Maiden of the Moon

Chapter 2 – Thicker Than Water

THE WARM and incandescent glow of tungsten-style bulbs, the stark contrast of brass, and the coldness of polished concrete and alabaster framed Seth’s vast and luxurious penthouse suite. It was one of his many dwellings since he usually jumps from place to place, finding creative ways to entertain himself during his time on earth.

His penthouse in Cebu is usually empty and soaked in dead silence but tonight it was filled with screams blurring between pain and pleasure. The high-pitched moans of his current female paramour were like music to his ears and it pushed him over the edge as they both reached their peak.

“God, Seth! That was… beyond amazing,” Celestine exclaimed, still trying to catch her breath.

Seth only answered with a cheeky smile before rolling off to his side. His chest rose and fell a few times before he got up and started to pick up his clothes scattered along the floor of his bedroom.

Celestine was quick to sit up and crawled to the edge of the bed, reached out to Seth, and pulled him into a searing kiss. Seth gave a low hum before pulling away from her.

“I need to take a shower,” he said plainly before turning about.

“Want me to join in?” she teased.

Seth just chuckled and looked back at her. “That would be fun but I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

Her eyebrows immediately clashed and the look of disappointment etched in her face. “You’re leaving? Seriously, Seth you just got here.”

He stopped in his tracks just a few steps from the bathroom door and let out a loud sigh of exasperation. Celestine has been one of his favorite companions in bed and he sure enjoyed his time with her along with all the benefits they got from each other. Celestine was never high maintenance and always down to f**k whenever and wherever. It also helped his cause that she was from an ancient bloodline of mangkukulams who still practice even up to date. But he could only shut his eyes tight and mutter. Damn, Bathala this witch is a serious clinger.

“They need me back at home. My presence was requested so I can’t stay for too long. I have a plane waiting to take me back to Manila.” And without looking back, he stepped into the bathroom.

They met a little over two years ago when Seth’s old resident witch had an untimely passing. He was on the hunt for another talented mangkukulam. One of his men located Celestine who was one of the last surviving witches from an ancient bloodline. Not just any bloodline but Celestine’s paternal grandmother came from a clan of powerful babaylans but that part of her family has kept their gifts dormant in order to blend in better into the modern world.

Like every other woman who crossed paths with him, Celestine was immediately enchanted by his beauty, wondering how an aswang could ever have such godly features. Seth was quick to offer her a shitload of money in exchange for her talents in magic and witchcraft, and that she would only practice exclusively for Seth and his men.

Celestine did not let go of the opportunity for instant wealth and she was clever enough to make her own bargain. Hence, their current set-up being occasional bed partners. Seth on the other hand did not mind her specific request. He had to admit that as much as he hated his weak mortal body, the pleasures of the flesh were some of the few upsides during his stay on Earth.

He got out of the shower and saw Celestine still sprawled on top of his bed with nothing but a blanket covering her body. Her long black hair was still damp from sweating and disheveled from their recent activity.

Seth just went on to dry his hair and asked her. “About that potion, I asked of you last time, do you have it with you?”

She stood up, wrapping the blanket around her body, and slowly walked across the room to pick up her purse. Celestine then went on to hug Seth from behind before handing him a small translucent bottle. He just smirked and took it from her hand and went on to get dressed in front of her.

“You’re really leaving so soon?”

“I told you I have important matters to attend to back at home. I just dropped by for this.” He raised the bottle that he held in between his thumb and two fingers.

Celestine laughed bitterly. “Why do I feel like I’m at the shorter end of our relationship?”

Seth raised an eyebrow at her remark.

“We don’t have a relationship, Tine. We have s*x,” he coldly reminded her. “I use your talents in witchcraft and in return I give you mind-blowing orgasms, protection, and money to last you a dozen lifetimes. I hope you won’t misconstrue things just because we have occasional fun beneath the sheets.”

She just chuckled. “You’re cute, Seth. And you're great in bed that I could almost forget that you are really an unfeeling asshole.”

“I thought that’s what you liked the most about me.” He gave her a cheeky grin. “Anyways, I gotta bounce. You can stay here until tomorrow afternoon and request what you want from my staff. Just leave the keys at the reception.”

~~~~

LEO HATED home and everything it represented. He hated the grandiose structure, that monstrosity up a hill that looked over the cramped and noisy city below them. He hated the affluence that the custom furniture and decorations exuded from the Capiz shells to the sculpted narra balustrades and archways. He hated the heavy drapes that were hanged on every window and cocooned the mansion from the light of the tropical sun. He hated the huge yet usually empty hallways with creatures of the dark just lurking in the shadows.

His childhood home was like a tumor in his brain that he so desperately wanted to get rid of. But getting rid of that said tumor would mean poking through his very being, turning him inside out, and leaving a husk of nothingness. The things that he hated the most were ironically what defined him to the core.

He was every empty hallway slapped with useless gold decor. He was that towering obnoxious fortress that looked down on the city and watched it descend into chaos. He was the monstrous figure in the dark. He just couldn't escape it... or maybe he didn’t want to.

What made his time there even more unbearable was mingling with all the people in his family’s inner circle. He found himself seated at the massive dinner table. His father, Sergio Caeg is a big burly man, with a cold and manipulative gaze sat on the far end of the table.

Sergio was a stickler for efficiency and authority. He was born during a time that aswangs were not the mysterious rural legends that were just used to frighten children. It was a time that the humans went out to actively purge the countryside of their kind. Sergio saw first hand the persecution of his own people and his family being displaced and was forced to live in hiding and move to the city, away from their ancestral grounds. Out in the dense and busy streets of the capital, aswangs were nothing but stories.

The cynicism of the people around allowed his kind to exist in the shadows and blend in inconspicuously with the humans. But their strength comes from their numbers and most successful hunts are often carried out by a group of the strongest and fastest of their kind and they were a dying breed. With aswangs displaced all across the country, Sergio was on a mission to consolidate with the few remaining clans and rebuild the empire that used to be theirs.

Sergio was a visionary and had a sharp mind on top of his shoulders. Seth mentored him in the great games and with the god behind him Sergio reinvented the aswangs of the 21st century. He believed that modern times called for modern solutions. When back then his ancestors would have hunted out in the open and lived one game day by day and protected their people with their claws and fangs bared, Sergio wasn’t afraid to innovate. He created a network of human trafficking in the black market and harvested organs from the bodies of their victims. He opened up headquarters and factories to process these harvests, canned them and created shipping routes to distribute these canned rations of human organs all throughout his territories. He knew which politician and officers to bribe and more importantly, which ones to kill.

He covered up these operations with reputable businesses such as hotels, hospitals, a chain of funeral homes, and casinos. He employed the right people, opened up job opportunities for impoverished human neighborhoods. Sergio was the executioner. But behind him, pulling the strings to his favor was a fallen god. Seth was his mentor, the mastermind, their lord protector.

Seated on the right side of his father was Isadora Caeg, Leo’s mother. Isadora was like the living, breathing. yet pitiful husk of a Maria Clara. She was beautiful, fair, soft-spoken, and meek. What little love she had for her husband died quickly after their first few years of being married. Her fainthearted nature was not made to match the ruthless world that their family lived in. If it weren’t for Leo, she would’ve staked herself right into the heart decades ago. But Isadora was a woman with a purpose and that is to see her son on top of the empire that she and her husband built with blood.

One by one guest started arriving and the seats at the long table were occupied, save for one. At the other side of the table, directly across his father’s seat was a vacant place. Everyone kept quiet almost as if holding their breath while waiting for him to come.

Until there he was, Leo could hear his confident strides echo in the hallway. With everyone’s enhanced senses he was sure they heard him too. They turned their head and looked at the newcomer as he walked to his seat liked he owned the place. And one would argue that he some ways, he did.

“My lord.” Leo’s father quickly rose to his feet bowed his head. A gesture that everyone did, to pay their respects. No one dared to meet his eyes.

“Please, everyone take your seats. I’m starving and we have much to discuss, yes?”

They all promptly took their seats and as their dinner was served a group of women entered the dining room and took their positions just standing behind each guest.

These young women had very specific jobs in the Caeg household. Their purpose was to be their living blood banks. These women were often recruited from remote provinces under the job offer of being housekeepers, cooks, or gardeners for the rich households in the capital. But they were soon compelled to bend into the aswangs wishes and be their constant blood supply.

A wrist was offered in front of Leo, waiting for him to sink his teeth in and drink his fill. He looked around and everyone around the table did not hesitate and dove right in. The rations of canned organs and cold blood bags were what the aswangs consumed. The higher you are in the network, the better and fresher supply you and your household get. Drinking blood straight from the vein was reserved for occasions where the leaders and clan elders would gather. Occasions such as this one.

It tasted differently. Feeling every pulse, hearing his victim’s heartbeat rise and fall, tasting the warmth of a living body. It sent explosions to his tongue and it sated him in ways that even the most exquisite cuisine could not compare to. It took everyone to a high, gave them a surge of power, pleasure. It was liquid ecstasy.

The veins around the young man’s eyes popped and his fangs and claws now bared. He rolled his eyes back as the sharp and metallic taste hit his mouth and he heard the poor woman whimper after the initial pain. Control. Leo told himself that with every gulp he took. He listened closely to her breathing, her heartbeat, waiting for that exact moment in between life and death before letting her go. For a young and newly acclimated aswang like himself, finding the balance between feeding and control was a tight line to walk on. But Leo had a good teacher and he was a quick learner.

Seth side-eyed his nephew and smirked at him with pride.

The night went on and they discussed various official things that ranged from the increase for the protection tax that the Caeg family imposed on other clans that would want to be part of their network, to the rations and schedules monthly inspections for each of their distribution routes. The empire that the Caeg clan built was a tightly knitted and precision-focused ecosystem with them at the top of the food chain.

~~~~

“You did well tonight,” Seth told Leo with his back facing the younger man and pouring himself a drink.

The latter was hunched over the pool table and was focused on the game. Seth took a sip from his whiskey and leaned against the wall with a cue on his other hand.

“But if you want the other clan elders to respect you, you need to be more assertive and start to earn your place in your father’s business,” he continued to hammer on Leo.

Leo took his shot but the angle was just a little off that the ball did not successfully go into the pocket. He heaved a sigh and Seth just flashed him a playful grin.

“You know very well that I have no intention of getting involved with all that,” Leo answered with exasperation.

“Postponing the inevitable does not make all your problems disappear, kid. I technically raised you as if you’re my own son, but Sergio is your father. Your real father and soon you are bound to inherit what he built for this family,” the older man motioned closer to the table and carefully placed his drink by the bar. “Potions and incantations are just liked putting salve on a mortal wound.”

“Ok. I know, I interrupted your recent murder orgy but do you really have to ruin tonight with this lecture again? Just please tell me you have it.”

“It’s on the bar counter beside my phone.”

Leo spotted a small bottle just a couple of inches in height and inside it was a slightly translucent liquid. The younger man was quick to pour it into his drink and grimaced at its awful taste; along with the onset of a burning feeling in his throat and a heat that slowly and painfully made its way into his chest. The veins on his neck popped and strained underneath his skin and the pupils of his eyes were blown out with his corneas looked as if they were bloodshot.

Seth just stood and gave Leo a sympathetic look for he could never understand why the young man would subject himself to such pain just what his body was originally meant for.

Every month he would go and acquire the potion from Celestine. It was infused with a spell to stop an aswangs innate and uncontrollable instincts to hunt and to feed on human flesh. This usually happens around the full moon when aswangs such as Leo and his family will be overtaken by blood lust. Their strength and speed often rely on their ability to feed. Refusing such instincts would bring a tremendous amount of pain and their body would slowly desiccate.

For Leo, it was not an option since he chose to live alone and distance himself from his family’s clutches. He cannot have his natural instinct take over when he is in a middle of an exhibit, or a date, or out and about trying to live his life as if he was just another normal man.

The potion acts as a workaround. He would not have sudden uncontrollable flare-ups of hunger and blood lust around the full moon; giving him more control of his body and actions. But the potion also weakens the attributes that a normal aswang would have. Leo won’t be as fast, as strong, or have as good hearing compared to the average aswangs in his clan.

Seth on the other hand, being a deity in his chosen body, can bypass this part of being an aswang because of the limited amount of magic that he still possesses even in his weakened mortal form. How he wished that he never had to see the kid that he raised for years take such potent drink just because he hated the body that he was born into. Leo was always a tormented kid. Torn between duty on one hand and his own individual desires on the other. In some ways, it echoed in Seth and he just could not help but allow himself to be close to the young mortal.

It was Seth who taught Leo control and how to ride out his first full moon without turning into a ripper. It was Seth who first saw the boy’s talent in arts and was the one to nurture it. It was Seth who taught him how to maximize his abilities all the while acclimating himself alongside humans. Leo looked up to him more than just a mentor or a mythic deity. Seth became a constant, a friend, and almost like a father to him.

“Until when will you keep doing this to yourself, kid?”

With the initial wave of pain and jolt of magic from the potion now subsiding, Leo tried to compose himself.

“For as long as I have you to get me a quick fix,” he groaned with labored breaths.

“I can’t take care of you every damn month, Lei. Besides I won’t be around forever.”

The young man just shrugged. “You’re basically ancient and you’ve outlived everyone I know. So, I’ll take my chances.”

“I’m serious. It’s about time for you to stop being so dependent on me and start embracing what you truly are. Your father expects a lot from you especially in the following years.”

“Tito...” Leo sounded as if he was almost pleading him to change the subject. “Enough with this talk. I barely got out of that clan dinner alive. Give me a break.”

Seth chuckled and diverted his attention back to their game. “You always have the penchant for theatrics.”

“I got it from you I suppose. By the way, have you considered what I asked you over the phone?”

The older man drank what remained of his whiskey with a single gulp before answering sternly. “No.”

“Come on, it’s for a good cause and the family has been sponsoring that organization for a long time,” his nephew explained.

“And I don’t have any f***s to give them. No!”

“Look, this would be the last favor that I will ask you for the rest of the year. After this, I’ll be out to fend for myself and you’re free to frolic around not worrying about me.”

Seth raised a brow. Leo knew how to speak his language. Seth was always one for a trade-off and what he just offered seemed very appealing. But he shook his head nonetheless.

“We are loaning a few more pieces compared to the original list. That should be enough... and that was cute of you to even assume that I would worry about you. You’re a grown man now, Lei. You should be fending for yourself.”

“Can you just at least try to meet with her and hear her proposal. I’ve worked with Amber before and there is no one I could trust better with a piece like the Sinukuan necklace.”

“Her? Is she hot?” Seth asked playfully to which Leo just rolled his eyes.

“Hey, don’t play your games on, Amber. She’s a good friend of mine.” Gods! He was already regretting asking his uncle for help.

“Amber, wait—” Seth trailed on. “Is this that curator that you had a massive crush on and dumped your ass a couple of years ago? So she is hot!”

“For the record, she did not dump me. We just never dated and we kept it professional,” Leo quickly snapped.

The mischievous grin in Seth’s face became wider by the minute. “Interesting. Perhaps I should meet her just for this. I thought every woman was dumb enough to crawl into bed with you but now I stand corrected.”

“So you agree on loaning her the necklace for the exhibit?”

Seth raised his index finger and slightly motioned it side-to-side.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I might just agree to hear her proposal. Do you have a number I can call?”

“Yeah... actually I already gave your work phone number to her secretary. You should expect a call any day now.”