The internet is really slow right now...anyway, update!

XXIII: Jungkook

The moment my hands make contact with Taehyung's temples, I'm swept away in a tide of color and light. I seem to be falling through an endless vacuum, with time and space bending underneath me. A blinding light sears through my vision, and my eyes feel like they're on fire.

Suddenly, my surrounding change, the burning light sheared away as if by a scythe. I'm standing in the middle of a sand training field, lit only by blue-fire lamps at the edges. It's the middle of the night, and moonlight glimmers off the columns and arches of a building behind me. When I look behind, my breath catches in my throat.

It's a massive black tower, made of the same granite as the lampholders. But there's something ominous about it, and the surrounding night blends into the stone so well, that I have to strain my eyes to see where the sky ended and the building began. None of the lights in the windows are lit, and that makes me wonder if I'm the only person here. I shuffle my feet on the sand, wondering what to do next.

Then I see the crest.

On a wooden board a few feet away, was the sign of a snake coiled around a sword dripping with blood. I look away quickly, disturbed by the image. This building evidently had an emblem. And there were training fields all around, with things in the distance that look suspiciously like barracks.

Which means that this was a school.

A school which Taehyung had attended.

Bloodcrest.

The night air seems to curdle around me, cooling considerably even though nothing around me has changed. I'm suddenly aware of all the weaponry hanging on hooks at the end of the field, and the daggers in the middle of targets. This was no doubt a military academy.

Out of the ghostly quietness, I hear a loud yell, shattering my sense of loneliness. There was someone else here, that was for certain. I didn't know if that was good or bad. Taehyung had told me that Bloodcrest's students were merciless and incredible fighters. I didn't want to encounter one of them with nothing to defend myself. Scratch that. I never wanted to meet one even if I had a formidable weapon. The noise seems to be coming from a large wood building right in front of me, lit by fiery red lamps.

Are you going in? The logical part of me asks. I wouldn't. Might be dangerous. But then again, this was only part of Taehyung's memory. In reality, I was still in the healing center at Armad Castle. Nothing could possibly hurt me here. Steeling my nerves, I walk towards the towering edifice.

When I enter the building, I'm greeted by the sound of swords clashing together, and shouts coming from a training room. Ahead of me, the training room door stands open, and gold torchlight pours into the hallway. I take a tentative peek, ready to bolt at the first sign of danger. A pair of vampires battle within, each brandishing two slender scims. They both have silver masks on, glinting in the fire of the torches. They must both be Masks. One of them turns, and I gasp.

His mask has completely melded onto his face, so that the smooth liquid silver dissolved into his skin. He now couldn't remove it without taking off half his face with it. All his features are clearly visible underneath, from the thick slant of his eyebrows to the hard angles of his cheekbones. The jade-green of his eyes seem to pierce through his opponent as the two circle each other like hungry lions.

The other man is about the same height, but more slender and lithe. His mask still has yet to mold into his face, and so sits atop like a thing apart. A black training tunic covers his body from the neck down, and ruby red eyes flash from behind his silver mask. Without a doubt, I know who it is.

Taehyung.

Even though he looks younger and his hair is a lighter brown, his eyes still remain the same. Except that these eyes aren't filled with the love and gentleness I was used to seeing.

No.

These are filled with battle rage, tactics, blood. The way he uses his scims like they were an extension of his body, slashing and stabbing, makes me realize how good of a fighter he was. The green-eyed man counters his attacks with equal ferocity, ducking when a thrust nearly takes his head off.

As I watch them fight, I find myself holding my breath. They move like dancers, whirling back and forth across the room: graceful, liquid, deadly. And so swift, like shadows on the surface of a river. If I wasn't watching with my own eyes, I would never believe anyone could move that fast. They match each other stroke for stroke, scims flashing silver in the dark light. It's impossible to think that this was only until first blood. They look like they want to kill each other.

Taehyung gets a solid hit on the green-eyed man's arm. He tries to switch sword arms, but Taehyung jabs his scim at the man's wrist faster than he can parry. The man's scim goes flying, and Taehyung pushes him back to the wall.

"Ha!" Taehyung pins the man to the training room wall, scim at his throat and chest heaving. "You could never beat me. Give up!"

The man makes no move to go for a weapon, even though he has a dozen at hand, and simply stares at Taehyung with those unsettlingly green eyes. There's more than just friendship in them, more than bloodlust. Something more...

Taehyung must have seen it too, because the battle rage in his eyes disappear, replaced by confusion.

"What―"

The green-eyed man suddenly pulls Taehyung's face forward with his hands and kisses him. It's a hungry kiss, unyielding in desire. A kiss that has been stored up for days, waiting to be released. Taehyung's eyes grow wide, and he tries to shove the man away from him. He doesn't let go. Only when Taehyung knees the man in the chest does he let go of his face. They both stand, panting. Taehyung looks utterly shocked, and the hand holding his scim is trembling. The green-eyed man simply stares at him, some foreign emotion in his eyes.

"You never noticed, did you?" The man's voice is grating, but there's a twinge of gentleness attached to it. "You never knew my feelings towards you. I've liked you since we were Yearlings, Taehyung. Everything about you. The way you can kill a man with a twist of your hand, the way you wield scims, your eyes that shine when you laugh... I've loved all of those things for a long time. You walk in my dreams, Tae."

"No..." Taehyung whispers, his swords dropping to the ground with a clatter. "You―I―we can't..."

The green-eyed man walks towards him, pausing when he sees Taehyung backing away. He extends his hand.

"Why not? Think about it Tae. You and me... the strongest Masks of our generation. Ranked at the very top of our class. We can be more than just rivals. Just blood brothers. We can..." His eyes flicker with emotion. "We can be so much more than that."

Time seems to stretch for eternity as he and I both wait for Taehyung's answer. Even though this is only a memory, I find myself gripping onto the wood door frame, my heart beating fast.

"I-I'm sorry," Taehyung looks down at the floor. When he finally looks up, I can see tears starting to form at the corner of his eyes. "You're my best friend. I can't go down that road with you. It isn't right."

"Right?" The man's green eyes flare, and he takes a deep breath as if to control his temper. "Tae, we've been at Bloodcrest long enough to know that there is no right or wrong here. How many times have we seen someone whipped to death on the whipping post? Hell, we've been tied to that post before too. We've both felt the bite of the Headmaster's crop on our backs." Taehyung flinches, as if relieving the memory. The man continues. "Half the students die before reaching the age of twenty. This is a place where there is no help for the weak, and the others do everything they can to just survive! How can you talk about right or wrong in a place like this?"

When Taehyung doesn't answer, the man sighs. "Look, I know you're waiting for your soulmate. But what if he or she never appears? You have to face the facts at some stage. Less than 5% of vampires meet their partner woven for them by destiny. You may spend your whole life without a queen at your side if you keep going like this. And even if you do meet them, that will be in the far future. I'm right here. Right now." His eyes beg Taehyung to listen to him. "I'm right in front of you. You can be the queen of my clan and rule by my side. We can combine our clans so that we double in power. We could conquer the whole vampire world. No one would dare oppose us. No one." His jade eyes flash with malevolence.

Taehyung lets out a ragged sigh, staring at his friend. "Do you want me because you love me, or because you need something from me?"

The man's eyes widen. "Gods no Tae. I didn't mean it in that way. I do love you. Believe me."

For a moment, neither of them speaks. The scim lays forgotten on the floor, its sharp edge catching the moonlight and sending dappled shadows across the training floor. Taehyung's face is unreadable, his silver mask glinting in the light that his scim reflects. Finally, he lets out a sigh. A sigh that hints at what he's going to say before he even opens his mouth.

"I can't. No matter how slim the odds are, I want to meet them. I made a vow to myself long ago; that I would only marry my soulmate. You can't ask me to break that oath now. I like you, I really do... but it won't blossom into anything more than that."

The man's lip curls. "You're rejecting me for a person you've yet to meet? That's a foolish decision, Taehyung. Reconsider."

"I'm sorry." Taehyung meets the man's eyes. A stubborn tear trails down his cheek, but his tone is strong. "I can't love you. I can't think of you as anything more than a brother. I will never be able to be your queen."

The ensuing silence is deafening. The green-eyed man's eyes change from shock to sadness to anger in a split second. And then cools into something harder, something... more sinister.

"Is that your final decision?"

Taehyung meets the man's venomous gaze straight on, with a bright fire of his own.

"Yes."

The man's hands curl into fists, and his eyes seem to spark. But then his voice goes flat, his face expressionless. "Then I want nothing to do with you. From this moment on, we're enemies, Taehyung. You stay away from me. In training. At watch. In the barracks. Remember, from now, you are no longer my blood brother. You mean nothing to me."

The man spits the words like poison, then spins away from Taehyung. But after only a few steps, he turns back.

"You think that I want to feel this way about you? I hate it, Taehyung. You're my only weakness that I can't allow myself to have. But I let it be. I let it be, because someday, I thought that you might feel the same way about me. But I was wrong." The man laughs darkly, putting his hand up to his mask. The silver shimmers strangely at his touch, like a pool rippling beneath a stone. "Gods, I was so wrong."

"You never loved me," Taehyung whispers, voice soft after all the yelling. But it still seems to resonate through the room, sneaking into every single crevice and nook. "You just stacked your ideal persona on top of me, and are loving that. Not me. Otherwise, you would never threaten me to stay away. You would never cut off our connection like that. If you cared about me, your heart wouldn't let you do those things, Lucius."

Lucius. Taehyung called him Lucius, my mind screams. I knew I had seen those jade green eyes before. He was the man from my dreams, the man who threatened to cut my face with his scim. And that vile man had actually loved someone before? Loved my soulmate?

Lucius doesn't answer Taehyung. Instead he stalks out of the room, scim flashing dangerously at his side. He doesn't seem to be able to see me, which I'm glad for. His reptilian eyes look straight through me, as if I'm a hologram.

"You'll regret this Taehyung. I'll make you regret it with every bone in your body." He mutters as he leaves the training room. "I promise it." I'm not sure if Taehyung heard it or not, but nevertheless, his jaw goes tight.

He pulls a dagger out of his belt, caressing the hilt like a lover, and then sends it whistling towards one of the target dummies on the far wall. It hits one in the heart, and the dummy comes crashing down, knocking over another in the process. He looks mad, really mad. No, I decide, not mad. Raw. Like someone cut into his armor and left him bleeding. He storms over to the weapon rack, picking out a sharp looking longsword. Then he turns in my direction.

The moment his eyes meet mine, my surroundings start to change, twisting and turning until I feel like I'm falling all over again. The last thing I see is the surprise in Taehyung's crimson eyes and the longsword dropping to the ground, before I'm pulled back to reality with a jarring push.