SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 43

Chapter Forty Three

The movie had been paused.

Leo and I were now locked in an electrically charged staring contest, although I couldn't say anything because the shock of what he'd just said was pretty big. I couldn't find my voice, but he seemed to sense everything I wanted to ask and closed his eyes, letting out a soft sigh.

"It was ten years ago," he informed me, "and if I'm going to be honest, nobody in this house knows what really happened. Jun and his family moved from Korea to the states back before the nuclear strike decimated everything in World War Three. Sebastian ran across them in the middle of a vampire attack down in Texas during one of his hunts and brought them all back."

"Is that how Jun ended up living with you guys?" 

"Yes," Leo confirmed, then winced and added, "when Sebastian found him and his family, they were all hurt really, really badly. His father's face was mutilated, his brother had been castrated, and his mother... well, let's just say, most of her wounds were psychological aftereffects of the trauma that was inflicted on her. They hated vampires more than life itself from then on." 

I thought about it, mulling the information over.

Jun, out of everyone I'd met and interacted with, seemed to be the one I always missed or forgot was there, even if he was sitting in the same room. He never, ever drew attention to himself, and the few times he had I'd gotten the impression of a snake waiting to strike.

Always watching and waiting, even if you weren't aware of it.

Out of everyone, he made me the most uneasy.

"What happened?" I asked, needing to know the answer. "Why did Woody kill them?"

Leo ran a hand through his hair and raised his eyes to the ceiling which made me frown.

"Sebastian believes that Jun's father attacked him in his home," he said dryly. "They never got along, even though Woody tried to be amicable towards him."

"That doesn't make sense," I pointed out, puzzled. "If Woody tried to get along with him, why did things turn out the way they did?" 

"Lin Ha Nang, Jun's father, was a... how do I put this?" He paused, thinking about it before he reluctantly said, "the man was racist, and not just towards those of supernatural origins. I didn't like him much, personally... I only put up with him because Bash asked me to."

"Was he that bad?"

"I'm a proud man," Leo said seriously, and I saw a strange glint in his eyes. "I'm proud of myself, proud of who I am, of what I am, and who I belong to, but more than anything else I am proud of my German heritage. Lin Ha constantly belittled me for being German and a turned werewolf. He and his brood were born wolves, unlike most of us here, and thus thought they were better."

That came as a bit of a surprise.

"Born werewolves think they're better than those who've been turned?" I asked, startled. "They really think about their own kind that way?"

"Sometimes," he reluctantly admitted, then shook his head. "Back then, Woody lived much, much closer to us in a cabin about half a mile away. He was, by all accounts, part of our pack since Sebastian took him in and gave him the place. He'd always been a loner... a drifter, moving aimlessly from town to town until Sebastian found him."