*** The silence is deafening, the only sounds that could be heard in the darkness of the forest is the crackles of fire burning the woods. Eight figures sit around the fire, all in a rather uncomfortable position except for one with the most tanned skin who leisurely leaning his back on a big tree not so far away from the other seven,   “how far is this portal exactly? We’ve been running for hours and yet haven’t reach it”  one of the boys finally break the silence and seven pair of eyes automatically fixed on him, a lazy smirk slowly crept up on JongIn’s face as he turn his eyes back on the bonfire, the glimmer of the fire danced on his sculptured face, making him looked more ethereal and dangerous yet beautiful at the same time, like something ancient,   “few more hours, that’s why you all better get enough rest before we get there and work out the plan” JongIn answered Jimin’s question casually and the vampire tighten his lips before back to his previous activity, fiddling with the grass in silence,   Finally felt the weight of their fatigue from the long journey, SeokJin sighed as he move to make himself more relaxed as possible as he could on the forest ground and tried to catch a sleep because deep inside -no matter how reluctant he is- he agreed on what JongIn said, they do need a rest before executing the rescue mission they about to do, heck, even JungKook has a rather visible dark circle on his usual flawless complexion, all of them looked beyond tired and stressed out, all in all they looked wrecked, SeokJin himself tried to stop himself to think about how he looked like right at the moment, it’s terrifies him,   Seeing their oldest hyung passive action, the boys finally decided to follow and call it a day and settled on various spot on the ground near the fire to keep their body warm while JongIn who watch it just smiled before exhaled and push away from the tree as he make his way into the darkness, not knowing that one pair of eyes followed his movements,   Jimin frowned as he watch the werewolf vanished into the dark before lift himself up to sit and look around, his friends has very much knocked down instantly as soon as they put their heads on the forest ground and it safe to say that he’s the only one who still awake,   Deciding that he couldn’t sleep no matter how tired his eyes is -not with the thing that has been weighing his mind so much-, Jimin quickly stand on his feet and followed JongIn soundlessly,   “you seriously should go to sleep, you know?”,   Jimin frowns deepened as he when he finally reached a clearing with a river streaming down beautifully not so far away from where he stood, the owner of the voice looking at him near the streams with a solemn expression on his face. After a few second passed, Jimin answered,   “I can't sleep”,   “I’m not gonna jump and kill you guys on your sleep, you should relax a bit, Park Jimin”, Jimin ears reddened at JongIn’s remark,   JongIn grinned when he saw this but the younger boy figure relaxed as he advanced closer until they stood side by side watching the river surface glimmered under the moonlight,   “this has been bugging me so much until now,  what is your relation with her actually?” Jimin finally asked without straying his eyes away from the river and one of JongIn’s brow shot up, as well as the corner of his lips. The untrusting one, huh?, might as well playing around a little bit, the werewolf thought mischievously, he just realized how much of a sadist he is recently with the amount of amusement he got whenever he tortured the heirs with this play, he enjoyed seeing them troubled with their uncertainness. Oh if only they know the truth   Faking a groan JongIn ran a hand through his hair “I told you already, do I have to say it again?”. Jimin glared despite of holding back his snarky comment,   “I love her” JongIn casually stated,   “I know that, I asked what is your relationship with her” Jimin said through gritted teeth and JongIn lifted an amused brow, “do I really have to answer that?”,   Jimin growled out of frustration “stop playing around and just answer me already!”, and JongIn has to bite his tongue to stop the upcoming snickers that threatened to burst out of his mouth,   “you really are an insecure boy, you know?”,   Jimin keep his mouth sealed tight at this comment and just glared, JongIn shrugged his shoulders after a few second and chuckled “you should stop having those thoughts for awhile now Park Jimin because I won't give you the answer even if you glared daggers at me until your eye balls pop out from its sockets, all you should know is we’re on the same side and we have the same goal, so until we reached our goal, I suggest you keep your frustration out of the way, I don’t want it to disturb your concentration later because if you keep on acting hostile towards me, it could ruined all our plan, I need you to trust me, if not for me, for JooYeon’s sake at least”,   With that being said, JongIn turn away and start to walk back to their resting place, leaving Jimin root on his feet with tight fists on both of his side as he sent heated glares at him before he halted on his track, turning to the side slightly to look at Jimin “though if you really that troubled, you could just ask it directly to JooYeon after we rescued her, sounds promising enough, right?” and with that, he continued and disappeared from Jimin’s sight.   *** “…yeon, JooYeon, sis wake up”   I squinted my eyes and stirred awake when I felt my body being shaken by someone, I cracked my eyes open, BaekHyun hovered above me as he frowned his brows warrily,   “oppa? What…” I croaked, my voice faded at the end as I realize how hoarse I sounded right now and BaekHyun let out a relieved sigh at the sounds of my voice as he lean back slightly but keep a firm grip on my elbow. I look around and finally take a good look at my surrounding,   I’m still in my position on the floor since the time I sent Yugyeom out to his brothers, it seems that I’ve been knocked out for good while bailed my eyes out until BaekHyun find me and to confirm my suspicion, he answered my confused looks quickly,   “ChanYeol told me what happened during the display and you’ve been locked yourself for the entire night, it worries me so I came up here to check,” he started, reaching out for my forehead to feel my body temperature and hissed as soon as his skin touched mine “dear Lord, you’re freezing, what are you doing sleeping on the floor with your windows open, it's so cold in here, come on” he quickly hooked his arms behind the back of my knees and my back then lift me up effortlessly,   “I fell asleep” I said when he put me down on my bed and draped the thick blanket all over my body, an annoyed looks on his face, he even pouted a bit,   He sighed when he sure I’ve been entirely covered “I noticed” he answered shortly and I bit my bottom lip at his stoic face,   “you’re being too reckless, I saw Yugyeom in one of the barrack just a while ago, do you seriously think that I didn’t know why you did that, JooYeon, I knew”, I keep quite while trying to avoid his eyes,   “you are lucky she bought your lies, what would happen if she didn’t? Don’t make me witness my other sibling being tortured, please” he continued, begging with his eyes as he cupped my cheek to make me look at him and I almost let a choked sobs at his terrified looks and the image of our brother who still locked up in the dungeon, I felt even more miserable,   “I’m sorry,”,   “but, Yugyeom, JaeBum, their pack- killing his family-, I-“ I stuttered, tears b my sight as I clawed on the material of his uniform, fighting to form a words in my mouth but BaekHyun just shake his head sadly, gripping my fist on his chest as he stopped me from talking more,   “no, baby, please just think about yourself, I want you to put yourself above other people, I need you to make sure you keep yourself alive, that’s the only way to survive in this place,” he said sternly, eyes never wavered as he hold his gaze on me,   “when you see an opportunity to stay alive, you take it and stop thinking of others, understood?”, I frowned at his words and he gripped my hand tighter when he heard no answer,   “promise me” he said again, more urgent this time and I couldn’t help the wandering question in my mind but nod my head anyway and he relaxed, loosening his grips,   We keep the silence, BaekHyun keep on rearranging my blanket, making sure it hold me in until I felt it trapped all my four limbs inside and I wiggled a little as a protest, he smiled but did nothing to loosen it but moved to caress my cheek instead, “you grow weaker each day, you claimed to feed in front of the empress but you can't fool your brothers, you can't fool me, why did you do this to yourself?”,   I blushed, turning my face to the side as I murmured “I feed”,   I saw BaekHyun lift his eyebrow from my peripheral view, clearly not believing my words and I groaned “I’m not lying oppa, I do feed”,   He keep his skeptical looks,   “then explain this”, I sighed,   “I don’t know, okay?! I could survive on blood just fine, but I don’t know why its not working this time”,   At this, BaekHyun eyes widened and his face faltered until it became unreadable, he seems to grew restless at the new information and I frowned in confusion, “what?” I mouthed when he look at me, he looked terrified,   He keep on staring at me with that weird expression on his face before finally shake his head lightly as he pat my head, he actually looked beyond tired and sad, sad mostly, “nothing, just rest for now, I’m sure we’ll come up with something later, I’ll protect you no matter what”,   I tried to argue but he shush me right away and told me to sleep. He keeps on talking in riddle today, it making me frustrated, part of me wanted to keep on confronting him about it but my eyes told otherwise, it's felt too heavy for me to keep awake to do that and after debating to myself, I give up and put the confrontation on hold for now,   I’ll just deal with it later   And closing my eyes with a sight before the consciousness welcomed me in its warm embrace.   *** Sad was understatement when he looked at his sleeping sister as he her head in silence while he think about their conversation earlier. She could survive on blood, he knew that’s true, if not how in the world she survived all those years by only drink blood when her reaper still asleep then?, then why the hell its not working now?,   BaekHyun is not one with brilliant brain like JoonMyeon or KyungSoo but he didn’t have to be that clever to guess just what might be the problem is,   First assumption, she couldn’t survive on Werewolf’s blood, Vampire can’t drink a Werewolf blood, it has something to do with defenses system, it cant satisfied their thirst, all in all, it worsen it instead, it's like adding fuel to the fire inside their throat, it's like a poison and weaken them, and the same goes for Werewolf, a Vampire's bite is poisonous to them,   But when BaekHyun make sure JooYeon’s asleep earlier, he checked her room and found the pile of empty blood bags that obviously has been brought there by Yugyeom for JooYeon to feed on and when BaekHyun sniff on it, it's clearly not Werewolf’s blood, its animal blood so then it left only for the other possibilities. And it terrifies him,   The bound   Her bound with her seven mates has finally taking its toll and there’s nothing he could do to set the things right, he can't do anything, no one can, unless he could tie and kidnap them here but that would make everything become even more messed up than they already is,   Or she could wait until the time they finally conquered the Vampire realm and everything would be just fine, she could have her mates again then, no matter how badly treated they are under the empress reign, he sure JooYeon will do anything to keep them unharmed,   BaekHyun bit his thumb nail as he stare back at his sister and whimpered, but that will be too late, she’ll definitely perished before that, she just barely survived now, with her refusing to feed her reaper and now not even taking blood works, she’s clearly hanging on a thin thread. Just look at how pale she is, she literally transparent now!, BaekHyun screamed out of frustration inside as he grabbed a hold on his hair, he walked to her balcony and looking at particularly nothing until he found his eyes has been strayed towards the lone tower that stood quite far away from where he stood,   “what should I do mother?”.   *** Everything’s a mess, explosion could be heard from the west wing of the palace and ruckus clearly broke in every corner of the castle, Red Keep wasn’t an exception. TaeHyung curses when he -yet again- have to hide in every secluded corner