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It was one hella fine early summer afternoon at Duke of West, Jaejoong’s mansion.

After the whole ordeal about the “kidnapped” prince, Xiumin was finally enjoying the silence and the company of his two brothers. 

He took a sip out of his dark coffee and let out a content sigh and looked around their “lounge”… If Luhan’s private office could be called so. 

Sehun was knitting scarf with fuzzy red yarn and Luhan was writing something on his desk all hunched down.

He suddenly felt like laughing. Time… it was a strange thing. Oh, look at how much has changed during the last few centuries. He could have never imagined feeling this calm and content. He was actually enjoying life.

Unfortunately, as Yifan liked to say about the beagle line “Living with these crackheads, even having ten minutes of silence would be a miracle”, his peace didn’t last long. Even though they weren’t together with their noisy brothers, the troublemaker they had now was an equal headache. 

“I’m leaving right now!” Anir came in all loud and impatient. 

“What? What happened? Why?” alarmed Luhan questioned her while Sehun hid his work. Poor guy was so shocked that he almost stabbed his eyes with needles.

“I am going to find vampires!”

With that sentence, three vampires in the room collectively choked on air.

“V-Vampires?” Xiumin squeaked out. Maybe they heard wrong.. right?

Anir stomped to the sofa where Sehun was sitting and heavily sat down beside him. 

"Yes. Cheol bet that I can’t find one. And I want to prove him wrong!”

“Who’s Cheol?” Luhan’s voice came through telepathy.

“I have no idea,” Xiumin replied. 

“Who’s Cheol?” Sehun asked aloud. He was confused but mostly jealous. He felt like he was being slowly replaced.

Actually, he's been feeling like this for a long time now. To be exact, ever since they left Smallville. Anir became busy and stopped paying much attention to him. Especially after Summer Ball where she was "re-introduced" to society.  ... Remember the days when she used to visit him almost every day? Don't misunderstand. He loves being here with his family. It's just...

“S.Coups,” She was still huffing angrily.

“That kid riled her up pretty good,” Luhan amusedly projected his thought.

“She got his real name.. They’ve gotten so close lately,” Sehun thought. After realizing his sour tone, he awkwardly chimed “I mean...”  
To his relief, they didn’t go after him.

"But what should we do? When she clearly believes in vampires, we can’t hide our secret anymore. Should we tell her the truth? Maybe it’s a good thing,” Xiumin reasoned.

“Hmm... But that’s not fun,” Luhan whined.

“Where do you plan to find them?” Xiumin asked carefully. 

To that Anir only smirked, "The girl has a way.” 

Oh, no. Sehun knows this expression. This smirk.

"STOP THAT!!" He yelled, hoping that erasing that smirk from her face would stop whatever she’s thinking.

"What?" Anir innocently asked. But was she though?

"That smirk only calls for trouble. Don’t..." 'do what you're thinking' He barely stopped himself from finishing his sentence. He suddenly realized he was becoming someone he swore not to be. He was there to help her, not to stop her from doing what she wants. After all, it was her life. She needs to experience life and learn to live on her own.

"Don't what?" There was a concealed tone of challenge in Anir's voice.

"Nothing," he said. [Great. Now she thinks I'm afraid of her] Sehun rolled his eyes.. [Wait.. vampires!] He stopped his eye-rolling halfway and brought himself back to the conversation.

“That sounds ominous… I like that,” came Luhan’s voice.

“Anyway, I came to say this. I might not be back for a few days. Don’t worry too much. I’ll come back with a good result,” after saying that she stood up to leave.

“Wait,” Mischievous glint flashed through Luhan’s eyes. But no one paid enough attention to catch that. “At least, take Sehun with you.” 

Even though Sehun was trying to keep a neutral expression, he couldn’t help but pray for a positive answer. It was a good chance to have his much wanted their alone time and ask her about her engagement. After Summer Ball where she revealed that she was engaged with Marquess Daehyun, they’ve been a little awkward with each other. At least, Sehun was. “Ye-”

"It’s fine,” Anir cut him off and continued without catching his disappointed eyes. “I can go alone. If you’re worried I might get into trouble, don’t worry. I won’t have a reason to mess with any mafia this time.” 

She quickly side hugged Sehun and waved goodbye to older guys and left without a single back glance. 

Sehun touched his left arm where she hugged and stayed quiet for a second. He suddenly announced that he was going with her and turned after her… But, met with resistance in the empty air.

"What are you doing, Luhan hyung?”

"Just let her go alone." 

"Why? You were the one who suggested to let me go with her in the first place.”

"Ahahaha..”  Luhan fake laughed. [That was to see your pathetic love-struck face.] “I have a theory to check. She’ll be fine”

“But what if she really meets a vampire?” Xiumin wasn’t so sure about letting Anir go alone. From stories he heard about her, she was bound to get in trouble when going out without some kind of supervisor. “Do you really think she’ll be alright?” he asked Luhan.

The said man only shrugged, “Um.. yeah.”

That made Sehun restless. As if he was fine before… His demeanor was calm and collected, but his heavy breathing was saying otherwise. [Let’s just trust Luhan hyung. She’s not trying to swindle people. She should be alright… right?]

Sehun took a seat and started knitting with a heavy heart.

Meanwhile in the security room.

A paper rustling and occasional distressed sigh filled the room. “I should just go and kill them all...”

“Kill who?” 

S.Coups got startled out of his seat and cursed silently at Jun who managed to creep in without a sound again. Seriously, nothing new.

“With Duke’s visit to the Palace, there’s so much to prepare. And I think Zhoumi is training private soldiers again… I knew I shouldn’t have left him alive then. If only higher-ups didn’t order so,” S.Coups explained with an exhausted look.

“You didn’t sleep again,” Jun said as he carelessly looked over his desk and picked up some papers to skim through. 

"When there’s so much to worry about, what is sleep?” the older one said.

“Do you want me to pay a visit to them? Lord Zhoumi surely remembers me from last time. I bet he misses his right hand, too,” he suggested with a sinister smile.

That managed to lift S.Coups’ spirit. “Hahahaha. That was a good one,” he said while wiping his tears. Remembering how Jun cut Zhoumi’s hand in response to being told not to kill him satisfied him greatly. “But you serve Luhan now. You can’t leave him without his direct order. Plus, Wonwoo is already there.”

The mention of Luhan reminded Jun of the reason he came here in the first place. “Right. Was there an intruder lately?”

"Not that I know of... Is something wrong?” S.Coups' demeanor became slightly sharp.

"I’m not sure, but I think so. Luhan has been staring into woods lately." Jun replied seriously.

S.Coups blankly stared at him. "And you’re sure he wasn’t just thinking.”

Jun nodded. 

“That’s impossible. Every inch of the property is heavily equipped with CCTV and motion sensors. If there was anything in the woods, it'd be caught in the sensors.”

Jun still had his suspicions, but he didn’t argue more.

Suddenly, Vernon mumbled, “I wonder where Anir is going this time. Her backpack looks heavy." He was minding his own business the whole time and quietly monitoring CCTV, being pretty background accessory.

Two guys looked at each other and went to Vernon’s side. They could see her talking and laughing with DK who was guarding the front entrance at the moment. 

S.Coups face-palmed and muttered “I can’t believe she really fell for that. And who let DK guard front entrance? At least couldn’t they tell him to change his clothes?!” His hot pink shirt was blinding him through the monitor.

“What do you mean?” Jun asked as Anir looked straight into the camera and mouthed, “I will show you,” with determination and slight vengeance.

“I needed to keep her away for few days… Long story short, she’s on a quest to find a vampire.”

Vernon could only nod his head as he uncomfortably watched Anir making various kinds of threatening motions to their leader while Jun was shaking with laughter.

Finally, Anir stopped her bandit actions and saluted jokingly to DK before she left.

“I won’t ask the reason, but if something happens to her, I don’t think Luhan will be too happy. With problems with Zhoumi, it’s not safe to let her go alone. It's probable that Luhan’s actions are connected to them,” Jun told S.Coups after calming down. 

The leader rolled his eyes (which was totally necessary) and ordered Seungkwan to follow her from distance. But immediately regretted his decision after seeing the bundle of flower patterns hops after Anir. [I probably should have sent a different person. Stealth is not his strongest point…]

☆☆☆

In the heart of the Crimson kingdom, there lays a sacred land, the EXO. The place of a high mountain and steep cliffs, covered with towering redwoods. It had been worshipped by locals for many centuries and was believed that Gods lived there. Commoners were strictly forbidden from entering. The only things you could see were trees and more trees. Because of that people could only imagine what's hidden behind the thick forest.

But in reality, there lived one gloomy vampire in the ancient tomb where he was currently freelancing in. 

“Brother, you should drink more blood. Even if you’re a pureblood, that doesn’t mean you can just stop drinking blood. It’s been three months already,” said his only visitor.

“I know. Just leave it on the floor. I’ll drink it later,” came Joonmyeon’s monotonous reply.

"But seriously, you look like you can pass as a ghost. What are you? Chalk?” the visitor continued his nagging. 

It has always been like that ever since he came here. While he was drowning in his guilt and isolating himself, his brother would try to convince him to stop punishing himself pointlessly. 

“I don’t know if you have realized. Our bond has been getting strong lately. I think some of us have joined with each other. When we meet again, I don’t want you to look like a homeless man. Vampire king shouldn’t look like-” he motioned to Joonmyeon’s cloak covered body, “-that!”

To that Joonmyeon only grumbled “Don’t say that. I’m not a king. Just leave me alone, Yixing,” and turned his back to him. 

King… Joonmyeon hated this word. Whenever the younger one referred to him as o