Work Text:
The convenience stores automatic door hissed open for the third time in twenty minutes, letting in another gust of damp night air that made Yoongis teeth grind. He didn't glance up from the magazine rack he was restocking; some idiot had knocked over the entire display of *Weekly Gossip* again but his shoulders tensed when the footsteps paused too close behind him.
"Move," Yoongi said without turning around, thumbing through the wrinkled pages of a tabloid featuring some idols scandalous beach photos. The air smelled like microwaved ramen and the sharp citrus of industrial cleaner home, in other words, if home was a fluorescent-lit cage where he spent thirty-eight hours a week watching teenagers steal energy drinks.
The footsteps didn't move. Instead, a gloved hand reached past Yoongis shoulder to pluck a copy of *Seoul Monthly* from the rack, the leather creaking faintly. "You're late on rent again," said a voice like black coffee left to cool smooth, but bitter.
Yoongi exhaled through his nose, slow and controlled, before turning to face the man in the impeccably tailored overcoat. Kim Seokjin his landlord, a pain in his ass, and an occasional late-night customer when his insomnia kicked in was flipping through the magazine with feigned interest, his gloved fingers pausing on a spread about Gangnam’s most expensive penthouses. "You could always move in with me," Seokjin said without looking up, lips quirking. "I’ve got a spare room. And a dishwasher."
"Pass," Yoongi said, snatching the magazine back and shoving it into the rack with more force than necessary. He could already hear the lecture coming about responsibility, about how his "attitude problem" wasn’t doing him any favors, about how he’d end up just like his deadbeat father if he didn’t-
Seokjin sighed, pulling a crisp envelope from his inner pocket. "Three months, Yoongi-ssi. The owner’s getting impatient." He held it out, but Yoongi didn’t take it. "I covered it this time. But you’re burning through favors."
Yoongi’s jaw worked. He hated this, hated the pity, the way Seokjins gaze lingered a beat too long on the dark circles under his eyes. "I’ll pay you back," he muttered, finally grabbing the envelope. The weight of it made his stomach twist. "With interest."
A scoff. "You say that every time." Seokjin tilted his head, studying him like a puzzle he’d long given up on solving. "Yoojin still doesn’t know, does he?"
Yoongi stiffened. His brother thought the scholarship covered everything: the cramped apartment, the secondhand textbooks, the extra tutoring sessions Yoongi secretly funded. Let him keep believing it. "None of your business."
Seokjin’s smirk faded. "You’re going to burn out."
"Already ashes," Yoongi muttered, crumpling the envelope into his back pocket. The bell above the door jingled and some drunk college kids stumbled in for snacks. Perfect. He brushed past Seokjin, shoulder checking him harder than necessary. "Now fuck off. I’ve got expired yogurt to throw out."
The next three hours passed in a blur of ringing registers and broken beer bottles. By the time his shift ended at 2 AM, Yoongi’s fingers smelled like stale tobacco from restocking the cigarette display. He scrubbed his hands under the bathroom’s flickering light, watching the water swirl pink around the drain he’d nicked himself on a shattered soju bottle earlier. Didn’t even feel it.
Outside, the neon sign buzzed like a dying insect. Yoongi lit a cigarette, the flare of the match illuminating the dark circles under his eyes. The walk home was fifteen minutes if he cut through the alley behind the fried chicken place. Normally, he’d avoid it, last month some guy got knifed there over a debt, but tonight, the shortcut meant five extra minutes of sleep. Priorities.
His phone buzzed halfway down the alley. Yoojin’s contact photo flashed, a grinning selfie from his high school graduation, cheeks still round with baby fat. Yoongi exhaled smoke through his nose. "You better not be asking for ramen money at this hour-"
The phone line crackled with static, but Yoojin’s voice came through like sunlight breaking through storm clouds, too bright for the damp alley Yoongi was trudging through. "Hyung! You’ll never guess what I found tonight!"
Yoongi pinched the bridge of his nose, cigarette dangling from his lips. "If it’s another stray cat, I’m throwing your ass out the window." But the corner of his mouth twitched. Last month, Yoojin had smuggled in a one-eyed tabby wrapped in his hoodie, its fur matted with rain. The thing still hissed at Yoongi every morning when he reached for his coffee.
"Better!" Yoojin’s laugh fizzed like soda bubbles. "There’s this abandoned church near Hongdae the one with the gargoyles everyone says are cursed? I went inside-"
"You what?" Yoongi’s spine went rigid. The cigarette ash trembled. "Yoojin-ah, if you- “
"No, listen!" Paper rustled on Yoojin’s end, sketchbook pages, probably. Yoojin documented everything in messy charcoal smudges: dance routines, street art, the weird mushrooms growing in their bathroom. "There were these symbols carved into the pews. Like, ancient symbols. And get this-" His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "They matched the ones from that vampire hunters diary at the library!"
Yoongi exhaled through his nose. Last semester, Yoojin had gone through a phase- three weeks of dragging home crumbling folklore texts, muttering about ley lines while marking up their apartment walls with red yarn. It had ended when Yoongi "accidentally" donated the yarn to a knitting club. "So you broke into a condemned building. Fantastic."
"It’s not condemned, it’s-“ A sharp intake of breath. "Hyung. The gargoyles moved."
A beat. Then Yoongi flicked his cigarette into a puddle. "You’re sleep-deprived."
"I filmed it!"
Yoongi could hear the frantic tapping of Yoojin’s fingers against his phone screen, three rapid clicks, before his own device buzzed with an incoming video. The thumbnail was pitch black, save for the timestamp glowing in the corner: 1:28 AM. Yoongi hesitated, thumb hovering over the play button. Yoojin had sent him exactly seventeen "proof of supernatural activity" videos over the past year all shaky footage of dust motes or stray cats knocking over trash cans. But the crack in his brother’s voice was new.
"Hyung?" Static warped Yoojin’s whisper into something jagged. "Press play."
"Yoojin-ah we can watch it together at home Hyung has to focus on getting home" Yoongi said before making his way towards the ally that leads home. He lost his signal and the call disconnected. His fingers tapped against his phone screen as he went to call Yoojin back, but the line was dead.
Yoongi's pulse hitched when the call disconnected mid-ring. The alleyway, already too narrow, seemed to constrict around him as he stared at the darkened screen. His thumb jabbed at the redial button once, twice but the line stayed dead.
Yoojin never made it home that night.
The precinct smelled like burnt coffee and despair. Yoongi tapped his fingers against the chipped Formica table- one, two, three, four counting the water stains on the ceiling tiles to keep from screaming. Detective Park sighed for the seventh time in twenty minutes, flipping through the same three pages of notes. "Look, Min-ssi, your brother's nineteen. Kids that age take off all the time. Probably met some girl at a club and-"
Yoongi's fist hit the table hard enough to make the detective's Styrofoam cup jump. "He left his inhaler." The words came out shredded, like he'd been swallowing glass. Yoojin hadn't gone anywhere without that damn inhaler since he was six and nearly died during an asthma attack in their shitty elementary school gym. Now it sat in Yoongi's jacket pocket, a cold plastic reminder pressing against his ribs.
The detective's pager buzzed. He glanced at it with the practiced disinterest of a man who'd seen too many missing persons cases go cold. "We'll keep looking, but-"
Yoongi was already out the door, the bell jangling behind him like a bad punchline. The video- that goddamn black rectangle of a video burned in his phone gallery. He'd watched it seventeen times since dawn, pausing on every grainy frame where the shadows seemed to...shift. The timestamp mocked him: 1:28 AM. Thirty-two minutes before Yoojin's phone cut out forever.
Yoongi knew this was a stupid idea. He knew deep in his bones he would regret this. But what choice did he have?
Yoongi climbed the wrought-iron gate, its spikes tearing through his jacket sleeve. He didn't flinch when cold metal bit into his palm.
"You're going to get yourself killed before you even reach the door," came the voice from below the gate, smooth as aged whiskey and twice as intoxicating. Yoongi didn't need to look down to know Jeongguk was leaning against the stone pillar, probably dressed in that stupid velvet coat he favored, watching with amusement.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Yoongi muttered, pulling himself over the crest of the gate. His boots hit the gravel path with a crunch, kicking up dust that smelled faintly of old ash.
The velvet voice chuckled behind him, closer now. Too close. Yoongi could feel the unnatural chill radiating from Jeongguk’s body before the vampire even touched him. "Such dramatics," Jeongguk murmured. "You could have just knocked."
Yoongi turned sharply, his pulse kicking up as he found Jeongguk standing barely a breath away close enough that if the vampire wanted, he could rip Yoongi’s throat out before he even registered the pain. Yet Jeongguk just smiled, all sharp canines and predatory amusement, like this was some private joke between them. "Why would I knock?" Yoongi hissed, stepping back to put distance between them. His heel caught on a loose stone, but he refused to let himself stumble. "You’d just ignore me."
"I would never ignore you little heart" Jeongguk purred. The moonlight caught the unnatural gleam in his dark eyes, like the void between stars. Yoongi hated how his traitorous pulse stuttered under that gaze.
Jeongguk took a slow, deliberate step forward, the gravel crunching softly beneath his polished boots. The scent of Yoongi’s adrenaline- sharp and metallic- hung between them. "You reek of fear," he murmured, tilting his head as if studying a particularly intriguing specimen. "And yet here you are, scaling my gates. Tell me, little heart, what could possibly be worth this?"
"My brother's missing," Yoongi spat, the words like broken glass in his throat. He watched Jeongguk's smirk falter for half a second just long enough to confirm this wasn't some elaborate trap.
The amusement drained from his face, replaced by something sharper. "Yoojin?" The name rolled off his tongue, making Yoongi's fists clench.
"You knew?" Yoongi lunged forward before his brain caught up, grabbing fistfuls of velvet lapels. The fabric burned cold against his knuckles. "If you-“
"My heart, little heart, my mortality I would never do anything to hurt you or dim the light of your soul" Jeongguk murmured, his voice dropping into something dangerously soft as he reached out to brush a stray lock of hair from Yoongi’s forehead. The vampire’s fingers lingered near his temple, cold enough to burn.
The moment Jeongguk's fingers touched his skin, Yoongi recoiled as if burned. He stumbled back, his breath coming in ragged bursts that fogged the chilly night air between them. "Don't," he snapped, though the word lacked its usual venom. His hands trembled "Just help me get my brother back"
"Let's go inside little heart you're freezing out here"
The moment Yoongi stepped through the arched doorway, the scent of old parchment and bergamot tea wrapped around him like a shroud. He hated how familiar it felt. Jeongguk moved past him with that eerie, liquid grace, his boots silent on the Persian rug as he gestured toward a high-backed chair near the fireplace. "Sit," he murmured, not quite an order, but close enough to make Yoongi’s jaw clench.
Yoongi didn't sit. Instead, he hovered near the fireplace, close enough to feel the heat lick at his skin but far enough that Jeongguk couldn't corner him again. The flames cast jagged shadows across the vampire's face, deepening the hollows beneath his cheekbones until he looked more like a carved statue than something that had once been human. Jeongguk noticed his hesitation and sighed, pouring two glasses of amber liquid from a decanter that probably cost more than Yoongi's entire apartment.
The whiskey glass felt unnaturally heavy in Yoongi’s grip. He stared at the liquid, watching how the firelight fractured through the amber like liquid gold. Across from him, Jeongguk lounged in his chair, one leg draped carelessly over the armrest, swirling his own glass with no intention of drinking.
Yoongi knew the vampire couldn't intake anything other than blood.
The whiskey burned Yoongi's throat as he swallowed, but the warmth didn’t reach the ice lodged in his chest. He set the glass down, the crystal clinking against the mahogany side table. "Stop staring at me like I'm your next meal," he muttered, refusing to meet Jeongguk's gaze. The silence stretched, thick with unsaid things three years' worth of venom simmering beneath the surface.
The fire crackled between them, its warmth doing nothing to thaw the glacial silence. Jeongguk swirled his untouched whiskey, the liquid catching the light like trapped sunlight. "I'll help you find Yoojin," he said finally, his voice low the tone made Yoongi's skin prickle with warning.
Yoongi scoffed, rubbing his palms against his thighs to chase away the lingering chill. "Cut the theatrics. What's your price?"
Jeongguks lips curved, slow and deliberate. He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, and the movement made the firelight dance across the sharp planes of his face. "You already know, little heart." His voice dropped to a whisper, something intimate and dangerous. "Give yourself to me. Not just your blood, your nights, your fury, that brilliant, stubborn mind. Let me have what I've always wanted."
"No way!" Yoongi snarled. His pulse roared in his ears, drowning out the crackle of flames. "You don't get to turn my brothers disappearance into some, some twisted courtship!"
Jeongguks fingers tightened imperceptibly around his glass. The crystal groaned under the pressure. "Courtship?" He laughed a sound too beautiful for something so predatory. "You think this is mere courtship? Yoongi, I have watched empires rise and fall waiting for you. I have burned cities for lesser slights than your rejection. And yet-" He tilted his head, the shadows deepening the hollows beneath his eyes, "I keep on coming back to you, I would wait for you for an eternity more if needed"
Yoongi recoiled. The heat of the fire felt suddenly suffocating. "You're insane," he breathed, though the words lacked conviction. He'd known Jeongguk was obsessive, but this, this was something else entirely. The vampire's gaze held him pinned, those dark eyes swallowing the light like a collapsing star.
A muscle twitched in Jeongguk's jaw. He set his glass down with deliberate care. "Say no," he murmured, leaning back into his chair. The velvet sighed beneath him. "Walk away. See how far you get hunting whatever took Yoojin alone. Humans vanish every night, little heart. Their screams don’t even echo."
The threat hung between them. Yoongi's fingers curled into fists. "You bastard," he whispered. The realization hit him like a blade between the ribs Jeongguk had already won. There had never been another option.
Jeongguk smiled, knowingly. He rose fluidly, crossing the distance between them. Yoongi refused to flinch when cold fingers tilted his chin up, forcing their eyes to meet. "I want your devotion," Jeongguk murmured, thumb brushing Yoongi's lower lip. "Not as payment, but because you choose me. Freely." His grip tightened almost imperceptibly. "I would never force you little heart because that would make you hate me forever. My un-beating heart couldn't bear the thought"
Yoongi jerked away. The firelight painted Jeongguk in flickering gold and shadow, making him look like some ancient deity carved from marble and spite. "And if I say yes?" Yoongi rasped. "What then? You snap your fingers and Yoojin appears?"
Jeongguk's laughter was colder than the crypts beneath the mansion. "Nothing so crude."
The basement smelled like wet stone and old copper, the kind of scent that clung to the back of Yoongi's throat long after they'd descended the narrow staircase. Jeongguk moved through the darkness ahead of him like it was an extension of himself, his boots silent against the uneven flagstones.
"Stay close," Jeongguk murmured, his voice barely disturbing the thick air between them. His fingers brushed the small of Yoongi's back a fleeting, touch that made Yoongi stiffen. "The Court doesn't take kindly to mortals wandering their halls uninvited."
Yoongi jerked away from the contact, his shoulder bumping against the damp wall. "Then why bring me at all?" he muttered, squinting into the gloom. The only light came from sporadic gas lamps mounted in rusted sconces, their flickering flames casting grotesque shadows across the arched ceiling.
Jeongguk paused beneath one such lamp, the orange light carving his profile into sharp relief. "Because you notice things we don't," he said simply. "Vampires see eternity. You see what's changed since yesterday."
The corridor opened abruptly into a cavernous chamber, its vaulted ceiling lost to darkness. Dozens of figures lounged on velvet chaises or clustered around low tables, their laughter too sharp, their movements too fluid. The air smelled of cloying perfume and something metallic underneath.
"Gukkie!" A willowy woman draped in moth-eaten lace detached from a shadowed alcove. Her pupils swallowed her irises whole. "You brought a snack." Her fingers twitched toward Yoongis wrist.
Jeongguk caught her wrist mid-air. The snap of bone echoed through the chamber. Conversations stuttered to a halt. "Touch him," he said pleasantly, "and I'll peel your skin off in strips." The womans smile didn't waver as she bowed, her broken wrist cradled to her chest.
Yoongi swallowed bile. He counted exits: three archways, all guarded by vampires with hollow-cheeked smiles. Jeongguk's hand settled between his shoulder blades, colder than the stone walls. "Relax," the vampire murmured. "They won't bite unless I let them."
A snort escaped Yoongi. "Comforting." Yoongi looked around "Your friends seem real helpful."
Jeongguk guided him toward a marble dais where an emaciated vampire lounged, picking at his teeth with what looked like a human finger bone. "Namjoon," Jeongguk said by way of greeting. "Who's taken mortal children lately?"
Namjoon's yellowed gaze slid to Yoongi. "You brought dinner to a council meeting?"
Yoongi didn't flinch. "Try me, Count Dracula."
The vampires scattered around the chamber hissed laughter. Jeongguks fingers tightened on Yoongis waist. "He's mine," Jeongguk said mildly, and the room chilled instantly. "Answer the question."
Namjoon sighed, tossing the finger bone over his shoulder. "No fledgling would be stupid enough to take prey so young," he mused, tapping elongated nails against the marble. "Not with the Accords in place."
"The Accords?" Yoongi muttered under his breath. Jeongguk's thumb stroked his hipbone.
"Rules," Jeongguk murmured back. "No hunting minors. Punishable by sunlight exposure." He raised his voice. "But someone's breaking them."
A ripple went through the chamber. Shadows detached from the walls tall, gaunt figures with hollow eyes. Yoongis pulse stuttered when he realized how many had been watching in silence.
Namjoon exhaled through his teeth a hissing sound like steam escaping a kettle. "There have been... rumors." His yellowed nails scraped the marble armrest. "A nest near the old slaughterhouse district. Young ones."
Jeongguks fingers flexed against Yoongis side. "Coordinates."
"Jeongguk-ah." Namjoon leaned forward, his vertebrae popping like dry twigs. "Even for you, barging into another Courts territory-"
"Coordinates," Jeongguk repeated, softer now. The gas lamps guttered as shadows stretched unnaturally toward him, pooling at his feet like spilled ink.
Namjoon exhaled through his nostrils. He scribbled something in what looked like dried blood on a scrap of parchment. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Yoongi snatched the parchment before Jeongguk could, squinting at the smeared symbols. "This is just gibberish."
Jeongguk plucked it from his fingers, nostrils flaring as he inhaled the scent. "It's an address." His lips curled. "Written in corpse bile. Clever."
The walk back through the winding corridors felt longer, the weight of unseen eyes pressing against Yoongis spine. He kept his shoulders squared, refusing to let the vampires see him falter. "So, what's the plan?" he muttered once they reached the surface, gulping down the comparatively fresh air. "We just waltz into their nest and ask nicely?"
Jeongguk was already shrugging off his velvet coat, rolling up his sleeves to reveal forearms crisscrossed with silver scars. "You stay here while I-“
"Like hell," Yoongi snapped, stepping into Jeongguks space. The vampires eyes flashed crimson in the dim light. "That's my brother."
Jeongguks fingers twitched toward Yoongi's face before curling into fists at his sides. "Then you follow my lead," he growled. "No heroics. No arguments. When I say run, you run."
The slaughterhouse district smelled like rotting meat and iron. He pressed his sleeve to his nose, stumbling over cracked pavement as Jeongguk moved ahead like a shadow given form. The vampire paused beneath a rusted sign swinging in the wind, its hinges squealing like a dying animal.
"Stay close," Jeongguk murmured, his breath oddly warm against Yoongi's ear. The scent of him bergamot and old parchment was a surreal contrast to the reek of decay around them. "They'll smell your fear before they hear your heartbeat."
Yoongi gritted his teeth. "Not helping." he followed Jeongguk down a narrow alley strewn with broken glass that crunched like bones underfoot.
The building loomed ahead, a derelict slaughterhouse with boarded windows and chains sagging across its doors. Jeongguk stopped abruptly, nostrils flaring. "Blood," he said softly. "Fresh." His fingers closed around Yoongi's wrist, cold as a corpse's grip. "Not human."
Yoongi wrenched free. "Then whose-"
A scream tore through the night high-pitched, and animalistic. The chains rattled violently before snapping like twigs. Jeongguk shoved Yoongi behind him just as the doors burst outward, splinters raining down around them. Three figures lunged from the darkness too fast, too feral, their movements jerky like marionettes with severed strings.
Jeongguk moved in a blur of motion. One attacker's head hit the pavement with a wet crack before Yoongi could blink. The other two hesitated long enough for Yoongi to see them: pupil-less eyes, milky white, veins blackened beneath translucent skin.
"Turned too young," Jeongguk hissed, twisting the second attacker's arm until bone protruded through rotting flesh. "Can't even control their hunger." The third vampire scrambled backward, whimpering like a whipped dog before darting into the slaughterhouse shadows.
Yoongis pulse hammered against his ribs as he stared at the twitching bodies. Their fingers still clawed at the concrete, though their spines were clearly shattered. "They're...kids," he breathed, noticing the frayed edges of their school uniforms beneath bloodstained hoodies.
Jeongguk wiped his hands on his ruined sleeves. "Were," he corrected grimly. "Now they're just puppets." He stepped over the bodies without looking back. "Come on. They wouldn't have turned without a sire nearby."
The slaughterhouse interior swallowed sound whole. Yoongi's sneakers stuck to the floor with every step- old blood, he realized, layered thick as paint. Rusted meat hooks swayed overhead, their shadows spidering across walls papered with occult symbols. The same ones from Yoojins video.
Jeongguk paused beneath a flickering emergency light, nostrils flaring. "Lab equipment," he murmured, tilting his head toward a reinforced door marked 'Freezer.' The scent of formaldehyde leaked through the cracks. "Someone's playing alchemist."
Yoongi pressed his palm to the freezer door cold seeped through instantly. His breath clouded as he whispered, "You think they're-"
"Turning humans prematurely?" Jeongguk's fangs gleamed in the dim light. "Yes. And badly." He traced a finger along a brownish stain on the wall. "These symbols aren't vampire script. They're human occultism. Someone's combining magics."
A muffled thump came from inside the freezer. Yoongis pulse stuttered. Jeongguk didn't hesitate he ripped the door off its hinges with a metallic screech. The stench of decay and ammonia hit like a physical blow. Shelves lined with glass jars swam into view, each containing
Yoongi gagged. "Are those-"
"Eyes." Jeongguk's voice went dangerously soft. "Human eyes." He lifted one jar, where a pair of hazel irises floated in yellowed fluid. The label read: Subject 14 - Failed conversion.
The back wall held worse. A stainless-steel table, crusted with old blood, restraints still fastened around empty spaces where limbs should have been. Above it, pinned like butterfly specimens, were dozens of polaroids: teenagers with hollowed cheeks, their necks punctured in precise patterns. Yoongi recognized the uniform from the feral vampires outside. And in the corner of one photo, half-torn-
"Yoojins jacket." His throat closed around the words. The familiar denim sleeve lay crumpled under the table, the cuff stained black with what looked like tar. Yoongi lunged for it, fingers trembling against the fabric. "He was here."
Jeongguk caught his wrist before he could touch the substance. "Don't." His thumb brushed the underside of Yoongi's pulse point cold against fevered skin. "That's not blood. It's ichor."
"Ichor?" Yoongi wrenched free, clutching the jacket to his chest. The scent hit him burnt sugar and rotting copper. "What the hell is"
"Vampire venom," Jeongguk interrupted, scanning the polaroids with narrowed eyes. "But purified. Concentrated." He plucked one from the wall, holding it up to the flickering light. The subject's veins stood out in black relief beneath their skin, spiderwebbing from puncture wounds at their neck. "They're distilling it. Trying to enhance its properties."
Yoongi's knees nearly buckled. The implications crashed over him like a wave Yoojin wasn't just kidnapped. He was being experimented on. His fingers tightened around the jacket until his knuckles blanched. "Why?" The word tore from his throat raw as a wound.
Jeongguk's silence spoke volumes. He moved to a steel cabinet, forcing the drawer open with a screech. Inside lay rows of vials filled with viscous black fluid, each labeled with dates andYoongi's stomach lurched- names.
"Park Jimin. Kim Taehyung." Jeongguk read them aloud like a death roll call.
The drawer squealed as Jeongguk yanked it fully open, revealing a leather-bound ledger tucked beneath the vials. Yoongi didn’t wait for permission he snatched it, fingers trembling as he flipped to the last marked page. The entries were meticulous: dates, temperatures, dosages, observations. And then, halfway down the page, in smudged ink that looked hastily written:
Subject 17: Min Yoojin. Age 16. Asthmatic. Complications observed during initial infusion: convulsions, respiratory distress. Transferred to secondary site pending stabilization.
Yoongi’s vision tunneled. The words respiratory distress burned behind his eyelids. Yoojin couldn’t survive an asthma attack without his inhaler, let alone whatever hellish poison they’d pumped into his veins.
Jeongguk plucked the ledger from his grip, nostrils flaring as he scanned the page. “They moved him,” he murmured.
Yoongis breath came in shallow bursts, each inhale thick with the stench of formaldehyde and something darker, something that made his instincts scream. "Secondary site," he repeated, voice cracking. "Where the hell is that?"
Jeongguk's fingers traced the ledgers edge, his nail blackening where it touched the tainted pages. "Old coven lines," he murmured. "The slaughterhouse sits on disputed territory, three clans claim it." He snapped the ledger shut with a puff of dust that smelled like burnt hair. "But only one would be reckless enough to break the Accords so openly."
The polaroids fluttered as Yoongi shoved past him, knocking over a jar that shattered against the floor. Eyeballs rolled like marbles between his sneakers. "I don't give a damn about your vampire politics," he snarled. "Where's my brother?"
Jeongguk caught his wrist, spinning him around until their chests nearly touched. The freezer's single bulb flickered above them, casting his face in jagged shadows. "You should," he said softly. "Because politics is why they took him." His thumb brushed the racing pulse in Yoongi's wrist. "The Park Clan has always resented the Jeons' influence. Turning humans without consent? That's a declaration of war."
A rat scuttled past Yoongi's foot, dragging something fleshy into the darkness. He swallowed bile. "You're saying... this is about you?"
Jeongguk's fangs gleamed in the half-light. "Partially." He released Yoongi to pluck a vial from the cabinet, holding the black sludge up to the light. It swirled unnaturally, like oil trying to escape its glass prison. "But mostly, it's about power. The Parks have been experimenting with venom distillation for decades. Strengthening it. Accelerating the turning process." His fingers tightened around the vial. "Imagine an army of newborn vampires that is stronger, faster, completely obedient created in weeks instead of years."
The implications settled over Yoongi like a shroud. He stared at the polaroids, teenagers with blackened veins, their faces frozen in silent screams. "They're using kids as test subjects."
"Disposable ones," Jeongguk corrected grimly. "Orphans. Runaways. No one to notice they're gone." His gaze flicked to Yoojin's jacket still clutched in Yoongi's hands. "Until they got careless."
Yoongi's fingers twitched around the denim. "Why Yoojin?"
Jeongguk's expression darkened. He moved to a map pinned beside the polaroids city districts marked in what looked like dried blood, overlapping circles drawn around key locations. "The Parks have been encroaching on Jeon territory for decades," he murmured, tracing a jagged line near the riverfront. "But this?" His nail split the paper where it pierced a red X over the slaughterhouse. "This is a direct challenge."
The freezer's hum filled the silence as Yoongi absorbed the implications. Vampires had politics. Vampires had territory disputes. The realization settled like a stone in his gut: this wasn't just monsters in the dark. It was a system with rules even predators followed.
Jeongguk plucked a silver dagger from his boot, flipping it with practiced ease before slicing his palm. Blood welled black in the dim light. He pressed his hand to the map's edge where three clan sigils intersected: a coiled serpent, a crescent moon, and what looked like a stylized wolf. The blood sizzled where it touched parchment.
The map rippled.
Yoongi recoiled as inked boundaries rearranged themselves, new lines spiderwebbing outward like veins. The slaughterhouse pulsed red at the center. "What the hell- “
"Blood memory," Jeongguk murmured. His wound sealed before Yoongi could blink. "Every vampire clan marks territory in their own way. The Parks use mercury in their ink. The Kims favor bone ash." He tapped the wolf sigil now glowing faintly gold. "Jeons? We burn our claims into the land itself."
The maps transformations revealed a sprawling underground network: tunnels branching beneath subway lines, sewer access points marked with tiny fang symbols. Yoongi squinted at a cluster near the riverfront where red ink bled like an infection. "That's where they took him, isn't it?"
Jeongguk exhaled sharply. "Park Jihyos private estate. She turned her wine cellar into a laboratory after the Great War." He traced a crescent-shaped scar along his collarbone old damage that never fully healed. "Her experiments were... controversial even among our kind."
The polaroids rustled as a draft snaked through the slaughterhouse. Yoongi noticed how Jeongguk's pupils dilated at the scent. The vampire traced a claw along the map's edge where the ink bled blackest. "The Parks weren't always poison-makers," he murmured. "Centuries ago, they bred nightshade gardens so potent humans hallucinated their own deaths."
Yoongis grip tightened on Yoojins jacket. "Charming family."
Jeongguks fangs flashed. "They perfected mercy killings during plagues. A single drop of distilled venom could ease a decade of suffering." His fingers hovered over the wolf sigil. "My ancestors called it blasphemy. Said suffering was the human condition."
Yoongi watched shadows pool unnaturally around Jeongguks boots, thicker where they touched the map's bloodstains. "So, what changed?"
"Industrialization." Jeongguk flicked a speck of dust off his sleeve. "Modern medicine made humans harder to kill quietly. The Accords established hunting quotas, blood banks, territory lines." His thumb smeared a red boundary marker. "The Parks adapted first. Turned their poison labs into pharmaceutical companies."
Yoongi snorted. "Let me guess the Jeons were too busy brooding in castles?"
Jeongguks smile showed too many teeth. "We preferred direct methods. If humans saw entire villages vanish, they stopped asking questions." He tapped the wolf sigil again. "But the Parks? They learned subtlety. Infiltrated governments. Funded research into blood substitutes." His gaze flicked to the vials. "Then they discovered venom could be weaponized."
A rat squeaked in the shadows, dragging a severed finger across the floor. Yoongi forced himself to focus on the map instead. "So, this...experiment. It's about creating super-vampires?"
"Basically yeah"
"Damn"
Jeongguk let out a small laugh, sharp and bitter, as he rolled up the map with fingers that moved too gracefully for the horrors they'd just uncovered. "Super-vampires," he repeated, shaking his head. "More like disposable shock troops. The Parks want quantity over quality, soldiers who burn bright and fast, with just enough control to point them at the right enemies." His gaze flicked to the shattered jar on the floor, where an eyeball stared blankly up at them. "Humans have a word for this, don't they? Cannon fodder. “
The sewer access hatch groaned under Jeongguks grip, rust flaking like dried blood as he wrenched it open. Yoongi recoiled from the stench wet stone and something older, like opened graves.
“You’ve done this before,” Yoongi muttered, watching Jeongguks shoulders tense at the accusation.
The vampire didn’t turn around. Moonlight caught the silver scars laddering his neck, old wounds that never fully healed. “1843,” he said finally, voice softer than the distant drip of water. “London. The Kims were turning orphans in workhouses.” His fingers flexed around the hatch’s edge. “I was younger then. Still believed in mercy.”
Yoongis breath fogged between them. Three years ago, their first meeting flashed behind his eyelids, Jeongguk standing in the rain outside his brothers hospital, coat soaked black as his eyes. Yoongi had thrown a punch. Jeongguk had caught his wrist, inhaled sharply, then vanished without explanation. Now he understood why.
“You stank of grief that night,” Jeongguk murmured, as if reading his thoughts. He finally turned, revealing eyes gone liquid gold in the dark. “Like burnt sugar and salt. I followed you home just to breathe it.” A confession, raw as an open vein. “Three blocks. You never looked back.”
The sewers chill crept up Yoongi’s spine. Jeongguk had watched him cry over hospital bills in a diner booth. Had seen him trade his grandmothers jade ring for Yoojins asthma medication. Had done nothing.
Jeongguks jaw tightened at his silence. “I could’ve compelled you. Taken you that first night.” His fingers twitched toward Yoongis collar, stopping an inch shy. “Would you have preferred that? To wake up fanged and furious, with no memory of begging for it?”
Yoongi recoiled. “I’d never—”
“You did.” Jeongguks voice dropped to a whisper. “In Naples. 1921.” He stepped closer, the scent of bergamot cutting through the sewer stench. “A poet with your eyes starved himself writing sonnets no one read. I found him weeping over unfinished verses.” His thumb brushed Yoongi’s pulse. “He begged me for eternity. Died screaming when I refused.”
"We were mates, every death of yours hurt more than the last"
The confession hit like a brick to the chest. Yoongis breath stuttered. “Reincarnation? mates?”
“Fates cruel joke.” Jeongguks fangs gleamed in the dim light. “Same soul, different lifetimes. Always artists. Always-“ His fingers twitched toward Yoongis ink-stained knuckles. “Too bright to last.”
Yoongi focused on the maps edge where Jeongguks blood still smoldered. “So, what makes this lifetime different?”
Jeongguks laugh was a hollow thing. “You found me first.” He gave a small smile. “Most humans never breach vampire courts alive. You kicked down the door like-”
“Like an idiot,” Yoongi finished flatly.
“Like a storm.” Jeongguks gaze lingered on Yoongis ink-stained fingers- the same hands that had punched a three-hundred-year-old vampire for glancing at Yoojins photo.
The sewer tunnel echoed with distant drips. Jeongguk crouched suddenly, tracing claw marks on the damp stone. “1819,” he murmured. “Paris. The Jeon Clan executed a fledgling for turning children.” His fingers lingered over grooves too precise for human tools. “I carved the verdict into his ribs before beheading him.”
Yoongis throat tightened. The marks weren’t random; they formed symbols matching those in Yoojins occult diary.
Jeongguk stood abruptly, rolling up his sleeves to reveal scars that mapped entire battles. A jagged line across his inner forearm pulsed faintly gold when he flexed. “Vampire justice isn’t pretty.” He caught Yoongi staring. “This one? 1944. Warsaw ghetto. I ripped out a Kim elders fangs for breaching the Accords.”
Parallels clicked for Yoongi “You enforce vampire law.”
“Sometimes.” Jeongguks boots scuffed the tunnels curve. “Mostly I just clean up messes.”
Dripping water echoed. Yoongi matched his stride, noticing how Jeongguk angled himself between the shadows and Yoongis skin. Protective even now. “So, what happens when we find Park Jihyo?”
Jeongguks fangs glinted. “Depends if she’s breathing.”
The tunnel narrowed, forcing them single file. Yoongis shoulder brushed damp stone, the cold seeping through his sleeve. Ahead, Jeongguk moved like liquid shadow: no sound, no wasted motion. Centuries of practice.
“You never answered,” Yoongi said abruptly. “About mates.”
Jeongguk stiffened. “It’s not-”
“If I’m reincarnated,” Yoongi pressed, stepping on a rat skull that crunched underfoot. “Then you’ve known. Every time.”
The silence stretched too long. Jeongguks shoulders tensed under his ruined coat. “Not at first,” he admitted finally. “Not until-” His fingers flexed around the maps edge. “-until you bleed.”
The sewer tunnel curved sharply. Yoongi almost missed it, the way Jeongguks posture shifted infinitesimally as they passed a rusted grate where moonlight speared through. Just enough illumination to catch the vampire’s throat working.
“First time was Alexandria,” Jeongguk murmured. His boot scuffed a symbol into the muck, an eye inside a triangle. “Library fire. You were a scribe with ink-stained lips.” A pause. “You begged me to save the scrolls instead of yourself.”
Water dripped. Somewhere distant, pipes groaned. Yoongi counted the scars on Jeongguks exposed wrist, thin white lines like tallies. “How many lifetimes?”
Jeongguks smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Enough to know you always choose martyrdom.” He stopped abruptly, pressing a palm to the tunnel wall where ancient brick gave way to older stone. His voice dropped to something raw. “Florence. 1497. You burned with Savonarola’s bonfires. Held my gaze through the flames.”
The air thickened. Yoongis pulse hammered against his ribs. He remembered none of this, only dreams of libraries crumbling, of charcoal-smudged fingers reaching through smoke. “You watched me die.”
“I tried to save you, I tried.” Jeongguk’s claws gouged mortar. Dust rained between them. “You shoved a damn copy of Ovid into my hands first.” A broken laugh. “Priorities.”
The tunnel narrowed further, forcing them closer. Yoongi caught the tremor in Jeongguks fingers. Three centuries old, and the vampire still shook remembering Yoongis past selves.
Jeongguk exhaled sharply, rolling up his sleeves further. “Barcelona, 1936,” he muttered, tracing a jagged line. “You were a photographer. Caught shrapnel documenting fascist executions.” His thumb skated lower. “Kyoto, 1603. A tea master who-”
“Poisoned himself,” Yoongi realized. The scar pulsed black.
Jeongguks jaw tightened. “You always choose the exit wound.”
The tunnel split suddenly, revealing a rusted ladder ascending into darkness. Jeongguk hesitated, unusual for a creature who moved with predators certainty. His fingers flexed around the rungs, claws retracting.
Yoongi watched moonlight catch the divot between Jeongguks collarbones. Three years ago, that same vulnerability had flashed when Yoongi punched him outside the hospital. The vampire hadn’t dodged.
“1812,” Jeongguk murmured abruptly. “Moscow.” He climbed without looking back. “You were a cavalry officer with frostbite-blackened fingers. Wrote love letters to a woman who married your brother.” The iron groaned under his weight. “You begged me to turn you before the French cannons hit.”
Yoongis breath hitched. He followed, the ladders chill seeping through his sleeves. Above, Jeongguks silhouette paused against a sewer gate backlit like a stained-glass saint.
“I refused.” Jeongguks voice dropped to a whisper. “You bled out reciting Pushkin.”
The hatch opened onto a derelict chapel. Moonlight speared through shattered stained glass, painting Jeongguk in fractured blues and reds as he crouched beside an overturned pew. His fingers traced something carved into the wood.
The pew groaned under Jeongguk’s touch, centuries-old wood yielding to vampire strength as he flipped it upright. Moonlight caught the carvings, not religious iconography, but a twisted parody of it: inverted crosses with serpents coiled around the beams, their fangs meeting at the center where a human heart would be impaled.
The chapels rotten floorboards groaned underfoot as Yoongi stepped closer to the overturned pew. Jeongguks fingers still hovered over the serpent-carved heart, his claws retracted in an uncharacteristic show of restraint. Moonlight caught the dust motes swirling between them, illuminating what Yoongi had missed at first glance, the heart wasn't just impaled. Thin, precise cuts radiated outward, forming a symbol that matched the one seared into Yoojins journal.
"Park Jihyos signature," Jeongguk murmured. His thumb smeared centuries of grime away, revealing reddish stains in the grooves. "She brands her experiments. Lets them live long enough to see their own corruption." His gaze flicked to Yoongis collarbone where sweat-damp fabric clung. "Your brother would've been marked upon transfer."
Yoongis fingers twitched toward his own chest. The chapels cold seeped through his threadbare jacket as Jeongguk abruptly straightened, nostrils flaring. His head snapped toward the shattered rose window where moonlight pooled thickest.
"Down." The command came half a second before Yoongi felt it, the pressure change, the scent of wet stone shifting to something metallic. Jeongguks arm barred across his chest, shoving him behind the pew as a shadow detached from the rafters.
The impact jarred Yoongis spine against wood. He barely registered the pain before Jeongguk was moving, a blur of black leather and bared fangs intercepting the diving figure midair. They crashed into a confessional booth, splintering the lattice screen. Through the wreckage, Yoongi caught flashes, too-fast limbs, a glint of silver, Jeongguks snarl as he wrenched something sideways with a wet crack.
Silence. Then Jeongguk emerged, wiping blackened blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. His sleeve was torn at the shoulder, revealing scars that mapped entire battles Yoongi couldn't begin to fathom.
"You're bleeding," Yoongi said stupidly. A shallow cut marred Jeongguks cheekbone, already knitting itself closed.
Jeongguk blinked, as if surprised Yoongi noticed. He touched the wound, fingers coming away smeared red-black. "Park sentinels," he muttered, kicking aside the confessional debris. "Modified. They’re faster than they should be." His gaze flicked to the chapels shadowed corners. "We won't get another warning."
Yoongis pulse hammered against his ribs. The scent of bergamot and iron clung to Jeongguk's collar as the vampire hauled him upright, fingers lingering a heartbeat too long on his wrist.
Moonlight caught the wreckage, splintered wood, torn hymnals, the sentinel's corpse already crumbling to ash. Jeongguk stepped over it like roadkill. "They'll have patrols at the river crossing," he said, rolling his sleeves higher.
Yoongi caught his arm. "Wait."
Jeongguk stilled, unnaturally still, the way only predators could. His pupils dilated at the contact, black swallowing gold. Yoongi expected mockery, another flirtatious jab. Instead, Jeongguk exhaled through his nose and waited.
"You're hurt worse than you're admitting." Yoongi pointed to the blood soaking through the vampire's shirt sleeve. Black ichor, not red. "That's venom."
Jeongguk's lips curled, showing a sliver of fang. "Observant." He flexed his wrist, watching tendons shift under skin. "Modified toxin. Burns like hell." A pause. "I'll live."
The chapels cold pressed closer. Yoongi hesitated before ripping a strip from his already ruined shirt. Jeongguk watched, silent, as Yoongi knotted the fabric above the wound. His fingers trembled against vampire-cool skin.
"That won't help," Jeongguk murmured. But he didn't pull away.
Yoongi tightened the knot harder than necessary. "Shut up."
Jeongguk let out a huff, almost a laugh. Black ichor seeped through the makeshift bandage. He flexed his fingers experimentally, claws scraping stone. "Three hours until sunrise. We should-"
"Move. Yeah." Yoongi released him, only to freeze when Jeongguk caught his wrist.
The vampire's grip was careful, barely there. Like handling blown glass. "You're shaking."
Cold radiated from the chapels stone floor through Yoongis worn sneakers. His fingers twitched in Jeongguks hold. "Adrenaline crash."
Jeongguks nostrils flared. He inhaled sharply, pupils dilating. "Liar." His thumb brushed Yoongis pulse point. "You reek of fear."
Yoongi jerked back. "Maybe I'm scared of the feral vampire holding me captive."
Jeongguk looked hurt for a second before schooling his expression. "Let's go we need to move before sunrise" Yoongi felt guilty for that comment. If only he could shut up.
Yoongi followed Jeongguk as he led him down an abandoned subway tunnel, their footsteps echoing eerily. The vampire moved with silent grace, occasionally glancing back at Yoongi with an unreadable expression.
The subway tunnels flickering lights cast Jeongguk in fractured gold, illuminating the way his fingers twitched whenever Yoongi stumbled too close to the electrified third rail. Twice now, the vampire had jerked forward like a marionette on strings, only to freeze mid-motion when Yoongi glared. The third time, Jeongguk didn't bother hiding it; he simply reached out and hauled Yoongi backward by the belt loop.
"Watch your step," Jeongguk murmured, thumb brushing the hollow of Yoongi's hipbone before releasing him like burnt flesh. His claws left tiny crescent moons in the denim.
Yoongis pulse stuttered traitorously. He hated the way his skin remembered the exact temperature of Jeongguk's touch, colder than a human, but warmer than a corpse. "I can walk without your-"
Jeongguk's hand clamped over his mouth. The vampires body pressed flush against his back, all hard planes and coiled tension. "Breathe," he ordered against Yoongis ear, the words vibrating through bone. "Through your nose. Slowly."
The scent hit Yoongi then, copper and spoiled milk. Jeongguks chest didn't rise or fall against his spine. The absence of breath was more unsettling than the proximity.
Three rapid heartbeats passed before Jeongguk released him, stepping away with deliberate slowness. His fingers lingered near Yoongis jawline, not touching, just... hovering. As if he could map the shape of Yoongis rage by its heat signature.
"You're staring," Yoongi muttered. The subway tunnels flickering lights caught the gold flecks in Jeongguks eyes, too human for something that didn't need to blink.
Jeongguk tilted his head. "Counting your freckles." His thumb brushed air where Yoongis pulse jumped. "Seventy-two since Florence. You get more each lifetime."
Yoongi swatted at him. Missed on purpose. "Stop that."
"Which part?" Jeongguk caught his wrist, turning it palm-up. His fingers traced the ink stains, permanent reminders of Yoongis day job at the print shop. "The staring? The counting?" His thumb caressed his palm. "Or the wanting?"
The subway lights flickered. Yoongis breath hitched. He hated how his skin remembered Jeongguks touch across centuries he couldn't recall. Hated more that part of him ached for it.
Jeongguk inhaled sharply, nostrils flaring. "You're lying to yourself again." His grip tightened, not enough to hurt, but enough that Yoongi couldn't pull away. "Your pulse jumps when I'm nearby. Your pupils dilate. Even now," He leaned closer, lips brushing Yoongi's ear. "Your pulse is thrumming."
Yoongis knee jerked up on instinct. Jeongguk dodged with preternatural speed, laughing darkly as he pinned Yoongi against the tunnel wall. The impact rattled his teeth. Cold brick bit through his shirt as Jeongguk crowded closer, their bodies aligned in a way that made heat coil low in Yoongis belly.
The brick scraped against Yoongis back through his thin shirt, the cold a sharp contrast to the heat pooling in his gut. Jeongguks body pressed flush against his.
"Still fighting me," Jeongguk murmured, his breath cool against Yoongis lips. His fangs glinted in the flickering tunnel lights. "After all these lifetimes."
Yoongis pulse stuttered when Jeongguks knee slotted between his thighs. The vampire didn't breathe, didn't need to, but Yoongi could feel the coiled tension in the way Jeongguk held himself, the restraint in every line of his body.
Jeongguks nose brushed Yoongis cheekbone. "Tell me to stop," he whispered.
"Little heart, tell me if you don't want this and I'll pull away, but I can't promise I'll be able to hold back, if you allow me even a little bit of yourself" Jeongguk whispered against Yoongis lips, his voice rough like centuries of restraint crumbling. His breath smelled of parchment and bergamot, the same scent that haunted Yoongis nightmares for three years.
Yoongis fingers curled into the vampire's ruined shirt and let out a small nod. As soon as he had permission Jeongguks mouth was on his. The kiss wasn't gentle, couldn't be, not with centuries of hunger behind it. Jeongguk licked into Yoongis mouth with the precision of a predator, mapping the shape of his teeth.
Yoongi gasped against Jeongguks lips when fangs grazed his tongue. The pain-prick sent liquid heat straight to his groin. He hated how his body responded, arching into the vampires touch like some desperate thing.
Jeongguks hands slid under Yoongis shirt, cool palms skimming the fevered skin of his waist. The contrast of temperatures made Yoongi shudder. When Jeongguks thumb brushed over a nipple, Yoongi bit down on the vampire's lower lip.
Jeongguk growled, an actual fucking growl, and pinned Yoongis wrists above his head with one hand. The other yanked Yoongis shirt collar aside to expose his throat. Yoongis breath hitched as Jeongguks tongue traced the pounding vein there.
"Stop..." Yoongi felt like he was in a daze. Jeongguk continued to focus on his neck "Jeongguk Stop!"
Jeongguk froze instantly, pulling back just enough for Yoongi to see his blown-out pupils, the way his fangs had fully extended. A thin trail of black venom dripped from one sharp tip.
"Say the word," Jeongguk breathed, voice ragged with restraint, "and I walk away right now."
"Don't be like that Jeongguk, I need your help to find my brother, you know that!" Jeongguk huffed "Of course, that's all I am to you" he looked away hurt. The subway tunnels flickering lights cast long shadows across Jeongguks face, illuminating the way his jaw tightened when Yoongi pushed him away. Black ichor still seeped through the makeshift bandage on his forearm, the venom-laced wound refusing to heal properly.
Things got awkward after that, and to be completely honest, Yoongi didn’t know how to fix it.
After the kiss, just thinking about it makes his lips tingle, and his, to be honest, completely fucking fuck up that was his response, Jeongguk hadn’t said a word to him. Whatever little peace they had built was gone and Yoongi was frankly going insane.
Because Jeongguk would still behave like a gentleman. When Yoongi almost tripped over nothing the vampire had caught him but instead of a lingering hand or a flirty comment the vampire just turned around and continued walking.
And Yoongi had never, never! Been good at confrontation when his ex-girlfriend said he had cheated on her he couldn’t get himself to defend himself. It was easier to just take the backlash.
So yeah, his poor introverted, emotionally stunted self did not know how to get out of this situation.
“Where are we going?” Yoongi asked, trying to make small talk.
“Past the river to the Park territory” the other responded not even looking back at the human.
The tunnel lights flickered violently as they approached the river crossing, casting Jeongguk’s shadow long and jagged against the graffiti-stained walls. Yoongi kept close, his shoulder brushing damp concrete, the silence between them thicker than the scent of rusted pipes and standing water.
The river’s stench hit Yoongi first. Jeongguk moved ahead of him, silent as the dead, his boots barely disturbing the grime-coated planks of the old pedestrian bridge. Yoongi hesitated at the threshold, watching the vampires silhouette blur in the mist rising off the black water.
"You coming?" Jeongguk didn’t turn around.
Yoongi swallowed. The bridge groaned under his tentative step. Halfway across, the wood gave a sickening crack beneath his sneakers. Jeongguk spun fast enough that the air whistled, one hand outstretched, claws fully extended but Yoongi had already caught the railing.
Jeongguk’s fingers curled into a fist. He exhaled sharply through his nose. "Careful," he muttered, turning away again.
"Jeongguk listen-" Yoongi grabbed the vampires sleeve. The fabric was cold. Jeongguk didn't pull away, but he didn't turn around either, his shoulders rigid beneath the coat.
"I'm sorry." The words tasted like gravel. "About... before."
Jeongguk went unnaturally still. The river lapped at the bridge supports, filling the silence. When he finally spoke, his voice was too even. "Don't apologize for not wanting me."
Yoongi's grip tightened. "That's not-"
"It's fine little heart don't force it, I'll still help find your brother" Jeongguks voice was soft but distant, like a radio tuned just slightly off-station. He didn't pull away from Yoongis grip, but the space between them might as well have been the river itself, dark and impossible to cross.
The bridge groaned again as Yoongi stepped forward, his sneakers catching on a loose plank. This time Jeongguk didn't react at all, already moving toward the abandoned textile mill looming across the river, its broken windows like empty eye sockets watching their approach.
The mill's loading dock stank of wet wool and something chemical. Jeongguk paused at the rusted service door, his fingers hovering over the bolt cutter marks.
"They've been here," he murmured. His nostrils flared as he bent toward the doorframe where faint smears of blackened blood marked the metal. "Recently."
Yoongi pressed close without thinking, his chest nearly brushing Jeongguk's back. The vampire stiffened but didn't pull away. "How can you tell?"
Jeongguk's claw traced a barely visible symbol scratched into the paint: a crescent moon bisected by a fang. "Park territory mark." His voice dropped lower. "And the blood's fresh. Less than six hours."
The door groaned open on rusted hinges, revealing a cavernous space where looms stood frozen mid-motion, their threads long since rotted away. Moonlight streamed through shattered skylights, illuminating dust motes that swirled like agitated fireflies.
The textile mill's shadows clung to them like cobwebs as they moved between silent looms. Jeongguks hand shot out, stopping Yoongi mid-step, his palm pressed flat against the human's chest, right over the rabbit-quick thud of his heart.
"Someone's here," Jeongguk breathed, barely audible. His pupils dilated, eyes scanning the dark.
Yoongi barely had time to register the warning before the first crossbow bolt whistled past his ear, embedding itself in a wooden beam with a sickening thunk. Jeongguk moved fast, shielding Yoongi with his body as three more bolts streaked through the darkness.
"Jeon Jeongguk." The voice came from above, laced with amusement. Namjoon descended from the rafters with preternatural grace, landing soundlessly amidst scattered bobbins. His usually scholarly glasses reflected the moonlight oddly, lenses flashing opaque for a moment. "I warned you not to dig deeper."
Jeongguk snarled, baring fangs. "You?"
Namjoon adjusted his cuffs, the motion too casual for the carnage unfolding. "The Parks offered something your clan never could progress." He tilted his head toward Yoongi. "And really, must you keep dragging your little human pet into-"
Jeongguk moved faster than Yoongi could blink. One moment he stood rooted by the looms, the next he'd slammed Namjoon through three rotting fabric rolls, sending up clouds of decades-old dust. The betrayal carved itself across Jeongguk's face like acid - lips peeled back from fangs, eyes gone wholly black.
Yoongi barely registered the movement before Jeongguk had Namjoon pinned against a rusted metal beam, claws buried wrist-deep in the traitor's shoulder. Black ichor seeped between Namjoon's fingers where he clutched at the wound, his scholarly facade cracking into something feral.
Namjoon's blood dripped black onto the textile mill's concrete floor, sizzling where it struck rusted metal. Jeongguk twisted his claws deeper, eliciting a wet gasp. "Where is he?" The question came out guttural, barely recognizable as language.
Between gritted teeth, Namjoon laughed. "Too late for your pet's brother." His glasses cracked as Jeongguk slammed his head against the beam. "Jihyo's already begun the third-stage trials."
Yoongi's stomach dropped.
Jeongguk moved faster than thought- one hand snapping Namjoons wrist like dry kindling, the other yanking him forward by his ruined collar. "Where is he?"
The answering silence lasted three rapid heartbeats before Namjoon spat black blood onto Jeongguk's boots. "East wing. Basement lab." His smirk widened as Jeongguks claws twitched.
Yoongi didn't wait. He was already moving toward the rusted freight elevator.
Jeongguk's growl vibrated through the mill's bones as he followed, dragging Namjoon by the throat. The vampire scholar's heels left twin trails in the dust, his mocking laugh cutting off when Jeongguk slammed him against the elevator cage hard enough to bend metal.
The descent took seventeen seconds. Yoongi counted each one, his pulse hammering against his ribs. The elevator groaned to a stop in pitch darkness, its rusted gate shrieking when Jeongguk tore it open one-handed.
The scent hit first, antiseptic and rotting meat. Then the sounds: wet, rhythmic wheezing that wasn't human. Jeongguks claws flexed around Namjoons windpipe as the fluorescent lights flickered to life, revealing rows of surgical tables bolted to the concrete. Only one was occupied.
Yoojin's wrists were strapped down with silver-laced restraints, the flesh beneath them blistered black. His chest rose and fell in shallow jerks, skin mottled with angry purple veins where the venom had spread. The IV in his arm pulsed green-black fluid, Park Jihyos signature enhancement serum, Jeongguk realized with a snarl.
Yoongi lunged forward before Jeongguk could stop him. His fingers hovered over the drip line, shaking too hard to disconnect it. "What did they do to you?"
Yoojins eyelids fluttered, pupils blown wide with pain and venom. "Hyung?" His voice was sandpaper rough. Then, panicked: "Get out!"
Jeongguk moved first. Jeongguk snapped Namjoons neck without looking before he shoved Yoongi behind him just as the ceiling vents exploded downward. Three Park sentinels dropped into the lab, fangs extended, eyes black with enhancement serum.
Yoongi barely registered the blur of motion, Jeongguk tearing through the first sentinel with his bare hands, black ichor spraying across stainless steel tables. The second lunged for Yoojin. Yoongi grabbed a scalpel from the instrument tray and slashed blindly. The blade connected with something yielding. The sentinel screamed, clutching at his slit throat as venomous blood sprayed across Yoongis forearms.
Jeongguk was there in an instant, ripping the sentinel's head clean off with a wet crunch. The third attacker hesitated, just long enough for Jeongguk to drive his claws through its chest cavity and tear out its still-beating heart. The organ pulsed once in his fist before crumbling to ash.
The lab's silence felt louder than the carnage. Jeongguks chest heaved with unnecessary breaths, his claws dripping black onto the concrete as Yoongi rushed to Yoojins side. The younger brother's fingers twitched weakly in the restraints, his skin already taking on the unnatural pallor of venom saturation.
"Can't you do something?" Yoongi almost screamed at the vampire. Leaning over his brothers body.
"Please Jeongguk don't let him die"
Jeongguk's claws retracted with audible clicks as he stepped forward, his face unreadable in the flickering lab lights. He didn't touch Yoojin, not yet. Instead, he turned Yoongi by the shoulders with deliberate slowness, forcing their eyes to meet.
Jeongguk's fingers tightened on Yoongi's shoulders, cold through his shirt. "There's one way." His voice was raw, stripped of its usual arrogance. "But you won't like it."
Jeongguks grip burned colder than the silver restraints cutting into Yoojins wrists. Yoongi didn't pull away. "Tell me."
Jeongguks thumb brushed Yoongi's pulse point, slow and deliberate. "My venom can counteract Jihyo's serum." His gaze flicked to Yoojins convulsing body. "But he'd need to ingest it directly from the source."
"It'll turn him into a vampire. I'll sire him" Jeongguk said.
The fluorescent lights buzzed like trapped insects overhead. Yoongi stared at Jeongguks mouth, the sharp curve of his fangs, the faint sheen of venom at their tips. The math was simple: Let Jeongguk sire Yoojin or watch him die.
Yoongis hands trembled as he reached for the silver restraints. The metal seared his fingertips, but he didn't stop until the clasps sprung open. Yoojins arm flopped onto the table, veins pulsing black beneath translucent skin. "Do it," Yoongi whispered, his voice cracking. "Just- just do it."
Jeongguk didn’t move immediately. His gaze flickered between Yoongi's desperate expression and Yoojins twitching body. Then, with a sharp exhale, he reached for Yoongis wrist, pressing the human’s palm flat against his own chest, right where a heartbeat should have been.
"Little heart, even if this will tie your brother to me for eternity my un-beating lifeless heart will always be yours"
Jeongguks fingers wrapped around Yoongis wrist, pressing the humans palm harder against his chest. The absence of a heartbeat beneath Yoongis fingertips felt obscene. "I need your permission," Jeongguk murmured, his breath chilling Yoongis skin. "Not just as his brother, as my mate."
The word "mate" echoed through Yoongi's skull like a gunshot. He tried to pull his hand back, but Jeongguk's grip was unyieldind. Yoojin whimpered behind them, his fingers scraping against the surgical tables metal edge. The sound snapped Yoongis attention back.
The fluorescent lights buzzed louder, their flickering casting jagged shadows across Jeongguks face. Yoongis fingers twitched against the vampires chest, the absence of a heartbeat beneath his palm making his own pulse stutter.
Yoongis fingers curled into Jeongguks ruined shirt, the fabric damp with black ichor and river filth. Behind them, Yoojins wheezing breaths hitched, wet, uneven gasps that sounded like drowning.
"It's okay Jeongguk please save my brother"
The silence stretched thin between them, broken only by Yoojins ragged breaths. Jeongguks grip on Yoongis wrist loosened, but his gaze remained unyielding. "Say it properly," he murmured, voice low, scraping against Yoongis nerves like gravel. "Say you trust me with him."
Yoongis throat tightened. The words tasted like broken glass. "I trust you with him."
Jeongguks fangs gleamed under the labs flickering lights as he leaned over Yoojins convulsing body. He didn't hesitate, not when Yoongis permission hung between them like a guillotine blade. With one hand, he tilted Yoojins head back, exposing the boys throbbing jugular. The other hand found Yoongis wrist again, crushing their joined fingers against his own chest as his fangs sank deep.
Yoojins scream tore through the lab, wet and guttural, as Jeongguks fangs buried deeper. Black venom pulsed into his veins, mixing with Park Jihyos serum in a visible, writhing storm beneath his skin. Yoongi watched the war under his brothers flesh, purple against black, poison against poison until Yoojins back arched off the table with a crack that sounded too much like breaking bone.
Yoojins scream dissolved into choked silence, his body going rigid as the venom worked. Yoongis fingers dug into Jeongguks wrist hard enough to bruise a human, but the vampire didn't flinch, his fangs remained buried deep, one hand cradling Yoojins thrashing head with impossible gentleness.
The fluorescent lights flickered violently as Yoojin's body spasmed one final time before going limp. Jeongguk withdrew his fangs with an audible wet sound, his lips smeared black with venom and Yoojins blood. He didn't wipe it away.
The labs emergency lights buzzed overhead. Yoongis hands trembled as he reached for Yoojins still form, the purple veins now receding beneath blackened skin.
The silence in the lab was thick enough to choke on. Yoongis fingers hovered over Yoojins throat, afraid to touch, afraid to confirm what his eyes were seeing: no pulse, no breath, nothing but stillness.
The scent of blood and antiseptic clung to the back of Yoongis throat as he stared at his brothers motionless body. His fingers twitched above Yoojins pallid skin, not quite daring to make contact. "You killed him," he whispered, voice cracking on the last syllable.
Jeongguks hand shot out, catching Yoongis wrist before his fingers could brush Yoojins cooling skin. "No," he growled, the word vibrating with something ancient. "He's transforming." His thumb pressed against Yoongis pulse point hard enough to hurt. "Watch."
The first twitch was almost missed, a single fingertip jerking against the steel table like a puppet string had been plucked. Then Yoojins entire body seized, his spine bowing off the table with a grotesque crack. His eyelids flew open, revealing irises swallowed by black, veins spiderwebbing out like shattered glass. A wet, rattling gasp tore from his throat as his newly elongated claws scraped trenches into the metal.
A wet, guttural sound escaped his throat, more animal than human.
Yoojin's body arched off the table, tendons straining against suddenly too-tight skin. Jeongguk's grip on Yoongi's wrist tightened to the point of pain, holding him back as Yoojin's head lolled toward them with unnatural precision.
When his head snapped toward Yoongi, there was nothing human left in those blackened eyes, just hunger.
Yoojin lunged, faster than any human reflex could track. Jeongguk moved faster, twisting Yoongi behind him with one arm while his other hand clamped around Yoojin’s throat, slamming the newborn vampire onto the surgical table hard enough to buckle metal.
"Stand down" Jeongguk snarled, his voice layered with centuries of command, pressing Yoojin into the dented steel table with one clawed hand. The newborn vampire thrashed beneath him, blackened saliva dripping from elongated fangs as he snapped at the air between them. Yoongi stumbled back against an instrument tray, scalpels clattering to the floor, his pulse hammering loud enough for both vampires to hear.
The emergency lights flickered again, casting stuttering shadows across Yoojins face, his pupils blown wide with hunger. Jeongguks fingers flexed around his throat, pressing just enough to remind the newborn of his place in the hierarchy.
Yoongi couldn't tear his gaze away from Yoojin's thrashing form, his brother's fingers now ended in claws, his once-familiar features twisted into something feral. Jeongguks grip on Yoojins throat didn't waver.
Suddenly Yoojin went lax. His claws retracted with sickening wet clicks, his body collapsing back onto the ruined table. His chest rose once, a shuddering, unnecessary breath before his eyes rolled back, lids fluttering shut. The black veins receded like ink dissolving in water, leaving his skin corpse-pale but recognizably his own again.
Jeongguk's fingers lingered against the newborn's throat, counting pulsebeats that weren't there anymore.
"He's not gonna be able to be alone with you or any other human for the next couple years" Jeongguk's voice cut through the lab's sterile silence, his fingers still pressed against Yoojin's throat. Yoongi stared at the twin puncture wounds on his brother's neck, dark and glistening under the flickering lights.
The scent of burning fabric clung to Yoongi's clothes as he watched Jeongguk drag the last of the Park Clan's sentinels into the river. The polluted water hissed where vampire flesh met its surface, dissolving the evidence of their carnage with eerie efficiency. Across the ruined mill, Yoojin crouched in the shadows, his newly elongated fingers flexing against the brick wall, testing strength he didn't yet understand.
He was bound with silver so his hunger didn't make him go wild. The silver burned angry red lines into Yoojins wrists, but the newborn didn't seem to feel it, too consumed by the venom still coursing through his veins.
Jeongguk returned with his sleeves rolled to the elbows, forearms streaked with black ichor that evaporated before Yoongi's eyes. "The Council will send cleaners before dawn," he said, watching Yoojin from the corner of his eye. The newborn vampire had begun scratching at the wall, his claws leaving deep gouges in the mortar. "They'll erase this. All of it."
Yoongi swallowed hard. "And Jihyo?"
Jeongguks lips peeled back from his fangs in something too vicious to be called a smile. "Already dust." He flexed his fingers, claws still extended, still wet with evidence. "I made sure of it."
The air between them thickened. Yoongis gaze dropped to Jeongguk's hands, then to Yoojin, his brother, yet not. The reality settled like stones in his gut. "What happens now?"
Jeongguk exhaled through his nose, a sound almost human. "He comes with me." His gaze flicked to Yoongi, black and unreadable.
"For a couple years we'll be in the wild I'll teach him control." Jeongguk looked at the other "Little heart if you're still waiting when we get back I'll lay my life for you"
Yoongi's hands curled into fists. The thought of Yoojin vanishing into the vampire underworld made his chest ache. "How long?"
Jeongguks fingers twitched toward Yoongis wrist but didn't make contact. "Till the hunger doesn't rule him." His nostrils flared as Yoojin snarled at a passing rat. "Could be five years. Could be twenty."
His brother thrashed, snarling words that weren’t words anymore, just animal sounds ripped from a throat that didn’t remember how to be human.
The realization hit Yoongi like a sledgehammer to the ribs: Jeongguk was beautiful like this, monstrous and tender all at once.
Yoongi catches the vampires hand and before he could talk himself out of it reaches up and kisses him. This time there is no hesitation, no pulling away. Jeongguk stiffens then melts into the contact with a wounded noise that vibrates against Yoongi's lips.
The vampires hands hovered over Yoongis waist like he was afraid to touch, like Yoongi might dissolve if he pressed too hard. Jeongguks lips parted beneath his with a shuddering exhale, cold breath mingling with Yoongis warmth as the kiss deepened. His fangs scraped Yoongi’s lower lip, not enough to draw blood, just enough to remind them both what he was.
Yoongi pressed closer, fingers tangling in Jeongguk's bloodstained shirt, tasting iron and river water on the vampire's lips. The kiss burned colder than silver against skin, sharper than the guilt lodged beneath his ribs. Jeongguk made a broken sound when Yoongi bit down—not hard enough to bleed, just enough to prove this was real, that he wasn't recoiling. That after centuries of running, he'd finally stopped.
"Please come back to me fast Jeongguk" Yoongi said tears in his eyes "Come back to me before I turn old and grey" Jeongguk held the others face "My heart, little heart, my humanity, I promise I'll always come back to you"
Jeongguk cradled Yoongis face between his palms, thumbs brushing away tears that hadn’t fallen yet. “I’ll return I promise I've found you every lifetime and now that I have you I'm not letting you go” he murmured, lips grazing Yoongis forehead. Behind them, Yoojin snarled, the silver restraints singing against his flesh as he strained toward the scent of his brother’s pulse.
When Yoongi finally let go of Jeongguks hand dawn had crept over the water in sickly yellow streaks. He watched Jeongguk adjust the silver cuffs around Yoojin's wrists, his brother's fingers twitching with newborn hunger, eyes tracking a nightbird Yoongi couldn't even see.
The goodbye lasted three breaths. Jeongguk pressed a cold kiss to Yoongi's temple, brief enough to pretend it hadn't happened, before vanishing into the treeline with Yoojin loping behind him like a half-broken shadow. Yoongi stood clutching his own elbows until the last rustle of dead leaves faded into nothing.
His apartment smelled like stale coffee and moldy takeout containers. Yoongi kicked aside a week's worth of mail, unpaid bills from utilities he'd forgotten existed. The answering machine blinked with seventeen messages. He yanked the cord from the wall.
The shower ran scalding hot until the mirror fogged over completely. Yoongi pressed his forehead against the tiles, imagining Jeongguk somewhere in the wilderness beyond the city limits, teaching Yoojin how to hunt. The water turned his skin lobster-red before he turned it off.