Following their escape Soyun and Father Joseph arrived at the 'clinic' which turned out to be an actual clinic that is closed for the day. They drove into a back alley where a man and woman waited for them the former being a doctor and the latter being his assistant nurse. They are both friends of Father Joseph but unlike the previous two men they weren't part of his congregation. As for the other two Soyun knows the driver as Han Yeong-Su who ironically enough drove trucks for a shipping company, a job Father Joseph helped him gain through his connections. She recognized the face of the man who helped him as Hong Ha-Sun who after being discharged from the army fell on hard times. He once mentioned that he worked as a field medic and Father Joseph helped him through his depression.
She was informed on the way that the doctor Jae-Hui and his nurse wife Unjin are people Father Joseph worked with on community service. Primarily he assisted them with providing healthcare to the poor who could not afford hospital treatment. Joseph also helped them out with debts accrued when they were once terrorized by a local gang who extorted them. As for the gang they have not been seen operating in the area since Joseph started working with there. Soyun has a pretty good idea of what happened and she also got a good picture of the current circumstances.
There is admittedly a lot she did not know about her adoptive father figure but she never truly put any stock in such thoughts all things considering. Her curiosity is not such an overwhelming thing that she held it against him for keeping secrets of his past from her. At the same time there is a difference between not mentioning a clearly checkered past and withholding the fact that you created some kind of underground network to bail them out of trouble if things went sideways.
Soyun felt jilted, especially considering just a few days ago she had been freaking out about the possibility of having a standoff with the police because she ended up revealing her secret to someone by accident.
'If I knew he had contingencies like this…' she shook her head 'no use thinking about it now, in the end that issue solved itself.'
Still it's the principle of the matter.
"I'm sure he'll be okay" the voice of Yeong-Su pulled her from her thoughts "this isn't the first time those two had to deal with a bleeder."
Soyun couldn't help but cringe at the term and gave an awkward "yeah…"
They were the only ones currently in the waiting room and Soyun still had her disguise on cognizant of the fact that she is still in her vampire form.
Then Yeong-Su looked to her, the man is taller and heavyset with severe eyes as he scrutinized her "you're a vampire."
Soyun whipped her head in his direction thankful that her disguise obscured her face so calming her racing heart she spoke "wh-what are you talking about?"
He gave her smirk "I saw what you did to that other vampire. To be honest I was tempted to run the bastard over with my truck but seeing you punch his lights out was a lot more cathartic" he saw her stiffen and held up his hands "it's okay, Joseph trusts you and to be honest I don't think the girl I've known all these years is capable of being a monster like all the rest."
Soyun didn't know what to say besides "thanks."
He gave her a smile and pat on the shoulder "no problem, I'm going out front to keep watch. Plus I think I need a smoke" before he turned the corner however he left with another message "oh and you should tell Na-Rae that Joseph made it. No need to keep them worrying."
"Right…" she said with a touch of uncertainty still reeling from the conversation.
Soyun made her way to the bathroom she passed and after removing her gloves, mask, glasses and hoodie gripped the crucifix and prayed. A minute later and Soyun the 'human' stared back at her in the bathroom mirror. She washed her hands then splashed some water on her face before looking herself in the mirror once again. It feels like this past week has done its best to shatter the preconceptions and worldviews she's built in the past decade.
Suddenly all the painstaking training she did to keep her true form under wraps has been rendered moot as it appears everyone knew her secret. There is a hidden supernatural world that consisted of more than just vampires which she still has yet to fully process to this day. Not they just declared war on the Noble Bloods and their vampire army. Father Joseph turned out be some kind of ex-military super spy action hero with a network of civilian operatives to match.
Yet despite all that has happened that conversation she just had with Yeong-Su is arguably the most shocking thing to happen to her.
It is one thing for her younger siblings and even Neugdae to not really care about her being a vampire considering the former are her family and the latter apparently has dealings with vampires (and much more) but Yeong-Su is a regular person. Sure he greatly respects Father Joseph enough to be their getaway driver but Soyun saw no trace of fear and apprehension in his voice, expression, body language or internal function. He really didn't care about her being a vampire and seemed entirely genuine when he spoke to her.
After thinking about it for a while Soyun dried her hands, took out a burner phone and sent a coded message to another of his associates who is currently housing the twins.
"I can't believe this actually happening."
Last Night…
As Father Joseph pushed the cabinet aside the trio watched in astonishment as the wall slid aside and with the flick of a switch the lights turned on to reveal a tunnel.
"We'll use this to escape without being seen. We'll be leaving at dawn when the vampires are at their weakest, no need to give them an advantage" as he said this he fixed the wall back in place and closed the closet door "for now make sure you finish packing all the essentials."
The twins understood this and left the room but Soyun stayed behind to have a different conversation with him.
"I thought we were in this together" she said with a frown.
"We are."
"Then why keep this a secret? Why keep any of this a secret?"
"Didn't see the need to since I thought everything was going so well" he grunted getting a duffel bag to pack the weapons into.
"Were you ever even going to tell me about this?"
"You shouldn't have to worry about these things Soyun."
"Yeah well it's not like I'm thrilled to be on the Noble Bloods' hit list" her expression turned melancholy "father we both knew this peace wasn't going to last forever."
In response the priest took a slow breath "I know…"
There is an interim of silence before Soyun decided to change the subject "so where does this tunnel lead to exactly?"
"It will take us to a network of abandoned service tunnels. After that it's a twenty minute walk to the exit where I'll have a driver waiting to take us out of the city."
"Oh…" her brows furrowed.
"Something wrong?"
"With the plan? No" she shook her head "it's just…what then?"
"Then we move to a place where the vampires don't have much of a foothold. There is only an increase of vampire activities in the cities so hunkering down in the rural country would be our best bet. Ideally in situations like this all we would need to do is lay low until things blow over but…"
"They won't ever stop hunting me."
"…no" the man had a troubled expression.
"Is there no other way?"
"We could flee the country but…"
Surprisingly Soyun already had the answer to that "if it were so easy you would have done that already."
With his skills, connections and wealth Soyun did not believe for a second that he could not have arranged for a transport out of Korea.
Father Joseph frowned "right now your presence outside of Korea will cause more issues than if we were to leave."
"Why?"
"It is complicated and explaining it would require time and privacy neither of which we have right now."
Soyun clicked her tongue while shoving her hand in the pocket of her hoodie and looking to the side.
"You seem dissatisfied."
Soyun closed her eyes as she mulled over her thoughts for a moment before speaking "I don't want to run away father."
He did not react to her words beyond keeping his silence though the look he gave told her to elaborate and so she did.
"It's one thing to have to hide who I am from regular people but now I'm being hunted by vampires" she shook her head "you said the vampires are making a grab for power right."
"They likely already have" he nodded.
"Then it's only a matter of time before they have the power of the government and military on their side. When that happens I-we will become public enemy number one in the country."
"Before you say anything else you should take some time to think about-"
"I've been thinking father" she interrupted "for a long time."
Neugdae thought that her asking him to be let in on any plans to fight against the Noble Blood was just an impulsive decision brought on by frustration at Father Joseph. He was only partly right about that but her frustration had less to do with Father Joseph than it did with the Noble Bloods themselves.
"And what have you decided?"
"…I don't want to run away. I've been hiding all this time because I wasn't ready to face them but now…"
"You believe you're ready now?"
"Yes and even if I wasn't, running away won't solve the issue."
"You'll be declaring war on every vampire in the country."
In response Soyun's fist clenched "I know."
Father Joseph held her gaze for a long moment searching for any weakness however Soyun's expression is unwavering in its determination.
Finally he sighed scratching the back of his head "are you sure about this? Because there is really no going back if you choose to go through with this."
"Father" she "this is what you've been preparing me for."
"I wanted you to survive" he explained before shaking his head "we'll have to find somewhere to drop the twins off first."
Soyun nodded, the last thing she wanted is to involve Yu-Jin and Su-Yong. She'd rather them not even know anything but just because keeping them oblivious is off the table didn't mean they should involve them in the fight.
Father Joseph made his way to the closet "and since we're declaring war we should make a statement."
"How do we do that?"
In response the priest pushed aside the clothes to reveal a veritable arsenal of assorted weaponry. She saw bullet proof vests, handguns, rifles and various grenade types as well as a closed military type box crate with a 'Danger' warning on the cover.
'What the hell!?' she thought in incredulity.
"When…where…how…?" she sputtered.
Joseph turned to her with a raised eyebrow "do you really want to know where I got all this from?"
As he spoke he took out a rather large handgun and while staring at the thing she nodded absently "yes?"
Then he took out of nowhere he took out a bazooka and Soyun's brain kind of short circuited with an Error 404.
Father Joseph then continued "you don't want to know where I got all this from."
Soyun shook her head silently before her eyes caught something even more unbelievable than a bazooka.
"Is that a sword!?"
Present…
Yes it was a sword and there was also a military grade flamethrower as well as bombs. Somehow he managed to convince her to let him handle the vampires…oh who is she kidding? He straight up ordered her to sit back and watch him handle business. She shouldn't have listened to him but having been raised by the man under strict discipline it was hard for her to deny his order while standing in front of him.
At least he gave her something to do besides watching from a distance and that was culling their numbers. She did this by attaching bombs to the vampires' cars and taking out any stragglers so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed by their numbers. She'd like to think that she made a difference in that department yet Soyun wasn't so sure. She didn't even have to take out the CCTV since the vampires did that for her to cover their tracks.
'And after pulling off crap like that he has the gall to call me an action her!?' she silently fumed.
Still as someone who has been trained by the man Soyun knew that Father Joseph is strong but she never suspected him to be 'taking on a small army of vampires' strong. The whole point of the lesson was to show her that just because she's a vampire didn't make her invincible. It was basically a practical demonstration on how particularly trained humans could get the better of her if she let her guard down. She understood this and also the reason why he would risk himself so unnecessarily to prove this point.
And it really was unnecessary because despite her ingrained cautiousness Soyun is very aware of the fact that she is powerful. Father Joseph straight up told her that she is among the strongest vampires in the country based solely on her position as a Pureblood. Then he proceeded to wipe the floor with her in their spar at the time. Soyun herself has proven this fact a few years back when she caught wind of a group of vampires terrorizing a neighborhood. Despite being inexperienced in a fight Soyun's raw physical capabilities outclassed them to such a degree that skill never even factored into her victory.
She felt somewhat the same with the Noble Blood believe it or not. Despite catching him off guard her words gave him enough room to react (which is a blunder on her part but she couldn't resist). Even before her fist launched she could see him attempt to avoid her punch but to her perception he moved slow. Then at the least moment she did something she shouldn't have and held back yet still managed to do so much damage to him even if said damage was healed in moments.
Now that told her there are three probabilities here: either she was stronger than she thought, the Noble Blood was weaker than she thought or catching him unawares made the difference.
She didn't think it the latter.
'I could have finished him off.'
Despite the thought Soyun felt no regret in not taking out the Noble Blood (and she is sure he survived) since the alternative would have been to leave Father Joseph to bleed out on the road.
"Nothing left to do now but wait until he's recovered enough and pay a visit to Sunbae."
And speaking of she ended up completely blowing him off today and if he happens to catch the local news then their next visit will be very…interesting.
~To Be Continued~