Switchblade - 25
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Taemin is running blind. The streets have become darker since his last time in Seoul. By Taeil's vague shape moving ahead of him, he can imagine that the vampire's super powered eyesight is helping him here. That's not a trait that passes on through drinking blood, unfortunately.
Taeil's shadow disappears into blackness, so Taemin can only run straight ahead. By now, the vampires they run from are probably way behind them. He thinks about calling out for Taeil to stop, but before he does, his foot hits something on the ground and he flies through the air. His elbows and knees slam into pavement, and he can feel his foot is caught on something soft behind him.
Something soft which says, "Ow."
"Oh, Taeil," Taemin says, hissing as he crawls away from the vampire. "I didn't see you."
"I fell," Taeil shortly explains, and Taemin can hear him getting up. "There's a pot hole."
"I'm bleeding," Taemin announces with a pout, getting to his own feet as well. Although he is, the pain is fast to fade. He'll heal. "That really hurt... I told you we shouldn't go to Good Night Sugar."
"I don't regret anything," Taeil says with a smile, picking a paper bag up off the ground where he'd just fallen. When he looks in it, he happily announces, "None of them fell out."
"Hm, well I guess it was worth it then," Taemin says, moving closer to Taeil. He could use a cookie right about now..
A bright flashlight suddenly turns on to them. They both squint in it's direction as a voice calls out, "Who is that?"
Taemin elbows Taeil, "Let's go."
"Wait," Taeil responds, "They're human."
Surprised, Taemin looks back in the direction of flashlight, trying to see the "them" behind it. There's a mutter of a voice that Taemin can't understand, and then a new voice calls out, "Cho!?"
"Cho?" Taemin questions.
Next to him, Taeil winces, nearly dropping the bag from Good Night Sugar. He does catch it, and now he turns towards Taemin, "Something's wrong."
"I get it," Taemin says quickly. The aching feeling he gets off of Taeil is only a more physical sense of what he saw Minho go through. "They knew you as a human."
The loud sound of a gun makes both of them jump, and Taeil is shocked when a bullet whizzes by his head. "I don't think they liked me."
A young sounding voice yells, "Drop the bag, or I won't miss next time!"
"Can we put it down gently instead?" Taemin inquires with a bit of a laugh, "Our cookies are in there."
There's another gun shot. The bullet doesn't hit either of them, but Taemin loses his laugh and sticks his hands straight up in the air, while Taeil drops the bag onto the ground.
Just now, a pair of young men step close enough for Taemin to see what they look like. One carries the gun while the other carries the flashlight. The one with the gun is good looking with neatly cropped light brown hair and a fur coat that makes him look pretentious. The one with the flashlight has red hair in a tone that nearly matches Taemin's, black makeup scribbled in a odd design on his face and a high collared brown jacket.
It's the one with the gun who speaks, asking Taeil, "You don't remember us, do you?"
Taemin can feel Taeil's headache, and in the corner of his eye can see the vampire cringing and looking away. "No, I don't."
"Vampire," the man's gun points at Taeil's head.
"Don't shoot," Taemin says hurriedly, "I'm his bonded, I'm human."
"Yeah right, you are," the one with red hair looks at him with slitted eyes, pointing the flashlight directly at his elbows, which are healing noticeably fast. "Some human."
"Wait," The gun is lowered, and the brown haired man squints at Taemin, "Aren't you Lee Taemin?"
"I'm a celebrity~," Taemin quietly sings, looking over at Taeil.
"Lee Taemin's a vampire?" The red haired one looks amazed, "But he was in the sun..."
"I told you, I'm human." Taemin puts his hands down, relaxed now that the gun isn't aimed at anyone. "Are you vampire hunters?"
Brown hair makes a show of turning the safety on his gun before he moves his coat back and sticks it into a barely noticeable holster on his belt. He nods at Taemin once, "I'm Jaehyo."
Red hair bows, adding, "I'm Yukwon."
"And this was Cho?" Taemin guesses, looking to Taeil, who pinches the bridge of his nose as if he has a migraine.
"Pre-vampirism," Jaehyo answers.
Taemin grins, full of hope, "Then maybe you're willing to help an old friend."
"He's not the person we knew," Jaehyo says with obvious hurt that Taemin can all too well identify with. He hurries on, though, to say, "But maybe we can help you, Taemin."
"How about two for one? All we're looking for is information. We want to know who exactly the members of The Council are right now."
"Fair is fair," Jaehyo replies, "If we help you, you have to help us."
"What do you want?" Taemin turns to Taeil, "Honestly, it's kind of hard to be around you. You're irritating my bonded. It gives me a headache too..."
"Just because we're around?" Yukwon leans closer to Taeil, frowning. "So that's how it is..."
"It shouldn't be a problem if he doesn't look at us," Jaehyo says, then changes his voice to a hushed whisper, "And speak in a different voice, correct?"
"That might work," Taemin looks at Taeil for approval. Taeil very simply turns around, facing away from the two hunters, and crosses his arms. When Taemin looks back a the two hunters, he notices that Yukwon is staring hard at Taeil. With a mind full of pity, he misses whatever Jaehyo's hushed voice just said.
"Sorry, what?"
Jaehyo sighs, and this time his hushed voice speaks slowly and with extreme emphasis, "Can. you. deliver. a. message?"
Yukwon turns his focus onto Taemin. There's something new, like resolve, in the look on his face. He uses a forced accent when he speaks in order to disguise his voice, "We hunners split inta teams. Don' even talk til the meeting date." He smiles half-heartedly, prideful of his strange accent.
Jaehyo's voice is still just a steady whisper, "But this is urgent. We were going to look for the leader ourselves, but it's safer if it's someone else handles it."
"I don't get it," Taemin looks between the two, "Why?"
"In case vampires are watching. We stay in small groups so that if we're caught, we don't drag down the whole team."
"So what's the message?"
"That it's finished. He'll know what it means," Jaehyo says.
Yukwon adds, "All we can tell ya is the area he's at."
Jaehyo nods, "There won't be a lot of humans out at night. Hopefully, you can find him."
"Well," Taemin is nearly exasperated by the lack of detail, "What does he look like?"
"I'll know him," Taeil says, the first indication that he's paid attention to the conversation at all.
"Hopefully he doesn't shoot at us," Taemin says, frowning a bit. "Alright, we'll do it. So can you tell us what we want to know?"
Yukwon uses his actual voice this time to speak, saying, "Just ask Zico. He'll tell you whatever you want to know."
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NOTE!!! I came very close to trashing this chapter and starting all over, it gave me a bit of trouble, so that's why it's a bit late. sorry T^T
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