Switchblade - 2
Masterlist | Notes | Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3
It's been just a couple of days since Taemin first heard the name Lee Joon. The new information has him excited, and he's been attempting to learn more about Lee Joon ever since. He wouldn't usually be going out into the night so frequently, but he needs the blood anyway, and if he's lucky he'll run into some money soon. He'd like enough to stay in a hotel room for one night. Just one night where maybe, just maybe, he could sleep for more than just an hour at a time...
Tonight is another especially cold night. It's been a day of light snow, so Taemin can see clumps of it here and there, not far from buildings with hanging icicles. The vampire blood keeps Taemin numb to the weather as usual, and a good thing, because anyone walking around at night with a huge coat on is more than likely human.
Lately, few humans are stupid enough to go out at night, which means the few that do are almost always targeted. The night has belonged to vampires for something like a year though, not that Taemin even knows what day it is - or is even sure what day it was. What could that really matter?
Taemin's advantage is that now vampires aren't really expecting to find humans on the street. They break into homes now, and are even more choicy about who they eat, especially since they like to make their humans last for a while. Taemin knows this well, because eavesdropping on them is basically his hobby. There's little about vampires that he doesn't know.
The street he walks down now was never an especially popular street before, but Taemin knows now that it leads the way toward the new Council building. The Council that Taemin knew was miles away, an old building that was huge, but managed to not stand out. The new one, they're still in the process of building that, and not without hinderance. The Council doesn't reign supreme over vampires the way that it used to - it's pissed more than it's fair share off.
Still, the building coming up here, it's become quite a busy street for the undead population. Taemin isn't alone walking it now. Three or four people walk just a few feet ahead of him, but he doesn't dare look up and count them. He keeps his head down and tries not to breathe. If they decide to listen for heartbeats, he'll have to fight them, and he'll be outnumbered. Vampire blood can make him strong like a vampire, allow him to heal like a vampire, but the one thing it doesn't take away is his heartbeat.
So he keeps his head down and his pace steady, and soon the vampires ahead of him turn into a smaller building. Finally Taemin looks up to examine the place. He knows it. He's never been inside, but he's seen more than a few vampires - many of whom are called 'important' go in. He's never seen a human go in though, so it isn't the type of place he's looking for right now.
Taemin looks around. Across the street, there's a string of vampires walking in the direction opposite of him. They don't look over at him, they just keep walking and talking amongst themselves. He hears them talking about needing to finish something fast. His heart pounds harder than he would like it too when he catches glimpse of a tall, curvy woman with long jet black hair. He holds still until he feels himself relax again.
Something about women always seems to set fear off inside of Taemin like nothing else. He dares to breathe a sigh of relief when she's out of sight, and he continues forward. The building he wanted is directly in sight now. Short steps lead up to a wide open door. This one, Taemin has been in before. From what he gathers, it's a place where they hold human prisoners, selling them to vampires too lazy to get their own, or giving them to vampires they mean to impress.
The other humans, with their warm skin, deep breaths, and pounding hearts, make a good cover.
Taemin slips into the building fast, sinking when he sees no one in the front room. It's a room that reminds him quite like a waiting room from a doctor's office, with not-so-comfortable seats lining the walls. He's used to seeing several vampires in here, but today he sees none, which means..
"Can I help you?"
A muscular man that Taemin has seen here before, directing vampires back and forth between rooms, leans into the doorway and looks right at him.
No one is brave like you. A voice says soothingly in the back of Taemin's mind, no one expects a human to be here.
"I heard I could find Lee Joon here." Taemin smoothly lies, keeping his eyes on the dingy wood floor beneath his sneakers.
"Of course." the man says slowly, with a gaze on Taemin that can be felt. "Come this way..."
That's far too suspicious. Taemin lifts his head and meets the man's deep gaze, frowning. "No thank you."
"You're Lee Taemin." says the man without hesitating, mouth in a scowl as he starts quickly towards him. Taemin moves faster, running forward to meet the man in the middle of the room. Never be predictable..
The weather was starting to get warm. The sun was high in the sky, drawing sweat from Taemin's burning hot skin. He'd been at this for over an hour, trying to learn as much as he could from the man that his mother had called from America to protect him. Aaron was a large black man with a strange way of speaking. He'd learned Korean, apparently, from Taemin's father. The story went, as Aaron told it, that the two had hunted together. Experience showed. As big and as old as Aaron was, he almost seemed nimble when Taemin tried to spar with him.
Taemin ran at him now, and Aaron was quick to move out of the way, heaving an exasperated sigh. He said something in English, and then looked thoughtful, trying to find the words in Korean. "Don't be.." Aaron started to say, "what they think ya are." he finished.
"Don't be human?" Taemin questioned, brows furrowing together in frustration.
Aaron waved a hand and shook his head, "What they think ya do."
After a moment, Taemin figured it out, questioning softly. "Don't be predictable?"
Aaron clapped and nodded, saying with animated enthusiasm, "Never be predictable!"
As Taemin meets the vampire in the middle of the room, he clutches onto his shoulders with a growl and pushes all of his weight towards him. The vampire barely budges, but Taemin is close up against him now. Close enough to bite dull teeth into the skin of the vampire's neck. It's not hard enough to draw blood, but the vampire cries out if only in shock and throws Taemin across the room, moving a hand over his neck.
Taemin finds the time to reach into his pocket and withdraw his switchblade, flicking the tiny switch that sends the blade shooting out as if it was never put away. Instead of getting to his feet, Taemin launches himself across the floor and shoves the silver blade through the vampire's ankle. The vampire cries out again, he's shocked again, but he reacts quickly and lifts his other foot to stomp down on Taemin, like he's trying to squash a bug.
Taemin grunts at the pain, his eyes wet as he jerks the blade from the vampire's ankle and thrusts it forward again, this time shoving it through the vampire's knee. Finally, the undead falls down. Taemin jerks his blade free once again and climbs on top of the man, laughing victoriously when the blade finds the vampire's chest, the tip pressing threateningly in towards the heart.
First, the vampire lifts his hands, ready to grab onto Taemin and throw him away. So Taemin stabs the tip in through the vampire's skin, feeling the resistance of bone against his blade. The vampire screeches and Taemin lifts his head to look around. Who knows how many other vampires are here, or might come in? Keeping just one hand on the blade, he moves the other dangerously over the vampire's mouth, holding it over it.
"Shh." he says softly.
The vampire glares at him.
"I'm looking for Lee Joon. Tell me where he is or, I'll kill you."
Taemin moves his hand away from the vampire's mouth quickly. The vampire is fast to say, "I don't even know who Lee Joon is."
Puzzled, Taemin stares at him for a moment. "Oh." he says, and after all, maybe the vampire who gave him the name before was just saying something to get Taemin to back off. It had worked. Or now, maybe this vampire was lying. Pouting, he said, "Tell me. Or you become my dinner."
"I've never heard of Lee Joon!" The vampire yells, and this time he makes a grab for Taemin's hand that holds the switchblade. Taemin pulls it back and stabs the vampire through his chest as fast as he can. Stunned, or maybe just in that much pain, the vampire freezes beneath him.
Taemin looks around. They were so loud, but still no vampires seem to be coming. Even so, he can't chance waiting around. He pulls his blade from the vampire's chest, then reaches down into his pocket, finding a thick wallet. He smiles and grabs hold of it before finally standing up, giving his bloodied blade a lick before he walks outside again.
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NOTE!!! Aaron is only as much of an original character as Taemin is. Aaron is actually based on Tech N9ne, my favorite rapper. He was created as seen in Bonded by _dawnofthedead_ for the Bonded RPG. I quite liked his role, so I borrowed him for Switchblade. He played a much bigger part in the original version of Switchblade that I wrote, but unfortunately I decided it was best to downsize his role in order to make things less complicated.
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