot as the fire that had enveloped her body when she was first transformed.
“You’ve been with him for a while?!” Luciel found his anger rising even higher, not stopping to hear any more. “He’s supposed to be far away from monsters like you! Don’t lie to me, temptress, did you take him away from his happiness to use him as some plaything, I know how you monsters are with humans—”
Luciel was on the ground and the woman was freed from his grasp. The redhead rolled over and sank to a defensive position as he watched a dark figure move the woman behind them. Clearly, this was her partner, he assumed.
Perhaps they were in league with the monsters that took Minji? This could have been a bigger trap than he thought.
“Saeran,” the woman said, her voice was trembling from the attack. “Please, wait. This hunter said he was your—”
The hood fell from the man’s head and revealed a familiar shade of red hair that matched Luciel’s. His eyes were green and his skin was nearly as white as a sheet, there were rings under them as if he had not been getting any sleep, and his figure was slim as if he hadn’t been getting fed. He was dressed in all black, dark jeans, a black shirt, and a leather hoodie. Green eyes met golden eyes all at once... eyes that had last met when they were both human, but now, these brothers were separated by more than distance. One was undead and the other was living. One was a hunter, and the other was a vampire.
They couldn't have been more different.
Saeran found himself unable to say anything at all.
Luciel didn't know what to do, so he just stared at him, and then buried his face in his hands, letting out a painful sob at the realization that his little brother, the one that he had left to protect from their father, and eventually, from the undead, was now the very thing that he had been trying to kill.
“Saeyoung…?”