Moonlight Lovers

Six

SELENE was wearing a beautiful, white dress but was barefoot. The skirt of the dress was flowing gracefully in the wind along with her long raven-black hair. She did not know exactly where she was, but it was dark.

She saw a man not too far away with his back on her. Selene immediately recognized who it was. He was the one she always wanted to put a face to. The man who appears only in her dreams. She wanted to call him but he did not know his name and it upsets her. Her eyes reflected her yearning for the person who was near her yet she could not reach at all.

Somehow, he seemed to have realized her presence, he looked at her over his shoulder and called out to her. “Selene,” he said. “Come to me. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Without hesitating, Selene walked up to him and took his hand. He pulled her into a tight embrace and claimed her mouth. Selene moaned in his mouth, hooking both of her arms on his back, tilting his face up to allow him to deepen the kiss.

Everything felt so real but she knew that it was just a dream that she will wake up soon from. And she did not want it to end just yet. She hugged him tighter, kissed him back with more passion. She wanted all of this to be real. She wanted the man to be real.

How can she keep dreaming about a man she had never met? It’s unfair. It’s painful. She wants to meet him, touch him, kiss him like he was kissing her in her dreams. And more…

When their lips parted, Selene could feel her lips swelling a bit from their intense kissing. She sought for the man’s eyes, and to her surprise, she could see it this time. When she stepped back to see his face, she put a hand in her mouth when she recognized where she saw his face.

The man in the black car last night!

“You…”

“You’ve found me, Selene,” he touched her lips. “Will you come to me? I will wait for you.”

She swallowed. She wanted to. But how? And is it really him? Will he even know? What if this dream is just a product of her subconscious making up an alternate version of what is supposed to happen in reality?

“Come to me, Selene. I’ll wait for you.”

CAFÉ Bliss was filled with a lot of customers that day and Selene was thankful that it somehow put her mind off of the man he saw last night who may or may not be the man in her dreams.

To other people, Selene’s dilemma may seem so absurd. Who in her right mind will entertain the idea of a dream being related to an actual person anyway? Dreams are just dreams after all. They don’t always hold significant meaning. But she has been dreaming about the same man for the last three years and even though she was embarrassed to admit it, she is developing feelings towards her mystery man. What with all the intimate things that they are doing in her dreams. And yes, perhaps, those dreams are just a product of her imagination. Or maybe she just wants so badly to be in a relationship. But even though she’s looking forward to finally having a boyfriend, she’s not desperate for s*x. What she’s been dreaming about does not even come across her mind randomly during her day-to-day activities. They just appear in her deep slumber. And the frequency of how often those dreams visited her at night eventually took a toll on her emotions, that now she’s harboring feelings for an unknown somebody, creating a bone-deep desire to meet him.

And last night, when she saw that man in a black car, she was stunned by seeing such a beautiful man and somehow her brain connected him to her dreams. Because what would be better than having an actual person to refer a fantasy to? It was probably her brain’s way of escaping the fact that she was developing romantic feelings for a product of her subconscious mind.

She sighed. Or she’s just probably losing it.

“Hey, you okay?”

Selene looked up and saw Caleb with a worried face looking at her. She forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m okay. I didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

“Really? Well, if you want, you can take a nap in the break room for an hour. I can cover for you,” he suggested.

Selene smiled kindly. Caleb has such a kind heart. She tapped his shoulder. “No, but thank you. I’m okay.”

“I’m just a little worried about you. You’ve been acting strangely since last night.”

Her brows creased. “Last night?”

Caleb nodded. “Yeah. Since you saw someone—or something—when we were at the bus stop. Who, or what was it anyway?”

Selene did not know what to tell him. She and Caleb had created a great friendship since working together and like she said, she is confident to tell him anything.

Well anything, except maybe that one thing—her dreams.

“That was nothing. I just thought I saw a celebrity,” she lied, raising her shoulders up and down.

“Oh.”

“But, now that I think about it, he probably was not that celebrity.”

Selene was relieved when Caleb seemed to have accepted her explanation and moved on. A customer walked into the shop and Selene immediately greeted the newcomer with a cheerful voice.

GODRIC stopped signing the documents in front of him when he noticed Silas staring. When he looked up to throw a brooding gaze at his assistant, the latter pretended to be busy inspecting the paperweight on one of the shelves in his study.

“Silas, what is your deal?” He waved a hand in the air and slammed the pen on his desk.

“Nothing. I’m just admiring your paperweight collection.”

Godric squinted his eyes. “You were never interested in those. What is it?”

Silas sighed. “I was worried about you because of what happened last night. I’ve been working for you for, what, fifteen years now, and last night was the first time I saw you react like that. Plus you won’t even tell me anything about your recent communication with the vampire council from Courthall. What is going on?”

Godric made a guttural sound. “Please, stop acting like my wife,” he said tiredly.

“Come on.”

“Fine.” Godric looked at Silas with a serious face. “Nothing that concerns you is going on at Courthall. That’s why I didn’t think it best to divulge any information to you about the letters from my brother,” he explained. He told himself it was somehow true. After all, Silas really does not have anything to do with the lives of the human he has so carelessly taken these past few days. It was all him. Should there be any punishment, no one deserves to receive them except him. “And last night was just a silly reaction.”

“To something,” Silas demanded. “So, what was it?”

“Who.” Godric corrected.

“What?”

“It was someone. Not something.”

“So, who?”

“I have no idea yet. That’s what I want to know, too.”

Silas was silent for a few seconds. “Was it someone from Courthall?”

Godric traced apprehension in Silas’s voice and he understood. He immediately shook his head. “No. A mortal woman.”

Silas looked at Godric confused. Then his face shifted to disbelief and worry and fear as realization seemed to slowly hit him. “Are you planning to start attacking people again? Oh, my God—”

“Hey, relax. No.” He cut his assistant off. “Because I know how much my hobbies are stressing you out. Besides, it’s more than that.”

“What does that even mean?”

Godric glanced at the younger man. “Never mind. You won’t understand even if I tell you.”

“Try me,” Silas challenged.

Godric chuckled dryly. He looked at a corner of the room, trying to search for the words to begin. “We’re dead beings, as you know. We can’t feel anything—not happiness, not sadness, not remorse, not even f**king love. We have a high libido, however, which we only feel when we are feeding on human blood or having sex.”

Silas nodded slightly. “I know that.”

“There was something Roald told me during my training with him shortly after my Change. Something about a special blood. A blood that would produce a multitude of emotions to us blood beings no matter how long it has been since we last felt those things. They called it a spellblood. At first, it would feel like the usual hunger urge. But you will realize it is different. And it was.”

Silas looked like he was beginning to understand what Godric was saying. He pushed his hands inside the pocket of his pants. “So, that mortal woman you were talking about—”

“Yes. She may possess the spellblood.”

“Right. Granted that she does, what change would it bring? You’ve lived all your life without a spellblood. Why would you need one now?”

Godric grinned. “That’s the thing, Silas! I haven’t really lived. I’m dead, but for the first time in a while, even just for a very short amount of time, I felt like I was alive again; like I was a human living and breathing, and—I don’t know—it’s almost like getting my heartbeat back. Does that even make sense?” He shook his head and looked away from his assistant, feeling stupid from all his babbling. “Forget it. I told you, you would not understand.”

“No. I do. What are you planning to do then?”

“I will look for the spellblood. I will find her.”

THE car stopped at the end of the busy street of the district lined with expensive clothing shops, foreign bakeries, and popular coffee shops.

Silas looked at Godric via the rearview mirror. “Are you sure we got to the right place?”

Godric nodded. “Yes, I’m sure. The spellblood smells more distinct here.”

“And you’re sure you’ll be fine alone?” Silas asked. He was looking around the busy street full of people. There were children, too.

Godric slightly shook his head. “I’m not going to kill anyone.”

“That sounds like something a serial killer would say.”

“Shut up. Just get out of here.”

Silas drove off and Godric was left among the crowd of people on the street. He started walking, careful not to touch anyone. He put a cap over his head and lowered them so his eyes were somehow hidden. He kept his hands inside the pockets of his jacket.

There were about twenty stores in that street alone. Not wanting to waste time, he used his hypersensitive senses to figure out exactly where the spellblood is at. His calculations took him in front of the modest little café named Café Bliss.

When he peered inside the glass window of the café, he saw a familiar face behind the counter. A smile broke out of his lips.

“I found you,” Godric mumbled under his breath.

“WELCOME to Café Bliss!”

Selene was ready to take the new customer’s order when a tall man approached the counter. She did not take her smile off and waited.

The man was about six feet to six feet and three inches tall. It was dwarfing her average height of five feet and five inches and she had to lift her face a little to look at him. He was wearing a cap that hides his eyes, but she could tell by the rest of his face that was visible to her that he was extremely good-looking. Possibly a celebrity.

She knew how some stars would be too anxious to interact socially especially if they are wandering around incognito because they want to enjoy a little private time, so she tried to sound a little more friendly. “Hi! Welcome to Café Bliss! May I take your order, sir?” She tried again.

There was a pause. “Yes, one large black coffee, please.”

When the man finally raised his head to make eye contact, Selene felt her heart skip a beat.

Those eyes. She vividly remembers those eyes. When she saw them last night, she looked at them very carefully and wished that she could see them again. Of course, she wasn’t expecting that it would definitely happen. But now, the man whose face she used to foolishly put a face to the man in her dreams is now standing right in front of her.

No way, she thought. Is this a coincidence? Is this still a dream?

The guy glanced at the tag on her chest. “Selene,” he muttered then smiled. “What a beautiful name.”

Selene wanted to hide beneath the counter when she felt her cheeks burning. “T-thank you, s-sir.” She could not even make out her words. It’s like she swallowed her tongue or something. She gulped and forced a smile.

When she punched his order and asked for payment, the man handed her his card. The tips of their fingers touched during the exchange and just that small skin contact caused tiny little sparks to crawl through her body.

She looked up at the man again and stared at his eyes, her heart was beating loudly against her chest, she could barely hear the people around the café.

In her mind, that small scene from her dream kept playing over and over. ‘Come to me, Selene. I’ll wait for you.’

Was it really you? Did you actually come for me?