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

[aprilclash]

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

I can't find you in the dark
So far away, where you are
But everything changes when it's time
When I run to the sea till sun shines
In the Dark - CATHEDRALS

chanyeol

In the absence of light, the world becomes a black screen, like an empty box Chanyeol can fill with his imagination.

He wonders how Baekhyun looks like. His hands scan Baekhyun's body to build scraps of dreams that quickly deteriorate and fade away if Chanyeol doesn't hold onto them too tight.

One hand on Baekhyun's mouth to find it open, to feel the puff of air between his fingers when he pants. One hand on Baekhyun's chest to feel his pulse, weak, unsteady, slower than a human's pulse should be but definitely faster than what a normal vampire's pulse should feel like, to show him how desperate Baekhyun must feel. Little details, Baekhyun's thighs clinging to his hips in tiny jerks, strong enough to leave bruise and to push Chanyeol down between Baekhyun's spread legs every time his hand brushes Baekhyun's sensitive nipples or groin. Baekhyun's sighs, unrestrained, the moans that are caught in his throat when he jolts upwards to meet Chanyeol, the little words whispered against the pillow when Chanyeol does something right.

Chanyeol fills the darkness with moments stolen by his hands and lips and by his ears, but there are things he will never know. He doesn't know the color of Baekhyun's hair and eyes, whether the effort of keeping his magic down has contaminated them with silver light. He doesn't know if Baekhyun's lashes are fluttering, like leaves ready to turn to gold and fall on the ground. He can feel Baekhyun's lips tremble under his palms but not see their color.

Some things he imagines, some things he reminisces. He remembers Baekhyun's glorious body arched on Chanyeol's bed, the anguished way he bit his lips when Chanyeol had his mouth on his cock.

This time, Chanyeol has his fingers inside Baekhyun, and Chanyeol can feel - not see, unfortunately - him bending, responding to the stimuli, to the fire Chanyeol ignites in him. He doesn't know if Baekhyun wants to come closer or get away, he doesn't know if he's biting his lips, he can only imagine and hope.

In Chanyeol's imagination, Baekhyun is white like a canvas. Chanyeol wants to paint it red with his blood just to make Baekhyun's head spin with lust, until he doesn't know where hunger ends and arousal begins.

Baekhyun finds him in the dark, following Chanyeol's blood, nosing at his neck and mouthing along Chanyeol's pulse, his teeth teasing but never breaking the skin. The movement pushes Chanyeol's fingers deeper inside him, makes him spasm around them and trash on the bed, and for a terrifying moment Chanyeol is afraid Baekhyun will bite him. Baekhyun, incredibly, doesn't. Chanyeol has been with many vampires, but no one has ever shown this kind of titanic self-control, this absolute, adamantine discipline over his own desires. It makes him want to tear at Baekhyun's restraints, push him over the edge, find the animal hidden in him and tame it. But whereas Baekhyun keeps his hunger bound with silver shackles, he has no control over his own body. It takes so little for Chanyeol to rile him up, to make him shake and fall in his grasp, singing like a nightingale.

Sex for vampires is usually a weapon, a hunting technique, but Baekhyun is a defective hunter - a defective fighter - Chanyeol almost believe he's harmless. That's until he grounds Baekhyun down and kneels between his spread legs, pushing him open with his cock, and Baekhyun grabs his wrist so hard it almost breaks from the pressure. Chanyeol slips inside him with a choked scream and Baekhyun keens, claws tearing at the pillows scattered around them.

“Are you...” tries to ask Chanyeol, and Baekhyun all but growls, really low, “I am alright. Your wrist? Did I...”

Chanyeol tries moving his hand. It hurts, but the desperate pulsing of his cock inside Baekhyun's body keeps distracting him from the pain. “I don't think it's broken,” he says, relieved.

“I'm sorry,” starts to say Baekhyun, but Chanyeol kisses him, swallows any apologies with his mouth, holding Baekhyun's face still with his hands to make sure Baekhyun doesn't turn his face away. Baekhyun could easily overpower him and turn his head, but he doesn't fight Chanyeol's hold. He lets him lead, chasing the knots in Chanyeol's spine with his fingers, claws breaking the skin when Chanyeol bites his lower lip.

In Baekhyun’s mouth, long, poisonous fangs have grown in response to arousal and the proximity of a human who's flaunting all his blood under his nose. Chanyeol can feel them with his tongue and he chuckles in Baekhyun's mouth when the vampire panics at the idea of tasting Chanyeol's blood.

“Stop kissing me, Chanyeol. If I bite your tongue or your lips and I taste your blood I won't be able to stop myself...”

“Is that a bad thing?” he asks, feeling brave. He hasn't started moving yet, but his hips are jerking in tiny, circles inside Baekhyun. It's barely there, just enough to make him feel the pressure around his cock, building the anticipation for what will come next.

“We probably won't be able to have sex if I do, so please stop tempting me. I am what I am and I won't resist your teasing for long.” Baekhyun's voice sounds really annoyed, though breathless.

“I can't tease you with my blood but you don't complain when I tease you with my body,” he says, feeling quite smug. He thrusts inside Baekhyun, shallowly, to make him gasp on his cute scolding. What he didn't expect was for Baekhyun's body to convulse and tighten around his cock for a few, excruciating seconds. He closes his eyes and grits his teeth, trying desperately not to come.

“You don't complain when I tease you with my body either,” bites back Baekhyun, lips smacking shy of Chanyeol's ear, and this time Chanyeol thrusts down for real, just to shut him up or make him scream louder, he doesn't know. Baekhyun does neither. Voice a mere whisper, he mutters things, in languages Chanyeol doesn't know, encouragements or pleas, maybe sweet words of love.

Chanyeol wonders if this is really Baekhyun's first time with a man, he wonders what Baekhyun's life was like when he was human, before he was Turned. He wonders what Baekhyun felt like as a human, if he was warmer and softer, if his body yielded for the cock of other men, heat blossoming into him like a night flower. Chanyeol wonders and pushes, thrusts, sinks in Baekhyun's body. It's a fuck like a fight, because Baekhyun wants this but his body challenges Chanyeol, clamps on him making him lose his rhythm. Baekhyun's body doesn't melt, doesn't yield or open up, but Baekhyun does.

“Chanyeol, Chanyeol can I,” he trips on words, takes shallow breaths between Chanyeol's thrusts, “Chanyeol, please...”

“What do you want? Tell me,” he increases the force of his thrusts, not as deep as before, but faster, and stronger, his knees sliding on the pillows as he struggles to hold onto Baekhyun.

“Blood,” says Baekhyun, “let me, it'll be good, I promise, please Chanyeol, let me...”

Baekhyun doesn't wait for an answer and he wouldn't receive one anyway - Chanyeol has already given him permission. He brings Chanyeol down and kisses him, drinking air from his mouth as his body shakes and quakes one last time, pulled impossibly taut, closing on Chanyeol's cock unbearably tight, a few mind breaking seconds on the edge, on tiptoes, on fire, before he finally falls on the other side and his fangs snap close on Chanyeol's neck.

A thousand silhouettes
Dancing on my chest
No matter where I sleep,
You are haunting me
Silhouettes - Of Monsters and Men

Chanyeol has been bitten before. Hell, Baekhyun himself has bitten him before, but it wasn't like this. It's never been like this. It's pain, lacerating, excruciating pain, Baekhyun's fangs sinking deep, brutally, but beyond the pain, beyond the pleasure, beyond Baekhyun's insides closing on him, milking his cock, beyond the darkness, Chanyeol feels the bite. It's a revelation, washing away everything he believed in before.

Ice and fire spread from Baekhyun's teeth to his neck, and Chanyeol feels it running on his veins, reaching the smallest capillaries and coming back, stronger than before. It's a wave of pleasure that crushes everything in its wake. It runs down Chanyeol's body, crashes on his groin and he stutters and gasps, still thrusting inside Baekhyun, impossibly deep. For a moment the, pleasure is absolute. Everything else blanks out, the need to breathe, the need to come. Chanyeol is a particle in fission, a nuclear explosion, Baekhyun's fangs pierced in his neck his only link to reality.

He doesn't realize he's coming, doesn't realize he's screaming, thrashing against Baekhyun, fighting to get Baekhyun's fangs on him again when the pleasure, abruptly, ends.

“Why did you stop?” he tries to say, but he chokes on the first words for the lack of air. He gags, gasps. Baekhyun holds his hand, counting his breaths for him. “Slower, Chanyeol, come on, focus on my voice...”

“What was that?” he asks, as arms and legs give up and he crashes down on top of Baekhyun. His heart beats so fast it feels like it's going to stop anytime soon, his cock still twitches inside Baekhyun, oversensitive and spent. There's something else, something different. He opens his eyes and it's like he can see the vampire, even in the total darkness. He blinks, once, twice, thrice for good measure. Baekhyun blinks back at him. There's a smudge of blood at the corner of his lips, red staining his lips. His curious face turns into a smile, which turns into a shy giggle.

“You should see your face, you look terrified.”

“You didn't Turn me, right?” Because that's the only possible explanation for everything he's feeling. “You didn't-”

“I didn't, Chanyeol.”

“Then what did you do?” he asks. Inwardly he's freaking out, but he feels too sluggish and tired to properly throw a tantrum.

“You mean this?” Baekhyun drags him down and kisses the wound, sweetly. As soon as his lips grace Chanyeol's skin, power surges through Chanyeol's body. It spreads through his veins like a storm and he moans, cries out shamelessly until Baekhyun finishes licking the wound clean, every stroke of his tongue exploding on Chanyeol's neck like a little, devastating rush of energy.

“Stop doing that,” he begs, “I can't think when you do that.”

“I couldn't think with your cock inside me, so this makes us even.” Baekhyun's face looks smug and Chanyeol feels the need to kiss him and rub his thumb on the smear of blood marring his fair skin.

“I can see you, even in the dark. If I close my eyes... I can feel my blood in you.”

Baekhyun's smile is sad. “It's because I am very powerful and I like you very much. I want to Bond with you. My power is desperately trying to make me Bond with you, even if you're human.” He sighs. “Don't worry, it's just a bizarre side effect that will fade away with time and won't have any lasting consequences.”

“A Bond between a human and a vampire,” he starts, regretting the words as soon as he says them when he sees Baekhyun's eyes darkening, his face dropping, “is it even possible?”

“It is,” mutters Baekhyun, under his breath, “but it never lasts too long. It usually ends with the human turning into a Vampire after a few years. You don't need to worry about it.” He stills under Chanyeol's body, his skin feeling colder than before. His eyes are distant. It's like he's slipping away.

“Did you feel it too?” asks Chanyeol again, desperately trying to save the situation after his previous slip-on. “When you bit me, did you feel the same things I felt?”

It seems to work, because Baekhyun goes lax again under him and smiles naughtily. “I don't know what you felt, but what I felt was pretty intense. If you had been a vampire, I would've been in danger.”

Chanyeol wouldn't know why, but then he suddenly remembers Baekhyun sucking Junmyeon's blood in his mother's living room, the way he was hanging from Junmyeon's wrist lost in pleasure and bloodlust, completely unaware of his surroundings. He doesn’t want Baekhyun to feel pleasure from biting other people. He wants Baekhyun to bite only him.

Jealousy punches him in the chest, sudden and unannounced, and Baekhyun whimpers under him. “You're angry again, I can feel it.”

“How?”

“The blood. Your blood, inside me. It’s boiling. It'll go away soon, you don't have to worry.”

Baekhyun is... anxious. Chanyeol can feel it at the edge of his conscience, barely out of reach. He pushes through the stillborn Bond, trying to grasp Baekhyun's emotion, but the vampire growls.

“Don't do that, Chanyeol, it's annoying.”

Not being able to reach Baekhyun is annoying. This feeble, pathetic excuse of a connection is annoying.

“I've been bitten before, but this is the first time it feels... like this.”

“I wanted you to feel like this. You asked for a possibility and I gave you one, but this was also my only possibility and I didn't want to waste it.”

“What do you mean?” he asks, but Baekhyun doesn't answer. He simply rolls them over until he's on top of Chanyeol's chest and rubs his nose against Chanyeol's neck, where the wound is supposed to be, but instead of the punishing mixture of pleasure and pain he felt before, Chanyeol feels... nothing. There is no sign of a bite mark ever being there, the skin is intact, unblemished.

“Baekhyun, did you heal me?” He had heard it was possible, vampires healing their human lovers, hiding the evidence of the bites before they disappeared into the night, but he thought those were urban legends.

Baekhyun squirms on top of Chanyeol’s chest and mumbles something unintelligible, hiding his head in the curve of his neck. Only then the boy realizes how tired Baekhyun must be. It's surprising that Baekhyun lasted this much after sunrise. It’s late in the morning and the sun is shining over the city. Chanyeol doesn't know how he knows, probably as a side effect of sharing a tiny bit Baekhyun's powers.

He wraps his arms around Baekhyun's chest, receiving a thankful sigh against his neck, and listens carefully as Baekhyun falls asleep, breathing cutely through his nose. It's so unusual and strange for a vampire that it surprises Chanyeol every time. He wants to ask Baekhyun so many things once this story will be over. He doesn't plan on letting this short vampire disappear into the shadows, just like this.

Baekhyun clings to his side and Chanyeol closes his eyes, feeling the fragile link they established shrink, its light dimming quickly as the distance between them widens. On the other side, Chanyeol can only perceive an overwhelming, maddening loneliness, so huge and primordial it frightens him to death. Baekhyun moans in distress and Chanyeol quickly lets go of the rapidly fading Bond to hold his hand and intertwine their fingers.

He wanted to keep watch over Baekhyun's sleep, protecting him from Seulgi, but he's too tired himself. In the end, blood loss and exhaustion win and he falls asleep like a child, clasping Baekhyun's hand, burying his face in the vampire's messy hair, holding him tight to shield him from dangers and nightmares.

Chanyeol wakes up because he's cold. He opens his eyes and blindly tries to pull the blankets and cover himself, but they don't budge. He pats the soft carpet covering Baekhyun’s den until his hand closes around his phone and uses its dim light to better see his surroundings. Baekhyun has hogged all the blankets - he's a vampire, he doesn't even need the blankets - rolling inside them in a tangled mess of silk and wool, feathers and ripped silk, probably from a pillow destroyed by his clinginess and pointy claws. It makes Chanyeol smile tenderly.

“I swear, you must be the most ungraceful vampire I've ever seen,” he says under his breath. He's also the most endearing.

Chanyeol hates vampires because they don't belong. All around them, things happen - life happens, and it's beautiful, even in its most trivial sides, and important in the smallest things. Humans are bound to die, and the expiration date on their life is the reason why every single second is worth to be lived at its fullest. But vampires are not part of that. Life flows around them, dragging everything away in its wake, but they resist, still and eternal, like ghosts trapped in stone bodies. And like ghosts they live, without caring for the business of the living, barely there. They’re made for eternity, not for the little things.

The mere thought that a vampire could sneeze in his sleep, that a vampire could dream and snort and pout, that a vampire could love, was a foreign concept to Chanyeol until a few days ago, until Baekhyun happened in all his contradictions, his bizarre quirks and his devastating melancholy. Baekhyun wants to be superior and unbreakable. He doesn't want to feel, doesn't want to be human. But he is, no matter how desperately he tries to hide it. Chanyeol can see it so clearly that he feels like a fool, because his whole life he's never been able to perceive any humanity in vampires, never before Baekhyun.

Baekhyun, who turns and hides his face in the pillows, away from the faint light of Chanyeol's phone. He smacks his lips - still asleep, so imperfect and fragile and human, despite his immortal soul - and disappears in the burrito of blankets.
Chanyeol half-laughs, half-sighs and stops shedding light on the cozy alcove to check the time. It's three in the afternoon and he's cold and hungry.

Baekhyun doesn't protest when Chanyeol rolls him over, tangling his limbs in the blankets even more. Chanyeol quickly finds his clothes with the help of the pale phone light and ventures into the darkness to look for food. He gets lost in the dungeon of cold, dark corridors hidden under the basement, but he finally manages to resurface on ground floor and locate the kitchen. He luckily finds some cup of instant noodles in a cup drawer. They're probably for Jongin, the only human who frequently visits the house.

The stupid jingle of an even more stupid cereal commercial startles him up as he waits for the hot water to cook the noodles and he almost drops the cup. He curses as some of the water falls on his wrist when he tries to set it down. Grabbing the still ringing phone, he swipes next to Seungwan's name on the screen, putting an end to the obnoxious ringtone Jongin set to his phone more than six months ago.

“Hello,” he says sourly.

“Where the hell are you?”

He grimaces. “Can you please not shout?” His mouth feels dry and his head pounds. He can feel the loss of blood, weighing him down.

“Do you have any idea how worried we really were? Where are you? Is Baekhyun with you?”

Chanyeol hesitates. For what he knows, anyone could be listening this conversation. Seungwan doesn't know there's a mole in the department. “I am in a safe place,” he simply answers in the end, “and Baekhyun is with me.”

“Is he alright? I know you've been attacked at your house.”

“He's fine.” He thinks about the messy tuft of hair peeking out the mountain of blankets and pillows Baekhyun has buried himself into. “Completely fine.”

“You need to tell me where you are, Chanyeol, Detective Im is going mad from worry, especially after what happened to Kris.”

“What happened to Kris?”

“They tried to stop the suspect, Kang Seulgi, from leaving your place. He's in intensive care right now. They say he might have been Turned but they won't know for sure before a few days.” Chanyeol's stomach drops. For a moment, he feel the intense need to keel over and retch. “Yixing is with him all the time,” continues Seungwan, “he's lightly wounded, but he should be alright.”

“I can't tell you where I am, Seungwan... There's a mole at the police station.”

He can feel from her voice that the news doesn't surprise her. “We already assumed it, from the way the suspect managed to locate you so quickly. Detective Im has worked all night to track down who leaked the information. It was someone from the scientific squad, a Lee Hongbin or something.” Chanyeol vaguely recalls the quiet boy who took photographs of Kim Hyuna's dismembered bodies. “He received a big sum of money recently and when Detective Im questioned him he immediately confessed.”

“Why?” can only ask Chanyeol. Both him and Baekhyun almost died because of that boy, Kris could have been Turned. For what?

“His sister is sick. He needed the money soon. It's... It's not his fault, ok? Please don't blame him, Chanyeol, he didn't have any other choice...”

There's always another choice, but Chanyeol doesn't say anything.

“Chanyeol, we need to know your position to send you backup. We can't afford to lose another field agent in this case.”

Chanyeol is tempted to tell her the truth, just for a moment, but something keeps him silent. Jin-ah is his friend and in the past few days he's come to like Seungwan, but he can't trust them. Junmyeon has been clear about this. “You must tell Jin-ah that she can't absolutely send backup, do you understand Seungwan?”

“Why? Where are you, Chanyeol?”

“I can't tell you where we are, but Kim Junmyeon is protecting us now. Sending in more agents would only tell Seulgi where we are. Tell Jin-ah she doesn't need to worry about us. We're fine.”

Seungwan tries saying something else, but Chanyeol's phone gives a low, warning beep. “Gotta go, my phone is dying. I'll keep you updated.”

He cuts the call on Seungwan's objection and watches as the screen's luminosity drop due to low battery.

Baekhyun is awake when Chanyeol comes back with the flashlight a few hours later. Their incomplete Bond has dimmed and almost disappeared during the day. Chanyeol wished it was still there because it made so easy for him to understand Baekhyun. Now he feels so alien and far away.

They stare at each other in silence. It's awkward. Chanyeol is painfully aware of Baekhyun's nakedness. His mussy hair, sleepy droopy eyes, the grumpy pout complete a picture that makes Chanyeol's hands itch with the need to curl around Baekhyun's impossible beauty and seize it for himself.

Baekhyun looks hesitant, maybe even wary of Chanyeol. He almost flinches when Chanyeol crawls towards him wraps himself all around him, staring down at his cold, pale lips, but he melts quickly against Chanyeol's chest and Chanyeol's mouth.

Chanyeol kisses him slowly and tenderly. He kisses with his lips and with his hands, touching Baekhyun's face, searching until he finds new skin he hasn't explored yet. Chanyeol kisses Baekhyun like he has never kissed anyone else before, afraid to break him, painfully aware that he's breaking him - but he promises himself that he'll put all the pieces together and heal him properly when he's done. Baekhyun is slow and lax in his arms, still sluggish now that the sun is still out, almost drunk. Chanyeol kisses his fingers, one by one, making Baekhyun smile in a silly way.

“What?” he asks, sucking Baekhyun's pinky finger into his mouth. The giggle turns into a quiet sigh. “The things you do, they're so unreal and cheesy. It's like I'm in a romance novel. It's nice.” Baekhyun looks up at him, his face half hidden in the shadow. His eyes are unreadable. “You're so nice that I can't help but ask myself where is the trap. You were this nice last Halloween too...” He smiles, weakly. “Don't listen to me, it's the sun. It always makes me feel a little dizzy and talkative.”

Chanyeol doesn't insist, but wraps a strand of Baekhyun's hair around his finger and pulls playfully. He knows Baekhyun doesn't trust him, but he has no intention of betraying him this time, nor he plans to disappear in the future. He wants this old boy with lonely eyes. He wants Baekhyun to keep him.

“Tell me about your life, before were you Turned,” he asks, taking advantage of Baekhyun's temporary weakness to ask something he's wanted to ask a lot of times in the last two days. Baekhyun stretches like a cat and pretends he didn't hear the question. “Please,” adds Chanyeol, for good measure.

The blunt light of the flashlight shows him that Baekhyun at least appreciates the politeness. “I don't remember much but I was the son of a merchant. My father dealt with weapons.”

There are so many things Chanyeol can ask. Was Baekhyun a lively child or an introvert? Did he like playing outside? Did he like the sun? Did he have a lover? Instead he asks, “Was it an accident? Your Turning?”

Baekhyun keeps quiet for so long Chanyeol thinks he's made him uncomfortable. He probably has. “You don't have to answer if you don't want,” he says, at the same time Baekhyun mutters, “It wasn't an accident.”

They look at each other for a moment, not sure if they really want to talk about this. “I was sick,” confesses at last Baekhyun. “Asthma. I couldn't even leave my house. My sire offered me a way out and I accepted it, because I wanted to see the world, I wanted to run without being afraid of having a fit. I wanted to breathe.”

All the pieces falling together, it dawns on Chanyeol, the truth. Baekhyun, who takes deep, long breaths when he's nervous and slow, steady ones when he's focused. When he was a child, he couldn't breathe.

“Then why are you wasting your second life like this? At home?” he asks. Now he's being exceptionally rude and he knows, but Baekhyun just shrugs.

“Everyone needs something to live for. If you don't have it, you look for it until you find it. I've looked for a long time and found nothing. I was tired. I gave up.”

Chanyeol kisses the self-pity out of his face. Baekhyun's cheeks are so tiny, they disappear under Chanyeol's hands. Chanyeol kisses his eyes close and drags him down again. He wants to leave the shape of his lips all over Baekhyun, down his collarbones and the lines of his sternum, his bellybutton, and up to his neck and shoulders and the insides of his wrist, until he stumbles onto Baekhyun's lips again. He feels Baekhyun slowly wake up under him just as, outside, the sun begins to disappear behind the horizon. The easy, relaxed kisses turning into a frenzy of choked moans and soft bites that don't break the skin - they only break Chanyeol's self control, until he's rubbing himself on Baekhyun's body like an animal in heat. He likes thinking that it's because of him, Baekhyun is coming back to life because of him.

“You can give up again,” he says, “and I'll come to wake you up.”

It's cruel and stupid, and he doesn't need to see the hurt in Baekhyun's eyes to know he shouldn't make such a promise - one he can't keep. He has no ground to ask Baekhyun to trust him, but he can create one. He will show Baekhyun, he will be persistent and silly, until Baekhyun will be utterly sure that Chanyeol won't allow him to die alone.

“Don't say these things Chanyeol, I...”

They hear a crash upstairs and then the alarm explodes, roaring throughout the house like a boisterous, shrill, prolonged cry.

“What the hell is happening?” exclaims Baekhyun, quickly putting his clothes on and jumping out of the alcove and in the dark corridor.

“I don't know. Do you think it's her?”

It makes no sense. Chanyeol didn't tell anyone they were here. He stops Baekhyun before he ventures upstairs.

“Stay here. We don't know what set off the alarm, but if it's her, she'll be waiting for us and she'll kill us on sight.”

Baekhyun easily breaks his hold. “So should I simply wait here until she comes to kill me like a rat?”

“The basement has many rooms, like a labyrinth, and she doesn't know where we are.”

It's the most logical plan, but it doesn't sit well with Baekhyun, at least according to his defiant face. “It's useless, you're a human! She can hear you breathing from upstairs.”

“Then let's split up. I'll distract her. You call Junmyeon and tell him something's happening here, alright?”

This time Baekhyun stops him. His eyes glaze eerily and his hand is tight around Chanyeol’s forearm. “You're not going anywhere without me.”

Chanyeol weighs his options. Baekhyun's safety is his first priority, but he knows he has little chances of getting out of this alive if he's on our own. Seulgi would kill him in less than a minute. Or worse, she could Charm him and use him against Baekhyun.

Next to him, in the darkness, Baekhyun's eyes start to glow.

“Don't come too close, I might be tempted to attack you,” he warns, and his voice sounds like it's coming from far, far away. “It's dangerous, but I have to be prepared. When I'm like this, I'm stronger than her. Just... don't come too close.”

Chanyeol takes a step back. He can see Baekhyun under the white, blunt light of the flashlight. His hair color has changed, his skin is frizzling with power. Chanyeol doesn't need to look at his mouth to know that his fangs are longer and sharper now. He's getting ready for the battle.

They both jump, startled, when Chanyeol's phone rings, the stupid commercial song echoing distorted against the low ceiling.

“Jin-ah, wha-”

“It was Seungwan, Seungwan was the mole, Chanyeol... I am so sorry, I had no idea...”

Seungwan, pretty, charming Seungwan who entered in the police because she loved vampires and wanted to help them?

His sister is sick. He needed the money soon. It's... It's not his fault, ok? Please don't blame him, Chanyeol, he didn't have any other choice...

Chanyeol curses. She was talking about herself... Stupid Seungwan. Silly, naive Seungwan…

“But how did she know our position? I didn't tell her!”

“She tracked your phone when she realized you wouldn't tell her your location.”

Chanyeol curses again. There's something wrong. He can't quite figure out what, but he knows that something is wrong. He turns towards Baekhyun, hit by a dreadful need to check if he's alright, and he sees him kneeling on the floor.

“I'm sending you backup, Chanyeol, but I don't know how much it'll take.”

Jin-ah keeps talking but Chanyeol has stopped listening to her. His whole attention switches onto on Baekhyun, curled on himself on the ground. The faint glow that surrounded him falters, like the light of a broken lamp, three, four times, before it disappears one last time.

“Jin-ah, call Kim Junmyeon and tell him we're in trouble, he'll send someone too. Sorry, gotta go!”

He hangs up without saying goodbye and turns to Baekhyun, shaking on the ground.
“What is happening? Baekhyun?”

He helps him stand up, but Baekhyun's body falls against his like a dead weight.

“A magic circle... Salt, silver and sulfur... It's the same thing she used against me and Sehun in the woods...”

“But I don't feel anything...”

“Silly, you're human...” Baekhyun half-chuckles, half-coughs. “It won't affect you, but me... I can barely move... And I can't leave the circle.”

“But if she puts a circle against vampires inside the house... That means she can't enter either?”

It doesn't make any sense, why would she... Then the smoke invades the house and Chanyeol understands. Seulgi wants to burn them alive.

O, I am death, and none can tell
If I open the door to heaven or hell
No wealth, no land, no silver nor gold
Nothing satisfies me but your soul
O Death, I come to take the soul
Leave the body and leave it cold
O Death - A. Van Roekel

Chanyeol takes Baekhyun's wrist and runs. He doesn't care if Baekhyun is slowing him down, he just keeps pushing forward and dragging the vampire with him. When they get upstairs, they can only see fire. Baekhyun groans and Chanyeol makes a one-second decision and dashes towards the entrance hall just before the ceiling crashes down on them. He never leaves Baekhyun's hands.

“It's a trap,” says Baekhyun, “she'll be waiting for us.” He can barely talk. His fingers are weak in Chanyeol's hand. Chanyeol looks at the collapsing house, wonders how old it was and how fast it burned around them. If they stays, they're dead anyway.

The night is chilly and Chanyeol doesn't have a coat. The cold is a hardened warrior. It punches Chanyeol in the face and in his chest. The boy feels his lungs collapsing under its violence. But it also wakes him up, pumps shock into his veins.

He doesn't see the arrow, but he hears it. His hands jerks before he can realize and he feels the harsh clang of silver on silver. He hadn't even realized he had unsheathed his dagger. The deflected arrow penetrates the snow between him and Baekhyun.

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun cries, “the circle.”

If Chanyeol manages to disrupt it, Baekhyun will be free, but if Chanyeol leaves Baekhyun behind to break the circle, Seulgi will probably kill Baekhyun while he’s unguarded and vulnerable, grounded by the magic field.
There’s no time to decide. He deviates the path of another arrow, feeling more alive than he's ever felt. It's the Bond, he realizes, his and Baekhyun's Bond, imperfect and broken and almost gone, but its last shreds gave Chanyeol the strength to get up and now they’re pushing him to fight, to defend his lover even when his body wants to give up. His head spin from the fatigue and the pressure of Baekhyun’s power trapped in his veins. There's a whistle in his ears, under the crackling of the fire eating the house. Baekhyun’s voice whisper at his soul.

Take down the circle Chanyeol. I won't die, trust me. You told me you wouldn't allow me to give up.

Chanyeol takes a deep breath. The air smells of snow and fire. Chanyeol can feel it, penetrating in his lungs, singing in his veins.

Go, sings Baekhyun, and Chanyeol goes.

He catches a glimpse of silver, barely a sparkle from his left, but he keeps running. The arrow graces his shoulder, but it wasn't meant for him and he doesn't turn to see if it reached its target.

Chanyeol runs and runs and he almost misses the circle, white salt and darkened silver with just a dash of yellow sulfur powder, so thin that it's almost swallowed by the candor of the fallen snow and the darkness of the early night. But he sees it, and he also sees Seulgi, right behind it, nocking another arrow and getting ready to throw it at Chanyeol to stop him.

But it's too late. Chanyeol doesn't feel anything when he steps on the circle.

Absolutely anything changes for him. He knows the magic is broken because he can see Seulgi's face, deformed in the most horrible mask of rage he has ever seen - she doesn't even look like she's ever been human right now - just before Chanyeol knocks into her. They fall into a tangled mess of limbs and the only thing he can hear is Seulgi's long snarl and the snap of her fangs near his neck.

He tries to push her away and his dagger meets the resistance of her skin... and burns it. It sinks in her side like she's made of butter and she screams. He rolls away from her and, in a moment of panic, he realizes he's lost his weapon.

Seulgi gets up, wounded, bleeding black blood darker than her eyes. Chanyeol knows by experience that she’ll attack him now, the open wound on her side compelling her to find blood in order to heal faster. The silver dagger has taken away her superhuman speed, but not her strength, and Chanyeol doesn't have any other weapon to defend himself. He has no way to stop her when she lunges at him baring sharp fangs, no way to stop her when, half blind from pain and fatigue, she plunges her fangs on his shoulder. The winter night is cold, the December air is colder and the snow is the coldest, until Chanyeol feels the ice of Seulgi's poison in his veins.
He screams, because he knows what's happening. He feels it running down his veins, corrupting his body. Seulgi is Turning him.

“Leave him.”

For a moment, Baekhyun's voice is absolute. Chanyeol feel it echo in his bones, shaking the deepest core of his body. Seulgi heats it too. Her eyes snap open, but they're dazed, almost like... she's Charmed. She fights the order, growls, trashes. She loses.

“Leave. Him.”

She lets Chanyeol go and he falls on the ground like a ragdoll. He looks up and sees Baekhyun. The tip of a silver arrow peeks from his chest, just shy of his heart.

Chanyeol wants to get up and cradle him in his arms because he looks so pale, so lost, on the brink of falling on the other side. But he can't get up. He can't feel his body anymore. His limbs have gone numb, useless. He knows it's just a short blessing. Soon enough, everything will start burning like hell as Chanyeol is stripped from his right to live and thrown back in the world as a creature of the night. Undead. Alone.

He whimpers. He's never been afraid, nothing has ever scared him, but he can't help but crying now because he knows he's going to die. He knows it will hurt. He knows he’ll come back in a world without Baekhyun. The Bond in him cries for completion.

“I'm sorry, it looks like I broke your bitch. And I broke you too.”

Seulgi's voice is cold, like the poison corrupting Chanyeol's limbs. Baekhyun's voice is colder.

“Kneel.”

“What are you trying to do, my sire? Or should I call you darling? You used to like it so much when I called you darling. It made you smile, like a simple, little fool. Won't you smile for me, Baekhyun, one last time? Before you die.”

Baekhyun takes another step, coughing dark blood.

“I was the best archer of the Fil Rouge, didn't you know? Of course you know. I wonder how much it will take for that silver to stop your heart. It should've already happened, to be honest. I'm surprised you resisted for this long.”

“I will end you.”

“No,” she says, lovingly, with a smile of cyanide - death hidden under the smell of almonds and marzipan, poison in a sweet disguise. “It's already over Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol can only watch, horrified, as Baekhyun stops, unable to take another step. His body looks... frozen, almost petrified. Almost like... he's dying.

Seulgi gets up, finally free from Baekhyun's voice and from his will.

“Goodnight, my darling B.”

O Death, O Death
Won't you spare me over 'til another year?
O Death - A. Van Roekel

Seulgi gets up and Baekhyun falls to his knees in front of her.

He looks like a statue. Soon enough, he will really turn into one. Chanyeol wants to get up and warm him, but he can barely move.

“You're really crying for a vampire?” asks Seulgi, incredulous. “I thought you were a real hunter, Chanyeol.”

“I'd hunt you, not him. You're the monster.”

Seulgi kicks him, right in the stomach, where it hurts most, but Chanyeol is too numb to feel it. He laughs in her face and she kicks him again.

“Don't worry, you'll reach him soon. Or maybe not, there's no Heaven for demons like him.”

She raises her claws to finish Baekhyun, but she stops mid-air, confused, listening.
A moment later, a black shadow dashes through the courtyard and tackles her to the ground. They roll on the dirt, fallen snow clinging to their clothes like dandelion seeds.

Seulgi tries to claw at her opponent's face, but he easily stops her hand and pins it to the ground, as he sits on top of her.

Chanyeol recognizes him. It's Sehun, but he doesn't look like a teenager anymore, nor a lost child. His eyes are burning, his hair glows with power and the tips of his sharp fangs peek from his upper lip, trickling poison on Seulgi's neck.

Seulgi stops fighting as soon as she sees his face. “Sehunnie, is that you?”

He freezes.

“Sehunnie, don't you recognize me? It's me, Seulgi, don't you remember my face?”

He doesn't answer, but he's clearly confused.

“They took you away from me. That horrible monster took your memories away! You would never hurt me, you love me!”

He shakes his head. “I don't know you.”

“Liar!” she screams, shaking him away. He tries to catch her again, but she's fast and nimble like a mountain cat, and he's still disturbed by what she said. She doesn’t waste time. She goes straight for Baekhyun.

“When he'll die,” she shrieks, “the spell will break, and you'll remember about me again. You'll love me ag-” She stops, mid-sentence, her mouth frozen in a little, dazzled oval, like she's finally remembered something important. She coughs dark blood. There's a pale, bloodied hand where her heart should've been. It disappears in her chest, leaving a black hole behind it. She coughs some more blood, falters, takes a few tentative steps and almost falls over.

“Sehunnie,” she says, like a prayer. It's Kang Seulgi's last word, before Kim Minseok beheads her with a flash of silver claws.

I can see you fall apart
You turn away and fade out of sight
But I hear you call in the night
Let it go, let me hold you this time (don’t say a word)
O Death - A. Van Roekel

Minseok is the first who kneels on Baekhyun's side. His hands sizzle and burn when he pulls on the tip of the silver arrow to take it off. Chanyeol can see the smoke coming from them, but the pain doesn’t stop him. The arrow comes out with a clear snap. Minseok looks at the wound and curses violently in a language Chanyeol can't recognize, before he calls for his mate.

“Sehun, come here!”

The young vampire doesn’t hear him. He’s still standing in front of Seulgi's fallen body, looking at her with a puzzled expression, as if he’s trying to find the missing pieces.

“Sehun!”

The urgency in his mate's voice startles him and he quickly appears at his side, faster than Chanyeol can process.

“She said she knew me, she said I loved her...” he murmurs, shaking his head.

“And she died for it. You're mine, Sehun.” For a moment, the scar wrapped like a choker around his throat glows silver, the color of the moon reflected on the white snow. It stands out on his neck, the proof that Seulgi almost killed him and took away his mate. Almost. Minseok is a small vampire with bottomless eyes, the sharpest claws and an endless pride. In the end, he got his revenge.

Sehun still looks lost. “But she...”

“Sehun! Your brother is dying, do you want to help me or not?”

The boy nods, still dazed.

“We’re losing him… Call him, we must keep him here.”

“Hyung, hyung can you hear me?” he asks, eyes flashing gold, as he holds onto his brother with his everything. Baekhyun tries to say something, but the words come out gurgled and unintelligible. I’m here, wants to say Chanyeol, let me see him. If he’s dying, let me see him one more time…

He can only trash weakly from where he’s fallen on the crushed snow, but it’s enough to attract Minseok’s attention. “The human, bring him here,” he hisses, “quickly!” Chanyeol can barely feel it when Sehun pulls him up to his feet and drags him in front of Baekhyun.

“Park Chanyeol, right? Joohyeon’s son, the little thorn in my brother's side... Can you hear me?”

Chanyeol nods, daring to look at Minseok’s face. It’s like staring at a wild animal ready to lash at you and tear you to pieces.

“Can you see it? He's dying, and you're Turning. There is a way to save you both, but it's really dangerous.” Chanyeol blinks, urging him to continue. “I can feel the beginning of a Bond in you. It's barely there and it'll disappear in a few minutes if we don't hurry up. If we can complete it, you’ll be able to keep him grounded and the Baekhyun might be able to undo your Turning. However...”

“However?”

“If it doesn’t work, you’ll die.”

“Minseok, you can't!”

“Shut up, Sehun!”

“Baekhyun is not even awake, you can't take this decision for him,” pleads the younger vampire, but his mate doesn’t relent. “Baekhyun will be dead in a few minutes. Besides, he has already made his decision. He was the one who created the Bond and the only one who can complete is you,” he concludes, turning towards Chanyeol. “The choice is yours to make.”

“Will Baekhyun want me as a mate?” he asks, unsure.

Minseok snorts. “Did you listen to what I just said? You could die and you’re worried about Baekhyun not liking you enough to want you as his mate? You’re a fool.”

“Baekhyun chose you as his mate,” continues Sehun for him. “Can't you see it? He already Bonded with you.”

“If we do it... what will happen?”

“I honestly don't know if the Bond will stop the Turning, but Baekhyun is an ancient and powerful vampire. There are things he can do that not even I could dream of doing. But if you Bond with him, eventually, you will have to Turn anyway. You won’t be able to avoid it.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means that one day you will have to die, because you’re human. But you’ll be able to feel Baekhyun’s feelings, his anguish, his despair, his anger, as your own. They will keep you here, alive, they won’t let you go. You won’t want to go. Not knowing that you’ll leave him behind to suffer alone. Not knowing that he’ll probably die on his own if you leave him alone. A Bond is not something absolute, it won’t make you fall in love with him, but it will open your heart to him and his heart to you. If you do this, you’ll learn everything there is to know about this person, you’ll see a beauty in him that no one else will ever be able to see. And you won’t be able to let him go.”

Chanyeol wants to laugh in Minseok’s face because he’s already unable to let Baekhyun go. Baekhyun, who looks paler and paler. His fingers, cradled in Sehun's hands like a frightened dove in a cage, are unnaturally still, almost like they've already turned to stone. There is no time to dwell on what ifs and buts.

“What should I do?” asks Chanyeol, hoping his voice is not as frightened as it sounded in his head.

“You have to drink his blood.”

Chanyeol already knows it was dangerous, but for a moment Minseok’s words clash against his instincts. It’s not only the weight of years of training at the vampire school teaching him that ichor, Undead blood, is fatal for humans. There’s also some kind of inborn resistance, a revulsion for vampires that is entirely human. He can’t drink vampire blood, he just can’t. He’ll die.

Minseok reads the fear in his eyes, but he doesn’t relent. “You can do this, but you have to want it, desperately. You don't have to love him, boy, love is a feeling that belongs to the living. This is not about love, this is about survival. it's about knowing you won't ever be able to sleep knowing that this person is not by your side. If you fail, you will die, because vampire blood is even worse than poison for the likes of you. It will burn you from the inside, turning you to ashes. But you have to think that losing him and surviving would be even worse than that.”

Chanyeol's stomach turns, he doesn't know if it's at the idea of burning alive or if it's in fear of losing Baekhyun. He simply nods, again, and lets Kim Minseok pull him up until he's kneeling in front of Baekhyun.

“Chanyeol, please don’t,” pleads the vampire, in a jolt of lucidity. “It’s fine, I’ve lived more than enough... You don’t have to…” Chanyeol doesn't need to hear the rest. He knows Baekhyun won’t easily forgive him for doing this, but he can't stop now. It's Baekhyun's fault, for leaving everything in Chanyeol's hands.

“I'm sorry,” he says, “next time you don't want me to make the wrong decision, make me sure to stay alive on your own so that I won't have to do anything stupid.”

Minseok's claws open a path down Baekhyun's neck. The skin is so hard that the claws screech against it before finally cutting it, and Baekhyun's blood is so thick it's almost solid. It gathers in the hollow of Chanyeol’s palm excruciatingly slow, falling from the wound in drops of honeydew.

Chanyeol closes his eyes before he swallows it, not baring to look at Baekhyun’s desperate, pained face. He closes his eyes and takes a leap of faith.

Lying in the hollows of your heart
I see you lying awake in your ride
I’ll be a spark in the sky
When you want it, I’ll be on the other side
In the Dark - Cathedrals

Vampire blood is viscous, sticky. It clings to Chanyeol's throat, trying to choke him and explodes at the height of his sternum, impacting against his lungs. Chanyeol's heart stutter, hovers awkwardly between life and death, keep beating or collapsing on itself.

Chanyeol's conscience widens until he feels tiny like a little dot inside his mind, except it's not his mind anymore. It's his mind and Baekhyun's mind, gauging each other, taking daring little steps before they can meet in the middle. The weight of Baekhyun's memory implodes in Chanyeol's mind and he's almost crushed in the process.

Baekhyun is shy and anxious. He likes to read because it was the only thing he could do, as a young, sickly child confined to his bed with the only company of books and the son of the doctor who used to visit him every three days. He likes art and German philosophy. He loves Halloween night with the burning passion of a little kid. Baekhyun watches life unfold in front of his eyes with a greedy sense of want, but he doesn't dare to touch it. He likes to fool himself into thinking he doesn't need to mingle with measly humans and their vulgar lives, but he's just too afraid to be hurt and rejected. His skin is like steel, but his heart is fragile like a rose of crystal, ready to shatter on the ground in thousand tiny pieces at the very first gush of wind.

Baekhyun secretly loves to watch American dramas on Netflix. Baekhyun wants a phone but he has no idea how to use it. Baekhyun wants the sexy Joker he just met on Halloween night to take him home.

Chanyeol watches himself through Baekhyun's eyes, noticing for the first time how lovely the curve of his own Cupid's bow is, or the way his fingers flex protectively around Baekhyun's neck when he kisses him. There's so much to see, too much to learn. He only has one lifetime, when Baekhyun has too many.

He falls, with Baekhyun. He falls for the young son of the doctor who visits Baekhyun every week and his silly smile and he falls deeper, in despair, when Yesung leaves, disgusted with vampires. He falls for the girl who wanted Baekhyun for his money and for the girl who wanted Baekhyun for his powers, and he falls when both Yuri and Soojung leave, unsatisfied. He doesn't fall for Seulgi - his body refuses to cooperate, keeps reminding him that this is the enemy, no matter how Baekhyun's memory seems to try and convince him of the opposite - but he watches Baekhyun falling in love from her with morbid fascination, and he falls with him when she tries to kill him. Chanyeol falls for himself, just a little bit, in Baekhyun's mind, and he hates himself, just a little bit, when he realizes the devastating effect it had on Baekhyun.

The shock of it is enough to wake him up from his trance, and he realizes that Sehun and Minseok have been calling him for a while.

“It is not working,” mutters the older vampire.

But it is working, Chanyeol just feels overwhelmed and tiny. He has so little to offer against Baekhyun's century of knowledge. There's so little of him and so much of Baekhyun.

But right now Baekhyun is disappearing quickly and Chanyeol wonders how someone small and insignificant like him is supposed to fill the hollow inside Baekhyun's soul. The answer must be only one... blood.

He hears Minseok hiss angrily and Sehun somehow snarls needily, answering to the call of blood, when he collects Seulgi's dagger from the ground and uses it to slash his wrist open. But this blood is not for them.

He raises his wrist, brings it to Baekhyun's lips, “Comeoncomeoncomeon, please Baekhyun, please.” He feeds Baekhyun his blood, drop after drop, until the vampire's eyes are wide open, pupils blown so wide they almost disappear, drowned in all the red.

Chanyeol feeds Baekhyun his blood until Baekhyun's tongue shyly peeks out of his mouth to lick at the wound, hesitantly first, more and more hungrily when he’s collected enough strength. It's like feeding a baby, and Baekhyun's eyes flutter open, head falling to the side to better fit the curve of Chanyeol's wrist against his lips.
Having Baekhyun like this, literally hanging from Chanyeol's wrist, sucking onto Chanyeol's skin looking for more blood like a fledgling tasting blood for the first time, is so empowering it's exhilarating. He feels it like a rush to his head and Baekhyun feels it too, through his blood, and he moans in response.

His skin comes to life under Chanyeol's hands. He steals Chanyeol's warmth and Chanyeol's softness together with Chanyeol's breath. When he opens his eyes again, this time they're focused, but angered.

“What did you do, Chanyeol?” he asks, but Chanyeol doesn't hear him, too focused on the red on his lips - Chanyeol's blood, and he can taste it on his own tongue from their kiss. If Baekhyun were to ask, Chanyeol would gladly die for him right now, he'd offer his throat to Baekhyun like a feast, not caring if the vampire consumes him until the last drop. Baekhyun can feel it too, and the Bond tingles with his anger, building like a storm, like a river ready to overflow. Chanyeol has to hold tight onto himself to avoid being swamped by Baekhyun's resentment.

“I saved your life,” answers Chanyeol, simply.

“Why?”

There's no reason to answer, not when Baekhyun can read the reason himself in Chanyeol's mind. It scares Baekhyun to know that Chanyeol would bet his life like this, just to save him. It scares him and upsets him and makes him feel weak and exposed, but he has nowhere to run from the intensity of Chanyeol's feelings, from the intensity of his own feelings. When he tries to retreat to the safety of his own mind, Chanyeol just chases him and pulls him back, in his arms. Behind the resentment and the anger, he can feel the relief in Baekhyun, filling him with light.

“Why are you so angry at me? You wanted this too! You wanted this so much you didn’t even dare to hope because the disappointment would’ve crushed you.”

Baekhyun doesn’t crumble under Chanyeol’s accusation. “I wanted this to happen, but not like this. Not because it was the only way to save my life. Not because you felt like you didn’t have a choice.”

“I had a choice. I simply chose you.”

“But why? Why would you choose me?”

Why don’t you read it into my mind? Why are you so scared? I won’t leave. I’m here. You can touch me and hold me, you can take stare at my soul for hours. The Bond doesn’t lie.

Baekhyun only sighs. “Just because it’s something we both wanted so much, it doesn’t mean it was the right choice.”

“You may be right, but the choice was not yours to make. It was mine.”

“You don’t even know what this choice of yours means.”

Chanyeol kisses him, feeling Baekhyun's blood singing in his veins, his own blood echoing in Baekhyun's veins.

“Trust me, now I do.”

Baekhyun knows he means it.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | epilogue