Seungmin walked down the corridors of the Kim mansion in search for his father. Byungho was following him while looking around a little to maybe spot Lucifer in the corridors they crossed on their way. They both had no clue where their father could be, since renewing the barriers around the mansion and preparing a teleportation to a different location required a lot of position changes to get good results.
The younger of the two brothers was tempted to try a tracking rune, even though he knew it was useless. You couldn't just track down the devil with magic created by creatures born and raised on earth. Seungmin lightly clenched his teeth when they walked passed the stairs, which lead to the first floor for the second time.
"Any ideas where he might be?", Seungmin broke the silence between him and Byungho, while internally hoping the other would make a suggestion. To Seungmin's disappointment Byungho lightly shook his head as an answer.
"Who are you searching for?", a female voice came from the stairs. Seungmin looked up to see his mother walking down the stairs. She looked unbothered by the current situation and Seungmin swore she even had traces of a smile on her blood-red lips.
Seungmin had to bite back a comment about this, since he could imagine what caused his mother's happiness. She lost two "rivals" she hated with all her heart in the span of two days. If this wasn't the reason for her happiness Seungmin would doubt his own sanity.
A quick glance to Byungho, who silently stood beside him, told the redhead that his older brother either hadn't notice the faint smile of victory on his mother's lips, or pretended to not have noticed, hence why he wasn't showing any kind of reaction.
"We are searching for father", Seungmin answered, talking with a rather cold voice. Lilith finished walking down the stairs and stood in front of the two boys. Her red eyes quickly scanned over the boys' faces before a light grin made it's way onto her face.
"Currently he is in the garden preparing the teleportation of the mansion and renewing the barriers", Lilith replied. Seungmin thought his mother's behavior was weird but he just ticked it off as her having a wonderful day due Athea's death, which in all honesty made him angry. It wasn't because he was close with the female warlock, but rather the fact that his mother didn't even have the decency to pretend she was shocked or felt sorry for Woosu, who out of nowhere lost his mother.
Despite his dislike towards his mother Seungmin mumbled a "Thanks" and walked passed her with Byungho following close behind to get to the door, which lead to the huge garden of the Kim mansion. The garden was kept in shape by magic, meaning even when the garden was covered by a thin blanket of snow it could be described as breathtaking.
What Seungmin didn't know about the garden was why he was created. Sure, when he and his brothers were younger they would play hide and seek in the garden until they were tired but as far as Seungmin knew his father created basically every tree, every flower one by one with seemingly no motive or reason. Over the years Seungmin wasn't able to ever figure out why his father would do something like that.
Before Seungmin and Byungho stepped out into the cold they threw on their jackets, which hung on the little hangers next to the door, which lead to the garden, and put on some shoes. The two brothers walked out of the door and were greeted by a cold gush of wind. Seungmin tightened the jacket around himself and walked down the paths, which lead the way to the middle of the garden, in hopes of quickly spotting his father.
In the center of the garden was a big, white pavilion, which was decorated with some white divan beds and a glass table in the middle, as well as some white roses in the warmer seasons. When the pavilion came in view Byungho and Seungmin stopped because they weren't sure if their eyes were playing tricks on them.
In the middle of the pavilion stood their father with his back turned towards them. There was no furniture but a lot of white chrysanthemums mixed with white tulips, which seemed to cover almost the whole pavilion. Seungmin never knew those type of flowers could grow around pillars until now. The floor was covered by the flowers too but Seungmin also noticed a symbol on the ground of the pavilion but he had to get closer to identify it.
Seungmin ripped himself out of his trance by shaking his head and turning towards Byungho, who was looking at the pavilion like he had seen a ghost. His dark eyes with the golden glimmer were still fixed on the pavilion while his black wings, which were still visible, slowly came forward like they wanted to protect Byungho from an incoming attack. Seungmin immediately placed himself between his brother and the pavilion.
"Byungho-hyung snap out of it", Seungmin said rather loudly, startling his brother in the process. Byungho's black wings stopped their motion and slowly began to fold themselves into their previous positions.
"I'm sorry. I just ...", he wanted to explain but trailed off with grief reflecting itself in his eyes. Seungmin knew who this was about, which also let his heart ache. Something must have reminded Byungho of Eve. There was no other explanation.
"Come on. We need to talk to father", Seungmin mumbled and reached his hand out for Byungho to grab. Almost automatically did the older grab the redhead's hand and let himself be lead towards the pavilion where their father was seemingly already waiting for them.
He had turned around when Seungmin had told Byungho to snap out of his trance. To the surprise of the two young Kims their father neither had his confident aura surrounding him nor his signature grin on his lips. It almost seemed like he was regretting something.
"Let me guess. You want to know what I know about Zendala?", Lucifer asked when Seungmin and Byungho entered the pavilion. Seungmin had anticipated, that his father would be well aware of the situation. After all, he was an all-knowing creature even as the devil.
"Yes, but we especially want to know why Athea knew her", Seungmin answered, quickly glancing at the symbol on the floor of the pavilion before he met his father's eyes. Even with this quick glance Seungmin could identify the symbol. It was the main control point of the barriers, which protected the mansion. A lot of other ones were scattered around the house, which meant Lucifer was currently working on the barriers but also preparing for the teleportation of the whole mansion.
Right now, getting information out of his father was more important than pondering over the mansion's barriers and the system behind it, so Seungmin let his whole attention focus on Lucifer. The devil looked from Seungmin to Byungho for a brief moment before sighing and turning his head to look over the garden, which was dunked into the faint orange light of the slowly disappearing sun.
"Athea and Zendala were friends in the past but they also trained magic together. As far as I know they lost contact years ago, meaning I never knew her personally", the devil explained, using a neutral tone, which didn't reveal any special emotions. Seungmin knew his father couldn't lie just like an angel, so he figured Lucifer really didn't know Zendala and never was much interested in her. Still, he had to know a little bit more.
"Did Athea ever mention her real name?", Seungmin continued, keeping his eyes fixed onto his father. Lucifer shook his head and turned his head back to his sons. There was no special emotion displayed in his eyes, which was something Seungmin didn't particularly like because it made it difficult to read his father.
"Athea never mentioned Zendala's real name. She only referred to her as an old friend, who worked with her", he answered still using this neutral tone.
Seungmin thought this over for a second before asking his next question. Somehow, everything Lucifer seemed to know about Zendala he had been told by Athea. Seungmin had never taken the female warlock as someone, who shared any information from her past with anyone. After all, he knew little to nothing about her from an objective point of view. Still, the question why Lucifer had even recognized Zendala as Athea's old friend, or how he knew she had been the one to break into the Kim mansion, remained.
"How did you know Zendala was an old friend of Athea? How did you recognize her?", the redhead asked, narrowing his eyes at his father. He wouldn't let him avoid this question or refuse to give out important information. Lucifer's face remained neutral. It seemed he was completely unbothered by the question.
"When the war was officially announced I sat in the living room together with Athea. Her eyes were only focused on the cloaked figure standing beside the hunter with the red crystal. She thought it was Zendala for a moment, whispering out loud, that this is her old friend, but she took back that statement soon after. In the end, she told me her old friend might be Zendala and after NCT officially released a brief article on the supernatural world's newest foe just a day after the declaration Athea's suspicion became true. If you want a conformation for this ask Woosu if she behaved differently on the day of the war declaration and the day after that", Lucifer scoffed, but still managed to somehow sound unbothered. Seungmin couldn't deny, that his father was telling the truth though; otherwise his eyes would betray him, but the thing he couldn't understand was why Athea kept quiet about it the whole time.
"If Athea knew so much about Zendala, even her real name, why would she keep quiet about it? If Zendala was out of the game the supernatural world wouldn't be in as much danger as it is now", Seungmin argued, looking at his father in mild disbelief. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea of keeping something so important secret. Athea could have saved lives as well as her own.
"If Athea hadn't kept quiet about the stuff she knew about Zendala she maybe would even be alive right now", the redhead said more quiet, in hopes of not summoning unwanted images into his head.
Lucifer closed his eyes for a second and took in a breath before his dark orbs reappeared. "Athea kept quiet about Zendala because she met her while she was in a dark place and also thought she was dead until she though to have seen her on TV. I don't know why this awoke Athea's suspicion of her old friend being Zendala, but what I do know is, that Athea used to work as a feeder and prostitute when she was younger, because she had no other choice if she wanted to survive", Lucifer began, taking both Byungho and Seungmin off guard. The proud and strict Athea, who hated Lilith beyond imagination, and taught Woosu everything he knew, used to be a prostitute and a feeder? That sounded like a lie.
"Originally she was only a feeder for vampires, who consumed blood of other creatures like it was a drug, but at some point that wasn't enough to keep her safe and alive, so she also became a prostitute. According to the recent news this means, that Zendala used to be a feeder too, but Athea never knew if she was also a prostitute or not. According to what Athea told me Zendala had been a very popular feeder because he was very pretty and according to her costumers had a very delicious blood", Lucifer continued.
Seungmin shivered because a part of his brain reminded him of the incident with Jisung. Valentin King was the vampire, who bit Jisung after the warlock had been drugged by his own uncle. At that time he never considered that Jisung's terrible uncle could have promoted Jisung as a feeder to the rich vampire. This made Seungmin dislike him even more, but it also let an idea pop up.
"Father do you know anyone by the name Ro Kanho? He might have connections to this feeder business. Did Athea ever mention a tall male warlock with green eyes, a beard, yellow teeth and tousled green hair", Seungmin quickly described Jisung's uncle as detailed as possible. Lucifer looked at him in silence for a few minutes before he answered.
"Athea never mentioned any names from this part of her past but the description fits someone she used to hate. It was a male warlock with green hair much like the one you described, who would often bring in customers for Zendala and her", he replied. A short flash of anger passed in the devil's eyes but it was gone too fast to be sure.
Seungmin sucked in a breath. That was a lead he needed to follow. The redhead turned around to Byungho in an instant. "We need to tell the others, especially Changbin", he quickly stated. Byungho looked with a little bit of confusion at him, making Seungmin remember that Byungho might not know the name of Jisung's uncle.
"Ro Kanho is Jisung's uncle and with Changbin's help we can track him down. If we find him we might be able to find out more about Zendala", Seungmin quickly explained to his older brother. Byungho nodded slowly, probably searching through his memory to better understand what Seungmin just told him. The redhead let his brother ponder and turned back to his father.
"That was very helpful. Thank you, father", he thanked Lucifer before turning around once more to grab Byungho. He dragged the older back to the mansion while the sun was almost done disappearing behind the horizon. The young demon wanted to get back to Wonpil and catch him up as well as check if Dowoon woke up before he called his vampire friend.
A small smile adored Lucifer's lips when he watched them run towards the mansion. "They sure grow up fast", he said to himself while turning around to watch the sun disappear fully behind the horizon, dunking the garden into darkness.
"It sure would be nice to believe that you could watch this, Eve, Athea", he mumbled while picking up a white chrysanthemums and a white tulip.
———————————
After the meeting was over Changbin walked out of the room with Chan, Jae, Sungjin and Younghyun following behind him. Some of the adjustments were now made, but the plan wasn't perfect yet, because they still needed to gather some information, which Taeyong and his group would probably get over the course of the night with the help of the magic users of other groups.
This didn't involve Stray Kids or Day6, which was the whole reason they were good to go. Jae, Younghyun and Sungjin all had a missed call from Wonpil, which was why they assumed Dowoon's mission was a success, but that didn't explain why he still wasn't back. After all, didn't they have this unspoken agreement about Dowoon return as soon as possible? Maybe, the vampire was held up by something or thought it was more safe to stay at the Kim mansion for the night.
Changbin surely wouldn't figure that out until tomorrow, because his hyungs send him to bed, since it was already dark outside and Chan betrayed him by siding with them, which was why he wasn't talking to the older male, even though they were walking beside each other.
"We need the sleep, trust me", Chan spoke up, looking at his shorter friend. Changbin internally gave up on punishing Chan by staying silent and sighed because he knew that better than anyone. He didn't have a proper night sleep since the whole mess with Zendala started but he also knew that he should rest for the sake of the other leaders. After, all at least one person shouldn't be exhausted when they discuss further changes in the plan.
"I know we need the rest because the older leaders will probably stay up all night to prepare for the meeting tomorrow", the vampire huffed, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jean. Chan seemed to silently agree and looked forward again, probably thinking about something.
"I hope Seungmin and Byungho are okay", the wolf hybrid mumbled, probably not realizing that it was loud enough for Changbin to hear. The vampire felt a little bad since Chan knew nothing about the two Kim brothers' whereabouts, but Changbin didn't necessarily knew more, since he hadn't heard anything from Dowoon yet.
"They're fine. I'm sure about that", Changbin tried to reassure his friend. The older gave him a little nod and a small smile, but that smile didn't show his dimples and also didn't reach his eyes. He was still worried and Changbin could understand that. Byungho was his boyfriend and mate, after all.
They continued to walk beside each other in silence until they reached the point where they had to split up, because Chan now had a room with his mother and brother while Changbin still roomed with Jisung, Minho and Felix.
They wished each other a good night before separating and walking back to their rooms. Changbin ran the short way to his room in supernatural speed, primarily because he couldn't stand the empty and quiet halls, and after sitting for so long he needed it. He wanted to open the door to his room, but was beat to it by a certain ginger.
"Changbin-hyung you won't believe what happened", Felix almost yelled into the vampire's face. Changbin was startled by that and wanted to automatically take a step back but Felix just grabbed his hand and dragged him into the room, closing the door with a soft kick.
"Seungmin called!", Felix yelled again but a little louder this time. Changbin blinked in confusion before his brain processed the given information. "Wait, what. Seungmin called you! When was that?!", Changbin questioned, subconsciously mirroring Felix's loudness.
"For the protocol. He didn't call. Well, technically he did but I called him back after the main meeting because he tried calling everyone of us multiple times", Hyunjin, who sat on one of the lower bunk beds, clarified.
Hearing that Changbin fished his phone out of the back pocket of his jean and turned on the display. Eleven missed calls from Seungmin along with one very charming text message, which said: "PICK UP YOUR STUPID PHONE SEO CHANGBIN"
"For the gods' sake. And what about him? Did something happen?", Changbin asked, looking at Hyunjin. The siren shook his head, letting a bit of relief flood the vampire's system. "Not really he was just as worried as we were but said he was fine. Byungho-hyung is also fine by the way", he explained.
Changbin sighed in relief but according to what Hyunjin said Seungmin didn't mention Dowoon or Wonpil, which didn't give him a good feeling but if Seungmin was now picking up his phone again he could just call the redhead.
Like that was a cue the display of Changbin's phone lit up giving him a silent notice that someone was calling him. It was Seungmin. Without hesitation the vampire picked up.
"Seungmin?", Changbin said into the phone, almost afraid it wasn't the redhead but this also gained the attention of the whole room. He saw Hyunjin mouthing "Put him on speaker" but before Changbin could ask the redhead already began talking.
"Changbin-hyung I need your help. You helped me track down Valentin King with the name Ro Kanho, remember that?", Seungmin asked right away. Changbin blinked a bit in confusion, because he had no idea why Seungmin would bring that up now. What had the redhead discovered to make this information relevant again?
"Sure, I remember that but why are you asking that now?", the vampire questioned, motioning the rest to be quiet. "Because I need to know where Ro Kanho currently is, because given the current situation chances are high he fled the city or moved to a different place", Seungmin quickly explained.
"Yeah, but why is he important now?", Changbin asked again with frowned eyebrows. "Because he may know Zendala", Seungmin answered with an unusual coldness in his voice.
Changbin froze after his brain processed what Seungmin had said. How could it be that Ro Kanho or better Jisung's uncle knew Zendala? How were they connected? Subconsciously the vampire's gaze shifted towards Jisung, who sat on the ground in front of Minho, who had his arms wrapped around the warlock with the blue hair's middle.
Jisung meet the vampire's gaze and Changbin knew, that at one point he wouldn't be able to shield the warlock from the knowledge the boy predicted.
"Seungmin I will put you on speaker", Changbin suddenly stated and didn't even wait for Seungmin's reply before he took his phone away from his ear and pressed the speaker button.
"Please explain this to everyone here and don't leave out any kind of detail", the vampire said, while the rest scooted closer with a worried expression. There was a silence on the other end, which was unsettling for Changbin, but Seungmin was probably just thinking it over since he has always been the type of person, who tried to protect everyone around him by not telling them things he deemed to be harmful. He always operated from the shadows to protect others, you could say.
"Seungmin please explain it", Jisung spoke up, trying to coax his best friend into talking again. If Jisung didn't get Seungmin to talk, no one could. "I ...", Seungmin began but then he seemed to change his mind mid sentence. "Is Chan-hyung there with you?", he asked instead.
"No, he went to his room to get some rest", Changbin answered. "Please get him. If I'm going to say everything, everyone should be there to hear it", Seungmin sighed, like he was already regretting his decision. It made Changbin almost fearful because he asked himself once again what the hell had happened while they had no contact to the Kim brothers.
"I will get Chan-hyung", Changbin said while handing his phone to Hyunjin. After all, he was the fastest out of all of them. Without thinking twice, the vampire dashed out of the room, heading towards the current location of Chan.
When he stood in front of the door, which lead to the room occupied by the Bang Family, he didn't hesitate to knock. Waiting for the door to open felt like an eternity, even though it were only a few heartbeats of actual waiting. Mrs. Bang was the one, who opened the door. She seemed quite surprised to see Changbin.
"I need to borrow Chan-hyung for some time", Changbin immediately said before Mrs. Bang could even greet him. The female wolf hybrid seemed a bit worried but called Chan nonetheless.
"I hope nothing bad happened", she commented to which Changbin shook his head, even though he probably looked like he was lying. If he wasn't honest he wasn't even sure himself if he was lying or not. When Chan stood next to his mother he looked both confused and worried.
"Seungmin called", was all Changbin needed to say for Chan to quickly say goodbye to his mother and brother. He quickly followed the vampire outside of the room and somehow they both ended up running down the corridors. Changbin was running in the same pace as Chan, even though he wished he could just dash back to the room in his full speed.
"Are Byungho and Seungmin okay?", Chan asked shortly after they left the room of the Bang family. The wolf hybrid tried to mask his worry with a certain seriousness but Changbin had seen that trick often enough to look right through it.
"Seemingly, they are fine, yes. The others had also talked to them after the meeting with all groups. We were just unlucky enough to miss that because of the meeting of the leaders. Apparently, Seungmin and Byungho tried calling all of us, so you should have some missed calls on your phone but more important is that Seungmin seemingly knows a way to get information about Zendala", Changbin quickly explained.
Chan nodded as a sign that he understood. They reached the room of Changbin, Jisung and the Lee brothers shortly after that. There was a bit of talking when they entered the room. Hyunjin had seemingly made it his mission to let Seungmin keep talking, even though it wasn't related to the things Chan needed to hear too. All of them sat on the ground in a circle with the phone in the middle.
"Changbin-hyung is back with Chan-hyung", the siren said into the phone, while he patted the free spot beside him. Changbin and Chan walked over to the circle, breathing a bit heavily. Changbin sat down next to Hyunjin while Chan flopped down next to the vampire. On the other side of the wolf hybrid sat Felix, who casually took Chan's hand into his when he noticed the worried look of the wolf hybrid's face.
"Alright", Seungmin mumbled on the other end. "I should warn you though, because I don't think you will like what you will hear", the redhead warned in a rather soft voice. Changbin glanced at Chan after hearing that, because he wanted to see the older's reaction to this. Chan remained seemingly unfazed since his expression didn't change but Changbin wasn't sure if he believed that.
"Just tell us, Seungmin. It's fine. We are your friends, after all", Hyunjin said on the behalf of everyone. Changbin silently agreed with it, but also wanted to know what Seungmin found out as a leader. After all, if Seungmin really found out more about Zendala those information could be used to the advantage of the supernaturals. Knowing more about Zendala's person would mean being able to better predict her moves or at least figuring out her weakness.
"Currently my father is working on relocating our house because of an incident, which took place earlier today", Seungmin began and Changbin noticed with worry the uncertainty in his voice. "My father had hidden our house as you may know, since you weren't able to find us. What made this possible were barriers surrounding the house. My father is quite powerful in every subject of magic therefore the barriers are unnoticeable if you don't know about them and for the most part unbreakable", the redhead explained.
Changbin noticed how everyone was a bit confused by this information since they couldn't connect the dots yet but the vampire got a very bad feeling. Especially, because Seungmin said "for the most part unbreakable" which indicated that someone had been able to break the barrier in the past. This combined with the first thing made Changbin feel even more uneasy.
"What are you hinting at, hyung?", Jeongin asked, sounding like he already had his suspicions. Maybe the kitsune even had a similar thought process to Changbin. "Please don't flip out because we are fine, alright", Seungmin mumbled and took a breath. Changbin could feel the tension in the room rise while his own bad feeling grew.
"Zendala managed to get into our house", Seungmin finally said. There was a silence because everyone needed to process that for a moment.
"Wait... you mean-", Jisung stuttered while Changbin had the feeling his brain wasn't cooperating with him. Zendala got into the house of the Kim family while the whole family was present? How?
"She got in through a secret path I created to get in and out of the mansion without anyone noticing. We used that path to sneak out to the headquarter for the most part. My father repaired it and renewed the barriers. Nobody can get in or out now without my father knowing", Seungmin explained but Changbin noticed his discomfort and maybe even a bit of guilt in his voice.
"Seungmin, why did she... how", Hyunjin mumbled to himself mostly. He seemed just as lost for words as everyone else. Changbin himself still couldn't properly process that. Zendala really broke into the mansion of the Kims. Why would she do that? Why would she risk it?
A part of Changbin suddenly reminded him of Ryan. The vampire, who used to follow him all the time when he was still kind of a loner at Miroh High. After he began hanging out with Seungmin, Hyunjin and all of his current close friends, Ryan had tried to make Changbin turn away from them by digging up some things. Back then Ryan had told him that Seungmin was a demon in hopes of driving Changbin away from the redhead with fear but it had backfired because the vampire had figured out Seungmin was a demon long before getting close to him.
Changbin lightly shook his head. He had banned that memory into the back of his mind and asked himself why he should ponder about this now until he start thinking about it how Ryan and his friends even got the information of Seungmin being a demon. As far as Changbin knew Seungmin never told anyone about his true nature. But what if he only thought that and Jisung knew it all along?
The vampire shook his head. He didn't want to think about it now. There were more important things to consider. Seungmin knew something important, so he should focus on that and not how little he knew about the person he maybe even had a crush on.
"Changbin-hyung?", he heard a worried voice say his name. Instinctively Changbin looked towards the voice and came face to face with Hyunjin, whose dark eyes glimmered with concern. Without warning the siren gently cupped his cheeks and looked into his eyes, letting Changbin forget what he thought about only seconds prior.
Hyunjin seemed to muster his eyes and while he did that Changbin was almost hyperaware of the siren's warm hands on his cheeks, the way Hyunjin seemed to lightly bite the inside of his right cheek, and the dark, warm orbs, which looked directly into his eyes.
"Your eyes turned red again", the siren mumbled, pulling the vampire out of his trance. Changbin needed a second to register Hyunjin's words but when he did he understood his strange train of thoughts from before.
His Red Glow must have slowly activated itself when Seungmin said Zendala got into his house and this resulted in Changbin thinking about how that was possible, which made him also consider Seungmin's species and who knew about it.
"Alright listen up everyone", a voice, which did not belong to Seungmin came out of the phone. To Changbin it was a familiar one and he could immediately tell it was Wonpil, which was why his head immediately turned towards the phone and therefore out of Hyunjin's hold.
"For the ones, who don't know me I'm Wonpil, Seungmin's oldest brother", Wonpil introduced himself and without taking a breath he continued.
"Zendala broke into the mansion by taking advantage of my boyfriend, who wanted to check on us, because we weren't responding to anything, because of the sudden death of Byungho's mother Eve. Zendala tricked Dowoon into showing her the secret path and used him as a shield. Her goal was to take Seungmin, Byungho and me with her but her plan was interrupted by Woosu and his mother Athea entering the room and since Athea knew Zendala and even wanted to call her by her real name Zendala killed her", Wonpil explained without taking one break.
"Following this Seungmin and Byungho talked to our father about Athea and her connection with Zendala. According to him, Zendala and Athea were friends because they worked as feeders for vampires, which led to Seungmin figuring out that there may be a connection to a certain Ro Kanho. As for now we need to find Ro Kanho and figure out what he could know about Zendala", Wonpil finished his explanation and finally took a minute to breath.
"Wasn't so hard was it?", he said more to himself than Changbin and the others. Unlike Seungmin Wonpil summed everything up and explained the most important points. Seungmin on the other hand had probably tried to bypass some things, figuring out while talking how hard that was and ended up silent when he realized he couldn't leave out anything. At least that was what Changbin thought.
The vampire slowly looked towards Jisung. After all, Ro Kanho was his uncle and sadly Jisung's uncle being someone, who recommended feeders to rich vampires, was something that would explain why the incident with Jisung getting bitten happened.
The warlock with the blue hair was still wrapped up in a hug from Minho and looked blankly at the phone in the middle of their sitting circle. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, because even when Minho laid his head on the smaller male's shoulder and quietly called his name he didn't react at all.
Suddenly, Chan took the phone into his had talking directly into it. "Seungmin are you still there?", he asked. There was a short silence and a bit of rustling before you could hear the redhead's voice again.
"I am", he answered in a rather quiet voice. "Seungmin. You don't ever need to hide stuff like that from us. I know you wanted to protect us in some way, but we are a team and you, as well as Byungho, have the symbol to prove it", the wolf hybrid said in a strong voice. In Changbin's opinion he did sound like a rather experienced leader, but his eyes told the vampire a different story. They reflected the hybrid's empathy and showed how he felt sad.
"That aside I'm sorry for your loss and ... and that I couldn't you help you", Chan added in a much softer voice. Changbin had always known that Chan was a very empathetic person and this underlined this even more.
"You couldn't have changed anything, Channie", Byungho answered to the surprise of everyone, since nobody was even sure Byungho was there. Chan seemed to be just as surprised but a kind of relief washed over him very quickly, since Byungho sounded like he was fine.
"Still, I should have noticed", the wolf hybrid responded not losing his soft tone. Changbin felt like the wolf hybrid was referring to them being mates and that was why he thought he should have noticed but it was too vaguely formulated to say that for sure.
"Let's focus on the task at hand", Byungho reminded with a warm voice. Changbin couldn't help but imagine the older smile warmly. "Alright", Chan agreed and looked over to Jisung.
"What do you think, Jisung?", he asked the warlock. Jisung raised his gaze and looked at Chan. Changbin was unable to read the younger's eyes but whatever he thought about he seemed to have come to a conclusion.
"Let's tell Taeyong about this and then track down my uncle", the blue-haired male answered, sounding determined.