Chapter Text
You came from a long line of hunters. Vampire hunters, to be exact. It wasn't the safest line of work, so with it came loss and hardship. What it lacked in stability it made up for in prestige and, shall we say, financial perks. Your family was wealthy and well respected in the most esteemed circles. Not only were you trained to kill and survive, but you were also well versed in etiquette and politics. After all, Hunters like you and yours held the majority of political offices.
The world of Vampires was a thing entirely in and of itself, with it's own set of rules and hierarchies. Something you were also quite familiar with, after all to understand one's enemy is to have the upper hand. Despite the appearance of structure you knew it was all just a façade. That beneath lied animalistic hunger and violence. Coldness. These immortal parasites, though once human, were now beyond your reach and unable to be reasoned with.
You were grimly reminded of this as you stepped around the bodies of these victims of the local chapter of vampires. They were terrorizing those unlucky few who traveled along this southern road. You had been sent on a usual scouting trip to discover something not so usual. Most of the parasite's work was, for a lack of a better term, cut and dry. Too greedy and insatiable to be anything else, but this was... different. Messy. Like who or whatever did this took their time. Had fun. You swallow down the nausea that creeps up your throat. These monsters, one in particular you could tell, favored younger victims.
You were visiting the site of this most recent tragedy during the day of course, accompanied by fellow hunters, including Yugyeom. Yugyeom was a few years younger than you, but that didn't stop you from developing what could only be called a major crush on him. Right now, though, your focus was on the situation at hand.
The vampires had built a sort of fortress in an offshoot of the southern road. Right now you knew they were probably in the underground chambers, whose entrance was in the center of the high-walled fort. Oddly, it was locked, but your lockpicking skills were up to snuff. You knelt down and deftly teased the lock open.
Using the hand signals you were trained with, you sign to Yugyeom to take point and lead your group into the fray. He bursts through the door and one by one your team enters the chambers. You are the last one in, and when you join your team you realize the chambers are empty. You walk down the main hallway, passing a few rooms, with a pair from your team at each entrance. At the end of the hallway stands Yugyeom. When you reach him he tells you in a low voice, "They're all empty. This is the last room." He pauses. You notice the door behind him. "Shall we?"
You ready your sword as you nod to him. The rest of your team readies themselves behind you. It's your turn to take point. You burst through the door this time. Inside is a circular room with a raised center. Everywhere there are more bodies, this time beheaded. Once you finish your search of the room you kneel down to inspect one of the bodies.
"These heads look ripped off." you say to a teammate, noticing the uneven texture of the neck's cross-section. "Wait." As you get closer to the severed head you see a strange protrusion on the upper lip. Your theory is confirmed as you lift up the lip and apply pressure to the gums, the vampires fangs drop down from their hidden place over the canines. "These are vamps," you call out.
"Who, or what did this?" Yugyeom says, almost to himself. " I mean, it makes our jobs way easier."
"Where have I seen this before," you ask. You remember in your studies of vampire history certain, more well known vamps had a sort of signature that they left behind. One in particular was known to serve out their version of justice on fellow vamps. First by poisoning the vampires with some sort of paralyzing solution then, one by one twisting their heads off.
Beheading them was the only real way to kill a vampire. Sunlight was damaging to them, overloading their senses and incapacitating them, making them easy targets. Other than that, the only way holy water and crosses would work was if the vampire in question believed in those symbols, in God. A Stake through the heart was a mild annoyance to them unless using a certain type of wood, and then it wouldn't really matter where you stabbed them. Certain tree saps burning them. You carried one of these stakes around as a back up in case you were ever cornered. You lovingly referred to it as Mr. Pointy.
Then the name suddenly came to you. "Jungkook!"
"Bless you," retorts Yugyeom.
You can't help it when the left corner of your mouth curls up briefly at his joke. "No, that's who I think did this. Don't you remember him from your studies? Famous vigilante vamp Jungkook? Serves justice for his clan?"
"Wow, Y/N, don't lose your head. " Yugyeom smirks at you over his pun. You pause to sit uncomfortably in the awkward silence to show him exactly what you think of him. " Who cares about all that stuff anyways. The only thing I need to know is how to orient my blade through his neck."
You swiftly move on. "I'm sure that's who has done this. This has Jungkook written all over it. You smell that?" You crouch down and bend your head toward one of the bodies, sniffing in the acrid stench. "That chemical smell. It's got to be his paralysis solution. Plus, one of the heads is missing..."
"Uh, Y/N, I think they're all missing their heads," Yugyeom says smartly.
"There are seven bodies. Yeah?" you say pointedly toward Yugyeom, "But only six heads, unless you're hiding one up your ass, Yugs."
"Yugs?"
"Of course that's what you focus on," you say under your breath. One of Yugyeom's friends smack him on the shoulder, and says something that sounds like 'stop flirting'. You know that if he is flirting, it's not out of any real interest in you. That's just what he's like, he can't help it. " I think we should go into town and ask around. See if anyone's seen anything," you say, interrupting the squabble happening between Yugyeom and his friend.
___
Your team buries the bodies of the humans you found, and burns those of the vampires, including their heads. Not inclined to give those monsters a proper burial.
You all head into town where you are directed to the local church. It's small, but beautiful, like a miniature cathedral. You, accompanied by your best friend Laura, go inside to find that a young boy had survived the vampire attack.
"Someone brought him here," said the priest who was taking care of the boy.
"What can you tell us about who brought him," asks Laura.
"He didn't stick around long enough for me to get a good look at him," says the priest. The young boy was sitting at a table nursing a bowl of soup. A local woman sat beside him trying to coax him into eating more. The boy couldn't have been older than six.
"Has he said anything about what happened?" you ask.
"Poor boy hasn't said a single word," the priest looks at you, "it was those vampires wasn't it." You nod.
"To have seen such horror and survived," says Laura," I probably wouldn't be able to talk either." Laura looks at the priest, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Let me see what I can do." She takes out a dog plushie from her bag, and goes over to the boy making sure he can see her approaching. She squats down so she's eye level with him. You turn to the priest.
"Don't worry. She's really good at this." Everything that Laura does always seems to be done out of love, one way or another. Watching her with the boy, you wish, like many times before, that you could be more like her. Even when she's in the fray, hacking the head off of a vamp, love was her motivation. The hunters' line of work was one that tended to leave ones' heart hard as steel, but Laura had a softness about her that she kept despite the strength in her body and the swiftness of her blade. Even loss and grief could not freeze her warmth. She had lost her little brother not six months back. He would have been around the same age as the boy she talked to now.
Looking up at the rafters while Laura did her work, you noticed this little cathedral was a bit taller on the inside than you thought it would be. You get a weird feeling and you're about to ask the priest about roof access when Laura interrupts your train of thought. "Well, Y/N, I think your theory might be right."
"Which one?"
Laura smirks at you, "Well, all of them probably, but I mean about this being the work of Jungkook. The boy, Emmanuel, says a 'very pretty' man who wore black and had a snake ring on his right hand, get this, saved him from the bad guys and brought him here."
"Ah, the ring must be the symbol of his clan. It's gotta be him. And I agree, it is strange that he spared Emmanuel, but we can't let that distract us from our duty."
"Which is?" Laura asks.
"We hunt down this Jungkook. Question him. Kill him." Laura gives you a look. "Just because he spared one human life does not mean he didn't partake in the bloodbath we saw earlier.
"I just think our priority should be taking care of Emmanuel. You know, taking him back with us and finding him a new home, seeing as his family was massacred. Trust me, I want to know what went down just as much as you do, but... priorities."
"You're right. How about you take Emmanuel back with you and I stay behind. I'll snoop around town to see if I can find any traces of our new friend Jungkook. He can't have gotten far. The priest says he dropped the boy off right before sunrise, so..."
"Maybe I can get Yugyeom to stay with you," Laura says in a tone that is much too mischievous for the current situation. You roll your eyes at her.
"There's no need. I should be back before sundown, one way or another. Go ahead and take the whole team back with you." Laura gives you another look." It's all right. I can handle myself, plus you know I have Mr. Pointy by my side."
"Alright, but if you get yourself killed or something I will never forgive you," Laura says with a bright smile on her face.
___
You had searched all around town, finding nothing unusual, and made your way back to the church when a swift wind brought in dark, heavy rainclouds that opened up a torrential downpour onto you before you could get inside. Shivering slightly as you walked inside, the place looked empty, but you had a strange feeling you were being watched. Before you had time to remove your hooded cloak, you jerked toward your left at the sound of footsteps. A dark figure approached, hands up in a placating gesture. "Didn't mean to startle you," they said, stepping out from a dark alcove. You couldn't quite make out their face in the darkened chapel. The storm outside seemed to be picking up. "I was just on my way out."
"You may want to wait out this storm," you say, "it's gonna get worse before it gets better."
"I think now is the right time for me to go," they say, and with a flash of lightning their face is illuminated. You suddenly realize who you're talking to. You recognize his face from photos and drawings from your studies of the journals of hunters long past. Jungkook.
You unclip your cloak from around your neck, flinging it to the side, and draw your sword.
"Not one for small talk?" he says smiling, but taking a defensive stance. His eyes flicker from your sword to your neck, where the hunters' necklace your mother gave you sits.
"I don't like to play with my prey, unlike some," you say pointedly at him, almost spitting the words out.
His smile falls, but he keeps his voice calm, "I had nothing to do with what that animal, Peter, did."
"Oh... right. You're not like those other vampires. You're a good little parasite..."
His voice is louder now, "I was sent by clan Beauchamp to stop what he was doing. Here." He throws a heavy laden sack towards you. You automatically catch it in your left hand. Inside is the missing head of who you assume is Peter. You throw it back to him. "By the way," he says, then in a softer voice, "how is Emmanuel?"
Your heart speeds up. "Is that a threat?" you yell, grabbing the hilt of your sword with both hands. You don't wait for his answer. You lunge towards him. His eyes widen, but he steps back just far enough for your sword to barely miss knicking his throat. In a heartbeat he's jumped to the second story seats of the church. Hanging by one hand, he starts to pull himself up.
"Trust me? You don't want to do this," he says.
"Trust you!" you say incredulously.
"You do not want to anger the Beauchamp clan by killing me."
"Oh. Oh I think I do," you say, voice filled with anger. By now you've mapped out a path up to the second story. Holy ground or not, you jump from pew to pew until you reach the wall. Using sconces and decorative wall art to grab and push off of until you reach the second story too.
"Damn," he says looking worried and impressed. Just when you think the fight is about to really start, he turns tail and bolts. You chase after him, following him around a corner, then up an iron spiral staircase. It rattles as you both race up it. Once you're all the way up, you enter a dark attic.
"So this is where you've been hiding," you say under your breath.
"It's quite convenient," his voice echoes around the room, making it impossible to tell where it's coming from, "No windows." You hear creaking footsteps far from you. "You know," he says, "it's not safe to face off with a vampire alone like this. I thought you had Mr. Pointy as backup, but I don't see him anywhere."
"He'll show up if I need him," you say, a slight smirk on your lips. You knew you had felt something weird in the church this morning. It must have been Jungkook watching you. Eavesdropping.
Suddenly, he rushes towards you, very fast, but your quick reflexes use his strength against him and you grab him and roll backwards. From your vantage point below him you kick him with all your might, and he crashes through the attic wall that was behind you and onto the roof of the church. He rolls with it though, and spins around to face you. You step through the hole he made, sword up and ready to face him. "Nowhere to run now," you tell him, yelling over the torrential downpour that is soaking the both of you through.
"You're the one who should be running," he retorts, glaring at you. You notice his fangs are out. He makes quite the striking image, water pouring down his face and exposed neck, dripping from his exposed fangs, and long jet black hair.
His retort pisses you off even more. It was getting pretty dark now, but you paid the sky no mind. You slash at him with your sword, again and again, but he dodges it each time. It was hard to keep your balance on the slippery slanted roof. He charges you again, this time grabbing both of your arms in each fist. Shit. You let him get too close and now you were screwed. He backs you up until you hit a wall. You still have your sword in your right hand, but he pulls it towards him and slams it back against the stone, one, two, three times, until it finally falls from your grasp. The pain in your wrist is too much to handle. You scream out in pain, and he let's go of your arms and holds you to the wall by your shoulders. He holds you there for a moment, and you think he's about to feed on you, but you open your eyes. You hadn't even realized you had closed them. He's just looking at you with a strange expression on his face, one you weren't expecting and can't read. Time seems to stop as rivulets of water run down his face onto his lips. You notice his fangs aren't out anymore. This was it, you only had one option left. "Time to meet Mr. Pointy," you say. He looks around confused for a second, but that's all the time you need to plunge the poisonous stake through the softest part of his belly, right underneath his sternum.
He lets out an inhuman screech of pain and stumbles backwards a step. Losing his balance, he grabs for you, but all he can get a hold of is your hunters necklace. On instinct, you break the chain it hangs from, and he falls backwards off the roof. You run to the edge and look over and down just in time to see him hit the ground. You grab your sword from the edge of the roof into your left hand, and race back down through the church. When you reach the bottom where he fell, though, he's gone.
You hear horse hooves beating the ground as four riders approach you. It's a relief when you recognize Laura in the lead. "What the hell happened, Y/N," she exclaims, "You said you would be back before sundown."
"Jungkook, he was here, hiding in the church's attic the whole time. I was able to get him with Mr. Pointy but he got away," you say back.
"You faced off with a vamp on your own!" yells Laura.
"Who's Mr. Pointy?" asks one of the other riders, who you realize is Yugyeom. You'd be embarrassed, but you were too amped up on the adrenaline from the fight, and the pain in your right wrist.
"Let's get you back home," says Laura. You start to approach her horse when she turns to Yugyeom and says,"Yugyeom, why don't you let Y/N ride with you?"
You knew what she was trying to do, but you were too hungry and tired to care. "Okay," he says, oblivious to what Laura is trying to do.
"Just to warn you," you say, "I'm soaking wet."
"It's okay," he says, helping you onto the saddle in front of him. He wraps his cloak around you. "I'm used to it," he whispers in your ear. You scoff at his dirty joke, but that doesn't keep you from blushing this time.