CURSE OF THE MOON

LOVE UNDER THE MOON

Scarlet stirred in her bed, she was back at the Warf, and the tall stranger stood before her. She couldn’t help but notice his beautiful body. He must have been six foot three or more, his muscled physique screamed for attention under the white T-Shirt. She wanted to touch him, to run her hands over his body, to dig her fingers into his hair. They were spinning around in mid-air, arms around each other. Then it stopped, they stood still facing each other. Holding hands. His eyes mesmerized her, they were...

“Hey! Wake up!”

She could hear someone calling her from a distance. With a quick look around, she searched for the familiar voice, but nothing. She drew her focus back to the man standing before her, her hands were warm in his. A cold wind blew, gusting flowers and leaves up, swirling around them. An unfamiliar feeling captured her, she didn’t want to leave but she could still hear someone call out to her.

“Scar, we’re going to be late!”

Her eyes flew open. It seemed so real. She wanted to go back to that happy place and as she tried to close her eyes again, Kayla called out to her louder this time. She almost saw the color of his eyes. She scowled at her friend.

“Late for what, I need my rest.” Not to mention I was just about to see his eyes. She scrambled to her feet and followed her friend into the kitchen.

“Late for what, she asks. We need to get to the diner.” Kayla walked around the table spreading her arms out. “You see this apartment, it doesn’t pay for itself, food doesn’t miraculously come out of the oven.” She then walked to the light switch and flicked it on. “When the light comes from that globe it’s a good thing, it’s what we call electricity. We want electricity. Electricity is good, but it’s not free.”

She then put her hands on Scarlet’s shoulder. “For us to have such nice things we need to pay for them. So that means we need to earn money. That also means we need to keep the job we have, no matter how crappy it is.”

They had been working at the diner ever since they were in university. The money they earned was enough to sort the bills and put food on their table, so they decided to keep their jobs until they could find something more lucrative.

Scarlet rolled her eyes at her sarcasm. She had to admit that it was one of her favorite things about her. “Our shift is at twelve.” She swallowed the last word as she followed Kayla’s finger to the clock. She then ran to her room to change. “Why didn’t you wake me earlier? It's eleven forty, we aren’t going to make it in time.”

“Speak for yourself. We are going to get there even if we have to fly.” Kayla snorted.

Scarlet was behind the wheel, they were just a block away from the diner with two minutes to spare. She willed her little silver Clio to go faster. “Come on baby you can do it.”

She turned into the corner, Jodie’s, they were home free. As she passed the garage to get into the parking lot, something caught the corner of her eye. A man, for some reason she thought she knew him. The sunglasses he had on didn’t make it any easier to make out the face. She knew him from somewhere.

Immediately she pulled into a spot Kayla was out the door. “Come on, hurry up. Thirty seconds.”

Scarlet pushed the thought out of her head, whoever he was, was not as important as getting to work on time.

***

The garage was empty today, no cars to fix. The boss had let the guys off early today. Stephan and two other mechanics hang back for a while for the walk-in customers. He delayed going back home for as long as he could.

Being alone in the apartment with only his thoughts to keep him company wasn’t something he looked forward to. He needed a break from his life. He toyed around with some of the junk in the garage, the chatter from the boys served as a good distraction but he did not want to be part of it. He pretended to be busy.

“Hey, am looking for a Stephan Jeraldi.”

Stephan heard his name from the back, he recognized the voice. He took a deep breath, he knew exactly what was going to happen next. He didn’t need a psychic or a mind reader, to tell him what waited for him at the front.

“SJ! Yo! SJ! Somebody wants you!”

SJ hated that nickname. The boys wouldn’t call him Stephan according to them it lost its uniqueness in the eighty’s. He was from the eighties and it was a very respectable name at the time. He took a careful step and stood at the door, he took a deep breath before he swung it open.

“Stephan”, he corrected them. “Solara,” he said with a grunt acknowledging his visitor. “Boys, do you think you can give us a minute? Why don’t you get some grab from Joanie’s?”

We can not do anything here in front of these humans. Although Stephan hadn’t opened his mouth to speak, he knew that Solara had heard him. That was his gift, he read minds.

“Ok, thanks, bro!” They shuffled out of the shop to the diner across the street.

When they were out of hearing range, Stephan attempted to reason with Solara. What would he say, what could he say to him to make the loss of his sister any easier?

“You knew that your kind can never be with vampires, so why did you pursue that relationship.” Solara hissed. “You knew the Conselho would not let a filthy beast like you, abandon his post, to live free and with a vampire no less. You knew but you still put her in danger.”

Your kind. Filthy beast…. Stephan knew what he was. He knew it all too well, but Sotera never cared about that. She loved every side of him. He was unique in his way. That was why he was one of the strongest of the warriors the Conselho had.

Midst his trail of thought, Solara’s full weight crushed into him. They fell to the ground with a loud thud, dust from the destroyed gravel raising into the air and filling his nostrils. Stephan didn’t try to fight, he didn’t push Solara off. He let Solara hit him. If this was what he needed to do to settle his grief he would let him do it. It was the least he could do.

“Fight! Fight me! Are you too weak? Are you going to show the same weakness you did when my sister was butchered?” his voice was thick with emotion. “You did nothing. You beast, what kind of love did you have for my sister? You never…”

Stephen felt the power surge from him, how could he say that? How could he say that he never loved her? Yes, he couldn’t save her but he loved her.

Stephan flipped to his feet, bucking Solara off like a wild Mustang. Solara crushed into the garage door. They lurched at each other, crashing everything in their path.