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So he picked up two crates despite his protesting muscles and clenched his teeth as he heard Pyojoo chuckle at something he read in his comic.

On the next trip, Jihoon stumbled under the heavy load and his elbow cracked against the door frame. Pain lanced through his arm and echoed in his head, like a thin needle shoved into his skull.

His muscles quivered and the crates fell with a crash. Strawberry milk squirted over his pants and stained his shoes pink.

Ringing reverberated through his ears a second before he started to seize.

He couldn’t hear or think or breathe.

He could only see—darkness and the moon. The full moon. Mocking him.

40

MIYOUNG WOKE WHENher body hit the ground.

She trembled so hard her teeth chattered.

Though she’d never felt such pain before, like ice crystals stabbing her veins, she knew why. Tonight was the full moon. The first since she’d stopped feeding. The first since she’d left Jihoon.

Something burned along her skin—the light of the moon shining through the window.

It beckoned her, telling her to come back to its embrace and punishing her because she refused.

Her door opened with a crash. Feet pounding as they hurried to her.

“Pick up her feet.” Miyoung recognized the anxiety in her mother’s voice, layered under the stern command.

Yena scooped hands under Miyoung’s shoulders while someone else cradled her legs.

She was submerged in ice-cold water, and her brain yelled at her to escape.

No, not water.

Struggling against the hands that held her down, Miyoung thrashed, surely soaking those who tried to help her.

“Open her mouth.” The voice was deep and male.

Fingers pried at her teeth. Miyoung tried not to fight, but herjaw clenched at the numbing chill of the ice water against her exposed skin, and she bit down until she tasted blood.

They tried again, undeterred by her gnashing teeth. And this time a bitter liquid poured down her throat.

Her body sagged, so exhausted she could barely hold her head up. If the water was going to claim her, then so be it. But it seemed it was too shallow and instead her cheek rested against the cold porcelain side of the tub. As long as she kept her head above the water, she’d be fine. It was a lie, but one she repeated to herself over and over until her heart slowed.

“She won’t feed?” the male voice asked.

“Apparently not.”

“It’s only going to get worse.”

“I don’t pay you to tell me what I can see with my own eyes.” Yena’s voice was laced with displeasure.

“She’s lucky she’s half human. It might be holding off the worst of it. If she doesn’t feed, there’s not much you can do.”

“There’s one thing,” Yena replied.

“The bead is in Seoul.”

“Again, something I know.”