TAE POV:

I frown as I watch (Y/N) tug on her shoes, frown at the high collared blouse she's wearing to hide the bruising on her throat, frown as she avoids eye-contact as she straightens up.

"Tae stop staring please." She says, voice slightly hoarse but enormously better than it had been the past few days, where one sentence in her pained slightly rough voice made us wince and feel the same simmering anger reach a boiling point. She sounded worlds better but I knew what lay under the fabric, what she was hiding. I knew the smattering of bruises in the shape of fingers, in the shape of his hands mar her throat. And I hated it. Hated him.

And hated that I could see her in pain even as she desperately clung onto her idea, that she wanted things to go back to normal, that she wanted to feel normal by immersing herself in her lessons and her work. In doing normal things she'd said, looking at us as she'd picked at her iron-rich food, barely touching it. 

"But why?" I ask, ignoring the fact that I know my words came out as a whine, that my words sound huffy and I've got a pout on my face.

If that's the way I'll get her to stay or get a straight answer that helps me understand, then I'll do it.

I reach out to gently grasp her wrist, where Yugyeom's blood bond mark sits on the inside, fingers brushing against it tenderly. It doesn't have the same effect as it would've if Yugyeom had touched it, but it does make her loosen slightly, eyes turning towards me finally.

"Because I want to feel normal. Because I want to remember what it was that was at stake, what life I was about to give up. Because I want to know that my life is still mine. Is that too much to want Tae?" she asks, softness in her tone and a sense of fragility in the uncertainty in her eyes, in the way they flicker red as she awaits my response.

I sigh.

When she puts it like that then I have no choice but to concede.

I tug her close, wrapping my arms around her.

"Fine. You've got me wrapped around your little finger baby mate." I mumble, trying to sound put-out but I can't help the fondness that creeps into my tone, the feeling of rightness of holding her. And I know I'm a goner when she leans back, eyes sparkling a beautiful red with happiness that I've understood, happiness to be with me. 

And I'm most definitely lost when she stretches up a bit to brush her lips against mine in a sweet kiss, a brief pressure of her soft lips- a taste of her sweetness before she moves back.

"You're acting like Minnie wasn't standing here, ready to go with me." she quips slightly teasingly as she moves back, where Jiminie shoots me a petulant look, reaching to intertwine her hand with his.

"Tae I'm hurt." he pouts, only smiling fondly when he nudges me away after I've smothered his face with kisses as an apology.

But before he leaves he shoots me a silent message, a silent look of understanding between us that comes with decades of time together.

I'll look after her his eyes tell me, promise me.

And I let them go, knowing perfectly well that he will, that the threat over her doesn't exist anymore.

Because I'm going to go see the threat that hovered over her, that believed it could get away with harming my mates on numerous occasions.

Maybe it's time to give Chul a taste of some more venom.

----

I spit out the mouthful of blood that had flooded into my mouth, stale, cold and vile, floor splattering with crimson droplets. My hand goes to scrub at my mouth viciously, violently as I glare at the man in front of me, at the man who sits  and screams and within a minute, the same man loses all his energy and it drains out of him as the venom fills his body and courses through his bloodstream.

"Well done Taehyungie." Jin hyung praises, voice warm and gentle and loving, tugging me back into his arms as he watches the pathetic sight before us. He produces a handkerchief from somewhere and dabs carefully at my lips, removing any lingering taint of Chul from me.

I stare coldly at him, at the way despite it all he still seems to cling onto the delusional thought that Yoongi hyung will go back to him, eyes delirious, drowning in pain but there's always that misplaced hope that any moment Yoongi hyung will enter and take him away. Whisk him away from us.

Whereas I know the only reason Yoongi hyung hasn't come yet is because he doesn't want to set eyes on Chul, doesn't want to see him- despises the thought of seeing him so soon.

And then Jin hyung steps forward, unwinding his arms from around me as he steps forward. And as he moves forward I see the soft look wipe clean from hyung's face, gone is the ever-present look of compassion and warmth; here is the eldest mate of the Bangtan coven, here is a vampire who'd been alive for at least a century before Chul got turned. And I know that the pain he'll inflict will be to take account all those years he stole from Yoongi hyung, tormented him.

And when the sounds of pained shrieks fill the otherwise silent, secure padded cell- I feel relief wash over me in waves, feel soothed by the pain in a vicious sense because Jin hyung is only inflicting back all the torment Yoongi hyung had experienced, and I can see that the venom paralyses him, holds him still and unable to escape but there's no missing the tears, the bulging and tensing prominent veins of his throat and eyes widening, dilating as he experiences just what he did to our mate.

And rising above it all is Jin hyung's voice- harsh, cold, and unforgiving, volume low but still clearly heard.

"This is only a fraction of how my mate, how our mate felt as you used him. How he felt every single day, this...this is why he prayed for each day to be over and yet lived in dread for the next. And you sit here telling me he liked it, that he wanted you to shatter him. You dare still live in hope he'll come?" Jin hyung's voice grows tighter and wavers- centuries of hate and rage making his eyes burn with flames of red, posture tight, imposing, and tall over Chul's defeated figure.

And somewhere in the pathetic sight of Chul's pain I see a small seed of infinitely late understanding bloom, alongside disbelief and doubt- unwilling, unable to accept even until this point.

I move away from where Yugyeom stands, face pale at the screams that bounce off the padded walls, that deflect and seem to both echo and dissolve into the room but his eyes burn red with hate, with impatience, with unforgiveness and nothing but hostility and silent seething rage.

Jinyoung hyung gives his youngest mate a small squeeze, face hardened as his hands play with a vial in his hand, disinterested and detached from the sight- his mate's comfort his only priority.

"You don't need to be here love." Jinyoung hyung says to Yugyeom who shakes his head and straightens up, holding his hand out for the vial.

He storms over the moment his fingers wrap around it, where Jin hyung has stepped back from the still figure that Chul is, tears silently dripping off his face and lets Yugyeom stoop in front of him.

His voice is sickly sweet, falsely lulling and misguiding.

"You must be in a lot of pain. Here this'll help." He says, deftly removing the top off the vial and bringing it to Chul's face.

I see the struggle as Chul tries to get his mouth to cooperate, to open his lips for some blessed relief.

Yugyeomie's face is soft but his hands are tight as they fist Chul's jaw, forcing his mouth open. His actions are careful as he makes sure every drop of the vial is emptied into Chul's mouth, tilting his head back to allow the liquid to flow down his throat.

Chul swallows, barely. 

"You'll feel better soon." He promises, waiting beside him as the pain abates slightly from Chul's eyes, that moment when his eyes flicker and fill with relief, with respite from the agony.

And I see the moment the pain leaves him.

But then immediately Yugyeom's face hardens, impenetrable mask of carved marble.

"Don't consider it a mercy. It's only so you can keep up with what we have planned. This is far from over." He promises, fluidly rising to his feet, and I see the strength in his set-shoulders and the wobbling lips when he turns and walks back, eyes flickering with pain.

And he silently leaves, no longer wanting to be in the same space as Chul.

We follow.

Because Chul doesn't deserve to be in the same space as us. Because his presence is toxic and contaminates the air.

Because if I spend more time in the room with him, I'll get more than just the  urge to paralyse him.

(Y/N) POV:

"I can't believe you wanted to come in to present of all things. Actually I believe it...just because it's you. Where on earth did you find time and space to get it all done?" Minnie asks incredulously as we walk out of the classroom, I hide a grin at the shock and wonder in his voice.

"Don't think I'll you off Minnie, you'll have to make it upto me for not doing as much." I say, walking on even as his hand tightens on mine and I hear him hurrying his pace to keep stride with me.

He huffs, fond and incredulous.

"So why did you do it by yourself? When did you do it?" he says, tugging me back so we come to a standstill and he's gently manoeuvring me to be bracketed by his body, peering at me with soft slightly knowing eyes.

"When?" he asks again, voice firm and still soft.

"When I couldn't sleep. In between meals and time with each other. Does it really matter Minnie?" I ask, trying to avoid his knowing look.

He sighs.

"What are we going to do with you? You brilliant, beautiful mate of ours." He sighs, drawing me into a hug.

I wind my arms around his waist.

"You're allowed to be weak and hurting and in pain in front of us you know. You don't have to hide from us. We love you, and that means staying beside you at your weakest as well." He says, hands protectively around my back.

I nod. His conversation reminds me of one I had with Kookie.

It's not that I don't want to share that part of me with them, especially because they know now...they know all of my hurts and my demons. It was more that I couldn't bear to wake any of them, seeing them finally look content and relaxed after how trying the past few days had been on all of us. I didn't want to disturb the smoothened, relaxed faces sleeping away in each other's arms. Couldn't bear to.

"I know Minnie. I love you too." I say, raising my head to see him.

And watch as his eyes flicker red for a different reason, feel it in the tenderness he cups my cheek with.

"Home. Let's go home." He says, voice rough.

I shake my head. He looks confused.

"I think it's time I gave Chul a visit." I say.

And the weight bearing down on my shoulders is beyond the weight of my bag, it's something far more. Something that had stopped me from getting closer to my mates in the way I'd wanted. Chul had become that barrier keeping us away from happiness.

And his parasitic existence in my life was going to end. I was going to cut all ties off with his presence. I could do it. He had no more power over me.

----

And yet it seems that when some animal has its claws deep into you, yanking them out and ripping your skin open in the process isn't always the best way.

And that's how I feel stepping into the holding cell Chul is in, how I feel when his present, alert eyes come to rest on me despite the fact that no other part of his body moves.

"(Y/N) you really don't need to force yourself." Jinnie oppa says, fretfully entering behind me, voice filled with slight anxiety.

I shake my head.

"I'm not." I say, voice calm and levelled.

But that doesn't stop my heart from feeling like it's not being torn open at that very moment, that my soul isn't shredding and I feel the world around me threaten to collapse when my eyes turn to Chul, when I find myself unable to look away from him. At yet how he still doesn't care, doesn't seem to be affected. Just what on earth had I done to deserve such a vile thing to be the demon who'd sunk his fangs into me long before I'd ever realised?

"Hyung let her. We have to respect her decisions; she has every right to want to see Chul- even if I'd rather that thing never set it's filthy eyes on her again." Minnie says, voice soothing Jinnie oppa's frazzled nerves, that panic and confusion that had burned through the bond when I'd turned up with Minnie, understanding and considerate of how much this means to me.

I step forward, feet strong and determined with every step they take- it doesn't matter that my legs feel like jelly, shaky and wobbly. I move closer and closer and the presence of my mates behind me remind me that I'm not alone, that in this situation it's not him with the power, it's us. And yet the cool, silently contemplative eyes that watch me grow closer to him, the cesspits of darkness and hate silently are the ones holding the power, drawing me in.

And yet I know it's not his ability, it's something so compelling and powerful about the place he'd held in my life that makes me feel slightly vulnerable, that makes me feel weak. I hate it.

But it's as if he doesn't care for any of that, that his mouth is perfectly fine because once I get closer he speaks, voice infuriatingly calm and levelled. Looking as if he's the one in control, he's the one who holds the reins when he speaks.

"Back so soon. You must get bored with your...mates if they don't play with you." he drawls, barely flinching when his words trigger deep growls of anger and the sudden sound of a scuffle behind me.

"I'd play with you if you let me, you know I'd be the best. Yoongi can tell you that." He croons, making my simmering anger and hate rise and bubble, hot spurts of it searing my mind as for a moment I indulge the thought of letting my instincts take over, let them control me as they tear him apart just for mentioning the name of my mate on his filthy tongue.

"This time we're going to play a game on my terms." I say, looking down at him.

But the false bravado I'm attempting to muster doesn't work, not when his eyes gleam with vicious hunger as he takes purposeful deep breaths to inhale my scent, tongue slowly moving over his lips- as if tasting it on the air, on himself.

He makes me want to hurl my guts up.

"What sort of game? Like where we describe stuff and the other guesses?" he asks, eyes glinting,

"I'll start. Guess what this is...a woman screaming and pleading as I dig into her husband, as I rip him open for me to feast on. But he's not tasty enough and he doesn't smell nearly as good as what's cuddled close to him. And then she begs...begs like a lowlife for me to spare the child, to leave the sleeping beauty alone. And when the little doll opens her nice eyes, she protects her- letting her back be torn open and her blood spill out onto the dolly and mattress- screaming as she dies holding her precious girl..." he goads, voice filthy and lost in throes of sadistic pleasure, eyes burning red.

But his words make me snap.

Makes that part of me just shatter. The part of me that had always been so scared of being a monster, of being vicious, of being something I couldn't recognise. But right now I don't care. I stopped caring when he brought back the last memory of my parents and threw it in my face.

And any control, any restraint I'd had when I walked in disintegrates, crumbles away and I don't even realise my hands had clenched into fists or that my right hand had been moving, propelling itself with full force into his jaw- colliding into it with a sickening disgusting crack and I watch almost as if through detached eyes as his head jerks to one side, how one side of his face seems to sag on the side my fist has just hit and a bubbled groan slips out.

And I feel disgusting for revelling in that sound, in hearing that groan. Feel as if some part of me slips away and my fingers are too slippery to grasp onto it.

And yet I'm not done with him. I'm far from it.

(THERE YOU GO! SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING YESTERDAY- I HAD UNI STUFF TO CATCH UP ON! BUT HERE IS THE BEGINNING TASTE OF THE PAIN TO COME TO CHUL. I AM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY IF ANY OF IT WAS UNCOMFORTABLE TO READ FOR ANY, OR IF ANYTHING WAS TRIGGRING OR UPSETTING! BUT PLEASE BE AWARE THIS BOOK IS RATED MATURE FOR SUCH REASONS TOO!! SO READ WITH CAUTION MY DEARS! AND FOR THOSE WHO ENJOYED THE VIOLENCE THEN THERE'S PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM- BABY MATE INCLUDED!! LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS AND WHETHER YOU WANT MORE OF THOSE 'LET'S MAKE CHUL PAY' MOMENTS TO COME!! AND STAY SAFE AND ENJOY AND TAKE CARE MY LOVES!)

We all have different ways of seeing the world, different ways of processing the world and yet not one way is better than the other. The fact that every one of us are unique, that we all hold differences are what makes the world seem brighter. So never feel disheartened or bad for being you, embrace every one of your differences! 

Borahae! 💜💜💜

PurpleQueenie <3