NAPE - 59

Bang!

“Keuheuk!”

A pained groan was heard. The scent of blood wafted through the air, and the weight on Bibi’s back lifted. Panting, Bibi raised her head. Doyoon stood right above the hole, aiming his gun. A sharp, blue light like a blade emanated from him, silhouetted against the moon.

With a light movement, Doyoon landed in the underground crypt. Bibi sprang up and ran to him.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Huh? Ah. I’m fine.”

“Let me see.”

As if he wouldn’t be reassured until he saw it himself, Doyoon scanned her up and down, and even touched every nook and cranny with his hands as he examined her.

“You’ve got a scratch here.”

Doyoon muttered, grinding his teeth as he found a wound on Bibi’s palm. His brow furrowed menacingly.

“He did it.”

Seeing his expression, Bibi couldn’t bring herself to say it was her own carelessness. She quickly pointed at the man bleeding and groaning on the floor, shifting the blame, and then scanned him up and down.

The man who had been pressing her down was wearing black rags and had platinum blonde hair, and surprisingly, he had a slender build. With dark circles under his eyes and sunken cheeks, he truly looked like a ghost.

“Hoo, hoo, you, keuk…. Who… who are you….”

Doyoon, who had been clenching his teeth, roughly threw the gun to the ground and strode towards the man. He took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, lit it, and then sat down in front of the man, meeting his gaze. Whoosh, a cloud of murky smoke was exhaled, engulfing the man’s face.

“I’d like an introduction.”

“…….”

“You should have greeted us politely from the start.”

“…….”

“The skulls in the forest, the pack of hybrid vampires. All… all your doing, right?”

The man glared at Doyoon with venomous eyes.

“You need to answer.”

When the expected answer didn’t come, Doyoon, still with the cigarette in his mouth, raised his hand with a nonchalant expression.

Slap!

A large, hard hand suddenly struck Jack’s cheek. Jack’s face flushed with humiliation and shock. He opened and closed his mouth as if at a loss for words. The palm rose again.

Slap!

“You’re Jack, right?”

Slap!

“Did you train those things outside, the ones calling themselves hunting dogs?”

Slap!

“I’m asking you.”

Doyoon’s thick, hard palm was like a brick. The man, having been slapped repeatedly on the cheek, shook his head, disoriented as if he had been waterboarded.

“Hueuh…! That’s right. I, ugh, I… I’m Jack! The, the hunting dogs were just guys who followed me from before…. I, I don’t know how to train them!”

Seeing Doyoon’s palm flying towards him again like a meteorite, he cried out urgently. Only then did Doyoon nod in satisfaction and smile thinly.

“If you had just said so from the beginning, you wouldn’t have had to blush.”

“...Who, who are you?”

“The same kind as you.”

At the simple answer, Jack narrowed his eyes.

“...Purebloods. When I saw you from afar, I didn’t realize you were like me. I just thought you were some pathetic hybrids, or curious humans at best.”

“So you hung skulls all over the forest and attacked us? Don’t lie so outrageously.”

“...I was just trying to protect myself! Damn it, this monastery is my home. I sent warnings from the forest. Told you not to come any closer! A method that’s worked for hundreds of years just failed for the first time now. Do you understand?”

“That’s none of my business. You were clearly scared. What did you think we were?”

Doyoon met his gaze and asked ominously. He pierced Jack with eyes that wouldn’t tolerate any lies. The sound of someone swallowing nervously echoed loudly in the tension.

“What kind of deeds did you commit in the past that made you do this, oh lineage creator? Did you think the executioners were coming?”

Doyoon placed his large hand on Jack’s matted hair. Then, he began to exert force on his fingers as if he would crush his head any moment. Jack’s face turned white. He began to tremble.

“How… how did you know that?”

“I’ll ask the questions, so you just answer in time. Unless you want this shoved down your throat.”

Doyoon took out a silver bullet from his pocket. Bibi flinched. If a vampire swallowed that, they would feel the pain of their intestines twisting. She didn’t know Doyoon was also skilled in torture.

“I, I’ll talk. Just tell me what you want to know!”

As the bullet approached his lips, Jack struggled violently, trying to escape Doyoon’s grasp. Then, he finally surrendered.

“I… I was once part of a rebel group. I live here because I’m afraid the executioners will find me. You probably didn’t come looking for me because you were curious about that, so what’s your purpose?”

Seeing Jack behave so meekly, Doyoon was satisfied. He willingly let go of him and put the silver bullet back in his pocket.

“There’s a missing page in the family tree.”

“…….”

“You, the creator, must know what it says.”

Jack cautiously looked up at Doyoon. He chewed on his lip, then let out a deep sigh.

“I’ll tell you. But there’s a condition.”

“A condition?”

“Give me blood. My wound hurts too much.”

Jack said desperately. It wasn’t a bluff. His thigh, where he had been shot, continued to ooze disgusting blood. Part of his skin had turned black. Bibi shuddered as she looked at the gaping wound.

“Any of you will do. I haven’t had proper blood in so long, I’m at the level of a human elder, so I can’t even heal properly. Talking is all I can manage right now. I feel like I’m going to faint.”

At Jack’s plea, Doyoon raised his eyebrows. He wasn’t feeling sympathy, but rather calculating the conversation at this moment. To easily get what he wanted to hear… Jack needed to be in his right mind.

“...Okay. I’ll give you my blood.”

Doyoon casually rolled up his sleeve.

“No way!”

Seeing that, Bibi flew into a rage, grabbing Doyoon’s arm and clinging to it. Her red eyes, blazing like the sun, glared furiously at Jack.

“Doyoon’s blood is mine, I can’t give it to anyone!”

“Oh, were you two in a blood-sharing relationship?”

Jack asked with a bewildered expression. Bibi sullenly bit her lip.

“Not yet, but we will be soon.”

“What? If you weren’t sharing, then it doesn’t matter, does it? You don’t have to drink it directly. Just give it to me in this bottle.”

The shameless Jack hurriedly took out a small bottle from his pocket and handed it to Doyoon. Bibi’s anger grew. She was furious at Jack for daring to covet Doyoon’s blood, and at the whole situation. She felt like twisting that vile creature’s neck right now.

Ah, to think she couldn’t claim ownership of Doyoon…. She should have started sharing blood with him sooner! Why hadn’t Doyoon drunk her blood earlier? He had confessed he liked her, and they had finally become the kind of couple he wanted!

“I’d rather just go back now. Doyoon, let’s just go back without hearing it.”

Bibi said with a gloomy expression. Doyoon’s blood was that precious to her. She couldn’t share it with anyone. Even if it meant giving up the truth about her past.

Doyoon, who had been quietly watching her, took out a bottle of pills from his pocket and tossed it to Jack.

“Here. Iron supplements. I’ll give you all of them. They don’t taste good, but they’re expensive and very effective, so be satisfied with that for now.”

Jack, who received the iron supplements, made a dissatisfied face.

“You should be grateful for even this much. Judging by your looks, you seem to live off deer blood.”

“But… it will take a long time to recover with this. It’s not as reliable as pureblood…”

“Instead, I’ll give you an invitation to the auction the day after tomorrow.”

Interrupting Jack, Doyoon took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and tossed it to him generously. Frankly, to Bibi, it looked like he was getting rid of crumpled trash.

“Auction invitation? Where is it being held?”

“Long Melford.”

“Long Melford…?”

“Yeah. It’s being held at the Tudor family’s mansion. You don’t have to be scared. Just mention my name, Kwon Doyoon.”

Jack’s face turned ashen. He stared at Doyoon with trembling hands and a look of fear and awe. Bibi had expected him to whine again, but surprisingly, Jack obediently took the iron supplements to his mouth like a well-behaved dog.

He swallowed all the pills greedily without water and sighed as if his life had been saved. Very slowly, the gunshot wound on his thigh began to heal. Doyoon didn’t give him a moment to catch his breath and pressed him.

“Alright. Now talk. The last eight pages of the family tree are gone. What family is it? What happened? Tell me step by step.”

“The last eight pages of the family tree… that would be 672 to 679…. Aha. Do you happen to have something like paper…? No? Then….”

Jack broke off a bone lying nearby and began to scribble something on the ground. He drew three elaborate symbols as if the design was right in front of his eyes.

“Look at this.”

Bibi lowered her head and carefully looked at the symbols etched on the ground. One was a shield with thorny vines entwined around it, another was an eagle’s wings sprouting from a cross, and the last one matched exactly what was in Bibi’s memory.

A goat and a snake’s head positioned above an inverted cross. Her heart pounded. The time had finally come for her to learn about herself. This moment might be a major turning point in her life. More than anything, she felt a surge of hope that she might find the woman who gave birth to her.