A twig crunching between bare toes, eyes shifting in their sockets. The nomads emerged from the trees, straightening out of defensive crouches. They were all pale — an unfortunate side effect of being both Caucasian and vampires. Their clothes were worn, covered with dirt and muck.
The first had a friendly face and bright white teeth. How much can we get out of them, other than an obligatory game of ball and directions...?
The second was still in a wary stance, with ticking burgundy eyes. So many of them but none very intimidating. Unlikely we could win against them as a team, but I could take my pick one-on-one — especially that little guy.
The third had platinum blonde hair down to her back and hated us already. Hell is with this goddamn valley girl bullshit? A low snarl.
Chan, Changbin and Haseong stepped forward, keeping a good distance from the nomads. Changbin put his gift to use preemptively.
"We thought we heard a game," the first one said — Laurent. His thoughts were self-serving, unfriendly, opposite of his genial smile, but not malicious. I shifted my focus elsewhere.
The second was James. He was weighing us, gauging our abilities and skills. He didn't seem like a threat anywhere but inside his own head.
The third was Victoria. Her thoughts were violent, uncaring, but not exclusively toward us. She wanted to dismember and burn the rest of her own coven just as much as ours.
"I'm Chan," Chan said. "This is my family — Changbin and Haseong, Hyunjin and Jisung, Seungmin and Minho, Jeongin and Felix."
"Do you have room for a few more players?" Laurent asked.
"Sorry, we were just finishing up. We would love to play another time. How long are you planning to stay in the area?"
How convenient. "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."
"What's your hunting range?"
"The Olympics here — up and down the Coast Ranges on occasion." Chan didn't mention our vegetarianism, trying to keep the conversation as short as possible. "We keep a permanent residence nearby. There's another settlement like ours up near Denali."
Laurent's brows knitted together. "Permanent? How do you manage that?" I should have guessed they were civvies.
"Why don't you come back to our home with us?" Chan said. Get Minho out, Jisung — somewhere safe. Hyunjin will go with you. Tell Felix to look after Charlie, just in case. "We can talk comfortably. It's a pretty long story."
We're really gonna sit on one of their posh couches and listen to their entire goddamn life story? Victoria let out a quiet growl, a sound of dissent. Laurent ignored her.
"That sounds very intriguing," he said. "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. Hyunjin, Minho, go with Jisung and Felix to the truck. Shall we?"
A light breeze blew in from behind us. It happened too quickly for me, for Felix. James, the one with twitching eyes, leapt toward us, past me and tore his teeth through Minho's throat.
Instinct took over from there.
I ripped James back by his hair, heaved him into the forest. Haseong and Changbin rushed the other two — they were back on their haunches, about to attack, just now catching the smell of blood.
I caught Minho before he hit the ground. "Minho!"
His eyes were rolled back in his head, face crippled in pain, blood spilling out of his neck. I sucked in a deep gasp of air before cutting off my breathing altogether. I cupped one hand around the wound, looped my arm around his body and took off running. I heard Chan and Felix on my heels. The rest were still in the field, in the forest, fighting the nomads with everything they had.
"Minho," I whispered. "No, God please, not like this, my Minho, I'm so sorry..."
His eyes opened, but they were blank and dilated. He stared at the sky for a second before squeezing his eyes shut again and crying in pain.
I ghosted through the house, into Chan's room and set Minho on the floor. Chan and Felix rushed in after me, gathering unimportant things like gauze and washcloths. Chan whispered for Felix to hold his breath, to block out the smell of Minho's blood.
I knew what I needed to do. I'd been trying not to think about it until I had to. I fought back any reluctance or second thought, bit into the wound on his throat, hoping and praying I could suck the venom out. I had to try. It was the only way I could stop him from turning.
And his blood tasted exactly how I thought it would.
"No, no, it's too late!" Felix yelled over Minho's screaming. He was staring into the corner of the room, processing his vision as he spoke. "It's too late, don't even try!"
I tore myself away from Minho — somehow, even though everything in my body told me to keep drinking. I was breathless, crying, his blood dripping from my chin. I could barely concentrate on Felix's vision — edging into my mind, blurry.
"Can you see?" Chan asked Felix.
"Yes," he said, pulling at his own hair. "The future hasn'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 shouted, "I can get the venom out—"
"You'll kill him!" Felix all but screamed. "Every future is the same, for God's sake, he dies!" Stop being so goddamn useless for two seconds and let us save him — let us save you!
I cried harder, desperate for breath. His blood still burned on my lips.
"Jisung," Felix said, "it doesn't need to be this slow. We can change him faster."
"He should have a ch-choice."
"You really think he could choose — let alone speak — right now? Let us—"
All I could do was growl. Felix growled back, punched the doorframe, but he knew he couldn't argue with me.
I brushed Minho's hair back from his face, my fingers shaking. His screaming quieted, like he was trying to hear me. I only hoped he could find the strength to speak.
"My love," I said. "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..."
I couldn't hold myself together. I cried into my palm, trying to muffle it, but as soon as he couldn't hear my voice, Minho couldn't hold it together, either. He broke into a violent seizure, screamed and twisted against the floor, bashing his skull into the hardwood.
I grabbed his arms, held my hand under his head. Still trying to protect him, though I'd already failed.
"Stop, Minho, stop!" I cried. "Please! Tell me what to do! What should I do?!"
I thought Minho was about to answer, but all that came out of his mouth was an earsplitting scream, a surge of hot red blood. He was choking on it — I turned him on his side. He kept shaking and thrashing, kicking his legs, unable to answer. He couldn't answer. He couldn't answer.
"He needs you to choose," Felix said, desperation eating at his voice. "You know what he wants."
I knew what he wanted. And I knew he would regret it.
"Please forgive me," I breathed.
I leaned down and dug my teeth into his neck.
How could I ever have wanted his blood? I was living my worst nightmare. The burn of it on my tongue was torture. And worse than that, it was every bit as rich and sweet as I'd fantasized. I hated myself for wanting it, and I hated myself for getting it, if even just a taste.
Felix knelt down and bit Minho's wrist — tenderly, full of care. There were tears in his eyes, too. Chan did the same with his other wrist.
Minho kept screaming, jerking his arms, trying to get away from us. I knew what he would say if he could form a sentence. Stop! Please stop! Kill me! I had cried the same things — we all had.
Chan carefully released Minho's wrist and held it to the floor. "That's enough."
Felix let go, too. I turned away, spat out Minho's blood, rubbed my sleeves over my mouth. It was unbearable to see him in so much pain, it left me blank.
"What do we do now?" Felix panted. "Is it working? Did I do it right?"
"You did fine," said Chan. "There's not much else we can do. His wound will be healed soon, he has a lot of venom in him. Jisung, let's take him to your room."
"How are we gonna carry him?" My voice was barely there, broken and raspy.
"Should we do what we did with Seungmin?"
"He's not as bad as Seungmin. Let me try to pick him up."
"He might knee you."
"That's fine." I held Minho's face and leaned down to his ear. "I'm gonna pick you up, okay?"
He kept screaming, bucking his legs. His arms would have been flailing if Chan and Felix weren't holding them down.
I stood over him, bent down and threaded my arms under his. Somehow he knew what to do. His legs wrapped tight around my waist as I lifted him up, his face — wet with tears — buried into the crook of my neck. Chan and Felix let his arms go — they crushed around me, fingers digging into my back.
"You're okay," I murmured, "you're okay."
I walked us to my room and set him down on the couch. As soon as I let him go, he started panting, kicking his legs again, shrieking into the cushions. I sank to my knees and petted him, rubbed his arm. My hand brushed a smear of blackened blood on his shirt. My throat seized.
Felix had been rummaging through my dresser behind me. He handed me a clean shirt.
"Thank you," I muttered.
He squeezed Minho's shoulder, left without a word or thought to me.
We'll check up on you two, okay? Chan thought from the doorway.
I nodded.
You couldn't've stopped it.
I nodded again, something building at the back of my throat. Chan left. Minho didn't want to open his arms, to leave his chest unprotected — it made it hard to change his shirt. Eventually I got it done. I threw the bloody one into the hallway, and Chan took it outside to burn.
The rest came home a few minutes later, the smell of unfamiliar vampires and smoke coming with them. They ran upstairs and found us in my room. Haseong sat at my side, rubbing Minho's arm. Hyunjin shrank into Jeongin's arms and cried. Changbin tried to ease the room, to dull the edges of our pain. It wasn't easy — we all had something to hurt about.
Seungmin crouched next to me, patting Minho's head. James is dead. I killed him.
My jaw clenched. "Did he suffer?"
You should have seen his face. Seungmin smiled, sharp toothed. You can.
I almost smiled, too, as I saw it in his mind.
I knew I couldn't make it better. I remembered the scalding, unbearable pain, and I knew talking — touches, kisses, encouragements — wouldn't help. But I did it anyway. All day and all night, I talked to him, touched him, kissed him, sang for him, and tapped piano keys on his shaking fingers.
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chan briefly mentions that there's another vegetarian coven like theirs in denali. who do you think is up there? twice, got7, day6, itzy, someone else?
(i personally think twice)
a bit of a life update, i just finished a longer writing project, so i've been watching the twilight saga as a break before i have to get back to work. gotta tell ya, hate the movies, but kristen stewart was my bi awakening and continues to leave me agog with her beauty. tmi i guess.
moving on to the song of the week!
Axol & Holly - I Need You (ft TheTechThieves)
this song, like this chapter, has a bit of an ominous and intense feeling to it, and big emotions running amuck all over the place. the words are probably from minho's point of view — 'your love isn't wicked, oh, i see it in your eyes, you've been waiting for some time, i'm here, yeah, believe it, oh.' i've been listening to this song for years and to realize it fit this chapter was like getting to know it and love it all over again.
feel free to recommend your own songs in the comments!
see you next monday <3