Switchblade - 17
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Taemin lies half awake. His bed is IU's couch, covered in a sheet with an added white pillow and bright yellow blanket. This is their last night here, of course, before they move. He wonders if he should move with IU at all. She's not necessarily in danger just because she allows him to speak his views on her site, is she? She's in more danger if she stands in the way of his murder, he imagines.
That's not the problem weighing heaviest on his mind, however. More and more, what the bondeds said gets into his head. He's been killing innocent people. He knew that already, more than likely, but then to be bonded is the same as being a vampire - you're cursed, you're diseased.
Sungmin wasn't cursed...
"He was cursed," Taemin whispers to himself, "They would torture him and kill him and use him. I saved him."
You murdered him.
"Did not." Taemin rolls over, thoroughly annoyed with his own thoughts. He pulls the blanket over his head as if to hide from them, but of course they're still there. They shift onward. Even vampires aren't necessarily evil, they say, you must not think Onew is very evil..
"Onew is the worst," Taemin mumbles sleepily, "He's the worst.."
Even though his head throbs in pain, Taemin soon drifts off to sleep. He never seems to have dreams any more, just a vision of darkness that will wake him after a few short hours with a feeling of fear.
That's if something doesn't wake him up before then, as it does tonight. A loud thump sound has him sitting up straight before he's even fully awake again. He sees a figure in the door and reacts fast, dropping off the couch to reach just beneath it where his switchblade hides.
The figure comes at him so fast. He needs more than his switchblade - he needs vampire blood. He's only just flipped the blade out when the figure crashes down on top of him. He grasps his switchblade just barely as he's pinned to the floor, but he's given not a second before teeth are tearing into his neck.
Taemin screams. The sharp teeth hurt him like nothing he's ever felt before. This must be a nightmare. It's just a nightmare. Wake up.
Jonghyun wakes up violently when water is poured onto his head. He's too busy wiping his eyes to know who he's speaking to as he shouts, "Fuck! What the fuck!?"
"It's water," a voice briefly explains, "It makes you clean."
"Joon!? What the hell!?" Jonghyun clears his eyes enough to see the vampire, grinning ear to ear. He finds himself in a bathtub, sprawled out inside of it with his clothes fully on. That part is good. He can remember the last time he found himself naked around Joon, and it wasn't a pleasant experience...
"I saved your life, Jonghyun. For the second time," Joon is still grinning, "You owe me so big.."
"Yeah, debts, blah, whatever," Jonghyun stands up in the tub, "And I told you already, I remember my human life. I know you've saved me more than twice."
Joon's grin fades, and he looks genuinely thoughtful, "That counted as Onew's favor. You were just a human, I definitely didn't do that for you."
"Shut up. Whatever. Why did you save me and how and from what and where's Minho?"
"Should I explain the whole story?" Joon clears his throat and sits down on the side of the tub, "Sit down and listen."
"Depending on where Minho is, I might not have time for a whole story."
Joon gives Jonghyun a strange look. After a moment, he decides to simply go ahead with his story. "Lee Taemin posted a video on the internet."
Jonghyun huffs and sits down, "No fucking kidding."
"Well it was nothing, really, but The Council blew the fuck up about it. He was supposed to be dead years ago, obviously, so it's a huge deal that the public can see him alive and.. you know, blow to their power." Joon straightens up, "We tried to get Lee Taemin to fight with us against them before, but he went monkey shit and killed his other hunter friend and.. it was kind of terrifying."
"Do you mean ape shit?" Jonghyun was uninterested in hearing about Taemin, "Who says monkey shit?"
"People say it. Anyway, when we lost touch with Taemin, so did The Council, but they thought we still knew something about him so they actually came to us, ha."
"The Council came to you?" Jonghyun looks disbelieving, "Just to find one human? Seriously?"
"We've done more than you think against The Council, Jonghyun. Anyway, they don't just want Taemin. Suddenly they wanna get rid of all their old loose ends so nothing like this happens again. That's why they came to me. Everybody knows that I know where Onew is."
"You know where Onew is? You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Jonghyun crosses his arms over his wet chest, "We've been looking fucking everywhere for him."
"And you didn't come to me?" Joon looks shocked, "You know Onew. Of all the friends he had, who had sex with him the most?"
Jonghyun rolls his eyes. He does know Onew well enough to know that if he told anyone where he is now, it was probably a lie to divert The Council. "Yeah, so get to where I'm waking up in a bathtub."
"They came to us," Joon says again, "I told them that Taemin was asking questions about how to find Minho, but I didn't know where you were. They thought if that was true, Taemin would have found you by now. To make sure I was telling the truth, they brought me along to help them grab you guys."
"You like talking, don't you?"
Joon smiles at Jonghyun, "I can go slower, if you want."
Jonghyun stares at Joon until he finally continues, "If Taemin hadn't run into you guys, knowing how fucked up The Council is, I could've been killed. I'm not an idiot. As soon as an opportunity presented itself, I got out of there. You happened to be in the car I stole, and that's the story."
Jonghyun stands up quickly, "Minho is still with The Council."
"Kim Jungmo himself, last I knew," Joon shrugs, "I guess you wanna save him."
"I have to. You must know where they are."
"Do you think they'd have trusted me with that information unless it was to send people into a trap?" Joon shrugs, "Yeah, The Council has slipped, but not that much."
"Fine," Jonghyun looks deadly serious, "Where is the trap?"
Taemin opens his eyes slowly. Sunlight pours in through the apartment's window, but something is wrong. It wasn't a nightmare. His neck still hurts. "No," Taemin breathes, forcing himself to sit up on the floor, "What happened? What happened!?"
"Taemin," IU's familiar small voice speaks from the doorway to the hall. She's dressed in a long yellow nightgown and looks concerned, "You're awake."
Taemin almost slips on the floor as he hurries to stand. He looks around the room as if for evidence, and finds in in a towel that must have cleaned up blood from next to the couch. "What happened to me?"
"Taemin," IU tries to sound calm, but she does a rather poor job, "I think that.. you're bonded.."
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NOTE!! Hooo these nerves are familiar. Will this twist be okay, does this explanation make sense, what's even going on? I don't even know, so I'll just post it as fast as I can and be done with it. Please leave your comments, encouragement is good. :D
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