Chapter 1 Part 1

The ride home was silent. They found the others in the house, Xavier, Sam, and Eric had changed out of the tattered clothes they had. Nikki was brewing tea in the kitchen for Scarlet, Vincent suggested it as a good way to warm her up. Scarlet went straight to her room and dumped off her wet clothes. She turned on the hot water and let it fill the bathtub. Stephan was behind her wrapping a towel around her naked body.

“Don’t worry once I get into this hot bath, I’ll get warm.” She waited until she was completely covered before she turned to him. She smiled up at him for his sake more than anything else.

Scarlet twirled a wet strand of his hair around her finger. Something about his wet hair reminded her about the dream of them at the beach. The little boy who was an exact copy of him. The beautiful boy he held in his arm as he held her.

Stephan Leonard Jeraldi. She had decided to name him after Stephan and her father. It was a good way to honor his memory and if he was a she, she was going to name her after her mother. But she hoped for a boy. She didn’t know how long she was going to be away from Stephan. A walking, talking reminder of him would comfort her.

She stepped into the bathtub when it was full, Stephan stepped in after her and sat behind her. She settled against his hard chest. Scarlet wasn’t comfortable, she was sure that he was going to want to hold her but she couldn’t allow any direct contact.

Scarlet took his hands and weaved his fingers with hers. “I love you, and I hope you know that. And I will always love you.” Scarlet kissed both his palms and wrapped his arms around her chest.

“I love you too and I am sorry for putting you in danger today. I had no right to get you mixed up in my problems.”

“We need to talk about my leaving. I am still going to Washington, I can’t stay here anymore. I have to leave you. I have to sort all this mess out.” She knew it was too soon to be talking about leaving, but she had to make him understand.

“Scarlet,” She winced when she could hear his heartbreak from the desperate way he said her name.

“No, there is no other way. You say you love me and you want to protect me, so do this for me. Let me go I am not safe here. I don’t want to be tossed into any more oceans.” She was shaking her head, trying to fight back the sobs rising in her chest.

“I know I just wanted you to stay for a while. Stay here with me for a week at least. I almost lost you and I am not ready to be away from you just yet.”

Scarlet had a feeling that leaving him would be difficult especially after the attack, but she couldn’t stay. She couldn’t stay here and wait for Zen to target them again. He knew who she was now and she couldn’t risk her baby’s life. His life was tied to hers at the moment and if she got hurt he would too.

“I’ll think about it.” she felt him pull his hand free and she let him. “Kayla is taking me to the hospital in the morning. She is calling the doctor and setting up an appointment for seven in the morning.”

“Why so early, you need to rest. You have been through a lot today.” His fingers traced down her bent knee to her thigh. She was sure that her trail of thought was about to be derailed, but she kept her hand close to his just in case his fingers got close to her belly.

She cleared her throat before she spoke, “I just want to be in and out of there as fast as possible. If I go later, I’ll find a long queue.”

“That’s fine. Do you want me to take you?” his eyes followed his finger as it traveled down her glistened thigh.

“Kayla wants some me time and since I have seen enough violence today to last me a lifetime, I think it's best if you let her take me alone.”

Stephan didn’t argue with that. “Ok. That’s fine.”

Scarlet had to let Kayla in on her plan. She wasn’t going to go to the hospital, she was going to use it as a front and take the opportunity to get away from San Francisco. Kayla would drive her to the airport, she would get some new clothes when she got to Washington. The ones she had packed were lying at the bottom of the ocean in the Mustang’s boot. She would collect her ticket at the airport. Scarlet was glad she had decided to rebook her flight for the next day. The longer she stayed there the more time she gave Zen to plan his attack.

A knock on the door distracted Scarlet from her thoughts. Stephan didn’t get up when he bellowed to answer.

“Scarlet you need to get something to eat. And Nikki made some tea for you.” Kayla’s voice answered back through the bathroom door.

“We will be out in a minute.” Stephan stepped out of the bath and held a towel up for her. “I hope we can talk more about this when you get back from the hospital tomorrow.”

Scarlet folded the towel under her arms and walked past him. She didn’t want him to see the guilt on her face. Tonight was their last night together for a while. Her heart broke at the thought of leaving him but she had no choice.

But she did have a choice, stay with the man she loved and raise their child together and never live in peace. Always waiting for Zen’s impending attack against them and risk the death of both her and her child. Or she could leave for Washington the next day, get her child away from the madness that surrounded his father. The choice to keep their son away from him until it was safe enough for the both of them to come back.

In another situation, she would stay with him. But now the love of her child had to trump that for him. She hoped he would understand when the time came. She got dressed in a hurry, despite what had happened earlier her appetite had not been interrupted. Stephan left the room before she did, he went to check whether the food had been delivered.

Scarlet popped her head through the door and called out Kayla’s she didn’t shout it out. She said it in a low tone that she was sure she would hear. Kayla walked into the room with a confused look on her face.

“What?”

Scarlet pulled her into the bathroom and closed the door behind them. “I told Stephan that you are driving me to the hospital in the morning. But you are going to drive me to the airport.” She paused to see whether Kayla had understood her plan.

“I am ready to drive you there now, this minute, this second. You need to get away from all of this as soon as possible. When the drama of you leaving dies down, I’ll come to see you and help you deliver the baby.” She smiled at her. Kayla supported her decision to slip away quietly. Stephan wouldn’t let her leave without a fight. “Besides we don’t know what’s in there. You are going to need all the backup you can get.”

“Kayla if I didn’t need you desperately I would drive a stake through your heart.” She giggled then firmly placed both hands on her baby bump, “This right here is your nephew and if he comes out looking like a jaguar just like his daddy, we are going to deal with it.”

Scarlet had never thought of what form the baby would take once he was born. She was sure he would look human considering all the beasts did. She didn’t think he would have any vampire traits, going by Kayla’s information male vampires couldn’t reproduce, there was no chance he would. Although Nikki suspected otherwise, there was much they didn’t know about the vampires’ world other than what they heard.

“Let’s go feed my nephew. I am going to miss you Scar.” She gave her a bear hug before leading her downstairs where the food was.

Scarlet walked down the stairs and immediately felt wary of herself. She met nine pairs of eyes staring at her. They all seemed to be waiting for her.

“Hi guys,” she headed for the pizza, not looking at what she had picked. She shoved it in her mouth and squeezed herself between Eric and Vincent on the sofa. Victor sat by his brother’s side at the far end. She leaned forward to see him, they looked exactly alike.

“You are the twin huh?” she looked back and forth at them and pouted her lower lip, “Well Vincent at least you now know how you would look without those hideous gold blonde streaks in your hair.” She smiled at him and his face relaxed.

He caught her in an awkward hug. “I am really glad you are ok.”

“I should be thanking you and your brother, him for coming to warn us and you for hailing a taxi for me.” She chuckled once more and his whole body relaxed as he laughed with her.

“I just wish I was able to stop Zen from tossing you into the water,” Victor added midst their laughter. His voice sounded just like Vincent’s but he had a serious edge.

“Don’t worry about it. I needed the swim. You should feel sorry for Stephan his car is laying at the bottom of the ocean.” She looked up at Stephan, he was leaning against the wall, his expressionless than amused by her joke.

She always understood how her safety was important to him. She knew he would understand sooner or later after he got past the feelings of betrayal and anger.

“Drowned and a doorless,” Solara added.

“What? What do you mean?”

“Stephan had to pull the door out so that he could get you out. He didn’t even flinch when he destroyed that car.” Solara chuckled once.

“There was someone more important than the car that I was after. I could always buy a new car, but Scarlet isn’t replaceable.” His body was tense and his gaze shifted from her and the door. It was as if he expected someone to crash into the house through it.

“I am exhausted.” Scarlet yawned and sighed. She had gone through a box on her own and now that she was fed it was time for her to sleep.

“Do you want me to carry you or will you make it on your own.” Stephan had stepped forward and extended his hand to her.

“I can make it, but thanks for the offer.” She took his hand and let him lead her to her bedroom. She watched his back as he moved. She was going to miss how his muscles moved under his shirt.

She watched as he turned the bed down for her. He took a step back giving her way to get under the covers. He climbed in and snuggled deep so that she could be comfortably cuddled beside him.

“I am going to miss this when I eventually go to Washington,” Scarlet added the last part when she was afraid that she may have given him a hint of her departure.

“It won’t be for long, soon we will be together and I will hold you in my arms for the rest of eternity.” He kissed the top of her head and held her tightly against his chest. “You should sleep now, tomorrow morning Kayla is going to be banging on this door at six in the morning.” He laughed the deep boom of it made Scarlet happy.

Scarlet knew that she was going to take his laughter away from him, she felt guilty because of it.

“Stephan, will you please kiss me?” She turned her head to look up at him.

He responded by flipping her on her back and gently mounting on top of her. He leaned his head to hers and his lips traced hers. Gently at first, he kissed her, and then his kiss grew urgent and intense.

Scarlet was getting dizzy under his strong body. Her hands traced the contours his muscles made on his back. When he began to pull away she moved with him. It was too soon to break the kiss. To break the spell he always had her under whenever their bodies were this close.

“No, your body has been through enough traumas for one day.” He could feel her need for him, but he held himself back. He rolled onto his back and pulled her into his arms once more. “Sleep my love, we have the rest of our lives to make love.”

Scarlet could help but feel a fresh wave of guilt take over her. A hot salty tear rolled down her cheek and on Stephan’s black shirt. She didn’t allow herself to cry. Stephan would immediately know something was wrong, and Scarlet didn’t know if she had the strength to lie to him when he held her so close.

***

Stephan woke Scarlet up just as Kayla’s knuckles rapped on the door. Kayla had packed some of her clothes in the bag and put them in the boot of Solara’s car. Now all that was left to do was to get Scarlet in the car before Stephan realized what was going on.

Scarlet gave Stephan a long kiss goodbye, taking in every moment of it, she was going to keep the memory of this kiss with her until the next time they saw each other.

“I love you.”

With those last words, Scarlet ran down the stairs and out the door. She figured that it would be a lot easier to get it over with as fast as she could. Like ripping off a band-aid.

When she got to the car Nikki was there but Kayla hadn’t come out yet. She sat in the back seat quietly, although they had spent the last night in a near-death situation and she hadn’t given up on her, they weren’t as close as they ought to be.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” Nikki didn’t look back at her when she spoke.

“For saving my life yesterday, not giving up when the others had.”

“Don’t worry about it.” she turned and eyed her curiously with a hint of annoyance in her eyes. “I still don’t understand why you are taking away his child?”

“I don’t expect you to.” Scarlet tried to hide the anger building up in her, “You give birth and raise children in this world. You know what you are facing and you are willing to risk your lives and that of your children. I am not. Stephan will understand.”

Scarlet waited for a reply, a comeback of some sort but Nikki remained quiet.