Recrudescence (✓)

Chapter Thirteen

Breathless. YN is completely breathless as Taehyung kisses her back, lips perfectly molded on top of hers. The few stolen, lackluster kisses she's had in her life don't compare to this. And the feeling, oh the feeling! It's like something warm is slithering through her, thick and slow, immersing her in sensation from the top of her head down to the tips of her toes.

YN entirely forgets everything except for Taehyung. Her hands try and push them closer but there's not even a stitch of space between them, their bodies flush, so close it's impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.

"Tae," YN breathes out as the vampire detaches from her lips, only to continue down across his jaw.

The sound drives the vampire even crazier. What a pretty noise. What a gorgeous, exquisite sound. How had he been able to keep himself from her? How had he been able to sit back and watch as the others were all vying for her attention?

He doesn't know.

His tongue flits across the skin he's bitten, the wound already healed. Taehyung is full now, more satisfied than he's ever been before, but he doesn't want it to end, doesn't want the feeling of her in his arms, the pure joy to fade away as they inevitably return to the others.

The others.

That thought alone drives him to once again sink his teeth into her skin, ignoring the small yelp YN emits. However, instead of pulling her blood into his mouth, something inside of him urges the vampire to give, venom flowing from the channels in his canines into her bloodstream.

YN pants, feeling weak to her knees. It's now Taehyung who supports her frame, the girl's mind blanking from the euphoric feeling of the bond mixed with the fuzzy, nearly suffocating feeling of Taehyung's venom surging through her veins.

Taehyung only realizes what he's done when YN completely loses consciousness and stops breathing altogether. He screams, awareness rushing through him like he's just been hit by a semi-truck.

"YN! Oh my God, YN!" he shouts, shaky hand pressing against her wrists, trying to find a pulse. He almost cries when he discovers the smallest of heartbeats, collapsing onto the hard, damp cave floor and cradling her close to him. He's suddenly hyperaware of the chill in the air, trying to warm YN with his inadequate, stained and dirty clothes.

The seconds each seem to take an eternity, Taehyung praying for the first time since he became this awful creature of the night. What has happened to her? Will she end up like him, trapped forever with no purpose other than to seduce and steal from innocent people? How could he do this to her? To YN, his YN?

Now she'll truly hate him forever. Who could blame her? Taehyung himself still loathes the man who turned him, even after he ripped him apart piece by piece and burned him to a crisp over a hundred years ago.

If she wants to kill him for what he's done to her, Taehyung will not fight it.

But then, ever so slightly, warmth begins to seep back into her skin, color blooming over her cheeks. YN's heartbeat speeds up instead of stopping altogether and she opens her eyes, looking up at the worried man above her.

If Taehyung thought her eyes were beautiful before then there's no word to explain what they are now. The color is richer, more specks of golden brilliance in each iris. Her pupils are pools f pure midnight, each huge, nearly all-encompassing. Her stare is uncanny, almost creepy, as she looks at him, eyes searching his face like it holds the answers to the universe.

"YN?" he asks hesitantly.

"You're so beautiful," she says, astonished.

YN can see each and every detail on Taehyung's face from the tips of his eyelashes to the small veins under his skin. And there's not a single imperfection. He's absoultely stunning, a work of art sat in some wet cave in the middle of nowhere.

"What?" he asks, Adam's apple bopping in his throat every so slightly.

"And your voice . . . have you always sounded like this?" YN asks, sitting up effortlessly and placing her hand on his face, watching as his eyes close briefly and counting the hairs in his eyebrows.

"Are you okay?" he asks her, searching her like she'd done to him.

She looks mostly the same, except for her hauntingly beautiful eyes and ever so slightly enhanced features. Her nose is just a bit straighter, teeth a tad whiter.

"I feel fine. A little disoriented," she says, looking away from the vampire and into the darkness, noticing how she can now see each and every rock, every grain of dirt scattered on the floor, "Everything is so clear . . .,"

Taehyung is confused. Based on YN's reactions, she how has the senses of a vampire but her heart is still beating. She doesn't have the token blood red eyes of a fresh vampire and her teeth haven't lengthened the way they should have. And she went through her transformation in a few mere hours, not the weeks it would usually take.

This can only mean one thing: he hasn't turned her. But how? Why?

"We need to go back home, okay, YN? Do you think you can stand?"

Even if the others rip him to shreds for doing something to YN it'll be worth it to know that she's alright, that he hasn't done something deplorable to her.

YN nods, standing up so quickly she gives herself whiplash, falling flat onto her butt. Taehyung gives her a hand, pulling her up gently.

"You don't feel as cold as usual," YN remarks, eyes flicking from his grip on her wrist to his face, "What's going on, Taehyung,"

Tae presses his lips in a thin line.

"Let's just go home, YN,"

After a moment, YN nods, following him to the mouth of the cave and stepping out into the snowy wilderness. She doesn't feel cold.

"Where are we?"

"The arctic circle," he says, scooping YN up bridal style.

Her arms wrap around his neck quickly.

"How do we get back to Korea?"

"I run. Hold on,"

Taehyung adjusts her once before speeding off through the blank wilderness, running so quickly he doesn't even leave footprints. Normally, this speed would turn the world into nothing but a muddy blur, but YN can see every snowflake as it falls from the sky. She can hear the heartbeats of polar bears miles away. She can even hear frozen water swishing around under thick blocks of ice.

"Put me down, Tae," YN says, having a sudden urge to run beside him,

The vampire stops automatically, placing the girl onto her feet gently.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

YN doesn't reply to him, grasping his still warm hand and speeding off all on her own, her feet taking her across the frozen tundra at tremendous speeds.

Taehyung laughs as YN's face displays her glee, the girl laughing adorably as she drops Tae's hands and runs in circles around him.

"This is great!" YN says.

Taehyung's mark on her wrist has not only stopped hurting but it's gotten brighter and clearer, not taking up a larger spot on her skin.

Even though it would be the best thing to get YN to Jin right away, he can't help but indulge her when she wants to play around in the snow. She chucks a giant snowball at his face, Taehyung ducking quickly and laughing along with her.

A trip that should have only taken about a day takes three times as long, YN and Taehyung stopping every time one of them finds something interesting to do or see. He hadn't been as hungry as usual, still feeling completely full.

But their peaceful time together comes to a complete halt when they finally arrive back at the dorms, YN ringing the doorbell only for Taehyung to be snatched and pinned against the wall as she's nearly crushed by a very concerned Seokjin.

"Where have you been?!"