Chapter Text
The only disadvantage Joohyun saw to being immortal was that her day to day life soon got incredibly boring. Sure, the first few centuries were fun, she reveled in the wanton mayhem and bloodshed that most of her kind lived for. To this day she still fondly remembered spending the latter half of the seventeenth century basically drunk on a blood high. But like most fun things, eventually the novelty wore off.
Newborn vampires had it lucky, she thought as she strode through the halls of her Family’s mansion. She supposed the upside to paying taxes for the last four hundred years meant that there wasn’t a single material thing on this Earth that she couldn’t afford. Her Family’s mansion included. Situated in the heart of one of Seoul’s most expensive housing districts in Gangnam, Joohyun decided to settle down and spend the next portion of her unlife doing her best to make sure humanity never learned of the supernatural community.
Vampires weren’t the only terrors that lurked in the alleyways of Seoul. Some species were rarer than others of course, but over the course of her incredibly long life Joohyun had pretty much seen it all. Werewolves, Fae, Skinstealers (she shuddered involuntarily thinking about the sneaky little fuckers)…regardless of their proclivity for hunting humans there was one shared rule among them all. Humanity must NEVER find out about their existence. Let them have their badly written movies about sparkling vampires and demons. The false mythos would help them maintain their secrecy.
Of course humanity had come close to learning about them on several occasions. The first in Joohyun’s memory being of a rogue alpha werewolf in the early eighteenth century who had taken to mauling villagers outside of Busan. “Disposing” of him had proved to be quite the challenge for a fledgling Joohyun. She hated thinking of herself as a good guy though. Far from it, in fact. Hunting for sport was allowed (and encouraged), but it had to be done discreetly She’d committed more than her fair share of murder, earning her a place in humanity’s history books as the “Pale Lady”. The difference between her and the crazy werewolf? She was smart enough to make sure her kills were never seen.
Hunting humans was one of the few things that gave her joy anymore, and she relished in the hunt. With technology evolving at the pace it was, hunting in the era of facial recognition meant she had to be even more cautious about her marks. Weeks of research would go into her researching her next meal. Gone were the days of yanking some random passerby into an alley; she had to play to her strengths.
“Joohyun!” a familiar voice called out her name, jolting her back into the present. She turned, arching one perfectly manicured eyebrow as her second-in-command approached her.
“Sooyoung, I thought you were getting ready for tonight’s Council meeting.” Park Sooyoung had been one of Joohyun’s first successful fledglings. What was immortality if you couldn’t share it with someone, right? She had found Sooyoung over a hundred years ago, bleeding to death outside the house of a local gang leader. To this day Sooyoung wouldn’t reveal why she had been over at the man’s house, but Joohyun never pried. Her Second’s past was of no issue to her, what mattered was the present.
“I don’t know why you insist on our Family attending these useless meetings every year. It’s always the same; we get into a fight with the ‘wolves over territory, the witches gloat over being able to hunt in public without attracting attention, the Fae get super drunk and try to convince the Skinstealers to do impressions and don’t even get me started on the Gumiho…” she continues rambling for several minutes and Joohyun lets her. It’s a way for the younger woman to let off some steam.
She appreciated Sooyoung heading their Family’s affairs with the Korean Council though. Joohyun never was much of a people person. Over a thousand years ago, long before Joohyun became a vampire, the supernatural community created a combined council, a managing body so to speak. Representatives from each major species in an area were required to attend yearly meetings to go over politics and hunting grounds. Attendance was mandatory. And as the Matriarch (Ugh, Joohyun hated that outdated term for the leader of a vampire Family) of Seoul’s most powerful vampire clan, she was the face for her species in South Korea.
Joohyun waited until Sooyoung had run out of complaints before answering her question. “You and I both know that attendance is mandatory.”
“Come on, what’s the worst that can happen if we don’t go?” her Second asked. As soon as the words left her mouth the entire mansion rumbled ominously. Sooyoung yelped, clutching the nearby wall to keep her balance. Joohyun merely weathered it, examining her fingernails with disinterest until the tremor passed.
“That’s why,” she replied, the smallest of smiles on her face appearing. “When the original Council was formed a complicated ritual was performed to ensure the cooperation of every species. I wasn’t around so I don’t know the specifics but let’s just say we don’t even think about not attending. A representative must attend, end of discussion.”
Sooyoung frowned, glancing up at the ceiling as if she was afraid to provoke another tremor. “Fine. You’re going with me this year though. And don’t give me that face, unnie. The ‘wolves have a new representative this year and according to the rules that means every species’ Alpha or whatever has to attend in order to perform the necessary binding ritual.”
Joohyun was surprised. She knew werewolves were a combative species by nature and they determined their Alpha according to a rather outdated and extremely sexist method. But their last Alpha had been attending council meetings for the last half-century. What the hell had happened to him? “Maybe this time we’ll get an Alpha who’s smart enough to stop encroaching on our territory, it’s hard enough finding a decent meal these days without those mutts interfering.”
She didn’t notice Sooyoung’s small frown upon her use of the term “mutt”. Her Second cleared her throat, “Just try not to insult them again this year, unnie.”
Joohyun grinned, showing off her fangs. “But it’s so much fun to mess with them. And if I’m required to go, the least I can do is make it a little less boring.”
Sooyoung sighed, “You almost provoked a war with them. And need I remind you that they outnumber us three to one.”
Joohyun knew that her Second had put her foot down. She pouted, puffing her cheeks out in an adorable example of aegyo that only Sooyoung was allowed to see. “Bah, you’re no fun. Fine, I swear on my honor as Matriarch that I’ll behave at tonight’s Council meeting. Happy?”
“Peachy,” was Sooyoung’s response as the younger girl pulled out her cell phone and began tapping out a message. A little miffed that her faithful fledgling was now ignoring her in favor of whoever she was texting, Joohyun sped forward to grab Sooyoung’s phone from her fingers. “Ah, unnie don’t. That’s private.”
Joohyun scanned over the conversation with this “Katie” person Sooyoung was talking to, quickly becoming disinterested in the blatantly flirty exchange going on. Not even gossiping captured her interest anymore. “I told you no dating until you’re one hundred and fifty.”
“I told you no dating until you’re one hundred and fifty,” Sooyoung mimicked, snatching back her phone and locking it. “You know if life’s gotten that boring for you Joohyun why don’t you take your own advice and start looking for a mate?”
Joohyun scoffed at the idea. “I don’t need a mate. Mates are an outdated ideal that lesser species like ‘wolves prattle on about.”
Sooyoung rolled her eyes at her Matriarch’s words. Joohyun had always bucked the notion of mates, something Sooyoung never quite understood. Why wouldn’t you want to find someone special? “I’m not saying you need to commit and find one now, but wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to share your life with?”
“I have you.”
Sooyoung snorted. “And I love you too, but I definitely don’t want to spend the rest of my unlife with you. Besides, I’ve seen you naked and I gotta say, didn’t do it for me.”
Joohyun gasped, feigning insult. Sooyoung laughed, a high clear sound that resonated through the mansion halls. “You take that back Park Sooyoung!”
“Never.” Joohyun sighed as her Second once again got distracted by her buzzing phone. “Damn, I have to take this. Look, I’ll have a car pick us up tonight at ten, make sure you wear something nice!”
Joohyun waved her off, knowing she’d long since lost Sooyoung to whoever “Katie” was. Her Second was lovesick, and if that’s how distracted attraction could make someone, she really didn’t want a mate.
But maybe, just maybe, her life would get a little more interesting…
XXX
There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world for Joohyun to enjoy their yearly Council meetings. But the fully-stocked bar did do wonders for her mood, so as soon as she and Sooyoung arrived at the meeting she made a beeline straight for the alcohol. As usual, they were the first ones to arrive.
Due to territory restrictions, their yearly meetings were always held on neutral grounds, and the exact location changed every year. The area immediately surrounding the Han River served as a demilitarized zone of sorts, under the control of the witches who made sure everyone played nice with each other. Only two rules were enforced at these meetings: No bloodshed and no real names. The latter rule was because of the Fae.
The first rule was that the leaders could meet in relative peace without having to worry about potential skirmishes or war declarations. As soon as they arrived at the venue a bracelet infused with magic was slapped on their wrists by the witch delegation. If needed the bracelets could be triggered to disarm and disable any supernatural creature. Joohyun still wasn’t quite sure how the witches did it, but she’d seen the magic in action. It was enough to drop a fully transformed Alpha werewolf. The slightly sadistic part of her was itching to see if the magic would be strong enough to stop her if she lost control.
Joohyun was midway through her fourth drink of the evening (spiked with blood, of course) when the Fae delegation walked through the front door. She raised her glass in greeting.
Their representative, a young man Joohyun only knew as V, shot her a charming smile before coming over to join her. “Ah, Irene. Joy told us you were coming this year, but I admit I didn’t quite believe it.”
“Believe me, I’m being held here against my will. You’ve heard the ‘wolves have a new representative?”
V nodded, calling over the witch behind the bar so he could ask for a drink of his own. Joohyun knew to always watch her words around the Fae, especially with their penchant for stealing names, but in general she liked them. Disputes between their two factions were few and far between, and when a problem did come up it was handled swiftly and without mercy.
“Ah. Yes, I did hear about that. I admit, I’m very curious about who their new Alpha will be.” V sat down next to her. “Of course all our treaties with them will have to be redrawn…”
He sighed, and Joohyun stifled a snort. Of course the thing V would be worried about is the amount of paperwork that needed doing. She wondered how he was able to keep up with the workload; the Fae were second only to the witches in terms of numbers. Hell, Sooyoung had a hard enough time dealing with the seventy or so vampires in their Family. But to deal with close to five hundred?
“Why don’t you just delegate the task to someone else?” Joohyun said just loudly enough for Sooyoung to hear, chuckling under her breath when her fledgling casually flipped her off.
V turned around in his chair to wave cheerily at her Second. He leaned over to whisper conspiratorially, “Don’t I wish, but unlike you I’m not our faction’s head honcho. Joonie does the delegating and I handle the grunt work.”
He jerked his head in the direction of the man in charge of the Fae faction, who was busy talking to the Gumiho delegation as they arrived. “He’s always been the most diplomatic of us.”
The Gumiho, unlike the other factions, were represented by not one leader but two. Known as LE and Hwasa to the Council (and as Hyojin and Hyejin to the non-Fae factions), the two women represented the twenty-five or so Gumiho that inhabited the greater Seoul metropolitan area. Joohyun was close to the two leaders, as Hyojin’s age rivaled her own and it was nice to have a similarly old soul to talk to.
Joohyun smiled as she spotted the two sisters, beckoning them over by holding up a bottle of their favorite soju. V made himself scarce as the Gumiho approached the bar, muttering something about preserving his liver. “Ladies! Good to see you.”
As a species, the Gumiho were one of the two factions on the Council who actually needed to hunt humans for survival. Unlike vampires, there wasn’t a way for them to safely feed off humans without killing them. Not that it bothered them in the slightest.
Joohyun’s Family had long since had a treaty with them, allowing them to hunt in vampire territory as long as protocol was followed. Keep it clean, keep it quiet. They hadn’t had any problems so far, which Joohyun was proud of. In return the Gumiho allowed them unfettered access to their territory, which made moving around the city that much easier for her Family. It didn’t include hunting rights, but Joohyun wasn’t at all worried about it. Their territory was big enough and they had no need to infringe on the goodwill of their allies.
“I see the witches managed to get the good soju prepared this year,” Hyojin purred, prying the bottle out of Joohyun’s fingers and pouring a shot for her and her sister. “It almost makes up for them starting that territory war last month.”
Joohyun had heard about that. A rogue sect of witches had attempted to invade Gumiho territory in what was apparently a revenge move after a young Gumiho went after the son of their leader. It didn’t end well for the witches. There was a reason Hyojin (and by extension Hyejin) had led the faction for almost half a millenia. Not even Joohyun was confident that she could take them in a fight.
The rogue witches were systematically hunted down and wiped out. Even their own faction delegation turned their backs on the conflict, as they hadn’t gone through proper Council protocol on grievances and attacked without provocation. Joohyun didn’t quite understand all the political chess that went on with the Council (that was Sooyoung’s job) but she knew enough to police her own people. She despised having to deal with faction wars. So unnecessarily bloody. And the paperwork afterward was a nightmare.
The three of them bantered back and forth for a while until the conversation casually slipped back into one about the ‘wolves. It seemed everyone was curious about the new Alpha.
“Speak of the devil…” Hyejin drawled as a familiar woodsy scent hit Joohyun’s nostrils. The werewolf delegation had arrived. And their Alpha was perhaps one of the prettiest women she had ever seen.
Joohyun’s eyes darkened as she drank in the sight of the woman walking through the door. Flanked by who Joohyun assumed were her Lieutenants, the Alpha confidently strode in. She had to admit, there was something about this new Alpha that piqued her interest. She watched as one of the Fae brazenly approached the werewolf. Now this would be interesting…
“Name?” the Fae at the door said lazily, taking out a pen so he could keep track of tonight’s representatives.
The beautiful wolf stepped forward and opened her mouth but she only got as far as saying “Kang—”
Before she knew it, Joohyun dashed forward in a blur of speed and slapped her hand over the wolf’s mouth. Was she stupid or something?
The two wolves at the woman’s side bristled, their chests rumbling with a warning growl that Joohyun paid no mind to. They posed no threat to her, she could rip out their throats before they even had time to breathe. She turned to the alpha and hissed, “Are you an idiot?”
The woman’s eyes flashed a scarlet red at the not-so-subtle insult and Joohyun snatched her hand back before the Alpha could nip at her. The Fae meanwhile had doubled over laughing, pointing at the delegation of werewolves. “Aw, come on Irene we just wanted to have a little fun!”
The Alpha tilted her head in a very dog-like fashion and Joohyun felt something stir in the very bottom of her heart. She couldn’t quite identify the feeling, but she knew that there was something about this very pretty Alpha werewolf that caught her attention. And apparently it was enough for her to step in on the Fae’s obvious attempt at hazing the new delegation.
“What the hell was that for?” Ah, so the Alpha speaks. Joohyun rolled her eyes at the show of bravado, subtly flashing her own fangs in return as she shot the woman a predatory grin. The wolf’s voice carried an authoritative tone that almost rivaled her own. It certainly didn’t match her face.
Joohyun looked at her like she was stupid. “Seriously? Has no one taught you about the Fae?”
Judging from the quizzical look on the wolf’s face, she didn’t have a clue. And this is who they replaced old Jihoon with?
“Among other things, the Fae steal names,” Joohyun said slowly, hoping the wolf would at least begin to catch on. She quickly came to the conclusion however that this new representative was completely new to the basic workings of the Council. It would have been cute if this wolf didn’t look like she was two seconds from leaping for Joohyun’s throat. She must not be used to being challenged. “Oh for fuck’s sake. We don’t use our real names here as a precaution. Names have power. If the Fae had learned yours they would be able to quite literally use you however they please.”
Realization dawned on the pretty wolf’s face. Her cheeks turned pink. The duality of this woman was making Joohyun very curious. “Thank you.”
Joohyun wasn’t expecting that. She was about to probe for a bit more information from the ‘wolf when V’s voice rang throughout the bar. “We’ve received word that the Skinstealers are a few minutes out so we’d like for everyone to group up with their own faction so we can get this meeting started as soon as they arrive.”
Damn it, she pouted. Disappointed that she wouldn’t have time to introduce herself to the new representative properly she grabbed Sooyoung and marched over to the rest of their delegation. She’d have to send some of her spies out later to learn more about Kang.
Maybe this year’s meeting wouldn’t be so dull after all.