The Moonlit Curse

Ch 24: Luna

"Who are you?"

The woman's eyebrows rose slightly, and she glanced at Kiya's hand braced over her silver knife. Then, to Kiya's absolute surprise, she started to laugh. "My, my, it seems my husband wasn't exaggerating when he said you were defensive," she chuckled. "My name is Elora Eldred."

"Eldred? You're Hadyn Eldred's wife?"

"That's right. Hadyn told me all about you. I've been hoping to meet you while we were in town and, well, here you are."

Kiya stared at Elora, not sure what to say or do. Her mind still felt slow, and her thoughts were fuzzy. But slowly, as she thought back on her encounter with Hadyn, everything he said and did, the pieces started to fall into place. "Oh fuck," she gasped. "You... you're a..."

Elora laughed again and helped Kiya to her feet. She stepped back to let Kiya regain her balance and brush the snow off her clothes. "It looks like you're handling the transition well enough."

"Does it?" Kiya let out a tired laugh of her own. "I feel like I'm being ripped apart at the seams."

"Well, you're standing. Which is a lot more than I could during mine."

Kiya stopped and stared at Elora, as if expecting to see the bite mark through the layers of clothes. She was a beautiful woman with long chestnut brown hair, matching eyes, and that everlasting patient smile. They had to be at least ten years apart in age but, as far as Kiya could see, the signs of aging were so subtle that she couldn't describe them specifically. There was just an air of maturity to her that could only come from age. Or perhaps by going through a change traumatic enough for wisdom to follow in its wake.

"You're like me, then? You were-" Kiya stopped mid-sentence and looked over her shoulder at the entrance to the alley, wary of the people in the street just a few meters away.

"Come. My parents' home is not far, and we can speak openly there."

Elora turned in the other direction and started to walk away. Kiya hesitated, caught between her curiosity and her base instinct to run from potential danger, before following.

"To answer your question," Elora said once they were walking side by side. "Yes, I was bitten. However, the circumstances of our curses are very different. I chose this life so that I could be with Hadyn."

"You knew what kind of pain you would have to go through, and you still chose this?"

"You can't really know what the transition is like until you're in the middle of it. Hadyn warned me as best he could. It was my decision, and I would make it again in a heartbeat."

"People do stupid things for love, I guess."

"Spoken like someone who's never been in love."

"Or has already been there and vowed never to go back."

"You're way too young to be so jaded," Elora frowned. "What happened? If you don't mind me asking."

"I don't, and it wasn't anything overly dramatic," Kiya shrugged. "Relationships and courtships are hard. They take work and attention, and military life doesn't really respect that. I thought we could make it work, and she didn't. The longer I've been a hunter, the more I've realized she was right."

"Oh. So, you prefer the company of women?"

"I... uh," Kiya stammered, feeling the heat rising in her cheeks and looking anywhere than at Elora. After so many years with her team, she'd forgotten that not everyone was aware, or accepting, of her taste in partners. "I don't really have a preference, to be honest."