White Noise - Part 33
Notes | Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31
32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | Epilogue
Minho woke up feeling strange. He was well rested, but it felt off. Something was missing. Maybe, he thought, he just wasn't used to being well rested.
He opened his eyes, and another face hovered over his own. "Oh, hi yums!!" a boy exclaimed.
Minho pulled his blanket up to his neck as if it might protect him, looking at the familiar face with wide eyes. "You--"
"Sorrrryyyyy!" he exclaimed, stepping back from the bed. "You were just so still, I wanted to make sure you were breathing. Hey - you remember me, right?"
Minho sat up, blinking his eyes and looking closely at him. "You look familiar.."
"Maybe you'd recognize me if my glasses were on? Heh. I'm the guy you didn't kill! Brought you noodles... you remember? My name's Kwang."
"I remember you." Minho said, "You talked to me when I was stuck in the closet."
"Wow, you remember that!" Kwang grinned charmingly, putting his hands proudly on his hips. "I never thought you'd just escape like that. That's like a huge, rare, "how did this happen?" thing majig!"
Minho blinked, unsure whether or not he should laugh. "Well.. a friend of mine escaped on his own." he said after a moment.
"No way." Kwang said, "That's impossible. He must have lied."
"Yeah." Minho said, "Maybe.", though he believed Taemin still, not able to conceive a reason he'd lie about that.
Kwang grinned again, "I'm supposed to teach you some stuff. Can I sit with you?"
Minho wasn't sure he wanted the company right off. Then, as he moved in the bed, sitting up and hanging his legs off the side, he decided "Of course." out loud. At least it wasn't a vampire, anyway. And if there were things he needed to learn, well, he was better off to go ahead and learn them. Even if Onew was coming for him..
Kwang sat by Minho's side. He seemed much friendlier then he had the first time they met, not that he had seemed that bad then. Maybe he had Taemin-like optimism, or maybe - like Krystal - he was just weird. Minho remembered him saying before that he was kind of new - it seemed he must have been around for a while now.
"Different vampires have different rules about humans." Kwang told him, "So first of all, if you're in the room with vampires that you don't know about, you're supposed to only speak when spoken to. That's the one that got me in trouble a lot.. Besides, how do you even know if someone's a human or a vampire..?"
Minho realized quickly that he was still a bit too groggy for all this information. He reacted with just a shrug, and rubbed his eyes.
"Even worse than that is The Council. I have to show you what all of them look like, because, when you see a member of The Council you're supposed to do a super bow." Kwang stood up, showing an example by getting down on his knees on the floor. "Like this." he bent over, pressing his forehead quite close to the floor.
".. Really?" Minho asked, vaguely offended.
"Even normal vampires bow to The Council." Kwang said, standing up.
Minho shrugged again, and covered his mouth while he yawned.
Kwang plopped down next to him once again, "It's just kind of, how we gotta do it now. Believe me, the sooner you submit to the whole vampires are better than you thing, the better."
"Weren't you forced to be here?" Minho asked, his eyes narrowing a bit. "How can you just serve them? Especially when you don't even have a bond.."
"You get used to it." Kwang said, way-too-simply. "You can follow me around for a bit today and see how stuff works. Oh, I mean, this is just etiquette while you're at The Council.. you don't have to live here or anything. I guess you'll probably live with Siwon. You're lucky.. Siwon is one of the good ones."
Was he paid to say all this, or was he just brain-washed? Minho was pretty sure it was one or the other. He couldn't bring himself to comment on it, so he said, "Where's Siwon?"
"Something all serious and important is going on. Hey, I should take you for a walk around. You wanna grab breakfast first?"
Breakfast sounded way too good to pass up. Minho nodded, mentally preparing himself for an interesting day.
***
Onew was curled up in a shady corner of the hospital basement. Jungmo shook his shoulder gently until he woke up. Onew opened his eyes, and realized fast that a silver dagger was against his neck. He looked surprised up at Jungmo, who shortly explained, "I just didn't want you to jump at me before you realized who I was."
Onew scowled, "Thanks for that."
Jungmo stood straight, fitting the dagger into a small hilt in the belt of his jeans. "No problem."
"What did you find?" Onew asked, standing.
"Taemin's switchblade. Bloody. In the middle of our street."
"Something happened." Onew realized with a growl.
"Jay is going to watch out at The Council in case something turns up. You and me are going to a known vampire spot near where I found the blade. It's probably where they are.."
Onew shook his head, "I'm going home first. I need to feed my pet." he walked by Jungmo, who quickly turned to walk after him. "You have to be kidding. Feeding a pet is more important than saving them? The faster we save them, the faster we save Minho."
"That pet is Key, who might have useful information. So yeah, it is. Besides, you don't even know that they're where you think they are."
"It's a good bet." Jungmo said, and grabbed Onew's shoulder. "Do you want me to help you with Minho after we find them, or not?"
"I might not need your help." Onew said, wrinkling his nose. "If I'm lucky."
"Help me check out this place." Jungmo said. "Then you can feed your pet."
Onew sighed deeply, considering.
***
"I know you didn't stay up all day torturing the hunter." Key said, stroking his fingers along Jonghyun's back.
Taemin couldn't remember what happened, exactly. He didn't think he'd been asleep long... or maybe he'd been blacking out on and off. His arms were sore, he realized, and his hands were still uncomfortably taped behind his back. He would have started picking at the tape, but whenever he moved any of his fingers, it seemed they irritated his broken one.
He was lying under Jonghyun's arm, and the first thing he noticed when his eyes opened was that Jonghyun was shirtless. He himself, was still in his clothes from the night prior, and really - they weren't comfortable sleeping clothes. He cringed as he took notice of his tight pants riding up awkwardly.
Jonghyun sat up at Key's prodding, and Taemin was therefore freed to a certain extent, but he remained still - watching the two, who seemed only interested in one another.
"Not all day." Jonghyun answered Key after a moment, "Why, is it late?"
"Not that late." Key answered, "But you looked completely out of it."
"I just need to eat." Jonghyun said, climbing out of bed. "How was it at The Council?"
"Minho is bonded to Siwon now."
"What?" Jonghyun and Taemin asked together. Jonghyun and Key both glanced at Taemin, then continued talking to each other. "It's kind of a shame," Key said, "But apparently Onew is still after Minho. He caused a whole scene and ran away. Killed one of Nichkhun's favorite humans, too..." Key smiled fondly.
Jonghyun rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, sounding bitter. "He's a walking curse. How can one person cause so much trouble?"
Key shrugged. "I showed Minho the video. I thought it might be useful to. Seemed to bother him~."
"What video?" Taemin asked, his voice hoarse. After all that screaming, he wondered why neighbors hadn't heard him and called the police...
"Oh, do you want to see?" Key asked Taemin. "It's pretty good. Onew killing one of Minho's school friends. I'm sure you'll like it."
Taemin swallowed hard, trying to ease the dryness of his throat. "How did you get free?"
Key grinned at that, "Oh, didn't you want me to? Since you were showing me mercy and all that."
When Taemin was quiet, Key turned to Jonghyun. "You did good. Not messing him up and all," Key reached his arms around Jonghyun's neck, smiling. "I'm proud."
"See? I can behave." Jonghyun grinned, grabbing onto Key's hips, and Taemin closed his eyes as their lips met. Hearing was bad enough, wet smacking and moans that made his face heat up...
He did expect it to end, anyway, but the pair soon enough joined him on the bed. Taemin's eyes flew open, and he squirmed to the edge. Key, flat on his back beneath Jonghyun, turned away from their messy kiss and grabbed onto Taemin's thigh, dragging him closer again. "Where do you think you're going?"
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