Highness (Jeongcheol)

Seungcheol

Seungcheol eyed the blood bag in his hands, cool to the touch and almost frosty on the outside from the blood bank's refrigerators. He'd seen an untold number of these bags in his career in medicine—had ordered them for patients time and again—but he'd never in his life expected to be drinking from one.

Joshua was eyeing him sympathetically from his spot in the driver's seat. "Kind of weird, huh?"

Seungcheol's brother had fetched three blood bags in total, leaving Seungcheol to sit in the parking lot while he did it ("What if you get all hangry and bitey?"). He'd caught the blood bank workers at shift change, only needing to compel one person to look the other way while he pilfered their loot.

Now they were pulled into the parking lot of a small park near Joshua's house, well away from the streetlights. Seungcheol sighed, running his fingers along the edges of the bag. "'Weird' is putting it lightly."

"We could go back to the house," Joshua offered. "Heat it up. It'll taste better that way."

Seungcheol shook his head. "No. I, uh, want to get it over with." He also didn't want to hurt Jeonghan's feelings if he ended up gagging over the taste. Drinking from Jeonghan had been one thing. Seungcheol had been lost to lust and pleasure, to the need to claim his mate.

Drinking blood from some random person felt a little different. Seungcheol was committed to the whole vampire-for-eternity deal, no doubts about it, but he just needed to...sit with it for a minute. The whole blood-drinking thing.

When a minute had turned into five, he glanced at Joshua, his younger brother still waiting patiently. "How do I...?"

He hadn't been making a conscious decision of it before, back in the forest.

Joshua looked confused before realizing what it was Seungcheol was asking. "Ohh. Let your demon out? Just...um, I don't know...relax? It wants to come out. You just have to let it."

Relaxing. Cool. Totally Seungcheol's strong suit.

He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. He focused on the buzzing sensation that had been building under his skin since their return to Joshua's house. It wasn't the gut-wrenching need from when he first turned, when Jeonghan had been missing, but it was still a form of...craving. A kind of hunger Seungcheol had never felt before, bone-deep and distracting as hell.

He could feel the change as it happened, subtle but unmistakable. His vision sharpened, details in the dark car becoming clear as day. His incisors lengthened. Seungcheol ran his tongue along each one carefully.

He didn't look at his brother. He wasn't ready to see Joshua's reaction to Seungcheol's second face. Instead he tore a hole through the blood-filled pouch, taking a small sip.

A noise came out of him, some sort of weird growl. Joshua was right—it probably would have been better warm—but it wasn't the worst thing Seungcheol had tasted in his life. It fulfilled some deep need. Soothed that itchy craving. Seungcheol finished the bag in a few greedy gulps. The buzzing under his skin dampened with each swallow, until it was gone, along with the blood.

"You want more?" Joshua asked, holding up a second blood bag.

Seungcheol shook his head. One had been enough. He wanted to go home.

He wanted Jeonghan.

Seungcheol...pushed the vampire back inside. He wasn't sure how he even did it, but it retreated easily enough, satisfied with the blood he'd given it. He could feel its eagerness to return to Jeonghan as well.

"Okay," Joshua said easily, placing the bag back into the mini cooler he'd brought. "We'll have it in the fridge just in case. And really, you should be okay feeding regularly, if it's anything like it was for me. Just make sure Jeonghan's with you your first time."