Jungkook sat in the hospital lobby, cracking his knuckles. It was the best he could do to not think about death. Everything here smelled metallic, sterile, sanitized. Like the desks and objects that doctors, patients, or nurses touched had to be bathed in antibacterial hand soap.
He had nearly kicked the door down bringing in Grey's friend. Her skin was a sickly gray, the blood loss more than severe. If she'd been delivered any later, her last breaths would have been in that car.
Whatever irkan got her, it got her good.
The black cat sat in the chair next to him, tail flicking back and forth whenever a person in scrubs shoved through the emergency room doors. It's ears remained attentive, taking in every last detail of the waiting area. Jungkook--who responded better to dogs--awkwardly set a hand on its head, satisfied when its fur resembled a soft blanket.
He drew a thumb over the back of her neck. "I know we've never met, but you feel very familiar."
The kitten purred although it wasn't from the way he was touching her. It was probably for keeping her company, or for deciding to take Grey's friend to the hospital against his own intuition.
When Grey stalked towards the elevator in that parking lot, Jungkook could have sworn up and down that the thing spoke. He wasn't able to catch the words as he figured out how to situate Amelia's weight, but a voice other than Grey's barged into the rushed conversation. Moreover, the presence of the kitten was too comfortable at his side. All it was doing was sitting on its hind legs staring past the receptionist desk, but Jungkook couldn't deny it.
He felt like he'd sat next to it before.
A doctor in magenta scrubs with a clipboard in hand and stethoscope around her neck sighed heavily and headed towards him. He stood eagerly, the kitten rising to all fours and mewing atop the plastic chair.
Jungkook asked, "Is she going to be alright?"
The woman nodded gravely. "We found a donor just in time. Her heart would have failed had we waited any longer." She stepped closer to him, lowering her voice so that the elderly in the next seats over couldn't eavesdrop. "The marks in her shoulder are incredibly deep. We have some questions for you pertaining as to how she got injured? We don't want to get the authorities involved, but these wounds are serious."
He beheld her attention, focusing solely on her pupils. She visibly relaxed, the magic tie lacing them together tugging against his conscience. "We will not get the authorities involved. It was a tragic animal attack."
Her heavy head sagged as she nodded. Jungkook evaded the attention of the old people that stared them down. He had never been good at compulsion, but with those beady eyes pressed on him it didn't help him focus.
"Take me to go see her," he said softly. The nurse turned and strode away, the young man tailing her and keeping his head down as the other doctors passed him by. When he and the kitten were past the emergency room doors, his phone vibrated in his pocket. With a swift flick of the wrist, he pressed it to his ear.
"Yeah?"
"Will she survive?" Connection to Jin was spotty in these halls, but his concerned friend's voice rang clear through the choppy service.
"She's alive for now. Needs a lot of rest."
"In the meantime, Grey is going to stay with us."
Jungkook almost stopped walking. "Jin," he warned.
"We need her. And the others. I'm arranging everything."
The young prince inhaled a deep breath, then released it slowly. "She'll help us or damn us."
"This one is different. You have to trust me."
No one needed to tell Jungkook. He knew from the moment he saw her that she was different. She was open to the world, so trusting with him. Trusting enough to invade his personal space, but also trusting enough to ask such oblivious questions that it was easy to tell she was a fish out of water. She was exactly what they searched for, but he wouldn't get his hopes up.
"I'm heading into her friend's suite. I'll call you when the job is done."
"Are you confident enough with your compulsion to do it?"
One was never confident in rousing the dark energy in their core. At least, he was not.
"You're such a mother," he remarked, hanging up the phone and slipping into Amelia's suite as the nurse opened the door.
:::
Grey's lolling head woke her up. The foot of the couch was comfier than expected, and the company of countless books embedded in shelves along the walls made the gigantic space a little less lonely. Candle sconces offered little light compared to the blaring morning sunshine reigning over downtown Seoul and through a series of tall, arched windows across the way.
She rocked to the side, groaning as a dull ache rumbled from her tailbone to her neck. The couch was accommodating, but the marble floors were not. Her fingers found the edge of an antique coffee table, and when she was ready she lifted herself onto the red velvet cushions.
As the events of last night visited her drowsy head, she recalled exactly how she landed in a library.
Jin left her to her own devices with concern for Amelia. In turn, she proceeded to get lost attempting to maneuver through whatever dreamscape of a skyscraper KSJ was. When doors that she assumed hid bedrooms were opened, a hallway brought her to another stop. Statues of men and women with wings followed her with stony gazes when she wasn't looking, the gargoyles settled in the higher pieces of ceiling seemed to open their jaws.
Not only was she being watched, but also tested. Frustration eventually got the best of her, Grey wanting to find answers more than a place to sleep. So, when she discovered the library, she defiantly found a loveseat and sank to the floor.
Since the library didn't have a clock, she guessed by the sun's position in the sky that it was still early morning--partially because she could barely sleep knowing that her life spiraled downward, and partially because she'd never been an early riser. Her eyes burned and it took more effort to open her eyes after blinking than to stay seated upright.
Dress shoes clicked against hard floors. Grey squinted at Kim Seokjin who appeared from behind one of the lonesome shelves and adjusted the cufflinks on his business suit sleeves. "Any requests for breakfast?"
"Did she make it?"
Jin took a seat on the couch across from her, crossing one leg over the other. "Yes."
Grey scooted forward. "Can I go see her?"
"Are you sure you want to visit wearing that?" Beside the seriousness of the circumstances, Jin bit his lower lip as though he was stifling laughter. Grey scowled in his direction, ferocity failing when she checked herself out.
Caked red blood dried solely around the knees in her pants. Her button up shirt was speckled with black blood just much as it was with white poodles and shopping bags. Was he making fun of her sleepover PJ's? Self-conscious, Grey crossed her arms like it might help cover up the evidence. "I can just go home and change."
"Ah," Jin pointed a finger up to the ceiling, "but you can't. I conducted a small investigation of my own after I left. Not only were irkans swarming your apartment, but they also crawled around Amelia's street."
"Why do they care about Amelia? I didn't tell her anything!"
"You didn't need to. Demons are clever, but they aren't intelligent. Irkans in particular have a heightened sense of smell they use to track prey, and your scent led a clear path to your friend's. As they came to take you--,"
"They took her," Grey finished. Jin nodded. She sighed, letting her face fall into her hands. "I thought she was invisible to them if I kept this all a secret."
"Demons become visible to humans and vice versa in two ways. The first is when a human learns of them from spoken or written knowledge and searches for one or summons it. There has to be intent behind that." Jin crossed his arms and leaned back on the pillows. For a second, she wondered how often he'd given this lecture, if she was the only one. After all, he wasn't just anyone on the street but the superpower of South Korea's business world. Lecturing humans probably wasn't his typical past-time.
And gosh it was odd realizing she was the only human in the room.
"The second is less complicated," Jin sighed, "as all demons naturally flock to corrupt or harm humans with pure hearts. In both cases, the visibility is not always mutual. Some humans are unaware that they're being tormented by demons that follow them. On the other hand, some humans recognize a demon by pure intuition. A warning from their soul."
Grey wanted to go back to sleep. As if being in a different dimension wasn't enough, a few more rules and regulations had to be slapped onto her growing burden. Amelia was attacked. In heavenly prince logic or whatever it was called, it meant she had a pure heart.
Hard to believe when the girl swore like a sailor, had horrible road rage when old people crossed the street after the light changed, and rambled every few hours about what she'd do to RM from BTS if she got the chance. Did BTS even exist here? And these traits qualified a pure heart?
Grey looked up at Jin, holding a hand against her eyes to block the sunlight. "What do you mean by pure hearts?"
"Humans that love wholeheartedly, and in their heart of hearts would do the noble thing no matter how they claim to feel or think. You can't tell the difference between an average human and one with an angelic soul as a mortal. But, as an immortal, there is a certain aura that surrounds them, and a certain color and feeling..."
Jin looked to the floor as his voice dropped off. Clearing his throat, he he sat straight again. "For some reason your aura is incredibly strong, Grey, and it follows you wherever you go. Which is why you'll need to stay here."
"Jin, I have a life."
"That won't last with the target that's on your back."
He had a point.
"My building is the only building in Seoul protected by celestial seals and wards that've lasted for nearly a century. Demons are not allowed on these grounds. I formally offer you the executive assistant position so that you receive pay and shelter. But, it's your choice to accept."
Don't screw this up, Grey.
She weighed the decision, realizing each of the choices cost something. Her sanity if she chose to return to a concrete jungle teeming with beasts, or her freedom if she handed her fate to the immortal for a place to rest her head... She couldn't protect her and Amelia both.
"I accept."
Jin's onyx eyes glittered in the morning glow as his plump lips snaked into an effortlessly gorgeous smile. And watching that bottomless gaze size her up, she felt powerless for the first time.
"Then, as your boss, I have a few ground rules."
She listened to every command that tumbled from his fair features. "The 41st floor is not conventional. The rooms shift and change for newcomers, but when you pick a permanent room it stops. A cautionary measure for my nosey employees that somehow gain access. Leads them back to the elevators no matter how many times they turn."
So she wasn't as crazy as she thought.
"The foyer you've seen is the Great Hall, where we receive special guests. You're no longer a stranger so it will revert back to a living space Jungkook and I prefer. Sometimes it will resemble a castle, sometimes it will be a penthouse. Either way, the rooms are the same."
Jin checked his thick, silver watch then sighed before continuing. "I can't dictate what rooms are available to you and what are not. The others will tell you that, but I can assure you the last door to the left in the South wing is forbidden. He doesn't like visitors."
"Wait, the others?"
"I have a life, Grey," he grinned, satisfied with himself for jabbing her with her own words, "so does Jungkook. When we can't be there, someone needs to keep you out of trouble."
"Two of you aren't enough even though I'm going to be glued to your side?"
"You're not a pet. I won't need you for everything. When you're out of our sight, you'll be in another's."
Grey said, "How much protection am I getting?"
Surprisingly, Jin was patient. He did not waver at any of her questions, did not yet make an excuse to leave. "The seven of us will be more than enough."
Seven?
Jin turned to observe the sun glinting off of Seoul's other tall buildings, all of them shimmering like towers of mirrors and prisms. "That's if they accept you."
"If?"
"We're a collective group. None of us have formal power over the other. They must willingly give consent."
Her neck craned to the side, eyes wide as she crossed her arms. "And if they don't?"
"Don't think that way. We have to be optimistic."
We? Oh, how the tables have turned. She ignored the fact that it made her heart jump a little to have it thrown out so swiftly, to even consider her and Jin being a unit.
"Jin," he snapped his attention to her when his name left her lips. Facing him wholly so unexpectedly caused her mind to scramble, the unfairness of his beauty arresting her momentarily. It was like marveling at a new creature, becoming aware of the limited proximity between her and him. She regained her composure as though it'd never left. "I need to know what I'm up against so that I can plan."
"No matter how much I want to help you, if they decline, then I must as well."
In other words, she would be left to the wolves.
Why did everything have to be so damn extreme around here?
She must have looked as dumbfounded as she felt because Jin stood from his seat and offered her a hand. "You can try and get Jungkook's consent now. He's at the hospital with Amelia. Kill two birds with one stone."
She glanced down at her pajamas again then stared hesitantly at his hand. He chuckled, a higher-pitched sound than she expected. Jin said, "I will give you a glamour so that no humans detect you. After, one of us can take you to go change at your apartment and gather a fresh change of clothes."
She nodded, more stressed in this very moment than she'd ever been in her life. Grey flinched as her palm joined his, the touch between them cold as snow.
:::
Kim Seokjin rounded his white Mercedes into the circular driveway that led to the hospital's emergency room department. He climbed from the driver's seat and tossed his keys to the young people behind the black podium as soon as they turned his direction, muttered their good morning wishes, lowered into respectful bows in the hopes of getting a handsome tip.
"What kind of hospital has valet?" No one else heard Grey's comment but him. "Damn rich people."
She was just as human as any of the other ones, frail and young and clueless. At least she was funny too. She crept out of the passenger side, doe-eyed and childlike while she inspected the valet drivers. When they raised their eyebrows at a door opening on it's own, he spoke up.
"My doors are automatic. They do that sometimes."
The two men laughed uneasily and nodded like what he said made perfect sense. Grey took the opportunity to tiptoe behind Jin's back. Jin only knew she was there when her thin fingers gripped the back of his coat. He wanted to check on her, smile, assure that she would be okay. Instead, he marched through the sliding automatic doors and headed directly towards Amelia's suite.
The poor girl clinging to him was scared, and he knew it. What he appreciated was that she did not hide that fear behind smoke and mirrors, but wore it in her cautious expression, let it seep into the thousands of questions she had because she expected honesty, even from him who had no obligation to provide it or gain her trust.
There were plenty of reasons to keep her alive. Her abilities, her wit, her charm. Those things aside, a fraction of him that he thought he buried years ago resurfaced in a matter of seconds when he was in her presence. A flicker of youth, light, hope. And that spark genuinely wanted to help.
He brought Grey to the final door, opening it just slightly so she could slip in. The scent of irkan blood and... vanilla passed under his nose as she wiggled past him. She smelled like vanilla after a long night like that. He was unsure of how to deal with the irony. His favorite aroma radiating from what he programmed himself to reject.
She whispered, "Are you coming?"
He shook his head, gently closing the door as those star-flecked eyes of hers finally looked away.
He pulled out his phone, pressing the speed dial button for the next phase. The line rang once, then twice. After a fourth time, a distinctive "Hello" echoed from the line.
"It's Jin. Tonight, I request the presence of the council. Tell them to come home."
The cool voice said, "So soon? Is something wrong?"
"I need Consent."
"They may not get back to me in time, Jin. Is this an emergency?"
"As the eldest, tell them they don't have a choice."
A deep laugh came from the opposite end. "We'll be there."
"Thanks Joonie," Jin said, hanging up the phone and preparing a tip for the valet.
:::
(A/N) Faithful reader,
Honestly, this book is the reason why I'm procrastinating on schoolwork but I would rather be writing this than doing anything else. I'll be at a lake house today with some friends, (if there are spelling or grammar excuses, excuse me this once) but I'll be hoping you enjoyed this chapter from here!
This chapter's dedication goes to @unblossomedwords because... do I even have to say it? She is just debatably one of the coolest people on this website. Definitely a person I admire.
(EDIT 6/16/20 - tbt to when I didn't know how to tag people on this site, lmaoooo so much fun.)
With love,
M