Chapter Text

It Begins...

Dull, bored eyes take in the outside world from behind a layer of glass and sheer curtains. Their owner wears a perfectly bored expression, indifference radiating off of him. The door to the room he stands in creaks open, and he can feel the sudden spike in energy. The light in the room seems to bend, the shadows warping with each step the newcomer takes.

"Watcher," the newcomer greets. His tone is taunting and seductive and wholly repulsive yet oh, so desirable. A hand curls around the shoulder of the occupant of the room, its fingernails sharp and lengthening into claws out of the corner of the man's eye.

It's not surprising to him to see the black claws. Tonight is Night Hunt--the flames that are beginning to lick along the curbs of the streets a testimony to the upcoming horror that is about to befall the world for one night. The streets of Chicago no longer look so bland, no longer a concrete jungle in all of its glory, but rather like a city waiting to be burned.

"Why are you here, demon?" the man asks. His words are phrased like a question, but his voice lacks the intonement of one. The demon drapes himself over the man, holding out his hands in front of them and flexing his fingers. His black claws glint in the dim streetlamp lights, moonlight, and fire glowing outside.

"Baekhyun, Baekhyun, Baekhyun," the demon chants. "I'm hurt." He steps forward to Baekhyun's side, snatching his upper arm and turning Baekhyun to face him. Baekhyun meets the demon’s mocking stare with flat, carefully expressionless eyes. The demon leans forward.

"Won't you greet me by name?" He teases. He cocks his head to the side and leans in further. The corner of his full lips brush against Baekhyun's mouth, but the man barely flinches, barely moves. The demon's smirk is wide against Baekhyun's cheek.

"You're not deserving," Baekhyun says just as tonelessly as before. "Demon." He adds for emphasis.

The demon laughs anyway. "Why, Byun Baekhyun," he coos, "It’s is a bit, hmm, hypocritical to swear at me like that when you yourself are-" The demon's lips ghost over the shell of Baekhyun's ear.

"Just like me."

Baekhyun's eyes flash; his fingers curl around the demon's wrist before he even realizes Baekhyun has moved.

The demon's eyes open wide in shock, and a moment of absolute stillness passes. The demon doubles over in cruel, mocking laughter. The shadows flicker.

"Oh, Baekhyun," he sneers, "You can fight it, deny it all you like, but the truth of it all is that you are a halfling." The word sears through the air between them, and Baekhyun's expression wavers only slightly towards anger before smoothing out again. He's riled, the fingers curled around the Demon's wrist tensing, his own claws sliding out and sinking into the other's flesh. He doesn't want the demon to know just how bothered he is, but it's enough--the demon has seen.

"Wearing that skin," the demon continues, taunting. "Dressing like that, talking like them, but it's all just a ruse." He lifts one clawed finger and jabs at Baekhyun's heart. "Halfling." A beat. A grin. The fire along the street flares.

Baekhyun lashes out; his left heel hooks harshly into the back of the demon's knee. He pulls, claws still deep in the other's wrist. The demon falls to his knees. Baekhyun jerks his foot away, setting it firmly back on the ground as his base and planting the other in the crease of the demon's hip. The demon winces harshly, his flaming eyes focused on Baekhyun's blank face.

"I am nothing like you," Baekhyun asserts. The demon smirks then, and he shifts so that Baekhyun's boot is pressed that much harder into the ridge of his stomach and hipbone. He twists his wrist so that blood flows more freely over his arm and the markings there. He stares at Baekhyun with challenge in his eyes and watches as Baekhyun struggles to not enjoy the pain the demon is causing himself.

"You cannot be anything but like me," the demon continues, his voice laced with disbelief at Baekhyun’s claim. “Seeing as you are half of what I am." His eyes are coals that smolder with Hell's flames.

"You've been obnoxious long enough," Baekhyun says, avoiding the topic. The blood on the demon’s arm shimmers. "Leave."

"Oh, but I came here to give you something," the demon says, voice sliding over his words. They ring as if he is pleased with himself. And he probably is; upsetting Baekhyun might have been his entire plan.

"What is it?" Baekhyun says. It's a demand even if he does not show it through his tone. With the hand Baekhyun hasn't buried his claws into, the demon reaches into his pocket and pulls out an envelope. Baekhyun snatches it from him.

"You've been assigned," the demon explains. "Orders from the Lord Tamer. He's decided that your turn to prove yourself has come, Watcher." Baekhyun swallows. The fire outside flares higher, and he can nearly smell the panic beginning to rise from the people in the city. An ache begins to build along his shoulder blades.

"Is that all?" he asks, impatience bleeding through. The demon nods, but his grin is far too bright.

The clock has struck midnight. Night Hunt has begun; the moon begins to bleed.

"Does it hurt?" the demon mocks. His voice now echoes with the screams of the humans still trapped outside and his eyes flame with hellfire.

Baekhyun closes his eyes, hiding the way they've begun to burn as well. "It's time for you to leave," he says.

The demon sneers. "You'll have to say my name for that to work." Baekhyun tightens his grip on the demon's wrist and feels satisfaction when he hisses from the pain.

"Open," he says, calling upon his training to become a Tamer: the direct opposite of these demons, one who can breach the gap between the Earthly plane and Hell itself, one who controls demons.

The gate opens, the deep red miasma of hell spinning beneath where the demon kneels.

"Eventually," the demon says. "You will see just how much more you are of my people than those humans."

Baekhyun releases the demon's arms, holds out his hand, and lets the demon's blood drip into the gate.

"Demon Prince Kai," he orders. "Leave." The demon, Kai, is swallowed whole by the gate and returned to hell, his cackle ringing in the sudden quiet of the room. Baekhyun breathes. The pain in his back is worse now, flaring along the lines of a tattoo-like marking he has had since birth, calling him to join in the feast. His mouth feels a little too full as his fangs drop from his gums. He closes the blackout curtains and ignores the noise, grabbing the envelope and tearing it open.

"Yes," he says to the emptiness around him. "It does hurt."

Baekhyun stares down at the plane ticket, tracing out the letters for Seoul, South Korea with a barely concealed sense of panic and excitement. His eyes are dull.

The morning comes quicker than Baekhyun expects it to. He wakes with tears tracked down his cheeks, his nails, slightly elongated, dig into the skin of his shoulders as he subconsciously tries to distract himself from the pain. Every fortnight during Night Hunt, his body is at war with itself, but Baekhyun refuses to give in to the sweet call of human blood and energy. He refuses to dance among the flames that litter the streets. He refuses to be anything but human himself.

Baekhyun rolls onto his back, slowly stretching his body out from the fetal position. His knees ache in protest, and Baekhyun hisses at the residual ache in his back. He takes three slow breaths, waiting for his fangs, heavy in his mouth, to retract. He waits for his lips, dry from being forced open with his fangs, to relax and for his gums to calm in their swelling.

It's nearly an hour before Baekhyun moves again, but the hands on his clock only point towards a quarter past seven in the morning. Baekhyun blinks blearily, his vision fading in and out of that space between consciousness and truly waking. For a moment, he realizes he's seeing, breathing, tasting the energies in the room around him, and then he blinks and it's gone. The pain recedes. Baekhyun rises.

His room in the Watchers' quarters is one of the few single rooms in the entire complex, and Baekhyun feels the loneliness constantly. Acutely. If humans are social creatures, demons are even more so, and the solidarity leaves a foul taste in his mouth. However, the solitude is a protective measure for both himself and the other Watchers. Baekhyun, his body torn between two worlds, is never sure how the presence of another will affect his demon side. Even though it hurts, Baekhyun finds loneliness to be preferable.

There’s a loud knock on the door. Baekhyun finishes zipping up his Watcher uniform, leaning his head back so the zip doesn’t catch on his skin.

“Who is it?” he calls out, cracking his neck and stretching out his shoulders. His voice is rough, but he doesn’t cough to clear it. The gruff quality grates on his own ears, but at least it keeps his emotions low and in check. In his experience, the lighter his voice is the more expressive it becomes. Keeping a tight grip on matters of the heart is the first way to keep a handle on his demon half.

At least, that’s what Baekhyun was taught, and so far it has worked well for him even though he is still uncertain exactly how that was discovered. He is the first halfling ever in the history of the world, the first mix of human love and satanic instinct, and no one will ever let him forget it.

“Lord Tamer sent me, halfling,” the low voice of a demon Prince, one of the Lord Tamer’s own, rings through the heavy wood of the door. Baekhyun nods, resigning himself to the presence of another leader of a demon court. Kai’s presence is headache enough, his power tempting enough, but this prince is far more powerful than Kai could ever hope to be.

“Come, Chanyeol,” he says blandly in the direction of his door. “You may enter.” It’s a formality, verbally granting the demon prince entrance. Without Chanyeol’s blood on his fingers, Baekhyun is powerless over him. In the hierarchy of demons, Chanyeol is in the top tier as a high-level demon. As a demon Prince, he’s in command of a court of his own and has legions of demons under his control.

The door creaks open, and Chanyeol, tall, the sharp point to his ears exaggerated beyond what most demons' ears look like, enters. His eyes are blazing, and the deep cadence of his voice holds an otherworldly echo the same way Kai's does. It sends a shiver down Baekhyun's spine, but it's not unpleasant.

"The Lord Tamer sends me," Chanyeol repeats, his voice now clear without the hindrance of the door. Baekhyun turns to face him, keeping his head down. There is something about the fire in Chanyeol's eyes that calls to him more than the other demons. Even Demon Prince Kai, though he holds the same status as a prince of a demon court, does not cause Baekhyun's instincts to flare up the way Chanyeol's presence does.

"So you said," Baekhyun murmurs, voice even. He doesn't ask what Lord Tamer has sent Chanyeol for nor does he make any indication that he cares to know. Directly after a Night Hunt and forced into Chanyeol's presence, Baekhyun’s body is thrumming a little too much with fear and need. His gums ache the slightest bit, a sign that his fangs are threatening to drop again. Baekhyun clenches his jaw.

"A gift," Chanyeol announces, holding out the parcel in his hand. He leans close to Baekhyun, stepping up in front of him, his chin and mouth ghosting over Baekhyun's hair. He feels hot and powerful, and Baekhyun knows Night Hunt went well for him, that his court fed well on the souls of humans caught in their claws and torn away from the earth plane. Baekhyun holds his breath so as not to taste the fear of humans long gone on Chanyeol's skin and so as not to feel the urge to lean in and sink his fangs into the skin of Chanyeol's neck to taste the residue of their souls.

"From Lord Tamer," Chanyeol murmurs, voice harsh against the shell of Baekhyun's ear. "You were hungry," he adds. Baekhyun bristles, and clamps down on the urge to lash out.

"Give it to me then," he orders without power. He feels unsafe, body wracked by the presence of a demon and the need to pledge loyalty to him, his human side wanting to feel his blood on his fingertips and control him.

Chanyeol's fingers close around Baekhyun's wrist, his sharp nails scraping in warning over the skin. Turning Baekhyun's palm upright, he sets a loose square of what feels like fabric on it, and Baekhyun berates himself for not paying attention to what the demon was carrying when he walked in or even bothering to look at him.

Giving the advantage by ignoring them, he hears his mentor's words in his head, is possibly the dumbest thing you could do. You're one of them, Baekhyun. If you let yourself act like one of their demons, then you'll never manage a taming.

"The Lord Tamer wishes you luck on your trip," Chanyeol says. "He expects you to be successful." Chanyeol straightens, and Baekhyun opens his eyes, suddenly able to breathe without the demon so close to him. He focuses on the package in his hand, looking at the paper sealed by the Lord Tamer's seal.

"May I?" He asks, not waiting for Chanyeol to say yes or no or nod before he's moving towards his bed, setting the package down lightly. He feels more human with more space between himself and the demon prince.

With careful fingers, he slides a nail underneath the wax and pulls the the paper apart. Folded neatly beneath the wrapping is a set of clothes that has Baekhyun's pulse racing just a little too quickly in anticipation.

"Your uniform," Chanyeol says, and Baekhyun wants to break out in a grin or to snap 'I know' at the Prince, but he does neither. He simply unfolds the jacket and coat, and tries on the flexible leather of the fingerless gloves. Though not the most practical of protective gear, skin to blood contact is the only way a blood exchange can be completed. Such a show of skin is a staple to the costumes worn by tamers and watchers alike. Baekhyun wonders just what exactly the Lord Tamer means by giving him this.

"The crest?" Baekhyun asks, holding out his hand expectantly. Chanyeol shakes his head, and the jewelry pressed into his ears clanks together.

"To be granted upon your return with new markings upon your arm," the demon answers. "That's really your only option."

"What?"

Chanyeol hums, the rich tone ringing with foreboding. "You being here is a risk for Lord Tamer to take. He never knows when you'll just disappear during Night Hunt, when you will simply dive after a banished demon and follow him down to Hell." Baekhyun says nothing. It's the reason he keeps himself locked inside on Night Hunt instead of going out to fulfill his duties as a Watcher. The Lord Tamer's fear is legitimate and not something Baekhyun has any words of refute for.

"You've always been on a clock, Watcher," Chanyeol murmurs, words casual and tone anything but. "You've always been a question for Lord Tamer. He gave you twenty one years. Either become a Tamer or be put down for the sake of the community." He grins. Baekhyun doesn't bother to point out that Watchers have until their twenty first birthday to Tame their first Demon. That’s the law. Chanyeol is baiting him, and Baekhyun refuses to react. He'll be in trouble with the Lord Tamer and his mentor if he does lash out.

"You could always join my court," Chanyeol offers. "Hell will like you." Baekhyun turns and meets Chanyeol's blazing eyes, keeping his own carefully blank.

"That's everything you had to do here?" Baekhyun states more than asks, gesturing towards the gift now laid out on his rumpled sheets. The corner of Chanyeol's mouth twitches up, and the wicked glint of his angled canine tooth draws Baekhyun's eyes.

"You can't make me leave, halfling," Chanyeol whispers even as he turns back towards Baekhyun's door. "You can't make me do anything." He’s not facing Baekhyun anymore; the air around the demon shimmers with heat that Baekhyun can feel even this far from him. His voice echoes in Baekhyun's chest.

"You're more us than you are them," he says. Baekhyun can practically hear the wicked grin on his face. "Halfling." Baekhyun clenches his fists, and Chanyeol sweeps his way out of the room, pausing with the door wide open.

"That's why you only have two options," Chanyeol says. "Tame or be killed."

The door slams. Baekhyun exhales. He's never wanted to tame a low-level demon because they're ugly and unintelligent, but taming a mid-level would open up the possibility of letting too much demon blood into his system. That’s the point of the blood exchange, to exchange blood between demons and Tamers, to give Tamers control over the demons. That’s how Tamers can break open the gates on nights other than those of Night Hunt. With a Tamer’s own blood combined with the demon’s whom they’ve performed the blood exchange on, the demon’s presence on either plane is purely up to the jurisdiction of the Tamer.

Of course, there are drawbacks to the system; demons, as powerful as they are, could never come solely under a human’s power. A killed demon who has been tamed means the death of his or her Tamer as well, but the death of that Tamer does not necessarily mean death for the demon.

Baekhyun stares down at the Taming uniform spread on his bed. It's a gamble, but Baekhyun isn't ready to die; he's ready to prove to them all that he's more human than they've ever let him believe.

Baekhyun catches himself staring at the ticket to Incheon too often, tracing his fingers carefully over the characters of his name. He hasn’t been to Seoul in a very long time, having been brought to the organization directly after his birth. He wonders if the perfect demon for him to tame will rise to the earthly plane while he’s there. He figures one must be or else Lord Tamer wouldn’t be sending him halfway around the world.

He flexes a fist a few times, watches his nails grow out slightly, the tips appearing black as they stretch out into claws before he breathes and they draw back under his skin, sinking into regular human nails. His energy right now is excessive, and the skin on his back burns where the markings of his half-demon heritage reside.

He needs to move, to do something, anything that will keep him from baring his teeth at the next person who says hello to him. He doesn't need to let his energy spike around. He can't be allowed to lose any sort of control when he's this close to being sent on actual Watcher duty.

There are rare enough opportunities for Watchers to be sent out on Night Hunt to face the demons and to possibly tame one of their own, but most Watchers begin receiving chances to test their skills and control over demon blood by the time they've turned sixteen. At twenty, Baekhyun has yet to have such a chance, telling himself that he prefers to stay locked up inside his room with the curtains drawn, pretending he can't feel the raging of the fire on the streets and the rise in spirit as human soul are taken to hell for demons to feast upon.

He tells himself repeatedly that he's a human before he's a demon. The burning on his back right now seems to argue with him, and with a hiss he grabs his sweatshirt and heads out the door of his room, slamming it closed behind him. The rattling of the metal hinges is more satisfying than it should be, and Baekhyun forces his face blank again, making a beeline for the gym. He needs to run; he needs to hit something. He needs to distract himself from the thoughts about what he might find in Seoul that are plaguing his mind.

The faint buzzing assaulting Baekhyun's ears becomes less of his own thoughts and more of the distinct sounds of gym equipment in use the closer he gets to the gym. It sounds horrendously busy, but Baekhyun has a sneaking suspicion that at this hour, past midnight a few days away from Night Hunt, there is only one person in the gym. Two technically, if he counts the demon that he can feel, its energy creeping up his throat and drawing him in.

Human, he reminds himself and steps inside the doors to the training area.

"Still too slow, Jiminnie!" crows a voice that's far too rough for the sweet face that it belongs to, but Baekhyun has known Taehyung for years. He's unafraid of everything, his unbonded arm marked up with the tattoos of his tribe, and his messy hair constantly falling in his eyes because he's too lazy to trim it. (That, and the last time he tried, he cut off a large chunk that he hadn't intended to, and he'd looked more ridiculous than Baekhyun can safely express.)

Taehyung is in the center ring of the organization's gym, his skin shimmering in the harsh lighting with the sweat coating him. The demon across from him is whipping his tail around him in annoyance, his fangs poking at his lower lips as he snarls.

"Fucking brat," the demon, Jimin, snaps, and he lunges forward, nails fully lengthened and hardened into claws. Taehyung steps smoothly to the side, hitching his knee up, and Baekhyun’s own stomach aches with sympathy for the pain Jimin must be feeling. Jimin drops heavily to the ground, and Taehyung laughs. He sounds actually delighted, but Baekhyun can see the tension still sitting, ready to be released, in the muscles on Jimin’s arms.

“Can’t ever beat me,” Taehyung is teasing. “I’m your Tamer--fuck!” Jimin lashes out with his leg, his shin colliding hard with the backs of Taehyung’s knees, and Taehyung drops forward, momentum to roll with the blow stopped by Jimin pressing down hard on his calves. The demon hauls himself up, straddling the backs of Taehyung’s thighs, and Baekhyun watches the Tamer pull his thighs in hard and twist before his demon can settle fully on top of him. Taehyung grabs Jimin’s wrists, pressing his thumbs hard into the demon’s palms and keeping his claws far from the backs of his hands.

Baekhyun’s own fingertips throb with the excitement of the fight, his claws sitting just under his skin and pricking the nerves there.

Jimin stops struggling suddenly, turning his head sharply and diving out of Taehyung’s grip to stand in front of his tamer, keeping him shielded with his body. Baekhyun stares, unimpressed at him.

“Jiminnie, what are you- Baekhyunnie!” Taehyung practically launches himself over Jimin, skittering to a halt in front of Baekhyun and breathing hard.

“My bestest pal,” Taehyung cries, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead. “How long has it been since you last graced me with your presence, princeling?” Baekhyun’s lip twitches, caught between smiling and growling at his self-proclaimed best friend. He’s grateful for Taehyung who treats him like he’s nothing abnormal, like he’s just Baekhyun. Baekhyun would almost dare to say Taehyung treats him like he’s human, except that Taehyung has this theory that Baekhyun is the son of a demon prince, and the nickname of ‘princeling’ grew out of that.

“I suppose that’s better than ‘halfling,’” Baekhyun says in monotone. He leans back to avoid the playful punch Taehyung aims at his shoulder.

“Come to spar?” Taehyung asks, and Jimin growls lightly, coming up to drape a protective arm over his Tamer. His upper lip curls back, showing Baekhyun his fangs, and Baekhyun is so tempted to bare his own, but he takes a deep, even breath instead.

“I didn’t,” he murmurs, eyeing Jimin. Despite Taehyung and his friendship, the demon has never liked Baekhyun. Taehyung tells him not to worry about it, that Jimin is simply jealous. Baekhyun has learned it’s best to stuff some sort of snack in Taehyung’s mouth before his friend can launch into a tale of how he punishes Jimin’s jealous behavior.

The bond between Tamer and demon is one that is special to every pair; no blood exchange works exactly the same beyond the physical markings that every Tamer displays. Even the tattoos are special to each demon, every one showing something about the demon which the Tamer has tamed.

Taehyung and Jimin happen to have a very physical relationship, but there is a sense of affection between them as well. It’s something Baekhyun shouldn’t be able to sense, but he blames Taehyung’s heritage as the last surviving member of the demon worshipping tribes for the obvious connection between them that extends beyond the boundaries of their blood exchange.

“Want to anyway?” Taehyung encourages, shrugging Jimin off of him and gesturing back towards the mat.

“Tamer-” Jimin starts, but Taehyung turns sharp eyes on him. Jimin falls silent, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy. Taehyung’s glare turns fond, and he throws his arms around Jimin’s neck, peppering his cheeks with kisses.

“You’re really too cute, Jiminnie,” Taehyung coos. “But you really need to leave Baekhyunnie alone, okay?”

“But-!” Taehyung shuts up Jimin’s complaint with a sharp tug on the demon’s tail, and Jimin yelps. A demon’s tail is ridiculously sensitive, bundles of nerves gathered at its base. Baekhyun is glad to not be in possession of that part of demonic anatomy.

“Hush,” Taehyung chides, combing his fingers through Jimin’s hair. “Go home for a little, okay? I’ll call you back out later.” The Tamer wiggles his eyebrows, and Baekhyun wishes he hadn’t just seen the way Jimin’s eyes light up wickedly. He shoves the dissettlement down, the emotion crawling like ants under his skin, desperate to be let out. The markings on his back prick on his skin.

“I don’t trust you alone with the halfling,” Jimin whispers none too quietly, and Baekhyun whirls, catching himself just in time from snarling at the demon.

“Shut up, mid-level,” he whispers in return.

“Or what?” Jimin challenges, and his voice is starting to echo in his throat, an intimidation tactic all demons like to employ. Baekhyun has heard his own voice echo in his throat at the peak of Night Hunt, however, and the attempt goes past him with nothing more than a shrug on his part. “You’ll shut me up?” Jimin taunts. His language has become awfully informal, and Baekhyun thinks Taehyung must really keep him out a lot. Demons need Hell’s miasma to survive, but tamed demons are able to stay on the Earth plane for quite some time depending on the strength of the blood exchange between them and their Tamers--the closer the connection, the longer a demon can survive.

“No,” Baekhyun says. Jimin starts to grin triumphantly, but it’s premature. “Something like that is too easy and not at all worth my time or energy.” It’s a bluff, but with Taehyung here, Baekhyun is safe from any real damage the demon could do to him.

“You’re asking for it, halfling,” Jimin spits.

“All talk,” Baekhyun returns, his eyes half-lidded. His heart is starting to race, his body preparing for an attack. Jimin lunges, tail whipping behind him, and Baekhyun crosses his arms, blocking him. They crash to the ground, rolling head over heels as they dig claws into each other’s skin. Baekhyun hears warning bells in his head, telling him to not let his demon side out, to contain it, to best Jimin as a Watcher and not as a fellow creature of the underworld.

Jimin plants his knee in Baekhyun’s side, and Baekhyun twists, snagging Jimin’s arms and yanking it hard behind the demon’s back. Jimin yowls, and the heat of hellfire rages on his skin without the presence of the actual flames. He’d have to be a prince to do that.

Baekhyun lets go as the heat sears through his palms, and he kicks hard, driving his foot against Jimin’s sternum. The demon rears back, falling onto his hands and launching himself back up. They meet in the middle, Jimin snarling and hissing and Baekhyun fighting to hold onto his humanity as red tinges his vision.

”Open!” Taehyung yells, and Baekhyun feels a deep pull in his gut, pausing with his hand securely around Jimin’s fist, the tips of his nails digging into the scabbed flesh of his knuckles. Underneath their feet, a gate swirls, and Baekhyun and Jimin both turn to stare at Taehyung.

The Tamer stands with his hand outstretched, blood dripping from the palm of his marked arm, the tattoos that mirror the ones on Jimin’s skin pulsing black as night. Jimin breathes hard, shooting Baekhyun one last unhappy, distrustful look, before he shoves Baekhyun back and allows the Hell portal to rise up around him.

”Return! Taehyung shouts, voice rough, features hardened in careful concentration, and Jimin is swallowed by the gate, slipping from the Earth plane to Hell.

The air in the gym is silent and still except Baekhyun and Taehyung who are both breathing hard, trying to reclaim their composure. Baekhyun closes his eyes and focuses on his image, on the human face he watches in the mirror every morning while he brushes his teeth. He feels the slight ache in his fingers as his claws retract, and he revels in the sense of relief he feels when the overfull feeling in his mouth disappears along with his fangs. The tattoos on his back keep right on burning though, and Baekhyun stubbornly ignores it.

“Are you okay?” he asks Taehyung, and the Tamer pauses in carefully cleaning the sharp knife in his hand with a cloth that he tucks back into his pocket.

“I would have a lot to worry about if I couldn’t handle a simple dismissal, princeling,” Taehyung answers, slipping the knife into its holster on his thigh. It’s a standard issue thing that all Tamers carry. After the blood exchange has been performed, a Tamer’s own blood becomes the method through his he can control his demon.

“Is it normally that- you seem out of sorts,” Baekhyun says delicately. He licks at the blood on his lip from his fang digging in. Taehyung shakes his head.

“He was drawing on our exchange,” Taehyung says, voice a bit bitter. “He’d been on the earth plane for too long. He would have been completely overwhelmed by you in your scuffle otherwise.” Baekhyun stares and allows himself to raise an eyebrow. Jimin is a duke, that much he knows from an accidental slip when Taehyung was drunk once. He’s no ordinary mid-level demon- he’s powerful, his power enough to gain the attention and devotion of a demon prince. Baekhyun, as a halfling doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of power.

“I keep telling you, Baekhyunnie, and one day you’re going to believe it,” Taehyung says. “Your demon parent is a prince. Even my demon believes it.”

“Is that why he hates me?” Baekhyun says doubtfully.

“It’s jealousy, Baekhyunnie,” Taehyung answers with a sigh. “I’ve told you before. Jimin is jealous of you.”

“Over you, of course,” Baekhyun’s voice is mild, slightly detached. Taehyung laughs and gestures towards the sparring mat. Baekhyun makes no sort of agreement except to toe off his shoes and step up behind the Tamer.

“My demon loves me,” Taehyung states with no room to argue. The type of love he’s talking about is debatable, in Baekhyun’s opinion, but that’s not the point. “He doesn’t want me alone with you because he thinks you could be tamed.”

“I’m human-”

“Half-human,” Taehyung interrupts easily. Baekhyun knows his retort was to be expected, after all. “And half of a powerful demon. You’re a wild card, and he’s possessive.” Baekhyun wants to snort, to roll his eyes, to ruffle Taehyung’s hair and tell him his relationship with Jimin is cute even if the demon has him marked in the first three lines of his hit list, but he can’t. He folds his hands in front of him, flexing his toes on the soft mat.

“It seems excessively possessive,” Baekhyun says. “And over the top. We’re just friends.”

“Best friends,” Taehyung corrects, mildly miffed. It’s amusing, really, and Baekhyun doesn’t refuse the title, just refuses to say it for Taehyung’s reactions. “I don’t think it really is over the top. He’s a demon. He doesn’t try to control his emotions. Demons are more in tune with their true nature than humans. Isn’t that why you act all neutral all the time?” That is, in fact, the exact reason Baekhyun doesn’t allow his emotions to show. Even simple things like laughter, or being disgruntled at the First Tamer’s rules and expectations, bring his demon side to the surface, simmering under his skin, and it’s a feeling Baekhyun has come to despise.

He turns and walks to his own corner of the sparring mat, shrugging off his jacket. “Are we sparring?” He calls, changing the subject. He doesn’t like to think about his demonic nature, no matter how accepting of it Taehyung is. But, Taehyung was raised to love demons, so Baekhyun can’t really expect anything else from him. The people who started his tribe revered demons as gods, and though Taehyung might not worship them, per se, he definitely respects their power.

“Are you ready yet, princeling?” Taehyung calls back, mocking Baekhyun’s tone of voice--bland and dry. “Come on. Hit me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Baekhyun tells Taehyung, showing his clawless hands. Taehyung rolls his eyes, and the corners of his lips quirk up in a devilish smile. In his mouth, Baekhyun’s fangs throb.

“Please, Baekhyunnie,” Taehyung says, and that wicked mischief is back in his eyes. “My demon is a duke. I know exactly what I’m getting into.”

Challenge tastes rich like blood on Baekhyun’s tongue, and he takes in a deep breath.

“Come at me, bruh,” Taehyung jokes. Baekhyun lunges.

Flying from O’Hare International Airport to Incheon International is a hassle. The energy of the people around him is all hurried, parents shouting at their children to put their bags down and hurry through security, business men continuously checking their watches and hoping to catch their flight. Baekhyun breathes thinly through his nose, trying hard to ignore the anxiety that making his fingers twitch and his body start to try to protect itself.

Around the Gatewatcher facilities, Baekhyun knows everyone, knows the energies there, and is, at this point, mostly immune to that brand of hurriedness and desperation. He’s used to feeling the rush and the fear that comes with sparring, and he’s used to the judgement when people stare at him, the word ‘halfling’ a warning, curse, and name on their tongues. Here, no one blinks twice at him for anything other than having a name the security personnel can’t properly pronounce.

By the time he’s seated on his flight, he’s exhausted already. The sudden lack in desperate energies as people are lulled into security, away from demons and away from long lines of security, has Baekhyun feeling empty. His eyes slip closed as the plane races down the runway ramp, and he hopes that his claws stay hidden if something startles him from sleep right before he drifts off, clouds and blue sky welcoming him to dreams.

Behind his eyelids, all he sees is hellfire. It’s not a nightmare, just an uncomfortable familiarity that makes him feel welcomed. Night Hunt is close.

Baekhyun arrives in Incheon and is immediately hit by the need to get away from the airport, away from the hustle and bustle of people around him, and he types the hotel’s address into his Gatewatcher issued phone. It’s at times like this when Baekhyun believes there could be a god, but he remembers always a second too late that even if one were to exist, he’d have no place with him. He’s a half-demon.

Baekhyun doesn’t have to do much but flash his Gatewatchers ID to receive his room key, the concierge looking a bit fearful. Not of him, at least, but because the presence of Watchers and Tamers is universally understood to mean Night Hunt is near.

Night Hunt starts in approximately twelve hours, Baekhyun gauges by the prickling of the markings on his back. He’s never been wrong before. He knows, though he refuses to admit it, that his demon side can sense the coming demons better than even the gauges at the Gatewatchers’ headquarters that line the walls of the First Tamer’s office.

Baekhyun’s hotel room is nothing more than a bed, nightstand, desk, TV, and bathroom, but it’s fancier than what he has in his room at the headquarters. It’s pleasing to be away for just a moment. He feels that immediate rush of energy through his body as he enjoys an emotion, and he quickly returns to his carefully constructed human mask.

He drops his suitcase, packed with nothing but a large t-shirt and the gift from the First Tamer. Baekhyun digs that out, spreading the jacket out, fingering the stiff leather of the gloves, and touching his fingertips to the left breast of the jacket where the Gatewatchers crest will be stitched a few days from now. He’s nervous, but he’s also determined.

Stretching out on his stomach on the bed, Baekhyun sighs. He’s not really tired, but Night Hunt is tonight, and Baekhyun needs all the rest he can get if he’s going out when demons roam the streets. He needs to keep a careful hold on himself, both demon and human.

He doesn’t bother to set an alarm, the burning of his markings will be enough to wake him.

Baekhyun jolts awake to the feeling of fire inside him, fire around him. Hellfire. He gasps, flying up from the bed and holding his throat as he fights for air. The burning on his back is intense, the markings there, the truth of his heritage, fighting to force him to go out, to dance in the hellfire, to take a human soul and devour it--

“Stop,” Baekhyun says to no one. The ring of his voice in the empty room cuts through the buzzing in his head, the whispers of demons rising to the earth plane, waiting for the tear to open, and Baekhyun focuses on breathing.

The burning doesn’t stop, but Baekhyun doesn’t think it will. He stands slowly, feeling his equilibrium totter momentarily as he fights between his human and demon instincts. He wants to flee, but he wants to fight. Most of all though, Baekhyun wants to succeed. Chanyeol’s warning is stark in the forefront of his mind, and Baekhyun’s clock is ticking.

He’s not going to explode, he’s not going to wreak havoc, and he’s not going to become a demon. Gatewatchers, and Lord Tamer himself, apparently, don’t believe that. They don’t have that type of faith in him. Challenge, as always, tastes rich on Baekhyun’s tongue. He’s going to tame a demon tonight, or he’s going to die trying. Death in battle would be easier to bear than dying at the hands of Lord Tamer’s demons as he stands and awaits his end.

Night Hunt begins with a grating, horrific screech and a flash of moonlight as fire rages up along the edges of the streets. The air crackles with impending death, and the screams of civilians, harmless and tasty in the mind of a demon, scratch through Baekhyun’s ear drums.

He sets himself into motion, pulling on the uniform Lord Tamer had gifted to him, slipping his hands into the gloves and flexing his fingers. The palms of the gloves have been cut out, unhindered access to the easiest source of blood. Baekhyun leans down to lace his boots, and the stretch of the fabric of his shirt against the burning mark on his back teases a wince from him. He’s content to just stand at the window, buttons fastened and mentally preparing himself to head out into Night Hunt as he waits out part one.

Night Hunt is an odd sort of phenomenon. The event, so to speak, is divided into two parts determined easily as before midnight and after midnight. Watchers, like Baekhyun, are traditionally only allowed out during the pre-midnight part of Night Hunt. The reasoning is simple, and Baekhyun understands; low-level and the occasional mid-level demons are the only ones who come out during the first half of the night. For Watchers who have the training to be Tamers but are not ones yet, it’s safer as they have no demon to call upon to protect them should they run up against a demon too strong for their ability. Tamers during the first half of night hunt tend to turn their energies towards watching over the Watchers, making sure they don’t end up dead.

Casualties are low, but the possibility of one occurring is still extremely high. Baekhyun has attended enough in-organization funerals to know.

However, Baekhyun, as a half-demon himself, knows no Tamer will bother to watch over him during the first half of the night, or even the second. His fingertips are starting to ache, and Baekhyun stands watch at the window of his hotel room as the seconds tick by.

He only makes it to half past eleven o’clock when his muscles start to scream in protest at being held still. He turns sharply on one heel, barely remembering to grab a room key and tuck it in his boot before he strides out the door and heads for the all-access stairs. He doesn’t want to join the fray just yet. Standing on the rooftop will get him outside, let his demon side relax and believe he’s doing what it wants, and it will keep him away from the fighting.

He wants a good demon, if he must have one. He wants one with power and strength. If nothing else but to prove to Lord Tamer and to the man who trained him to control his emotion that he is a good Watcher and a great Tamer. He has trained his whole life for this. With his twenty years on the line, this has to be good.

It has to be a taming that Lord Tamer approves of, after all. All tamings are subject to his approval, and his lack of approval will be the demon’s death and the Tamer’s death subsequently. Humans are fragile creatures, Baekhyun thinks, and then quickly includes himself in the thought process. He’s a fragile creature; nevermind that he’s never suffered a bruise in his life.

He’s human. He’s a Watcher. He’s going to tame a demon.

Baekhyun steps out into Night Hunt, and the screams assault him from even this high up, fearful energy everywhere even with very few civilians on the streets. Most places are locked down, the doors guarded by Tamers twirling their blades in their hands. It’s an art Baekhyun has never needed to learn. His claws from his heritage are just as sharp.

He observes the way Watchers test demons out, instantly cutting into the flesh of low-level demons, recognizable by their caricatured features and inability to recreate human speech, and screaming ”return!” once they’ve spilled the low-level’s blood. The mid-levels give Watchers pause, and Baekhyun is idle and barely amused by the hand to hand combat they engage in. He watches one Watcher fall to the ground, and a Tamer and his demon appear from out of nowhere to cut the demon down.

Tamers never help Watchers complete a taming. It’s shameful, and the taming won’t be approved by Lord Tamer anyway. Honestly, Baekhyun should find it to be a sick and disgusting business, but maybe there’s too much bloodthirst in him for that to be the case.

His back stops burning, and the screaming stops.

“Midnight!” A Tamer screams in a foghorn voice from the ground. Baekhyun turns and dashes down the steps, hurrying down a dozen flights of stairs and shoving himself through the emergency exit, ignoring the alarm as the door shuts firmly behind him.

Nausea slams into him, bowling him over as the taste of rotted souls and Hell’s miasma stick to his tongue and coat his throat. He gags hard, holding onto his humanity with an iron grip. A Watcher near him whirls on her heel, turning with her knife held in reverse grip, the other arm in a cross block across her body.

Baekhyun breathes hard, glancing up at her with wide eyes. The other Watcher’s eyes fix on his own eyes, certainly wild and edging on unearthly, and the lack of a crest on his Tamer’s jacket.

“Watcher?” she asks carefully, rocking on her heels, ready to move according to Baekhyun’s answer or if he should prove a threat. Baekhyun keeps his hands in plain view and hopes the girl doesn’t notice the lack of a knife holster strapped to his leg.

“Watcher,” Baekhyun answers stiffly. “Chicago. Headquarters.” The girl nods, relaxing only slightly. Her eyes roam away from Baekhyun, fixing instead on the streets, waiting for the second half of Night Hunt to begin. The energy is starting to rise in the air again, and Baekhyun thinks within three minutes the hellfire will rage over the streets curbs again.

“Seoul branch,” the Watcher answers easily, and Baekhyun figures that’s to be expected. He’s probably the only headquarters-based Watcher (soon to be Tamer!) here tonight.

“You look young,” Baekhyun says, voice dull. His fingers ache with the rush of concern trying to fill his chest.

“This is my fifth hunt out,” the girl sniffs. She wipes her demon blood-stained hand on a rag hanging from her belt. “Yerim,” she introduces. Baekhyun jams his tongue between his teeth to shake her hand, feeling the spike of her energy as two warm palms meet. Physical contact is one of those things that has always felt exponentially more powerful to him than to the average human.

“Baekhyun,” he responds.

“Listen, Baekhyun,” the Watcher, Yerim, says. “We have to head in- the rules, you know. I’m staying a block away.” She jerks her thumb over her left shoulder. Baekhyun isn’t planning to go in, that’s why he’s just come out, but for Yerim, at least, he can make sure she gets in safe.

“Fine,” he murmurs. “I’ll walk you.” Yerim starts leading the way immediately in a brisk jog. There’s less than two minutes, by Baekhyun’s estimate, remaining before the gates break open again.

“This area,” Yerim pants lightly as they run. “Has been reported to be pretty power heavy. We spent most of first half making sure it’s completely cleared out of people on the streets. Locked up the natural gates as much as we could.”

“We?” Baekhyun repeats.

“Yeah,” Yerim gasps, turning a corner down an alley to the back entrance of an apartment building. “Tamers and Watchers.” Baekhyun doesn’t react to his surprise. “They’re serious about this area. The energy reading is-” She makes a general explosion gesture with her hands, and Baekhyun kind of wants to laugh. She’s cute.

Yerim and Baekhyun slow to a walk, and Yerim pulls a scrap of paper from her pocket.

“Always forget the code,” she says, eyes curved up, smile sheepish. Baekhyun doesn’t react. He needs to stay focused, he needs to-

Fire. It blasts up from the edges of the street and the buildings. Baekhyun slings an arm around Yerim, pulling her back and diving into the middle of the alley, as far away from the flames as he can get, covering her body with his own.

“Shit,” he hears her say, and her voice is already shaky. He can smell the tinges of something sour on her- fear. “We gotta-”

Baekhyun doesn’t hear the rest of her sentence. His ears ring, the wailing high pitched and ceaseless. He drops the side, rolling on his back with his mouth open and hands pressed over his ears. It hurts. Everything hurts. The muscles on his back must be peeling away from his bone for all the burning on his skin. His body shakes, and he can’t breathe without tasting the desire for a human soul on his tongue.

“Baekhyun!” He faintly registers Yerim screaming. The sound is high and tears at his eardrums. Baekhyun tries to hold on to his human side, tries to press everything down, to become numb and ignore this pain, this suffering. “Baekhyun!” Yerim screams again, and Baekhyun’s claws dig into his scalp.

He feels off-balance out here in the middle of the second half of Night Hunt, having never felt its potency before, and he’s losing the battle with himself.

Cool fingers slide over his wrists and against his cheeks, wiping at his skin carefully, and Baekhyun realizes tears are streaming down his face.

“Baekhyun,” Yerim says, eyebrows furrowed, prying Baekhyun’s hands away from his head. “You’re bleeding-!” She cuts off, her eyes suddenly stricken with fear, focusing on Baekhyun’s fingers.

“You’re a demon,” Baekhyun reads from her lips more than he hears.

“Half,” he manages to choke. It’s not exactly something Lord Tamer likes to broadcast, the fact that he has a halfling hidden among the ranks of his Watchers, and it’s not something Baekhyun wants people to know either; he wants to be human. At this point, however, it’s better that Yerim just know. He notices her temple is bleeding, drawing red down the side of her pretty face. The color flickers in the light of the flames around them.

“When we fell,” she explains automatically, noting where Baekhyun’s eyes are fixed. He nods, swallowing hard and forcing himself to sit up, to ignore the pain lancing through him, the terrible ache in his gums.

“I can’t believe a Watcher is a half-demon,” she says. “I just can’t-”

“Get inside,” Baekhyun cuts her off, hoping to keep his voice away from a full out groan of pain. He doesn’t entirely succeed.

“Okay,” Yerim says, slowly forcing herself up to her feet. She holds out a hand. “Come on. You too.”

“No,” Baekhyun says. “You. Go.” The air suddenly waxes oppressive, and Baekhyun hunches forward under its weight. Even Yerim looks aware that something has changed, the flames around them turning dull red and flickering a little too low along the lines of the road. She looks frantically from side to side. “Now.”

Baekhyun’s voice echoes with his command, just like a real demon. He swallows hard, and Yerim gulps too.

“Yeah,” she agrees, taking one step backwards, and then another two in quick succession. “Yeah.” She turns to bolt to the door to her apartment as Baekhyun forces himself up onto his knees.

The flames stop, and Yerim freezes, her shoulders heaving with her panicked breathing.

“Baekhyun…” she starts, looking back at him, and Baekhyun can see the tears in her eyes.

“Go now!” He roars, voice bouncing off the concrete. Yerim lets out a dry sob, and yellow flames scream to life. She stumbles back, and Baekhyun throws himself up to his feet. The horrible screech of iron gates fills the air around them, and even Yerim winces at it.

“Yerim,” Baekhyun says slowly. The markings on his back feels like a million needles being pressed into his skin. From the ground in front of Yerim, blocking her way to the apartment building’s back entrance door, a gaping maw of black and red miasma is rising.

“Yerim, you should-” Baekhyun starts again, but what should he say? Run? Out into the street where the rest of Night Hunt is happening? She’s a Watcher, she’ll be killed out there without a demon for sure. Step back? Towards him? He’s in less control of himself than he’s ever been in his life.

The miasma solidifies into gates, the iron looking bars wrapped and warped with the bodies of snakes and spiders that writhe, the yellow flames lighting their marble eyes. Poison appears to drip from their fangs in the form of hell’s red miasma, and a low cackle that echoes into the deep black of the Night Hunt’s sky and bounces off the flames as they dance with its tune resounds around them.

Baekhyun’s throat constricts. Something like fear and something like arousal lance through him, and the pain is still all-consuming. His jaw works, unable to say anything, unable to warn Yerim who stands frozen with fear.

The gates split open.

Yerim screams.

A hand shoots from the depths of the gates and closes around her throat. Her scream cuts off, and her hands fly up to tug uselessly at the clawed hand wrapped firmly around her throat. She’s choking, and Baekhyun feels like he is too, just watching as one leg after the other steps out from the gate, the emerging demon’s cackle still leading the dance to which the hellfire around them moves.

The demon’s tail drags on the ground, and it hits Baekhyun moments too late.

A demon prince stands before him, not even fully emerged onto the earth plane and he’s made his first kill. Yerim’s body goes limp, her toes dragging on the ground. A scream tears from Baekhyun’s throat. He watches in abject terror as the demon prince licks his lips, dragging one long claw down the front of Yerim’s coat, tearing easily through the leather and fabric, blood spraying onto his wrist and bare chest as he splits a long line down her chest to her stomach.

Baekhyun wants to throw up. He’s going to throw up. Yet as the demon prince draws her shimmering blue soul from her body, Baekhyun feels his throat go dry in lust for the soul, to feel it slide down his throat.

The demon prince swallows. Baekhyun wants that, to taste a human soul. You’re human! he screams inside his own head as watches the demon toss Yerim’s corpse to the ground. Baekhyun can see the white bone of her sternum under the open flaps of skin and see her intestines threatening to spill out out of her torn stomach.

The demon cackles again. “Hello, Little Watcher,” he says. His voice echoes around them, ringing in Baekhyun’s ears in a way that’s far too pleasant for the blood that stains the demon’s lips. To Baekhyun’s own horror, he finds the demon handsome, his features sharp, angled ears decorated thoroughly with jewelry that glints in the hellfire light. His silver hair is far too pretty for a creature like him, Baekhyun tries to convince himself, but he’s mostly mesmerized by the shadows cast by the demon’s hair where it trails over his collarbones. The markings that wrap around his left arm are graceful, swirling around his skin with the fluidity of air and the intent of a hangman’s noose- breathtaking but never returning.

The demon prince looks over at Yerim’s body with a detached glance.

“You’re the only one here,” he murmurs in his echoing voice. It takes Baekhyun a few seconds of silence to realize that the demon is talking to him. He doesn’t react, forcing his breathing steady and pulling his cold mask of indifference over himself. The demon raises an eyebrow at him, no doubt able to feel the lack of emotional energy rising from Baekhyun. Baekhyun meets his gaze, ignoring the taste of bile on his tongue and the rolling of his stomach.

“So it would seem,” he agrees, nonchalant in demeanor. His eyes flick towards Yerim’s corpse, and the demon breaks out into that cackle again.

“Delicious,” he sing-songs, tilting his head at the former Watcher. Baekhyun strangles his snarl in his throat, but the demon’s sharp ears pick up on it anyway. He smirks. “Ah, but, you humans see this as, hmm.” He taps his bottom lip. “A tragedy, isn’t that right?” Baekhyun’s eyes narrow.

“Oh, you’re angry,” the demon says, sounding delighted. Baekhyun bets he is positively amused. The demon smiles, his long fangs curled over pointed bottom teeth. “Just livid.”

Baekhyun, however, is not amused at all. He’s torn, half of him amazed by the demon’s power and wants it for himself. The other half of him is terrified and sickened.

“Did you love her?” The demon asks. He steps forward, less than a meter separating his bare chest from Baekhyun’s jacket. Baekhyun feels frozen, the weight of the demon’s power, of the way the hellfire fluxuates to his breathing, holding him still. Baekhyun keeps staring blankly.

“No?” The demon muses, raising an eyebrow. He shrugs then. “So don’t worry so much,” he says, and swipes a finger through the blood splattered on his chest to draw the red on his lips. Baekhyun watches his long tail flick curiously at Baekhyun’s blank disposition.

The length of a demon’s tail equals his power, Baekhyun, his mentor used to tell him at the beginning of every session for years.

His tail goes to almost to his ankles! Taehyung had excitedly reported when he came home covered in blood and various wounds with a fresh set of demon markings on his right arm.

Baekhyun is going to die, a nasty voice that sounds oddly human says in his head.

“She was bound to die,” the demon’s voice snaps Baekhyun from his thoughts. “Who knows how fate determines these things, anyway?” Baekhyun breathes out harshly.

“You’re oddly calm,” the demon notes. “Quite...quiet, as well.” He grins then, mouth open as he fangs drop to their full length, pressing into his bottom lips. Baekhyun’s own jaw aches. The demon claps his hands together, leaning in so Baekhyun can almost feel the demon against him. He’s so tall, his body lithe, veins stark against his almost white skin.

“Are you going to try to tame me, Little Watcher?” The demon asks, positively delighted. He laughs out loud. “Come on. You?” He laughs again, but Baekhyun doesn’t want to tame a demon like this- a demon with this amount of power. He doesn’t want to let that kind of blood into his system.

He’s human.

The demon’s eyes flash dark red, and his own blood drips from one of his fangs down the side of his chin. Baekhyun blinks, and his back slams hard into the brick behind him, the demon laughing joyously with one hand pinning one of Baekhyun’s wrists to the harsh surface of the alley’s walls. Baekhyun coughs violently, pain momentarily twisting his features.

“I dare you to try,” the demon coos, lips against the shell of Baekhyun’s ear. His taunt brings anger flaring to the surface of Baekhyun’s skin, and he snaps his leg up as hard and fast as he can, pulling hard on the demon’s grip on his wrist for leverage. His shin smashes into the demon’s hard shoulder, and throws the Hell resident just enough for Baekhyun to slip, crashing to the ground and rolling hard away from the demon. He jumps to his feet, hands folded into fists and held protectively in front of him.

The demon cackles again.

“That was good,” he says. He adds, with condescension dripping from his echoing voice, “Little Watcher.” Baekhyun breathes hard, tasting the miasma on his tongue and something else, something a little sweet, something he almost likes.

“I don’t want to tame you,” Baekhyun snarls. “I want you dead.” The demon prince laughs again, and Baekhyun only manages to catch the glint of hellfire light off of his fangs before his back hits the opposite side of alley, the demon’s arm across his throat. It’s hard but not impossible to breathe, and Baekhyun sucks in what air he can, refusing to show his struggle and give the demon the satisfaction. He knows he’s being toyed with.

“You do?” The demon mocks. “Good.” He leans in close, his breath ghosting over Baekhyun’s jaw, and a shiver of something Baekhyun cannot, will not, acknowledge trails past the pain in his shoulders and down his spine. “But the thing is, you can’t kill me. Couldn’t even tame me. Not a little Watcher like you.” Baekhyun’s claws erupt from his fingertips, and he slashes hard across the demon’s neck, the demon’s blood hot on his fingertips. The demon stumbles back with shock at the sudden attack, and Baekhyun is careful to retract his claws before he holds out his blood stained hand.

One drop slides from his little finger to splash on the heat-burned ground. ”Leave.”

The ground shimmers, but no gate opens. Baekhyun stares at the demon, stares hard at the awful twist of his lips. ”Return!” He tries again. The demon’s physical image doesn’t even shimmer. The wounds across his neck, dripping blood that pools in the hollow of his throat, slowly stitch back together in the hellfire light. Baekhyun blinks, chokes, feels icy hands of fear close around his heart even as heat burns the back of his neck, and Baekhyun really can’t breathe. He’s alone, no chance of being saved with a demon whose power is out of his reach, whose power shatters the air and commands the flames and madness itself, and Baekhyun is surely lost.

Panic tastes like poison and metal on his tongue.

“That’s not going to work,” the demon says casually. He scratches at his newly healed skin. “You’ve realized already, haven’t you?” He straightens to his full height, tail lashing behind him. “I’m a demon prince.” The fire flares around them, the flames nearly white and giving the demon an ethereal glow. Baekhyun takes a step back.

“Isn’t it a fun game?” the demon prince asks, blinking hugely. “You’re clearly not like this one.” He kicks at Yerim’s corpse, and it rolls with an awful squelch right into the hellfire. The stench of burning flesh assaults Baekhyun’s nose. “A little more resilient. Much more fun to play with.”

He steps forward, winding a hand in Baekhyun’s hair and yanking his head harshly to the side.

“But I’m curious,” he whispers, voice rough. “How did you manage to get your knife out that fast?” The demon’s fingers are light, his touch razor sharp as he trails his fingers along Baekhyun’s thighs and up his sides, finding no holsters. He yanks a little hard on Baekhyun’s hair when the Watcher tries to struggle. Baekhyun, chest moving with his frantic breathing, lets the demon stroke over one of his fingers and up the inside of his wrist, shoving his hand nearly up to Baekhyun’s elbow within his jacket. “No weapon,” he breathes. “So it must be...” He drags his hands back down, the tips of his claws just barely digging into Baekhyun’s skin, little droplets of blood beading up in the welts. He stops with his hand wrapped around Baekhyun’s own, drawing back to that they’re staring each other in the eye.

Time seems to freeze.

“Something else.” One claw sinks, vicious, into Baekhyun’s palm. Baekhyun lets go.

His body reacts before he can stop it, his claws out and digging hard into the demon’s hand as he screams, mouth open and fangs fully extended in his mouth. He shoves hard at the prince’s chest, and the demon is thrown back. The markings on Baekhyun’s back stop burning, and the demon’s own seem to glow.

“I see,” the demon says, and suddenly he’s not laughing anymore even if his smirk is just as wicked. “You, Little Watcher, are certainly one of us.”

“Human,” Baekhyun spits back.

“Halfling,” the demon returns. “And powerful. I could almost swear I’ve met you before.” He steps forward slowly, carefully, lightly, ready to turn at a moment’s notice. Baekhyun balances on the balls of his own feet, barely breathing, fangs showing, waiting.

The demon dives, and Baekhyun steps inside of the attack, swinging his fist up hard. The demon snags his elbow, driving his knee hard into Baekhyun’s hip, forcing him to turn away from his opponent. Baekhyun throws his body forward to roll away; the demon secures his arms around Baekhyun’s middle, crushing him back against his chest.

Something wet and hot trails up the edge of Baekhyun’s ear, and a gasp of pleasure escapes him before he can clamp down on it.

“Oh, was that...pleasure, Little Watcher? Definitely one of us then,” the demon sighs into Baekhyun’s ear. Baekhyun forces his body to stay rigid, never once letting up the tension against the demon’s arms, never letting him win. “Why else would you find this”--his arms try to tighten around Baekhyun, and the Watcher growls low in the back of his throat--”so desirable.”

He twists Baekhyun in his arms and catches Baekhyun’s chin between his thumb and forefinger. He kisses him hard, their fangs clicking against each other. Baekhyun can’t find reason for it, but he kisses back, scratching up the demon’s arms and sliding his claws into the demon’s hair, the long strands twisted around his fingers.

The demon licks into Baekhyun’s mouth, and it feels less like a kiss and more like the underworldly creature is trying to taste him. Baekhyun finds himself melting into it anyway, body singing with the contact of another body against his own. The demon sucks Baekhyun’s tongue into his mouth and bites down sharply on his tongue.

Baekhyun yelps trying to draw back, but the demon has his claws buried in Baekhyun’s hair, sharp against his scalp as Baekhyun’s blood smears across their lips. Baekhyun digs his own claws into the demon’s skull as they stand, panting harshly, open-mouthed, fangs against fangs. The demon’s breathing turns harsh, pained, as Baekhyun drags his claws against the demon’s scalp, and their eyes meet.

The demon throws him back, and Baekhyun stumbles, landing hard on his back. He throws his legs up, rolling over his shoulder and jumping up to stand. He wipes angrily at his mouth, tasting his own blood and what can only be Yerim’s blood. He likes the taste- it’s sweet like ice cream, and Baekhyun wants to throw up again.

“I know why you seem familiar,” the demon says suddenly, gruffly, snapping Baekhyun’s focus from his apparent taste for blood. “Tell me your name.” Baekhyun shakes his head angrily.

“It won’t matter when you’re dead if you knew my name or not, demon” he spits. A bit of blood trails down his chin, mirroring the blood on the demon’s chin, and Baekhyun doesn’t feel human at all. Human, he chants weakly in his head to remind himself.

The demon laughs. “My name is Sehun,” he murmurs, and power rings in his voice at the utterance of his name. “Now tell me yours.” Baekhyun stays silent, showing his bloodstained claws when Sehun steps forward toward him with threat written in the angles of his face.

“Tell me,” he repeats. Baekhyun can feel blood slipping down his hip.

“Baekhyun,” he coughs out. The demon blinks.

“Ah,” he says. “I see.”

Baekhyun, for all of his usual control, can’t stop himself. “See what?” he demands. Sehun glides right up to Baekhyun, moving nearly to fast for Baekhyun to follow, and he traces Baekhyun’s jaw.

“Exactly why you’re so-” he pauses, swipes his thumb through the blood on Baekhyun’s chin and brings it to his own lips, licking the red away. “Addictive.” Baekhyun draws back a fist, and Sehun’s knee slams into Baekhyun’s stomach.

“Fu-” Baekhyun gasps, falling forward. The demon catches him, fingers curled in the collar of Baekhyun’s jacket, his knees just barely scraping the ground.

“I’m going to offer you an ultimatum,” Sehun breathes, his voice echoing right next to Baekhyun’s ear. “I feel you deserve it, since you are...who you are.”

A halfling, he means. “Fuck. Off,” Baekhyun manages even though the collar of his shirt is pressing against his windpipe.

“Come back down to Hell with me,” the demon suggests. “Be mine.” Baekhyun hates how tempting that sounds. He knows a little about the organization of Hell from what the First Tamer has told him, but he also knows going to Hell will be the death of his human side.

“And the other option?” Baekhyun demands.

“Well, you can attempt to tame me,” Sehun says. “And die here, of course. I always do enjoy a good game. Your choice.” He drops Baekhyun then, and the Watcher collapses to the ground, his claws clicking on the asphalt. His knees sting, the fire around him feeling like it will sear right through his jacket.

“What do you think, Baekhyun?” His name, echoing like that, feels right, and Baekhyun’s stomach turns.

“I think it’s you who will die here,” he says even though he doesn’t have the power to kill the demon, and Sehun knows it. His only chance of survival is to complete a taming on him, but taming Sehun- a demon prince- he doesn’t know how his halfling blood will react.

At this point, he has nothing to lose.

“Your eyes look sharp,” Sehun sing-songs. His tail lashes out behind him, one foot shifted back to give him a wider base. Baekhyun pushes himself up to his feet. His eyes lock on the tattoos spinning down Sehun’s left arm from his chest. He knows how taming works; he’s trained for years to be able to do this. His tutor would be upset if he didn’t even try. He doesn’t justify Sehun with an answer.

Baekhyun launches forward, the rush of flames roaring in his ears. Sehun shifts left, and Baekhyun tilts forward. He digs his hands into the asphalt and swings his right leg down hard, knee smashing hard into the inside of Sehun’s hip. The demon’s balance wavers. Baekhyun drops his shoulder to the ground, rolling over the burning marks on his back and digs the heel of his left foot into Sehun’s stomach.

The demon’s claws pierce through the material of Baekhyun’s boot as he grabs the watcher’s ankles, and Baekhyun gets his eyes open just before he’s dragged across the ground, his ear torn against the rough street. He grabs the back of Sehun’s knee, sinking his claws into his hamstrings.

Sehun screeches and lets Baekhyun go. Baekhyun ignores the pain, and jumps up again, attempting to swing an uppercut into Sehun’s jaw, but his equilibrium is thrown from the damage to his ear, and he misses wildly, fist smashing into Sehun’s shoulder instead. The demon snags his wrist. Sehun pulls, claws showing, intending to drag Baekhyun right into the black curve of his nails. Baekhyun drops his weight completely, hitting the ground hard. Sehun over balances, falling forward.

Baekhyun’s stomach complains as he throws his legs up, digging his boots into Sehun’s stomach and throwing the demon over his head. He doesn’t see Sehun smash into the brick behind them, but he rolls over in his stomach in time to scramble over to the demon, slashing his nails down his arms, from deltoid to wrist.

Sehun roars, and the fire around them explodes, slamming into Baekhyun. Baekhyun backpedals, dive rolling away from the flames. Heavy hands lands on his back, and Baekhyun nearly bites off his tongue as he hits the ground chin and chest first.

“You piece of shit,” Sehun hisses at him, his claws sinking through Baekhyun’s jacket. The tips meet the markings on Baekhyun’s back, and Baekhyun screams, thrashing as hard as he can to throw the demon. It doesn’t work, but it does give him enough room to twist his back hard, throwing his elbow into Sehun’s jaw. The demon slides sideways, and Baekhyun throws himself after him.

Sehun lands hard on his back, and Baekhyun is there, shins over the demon’s thighs and leaning down so they’re chest to chest. Sehun claws at the skin over Baekhyun’s hips. Baekhyun screams, grabbing onto Sehun’s wrist and smashing his hand down hard into the ground. There’s a sickening crack of bone. Sehun screams in response. The flames are white around them.

Baekhyun can feel the tears streaming down his face to mix with the blood smeared along his jaw, and he presses down harder on Sehun’s legs and arm as he brings his own right hand to his mouth and bites hard into his palm, blood spilling hot on his tongue.

Baekhyun grabs Sehun’s other hand, the marked one, tearing it from where the demon lodged into his side. Bits of his own flesh are caught in Sehun’s claws, and Baekhyun jams his own into Sehun’s palm. Their blood mingles, sinking into each other’s skin as Baekhyun catches Sehun completely, his full body weight holding the demon down.

”Open!” He screams. The screeching of iron gates rings in the air, and the ground under them splits into Hell’s gates. Sehun roars.

“No!” The echo glancing off the iron gates.

”Open!” Baekhyun repeats forcefully, and the metal bars slide away. Hell’s miasma surround them both, and the flames on the street are bright yellow and white.

“You- no!” Sehun tries.

”Exchange!” Baekhyun roars. Everything stops, and then their hearts beat once in tandem, pounding in Baekhyun’s ears. Sehun’s markings light up bright, blue searing down his skin, and the mess of blood between their hands glows.

Pain tears through Baekhyun’s body, starting in his back, and he collapses, the sounds of his own screams foreign to his ears. His right arm burns as if acid were poured down his arm and flames were licking their way up. Sehun is screaming against him, and the world looks blue.

The flames are blue.

The markings on Sehun’s arm come to life, snaking up Baekhyun’s own, the designs like knifes digging scars into Beakhyun’s flesh. Sehun arches up, tears streaked on his own face. Baekhyun’s vision is fading out, his breath too hard to catch.

“Leave,” he tries to tell Sehun, to finish the ritual. Nothing happens, and Sehun is begging him now, his screams becoming pleas for it all to stop. Baekhyun wants it all to stop; he can’t breathe.

”Leave!” He sobs in gruesome desperation. It all stops: the pain, the hellfire, the swirling gates and rising miasma. Night Hunt is over. Baekhyun meets Sehun’s eyes one last time as the demon sinks into the gate, and Baekhyun lies prone in the alleyway.

The world goes black.

Baekhyun wakes to sunlight against his face, turning the backs of his eyelids orange and too hot against his face. He's uncomfortable; his body screaming at him with the voice of cracked ribs and torn skin. He flexes his fingers, and no accompanying jolts of pain lance up either arm. He's lucky--no broken fingers. His fingertips however, feel sore, rubbing against the asphalt he's laying on, the grit of the street slippery like after the rain.

It never rains on Night Hunt. There is only one remaining explanation for the liquid under Baekhyun's touch: blood. Whether it's his blood or Sehun's blood Baekhyun can't be sure. They'd both been heavily torn open when he'd finally finished the blood exchange.

Baekhyun opens his eyes and squeezes them shut again, pressing his hands hard against the ground to distract himself from the harsh sting of early morning sunlight reflected off of glass buildings. Baekhyun groans, forcing himself to breathe slowly in through his nose and evenly out through his mouth, to not let pain consume him. He dryly makes a mental note to never again spend the night passed out in a puddle of blood in an alleyway in Seoul--or any city, for that matter.

"Well, this isn't exactly the victory I expected to find," a voice cuts into Baekhyun's head with the ring of a demon, but it's a voice Baekhyun has never heard before. "Still, a victory none the less, if the ruckus in Hell last night is anything to judge from."

Baekhyun opens his mouth to ask for the name of the demon or for the voice to simply leave him alone, but it's nearly impossible to articulate any of those when his mouth is as dry as it is. He croaks.

"Alright, I’ll take that as a request for assistance then, Tamer," the voice continues. Hands, gentle hands, holding Baekhyun carefully, not all treating him like the halfling creature he is, slide under his shoulders, pulling him up into a sitting position. Those same hands brush over Baekhyun's eyes, wiping away whatever dust and grime and blood--his or Sehun's--is there. "Open your eyes slowly, alright? The sun isn't the most forgiving of rulers." Baekhyun wants to snap, to tell this demon that he can take perfect care of himself, he doesn't need a demon's help, but he finds himself blinking repeatedly against the sunlight anyway as he works to get his eyes open.

When he does, the smile that greets him is even more blinding than the sun itself, and Baekhyun jolts back, biting his lip to hide his wince as the sharp action aggravates his injuries. He can feel fresh blood, hot and anguished, flowing down his side again from where Sehun has dug his claws into Baekhyun's waist.

The demon reaches out for him immediately, holding him still. "Careful," he says, voice stern. "Don't move so suddenly. You'll heal quickly with the little prince's blood in you, but it's only been a few hours since he tried to rip you open. Even I can't heal that quickly."

"And who is 'I,'" Baekhyun whispers, not really asking, not really expecting an answer. His throat is still terribly dry, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth.

"Are you actually asking?" The demon teases, shifting around Baekhyun to loop his hands under Baekhyun's arms. "Or are you just being difficult, and I should expect your questions to be rhetorical?" He pauses in his maneuvering of Baekhyun's battered body when Baekhyun lets out of a small pained whine. "Not entirely stoic, I see." It sounds like he's smiling, and Baekhyun finds it strange. "You need to carry some of your weight. I won’t do all of that for you. Put your feet on the ground, bend your knees, like that, yeah."

Baekhyun does his best to follow instructions, his abdomen screaming at him as he pulls his feet in. As soon as he gets the soles of his boots on the ground, the demon lifts, and Baekhyun is pulled easily right up to his feet. He wobbles, vertigo crashing into him. For a brief moment, he thinks his face is going to greet the ground and his other ear will be torn clean through to match his left, but the demon is already holding him still, keeping him upright with careful hands.

"You lost a lot of blood," the demon notes. Baekhyun shifts his eyes to the side to simply stare at the demon. He's powerful-- being out in plain daylight without a Tamer in sight is indication enough of that.

"Now, did you really want to know who I am? Or should I just get you back to your hotel?"

Baekhyun nods, not trusting his voice to work quite yet..

"Demon Prince Jongdae at your service," the demon laughs, tipping an imaginary hat. "You've probably never heard of me. I'm not one of your First Tamer's demons, after all." He grins, and Baekhyun doesn't really make any effort to reply. Jongdae doesn't seem shocked by this at all, wrapping his tail snugly around Baekhyun's waist as added support as he starts walking forward. Baekhyun doesn't have any way to explain it, but he feels an odd sense of comfort in the presence of this demon prince.

He wonders if taming a demon prince last night has anything to do with it. He doubts it.

"Tamed our little prince Sehun, I see," the demon says conversationally as they step out of the alley, turning right down the street. They must look an interesting pair--Baekhyun covered in blood and a demon grinning full force with his fangs out stumbling down the sidewalk together. "Quite a fit. Second strongest demon in hell currently, that little brat. He thinks he's the strongest, but he's got a few centuries to grow before then, I should say."

The demon leads Baekhyun around to the back of the building, waiting patiently and chatting amicably as Baekhyun fishes his key card out of one of his torn pockets. His fingers slip on the plastic, the white now streaked over with the orange rust of dried carnage. Jongdae grabs the little card from him easily, swiping it and jabbing at the automatic door. It swings open, and Baekhyun hisses at the sudden rush of freezing air conditioning.

Jongdae hisses too. "This atmosphere is hardly fit for a demon prince," he says, glancing at Baekhyun pointedly. "We live in a fiery atmosphere for a reason. This is torturous."

Baekhyun agrees, licking at his lips, body finally starting to function again. It is always a struggle to realign his human side after a Night Hunt, the demon in him having crawled to close to control just hours before. His body hums with the memory of his fight with Sehun, and he grips Jongdae's wrist tightly as he helps him into the elevator.

"Why are you here?" Baekhyun asks him finally, trying to keep his voice even despite the rasp in his throat and the general feeling of being off kilter more than usual.

“I was made to come," Jongdae answers him. “A request of sorts.” Baekhyun doesn't know how to interpret that, not sure who the someone is or how a demon prince can even be on the earth plane without his Tamer drawing him up.

"Are you tamed?" Baekhyun asks. The elevator dings to announce their arrival on Baekhyun's floor; Jongdae doesn't answer.

"How are you here?" Baekhyun tries again, nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Shower," the demon orders, stopping in front of Baekhyun's room. "It will help your wounds. Remember something else, Baekhyun, about the blood exchange." Baekhyun suddenly finds himself face to face with this demon prince, and even though they're about the same size, Baekhyun feels terribly small under the prince's stare. "Just like a blood transfusion performed by your doctors, your body has to accept the new blood flowing in you. Don't fight it. Do as it commands, and you will be fine."

"That's cryptic," Baekhyun states, but he allows Jongdae to open his door and push him inside.

"Later, kid," Jongdae says, and a gate immediately opens under his feet, taking him away. Baekhyun glares at the spot where he used to be for a second before pain slams into him, nearly knocking him to the ground. Baekhyun grabs for the wall, breathing hard. He hadn't really thought about it while he'd been walking, but he hadn't felt any pain with the demon prince. Now, his fingertips sliding against the wallpaper as he fights to stay upright, it feels as if Sehun's claws are still buried in his flesh; the agony of the blood exchange is still coursing through his veins.

Baekhyun sighs, stumbling into the hotel room bathroom, gritting his teeth the whole time he pulls off his clothes to give himself something other than pain to focus on. Now that he can look at the full damage in the mirror, see the amount of blood dried on his clothing and plastered on his skin, and Baekhyun hopes his staying away from any doctors won’t cause him irreparable damage. His healing rate is incredible, yes, but he's not above needing stitches every so often.

Staggering the last two steps to the shower, Baekhyun braces himself on the toilet, cranking the shower handle for hot water. He breathes hard through his nose, stomach muscles clenched against the pain wracking through him. While sleeping on the streets wasn't his best choice, albeit one his consciousness did not give him the chance to make, not giving his body time to recover after a Night Hunt, especially one like last night, was by far a worse decision. Possibly the worst, considering he can feel the heavy weight of Sehun’s blood in his veins, unsettled against his own. The burn of the markings now seared into his skin, an exact reflection of Sehun’s own as a result of the blood exchange, sends jolts of pain up the back of his neck that pound in his torn ear.

Baekhyun glances at a particularly deep gash on his stomach, now scabbed over and oozing just a trickle of blood down his side. That wound probably should have received immediate medical attention, but he hadn't much choice to go to the emergency room with the unexpected appearance of the demon Jongdae, something which still spins curiously in his mind.

A demon willing to help someone who is not his Tamer is rare enough, but an untamed demon coming up to earth by his own volition simply to assist someone--half-demon or not--is strictly unheard of. Until today, Baekhyun hadn't even known that a demon could come to Earth without a Night Hunt where the veil between the two words is naught but lace ready to be shredded.

Hot water plasters Baekhyun's hair to his cheeks. He peers through the black strands at the demon markings now laced up his arm, the dark ink coloring his skin with the patterns of the wind and hellfire, black cherry blossoms and death.

It's startlingly beautiful and exquisitely detailed, the elaborate design becoming even more extravagant as the water clears the dirt and blood from his skin, as the water runs pink down the tiles to swirl at the drain. He hisses at the sting of the water in the claw marks in his side, but he watches in fascination the rate at which his now clean wounds heal. The skin stitches together easily, clear and unblemished. There's a pink flush for only a moment before that too fades as if nothing had been there in the first place.

The only explanation, of course, is Sehun's blood, now coursing through Baekhyun’s body with his own. He remembers the rate at which his claw marks down the side of Sehun's neck had closed, the skin knitting together before his eyes. He wonders if immortality is now running through him the way it fills the demon race. However, immortality or not, Baekhyun was born of a nameless human woman--one he’s never met and is a mystery to him still--and the possibility that his human side wouldn’t survive beyond the planes of earth, torn apart and rejected by his demon half, is high.

In fact, being on the earth plane is the only reason his demon blood hasn't taken him over already. Without the miasma of hell, the main source of life for the demon race, his human side is able to keep in control, able to maintain power over his demon instincts. It's why Night Hunt is so devastating for his body--it's the only time he truly can breathe in the deep red of the miasma and feel the power that Taehyung swears he feels every time he so much as sees Baekhyun.

Baekhyun turns and twists the shower off, drying methodically, careful to let any open wounds finish stitching themselves closed before he towels the water away. The hotel already knows he's a watcher--now a Tamer--but they don't need to see the proof of his work in the form of red stains on their towels.

A twinge of pain burns on Baekhyun's back right shoulder as he pulls his pants on. He manages to straighten up in annoyance, thinking he's pulled a muscle or something, before true pain slams into him, the black markings on his arm flickering along his skin like black fire, the edges lined with red as the heat rises. Baekhyun presses a hand over his mouth to stop himself screaming.

What was it that the Demon Prince Jongdae had said to him? Baekhyun remembers his training. The blood exchange is powerful, and demons are usually left out for hours directly after a taming to allow the bond between the Tamer and demon to settle. Baekhyun hadn't even given himself that option, completing the ritual by sending Sehun back to Hell. He'd done the taming to save his own life rather than for the purpose of actually owning a demon, and the results of his actions are now coursing through him with pain and fire.

The screams of Night Hunt echo in his ears as the bitter ashen taste of hellfire fills his mouth. His nails lengthen, the black tips begging to bite into soft flesh. Baekhyun does not have any desire to slice into the skin of his own hand and bring his demon out, to settle the bond he created between them, but the pain is telling him only one thing.

He doesn’t have a choice.

Baekhyun clenches a fist, and his nails cut easily into his hand, blood dribbling down his arm even as the wounds begin to stitch themselves closed.

"Op--fuck," Baekhyun coughs. Pain wracks through him harder, and he knows instinctively that it's Sehun fighting against the bond of the blood exchange as Baekhyun fights to open it. He forces himself into a kneeling position, and holds his torn hand out over the carpet.

"Open," Baekhyun demands. Drops of blood fall into a swirling hell gate, the edges of it brushing Baekhyun's knees. He takes a deep breath and lets more blood fall. "Come, Prince Sehun!"

The screeching of iron gates crashes into Baekhyun's ears, vibrating through his body as the bars, the spiders and snakes decorating it glaring at him with their marble eyes, make their appearance through the miasma.

"Open," Baekhyun says again. "And come."

The gates scream as they open, and rising from them, tall, imposing, just as beautiful as he had been bathed in Yerim's blood, is the demon prince Baekhyun can now call his own.

"I have come, master," the demon prince drawls, his voice sarcastic and dry. He’s absent of the blood and massacre from the night before, standing with a sneer down at the Baekhyun in clean trousers, his chest bare and exposed. Even as he looks imperiously down at Baekhyun’s kneeling form, lips curled in a sneer, Baekhyun can see from his vantage point that Sehun speaks through gritted teeth. The black markings on the prince's arm are tinged with red, just as Baekhyun's are.

The pain has only barely lessened, and though there is no physical show of fighting, Baekhyun can feel Sehun pulling on his blood, trying to get free of it. He's a proud demon prince, the aura from him telling Baekhyun that as much as his blood, but Baekhyun himself is just as proud, the only known halfling with a position to lose. A position and his life, which is damn well worth fighting for. He's not going to let go of his chance of survival so easily by allowing Sehun's pulling on their unsettled bond to kill him.

After all, if the Tamer dies and the demon goes free. The demon dies, and both are lost to the world. There is one more test after Baekhyun returns to the Gatewatchers Headquarters: the First Tamer's acceptance of his taming. He'd been sent to Seoul to complete a taming, and now he's made one he's certain he will be handed the crest that will sit on the left side of his standard-issue coat.

The only requirement is that Baekhyun makes it back home alive.

"Good," Baekhyun says shortly, keeping sharp gasps for breath out of his voice. "You came."

"You called," Sehun drawls at him. "What did you want me for? To help you off the floor, halfling?"

"Baekhyun," Baekhyun corrects. "You will call me by my name."

"You don't even know who gave you that name," Sehun sneers. "I will call you what I want." Baekhyun reaches up, grabbing onto Sehun's wrist and twisting his nails into the skin, enough to hurt but not enough to make the demon bleed. Sehun's tattoos pulse red, and a beat later, Baekhyun's echo the color. He sucks in breath between his teeth.

"You will call me Baekhyun, Sehun," Baekhyun commands, using Sehun's arm for support to pull himself to stand. Sehun is much taller than Baekhyun, but the pain flashing on the demon's face gives Baekhyun courage enough to lean forward. "I'm the Tamer--your Tamer. Your master. Not you." Sehun snarls at him, and Baekhyun's shoulder where Sehun's claws had dug in deep during the final moments of the blood exchange ritual, tapping against bone, burns intensely.

"I am a prince," Sehun spits.

"You are tamed," Baekhyun retorts. “By me.” He lets go of Sehun's wrist and slams his palms against the demon's chest. Sehun tumbles back, falling onto the hotel bed. The markings on his arm flash faster, brighter, Baekhyun’s own mimicking their behavior as the burn sinks into his flesh. Baekhyun jolts forward, something in him, all of the places Sehun had impaled with black claws to meet flesh and bone, burns as he clambers over Sehun, holding him down, forcing him to submit.

"What are you doing?" Sehun demands. He bucks his hips, trying to throw Baekhyun off, but Baekhyun presses a hand against Sehun's throat. "The blood exchange is already complete, you idiot. Let me--"

"Stop," Baekhyun orders, and his voice comes out with a slight ring, the echo that demons are known for. "I know you're in pain just like I am. Stop it."

"You must have done the exchange wrong," Sehun wheezes. He tries to grab for Baekhyun, but Baekhyun snatches his marked hand with his own, pressing it down against the mattress. Sehun growls up at him.

"I did not," Baekhyun says. "You didn't give in to the taming."

"Did you expect me to?" Sehun scoffs. "A tamed prince is a powerless prince. If you own me, then who owns my court? You?" He narrows his eyes. "My demons are mine."

"Keep them," Baekhyun allows easily. What need does he have for a legion of demons at his command? He only needs a demon, and Sehun just so happened to make himself the only choice. "But you? You are mine." He doesn't know what causes it, what inspires him to lean down and scrape the tip of one of his fangs across Sehun's bottom lip, to kiss him harshly, but the blood exchange starts to sing in him the moment he does. Sehun pushes back.

Baekhyun lets go of Sehun's wrist, grabbing for his other hand just before Sehun’s clawed fingers connect with his face. It’s odd to kiss someone for whom Baekhyun feels no affection, but his body reacts all the same, the blood exchange roaring in his ears.

Baekhyun breaks off the kiss, staring down at Sehun, at the deep black of his eyes, at his fangs just barely poking from his gums. The circle of red around his pupils is dim, and Baekhyun thinks his own eyes might be blown wide with whatever is tugging on him--this superficial lust forged by the unsettled blood exchange.

His moment of hesitation is enough for Sehun to wrench his legs free, and he throws his body weight to the side. Baekhyun shouts as he is rolled onto his back, Sehun’s knees pressing painfully into Baekhyun’s hips, pinning him flat on the mattress.

“Let me go,” Baekhyun growls, tone threatening. Sehun only presses down harder, leaning in to brush his nose along Baekhyun’s collarbones.

“It’s the strangest thing,” he starts. The tips of his claws are warnings held against the delicate skin of the undersides of Baekhyun’s forearms. “But something in me is telling me I want you.”

“You don’t want me,” Baekhyun manages around the slight zing of pleasure rolling down his spin as Sehun’s teeth scrape lightly over his neck. “You just want to be rid of the blood exchange.”

“I could kill you,” Sehun hisses. Baekhyun meets his insolent gaze for just a second before he yanks his arms free of Sehun’s grip, getting one arm locked around the back of Sehun’s neck, the heel of his palm pressed against his windpipe.

“That worked out so well for you last time, didn’t it?” Baekhyun snaps, and he can hear sarcasm and nervous energy in his voice. He feels so free around Sehun even as they struggle to hold each other down, to tear through each others’ skin.

Human, he reminds himself.

“A lack of judgement on my part,” Sehun chokes out. Around the wheeze in his voice, he almost sound flippant. Something hot like anger boils in Baekhyun’s stomach, but that’s not the only thing coursing through him. “I didn’t think a halfling would survive Night Hunt.”

“I’ve done it for years,” Baekhyun seethes. “Just because you showed up doesn’t mean I’m suddenly going to fall apart at the seams.”

Sehun twists, and Baekhyun lets him fall from his chokehold. He throws a leg over Sehun’s stomach, holding one hand, claws out, over Sehun’s heart. Sehun freezes, regarding Baekhyun’s threat calmly. A flesh wound won’t hurt him, scratches and cuts are hardly concerns for himself either, but having his heart torn out won’t leave way for recovery.

Even if Baekhyun would die should he choose to kill his own demon, he’s betting on Sehun wanting to keep his life too much to actually simply allow Baekhyun to kill them both.

Sehun doesn’t move. “What a gamble,” he breathes, mocking. “Curious, though, that you’ve survived without ‘ripping apart at the seams.’” He lifts on hand and picks idly at his cuticle with the tip of one hooked claw. “Night Hunt is when the fabric between our worlds is torn away. Isn’t it odd that when it ends your body doesn’t tear itself into halves? That half of you isn’t drawn down to Hell with the rest of us?”

Baekhyun stills. He hadn’t thought of that.

“The way I see it,” Sehun continues, and he’s leaning up now, chest against the tips of Baekhyun’s claws. “You’re more demon than you are human. Only a strong demon can resist the call of Hell’s miasma.”

“More human,” Baekhyun asserts. “More power, and able to maintain control so that the demon side doesn’t feel this pull you speak of.”

Sehun barks out a laugh. “I don’t believe that,” he says. His voice is low, a whisper that caresses Baekhyun’s ears, that sends something like want and something like incompletion raging through his body. “If you were more human, why would you react so violently to our presence? We’re not the friendliest of creatures. You feel as if your court has been infiltrated.” He smirks and settles a hand on Baekhyun’s knee, fingers drumming along the inside curve of it. “If you were more human, you wouldn’t have to fight to appear human. It’s obvious in the way you move, in the way you keep your lips over your teeth when you talk that you don’t want to show just how demon you are.”

Sehun leans in close, and Baekhyun is mesmerized by the red of his eyes, by the awful hotel lighting reflected in his silver hair. “If you were more human, you would find this disgusting.” Baekhyun’s hand falls flat against Sehun’s chest, and he crashes into him, meeting his kiss halfway. It’s like fighting, Sehun slipping his fingers under Baekhyun’s thigh to pull him in closer, grinding against him. Baekhyun presses back, sliding a hand down Sehun’s back, feeling the heat of the markings on Sehun’s arm against his skin, feeling hellfire racing through his own veins.

He exhales against Sehun’s chin, forcing Sehun down onto his back, rolling his hips as he lifts himself over him.

“Do you feel this?” Sehun asks. He leans up, dragging his tongue down Baekhyun’s neck. His hands are warm, nearly too hot, against Baekhyun’s hips. Baekhyun’s left shoulder aches. “How easy it is to be next to me, little Tamer?”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun almost snarls, twisting his fingers in Sehun’s hair as the demon nips at his collarbone.

“You could have made this so easy,” Sehun continues, mouthing along Baekhyun’s chest, licking over his nipples. He bites on one, and Baekhyun bucks his hips forward. Lust and need--he can feel them both acutely now. “I made you an offer, didn’t I?”

Baekhyun yanks on Sehun’s hair, forcing his head back. “I’m not yours,” he says. He dives in, sucking hard at Sehun’s pulse. Sehun gasps, trying to roll, to press Baekhyun down underneath him. Baekhyun steels himself and refuses to be moved.

“You could have been mine,” Sehun continues. “You should have just been mine. Has no one ever told you that Hell would love you?”

Baekhyun doesn’t answer, but Chanyeol telling him the very same thing dances across his memory.

“Instead you are mine,” Baekhyun says. He grabs Sehun’s wrists, pressing them down into the pillows over his head. His claws skitter out against Sehun’s skin.

“And yet you wear my marks,” Sehun argues. He leans up, attempting to throw Baekhyun again. Baekhyun leans forward, pressing his body weight more fully onto Sehun. The sharp prick of his claws against the demon’s skin holds the prince still.

“Because I tamed you," Baekhyun asserts. "That is the only reason."

"Yet I wear yours," Sehun remarks. Baekhyun freezes, grip on Sehun's wrists loosening in shock.

"What?" he demands. Sehun pushes up again, and this time, Baekhyun falls back easily, allowing Sehun to turn his back to him.

There, the wings that Baekhyun has worn his whole life, have been split into two parts. Taehyung has always remarked that Baekhyun's tattoos on his back make them inaccessible to claimings where a full demon has them on one of his arms. Yet, as Baekhyun stares at Sehun's back, he is forced to remember the way Sehun's claws had dug into his shoulder as he screamed for their blood to exchange. He recalls the burning that had taken place there when Sehun tried to fight their connection as Baekhyun called him up from Hell. The right wing of Baekhyun’s mark is now printed on Sehun's skin, stretching over pale flesh and bone. Baekhyun's fingers, moving of their own accord, reach forward, brushing over the crest of the wing.

"If you claim that wearing my marks means I belong to you," Sehun begins. He twists to face Baekhyun again, and his tail lashes behind him as a slow, wicked grin spreads over his pointed fangs. "Then I must own you in the same manner."

Baekhyun growls low in his throat, his muscles tensing as he thinks through the taming. Sehun's nails has scratched deep into Baekhyun's back just over his mark, gouging out his flesh. Baekhyun had ignored the pain and pressed on, holding Sehun down as he called out for the blood exchange ritual to begin. His demon's fingertips, torn and bloody from their fight, had been pressed against the bloody indents on Baekhyun's wounded shoulder. The burning there had been intense, and Baekhyun had screamed and cried along with Sehun. He hadn't realized Sehun had taken Baekhyun's own marks onto his skin.

"Little Tamer," Sehun practically purrs, leaning in close to Baekhyun, trailing his fingers up Baekhyun's side, claws pricking lightly at the skin over Baekhyun's heart. "You can tell me I'm yours all you want, but the truth here is you are meant to be mine." He noses along Baekhyun's jaw, and Baekhyun feels heat stir in the pit of his stomach, instinct begging him to push forward into Sehun’s touch.

He lifts a hand, and triumph flashes through Sehun’s eyes, the angry pull of the blood exchange between them lessening. Baekhyun grabs onto Sehun’s throat, his claws extended against the soft skin of his neck. Sehun’s eyes snap wide open. Baekhyun can feel his demon’s pulse speeding under his touch. His tail wraps tight around Baekhyun’s waist. A tremor runs through them both, fear and anger and the blood exchange at war in their combined blood.

Baekhyun lifts his other hand, palm pressed against Sehun’s sternum and fingers slotted between the intents of his ribs.

“You won’t kill me,” Sehun breathes, tilting his head to the side in a show of nonchalance. His long fingers are tight around Baekhyun’s forearm, keeping him from sliding his claws right through his ribcage to his heart. “Not with how you fought for your life--not with how killing me will kill you.”

The truth of the statement sends apprehension and fear running cold through Baekhyun’s chest. He quirks an eyebrow and the beginning of a smirk decorates his lips despite this.

“Would it?” he asks. Sehun stiffens under his touch.

“Do you think you’re strong enough to survive?” The demon barks out a harsh laugh. “That you are some sort of exception to the laws that have governed the war between our kinds for centuries?”

Baekhyun stares at him, calculating. “Isn’t it you who thinks I am the exception?”

His words are met with silence; Sehun’s eyebrows slant downwards, confusion drawn on the lines of his face. A low growl catches in the back of his throat. Baekhyun’s half-smirk becomes a full blown grin.

“You keep insisting I’m more demon than human,” Baekhyun begins, watching Sehun’s face carefully for his reaction. “Who’s to say my demon half--more than half--won’t die if I kill you?”

“So you’ll still fall to pieces,” Sehun says, flippant. “You’ll die a slow, drawn-out death.”

Baekhyun tilts his face up, showing his fangs. “Or will I open a portal with your blood stained on my hands?” Baekhyun counters. “Hell’s miasma is a powerful thing. Surely, I will survive there if I am more demon than human as you’ve said.”

“More human, then,” Sehun offers. The blood exchange is roaring angrily between them again, a sharp pull under Baekhyun’s skin as Sehun fights it. Baekhyun licks over the tip of his own fang, a gesture he has seen done during many watches as demons try to intimidate Tamers and Watchers alike. Sehun stares at the flick of his tongue, and Baekhyun latches on to the blood exchange, pulling Sehun back into the connection.

“You change your tune all too easily at the hint of a threat,” Baekhyun muses. A jolt runs through him; he’s doing the exact same thing to his demon right now, changing his tune to convince the demon prince into settling the bond between them. He doesn't want to think about how much more he acts like Sehun than any of the Watchers or Tamers he knows. The blood exchange picks up a slow, haunting melody.

“You’re not a threat,” Sehun hisses. “Even if you killed me and even if you survived in Hell, no one--not a single court there--will take you in.” His voice is echoing with dissent and anger, but his eyes flick from side to side, his unease clear in the downward slant of his mouth.

“Really?” Baekhyun asks him. Sehun nods after a moment of hesitation, and it’s that uncertainty that gives Baekhyun the incentive to complete his threat.

“What if your death does not equal mine?” Baekhyun asks. “That would leave your court without a prince.” He stares very seriously, allowing his eyes to look as cold and cruel as they are capable of. “I have a friend, of sorts, who tells me I am of royal demon blood. If I were to be torn away from my human side and descended to Hell, as your tamer and now a demon, wouldn’t your court belong to me?”

“Demons are too loyal to their princes,” Sehun argues, but his fangs are out, the end of his tail swishing over Baekhyun’s ribs in agitation. “My court would never allow another demon to simply step in and fill my place.”

Baekhyun grins. “I carry your blood within me, Prince Sehun,” he says. “Your court is too loyal to reject a prince carrying your blood.” A stab of hatred lights along the blood exchange, an attempt to mask the terror running through Sehun as the very real possibility of loss.

“You cannot take my court from me,” Sehun states, but it sounds more like a plea to Baekhyun’s ears. “You won’t.” The metaphysical struggle between them, the attempt to tear apart the blood exchange, is ceasing.

“I will,” Baekhyun threatens, baring his teeth.

“I could kill you first,” Sehun tries. Baekhyun flexes his hands against Sehun’s throat and heart.

“You won’t be fast enough,” he reminds his demon. “You have only two choices, demon prince.” Baekhyun meets his demon’s glare.

“Submit to the blood exchange, or die.”

The desire to fight, to draw blood, to flee, to protect himself and his court--all of it flashes over Sehun’s face with Baekhyun’s final offer of mercy, but Baekhyun can already feel his demon submitting to his will, to the blood exchange, as thoughts and feelings begin to flow freely between them.

The exchange is stabilizing.

It’s a long moment that passes, both of them holding their breath as hellfire races through them. Sehun’s lips shape the words ‘I submit,’ but Baekhyun hears their echo in his head. Sehun's free hand twists in the sheets, and the shock of the connection screams in the quiet of the hotel room.

Everything is too much, building too fast and too hot under Baekhyun's skin, and the tattoos on his arm are starting to glow a faint blue, flashing with the rate of his pulse. Sehun's are doing the same, flashing on the off-beat from Baekhyun's own. Baekhyun's focus turns to Sehun's palms, and he stares at the light blue flashing over black ink of his arms.

"Give me your hand," Baekhyun demands.

"Why?" he manages.

"Trust me," Baekhyun asks, and the blue on their arms is pulsing in tandem now as their fingers slide between each other. Music, dark and tinged with the roar of hellfire fills Baekhyun's ears. He keeps driving headfirst into the deepest corners of the blood exchange, and he doesn't even realize that he's clinging on tightly to Sehun, that's he's got his face buried in the demon's neck, his arm wrapped around his shoulders, until he open his mouth and his lips pass over warm skin.

"Connect!"

Sehun throws his head back, and Baekhyun's shoulder pricks with warmth. It's nothing like the heat, powerful even if it's not painful, that's racing up and down his arm. Baekhyun can feel the blood exchange slide into place as his and Sehun's hearts align.

"Connect!" Baekhyun calls again, and around them the whole room seems to light up blue. It's powerful, overloading his senses as he can feel both Sehun's and his own ends of the bond, the blood exchange connected firmly between them through their joined hands.

"Disperse," he pants into the air, and the blood exchange cuts its song. Baekhyun feels like one man again, and Sehun groans. With stiff limbs Baekhyun doesn’t know the ends of anymore, his head still rushing with the sensations of Sehun’s body, Baekhyun releases Sehun, rolling backwards to lie down on the bed. He places a hand against his chest, trying to calm his breathing and pounding heart.

He glances over Sehun and his stricken expression. "You're fine," he says, but he waits for Sehun to respond before he cuts eye contact.

"Don't act like you care," Sehun snarls back. The demon glances over his shoulder at the new markings on his skin and down at the fading glow of his own markings. "Humiliating," he seethes. Baekhyun ignores him.

"The blood exchange should be fully formed now," Baekhyun says, voice matter-of-fact. "You can go back now. There shouldn't be pain from separation anymore."

"Pain is better than being in a blood exchange with you," Sehun sneers.

"It's a bit too late to change that," Baekhyun replies. Sehun whirls, holding his claws up to Baekhyun's neck. Baekhyun simply breathes a sigh of long suffering. They’ve just finished this argument. "You won't kill me."

"Who's to say?" the demon prince demands. "I'm not the tamer in this bond. Your death won't hurt me."

"You have had many opportunities to kill me," Baekhyun argues. "Yet you haven't. Demons are notoriously loyal to their bonds. You won't kill me."

Sehun growls, and the tip of one nail dips too hard into Baekhyun's throat, tearing the skin there.

"I hate you," Sehun spits. Baekhyun meets his glare evenly.

"Go back to Hell and hate me all you want," he says. "But you're still my demon." The markings on their arms flash, and there's a long moment of silence between them. Baekhyun gets up, yanking on his shirt and grabbing a water bottle from the mini fridge.

"I can no longer leave my court," Sehun admits quietly. Baekhyun stares, bottle halfway to his lips.

"What?"

"You know how courts work, don't you?" Sehun asks, and the condescending sneer is back in his tone. Baekhyun does. Courts, each run by demon royalty, are home to legions of demons per prince or princess. Within a court, a demon is safe, bound to the other demons living there through bonds of loyalty.

Each court run by a demon is underneath one of the courts of the very few Hell queens. Hell queens are not known for their mercy-- for sparing their demons who have been tamed.

"If I leave the protection of my court," Sehun continues. "My queens will kill me only to kill you too."

"You're a prince," Baekhyun argues. "You're more valuable alive."

"Not for my queens," Sehun asserts.

"Why does this matter?" Baekhyun asks. "I don't care if you stay in your court or galavant around. I trust you won't do your best to get yourself killed. You're too selfish."

"You are arrogant," Sehun argues. "You don't even care about your people."

"My people are here on Earth," Baekhyun says. Sehun rolls his eyes at him, and Baekhyun bristles.

"Send me home," Sehun demands. "I'm tired of you."

Baekhyun shows his claws immediately, reaching forward to slice into Sehun's neck and drip his blood on the floor. The hell gate open. "When I return home, I will present you to the First Tamer." The gate, iron bars wound with snakes and spiders, rises. "Dress nicely."

"Aren't I at your service?"

Baekhyun coughs pointedly at Sehun's disdain. "Leave," he commands, and Sehun does, watching Baekhyun with red eyes as he sinks down to his home in Hell. As soon as the gate closes, Baekhyun breathes hard, trying to calm himself, to pull the mask of indifference back on and keep himself from acting out, from showing emotions as he's always done.

It almost doesn't feel like he needs to though, and he hates that the explanation may be that Sehun's blood in his body has stabilized his control over his demon nature.

Something nasty tells him in Sehun's voice that he's always been more demon. Baekhyun bites his lip. He's far more human; he's certain of it.

Walking into the Gatewatchers' facilities with a Tamer's jacket and a sort of confidence he hasn't displayed since he first went outside on a Night Hunt garners more attention than Baekhyun had predicted during his journey home.

The airports had smelled sweetly of human energies just as they always have, but this time Baekhyun didn't feel like he was less than a second from tearing out of his own skin to keep himself from hurting someone around him. He feels more stable than he's felt in the entirety of his memory. He breathes in deeply as he steps past the main entrance hall, heading towards the large room that the First Tamer calls his office. He can sense that lack of emotion facade he's always used starting to peel away in the presence of the demons that wander the halls alongside their Tamers, and he stubbornly forces it back in place.

He keeps his heart rate calm and his claws carefully sheathed. The ache in his gums he ignores, and he tugs the right sleeve of his jacket up to show the tattoos swirling down his wrist. He adjust the collar of his jacket, sticks his gloves in the large pockets.

He looks like a Tamer just returned from a job, and in a way he is-- he just doesn't have the golden crest that marks the official Tamers of the Gatewatchers sewn into the left breast of his jacket.

"And there were once little fishies in the pond," a voice echoes down the hallway, singing sweetly. "Just little fish, but a bigger fish came along and left the pond to die." There's a slight cackle following the haunting melody, and Baekhyun knows that voice and that song.

There is only one demon around the Gatewatchers' facilities who is brave enough to sing the lullabies of her people, and if that demon is out on the human plane, then so is her twin from the Taming that claimed her. Irene, Baekhyun knows well. Neither Irene nor her partner in crime, Seulgi, are particularly fond of him, but they're not extensively cruel either. They regard his choice to ignore his demon heritage as a loss instead of an insult.

They aren't at all like the First Tamer's demons who snarl at every rude remark Baekhyun makes about demons and his human blood.

It's almost odd, Baekhyun thinks, because Irene and Seulgi are the demons of the First Tamer's son, and if they're out in the corridors that lead to the First Tamer's office, then the First Tamer's son is not far behind.

"Hush, Irene," a second voice, Seulgi's this time, interrupts Irene's humming. "I can sense him."

"Who?"

"Don't you feel it?"

Baekhyun keeps walking, but trepidation is creeping over him now. He's never before been felt in that way that demons have where they sense each others' presence. Chanyeol had told him once it's because his blood is too weak, because he denies it for as long as he can until his claws are pushing their way through his skin and his fangs are splitting his lip. Now, his blood runs through his veins alongside Sehun's, and though no other Tamer can be sensed like the demons can feel each other, Baekhyun thinks maybe, just maybe, he might be becoming more of what he detests.

"He can't be here!" Irene whispers harshly, and Baekhyun pauses before rounding the last corner. There's no reason why he shouldn't be here, but nothing else makes sense for them to be talking about.

"It doesn't feel entirely like him," Seulgi soothes instantly, but her voice is shaking, the echo in her throat bouncing off the walls sporadically. Baekhyun furrows his eyebrows in confusion, and he catches that he's making expressions, that he's letting himself feel something beyond that blank mask, a moment too late.

Irene gasps.

"I see," she says, and she sounds absolutely delighted. Her sweet voice rings out down the hall. "Baekhyun," she calls. "Are you there?" Baekhyun's heart stutters in his chest. He taps his boots a couple times to make it seem like he's been walking, and he doubts he's managed to fool either demoness as he rounds the corner.

He doesn't greet the two demons as he nears them, keeping his eyes carefully focused between them the way he's always done. He doesn't feel that awful pull in his chest to let them take him apart if they wish like he has in the past. Instead, he almost feels a sort of power over them, and the slightly scared, slightly confused expressions on their faces are enough to tell Baekhyun that something is out of place for both parties.

"I see you're wearing the Tamer's jacket," Seulgi says, keeping her voice even now. She swallows, and the tips of her fangs catch in the dim lighting of the corridor. She adjusts her black skirt, letting it fall open around her legs. She's fidgeting, Baekhyun realizes, and he wonders just what it is that has the powerful mid-level so spooked. "So you were successful then."

She doesn't sound surprised at all, and Baekhyun wonders if that means the First Tamer's son knows too.

He nods, but does not give a verbal response.

"That's wonderful," Irene inserts, stepping up beside her partner, wrapping an arm around her waist. Her white dress is clean, but Baekhyun can see the energy of souls consumed in her past shimmering above the fabric. His sight for souls has never been so acute before, and he can do nothing but blame Sehun's blood for it. "You seem better now."

Baekhyun can't stop the question. "What do you mean?"

Irene blinks. "Balanced," she offers. "You seem more balanced. Like your body isn't warring with itself over just how much of demon you are."

"I've always thought you were more demon," Seulgi says, and it's the first time either of the demons have offered their opinion on this particular subject. "It's strange to see you looking so powerful."

"Am I," Baekhyun murmurs. He does feel powerful right now, standing in the presence of these two, and he doesn't know why. "Why?" Both of them meet his eyes for only a moment before they turn and look at themselves instead. They bite their lips, and Irene's fingers curl a little tighter around Seulgi's waist. They say nothing, and no answer seems to be forthcoming.

"I have to meet with Lord Tamer," Baekhyun breaks the silence that has settled over them.

"You'll have to wait," Seulgi whispers. She strokes a hand down the side of Irene's face, tapping her fingers over her collarbone, sending her a message that Baekhyun can't read.

He turns his eyes on her, and Seulgi gasps sharply. She ducks her head from his gaze immediately.

"Our Tamer is inside," Irene says.

"He's coming out the doors now, though," Seulgi continues. "He wishes to speak with you." Irene smiles in agreement with Seulgi's words, and they slowly separate themselves. Seulgi breathes in a sigh, rubbing her own arms.

"I suppose we should congratulate the halfling," she says, voice far too loud and echoing in the hallway. “He’s done something we all thought impossible.”

It happens in a second. One moment Irene is beside Seulgi, and the next she's got her arm hooked around the other demon's neck, her hand pressed over her partner's mouth. The doors of the First Tamer's office fling open, and Irene lets out a frustrated hiss.

"You promised you would stop this," she says, not moving her position from her partner's body. Seulgi gives a sort of frustrated sigh, muffled by Irene's hand.

“You’re disobeying,” says Kyungsoo from the top of the steps to Lord Tamer’s office. His hands are clenched into tight fists, the tattoos over the backs of each hand flash yellow and pink as he exercises his control over his demons, instructing Irene’s body to move to stop Seulgi from speaking. It’s an incredible display over power over his demons, a result of a blood exchange that is multiple decades old.

Baekhyun meets Kyungsoo's eyes as he steps down the steps from the office doors. "You promised you wouldn't say or give opinions on Baekhyun's situation, didn't you?" he asks them calmly. “His status is not to be discussed outside of closed doors.” He snaps his fingers, and just like that, Irene relaxes, body back in control of itself again. "I don't make one-sided deals," Kyungsoo continues. "I asked for silence about Baekhyun from you both, and Seulgi seems to be talkative today."

"I didn't say anything much," the demon argues with her tamer. The First Tamer's son shrugs his shoulders, his own Tamer's uniform decorated with enough gold on the lapels for it to catch the dim light in the corridor.

"You said enough," Kyungsoo says, and his voice is tinged with a warning tone. He sets his palms on his demons' shoulders, encouraging them to look at him. "Now, keep quiet while I talk with Baekhyun." The two demons nod, their mouths already kept closed. This, Baekhyun realizes, is the true power of the blood exchange over the demons. This is why they fear is and respect those who are powerful enough to perform one.

Such complete control over a demon is any Tamer's dream, but actually achieving it when demons have their own system of loyalty that works to weaken the strength of a blood exchange, is nearly impossible.

"It seems my blood exchange is wavering with them today," Kyungsoo says. Baekhyun blinks. He almost hadn't realized Kyungsoo is talking to him. "It would seem as if one of their contracts is in the area." He raises an eyebrow. "But a demon prince on this plane? Without a Tamer at this time of day?" He laughs once, hollow. "Far too rare."

He stares at Baekhyun like he expects an answer, but Baekhyun can say nothing. He doesn't know exactly what it is that Kyungsoo is looking for him to say, and he doesn't have any answers about Irene and Seulgi's behavior. He had found it just as odd as the three in the blood exchange themselves. Irene and Seulgi send frantic glances between themselves, and Baekhyun watches them with a sort of wariness.

"I'm sure they told you I wanted to speak with you," Kyungsoo says, and he's smiling now, the tense mood broken. The air tastes less stale as Baekhyun breathes.

"They did," he confirms.

"Good to know my exchange isn't as weakened as it feels," Kyungsoo says lightly. "Mental communication is usually the first thing to go in the presence of something stronger." Baekhyun nods. This is why Night Hunt has any sort of success. Tamers can mentally command their demons when their blood exchange is strong. But if a demon from that tamed demon's court were to arrive, the bonds of loyalty between them would contest with the blood exchange. It's created to protect the demons, but unfortunately for them, the blood exchange has continued to prevail as the strongest bond between creatures that currently exists in the torn fabrics of their worlds.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Baekhyun asks. He keeps his words calm, flexes his hands to make sure he still feels in control.

"To congratulate you, of course," Kyungsoo says. He sounds genuinely pleased. "I've been watching you since you arrived here at Gatewatchers, Baekhyun. It's nice to see you've finally joined the ranks of Tamers like you've always said you would." Kyungsoo takes a step in and drops a hand on Baekhyun's shoulder. "I knew you could do it.”

Baekhyun feels warmth spread through him. It feels nothing at all like the hellfire that ran through his veins only hours again. It feels like that strange, overly fond expression that his fellow Watchers and Tamers wear when they receive letters and calls from their family members.

"Thank you," Baekhyun whispers. Kyungsoo hums.

"What's that?"

"Thank you, hyung," Baekhyun concedes. Kyungsoo grins then.

"Alright, well," he says. "I need to get going. I’ve got an appointment of sorts." He gestures to his demons. "Come, both of you."

"Where are you going?" Baekhyun allows himself to ask, and Kyungsoo pauses in his walking.

"I'll come back," he promises instead of offering an actual answer. Baekhyun feels a pang in his chest-- worry sharp and bitter on his tongue. "Now," Kyungsoo urges. "Go meet my father. He wants to see your demon." Baekhyun nods stiffly, but he doesn't turn back to the doors until Kyungsoo and his demons have rounded the corner, the taste of caution and fear just barely tainting the air in the corridor.

Baekhyun stares at the doors of the office, closes his eyes, and breathes. He remembers the desperate pull of Sehun fighting against the blood exchange and the sudden relaxation when Sehun has given in, allowing the bond to solidify, stretched evenly between them. He feels the power that comes with being a Tamer race through him, feels Sehun's power in his veins, and confidence surges with it as he steps forward and pushes the doors open.

"Ah, Baekhyun," says the lord Tamer's voice the moment Baekhyun is fully inside. "I've been expecting you. I'm glad to see you in one piece." Baekhyun bows. This room is open and round, the floor bare, light coloured wood that shows stains of Tamings terminated and demons attempting to take back their Tamer's share of their blood. Up on a dais, surrounded by a large mirror and an even grander clock, stands the First Tamer. His eyes, as they always have been, are covered by a mask, but his mouth, for the first time in Baekhyun's time knowing him, is twisted into a crooked smile.

It would be almost charming if not for the scar that cuts through his upper lip and the matte black of his clothing. The First Tamer is intimidating, has the presence of powerful demons even when his tamings do not stand around him. Over half of the princes of the demon royal courts belong to the First Tamer. He is the only reason earth is still considered habitable for humans. Without the Lord Tamer, demons would have long taken over entirely. He commands respect with the set-up of his office alone, and Baekhyun is alive because of his graciousness.

"Lord Tamer," Baekhyun greets.

"I see you've worn my gift today," the First Tamer says, conversational and bright. "It looks good on you. Truly, the look I would expect from one of the most talented Watchers in this branch." Baekhyun nods, enjoying the fond sound in the First Tamer's voice. He doesn't bother to mention that his half-demon blood gives him a physical advantage of a wide margin over fully human Tamers.

"Thank you, Lord Tamer," Baekhyun says.

"You're always so formal, Baekhyun," the First Tamer says. "It's always fun to talk to you. I feel respected. Joonmyun just judges me for wearing a mask, and my own son is looking forward to taking my position. I don't see many tamings nowadays." He grins again, and it looks odd with the mask over his eyes. Baekhyun has never seen his eyes, and he doesn't think he ever will, but his smile looks almost disembodied amidst all the black like this.

"You wanted to see my demon, sir?" Baekhyun asks. The First Tamer waves him off.

"I want to talk with you some first," the Lord Tamer says instead of the agreement Baekhyun has expected. "I may know you well, but this is how it always goes when I inspect a new taming. Sit." He gestures towards the table just to Baekhyun's side. It's simple thing, four chairs and a square top, and Baekhyun drops himself in the nearest seat. He watches with a sort of fascination as the First Tamer makes his way down his steps of his dias, striding across the room in a way that makes him almost appear as if he's floating. Though he's not tall, his presence is of a man who stands head and shoulders above the rest of the population.

For the first time since the he completed his blood exchange with Sehun, Baekhyun can feel his demonic side creeping to the edge of his skin, poking at his fingertips and wanting to break free. Baekhyun breathes evenly through his nose.

"Interesting," the Lord Tamer says, pulling out the chair across from Baekhyun and sitting down. "You look on edge suddenly."

"Nervous," Baekhyun offers by way of explanation. It is true; he's bit nervous for showing his Taming, nervous Sehun won't obey in that way he likes to do. Sehun had promised his devotion, but Baekhyun had just witnessed a blood exchange from the Lord Tamer’s son experience a moment of weakness.

Over the nerves, the most prevalent feeling in Baekhyun right now is trying to keep the urge to back away from the Lord Tamer in check. He's never felt like running from the man who, for all intents and purposes, has been his adoptive father, but right now, his instincts are screaming that everything is wrong, that this man has done something to someone close to Baekhyun.

But Baekhyun is close to no one, not even himself. He's an alien in his own halfling body.

"Are you?" the First Tamer asks. He sounds relieved even if the tilt of his head seems to say he's not entirely convinced. "There's no reason to be. I don't terminate tamings often, and when I do, it's because the gain from the loss will be greater than the gain from the survival."

"I see," Baekhyun offers despite not entirely understanding.

"Tell me, Baekhyun," the First Tamer continues on. "How human are you?"

"I'm human," Baekhyun answers automatically. It's the answer the First Tamer and his mentor, Joonmyun, have drilled into him since his childhood. People won't take too nicely to a half-demon within the facility walls, and though some have figured it out, others pretend to notice nothing odd about Baekhyun. It's easier to believe demons are under control, to believe that they can't love or engage in human activities, than it is to accept that a demon might actually have slept with a human, that a demon might actually have begot a son. It's easier to believe Baekhyun is simply odd (he does consider Taehyung, the demon worshipper, his best friend) than it is to accept that he is a halfling.

"Always so quick and assured," the Lord Tamer crows. "How did you find Night Hunt in Seoul? Did you enjoy South Korea?"

"Night Hunt looks the same everywhere," Baekhyun says. He sees Yerim, stomach torn open, in his mind’s eye. "The destruction and fire don't really vary from city to city."

"Ah, true." The Lord Tamer meets Baekhyun's gaze then, at least, Baekhyun thinks he does. He can't quite tell through the mask. "You look like you've seen some horrors you'd rather not relive." Baekhyun nods. He can't tell the Lord Tamer the truth about watching a young girl die, watching her soul be torn from her body and consumed. He can't tell him that he wanted to taste the soul himself, that he wanted to throw up even as his claws ached to sink into the bloody mess of her body.

"Do you know why I wear this mask, Baekhyun?" the Lord Tamer asks, and this time, all Baekhyun can do is shake his head. He has no clue why the First Tamer wears that mask, all he knows is that he started wearing it when he gained his immortality. The First Tamer is a bit of a conundrum, something of a legend.

As far as Baekhyun has been told, he once journeyed to hell through the gates. His body was affected by the miasma of hell and he has since gained immortality. He knows he has worn that mask ever since he returned from the other side, but as to why he feels the needs to wear it, Baekhyun is clueless.

"You see, Baekhyun," the First Tamer says softly, leaning in. This close, Baekhyun can almost see the outline of the First Tamer's eyes through the fabric of the mask. "I wear this mask not to protect myself, but to protect others from the horrors I've seen. Eyes reveal so much, did you know?" He stands suddenly, but he doesn't give Baekhyun a chance to answer his question as he continues. "There are horrors reflected in my eyes. That's what happens when you spend time in a place like hell. The horrors you've seen on Night Hunt are nothing in comparison." Baekhyun nods. He doesn't know what horrors one can see in hell, but something in him races with a thrill at the idea of seeing hell itself, of being in the middle of the miasma, and breathing in the air that his people have breathed for eons.

His people?

"You're a strong kid, Baekhyun," the Lord Tamer's voice cuts into Baekhyun's thoughts. "Stand up. I want to see your demon."

"Yes, sir." Baekhyun pushes himself up to his feet, moving back towards the circle on the floor. it's been seared into the light hardwood with fire, it seems, and Baekhyun gives the Lord Tamer time to return to his dias. He shoves up the sleeve of his jacket again, showing off as many of his new markings as he can.

"You may begin," the Lord Tamer says, waving a hand and giving Baekhyun full reign of the show. Sehun cackles in his head. Baekhyun breathes.

Baekhyun's claws burst from his fingers, and he slashes them over his wrist, digging into his skin and drawing blood. Red runs in thin streams over the tattoos, and he feels the warmth of hellfire starting from his fingers and curling up his arm along the lines of Sehun's markings where they repeat on his skin. He turns his arms over, and the blood drop in a few successive drops in the middle of the circle. This time, unlike last time before the bond had sealed, Baekhyun can feel Sehun's presence, can feel the way he waits for his body to be yanked from it's place in his court, can feel the way he reaches back automatically for Baekhyun.

He tastes Sehun’s disgust at his own agreement to the bond and his annoyance at having to obey, but that same draw to be close to Sehun is still there. "Come," he calls, and though that's all he needs to say this time, he orders again for good measure. "Come!

The ground swirls, and gates screech and scream, spiders and snakes on the wrought iron gates rising from the hellfire swirling out in branches across the floor. A cackle, loud and displeased, rises from the gate, and Baekhyun drops only a few more bits of his blood on the circle, making sure Sehun is well within his grasp before he draws his arm back to himself. He doesn't watch his skin, but he can feel the strange, but not unpleasant, way his skin tugs at itself as it stitches together, healing up faster than any human is capable of.

The gates, Sehun's gates, gifted to him by his hell queen, scream as they're thrown open, and from within, Sehun steps out.

Baekhyun has to keep his jaw from dropping. He isn't sure if he's shocked or amazed that his summonings worked in the first time, but Sehun in what looks like a full suit is not at all what Baekhyun has expected when he said "dress nice."

"You called?" Sehun smirks, brushing his hands down the front of jacket, smoothing it. "You're normally full of demands. This quiet you-- ah, what an expressionless face." Baekhyun's hands shake as he forces himself to not react to the sudden heat in his stomach, the sudden flow of power through him. He wants to step in closer to Sehun, to stand with him like he has a place beside him instead of in command of him. That’s not how this taming should work, it shouldn’t be feel like belonging and want.

"Quiet," Baekhyun tells his demon, and Sehun raises an unimpressed eyebrow even as he complies. Baekhyun steps up beside him, the edges of the heels of his boots sinking back into the fading hell gate.

"Lord Tamer," he introduces, gesturing towards the dais where the First Tamer stands, watching him and his demon. "I present Demon Prince Sehun with whom I have completed a blood exchange."

A laugh, harsh and echoing only once, is barked from Sehun's mouth. "This is who you've called me to meet?" he sneers, his voice cracking with anger that Baekhyun can feel running through his own body. He doesn't understand it though. There is little that they, the Watchers and Tamers, know about the Lord Tamer himself, only his history and how he achieved his position. Even the other demons seem to be unknowledgeable on the subject or extremely close-lipped.

"I told you I would have to present you to the Lord Tamer," Baekhyun says, careful of his word choice. "You understand loyalty, don’t you? I am loyal to him, so show him the same respect you show me. He's the one who decides if we live or die." He doesn’t mention that ‘respect’ isn’t exactly prevalent between them.

Baekhyun watches with something akin to horror that he keeps masked as he watches Sehun's expression twist into sincere disgust. "You're placing my life in the hands of this hell reject?"

The words ring around the office, bouncing off the vaulted ceilings, and the Lord Tamer's face is turned towards Sehun with his lips turned down in a frown.

"Whether I live or die," Sehun continues, speaking louder, his words directed towards the First Tamer. "Will never be determined by that man.” Baekhyun grips the markings on his own wrist tightly, and the twitch in Sehun's lip that pauses halfway to a grimace lets him know his warning has reached the demon prince.

"Whatever allegiances you hold aren’t of importance to me," Sehun spits at Baekhyun. He jerks his head back towards the First Tamer, and Baekhyun narrows his eyes. "I hold allegiance to you because of this." He grabs Baekhyun's arm, holding up the markings for both of them to see. "But I refuse to agree with your blind trust in him." He jabs a finger at the Lord Tamer, and Baekhyun feels disgust flare through him-- disgust that is not his own.

“I’m afraid you have no choice in the matter, Prince Sehun,” the Lord Tamer interjects calmly. "Though I understand your hesitance to pledge yourself to me."

"My fellow princes may have given themselves to you to save themselves from my brother and my queens, but I know exactly who you are." Sehun eyes burn red, and Baekhyun's body feels sick with the tumult of emotions not his own, that spread in painful pricks through his fingers and toes as they flux from Sehun into him through the bond. The blood exchange sloshes in his ears like hail in half-melted snow, and Baekhyun wants to throw up.

"Do you?" the First Tamer asks, and his voice is dubious. Heat of displeasure flashes through Baekhyun, and he glances up at his demon.

"I know enough," the demon prince defends, and the Lord Tamer hums.

"Tell me, Demon Prince," he muses, and Baekhyun watches his arms raise, watches the overlap of marking from multiple claimings spiral up his arms. Some flash orange, and others flash yellow, but the knives in his hands moving too rapidly for Baekhyun’s eyes to track say only one thing: he's about to make a summoning. "Did you come today with the intent to die?"

Baekhyun's heart thunders in his chest, and frigid, gripping fear overrides the anger and disgust that Sehun floods him with over their blood exchange.

"Lord Tamer," Baekhyun starts. "Please, ignore him. He--"

"Baekhyun," the Lord tamer interrupts. Baekhyun's half-baked plea dies quickly on his tongue, for he had no real defense to start with. "You told us you wanted a strong demon, and a mid-level would have sufficed."

"My demon is strong," Baekhyun says, and he isn't sure if the pride in his chest is his or Sehun's.

"Since you have walked in that door, I have noticed something that I cannot in good conscience allow." The blades turn quickly in his hands, and red, dark and menacing, wells on Minseok's forearms. It falls down towards his palms and drips to the floor-- two drops of blood. That's all it takes.

The air seems to hold still for only a moment before two gates, red and gold, spinning with the miasma of hell misting above them, open at either side of the Lord Tamer.

"I've noticed you are having even more trouble keeping yourself in check," the Lord Tamer says. "I've noticed that you seem more comfortable in your own skin. I've noticed there is a permanent point to your teeth." Baekhyun swipes his tongue quickly over his canine teeth that drop to his full fangs. The points are indeed there-- razor sharp. He tastes blood on his tongue.

"I'm proud to see your body has finally settled into itself with the addition of your demon's blood," the Lord Tamer seemingly praises. "I'm proud to have raised such a powerful watcher. Unfortunately, the blood of a demon prince, and Prince Sehun no less, has taken you into the realm you promised me you would not enter." His stare, veiled as it is, is solely on Baekhyun. "Didn't you tell me you would remain human?"

"I am human!" Baekhyun nearly shouts. The gates spin a little faster.

"You've always been more demon, Baekhyun," the Lord Tamer says. "It seems I was a fool to let you stay so long." He takes a breath, and Baekhyun feels Sehun make a grab at their blood exchange, feels the pull in his chest, as up from the gates rise two demons Baekhyun has known his whole life.

He wonders if Chanyeol and Kai will be pleased to end him on the Lord Tamer's order.

"Well, well, if it isn't the little halfling," Kai teases, fangs already showing in his full, mocking grin. "I wondered if your taming would be accepted. It seems your demon--" He cuts himself off, eyes wide as he stares at Sehun.

"Prince Sehun," Chanyeol's deep voice echoes hollowly as it's always done, but Baekhyun doesn't feel a thrill of want run through him like he's always experienced in the demon prince's presence since he hit puberty. He can feel the roar of power in the room more acutely than ever; three demon princes standing together in one place.

"Tamed," Chanyeol continues. "I never thought I'd see the day." He claps once. "Even you couldn't resist Baekhyun, it seems. Blood is thicker than water, after all." He holds up a hand, and heavy black claws curve from his fingers. He grins, and his fangs glint.

"Ready to kill him already, Prince Chanyeol?" Kai asks. "We haven't even received official orders." The demon moves in close to the Lord Tamer, his hips swaying as he wraps his arms over the holder of his blood exchange's shoulders. "Minseok," the demon practically purrs. "Truly, if you wanted a blood bath, you could have called Prince Kris. He's been aching for Baekhyun's soul for years."

Baekhyun blinks. He's never heard the Lord Tamer's name before this moment, never seen him interact so intimately with his demons. Or, to be more accurate, Baekhyun has never seen Kai so obviously against the idea of bloodshed.

"Kris doesn't have the chemistry that you and Chanyeol have," the Lord Tamer explains, stroking his hand through Kai's hair. "He could never take on Sehun and live."

"Ah," Kai murmurs, nodding like he understands. Baekhyun swallows, trying to fight down the bile rising in his throat. Sehun is fiercely pleased at the First Tamer’s opinion of his strength; it resounds in their exchange. Baekhyun, however, is broadcasting betrayal. He came here to present his first taming-- the taming that would secure his place among the ranks of Tamers. Instead, he’s to give up his life to soothe the Lord Tamer’s fear. "The Two Queens would never create a weak prince; you are right." Chanyeol lets out a laugh.

"The Two Queens can create all the princes they want, but a single prince who can stand up to two princes?" He sneers at Sehun. "Impossible." Sehun bristles.

"You don't know my queens," he scoffs, his nonchalance covering the nervous shiver that Baekhyun can feel in his bones, foreign but insistent. Two princes against one do not put the odds in Sehun's favour, and Baekhyun will have no choice but to fight to protect him in order to keep his own life. The Lord Tamer called out both Kai and Chanyeol though, his two strongest princes. He intends for Sehun to die, to kill a prince not under his control and kill Baekhyun in the process. The chaos that will lead to in Sehun's court will diminish their presence in Night Hunt for months to come. The gain in their deaths will be greater than the gain in their living.

Baekhyun fights to hide his furious grimace. He risked his humanity for the chance to stand in front of Lord Tamer and be proclaimed a Tamer. Baekhyun performed the taming on Sehun just for the chance to live. He isn't ready to give up his life so easily for this organization who keep him on a strictly need to know basis.

To hell with the greater good; Baekhyun is not about to die. And he won’t let Sehun die either.

"What queens?" he asks, stalling for time. He clenches a fist and reaches into himself for the blood exchange, hoping that it's strong enough to run rampant, to set fire to his marking, to match the power surging through the First Tamer.

"Why don't you tell your Tamer, Prince Sehun?" Kai coaxes, sliding away from his Tamer and moving to wrap himself around Chanyeol instead. The taller demon prince's arms fall easily around Kai, holding him against him.

"The Court of Two Queens," Chanyeol starts instead. "Is the most volatile court on the Hell plane, and this demon prince is the second most powerful demon to ever come from there." His eyes are sharp and wicked. "Prince Sehun, tell your Tamer who the first was."

Sehun meets Baekhyun's eyes with something like sadness even as his voice grates over his next words and shivers of fear of just what exactly is running through his veins, what is mixed with his blood, splinter through him. "My brother," the demon prince says darkly. "The Demon King."

"Gone, however," Kai whispers mysteriously. "No one, the princes, the hell queens, the legions, have any idea where he is." He leans forward, hands settling on Chanyeol’s hold on his waist. His tail lashes out behind him in an arc that widens with his full-fanged snarl like the lack of knowledge is a thorn in his side. "Except the two queens themselves."

"They don't know," Sehun says. It feels like an automatic reaction to Baekhyun, like the words were pulled from his mouth out of muscle memory. Kai smirks at his fellow demon prince, and he spins his way out of Chanyeol's grip, sauntering forward. Sehun growls lowly, but Baekhyun gives him no orders as Kai steps in close to him, draping an arm over his shoulders.

"I've always said it, halfling," he says, voice soft as a whisper and echoing for Baekhyun's ears only. He reaches up with with opposite hand, tracing his fingers down the side of Baekhyun's face. Baekhyun watches Sehun's eyes trace the path the Lord Tamer's demon's fingers take as they ghost over his lower lip and grab on to his chin. "You're far more us than you are them." Kai turns Baekhyun's head, forcing him to look at the First Tamer.

"Are you going to kill me now?" Baekhyun asks, voice cold. He's already let the demon prince in this close, and as powerful, as fast as Sehun is, he doesn't think he could possibly stop Kai from making a move towards Baekhyun's death at this close range. Kai laughs in Baekhyun's ear. His first finger slips past Baekhyun's lips, the pad of it pressed against Baekhyun's fang not quite hard enough to draw blood.

If Baekhyun were to bite down right now, Kai's blood would be in his mouth, and it would take only a short order on Baekhyun's part to hold him still, to give himself time to get away from a killing blow. He can't override the First Tamer's blood exchange with the demon prince, but he can earn himself enough time to get away. He holds his breath, waiting for any sharp pain, waiting for Kai to make a move.

And then the demon is gone from holding on to him.

"I haven't received an order yet," he scoffs, stepping back. "Prince Sehun would be very disappointed if I were to kill you before I killed him. He doesn't want to feel the pain of being connected to someone as his soul is torn from his body and consumed by another demon." His eyes are nostalgic as he steps back from Baekhyun. Baekhyun gives a little jerk of his wrist, and suddenly Sehun is beside him, his tail wrapping around Baekhyun's waist and keeping him standing upright as relief floods him at the distance between himself and Kai.

It's strange, Baekhyun thinks, how long the Lord Tamer has postponed this battle, and even stranger how much Kai has done to stall it. Chanyeol growls from the dias, and Sehun bares his teeth.

"Do you understand now, Baekhyun?" The First Tamer asks. "I have in front of me the strongest demon in hell, and to let you live just so you can tame him, to let the opportunity to destroy one of the courts that ravages our world on Night Hunt disappear? That's not fair reign. I've terminated tamings under far less severe ground." He steps down onto the steps off the dais, his sleeves dropping back down to cover the glowing markings on his arms. "But this time, hundreds of lives are at stake, Baekhyun. Lives I can save easily but at an unfortunate cost." Chanyeol and Kai move to the First Tamer's sides, and their tails are whipping behind them, their claws and fangs out.

Sehun hisses, and Baekhyun can feel his anticipation for a fight stirring in his own blood. His claws burst from his fingertips, and his fangs drop fully from his gums. He doesn't have a tail, but Sehun's overlong one is enough for him to pretend that he really is just another one of these demon princes--

Human.

"Terminate this taming," the First Tamer says simply, and Chanyeol and Kai lunge.

Kai slams into Baekhyun, bowling him over. He hears Sehun's angry scream and manages a glance of Chanyeol rolling on the floor with his demon, their tails wrapped around each others' throats. Baekhyun throws an arm up, swiping blindly with his claws. He wants to keep an eye on his demon, but Kai is holding him back, trapping him with his shins over Baekhyun's thighs and his hands on his wrists.

"Halfling," Kai sing-songs, and Baekhyun swipes again with his claws, drawing three jagged lines down the side of Kai's face. Kai screams, and it's just enough for Baekhyun to buck his hips and throw the demon prince to the side. Baekhyun grabs the demon's hair, gripping it far too tight in his shaking fingers. Kai gets a hand on Baekhyun's wrist just before he can yank his head back. His presses his fingers hard into the inside of Baekhyun's wrist, and his grip loosens with the attack on his pressure point. Kai jumps up to his feet, pressing a hand against the gashes on his face, and Baekhyun stands facing him, flexing his hand.

"Still, just a halfling," Kai murmurs, voice harsh as red shows through the cracks between his fingers. "What is it the little demon worshiper calls you? Princeling, right?" Baekhyun leaps for him. He doesn't want to kill Kai, he's known him for so long, but his demon is fighting another prince only a few meters from him. Sehun's urge to stay alive has Baekhyun ensuring his own safety.

He's defeated a demon prince before, forced a taming on him, but fighting Kai right now feels different. The Kai he's always known, who bothers him before Night Hunt, who asks him invasive questions and gets too close, the warmth of his breath ghosting over Baekhyun's cheek, is acting quite oddly right now. Baekhyun doesn't know what to expect in this fight, doesn't understand why Kai is pulling his punches. He adds a few more steps to his advance on Kai, giving him time to get up in case he suddenly wants to fight back.

Baekhyun grabs Kai's shoulders, drawing his knee up hard, and Kai brings up his arms to block the attack a moment too late. The demon prince coughs harshly, his tail lashing behind him. Baekhyun shoves him back and drops to the floor, sweeping his leg out. Kai laughs as he falls, hitting the ground with a dull thud. His fangs are bright in his mouth, and his claws are out now.

Warning bells ring in Baekhyun's head, and he throws himself over Kai, pinning him to the ground.

"Why don't you fight?" he hisses, only to receive a mocking grin, bloody from hits he'd taken from Baekhyun's fists and claws. Baekhyun watches the skin torn into ribbons from his claws stitch back together, but the blood stains still play at appearing like macabre lipstick on the demon prince’s lips.

Kai yanks a hand free, and with a hand on the back of Baekhyun's neck, lifts his torso just enough to whisper in Baekhyun's ear. "Is that not what we're doing right now?"

Sehun screams, and heat flares through Baekhyun. He slams Kai's head back down against the marble floor and scrambles to his feet. In front of him, Chanyeol has Sehun's arm twisted back, and the claws of one hand sinking slowly into Sehun's chest.

"Chanyeol!" Baekhyun shouts, and he sprints forward, sinking his claws into Chanyeol's forearm as he jumps. His momentum carries him around, slamming his knees into Chanyeol's back. Chanyeol lets go of Sehun out of shock and pain, and Baekhyun uses the moment of weakness to draw Chanyeol's arm back and twist just as the demon prince had done to Baekhyun's demon. Chanyeol reaches back, and his claws sink into Baekhyun's side.

"Sehun!" Baekhyun calls, voice cracking on the pain. Sehun is there in a second, meeting Baekhyun's eyes over Chanyeol's shoulder as he presses the black tips of his claws into the soft skin of Chanyeol's throat.

"Isn't it fortunate our courts have never fought, Prince Sehun?" Chanyeol coughs.

"I wonder," Sehun hisses back at his fellow prince. "What happens to your precious Lord Tamer if I kill you?"

Baekhyun gasps. He'd completely forgotten. He glances up at Lord Tamer, and the stern frown he'd worn when he demanded Baekhyun's taming be terminated has turned into teeth worrying his bottom lip.

"Sehun, don't--!"

The doors of the office slam open. "What is going on here?"

Baekhyun snaps his head around, shocked to see someone he hasn't seen for months sauntering into the First Tamer's office like he owns it. Chanyeol's claws tighten in Baekhyun side, and Sehun's claws slip further into his neck in warning. Baekhyun does not dare retract his claws or grip from Chanyeol's arm.

"Joonmyun," the First Tamer greets. "Why are you here?"

"I heard commotion," the Second Tamer, the only man who comes close to the Lord Tamer's position in Gatewatchers, answers casually. "Were you aware you have three demon princes in your office?" He hums. "Seems dangerous."

"I'm terminating a taming," Lord Tamer tells him. "Baekhyun has allowed himself to become a liability, letting Prince Sehun's blood into his system." Joonmyun claps in delight, spinning to face Baekhyun.

"Baekhyun! You're back!" he calls out, making his way toward Baekhyun. He pauses as he steps over Kai's prone form. "Stop playing dead, you imbecile."

Kai blinks open his eyes. "You're no fun." Joonmyun kicks his jaw.

"On the contrary," he says. "I'm the most fun." He moves to embrace Baekhyun, and his confused expression looks completely out of place next to Chanyeol and Sehun, who look entirely murderous.

"Let go of Chanyeol, Baekhyun," Joonmyun orders. He smacks Chanyeol's head. "And let go of Baekhyun. Pick on someone your own size." Baekhyun can't help the yelp that spills from his mouth as Chanyeol instantly retracts his claws, and he lets go of the demon prince in response, pressing his hand over the wound at his side. It will heal quickly, but he can feel the sting of his clothing rubbing against an open wound.

"Baekhyun," Joonmyun adds. "Tell your demon to let go of Chanyeol." Baekhyun blinks.

"Sehun, please, just-" Sehun obeys before the order is even completed, and Baekhyun is suddenly encased in Joonmyun's hug. He coughs.

"Second Tamer," Baekhyun whispers, fighting to breathe from the exertion of the fight and Joonmyun's tight grip around him. "Lord Tamer is coming over here." Joonmyun lets Baekhyun go immediately, and he stumbles back. He doesn't expect Sehun to catch him, to press his own hand against the wound in Baekhyun's side.

"Joonmyun," the First Tamer says, ordering with a gesture for Chanyeol to go over to where Kai is now lounging on the floor, tapping his claws against the marble. "What do you think you're doing?"

Joonmyun blinks and grins. "Stopping you from making an obscene mistake as usual, of course." He sounds totally amicable, but the Lord Tamer's frown underneath his mask is severe.

"You think you can just order my demons around as you please?" he demands. The Second Tamer holds up an arm and pulls his sleeve up. The faint, gray shadows of what must have been a demon's markings wrap around him forearms. He points at Chanyeol where he leans over Kai, prodding at his head even as Kai insists he's totally fine.

"Don't forget who tamed that demon for you," he says with a smile.

"A demon prince is in my office, tamed by a halfling who has always been at risk for becoming more demon than human, and you're asking me to not kill them?" Lord Tamer fumes.

"Well," the Second Tamer says. "Frankly, yes."

"You do realize that the death of that demon will mean thousands less demons who can come up to the earth plane on Night Hunt?" the First Tamer argues.

"And kill Baekhyun?" Joonmyun's expression and easy-going demeanor is gone in an instant, and he steps in close to the Lord Tamer. "We've spent years watching him become the best Watcher this facility has ever seen, and you'll throw that away just to kill a demon who is now under his control?" The Second Tamer puts his hands on his hips and stares at the First Tamer as if he's a young child. "Really, that's too impulsive, Minseok, my friend." He straightens his lab coat and throws a grin over at Baekhyun.

"And you barging in here and stopping a termination in progress isn't?"

Joonmyun shrugs. "Touche. However, I do have something I hope to gain out of this."

The First Tamer snarls and turns on his heel, heading back up to his dais. Chanyeol and Kai scurry after him immediately, leaving blood stains behind them on the marble. Chanyeol hisses something in Kai's ear, and Sehun stifles a laugh behind Baekhyun.

"What?" Baekhyun whispers to him.

"He's mocking him for letting you beat him," Sehun explains shortly.

"I beat you, remember," Baekhyun snaps back at him.

"And this Tamer?" Sehun takes his turn to ask, pointing at Joonmyun.

"My mentor," Baekhyun tells him. "I don't know anything about fathers, but I assume he's the most like one I've ever had." Sehun frowns at him.

"Demon do not know the concept of family," he says, and his tone is unreadable. "We are created.” Baekhyun doesn't know how to respond to that.

"Lord Minseok," Joonmyun is saying, walking up the first two steps of the dais and snapping his fingers in Chanyeol's face when he attempts to snarl at him. "I implore you, for the sake of science, let this taming be approved." He gestures back towards Baekhyun and his demon, and for the first time since Lord Tamer mentioned the way Baekhyun is in less control of his emotions but more control of his body, Baekhyun feels like he has indeed done something to be proud of.

Taming a prince, had it been anyone but him, would have been greeted with celebration immediately. Even now, with his end of the bargain held up, a demon tamed and his markings now on Baekhyun's arm, Baekhyun can't simply be allowed to live. He wonders how many people, if any, actually want him alive.

Joonmyun, judging by the way he's arguing for Baekhyun's life right now, apparently does want Baekhyun alive.

"You reek of sadness," Sehun murmurs against Baekhyun's ear. He glares at his demon out of the corner of his eye, but he says nothing. He doesn't have anything worth saying.

"Let me take responsibility of him," Joonmyun asks the Lord Tamer. "This is the first time we've ever seen a halfling, and the first time a halfling has ever tamed a demon. There is so much to be learned, Minseok. You can't throw that away."

The First Tamer sighs. "The instant something goes wrong, I will kill him," he warns. "Myself, if I have to. I won't allow one boy to endanger the entirety of this facility." Joonmyun barks out a laugh at him.

"Why, Minseok, haven't you been doing that for twenty years now?"

The First Tamer ignores the jibe. "They're under your watch now, Joonmyun," he says. "Don't make me regret this."

The Second Tamer bows slightly. "Thank you," he says, and he sounds earnest. He turns to look at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun shifts to stand straight, ignoring the twinge of pain in his side at the stretch of nearly healed wounds.

"Baekhyun, go home," Joonmyun orders. "Take your demon and leave. I do believe Taehyung is waiting for you outside." Dread, relief, and happiness flood Baekhyun's system. He glances at the Lord Tamer.

"Your taming is approved," the Lord Tamer says, reluctant. Baekhyun takes that as his cue to grab Sehun's wrist and flee. He hears the Lord Tamer sending Kai and Chanyeol home as another argument between the First and Second Tamer starts up. The office doors close loudly behind them.

Baekhyun's back meets the corridor wall.

"What the hell was that about?" Sehun demands. Baekhyun shoves at him, but the demon holds firm, a hand against Baekhyun's chest. "I didn't expect to be killed today."

"You weren't," Baekhyun snaps.

"I didn't think I would have to protect you, either," Sehun adds.

"Then why did you?" Baekhyun asks. "If I had died, you would have been fine." Sehun sniffs, looking offended.

"Your Lord Tamer would most likely have taken your claim on me, and I'd be just another one of his puppet princes," he sneers. "You're the one who protected me from Prince Kai's attack."

"I'm not too intent on dying, in case you didn't know," Baekhyun spits, and he shoves Sehun off of him successfully this time, pushing off the wall and continuing to walk on down the hallway. Sehun groans and follows behind him.

"You act with the loyalty of a demon," Sehun says. Baekhyun freezes.

"What?"

"Demons are organized in courts," he explains. "You know this, don't you?" Baekhyun nods slowly. "I am head of a court. My demons belong to me, and they do what I ask of them in exchange for my protection over them. Your actions against Prince Kai were like that."

"We are in a blood exchange together," Baekhyun reminds his demon. "You don't own me like I am a member of your court."

"Yet I wear your markings on my back," Sehun argues. "I wonder what that means."

"Nothing," Baekhyun answers too quickly. "It means nothing." Truthfully, he has no idea what that could mean, but he isn't exactly fond of what it could mean. He doesn't want to admit how much a demon he truly could be if Sehun has managed to take a trace of him in the form of his markings now worn on his skin.

"Do you believe that?" Sehun asks. Baekhyun keeps quiet, motioning for Sehun to follow him as he leads the way towards the back of the Gatewatchers building where his room is. "I don't mean to anger you," Sehun continues. "I'm just asking. You keep acting like you're so human, but the moment the stakes are raised, all I've seen is how much you react as if you yourself are a prince."

"That's because his demon parent is royalty," calls out the voice of Baekhyun's self-proclaimed best friend. Baekhyun turns the corner, and there, waiting just outside of his door, is Taehyung. The last of the demon worshipping clan opens his eyes wide when he sees Sehun.

"A prince," he breathes. "A halfling demon prince and the lone prince from the Court of Two Queens." His grins, his eyes nearly disappearing from the force of it. "Jimin isn't going to believe me." He laughs at Baekhyun's horrified expression.

"Don't worry, Baek-princess," Taehyung soothes. "I won't call him out now. I just wanted to meet your demon."

Baekhyun breathes a sigh of relief, glancing back at his demon and the strange expression on his face. "My demon, Sehun." He doesn't say anything else-- he doesn't need to. Taehyung already knows that his demon's a prince.

"You're the tamer of Prince Jongdae's duke," Sehun says, and Baekhyun blinks. He knows Jongdae. Taehyung clasps his hands together, and Sehun's attention immediately turns towards the tattoos on his arm instead of the markings he'd been staring at. Baekhyun flicks back and forth between the two of them.

"Yes," Taehyung says, suddenly serious. "I am." Sehun flicks his tail.

"I see," he says, but Baekhyun has no idea what he sees even as the knots of confusion in his chest from Sehun start to unwind.

"I want to sleep," he announces to his demon and his friend.

"Come train with me and Jimin tomorrow," Taehyung suggests. He slings an arm over Baekhyun's shoulders and hugs him tight. "I'm proud of you," he whispers. Then he takes off down the hallways, swinging his arms. "Bring your demon with you!" he calls back.

Baekhyun takes a moment to digest the feeling of being pleased with Taehyung's praise, and he grapples with his door for a moment before he slips inside, pulling Sehun in with him. The demon stands there awkwardly, looking around at the minimalist style of living Baekhyun has.

"Are you hungry?" he asks without thinking. Sehun tilts his head at him.

"Are you offering me your soul?" he asks with an eyebrow raised. Baekhyun grumbles incoherently.

"You seemed rather interested in Taehyung's demon," he says instead to change the topic of conversation, and Sehun wanders over to where Baekhyun is pulling out items for cereal. The heat in his body is from Sehun's presence, from the blood exchange strumming his heart strings with fingers of hellfire.

"Prince Jongdae hasn't been causing trouble for just over a quarter of a century now," Sehun explains. He settles down in a chair at Baekhyun's small table. "He's powerful. The cause of the Great Wars."

"I don't know what those are," Baekhyun admits, dropping his bowl of cereal on the table and settling down to eat. Sehun stares at his choice of food for a moment, his expression conveying 'vaguely disgusted.' He shakes his head and continues.

"Demons are rather possessive," Sehun says. "Prince Jongdae's favorite thing is beautiful demons. He's started wars over the most beautiful demonesses for centuries. There was one time he even tried for my brother. That was before that Hell reject got there, of course. He's been starting wars and holding sieges since before my creation. No one ever expected him to stop."

"But he did?"

"He was tamed," Sehun tells him. Baekhyun thinks back to his brief meeting with the demon prince. He hadn’t seemed tamed, but just because Baekhyun didn’t meet his Tamer doesn’t mean he isn’t. "Since then, the only person who's been in and out of his court with any frequency is Prince Kai. Even his demons aren't famously active during Night Hunt."

"Why Kai?" Baekhyun mumbles around a mouthful of bran flakes.

"He's Prince Jongdae's brother," Sehun answers simply. "Which stands out to me somehow, but I can't quite pinpoint why."

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow, mouth too full to speak. Sehun raises his own, seemingly unimpressed. "Taehyung befriending you and insisting you're a prince's son when his demon is Jimin, duke of Prince Jongdae's court. Prince Kai falling to you so easily during the fight today. It all stands out, and I don't know why."

"Taehyung's been saying that since we met when he was five," Baekhyun says. "I wouldn't put too much stock in it." Sehun stares at him a moment, but he says nothing. Baekhyun picks up his bowl and swallows the last of the milk.

"You seem comfortable now," Sehun says while Baekhyun is washing out his bowl. Baekhyun looks over at him.

"I feel comfortable," he hears himself saying, even as the blood exchange surges through him. He can't tell if it's coming from his end or from Sehun's, but the demon prince is standing and walking towards him now. Baekhyun watches his tail sweep over the linoleum floor, and he looks up just as Sehun stops only a few inches from him.

"What are you doing?" Baekhyun demands.

"I'm seeing just how comfortable you are," Sehun answers, leaning down. Baekhyun can smell the tang of souls on his skin with him this close. "You stiffened up when Taehyung touched you, but if I do this--" He settles a hand on the back of Baekhyun's neck, and Baekhyun leans into it before he notices his body has moved. He flicks his eyes up to meet Sehun's. "See?" the demon prompts.

"See what?" Baekhyun asks, even if he's pretty sure he knows exactly what Sehun is showing him. I'm human, he almost feels like insisting, but he knows Sehun would just laugh at him for such an exclamation.

Sehun angles his head just a little bit, and his voice is low. "You should have just taken my offer," he nearly growls. "You should have come to Hell when I asked you to." He leans over and turns off the faucet. His hands wrap around Baekhyun's waist. "You should have just been mine." He crashes into Baekhyun, lips seeking, and the blood exchange roars up between them.

Baekhyun falls into it, unable to keep back when the blood exchange has him magnetized to Sehun's touch. He grabs at Sehun's suit jacket, fists in the lapels, and pushes him back, moving to slot himself between Sehun's thighs.

"Don't act out," he breathes, harsh against Sehun's throat. "The blood exchange is settled--" He winces as it surges under his skin as if to say it's anything but settled. "--and some tamers and demons indulge in a physical relationship, but we don't--"

"We don't need to," Sehun agrees, but his hands are tighter in the folds of Baekhyun's uniform jacket. "But right now, this exchange you revere so much is giving me something I want." His teeth slide over the shell of Baekhyun's ear. "Come along, little Tamer, you can't resist me."

"I can," Baekhyun murmurs, his lips ghosting over where Sehun's skin meets the collar of his shirt.

"But you won't," Sehun argues, and Baekhyun allows himself to kissed. It would be so easy for Sehun to kill him right now and escape back to Hell, but the demon does nothing but hold Baekhyun close against him as their fangs click together. It's sweet, Baekhyun decides, indulging in the desires of his demon half. Their shared markings glow in the dim light of Baekhyun's room.