CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON

Stephan had spent months shunning Marquis’s advancements. He had grown tired of her mind games, and some of the things she had told him wore him down mentally. He thought back to the day he got there, what she had said still seemed as bizarre as the first time he had heard it.

“I’m glad you are back home where you belong.” Marquis sat on the side of her bed, the slit on her negligee showing off the smooth skin of her thigh. She hiked her knee up, making it slide down towards her hip.

“I’m here. Now tell me what you want.” Stephan’s eyes lifted from her thigh to her eyes.

He had noticed what she wanted him to see, but she wasn’t interested in the least bit. Since meeting Scarlet, he has never been tempted to bed with any other woman, but he still wants immune to their beauty. He acknowledged it and moved on.

“I wanted you. What else would I want?” Her hand smoothed out the red satin sheets. “Remember when it was just the two of us before you left.” Her teeth clench on the last word. “We used to spend hours in this room.”She stood up from the bed, letting her robe slide down her immaculate skin. Her blonde hair danced on her back as she sauntered towards him.

“Get to the point Marquis. I don’t intend to stay here long.” Stephan had been there long enough. Each time he tried to get her to tell him what she wanted, her reaction was the same. But her seduction wasn’t getting the reaction she wanted, instead, it just annoyed him.

She placed her hand on his chest and walked around him, her hand taking in the feel of his muscles.

“You aren’t going anywhere, Stephan. I made you and I can keep you and most of all I can use you any way I want to.” She tip-toed so to reach his ear and whispered into it. “Any way I want to.”

He caught her hand as it slid down his chest to his belly and lower. His hand clenched while he was still holding hers. He felt her try and pull it away but she couldn’t.

“Let go.”

Stephan released her hand and could feel her stumble backward. When she got her bearings back, she stood in front of him, her hands running down her arms.

“If you wanted something to hold on to, why didn’t you just say so?” she took his arms and circled them around her waist.

Stephan stared past the top of her head to the wall across from him. He couldn’t stand having her so close to him, especially since he wanted to have Scarlet in his arms. He wanted Scarlet to be in the red negligee inviting him to her bed.

“Get away from me, or I will move you.” His fists clenched as he drew back his arms.

“Aren’t we a little touchy?” She pressed her body against his, laying her head on his chest.

Stephan’s eyes changed from the striking silver to a smoldering black. He held her by the arms and tossed her away from him.

Marquis stopped mid-air, inches away from the wall. She landed on her feet and stomped towards him.

“You are mine, I own you.” She hissed out.

“Marquis state the reason why you wanted me here. I want to leave as soon as I can.” He ignored the anger that was now evident in her red eyes. “And you do not own me.” He turned to leave the room, but she flashed in front of him.

“I created you and loved you. And you repay me by betraying me.”

“Betray you? You did create me but love, you don’t even know the meaning of the word.” He took a step to the side but she only followed him.

“I did love you and you left me for that Vampire, and then the human. I killed that vampire, and I thought you would come back home, but the human-,”

“What did you say? You killed Sotera?” he stomped towards her, trapping her between his body and the door.

“She took you away from me. Do you know how long I searched for you? I looked and waited for you for decades. Waiting for the perfect Jeraldi, who would stand by my side.” She slid past him and walked to the bed.

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you think we just randomly picked you? We tried to change most of your ancestors, hoping that each one of them had the great beasts’ gene. But they all died as soon as the venom sunk into their flesh.”

Stephan was trying to follow what she was saying but he couldn’t. “I don’t understand what you are saying?”

“Living with those humans has impaired your thinking capacity. Slowed down, your brain frequency to their level.” She chuckled.

Stephan snarled at her insult urging her to get to the point.

“Anyway, one of your great grandfathers was a beast, the strongest of them all. He had many wives but he favored a human. I guess that was where the obsession started.” She sat on the bed and pulled up a chair for him, next to her.

“He mated with her, and they had a son. The son mated with another human and so on. But then the gene began to resurface somehow and we started tracking your family down. Then we found you.”

Stephan buried his face in his hands and let it sink in. “So you didn’t turn me into a beast, I already was one?”

“We used her blood to wake up the animal in you. And it worked.”

She knelt on the floor her hands on his knees. She looked up at his covered face and pulled his hands away. “I gave you this life so that you could be with me.”

“Get away from me.” Stephan stood up and pushed her away from him. “You had no right to do this to me. But I guess I should thank you since because of you I met Scarlet.” He gave her a grin that made her livid.

“If I knew you were going to waste the life I gave you with fewer superior beings, I would have killed you.” In one fluid movement, she was off the floor and had her hands wrapped around his neck.

Stephan unlocked her fingers from behind his neck and shoved her once more, “Do not piss me off, Marquis.” He turned and flung open the door to leave.

“If you leave, I will kill your cow.” She snarled out the threat, making him freeze at the door.

A chill of fear crept up his spine, and a second later, anger seared through him. His fists clenched at his sides when he turned to face her. He took slow solid, long stride steps towards her, his eyes flaring red and black.

She quickly backed up, trying to get as far from him as possible.

“If you dare, try and hurt her, if you displace, a single hair on her head, I will kill you.” Stephan leaned down to her face driving his statement home.

“I will kill her, I swear it.”

Her last words rang in his head the whole month. He had to find a way to go home to his family, to his son, and the love of his life. He was so tiny when he had left him and Scarlet hadn’t regained consciousness. Until he could find a full-proof plan, he had to stay here with Marquis. He was going to entertain her every whim, all except sleeping with her.

Stephan walked down the hallways of the old rock fortress, the memories of his past life flooded back in his mind. He had vowed never to go back there, preferring death over the caged life. He walked into the room assigned to him, he never slept but he used it to be alone. He needed his solitude and as much as possible he was going to try and keep to himself.

He rose from the floor when he heard a knock on the door. He was sure it was Marquis and since he wasn’t in the mood for her exotic flaunting, he was determined not to let her in.

“Don’t even bother coming in you ugly b-,”

“Don’t you dare finish that if you want to live?” A man’s voice called out as the door slowly opened. “By the way, the actual dog doesn’t like it when we use its name when we refer to that witch. It’s offensive to them.”

Stephan knew who it was even before he bothered to open the blinds. How could he not recognize the voice of the one warrior he served with and trusted with his life?

“Leo, I can’t believe you are still alive.” He pulled him in a bear hug, and then released him. Leo hadn’t changed much, he still kept to his leather jacket and spiky hairdos.

“I can’t believe your back. I thought we agreed that this wasn’t your scene.” He coughed out a laugh, then took a step back, “Let me look at you. You seem very well.”

“I am. I was before being dragged back here. Apart from satisfying Marquis’s personal needs, which none of you goofs could, I don’t know why I’m here.”

“Well, you must be doing a worse job, because I’ve never seen her so wound up.”

“I haven’t touched her and I’m not planning to. Not even with a hundred-foot pole.”

“Well, she kept you for herself. We only knew of your presence in this old ragged fortress yesterday.”

Stephan shook his head and coughed out a laugh. He should have known better. “So the council doesn’t want me?”