CURSE OF THE MOON REBORN

SJ roared as his bones broke and reset themselves in a new form. Scarlet watched as her beautiful son turned into a werewolf. His beautiful lips turning to a snort and a mouth full of lethal teeth. His tender hands and long fingers turning to deadly hairy claws. His new sneakers tore as his toes crept out of them.

Scarlet also watched as the six confident vampires turned to timid mice as the once five-foot-six boy, turned into a six-foot monster.

The novelty and wonder of her son’s ability were quickly thrown aside when three of the six vampires lunged for him. She leaped immediately into action as she went for one of the vampires dangling from SJ’s back, but was quickly cut off. She had a vampire of her own to fight and hoped that her son could hold on until she killed the one in her arms.

Scarlet wrestled him on the ground, clawing his hands from around her neck. She rolled him over to his back and pressed her elbow on his throat.

Unlike Scarlet, Kayla had a much easier time overpowering her assailant. She did it in three quick moves. She swiped his feet from under him and forced him down with his neck. With her elbow and all the power she could master, she brought her elbow down on his neck.

The hard sound on metal meeting gravel cracked into the air as Kayla severed his head. Wasting no time she pulled one of the vampires off SJ’s back and with one forceful twist, took his head off. As she reached for the other, she could hear Jade whimper from behind her.

Unlike the others, she was trying to defeat the vampire by displacing his emotions with her own. She turned his hard blows to soft ones, removing the conviction to kill from them. Kayla watched as Jade played emotional games with her assailant, but she didn’t have time for it.

She waited for him to drop his guard then knocked his feet from under him. As he squirmed on the ground, Kayla thought it was a good time to teach her daughter an important lesson, survival. She restrained him as Jade fiddled with his head, trying to block out his fear as she killed him.

Once Kayla heard the metallic sound, she dropped the limp body on the ground. She stood still with Jade beside her as they watched Scarlet wrestle with her vampire and SJ tear his attacker’s limbs apart.

SJ felt his arm in his mouth and brought down his upper jaw, crushing into the gravel flesh and metallic bone. As his attacker scrambled to the floor, his damaged arm cuddled on his chest, SJ brought his massive foot down crashing onto his back. As if he was putting out a fire, SJ stomped on him continuously until he stopped moving.

Scarlet wrestled with her assailant still, she was aware that the others were dead when Kayla, SJ, and Jade become her audience.

“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help me?”

SJ chuckled, his beast body vibrating as the laughter ripped through him. He grabbed the assailant’s feet, then split him in half.

“Thank you.” Scarlet rose to her feet, her chest heaving.

“What, I was enjoying the fight.” Kayla cackled.

SJ phased back to his human form but had to grab his torn jeans as they threatened to drop.

“That was good mum. It took you a while but you tried.” SJ joked.

“Go put on some clothes.”

SJ disappeared into the house and seconds later he was out fully groomed.

“I can’t believe you just stood there and watched Kayla.”

“I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Really.” Scarlet glared at her best friend, she wanted to be mad but couldn’t help laughing. “I swear I didn’t know killing a vampire was that hard. You make it look so easy.”

“I’m a pro.” Kayla boasted.

“I’m the pro. I took on two guys on my own.”

“So did I.”

“But I did it at the same time.”

“Show-offs,” Jade muttered.

“Jade honey, a piece of advice. Don’t feel sorry for someone who wants to kill you. Because the only thing they are thinking about is how to get your head off your shoulders.” Kayla warned.

“I’m not cut out for this kind of crap.” Jade kicked one of the bodies sprawled on the ground.

“He’s already dead Jade.” SJ teased.

“When is Dad coming home? He’s the one who should be fighting vampires.” Jade had only known Solara for a short while but already saw him as a protector.

“Speaking of Dads, we need to call mine and deliver El Diablo’s message.”

“Yeah.” Scarlet thought of the message given to them and couldn’t help but muse over what he said. The beach where he met his first love. Marquis had told her that Stephan had met Sotera on the beach and that was the only reason the ocean was dear to him. Scarlet felt robbed, there was nothing special about their special place.

“Mom, where did you and dad meet? Maybe we could meet them there.” Like every child, SJ assumed that his mother was the only woman his father loved, but he was wrong.

“He didn’t mean me. I’ll go call your father.” Scarlet disappeared from the room, running away from the millions of questions she knew her son would offload on her.

“What did she mean?” SJ pointed towards the direction his mother ran to.

“Solara had a sister. Her name was Sotera and she was your father’s, first love.”

“Oh where is she now?” it was hard to imagine another woman in his father’s life, but SJ had watched enough soaps to know it happened.

“I have an aunt.” Jade chirped.

“HAD an aunt.” Kayla corrected. “She died several years before Scarlet and I met your fathers. We didn’t get to meet her either.”

“How did she die?”

“She was murdered. Don’t ask me how, that question you can preserve for your fathers.”

***

Stephan led them through the massive fortress steel doors. The vampire warriors made a path for him and his little army not daring to put up a resistance of any sort.

“Stephan?” Leo met them in the courtyard. “What’s the meaning of this?”

Stephan marched past him not paying attention to the words dribbling out of his mouth. He left most of his men at the doors to make sure that nothing interrupted the meeting he was about to have with the Counsel. He only took Xavier, Mathias, the twins, Eric, Sam, and Solara with him.

He sat on what used to be Salvatore’s throne and waited as Mathias and his men rounded up the Counsel members and brought them to him.