Unstitched Wounds

Chapter 13; Hiding in the Dark

 "You actually showed up?"

Min Yoongi cocks a brow, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans. "I told you that I would."

Clearing his throat, Jeongguk feigns nonchalance despite the genuine surprise that courses through his veins. "Talk is cheap."

"Not in my line of work." Yoongi rolls his shoulders and glances around the neighborhood with his nose tilted towards the sky. His nostrils flare. "I presume that you have a plan?"

"Of course." Extracting himself from the wall, he tilts his head in a silent gesture for the wolf to follow him. Yoongi falls in step with him easily. "The first thing I want to do is check the mansion."

"Mansion?"

Humming his acknowledgment, Jeongguk steps out onto the street and begins to lead him in the direction of the mansion. "It's the equivalent of a Nosferatu horde. A lot of the Highborn reside there, so it tends to be the hub of any Nosferatu within this city that are of importance."

"Why would you want to check there, then?"

"If there is a traitor among the Nosferatu, that is where they'd want to be," he explains idly. "There is constant access to any and all information of Nosferatu there and because it's so large, it's easy to remain hidden among them."

Yoongi clicks his tongue. "Hiding in plain sight."

"Exactly."

"Okay, if that's the point of this, then why in the hell are you dragging me there?" Yoongi's smile is crooked. "I'm pretty sure that you can smell the fact I'm a wolf from a mile away."

Unable to resist, Jeongguk cuts him a sidelong glance and smiles innocently. "I'll admit the scent of wet dog is a bit hard to miss."

Yoongi snorts out a startled laugh. "Oh, ha, ha. At least I don't smell like a damned flower shop."

"At least I smell good."

"Debatable."

Rolling his eyes, Jeongguk nudges Yoongi with his elbow and ignores the light flutter in his chest when his piercing gaze briefly meets his own. He forces his eyes away. "Either way, I already have a plan for that. It's a new moon so most are out of the mansion anyways. It should work out fine."

A strained silence stretches between them aside from the sound of their shoes scoffing the sidewalk. It's so disturbingly eerie. Seeing Yoongi grown into a man, being this close to him as he is now. Without fear of his jaws crushing his neck. 

Even stranger to feel his thirst, a constant reminder of what he is, and what Yoongi is. Enemies. Forever meant to hunt one another.

Yet the child inside of Jeongguk that has yet to die scorns that idea. Wants to reach out and grab his sleeve, feel his warmth beneath his fingers and know he is real. That he is here. He hasn't allowed himself to mourn. To truly remember Yoongi, but surrounded by him now, he's flooded with it. Flooded with what they were. 

And what they were supposed to be.

"If I asked why everyone won't be at the mansion would you answer?"

Jeongguk shakes his head. "Nope."

"Figures," Yoongi mutters under his breath. "What's your so-called plan to get me into the place without being detected?"

With a smirk, Jeongguk presses his finger to his lips. "It's a secret."

Yoongi arches a brow. "There is no plan, is there?"

"Please. I'm not an idiot." Jeongguk runs his fingers through his raven hair with a huff of mild annoyance. "Of course I have a plan. Everything is riding on this, so I wouldn't be stupid enough to think I'd get away with it without a plan."