Lee's POV

Fucking hell. How? 

A gasp leaves my lips as soon as I put my eyes on the teacher leaning over the desk to talk to Abby. His nostrils flare and his entire body stiffens before the vampire who has been running circles in my thoughts decides to inhale sharply. He knows it’s me and by the reaction on his body he is as pissed about this as I am. 

One by one, the muscles on his back loosen up and the blood sucker looks over his shoulder in my direction. His black hair, long enough to run your fingers through, sways as he does and I swear his lips become thinner with how hard he presses them together. I wonder if he is trying not to snarl at me? His eyes, however, are disproved of most emotions, but I do catch the intense gaze he sends my way. So meaningful that I know what he thought. The bastard wants to kill me. 

Well right fucking back at him.

My hand automatically goes around my waist to the place where I keep one of my blades. If he tries to do this in public, I am ready. But then he turns to Abby and gives her the smallest lift of the corner of his mouth. It catches me off guard and for a second I almost lose my balance with the sight of it. It’s not one of the smug smiles he gave me. He does that at her as if he cares. As if this is normal and he isn’t trying to lure the kid into something. 

To be fair, he did seem annoyed when I told him about the blood sucker killing children. It is one of the most ancient laws. Children are innocent and all supernatural creatures are forbidden to even touch them in any way deemed inappropriate. Not even vampires, one of the most ancient monsters, can have them in their coven. And vampires get away with a lot of shit. 

“Miss Kim,” Abby says, running to me and throwing her arms around my waist. “Did you bring Mr. Micealot?” 

Her eyes, there’s so much hope in her eyes that it breaks my heart a little to know the hamster I have in the carry-on is not the same one that left the school. Its normal procedure. Hamsters never last more than two years, so the school asks us to replace them with one as similar as possible whenever the last one gets ‘sick’. It’s usually me, the one coming in to pick the little guy who is already dead. I tell the kids he is sick and am going to run some exams. A day or two I come back with the new hamster. If Mr. Micealot was still the same hamster the school got he would be over twenty years old by now. My brother was in charge of this before me. 

I stare at the vampire, who stands straighter now and walks towards me. Abby doesn’t seem to dislike him and so I tilt my head, studying their interactions. The kid seems pretty comfortable around the vampire who is pretending to be her teacher. And for all it’s worth he portrays the caring role well enough to pass by when she tilts her head up and he looks down at her. Then he does something I had yet to see him doing. He smiles. It’s devastatingly beautiful the way he does it. His lips turn up and show a bit of his teeth, and his eyes crinkle. his cheeks lift as well and for a second I question myself if this is all for show.

He speaks, and when he does it is with the sweetest voice I have ever heard coming from him. “Abby, will you take Mr. Micealot? I need to talk to Miss Kim.”

Abby nods and takes the carry on from my hand. She softly places it at the back of the room, where she opens the top and giggles to the hamster inside.  

“Before you say anything,” the vampire starts. “I am not doing anything wrong by being here. I am working.” 

“You are in a school-” 

“I am teaching.” 

“Full of innocent kids.” 

He rolls his eyes and I take the chance to glance at the desk. A plaque on top of it has the name Kim Taehyung. I taste it on the tip of my tongue. Kim. The Kims were a very well-known coven. Almost as known as the Legion. They didn’t exactly follow our rules, and I know my ancestors kicked the ones that had their headquarters established in town when they tried to defy us. They were dangerous. But this was all before rules were established and we tried to live in harmony with the monsters. 

Legend says the Kim’s are the oldest vampires. That they had offspring born by blood instead of made. But the legend also says they are linked to the Legion. A branch from millennia ago where one of the brothers was transformed into a vampire by a demon, and the other one became a hunter. Day and night. Balance. 

Of course, these are myths. We don’t know what happened. We don’t know if the first vampire and the first hunter even knew each other. It is poetic in the stories how the older brother has to kill the younger one who is taking innocent lives.  

“I do not kill kids Lee,” he says. 

My name comes out of his lips as if it’s a melody. A song I have been dreading to hear. I shake away the thought because I have no idea what sort of enchantment he uses on me. It has to be his power. Something he uses to lure prey. In all the years I have been doing this, I never fell for traps. It is not him who will make me fall for one.  

The other night at the forest, I noticed it as well. He had this look upon him, as I was his meal. I still want to kill him, but fuck me if having someone looking in my direction as if I need to be tamed didn’t do something to my insides. All men treat me as if I am fragile. They look at me and they think I need protection. But not him.  

Not Taehyung. 

Thinking about his name is weird. It’s a pretty name, I won’t lie. But I have been thinking about him as the asshole since the very first day. Giving him an actual name... almost makes him human. It isn’t helping that I can see he isn’t a killer. Not all vampires are, but this one pisses me off on a daily basis to the point I wish I could wipe him out.

He almost looks human. I fight the chill wanting to travel across my body and need to remind myself this man is a monster. Not a human. This bastard has killed people, all vampires do eventually. Even if they only drink blood given to them, or feed from animals, all of the blood suckers have slipped and murdered a human. I don’t even know how old he is but as soon as I am at the headquarters ill figure it out. He has to be old. At least one hundred years. If he is that age and he knows so much about the city, was he born here? Because he knows these woods. No one moves around like he was the other night without being familiar with them. 

Did he know my dad? Is he related to the vampires who killed him? They all have the same last name, but that could be a coincidence. It is a very common one. It doesn’t mean he is somehow related to the actual Kim’s. Probably just someone who was a bit because they liked how he looked. 

Not that I am looking at him in that way. I mean, he is hot-  

I blink away the intrusive thoughts and stare at the vampire. “So you’re just here working?” 

Taehyung nods. “Just working and searching for the killer.” 

“You think he works at the school?” 

He shrugs. “I think he has access to it, but he doesn’t work here. I haven’t seen any traces of another creature.” 

I walk closer to the window. The day is bright, and the sun is shining. Vampires are night creatures, but that doesn’t mean they cannot step into the sun. They mostly sleep through the day, but they don’t need to rest as much as humans do. It also helps the strongest the vampire the longer they can step into the sunlight. The lore in these sorts of creatures is full of bullshit. The movies never helped to understand them. I don’t know who came up with the idea they hate garlic. Or that cross repel them. Like most creatures, getting their head ripped out of their bodies is the way to kill them. 

Setting them on fire also helps. 

“So we’re looking for someone who can come and go from school grounds?” 

“We are not looking for anything,” he says, and I swear the corner of his mouth tilts up. “I am.” 

“You wouldn’t even have known about this if I hadn’t told you.” 

“Exactly. But that’s on you, not me. I now know and I am telling you, I don’t work with hunters.” 

The name takes me off guard. I am not just a hunter, for fuck’s sake. But he doesn’t know that. And as long as he doesn’t know my true nature, I am safer. “I don’t work with blood suckers either.” 

“Glad we agree on this, then. I don’t understand why you were so pressed.”

Taehyung’s gaze lingers on me and I close my hand into a fist. He looks at it, and I swear his gaze slowly travels all across my body before landing on my lips once more. Then it lingers. It lingers for so long I think he forgets I can see him. But I also can’t say anything and when the door closes and we both look at it, we realize Abby just left. 

Taehyung doesn’t move and neither do I. But I also cannot take the silence spreading between us. “Is this job going to be permanent?” 

He tilts his head. “I have no intentions of leaving after a week if that is what you are asking. I am not doing anything considered unethical, so if your kind wants to come and check my background or whatever it is you do so we can walk around the city, then by all means do it.” 

Shit, he knows how we operate. He has been here before. Or at least knows creatures who have. Smart son of a bitch. “I will,” I say, raising my chin. “I don’t know what games you are playing, but I don’t appreciate human lives being put at stake by your kind.” 

He chuckles. Low and earthy. The kind of chuckle that would make my legs weak if I had any sort of attraction for this man. Which I don’t. Taehyung licks his lips and takes a step closer. “My kind? Your kind has murdered far more than mine has.” 

“We take care of killers,” I say, inhaling sharply. It’s a mistake. His scent hits me straight in the lungs like a punch coming out of nowhere. It throws me off. He smells like the trees when it rains at night. Like when woods when you lay in the woods and stare at the stars. He smells like startlight and dreams on rainy days. I shake my head, trying to grasp my thoughts. “We kill those who put others in danger.” 

“Without trial you are murderers,” he says, and all distance vanishes between us. “You are no better than the creatures you hunt. If we cannot have a trial, if we cannot explain our actions, then why even bother? It’s not a republic but a dictation-ship.” 

“We are not dictators,” I say and stare him straight in the eye. “If we have a killer on the loose, we have to take care of it. Not all of them need a trial when they are caught red-handed with their hands stained with blood.” 

“Blood that may very well be theirs,” he comes close to snarling. “You need better rules. If you just go around killing supernatural beings, that may very well be innocent. Trials are needed or else you are no different.” 

“We are different,” I say, trying my best not to advert my eyes from his.

I can feel his body leaning into mine. His breath fanning against my skin when he speaks. I can feel the tension coming from him, as if he wants to rip my throat out of me and display the body so everyone can see. I can feel it all, but I still don’t back down.  

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