Briar Rose - Taekook

Chapter 9

Double update!

IX: Jungkook 

The reading room was dark when we first entered, but Taehyung snapped his fingers, and lights turned on, their soft warm glow penetrating the darkness. Unlike the other rooms in Armad Castle, the reading room was made of wood with traces of gold, all in all giving it a nice homey feel. No black obsidian or marble was in sight. It wasn't unlike the libraries back in the human world, except it was much larger and grander. Shelves upon shelves of books lined the towering walls, and the ceiling was a glass dome. Four white marble pillars supported the roof, its slender corinthian columns reaching up to the sky. A glass chandelier hung from the middle of the dome, light being reflected off its numerous crystal stones. It was my favorite room in the castle by far.

Taehyung led me over to some couches, which were right in front of a large window whose panes were white with frost. "Sit here," he said. "I'll start a fire." Letting go of my hand, he walked over to the hearth in the center of the room and added some logs into the fireplace. He then flicked a hand towards the wood, and immediately a small flame burst out from under the kindling. The warmth from the fire spread throughout the reading room, and I relaxed my hold on the cloak just a bit.

"So, how do you know what hot chocolate is?" I asked as he sat down on the couch so that he was facing me. "I thought it was a human thing."

"My mother used to make this for me when I was feeling sad. It was her favorite comfort drink." Taehyung smiled sadly, and put his mug down on the table with an audible clink.

"Oh..." I didn't know what to say. By his wistful tone, I could guess that it was a touchy subject. I then noticed his feathery black wings, and thought of another pretty important question.

"Do all vampires have wings, or is it some kind of gift you get when you become leader?" I asked, deciding to change the subject. Taehyung sighed, looking over his shoulder at his black wings.

"No. No vampire has it. I suppose it is some kind of gift depending on how you look at it. But not for becoming king." He paused. Standing up, he walked over to the window, tracing his fingers across the panes of glass and leaving handprints across the white surface. The silence continued for well over two minutes.

"Do you want to hear my story?" He asked suddenly. "It explains how I have wings. But I'll warn you now; not everything in it is pleasant." I simply nodded, curiosity getting the best of me. He sighed, seating himself on the wide windowsill and looking out into the forest.

"You see, I'm not a true blood vampire," He started. "My mother was the heir to the Sirius Clan throne, and my father was a fallen angel. That's how I got these wings." He paused again, simply staring out the window at the first rosy rays of dawn. I watched him, my hot cocoa forgotten.

"Since we work closely with other creatures of the night, it wasn't unusual for the leaders of each species to meet up and discuss plans. My parents met at one of those conferences. By the end, they had fallen hopelessly in love. Even now, different species aren't supposed to marry each other, so everyone was against their wedding. Her father, my grandfather, was the leader at the time, and he was a hundred percent against their love. He wanted my father out of the picture so he could arrange a nice marriage to a vampire for his daughter. So he decided to send my father on a quest, a quest which he thought would either kill him or prove him a coward."

"He sent him to battle the Nighthawks, a barbaric clan in the west, all alone. They were our greatest enemy at the time, and were known for their ruthless behavior. Of course, my mother protested against my father going, but he wouldn't budge. He knew that if he backed down, he would be labeled a coward and would never get to see my mother again. So he took the task and went west. Everyone thought that he would be brutally killed in no time, so they were astonished when he came back a few years later completely unscathed. He laid the head of the Nighthawk's leader at my grandfather's feet and proclaimed his task finished. There was nothing that my mother's father could do. He grudgingly agreed to give him my mother's hand in marriage, but didn't show up for the ceremony. The people were satisfied that my father had proven himself, and my mother was elated. If everything had ended there, they would have gotten a happy ending."