It was a blood scent that Seulgi recognised very well. The blood of black bears. The blood of a beast she would not even bother to take a second whiff at even if she had come across one. Seulgi cringed at the thought of having to adhere to the same diet in the little coven.

In her midst of horrific realisation, Seulgi had not realised that the leader had gone and returned with a booklet with odd, coloured circles on them. Besides the clothes they were wearing, this was probably the only other modern thing that Seulgi had seen from them so far but she had expected to see more. This coven was truly interesting the young vampire as could sense that the coven members had tried to preserve things of old but had also infused modern things whichever they felt was convenient for them. Seulgi sincerely hoped she could accustom to their odd ways of living, whatever it was.  

“Change to your vampiric form, make sure your eyes are fully coloured.” Irene instructed as she started flipping the booklet to a page filled with several shades of red.

“Ah! Now I know why Irene got that colour palette booklet.” Yeri exclaimed and started sniggering.

Irene gave another wry smile at Yeri and then held a finger to her lips, which the latter knew it meant for her to be silent before she received punishment.

Seulgi, in an overwhelmed state, did as she was told like an obedient child. She tried to change quickly, enduring the tingling sensation that usually accompanied the change in hopes of impressing the other vampires. When Seulgi caught Irene’s eyes, she knew that she had failed to fool the older vampire. For the first time in a very long time, Seulgi felt disgraced and her eyes immediately fell.  

Irene, gently lifted up the young vampire’s chin and placed the palette booklet right next to the newcomer’s face. That small contact made Seulgi froze rigid in place as she stared and stared at the beautiful face before her. A pulsing sensation started in her stomach as she relished in the work of art. Then, a small smile graced the leader’s face when she seemed to have found a match for the young vampire’s eye colour and their contact broke away, leaving an empty feeling for the young vampire, the pulsing sensation entirely gone. However, it was the first smile that Seulgi had seen from the vampire and she had no idea why but she really wished to see more of it.

“Wine.” Irene declared proudly, as she tapped on one of the red circles on the booklet to receive confirmation from the rest.

“Wine?” Seulgi repeated, confusion later written all over her face as she eyed the circle.

There were odd smiles on the three other members as they looked to each other while the leader seemed oblivious to it. Seulgi wondered what those odd expressions meant.

“Then her passcode shall be ‘Wine’ then.” Wendy announced as she took the palette booklet from the leader and confirmed it herself by doing the same action to Seulgi. There was no pulsing sensation this time and that made the young vampire confirm that that odd sensation could only be reserved for Irene.  

Irene nodded and turned to Seulgi. “That will be your passcode. We always announce our passcodes before entering this tunnel to inform other members, if not you might be met with aggression.”

Seulgi could not suppress a grin as she imagined how that would be like. Aggression with Irene.

Irene caught that look of amusement on Seulgi’s face and frowned upon it. Her strict demeanour returned as she gave further instructions. “It may sound funny but it is actually a serious matter. As soon as any one of us steps into this cave without announcing passcodes, you will be stopped in a very unpleasant way. Don’t even try it.” Irene paused midway her sentence and threw a sidelong glance to Wendy before she continued, “Well… to prevent unpleasant things from happening, you will tag to Wendy always, for now, until we have other arrangements for you.”

Wendy sighed as she nodded to the leader’s request. It sounded as if she has taken many similar instructions as such before. “Yes, of course.”

Then Seulgi saw Irene smile at Wendy’s reaction. It was a sweet motherly smile this time round and that convinced her that Irene was the same vampire who had helped her.

When Seulgi had first awakened, she was clueless and afraid. There was not a single shred of memory she could cling on to and she was frustrated. Initially, she was fe