Moonlight Lovers

Seven

SELENE could not help but glance at the handsome customer every now and then as she prepares his coffee. He was reading the book he brought with him and has not lifted his eyes from its pages since he sat down. Somehow, she wished he would look up and steal a glance at her, too.

No. Get it together, Selene, she thought. He’s a customer.

“Do you need help with that, Selene?”

She almost jumped when she heard a voice behind her while he was pouring black coffee on a large white mug. “Oh my God, Caleb, you startled me!”

“Hey, sorry.” Caleb chuckled, looking amused at her reaction. “Why are you so jumpy today?”

“No. I just didn’t notice you were sneaking up on me.”

“I wasn’t sneaking up on you,” he defended.

Selene dismissed Caleb with a wave and placed the cup of coffee and a complimentary bagel on a small circular tray. She brought it to the man’s table.

She carefully set the coffee and the small plate of bagel on the café’s wooden table. When she finished, she stood up straight, holding the tray on her stomach. “Is there anything else, sir?”

The man smiled and darted a kind gaze at her. “Godric.”

She raised both of her eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

“You can just call me Godric.”

“O-oh!” Selene’s mouth turned up into a small, shy smile. “Okay, Godric,” she almost silently repeated. “Um, is there anything else I can get for you?” She asked again.

He shook his head. “No. You’ve been very pleasant. Thank you.”

She nodded and returned to the counter. But she immediately furrowed her brows when she found Caleb looking strangely upset as he was preparing drinks for a different customer.

Selene poked the crease between Caleb’s brows with the tip of her forefinger. “What’s with that frown?”

Caleb just shrugged.

Uh-oh, she thought. He’s in a bad mood. Not wanting to annoy him further, Selene supposed she should just let him have his space for the rest of the day.

She continued stealing glances at Godric, however, who continued reading his book for the next couple of minutes or so. She noticed that he didn’t touch the bagel or even the coffee he ordered. He must be so immersed in the book he’s reading, she thought. After a few more minutes, Godric finally stood up. This time he glanced in her direction and Selene was even surprised that he did. He smiled appreciatively at her and even gave a slight nod before walking out the door.

Selene just smiled back. She hoped he would come back.

For the rest of the day, she and Caleb did not talk. She just let him cool off some steam and be the first to approach her. Which is exactly what he did when they were closing later that day. They were both in the locker room, fixing their stuff and getting ready to go home.

“Hey, I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to be snobbish at you,” he said quietly.

Selene held the door of her locker and glanced at him. “It’s okay. What happened to you anyway?”

Caleb was silent for a few seconds. Finally, he said, “It was nothing. Don’t mind it. I’m fine.”

“Okay.”

“So, was that your friend?”

“Hm?”

“The guy you served coffee and bagel. Was he your friend? You’ve been staring at him all day.”

Selene blushed. Caleb noticed her? Was she that obvious? How embarrassing. “I wasn’t.”

There was another silence before Caleb spoke again. “Hey, don’t get entangled with an older guy like him, Selene. He’ll just play with you and break your heart, and leave you alone.”

Selene suddenly broke into laughter. “What do you even know about that? You’re younger than me to be giving me relationship advice. And what do you mean older man? He looked like he’s just a few years older than me.”

Caleb shrugged. “So, older.”

Selene hooked her arm around Caleb’s shoulder and playfully messed up his hair. “You’re too overprotective. Come on, let’s go home.”

“WHAT’S an Octavius doing at this place?” A man’s voice called out. Surprise and disbelief were evident in his tone.

Godric averted his eyes from the bottom of his glass of whiskey to glance at the person who sat on the empty stool beside him at the bar.

There was a deep crease on his forehead as he tried to remember where he met the man.

Blood beings can tell if someone is among their kind. Not with how the other person looks because most vampires nowadays look just like mortal beings—it’s part of how they attempt to successfully blend in with human society and conceal their true identity. It’s something deeper than meets the eye. But to a vampire, they would know right away.

And Godric is certain that this person is not a vampire. Yet he knows about his coven.

Who is this man?

Clairhill has the lowest number of residing vampires. Being the capital city, the legislature had declared that only an isolated number of the society can live there. All of them belong to respectable covens or related to the members of the legislature. The council did not want to have some bloodthirsty newborn just wandering about Clairhill and ending up in the most crowded part of the city, with lots and lots of fresh blood at their disposal.

It was why he was in big trouble with the council. Feeding off of human blood is a necessity among their kind. But going crazy with the number of people they take as victims is against their rules. This has not been a problem for him before. Most women from the previous centuries are even thrilled to be his source of sustenance. After all, a vampire’s bite does not always kill a human. It’s when they’re careless that they get a little murderous. But nowadays, it’s hard to find a woman that’s willing to be their so-called blood bank. And with the separation between humans and vampires getting more and more distinct, hunting becomes more and more arduous.

Over the last few centuries, the legislature had worked so hard to keep a safe balance between mortal beings and blood beings. You don’t always meet a human who knows about what’s happening in the vampire society.

In fact, scratch that. You’d never meet a human who knows about what happens in the vampire society.

Except perhaps, a few, whom blood beings like him trust. Vampire’s human assistants, for example. Like Silas.

Godric gave the man a slight nod. He didn’t want to assume that he knew him and his coven. Perhaps, he’s heard his name from the company he owns.

His name and his face are public property, being one of the youngest and richest CEOs in the country.

“Young” in human years, that is. Despite being a few centuries old, Godric was trapped in his twenty-eight-year-old self. His youthfulness has frozen in time since his Change during the 18th century.

Many of his employees now always look amazed every time they see a photo of the founder of the company they are working for that resembles their current CEO so much. Never knowing that the founder, who he told them was his grandfather, was actually him.

The man beside him chuckled at his silence. “You’re as snobbish as every Octavius I’ve met.”

Godric’s brow raised. This time he cannot be mistaken. This man really knows about his vampire clan.

“You don’t know me,” the man offered as if he had read his mind. He extended his right hand to him. “I’m Asmodeus Müller.”

Godric was hesitant to accept the man’s handshake. He’s heard from Roald that there are moles in the council—usually low-born vampires and human servants who, for the right price, will expose the dirtiest secrets of any blood beings. This is why vampire executions in Courthall are happening frequently lately. People who need the money are telling on each other. He didn’t want to risk his safety for a couple of pleasantries.

Asmodeus chuckled again. “Roald told me you’d probably take some time to warm up to new peers.”

At that, Godric could not help but raise a brow. “You’re working for Hosmurg?”

Müller shrugged. “I don’t want to call it that. We’re more like business partners.”

Godric’s brows formed a knot.

Asmodeus clapped his shoulders and tilted his head towards the bar exit door. “Come, I’ll give you something else better than your expensive whiskey.”

Confused, Godric followed the man.

They went to a dark alleyway next to the old rundown motel down the street. The whole place was dark and if it weren’t for his hypersensitive senses, he would not have made his way through the narrow alley. The road was wet with what smelled like sewage water and animal piss. When they reached the end of the dark alley, Godric sighed when they came upon a fair-looking establishment, feeling relieved. At least it’s better than he expected. It looked shabby but somehow decent.

“What, do they serve drinks with gold powder here?” He asked sarcastically as he wiped the bottom of his shoes on the beaten-down rug outside the door.

Asmodeus grinned. “It’s not just alcohol that you will find here.”

When the door opened, Godric was greeted by a multitude of adult men and women engaging in all kinds of s****l activity. Right there in what served as the lobby of the place, a couple was sitting on top of each other, kissing, while the woman’s naked breasts were exposed from her half-torn camisole. Another couple was with a younger woman, undressing her and touching her most sensitive body parts. And the rest were doing, if not equally, more titillating gestures towards one another.

“What the f**k is this place?”

Asmodeus pointed towards the stairs, removing his coat. “My brothel. You can find the escorts upstairs. Don’t worry. They know about your kind. Just tip them properly, you can feed off of them—f**k them, too, if you like.”

Godric looked confused. “Your brothel?”

Asmodeus shrugged. “Yeah. You don’t know about this?”

Godric stayed where he stood. “This is insane. I’m not going to risk my head for some p**sy—”

“Your people know about those p**sies. Some of them come here, too, you know. Roald was worried you have not been able to hunt due to some restrictions, so he asked me to find you and bring you here.”

Godric shook his head. What kind of bullshit is Hosmurg trying to get him into?

“Look, if you don’t want to believe me, it’s up to you. But the girls upstairs are clean. You can pick however many you like. If you don’t want to f**k them, it’s alright. You can just drink some of their blood or whatever. Roald already paid me for taking you here, and I’m not planning on giving him a refund,” Asmodeus honestly stated. “Oh and one more thing, you are not allowed to kill any of them. It’s an agreement between me and the council.”

Godric sighed. Before he could change his mind, he took a step up the stairs where his dinner was waiting for him.

“YOU should be proud I didn’t bring any human home tonight, Silas,” Godric announced as he entered his home office where he knew his assistant would be. Silas did not even look up from his computer to greet him.

“You smell like a bar,” he said, revolted.

Godric smirked. He approached his desk and sat behind it. The back of his head touched the headrest of his leather chair. He exhaled. “I saw the spellblood today, Silas.”

Silas’s fingers halted from typing. “And how did it go?”

“Bad. I could not handle it. I had to leave earlier.”

Silas looked at him looking completely amazed. “Thank you for actually exhibiting impressive self-control today.”

Godric sneered. “You were lucky my brother’s keeping an eye on me right now. If I hadn’t been thinking clearly, you’d surely pay another visit to Crest.”

“What? You mean you would have killed the girl?”

Godric sighed longer. “No, not her. But someone else would have suffered from the dangerous impulsiveness of the hideous monster inside me.”

Silas stopped whatever he was doing to face Godric. “Is that why you went to a bar? Were you trying to find someone to feed off of tonight?”

Godric looked at Silas sideways, the corner of his lips turning up in a lopsided grin. “I did. But I held myself back, and something better came up.”

Silas’s stare turned deadly serious. “I’m having a hard time believing that.”

Godric pushed himself up the leather chair. “It’s true. I ran into someone who helped me get some relief, so to speak.”

The human could not believe what he was hearing. “I’m not going to have to look for a new job anytime soon, am I?”

Godric laughed, walking towards the door. “Oh, no. This is not against our law. The legislature won’t come at me for it. So, don’t worry, you’re still stuck with me, Silas.”