Last Breath - Part 24
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Onew rushed into the coffee shop, and Minho stared after him worriedly. Worried that, in fact, he was about to feel that familiar energizing feeling - to feel strengthened by someone's death. He shuddered, and his arms crossed over his chest under the warm blanket his mom had given him.
It felt like such a long time. He did feel it. He got warm, almost hot, and it seemed for a moment like his head was clear - like he wasn't even sick. Then it was over, and very shortly after, Onew was returning to the car - a cup in hand.
He climbed in, holding the cup out to Minho. "It's hot chocolate."
Minho nodded, reaching from under his blanket to take hold of the warm cup and lift it to his lips.
"The human didn't die." Onew told him.
Minho's mouth, parted for a sip of the hot chocolate, froze open. He stared at Onew with wide, surprised eyes. Onew was already driving again by the time he found it in him to finally ask, "Really?"
"Turns out making them unconscious works pretty well." Onew said with a sigh, and then scowled. "Boring, though."
Minho slowly nodded, and took a sip of his drink. It was good, but he didn't pay much mind to the taste. "Thank you."
"It was nothing," Onew said, "It distracted him to make it, you know.."
Minho smiled, and wasn't even sure if Onew really thought the hot chocolate was what he was thanking him for.
"Did you call Key?"
"Not yet." Onew said, and reached into his pocket. "How about now?"
He retrieved a cellphone, and swiftly passed it off to Minho. "You hold it, put it on speaker. So I can drive."
Minho dialed the number as Onew recited it, with a small mutter that "he hoped that was still it", and turned speaker phone on, holding the phone in the center of the car. "Do you know what you're going to say?" he asked Onew as they listened to ringing.
"No." Onew answered, just before the ringing ended and Key's voice spoke up, "Who's this?"
"I know why Jonghyun has human memories." Onew said in a taunting tone that made Minho glare at him. There was a pause before Key's familiar laugh came over the speaker, and he said, "And you're telling me because.. ?"
"Someone seems to think you and your sire are in trouble over him, so I thought you might want to know whether or not it had anything to do with you. It doesn't, by the way. If you want me to tell The Council that, I will, but you have to give me what I want first."
"Because you're so trustworthy?" Key asked, "I'm not interested in relying on you to help me, but thanks for the information. I'll be happy to report this phone call to The Council for you."
"On second thought," Onew said, "I'll go over your head with this one. Do you know a number for The Council, or should I look it up?"
"Ugh. Fine. What do you want?"
"Lee Taemin."
"Oh, Onew. You really are something. A hunter.. you want to save a hunter. That time that you abandoned him, I thought you were, at least, still a vampire.."
"What is he talking about?" Minho was quick to ask.
".. Hi Minho!" Key said cheerfully.
"I don't know what he's talking about." Onew said.
"Before I helped you save Minho from Siwon, when you talked about how you could save Taemin if you wanted to but you wouldn't if I just helped you like a good boy. You remember that?"
"Onew.." Minho said in a breath, not even sure where to start..
"I was going to go back for him." Onew quickly said, "The hunter said that he was safe already. I needed to get to you, you were in much more danger."
"If I remember correctly, we had just finished having sex in the bed with him, and eating blood off of him.. something like that.."
While Minho looked like the information had slapped him across the face, Onew growled at the phone, "I can call The Council instead, Key."
Key laughed, "You might have to. Lee Taemin and his hunter friends are my mission, and now that he's in my possession, he's in The Council's. I can't give him up for information you may or may not have."
"Is he okay?" Minho asked in a broken, worried voice.
"He's been unconscious for a suspiciously long time, but if it's any consolation, at least we're not fucking next to him yet."
Onew snatched the phone from Minho, clicking the 'end' button and throwing the phone angrily at the dashboard. "He won't help us."
"You really left him?" Minho asked, looking at Onew. "You tried to hide it from me?"
Onew pulled the car onto the side of the road, putting it in park before he turned fully to Minho. "I'm risking you and myself to save him now. I already told you, when I didn't have you, I could hardly think."
"But you told Key--"
"I told him what I could." Onew growled again, beating a fist on the steering wheel. "Dammit, Minho!! I'm a vampire!!"
"I know." Minho said, frowning, "And I'll never understand you, and all of that." he shook his head, "But you can't.. be like that, you just can't."
"I didn't kill the coffee shop boy, and I'm saving Taemin. I'm changing. For you, I'm changing, but certain things about me, you're going to have to live with. Like the fact that I will sacrifice anything to protect you, because you're all I have."
When he said the words, his nose wrinkled, because he immediately regretted them. His eyes teared, because they were true, as embarrassing as they were. He looked away from Minho, but he couldn't shake the discomfort that he felt from him.
"That's why I bonded with you after all." Onew said, voice flat. "Because I didn't have anything else."
"It's okay, Onew." Minho said, and he took a long sip of his hot chocolate.
Onew looked at him again, but now Minho was the one avoiding eye contact.
"You're trying. I can feel it. If you.. try hard enough, you'll change. I believe you'll change."
For a while, they just sat there like that, the car on the side of the road. Then, Onew said, "Key probably liked that too much." as he glared at the phone, which was in fact in two pieces - one piece between the seats and another at Minho's feet.
"We should have had a plan." Minho said solemnly.
"It's fine." Onew said. "Now we just have to call The Council instead. They'll think that a vampire with human memories is more important than a hunter anyway."
"Maybe they'll just say they'll make you give them the information and keep Taemin anyway."
"I'm the most elusive vampire they've ever dealt with." Onew said with a shrug, "They're not going to make me give them anything."
"We should be sucking up to them," Minho muttered, "Not making them mad by... trying to save a hunter."
Onew finally sighed, pulling back onto the road. The two rode in silent thought, Minho continuing to sip at his hot chocolate.
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