Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Juni
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“What, it doesn’t matter if you don’t say anything.”
Rachel lightly brushed Doyoung’s nape with her fingertips and turned away.
“You know vampires have different tastes too, right? Some prefer pretty women regardless of gender, others go for handsome men. There are even ones who favor fat humans because they’ve got more blood. And me...”
Warm breath tickled his ear.
“I really like strong men.”
Rachel buried her nose in Doyoung’s nape, trailing it up his neck as she whispered.
“When I pin down a guy packed with muscle and suck his blood, there’s nothing like the thrill of watching a man brimming with confidence in his body and strength reduced to helplessness, his mind crumbling without so much as twitching a finger.”
The men who had followed her in were all sporting bandages around their necks, like they were carrying lunchboxes or something.
With Rachel’s nose pressed behind his ear as she trailed up from his neck, Doyoung’s head was slightly bowed. He lifted his eyes and spoke.
“Sorry, but my neck’s a bit sensitive. Mind breathing a little lighter?”
Rachel raised her head.
“A real live wire for once. Too good to just drain dry.”
Rachel stepped back.
“Alright, shall we get started?”
At her words, a white guy who looked like he’d make Fyodor weep stepped forward. He immediately swung a fist that smacked into Doyoung’s face with a sharp crack. If the chair hadn’t been fixed to the floor, it would’ve flown sideways and tumbled.
Doyoung struggled to right his head.
“Why not flip on the blinkers before coming in?”
“Don’t worry. That side’s human.”
Rachel settled leisurely into a chair one of the other men had brought over and spoke.
“I can tell just by looking at these cotton-candy punches.”
As Doyoung replied, the man assumed a proper boxing stance and drove a fist into his gut. Doyoung had read the move and tensed his abs, but anyone without preparation would’ve had their intestines ruptured at minimum. He was grateful for the drill instructor who’d lined up the team and had the Luas operatives beat on them to toughen them up.
Doyoung coughed raggedly before managing to exhale. Rachel chuckled.
“Spetsnaz after all—Russian special forces. Better not piss him off.”
“Wow, Russian bro. Scary stuff. Spasiba.”
As Doyoung let out a laugh, Rachel looked intrigued.
“They teach you to provoke your captors in MCTC when you’re taken prisoner?”
“No way. They just gave up on training me.”
Rachel laughed and leaned obliquely toward the left armrest.
“Shame. We could’ve had a fun evening if we’d matched on Tinder.”
“Sorry, but I prefer natural encounters.”
Suddenly, the Spetsnaz grabbed Doyoung’s face with a pot-lid hand like he meant to crush it and bellowed. Doyoung knew a bit of Russian, but the guy was yelling so ferociously he couldn’t make it out.
Doyoung stared blankly at the Spetsnaz and asked.
“Brushed your teeth?”
The Spetsnaz kicked Doyoung. Once didn’t do it, so he kicked again, and finally the chair toppled over with Doyoung still in it. The crash echoed noisily through the wide space.
“Don’t kill him.”
Rachel said leisurely, then stood and approached.
“Come on, Major. Think it over. Who do you suppose we are?”
Doyoung tilted his head back, resting the crown on the floor.
“SN remnants, I’d guess.”
“Remnants? Call us the second generation, why don’t you. See, a phoenix—when the time comes, it sets itself ablaze and dies. Then from the ashes, it’s reborn stronger.”
High heels clicked closer in time with her words.
“More perfect.”
Click...
“Untouchable.”
Rachel, now beside him, looked down at Doyoung with a smile.
Lying there, she seemed even taller with the backlighting, like an untouchable being. Doyoung laughed.
Rachel didn’t drop her smile, but a chill settled over her face.
“What’s so funny?”
“Just sounds so SN. Do they teach you to talk like that there?”
Rachel chuckled. She looked like she might kick him, but she wouldn’t stoop to such ungraceful behavior herself.
“The more spirited you get, the more fun you make it for me. Humans are so fragile. Hard to find a man who suits my taste, and even when I do, they don’t last. But males of my own kind? Too rigid. Body and mind.”
Rachel gazed down at Doyoung, slowly licking her lips with a red tongue.
“Human men, on the other hand... so tender.”
He didn’t want to admit the chills, but Rachel was infamous for keeping human men as sex slaves. No one who fell into her hands ever came back.
Thankfully, a phone rang just then. Rachel glanced at the band on her wrist, pressed it, and answered.
“Yes, Boss.”
She listened briefly, then replied.
“Understood. We’ll do that right away.”
She hung up and turned to Doyoung.
“The Boss wants to see you himself.”
Here, they called their leader “Boss,” apparently.
Rachel nodded toward Doyoung.
“Take him.”
The two Russian behemoths who looked like they could wrestle bears hauled Doyoung to his feet. Rachel lifted his chin with one finger and said, her snake-like eyes fixed on him.
“When this is over, you’re mine.”
The two men dragged Doyoung away. They left the room and headed down the hall. The white, pristine corridor was so featureless it gave no clue where they were.
One thing was clear: this was no rundown hideout of a terrorist cell that had lost its command and gone underground. It was a massive, proper facility.
Thud.
The door at the hall’s end opened onto a hangar. In the center stood a military transport plane, ready for takeoff.
A military transport, no less. No markings to show affiliation, but...
Doyoung was floored. How did they have facilities and gear rivaling a proper army?
The two men entered through the ramp door and slammed Doyoung into a seat. Rachel boarded gracefully, like a queen reviewing her guard, flaunting her legs through the deep slit in her skirt as she passed.
“Take off.”
The ramp door closed. Thud—like a period on Doyoung’s fate.
***
Doyoung glanced at the rear window. They were flying over the ocean.
Meeting this “Boss” would mean even tighter security. His only shot at escape was now. But from this altitude, how?
“Eyes front.”
One of the Legion guys flanking him growled.
They really weren’t the affectionate type.
No choice for now, so Doyoung faced forward. Rachel watched him with interest.
Women liking Doyoung wasn’t unusual, and he didn’t mind it much, but cases like this where he wished she’d dial it back were rare.
Then a crew member approached Rachel.
“Military aircraft ahead. Demanding our ID.”
Rachel glanced at Doyoung and asked.
“MCTC?”
Doyoung doubted it himself, and sure enough, the crew replied.
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
“We’re detouring through international airspace on purpose. Why’s it tailing us?”
“We’ll check.”
Doyoung sat quietly.
Beep.
Suddenly, a sound. The vampires beside him couldn’t have missed it if Doyoung heard. The guy on the left scowled and demanded.
“What’s that noise?”
He glanced at Doyoung, hands still bound behind. In that instant, an elbow smashed into his jaw.
“The sound of your jaw flying off!”
Tough as a tank compared to humans, but the jaw was still a weak point—hit right, and it did real damage.
“How’d you get out of the cuffs...!”
The guy on the right yelped in shock.
Doyoung couldn’t fathom these vampires sometimes—their base physical strength made things like this hard to grasp. The one next to him takes a hit, and this idiot’s just gawking? Probably instinct telling him a human couldn’t do shit in this setup.
Didn’t they know? His job was spending waking hours researching and training to counter vampires.
Doyoung smashed his fist into the right guy’s face. Normally it wouldn’t faze him, but using the cuffs as brass knuckles amped the damage—the man screamed, clutching his gushing face.
Doyoung didn’t miss a beat. As he punched, he flung the undone belt aside and bolted.
Boom.
That instant.
The plane lurched like it’d been hit by a missile.
Doyoung grabbed the seat netting on instinct.
“What the hell!”
Rachel shrieked near-hysterically.
After one hit, it felt like the pressurization system failed.
In that case, maybe...
Doyoung’s eyes shifted. The ramp door open button was nearby on the bulkhead.
The Legion crew was too busy grasping the situation to watch him. Figured they could squash him anytime.
As the plane stabilized, Doyoung dashed. He grabbed a cargo strap and slammed his palm into the ramp door button.
Thud.
Whirr.
The ramp began opening, light flooding in. He’d guessed right—it only locked during flight with pressurization active.
“What...!”
Only then did the Legion operatives turn in shock. But with the ramp open to open sky, they were all clinging to something, unable to approach.
In the wind that’d make this morning’s hairdresser weep, as Rachel’s locks whipped wildly, she sneered.
“You think a human can jump from this height and survive?”
Doyoung grinned.
“Better odds than going along quietly.”
But as she said, jumping this high—even into the ocean—would squash him like a mosquito between wall and palm on impact. No parachute.
In short, door open, but stuck.
Realizing it was bluff, the Luas edged closer. Beastly instincts, beastly cunning.
Thud.
Suddenly, a gut-wrenching drop, like freefall. The plane’s altitude plunged sharply to evade.
Whoever their pursuer was, they were Doyoung’s savior.
“Hey, watch...!”
One Legion guy yelled, but no way the pilot heard over it.
All vampires, clinging desperately. Rachel gripped the seat net with one hand. Stronger than expected—pureblood, probably.
Doyoung’s arms felt like snapping, veins bulging at max output.
Altitude plummeted toward the sea. Dizzying as a supersonic coaster.
Fierce wind nearly stripped skin. Timing was now. Doyoung knew: jump or die.
No guarantee of survival, but...
He released the strap, twisted mid-air, and leaped. No one expected a human to actually jump—their eyes bulged.
“That lunatic...!”
The transport banked sharply upward, regaining equilibrium.
The man peered at the now-empty below, then at Rachel.
“No human survives a jump from here. And even if, this area’s all uninhabited islands.”
As Rachel stared down like a snake missing prey, he added.
“No GPS, so MCTC won’t find him. Even if he lucks out alive, he’ll die on some deserted rock.”
Rachel looked up and scoffed.
“Pity. Could’ve been my favorite toy.”