Chapter Text
The musty smell of root vegetables filled his senses unpleasantly pulling him fully back to consciousness as soon as he’d started waking up.
He’d spent the night tucked away in the back of a root cellar. Not the most secure place but it’d been the best he could find before the sun started coming up. Once his stomach was done flipping at being surrounded by human food, the familiar fear washed over him.
She had to be tracking him, he was sure of it. There was no way she would give up on a prized toy that quickly. The blow to her pride alone would be enough to set off a single-minded hunt for petty revenge.
He still couldn’t believe he’d done it. He’d run away. But in almost a century of being a vampire, he’d almost never been alone. And without company, it was hard to beat back her voice that seemed to echo incessantly in his head.
The thing you’re best at is just being pretty. Let me take care of things.
Don’t question me. We all know thinking isn’t your strong suit.
You’re the entertainment, you know that.
You’re nothing without us. Without me.
Taehyung pushed the thoughts away. He probably wasn’t going to get away in the end. He knew that. But he had to try. He had memories of being human. He’d grown up with a family, there had been people who'd loved him. He’d decided where he was going to go and what he would do when he got there. Simple things like walking to the market or visiting friends. It’d been his life.
You’re a monster, Taehyung, just like us. But you’re worse than we are. You actually like them. You like them and then you drink them. You don’t kill your prey, you kill your pets. Monster.
He got up, kicking angrily at a few beets that had rolled toward him during the day.
He knew there would never be people who loved him again. He knew what he’d done, what he could do. That part of his life was over.
But freedom. He remembered that. He could try for that.
He brushed himself off, took his hair out, and tied it up again, hoping that it looked reasonably neat.
Then he opened the cellar door and stepped out into the night.
* * *
The town was surprisingly active at night. After a few weeks of scampering from this small village to that one, it was nice to be somewhere a little larger with a little more to offer. If Taehyung had picked things up correctly in the market, the local magistrate lived here, and so it was something of a center for the surrounding area.
Taehyung didn’t have much of an interest in provincial politics but he liked the night time market, shadows from lamps and firelight dancing across the stalls. He liked the dim streets where men sat drinking and gambling and the brightly colored house on the edge of town and the laughing, painted kisangs who lived and worked there. Most of all, though, he loved watching performances in the street.
It was an indulgence he’d allowed himself while he’d lived with her. Like most things human, she’d mocked them and carefully tore Taehyung apart for enjoying them. Bit by bit, in the sweetest voice.
Why do you make yourself stoop so low? You’re always doing that, Taehyung, rolling around in the gutter. You’re lucky we took you in. You would have let yourself be dragged down into the human muck. Aren’t you glad you have me to pull you out?
But you like it when I sing and read you poetry and tell you stories, Taehyung had pushed back. And I can pick up new tricks by watching them. So you don’t get bored of me, he’d said with a flirtatious tone and she’d giggled. Like they were a couple teasing each other.
It was the only time Taehyung had gotten what he wanted.
And there were only a few times he’d dared to ask.
Now he would be able to watch performances as much as he liked, though. Magic tricks, plays full of dirty jokes, musicians…any of it. All of it.
Freedom.
There wasn’t much to see tonight. There was a man telling dramatically telling stories to an audience at one end of the small market and Taehyung could hear music coming from the other side. It drifted through the people and the smells, far enough away that Taehyung doubted the people around him could hear. But he could.
He followed the sound, slipping gracefully between the drunks who tumbled down the street laughing at their own lives and jokes too sopped in booze to be truly funny. When he finally found the source, he found a man and woman entertaining a small crowd. He played a haegeum while she danced. The music and the dance were beautiful and he stood there entranced by the performance, studying her mortal grace and his skill with the rising and falling melodies.
He liked them.
He would feed on them tonight.
She had always made fun of him, made him feel tiny and sad about his preferences, even more if he left them alive.
Taehyung had never understood. If he was going to have the taste of someone’s personality and humanity on his lips, why was it bad to want the ones who tasted best? The one’s he liked.
Blood of cruel and angry people always tasted sour. The worst made him choke and gag.
Never again. As long as his escape lasted, he would be as picky as he wanted. He might even get to know his prey a bit, enjoy their company and then appreciate more subtle notes of who they were on his tongue.
If he could, he would have shivered with excitement.
Freedom.
* * *
He followed them to a bare bones room in an inn afterward. It was one step above sleeping the stables and then only barely. Taehyung hovered outside the window, wondering what the best way in would be so he terrified them as little as possible.
There was, unfortunately, no way around the terror, he thought a little sadly.
He was a monster, after all.
Taehyung peered inside, catching their conversation halfway through.
The woman was sobbing. The man, her husband Taehyung realized, was trying to comfort her.
“It’s not enough,” the woman sobbed. “We’ll never pay back the debt. Not ever.”
“It’s alright,” the man replied, lightly rubbing at her back. “We’ll keep trying. We’ll get there some day. And no matter what, we’ve got each other.”
The woman sat up a little straighter and turned toward the man, burying her face in his shoulder.
“I’ve got you and you’ve got me,” she said, as if reciting a mantra.
“Besides,” the man pulled back and gently wiped the tears off her cheeks. “I have a feeling something big is about to happen.”
“You always say that,” she said, a little smile on her lips.
“But this time,” the man leaned forward and whispered. “I really mean it.”
She laughed lightly at that. He smiled back at her.
Taehyung could easily see that they loved each other.
Suddenly, he was struck by what felt like a genius idea. It wasn’t really, he wasn’t that smart, she’d made it very clear to him over the years. But it felt like a good idea.
He could solve all their problems at once, both his and the couple’s. Their debt was no problem. All Taehyung would have to do was pay a quick trip to the magistrate or whoever were the richest merchants around here. He could easily get in and out without being seen and it would be painfully simple to grab money or jewelry enough to settle their debt.
Taehyung, however, needed protection. He didn’t want to spend his days tucked into root cellars or whatever else he could scrounge up. If they became his familiars, he would have someone to hide him during the day and carry out whatever business he needed to be done.
And they were traveling performers. He could tell from the room and the inn and the meager possessions inside. What if they let him perform with them? Taehyung could sing and dance and had a trained voice for reading and storytelling. He had to be good for something.
It would be so much harder for her to find him. She had so much disdain for humans, he doubted she would even be able to imagine a vampire surrounding themselves with them. And Taehyung could do it differently. Rather than the blank-faced familiars she ordered around, Taehyung would pay them. Money was easy enough to find if he needed it. He could offer them a better life in return for everything he needed them to do.
Taehyung felt absolutely giddy. For the first time in a very, very long time, it seemed possible to look forward to tomorrow.
In a burst of supernatural speed, he was gone from the window and in front of the door to the room. He knocked.
The woman opened the door. She had a round and pleasant face, even though she’d been crying just moments before.
Taehyung tried to give them his warmest smile.
“Hello. If you’ll allow me to introduce myself, my name is Taehyung. And I have a proposition for you and your husband.”