Long (and really exciting!!) chapter ahead!

_____

𝟏𝟔𝟔𝟔 | 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤

- ♦♦♦ -

It tasted of salt on his tongue and strands of hair tossed around in the wind despite his efforts of determinately having braided his long hair into one piece. But the wind had decided against him to give him a hard time on the waters.

For nearly 73 days now had Seonghwa and his fledglings been on the sea, now having loaded onto their fourth ship but Seonghwa was confident that this would be the last. As no other ships sailed through the oceans from their homelands of Great Joseon to the western parts of the world, they had traveled with different cargo ships of different sizes; as well as the current one they stayed on. This one being of a greater size, having its purpose of sailing goods between India and Europe.

They were the only travelers onboard along with the seafarers which naturally caused plenty of attention to be drawn to them. Crewmembers of different Western ethnicities whispered behind their backs why such foreign mankind was traveling alongside them. They must not have known that Seonghwa understood their spoken languages perfectly nor that Seonghwa priorly had been conversing with the rather surprised commander of the ship about the fare they would pay for their crossing. A short moment after they were all three watching how he threw his second in command out of his quarters and let them sleep in the room instead. After all, Seonghwa had paid the commander a fair deal of golden coins that he had saved from the last time he traveled the world.

Although, he had been hoping to be given the commander's own quarters instead.

But Seonghwa was far from a fool - knowing that it was not worth it being a bother now that the commander had been generous enough and granted them a bed to rest on. So he let it be.

The room, however, originally only fit a single person, and Seonghwa therefore found himself spending more waking hours out on the open deck than his fledglings whom he strictly ordered to stay in there when they were on their own. They would not cause any trouble to begin with.

When the first few weeks had passed Seonghwa started noticing the change within the gazes.

Hungry men were looking at him with dirty strays to their pride, turning their heads at wherever he stayed on the ship and eyeing him up like were they already undressing him.

Howbeit, they didn't know Seonghwa was starving.

One night when he trialed the railings of the lonely main deck he spotted the young seafarer standing a little further up close to the foremast, already having his eyes trailed on him. Innocently, Seonghwa let the tips of his fingers dance along with the rough materials of the ropes as he walked closer to the foremast. He sensed the change of quivering nerves in the air right away.

They were so easy to allure.

That night, Seonghwa's hair hung loose, a sleek dark waterfall falling around his shoulders and reaching down to his swinging hips. Seonghwa wore a broad, black belt around his crimson red hanbok, emphasizing his hips and their delicate movement toward the man, stupefied where he stood.

When Seonghwa slowly let his gaze up from the railing he wasted no more seconds of teasing the young sailor and his attentive stare and pursued a great startle in the man as he let an enticing finger tell him to follow.

With only a short glance across his shoulders, the seafarer stumbled forward, desperately grabbing Seonghwa's hand when he held it out for him. Seonghwa felt the pulsing beat of a heart in his hand as he sheepishly sent a smile toward the man, leading them both toward his private quarters. Violating fingers traveled down the small of his back.

Seonghwa did not bother knocking on the door when he leaned in to swing it open. Eyes peaked up when Seonghwa suddenly roughly pulled at the seafarer's hand, throwing him right into the bed where San and Yunho sat. With a blink of an eye, Seonghwa turned around and locked the door before taking a long stride to the bed where the young sailor still sat, trying to comprehend what was happening in this rush.

"Why are you not screaming, little human?"

At the foreign language spoken to his right, the man twisted his upper body around with a short breath, finding Yunho's face dangerously close to his own. Seonghwa made a clicking sound with his tongue as he came closer. The seafarer jerked back, his eyes starting to swim with uncertainty as he stared up at Seonghwa's bending form. Slowly realising that this was not what he had expected when Seonghwa had beckoned him to follow him.

Hands landed around his knees, gradually sliding up his thighs while Seonghwa's towering silhouette suffocated the human's mind with thoughts that strangled each other without having to do anything.

"Wh-why-" he stuttered, leaning further into the mattress the closer that Seonghwa got. Eyes were shining with raw fear as a single heart rapidly hammered into its cage.

Slowly, Seonghwa's head tilted to the side, mouth opening with aching, long teeth as he examined the prey in his claws. All too suddenly the man started squirming as it seemed the human finally was grasping the threat above him.

"Let go, let go, LET GO! PLEASE!!" he screamed, fingers nailing into the mattress as he desperately tried to pull himself free. Seonghwa only tightened his hold around his thighs, gradually pulling them more and more apart until he unwillingly was spreading his legs wide open.

A deep growl bubbled up Seonghwa's throat, causing waves of hisses to break loose from the others. When red eyes dotted around in the quarters the man wailed with horror. Seonghwa thrust his legs further apart, forcing them beyond their straining stretch until Yunho prodded his noisy screams with smothering pieces of fabric, pressing them further down his throat until his entire body was a mess of convulsing muscles. San's teeth tore the skin open before Seonghwa could blink with his eyes.

In the following weeks, seafarers mysteriously disappeared and it started to go noticing when the ship's commander had men search the entire ship for those who went missing, only to be killed as they came to the vampires' quarters.

San was clinging to Yunho's arm while the sailors roared orders around at each other, steering the enormous cargo ship toward land. As tall buildings came into view, Seonghwa nudged them both to follow him back to their quarters before they both would be far too captivated by the impressive sight.

They quickly gathered their items in the chests they had brought on board and moved them outside, watching the jumble of humans running around as they haboured. One asked Seonghwa if he needed help with the chest he was carrying, but Seonghwa dismissed him as he ushered his fledglings off the ship before people would see.

"Sir! You must come and see! There's blood all over the wooden boards!?"

But long before disaster broke out, Seonghwa and his fledglings had already scurried off into the buzzing crowd.

♦

It had been a fairly long time since Seonghwa last had traveled to Portugal. Lisbon port had grown to more than double in size, heaving tall squared buildings up from the ground as they were spreading up along the hills. He barely remembered his ways around the town, the growth having obliterated the marks he priorly had used to steer through the bustling of human life.

The sun was gentle on them this day, lightly shining down on them as they followed horse carriages tracking through the town's cobbled streets. But Seonghwa wished not to let his fledglings dwell at the magnificent foreign sight of life as he showed them down a smaller street by the enormous fig tree that impressively still managed to live.

Not long after they had turned another time they reached a property rather well-known to Seonghwa. The building was tall, yet broad with a continuous brick wall enclosing the property on each side of it where other buildings raised from the ground. A large entrance door welcomed them from the midst of the building's front side with golden letters engraved into the stone above, spelling out the property's resident; 'Lord Park'. The door seemed unnecessary though, as several of the windows were shattered.

When Seonghwa stepped forward, Yunho quickly grabbed his arm, holding him back as if he doubted his sire's decision, "Seonghwa-ssi... are you sure this is a good idea?"

Seonghwa halted and turned his gaze at Yunho on his side, wandering across the tingling nerves beneath his serious facial expression. Then he shifted to San. They really had no idea.

"This is my property, Yunho. Although you do not read the Latin letters above the entrance it says 'Lord Park'," Seonghwa shook Yunho's hand off him again, uncaringly, "I am Lord Park."

Entering the building, Seonghwa placed his chest with his belongings down on the grimy floor. Then he took a round in the building, pulling off the white fabrics that covered the furniture, making dust whirl around in the air.

- ♦♦♦ -

𝟏𝟔𝟗𝟗 | 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤

33 years later

- ♦♦♦ -

The following many years they spent by Seonghwa's property, earning knowledge of the state of the world as the busy trading town was flourishing with growing wealth.

The building was fixed shortly after they moved in and through the years Seonghwa had hired maids to clean around the house. However, many of them did not stay for long.

It happened a lot that the employees got a little too comfortable with his fledglings. Despite Seonghwa being never given any other explanation than the 'servant was not doing their job well enough' he felt as if there was something else to the matter of killing servants when doing their job.

He only realised that once he had observed San pulling the eyes out of a young woman's face while he was sneering words of how she dared sweet talking his Yunho when she so clearly knew that he was already taken. The girl was screaming so loudly that doors soon opened from multiple sides of the parlour and the two other maids sprung into view, suddenly being startled by the horror of a bloodthirsty beast. San hissed loudly before dropping eyeballs and the screaming body to the ground and chasing down the other two.

Yunho had been the one opening the other door into the room, muttering curses while he stalked toward the poor girl trashing around on the floor. He ended her suffering by plunging a dagger through her chest.

Following the episode, Yunho admittedly told Seonghwa that San must have entered a phase of insatiable hunger. But Seonghwa knew better when San was unallowed entrance to Yunho's chamber for weeks.

So Seonghwa did not stop employing new servants to clean around the house even if many of them fell for all of Yunho's alluring charms.

At this current time, he had found an elderly lady willing to work for him. She was a peculiar woman - talkative as well, unlike any other there had worked for him before but he did not mind it. Seonghwa let her lead any conversation as he answered what he thought was most suitable for such an old lady to store in mind. She did not know the truth, but somehow, Seonghwa worried an old mind like hers would not endure such cruelty.

But she was not a fool with no eyesight. She saw things when Seonghwa believed he was alone.

Once she caught him red-handed sitting alone in the dining room, filling his personal goblet with the red liquid. The footsteps made a startle run down his spine, making red droplets spill all over the table as he looked around only to find the old lady determinedly hurrying toward the table. She wiped the surface with the damp cloth in her hand and clicked her tongue with a shaking head while Seonghwa could not stop worrying if he would need to kill this kind lady.

"Sir," she started and pulled her working arm to her body again, "It worries me greatly that such a young man like yourself has picked up a habit like this," the old lady's eyebrows furrowed as she nodded toward the full goblet of blood, "I have seen you sitting here a lot like this. Drinking this frequently must not be healthy for you."

Seonghwa quickly realised what she meant with that and his face fell to his hands still clutching around the goblet and the jug with blood.

She thought so innocently of him.

"Ma'am, your knowledge has me startled. For how long have you been watching me?"

"Ah, that..." humoured, she chuckled with a wry smile as she busily continued with wiping off the entire table. Seonghwa followed her with sharp eyes. "Enough to be aware of the growing issue."

Though she was not aware of how vital the issue was.

The old lady lifted her head to look at him, wrinkled eyes observing his pinched expression. Then she softened.

"Sir, I have been wondering this for a long time ever since I first heard of you. Why a handsome man like yourself does not bear any band of gold? Why are you not wed? Any young woman must yearn for a hand like yours to hold them."

It was not his intention to hesitate, but when his dull eyes could only stare at the old lady's anticipation it sounded like just that. His throat felt weirdly taut as the words he told her were not him speaking.

"It is not in my interest to approach such an affair."

Seonghwa swallowed tensely when she pulled a chair out and sat down on his right.

"Why?" she asked confused, yet accented with pity, "Have you never loved before?"

She pulled her elbows to rest against the sturdy surface of the table and put her head in her palm. The attentive gaze had Seonghwa pull at himself, leaning further back in his chair as he could not understand why this was in her interest.

"Have you never been in love with someone before?"

The crease of Seonghwa's brows deepened as his head tilted at her grueling question. It was not like he did not understand the words she was telling him, but the matter of him having felt a feeling of that before was bewildering. Should he have been in love before?

"Good god," she breathed, leaning back again as she sighed heavily, "How come a man like you never have found love?" Seonghwa's eyes didn't differ despite how much pity the old lady faced him with.

"Am I supposed to do so?" he asked soundlessly, tapping his fingers against the goblet. For a moment the woman dwelled on the unsettling rhythm.

Humans were so determined to find and devote the rest of their lives to another human being. But Seonghwa was not human. So he should not listen to what she was telling him.

"Sir, love is the most gracious gift God has ever granted us. Why would you not want any of that? Love has many forms - not just a marriage between two, it can be the sense of joy when showing care towards others."

- ♦♦♦ -

𝟏𝟕𝟎𝟒 | 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐤

Five years later

- ♦♦♦ -

The old lady did not believe in how evil was rooted in all human beings. Even after having worked for Seonghwa for years, watching how he and his fledglings consumed blood right in front of her nosy eyes. She was too ignorant.

It was a sweltering summer day. The old lady had decided to stay in and finish her cleaning of the staircase in the entrance hall where the other two younger maids had already left.

San and Yunho had finished their language studies earlier that day and were granted permission to travel around town if they promised him to come home before dark. Which was about now.

Seonghwa stood outside on the balcony, viewing the sun sinking below the horizon of the sea. His forearms leaned against the fence when he heard the front door screeching open, resonating with an echo through the entire building. Satisfied, Seonghwa left the balcony and floated through rooms until he reached the broad staircase down into the entrance hall, his hand curling around the post of the frame to a sight he had not expected when agreeing to their outing.

San was staring at the old lady sitting a little further down the stairs while Yunho's eyes diverted up at Seonghwa's form right away. Normally, this would not have been a problem, but the way San's hands were currently grasping around a middle-aged man's shoulders while the points of his fangs were poking at the man's skin was alarming. The man was most likely knocked out as Seonghwa still could hear the beating of his heart. Suddenly the old lady turned her head all the way around to find the Lord of this wicked home.

There she found Seonghwa, unfaced of the whole situation.

Instead, he ascended the stairs with his never-ending grace, "I told you to be home before dark. Not to bring someone with you."

He could see how San's limbs were shaking with all the retain he put on himself. His blood-red eyes flickered around on the different faces as he licked his lips multiple times. Again and again and again. Holding himself back from biting down on the pulsing blood vessels. Yunho's hand was clamped around San's waist, silently pushing him in behind him.

"Seonghwa-ssi, we can explain-"

Suddenly a loud growl erupted from San before the hunger snapped his head into pieces and he let his fangs into the skin with a squelching sound.

The old lady let out a startled sound, heaving a hand to her mouth as she did not dare move from the scene of Yunho losing himself to the intense smell of blood. The two younger vampires crashed the body to the stone floor, definitely killing the man now that they tore his throat open to drink the pulsing liquid.

Seonghwa pursed his lips when he returned to the old lady scurrying to stand on her legs when she noticed he was coming closer. She was breathing hard and her eyes were wide with so much fear as she seemed to finally understand that Seonghwa had never been drinking what she previously believed of him. She thought of him as a beast.

Silently, Seonghwa's hand rummaged through the pocket in his hanbok before he pulled out a purse full of gold coins that would be enough to feed an entire family for years. "Here," he told her, "take it and leave." She flinched at another odious sound coming from his feeding fledglings. When Seonghwa reached for her hand and sternly put the purse into it, she gasped in pure horror.

"Leave, I do never want to see you again."

It did not take her more of a scare to have her run for the door on her shaky, old limbs.

♦

Seonghwa was more forgiving than what he had thought himself. When he left the entrance hall he did not look back when he could have restricted his youngsters' fun. And perhaps he should have been doing that instead of leaving to lounge around in the parlour for the rest of the night.

At some point, a door opened and Seonghwa heard the familiarity of Yunho's steps through the room. He stopped behind him where he rested on the sofa, his feet pulled up into the upholstered furniture.

"Seonghwa-ssi.." he said softly and Seonghwa opened his eyes to the dimly lit room, "I want to talk with you. About what happened earlier."

Yunho, his bravest warrior, was approaching him by his own will. How sweet.

"It does not matter. It's the past now anyway," Seonghwa brushed him off, ignoring the desperation that he felt buzzing in the air.

When Yunho moved around the sofa, Seonghwa pretended to be picking his nails, not looking up at the other a single time.

"Are you ignoring me? Seonghwa-ssi, please, I am sorry. It wasn't supposed to happen.. San and I just happened to run into him while he was.." he stopped, and the ancient vampire noticed out of the corner of his eye how he was biting his lip, "While he was harassing a young girl - we couldn't let him go."

At the new knowledge, he peeked up but looked down again once Yunho continued: "I know you enjoyed her presence."

Did he, now?

"Yes, she was a hardworking woman. Such a pity. It will be difficult to find one just as willing." Pulling himself a little more up to sit, Seonghwa lifted his gaze to look right up at Yunho's perplexed expression. His dark brown hair had been cut short.

"No," he hurriedly stated, "That is not what I mean - you care about her."

His expression hardened, "I do not. If I did, I would have killed her so she should not live her last few years with that cruel memory."

Seonghwa licked a fang at the thought of it.

However, Yunho did not seem very convinced. He did not sound that, either, "I'm sad that you do not see the same as I do. It looks like you are against your own feelings."

His brow ticked while his tongue retreated to prod at the roof of his mouth, "I.. do not have any human feelings, I am already aware. But I am no human either and neither are you, Yunho. You just proved that right in front of a living human earlier."

Yunho was silenced. For Seonghwa was right.

After having stared at each other for passing minutes, Yunho finally bowed his head, looking down at his feet, assumingly humbled by his declaration. Seonghwa got up from the furniture and quickly stuffed his bare feet into his slippers on the floor.

"What makes you think that monsters do not have feelings?"

At the lingering question, Seonghwa turned on the balls of his feet to look back at Yunho.

Yunho stepped forward, "Do demons not love?"

Seonghwa tipped back his head when the other towered in front of him with his massive height. The questions lingered around his head but Seonghwa had no time to comprehend them when Yunho had not been this close to him for a while. It even felt as if Yunho had grown taller.

And as if his strenuous head was not enough of another new struggle with one of his fledglings, how his final solving answer was swallowed only added to his difficulty. Seonghwa's entire body went stiff as he suddenly fluttered with his eyes at the touch of Yunho's hands cupping his face and his lips leaning in against his.

Genuinely startled, the ancient vampire reached out for the soft silken fabric of Yunho's hanbok and clutched it tightly, resulting in their lips locking even closer. Oh. Yunho was kissing him.

A rush of something foreign trailed down through his body when a subtle clicking sound reached his hearing when Yunho leaned back again to gently look at Seonghwa. He did not move away when the taller bent down and pecked his lips with soft but firm kisses again and again until he dazedly tilted his head back and met the kisses with his own will. Seonghwa's toes curled inside his slippers.

He had never been kissed before - or that he remembered. Seonghwa couldn't remember any other kiss he had had and yet the more Yunho's lips touched upon his own it became more clear that Seonghwa must have felt the same texture against his sensitive lips before. Of a dance so delicate and conscious that all his senses could suddenly meet with another.

Seonghwa's chest vibrated with deep rumbles when he started kissing back with slow and steady movements, his stomach curling with fiery anticipation when the motion caused Yunho's lips to tug at his until their lips turned shiny with spit. Hands were gradually growing with more confidence, grabbing at protruding hip-bones, elbows, and neck until Seonghwa dug his fingers into the other's shoulders with surprise at how effortlessly he was parting his lips and breathing new life into him. Seonghwa felt like breathing again, his plush lips pushing against Yunho's as they shared hot emotions he never had felt before. His feet squirmed around when his knees knocked into Yunho's legs while pleasure from the high stimulation coiled within him, causing a stutter of uncontrolled moans to coat Yunho's lips with a glisten. Yunho paused, letting their foreheads rest against each other with a silence that spoke more than words ever could. Seonghwa was feeling so much.

Desperation caught up in his mind, threading with his deliberate thoughts until he was winding himself so much closer to the other. To feel more of his pulsing body.

There was no stopping now that fangs were locking together as Yunho shoved him backward down onto the sofa before leaning into another intimate kiss as if to prove to Seonghwa that he was not dull to any bubbling heated feelings running with his nerves. That monsters could bask in pleasure encircling them.

Did it work with San too?

Seonghwa gave Yunho's shoulders a push as he lifted his spinning head from the armrest of the sofa and twisted his body around. Drops of blood tapped against the floor where San stood in the door opening, silently observing his sire's red-glowing eyes land on him.

A brush of air later and Seonghwa had wrung himself out of Yunho's arms and was striding toward the youngest, widely staring up at him. For a second, Seonghwa halted in front of him, scenting the fresh blood dripping from his chin as the younger leaned his head back the more he hovered over him with bright, lustful eyes.

His body lunged at him, lips hungrily chasing after San's blood-red ones as they crashed out of the doorway and into the wall of the hallway. San mewled into the sudden kiss, hands first slamming against the wall behind him before slowly working themselves up around Seonghwa's wrists, wandering up along his arms with growing arousal. Seonghwa's lips tingled at the touch and his melted heart fluttered with newfound glee in his chest.

∞

Omo, Hwa is finally chasing those feelings!?? From here on things can't possibly go wrong, right?

I am incredibly excited about the next chapter as we'll be meeting a new member! However, this time it will be a little different than it was with San and Yunho hehe