Darker Blood

Chapter forty-three

Jungkook pov~

I cursed under my breath, stumbling down the rocks on the edge of the frozen lake.

I can do it. It'll work.

I knew what I had to do, and I'd braced for it. I knew it would hurt, but what other choice did I have? I can't let her be gone, I can't live without her.

That is, if you can call my life now 'living'.

Why didn't she ever hate what I was? She was scared and anxious about a lot of things, but not once did she give any indication of hating me like this. I scowled slightly to myself, trying to push the thoughts out of my mind. I was going to get her back, today, right now, and that was all that mattered.

The instructions flashed through my mind but I clutched onto the book in case. I didn't want to take any chances. If I forgot one single detail, her fragile form would shatter like glass in my fingers. I couldn't allow her to turn to dust, not her.

I ran until I reached her frozen form and I fell to my knees, dusting off the snow from over her again. I gasped, looking at her face, where tiny dark cracks spread from the corner of her mouth, travelling down her jawline and neck. Her skin was so much paler and sickly looking, her hair becoming ratted at the ends.

She's gotten so much weaker since I came to see her, two days ago.

I gulped. "Hold on Inori, hold on.."

I sat beside her, pulling open the book I'd found in Jin's library. Everyone knew that the books there weren't typically the books you'd get from a library, but I didn't expect him to have a whole section about resurrection. I expected even less for him to have a book hidden about extracting curses placed upon someone else's soul.

I'd practiced this, silently under my breath, preparing for the real deal. Finding the appropriate book and spell was easy, but doing it right was beyond hard. Every single time I practiced it hurt a little bit more, but I could never allow pain to taint my purpose now. Pain is only temporary.

Sucking in a breath, I braced myself and started reading, following every exact instruction. Almost instantly, a familiar dull pain fills my head but I shake it off and keep going. The thick coating of ice above her cracks through as a warning of what I'm doing but I don't stop, I can't stop here. A groan of pain slipped through my lips as the ache grew worse. It wasn't like normal pain; pain from injury, sleep deprivation or starvation I could shake off, but this pain felt like it stemmed from the very centre of my soul and it hurt so much I thought I would black out.

Fuck this hurts..

My skin splintered like cracked wood, everywhere I could see and feel and I bit hard onto my own arm to hide my scream. I could not scream, it would ruin everything.

Of course blood snapped out of the wounds, thicker than usual due to my condition and small tears of pain slipped past my closed eyelids. It's almost over.

With a heavy gasp I paused, pressing my hand onto the ice, melting it enough so I could reach my arms in to pull her lifeless figure from the freezing water. I couldn't even feel the cold of the water, watching as strands of my blood hovered in the air for a long while before they finally melted into the river, expanding until they were nothing.

Just as I had touched her, I heard a loud snap and I looked at her in horror. The crack on her lip expanded with another loud noise, the mark now stretching all the way down her arm, reaching as far as her fingertips. The cracks started to grow wider and I sucked in a panicked breath, refusing to scream her name out. If I spoke another word, it wouldn't work, she'd be trapped. I placed her as gently as I could beside me, lying her on top of the thick layer and I continued reading, all the way until that birthmark on her stomach glowed and finally burst with a bang, vanishing from her skin.

I finally breathed out heavily, looking over at my bruised skin and then at her skin, the cracks long disappeared. I let the sobs fall from my mouth, in relief and in pain, watching the cuts over my chest and hands wash over with painful prickles.

It's finally over.

I sobbed out her name over and over, huddling as close to her freezing body as I could, watching her chest move up and down again, the wound gone from her chest. She wasn't awake but she was alive. She's in a coma-like state and I don't know when she'll wake up. But the ice is gone, the winter is no longer bound to her soul. She's finally free of that curse and she's mine.

Picking up the book I cradled her in my arms, running as fast as I could manage home, letting the tears of happiness run down my cheeks.

Jin pov~

I bared my fangs threateningly as I slammed him into the wall, watching him splutter and go limp in my hold, blood running from his already swollen lips. I trembled with anger, unable to control the fire inside me, slamming him against that same cement wall over and over until he groaned and pleaded me to stop. I scoffed in disgust, dropping him and landing a harsh kick in his side as he panted on the ground, more and more blood spurting from his mouth.

"Jin, please!"

"You knew the goddamn rules!" Right as the anger swirled inside me my leg unfurled into another strong kick. Jungkook yelped in pain, clutching onto his arm that was snapped cleanly through the bone. I spoke sarcastically, dealing blow after blow to his bruised side. "Oh good, you can feel things normally again."

He panted heavily, both his lips busted and bleeding, the dark filthy blood spilling onto the carpet. "J-jin, I had to-"

"No, you did not have to! You don't even realise what you've done!"

I stopped kicking him, falling to the ground as a heavy sob rocked my figure, my own hands tugging helplessly on my hair. It's been a while, since I've cried. Since I've let myself cry.

"I just w-wanted her back.." He hacked up the words, eyeing me with a cautious gaze, his wounds slowly washing over.

"You're such an idiot!" I snapped back at him. "How can you honestly think what you've done is going to be okay? You're messing with forces that aren't meant to be messed with, Jungkook!"

"If it's not meant to be messed with th-then why did I find it in your library?"

I stayed quiet at his quick words, so close to beating him again it almost hurt to stay still. "You have no right to ask me that. Do you honestly think the Guardians are going to allow this to pass?"

"I did everything right!" He screamed, looking down at the carpet, his hands forming into weak fists, stained with his own blood. "I took the winter out of her, she's finally free of that stupid curse! All she is now, is Inori. She's just a girl, Jin."

"It doesn't even matter if she's normal anymore." I glared at him with the most predatory eyes. "It needs a host, the cold has to have a human host or it won't work. Human, not vampire. So don't even fucking try to think you can take her place."

He sobbed, letting out the sound accurate to match that of a wounded animal and I scoffed at his reaction. If he had listened, if he'd followed the rules, if he'd talked to me he would have realised all of this sooner. Now it was too late.

"You can't fight it, Jungkook." I stood, looking down at him still panting heavily on the ground, trembling with aftershocks of the recovery of his injuries. "Even if she's human, they know she's tied to you, and they know it was you that brought her back from the very edge of being reduced to dust. You should have never even tried.."

I walked out, without another word or a second glance at him lying on the ground. I pretended not to hear the hopeless sobs coming from his mouth or the curse words said in desperation for the girl he loved.