[Fic] Until You - 1/15
Title: Until You
Author: Coley Merrin
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Rating: R
Genre: AU, Vampires, Angst, Fluff
Warnings: Brief violence, angst, sexual situations.
Summary: Research points to a vampire bite being unbreakable, but Kyuhyun can't give up. And with Zhou Mi, they work together to undo the blood bond that forced them together.
***
Chapter One * Chapter Two & Three
***
At first it seemed like a dream, being roused and moved. Like he was a child again, his mother shoving him to get him out of a stupor after a late night and deep sleep. But the voice in his ear was definitely not his mother’s, ordering him to wake up, to walk. He was already on his feet by the time his senses came back to him, and he looked around the dark room lit only with a single bulb. Concrete. Dirty. Not his home. Not his apartment.
He remembered the street.
The man excusing himself.
A hand clamping over his nose and mouth.
Shouting.
Nothing.
Where was he?
“Let me go,” he ground out, though he had no idea if he’d be able to stand if the two men hauling his stumbling form with them did. And proved that, as he nearly fell to his knees, his shoulders protesting as they kept moving. Who kidnapped men off the street? He was a useless, low-paying office worker, not a government official or anything.
Kyuhyun dug the toes of his shoes, his heels, into the floor, trying to slow how quickly he was being dragged. The skid of rubber over loose dirt and rock on concrete. It just made them pull harder, nearly knocking the wind from him as they swung him through the door and into a large room. He never would’ve considered himself light, but nothing he did stopped them.
For a moment, he had a flash of hope, letting himself go limp while hoping to distract them.
It was then that he saw the man on the chair ahead of him. Bound, it seemed. Curiosity and hope mingled. If there were two of them, if they could work together, then maybe they could get away. He didn’t have any money, nothing anyone would rob him for. No connections to exploit. If they could just see reason.
What reason was there in kidnapping?
When Kyuhyun would not stand, they shoved him to his knees instead, holding him there facing the man on the chair, and the man who stood beside him.
“Meet your end, filth. You’re no vampire,” the man who was standing said. He was dressed in severe white, so bright it nearly hurt Kyuhyun’s eyes, distracting him as the words filtered into his head. Vampire? He was definitely not a vampire.
But his eyes darted to the bound man. There was no way. Vampires were so rare anyway, keeping to themselves because of governmental regulations. He’d heard that no vampires even lived in the city. But it didn’t make any sense. If there was a vampire, then why was Kyuhyun there? And to what end? Whose end? Vampires didn’t eat people so he was trying to rationalize his own safety, but the man? The vampire, he corrected himself. It sent shivers up his spine. Stories children told on playgrounds. But the man on the chair with the defiant eyes looked nothing like any image of a vampire he’d conjured. Sure, he’d heard they looked like normal people, but he didn’t actually believe it.
“You can’t do this,” the vampire said, shoulders work against what bound him. “My end will be-“
“Swift enough. Cut him.”
Distracted by their words, one of the men holding him muscled up Kyuhyun’s arm. Nearly twisting it out of its socket before Kyuhyun yelped and straightened.
And then there was the knife at his wrist. And the blood. The pain.
“Oh shit, no,” were the first words out of his mouth, the cut too quick for him to avoid. First the trickle, and then steady flow. Were they going to let him bleed out and blame the vampire for his death? Was that it?
“No, please,” the vampire said, echoing Kyuhyun as Kyuhyun was pulled onto his feet. Bleeding across the floor, the steps it took to get to the chair, Kyuhyun struggling every inch of the way. The man not holding his bleeding arm got him in some kind of headlock, immobilizing him against the vampire’s legs and the chair’s edge. The vampire’s head strained away, until the man in white grabbed his hair, forcing his head forward. He wasn’t sure what made him more ill, the sight of his bleeding arm, or the fact that the vampire’s face was being rubbed against it.
“Taste that? Smell that? It’s all you’ll ever have. Now feed.”
The vampire shook his head, not opening his mouth at all. And Kyuhyun stared in horror as the vampire’s jaws were pried open, sounds that were too near sobs from the vampire’s throat as his blood dripped into the vampire’s mouth.
“Feed,” the man in white commanded again.
And as though he were compelled to it, Kyuhyun watched as the vampire opened his mouth and set teeth against the wound in Kyuhyun’s skin. He felt only the barest, tiniest prick amidst the pain, and felt his whole body shudder. His vision graying, and skin rolling with a chill. The vampire’s eyes were closed, but that face was what could only be revulsion. His eyes grew heavy, the vampire’s tongue against his wrist almost a throb.
Vampires didn’t… They didn’t feed on people. He didn’t understand, as he struggled to right his vision.
“Enough,” the man in white said. “Free him.”
The vampire’s eyes opened first, and then his mouth. Letting Kyuhyun’s wrist go so delicately, like a dog with a particularly special toy. He wasn’t paying attention to the man’s face, but to his still-bleeding wrist, and the fact that the men were letting him go.
And the vampire’s mouth and face, smeared red with his blood. Tongue darting out to clean his lips.
And Kyuhyun could fight the darkness no more.
***
Fucking crazy dream, was his first thought. Aching head. Hangover. And the sound.
What sound.
His eyes flew open, and he was dizzy for a long moment, eyes darting to a face both at once familiar and unfamiliar.
The vampire. Not a dream.
"The men--"
"Are gone. You’re safe. Don’t worry. How are you feeling?” the vampire asked him.
Kind of wretched, if the truth was known. But he wan’t exactly up for giving out many secrets.
“Oh, my wrist,” he said, trying to struggle to see.
“It’s okay,” the vampire said, lifting his arm for him. “There are- I have some clotting properties, so the bleeding has stopped now. I wrapped it. My handkerchief, it was clean. It was all I had.”
Kyuhyun swallowed, his throat dry. “Thanks. I should… I should go?”
Get away from this hellhole, and this vampire, and back to his normal life. What was normal? And where was he anyway?
The vampire left him for a moment, and he struggled upright, sitting on the edge of the bed he’d been laying on. Clearly not where he’d passed out at. Some kind of bedroom.
“This is my home,” the vampire said. And carefully cupped Kyuhyun’s hands around a glass of what appeared to be water. “Here, you must be thirsty.”
The vampire sat in the chair beside the bed. Close enough that Kyuhyun assumed he’d been sitting there while Kyuhyun had been passed out. Kind of creepy, and yet the vampire had bandaged his arm for him. So maybe not so much.
“Thanks,” he said again. And wondered if his legs would support him. The vampire’s fingers were knotting together awkwardly, and Kyuhyun wondered what there was to be awkward about. Kyuhyun was the intruder with the bloody arm and confusion. And holy crap he’d been kidnapped, and what the hell had they done to him?
And why?
“My name is Zhou Mi,” the vampire said. “What’s yours?”
“Kyuhyun,” he said, assuming there was no harm in saying so. Even if this Zhou Mi was somehow a crook, he could’ve gotten all of Kyuhyun’s information while he’d been unconscious anyway. He hissed inside. He’d have to get all of his records changed, if those idiots had stolen any of his identification.
“Kyuhyun. Do you remember what happened today?” Zhou Mi asked.
“Yeah. Some guys grabbed me off the street? And I woke up, and they cut me. And you bit me? And I woke up here. But vampires don’t eat-”
“Humans,” Zhou Mi finished for him. “No. We don’t.”
“Then what was the talk about ends and- I thought they were going to kill one of us.”
“They did,” Zhou Mi said, smiling such a tiny smile. “But no one knows when.”
“I don’t understand.” And his stomach rolled. “Ugh. I feel sick.”
“That’s normal, I think,” Zhou Mi said, grabbing close a pan. “You lost blood, and I bit you, which means- Do you even know?”
He shook his head, which turned out to be his undoing. He retched, grabbing for the pan and emptying himself. There was a hand stroking the back of his neck as he panted, and helping him to lay back. He was supposed to have gone, he thought. There was a vampire, and nothing made sense, and he hurt and felt like crap. His mouth was rinsed in tepid tea, and a cool cloth on his forehead. And he slept again, dreamless, and deep.
***
To say the last thing that Zhou Mi had expected that day was to find himself bound to a human was an understatement. That it was a man made little difference to him. Everything he had learned about his kind had taught him that vampires were not concerned about gender. Those that fell for humans, fell for men or women. Literature, of course, encouraged a mating between vampire male and human woman. It was the only way to ensure the continuance of their species. Once, there had been more of them, enough where it didn’t matter. But that choice was beyond him. No matter what he had thought or planned, his path was set.
Kyuhyun.
He’d heard of it, gangs of men that hunted un-bound vampires, kidnapping human men from the streets and and forcing the blood bond. There was no other way to kill a vampire, not so easily. And to sacrifice one human to their cause? A small price to pay to ensure that the vampire’s days were both numbered, and that they would never be able to reproduce. But it was one thing to hear of it, and another to find himself tied up, with a human’s blood being thrust at him.
The fear, pain, revulsion on Kyuhyun’s face. The prejudices almost all humans grew with. Though at least Kyuhyun had known that vampires did not feed on humans. Taught only that, and not about why a vampire would loose its teeth, and imbibe something so powerful that it wrote itself throughout their bodies. Zhou Mi could never feed on anything, anyone else. It was why vampires, when they made that choice, were so very certain that the human they tasted was their true other, their soul’s mate. Or else be damned to a lifetime of regret.
And this man, Kyuhyun. He knew all but nothing of him. Only what he saw on Kyuhyun’s identification. Cho Kyuhyun, unmarried. Young, so young. Good for Zhou Mi, a long life. Dark hair, dark eyes. A will to fight, if the way Kyuhyun had struggled before was any indication. He hoped that would be an asset, and not a detriment. If Kyuhyun woke, denied what had happened, refused to accept it? It would only make it harder on them both. It was easier for Zhou Mi, in a way. Because he could smell the life in Kyuhyun’s veins. Everything he had never had in his life. They would learn to know each other, and he would protect Kyuhyun, care for him. He closed his eyes as a vision of Kyuhyun in his bed, as lovers, tasting him fully, swept through him. It was what they could have. Some day.
The police had been little help. Little more than a ride home in the back of a police car. What did it matter, what happened to a vampire? They’d been more concerned for Kyuhyun, who had been a little bloody but apparently sleeping.
When Kyuhyun stirred, he heard it, turning from the corner he had been organizing restlessly to see the man waking up. Lifting his hand and splaying long fingers. Examining his wound, Zhou Mi imagined. It was little more a red line along his arm by then, still livid, but healing after Kyuhyun had been sick.
“How long have I been asleep?” Kyuhyun asked, his voice low and husky.
“Several hours,” Zhou Mi told him. Enough that night had fallen. Kyuhyun seemed steadier, sitting and pushing back his hair, breathing into his hands as though he were cold. Orienting himself. Zhou Mi knew it well. He handed Kyuhyun warm tea, and watched him drink. Felt his own tongue restless in his mouth, and quieted himself. It was far, far too soon to even imagine feeding. If he tried, Kyuhyun might not ever accept him.
“Do you feel better?”
He knew Kyuhyun did, from the steady thumping of his heart. At the very least Kyuhyun was not frightened of him. After all, what else was there that could be done?
While Kyuhyun sat, Zhou Mi gathered things he had borrowed from one of the only neighbors who would speak to him. A small bottle of juice, several slices of bread. An apple. And he set them on the low bed stand, retaking his place on the chair. Hunger was a normal part of feeding. The body attempting to replenish its blood. And Kyuhyun seemed to swallow the food whole, desperate about it. That was Zhou Mi’s fault as well. Kyuhyun would learn to control it, that feeling. Much as Zhou Mi would around the scent of Kyuhyun’s blood.
But he needed to find out, if Kyuhyun knew.
“Do you know why they forced me to feed from you today?” he asked, knowing of no more delicate way of phrasing it.
Kyuhyun shook his head, washing down his meal of bread and fruit with the dark juice. “No. I’ve never heard of a vampire eating from humans. Did they want you to get addicted or something?”
“Or something,” Zhou Mi said. “Did they teach you how a vampire bonds. Takes a mate?”
The word made Kyuhyun pause, as he expected it would. “Mate? No.”
“The first drink of blood. One’s true mate. That blood is the only source of sustenance from that day forward. To take a mate is to give up immortality. A blood bond, that ends only at death.”
“So they wanted you to only be able to feed on my blood?”
“Yes. And they succeeded. When you die, I will lay my head down with you.”
The thought of it was too much, Zhou Mi saw that right away. Kyuhyun’s eyes wide, wary. And he stood, taking several fumbling steps. “You’re out of your mind. Totally out of your mind. You need help. There’s no way-“
“Do you think I would joke about this?” Zhou Mi demanded, following him out of the bedroom, and into the brightly lit front room. “They violated you, but they robbed me of everything.”
“Violated me? To tie me to a monster?”
It seemed Zhou Mi’s whole body froze. “I am no more a monster than you are. And it is my life that had been stolen.”
“I don’t believe you,” Kyuhyun said, backing towards the door. “You’re lying. Biting me did nothing.”
“It infused your blood with my own antibodies,” Zhou Mi told him. “And fused your blood to me. It is not what I wanted but we are bound, either way.”
“Then forget it happened,” Kyuhyun muttered, fumbling into his shoes.
“I would last one year, at the most. Taking my metabolism to nothing. If I do not feed from you. You’ll feel it. Full. Waiting to give. Cold in the night. It won’t only be me who needs.”
“Stay away from me,” Kyuhyun warned, fumbling with the lock. “Just stay away. You’re crazy.”
Zhou Mi could do nothing but stand there, useless. “You are free to go at any time. You are not my prisoner. The sun won’t burn you, but you have to be careful not be exposed too long. The antibodies will start to show a kind of allergic response as they multiply.”
“This is all insane.”
“Then go. Research if you have to. Ask people. But I’m telling you the truth. I am sorry, Kyuhyun, I am.”
“What if I’d been married, what if-“
The thought of his bonded mate belonging to another set Zhou Mi’s teeth on edge.
“They did not care, as long as it saw the end of me. Remember where I am, Kyuhyun. Do as you must. I can’t force you.”
Hungry, sick, he turned, nearly stumbling over a footstool on his way into his room. He had not even fully fed. A year was at best a hope. A few months at most. But he knew where Kyuhyun lived. He could give him a week, if he had to. If the urges in Kyuhyun’s body did not take over before then. They were not sexual, not at all. But an aching blood fullness waiting for the pleasure of release. Perhaps there was enjoyment, excitement. But the feed was not the bond. If a lover drew heat from it, it was good. So good.
He lay on his bed, where Kyuhyun had been, and breathed deeply as though the scent of him would linger. Only a soiled cloth to sate his hunger, and faded warmth. How quickly the bond etched into him. That first, copper tang. Kyuhyun’s mouth parted in pain. No, he didn’t want the pain. He wanted the joy and the pleasure, to know that face, each expression.
And he knew he was naive to expect any of it. How could he? Kyuhyun had let him know how he saw Zhou Mi already.
As a monster.
***
Kyuhyun stood in front of the door and panted like a dog on a hot day. There was no way what he was hearing was true, that he was somehow blood bound to a vampire, destined to be like some kind of deli snack for the rest of his life. How was it that he’d gone from walking to the grocery store, to interacting with something he thought was almost a myth. But that hadn’t been any myth smeared with his blood. Or carrying him to his home, or whatever else he’d done. But as unlikely as it was, there was a modicum of truth to it that he couldn’t deny. Things he’d read so many years ago as a child fascinated by what was weird and odd. And it had not been a monster who had sent him away, so polite and yet scathing as the same time. It was that tone of hurt that sort of wormed under Kyuhyun’s skin even as his body seemed to crawl with sensations. Zhou Mi had said he would feel the need to let Zhou Mi feed. He wondered if the singing sensation in his veins was that, or some aftereffect from however he’d been knocked out. He stared down at his feet. His shoes, that had been taken off and carefully placed at the door after Zhou Mi had brought him. Looked after him in his own home. A total stranger. Why?
But there was something else he wanted to know. He turned around, marching back into the bedroom. Zhou Mi, who had been laying down, pushed himself upright. Quick and surprised. Kyuhyun shoved out his arm, where the wound still showed.
“How did this heal so fast? There’s no way it could have scabbed over that quickly, much less healed to this point.”
Zhou Mi considered him. “It’s because I bit you. There are healing properties in my saliva. But I didn’t make that wound, so whatever affect I have on you is dampened. You may always carry a scar from that cut. But it will be faint.”
Of course. A vampire licked him, and he was suddenly all better.
“Healing properties? Like some kind of dog?” he asked, not even trying to be rude.
“Like someone who doesn’t want to cause injuries,” Zhou Mi answered, his voice so prim that it almost made Kyuhyun smile.
“Let’s assume that all of this is true. What does that mean?”
“It means we’re bound. That we need to find a way to know each other. Like each other. It means what any sort of marriage means. Or maybe just what we want it to.”
Kyuhyun grunted. That didn’t mean that there wasn’t a way out of it. He stepped closer.
“Can I see your… Er. Teeth? Fangs?”
“Teeth,” Zhou Mi said. “Why?”
“Because I’ve never met a vampire, and it’s kind of interesting.”
Zhou Mi thought a moment. “If I show you my teeth, will you stay until morning?”
A bargain. He liked that. He liked the calculation behind it, and also the fact that he might get to learn more. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but he’d already been bitten once. He didn’t assume there was anything else behind door number two.
“Yeah, I’ll stay.”
“Come closer, then. And sit.”
Close enough to see Zhou Mi’s eyelashes in the lamp’s light, Zhou Mi’s head tipping back. Behind his canines, almost to his incisors. Not needle sharp, nor some kind of wacky sabertooth thing, either. Something he might miss if Zhou Mi were smiling with teeth closed, but obvious as the extra teeth descended.
“Is that as far as they’’ll go?” he asked. Almost half an inch below the edge of Zhou Mi’s teeth. It was kind of cool that they retracted. But he thought Zhou Mi would be biting himself bloody otherwise.
“They’ll go a little further. But they’re not meant to be displayed.”
Just to get blood.
“Can I feel?” he asked.
“Be careful,” Zhou Mi cautioned, even if it seemed like he wanted to refuse. “They’re sharp.”
And Zhou Mi wasn’t kidding. It felt like the barest prick against his skin, but he saw the wide welt his soft press had made and the blood welling in it. Amazed, skin tingling, staring between his finger and Zhou Mi’s mouth. His instinct was to take it to his own mouth, sooth the hurt there. But Zhou Mi made a sound of distress, catching Kyuhyun’s hand.
“Let me. I can heal it.”
And taste Kyuhyun’s blood again while he was at it. But Zhou Mi’s lips closed soft around his fingertip, warmth and wet flooding over it. He nearly wanted to shudder, but there was no pain or more than a passing thought that he should be feeling revulsion.
“Your teeth have something on them that keeps me bleeding, then?”
“Yes. It keeps the blood flowing,” Zhou Mi said, after he let go of Kyuhyun’s hand. “And in our saliva, a clotting agent. Very difficult to keep a bondmate alive if they bleed out with every bite.”
He smiled, appreciating the humor. His finger wasn’t totally whole, but the wound was pink and healing.
“It heals quickly.”
“Part of what passes from me to you,” Zhou Mi said softly. “Every bite I pass some of my healing to you. It makes little wounds like these heal fast. You won’t know it was there by morning.”
“So your bite does interesting things,” Kyuhyun mused. “Did you feed enough earlier?”
“No. I’m hungry. But I won’t ask it of you so soon.”
Two choices then. Ignore that Zhou Mi was hungry with no other possible means of filing himself. Ignore until morning, when maybe he had his head back together, and they could figure out if there was something else they could do- something not pretending that they were stuck together for all eternity. Or Kyuhyun’s lifetime, or whatever. It still didn’t make Zhou Mi less hungry in the meantime. And he both could and could not understand the words that left his mouth.
“Then will taking just a little help?”
“Yes. But why would you be willing?” Zhou Mi asked, considering Kyuhyun with such wariness. “Earlier, you told me I lied?”
“What do you expect me to think? If you’re telling the truth, and you need to feed then do it. You fed me.”
“Then a very little I’ll take,” Zhou Mi said softly, taking his offer at its face value. “It will do no harm to you, I promise. You will just feel…pleasant. It’s nothing to fear.”
And when he watched as Zhou Mi took his arm, Zhou Mi glanced up at him.
“Perhaps it’s easier if you don’t see?”
Maybe. Maybe it would’ve been. But it didn’t stop his curiosity. Whether by accident or design, Zhou Mi’s lip hid when his teeth actually sank through Kyuhyun’s skin. But he knew anyway. That pervasive tingling that swept him, like the whole of his skin was swept with warmth just dancing there. He both felt and heard the gasp, the movement too fast for him to dodge as Zhou Mi both released and reached for him. Gone was the look of enjoyment, replaced by something that had him jerking as Zhou Mi grasped his head. Heading for a place he wasn’t prepared to consider.
His neck.
Visions of his throat being ripped into flooded through him, and he pushed out blindly.
“Whoa. Stop!”
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Zhou Mi murmured, his nose notching into Kyuhyun’s neck. “I’m not going to bite you. I can smell it, your blood. It beats for me.”
“For me first,” Kyuhyun said, trying to for wry and it just ending up awkward, since he had a man in his lap almost. And a man breathing hard against his skin in a way that was kind of reminiscently sexual and hungry even to him.
Zhou Mi pushed himself back, lifting Kyuhyun’s arm again. Tracing his tongue against the tendons, the veins, to where he had bitten, and biting again. The sound of relief and pleasure were even more audible, Zhou Mi unable to hold himself back.
He could just see the edge of Zhou Mi’s lip where it pressed to his skin, and exhaled slowly. Staring at the ceiling as the feeding continued. The interested little twitch in his pants was due to circumstance, and the feelings the feeding made in him. Zhou Mi had all but said he should expect it. And maybe he’d have taken it a little more philosophically if he didn’t still have the ghosting sensations of Zhou Mi breathing against his neck. Maybe it was a clever way to get Kyuhyun to want it. Oh please, Zhou Mi. Bite into a place you could easily kill me.
He knew when Zhou Mi had taken back his fangs, because the tingling began to fade. Just a heat where Zhou Mi’s tongue had cleaned his skin, perhaps helping the clotting along.
“Had your fill?” he asked, and was pleased to find he was neither overtly aroused, nor woozy.
“Yes. I had plenty. Thank you.”
“Tastes like the finest wine, I bet,” Kyuhyun joked.
Zhou Mi laughed, smiling. “It tastes like your blood. No wine could compare.”
There was an uneasy silence after that. Kyuhyun, unsure of how to reply, and Zhou Mi looking uncomfortable for maybe how revealing it had sounded. Though, Zhou Mi had to be somewhat happy. He couldn’t imagine living life with the only source of sustenance available being disgusting. Zhou Mi stood, almost seeming displeased.
“It’s late, and it’s been… Quite a day. I’ll sleep out on the couch. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
“I thought you said I’d get cold sleeping alone,” Kyuhyun accused him.
“It’s something I’d heard,” Zhou Mi said carefully. “I guess we can find out.”
He reluctantly accepted that hypothesis, and made himself comfortable in Zhou Mi’s bed. The room was dark, just two faint glowing spots from where Zhou Mi’s clock sat. He was sleeping in a vampire’s house, had been fed on by him. He ran his fingers up the still-healing line on his arm. Just another day. Maybe.
***
He woke once in the middle of the night, shivering. Though the blanket was warm, and the air. He curled in on himself, wondering how the hell he was supposed to get up and ask Zhou Mi to come cuddle because he was a Kyuhyun-icicle sleeping alone. Of all the things to be true. A creak in a the floorboard had him turning.
“Zhou Mi?”
“Are you..?”
“Freezing,” Kyuhyun said, trying to keep his teeth from clacking together. “Get your ass over here so we can see if it’ll help.”
When he sat on the bed, Zhou Mi wasn’t even touching him, and it felt like his skin flushed warm. Not in a way that had him wanting to kick away the covers, just a pleasant, glowing warmth. Or maybe it was just feeling normal. Or maybe he was just as out of it as Zhou Mi.
“Fuck,” he whispered, and didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud until Zhou Mi sighed.
“I’m sorry. I guess it was true.”
He felt Zhou Mi get settled under the covers, and pressed his face into the pillow. If that was true, then what else? What else. How did he tell his work, his friends? His family? But the warmth calmed him, and he relaxed, falling into an easy sleep.
***
Author: Coley Merrin
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Rating: R
Genre: AU, Vampires, Angst, Fluff
Warnings: Brief violence, angst, sexual situations.
Summary: Research points to a vampire bite being unbreakable, but Kyuhyun can't give up. And with Zhou Mi, they work together to undo the blood bond that forced them together.
***
Chapter One * Chapter Two & Three
***
At first it seemed like a dream, being roused and moved. Like he was a child again, his mother shoving him to get him out of a stupor after a late night and deep sleep. But the voice in his ear was definitely not his mother’s, ordering him to wake up, to walk. He was already on his feet by the time his senses came back to him, and he looked around the dark room lit only with a single bulb. Concrete. Dirty. Not his home. Not his apartment.
He remembered the street.
The man excusing himself.
A hand clamping over his nose and mouth.
Shouting.
Nothing.
Where was he?
“Let me go,” he ground out, though he had no idea if he’d be able to stand if the two men hauling his stumbling form with them did. And proved that, as he nearly fell to his knees, his shoulders protesting as they kept moving. Who kidnapped men off the street? He was a useless, low-paying office worker, not a government official or anything.
Kyuhyun dug the toes of his shoes, his heels, into the floor, trying to slow how quickly he was being dragged. The skid of rubber over loose dirt and rock on concrete. It just made them pull harder, nearly knocking the wind from him as they swung him through the door and into a large room. He never would’ve considered himself light, but nothing he did stopped them.
For a moment, he had a flash of hope, letting himself go limp while hoping to distract them.
It was then that he saw the man on the chair ahead of him. Bound, it seemed. Curiosity and hope mingled. If there were two of them, if they could work together, then maybe they could get away. He didn’t have any money, nothing anyone would rob him for. No connections to exploit. If they could just see reason.
What reason was there in kidnapping?
When Kyuhyun would not stand, they shoved him to his knees instead, holding him there facing the man on the chair, and the man who stood beside him.
“Meet your end, filth. You’re no vampire,” the man who was standing said. He was dressed in severe white, so bright it nearly hurt Kyuhyun’s eyes, distracting him as the words filtered into his head. Vampire? He was definitely not a vampire.
But his eyes darted to the bound man. There was no way. Vampires were so rare anyway, keeping to themselves because of governmental regulations. He’d heard that no vampires even lived in the city. But it didn’t make any sense. If there was a vampire, then why was Kyuhyun there? And to what end? Whose end? Vampires didn’t eat people so he was trying to rationalize his own safety, but the man? The vampire, he corrected himself. It sent shivers up his spine. Stories children told on playgrounds. But the man on the chair with the defiant eyes looked nothing like any image of a vampire he’d conjured. Sure, he’d heard they looked like normal people, but he didn’t actually believe it.
“You can’t do this,” the vampire said, shoulders work against what bound him. “My end will be-“
“Swift enough. Cut him.”
Distracted by their words, one of the men holding him muscled up Kyuhyun’s arm. Nearly twisting it out of its socket before Kyuhyun yelped and straightened.
And then there was the knife at his wrist. And the blood. The pain.
“Oh shit, no,” were the first words out of his mouth, the cut too quick for him to avoid. First the trickle, and then steady flow. Were they going to let him bleed out and blame the vampire for his death? Was that it?
“No, please,” the vampire said, echoing Kyuhyun as Kyuhyun was pulled onto his feet. Bleeding across the floor, the steps it took to get to the chair, Kyuhyun struggling every inch of the way. The man not holding his bleeding arm got him in some kind of headlock, immobilizing him against the vampire’s legs and the chair’s edge. The vampire’s head strained away, until the man in white grabbed his hair, forcing his head forward. He wasn’t sure what made him more ill, the sight of his bleeding arm, or the fact that the vampire’s face was being rubbed against it.
“Taste that? Smell that? It’s all you’ll ever have. Now feed.”
The vampire shook his head, not opening his mouth at all. And Kyuhyun stared in horror as the vampire’s jaws were pried open, sounds that were too near sobs from the vampire’s throat as his blood dripped into the vampire’s mouth.
“Feed,” the man in white commanded again.
And as though he were compelled to it, Kyuhyun watched as the vampire opened his mouth and set teeth against the wound in Kyuhyun’s skin. He felt only the barest, tiniest prick amidst the pain, and felt his whole body shudder. His vision graying, and skin rolling with a chill. The vampire’s eyes were closed, but that face was what could only be revulsion. His eyes grew heavy, the vampire’s tongue against his wrist almost a throb.
Vampires didn’t… They didn’t feed on people. He didn’t understand, as he struggled to right his vision.
“Enough,” the man in white said. “Free him.”
The vampire’s eyes opened first, and then his mouth. Letting Kyuhyun’s wrist go so delicately, like a dog with a particularly special toy. He wasn’t paying attention to the man’s face, but to his still-bleeding wrist, and the fact that the men were letting him go.
And the vampire’s mouth and face, smeared red with his blood. Tongue darting out to clean his lips.
And Kyuhyun could fight the darkness no more.
***
Fucking crazy dream, was his first thought. Aching head. Hangover. And the sound.
What sound.
His eyes flew open, and he was dizzy for a long moment, eyes darting to a face both at once familiar and unfamiliar.
The vampire. Not a dream.
"The men--"
"Are gone. You’re safe. Don’t worry. How are you feeling?” the vampire asked him.
Kind of wretched, if the truth was known. But he wan’t exactly up for giving out many secrets.
“Oh, my wrist,” he said, trying to struggle to see.
“It’s okay,” the vampire said, lifting his arm for him. “There are- I have some clotting properties, so the bleeding has stopped now. I wrapped it. My handkerchief, it was clean. It was all I had.”
Kyuhyun swallowed, his throat dry. “Thanks. I should… I should go?”
Get away from this hellhole, and this vampire, and back to his normal life. What was normal? And where was he anyway?
The vampire left him for a moment, and he struggled upright, sitting on the edge of the bed he’d been laying on. Clearly not where he’d passed out at. Some kind of bedroom.
“This is my home,” the vampire said. And carefully cupped Kyuhyun’s hands around a glass of what appeared to be water. “Here, you must be thirsty.”
The vampire sat in the chair beside the bed. Close enough that Kyuhyun assumed he’d been sitting there while Kyuhyun had been passed out. Kind of creepy, and yet the vampire had bandaged his arm for him. So maybe not so much.
“Thanks,” he said again. And wondered if his legs would support him. The vampire’s fingers were knotting together awkwardly, and Kyuhyun wondered what there was to be awkward about. Kyuhyun was the intruder with the bloody arm and confusion. And holy crap he’d been kidnapped, and what the hell had they done to him?
And why?
“My name is Zhou Mi,” the vampire said. “What’s yours?”
“Kyuhyun,” he said, assuming there was no harm in saying so. Even if this Zhou Mi was somehow a crook, he could’ve gotten all of Kyuhyun’s information while he’d been unconscious anyway. He hissed inside. He’d have to get all of his records changed, if those idiots had stolen any of his identification.
“Kyuhyun. Do you remember what happened today?” Zhou Mi asked.
“Yeah. Some guys grabbed me off the street? And I woke up, and they cut me. And you bit me? And I woke up here. But vampires don’t eat-”
“Humans,” Zhou Mi finished for him. “No. We don’t.”
“Then what was the talk about ends and- I thought they were going to kill one of us.”
“They did,” Zhou Mi said, smiling such a tiny smile. “But no one knows when.”
“I don’t understand.” And his stomach rolled. “Ugh. I feel sick.”
“That’s normal, I think,” Zhou Mi said, grabbing close a pan. “You lost blood, and I bit you, which means- Do you even know?”
He shook his head, which turned out to be his undoing. He retched, grabbing for the pan and emptying himself. There was a hand stroking the back of his neck as he panted, and helping him to lay back. He was supposed to have gone, he thought. There was a vampire, and nothing made sense, and he hurt and felt like crap. His mouth was rinsed in tepid tea, and a cool cloth on his forehead. And he slept again, dreamless, and deep.
***
To say the last thing that Zhou Mi had expected that day was to find himself bound to a human was an understatement. That it was a man made little difference to him. Everything he had learned about his kind had taught him that vampires were not concerned about gender. Those that fell for humans, fell for men or women. Literature, of course, encouraged a mating between vampire male and human woman. It was the only way to ensure the continuance of their species. Once, there had been more of them, enough where it didn’t matter. But that choice was beyond him. No matter what he had thought or planned, his path was set.
Kyuhyun.
He’d heard of it, gangs of men that hunted un-bound vampires, kidnapping human men from the streets and and forcing the blood bond. There was no other way to kill a vampire, not so easily. And to sacrifice one human to their cause? A small price to pay to ensure that the vampire’s days were both numbered, and that they would never be able to reproduce. But it was one thing to hear of it, and another to find himself tied up, with a human’s blood being thrust at him.
The fear, pain, revulsion on Kyuhyun’s face. The prejudices almost all humans grew with. Though at least Kyuhyun had known that vampires did not feed on humans. Taught only that, and not about why a vampire would loose its teeth, and imbibe something so powerful that it wrote itself throughout their bodies. Zhou Mi could never feed on anything, anyone else. It was why vampires, when they made that choice, were so very certain that the human they tasted was their true other, their soul’s mate. Or else be damned to a lifetime of regret.
And this man, Kyuhyun. He knew all but nothing of him. Only what he saw on Kyuhyun’s identification. Cho Kyuhyun, unmarried. Young, so young. Good for Zhou Mi, a long life. Dark hair, dark eyes. A will to fight, if the way Kyuhyun had struggled before was any indication. He hoped that would be an asset, and not a detriment. If Kyuhyun woke, denied what had happened, refused to accept it? It would only make it harder on them both. It was easier for Zhou Mi, in a way. Because he could smell the life in Kyuhyun’s veins. Everything he had never had in his life. They would learn to know each other, and he would protect Kyuhyun, care for him. He closed his eyes as a vision of Kyuhyun in his bed, as lovers, tasting him fully, swept through him. It was what they could have. Some day.
The police had been little help. Little more than a ride home in the back of a police car. What did it matter, what happened to a vampire? They’d been more concerned for Kyuhyun, who had been a little bloody but apparently sleeping.
When Kyuhyun stirred, he heard it, turning from the corner he had been organizing restlessly to see the man waking up. Lifting his hand and splaying long fingers. Examining his wound, Zhou Mi imagined. It was little more a red line along his arm by then, still livid, but healing after Kyuhyun had been sick.
“How long have I been asleep?” Kyuhyun asked, his voice low and husky.
“Several hours,” Zhou Mi told him. Enough that night had fallen. Kyuhyun seemed steadier, sitting and pushing back his hair, breathing into his hands as though he were cold. Orienting himself. Zhou Mi knew it well. He handed Kyuhyun warm tea, and watched him drink. Felt his own tongue restless in his mouth, and quieted himself. It was far, far too soon to even imagine feeding. If he tried, Kyuhyun might not ever accept him.
“Do you feel better?”
He knew Kyuhyun did, from the steady thumping of his heart. At the very least Kyuhyun was not frightened of him. After all, what else was there that could be done?
While Kyuhyun sat, Zhou Mi gathered things he had borrowed from one of the only neighbors who would speak to him. A small bottle of juice, several slices of bread. An apple. And he set them on the low bed stand, retaking his place on the chair. Hunger was a normal part of feeding. The body attempting to replenish its blood. And Kyuhyun seemed to swallow the food whole, desperate about it. That was Zhou Mi’s fault as well. Kyuhyun would learn to control it, that feeling. Much as Zhou Mi would around the scent of Kyuhyun’s blood.
But he needed to find out, if Kyuhyun knew.
“Do you know why they forced me to feed from you today?” he asked, knowing of no more delicate way of phrasing it.
Kyuhyun shook his head, washing down his meal of bread and fruit with the dark juice. “No. I’ve never heard of a vampire eating from humans. Did they want you to get addicted or something?”
“Or something,” Zhou Mi said. “Did they teach you how a vampire bonds. Takes a mate?”
The word made Kyuhyun pause, as he expected it would. “Mate? No.”
“The first drink of blood. One’s true mate. That blood is the only source of sustenance from that day forward. To take a mate is to give up immortality. A blood bond, that ends only at death.”
“So they wanted you to only be able to feed on my blood?”
“Yes. And they succeeded. When you die, I will lay my head down with you.”
The thought of it was too much, Zhou Mi saw that right away. Kyuhyun’s eyes wide, wary. And he stood, taking several fumbling steps. “You’re out of your mind. Totally out of your mind. You need help. There’s no way-“
“Do you think I would joke about this?” Zhou Mi demanded, following him out of the bedroom, and into the brightly lit front room. “They violated you, but they robbed me of everything.”
“Violated me? To tie me to a monster?”
It seemed Zhou Mi’s whole body froze. “I am no more a monster than you are. And it is my life that had been stolen.”
“I don’t believe you,” Kyuhyun said, backing towards the door. “You’re lying. Biting me did nothing.”
“It infused your blood with my own antibodies,” Zhou Mi told him. “And fused your blood to me. It is not what I wanted but we are bound, either way.”
“Then forget it happened,” Kyuhyun muttered, fumbling into his shoes.
“I would last one year, at the most. Taking my metabolism to nothing. If I do not feed from you. You’ll feel it. Full. Waiting to give. Cold in the night. It won’t only be me who needs.”
“Stay away from me,” Kyuhyun warned, fumbling with the lock. “Just stay away. You’re crazy.”
Zhou Mi could do nothing but stand there, useless. “You are free to go at any time. You are not my prisoner. The sun won’t burn you, but you have to be careful not be exposed too long. The antibodies will start to show a kind of allergic response as they multiply.”
“This is all insane.”
“Then go. Research if you have to. Ask people. But I’m telling you the truth. I am sorry, Kyuhyun, I am.”
“What if I’d been married, what if-“
The thought of his bonded mate belonging to another set Zhou Mi’s teeth on edge.
“They did not care, as long as it saw the end of me. Remember where I am, Kyuhyun. Do as you must. I can’t force you.”
Hungry, sick, he turned, nearly stumbling over a footstool on his way into his room. He had not even fully fed. A year was at best a hope. A few months at most. But he knew where Kyuhyun lived. He could give him a week, if he had to. If the urges in Kyuhyun’s body did not take over before then. They were not sexual, not at all. But an aching blood fullness waiting for the pleasure of release. Perhaps there was enjoyment, excitement. But the feed was not the bond. If a lover drew heat from it, it was good. So good.
He lay on his bed, where Kyuhyun had been, and breathed deeply as though the scent of him would linger. Only a soiled cloth to sate his hunger, and faded warmth. How quickly the bond etched into him. That first, copper tang. Kyuhyun’s mouth parted in pain. No, he didn’t want the pain. He wanted the joy and the pleasure, to know that face, each expression.
And he knew he was naive to expect any of it. How could he? Kyuhyun had let him know how he saw Zhou Mi already.
As a monster.
***
Kyuhyun stood in front of the door and panted like a dog on a hot day. There was no way what he was hearing was true, that he was somehow blood bound to a vampire, destined to be like some kind of deli snack for the rest of his life. How was it that he’d gone from walking to the grocery store, to interacting with something he thought was almost a myth. But that hadn’t been any myth smeared with his blood. Or carrying him to his home, or whatever else he’d done. But as unlikely as it was, there was a modicum of truth to it that he couldn’t deny. Things he’d read so many years ago as a child fascinated by what was weird and odd. And it had not been a monster who had sent him away, so polite and yet scathing as the same time. It was that tone of hurt that sort of wormed under Kyuhyun’s skin even as his body seemed to crawl with sensations. Zhou Mi had said he would feel the need to let Zhou Mi feed. He wondered if the singing sensation in his veins was that, or some aftereffect from however he’d been knocked out. He stared down at his feet. His shoes, that had been taken off and carefully placed at the door after Zhou Mi had brought him. Looked after him in his own home. A total stranger. Why?
But there was something else he wanted to know. He turned around, marching back into the bedroom. Zhou Mi, who had been laying down, pushed himself upright. Quick and surprised. Kyuhyun shoved out his arm, where the wound still showed.
“How did this heal so fast? There’s no way it could have scabbed over that quickly, much less healed to this point.”
Zhou Mi considered him. “It’s because I bit you. There are healing properties in my saliva. But I didn’t make that wound, so whatever affect I have on you is dampened. You may always carry a scar from that cut. But it will be faint.”
Of course. A vampire licked him, and he was suddenly all better.
“Healing properties? Like some kind of dog?” he asked, not even trying to be rude.
“Like someone who doesn’t want to cause injuries,” Zhou Mi answered, his voice so prim that it almost made Kyuhyun smile.
“Let’s assume that all of this is true. What does that mean?”
“It means we’re bound. That we need to find a way to know each other. Like each other. It means what any sort of marriage means. Or maybe just what we want it to.”
Kyuhyun grunted. That didn’t mean that there wasn’t a way out of it. He stepped closer.
“Can I see your… Er. Teeth? Fangs?”
“Teeth,” Zhou Mi said. “Why?”
“Because I’ve never met a vampire, and it’s kind of interesting.”
Zhou Mi thought a moment. “If I show you my teeth, will you stay until morning?”
A bargain. He liked that. He liked the calculation behind it, and also the fact that he might get to learn more. Curiosity might have killed the cat, but he’d already been bitten once. He didn’t assume there was anything else behind door number two.
“Yeah, I’ll stay.”
“Come closer, then. And sit.”
Close enough to see Zhou Mi’s eyelashes in the lamp’s light, Zhou Mi’s head tipping back. Behind his canines, almost to his incisors. Not needle sharp, nor some kind of wacky sabertooth thing, either. Something he might miss if Zhou Mi were smiling with teeth closed, but obvious as the extra teeth descended.
“Is that as far as they’’ll go?” he asked. Almost half an inch below the edge of Zhou Mi’s teeth. It was kind of cool that they retracted. But he thought Zhou Mi would be biting himself bloody otherwise.
“They’ll go a little further. But they’re not meant to be displayed.”
Just to get blood.
“Can I feel?” he asked.
“Be careful,” Zhou Mi cautioned, even if it seemed like he wanted to refuse. “They’re sharp.”
And Zhou Mi wasn’t kidding. It felt like the barest prick against his skin, but he saw the wide welt his soft press had made and the blood welling in it. Amazed, skin tingling, staring between his finger and Zhou Mi’s mouth. His instinct was to take it to his own mouth, sooth the hurt there. But Zhou Mi made a sound of distress, catching Kyuhyun’s hand.
“Let me. I can heal it.”
And taste Kyuhyun’s blood again while he was at it. But Zhou Mi’s lips closed soft around his fingertip, warmth and wet flooding over it. He nearly wanted to shudder, but there was no pain or more than a passing thought that he should be feeling revulsion.
“Your teeth have something on them that keeps me bleeding, then?”
“Yes. It keeps the blood flowing,” Zhou Mi said, after he let go of Kyuhyun’s hand. “And in our saliva, a clotting agent. Very difficult to keep a bondmate alive if they bleed out with every bite.”
He smiled, appreciating the humor. His finger wasn’t totally whole, but the wound was pink and healing.
“It heals quickly.”
“Part of what passes from me to you,” Zhou Mi said softly. “Every bite I pass some of my healing to you. It makes little wounds like these heal fast. You won’t know it was there by morning.”
“So your bite does interesting things,” Kyuhyun mused. “Did you feed enough earlier?”
“No. I’m hungry. But I won’t ask it of you so soon.”
Two choices then. Ignore that Zhou Mi was hungry with no other possible means of filing himself. Ignore until morning, when maybe he had his head back together, and they could figure out if there was something else they could do- something not pretending that they were stuck together for all eternity. Or Kyuhyun’s lifetime, or whatever. It still didn’t make Zhou Mi less hungry in the meantime. And he both could and could not understand the words that left his mouth.
“Then will taking just a little help?”
“Yes. But why would you be willing?” Zhou Mi asked, considering Kyuhyun with such wariness. “Earlier, you told me I lied?”
“What do you expect me to think? If you’re telling the truth, and you need to feed then do it. You fed me.”
“Then a very little I’ll take,” Zhou Mi said softly, taking his offer at its face value. “It will do no harm to you, I promise. You will just feel…pleasant. It’s nothing to fear.”
And when he watched as Zhou Mi took his arm, Zhou Mi glanced up at him.
“Perhaps it’s easier if you don’t see?”
Maybe. Maybe it would’ve been. But it didn’t stop his curiosity. Whether by accident or design, Zhou Mi’s lip hid when his teeth actually sank through Kyuhyun’s skin. But he knew anyway. That pervasive tingling that swept him, like the whole of his skin was swept with warmth just dancing there. He both felt and heard the gasp, the movement too fast for him to dodge as Zhou Mi both released and reached for him. Gone was the look of enjoyment, replaced by something that had him jerking as Zhou Mi grasped his head. Heading for a place he wasn’t prepared to consider.
His neck.
Visions of his throat being ripped into flooded through him, and he pushed out blindly.
“Whoa. Stop!”
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Zhou Mi murmured, his nose notching into Kyuhyun’s neck. “I’m not going to bite you. I can smell it, your blood. It beats for me.”
“For me first,” Kyuhyun said, trying to for wry and it just ending up awkward, since he had a man in his lap almost. And a man breathing hard against his skin in a way that was kind of reminiscently sexual and hungry even to him.
Zhou Mi pushed himself back, lifting Kyuhyun’s arm again. Tracing his tongue against the tendons, the veins, to where he had bitten, and biting again. The sound of relief and pleasure were even more audible, Zhou Mi unable to hold himself back.
He could just see the edge of Zhou Mi’s lip where it pressed to his skin, and exhaled slowly. Staring at the ceiling as the feeding continued. The interested little twitch in his pants was due to circumstance, and the feelings the feeding made in him. Zhou Mi had all but said he should expect it. And maybe he’d have taken it a little more philosophically if he didn’t still have the ghosting sensations of Zhou Mi breathing against his neck. Maybe it was a clever way to get Kyuhyun to want it. Oh please, Zhou Mi. Bite into a place you could easily kill me.
He knew when Zhou Mi had taken back his fangs, because the tingling began to fade. Just a heat where Zhou Mi’s tongue had cleaned his skin, perhaps helping the clotting along.
“Had your fill?” he asked, and was pleased to find he was neither overtly aroused, nor woozy.
“Yes. I had plenty. Thank you.”
“Tastes like the finest wine, I bet,” Kyuhyun joked.
Zhou Mi laughed, smiling. “It tastes like your blood. No wine could compare.”
There was an uneasy silence after that. Kyuhyun, unsure of how to reply, and Zhou Mi looking uncomfortable for maybe how revealing it had sounded. Though, Zhou Mi had to be somewhat happy. He couldn’t imagine living life with the only source of sustenance available being disgusting. Zhou Mi stood, almost seeming displeased.
“It’s late, and it’s been… Quite a day. I’ll sleep out on the couch. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
“I thought you said I’d get cold sleeping alone,” Kyuhyun accused him.
“It’s something I’d heard,” Zhou Mi said carefully. “I guess we can find out.”
He reluctantly accepted that hypothesis, and made himself comfortable in Zhou Mi’s bed. The room was dark, just two faint glowing spots from where Zhou Mi’s clock sat. He was sleeping in a vampire’s house, had been fed on by him. He ran his fingers up the still-healing line on his arm. Just another day. Maybe.
***
He woke once in the middle of the night, shivering. Though the blanket was warm, and the air. He curled in on himself, wondering how the hell he was supposed to get up and ask Zhou Mi to come cuddle because he was a Kyuhyun-icicle sleeping alone. Of all the things to be true. A creak in a the floorboard had him turning.
“Zhou Mi?”
“Are you..?”
“Freezing,” Kyuhyun said, trying to keep his teeth from clacking together. “Get your ass over here so we can see if it’ll help.”
When he sat on the bed, Zhou Mi wasn’t even touching him, and it felt like his skin flushed warm. Not in a way that had him wanting to kick away the covers, just a pleasant, glowing warmth. Or maybe it was just feeling normal. Or maybe he was just as out of it as Zhou Mi.
“Fuck,” he whispered, and didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud until Zhou Mi sighed.
“I’m sorry. I guess it was true.”
He felt Zhou Mi get settled under the covers, and pressed his face into the pillow. If that was true, then what else? What else. How did he tell his work, his friends? His family? But the warmth calmed him, and he relaxed, falling into an easy sleep.
***