Author's Note:

Hey, everyone! We reach chapter seven thank God and yea we have the aftermath of Seul's bite on Sehun.

Disclaimer: Sehun doesn't remember Seulgi's face. Ever. Like his memory is always wiped out after the succ and even if there's bits of memories, it's always blurry. The first time he really sees Seulgi's face in sober state (I mean not when Seul's trapping him before the succ) is in this chapter and he still doesn't realize that he's seeing the girl who has been messing with his life oof.

Also, I'm submitting my final paper next week lmao pls pray for me guys I'm so sick of uni life I really want to graduate and get a job so I could help my parents sobsobs.

But anyway! It's done and done, I'll see you guys in the next chapter!

Seven.

The Mark.

There is nothing he can sense except for desire. Towards who or what that desire is directed to, he doesn’t quite know. His whole senses seem to be numbed. He can’t see, can’t hear, can’t speak, can’t feel anything… except for this strong want, this hunger, this desire.

This lust.

Suddenly he sees images of distorted, blurred figure, like a picture drawn with marker smudged with blotches of water. That figure, glitching and shaky, ever so slowly materializes into the shape of a human. He registers the skinny, bony limbs. White and pale like ivory kissed by moonlight. Long, long dark hair like the night’s curtain, glossy like the starry sky. Small, slim figure, lean and strong like that of a swan’s. Eyes, feline, sharp, captivating.

Red like blood.

“Sehun." she calls, voice velvety and soft to his ears and suddenly, a searing pain on the base of his left neck jolts through his whole body.

“Sehun! Sehun wake up!”

Too many informations are bombarding his brain: the strange dream, the voice that is telling him to wake up and the burning pain on his neck. When Sehun finally opens his eyes he feels like he just got out of a dark, cold lake. The pain on his neck is so severe that he gags.

“He’s awake!”

“Oh, God, Sehun!”

A basin is shoved into his hands and Sehun retches, vomiting last night’s dinner into it. Someone is groaning but Sehun can't find it in him to care. It takes a while before his stomach is finally empty. Another voice speaks again, pulling him into the world. Sehun opens his eyes again and he first register a girl’s face. Jinri’s face, panicked and worried, hovering over him.

“Sehun, are you alright?”

It takes a whole minute before Sehun is able to really, really process what is going on around him. He’s in his room, his apartment room, and everyone is there: Jackson, Jinri and Jisoo, surrounding his bed with a worried look on their faces. His breath is heavy and his neck is still hurting.

“What’s going on?” he asks, but his throat is so dry that speaking hurts him.

Jisoo stays quiet, pulling the basin away from his hands while Jackson looks really guilty. “I don’t… I really don’t know, man.” he mutters, tearing his gaze off of Sehun and looks at something Sehun doesn’t quite know what. “Last night was ing weird.”

Last night. Sehun forces his brain to remember what the actual that happened last night but everything is a blur. He recalls returning from the bar, heavy rain was pouring down and… and everything after that is blank. Nothing. He really recalled nothing.

“I don’t remember anything.” Sehun murmurs quietly, frustrated.

Jisoo looks distraught. “We went home early yesterday and we got caught in the storm…” she starts, her voice shaking. “And… and we hit something-”

“We didn’t hit anything! Nothing’s there.” Jinri interjects, looking even more distraught than Jisoo.

“But the car shook and we nearly crashed!” Jisoo fires back, causing Jinri to shut up.

“Well, we did hit something,” Jackson speaks up heavily, walking away from the bed and sitting on the nearest floor. “Thought it was animal because we all saw that animal was moving and shaking. You and me,” he says, nodding at Sehun, “We got out of the car and tried to bury that animal. I went inside the forest for a bit to find some wood but when I got back, whatever corpse that was on there disappeared and you’re… unconscious.”

Sehun watches as his friends becomes silent. They looked like they barely had any sleep. Dark circles are evident on Jisoo and Jinri’s eyes and Jackson is a mess, his hair is messy and he looks very exhausted. A shudder creeps up from Sehun’s back to his neck. He remembers her again, the bloody girl feeding on the animal carcass in the middle of the road.

“Sehun, it’s alright.” Jinri says softly, trying to touch him. Her fingers accidentally grazed his left neck and the burning sensation is so great that Sehun almost screamed.

“Don’t touch my neck!” he strained, covering his neck from their view and trying to endure the pain. It’s still burning and his shoulders are trembling from the pain.

Jinri looks extremely shocked and scared, she freezes on her spot, too afraid to make any moves. “I’m… I’m sorry, I don’t know.”

Sehun winces again before nodding. “It’s okay,” he says, carefully rubbing over the skin. He shivers when the contact sends more pain coursing through his body but the skin is smooth and there doesn’t seem to be any wound. “Is… Is my neck okay? Like are there any wounds?” he asks timidly.

Jinri dared herself to look. “N-no,” she answers. “Not even a rash. It looks.... It looks healthy.” she says after hesitating for a bit.

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Sehun sighs, taking inhaling and exhaling three deep breaths before the pain finally subsides for a bit. He tries to remember last night but he’s drawing a blank.

“I’m sorry, guys,” Sehun croaks, “I don’t remember what happened…”

“Hun, It’s alright!” Jisoo looks shocked, “You didn’t do anything wrong, we’re just so glad that you’re alright.”

“Yeah. We thought you got hit or something, your body was so cold but there weren’t any injury…” Jinri finally speaks up. “It’s good that you’re awake now.”

Jackson stares at him with an unreadable expression in his eyes. Sehun later realizes it’s guilt. “We are never going out of town again unless it’s day.” he says eventually.

Sehun shakes his head, “Don’t be like that.”

“Baekhyun was right.” Jackson insists.

Sehun grimaces. Right, Baekhyun was very against them going out on their own. “Let’s keep this between ourselves, please? Don’t tell anyone, not even Chaeyoung or Baekhyun.”

Jinri and Jisoo exchanges glance with each other while Jackson sighs. “Was about to ask that myself.” he says. “Baek will kill us.”

It’s silent for a few moments before Jinri let out a sigh. “Maybe your neck was bitten by a bug… or something.” she says.

It doesn’t seem like the right explanation but neither of them could come up with anything that makes more sense, so they just nod. Sehun takes a deep breath again before exhaling, the pain is still there, but it’s a bit more bearable now and his body slowly relaxes.

“Aside from the neck,” Jisoo speaks up. “Does anything else hurts?”

Sehun frowns, trying to focus on his whole body. On the contrary to the miserable pain on his neck, his whole body feels light, like nothing is weighing him down, and even though he just vomited earlier, he feels… healthy?

“No.” he shakes his head. “Maybe some bugs really bit me.” Sehun mumbles before letting out a tired sigh.

“It’s alright.” Jisoo quickly says, “What matters is that you’re okay.”

*

By the time Seulgi returns to the manor, sunrise has already threatened to rise. When she closes the entrance door behind her, she can feel her back starting to heat up. Those discomfort disappears, though, when the door is shut and cold engulfs her again. No place better than home. Bored as she is with the same stone walls for millennia, Seulgi finds no better comfort than in her own home.

She strides nonchalantly inside. It’s quiet, as usual. Youngho appears from one of the corners, nodding his head when their eyes meet.

“Seems like you have quite the meal this time.” he says, sniffing the air.

“Does this mortal smells nice to you?” Seulgi hums, giving him a crooked smile.

“Smells like any other mortals to me,” Youngho shrugs. “But, I do smell deep emotions… and feelings. This one’s a feeler. An emotional one.”

Seulgi stops, seemingly amused and intrigued by his statement. “Really?”

The guardian let out a chuckle. “Seulgi, even though you’re so strong and brilliant, you lack so much emotion, even more than your sisters or brother,” Youngho tilts his head to the side, smiling coyly at her. “Better be careful, though, last time you had a prey who felt so much you could barely stop.”

A pout appears on Seulgi’s lips. Of course she remembers that one prey, too. A woman with emotions so deep and raw and intense that Seulgi almost couldn’t stop herself from the woman dry. “I was young. It was almost a century ago. I’m much better now.”

“Perhaps you are.” Youngho answers vaguely before heading off.

Seulgi watches as he turns into one of the hallways and disappears. Nobody in this house can know that she drank from the same prey twice in a row. She still don’t know what the consequences is, so far, she didn’t get any misfortune or curse and there aren’t any ominous bell ringing throughout the realm to announce her mishaps. One can’t be too careful, though. Quietly, she heads straight to her room.

Her room is on the tallest tower of the mansion. It was Joohyun’s at first but after she got married with Junmyeon, the two settled on the biggest room in the mansion at the third floor, facing the west. Initially, Seungwan called dibs on the room and Seulgi had to fight the other vampire in order to win it. It was one of the toughest battle in her life and possibly one of the luckiest because Seulgi doesn’t win often against Seungwan.

It’s a circular space with lots of windows covered by dark red velvet curtains, shut during the days, but when the night comes, Seulgi’s room is the airiest and she gets to see the whole town and the endless horizon. Her room is peace. There are her collection of cameras- from the first camera ever, to the most recent ones. One wall is filled with progressive photographs of Ijeon through the years. From paintings, to black and white photographs, to vintage ones, to the heavy filtered ones and to HD ones. It’s her progress wall and it’s almost concerning because there are barely any place left. Well, there’s always the ceiling.

She throws herself on the bed, suddenly realizing how soft her bed is and how calm she feels in her own room. Her manor has always been calm, but her room is the quietest. Her mind travels to the boy who enabled her to feel (though only to some extent), Sehun. It’s a very beautiful name. A tad unusual. But beautiful.

“Sehun.” Seulgi speaks, liking the way it rolls through her lips, liking the sound of it. There this strange sensation in her chest when she speaks his name. That is rather interesting. She could almost feel his warm skin on her lips again. Why does he have to smell so nice? It was her who was preying on him yet when she pulled his body close and sank her teeth into his skin, it’s as if his whole being is engulfing her.

She stays silent and closes her eyes. Like Youngho said, she’s the least emotional out of her family, but ever since she drank Sehun’s blood there has been this weird sensation in her chest. So she tries to feel, to grasp his emotions.

For a while, everything was soundless and dark. T