Beast, Blood, & Soul

* 61 *

"What?" Yoongi cries. "You're just giving in?" The others whirl on Jin in denial.

"You can't do that, Hyung." Jungkook cries.

"Don't give in to her demands," Taehyung yells. The others just stand, mute, staring at the witch, but if looks could kill....well...

"Enough!" Namjoon yells, anger evident in his stance. "Do what he tells you." And I watch as Namjoon walks over to one of the harnesses and stands before it. Ceren smirks and snaps her fingers and the restraints magically seal around him, chaining him to the wall. I hear her laugh above me. She's enjoying this.

As Jimin slowly walked over, I couldn't help but ask, "I have a question?" Ceren's eyes kept a close watch on Jimin as he got in position.

"What question is that?" she asks, almost absentmindedly as she snaps her fingers and chains Jimin in place.  He tugs on the chains, testing them, glaring balefully at Ceren. 

"I'm confused about something," I hedge.

"Not surprising, you aren't very smart." She mutters, keeping the knife tight against my neck while watching Taehyung walk towards the wall. His tiger nature is very much evident as he nearly stalks forward, growling his displeasure the whole way. I ignored the insult.

"You told me I was conceived in that forest clearing, but my parents got pregnant in the back of a car in their driveway. Why did you lie?" I prompt. She pauses as she looks down at me, I, in turn, stare up at her.

"That's because you were conceived through me. The child of your adoptive parents died." She throws that out there like it's no big deal. I choke on my gasp as it pushes the knife into my throat, cutting me a little. I had suspected this was the case, but hearing it said, made tears fill my eyes.

"Did you kill her?" I ask. She laughs at my question while snapping her fingers and restraining Taehyung to the wall.

"Nope. You did." My mouth drops open and Ceren laughs loudly at the shock on mine and Bangtan's faces.

"What do you mean, she killed her?" Jin asks, incredulous.

Did I kill my parent's child? I choke on bitter tears that start streaming down my face. They had raised their strange shape-changing baby without prejudice and with enormous love and support. How would I face them now?

"Don't get dramatic." Ceren pulls on my hair. "The child was already dying. I had intended for you to be someone else's replacement child, but the opportunity to hide you in plain sight was too good to pass up. The child had choked to death during delivery and was struggling to hold onto life. I was going to kill it and coat you in its blood to encourage the transformation but when I placed you next to the child, you touched the baby and transformed. When the child took its last breath, I removed it and you became their child."

What?!! I'm speechless. I'm a murderer? Did I suck out innocent life? I can see the same shock I feel in the eyes of my men as they listen to the story. The strands light up inside me at our shock. I can feel everyone reject this part of the story. My eyes search for Jin, begging this not to be true.

"I should thank you. Before you touched that baby, I didn't realize that you didn't need to drown in the blood of what you wanted to change into. You just needed a drop. The newborn was starting to cough up blood and a drop or two must have been on the limb you touched. " She pulls out a vial and shows it to me. "Thanks to that knowledge, I now only need a small vial of my disguise's blood to maintain my illusions. You made things so much easier for me."

Wait..so I didn't take anyone's life, I just what...absorbed their likeness? I raise my hands and stare at them. I think about what she just said. She needed blood to change. I didn't have any access to blood when I changed in my destroyed apartment. I didn't touch any blood when I changed for my parents, either.