Nox | Taehyung x Reader

Three

The moment he plunged through the ornate front doors, Taehyung crushed his hands into fists and then he was himself no longer. He became a grey mist, creeping towards the safety of the thick forest behind the manor like a settling fog. This transformation always reduced him to his basest parts. Allowed him to calm himself when being corporeal was too much.

Only when he was deep among the tall trees did he allow himself to return to his usual form. He was panting, the use of his powers always costing him much more when he was starving. Damn. The vicious desire tore at his control still. He shook his head. He was hungry; that was all. And human blood simply called to his senses more than any substitute. But even after so long?

Taehyung pressed a leather-covered palm against a truck and closed his eyes.

Deer.

He could sense the heartbeat, hear the light steps of hooves. It was not close, but that mattered little for such a finely honed predator. Only a tree branch-scratched moon witnessed how he dissolved into near-invisible mist once more.

The most mercy Taehyung could offer was that death was quick. The deer lived out its last moments with no expectations and no fear. And when he sank sharp teeth into its jugular, tasted the familiar metal of blood, the relief that came was immediate and yet... not enough.

He was too aware it wasn't what his body craved even as he drank greedily, even as he felt strength return to him. This was a temporary fix. Even now, he remembered your dizzying scent so vividly it was as if he was back in that room with you, inches away from touching you if he so dared. A temptation stronger than any he had ever faced for some inexplicable reason. He wanted—he wanted human. And the thought disgusted him.

When it was done, and the animal had become lighter in his arms, Taehyung pulled out a handkerchief from his coat and wiped his lips. "Thank you," he whispered, though he knew it could not hear him. Just another form of his selfishness, he supposed, as he lay the deer down on a patch of grass.

He would go back now, but this time, enter the window of his bedroom directly. He would not risk encountering you again, even if he had fed. The deer's blood would last him two days at most anyway. A mere pittance compared to the week that human blood offered, to speak nothing of the raw power it provided. But it had been more than two hundred years since he had taken a human life. And if he had his say in it, he would never take another again.

Slowly, Taehyung began to walk towards the forest's edge in lieu of using a transformation. Energy had to be conserved. He left the deer behind, already sensing other creatures, other predators in the vicinity. Its flesh would not be wasted; this was the cycle of life as he had always known it.

But even he, with all his knowledge and strength, could not explain why he suddenly took notice of the small clump of purple blossoms growing in a patch of wildness. Why he stopped, then stooped to pick a floret and tuck it into his breast pocket. Such a foolish, sentimental thing to do when he knew he would find you gone by morning's light.