She was walking down one of the busy streets of Beijing, checking her phone every now and then to see whether she was still following the route Chen had set for her. She would’ve preferred to do this in a less conspicuous way, but she knew Chen had done this on purpose.

 

Surrounded by so many people, she was safe. She kept telling him that nobody wanted to do anything to her and that there was no reason for him to worry about her safety, but he was convinced it was the opposite, and that there was some scheme shrouded in darkness and mystery all with one goal - ending her life.

 

She had no idea why someone would go to such lengths in order to kill her, but then again, Chen was a little bit paranoid at times.

 

She followed the route carefully, slipping out of the crowd when she spotted an alley hopefully leading to a more secluded space. She knew what she’d find there - it’d happened seven more times, and all of the trails led straight to this place in China, which she’d never visited before.

 

China…

 

It had been months since they’d arrived here, and her whole crew was too cheerful considering the reason why they were coming. They hadn’t come home for decades, some mentioning even centuries and they were all excited to see what their home country was like now.

 

She was… not cheerful at all. Happiness was not something she could feel anymore, and she was too intent on solving the case to worry about whether a new building sprouted in some field that Tao had plowed hundreds of years ago.

 

She approached the end of the alley slowly, no fear seizing her. The wooden stake was within an arm’s reach, safely tucked in the belt around her pants, and the silver cross was around her neck, there to fend off any evil that might be lurking in the shadows.

 

It was daytime anyway, so she had no reason to worry about any of them pouncing on her. No, her real fear weren’t vampires, but the race she’d once belonged to.

 

She didn’t believe any of Chen’s delusional theories, but thinking that the Order was hunting her down was a very realistic assumption. She was a sympathizer, and such people were not left alone. They were crucified, tortured, burned at the stake and hunted down until they could no longer run.

 

Sympathizers usually…

 

“Lamiya?” Luhan’s voice sounded in her ear, coming from the wireless earphone they usually communicated through. “Is everything okay down there?”

 

Lamiya sighed. “Yes, yes,” she said as she kneeled next to the pile of ashes scattered all around a medieval, torn black cape. “The lead led us straight to where we thought we’d get.”

 

“Another one?” Luhan screeched, making her wince. “Is the brooch there? Please tell me it isn’t…”

 

She lifted the cape, having gotten used to the procedure around four times ago, and sure enough, the brooch was laying on the ground, punctured right at its center where the name Wu Yi Fan was written in Chinese.

 

It was the brooch that signified a vampire’s allegiance to Kris.

 

It was the eight brooch she picked up and put in her pocket. She’d found the first one by chance - though Chen said she only thought it was a coincidence, and she was beginning to believe him - and it was not until Tao saw it on her desk that she had any idea it had any kind of meaning.

 

But when he’d gasped and started muttering in Chinese, she’d known something was wrong. He was even paler than usual, if it was even possible, and he demanded for her to tell him where she’d found the brooch and why it was not with its rightful owner anymore.

 

“Send Tao my condolences,” she whispered as she got up, squeezing the cold item tightly in her hand and silently pledging to avenge its owner, though she’d never met the person.

 

“No leads this time?” Luhan asked silently. He was mourning, too - they all were. This was the eight potential ally, the eight innocent vampire that had been hunted down solely because of his promise to protect Kris and help him during times of need.

 

Well, the times of need had come, and she didn’t know if she could do this without the help of vampires.

 

“None,” she said into the earpiece as she exited the alley. “I guess now they’ve got us right where they want us to be, Lu, so they’re done playing games.”

 

It was just luck that she had a vampire ally within an arm’s reach.

 

“Kyungsoo…” Tao whispered, twirling the brooch in his hands. It looked like an overgrown flower, its petals gilded, with the name of the vampire king in its center. It had been awarded hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years ago to comrades from battle, dear friends that had proven their allegiance to Kris a million times. He chose his friends wisely, especially the non-Chinese ones, so Lamiya knew that the allies they’d lost must’ve been valuable.

 

Tao said there were ten, in the very beginning. He was the ninth one…

 

Lamiya got up, bile rising in , and she crossed her arms over her chest to stop them from shaking.

 

It had been a long time since the whole ordeal happened. She went over to the window, the lights of the busy city welcoming her, though she saw no beauty in them. She rarely saw beauty in anything anymore. She saw a grey strand of hair in her reflection on the glass, but it didn’t bother her at all. It was a medal of honor and bravery, a witness of her battle against the forces of evil.

 

She was not young anymore.

 

“I’m sorry,” her friend said from behind her, thankfully not moving from his position. “I know how important finding Kyungsoo was for you. He was our last hope, and now he’s gone…” Tao sobbed, and one would never be able to guess he was a couple of hundred years old from the childish sounds he was making. “Poor friend, what have you done to deserve this? I should’ve been there to protect you, I should’ve-”

 

“Enough,” she snapped, turning from the window and back towards Tao, but her anger and irritation disappeared after seeing his tear-stricken face. He really was a child, a lost puppy without his teacher and best friend, the one person he looked up to…

 

But they were all lost, and tears wouldn’t solve anything.

 

“Tao, I’m sorry but… I can’t take it when you’re sad, so please get yourself cleaned up so that we can have a meeting. I’ll see you in an hour.” She didn’t look at his face as she left the room, knowing he would be looking at her with pain in his eyes.

 

She didn’t have the strength to be what he wanted her to be. Not tonight, at least.

 

“Kris,” she whispered, looking at the silhouette leaning over her in the darkness. “Kris, is that you?”

 

She had been seeing him in her dreams for a while now, but his face was in the shadows every time and she couldn’t reach him. If she woke up in the middle of the night, cold and afraid that the hunters would find her and do God knows what with her, instead of the Order ready to tie her up and drag her to whatever torturing place was the closest, she would see a tall man with brown eyes carrying with him an ancient melody of a Chinese lullaby.

 

She could never reach him, though. He was just a dream, a figment of her imagination and she was too desperate to get even a little piece of him to care about the fact that it wasn’t real.

 

“I’m so sorry, Kris,” she sobbed, grabbing the silhouette by the hands before it disappeared. “I should’ve died with you. I should’ve protected you until my last breath. Why did you order me to go away? Why did you order me to survive?”

 

She expected to fall under the spell of the dream again, never getting to hear him say everything was alright, never getting to see him again and stay with him.

 

But instead of disappearing in the summer wind, the apparition spoke.

 

“It’s okay, queen,” it said as it kneeled down next to her. “You can share your pain with us. We feel the same way. You are not alone anymore.”

 

She was still getting used to all of it.

 

The term queen was definitely not something she wanted to get used to, though. She demanded for them to treat her like just another normal person, and it had taken a couple of years, but slowly they shifted from queen to madam and now finally they understood that she was not more valuable than any of them - or well, she at least hoped they did.

 

They were all at the mansion when the attack happened. Many servants got out using the emergency exits meant for them, which Barbara had chosen not to destroy or forgotten about, and Tao had gotten carried away during hunting the night before and by the time he remembered he needed to get into the mansion, daylight was already an impenetrable obstacle at the entrance of the cave he was in.

 

Tao thought he would’ve made a world of difference, had he been there, but everyone knew better.

 

Barbara would’ve taken care that he died, too, had she known that he was at the mansion, too. But Tao was an impulsive person, still a child in mind, and so he decided to make the long trip from Europe and surprise Yifan.

 

It was just his luck that he needed to feed first - a decision that had saved his life.

 

Lamiya went out onto the balcony, sighing again and holding onto the iron rails with her hands tightly. She leaned over, her eyes barely seeing the street because their room was at one of the top floors, but she knew it was still busy and filled with people.

 

Strangers. Humans. Were there young vampire hunters among them, believing in ideals which were anything but true? Or were they old vampires, using the darkness as their cloak as they found their victims for the night and dragged them away, no Kris to save them this time?

 

No Kris to save her ever again…

 

She closed her eyes tightly, unable to prevent a stray tear from slipping out of her eye and wetting her cheek. She’d long gotten used to the feeling, so she didn’t wipe it away, instead settling on looking at the sky that was void of stars - she felt as empty and cold as it looked.

 

“The stars are there, you know,” a calm voice piped up from behind her, “It’s just that Beijing’s lights are too bright for us to be able to see them. But you should see how it looks from his home - oh, it would be a glorious scenery indeed.”

 

Lamiya turned, looking at her friend Chen desperately, needing for him to stop reminding her of him. She’d been like this since yesterday, unable to take much talk about him, and she didn’t know why she felt like this - they’d been in Beijing for months, it wasn’t the change of location that was affecting her.

 

No, it was something else… and she needed to know what, as soon as possible.

 

“I still think you’re a vampire,” he said, signaling with his hand for her to come closer while a smile broke out on her face. “Some dormant, weird kind that has never been discovered or that has been forgotten millenniums ago since it’s so rare.”

 

“Why on Earth would you think that, Jongdae?” she said as she let him embrace her, now openly crying as she laughed.

 

Chen hugged her tightly, her protector. “Because it’s been over a decade, Lamiya. Humans, especially at your age, don’t suffer that long, especially since the two of you weren’t romantically involved until the very end. And you hadn’t moved on, even after all this time. For God’s sake, you’re crying just because I mentioned his home,” he said with a laugh, shaking his head while she sank further into his chest, now wanting to run away from his words because she didn’t know what to make out of them.

 

“You know what would be the perfect explanation for your behavior?” he asked softly, ruffling her hair like an older brother would, which she kind of saw him as - and everyone else, except Tao, who fit into the role of a younger brother perfectly - and whom she was thankful for infinitely. “Being his mate.”

 

“Jongdae, I-” Lamiya tried in a muffled voice, having to bite her lip to stop a sob from getting out.

 

“I know, I know,” he said with understanding. “I’m just kidding. But I want you to know that we all understand what you’re going through, and that you can always count on all of us when you feel like this. No need to go out on balconies and cry alone, okay?”

 

Lamiya nodded, though it was hard to do so when Chen was holding onto her so tightly. He was right - had it not been for them, she would’ve kept on aimlessly running from the Order and everything that had happened until she completely lost her mind and became a harmless nutjob.

 

But Kris had forged a plan, apparently, a plan with her at its very center, and the plan was almost as old as their relationship.

 

If something were to happen to me, you must all protect the queen.

 

You must all protect Lamiya, at all costs.

 

If she is lost, find her. If she is in distress, destroy whoever is causing it. If she needs help, help her. If she gives you an order, follow it.

 

Just like you follow me. Keep her safe at all times,

 

Even if she pushes you away, and orders you to stay away from her.

 

You must never let any harm come to her.

 

That was why they all saw her as Kris’ mate whenever she came to his mansion. Not because they assumed things, but because he’d told them so, long before she was even aware of her own feelings for him. The thought still made her dizzy at times, but after all this time, it meant nothing, because she was a queen without a king.

 

No, it could never be nothing - it meant the whole world to her.

 

And now there they were, all thirteen of them, scheming in the living room of her apartment. She insisted she was given a regular room, but of course none of them did what she’d asked. Instead of holding onto the rest of Kris’ promise, they all just kept repeating the part about breaking the orders she gave them in order to protect her from herself.

 

“So there are two possibilities,” she began while the others stared at her like lost puppies. She knew some of them wouldn’t like what she was about to say, one person in particular, but she had to lay out all scenarios out in the open. “One, that we’d found the leads coincidentally and that whoever is killing Yifan’s allies has no idea that we’ve followed it all the way here…”

 

Lamiya raised her eyebrows when Chen didn’t stop groaning. She couldn’t suppress a laugh - he was adorable when he was like that, so convinced that his paranoid theories were true that he didn’t even want to hear anything different.

 

Jongdae was only a couple of years older than her, so it was easy for her to find a common language with him - he was her first friend among the vampire servants, or as she preferred to call them, The Vampire FBI. She looked at him now, and he stopped rolling his eyes, instead smiling back at her - it was as if they were sharing some joke nobody else in the room knew, and her heart felt warm from the exchange.

 

Someone in the room coughed, so she shook her head and continued with her lecture. “The second possibility is that all of this was intentional, and that someone knows that we’ve survived and made The Vampire FBI, which puts us all at a great risk.”

 

She turned towards the most important figure in the room, though many would’ve begged to differ. “It puts you at a great risk, Tao.”

 

Tao immediately scoffed, starting to explain how he wasn’t that important at all and how he could protect himself just fine - everyone else immediately moved closer to him, as if already starting to protect him from whatever monster was killing off all Kris’ allies, knowing everything Tao was saying was merely an act.

 

He was the last one, it struck her suddenly. They were the last ones.

 

What were they even fighting for? They hadn’t managed to save a single one of them. Not in the woods of Russia, or at a green field in Belgium, or while the waves crashed over a cliff in Scotland.

 

Not a single one, except for Tao. Perhaps they thought he was dead already?

 

“Of course not,” Chen had said while she cried over Suho’s body - or what was left of it, years ago in Scotland. The rain was falling hard, and it was hard to hear anything but the sound of the merciless waves that threatened to take away every piece of her that still felt human - though there was not much left. “Vampires feel each other’s presence, something like that. At the very least, they know where their friends are at all times and can reach them via pigeon messengers…”

 

“Like the one you got from him,” he finished in a whisper while salt mixed with the rain on her cheeks. “Do you remember when I brought it to you, Lamiya?”

 

“I remember,” she had said, trying to swallow a sob and failing. His fingertips brushed the tears away, but they couldn’t erase the cracks on her heart.

 

“Do you remember what I told you when I had given it to you?” he whispered in the wheat field in Belgium, his hands around her waist, steadying her while she clutched Kai’s brooch in her hands, counting the fifth loss and not understanding why any of this was happening.

 

“That I must protect it at all costs, always,” she had said as she turned to look at his hair, comparing it to the golden wheat all around them. She couldn’t find a single difference, and for some reason, it bothered her.

 

“Yet you wrote that message and sent it to the mansion,” he said in a strange, low voice as he embraced her in the darkness of the woods, protecting her from the Russian cold. She couldn’t shake off his voice as she turned in her bed - it was haunting her and it would forever remain at the back of her mind, just like she deserved.

 

The main reason why she loved Chen this much was because he always respected her enough to be honest with her at all times.

 

“Even though you knew the Order was planning a raid,” his voice resonated as she felt the ghost of his hand on her cheek, warm and human and reminding her of how cold she’d gotten after having lost Yifan.

 

“Yet you sent them right to him, Lamiya.” His fingertips started dancing along the line of , and she tried to shake them off, but whether it was his touch that didn’t feel right or his words that she was trying to run away from, she was uncertain.

 

“Stop,” she whispered as the shadows danced around her. “Stop, please.”

 

The touch disappeared, and a second later, she gasped, opening her eyes.

 

She was met by empty darkness, and a slightly open door that she remembered closing before she’d gone to sleep.

 

Her feet carried her over to the living room area, where just hours ago they all made Tao promise he wouldn’t do anything irrational and that he’d stay where they could protect him at all times. Lamiya didn’t know who was killing vampires - and not just any vampires, but Kris’ only true allies - and why. What use could anyone have from killing the allies of a fallen king?

 

She knew the answer to that question better than anything else in the world.

 

The tenth ally. The Judas, the one who’d introduced herself as his mate. The one’d who’d ended his life that should’ve lasted for at least some time longer, at least until she managed to memorize his face, at least until she heard his voice say promises of love for a little while…

 

Lamiya shut her eyes tightly, unable to go back to that story anymore. She felt like she would burst if she pushed just a single more burden onto her shoulders, because she couldn’t take the weight anymore.

 

What was it with her nowadays? Yes, she’d felt this way before, but like Jongdae suggested, far too much time had passed for her to be suffering like this. Kris was gone, and it was a fact she’d gotten used to a long time ago. She didn’t run from it, didn’t put her hands over her ears until she couldn’t hear the truth, didn’t live in a delusional world in which he was alive and well somewhere.

 

No, there was just one thing she was running from.

 

Sure enough, there he was, sprawled on the couch and peacefully sleeping. Such a bodyguard he was, sleeping on duty. She almost felt sad to wake him up when he was snoring like that, but the pit in her stomach was so deep that she knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep.

 

And he would understand.

 

“Dae,” she whispered as she shook his shoulder. His body was hot to the touch; or was it just that her hands were cold?

 

“Dae, wake up,” she repeated again, her voice more silent now because she was scared he’d actually wake up. It was a bad idea anyway - she would just go back to bed and maybe she’d even manage to fall asleep after a couple of hours-

 

Chen’s hand wrapped around her wrist, shutting her thoughts up. He opened his eyes a second later and though she couldn’t see their color in the darkness, she remembered the warm brown color well.

 

“What’s going on?” he whispered, not letting go of her hand as he looked to the left and right, trying to snap to his senses and assess their surroundings. He sat up, taking her hand with him. “I don’t know how- I must’ve fallen asleep-”

 

She was patient, waiting for him to understand the situation. This wasn’t the first time, anyway, so as embarrassed as she felt, she didn’t move away or tell him that she’d woken him up because he wasn’t fulfilling his duties or some other transparent lie.

 

No, he knew her better than that.

 

A couple of seconds later, he turned towards her again, his eyebrows furrowed. He must’ve seen something on her face, because his look of confusion dissolved into a soft one immediately.

 

“Is everything okay?” he whispered, though there was no reason to keep their voices low now.

 

She turned from him, suffocating again. Why had she woken him up? “I just- I had a nightmare and I can’t- I don’t think I can-”

 

“Tell me what the nightmare was about.” He was still whispering, and his other hand now joined the first one as he sank down onto the floor with her. She didn’t know how living through it again would help her, but this was Chen, and she trusted him with her life.

 

“We were in… in the cave, in Kris’ bedroom,” she started in a shaky voice. “And there were nine brooches, all scattered on the floor. One was bloody, and I knew that it was, that it was…”

 

She stopped for a second, taking a deep breath as the tears started flowing out of her eyes. She was in the dream again, with nothing but Chen’s hands that were drawing patterns on her palms to remind her that none of it was real.

 

“It belonged to Tao,” she finished through the tears. “And I turned to ask you whether it was some sick joke, but you weren’t next to me anymore.”

 

She clutched his hands tightly, wanting, needing to know that what she was seeing in front of her eyes wasn’t real. “You were… you were…” She sobbed loudly, the image of him and Barbara as vivid in her mind as if she was seeing it right in front of her.

 

“I was what?” he told her, gently taking his hands out of hers and putting them on her arms.

 

“A vampire, Jongdae,” she whispered in a voice so silent she wasn’t sure he’d even heard her. “And you were with her…

 

You told me, you told me it was me who’d caused Kris’ death. That the Order had followed the pigeon I’d sent on that day, that it had led them to him, that…”

 

She lost it, sinking until his arms caught her and brought her into his warm, welcome chest, but she was too far gone to feel any comfort.

 

Why was it that she had to lose everyone she cared about? Why was is that Barbara always had to win, destroying the lives of every single person that had any light inside and that she loved?

 

Why was it that she couldn’t run away from her even when she fell asleep?

 

“It’s not real, dalbit,” his soft voice spoke through her desperacy. “It was just a nightmare. You know I would never do any of those things.”

 

“What does that mean?” Her hands desperately searched for something to hold onto, and they tangled in his own again as he brought her closer to him. “That word you just used.”

 

He was right - he would never willingly turn into a vampire or become Barbara’s ally, but that was the thing she was afraid of - that he got turned by force and that he became the one thing he was scared of the most.

 

Just like her.

 

She opened her eyes just to see him smiling at her as he moved a stray strand of hair out of her face. “It means moonlight, Lamiya. Because just like the moon shines only during the night, you can never be complete without him.”

 

“Jongdae, I-” she tried, pulling him towards her and not knowing what she was even trying to achieve - all she knew was that she needed him to be closer, that she needed to know that he was alive and well, that he wasn’t going to disappear.

 

“You are the queen which I serve,” he whispered, his hands tangling in her hair and their foreheads now touching. “And I would fulfill your every order. Even if it was against what I believe in. Even if it was to turn into a vampire.”

 

I would never ask you to do that, she wanted to say.

 

“Kiss me,” she said instead, and just like he promised, he complied, closing the distance between them and making the nightmare and their fears disappear, leaving nothing but fire between them, one that would consume them both and leave nothing but a pile of ashes.

 

The kiss wasn’t soft; they were too desperate, insane and chasing some unknown feeling that held a promise of salvation to take their time. Chen was so warm that she could feel nothing but his warmth: the fire burned her lips, her hair, her whole face, then moved down her arms, and all the way along her frame until it reached the small of her back just to remain there as she was brought closer to his own body once again.

 

“Jongdae,” she whispered when their lips parted, just to make him growl and kiss her roughly again. She couldn’t get enough of his warmth, so her hands moved at their own accord and sneaked under his shirt just to be welcomed by soft skin and the feeling of his heartbeat underneath her fingertips.

 

He let her guide him until he was lying on his back, and then her lips found his neck, putting dozens of soft kisses all over it, promising that she would protect his humanity until her last breath, promising that she would never give him the order he feared.

 

He moaned when her fingertips reached his hair, wounding into it, and his arms tightened around her, guiding to his own once again and making her swallow his panting.

 

And then whatever frenzy was driving her through this madness became too much for her and her body gave out from underneath her, her arms going limp and her breathing shallow.

 

She could do nothing but focus on breathing and closing her eyes as Jongdae kissed her forehead, hugging her tighter and sliding his fingers through her hair.

 

“Don’t worry, dalbit. Rest now and don’t think more about this. It’s all just a silly dream anyway.” He laughed softly and she tried to protest, but she had no strength left in her body. The shadows threatened to swallow her again.

 

“When you wake up, I’ll be your closest friend, and you’ll be fine again. We’ll find a cure - I will find a cure, or die trying. But you won’t ever be alone. You’ll always have me, and him.”

 

And just like the dream-Chen had said, when she woke up she was safe in her bed, her bedroom door was closed like when she’d went to sleep the previous night, she wasn’t feeling weak or feverish or scared, and the couch in the living room was empty.

 

But she wasn’t fine - she would not feel fine again until Tao was standing in front of her, alive and well.

 

“I found a note,” Luhan said as he hurried out of Tao’s hotel room and out into the hallway, where she was struggling not to panic, Chen having just returned from his own search and waving his head at her in negation, two other friends with her, there to guard her if Tao was taken and someone was lurking nearby. She wanted to scream at them to let her go, stop worrying about her and go find him, but she knew nobody would listen to her, so she let them have their way.

 

“He says he’s not going to put us into any more danger,” Luhan’s voice resonated through the hallway, everyone stunned into a nearly hysteric silence. “He will fight whoever is killing off Yifan’s allies on his own, and he’s sorry…”

 

Luhan then muttered something in Chinese, and everyone around her winced. Chen put a hand over his forehead, whereas the other two guards shook their heads in some strange kind of melancholy. She didn’t know exactly what was going on, but Luhan’s face said it all - his eyes were tightly shut, as if to prevent him from feeling whatever the Chinese message conveyed.

 

Lamiya waited for a moment. Then a moment longer.

 

Nobody said a thing.

 

“Tell me what the damn message says!” she screeched, making Luhan jump and Chen wince. She couldn’t focus on anything but Luhan’s eyes, which wouldn’t look at her no matter how much she waited.

 

“Long live the queen,” he whispered.

 

That was the final drop in the already-full glass.

 

Lamiya sobbed once, and sank to the floor, putting her head in her hands.

 

Stupid, stupid… But why was he sacrificing himself for her? She was just a human, just an unimportant girl his best friend had once fallen in love with. The friend who was dead for over a decade…

 

Why did it still matter to them? Why did she still matter?

 

She wished she would’ve been caught by the Order. Then there would’ve been no need for any of this. Tao would’ve been safe, and if Chen was right and all the other allies had been murdered just to lure her into some kind of trap, then none of that would’ve happened either.

 

But she had no time for mourning or acting weak. She pushed Chen’s ready arms away and got up, wiping her tears with her hands quickly.

 

“Chen,” she said in a very loud voice, “You track him down right now. Do not come in front of my eyes until you know where he is. Luhan, you go tell everyone to stop searching the hotel and start searching outside. He couldn’t have gotten far, since he’d been seen just an hour before sunrise on his balcony.”

 

“Yes, queen,” the duo said in unison and they hurried away without any further explanations.

 

“Follow me,” she said to her guards and then she was running, too, not quite sure if she’d know how to get where she needed to go but knowing she was going to put an end to all of this as soon as possible.

 

Losing the guards wasn’t a hard task - she said she was going to buy refreshments, and one of them followed her, but then she said she had to go to the bathroom, and she quickly climbed outside of the window. Her guards were nice guys, but they were as human as she was, so it was possible to run away from them.

 

She needed them to stay alive, that was all. Just like Chen and Luhan, who thought she was just conducting some superficial research that would lead nowhere, and like the rest of the guys, who were going to try their hardest to locate Tao.

 

But she knew better. Tao was in great danger, and she had a feeling… an unexplainable kind of feeling she’d never had before, drawing her towards a certain place. A place Tao had mentioned just yesterday, nostalgic for Yifan and the old times and home.

 

She didn’t know the exact place, or how she’d get there, but she knew in her heart that she’d find Tao and the answer to all questions right there.

 

So she boarded a train, knowing Chen would be able to track her credit card, but also knowing that he wouldn’t try to track it in at least a couple of hours, since he didn’t let anyone bother him when he was working.

 

In a couple of hours, it wouldn’t matter anyway, because Yifan’s mansion in Mount Wutaishan was close enough for her to reach it long before they realized that was her destination.

 

As she got closer to her destination, her heart started beating faster and she started feeling light-headed, as if she’d eaten a lot more sugar than she usually did, which wasn’t a lot. She supposed the cause was her nervousness, but she didn’t know why exactly she was nervous. Was it because she was worried about Tao? Was it because she was alone for the first time in a long, long while?

 

Or was it because she felt as if she’d just stabbed Chen in the back, who’d made her promise not to go rogue after she’d almost died when she’d went to investigate a vampire murder on her own and ended up in a lair of thirsty and angry vampires?

 

Chen…

 

She was thankful for Chen, her friend. She just wished she stopped having dreams in which he was more, because all of it made her sick and want to vomit. She felt dirty, as if she was betraying both him and Chen, and even herself, but no matter how much she wished for them to stop, the dreams remained.

 

She had to get to Yifan’s mansion soon. There she would find peace, calmness and an alive and healthy Tao…

 

At least she hoped she would.

 

Wutaishan wasn’t at all like she’d imagined it to be. She’d expected grassy fields, vast distances and an open horizon, but instead she was welcomed by cliffs and a looming mountain that threatened to learn all her secrets.

 

It was a mountain hiding more secrets than one could imagine, since it was Kris’ only real home. His first home, the place in which he’d hidden for many, many centuries and never been discovered.

 

Would the unintentional breadcrumbs she was leaving behind once again destroy Kris, or what was left of his legacy? Would her every move be tracked by the Order until they could get another useful information from her, one that would leave no trail of the legendary Wu Yi Fan this time?

 

She knew Chen hadn’t really said any of those words to her.

 

That didn’t make them any less true, though.

 

She asked a commoner walking down the road where Kris Wu’s mansion was, but she quickly realized he didn’t speak English at all. The man was old, carrying what looked like a rusted bucket of water in his hands, and he didn’t seem too fond of her - actually, he seemed a little bit scared, as if he’d never seen an European woman before.

 

She wouldn’t have bothered him, but he was the only person she could see near the road where she’d left the train and started walking down it aimlessly.

 

“Yi Fan,” she tried, though she knew she was taking a chance by saying his name in such a nonchalant fashion, as if he wasn’t a freaking vampire legend. She tried to make herself seem less weird, so she added, “Tourist, Yi Fan,” while pointing at her bag.

 

The man gasped, and the bucket fell out of his hands and onto the pavement, spraying it all over himself and her and everything nearby.

 

He started whispering things in Chinese, shaking his head as his skin became unnaturally white - from fear, she suspected - and then he just turned and started running, moving left and into a field of tall grass, headed God knew where.

 

So now she was completely alone in a place she knew nothing about, having no idea where she was going.

 

But she had no time to be disoriented. Every second could’ve meant the world for Tao’s salvation, and she didn’t want to waste a single one. So following a strange impulse, she started running too as the water all over her dried in the morning sun, following the trail of the commoner.

 

The grass was too tall for her to be able to see anything, and she soon realized that she’d made a mistake, because she couldn’t follow the commoner this way. She had no idea which way to go, aimlessly turning through the grass and trying to decide whether left was a better option than right, but the possibility that the commoner had taken the same path was quickly declining as she got more and more lost in the endless field.

 

She started suffocating, dark thoughts of never being able to get out of the field successfully plaguing her mind, so she started running, hopeful that she would find a way out soon.

 

She put her hands in front of her, to protect herself from any possible harm, but suddenly they came out empty and she lost her balance, falling forward and onto the ground.

 

The thought that she’d exited the maze would’ve outweighed many other thoughts.

 

Seeing a giant structure looking old and so utterly Chinese, though, outweighed any other thought.

 

She’d found it.

 

Lamiya got up quickly, still not quite believing that it had been this easy, but her heart was too happy to wonder about traps and ulterior motives. Tao was here, she knew, and nothing else mattered.

 

Her feet slowly but surely led her to a gate whose door were open, broken by some vandal God knew how long ago. She ignored the graffiti on the walls, saying things that would’ve scared normal people, but not a vampire hunter.

 

Not someone who’d fallen in love with a vampire.

 

She stepped through the door and found herself in an overgrown garden, left uncared for and waiting for its owner to come back. There was an old stone pathway and though she had to clear out branches and stems of roses gone rogue from not having been cared for and cut in what seemed like a long, long while, she managed to pass through the garden somehow.

 

She was now standing in front of the mansion, its giant door seemingly intact and intimidating. This was it, she knew, the moment she found out the truth. It would’ve been easier had she found Tao outside, but since it was daytime, she knew it was impossible.

 

Her hand shook as it settled on the door handle, but she did not hesitate. Only one thought plagued her mind: Why would you come to this forgotten place, Tao? Why would you put yourself in danger like this?

 

An awfully loud creak left space for an entrance of an uninvited guest. No, not an uninvited guest at all - she was an intruder.

 

She was welcomed by nothing but darkness.

 

The cross around her neck seemed to be burning into her skin, as if reminding her of who she was and who the true villains were, who they would remain regardless of her beliefs changing, regardless of the turn she’d made after having been loved by a member of their race.

 

No, the true villain wasn’t the Order. Vampires were evil and unholy, and she knew that a deal obliging vampires to stop murdering people could never be struck, no matter how much she loved their former leader. They were the creatures of the night she’d been fighting against for many, many years, and the truth remained the same.

 

But Kris had shown her mercy. And compassion. And love.

 

She’d been taught that vampires couldn’t feel any of those things.

 

So yes, the creatures she was afraid of were the vampires, the creatures of the night that could’ve found shelter in the darkness of the old, empty house that once served as home to their leader.

 

Could Tao grant her a pass and would they listen to him? What if he wasn’t even here in this place? Once again, she’d be risking her life without a purpose behind it, without a higher value and a greater meaning. And this time, Yifan wouldn’t be there to save her.

 

So she took a deep breath, reassured by the presence of the cross. And she had the wooden stake, too.

 

The thing was, she knew there was some kind of trap somewhere around this whole shrouded mystery, but she had no choice. If she wanted to find Tao, she had to help him first.

 

So she didn’t let herself feel any kind of fear as she stepped into the mansion. The hallway leading to the stairs was big, and she could see and feel Yifan in every little detail. The abundant chandeliers, the crimson carpets, the ancient tools on the walls she almost felt were souvenirs from some old forgotten battles, even the rich, thick smell of the darkness all belonged to him.

 

It had nobody to belong to anymore, though, so instead of fearing vampires, she let herself understand that the silence was as empty as her heart. If she found anyone here, it would be Tao. And he would be alone.

 

The constricting feeling in her chest intensified as she moved through the darkness, letting her eyes get used to it without making a haste move. She secured the perimeter around the ground floor - there was nothing but the sheets over the furniture, a room full of ancient weapons and darkness.

 

She would’ve called Tao’s name, but it would’ve alarmed a potential foe of her presence - if Tao wasn’t alone in this place, that was. Perhaps she wouldn’t find him at all, or so her head argued, but her heart was very, very sure that he was somewhere in this giant place.

 

She put a hand on the railing of the giant, baroque stairs leading to the first floor, and as soon as she did, she heard a sound.

 

It was distant, coming from somewhere on the floor she’d just searched, but it seemed like…

 

Could it be a trap?

 

She couldn’t risk ignoring it if it was real, though.

 

While common sense screamed at her to just get out of the forsaken mansion, she turned to see where the sound was coming from.

 

The dining room contained nothing but a giant table with twelve chairs, a sheet covering it to prevent the dust from pooling on it.

 

The sheet was still moving from what seemed like a breeze passing through it, though there was no wind coming from anywhere.

 

She wasn’t alone.

 

“Tao?” she finally echoed, turning around to see if she could figure out where he’d gone. “I know you think you’re protecting me, but I’ve come to take you back-”

 

The sound began again, and this time, the blood froze in her veins.

 

She was many, many years younger again, shaking from the cold in the darkness of some woods she didn’t know the name of. She would die, she was sure. She couldn’t feel her fingers anymore and all she wanted to do was sink under the blanket of sleep that was sure to take her life in this vast emptiness.

 

She wanted nothing more than to just let go.

 

She turned around again, following the sound into the weapon room. Once again, the sheets over the furniture were swaying from the remnants of a slight breeze, and there was something on the floor.

 

Had it not been daytime outside, the sunlight at least giving her some visibility of the house’s insides, she wouldn’t have seen it.

 

As the sound disappeared once again, she leaned to pick it up.

 

It was a silver stake.

 

Though she couldn’t read Chinese, she could read the words written on it as well as if it was her own name.

 

“Wu Yi Fan,” she whispered, clutching the stake tightly in her hands.

 

It was Yifan’s house, after all, so it was logical that the stake had his name imprinted on it. But why would Tao put it on the floor for her to find? Was it just some insane coincidence?

 

She didn’t believe in coincidences, not anymore. If only Jongdae was here…

 

Any thought she would’ve had about the stake, Tao, possible enemies in the house or Jongdae all disappeared when the sound began again. This time it was much, much closer, removing any doubts about its origin.

 

“I want to die,” she whispered tiredly. She would’ve cried, but she had no strength. “Just let me die. I don’t want to live without you, I can’t live without you anymore.”

 

The apparition shushed her, rocking her gently while she struggled not to close her eyes. If she shut them, she knew she’d never open them again.

 

She knew that, if she opened them again, he’d be gone again.

 

But the lullaby… Their lullaby… it was giving her some inexplicable strength she didn’t want, but had to take.

 

“Sleep,” the ghost said. “You need to live. You have to survive and avenge me.”

 

“But I can’t,” she said desperately, trying to make her hands work again in order to grab him, clutch whatever part of him she could find and never let go. “I can’t fight against them on my own, Yifan.”

 

The ghost kissed her forehead and began humming again. She was so cold, so utterly alone and hallucinating - would death come soon? How long would she have to be reminded of how much she missed him, how unfair all of it was, and how she’d never be herself again?

 

“You won’t be alone, little one. I will always be with you.”

 

Where was he now, then, while she felt tears prickling in her eyes as she ran with the silver stake in her hand, as cold as the hands of its long-forgotten owner?

 

Where was he to save her from her insane mind, that kept repeating the lullaby over and over again, making her find herself in a room she didn’t remember visiting before?

 

She blinked in disorientation, the sound disappearing once again as she stared at the giant bookshelves in front of her. How had she found herself here? And more importantly, what was she supposed to do now?

 

She dug around her pockets until she found the flashlight that she hadn’t wanted to use before, again in fear of being discovered by a potential enemy, but now she was certain there was a riddle she needed to solve. She was probably crazy, but the sound hadn’t led her to this place for nothing, and maybe, just maybe there was something in this mansion that would help her avenge Yifan.

 

The light shone over thousands of books in what seemed like an endless room full of giant bookshelves. She definitely would’ve remembered coming into this room before, because the sight itself took her breath away.

 

She traced her fingers on a book’s cover, a thick shade of dust having caught on it. The writing on the cover was Chinese, of course, like she suspected most of them to be.

 

Nobody had come into this room for a long, long time. What was she doing here?

 

The silence started suffocating her, because as the minutes progressed, she started feeling more and more as if she’d imagined everything and that all she would find here would be dust, loads of Chinese books she could never understand and loneliness. Tao would not be at such a place - where had her head been when she’d decided to venture so far into the mansion? How would she even return from this room when she didn’t remember how she’d even gotten here in the first place?

 

Then her eyes settled on what seemed like Western letters on a book cover. The cover was crimson and the letters black, so it was hard to see in the darkness, but it looked fishy.

 

As she approached the book, her hands started shaking.

 

Little One, the cover read.

 

She stopped breathing as her hand reached for the book, its height just right for her to reach it. It seemed new, as if it had been put there only a moment ago, no dust on it like on the other books.

 

She opened the book…

 

Just to find that it was empty. There was nothing written inside, just blank pages and the color of crimson.

 

A metallic sound resonated through the room and the floor started shaking.

 

Within a moment, the bookshelf containing the book she’d just taken out of its place moved to show a passage of darkness and mystery.

 

Of course. This was the mansion of the vampire king, who’d been living at the place for thousands of years. He’d said that he’d had to hide from vampire hunters every now and then, and old castles always had more to offer than what meets the eye, so of course there was a secret passageway.

 

But Lamiya wasn’t stupid, so she knew that this wasn’t some kind of coincidence or whatever. The book was put there deliberately, for her, and though she would’ve been perfectly happy to deceive herself with thoughts that Kris was the one who’d put it there, she was smarter than that.

 

It could’ve been Tao, who might’ve known about the passage…

 

Or it could’ve been someone else, equally close to Kris, equally aware of his endearment for her and equally capable of pulling something like that.

 

Lamiya clutched the silver stake tightly and went into the darkness, the flashlight her only guide through the complete darkness.

 

Not a second later, she turned after the metallic sound resonated again, just to see the door close behind her.

 

A trap.

 

Then she heard the whisper of the lullaby, right behind her right ear.

 

She turned abruptly and started running, her hands grabbing for anything to catch. She was determined to get to the source of this once and for all, and face whoever it was that was playing with her like this - be it a ghost, a copycat or something entirely else.

 

The flashlight was shaking too much for her to see anything because she was running so hard. “Stop!” she shouted, not caring who heard her - she would play this game no more.

 

The hallway ended in an equally dark, moldy room with stone walls and no accessories, and apart from feeling cold and out of breath, Lamiya’s mind started spinning again. She had no idea where she was, what she was doing here or what she would find at this secret place, the silver stake her only assurance that would maybe save her life, though she doubted she would have any chance in this native territory for vampires.

 

She shone the light of the flashlight, her other valuable ally, over the room.

 

The room was empty, devoid of any life or beauty. It almost reminded her of a different place, one in which her whole world had fallen apart, one she should’ve guarded instead of abandoning.

 

And just like in that room, an ancient coffin resided, equally as unnatural and scary as the one she remembered.

 

She slowly moved closer to the coffin, wondering - knowing this was Yifan’s resting place for when he was in the mansion. But why was she here? Tao wouldn’t have started using Kris’ bed - he respected him more than that and there were most certainly other resting places for guest vampires in the large mansion, she was sure of it.

 

The feeling inside of her grew as she got closer to the coffin, now seeing that…

 

It was open.

 

The flashlight fell out of her hands, because it wasn’t empty.

 

“No,” she whispered, her body functioning on its own and leading her closer to the sleeping form.

 

His eyes were closed, but everything else looked just like it did over a decade ago, when he’d told her he loved her in that darkness. When he’d told her to run and save herself while he died.

 

“This can’t be real.”

 

He was still a young man, his face without wrinkles, his skin without tone, the flashlight’s light creating a strange play of light on his form.

 

Lamiya kneeled, afraid that if she made a sound the dream would shatter and she would find that the coffin was empty.

 

She couldn’t control her arms or hands, though; they were having thoughts of their own, landing on his chiseled, cold cheeks and holding onto them.

 

Lamiya was unable to speak, unable to breathe, unable to function at all as she waited for him to disappear, for her hands to come up empty, for anything but this.

 

“You’d died,” she whispered, as if saying it would explain anything. “You’d died a long time ago, Kris.”

 

His eyes opened.

 

They were the most beautiful shade of brown she’d ever seen, vibrant and honest and shining and alive.

 

“Kill me,” he said in a pained voice. “Now, while you still have time.”

 

“What?” she echoed her only thought. “Why on Earth would I kill you? But you are here- you are alive- How are you even here-”

 

He closed his eyes, and she fell silent. Was she bothering him? After all, it was the middle of the day, so she must’ve woken him up. Vampires were irritable when woken up suddenly during the night, so it must’ve been hard for him to keep his cool, regardless of the fact that she’d found him after all this time.

 

But then he opened them again, and now they were red.

 

Back at the academy, she’d learned of many kinds of vampires, and how their eye color changed with age. Newborn vampires had the reddest eyes, their natural color only an outer ring of the irises, whereas old vampires had eyes that almost resembled humans’, with the red being only an inner ring closest to the pupil.

 

Since vampires usually didn’t get to live that long, identifying them by the eye color was fairly easy since they were so red. Not Kris’, though.

 

Kris’ eyes were red only when he was hungry.

 

And judging by the color of his eyes, he hadn’t eaten for a long, long time.

 

She suddenly realized that the blood pumping through her veins was her death verdict.

 

As happy as she was that she was able to see him again, as intent on finding Tao as she was and as sure as she was of her love for Kris, she would not get to live to see another sunrise, or sunset, even.

 

No matter how many questions she had for him, no matter how many riddles were left to solve, no matter how many things she had to tell him…

 

None of it mattered.

 

And as his fangs sank into her neck and she screamed, she realized why he’d just told her what he’d said.

 

Kill me.

 

Even if she’d understood it on time, she wouldn’t have been able to do it.

 

Because it was him, and he was alive.

 

And nothing else mattered, as long as the throne had a king to sit on it.

 

A queen could always be replaced anyway.