“But then what happened to all of your mates?”

“I killed them!” Myungsoo’s calm and cold words sent a shudder of fear throughout Sungyeol’s body; his gapping mouth could only open and close like a fish as he stared at the vampire’s stoic expressions. Sungyeol’s breath started to come in small pants, a bead of sweat ran down from his temple with his hands going ice cold and Sungyeol swear he felt his heart skip a beat too. He saw Myungsoo slowly making his way toward him and Sungyeol unconsciously moved back but only to learn that his back was already in contact with the headboard of the massive bed… but Myungsoo noticed his discomfort, thus stopping in his tracks he quietly lowered himself on the very edge of the bed, leaving a considerable distance between them. “Do you wanna hear my story?”

Myungsoo’s soft voice was like a magic, suddenly Sungyeol felt a lot less hostile and more relaxed as he eagerly nodded his head at other’s sincere request.

“I don’t know which werewolf clan I belong to, I don’t even know why I was left all alone in the middle of a wild forest, whether my parents died or they abandoned me… I have no idea. All I know is, a kind and generous Vampire, Nam Woohyun, found me laying on the dirty ground and took me in, gave me clothes, food, toys… and at one point, a life as well.” Myungsoo started while his gaze fixed at a space far away.

“This is just like how my mother used to tell… but didn’t the Queen found you? This Nam Woohyun is the Queen, right? Why do I feel like I have heard that name somewhere?” Sungyeol was a curious soul by nature, something Myungsoo was pretty much aware of, that is why he only smiled at his mate’s question and moved to answer calmly.

“You must have heard his name in the history… he is one of the original Vampires. And for the sake of your own safety… don’t call him a Queen; even if he does act like a drama queen all the time.” Myungsoo snigger lightly, pushing a small smile on Sungyeol’s face as well. “He likes to be called KING Woohyun.”

“Okay… noted.” Sungyeol muttered while tapping his head lightly.

“And it’s true that the folktale was correct up to some extent… so it’s true that a group of underground Vampires, who saw me as nothing but a loathing piece of , got me one day… they bite me, scarred me and beat the hell out of me… Kim Sunggyu, the King of Kim Clan and my father, found me before I could die. But it was only a matter of time before I would breathe my last breath… and I was only fourteen then. My fathers had come to love me dearly, even if I was a werewolf- an enemy- they couldn’t bear the thought of me dying… so they took me to the ‘Great’ Mother-”

“Great Mother?”

“That’s just a fancy name that old hag likes to be called with,” Myungsoo snorted nonchalantly. “She’s just a witch who lives in Northern mountains… she is the one who created the original Vampires, thus started calling herself the ‘Great’ Mother.”

“Then what happened?”

“My parents begged her to change me in to a Vampire, once immortal I could easily be brought back from the mouth of death… at first she refused, said there would be consequences, but agreed later on. She is one psycho person… she loves to do experiments and what better way than to use a weak wounded boy as a lab rat, right? And while playing scientist she thought how awesome would that be if she transferred a little bit of her magic in me-”

“Wait, that wasn’t accidental?”

“No, it was intentional… but in all honestly that was one thing I would always be grateful of, but I know for a fact that the old hag regrets it deeply since she ended up creating someone more powerful than her. Anyways, the important thing is that, luckily…” Myungsoo again snorted humorlessly. “I survived. When I came around I noticed something…” Myungsoo pushed back the sleeve of his shirt and slowly extended his pale arm toward Sungyeol and that’s when he saw three words etched on the inner side of Myungsoo’s wrist in black ink. “I asked her what that was… she said it the symbol that I was cursed… jinxed for my miserable immortal life… then she gave me the name of ‘The Jinxed Vampire’.”

“She sounds rude,” Sungyeol couldn’t help but insert, with his expression bitter.

“Wait till you meet her,” Myungsoo laughed loudly.

“Why would I meet her?” Sungyeol asked back but he noticed how Myungsoo’s eyes skipped here and there in something close to guilt.

“Anyways, my parents couldn’t care what that old hag would call me… for them I was just Kim Myungsoo… but for others, I was finally the Prince, someone they feared and respected. It felt good but at the end of the day I was a mixture of a Vampire and Werewolf… which actually meant, I was neither a Vampire nor a Werewolf… I was just an abomination.”

Sungyeol shifted uncomfortably sensing that same sadness he had felt earlier.

“But then he came…” Suddenly the pale Vampire’s demeanor changed and a faint smile touched his small pink lips. “He entered my life like the sweet soft morning rays… slowly shinning up my world. I was sixteen by that time… he was also sixteen. I saw him sitting by river fall one day, with the sun lighting up his beautiful face and soft breeze swirled his soft curls… he was the most beautiful creature to walk upon this Earth, there could be no other… and it was like love at first sight. And when I came to know his name was Lee Sungyeol I knew I have met my one and only… I knew he was my mate.”

Sungyeol couldn’t help the bubble of jealously that was brewing inside him, he didn’t know why he would feel this about someone who was actually past-him but the loving expression Myungsoo had on his face as he talk about that Lee Sungyeol didn’t set well with Sungyeol. He didn’t know whether he had the power to compete with this level of love… would he ever be able to make such tender expression to shine on Myungsoo’s face?

“You said we all look the same… then how can you say he was more beautiful than rest of past-me?” Sungyeol asked in an annoyed tone.

“No,” Myungsoo slowly shook his head with that loving smile still on his face. “Nobody could be compared to him… he was the most beautiful of all because he was my first love.”

Something broke inside Sungyeol and he suddenly felt empty and he grumbled nearly inaudibly, “First love? Then what number do I get after two thousand years?”

“You are my third love.” Sungyeol was shocked to learn Myungsoo had heard his complain when he received the answer but he was too baffled to ask any further when Myungsoo carried on with his story. “Both of us fell deeply in love… I couldn’t imagine living a day without seeing him…” Well, you never let a single day go without meeting me as well! Sungyeol thought bitterly. “Two years passed in a blink of an eye and suddenly we both were turning eighteen… we felt that gravitation, that link and without waiting we mated with each other…”

Myungsoo came to a sudden stop and Sungyeol noticed how agony and pain burned in depth of his dark eyes.

“Then… w-what happened?” Sungyeol asked cautiously.

“We bit each other to mark and complete the mating… my bite transferred Vampire venom in his blood and he ended up transferring werewolf venom in mine and we both out. I had werewolf blood in me so it natural dissolved my mate’s venom easily thus I survived… but same could not be said about my Sungyeol,” Myungsoo’s voice had turned dead and toneless and Sungyeol could see him reliving that horrifying moment of his life. “That was the moment I realized what being jinxed meant… what were the consequences the old hag had talked about… that’s when I realized I could never be mated, I killed my own mate because I was cursed.”

Sungyeol was speechless as tears stream down his flushed cheeks.

“Guilty and ashamed, I couldn’t even meet my parents before I left… I ran away.” Myungsoo’s voice was still dead and that made Sungyeol to slowly slither toward the pale and distant looking Vampire. “My life was over… the one thing I was living for was gone.”

A deafening silence engulfed the duo and Sungyeol didn’t know how to break it… but he desperately wanted to break it.

“I stayed away for 1600 years,” A loud gasp escaped Sungyeol’s lips once