{11}

“Still can’t find a loophole in the case?”

Youngjae had his head lowered, his fingers massaging his temples with his eyes shut.

Upon hearing Yongguk’s voice, he sighed and lifted his head, meeting Yongguk’s eyes.

Yongguk was standing in front of his work desk in the police station, glancing at him worriedly.

“You’re working so hard for him, Jae. But does he even know? Will he even appreciate it?”

Youngjae’s lips thinned and he could not bring himself to accept the fact that Yongguk just pointed out.

“I can’t find a single lead that may lead to us to the perpetuator. Whoever is doing this, they are really careful.” He said, changing the topic.

The door to Youngjae’s office swung open at that moment and a flustered looking Agent Booth came rushing through the doors.

“It’s chaos out there.” He panted, trying to catch his breath.

Youngjae’s brows furrowed. “Chaos? What’s going on?”

“You haven’t been monitoring the situation out there?”

That question from Yongguk caused the crease between Youngjae’s brows to deepen even more.  What situation?

“This, -” Agent Booth paused, switching on the television in Youngjae’s office, “-is happening.”

The flashing headlines caught Youngjae’s attention. It read ‘Multiple assassinations resulted in massive panic and chaos among The OtherWorlds’

His vision then shifted to the background where the reporter stood. The OtherWorlds were fleeing from their homes, they were running in all directions and raging fires were engulfing some houses.

A piercing scream in the background made the reporter swiveled around, turning towards the source of the scream.

The scream came from a woman, who was being pinned down on the ground by a man twice her size. She was screaming and thrashing around, repeatedly calling for help.

But no one stopped to help her. Everyone who was fleeing from their own homes merely casted a gaze at her and ran away from them, lest they become the next victim.

“Cut it.” The reporter said to the camera crew and in the next second, the broadcast was terminated.

Youngjae stood rooted to the ground, so did Yongguk and Agent Booth.

“We should be out there, controlling this.” Youngjae said softly, breaking the silence.

“The Deputy has ordered us not to take any actions. The police force is not equipped with enough manpower to control this situation. This outbreak of panic, it’s too large-scale.”

Youngjae was silent but he agreed with him mentally. The total population of The OtherWorlds amounted up to nearly a million, that’s a size the police couldn’t handle.

But where are they headed? That was the most important question right now.

Youngjae grabbed his coat that was draped over his chair and rushed out of his office.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Was all that he said before leaving the two guys.

Youngjae hopped on to his car and sped to the destination that he had in mind. The area surrounding the police station was still quiet it was located on the outskirts of town. It was still unaffected by the chaos. But it was all a matter of time.

Youngjae pulled over at Daehyun’s residence, stepping out of his car.

He made his way into his residence, taking note of the eerie silent. It was as though the silence and the darkness were warning him that it was the calm before the storm.

Daehyun’s room came into sight a few seconds later and Teddy wasn’t there to stop him tonight. He pushed the door open and strode into his room.

Daehyun was sitting at his work desk, sipping on a glass of wine. And there were only two possible reasons that could offer an explanation to why he was drinking. It was either he was celebrating or something went awry and he had to drink it away.

“What brings you here?” Daehyun asked between sips. Youngjae stood opposite him, in front of his work desk.

It had been a month since he last saw Daehyun, after Youngjae had confronted him that night.

“Would you like to join me for a drink?” Daehyun said, a small smile playing on his lips.

Guess it was the former. He’s celebrating. Youngjae thought bitterly. His heart fell, he was beyond disappointed.

“Why do you look so glum, Youngjae? It’s time for a celebration! The ruling party of the OtherWorlds have fell, it’s chaos out there right now. We’ve won.”

Youngjae watched as the pride, victory and vengeance danced in Daehyun’s eyes.

Shaking his head, he answered, “We didn’t win, you did. If you think that they wouldn’t be onto you, you’re so wrong.”

Daehyun snorted. “They wouldn’t know that we did it.”

Youngjae was disgusted by Daehyun’s repeated use of ‘we’-s. But he kept it hidden away.

“Really? Because your plan was so well thought out that there aren’t any flaws in it?” Sarcasm lined Youngjae’s voice.

Daehyun narrowed his eyes at him; his grip around the cup was tightening.

“Then what do you have to say about the fact that you casually forgot that I’m working for the police to help them crack high profile crimes?”

By high profile crimes, it meant the murder and unexplainable deaths of high-ranking members of the OtherWorlders.

Although in theory the Vampires were recognized as an OtherWorld, in reality they were separated. The Vampires had a justice and ruling system of their own, so did the OtherWorld.

Although they were separated, wars seldom broke out among them. It was the truce that prevented war from breaking out. But how long more will the truce hold? It was meant to be a temporary time-out where two parties agreed to stop fighting, not a permanent solution. A war was bound to break out one day.

If the truth that the Vampires were behind the killings got out, the truce would be over and there would be war.

Daehyun was silent and that meant that Youngjae has pointed out a fatal fact that Daehyun missed out.

“So you’re investigating me right now?”

Youngjae snorted. “I’m not investigating you. I’m investigating the people around you.”

“The people around me?” Daehyun’s eyes were cold and hard.

“The only thing that I can tell you right now is, you need to be more careful of the people you trust.”

Daehyun rose to his feet, his hands tucked into his pockets. “Are you even listening to yourself right now, Youngjae? These people, they are all sired to me.”

Youngjae rubbed his face with his hand. “You do know that it’s possible for the sire bond to be broken, right?”

Youngjae’s voice was dry and hoarse. He was tired, tired of explaining the situation to Daehyun, tired of trying to get him to see the bigger picture.

He watched as the traces of confusion started slipping into Daehyun’s face but they went away as quickly as they appeared.

“Look, I don’t know what do you stand to gain by trying to turn me against my own people. But you need to stop doing this. Stand with me, Youngjae and fight alongside with me. We are parabatais.”

Youngjae let out a deep sigh. This isn’t working.

“You know, Daehyun, my disappointment for you rises every day. I’ve always thought that disappointment is an emotion that has a limit to it. Like you just feel disappointed at someone and it’s just an emotion that lingers in you. But it is until today that I’ve finally realized that it’s an emotion that can be intensified and heightened, just like pain.”

Daehyun glanced at Youngjae, expressionless. With a shake of his head, Youngjae swiveled around and walked out of Daehyun’s room and his residence.

He went back to his car and sat blankly in the driver’s seat, his hands limply resting on his thighs. Fighting a war against his parabatai was not only tiring, but it was also emotionally draining.

He pulled out his cellphone from his trouser’s pocket after a while, searching for a particular contact before hitting the ‘call’ button.

“Hello?”

“Soah, I need you here right now.”