“You realize this isn’t right, don’t you?”

Mark glanced over at his mother, frowning openly at her as he struggled to get his thickly woven gardening gloves on. He’d managed one already, and gotten the strap at his wrist done up properly, but he was having trouble with the second, and completely unused to maneuvering fingers that seemed twice their normal size. “Hmm?”

“Mark,” she said again, and made a firm expression. “Look around you.”

At her urging, Mark did. And he found there was nothing particularly out of place. The two of them were knee deep in his mother’s garden, ready to prune flowers that had been pollinated months earlier, and maybe even harvest a few of the vegetables that were ready. It was truly the taste of food that brought Mark back for more even as Grace and their older cousins shied away from food in general. And nothing tasted better than the food his mother grew. She had a green thumb like Mark had never seen before.

“Mark.”

“What?” Mark asked a bit sharply, irritated that apparently he was missing something. But then he was quick to say, “Sorry,” because he never wanted to snap at his mother, she wasn’t ever deserving of that kind of disrespect, and the one and only time they’d gotten into a screaming match, Mark’s bottom had been sore for almost a week.

His mother’s face was gentle and encouraging, her eyes crinkling a little as she smiled. “Look up.”

Sitting back further on his haunches, Mark tipped his head back.

He felt the warmth on his skin the same moment he saw the blue skies, white clouds and blindingly yellow-white sun.

Mark’s eyes jerked back to his mother. His breath caught in his throat with a choke. “Mom?”

“Mark.”

Mark dared to look to his skin, then to hers. “We’re out in the sun.” And it was high enough in the sky that it had to be noon. It was the worst time of day for a vampire, the most dangerous, and it was unfathomable to Mark that they weren’t sizzling. Mark knew he ought to be writhing in agony. And even if his mother’s built up resistance would have afforded her more protection, she still knew to avoid the sun whenever possible. “We’re in the sun but we’re not burning.”

She asked, “Why?”

“I don’t …” Mark put a steadying hand down on the dirt ground in front of him. “I …”

“It’s not right, correct?” She pressed. “Why?”

Mark in air sharply, his breaths growing more rapidly. No, she was correct, something wasn’t right. But he didn’t know what it was, or why. He just knew there was a building panic in his chest.

“Mark,” she said gingerly, and then ran one soft hand across his chin, tilting his face better towards her. “I can only do so much right now. You have to meet me at least half way, until I get a better hold on your mind.”

“I don’t understand,” Mark told her, and the confusion was weighing on him more than the heat from the sun.

In an odd way, the heat felt amazing. Vampires naturally ran cold. And they only got more cold the older they became. Mark so rarely felt the warmth of the sun, and typically only when he risked either sunset or sunrise.

But the heat also reminded him of when he’d waded out into the lake, caught in a dream that could have killed him.

A dream that hadn’t felt right then, either.

“How can we be out in the sun?” his mother asked.

Mark pulled himself up more confidently and stated, “We can’t be. We can’t be out in the sun and not burn.”

“Then how is this happening?”

It didn’t make sense, and Mark didn’t know how, but the only clear answer was the only one that didn’t seem possible. “It’s not.”

His mother’s smile deepened. “You’re right. How come?”

“Because,” Mark eased out, “I’m …not awake. This is a dream.”

“Correct.”

“How?” Mark challenged back immediately. “How can I--”

He didn’t get much further before the picture of his mother in front of him started to blur. The world around them melted, colors blending together, and Mark was met with a rush of lightheadedness.

Then he woke up.

When it happened, very slowly and with some trouble, it was to a whole world of pain. His eyes cracked open and he seized for air, feeling a terrible pressure on his chest, a throb of almost unbearable pain in his shoulder, and a sleepiness that felt more muggy and unnatural than anything he’d ever experienced before. Henry had the ability to push people to sleep, but this was nothing like that.

His mind nagged at him that there was something that had just happened. Something important. But he was distracted by the pain, and unsure about anything else. The nagging feeling didn’t disappear as more time passed, but it became less relevant.

He blinked his eyes open lethargically, wanting nothing but to roll over and go back to sleep. He was so tried, so impossibly tried.

“Mark?”

A second voice asked, “Prince Mark?”

At the sound of voices he tried turning to towards the origin, but a flash of hot pain shooting through his neck had him instead groaning and giving up on the gesture.

The first voice asked, “Is the sedative wearing off already? He seems like he’s in pain.”

Those words meant nothing to Mark. But he did recognize the canopy top above him when he cracked his eyes open for the second time. The odd shade of blue gave it away as the bed in his room at his uncle’s Vermont estate. The house where he’d had his introduction. The house that … he’d been leaving? Had he been leaving? His mind was so muddled. He remembered arriving, and some of his introduction, but not much else.

“I told you,” the second voice said in a reminding, almost condescending manner, “sedation in teenagers, vampire teenagers at that, is a tricky business. Too little and it’ll be ineffective. Too much and he’ll die. Neither does us any good, and you breathing down my neck is not helping matters. Let me gauge the situation at hand, and I’ll make a determination quickly. Do not crowd either of us.”

Mark frowned. Who was speaking? What was going on around him?

Mark strained hard, as hard as he could, and from the corner of his eye he could just barely see the form of his uncle and an unknown vampire. The other vampire was one that looked slightly familiar, but Mark couldn’t place him no matter how hard he thought about it.

Thinking about it hurt his head, anyway.

Mark had seen him somewhere before, but didn’t know where.

As pain continued to build in him, Mark cared less and less.

“Put him out again,” his uncle said harshly.

The other vampire lectured, “Continued sedation will lead to prolonged effects.”

Mark clenched and unclenched his fingers. It was hard. Why was something so simple hard? What was wrong with him? Why did he feel this way? He couldn’t even begin to think about getting up.

“Do it,” his uncle snapped. “Give him a bigger dose if necessary.”

A second later, as Mark was contemplating why it hurt to breathe, the vampire he was mysteriously familiar with leaned over him. He had a thin lips that pursed together to look even thinner before he said, “Prince Mark, I’m Doctor Piper. I’m here to take care of you.”

Feeling woozy, Mark questioned, “Doctor?”

“Yes, I’m a doctor. I doubt you remember me, but I was your cousin Henry’s primary pediatrician when he was younger.”

Mark’s mind wandered through the fact, his thoughts unfocused and without the normal sense of clarity that he knew should have been there. There was a Doctor Piper in his memories. Because when Henry had been young, he’d been sicker than was normal for a vampire. He’d been born premature, and though he was healthy and normal now, he hadn’t been at the start. Everyone had thought Henry would die. Everyone had thought Henry would be just another statistic, at least until his miraculous recovery.

Mark had never pried, never asked any questions, but now he wondered what it was that Doctor Piper had done to save Henry’s life. A vampire hemophiliac was … something Mark didn’t know there was a cure for. He didn’t even know of another that had lived past infancy with the exceptionally rare disease.

The man reached for a nearby black case and drew out a small bottle and syringe. “You were in a car accident. Do you remember that?”

Mark shook his head in the tinniest. He couldn’t drive. He didn’t have his license. It was something he’d been meaning to go for. If he got a license, he could get a car, and if he had a car, he and Jackson could go on dates whenever they wanted. “Where? How?”

“Don’t worry now,” the doctor said soothingly, drawing liquid into the syringe. “Your uncle is going to make sure you’re well taken care of. You’ve got several cracked ribs, your shoulder was dislocated, you suffered a moderate concussion, and there’s some severe bruising, but you’re going to recover with time and well placed energy. For now, however, it’s best if you just rest. You’ve already been released from the hospital. Now is simply a time for recovery.”

Hospital? How had he already been in and out of the hospital? Had anyone told Jackson? What about Zhou Mi and Henry?

“Uncle,” Mark called out, desperate for a familiar face.

“I’m here,” his uncle said, moving into his line of sight as the doctor pulled Mark’s arm out from beneath his blankets. His uncle’s cold fingers wrapped around his other wrist, holding in an almost protective way that Mark had thought he might never feel from him again.

“Car accident?” Mark tried again. He didn’t even remember getting in a car. He didn’t remember anything after dancing with Zhou Mi and Liling.

A curious and odd expression crossed his uncle’s face as the man said, “You were headed back to school, against my wishes I would like to point out. You were ambushed in the woods by humans within the ranks of the Humans First organization. They attempted to kill you, and were obviously unsuccessful. By they did wound you terribly, and it nearly was fatal.”

Mark had to close his eyes against the room spinning around him. “Don’t remember.” It was like being burned by fire every breath he took, and that was likely with whatever pain medication he had pumped into him at the moment. How much worse would it be without the medication? “Nothing but my introduction. I remember dancing.”

He heard his uncle ask the doctor, “Is that possible, Victor? Amnesia? How can he remember nothing from after his introduction?”

Mark felt a prick at the crook of his elbow and sighed against the sensation. He was almost pleased to go back to sleep.

“He experienced a moderate concussion, Marcus,” the doctor said. “While it has since reduced by now, there was some swelling of the brain. That’s enough to justify his lack of memory.”

With a hard edge still to his uncle’s voice, the man wanted to know, “Will his memory return?”

“Likely,” the doctor said. “With time. And without pressure to do so.”

Something else was said, but by the time the sound was echoing around him, Mark was already floating in a sea of tranquility. He was weightless, body falling heavy into the mattress, his mind deserting him for more favorable dreams.

Sleep. He needed to sleep.

His uncle would watch over him and protect him.

And for Mark, there was only pleasant darkness for a long time.

At least until his mother’s face floated into his line of sight, the two of them in their home’s large music room, and she asked, “Back again so soon?”

Mark was seated on the cushioned chair near the piano where she was at, her fingers at home on the keys. She played beautifully, and had taught Grace as well. Mark could manage a few songs, in a rusty and unpolished way, but not much more than that. He’d never taken to the instrument like Grace had, or Tammy to her cello.

The previous encounter slammed into Mark harshly. “You’re not my mother. You might have her face, but you’re not her.”

“Of course I’m not her,” she admitted immediately. “I couldn’t be her. Your mother is dead, Mark. And this house? This house doesn’t exist anymore outside of your memories. It burned and I doubt it’ll ever be rebuilt.”

Mark burst out angrily, “This isn’t a normal dream, so I want to know who you are and what’s going on!”

The person in his mother’s form tapped out a simple pattern on the piano. “You know who I am, Mark.” Her head turned towards him expectantly. “I’m not doing this on purpose, Mark. But there are rules, and I can’t make the connections for your brain. You have to do it on your own, and then I’ll fill in what I can.”

“Rules?” Mark frowned. “So you’re someone I know?”

“Not well,” she agreed, “but well enough.”

“Okay,” Mark said slowly. He could figure this out.

She interjected quickly, “Also, you might want to hurry. I don’t know how much time I have, and you have even less.”

Mark peered at her. This mysterious person might be wearing his mother’s skin, but everything was wrong. The smile on his mother’s face was too cunning, too calculating. Her posture was all wrong, too. Too upright. Mark’s mother never slouched, but she also always looked comfortable in her petite skin. Everything about the way his mother looked now was wrong.

“You’ve met me before in a dream,” she hinted. “I was unfair to you in it as well. I even placed you in danger. You could say I was testing the water with you.”

It was all Mark needed. “Siwon.”

Siwon, looking like his mother, closed the case over the piano keys and rested upon it. “Got it.”

Mark rumbled out, “Why are you wearing my mother’s face? What are you doing?”

“Contrary to what you may think,” Siwon said, and Mark hated that he was speaking in his mother’s sweet voice, “I have some control over dreams, not absolute. I have to take the form of someone you’re already dreaming about, if I want to have any kind of actual influence over what you see or do. I have to wait for you to be dreaming in the first place. I’ve been waiting for days, Mark.”

There was a warning on his mother’s face.

“Days?” Mark asked faintly. How could it be days?

Siwon nodded. “You were sleeping too deeply to dream for a very long time. I was starting to get desperate.”

“I had an accident.”

Siwon with is mother’s face, nodded. “You’re hurt very badly I think. I know what a healing sleep feels like when I’m trying to slip into someone’s dreams and they’re being blocked. But the circumstances surrounding your injuries are unknown. I’m not sure anyone knows for certain.”

Mark reeled back a little. “I was in the hospital. How can people not know? Is my uncle keeping everyone way?”

“Mark,” Siwon said, “You were never in the hospital from what I can determine--at least no one seems to know that, and I’ve been eavesdropping on everyone. And whatever your uncle has said to you, is a lie. Mark, your uncle is not what he seems. And you’re very much in danger.”

“Danger!”

A sudden wince crossed his mother’s face and the world glitched around them.

“What’s happening?” Mark asked feeling scared. His own stomach had turned over at the sight of everything going in and out of focus suddenly. “Am I okay?”

“It’s not you,” Siwon assured “It’s me. I think.”

Mark got to his feet and trekked the short distance to Siwon. “It’s you? Please, explain to me what’s going on.”

“I’m hurt,” Siwon said quickly and bluntly. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m just as much asleep as you are. I remember getting up one morning, having the cup of tea that I always have, sitting down to read the paper, and nothing else. And I don’t think I’m doing half as well as you. I might be dying. It’s hard to tell. But it took almost everything I had to find you when you started dreaming. And it’s hard to hang onto you. I don’t know how long I’m going to manage it.”

That couldn’t be true, Mark refused to believe it. Siwon couldn’t be so hurt he was dying. He was impossibly strong.

“Mark,” Siwon continued, “that’s not the important part. Listen to me. Kyuhyun suspected your uncle as being at fault for everything that has been happening since even before the attack on the council. He never had a concrete link between the two, and you never believed him fully even if you had your doubts, and that’s for a very specific reason. Mark, there’s no link because you were always missing key players. You can’t draw conclusions when you’re missing half the facts and twice as many middlemen. But that doesn’t meant Kyuhyun was wrong.”

“No,” Mark all but moaned out, refusing to hear that from Siwon. “My uncle would never! He’s taking care of me.”

“He caused your accident!”

Mark sat hard on the bench near him. “How do you know this? How can you say this?”

Again the world glitched, and it almost seemed as if it didn’t come back until the last possible second.

Hands shaking, Siwon said, “Mark, I did something very bad. I did something terrible--something unforgivable.”

Mark reached out for him, putting his hand over his mother’s--over Siwon’s. “Tell me.”

There were tears in his mother’s eyes as Siwon spoke through her voice, “Kyuhyun will never forgive me. Kyuhyun will kill me for it. And you might, too.”

“Kyuhyun loves you,” Mark argued back. “Even if he isn’t in love with you, he loves you very much. He loves you just about as much as I think he’s capable of loving someone, and now that Grace is gone, I think you’re the most important person to him. You’re his best friend. You’re his brother. You’re everything to him. No matter what you did, he won’t hurt you.”

Siwon squeezed his hand suddenly and harshly. “I know it’s hard for you to remember the things here that we talk about, when you wake up, but you have to try. Don’t forget, Mark.”

“I--”

“Don’t forget! Don’t trust your uncle! He didn’t just tell humans where the council was meeting. He helped orchestrate the whole thing, and he hasn’t been working alone. He’s just one of--”

“One of what?”

There was a frantic look on Mark’s mother’s face and he never hated it more that Siwon had chosen her. “He was the hand playing all the cards from the beginning, but he wasn’t the dealer. He was only doing as he was told. He made sure the right vampires died to put you in the right position. He took out the competition. Kyuhyun was never wrong about that. He’s been doing everything, playing you like a fool, but it’s not just him. There are plenty others, and your uncle is--”

Everything blinked out and Mark felt the pull of consciousness.

The next time Mark woke his uncle was not there, and this time Mark was hooked up to an IV line feeding directly into his arm. The doctor was present however, looking through a file that Mark guessed was his own, humming quietly.

Everything was still foggy in Mark’s mind but now there was an urgency to the nagging feeling he’d been plagued with for ages.

Mark cleared his throat, still trying to get his bearing. He was still in bed and … out of the hospital? Wasn’t that what he’d been told? But why did that sound wrong?

“Awake again?” the doctor asked, somewhat impressed from his tone. “You’re far stronger than your uncle gives you credit for. To me, it sounded as if he thought you were a delicate flower, wafting in the wind, in need of protection.” The man put the file aside and took proper stock of Mark.

“IV?” Mark asked, trying to turn his hand closer to him. Fear gripped him tightly when he realized he couldn’t move at all. Not even his fingers. He was paralyzed. Oh, god, he was paralyzed.

“Calm down, young one.” The doctor put the back of his hand to Mark’s forehead.

“I can’t move,” Mark gasped out, voice catching and threatening to develop into something more desperate.

The doctor reached for his black bag again, and out came the syringe. “It’s doubtful you remember the first time you woke, but you have several cracked ribs. Any attempt by you to move too severely could risk your life. You need to lie perfectly still for a while. You are healing quickly, almost miraculously, but you still need time.”

“What is that?” Mark asked with dread, watching the liquid in the bottle slosh around before being drawn up into the syringe. “What are you putting in me?” The unease he’d felt before was turning into a sinister feeling, urging him to get away. That feeling of something not being right was now a danger alarm going off in his head.

There was a port in the IV that the doctor easily slid the needle into, saying, “I’m only giving you something to put you back to sleep now, Prince Mark. You need to rest and recover.”

“Where’s my uncle?” Mark demanded.

The doctor soothed, “You’re going to be just fine, Prince Mark. You’ll go to sleep now and none of this will bother you anymore. You uncle will check in on you later. I’m going to give you a double dose this time, just to make sure you don’t wake up before your body is ready.”

Before Mark could protest anything, or give any real resistance, he was out again.

He heard his mother in his head, promising, “I’m going to get help for you, Mark. I’m so sorry for what I did.”

Then he heard Grace say, “You can’t just lay there, though. You have to help yourself first. I can’t help you until you help yourself first.”

None of it made any sense, and reality blurred with something distinctly less.

The third time Mark woke, he felt even more tired than before. He still couldn’t move, he could barely even breathe, and he kept his eyes closed as he tried to calm himself. The room was eerily quiet.

He fell back asleep, pushed by the sedative running through him, before he could manage to do anything.

“This is it,” his mother said.

Only Mark knew it wasn’t his mother. It was Siwon.

“I can’t reach you any longer,” she said, and she was barely in focus. Mark couldn’t even tell where they were. “There’s something blocking me from fully reaching you, and it’s getting stronger. I’m getting weaker.”

Mark’s mind felt clear, ironically enough, for the first time. He told Siwon, “The doctor is pumping me full of drugs.”

“It could be my end,” Siwon argued. “I do think I’m dying. I think I don’t have long. Maybe a day or two. I can feel it. This is what death feels like.”

“Where are you?” Mark asked. “What happened to you?”

Siwon fussed even further. “Your uncle knew. He knew, Mark. He knew that I was going to tell. He knew that I was at my limit, that threatening my sister was the last straw, and it was happening as soon as I thought it was safe.”

“Tell?” Mark asked slowly, “whatever it is this thing that you did? And who threatened your sister? My uncle?”

Siwon, barely distinguishable in his mother’s skin, hastily said, “When I knew you were safe with Kyuhyun, I was going to tell everything I knew. I was going to … to hurt Kyuhyun and hurt you and ruin myself with the truth.”

“What did you do?” Mark asked, scared of the answer.

Instead of answering, Siwon said, “I think, though I’m not sure, your uncle is responsible for how often you seem to be unconscious. He’s probably got you locked away somewhere. He’s reached his endgame, no doubt. Mark, I’ve been trying to get through to someone else--anyone else, to tell them you’re in trouble. I’ll keep trying, too, but I’m only getting weaker and the people I trust to help you aren’t exactly sleeping right now. But you need to give me something. Where are you? Are you still in Vermont? Or have you been moved? Who’s with you? How hard would it be to get to you?”

“I’m at my uncle’s house,” Mark told him quickly. “I’m hurt. When I’m awake, it hurts to breathe.” He had to think hard, but he could just slightly recall the sound of screeching tires and twisting metal. “There was a car accident.”

“Okay,” Siwon said breathing deeply. “Okay. Just hang on. I will get someone to you. Even if I have to invade the dreams of every sleeping council member or every single vampire in California, I will make things right here. I will. Please believe me.”

The world was spinning around them and the imagine of Mark’s mother was the weakest it had been. “You said my uncle hired the men who attacked the council and killed Grace and my parents. You said he’s the snake. How do you know this? You have to tell me.”

“He is a snake,” Siwon insisted, voice going thin. “But he’s nothing compared to the snake charmer who’s constantly at work. Mark, this is deeper, this …attempt to undo the decades of peace between humans and vampires, it’s deeper and more than just your uncle. Your uncle is just one part of something much bigger, and we should all be very scared and who the puppet master is--who the snake charmer is.”

Uncertain, Mark questioned, “My uncle being told to do these things? Why? How?”

Sadly, Siwon admitted, “Maybe it’s better if I do die. Kyuhyun would never stand me living on the same planet as him again. He’ll never look at me, love me, or want to breathe the same air as me, when he finds out.”

Mark demanded roughly, “Finds out what!”

Not even the kind smile of Mark’s mother softened Siwon’s words as he said, “Your uncle might have had access to information that indicated where the council would be meeting, but he only had it because of me. I gave it to him, Mark. Just like other people gave him other things. The truth is, my worse secret is, I got your parents and Grace killed. I got my father killed. I got Kyuhyun’s sister killed, and he will never forgive me for it. I, along with others, your uncle included, took orders from someone else, orchestrated this whole thing, and are wholly to blame. It was us. All of us. And we’re more than you think.”

Someone else.

The snake charmer.

“Mark,” Siwon stated, “please protect my sister from Her. Please. I’m begging you. She shouldn’t suffer because of my choices, and she will ally with you when she’s the head of our family. I already told her to. If I die, go to my sister. She’ll tell you the truth. She’ll tell you about Her.--” he cut off abruptly, and it felt absolutely final.

Her? Who was this Her?

This time, when Mark jerked awake, it was painful and he jarred something, but he woke remembering everything he’d spoken to Siwon about. That was the important part, even if it was unbearably painful and brought tears to his eyes.

Siwon and his uncle? They’d worked together to destroy so many families. And with others? How many others. And who was this person telling them to do things. Who was this Her? Mark had felt the emphasis on the distinction when Siwon had said it.

It made even less sense when Mark stopped to consider that his uncle didn’t take orders or direction well. He was a lone wolf of sorts, doing whatever he wanted and rarely working well with others. Not to mention Mark couldn’t begin to question what it was that made Siwon turn traitor. What could this person, this snake charmer, have said or done to make it happen with Siwon? To make Siwon betray Kyuhyun and hurt him? It seemed impossible.

Taking in deep, painful breaths, Mark picked up the sound of voices just outside his door.

He heard his uncle say, “Two more days, Victor. I just need you to keep him out for two more days and then we can act.”

“We’re really pushing it, Marcus,” the doctor’s voice chimed in. “Inducing a coma in an ailing patient is one thing, and relatively safe, but continuously sedating a patient who is in no need of that sedation is another thing. You are risking his life every time I do it. Not to mention, it won’t be long before someone comes looking for him. In fact, I expect it any second. What will you do then when you have vampires loyal to your nephew battering down your door? Don’t think they don’t exist, either, and in large number. There are likely more loyal to him now, than you, and he doesn’t have to pay for their loyalty. His comes with his title, and the friends he’s keeping.”

The door clicked open and Mark momentarily forgot how to breathe, slamming his eyes shut. They were … keeping him sedated? On purpose? Why? The doctor had said it was to help him recover, but now to hear the contrary … why would they be forcing him to sleep unnecessarily? Did they suspect he’d seen through their lies, or even knew a fraction of the truth?

“Is he awake?” his uncle asked when both men were in the room.

Mark felt cold, long fingers passing over his body and he did his best to keep his breathing even and his body slack.

“Still out,” the doctor concluded. “I’ve been upping his dosage each time. But we may need to get some additional equipment in here to monitor him if you want to keep at this. I don’t like how low his blood pressure is, and I want to monitor his oxygen levels. We’re vampires, Marcus, not actually dead.”

“Two days,” his uncle repeated. “I merely need to keep him this way for two more days until the arrival of the council’s representative. I know you understand the necessity for it, and the bigger picture at hand. Things will be different afterwards, and then I can make him disappear.”

Mark felt his heart catch, then miss a second beat. He wasn’t certain it was going to start up again. Had his uncle really just said that? His beloved uncle.

“If you want to keep him out for two more days, that’s not a problem, but when you do wake him up after that, he won’t be able to do much for a while. He’ll be weak as a kitten. His motor skills might be compromised, and he’ll have cognitive issues for at least the first day, maybe two.”

“Not a problem,” Mark’s uncle said. “I don’t need him to do anything but sign his name.” There was a pause of conversation in the room, then the man asked, “You have everything arranged for the things that come after?”

“Mm-hm,” the doctor hummed out. “I’ve already arranged for Prince Mark’s death certificate. Keiko, who has no ties to the council or elsewhere, has agreed to sign on as medical examiner to validate the certificate. Everything is in order. You play your part, and the rest of us will play ours.”

Mark’s soul felt like it was being ripped to shreds as he heard his uncle comment, “Good. We’ll only get one shot at this. And with any luck, no one will ever have to know what really happened.”

The doctor mumbled, “I hope you understand the risk all of us are taking for you, Marcus. If we weren’t indebted to each other at this time, and if we didn’t have such history…” The doctor gave a long sigh. “If She gets wind of this Marcus, you’re dead. Do you understand that? Deader than dead. And so is everyone who helped you.”

It was the oddest twinge to his uncle’s voice that Mark heard him say, “I have no other choice, Victor. This risk, my last play is worth it. Don’t think I don’t know how much you’re risking for me. And consider all debts paid.”

The doctor huffed out, “Alright. In any case I think he’ll sleep for the rest of the day. I’ll change his catheter before tonight, and give him another dose of the sedative after that. Now, where’s that brandy you promised me? I think we both deserve a strong drink before the proverbial hit’s the fan.”

His uncle sighed, “Follow me. I could use your opinion on a few more matters. Money can buy exit visas for the living, but transporting the dead out of the country is much more difficult. I have to figure it out before long.”

It was a miracle to Mark how he held himself together until he heard the door click closed, then he was choking out a sob, still unable to move, utterly heartbroken like he had never been before in his life.

His uncle.

The man who used to spoil him with affection, treated him like a king, and told him how much he loved him on a daily basis, was a monster. He was a monster and Kyuhyun had been right. He’d been right all along and Mark trembled at the thought, crying and feeling as if he was already dead.

His uncle had done everything. He was a monster. And now Mark was at his mercy.

When Mark finally drifted again, the urge to sleep too strong to ignore, Siwon wasn’t there.

Siwon was gone completely, and there were no dreams at all.

For Mark there was only a black void and terrible, terrible thoughts of what was coming next.