Lay quickly, yet carefully packed all his equipment and folders of music away. “Is there somewhere you need to be, Lay?” Kris noted smirking and leaning casually on the counter.

           “Huh?”, he looked towards Kris, “Oh, not really. I don't want you having to wait on me to leave is all.”

           “Thanks for your concern,” Lay's boss replied, sarcasm most present in his voice, “But I live right upstairs, if you recall.”

           “Oh. Right.”

           Kris laughed, “No worries. I know you want to get out of here and have couple-y time or whatever with Soyoung.” Kris went back to cleaning up the counter and Lay finished his task.

           Truthfully, he wanted to spend time with Soyoung more than anything, but Lay was meeting with Tao as soon as he left the coffeehouse. After his experience at the council meeting, the two were not able to talk because of conflicting schedules, until now. Lay had many unanswered questions. He also vowed to himself that the next time he saw Soyoung he would tell her everything, but right now he wasn't sure he had the confidence. Hopefully Tao would be able to help him.

           Like Yunho said, he was in good hands.

           After saying farewell to Kris, Lay walked the short distance to the alleyway. Sure enough Tao was leaned against the brick wall, waiting. “Do you think next time we can meet somewhere with better lighting?”, Lay spoke first.

           “Good to see you too, Yixing.” Tao pushed himself off the wall.

           Tucking his chin into the collar of his jacket, Lay waited silently for Tao to initiate the discussion.

           “So, the meeting wasn't half-bad was it?”

           “I don't know..I guess not...if I understood what was going on.”

           Tao shifted his stance, “We're not only about blood and killing people, Lay.”

           “I know. Minseok told me the same thing,” Lay replied with slight impatience. He hated feeling oblivious to what was supposedly going on around him. “They were saying something about rebels in the meeting.” Lay stopped, giving Tao the opportunity to explain.

           “Well, basically,” Tao cleared his throat, “the rebels are a group of no-bloods who overuse their abilities to do extensive harm to humans and generally cause chaos.” Tao paused, trying to judge Lay's reaction. “I know this probably sounds strange to you since you think that all no-bloods do is cause chaos and make things difficult.”

           Lay couldn't say that Tao was lying.

           “But anyways, usually the extent of their damage is usually limited to unnecessarily using their powers in the presence of humans or hunting in broad daylight-”

           Lay could see where he was headed. “But the damage is getting worse, isn't it?”

           “Well...” Tao was wary to admit that he was right.

           “How bad?”

           “Of late, they've progressed to taking blood from humans...to the point of death or turning.”

           “So then,” Lay thought out loud, “you have a bunch of no-blood rebels turning humans who will also become no-blood rebels.”

           Tao smiled his signature lop-sided grin, “You're catching on.”

           “Can't you just take their powers away from them?”

           “It seems like the logical thing to do, but it's not that simple,” Tao sighed. “Makers don't control what powers their subordinates receive, so we don't have the power to take them away.”

           “Who has that power?”

           “No one. It's up to the individual to use self-control.”

           Lay chuckled, “ Supernatural with the imperfections of a human.”

           “And those without self-control must be managed by those with power,” Tao added.

           “So, the council?”

           Tao shrugged, “Plus whoever the council assigns.”

           Lay thought there was something curious about the way Tao answered that.

           “You don't mean...you're one of the assigned?”

           “Don't be too impressed,” he humbly laughed, “Almost everyone is assigned and required to act whenever they see something.”

           “Required to act?” Lay repeated.

           “Take action in various degrees. First,  a warning to the rebel, then physical restraint, starting with minimal use of your own powers then increasing if necessary. If those all fail, it may be necessary to completely disable the rebel.”

           Tao did not need to explain that by 'disable' he meant kill.

           A chill ran through Lay. Not in his wildest dreams could he have imagined the intensity of the situation. “Be thankful that your power is always a good thing and hard to be rebellious with,” Tao continued.

           His power. Lay hadn't even thought of the fact that since he was now a no-blood, it meant that he would have one as well.

           “You don't know what it is, do you?” Tao smirked.

           Lay defended himself, “Well I don't go around trying to levitate stuff or teleport, so I don't know how I would have found out.”

           “Well you have the general powers that everyone has; speed, strength,reflexes,” Tao listed, “But also healing.”

           Lay cocked his head to one side.

           “You can heal a human, or, in special cases, a no-blood, of wounds or other infirmities with one bite.”

           Tao seemed more excited than Lay did.

           “What do you mean 'one bite'? I don't even- I didn't agree to this whole biting deal,” Lay stuttered.

           “You're going to have to give in eventually, Yixing,” Tao took a few steps, exhausted with Lay's antics. “You don't want to hurt anyone, right? Okay, you won't. By biting them, you'd be helping them. Especially with the recent increase in rebellious actions, your power is rare and very much needed.”

           Lay stood silent, his hands fiddling in his pockets.

           “You're still thinking about not feeding, aren't you?” Tao prodded gently. Again, Lay did not reply, however Tao was not wrong.

             “You can survive on the donations for now, but, not much longer, Lay,” Tao paused. “Keep in mind, I said survive, not thrive. That may be why your powers are not fully established,” he added as an afterthought.

               Lay took in a deep breath of the cold air.

              “You'll have to come to terms that this is what you are. At least for now.”

a/n: SUPRISE! Double Update! Hehe ;P I hope you all are enjoying reading Eternal Pledge. Up until now, it has been me (beautyfromashes) writing. Now it will be BaekhyunandMegs' turn, since I will be away for a bit! Obviously our writing styles are different, but we worked hard to make sure everything would flow well. Again, thank you for subscribing, reading, and commenting~ <3

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!! Remember to comment and subscribe if you liked it :)! - Megs (Baekhyunandmegs)