Chapter 32: Story Time

[Authors Note: To readers who have already read HUNTED please try not give any spoilers away. Thank you XOXO ]

In the apartment gifted to Esme as a safe house, the she-wolf and vampire sat on stools eating Chinese food from white takeout boxes at the kitchen island. Esme attempted to eat with the chopsticks, but after several attempts and hunger overruling her patience, she ended up stabbing the chicken with the stick and munching on the food triumphantly. Niko shook his head and chuckled at her facial expression.

With no cutlery in the damned kitchen, Esme had to use the chopsticks even though it was her first time using them. Eying the rice, she picked at it and felt deflated in her attempt when some fell just before meeting her mouth. Swallowing what rice she managed to eat, Esme paused at stabbing the chicken in her takeout box, chopsticks mid-air as she watched Niko chewing, "I didn't think vampires ate human food?" She narrowed her eyes at him jokingly as though it was some secret kept from the rest of the creatures.

Niko chuckled and, with the chopsticks, grabbed some rice gracefully and with ease and ate it. "We can eat food, but it isn't nutritious. It does nothing for us, but it is a good way to appear human when it is necessary," He explained, then handed Esme a plastic knife and fork that he seemed to have been hiding in one of the boxes, which she gratefully accepted.

"Oh, thank the Moon Goddess! The food would be cold by the time I finish this box," Esme exclaimed, kissing the knife and fork before stuffing her face with food. There were five more boxes of food for her to eat, and she was looking forward to all of it.

Niko paused, settling his chopsticks down and leaned his head against his knuckles held up by his elbow placed on the granite-coloured surface, watching the she-wolf in fascination. "Ah, the Moon Goddess… I have heard werewolves speaking phrases of the Moon Goddess, Selene. But I must say in all the time I have been alive, I do not know much of the werewolf's origins…" Niko trailed off after seeing a scowl form on Esme's features and shift uncomfortably in her seat, knowing well that he wanted her to tell him.

There was nothing wrong with the vampire's knowing, but Esme was not on 'good terms' with the Goddess, or so she believes. "Everything happens for a reason-"

"Yeah, yeah," Esme snapped at her wolf, silencing her words of wisdom that she had mentioned many times before. But with the crimes she had committed, she couldn't quite shake off the feeling she had been cursed with such a mate, and maybe rightfully so. But Esme was stuck on bitterness towards her for now, for she was the only one being punished.

"I'm sorry," Esme apologised to Isana, feeling guilty at how she snapped at her. Her wolf had the right to have her own opinions, and sometimes like in these instances, they did not agree about the fate their Goddess had laid out for them.

Esme sighed and stared at the backdrop from her kitchen. The views of the twinkling city lights and the grandness of skyscrapers revealed from the floor to ceiling windows distracting her momentarily. At the same time, she calmed down and focused on just how different this apartment was from the one she rented. "Do you really want to know about the Moon Goddess and the werewolf's origins? You, as in the vampires, are the baddies in this particular story."

Niko continued to stare at her expectantly, not at all bothered by her small warning.

"There's not much to say about our 'beloved' Moon Goddess, Selene, Queen of Night." She couldn't help the venom sinking into her words. Niko did not hide his surprise from her comment, but he did not question her further either, to which she was thankful.

Instead, he brushed past it. "Tell me. It is not every day I sit eating Chinese food with a she-wolf whose mind I can pick about their religion," Niko grinned in delight at Esme's giggle.

With an exasperated sigh, Esme closed the first takeout box. "So you haven't heard how mere mortals were gifted our powers from the Moon Goddess?" She asked while grabbing another box, one that had a simple chicken chow mein with noodles in.

"This is as much as I know.. You were weak.. the humans, and because of the existence of the lamia- the vampires became known, showing how strong and beautiful we are; you sought out ways to become stronger. When you became werewolves, you started to ambush the vampires," He said in a matter of fact tone as though what he said wasn't complete bull.

Esme gaped at his cheeky grin. "History really does have two versions of a tale," She said dryly, then shook her head.

"The floor is yours, Es," He gestured, then leaned towards her, his head still resting on his knuckles, his eyes intrigued like a child about to listen to storytime.

Esme stabbed a sliced mushroom with her fork and ate it before responding. "Don't interrupt even if you know certain bits because I will just lose where I am in the story.." She looked into her box and started twirling the noodles with her fork. "So, obviously, you know our origins date back to 3000 BCE when the Greek Gods were celebrated with feasts, banquets, festivals, animal sacrifices, the lot. Anyway.. The 'lesser' of the more commonly known Gods were the Moon Goddess, Selene and her siblings.."

"Helios and Eos," Niko interrupted, then held his hands up after she glared at him. With a huff, she stuffed her face with noodles she had been twirling around in her takeout box. This gave her some time to recollect what she was taught, though she knew it well; this was the first time she had to explain to an outsider.

Finishing her noodles, she continued, "Yes, the three siblings, Selene, Goddess of the Moon, Helios, God of the Sun and Eos, Goddess of the Dawn. Anyway.. Everyone was LA-di-dah, doing their own thing until the vampires arrived. At first, not much happened; humans were lured in by their devastatingly good looks," She gave Niko a playful wink and resisted smirking after seeing him clear his throat and play with some napkins. "But soon the fifty or so vampires had started to leave a trail of corpses behind them-"

"Very visual, I like it," Niko joked and chuckled at her eye roll.

"Yep, so thousands of people were dying. The world was going into chaos. And this is where our story begins- One night, a vampire went to a fisherman's village and took the life of the chief's daughter. The tribe mourned and begged the Gods to help them. But none responded until the day of the full moon, which already we know would be the Moon Goddess, Selene. She visited the chief in person. It was said her beauty was otherworldly, and no artist would ever be able to capture such a sight."

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"The Moon Goddess bestowed the whole tribe with the gift of the wolf to defend themselves against the vampires." Esme gave Niko a side glance before continuing, "With their new powers, the tribe set off righting the wrong of the sinful acts the vampires divulged in. After hunting many down, they halved the creature's numbers into two. But the dwindling numbers of the vampires spiked up at a rapid rate.

"We didn't know at the time that vampires could not only.. procreate but turn humans into their own kind. Which increased their numbers.." She stared across at the city lights, pausing to finish the second takeout box. Then reached for a third.

"When we ordered this much, I didn't actually expect you to eat it all," Niko said, watching her with amusement.

"I hear you judging me, Nikolaos. Did you want to listen to the next part of the story or not?" Esme murmured through mouthfuls as she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

"I most certainly am not. Please do continue.. The werewolf's tale seems more.. enchanting," Niko replied with a charming smile on his face.

Esme sighed and reached for her glass of water, washing down the saltiness of her meal that made her all the more thirsty. "So, the chief of the tribe prayed to the Moon Goddess, asking for more powers to gather more warriors. His wish was granted, many tribes she deemed worthy of the gift were selected to protect the humans and provide them with the same gift. The Queen of Night also left another gift for the chosen ones: the werewolf gene could be passed down through the generations. As werewolves, our job is to protect the humans from the vampires.

But after years of wars and many werewolves, humans and vampires dying, the werewolves sought to coexist with the vampires after they finally found some sort of humanity and formed a hierarchy. The new Vampire King disciplined any who were out of line and could not control their thirst for human blood. Though there were still many cases of their cruelty against the humans, they were less relentless in reducing the human population. Ta-da! Finito!"

Esme finally finished the mini-history lesson and continued to eat her food, feeling nearly full.

"That really was something," Niko leaned back and watched her.

Esme swallowed her food and stared back at the vampire. Already her thoughts rushed past what she told Niko, and the questions she thought of as a child came back to her mind. Her curiosity needed satiating now, and so she asked, "Tell me, has the Vampire King ever changed? Or is Gabriel like thousands of years old?"

Niko looked away momentarily as though he would tell her Gabriel was not the original Vampire King. "There has always only been one King, and that is Gabriel."

Esme couldn't help but stare off into space; she knew Gabriel was powerful, there were the stories about him, but she always figured there was at least three to four kings before him. She looked back at Niko, who also looked deep in thought.

"Wow.. it's kinda freaky how old you guys are.." She smirked at the scowl forming on Niko's features. But her words distracted him from whatever he was thinking about. "How did Gabriel come to be the King anyway?"

Niko snapped his eyes at her, his stare intense as he raked his fingers through his hair. With a sigh, he said, "I wasn't born then, but Gabriel and another were the first vampires on earth. They are the strongest of all vampires, and so it didn't take long for Gabriel to become King."

Esme's mouth gaped open, and she was quite grateful she hadn't been eating just then. Gabriel wasn't just the original King of vampires but the first freaking vampire on earth! She closed her mouth then opened it again to speak, but words were still trying to form on her tongue. Placing her fork down, she stared at Niko as something else came to the forefront of her mind,

"Did the other vampire not fight Gabriel for the throne?"

Niko cleared his throat and stood up, tidying the kitchen counter by placing the rubbish of the takeout boxes into a bin. Esme waited, wondering if the vampire was debating to tell her something he shouldn't. Would Niko dismiss her question, or if he was somehow held by a secret he could not tell. Did compulsion work on other vampires?

Finally, Niko leaned against the counter and faced her, his arms crossed as the electric bin lid closed, making a slight electrical noise. "There is only so much I can tell you, Es. All I can say is that the other vampire was imprisoned."

"Why were they imprisoned?" She questioned, then pursed her lips at the hard stare he returned to her.

"All you need to know is Gabriel is the Vampire King, and his patience is very thin. If you keep mouthing off to him.. I'm worried you will get hurt." His left fingers tapped on his right bicep as he stared at her, his brown eyes hardened by an intensity she could not fathom. Esme parted her lips to speak, but Niko spoke first. "I will bid you goodnight now." He turned and disappeared into a blur from the kitchen to the living room, only to stop at the front doors and look back at her. "Thank you for the story. You are quite the storyteller.. I will see you tomorrow."

And with that, he vanished once more, leaving Esme to stand in the large apartment alone. Without another body in the room, the lone wolf who was used to her own company and Isana's suddenly felt very lonely.. With a sigh, she started to wash up the glass she drank from, then leaned against the countertop, staring once more at the city lights, her thoughts swirling of a certain vampire with white hair and startling blue eyes.

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