In aeternum

Chapter 11

"We have to go and save him," Seonghwa said as he gritted his teeth and frowned. How could he have been so careless and let this happen?

"I should go alone," Jongho said.

"You can't. The Overseer is too strong to go against alone."

"What about Wooyoung and San? You don't have anyone else who can take care of them, hyung, and Yunho is my hyung. I have to get him back."

Seonghwa looked at the two seated on the couch and sighed. What was he going to do? What could he even do anymore? Things were spiraling out of control ever since Hongjoong came to seek him out. If he had just gone with him, would any of this even need to happen?

"Appa, you should go and save Yunho," San said and pursed his lips. "I can stay with Wooyoung here."

"Or we can go with you," Wooyoung chirped and Seonghwa frowned even harder. There was no way he was putting either of them into any more danger but there wasn't any way to prevent it either. Unless...

"San, go and grab your bags. Take the emergency kit too."

"Huh? Appa, why do I-"

"Go," Seonghwa said and San was about to argue but saw how serious he looked and decided otherwise for now.

"What's going on?" Wooyoung asked cluelessly and Seonghwa walked to him. He held his shoulders and looked at him with a serious expression. "Um...?"

"Listen to me carefully, Wooyoung. San will bring you away from here temporarily until I can figure out a way to turn you back into a human. Protect my son and protect yourself. The Overseer will try to come after you but you mustn't let him take you or San."

"B-but you just said he was too strong!"

"I know but right now, even if I brought you two along with me back to that place, I won't be able to protect you against so many other vampires. I will compete to be the new vampire lord. That's the only way I can stop the Overseer from pursuing you or San. Can you promise me you'll protect the both of you until I figure this out?"

"Seonghwa sshi... I..." Wooyoung didn't know what to say. It wasn't like he had any other choice but to say yes and yet, he couldn't bring himself to make such a promise. He wasn't able to protect San earlier. What makes him think he could do it against enemies who are even stronger? "I promise..."

"And another thing, you must never ever drink San's blood. No matter what happens. Never drink his blood," Seonghwa said and held his shoulders firmly.

"But why?"

"San... San's blood is poison to us vampires. If you drink it, you'll die. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you? Dying because of San?" Seonghwa asked and Wooyoung could tell he wasn't joking.

"But why is it poisonous? Isn't San just a human?"

"He is a human." Seonghwa let go of his shoulders and pulled him up to his feet. "But his parents were vampire hunters. Both of them. They poison their own blood so if any of them were to die from a vampire drinking from them, the vampire would die along with them. This makes San's blood even more potent to us because of the poison that runs in him."

"Does he know that?" Wooyoung gasped and Seonghwa shook his head. "Why haven't you told him?"

"I can't bring myself to... San is... he's too kind to be in our world. If he ever finds out that his parents were vampire hunters, what then?" Seonghwa asked in a hushed tone. "He would be broken in two, wondering about the purpose of his life and things like that. His parents lived to kill vampires... So why shouldn't he? But he was raised by one so how could he kill them?"