Bound by Blood

Chapter 60- being with you is healing

JIN POV:

I wake to the feeling of my heart twisting itself into vicious knots, the alarm clock telling me that it's the middle of the night, but next to me Jiminie suddenly gasps- lurching upright with a broken cry, sheets falling off his bare torso. His eyes are wide and red and he latches onto me, trembling slightly, breathing heavily. And behind me Joon stiffens, body locking up and his eyes fly open- red and unseeing and it takes a few moments of holding him to bring him to an awareness.

I don't need to ask whether they both can feel it, the sudden heavy force that weighs down the bond, strains it- flooding it with a jumbled, knotted mess of emotions. Something's wrong. Deeply wrong. Together we slide out of bed, holding onto each other for comfort more than necessity, padding out to go check on the others.

A peek into Yoongi's room reveals him hunched protectively  over Hobi's bare form, murmuring to him- voice slightly raspy and hoarse, the curve of his back revealing his tremors. His eyes fly to the doorway, relaxing just a fraction when he sees us but he looks just as confused and lost as we are.

"We'll come back in a bit." I whisper, Joon padding off to Yoongi's inviting, shaky arm, delving into the bed to press himself closely to Yoongi's vacant side.

My hand shakes as I reach out to open Taehyung's door but the house seems to sense the frazzled, haywire nerves and pushes it open, silently sliding it wide open to let us walk in. Taehyungie is trying to wake a crying Kookie, whose eyes are shut and yet tears seep out from shut eyelids, Tae's own eyes burning a bright gleaming red of protectiveness and worry.

Is it him? Kookie who's worrying? Is he dreaming about his past again? I wonder thinking back to nights when we'd all bolt upright, feeling nauseous and shaky and find out that those feelings were pouring out from him in his sleeping state- reliving pained, haunting memories.

But then he gasps, eyes blinking open- tears still trickling down.

"Hyung is everyone okay?" he asks frantically, clutching at Tae who seems as shocked and helpless as Kookie and the rest of us are feeling. Jiminie holds out his hands for them, the two of them quickly scurrying out of bed and into his sides and we all trudge back to Yoongi's room, where Hobi has calmed down but seems to be staring lost, eyes turning to scan us fretfully.

"It's (Y/N)-ah." Joon whispers, and it all makes frightful sense.

The reason why we're all keyed up on instincts, to protect a mate from a danger we can't see, the fact that everyone is shaken and confused- but only because of the feelings thrumming through the bond. And as we all pile onto the bed, curving around each other for comfort, the jumbled mix of emotions starts to vanish from the bond, replaced with a numbing cool feeling.

Was she having a nightmare and went back to sleep now?

But even so, I reach out for Yoongi's phone and try calling her, phone going unanswered- a long ringing that's never answered. So I leave her a voicemail. I tap out a text telling her to call when she sees it, asking her if everything is fine.

Something so wrong is what my instincts are screaming, and the fact that we have an unclaimed mate who we can't even check on at the moment.

"I'll try calling Yugyeomie." Kookie whispers, fingers fumbling with his phone before he presses it to his ear. The clear dejection in his face shows that his phone went unanswered, phone falling limply to the side.

"We can check on her in the morning." I say, trying to inject a semblance of calm, to try bring the others' equally fretting hearts and souls to rest.

But morning doesn't come soon enough. I should know, we all stayed up waiting for it.

----

No-one bothers with breakfast, everyone just hurriedly changes- impatience clear on their faces as we all drive to her apartment. And even as we knock and wait outside her door, it seems like we're too far, that time is being wasted.