Pythia

Chapter 02

Taehyung pouted as he leaned against the wall of the corridor. His dark eyes showed concern and slight annoyance.
"Damn it", he muttered underneath his breath. "Where could she be? Namjoon's gonna kick my ass for this..." He let his head fall against the wall in frustration. Hours. He had been searching the entire castle for hours now and no damn trace of his mentee. A glance on his phone showed him that his message had been delivered but not read. Damn.
He closed his eyes with a groan. Frustration building in his gut, spreading like poison through his body. He wasn't sure if he was angry at himself for being late...or angry at his mentee for running off stupidly on her own.

As he pondered what to do and if it would be best to actually go to Namjoon for advice, despite the tongue-lashing — and not the good kind — he would receive, a faint waft of summer rain and oriental rose invaded his sense of smell. His brows crinkled in confusion. That was not a smell he was familiar with. None of his mates smelled like this, sweet and heavy and promising of heated nights under clouded skies with angry floods of rain pounding on skin and yet...
Vampires could only smell their mates distinctly from other vampires. Only their mates had a peculiar scent to them, everyone else smelled the same, neutral in a way with a hint of ash and copper. But this was different. There was no hint of the regular ashy-coppery scent. He inhaled once more, trying to catch that barely there phantom of a scent.
Summer rain and oriental roses. Heady and alluring but oh so faint and weak.

Taehyung's eyes snapped open as the implication occurred to him.
Another mate?

True, their nest was rather large, mind you, not yet one of the largest — there was a nest in Europe with more than ten members — but with seven mates in their nest, Bangtan was the largest at the Academy. Yet...it didn't mean that there wasn't the possibility of an eighth vampire joining their nest. Belonging to them. But the scent was so weak that Taehyung doubted if he really smelled it or if it was just the figment of his imagination.
Nonetheless he perked up and sharpened his senses when he heard a gaggle of vampires approach. Giggling and laughing loudly while a voice he knew well as one of the senior students' explained things. New students, then. He got even more excited. Maybe the scent came from one of them?

The group passed him. Donghyun at the head of the group nodded in a silent greeting, one that Taehyung forgot to reciprocate as he was too focused on trying to match the scent of summer rain and oriental rose to one of the students following him.
Looks were shot his way. A first curious one, then a double take and another more lingering one. Taehyung didn't give it any mind. His brows furrowed and the corners of his mouth dipped down. He couldn't match the scent to a vampire. It was still there, though. And by then he was almost certain that it — in fact — wasn't a figment of his overly active imagination.
But the group passed and Taehyung had to hold back a groan of frustration. He would need to ask Donghyun who he had led around and then approach each of the group individually to gauge their scents. Damn it. Another mate so close and he couldn't pin them? This night was just an entire mess, wasn't it?

And as if his words had been heard by some sort of higher entity, just as he pushed himself off the wall to resign himself to his fate of asking Namjoon — or maybe rather Yoongi or Seokjin since they would be less stern — for help in finding his mentee...said vampiress stumbled around the corner.
Taehyung knew because he had been given a picture with her phone number and general information. He had also been given a short, clipped explanation about her circumstances and the recent loss of her mate and consequently nest. Pity had filled his heart then and it burst out once more in acidic, bitter waves as he saw her now.
One of her delicate hands was resting against the wall to stabilise herself. The other was clenched at the fabric of her blouse right above her heart. She was pale. Paler than a vampire should be.
Alarm shot through Taehyung and he was in front of her within the blink of an eye.
"Sang Haewon?", he asked gently, a bit uncertain and entirely overwhelmed by the situation. She looked sick. But vampires didn't get sick. Right?