Chapter VII

In Agony

H a-yoon's office was located on the upper floor of an art studio. It was a building stationed along the Hangang River and was only a ten–minute walk from the coven. The studio itself was closed to the general public at this hour of 8:30pm, but there were a number of immortals who enjoyed the simple and rather cozy pastime once nightfall arrived.

Each station was occupied by a vampire whose focus was set on their own art piece, canvas paintings, clay molds, etc. There was even a separate area near the rear that focused on personal lessons, a sight that allowed Min-jae to see that ordinary life was something sought after by the likes of vampirekind.

Seated in two club chairs facing Ha-yoon's desk, Jeremiah and Min-jae kept quiet as she seemed to be getting everything in order on her desktop computer. The clicking of her keyboard was continuous as well as the sound of the city through the window, and as Jeremiah crossed his arms and closed his eyes, that sudden want for sleep began to return. Why was he so tired? He needed something else to focus on.

Why was it so hard to just put his focus here?

This place, this room, these people around him; Jeremiah tried to keep every portion of his thoughts on these individuals, but he couldn't—had never been able to completely block out and shove away their persistence.

Seventeen years of wanting them and wanting to forget them at the same time was going to drive Jeremiah mad sooner or later, and he feared the madness was beginning to catch up with him.

This newly acquired weariness was an anchor trying to sink him into the depths of his memories, where they were, where they would always be, and it was in those impressions and their vibrant color and sounds where Jeremiah would find it. It wasn't so tangible, it wasn't something he could latch onto and bring back, but sometimes being able to exist in those planes of reflection dulled the…

The pain?

Jeremiah didn't know what it was like to feel genuine pain. That was one thing about authentic life almost everyone he knew understood far more intimately than he ever would. His father, his dad, Dominick, and others he'd known for years knew more about what it was like to hurt. However, this fracture against his heart was there even without the need for this thing called pain.

Everybody hurts in their own way.

Feeling a touch at his elbow then, Jeremiah's eyes opened with a start, Min-jae having nudged him the moment Ha-yoon cleared her throat. "Are you going to be falling asleep on the job?" the coven leader asked, an arch at her finely plucked brow. "Might I insert that, while your father suggested you be the one to take on this assignment, I am to report back to him if it seems you will not be able to handle it. It's nothing against you, but I'd much rather not have to babysit while trying to understand this dilemma. Not only is it important to find Dae-jung, but Dae-jung is my friend, and I'd much rather have daylight be my only setback than you to fall on top of that."

"Sorry," Jeremiah apologized. "It won't happen again."

With that, Ha-yoon turned the monitor to her computer so that she, Min-jae, and Jeremiah could see. There on the screen were two immortals, and they looked to be in the front seat of a vehicle.

"Jeremiah and Min-jae," Ha-yoon introduced, "I would like you to meet Hyun," the young-looking woman nodded, followed by the young-looking man, "and Chung-hee. They are from this coven but were visiting one located in Gwangju. It is roughly an hour's drive from your home, Min-jae, and they will be stepping in to get a closer look at your village."

Min-jae nodded but he posed a question. "If you are only going to send them in to scrutinize my home, why not allow me to do that myself? I already know everyone there, and they're more likely to be comfortable speaking with me if they are going to be heavily questioned by strangers."

"They will also be far more comfortable lying to your face," Ha-yoon added, sitting back comfortably in her seat, hands folded in her lap. "At this point, Min-jae, your entire village is under suspicion given that your father went missing there in the first place. I also think I've lived long enough to know humans are not to be trusted wholeheartedly, no matter their age."

"You say that like you speak from experience," Min-jae said, tension on his tongue.

The comment brought a smile to Ha-yoon's lips but there was no real humor in it. "You are so young and so uninformed," she said, and although it wasn't meant to be a dig at his true ignorance, Min-jae couldn't help the slight offense that swelled in him. "You think all vampires received the kind treatment of being sought out by their creator and given this eternal life? Some of us were found at the edge of death before being given a second chance, a death caused by what we all used to be. Lies keep people in the dark, and I intend to shed light on anyone upholding this mystery."

Holding onto any further comments, Min-jae simply raked a hand into his hair and tried to relax.

"Alright," Ha-yoon carried on, turning her eyes to the monitor. "Hyun, Chung-hee, once you're in, take your time, but be thorough and keep your senses open and widespread. If you detect even a small trace of immortal presence, bypass any others and head straight for it. Understand?"

They answered in unison and exited the vehicle together. The video switched from the car's dashboard to a point-of-view shot following Chung-hee, an unnoticeable camera pinned to his shirt. They'd stalled their vehicle in front of what Min-jae recognized as the small community center at the head of the village. It was used primarily during major holidays, birthdays, tea ceremonies, and annual festivals. They were called festivals but were really small gatherings of the faces of families he'd become familiar with during his life.

Saengsacho, this place, his home, how could anyone view such a quaint place as if it were riddled in lies and suspicion? He didn't want to think Ha-yoon's previous words were touched with any truth, but…he would at least wait and see for himself.

Exiting the car, Chung-hee stepped up alongside Hyun and they neared the building. It was empty at this time of night and there were hardly any outdoor light fixtures besides dull glows coming from various street lamps that lined the road and distant homes.

As Min-jae expected when Chung-hee peered into the glass doors of the community center, no one was around and the pair started off down a pathway that led to the road. It was a curved, pebble-topped trail that winded through the hillside village, the smell of the far-off salty sea coming in strongly from the south as the tree leaves chittered together.

"I don't sense anything so far," Hyun said to Chung-hee's right, and she came into view of the camera when her pace picked up. "Seems like any old village to me. The area itself reminds me a lot of my old home, but these hills are made for tea instead of rice. It also smells wonderful here."

"Stay focused," Chung-hee said as they came upon the first residential home. There were no lights on inside and the vibrations coming from within were tranquil. Whoever resided here was fast asleep already, and Min-jae hoped they weren't woken up. From what he knew about the occupant, they were well into their seventies and were typically asleep much earlier than most.

As the pair carried on, a few more homes were passed, some lights on inside and signs of life, but zero fluctuations of an immortal were detected. It was when Chung-hee and Hyun neared the only convenience store in the village when they came across their first person .

There didn't appear to be any customers at the moment; the single worker was seen alone stocking shelves with goods, and they looked up when a tune played the second the entry door opened. The worker was a teenage boy named Sujin. He was tall for his age, lanky and had a head of fluffy dark hair parted down the middle. With a bit of a babyface, he was doe-eyed and his cheeks were round and tinted with a hint of pink.

Min-jae had known him since Sujin was small; the boy's uncle, Mok Kyung-hwan, owned the small business, so there was nothing unusual about seeing Sujin alone in the store. It would close in an hour and he would continue restocking until he was finished.

Not seeming to have expected customers right now, ones with faces he didn't recognize, which Min-jae also didn't find strange since outside visitors weren't an everyday thing, the ‘welcome' dragged a bit when it left Sujin's mouth and he stood upright.

"Hello," Hyun said, keeping a lightness in her voice so as not to frighten the boy. "We're sorry for coming in so last-minute, but my husband and I are lost here. Can you tell us where we are exactly?"

There was a hesitation in Sujin, but he seemed to open up from the smile Hyun offered. "Saengsacho Village," he answered. "Where are you heading from here?"

Chung-hee's voice then carried in, trying to sound as casual as Hyun. "We were actually looking forward to staying somewhere for the night."

"Oh…" Sujin's eyes averted and Min-jae chewed nervously at the inside of his lip. The people of his home weren't used to outsiders, but Sujin's standoffishness was beginning to bother him, and when Min-jae got a glimpse of the look on Ha-yoon and Jeremiah's faces, he could tell they were having some doubts, too.

"Will that be an issue?" Hyun asked.

"Um," Sujin darted between the couple and he hurried to the check-out counter. "Let me call my uncle," he said. "We don't have an inn here in Saengsacho, but he might know how to help you."

Given an understanding nod, Sujin searched for his mobile as Hyun and Chung-hee ventured to the far end of the store. "He's tense and awkward," Hyun said, keeping her voice down as she spoke to Chung-hee and Ha-yoon. "But that's something I'd expect from any teenager. When the uncle arrives, I say we take hold of his mind and press for solid answers about Dae-jung. If this place is as tight knit as you'd think, this boy's uncle has to know something about them."

"What does he mean by that?" Min-jae demanded, fidgeting in his seat. He didn't want to sound so defensive, but he couldn't help being protective over the people and image of his village. Saengsacho was so peaceful and quiet and had never had any issues in the twenty-seven years he'd called the place home.

"With little effort," Jeremiah informed, "Immortals such as you and I and Ha-yoon have the ability to control the mind of a human. It's not something we do so recklessly, but sometimes humans keep needed information to themselves when faced with questions they don't want to answer, and taking hold of their minds skips over the demand for cooperation."

"Will it hurt?" Min-jae asked.

It depended on which route Chung-hee and Hyun chose to take, but Jeremiah knew there was a method that could be considered painful if put to use without care. Referred to as ‘The Invasive Procedure' , immortals would fasten themselves to the mental portals of a human and burrow into their memories. It would be the most effective route and leave every inquiry answered, but that was also likely to cause a frenzy. Jeremiah hoped they chose a less perturbing path.

"Just relax," Jeremiah answered. "Think of your father. I know you're worried about these people you grew up around, but your father matters more right now."

A few minutes went by until another chime from the entry of the convenience store rang and Hyun and Chung-hee were met by Mok Kyung-hwan, a middle aged man. Dressed in khakis and a white button down shirt, Min-jae immediately recognized him as Sujin's uncle. His face was hard and the line on his lips was flat, dark facial hair was around his maw, and his black hair was buzzed. If he was supposed to be welcoming, he looked far from it.

"What's going on here?" Kyung-hwan asked, tone gruff with misgivings, and his hands were held behind his back.

Keeping up with her quaintness, Hyun neared the man with Chung-hee over her shoulder. "I'm so sorry if our being here is disruptive," she said, lowering her head before meeting Kyung-hwan's eyes again. "My husband and I were looking for somewhere to settle down for the night."

As her eye contact with Kyung-hwan remained, Jeremiah was expecting to see a sort of shadow pass over his vision, a stillness to accompany him, but even Hyun appeared puzzled that her silent effort to grab hold of his mentality went unsuccessful. She glanced over at Chung-hee and the confidence in her and their plot sank into the Earth.

A nervous chuckle left Hyun then and she took a step back.

"I don't like the look of this," Ha-yoon interjected, and Jeremiah couldn't agree more .

For it to be remotely difficult to take control of Kyung-hwan's mind, the red flags were popping up left and right, and their warning vibrancy grew when Kyung-hwan held a hand out with a closed fist.

Hyun blinked in confusion and released a nervous laugh before holding hers out as well. In the palm of her hand, Kyung-hwan dropped a small, perfectly rounded ball of silver with the hangul characters of the village's name etched into it, and the second it made contact with her flesh, Hyun flinched as the burn seared the lines of her palm.

Everything seemed to happen so quickly when Kyung-hwan then unveiled a pointed weapon from beneath his shirt, and he ruthlessly drove it into Hyun's throat. She clutched her neck in shock and agony as the burn stung through her, cutting off her ability to scream as the torment rippled to every portion of her body.

Before the entirety of Chung-hee's exasperation surfaced, an assault was brought against his body as well. Kyung-hwan was quick enough to immobilize him with a second wooden, silver-tipped weapon jammed straight into his ribcage. It pierced beside Chung-hee's heart, the central organ not seeming to be the target, only the prospect of his immobilization as the vampire collapsed beside Hyun.

With the view from Chung-hee's camera being the ceiling of the store now, only voices were heard, and Sujin sounded terrified when he said, "Uncle, what's going on?"

"I would have told you more when you were older," Kyung-hwan uttered, kneeling over Chung-hee who agonized and cursed him. "It looks like now is as good a time as any to introduce you to my little collection, Nephew. "

Kyung-hwan grabbed the butt of the weapon shoved into Chung-hee and twisted it, causing the vampire to screech. He then paused his cruelty when something captured his attention, and his eyes fell onto the camera pinned to Chung-hee's shirt.

"We've got onlookers, eh?" Kyung-hwan plucked the small device from Chung-hee's shirt and stared into it, the coldness of his gaze sending a ripple down Min-jae's spine. He'd never seen the man so merciless. "Come looking if you want," he warned. "I may not keep them long."

And then the camera was crushed under his heel.

The second the footage cut to black, Jeremiah and Ha-yoon's gaze switched immediately to Min-jae whose jaw may as well have been on the floor. Everyone was stunned into silence as they tried to process what exactly they'd witnessed; an assault, but it was still something none of them had expected during what they assumed would have been a quick investigation.

Now with Min-jae's father missing and Chung-hee and Hyun caught in whatever crossfire this was, there were even more questions on top of the several that would go unanswered.

"What was that?!" Ha-yoon shouted then, shoving her chair away as she rose quickly. In the beginning, it seemed she would speak far more mildly with Min-jae, but her patient and calm demeanor was thrown out the window now.

"I—I don't know," was all it seemed Min-jae could say. The dumbfounded look on his face told of his unmistakable confusion.

"What the fuck was that man talking about?!" Ha-yoon demanded, hammering a fist down atop her desk and everything atop it rattled. "You better not be lying to me. With your father missing and now two others from my own coven, I will reign destruction down on your damn village if they die by that man's hand. What is going on?!"

"I don't know!" Min-jae returned just as angrily, as if he were offended that she would think he had anything to do with this. That would imply him having anything at all to do with the disappearance of his father, and although he'd been upset with the secrets his parents kept from him, Min-jae would never jeopardize the life of his father.

"Listen," Jeremiah tried to mediate. "Both of you calm down so we can arrange what happens next. Clearly no one saw this coming, and as shocking as it all is, we need to focus solely on this situation. Ha-yoon, you're more in charge here than I am. What's our next step?"

Looking hotly from Min-jae to Jeremiah, she tried to center herself but there was still a steam in her voice when she said, "I should reach out to your father about this or Elder Eros since I know he is the closest located in Japan right now."

"And I ask you personally to not do that," Jeremiah said. "My father gave this task to me to assist you. I am capable enough."

Ha-yoon debated for a minute longer as she let Jeremiah's words sink in. It wasn't uncommon for coven leaders to reach out to their elders. In fact, it was encouraged to ask for advice when need be, and to relay information that was regarded as dire or useful. She'd already requested a summons from Demiesius when Min-jae showed up at her front door, and getting in touch with him again made her consider his possible thoughts toward her being incompetent.

Being that Jeremiah was a dhampir she already knew had capability in his blood given his father was indeed an elder, Ha-yoon stayed with Jeremiah's oddly colored eyes, and she asked, "Do you have faith in yourself?"

"Yes," Jeremiah answered without a second going by .

"Good." Ha-yoon glanced at the time at the corner of the computer monitor. Each minute that went by deepened her worry, and the pacing she was doing behind her desk wasn't helping. "That bastard clearly knew about the existence of our kind given his utilization of that silver ball. It was like he was testing to see if Hyun and Chung-hee were human or not. If you show up, Jeremiah, I'm sure that man, and anyone else in on this plot, will already know you've come as a response. Due to your lack of weakness, they won't be able to use any tactics against you. What I want is for you to get in, discover Hyun and Chung-hee's whereabouts, obtain them, and then get out."

Sounded easy enough, Jeremiah thought, but something else occurred to him when he looked over Min-jae beside him. "When that man spoke to his nephew," he said, "He mentioned a collection. Do you think he was referring to more vampires trapped in that place?"

"There can't be," Min-jae interjected, recalling his previous conversation with Jeremiah about his father. When he was young and throughout his time growing up, he'd always been able to sense Dae-jung. He may not have ever known why or how he could feel his father's existence as if their familial union spoke through his veins, but Dae-jung had always been the only person whose mere presence could be felt no matter the distance.

"For now, at least," Jeremiah said as he stood from his seat, "I'll rely on perceiving Hyun and Chung-hee. Anything else I come across along the way, I'll bring back with me and then we can bring the topic to the elders if need be."

"You don't even know where my home is…" Min-jae added. "At least let me come with you."

"No," Jeremiah ordered, and the defensiveness in Min-jae was taken in. "No offense, but you might get in my way and keeping you here might also be the safest option. Clearly, if you really don't know what's going on, you've been living around deceivers your entire life. It might not seem like it but I'm looking out for you, alright?"

There was no vocal response, but the look in Min-jae's eyes staggered between trust and doubt.

With that settled, Jeremiah gathered what information Ha-yoon could provide about the coordinates of Saengsacho before vanishing into thin air.

Upon materializing within a mass of black that fell away from his body, Jeremiah now found himself standing at the entry doors of a coven located down in Gwangju.

Jeremiah considered himself lucky to have been there twice in his life when he was a teenager to make this trip easier. It'd been around a time when he'd begun begging his father to let him leave their home to do more than just go to Dominick's coven. After the blood child promised to heavily look after his brother while away on duties, Jeremiah would travel under the watchful eye of Dominick.

It'd been rare, and Demiesius hadn't let him leave home so often or for too long, but Jeremiah had seen new parts of the world during that time at Dominick's side, and after returning to the castle, he'd want to talk to Demiesius for hours on end about how fun it'd been.

The excitement, however, was never long lived. Upon returning home, the gloom that filled every square inch of the castle back then had been so thick, and Jeremiah considered his misadventures with Dominick weren't so important. So, he'd keep to himself more often and the silence between father and son would settle in .

Jeremiah shook the thoughts from his head.

He had to stay focused.

Emerging through two unnoticeable slits against his shoulder blades, two massive, leather-textured, and hook-tipped black wings spread their large span, and with a single pulse, Jeremiah rose into the dark skies of South Korea.

Out of any human's line of sight as he was swallowed up by the canvas of night, Jeremiah kept Ha-yoon's coordinates in mind and sought guidance from the North Star. The wind was loud against his eardrums, and he traveled southeast.

Jeremiah passed over small towns but soon everything below turned into the rural countryside. The plains were seemingly endless and beautiful under the shine of the silver half-moon, swaying crops, trees, and glittering lakes and river systems stretched on and on, and soon he reached the clouds that drifted over Boseong County.

He'd known of the quiet life that thrived in the area away from the hustle and bustle of the bigger cities, and as he appreciated the brilliant yellow of the autumn gingko trees and sway of the lush fields, Jeremiah considered Min-jae lucky to have grown up the way he did.

Ignorance might not always be considered blissful, but at least he'd been happy and felt entirely connected to this home he was so in touch with.

Focus, Jeremiah.

After a minute, things began to look familiar based on his memories of the footage transferred back in Ha-yoon's office. He wasn't wearing a camera to track his movements, but he didn't plan on spending much time here anyways.

From high up, Jeremiah caught sight of the same community center and the convenience store Hyun and Chung-hee had entered and began to make his descent. There was no one around when he touched down before the store and let his senses search the area.

Strangely enough, as Hyun and Chung-hee stated before, there were no fluctuations of immortals anywhere and that notion only brought thoughts of their deaths into Jeremiah's mind.

Not giving up that quickly, Jeremiah vanished his wings and kept his senses open for human movement. He traversed up the winding paths and listened into the quiet homes as he walked. The homes were old and traditional, looked preserved and otherwise breathtaking with their hanok charm.

It wasn't too late in the night yet, but Jeremiah perceived evening televisions and ordinary family chatter coming from within the various homes; lights were on and people were clearly awake, but Jeremiah was listening for anything that could point him in the direction of this so-called collection.

Moving by six homes up the rising pathway, Jeremiah paused before the low, wooden gate of a hanok whose windows were occupied by two shadows, and when the taller one drifted away, he listened closely when the voice of that teenage boy from the convenience store whispered to himself. "Vampires…are real?"

Without making a sound, Jeremiah hopped the low gate onto a small stone path to the front steps. From what he could feel, Sujin's aura was oddly smaller than most humans, and he was alone in this part of the hanok now, which left Jeremiah with an opportunity he had to gamble on. He knocked lightly on the door and Sujin began to approach.

The second the teenager answered, Jeremiah left no room for words and reached inside, grabbing hold of him, and yanking him through as a sharp yelp left him. He covered Sujin's mouth with one hand and secured his arms with the other before backing away.

From the yelp of his nephew, Kyung-hwan emerged with a chilling darkness at his brow. Whether he believed Jeremiah was an immortal promised to search for Hyun and Chung-hee, or just a foreigner looking for trouble, he didn't look the least bit afraid.

"You already assumed someone would come looking for them," Jeremiah said. "Don't act surprised now."

"Unhand my nephew," Kyung-hwan demanded, no tension in his voice, but the manner in which his words left him made Jeremiah consider something. This man evidently knew of vampire existence, knew their weaknesses, and surely knew his actions would have consequences, and yet…he was unafraid.

"Take me to this collection you spoke of," Jeremiah ordered. "Then and only then will your nephew leave my grasp."

Seeming willing to cooperate, Kyung-hwan's look of distrust and anger left, but he neared and exited the home to lead the way.

As Jeremiah kept his hold on the teenager secure, he smiled internally at how well this was going already and followed behind. He was directed beyond Kyung-hwan's home and beyond a hill that flourished with sweet-smelling violets.

Jeremiah couldn't tell what kind of violets they were at first glance, but the leaves at the base were a dark shade of green, and the violets themselves were wiry, some tangled together, and they reached upwards into the night as if in search of the moon. He thought they were beautiful and smelled wonderful. If not used for medicinal or tea purposes, Jeremiah could see their appeal was enough to enjoy as they grew in mass on this vast hillside.

"Your kind are very powerful," the man said then, continuing to walk as his back was to Jeremiah and a terror-stricken Sujin. "It is a shame you hold a devastating weakness to the sun and an element like silver. If sunlight and silver weren't so hazardous, I believe vampires could rule the entire world. However," the man added, "With daylight and a thing as insignificant as silver being such large setbacks, vampires will never claim the world as theirs no matter their strengths."

"What makes you think vampires want the world?" Jeremiah said, making sure not to let up on the boy in his grasp. "You think you know my father's kind but you don't."

"Your father? I do know how useful they are," the man added, a light snicker leaving him, and he said nothing more as they neared a small, lone building at the furthest point of the village.

Below were the homes whose occupants were busy with their nightly routines, seemingly ignorant to what was going on. Made from concrete with a heavy metal door as the only entry point, it looked more like an abandoned storage unit than anything being put to use, and still, as Jeremiah attempted to sense any draw of an immortal, nothing in the air spoke to him.

They weren't alone and he knew that. After all, this man would not have led him to this particular spot if Hyun and Chung-hee weren't inside, right? Where were their auras? Were they already dead?

At last beginning to feel his nerves twitch with unease, Jeremiah met the eyes of the man when he let the weighted door swing open and faced him. Their eyes stayed together and as Hyun had attempted before, Jeremiah searched for that mental portal all mortals had. It was always open, always vulnerable, and obtaining control over it was as effortless as breathing. Gaining control over a human's mind demanded nothing, but it was like Kyung-hwan lacked his own portal; of that, Jeremiah knew for a fact, was impossible!

For a human being to lack a mental portal, they would have to be brain dead. Without active receptors, this man shouldn't even be able to stand let alone breathe.

"Leave my nephew," Kyung-hwan said then. "I will take you the rest of the way."

Jeremiah huffed and swallowed a lump of indecision. Still, he unhanded Sujin who hurried away when Kyung-hwan ordered him to return to their home, and Jeremiah entered the small, strange building.

Kyung-hwan descended first, the building housing a flight of stone steps that led down into a bunker-like area. There were few sources of light with several meters of distance between them before reaching the bottom.

As he was bordered by walls of concrete on all sides, Jeremiah's mind flipped to the heart-wrenching sight of Hamilton when he'd been discovered inside a dark, dank cell locked away from the rest of the world so many years ago. This was very reminiscent of that time given the wicked shroud creeping in on Jeremiah. Suddenly he didn't want to be here anymore, but he had to press on to get this over with.

At the bottom of the stairwell, Jeremiah was faced with a corridor that seemed to go on forever. There were six metal doors on either side, one at the furthest end, and he could hear what sounded like machinery coming from a few.

"Do you know Song Min-jae?" the man asked then, and Jeremiah hardly heard him. He was too busy listening to whatever was going on in this sector of isolation. The machinery was quiet and he could hear a flow of liquid on top of mild groans of weakness. "In the room at the far end," the man continued, "You will find what you are looking for."

Glaring in the man's direction, Jeremiah moved by him, their shoulders colliding and he ventured down the hall to the blockade of metal. The knob was stuck and the door resisted as he pulled and it scraped the floor.

When Jeremiah's eyes fell onto what lay within, his heart just about tumbled into the pit of his stomach.

In the center of the room was a wooden chair bolted to the floor, a contraption of tubes and wiring running from it as the machine itself hummed from the power circulating through it. Within the chair was a man who looked aged somewhere in his forties, dark hair short and droopy against his forehead, and his likeness to Min-jae was indisputable even with the tired hollowness of his cheeks. His skin was paler than what an immortal's typically was even in death, and he was seemingly fixed to the chair by spikes that pierced through his wrists and ankles. The tubes connected to his veins and jugular were a deep red, filled with blood as it was suctioned from his body and ran into the machine in his wake.

"What the…" Jeremiah took an unconscious step forward and he neared the man confined to the chair. "Dae-jung?" He assumed from the strong resemblance the man held to Min-jae. "Are you Song Dae-jung?"

Although his eyes were open, the man's gaze struggled to meet Jeremiah and his brow dipped in what looked more like concern than confusion, picking up on what exactly Jeremiah was even with the weakness overtaking his body. "You have to leave," he warned. "You are like my son. You have to leave!"

The hairs on the back of Jeremiah's neck stood on end when the next warning left Dae-jung's mouth.

"You are not safe here!"

Before Jeremiah could fully register what had been said to him, a small pressure was felt behind his right bicep, and he whipped around.

Kyung-hwan had a smug curve at his lips and when Jeremiah's eyes fell onto what lay in the man's hand, he stepped back upon realizing it was a syringe lacking a substance. His nose was suddenly touched by the scent of rain and notes of flowered vibrancy, the same perfume that'd carried from the lush fields outside.

"Leave!" Dae-jung shouted.

"What did you do to me?" Jeremiah touched a hand to his arm where the needle had gone in, the odd pressure remaining as his fingers brushed over the puncture point. The discomfort of it was strong, and he couldn't ignore it. What was this?

Kyung-hwan took a step nearer and withdrew a silver-edged knife from his front pocket. "What did I do to you?" he said, twirling the weapon in his grasp. "Let's say, I made you a little less…you."

As Jeremiah gripped this irritation at his arm, he gasped in utter disbelief when Kyung-hwan drove the point of the knife into his abdomen. He froze from the sensation that spiked from the point in which the blade entered his body. It was like a punch and his breath staggered. His mind was almost incapable of deciphering what exactly this was that caused such a cruel flurry to burst through him .

Tears welled in Jeremiah's eyes and he flinched when he grasped the handle of this blade buried into his body. He didn't know how to describe what this felt like, but he knew he wanted it to stop right now!

Kyung-hwan pushed the blade deeper into him with a growing smile, appearing to find enjoyment and humor in the tears that fell down Jeremiah's face. "Not so invincible now, are you?" he mocked.

Unable to hold in a scream as the sensation worsened, Jeremiah cried out from the severity of this…this pain as it escalated when Kyung-hwan withdrew the blade and burrowed it into him again, this time in his upper chest.

"AHH!" Jeremiah wailed in physical agony for the first time in his life, feeling as his lung was punctured and blood rushed into it.

He was so unbelievably afraid when the knife was withdrawn again, and Jeremiah lost his footing when stepping back and stumbled onto his bottom. Kyung-hwan was unrelenting as his assault carried on, this time the blade entering Jeremiah's forearm as he tried to block the onslaught cutting into him.

As if his fears took over for him, an instinct kicked in to get him as far away from this torture as possible, and suddenly Jeremiah's only thought was to return to the one place his heart knew promised sanctuary.

Like an automatic switch was flipped, Jeremiah's mastering wrapped around him and in an instant he was home. He landed awkwardly on the floor of the grand foyer, beneath a ray of afternoon sunlight as it was the only area of the castle unprotected by iron guards at the moment.

With blood rising into his airway, Jeremiah writhed with a hand pressed over the severe wound at his midsection, vision blurred as one word left his mouth. "Father!" he sobbed, and in an instant, Demiesius emerged from the upstairs bedroom.

Shock coursed through Demiesius upon witnessing his eldest son reacting in anguish on the bloodstained floor to what looked like life-threatening wounds. He hurried from the bottom of the east wing stairwell, almost afraid to merely touch his son as Jeremiah's condition became entirely known to him. These open lacerations, this gushing blood, Jeremiah's tears, the twist of ache on his face. He was…hurting.

"Father," Jeremiah cried, tears continuing to rinse down his cheeks and blood streamed heavily from his mouth. "Am I — dying?"

"No," Demiesius wanted to believe. "You cannot…not from something like this."

Demiesius then grabbed the handle of the blade stuck in Jeremiah's arm and withdrew it, looking up for a moment to his youngest boys who had emerged from their bedrooms, and Hamilton who hadn't been as fast as the elder upon hearing the call of their son. They were all standing at the edge of shadow at the top of the stairwell in bewilderment, and Hamilton's eyes grew when he took in his eldest's state.

"Jeremiah!" Hamilton shouted, and he almost stepped into the lit foyer but stopped the second Demiesius commanded him to stay back. If he touched the rays, he would burn under the reaches of the sun.

"You're going to be alright," Demiesius whispered against the blond half of his son's hair, carefully bringing Jeremiah off the floor as his consciousness began to fade. "I'm here, my son."