A/N: To those of you who write - have you thought about entering my short story/one-shot contest? There will be six prizes for the winner (different forms of advertising and feedback). For more info, check my The Contests Book, chapter May Challenge (link in the comments).

*****

The sun was setting as Rhys drove us into the Silver Bullets' neighbourhood. We passed his parents' house; we were going to his.

He stopped the car in front of the building which we'd passed by on our walk last weekend. Throughout our journey here, we'd both kept silent; he seemed worried with what to say and I didn't want to push him in case that made him change his mind about telling me whatever he was planning to tell.

"I hope you don't mind me bringing you here," Rhys said as he tilted the key towards him and the engine died. "I needed some place private and your apartment... Well, I never thought apartments were private; it always seems like the neighbours might overhear something."

Was he planning to raise his voice as we spoke?

I shook my head.

No.

But perhaps he expected there to be some shouting, maybe on my part. Was what he was about to share that bad?

He didn't seem reluctant to talk - on the contrary, he looked more determined that I'd ever seen him - but he appeared to be afraid at the outcome of our conversation. My eyes ran over him, over his white skin and clenched jaw; he wasn't just afraid, he was terrified.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and swallowed, my throat dry.

"Let's do this," he urged and got out of the car, closing the door forcefully. He paused and took a slow breath before he walked to my side to open the door for me. I tried to stand up, but something pulled me back. The seatbelt. I had forgotten to undo my seatbelt.

My fingers fumbled with the safety restraint and he leaned down to help me. I heard a click and I was free.

"Thanks," I muttered as he pulled back to allow me to get out. He closed the door - this time without slamming it - and we walked into the yard, then took the few steps that led to the porch. Rhys' personal house was very much like the one he currently resided in, only newer. He'd built it himself with the help of his father, brothers and a few neighbours.

Rhys swung his arm, gesturing for me to go in first and I walked into an empty hallway.

"Would you like a tour or...?" He didn't finish his question, but I knew what he meant.

"No, let's... Let's talk."

He nodded and led the way to what would one day probably be the living room. The only furniture it had now was a square table pushed to the wall furthest from us and the two wooden chairs that were around it; unlike the ones in his parents' house, these were without cushions. There were no curtains or persiennes on the large windows and as I gazed through them, I saw a car pass by, its lights emitting a light glow in the darkness which was slowly descending.

"We should probably sit," Rhys suggested. "This will take a while."

I took the chair to the right and he sat opposite me. He took another deep breath, then spoke hastily as if he couldn't wait to get this over with.

"Once upon a time..."

"I thought you brought me here to talk about the Bullets," I rebuked, crossing my arms over my chest. We'd driven all the way here, our anxiety taking the physical form of something thick enough to be cut with a knife - and I meant a good, well-sharpened knife - and now he was wasting my time with a fairytale?

"I'm about to do just that," he replied.

"But this sounds like a fairytale," I spoke aloud what was on my mind, not bothering to hide my annoyance.

"It's... It may sound that way, but it's an important part of our folklore," he insisted, moistening his lips.

"Alright," I leaned back in the chair, still skeptical. "Go on."

"Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there lived a King, a Great King."

I resisted the desire to shake my head. Not only was I to listen to a fairytale, but he was a lousy teller. Or perhaps it was my annoyance that made it seem that way; I couldn't wait for him to get to the point. Reminding myself that Rhys wouldn't bring this up unless he felt it was important, I stood still and listened.

"Not great in morals, but great in power," he went on. "He was a mighty and skilful warrior, but also a cruel one. He'd gathered vast wealth and numerous lands and had armies of hundreds under his command. But as the years passed, he realized he was running out of a valuable recourse: time."

"Time?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Riley, time. The King was growing old and his time on Earth was lessening. So he'd gathered people with special skills, people who could use magic..."

I snorted and he paused, sighing.

"There's no such thing as magic," I insisted.

"Will you please let me tell the story?" He begged.

I nodded so he went on:

"He gathered in his castle people who could use magic. But real, strong magic belonged to the Spirits of Nature; the power of these humans wasn't enough for what task the King wanted them to perform. You see, Riley, the Great Kind wanted to defeat Death itself; he wanted to become immortal."

Rhys leaned forward in his chair, placing his elbows on his knees.

"Eventually, one of the magic-users came up with the idea of the King's men capturing Spirits of Nature to harvest their power. Naturally, the Spirits were enraged at the audacity of the King's men and destroyed the King's army. However, they kept the Great King alive. They decided that they would give him what he'd always wanted, but on their own terms. They gave the King immortality by turning him into a horrible monster..."

I suppressed a giggle as I shook my head; where did people come up with stories like this one?

"... A monster with skin the color of ash, fangs, claws and reddenedeyes; a monster, doomed to be burnt by eternal hunger and thirst, one that would never again enjoy the light of sun on their skin."

"So they turned him into a vampire?" This time I couldn't help but snort.

"The first vampire," Rhys said with solemnity that briefly made me doubt his sanity. He didn't believe in all this nonsense, did he?

"They chained him in a cave, obstructing the entrance with heavy metal bars and spells. As the months passed, the few surviving men who were loyal to the King - men, just as cruel as him - gathered and with promises of wealth enticed even more men, including some who could use magic. They formed a small army led by the king's most trusted General and entered the cave. It took them days to destroy the bars, but they worked eagerly, longing for the promised gold..."

"Where was the gold at?" I interrupted with a frown.

"The King had hidden it."

"Why didn't the Spirits take it?" I posed another question, still sulky.

"What would the Spirits of Nature do with gold, Riley?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "It's just a fairytale."

So I guess I should overlook the ridiculousness and plot holes, I told myself.

"Anyway," Rhys cleared his throat. "The men entered the cave. At first, the King stood still as if he was dead, but as soon as they took the chains off, the King went berserk. Savaged by his insatiable hunger, he attacked the men with speed and ferocity they could not counter. He killed them, all of them..." He swallowed. "... By ripping their throats with his teeth and claws and feasting on their blood."

"Who is telling this story?" I asked and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion instead of him getting angry that I'd cut him off yet again.

"What do you mean who by 'who is telling this story'?"

"I mean, if everyone died, except for the now inhuman King, who was the first person to tell the story, to spread the knowledge of what happened there..." My voice slowly lowered and I laughed.

"I'm sorry," I apologized through giggles. "I forgot that fairytales don't actually have to make sense. Go on. You were at the point where he was feeding," I reminded him when he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yes." He nodded. "During the attack on his men, the King got injured and his blood somehow soaked through his General's wounds. It brought the General back to life. After his initial rampage, the King had managed to regain some of his sense. He even managed to control his General until the later also became sentient. Even though they craved and needed the blood of others, they were rational enough to form an alliance. The Great King now had a new goal: to make an army of monsters like himself and bring horror to humans and Spirits alike. That way not only would he feed, but he'd also get revenge for the curse the Spirits placed on him."

He bit his bottom lip, his eyes narrowing as if he was trying to see things as they happened in that imaginary world the tale spoke of.

"They were hard to kill, these vampires, and it was easy and quick to make more. The King didn't even need for them to become reasonable - well, as reasonable as vampires could become - in order for them to spread terror. Humans were no match for them and the Spirits of Nature had lessened in number because of the hunts he'd subjected them to when he was still human."

He made another pause, looking at me intently to make sure I followed.

"In order to protect themselves, humans and Spirits joined forces, the latter offering the first to make them stronger."

"Like they made the King stronger?" I sneered.

"They cursed the King, Riley; they wouldn't do that to the innocent humans. What they offered was to give some of them the power to... change."

"Change?" I leaned back in my chair, tilting my head to the side.

"Into something else. Into an animal, but one that could keep its human rationality. The animals had to be relatively the size of the humans so people could not turn into something as small as a mouse or as large as an elephant. The humans chose to turn into animals like lions, bears and wolves. The Spirits warned them that for the change to be possible, they'd have to put the soul of the chosen animal into the person's body; they also warned that if the animal was stronger than the person, it could take over and the person would forever remain in animal form, losing his or her rationality. The last warning was about their offspring: the children of these first shape shifters would be born with both a human and an animal soul and will be shifters as well."

He stopped speaking again as if to see whether I had any questions about what I'd just heard. I didn't say anything, so he went on:

"Once the humans and animals were combined, those who kept their sense led the war against the vampires along with the Spirits and the Gifteds."

"Gifteds?"

"Humans with supernatural abilities," Rhys explained shortly.

"You mean the ones who could use magic?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes they are just faster and stronger than ordinary humans."

Did he just speak in the present tense as if these people were real and you could simply bump into them on the street one day on your way to work?

"After months of bloody battles, it seemed that the vampires would win. As I said, they were hard to kill and they could easily make more of themselves as long as there were humans around; Spirits and shape shifters don't turn."

There's that present tense again...

"But at some point a number of these vampires, the ones that had once been Gifteds, regained enough of their reason and memories to manage to use their thirst against the rest of the vampires. They joined the shifters and the Spirits and in the end, they won what is now known as the First Great War. Toshow their gratitude, the Spirits lessened the curse that was passed from theKing onto those of his victims, who had betrayed him for humanity's sake. They were still vampires, and they still needed blood to survive, but their thirst diminished, allowing them to control it with more ease; they could now walk under the sun and reproduce as humans do instead of through murdering and then reviving others with their blood. They became known as the Dayers and the remaining of the other vampires - the ones who were under the full strength of the curse because they still supported the King - are known as Nighters."

"That's kind of lame," I commented under my breath.

"Yeah, I guess," he shrugged, the movement quick like some uncontrollable twitch. "But I didn't tell you all of this so we could discuss terms and names, Riley."

"Then why did you tell me?"

Were we finally getting back to the real world and the real reason Rhys had brought me here?

He looked even paler in the moonlight that shone through the windows, small sweat drops glittering on his forehead. The room wasn't warm and he hadn't even brought a jacket. His unhealthy appearance and stiff stance told me that yes, it was time for the real conversation to commence.

And I was not going to enjoy it.

"Because it's not just a story, Riley," he whispered, his eyes captivating mine. His voice was so quiet that at first I could not make out his words. "The First Great War is real and so are the creatures I told you about. I'm one of them."

*****

A/N: The moment is finally here! How do you think Riley would take the news?

What do you think of the origin of vampires and shifters?

Do you have any questions about them, the Spirits or anything else Rhys talked about?

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