Sacrifices || Jackson Wang \ Han Sanghyuk au

• Chapter 8 •

The next day, my eyes flew open at the morbid sounds of both screams and thuds I could only associate with the amplitude of thunder. Fear ripped through me as another scream, followed by a second thud, cut through the silence. It was Hyuk. The contrast of my dark room to the brightness of the outside burned, my feet racing me to the source of all the noise in less than a second.

Outside, in the wide area of my yard, Hyuk laid down in the grass, panting harshly, sweat blanketed over his forehead and bare arms. Jackson's muscular body was hunched over him, completely lacking any type of clothing above the waist. "Hyuk, you need to try." I heard Hoseok say, and my head whipped around, noticing him perched up in one of the pine trees that planted itself on the edge of the yard. "Go again." With Hoseok's call, Jackson straightened himself up and ran over to the opposite side of the grassy area.

Hyuk shakily pulled himself up. From the way the sun hit, it was hardly nine in the morning and he looked worn out already, to the point of possibly passing out. "I've been trying." He spit out, all emotion and care stripped from his voice.

"Obviously not, pretty boy. We are running it again." Jackson yelled from behind Hyuk, and with that his feet lifted and he sped towards the younger boy. At that same instant, Hoseok flung himself off of the tree and I finally connected what they were trying to get him to do. They wanted Hyuk to fight off both of them at the same time.

Hyuk stood still until Jackson reached only inches from his back, and in a blink of an eye, Hyuk snapped backward and hit Jackson's chest with his forearm so hard that he went flying off to the side. It surprised me that, even only a few days into everything, he was able to control and use his strength so well. The thought, though, was soon shattered with the sight of Hoseok pouncing on top of him, his knees digging into his thighs and fingers pushing his wrists up high over his head.

"What are you going to do when N sends Jeongguk and every other guard he has after you?" Hoseok was screaming in his face, his teeth baring and flashing. His eyes pierced a red that was deeper than I was used to seeing, they were filled with anger. "Are you just going to stand there and be useless, Yue? Or are you going to help, because this is life or death for you, last time I checked." He was still glaring at Hyuk, he must have heard my breathing.

I shook my head softly, running my fingers through my tangled hair. His harsh words didn't bother me. "I think he needs a break." No matter how much work he needed, over exposing him and tearing all of his energy out of him wasn't a good idea, but Hoseok didn't see it that way.

He swung his head towards me and pushed himself off of Hyuk. He was next to me before my eyes could adjust. "No." He whispered in my ear, the annoyance evident in his tone. He was up in the tree again a few moments later, screaming orders again. "Hyuk, you are going to stand out and watch Yue do it."

Hyuk huffed out, stumbling out of his spot and sitting next to Hoseok's tree. Jackson, too, like Hoseok, moved back into place and crouched as if he was in hunt. As I planted my feet in the spot where Hyuk had so many times been on his back, Jackson's arrogant voice rang out. "I'll go easy on you, Princess."

"No need to." I muttered under my breath, so low that if the place wasn't infested with vampyres, nobody would have heard.

I first heard how Hoseok straightened his knees before jumping from the tree branch, giving every effort in my body not to go after him. Jackson was next, and in a split second I could hear how his heart beat sped up, prior to him taking off towards my backside.

My ears focused on how close Jackson was getting while I forced my eyes to watch Hoseok get closer and closer to me. I didn't move one inch. I counted the number of Jackson's steps squishing into the wet ground along with how his breathing and heart rate grew louder in my ear. Instinctively, I jumped up, Hoseok so close I felt the wind underneath my feet as I soared upward, a good twenty feet.