TAEHYUNG

How?

I can feel the beginning of my hunger tearing at me from the inside. But I'd just eaten two hours ago. Usually that would last me half a day.

But now it's here, again. It's getting worse.

Was it because of Mistress?

The soles of my boots dig deeper into the dirt of the Arena. I look once towards the Palace kitchen, dark and empty. My hands tighten around the clothed hilt of my sword, the material from her dress all faded with my touch.

I falter at the thought of forcing down the raw,
bloodstained meat of deer again. I can already feel the taste of it on my tongue, and I am sick of it. But the hunger grows, a hotter flame.

In the back of my mind, I see her. The sweat covering a flood down my back and the dust covering my callused hands slowly dissipates as I run my eyes down her figure. She becomes clearer by the second.

I thirst for her. I want to kiss her feline lips and close my hand around her delicate waist.

Don't you fucking dare, Kim Taehyung.

My eyes jerk open. Then I twist the blade of the sword out of the thick dirt with a single movement, shoving it back into its scabbard. My tongue runs over my chapped lips, wetting it to become even dryer.

I need meat.

The Palace is nearly empty. And by the time, I get to the kitchen in hopes of finding something— it's locked. The doors are firmly closed shut, to protect Palace supplies from those like me. My pace turns faster as I make a full circle, looking for any unlocked door. But all of them are sealed off to any outsider.

I curse.

I'd wasted time for nothing.

The Beast growls. And no matter how many times I tell it to shut up, it doesn't listen to me. I feel it whisper incessantly, raking its claws down wherever unblemished space it finds.

It cries for her. The cries turn to screams.

"Damn it."

I rush back out into the corridors, cold in my fingertips even with the cloak thick around my shoulders. My eyes turn to the next thing, a dark green outside the windows as twilight sets into night.

The forest.

I sway. A surge of dizziness sweeps through my head, and it almost makes me miss the soft padding of footsteps close behind me. Someone's coming up behind me. I hear cloth dragging on the floor.

I whip around, unsheathing my sword and aiming the silver tip towards the silhouette there. Sweat pours down the sides of my face, soaking into the cloth of the mask hiding the monstrosity behind my lips.

My vision is haze.

But it's a woman.

My eyes flicker. Each breath turns heavier, as I instinctively think of her. The mask makes it harder to breathe, but I can't take it off. The heat of the air fills up to the brim of my throat.

"Mistress...?"

The woman steps closer, and I falter backwards. My back hits against the wall, firm and hard. A fragrance chokes the air.

And it's neither the warmth or sweetness of her lavender aroma.

It's her.

Rumi Lia.

"Oh, I've wanted to see you for so long."

The sword slips from my gloved hand as my face turns ashen with horror. The Beast has turned its eyes on her. My heart pounds against my chest, as I see it slowly settle on her as the food I need. The hunger turns irresistible.

No.

"Get away," I whisper, but the words slur together to the point where even I can't understand them. "Go away. Don't come any closer."

I can feel myself slipping. And she doesn't listen.

"You did want me that night. I still think about it, to this day." She says, and her voice barely registers through the blood pouring through my veins. "That bitch just wants you for herself, that's why. She got jealous when she saw us together."

What is she saying.

My legs give. My breaths rebound, against the mask. The seconds slow, as my crimson eyes fix on the exposed skin of her neck. My teeth lengthen to its full size.

"We can catch up. In the bedroom, perhaps?"

The Beast smiles its haunting smile.

And I slip.

________________________________

JUNGKOOK

Taehyung.

I see his eyes lose all sanity.

He lunges for the foolish woman in front of him, all attention fixed straight on tearing her apart skin from bone. The woman doesn't even have time to scream.

I'm running.

And just before he closes his fangs around her throat, I slam right into him. My forearm goes where her throat should've been as I press him up against the wall, my other hand wrapping around his shoulder. I feel his teeth tear through the flimsy mask around his lips, and then through the flesh of my arm.

I wince.

The woman is screaming behind me now. I knock her out with a swing of my boot to her head, where it connects perfectly. She crumples to the hall floor face-first. I had about five minutes before she woke back up again to scream her lungs out.

But five minutes are enough.

"Wake up," I grit between my mouth, an agonized expression twisting my face as he goes deeper in. "Wake up, you fucking idiot. You're the one who told me you weren't going to lose to your monsters ever again."

My silver eyes soften.

"Did you forget that already?"

"Taehyung."

He jerks to a stop. His crimson eyes drip red as he comes to a total standstill, his mouth completely stained with my blood. My forearm is a ruined mess of flesh.

But he wakes. And I smile at him as the recognition slowly dawns in his eyes.

"...Jungkook."

"Your arm." He whispers, voice suddenly twisted in panic. "I didn't realize it was you. I— I'm so sorry, Jungkook. How can I fix it? I promise I didn't—"

He hasn't changed at all.

I remember the way the same panic had come over his eyes, ten years ago. His hunger had consumed him then, from not being fed proper food for weeks on end. I'd woken up in the slave cell, with blood dripping down my shoulder with his fangs buried deep into flesh.

He'd done twice the work— including mine— saying that it had all been his fault when it really had been the fault of those bastards who hadn't given him a single slice of bread.

Then there's a sound of a feminine gasp.

Taehyung stiffens in front of me as he meets eyes with the woman behind me. My silver gaze burns as I look back, to see her already awake. I breathe out a sigh as she trembles, about to start screaming.

"Go to your room," I whisper. "I've left meat for you there. I'll take care of this."

His expression is chaos.

"Did...she see me?"

"She did." I say, rushing him. "Just go, Taehyung."

He looks like he has so much left to say. But even he knows that right now is not the time— his sanity is still within the Beast's grasp. Any moment he could lose himself again, without satisfying its hunger.

He leaves.

And only when he does, do I turn back to the frantically gasping woman. Silver glows a pale line around my forearm as I heal it, blood and flesh mending within seconds. I stop in front of her, not bothering to hide any of the disgust and the scorn.

She's dressed like a prostitute. And I'd seen her try to force herself upon Taehyung earlier. From what I'd heard, it hadn't been her first time.

Anger lights my blood in flames.

"H-He's a disgusting cannibal." She gasps, placing a hand on top of her chest as she waves at the direction Taehyung had gone. "He tried to eat me. He's crazy— you saw it too, didn't you? We have to report him immediately."

She scrambles up to her feet. And I watch her in amusement, as she tries to hobble away. Like some kind of pathetic victim.

"Nightshade."

She freezes.

And I easily catch up to her, a deathly ashen smile on my lips. My silver eyes glow like Devil's call. Her face pales in terror as I repeat it again.

"Nightshade. You know what that is, don't you?"

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about."

I step in front of her when she tries to run away. She's trembling wildly now, gasping so hard that anyone else might think she might just crumple and die. But I know an actress when I see one.

"Do you really need me to spell it out for you?"

"Nightshade. It's a type of poison, only grown in the region of Lia. You gave it to Han Shilla. And he used it to kill both of the Asura King and Queen."

I tilt my head. "Am I wrong?"

I can see her eyes flash back and forth. She's wondering if she should deny it. Pondering, if her deception will work on me like it had with everyone else.

I scoff.

But I had seen too much of deception to lose to it.

"I'll get straight to the point," I say, my smile deepening as I take another step closer. She stumbles back into the wall, her cheeks pale as snow and hands grappling against nothing. I barely stop my expression from twisting in disgust as she scrambles for words before my eyes.

She doesn't find a single excuse.

"Keep your petty mouth shut, will you?" I muse, gaze unblinking. "And I will gladly stay quiet about your little secret. What do you think?"

At least she isn't foolish.

She nods in the breadth of a second without a single note of hesitation. And I step back, satisfied. The smile doesn't leave my face as I watch her trembling hands. Her eyes stare accusingly towards me, almost as if I'm the perpetrator here and she is the true victim.

I scoff quietly.

"Good."

I had to go find Taehyung. I couldn't bear to stand this woman's presence for a second longer.

I turn with a final warning.

"I have the key to your execution, Miss Lia."

"Watch your every single word."