CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON

Scarlet was exhausted it had been almost forty-eight hours since she had seen her son. When they had gotten in that previous evening, she wasn’t allowed to go look for him, but this morning she was determined to throw a fit until they took her to her son.

“Solara, Xavier, if you don’t let me see my son I will personally call Stephan to come and tear this place apart.” She shouted at the top of her voice. She didn’t care about the other beasts that were with them.

“Scar you need to relax.” Solara tried to calm her down.

“Relax, it has been almost two days since I last saw my son. So you better produce him or next time I’m on my knees praying, it will be at the Christo Redentor.” Scarlet threatened them the best way she knew how.

“Now I know why Stephan is always as meek as a lamb when he’s around you. Good morning Mrs. Jeraldi.” Xavier chuckled.

“Xavier don’t patronize me. I have spent almost a whole day trapped at the airport before I got here. And when I did the only thing I asked of your people is the whereabouts of my son. They won’t let me see him.”

“Scar,” Kayla called out. While she was sleeping, Kayla had taken it upon herself to find SJ with or without the help of the beast. The little boy’s scent was embedded in her memory, and although the scent of the beast made it three times longer for her to find him, she had.

“Before you bite anyone’s head off here is your son.” She cuddled SJ in her arms, he was still sleeping.

Scarlet rushed to her and took him from her, she nestled him in her arms and cooed at him, “My baby, my beautiful baby.”

“I thought Stephan said you shouldn’t coddle him so much.” Xavier was in a relaxed mood since their arrival. He could now prove to Stephan that not only did they not kill his wife, but they were there alive and well.

Scarlet ignored him, struggled to fit him in her arms without waking him up. Solara held out his arms to help her, but she gave him a look that had him retreating.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked, so far they hadn’t told her what they had expected her son to do.

“We are going with SJ to the falls tomorrow, you and everyone else will follow behind,” Xavier said his tone suddenly changed.

“No, I don’t want my son to be alone. Either I or Solara or the twins have to go with him.” Scarlet put her foot down.

“Don’t worry I’ll be there.”

Scarlet knew that voice very well, she turned back to see Nikki, but she wasn’t alone. There was a woman with her.

“Nikki, it’s been a while.” She tried being nice, considering that she was now on her turf.

“A month. This is my great grandmother.” Nikki introduced the lady with her, “Susanna, this is Scarlet. She was wondering if you would let her see SJ.”

“Your what?” Scarlet and Kayla said in unison. She looked young enough to be twenty-one and not anyone’s mother, let alone great-grandmother. She looked more like a supermodel than anything else.

“The last time I saw a child like this, I was a child myself.” Susanna.

“Huh?” Scarlet looked at her still stunned, she thought it was absurd that she thought of herself as an old lady.

“It was a Jeraldi and I understand that this boy is a Jeraldi too.” She leaned towards the sleeping child and Scarlet held him out so that she could get a good look at him.

“We know of the history, Stephan told us,” Kayla informed her so that she wouldn’t bother recounting the whole story.

“One of my great-granddaughters married his son. But his son was more human than anything. She eventually left the tribe to be with him.”

“Your sister?” Kayla asked Nikki.

“No, my grandmother.” She smiled sure that they would also be stunned by that.

“I’m sorry, your what?” Scarlet asked.

“Your son is much more powerful than all of us combined.” Susanna was brushing SJ’s hair from his face.

“What do you mean by that?” Scarlet moved past her age to focus on what she was saying.

“Your son may be a vampire and a beast, but he is also human. He is three worlds in one and with that, he can make much wiser decisions than all of us combined.” Susanna held out her arms to take him, Scarlet hesitated for a while but gave him.

“He will make a great leader one day. Why don’t you stay with us and let him grow to be the leader he is supposed to be.” She looked down at him adoringly.

Warning bells went off in Scarlet’s head, she took the boy back from her, “No, no, no. Besides bringing his father home and back to his senses, this boy is not doing anything else.”

SJ stirred in her arms and woke up. He looked up at her and smiled. “Morning Mummy.” He wrapped his little hands tightly around her neck.

“Morning, my baby.” Scarlet returned his hug and held him tightly. “To put it more clearly, I will give you my son when hell freezes over.”

“But Scarlet, this could be good for him. He has lived a human life now he needs to live the life of a beast.” Susanna was desperately trying to plead her case.

She had only had him for two months and they hadn’t had any peace. And now a woman was telling her how she should let him go, let him live amongst the beast so that he could grow into a leader. She might as well hand him to the vampires.

Kayla broke out laughing beside her. “She doesn’t mean anything awful, by refusing Susanna. She is very protective of her son, she once took him away from his father-,”

Scarlet cut her off, “And I’m not about to hand him over to his craziness. As much as he is a beast, a vampire, a human, he is first and always will be my son.”

“Mummy, when are we going to see daddy?” SJ looked her square in the face.

“Your uncles Solara and Xavier will tell us. Let’s go get you cleaned. K, are you coming?”

“Right behind you.” Kayla fell in step with Scarlet, she was still laughing at their futile attempt to convince Scarlet to let them keep SJ.

“Xavier have you tried calling him back?” Solara was talking about calling Stephan. He had waited for Scarlet to leave before bringing it up. He didn’t want to give her any false hope.

“He isn’t picking up.” Xavier took out his cell phone and tried again. “Busy tone.”

“Something is not right here.”

The twins, Sam and Eric joined Xavier and Solara. They were the only ones who knew Stephan best, so whatever plan they came up with they were the only ones to execute it. They were least likely to be attacked by Stephan than any other beast.

“What are we going to do?” Victor asked, “My brother and I already have instruction from Scarlet, so whatever you come up with it has to revolve around that.”

“What happens if the vampires you served with saw you with beasts?” Sam asked them.

“That doesn’t matter right now. Stephan may have lost it right now, but if anything happens to SJ, he will kill all of us.” Vincent added, “I will take my chances with the vampires.”

“I’ll be there with you guys.” Eric volunteered.

“By the way Xavier, I’m grateful for your people’s hospitality. I’m sure it isn’t easy living amongst the race that wants to kill you.” Solara was amazed at how cordial they were towards them.

“You are the only hope they have. So they don’t have much of a choice but to be amiable towards you.” Xavier’s grin was back on his face.

“So what’s the plan, and by the way we need to let Scarlet in it. Unless you want her walking to Brazil.” Vincent joked.

“Where were you when she was biting our heads off?” Solara asked.

“Hiding behind that house.” Vincent said proudly, “I’m a coward and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Throw me in the middle of war anytime, but Kayla and Scarlet, no way.”

“I know what you are talking about,” Solara admitted.

“Back to the plan people.” Victor reminded them of the issue at hand.

“It’s simple really. The six of us are with SJ at all times. We need to protect him just in case the vampires have a different plan and they are just using Stephan to draw him out.” Xavier had now assigned a six-man army on SJ.

“What about Scarlet and Kayla.” Solara needed to know where they would be, just in case Stephan would need to see them.

“Nikki and some of the divisions will be with them. They will be close and protected.”

“Ok, by the way, you need to tell her that there will be no tug of wars for Stephan and her grandmother can’t bring up the SJ issue ever again,” Solara warned.