CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON

“Salvatore,” Leo walked into his chambers as soon as Stephan was busy with the warriors, “There is something I just found out. It’s spectacular.”

“It can’t be. That’s not possible.” Marquis stormed into the room, heaving with rage.

“It is. It’s just that you are a dead inside through and through.” Leo turned to her, spitting out his words.

“I won’t accept it.” Marquis threw a glass figurine and it smashed against the wall.

“Accept it. Now, how about you go hung yourself and stop interrupting me.” Leo turned back to Salvatore who was eagerly waiting.

“Stephan has a son. His mate Scarlet bore him a son.” Leo was excited this kind of development could help their race.

“We can have a whole army of them. Think about it, no one would dare challenge us. An army of hybrids.” An evil laugh ripped out of Salvatore’s throat as he thought about the possibilities.

“But he won’t allow it. I won’t allow it.” Marquis knew what he was getting at. She couldn’t bear the thought of Stephan lying with another woman and he was about to suggest hundreds of women. “He is not some cow that we are going to use to breed.”

“Bull Marquis. Cows are female.” Leo smirked.

“You are his supposed friend and you are going to allow it,” she called him out on his hypocrisy.

“Leo is just looking out for his kind, which you if you weren’t so blinded by your feelings for that hybrid, would too.” Salvatore was proud of him. “Once we have his son, we can kill his mother and Stephan. We won’t need him anymore.”

“Wait Sire, that isn’t necessary. We don’t need the child or his mother. We can use Stephan.” Leo was against the slaughter of his friend and his mate.

“These are the small sacrifices we have to make to be great. We cannot pay attention to trivial things like friendship. Power is what matters most.” Salvatore’s voice went up a notch at his last statement. He loved power and being in control. He fed off it.

Leo thought about what he said, he had already risen so far up the ladder to turn back. He weighed his two options and analyzed which one would favor him greatly. The worst that could happen when Stephan found out about his betrayal is to kill him and if he didn’t follow Salvatore he could lose out.

He was willing to take his chances with Stephan but he still hadn’t made up his mind yet.

“As you wish Salvatore.” With those final words, he left to join Stephan at the training grounds.

“I hope Salvatore has no problem with me using his men. If they don’t have my son and my wife’s killer we will both accomplish what we have set out to do.” Stephan stepped back and watched as the warriors ran through the drills.

“Don’t worry about it, you are home now and this is your army.” He tried to seem as casual as usual.

“Leo, don’t get me wrong, whether I find my son or not, I’m not staying here.” Stephan hoped he understood his position. He hoped he would find his son and once he did he would raise him the way his mother would have wanted it. Away from this world.

Stephan had buried himself in training, just as he was training the vampires he was training himself. He worked day and night, making sure he wasn’t idle long enough to think about Scarlet. To think about how he watched her die just as he did Sotera.

He promised himself to deal with the murderers of the two women he loved. At the moment he focused on the beasts, he wanted Zen and Marquis to feel comfortable enough not to suspect that he was also planning their deaths.

“What are you thinking about?” Leo had noticed his faraway look. He wanted to know all his thoughts and to be in his head as much as possible.

“Marquis and Zen, As soon as I’m done with the beasts, it will be their turn. Heads will roll, literary.” He looked up at Marquis who was watching him from her bedroom window. He waved at her and she waved back, happy at his gesture.

“Be my guest. I’m fed up with that witch and her hound dog.” Leo knew that Marquis was able to sway Salvatore’s decision and he wasn’t about to let her get in his way.

“You don’t like her much do you?”

“No, at all. She tried to make me her pet and when I refused, she played with my mind.” Leo silently cursed under his breath, it was the last thing that Stephan needed to be reminded of, Marquis’s talents to alter reality.

“She had me on her leash for three centuries.” He turned away from her and walked away.

“Are you ready for tomorrow?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. Are you sure Xavier hasn’t called you?”

“No, he hasn’t.” Leo lied, he had deleted his call history just in case Stephan had asked to see his phone.

“I can’t believe he would do this. Do you know we had planned to fight on one side? If we ever attacked. We were going to bring down the Counsel. Now it looks I’ll be fighting against him.” Stephan couldn’t stomach the thought. He knew Xavier would never back down from protecting his people.

Leo only heard one part of his statement, take down the Counsel, he thought about it for a second. “Then what? After taking the Counsel down then what?”

“Oh.” Stephan was surprised that Leo was more intrigued than angry at his plan of betraying them, “Xavier always said that if the vampires were under new management they could co-exist. So I mentioned you to him.”

“Huh?”

Leo now had something else to think about. There were now three ways for him to achieve his goals, all he had to do was to pick one. He could go along with Salvatore and have Stephan killed, breed a new race of warriors and be second in the hierarchy of power.

Or he could tell Stephan what they had planned and join him in destroying the Counsel so that he could assume command. But he would have to risk Stephan killing him instead.

Lastly, there was the easy way of having both sides fight against each other, take what was left of the army, and build his empire.

Leo had a lot to think about that night, but everything depended on Xavier finding a solution to the existing problem. He was going to stay out of it as much as he could. He was almost there and Stephan killing him would ruin all his plans.

“I need to go hunt. Do you think you could get me some human blood when I get back?” Stephan stared at Leo, he seemed to have disappeared in his thoughts.

“Leo?”

“Yeah sure, whatever you need.” He turned and walked away, he needed a quiet place to think.

***