CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON

Scarlet was sure that her new BMW would give out before they reached the airport.

“That devil. So I guess she made Stephan a whole new world.” Scarlet hissed.

“I don’t know this chick but she keeps pissing me off.” Kayla dug her fingers into her hair once more.

“The beasts have done nothing but help us, why would Stephan think they would betray us now?”

“He can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.” Vincent’s eyes stayed focused on the road as they sped, weaving through traffic right behind the Mercedes. He knew how nervous Scarlet would get if she lost sight of the car that carried her son, so he tried his best to make sure no car came between them.

“Xavier says that Stephan thinks that they are keeping SJ to use him against him. To weaken him because he is training the vampires.” She leaned to the front, her eyes fixed on the car in front. “He is going to use the vampire army to attack them.”

“But why did Solara separate me from my son.” Her eyes were fixed on the lavender Mercedes S class.

“Xavier thinks that the vampires may try and kill you, just in case Marquis’s illusion doesn’t hold.” Kayla’s tone dropped, “He also said that if they did try, you shouldn’t be together, to allow one of you to survive. They are depending on SJ’s survival.”

“But they don’t know about him.” Scarlet was sure of it, Stephan had confirmed it to her.

“Not yet, but Stephan does. Scarlet, you are the bait.” Kayla hated putting her friend in such a position, but there wasn’t any other choice.

Scarlet had been known as many things but never bait. Now understood why Solara had taken it upon himself to take care of her son. He was protecting him. SJ was the key to his father’s heart, the antidote to his wrath. They needed her son more than they needed her.

“Vincent you need to promise me something.”

“Whatever you need Scar, it’s yours.”

“You need to stay by my son’s side. I know your brother can hear you, so please tell him the same thing.” Scarlet found herself back at the beginning, protecting her son from the danger his father always seemed to introduce him into.

“Kayla.”

“Don’t worry about it Scar, you and I are sticking together. Solara won’t leave our little boy’s side.” She took her hands in hers and squeezed tight.

“My poor baby, he must be so scared.” Scarlet held his little jumper close to her chest.

“Solara just finished telling him. He understands and he seems to be handling it very well.” Kayla smiled in pride. She couldn’t believe how far he had come since the night he had been born.

He had to deal with a lot of things since his birth, but nothing as grave as this. They had shielded him from the terrible things they were afraid would cause him damage. But now at such a tender age, he had stepped up and was handling all the insanity with a cool head.

“I hope he left out the part where his father is a raving lunatic.” Scarlet was trying to keep her grip on her sanity.

“It will be fine, as soon as he sees his baby boy and his wife, his sanity will come back to him.”

When they got to the airport, they took different flights from different airlines and different connections. Solara let Scarlet hold SJ while they bought the tickets, he held Kayla tightly by his side. Against Solara’s protests, Scarlet and Kayla traveled alone, she insisted that they all stayed with her son.

She gave her son one last squeeze, before giving him back to Solara. They had a later flight and had to wait at the airport for another hour.

“Something about that kiss wasn’t right.” Kayla’s fingers lightly touched her lips, “It was desperate, and... it just didn’t feel right.”

“Did you read anything alarming from his mind?” Scarlet had learned never to bet against Kayla’s sixth sense.

“That’s the thing, he wasn’t thinking anything at all. And his body language was all wrong, it was like he felt calm.” Kayla was trying to make sense of the weird feeling she had. She sorted through her head trying to find something that she had seen or heard and missed.

“Maybe he’s trying not to worry us.” She hoped that was all, she didn’t think she could bear her son being in any more danger than he already was.

Scarlet spent that hour thinking of the many things that could go wrong, different catastrophes in different scenarios. Kyla had tried getting her out of her head with idle chatter, but when that didn’t work she resulted in smacking her upside her head each time she had a bad thought.

When their flight number was called out, they rushed to the boarding gate. Scarlet took the window seat, she stared out of the window the whole way never letting herself fall asleep. She thought about the past two and a half months she had with her son and the week with Stephan.

She preoccupied herself with good thoughts, blocking out the bad. And when she ran out of good memories, Kayla filled her head with what she had missed. She went far back from the day SJ was born to the day she woke up.

Scarlet couldn’t help but feel sorry for her son. It was so unfair that he had to right the wrongs of his father’s past life. The vampires were supposed to be Stephan’s problem, and now SJ had to make sure that he didn’t kill the Beasts.

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