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The gods' world was beautiful indeed. Utopic. And it had nothing to do with the mundane world that she was coming from. What she had been used to. Everything was so much brighter here. Much more colourful. The land that they were walking through was so vast. There was natural greenery all around them, from that plushy soft grass beneath her bare feet and all the way to those rolling hills and waterfalls visible in the distance. It all looked so pure. Untouched. Like nature itself had created all this, untainted by the hand of man. There were flowers haphazardly scattered all around them, sweet and tantalizing aromas filling up her nostrils with every breath that she took.
It felt like she had indeed stepped into a fantasy world. A piece of heaven. She still couldn't believe that such place even existed. Even the idea that portals were real and gods were also real had sounded so incredibly crazy to her. But here she was though. Walking into the gods' realm. And with a vampire at her side.
She turned her head to steal another glance at Nicholas, observing his mask of cool indifference. Something was bothering him though. She could tell. He'd been so tense and snappy ever since they got here. Well, more than usual anyway. And she couldn't even understand why. Didn't he say that this place was safe? That it was perfect for them to hide away from the demon? She'd noticed that he'd also refrained himself from exchanging too many words with Wolf, the golden knight guy.
Which by the way was still following them from close behind. She could hear his thundering footsteps trailing right after them. Keeping a leisure pace. He'd said that he had to escort them, straight to the palace. Alert the god on duty of their presence. Whatever that meant. All she knew was that she was still cold from those wet garments clinging to her body, and so embarrassingly bare. She could only hope that their audience with that "god on duty" or whatever was about to happen wouldn't last too long, and that she would be offered at least a nice meal and clothes and a place to sleep. It was all that she yearned for at the moment. She was tired of walking, and equally tired of having to depend on Nicholas' blood for sustenance. She was only human after all. She wasn't a vampire or whatever other supernatural creature existed in this realm or whatever other realm that there existed. She required only food. Simple and plain food. And sleep to recharge.
She shivered as a sudden and unexpected tingle crawled up her spine, caused by that much larger hand wrapping around her own. Holding hers so gently. She curiously peered down, noticing Nicholas' tattooed hand holding onto hers. Firm yet not enough to hurt her. She glanced back up at the side of his face, noticing his unchanged expression. Staring straight ahead as he walked with her, hand in hand.
He was at it again, as it seemed, with that hot and cold behavior of his. Holding her hand as if nothing happened. As if he hadn't even yelled at her, or saved her after he himself had caused her to almost drown.
Still, she chose not to put too much thought into it and just let him hold her hand like that. Secretly basking into that tiny crumble of emotional support from his part.

They walked for quite a while through that colourful meadow in their trek towards the palace, holding onto that monumental silence. Neither of the males uttering a single word to each other. It felt weird, to say the least. It was pretty obvious that their escort happened to know Nicholas very well, if she were to judge by the way that he had addressed him upon stumbling in on them by the portal. And what was even weirder, was the way that he had called him.
Shadow wielder.
It made her reminisce the details of that dream. The way that those black tendrils held onto her as Nicholas...
She quickly blinked away that sinful and embarrassing image, forcing herself to stay focused.
How could it be? How could she dream about him like that, and that before she could even hear that nickname? What could it mean?
This whole story was already so odd as it was, with him tangled into a pact with a demon, the said demon taunting and threatening him with nefarious acts against him. Could it be that there was even more than that? That there was more that he was deliberately keeping from her? What did Nyktos even mean? And how come he knew where the gods' realm was or the people who lived here? Wasn't he supposed to be a vampire? Didn't he say that this wasn't a place for vampires? What was he even doing here then? And why go through so much trouble just to keep her, a random human safe if he only wanted to suck on her blood and have sex with her in the end? It was all getting so incredibly complicated, and not that she wasn't grateful for him doing all this for her, because she really was, but none of this was actually making any sense.
"Nicholas?" she found herself quietly uttering, so eager to get his attention and yet a little bit nervous about the question that she was going to ask.
He only hummed in response from right next to her, the only signal that he had heard her.
She drew in an encouraging breath, almost tempted to close her eyes as if waiting for a bomb to go off as she rapidly asked,
"What were you before turning into a vampire, if you don't mind me asking?"
He didn't answer at first. Waiting for just a moment longer before he sarcastically replied,
"What do you think?"
She turned her head to look up at him, finding herself so intimidated by that spiteful look into his eyes as he bitingly added with a raise of his brows,
"I'll give you a hint; not human,"
She thickly swallowed at the sound of that. Gazing between his dark eyes. H-he used to be...a god?
B-but...Why would anyone ever give that up just to be a vampire? It didn't make any sense! Weren't gods supposed to be like, way more powerful than vampires?
"Are you afraid, now that you know?" She suddenly heard him say from right next to her, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"Uh, no?" She easily replied with a scoff. What difference did it make? It was still him. The person that she'd gotten so used to by now. The guy that was making her heart beat faster. Constantly keeping her on her toes. Running around after her like a crazy stalkerish psychopath. Quite the contrary, actually. She would've loved not to have to deal with all that biting and sucking blood thingy. Which led her to her next question.
"Is the process reversible?" He didn't answer. So she went to further explain herself as if he hadn't understood what she'd just asked.
"I mean, can you turn back into a god if you want to?"
He only gave her a long look. The answer surprisingly coming from goldie boy who by the way was still trailing right behind them.
"He could if he wants to. He only needs to find his mate first,"
Rage emanated out of Nicholas at the sound of that sentence, his tone effectively managing to scare the living daylights out of her as he loudly bellowed out,
"I don't remember anyone asking for your goddamned input!"
The golden knight however remained completely unaffected, his tone calm as he talked back from behind them,
"And yet here we are, with you dragging this poor and clueless girl into our realm. What are you even doing here with her, man?"
Silence followed for another moment, the girl cluelessly staring between the two. Watching Nicholas blow out a long and tired exhale before he lastly said to him,
"This doesn't concern you, Wolf. So please, just stay out of it,"