Girl hi how are you? I hope you’re doing fine. I miss you everyday. 🥹❤️🫶
Well I noticed you haven’t updated in like 7days (not me acting like a stalker) I just got worried usually you do new updates at like (6days Max)
Again I’m not stalking you 😭
Well, I may or may not have been impatient for more chapters that’s why I kept checking your accounts… not trying to pressure you or anything.
So, Anw hope your doing fine. I hope that life is not stressing you or anything, hope you’re healthy. And I’ll be waiting forever for you to update.
Please, don’t take this as I’m asking for more chaps, I just hope you’re fine and well.
Love. Not a stalker. 😭🫶
𝐈𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝜗ৎ 𝐘. 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐰𝐨𝐧
❀ ᯓ vampire!jungwon x reincarnated!reader
the premise ✧ a grueling survey trip to an isolated, ruined manor forces you to cross paths with your demanding and ridiculously handsome client, yang jungwon. little do you know, he is a vampire who has spent centuries hiding in the shadows, patiently waiting for your reincarnated soul to finally find its way back to him.
✧ contains ✧ heavy angst, traumatized & fiercely overprotective male lead, emotional breakdown & heavy comfort, extreme self-sacrifice, sudden medical distress, agonizing magical extraction, physical altercation, villain POV & psychological manipulation, past-life trauma trigger, dark fantasy lore, heavy foreshadowing
wc 𖹭 12k ⤷ ゛chapter 7 ˎˊ ⤷꒰prologue꒱꒰chapter 1꒱꒰chapter 2꒱꒰chapter 3꒱꒰chapter 4꒱꒰chapter 5꒱꒰chapter 6꒱
Back in the bedroom, the tranquil silence was shattered not by a sound, but by a jarring, terrifying absence.
Jungwon’s eyes snapped open in the pitch-black room. Driven by a sleep-heavy instinct, his arm tightened, fully expecting to pull you flush against his chest. Instead, he grasped nothing but cold, empty linen.
The exhaustion that had kept him unconscious evaporated in a fraction of a millisecond. He sat up, his piercing gaze sweeping the dark room. The spot beside him was empty.
And then, his immortal senses caught it.
The sharp, metallic tang of fresh blood, laced with the distinct, burning scent of magical embers.
A visceral dread violently seized Jungwon’s chest. Moving with blinding speed, he tore the bedroom door open and stepped out into the hallway.
The sight in the living room made his immortal heart completely stop.
You were collapsed on the freezing marble floor, curled agonizingly into a fragile ball. Your hands fiercely clutched your chest as you gasped for air through suffocating, wet coughs. Thick, dark blood glowing with sun-fire magic stained the pristine floor beneath you.
And standing merely three feet away, entirely motionless, was Sunghoon. He wasn't reaching out. He wasn't calling for help. He was just watching you bleed.
The trauma of watching you nearly die just hours prior violently hijacked Jungwon's rationality. A cataclysmic surge of pure, unadulterated wrath erupted from him. The ambient temperature in the penthouse didn't just drop—the very gravity of the room felt as if it had been forcefully crushed.
Before you could even process his arrival, a deafening CRASH echoed through the sprawling space.
You gasped, your tear-filled eyes widening in horror.
Jungwon had lunged. He bypassed you entirely, his hand wrapping viciously around Sunghoon’s throat. With an explosive, blinding force, Jungwon slammed his closest friend into the marble pillar. The impact was so severe that a heavy web of cracks instantly fractured the solid stone behind Sunghoon’s back.
A ragged, choked gasp escaped Sunghoon’s lips as his back arched in sudden pain. But his survival instincts flared instantly; Sunghoon’s hands flew up, his knuckles white as he gripped Jungwon’s wrist with equal, bone-crushing strength, desperately trying to pry the suffocating fingers off his windpipe.
Thick, jagged frost rapidly bloomed from Sunghoon’s fingertips, aggressively biting into Jungwon’s skin, but the underworld boss didn't even flinch.
"What did you do?" Jungwon snarled. His voice was no longer the smooth, composed tone of a leader. It was a lethal, vibrating roar that shook the very foundation of the room. His eyes flared a dangerous, unnatural crimson.
"Jungwon..." you rasped out, forcing yourself up on one trembling arm. The searing agony in your chest was momentarily eclipsed by the sheer, paralyzing panic of seeing them tear each other apart. "Jungwon... stop..."
But he couldn't hear you.
The deafening roar of his own rage and the paralyzing fear of losing you had entirely consumed his senses. He was completely deaf to your pleas. Jungwon tightened his lethal grip, hoisting Sunghoon an inch off the floor, his jaw clenched so tightly the veins in his neck strained.
"She is bleeding out on the floor," Jungwon growled, the raw fury in his voice stripping away centuries of brotherhood in a single, devastating second. "And you are standing there doing nothing! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tear your head off right now!"
Sunghoon gritted his teeth, his expression contorting with intense physical pain and a profound, underlying agony. He didn't summon his ice weapons to retaliate. He just gripped Jungwon's arm, his freezing eyes locking onto the furious crimson of his leader's gaze.
"I didn't... touch her..." Sunghoon forced out, his voice a fractured, breathless choke under the crushing pressure.
Before Jungwon could escalate the violence any further, a soft ding echoed through the suffocating tension.
The silver doors of the private elevator slid open.
Jake and Jay stepped out, mid-conversation, only to stop dead in their tracks. The sight of the cracked marble pillar, Sunghoon being choked off the ground, and you coughing up glowing blood on the floor sent an instant shockwave through them.
The casual, lighthearted demeanor they usually carried vanished in a split second, replaced by sheer, unadulterated shock.
"What the fuck?!" Jake yelled, the curse tearing through the heavy air.
He didn't even hesitate. Blurring across the room with immortal speed, Jake dropped straight to his knees on the cold marble, immediately sliding his body between you and the chaos. He carefully but swiftly gathered your trembling form, pulling you away from the blood and completely shielding you with his own frame.
"Hey, hey, look at me. I've got you," Jake urged, his voice tight with panic as his hands securely supported your shoulders. His eyes widened as he recognized the golden embers in your blood. "The sun-fire... it's reignited."
Simultaneously, Jay moved.
He didn't go to you; he went straight for the source of the lethal conflict. With an aristocratic but undeniably brutal force, Jay materialized right beside the fractured pillar. He slammed both of his hands onto Jungwon’s forearm, digging his fingers into the muscle to physically break the death grip on Sunghoon’s throat.
"Are you out of your goddamn mind?!" Jay roared, his voice cracking like a sharp, commanding whip. He forcefully shoved his shoulder right between the two of them, leveraging his entire weight to pry them apart. "You're killing him! Let go!"
Jungwon’s eyes were still blazing crimson, his jaw locked in pure wrath as he fiercely resisted Jay's pull.
"Jungwon, look at her!" Jay yelled, his sharp eyes glaring directly into his leader's blinded gaze. He pointed a strict, desperate hand toward the floor where Jake was actively shielding you. "She doesn't need you tearing Sunghoon apart! She needs you!"
The words, coupled with the agonizing sound of your ragged coughing under Jake's protective hold, finally pierced through the thick haze of Jungwon's fury.
The crimson in his eyes flickered, then faded into a horrified realization.
He sharply released his grip.
Sunghoon’s legs immediately gave out the second the crushing pressure vanished. But before he could hit the hard marble, Jay caught him. Dropping his aggressive stance, Jay swiftly wrapped a firm, supportive arm around Sunghoon’s shoulders, taking his friend's weight and easing his battered body down against the ruined pillar. Sunghoon violently gasped for the freezing air, his hands clutching his deeply bruised throat as Jay knelt beside him, holding him steady.
Jungwon didn't spare them another second. The fury evaporated, replaced instantly by pure, suffocating panic. He turned around and dropped heavily to his knees right beside Jake, his hands aggressively trembling as he reached out to pull your fragile, bleeding body out of Jake's hold and securely into his own chest.
"I've got you, I'm right here," Jungwon whispered frantically, his voice entirely stripped of its earlier terrifying authority. He pulled you flush against his broad chest, his cold hands trembling as he pressed your face into the crook of his neck. The scent of cedarwood wrapped around you, but it wasn't enough to mask the agonizing, burning sensation tearing through your veins.
"Jake, call Madame Kim. Now!" Jungwon ordered, his dark eyes wide with an unrestrained, terrifying panic as another wet, ragged cough tore through your chest.
"Already on it," Jake replied instantly, stepping back to pull his phone from his pocket, his fingers moving with a desperate blur as he hit the dial button.
Across the room, the heavy, suffocating tension between Jay and Sunghoon hadn't dissipated.
Jay kept his supportive hold on Sunghoon, but his sharp eyes narrowed as he looked at the glowing, golden-laced blood staining the marble floor. He looked back at his friend, whose usually impeccable, stoic mask was completely shattered. Sunghoon was trembling—not from the cold, but from a profound, horrifying devastation.
"Sunghoon," Jay demanded, his voice low, lacking the previous anger but heavy with absolute confusion. "What the hell happened? You have the fastest reflexes out of all of us. Why were you just standing there watching her bleed?"
Jungwon stiffened. Even while holding you securely against his chest, his jaw clenched, his immortal hearing picking up every single word.
Sunghoon closed his eyes, his head leaning back against the cracked marble pillar. A sharp, agonizing breath rattled through his bruised throat. The deafening, horrifying war that had paralyzed him just moments ago finally spilled over.
"Because I needed it," Sunghoon choked out.
The entire penthouse went dead silent. Even Jake paused, lowering his phone slightly.
Jungwon’s grip around you tightened defensively. "What did you just say?" he breathed out, the lethal edge threatening to return to his voice.
Sunghoon slowly opened his eyes. They were completely hollow, brimming with a desperate, agonizing exhaustion that made the room feel physically colder. He didn't look at Jungwon. He looked at the glowing blood on the floor.
"My sister," Sunghoon whispered, his freezing baritone cracking under the sheer weight of his despair. "Her burns... they're reigniting. The animal blood isn't enough to sustain her healing anymore. She's starting to lose her mind."
He finally raised his gaze, meeting Jungwon’s furious, defensive eyes with absolute devastation.
"Her blood," Sunghoon pointed a trembling finger toward you. "It has the sun-fire in it. It successfully fused. It’s the exact cure my sister desperately needs to survive. And for a second..." Sunghoon’s voice broke entirely, a single tear betraying his impenetrable ice. "...for a terrifying second, I actually thought about letting her bleed out so I could take it."
The horrifying confession hung heavily in the air.
Jay’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief, his grip on Sunghoon’s shoulder loosening slightly. Jake stood completely frozen near the elevator. Jungwon looked at his closest friend as if he had just seen a ghost, his mind violently struggling to process the devastating dilemma Sunghoon had just been trapped in.
Jungwon’s expression darkened, a fresh wave of protective fury rising in his chest. "You would sacrifice her—"
"Wait..."
A fragile, broken rasp cut through Jungwon's anger.
Jungwon instantly stopped talking. He looked down at you, his eyes immediately softening into a pool of pure panic as you weakly pushed yourself an inch away from his chest.
Your entire body was trembling, your face deathly pale, and your breathing was terrifyingly shallow. The sun-fire curse was actively burning you from the inside out, but despite the sheer, blinding agony, you looked past Jungwon’s shoulder, right at Sunghoon.
You didn't know his sister. You barely knew him. But you knew exactly what it felt like to be terrified of losing the only family you had left.
"Take it," you whispered, your voice barely more than a breath.
Jungwon’s heart stopped. "What? No—"
"Take it," you repeated, your bloodstained hand weakly reaching out to grip Jungwon’s black t-shirt, silencing his protest. You looked directly into Sunghoon’s wide, horrified eyes. Another painful cough wracked your frame, but you forced the words out. "When... when Madame Kim gets here... tell her to take whatever you need. Save your sister."
Sunghoon entirely froze.
The Ice Prince stared at you, absolutely paralyzed. The human he had just considered letting die—the human who was currently enduring an apocalyptic amount of pain because of the very same curse destroying his family—was offering her own lifeline without a single second of hesitation.
It completely shattered him.
The centuries of resentment he held toward humans, the cold, untouchable walls he had built around himself, completely collapsed under the sheer, blinding weight of your empathy.
Sunghoon forcefully pushed himself away from Jay's support. He ignored the bruising on his throat and the exhaustion in his bones. With heavy, deliberate steps, he walked toward where Jungwon was holding you, before dropping to his knees right on the cold, bloodstained marble.
He didn't look at Jungwon. He bowed his head entirely to you.
"I swear it," Sunghoon whispered, his voice trembling with a raw, unbreakable vow that echoed through the silent penthouse. "If you save her... my life is yours. I will protect you with my last breath until the end of time."
"No."
Jungwon’s voice cut through the heavy silence, sharp, ragged, and entirely desperate. His arms tightened around you, pulling you even closer to his chest as if he could physically hide you from the reality of the room. "I am not allowing this."
"Jungwon..." you rasped out, your vision swimming from the searing agony in your chest.
"You are actively burning from the inside out," Jungwon argued, his dark eyes frantic as he looked down at your pale, bloodstained face. The meticulously composed leader of the syndicate was completely unraveling. "Extracting your blood while the sun-fire is reigniting could send your nervous system into severe shock. It could kill you. I will not let them drain you."
You weakly shifted, your trembling fingers curling tighter into the fabric of his black t-shirt to ground yourself against the pain.
"Jungwon... please listen to me," you pleaded, a wet cough rattling your lungs.
He shook his head, his jaw clenched so hard it looked painful. He leaned down, pressing his cold forehead gently against yours, his breathing remarkably unsteady. "Don't ask me to risk your life. I can't do it. Please don't ask me to do this."
"When my mother was dying..." you whispered.
The painful memory forced its way out through the suffocating pain in your torso.
Jungwon froze. He pulled back just a fraction of an inch, his agonized eyes locking onto your tear-filled ones.
"When she was sick... and the doctors said there was nothing else they could do..." A choked sob mixed with another painful cough tore from your throat. "I sat by her hospital bed... and I prayed to every god listening. I would have given anything. My heart, my soul, my own life... just for a cure. Just for one more day with her."
You swallowed hard, tasting the metallic magic in your mouth. You looked past Jungwon’s shoulder for a brief second, glancing at Sunghoon, who was still kneeling on the marble floor, his head bowed as he listened to your fragile confession.
"He is sitting by that exact same hospital bed right now," you continued, your gaze returning to Jungwon's devastated expression. "Sunghoon is drowning in that exact same, suffocating helplessness. If my blood... if a part of me can stop him from feeling the grief of losing his family... how could I possibly say no?"
Jungwon stared at you, the heavy silence of the penthouse amplifying the sound of your ragged breathing.
The fierce, uncompromising underworld boss was completely disarmed by the staggering purity of your empathy. You were just a fragile human, currently bleeding out on his floor, yet you possessed a profound strength that made centuries-old immortals fall to their knees.
Jungwon closed his eyes. A shuddering, defeated exhale escaped his lips as the fight entirely drained out of him.
He gently cupped your cheek, his thumb carefully avoiding the glowing blood on your skin.
"You have the most beautifully reckless heart I have ever known," Jungwon whispered, his voice thick with unshed emotion and overwhelming adoration. He leaned down, pressing a lingering, desperate kiss to your forehead. "Okay. Okay, we'll do it your way."
Without another word, Jungwon carefully slipped his arms beneath your trembling frame. In one fluid, powerful motion, he lifted you from the freezing marble floor, cradling your fragile body securely against his chest to protect you from the biting cold of the room.
He slowly turned his head. The raw vulnerability in his expression vanished entirely, instantly replaced by the lethal, commanding authority of a syndicate leader. His dark eyes locked onto his right-hand man, who was still kneeling on the floor.
"Did you hear her, Sunghoon?" Jungwon demanded, his tone laced with absolute, uncompromising devotion. "She is handing you a miracle. So you better pray her heart doesn't stop during this process... or I will burn this entire city to the ground myself."
Sunghoon didn't flinch at the threat. He just kept his head bowed, his hands clenched into fists on his lap, silently accepting the absolute weight of Jungwon's condition.
"Madame Kim is three minutes away," Jake’s voice rang out from across the room, having just ended the phone call. His usual golden-retriever warmth was completely gone, replaced by a strict, focused urgency. "She’s bringing the extraction kits directly here."
"Clear the area," Jay ordered immediately, stepping forward to pull Sunghoon off the floor. "We prep the room. Move."
Jungwon didn't wait for them. He tightened his hold on you, his fast, purposeful strides carrying you away from the bloodstained living room and straight back toward the safety of his bedroom.
He kicked the heavy wooden door open, the ambient warmth of the room washing over you.
"Hold on just a little longer," Jungwon murmured frantically against your hair, gently laying you down onto the plush mattress. He immediately pulled the thick comforter up to your chin to combat the violent shivering wrecking your body. He sat right on the edge of the bed, his cold hands framing your pale face. "Stay with me. Keep looking at me. Don't close your eyes."
Three minutes felt like an agonizing century.
When the heavy bedroom doors finally flew open, Madame Kim didn't waste a single second on pleasantries. She practically sprinted into the room, a heavy leather medical bag clutched in her hands.
"Get her flat on her back! Strip the bandages!" Madame Kim ordered, her sharp voice cutting through the panic as she violently unzipped her bag, pulling out an array of thick, crystal-glass vials and heavy magical tourniquets.
Jungwon immediately complied, his cold hands working with frantic precision to tear away the blood-soaked gauze around your torso.
Madame Kim took one look at the glowing, golden embers flickering within your exposed, blackened veins, and her expression instantly dropped into pure, unadulterated grimness. She looked up, her gaze bypassing Jungwon to lock directly onto Sunghoon, who was standing rigidly by the bedroom door.
"You understand what you are asking of her, don't you?" Madame Kim’s voice was deathly quiet, yet it carried a terrifying weight. "The sun-fire curse binds itself to the life force. Extracting blood that has fused with this magic is not a normal medical procedure. It is forcefully dragging pure, volatile lava out of a mortal's veins. The pain she is about to endure will defy human comprehension."
Sunghoon’s breath hitched. He looked at you, pale and trembling on the massive bed, and then looked at Madame Kim. He gave a single, rigid nod, his jaw clenched so hard it looked as if it might shatter.
"I need her completely immobilized," Madame Kim instructed, pulling out a terrifyingly thick, silver extraction needle attached to a reinforced glass tube. "Her nervous system is going to violently reject the extraction. If she thrashes and this needle tears her vein, the magic will hemorrhage into her heart, and she will die instantly. Jake, Jay, pin her down."
They didn't hesitate.
Jay immediately stepped to the left side of the bed, his strong hands firmly pressing down on your shoulders to lock your upper body to the mattress. Jake moved to the foot of the bed, securely gripping your legs to prevent any sudden thrashing. They both gritted their teeth, their expressions tight with immense guilt at having to physically restrain you.
Jungwon dropped to his knees right beside your head. He didn't care about being the composed leader of the syndicate anymore. He leaned in, his trembling hands gently but securely framing your pale face, forcing your tear-filled eyes to look at him.
"I'm right here," Jungwon whispered, his voice cracking as his thumbs brushed your cheeks. "Keep your eyes on me. Only me."
Madame Kim tied the heavy tourniquet around your upper right arm.
"Brace yourselves," she warned.
She plunged the silver needle into your vein.
For one single, horrifying heartbeat, nothing happened.
And then, the extraction began.
The moment the vacuum of the glass tube forcefully pulled the golden, cursed blood out of your system, an apocalyptic shockwave of sheer, unfathomable agony annihilated your entire existence.
It wasn't just pain. It was a complete, catastrophic violation of the human body.
It felt as though millions of microscopic shards of molten glass were being dragged violently through your bloodstream. The fire didn't just burn; it tore, shredded, and incinerated every single nerve ending from the inside out.
Your back violently arched off the mattress.
A scream ripped from your throat—but it wasn't a normal scream. It was a raw, blood-curdling shriek of pure, absolute torment that tore your vocal cords. The sound was so entirely devastating, so profoundly horrific, that it physically vibrated through the glass windows of the penthouse.
"Ahhhh! AHHHHHHH!"
"Hold her down!" Madame Kim yelled over your deafening screams, her hands glowing with suppression magic as she fought to keep the crystal tube from shattering under the immense heat of your blood.
You thrashed wildly. Jay used his immortal strength to keep your shoulders pinned flat, his jaw locking in distress as you desperately fought against his grip. Jake squeezed his eyes shut, turning his head away as he rigidly held your thrashing legs, unable to bear the horrific sight of your suffering.
"Look at me! Please, God, look at me!" Jungwon yelled, his voice completely breaking.
The untouchable immortal who had survived centuries of war and carnage was openly weeping. Tears fell freely from his dark eyes, dropping onto the mattress as he watched you endure literal hell. He pressed his forehead against yours, his hands gripping your face as if his sheer willpower alone could absorb the agony.
"You're doing so well, you're almost done! Please hold on!" Jungwon begged, his voice a fractured, agonizing sob against your skin.
But the pain only escalated. You sobbed violently, choking on the air. Your left hand shot out, your fingers gripping Jungwon’s wrist with such aggressive, blinding force that your fingernails physically dug into his immortal skin. The agony was so immense that your vision completely whited out. You couldn't hear Jungwon's pleas anymore; you could only feel the molten fire devouring your soul.
Standing perfectly still by the heavy wooden door, Sunghoon watched every single second.
He didn't blink. He didn't look away.
He forced himself to witness the absolute atrocity of the extraction. He watched your body convulse under Jake and Jay’s unyielding restraint. He listened to the horrific, agonizing screams tearing from your throat—screams that were solely dedicated to paying the price for his sister's life.
The golden, glowing blood slowly filling the crystal vial across the room wasn't just medicine. It was a physical manifestation of your excruciating suffering.
Sunghoon stopped breathing. His hands clenched into fists at his sides so violently that his own immortal, black blood began to drip from his palms, heavily splashing onto the hardwood floor.
The guilt was entirely suffocating. It crushed his lungs, paralyzed his heart, and dismantled every single prejudice he had ever held. He was watching a human willingly be burned alive from the inside out, enduring a pain that would have broken an immortal, just to spare him the grief of loss.
Unable to watch any longer, Sunghoon finally broke.
He didn't collapse, but the impenetrable Ice Prince turned his face away, leaning heavily against the wooden doorframe as if his legs could no longer support his own weight. He squeezed his eyes shut, his jaw trembling as a silent, devastating tear slipped down his cheek. He had asked for a miracle, and the universe was violently extracting it from the most selfless, fragile soul he had ever encountered.
"Almost there! Just a few more seconds!" Madame Kim shouted, the crystal vial now practically radiating heat as it filled to the brim with the golden, cursed blood.
You let out one final, agonizing, breathless shriek, your grip on Jungwon's wrist completely failing.
And then, with a sharp click, Madame Kim disengaged the tube.
She instantly slammed her glowing palm flat against the puncture wound, violently forcing the remaining sun-fire magic in your veins back into dormancy.
The blinding agony abruptly vanished, replaced entirely by a crushing, absolute void.
All the fight instantly drained from your body. You went completely limp against the mattress. Your eyes fluttered shut, your head lolling to the side as the overwhelming trauma finally dragged you completely into the dark, merciful abyss of unconsciousness.
"She's out," Madame Kim breathed out a heavy, exhausted sigh, slumping back into the chair. She quickly bandaged your arm. "The magic is suppressed. Her heart is stable."
Jake and Jay immediately let go of you. They both stumbled a step back from the bed, breathing heavily, looking profoundly horrified and physically sickened by what they had just been forced to do to you.
But Jungwon didn't move away.
He immediately surged forward, carefully gathering your limp, unconscious body from the mattress and pulling you flush against his chest. His trembling hands cradled the back of your head, burying his face into your hair. His shoulders violently shook as he let out a choked, devastated sob of pure relief, holding you as if letting go meant the world would end.
Across the room, Madame Kim carefully sealed the heavy, crystal vial. The blood inside was glowing brightly, casting a warm, golden illumination across the dark bedroom.
She stood up, walking straight toward the door.
Sunghoon slowly opened his eyes, wiping the unshed tears from his face. He pushed himself off the doorframe, though his posture was still heavily weighed down by absolute exhaustion and guilt.
Madame Kim stopped right in front of him. Without a word, she extended her hand, gently pressing the warm, glowing vial into Sunghoon’s bloodstained, trembling palms.
"She just walked through hell for you," Madame Kim whispered, her sharp eyes meeting his and carrying the absolute gravity of the moment. "Do not let her sacrifice be in vain. Go save your sister."
Sunghoon looked down at the crystal vial in his hands.
His bloodstained fingers were trembling so severely he had to grip his own wrist to steady them. The golden, magical blood inside the glass radiated a profound, living warmth that seeped directly into his freezing skin. He held it with an excruciating delicacy, treating the small vial with more reverence than a sacred relic. The immense guilt of what it cost to obtain it settled heavily into his bones.
He didn't immediately rush out the door.
Instead, Sunghoon turned around. With slow, deliberate steps, he walked back toward the massive bed. Jake and Jay silently stepped aside, granting him the space he needed.
Jungwon was still sitting on the mattress, carefully cradling your unconscious body flush against his chest. He was gently smoothing your sweat-dampened hair, his expression etched with a profound, lingering distress.
Sunghoon stopped a few feet away.
"Jungwon," Sunghoon spoke, his freezing baritone unusually soft, stripped entirely of its usual impenetrable armor.
Jungwon slowly lifted his head. His dark eyes were red-rimmed, carrying the exhaustion of a man who had just watched his entire world shatter and rebuild itself in the span of five minutes. He looked at his right-hand man, the residual tension between them still lingering in the quiet room.
Sunghoon didn't offer excuses. He didn't try to justify his actions.
He simply lowered his head, bending his broad shoulders into a deep, unwavering bow of pure submission and regret. It was a gesture of ultimate respect, one that immortal predators rarely ever gave.
"I let my desperation blind my loyalty tonight," Sunghoon stated, his voice steady but laced with a heavy, sincere remorse. "I faltered when I should have protected her. I am deeply sorry, Jungwon. I swear to you, on my life, it will never happen again."
The heavy silence stretched between them, thick with centuries of brotherhood. Jungwon stared at the bowed figure of his closest friend. He understood the agonizing weight of grief better than anyone, and he knew the lengths a person would go to for the people they loved.
Jungwon let out a slow, quiet exhale, his protective hold around you remaining firm.
"Go," Jungwon answered, his voice a raspy whisper that held no lingering malice. He gave a singular, definitive nod, silently mending the fracture between them. "Save her."
Sunghoon slowly straightened his posture.
Before he turned to leave, his dark eyes shifted downward, locking onto your fragile form resting in Jungwon’s arms.
You looked remarkably small against the heavy blankets. Your skin was ashen, your breathing terrifyingly shallow, and your arm was tightly bandaged. You were entirely human—breakable, vulnerable, and mortal. Yet, as Sunghoon looked at you, he didn't see a fragile liability.
He saw a courage that eclipsed every immortal in the room. You had willingly stepped into an abyss of unimaginable agony, sacrificing a piece of your own life to pull a complete stranger out of the dark.
A quiet, profound reverence settled in his chest. The vow he had made earlier on his knees wasn't just spoken out of desperation anymore; it was permanently etched into his soul.
"Thank you," Sunghoon whispered, the words carrying a profound weight that encompassed a lifetime of gratitude.
He carefully tucked the warm crystal vial into the inner pocket of his coat, turning his back to the room, and disappeared into the night to finally bring his sister back from the edge of death.
Miles away from the pristine, silent luxury of the penthouse, hidden deep beneath the city’s forgotten historical district, lay the sunken ruins of an ancient, aristocratic cathedral. Once a sacred gathering ground for the vampire elite, it was now a suffocating tomb of desecrated marble and absolute darkness.
And right now, it was actively being torn apart by pure, catastrophic wrath.
CRASH! A massive, towering statue of a weeping angel violently exploded into thousands of jagged stone fragments.
"I want her erased! I want her completely, utterly obliterated from existence!"
Seo-hee’s feral, blood-curdling scream echoed through the cavernous sanctuary. The once-elegant, impeccably poised aristocrat was entirely unrecognizable. Her pristine velvet gown was stained with mud and ash. The left side of her face—where Jake had mercilessly crushed her skull the night before—was a horrifying tapestry of fractured immortal tissue and pulsing, black veins struggling to heal.
She wasn't just throwing a tantrum; she was actively bending the atmosphere of the room to her homicidal will.
An asphyxiating, corrosive wave of dark magic radiated from her body, creeping across the floor like black smoke. The dozen rebel vampires gathered in the hall were forced to their knees, physically choking on the sheer, apocalyptic weight of her aura.
"She is nothing!" Seo-hee hyperventilated, her hands gripping her own hair as she paced the ruined altar like a cornered, rabid predator. "He abandoned centuries of our legacy for a mortal who bleeds when she trips! I want her heart ripped out! I want to watch the light leave Jungwon's eyes as she turns to ash in his arms!"
She raised her hand, her long, bloodstained fingernails curling inward. A suffocating grip of dark magic materialized around the throat of a nearby rebel who had dared to flinch. She lifted him three feet off the ground, her sadistic rage demanding a sacrifice to quell her bruised ego.
"What a truly tragic waste of seventeenth-century marble."
A soft, melodic voice cut through the heavy, vibrating tension of the cathedral. It wasn't a shout, yet it carried an undeniable, piercing authority that made the blood of every vampire in the room run cold.
From the deep shadows of the broken pillars, Sunoo stepped into the dim moonlight.
Unlike the filthy, terrified rebels on the floor, Sunoo looked absolutely immaculate. His posture was perfectly relaxed, his beautiful, ethereal features entirely unbothered by the suffocating dark magic choking the room. He slowly, delicately brushed a speck of dust off his tailored coat, letting out a profound, theatrical sigh.
"Put him down, Seo-hee," Sunoo murmured, his tone dripping with a velvet-soft, patronizing elegance. "You are ruining the acoustics in here. And frankly... watching you unravel like this is becoming physically exhausting."
Seo-hee slowly turned her head. The cracked, bruised side of her face contorted into a terrifying, demonic glare. With a flick of her wrist, she violently tossed the choking vampire against the stone wall.
"Excuse me?" Seo-hee whispered, her voice dropping to a deadly, vibrating hiss.
Sunoo didn't cower. He gracefully walked right up to the ruined altar, his shoes clicking softly against the marble. He stopped just a few feet away from her, his fox-like eyes sweeping over her ruined gown, her disheveled hair, and her fractured face with a look of profound, aristocratic pity.
"I must confess, Seo-hee... I always believed your greatest asset was your untouchable, sovereign pride," Sunoo began, his voice smooth and intoxicating. "Yet here you are, shattering stained glass and screaming in the dark because Jungwon found a fragile, bleeding mortal more captivating than your centuries of absolute devotion. It’s... heartbreaking, really. To witness such a spectacular fall from grace."
Seo-hee’s dark eyes flared with lethal intent. "Watch your mouth, Sunoo, or I will silence it permanently."
"Oh, I am merely mourning the Queen I thought I knew," Sunoo smiled—a chilling, breathtaking curve of his lips that didn't reach his eyes. "Tell me, what is this grand, brilliant vision of yours? You rip her heart out. You drop her lifeless body at Jungwon's feet. And then?"
Sunoo tilted his head, his gaze laced with a razor-sharp, elegant mockery.
"Do you expect him to look at your bloodstained hands, fall to his knees, and finally realize you were the one all along? How beautifully poetic. And how terribly, embarrassingly naive."
Seo-hee raised her hand, her dark magic violently sparking, but Sunoo didn't even flinch. He just looked at her with a calm, venomous clarity that cut deeper than any blade.
"He didn't even look over his shoulder to see if Jake's blow had decapitated you last night, Seo-hee," Sunoo whispered, his voice dropping into a soft, surgical strike that completely annihilated her ego. "He was too busy making sure the mortal wasn't cold."
Seo-hee froze. Her breathing hitched, the dark magic flickering in her palms as the agonizing truth of his words pierced straight through her chest.
"If you kill her just to spite him, you don't reclaim your throne," Sunoo continued flawlessly, leaning in just an inch closer. "You only prove to the entire underground that the great, untouchable Aristocrat was so deeply, irreparably threatened by a human who barely knows how to breathe properly, that she lost her mind over it. You are immortal, my dear. Stop behaving like a replaceable mistress."
A suffocating, deathly silence fell over the cathedral. No one had ever dared to speak to Seo-hee like that. The sheer, elegant brutality of his logic hit her so hard she physically swayed. Her hands trembled, caught between the urge to obliterate him and the terrifying realization that he was absolutely right.
Seeing that he had successfully dismantled her pathetic tantrum, Sunoo’s expression shifted. The feigned pity melted away, instantly replaced by a dark, deeply calculating, and incredibly greedy ambition.
"Stop fighting a ghost, and start thinking like a deity," Sunoo ordered smoothly, reaching out to gently tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Put the human out of your mind. She isn't your rival. She is your key."
Seo-hee blinked, the blinding rage slowly receding into a cautious, sharp intrigue. "...What do you mean?"
"Do you truly not realize why a fragile mortal managed to survive the sun-fire fusion tonight without her heart exploding?" Sunoo whispered, his eyes flashing with a wicked delight. "Her soul is tied to the old era. The magic inherently belongs to her lineage. If we just kill her, the magic dies with her. If we drain her blood blindly, it will incinerate us from the inside out. But..."
Sunoo stepped back, turning to face the kneeling rebels, raising his arms slightly as if presenting a masterpiece.
"...if we can safely absorb it, we wouldn't just heal our wounds. We would rewrite our own veins. We would have the immunity to walk in the daylight. We would become untouchable gods."
"And how exactly do you plan to do that without turning us into a pile of ash?" Seo-hee asked, her voice steadying as the grand scale of his vision took hold.
"We need the catalyst," Sunoo answered simply, glancing over his shoulder with a breathtaking, sociopathic smirk. "We need the Grimoire."
The pieces violently clicked together in Seo-hee's twisted mind. "The mother from her past life..."
"Precisely," Sunoo chimed in. "The original sorceress who wove the sun-fire in the first place. There are ancient whispers of a Grimoire that contains the exact ritual. The very same sacrificial magic the girl's body just endured... the book holds the secret to safely transferring that exact, burning magic into an immortal vessel."
Sunoo walked back to Seo-hee, his voice dropping into a dark, hypnotic lure.
"Taking her life merely breaks Jungwon's heart. But taking her alive, violently draining her on a sacrificial altar, and using her own mother's sacred relic to turn yourself into a day-walking immortal?"
Sunoo smiled, a truly evil, intoxicating expression.
"That renders him completely, pathetically obsolete. You wouldn't just be his equal anymore. You would be his superior. He would have to watch the surface world he fought so hard to protect fall to its knees under your absolute rule."
A heavy, terrifying realization settled over the desolate cathedral.
Seo-hee slowly lowered her hands entirely. The blind, unhinged jealousy completely evaporated, instantly replaced by a sharp, calculating intrigue. But before she could issue a single command to her army, Sunoo raised a slender, perfectly manicured finger, silencing her.
He gracefully stepped onto the ruined altar. Without raising his voice or flexing an ounce of dark magic, Sunoo effortlessly claimed the absolute center of the room, his suffocating, malicious intellect completely overshadowing Seo-hee’s raw power.
"Tearing the city apart is a peasant's strategy," Sunoo remarked, his voice a soft, hypnotic purr that echoed through the dark cathedral. "Jungwon will lock her in his glass tower, surrounded by his hounds. He will double the guard. He will watch the perimeter until his eyes bleed. Let him. Let him exhaust himself preparing for an army that will never come."
Seo-hee frowned, the calculating edge returning to her eyes as a glaring flaw in his masterpiece presented itself. "A brilliant fantasy, Sunoo," she whispered, her voice laced with heavy skepticism. "But Jungwon's penthouse is a fortress of ancient wards. The entire perimeter is sealed with syndicate blood-magic. We cannot project our shadows into her mind if we can't even penetrate the glass of his tower. The access is completely shut."
Sunoo didn't look defeated. In fact, his smile only grew sharper, stretching into a breathtaking look of pure, unadulterated sadism.
He slowly stepped off the altar, gliding toward Seo-hee with the terrifying, silent grace of a predator. He stopped just inches away from her, closing the distance so abruptly that Seo-hee physically stiffened. His fox-like eyes swept over her ruined, filthy appearance with cold precision before locking onto the torn sleeve of her velvet gown—specifically, the dark, dried splatters of blood staining the fabric from when she had ambushed you hours prior.
Without a single warning, Sunoo’s hand shot out.
RIIIP! With a sharp, sudden, and violent force, he brutally tore the bloodstained fabric right off Seo-hee’s dress.
Seo-hee gasped, stumbling back a step in sheer shock, her eyes wide at the sudden intrusion. But Sunoo didn't even look at her. He didn't care about her boundaries or her aristocratic pride. He held the torn piece of velvet up to the pale moonlight, his eyes gleaming with an insidious, greedy delight as he stared at the dried, golden-laced flakes of your blood trapped in the threads.
"Wards are designed to keep external threats out, Seo-hee," Sunoo murmured, his voice a soft, venomous purr as he gently ran his thumb over your dried blood. "But sympathetic magic doesn't need to break down the front door. This blood is a piece of her life force. It is the backdoor key directly into her subconscious."
He slowly lowered his hand, his expression morphing into something so deeply evil, so profoundly twisted, that it made the surrounding darkness feel suffocating.
"With this..." Sunoo whispered, clutching the bloodstained fabric tightly in his fist, his voice vibrating with absolute, psychotic malice. "I don't need to step foot in his tower. This is more than enough to completely shatter her psyche. We will make her own mind the weapon that destroys her."
Seo-hee stared at him, a chilling awe washing over her. She thought she knew cruelty, but Sunoo’s mind was an entirely different labyrinth of pure, sociopathic darkness.
"We plague her sleep," Sunoo continued effortlessly, laying out his psychological trap. "We use this blood to whisper to her in the dark. We force the burning memories of her past life to bleed into her present. We drive her slowly, beautifully insane with the echoes of her own magic until she can no longer distinguish reality from a nightmare."
Sunoo turned to face the army of shadows, his mind already weaving the execution.
"She will become so desperate for answers, so utterly consumed by the voices in her head, that she will do exactly what Jungwon fears most," Sunoo predicted, his tone echoing with uncontested, absolute supremacy. "She will bypass his security herself. She will walk right out of his impenetrable fortress to find the Grimoire just to stop the madness. We don't hunt the prey. We poison her mind, we let her unlock the vault... and we simply wait in the shadows to take the prize from her trembling hands."
A cold, collective shudder ran through the rebel ranks. It was a masterpiece of psychological warfare.
"Recall the scouts. Stand everyone down," Sunoo finally commanded the room, stepping back into the shadows with the bloodstained fabric safely in his possession. He looked up at the shattered stained-glass windows, his ethereal face bathed in the pale moonlight. "Let Jungwon hold her tight tonight. Tomorrow... the nightmares begin."
Far away from the chaos of the underground and the tension of the penthouse, hidden in a heavily warded, freezing sanctuary on the outskirts of the city, the air was agonizingly still.
The walls of the sterile medical room were covered in thick, jagged layers of frost—a byproduct of Sunghoon’s ice magic constantly trying to lower the temperature of the room. But it wasn't enough. It was never enough.
Lying in the center of the massive bed was his little sister.
She looked impossibly fragile. Her once-flawless immortal skin was entirely marred by the devastating curse of the sun-fire. Blackened, cracked veins spider-webbed up her neck and across her cheeks, glowing with a cruel, flickering golden ember that was slowly, agonizingly incinerating her from the inside out.
The heavy steel door quietly opened.
Sunghoon stepped in, the freezing air doing nothing to soothe the bruised, battered state of his body—or his completely shattered soul. His coat was stained with his own dark blood, his throat deeply bruised from Jungwon’s lethal grip, but he barely felt it. His entire focus was entirely on the fragile girl on the bed.
Hearing his footsteps, she slowly, painfully fluttered her eyes open. Her breathing was terrifyingly shallow, a wet, rattling sound echoing in her lungs.
"Oppa...?" she whispered, her voice barely more than a dry, fractured rasp.
Sunghoon immediately rushed to her bedside, dropping heavily to his knees on the frosted floor. He reached out, his trembling, freezing hands hovering over her arm, too terrified to touch her and cause her any more pain.
"I'm here. I'm right here," Sunghoon choked out, his usually impenetrable baritone cracking completely.
His sister forced a weak, agonizingly slow smile. She looked at her older brother—the untouchable, lethal Ice Prince of the syndicate—and saw nothing but a desperately terrified boy. She saw the exhaustion in his dark eyes, the centuries of war he had fought just to keep her safe.
Slowly, fighting through the blinding agony, she lifted her trembling, severely burned hand. She didn't reach for the cure. She reached out, gently pressing her cracked fingertips against Sunghoon’s cold cheek.
"Oppa..." she breathed out, a single tear slipping past the burning embers under her eyes. "It hurts so much... it's getting too bright."
Sunghoon’s breath violently hitched. "No, no. Don't talk. Save your strength."
She gently shook her head against the pillow. "You fought... so hard for me," she whispered, her fragile voice carrying the devastating weight of absolute resignation. "You did everything you could. But I'm so tired. If the fire is going to take me... it's okay. You can stop fighting now. You can let me go."
"Don't you dare say that," Sunghoon completely broke.
Tears spilled from his dark eyes, heavily splashing onto her burned hand. He leaned into her touch, his shoulders shaking as a fractured, devastating sob tore from his chest. The idea of living in an eternity without her was a suffocating, apocalyptic nightmare he simply couldn't survive.
"I'm not letting you go," Sunghoon cried, desperately pressing his forehead against the edge of her mattress. "I brought a miracle. I brought it. Please, just hold on for one more minute."
With trembling hands, Sunghoon reached into the inner pocket of his coat. He pulled out the heavy, crystal glass vial.
The moment the vial was exposed to the dark room, a profound, living warmth radiated from the golden-laced blood inside, casting a gentle, ethereal illumination over her pale face.
Her eyes widened slightly, the raw power of the magic inside the vial leaving her entirely breathless. "What... what is that?"
"Salvation," Sunghoon whispered, his voice thick with overwhelming grief and profound reverence.
He unsealed the heavy crystal vial. Without wasting another second, he carefully tilted the glass to her dry, cracked lips. "Drink it. All of it."
She obediently swallowed the golden, glowing blood.
For one agonizingly silent second, nothing happened.
And then, a violent gasp tore from her throat. Her back arched off the bed, her eyes shooting wide open as the unadulterated sun-fire magic from your blood clashed violently with the curse slowly killing her.
Sunghoon gripped her shoulders, his heart stopping in sheer panic.
But the thrashing only lasted a moment. The golden magic from your veins didn't burn her; it devoured the curse. The blackened, fractured veins on her neck suddenly hissed, the lethal embers flickering wildly before being aggressively snuffed out by a wave of pure, calming warmth.
Right before Sunghoon’s terrified eyes, the horrifying burns on her skin began to rapidly close. The blackened tissue faded, replaced by smooth, flawless immortal skin. The agonizing rattling in her lungs completely stopped.
The color returned to her cheeks. The curse was entirely, unequivocally broken.
She fell back against the pillows, taking a deep, entirely painless breath for the first time in months. The overwhelming exhaustion of the healing process instantly pulled her into a deep, peaceful sleep.
Sunghoon didn't stand up. He stayed right there on his knees, his massive frame trembling as he leaned over the edge of the bed. He slowly reached out, his cold fingers gently taking her small, perfectly healed hand into his own. He traced the smooth skin where the blackened veins used to be, his chest heavily rising and falling.
He brought her knuckles up, pressing them delicately against his forehead as he closed his eyes. A single, devastating tear slipped down his cheek, landing softly on her hand.
"Now..." Sunghoon whispered into the quiet room, his voice breaking with a fragile, overwhelming warmth as he looked at her peaceful face. "...you can finally open the window without being afraid of getting those same burns ever again."
The empty crystal vial rested on the frosted floor beside him, the remnants of your golden blood still glowing faintly.
As Sunghoon looked at the glass, the heartwarming relief he felt was instantly anchored by a crushing, unbreakable weight of guilt. The horrific, agonizing sound of your screams violently echoed in his mind. He remembered you, a fragile, beautiful mortal, bleeding out on the marble floor, enduring a pain that would have broken an immortal just to hand him this very moment.
The centuries of ice guarding his heart had completely melted away.
Sunghoon bowed his head, holding his sister's hand tightly as his freezing baritone vibrated with a profound, terrifyingly absolute vow.
"My life for yours," Sunghoon whispered, sealing his eternal loyalty to the mortal who had saved his world. "Whatever you need. Whoever you want dead. From this night until the end of time... I am your shield."
The silence in the penthouse was suffocating.
When you finally fluttered your eyes open, the apocalyptic agony that had shredded your veins during the extraction was completely gone, replaced by a heavy, hollow exhaustion. Your entire body ached violently, and your right arm was tightly bound in thick white bandages where Madame Kim had drawn your blood.
The bedroom was swallowed in shadows, the heavy curtains drawn shut to block out the morning sun.
"You're awake."
The voice was rough, fractured, and came from the dark corner of the room.
You slowly turned your head against the pillow. Jungwon was sitting in the armchair, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped tightly over his mouth. He hadn't changed his clothes. His dark shirt was still stained with your blood. His eyes were bloodshot, surrounded by deep, exhausted shadows, looking completely and utterly unhinged.
"Jungwon..." you whispered, your voice incredibly raspy. You tried to push yourself up, your bandaged arm trembling under your own weight.
"Don't move," Jungwon snapped.
It wasn't a gentle request. It was a sharp, biting command that echoed loudly in the quiet room. He stood up instantly, closing the distance between you and the chair in a fraction of a second. But he didn't sit on the bed. He stopped right at the edge, his chest heaving aggressively as he looked down at your fragile, bandaged state.
"Do you have any idea what you just did?" Jungwon demanded, his voice rising, the terrifying authority of the syndicate leader completely bleeding into his tone. "Do you comprehend what happened tonight?!"
You flinched slightly, taken aback by his sudden hostility. "I... I had to—"
"Why didn't you wake me up?!" Jungwon suddenly yelled, his voice cracking violently as his composure entirely shattered.
He ran both of his trembling hands aggressively through his dark hair, pacing a short step away before turning back to you, his eyes wide with a frantic, paralyzing terror.
"When Sunghoon came to you in the middle of the night—when he cornered you for a miracle—why didn't you come and get me?!" Jungwon shouted, pointing a shaking finger at you, his fury entirely misdirected. "You just willingly offered your life to him! You volunteered to let Madame Kim drag molten fire out of your veins without even a single thought! You could have died right in front of me! Your heart could have stopped in my hands!"
"Jungwon, please—"
"I am supposed to protect you!" Jungwon roared, kicking the leg of the armchair so violently that the heavy furniture skidded across the hardwood floor with a deafening screech.
The echo of the crash faded, leaving a heavy, agonizing silence in its wake.
You looked at him, your heart aching. He wasn't angry at you. The formidable, untouchable immortal was standing in the middle of his bedroom, hyperventilating, his eyes brimming with devastated tears. He was violently, furiously angry at himself. His mind was an absolute, chaotic mess because the mere thought of losing you had completely dismantled his sanity.
"I was asleep..." Jungwon whispered, the deafening yell suddenly dropping into a broken, suffocating sob.
All the fight, all the misdirected anger instantly drained from his body. Jungwon’s knees gave out. He collapsed right beside the bed, dropping heavily onto the floor. He didn't care about his pride or his status. He buried his face into the mattress right next to your hand, his broad shoulders violently shaking.
"I was asleep right next to you while you were making a deal with death," Jungwon cried, his fingers desperately curling into the bedsheets. "And then I just woke up to find you bleeding... and I had to sit there, holding you down, and watch you be torn apart. I promised I would keep you safe... God, when you were screaming... when you stopped moving..."
You forced your heavy, aching body to shift. Ignoring the dull pain in your arm, you slowly reached out, gently burying your fingers into his dark, messy hair.
Jungwon immediately reacted to your touch. He aggressively surged upward, climbing onto the edge of the mattress. He didn't pin you down; instead, he carefully but desperately pulled your upper body into his chest, burying his face deep into the crook of your neck. He wrapped his arms around you as if his life literally depended on feeling you breathe.
"I'm sorry," Jungwon choked out, his tears soaking into your shirt as he held you with a terrified, crushing grip. "I'm so sorry I yelled at you. I'm just... I'm so incredibly terrified. Please don't ever do that to me again. Please don't ever offer your life so easily."
He pressed a lingering, desperate kiss to your shoulder, his entire immortal frame trembling against your fragile human body.
"I can't lose you," Jungwon whispered, his voice stripped of all his power, leaving nothing but a desperately in love, traumatized boy. "If that magic had killed you tonight... I would have burned this entire world to ashes, and then I would have followed you into the dark."
You didn't offer a grand, elaborate speech to calm him down. Words felt entirely inadequate against the sheer magnitude of his terror.
Instead, you let the heavy silence of the room wrap around you both.
Your fingers, still buried in his dark, messy hair, began to move in slow, soothing motions. You let him hold you, letting him bury his face in your neck until the violent trembling in his broad shoulders slowly began to subside.
Gently, you shifted your weight, encouraging him to pull back just enough so you could see his face. Jungwon reluctantly lifted his head. His beautiful, untouchable features were completely stripped of their defenses, laid bare in absolute vulnerability.
You slowly moved your hands down from his hair. Your warm palms gently cupped his cold cheeks. Using your thumbs, you carefully wiped away the lingering tears and the cold sweat dampening his skin. You traced his cheekbones, grounding him to the present, forcing his frantic mind to focus entirely on your touch.
You looked directly into his dark, red-rimmed eyes.
"I'm here," you whispered, your voice incredibly soft, a fragile anchor in the middle of his storm. You brushed a dark strand of hair from his forehead. "Jungwon... I survived. I'm right here."
Jungwon let out a ragged, shaky exhale, leaning his cheek heavily into your palm as if your warmth was the only thing keeping him tethered to the earth.
He closed his eyes, finally allowing himself to breathe.
But right as the tension began to leave his body... it happened.
Riiiiing. A sudden, sharp, high-pitched ringing pierced through your ears.
You froze. Your breath hitched as the dimly lit bedroom suddenly felt like it was spinning. The walls of the penthouse blurred, and in a fraction of a second, your consciousness was violently ripped backward in time.
The soft mattress vanished, replaced by cold, shattered stone. The smell of cedarwood was instantly overpowered by the suffocating stench of ash, blood, and burning magic. You couldn't move. You were lying on the ground, staring up at a dark, apocalyptic sky. And then, Jungwon was there. But it wasn't the Jungwon of today. He was covered in blood, his clothes torn, screaming your name with a vocal cord-shredding agony that tore the heavens apart. He was holding your lifeless body against his chest, frantically pressing his hands against a catastrophic wound, begging—pleading with whatever gods were listening—not to take you away. The desperation in his eyes wasn't just fear. It was the absolute, horrific destruction of his entire soul. "Hey—"
A voice violently snapped you back to reality.
You gasped, your eyes shooting wide open as the luxurious, quiet penthouse rushed back into view. Your chest heaved as if you had just forgotten how to breathe.
"Hey, look at me," Jungwon’s voice was suddenly frantic again.
He had pulled back, his cold hands now framing your face, his thumbs gently but urgently stroking your cheeks. The domestic warmth was gone, instantly replaced by sheer panic at your sudden zoning out.
"What's wrong? Does it hurt? Is the fire burning again?" Jungwon fired the questions rapidly, his eyes scanning your face, his body entirely tensed, ready to tear the city apart to find Madame Kim again. "Tell me where it hurts."
You stared at him, your heart hammering wildly against your ribs.
You looked into his dark, panicked eyes. And suddenly, it hit you with a suffocating, paralyzing weight.
It was the exact same fear. The terror in his eyes right now wasn't just about what happened last night. He was reliving the centuries-old trauma of losing you. Every time you bled, every time you closed your eyes in pain, he wasn't just seeing the present—he was being forcefully dragged back to the moment you died in his arms centuries ago. He had been carrying that apocalyptic grief entirely alone.
Hot, heavy tears suddenly welled up in your eyes, blurring your vision.
The realization of how much this man loved you—how much he had suffered for you—completely broke your heart.
"No..." you whispered, your voice trembling as a single tear slipped down your cheek.
You quickly reached up, wrapping your hands over his cold fingers that were still frantically cupping your face. You offered him a faint, fragile smile, swallowing down the terrifying residue of the memory.
"No, I'm okay," you reassured him softly, keeping your gaze locked entirely on his to show him you were completely present. "Nothing hurts. I think... I'm just a little dizzy from waking up. That's all."
Jungwon didn't look entirely convinced. His chest was still rising and falling heavily, his eyes searching yours for any hidden trace of pain.
But seeing the warmth in your tear-filled eyes, and feeling the steady pulse of your heartbeat under his hands, he slowly let out a long, shaky breath. The lethal panic receded, leaving behind a profound, terrifyingly deep devotion.
"Don't scare me like that," Jungwon murmured, his voice dropping into a breathless, relieved whisper. He leaned in, pressing a long, impossibly tender kiss to your forehead, letting his lips linger against your skin as he held you exactly where you belonged.
The lingering warmth of Jungwon’s lips against your forehead was suddenly shattered by three sharp, rapid knocks on the heavy bedroom door.
The sound wasn't a polite inquiry. It was an urgent, deliberate demand.
Jungwon froze. The raw, vulnerable boy from a second ago vanished, his posture instantly stiffening. He slowly pulled back, his dark eyes hardening as the impenetrable mask of the syndicate leader slammed back into place.
The heavy wooden door creaked open just a fraction.
Jake stepped into the room, but the bright, golden-retriever energy he usually carried was completely obliterated. He wasn't smiling. His jaw was locked tight, his shoulders squared, and his eyes carried a dark, lethal seriousness that instantly made the temperature in the room plummet.
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Jake said, his voice entirely stripped of its usual warmth. He stopped a few feet away from the bed, his hands clasped tightly behind his back.
Jungwon didn't move from your side, his hand still resting protectively over yours. "What is it?"
"Madame Kim is on the secure channel," Jake reported, his gaze shifting to Jungwon with grim urgency. "She refused to speak to me or Jay. She demanded to speak to you directly. She said it is an absolute emergency regarding the extraction from last night."
Your breath hitched. The extraction. Did something go wrong? Was the magic unstable?
Jungwon’s jaw clenched so hard a muscle feathered along his cheek. He looked down at you, the conflict violently tearing through his eyes. He had just broken down over the paralyzing fear of leaving your side, and now, he was being summoned away. His hand tightened over yours, an instinctual, stubborn refusal to let you go.
Jake saw the hesitation. He knew exactly what Jungwon was terrified of.
Jake’s dark eyes shifted from Jungwon to you. He took in your pale face, the massive bandages, and the lingering tears in your eyes. A flicker of immense relief crossed his face seeing you awake and breathing, but the grim reality of the situation immediately forced it back down.
Jake took a deliberate step further into the room, effectively blocking the doorway.
"Go," Jake ordered, his voice dropping into a low, uncompromising octave that carried the full weight of a syndicate enforcer. "Take the call in the study. I am locking down this room."
Jungwon hesitated, his dark eyes entirely devoid of trust for the world outside these walls.
"Jungwon, look at me," Jake said sharply, forcing his friend to meet his gaze. Jake’s eyes flashed with a dangerous, protective vow. "I will stand right here. I won't blink. I won't move an inch. If anything so much as breathes near this door, I will tear it to pieces. She is safe with me. Go."
The heavy, suffocating tension in the room vibrated against your skin. You could physically feel the oppressive weight of their ancient, blood-sworn loyalty.
Jungwon stared at his oldest friend for a long, agonizing second. Finally, he gave a single, tight nod.
He looked back down at you. The ruthless, terrifying predator in his eyes softened just a fraction as he brought your knuckles up to his lips, pressing a firm, lingering kiss against your skin.
"I will be right back," Jungwon promised, his voice a dark, absolute vow. "Do not get out of this bed."
You nodded silently, your heart hammering in your chest as the dread of Madame Kim's urgent message began to sink in.
Jungwon let go of your hand. He stood up, his towering, formidable presence entirely consuming the room as he walked past Jake and stepped out into the hallway. The moment he crossed the threshold, the heavy oak doors slammed shut behind him with a deafening thud, followed by the terrifying, mechanical click of the magical deadbolts locking into place.
You were left alone with Jake.
The silence in the room was deafening. Jake didn't move to sit on the sofa or try to make a joke to lighten the mood. He stood perfectly still by the locked door, his arms crossed over his chest, his senses entirely dialed into the perimeter of the penthouse.
"Jake?" you whispered into the tense silence, your voice trembling slightly. "What do you think she wants to tell him?"
Jake didn't look at you. His dark eyes remained fixed on the space in front of him, constantly scanning for threats that weren't there.
"I don't know," Jake answered, his tone flat, laced with a heavy, unshakeable dread. "But Madame Kim is centuries old. She has seen wars, plagues, and massacres. She doesn't panic."
He finally turned his head, looking at you with a chilling, dead-serious expression.
"If she says it's an emergency..." Jake murmured, the air in the room growing impossibly cold, "...then we are already in terrible danger."
The heavy oak doors of the study closed behind Jungwon with a definitive, mechanical click.
The room was pitch black, save for the faint, cold city lights bleeding through the glass and the blinking red light of the secure communication console on his massive mahogany desk. Jungwon didn't bother turning on the lights. He walked straight to the desk, leaning his weight against the edge as he pressed the glowing button.
"I'm here," Jungwon said, his voice a low, commanding rumble. "Speak."
A heavy, crackling static filled the room for a split second before Madame Kim's voice came through.
"Jungwon," she breathed out.
The single word made Jungwon’s blood run completely cold. Madame Kim was centuries old. She was the most stoic, unfazed healer in the entire underground. She had patched up decapitations, witnessed massacres, and survived wars without ever raising her voice.
Right now, she sounded profoundly, terrifyingly shaken.
"What is it?" Jungwon demanded, his grip on the edge of the desk tightening so hard the enchanted wood began to groan under his fingers. "Did the extraction fail? Is the mortal tissue deteriorating? Tell me what is wrong with her."
"Her mortal tissue is perfectly intact," Madame Kim answered, her voice laced with a grave, heavy dread. "And that, Jungwon, is exactly the problem. I have spent the last few hours in my laboratory, meticulously analyzing the residual traces of the golden blood we extracted from her last night."
Jungwon frowned, his dark eyes narrowing in the dark. "And?"
"When Seo-hee ambushed her and forced that sun-fire into her chest, the girl should have died instantly," Madame Kim explained, the absolute gravity of her words echoing through the quiet study. "A fragile human body cannot contain the raw essence of a daylight curse. It should have incinerated her from the inside out. The fact that she survived... the fact that her heart kept beating..."
Madame Kim paused, taking a shaky breath.
"It means the magic didn't just burn her, Jungwon. It recognized her."
A suffocating silence fell over the study. Jungwon stopped breathing.
"What are you saying?" Jungwon whispered, his voice vibrating with a dangerous edge.
"I am saying that the fusion is absolute," Madame Kim revealed, delivering the catastrophic truth. "The sun-fire is no longer a foreign parasite that we can just drain away. It has fundamentally integrated with her soul. The extraction we performed last night? We only siphoned the overflow. The core of the ancient magic has permanently embedded itself into her veins. It has become a part of who she is."
Jungwon felt the ground drop entirely out from under him.
"The consequences of this are going to be completely unpredictable," Madame Kim warned, her tone urgent and pleading. "This isn't just physical anymore, Jungwon. The sun-fire is ancient. It carries the echoes of the old era. Because it is now absolute within her, her mortal brain is going to be subjected to a magical frequency it was never designed to handle."
Jungwon’s eyes widened in the dark. His mind violently flashed back to just moments ago—the way you had suddenly frozen, your eyes wide with pure, unadulterated terror, staring at something he couldn't see.
"She zoned out," Jungwon choked out, the realization hitting him like a physical blow. "Just minutes ago. She heard a ringing, and she looked completely terrified, as if she wasn't even in the room."
"It's already beginning," Madame Kim confirmed, the dread in her voice thickening. "The magic is going to start bleeding into her mind. She will experience visions, echoes of the past, whispers of a power she doesn't understand. It will slowly, agonizingly tear her psychological state apart."
Jungwon ran a trembling hand through his hair, his breathing turning shallow.
"And worse," Madame Kim continued ruthlessly, refusing to sugarcoat the reality. "Because the magic is now permanently awake, she is a literal beacon. The sheer, intoxicating scent of a mortal carrying a fused sun-fire curse is going to ripple through the underground. Every starving rebel, every ancient vampire who desires to walk in the daylight, will eventually smell the shift in the atmosphere. They will stop at nothing to consume her."
Jungwon closed his eyes, his chest violently heaving as an apocalyptic wave of despair crashed over him.
She is a walking sun. As long as that magic was in her veins, she would never know peace. If the rebels didn't tear her apart, her own mind would eventually shatter under the weight of the ancient sorcery. Locking her in the penthouse, surrounding her with an army of his hounds—none of it would save her from the magic already burning inside her head.
Jungwon slowly opened his eyes. The sheer, blinding panic in his chest completely evaporated, instantly replaced by a profoundly devastating heartbreak. The terrifying, untouchable leader of the syndicate completely vanished. In the dark of the study, he was just a man begging for the life of the woman he loved.
"Take it out," Jungwon whispered, his voice cracking.
The static on the line hummed. "Jungwon..."
"I am begging you," Jungwon pleaded, gripping the edges of the mahogany desk so tightly his knuckles turned white. His voice broke, entirely devoid of pride or authority. "Please, Madame Kim. If the magic is the beacon... if the magic is what's destroying her mind... then we have to remove it. Tell me there is a way to purge the sun-fire entirely. To strip the curse from her veins and give her back her normal life."
"Jungwon, you are asking for the impossible—"
"Please!" Jungwon cried out, his desperation shattering the quiet of the study. He lowered his head, his broad shoulders shaking violently. "I don't care what it costs. I don't care whose blood I have to spill. Tell me how to save her."
A long, heavy silence stretched across the secure line.
Jungwon squeezed his eyes shut, his chest aching. He knew exactly what he was asking her to do, and he knew why she was hesitating.
For anyone else in the underground, asking for a cure to an ancient daylight curse would be a definitive dead end. But Jungwon knew Madame Kim’s darkest secret. She hadn't been born with fangs. Centuries ago, before the underground wars, she had been born with magic in her veins—a mortal witch from the old covens, forcibly turned and corrupted by the immortal curse.
She had despised her own existence and hated the vampires who turned her, until Jungwon built the syndicate and gave monsters a place to be civilized. Out of absolute loyalty to him, she had buried her past, swearing on her ancestors that she would let the ancient magic die with her. Asking her to dig into the forbidden lore of the old covens was crossing a line she hadn't touched in hundreds of years.
But as the silence dragged on, the static on the line softly crackled.
Madame Kim didn't lecture him. She didn't remind him of her vows. Hearing the most lethal predator in the city completely broken over a fragile human was enough to shatter centuries of her own resolve.
"There are whispers..." Madame Kim finally spoke, her voice dropping into a fragile, melancholic hush. "A myth, buried in the ashes of the old covens. A relic called the Grimoire."
Jungwon slowly raised his head, his dark eyes locking onto the blinking red light. "Then I will tear the city apart to find it."
"No, Jungwon, listen to me," Madame Kim interrupted, her voice uncharacteristically sharp. "The Grimoire is a parasite's tool. It was written to harness the sun-fire. If the rebels find it, they will use it to aggressively siphon the magic into themselves to walk in the daylight. But the book does not extinguish the flame. It only teaches how to steal it. If you use the Grimoire on her... the forced extraction will leave her mortal vessel completely hollowed out."
Jungwon froze, the freezing dread slowly creeping back into his veins. "Then what? How do I purge it and leave her whole?"
The heavy, crackling static filled the room again. When Madame Kim spoke next, her tone was entirely hollow, laced with a terrifying, devastating sorrow.
"To sever the curse without breaking the mortal, you don't need the book," Madame Kim whispered, the sheer weight of the impending tragedy thick in her words. "You must invoke the oldest law of the universe. Equivalent exchange. The ancient fire cannot simply be erased into thin air, Jungwon. It must be bought out."
The study became paralyzingly silent.
"Then name the price," Jungwon demanded instantly, his voice a low, unwavering vow. "Whatever it is."
"Jungwon, you do not understand what you are inviting!" Madame Kim cried out, the stoic healer finally breaking under the weight of the forbidden lore. "The old magic does not negotiate with mere blood or pain. To pull that magnitude of absolute power out of her soul and leave her entirely untouched... the scale must be perfectly balanced by its absolute opposite."
The static on the secure line hummed, heavy with a suffocating, centuries-old dread.
"The cost of this exchange is unfathomably steep," Madame Kim whispered, her voice cracking into a fragile, broken hush. "To buy back her tomorrow... the magic will demand an eternity of profound emptiness."
She paused, the weight of the final words hanging in the pitch-black study like an executioner's blade.
"And perhaps... absolute ruin."
The blinking red light of the console bathed Jungwon’s face in a rhythmic, crimson glow. The deafening, apocalyptic silence swallowed the room entirely, leaving nothing but the terrifying echo of her warning suspended in the dark.
To Be Continued ᯓ★
A/N:
Hi everyone! 😭
First and foremost, I am SO, SO incredibly sorry for the massive delay! I know it feels like it’s been forever since the last update.
I just want to reassure you all that I’m doing perfectly fine! The main reason this took so long is that developing this specific chapter required so much brainpower. I had to rethink, rewrite, and revise the scenes multiple times to make sure the emotional weight, the pacing, and the lore were absolutely right. I really wanted to make sure every single detail clicked perfectly.
I truly hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter and that it doesn't disappoint you at all! huhu. I really hope the intense emotional rollercoaster makes up for the long wait.
Thank you so much for your endless patience, love, and support. Please let me know what you think!🖤
tags: @julesheh @4ngelized @won1yoiz @love4yubin @yangw0ni3 @kristynaaah @perolaprincess123@xolaufeyberry @syaaa4seokheroo @sievenderz @literallynpbody @buttersoob @yandere-stories @wonnienyang @kpopotaku-26 @mwonstruck7