Chapter Text
Prologue:
It happened two weeks ago. I was out on a case with my partner Marcus when things all went to shit. When we got to the location all was quiet. It was a dilapidated house on the outskirts of town, it had been abandoned for years from what the report said. We were investigating a tip on a missing person’s case. She had been missing for over a week but was supposedly spotted with a man entering this old house.
Marcus and I figured the caller just saw someone that looked like the missing girl. It was more likely that it was just a couple of homeless people squatting in the house… I wish that had been the case.
I had entered the back of the house through a door leading down into the basement while Marcus went in the front. I immediately smelt something strange near this part of the house and it was overtaking my focus completely.
Within the dark basement, I followed my nose to a small room. I could hear two heartbeats so I entered slowly with my gun ready.
A whimper made me pause. I stared at the two pitiful creatures before me and lowered my gun, quickly calculating they were not a threat. They were two hybrids huddled in the corner of what seemed to be an old storage closet. The cat was holding onto the bunny protectively and eyeing me with suspicion.
I holstered my gun and slowly kneeled to their level. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m a detective, I work with the NKPD. Can you tell me what happened to you?”
The bunny finally met my gaze and my heart broke a bit at the sight of his black eye and slip lip. His tall bunny ears were also bent in odd angles.
“W-we were strays before he took us. H-he promised us food and shelter.”
The cat gently pets the bunny to calm him down and takes over. “He turned aggressive as soon as he brought us here. He used us as his slaves and made me…“ he couldn’t finish.
“What did he make you do?”
In a small voice. “…He made me- used me to kidnap that girl. H-he said he would kill Jungkook if i didn’t help him.”
I stood immediately. “Girl?”
Stretching out my senses, the sound of shouting reached my ears.
“Stay back! Stay back or I’ll shoot!”
“I just came for the girl,” I heard Marcus say. “Put the gun down-“
“I can’t go back to jail! I won’t let you take me there!”
“No one is taking you anywhere. Just calm down and let’s talk this out.”
I exited the storage room and bounded up the basement stairs as fast as I could, but even my supernatural speed could not beat the two gunshots that rang out. As I entered the main room of the house, I could feel the pit in my stomach forming. The scent of blood slowly filled the room as I took a step toward my fallen partner. He was lying on the floor motionless, his heartbeat silent. I knew nothing could be done for him.
“Don’t move!”
I looked to the voice and saw a man with a crazed look in his eyes, a gun in his hands and it was pointed at me. At his feet laid the missing girl we have been searching for, blood pooling around her.
I took a step toward him.
“I said don’t move! Do you want to end up like your partner over there?”
I took another, feeling that familiar darkness swirl within me. Alex would have to take care of the mess I was about to make.
“W-what’s wrong with your eyes?”
I cocked my head to the side and took another step. “Look closely, because they are the last thing you are ever going to see.”
I darted across the room, gripping the man’s throat before he even had a chance to react. I lifted him into the air and watched his pointless struggle before slamming him onto the ground and digging into his flesh with my teeth and nails. He was unrecognizable by the time I finished and I decided it was time to call in what had happened.
“Alex, we found the missing girl from the Hampton case.”
‘What is her condition?’
“We got three casualties.”
‘Jesus- What the hell happened, Knight?!’
I looked over at my fallen partner and sighed. “Marcus is gone. The girl and kidnapper are too.”
‘…Damn. He was a good detective. …Do you need a cleanup crew as well?’
“You know I do.” I glanced down at my blood-soaked clothes. “I’ll meet you at the precinct after I clean myself up.”
‘Alright, anything else I should know?’
“Oh, there are two hybrids hiding out in a storage closet in the basement. They had nothing to do with the girl. They were also victims of the kidnapper.”
He groaned. ‘I hate dealing with hybrids.’
I began to make my way out of the house. “Just bring to them back to the station for questioning. I will deal with them after that.”
‘Got it.’
After making a stop at my home to shower the evidence of my crime off, I then headed to the precinct to give my statement and fill out the necessary paperwork.
I know I may sound cold. My partner had just died and I was moving on without shedding a tear. But when you have lived as long as I had you learn to distance yourself. Losing someone close to you never gets easier, even after centuries so I try the next best option to avoid the pain. Holding everyone at arm's length and never letting them get close enough to really care about. I know it’s selfish, but It’s the only way for me to keep going. I don’t know if I could handle losing someone close again.
“So, what’s the story we are going with this time?” Alex questioned as I sat across from him in his office.
Alex is the Captain of my department. He is also a vampire like me, so he often organizes the special cleanup to hide when I go a little too hard on the criminals I catch.
“You made a mess of this one. It looks like he was mauled by a damn animal,” he scolds me. “What the hell am I supposed to say for this one? And what of those two hybrids? Did they see anything?”
“No, they were in the basement while it occurred.”
“Well, at least there’s that. I’ll just send them off to the pound then after they give their statements.”
I perked up at that. “Pound?” I didn’t know a lot about hybrids. I never cared to get one so I just ignored their existence basically.
He nodded. “That’s where stray hybrids go. …Although I have half a mind to just set them back out to the streets. Those pounds are no better than a ticket to the afterlife.”
That surprised me. “They still euthanize them? I thought that practice was illegal.”
“It is for normal pets, but not hybrids. Especially since most strays are seen as hostile.”
I frowned, feeling my stomach turn at the thought of those scared hybrids being sent to such a place. “…What if the kidnapper was mauled by an animal?”
“Excuse me?”
“We could pin his messy death on one of the hybrids.”
He thought it over and nodded. “That could work, but it’d give them a for sure sentence to a kill shelter.”
“But what if they were helping with the case?”
He stared at me in confusion. “Okay, you lost me.”
“It’s not uncommon to have dog hybrids work for the police,” I told him. “We could say the cat or the bunny was one of ours. He would be safe to stay at the station and may even be regarded as a hero for killing the man.”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “Yeah, ‘dog’ hybrids have worked with us, but never a cat or god forbid a bunny! And they can’t just stay here at the station. They’d need a handler to care for them.”
“I’ll do it,” I said the words before my brain could fully comprehend the task I was taking.
“Really?” he asked doubtfully. “A 300 hundred-year-old vampire, is going to take care of a hybrid for the first time, and train them to work for the police? And two hybrids at that.”
“It was my mess. I will take this as my punishment.”
“…Alright, fine. The two hybrids are yours, but you better hope for your sake that this pans out. I won’t save your ass if you pull this shit again,” he warned.
So I went home the next day a hybrid owner. After getting to two hybrids looked over at our in house medical department, I spoke to them about this deal and they agreed. Jimin, the cat, would join me on the force as my hybrid partner and Jungkook, the bunny, would stay at my home. I’ve been getting to know them over the past two weeks, but it has been awkward and I think we all have had some trouble opening up to each other. They still don’t trust me, and I don’t blame them. I don’t trust them either. I’m still questioning myself for this ridiculous decision, but I’ve made my bed and I will lie in it. I try not to make it habit of leaving things unfinished.