“I don’t know how much longer I can stand to be here,” Sungmin complained, sipping on a glass of blood. He had finally given up the wine, though I doubted he had gotten used to the taste of blood alone.

“You really think you’d survive out there on your own?” I asked, only half interested in his reply. I leaned my arms against the kitchen island and stared into my own glass like it had all the answers. Jongwoon had been in his room for over a week, Master was practically bedridden, Yunho and Jaejoong both remained in a sort of coma, and Siwon was no closer to a miracle cure than he was four days ago. Boa and the other scouts stayed at the hostel to provide protection in the case that Leeteuk decided he didn’t want to wait any longer for Jongwoon’s deliverance.

“I never said I wanted to leave forever,” he refuted.

“No, but you still wouldn’t last more than a few days.”

“Why not? I can fight. I took down that one vampyre, didn’t I?”

“He was only a messenger and let you off easy. A group on a hunt would tear you apart,” I paused, glancing up at him, “or worse, let you live.”

“Wouldn’t it be something like murder for them to kill one of us?” I chuckled a bit at the ridiculous thought. Murder, when we had killed humans on almost a daily basis for food? The word implied an act of heinousness, yet in whose view? We were already dead, and a great many of us had reached over a hundred, so we rarely mourned the loss of one of our kind.  Vampyres only existed to kill, and though they didn’t hunt dhampyres, they had no opposition to putting one out of its misery if found on one of their hunts.

“Just take my advice, and stay here. The outside world should no longer concern you.” I tipped back my glass, pouring its contents down my throat, which didn’t slide down as smoothly as I had expected them to. Putting my glass back on the counter, I looked to see Sungmin caught between an expression of anger, and one of longing.

“Then why did you take me to the ocean? Was that just an excuse to see that vampyress?” I raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was so upset about something neither of us had any control over. Fledglings joined clans or died on the streets, that was just the way it was.

“I thought you would like going to the ocean,” I said slowly. “I could have just left you here if I wanted to see Niko.”

“Then how come you were able to leave without a problem? If I even mention it, everyone tells me that I’m just a fledgling and I wouldn’t survive! It’s like I’m a child again, only worse!”

“What do you expect me to do? Send you to your death because you feel a little homesick?” I half guessed he would start yelling at me, because, as crazy as it sounded, I could understand his need to leave. But while being stuck in the same place for a while would get on anybody’s nerves, I preferred it to living on the streets. Sungmin had yet to grasp the fact an extended life didn’t mean we were invincible – vampyre packs, and even something as deceivingly harmless as sunlight, cut forever short without a bit of remorse. Bloodlust waited right around the corner, and hunting without rousing suspicion was like a never ending, unwinnable game. But instead of yelling, he just grew quiet, and his eyes fell to rest on the counter between us.

“I just can’t live with leaving Hyukjae in the dark about everything. He deserves to know-”

“Know what?” I grumbled. This Hyukjae guy was beginning to get on my nerves, especially since Sungmin never failed to mention him when the outside world was brought up. Just hearing the name brought a sour taste to my mouth. “What you want him to know? That his best friend is now some monster that will drink even his blood if the situation came down to it?”

“I’m not-”

“Would he see it the same way, Sungmin?” His mouth snapped shut. “You even thought we were monsters, and we are. We look, think, and act like a human, but we still live off of blood, and we will even kill for that blood. Face it, Sungmin, we’re dead, and your Hyukjae will learn that the hard way.”

Maybe I went too far, I thought as he pushed away his glass and headed for the door out of the kitchen. One hand rested on the doorknob as he turned to face me with eyes that screamed pain. His mouth fell open, looking as though he wanted to add some biting line, but shook his head, and fled out of the door.

A pile of guilt uncomfortably sat in my stomach, refusing to settle as I washed out the two glasses and returned them to the cupboard. Following in Sungmin’s footsteps, I stepped out the door. Instead of going where the fledgling might have ran to, I walked down the hallways to a door that had remained locked. I knocked, waiting for only a minute before pressing my back against the wall next to the door to slide down and sit on the floor.

“Hey, Jongwoon,” I started, wondering not for the first time whether he even heard me. “I’m here, for the tenth day in a row, which I’m sure you already know. You can’t stay in there for all eternity you know.” I sighed and rubbed my hands over my eyes, before tearing into my hair. “At least let me or someone else in there. I don’t care if it’s Siwon, or Boa, or heck, even Donghae. I just want to know you’re ok.” No answer followed my plea, so I tried to brush it off for now, but the pain of being rejected yet again wrapped its rough cords around my chest.

“Sungmin’s mad at me.” I wasn’t sure why I was bringing that up, but it probably didn’t matter – the whole conversation was one-sided anyways. “He keeps thinking the outside world is the same as he left it, but he won’t be going into it the same. He’s been introduced to our world and he can’t escape, or, more like our world won’t let him escape. I tried telling him, but he didn’t want to listen. Maybe he would listen to you, since you’re somehow better with people than I am.” I waited for some kind of response even though the chance of getting one was slim. I let out an exasperated sigh and ran a hand through my hair.

“And he cares so much about this Hyukjae guy, I mean, I thought they were just roommates,” I growled, suddenly more frustrated about this unknown guy than I was before. “It’s always Hyukjae this or Hyukjae that and I need to tell Hyukjae. What is he in love with the guy or something? It’s driving me crazy. You know what? If he’s so willing to risk his life just to talk to this guy, then maybe I should just let him and be done with it. Sungmin wouldn’t be the first fledgling to get himself killed by underestimating things outside. We’ve seen plenty who had been caught by vampyres, and not all of them were dhampyre fledglings. Their own kind is slaughtered just for pure entertainment, and he thinks he could survive even a few days? it, let him go and get attacked by vampyres. See if I care.”

“You don’t believe that,” a voice next to me said, and even before I turned my head, I could recognize the voice that I had heard all my life. “You, dear brother,” Jongwoon paused with a knowing, but rather weary smile, “are a liar.”

“And you are looking worse for wear,” I admitted with the hint of a smile touching my lips. His pale skin looked like worn paper, and his dull eyes were half hidden by drooping eyelids. I pulled myself off the wall to bring Jongwoon into my arms for a hug, disliking how fragile he felt. He snuggled his head into my shoulder, and a soft sigh rustled my hair.

“I’m sorry for worrying you,” he whispered, clutching the back of my jacket as I took a deep breath and shook my head.

“I just wish you wouldn’t do this.”

“I’m the older brother, I shouldn’t be showing you such a pathetic side of me,” he said, slowly pulling back.

“You aren’t-” Before I could finish, a piercing noise, like a hundred nails against a chalkboard, echoed through the entire hostel. My hands slapped onto my ears, even though I already knew the painful screeching was only in my mind.

“He’s calling us,” Jongwoon stuttered out between clenched teeth, as the source of our pain started to fade into a loud, but much less painful, ringing.

“He wouldn’t be calling us unless something was wrong.” We stared at each other for just a single second before running down the hall, blindly following the ringing. The call was something both purebloods and bloodkings could do to gather vampyres or dhampyres quickly, especially in the case of an emergency. Silent to those who weren’t of the vampyric kind and those outside of a certain range, it only had a few uses, and could be dangerous if used too often. Our destination ended up being the front door where everyone but Henry, Sungmin, and the two cursed dhampyres had gathered. Even Master, using Siwon as his crutch, stood by the door, careful to avoid eye contact with Jongwoon.

“Someone has broken through the seal,” Master said with panic in his voice, and my breath caught in my throat. I had not been the only one at a loss for words, as the others visibly struggled to digest the information, but only Jongwoon looked terrified. It was he that any intruding vampyre wanted. The three scouts squared their shoulders. Their hands reached for knives, stakes and revolvers tucked away in secret pockets. But even their actions didn’t go without showing signs of fear in a slip of a hand and constantly rechecking the bullet chambers. Donghae took his place next to Master, readying his own weapon, which he pulled right out of his sleeve. An enchanted sword that he had since he was a fledgling gleamed in the dim light. Whispered words in a foreign language fell from Siwon’s lips – spells used to locate hidden enemies. Even if we didn’t know who broke the seal, we all could agree on one thing: a broken seal always meant trouble.

“I can’t find any traces of vampyres,” Siwon announced, but no one felt relief at the words. If anything, it only caused the danger level to increase. Shadow mages, born when a vampyre played with magyk, were powerful enough to break a seal and roam undetected, with only their rarity being their downfall. Few vampyre clans had one, and even Leeteuk’s clan, one of the more powerful ones in the area, struggled to find one. Unless their search proved fruitful in the past three years, then his clan was not likely at fault for this matter.

“We need to split into groups,” Master continued, and not a single person wasted time by arguing. “Siwon, Kyuhyun and Boa, find Sungmin. Junsu, Changmin, find Henry. Once you find the fledglings, meet in Siwon’s quarters. Donghae and Jongwoon, come with me.” Not even my brother protested as we ran down the hall, splitting off as Siwon, Boa and I headed towards my room. The other two groups headed in their own directions. I spared a last glance toward Jongwoon, who was supporting Master’s left side. Master’s eyes caught mine, and from that single look, I had the feeling he was telling me not to worry about Jongwoon. We broke gazes, and I picked up the pace, practically running while keeping my senses on high alert for anything even slightly out of place.

Pausing only for the ok from both Boa and Siwon, I opened the door to my room, getting hit instantly with the smell of drying ink, and then once more by the distinct lack of Sungmin. A single piece of paper rested on the bed, and I swiped it off, ready to tear some heads off if this was another of Leeteuk’s tricks.

Kyuhyun,

Thank you for all you’ve done for me, and thank your brother and everyone else for me, too, since I won’t be able to. The hostel just isn’t the place for me, so I’ve decided to head home, and pray that Hyukjae understands. Just…

The letter went on but I crumpled it up, and threw it to the ground, feeling my muscles tense with anger.

“That idiot,” I whispered under my breath. I turned around, brushing past the other two dhampyres wearing twin expressions of concern and confusion. I stopped just as I was about to pass through the door and turned back around. “Siwon, is there any spell you could use to find Sungmin?”

“I’d have to-”

“If you give me something of his, I could track him,” Boa interrupted. I reached into a basket sitting a few feet away, and pulled out the shirt he wore the day before, tossing it to her. Wasting not a second, she caught it and brought it to her nose. “Junsu is better at this, but the scent is still fresh.” She raised her nose to the air, looking like a predator caught on the scent of prey. Scouts, trained to live and survive on the streets, had a variety of tasks delegated to them. Tracking, reconnaissance, and even law enforcement were part of a scout’s nightly routine, as they were both the only barrier and connection to the outside world. Their job was to protect our clan, and the surrounding land from bloodhounds, bloodlusted vampyres, and even vampyres on a hunt that strayed too far from their clan and into Master’s territory. Because of who they targeted, most vampyres left them alone. A bloodlusted vampyre was a pain to all, and no one really wanted to get in the way of those willing to deal with those pains.

Boa led us out of the room, and pretty much back the way we came to the front of the house, stopping only in front of the door to the outside.

“He was here,” she said, looking between us and the door with a look of confusion. Pale hands grazed over the door and the walls around it, even going as far as dropping to the floor to find her answers. “No signs of a struggle, so either he ran after the seal broke, which would mean coming face to face with whoever broke it, or our intruders grabbed him effortlessly.”

“Does the trail go on?” I asked, feeling a pain in my chest where my heart should have been pounding with worry. In a way, Sungmin’s disappearance had been my fault. I provoked him, I refused to listen, but he needed to learn that whatever life he had before died when his heart stopped. Still, the change might have been too drastic for him to handle all at once, and I should have paid more attention.

“I can probably track it outside, but-”

“Then do it,” I told her, already moving to open the door, but Siwon grabbed a hold of my shoulder, pulling me back with enough force to throw me against the wall.

“What do you think you’re doing?” His words were firm, and his eyes a black wall, but I only stared back defiantly. When had I ever listened to authority?

“I’m going to find Sungmin, just as Master said to do,” I said, pushing him back a step.

“So you and a scout are just going to waltz through a broken seal, follow a trail that leads who knows where, outside with who knows what nearby?” Siwon pushed back, and I cringed at the slight pain of hitting my head against a wall.

“Have any better ideas?” The man fell silent. “Look, we don’t have time to waste, and I’m not going to sit here and argue with either of you.” Siwon stared at me, looking conflicted before shaking his head and releasing a sigh.

“Fine,” he said after a moment. “But I’m going with you.” I gave him a brief nod, and opened the door, feeling a burst of cool air against my skin. It was out of the hostel and into the outside world again.

“We’ll have to go by foot, since the scent is already growing faint.” I nodded and we followed her lead, quietly and efficiently moving off of the hostel’s property and to the main road. Careful not to arouse suspicion among the humans still traveling at this hour, we stayed off the road and moved along the edge where the foliage was dense. My only thought as we tracked down Sungmin’s whereabouts was that Jongwoon had been right: I did care whether or not Sungmin was safe.

“I’m losing the scent,” Boa said after a few miles, and even the priest frowned at the unsettling words. We were beginning to reach a suburban neighborhood, with so many scents that my own senses were becoming overwhelmed. Every second it seemed like I had caught the aroma of something new, whether it was freshly cut grass, or a burst of pollen from flowering plants or the smoke from someone’s fireplace – all just blended together in a mess than made me wonder how Boa could keep Sungmin’s scent for so long.

“But there’s no sign of Sungmin,” Siwon said, scanning the area. Being the priest, he rarely left the hostel, if not at all, so this world must have seemed so foreign to him. As for me and Boa, we had only just stepped out of it.

“There’s got to be another way to find him,” I muttered and Boa started to shake her head before freezing in place.

“Wait, I smell fledglings, and,” she paused, shaking her head once again, before raising her nose to the air and taking a few deep breaths. “Blood, definitely blood, but also fledglings.”

“ ‘Fledglings?’ As in plural?” I asked, concerned that I heard her right.

“I don’t understand it either, but we should at least check it out,” she reasoned, and both Siwon and I agreed, since we didn’t have any other lead. Blood meant humans, and blood mixed with fledglings meant something else entirely, and I didn’t have any expectations of that ‘something else’ being pleasant.

I followed closely behind Boa, looking around for any signs of vampyric activity. Sometimes newly changed fledglings lacked caution, or care, for their invisibility to the human world and left trails of death behind them. Siwon trailed behind us, muttering strange things about how humans had really changed since the last time he had been out, somehow lessening the tension we all felt. I heard him gasp, only moments before I was hit with the strong scent of blood, almost like I had just walked into a wall of the stuff.

“Something definitely happened around here,” Siwon said softly, getting a nod from Boa. “And even on our territory.”

“Let’s just hope Sungmin isn’t involved in it,” I said. With such a potent stench of blood surrounding the area, it was best not to stay too long. If we could smell it, who knew what else could? Bloodhounds were almost worse than vultures.

Walking only another few blocks, we came upon the source of the smell: a small single story house painted a light shade of blue. It looked like every other house on the block, lit by only the dim light coming off the street lamps, and a single car in the driveway. The only difference was that the front door stood wide open, and I could vaguely make out the scratches of claws on the frame. It wasn’t a good sign.

Boa nudged my arm. “Here,” she said, holding out a small revolver, its twin already in her other hand. “You might need it.” I accepted the weapon, checking the cylinder for bullets. Siwon pulled out a sword from his pocket, no doubt enchanted in some way.

“Who’s going in first?” Siwon asked, looking to the door.

“I will,” I volunteered. “Boa will cover me, while you can stand out here. Unless it’s just a couple bloodhounds, where there is one vampyre, the rest of the hunting party is not far away. Vampyres don’t typically raid houses, so whatever is in here isn’t going to be pleasant.” The two nodded, and I didn’t even waste a second on the feeling of accomplishment that came with having two dhampyres, much higher in status, agree with a strategy that I created. Instead, I started walking to the door, both praying to, and hoping not to find Sungmin inside. The odor of spilled blood got stronger each step I took, and my grip tightened on the revolver. My feet stilled when the sounds of slurping reached my ears, and I didn’t doubt it was the sound of something feeding.

Something inside finally compelled me to step over the threshold. I noticed first the splattering of blood on a few walls, and then secondly a male body lying on the floor with his neck twisted, and a compound fracture on his leg. No blood or bruising, along with the obvious scent of a fledgling and the underlying hint of vampyre gave away his identity. The snapped neck wasn’t enough to kill him, but it would keep him incapacitated for a little while. Boa and I shared a look, mentally agreeing to leave him instead of alerting whoever was feeding or worse, the rest of the neighborhood, to our presence,.

We slowly moved into the living room, finding another fledgling body, this one female with a few knife wounds and the weapon of choice sticking out of . Paralyzed until further notice, but as we move closer, something else struck me about this one. She didn’t smell of vampyre, at least not in the way that a vampyre would. She smelled as though she had been around vampyres but this one, this one was dhampyre.

Another few steps and we stood in front of a door that likely led to the kitchen, which was surprisingly fitting since that was where the sounds were coming from. I glanced to Boa, getting a nod, and slowly turned the handle, preparing myself for whatever would be behind the door.

Three, two, one, I counted off in my head, before throwing the door open, and raising my gun to… Sungmin. The fledgling looked up at us, with a red face, eyes swollen from crying, and a mouth stained with blood. The moment our eyes met, he let out a whimper, and fresh tears fell, mixing with the crimson liquid around his mouth.

“Kyu-” he cried, looking down to the body he knelt next to. “Help me, Kyuhyun, I don’t- I don’t know what to do and- and he was… and now… Please, Kyuhyun, save Hyukjae, please.” I lowered my revolver, letting Boa move around the room, inspecting for any other dangers, as I looked to the man lying on the floor in front of Sungmin. His entire shirt had practically been soaked with blood, and a wound across his chest exposed the white of bone. Other minor injuries littered his body, including one that stood out against his pale skin. A bite mark on his neck and I had no doubt Sungmin was the one to inflict it.

“What do you think you’ve done?!” I yelled, making him flinch. “You leave a stupid note, somehow leave the hostel the moment we have someone break the seal, forced us to track you down here, and here you are, feeding off of your so-called best friend! Better yet, there’s a vampyre and a dhampyre here just waiting for the taste of blood! Do-“

“They’re not dead?” he asked meekly.

“No they’re not dead! And do you even know the risk of a few dhampyres roaming the street, let alone a single, unprotected, stupid fledgling? You could have been killed. We could have been killed just looking for you!”

“Kyu-” he sobbed, wiping his face on his sleeves, managing to just smear the blood around.

“And what, you got injured fighting the vampyre, and couldn’t even stop yourself from feeding from someone you claimed was so important to you? That Sungmin, is what a mon-”

“Kyuhyun, he might have done the right thing.” My head swung around to look at Siwon, who had left his position outside, and moved to kneel down next to Sungmin. He looked at the body on the floor, grabbing a piece of the torn shirt, and moved it out of the way to reveal another bite mark, this one more ragged, like the inflictor was in a hurry. Still, I didn’t know how that changed things. Setting the cloth down, he grabbed Sungmin’s shoulders, forcing him to look at the priest.

“Sungmin, I’m going to ask you a few things and I need you to answer me honestly.” The fledgling frantically nodded, and more tears fell from his eyes. “Did you bite him before or after the vampyre bit him?”

“After,” he mumbled.

“Good, now, was he still alive after the first bite, or…?” Sungmin averted his eyes, looking to his friend. “Sungmin,” Siwon scolded, shaking him to get his attention.

“I-I-I don’t know… I think, maybe… I don’t know,” he sobbed, shaking his head.

“Stop, Sungmin, I need you to concentrate. Was he, or was he not alive?” Sungmin started nodding again.

“Yes, yes, he was still breathing.”

“Ok, Sungmin, one more question,” he said, sounding calm once more, almost like he was coaxing a child. “Have you drained him of blood or not?”

“I-I think so,” he mumbled.

“I need you to be sure.”

“Then no, I didn’t.” Siwon released Sungmin, and scooted back a little.

“Then you need to keep drinking until you’re sure, ok? Can you do that?” Sungmin nodded, and sparing a final look to me, leaned down, replaced his fangs, and began out whatever blood was left.

“What-”

“This just proved my theory,” the priest said, standing up to meet me equally.

“What theory?” another voice asked from the doorway to the left. Boa leaned against the door frame, revolver held loosely in one hand at her side. “Our friends in the other room aren’t going to wake up anytime soon, so once we’re done in here, we should leave.”

“Sungmin’s a pureblood,” Siwon stated too casually for words he spoke. Sungmin even rose up, looking at the priest with the same look both Boa and I were giving him. “You broke the seal, didn’t you?”

“I-”

“How could he?” I argued. “He couldn’t even get through the seal on Jongwoon’s door.”

“He didn’t really want to, nor were his emotions in the same state as when he broke through the front door.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Boa added, stepping forward, while Sungmin looked like the sky was falling.

“Why doesn’t it? Does he even smell like a dhampyre fledgling?” Until he mentioned it, I never noticed. From the start, I couldn’t even tell if he was vampyre or dhampyre, and even Niko, a centuries old vampyress, didn’t notice right away that he was supposedly a dhampyre. Boa may have traced him from his scent, but judging by the understanding look she gave Siwon, she probably only traced the scent of a fledgling. Somehow only Siwon noticed that maybe Sungmin might have been a little different. “You never noticed because you had no reason to look for it,” he said, as if reading my mind.

“Does that mean I’m like Master?” Sungmin asked, once again wiping his mouth on his sleeves.

“Yes and no. You have the same abilities, such as being able to use magyk and create dhampyres, but he’s much older and is a clan leader.”

“This is all well and nice,” I stated, earning the attention of three pairs of eye, “but if Sungmin was the one to break through the seal, and not a shadowmage, then what the hell went on in this house?” Sungmin visibly gulped and then shakily raised his hand.

“I can explain,” he said. “I left the hostel, and got here as fast as I could. Hyukjae answered the door, and we only started talking when the door burst open and the vampyres showed up. While I attacked the guy, Hyukjae tried to defend himself from the girl, but his knife wasn’t enough and she…” He trailed off, looking down to Hyukjae and running his fingers lightly over the tattered edge of the shirt. “By the time I took down the first guy, she was already feeding off of Hyukjae and so I attacked her, and then came back here to find him barely breathing. I- I didn’t know what else to do, so I thought that the least I could do was turn him into one of us, and that’s when you guys showed up.”

“You mean the two were together?” Boa asked, getting a nod from Sungmin. “Something isn’t right. Even if dhampyres were willing, vampyres wouldn’t be too happy to work alongside a dhampyre.”

“It could be that they didn’t know,” I offered from experience. “Not all vampyres have the best sense of smell, and fledglings especially have a hard time telling the difference between dhampyre and vampyre.”

“But that doesn’t explain why they broke into a house,” Boa added. There was a moment of silence as we tried to process the information.

“Why don’t we take care of those two, clean up, and head back to the hostel,” Siwon suggested, adding, “Master might know more about what’s going on.” I doubted anyone really thought he would have the answers, but it was better than standing around clueless. Boa finally nodded, pulling two stakes out of a pouch on her belt. She tossed one to Siwon, who caught it effortlessly, and both headed into the other room to dispose of the intruders. I looked to Sungmin, as he finally pulled himself to his feet, and grabbed a rag from the sink, rinsing it off.

“Here,” I said, tossing it to him. He nodded, and a hint of a smile touched his lips, before they were covered by the rag. I looked to his clothes, also covered in blood and scrunched my nose up in distaste. “You need to get changed, and get him ready to go, because we can’t leave with you two looking like murderers.” He only nodded once more, and stood up, slowly moving to go to the other room.

“And another thing,” I said, stopping him. “If he doesn’t wake up, I need you to write out a suicide note, saying he planned to throw himself off a bridge, because he couldn’t get over your disappearance, and believed it was his fault.” Though his eyes went wide, he only nodded, and continued out of the room. His lack of emotion struck me as odd, but I didn’t question it as I went to grab bleach and rags. I found what I needed under the sink, and started to wipe down the blood splatters in the kitchen, along with the footprints and anywhere finger prints would have been placed. The best thing to do would be to set the house on fire and burn the evidence, but that would be too noticeable and this would stump any investigators long enough.

Pausing mid scrub on a cabinet, I looked to the guy still lying on the floor and wasted a moment studying his features. Red hair mixed with the blood on the floor, which was almost the same color, but contrasted greatly with his severely pale skin. He had a strong jawline, thick lips, and well defined eyes that when opened, probably looked rather intense on his face. Going back to cleaning, I snorted, wondering what about this guy had Sungmin so attached.

Another half hour passed, before the house was finished, and all traces of our appearance were wiped away. Siwon had to place a glamour over the claw marks on the door frame, making the frame appear undamaged, which would last for a few months at the least. Sungmin had gotten cleaned up, and had dressed Hyukjae in some cleaner clothes. We piled all the rags, and bloody clothes, along with the knife into a garbage bag, before also tossing in the vampyric ash left over by the intruders. Sungmin packed a bag of clothes for him and the new fledgling and a few personal items, such as pictures. I thought it was a waste of time and potentially dangerous if anyone wondered why some of those things were missing. But Boa let him, and I couldn’t argue with her.

I threw the newest fledgling onto my back, and we set off, walking back to the hostel. Darkness covered our tracks, but it did nothing to hide the different thoughts everyone had on their minds, ranging from the vampyre and dhampyre fighting together and going as far as breaking into a house, to Sungmin being a pureblood, to how this Hyukjae guy would fit in with the rest of the clan.

We walked into the hostel, where Junsu and Changmin stood waiting, and watched as relief visibly relaxed their features. Boa grinned brightly, before running to embrace the other two scouts.

“We got worried when you disappeared from the hostel,” Junsu said, looking at each of us in turn, raising an eyebrow as he caught sight of the guy on my back, but didn’t ask the obvious question. “You’re just lucky there wasn’t any sort of threat here.”

“Yeah,” Changmin agreed, keeping one arm wrapped around Boa’s shoulders. “You guys should’ve seen Donghae, I mean he damn near lost his head when he heard that we were not only missing a scout, but also our priest, and it didn’t help that a ‘delinquent, vampyre-sympathizing bloodhound,’ had also coincidentally disappeared.” Changmin laughed, and shook his head. “And as you probably already know, that didn’t sit pretty with Jongwoon nor Master. I think Henry finally got them to shut up a little while ago.” I rolled my eyes. Of course Donghae would try to pin the blame on me, but while it wasn’t a surprise that Jongwoon would stand up for me, having Master on my side did.

“So who’s this?” Junsu finally asked, apparently satisfied enough that no one was hurt and that his teammate was all in one piece, to finally ask the question he had been wondering about.

“Hyukjae,” Sungmin softly said, still not quite over the whole ordeal. “A friend.”

“Then let’s get him a room, and see if we can get him to wake up,” Junsu said, giving Sungmin a soft smile, and headed to my side to take the load off my back. The two walked down the hallway; Junsu packing Hyukjae effortlessly, while Sungmin slowly trailed behind, walking with heavy steps.

“I’m going to go report what happened,” Boa said, now looking rather tired, and she and Changmin started down the hall, following the path that Junsu and Sungmin took. That left Siwon and I still at the entrance. I looked to the bag he held, and then to the door, trying to decide what exactly to do.

“I can take the bag and burn the evidence,” I volunteered, but the priest only wore an expression of concentration, almost like he was trying to read what I was thinking.

“Kyuhyun,” he started, sounding more serious than I expected from him. “I know you still think Sungmin was in the wrong for his actions.” I opened my mouth to speak, but he only raised his hand, stopping me. “If Sungmin hadn’t gotten to Hyukjae before his heart stopped, the unfinished change would have turned his friend from human to monster, something like a fully bloodlusted vampyre. You of all people should have known that.” I crossed my arms, and stood up a little straighter.

“Just because I lived with vampyres-”

“I’m not referring to the time you’ve spent with vampyres. I’m saying you should have known because of your brother. Because eight years ago, Jongwoon had also been attacked by vampyres, and if not for Master, he would have died then as a beast.”