#toxic free incense sticks

[mayankdharohararoma]

Charcoal Free Incense Sticks for Meditation

[spookyserenades]

Sanctity - Chapter Two

Pairing(s); BTS OT7 x Reader

Genre/Themes; Vampire!AU, yandere!AU, horror, themes of the supernatural and mythology, historical topics, vampiric powers, religious themes, violence, romance

Rated; 18+ for swearing, violence/gore, toxic behavior including stalking, torture, and manipulation, future sexual themes. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Word Count; 20.3k

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WELCOME BACK! I love you all. I'd like to highlight some warnings here for this chapter straight off the bat: there are major dub-con moments in this chapter of sexual nature. Multiple character deaths, suicidal thoughts, abuse, and quite a bit of graphic gory scenes are included in this update. Please know this is a work of HORROR FICTION as well! This got especially macabre because it's like ice age in New England LMAO. I hope you all enjoy this update and kisses from yours truly, Dana <3

WARNING! There are instances of DEATH, gore and dubious consent. This work of fiction does not remotely reflect members of BTS in reality. The boys are written to be toxic in Sanctity (yandere). Please be warned if this is triggering to you.

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

How much time passed, Y/N did not, nor would she ever, know. Bit by bit, the first thing that returned to her was her sense of smell– something thick and smoky filling her nostrils, maybe an offertory incense blend from the chapel. The second sense was her hearing, and still expecting the Sanctuary’s bell tower to wake her up, her body went stiff when she heard old-timey music and several different male voices. Shit– the next thing she was aware of was her recent memories. 

Eyes flying open, she was laying down on some kind of upholstered settee, still wearing the velvet mini dress from dinner, which was almost hiked up around her hips. Horrified and woozy from both her blood being drained, multiple glasses of wine and liquor, and her state of exposure, she sat up abruptly. Staring down at her freshly polished toes, bare and lacking the fancy heels she was wearing earlier, Y/N froze at the sound of her name being called while she pulled her dress back down, her mind jumping to a conclusion that one of them actually touched her while she was unconscious. 

“Finally awake? You’d think after that meal, you’d at least be able to stand on your feet once Seokjin bit you. He hardly took anything,” Jeongguk approached her first, holding a cue stick and staring down at her with a smirk. He had ditched his sports jacket, the first few buttons on his white shirt pulled free and his tie hanging limply around his neck.

Scrambling to a fully seated position, Y/N saw that her shoes were nowhere to be seen, and she had been carried by someone into the billiard’s room adjoining the space where they had dinner. Perhaps one of the vampires removed her shoes so she couldn’t use the stilettos as a pointed weapon. Sick to the back teeth of being teased and manipulated, especially when she felt her neck and wrist throbbing and saw how perfectly healthy Jeongguk had become after drinking her blood, her eyes narrowed nearly shut. 

“I’m sure it was the fucking wine glass he slit my wrist into was what prevented me from having normal goddamn footing,” Y/N fumed as best she could with a completely dried-out throat, Jeongguk’s smirk widening and showing his teeth at the outburst. 

“What a filthy mouth you’ve got, ma chérie,” Hoseok teased through laughter, all while leaning over a massive pool table and aiming his cue at a white ball. The new nickname from the ex-pirate, whatever language it came from, had her feeling belittled and repulsed– even if Hoseok’s drawl was soulful and spellbinding. It was as if in her slumber, she had managed to grow an even stronger spine. 

“My name’s Y/N, not whatever you just called me. Not pet, not ‘little girl,’ not ‘dove’. If you’re all going to torture me, at least afford me the favor of not patronizing me,” Y/N stood, making sure to make pointed eye-contact with both Hoseok and Jimin; the latter of which was lazily draped on another settee across the room with a cordial glass and a lit cigar. 

“Ah, true colors. I hoped you were as meek as you pretended to be yesterday afternoon, but it seems my initial suspicions were correct. How tiring,” Seokjin was by the fireplace, not sparing her a glance as the flames illuminated his side profile. He appeared to be the only one with his suit still flawlessly intact, one of his hands buried in the pocket of his slacks while the other braced his weight on the marble mantle. 

“Who carried me in here?” Y/N ignored Seokjin, trying to find her shoes. For some reason, her bare feet on the marble had her feeling more vulnerable than her disheveled dress. 

“No one violated you, girl,” Seokjin snapped, all while ignoring her request to remove pet names from his vocabulary. The fog of Jeongguk entering her mind and offering up her secret thoughts to the eldest vampire made Y/N wince, spurring her foolish outburst to go beyond the reach of her control.

“That wasn’t my question,” Y/N’s hands balled into fists, so blind with rage and the instinct to battle for her life that she snapped. “Stay out of my head, you!” 

Y/N all but spat at Jeongguk while pointing at him, the young vampire still wearing that infuriating grin, Y/N storming past him with her feet slapping against the Italian marble to confront Seokjin. Again, a part of her was screaming that Jeongguk could be her kin as he watched, with his youthful appearance– the only thing that had her storming by was the demonic color of his irises. 

At first, she was blasting by the youngest vampire and barreling towards Seokjin, however, a palm covered in buttery leather wrapped around the base of her throat that stopped her in her tracks effectively, harshly. Met with cold, glowing red eyes, Y/N could hardly crane her neck up at Namjoon towering over her, Seokjin sighing from behind Namjoon. 

“If you must know, pest, I brought you in here. Watch your tongue and know your place,” Namjoon’s fingers flexed against the sides of her throat, dark hair in his eyes when Y/N felt the rush of blood in her arteries frantically trying to find a place to go. Paired with the sting of the leather rubbing against Seokjin’s earlier bite, Y/N heeded Namjoon’s warning and nodded as best she could just so he would let her go. 

“Did you not see what Namjoon-ah could do during dinner? If his power can affect Jimin that strongly, what do you think it can do to you?” Seokjin cut in softly, snapping his fingers once. With the sharp sound that contrasted the vampire’s dulcet tone, Namjoon released Y/N’s throat immediately, leaving her to double over and gasp for breath. “Let’s make one thing clear. You can curse at us as much as you please, but do not think you are above being punished for rash actions. I can promise you, I am not a merciful man– Namjoon-ah even less so.”

Y/N felt defeat again, the spark of rebellion in her extinguished thoroughly. The shiny black shoes and pressed pants in front of her seemed blurry, Namjoon towering over her like a steel wall. When she could straighten up again, Y/N flinched at the vampire’s expression: hateful, but the mean smile on his face created sweet little dimples on his cheeks, which contradicted just about everything else about the vampire. His expression, in the best translation Y/N could come up with, was someone contemplating just how to tear another piece by piece with relish.

“Will you drain me dry like your last acolyte?” ​​Y/N rasped, addressing Seokjin but still staring straight at Namjoon, as if one small movement from her would have him lunging. 

Hearing Jimin’s light snickering from across the room did nothing but heighten Y/N’s  humiliation about being put in her place once more. Glancing at him, she spotted Yoongi in the corner, a sketchbook in his lap and apparently not paying any attention to the spectacle. Also disinterested was Taehyung, leafing through a newspaper and puffing on a cigar he was sharing with Jimin. 

“Maybe,” Seokjin hummed, letting Namjoon fall back into the shadows beside an old phonograph still playing age-weathered music. “Maybe not. Behave, and there’s no reason to fear for your life.”

“She wants to shorten her sentence, Seokjin,” Yoongi finally interjected, fingertips covered in inky charcoal. Darkly, Y/N thought that perhaps Yoongi might be the one with the most sense, and that wasn’t saying much. 

“Ever play pool, Y/N?” Hoseok asked suddenly, injecting enough snark into the girl’s name rolling off of his tongue to have her grimacing. 

“Doubt she’s ever even played checkers, Hoseok,” Jeongguk replied, yanking his tie dangling over his shoulder and tossing it on the floor. While leaning over the table to take his own shot, Y/N’s vision focused on the lean, hard-muscled frame Jeongguk had: the thin button-down he had on strained against his toned arms and his sides as he lined up the pool cue between his index and middle fingers. Namjoon aside– there would be no way she could ever be a match to Jeongguk alone.  

“Is it permitted for me to retire now?” Y/N spoke through gritted teeth, muscles in her legs twitching when the petty side of her personality threatened to theatrically curtsy. Distantly, Jeongguk’s mouth corner curled up in amusement– catching the mental image she conjured.

“Say goodnight first, won’t you now?” Jimin trilled, voice curling seductively over the mosaic ceiling, and right when Y/N thought that she had recovered from Namjoon’s chokehold, Jimin was casting another deeply-rooted spell on her. “Taehyung has a question, don’t you?”

Taehyung. The one who so casually dared to impersonate someone close to her, to pretend to be Joseph. While she dreaded nothing more than even looking at the very vampire, Jimin’s roots were so quickly penetrating her bones she found with horror that she was no more than a puppet on a string for him. 

Not even seconds later, Y/N was stumbling over her own bare feet to get to the seating area where the two young vampires were– Yoongi still off to the side, Taehyung lowering his newspaper and passing the lit cigar to Jimin. While hyper aware of Jimin’s hold on her, Y/N’s attention was conquered by Taehyung’s intense, stony expression. Clearing his throat, the shiny gel that was previously taming his midnight waves during dinner was cracking, leaving piecey curls hanging in his face. 

“Tell me, now. Was my answer sufficient?” Taehyung began, tracing his pointer finger over his moistened lower lip, almost cherry red in color thanks to her blood affording him a complexion. 

Y/N’s eyebrows knit in confusion, every nerve in her body pulsing with a dim throb the longer Jimin kept her docile and hypnotized. 

“Huh?” Y/N’s eyelids were heavy, so she found herself batting her eyelashes more frequently than she normally did. “I didn’t ask you anything.”

“Master Taehyung was referring to his reply to you during dinner. Was his reply more or less something ‘Joseph’ would say? Was it enough, dove?”

 Jimin was staring at his nails, one of his trim shoulders slipping out from under his loose shirt collar, and Y/N– to her mortification– immediately thought that the garment had become quite useless, so why was Jimin even bothering to keep it on at all? To deepen her mortification, an amused snicker coming from Jeongguk had her wishing the stained glass lamp above him would come loose and sever his head from his shoulders. Jeongguk’s laughter only became louder when reading her murderous thoughts, the sound of it lively and boyish– not the laughter of a lethal creature. 

Y/N paused, rewinding her memory to dinner. At that time, she really believed that her friend Joseph had been permitted to visit her. Like a bucket of glacial water dumped over her head when realizing her own naivety, she also realized it wasn’t just Jeongguk who could reach into her mind– Jimin could do it, Seokjin could do it and share the way into her head with everyone else. Jeongguk wasn’t laughing anymore. 

“Joe– oh. You, I suppose. You said something about never forgetting me and writing frequently, no?” Y/N, under the puppet strings Jimin was using to keep her steady, was able to study Taehyung’s face with rapt interest; her rational self locked away in some dark corner of her mind. “I think that’s when the coherent part of me sensed something wrong. Joseph hates writing letters, and he’d never talk so sentimentally. Yeah, we were close, but like cat-and-mouse siblings.”

“Still, hyung. Jeongguk mentioned he could not accurately understand the girl’s thoughts at that moment. It seems… peculiar,” Namjoon’s voice, all velvet, filled the room, addressing the eldest vampire still watching the flames in the fireplace. 

“Peculiar? No. The most sound theory is that her thoughts were too animal and stupid for Jeongguk to hear, Namjoon-ah,” Seokjin wasn’t fond of entertaining mysteries or anything that required him to put time and energy into, particularly if the subject matter surrounded a human being. “Forget it. We always deal with issues promptly, and I’m not deeming the girl’s slow mind an issue yet.”

“I suppose I can’t blame myself for not knowing what your acquaintance would say word for word. Jeongguk only had time to go through a handful of memories.”

Y/N didn’t like Taehyung’s dry, holier-than-thou attitude. He had zero decency to look her in the eye, rather looking through her and down his nose. Y/N sensed he was the type of man who had never heard the word ‘no’ in regards to anything. 

“Things have to happen in a timely manner, Y/N, you see? Everything is about timing– that is something I’ve learned again and again– Jeongguk had about half a second to comb through your mind before you would dissolve into complete hysterics. Complete hysteria from you, you’d have a drunk pirate giving you something worse to cry about,” Taehyung continued, giving Hoseok a deliberate, uninterested look when mentioning the ‘drunk pirate’. Hoseok wasn’t paying attention, too busy chalking up his pool cue to bother participating in the conversation. 

For a moment, all that Y/N could hear was a whooshing in her ears as Jimin’s hypnosis began to withdraw, her body promptly trembling with exhaustion as she stood before Taehyung. His tan suit, perfectly pressed, complimented his skin tone now that it was darker, his complexion probably resembling the healthiest peak of his human life. The gray veins over his temples were gone, and there were moles here and there splattered across his face. 

“That’s all… hmm, Jimin. Why don’t you call up to the second floor to make sure the human’s chambers are prepared for the night,” Taehyung gave Y/N one last cursory glance before plucking up his newspaper again. 

Y/N didn’t even hear Jimin waltz his way to an old-fashioned intercom system, murmuring something seductive into the device while his shirt began to pool around his elbows and expose nearly his entire chest and back. She only tuned in when she felt bizarre about standing in front of Taehyung so clearly dismissing her, a spark of hope at the idea of the privacy of her bedroom making her abruptly turn on her bare heels. 

“Awww, Juliana. That won’t do. Make sure her sheets are heated, too,” Jimin purred, Y/N getting the feeling that he was purposefully trying to prolong her time spent in the billiard’s room. “There will be a frost, come morning…”

Y/N separated herself from Taehyung’s proximity, trying to edge her way to the closest door, but unfortunately it was the one that was being watched by Namjoon still cloaked in the shadows. As she tried to look for an escape while hoping Jeongguk was distracted to notice her plotting, Y/N silently began to shuffle sideways.

Not that she got very far– as soon as Y/N reached a leather ottoman halfway to an unguarded door, she yelped when she lost feeling in her legs and promptly crumpled onto the piece of furniture. Her arms tried to brace her fall, but those limbs, too, were limp and refusing her brain’s command to move herself. 

“Nngh, ow! W-what?! What’s happening to me?” Y/N panicked, voice shrill and bouncing around the lofty room. Her body was completely limp, unable to flinch away even when someone began to arrange her legs by parting them, her dress riding up the back of her thighs again. 

Ascertaining who was touching her sans-permission was impossible, due to the fact that her cheek was squished against the ottoman and her line of sight was limited to a glass case filled with cigars. Humiliation licked Y/N’s skin with white-hot heat, no doubt in her mind the scrap of lace covering her modesty was somewhat on display as she was shaped to be bent over the ottoman. 

“Stop, s-stop, please. I can’t move—”

“Silenzio,” a deep, gritty voice was mere inches from her ear, the foreign word close enough to silence for her to get the hint. The record that was playing on the gramophone began to crackle, the needle scratching the label and needing to be flipped. “Stay put.”

“Like she can help it. You’ve paralyzed her,” Hoseok scoffed, trying to hide the fact that he was getting off on beating Jeongguk at their game of pool. It was looking like Hoseok would be driving Jeongguk’s Mercedes around town come morning. 

Paralyzed. Y/N had not a semblance of an idea of what she had done to cause offense to Yoongi, who was carding her hair over her shoulders methodically, but all she could do was lay there helplessly. His fingertips were warm on her forearm when he draped tresses over her waist in a sensual position, even going as far as to adjust how her fingers were splayed over her hip. 

“Master… master Y-yoongi…?” Y/N’s breath came out choppy, her diaphragm somewhat crushed thanks to her awkward weight distribution against the ottoman. 

“Noisy,” Yoongi murmured to himself, detached. Rolling his eyes, Hoseok set his cue down, approaching Yoongi and his current model with his hands on his hips. 

“If she’s so noisy, paralyze her face. You’re a complainer who hates solutions,” Hoseok watched while Yoongi gingerly stretched one of the girl’s arms out so it was hanging off the furniture.

Yoongi would go on and on about how he was capturing ‘yearning’, but to a vampire (and former buccaneer) who stole art for value, the girl was being positioned to get fucked against the ottoman. Pushing a hand through his hair, Hoseok snorted to himself. Now that he had a sufficient, consistent nutrient source, he could visit the girls at the cabaret again. It had been far too long since a woman had been under him and his mercy. 

“To paralyze the face would make the subject unworthy of being painted,” Yoongi replied plainly, like it was a practiced response, and with emphasis on his words the artist ever so slightly turned the girl’s head with a loose grip on her jaw. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and pretty crystalline tears gathered in her eyelashes, eyeliner smudging perfectly. It was like Yoongi’s lucky day. 

“You’re an odd–”

“Hoseok. Let Yoongi be done with it so she can leave,” Seokjin cut Hoseok off before he could start a cock fight. Jimin was already shivering with excitement at the idea of a dramatic altercation, and Seokjin caught it before he’d have to discipline him again. 

“You’re an odd immortal,” Hoseok ignored Seokjin, though physically, he retreated. That was good enough for Seokjin, who kept one eye on the younger vampire returning to his rum and billiard’s game. 

All the while, Y/N locked herself away in her own head. Perhaps, if she could reach some kind of meditative state, she could compartmentalize. The best she could do was focus on keeping her eyes shut so she wouldn’t have to look at the vampires for a second longer, and the sensation of tears dripping down her cheeks. 

“Are you resurrecting your proclivity for lewd portraiture, Yoongi?” Namjoon commented, straightening up at the sweet scent of hopeless tears, greedily soaking up the sight across the room. “That original collection of yours remains your finest work.” 

From where he was, he could see the arch of the girl’s back jutting her hips backwards, and in consequence, and the fleshy curves of her ass cheeks were just exposed enough to reveal lace between her legs. Namjoon, with amusement, knew that if he got just a little closer, he’d be able to smell her. 

“I wouldn’t coin that as lewd, Namjoon, just sloppy and lacking all of Yoongi’s former risk. It must have been some time since you have lain with a woman,” Jeongguk disagreed, aware that he was toeing a very thin line between a cold scoff from the elder vampire or experiencing his molten wrath. 

Namjoon, in a rare moment of mercy, hardened his expression, tearing his gaze from the apex of the acolyte’s thighs. The leverage that Jeongguk caught a perverted thought coming from Namjoon was enough, apparently. On the other hand, the youngest vampire was enjoying a morsel of information he pried out of the girl’s mind seconds prior all to himself, just for that moment: the acolyte did not mirror dirty thoughts that the coven was having. In fact, the more Jeongguk sifted through her memories, he realized with delight that she didn’t know the feeling of her own arousal– yet. Maybe Yoongi had observed that, keenly taking it upon himself to milk her confused, humiliated response. 

“Give Yoongi a month. He’ll have that acolyte stripped down completely and posing face down, ass up by then.”

Electric, enticing fear zapped through Y/N at the blithe, unflinching prediction that came from Seokjin out of the blue, and the scent of it triggered a heavy spill of lust to settle over the room. Jeongguk could feel it, and he knew his elders did too– though Seokjin was the picture of nonchalance. Jeongguk couldn’t think of a time when Seokjin preoccupied himself with pursuits of the flesh over the last century, therefore hearing him speak with plain vulgarity was jarring. 

“I’ll have to sit in on that session,” Jimin purred, hanging up the intercom with a grin. By then, he was aggravated with his infernal top, letting it fall from his elbows and pool to the floor in a heap.

In a flash, he was behind Yoongi, eyes sweeping over the charcoal sketch the elder vampire was working on. Yoongi’s hand moved so quickly across the paper, it was almost impossible to track. In fact, Yoongi had already sketched four different versions of the scene in front of him and used up an entire box of charcoal. Yoongi, with aggravated sigh, set his sketchbook down and tossed the empty box of charcoal across the room and into the roaring fire. Jimin, slyly, leafed through the sketches, comparing each to the actual model, a flirtatious impressed hum leaving his chest. 

“You should see these, dove. If you had wings, they’d be broken…” Jimin caught her eye, his posture stiffening at the tear her teeth made into her lower lip. He knew she was incredibly frightened, though he couldn’t help it, he wanted to up the intensity; the reward was far too tempting. Turning on the charm again, Jimin started to stalk towards her with one hand on his belt. 

“N-no!” Y/N whimpered pathetically, immediately thinking the worst when Jimin began to get closer. No matter how hard she tried to squeeze her thighs together, she couldn’t curl in on herself like she wanted to. “Oh, please–”

“‘If you had wings, they’d be broken’. God, is that how you made your fortune in theater and movies?”

“Hoseok, you still haven’t read Jimin’s plays? Or seen one of his films at the cinema?” Jeongguk spoke through chortles, really starting to feel the nourishment of the acolyte’s blood in his body. He felt alive again. 

“Usually sleep through ‘em, or I’m getting blow–”

“Yoongi, release her from Paralysis if you’re finished. Hoseok, head to the cabaret if you wish to keep drinking and whoring,” Seokjin finally moved away from the fire, his expensive loafers clicking against the floors. 

Jimin was only a few feet from Y/N, the vampire half-clothed and eager to rile her up a bit more before Seokjin could spoil the fun. To Jimin’s surprise, however, Y/N’s fear spiked acutely when Seokjin appeared, the eldest vampire kneeling beside her and blocking her view of him. With Seokjin so close, so suddenly, and fearing his status, Y/N’s tears came faster. 

“Please, just please! I just want to go upstairs! I d-don’t– I don’t want to…” Y/N broke down, and with Seokjin’s request to lift Paralysis, Yoongi watched as his power left her and the girl began to shake like a newborn fawn. Seokjin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Master S-seokjin, please, I want mmph–!”

Seokjin pressed his palm over the young acolyte’s mouth, half to shut her up, half to somewhat cover up the scent of her bloody lip. It was a charged situation– one he had complete control over, of course– but keeping the peace was important to Seokjin. 

It was abhorrent to him that he needed that nuisance of a little girl, one causing so much unrest, as he scanned the ruined makeup running down her cheeks. Though, the vitality thrumming through him and the rest of the coven was undeniable, thanks to her. Seokjin was about to call for the acolyte’s maids, lips dropping open, when she made things infinitely more dangerous. 

Since she had never been paralyzed by Yoongi, her body didn’t know how to come down from his influence. With her desperate pent up energy, unable to engage in fight or flight, once her shivering dissolved, Y/N’s limbs began jerking. With Seokjin’s hand still over her mouth, her back arched in order to get air to her crushed diaphragm, and instinctively, her thighs snapped shut. 

However, something unexpected struck through her when her legs pressed together, something she could only describe as warm and aching, and it caught her so off-guard that a strangled, confused moan left her lips and was muffled against Seokjin’s palm. A primal and unfamiliar urge had her wanting to chase that feeling, Seokjin’s surprised, wide eyes in front of her had the throb return, if not for a second– her hips squirming against the ottoman eagerly.

Studying him through watery eyes, Y/N felt like she needed to light a candle to Seokjin’s beauty, the jitteriness that came with Yoongi releasing her from paralysis causing her to seek out stability. Her index finger curled around Seokjin’s blazer cuff as if to anchor herself. It felt like minutes, but it was likely seconds, where every vampire in the room froze completely, not a whisper of sound following her muffled mew.

“Astonishing,” Taehyung broke the silence, setting his newspaper down and getting to his feet. Things took an interesting turn, for once. 

“Do not,” Seokjin commanded, but a breath though still firm. Y/N fidgeted, attempting to moisten her dry lips but only managing to give Seokjin’s palm an embarrassing kitten lick– which had him recoiling and pressing his hand more harshly against her face. “Control yourself, acolyte.”

Y/N didn’t know what that meant. Sure, the raw fear was still there, vehement hate flooding her body when Taehyung entered her line of sight, but the seductive drag of his fingertip tracing over her fragile shoulder blade elicited another unsure whimper.

“P-puh-mm,” Y/N switched to pleading again, wanting to jump off the great cliff where the mansion was settled beside more than ever. Seokjin’s gaze hardened, his throat bobbing. 

“Seokjin, come on. Look at her!” Hoseok was positively delighted, spotting arousal pulsing between her legs from miles away– not to mention smelling it. “Moaning and crying like a bitch in heat.”

“Enough,” Seokjin barked, though the demand was strangled.

Do not speak a word.

The eldest vampire’s voice cut through the fog in Y/N’s head urgently, and at once, he removed his hand from her face. With absence, he wiped the blood from her torn lip on his pristine pant leg, Y/N breathing heavily from her mouth now that it was free.

One word from you and I’ll leave you here with the young ones.

That was a dark enough threat from Y/N, though with mortification, she thinly whined at the thought of Seokjin making good on his promise– mistake. Bonelessly, she started to lift her torso from the ottoman, her skin hot and tacky, all while each vampire in the room tracked her every movement.

“Is she going to get sick?” Yoongi remarked with disgust, tucking his sketchbook away. He was decidedly ready to paint; and yes, it would be something to toy with the flustered acolyte, but capturing her misery would end up being more erotic to him.

“She doesn’t know what she’s feeling,” Jeongguk revealed blandly, smugly, leaning one of his trim hips against the billiards table. “She wants– probably you, Seokjin, to touch her, but she’s too dim to know that.”

“So all of that ‘purity’ propaganda about Sanctuary acolytes is true? They’re clueless virgins?” Hoseok had to swallow a great laugh, almost pitying the mortals.

“Just like the old days… Most girls had not the slightest idea what happened in the bedroom,” Jimin contributed to the conversation, an unsettling edge to his voice that had Y/N sniffling. 

Jeongguk began to fish around in her head more intensely, but Y/N felt her cheeks grow hot while her thighs squeezed together in pulses. Reading the acolyte’s thoughts, he hummed wickedly at the girl wondering what was so bad about being compared to the Virgin– the revered mother the Sanctuary worshipped. 

“She’s untouched,” Jeongguk revealed, Hoseok’s interest piquing sevenfold. Eyes glowing, Hoseok was standing beside Taehyung in a flash, a forearm resting on the younger vampire’s shoulder. Venom was flooding Hoseok’s mouth as soon as he caught a whiff of the wetness beginning to seep into the acolyte’s underwear, and Taehyung was thinking about all of the ways he could break her. 

Again, Y/N had no idea what the vampires were talking about. Nor did she know what was happening to her body, her skin sweaty and hyper-sensitive, and she couldn’t bear to look away from Seokjin. He looked like he was thinking very hard, red eyes sweeping over her body struggling to release what was building up inside of her. It took every ounce of strength she had left, but Y/N managed to struggle off of the ottoman, rocking backwards on her bare heels to a kneeling position. All the while, the finger curled around Seokjin’s jacket turned into a fistful of desperate fabric, the eldest vampire’s breath catching in shock over her sheer audacity.

“Help, it h-hurts,” Y/N whispered, throat dry. Beginning to come to the conclusion that coming down from Yoongi’s paralysis was what was making her feel so raw with nerves, she tried to plead with Seokjin despite his threat to leave her with the young vampires– the ones looking at her like she was dessert. “Master Seokj-jin, please, I want to–”

“Fuck?” Hoseok cut the acolyte off helpfully, filling in the blank that she was unaware existed. Things were spiraling out of control, and Hoseok was so entertained by Seokjin’s patience hanging by a thread that he decided to take things up a notch– perhaps finding out if he could elicit more of her slick to ruin her underwear. “A virgin begging for cock like a slut. Soaked pussy just from a few simple touches and words.”

The foreign, husky words from Hoseok had Y/N’s pulse quickening, humiliation licking her skin. To add to her mortification, she felt something wet rolling down one of her thighs, and when she looked down between her legs, she squeaked in alarm. With her free hand, shakily, her fingers swiped through the slick thinking it was sweat, but when she brought her hand up to take a closer look at filmy strings coating her digits, all hell broke loose. Seokjin cursed, sending out seven different mental commands– with additional forceful suggestions for staff that was still working– but even that wasn’t enough, so with a borderline bone-crushing embrace, Y/N was caged in his arms and as far away from the youngest vampires as possible. Jeongguk, Taehyung, and Jimin stared hungrily at the girl, trembling like a lamb, edible. 

“Hoseok, I told you if you wanted to fuck like a rutting animal, go see your whores,” Seokjin’s voice was loud, furious, and Y/N couldn’t breathe in his arms. Despite her acute fear and dislike for Seokjin, Y/N’s body reacted on its own, pressing backwards against his strong chest for protection. “Leave, Hoseok. Yoongi, this is your doing and there will be consequences. Remove the fledglings from the room. Go.”

There was no space to argue with Seokjin. His covenmates hadn’t seen Seokjin so enraged, not for decades, and before Jimin could pout and add fuel to the flames (or sink his teeth into the delicious acolyte), he was torn from the room with Yoongi’s grip around his wrist. One by one, in a split second, Yoongi collected the youngest vampires, and Hoseok was long out the door with the cabaret set as his destination. 

Once the immediate threats were gone, Seokjin all but shoved Y/N out of his reach, the girl caught by someone else before she could hit the floor. Nearly collapsing into his weight completely, leather gloves slipping over her dewy shoulders, Y/N at least knew who was touching her this time. That time, too, she realized she didn’t mind Namjoon touching her. After a prolonged period of time absorbed with Seokjin’s presence, Y/N was ashamed to admit that Namjoon could steal it effortlessly. Namjoon, like Seokjin, was infuriated; Y/N could tell by the way his jaw clenched dangerously. 

“Get her out of my sight before I do something I’ll regret,” Seokjin spoke through his teeth, but the volume of his demand was deadly quiet. The sound of it had a tingle rolling down Y/N’s spine, her skull still throbbing from Jeongguk sifting through her past, and Y/N thought that she might faint again. “Exercise restraint, Namjoon-ah.”

Surprise flickered in Namjoon’s eyes. Seokjin, normally, would have had him using Pain Illusion on the acolyte for her little stunt– even if she couldn’t help it. 

“Hyung?”

“I have calls to make. Take her upstairs,” Seokjin pushed a hand through his short choppy bangs, and he disappeared like he never was there in the first place.

Y/N winced when Namjoon tightened his hold on her with purpose, his expression turning rock-solid. The throb between her legs didn’t grow any weaker. Namjoon’s nostrils flaring, Y/N’s fear returned when a cold grin spread across the vampire’s face, his sharp fangs on display. However, if it weren’t for the fangs, Namjoon had one of the loveliest smiles in the world, and that broke Y/N’s heart, distantly. The vampire cocked his head and misread her train of thought.

“You’re absolutely terrified of me, aren’t you?”

Y/N’s head snapped up to make eye contact when Namjoon spoke, realizing her attention was lingering on the shape of his lips. Going rigid when the vampire stooped low, he got a firm hold of her naked calves. With one swift movement, Y/N was hoisted into the air and slung over Namjoon’s bulky shoulder. The immortal speed made her nauseous, a strangled sound coming from the back of her throat, one gloved hand squeezing the arm slung over his opposite shoulder, and the other cupped over the sensitive backs of her knees. Not allowing her to recover at all, Namjoon had the girl inside of her bedroom before she could take a breath. 

“Do not make me ask again, woman,” Namjoon cruelly dropped the girl from his hold only to pin her to a nearby wall by her hip. She groaned, Namjoon noting that if he applied just the slightest additional force, he could shatter her hip bone. 

“I need to s-sit down… where is N-nadia?” Y/N managed to get out, at war with how to answer him and praying furiously for someone to save her. She was having a primordial reaction to everything that had happened, and it was sapping the energy out of her. Namjoon snatched up one of her forearms in annoyance, the limb like a twig under his leather gloves. “No! Ow, no, I mean y-yes!”

Y/N could not take it anymore. She was hot, cold, contorting in pain and shivering with something else. She offered the truth. Sure, she was scared, but there was something else that was nameless to her. Was it… curiosity she felt?

“No? Let me offer you some advice,” Namjoon tsked, briefly wishing he could look into her mind like Jeongguk. “Don’t lie like that to Seokjin. Next time, he’ll have me skewer you.”

Y/N flinched, remembering the sword Namjoon had strapped to his back, and the fact that he was once commissioned to cut people down. His smile returned, scenting the dread pressing down on her. 

“See? Though, didn’t the butler tell you not to reveal your fear?” Namjoon ignored the venom that was pooling on his tongue, swallowing it quickly so he could keep up the taunts. Seokjin didn’t want to punish the human, but Namjoon wanted to. “Now we know what fear does to you.”

The girl was blinking at him, which had the immortal pausing. She was fixated on his mouth again, which caused a snarl to rip from behind his teeth. 

“What are you looking at? Are you so consumed by lust that your brain has melted?” Namjoon paired his words with a vicious yank of her arm, the hand on her hip moving to pinch her jaw. The back of her head hit the wall, Y/N crying out and completely powerless to self-preserve. “Tell me what you were staring at.”

“I don’t want to.”

Namjoon, in all his years of dealing with acolytes, had never encountered such a stubborn one. It had something dark possessing him, the thrum of her frightened pulse a stark contrast to the song her body was singing. Then, when he realized how close he had brought her wrist to his face, Namjoon caught the acolyte’s arousal still clinging to her fingers and acted on a baser desire that he hadn’t experienced in centuries. With one last pull, the acolyte’s fingers were in Namjoon’s mouth, the girl squealing in surprise.

“What are you doing?! That’s d-dirty,” Y/N cried, Namjoon’s wet tongue curling around her digits, his gaze still menacing and unfeeling. She dissolved on his palate, and with a quiet groan, Namjoon realized that her arousal tasted just as good as her blood. “I, hngh–”

Y/N focused back on Namjoon’s lips, which is what got her in that situation in the first place. Pursed around her soaked digits, she felt one of his fangs scrape against her index finger, and she pictured his smile in her mind again; the polar opposite to the demonic expression he was wearing at that moment. Perhaps, if she told him what she was looking at, he’d finally leave her alone. 

“Please! I was just admiring your smile!”

Whatever Namjoon was expecting the acolyte to say with her fingers nearly down his throat, it wasn’t that. Almost as if she dumped water over him, Namjoon’s eyes glazed over, his grip growing just weak enough for Y/N to pull her hand away from his mouth and fangs. Catching her breath, Y/N used his distraction to slip away, ducking under his arm. She knew that she wouldn’t get very far; indeed, Namjoon was quick to grab her by the back of her dress, the material tearing slightly with the force. 

“What did you just say to me?” Namjoon, for the first time to Y/N’s ears, spoke softly. The vampire, appearing to be unseeing, scanned her face, and Y/N almost got the feeling that he was seeing someone else in front of him. 

“I-I mean, you scare me, but when you, um. Your smile? It’s–” Y/N gulped, relieved that whatever was making her body produce what Namjoon had sucked off of her fingers was beginning to subside, pure exhaustion and defeat gripping her instead. “Beautiful. It’s beautiful, makes you less s-scary. I’m sorry if that offends you! Master Namjoon, but please, can you let me go?”

Y/N’s pleas barely had effort behind them. Bone-deep fatigue and confusion had her bedroom fading in and out of view, and all she desired was the down quilt on her bed to sink into. Soaking in her response, Namjoon released the girl, ancient memories coming back to him and making him promptly turn on his heel. He needed to come to his senses– the dim acolyte was not the woman in those memories, no matter that those precise words had only been spoken to him only once before, under very different circumstances. He was at the door before the human could collapse onto her bed, still aroused and uncertain. 

“One more piece of advice, acolyte,” Namjoon, still in the same, low tone, spoke. “Rather, a warning.”

A muffled, sad little moan came from Y/N, who was turned away on her side. She hadn’t even bothered to clean herself up, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation of the air hitting the damper areas of her body and the dull agony of her fresh wounds. 

“Innocence is a dangerous thing to possess around a vampire. Wise up, or you’ll be swallowed whole.”

Y/N was sick of hearing things she didn’t understand paired with threats, so she offered no verbal acknowledgement to his stupid advice. Not that Namjoon stuck around, the door shutting and leaving Y/N finally, finally alone. 

Her elation over that fact was temporary. A metal tinkling sound coming from where Namjoon was just standing had her eyebrows furrowing, something heavy sliding into place resolutely. That was when Y/N bolted upright with horror, the movement opening the punctures created by Seokjin’s earlier bite. 

Namjoon had locked her into the bedroom from the outside. 

“You reek of cum,” Taehyung, irritated that the elder strolling into the office was late, unbathed, and had a lace bralette hanging out of his suit pants. Taehyung, bitter venom filling his mouth, stuffed his pocket watch back into the pocket of his suit vest. “Abhorrent.”

“No showers at the cabaret. Let’s get this over with,” Hoseok shrugged, not as eager to prolong a dramatic meeting of the minds after he had fucked his way through the showgirls all night. 

“Sit down. I’ll make this brief,” Seokjin was all business. He spent the better part of his morning jumping down Yoongi’s throat, the artist still literally licking his wounds– tongue swiping over a bloodied– thanks to the acolyte– and torn lip. 

“Where’s Namjoon?” Hoseok interrupted Seokjin, realizing the immortal that filled any room with negative energy was absent. “You’re agonizing over my lateness, Taehyung, but not his?”

“Namjoon-ah and I will talk after,” Seokjin’s temple throbbed, using a handkerchief to clean the blood from one of his rings that cut into Yoongi’s lip. 

It was a gloomy, dark morning. The sun had barely even risen, so the low sources of lighting in the already moody office came from lit sconces and the fireplace. Jeongguk, by the window, tracked droplets of water coasting down the glass plane. With immortal eyes, he could detect the warps and imperfections in the hundred year old glass. It was far more entertaining than getting chewed up by Seokjin. Absently, the youngest vampire rolled up the sleeves of his cream colored sweater, caught off guard by the healthy caramel glow to his skin in contrast. He must have been walking around like a specter for too long, without a good donor. 

“Yoongi has been told to keep his work to his bedroom. From now on, if he wishes to have the acolyte model, it will be contained to that space,” Seokjin began, giving Yoongi a scathing glare. Yoongi’s mind was elsewhere, the front of his button down stained with blood and muted pigments of paint. 

“Well, that doesn’t seem so bad, hm? You aren’t going soft, are you, Seokjin?” Jimin, a touch tipsy from the night before and dressed in nothing but a patterned silk robe, was leafing through a first-edition copy of one of his early plays– something Hoseok collected years ago, apparently. “Hoseok! Where did you get this? You don’t even have the decency to read my tragedies, but you are comfortable stealing valuable copies?”

“Ah. That was from some gout-ridden aristocrat’s collection when we docked in Jamaica–”

“Last night will not be repeated,” Seokjin cut through the idle, infuriating chit-chat, Taehyung appearing just as relieved that the eldest was moving things along in a timely manner. “I will not allow this coven to be reduced to a pack of animals simply because of a human. I do not care if she is a tempting muse to you, an entertaining plaything, or a virgin to defile. No one is to touch the girl unless to feed.”

The silence would be considered unsettling by anybody, mortal or otherwise. Yoongi was the only one who wasn’t absolutely bewildered by the strictness of Seokjin’s order, considering he had already been briefed during his beat down. Normally, the head of the coven would let the six younger vampires toy with their acolytes as they pleased, indifferent– but not that time around.

“How are we to feed without touching her, Seokjin? Are we koi in your royal garden, waiting for you to decide when our next meal is? You had the first bite. Before now, you didn’t take issue with us having our share of fun with the acolytes,” Taehyung frowned, hands in the pockets of his suit curling into fists. “Perhaps Seokjin has decided to return to how we fed when I first joined the coven,” Jeongguk offered softly, Seokjin nodding in the slightest. A dismayed harrumph came from Jimin, who was rolling his eyes and pulling a mother-of-pearl comb through his raven hair. 

 Jeongguk began to remember his early days as an immortal, head tilted, and tried to flick through Seokjin’s head in curiosity. He was met with the usual iron wall that surrounded it. Seokjin raised a manicured brow, Jeongguk’s gaze returning to the window. 

“So… That’s all well and good. But why are there layers to this? Yoongi can arrange her into Kama Sutra positions but we aren’t to touch her point blank?” Hoseok wasn’t exactly broken up over the fact that he wasn’t to touch the acolyte, just annoyed with the special exceptions. 

“You are being dull on purpose,” Seokjin sang blandly, leaning back in his leather chair. “I meant none of you are to engage in anything sexual with her. Fledglings– and immortals with no self control, such as yourself, Hoseok– do not do well entangling themselves with acolytes such as… Y/N.”

“Such as ‘Y/N’? Elaborate?” Taehyung politely requested, leaning against the door of the office. His office, really, the one he built for his summer holidays a century ago, he noted with mild bitterness, smoothing out his tweed suit with precise pats. At wit’s end, Seokjin put his head in his hands, so exasperated he cursed in his ancient native tongue. 

“Her innocence and purity draws you in like a moth to a flame, I realize that, but I’m tired of applying for new acolytes. Two things are of greater importance that deserve my attention. First, I refuse to let you all revert yourselves into baser creatures thus tarnishing our reputation, which directly affects the second pressing matter. This week, the gala we are hosting with Berwind. Everything has to go smoothly.”

“... So, we can touch her. Just not–”

“Spare me, Hoseok,” Seokjin’s voice was hoarse, strained, and he had dealt with more tumor-inducing conversations in the past 24 hours than he had in decades. “Push her around if you want, I don’t give a shit. Do not try to seduce her.”

“But she thinks we’re all so handsome,” Jeongguk murmured, half amused, half kicking the hornet’s nest. “That’s like asking us to walk around with satchels over our heads.”

“All humans think we’re handsome,” Jimin countered, bored. He’d find it an insult worthy of death if the girl didn’t revere his beauty. 

“Stop whining and do as I say. You all have work to do before the gala. Taehyung, have Edmund fetch Namjoon-ah,” Seokjin snapped, the scent of mortals filling the room and making him cover his nose and mouth with a delicate palm to block it. 

“Alright, ‘boss’. Let’s see how long these new rules last,” Hoseok let his fangs drip with venom. He despised being ordered around, but the benefits of remaining in the coven and under Seokjin’s protection outweighed the cons. Seokjin usually came around, especially once the human would begin to get on Seokjin’s bad side. “I’m taking a bath until dinner.”

“That means he’ll be piss drunk again,” Jeongguk pointed out, once Hoseok had ditched the room, and Yoongi slowly rose from his seat. 

Yoongi had been fiddling with a filbert paint brush during the entire conversation, mind solely focused on the painting he had spent the whole night working on. As he began to excuse himself from the room, Jimin caught a hold of the tail of Yoongi’s untucked button down. Often, he’d let Jimin watch him paint; Jimin wrote screenplays while Yoongi would stretch canvases in peaceful silence. Yoongi, paying no mind to his younger covenmate, used the filbert brush to pin up his shoulder-length paint-caked locks with a fledgling anchored to the back of his shirt.

The artist was rather grateful Seokjin hadn’t torn into him as much as he could have– Yoongi chalked it up to good behavior and keeping to himself for the better half of the last century. Sure, he was agitated that Seokjin warned him to keep the Paralysis to a minimum, which was a nuisance, but perhaps it would be an artistic challenge for him. With a melodic hum, Yoongi licked the last of the blood off of his lips, eyes glowing when he and Jimin both left the office quietly. 

Though, Jimin was quiet for other reasons. Like Hoseok, Jimin was a spiteful vampire. The young acolyte already proved to be the brightest spark of entertainment he had seen from humanity since Old Hollywood, the excessive comparison floating around in Jimin’s lofty mind making Jeongguk dread the upcoming few days. With that, Taehyung and Jeongguk considered themselves dismissed, Seokjin only getting a moment to recover from the theatrics before launching into somewhat of a show himself. 

“Namjoon-ah, come in, please,” Seokjin, hand still dragging over his face, hadn’t the slightest explanation for Namjoon’s lapse in judgement the previous night. The sting of betrayal from somebody who quite literally died for loyalty, sacrificing his very soul, was so strong it had even Seokjin’s chest tightening. 

The doors swung open, Namjoon’s powerful strides bringing him into the office in less than three steps. Unfortunately, the human girl that was ushered into the room behind her had Namjoon freezing, carmine eyes narrowing. 

Y/N, who had been scrubbed utterly raw by her maids that morning as per Seokjin’s request, was currently entirely under Seokjin’s influence. From the moment her eyes opened at dawn, Seokjin could sense her panic from the bedroom above her– and to prevent any further nonsense, he mentally Compelled her to be nothing but his temporary puppet. Namjoon, as if he sensed he’d be in some hot water that morning, had his sword strapped to his broad back, his large gloved hands settling over the leather belt strapped around his hips. 

“Hyung. I felt you were too lenient on her,” Namjoon began, the picture of confidence. It elicited a low chuckle from Seokjin, torn between being too fond of Namjoon and ready to exact his punishment without mercy. 

“Okay, little acolyte. You can sit now,” Seokjin released Y/N from his spell only after she absently perched on a seat on the opposite side of the mahogany desk. Sucking in a deep breath, he waited for the girl to start babbling stupidly. 

“OH! You,” Y/N’s fingernails cut into the upholstered chair she sagged into, one hand shooting up to the back of her neck urgently, her outrage focused on her former mental captor. If Jeongguk’s power crushed her skull, and Jimin’s bruised her marrow; Seokjin melted her very spinal cord. 

“You too, Namjoon-ah, sit.”

Namjoon’s jaw worked, Seokjin staring at him through his dark curtain of eyelashes and waiting for him to ultimately obey. He always did. 

“I did what I thought had to be done. She’s completely unharmed,” Namjoon impulsively came up with a half-baked excuse, Seokjin pausing with a cocked head in his palms to remember that not so long ago, Namjoon was one of the fledglings too. 

“What!? Not true! Y-you! He! He locked me into the room!” Y/N exploded, pointing angrily at Namjoon like an unruly child. 

“I know.”

“You’re angry I locked her in? We do that to all of the acolytes,” Namjoon scoffed, suddenly wishing he had just shown the human to her early grave when she cursed at him under her breath. 

“I’m angry that you went over my head. This is unlike you, Namjoon-ah,” Seokjin projected the scene of Namjoon taking the acolyte’s soaked fingers into his mouth into his mind, from Namjoon’s very own perspective. Namjoon swore, thinking Jeongguk deserved his neck wrung for daring to use his maddening mind-reading on him. 

“Excuse me. Did you just say you lock in all of the acolytes?” Y/N spluttered, body sagging into the chair even further when she realized Seokjin didn’t care she was imprisoned overnight. She was ignored by both vampires coldly.

“You’re going to punish me.”

“No.”

“No?” Namjoon leaned back in his seat, settling an ankle over the opposite knee, again drilling holes into the side of the human woman’s face with a glare. None of the arousal that clung to her the night before was evident, just a cocktail of edginess and despair. “Then what, Seokjin? I’ve proved my loyalty. Perhaps I had too much to drink.”

“You’ve proved your loyalty,” Seokjin repeated in agreement, rising from his seat with his hands clasped behind his back. “Which is why I’m giving you a new task. Around the clock.”

“Okay,” Namjoon drew out the syllables of his response, Y/N wiggling in her seat like she wanted to bolt. Why was she even there? When Namjoon thought he knew Seokjin’s every move, he was proven otherwise time and time again. It must have been instinctual for an eternal crown prince to keep his subjects on their toes.

“The gala we’re hosting for Edmund Berwind is just the first of many this winter,” Seokjin began to slowly pace around the intimidatingly masculine office, Y/N comparing him to a lethal black snake circling its next meal. “Last night aside. Besides myself, Namjoon-ah, you hold the most power in the coven. This winter I have to play politics and I will not have time to make sure this acolyte stays alive in order to sustain us.”

Y/N shuddered, not needing to be a vampire to feel the electric tension steadily climbing to a fever pitch. Namjoon, pearly dust coating his tongue from grinding his teeth so intensely, fiddled with the hilt of his sword, eyes liquid red. 

“What do you need from me, hyung?” Namjoon stared at Seokjin’s back, turned to him and the acolyte by a large bay window. Namjoon wondered if Seokjin was taking any pleasure in drawing things out. 

“Namjoon-ah. Since you seem to take a particular interest in the little girl, I imagine that to a vampire with weaker restraint, she’s a duck sitting in a pot of potatoes and leeks,” Seokjin began, head turning slightly so Y/N could gape at his flawless side profile– his lips, nose, and long lashes were highlighted by early morning light. 

“Particular interest–?”

“You’re to be her bodyguard.”

Again, there was a ghostly silence, one that Seokjin relished in. The girl was still somewhat loopy from him controlling her all morning, but Namjoon’s outright shock had Seokjin humming. 

“Bodyguard? Seokjin hyung, you know I respect you. Jeongguk was a former bodyguard. He is more suited for the job. I do not want to be near this woman,” Namjoon protested sharply, unaware that that was the precise reason Seokjin selected playing bodyguard as punishment for Namjoon. Y/N, in similar fashion, recoiled and clutched her roiling gut. 

“Jeongguk is the youngest fledgling,” Seokjin quickly replied, as if Namjoon was daft to even suggest such a thing. “Jeongguk also has the mind of a stunted teenager. He has tenderness that lingers. He cannot be tasked with something like this, not yet. You are to watch the acolyte and make sure she is not only protected from our guests, but the rest of the coven as well.”

“This is a test.”

“This is a warning, Namjoon!” Seokjin hissed, spinning around. “Remember yourself. Wake up, and do your job. Give me her bedroom key.”

Seokjin, in a blur, was standing above Namjoon, a palm dangling in front of the younger’s face. Namjoon’s fangs flashed, digging around in the pocket of his slacks, and offered up a gilded skeleton key with grave reluctance– almost like it was his death sentence. Smart enough to realize that she had absolutely no irons in the fire to protest, Y/N numbly watched Seokjin fashion a necklace for Namjoon out of a fine spool of wire produced from the desk, one with the key to her bedroom dangling as its grand pendant. Namjoon, still as ever, held his breath when Seokjin dropped the necklace over his head. 

“Take her to the Sanctuary to pick out acolytes for Saturday evening. Bring Jeongguk to weed out the weak of mind,” Seokjin upped the ante by sending Namjoon on an errand with the acolyte, the addition of Jeongguk monitoring his thoughts no doubt sending Namjoon into murderous rage. “Keep your hands to yourself and your mouth shut, acolyte. Go.”

Dismissing the two, Namjoon’s power crackling like electricity over his knuckles, Seokjin leaned a hip on the desk, plucking up the landline receiver. Y/N’s mouth was agape at the mention of the Sanctuary– the run-down Gothic cathedral a place she never knew she could miss, but did, desperately. 

While processing the possibility that she might get to see her friends once more, even if it was just to give them a proper goodbye, Y/N was yanked upwards by the back of her sweater. Namjoon had a fistful of her wool collar in his glove-clad fist, the vampire so enraged by his newly appointed ‘job’ that he didn’t even have words of malice in his vocabulary to spit back at Seokjin that could encapsulate it. 

“I can walk,” Y/N righted herself with a scoff, shockingly cognizant despite everything that had already happened the first hour she was awake. Namjoon let go of her sweater, his striking face twisted up in disgust, tearing from the office like his heels were on fire. 

Y/N adjusted the fit of her sweater, swallowing down her trepidation. Many things became clear to her, as she eyed Seokjin speaking to someone on the phone in a lilting foreign language. First and foremost, she had just become the most well-protected acolyte in the nation with Namjoon as her bodyguard. Second, Seokjin had not only inadvertently confirmed how necessary her well-being and survival was to not only the entire coven, but to himself as well. Y/N accepted that fear would always be there, and she’d endure moments of humiliation like she had the night prior. She’d experience pain and psychological torment. But she’d survive. 

“아니, 창덕궁은 아니고–” Seokjin’s eyes flashed, angry that the acolyte was gawking at him like a dolt and not following her newly appointed bodyguard. He lowered the phone from his lips slightly, snarling a threat. “Get going, little girl, before I bite you again.”

Scowling, Y/N cupped a palm over the punctures he left in her neck, barely covered by the cut of her sweater’s collar. The vampire was still barking into the phone when one of the staff members began to shut the office doors behind Y/N, his voice carrying into the hall.

“내 생각에는 경복궁이 우리의 필요에 더 잘 맞을 것 같아요–”

The grand wooden doors cut off Seokjin’s dulcet tones effectively with a hollow clang, and paired with it, three maids surrounded her in a flurry of winter hats and coats to bundle her up. 

“Oh, Nadia–” Y/N gasped, a friendly face appearing before her at long last. Her maid fastened a pair of fur earmuffs over Y/N’s head securely. “Please tell me you’ll be coming along on this errand!”

“Afraid not, Miss. Typically, I would join you, but with the gala preparations this week, I must send you with a list to take to the market. The masters will accompany you on the way to the Sanctuary,” Nadia gestured to the large ballroom overlooking the sea, dozens of staff members on their hands and knees scrubbing the marble floors. “You’ll have a merry time at the market this time of year, Miss. I’m sure the masters will treat you to a hot drink.”

Y/N thought diamonds raining from the sky seemed more likely than Namjoon or Jeongguk willingly purchasing her a treat, the latter of the two vampires unfortunately coming into her view when Nadia led her to the mansion’s front door. Y/N hadn’t seen the youngest immortal since Yoongi escorted him from the billiard’s room the night prior. Y/N’s heart was doing something funny in her chest at the sight of him, like it was taking dips and tumbles in the cavity, Jeongguk’s cream-colored sweater giving the vampire an almost innocent appearance. 

“Nadia, don’t you have a scarf for the acolyte?” Jeongguk ignored the desperate desire to use Telepathy on Y/N, who was reluctantly waddling over to him with a pout on her small mouth. “It’s important for human women to keep their thyroid warm in the winter.”

Y/N coughed back an incredulous laugh, not believing for a single second that Jeongguk truly gave a rat’s ass about her thyroid. If anything, the comment gave her the creeps, shattering the angelic image he was falsely projecting. 

“Yes Master Jeongguk, I have this cashmere–”

“Give it to me, Nadia,” Jeongguk cut the maid off, crooking a finger at Y/N and beckoning her forward. He snatched an oversized scarf from Nadia with graceful finesse, wrapping the material around his palms.

Y/N was at the point, so early in the morning and already tired of games, that she simply slouched her way to the captor summoning her without putting up a fight. Besides, Namjoon was probably around the corner, and Y/N knew she was pretty much invincible with him as her ‘bodyguard’. She could endure some teasing from Jeongguk, she told herself, as she anxiously focused on the faint scar on one of his cheeks. 

“Here you go,” Jeongguk was murmuring pleasantly, beginning to wind the scarf around Y/N’s neck. While stiff, she maintained her composure, not wanting Jeongguk to get the best of her when he started tucking the ends of the scarf into her coat’s collar. “All bundled up, there you go.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

Y/N’s cheeks burned, sincere words coming from Jeongguk tainted by a condescending cadence. Without thinking, she brushed his knuckles away from her jawline, Jeongguk snickering and limply dropping his hand to his side. 

“Developing an attitude problem now that you’ve become Seokjin’s princess?” Jeongguk stooped, his large doe eyes sparkling with youthful mischief. It made Y/N’s heart act up again. “Even Namjoon’s to be waiting on your hand and foot. Pretty nice setup, huh?”

“Isn’t it too early for this?” Y/N squinted, backing up several paces so Jeongguk’s sweet breath wasn’t wafting over her face anymore. “Sure, I have an attitude. Wouldn’t you?”

“You know, you’d make a fairly interesting immortal,” Jeongguk crossed his arms over his chest, broad back resting against a solid pillar by the front door. Y/N couldn’t hear it, but Namjoon was tearing up a training room in the basement just below their feet, picturing the martial arts foam dummy down there was the acolyte he was eviscerating with his sword. 

“That… sounds like a threat. Or a death sentence,” Y/N squeaked, never considering the possibility that she herself could be turned. Jeongguk’s face split into a grin, picturing the girl frozen in time forever, pure and skittish, her eyes like rubies. 

“It’s two sides of the same coin, Y/N. It’s a threat, and it would be a death sentence,” Jeongguk, all but purring, watched the wheels turn in her head. She was confused once more, her weight shifting from foot to foot. While the fledgling enjoyed her nervous response to his presence, he realized, with a frown, that the acolyte seemed to find him the most approachable amongst the coven members. He’d have to change that, swiftly. “Don’t you know how vampires are made?”

“I don’t wish to know,” Y/N quickly shook her head, striding to the grand front door in order to get a move on with the dreaded errands. Besides, Jeongguk looked far too eager to describe something unpleasant.

“Well, to start. We’d have to drain you of almost all of your blood,” Jeongguk disregarded her, not that Y/N was surprised, her fingernails scraping against the front door when thunderous footsteps pounded up a stairwell just beyond Jeongguk’s shoulder. “You’d be dying. Before you’d take your last breath, however…”

“We’re going,” Namjoon stormed by Y/N and the taunting fledgling, Y/N gulping audibly when she saw the sweat rolling down his temples and the unsheathed sword in his grasp. 

Finding it the perfect opportunity to leave Jeongguk and his gory stories in the dust, Y/N made haste after Namjoon, the length of her coat’s skirt collecting dust and moisture from the previous night’s storm. 

“Get in the back,” Namjoon jutted his chin towards the cushy black sedan she remembered seeing the day she met the vampires, the car already running and filling the air with silky looking exhaust.

Clamming herself up, Y/N obediently slid into the back seat of the sedan when Namjoon yanked the door open for her, a mew of awe leaving her when she landed on the soft leather booth. Taking in the cabin, Y/N traced over the vents closest to her, the glossy wood buffed to a bright shine. 

“Oof–” Y/N grunted, a heavy object tossed over her lap. With a shriek, she shoved Namjoon’s sword off of her and onto the floor, relieved that it was sheathed but horrified that she was anywhere near it. Namjoon slammed the door shut, cutting the chill that was coming from outside, the sheer force of the action jolting the car around.

“Put that on the seat next to you. If you had any idea how much that was worth, you’d be kneeling on a chapel floor until you bled,” Namjoon was suddenly in the seat directly in front of her, not even turning to make eye contact when he addressed her. 

With trembling hands, she lifted the sword, the scabbard made of a black lacquered wood, urgently placing it as far away as she could. There was a blood red tassel hanging off it, the strings somewhat frayed with time, and engraved inscriptions along the sides of the scabbard that Y/N could not read. 

“Hoseok fucked with my seat again,” Jeongguk dropped into the driver’s seat, his fast movements a blur as he adjusted his mirrors. “You never let me finish, either, Y/N.”

Y/N wished she could go back in time and smack herself for insisting on the vampires calling her by her actual name. Something about a deadly creature knowing and using that particular intimacy felt wrong, Y/N nervously biting her lip as Jeongguk turned to pull out of the carport. Flashing his fangs at her, Jeongguk paid no attention to Namjoon burying himself in some boring book about martial arts to distract himself, the girl shrinking into her scarf for feeble protection.

“When you’re drained, taking your last breath… one of us could either kill you or wait for you to die,” Jeongguk switched the radio on, quiet hip-hop pulsing through the expensive speakers in the cabin. “Then you have to be fed.”

“What are you even talking about? How can you feed me if I’ve been murdered?” Y/N narrowed her eyes, wondering if Jeongguk thought she was slow. 

“One of us would feed you immortal blood, and it would revive you as an immortal yourself. A fledgling,” Jeongguk went on as if she hadn’t poked holes in his tale, the iron gates at the front of the property swinging open to a wintery, meticulously paved street. 

“Why on earth would we ever turn that pest?” Namjoon murmured blandly, the sound of his leather gloves rustling against the pages of a book again sparking Y/N’s interest. It appeared that Namjoon never actually took those gloves off, for some elusive reason. “Can’t we carry out this task in silence?”

Jeongguk chuckled, but knew not to push his luck. Namjoon was one toe out of line from taking his frustrations out on bystanders at the market, which would be a pain to clean up. He settled into his seat and rolled down the windows, his skin sensitive to the elements with the acolyte’s blood nourishing it. As cool rain ran over his forearm, Jeongguk smirked to himself– it was only a matter of time until Jimin would be requesting pints of the acolyte’s blood to dump in his nightly bath. He was ripped from his thoughts of Jimin bathing in a marble pool of crimson when the girl actually dared to speak, almost mocking Namjoon’s final comment.

“Why on earth would I ever want to be turned? I’m already chained to you for the rest of my human life. To be trapped with you in immortality would be an eternal hell that I would have no escape from. Not even death would be kind to me.”

“Hosting parties here in the winter is something I never envisioned during construction,” Taehyung wound the silver chain to his pocket watch around his wrist, a line of maids brushing by with armfuls of holiday decorations. “It was intentionally designed for summer parties, keeping outsiders out.”

“You’ve mentioned that before, Master Taehyung. Especially during the winter holidays. You must detest them,” Edmund managed to keep up with his immortal employer by breaking into a near jog, scratching down a list of to-do’s as he went. The old butler had a weight lifted off his shoulder that morning, the acolyte off-property and out of the lion’s den, at least for a while. 

“The loggias open to the lawn and gardens. They’re useless in the winter. We should be hosting in the New York townhouses,” Taehyung continued to complain, using the butler as a sounding board. 

“Shall I order the evergreens today?”

Taehyung sighed, his delicate nose wrinkling up as he imagined the sappy, pungent smell of Christmas trees permeating through his estate. From where he was in the great hall, he could simply tilt his head just so, and with vampiric vision he could make out every brushstroke painted onto the ceiling fifty feet into the sky. Similarly, his hearing picked up every whisper from the servants in the hall, their heartbeats, and the continuous ticking of his pocket watch. Passing a hand over his gelled curls, Taehyung resumed his lap around the first floor. 

“I suppose. I cannot believe Seokjin put me on decorating duty. He can be such a… prince,” Taehyung frowned deeply, mulling over how he had managed to get himself in that spot. 

Sure, Taehyung was still a ‘fledgling’, but he was older than Jeongguk, who was actually permitted to take the acolyte on a trip to town with Namjoon. Classic Seokjin, showing favoritism for both the youngest vampire and the second-in-command. It made Taehyung want to spit venom onto the floor, but he always considered himself a gentleman, so he swallowed it down with a wince. 

“Like the holidays, Master, you seem to detest town, too,” Edmund, with mild amusement, made sure to prioritize Taehyung’s preferences for the decor– if he didn’t follow the businessman's directions to the letter, there would be cruel and unusual punishments. “Perhaps he was sparing you from the throngs of people asking for your audience.”

“Do not kiss my ass, Edmund,” Taehyung peered down through his thick lashes, hands stuffed in his pockets. There was no bite to his words, Taehyung actually appreciating Edmund’s discreet and meticulous work over the years, but he still had to maintain his immortal authority. “Seokjin picks punishments that create a slow torture, ones that unravel a person. I didn’t do too much to offend this time, but I still have to handle ‘festivities’ when I’d rather focus on the business.”

“I heard…” Edmund’s cerulean eyes darted around the hall before he and the fledgling reached the secluded grotto beneath the marble staircase. “Namjoon has been appointed as a sort of bodyguard to the acolyte.”

“Wherever did you hear that, old friend?” Taehyung grinned maliciously, stooping to get a good look at the elderly human. After years of being worn down without losing his mind, Taehyung didn’t mind that Edmund possessed an agenda, as long as it wasn’t conflicting with his own. “Eavesdropping again?”

“Simply trying to get up to speed on how things will be working from now on,” Edmund, even with his years of service, always preferred to deal with the vampires when they had recently fed, their appearances closer to humans than the ghoulish, starving versions of themselves. Presently, Taehyung appeared like a healthy young man that stepped forward in time from the Gilded Age. “You don’t mind filling me in, do you?”

“Namjoon cannot tolerate humans, especially ones that lack the intelligence of the world. Being a bodyguard to one is the ultimate punishment for him, so he must have royally fucked up somehow. Jeongguk is the only one who knows how Namjoon fucked up other than Seokjin, which is why he’s driving Namjoon around. Insult to injury. That, and Seokjin is testing Jeongguk’s self-control, which will wear thin quickly.”

 Taehyung knelt on one knee, dipping his hand into the chest pocket of his vest. Using a Prussian blue handkerchief, the silk slippery when he used it to polish a spot of marble making up the basin of the grotto beneath the main staircase.

“Forcing Yoongi to paint without Paralysis is torture for him. Being barred from playing his little games is no doubt leading up to a spell of hysteria from Jimin,” Taehyung folded the handkerchief with care, then tested the febrile water bubbling in the grotto with a satisfied hum. “As for Hoseok… Well, he escalated things with his vulgarities last night. Seokjin’s response was to send him to local churches to keep up on our donations.”

“Which leaves dealing with the cabaret to you,” Edmund, though considered to be ‘old’ for a human, was quite sharp. Taehyung hated many things: tardiness, interacting with extroverts, dealing with party planning, but most of all, Taehyung despised lowly human perversions. 

“Come sundown I’ll be at a cattle auction hosted in a brothel,” Taehyung grunted, straightening up and trying to hide his surprise that his limbs moved so fluidly. “No use in fighting it. Seokjin is manipulative, but it is how we have stayed powerful for so long.”

“Manipulative? That is one of the kindest ways you have described me in decades, Taehyung,” Seokjin, melting into the crooks and nannies of the vast estate, made his presence known, the head chef cowering behind the eldest vampire. “You’ve hardly finished coordinating decorations. You wouldn’t have to traipse around the red-light district after sundown if you lit a fire under your ass.”

“Are you implying that I’m lazy?” Taehyung scoffed incredulously, Edmund excusing himself to ‘order the evergreens’. “The greatest businessman in history. Lazy?”

“The greatest businessman in American history. You still brag about your achievements like a petulant child of nepotism,” Seokjin glanced at the clipboard the head chef was holding with trembling hands, pointing at something and clicking his tongue. Taehyung felt his skin rippling, like Glamor was trying to turn him into a demon with leathery skin. “Leave the rest to Edmund and just go to the cabaret now.”

“Hoseok usually handles the cabaret. What am I even supposed to be negotiating in that cesspool?” 

“You’re supposed to be picking out entertainment for the lecherous variety of guests that will be here this week. Must I spell it out for you?” Seokjin was out of sight as soon as he was in it, ordering the chef around again. “Has anyone unpacked the crates of liquor yet–”

Taehyung’s face split into a disbelieving grin, a rough chuckle tearing through his chest. There were days Taehyung longed for Seokjin’s power and influence, and moments where reality struck him. With his skin still threatening to take on the appearance of something otherworldly– beyond his control– could Taehyung even wield the power it took to head a vampiric coven properly? 

Glancing around the grand summer home he painstakingly designed for himself a lifetime ago, Taehyung sighed as he began to transform himself into a man who no one would recognize in the streets. Not only a widely known vampire in town, but the businessman who put Newport, Rhode Island on the map many years ago, Taehyung morphed into the perfect replica of the young man handing him his car keys– who stumbled sideways in shock when he saw a clone of himself staring back. 

Gentle, fuzzy orchestral music played loudly enough to have bottles of turpentine rattling against each other, Yoongi groaning from behind the wet canvas he was agonizing over. A pile of discarded palettes sat at his feet, unsatisfactory swatches of colors smeared all over the plastic heightening his aggravation. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the shade of the acolyte’s hair just right. 

“On the average day, I admire your process. Judging by appearances, you’ve deviated from that process. Where am I to sit, your lap?” Jimin returned from his ‘break’ from writing in Yoongi’s bedroom to take a leisurely two-hour long bath, dressed in his typical satin attire. 

Yoongi, out of pure frustration, launched a palette knife across the room and out of the half-cracked bay window. It was true: at least fifteen canvases in various sizes were tossed about the room, paint still tacky and smudged, the fabric tarp protecting the Oriental carpets caked was in pigments, and not even Yoongi’s bed– where Jimin typically lounged to pen down his screenplays– had a free spot where a box of supplies didn’t occupy. Yoongi himself looked like a trainwreck, long glossy hair gathered into a ragged knot at the back of his head, reeking of paint thinner, and clothes basically destroyed by the mediums he was using. 

Jimin, slightly mournful that his silk pajamas were going to be ruined, dropped himself onto one of Yoongi’s thighs, raising an eyebrow at Yoongi’s agitated expression. Usually, he would have pushed Jimin off by then, too wrapped up in what he was painting to endure Jimin’s flirting. Blinking, Jimin turned his head, leaning forward on Yoongi’s thigh to get a look at the painting causing the older vampire so much grief. 

His work was as fine as ever. In fact, Jimin had half a mind to smack Yoongi across the face. Of course, the painting was of the acolyte, but it portrayed her taking a sip from a champagne flute during the previous night’s dinner. The colors were vibrant and lifelike, and the acolyte was so well depicted that Jimin could imagine the girl stepping out of the canvas. Yoongi even managed to capture how beautiful the ruby necklace Jimin picked out for the acolyte was, which made Jimin spring up from his perch and place his hands on his hips. 

“You’re being ridiculous. How could you possibly be unhappy with that portrait?” Jimin accused, the cloud over Yoongi’s head darkening. “The hair isn’t right,” Yoongi murmured, plucking up another tube of paint to lighten the tones on the top of the acolyte’s head, where the chandelier picked up on her natural highlights. “I can’t get it right without her here.”

“Well, she’s playing with others right now. It’s not your turn,” Jimin snarked, finding the notebook he was using for his latest screenplay under an old smock Yoongi only used to wipe paint from his hands. “Besides, is she Botticelli’s Venus? How complicated can her hair color possibly be?”

“You were too preoccupied with how her tits spilled out of the top of her dress to notice her hair,” Yoongi went for a petty low blow, which was unlike him. Jimin paused, clutching his notebook to his chest and studying his elder for a moment. 

Jimin always thought Yoongi was beautiful, but when Yoongi found a new muse, he glowed and took on something angelic. However, that particular time his glow was dimmed, thanks to Seokjin’s restrictions on Yoongi’s access to his newfound muse, and stress brought on by perfectionism was extinguishing the light almost completely. 

“You haven’t been this neurotic about details since the portraits you worked on for Marilyn Monroe, and that acolyte is nowhere near that level of femme fatale,” Jimin cocked his head, perturbed that Yoongi wasn’t giving him the time of day. He couldn’t have that. “Yoongi, put the blasted paint down.”

With practiced ease, Jimin used a stronger dose of Hypnosis on Yoongi than he did the acolyte. Yoongi, promptly, felt his filbert brush clatter to the ground, a gritty purr coming from the artist. He didn’t have the patience to entertain Jimin that day, but it seemed Jimin had other ideas, pushing the palette out of Yoongi’s grasp and using a crooked finger to tilt his chip up. 

“Release me, Jimin,” Yoongi narrowed his eyes, his ancient bones aching from Hypnosis wrapping around them. “You do not need to Hypnotize me to gain my attention.”

“Clearly that’s not the case,” Jimin snapped, letting go of his elder covenmate and withdrawing his power slowly. “You’re completely consumed. She’s your latest muse.”

Jimin watched, with an almost human interest, blood pool in Yoongi’s cheeks. When a vampire has fed, within moments the mortal blood revives the stagnant vampiric blood– black in color– and the immortal’s body is restored to its height of health. Essentially, the mortal and vampiric blood become one; the blush across Yoongi’s cheeks was something Jimin had not seen in at least fifteen years. It was worse than he thought. 

“I would not go that far… muse…” Yoongi looked away, out the window and towards the sea. “No. Just a new subject to paint.”

“Sure,” Jimin scoffed, bored suddenly. With a huff, he meanly pushed a stack of sketchbooks off of Yoongi’s bed with a bare foot, collapsing on his side and cracking open his leather bound manuscripts-in-progress. “I have no issues admitting the acolyte has inspired my work. You know I’ve suffered from a block lately. Your stubbornness vexes me.”

“If it ‘vexes’ you so much, go entertain yourself with the girl’s maids. Pick out her wardrobe for the week and leave me in peace,” Yoongi retrieved his paint brush from the floor, using featherlight pressure to diffuse the harsh lines making up a lock of hair on the acolyte’s head. “Turn down the music while you’re at it.”

“Cold,” Jimin grinned, one of his fangs piercing through the cap of his pen once he brought it to his mouth. “Turn the music down yourself. I’m comfortable now.”

It was diverting to bicker with Yoongi, who usually behaved like a mute hermit living in the mountains– the artist could stoop to a level of sarcasm that Jimin perfected before he even became immortal. Yoongi grunted noncommittally, only breaking away from his canvas for a moment in order to slam the radio off, built-up strength in his limbs due to Paralysis begging to be used. 

Yoongi couldn’t remember what it was like to work without Paralysis. In the beginning, when Yoongi was a young, human man, he took any menial job he could to keep him off the streets of Tuscany. Not once, prior to meeting his mentor, did Yoongi allow himself the luxury of dream of being a fine artist. He was too busy exterminating vermin that often holed up in his ramshackle one-room thatched-roof mud hut while he was selling fruits in an open air market to have dreams. Yoongi shook out his arms and legs, the sounds of Jimin scrawling his loopy cursive over parchment grating on his delicate ears.

“Are you writing a play or a movie script?” Yoongi mumbled, jealous that Jimin’s creativity seemed to be flowing like a babbling brook. The jealousy spiked when Jimin flipped through his notebook, revealing that he had written what seemed to be two different productions already– Paralysis started to stiffen Yoongi’s own body spitefully.

“Actually, I wrote a ballet and a short horror film. Working on something more classical now, a novel… think Mary Shelley…”

“You wrote a ballet,” Yoongi confirmed flatly, Jimin giggling and setting his pen down to tease an obviously envious Yoongi. “When was the last time you even danced ballet, let alone create a show?”

“Just because you’ve stopped dropping by during my practice times, doesn’t mean I’ve quit, Yoongi,” Jimin, in a singsong voice, rolled over on his stomach to kick his legs in the air, already envisioning complicated choreography and elaborate, decadent costumes gracing worldwide stages. “Enough of this. Take a walk, you’re distracting me.”

Jimin, with glee, returned to his manuscript, loving that he could gloat. Sure, a part of him– a part the size of perhaps a grain of rice– that felt bad for Yoongi, but it was so overshadowed by centuries of immortal narcissism that Jimin didn’t even realize that part of him still existed.

“You’re the eldest fledgling, but you behave like the youngest. Disgraceful. Messy,” Yoongi changed the subject, kneeling to the floor by the bed. Face level with Jimin, Yoongi tilted his head. “Hedonistic.”

“I’m a vampire, Yoongi,” Jimin didn’t spare his elder a glance, and even though he was writing at a nearly impossible to see speed, no ink stained his sturdy fingertips. “Maybe you should lean into your nature like you used to, and you’ll paint something actually worth viewing.”

“You’re suggesting I ignore Seokjin’s orders.”

“Since when have you obeyed them? Seokjin gives you a rather long leash because you’re boring. He gave you an out. He doesn’t care if you Paralyze the acolyte, he just wants it contained to this bedroom. If anything, that should excite you,” Jimin put down his pen, fangs on display when his mischievous smile returned. With a manicured nail, he scraped umber pigment off of Yoongi’s cheek, directly below one of his eyes. 

Yoongi considered this, letting the fledgling remove paint from his face and hair, something dark and twisted steeping into his system. Jimin was absolutely right, and it pained Yoongi to admit that to himself. Since when had he been so idle?

“Jeongguk accused me of lacking risk…”

“Normally, I’d tell you not to listen to that cretin. But the point remains,” Jimin curled his lip up in disgust, picturing the brute youngest fledgling, who had none of the artistic proclivities he and Yoongi shared. 

Yoongi seemed to be processing things, his eyes almost wine-colored as he stared at Jimin. At one point, there was a time Yoongi couldn’t stop painting him; the round false innocence of his cheeks and lips, his graceful dancer’s figure. It then dawned on him, his entire expression brightening, which had Jimin halting his task of removing Yoongi’s turpentine-soaked oxford shirt. 

“Sit in next time. Model with her,” Yoongi grasped onto one of Jimin’s wrists, his sharp nails cutting into the fledgling’s creamy skin. A trickle of blood, a shade of pinot noir, slid down his wrist bone: the shade of Jimin and the acolyte entwined. 

“Oh?” Jimin’s grin only widened seductively. “There’s the risk that made your fortune.”

Reinvigorated, Yoongi let Jimin shrug off his grip, the playwright dragging his tongue over the crescent-shaped cuts marring his perfect skin. As Yoongi stood, his shirt dropped to the floor, his chest the only part of his body spared from paint splatters. 

“After the gala, when Seokjin is less concerned with appearances to the outside world, we’ll see how a session goes,” Yoongi turned, raking a hand through his filthy hair. Under his nose, Jimin was slyly using the callbox to fetch a staff member to run another hot bath. “Just the three of us.”

Yoongi frowned at the idea of Jimin inviting Hoseok– who enjoyed partaking in some of Jimin’s twisted, sometimes perverted, games. Sniffing indignantly, Jimin got the message loud and clear. 

“Well, Hoseok can–”

Jimin was swiftly shut down when Yoongi was hovering over him again, his wrist recaptured. Body loosening deliciously when Paralysis washed over him, Jimin watched Yoongi plant a large palm beside him on the bed, trapping the fledgling in place. 

“Just the three of us.”

Yoongi repeated himself firmly, squeezing Jimin’s wrist enough to have his breath catch, and without a smart retort, Yoongi smirked at the blood flowing from his cuts. Almost like he was consummating a grave, corrupted promise, Yoongi wrapped his lips around the wounds he created, sampling both the fledgling and the human girl as if it was the fountain of youth. Outside, thunder cracked down over the glacial sea, disguising blissful, selfish sighs. 

“Miss? You seem distracted this afternoon,” Juliana’s voice is what cut through the fog, Y/N absently gazing into the polished silver mirror. 

Her cheeks had filled out with the consistent rich foods she was being fed around the clock. There was no attention paid by her to the butterfly needle sticking out of her arm, drawings now a daily– sometimes twice daily– occurrence. Y/N suspected that the blood bags were delivered bedroom to bedroom like room service, and though she hated needles, her maids drawing her blood was much better than teeth in her neck.  

It had been a couple of days since her outing with the two vampires, and Y/N felt herself moving through her life like a mechanical part of something much larger. It was the afternoon of the great ‘gala’ that the coven was throwing, which meant Y/N was roused from her bed prior to sunrise for a hasty breakfast before being manicured to perfection. 

It was a miracle, but the vampires had mostly left her alone after she had returned from the Sanctuary with Namjoon and Jeongguk. With convenient bags of her blood for them to feed on, it really wasn’t necessary for the coven to interact with her. In fact, other than Namjoon’s constant presence lurking in her shadow, the only other vampire she had to speak with was Seokjin, who gave her a detailed list of how to behave at the gala. 

Y/N didn’t know why she even had to be present during the event. She would have much preferred holing up in her bedroom with perhaps a book all night. Wincing when Juliana pulled the needle from her arm, Y/N cleared her throat, eagerly spreading a soothing ointment over the injection site. 

“Miss?”

“Hm?” Y/N shivered, fingers twisting into the fur blanket draped over her lap. Y/N had become intimately familiar with the vanity she was sitting in front of; sometimes, she swore she saw spirits in the silver mirror. “Sorry?”

“I mentioned that you seem distracted. Perhaps anticipation for the gala? The decorations look glorious,” Juliana was merry, all of the staff was, but it hardly rubbed off on Y/N. She had never been to any kind of party, and not knowing what to expect had her stomach turning. 

“Oh… yes. Anticipation,” Y/N lied, drawing the corner of her mouth up into a half-smile. Dressed in only a silk nightgown, Y/N too consumed by her anxiety to bother covering up her nipples peeking through the fabric, she was spun around on her stool. Her bed was littered with gowns, all shades of cream or off-white. “What am I wearing?”

Another thing Y/N got used to, much like Namjoon keeping close tabs on her even if he wasn’t physically present, was Jimin picking out her clothes. Not just outfits for dinner, but her daily attire as well, down to the jewelry and shoes. Y/N no longer had much agency at all, and that was revealed to her when she was taken to the Sanctuary. 

Two Days Prior to the Gala

Y/N had a lump forming in her throat when Jeongguk pulled his car into the Sanctuary’s gravel drive, the stone cathedral exactly how she remembered it just a week ago. Her legs were still cold from walking around the market, where she was treated like a ball-and-chain by the two vampires in the front seat. She was correct, earlier: there were several stands serving hot chocolate to the wealthy citizens of Newport, but neither Namjoon or Jeongguk offered to purchase one for her, even if it was to stop the chattering of her teeth. 

Jeongguk was sent into various shops by Namjoon, who remained by Y/N’s side on the cobblestone sidewalks. At one point, while Jeongguk was inside a flower shop ordering centerpieces, Y/N strayed all but three feet away from Namjoon to take a look at a stall selling roasted chestnuts. It had been a mistake: Y/N was yanked backwards promptly, and the rest of the time spent at the market involved her being led around like a dog on a leash– Namjoon dragging her by the scarf around her neck. 

In a blur she could hardly understand, Y/N was toted from the backseat and began to chase after Namjoon before he could choke her with her own scarf. The Sanctuary was unchanged, and though it had been just shy of a week, Y/N took in the sights of the front drive like it was brand new to her. Instinctively, when she spotted Mrs. Sloane at the entrance, Y/N flinched sharply into a solid body beside her– Jeongguk– and at that moment, she didn’t know who she’d rather be left alone with. 

“I–I thought vampires could not come onto Sanctuary grounds,” Y/N breathed, thinking of Meredith and how horrified she’d be to know that two wolves were amongst the lambs. 

“Quiet, AB-. I see you continue to flap your gums despite the honor you were bestowed,” Mrs. Sloane greeted Y/N in the only way the old woman probably knew how: nastily. While Namjoon simply copied the stone gargoyles beside the entrance, still, Jeongguk snickered at Y/N’s scolding. “Good day, Masters. It has been some time since we have had the pleasure.”

Y/N wanted to bust a gut like a rabid hyena. Jeongguk appeared increasingly smug, puffing out his chest importantly, while Namjoon simply adjusted the fit of his leather gloves. 

“We’ve gathered a group of acolytes for you to choose from for your gala.”

Y/N’s friends and acquaintances. With a wobbly lower lip, she and the two vampires were led to a detached office building beside the Sanctuary, where only wardens were permitted to enter. 

“You believe that moronic propaganda? Did you think we’d burst into flames stepping foot on sacred ground?” Jeongguk leaned forward, his voice floating over Y/N’s shoulder, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. Promptly ignoring him, Y/N edged closer to Mrs. Sloane of all people. Though Mrs. Sloane had treated her like livestock, she still had her humanity. 

The room the three of them were led to was quite large, perhaps the size of a gymnasium, and it was apparently treated like a storage room. There were boxes of incense and votive candles stacked everywhere, as well as phlebotomy equipment. Jeongguk, with amusement, rifled through a box of tourniquets. 

“Bring them in,” Mrs. Sloane barked towards an open door, the acid in Y/N’s stomach steadily climbing up her throat when she heard shuffling. 

A handful of acolytes, mostly from the AB+ group, were pushed into the room hastily in a rush of white linens. The sight of the bleached and starched clothing Y/N used to wear day in and day out had her feeling dizzy, and if things couldn’t get any worse, an acolyte no older than seven was part of the group as well. 

“The acolyte beside you is the only one in the area with AB- blood. We’ve brought in all of our AB+ and B- typed acolytes, for your choosing. The head of your coven requested how many–?”

“Fifteen.”

Just one word was the first thing Namjoon uttered since they arrived, and the sharpness of his tone had even Mrs. Sloane stiffening. Y/N, helpless, squirmed in place as the acolytes she had lived with for years stared at her like a Hollywood star. She must have been something to behold; dressed in a fine designer coat, matching cashmere mittens and scarf, and well groomed and fed. Y/N didn’t realize how starved for nutrients she truly was, as she noticed the lack of color in the other acolyte’s complexions, the thinness of their cheeks. 

“Remove the children from the room,” Namjoon crossed his arms over his chest, his sword tucked into the crook of his elbow. “Feeding on children is a waste of time and energy.”

“Yes, Master,” Mrs. Sloane snapped her fingers, and Y/N sagged in relief when four acolytes under the age of eighteen were escorted back to safety. “Now… how will you select the group of fifteen?”

Namjoon’s jaw clenched, lips pursing, as he scanned the line of humans cowering in fear and awe. None of them had the same perfume-scented blood Y/N had, but Namjoon was expecting that. He really didn’t care either way which acolytes were picked, it wasn’t like Namjoon himself was going to be feeding from them. 

“I have an idea,” Jeongguk, who Y/N temporarily forgot was even present, dropped a pack of blood tubes onto the concrete floor and stepped forward. Trying not to budge, Y/N’s breath caught when Jeongguk hummed and looked her way. “Y/N, you go ahead and pick them out of us.”

Y/N’s mouth fell open. Jeongguk wanted her to select people she grew up with for hordes of vampires to feed on at a party? Once aware that the coven she was placed with held little humanity, it was revealed that they had none. Jeongguk’s expression was positively delighted, taking in Y/N’s abject horror. 

“Go ahead, AB-,” Mrs. Sloane encouraged, her tone dripping with either jealousy or spite. Y/N thought if Mrs. Sloane wanted to serve vampires so badly, perhaps she should have taken her career to the cabaret. “Make haste. These acolytes have work to do, unlike yourself.”

“I cannot choose,” Y/N breathed, the twinkle in Jeongguk’s eyes brightening when she shrunk backwards. The acolytes in front of her began to murmur, as disobeying orders from a vampire was a serious offense. “Please, don’t make me…”

“Very well,” Jeongguk grabbed her by the shoulder, making her look directly into his soulless eyes. Y/N knew what was coming before Jeongguk even entered her mind, her skull starting to pound as he sorted through memories. “Warden. We’ll take the thirteen healthiest in this room.”

Y/N’s lower lip was wobbling again, noises all around of people being shuffled to and fro. 

“That’s two short–”

“Find me the acolyte Joseph. Y/N will be pleased to see him at the gala, no? And…” Jeongguk held up his hand to cut Mrs. Sloane off, eyes narrowing playfully when he found what he was looking for. Y/N frantically began to shake her head and chant ‘no’, but it was far too late. “The pretty blonde girl with the princess curls. Meredith.”

The memory had Y/N’s anxiety spiking acutely. Agonizing for days over the fact that her inability to fulfill Jeongguk’s request resulted in putting her friends in danger, she hardly got much sleep. Juliana meticulously hid her dark circles behind a skin tone matched concealer, and despite the inner wars she was fighting, Y/N’s appearance was sparkly and flawless. 

Skimming a hand over one of the gossamer dresses laying on the bed, nausea reared its ugly head. The cream color of the garment had her thinking about the uniforms of the acolytes. While Juliana was busy comparing the gowns to one another, Y/N began to pace slowly, trying to come up with some elaborate scheme to save her friends. When contemplating escape routes and disguises, Y/N got a whiff of sea salt and cedarwood. A pleasant smell, yes, but one Y/N had just begun to associate with a particular immortal. 

“Are you trying to pace your way through the floor, ma chérie?” Hoseok was in her doorframe once more, and apparently Seokjin had managed to convince him to wear a suit. It was the most dressed up Y/N had ever seen him, and she hated to admit to herself that he looked good in pressed black pants. “Why aren’t you dressed?”

Y/N looked down, her silk nightgown skimming her thighs and hugging parts of her body too closely. Swiftly, she wrapped her arms around herself to shield from Hoseok’s greedy roaming eyes. Hoseok loved to act falsely concerned about Y/N and her well being, but Y/N quickly found out that all Hoseok was was a drunken lech. In fact, once Y/N got over the size of the watch on his slim wrist, she saw the bottle of rum he was taking swigs from. 

“Do you not like the dresses Jimin picked out for you? How rude,” Hoseok tore his gaze from the swell of the girl’s hips to get a look at the gaudy gowns littered around the room. Turning up his nose, he scoffed at the selection. “It’s like he’s trying to turn you into Dracula’s bride.”

“I hate the color white,” Y/N blurted out, her maids all stopping what they were doing to gape at her. During the handful of incidents when Y/N dared to complain to the vampires, staff was not around. “The acolytes. We always had to wear white linens. I never wish to wear the color again.”

“Do you?” Hoseok purred, setting his rum onto one of her nightstands. Running his tongue over his fangs, Hoseok found the human girl’s terrible filter entertaining. “Then don’t wear white. Simple as that.”

“What?” Y/N stopped pacing, gawking at Hoseok like he grew a second head. He couldn’t be serious, Y/N’s brief astonishment washing away into suspicion at a hat’s drop. 

“Don’t wear white, chérie. There’s a storage room in the basement stuffed with gowns flown in from every fashion capital in the world, all tailored to your size. What color do you want to wear?” Hoseok liked to play with his food, and the sickly-sweet tablespoon of hope directed towards him from the human girl was enough to keep up the ‘nice guy’ act. 

“Are you toying with me?” Y/N saw through the act, drinking in his sharp jawline and alcohol reddened cheeks. “Won’t… Master Jimin be upset?”

“Jimin will survive. He’ll pout, but he can’t help his melodramatic tendencies. So pick a color, Y/N,” Hoseok grew impatient, the friendly act starting to become forced.

Y/N, still processing the unnatural consideration from Hoseok, studied the vampire. He was just as handsome as all the others, in an almost elvish way, his features angular. Truly, he was a vision– even down to his sun-weathered hands. Her mind then went to colors, but all the vibrant hues dancing through her mind made her frown. 

“Black.”

“Fitting,” Hoseok shook his head, snapping his fingers. “Juliana, fetch the girl her black dresses. The rest of you, get rid of anything remotely off-white in her closet. Happy, chérie?”

“Why do you talk like that?” Y/N spoke through the flurry of her maids tripping over their feet to fulfill Hoseok’s request, the vampire’s drawl odd to Y/N’s ears. 

“Are you referring to my accent?” Hoseok raised a brow, plucking up his bottle of rum again. “I’ve spent centuries in New Orleans, pet. I believe humans call it a Southern drawl.”

Y/N nodded without understanding. The furthest south Y/N ever went was Little Compton, which was still in the state of Rhode Island. Taking a swig of his rum, Hoseok smirked as the beginnings of trust in him began to form in the acolyte’s head. Before she could go completely schoolgirl on him, Hoseok began to take his leave with a threat filling the air. 

“By the way, chérie. I believe you’ve forgotten I can predict your every move. You will not successfully take yourself and your friends away from here tonight. I can Track you to the ends of the Earth.”

Despite the fact that it was November, Y/N ended up selecting a sleeveless, short floaty dress made of chiffon. The garment was unlike anything she had ever seen, rippled fabric attachments slipping over her elbows, and it displayed some of the parts of her body she was growing fond of: her legs and chest. After Hoseok’s reminder that she was trapped, instead of cowering in fear, Y/N decided to play the game. 

It was futile to try and escape. It was dangerous to try and help her friends. What Y/N could do was exploit some of the weaknesses of the coven– hence the sultry dress– and keep one eye on her friends during the gala, if possible. Wrapping her hand around the banister she was guided to by Juliana, Y/N took a moment to look down at the bustling, decked-out great hall. 

Pine trees studded with multicolored lights outlined the hall, and the empty room was transformed into a festive holiday party. Cocktail tables were placed, candles and trays of libations placed on top, and there was an orchestra clumped in one corner of the room playing lively music. The fires roaring had the room feeling quite toasty, but the sight of dozens of vampires milling around in finery has a shiver rolling down her spine. With the cursory glance, Y/N did not spot Sanctuary whites, which had her heart sinking. Clearing her throat, Y/N rolled her shoulders back and began her descent down the red carpeted staircase. 

Mingle, but do not say anything moronic. Eat, drink, dance. Do not cause any kind of scene. Do not let vampires touch you outside of the coven. You are here as an accessory. Do not embarrass us. 

Seokjin’s voice entered her mind, Y/N miraculously not tripping down the stairs in her stilettos, turning her chin to the side. Near the center of the room, Seokjin was speaking to a vampire that physically appeared to be in his late forties. His short hair was swept off his forehead, and he was in a fine tuxedo that Y/N had no doubt cost a small fortune. A strong hand pinching a champagne glass, Y/N watched him actually smile at the vampire he was talking to, but the grin never quite reached his carmine eyes. 

“Oh! Thank you,” Y/N was approached by a staff member almost as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, handing her a glass of bubbly. In one go, Y/N drained the flute, and it was replaced with a fresh one straight away. Glossed lips wrapping around the glass, her eyes narrowed when Jimin started slinking towards her. “Here we fucking go…”

“Dove, that’s not what I chose for you,” Jimin cocked his head, the buttons on his shirt loose and revealing his jutting collar bones. “Though… this is quite the choice, too.”

Jimin dragged his eyes up and down the girl’s figure, which was softer and curvier than it was just a week ago. Mouth filled with venom, Jimin giggled and threaded an arm through the girl’s, reveling in her stiffness when he started to pull her through the crowd. 

“That there is Sarah Berwind. She’s the guest of honor’s wife,” Jimin pointed to an elegant female vampire, dressed in a midnight blue gown. Her silvery blonde hair reminded her of Meredith, though when the vampire turned her head, there were kohl-lined red eyes giving her a reality check. “Over there, a few artists Yoongi invited. Yuki, the lovely woman in gold, she made her fortune in jewelry…”

Y/N didn’t particularly care about any of the vampires Jimin was pointing out. Her focus was solely on finding her friends, to somehow protect them from excessive harm. She knew Meredith was probably beside herself. Her attention was stolen when Jimin came to a stop, near the edge of the room. Jimin had led her straight to Yoongi at the edge of the cleared dancefloor. Y/N blamed Yoongi entirely for Seokjin assigning Namjoon to her as a bodyguard. The artist was listening to a gangly looking vampire, Yoongi’s long hair glossy under all of the lights. 

“So this is your newest source of inspiration. Bellissima,” the gangly vampire drank her in, Y/N’s skin crawling as his eyes lingered over her breasts. “I hear you are to begin modeling with Mr. Park here.”

Y/N was lucky she had been practicing her poker face all night. She had not a semblance of an idea of what the vampire was talking about, but the thought of sitting with Jimin for hours in various poses made her want to vomit into a passing by champagne bucket. Yoongi’s expression was stormy when she didn’t reply right away, Y/N translating the look into a warning. 

“Yes, sir. I can hardly wait,” Y/N lied, her voice high and sweet. Yoongi, stone faced, thought the girl was laying it on too thickly, but the dolt of an immortal beside him bought the lie instantly. Fledglings. “When are we to start modeling, again, Master Yoongi?”

“Wow. Your coven still has acolytes using titles?”

“Our coven is old-school, and that’s the way it should be. That’s all, Damien,” Yoongi waved a hand, the vampire Damien sucking his teeth but getting the hint. He disappeared into the crowd. “You do not have to be a sarcastic little bitch, acolyte.”

“Excuse me?” Y/N squeaked like she was slapped, Jimin laughing and stroking the back of her head. 

“Your behavior tonight is being watched. I suggest you hold your honeyed tongue,” Yoongi’s voice was gruff and low, and Y/N could feel it in her chest. Before she could respond, the music cut off, and someone was clinking a knife against a glass. 

“Welcome to The Breakers. The orchestra has composed a waltz for tonight, and I’d like to invite you all to the dance floor,” Seokjin, the perfect picture of geniality, addressed the partygoers. “As the designer of this estate, Taehyung Kim will be leading the dance, accompanied by our coven’s acolyte.”

Y/N’s head swiveled like a barn owl’s, dozens of pairs of vampiric eyes were on her. Seokjin’s wicked smile finally reached his eyes, knowing Y/N would be mortified by the spectacle. The silence deafening, Jimin’s arm was replaced, that time by an arm clad in familiar tweed. Taehyung, with his shiny gelled waves, peered down at her impassively. 

“I do not know how to dance the waltz,” Y/N panicked, knowing that every immortal in the room could hear her strained whisper into Taehyung’s ear. 

“You will,” Taehyung murmured darkly, and Y/N’s spine went rigid when a new skill was downloaded into her head from Seokjin. If Seokjin could simply Compell knowledge into her head on a moment’s notice, what else could he make her believe?

In the center of the dance floor, Y/N knew exactly how to stand, effortlessly collecting Taehyung’s broad palm, her free hand sliding up the lapel of his grey jacket and resting over his sluggishly beating heart. Like he had done thousands of times before, Taehyung slung his forearm around the small of Y/N’s back. Without further ado, the orchestra struck up a swelling, vibrant tune, and they were off. Y/N didn’t even have to think as her feet moved in time with her partner, maintaining eye-contact as they danced across the floor. In mere seconds, couples of vampires joined the two of them, so at the very least, Y/N wasn’t the complete center of attention. 

Taehyung was one of the most elusive vampires, aside from Yoongi. In fact, she had spoken to Taehyung the least during the week she had spent at The Breakers, mostly because he was often away on business or walking the grounds of the estate by himself. Though undead, his palm was warm against hers, and Y/N slotted her fingers between his just to feel how her blood brought him back to life. He moved gracefully, leading them around the dance floor, all while drinking in every inch of her face. 

“Where are my friends?” Y/N asked after a few moments, on edge that she hadn’t seen a single human aside from staff since the evening began. For all she knew, Meredith or Joseph could have four vampires latched onto them while she danced with the devil. 

“What’s the point in telling you? Nothing you do can change their fate,” Taehyung’s baritone voice was flat, punctuating his point by dipping Y/N low to the ground. He was so close to her face, Y/N could see that his eyelids were different from one another. 

“Then there’s no harm in telling me where they are. I simply want to say goodbye,” Y/N argued, slightly breathless when Taehyung pulled her back up. One of her long, pointed nails traced along the handkerchief tucked into his breast pocket. 

“I thought you were told not to weave fallacies. You continue to believe you can outsmart us,” Taehyung spat back quietly, the fact that they were quite close to the wind section of the orchestra disguising his words from other guests. The set of the human girl’s mouth was firm and unbudging, Taehyung somewhat respecting her for digging her heels in. She might look meek and mild, but the acolyte had a strong moral compass– a death sentence. He decided to throw her a bone. “The acolytes are in the library, the cabaret girls were placed in the music room. Seokjin doesn’t want you near either of those rooms tonight.”

“He seems preoccupied schmoozing with the ‘guest of honor’,” Y/N couldn’t even see Seokjin, but the last time she did, he was still chatting away with the graying vampire named ‘Berwind’. “If there’s nothing I can do to protect them, afford me the decency to apologize to them.”

“Apologize? Isn’t it a great honor for you holy rollers to even be in the presence of vampires? With that logic, they should be kissing your feet for the opportunity to be here.”

“Obviously, that’s not the case. While I might still hold onto the hope that I can outsmart one of you, you hold onto the belief that acolytes end up at Sanctuaries on their own volition.”

There was a count of eight where Taehyung and Y/N stared each other down, flawlessly in sync as they waltzed. She spoke no more, nor did Taehyung, for the remainder of the song, dewy sweat coating her skin from both the undivided attention and exertion from dancing. When a final note of a viola rang out into the air, Y/N held her breath as they bowed to each other, Taehyung brushing his lips over the back of the girl’s hand reluctantly. 

“Do what you want, but reap what you sow.”

Taehyung evaporated like smoke. His duties were carried out, he played the game. Decorated, played nice, and danced with the human girl. Whatever happened after that, Taehyung couldn’t find it in him to care. 

Meanwhile, arms still extended and molded to Taehyung’s shape, Y/N was left entirely by herself, by the grace of God. It was comical, really, how she was able to scamper from the dance floor, clinging to the walls and feeling her way to the library. Another song was already beginning, mortal vital fluid and liquor intoxicated vampires elegantly swaying in throngs. Peripheral vision caught Jeongguk pouring his champagne flute over the décolletage of a short, dark skinned vampire woman, his fingers tangled in her silken braids and his tongue dragging down the skin of her throat. 

Jittery, Y/N was halfway to the library when she heard something quite queer. A muffled, high-pitched sound coming from the front entrance of the mansion had her freezing. The foyer had twin doors on the right and left: the ladies’ reception room, and the male counterpart directly across. Ice crystals formed in her gut, the sounds growing more agonized. It was a chorus of voices wailing, Y/N ducking into a hallway that connected to the foyer in order to find the source of the sounds. Not a soul was in the foyer, not even the human boys that handled valet, Y/N’s knees knocking together when a particularly horrendous female scream pierced her ears. 

“HELP, PLEASE! OH GOD, PLEASE! DON’T KILL ME!” 

Y/N’s skin flashed ice cold. Of course, she stupidly sprung into action, her stilettos falling off in the process, darting towards the gentleman’s reception room. She was human, after all. A desperate cry for help could not be ignored. 

“N-NO! NO, NO, YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED T-TO, YOU! YOU, YOU–”

Y/N pushed the heavy door open, bewildered, not understanding the sight in front of her at all. It was like the most horrific nightmare her brain could conjure, but it was real, it had to be. Her subconscious never considered something so evil. 

There was a young woman dressed in a fringed flapper dress, crouched and cornered on the floor and trembling so hard Y/N thought she was seizing. That, and she was nearly doused in crimson blood, shielding herself from the vampire standing over her, his foot crushing her ankle bone with a sickening crunch. The woman shrieked horribly, the whole floor covered in streaks of crimson. That wasn’t even the worst of it. Not even three paces away was a messy heap of limbs, limp and useless. 

Delicate, white-blonde curls matted with blood. A dimpled smile ironed out into a slack-jawed scream of desperation. White linens now permanently stained with clots of gore, motionless and skin nearly blue. Tossed in a pile, mangled and drained, were Meredith and Joseph, open-eyed and dead. 

The scream that came from Y/N was molten core in origin. It pierced through the merriment of the holiday party like banshee’s wail, the last piece of Y/N’s heart exploding into pieces. Joseph’s beautiful amber eyes were glassy and unseeing. Meredith’s hand was weakly curled around Joseph’s stained shirt sleeve. Nothing but the sound of her own screams registered to Y/N. 

What happened next, Y/N would never be able to get out of her mind. By the time her howling brought the orchestra rooms over to a startling halt, the vampire tormenting the young cabaret worker had Y/N pinned to the wall by her throat. It was Edmund Berwind, the moustached ‘guest of honor’ who had drained her two closest friends dry, stinking of liquor and death. Crushing her vocal chords, Y/N’s screams turned into choked barks, her nails scraping fabric wallpaper from behind her. 

“Aren’t you sweet, honey? I’ve heard–”

Y/N didn’t get the chance to hear what else Berwind was about to taunt her with. While the cabaret girl sobbed in agony, cradling her flattened ankle, Berwin was torn from her and Y/N could only collapse beside the corpses of her friends. 

He entered the room like the Grim Reaper. Whooshing through the air with precision was a metallic sound followed by wet, repulsive squelching. Namjoon, in one fell swoop, unsheathed his sword and slashed forward, severing Berwind’s top half from the bottom. Arterial spurts of blackened immortal blood sprayed the entire reception room, as well as dowsing Y/N completely, the viscous hot fluid running down her face. 

The body fell directly next to Y/N. Desiccated intestines spilled from both cavities of the bodies, followed by other equally ancient organs, Y/N’s skin coated with the blood of her former friends and the gore of a slain vampire. Berwind’s body was still twitching, the severed lower half contorting grotesquely while the top gushed liters of blood, gore, and tissue. Y/N was still screaming, soaking in gore, waiting for the angel of death. She hadn’t been able to spare her friends in time, and she was sure to meet her end considering how furious her ‘bodyguard’ seemed. It was all over. 

Namjoon found a spare pillow set on a cushy chair, using it to mop the filthy mess Berwind made on his sword. With disgust, he used the wallpaper to clean his gloves, large streaky prints staining the walls. Weeping hollowly, Y/N stroked Meredith’s lifeless curls from her face, anticipating her momentary death. One hand slipping over one of Berwind’s eviscerated kidneys spilling onto the floor, Y/N glanced at Namjoon one last time. 

“I Compelled her to avoid being touched.”

Namjoon didn’t answer Seokjin, who promptly locked the door to the reception room. Namjoon kicked the top half of Berwind’s hemorrhaging corpse, fat with too much blood, off to the corner of the room. Using his jacket sleeve to remove eviscerated organs from his face, Namjoon sheathed his sword and laughed at his elder. 

“I’ll leave you to clean up the mess this time, hyung.”

Please do not repost or translate my work. Thank you!

[great-health-stuff]

Long-lasting, No toxic and charcoal-free Natural Wood Incense🪵(120 Sticks)

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[tirupatiaastha]

Natural Incense Sticks in Maharashtra

Aastha Agarbatti Works is a renowned manufacturer and supplier of premium-quality natural incense sticks in Maharashtra. Our Premium Incense Sticks Manufacturing unit is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. We specialize in crafting aromatic incense sticks using 100% natural ingredients, ensuring a pure and eco-friendly experience for our customers. Aastha Agarbatti Works creates natural incense sticks known for their calming, therapeutic scents, widely used for religious, spiritual, and aromatic purposes. Why Choose Aastha Agarbatti Works for Natural Incense Sticks/Agarbatti? 100% Natural Ingredients: We pride ourselves on using the finest natural herbs, flowers, resins, and essential oils to create our incense sticks, free from harmful chemicals. Wide Range of Fragrances: From soothing lavender to refreshing sandalwood, we offer a diverse range of fragrances that cater to various preferences. We carefully blend each scent to provide long-lasting, pleasant aromas. Eco-Friendly and Safe: We make our incense sticks with sustainable materials, ensuring minimal environmental impact. They are also free from synthetic fragrances, making them safe for both humans and pets. Handcrafted Excellence: Every incense stick is handcrafted with precision, ensuring that each one is of the highest quality. Our artisanal process guarantees consistency and superior fragrance release. Affordable Pricing: At Aastha Agarbatti Works, we offer premium natural incense sticks at competitive prices, making luxury and quality accessible to everyone. FAQs: Q1: What makes Aastha Agarbatti Works' incense sticks different from others? A1: Our incense sticks stand out due to our commitment to using 100% natural ingredients. We do not use artificial chemicals or synthetic fragrances, ensuring a pure, eco-friendly product that provides a calming and pleasant aroma. Q2: Are your incense sticks safe for health? A2: Yes! Our incense sticks are made with natural, non-toxic materials, making them safe for both humans and pets. We ensure they are free from harmful chemicals and artificial scents. Q3: Where can I buy natural incense sticks in Maharashtra? A3: You can easily buy our premium natural incense sticks directly from Aastha Agarbatti Works. We offer delivery across Maharashtra, ensuring you have access to our top-quality products no matter your location. Aastha Agarbatti Works is a Supplier of Natural Incense Sticks in Maharashtra including locations in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Kalyan-Dombivli, Vasai-Virar, Aurangabad, Navi Mumbai, Solapur, Mira-Bhayandar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Jalgaon, Amravati, Nanded-Waghala, Kolhapur, Ulhasnagar, Sangli, Malegaon, Akola, Latur, Dhule, Ahmednagar, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Ichalkaranji, Jalna, Ambarnath, Bhusawal, Panvel, Badlapur, Beed, Gondia, Satara, Barshi, Yavatmal, Achalpur, Osmanabad, Nandurbar, Wardha, Udgir, Hinganghat. Contact us today to place your order and enjoy the best aromatic experience available in Maharashtra. Read the full article

[ideaunlimited]

Top Trends in Incense Sticks Manufacturing 2025: ShubhLabh Leads the Way

The incense industry is lighting up with innovation and sustainability in 2025. As demand for premium incense products grows globally, Incense Sticks Manufacturers are embracing new trends that cater to eco-conscious consumers, modern aesthetics, and diverse aromatic preferences. Let’s explore the top trends reshaping this age-old craft.

1. Sustainability Takes Center Stage

Today’s consumers are more mindful of the environmental impact of their purchases. Leading Incense Sticks Manufacturers  are switching to eco-friendly practices, including:

Biodegradable Packaging: Eliminating plastic wraps and opting for paper or bamboo-based packaging materials.

Sustainable Sourcing: Using ethically harvested woods, herbs, and resins to create guilt-free fragrances.

Low-Emission Production: Adopting clean manufacturing techniques that reduce carbon footprints.

This commitment to sustainability not only protects the planet but also aligns with the values of younger, environmentally conscious buyers.

2. Fusion Fragrances

Traditional sandalwood and rose remain favorites, but modern consumers are seeking more unique blends. Manufacturers are experimenting with fusion fragrances such as:

Lavender and Oud for a calming-yet-luxurious experience.

Citrus and Vetiver to energize and refresh.

Frankincense and Vanilla for a soothing warmth.

These innovative combinations help brands stand out in a crowded marketplace.

3. Functional Aromatherapy

The wellness industry is booming, and incense is no longer just about aroma—it’s about functionality. Incense Sticks Manufacturers  are focusing on creating sticks tailored to specific needs, such as:

Stress Relief: Blends infused with lavender and chamomile.

Focus and Clarity: Peppermint and eucalyptus combinations.

Sleep Aid: Frankincense and sandalwood to promote relaxation.

Functional incense appeals to health-conscious consumers looking for natural solutions to enhance their well-being.

4. Premium and Artistic Designs

Packaging and design have become as important as the scent itself. High-end incense products now feature:

Minimalist, artistic packaging that complements modern decor.

Handmade holders crafted from ceramics or sustainable wood.

Unique stick designs, such as spiral or tapered shapes, for a luxurious feel.

By focusing on aesthetics, Incense Sticks Manufacturers  can capture the attention of style-savvy shoppers.

5. Digital Transformation in Sales

E-commerce and social media are revolutionizing the incense industry. Brands are leveraging digital platforms to reach a global audience by:

Launching subscription boxes for regular deliveries of new fragrances.

Using influencer marketing to showcase their products in real-life settings.

Creating immersive online shopping experiences with virtual scent descriptions and guided tutorials.

This digital shift helps manufacturers stay competitive in an increasingly online world.

6. Customization and Personalization

Modern consumers crave individuality, and Incense Sticks Manufacturers  are meeting this demand by offering personalized options, such as:

Custom scent blends tailored to a buyer’s preferences.

Limited-edition collections for holidays or special events.

Engraved packaging for gifting purposes.

This personal touch builds customer loyalty and creates a more memorable experience.

7. Focus on Health and Safety

With increasing awareness of indoor air quality, manufacturers are prioritizing:

Low-smoke or smokeless incense options.

Chemical-free formulations using only natural oils and powders.

Certifications that verify safety standards and non-toxic ingredients.

Health-conscious buyers are drawn to products that promise a clean and safe experience.

Final Thoughts

The world of incense is evolving, and Incense Sticks Manufacturers  are at the forefront of these exciting changes. From sustainable practices to personalized blends, the industry is adapting to meet the needs of today’s discerning consumers. By embracing these trends, manufacturers can ensure they remain relevant and successful in 2025 and beyond.

[ntsticks]

8 Benefits of Using Organic Incense Sticks for Your Daily Routine

The ancient art of burning incense has permeated various cultures and traditions for centuries. Whether it’s for meditation, religious practices, or simply creating a serene atmosphere, incense plays a significant role in bringing peace and tranquility into our spaces. However, not all incense sticks are created equal, and choosing the right type can profoundly impact your health, environment, and spiritual well-being. This is where organic incense sticks come into the picture.

In recent years, organic products have gained immense popularity, and incense is no exception. With the growing awareness of the harmful effects of synthetic chemicals, more and more people are turning to natural incense sticks as a healthier alternative. This article delves into the numerous benefits of using organic incense sticks as part of your daily routine, shedding light on why they are better for you and the environment.

Understanding Organic Incense Sticks: What Sets Them Apart?

Before diving into the benefits, it’s crucial to understand what organic incense sticks actually are and what makes them stand out from regular incense.

Organic incense sticks are crafted from 100% natural ingredients, meaning they are free from synthetic chemicals, artificial fragrances, or harmful additives. These sticks typically contain essential oils, herbs, wood powder, resins, and other plant-based materials. The result is a product that burns cleanly, releasing only natural fragrances into the air.

In contrast, non-organic incense often contains harmful chemicals like phthalates, petrochemicals, and artificial colors, which can release toxic substances when burned. These chemicals can contribute to indoor air pollution, and prolonged exposure may lead to respiratory issues, headaches, and allergic reactions.

By choosing organic incense sticks, you're ensuring that the air you breathe remains pure and safe, making it an excellent choice for both your physical and mental well-being.

The Health Benefits of Organic Incense Sticks

1. Safer to Inhale and Use

When you burn regular incense that contains synthetic fragrances and chemicals, you're not just releasing scent into the air; you're also emitting toxins. Many commercial incense sticks contain compounds that can irritate the respiratory system, trigger allergies, or even contribute to more serious health issues over time. For individuals who are sensitive to strong fragrances or have respiratory conditions like asthma, the chemicals in non-organic incense can aggravate symptoms.

Organic incense sticks, on the other hand, are made from natural ingredients like herbs and essential oils, which are less likely to cause any irritation. These natural incense sticks burn cleanly and emit fewer particulates into the air, creating a safer environment for everyone, especially for children, the elderly, and pets.

Moreover, organic incense is typically free of artificial dyes and perfumes, making it ideal for those seeking a more natural, gentle experience. With organic incense, you get the pleasant fragrance of nature without the harmful side effects of synthetic chemicals.

2. Stress Relief and Mental Clarity

Many scents associated with organic incense, such as sandalwood, lavender, and frankincense, are known for their calming and stress-relieving properties. When you burn the best incense sticks made from these natural ingredients, you’re not just filling the room with fragrance—you’re creating an environment that can significantly enhance your mental well-being.

For centuries, incense has been used to promote relaxation, mental clarity, and emotional balance. Certain scents can help reduce anxiety, lower stress levels, and encourage mindfulness, making organic incense a perfect companion for your meditation or yoga practice. The act of burning incense itself can become a mindful ritual, allowing you to take a break from the hustle and bustle of daily life and focus on your inner peace.

For example, sandalwood incense is often used to promote focus during meditation and prayer, while lavender is known for its calming effects, which can help with insomnia or anxiety. By incorporating organic incense sticks into your routine, you create a sensory experience that nurtures both your body and mind.

The Environmental Impact: Organic vs. Non-Organic Incense

3. Eco-Friendly and Sustainable

One of the most compelling reasons to switch to organic incense sticks is their positive environmental impact. Unlike non-organic alternatives, which are often made from non-renewable resources and packaged in plastic, organic incense is made from sustainable, plant-based materials. Many producers of organic incense take care to use eco-friendly packaging, ensuring that their products have minimal environmental impact.

When you burn organic incense, you’re reducing the amount of harmful chemicals and pollutants released into the air. Non-organic incense can emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter that contribute to indoor air pollution. In contrast, organic incense sticks, made from pure plant materials, burn more cleanly, emitting fewer harmful substances.

Furthermore, organic incense is often handcrafted by small, artisanal producers who follow sustainable harvesting practices. By choosing organic, you're not only protecting your health but also supporting environmentally conscious businesses and reducing your carbon footprint.

4. Biodegradable and Chemical-Free

Another significant environmental benefit of organic incense sticks is that they are biodegradable. Made from plant-based materials, these incense sticks break down naturally, leaving behind minimal waste. In contrast, non-organic incense can contain synthetic binders and chemicals that take much longer to decompose, contributing to environmental pollution.

Organic incense also doesn’t rely on harmful pesticides or fertilizers during the growing and harvesting of its ingredients. This ensures that no harmful chemicals are being released into the soil or waterways during the production process. As a result, organic incense is not only safer for your home but also for the planet.

Spiritual and Emotional Benefits of Using Organic Incense Sticks

5. Enhancing Meditation and Spiritual Practices

Incense has always played a central role in spiritual and religious practices across cultures. From ancient temples to modern-day yoga studios, incense is burned to purify the air, set a peaceful ambiance, and enhance spiritual awareness. Organic incense sticks, with their natural, subtle fragrances, can further deepen these practices by offering a cleaner and more authentic experience.

Different types of natural incense sticks are associated with various spiritual benefits. For instance, sandalwood is often used to enhance meditation, as it’s believed to bring clarity and calmness to the mind. Frankincense, another popular ingredient, is known for its grounding properties, making it an ideal choice for prayer or introspection.

Burning organic incense during spiritual or mindful practices can help create a calming, focused atmosphere. The scent acts as a grounding force, helping you stay present and centered. Whether you’re practicing yoga, meditating, or simply engaging in quiet reflection, organic incense can enrich your spiritual journey.

6. Promoting Emotional Balance and Relaxation

Incorporating organic incense sticks into your daily routine can have a profound effect on your emotional well-being. Scents like jasmine, lavender, and patchouli are known to uplift the mood, reduce stress, and promote relaxation. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or anxious, burning a stick of your favorite organic incense can serve as a small, soothing ritual that brings peace and comfort to your day.

Because the best incense sticks are free from synthetic additives, the aromas they release are more subtle and earthy. This creates a more harmonious environment, allowing the scent to naturally blend with the space without becoming overpowering. Over time, these fragrances can help you develop a sense of calm and emotional balance, making organic incense an excellent tool for managing stress and enhancing overall well-being.

Practical Tips: How to Incorporate Organic Incense Sticks into Your Routine

7. Morning Rituals for Focus and Clarity

Lighting an organic incense stick in the morning can be a wonderful way to set a positive tone for the day. Choose a scent like sandalwood or cedarwood to promote mental clarity and focus. As you prepare for the day ahead, allow the gentle fragrance to clear your mind and ground your thoughts.

By incorporating incense into your morning routine, you create a space of mindfulness that can help you stay calm and focused throughout the day.

8. Evening Relaxation and Stress Relief

In the evening, burning organic incense can help you unwind and relax after a long day. Scents like lavender, jasmine, or chamomile are perfect for creating a soothing environment that encourages relaxation and restful sleep. Simply light a stick as part of your evening routine, and let the fragrance guide you into a state of tranquility.

Whether you’re taking a warm bath, reading a book, or enjoying a quiet moment before bed, organic incense can enhance the experience by creating a calm and peaceful atmosphere.

Conclusion: Why Organic Incense Sticks Are the Best Choice

Switching to organic incense sticks offers a multitude of benefits, from improving your health and well-being to supporting environmental sustainability. By choosing natural, chemical-free products, you’re making a conscious choice to embrace a healthier, more mindful lifestyle. Whether you're seeking relaxation, spiritual enrichment, or simply a way to enhance your home’s ambiance, organic incense sticks are the ideal choice.

Incorporating the best incense sticks made from natural ingredients into your daily routine allows you to enjoy the pure, calming effects of nature in the most holistic way possible. So the next time you reach for an incense stick, make it organic, and experience the difference it can make in your life.

[cha2sourcing]

Exploring Incense Burning: DIY Incense Burners, Chinese Powder Incense Kits, and Charcoal Incense Techniques

Incense burning is an ancient practice cherished for its ability to create a calming atmosphere, enhance meditation, and enrich spiritual rituals. This article delves into three essential aspects of incense burning: creating your own DIY incense burner, using a Chinese powder incense burner kit, and effectively burning charcoal incense. Understanding these topics will help you enjoy a more personalised and effective incense experience.

Crafting Your Own DIY Incense Burner

Creating a DIY Incense Burner is a rewarding project that allows you to blend personal creativity with functionality. Whether you want a unique decorative piece or a practical tool for burning incense, designing your own burner provides a sense of accomplishment and customization.

Materials and Tools

To start, gather materials such as clay, wood, or metal. Clay is highly versatile and ideal for beginners due to its ease of shaping. Wood offers a more rustic look and can be crafted using basic woodworking tools. Metal, such as brass or copper, requires more advanced skills and tools but adds a touch of elegance and durability.

Designing and Building

Conceptualise Your Design: Begin by sketching out your ideas. Consider the type of incense you plan to use—whether sticks, cones, or powder—and design your burner accordingly. Your design should include features to hold the incense securely and allow for proper airflow.

Shaping the Burner: For clay, sculpt your design and let it dry before firing it in a kiln. For wooden burners, cut and sand the wood to your desired shape, ensuring a smooth finish. Metal burners can be shaped using appropriate metalworking tools or by repurposing existing metal objects.

Finishing Touches: Apply finishes such as paint, glaze, or varnish to enhance the appearance and protect the burner. For clay and wood, ensure that any finishes are non-toxic and heat-resistant.

Benefits

DIY incense burners offer a unique opportunity to customise both form and function, allowing you to create a piece that reflects your personal style and incense preferences. The process of making your own burner can also be a gratifying and educational experience.

How to Use Chinese Powder Incense Burner Kit?

Chinese powder incense burners are designed for use with powdered incense, offering a traditional approach to incense burning. These kits typically include a burner and powdered incense, and mastering their use can enhance your incense experience.

Kit Components

A standard Chinese powder incense burner kit generally includes:

A burner, often made of metal or ceramic, featuring intricate designs.

Powdered incense, which is finely ground for burning.

A small scoop or spatula for handling the incense powder.

Using the Kit

Prepare the Burner: Place the burner on a stable, heat-resistant surface. Ensure it is clean and free from any residues.

Add Incense Powder: Using the scoop or spatula, sprinkle a small amount of powdered incense onto the burner. The quantity will depend on your preference and the size of the burner.

Ignite the Incense: Light a piece of charcoal or a candle to heat the incense. In some cases, the kit might include a small incense light specifically designed for this purpose. The incense should start to smoulder and emit its fragrance.

Enjoy the Aroma: Allow the incense to burn slowly, releasing its aroma. Keep the burner in a well-ventilated area to prevent excessive smoke buildup.

Tips

Use high-quality powdered incense for the best results.

Regularly clean the burner to maintain its performance and appearance.

Adjust the amount of incense powder based on the intensity of fragrance desired.

How to Burn Charcoal Incense?

Charcoal incense is popular for its ability to produce a consistent burn and enhance the fragrance of incense resins or powders. Learning the proper technique for burning charcoal incense ensures a successful and enjoyable experience.

Materials Needed

To burn charcoal incense, you will need:

Charcoal tablets, specifically designed for incense burning.

Incense resin or powder.

A heat-resistant burner or dish.

Burning Charcoal Incense

Prepare the Burner: Place the burner on a stable, non-flammable surface. Ensure it is clean and ready for use.

Light the Charcoal: Using tongs or a heat-resistant tool, light the edge of the charcoal tablet with a lighter or match. Allow the charcoal to ignite completely, with a red glow and grey ash covering the surface. This process may take a few minutes.

Place the Charcoal: Once ignited, carefully place the charcoal on the burner. Ensure it is stable and securely positioned.

Add Incense: Sprinkle incense resin or powder onto the hot charcoal. The incense should begin to smoulder and release its fragrance.

Monitor the Burn: Keep an eye on the burner to ensure safety. Adjust ventilation if necessary to manage smoke levels.

Safety Precautions

Always use charcoal incense in a well-ventilated area.

Avoid placing the burner on flammable surfaces.

Keep children and pets away from the burning incense.

Conclusion

Exploring the world of incense burning through DIY projects, using traditional Chinese powder incense kits, and mastering charcoal incense techniques can greatly enhance your incense experience. Crafting your own burner allows for personalisation, while understanding the proper use of incense kits and charcoal ensures a rich and enjoyable aroma. By incorporating these practices into your routine, you can create a more personalised and satisfying incense experience.

[hiteshmehtasuspire]

What's In The Box: Incense Cones

Why Use Incense Cone: Incense Cone has a lovely, sweet aroma. The fragrance is best known to soothe mind & promote relaxation.

Non Toxic & Chemical Free: The Smoke released from the cone are odor & chemical free which makes it an alternative for other sticks that releases black smoke.

How to Use: > Hold the Tip of the Cone > Light the Cone > Allow the flame to burn for a few seconds > Gently Blow it Out & Enjoy the Long Lasting fragrance

Suitable For: Incense Cones are most suitable For Pooja, Festivals, Devotion, Gifting and Prayers

[worldlyaromas]

You'll never believe what's in most incense

When most people think about incense, they think about the soothing scents that can relax and calm the mind. However, did you know that many brands of incense contain hidden ingredients that are anything but calming? In this blog post, we'll take a look at some of the bizarre and unexpected ingredients found in popular brands of incense. You may be surprised to learn what's really in your favorite scent!

What to consider when buying incense

When it comes to choosing the perfect type of incense for your needs, there are a few things you need to consider. The most important factor is the purpose of the incense. Are you looking for something to add a touch of fragrance to your home? Or do you need something to help with meditation or spiritual practice?

Natural Vs Synthetic

There are two main types of incense: natural and fragrance. Natural incense is made from herbs, spices and resins, while fragrance incense is made from synthetic chemicals. Natural incense is often seen as being more "spiritual" and has a more subtle scent than fragrance incense. It also has therapeutic properties, which can be helpful for people with asthma or other respiratory problems. Fragrance incense is cheaper and has a stronger chemical scent than natural incense. It is easier to find in shops, but it can be harmful to your health if you're exposed to it for long periods of time.

Some of the toxic chemicals in fragrance incense include benzene, toluene and styrene. These chemicals can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and even cancer. The risks associated with fragrance chemicals are much higher for pregnant women and young children, so if you're looking for an incense to use around your home, it's best to choose a natural variety. You can tell the difference between natural incense and chemical incense by looking at the ingredients list. If the incense contains any of these toxic chemicals, it's not safe to use.

Animal by-products are also used in the production of incense. These by-products include beaver anal gland secretions (castoreum), deer musk, civet, and lion dung. Castoreum is a secretion from the castor sacs of beavers. It's used as a base note in many fragrances and can also be found in some foods (such as raspberry ice cream). Deer musk is another animal by-product that's often used in fragrance incense. It's made from the dried excretion of male deer and has a strong, musky scent. Civet is a substance produced by the civet cat. It's used to add an earthy, musky scent to perfumes and incense. Lion dung is the final animal by-product that's used in the production of incense. It's made from the dried excrement of lions and has a strong, spicy scent.

Where to buy Natural Vegan Incense?

Worldly Aromas Incense has been created from the purest natural ingredients. Each stick is hand rolled using a recipe that has been passed down for generations. These inspired scents of exquisite quality combine layered depth and premium sophistication connecting you to this ancient tradition.

Vegan

No synthetic ingredients

No chemicals

Pure essential oils

Allergen free

[mayankdharohararoma]

Use Natural Agarbatti for Pooja

[bvanandi01]

Agarbatti Exporters in India

With a lot of people around the globe now adopting meditation and spirituality, the demand for incense/agarbatti sticks has risen drastically. Agarbatti exporters in India have taken a note of this and are now working hard towards meeting the expectations of the people by innovating new toxic-free products that range in different fragrances. Know more about the different Agarbatti exporters in India and check out what they have to offer

[tirupatiaastha]

Mosquito Agarbatti in Arunachal Pradesh

Tirupati Enterprise Offers Mosquito Agarbatti in Arunachal Pradesh. Our Manufacturing Unit is in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Tirupati Enterprise is a Manufacturer, Exporter, and Supplier of mosquito-repellent sticks, including like Black Fire Dragon, Black Tiger, Green Comfort, King Kobra, Natural Relax, Green Dinosaur, Mosquito Killer, Rambaan, and Dengue Hunter. Tirupati Enterprise, a renowned leader in insect repellent products, proudly presents its exclusive range of mosquito repellent sticks, crafted to protect your outdoor areas. We meticulously craft our mosquito repellent sticks to repel mosquitoes and other flying insects, providing a more comfortable and pleasant environment. Features: Natural Ingredients: Mosquito agarbatti often contains natural essential oils such as citronella, eucalyptus, and neem. We know these ingredients for their mosquito-repelling properties. Slow-Release Formula: We design the incense to burn slowly, providing extended protection against mosquitoes. Non-Toxic: Most mosquito agarbatti products are free from harmful chemicals, making them safer for indoor use compared to synthetic alternatives. Eco-Friendly: Many manufacturers make mosquito agarbatti options from biodegradable materials, making them a more environmentally friendly choice. Advantages of Mosquito Agarbatti: Natural and Safe: Natural ingredients reduce the risk of toxic exposure compared to chemical repellents. Pleasant Scent: Unlike other mosquito repellents that can have strong, unpleasant Odors, mosquito agarbatti provides a fragrant experience. Versatility: Suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, making it a versatile addition to any pest control strategy. Easy Disposal: The ash produced is minimal and can be easily cleaned, with no harmful residue left behind. Tirupati Enterprise Offers Mosquito Agarbatti in Arunachal Pradesh including locations Anjaw, Changlang, Kamle, Kra Daadi, Kurung Kumey, Lepa-Rada, Lohit, Longding, Namsai, Pakke-Kessang, Papum Pare, Shi-Yomi, Siang, Tawang, Tirap, Lower Dibang Valley, Dibang Valley, East Kameng, West Kameng, East Siang, Lower Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang, Lower Subansiri, and Upper Subansiri, along with Itanagar. Feel free to contact us for more information and inquiries. View Product: Click Here Read the full article

[tacticalhimbo]

-> OC ASSOCIATIONS ! (OBSCURE AND OTHERWISE)

tagged by the lovely @galeboettichergf​​ tagging anybody who feels like doing this; feel free to tag me if ya do <3

character: bailey hill (watch dogs) -> freelance grey-hat hacker, anti-corporate hacktivist

info under the cut! 

COLORS | burgundy; neon green; black; burnt orange; most shades of purple (mid to dark toned)

SEASONINGS | cayenne pepper; red pepper; cumin

WEATHER | overcast

SKY | sunrise

MAGICAL POWER | illusionism / form manipulation

PLANTS |  barrel cactus; sunflowers

WEAPON | butterfly knife; brass knuckles; pepper spray

SUBJECT | cyber security; digital media & graphic design

MAKEUP PRODUCT | dark creamy lipstick (pref. deep red or plain black)

CANDY | rock sugar; jolly ranchers; warheads & toxic waste

FEAR | claustrophobia (confined or tight spaces); abandonment

ICE CUBE SHAPE | crescent shaped cubes for that crisp(tm) chew

METHOD OF LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL | train

ART STYLE |  bauhaus; futurism

MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURE | werewolf

SONGS | government hooker // lady gaga; cyber sex // doja cat; woman // doja cat; human pills // kap bambino

PIECE OF STATIONARY | ballpoint pens

THREE EMOJIS | ⛓ (chains); 🖤 (black heart); 👻 (ghost)

CELESTIAL BODY | the moon

ANIMAL | spotted hyena

MONTH | july

NUMBER | 17

SMELLS | caramelized nuts; petrichor; incense sticks (plum blossom & dragon's blood); cinnamon; vanilla

TIME OF DAY | midnight

GEMSTONE |  citrine

SEASON | summer

PLACES | abandoned carparks; dimly lit alleyways; the bean (aka cloud gate); quiet city parks

FOOD | sweet and sour pork; pho; bean and cheese burritos; tajine; pork adobo; bhel puri (tldr: she loves ordering from ma and pop food joints)

DRINKS | monster energy (java & reserve white pineapple); milk tea (w/ tapioca pearls or coffee pudding)

ELEMENT | aether (sometimes refered to as space, zero, or void)

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNS | cancer sun; aquarius moon; cancer rising

[nusrattalks]

Ramadan does not look the same for everyone, and that’s okay.

Not everyone understands the 'Ramadan spirit' that all Muslims (or so it seems) appear to be raving about as Ramadan approaches. 

And at the risk of opening myself up to a fair bit of judgment, hear me out.

For most of my life, as soon as I'd hear 'Ramadan', I would instantly shift to another world which tasted like jilapis, looked like my entire family sitting around the table eating iftaar, smelt like incense sticks and felt like the serenity that follows late night prayers. Ramadan was synonym for 'magical.'

Over the past few years however, I have struggled with Ramadan. Along with severe migraine from lack of water, there was also a constant pit in my stomach that felt like something was awfully off- it wasn't until recently that I realised the anxiety was stemming from the 2016 Holey attack in Bangladesh which also took place during Ramadan, and changed so many of our lives forever; the trauma was showing up in my body, while Ramadan was the trigger. 

And this is just me you're hearing. Imagine the many, many stories out there of hundreds of Muslims with legitimate reasons to not feel any kind of joy when it comes to Ramadan. 

But perhaps the worst of the feelings is the one of being judged by so many in our community for not sharing the same joy, or for not being able to fast; this alienated feeling of 'not feeling the spirit' and instead feeling anxious and nervous as Ramadan comes closer from the fear of being labelled as a 'bad Muslim' (God knows I've experienced it).

It is so easy to forget that the month of Ramadan is the month of compassion and love and unity and forgiveness.

This month invites us to show up as our most unconditionally loving versions in all aspects of life; it allows us 30 days to collectively replace toxicity with loving and healthy ways of life. And therein lies the magic of Ramadan, the TRUE spirit. 

This is my first Ramadan post-marriage, and one I am spending thousands of miles away from my husband. It wasn't part of the plan, but it is what it is, and even though it is painful at moments, I choose to see it as a beautiful part of the divine plan.

This is also the first Ramadan where I will be actively setting an intention tonight for the next month: the intention to make the best of Ramadan by honouring every moment for all that it brings, by releasing all limiting beliefs surrounding it due to past experiences that do not serve me going forward, and by treating myself with unconditional love and compassion on the days I cannot do my best. 

If you needed a sign to feel the way you feel about Ramadan, guilt-free, this is it: If Ramadan does not excite you, it's okay. If it makes you anxious, nervous, sad, or anything besides joyous, with or without any reason, IT IS OKAY. Your relationship with Allah and this holy month is a personal one that NO ONE gets to judge.

My wish for you is that you have a peaceful Ramadan, and show up as the loving, compassionate and forgiving human being that we all are at our cores. 

Ramadan Kareem, my loves. ✨❤️ Credits to Dr. Nahla (Insta handle @imdoctornahla) for her instagram posts I posted above. 

[jungcity]

bane of the devil. | ix

genre: romance, fantasy, erotica

pairings: vampire!jaehyun x college!female reader

words: 14k

warning: bane of the devil deals with themes of deaths, physical, mental, and sexual abuse as well as toxic relationships. which may be upsetting for some readers. you are advised not to continue if you feel uncomfortable to these types of plots.

sexual content: fingering, semi-public sex (phew), blowjob, slight degradation(?)

“As it has been said: Love and a cough cannot be concealed. Even a small cough. Even a small love.” — Anne Sexton

Lucas and Eva stepped inside Madame Juana’s chambers. The first thing the two noticed were the navy blue curtains pulled to the side to reveal the gigantic gothic windows that permit a large quantity of light to infiltrate the room. The redolent of burning incense filled their nostrils as they spotted the witch mixing different herbs and colorful vials in a mortar.

“What’s that for?” Eva asked, her right hand resting on her dagger fastened to her waists.

Juana fanned the smoke to her face, inhaling the scent of the potion she was working on. She let the mortar sit near the window, where the sun could glare at it, before facing her two visitors. “For Y/N,” she said.

Eva’s mood began to dwindle. The fight from earlier hasn’t died from her system yet. And the thought of Y/N’s audacity made her temple ticked in annoyance.

Lucas remained standing near the door as he observed Juana’s chamber as if it was his first time beholding the eccentric room.

“I don’t know why, Madame,” Eva began, gathering the full attention of the witch as well as her comrade’s. The hunter stood rigid, chin held up high as she spoke, “Don’t you think I’m much more capable than her in killing Alena?”

Lucas shot up in alarm. Eva had no business discussing the matter with the witch. Juana had strictly commanded the both of them to remain silent about the matter. Especially around Y/N, who has no idea that the hunters knew her reasons for joining the Academy and the mission Juana bestowed upon her.

Juana walks with her hands behind her towards the fireplace. She poured tea in her pint pot before sitting on one of the soft couches, one leg over the other. After sipping from her cup, Juana cleaves her tongue to her upper lip, licking the excess tea.

“Do you think I don’t know that?” the witch asked while raising a perfect brow.

Lucas takes two strides to stand beside Eva. He gently wrapped his hand around her arm, but she wiggled herself free, refusing to lose her composure.

“Eva,” Lucas breathed in warning.

Whatever the hunter has in her mind, it’s better to let it go. No amount of disrespect would be tolerated inside the Academy.

Eva merely glanced his way before focusing her eyes on the sitting witch. “Then why?” she insisted.

Juana refused to look anywhere but at the fireplace. A small fire dances in it, casting a bit of an orange hue to the rather porcelain skin of the witch. Lucas would never understand the need of a fire in this sweltering weather.

Juana snapped her head towards the still-standing hunters. It was something that she didn’t invite them to sit. Then she asked, “Do you know what I’ve promised Diego before he breathed his last?”

Eva exchanged looks with Lucas. Voice laced with utter curiosity, the woman asked, “What?”

Juana smoothed out her skirt. “I won’t let his hunters do my dirty work.”

With that, Eva blinked. Confused and out of focus, she stated the first words that slipped past her lips, “But we were born for that type of life. Alena killed Sicheng—”

“Eva!” Lucas hissed. They were forbidden to speak his name. Now Lucas feels utterly enraged by the woman’s audacity. Juana wouldn’t let this past without ramifications.

“My son.” Juana pinned the words with warning. “Is alive.”

Eva shifted to where she stands, barely noticeable because of her forced confidence. “Yes. But she killed his humanity nonetheless.” She took a step towards the witch. “I want to help you, Juana. Let me avenge your son.”

Lucas would’ve been moved by the determination in Eva’s eyes, if not for her grip on Juana’s hands. This side of her, he didn’t know how to process. He admires her bravery and need for revenge. But it doesn’t sit well with him, and he doesn’t think it will be.

“I made up my mind, Eva. I won’t risk any of your lives. I need you alive.”

The statement ticked something inside Lucas. They are hunters: born and bred to fight off vampires. He knows how to use almost every weapon in the armory. But Y/N… she still has a lot to go, despite of her steadfastness. It took Lucas years to master the hunter life. By his own experience, he doesn’t think three months are enough for Y/N.

“Forgive me but I don’t understand any of this,” Lucas chimed in, garnering the attention of the women. “Eva is right, Juana. She’s more capable than Y/N. Let’s give her that credit. But you still insist to send Y/N off to the ball to kill Alena— the vampire primus in this town— and refuse to vouch on us to accomplish this mission instead.” Lucas’s brows were furrowed all throughout his sentence. “It doesn’t correlate.”

With a certain edge to her voice, Juana countered Lucas almost immediately, “Y/N is a collateral damage. And she needs me.”

“Collateral damage?” Lucas and Eva asked at the same time. But the difference between their tones was staggering: Lucas’s disbelief was evident in his voice, whilst pure mockery laced Eva’s.

“Yes. Collateral damage. She’s nothing but that. And as I’ve said, she needs me.”

Eva smirked. “And you took advantage of her.”

Lucas, on the other hand, didn’t know what to say. Words won’t come out of his mouth.

“Exactly. So let’s end this discussion before I turn you both into frogs,” Juana chuckled.

Eva’s mirthful laugh echoed through the whole room. But Lucas remained unmoving, fisting his hands behind him. This is not right. This is not what I’ve vowed to do.

“Lucas?” Juana called.

Lucas shook his head out of his trance. “Yes?”

“Juana asked if you’d join us to dinner?” Eva pronounced instead.

Dinner? Lucas’s appetite went downhill by the conversation that has transpired inside this room. He doesn’t think he could bite and swallow down food.

He shook his head as he refused. The two women shrugged before Eva linked her arm around Juana’s and guided her out of the room, leaving Lucas with his thoughts.

—

“What happened to your nose?” Rhianon asked as you seated yourself across from her in the cafeteria.

Irritation washed through you by the memory of what happened back in the woods. You would’ve felt better if not for the red tinge which adorned your nose yet again.

“I fought with Eva,” you mumbled while forking the green something on your plate.

“What?!”

Heads turned as Rhianon exclaimed. But she seems unperturbed by the stares as she reaches for your hand over the table. Then she speaks again, “Are you alright? What did she do to you?”

The catfight between you and Eva ended with glares and threats. It’s painful to recall, yet you don’t think you will forget it any time sooner.

After the fight, you anticipated a summon from Madame. But as the day continued on, you failed to see her and vice versa.

Unsurprisingly, Eva taunted you as you sparred with Lucas. Every now and then, she would tell how weak your stance was, or how frail your bones were. Lucas encouraged you to ignore her as best you could. But when she hit the back of your leg with her stick, you stood up and faced her. The both of your faces were mere inches away as you sized each other up. If Eva moved an inch then, you would’ve slapped the teeth off her gums. Lucas held her firmly and guided her away towards somewhere you couldn’t be bothered to ask before she could attack you.

“She just taunted me.” You shrugged. As if the fight didn’t leave a hollow feeling inside your chest. You would be lying if you’d truly shrug it off and tell everyone that it was only a part of your training and Eva must’ve been acting earlier for additional emotions. But it wasn’t. She was truly irritated with you.

Rhianon sighed, “It’s not the first time she’d done that.”

The statement piqued your interest. You looked up to see a frowning Rhianon. “What do you mean?”

“I mean… that’s what she did to me in my first day of training. I couldn’t show it to you through this uniform but I’ve attained a keloid here…” She twisted her arms a little to show the location of her keloid right in her biceps, “...when we sparred using daggers.”

“Using daggers?” You gasped in disbelief. First day of training… and with daggers?

“Yeah. Before entering the Academy, they would ask you about your skills. I told them my expertise was using daggers—” A pause, then her eyebrows knitted. “Did they not ask you about your skill?”

You blinked and slumped back to your seat. “I— they didn’t.” You wanted to tell her how you got in the Academy without the process of being ask in any interviews about your skills and whatnot. But the small, scared part of you refused to sound privileged to Rhianon.

“Well, that’s a first,” she commented, “They would normally ask about your skill in weapons before you could enroll. And if you don’t have any, they would advise you to return once you’ve mastered at least one weapon.” Then she chewed up the leafy vegetables with a scowl.

“I’ve never heard of that,” you admitted.

Rhianon did her best to hide her surprise, but you have already seen the glint of it through her eyes. It made you feel odd. All of the students who enrolled here had gone through thorough trainings on their own before entering the Academy. Do they know that you didn’t go through the same hardship? Is that why they look at you as if they are disgusted by your weakness?

“I… think that’s alright? I mean, Eva went easy on you because of that.” Rhianon once again reached for your hand and squeezed. “Don’t fret, Y/N. I know to myself that you’re going to be an adroit hunter.”

Yes, you believe that too. But all of the trainings you would go through would be for naught if until the ball you’d remain inadequate.

A vampire almost killed you. A hunter vowed to hurt you. And there’s a witch who’s withholding information from you.

In the vast expanse of this Academy, you only have three people you could trust. Two of them, you are still hesitant to confide in. That leaves you to one person only.

Jaehyun.

—

Jaehyun decided to return to his own room after the tenuous scene back in the woods. One hunter was more than enough for him to bear. Two would be the death of him. Albeit he’s half-dead already.

He must admit that you made him proud earlier. And he didn’t anticipate such fire in your heart and grace in your movements. If you’d continue to take your training by the heart, you’d absolutely chop off every vampire’s head without sweating.

The thought bothers Jaehyun until now. One way or another, you would he his enemy. And if you declined to be his enemy, you would be his prey. Being a hunter gives you some perks as a human being. As a hunter, you are still vulnerable to vampire attacks, but you would have a chance of surviving. Whilst being a human, the ordinary human, you’d remain ajar and weak for any vampire to prey on. Jaehyun forces himself to think that it’s for your best. But the pathetic part of him wants to drag you out of this Academy. Right now.

Both of you didn’t start off as friends. Hell, who, in their right minds, would offer friendship to someone who bled his stomach out on your doorstep and admits that he was a vampire on your first encounter? Despite of that fact, Jaehyun still couldn’t grasp the idea of you, killing his compeers.

However, why the fuck does he care? It’s your life. You could do anything with it. And it wasn’t as if he couldn’t protect himself from you.

On his way to his own chamber, Jaehyun drew in a halt upon noticing that Juana’s door was slightly ajar. Everything went louder as Jaehyun intensified his sense of hearing: the muffled chatterings of students from afar, the birds singing as they perched on a tree, the crackling of fire in Juana’s fireplace… and the conversation between her and her two hunters.

Someone’s forgetting that there’s a vampire prowling this Academy’s vicinity.

For a moment, Jaehyun debated whether to listen to his own room that was across from Juana. But he couldn’t risk being spotted. Over the years, the hunters have developed a keen sense of hearing. Courtesy of Juana’s magic, no doubt.

The hallway provided no space for Jaehyun to hide as it was in a straight line. He had no choice but to press himself to the wall. Exactly three meters away from Juana’s door.

Lucas’s voice had a crisp edge to it because of Jaehyun’s vampire hearing. “Eva is right, Juana. She’s more capable than Y/N. Let’s give her that credit. But you still insist to send Y/N off to the ball to kill Alena— the vampire primus in this town— and refuse to vouch on us to accomplish this mission instead.”

Jaehyun’s jaw clenched by the mention of Alena’s name. Once, he had worshipped that name. No more.

Mixed feelings swirled up inside Jaehyun by Lucas’s statement. He was right. Jaehyun has been wondering about how it doesn’t make any sense either. Y/N has the spirit, but she won’t stand a chance against a vampire primus if she’d only train for two or three months.

Jaehyun hates Lucas. But he must admit that he does have a point.

“It doesn’t correlate,” Lucas added.

Jaehyun then heard Juana’s sultry voice. “Y/N is a collateral damage. And she needs me.”

For a moment, and despite his sharp sense of hearing, Jaehyun doubted the words he heard. Y/N… a collateral damage? How could someone say that as if a person’s life is nothing but a toy you’d be so willing to throw once it served you enough entertainment?

“Collateral damage?” The two hunters asked. Lucas was appalled. Yet Eva didn’t share the same reaction. She was curious. Curious and mocking.

Red suddenly filled Jaehyun’s vision. The silhouette of gothic windows became a darker shade of crimson. Everywhere he looked, red dominated. It took Jaehyun all his willpower not to barge inside and snap Juana and Eva’s necks.

“Yes. Collateral damage. She’s nothing but that. And as I’ve said, she needs me.” Juana spoke as if she was talking about a fly and not a person.

Jaehyun tried to close his eyes to get rid of his red visions. But the anger inside him refused to subside. He walked towards the door with the grace of a panther, but before he could push open the wood, a force pulled him away. He took a step back to his own accord. No. Jaehyun won’t be able to protect you if he’s going to murder the women behind this huge door.

He pivoted on his heels and grabbed his doorknob instead. Without making any sound, Jaehyun entered his chamber. Dark brown once again coated his pupils as he shut the door behind him.

Heavy and velvet curtains refused to allow any light from infiltrating Jaehyun’s chambers. At least, that bitch witch had the notion that she was catering to a vampire.

What a fucking joke, Jaehyun mumbled. If you are a five-hundred year old witch or a veteran vampire hunter, you’d be careful to converse— even in the comforts of your chamber— to anyone about your wicked plans using your imbecilic minds especially when there’s literally a vampire on the loose.

Jaehyun had given enough credit for the students and hunters in this Academy that he’d forgotten how vapid their likes could be.

What now? he asked himself as he let his back fall to his mattress, his arm propped up on his forehead.

He’d been right all along. Juana is indeed hiding something from Y/N. Jaehyun’s head was full of scattered plans but his fury remained undeterred. He needs to plan something— anything. If it was his life on the line, he wouldn’t think twice about killing the witch and that hunter Eva. But it’s you. And somehow, that makes it more frustrating.

You need this. For your murdered parents. You have been waiting for this chance all your life. Jaehyun would kill himself before ruining this opportunity for you. If he could only do something about Hubert, to make him fucking talk, Jaehyun knows that he would go to the ends of the world to do it— for you.

And when did he start thinking this way? When did his chest start aching by the sight of you? As if you are the one star in his rather dark skies, and that he couldn’t reach you no matter hard he tries.  

Jaehyun bolted upright as swiftly as a cat, then ran a hand through his hair. He wouldn’t be able to think straight if he keeps thinking about you. With a frown, Jaehyun grabbed his cigarette pack on his drawer and lit one. Blowing smoke from his mouth, Jaehyun sat back on one of the soft couches and started to dwell in his other thoughts instead.

—

The day had worn you out to frazzle that all you could think about was to lay on your bed and get cozy in the sheets. Drying your hair with a towel, you walked and sat on your mattress, while Rhianon once again focused herself on reading her Book of Enchantments and Magic.

The golden embossing of the title against the velvety crimson cover never failed to entice you. You weren’t one for magic, but by the luring looks of the cover, you wanted to ask Rhianon about the words written on it.

“What’s your favorite enchantment, Rhianon?” you asked out-of-the-blue.

She seemed surprised by your question that she accidentally closed the book all of a sudden. “Oh, I… well… this might freak you out— but I like the enchantment where you could put back a missing part of a person’s body.”

Something inside you clicked. But you couldn’t put a finger to what it was. You furrowed your brows in scrutiny. “That’s so cool. Have you ever tried it?”

Rhianon sighed, “Uh… no. They said it is reckless. Especially when the person is already dead.” Then her face lit up as she looked at you. “But I wanna try it someday. You know… just to see the extent of my abilities.”

“Your abilities?” you asked. What abilities?

Rhianon blinked, clearly surprised by her own sentence.

Uncertainty creeped up in your chest. You weren’t dumb to wave off her statement. There is something she’s not telling you. Gods, is everyone in this Academy has their own secrets that they don’t tell anyone?

“I… I mean— oh! There’s someone knocking!” She threw the book to her bed before standing and bolting towards the door.

You stared at her back, your own thoughts suddenly disheveled. Then her little squeal broke you out from your trance.

“Your vampire boy’s here!” she exclaimed, opening the door wider for you to see Jaehyun standing on the doorway.

Your chest started to shrink on its own by the sight of him. Suddenly, you felt as if you were back in the woods and sparing with Jaehyun again. His unearthly scent weaving its way through your nostrils as if it left a permanent mark in there because of the proximity you shared with each other earlier.

“Uh, Y/N? He’s waiting?” Rhianon voiced out while nervously looking at the standing vampire.

“Oh, yes,” you mirthlessly chuckled. Pinching your arm to get a grip of your thoughts, you sauntered up to the door to face the leaning vampire on the doorframe.

You shot up a brow. “What are you doing here?”

“What’s with that expression?” He reached out to tangle the edges of your hair with his fingers. “Didn’t you miss me?”

Rhianon let out a suppressed scream behind you. You turned to face and glare at her. She straightened before scurrying back to her own bed.

Jaehyun was still playing with your hair when you swatted his hand away with a frown. “I told you, boys aren’t allowed here,” you said with a sigh.

“Let’s not pretend that you’re not enthralled to see me here.”

“I am not.”

Jaehyun grinned before wrapping his hand around your wrist gently. “Liar,” he said before pressing a kiss on the top of your head.

Heat crept up to your cheeks, you were glad for the darkness as it had successfully hidden your crimson cheek. With a last look at the reading Rhianon, you closed the door behind you.

You cleared your throat. “Okay, what’s this?”

“We’re going to train,” he simply stated. As if the moon wasn’t on its full glory in the heavens, and as if the students’ curfew won’t ring anytime sooner.

“Jaehyun,” you sighed, coaxing whatever patience you have inside you, “It’s nine p.m., please let me rest.”

“Do you want to be the greatest hunter of all?” he asked while wiggling his brows. His current expression has extremely juxtaposed his aura, that you would’ve chuckled if not for the fatigue sticking to your bones.

You deadpanned, “To be honest? I don’t. I just went here in hopes that I could—”

“Do you want to learn how to punch Eva straight in her—”

“Yes.”

Jaehyun chuckled, “That’s my girl.” Jaehyun took advantage of your astonished and blushing face and successfully guided you towards the railings. He leaned closer to your ear, arm still wrapped around you. “First lesson, learn how to jump.”

By looking at the ground below you, you wiggled yourself free from his grasp. “Are you nuts?”

Once again, a deep throaty chuckle resonated with him. “I’m kidding, of course. Just ride me— I mean, ride on my back.”

Ride me. You weren’t so sure if you’d survive this night without your lungs giving out.

“Don’t act so surprised, Y/N. There’s a process to that.”

“To what?”

“To ride me.”

“You’re disgusting.” You turned on your heel and walked away. But Jaehyun grabbed your arm once again.

“Please, kitten, don’t blush.” Jaehyun quickly placed her arm on your back, while his other scooped you up in a bridal style.

“What—! Jaehyun! Let me go!”

He shook his head, “I don’t think I could do that.”

You have no idea how he did it while carrying you, but Jaehyun had managed to climb on the cemented railings. You craned your neck and saw the strands of his hair brushing the roof of the floor.

Without any warnings, Jaehyun jumped. You wrapped your arms around his neck while screwing your eyes shut. The scream forced its way to your throat, but you refused to make any sound and have Jaehyun to tease you after you land.

It took him seconds to land on the hard ground. His body bounced slightly by the impact of his toes on the earth. Then he guided you to stand up on your feet.

Catching a gulp of air for your decrepit lungs, you slapped Jaehyun’s arm. “What was that?” you gasped.

Jaehyun rubbed his chest with a painful expression. “Damn, you are strong.”

You snorted, “Why are we here? I swear Jaehyun, if the guards see us, I’m gonna kill you.”

Jaehyun walked in front of you, purposely waving his hands for more dramatics. “As I’ve said, we’re here to practice your legs and your emotions.”

“Emotions and… legs?” you dubiously asked. “This is not what I am thinking, right?”

His playful façade swiftly turned into that of a predator as he stared at your face. “Why? What are you thinking?”

Jaehyun’s face was clouded in darkness as he stood under the moon. All his ludic emotions vanished instantly, replaced by the mystery that was inside his bones until kingdom comes.

You were reminded then that you wouldn’t understand Jaehyun no matter how hard you try. Both of you are different creatures pretending to co-exist in a cruel world. A world that forbids intimacy between a human and a vampire.

“Torture,” you answered with a nervous chuckle. “I meant you could torture my emotions and my legs, you know.”

“Why would I torture you?” he rasped. Little emotions adorned his voice. It was almost indecipherable, but it was there.

“I was just kidding! Let’s get this over with now, shall we?” You started to walk ahead of him. Agitation filled your chest without any reason at all. Jaehyun silently trailed behind you, until you reached the edge of the woods.

Crickets sang in the darkness. And the hooting owls were obscured by the lush fronds of trees. A shiver ran through you as the crisp wind caressed your body. It whispered to the branches, making them bend and elicit sounds as if they were snapping.

“Alright,” Jaehyun spoke behind you. “When I tell you to run, run as fast as you can Y/N.”

“What do you—” Your voice was cut off by the animalistic snarl he echoed. You pivoted on your heel to witness Jaehyun as he elongated his fangs, the red tinge on his pupils stark against the night. Like the embers of a cigarette.

“Run.”

With your heart in your throat, you whirled and ran towards the woods and into its danger. As the fallen branches snapped underneath your feet, you chanced a look at Jaehyun. His stature was turning smaller as you ran farther away from him. But he remained standing there, watching you disappear into the maze of trees.

All of a sudden, Jaehyun ran towards you. Your eyes widened in mortification. You could hear your heart pounding in your chest as you run and run deeper into the heart of the forest. The thought of a vampire chasing you kindled your adrenaline. It forced out a strength from your legs you didn’t know you possessed.

Jaehyun was near. You could feel him. Perspiration drenched your clothes. The fear inside your chest is raging like a wild animal. As the sweats dripped down your lashes, blurring your line of sight, you failed to notice the rock protruding from the ground. You hit its hard surface with your toes then you went tumbling down the earth.

For three times, your body rolled off the soil. You only closed your eyes, waiting for something to hit your head and kill you afterwards. But all you could feel was the dust and the dried leaves sticking to your sweaty skin.

“Oh, fuck,” you cried. Literal tears streamed down your face as you felt the defeat and the aching of your bones.

You remained lying on the ground while covering your face with your palms. You failed to see Jaehyun as he crouched beside you.

“Get up,” he said while nudging your shoulders.

That simple gesture was enough to irate you. You sat up despite the pain in your bones and glared at Jaehyun. “What was that for?” you sniffed.

“I needed to see if you could outrun a vampire,” he explained. He stood up and offered you a hand. You gave it a hard look before standing up on your own.

“That’s madness, Jaehyun.” And I was so scared, you wanted to add. But the stubborn part of you refused to acknowledge that. You had enough of Eva reminding you the same thing for hours, you didn’t need any reminder now.

“To you. But if you’re running for your life, and there’s a vampire trailing behind you, what would you do? Would you stumble on your feet and cry on the ground like what you did just now?”

You padded the dusty part of your skin and clothes. The dust from the ground has turned muddy already. It took all your willpower not to dash Jaehyun’s head because of it. You shouldn’t have said yes to this folly.

While watching you as you dust off yourself, Jaehyun added, “And you’re scared.”

“I am not,” you lied.

“You are. I could still taste your fear in the air.”

You rolled your eyes in exasperation. “Whatever. I want to go back.” Your statement was followed by a hiss, as you felt a sharp pain on your elbow. You folded your arms to see a large scrape of wound on the skin.

Jaehyun took your arm softly, while he reached for his back pocket to reveal a kerchief. In all his hard edges, you didn’t expect the softness of the way he dabbed the fabric to clean your skin around the wound. “Alright, I’m sorry for this. I shouldn’t have scared you like that.”

Your heart did its unusual thudding as you stared at his face while he leaned closer to inspect your wound. His pallid features was illuminated by the moonlight, making him more eccentric than he already was. The blood pigment of his lips was ever the only color in his rather dead-looking face. But how is he so beautiful being half-dead like that?

You immediately looked away when Jaehyun looked up to you.

“I have something to tell you,” he said.

Trepidation quickly settled in your chest like a boulder. “What is it?”

Jaehyun kept the kerchief to his back pocket before guiding the small of your back towards a clearing. You have a hard time seeing the path now that your nerves had calmed down. Then you saw it. It was a space of green bermuda grass at the other side of the woods. It provides enough privacy and tranquility to whatever Jaehyun has in his pockets to say to you.

Unfortunately, there were no stars twinkling in the skies when you looked up. Only the moon and the thick clouds could be seen in the heavens.

“It’s about the witch, and her hunters,” he began as he sat on the grass.

You did the same. “What about them?”

“I heard them talking earlier. About you.”

“What did they say about me?”

He gave you a look that pierced right to your soul. “She has no plans to help you, Y/N. To really help you. She thinks of you as a collateral damage.” Then he furrowed his brows. “Have you told anyone of your true intentions for joining this Academy?”

Your throat suddenly felt dry. “Lucas and Madame knows, of course.”

Jaehyun cursed as he ran a hand through his face. “I should’ve— fuck— she knows, then. Eva.”

How did she know? No, it was obvious who told her. But why would Madame tell her about it? When it was confidentially between you, Lucas, Jaehyun, and her only?

“That’s why she’s bitching. She knows she’s better and more capable than me,” you scorned, “And what about the collateral damage?”

“Eva wanted to finish the job for herself. But Juana refused and told her she needed Eva alive.”

You frowned. “But she’s willing to sacrifice my life.” You couldn’t believe it. There wasn’t a trace of sadness in you. Somehow, you have anticipated for this to happen ever since Jaehyun talked to you yesternight. Oh, how easily things are lining up. “They don’t believe in me,” you stated through clenched jaw.

You feel more insulted than hurt. What are you? What does your life means to them? Not because they are witches and hunters doesn’t mean your life is worthless than theirs.

You let out a deep breath, “We need plan B.”

“The plan B is that I’m getting you out of here, Y/N,” Jaehyun stated with a spirit that blew you out of proportion.

As much as the offer was enticing, you couldn’t will yourself to assent. “No.”

Jaehyun quirked a brow. “No?”

“No. I’m not leaving.”

Jaehyun worked his jaw then he moved his body closer to yours. “Listen, Y/N, those fuckers think of you as a bait. No more, no less. I’ve heard them myself—”

You reached for his hands. “I need to train myself.”

“I could teach you. You know I’m better than most of them anyways.”

By that, you chuckled, “Yes. But I need Juana’s protection.”

“Thank fuck I could protect you myself,” he countered.

You hated to say it, you truly do. But if you don’t, Jaehyun would only insist on getting you out of the Academy. “Not from Alena,” you smiled bitterly.

Realization dawned on Jaehyun’s face. His determined expression turned lax. But he knows it, too. However hell-bent he could be on protecting you from anyone else, he won’t be able to guard you against the vampire primus who turned him. He is a vampire now. And he must abide to their law if he doesn’t wish to be dead.

You tightened your grip on his hands. “But it’s alright. I understand. I truly do.” Blowing out a shuddering breath, you chuckled tonelessly, “Just… let me do this. This is the only way.”

Jaehyun’s hand strayed to your cheek. The intimacy of his touch blurring all your senses. “Alright. I know you’re doing this for your parents. In the meantime, we’ll pretend that we know nothing. We’ll find a way to make Hubert talk.”

You heedlessly leaned in to his touch. His hand was cold, but it warmed your body nonetheless. Gods, since when did your body started reacting this way around Jaehyun? “You said… Hubert has no tongue…” you began. Jaehyun nodded. “Where is his tongue, then?”

Jaehyun’s hand fell to his side as he let the memories swept his focus on the real world. “Well, there is a rumor going on back then. That he purposely cut his tongue out. But I don’t believe it. I think someone cut it to withhold anyone from knowing informations from Hubert.”

“Wait… so, let’s say someone cut off his tongue. How could Juana make him talk, then?”

“Through magic, perhaps. Or…” Jaehyun’s lips turned into a frown, “She could put his tongue back.”

She could put his tongue back. You furrowed your brows. You were certain that you have heard about body parts being put together by an enchantment— Rhianon!

As if a thousand ants crawled to your back as you shivered at the realization. Your eyes widen, then you took Jaehyun’s face with your hands. “I— my roommate! Jaehyun, she knows how to do that!”

Jaehyun’s face didn’t share the same excitement. “Only witches could do that, Y/N. Are you saying that your roommate is a witch?”

Your body felt leaden as you leaned back, losing your hold on his face. “No. She… she’s just really interested in magic. But perhaps she could help?”

“If the both of you are willing. You said you don’t want anyone else knowing your true reasons for coming here.”

A heavy sigh. “Yes. And I don’t think I could trust her just yet.”

This time, it’s Jaehyun who took your face with his hands as he searched for your eyes. “C’mon, don’t frown. We’ll find a way. Together.”

The rawness of his emotions moved you. It’s unbelievable to think that the same man who stood bloodied on your doorstep currently looks at you like that. You could almost tell the stories hidden underneath his eyes by how bold he lays himself tonight with you.

“Reading faces?” you chuckled to ease the swirling of your stomach.

Jaehyun didn’t let go of your face as he spoke, “Only yours.” Then his eyes cascaded down your lips.

Vampires do not breathe. So you didn’t feel his breath before his lips collided with yours. You let your eyes fall shut as you kissed him back. This isn’t your first kiss. But everytime his lips would touch yours, the feeling of being kissed for the first time always washes through you. It’s always anew. As if something didn’t want you to get used to it.

Jaehyun’s lips moved with ease against yours. As if he has already memorized the plains and bumps of your lips. He kisses you as if he has been doing it all his life. His tongue slid inside your mouth, tasting the crevices of the flesh inside.

Under the moon, the both of you fought for dominance. The wind billowed, sweeping a cold touch to the burning kiss you shared. Yet no amount of distraction could stop Jaehyun from tasting you.

You would destroy him, and he would let you.

To hell with the ramifications. And to hell with the forbidden love this intimacy would bear. Not even the death that reeks inside him could stop him from wanting you.

Jaehyun’s hands strayed inside your clothes. His every touch burns your skin, leaving your teat tingling and puckering. As if he could feel the desire between the both of you, he easily unhooked your bra and caught your right breast with his left hand.

Jaehyun circled your teat with his thumb, earning a gasp from you against the kiss. He chuckled before trailing kisses down your jaw, all while playing with the hardened teat.

A slick and thick liquid threatens to slide from your sex by his penetration. As if his vampire instinct could sense every bit of arousal from your body, Jaehyun leaned in to your ear and spoke, “Is that for me?”

You groaned. It was silly, because it was obvious. But the desire you were feeling couldn’t help but double by the question.

Tonight, he would own you. And you would let him.

He laid you down the soppy grass, his lips never leaving yours, his hands still leaving permanent marks in your soul.

Jaehyun, with both his swiftness and strength, he had managed to pull down your pajamas to your knees, revealing the lace underwear you were wearing.

You should cover yourself again. You should put an end to this folly. You should cut the feelings before it could bloom into something you won’t be able to control. But as the chill of the night crawled to your exposed skin, you let Jaehyun marvel at your body.

Jaehyun pulled away, then he slowly opened his eyes. Whatever blood he has in his body, they crept up in his lips as it turned swollen.

Your body was lucid and blurry from the desire. However, you refused to pounce on him like a wild animal. Somehow, you wanted to taste every bit of the moment.

His own desire mirrored in his eyes. Without any warning, Jaehyun swiftly pulled your underwear to the side and plunged a finger inside you. The gasp you emitted was too breathy, for a moment you were afraid for your lungs.

Carnality dances in his eyes as he slowly moves his fingers inside you. Your slickness is undeniable because of his penetration.

You shut your eyes. “Jaehyun.”

His hand rested above your head while he caressed strands of your hair. “Open your eyes and look at me,” he commanded. The virility of his voice made you open your eyes, so languidly as if to taunt his arousal even more.

You tried to hold his stare as he curled his fingers and deepened his reach. As if he wants to acquire something inside your flesh. Your stomach caved in as his fingers went faster. You writhe and you thrash when he pressed his thumb on your clitoris. A wave of signals tighten your lower abdomen, your arousal screaming for release.

He plunged his finger deeper, all while circulating your clitoris with his thumb. Jaehyun curled his finger inside you. “Jae— Jaehyun!” you whined against the woods behind you, and the stretch of grass in front. There were no stars in the skies, but you were certain you saw white lights bursting as you felt the climax washing through you like some sort of a wave.

Satisfaction was in the eyes of the vampire as your body went lax on the grass. He trailed open-mouthed kisses around your cheek and the sides of your face.

“Let’s stand up,” he offered.

A different person replaced you as your forehead creased in confusion. “We’re not… we’re not doing it?”

If he could blink from astonishment, he would.  What did you just say? Crimson painted your cheeks as his face softened. “Do you want us to?”

The wanting overcame all your senses. And you found out that you really do want to do it with him. As your clitoris once again pulsated from the notion, you nodded sheepishly. “Yes,” you breathed.

A tinge of red flashed in his eyes then it was gone in an instant as he shuffled his pants off. The reality of being in an open field, half-naked and waiting for a vampire to fuck you senseless somewhat obliterated the humanness inside you. You reached for Jaehyun as he lined himself up to your entrance and gave him a sloppy kiss. The head of his length touched your inner thighs, you jolted through the kiss from the contact.

A throaty laugh echoed through him as he lined himself once again to enter your sex. Jaehyun pulled away, an inch from your face. “How do you wanna be fucked?”

Your breath hitched as the desire drove a velvety punch in your gut. “Hard,” you answered. Jaehyun made a noise, somewhat between a groan and a guttural sound, before he entered you with smoothness and with ease.

Both of your mouths turned into o’s by the friction. Jaehyun placed your legs on his shoulder as he began to thrust in and out of you slowly.

“What… what is it?” you asked as you noticed the way his brows were furrowed.

Jaehyun looked at your eyes while he tried to thrust deeper. “You… fuck, you’re so tight.” Your mouth opened up to say something, but Jaehyun moved his hips to fully own your sex. Instead of a word, a cry sounded from you as he hit something sensitive inside.

It was indeed an uncomfortable position: with your pajama covering his lips. But Jaehyun tolerated no distraction as he mercilessly moved his hips in and out of your sex. You fisted a handful of grass with your palms, nails grating on the soil. Gods, you wanted to shout.

You bounced as Jaehyun continued to fuck you, balls-deep against the grass. His own throat emanating throaty moans, which added to the climax building up to your abdomen.

The night was unforgiving. So is he.

His pupils dilated, then it turned red as he pulled his length from your sex and spilled all his semen on your stomach. The warm liquid soaked your thin t-shirt, sticking to the fabric like a thick wax of white substance.

Jaehyun forced his mind to think again. But he was shrouded with absolute pleasure upon seeing how your clothes sipped his semen.

You did it. With him. Under the moon. And on the stretch of grass as far as the eyes could see.

You were only a girl, in a little town, with your scattered dreams and unrealistic goal in life. But tonight, you had sex with a vampire. You didn’t know how to process such mind-sweeping reality.

Jaehyun took care of you. He gently helped you put on your undergarments before he settled himself. After a few minutes of steadying the rhythm of your heart, with Jaehyun placing back the strands of hair behind your ear, you sat on the grass in silence.

“What do you feel?” you decided to ask.

Jaehyun is a vampire, yes. But he had been human once. You didn’t want to presume anything about his human life before, but with that kind of beauty for sure comes a great deal of girls behind him. He certainly knew how to please you, how to make sure he owned every inch of you. And that’s not something a beginner knows how to do.

“That was amazing,” he grinned. “It’s not something I’ve ever felt before.”

Without asking the question, he already knew the answer. A small and proud part of you wanted to know whether being with you, and being inside you illuminated something new to him. And it’s fulfilling to know that you did.

“But I am wondering,” he chuckled lowly, “I don’t know if this is my arousal getting a hold of all my vampire instincts, but, I couldn’t read your mind.”

The world stilled. And you have found out that you couldn’t answer. The dryness of your throat intensified.

“I…” you stutter.

Jaehyun raised a brow. “You, what?”

“I… I told Madame to block you off from infiltrating my mind.” Then you bit your lower lip in shame. You shouldn’t feel this way, right? It’s only right to take precautions. And he was not allowed to read your thoughts.

Jaehyun’s face grew vacant but it spoke volumes to you. “Don’t you trust me enough for your thoughts?”

You quickly waved your hand in defense. “No, it’s not like that— I just don’t want you to invade my mind.”

His expression remained eerie and impassive as he looked at you. “I didn’t invade your mind, Y/N. Not once.”

What? You knitted your brows. “But… what about the times—”

“Your thoughts were too loud. I heard them as if you were speaking to me with your own voice. Never once did I infiltrate your privacy and forced my way to your head.” He stood up and padded his breaches. “Come, let’s get you back to your room.”

Unable to process words, you remained sitting. The warmth from the intercourse you shared was now replaced by the coldness. But the wind didn’t provide such cold. It was in you, from you.

“Jaehyun,” you called out to him. But he didn’t turn as he entered the woods.

—

Rhianon turned the page of her book, but she found out that she couldn’t process the words printed out on the parchment. The memory of you as you carefully inquired questions and with Rhianon almost spilling her true self failed to vanished in her mind.

She still didn’t know your intention for being here in this Academy, but she would, soon. She needed to know if you could be trusted. She needs to make sure that you are not one of Juana’s tentacles.

She fastened the book shut as three knocks resonated from the door. Glancing at the wallclock hanging on your side of the wall that read as eleven fifteen p.m., she sauntered up to the door.

She veered the doorknob and swung the door widely. “Welcome bac—” Rhianon’s words died as she took in the face of the man in front of him. Tears easily seared the back of her eyes as she jumped and hugged the man. “Sicheng!”

Sicheng chuckled and hugged her back. “How are you?” he asked in her hair.

Rhianon pulled away and wiped the tears from her cheeks before answering, “Worse.”

“Let’s get inside,” Sicheng stated while looking at his left and right.

They both entered the room. Then Sicheng halted as he saw the other bed as pillows and blanket occupied it. “Who’s with you?”

“She’s not here,” Rhianon sniffed.

“Juana gave you a roommate?” Sicheng raised a brow as Rhianon led him towards her own bed.

Rhianon shrugged. “Still asking myself why. But why are you here? It’s dangerous.”

“Alena—” Sicheng chuckled by the look Rhianon gave her, but he continued on, “She commanded me to find someone. And I’ve decided to start here so I could visit you. How have you been?”

She knew not to ask about the mission. Sicheng would tell her nothing. Rhianon slumped herself back on her bed, while Sicheng sat beside her. “I don’t know. Juana still refused teach me anything.”

By her statement, Sicheng’s own expression hardened. Rhianon never fails to be astounded by the pale features of the man beside her. It’s been years— too many years— but the bleached face of Sicheng and his too-red lips still leaves her in wonder. Why do vampires look like that?

“You know why,” Sicheng answered.

Rhianon frowned. “Enough talking about me—”

“We didn’t even talk about you, Rhi,” Sicheng deadpanned. “Tell me about your roommate.”

Rhianon gathered her forgotten book on the mattress and played with its embossing while thinking of proper words to answer. “Well, she’s kind and nice. But I’m still skeptical about her. I’ve been alone in this room for years— then Juana barged in and told me to clean up because apparently, there’s someone coming.”

“It’s only right for you to be skeptical. Be wary of Juana and her plans. You know how cunning that woman could be.”

Rhianon punched Sicheng’s arm lightly. “You talk as if she’s not your mother.”

Impassiveness laced Sicheng’s following words, “She’s not. Tell me, does she still insist to avenge me?”

The woman sighed, “I think so.”

Sicheng let out a curse. “You must talk and tell her to fuck off already.”

“And be casted out from here? I don’t think so,” Rhianon snorted. “I need her guidance to become a witch.”

“You are a witch. You inherited her blood.”

Rhianon knew that if she spoke the same words to Sicheng, he would only brush it off like it was some kind of a dirty statement he wished not to hear again. But for Sicheng to say that to Rhianon, it was… heart-warming.  

“I am. But I know next to nothing. I have never even casted a spell yet.”

Sicheng reached out and took her hand. “I believe in you. You know that, right?”

Rhianon breathed. It’s been a while since she heard those words. When it comes to boosting her spirit, Sicheng remained unparalleled. “I know. And I think you’re the only one who does.”

“As long as I live, I will vouch for you.” Sicheng suddenly shifted, as if the air whispered on his vampiric ears. Rhianon sat upright, suddenly nervous of what did the man pick up. “Someone’s coming,” he hissed.

“Oh my, it’s my roommate.” She bolted to her feet, Sicheng copying her movement.

“I must go,” he pronounced, “While they’re still climbing the stairs.”

“Alright, come,” Rhianon stated as she pulled Sicheng’s wrist towards the door. “You could sprint away from here since you’re a vampire.”

Sicheng opened the door and pressed his lips to Rhianon’s head. “Take care of yourself. I’ll visit whenever I can.”

Rhianon nodded. “I will. You too, brother.”

When she blinked, Sicheng was gone.

—

Silence dominated the walk back to the dorms. Jaehyun was four paces ahead of you, and you didn’t bother to run after him. If he needed time to think, you would give it to him.

But you must admit, how things went downhill in the blink of an eye left a painful throbbing in your heart. Mere minutes ago, you were making love with him. And now both of you act as if you didn’t know each other’s name. Somehow, it had leached your bones to utter exhaustion.

You didn’t even notice that you were already climbing the stairs up to your room when you almost tripped over one of the steps. Gripping the railings tight, while your heart jumped in your chest, you glanced at Jaehyun who was already on his way to the fourth stair. Stubbornness made its way to your brain, whispering things such as: Why is he angry? It’s just right to block someone from infiltrating your mind. It’s called privacy! But you must also admit that you’d feel and act the same if you were on his shoes.

You stood straight and walked with forced dignity until you reached your doorstep. “Thank you, for tonight—”

But he already pressed his palm on the cemented railings and jumped.

So frustrating! You tugged on your hair before entering your room. Rhianon was splayed on her bed and snoring loudly when you entered. You shook your head while chuckling lightly, guessing that the question you have for her could wait until tomorrow.

A sigh went past your lips as you felt the tiredness seeping in your system. You badly wanted to sleep. But the sweat and the scent of sex still lingers on your skin. You turned on your heel and decided to shower instead.

As the cool water cascaded down your body, you couldn’t help but blush as you remembered Jaehyun’s hands. The way he kissed your lips, and the way he played with your teat. The memory made your clitoris throb in arousal.

Underneath his touch, you felt powerful. Like there wasn’t anything in this world who could take the power from you. He made you feel something— someone who isn’t exactly you. You gripped both your breasts as you felt the phantom of his hard length pushing in inside you. And you weren’t certain whether the liquid that has cascaded down your legs was from the shower or your sex.

“Fuck,” you muttered as you shook your body like a dog that has emerged from the water. This is weird, you whispered.

Jaehyun is a vampire. You are a human. There isn’t a happy ending to this story. But why do you dare to think that there might be?

—

Jaehyun couldn’t take it anymore. The reek of this vampire trailing behind him was too much for his sensitive sense of smell. So he snapped his head towards the shadow and bared his fangs. “Show yourself, boy.”

From the shadows emerged someone Jaehyun had learned how to trust when he became a vampire. “Sicheng? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you too, Jung.” The other vampire saluted lightly, before reaching out his hand to Jaehyun. The latter took his hand and then clapped his back. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Jaehyun kept his hands to his pockets. “Me, neither. Why are you here?”

“Alena sent me to find you.”

Jaehyun turned his back towards his friend. He never wanted to hear that name, now that his irritation could reach the roof of this Academy. “Tell her to fuck off.”

Sicheng snorted, but he trailed behind his friend nonetheless. “Why are you here?”

Jaehyun shrugged, as if the answer to that question could be spotted in his body language alone. “Protecting someone here.”

“Protecting?” Sicheng dubiously asked, “A hunter?”

“Get it over with, Sicheng. What do you want?” Jaehyun whirled on his comrade again when they reached the pathway through the building where his bedroom was located.

“She wants you to escort her to the coming ball. You know how it is. Everyone knows you’re engaged.”

He worked his jaw before placing a hand on Sicheng’s shoulder. “I’m not marrying her. So for the last time, tell her to fuck off because I don’t want the marriage.” Then he turned on his heel, but before he could walk away, Sicheng voiced out something which drew Jaehyun in a halt.

“I could smell her in you, Jung.”

Jaehyun felt his muscles tensed. Without facing his friend, he asked, “Who?”

“A girl. She’s here. As much as I want to, you know I couldn’t withhold information from Alena.”

Of course. Jaehyun knew that. It was Alena who turned Sicheng. She had her hand wrapped around his throat, and he was spinning on her fingers.

Jaehyun has no idea about Sicheng’s life when he was a human, but he somewhat understood what he must be feeling— being controlled against your will.

He ran a hand through his face. “I would kill for her, Sicheng.” Aghast by the truth of his own words, Jaehyun felt as if he was struck by lightning. He was truly willing to defy all odds— to defy Alena— for you. And if it comes to that, he knows he is willing to die for you, too.

“And Alena would kill her for you.”

Jaehyun wanted to shout. He wanted to throw and break things. But he willed himself to stay calm, because no hunter in this Academy would be able to stop his wrath if he succumbed to it. Yet he didn’t want to beg. He didn’t want to beg for Sicheng to keep the reality of you away from his Primus. From Jaehyun’s Primus and fiancée.

“Let it go, Jung. If you think you could protect her by staying at her side, you know you’re mistaken,” Sicheng added, “The best way to keep her safe is to leave her alone.”

With that, Jaehyun spun so fast— hands clenched into fist— and attempted to punch Sicheng in the face. But the vampire was gone before he could do exactly just that. With a clenched fist, Jaehyun stared at the miniscule tornado in the sand from where Sicheng once stood.

—

Your eyelids were heavy with something wet— wet and thick and coppery to the smell. What is that? You whispered as you slowly opened your eyes. The first thing you saw was the ceiling of plain white above you.

Where am I? Your body felt dense. Wet. Cold. It took you a moment to realize that you were in a bathtub. What? Questions filled your mind as you roamed your eyes around you. The walls are white. The ceiling is white. The tub you were in was white. You failed to see the furnitures and Rhianon’s bed wherever you look.

Your lower body was deep in the water. Your hair was soaked with something sticky that doesn’t feel like water. Then you tried to stand up. But your body was glued to the tub with an invisible adhesive.

All of this doesn’t make any sense. You could still recall the way you dried your hair before climbing on your bed and falling into oblivion the moment you closed your eyes.

How did you end up here?

Someone whispered. You craned your neck to see no one behind you. It was painful to tug your hands from the tub, as if your skin is peeling off as you pull.

“Help, help us,” they whispered. “Please, help us.” They sounded as if they were choking.

Your eyes grew frantic as someone— no, two bodies— emerged from nowhere. Their faces were obscured by how distant they were from you. But they slowly drew closer and closer.

You fought the urge to scream when you recognized their faces. They were your parents. With their necks slit open and blood gushing down from it.

“Help us.” They reached out their bloodied fingers to you.

A phantom hand wrapped itself around your neck. It was so hard to breathe.

“Mom, Dad,” you choked. “I— I’m trying my best— I—”

Then their faces crumpled. Their mouths widened as they scream at you. “You can’t save us!”

“I can! Mom! Dad! I can!”

You felt someone leaning closer to your ear. Then a whisper, “You can’t save them.”

As if someone drop an ink to the water, it slowly turned red. You could perceive the way the crimson color crawled and occupied the once crystal clear surface of the water. Then you were soaked in blood. Everywhere you look, there is blood.

“You can’t even save yourself,” the voice whispered again.

No. It wasn’t someone. Because when you turn your head to the side to face the voice, the bloodied face of Jaehyun greeted you.

“Jaehyun?”

You jolted awake the same time the rooster cackled. The first thing you did was to look around you frantically. Rhianon was there, snoring loudly. Then you touched your eyelids, there wasn’t blood. You are here, you are alive.

But that gave you little to no comfort.

Nightmares once dominated your every sleep when you were a kid. It was predominant in the year your parents had died. But it’s been years since you have had them. What business do they have to be showing up now?

From the darkness that covered the skies, you realized that it was still gloaming. You debated whether to go back to sleep, but you were afraid of the possibility of another nightmare. The look on your parents’ face, as if they were in absolute agony, pierced your heart with a hundred needles the size of your arm. You won’t survive to witness it the second time.

Instead of lying back to the bed, you grabbed your phone from the bedside table and tried to occupy your brain of different posts from the internet.

Haechan posted a picture together with Mark on his bedroom, with a caption that says: Y/N’s probably fuming that she couldn’t be with us tonight.

He was mistaken. You aren’t fuming. You are crying. Warm tears slid down your face as you looked at their picture. They are the only thing that tethers you to the real world. And that world feels as if it is slowly fading away like thin smoke.

You left a comment and decided to send your brother a simple message about your day. Wherever you are, Johnny, I hope you’re fine. Because I am not.

It’s been… what? Three days? Not even a week that you have been here and you felt as if the goal to discover the vampire who murdered your parents was too impossible to attain.

No. You cannot simply falter now. You have to keep making yourself stronger to attain Juana’s protection. And the thing about Hubert… you need to talk to Rhianon and convince her to help you. In all of this chaos, your goal to kill Alena remains undeterred.

You sat back on the bed and stared at Rhianon’s sleeping frame. What are you hiding from me, Rhi? Her book of enchantments silently lies beside her. It is her favorite book, no doubt. For a moment, you wanted to reach out and pick and read it. But it felt wrong somehow— as if the action would intrude on her privacy.

As you have no idea on what to do, and you refused to dwell on the memories of Jaehyun, you sat your back on the mattress while staring at the canopy, thinking about your nightmare and abour everything that you need to think. Until Rhianon shifted and sat on her bed.

She was wide-eyed while taking in your awoken state. “Didn’t know you’re a morning person,” she said as she stretched her limbs.

“I am not. I just had an awful nightmare and couldn’t go back to sleep because of it,” you sheepishly stated before sitting upright on your bed, back resting on the headboard.

“That sucks. And I’m afraid the breakfast would also suck. This Academy doesn’t even allow us to eat sausages,” she grimaced, “Breakfast, lunch, and dinner— it’s all the same and I’m so tired of—”

You cut her off, “Rhianon, I have something to ask you.”

She was still stretching her limbs when you cut her off, causing her arms to froze midair. “What is it?” She must have seen the gravity in your eyes for the first sliver of earnestness slipped past her lips.

“Are you a witch?” You felt awful asking the question. It was as if concluding a person’s sexuality. And that’s offensive. But you truly couldn’t waste time. Apologies would go after Rhianon’s answer.

“Why do you ask?”

“Well… your books, things—” You screw your lips shut as Jaehyun’s voice whispered in your ear.  

If the both of you are willing, he said. Are you? Are you prepared to strip naked all your secrets?

Before continuing, you gulped, “Because I need a witch’s help.”

Rhianon’s eyes bore into yours, scrutinizing your façade, as if she would find the answer by looking at you alone. “Juana is a witch. You’re here because you need her help,” she concluded, “Knowing her, she won’t give what you want that easily. And you must’ve realized that she’s not willing to help you at all— that’s why you’re searching for alternatives.”

Words slipped out of your system. You felt as if the alphabet was nothing but jumbled lines of letters in your mind. “I,” you cleared your throat, “Well, that’s correct. Most of it are.”

Moments of taciturnity, then Rhianon leaned closer. “Why did you let her fool you?”

“I didn’t. She’s still willing to help me, but she’s also sacrificing me in the sense. I mean—” you groaned. The words won’t simply come out.

“Y/N, tell me everything. So I know if I could help you,” she uttered.

While rolling your lip with your teeth, you ran a hand through your hair. “My parents were killed by a vampire. I need to know who killed them. Then I met Jaehyun— who is a vampire— and he’s helping me to discover what really happened to my parents. We arrived at Juana’s gathering, and asked for her help. She’s willing— but I must kill Alena, first.”

It’s Rhianon’s turn to gape at you. Then her expression hardened. “That’s insane, Y/N. I understand it now. You’re here because she said you must train. For Alena—” Then a heavy, painful sigh, “It’s impossible. That Primus is almost untouchable. Even Lucas— who’s the best vampire hunter to ever exist after Diego— is nothing compared to Alena.”

“What should I do? It’s the only choice left. I must kill her so Juana would help me enchant Hubert.”

Her brows furrowed. “Who is Hubert?”

“He’s a ghost. A gravedigger of some sorts. Jaehyun and I visited him, to ask about the fate of my parents. Apparently, he knows everything about vampires and their victims especially when it happened in the cemetery,” you explained, catching your breath after, “But he has no tongue. So he couldn’t talk.”

Something spark in Rhianon’s eyes. Interest, you could tell. “Where’s his tongue?”

“I have no idea. But you said… you said you’re interested on how to put back body parts right?”

“I am interested, Y/N. But I didn’t say I could do it.”

“Please, Rhi. I need this.”

She sighed, “Y/N. What did you discover to change plans like this?”

“Jaehyun heard them talking. Juana, Eva, and Lucas. They were talking about me. Juana said I am only a collateral damage— probably a tester to know how powerful Alena is. Before she would dispatch Eva or Lucas to kill her.”

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the bedsheets. “Of course. She would do that. And why does she want you to kill Alena?”

“To avenge her son, she says, whom Alena turned into a vampire.”

Rhianon ran her hand through her face. “Fuck.”

“Why? Why, Rhianon?”

She shook her head at you. “Nothing,” she sighed, “This is complicated, Y/N. And I don’t know if I could help you. But… but I will try.”

Happiness and gratitude swelled inside your heart. Everything is lining up according to your plan, at last. “Thank you, Rhianon.”

—

It’s been a week since you shared your secrets with Rhianon and until now, she didn’t know what to do with them. You have repleted her too much information that she has no idea how to jumble in her mind. Her brother is right— she should really talk to Juana.

It has been years since Sicheng was turned. He had accepted his fate with the whole of his heart. Rhianon found it hard to swallow either— the turning of her brother. It made her angry, it made her want to tear Alena herself, too. But as the saying goes that blood is thicker than water, Rhianon found herself embracing the new life his brother decided for himself.

Sicheng was born as a male witch. For the witches, it is an atrocity to give birth to a male. A male witch is nothing: no magic, no abilities. Sicheng bore no supernatural instincts in his system. That’s why the remaining witches tried to cast him out. Rhianon would never forget the blood coming out from Sicheng’s hundred wounds when the witches tried to kill him. With his mother standing in the sidelines, watching the torture of her own son.

Rhianon and her grandmother helped Sicheng escaped, but they didn’t anticipate him to run to the vampire Primus of Detritius clan. When Rhianon forced herself to ponder the reason of her brother’s action, she knew to her heart that she would’ve done the same to survive.

What is the point of all this? Is it really the unbelievable motherly affection in Juana’s heart? That’s why she insists to kill Alena for allegedly turning her son into a vampire? Or is it the shattered pride? Because her mortal enemy has her son?

Rhianon soothed her nerves before pushing the doors of Juana’s chamber open. The first thing she noticed was the stark white hair of Lucas, as he leaned closer to Juana, obviously talking to her about something. Yet Lucas’s mouth shut abruptly by the sound of the door swinging open.

“Rhianon,” he stated.

At normal times, Rhianon would’ve blushed and squeal to herself that Lucas called her name. But this isn’t normal times. And she needs to talk to Juana.

“Leave us, Lucas,” Juana commanded.

Lucas pressed a fist to his heart before departing the room, casting a lingering stare at Rhianon’s face.

“What do you want?” Juana leaned to her table, reading documents Rhianon knew made no sense to her at all.

Rhianon willed strength to her bones, authority in her voice. “Sicheng wants you to stop whatever you are doing to get him back.” There’s no point for segue-ways.

“Don’t talk to me about Sicheng.”

Rhianon remained standing to where she was. “Aren’t you tired? You need to stop this folly! He doesn’t want to come back!”

The wooden chair of Juana grated the floors as she forcefully stood up. “Get out.”

She walked towards the witch with her chin held up high. “Stop ruining other people’s lives for Sicheng. You failed him. Years ago.”

“He is my son! How dare you say that to me?!”

The fire from the fireplace ignited brighter by Juana’s rage. Rhianon should run and shut the door behind her before Juana does something both of them would regret. But she couldn’t move a finger. Running felt horrid somehow.

“He is your son no more! He stopped being your son when you let the witches torture him to death—!” A palm to the cheek. Again. Rhianon bit her lip, tongue catching the swell of blood from the side of her mouth.

Juana’s fury enveloped the room with a darkness that wasn’t perceived by the eyes, but rather felt in the marrow of the bones. “Watch where you’re going, Rhianon. If you don’t want me to send you back to where you belong.”

Her shoulders vibrated by the petulant chortle she echoed. “Go on. Send me back to the woods. As much as I can remember, you’re the one who’s responsible for my being here. Grandma’s dead, so you don’t have any choice but to take care of me— your only daughter.” The word taste bitter on her tongue, as if it was acid scorching her flesh. “Perplexing, isn’t it? I am the one who inherited your witch blood. But you refused to acknowledge that— over and over— because what? And why? Why do you torture me like this, mother?”

All the neglect, Rhianon swallowed. But some wounds truly couldn’t heal without a touch of the right medicine. The patches in her heart yearns for a mother’s touch. And her own mother doesn’t want to tend to that.

Juana flinched by the word ‘mother’. Rhianon saw it with her own eyes. She flinched because she’s failed doing that responsibility again and again. “Because I hate your face. You remind me of your worthless father. I hate looking at you—”

“No, mother.” Rhianon gritted her teeth. “You hate looking at me not because of my father: you hate looking at me because you see a witch so powerful she rivaled your abilities.”

With that, Juana laughed her witch laugh. Mocking. Sarcastic. “Come again, Rhianon? You? Rivaling my power?”

Rhianon fisted her hands. “Yes. You know it. There’s no one who would inherit the magic in your bones but me. And I could feel it running in my veins.” Her mother’s nostril flared, but Rhianon continued, “You refused to admit it yet, but your powers are dwindling. And I am becoming stronger. Know this mother,” Rhianon pinned the words, “I will be better than you.”

Juana’s knuckles turned white. Her words clipped with warning, “Get. Out.”

Rhianon pressed a fist to her heart. Before she could bow, Juana sweeped all the things off her table.

“GET OUT!” she roared.

A triumphant smile spread out on Rhianon’s lips. She’s forgotten all respects, she’s forgotten the defeat, as she smiled and pivoted on her heels— turning her back on her mother.

—

A week has gone by. The days were occupied by you swinging your fist and your feet, drawing a bowstring or throwing daggers at a straw man target. The progress was slow, but it was there. Lucas had made sure that you appreciate yourself at the every end of the day. And you did, despite Eva’s unending glares and insults.

Rhianon provided you another comfort in the strict and lonely atmosphere of the Academy. Every now and then, if the both of you weren’t tired to the bones, you would talk about your plans. She seemed open about the discussion, but she still didn’t give away too much information about herself.

You knew she’s a witch. She hasn’t denied it yet, and she hasn’t confirmed it either. The question is still there, hanging between the both of you.

As much as you wanted to read through her books, you forced yourself to calm down since you would never want to rush her. Or make her feel as if you are rushing her. There’s still time until the gathering. All you need to do is ground yourself until then.

And Jaehyun… well, he remained conspicuous in the comforts of his chamber. The nights that he didn’t visit you had become the loneliest nights of your life so far.

There was an ache whenever you would turn around because you thought he was following you. You had become used to his presence that it was as if he left something in the corner of your eyes— a phantom— for you to miss him even more than you could.

It was maddening: this stage of developing feelings. The first are always the butterflies in the stomach and the need to see that person everytime. And when there’s a quarrel, you won’t know what to do. Because at the end of the day… there isn’t a knot of relationship tying the both of you.

You wrapped your hand aroud the neck of your beer before taking a swig from the bottle.

The nights were turning cold, so your roommate has decided to sneak in liquor to your dorm and drown yourself until you pass out. Rhianon seemed to be doing exactly the same.

“Where’s your vampire?” she slurred.

You watched as her eyes turned droopy with a small chuckle echoing through you. “He’s hibernating.” You wish. For all you know, he’s debating whether to help or abandon you now. The thought tied your stomach in knots.

“I’m sorry if I’m not doing anything yet to help you,” Rhianon shies.

“No. I understand. You’re giving me hope, Rhi. Please don’t put yourself down.”

Against the light of the room, a pinkish tinge adorned Rhianon’s gold skin. “I will try my best, Y/N. That, I could assure you.”

“Thank you.”

Rhianon tossed her bottle to the air, while laughing her heart out. There was something both ecstatic and sad in the way that she carried her expression that made you doubtful of the laugh that she was echoing. But you were never one to stick your nose to other people’s business, so you let it go and watched her in awe instead. You have been finding that same energy in you for weeks now.

She talks about her life, yet still careful of the words that comes out her mouth even though it is obvious that she is already intoxicated. Upon hours of swigging on her bottle and talking with slurred words, Rhianon finally started to snore as she reclined her head to the side of her bed.

You chuckled and helped her to lay down. You weren’t much of a drinker but you must admit that the beers had warmed up your body— too much for what you had expected.

Beer bottles littered on the floor, with chips and other wrappers that you have no idea how she sneaked in the dorms. You picked up the first bottle when a knock stopped your movements.

It’s eleven p.m.. Who could that be? Oh, no. It’s not the guards, right? With clammy fingers, you sauntered up to the door and swung it open.

“Hey,” he garbled.

There it was again: the thudding of your heart. Jaehyun stood on the doorway clad in his pajamas. He was looking at you with hooded eyes: like how a predator stares at its prey.

You gulped. “What are you doing here—”

Preventing you from finishing your words, Jaehyun pulled you closer, boxing you into a tight hug. Unable to form words nor move a muscle, you stood frozen and let him sniff on your hair like it was his favorite flower.

“I miss you,” he mumbled against your hair. “I miss you so much it hurts.”

His words and this feeling inside your chest. There was pain, there was suffering. But behind the hurt, you couldn’t help but fall.

“Jaehyun—”

“I can’t,” he whispered, “I can’t let you go.”

He pulled away and took your face with his hands. Those tantalizing eyes of him never failed to pierce right into the fiber of your very being. You shuddered by the intensity of his expression. “What do you mean?”

His lips were inches from yours. With the right push, those luscious lips would collide with yours undoubtedly. “You’re so beautiful,” he stated instead.

Jaehyun placed his hand to the small of your back before capturing your lips with a lazy kiss. You heedlessly wrapped your arms around his neck and guided him inside your room. You shut the door by pressing your back behind the wooden surface.

The hollow feelings that had been eating up on you of those days that he didn’t show himself were slowly closing in with the passion of the kiss. You have never thought that you could be this weak for a boy.

You and Jaehyun were like the sun and the moon— always chasing each other. But no matter how you run, you’d never sate the fervent wanting inside your souls for one another.

Jaehyun’s kisses moved downwards until he was sucking on your neck and eliciting moans from your lips. Perhaps the sound drove him mad, for he fumbled on your clothes and tried to get them off of your body. But you grasped his wrists to stop him.

Wide-eyed and with his mouth swollen because of the kiss, Jaehyun stared at you. “Why?”

“Let me,” you whispered before licking his lips. An echo of a throaty moan moved past his lips before you sunk on your knees and pulled his pajamas down his knees.

Jaehyun’s look hardened as his throbbing cock displayed himself in front of you. You gulped by the sight of him— in all his glory— then took his length by your hands.

“Suck me good, angel.”

You inspired upon hearing that same virility, that same wanting. And you did as you were told. With your sex aching by the arousal, you took Jaehyun’s cock in your mouth. His scent whiffed your nose, making you move your tongue along the veiny length of his cock as you swallowed him up and down.

Mouth hollowing by the burning desire and greedy need to make him come for you, you took the root of his penis and pumped while you sucked the crown of his cock. Jaehyun seized a handful of your hair when his hips jolted forward. The movement drove you wild, that you double-fisted the other half of his cock while you sucked his head down the length your mouth allowed you to swallow. Your eyes fluttered upwards and saw Jaehyun grit his teeth as he did his best not to make any sound.

The thought of Rhianon waking up kindled the lust a little bit brighter. Then you sucked Jaehyun until your jaw ached. The restraint and his grip on your hair making you delirious that you took his whole length until his cock hit your throat.

Jaehyun straightened as his hips stilled. Warm and thick spurts of semen filled your mouth you struggled to swallow. You whined against his cock, the taste of his semen overwhelming your tongue, your throat and every flesh inside your mouth.

“Swallow it. All,” Jaehyun commanded. You whimpered and did as you were told with diligence and tears searing the back of your eyes.

With one last gulp, you stood and faced Jaehyun. His cock was still hanging and rock-hard when he wiped your lips harshly with his thumb, painting your lips with the last bit of semen still on your gums. Then he captured your lips, tasting his own self.

You whimpered by the animalistic penetration he did inside your mouth. During the kiss, he fumbled on your pajama strings and pulled your panties down with it. You gasped as he inserted a finger inside your dripping sex abruptly. Jaehyun lifted your one leg as he dipped another finger. When your mouth opened, he looked at you in warning.

“You can’t really shout, can you?” Then he curled his fingers, stretching your flesh with carnal desire in his eyes.

“Jaehyun—” You whined as you grabbed his shoulders for support.

“What? What, angel? Tell me what you want.”

“I’m— I’m coming—” you struggled to breathe and say the words because of the pace he was fingering you in. “Jaehyun!” you cried when he released his fingers.

Without another word, Jaehyun pulled your body towards the space between your bed and Rhianon’s. She was snoring softly, oblivious of what’s happening around her.

“Jaehyun— she might wake up—” you breathed.

Jaehyun seemed as if he didn’t hear a word because he pressed his lips to your ear, licking your earlobe before whispering hoarsely. “Get in all fours, angel.”

Your eyes widened as you glanced at Rhianon, who had her body turned sideways. If she would open her eyes, she would see your naked lower body. But the lust was blurring all your senses, and the insatiable need to have Jaehyun inside you was a physical ache cursing through your swollen clit.

You gulped before bending over the cold hard floors. Palms and knees pressed on the tiles, your body inches away from your sleeping roommate.

“Wider, angel,” the devil whispered before spreading your legs with his.

You swallowed a gasp when the air caressed your sex. “This is a bad idea.”

“Why? You’re afraid of being caught?” Jaehyun leaned towards you, the skin of his cock pressing on your sex, making you giddy with pleasure. “Don’t tell me you don’t want this, angel. I could smell the lust in your pretty little cunt.”

You bit back a cry when Jaehyun inserted himself inside you. With his hand pushing your upper body down the tiled floor, and his other pulling your ass to the air, Jaehyun started to fuck you from behind.

Your cheek was pressed against the cold hard floor, while his balls slapped against your buttocks by every thrust. A whimper escaped your lips, intensifying the adrenaline coursing through your veins. The slap of skin to skin was so intense you were clearly baffled that Rhianon continued to drool and snore on her bed.

Jaehyun willed your body to bend while he wrapped an arm around your neck, still fucking you with the same pace that hit all the right spots in your sex. “Jesus, fuck,” he muttered while ravaging your tight cunt.

His outburst made you lose your mind as you let the pleasure pull you underneath its grasp. Your knees hurt and your back aches but Jaehyun kept you in that position, fucking you restlessly and fervently as if it was blood— as if it was his lifeline.

“Jaehyun—!” you whimpered when he reached for your clit and rubbed it harshly, building your climax right in your lower abdomen.

“Right,” he uttered, “Scream my name and let all the hunters know how filthy you are for a vampire.”

Your sex tightened by the dirty words, and Jaehyun felt it too. For he released your clit and let it throbbed in anticipation for a climax that was put off. “Jaehyun,” you cried, “let me come.”

“Soon, angel.” Then he let you fall back to the floors as he pulled himself out.

Your legs were still shaking when Jaehyun climbed in on your bed and sat. He tapped his lap while jacking off his cock.

“Ride my cock,” he commanded once again.

You shuddered by the command. As you remained sitting on the floor, with Jaehyun masturbating on your bed and Rhianon snoring behind you, you decided to touch your clit and get it over with. The climax you have been anticipating since earlier was hanging on a loose thread, ready to burst and drive you mad.

“Don’t even dare,” Jaehyun warned before you could rub your swollen clit. The danger in his eyes made you halt, and with a whine you climbed up on your bed and sat on his lap. “Be a good girl and ride me.”

Jaehyun was… huge. It was your first time to realize as his cock reached the skin a few centimeters up your navel. His cock would destroy you. And you would let it.

Placing your hands on Jaehyun’s knees, you sank your sex down his length. He gritted his teeth, fangs slowly elongating. You arched your back and dragged your sex along the rigid length of his cock. Jaehyun placed a thumb on your clit and started to draw lazy circles that made you shiver in pleasure.

Rhianon was meters away from the both of you as you fucked the brains out of each other. Whenever you think of being caught, your desire would double up. You continued to drag your sex down his length, buttocks slapping against his lap by every arch and fall your body makes.

His brows knitted together as you vacillate your hips. By every pump of your hips, your lower abdomen and core tightens. Jaehyun’s business rubbing your clit like that didn’t help— it was maddening.

One last stroke of his thumb and you would explode from the pleasure of it all.

As if he heard the animalistic roar of your body language, Jaehyun leaned and grabbed the back of your head, holding your eyes with his red pupils as your cunt quivered and your stomach caved in. You bit back a cry when your climax finally washed through you. Jaehyun grinned when you started to shake, his cock still inside you. He pulled you closer and let your forehead sit on his shoulder while your lower body still shivered from the pleasure.

“Goddamn it,” he muttered before pushing you away from him. His semen spurted out from his cock and to his thighs, to your own mattress.

You languorously watched his jaw clenched. All the strength from your body was sapped, but you forced yourself to sit and lick the semen off his legs. Jaehyun cursed as he watched you. Then he grabbed your chin and planted a savage kiss on your lips.

“So fucking dirty for me,” he whispered as he fisted a handful of your hair. You gaped, feeling the salacity in his voice down to your very core.

Jaehyun planted open-mouthed kisses on your shoulders, neck, jaw, and cheek as he laid you down on your mattress, covering both your bodies with the sheets.

Your mind was hazy and your eyes were heavy from pleasure. You let the tingling feeling to spin inside your stomach as Jaehyun continued to pepper you with soft kisses.

“Are you sleepy?” he whispered while scooping you closer to his frame.

Finding words to say and failing in the process, you only nodded.

“Sleep, angel,” he mumbled.

But before you could close your eyes, you stared at him and tried to memorize the plains of his face to join you to dreamland. “You hid yourself from me for a week.”

Jaehyun let out a throaty and full chuckle before placing kisses on each of your fingers. “I did. Because I needed the time to think.”

You hummed, trying to raise one brow in inquisition.

“I needed the time to think because I was afraid.”

“Of?”

“Of everything regarding you, angel.”

You hugged his waist, burying your face to his chest and inhaling that unnatural yet enthralling scent from him. “What do you mean?”

“Never mind what I mean. Just…” Then he began to caress your cheek, sweeping strands of your hair away from your eyes. “... trust me. Believe in me.”

“I believe in you.”

“Then I am thankful,” Jaehyun whispered once again. With one last kiss on your cheek, you drifted fully to oblivion, the dreamlands pulling you under.

[alexandwitchcraft]

Witchy tips!

Hello!

It is me again... I decided to make this post with random little things that could help some witch out there.

Next time you go to a supermarket, see if they have a candle section. Mine has a small one, but I found a pack of 30 tea light scented candles! They're awesome for short to medium length spells!

If you like cleansing your room with incense, you don't have to use the whole stick. I cleanse my bed and myself before going to sleep and it only burns a tiny portion. Stop it by dipping it into water and reuse it!

Rings are great charms! I have my black ring that represents asexuality. If you have one of those rings with a piece that rotates arounf the ring, you can use it for small spells! Rotate it clockwise for attracting or protecting, and counterclockwise to banish! You can also use it for casting circles.

If you have some quartz points, you can build a little charging station for something you really need. Just arrange the points around the object you want to charge overnight!

You can often find crystals in flea markets. I usually find clear or rose quartz, amethyst and citrine, sometimes even tiger's eye or sodalite!

If you have tiny pieces of crystals that broke off, don't throw them away. Put them somewhere safe and use them for spells instead of your bigger crystals.

Pinterest, tumblr, youtube and amino are all good places to find spells, tarot spreads, recipes, guides and information about anything. Do a little bit of research!

To practice tarot, take 5 cards and try to tell a story with them. You can start with less and increase the number, as long as there's a beginning, middle and ending!

If you find a feather, check out what the color of it means. It could be a sign.

You can use body mist as a cleanser. Spray it in the air above you and let it fall on your body.

You can clean crystals in water if their Mohs scale is above 5. But remember to check!

You can make a nice charged tea or water if you place a crystal in it. Only use tumbled and non toxic stones. Rose quartz is a suggestion.

In the morning, cleanse your bed by pulling the covers down and placing an amethyst on it, if you've had a nightmare.

If you want to try divination but are closeted/on a budget, you can try shufflemancy or get a tarot app! If tech witchcraft isn't to your liking, try using dice instead (dnd dice are great), playing cards, picking a random page from a book or even pieces of paper with runes written on them!

I willl add more when I get more ideas!

If you want me to write about a particular topic feel free to ask, and if you have suggestion to add to this post, go on! ^^