Chapter 18:
The next day, you didn't come out of your room until at least midday, and it was only because you were really hungry. You didn't want to run into Jungkook, and you hoped that he was already out for the day when you came out. You figured you should probably give him some space after the confrontation from the day before. You felt a badly for the way you'd pushed him to open up when he clearly didn't want to. And you definitely planned on apologizing to him. but the memory of his hand around your neck was enough to chase away your courage.
You walked down the hall and paused in front of Jungkook's door. It was shut tight now and you wouldn't be surprised if it was locked. You could still remember the unfinished painting that he had been working on, almost like it was ingrained in your mind. Those red eyes shrouded in black reminded you of your own rage that you held toward the world. You had a lot to be angry about in your life. That painting had hit a little too close to home.
You walked down into the kitchen and grabbed a box of cereal, taking a handful of it to eat dry. Jimin suddenly appeared in the doorway and you jumped in surprise, almost flinging the cereal everywhere. Jimin chuckled when he noticed your scare and you grumbled, putting the box down and wiping your hands on your pants.
"I didn't mean to scare you." Jimin said with a smirk.
You rolled your eyes. "Sure, you didn't." You muttered, snatching the box up again. Jimin grinned and walked over to lean against the counter.
"Lazarus is coming back later today." He said, making your head snap up.
"He is?"
Jimin nodded, crossing his arms. "Yes, I'm going to talk to him in a neutral location." He said as you rounded the counter, perked up in excitement. Was this your chance to finally talk to him?
"Why doesn't he come here?" You asked hopefully. Jimin sighed and scratched the back of his head.
"Lazarus needs to be careful about where he goes and who he's seen with." He said carefully. "Elders have certain responsibilities and if he spends to much time at Dracula's manor, then the others on the council will be suspicious." You felt your heart sink a little bit, but you remained optimistic, lifting your chin.
"Can I come with you?" You asked optimistically. Jimin gave you a pitiful smile.
"It would look even more suspicious if he were to meet with a human girl for no apparent reason and not take you as a feeder." He said solemnly. You sighed, realizing that he was right. You couldn't hide the disappointment as you turned back to the counter, planting your hands on the cold marble.
"I just... I want to ask him about what we talked about yesterday." You said quietly, looking down at the floor. Jimin sighed and touched your arm reassuringly.
"I will ask him for you. I promise." He gave you a small smile and you narrowed your eyes, trying to see if he was being genuine or not. Jimin left the kitchen before you could figure it out.
You sat down on one of the stools and solemnly ate handfuls of cereal, your head racked with many different thoughts. You really hoped Jimin would keep his word. Perhaps then you could finally feel like there was a point to your existence. Maybe if you had something to do, anything to do, a job, classes, or even just a hobby or something, you wouldn't be feeling the need to go snooping in places that you had no business being in.
Your entire life, you'd always been working toward something. When you were younger, you were just working toward being able to get the hell out of the foster system. Part time jobs, extra classes to earn more credits, anything to get you out and on your own faster. And then, it was studying overtime to get into university on a scholarship. And then, once you'd gotten into university, it was working part-time jobs and studying even harder to keep your standing.
Now... it was the first time you'd ever taken a real break. It was the first time where you had no goal, no future you were working toward and it was messing with your head. It made you antsy and irritable and you needed to get out. You needed something.
Hopefully Lazarus would be able to do something about the situation.
Later that day, you were hanging out in the dining room, flipping through one of Dracula's journals. Jimin had left a while before, and you were trying to avoid Jungkook. He was still up in his room, you assumed, and you wondered when he'd come down to go on his daily mysterious outing. You hadn't seen Taehyung yet that day, but that wasn't unusual. Taehyung seemed to be spending most of his time behind a closed door.
This journal was filled with tales of how Dracula had crossed the Atlantic with the European colonizers to the New World. He visited more than just the Americas, he also visited India, Africa, and the Caribbean. In almost every place he visited, there was at least one entry about a pretty human woman, and even several men, with whom Dracula indulged in for more than just blood. There were probably Dracula offspring in countries all around the world, which made it even more chilling to remember that all of them were dead, except for you.
It appeared, from reading about Dracula's conquests, that he had a very fluid sexuality. There wasn't a single gender that he was attracted to and he had no qualms about indulging in the same sex, even during a time when being gay was extremely frowned upon. It was strange, you were finding yourself liking Dracula more and more, despite the obvious flaws.
You heard footsteps coming down the stairs and your head popped up, thinking that Jungkook had finally emerged from his room. You snapped the journal shut and tucked it under your arm as you walked over to the door and poked your head out to see who it was. You were surprised to see Taehyung tip-toeing toward the front door, as if trying to avoid detection. You frowned and emerged in the foyer, walking over to him. Taehyung sighed when he heard your footsteps and turned around, giving a solemn, apologetic look.
"Hey..." You said tersely, scanning over his body language. He looked guilty for some reason. "What are you doing?" You asked suspiciously. Taehyung avoided your gaze and glanced at the front door meekly.
"I'm... um... just going out." He said vaguely, inching closer to the door. You narrowed your eyes at his strange behavior.
"Jimin's not here, so you shouldn't leave until he gets back." You said hesitantly, crossing your arms. Taehyung waved a dismissive hand.
"Jungkook is here. He can look after you." He said hastily, turning back to the door. You felt your heart thud in your chest and a bit of panic rise in your throat.
"Wait!" You exclaimed, causing Taehyung to halt and turn to you in surprise. "Uh..." You swallowed hard and glanced over at the staircase, remembering vividly the events of the previous night. You still felt Jungkook's hands wrapped around your throat and a chill rolled down your spine.
"I'd rather not... I mean.... Can I maybe come with you instead?" You turned back to him hopefully, giving him a tiny, pleading smile. Taehyung blinked and stared at you for a few seconds.
"You want to come with me?" He asked slowly. You coughed and laughed as nonchalantly as you could, hoping to cover up the desperation in your voice.
"Yes, I'm so bored in this house." You whined, rolling your eyes. "Please, wherever you're going, can I come?" You looked up at him hopefully and stuck out your lower lip, hoping to maybe go for the cute factor. Taehyung didn't seem to notice as his cheeks reddened and his jaw tightened.
"You don't want to come where I'm going, Y/N, trust me." He said vaguely, avoided eye contact again. The pouty look on your face fell off as you surveyed his body language. An uneasy crawled up in your stomach and you frowned.
"Where are you going?" You asked hesitantly, not entirely sure if you wanted to know the answer. He wasn't planning on going back to Rosemary, was he? Or maybe he was actually deciding that there was nothing for him here and he was going to leave for good like he wanted to in the first place. Why did that thought make you so sad?
"I don't... look, it doesn't matter. Just stay here with Jungkook." Taehyung said flippantly. You pursed your lips as your stomach flipped nervously.
"Why won't you tell me?" You demanded. "What could be so bad that you won't tell me? Besides wherever the hell Jungkook disappears to..." You added sardonically, looking to the side bitterly. Taehyung let out an exasperated sigh.
"I just... You can't come with me, okay?" He repeated. He reached for the door handle and you reached out to grab his wrist, halting his motion.
"Why not?"
"Dammit, Y/N, it's because I'm going hunting." Taehyung exclaimed, ripping his arm out of your grasp.
You exhaled sharply and stepped back when the words escaped Taehyung's mouth. You stared at him in surprise as Taehyung scratched the back of his head sheepishly, obviously looking very uncomfortable.
"Hunting? You mean..." You trailed off, your eyes falling to his lips, which were hiding his sharp fangs. Your neck tingled.
"Yes, Y/N, I'm going hunting. I didn't want to tell you because I know how you get about these things. But I'm really sick of the bagged blood and I really need something fresh, okay?" Taehyung relinquished finally, giving you an annoyed, apologetic look. You swallowed hard. An image of the blood stains in Taehyung's bed flashed in your head and you winced.
"Instead of bagged blood, you're just going to go kill an innocent human?" You asked, letting the disappointment seep into your voice. Taehyung rolled his eyes.
"Not kill them. Just feed on them so the blood's fresh. I promise they'll be fine." He said slowly, like he was talking to a child. You bristled at his tone.
"What's wrong with the blood in the fridge?" You demanded. Taehyung growled under his breath and threw up his hands in exasperation.
"It's not the same!" He exclaimed. "It doesn't taste as good as it could taste and I'm used to... a certain kind of taste." He licked his lips and you shivered. "I'm not Jungkook, he's gotten used to the taste. I can't just go cold turkey like that."
You blinked in surprise at the mention of his name. "Jungkook? What do you mean he's gotten used to it?" You asked. Taehyung sighed and waved his arms agitatedly.
"Jungkook doesn't feed from humans. At least not for the time that I've known him. He only drinks from blood banks. I've never seen him feed from a human. I honestly don't know why he doesn't." He muttered, looking away bitterly. You swallowed hard again.
"And Jimin?" You whispered. Taehyung looked back at you and gave you an incredulous look.
"Are you kidding?" He scoffed, making you flinch. "Jimin may act like a perfect gentleman around you but he's more sadistic than even me. That dude is probably feeding on some poor kid right now. He just puts on an act for you so you trust him."
You gulped and looked away, trying to get that image out of your head. You already knew that Jimin put on an act when he was around you. You knew that he was almost never genuine when he smiled at you or spoke in reassuring words. It was obvious enough when he would contradict himself or avoid certain questions. It shouldn't have been so surprising to find out that when he was alone, his true murderous side came out. You took a deep breath and crossed your arms defensively, turning back to Taehyung.
"What's the big deal? Isn't it just like being vegetarian? That shouldn't be some huge demand of self-control. Why do you need fresh blood?" You asked again, stomping your feelings of disgust down. Taehyung groaned and dragged a hand down his face.
"Look, it's not that simple, okay? It would be like..." Taehyung trailed off, searching for an analogy. "Like if we compare drinking fresh blood to smoking cigarettes." You frowned skeptically as he launched into an explanation. "Say you had an addiction to cigarettes and in order to break the addiction you use the patches or the electric cigarettes. But the high isn't the same and you still go through withdrawals. It's kind of like that. I'm going through a withdrawal and I need fresh blood."
You pursed your lips as Taehyung planted his arms on his waist, looking impressed at himself for coming up with that comparison. You shook your head. "Using that analogy, it makes me think I should stop you from going off to get another fix." You deadpanned. Taehyung looked at you in surprise and his face morphed into an annoyed frown.
"Y/N, just... you don't understand, okay?" He sighed and shook his head solemnly. "And you can't stop me. I'm going to go hunting, no matter how disappointed you are with me." He said simply, shrugging.
You felt your heart leap into your throat and you swallowed the lump painfully. You turned away, trying to blink the tears away.
"Fine, then. Go." You muttered, turning your back to him. Taehyung sighed behind you and you felt his hand on your shoulder, pulling you back around gently.
"Come on, Y/N, you can't cut me a little bit of slack?" He asked hopefully, giving you a pitiful look. You clenched your jaw, disdain curling in your stomach, you turned away, shaking his arm off.
"No. Not when there's perfectly good bagged blood in the fridge." You deadpanned. Taehyung sighed again.
"Y/N... don't be like that." He reached out for your arm, but you pulled away, avoiding his gaze. Taehyung sighed. "I'm sorry," He said solemnly, before pushing the door open and leaving the manor, leaving you feeling very sad and disappointed behind him.
You sighed and turned around to walk into the kitchen. You opened the fridge and surveyed the stack of blood bags in one of the drawers. You picked one of them up and held it up to read the label. The particular blood bag had a type of O negative blood. The universal blood donor. You noticed after looking at the other bags, that most of them were of the same type. This type of blood was most useful for humans... did that also mean it tasted better than the others?
You put the bag back and shut the fridge door. It was slightly upsetting that Taehyung had still gone hunting, even after you'd tried to stop him, but you tried to steer your mind away from it. It wasn't like you could really control him in any way, regardless of how much your relationship had improved. You sighed and walked back into the dining room to resume reading Dracula's journal.
After about half an hour of flipping through pages and pages of Dracula discussing the various political views of 18th century America, you heard more footsteps coming down the stairs. You looked up, knowing that it could only be Jungkook, since no one else was home. You listened as his footsteps walked down the stairs and moved to the door. Was he planning on leaving too?
"I'm going out!" You heard him announce, answering your question. You stood up and quickly jogged over to the foyer to stop him before he left.
"Wait!" You called out, emerging in the foyer. Jungkook was already halfway out the door when you got there and he slowly rotated his head to glare at you.
"Don't ask me where I'm going." He growled. "It's none of your damn business, remember?"
"That's not what I was going to say." You snapped. "You can't leave, no one else is here."
"What?" Jungkook blinked in surprise and then tilted his head back, looking off to the side. He was quiet for a few seconds, as if listening around the house to see if you were right.
"You didn't hear me talking to Taehyung a little while ago?" You asked suspiciously. He was supposed to have super hearing, right? Jungkook looked back at you and scowled.
"I was... preoccupied." He said vaguely, avoiding eye contact. You raised an eyebrow. You could fill in the blanks by yourself. He'd been painting. You wondered if he finished the painting you'd seen the day before.
"Well, you can take my word for it. No one else is here. So unless you want to leave me by myself, or take me with you to wherever you're going," Both of which were options you knew weren't possible. "Then, you'll just have to wait until someone gets back."
You turned around, intent on walking back into the dining room. Jungkook could do what he wanted. You didn't want to speak to him unless it was absolutely necessary. You really didn't want him to be angry around you. Especially not after last night.
"Fine." Jungkook said suddenly, causing you to halt in your tracks. You felt Jungkook's hand wrap around your wrist and suddenly, you were being pulled toward the door.
"What... what the hell, what are you doing?" You demanded, recovering from the initial surprise. You tried pulling your arm out of his grip, but he held firm. You glared up at his profile, his expression as emotionless as always. He dragged you to the door and outside down the driveway toward the last car in the lot.
"Jungkook, let me go." You growled, trying to yank your wrist from his cold, cold grasp. Jungkook released you just as you pulled and you fell backwards, landing your butt on the solid pavement painfully. You winced, and glared up at him, who stared down at you condescendingly.
"Was that really necessary?" You muttered, pushing yourself to your feet. You winced again, rubbing your sore tailbone. Jungkook rolled his eyes and opened the passenger's seat for you.
"You wanted to know where I've been going everyday this week? Well, you're going to find out. Get in the car." He ordered, gesturing to the seat. You felt a spark of panic.
"Can't this wait until tomorrow? I mean, I'm sure the others will be back any minute." You said hastily, taking a tiny step back toward the manor. Jungkook growled and moved closer to you, his eyes dancing dangerously.
"Get in the car." He repeated slowly, enunciating each word. You swallowed and shivered at his tone. You glared at the car seat for a few moments, until finally you sighed and slid into the seat. Jungkook slammed the door behind you and you flinched at the loud slam. Jungkook got in the driver's seat and pulled out of the driveway without giving you a passing glance. You sighed and rubbed your hands together anxiously.
"So... where are we going?" You asked, glancing over at his profile.
"Shut up." He snapped. You flinched in surprise and turned away.
"Come on, you're taking me there anyway, why can't you just tell me?" You said indignantly. Jungkook gets out a guttural sound in the back of his throat.
"When will you realize that I don't want to tell you anything?" He snapped, making you wince. Jungkook's hands tightened on the wheel as he started again. "When we get there, you're going to stand in a corner and not say a word. You're not going to ask questions or breathe down my neck. You're going to be invisible."
"Jungkook..." You started carefully.
"What did I just say?" He shouted, cutting you off. You flinched and turned away, your cheeks burning. You weren't used to being scolded.
After that, you were as silent as the dead. You stared out the window, watching the houses and fields go by, squeezing your hands to fists on your lap. You tried not to appear as nervous as you felt. You really didn't want this to turn into another Rosemary scenario. You'd already had enough of her invading your thoughts and your nightmares. You really didn't need any more situations that would serve as nightmare fuel.
About fifteen minutes passed before Jungkook pulled into a small parking lot of a strip mall. You looked out the window in confusion. Was he going shopping for something? He parked in front of what looked like a flower shop and you made to take off your seatbelt. Suddenly, Jungkook's hand was on top of the belt, blocking you from removing it.
"No, you stay in the car." He growled.
"But—"
"Shut it. You'll be fine, I'm just picking up an order." He snapped. You jerked back as he pulled his hand away and exited the car.
You watched his back as he disappeared into the shop, an angry frown forming on your face. You were getting more than a little annoyed at his commands, as if he was scolding a child. It wasn't your fault that both Jimin and Taehyung had both decided to leave the house at the same time, and it definitely wasn't your fault that Jungkook decided to bring you. You wouldn't have been opposed to just staying in the manor by yourself. If you were honest, it was probably safer than out here. The only times you'd been attacked was when you weren't at the manor.
Jungkook returned and tossed a package into the backseat before sliding back in the driver's seat. He pulled out of the parking lot and you turned around to peer at the package. You heard an annoyed grunt from Jungkook, but you ignored him. You let out a tiny gasp when you realized that the package he'd picked up was a flower arrangement. At least, you assumed it was since there was a lot of decorating paper blocking most of the arrangement, save for a few purple flowers poking out the top and the stems out the bottom.
Flowers? What the hell was going on? Where in the world were you two going?
Finally, after another few minutes of driving, Jungkook pulled into a parking lot and got out of the car, grabbing his flowers out of the backseat. He hadn't said anything about staying in the car this time, so you took it as an invitation to get out. You unbuckled yourself and exited the car, looking around. Your eyes widened in shock when you recognized the location.
A cemetery.