Chapter Text
Mingyu had been cocky.
Naive, someone more benevolent would say.
The truth is, he’d just been plain stupid, although the adjective of choice would not make any real difference, at this point.
One of the first things young wolves are taught (along with basic shape-shifting knowledge and the importance of not biting other pups’ necks) is to not wander in the wrong part of the city. As soon as they get old enough to walk around on their own, the various areas and districts get drilled into their minds, their divisions and centers of influence, and those notions get promptly updated anytime there is some shift in power.
Despite all that and all his years of experience, Mingyu was still dumb enough to venture into an unsafe part of the city in the middle of the night, a neighborhood he knows to be completely under human jurisdiction and bustling with hunters - both professionals and amateurs. Mingyu was fully aware of what kind of street it was when he decided to walk into it, which makes him even more stupid since he daily preaches about safety to the youngest wolves of the pack and to the older ones as well, where they still are reckless despite their age.
It’s what Mingyu does, assuring himself his pack, the pack he’s going to lead in the future, is safe.
Correction: the pack he was going to lead.
That possibility vanished the moment Mingyu decided to take that road for the sole reason of it being the shortest one when he wasn’t even in a hurry.
It vanished definitively when he decided to be stupid enough to get fooled into walking into a dark, isolated alleyway to follow the whining cries of a dog in pain.
Although it might not seem like it, his brain was, in fact, working, telling him it was a trap.
But Mingyu’s heart? Oh, his heart was bleeding, already hurting at the possibility of a poor dog being actually there, injured and in pain.
Mingyu could have never left without making sure everything was fine.
There was no dog, obviously. In its place, a little enchanted radio that stopped playing the wailing sounds the moment Mingyu stepped on the nearly invisible magic circle traced on the ground.
Other than being generally more cautious, Mingyu should have noticed something was wrong before realizing there was no wounded animal. If only he’d been more focused, he would have felt the pungent scent of magic, the air rippling with it.
He didn’t, and that’s how he got here now, trapped and unable to move.
The very first instinct is to shift into his wolf form, hoping the extra strength and resistance will help him, if not to break free, to at least not being affected too much by the magic. But even the most basic traps are made to prevent the transformation, and Mingyu manages to shift for a couple of seconds before going back to his human form.
It’s probably the shock that makes him think about how he’s not even going to die with his clothes on, with the shifting having destroyed his t-shirt and nearly ripped his jeans. As if the state of his clothes would make any difference, once he’s dead.
Well, maybe it would for his pack. Maybe seeing his body with clothes on, with some dignity still intact, will make it hurt a little less for them.
Are they even going to return my body to my family?
The sudden thought makes the reality of his circumstances fall onto him at once, but where Mingyu expects panic, he only finds a stunned acceptance.
He’s going to die here, scared and alone, because he was too stupid and conceited to step away from a possibly dangerous situation.
It’s a foggy realization, the magic already doing its job on his body and senses, weakening him. He’s been down on the ground since he turned back into his human form, and now he’s curled up on himself, legs tucked together and an arm around them.
He could call somebody to his rescue, but the trap isn’t an amateurish one and it’s laced with a spell that prevents any electronic device from working. Mingyu’s phone, his watch, they’re all completely useless. Mingyu isn’t an expert in magic and enchantments, but he knows this must be professional hunters at work.
A shiver ripples through him. At least now he can be fairly sure his death is going to be quick, if he doesn’t count the time spent inside the trap. Hunters have too much to do and are too used to killing to drag an execution out. It’s going to be clean, possibly not too painful as well.
At the same time, any hope of fighting against an untrained amateur is gone along with any chance of survival.
The trap isn’t one made to kill a wolf.
Mingyu supposes those would be too expensive in terms of the amount of magic required and, consequently, of the compensation for the sorcerer to set it. Using that kind of trap frequently, for a simple routine killing, would bankrupt the city government. It’s not worth it. Especially when they can get the job done with their little deceits and this kind of spell.
It isn’t made to kill, at least not directly.
It’s almost elementary in its simplicity, just a means to immobilize him and drain him of all his energy. Leaving him weak, weaker than a human. Ready for when they’ll come for him with the rising sun, when he’ll be completely harmless.
Mingyu closes his eyes as a wave of nausea hits him. He tries to move with no result, and accepts that there is nothing he can do to get out of this situation. Despite his acceptance, a tear rolls down his face.
It’s— too soon. There are so many things he still needs to do.
Who is going to be the next leader, if he’s gone? What if Seungcheol gets challenged by an outsider? Who is going to protect Mingyu’s pack, then?
His mind starting to drift away is nothing but a blessing, and Mingyu barely reacts when he sees a pair of feet in front of his face. He doesn’t think much about not having heard any footsteps approaching him, attributing it to the magic dulling his senses.
When he looks up, he finds a dark figure looming over him.
So, his time has come.
“Are you here to finish the job?” he asks weakly, uselessly faking a bravado he doesn’t have.
With a fast - too fast - movement, the figure crouches down, and through the fog clouding his sight Mingyu can make out the face of the man who’s going to put an end to his too short life. Black hair framing a good-looking face, sharp eyes and sharper jawline.
It’s the fear-induced delirium talking, but all Mingyu can think about is that of course his murderer would look like the Angel of Death.
“What are you talking about?” the man says, frowning a little as he looks around, his eyes quickly shifting from Mingyu’s useless body to the ground beneath him. He trails a finger down and Mingyu’s eyes follow its movements as it traces what probably is the spellwork that's keeping him trapped.
It’s then that Mingyu notices it’s still night.
And while that could mean nothing at all, it makes his senses revamp enough to inhale deeply and feel it.
Under the scent of human magic, there is something else. Magic, still, but way more ancient. Even as weak as he is, Mingyu can almost taste it on his tongue. Something metallic, like blood. Something sweet, too sweet, like a peach left out in the sun for too long.
The creature that came for him is not human, and it definitely isn't a werewolf.
Had Mingyu been in a different state of mind, he would have asked himself why a vampire is using a typical human trap to kill a werewolf. While their respective kinds can’t be considered friends, their relationship has been… civil, at least. Laced with mutual distrust and dislike and the tacit accord of not bothering each other, not when the human kind is the bigger, common enemy.
Mingyu is in no condition to think about any of that though, unable to repress the spark of fear and the helpless sound that leaves him when the vampire grabs him by the arms. He braces himself, set on not making any other noise and facing death with dignity, when he gets hauled out from the spellwork’s confinements.
He takes a sharp breath, chest finally able to expand again and get filled with fresh air. Spooked, he looks up at the vampire’s face trying to anticipate what he’s going to do with him, why he hasn’t just killed him inside the magic circle.
But the vampire is unreadable, if not for the small line still present between his brows.
“So, how are you going to kill me?”
Mingyu doesn’t sound half as derogatory as he’d like to, his voice too weak, too shaking with fear despite all his resolve of being brave. As most hunters are basically nothing more than public employees, they usually don’t have much interest in wasting their time by being too cruel.
A vampire, on the other hand… Mingyu doesn’t know what to expect.
The creature sends him a scornful look. “Will you stop talking nonsense? You’re being loud.”
Mingyu shuts his mouth, seeing something akin to distress on the vampire’s features. As if he’s worried they’re going to be heard. His hands are still on Mingyu’s arms, as cold as ice.
“We need to get out of here. Can you stand?”
Nothing makes sense, but Mingyu is objectively quite out of it. Following a vampire’s orders might turn out to be yet another bad decision. He might be saving Mingyu from death by the hand of a hunter, only to take him… wherever he lives, to do to him whatever a vampire might want to do to a werewolf.
But, as crazy as it sounds, something about the vampire is making Mingyu feel—safe, almost. Safer than when he was all alone. Calmer. Perhaps it’s the near-death experience having compromised his mental faculties, but Mingyu feels like he can safely do what the vampire says. Like he should do so. Even his heart agrees with him, its pacing slowing down. Trusting.
And what does Mingyu have to lose, anyway?
He presses his hands to the ground trying to push himself to an upward position, but he barely manages to sit up when another wave of nausea hits him and the world starts spinning around him. Even now that he’s not under the spell anymore and there is no constant stream of lifeforce leaving him, his limbs still feel like jelly.
“I… I don’t think I can stand,” he admits weakly.
He feels tired, he feels sick. Afraid the vampire is going to leave him here alone.
The vampire is watching him with his head tilted, calculating. He’s handsome, Mingyu is gone enough to admit that without feeling weird.
“W-what?” he sputters when the vampire removes his coat with a swift movement.
Weak as Mingyu is, blood still rushes to his cheeks when the coat gets wrapped around his shoulders, and it’s only then that he realizes not only that he’s bare chested, but also that his body is shaking from the cold, skin covered in goosebumps.
The coat is nice quality, the fabric soft against his skin. It doesn’t hold any body heat from its previous wearer, but Mingyu lets himself get bundled in it anyway. The vampire wraps the coat around his frame with quick and efficient movements, making sure it doesn’t slip off his shoulders. His eyes never leave Mingyu.
If he wanted to kill Mingyu, he wouldn’t have cared about him being cold, would he?
Inexplicably, Mingyu’s heart starts beating faster.
The vampire arches up a brow. “There’s no need to be scared,” he says, probably hearing the change in his pulse and attributing it to fear. “But we really have to leave. So…”
He moves, and it might be Mingyu’s wolf instinct activating in being so close to a vampire or just his nerves being too frail after the night he just had, but he scoots back with a flinch, voice embarrassingly high-pitched as he asks, “What are you going to do to me?”
The creature blinks, and Mingyu realizes it’s the first time he’s seen him doing it. It’s a slow, deliberate movement.
“I told you you’re being too loud and that we need to leave.”
Mingyu nearly yelps when the vampire hauls him up in his arms with no effort at all. Mingyu isn’t frail or small by any means, and with his body limp with exhaustion he must feel way heavier than he already is, but vampire strength, his brain provides through the cotton that’s filling it, then blasting out a series of enemy enemy enemy, danger danger danger.
A hand pressed on his mouth to stifle down any further whimpering, the other rests on the vampire’s shoulder to balance himself. He doesn’t need to, as the vampire’s hold on him is firm, steady. Mingyu’s breath grows faster, and the hand covering his mouth does not help him from hyperventilating. Cold fingers pry it away from him.
“You’re only going to feel worse like this, you silly dog.”
It’s not said with particular contempt, nor with derision. Somehow, breathing still doesn’t come easier.
The stranger’s voice is pitched so low, so deep. His face is so close, Mingyu can see it in all its perfection. Immaculate pale skin, the straight line of the nose, pretty eyes. Scent so sweet and potent it’s clogging his nose, making him feel lightheaded.
Mingyu curls up better in the vampire’s hold despite himself, face pressed against his shoulder, and lets himself get carried. He’s too weak to fight. Too tired to protest.
It isn’t long before the vampire stops walking. “Where do you need me to take you?”
Opening the eyes he didn’t realize were closed, Mingyu can see they are now out of that neighborhood and in a more neutral territory, not as dangerous anymore. Feeling observed, he looks up and the hair on his nape stands up in alert, an instinctive reaction.
The vampire is indeed staring down at him attentively, waiting for an answer.
Every fiber of Mingyu’s being is telling him not to reveal anything about his home. It’s a stupid fear to have, as it’s not like a lone vampire is going to attack a pack all by himself. And even if he wasn’t alone, Mingyu is part of the most prominent pack of the city. He wouldn’t be revealing any secret information by sharing where they live.
There is something, though, that makes him falter. Some primal instinct, the same that’s making his blood boil at the proximity with a vampire, the same that’s yelling at Mingyu to get away, to stop feeling so safe in this creature’s arms.
Arms that tighten around him as the vampire huffs with impatience.
“If you don’t want to tell me, should I just leave you here? Or…” his voice drops an octave lower. “Should I bring you to my place until you feel better?”
Something flares up through Mingyu’s body, something he’s not sure is his fight or flight instinct. His stomach clenches, heat pooling in it. He tries to not think about the fact that the vampire can hear and feel all the reactions of his body, and curls his hand better on his shoulder.
The vampire saved him from a hunter trap and then carried Mingyu’s big, heavy body around for half of the city. Surely it wasn’t all just to kill him on the threshold of his home.
“I’m with Choi Seungcheol’s pack,” Mingyu mumbles after a while, surrendering to whatever his destiny might offer after this.
The vampire nods once, and then they’re on the move again, way faster now that the destination is clear.
Mingyu is used to the world blurring around the edges when he goes on a run in his wolf form. But even if he wasn’t, the feeling wouldn’t bother him anyway. He doesn’t even see the world around them as they run, his eyes fixed on the vampire’s face.
It really is a beautiful one.
If tonight had gone differently, Mingyu wouldn’t have minded for that face to be the last thing he saw before he died.