Under the Blood Moon

More questions than answers

Scarlet

Mum wipes her eyes and looks at me “Tell me about him Scarlet?”

“Oh mum, I don’t know where to start, he found me eating Lou’s chickens and it’s all kinda snowballed from there”

Mum snorts, her coffee spraying from her nose “Lou’s chickens!” Her shoulders now shaking in laughter “Well now there’s a turn up for the books”

“Yeah, yeah laugh at the silly wolf girl!” I nudge her shoulder, reaching for a cloth to mop the spilled drink. “Anyway, apparently we’re fated or something, it already kinda hurts that he’s not here.”

Mum pulls my collar away slightly exposing the bite mark that graces my collar bone, “Hmm” she smiles softly “You’ve found your mate honey, nothing will ever be the same again”

She is softly patting my head as I rest it on her shoulder, “It’s all just happened so fast” I sigh.

The door to the kitchen opens softly, Stefan peaking his head around to check all is ok. Smiling he walks back to the counter picking up his coffee. “Well ladies, it looks like we’re going on a road trip”.

Still resting against my mother’s shoulder I look up with curiosity, I know he’d said we’d be heading back to his family soon, but this seems very quick.

“Dad say’s if I’ve found you, you’re not safe here anymore and he wants us all to head back to the estate so we can make a plan and keep you all safe.” Stefan is smiling throughout this little speech if you weren’t watching him as carefully as I was you would never notice the fear in his eyes over his grinning mouth.

Mum is about to object; I can feel the tension rise in her shoulders. “Mum I’ll call Giuseppe, you get in touch with the school, Stefan how much do we need to pack? I am firm, resolute even. If this is enough to scare Stefan, I have no interest in trying to do this alone.

Mum shrugs her shoulders after seeing the fierce determination in my face, she still wants to say something I can see her lips twitching with the unspoken words. She heads to the living room to call the school.

I pick up my mobile to call Giuseppe, as Stefan wraps his arms around me “It will be fine Red, I promise you it will all be ok” he kisses me firmly on the forehead before stepping back to let me make the call.

Giuseppe was understandably unhappy, Mum is his Sous chef, and her absence will leave a huge hole in his kitchen, but after I explained that first of all it was a family emergency and secondly Mum hadn’t taken any leave in the last six months, he mellowed and agreed that I should just keep in touch and let him know what was happening. Stefan agreed to get one of the chefs from his family’s restaurant to come down to cover for her which immediately appeased Giuseppe’s worries.

Minutes later Mum headed out of the door to pick Andy up from school, the Headteacher was a much easier sell than the harassed restauranteur and had immediately agreed to pull Andy out of class without telling him anything that would upset him.

As she left, I sighed deeply, my head in my hands I rested for a moment against the kitchen unit, Stefan softly asked me if I was ok. “Yeah, I mean the worlds spinning around me right now, but I’m ok with it” I move my hands and look directly into his blue eyes “I just don’t think I’m capable of feeling anything but calm and content when you are near”

He reaches up to my arms, pulling me around the unit and onto his lap “How long have we got?” he purrs, I can feel him pulsing hard against my underwear. “Not enough time for that” I smile kissing him deeply, the pulse deepens into a throb as I dampen against him. “Are you sure?” my body is alive against him, I want nothing more than to dissolve into his kisses, giving myself to him right here on the kitchen table. But the idea of Andy and Mum walking in on us washes over me like a cold shower. “I’m sure” I peck his lips lightly before lifting my reluctant body from his.

I take his hand and we head to my room, there’s packing to be done.

Mum and Andy aren’t long, as they walk through the door, Stefan heads to meet them. He spends a little time introducing himself to Andy and explaining that he’s a friend of our father’s family. He is smooth and straightforward in his explanations, leaving out the whole supernatural element for now.

Andy, being the most chilled out 14-year-old I have ever met, accepts the need to go to Stefan’s family home with a shrug and heads up to start packing.

I can’t hear what happens next, but Mum asks to speak to Stefan in private before she packs. They’re gone for 15 minutes. By the time they are walking back in through the kitchen door from the farmyard I am dragging a small suitcase down the stairs. Mum has tears standing in the corners of her eyes but is smiling at me and Stefan as she heads up to pack her own suitcase.

“Everything ok with mum?” I ask as soon as I hear her bedroom door shut.

“Umhmm” Stefan nods “She had some questions about the pack and wanted to know if we were mates.” I flush bright red immediately “What did you say?” I ask.

“Oh I told her all about the estate and the families that live there, she was excited about the restaurants and associated businesses, said she’s going to poach ideas for Giuseppe’s” he laughs.

“N-not about that” I squeak.

He looks deeply into my eyes, holding my chin “You’re my mate Scarlet, my one and only, I will do anything to protect you, bend over backwards to see you smile, I want to walk up the aisle to you in a white dress and have as many babies as possible.” He presses his lips against my own, taking my breathless form and draining every ounce of strength and will power from me.

Stefan

Meeting Anne asked more questions that gave answers. So she was a witch, why did that matter at all, we had a number of witch and Lycan couples at home, not to mention that I had a vampire uncle. Why was it so different 15 years ago that Scarlet’s family felt the need to run.

I called my father but he refused to talk on the phone, instead saying that the family weren’t safe here and we needed to all head home. I try to pry further but all he will say after this is “get them here as soon as you can son”. Frustrated I hung up and head back into Scarlet and Anne, shaking my head to clear the annoyance before I walked through the door.