Last Snow
Chapter 7 – Hurt
First off, let me start off by thanking all of you for sticking by this story for so long already! :D I'm very sorry for the LATE update, but now that school has started, updates will be slow...if any till December T.T I'm very sorry. I apologize profusely, but I cannot help this. . Please wait for Last Snow until then! Also, I wanted to introduce two very special people to my team of helpers for Last Snow: Vera – who is like my BFF when it comes to fics and just randomness XD – and Blue_Ice – who is my actual beta and my BFF in fics too XD. Thank you guys so much for your help especially and your wonderful amounts of editing ^^ On a final note, all further oneshot requests and such are on hold until I return. The only request I will be working on is for Baddy – which is VERY much overdue T.T Sincerest apologizes – it's very hard for me to respond to comments nowadays. On the topic of comments, if you have left me a review/comment, I HAVE READ IT! I just haven't gotten a chance to respond to it yet, unfortunately. . Again, REALLY sorry! I thank you all so much for your support and love, and hope you will continue supporting and loving me as I write this story. I WILL GET TO YOUR COMMENTS GUYS! PLEASE DON'T FRET! I WILL RESPOND TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF THEM! :)
Please don't forget to review! Enjoy the chapter! 3 ^^
My mother used to paint in red. She was an artist, and everything she painted always was showered with red tints. They reminded her of life, and life, as she had said, was a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Red reminded me of her.
I fell in love for the first time in third grade, taken with a tiny boy with shaggy brown hair and bright eyes. I can still remember the red paper heart he gave to me on Valentine's Day, cutely decorated with glitter.
Red used to mean love.
I stared up, mouth open in a silent scream at the eerie red eyes looking down at me. There was a dead light in them, a sign that the Minah this particular seethe knew was gone. They were hauntingly tragic – hauntingly beautiful – red eyes that would watch me die, and I wondered why? Why did she have to be so painstakingly wretched?
My heart lurched and I waited for the pain, the heartache, the darkness - what an evil feeling.
Red meant death.
Minah smiled from above me, a strained mocking little stretch of the lips as she eased up, a foot firmly planted on my stomach to keep me from moving.
She barred her fangs, teeth sharp and pearly under the moon's glare, and all I could think was this was the final chapter of my story.
Minah ran a pink tongue over her teeth and her eyes clouded over with fresh lust.
And then she lunged.
I snapped my eyes shut and gasped, the sound of her fangs sinking into flesh hammering in my ears. But there wasn't any pain. There was only the air's cold breath.
A male cry sliced through the air, voice desolate to the ears.
I opened my eyes, the air leaving my lungs.
It wasn't my flesh Minah was biting into.
It was Jonghyun's.
He was gritting his teeth, tears drawing at the corner of his eyes, and his arm filling Minah's mouth.
She had bitten down on his forearm, his blood pouring from her mouth, and his other arm was holding her to him, away from me.
My eyes widened in shock.
"Minho!" He screamed. A blur of movement came from the side, and I felt myself being dragged to my feet. I stumbled upright, eyes meeting Minho's angry eyes.
"You were trying to escape?" He yelled.
'I was trying to go home,' My mind argued
I pressed my lips into a thin line. I didn't need to answer him.
He took my silence as defiance, and roughly grabbed my arm. "You're just begging for death, aren't you?"
I didn't get a chance to answer, because the next thing I knew Minah had pulled free of Jonghyun's grip, kicking him into the tall trunk of a tree, and Minho had us running into a random cluster of greens to avoid her.
"Why are you saving me?" I spat out. There was so much anger in my voice. Anger at myself, at having been caught, at having my freedom stolen from me – there was so much anger. And threaded underneath everything was distress.
Minho stopped and I slammed into his back, faltering to the ground. He whipped around, red eyes only a few shades from blood lust. "Because if you die, then Minah dies too," He hissed.
The emotions swimming in his eyes left me speechless. His eyes were mesmerizing, and I found myself lost in their abyss.
"Don't save me if you don't mean it," I bit out.
There was color now amongst the dark typhoon – I could see the red, but I could also see amber. A beautiful warming amber. It was dazzling. I unconsciously moved closer to him, intent on committing those eyes to memory.
A roar sliced through the air, grabbing the moment, and choking it with its clenched fingers. My heart started running, running away from my body and leaving me numb.
It was terrifying.
I stared at the direction of the noise and heaving heavy breaths, a cold wash chilling me. The trees shook, and my hands trembled at the dark promise they foretold. I whipped around to face Minho, and was almost startled to see that he was watching me, as intently as he was when I had pulled away.
"Why won't you help us?"
Why won't you help her?
The question was clear in his voice, but I couldn't find myself able to answer...I didn't have a reason. I didn't have an answer.
My heart jumped a beat, and the sound of rustling whimpered in my ears. A yell of dolor dragged through the still air. Minho's eyes flashed a bloody red and he jerked his head towards the noise, clenching his jaw tight.
"We need to get out of here. Why are we still here?" I demanded.
"There's no where we can run that she won't find us," Minho said, glaring at me for disrupting his trance.
What the hell was he doing?
The whirring of an engine crooned in the wind, and I jumped, startled. I hurriedly pinpointed the noise. It was coming from the side, from a bundle bushes and trees.
It was coming towards us.
I took a step back, hand automatically grabbing Minho's arm and presented him forward as the greenery parted way.
A car skidded to a stop before us, its exterior a midnight black hue, and the back doors and passenger's door were flung open.
A man with shaggy brown hair in the driver's seat glared at us. "Get in."
Minho tossed me into the back before slamming shut my door and climbing into the passenger's seat. I groaned as I fell hard against a soft body, and when my mind had cleared, I noticed the small round eyes of a young boy staring back. I blinked in surprise, scrambling away from the soft brown eyed boy.
Next to him sat a girl with long wavy hair, staring at me with clear distaste. She scrunched up her nose when she saw me, a cruel but cute twist of her features.
"Human?" She asked. My throat felt dry as her eyes became a deep red and I realized that she too was a a vampire."You're the human everyone's been gossiping about?"
She looked at me calculatingly, tasting every bit of me from afar before she could even lay a finger on me.
"Well, you certainly know how to pick them, Minho." The girl said, her eyes never left mine as she cocked her head at me with amusement.
"Absolutely pathetic." She defined meaningfully. Her black eyes laughed at me, jeering and insulting. They drilled into my heart.
Great – I feel absolutely pathetic.
"Sulli!" The boy hissed, awakening from his mute state.
"Henry." She mocked.
The boy glowered at her, but the gaze was light and forgiving.
"Both of you – shut the fuck up." The man in the front said ordered, one hand wrapped around the leather handle of the steering wheel, and the other rummaging through the droopy pocket of his white dress shirt.
"Call Zhou Mi." A sleek silver phone was dropped into Minho's lap, who obediently picked up the device and started punching in the numbers.
"Speaker phone." Came the following order, and the car was filled with the sound of the phone's obnoxious ringing, the rustle of trees and leaves caving in on us in the background.
The corresponding side picked up immediately.
"Where is she?" The man, who I assumed to be Zhou Mi, asked.
"West side. Sungmin's dealing with her." The shaggy haired man quickly explained.
"Only Sungmin?" Zhou Mi insisted.
The man glanced at the phone baldly. "Who do you think is dealing with her?"
There was a pause and sharp intake of breath. "Minra shouldn't be out there, Kyu. The others can take care of Minah. She - "
"Zhou Mi hyung, there's something wrong with, Minah. She's not listening to us. She's not listening to Onew." Minho interjected into the conversation fluidly.
Onew? Where was Onew?
"I'm looking over to the data right now, but even that doesn't make much sense. I can't understand the weaponry at all! Are you positive it's her? Minah should be dead by now -"
"She's been poisoned – the bullet was soaked with Fae magic."
The car lurched to the left, and I grabbed at the headrest of Minho's chair, preventing myself from being knocked into the two other passengers in the back. Henry smoothly pulled Sulli into his lap to keep her from getting the brunt of the door, grunting as the handle dug into his leg from the hit.
"What?" The man driving screamed.
Silence came from the other side of the phone.
"Fae magic?" The speaker finally crackled. "Minho have -"
"The girl – the prisoner," Minho corrected. I glanced at him through the rear-view mirror and caught his gaze. I swallowed the lump in my throat when I saw the glint in his eyes."She told us herself."
Another pause.
"She told you?" Zhou Mi shrieked.
"Fae magic? As in the same Faeries that are bound to us?" Henry inquired as he set Sulli back into her seat.
No one offered him a response. The answer was blatantly obvious.
"That changes everything." Zhou Mi hissed, ignoring Henry as well. There was a fierce edge to his voice, now. A ferocity that made me shudder.
"Fae magic is powerful, if it took this long to finally kill her-" Zhou Mi continued to fret. He hesitated. "Wait," He said suddenly, voice urgent and lowered. "Fae magic is disruptive. It's reactive with our Talents and – oh shit." He cursed loudly. "The magic must have gotten to her brain. She's rogue, Minho!"
My breath caught in my throat, jogging an abandoned memory of my father and myself – my first lesson on vampires.
The rogues.
Rogue vampires, fledgling or not, are powerful. They're crazy – insane. They'll attack everything and anything. They're blinded by their blood lust – their rage. They're unstoppable. They're the type who killed like a shadow. A messy disquieted shadow, with splashes of red inked on their faces – a cordon of hunger.
I found my voice. "That isn't possible. The poison the Faeries gave us kills people – it doesn't make them go insane!"
"You mean vampires." Minho snidely inputted. "It kills vampires."
Sulli straightened, this time alert and her eyes watching me with betrayed interest.
"How wou -" The voice faded away and a lengthy silence followed. The shaggy haired man reached over and plucked the phone from Minho's hand.
"Zhou Mi?" He tried.
"Oh my fucking god – she's in the car with you? Near Henry? SHIT!"
The man driving the car groaned and dropped the phone into his lap, ears ringing from the screech.
"Sulli keep Henry away from her! If you get any blood on my leather seats – "
"I'm not sure if keeping her near Sulli is any better." Minho observed, picking up the phone from its place on the driver's lap.
Sulli gave him a feline smile, eyes meeting his in the rear-view mirror. "Of course not," She purred. "We all know I can't keep my hands to myself."
"Why is she in the car? Why my car, Kyuhyun?" Zhou Mi whined.
"My name is Fei – I do have a name." I growled, not liking the way I was blatantly being ignored or treated. I felt like an animal caged in with a bunch of thirsty beasts.
"Do humans like you even deserve to have a name?" Sulli asked with hostility.
Henry sighed tiredly and collapsed into his seat, holding a hand to his forehead. "Please – can you not taunt?"
She gave him a look.
"We did what we needed – we've only done things that were needed." I defended. I couldn't even fathom why I felt the need to do so, but there was a growing ache in my chest. It almost felt like guilt – almost.
"The human's have no idea what they're dealing with. Fae magic is dangerous." Kyuhyun said, effectively silencing me with his grim tone.
"Hyung, Noona...she's going to live...right?" Minho asked quietly.
The tension was heavy, pressing down on us like a weight.
"Minho, It's not like this won't going to kill her. She'll drive herself to insanity. She'll die." Zhou Mi announced.
"Then how do we keep her alive?" Kyuhyun spoke.
Zhou Mi sighed. "I'm going to run some tests again. See if I can find something in the books. There has to be something. Until then keep her distracted. Keep her from harming herself."
I watched Minho's finger tighten their grip around the silver phone, and help back my own silent plea for this to just end.
"Zhou Mi hyung, she's not listening! It hurts to be in her head – to read her emotions."
"Find something to jar her memories. Even for a minute – it'll be enough." Zhou Mi assured, and then he hung up the phone, the dial tone echoing through the car's chamber.
Minho shut the lid of the phone, the snap reverberating throughout the car.
"Where's Taemin?" Kyuhyun glanced at Minho imploringly.
"Still tracking Onew. His blood is everywhere."
A thud cut him off, the sound of feet dropping on metal. Kyuhyun swerved the car to the left and glanced up at the roof of the car.
"Fuck."
There was something knocking at his inner mind, shrilling and screeching.
He could hear screaming – endless screaming.
It hurt his head.
He tried to move his arm, but blood coiled down his arms in ribbons, dripping onto his face. He let it flop back to the ground and he fisted a few fall leaves, drenched in his blood.
The ground felt wet and damp. There was blood pooled around him, like a red halo.
He tried to control his breathing, smelling the comings of fall and the faint strand of cotton.
He was alone.
He tried to read, to call for his Talent, but all he saw were glimpses. Glimpses of memories.
Right, Minah.
Minah was awake.
She was awake.
He cringed
No, she was dead.
"Hyung?" A voice screeched, and Onew took a deep ragged breath, picking up Taemin's unique scent.
His eyes slowly slipped open, making out the blurry image of the youngest member of his seethe, falling to his knees and cradling his head.
"Hyung, you're bleeding!" Taemin panicked, pressing his fingers to his wounds
Onew opened his mouth to speak, but instead choked on the blood filling his mouth. He coughed trying to clear his throat and spilling the red liquid over Taemin's shirt.
The panic on Taemin's face sharpened and his mouth parted, comforting words and urgent ramblings tumbling out.
Onew whimpered.
He didn't understand what Taemin was saying, and the aggravating pain in his skull had returned.
His eyes fluttered shut. He took another deep breath, senses coming to life at the sweet smell of roses.
Roses.
Onew opened his eyes, a hazy film obscuring his vision. He squinted, eyes roaming over every inch of land, and there within his reach was the outline of his search – a bush of red roses.
Minah, you love roses, right?
He raised his hand, grunting at the pain that surged up the limb like lightening as he tried to grab one.
Roses, they're your favorite.
He moaned unable to stretch out his arm to grab the pretty red petals, painstakingly dropping the limb. The pain was too deep and stabbing, burrowing into his very bones.
Minah, do you remember why roses are your favorite?
There was a flurry of movement, and Onew felt himself being propped up against Taemin's chest and his face angled to nuzzle into the boy's neck.
"Drink." Taemin encouraged him, pressing his creamy neck to Onew's lips.
With trembling lips Onew bared his fangs and bit down, warm rich blood filling his mouth. Slowly he took Taemin's offered energy for his own, healing his wounds and awakening his senses. His vision cleared, and he saw the red bush of petals rooted into the ground within his reach.
Do you remember, Minah? Do you remember me?
"It's her," Minho confirmed, placing his hand on the dashboard to steady himself.
"Fuck it all." Kyuhyun said, taking another sharp turn and glancing up at the roof of the car. There was the sound of groaning metal, and then a rustic crunch as a set of fingers clawed through the roof into the open chamber of the car, hovering inches from my face.
I screamed, crawling back as far I could into my seat and away from those fingers.
"You know for a baby sitter, you're a very bad influence, Kyu Kyu." Sulli said, nonchalantly examining her fingernails. "Just what would Daddy Donghae say if he heard you?"
My mouth fell open, dry pants moving past my lips as the fingers contorted and clawed at the empty air.
Sulli's eyes playfully flitted over to me
Help me. Help me!
Another hand joined the other, tearing through the thick metal of the car with ease. The tips of the fingers lightly scratched my face.
My eyes darted to the rear view mirror and met Minho's emotionless stare.
"Help me..." I begged, voice wispy and translucent.
His face hardened, and a window of emotion blossomed across his face.
Was it guilt?
The metal of the roof keened, the gap widening and the rough edges of the hole pulled back.
"Zhou Mi is going to kill you for wrecking his car." Henry commented eying the break in the roof tiredly.
And then I saw them – the two pools of deep red. They were the same eyes that haunted me in my dreams, and now my reality.
Minah was here.
A malignant smirk spanned across Minah's face, eyes glowing, and she reached down with her nimble fingers to seize my neck.
My fingers dug into the leather of my seat, my nails breaking through the skin and making contact with the fluff underneath. I pressed my back into the cool fabric, and then a cold hand brushed my neck.
I screamed.
A warm body pressed up against me, slapping a hand over my mouth, and curling around me protectively. My heart skipped a beat, the smell of mint and sandalwood enticing me.
Minho?
"We were never going to let her hurt you," Minho's husky voice washed over me, the safe comfort of his arms warming me, and breath tickling my ear.
My lips trembled behind his hand.
Weren't you?
My eyes found his his and I stared into the dark pools with fear.
A glimmer of pain flashed across his face, and Minho grunted out loud, his face contorting into a look of pain. I peered around his head, noticing that Minah's fingers sunk into his arm, the same one blocking me from her advances.
"Sulli! Henry! Now!" Kyuhyun yelled, and he swerved the car again, sending us spinning.
I roused from my shock.
Henry growled and his eyes flashed a dark red, and he withdrew a thick dagger from his pants. Sulli followed his lead, but instead pulled out a tiny clear bottle from her skirt, spilling its contents over Henry's dagger.
"Sorry, Noona." Henry murmured, and then he dragged the dagger through Minah's hand.
An anguished roar came from above and the hand was pulled back, a squirmish sound coming from Minho's arm as the fingers were retracted.
Minho hissed, body sagging from the wound. Minah's fingers had sunk in deep, leaving Minho with five bloody holes along the length of his arm.
A shower of blood fell over my head, and I looked up, straight into the gaping hole of the car, and I saw her. She was nursing her hand, tongue running over the edges of her wound. She met my eyes, and as always they were the same lustful red. But now there was a dangerous glint in her eyes. She wasn't finished.
I ran my hands down Minho's chest to the top of his pants. My fingers danced over the hem, finally hitting a hilt of metal. I grabbed it, just as Minah shrilled and and her other hand came surging forth, aiming for Minho's neck.
I threw the knife at her with skilled fingers, and drawing in a shaky breath when she wailed at the pain that crawled up her arm, finally dropping from the roof of the car.
She was gone.
Minho shuffled above me, forcing me to look him straight in the eyes.
"Why are you saving me?" He whispered harshly, pink mouth repeating the same mantra I had not to long back.
I swallowed thickly. "Because if you die, I die too."