Hye Jin was holding her breath at this point.

‘Of course I’m not a complete monster… I’ll kill him then.’

Hye Jin didn’t know where she got the confidence – but she knew that Sehun wasn’t going to come. Kai would take care of him. Kai would know that no matter what happened to her, Sehun came first. Kai would know that she wanted that.

She would take care of herself.

‘I’ll just take this then,’ Hye Jin expected Ri-ah to slap her across the face but instead felt a sharp pain that caused her to scream when her earring was ripped unceremoniously from her ear.

Taking sharp breaths to calm herself, Hye Jin’s eyes hardened. She didn’t speak.

‘Well look what we have here,’ Ri-ah looked down at the pretty pink stud that glimmered on her palm and looked back at her bleeding earlobe, ‘aren’t you a bundle of surprises?’

Her fast healing earlobe.

Her earlobe that wasn’t feeling pain anymore.

‘So have you told him that you’re a monster too?’ Ri-ah cackled, ‘what a laugh! He’s hiding from the vampires – and yet lookie-here… his girlfriend is one!! He’s going to love that.’

Hye Jin swallowed hard. She had to give it to Ri-ah, she wasn’t afraid to punch below the belt and she did it accurately.

The fact that Hye Jin was a vampire was not something many people knew about. The League was made up mostly of humans, although of course there were vampires too. After all, how do you fight vampires with human strength alone? But no one knew who was who, to keep from fear or distrust seeping through the organisation.

After all, it was easy to conceal being a vampire, if you were trained.

But for now Hye Jin needed to stall for time and keep this conversation going. She needed to prevent the earring from being sent to Sehun and to give Kai the best chance to send reinforcements.

‘I haven’t told him,’ she answered, keeping her voice calm, ‘as you said – he’s not going to take it well.’

Ri-ah scoffed at that, ‘why wouldn’t you just bite him so that you can live happily ever after? I already started the work for you.’

‘I believe in freedom of choice,’ Hye Jin returned, ‘he doesn’t want to be a vampire. I’m not going to force him into a life he doesn’t want. Or what I believe we have – a half life.’

‘A half-life?!?’ it was obviously the wrong thing to say as RI-ah’s eyes fired up, ‘do you think our healing powers and strength are a joke? Do you think being able to jump across buildings makes us lesser than these weak, pathetic humans?’

Hye Jin wondered.

She’d never spoken to someone from Superior for as long as this, and really – it was interesting to get their perspective. In a way they were right, vampires were superior. But she didn’t agree with their belief that they were entitled to enslave the human population.

‘I don’t think we’re lesser… but we’re not any better. We’re just not the same.’

Had enough time passed? She wanted to end this conversation already.

 ‘Why do you want him so much anyway? Why Sehun?’ she found herself asking instead.

‘Grandfather believes he will make a perfect mate for me, who am I to judge?’ Ri-ah shrugged. Hye Jin got the feeling that the other girl had no understanding about Dul's fixation with Sehun.

‘And what makes you so sure that he’s going to come?’

To that question, Ri-ah looked bored, ‘Probably this…’ she said, gesturing for her aide.

Hye Jin’s heart dropped when a vampire walked in and much to the same way that Luhan had been tied up – this time it was Kai who was tied up and unconscious.

Hye Jin’s heart dropped.

If Kai was here—that meant—

‘Hye Jin!! Where is she? You bastard where is she?’

That was all the confusion Hye Jin needed to take advantage of the situation – breaking free from her restraints she launching herself forward to grab one of the vampires.

Funnily enough her eyes turned into the same shade of pink as her earring when she activated her vampire senses and it resulted in a haze to what she could. Not really thinking much of a plan, she fought the vampires that threw themselves at her.

It was a scary experience.

As a non-practicing vampire, very rarely did she go all out. It was always a risk to go "full-monster" and then attempt to bring yourself  back to “human”. But she had to go to the brink of her sanity if she wanted any chance to eliminate the Superior before they got to Sehun. She couldn’t see him – she thought she caught a glimpse of him – but she couldn’t be sure.

She somehow made it across to where Kai was and undid his restraints, hoping he would wake up soon. She had no idea what kind of drugs he was under, ' Come on, Kai. We need you!!'

‘A hunter that hunts her own doesn’t deserve to live,’ she heard a voice say before she felt the red-hot searing pain on her shoulder.

She swore. It was a silver bullet of course.

She studied his features, making sure to repay the favour when she was finally reunited with her silver katana.

‘A vampire that uses silver bullets – they don’t deserve to live either,’ she said before attacking him with her bare hands, needing to disarm him before he caused serious damage.

She could hear other guns going off and she really hoped that it was her Boss rather than some other vampire who was aiming silver bullets at her. All she needed was one to hit the wrong spot and she was toast…

Luckily though, she saw that Kai had finally woken up and was making quick work of the others. This surprised her but she didn’t question it too much – only momentarily recalling the fact that he was supposed to be a spy rather than an actual hunter – she was happy for as many people on her side as she could.

But she really needed to get to Sehun before Ri-ah had the chance to give him the third mark.

What if you’re too late?

What if he’s gone over?

Hye Jin didn’t want to think too hard about it. This wasn’t like her, she had to trust her instincts.

‘Hye Jin!’ finally the pink haze cleared and she could see that indeed other hunters had arrived, keeping Ri-ah and the others occupied. She and Kai spotted Sehun lying on the ground at the same time and both ran towards him.

‘Is he still alive?’ Hye Jin asked, as she waited for Kai to feel for a pulse.

‘He’s lost a lot of blood,’ Kai said, lifting his hand from a wound that had torn out a large portion of flesh from his right side ,’I think the blood is filling his lungs… we have to act quickly.’

We have to act quickly.

Hye Jin knew what that meant but she wasn’t ready for it.

‘Wait… no…’ she was conflicted, ‘He said… he doesn’t want… he said…’

‘Hye Jin! We’re not going to let him die!!’ she’d never heard Kai yell before and it unsettled her, the emotion in his voice.

It was getting too much for her, she couldn't think.

‘If you don’t do it, I will—,’ it was one too many surprise when Kai bared his fangs and his eyes flashed to a different colour – purple.

‘No… he doesn’t want…’ she held Kai back, pushing him away and grabbing Sehun.

She looked down at his pale face (paler than usual) and felt eyes prickling her eyes as she saw that he was starting to lose colour in his lips, while the beads of sweat on his brow began to looked artificial. He couldn’t have more than a few minutes left.

Her tears finally fell, at the injustice of it all.

‘Sehun… Sehun, wake up,’ she shook him lightly.

He opened his eyes and she could see total fear in them, ‘Hye Jin… I don’t want to… please.’

He wanted to die and she could see it. It was clear, he was at peace with the decision and she should have been too.

‘Sehun, no… I love you. Please. I love you,’ she whispered over and over, hoping that he would reciprocate. That he would give her any excuse to administer him the third mark.

But it was all in vain.

‘I love... you. Please… Hold me,’ just keep holding me, until I die.

‘No, no… I don’t want to.’

His eyes started to shut, but Kai tried to push her aside, ‘I’m not letting him die, dammit!’

Hye Jin gripped him tighter, hugging him protectively. 'NO!'

She couldn’t let Kai do it, and she knew that he would. He wasn't hesitating like she was. But it was the coward's way out, to leave it all to Kai and let him take all the blame. Because definitely whoever did this would have Sehun's wrath forever.

Still. She had to do it herself.

Sehun look up at her in alarm, when he felt her demeanour change, ‘No… ‘ he tried to push her away with the last of his strength.

But Hye Jin's eyes had begun to cloud over already.

She bit him.

The sensation was heady. Hye Jin had never turned another person into a vampire before, and she could only think back to the amazing sensation when she let Sehun feed on her that one time – this feeling went even beyond that. It was easy to see why it could become an addiction.

In the pink haze she could see very little but her other senses were heightened. She could taste the coppery flavour of his blood, the saltiness of his sweat and she could feel that his body was already changing.

‘NOOOOOOOO!!!’

Hye Jin heard a scream but refused to let go, despite of the hands which were trying frantically to drag her away.

She held onto Sehun until finally the darkness consumed her.

There was no going back now.

A/N: So we are now at the halfway point of the story, and in a way it starts the second phase which I think will be darker than the first. I hope you enjoyed this episode's excitement!! xKei