Without My Drug / Chapter Fifteen
Title: Without My Drug / Chapter Fifteen
Author: Nicole Fang
Rating: Pg-13 ~ NC-17
Pairings: 2Min, side!JongKey
Genre(s): AU, supernatural, a slice of horror (maybe), romance, violence, angst, slight-humor
Summary: There were lines that weren’t meant to be crossed. There was a line for falling for your enemy, and a line for a vampire hunter being in love with a vampire (and vice versa). Too bad Minho and Taemin seemed to cross both. Now they’ll both have to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Quick Author's Note: For those who missed Chapter Fourteen (NC-17 rated chapter), go here! Also...I might have bad news after next chapter post. I'm still deciding on it though, so no use in thinking about what the bad news might be haha. ^^;; Also, please forgive any mistakes. I don't have time to look over it right now. :'(
For other chapters please check the master ficlist!
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sometimes, Taemin wished he could stay in his dreams, leaving reality completely. His dreams were so much nicer than reality could ever be - it wasn’t a place where a cold, harsh end waited for him. His dreams were filled with sunshine, warmth blooming in his chest, and Minho. Nothing in his head existed except those, and he could laugh freely without the restraints of dread that he carried in reality.
Something almost as bad as reality? It was when his peaceful, happy dreams turned into nightmares, like they were now. Nightmares where his darkest thoughts came to life and tortured him - and this time, the dark shadows seemed to mock him as they killed Minho repeatedly in front of his eyes, who had stepped in the way to shield him. He found that he couldn’t move when Minho reached for him, blood dripping from his mouth, before collapsing into a heap.
Something inside of him snapped at the sight, falling near Minho’s body and letting out a cry that spoke of his pain.
And that was when he normally happened to wake up. The timing didn’t fail him this time either. Bolting upright, Taemin swallowed the cry that wanted to tear itself from his lungs to his mouth, the beating of his heart fast and furious. Immediately, he looked over to make sure that he had only been having a nightmare. He was relieved when he saw Minho still asleep, still alive, a warm arm wrapped possessively around Taemin’s bare middle.
He breathed in shakily, trying to calm his racing pulse. Minho was safe, alive, and he wouldn’t let anything happen to the Hunter while he was still around. If Minho was killed, it would have to be after Taemin’s dead body lay cold. That he could swear.
Finally shaking off the horror little by little that was still in the recesses of his mind, Taemin was aware of the faint throbbing that crept up through his backside and contained a wince. It might not have been the greatest plan to lose his ass virginity a day before the plan started, but hopefully with the help of his fast healing powers and the added boost of human blood (Minho’s blood) he would be fully healed. He would need all the energy he could get.
Taemin shifted up slowly, very aware of how naked he was but careful to not jar Minho or his arm either way. The room had dropped in temperature, so once he was up, he made sure that Minho was covered. He needed to make sure that Minho was fully dressed when Jonghyun and Key came, since he didn’t expect Minho to be up until at least tomorrow. By that time, both the Hunters should be safe and sound, back in the human world.
Crawling to the door, he rummaged through the small bag he had brought with him and grasped Minho’s twin daggers, which he had stolen back, cautiously. Handling an anti-vampire weapon was always a bad thing, and he couldn’t afford to get another wound at this point on. From past experiences, he knew exactly how painful it was when a Hunter weapon marked him.
Looking over it carefully, Taemin realized that they didn’t seem to be responding to him as negatively as he thought, which was just fine. He had to leave his final message to Minho anyway. Hopefully the weapon complied with him this much.
Taemin put the daggers down to put some clothes on. He grabbed his pants first, ignoring the left-over substance trailing down his thigh and sliding them on silently. He shivered at the goose bumps that formed. While vampires weren’t supposed to be as affected by temperature like humans were, he supposed the human blood had warmed him up enough for him to feel the sensations like such. The chainmail got the same reaction, and even his nipples stood up slightly from the cold metal shirt. Luckily metal warmed up fast.
Deciding to go barefoot, Taemin grabbed the daggers cautiously again. After a moment’s hesitation, he padded over to the door, tossed a sleeping Minho a blank expression over his shoulder, and went out. He made sure to close the door as silently as he could.
The day of the ball had come. A few of the more worthy guests were already arriving, having the privilege of getting their own room to stay in for a few days. The ball that the master of the house always threw seemed to go on for more than a day, really. In fact, Taemin remembered that the longest time the ball had gone on was about a month, if he could recall correctly.
It made him wonder who had the type of power to be able to plan such a party, pull it off, and keep it running for practically a month. All he knew about the owner of the mansion was that his name was Onew, and that he was a genius. He had been turned a little before Taemin (finally, one other turned vampire was in his grasp, and yet he had never seen the man), but had quickly climbed the ranks of their class to become very powerful. Rumor had it that he had the power to see into the future.
Not that it really mattered to him.
Releasing a sigh, Taemin slid down the walls outside of the prison door slowly, eyes never dragging from their trained spot on the daggers that lay in his hands. The dark corridor that Minho’s room was in was silent - so silent, in fact, that Taemin felt like he could hear the dust brushing against the surface of the floor when they touched the ground.
Eyes seeing but unseeing at the same time, he wondered what he could say to even make it up a little to Minho for what he had done. Earlier on, he had the speech all planned out, but now that he was faced with the actual task of saying goodbye, thoughts flew from his head to leave him with the crushing guilt and sadness that weighed him down.
He could say he was sorry, for one. While their lovemaking had been an act of…well, love, it had also fulfilled the purpose of draining Minho of energy. Sex had given Taemin an excuse to drink from Minho so many times that the only way for the human to recover would be to sleep for a while before being able to wake up. It felt like he had desecrated the memory that would forever burn inside his head.
He could also explain the plan, he guessed. By now, he was sure that Key had indeed told the other Hunter about what was going to go down later tonight. As the guests arrived and caused a general commotion, they would sneak out and get to the woods where one portal lay in wait for use. The only bad thing was that the portal took some time to close. Key and Taemin would have to fend off any vampires and hope that Jonghyun was able to carry Minho all the way to the human world.
Last, but definitely not least, Taemin would say that he would always love Minho and that it wasn’t the Hunter’s fault. He would say to not come back and get him, because it was probably too late to do anything. As he had said before, treason was carried out by torture and execution. By the time Jonghyun and Minho could really do anything about it, Taemin would be dead.
Taemin stared blankly at the daggers in his hands, becoming so still that he blended in with the environment. Though he replanned his thoughts, putting them into words was harder than anything he’d had to do in a while.
Finally, he lifted the daggers, biting his lip. Murmuring a small, “Please let me give this message to your master,” Taemin sent a small part of his soul into the metal and began his final goodbye.
--
“So, we’re moving tonight for sure?” someone asked, sounding cautious in a carefree way.
The leaders spared each other a glance and nodded. Looking out into the crowd of face, one smirked a little.
The crowd round them cheered in response to their approval. Finally, the revolt would happen. The months, practically a year, of planning was coming to fruit. Everything revolved around this one day. This one night.
This one ball.
What the others didn’t know was that the two leaders of this soon revolt happened to have a different idea.
In the midst of the celebration going around them, Jessica couldn’t help continuing to smirk, looking over to her partner.
“Are our puppets ready?” she asked him, fingering the staff. It took a while to get, stealing from the man she had got it from wasn’t easy, and hiding it from all of the maids (or Kibum) at the mansion was even less easy, but she managed. Somehow.
“You bet,” the other said, flashing a smile. She felt a chill at the sight, and the fear made her happy. That was the reason why she was following him in the first place. The fear that she felt told her how powerful he really was. He continued, “The plan’s all set. Now we just wait for their first move.”
“It’s a genius plan,” she praised him again. “I wouldn’t have expected anything better from the great Kim Heechul.”
“Of course,” Heechul said airily, turning back to watch the people below him with a cunning smile.
--
Taemin was waiting, sitting against the wall and Minho’s head in his lap. His fingers combed softly through Minho’s long hair wistfully, watching the way the different shades of brown shifted in the dim light.
This was the moment where he was supposed to be calm before marching to his fate, the moment where peace came over all of his senses and made him into someone who was ready for anything to come at them. He knew this, but he found he couldn’t be that person. The racing of his heart was great, thundering in his chest as he tried to keep himself sane. His mind was going through scenarios at the speed of light, and a few of them he contemplated an overall failure of their plan before he erased the very notion from his head.
He did nothing to stop his shaking hands. He was terrified; of what, he couldn’t tell, but his nerves were frazzled.
It was quiet. He could hear the faint, faint chatter of the guests, but it did nothing to break the quietness of the moment. It wasn’t until the door to Minho’s room started to open that he stilled, an expressionless mask dropping onto his face.
Taemin stood up, lifting Minho easily but carefully as to not to shake the human too much. He made his movements as smooth as possible, approaching the door as Key peeked in, face hard. Taemin nodded, pushing the door open with his foot and walking down the corridors of the prison halls briskly. It was a maze down there, but Elites and higher ranking vampires knew the way to the secret passage that led out to the forest area around the mansion.
Jonghyun and Key came to walk beside him, both giving him a curious glance. Taemin gave them a wary smile.
“He wouldn’t have gone without all of us going,” Taemin whispered, glancing down into his precious bundle. “So I made him fall asleep.” The redhead brought his eyes up to look at Minho’s partner, who held an unusual serious expression on his face.
“I’m counting on you to bring him home safely,” Taemin said, a pleading note coming out in his tone. Since I can’t be there for him, you have to. The calm eyes of the Hunter next to him and the determined nod of the human made him weak with relief. He gave Jonghyun a shaky smile and a thank you as they hurried on.
Time was ticking. It was only a matter of time before people came down here when they realized the entertainment hadn’t been set up yet, and the chase would be on.
Key got in front of them when they got to the exit of the secret way they had taken. The door was crusty looking, and probably hadn’t been used in a century or more, even. The metal gave a disgusting rusty glint, and it looked like the edges were sealed shut with dirty grime.
Key paused in front of them and Taemin knew the smart vampire was going to take care of it. The younger didn’t know what Key was going to do, just that he was going to do something that would be able to break them out.
Taemin risked a glance down, frowning when he saw Minho stir a little. Leaning down, he kissed the lines that appeared between Minho’s eyebrows and murmured some soothing words, hoping that the Hunter would stay asleep until they were safe.
The bag that held Minho’s daggers, and in turn his last farewell, felt heavy at his side as the ache in his chest grew.
Finally, Key moved forward after a moment’s pause, hands going to grasp the hinges on the other side of the door. Taemin and Jonghyun watched silently as he started to pull, the metal groaning from the force.
“Get ready to duck,” Taemin warned Jonghyun, watching the door closely. How Key realized to pull at the hinges instead of the knob so quickly, Taemin didn’t know, but he was thankful that the other vampire was so quick on his feet.
The door gave way, and the energy that Key had used to pull the door from the wall sent the metal door flying down the hallway. Taemin ducked fast enough that he didn’t end up shaking Minho too much, and luckily the other Hunter had heeded his words and flattened himself against the floor.
“Let’s go, you idiots,” Key hissed, helping Taemin and Jonghyun up with a quick pull. “There’s no doubt someone heard the bang that stupid door made. We have to go if we want to get out now.”
Key was right. As they escaped into the setting sun, Taemin could already hear the stir that was going on in the mansion. The small thumps (an indication for someone’s feet hitting the ground) that he listened for were already stirring inside the mansion, and he pushed himself quicker, their forms a blur as they went straight for the place where the portal laid.
Key got there first, running over to where the controls were and pressing buttons at lightning speed in hopes of getting it powered up fast enough. Taemin, taking this pause with wariness, shoved Minho and the bag into Jonghyun’s arms. He felt bad for the human and ended up giving the man a small smile of encouragement. For him to keep up with them even after being out of training so long was an accomplishment.
He leaned in quickly while Key was busy, whispering something in Jonghyun’s ears. The Hunter blinked in surprise, frowning. Taemin nodded before going off to put up their protection.
Pulling at his gloves, Taemin scanned the trees cautiously, kneeling down and forming a cool barrier of thick ice around them. His power flowed out of him automatically, and when Taemin breathed out again, the air around them was already chilly.
“Holy shit,” Jonghyun breathed through his wheezing. Taemin allowed a brief grin to pass his lips, looking back at the human. He found a sight that was stunning when he did though - Minho was opening his eyes. He started to panic because Minho wasn’t supposed to wake up until tomorrow at the earliest. Why the fuck was he up now of all times?
“Damn it,” Taemin hissed out, glowering, and he could feel his eyes shifting colors. “Key, please tell me you have the portal open now.”
“It’s taking longer than I thought. I swear, this stupid thing,” Key muttered back, still pressing at some buttons. Taemin could hear the machine slowly coming to life, and he had never felt so stressed before. His red eyes darted back to see Minho opening his eyes before Jonghyun turned around, moving them strategically so that Minho would have to somehow crane his head to see Taemin.
“Jonghyun?” he heard Minho mutter sleepily. “Where are we? Why is it so cold?”
“Fuck,” Jonghyun said, gazing down nervously at his partner. “Um, hey Minho.” An awkward laugh spilled from the Hunter’s lips. “You’re having a dream right now. Just thought I should let you know.”
“A dream?” Minho murmured, sounding dead still. Taemin tried to drop the temperature enough to lull Minho back into sleep but the stubborn human seemed to unconsciously refuse to go back to the deep slumbers. Frustration burned through Taemin. Why was it that Minho never followed any of their plans obediently? Minho continued, “I don’t think I’m having a dream right now.”
“The portal is open now,” Key told them, appearing beside Jonghyun in a flash. The older vampire pushed the two humans toward the gateway, and that was when Minho seemed to realize something.
“Where’s Taemin?” he asked out loud, struggling now. Taemin winced, hoping to God Minho wouldn’t see him.
“Non-ya,” Key snapped at Minho, and relief flowed through Taemin quickly. Even now, his best friend was still watching out for him.
Something appeared in Taemin’s peripheral vision outside of his cocoon of safety. Whipping his head around, he tried to contain a growl (of anger, of hopelessness, and of desperation) as he watched a mini army of servant vampires come at them through the trees. He planted his hands harder into the dirt beneath his palms, praying for strength.
Key was cursing now, pushing the two humans toward the portal furiously when Minho sighted Taemin, and along with the vampire, the tiny black dots that were coming closer to where they were. Everything clicked in the human’s mind, if the expression on Minho’s face was any sign.
“Taemin, you’re coming right?” Minho called, his visage blank but his tone alarmed. When Taemin didn’t answer, couldn’t answer, Minho struggled more, trying to get Jonghyun (and now Key) to unhand him. The redhead looked away from the heartbreaking scene, eyes hard as they observed the vampires practically a yard away.
“Get them out now, Key,” Taemin called desperately, and a huge crack could be heard outside the barrier. He gritted his teeth, trying his best to repair any breaks that the vampires could have made while keeping minimum attention on the struggling trio.
It was like a nightmare to see all the people he knew turned into vicious cunning monsters outside of his barrier, and he shuddered. He could see someone trying to talk to him, most probably trying to give him another chance, through the glass but he couldn’t hear them. His ice was soundproof.
“He’s not going in!” Key yelled.
“I don’t fucking care what you have to do,” Taemin roared, baring his teeth. He panicked when he felt his powers become more depleted. His muscles strained under the amounts of energy it was taking to keep the ice up. “Just toss them in. I can’t hold the barrier up much longer!”
“Taemin!” bellowed Minho. “I refuse to leave you here, you hear me? You fucking idiot, don’t you dare do this!”
A larger crack appeared and Taemin turned his head around to see the vampires throwing trees at the ice. Snarling, Taemin strengthened the barrier again, starting to pant. But Minho wasn’t safe yet. He couldn’t let down the barrier until his loved ones were out of harm’s way.
“You dumbass,” Taemin cried out, lines of frustration and fatigue on his face. “Fucking go already. Don’t waste all of this!”
And just as he cried out, Jonghyun and Key managed to push Minho into the portal. The younger vampire watched as Minho landed on the rooftop of a building. Looking up, Taemin nodded to Jonghyun who observed him with concern in his eyes.
“You know what to do, Jonghyun,” Taemin said out loud. It looked like Key was about to ask what was going on until another crack tried to split open his barrier, causing the younger to gasp in pain. His best friend started to walk toward him worriedly, and Taemin willed himself to shout, “Now!” to Jonghyun.
Seizing Key by surprise, Jonghyun pushed off from the ground and propelled them through the air.
“Taemin!” Key screamed, eyes widening in horror as he realized what was happening. The portal, which had already started to close, swallowed them quickly, and finally, the redhead found himself alone inside his barrier.
Portals were strange things. They showed you where you were going to land, and everything that was happening around the place. When you wanted to go through one of them, you could step right in and you would suddenly have a different setting around you. Going back was different though, and you couldn’t see where you came from. You had to have enough training to do that.
He could see the three panicked people on the other side from the images being displayed and smiled faintly. Key looked angry and devastated, sitting down and staring blankly at the concrete beneath him; their plan had been to go down together, but really, as if Taemin was going to let his best friend die on him. The two Hunters looked like they were fighting, and Minho’s neck veins stood out to show how angry he was. It was a sad sight, and Taemin failed to keep the tired chuckle from going past his lips. They really were idiots, weren’t they?
The vampires kept trying to break into the blockade, harder now when they saw he was alone and more vulnerable. Just a bit more, he said to his exhausted body. After this, I’ll release it and fight. Fight and take a few down with me.
Keeping his hands on the ground and slowly shrinking the ice barrier, Taemin scooted close to the gateway and touched it; the metal grew cold and eventually froze under his icy touch. He made sure to make it frozen enough that it would shatter if someone tried to get to the human realm or if someone (read: Key) tried to come back.
That should give them enough time to gather their bearings and hide, Taemin thought, blinking to get the black spots out of his eyes.
Night had fallen, leaving an eerie glow of a color spectrum of eyes staring at him through the ice. He let the cracks rain down on his defense; he had no more use for it. Getting up and doing a quick stretch, he lifted his gaze from the vampires to look at where the mansion was. The lights were on, and he could just make a small trail of smoke coming. He looked back down, meeting a few gazes on the other side. Most of these vampires wouldn’t be here much longer anyway.
The mansion seemed to have been set on fire, and they would be needed there.
Finally, the ice broke under the weight of all the damage it had gained, and in crashed bloodthirsty waves of vampires.
Quickly jumping out of the way, Taemin sent some ice spears down while he was in the air, hitting a few unfortunate vampires in the front of those who had went after him. A thrill went through him, and his inner vampire struggled to get out of his tight control at the smell of kin’s blood.
The only difference? This time, he let it free.
Flipping in the air, he landed in a tree lightly, a smirk rising onto his lips as his completely black eyes smiled wickedly.