{21}

"Soah!" 

Daehyun's voice jerked Youngjae out of his sleep, almost causing him to fall off the armchair he was slouched in. 

His eyes found Daehyun's and he felt his breath hitched when he saw the look that Daehyun had in his eyes. 

Daehyun's eyes looked haunted. He had the same look in his eyes after witnessing his family murdered brutally before him that particular night. 

Youngjae watched as Daehyun deflated, as if he was a balloon, when he realized that Youngjae was the only one in the room besides him. 

"How long have I been out?" Daehyun asked, his voice soft and low. He stared at his palms that laid on his thighs, his head hung low. 

"Two nights." Youngjae answered, realizing that he had been staring at Daehyun wordlessly for a minute long without answering him. 

"Did they get what they wanted from me?" Daehyun lifted his head up, meeting Youngjae's eyes. 

Youngjae nodded wordlessly. The memory of the night before was still crystal clear in Youngjae's mind. All of those memories of  Daehyun's childhood was visible for everyone in the room. 

Daehyun wasn't the only one who could see it. Daehyun begged them to stop torturing him, to stop making him relive those painful days again after the memory, where his family was killed before his own eyes, was plucked out. 

Daehyun had lost consciousness after that, which means that all the defenses he had put up while being conscious, was now gone. That was when the Witches involved in the ceremony went out to sieve out memories regarding the important political figures that had been murdered. 

That was the point of the spell and ceremony that the Witches were performing. The spell had trapped Daehyun's consciousness in another world of a different dimension and that was where Daehyun was made to recall his childhood as the Witches started the ceremony. 

He had been knocked out for two nights after the ceremony as it was mentally damaging, since the spell messed with his mind when it trapped him in another dimension. 

Daehyun gave him a curt nod as a form of acknowledgement and lifted the blanket off him, getting out of the bed. 

"Where are you going?" Youngjae stood up instantly, trailing right behind Daehyun. 

"Getting back to the task that we have on our hands, buddy. We still have three lives to save, in case you don't remember." He said while grabbing a grey knitted cardigan from his dresser before heading out of the door. 

Youngjae shook his head as he fell into step with Daehyun. He had a smile plastered on his face. "This kid still has his sass", Youngjae thought. 

"Why are you smiling to yourself?" Daehyun had his head tilted towards Youngjae, one of his brows was raised. 

Daehyun shook his head moments after, not giving Youngjae any time to answer him. "Forget it, you're insane." He mumbled under his breath. 

The both of them took a right turn at that moment and entered the room where everyone else was gathered in. 

Everyone's eyes were trained on the television screen in the room, they were watching the afternoon news. 

Daehyun stopped momentarily when he heard the voice of the news reporter and stood behind the couch where the rest of them were, while Youngjae stood beside him. 

A picture of Daehyun was on the screen of the television, and beside his picture, a news reporter was busy yapping away. 

"We've just received news from the central police station that The Vampire King is now no longer a suspect for the murders of the high ranking OtherWorlds officials." The voice of the news reporter floated through the room. 

Daehyun felt himself tuning out after that. His eyes were still trained on the screen but his mind was somewhere else. 

Youngjae nudged him in the arm, hard, to get his attention. "Don't zone out like that, it makes you look dumb." 

Daehyun rolled his eyes at him, turning back to the screen once more and said, "They could have chosen a nicer picture of me." 

And that earned a snicker from Youngjae and Himchan. 

"Oh please, just admit that you're not like me, I'm good looking in every single angle." Himchan wore a smirk on his face, his head was tilted upwards towards Daehyun. 

"Boys." Angeline shook her head in disapproval as she got up from the couch, grabbing the controller and switching off the television. "Let's get back to work, shall we?" 

The four of them (Yongguk, Himchan, Jongup and Caleb) scrambled up from the couch and made their way towards the large conference table that sat in the room. 

They were in the lounge room, where it had a television, a game console, a pool table, several arcade machines and a large conference table with a chalkboard hanging on the wall. Yes, Daehyun was filthy rich. And this was one out of the many villas he owned. 

Daehyun pulled out a chair that was tucked under the conference table and took a seat. 

Yongguk rounded the table and approached the chalkboard, a few files in his hands. 

"Okay, so I did some digging and investigation when Daehyun was out." Yongguk said while clipping some files on the chalkboard, his back facing them. 

He grabbed a piece of chalk, scribbling 'Devil' messily and pinned a photograph under it. 

"That's the Devil?" Youngjae pointed at the photograph with his index finger. 

Yongguk nodded in response, his lips set in a thin line. 

"Seriously?" Youngjae's voice was a note higher than usual, which showed that he was really taken aback. 

The shock that Youngjae felt was reasonable because in the picture, The Devil looked as though he was an average OtherWorlder, not The Devil himself. He did not carry any sort of vibe or signs that he might be The Devil. 

Yongguk continued attaching several more photographs on the chalkboard, each of different sizes and with different people in them. 

Daehyun leaned forward in his chair, his eyes carefully studying the photographs that Yongguk put up. "What is he doing?" Daehyun mumbled, his eyes still glued on the photographs. 

"He's holding a party?" Youngjae's brows were furrowed. "Wait, that's Theodore." He pointed at the photograph in the middle. 

Sure enough, Theodore was captured in one of the photographs, he was holding a glass filled with pale yellow liquid and he was chatting with The Devil. 

"That's how they keep in contact with them and that's also how he gives out orders." 

Yongguk nodded. "So our second task is," Yongguk paused, pointing at a random photograph of the party, "to infiltrate one of this meetings." 

"In order to infiltrate it, we need to have someone who's with The Devil, so that we can get our hands on the information we need." 

Yongguk wore a smug look on his face. "Consider that done." 

Youngjae chuckled, he rarely witnessed his comrade in the station being that happy and proud during any investigation he was in charge. And whenever he was, that means that the investigation was smooth sailing. It was exactly unfolding the way that he had planned. 

At the sight of the smug expression Yongguk wore on his face, Youngjae couldn't stop the adrenaline that was rapidly building up in him. He glanced over at his parabatai and he saw a small smile playing on his lips. He knew that his parabatai felt the same way too. 

We are coming for you guys. Just hang on for a while more. 

I hope you guys are enjoying the story thus far cause I'm not even half way through it HAHA. Do leave a comment behind~