Highness (Jeongcheol)

Jeonghan

"Turn here."

Jeonghan obeyed the order, guiding the car through a busted, wide-open iron gate, onto a long gravel drive. They passed through practically a mile of scrubby pine forest before arriving at what Jeonghan presumed must be their destination.

It looked like someone's summer hunting cabin. A depressing wooden structure with a vague air of abandonment. Jeonghan could just make out the banks of what appeared to be a small lake behind it. He parked the car, the quiet of undisturbed nature enveloping them. Hendrick didn't seem to be in any hurry to break Jeonghan's silence.

To be fair, he generally preferred it when Jeonghan kept his mouth shut.

Jeonghan surveyed the cabin skeptically as they made their way inside. Hendrick must have really been hurting to find a hideout quickly—this place wasn't nearly as grand and fine as his usual haunts. The living area was poorly furnished, a sprinkling of dust coating every surface. The room's one redeeming feature was a massive fireplace, almost big enough for someone to roast a whole deer in there, if that was their thing.

Hendrick stopped in the doorway to the living room, gesturing for Jeonghan to enter ahead of him. Jeonghan walked toward the back window closest to the fireplace, affecting an interest in taking a better view of the lake, in reality happy to get as far away from his captor as this horrid cabin would allow.

He stopped in his tracks before he could get there, held in place by a form on the threadbare couch, initially hidden from view by the angles of the room. Jeonghan rolled his eyes.

There was a dead body in this cabin. Not exactly a fresh one either.

He was an older man, probably somewhere in his sixties, waxen face covered with a shaggy beard. The cabin's owner, Jeonghan assumed. He looked at Hendrick, disgust curling his lip. "Christ, Hendrick! You didn't bother to clean up after yourself?"

The bigger vampire looked characteristically unrepentant. "I needed him."

Why the fuck would Hendrick need an accessible corpse? Unless...

Understanding dawned. Every living creature had a distinct scent. At least, Jeonghan had found that to be the case since the day he turned, and his enhanced senses had kicked in. Modern toiletries mucked it up a bit—fruity body washes, floral conditioners—as did feeding. For a brief while after drinking from a human, a vampire could take on subtle notes of their scent.

Jeonghan took it all in. Hendrick's out-of-character flannel outfit. The days-old corpse in front of them. Was this really how Hendrick had been evading Jeonghan's notice in town? He'd been masking his scent since their fight, spying on Jeonghan without leaving a trail. Jeonghan might even be impressed if his hatred could allow for it. His ex had never been quite so devious before.

That corpse looked awfully stiff though. "Have you been drinking from a dead man, Hendrick?"

Jeonghan shuddered at the thought. Blood from the dead was...dead, for lack of a better word. Sluggish. Cold. Unfulfilling. It was taboo among their kind. Considered disgusting and gauche. How far gone was Hendrick, to cross that line over and over, just to lurk in the shadows and spy on his old possession?

"Gross," Jeonghan said out loud, unable to keep it to himself.

"Clean it up for me," Hendrick ordered, seating himself on the ratty armchair opposite the cabin's dead owner.

Jeonghan sniffed. "And do you have tools I can use, or will I be digging in the hard ground with my bare hands like some kind of caveman?"

"Just dump it in the lake," Hendrick suggested airily.