Chapter 7 Blood is Thicker Than Water

Shivers were sent down Chaewon’s spine when they approached the large black gates of Dracula Manor. It was a large plot of land, and it took what seemed like forever just to arrive from the main entrance to the gates themselves. 

Beyond the gates, was an even larger plot of land which extended extremely far. The Manor was close to the back, and it towered unbelievably high- it was almost as grand as the castle of their academy.

To say that Chaewon felt uneasy was an understatement. Her hands were shaking and her breath was staggering; never in a million years did she think that she would end up here again. It took all of Chaewon’s strength and willpower to put a stop to her ripper activities, and she swore that she would never take shelter in her uncle’s residence ever again. 

She wondered how her uncle would react to seeing her again, how surprised he would be to see how tame she now was around Bloodbounds. 

But her history with this side of the family wasn’t the only issue… There was also the problem of having Minju, a Bloodbound, in a room filled with all of her predators. The very people in this world who felt satisfaction for preying on people of her kind. 

Maybe this is why Sakura brought them here. 

She thought that by simply complying to what her cousin said, following her back to the Manor, would be the best way to ensure their safety. That by doing so, they eliminated the family’s temptation to hunt and kill. 

But the mere presence of a Bloodbound was enough for Sakura to have some fun. And she was going to play around with her meal in a theatrical way in order to enjoy it.

As Sakura spoke into the voice system just beside the gate, Chaewon felt the adrenaline rush through her body. She had just put her friends in a life-threatening situation. 

Growing even more tense by the second, Chaewon searched for Minju’s wrist behind her, and she tugged on it lightly to bring Minju closer to her back. She slipped some wolfsbane into the girl’s hand and gave it a tight squeeze before retracting her hand.

“Rub it on yourself,” Chaewon whispered instructively. “To cover the smell.”

Minju stayed close to Chaewon, making small movements when applying the wolfsbane to her body. She couldn’t risk her attempts at staying hidden be revealed to their captor. 

The large gates swung open, and Sakura led the way down the grand driveway. The entire accommodation was an exact replica of what Minju had imagined in her mind, as if it was the epitome of what a founding family’s home would look like. It was a grey manor, she noticed, but in the darkness of the night sky it shone a shade of black. The red door and the red blinds appeared to be a recurring aesthetic in these vampire lodgings. 

The closer and closer they got towards the front door, Minju tried her best to focus on things other than her fear. She knew that when humans got scared it triggered the release of a hormone of some sort into their blood, causing them to smell even more potent. It was necessary for her to relax, to ensure that she didn’t attract anymore attention to herself than she already was.

She looked around, taking in her surroundings, until her vision stumbled upon a certain pairing next to her. She glanced downwards and what she saw shocked her.

Wonyoung and Yujin were… Holding hands?

Minju’s eyebrows creased slightly, but a teasing smile broke onto her face as she looked away. She saw straight through Wonyoung from the beginning.

-

Just when Minju thought the situation couldn’t possibly get any worse, they were guided into the drawing room of the Manor. It almost felt like a courtroom; there were loads of red-eyed pale faces wearing black robes with red fabric on the inside, signing papers and such. Minju didn’t quite know what she was expecting- dead bodies hanging from the ceilings, perhaps. But it looked surprisingly civil in comparison to what she had imagined.

But when the man who sat on a throne-like seat in the middle of the room rose to his feet, with his dark long hair and face paler than snow staring at them, Minju suddenly couldn’t feel her heart beating. When they entered, dozens of pairs of red eyes snapped towards them and Minju had to swallow hard to remove a lump in . She kept her gaze to the ground as she simply didn’t have the confidence or the bravery to let her eyes wander anywhere else. So there she stood, hunched over behind Chaewon’s shoulder. She felt Chaewon’s cold fingertips searching for hers as their hands dangled, and Minju successfully gripped onto them once she had caught them in her own. Her senses seemed to slowly come back to her at the sensation of Chaewon playing with her fingers, rubbing soft circles on the palm of her hand. 

“Is that you, Chaewon?” The authoritative man at the front of the room bellowed. 

He closed the book that he was holding in his hand and dashed like lightning to the middle of the room. Thankfully he was still quite a distance from them.

“Oh and Yujin, too,” he smiled in a way that Minju wasn’t sure whether it was genuine or not, considering how menacing it was. 

Yujin forced a smile and nodded enthusiastically in a charming manner that she was so good at acting out. There was no way she was about to risk being disrespectful in a place full of the world’s deadliest killers.

It was time to work her charm, for all of their sakes.

“How have you been uncle?” She asked politely.

“I’ve been excellent. I see that your other sisters aren’t here with you.”

“Ah~” Yujin started, “Hyewon and Yena unnie? They’re back at the academy.”

“And what brings the four of you here, then?” He said, edging ever so slightly closer towards the group. 

Chaewon held onto Minju’s hand even tighter.

“We came here to do some research for a school project, but Sakura unnie found us and brought us here,” Yujin explained.

“I see.” He held his hands behind his back. “Well, don’t be strangers!” He suddenly exclaimed. “Introduce me to your friends!”

Without warning, he zoomed over to them with such speed, and the frightening, middle-aged looking man was directly in front of them in a flash. 

Minju froze on the spot and she subconsciously held her breath, in hopes that he wouldn’t ask about her.

He went over to Wonyoung first and slowly took her hand, raising it to his lips. He placed a gentle kiss on it, and Wonyoung was careful not to flinch, in order to appear as calm as possible. She offered a forced, but small smile afterwards.

“An Eligiato,” he spoke up, looking deep into Wonyoung’s orange eyes. 

And when he began to move further down the line, he stopped once more at Chaewon. She tried as hard as possible to distract him from Minju.

She gave him a very believable smile as she held her hands in front of her.

“If it isn’t Kim Chaewon in front of me,” her uncle said, looking her up and down with a smile on his face. “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you back here.”

“It’s been a while, uncle,” Chaewon politely responded.

“I was wondering when the next time I would see you would be… I don’t suppose I could persuade you to join our clan once more?” He said in a teasing tone.

Chaewon feigned laughter, “I don’t think so, uncle. I’m trying to set a good example for little Yujin right here,” she said, pulling her sister into her side and shaking her around. 

This was amusing for Wonyoung and Minju because Yujin was significantly taller than her older sister anyways.

But the smile on Minju’s face dissipated once the uncle’s eyes slowly but surely turned to face her. She felt like a cage diver who currently had a 20 foot shark looming closer to her, the only protection she had being the spacious bars of the cage which acted as almost no protection at all. 

Chaewon’s breath hitched in as her uncle’s face moved closer to the two of them, leaning further in to get a look at Minju. He stared at her with a blank face, the kind of expression that seemed like he was stepping into new territory for the first time. 

“Brown eyes,” he said as he tilted his head disdainfully.

Chaewon’s eyes glued shut as she cursed at herself for all of her poor decisions. She should have run away with Minju from the beginning, she shouldn’t have come here with Wonyoung and Yujin. 

“The real reason why I brought them here, uncle,” Sakura’s voice appeared from the back of the hall, “is because I came across something rather interesting.”

Everything became silent and Minju felt as if her soul was leaving her body. Without warning, Chaewon’s hoodie was ripped from her body and she was no longer shielded by the stench of the wolfsbane. The eyes of everyone in the room glared at her, their pupils growing darker and darker. Minju caught a momentary sight of a vampire at the front of the room whose mouth was twitching while looking at her.

Before Minju knew it, she felt a strong shove on her back and she flew a few feet away from the others. All Minju could hear was a ringing in her ears and she assumed that the entire room had been sent into a frenzy. She could briefly make out the hissing of some of the Talgory vampires as well as a muffled scream which belonged to Chaewon. 

The world around her started to spin and she felt like she had just been knocked out. She could hardly bring herself to her feet without falling. 

But when she eventually regained her senses, she felt the presence of the uncle uncomfortably close to her. He held her chin painfully with his entire hand as he violently jerked Minju’s face upwards to look at him.

“Stop!” Chaewon yelled, but her efforts were of no use. Both of her arms were being held by two guards.

Minju struggled to breathe in his grip. All of her fear disappeared because she was sure of the inevitability of the outcome; she was going to die.

She was surprised, however, when she was dropped from his grasp. She fell to the ground and clasped her neck, trying to allow circulation around her body once more.

“Release her,” the uncle gestured towards Chaewon, who was currently locked in an arm bar. “That’s no way to treat family.”

Chaewon aggressively shook the hands off her, and she tried so hard to focus on the situation at hand. How was she going to get Minju away?

Chaewon watched with extreme caution, holding her breath as she stared at her uncle who was now circling Minju on the ground. Her body was telling her to step forward, to just take Minju and run away, but she stood absolutely no chance. All she could do now was watch as Minju struggled to breathe on the floor, her heart breaking in the process. 

“Well I see you’ve grown since your ripper days,” her uncle chuckled in a mocking manner, earning the laughter of the other Talgory vampires in the room.

Chaewon clenched her jaw when her uncle bent down to Minju’s line of sight and stared at her. She subconsciously stepped forward, but was seized back into place by a strong guard. 

“How can you possibly withstand the temptation?” The monster trailed ever so slowly, his black eyes lined with thin rims of red as he took in every single detail of Minju’s face. 

Just when Chaewon thought something bad was going to happen, her uncle stood up and began circling Minju once more.

“Bloodbounds are certainly an intriguing kind aren’t they… The human blood that still lingers in their tissues,” he said in a painfully longing tone, as if he’d been starved for weeks. 

He zoomed back down to Minju.

“I want to bite her head off just thinking about it!” 

Chaewon needed to assert herself now otherwise there was no going back. 

“Please let her go, uncle Orpheus,” Chaewon said in a relaxed tone so as to not give her feelings away. “She is my Bloodbound.”

“Your Bloodbound, you say? Then why is it you take her with you, even to far places like this? The Chaewon I knew wouldn’t have even been able to stand close to a Bloodbound without tearing them to pieces!” 

Chaewon grew heated just hearing the way he spoke about Minju.

“I get thirsty all the time,” was the only humorous response she could think of. She hoped that it would remind her uncle of the old alliance they had and let Minju go out of friendship. 

The room erupted in laughter, but there was no sign of amusement on Chaewon’s face.

Orpheus clapped his hands lightly as he laughed, slowly making his way back over to Minju. He grabbed her arm and yanked her up violently, gripping her long hair tightly and pulling it back so her face was to the ceiling. 

“Just one bite, would you?” He said lowly, sweeping Minju’s brunette hair over her shoulder so that her neck was revealed.

“Don’t you dare-” Chaewon growled under her breath, losing all self-restraint and charging towards her uncle. 

But her act of force worked to no avail, as she was winded by Orpheus in one single blow. 

“Chaewon unnie!” Minju cried out from her stiff position, still being held tightly round the neck. 

“Hold her,” Orpheus bellowed in anger as he instructed the guards to pin Chaewon to the ground. 

“Don’t hurt her!” Chaewon shouted, using all of her might to stop her cheek from being pushed to the ground by the guards’ cold hands.

But it was no use. Chaewon’s vision became blurry in the final seconds of her face being completely rammed into the stone of the floor. 

“Please…” she whispered desperately before she gave in to the pressure that was on her head. She let her head drop to the ground as well as her heart. 

A cold tear trickled down her cheek at the sight of the life being drained from Minju’s face. The honey of her skin, the beautiful brown of her eyes looked void of colour. She was losing her blood to a monster.

Chaewon was shaken back to reality by the sound of a loud bang. She reopened her eyes to see Minju’s body sprawled on the ground, and a scared look on Uncle Orpheus’ face at something the guard had told him.

There was no longer a heavy weight on her back, and so Chaewon used her hand to drag herself along the cold floor, to where Minju was. She laid next to the girl, ignoring the painful pounding of her own head, and pulled Minju’s head into her chest. She held the girl tightly in her arms as she sobbed quietly into Minju’s hair.

“It can’t be,” Chaewon heard a voice in the silence.

“Look how weak she is… You think a Talgory can be beaten down like that? All of her powers are gone,” another voice responded, whom she assumed to be the guard.

The guard stormed back over to her and pulled her up by the collar, hauling her over to Orpheus.

She was thrown into her uncle’s hands and he grasped her by the shirt, pulling her in forcefully. Chaewon’s head was limp and she couldn’t seem to keep it still as she tried to hold eye contact with him. Orpheus then grabbed hold of her chin and stationed her in place, leaning in so closely to evaluate the state of her eyes.

Before she knew it, she was dropped to the ground again and she felt as if she had just had a pile of bricks thrown onto her. She writhed on the floor in pain, taking no notice of what her uncle could possibly be saying to everyone else. 

Chaewon flipped over on the floor to catch a sight of Minju. Seeing her laying so helplessly on the ground like that drove absolute rage through Chaewon’s veins, and she needed to take the opportunity to make a brisk escape while her uncle was busy, distracted with whatever debate he was having right now. 

She caught the attention of Yujin, who had been signalling for her attention, too. Chaewon watched her sister carefully, trying to figure out what her plan was by simple head movements. 

First, she needed to make sure that her uncle was still distracted. Looking over, he was now gathered in a group of Talgory vampires, having what sounded like a heated debate. Chaewon temporarily wondered what they could possibly be arguing about, but she needed to make sure that she didn’t miss this window of opportunity to leave.

After one final nod of Yujin’s head, and witnessing her cautiously whisper into Wonyoung’s ear, Chaewon knew that it was time to brace herself. 

In one swift gush of wind, Chaewon momentarily felt herself being lifted from the ground, followed by the sensation of her hair being carried away by the wind. The speed at which they were travelling right now gave Chaewon whiplash, meaning that Yujin was running at an incredible speed.

She tried to open her eyes slightly, now gathering that she was being cradled in her younger sister’s arms. 

“M-Minju,” Chaewon managed to utter on top of the volume of the air resistance around them.

“Wonyoung’s got her,” Yujin replied loudly.

“I need to see her,” Chaewon said.

The wind had stopped attacking Chaewon’s face and she knew they had come to a stop. They reached a field in the clearing, and Yujin carefully let her sister down onto the long grass. 

The taller girl remained standing, stretching her arms and putting her hands on her hips. 

A few seconds later, Chaeown noticed a flash of light emerge from the trees that surrounded the clearing. Wonyoung arrived and let Minju lie on the grass, while she put her hands on her knees and tried to regain her breath. 

“Kim Minju,” Chaewon said faintly, shuffling across the ground towards her.

Chaewon sat up, gently pulling Minju into her and laying the girl’s head on her lap. She fondly gazed upon Minju’s facial features and how she looked so relaxed when she was asleep. She ran her hands through Minju’s long, dark hair in attempts to comfort her. The bite mark on Minju’s neck revealed itself and a glossy white mark was already beginning to scar over it. She placed a delicate kiss on the crown of Minju’s head, taking comfort in the fact that the girl’s heart was still beating. She was still alive.

“Are you okay?” Yujin asked Wonyoung as they took a strolIl through the fields.

“I just don’t know how to react,” Wonyoung replied. “Everything happened so quickly that I don’t even remember what happened.”

“I can’t imagine how scary it must have been for you. Orpheus is my uncle, after all, so I kind of know what to expect with him. But you didn’t.”

“I didn’t really have time to think when I was there. All he did was stand in front of me and it gave me the chills,” Wonyoung cringed at the mere thought.

“I seriously wanted to punch him in the face,” Yujin shook her head as she looked into the distance. “He intruded your personal space.”

Wonyoung let out a chuckle.

“But hey,” Wonyoung said after a brief silence. She stopped to stand in front of Yujin. “Thank you for making sure that I was safe.”

Yujin only stared at the girl, fearing that a blush may have crept onto her cheeks. She quickly turned away and resumed walking.

“You owe me,” Yujin responded in a teasing tone. 

“How about I let you beat me in a duel?” Wonyoung offered, her tone equally teasing.

A large smile formed on Yujin’s face no matter how hard she tried to suppress it. Wonyoung saw this, and a shy smile began to etch on her own face. She noticed how, when Yujin was shy, she had the habit of looking downwards in an attempt to cover her expressions. And when a smile would break onto her face regardless of her efforts, it would reach her eyes so that they turned into thin lines. Sometimes Wonyoung purposely tried to make her laugh so that she could see Yujin’s dimples, which illuminated her face in a cute way, contrary to how intimidating she looked normally. 

“Maybe we should go and check back up on them,” Wonyoung cleared when she caught herself staring for too long.

“Do you not enjoy walking with me?” Yujin asked, her eyes turning into thin lines as she flashed a bright smile, letting out a laugh.

Wonyoung was speechless for a moment.

“W-what?,” she abruptly said. “No, I hate it!” she shouted in a hesitant way.

“Okay, okay,” Yujin said, raising her hands in surrender.

Yujin had always been the teasing kind. Even when she was younger, she was notorious among her sisters to be the sibling who always played pranks, who always got into trouble for the most stupid things. But with that silliness, came great loyalty and selflessness. Out of all of the sisters, Chaewon could depend on Yujin the most, not just because she was the youngest and so was thought to be the kindest; but because Yujin was the most true-hearted out of all of them. Of course Chaewon could put her trust in Hyewon and Yena, too, but there was something so pure about Yujin, that made her seem like she genuinely cared rather than only helping people because she felt obliged to. 

Even though she was young, she was capable of great things. As she displayed in Dracula Manor earlier, she had an amazing knack for knowing what to do in difficult situations. She put the wellbeing of those around her before the wellbeing of herself. Chaewon always wished that she could be as selfless as her sister. But now she was beginning to find it out for herself… That she would sacrifice anything, even herself, for Minju to stay safe and happy. 

“Yujin unnie,” Wonyoung whispered. “I’m worried about Chaewon unnie.”

“Why?” 

“When you were trying to get Chaewon unnie’s attention back at the manor, I heard what your uncle was saying.”

“What did he say?” Yujin asked, concerned.

“Something about how she’s an abomination to the Talgory bloodline. I remember them saying something about her powers.”

“Her powers?” Yujin furrowed her eyebrows. “What’s wrong with unnie’s powers?”

“I was thinking the same thing…” Wonyoung trailed.

Then something clicked in her head, and when she told Yujin, the girl was absolutely fuming.

“Chaewon unnie!” Yujin yelled from across the field, and before Chaewon knew it, her collar was aggressively held in Yujin’s grip.

“Read my mind right now,” Yujin growled, her eyes widened in anger. “Read it!” 

“I-I don’t know,” Chaewon said, struggling to breathe. “Y-Yujin-ah, I can’t breathe.”

Yujin let out a disappointed sigh and released her collar, letting her fall back onto the floor. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She threw her arms in the air. “You lost your powers and you didn’t tell me?” Her voice grew increasingly louder, her face becoming paler and paler and her eyes gleaming red.

“Unnie,” Wonyoung intervened, tugging on Yujin’s arm. 

She had never seen Yujin this angry before, and it worried her because her glare was so focused on Chaewon.

“I’m your sister and you didn’t tell me about something this big? What if Wonyoung and I weren’t back at the manor… What would you have done? You would’ve allowed you and Minju unnie to die on the spot?”

“Stop this,” Wonyoung said once more, holding onto Yujin’s shoulder.

“Or what if Sakura unnie wasn’t there to save us from the wolves? All of us would have died because you risked your life despite knowing that your powers weren’t working.”

“Yujin-ah, I swear to God. I had no idea that my powers were gone completely,” Chaewon finally spoke up, her tone desperate.

“Well this situation just got even worse because now uncle Orpheus is saying that you’ve committed some sort of crime against the entire Talgory bloodline,” Yujin said quickly, her thoughts and anger pouring out in one go.

“What?” Chaewon pushed her head forward in disbelief. 

“Yeah!” Yujin responded patronisingly, “what the hell did you do?” 

“To make me lose my powers? How the hell am I supposed to know?” Chaewon returned Yujin’s hostile tone.

“This isn’t just any old punishment, unnie- you have literally lost your powers. How are you so calm about this?” 

“Ahn Yujin, do I look ing calm to you?” Chaewon stood up and squared up to her sister. 

“You should have told me. Then I wouldn’t have brought you here in the first place,” Yujin glared straight into Chaewon’s eyes.

"I already told you that I didn't know," Chaewon said in a low voice.

"What if it was me and Wonyoung who were held down by Orpheus? We would have died because you're ing useless without your powers," Yujin spat through her teeth.

"Ya Ahn Yujin-" Chaewon shouted at her.

“Guys please. Fighting won’t solve anything.” Wonyoung pushed them away from each other. “Our priority right now is getting back home and making sure Minju unnie is safe. We can discuss this later when we’re all settled.” 

Chaewon clenched her jaw and scowled at Yujin one last time before turning away.

Author's note: 

And the plot thickens...

I just wanted to thank all of you so much for the lovely comments on this ff! Your comments are keeping me motivated to write more!

Let me know what you think of the plot so far, and I might get another update out by the end of the week ;)

Have a good day! --Authornim