By the time Taeyung returned to the Hunter Order headquarters, the rain had stopped, but the cold had settled deep into his clothes. He walked through the stone entrance without acknowledging the hunters who turned to look at him. His coat was torn at the shoulder, his hair was damp, and there was a thin line of blood running down the side of his neck.
He didn't care.
His mind was still inside that abandoned church.
Still seeing those dark eyes.
Still remembering the hand pressed against his chest.
Still hearing Jungkook's voice.
Next time, hunter, don't come alone.
Taeyung clenched his jaw.
He hated that sentence.
More than that, he hated the fact that Jungkook had been right.
A healer approached him as he entered the medical room. “You're injured.”
“It's nothing.”
She gave him a look that made it clear she wasn't interested in arguing. “Sit down.”
Taeyung reluctantly sat while she examined his shoulder. The wound wasn't deep, but the skin around it was bruised from the impact against the wall.
“You fought him,” she said quietly.
Taeyung looked toward the window. “Yes.”
“Jeon Jungkook?”
“Yes.”
Her hands stopped for a moment. “And you're alive.”
Taeyung said nothing.
She continued wrapping the wound, but her expression remained troubled. “Did you kill him?”
“No.”
The answer seemed to unsettle her more than if he had said yes.
Taeyung stood as soon as she finished. “Don't report anything yet.”
“You know I have to tell the commander.”
“I said don't report it yet.”
His tone ended the conversation.
He left the room and walked straight toward the commander's office.
The door opened before he could knock.
“Come in.”
The commander was sitting behind his desk, several reports spread across it. He was an older man with gray hair and a long scar running across his cheek. His eyes moved over Taeyung's injuries before settling on his face.
“You found him.”
It wasn't a question.
“Yes.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
The commander's expression hardened.
Taeyung expected anger, but the older man simply leaned back in his chair. “Tell me what happened.”
Taeyung remained silent for a moment. He could have told him everything. He could have admitted that Jungkook had been faster than expected, stronger than the reports suggested, and that he had been given a perfect opportunity to kill him but chose not to.
Instead, Taeyung said, “He escaped.”
The commander studied him carefully. “You lost him?”
“I said he escaped.”
A heavy silence filled the room.
Finally, the commander pushed a file toward him. “Three more bodies were found this morning.”
Taeyung opened it.
Photographs.
Three victims.
All drained of blood.
His eyes moved over the pictures until they stopped.
There was a strange symbol carved into the chest of each victim.
A crescent moon surrounded by three thin lines.
Taeyung's fingers tightened around the file.
He had seen that symbol before.
On Jungkook.
Not on his clothes.
On the silver-black ring around his finger.
“You recognize it,” the commander said.
Taeyung looked up. “Where did these bodies come from?”
“Less than five kilometers from the church.”
Taeyung closed the file.
“Then Jungkook is responsible.”
“Are you certain?”
Taeyung hesitated.
That question shouldn't have been difficult.
But something about last night's encounter bothered him.
If Jungkook had wanted to kill him, he could have.
If Jungkook had been responsible for all those deaths, why had he bothered letting Taeyung live?
“I'll find him again,” Taeyung said.
The commander nodded. “This time, you won't go alone.”
Taeyung's expression hardened. “I work better alone.”
“That wasn't a suggestion.”
Taeyung said nothing.
He turned toward the door, but the commander's voice stopped him.
“Taeyung.”
He looked back.
“Don't underestimate what you're hunting.”
Taeyung's eyes narrowed.
“I won't.”
But deep inside, he knew the problem wasn't that he underestimated Jungkook.
It was that he was beginning to realize the Order might not have told him everything.
Across the city, Jungkook stood inside a dark apartment with the curtains drawn. The room was almost empty except for a chair, a small table, and several old books stacked against the wall.
He stared at his hand.
Taeyung's blood was still there.
Jungkook slowly brought his fingers closer to his face and inhaled.
His expression changed.
There was something strange about it.
Something familiar.
Something that shouldn't have been possible.
Before he could understand it, a soft knock came from the door.
Jungkook froze.
Another knock followed.
He moved silently toward the entrance and opened the door.
Nobody was there.
Only a black envelope lay on the floor.
Jungkook picked it up.
The symbol on the front made his expression turn cold.
The crescent moon.
Three lines.
He hadn't seen it in years.
He opened the envelope.
Inside was a single piece of paper.
The Hunter has found you.
Jungkook's eyes moved to the next line.
And now they know what you're protecting.
For several seconds, he didn't move.
Then his fingers slowly tightened around the paper.
Someone had been watching him.
Someone knew about Taeyung.
And worse...
Someone knew about the secret Jungkook had spent years protecting.
He looked toward the dark window.
For the first time since meeting the hunter, there was no amusement in his eyes.
Only warning.
“Who sent you?”
Outside, hidden somewhere in the shadows, a figure watched the apartment without moving.
The hunt had begun long before Taeyung entered that church.
And now, both hunter and vampire were walking directly into a trap neither of them could see.
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