The inside of the house was as beautiful as the outside; it was modern but still had the charm of the two stories high with a white picket fence that every song and movie talked about, the one that everyone dreamed of.

The living room seemed cozy, an L shaped couch occupied most of the room, two small tables by its sides and a big center table in front of it; there was also a decent sized electric fireplace on one of the walls with a big flat screen above it. Next to it, there was a small dining room space, with a beautiful dark mahogany table that sat 6 people, a wide marmol counter a few feet to the left, dividing the dining room and a spacious kitchen. 

“This house is…”, Siyeon and Hyejoo looked around in awe.

“Smaller than I expected”, Bora said quietly with a frown on her face.

“...amazing”, Siyeon finished with a smile on her face, “Maybe this won’t be so bad, right Hyejoo?”, she knelt next to her daughter and hugged her tightly.

“It’s bigger than our home”, Hyejoo clapped her hands with a giggle.

“Yeah! This house is superb, it exceeds my expectations!”, Bora’s voice startled the mother-daughter duo, who just looked at her weirdly. 

What was that?, Bora questioned herself while taking a deeper look at her surroundings. The house was surely charming, but if they were going to be in this for the long haul, she kind of expected a little bit more than this. Or maybe that was just her, a long life full of luxury had probably made her kind of a snob; it seemed like the little family was more than fine with what they had been given, so who was Bora to complain?

The excitement seemed to be catching up to Hyejoo, the little girl struggling to keep her eyes open, leaning onto her mother’s side.

“I should probably put her to bed”, Siyeon took her daughter into her arms, who immediately burrowed her head against her neck.

“The kid’s room is upstairs, last room to the left.”, with a move of her head, Agent Lee pointed to the stairs, “The bed has some railings on the side that can be pulled up in case she needs them. I think there are already some clothes in the closet, if they don’t fit, I can take you to get some that will sometime this week.”.

“Thank you”, were Siyeon’s last words before heading upstairs, leaving Yubin and Bora behind on the first floor.

The agent watched the little family go with a small smile on her face, she had always had a spot for children. Since she was distracted, she didn’t watch Bora making her way to her, much less she saw the fist coming right at her.

“What. The. . Bora?”, the agent cradled her cheek with one hand.

“That’s what I should be asking you! What the , Yubin!”

When Siyeon came back down the stairs, Bora and the agent seemed to be having a staring contest with each other, a weird vibe surrounding them. 

“Did I miss something?”, Siyeon’s voice seemed wary.

Agent Lee turned to look at Siyeon, giving her a reassuring smile she said, “No, Miss Kim and I were just talking about what would be expected for you, right?”

Bora glared at the agent, her eyes never leaving her while she answered a “Right” through gritted teeth.

“Wouldn’t it have been best to talk about it with me present? I mean, we’re in this together after all”, Siyeon crossed her arms, the events of the past day were finally catching up with her. Gone was the nervous and scared mother they had met, it seemed that putting her daughter safely between the covers had given her a little bit of peace.

Bora and Yubin looked at each other, surprised at Siyeon’s sudden mood change. 

“It-it’s my fault”, Bora said while staring at the ground, “I was just...I need some answers. I apologize”

“Just don’t do it again, please”, Siyeon seemed to relax a little with Bora’s apology, her eyes then found the agent’s, “So, what did you talk about?”

“As I, uh, told Miss Kim before”, Yubin cleared , “Tomorrow we’ll give you a full debrief of the situation and everything that you’ll have to do, as well as what you can and cannot do while being part of the Witness Protection program and uh…”, Siyeon’s piercing gaze made the agent stumble over her words.

Bora’s eyes had never left Siyeon during the agent’s explanation, the mother just nodded at whatever Yubin said but it seemed like she didn’t believe the two women had talked about that during the time it took her to put Hyejoo to bed.

“Maybe”, Bora interrupted whatever the agent was going to say, “We should save this talk for tomorrow, once we’re all well rested and with Hyejoo present too, we can discuss everything in detail.”

Siyeon looked intensely at both women in front of her, before letting her arms drop to her sides, “Fine.”

“If any of you need me, I’ll be staying at the small guesthouse at the back of the house”, where Yubin’s final words before she left Siyeon and Bora by themselves.

“I was-”

“Are you-”

Both spoke at the same time, making each other laugh. The previous tension that was present in the room vanished. Bora signaled for Siyeon to go first.

“Are you hungry? I was going to see if I could throw something together with whatever’s in the kitchen”

Bora bit her lip and twirled one of her rings, “I’m not that hungry, but I could join you in the kitchen?”

“You’re more than welcome too”.

Spending time with Siyeon had been something. It kind of unsettled Bora all these strange feelings bubbling up inside of her, it was weird, this instinct of wanting to protect and take care of the little family she had somehow ended up stuck with confused her. 

It was something she had never felt before, if only she could talk to Handong, maybe she could make sense of whatever was going on with her.

At first, Siyeon had been really quiet, but as she prepared herself something with the only edible things she found in the kitchen, her shyness seemed to fade away, chit chatting with Bora about anything and everything that came to her mind.

Bora added little to the conversation, preferring to observe Siyeon as she worked.

Before long, Siyeon was done eating her food, putting her plate on the sink. She was about to start washing everything she had used when Bora stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

“You look like you’re gonna fall asleep on your feed. I can clean this up”

“I can’t make you do that, you didn’t even eat anything”

“It’s okay, there’s no way I could sleep after the long nap I took on the way here”, Bora lightly pushed Siyeon out of the kitchen.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, now go to sleep”

“Thank you, Bora”, Siyeon gave Bora a soft look before heading upstairs.

Bora listened to Siyeon moving upstairs, if her footsteps were anything to go by, she was surely heading to Hyejoo’s room. Not that Bora would blame her, after what happened there was no way the mother would be letting her daughter out of her sight anytime soon.

With a sigh, Bora started cleaning up the kitchen, her mind wandering to her earlier discussion with Yubin.

“That’s what I should be asking you! What the , Yubin!”, Bora stage-whispered at Yubin, not wanting to draw the attention of the other house occupants. 

“I forgot you had a mean right hook”, Yubin chuckled.

Bora grabbed Yubin from her collar and pushed her against the wall, “If you don’t start talking, I swear…”

Yubin pushed Bora away from her, and fixed her clothes. “Someone sent me here to help your .”

“Who…?”, Bora seemed confused for a minute, but then Yubin gave her a look and it dawned on her, “Handong? What? How?”

“Let’s just say she called in some favors, and here we are”

“She did that for me?”

“You know you mean the world to her. Always have.”, there was something about Yubin’s tone that bothered Bora.

“Wait… why do you sound bitter?”

“Pfft, I don’t”, Yubin tried to dismiss Bora.

“Oh my god. Are you still not over it?”, if how Yubin tensed was any indication, it seemed like Bora had hit the jackpot, “It’s been decades”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, Yubin put her hands on her hip, the movement revealing the shiny badge resting on her belt.

The sight of it sobered Bora, her once relaxed stance tensing once again. Even though Yubin had once been her friend, she was now a stranger. One that was apparently in charge of them. And while she could forgive what happened in the past, she would never ever forget.

Yubin caught Bora's glare, but before anyone of them could say anything, the sound of Siyeon coming down the stairs stopped them from saying anything out loud.

I know you don’t fully trust me, Bora heard inside her mind, but I’m on your side.

If there was something Bora hated about Yubin -moreso than the woman herself-, were her special abilities.

A vampire's abilities depended of their family history; the mix of their parent's blood during The Ritual would determine which ability would they inherit: it usually ended up being the one from the stronger parent, but in some really weird cases, the child got both.

Don't get her wrong, Bora was glad of being able to mind control people -to a greater extent than the rest of her family, she'd proudly add- but telephaty AND mind reading did sound amazing too. Nevermind the fact that Yubin had not only one but two abilities.

Ever since she had met the agent the first time, Bora had been envious of the woman, since not only could she communicate telepathically with others, she could also read them if the other person’s thoughts were loud enough, and sometimes, if she focused with all her might, she could read them at will. Which seemed useful to the other woman’s current career choice.

If you double cross me, Bora thought as loudly as she could, knowing the other would hear it, I’ll end you, as I should have all those years ago.

Yubin visibly gulped, while she had changed for the better, Bora didn’t have a way of knowing that.

Before she could say anything to reassure the other woman, Siyeon’s voice interrupted them.

“Did I miss something?”

No matter how many decades had passed, Bora could never forget Yubin’s betrayal.

But it seemed like Handong trusted the other enough to help Bora and keep her safe, so she would try to be in her best behavior and not punch Yubin again or something like that, even though the agent deserved it and more.

Now that her thoughts had wandered over her best friend, Bora couldn’t help but think about how she was doing. If they were after her, once they realized who she was, what she was, they’d surely go after Handong too.

After years of not doing it, Bora sent a silent prayer to the gods’ she stopped believing in ages ago. 

Please, whichever deity is out there, don’t let anything happen to any of them.

Once the kitchen was squeaky clean, Bora headed to the living room and plopped down on the couch, a tired groan leaving her lips. 

Her eyes settled on the golden ring with the blood red sapphire sitting on her right hand’s ring finger, the one she had twirled when Siyeon asked if she wanted to eat with her.

That golden ring had always been her favorite, not only because it was beautiful, no, Bora loved this ring because the power that it contained had always fascinated her.

When she had been young and unafraid, she had gotten obsessed with vampire history, going as far as to travel to the most recondits places on Earth to find some piece of lost lore. In one of her first travels after receiving her ring, Bora had ended up in London’s underground scene, the whole place was kind of shady, but the knowledge that Bora found was amazing.

She had learned from an old vampire (who was surprisingly, also a powerful -but now retired- witch) that in a time long forgotten, vampires had been victims of the sun, only able to go out in the dead of the night, unless they wanted to face a painful and slow death, being burned to a crisp by daylight. Their blood thirst sometimes drove them insane, especially if they hadn’t fed in more than a day; of course, the stronger vampires could last longer without fresh blood, but they always perished at some point if they didn’t have any.

Their blood red eyes, their lack of heartbeat, their inability to eat and drink human food, and their cold dead skin had put them at disadvantage for ages. If a vampire had someone been lucky to pass up as human for some time, one of those things would give them away.

They were hunted with pitchforks and torches, tortured by those who wanted the power they wielded, killed for simply wanting to live.

One smart vampire, tired from everything, had made a deal with a coven of witches to find a way to fight the downsides of being a vampire: in exchange of helping them, the witches would be under the vampire’s protection.

After some trial and error, during a solar eclipse, the witches found a way to infuse a gem with their magic and the vampire’s blood during a solar eclipse. Once the moon gave way to the sun once again, the vampire stood still outside, one hand clutching the gem. Instead of feeling their insides start burning up, they felt the soft caress of the sunrays. Ecstatic, the vampire immediately turned to the witches with a blinding smile on their face; the witches told the vampire with awe on their voice about how they looked like a human: their skin wasn’t as pale and their eyes were a nice shade of blue instead of blood red.

As time passed, the vampire found out about more perks about the gem that they now carried around their neck: they could eat and drink human food at their hearts content, their bloodlust had calmed down and they also found out (after an adventure gone wrong) that they could last up to three days without drinking blood and not have any adverse effects; and their heart started beating again (or at least it appeared to).

Sure, their powers seemed to be a little bit muted, but that was a small price to pay for freedom, for finally having a life worth living.

After hearing that story, Bora couldn’t help but look at her ring in awe; wondering how different her life would be if she didn’t have it. 

When was the last time that I fed?, Bora thought to herself. Was it two days ago? The morning this show started?, her eyes widened, . How am I gonna feed if there are two humans here?

Her memory seemed to fail her, but to be on the safe side, she would ask Yubin tomorrow to help her with her predicament. 

Wanting to silence her worried thoughts, she turned the TV on and was pleasantly surprised when Netflix’s home screen showed up.

At least I won’t die of boredom here.

this chapter is a little lore heavy, i hope you liked it tho! 

would anyone be interested of me making a playlist with the songs i used on the titles?

all mistakes are mine, sorry lol
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