Part II : Secunda Vigilia (1/1)

Once I reached the house, I tried to explain everything as quick and clearly as possible. Leaving the cars, our belongings, and anything that wasn’t vital to our survival, we headed up north as fast as possible. Crossing the DMZ and continue going up was our only route of escape by foot and there was no time to lose. Halfway there SungJae and Joy started lagging behind though, the last time they had had any human blood was last week so they were in a weaker state than us. SungJae insisted on running on his own, while Jonghyun piggybacked Joy toward the border. We were two thirds of our way to North Korea, when a loud sound of a crash rang through the air and we all stopped and turned around in our spots to look for its source. SungJae was being held in a chokehold by a tall man with slick back hair, while he gasped for air and wrapped one hand around his stomach where I could see some blood soaking his shirt. “Jae!” screamed Joy in agony from where she stood next to Joghyun, holding a hand two her mouth. “I heard some bad little boys where being naughty and running away, so I couldn't help but come here to give them a spanking,” he singsonged in a mocking tone. From what I could gather and deduce he had come at us from the north, was this a trap all along?  “Let him go now! You’re outnumbered, mate,” barked Taemin baring his fangs, leaning forward ready to spring in the stranger’s direction. “Oh, no no no. My dear siblings should be here any time now. I can wait right here where I am,” he replied using the same sick timbre he had used before. “Oh, but we can’t,” retorted ChangMin as he and BoA leaped forward to rescue SungJae. With a quick rotation, the stranger threw SungJae meters away behind him, who landed with a painful thud, and welcomed the two vampires with open arms as they collided into him. “He’s buying time!” exclaimed BoA at us. “Get SungJae and head north, we’ll hold him back and catch up to you guys,” she ordered while kneeing our enemy in the guts.  I rushed to get SungJae with Wendy and Taemin but the younger boy’s wounds kept him from being able to stand on his own so Taemin decided to carry him in on his shoulder, but before we could retreat Jonghyun’s loud whimper made us turn to his direction. Two tall men held him from an arm each, while a girl with long black hair had Joy by the neck. Shit, they had us cornered. “Now, we don’t wanna spill any unnecessary blood,” greeted us another vampire arriving at the scene with a big following trailing him. The girl from the forest was one of them, but what caught my attention was seeing Jessica too among them, and fucking Yoona too. “We just wanna drink it,” whispered with an evil sneer the stranger from before, now trapped between ChangMin and BoA. “We’re all civilized here. How about we make a deal? We promise to give you back these two buddies over here, if you just do us one little favor,” reasoned the man with a top hat, around whom all the Purists seemed to gather. “Let them go! We weren’t even hunting humans in your territory,” Taemin raged back fearlessly. “Ah, but you see my friend, we’ve been expanding south a little our reach recently and your two friends happened to get a few quick sips within our borders. Now, if we’re being completely honest it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. You see, we’re trying to rebrand our humble organization, we want other clans to know that if you step a foot near our territory, you’ll have to play by our rules. Times have changed I’m afraid,” he reasoned condescendingly. I counted twelve of them in total as I felt the blood drain from my face, there was no way we were getting away without complying with their demands.  BoA and ChangMin shared a defeated look before BoA took the lead in the negotiation. “What do you want in exchange for them?” “I’m glad you ask, my dear!” replied the menacing and authoritative man, with a spine-chilling smile on his face, he knew he had the upper hand. “I’ll cut right to the chase. We need you to go find a Black Blood by the name of Mino and bring him to us. Simple as that,” he explained nonchalantly. A tense silence extended after his last statement. He made it look like a casual request, but we all knew it could have very serious repercussions, possibly start said war that we all feared. Mino was JiYong’s “little brother” and no one would want to mess with the current head of the Black Bloods living in Siberia right now. “Gi-give us some time to discuss this,” I shouted back miserably trying to sound confident when I realized how limited our options were. They didn’t let go of Jonghyun or Joy but the rest of us regrouped far away from the enemy clan in front of us, away from their range of hearing. “I’m just gonna go ahead and say it. We’re fucked,” acknowledged Taemin who was to my right in the small circle we had formed. “This might seem cold, but we’ve already made enough mistakes. We could lose two members right now but, rationally thinking, we could lose every single one who dared to venture north,” admitted ChangMin trying to analyze the situation. “We wouldn’t want you to risk your lives but you also know we would never give up on one of our own. It’s probably best if ChangMin and I contact Eric and Hyori and the four of us try to bringing Mino by ourselves,” reasoned BoA looking at each one of us in the eyes. It was our best option, the four oldest vampires were the strongest in our clan—if you disregarded my hidden powers shenanigans. “I want to go—” Wendy begun to protest before the presence of an intruder took us all by surprise. “I’m sorry but I just happened to overhear your small chat and we’d like for you to leave tonight because our intel assured us that part of their clan will be away hunting near Yakutsk, so I’d revisit your current plan if I were you,” commented SungJae’s previous aggressor, the tall man with black slick back hair. “I’ll just be waiting over there with rest until you decide, have fun guys,” he added before sprinting back to his clan. Most Purists gave off that strange crazy vibe, you didn’t know if they were messing with you or were actually just demented, it was also slightly unsettling the way sometimes they looked at you: just like humans ogle at a glazed donut. “It’s my fault, this is all my fault,” started chanting Wendy as she hid her face in her hands. “It’s fine. Let's think this through. Objectively speaking, going in a small party would make it easier to sneak into their territory. Additionally, the strongest members should be the ones to go, just like our previous plan was, the only difference is that our options are a bit more limited now. ChangMin, BoA, Taemin, and I would make a solid team,” I said, trying to dissipate the guilt in Wendy’s voice. “But they have Joy and–” protested SungJae leaning against Taemin. ChangMin cut him impassively, “I’m sorry but you’re hurt, SungJae. You’d only be a liability to us. Seulgi’s plan is good, everyone in favor raise your hands.”   With five votes out of six —Wendy initially disagreed but ultimately casted her vote in favor knowing that it was our best shot— we moved forward with our plan. “We’ll let this friend of yours go out of courtesy but we want you out of here now,” informed one of the two tall guys holding Jonghyun. “I’ll go with you guys!” exclaimed Jonghyun as soon as he was freed. “Now now, silence please,” chimed in the guy everyone seemed to gathered around of, probably the leader of their clan. “You three,” he said potining at Jonghyun, Wendy, and SungJae, “leave while we’re still being nice. If you’re worried about numbers, do not fret my friends, two of our own will accompany you on your mission. You thought we’d let you on your own so you could run away once you’re far enough? No no no.” He looked behind him, to the Purists gathered silently, before pointing at two people and commanding, “Jessica and Ken, you go babysit them.” “SeungHyun don’t be like that. Why would you send Jessica of all people with them?” protested Yoona. Yeah, I didn’t like the idea of having some cozy time with her either. “I’ll go instead,” she volunteered. No, fuck that. I’d rather have a picnic with Jessica than having Yoona anywhere near me. “I’m not about to spend this all-inclusive vacation in hell with either a traitor or a bitch, hell no,” complained Taemin. Yes, thank you. “I’m not here to play tour guide, I’m running out of patience,” retorted their leader, the man Yoona had called SeungHyun just now. That was the SeungHyun that all the stories InSung told me talked about. Why had anyone failed to mention who we were up against here? “I’ll go,” said a woman next to Yoona, her voice resounding through the forest. “You know you can trust me, SeungHyun. I’ll see this through.” The girl speaking was the same I’d bumped into earlier at the clearing outside of Donghae and I felt a shiver run down my spine.   The remaining of the night was thankfully uneventful. We bid our goodbyes to the rest of our clan and begun our quest, running north for a couple of hours until the first rays of sunlight broke the comfort of the darkness. We decided to rest in an abandoned house next to some dry farmland near Wonsan; I’d heard the crisis in North Korea hadn’t been this bad in a few decades, they probably didn’t even have any water for crops. Having two Purists sleeping with us wasn’t helping my already irregular patterns of sleep so I after waking up several times throughout the day, I decided to finally get up and go for a walk a little past 4 PM. There didn’t seem to be any human in kilometers, a flock of birds was the only distinguishable sound. I had been walking for quite a while when I suddenly felt a hand against my arm, forcibly twisting me around in one in one swift motion. I found myself face to face with the Purist I wasn’t so keen on bumping into.  “What are you doing?” Irene demanded. During our trip last night, we’d all gotten down to introduce ourselves, one of the few conversations we had all night; the two Purists travelling with us were Ken and Irene. “I’m just walking. Do I need your permission for that?” I replied defensively. “It’s daytime, you should be tired. Go to sleep like everyone else,” she ordered. She was one to speak. “Well, you aren’t sleeping either, what is it to you what I do with my free time?” “If you had listened to me last night, maybe you and your friends would’ve made it safely out of South Korea. Listen to me now,” she pointed out. That hurt like a dagger to my stomach, she was right. I hadn’t told anyone the particular details about my encounter with her but I knew we could’ve left without encountering any complications if I had just listened to her. In my defense, no one in their right mind would have trusted a White Blood in my place. “You wouldn’t want to make Ken suspicious of anything, we have explicit orders: “Act friendly and collect as much information on them as possible,” she added before dashing back to our temporary settlement, leaving me there alone and confused. Just like the first time, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was simply playing mind games with me or being genuinely nice.   A couple of days later we reached Harb