chapter 2
minho

I met my family in 2005. I found my brothers and the love of my life, and they welcomed me as if they had been waiting for me. I became a vampire, got married, we adopted a cat — everything was perfect. On the surface, at least.

Vampire life comes with restrictions. First and foremost: humans can never know about us. I had to cut all ties with my mother and father, let them believe I'd died in a car crash. For years I hid away, missing them, watching them mourn from a distance.

It was eating away at me. I wanted to believe I was strong enough not to need them, but I still felt 17, like a kid pretending to be an adult.

Only one rule to follow... and I broke it. Kind of.

I came up with a work-around. If I didn't tell my parents I was a vampire specifically — just that I was different, not dead as they had believed — would that technically be breaking the law? Could I really be prosecuted?

Worst case scenario, I would be executed — I let the secret out, I'm the one responsible — as well as Jisung, my primary creator, my accomplice. My parents, the sole humans who know, would be killed, and likely my coven as well, as they facilitated my crime. (To say nothing of Felix's history with the Volturi.)

I can't say I regret telling my parents that I was alive. It had hurt like nothing else to know that they were in pain, grieving my death. But sometimes I wonder if it was worth this. Their heads are on the line and they don't even know it. I'm afraid the worst case scenario is worse than I can imagine.

───

The words are blurring together and my eyes keep slipping away. Jisung is puttering in the kitchen, making soup in our biggest pot.

He catches me looking. "Has Mr. Elton proposed to Emma yet?"

"What?"

"In the book?"

"Oh. Yeah."

He smiles dubiously and goes back to chopping basil. I get off the couch and root around in the cupboard, pull out the hand blender and pass it to him.

"Thank you, my love."

"You're welcome." I push myself up onto the counter and swing my legs.

"You okay?" he asks after a moment.

"Jisungie, can we go over the plan again? You know, for the Volturi...?"

"Oh. Of course." He leans back against the counter. "So, once they decide to come, our only warning will be Felix. In all honesty, I'm not sure he'll see it fast enough — Italy is so far away, plus they'll probably set out with pure intentions."

"I was thinking that too."

"They'll either visit the guys in Paraguay or come here. Both will mean a date will be set for our trial. I'm not sure if they'll send for the guard to meet us here, or if we'll all go to Volterra."

"We'll tell them that we didn't do anything wrong," I say. "My parents have known for twelve years and they haven't told anyone. I've never said the word 'vampire,' used my abilities, shown myself in the sunlight or fed around them. We have behaved according to the law."

He smiles at my rehearsal. "Yes. And it's to our advantage that we're useful, we're willing to serve a sentence to pay off our debt. My mind reading, your..." He still isn't sure what to call it. "Electricity? We'd be beneficial powers to have in their arsenal. Felix, Changbin and Seungmin will give themselves over as well if need be."

I look down. Felix hates the Volturi more than anyone, but he promised to enlist if worst came to worst. Just because he loves me, they all do. I feel like I've already given them their sentence.

"Hey." Jisung stands between my legs, reaches up to cup my cheeks. "Talk to me."

"I feel... responsible. It's because of me, all of it."

"Don't say that. You can't bear this alone."

"I want to fix it."

"You can't do that alone either."

I drop my head back against the cabinet. "Back to the plan. What will it be like? If we join the Volturi?"

"I can't say for sure. Those who know what it's like are either dead or still on the inside. But I do know what a strike looks like. You know, because of '22. We'd stay in the back with the guard, fight if need be, witness if need be."

"Stand by and watch people be executed?"

He winces. "Yeah. Hopefully they won't try to split us up for missions. I don't know how long it would last. That part would be negotiated."

"Do you have a guess?"

"I dunno, as far as I know, no one's ever bargained their gifts before."

"Do you have a guess?"

He just looks up at me for a second, gauging whether or not to say it. "Anywhere from a hundred years to a millennium."

I can't imagine such a long time. I want a thousand years of life, but I want it here, not inside a stone palazzo on the other side of the world.

"And... what if there is no bargaining?" I say. "What if they decide we've broken the law and we have to die?"

He flinches at the word. "That won't happen."

"Jisungie, you know it could. But... I just wonder... could we run? Like Fei did?"

"Fei got lucky, my love. That was in 1763, the guard were weaker back then. And once we run, we're fugitives. Is that really the kind of life you want?"

"Instead of being dead? Of course. As long as you're there. But... compared to this?" I gesture around our house, at the digital piano on the kitchen table, the framed picture of the nine of us above the stove, the sleeping cat on top of the fridge. "Nothing can compare to this. I wanna be a thousand-year old vampire, still hanging around with you."

"So do I, love. This is where we belong."

I look down at his hands on my legs. I lift them to my lips and kiss them.

"Did you know?" I ask quietly. "Telling my parents, ignoring the law — did you know how terrifying it would be?"

"All I knew was that you were unhappy and I... I wasn't enough to help you."

"Jisung, you—"

"You needed your parents, Minho. I need mine too, but they... aren't coming back. Yours were so close, alive, missing you. I couldn't keep saying you had to stay away when it was tearing you apart. I don't care about the repercussions, I don't care about the future — fuck the Volturi and fuck their laws."

I just stare at him, letting the seconds tick away. Love blinds him, it always has. He's giving me his life in too many ways, the wrong ways.

"Minho?"

"You protect me," I murmur.

"Of course I do."

"I have to protect you too. You can't blame me for doing that."

"What does that mean?"

I shrug. "I love you more than anything, Jisungie."

He smiles up at me, says it back, but there's a little wrinkle of worry between his eyes.

haseong

"Haseong, relax."

I take a deep breath. Chan and I are lying on the couch — he must be able to feel my tension.

"I'm sorry," I say.

"You're thinking about it, aren't you? What to do about The Volturi?"

"It's my responsibility to think about it."

"Come up with anything?"

"Just what I've already told you. Flee, hide, drop off the grid entirely. Feels like doom."

He pinches my chin. "We've been on the run from the law before, haven't we?"

I smile a little. "The navy and the Volturi are different animals altogether." I bow my head against his shoulder. "It just feels so... unfair. It's already been difficult enough to relocate every decade — imagine moving every few months, never making a home again."

"I'm home as long as I'm with you, sweetheart. As for the guys... they're rational. They'll understand it's the best course of action."

"Even if we do go into hiding... nothing is certain." My voice lowers to a murmur. "Chan, have I been too slow to act? Do they think I'm full of shit, a failure?"

"That's your fear talking. They know you do everything you can. Remember you're human too. Well, you know what I mean."

"I promised to protect this family. I don't make promises I can't keep."

He strokes my hair. "That's better. When should we put this plan into action?"

"Let's keep it quiet for a while, maybe till the seasons change. In the meantime, we'll find a way to sell off the land and livestock."

"Where shall we go first?"

I look up at him. "Anywhere. You're my home too, you know."

He smiles. "I know. Now loosen up. Enjoy the time we have left here."

He hums a soft melody. I close my eyes and listen.