Chapter Text
Dan
Heesung led them into a spacious living room where a long coffee table was piled with plates of food and bottled beverages. He waved at the surrounding couches and chairs. “Boys, please help yourself to refreshments while I see the happy couple in my study.” He continued across to the opposite side of the room and opened a pair of tall double doors, then turned to beckon Jaekyung and Dan inside.
The study was huge, packed with desks and bookshelves and strange machines, some of which stood taller than Jaekyung. The walls were hung with charts and paintings and sculptures of all kinds. Despite the vast array of objects, everything was arranged neatly throughout the space, leaving a comfortable sitting area with a couch, two armchairs, and a coffee table at the center of the room.
“Would anyone like tea?” Heesung asked, gesturing at the teapot and cups on the coffee table.
“No,” said Jaekyung gruffly. He glanced down at Dan, quirking an eyebrow.
Dan shook his head. “I’m fine, thank you.”
Heesung nodded. “Before you have a seat, Dan, could you come over here for a moment?” He stepped to one side of the sitting area where an intricate circular pattern had been drawn in red chalk on the white tiled floor.
Dan glanced up at Jaekyung, who nodded and reluctantly unwound his arm from around Dan’s shoulders. Then, a thought seemed to occur to the alpha and he glared suspiciously at Heesung. “None of these tests are painful, right?”
Heesung’s hand flew up to his chest, his face aghast. “You think I would inflict pain on this little angel? Of course not.” He smiled warmly at Dan. “There will be no pain during any of the tests, I promise. You might feel a little tingling here and there, but just pipe up if anything feels uncomfortable, okay?”
“Okay,” Dan answered, relieved that Jaekyung had voiced his earlier concerns about the tests.
He approached the circular pattern on the floor with Jaekyung following right behind him. Heesung gestured to the pattern’s center. “Just stand right here for a moment, please. Oh no, not you.” He waved Jaekyung back. “You’ll interfere with the reading if you stand that close.”
Jaekyung grumbled but inched backward.
Dan stepped hesitantly onto the spot Heesung indicated. He flinched when the red lines glowed briefly, but felt nothing except for a faint breeze around his ankles.
Heesung proceeded to perform a series of other tests that Dan couldn’t make sense of at all. Some of them involved the strange machines scattered around the room, while another test was as simple as holding a cloudy white stone in his hand and watching it turn red as it magically absorbed a small amount of his blood.
“Perfect,” Heesung praised, plucking the stone from his hand and placing it into a bowl with several other stones of different shapes and colors. He turned and smiled. “You can take a seat with your alpha now.”
Dan and Jaekyung sat on the couch together, close enough that Jaekyung’s thigh pressed right up against Dan’s. Jaekyung wove their hands together once more.
Heesung lowered himself into an armchair across from them and poured himself a cup of tea, then crossed his legs and settled back into his seat. “So Dan, tell me a little more about yourself. Did you belong to a coven before meeting Jaekyung?”
Dan stiffened at the word coven. Jaekyung’s hand gripped his a little tighter. He nodded, swallowing. “Yes, I did. I was from Master—ah, I mean…” He glanced nervously up at Jaekyung, then back to Heesung. “I was from Kwon’s coven.”
Heesung’s eyebrow arched as he shared a brief look with Jaekyung. “And when were you turned?”
“I wasn’t turned,” Dan replied. “I’m a born vampire.”
Both Heesung and Jaekyung looked at him in surprise.
Heesung noticed Jaekyung’s shock. “You didn’t know?”
Jaekyung stared down at Dan, his intense black gaze making Dan want to curl in on himself. “Now that I think about it, you did mention that you’ve been a vampire for your whole life.”
Dan tried not to squirm under the attention of the two men. He knew that born vampires were rare, but the scrutiny was uncomfortable all the same.
“Do you know your parents?” Heesung asked.
Dan’s heart clenched, and he shook his head. “I never met my mother or father. Kwon said…” His throat ached when he swallowed. “Kwon said they weren’t fit for the coven. I don’t know what happened to them.”
Heesung’s face was kind, his voice gentle. “No one else told you about them?”
“No…” Dan dropped his gaze, his chest heavy with emotions he had spent years burying deep.
Jaekyung’s hand slipped out of his and wrapped around his waist, pulling him close. “How about we move on?” he said to Heesung, his voice dangerously close to a growl.
Heesung nodded. “Alright. How old are you, Dan?”
“Twenty-nine.”
Heesung hummed. “Have you ever noticed anything about yourself that’s different from other vampires?”
Dan thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t like drinking blood from humans that much.”
Heesung tilted his head, his expression intensely curious. “Oh?”
Dan nodded. “The other vampires of my coven seem to enjoy drinking from humans a lot more than me. Some of them even like causing pain while they feed…” He paused as his lip began to tremble, then took a shaky breath and went on. “Especially Kwon. He likes to see us hurting people, but I really, really hate it and—” His throat constricted as horrible memories flashed through his mind. “...I get punished for that a lot.”
A thunderous growl rumbled through Jaekyung’s chest. Shoulders trembling, Dan didn’t resist as the alpha wrapped both arms around him and tucked his head under his chin. “f*cking psychopath,” Jaekyung spat above his head. “I’ll f*cking murder him.”
Heesung leaned forward, his face serious. “These humans that Kwon makes you feed on. Where do they come from?”
Dan’s brow furrowed as he pictured the distraught faces of the many captured humans he’d seen come through the coven. “They’re mostly homeless, I think. I don’t go out hunting often, but when I do, I see other hunters just…taking people.”
Heesung and Jaekyung looked at each other in shocked disgust.
Dan glanced between them, stomach turning. “What’s wrong?”
Heesung stroked his chin, his pale brows drawn together. “If what you’re saying is true, then Kwon is in extreme violation of several inter-species accords.”
“How the f*ck could he pull off sh*t like that right under everyone’s noses?” Jaekyung demanded furiously.
“It must be illegal compulsion,” Heesung said, returning a softened gaze to Dan. “He does practice compulsion with his thralls, doesn’t he?”
Dan shuddered and clutched Jaekyung’s shirt. “He… He does.”
“And I’m guessing he uses it to force you not to tell anyone about his activities?”
Dan could only nod, his jaw trembling with thoughts of being forcibly bent to the coven leader’s will. Kwon had used compulsion on him many times, forcing him to do things he would much rather forget.
Jaekyung glanced between them in confusion. “But how is Dan able to tell us about it if he’s been compelled not to?”
Heesung looked to Dan, eyebrow arched curiously as he waited for a response.
Dan gnawed his lip. “I’ve always resisted it more. I suppose it’s because I really hate the things he makes us do, but he’s always had to try harder to compel me.”
Jaekyung’s chest swelled with pride. He stroked a hand over Dan’s hair, kissing the top of his head. “That’s f*cking badass. Just keep doing that, Dan.”
Heesung grinned slyly at them. “I think there may be an additional reason for your resistance to him,” he said, setting his teacup on the table and rising from his seat.
“You do?” Dan asked, watching curiously as the witch crossed the room to look into the bowl where he’d placed the stone that had absorbed Dan’s blood. After a moment of studying the stones, his eyes lit up and his grin widened. “Just as I thought! Oh my, this is quite…” He covered his mouth with one hand, looking absolutely giddy.
“Spit it out, will you?” Jaekyung barked. “What did you find?”
Heesung strode quickly back to the sitting area, gleaming eyes fixed on Dan. “I found out something about your parents.”
Dan’s chest fluttered and his eyes grew wide. “My mother and father?”
Heesung shook his head, his grin positively ecstatic. “No, Dan. Your fathers. You were born to a vampire and an omega werewolf.”
