Of Calescence and Chroma - Chapter Three
Of Calescence and Chroma
Chapter Three
“What were you thinking!?” his Maker snarled, as he paced the room. The older vampire’s fingers came into contact with a small side table and it dissolved into ash beneath his touch. If Kiseop was angry enough that his Talent was appearing uncalled, then Hoon was certainly in trouble. “You were never given permission to leave! You are a child! Not even old enough to defend yourself!”
“Kiseop,” Kevin, the small but brave human called softly. “Perhaps this isn’t entirely Hoon’s fault. I am certain he has a reason for not returning on time when he has every other time.”
“Every other time?!” Kiseop roared, spinning to face the human.
Wisely Kevin took a step backwards. The human wasn’t afraid of Kiseop, not really. A Pet was never truly afraid of the vampire it belonged to, but Kevin knew better then to come into contact with Kiseop. If the vampire’s Talent accidently turned on him, Kiseop would never forgive himself.
“I’ve been going out,” Hoon admitted softly, sliding smoothly between Kiseop and Kevin. “I wanted to be outside again.”
A muscle in Kiseop’s jaw twitched as he fought to control his response to the statement. He could see the vampire struggling with his reply as his fingers curled into fists. “From now on,” Kiseop said finally, his voice frigid, “you will not leave your room without my expressed permission. If I find you have disobeyed again, I will invoke the power a Maker has over his child. Now get out of my sight.”
Wisely, and silently, Hoon bowed deeply and scurried out of the room as quickly as his feet would take him, thankful that Kiseop hadn’t done worse.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
It took weeks before Hoon felt as though he could chance slipping out again, weeks spent with his Maker eyeing his every move. After the first several days Kiseop's anger had finally subsided but not his irritation. Hoon realized that in his own way Kiseop was worried for him, even if the vampire hadn’t displayed the typical signs of caring. He knew that it hardly mattered if his Maker cared for him in an emotional sense, he cared very much about the fact that a lot of work and energy went into creating Hoon to be what he is. The death of a child especially the First Born, as Hoon was to Kiseop could be incredibly destructive.
For that alone, Hoon thought, Kiseop corrected the vast oversight that it was to not pay attention to Hoon’s movements. More importantly, even Soohyun would agree, was the fact that Kiseop began to take a growing interest in teaching him to be like a vampire. He still wasn’t silent, or as impressive as the other vampires in the seethe, but he was getting there. Between the hours he spent training, and the time spent with Kevin, whom he was pretty sure Kiseop had told to keep an eye on him, he hardly had time to slip away. The confinement, not surprisingly, was beginning to make him mildly stir crazy.
“What is it?” Kevin asked him one evening, not looking up from his contemplation of the cards laid between them and the ones in his hand.
“Nothing,” Hoon answered, waiting for him to make a move.
“You’ve sighed,” Kevin pulled a card from his hand and added it to one of the piles, “six times in the last ten minutes. For someone that doesn’t need to breathe that is a bit more than nothing.”
Hoon frowned. He had thought he was getting better at that. “I miss it,” he told the human. There really wasn’t much point in hiding what Kevin had probably already guessed.
“Being outdoors?” Kevin asked, watching Hoon take his turn.
“Yes. I miss the fresh air, and the freedom I guess,” Hoon admitted.
“Living forever sort of gives you all the freedom in the world,” Kevin pointed out.
The human had a point, but it still doesn’t feel quite right to Hoon. “Yeah, but if I forget what it is like to be like you, I might never enjoy it again.”
“I see your point,” Kevin said slowly after a moment. Hoon could tell that he wanted to say more, but he didn’t so neither did the vampire.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
It was another five days before Kiseop paused, taking a moment to study him just after his nightly feeding. The vampire’s eyes held a strong emotion that Hoon couldn’t quite name as he studied him. “You may,” Kiseop told him slowly, as if he was reluctant to even say it, “venture outside of the seethe.” Hoon could feel his heart leaping in his chest at the statement, or would have if his heart beat any longer.
“You must,” Kiseop continued, “return two hours before sunrise and make certain that you remain in the forest.”
“I will,” Hoon promised sincerely, dropping his head in a pose of submission. He could feel Kiseop’s eyes on him, the attention from a predator made his skin crawl no matter their relationship and he fought not to fidget.
“Go,” Kiseop allowed at last and Hoon wasted not a second on getting himself out the door.
“Thank you,” he said softly as he slipped out. He would have to pick up something very nice to thank Kevin as well when he was finally allowed to venture into the city, but for now the forest waited for him.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
It took him two nights of searching to determine that Soohyun was no longer hanging out at their typical spots. Hoon wasn’t quite used to using his heightened sense of smell yet, but he was relatively certain that the werewolf’s scent at every location was stale enough that it clearly indicated he no longer was there. Despite that, Hoon checked each of their usual places for one more night before giving up on that approach. Still, it took him yet another night to return to the cottage that he had spent a day sheltered within.
Even though he had walked from the place and back out into the forest, it was still incredibly difficult to find. If it hadn’t been for the deep pulsing red and greens of the werewolf he could clearly see with his Talent through the underbrush, he might have missed the path to the cottage altogether. As it was, he wasn’t able to keep his footfalls silent as he approached the hidden place.
“You are lucky that the wind already brought me your scent,” Soohyun growled as soon as Hoon broke through the cover of the bush. The werewolf, whose back was to him, didn’t bother to turn to look at him. “That and the fact that you still clomp through the forest as if you want the world to know you are there.”
“I’ve gotten better,” Hoon huffed in an effort to defend himself. The old argument was nice, familiar, and it nearly distracted him from the overwhelming scent of fresh blood. As soon as he scented it, Hoon ceased to breath. Blood was dangerous around any newly fledged vampire, even one as well fed as he was. The slightest whiff of it had already caused his fangs to lengthen and made his stomach rumble.
Slowly, Soohyun turned and looked at Hoon for a moment. In his hands was a sword, as long as his forearm, stained with blood. A faint pink tinge lingered on his arms that were dripping water slightly and his shirt was covered in splashes of red. Golden eyes assessed the vampire for a moment, and then the werewolf shrugged. “A pup of a vampire is no threat. You couldn’t hurt me if you tried,” he dismissed, turning back to the basin of water on the ground behind him and drawing out an already stained rag.
Hoon watched the werewolf’s aura swirl in red and greens that thrummed with irritation and frustration. He didn’t think it was for him, but for the first time that he had known Soohyun both halves of the werewolf seemed to be in agreement.
“I’m not old enough to escape bloodlust,” Hoon tried to explain. Drawing in another breath of air had been a mistake as it carried the sweet scent of blood and he found himself moving forward before he could stop it.
Soohyun turned and in one smooth motion dropped the blade, freeing his hand to intercept the vampire. The feeling of fingers closing around his neck, made Hoon freeze where he was. “I’m sorry, I,” he trailed off as he inhaled once again, the scent of blood so close to his nose.
Golden eyes softened minutely, “I’ll go clean up,” Soohyun growled. “Stay here.”
Power rolled over Hoon, putting magical force behind the command. The flavor was different than what Hoon was used to and although the compulsion to obey skated around the edge of his senses, he felt that he could likely ignore it if he wanted to. He didn’t, however, want to hurt Soohyun, so he allowed the magic to settle on him and aid him in remaining still as Soohyun carefully removed his fingers.
The werewolf stayed a moment longer to ensure that Hoon wasn’t going to move before he turned and quickly gathered up all of the things. With an armload of objects that would be much more than any normal man could bear, he moved into the house. In his absence, for the first time since his change, Hoon consciously tried not to breath.
The first minute was the most stressful for him, as a part of him still was waiting for the feeling of suffocation to set in. After that, however, it was easier to resist the habit to breath. He let his eyes close as he relaxed, not breathing and as still as a statue.
“You almost actually look like a vampire when you are like that,” Soohyun’s voice came from his left.
Slowly, Hoon opened his eyes. The werewolf was standing in the doorway in a fresh t-shirt and pants. His face and arms appeared to have been scrubbed in the time he had been gone and Hoon carefully inhaled. The scent of blood was lingering, but faint enough that he thought he might be able to ignore it.
“I am a vampire,” Hoon grumbled.
“So you say,” Soohyun replied with a faint smile. “Come on then,” he gestured, holding open the door.
The lingering pressure of his former command fell away as Soohyun beckoned to him. With another quick breath, Hoon nodded and followed the werewolf inside.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
“They were hunters,” Soohyun's voice interrupted his train of thoughts.
Hoon looked up from the cup of tea he had been slowly swirling a spoon in. “Hm?”
“The men from the forest a while ago,” Soohyun explained, sipping his tea as he leaned on the table across from Hoon, “they were hunters.”
“They didn’t look like they were after deer or some other forest creature,” Hoon replied, intent on what Soohyun had to say, now that he had figured out what the topic of conversation was.
“They hunt a slightly larger type of game,” Soohyun told him cryptically.
Hoon paused for a moment and sipped his tea. It wasn’t entirely disgusting, and even as a vampire he could eat and drink if he wanted to. The taste, however, seemed to be just a bit off from the way he remembered it. Different in a not entirely horrible way, but it wasn’t as pleasant as he remembered either. “I don’t understand.”
“As far as I can tell, they are a group of humans that hunt what they consider to be non humans. Werewolves, witches and, I would imagine, vampires,” Soohyun told him with a shrug.
As he watched red and green moved together in a pattern that he would consider anger, but yet darker. It wasn’t an emotion he was yet familiar with. “How do you know that? We didn’t exactly stop to chat with them.”
Soohyun placed his cup gently on the table and pulled up his sleeve. An angry red line slashed its way across his bicep, the edges of the mark were faintly grey. “Someone hunting deer doesn’t do it with silver bullets. It takes too much money to make just one of them to bother hunting anything but werewolf with them. They knew what they were hunting.”
“When did that happen?” Hoon moved forward trying to get a better look. He couldn’t remember seeing anything hit the werewolf as they had been moving through the forest and he imagined that he would have heard a gunshot if there had been one. Besides, the way he figured, the werewolf had had more than enough time to have healed.
“It doesn’t matter,” Soohyun growled, tugging the sleeve back over the wound. He took a deep breath before continuing, “The point is, that they are humans who somehow know what they are hunting and the best way to kill it when they shouldn’t have a clue. Our kind hasn’t made it this long by spreading our secrets everywhere.”
Hoon leaned back in his chair thinking. It wasn’t until his Maker, Kiseop, had approached him, that he figured out vampires existed. Even then, he would have been made to forget if he had chosen not to stay. He didn’t know that much about werewolves but he figured they must have similar ways to keep their existence secret or everyone would know that they were there. Hoon couldn’t imagine anyone just walking down the street, looking at Soohyun, and guessing that he was something other than human. The first time they met, he hadn’t even figured out right away and he had a slight advantage over a normal human.
Looking up to comment to the werewolf, Hoon noticed that he was nowhere to be found. “Soohyun?” He called.
“Hold on,” was the muffled response from somewhere deeper in the house, reassuring him that the werewolf hadn’t left. “I’m looking for something.”
Hoon nodded and went back to pondering his tea. After a moment he glanced back at what had distracted him in the first place. Across the kitchen, on the windowsill above the sink, sat a vase of dried and dead flowers. Most were no longer discernable, but a few roses hung limp and sad in a way that they wouldn’t have been had they been dried properly. Beside the vase, he could see a folded piece of paper. He had been contemplating what it could be since he had sat down. Soohyun didn’t look to be the type to leave a mess or dead things just lying around. In fact, the rest of the house had been clean, not spotless, but a general clean that spoke of a bit of effort.
When the werewolf still wasn’t back a minute later, Hoon gave into his curiosity and rose from his chair. He was careful not to touch any of the dead flowers, since he doubted they would withstand even the gentlest brush, but the paper looked a bit more sturdy. Carefully he lifted it and unfolded what appeared to be a note. The inside was covered with neat, graceful scroll that seemed to dance across the page in a way he hadn’t seen handwriting do for a long time.
My dearest Soohyun, the letter began. I know that recently times have been hard for you, as it has been for all of us. I know that many nights you lie awake -
Suddenly there was a snarl from across the room. So quick that he wouldn’t have been able to move out of the way, a hand closed on his wrist, crushing to the point that he heard a crack in his bones. The letter was extracted from his hand and once it was free, he realized he was airborne. It all happened so fast, that Hoon was still trying to get his bearings as his back cracked forcefully into the stone mantle of the living room fire place and he crumpled to the floor.
“Get out!” a dangerous voice snarled, wrapping the words in power that even he couldn’t refuse. For a moment Hoon feared that his spine had been broken or otherwise damaged as he shakily pulled himself to his feet but as soon as his mind realized he was on his feet, they were carrying him out the door and into the darkness beyond.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
Closing his eyes and sighing heavily, the werewolf sank to the tiled floor where he had been standing. Inside him his Beast roared, both with anger that something of hers was touched as well as rage that they had probably permanently lost the vampire from this incident. He wanted to kill, to take his pain out on something and feel it fall before him, to taste the thrill of the hunt.
Breathing deeply, Soohyun shoved his Beast aside. He couldn’t afford to lose control, not yet. They still had work to do, the Beast and he. Only once they were through, would he give in and let the Beast take him until they were both no more, but not yet.
Carefully he unclenched his fingers and smoothed the letter on the floor beside him. He didn’t need to look at it to know what it said, he had memorized every word. They were seared onto his soul, a brand that would never vanish, yet he couldn’t bare the thought of anything happening to it.
With practiced breathing and focus, Soohyun slowly calmed both himself and the Beast within him. Neither were happy, but both had always been patient hunters and their time would come. Soon.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
My dearest Soohyun,
I know that recently times have been hard for you, as it has been for all of us. I know that many nights you lie awake and ponder all the things you cannot change yet have decided you must. It was your decision to leave the pack we group up in, and I follow you, my love, as you know I will to the ends of the Earth. But being here, although I love it, does not make any difference does it?
We lost another good friend today, and I wonder if it hurts you more than you will say. You won’t speak with me about it, my love, but I know the pain you are in. We always plant something in remembrance of those that have gone and you spent longer beside the tree this time. I believe TOP is older than us all put together yet he is not so far lost. Why is it that the best of us become that way?
I know you don’t believe the way I do, but we aren’t monsters. Being a monster is a choice and there is nothing inherently evil about what we are. We just are.
Our humanity can never truly be lost, not if we remember. I know we are old and you are tired love, but I choose to remember. I will not let us fade into nothing.
I love you, more than life itself, and you are mate. We cannot go on without you, so I refuse to lose you to the madness you fear. We will remember for you.
I will not forget what it means to be human.
With all of my love,
Mia
One || Two || Three || Four
Chapter Three
“What were you thinking!?” his Maker snarled, as he paced the room. The older vampire’s fingers came into contact with a small side table and it dissolved into ash beneath his touch. If Kiseop was angry enough that his Talent was appearing uncalled, then Hoon was certainly in trouble. “You were never given permission to leave! You are a child! Not even old enough to defend yourself!”
“Kiseop,” Kevin, the small but brave human called softly. “Perhaps this isn’t entirely Hoon’s fault. I am certain he has a reason for not returning on time when he has every other time.”
“Every other time?!” Kiseop roared, spinning to face the human.
Wisely Kevin took a step backwards. The human wasn’t afraid of Kiseop, not really. A Pet was never truly afraid of the vampire it belonged to, but Kevin knew better then to come into contact with Kiseop. If the vampire’s Talent accidently turned on him, Kiseop would never forgive himself.
“I’ve been going out,” Hoon admitted softly, sliding smoothly between Kiseop and Kevin. “I wanted to be outside again.”
A muscle in Kiseop’s jaw twitched as he fought to control his response to the statement. He could see the vampire struggling with his reply as his fingers curled into fists. “From now on,” Kiseop said finally, his voice frigid, “you will not leave your room without my expressed permission. If I find you have disobeyed again, I will invoke the power a Maker has over his child. Now get out of my sight.”
Wisely, and silently, Hoon bowed deeply and scurried out of the room as quickly as his feet would take him, thankful that Kiseop hadn’t done worse.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
It took weeks before Hoon felt as though he could chance slipping out again, weeks spent with his Maker eyeing his every move. After the first several days Kiseop's anger had finally subsided but not his irritation. Hoon realized that in his own way Kiseop was worried for him, even if the vampire hadn’t displayed the typical signs of caring. He knew that it hardly mattered if his Maker cared for him in an emotional sense, he cared very much about the fact that a lot of work and energy went into creating Hoon to be what he is. The death of a child especially the First Born, as Hoon was to Kiseop could be incredibly destructive.
For that alone, Hoon thought, Kiseop corrected the vast oversight that it was to not pay attention to Hoon’s movements. More importantly, even Soohyun would agree, was the fact that Kiseop began to take a growing interest in teaching him to be like a vampire. He still wasn’t silent, or as impressive as the other vampires in the seethe, but he was getting there. Between the hours he spent training, and the time spent with Kevin, whom he was pretty sure Kiseop had told to keep an eye on him, he hardly had time to slip away. The confinement, not surprisingly, was beginning to make him mildly stir crazy.
“What is it?” Kevin asked him one evening, not looking up from his contemplation of the cards laid between them and the ones in his hand.
“Nothing,” Hoon answered, waiting for him to make a move.
“You’ve sighed,” Kevin pulled a card from his hand and added it to one of the piles, “six times in the last ten minutes. For someone that doesn’t need to breathe that is a bit more than nothing.”
Hoon frowned. He had thought he was getting better at that. “I miss it,” he told the human. There really wasn’t much point in hiding what Kevin had probably already guessed.
“Being outdoors?” Kevin asked, watching Hoon take his turn.
“Yes. I miss the fresh air, and the freedom I guess,” Hoon admitted.
“Living forever sort of gives you all the freedom in the world,” Kevin pointed out.
The human had a point, but it still doesn’t feel quite right to Hoon. “Yeah, but if I forget what it is like to be like you, I might never enjoy it again.”
“I see your point,” Kevin said slowly after a moment. Hoon could tell that he wanted to say more, but he didn’t so neither did the vampire.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
It was another five days before Kiseop paused, taking a moment to study him just after his nightly feeding. The vampire’s eyes held a strong emotion that Hoon couldn’t quite name as he studied him. “You may,” Kiseop told him slowly, as if he was reluctant to even say it, “venture outside of the seethe.” Hoon could feel his heart leaping in his chest at the statement, or would have if his heart beat any longer.
“You must,” Kiseop continued, “return two hours before sunrise and make certain that you remain in the forest.”
“I will,” Hoon promised sincerely, dropping his head in a pose of submission. He could feel Kiseop’s eyes on him, the attention from a predator made his skin crawl no matter their relationship and he fought not to fidget.
“Go,” Kiseop allowed at last and Hoon wasted not a second on getting himself out the door.
“Thank you,” he said softly as he slipped out. He would have to pick up something very nice to thank Kevin as well when he was finally allowed to venture into the city, but for now the forest waited for him.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
It took him two nights of searching to determine that Soohyun was no longer hanging out at their typical spots. Hoon wasn’t quite used to using his heightened sense of smell yet, but he was relatively certain that the werewolf’s scent at every location was stale enough that it clearly indicated he no longer was there. Despite that, Hoon checked each of their usual places for one more night before giving up on that approach. Still, it took him yet another night to return to the cottage that he had spent a day sheltered within.
Even though he had walked from the place and back out into the forest, it was still incredibly difficult to find. If it hadn’t been for the deep pulsing red and greens of the werewolf he could clearly see with his Talent through the underbrush, he might have missed the path to the cottage altogether. As it was, he wasn’t able to keep his footfalls silent as he approached the hidden place.
“You are lucky that the wind already brought me your scent,” Soohyun growled as soon as Hoon broke through the cover of the bush. The werewolf, whose back was to him, didn’t bother to turn to look at him. “That and the fact that you still clomp through the forest as if you want the world to know you are there.”
“I’ve gotten better,” Hoon huffed in an effort to defend himself. The old argument was nice, familiar, and it nearly distracted him from the overwhelming scent of fresh blood. As soon as he scented it, Hoon ceased to breath. Blood was dangerous around any newly fledged vampire, even one as well fed as he was. The slightest whiff of it had already caused his fangs to lengthen and made his stomach rumble.
Slowly, Soohyun turned and looked at Hoon for a moment. In his hands was a sword, as long as his forearm, stained with blood. A faint pink tinge lingered on his arms that were dripping water slightly and his shirt was covered in splashes of red. Golden eyes assessed the vampire for a moment, and then the werewolf shrugged. “A pup of a vampire is no threat. You couldn’t hurt me if you tried,” he dismissed, turning back to the basin of water on the ground behind him and drawing out an already stained rag.
Hoon watched the werewolf’s aura swirl in red and greens that thrummed with irritation and frustration. He didn’t think it was for him, but for the first time that he had known Soohyun both halves of the werewolf seemed to be in agreement.
“I’m not old enough to escape bloodlust,” Hoon tried to explain. Drawing in another breath of air had been a mistake as it carried the sweet scent of blood and he found himself moving forward before he could stop it.
Soohyun turned and in one smooth motion dropped the blade, freeing his hand to intercept the vampire. The feeling of fingers closing around his neck, made Hoon freeze where he was. “I’m sorry, I,” he trailed off as he inhaled once again, the scent of blood so close to his nose.
Golden eyes softened minutely, “I’ll go clean up,” Soohyun growled. “Stay here.”
Power rolled over Hoon, putting magical force behind the command. The flavor was different than what Hoon was used to and although the compulsion to obey skated around the edge of his senses, he felt that he could likely ignore it if he wanted to. He didn’t, however, want to hurt Soohyun, so he allowed the magic to settle on him and aid him in remaining still as Soohyun carefully removed his fingers.
The werewolf stayed a moment longer to ensure that Hoon wasn’t going to move before he turned and quickly gathered up all of the things. With an armload of objects that would be much more than any normal man could bear, he moved into the house. In his absence, for the first time since his change, Hoon consciously tried not to breath.
The first minute was the most stressful for him, as a part of him still was waiting for the feeling of suffocation to set in. After that, however, it was easier to resist the habit to breath. He let his eyes close as he relaxed, not breathing and as still as a statue.
“You almost actually look like a vampire when you are like that,” Soohyun’s voice came from his left.
Slowly, Hoon opened his eyes. The werewolf was standing in the doorway in a fresh t-shirt and pants. His face and arms appeared to have been scrubbed in the time he had been gone and Hoon carefully inhaled. The scent of blood was lingering, but faint enough that he thought he might be able to ignore it.
“I am a vampire,” Hoon grumbled.
“So you say,” Soohyun replied with a faint smile. “Come on then,” he gestured, holding open the door.
The lingering pressure of his former command fell away as Soohyun beckoned to him. With another quick breath, Hoon nodded and followed the werewolf inside.
▪▫▪☼▪▫▪
“They were hunters,” Soohyun's voice interrupted his train of thoughts.
Hoon looked up from the cup of tea he had been slowly swirling a spoon in. “Hm?”
“The men from the forest a while ago,” Soohyun explained, sipping his tea as he leaned on the table across from Hoon, “they were hunters.”
“They didn’t look like they were after deer or some other forest creature,” Hoon replied, intent on what Soohyun had to say, now that he had figured out what the topic of conversation was.
“They hunt a slightly larger type of game,” Soohyun told him cryptically.
Hoon paused for a moment and sipped his tea. It wasn’t entirely disgusting, and even as a vampire he could eat and drink if he wanted to. The taste, however, seemed to be just a bit off from the way he remembered it. Different in a not entirely horrible way, but it wasn’t as pleasant as he remembered either. “I don’t understand.”
“As far as I can tell, they are a group of humans that hunt what they consider to be non humans. Werewolves, witches and, I would imagine, vampires,” Soohyun told him with a shrug.
As he watched red and green moved together in a pattern that he would consider anger, but yet darker. It wasn’t an emotion he was yet familiar with. “How do you know that? We didn’t exactly stop to chat with them.”
Soohyun placed his cup gently on the table and pulled up his sleeve. An angry red line slashed its way across his bicep, the edges of the mark were faintly grey. “Someone hunting deer doesn’t do it with silver bullets. It takes too much money to make just one of them to bother hunting anything but werewolf with them. They knew what they were hunting.”
“When did that happen?” Hoon moved forward trying to get a better look. He couldn’t remember seeing anything hit the werewolf as they had been moving through the forest and he imagined that he would have heard a gunshot if there had been one. Besides, the way he figured, the werewolf had had more than enough time to have healed.
“It doesn’t matter,” Soohyun growled, tugging the sleeve back over the wound. He took a deep breath before continuing, “The point is, that they are humans who somehow know what they are hunting and the best way to kill it when they shouldn’t have a clue. Our kind hasn’t made it this long by spreading our secrets everywhere.”
Hoon leaned back in his chair thinking. It wasn’t until his Maker, Kiseop, had approached him, that he figured out vampires existed. Even then, he would have been made to forget if he had chosen not to stay. He didn’t know that much about werewolves but he figured they must have similar ways to keep their existence secret or everyone would know that they were there. Hoon couldn’t imagine anyone just walking down the street, looking at Soohyun, and guessing that he was something other than human. The first time they met, he hadn’t even figured out right away and he had a slight advantage over a normal human.
Looking up to comment to the werewolf, Hoon noticed that he was nowhere to be found. “Soohyun?” He called.
“Hold on,” was the muffled response from somewhere deeper in the house, reassuring him that the werewolf hadn’t left. “I’m looking for something.”
Hoon nodded and went back to pondering his tea. After a moment he glanced back at what had distracted him in the first place. Across the kitchen, on the windowsill above the sink, sat a vase of dried and dead flowers. Most were no longer discernable, but a few roses hung limp and sad in a way that they wouldn’t have been had they been dried properly. Beside the vase, he could see a folded piece of paper. He had been contemplating what it could be since he had sat down. Soohyun didn’t look to be the type to leave a mess or dead things just lying around. In fact, the rest of the house had been clean, not spotless, but a general clean that spoke of a bit of effort.
When the werewolf still wasn’t back a minute later, Hoon gave into his curiosity and rose from his chair. He was careful not to touch any of the dead flowers, since he doubted they would withstand even the gentlest brush, but the paper looked a bit more sturdy. Carefully he lifted it and unfolded what appeared to be a note. The inside was covered with neat, graceful scroll that seemed to dance across the page in a way he hadn’t seen handwriting do for a long time.
My dearest Soohyun, the letter began. I know that recently times have been hard for you, as it has been for all of us. I know that many nights you lie awake -
Suddenly there was a snarl from across the room. So quick that he wouldn’t have been able to move out of the way, a hand closed on his wrist, crushing to the point that he heard a crack in his bones. The letter was extracted from his hand and once it was free, he realized he was airborne. It all happened so fast, that Hoon was still trying to get his bearings as his back cracked forcefully into the stone mantle of the living room fire place and he crumpled to the floor.
“Get out!” a dangerous voice snarled, wrapping the words in power that even he couldn’t refuse. For a moment Hoon feared that his spine had been broken or otherwise damaged as he shakily pulled himself to his feet but as soon as his mind realized he was on his feet, they were carrying him out the door and into the darkness beyond.
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Closing his eyes and sighing heavily, the werewolf sank to the tiled floor where he had been standing. Inside him his Beast roared, both with anger that something of hers was touched as well as rage that they had probably permanently lost the vampire from this incident. He wanted to kill, to take his pain out on something and feel it fall before him, to taste the thrill of the hunt.
Breathing deeply, Soohyun shoved his Beast aside. He couldn’t afford to lose control, not yet. They still had work to do, the Beast and he. Only once they were through, would he give in and let the Beast take him until they were both no more, but not yet.
Carefully he unclenched his fingers and smoothed the letter on the floor beside him. He didn’t need to look at it to know what it said, he had memorized every word. They were seared onto his soul, a brand that would never vanish, yet he couldn’t bare the thought of anything happening to it.
With practiced breathing and focus, Soohyun slowly calmed both himself and the Beast within him. Neither were happy, but both had always been patient hunters and their time would come. Soon.
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My dearest Soohyun,
I know that recently times have been hard for you, as it has been for all of us. I know that many nights you lie awake and ponder all the things you cannot change yet have decided you must. It was your decision to leave the pack we group up in, and I follow you, my love, as you know I will to the ends of the Earth. But being here, although I love it, does not make any difference does it?
We lost another good friend today, and I wonder if it hurts you more than you will say. You won’t speak with me about it, my love, but I know the pain you are in. We always plant something in remembrance of those that have gone and you spent longer beside the tree this time. I believe TOP is older than us all put together yet he is not so far lost. Why is it that the best of us become that way?
I know you don’t believe the way I do, but we aren’t monsters. Being a monster is a choice and there is nothing inherently evil about what we are. We just are.
Our humanity can never truly be lost, not if we remember. I know we are old and you are tired love, but I choose to remember. I will not let us fade into nothing.
I love you, more than life itself, and you are mate. We cannot go on without you, so I refuse to lose you to the madness you fear. We will remember for you.
I will not forget what it means to be human.
With all of my love,
Mia
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