Her wine red eyes met that of those ruby ones as she came face to face with her assaulter. Irene had personally tackled her down and beat her to the ground. Seulgi’s instincts was to fight back with her raw power but found out that it was difficult to do so with those agitated, ruby eyes staring straight into her. Seulgi’s back arched at the strong grip by her collar and a strong force pinned her down by the crotch. The leader had clutched Seulgi’s shirt by the collar so tightly that it had begun to rip and the knees that weighted on her crotch had immobilised her completely. Seulgi thought Irene looked extremely feral in that moment and was paralysed by the intimidation.

Her mind automatically went back to their first encounter. The first time Irene had attacked her, there was no fury in it, only duty to destroy her but this time round, it was the opposite, there seem to be no thoughts of killing her, but there was copious amount of anger reflected in those ruby red eyes. Those eyes which were usually passive were now aggressive. Seulgi’s vampiric senses slipped away and she felt guilt seeping into her.

The two were soon joined by the other members. An audible gasp escaped from Yeri as she saw the scene before her for she had never seen Irene flew into such a rage before. The Irene right before them was so intimidating to her.

Irene did not know what overcame her but she was extremely angry, angry that the young one had tried to flee. The she later realised that she must have felt betrayed and that prompted her to react in such a way. The red in her eyes ebbed away as she calmed herself, scolding herself silly for behaving like an amateurish vampire by showing anger. She relaxed her grip on Seulgi and pressed Seulgi down by her neck with elbow and both her arms tugged behind her instead. The length of Seulgi’s body was completely pinned to the ground by Irene’s entire body.

“If you truly wish to go, then I will have no choice but to destroy you right here and now.” Irene warned, the pressure on Seulgi’s neck increased.

Despite her calm looks, Seulgi could still detect the cold fury in the leader’s voice. It was harsher than frost itself and fiercer than wildfire. The reactions from the members of the coven also told her that it was uncommon for their leader to display such anger. Seulgi hated to think that she had caused the leader to bring out this side of her and she felt utterly ashamed.  

The young vampire shook her head profusely at that suggestion. “No, I want to stay. Just…”

“Just… the meal does not suit you?” Irene asked flatly, her face stone cold.   

Seulgi nodded slightly uncertainly but she tried her best to keep those uncertainties hidden. These hidden uncertainties, she knew, would come back to haunt her again.  

Fortunately, the leader had not picked up that hesitance in the young vampire and believed Seulgi fully. “We can work on that but never try to leave like that again. I will hunt you down and the next time I do, I will destroy you.”

Those last four words had come out so strongly that Seulgi knew it would be etched forever in her mind and wished she would never hear those words aimed towards her again.

“I am sorry.” Seulgi said, hoping that it would sound sincere enough to be forgiven.  

It was an agonising moment for the young vampire before Irene nodded in acceptance of the apology and removed herself from atop the young vampire.

As she headed back to their cave in silence, she caught Wendy’s eyes who looked away in an instant. Irene frowned as she thought she saw that there seemed to be disappointment in Wendy’s eyes. It affected the leader greatly because Wendy had never given her such looks before. Did the vice-leader give her that look because she had thought that Irene had over-reacted as well?

Irene clenched her jaw and worked her fist. She disliked not understanding what that look from Wendy meant and she felt embarrassed of herself.  

**

The tension in the house subsided almost as quickly as the passing clouds. The promise of rain, lightning and thunder that was to come gone abruptly with it. It felt as though nothing happened the following night and even though Seulgi was surprised, she was glad about it as well.

“Are you still mad at me?” Seulgi had asked timidly.

“I am not as long as you stick to your promise of never escaping again.” Irene said, her voice was severe but it sounded like a sincere plea at the same time.

That was when Seulgi came to realise that despite Irene appearing nonchalant most of the time, she was in fact easily affected by the moods of others. The other members had also reacted in this way and Seulgi understood that this must have been why they were able to live together for so long, this coven functioned truly like a family and was able to put matters behind and forgive quickly. As long as they treated me as family. With that, the incident was never mentioned again.

The next two weeks shuttled between bliss and torture for Seulgi. The bliss came from spending excessively large amount of time with Irene because the leader had decided that Wendy and herself should be the only ones coaching the young vampire.

Even though Seulgi was becoming less certain that Irene was the same vampire who had helped her while she was still a new vampire, she was becoming more certain of her developing feelings for Irene. After her attempted escape, Irene seemed to be scrutinising every move of Seulgi’s and the young vampire found that she did not mind it a single bit. In fact, the young vampire was actually fond of the attention the leader was showing towards her.

Meanwhile, the torture was in having to try to put her heart into adapting to the coven’s lifestyle. The housework that she was forced to do but was always criticised by Irene to still be inadequate and also the daily readings that she was expected to complete. Amongst all however, the meal of beasts’ blood was the most torturous for her.

The coven fed on blood about twice or thrice per week and each time they fed, Seulgi would throw up and would have to clean up after herself pitifully. Each time, she would be afraid to look at Irene for fear of witnessing her disappointment.

During that time, she had also grown closer to Wendy and her sudden attacks on the vice-leader dwindled. They even shared a room because both the leader and the vice-leader deemed the young vampire too messy to live in a room by herself. So, until the time whereby Seulgi proved herself to be as adept at cleaning as all of them are, Seulgi would have to share a room with the vice-leader.

The much-anticipated duelling session with Irene finally came after two weeks. Wendy had warned the young vampire that Irene was a formidable opponent and that she did not need silver to incapacitate anyone. One thing to note however, was to never pick up any sly skills from Yeri and try to use silver on Irene. Wendy had never really stated the reason why but she had hinted strongly that Irene strongly abhors the use of silver on any vampire and the first time Yeri used it on the leader, it was also the final time because the leader had punishe