Chapter Text
It started when Celine made a choice regarding a baby.
It was half-demon, but she couldn’t bring herself to kill it.
***
The result was that she wasn’t able to find new Hunters in time.
***
And Gwi-Ma, with a little heavy lifting done by a few demons, was able to break the Honmoon apart.
‘Gwi-Ma says you get this as a present, Jinu.’ One of the demons turned a sack upside down and a girl fell out. She was young – probably in her early 20s. She also had a long braid that held back all of her purple hair. ‘You can do whatever you want with it.’
They turned and left.
‘Whatever I want, huh?’ Jinu reached down with a clawed hand and yanked the girl up.
‘Don’t touch me!’ she snapped.
Jinu chuckled. With one hand, he anchored her close and held her firmly in place. With the other, he caught hold of her chin. He let his claws lightly scrape the seam of her upper lip. Her eyes burnt with defiance. Humans had lost knowledge that demons existed so she must’ve been terrified out of her mind, but her eyes still burnt with defiance. Her hands were against his chest, pushing futilely in an attempt to put some distance between him and her.
‘Well, aren’t you a pretty little thing?’ he sneered. She had very pretty old-world Korean features – unusual for modern humans. And being allowed to do anything he wanted with the girl did put ideas in his head but even after all these years of being a demon, he couldn’t bear the thought of actually doing it.
‘Go to hell!’ she snapped.
‘Don’t know if you noticed,’ Jinu remarked with a chuckle. ‘We’re already there. Now, be a good girl and close your eyes. This won’t hurt a bit.’
He leaned in and inhaled the sweet scent of her soul.
He couldn’t believe Gwi-Ma was letting him have one that smelt like this.
Suddenly, she brought her knee up. Demon or not, an impact to the testicles was still an extremely painful affair and he jerked back. As he went down, he swung his claws at her. He only tore her sleeve as she bolted away from him. But as she opened the door, she heard the choked screaming of other “gifts” and she stopped shock-still.
Jinu recovered and slammed the door shut in her face.
The girl whimpered and backed away from him. She’d seen the other demons outside feeding on the souls. Safe to say, now she knew what he was going to do.
‘You really think it’s that easy?’ Jinu snarled, advancing on her.
‘Get away from me!’ the girl raised her hands, as if that was enough to ward him off.
Jinu grabbed her left arm and slammed it into the wall next to her head. She cried out in pain and reached across with her right to try and free her left arm. And that was how Jinu saw it. He saw something on her arm, through the tears he’d made in her jacket.
‘Let go!’ she started to sob. ‘Please, let go! I don’t wanna die! I’ll do anything! Just…please, don’t kill me!’
Jinu let go of her wrist. The girl staggered back and flinched away from him. Tears streamed down her cheeks and Jinu almost felt guilty. He took a hold of her jacket and she sobbed. He idly realised what she thought was about to happen and he hesitated. But he had to know. He yanked the jacket down her arms…to find demon patterns, faintly glowing, spilling out from under her tank top and trailing down her upper arms.
But they went no further.
Half-demon…This girl was the offspring of a demon and a human.
There was only one demon…
Jinu released her and stepped back, his mind reeling.
He had to…
‘Tiger!’ he snapped.
The tiger stepped out of the shadows of his room, the bird sitting on his head.
Jinu turned to them both. ‘Do not let her leave the room.’
That said, he turned on his heel and stormed outside.
Passing through the demons feasting on the souls, he barely noticed. His mind was consumed with the girl in his room. This half-demon girl, obviously Hwan’s daughter…And knowing that…knowing she was the daughter of the demon who had taught him how to survive as a demon…How could he do anything to her?
Jinu had loved Hwan. He was like a second father to him. When his own father had died, Jinu had been too young; it’d left a void. And then their family struggled to survive until…No. Even past then. Jinu wasn’t fooling anyone. Then he’d come to the Underworld and Hwan had stepped in. He’d filled a role Jinu had needed filled.
And this was his actual daughter.
Jinu couldn’t even entertain the notion of harming her.
Not now.
‘Jinu. Did you enjoy your present?’
Jinu looked up at Gwi-Ma, roaring away in satisfaction as he was fed soul after soul after soul.
‘I haven’t enjoyed her fully yet,’ Jinu said.
‘Ah. Going to keep her around for a while, are you? Good.’
Jinu frowned. ‘Could I ask what you mean by that, My Lord?’
Gwi-Ma chuckled. ‘They said she fought every step of the way; unusually strong for a human. I sent her to you because you need a little more practice in the art of breaking a strong will.’
Oh. He had no idea.
He didn’t know the girl was half-demon.
He just noticed she was strong-willed and wanted Jinu to do to her what Gwi-Ma did to so many others – including Jinu himself. He’d once thought himself strong-willed, but once Gwi-Ma started on you…He wouldn’t stop until you did as you were damn well told. And he wanted this girl just as broken.
But he wanted Jinu to do it.
…But Jinu just couldn’t.
Not Hwan’s daughter.
***
She had been coming away from her college classes when the world suddenly went dark.
She didn’t lose consciousness; at first she thought there was an eclipse and she’d somehow missed the memo.
Then the monsters came. She had tried to run, but then stopped to hide some children. Then she was surrounded and she had grabbed the nearest thing to her – a rake – and started beating all the creatures that came near her. It didn’t help. She was grabbed and thrown into a sack. But she’d kicked and fought the whole way.
Then she was dumped out as a “reward” for some male.
He looked more human than the others, but with claws and unnaturally sharp teeth and inhuman golden eyes. She’d kneed him in the nuts and tried to flee, only to stop at the door as she saw the monsters outside sucking something white out of people. The people vanished as if they never existed in the first place, and she quickly realised that was the plan for her.
That was why when he made a quick recovery and slammed the door shut, she backed away. He grabbed her and blind terror filled her. She begged. She wasn’t proud of it, but she’d begged, stupidly saying she’d do anything. When he tore her jacket down her arms, she had been certain he was about to take her up on it.
But he didn’t.
He called some weird blue tiger and a bird in a tiny hat, told them not to let her leave, and then walked out.
Rumi had immediately pulled her jacket back up and tried to leave anyway. Only to find the tiger blocking her way. Every angle she tried to escape through – door, window, whatever – that tiger was there. Rumi growled in frustration. The tiger looked particularly derpy but he still managed to intercept her no matter what she tried.
Then, of all things, when she fell onto her backside after one attempt, he decided to lay right across her legs. It was impossible for her to get up again. And no matter how she shoved or tried to push the tiger, he wouldn’t move. The bird just sat up on a window, watching the whole thing with the most judgemental stare.
Then the door opened and the demon walked back in.
The tiger finally got up and trotted right over to him. She pushed herself back against the wall as she watched him pet the tiger. Meanwhile, his eyes landed on her.
‘If you leave this place,’ he said in a soft tone, ‘you’ll be eaten.’
She glared at him. ‘Seems if I stay I’ll be eaten too,’ she snapped.
‘No, I have no plans to eat you.’ The demon walked over and sat against the opposite wall from her.
‘Now,’ she hissed. It came out more snake-like than she intended.
He only raised an eyebrow. ‘Yes. Now.’ He crossed one leg over the other. ‘I was gonna eat you – and trust me that would’ve been kinder than what Gwi-Ma presented you to me for. Of course, then I realised whose daughter you are.’
She blinked in confusion. Even she didn’t know whose daughter she was. How could he know it?
‘What’s your name?’ he asked.
She frowned. ‘Only if you tell me yours first.’
‘Jinu,’ he said.
She sighed. Well, fair was fair. ‘Rumi.’