Chapter 2 - The Parasite and the Predator

The morning sun over the East Sea was too bright, too clinical for a man who had belonged to the shadows for two centuries. Jeong Gu-won stood on the wet sand, his expensive silk shirt ruined, but his pride was what truly bled. For the first time in two hundred years, he felt the bite of the wind. He felt the ache in his muscles. He felt… human.Beside him, Do Do-hee lay unconscious, her pale wrist turned upward to the sky. There, stark against her skin, was the cross. His cross. His power. He reached out to take it back—to reclaim the ink that granted him the ability to warp reality—but the tattoo remained stubborn, anchored to her flesh as if it had found a better host.When Do-hee finally woke in the sterile white light of a hospital room, she didn't see a savior. She saw a mystery she couldn't solve. Gu-won was there, hovering like a vengeful specter, demanding his "property" back. To Do-hee, he was merely the strange, arrogant man from the restaurant who had somehow survived a plunge into the abyss alongside her. She dismissed him with the cold efficiency of a CEO, unaware that the mark on her wrist was currently the most valuable—and dangerous—asset in both the mortal and immortal worlds.But Gu-won's desperation was growing. Without the tattoo, he was fading. He was a flickering candle in a hurricane. He attempted to use his powers—to teleport, to incinerate, to command—but all he achieved was a pathetic, human exertion. He realized with a sickening jolt that he was now a parasite. He could only access his demonic strength if he was touching her.Meanwhile, the corporate sharks were circling. The assassination attempt in the mist had failed, and Do-hee knew the predator was someone within her own circle—someone wearing a designer suit and a family name.The episode reached its boiling point when the killer returned to finish the job. In a dimly lit hallway, trapped and vulnerable, Do-hee felt the cold breath of death once more. But Gu-won appeared, his eyes flashing with a remnant of hellfire. He grabbed her hand—the hand bearing the mark—and the air shattered. With her skin as his conduit, his power surged back, a violent, beautiful explosion of shadows that sent the assassin fleeing into the night.Standing in the aftermath, breathless and bound by an invisible chain, the realization hit them both. He was the weapon, but she was the trigger. To survive the family that wanted her dead and the hell that wanted him back, they had no choice.The demon had found his master, and the Ice Queen had found her devil