CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON

“Did he say why he wanted to speak to me?” Xavier asked from the other end of the line.

“No, he just said it’s important and he needs you here when he gets back.” Solara was doing his part in carrying out Stephan’s instructions.

He knew why Stephan had asked Xavier to go to Kings and he was worried that it may drive a rift between the friendships they had formed with the beasts.

“Ok, we’ll be there by tomorrow evening.”

The line went dead, and Solara exchanged a troubled look with Kayla.

“That’s favor number one.” Solara huffed.

“Xavier isn’t going to like this.”

“Thank you for stating the obvious Eric.” Vincent sniped.

“With Stephan training the warriors, it means that the Council is planning to attack. With or without being threatened.” Victor was the only one who had recent knowledge of the Council’s activities.

“What are the chances of there not being a war?” Solara was seeking Victor’s knowledge on the matter.

“War is imminent whether the beasts want it or not. The Council is just trying to establish superiority and this is the only way they can do it. So they will.”

“Stephan will have to pick aside, he’s either with the Vampires or the beasts.” Eric was making an obvious point once again.

“He’s with us. There must be a reason why he’s doing this.” Unlike the others, Kayla was looking at the bigger picture and didn’t focus on the war part of it all. “Maybe they threatened him again?”

“They know his weakness now and they are going to prey on it. Either way once the opposition finds out what he is doing, that’s it, he becomes the enemy.”

“So what do you suggest Victor?” Solara wanted a way out of this without any one of them being caught in the crossfire.

“We wait for Xavier.” That was the only suggestion he could give. The vampires would never back down, especially now with Stephan in their corner.

“We wait for Xavier.” Solara echoed clinging to a hope that he would find away out of this.

“Now for favor number two.” Kayla reminded them of Stephan’s other favorites, and this one had nothing to do with war.

***

“I thought he was going to rip the door off its hinges.” Scarlet watched her son snuggle in his father’s arms.

They were on their way back, and SJ had put up a fight before getting out of the car once they were at the airport. He didn’t want to leave his ocean behind, he had laid claim on Mother Natures’ property. He held on to the car door, resisting every attempt they made to move him.

Stephan had to promise to bring him back soon before he gave in to them.

“He just didn’t want to let go of the one thing he loved.” He stroked her chin, “I can relate to that.”

“I understand that. I would never give up my family for anything in this world.”

“That’s good to know.” He hoped she would feel that way when he told her he was going back to Rio. That he was going to stay there and honor his agreement with the elders.

Stephan hoped that Solara had been able to carry out his two requests. One, in particular, was very important to him, and he needed it done before he could tell Scarlet anything.

“So why did we have to go home so early?”

“You’ll know soon enough.” His lips formed a tight smile.

“What are we going to do with the rest of our lives? Sooner than we know it SJ will be a grown-up and he won’t need anyone to take care of him.”

“I thought you planned on going back to work?”

“I only had the job for a month. I have a bad employment record, I don’t think I can go back to that. Besides I’m an inexperienced student which hospital would I work in?”

“Then learn what you have to. Find a Doctor who will be willing to teach you, like that Shee guy.”

“I don’t want to go back to DC.” It had too many bad memories. Memories she was trying to run away from.

“I’m sure he can refer you to someone else.”

“That could be possible, I’ll call him. But not now, I want us to settle into our new life first. Get SJ his room, so that we can be alone.”

“I like where this is going. I think he’s attached to that room, maybe we should move out.” Stephan felt fake using the word we but he had to keep up the farce for as long as he could.

They drove up to the house, which was unusually quiet. Stephan took the bags from the trunk, while Scarlet cradled the sleeping boy in her arms.

“Are you sure we are at the right address?” Scarlet asked confused.

“Maybe they went out?”

“No, I can smell their scents from out here.” Scarlet shook her head, trying to make sense of what she said, “I can smell them from out here, so not creepy.”

Stephan chuckled, “You will get used to all of that soon enough.”

“I hope so, there was I time I thought I was getting schizophrenic. I could hear voices but I couldn’t see anyone.” She laughed at how ridiculous she sounded.

Scarlet had decided to live her new life one stride at a time. She realized she wasn’t like most humans who had been turned into vampires. Giving her new abilities and gifts a test run, she didn’t even know what her gift was.

She was hanging on to her humanity while living as an immortal. It was a good thing she had an eternity to get used to what she was because she couldn’t do it all at once.

“Maybe you should go first. I don’t want them startling me to the point I drop my baby.”

“He’s not a baby, look your arms are barely big enough to completely hold him.” He knew he was fighting a losing battle, but he was going to do all he can to make sure his son wasn’t coddled.

“Whatever.”

He swung the door open for her, but she hesitated. Stephan went in first proving that no one was waiting to pounce on them behind the door.

“The house is empty. What’s going on here?” Scarlet was confused all over again. She had smelt their scent, but they were nowhere to be seen.

“Give him to me.” Stephan held out his arms for the child. She gave him to him, and once she did he shook him.

“Stephan, what do you think you are doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m trying to wake him.”

He dodged out of the way of her fist. He ran around the furniture and once he had a couch between them he shook the boy again.

“Stop that.”

“He needs to wake up. Mission accomplished.”

SJ’s eyes opened a frown on his face. He moaned a couple of senseless words for a few seconds and then stared at his father with a hostile look in his eyes.

“What’s going on?” His fingers rubbed his eyes as he looked around. “We are home.”

“Yes, we are. I wanted you to be awake for Mommy’s surprise.”

“Surprise, I love surprises.” SJ was fully awake and excited. “Let’s go.” He jumped out of his arms and took Scarlet’s waiting hand.

“This better be good Stephan.” She was excited, finally, something that she didn’t expect, that wasn’t a murderous vampire.

“It will be.”

SJ walked between his parents eager and more excited than both of them combined.

Stephan hoped she would like it, he hoped she would love it. He knew that this surprise could go either way and although he believed it would go well, there was still that fear gnawing at him.

He took a deep breath as they walked around the bend to the backyard.

Scarlet froze, she looked at the dozen smiling eyes staring at her and everything that surrounded them. They were all dressed in white, complimenting the red and white rose’s decor that surrounded them. Nikki, Xavier, and Sam were amongst the crowd.

They all looked happy and excited, all of them except Nikki. She had gotten used to her foul mood that it didn’t bother her anymore.

Scarlet was confused, she hadn’t been informed of any ceremonies. And she couldn’t figure out what had been so important to make the beasts come back.

“What’s going on here?”

“This is my surprise. Do you like it?” Stephan hopefully waited for a positive reaction. The look on Scarlet’s face didn’t give him any indication of how she felt.

“That depends, on what the surprise is.” Scarlet was getting anxious. They were all looking at her for something she didn’t even know about.

She took another look around, she was sure there had to a ceremony of some sort taking place. It had to be important to make the beasts come back, especially Nikki, who didn’t want to be there. She was sure it was something Nikki didn’t want to witness.