“Stephan do you realize what you are saying is impossible, vampires and shifters don’t exist.” She crouched next to him.
“Vampires and Beasts do exist, I am proof of both.” He made a note to correct her. She picked up on it and fell silent.
She couldn’t believe how she had been with this man for a year and didn’t realize how far gone he was. She decided to turn him against himself to prove that he was what he claimed to be. “Show me something. If you are what you say you are you must have some sort of gift. Show me.”
Stephan stretched out his hand and slowly raised it. As he did that Scarlet got off the ground, and rose as his hand got higher and higher.
“That is what I got from being a vampire. I have a shield and I can use it to create a force field around you to lift you off the ground.” Scarlet went from being a skeptic to being terrified to be excited in a matter of seconds. Stephan raised his head when he heard her giggle like an excited child. He rose to his feet forgetting his hand would rise as he did. She hit the ceiling.
“Ouch! Hey, watch it.” She began to fall but landed in his arms. She stared at him. She had always known he was extra-ordinary, but nothing prepared her for this. He put her back on the bed, she now wanted to know everything she was curious about.
Stephan sat with her as he had before. He took a deep breath before he continued. “They were supposed to share me but the vampire had other plans. She killed the other woman the instant she had her back turned to her. I became her second in command, there was no one as powerful as I was. I obeyed her because she was my creator, I had nothing left. I couldn’t go back home and I couldn’t leave her because she promised to slaughter my family.
“I was her puppet and she pulled the strings. I was ruthless, I didn’t care for the value of life, human or otherwise. She had managed to erase any feelings of compassion from me. I was a soulless monster who killed for pleasure and amusement.
“I was not able to form any meaningful relationships with any of the other hunters there, because they all feared me. She on the other hand was the only contact I had. There was nothing I didn’t do for her, I was her executioner, her warrior, and… And her lover.” He chuckled once when scarlet’s brow went up questioningly.
She decided to change the subject. “So how did you leave?”
“After a couple of decades my family was dead and all their descendants had relocated elsewhere. I thought about leaving a couple of times but I didn’t have the courage. Besides that life was all I knew.” He shrugged and tilted his head to the side.
She recalled what he had told her once, Sotera saved me from my past life.
“Sotera,” she said the name like it was a blessing. Scarlet never thought that she would ever be this happy to hear her name. But she was because of her she had him. She could love him.
“Sotera saved me in a way. She gave me the courage that I didn’t have. From the moment I saw her, I knew she would change my life. And she did. But she died because of it, it was like she gave her life for mine.” Stephan’s voice caught in his throat. She knew he couldn’t tell her about the night Sotera died. He would keep that to himself, it was his horror he didn’t need to share what tormented him with her.
He opened his arms to her and she climbed onto his hips into his embrace. There was nothing she could say, and since he was quiet she decided to remain in the silence. Her being there for him was worth more than all the word she could conjure up. She could feel the pain he had. She knew Sotera’s death wasn’t anything he would like to relive. She wouldn’t torment him by asking him to tell her about it. She ran her hand up and down his back and used her other hand to play with his hair.
“So tell me besides never aging, and floating people around the room what other perks are there.”
Stephan smiled at her curious little girl’s look, he was going to tell her everything she wanted to know even the little silly things. “I don’t need to sleep, I don’t need to eat at least not human food and I can run thirty thousand miles without breaking a sweat. Oh, and I have incredible super strength and I can take the form of any animal I want.”
“Nice! Am glad to know it wasn’t my cooking that put you off. I always thought you sneaked somewhere to eat.” She was laughing then she suddenly stopped when a thought crossed her mind. “What do you eat?”
“Don’t worry you are too skinny for me.” His laughter froze in his throat at her icy glare. She didn’t like the idea of being dinner.
“I think I should tell you something, it’s not that serious but don’t get upset with me.” He only went on when she gave him a brownie salute. “You remember there was a time you and Kayla had gone out, you were walking by the peer. The man who jumped you, that was me.”
A look of horror crossed her face, “It was you! I knew I recognized you from somewhere. Wait a minute … you wanted to kill us.”
“It was a bad time. I was in a bad place. Sotera’s death screwed up with my head. When I was with her I only fed on animals but I gave that up when she died. But I haven’t killed anyone else after being with you.” He sounded so sincere, he had her chin in his fingers now, and he wanted her to look into his eyes. He was telling her the truth and he wanted to make sure she knew it.
“I guess the universe owes me one.”
“If Sotera was a vampire that could mean that Solara is too. What about Vincent, he is a vampire too, right?” Stephan was reminded of the point of this conversation. Why they were here talking like this, full disclosure. She had handled everything else well so he thought it would be better to tell her about Kayla.
“I bet Kayla knows. She must have freaked!” His silence turned her frantic. “What is it? Tell me Stephan now!”
“About Kayla, something happened. Don’t worry it’s not that bad, I don’t think it is. The other night Solara and Kayla were together he sort of lost himself. She isn’t dead but he bit her.”
“He what!” she was pacing around the room. “So what happened is she ok?”
He could tell she was getting frantic, “She is fine. It’s just that she has um… she has been transformed into a… a vampire.”
She froze and slowly turned to face him, “Why did he do that? Wasn’t he thinking?”
“He wasn’t thinking. He just wanted to be with her. He turned her so that they would always be together. You need to understand him, he didn’t want to hurt her he just loved her too much.”
He held her from behind praying that she would remain this calm, that she would understand him. She pushed out of his arms and headed for the door.
“I want to see her. I don’t care what you think right now. You owe me this, so take me to her.” She was already out of the room, and out the front door.
When he got to the car she was already strapped in. He couldn’t deny her this, while they drove there he called Solara to give him a heads up. He needed them to keep her under control he would never forgive himself if Scarlet was hurt by her friend.
They were quite the whole way, he didn’t attempt to make any contact with her, he was afraid she would pull away from him. He wasn’t ready to face any rejection from her.
Vincent let them into the apartment, he was not too happy about them tempting Kayla like this but he had no other choice. Stephan stretched his hand in front of Scarlet indicating that she walked behind him. Kayla was on her feet, Solara stood by her side ready to grab her just in case.
Kayla smiled she was happy to see her friend, she seemed normal but they couldn’t be sure. She already had a couple of mood swings and they weren’t about to trust her calm, smiling face just yet.
“K, how are you feeling?” Scarlet stretched to peer at her from behind Stephan. He wouldn’t let her get any closer to her.
Kayla didn’t respond she looked like she was concentrating on something like she was holding her breath and was afraid to release it. She looked beautiful, she always did. Scarlet couldn’t see much of a difference between the before and after, she still had that rich beautiful complexion, the mile-long legs, and the curly hair. She was Kayla.
Without thinking much of it, she stretched out her hand towards her friend, and Kayla reached for it. It didn’t sit well with Stephan but Solara reassured him with a subtle nod. She looked at her friend her eyes full of concern and love. She was the only family she had. When their fingers came into contact, Scarlet gasped she was shocked at how cold she was. She pulled her hand away, a reflex action that she would soon regret. Kayla was hurt by that simple action, she recoiled and stood back with Solara.
“Scar…” Her tongue licked her lips.
Solara reached for her arms, he tried to hold her but she was too strong. She pulled out of his hold easily, she was reaching for Scarlet. Vincent came from behind and grabbed her. She sent him flying across the room.
Scarlet was shocked at the power her friend now possessed, but she knew that she was coming for her but a part of her wasn’t worried about it. Stephan was there with her and unlike his other two friends, he was stronger. He caught her mid-air and held her to his chest. She bucked against him but he didn’t budge, he didn’t want to hurt her but he had to hold her in place.
“Go Scar please go.”
Scarlet was furious, she stormed out of the house. She didn’t talk on the way home and when they did get home she asked Stephan to stay in the living room, she didn’t allow him in her room with her. She didn’t want any contact with any of their kind. It was his fault that their lives had been disrupted, because of him Kayla met Solara and because of Solara her friend tried to kill her.
She thought of all the dreams they had now chucked off as a waste of time. There was no way Kayla would function as a normal person now, first. After all, she wanted to kill everything in her path, and second, because she wasn’t human.
***
She didn’t say more than three words to him at a time, and those words were usually to ask him how Kayla was doing. Stephan couldn’t stand the silent treatment but he would not impose on her, she was entitled to be mad. She usually walked by him like she didn’t notice he was there. It hurt him but he bared it.
Days went by and people asked after Kayla, all she told them as she wasn’t well, in the meantime Vincent took over her shifts. His ability to do everything faster than everyone else helped. He would pick up some of Scarlet’s orders too, she didn’t look well and he thought it was the least he could do. Scarlet’s attitude didn’t change towards him, he was still Vincent in her eyes and she always liked him.
A couple of days had passed she hadn’t seen Kayla since that day she attacked her at Solara’s apartment. She tried to but Kayla didn’t trust herself and refused her visits. Kayla had left the apartments a couple of times since then, she took strolls down the street and back up, and she was working hard to control herself. There hadn’t been any other incident.
Solara kept her on a steady diet of animal blood, he even gave it to her when she wasn’t thirsty. He thought it would be a faster way of her getting used to it. He didn’t mind hunting for her though she would have to learn to do it herself. She had a preference for carnivores they tasted better than the other beasts. He had to go deep into the forest for that but he didn’t mind.
She was making progress and they hoped she would be back to her usual life soon, there was nothing that prevented her to pick up her life where she left it off. Working at the diner and moving back to her home, though Solara would move in with her to keep an eye on her.