Changbin kept staring at the profiles of Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Sehun as well as the profiles of his parents, which were projected into the air while Seungmin was pacing up and down. The redhead was walking from one end of the meeting room to the other like a tiger in a cage.

Surprisingly it was a common sight nowadays since Changbin was trying to figure out how to track down his parents and the three missing royal guards with the help of his redheaded friend and the old magic of the book of vampires. The vampire prince had started his search shortly after Jae got him the book of vampires but when Seungmin started training with him he asked the redhead for help, knowing that his demonic friend was an exceptional talent when it came to magic.

Another reason for Changbin to ask Seungmin was that as far as the vampire prince was aware the redhead was the only one - except for him - who could read the book of vampires. Of course Changbin still questioned why the young demon was able to do that but it was a mystery left unanswered since Seungmin always changed the topic when Changbin brought it up. At some point Changbin gave up hoping Seungmin would answer his question and just made peace with the fact that it was a question he would often think about whenever he liked it or not.

For their research the two teens always had one of the many meeting room to themselves. They alway met up there shortly after training with the members of NCT and their friends but after a good two hours of thinking and fruitless attempts of using all sorts tracking spells Sungjin, Jae, Wonpil, who were most of the time accompanied by Byungho, Dowoon and Younghyun would dragged them out, so they could "do something with their friends" or "relax". Changbin and Seungmin always protested but never too much since they both knew the older males were just worried about them.

"I hate not having answers", Seungmin suddenly complained loudly, successfully pulling the vampire prince out of his thoughts. Changbin looked over to the redhead, who ruffled his scarlet hair rather harshly. It made Changbin automatically stand up from his place at the head of the meeting room's table, so he could walk up to the younger and grab his wrists to keep him from almost pulling his hair out. He hated it when Seungmin was getting so frustrated he started to be harsh to himself with the argument of having to come up something because he was a demon. 

"Stop being so harsh to yourself. You are just a creature like me. Demon or not", Changbin said in a calming voice. Seungmin sighed letting the vampire carefully pull his hands out of his hair. The vampire prince was kind of glad he could always calm his demonic friend down with that. Seungmin was still a kind of mystery to him. He felt close to the redhead but barely knew anything about him even though he was aware of the fact that knew more than the majority of their shared friends.

Changbin noticed how Seungmin was looking past his head probably towards the profiles. The younger's dark eyes seemed focused and almost darker than usual. It wasn't bad though since Changbin really liked Seungmin's eyes even though they always seemed to hide a secret. Before the vampire could turn his gaze away from the redhead's eyes did Seungmin focus on Changbin's almost black orbs with the red tint in them.

Time seemed to just stop when their eyes met. Changbin was still holding Seungmin's wrists and they weren't that far away from each other making it easy for the both of them to just take in the other's face. Slowly Changbin felt his heart speed up.

The vampire knew Seungmin was cute and handsome but he never remembered the younger to be that beautiful. His slightly chubbier cheeks gave him a bit of a rounder face but didn't hide his sharp jawline. The redhead's dark, almond shaped eyes seemed mysterious but still managed to make the other look cute because they somehow reminded one of a puppy. And then there were Seungmin's perfectly shaped, round lips. Normally they showed a lit grin or smirk but when they curved up into a smile, revealing a bit of Seungmin's teeth Changbin would call them kissable without hesitation.

It was a wonder he didn't have girlfriend-, oh wait, nobody of their friends were straight. To rephrase it: It was a wonder Seungmin wasn't in a relationship yet.

"Will we just keep staring at each other or get back to thinking about a solution?", Seungmin asked without breaking the eye contact. Changbin blinked slowly, focusing his eyes back on Seungmin's while his brain started to realize what he have been doing for the gods know how long.

"Let's get back to thinking", Changbin answered after clearing his throat while the tips of his ears began to turn red. The vampire automatically let go of Seungmin's wrists to get back to his previous spot on the head of the table and prayed to all known gods he didn't look flustered.

"Stop distracting yourself", Changbin thought to himself and looked at the profiles again. The status of all of them was marked as "alive" meaning their heart was still beating. Yes, the popular believe that vampires had no heartbeat was wrong. They did have one even though it was a rather faint in comparison with other species like werewolves, warlocks or elves.

"Alright what haven't we already tried?", Changbin asked glancing at Seungmin. The redhead hadn't moved from his position but did focus on the profiles hover in the air, which led Changbin internally release a breath. He could go back to being rather professional about this whole situation even without it being weird.

"Well everything we could think of up until now. Except the rather risky stuff you refused to let me try", the redhead retorted, crossing his arms over his chest. They really had tried a lot. Every searching spell they could think of, they tried. Well, except the one Seungmin needed fire for to perform it.

"We don't want the building to burn down", Changbin countered, raising an eyebrow at the redhead. "That wouldn't happen", Seungmin huffed while he avoided looking at the vampire. For a demon that was a very badly hidden lie.

There was a short silence before the younger of the two males spoke up again. "Okay maybe the room where the spell is performed would burn down", the redhead finally admitted in a little bit of a sulky manner. It made Changbin bite back a laugh because the redhead rarely admitted he was wrong about something.

Still when the vampire focused back on the profiles of his parents and the remaining members of the royal guard he couldn't help but sigh. They were really running out of ideas and probably time too, which really wasn't good in any way. The vampire prince let his gaze wander to the book of vampires, which laid open on the table. He looked at the five names, which were marked on the opened page: Seo Ahri, Seo Shiwon, Byun Baekhyun, Oh Sehun, Park Chanyeol.

The way the names were written somehow made Changbin think for a moment. The book of vampires was an ancient artifact, which already existed in the times of the ancient war but even after all this time he could read it without any effort.

With lightly frowned eyebrows did Changbin walk up to the ancient book, examining it for a short moment until a symbol on the right top corner of the page caught his eye. There was a symbol, which he knew was a special ruin.

Suddenly a realization hit the young vampire prince. "Runes! We haven't tried runes yet", he yelled turning to look at Seungmin, whose face lit up immediately with the same realization as Changbin. "Seo Changbin you are a genius. I could kiss you right now", the redhead said, probably without thinking about his choice of words.

"What?", Changbin asked in confusion because he was pretty sure he misheard. Seungmin just answered this with an equally confused "What?". There was a short silence between the two young males where they just looked at each other while being absolutely confused. Seungmin lightly shook his head, breaking the eye contact.

"Runes. Let's concentrate on that", the redhead reminded and sat down on the ground. He began tracing specific symbols on the ground, which seemed like an innocent action but Changbin knew the redhead was creating tracking runes on the ground.

It was impressive that Seungmin was able to just draw runes without using a pen or something to maybe correct mistakes but the vampire prince just really wanted to know if Seungmin really said "I could kiss you right now" or if it was just his imagination.

Suddenly the doors of the meeting flew open, letting both Changbin and Seungmin jump up in fright. Taeyong dashed into the room, followed by a man with brown hair and another one with blond, almost white hair. Changbin recognized the two unknown males as J.Seph and BM of the group KARD.

Taeyong quickly grabbed the remote for the meeting room's TV, which laid on the counter to the left and turn the device on without saying anything. It scared and confused Changbin and Seungmin even more since the TV in the meeting room was never used as far as they knew. They had magic for visual representation of things!

As soon as the TV showed the human news Changbin understood why Taeyong had to turn it on. At the moment there was a live transmission made from various angles with probably a lot of different cameras on the ground as well as in the air. It looked normal at the beginning since there was just a big crowd, which surrounded a kind of little stage but as soon as Changbin saw the people on that stage his blood ran cold.

On this little stage were seven people: Two cat hybrids in cages (one on the right side of the stage the other on the left side), one figure hidden under a dark blue cloak, which made it almost impossible to see his or her face, two hunters and two vampires, which were harshly chained to the ground by their hands, ankles and necks.

Changbin was sure he stopped breathing when the camera showed the two vampires close up, revealing their faces to the TV audience. No matter how long it had been since he last saw them he would always recognize his parents. "Mother ... Father ...", Changbin almost whispered but it was still audible to everyone in the room.

"Where the hell is this?", Taeyong asked in irritated tone. You could hear he was mad, very mad but Changbin couldn't bring himself to even glance at the guardian. "Somewhere in Transylvania but the exact location is still unknown and we can't figure it out! Their magical creature, this Zendala, must have protected the area with a spell and the news didn't show the exact location either!", J.Seph explained, trying to be calm but there was something in his voice, which showed his frustration.

"They are starting a fucking war with this! Even if we knew where this scene is set and could do something against it the humans would mark us as the bad guys because someone of the hunters would definitely attack us and we would fight back! They are revealing us to the public completely and they act like we are this malicious creatures, who will just kill them!", BM snapped at no one in particular.

The conversation of the older males was something Changbin registered but not primarily paid attention to. His eyes were still fixed on the TV screen, which showed how the cat hybrids - or to be more precise Minho and Felix's parents - hissed at everyone who came too close to their cage.

"They are drugged", Seungmin whispered beside him, gaining Changbin's attention but it didn't make the vampire's eyes leave the TV screen. The vampire just focused on the two cat hybrids a bit more.

Seungmin was right the cat hybrids did seem disoriented since they even hissed in directions where only very few people stood. A camera, closer to their cage also revealed that their pupils were a lot wider than the ones of a normal cat hybrid.

Suddenly the camera abruptly focused on one of the hunters, who was standing on the stage with the cloaked figure beside him. Changbin subconsciously sucked in a breath when he noticed the red crystal around the man's neck. This was the man, who attacked him when he wanted to help Mrs. Lee escape from the fire, which had destroyed her clan's territory.

The man looked over the crowd before he pulled down his face mask, revealing some nasty claw-like scars which went from his left cheek over his mouth to the right side of his jaw. He began to speak but the TV was muted, so Changbin could only see the man's lips moving.

"Unmute the TV", Seungmin said loudly to Taeyong, ripping NCT's leader out of his conversation with the two unknown males. The guardian looked to the TV again and immediately unmuted it.

"-ature are malicious beings by nature. They were born and created to hunt and kill us. Some even target especially children and women. We, hunters and huntresses, have found and perfected methods as well as techniques to turn this around and make them the prey even though the majority of humanity declared us as superstitious and crazy to believe in the existence of supernatural creatures. Now you have proof, that our believes and training wasn't for nothing", the man spoke and gestured towards the four creatures on the stage.

"Even though we have many hunter and huntresses we still need the help of every human on earth. Let's finally end the killing of the supernatural creature, so we don't have to fear them anymore. And-", the man wanted to continue his speech but suddenly some people in the crowd began moving in a supernatural speed.

"Vampires?", Seungmin breathed out in confusion right beside Changbin. The cameras were switching quickly, showing how some vampires just bit a bunch of humans without warning. One of the cameramen or camerawomen must have been attacked too because he or she dropped the camera while a horrifying, shrill scream could be heard.

Changbin heard how a little gasp escaped Seungmin's lips when it was shown how some humans dropped to the ground motionless, pale and without a drop of blood. The vampires killed them by drinking too much of their blood.

The situation shown on the screen was chaotic and escalated way too quickly. The few hunters, which seemed to be present had jumped in and began fighting the vampires while the civilians ran around in panic.

The cameras were switching around so much it made Changbin feel dizzy but even in this complete chaos it was noticeable how a bunch of vampires managed to get to the stage and rip open the chains of the vampire king and queen while ignoring the cages which contained the drugged cat hybrids. Changbin could see even from a certain distance how his parents had their Red Glow on full display, meaning something must have been done to them beforehand.

This made Changbin pay more attention to the other vampires' actually strange behavior. They killed the humans by biting them and then gulping down all of their blood hungrily. It was unusual as strange as that may sound to some.

Of course the most efficient way of killing for a vampire was drinking the victim's or enemy's blood since the blood made them stronger for a certain period of time but they didn't need it to survive or have a general craving for it. They only got extremely hungry for blood after they had to heal their bodies multiple times.

Suddenly it clicked in Changbin's head. This whole thing was a set-up. Those vampires must have been captured like Changbin's parents and were tortured a lot, so their bodies had to repair the damage done to it multiple times, making their thirst for blood unbearable over time.

This time the vampire prince felt how his Red Glow got stronger by each second passing, replacing his fear, panic, horror and sadness with calmness and a more calculating way of thinking but it was suddenly dimmed down when he felt a warm hand in his own. A glance to the side told him it was Seungmin, who was looking at the screen in shock and fright but still took Changbin's hand.

The camera suddenly zoomed away from the whole chaos and then changed the point of view completely. Changbin's breathing stopped when he was met with the face of his mother, who seemed to be directing the camera onto herself by force. It seemed like she was looking directly at Changbin through the screen. Her eyes were bright red, telling Changbin that she was only able to think rational because of her Red Glow.

"Changbin", she said surprisingly calm but still with a lot of emotion in her undertone. The young vampire prince felt how a lump was forming in his throat when he heard his mother talk.

"I know this is rushed and maybe the last thing I will ever say to you but you need to get the book of vampires and unleash its full potential. Only you are able to do that, it was said in the vision of an immortal warlock on the day you were born. You are the key to it. You can get information on anyone with that. I know you can figure it out with Jisung", she said and then paused for a moment while tears welled up in her eyes.

"Changbin just know I-", she began but suddenly a shot fell and her words were caught in her throat. The red was fading out of her eyes and a silver liquid began to cover her mouth, letting her cough before the program was cut off and the news came to the studio where the reporters were just speechless. Taeyong turned the TV off and there was a suffocating silence in the room.

Changbin felt how hard Seungmin was squeezing his hand, maybe to calm him and himself but  the vampire just felt numb. Maybe it was the Red Glow or his mind which decided to just shut down but he truly felt nothing. No emotion, no pain.

His gaze wandered from the now black screen of the TV to the opened book of vampires, which still projected the profiles of Changbin's parents and the three royal guards into the air. His mother's status had changed from "alive" to "deceased". Subconsciously he also looked at the status of his father, which just in that moment changed itself from "alive" to "deceased", meaning the vampire king just lost his life as well.

"Changbin", the vampire prince heard Taeyong's careful, gentle voice say. It was a huge contrast to the voice the guardian had used when he had entered the room but Changbin appreciated the older male's sympathy. The vampire prince turned his head to look at the guardian, still feeling nothing. Judging by the short flash of shock in the guardian's eyes his Red Glow must be very intense right now but Changbin noticed that the other seemed to have a question.

"What did your mother say?", the guardian asked carefully. "She said your name and then spoke in a different language. I couldn't even tell which one", he added, still using a soft voice. For a brief second Changbin didn't understand what Taeyong meant before he understood what his mother had done. She used an old trick to talk to him only.

"She spoke Vampirisch. It's the language of the royal vampires and purely for emergency situations or secret meetings", the vampire prince answered almost coldly. Taeyong nodded and seemingly wanted to say something but before he could the door of the meeting room was ripped open again but none other that Han Jisung.

"Chan-hyung is in danger!", the young warlock exclaimed while breathing heavily. "The pack ... he is currently staying at ... is under attack. Byungho-hyung has a bad feeling too which more or less confirms this is happening right now. We need to go there now!", he continued while he still struggled to calm his heavy breathing but somehow managed to yell the last sentence.

"How are those damn hunters literally everywhere?", BM questioned loudly, like he wasn't believing it. It was a surprise he didn't question Jisung at all. On the other hand NCT did know Jisung had a vision about the fire at Sky Clan and therefore predicted it.

"Matthew calm down", J.Seph spoke up, laying a hand on BM's shoulder. The blond looked at his group member with a bit of fire burning in his eyes. "I won't calm down. If the hunters want a war they should get one", the blond shot back.

"We should think before we act, BM", Taeyong said sharply and turned his attention to Jisung again. "At which pack is Chan staying at?", he asked the warlock. Jisung gulped and took a breath but he didn't get to answer.

"Moon pack", someone behind the warlock answered. Byungho revealed himself to the people in the little meeting room by coming up beside Jisung  but he wasn't alone. Jeongin, Felix, Minho and Hyunjin were there too. Changbin guessed they didn't really know what was going on, judging by the puzzled and a little scared expressions on their faces.

"It's almost arrogant to attack such a large pack", BM scoffed, calming down a little bit. He turned to Taeyong, having changed his mood completely. "I will call up Jiwoo, Somin, A.C.E as well as MonstaX and help the moon pack. Get your team together and back us up as soon as possible", the blond instructed in a much more professional tone. Taeyong nodded in understanding.

With that BM left the room with quick steps, obviously determined. Jisung, Byungho and the rest of their friends immediately made room for the tall male, not wanting to be in his way right now, which was understandable. "Wish us luck", J.Seph mumbled mostly to himself before he looked at NCT's leader for a short moment before following his blond partner.

"Follow me please", Taeyong said to group of young males after a short silence. Changbin still felt empty and numb but he did follow the guardian while Seungmin was still holding onto his hand. While walking down the corridor the vampire prince noticed the fear and worry lingering in the atmosphere. It was like it was floating over his friends like a cloud. Even in his current state with his Red Glow on full display he hated it because he could do nothing about it.

Taeyong lead the group to one of the open common rooms of the building were most of the NCT members spend their free time. Today was no exception. In the common room they just entered were Jaemin, Jeno, Renjun, Dejun, YangYang, Yukhei, Doyoung and Jungwoo. They seemed to have a nice afternoon with some board games and books, which was why the eight males were rather surprised when the group Taeyong lead into the room seemed to gloomy.

"What's wrong?", Doyoung asked immediately, getting up from his place between Yukhei and Jungwoo. "We got an emergency. I need you to get Jaehyun, Ten, Taeil, WinWin, Johnny and Kun", Taeyong instructed, leaving no room for questions. Doyoung didn't loose any time and immediately dashed out of the room.

"Renjun, get Donghyuck and Yuta. The three of you need to double our defense systems", the guardian ordered, looking at the young warlock with silver eyes. Renjun nodded, detached himself from Jaemin and dashed out of the room like Doyoung did.

"The rest of you just stay here", the red-haired man then concluded looking at everyone, who was still present. "If anything happens you know what to do", he then added, focusing on the remaining NCT members, who nodded in understanding. Taeyong then turned on his heels and walked out of the room quickly.

"What the hell just happened?", Hyunjin breathed out beside Changbin. Normally the vampire prince would have been startled by such an action but now he didn't even flinch a little. His Red Glow kept his mind too focused on rational thoughts.

"Don't worry. We will sort this out", Jungwoo said and stood up, so he could walk over to the group of frightened teenagers. He was only Minho's age, yes, but he was trained for emergency situations like this ever since he joined NCT.

Changbin knew the merman didn't have any clue what was exactly happening right now but he appreciated how Jungwoo still wanted to make everyone feel safe. He almost let out an ironic chuckle when he remembered, that almost no one in the room knew about the human's brutal war declaration. Jisung seemingly didn't know since he was only worried about Chan because he must have seen, that the wolf hybrid was in danger through a part of his vision clearing up all of the sudden.

Even with the Red Glow Changbin felt a his chest tightening when he thought about the inevitable war. To the gods he will be directly involved with everything. He was theoretically king now. His parents were dead, meaning he was inheriting their position if he wanted or not but to make things even worse for the young, inexperienced vampire crown prince he was also some sort of key for the book of vampires, which will be important for the war and tactics if you thought about it from a strategic point of view.

Maybe Changbin would have broken down in the moment he slowly began to understand his new role. His Red Glow probably wouldn't have prevented it, no matter how strong it was but in the end he didn't break down because of the young demon standing right beside him. When the vampire had the feeling everything was too much for him to handle he felt how Seungmin was lightly squeezing his hand again. The warmth of the other's hand was a lot more present now and it made Changbin seriously questioned what made him stay sane in this situation. His Red Glow or the redhead?