“Honey, if you could just calm down and let me explain” Zero pleaded with all the calmness he could muster but all that came to him was a piece of furniture belonging to their newly refurbished home. All, including silverware and even the flat screen TV Joongki had given them when they just moved in, which wasn’t so long ago. Certainly the wizard didn’t appreciate his gift to be used in such manner, though luckily he still managed to save it.

Park Bom has never lost her temper, perhaps in some instances but it’s rare that she throws a fit big enough to destroy the apartment. It was even more dangerous that her vampire powers came in play all at the same time, fortunately with a wizard, a werewolf and three other vampires in the room, no permanent damages has been made, yet anyways.

 Although the scene was surely not something to be watched by a minor, Minji have seen much worse, the profanities was absolutely censor worthy.

“Explain what? You three only show yourselves after a summoning … not at all when we needed you most …When Dara … Dara, she … she was in pain and we couldn’t do anything about it … and now she had to go because you three weren’t there for her … how could you?”

If given the choice, Jaejoong and Donghae would have been gone already before any of Bom’s hysterical tantrum could begin, but it was of the vampire princess’ disappearance that had them staying around. Along with that were Chaerin and Minji’s piercing eyes that could have killed them if it were possible and the wizard’s threatening whispers behind the scene.

“Nuna, can you please tell us what happened with Dara?” Jaejoong tried to cut in, successfully he did but with bad timing as Bom had just grabbed a marble bowl. In no second, the bowl went flying across the room, caught easily by the werewolf prince with his right hand and seemed very unaffected, fortunately.

Zen threw Joongki a desperate plea followed by a gesture with his hand that the latter may have seemed to understand. The wizard made his way over to Bom, quickly covering the vampire’s eyes with his hands. Smoke brushed against her face and in a few moments the vampire had lost consciousness. Zen caught her before she had the chance to hit the floor. With a sigh of relief and anxiety, the elder carried the latter in his hands and quickly brought her to their room, leaving the rest of them.

Immediately, both Jaejoong and Donghae turned to Minji in hope that the youngest would spare them and would go straight to answering their question. Hardly, they both gulped at the still piercing gaze she  had in her eyes. At its fierceness, it was almost unquestionable just how bad it was and their thirst to know what it was only severed.

“If it is something as bad as it seems to be, there is no pointing in feeling resentment” Joongki said nonchalantly with the wave of his hand that caused the wrecked room to turn to normal.

Jaejoong felt thankful to the other as his words softened the ladies though he kept his face with a neutral expression to avoid any distraction of any sort.

“Fine, but we’re only talking for the sake of you three knowing but if you do not come up with a good enough reason as to why you failed to show up at the time we most needed you, I will break your bones” Minji threatened, it would have seemed mediocre but nothing in her tone relayed the lack of sincerity. She approached them, her stance very casual but the sharp edge on her voice was enough to have the hair at the back of their necks stand up.

Then, a silence filled the room. The weather had turned back to normal- bright and cloudless, after Dara and Jihyo had left but it had still left them anxious to no ends. Chaerin was about to open to speak but stopped when Zen had joined them, they two felt the same towards the other but felt that Bom’s fit was enough for him to handle for the day.

He took a sit opposite of the ladies and had gestured Joongki to join his side while the other two men took the empty sofa on the right. He rubbed his temple as if a headache was tormenting him, although questionable as he was a vampire.

“I’m not really sure of what happened or how to explain it, Bom unnie knows more than we do since she was with her before. Dara unnie … well, she mentioned something about the time stopping but we thought she might have just been hungry and hallucinating or something…” Chaerin began but trailed off when she noticed Zen looking beyond both of them, all turned towards that direction and saw Bom – puffy eyes and looking daze, staring back at him with a sad expression.

“You should have heard her, seen her … she was in so much pain like something was shredding her into pieces … she begged to make the pain stop and all we could do was just stand there, clueless. We called you three so many times, you three who could have done something to help her but you didn’t show up and Jihyo unnie did” she paused. She was using all the strength she has in her to stop herself from crying once again. Both Minji and Chaerin had their heads down while the other two just looked away in shame. “… something probably happened but they didn’t tell us and said that they had to go…”

There was that silence again, brushing across them like the rain after a drought, heavy and overwhelming. A buzzing sound seeming to fill their heads as the three tried to recollect anything that may associate with the occurrence, but to their dismay, found none. Even Zen was disappointed at himself for many reasons and so were the three but he thought that the whole fault was his although the fingers were pointed at the other two as well.

“There’s no point blaming you three now, they’ve already gone and we’ll be following if by a couple of days they aren’t back yet…” Bom finished with a small sigh.

The suddenness of her presence made them close to jumping and get in an almost defensive stance, but nothing in her expression meant any of that. She looked at them sullenly before turning around without anything more to say and walked back to their room. The door was closed gently but the quietness of it was as loud as it would have been if it was slammed shut.

They waited till it was silent to talk again, Minji and Chaerin’s eyes slitted in an almost glare at the three who already looked deep in thought and guilt. Perhaps because Bom had said her part that things were to end on that point but the other two didn’t quite think so. Feeling the oncoming tidal of words, Joongki stood up and moved seats, taking the seat beside the youngest.

“Where were you three?” the weight of every word, emphasized form the first letter to the last rang endless through their ear and they had to look at each other first – making the girls even more suspicious, before they looked at them.

“We were in search for ways for Dara to get her memories back, looking for a lead that would help” Jaejoong spoke and the three were in complete shock but it was all in a good way. The grimace and furious feelings they had dissipated and a look of hope flashed across their faces.

“It hasn’t gone well, however. Every lead we managed to catch slips away and we’re left with empty hands, most of the time it’s just witches, vampires, werewolves hitting on these two” Zen said and both the wolf and vampire rolled their eyes, Jaejoong tilting his head a little and the visible kiss mark against his skin shown.

Chaerin gasped loudly, hand clasping on the cushion that sat beside her and threw it at the other with much strength that the contact made a loud thud. The others jumped in surprise and the wolf prince groaning as he rubbed his head. With gritted teeth, he spoke. “What the hell was that about?”

“That is why Dara unnie left so quickly. That freaking kiss mark on your neck!” Chaerin spat and was about to grab the nearby table but Minji and Joongki had stopped her before she could.

For the next hour, the quintet was reprimanding the prince with as much silence as they can muster in an attempt to not wake Bom up. Although Zen was in on it, there was something at the back of his mind that had him looking back to his and Bom’s room, brows furrowed in deep thought.

……………………………

“Are we in the right place?” Dara inquired as her eyes searched the area.

The wind blowing in from the south was rather cold but warm all at the same time, soothing her from the storm that had just settled within her. Although small waves still brings her thoughts back to what she had just witnessed only moments ago – the bright and definite lipstick mark that was printed on the neck of the werewolf prince, the calming brushes of the breeze had helped divert her attention into something else.

Jihyo breathed a small chuckle at the other’s question, her own hazel eyes scanning the vicinity. Golden amber threads of sunlight streamed through the leaves and trees that gave the afternoon an air of fantasy to it as distant sounds of animals livening up the empty forest at where they stood.

“I think we are” the witch then gestured to the marble floor they have been stepping on but the vampire had failed to recognize. “It’s the mark of the Phoenix, the sun”

Dara then looked down to her feet, her brow rising inquisitively at the intricate patterns of orange and yellow against the white marble. All looped and twisted towards the center of the circle where a smaller orb that contained a drawing of the sun was etched. The stone sank into the ground, the earth raised a few inches from its edges and bushes with red leaves covering the step. Certainly the fire trees that had grown abundantly and almost covered the sky above them should have been the first hint, but one could only think of a few things at a time.

A flutter of embers danced around the princess’ feet as she shuffled against the floor. An idea immediately popped in Jihyo’s head even if it was rather sketchy and unexplainable at the moment.

She tugged Dara’s hand and pulled her more towards the middle of the circle, having her stand right in the inner orb where the sun laid and surely as she gets settled, the small embers have turned into flames and flames turned into fire that followed the outline of the drawings until the markings has glowed brilliantly and the princess standing in a pit of fire. Jihyo had leaped out before she could get burned.

“What's going on?” Dara gasped.

“Opening the gates, I bel