Ahreum was sitting near a tree with her legs protecting her body, "I-Is someone there?" She asked, now that the initial shock was gone she was trying to clear her mind up.

She was looking at the forest, wondering if the wolves were going to came out of the trees and bushes any time soon when she saw them: 4 boys making their way to her spot.

Her eyes were now focused in the four shadows getting closer and closer to her, she could barely see their faces but as time passed, the 8 eyes of the 4 guys were now visible for her.

Ahreum didn't ask anything, she even didn't notice the unusual color of the 4 pairs of eyes looking at her, she came out of her world when a voice brought her back to the earth.

"Excuse-e me, are you ok?" Youngjae asked, he was covering his nose with a scarf, an act that the terryfied Ahreum found a little weird.

"Maybe he has a flu" She thought "But... Why are the other two covering their noses too?"

"Hm, hm" He tossed.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry" She said clumsily "I wa-was..."

"Did something happen here?" Jinyoung cut her off.

"Well, some a-animals were... They... Th-hey" She couldn't continue, she inhaled and exhaled heavely trying to recompose herself.

Jinyoung watched the shocked girl breath, he started to feel bad for her when a image of his little sister, who had died some centuries ago, in the same position as the stranger in front of his eyes appeared on his mind, "It's fine if you can't talk"

With that words Ahreum started feeling like a fool.

She remembered all the times she had said to Somi not to be afraid of the street dogs, she had helped her with the little trauma she had the last years and now, she couldn't move... The reason? Some bigger mutts.

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"Calev, you are saying that the future of our specimen depends on me?" I could say that I was feeling a little proud, for the first time in centuries my existence would have some sort of value.

He cleared his throat, I could see a little of reliev in the small smile his lips were making "Ye..." He tried to say, but Maylie intervened cutting him off.

"Well, it is not neccesarily you Mark" My head was getting dizzier and dizzier every second of that night, not because it was full moon but because all what do the elders were saying at that moment, at one minute I was the hero of the story and at the other I was... nothing "Look, what we need you to do is to protect the girl" She said.

"We believe in destiny and we believe that it will make you to meet her soon and..." She wanted to continue but progressivily stopped when she realized I'd entered her mind looking for the truth.

That was my ability: Getting into the mind of any person I wanted, you could call it "reading thoughts"

"So... You are using me like a bodyguard for that human?" I kept with my strong gaze fixed in her eyes.

I could see in Calev's expression that he was looking for a way of saving the little problem I was making with Maylie. I was frustrated with her last words and, to make things even worse, all of the other covens who had came to my house tonight had also heard it: I had to protect a stupid human girl.

Soon, the face of the eldest vampire in the room relaxed a little bit, I guess an idea had came to his mind. He cleared his throat for the second time in the last two minutes and started to speak, "You don't have to see it in that way Tuan"

"So in what way do I have to see it Calev? Don't tell me th..."

"It's your destiny Mark, we had not manipulated anything" He said "We just came to notify it to you, in both cases you have the option to continue as nothing has happened when you meet her or to get to know and protect the girl, and let me tell you... I think that you will surelly go for the second option"

"With all the respect Calev, but why are you so sure?"

"Because she is the one Tuan, the one you have been waiting for all this centuries"

Imposible...

I frowned closing my eyes and fists, I kept in that position for what I felt were 5 minutes... It didn't make sense for me, why did I have to protect a girl? It didn't care if she was the "one". I'm sure... I will never love her. I turned my gaze where JB and Jackson were, they looked as confused as I was.

Calev and the rest of the council had all of their glassy eyes fixed on me, triumphantly... I guess it was what they wanted: to corner me and my "destiny" with their cold words. But it wasn't going to work, at least not so easily... 

All this years I had seen these elders as some sort of rare existences, in our "world" there wasn't any vampire who had all the control and rules on his hands but this coven had always acted as they were the supreme forces of our civilization. All my encounters with them had never left a good impression and I could say that the feeling was mutual. 

"Mark, aren't you going to say anything?" For the first time of this night Miah, the one who had the vision of my "future", spoke. She had the apparence of a perfect pale lady in her early 40's but a scar on her forehead "ruined" her peaceful and beautiful face. For a vampire a permanent scar meant a hurtful memory or, in some cases, a hurtful act.

Kill, dead and rejection were some of the thousands of words asociated with it.

"Miah, maybe you haven't noticed but I am trying to asimilate all the information.. I-It's not easy you know?"

The silence in the room was sepulcral although around 5 covens were outside my house. What I was supossed to say? Yes , I will protect that girl, we will live happy ever after and all of your majestic stocks will be here for some centuries more.

I can't do it, not now...

"Tuan, if time is what you need we will come back here in some days.. We want you to make a decision by that time, when we return you might had find the girl, or maybe she will find you"

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"Hey, are you okay now?" Junior asked sitting on the grass so he could be in the same level as Ahreum's eyes. Fifteen minutes had passed since the girl's last words. Meanwhile Youngjae, BamBam and Yugyeom were trying to control their inner feelings... They hadn't been in contact with humans the last five months and now that their bodys were claiming something to eat their actual situation wasn't the best help, also the fact that the girl smelled like a mix of cookies, brownies, ice cream and berries were making their blood neccesity the most difficult thing in the world.

"I'm fine, you-you don't need to worry" Ahreum was feeling less scared now, to be honest, Junior had used a little of his ability over her "I'd better keep going, I-I am already late" She said.

Jinyoung could sense that the girl was starting to feel sort of distrustful with them around. Well, who wouldn't with 4 guys covering their faces at night in a bleak forest? But what Ahreum's heart was telling her wasn't that, what her heart told her was not to be scared anymore, she was safe now.

Suddenly BamBam put his beanie back to his head, he had taken some steps to the girl's direction and his eyes were now shining with a bit of doubt, mentally he was fighting with himself... To talk or not to talk with the girl?

"I know I can do it!" 
"No, you will only end killing her and then the mutts will kill you" 
"I have a good control of myself" 
"No, you don't. Look at who you are talking now" 
"Shhh, I-I will do it"

And with that he started to walk towards the stranger's direction.

"Hi" He said awkardly approaching Ahreum's spot "I think you should go to your hou-house now, it's getting late here..." He looked over his shoulder into Junior's eyes to make sure that what he had said was appropiate in this type of situation.

"I.."

Youngjae and Yugyeom were now making their way to their friends' direction, when Ahreum was clearing her mind up everyone had dispersed a bit to let her a little of space. They had taken control of their minds by that time convincing himselfs that anything was going to be wrong that night.

"I can't" What came out of the brown haired girl's mouth sounded like a lament.

"So what are you doing at the middle of the forest at this time of the day?" Junior asked.

"Ex-excuse me, I don't want to sound ungrateful b-but what I'm doing here.." She said softly with an almost imperceptible voice "What I am doing here is-is my problem and you don't need to worry"

An awkard silence was made in the forest, however it didn't last many seconds as the one with the white scarf started tossing.

"Hm hm... Anyways, what happened here?" Althought they already knew the answer for that question Youngjae asked once again.

"So-some wolfs appeared minutes ago but they didn't hurt me, I just got too scared and shocked but I..." Ahreum responded "But I'm fine now"

She started to get on her feet to make her way out of the scene but, in what felt like a second, she found herself cornered by the stranger boys. She could say that they were around her age by their looks, some of them were even younger but the next words of the tallest boy in the group ruined her plans.

"Is okay with you if my friend and I call you noona?" Yugyeom asked pointing over BamBam, he had his mask still on to appease the smell emanated by the girl. Youngjae, Junior and the one with the beanie were trying to control their laughs... Yugyeom and BamBam could probably be this girl's grandfather but if it was the attempt of the youngest vampire to make the atmosphere more comfortable for the girl in front of his eyes they couldn't ruin it.

"Yeah, it's ok-okay with me" Even if Ahreum was still sttutering she was relieved that someone had found her. The boys, apart of the fact that they could probably be some sort of serial murders, were starting to look inoffensive in her eyes. She started to walk the way to the street knowing that the 4 boys were following her behind. The silence of the scene was interrupted when the coven of vampires started to murmur.

"Hyung, I think we should start a conversation with her, she doesn't even know our names" BamBam said "Just look at Yugyeom and Youngjae hyung, they couldn't be more tenebrous" Junior shot a glance to their spot, the faces of the two of them were still covered with a scarf and a mask respectively, he put himself in the shoes of the girl: She had just seen a pack of giant "wolfs", then a bunch of guys appeared from inside the forest and now they were following her around, without knowing their names or what do they really were.

Scary...

"You are right Bammie" He said "Go ahead"

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"What are you going to do now Mark?" Jackson asked glaring at his friend who was resting his head on his living room's sofa. The council and the covens outside Mark's house were already gone and now only JB, Jackson and his mom were still with the eldest vampire of the "Silver Pearl" clan. For vampires it was possible to have kids but only throught a vampire-vampire relationship, even in that cases it was still something rare but Jackson and Mark were the living proof of that.

"I don't know" Mark responded playing with his bracelet, every member of the coven had almost the same one but for vampires it was visible different.

Every bracelet was a, as their name said, silver pearl, but it wasn't a perfect one... It was more as if someone had beaten it with a stone several times: the edges were irregular and it could be seen that time had passed, especially on Mark's. There were only two identical bracelets in the world, one for this coven vampire and the other for his future love. The two words that Mark hated the most.

Each coven had something to set them apart from others, the elders distinctive was a crescent moon collar, their friends from Alaska had a snowflake ring and a japanese coven they got to know some years ago had a star earring. The reason? It would guide them to their other half... It could took centuries as well as only some years but it was going to happen someday, as Calev had said: it was their destiny. 

"Mark, I didn't even know the half of what they were talking about, I'm sorry" JB's face was priceless, he looked even more concerned than Mark was. He felt guilty for not being in control of the situation back there, he felt that he wasn't being a good leader for his friends.

"I know that you didn't JB, you don't need to be sorry" Mark had lifted his head so that JB could see the sincerety in his eyes, he knew that his destiny wasn't his friend's fault, it even wasn't the elders'.

Now he was realizing....

His fate wasn't anyone's fault.