too fragile for your love (too strong for your heart)

and under the moonlight (i become all yours) pt one

he lies on his back, body slack with disbelief, and watches hungry golden flames wrap around the rouge vampire's entirety, enveloping skin and sinew and bone like a starving beast, as he- he, it's a he, not an it- detaches his fangs from jake's neck, throwing himself backwards in blind terror, to escape the fire licking against his extremities.

it's useless. the flames follow him faithfully, as if signaling that resistance is futile.

a pair of cold arms wrap around jake's torso, pulling him upright. he registers sunghoon leaning over him and asking him if he's alright, but he's unable to tear his eyes away from the vampire who's, at this moment, literally being burned alive, shrieking and screaming something painful.

over the crackling and hissing of the raging fire and the slowly dying sounds of agony, he catches snatches of the conversation sunghoon's having with someone, over his phone.

"-catatonic, he's not responding-"

"-don't know, appeared out of nowhere- my telekinesis was useless against it-"

"-my fault, he came after me- awakened his power, i think-"

"-injured, heeseung hyung- i'm so sorry-"

after sunghoon hangs up, jake has just enough willpower to turn around and hide his face in the blond's shirt. for a moment, he braces himself, expecting to be pushed away by the younger, but sunghoon mercifully pulls him closer and lets jake wind his fingers in his shirt's fabric.

behind him, the now-lifeless vampire continues to burn.

***

"looks like it was the cashier who was turned," karina announces, walking out of the convenience store and making a beeline straight for heeseung, who's unscrewing a bottle of fresh o positive blood, having arrived at the scene a few minutes ago. "from what i can get on the security cameras, it was probably after he delivered all those lovely bottles of soju to our hoonie, here."

"would you stop calling me that, noona?" sunghoon demands, annoyance settling over his face. "i'm not a kid, anymore."

"you say that and then you do something stupid like try to get drunk when you know you can't," karina shoots back. "choose your image, sunghoon. you can either be a baby or a man. there's no in-between."

sunghoon flinches as if struck and jake frowns. "hey, lay off of him. it wasn't his fault that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. besides, if we hadn't been here, how do you know that some unlucky human wouldn't have got caught in the crossfire?"

sunghoon looks up, gratitude shining in his eyes. karina turns an appraising look on jake. "right, of course. sorry." she turns to heeseung. "you caught yourself a good one, here, lee."

heeseung's glare, which hasn't slid off his face ever since he caught sight of the deep puncture wounds on jake's neck, sharpens considerably. "watch your words, karina."

karina rolls her eyes. "jeez, loosen up a little, will you? you've been so uptight whenever i-" she cuts herself off, as if struck by a sudden thought. "unless you haven't-"

"yes," heeseung says, the single word, clipped and biting.

the dark-haired vampire bursts into delighted laughter. "oh my god, heeseungie- you really haven't- oh man, this is the best thing ever-"

"moving on," heeseung says, speaking over karina's giggles. "is there anything more you need or can i take my coven members home now?"

karina's laughter abruptly cuts off as she turns to look at the charred body on the pavement, burnt beyond recognition and currently being examined by a team of three vampires, sent over by the high council. "you can go. we'll clean up this mess and be done soon, anyway. your boy grilled him to the point of rendering dental records useless. there's no way anyone's going to get a clear signature reading from that heap of charcoal."

jake flinches violently.

"jake?" sunghoon says, softly. "you okay?"

he nods, acutely aware of heeseung's eyes tracing his every move. "i'm fine."

"have some of this," the older vampire says, holding out the just-opened bottle towards him. "it will make you feel better."

he accepts the offering, and takes a swig before trying to return it. heeseung raises an eyebrow at this action, but doesn't say a word, instead wrapping a large hand around the bottle to take it back. his fingers overlap around the metal, pressing over jake's own. the contact lasts for a few seconds before he realizes that karina's and sunghoon's eyes are trained on their hands, and he hastily pulls away, stepping backwards to put some distance between him and heeseung.

"uh, i called jay," sunghoon speaks up, clearly in a bid to avoid the impending awkward silence when heeseung makes no move to look away from jake and karina keeps watching the pair like a hawk. "he's going to be here in-"

a familiar black van pulls up a few meters away, before sunghoon can finish.

"this is goodbye, then," karina says, tearing her gaze away to bestow them with a small smile. "let's hope that this was just an isolated act of mindless villainy, and that it won't happen again in the foreseeable future."

you and me both, karina-ssi, jake thinks, as heeseung strides forward to hold the door open for them to climb into the van. you and me both.

***

the moment they enter heeseung's apartment, sunoo runs calculating eyes over jake's dirtied and disheveled appearance, and ushers him over to the most comfortable sofa in the living room, before asking, "what happened?"

jay throws himself down beside jungwon, the brothers bearing unnervingly similar expressions of solemnity while heeseung remains standing, opting to lean against a nearby shelf so that he can keep jake in his direct line of sight.

he thinks that it's a bit overkill, but at that moment, he can feel the fury emanating from their alpha's skin, and he thinks that it's better if he keeps his trap shut in regards to that particular topic.

ni-ki and sunghoon take their seats on either side of him, and he finally opens his mouth and starts to narrate the events of the last hour. sunghoon chimes in, during regular intervals, and on the whole, they manage to make it seem like a fairly harmless incident between them. except, the look on heeseung's face signifies that he's not fooled, at all.

silence reigns over the room after jake concludes that he's managed to awaken his power.

"i..." ni-ki hesitates. "i'm glad you're alright. both of you." he looks down at his lap, twisting his fingers together restlessly, like he does when he gets shy, and jake has to resist the urge to burst into laughter, at the besotted look on sunghoon's face. "also, congratulations on finally becoming a true vampire, hyung."

"true vampire?" he questions, curious about the term. "what does that mean?"

"you'll find out in a couple of hours," sunoo says, reassuringly. "don't worry. it will feel a bit disorienting at first, but it will be fine."

"that doesn't sound ominous at all," he says, only half-joking. "alright, i better be heading back home, now."

five indignant voices rise in protest.

"you don't need to go-"

"just stay here for the rest of the night-"

"that's unnecessary, hyung-"

"no way-"

"having a sleepover is part of the tradition-"

heeseung clears his throat emphatically, and everyone immediately quiets down. pushing off of the shelf he's leaning against, he retrieves a key card from his jacket's pocket. "in case all of you've forgotten, it's a working day tomorrow. i'll drop jake home."

A/N: here we are, with the second chapter! I hope you guys enjoy!