CURSE OF THE MOON REBORN

“Marquis wants him too. Do you know what she told me? She said that she is going to take my children and make them her own, then she is going to take you and the four of you will be a happy family.” She shoved him again but there was nowhere else she could go. “It’s you she wants. But she knows how dedicated you are to the children. How about you prove her right and find our daughter.”

“We are trying-,”

“Do not try. Find her.”

Kayla pulled Scarlet away trying to restrain her from hurting Stephan. Her anger had blinded her from everything else. She couldn’t hear it, she couldn’t hear the sound of Stephan’s bones break every time a punch landed on him. Stephan didn’t cringe or wince each time, her new body met his own.

“Scarlet, stop it. You are hurting him.”

Kayla pulled her away and faced her towards the window. Scarlet looked out and saw the thick forest that she loved looking at every time she woke up in the morning. This time when she looked at it, she was it as the scene of her daughter’s abduction.

“She was so tiny, so pink. Her lips looked like a little pink rosebud. Her fingers were tiny, her feet small but strong. I didn’t see her eyes. Her eyes were open but I didn’t see the color, but her hair. Her hair was dark just like her father’s.” Scarlet recounted the memory of her daughter. She went on like she was in her trance.

“She has very strong lungs. When Marquis took her from me, she let out the loudest scream I have ever heard. She knew something wasn’t right so she cried. Her voice rang in my ears. She screamed so loudly, that’s how I know she has strong lungs.”

Stephan stared at the dazed look on his wife’s face as she described their daughter to them. He felt odd, having a daughter in the world and having not met her.

“She is so beautiful. Marquis didn’t let me hold her.” Her hand dropped to her belly, flat, empty.

Scarlet felt the urge to go to her, but she didn’t know where to go. They had only met once in the forest, so she decided to go there. The place where she met her daughter for the first time. The place where she was butchered and robbed of her baby.

She turned and ran out of the room. She could feel a change in her because she was running faster than she ever did before. She ran out of the front door and to the back. She ran deep into the forest, to the edge of the forest, and stopped at the stream.

Scarlet turned back and looked at the spot where lay in her blood, in pain as Marquis ripped her open. The spot was vividly marked with her blood. She leaned down to touch it but before she could, Stephan had snatched her up. She pushed against him and set herself free, but each time she reached down to touch the remnants of her blood Stephan would pluck her up again.

She pushed him again, and that is when she heard them. The sound of his bone crack and the sound of his body against the tree, then finally the sound of the tree crush into another and the final tree falling to the ground. Scarlet saw his limp hand hang at his side. She had broken it. Then she saw him flexing his fingers and his shoulder. He raised his hand to show her that he was alright. He knew that she had heard his bone crush and didn’t want to worry him.

“What’s happening to me?” Scarlet stared down at her hands.

“Scarlet you are a vampire.”

Scarlet went livid, she didn’t know why but she was pissed.

“Who turned me?”

“After you had healed and I cleaned you up, I noticed bite marks on your abdomen-,”

“Are you telling me that Marquis turned me?”

“She wanted to kill you. She didn’t think it through, so instead, she turned you.”

“She did kill me. I’m dead Stephan. She took my life and my daughter.” Scarlet tried to calm herself down. She realized how quick it was for her to get angry, heightened emotion was part of the vampire package.

“She came for you and instead she left with my life and my daughter.” Scarlet could sense someone coming towards her. She turned to find her son staring at her.

“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have left you.” His head was lowered, and his cheeks stained with tears. He wasn’t his usual self.

“It’s not your fault.” Scarlet had him in her embrace. She cradled him then stroked his hair as she lulled him.

“She is out there with a crazy person and now you two are fighting. This is entirely my fault.” Stephan came up beside them but didn’t get any closer, not until Scarlet approved. He put his arms around the both of them. “We are not fighting. We are just scared. Don’t worry we will find your sister.”

“I miss her.” He sobbed.

“I know you do. That is why your dad and I are going to do everything we can to find her.”

“I swear it.” Stephan’s oath was meant for Scarlet. He had to make sure she knew that he was ready to give up his life for the same return of their daughter. Just as Scarlet said it was him Marquis wanted and she would get him.

***

Scarlet’s palm smoothed over her belly as she stared in the mirror. Flat. Empty. She looked down to her feet and frowned.

“I can see my toes.” She whispered.

“Do you remember the last time you told me that? You had just woken up and found your newborn running around the house. We went for a walk then you said ‘there they are, I can see my toes.’”

Scarlet remembered that day just as she did this day. Both times she had woken up after having her babies, and the first time she had SJ. She watched him run around and cause havoc in the house, but this time.

“What do I have to show for it? Nothing. It’s like I was never pregnant.”

“But you were.”

“You know when I thought that I lost the baby the first time, I felt like I was going insane. Not knowing how the baby would look like, or smell like. Not smelling her scent or hearing her voice. But now I don’t know what’s worse, because I saw her, I smelt her I heard her cry and she is still not here.” Scarlet stared at the crib Stephan had dragged into their room. He had painted it pink and adorned it with little stuffed animals in each corner. Christina was supposed to be sleeping soundly in that crib, but she was with Marquis.

“You will get to see her. We are going to find her soon.” Kayla rubbed her hands along Scarlet’s arms.

“I didn’t even get to hold her. What is she feeding her? Where is she sleeping?”

“Don’t think about the negative stuff right now. We’ll find her.”

“You keep saying that but you don’t know that for sure. Where is SJ?”

“He is asleep in his room. He won’t speak to anyone.”

Scarlet walked to her son’s room and cracked open the door. She watched him as he slept a tormented look on his face.

“How is he?” Stephan came up from behind her and looked over her head.

“I don’t know. I look at him and I keep telling myself thank God she didn’t take him.” Marquis’s threat lived in her mind.

“He is the one thing that is keeping me going right now,” Stephan said.

“Me too. But I can’t help but feel guilty. I sent him away so that she wouldn’t take him, but I couldn’t protect his sister.”

“It’s not like you could have sent her away too. She was inside you and there was nothing you could do for her.”

“There is something I can do for her. Instead of standing here, I could be out there searching for her.”

“And where would you look. Vincent and Victor are trackers and they couldn’t find her. Where are you going to look?”

Scarlet was frustrated she didn’t understand why he was getting so angry. She closed the bedroom door then grabbed Stephan’s arm and dragged him into their bedroom.

“Christina should be in my arms or she should be sleeping in this crib that her daddy painted for her. But she is not because-,” Scarlet went silent she couldn’t say the last word.

“Because of me. Why don’t you just say it, you blame me.” Stephan beat his fist against his chest. “Say it.”

“Because of you, my baby has been taken yet again. First SJ now Christina, and to make matters worse I find out that you have been lying to me.” She screamed.