CHAPTER XL
❝ I loved many over the centuries, and many loved me. It is difficult to keep up with the number. ❞
"I thought it was story time."
"Eager much?" Lucy wiggled her brows jokingly, taking a bite out of her pastry as Nik kept his untouched, simply holding it lazily in his palm.
"I guess so." he shrugged with a small smile. "Because when I said your life seems pretty adventurous to miss hearing, I wasn't joking or trying flirting for that case."
"Trying flirting?"Lucy snorted.
"Mmhm."
"Sure, I'm gonna finish this real quick. 'Cause eating and talking together could, you know, could make me choke and I could actually die." Lucy explained, beginning to take larger bites instead. "But, if I'll be honest, I'm actually just thinking how to begin the story- it's quite long, I must warn you -it is difficult to come up with the right words."
They fell silent for a moment, as Lucy ate her pastry, until Nik broke the silence hanging overhead.
"I'm a bit surprised, love."
"About what?" Lucy furrowed her brows shifting in her place on a lone bench the couple had occupied in the middle of a grassy patch, not too far away from the Pageant's acquired destination.
"I thought you hated butterscotch." he shrugged, motioning towards the pastry she was eating.
"It's not butterscotch. It's vanilla." she said, uncertainty lacing her voice as she paused the bite she was about to take.
"I'm pretty sure it's not vanilla." he mused.
"Here, try it."
She spooned the last piece of her pastry, looking at it with uncertainty (she had a hard time believing how she could not identify sweets' flavours) and raised it to his mouth waiting for him to take a bite.
He looked at her, something hidden in his eyes, and took a gentle hold of her hand, guiding the spoon into his mouth as ate it slowly, purposely making thoughtful faces believing it to increase her uncertainty.
"What is it?" she asked as he kept eating it with a painfully slow pace.
It was amusing how a pastry flavour meant this much to her.
"Wait, love. Things like this take time." he murmured through a mouthful.
She rolled her eyes slightly, just now noticing that he'd put his untouched plate of pastry by the bench's leg.
"So, I tasted it but I'm not sure about the flavour." Nik said when he was done eating and had averted his eyes to her cross armed figurine. "Maybe you should taste it again."
"It was the last piece."
"Well, there are other ways too." he said slowly, as he guided her hand, that he still had a hold on, to his neck and shuffled a little closer to her.
"Oh, really? And what would that be?" she asked with faux innocence, knowing exactly what he was hinting at.
"Um, I don't know. What do you suggest?" he shrugged, matching her playful innocence, but nevertheless placed his hand on her waist, leaning a bit in.
"What do you have in mind?" she passed him a sly smirk, laying her other hand by his neck too and pulling him down a bit.
"Something personal."
"Really? I wouldn't mind." she raised a brow, that satisfied smirk still etched on her face as she straightened her posture, her face a few centimetres apart from his now.
"You sure?" he whispered, his breath fanning her face sending tingling sensations across her nerves.
"Always." she whispered back, their lips grazing now. "Are you?"
He responded by leaning in and finally closing the gap between them.
His lips felt soft on her, tender and cautious even, as if fearing that one wrong move will ruin everything.
Her, on the other hand, was driven by the unexpected euphoria she felt as soon as their lips connected and she reached out by pulling him closer and deepening the kiss.
They both would be lying if they'd say that they didn't feel butterflies erupt into their stomach during that moment.
Cliche, I know.
But remember, all cliches are real somewhere out there.
She could taste the remnants of the pastry and some red wind Nik would have consumed earlier.
She was still damn sure it was vanilla and not butterscotch.
They finally pulled apart, breathless, before either of their hands could roam someplace else realising that they were in fact in public.
"It's vanilla." Lucy hummed as Nik lowered himself to rest his head in her lap.
"Nah, it's butterscotch." he shook his head playfully as Lucy softly stroked his hair.
"Vanilla."
"Butterscotch."
"Vanilla."
"Butterscotch."
"Vanilla."
"Butterscotch."
"Vanilla."
"Butterscotch."
"Vanilla."
"Butterscotch."
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"So, my life story is kinda very complicated. So many people fill one character slot. It's almost difficult to keep up."
Their pastry flavour battle had finally come to an end when they'd mutually decided that it was a mix of both.
Still, the actual flavour remains unknown.
And Lucy had finally found the right words to commence her epic story.
"So this story begins in a lovely little house in Istanbul, where a young lovey-doe-eyes couple lived. Everything was rainbows and butterflies until their first hier came into the world. It was a boy - inserts a shocking gasp - and needs to be given away."
"Why would they need to give away their child?" Nik asked with furrowed brows, peering up at her.
Also, he could clearly make out the underlying hatred in her voice when she talked of that boy. He figured that must be her brother.
"Because, um, the mother of that boy belonged to a special coven of witches - the Koruyuculars. She was the current leader and her hier was supposed to be the successor, but it has to be a girl because there is no place for boys in that coven."
"Is this your coven?"
"Ex-coven." she corrected, before continuing. "So, despite all, the mother still wanted to keep her son and chose to leave the coven instead. But her husband, who had become powerthristy in the years, was against the decision but waited to vocalise his thoughts until their second heir, a daughter, i.e. me, was born. He started turning me against mother. Well, it's not like she didn't love me enough. She did, but always less than my brother, Eren. They all are dead, by the way."
He listened keenly as she told of how she and her father left the family and went into hiding, how he was killed and how she met Stefan and how soon she was recruited into the Stygians.
She went on to explain her early days there in detail, every new experience she went through and how her child mind found that all too much to take in. How everyone looked at her as if she was something peculiar because she was a Koruyucular.
Niklaus found it beautiful how Steve and Richard started treating her as family and how she was the reason they came to realise their feelings for each other in the first place. And soon she became their daughter.
It was also heartbreaking to hear of her struggles before all that, how difficult life had been in a totally new environment being such a young child and a girl in that era.
"A few years later, Casper and his father joined our coven. We became fast friends and everything became almost normal. We went to a local school along with a few older associates. We were young, thus excluded from the tiring work of the coven. Life was almost normal except for a few gatherings and daily coven meals. We were taught just the very basic spells. Living there felt like a hostel. There were rules for everything. Stay away from that room, don't go into that corridor, be in bed by ten. Us kids found those rules restraining. But later I understood why those rules were there and were truly necessary."
"Let me guess, there were some ritual thingies going on in those rooms and corridors?" Nik mused eliciting a small chuckle from her.
"Half right. Rituals and grimoires and some caged organisms. Stygians indulge in very dark magic. But they consider children pure souls, especially Richard. He always insisted on keeping us away from all the coven work until we turned eighteen. He keeps them out of all rituals. He never harms children."
"That's really moral-ful for a dark witch."
"I know. So, um, when Casper and I turned eighteen we were given a tour of our main headquarters. I wouldn't lie, we were horrified. Everything was so gruesome. Those rooms we were kept away from were filled with body parts for dark rituals." she shuddered, remembering back to that day. "Some held blood stained altars. Some were home to dark spirits who were summoned and then captured. Some had artefacts embedded with dark magic. And the grimoire collection was huge. I later came to know that there was a different headquarter for organism experimentation and studying. I would tell you of the coven working, which will take many hours of explaining, but I can't, it's coven policy to keep it a secret."
"It's alright. I needn't know about the coven. Just about you and your life, if you want to."
"Yeah." she nodded, smiling slightly. "So, I guess we should shift the topic to my love life then?"
"Gladly."
It was somewhat cute to listen to her teen love story (because deep within he knew all those ex-lovers were dead) as she recounted her beautiful teenage crush memories and sneaking out with her partners. She had lost her virginity to a fellow coven member who she found cute at that time and soon they got together. It was a rich experience for her until they broke it off at mutual terms when they realised that it wasn't actually working out.
"I loved many over the centuries, and many loved me. It is difficult to keep up with the number. I had numerous flings and a few serious relations too. My first serious relationship was with a voyager who came from the west. It was almost like a romance movie, sneaking out to meet, dancing under moonlight, kissing in the rain and all that. It lasted almost a decade until well, um, I cheated on him with a girl I met on an expedition. It was the time I discovered my true sexuality. I'm bisexual, sorry I guess I didn't tell you this earlier."
"No, it's okay." he reassured her. "I'm pansexual too. A thousand year on this earth and your taste keeps changing."
"Seriously, though, I truly don't know what's wrong with humans these days. They are so narrow minded." she scoffed. "I've read many history books and it was completely visible that all of this was supported during the god's era."
"Yeah. I found it peculiar how the gods just disappeared from the face of the earth. Everything was better in their era."
"Yeah." she nodded before she realised that she was supposed to continue the story. "Okay, so, um, the girl and I didn't last long and then for a few years I got more indulged in coven work. Uh, wait, I forgot telling about Stefan."
"You guys were together sometime back?" he rose a peculiar brow.
"No." she made a face. "I just meant it as in the whole story, not the love aspect. He is practically my brother."
"Okay, my bad." he raised his hands in defence, chuckling slightly.
"So, I was twelve, going through my first heartbreak after my crush said no to me, and was crying in an empty park. He comforted me, not yet revealing his identity. But I recognised him and confronted him of the day my father was killed. We settled down on good terms and then, well, we slowly became very good friends."
"Can I ask you something?" Lucy said abruptly , cutting her story session in between.
"Yeah, why not." he shrugged, although his brows had furrowed slightly in confusion.
"Do you ever, um, you know, wish to be a father?"
"I don't think so. I don't see myself adopting a child after what happened with Marcel."
Her shoulders sagged in defeat. Was she hoping for a different answer?
"Oh, that's..." she trailed off, licking her lips in contemplation, "um... okay... Do you, um, don't even see yourself associating with a child?"
"Associating? As in?"
"You know, a niece or nephew - I know that's not possible, but just hypothetically - any related one who is a child. I mean do you like children in general or you know, get annoyed by their presence?"
He thought for a moment before replying, "I mean, their presence is not annoying. I'm okay with them. They are sweet and good."
"That's great, then." she beamed at him. "But what about your own child?"
"I'm a vampire, love. I can't procreate."
"No, I think you can. You're a hybrid. I mean, think about it. You're a vampire plus werewolf. Vampires maybe don't procreate but werewolves do."
"It's not possible. It's just a theory which is not true."
"Okay, fine. You think about it. But right now, I want you to meet someone."
"Who?"
"You'll know. Now get up."
He obliged, resuming a sitting position as she got up, smothering her dress.
"Oh, come on, let's go. There nothing exciting in this stupid Pageant anyway." she exclaimed, grabbing his hand, urging him to stand up.
"Okay. But who are we meeting?"
"You'll know when you'll meet the person."
The car ride was silent in which Lucy skillfully dodged all his incessant attempts to know who they were going to meet and soon they were pulling in to her house's driveway.
"Is this your house?"
"Yeah." she chuckled, feeling completely delighted with how the whole ordeal was turning out to be.
"And you live here alone?"
"I brought you here to introduce you to the person I live with." she explained as the car's engine rumbled off and they climbed out of it.
"Secret boyfriend?"
"Nah." she shook her head with a playful smirk.
"Secret girlfriend, then?"
"Nopes."
"Ahh, adopted parents, then?"
"Nice guess. But not correct. Now stop burning your brain, we are here." she said and dramatically opened the doors of her house as Nik groaned at her words.
"Oh, come on, tell me already." he groaned, curiosity getting the best of him.
But he needn't get an answer from her because seconds later his eyes landed on the ten year old girl running down the stairs, shouting in delight the word, "Mom!"
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A/n:
INTRODUCING
Aalyrah Caldwell as
Brie Wright
"Is he one of the club guys that you bring over?"
Seriously, tho did none of you saw this coming 😁🙌?
Also, finally the kiss🙌.
Until then,
Ripahhhhhhhhhh.
Word Count : 2407