Chapter 12. Sometimes

Seungri tried to remain calm, but the darker it got the more anxious he would be, his heart throbbing violently inside his chest. SooJoo had tried to appear calm throughout the day but when she failed to reach any of the three demons and got no answers back, her calm façade fell and she now looked as distraught as he did.

“Should I go and…”

“Absolutely not. You stay here!” SooJoo roared and looked at him disapprovingly.

So there he stood, covering them both with the leather sheaths from the cold, as they feared igniting a fire would give away their location. They spent the night without being able to sleep, listening to any of the sounds coming from outside; any twitch or any whistle would make both of them perk up and stiffen worriedly. Seungri gave up and fell in tiresome when the sun was appearing again on the horizon. He simply lost conscience of his surroundings and allowed his eyes to close; only to be rudely and violently awaken by SooJoo.

“Seungri! Seungri!” she shouted and hissed in a low, yet alarmed voice. Seungri opened his eyes immediately and straightened up, “I can smell them. They are close. You have to run. Run to the west… And don’t stop running until you reach the angel town, you hear me? Run to the west!” SooJoo explained to him hurriedly. There were fear and pain in her eyes, but she was a warrior and so she kept herself together, and as calmly as possible gave him a small sachet and pushed him out of the cavern, “Go now!”

Seungri hesitated. He didn’t want to leave SooJoo alone when she was hurt. But she snarled at him and roared at him to run, and Seungri moved his feet and ran, terrified and confused. He stumbled with fallen trunks and scratched his hands and face with the branches in his way. But he didn’t stop, he didn’t look back. And yet he didn’t make it. He was running one moment and the next he had a demon over him, pinning him to the floor.

“Stay silent,” the demon whispered in his ear. But the voice was familiar and when he looked up he saw Aigiel’s face, the demon’s eyes were squinting around, and he was frowning, looking for danger. When the sun rays shone over his pupils, Seungri saw they were dark red, “They are tracking you and they are near. Don’t make a sound. When they appear, run and take shelter under that tree trunk.”

And surely, an instant later, he felt more than saw Aigiel being tackled by a female demon. Seungri didn’t stop to see what was happening behind him, he ran and hid and tried to calm his galloping heart. Another demon appeared from behind Seungri but didn’t go for him but for the female demon fighting with Aigiel. It was Jiyong, roaring, and growling in rage. It all happened too fast, for a moment later Jiyong was tackled by an… angel?

That was when Seungri looked at the enemies faces. And without error, the female demon was a known face as same as the angel fighting now with Jiyong.

“Minzy? Maeum?” Seungri asked, dumbfounded.

Someone suddenly grabbed him from behind, a pair of strong and familiar arms squeezing his waist.

“There you are. We got you,” Seunghyun’s voice said behind him, at the same time Jiyong turned to look at their direction and growled enraged, flying to where they were. With a flap of his wing, he threw the alpha back and forced him to drop Seungri to the floor.

Jiyong enraged was beautiful as same as terrifying. He was clenching his jaws and his fangs were out and sharp. The Alpha angel did his best to defend and fight back, but he got tackled by a new demon that appeared from nowhere. And soon Seunghyun found himself pinned by Youngbae to the floor.

Minzy for his part had Aigiel by his neck, and Maeum was about to rip his head off. Jiyong was fast enough to punch the angel in the face and knock him out, the angel fell ungracefully to the floor. Minzy growled and bit Aigiel’s neck, Aigiel squirmed and whined in pain and that was when Seungri found his voice to shout.

“STOP! JUST STOP!”

And surprisingly enough, everyone stopped and turned to look at him with questioning eyes.

“He is… Damn, it! He is the Alpha that took care of me at the shelter. It’s Seunghyun,” he said pointing at the enraged angel under Youngbae’s legs, “They don’t want to hurt me.”

Jiyong looked at the angel and a hint of recognition appeared in his eyes. He, hesitantly, nodded and had his fangs retracted.

“He is my Alpha. What the hell do you think you are doing attacking them this way?” he asked to Seunghyun then, while pointing at Jiyong. The Alpha angel looked at him as if he had grown three heads; still trying to push the demon over his back off him.

“They kidnapped you,” Seunghyun gasped.

“They protected me from the other demons. They have been keeping me safe!”

Minzy snorted and spat out, unbelieving of such thing. Aigiel hissed at her and tried to bite the hand that still held a tight grip around his neck.

“Let him go,” Seungri cried to the female Alpha and added, with a quieter voice, “please”.

The Alpha wasn’t pleased, she snarled before letting go of the other demon and crossed her arms expecting explanations. Aigiel caressed his neck and moved faster than ever to Jiyong’s side. Maeum chose that moment to wake up back to the living world, and stood up with a grunt, scratching his wounded face. Seungri moved to where he was and helped him stand on his feet.

“Are you ok?” he asked, whispering to Maeum’s ear which gained him a slow growl from Jiyong. Youngbae rolled his eyes. Aigiel smirked. Seunghyun exhaled and cursed.

“Of course he is not! Your friend…” he spat the last world and gave a murderous look at Jiyong, who growled back with sharpened fangs “… almost killed him.”

“He almost killed Aigiel,” Jiyong snarled, his wings stretched in an intimidating posture.

“Youngbae, please let Seunghyun move,” Seungri exhaled and pushed Youngbae off from the Alpha’s back. Well, he didn’t push him off, more touched his shoulder and put on an imploring look.

Once free, Seunghyun flapped his wings in annoyance and straighten himself up to appear taller than everyone else. Jiyong sneered at that.

“Could you stop?” Seungri begged and let out a long, low sigh. He ran a hand over his face and sighed again.

Maeum was the first to understand. He looked around to the demons and Alphas gathered and stepped closer to Seungri, placed a soothing hand on his shoulder and murmured, “We thought you were in danger. Daesung threatened to go search you by himself if we didn’t.”

At the name of his friend, Seungri perked up, “Dae? Where is he?”

The answer came from Seunghyun, “He is with Layl, a friend of Maeum, a mile or two from here.”

“He is here?” Seungri exclaimed with widened eyes and a smile stretched on his face, “Is he ok?”

Seunghyun nodded once, “He is ok.”

Youngbae, Aigiel and Jiyong were watching them in silence. The first in contemplation, the second merely amused, but the third looked two seconds away from killing everyone and taking flight.

“How many people died?” Youngbae suddenly broke the silence, his voice strained yet firm.

Seunghyun and Minzy, both at the same time, sneered at him.

“As if you cared, ing extremist,” Seunghyun growled.

Youngbae didn’t react back. He stood firm and, surprisingly for Seungri, a hint of regret crossed his face, “I do. Please, how many died?”

“Around 15 young angels, 5 Krevatis and two Alphas,” Maeum answered. Youngbae nodded and let his eyes fall to the ground.

“Did you kill any of us?”

“Seven of you,” Minzy bragged with a satisfied smile, “But I couldn’t get to the stupid lunatic.”

“Chaerin,” conceded Aigiel smiling and he twitched his wings in amusement. When Minzy gave a bewildered look at him, he shrugged, “I’m guessing the lunatic is Chaerin. She is hard to kill, I’ve tried too,” he grinned and actually winked. Seungri wasn’t the only one to roll his eyes at the demon.

“Whatever” she frowned and crossed her arms back.

Youngbae and Jiyong looked at each other. Jiyong still looked extremely uncomfortable by the presence of the Alphas. Especially about the two angels a few meters from him. He whispered something to Youngbae’s ear, Youngbae sighed and shook his head and tried to grab his arm; but Jiyong ripped his hand off his arm and took flight, surprising everyone.

Seunghyun tried to follow but Maeum’s hand stopped and grounded him. Seungri only looked at the retreating figure with concern and, if he wanted, to be honest enough, crushed by the fact Jiyong hadn’t look back at him, once again.

“Seungri,” Youngbae called his name firmly enough to take him back from his thoughts, “I know you want to go back with them, to your home, but you know is not safe. Is not anymore.”

“What the are you talking about?” Seunghyun growled, still looking at the spot in the sky where Jiyong had disappeared, “We can protect him good enough.”

Youngbae shook his head and glanced at Seungri. There were apologies in the demon’s eyes. Seungri shivered at the meaning of it.

“They know about him. He isn’t safe as long as he stays here.”

“They?” Minzy asked, raising an eyebrow and stepping closer. Her tail twitched behind her and she stopped next to Seungri and grabbed him firmly by the shoulders, “You ok, kiddo?”

Seungri