CURSE OF THE BLOOD MOON

Scarlet felt more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. She needed Kayla to tell her everything she had missed the past month, and why Stephan had left her and their son to go to Rio.

“There they are.” Scarlet looked down at her feet.

“What?”

“My ten toes, my feet. I haven’t seen them in a while.”

Kayla laughed at how ridiculous she sounded.

“Zen was here, somehow he found us.”

“How?” a chill went down Scarlet’s spine that happened every single time she heard his name. He had almost killed her and her son.

“He says he followed the bread crams we left behind, but he went to your apartment in DC and the super told him we moved to King County and he tracked us from there. Anyway, he came to deliver a message to Stephan, Marquis-” Scarlet interrupted her.

“She’s behind all of this?” Scarlet was miffed, “Is there even a feud or was it something she started to get Stephan back?”

“From what Stephan told us about her, I wouldn’t be surprised. She sounds like a real piece of work. But anyway she gave him an ultimatum.”

“And what was that?”

“That he goes back to Rio with Zen, without any problems or you die.”

“That was a no-brainer. Where was the baby during all this?” Scarlet didn’t want the existence of her child to be known by Marquis, she wouldn’t put anything past her.

“He was asleep in his cot. Thank God he wasn’t walking at that time, he seems to find a way to get into trouble. In the oddest of situations, your son is a handful and I can’t tell you how happy I am, you’re awake. You shouldn’t worry about him, according to Eric he seems as normal as any beast child.”

“He does seem like trouble.” She chuckled remembering the mean look he had given Kayla earlier on. “What did Stephan say that we should do?”

“That’s the thing, he said we should do nothing. He told the beasts to go back home, and ordered Solara not to follow him.” Kayla shrugged and kicked some of the branches that had fallen off the trees.

“I don’t understand. Is he planning to stay in Rio? With her?” her words sounded more like an accusation than it did a question. She wasn’t comfortable with the fact that he would stay by her side for an indefinite amount of time.

“He’s just trying to protect his family Scar, you can’t hold that against him.”

“Did he tell you what sort of relationship they had?” Scarlet was miffed and Kayla’s failure to understand what she felt made it worse.

“He said she’s his creator and he led the vampire army. Why” Kayla was confused.

“And her lover.”

Scarlet turned around and threw a punch at a tree. When her fist came into contact with the truck she didn’t feel the pain she expected to feel. Instead, her fist left a huge dent in the trunk, making the tree lean sideways.

“Whoa! What just happened?” Scarlet looked at her fist as if it was a foreign part of her body.

“You tell me. Stephan always had the theory that you were transforming, but we never knew into what.” Kayla looked at her as if seeing her for the first time and in a way she was. Scarlet could be one of two things but one thing was for sure, she wasn’t a human, not anymore.

“Do you think you could get the experienced immortals over here?” She was still looking at the damage she had done to the tree.

“I already did, they should be here any second now.”

Solara, Eric, and the twins came speeding to where they were, and not far behind them, SJ followed. He leaped into his mother’s arms giggling, amused at the game that only he was playing.

“What happened here?” Solara was staring at the tree that held Kayla’s attention.

“Kayla I see we are back to destroying nature,” Victor said as the others laughed.

“It wasn’t me, I swear. This is all Scarlet.”

“Wow, Scarlet. You almost knocked it off its roots. But it’s still standing.” Vincent squatted next to the tree running his hand along with its bark.

“You could say that.” She felt SJ jump out of her arms and she followed the little boy to the leaning tree.

Her heart jumped to her throat when the little boy ran straight for it, knocking it head-on. Vincent, startled jumped to the side away from the tree.

SJ stood there giggling as the tree fell onto another tree. He crouched over again, for another run, this time towards a tree that was still intact, when Solara caught him by his shorts and lifted him into his arms.

“Come here, that’s enough destruction for today.”

Solara took the boy to his stunned mother, she stared at him in shock as he climbed into her arms.

“That was fun, mommy.”

“You are a handful aren’t you?”

“That’s what Aunty Kayla calls me.”

They all laughed at his patent naivety, he thought of it more like a pet name than what he was. He flashed everyone an innocent smile that made them laugh even harder.

“Scar, I could never say this enough times, thank you for coming out of your comatose state.” Kayla laughed at the stunned expression still on Scarlet’s face. “This is nothing, when he started walking, he ran into the wall. Eric and the twins had to patch it up and repaint the whole wall.”

Scarlet stared at the giggling boy in her arms, he looked too tiny and too adorable to be capable of such destruction. He tried to jump out of her arms again, but this time she tightened her arms around him, holding him in place.

“You aren’t running into any more trees.” She smiled at his little frown.

“I won’t I promise, I just want to race to the house. Please, mommy.”

Scarlet put him down and as soon as his feet hit the ground he took off towards the house, the boys hot on his tail.

“How do you handle this?” Scarlet was sure she would lose her mind by the end of the day.

“You meant to say did. How did I handle him? He does test one’s sanity, but he has his mellow moments. And the boys chase after him when I’m tired.”

“He’s a boy, he’s supposed to run around and be destructive.” Solara came to his defense.