daybreak || minsung

Chapter 24

The nomads materialized one by one, dozens of yards between them. The first fell back, letting another take the lead, and a third broke the forest edge. They approached in triangular formation, closing the distance between each other as they moved toward us.

The one in front was tall and muscular, his face an unnaturally wide grin — showing a row of straight, gleaming teeth. The next seemed more wild than the others, her back arched into a crescent, eerily unmoving. The last was square-jawed, eyes narrowed into slits, his gaze twitching suspiciously between his coven and our family.

They were different than the kind of vampires I was used to. Their gait was catlike — they moved almost in a crouch. Their clothes were worn, and they had no shoes on their grimy feet. They all had disturbingly white skin — a translucent, chalk-like pallor. Their eyes were not gold, rather a dark, sinister red, like stale blood.

I squeezed my teeth together and held my breath. Jisung had let go of my hand as the nomads appeared. I knew it was to protect me, to make my presence seem normal, but I was desperate for the safety of his touch. He kept a few feet between us, staring ahead, arms folded stiffly over his stomach.

Chan, Changbin and Haseong moved forward to meet the coven. The visitors straightened up, seeming to mimic their postures.

The leader spoke, still smiling.

"We thought we heard a game," he said in a casual voice — the slightest of French accents curling his words. "I'm Laurent. This is Victoria and James." He gestured to the two behind him.

"I'm Chan. This is my family — Changbin and Haseong, Hyunjin and Jisung, Seungmin and Minho, Jeongin and Felix." He pointed us out in groups, not calling attention to a single one of us.

"Do you have room for a few more players?" Laurent asked conversationally.

"Sorry, we were just finishing up," Chan said matching Laurent's easy-going manner. "We would love to play another time. How long are you planning to stay in the area?"

"We're headed up north, actually, but we were curious to see who else was in the neighbourhood. We haven't run into any company for a while."

"This region is usually empty — save for us and the occasional visitors, such as yourselves."

Changbin must have been using his gift to lighten the mood. The tense energy was lifting. It didn't seem to affect Jisung — he stood motionless, upper lip twitching back like he wanted to bare his teeth.

"What's your hunting range?" Laurent asked.

"The Olympics here — up and down the Coast Ranges on occasion," Chan answered, leaving out their unusual eating habits. "We keep a permanent residence nearby. There's another settlement like ours up in Denali."

Laurent's head twitched to the side. "Permanent? How do you manage that?" There was genuine interest in his voice.

"Why don't you come back to our home with us?" Chan's voice was edging toward impatience. "We can talk comfortably. It's a pretty long story."

"That sounds very intriguing. We've been on the hunt all the way from Ontario, and we haven't had a chance to clean up in a while."

"We'll show you the way if you'd like to run with us," Chan offered. "Hyunjin, Minho, go with Jisung and Felix to the truck. Shall we?"

The gentlest breeze blew by.

Everything seemed like it was going to be okay. Victoria had settled onto her haunches, Chan was smiling — even Jisung had relaxed a little, the twitch in his lip subsiding. For a second, a brief second, I thought this was going to end well.

In hindsight, it was misguided. This was never going to end well.

My limbs were frozen as I fell back. Fear was only on the periphery of my senses, just out of focus. All I could hear was my family's roars echoing off the trees, and all I could see was the blood-red eyes of the predator as he leapt forward to kill me.

Two jagged fangs dug into the flesh of my throat, just as soon pulling back — whipping back, like he had been torn away from me.

I didn't hit the ground. I vaguely felt two cold arms catch me, a hand try to staunch my bleeding, heard a voice shout my name. It was all lost on me. I couldn't comprehend anything more than the feeling now devouring my body.

Pain. It was a pain unlike any I'd ever felt before — like molten lava poured down my throat, coursing through my veins, seeping from my pores. The pain crushed me, folded me in half as I held my face in my hands. I wanted to scream, but when I did, I was coughing — choking on the blood spilling from my neck, pooling in my mouth.

"Minho," I heard a voice say, close to me, muffled, more of a cry. "No, god, please, not like this — my Minho, I'm so sorry..."

I wanted so badly to say something. I opened my eyelids for a fraction of a second. All I could see was the grey sky, trees flying past in a blur — his face. He was in pain, too.

Then his arms weren't around me anymore, and I heard more voices than before. Rushed, anxious, familiar. I didn't know if I was lying down or sitting up or on my side — the fiery pain was spreading through my body, commanding my attention.

It was a dizzying moment before I felt a row of stiletto-sharp, burning-hot fangs dig into the wound on my throat.

Now I screamed.

"No, no, it's too late!" I heard a deep voice — Felix — yell over me. "It's too late, don't even try!"

The fangs released me. I cried in relief and agony, my fists clenched so tight I felt the skin rip over my knuckles.

"Can you see?" another voice — Chan — asked.

"Yes," Felix said quickly. "His futures haven't changed. This is the turning point. Either he lives and becomes a vampire, or Jisung kills him trying to stop it."

"I can do it, I can get the venom out—"

"You'll kill him — every future is the same, for god's sake, he dies!"

Jisung didn't say anything — he was hyperventilating in shallow, broken gasps.

"Jisung," Felix said, "it doesn't need to be this slow. We can change him faster."

"He should have a choice," Jisung whispered.

"You really think he could choose — let alone speak — right now? Let us—"

Jisung growled.

Then I felt a trembling hand brush my hair back, and his voice was right next to my ear. I bit back the sound bubbling up my throat, clawing to escape my teeth.

"My love, I need you to make this decision. I can't take it away from you, too. The pain can stop right now, and you... and you'll die. Or the pain will continue for a while, and you will live as a vampire. I know the pain is worse than anything. I remember. I will do anything you need, I will do anything you tell me to..."

All I could hear was the shrill gnawing of pain in my ears and his stifled crying. I struggled to do something — reach out to him, speak, comfort him — but all I could do was thrash against the floor. Jisung held me steady.

"Stop, Minho, stop," he pleaded. "Please, tell me what to do, what should I do?"

I opened my mouth, but all that came out was an earsplitting cry and something hot, metallic. He turned me on my side — I coughed the blood out of my windpipe.

I couldn't speak. My throat was fusing shut, nerves crackling like live wire, body numbing to everything but the pain. I couldn't speak. I couldn't speak.

"He needs you to choose," Felix said. "You know what he wants."

Jisung sobbed a mangled sound — whispered "Please forgive me" in my ear.

I heard the distant sound of fangs breaking my skin.

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[evil author mode on😈]

byee