Bound by Blood

Chapter 6- pains of the past and present

JIN POV:

It's a haunting sickening feeling watching your soulmate in pain and not being able to do anything about it, the centuries I had been alive couldn't prepare me for this, didn't warn me of how heart-wrenching and soul-crushing it was to see your soulmate look at you blankly before a monotone, almost detached voice came out of their beautiful lips.

"Hyungs, today a man called me a freak, demanded I was thrown out of the café because of who I was and I couldn't do anything." Kookie says, eyes staring but not really seeing, his hands fumbling for ours- desperate for some sort of reassurance, grounding.

I captured his hands in my own, felt them tremble in my hold, felt an echo of his vulnerability pulsate me as he leaned closer, starved for comfort- I gently guided his head to rest against my chest, drawing my hands through his hair and setting them to rest around his waist.

I felt the surge of anger in the room, felt the room begin to crackle with the fury of our soulmates. Kookie didn't deserve to suffer, our youngest who had still not fully adapted to being a vampire to be degraded, made to be felt unwelcomed, shunned, a freak he'd been called. I felt my blood begin to boil with anger even whilst my heart became heavy and cold. Our soulmate was so sensitive, so gentle and loving and he had been carrying this hurt around all day.

But I knew that the comment, the scenario hit closer to home, drove itself into Kookie's heart with all the force of a blade plunged in to the hilt.

Because Kookie had been human. And as a human had suffered from the hands of other humans. Kookie had been a victim of bullying.

No number of centuries to come could ever wipe away the years filled with hurt and pain and suffering as Kookie tried to come to terms with having been turned, days that turned into months that stretched into years of Kookie flinching away from touch, eyes wide and afraid whenever one of us loomed too close into his personal space. Years of us suffering as a coven as we shared in his pain and felt ourselves shatter continuously at seeing him in pain, tortured by his memories that were too recent to fade and nights when piercing powerless screams tore through the dark and yanked us out of bed, chests heaving even if there was no breath for us to breathe.

I felt the wetness of tears soak through my shirt bring me out of my thoughts.

The sight of Kookie's tears bringing my hands to out to cup his face and tenderly wipe the tears that course down the apple of his cheeks. I press our foreheads together, allowing my love for him flow between us, to ground the two of us, the others come round to encircle us, bodies pressing close as we seek out comfort and reach out to provide it to our youngest.

"Baby...what happened?" Joonie asks, his voice is careful and soothing but I can hear the control in it, the emotions, and instincts he's holding back to go and find the human and make him repent.

Yoongi's face is deceptively blank, all the thoughts and emotions held behind the impassive mask he's slid into place. But I know he's hurting just as much, perhaps even more because of his own personal history. Kookie's hurt reminds me of why I've been told time and time again that humans will never change, that they exist as the evil in our lives and are a threat to our existence.

But right now my focus, my entire attention is on my coven. On Kookie.

Whose mouth opens and then closes, a slight hesitance entering his eyes. Almost as if he's afraid of what he's about to say.

"You can tell us anything Kook." Tae says hand splaying across the back of Kookie's neck in a gesture that's both an act of comfort and slightly possessive- a touch that reassures Tae that Kookie is fine and safe.