As his brother stepped closer, Suho’s face turned to a rather white color.
“Hyung, I can explain, I… he wanted it!” Seemed like there was a person even Suho was afraid of. In a split second the older dashed forwards and made Suho crash into a tree.

For the second time in the past few minutes Tao was lying on the ground. He immediately felt the urge to get up and rescue Suho but even before he could move one finger, Kai was already up on his feet, running towards the older men.
“No!! Don’t hurt him!” The boy screamed but as soon as he arrived, his father forcefully shoved him aside.

“Kids, help me here!” The man shouted towards Chen and Xiumin, who seemed to awake from the shock and quickly ran up to them. Both tightly gripped Kai’s arms and tried to pull him away, but he was struggling very hard.
“Nooo!!!! Let me rescue him!! I need to help him! Uncle!!” Tears were storming down his face as he shouted and tried to break free from his brothers.

Tao, who didn’t have that strong connection to Suho, was easily stopped by Kris, who wrapped his arms around the slender body from behind. “Don’t go.” He whispered into Tao’s ear “You don’t belong together. It’s just an illusion he creates for you. The connection you have is with Kai and he’s fine.” That way Kris tried to calm the youngest down and make him realize he didn’t have to help Suho now.

“B-but.. Kai is suffering too. It hurts me so much, why can’t they let him go?” Again Tao was sobbing loudly, as his legs gave in. The whole situation was so ed up that Kris decided to pick Tao up and carry him away. His priority was to protect the boy, the family should do their stuff first, he could punish them later.

As they got further away, Kai’s desperate screams faded more and more. Suho’s brother had dashed his brother and himself towards a place far away, where they continued their fight, but still the family was almost unable to prevent Kai from following them.

All the stress had made Tao really tired. It felt so good to be close to Kris again, even if it also gave him a bad feeling because of the bond with Kai and Suho.
Kris looked down on the boy in his arms and gulped to get rid of the lump in his throat.
“You must feel horrible right now… I swear, I’ll get all this done really quickly and then you can go back to Kai.” The elder’s chest and eyes burned really badly. Never had he felt so bad in his whole entire live. He was so close to the one he truly loved but yet he was so far away.

“I-I d-don’t… I’m really sorry… I didn’t want to do it but… I didn’t know it would happen if we drank each other’s blood.” Tao opened his eyes and struggled, so Kris let him down.

“How could you not know? It’s the main part of the bonding, most of the other rituals are just for the show.” As Kris let go of the younger, he felt the chilliness of autumn lurk underneath his skin straight into his heart.

“I just didn’t know… no one ever told me and Kai said it was fine since we’re both children.”

“Yeah, seems like it’s not fine. I’ve never heard of two children bonding. However, I also never heard about a bond between three vampires.”

“I don’t really get that one. How is it possible I feel so connected to Suho? He never drank my blood.” It felt so unreal to be standing in the middle of a dark forest, so close to Kris and talk about such confusing stuff.

“He… after Kai and you did the bonding, he immediately drank Kai’s blood. It still contained enough of yours to complete the bonding.” In a nervous movement Kris let his hand run through his hair and his lips. “But if it really was against your will and you want the connection to vanish again, well…. I know someone who can help us.”

Where had he heard these exact words already? They reminded him of… Chanyeol!
“Chanyeol! W-we have to look for him! K-Kris, Suho said he had killed him, b-but wouldn’t I notice it somehow? Like, wouldn’t there be something different with-“ Tao showed the mark on his skin to Kris that was supposed to confirm the connection between Chanyeol and him, but it had almost disappeared.

“… Are you alright?” Kris asked lowly and took a step forward. He hesitated for a moment, but then wrapped his arms around Tao and pulled him close. “We’ll find him and maybe he is just badly injured and we can heal him.”

This all was too much. Tao felt his chest clench painfully as fear and sorrow flooded his whole body, again earth seemed to stand still. He had regarded Suho and Chanyeol as his new parents and thought that with Kris as his life partner he would be able to have a long and happy life, but now that Chanyeol was dead and Suho the one who killed him plus he had bonded with another vampire who was not Kris, it seemed like his life had turned to hell.

Some minutes passed before Kris let go of Tao and cupped the boy’s face with his hands.
“Don’t give up yet. You can still be today’s hero, you just need to concentrate on Chanyeol. Try to imagine him, try to… feel him. If you have his image on your mind, you’ll be able to sense the direction he’s in and the distance.”

The boy did as he was told and closed his eyes. It took him some time because it was his first try ever but somehow when he imagined Chanyeol’s over exaggerated reactions, his unique laughs and his gentle touches, he knew where the older was. Only because he had so much of Chanyeol’s blood inside of his body, he could sense him so far.

“H-he’s in the north, this direction.” The boy pointed towards the direction he thought was approximately right “About 400 kilometers…”

Kris nodded and put both hands on the boy’s shoulders “Okay, I’ll go and find him. You have to stay here, I can’t take both of you with me and you won’t be able to dash that far. Don’t be afraid.” He froze for a second, then he leaned in and kissed Tao ever so softly. Immediately Tao’s eyes fluttered shut and a pleasant shiver ran through his whole body.
“I’ll be back soon.” The elder whispered before he was gone the next second.