Three wood poles were outside the castle where every vampire living in the kingdom and the media could see the corpses tied to the poles. The former monarchs and traitor were not going to be given any piece in death as everyone would have assumed. The look of their rotting flesh disgusted human eyes, and the odor that attracted flies made everyone be meters away from them as the smell was too much for a vampire's heightened senses.
No one wanted to be the one to take the bodies down... no one wanted to get on the queen's bad sad after all. It was obvious that with her in charge; no one was going to be able to get away with things. Many were already comparing her with a tyrant, but the counterarguments were just too strong. Pepper was far from being a tyrant, she was just making sure to show whoever dared to try to betray her what would happen. The evidence she had shown after the bodies were placed outside was stammering. Even if some tried, they couldn't defend the dead.
Princess Y/N, already a bit famous for being Pepper's right hand was running through the halls of the Royal Palace with her breath hitching as she was in bad shape. The hybrid was still her right hand even if she hadn't done anything, it wasn't as Pepper had something for her to do, she had been jailed in that office for almost two centuries. Things were going to change, and the hybrid didn't know if she had to present herself as the queen of shinigamis or she could just pretend as that was not a thing. Shinigamis didn't want to be known, neither did she. She was fine with being Pepper's shadow.
The doors of the throne room were opened by loyal guards that saw them come running. Even if the reasons for the murders were out there, many things were still blurry. A change of monarch in the vampiric royalty hadn't happened in centuries... the protocols had been basically forgotten by everyone... but for sure killing the previous monarchs was not part of the protocol.
The hybrid made eye contact with the queen right away. In reality, this moment should go down in history as the first reunion between Pepper, Queen of Vampires, and Y/N, Queen of Shinigamis...
For a second, Pepper wasn't sure if Y/N still wanted to be a princess and her lady-in-waiting, but with just a look, all the hybrid's emotions were shown to the vampiress through their bond...
Ah, their bond, an almost forgotten relationship that had formed between them before everything went out of hand. It seemed as it was yesterday the day in which Pepper had been allowed out of the library... out of her parents' claws, and allowed to be free for three days.
It seemed as it had been yesterday that Y/N had found out about a major event in her soul's history.
The hybrid still had to found out how was she linked to Yugyeom.
Before either one of the girls could address the other one formally, Pepper decided to speak going directly to the most important point.
"There will be a ball tonight. The traitors will be there, and who knows what they might attempt? I'm not a seer, and they had lost theirs."
The leader of the two killers that had been killed by Y/N had... fancily? Referred to their leader as a seer even though the hybrid hadn't quite caught the reference until now. Their leader had seen her birth, her whereabouts, and future actions with his gift that in the end was his curse. The now-dead seer couldn't try to overpower the shinigamis, but who knew about the people he left behind.
The hybrid still didn't understand the extent of her powers, but in such a short amount of time, she had been able to see why the vampires feared the shinigamis. They had the power of cutting lives shorts, and could even get away if the monarch "looked to another side." There were rules to follow that were not written anywhere, and if someone was able to take over the throne, they could use that in their favor.
"Who are they?" Taehyung asked Pepper with a begging tone in his voice. His eyes darkened at the single thought of seeing people that were willing to hurt his soulmate, and the feeling was spread around.
Fancily, Pepper got a little scroll out of her sleeve. In it were all the names of every traitor. The hybrid walked forward to get the scroll. She took a deep breath before she opened the scroll to see the names herself.
The majority of names in the list had a line crossing them, marking that they were already dead. There were around five or six names without a line crossing them... those were the ones that seer had left behind. If the seer knew what was happening, the nest couldn't know, but it didn't matter anymore. By shinigami law, Y/N could kill them at first instance.
There was a problem... Y/N had been advised by Jaebum and Sunmi to not call attention to her shinigami part. It might be dangerous to put herself out there as their queen, things weren't clear yet. Even if she had the authority, she couldn't technically take care of those vampires.
The hybrid needed Yugyeom.
Y/N made a perfect reference to Pepper and her soulmates followed, although they were a bit confused.
The hybrid's mind raced as she thought about other options. She wasn't sure how her soulmates were going to feel about it.
Y/N walked out of the throne room with seven vampires following her closely. It looked as a queen walked out with a part of her court following her.
"You can still talk with me if you ever go back to my cold castle. But I don't think you want that. I'll vanish away leaving you alone unless you search for me."
Yugyeom's words repeated in her head as she walked towards their designated room. It wasn't far from the throne room, and at some point, she had started running so they got to their rooms at the palace in no time.
The hybrid stopped in the middle of the room as she reconsidered what she was about to say. There was no way of knowing if the shinigami king could help her as he had left, but she really hoped he would save her... this time she did feel like a damsel in distress in need of a prince. If she killed those vampires, she would be hunt down by other vampires no matter what Pepper could do. Queen of shinigamis and all, she was still Princess Y/N of Dobet, and her soulmates were heavily involved in the vampiric realm. She wouldn't be prosecuted by law, but the last thing she needed was more enemies... and those enemies could attack any of her soulmates or parents.
If Yugyeom killed them, all the attention would go to him, but as he is nothing of the vampire realm, he could just disappear until the rage about the murders dissipated.
She looked down while everyone waited. The ball was a very important event and everyone was deep in thought. Jungkook was sitting on Yoongi's lap while Taehyung's head leaned to Jungkook's arm. Jin and Namjoon stood closely together while Jimin and Hoseok hugged each other as many scenarios of the future ran through their minds.
"I have to go with him..." the hybrid said barely over a whisper.
"Who?" Namjoon said finally snapping out of his thoughts.
"Taemin?" Hoseok asked with his head tilted to the side.
The hybrid shook his head. "Yugyeom..." she said in tiny.
She felt as all eyes in the room suddenly pierced her. It was more than obvious that her soulmates were very possessive of her...
The hybrid decided to explain before all of them started to argue.
"If I kill them, I will become a target once again... it is not very known yet that the shinigamis have a queen and-"
"Go," Jin said with a little smile. After listening to Jaebum's explanation of everything, their perspective had changed.
Y/N's soul had been intertwined with the shinigami's the same way it was intertwined with all of them, and the shinigami had been the only one that had been able to stop the problem of all the murderers behind their baby soulmate.
Words would need to be exchanged.
The hybrid looked at all seven vampires in the room before she closed her eyes. She sighed silently as her right hand went over her loved necklace... the necklace he had gifted her very early on. She used teleporting to go wherever he was... their bond was still there deep down within her, and the hybrid was able to find it.
When she opened her eyes, everything was pitch dark. Her heart hammered inside her chest as she observed her surroundings. She could see nothing at first, but her feet slowly started to move in a circle. A tiny gasp came out of her mouth when she saw numbers in front of her... those numbers were the first thing Buttercup ever saw as she had no memories.
"B-Buttercup...?" A familiar voice asked in tiny... barely over a weak whisper.
Without her permission, her heart fluttered inside of her chest. Her right hand went over her betraying heart where she gripped her sweater. She tried to calm down her heart, but nothing she could do in the short amount of time she had worked.
A hand delicately took a strand of her long hair, but this time the hand was way shyer about it. A soft breath tickled her neck... his breath. Everything was happening like the first time they met.
It felt like a new start, even though it might just be the end.
The hybrid turned to look at him with mixed emotions. Her entire being screamed to hug him tightly and shower him with kisses...
But that was not right... and even if she knew it, her heart ached.
"I-I..." the hybrid searched for the right words, but all of them seemed to get stuck in her throat.
How was she supposed to talk normally when such an ethereal guy stood in front of her with such a longing gaze? The hybrid barely managed to survive talking with Jin every time, and that only because she was used to having him around.
Yugyeom's heart was about to explode in his chest as he felt his Buttercup with him once again.
"I... I need your help," the hybrid said in tiny.
Out of nowhere, the environment around them changed drastically. They were no longer in the dark room where only the number of humans living and dying was visible. They were now somewhere the hybrid was pretty familiarized with.
It was Yugyeom's room, the place where they would cuddle for hours...
His hand cupped her cheek delicately as if she was going to break. His tenderness made her weak.
"Anything for my queen."