[Fic] The Initiate - 1/1
Title: The Initiate
Author: Coley Merrin
Pairing: Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Rating: NC-17
Genre: AU, smut, vampires (unrelated to either of the others)
Summary: Initiation was a fight, to show skill, to show worth. And at the end, a hunt - A bite. What makes you stronger, take it.
***
The halfling. Joined.
***
Kyuhyun watched the training with only half concentration. It wasn’t his turn yet. New initiates were trained, tested. They had trained hard before making it to the seclusion of the forest, but every situation brought knowledge. How to fend off attacks, protect, counter-attack. Lead with the offensive, and go from there. The man was passable. His balance could use a little work. There were things that could be smoothed. Hand to hand, he seemed to do well. Kyuhyun received a thumbs-up from the second vampire who tested the human. It meant the stealth test had gone well. Not every clumsy oaf was destined to be one of the few humans who assisted in keeping order among the vampire population. There was crime. Of course. The natural order of things demanded it. Only when a vampire went against laws and nature, there were no prisons. And vampires themselves were limited to how far, and well they could hunt other vampires. The sun was a constant problem.
And the alliance with humans had come to form. How vampires arranged their food acquisition - their blood donors - was largely up to them. The main caveat, of course, was avoiding coercion and lack of consent. It took true effort for a vampire to kill a human with a single meal. So to learn of a death, or an attack - those were the crimes vampires were not allowed to perpetuate. For the possible downfall of them all.
And this human, Kyuhyun had heard of his father, his grandfather. Both hunters of some regard.
The Zhou family had long thrown in their lot with the vampire kin.
And it had been some years since a Zhou child had come to be initiated. Named in accordance to tradition. Born to seek justice. And that Kyuhyun had been chosen to bring him fully in? Only the elders knew why those choices were made.
Kyuhyun’s lot was not to train like the others had been, or to run the human into the ground and make him fight, and snarl. His part was to mark. What better way to prove fidelity, than to allow a vampire to drink? If a hunter had to hunt for a vampire who had bitten a human against their will, then it was only right that the hunter knew what it meant to be bitten.
They would fight, yes. But it was secondary to the bite.
***
Where there is trust, there is power.
***
Zhou Mi had not been to war. The training, the taunting, they were things he’d been prepared for. In some way, he’d been prepared all his life. From the first indignant squalls after his birth, growing up barely knowing his father. He had known his father had been doing great things. His grandfather had died as a hunter, and his grandmother told stories until Zhou Mi’s ears hurt. Glorying the life their family had taken on themselves, since before they had known how to write it down.
It had meant he had revered and feared his father in the same breath. Yearning in some years for approval. In others, as his father systematically taught him to fight - he only wanted to be left alone. But he had known his grandmother’s love. And he wondered if it had been his father’s single-minded drive that had driven Zhou Mi’s mother from them. Occasionally he liked to think he had sprung from the ground fully formed, that his DNA hadn’t been shared by a man who taught him how to protect himself, and others.
But they looked like brothers separated by years. There was no way he could deny that everything from his height, his hands, even his nose, had come from that man.
And when his father had disappeared, assumed dead, all of Zhou Mi’s drive to fight had gone with him. His grandmother passed. He threw himself into college, into work. Ignoring the legacy they had swore had been left to him.
But destiny only waited so long.
He panted, waiting. His ribs ached from where he had rolled over a root. His knees from stumbling. He knew there were bruises forming on his shins, his arms. His cheekbone sent a plaintive pain with every beat of his heart. The vampires came at him by turn, testing him at various forms of combat. Hand to hand, throwing him a stick, a shield. Gritting his teeth as splinters dug into his palms. He had ever wondered if he was strong enough.
The tests they give you are nothing to reality. A vampire fighting for his life will not wait for you to recover, or politely take turns. But you are the only one who may stop him from taking another life.
The rogue, the ones who turned from cohabiter, to predator.
They were the dangerous ones, the ones who had to be stopped at almost any cost.
He wrinkled his nose, glad that it was a little tender, but not broken. He had held his own. None of the vampires had been soft on him. And they had not, as his father had indicated, waited for his recovery. Throwing himself out of the way, rolling to his feet, countering. Ignoring the slide of blood, of sweat, and letting his knowledge of battle, and his adrenaline take him.
And he waited, quiet, crouched. Ready for the next onslaught. Listening for any clues. A rustling leaf, crackling branch. Brush of cloth against bark, whistle of wind against skin.
And the attack came from behind, Zhou Mi diving forward, rolling. Nearly taking another layer of skin off of his knees as he skidded, panting. There was no chance to think of weapons, the vampire charging. With a cry, he was flattened to the earth, the vampire pinning him with ease.
But he knew how to wrestle.
Over and over they rolled and fought. His muscles screamed as he fought a hold, getting an elbow to his jaw that stunned him.
It was that move that gave the vampire his opening. Pinning Zhou Mi, in such a way he was unable to break free. He flopped like a fish, and it got him nowhere. Just sweat dripping onto him from the vampire’s face.
“I am Kyuhyun, and I am your last. You fight well, for a human,” the vampire said, his voice thick, dark and deep. “You will learn to loosen this hold, and never fall prey to it. But even the best hunters will fail.”
Zhou Mi swallowed hard, nodding. Not truly looking at the vampire’s face in his anger at himself for being caught.
“Then it is cat and mouse, this game we play,” the vampire said, and Zhou Mi’s body seized, adrenaline coursing through him as the vampire lowered his face, and licked a warm, wet path up Zhou Mi’s neck. The bite, he thought, giddy and sick.
And stunned, as the vampire rocked down into him, erection clear through both sets of clothes they wore. It made his own body twitch, senses suddenly flooded with the vampire’s sweat. And his eyes, meeting the dark ones that stared back. His embarrassment was no match for that.
The vampire let him go, standing without effort, as though pinning Zhou Mi had done nothing to his strength. He drew Zhou Mi up with a gesture, urging him to stand. And to the forest, the vampire pointed, as Zhou Mi drew himself upright.
“To the forest, human. Run. Run, and hide. When I find you…” The vampire’s eyes flickered down Zhou Mi’s body. “I will bite you.”
Zhou Mi’s legs seemed to begin on their own, churning as he careened into the bush. He could not go full tilt, and go undetected. The only light he had was the moon, but that was all Kyuhyun had as well. He aimed for where would hide him best, slowing, making the most of every footfall, every inhale.
He felt almost at the end of what he could endure. Mentally, physically. Like every nerve was tingling, fraying. Brain straining for the next move, how to hide himself. Like a deer escaping a wolf. But he could only go so far. Covering his tracks, making sure of his position. The forest was huge, but the vampire would be shrewd. Kyuhyun. He would not send Zhou Mi into the forest because he could not be found. He sent him only so that Zhou Mi knew what it meant to be hunted. And his best defense was to choose a spot, stay there. On his knees, aching. Waiting for Kyuhyun to find him. And either condemn or bite him. He was a hunter, or he was not.
But he thought he had comported himself well. It was the best he had ever done. But not the best he ever would. There were years left in him to hunt. More years than he could count. Keeping vampires, humans, safe.
He had time to do little more than lift his head, begin the inhale, when a hand ringed his neck. There was no struggle in him. He had not come that far to fight Kyuhyun, or to protect himself from him.
“Would you resist the bite?” Kyuhyun asked, mouth against Zhou Mi’s ear. No a whisper, but almost a moan. Silken, deep. A croon, a promise. He could almost feel the teeth sinking through his skin.
He sprawled forward at Kyuhyun’s shove, palms scraping against the forest floor in his effort to keep his face from slamming into it. But that didn’t protect his ribs, or his knees.
Rolling, the fear high in him, pushing, snarling against Kyuhyun’s weight. Suddenly it wasn’t an initiation. It was a full out attack.
And he had not gone there to die.
“Stop. Struggling,” Kyuhyun barked, and pinned him for a second time. “You know why I am here.”
“Yes.”
“If I killed you, I would be one of the hunted.”
And the words he spoke were truth.
Kyuhyun’s hands loosened, watching to see if Zhou Mi would struggle. But he didn’t, acquiescing to Kyuhyun. Having to. There would be no bite if he continued fighting, as much as laying back, surrendering, screamed against everything he had done that day. Letting Kyuhyun lean into him, scenting along his neck, his jaw. The fear left with each touch, and it was a different kind of adrenaline as Kyuhyun breathed and chuckled. The seductive rumble of it. Tingles fleeing from scalp to toe, and the flush that had his body straining against the confines of his pants. He half wished Kyuhyun would get on with the bite, so he could fight the urge that rose to keep fighting and toss off that feeling. Maybe it was just as hard for Kyuhyun to let it go. He could not let Zhou Mi win. That was not how the game went.
Or maybe, it was the urge for something else that held them in thrall.
Surprise scalded his throat as Kyuhyun rent the front of Zhou Mi’s shirt in two jerking motions. It was not the night air against his skin, but Kyuhyun’s hands. Against his stomach, his chest. Skin contracting at the touch.
It was instinct, elbows and heels, that carried him. Pushing away from his vulnerability, from Kyuhyun’s control, from what he couldn’t predict. But he got only inches before Kyuhyun had stopped him again, and he was pinned, threatened in more ways than one. They were not there for sex, and the awareness of it was drowning him. A desperate note in Kyuhyun’s breathing that was impossible to miss. No more clear than if they were naked, on a bed. But the dichotomy was clear. There were no silk sheets, because he had rolled over a tree root to where he lay. His joints ached. His skin burned. He shouldn’t have been able to feel desire. Much less for a vampire who he couldn’t escape.
“What is the bite?” Kyuhyun asked.
“It means I know what it is to fear,” Zhou Mi dutifully recited. “That my initiation is over. That I will learn to hunt.”
His hands were tense and ready. To defend himself. To throw Kyuhyun if he could. He didn’t know.
“Yes, that’s right. You can’t fight me,” Kyuhyun told him, nails scraping his skin.
“No.”
“You can’t beat me.”
“I don’t have to,” Zhou Mi protested. That was never a requirement. “Why are you doing this? Why-“
And his answer was the rolling of Kyuhyun’s hips against his. Pressure and friction and proof. Of Kyuhyun’s arousal. Of his. In the dark, there was nothing to stop Kyuhyun from taking anything he wanted.
Twin moans in the air, different pitch, same message.
“But you want me,” Kyuhyun breathed.
Every cell in him screamed the negative. Vampire. He couldn’t get away. He needed to get away. Why Kyuhyun wanted, he didn’t know. Adrenaline could cause a rise. The urge to conquer. But that was not why they were there. Kyuhyun’s face was known to him. The hands that held him. The body arching into him. And though his reason told him no, his body begged.
“Please. Please bite me.”
Before he could give in. Before he could make a mistake.
But what mistake was that? He could feel Kyuhyun above him, the vibrating sexual energy that charged through into him. A current so easily felt as Kyuhyun’s hands molded to his ribs.
“You want me,” Kyuhyun hissed. “Zhou Mi.”
It was the first time he had heard Kyuhyun say his name. His hips jerked at the aural stroke, and it was over - he was gone. His whole focus had gone from the bite, to gnawing need.
It was madness, scrabbling at the button his pants. One second longer would make his body expire. And Kyuhyun helped, breaths harsh in the dark. Loosing one of Zhou Mi’s boots, and yanking to get him free of a pant leg. And the ripping of Zhou Mi’s underwear.
Intent was written all over Kyuhyun’s face, shadows, as he poured clear fluid into his hand from a container that had been strapped to his gaping belt.
“Ointment, meant to be used to heal you. It will do.”
For his neck, once. And then, to ease Kyuhyun’s path. He had no say in the matter. Knees parted, hips lifted. And it was his body that howled, as Kyuhyun took. Panicked resistance, pain, sounds and babbles, and from Kyuhyun, ragged moans.
He asked again. Why.
It was like a drum beat, the slide of Kyuhyun’s hips. Dulling of pain. Intrusion becoming clear. Kyuhyun had taken. Kyuhyun had wanted. And he didn’t know why. No one had said that the bite came with the ultimate submission. Just as no one had said that when Kyuhyun had released his cock, that he would open his knees a little wider.
No one had told him that Kyuhyun’s voice would make him hard as steel, and make him forget the bite entirely.
“I’m so hungry,” Kyuhyun said, grunting as he forced his way back in. “I want to fuck you. I want to feed from you.”
The blood lust. The desperation. Under Kyuhyun, Zhou Mi’s body bent, the angle of Kyuhyun’s entry easing. And Kyuhyun panted against his face.
“I’ll take everything from you,” Kyuhyun gasped.
No. Only what Zhou Mi was willing to give.
He was the one who took. Taking Kyuhyun’s mouth, and swallowing his moans. It was the mating of tongues, to follow the pounding of Kyuhyun’s hips. Fierce pleasure, hard, aching, leaking against his own stomach. Pinned, conquered, taken. Gasping for every labored breath and keening, begging for friction, for satisfaction. Kiss messy and wet and hungry, both arms flung around to hold Kyuhyun to him.
Thrusting against Kyuhyun’s hips and begging, too. He was taken, taking, touched. Blind, slack, world reduced to Kyuhyun’s fingers. They were tight, almost too tight tugging his cock, and he was coming, bucking, begging into Kyuhyun’s mouth, his body. Come warm, cool, against his skin, needle pricks against his neck, and he knew.
Hands raising as though in supplication. Body raging.
It was not pain. Only the repeated plunge of Kyuhyun’s hips.
But Kyuhyun’s teeth were in him.
Fingertips against Kyuhyun’s swallows. The bite, as his chest heaved. A hand on his chin holding him still as his eyes rolled. The jolt as Kyuhyun came.
The bite sharper. Pain fiercer. It was like there were things crawling in his veins. Like it was knowledge. Like beneath Kyuhyun’s mouth he became something else. Something he wasn’t sure he liked. Something… new.
The sound was wet, as Kyuhyun’s mouth left his skin. And as Kyuhyun’s head rose, it weaved, as though he were drunk.
“I took you, hunter,” Kyuhyun said.
“Yes, you did.”
“I took you, Zhou Mi.”
The two identities were different, he realized. Hunter and man. And as he wet his lips, defiance took him.
“I let you, Kyuhyun.”
He did not think he imagined the smile.
His thighs trembled as their bodies relaxed, Kyuhyun still on top of him. Kyuhyun’s cheek was on his shoulder, and as he drifted, he relived the bite. Taken. Taken. Taken.
***
What is stronger, the hand or the fist?
The fist or the sword?
Where there is a weapon, take it.
What makes you stronger, take it.
Zhou Mi moaned silently, unable to escape the vision of his father, light bright and glowing. It was so bright, so real. So real.
***
“Wake up.”
Kyuhyun ignored the words. He knew exactly where he was, being a blanket for the hunter. But he was not nearly satisfied enough with sleep. His stomach was pleasantly full. His body was pleasantly satisfied. And Zhou Mi did a decent job of keeping him warm from beneath him. It wasn’t like Zhou Mi could do much to move him.
“Kyuhyun, the sun.”
And his eyes opened. Not five feet beyond their feet, the sun was creating a puddle of light on the ground. And it was stretching their way. For Zhou Mi, that was no problem. But Kyuhyun, it would burn.
“Crap.”
He rolled off of Zhou Mi, getting his pants and underwear back up where they should’ve been. He’d ripped Zhou Mi’s shirt in half, and Zhou Mi still had one boot on with his pants bunched up beneath that knee. Also, underwear that Kyuhyun had…liberated. It was like he’d gone insane. He’d fed only to satisfaction, so he had nothing to reproach himself there for. That was as he’d intended it to be. But stripping Zhou Mi, fucking Zhou Mi. Zhou Mi’s face when he came. It made hunger twitch in him. Zhou Mi was human. A hunter. Even more so off limits. They had no understanding, no agreement to swap for blood, much less sex. He’d been there to initiate, not to take.
He rummaged in his bag as Zhou Mi ripped the rest of his ruined underwear off, and got himself back into his pants. A spare t-shirt, just in case. And he threw it to Zhou Mi so he could replace the tattered one. He offered Zhou Mi a hand up so he could stand, and was accepted. Standing back as Zhou Mi got his boot back on, fully dressed again. He looked like he’d been through a war, dirt-smeared, and face that was still exhausted. But there was no choice to stand around and talk it out. The sun was still advancing.
But when he turned, and would have fled, he was stopped by a tree. A tree that curved, and spiraled up. Two trunks, woven together. He looked to the next, and the next. Frozen as Zhou Mi stood beside him. A full circle of trees, that had grown together in pairs. And in the center of it, Zhou Mi’s tattered shirt. Where they had taken each other. He stared at Zhou Mi’s solid face. He hadn’t been the only one wanting.
“We have to go,” he said unnecessarily, and turned.
But he didn’t get far, as Zhou Mi bobbled behind him. Stiff, clearly, from the fighting, the fucking. Weak with it, and from the bite. The only steadying support he could offer was his hand. And Zhou Mi took it. Able to keep up then, as Kyuhyun guided him. Kyuhyun thrust every question and condemnation from his head, focused only on getting to the safe house, and out of the sun. The others would be waiting, worried. They should have returned hours before the sun rose. The bite should not have taken so long. Not only that, but returning meant seeing to the hunter’s wounds and letting him rest. Kyuhyun had bungled all of that, and he still wasn’t sure why. Halfway, Zhou Mi’s legs gave out. And he struggled back up again, but it was obvious to both of them that his energy was almost finished.
“Can I carry you?” he asked.
And Zhou Mi acquiesced with the lowering of his eyes, and a sway. Getting Zhou Mi over his shoulder for the last leg of the journey. Feeling the sun chase them as they got closer.
He carried Zhou Mi in through the protecting outer door, and then through the light-shielding inner one. And there were vampires on their feet immediately, clearly waiting for them. And following as he took Zhou Mi directly to a room with a bed.
“He reeks of sex… You both do!”
And the looks he got were not without judgement. Given Zhou Mi’s condition, he couldn’t say he blamed them. It was normal for hunters to return exhausted. He’d seen plenty over the years come back proud and accomplished. He was the only one who had brought back a hunter unable to stand. But Zhou Mi wasn’t totally unconscious. His hand reached for Kyuhyun as Kyuhyun brought back a cup, carefully lifting Zhou Mi’s head and dribbled the water in.
And when he was satisfied, he took Zhou Mi’s hand, and looked at him directly.
“Rest. You’re safe here.”
Zhou Mi’s fingers squeezed around his, acknowledgment. And it was only moments before his eyelids drooped. Asleep.
And Kyuhyun realized all eyes were on him. The elder, his fellow testers.
“He trusts you,” the elder said, sounding surprised.
“That’s probably normal, considering-“
“It’s far from normal,” the elder said. “When an initiate hunter and his vampire meet, they do have to have an understanding. But when the hunter and vampire fall into the other’s trust… It’s because they were not meant to fight alone.”
No one spoke, or even moved. Just stared, as Kyuhyun himself did. He knew of what the old vampire was saying. They had all heard stories of vampires and hunters who had linked so deeply, so completely, that they had worked together for the rest of the hunter’s natural life. Not only worked. Some were deepest friends. Some…far more than that. As though the exchange of blood and knowledge, seared too deep into their existence to be parted by normal means. But it was so rare, so unusual, that in thousands of years, he could only think of stories of what could fit on his hands. He had never seen it.
“Tell us where you bit him.”
Kyuhyun frowned. “His neck?”
“No, in the forest. Where in the forest.”
“It was a grove,” Kyuhyun explained, the sight of it still clear to his mind. “He had hidden there. The trees were odd, they were-“
“Joined. Entwined.”
That the elder knew it before he said it, had everyone shifting. The grove of joined trees. Indivisible. Then it was not happenstance that had led Zhou Mi there, or simple attraction that had inflamed them. From the very moment of their meeting, they had been bound for that place. To bite and bond. As others before them had done, in that very place.
And where the bond went deepest, where it was not friendship but more, there had been at least two instances, where the hunter had done the unthinkable - and became a vampire himself. Maybe not so unthinkable. Where a vampire’s existence became the only means not to bring pain to someone so beloved-
He realized his fingers were twisted deep in his shirt, as though his heart was paining him. But his next thought had his stomach twisting instead.
“He’ll never believe it,” Kyuhyun said, looking up. “He isn’t someone born to these abilities by chance. His family has done this for generations. To unite too closely with vampires would be-“
“There are things you do not know about his family,” the old vampire said. “Things only he can tell you. And as they said, he trusts you. Don’t doubt the bond you share.”
They left them alone. Zhou Mi sleeping deeply, and Kyuhyun with more questions than answers.
***
Kyuhyun could have left Zhou Mi that way. Filthy and spread out on the relatively clean bed. But he was responsible for some of that filth, and it wasn’t in him to walk away from it. No vampire or human rested easily, dirty and itching. And he could not shower Zhou Mi without possibly hurting him. But there were other things he could do.
“You reek,” he told the sleeping man. “But I probably do, too.”
He found some kind of cleansing wipes in Zhou Mi’s bag and figured they’d do. Pulling off Zhou Mi’s boots and socks. Undoing his pants and inching them down Zhou Mi’s legs. The shirt was a little different, but it was just a trashy one he’d had. So he used a pair of scissors and just cut off the shirt. He worked from Zhou Mi’s feet up, using the wet wipes to get most of the damage. Dirt, sweat, whatever. There were scrapes and bruises along Zhou Mi’s legs. Dried blood, crusted. He got that cleaned up, working up Zhou Mi’s and arms. The smell had abated some, but he followed that up with a warm wash cloth. Getting Zhou Mi’s lower body situated under the blankets, and doing his best to clean up the scrapes and bruises on Zhou Mi’s chest and arms. Smoothing the warm cloth up Zhou Mi’s forearm, his hand, and between his fingers. Switching to the arm closest to him. Wrist bone, knuckles, fingertips. A beautiful hand, slender, long fingered. Wide palm with scratches, gouges. Red marks. A hand that could’ve belonged to a painter, or a singer. And belonged to a man who was destined to kill.
And there were the marks on Zhou Mi’s neck, that he had left there. Zhou Mi’s blood. Zhou Mi’s body. A hunger he’d been unable to stop. He’d fought with hunters before. He’d been a tester before, but had never been assigned the bite. Never biting, but never wanting to. Even when he’d been hungry, even when he’d have been able. Zhou Mi could’ve stopped him with a word. He had to believe that.
He threw the blanked up above Zhou Mi’s shoulders, and let him sleep.
***
Kyuhyun watched Zhou Mi wake. He hadn’t watched him sleep, per se. More like glancing up at the covers rustling, or if Zhou Mi made a sound.
But he knew Zhou Mi was awake when a hand rose, covering Zhou Mi’s face. Several hard swallows before Zhou Mi, and his open eyes, found Kyuhyun. Still looking exhausted, but a hell of a lot better than he had six hours before that.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Kyuhyun responded.
“I barely remember getting here. I’m starving.”
“I found food in your bag. And there’s water here,” Kyuhyun said, and handed Zhou Mi the spoils. He sat quietly, watching as Zhou Mi demolished the protein bars and jerky. Finally slowing, pinching the bridge of his nose as he breathed, and looked up at Kyuhyun with a sheepish smile.
“I’ve never felt that hungry before.”
It would’ve been funny, had the situation been different. If he didn’t have knowledge and questions swirling in his head. If he knew who or what Zhou Mi was, and why he was there, and why they were tied together.
“Funny that you say that. You realize that what happened between us in the woods wasn’t supposed to have,” Kyuhyun said, and waited for Zhou Mi’s acknowledgement of the fact. “I hungered for you in a way I haven’t in a hundred years.”
“You told me. That you were were hungry.”
And there was something in Zhou Mi’s voice, something different than the man who’d bared his teeth and fought. A man who, despite his current state, would not have been out of place with a fork in his hand at a fancy restaurant. Kyuhyun might not have been human, but he wasn’t blind.
“I was told by the elder that you would tell me about your family. About you. That it would make me understand what happened today.”
“About my family?” Zhou Mi frowned. “I thought only my father knew.”
“There is nothing the elders don’t know,” Kyuhyun said, feeling inexplicable tired.
The silence panted between them like a dog. Before Zhou Mi met his eyes. And the secret he shared, sent prickles over Kyuhyun’s skin.
“My mother was a vampire.”
The halfling child.
“How is that possible?”
Zhou Mi sat up a little, the covers falling down his chest. “I don’t know. My father wasn’t interested in divulging that information. But my grandmother never stopped telling me.”
“And your mother, she’s…?”
“I don’t know who my mother is, or where she is. And I have no one to ask, because all of my family is dead. All I have are papers and heirlooms. I have no one to pass that onto. Unless I choose to marry, I will be the last Zhou hunter.”
Marriage. Of course. To share what they had shared in the woods, with a third-
He wondered that the thought occurred to him, that he would have fought to protect that. Killed for it.
Instead, he spun a tale. To Zhou Mi’s curious face. Of vampires and hunters in a perilous balance. Those that were attuned to each other, that fought side by side, when others would have scorned it. That it was the fight, the bite, that brought them together. That the ritual end of an initiation proved something more. Trust. Partnership.
“Did you notice the trees, where I bit you?”
“I didn’t notice the fact that I had feet, at that point. No. Why?”
“I’ll take you back there. So you can see.” And Kyuhyun wondered, if the trees would draw them in again, or if their duty had already been done. “But the elder says it was no accident that you went to that place. You were drawn there, as was I. To seal our bargain in the sacred grove.”
“A bargain we didn’t know we were completing?”
Kyuhyun smirked. “I think we know which part of it we completed.”
Zhou Mi’s face tilted in a awkward smile, staring down at the blanket for a moment before glancing up. And the question he asked, was one Kyuhyun had considered himself.
“Then is this something we were fated for? What if you hadn’t been the one to give the bite?”
“I don’t know. There are a lot of what-ifs that don’t end up with us here, but here we are.” And at least Zhou Mi wasn’t refusing the thought outright. He hadn’t been alone in that grove, feeling that pull. Zhou Mi had been the one taking his kiss. “You would accept this?”
“I don’t know. It is different than anything I had ever heard or expected of myself as a hunter.” Zhou Mi blew out a breath, shrugging in a way that was almost cute. “But there are things neither of us understands. Like you not knowing about my mother.”
“So because of your mother, then… Are you a vampire?”
“No, I am human,” Zhou Mi corrected. “I eat food. I walk in sunlight. My blood is normal. But I… I can only be killed the same ways a vampire can.”
Kyuhyun tried to wrap his head around that. Zhou Mi couldn’t be killed. But he had been hurt.
“You were scraped, bruised.”
But as Zhou Mi held out his hands, the scratches and marks were gone. The bite marks on Zhou Mi’s neck, gone. And he had nothing to say, mouth gaping. It was as though they hadn’t fought.
“I was hit by a car when I was seven years old.” Zhou Mi’s lips curved, but the smile wasn’t happy. “The driver was hurt more than I was.”
“Then you will be able to protect yourself, when I can’t be there to help protect you. You’ll… Do you age?”
“I am forty years old. It took a while for me to be convinced that this was the right path for me. If I’m aging, it’s slow.”
“I’d never heard of… I never knew. I can’t believe that’s even possible. I bit you.”
“Since I can be injured, my body would not have rejected the bite.”
It was so strange to consider. Human, but not. A hunter. Vampire, but not. He could be taught to fight, even more advanced than what he knew already. Kyuhyun could teach him. Kyuhyun could feed from him. They would need no other. And the weight of what had happened in the woods began to dawn on him. They matched. They fit. A perfect circle of interlocking puzzles. A hunger and its satisfaction.
He stood, moving to sit on the edge of the bed beside Zhou Mi. Lifting Zhou Mi’s hand and fitting it to his own. Hands not quite the same. But capable. Zhou Mi used it, to pull him closer, and they considered each other. Two men who had no reason to trust, and a tenuous connection. But he didn’t have to ask if Zhou Mi trusted him. The dark eyes were considering in a way he was not used to, taking in Kyuhyun’s features, and perhaps even his thoughts. And when he considered Zhou Mi, he saw a face he could spend more than any human’s lifetime looking at.
He stared at Zhou Mi’s nose, unable to keep his eyes raised when he was filled with so much irrational certainty. There was no way it could be wrong. “You can feed me, but I can’t kill you. We are matched.”
Zhou Mi’s mouth touched his. Clung to his as they leaned together. Testing. But it was the same as it had been before, and the touch was hunger itself. “If what you are saying is true, I could be more than that for you.”
If one of them had to be certain at that moment, it was him. And Kyuhyun smirked.
“You will be.”
***
Author: Coley Merrin
Pairing: Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Rating: NC-17
Genre: AU, smut, vampires (unrelated to either of the others)
Summary: Initiation was a fight, to show skill, to show worth. And at the end, a hunt - A bite. What makes you stronger, take it.
***
The halfling. Joined.
***
Kyuhyun watched the training with only half concentration. It wasn’t his turn yet. New initiates were trained, tested. They had trained hard before making it to the seclusion of the forest, but every situation brought knowledge. How to fend off attacks, protect, counter-attack. Lead with the offensive, and go from there. The man was passable. His balance could use a little work. There were things that could be smoothed. Hand to hand, he seemed to do well. Kyuhyun received a thumbs-up from the second vampire who tested the human. It meant the stealth test had gone well. Not every clumsy oaf was destined to be one of the few humans who assisted in keeping order among the vampire population. There was crime. Of course. The natural order of things demanded it. Only when a vampire went against laws and nature, there were no prisons. And vampires themselves were limited to how far, and well they could hunt other vampires. The sun was a constant problem.
And the alliance with humans had come to form. How vampires arranged their food acquisition - their blood donors - was largely up to them. The main caveat, of course, was avoiding coercion and lack of consent. It took true effort for a vampire to kill a human with a single meal. So to learn of a death, or an attack - those were the crimes vampires were not allowed to perpetuate. For the possible downfall of them all.
And this human, Kyuhyun had heard of his father, his grandfather. Both hunters of some regard.
The Zhou family had long thrown in their lot with the vampire kin.
And it had been some years since a Zhou child had come to be initiated. Named in accordance to tradition. Born to seek justice. And that Kyuhyun had been chosen to bring him fully in? Only the elders knew why those choices were made.
Kyuhyun’s lot was not to train like the others had been, or to run the human into the ground and make him fight, and snarl. His part was to mark. What better way to prove fidelity, than to allow a vampire to drink? If a hunter had to hunt for a vampire who had bitten a human against their will, then it was only right that the hunter knew what it meant to be bitten.
They would fight, yes. But it was secondary to the bite.
***
Where there is trust, there is power.
***
Zhou Mi had not been to war. The training, the taunting, they were things he’d been prepared for. In some way, he’d been prepared all his life. From the first indignant squalls after his birth, growing up barely knowing his father. He had known his father had been doing great things. His grandfather had died as a hunter, and his grandmother told stories until Zhou Mi’s ears hurt. Glorying the life their family had taken on themselves, since before they had known how to write it down.
It had meant he had revered and feared his father in the same breath. Yearning in some years for approval. In others, as his father systematically taught him to fight - he only wanted to be left alone. But he had known his grandmother’s love. And he wondered if it had been his father’s single-minded drive that had driven Zhou Mi’s mother from them. Occasionally he liked to think he had sprung from the ground fully formed, that his DNA hadn’t been shared by a man who taught him how to protect himself, and others.
But they looked like brothers separated by years. There was no way he could deny that everything from his height, his hands, even his nose, had come from that man.
And when his father had disappeared, assumed dead, all of Zhou Mi’s drive to fight had gone with him. His grandmother passed. He threw himself into college, into work. Ignoring the legacy they had swore had been left to him.
But destiny only waited so long.
He panted, waiting. His ribs ached from where he had rolled over a root. His knees from stumbling. He knew there were bruises forming on his shins, his arms. His cheekbone sent a plaintive pain with every beat of his heart. The vampires came at him by turn, testing him at various forms of combat. Hand to hand, throwing him a stick, a shield. Gritting his teeth as splinters dug into his palms. He had ever wondered if he was strong enough.
The tests they give you are nothing to reality. A vampire fighting for his life will not wait for you to recover, or politely take turns. But you are the only one who may stop him from taking another life.
The rogue, the ones who turned from cohabiter, to predator.
They were the dangerous ones, the ones who had to be stopped at almost any cost.
He wrinkled his nose, glad that it was a little tender, but not broken. He had held his own. None of the vampires had been soft on him. And they had not, as his father had indicated, waited for his recovery. Throwing himself out of the way, rolling to his feet, countering. Ignoring the slide of blood, of sweat, and letting his knowledge of battle, and his adrenaline take him.
And he waited, quiet, crouched. Ready for the next onslaught. Listening for any clues. A rustling leaf, crackling branch. Brush of cloth against bark, whistle of wind against skin.
And the attack came from behind, Zhou Mi diving forward, rolling. Nearly taking another layer of skin off of his knees as he skidded, panting. There was no chance to think of weapons, the vampire charging. With a cry, he was flattened to the earth, the vampire pinning him with ease.
But he knew how to wrestle.
Over and over they rolled and fought. His muscles screamed as he fought a hold, getting an elbow to his jaw that stunned him.
It was that move that gave the vampire his opening. Pinning Zhou Mi, in such a way he was unable to break free. He flopped like a fish, and it got him nowhere. Just sweat dripping onto him from the vampire’s face.
“I am Kyuhyun, and I am your last. You fight well, for a human,” the vampire said, his voice thick, dark and deep. “You will learn to loosen this hold, and never fall prey to it. But even the best hunters will fail.”
Zhou Mi swallowed hard, nodding. Not truly looking at the vampire’s face in his anger at himself for being caught.
“Then it is cat and mouse, this game we play,” the vampire said, and Zhou Mi’s body seized, adrenaline coursing through him as the vampire lowered his face, and licked a warm, wet path up Zhou Mi’s neck. The bite, he thought, giddy and sick.
And stunned, as the vampire rocked down into him, erection clear through both sets of clothes they wore. It made his own body twitch, senses suddenly flooded with the vampire’s sweat. And his eyes, meeting the dark ones that stared back. His embarrassment was no match for that.
The vampire let him go, standing without effort, as though pinning Zhou Mi had done nothing to his strength. He drew Zhou Mi up with a gesture, urging him to stand. And to the forest, the vampire pointed, as Zhou Mi drew himself upright.
“To the forest, human. Run. Run, and hide. When I find you…” The vampire’s eyes flickered down Zhou Mi’s body. “I will bite you.”
Zhou Mi’s legs seemed to begin on their own, churning as he careened into the bush. He could not go full tilt, and go undetected. The only light he had was the moon, but that was all Kyuhyun had as well. He aimed for where would hide him best, slowing, making the most of every footfall, every inhale.
He felt almost at the end of what he could endure. Mentally, physically. Like every nerve was tingling, fraying. Brain straining for the next move, how to hide himself. Like a deer escaping a wolf. But he could only go so far. Covering his tracks, making sure of his position. The forest was huge, but the vampire would be shrewd. Kyuhyun. He would not send Zhou Mi into the forest because he could not be found. He sent him only so that Zhou Mi knew what it meant to be hunted. And his best defense was to choose a spot, stay there. On his knees, aching. Waiting for Kyuhyun to find him. And either condemn or bite him. He was a hunter, or he was not.
But he thought he had comported himself well. It was the best he had ever done. But not the best he ever would. There were years left in him to hunt. More years than he could count. Keeping vampires, humans, safe.
He had time to do little more than lift his head, begin the inhale, when a hand ringed his neck. There was no struggle in him. He had not come that far to fight Kyuhyun, or to protect himself from him.
“Would you resist the bite?” Kyuhyun asked, mouth against Zhou Mi’s ear. No a whisper, but almost a moan. Silken, deep. A croon, a promise. He could almost feel the teeth sinking through his skin.
He sprawled forward at Kyuhyun’s shove, palms scraping against the forest floor in his effort to keep his face from slamming into it. But that didn’t protect his ribs, or his knees.
Rolling, the fear high in him, pushing, snarling against Kyuhyun’s weight. Suddenly it wasn’t an initiation. It was a full out attack.
And he had not gone there to die.
“Stop. Struggling,” Kyuhyun barked, and pinned him for a second time. “You know why I am here.”
“Yes.”
“If I killed you, I would be one of the hunted.”
And the words he spoke were truth.
Kyuhyun’s hands loosened, watching to see if Zhou Mi would struggle. But he didn’t, acquiescing to Kyuhyun. Having to. There would be no bite if he continued fighting, as much as laying back, surrendering, screamed against everything he had done that day. Letting Kyuhyun lean into him, scenting along his neck, his jaw. The fear left with each touch, and it was a different kind of adrenaline as Kyuhyun breathed and chuckled. The seductive rumble of it. Tingles fleeing from scalp to toe, and the flush that had his body straining against the confines of his pants. He half wished Kyuhyun would get on with the bite, so he could fight the urge that rose to keep fighting and toss off that feeling. Maybe it was just as hard for Kyuhyun to let it go. He could not let Zhou Mi win. That was not how the game went.
Or maybe, it was the urge for something else that held them in thrall.
Surprise scalded his throat as Kyuhyun rent the front of Zhou Mi’s shirt in two jerking motions. It was not the night air against his skin, but Kyuhyun’s hands. Against his stomach, his chest. Skin contracting at the touch.
It was instinct, elbows and heels, that carried him. Pushing away from his vulnerability, from Kyuhyun’s control, from what he couldn’t predict. But he got only inches before Kyuhyun had stopped him again, and he was pinned, threatened in more ways than one. They were not there for sex, and the awareness of it was drowning him. A desperate note in Kyuhyun’s breathing that was impossible to miss. No more clear than if they were naked, on a bed. But the dichotomy was clear. There were no silk sheets, because he had rolled over a tree root to where he lay. His joints ached. His skin burned. He shouldn’t have been able to feel desire. Much less for a vampire who he couldn’t escape.
“What is the bite?” Kyuhyun asked.
“It means I know what it is to fear,” Zhou Mi dutifully recited. “That my initiation is over. That I will learn to hunt.”
His hands were tense and ready. To defend himself. To throw Kyuhyun if he could. He didn’t know.
“Yes, that’s right. You can’t fight me,” Kyuhyun told him, nails scraping his skin.
“No.”
“You can’t beat me.”
“I don’t have to,” Zhou Mi protested. That was never a requirement. “Why are you doing this? Why-“
And his answer was the rolling of Kyuhyun’s hips against his. Pressure and friction and proof. Of Kyuhyun’s arousal. Of his. In the dark, there was nothing to stop Kyuhyun from taking anything he wanted.
Twin moans in the air, different pitch, same message.
“But you want me,” Kyuhyun breathed.
Every cell in him screamed the negative. Vampire. He couldn’t get away. He needed to get away. Why Kyuhyun wanted, he didn’t know. Adrenaline could cause a rise. The urge to conquer. But that was not why they were there. Kyuhyun’s face was known to him. The hands that held him. The body arching into him. And though his reason told him no, his body begged.
“Please. Please bite me.”
Before he could give in. Before he could make a mistake.
But what mistake was that? He could feel Kyuhyun above him, the vibrating sexual energy that charged through into him. A current so easily felt as Kyuhyun’s hands molded to his ribs.
“You want me,” Kyuhyun hissed. “Zhou Mi.”
It was the first time he had heard Kyuhyun say his name. His hips jerked at the aural stroke, and it was over - he was gone. His whole focus had gone from the bite, to gnawing need.
It was madness, scrabbling at the button his pants. One second longer would make his body expire. And Kyuhyun helped, breaths harsh in the dark. Loosing one of Zhou Mi’s boots, and yanking to get him free of a pant leg. And the ripping of Zhou Mi’s underwear.
Intent was written all over Kyuhyun’s face, shadows, as he poured clear fluid into his hand from a container that had been strapped to his gaping belt.
“Ointment, meant to be used to heal you. It will do.”
For his neck, once. And then, to ease Kyuhyun’s path. He had no say in the matter. Knees parted, hips lifted. And it was his body that howled, as Kyuhyun took. Panicked resistance, pain, sounds and babbles, and from Kyuhyun, ragged moans.
He asked again. Why.
It was like a drum beat, the slide of Kyuhyun’s hips. Dulling of pain. Intrusion becoming clear. Kyuhyun had taken. Kyuhyun had wanted. And he didn’t know why. No one had said that the bite came with the ultimate submission. Just as no one had said that when Kyuhyun had released his cock, that he would open his knees a little wider.
No one had told him that Kyuhyun’s voice would make him hard as steel, and make him forget the bite entirely.
“I’m so hungry,” Kyuhyun said, grunting as he forced his way back in. “I want to fuck you. I want to feed from you.”
The blood lust. The desperation. Under Kyuhyun, Zhou Mi’s body bent, the angle of Kyuhyun’s entry easing. And Kyuhyun panted against his face.
“I’ll take everything from you,” Kyuhyun gasped.
No. Only what Zhou Mi was willing to give.
He was the one who took. Taking Kyuhyun’s mouth, and swallowing his moans. It was the mating of tongues, to follow the pounding of Kyuhyun’s hips. Fierce pleasure, hard, aching, leaking against his own stomach. Pinned, conquered, taken. Gasping for every labored breath and keening, begging for friction, for satisfaction. Kiss messy and wet and hungry, both arms flung around to hold Kyuhyun to him.
Thrusting against Kyuhyun’s hips and begging, too. He was taken, taking, touched. Blind, slack, world reduced to Kyuhyun’s fingers. They were tight, almost too tight tugging his cock, and he was coming, bucking, begging into Kyuhyun’s mouth, his body. Come warm, cool, against his skin, needle pricks against his neck, and he knew.
Hands raising as though in supplication. Body raging.
It was not pain. Only the repeated plunge of Kyuhyun’s hips.
But Kyuhyun’s teeth were in him.
Fingertips against Kyuhyun’s swallows. The bite, as his chest heaved. A hand on his chin holding him still as his eyes rolled. The jolt as Kyuhyun came.
The bite sharper. Pain fiercer. It was like there were things crawling in his veins. Like it was knowledge. Like beneath Kyuhyun’s mouth he became something else. Something he wasn’t sure he liked. Something… new.
The sound was wet, as Kyuhyun’s mouth left his skin. And as Kyuhyun’s head rose, it weaved, as though he were drunk.
“I took you, hunter,” Kyuhyun said.
“Yes, you did.”
“I took you, Zhou Mi.”
The two identities were different, he realized. Hunter and man. And as he wet his lips, defiance took him.
“I let you, Kyuhyun.”
He did not think he imagined the smile.
His thighs trembled as their bodies relaxed, Kyuhyun still on top of him. Kyuhyun’s cheek was on his shoulder, and as he drifted, he relived the bite. Taken. Taken. Taken.
***
What is stronger, the hand or the fist?
The fist or the sword?
Where there is a weapon, take it.
What makes you stronger, take it.
Zhou Mi moaned silently, unable to escape the vision of his father, light bright and glowing. It was so bright, so real. So real.
***
“Wake up.”
Kyuhyun ignored the words. He knew exactly where he was, being a blanket for the hunter. But he was not nearly satisfied enough with sleep. His stomach was pleasantly full. His body was pleasantly satisfied. And Zhou Mi did a decent job of keeping him warm from beneath him. It wasn’t like Zhou Mi could do much to move him.
“Kyuhyun, the sun.”
And his eyes opened. Not five feet beyond their feet, the sun was creating a puddle of light on the ground. And it was stretching their way. For Zhou Mi, that was no problem. But Kyuhyun, it would burn.
“Crap.”
He rolled off of Zhou Mi, getting his pants and underwear back up where they should’ve been. He’d ripped Zhou Mi’s shirt in half, and Zhou Mi still had one boot on with his pants bunched up beneath that knee. Also, underwear that Kyuhyun had…liberated. It was like he’d gone insane. He’d fed only to satisfaction, so he had nothing to reproach himself there for. That was as he’d intended it to be. But stripping Zhou Mi, fucking Zhou Mi. Zhou Mi’s face when he came. It made hunger twitch in him. Zhou Mi was human. A hunter. Even more so off limits. They had no understanding, no agreement to swap for blood, much less sex. He’d been there to initiate, not to take.
He rummaged in his bag as Zhou Mi ripped the rest of his ruined underwear off, and got himself back into his pants. A spare t-shirt, just in case. And he threw it to Zhou Mi so he could replace the tattered one. He offered Zhou Mi a hand up so he could stand, and was accepted. Standing back as Zhou Mi got his boot back on, fully dressed again. He looked like he’d been through a war, dirt-smeared, and face that was still exhausted. But there was no choice to stand around and talk it out. The sun was still advancing.
But when he turned, and would have fled, he was stopped by a tree. A tree that curved, and spiraled up. Two trunks, woven together. He looked to the next, and the next. Frozen as Zhou Mi stood beside him. A full circle of trees, that had grown together in pairs. And in the center of it, Zhou Mi’s tattered shirt. Where they had taken each other. He stared at Zhou Mi’s solid face. He hadn’t been the only one wanting.
“We have to go,” he said unnecessarily, and turned.
But he didn’t get far, as Zhou Mi bobbled behind him. Stiff, clearly, from the fighting, the fucking. Weak with it, and from the bite. The only steadying support he could offer was his hand. And Zhou Mi took it. Able to keep up then, as Kyuhyun guided him. Kyuhyun thrust every question and condemnation from his head, focused only on getting to the safe house, and out of the sun. The others would be waiting, worried. They should have returned hours before the sun rose. The bite should not have taken so long. Not only that, but returning meant seeing to the hunter’s wounds and letting him rest. Kyuhyun had bungled all of that, and he still wasn’t sure why. Halfway, Zhou Mi’s legs gave out. And he struggled back up again, but it was obvious to both of them that his energy was almost finished.
“Can I carry you?” he asked.
And Zhou Mi acquiesced with the lowering of his eyes, and a sway. Getting Zhou Mi over his shoulder for the last leg of the journey. Feeling the sun chase them as they got closer.
He carried Zhou Mi in through the protecting outer door, and then through the light-shielding inner one. And there were vampires on their feet immediately, clearly waiting for them. And following as he took Zhou Mi directly to a room with a bed.
“He reeks of sex… You both do!”
And the looks he got were not without judgement. Given Zhou Mi’s condition, he couldn’t say he blamed them. It was normal for hunters to return exhausted. He’d seen plenty over the years come back proud and accomplished. He was the only one who had brought back a hunter unable to stand. But Zhou Mi wasn’t totally unconscious. His hand reached for Kyuhyun as Kyuhyun brought back a cup, carefully lifting Zhou Mi’s head and dribbled the water in.
And when he was satisfied, he took Zhou Mi’s hand, and looked at him directly.
“Rest. You’re safe here.”
Zhou Mi’s fingers squeezed around his, acknowledgment. And it was only moments before his eyelids drooped. Asleep.
And Kyuhyun realized all eyes were on him. The elder, his fellow testers.
“He trusts you,” the elder said, sounding surprised.
“That’s probably normal, considering-“
“It’s far from normal,” the elder said. “When an initiate hunter and his vampire meet, they do have to have an understanding. But when the hunter and vampire fall into the other’s trust… It’s because they were not meant to fight alone.”
No one spoke, or even moved. Just stared, as Kyuhyun himself did. He knew of what the old vampire was saying. They had all heard stories of vampires and hunters who had linked so deeply, so completely, that they had worked together for the rest of the hunter’s natural life. Not only worked. Some were deepest friends. Some…far more than that. As though the exchange of blood and knowledge, seared too deep into their existence to be parted by normal means. But it was so rare, so unusual, that in thousands of years, he could only think of stories of what could fit on his hands. He had never seen it.
“Tell us where you bit him.”
Kyuhyun frowned. “His neck?”
“No, in the forest. Where in the forest.”
“It was a grove,” Kyuhyun explained, the sight of it still clear to his mind. “He had hidden there. The trees were odd, they were-“
“Joined. Entwined.”
That the elder knew it before he said it, had everyone shifting. The grove of joined trees. Indivisible. Then it was not happenstance that had led Zhou Mi there, or simple attraction that had inflamed them. From the very moment of their meeting, they had been bound for that place. To bite and bond. As others before them had done, in that very place.
And where the bond went deepest, where it was not friendship but more, there had been at least two instances, where the hunter had done the unthinkable - and became a vampire himself. Maybe not so unthinkable. Where a vampire’s existence became the only means not to bring pain to someone so beloved-
He realized his fingers were twisted deep in his shirt, as though his heart was paining him. But his next thought had his stomach twisting instead.
“He’ll never believe it,” Kyuhyun said, looking up. “He isn’t someone born to these abilities by chance. His family has done this for generations. To unite too closely with vampires would be-“
“There are things you do not know about his family,” the old vampire said. “Things only he can tell you. And as they said, he trusts you. Don’t doubt the bond you share.”
They left them alone. Zhou Mi sleeping deeply, and Kyuhyun with more questions than answers.
***
Kyuhyun could have left Zhou Mi that way. Filthy and spread out on the relatively clean bed. But he was responsible for some of that filth, and it wasn’t in him to walk away from it. No vampire or human rested easily, dirty and itching. And he could not shower Zhou Mi without possibly hurting him. But there were other things he could do.
“You reek,” he told the sleeping man. “But I probably do, too.”
He found some kind of cleansing wipes in Zhou Mi’s bag and figured they’d do. Pulling off Zhou Mi’s boots and socks. Undoing his pants and inching them down Zhou Mi’s legs. The shirt was a little different, but it was just a trashy one he’d had. So he used a pair of scissors and just cut off the shirt. He worked from Zhou Mi’s feet up, using the wet wipes to get most of the damage. Dirt, sweat, whatever. There were scrapes and bruises along Zhou Mi’s legs. Dried blood, crusted. He got that cleaned up, working up Zhou Mi’s and arms. The smell had abated some, but he followed that up with a warm wash cloth. Getting Zhou Mi’s lower body situated under the blankets, and doing his best to clean up the scrapes and bruises on Zhou Mi’s chest and arms. Smoothing the warm cloth up Zhou Mi’s forearm, his hand, and between his fingers. Switching to the arm closest to him. Wrist bone, knuckles, fingertips. A beautiful hand, slender, long fingered. Wide palm with scratches, gouges. Red marks. A hand that could’ve belonged to a painter, or a singer. And belonged to a man who was destined to kill.
And there were the marks on Zhou Mi’s neck, that he had left there. Zhou Mi’s blood. Zhou Mi’s body. A hunger he’d been unable to stop. He’d fought with hunters before. He’d been a tester before, but had never been assigned the bite. Never biting, but never wanting to. Even when he’d been hungry, even when he’d have been able. Zhou Mi could’ve stopped him with a word. He had to believe that.
He threw the blanked up above Zhou Mi’s shoulders, and let him sleep.
***
Kyuhyun watched Zhou Mi wake. He hadn’t watched him sleep, per se. More like glancing up at the covers rustling, or if Zhou Mi made a sound.
But he knew Zhou Mi was awake when a hand rose, covering Zhou Mi’s face. Several hard swallows before Zhou Mi, and his open eyes, found Kyuhyun. Still looking exhausted, but a hell of a lot better than he had six hours before that.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” Kyuhyun responded.
“I barely remember getting here. I’m starving.”
“I found food in your bag. And there’s water here,” Kyuhyun said, and handed Zhou Mi the spoils. He sat quietly, watching as Zhou Mi demolished the protein bars and jerky. Finally slowing, pinching the bridge of his nose as he breathed, and looked up at Kyuhyun with a sheepish smile.
“I’ve never felt that hungry before.”
It would’ve been funny, had the situation been different. If he didn’t have knowledge and questions swirling in his head. If he knew who or what Zhou Mi was, and why he was there, and why they were tied together.
“Funny that you say that. You realize that what happened between us in the woods wasn’t supposed to have,” Kyuhyun said, and waited for Zhou Mi’s acknowledgement of the fact. “I hungered for you in a way I haven’t in a hundred years.”
“You told me. That you were were hungry.”
And there was something in Zhou Mi’s voice, something different than the man who’d bared his teeth and fought. A man who, despite his current state, would not have been out of place with a fork in his hand at a fancy restaurant. Kyuhyun might not have been human, but he wasn’t blind.
“I was told by the elder that you would tell me about your family. About you. That it would make me understand what happened today.”
“About my family?” Zhou Mi frowned. “I thought only my father knew.”
“There is nothing the elders don’t know,” Kyuhyun said, feeling inexplicable tired.
The silence panted between them like a dog. Before Zhou Mi met his eyes. And the secret he shared, sent prickles over Kyuhyun’s skin.
“My mother was a vampire.”
The halfling child.
“How is that possible?”
Zhou Mi sat up a little, the covers falling down his chest. “I don’t know. My father wasn’t interested in divulging that information. But my grandmother never stopped telling me.”
“And your mother, she’s…?”
“I don’t know who my mother is, or where she is. And I have no one to ask, because all of my family is dead. All I have are papers and heirlooms. I have no one to pass that onto. Unless I choose to marry, I will be the last Zhou hunter.”
Marriage. Of course. To share what they had shared in the woods, with a third-
He wondered that the thought occurred to him, that he would have fought to protect that. Killed for it.
Instead, he spun a tale. To Zhou Mi’s curious face. Of vampires and hunters in a perilous balance. Those that were attuned to each other, that fought side by side, when others would have scorned it. That it was the fight, the bite, that brought them together. That the ritual end of an initiation proved something more. Trust. Partnership.
“Did you notice the trees, where I bit you?”
“I didn’t notice the fact that I had feet, at that point. No. Why?”
“I’ll take you back there. So you can see.” And Kyuhyun wondered, if the trees would draw them in again, or if their duty had already been done. “But the elder says it was no accident that you went to that place. You were drawn there, as was I. To seal our bargain in the sacred grove.”
“A bargain we didn’t know we were completing?”
Kyuhyun smirked. “I think we know which part of it we completed.”
Zhou Mi’s face tilted in a awkward smile, staring down at the blanket for a moment before glancing up. And the question he asked, was one Kyuhyun had considered himself.
“Then is this something we were fated for? What if you hadn’t been the one to give the bite?”
“I don’t know. There are a lot of what-ifs that don’t end up with us here, but here we are.” And at least Zhou Mi wasn’t refusing the thought outright. He hadn’t been alone in that grove, feeling that pull. Zhou Mi had been the one taking his kiss. “You would accept this?”
“I don’t know. It is different than anything I had ever heard or expected of myself as a hunter.” Zhou Mi blew out a breath, shrugging in a way that was almost cute. “But there are things neither of us understands. Like you not knowing about my mother.”
“So because of your mother, then… Are you a vampire?”
“No, I am human,” Zhou Mi corrected. “I eat food. I walk in sunlight. My blood is normal. But I… I can only be killed the same ways a vampire can.”
Kyuhyun tried to wrap his head around that. Zhou Mi couldn’t be killed. But he had been hurt.
“You were scraped, bruised.”
But as Zhou Mi held out his hands, the scratches and marks were gone. The bite marks on Zhou Mi’s neck, gone. And he had nothing to say, mouth gaping. It was as though they hadn’t fought.
“I was hit by a car when I was seven years old.” Zhou Mi’s lips curved, but the smile wasn’t happy. “The driver was hurt more than I was.”
“Then you will be able to protect yourself, when I can’t be there to help protect you. You’ll… Do you age?”
“I am forty years old. It took a while for me to be convinced that this was the right path for me. If I’m aging, it’s slow.”
“I’d never heard of… I never knew. I can’t believe that’s even possible. I bit you.”
“Since I can be injured, my body would not have rejected the bite.”
It was so strange to consider. Human, but not. A hunter. Vampire, but not. He could be taught to fight, even more advanced than what he knew already. Kyuhyun could teach him. Kyuhyun could feed from him. They would need no other. And the weight of what had happened in the woods began to dawn on him. They matched. They fit. A perfect circle of interlocking puzzles. A hunger and its satisfaction.
He stood, moving to sit on the edge of the bed beside Zhou Mi. Lifting Zhou Mi’s hand and fitting it to his own. Hands not quite the same. But capable. Zhou Mi used it, to pull him closer, and they considered each other. Two men who had no reason to trust, and a tenuous connection. But he didn’t have to ask if Zhou Mi trusted him. The dark eyes were considering in a way he was not used to, taking in Kyuhyun’s features, and perhaps even his thoughts. And when he considered Zhou Mi, he saw a face he could spend more than any human’s lifetime looking at.
He stared at Zhou Mi’s nose, unable to keep his eyes raised when he was filled with so much irrational certainty. There was no way it could be wrong. “You can feed me, but I can’t kill you. We are matched.”
Zhou Mi’s mouth touched his. Clung to his as they leaned together. Testing. But it was the same as it had been before, and the touch was hunger itself. “If what you are saying is true, I could be more than that for you.”
If one of them had to be certain at that moment, it was him. And Kyuhyun smirked.
“You will be.”
***