baekyeol; I'm ready for the fall (ready for the colors to burn to gold and crumble away) [4/6]

[aprilclash]

I'm ready for the fall (ready for the colors to burn to gold and crumble away)

Maybe I’m broken
Maybe I’m wrong
I could’ve spoken sooner than I should have
Only the good die old
That’s what they told me
But I don’t know
The Fall - Imagine Dragons

chanyeol

Chanyeol almost likes Baekhyun when he's sleeping, all lax, sprawled limbs and slightly parted lips waiting to be kissed. He's handsome, Chanyeol begrudgingly admits. He's perfect. He's still a vampire, but somehow he feels more human when he's like this, defenseless, unable to hide behind a mask, unable to flash his eyes red and gold and play his monster magic. Like this, Baekhyun looks just like a normal boy who's had a rough couple of days - a rough couple of decades maybe, in his case.

Chanyeol's fingers follow the chiseled lines of Baekhyun's nose, mouth, his jaw, they go from his chin to his temple and move the silky hair out of his forehead. It's like touching a marble statue, an Italian Baroque masterpiece torn out from stone with such a perfect craft it would almost fool you into believing it was real. It's not. No matter how detailed it is, how realistic, how painstakingly human it looks, it's still stone.

A muffled chatter jolts him out of his reverie. He curses under his breath and his hand falls from Baekhyun's face to his side. He marches to the door and slams it closed on the face of a flock of young trainees, Seungwan included. Chanyeol knows the kid will hold a grudge against him forever - Seungwan already hates him for having gone to meet Junmyeon, “Lord Kim Junmyeon, Chanyeol!” without her, “He's like a celebrity! How could you? I trusted you!”

Right now, he doesn't really care whether Seungwan is angry or not. Baekhyun's reaction when he wakes up and he finds out that the entire police station saw Chanyeol carrying him around while he was unconscious like a sack of potatoes, that will be a remarkable problem. Chanyeol doesn't want to give him more reasons to complain. Keeping everyone's curious nose outside the room where a four centuries years old vampire and his barely-over-a-century baby brother are resting is the only damage control he can do right now.

His phone buzzes with the notification of an incoming message from an unknown number.

My brother is alive.

There is no question but Chanyeol can still feel it, heaving on the four words of Junmyeon's message.

They are alive as well. No trace of the killer.

He puts the phone on the table and sits on the bed next to Baekhyun, pulling at his hair in desperation. His eyes slide on the supine form of the vampire, finally falling on the burn marks on his knuckles. They haven't healed yet. Chanyeol wonders what caused them. He wonders why Baekhyun was in the middle of the woods, waiting for dawn to incinerate him like a man who had already lost when Chanyeol had arrived.

Baekhyun's eyelashes flutter, for a moment, following the curve of a confused dream, but he doesn't wake up. Normally a vampire as old as him would've been able to stay awake through dawn and the first hours of the morning before yielding to the power of the sun and falling asleep, but the two months spent sleeping and trying to forget Chanyeol have weakened Baekhyun.

Weak and reckless, what were you trying to do?

Chanyeol hadn't been expecting Jongdae's call - at four, maybe five in the morning. He only remembers the dull ringtone breaking through his dreams - of claws and fangs, of gold like dawn and red like blood - and Jongdae's panicked voice, asking for help.

“The killer hit again. He kidnapped my brother, Sehun, and now Baekhyun is after them but in his actual conditions he's more likely to get himself killed than to save Sehunnie.”

Chanyeol had run, madly, foot on the gas pedal and hands tight on the wheel. He had picked up Jongdae halfway, the other boy skittishly looking at the direction where the sun was soon to rise, hastily giving Chanyeol indications on where to go and updates on the attack. Chanyeol only half listened as the other boy told him how Junmyeon's brother had been attacked in his own house, how he had almost died choking on his own blood - ah, the irony - and how is young lover, Sehun, had been dragged away. How Baekhyun had run after them. At the edge of the woods, he had braked and told Jongdae to get off. “You can't come with me. The sun...”

“These are my brothers we're talking about! I'm not going home to rest like a good child while they burn to death!”

“But if something really happens to them and you die, Kyungsoo will be alone. He's your brother too, right?”

Jongdae had cursed the name of God and burnt his tongue as he did it, but he had seen the logic in Chanyeol's words. “You have to find them before dawn! Find my brothers Chanyeol, and bring them somewhere safe, please!”

It had always been difficult to say no to Jongdae, but Chanyeol never felt tricked or charmed when he talked with him. Jongdae had never tried to use any strange power against Chanyeol. He was just… gentle, strangely nice, funny sometimes. And Chanyeol didn't like his brothers, nor Sehun and certainly not Baekhyun, the source of all his actual problems, but he owed this to Jongdae.

So he had run through the forest, almost destroying the car in the process. He had found them, first Sehun, tied to a tree with a silver chain, and then Baekhyun. He had saved them, on the brink of dawn. And when, once they had reached the relative safety of the underground parking lot of the police station, he had pulled Baekhyun out of the trunk, dead tired and covered in burn marks, Baekhyun had opened his eyes and thanked him. He had also tried to say something else, but he had collapsed first. In Chanyeol's arms. And Chanyeol had felt... He doesn't know what he had felt, but it wasn't unpleasant.

Chanyeol's cellphone vibrates again, with another message.

Keep them safe.

It could've been Jongdae, or Kyungsoo, or Junmyeon, or maybe even his creepy brother Minseok that Chanyeol wasn't eager to meet, at least according to the rumors about him.

They are safe now. He wants to scream it, that he won't allow anyone to touch these two bloodsuckers. Now that the danger has passed, Sehun looks fine. Blank-faced, comfortable, still as a statue, the perfect prototype of a sleeping vampire.

But Baekhyun, ah, Baekhyun trembles and jitters, looking conflicted and haunted and so vulnerable that Chanyeol's first instinct would be to cradle him in his arms and protect him.

Stone, he's a stone. Remember Chanyeol, he's like a work of art. No matter who did make it, no matter how accurate and perfect it looks - as if it's been made for Chanyeol, for him to dig his fingers in it, for him to understand, to fight or protect this vampire - Baekhyun is like art. Baekhyun is fake. Monster.

But it's difficult to focus on the image Chanyeol has of vampires, of blood and fangs, white skin and alluring eyes, the things he sees in his nightmare, when Baekhyun yawns and turns on his side and hides his face against the pillow and Chanyeol has to bite his lips to stop himself from cooing at him.

A polite knock interrupts his brooding and before he can answer Jin-ah's smiley face lighten up the room with her presence and the smell of coffee.

“I was informed today we have quite the guests... Isn't he the one who almost got you jailed for sexual offence?” Her eyes sparkle with amusement. “Now I know way you did it, I would risk my career too for a chance with someone like him.”

“Boss, your opinion is as useful as it is wanted. Why are you here?”

“To ask you why are they here, of course!”

He lowers his voice, speaking in hushed tones. “Because they saw our killer, both of them. There was another attack tonight, but the other victim of the assault is not likely to cooperate with us.”

“Who...?”

“Kim Junmyeon's true blood brother.”

She pales. There have always been bad rumors about Kim Minseok. Junmyeon is a politician, a natural charmer, an easy smile even with his fangs in good sight. But Kim Minseok is a flash in the night, a well known menace. During the Blood War he had exterminated alone an entire city that had tried to take him down. Chanyeol suspects one of the main reasons Junmyeon became what he is today was to be able to cover his brother's bloody traces.

“I don't know if I'm more scared by the idea of meeting and questioning him or by the fact that there's someone out there able to take Kim Minseok down.”

“Be scared that he survived. He almost lost his head and his young lover. He must be furious.” The mere idea makes her shiver.

“Let's hope those two can tell us something interesting when they wake up.”

“Let's hope Byun Baekhyun collaborates with you, you mean.”

“I saved his sorry ass last night. He owes me an explanation, at least.” Jin-ah looks skeptical, but doesn’t comment.

“By the way, you should go. It's not safe for you to stay here. What if these two wake up hungry and they decide they want a piece of my beautiful boss?”

Jin-ah pouts. “Flattery won't lead you anywhere, Park!” But she is flattered and she finally decides to leave, handing Chanyeol the cup of coffee.

He drinks it slowly, looking at Baekhyun's face. Four hundred years is such a long time to look so pretty. It's unnatural. It's unnerving. It's so sad.

Jongdae had told him that an entire lifetime wouldn't have been enough for Chanyeol to understand how deeply he had hurt Baekhyun. Chanyeol still doesn't understand, but he's slowly started to put all the pieces together.

He picks a copy of Baekhyun's file from his bag and starts browsing through it lazily. He feels a pang of guilt when he remembers how he had tricked the guardian of the archive into letting him take a copy of the dossier, but it's easily suffocated as soon as his eyes meet the first words scribbled on the page more than fifty years ago.

Baekhyun is, so far, the most interesting and unusual vampire Chanyeol has ever met. He's also the oldest. He was turned more than four hundred years ago, according to the data on his file, but there aren't any proofs of that other than his own word, because Baekhyun comes from a time when vampires were a legend, a mystery that unfolded in the night and faded at the first sign of daylight. There were no census books for them at that time - the first was only compiled after the Blood War - so there aren't any detailed data about the vampire population back then. Baekhyun himself has chosen to reveal nothing more than his age when his data was collected, fifty years ago, so Chanyeol has no idea of where he was born, how he was turned, or the name of his sire.

He keeps reading. There have been some sightings of Baekhyun, during the Blood War obviously, when more or less all the vampires of the country had been forced out of their hideouts to fight a war against people who wanted them dead, for the last time.

There is almost nothing more. For having lived such a long life, Baekhyun's dossier in inexplicably thin. No crimes, minor or major. No sightings. No reports of police officers questioning the reason he was hovering awkwardly out of a club in the middle of the night, except one for last Halloween.

Chanyeol has already read Sehun's dossier and the kid, unlike his brother, lives quite the dangerous life and has been stopped by the night patrol at least twenty times only during the last year. Chanyeol easily recognized his own handwriting in some of the reports in Sehun's dossiers.

Sehun dances in a crew, has worked at least six part-time jobs - he used to work the night shift at Burger King six years ago - has had at least fifteen different girlfriends and he's currently in a relationship with Kim Minseok, but he's never been in trouble with the law. He just lives a lively life.

Baekhyun though, there's nothing about him. Four hundred years of nothing. Jongdae and Sehun, even Kyungsoo, they have friends, relationships, they have a life. Chanyeol wonders, and a heavy feeling settles in his gut as he does so, what Baekhyun does all the time, while his brothers are out living their lives. He can imagine him, wandering aimlessly through countless rooms, his feet so light he doesn't even leave footsteps on the dusty floors. He remembers how Baekhyun had looked, slightly uncomfortable under the strobe lights of the club, the way he had relaxed almost immediately when Chanyeol had taken the burden of making conversation from his shoulders.

He never goes out and he doesn't talk to anyone but his brothers... He wasn't trying to Charm me, he simply didn't know what to say.

Chanyeol can't really understand, but he can imagine why Kyungsoo and Jongdae would want to protect their older brother, who's stronger than both of them put together but lives only one day in one year. And this year, in that only day of freedom he allows himself to take, he has met Chanyeol - Chanyeol, who was supposed to be nothing more than one night stand, but he denied Baekhyun even the comfort of finding a faceless stranger to fuck before he could come back to the mausoleum that is his prison. Chanyeol, who deceived him and used Baekhyun's loneliness against him. But Chanyeol didn't know, how could he have known? Chanyeol didn't know of the abyss of solitude that four hundred years of betrayal have dug in Baekhyun's eyes.

Chanyeol couldn't have known.

Maybe I’m breaking up with myself
Maybe I’m thinking
I should just keep to the things that I’ve been told
Wait for the colors to turn to gold
The Fall - Imagine Dragons

Baekhyun's face looks alien under the cold, blue light of the police station. He gives Chanyeol a challenging look from above the receiver of the wall telephone before turning towards the wall as he explains the situation to Jongdae.

A few hurried words and the boy finally hangs up on his brother and turns to stare at Chanyeol. A black car has already come to pick up Sehun and bring him back to Minseok's mansion, to his lover's house. Chanyeol had to accept Junmyeon's quick apologies for taking such an important witness away with him, but he doesn't care. Sehun didn't remember anything about his kidnapper. He couldn't have been of any help, but there's always his brother. With Kim Minseok refusing to cooperate, Baekhyun is the only one who can help him.

“Sit down,” orders Chanyeol, when the vampire joins him. Baekhyun wordlessly complies and sets his Styrofoam cup of blood on the table. His face is neutral, not his usual shade of 'I'll find a way to annoy you and I’ll use it until you stab me to death with a silver knife'. Chanyeol starts harboring the hope that everything will go well. “So, tell me about this killer of yours.”

Baekhyun noisily slurps a bit of blood from the straw, making sure to dirty the corner of his mouth so that he can lick the runaway droplets clean with his tongue. That tiny hope Chanyeol was harboring disappears quietly.

“Don't I need a lawyer?”

“You would have to hire a new one, since I faintly recall that yours is laying in pieces in the basement.” A muscle jumps in Baekhyun's cheek. “And anyway, lawyers are for official boring things like interrogatories. I'm not interrogating you.”

Baekhyun's eyebrow shots upwards and he graces Chanyeol with a sardonic little smile. “If this is not an official business then I must ask you to show me the exit. Thank you again Park, you really saved me this morning.”

“I didn't give you permission to go, Byun. If you want me to bring you a warrant, I can get one. Do you want to talk about your life in front of a camera and let us keep the recordings? Because I can totally do that. Or, if you're not comfortable with sharing details of your personal life with me and the rest of the department, you could always choose to lie, and finally give me a reason to drag you in jail for not cooperating.”

“Why do you think this killer has something to do with my past?”

“Because Jongdae thinks so. He told me yesterday, while we drove all around the city, hoping to catch you before you and your brother could become vampire barbecue.”

Baekhyun bristles with annoyance and sucks more blood, making sure to produce big slurping noises. Apparently, annoying Chanyeol keeps his own irritation at bay.

“The letter, the one you found, with my sign... Do you have it?”

Chanyeol passes him a plastic envelope containing a crumpled piece of paper. Baekhyun's face break in a frown as he looks at words, at the elegantly handwritten B. He lowers his eyes, closes them for a moment, chasing a memory or a regret.

“Is that your handwriting?”

Baekhyun opens his eyes and focuses them on Chanyeol. “It is indeed my handwriting, but I'm surprised you didn't ask yourself some questions when you saw this paper, since it is one hundred years old.”

“What do you mean?”

Chanyeol extends his hand, silently demanding the envelope again. Now that he can look at it again, it does look kind of old. The paper has taken a yellow hue, its curled edges look fragile and worn out.

“One hundred years old, you say?”

“Yes. I remember this paper. I wrote it. A long time ago.”

“How is it possible-”

“You were right, from the beginning. The letter was the decisive hint, the key for the solution of this case. It was a message and a bait at the same time.”

“You have to tell me everything.”

Baekhyun hesitates on the edge of a decision, but Chanyeol catches him before he can jump on the other side of the fence and run away with the truth. “You almost died yesterday. Your brother almost died. Some of your friends are already dead. Tell me what you know, we can help you.”

“You can't help me.”

“I saved your life yesterday. I can help you.”

He looks into Baekhyun's eyes, well aware that it's almost like opening the door of his mind to the powers of the vampire. Baekhyun would easily be able to Charm him now and Chanyeol wouldn't be able to stop him. No one would, except maybe Baekhyun's sire. It's dangerous, but someone has to compromise, someone has to surrender, someone has to give, and Baekhyun is too cold, too hard, too unbreakable and unmovable, to do it himself.

Baekhyun's eyes are dark, but Chanyeol has seen them glowing white with power, he has seen them glowing red with hunger. For a moment, Baekhyun's irises glow gold, the same color as Sehun, before he turns his head to the wall, refusing to meet Chanyeol's eyes again, and Chanyeol knows he has won.

“I had a girlfriend once. I had more than one... relationship in the past, and they all ended in heartbreak, but this one went spectacularly wrong. We tried to get married.”

“Oh.” Chanyeol doesn't really know what to answer. He's never really thought about marriage. His last relationship had been in college, and excluding that brief, unremarkable crush on Jongin that lasted less than two months, he hasn't been interested in someone since then. He used to fuck a lot, sometimes with vampires - the old trick of sleeping with them and then arresting them that almost got him fired after he tried it with Baekhyun - but they never meant anything to him. In fact, he actually hated them. “Did you marry her in the end?”

Baekhyun's face goes completely still. In some ways, it looks exactly like what Chanyeol's mom does when she's upset, when she's hurt - when Chanyeol has hurt her - when she's overwhelmed. Chanyeol has always believed the blank look came from vampires' inability to feel proper emotions, but right now, seeing the haunted look that flashed in Baekhyun's eyes, barely there, lurking from the deepness of his eyes, he begins to understand it's more like a shield. They're not protecting themselves, they're protecting everyone else from the power of their own raw emotions. Too many emotions, too much emotion.

“I didn't marry her. She... tried to kill me.”

“Oh.” Now Chanyeol really doesn't know what to say.

“We were together for two years. It was her longest mission, she said. She was a hunter, you know, from the Fil Rouge, Of course you don't know what the Fil Rouge is-”

“I know,” he says, because Baekhyun's voice is growing tight and high, just about to break and Chanyeol doesn't want to hear that. “Vampire hunters. The best vampire hunter army in the world, at least until the Blood War.”

“They were completely wiped away afterwards. It was the price humanity had to pay for a peace with us. The Fil Rouge had started the war, and the Fil Rouge put an end to it, when what was left of the corporation was dissolved. It wasn't much, I made sure of it.”

Chanyeol ignores the red glint in Baekhyun's eyes.

“Your girlfriend was part of them?”

“My girlfriend was the reason the Blood War started, actually.” His voice is steady, but his eyes are lost. “She didn't even want me. She was after my sire, for some… reasons.” He looks reluctant to talk about it. “But my sire was too powerful back then, too dangerous. She would've never fooled him, but me? Oh, I was an easy target for her. She was... a really good actress. And she was persistent, resolute, loyal to a fault to her cause. Seulgi really believed vampires had no soul, no feelings, no humanity left in them.”

He looks at Chanyeol, briefly. I know you think the same.

“We were together for two years and I loved her, I loved her so much, and not for an instance she believed that the feelings I felt for them were real, that I was able to feel anything at all. But she stayed with me nevertheless, she played me, she fooled me, and she almost married me.”

Chanyeol almost bites his tongue, Jongdae's voice echoing in his head with a hint of derision and a hint of pity - not for Chanyeol, but for Baekhyun. You just don't get it, Park Chanyeol. I could try to explain it to you, but it would take a long time and your life isn't nearly long enough.

He remembers Halloween night and Baekhyun's face, pale and tight, rage coiled around his jaw, curling on his tense neck like a deathly hold, ready to cut the oxygen from his lungs. But vampires don't need to breathe, there's no pain in holding their breath until black dots are taking over the world, there's no break from the intensity of their feelings. Baekhyun's voice hadn't shaken while he told Chanyeol that he would've emptied the family vault to make sure he could never work in the police again. He had stood, naked and arrogant and flawless like an effigy of revenge, perfect in his outraged beauty, skin white like marble and just as cold. Baekhyun hadn't shaken then, but he had shaken later, when he had come home to realize that, again, he had let someone else seduce him and betray him. Baekhyun had probably shaken until his soul was so broken he couldn't bear to be alive in a world where being with him was nothing more than a ruse, a play to gain something else. And Chanyeol had been the cruel player, betting on someone else's heart.

Baekhyun doesn't realize his turmoil. He keep talking, stuck in the chariot of time, remembering events happened one hundred years ago, before the Blood War.

“It wouldn't have been a real wedding - of course, since I can't set foot in any church. I didn't even want to do it, but she had insisted and I had complied, like a fool. Only later I realized she just hoped to lure my sire to the wedding and kill him there. But he couldn't come. Sehun had just been Turned. He had no memories of his past and... it wasn't safe to leave him alone. Not yet.”

Young vampires, barely able to contain themselves in front of living people, always thirsty for blood, stronger and faster and naive like children. No wonder Baekhyun's sire didn't want to leave Sehun behind. Things were pretty tense back then. People had always been aware of the existence of vampires, but the beginning of the century, the industrial revolution, the sharpening of old fears made darker and bigger under the bright light of science, had stirred the population to a mad frenzy. Groups like the Hunters of the Fil Rouge had grown stronger and stronger. Chanyeol has studied it, wishing it was there, fighting against vampires. Now, he can't bear to look at Baekhyun's face, afraid to see an old pain staining his perfect features.

“When she saw that her true target hadn't come, Seulgi tried to kill me. I fought back. She died.” He says the last part staring at Chanyeol, almost daring him to say something about vampires being murderers, but Chanyeol doesn't take the bait.

“What about the Blood War?”

“Apparently, her people were upset that one of their best hunters had died. They retaliated by attacking a very big and powerful nest and things spiraled out of control after that. I don't really know, because I wasn't even awake back then. After what happened with Seulgi, I went on hiatus for a couple of years and when I woke up the war had almost finished.”

Chanyeol feels guilty again. It looks so similar to what happened with him, but on a much larger scale, that it's not surprising Baekhyun reacted in the same way. Sleeping, running away from reality. Chanyeol has had this kind of power on him, the power to make someone despise his life. It is a terrible power and he does not want it.

“I used to write her letters. She lived with her aunt - it was just a cover story of course - and I'd send her these little messages containing only a date and a time when I wanted to meet her. This one was written exactly one hundred years and thirteen days ago. That night we decided to get married, for what was worth it. Thirteen days ago would've been the one hundredth anniversary of our engagement. Funny, isn't it?”

“Endearing. That's why you say it was a message to you.”

“Yes. You didn't show me the letter when you came to my house and almost got yourself killed-”

“I almost got myself killed? You almost got myself killed!”

“Sehun almost got yourself killed but that's not the point. The point is that if you had brought this with you at that time I would've immediately understood that something was wrong and maybe yesterday I wouldn't have walked right into a trap.”

“Can you stop being insufferable for a moment and help me understand why our killer had a one hundred years old note that you supposedly gave to your dead girlfriend a lot of time ago?”

“Because my girlfriend didn't die in the fire. She's alive - well, more like she is not dead. I don't know if vampires can really be considered alive.”

“You told me you killed her! And wouldn't she be an old granny night?”

“I killed her. But I didn't only do that. According to what she said last night, I've also turned her into one of us. Seulgi is the killer. And I'm her sire.”

Chanyeol opens his mouth. He closes it. He opens it again.

“Leave your congratulations for later, I won't be a good sire. I won't even have time to learn how to become a good sire, because she will kill me first. She orchestrated everything, she left little crumbles that would've eventually lead me to her and when I was too slow to get the hint she attacked and almost killed one of my friends and she kidnapped my brother. She waited until she had me right where she wanted me and I only escaped certain death because you helped me. This is no rushed plan, she's carefully thought about this for the last century Chanyeol.”

“Are you telling me that a recently turned little girl alone was able to kill one of the most powerful lady vampires of the city?”

“Seulgi was also a hunter. She knows secrets, long lost techniques, she has an experience in finding and killing vampires that you'll never ever have. And now she's strong, fast and virtually undefeatable. She's dangerous, and I was only the beginning, She wants to wipe away all the vampires and I'm the only one who can find her and stop her.”

Of course, if Baekhyun has turned her, that means he's her sire. He has power over her. She fears that power.

“We have to find her before she kills someone else,” he says. Baekhyun shakes his head. “Or before Kim Minseok heals enough to get out and look for her, just in time to be beheaded for real this time. My brother would never forgive me if I'd let my ex-girlfriend gut his boyfriend.”

Baekhyun sits on Chanyeol's desk, swinging his legs back and forth as he lazily scans the documents and nods smugly. He nods to acknowledge Chanyeol's return, but doesn't stop reading the report and snickering to himself.

“Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Noise complaints, car thefts and defamation?”

Chanyeol snatches the papers from his hand, frowning. “Yes, thanks to you. Stop with the smug face and follow me.”

“Where are we going? I thought you were done with the interrogation part.”

“No more interrogations.” Chanyeol has dig into Baekhyun's past way too much for a single day. He hesitates. Baekhyun won't like his next words. “I've explained the situation to the higher ups. We all agreed that the situation is worse than we originally thought. The patience of the Undead living in this city is growing thin. They don't feel safe anymore, especially after Kim Minseok was almost gutted inside his own house.”

“I'm sure you'll be able to save the day. Unless I find her first.”

“You can't.”

“Excuse me?”

Fast and painless, or at least that’s what Chanyeol hopes to be. He has a feeling that Baekhyun won’t like what Chanyeol has to say.

“You can't go out and look for her.” He prepares for the worst but Baekhyun simply swings his legs faster and asks, with a sardonic smile, “And how do you plan on stopping me?”

“I've been told to stay with you all the time. Here's my warrant.”

Only now Baekhyun's amused smile twist in an angry snarl. “You can't do this.”

“I don't want to do this, trust me. Everyone will be out there looking for the serial killer of the century and I'm stuck with babysitting you, how unfair is that?”

Baekhyun keeps staring at him, his mouth hanging open and the tip of his fangs peeking shyly from the faded pink of his lips. “I still think you can't do this.”

“I've asked them too if this is legitimate, but apparently it is. Kang Seulgi has been listed as a Level 2 Threat, the only thing worse than her would be a second Blood War, which will most likely happen if she keeps convincing the vampires we can't keep them safe. She's the biggest threat our city has faced in the last century. She's killed five vampires and easily incapacitated other three, including you, we have no idea where she is or how to find her. You're the only one who still has power over her. You're our only clue, because she will come looking for you. We can't leave you alone. It's imperative that you don't die.”

Baekhyun pushes him back and only then Chanyeol realizes how close he is, invading Baekhyun's personal space, towering over him.

“You can't tell me what to do!”

“She's almost killed you once, do you really think she wouldn't find another way to trap you into a dead end? If she's half of the fighter you made her, she will kill you.”

“I'm her sire, I will kill her first!”

Baekhyun is stubborn, prideful and angry. Not a good combination. He’s not someone who can be trusted out there. The irony of the last thought is not lost on Chanyeol, because less than two months ago he wouldn’t have trusted Baekhyun out there either, but for completely different reasons.

“You're not a fighter, Baekhyun.”

“All vampires are fighters, we're natural predators.”

“But you don't like to fight. You don't know how to fight. You're a clever little thing, but your strength doesn't lie in brute force, am I right?”

He leans down, puts his hands on the wooden desk at Baekhyun's sides, trapping him there. Baekhyun doesn't watch away this time. Their eyes meet, and Baekhyun's flash red. Chanyeol feels a pull at his conscience, Baekhyun's power scratching the surface of his will. It's a silent threat - don't underestimate me human, I can bend your mind and make you mine, you would be my puppet, my doll and my slave and there's nothing you can do to stop it - Baekhyun wants him to run away from his gaze, from his powers, from him. Baekhyun wants to make him run because that would make Chanyeol the prey and Baekhyun the predator. But Chanyeol does not like being the prey. He feels Baekhyun's powers flicker and grow, but he holds the gaze, accepts the challenge... and Baekhyun is the one who runs away. He closes his eyes and lowers his head. Chanyeol has won again.

“You've never used your powers against anyone, have you?”

There is no answer, but Chanyeol wasn't looking for one. There is an entire realm of frightening possibilities - he has felt Baekhyun's power, he's seen the tip of the iceberg and he knows that Baekhyun is strong, so strong it's terrifying, four hundred years of repressed hunger chained at the bottom of his eyes - but Baekhyun doesn't want to use it against Chanyeol. He doesn't want to use it against anyone.

“I can fight,” says Baekhyun in the end, and if he could, Chanyeol is sure that now he would blush madly. “But I'm not good at it. Vampires rely on instinct, but I don't like to relinquish control and let instinct take over. It never ends well for me. Listening to the bloodlust almost got me killed yesterday night.”

“So you have terrible fighting instincts and you can't even Charm humans properly, how did you even survive all these years?”

“Barely.”

“You're the oldest vampire in the prefecture!”

“Thanks to Seulgi I've slept through most of the Blood War or I would've been staked in less than a week.” The way he says it, so nonchalant and chill, makes Chanyeol so angry.

“And you want me to let you go out to fight a psychotic vampire hunter who's already tried to kill you before, hates you more than anything else in the world and has thought about killing you for more than a century?”

“Why would you care if I die? I'm just another vampire.”

The answer gets caught in Chanyeol's throat. He finally understands why Jongdae and Kyungsoo are so protective of their brother. Baekhyun is so stupid. If left to his own devices, he would probably die on his own and he wouldn't even care.

“I'm just doing my job,” tries to reason Chanyeol. “If it was for me, you wouldn't even have a job anymore.” Annoying, so annoying, and childish. “You're four hundred years old, stop throwing a tantrum.”

Baekhyun's eyes flash red again, but Chanyeol has him all figured out now. He's all talk and no real threat. People usually fear him for his age and his powers, but he would never really use them. Baekhyun is a four hundred years old bluff.

“Now come with me, we can't stay at the police station forever.”

“Where are we going?”

“My house.” Baekhyun scowls and Chanyeol grimaces. “I know it will be awkward, but Seulgi doesn't know me and she doesn't know about my place either. We should be safe there.”

He hopes they will. He's been trained to fight vampires, not with them. Not against another hunter. Who is also a vampire.

“Come on, we don't have all night. Seungwan, can you call Kris Wu from the Special Services Squad and put him on speaker? I have a favor to collect.”

I'll use you as a warning sign
That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind
I'll use you as a focal point
So I don't lose sight of what I want
I Found - Amber Run

The car ride is awkward. They don't talk, but it's not silent. The old grey Sedan grumbles and coughs, filling the cabin with its loud cacophony. It's still not enough to cover the heavy, awkward silence between them.

Chanyeol has to try three times before his voice comes out.

“Do you need anything to drink?” Baekhyun shrugs. “You're not going to go berserk on me because you're going on a blood withdrawal, right?”

It’s a possibility with young vampires, but Chanyeol has no idea if someone like Baekhyun would have the same reaction.

“I've already drunk tonight. And I'm old enough not to need blood every three hours.”

Chanyeol files the information away for later. “There's anything else you need?”

“I need to go outside.”

“We've already talked about this, Baekhyun.”

“How long will I be forced to sit here with you, staring at that coffee stain on your sleeve and pretending I'm not needed out there?”

Chanyeol blushes and instinctively covers the sleeve of his shirt, where Seungwan has dropped a cup of coffee two hours ago. He scoffs. “You're not needed out there. Our best agents are on this case, Junmyeon's best men are on this case, we don't need the only potential vampire who can stop this psychotic girl to die at her hands because he was too reckless.”

Baekhyun crosses his arms and doesn't say anything else until they reach the apartment complex where Chanyeol lives with Kris.

Chanyeol feels a tinge of discomfort when they walk inside the flat. He had been so busy with the case that he hadn't thought about making the house presentable. Discarded shirts cover the floor and there's a box with a half-eaten Hawaiian pizza on the card table in front of the television.

“Won't your roommate be uncomfortable knowing you've brought a bloodsucker home? Isn't he a hunter too?”

“We don't call ourselves hunters,” not true, they do in fact enjoy to call themselves vampire hunters, there's a great pride in it but today it just makes Chanyeol feel hollow, because Kang Seulgi used to be a hunter too and now she's just a murderer. “We are police officers. We help people. This is what Kris and Yixing, his partner, are doing now. They're out there, trying to find Seulgi to assure the safety of every vampire in the district. I asked them to do it before we left the station.”

Baekhyun scoffs. He probably remembers them from Halloween. He didn’t see Kris, dressed as a Roman soldier, but he has met Yixing posing as a love angel. Yixing had found Baekhyun first and he had quickly texted Chanyeol. That was their usual approach tactic. Yixing was the bait, Chanyeol and Kris were the hunters.

“You don't help people. You hunt them. They're there because they're good at chasing monsters, not because they want to save vampires. You would be there too, with them, if it wasn't for me.”

Baekhyun ignores the mess hoarded in the living room and slowly walk the corridor until he reaches Chanyeol's room. There's a new bed there and Baekhyun smirks at the sight, almost satisfied with the knowledge he broke the previous one in his cunning attempt to free himself from the silver shackles. Apart from the bed, Chanyeol's room hasn't changed since Halloween.

Chanyeol turns on the television, but he keeps the volume to the minimum level to still be able to hear his portable radio and buzzer in case any news arrive from the department.

Baekhyun sits on the bed and he looks around, taking mental measurements of the room and frowning until Chanyeol doesn't stop him.

“I won't trap you here.”

“Last time it happened.”

“I would be really glad if you didn't make everything come back to last time.”

“I've known you for a grand total of five days, Park Chanyeol, not counting the time I was asleep. Last time amount to at least half of the total time we've spent together, so allow me to keep it always in mind. You haven't really given me any other reasons to think highly of you.” He looks so defeated, so tired. “You must be having the time of your life, right now. I humiliated you last time, and now you're the one calling the shots and treating me like a baby, telling me what to do. Are you having fun at least?”

“Wait, it's not like that. And why would I have fun? I want to be out there too, not here at home with you!” When he realizes the gross insensitivity of what he's said it's already too late. He manages to see a flash of hurt before Baekhyun can take a hold of his features and hides himself behind a neutral face.

“I didn't mean...”

“Don't worry. I know you don't like me. You've made it clear countless times. It's my fault for thinking I was important enough for you to want me to suffer, but I'm even beneath that. You don't resent me, you just think I'm worthless.”

“Baekhyun...”

“Don't say my name.”

Stupid, stupid Baekhyun, starving for attention like a lonely puppy, getting attached on his own, getting hurt on his own. It's not fair. Chanyeol didn't want to hurt him like this, Chanyeol didn't want to be anything for this man, for this vampire. Chanyeol wanted to fight and scratch, he wanted to be hated so he could hate Baekhyun back. Chanyeol hates vampires, but hating on Byun Baekhyun is just like kicking a puppy. He attacks, he snarls, he provokes, but when the reaction arrives, he does nothing to defend himself. He doesn’t bite back, he just stays there and takes every hit with a betrayed, lost expression, curling on himself to hide his tears. It makes Chanyeol feel hollow inside, like he is the worst scum in the world.

“I... need to make a phone call,” he says. Baekhyun doesn't answer, he doesn't even shrug. The blue light coming from the television plays with the shadows on his face, washing away his expression.

Chanyeol excuses himself hastily and dials a number he didn't even know he had saved in his phone until it had flashed on his phone yesterday night, accompanied by the name 'Kim Jongdae' in bold black letters.

“Park Chanyeol?” Jongdae's voice is full of disbelief, suspicion and even a little hint of anxiety when he answers. “Is there any problem with Baekhyun?”

“He's alright, we're at my house. I don't think we were followed and my roommate is patrolling the area. We should be safe.”

Chanyeol can still feel the tension leaving Jongdae's voice as he asks, “Why are you calling me then?”

“It's Baekhyun, I think...” He sends a glance at the door, making sure it's really closed. He's come here because Kris' studio is the only soundproofed room in the entire house, the only place where he can talk freely without having to worry about Baekhyun overhearing. “You said my life wasn't long enough to understand the way I have hurt him, but I think I'm kinda starting to get it.”

There silence and static coming from Jongdae's side.

“Chanyeol, I only agreed to let you protect my brother because Baekhyun has no survival sense and you're the best vampire hunter of the city, but mark my words, if you hurt him, if you confuse him, if you lead him on and break his heart again, then you're as good as dead.”

“I didn't even want to break his heart the first time! I didn't know I had broken his heart until a few hours ago!”

“And that's why you hurt him so much. Chanyeol, do you know how scared we were? How desperate? He ordered us to just let him sleep and we couldn't do anything but wait and wait and hope that one day he would wake up on his own. Last time it took fifteen years, this time it could've been twenty years? Thirty? What if he never woke up? What if we had lost our brother like that, just because you're still in the phase of denial and can't accept that your mother has moved on with her new life and you have to be an absolute ass to every one of us? I know you like to deny it, but we have feelings. I love my brother, and for some inexplicable reason my brother liked you and you treated him like shit. No one deserves that.”

“I didn't know,” repeats Chanyeol, weak and guilty.

“That's not a good reason,” replies Jongdae. There's silence for a moment. Chanyeol feels like a spectacular failure.

“Do you think I should apologize?”

“You haven't even apologized yet? Park Chanyeol, let me say it, you’re such an asshole!”

I'll use you as a makeshift gauge
Of how much to give and how much to take
I'll use you as a warning sign
That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind
I Found - Amber Run

When he comes back, Baekhyun is still where Chanyeol has left him. He hasn't moved. Blue light from the television and orange light from the lamppost outside still dance on his face. He looks at Chanyeol's face, staring at the wrinkle between his eyes and the signs of lip biting at the corner of his mouth.

“Have you finished panicking at the phone with Jongdae about my feelings?”

“I thought the room was soundproofed.”

Baekhyun chuckles. “It is. It was a wild guess. Thanks for confirming it anyway.”

“Baekhyun, I...”

“I don't want your apologies.”

“But I want to say it anyway. I am sorry, I am really sorry for last time.” Baekhyun's eyes are not black anymore but a soft, quivering gold, barely visible in the dim light. “I know it's not a justification but I really felt like I was doing something useful, something right. I thought you were going to use your powers against me or other innocent people and that sex would've distracted you long enough to allow me to arrest you without making a ruckus.” He takes a deep breath, checks if Baekhyun wants to say something else before he continues. “It was a mistake and I hurt you. I wanted to hurt you,” there's no need in denying it. “I was wrong. I was a terrible person and if I could go back in time I wouldn't...”

“Stop it, Chanyeol. Just stop.” Baekhyun's voice shakes, vibrates like the chords of a violin just before the sound breaks into a false note. “You can't do this. You are an asshole and I need you to stay an asshole.”

“I am not an asshole.”

“Yes you are. And I still liked you. I still like you. But I'd prefer to be hurt by an asshole than by an actual decent person because if you stopped being an asshole then you'd be one of the most charming and amazing boys I've ever met during a Halloween night and that would make me being dumped by you ten times more pathetic and I don't need this right now.” He grimaces. “I don't think I can stand it.”

It's the first time he's ever admitted he likes Chanyeol out loud, baring his weakness like he's waiting for Chanyeol to pour salt on it. He's angry, he's scared and he's stupid, so stupid, and breathless - why would he be breathless? he doesn't even need to breathe. He's a vampire and vampires don't have feelings. They don't breathe, they don't blush, they're cold and lifeless and they're not human.

“You want me to stop being gentle? Then don't act like you need comfort. I don't want to like you, Byun Baekhyun, I don't want to help you, I don't want to be responsible for your happiness. But you look like you'd fall if I'd stop holding you, and yet you have the courage to look in my eyes and ask me to stop caring?”

Baekhyun closes his eyes. “Don't do this, please,” and Chanyeol hadn't realized they were so close but he finds himself in front of Baekhyun, just like Halloween night. But now Baekhyun keeps his eyes closed, afraid to meet Chanyeol's gaze, murmuring, almost begging. He's four hundred years old and he likes Chanyeol and he's so afraid of Chanyeol hurting him again that he's shaking. Having that kind of power over someone is exhilarating.

“Don't do this, please,” repeats Baekhyun, and he can feel Chanyeol's closeness - his eyes flash red at the scent of blood - but Chanyeol is not afraid of him anymore.

“Then don't say you won't survive. Don't say you're hurt, don't say you like me. It just makes me want to stay, to show you I'm not going to hurt you again, I'm not going to play with you again.”

He's so close and he shudders at Chanyeol’s proximity and Chanyeol almost wants to kiss him. He wants to peel all the layers Baekhyun has built around himself in four hundred years just to have him here, bare, at Chanyeol's mercy. It wouldn't even be their first kiss, but something stops Chanyeol. He doesn't want Baekhyun to think he's doing this out of pity. This may be his only chance - if they arrest Seulgi Baekhyun will go back to hiding in his house all the time and Chanyeol won't have any more reasons to meet him - but he doesn't want to fuck up.

He stops and puts some distance between them and Baekhyun stares back in suspicion and maybe a little of disappointment, rapidly shifting into anger.

“You are the most incredibly, stupi-” He freezes mid-talk. His eyes widen and he lets out the tiniest little sound, something between a moan of pain and a dismayed gasp, before he goes lax in Chanyeol's hold, almost falling to the ground if not for Chanyeol's quick reflexes. There's an arrow sticking from his back, with soft feathers at the end. Ash wood, probably silver tip, to shoot down a vampire of Baekhyun's caliber. The arrow has flied inside from the open window and Chanyeol is quickly to lay Baekhyun's body on the floor and running at the window.

There's no one outside, but that doesn't surprise him. Vampires are quicker than normal humans. She could already be climbing on the walls of the building. There's a sound of broken glass coming from the kitchen and Chanyeol winces. So fast.

He sends a quick request for help at the station and unsheathes his blade. The silver dagger finds its place in Chanyeol's grip easily. He's trained with it for so many years it's become like an extension of his arm. He can do this.

He quickly realizes he can't do this when Seulgi takes her first step in the corridor and he finally sees her for the first time. She's beautiful, like all the vampires are, but Chanyeol is more worried about the quiver full of arrows with silver points and the silver daggers in her hands. Normally, a vampire wouldn't be able to hold them without burning their palms, but Seulgi wears leather gloves to keep her fingers from touching the metal, and she handles the blades like someone who's had a century of training with them. Chanyeol is painfully aware he doesn't stand a chance.

When she talks, Chanyeol staggers. Her voice has hands, tearing at his clothes, dragging him towards her. He almost lets the dagger fall before he realizes she's charming him. She's nothing like Baekhyun, she'd skin him alive and take his soul as a prize.

“I have nothing against you, Hunter. Let me have the boy and I will not take your life.”

For a moment, he thinks about it. Her Charm is so strong it fogs his head, makes everything confused and hazy. But the backup is coming and he just has to distract her until they arrive.

“I know who you are, Park Chanyeol. Vampires have taken everything from you, just like they did with me. You hate them, just like I do. Baekhyun has ruined your life.” She smiles at his astonishment. “I have observed you in the last two months. I needed to know the reason why my favorite Undead wasn't answering my calls. You almost broke him and I did not like it. The only one who can hurt Baekhyun is me. But I'm ready to forgive you. Leave the bastard to me and in exchange I'll teach you everything I know, I will make you the most powerful hunter in the history of this pitiful city. You will be able to kill the man who Turned your mother and you will be able to kill her too, for she should have died many years ago.” Chanyeol's hold on the dagger shakes, like his will. She can feel it and her smile grows wider. “Side with me, Park Chanyeol, we are the same. We are made to fight monsters together. Side with me... or die.”

Chanyeol bites down on his tongue until he can taste blood. The shock is not enough to scatter the fog in his head, but the scent of blood affects Seulgi too. For a moment, a ghost of hunger haunts her smile. It’s less than a heartbeat, but it’s enough to break the Charm. Chanyeol throws the blade at her, but she deflects it with her own daggers. When she looks at him again, her face is a frightening mask of rage.

“You made the wrong choice, boy. Now you will die.”

She's fast, faster than him, and she doesn't move like a vampire. She moves like a hunter. It helps Chanyeol a little bit, because he recognizes her movements, but he doesn't really help him because his body has memorized another kind of enemy and is not ready to fight someone who has received his same training and looks like an ally. It makes him confused, too slow to react properly. Seulgi is faster than him, stronger than him and, judging from the rate at which her canines are growing, terribly thirsty.

He throws silver dust at her, just a handful, and it burns her skin and her eyes, making her scream and wail, but it doesn't stop her. It merely makes her more furious.

“Why are you doing this for him?” she says, and her voice sounds so sad, so broken. He wants to hug her, look into her eyes and tell her that everything will be alright, but he knows it's a trap. As soon as he watches into her eyes, he'll become her slave.

“I'm not doing anything for him, I'm just here to arrest you.”

“And how do you plan on doing it? You will be dead in less than a minute.”

Not if he kills her first. But how? The silver powder is over and throwing any more around would damage Baekhyun too. He can't allow that.

He takes a mad risk and launches himself on the ground to catch his silver dagger. To do that, he has to leave free way for Baekhyun's paralyzed form on the floor, but he’s sure she’ll take the bait.

When Seulgi sees the opening, she jumps at Baekhyun, her claws ready to behead her own sire, but Chanyeol has already recovered his dagger. The blade hits her and she screams, but it’s too far from her heart to cause a real damage.

The gloves protect her hands as she extracts the dagger and throws it out of the window. “I really didn't care if you died or not, but I guess I won't be able to kill Baekhyun unless you die too…”

He focus on her lips to not be forced to watch into her eyes, but even that is a mistake because her voice is as hypnotic as her pupils. He falters, and she's onto him, cold, pale hands wrapped around his throat. She tries to lift him from the ground but Chanyeol is too tall and she's too short, and no matter how much she tries his feet keep sliding on the floor. It's funny, even if Chanyeol is going to die now, as the pressure at the base of his throat grows stronger and stronger, cutting Chanyeol's breath away.

Something moves behind Seulgi - Chanyeol can’t really see what because of the black dots swarming in his eyes.

“Let him go, Seulgi.”

Suddenly, the hold on his neck loosens. Baekhyun gets up and slowly trudges over, leaving a black trail on the floor. He holds his side, where the silver arrow is digging a poisonous path in his flesh, with both hands. “Let him go, I said.”

Seulgi tries to fight against the order but Baekhyun is her sire. His words are law. She really lets Chanyeol go and she stares at Baekhyun, who stares back. Chanyeol wants to shout him to say something, to order her to stay still - she'd do it, the link between her and Baekhyun would compel her to obey no matter what the command is - but all he can manage is a choked cough, and Baekhyun doesn't know what to say, or what to do. His distraction is fatal. Before he can say anything else to tie her to his will, she launches herself out the window, disappearing in a cloud of glass fragments.

They don't hear her steps as she runs away but they hear the shouts of the backup team Chanyeol had called as they chase her.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol look at each other for a split moment in the silence of the room, before Baekhyun topples over.

“The arrow,” he moans, “you have to...”

“Oh my god, do I just pull it out? What if it kills you?”

“Pull it out, quickly, I don't care about the damage it does going out... I'm more worried about the damage it's doing inside...”

Chanyeol pulls and Baekhyun screams. There's not much blood, but the thick, fat droplet staining Baekhyun's shirt are dark, almost black, and heavy like honey.

“Another ruined shirt,” complains Baekhyun before he closes his eyes and rests his head against the floor.

“Are you alright? Your blood is almost black.” Panic creeps in his voice. “And you're not healing, is this normal?”

“No, but there's nothing you can do about it. I've not exactly been feeding myself well after I woke up so my regeneration will be slower...”

“You told me you didn't need blood!” he squeaks. Baekhyun doesn't answer, even the effort of raising his head to look at the wound - still sizzling from the silver arrow - seems to tire him out.

“I don't like frozen blood. It tastes terrible. If I can, I don't drink it. I wasn't expecting to be almost killed tonight too so I didn't.”

Chanyeol wants to laugh, hysterically, because he can't believe he's in the middle of his bedroom watching Byun Baekhyun grovel on the verge of death because he's too spoiled to drink frozen blood.

“Can you drink mine?” he asks, without thinking.

“What?”

“Can you drink mine? I have to take you somewhere else before my colleagues arrive.”

“What?” repeats Baekhyun, dazed.

“Seulgi didn't follow us here, I made sure of it. She was told where to find us and the only people who knew were your brothers and my coworkers at the police station. We can't trust the department anymore.”

“What?”

“Baekhyun!”

He resists the urge to shake him. They need to go and they need to do it now.

“I can't drink your blood. You can't just... expect me...” Baekhyun shakes his head, stubbornly, but they don't have time for his qualms... He picks Baekhyun up, surprised at how little he weighs. He's always associated vampires with stone, white marble, limestone and anhydrite, heavy and solid, but Baekhyun weighs almost nothing in his arms.

“Put me down, I can walk on my own!”

Chanyeol only puts him down on the passenger seat of a dark, sleek coupé. He answers Baekhyun's questioning look when they're out of the underground parking lot of the complex, speeding through the underpass that will let them into the open traffic. “It's Kris' car, not mine.”

“I'm bleeding onto his leather seat.”

“I'm sure you have more than enough money to buy him three cars when you're not in mortal danger. You will finally have a good reason to empty the family vault.”

“That won't do. I have to keep that money to get you fired, Park Chanyeol.”

That earns him a sound that is half scoff and half laughter.

“Where are you taking me?”

Chanyeol slows down and stops gently at the red light, finally turning towards his passenger.
Baekhyun smiles weakly. His hands are slick with dark blood, effortlessly holding onto the bleeding, open wound on his side.

“I'm taking you to a safe place.”

I found love where it wasn't supposed to be
Right in front of me
Talk some sense to me
I Found - Amber Run

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