Darker Blood

Chapter sixty-six

A tiny shard rested in the middle of his skin, glowing with a supernatural power impossible to melt and he coughed a few times without making a sound of pain.

"Not bad for your first shot, give it another go with more tension."

"Why are you helping me with this?"

"You need to know how to properly defend yourself against whatever is thrown at you. The ice doesn't hurt me, it just feels like a pinch. Shoot again."

I followed his orders, concentrating the same as before, letting more tension bleed into the attack to the point where I felt physically tired, weakly releasing the energy from my body.

He made a sound of pain from this one, and I stared in stunned silence as he let go of my hands, falling backwards to the floor as a thick chunk of ice glowed deeply in his skin, the pointy edges drawing more blood to spill over his clothes and onto the floor.

I rushed to his side, body no longer plagued by the frostbite that caused me so much pain, as his torso convulsed as he coughed up black blood, his hands already pulling out the thick shard from deep within his body. He dropped it onto the ground, and it vanished stained with his blood, the skin closing up sleepily.

"Not bad," he coughed out, dead eyes finally reopening while his body stayed on the ground, content with laying still.

I fell from my knees onto my bum, shocked. "You scared me! I thought you were going to die. And then I would die-"

"I would never let that happen."

My shoulders relaxed as I looked down at his blood-splattered face, eyes unblinking and swimming in unspoken emotions. It was in that moment I realised the depth at which Jin had protected me, looking out for me ever since I was an infant, trying to protect me though he didn't know me in the slightest and didn't owe me anything.

"You remind me of her," he spoke softly, a deep sadness winning over the protection in his eyes.

"Of who?"

"My daughter, Ivy."

I swallowed hard as he made no move to get up from the ground. I've heard nothing of her, so I could only assume that she had passed away.

"She wasn't my biological daughter, I adopted her."

"What happened to her?" I spoke as softly as I could, voice as thin as a cloud.

"She was killed by a demon."

Xierro?

"Umai."

I almost choked, hanging my own head. "I'm sorry that she did that. I didn't know she could be so cruel."

"What makes you think vampires are any better? I am probably even crueller than she was."

"Well," I started, careful not to poke at any nerves. "I doubt you would have ever hurt a little girl."

Jin looked away, staring off to the side at an unimportant object, avoiding my gaze. He'd never hurt a little kid, right?

He swallowed hard and I stood up, knowing when it was time to stop asking questions and leave.

"Thankyou, for teaching me," I mumbled with my arms wrapped around my body defensively, already racing out and away from the room.

Scurrying from the room, I bumped into a tall figure, jumping back with a start yet his arms welcomed me, holding me tight. I breathed in my boyfriend's scent slowly, letting it fill every pocket within my lungs, my skin warming from the rumble of his voice.

"I can smell Jin's blood, is everything okay?"

I nodded once, not trusting my voice. He let go of me to look down with a frown, about to pry for more details and I searched for the courage to quickly speak.

"You didn't tell me he had a daughter."

He noticeably swallowed, guilt crossing onto his features. "Well, yeah, he had a daughter once."

"What happened to her?"

"She passed away."

I frowned back up at him. "So, it was peaceful, then?"

Jungkook shook his head. "No, it was far from peaceful. You know, they tried infecting people before you with the ice, before Umai with the fire. There were twelve of them, and with that number, no lives would have been lost."

Anger started to bubble inside me. Why the fuck was I given this fate if there was another option?

"But," Jungkook continued, "Jin didn't trust that they would still be allowed to live. He was in love with one of them, so he freed all of them. Then, Jin and Yixing adopted a little girl."

Yixing? That was the name of the man Jin loved?

"The guardians didn't like that." His voice became more serious, a dangerous tone replacing the sympathetic one. "So, to punish Jin, they slaughtered everyone except the girl."

How did they know how Jin felt? Unless Jin told them?

"Jin and Ryo were partners once."

Jungkook nodded in confirmation, wrapping his hands delicately around mine, the cold feeling that might unsettle others only bringing small comfort to me.

My eyebrows knitted even closer together. "Why didn't Jin make them into vampires, then? So that he could be with them forever?"

"You can't put dead bodies through the change, Inori."

I swallowed hard, trying to rid of the invisible lump now constricting my throat. It's always too late. My chest felt pressed under a heavy weight for him, for everything he's lost.

"And, to punish him even further, they let him believe for years that Ivy was his to keep. He gave her a brother, although Hoseok never really spoke about her. Then, just after they infected your sister, they tested her out on his daughter. She was human, she never stood a chance."

I looked back at the room I'd left our leader in, positive he hadn't moved from the floor, drowning in his miseries. I had to go back and say something, but Jungkook held me in place.

"He copes on his own, love. Just let him recover."

As if he knew what I was about to do, his arms wrapped around my middle, keeping me pressed against him as I struggled to go to Jin and just do something, say something, change something.

"There's nothing else you can do, Inori."

"I know," I sobbed.