Chapter 4: Chapter 4 AWAKE

She could hear him calling her, but she ignored him. She was so comfortable in his arms and she wasn’t about to let him spoil it for her.

“Wake up Scarlet.” Stephan chuckled, he knew she was awake and he was aware that she was being stubborn.

In any other situation he would have let her sleep, but not today. The last embers of the sun were about to burn out, announcing the coming end of their anniversary. He wanted her to watch the sunset with him, and she couldn’t do it with her eyes closed.

He got up before she could hold him back down. Quickly he pulled on a pair of khaki shorts and then rolled Scarlet on the blanket wrapping her in it.

“Stephan?” Scarlet was confused as he once again put her on his shoulders. She felt like a sandwich, she eased her arms out of the blanket and held it tightly to her chest.

He set her on her feet a few inches from the shore. “Look at that.” he moved behind her and pulled her back in his arms.

“The sunset?” Scarlet peered towards the horizon trying to see what she was missing.

“It’s the sunset, my love, no need to look for anything else.” He laughed.

“Oh? What about it?” she was still confused.

“The sun is setting on our anniversary and the next time we see it, it will be a new year for us.”

“Oh.” Scarlet finally got it. She turned to face him, “Happy new year my love.” She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him.

“I love you. We met on the most bizarre of circumstances-,”

“Bizarre? Really? If that’s what you call wanting to have me for dinner, ok, we can go with bizarre.” Scarlet knew what he wanted to say was heartfelt, but she was making it difficult for him.

“Do you think I can finish?” He asked and only continued once she used her free hand to feign zipping up her mouth. “I love you and the day we met I almost killed you, but that would have been a great loss. Because without you I wouldn’t have my son, my friends and I wouldn’t have my life. You gave me the freedom that I have been searching for, and I am grateful as well as happy.”

Scarlet wiped the sole tear that slid down his cheeks, “Do you remember the first time we made love?”

“How could I forget?” He had been her first and it was a treasure that he held close to his heart. “I kept on thinking that I would crush you.”

“Thank you for the mental picture. Anyway, that night I made the biggest decision of my life and to this day there is only one other decision that I have made that could compare. Three years ago when I put on that white dress and walked to our back yard, where you were waiting for me, with our family and son there beside you. And as the sun sets on our anniversary, I want you to know that you are the best decision I ever made.” She kidded his bare chest.

Stephan held her tightly in his arms. “I’m glad to hear that, for a moment I thought SJ was your best guy.”

“Let’s put it this way, it’s a tie. If it wasn’t for you he wouldn’t exist and if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be parents.”

“Ok, I’ll buy that. Give me your hands.” Stephan held her an inch away from his body.

Scarlet gave him, her left hand while her right firmly held on to the blanket on her chest.

“Give me both your hands.”

“This thing isn’t holding its self up.” Scarlet wasn’t going to give it up. She wasn’t sure that they were alone on the beach. She couldn’t smell human blood or hear a heartbeat anywhere close, but that did not rule out binoculars.

“It’s just me here, and I worship your body. Besides I have seen you naked before.” He was coaxing her.

“I know SJ is proof of that.” Scarlet let go of the blanket and it fell on the sand.

“You have always had a beautiful body, even when you were round with SJ inside you.” He planted a kiss on her shoulder.

“Thank you. I am glad that there isn’t a chance of that happening again.”

He raised his head to look at her face, confusion was written all over his, “What do you mean?”

“Getting pregnant again.” Scarlet clarified what she said before he got the wrong idea, “Going through all that again. The uncontrollable hunger for blood and missing chunks of my life, then discovering that I had done something wrong.”

“Don’t think about that. Besides SJ is more than enough for me. And thank you for not giving up on our son.”

There was no way she could conceive now, after the transformation she knew she had given up some of her human traits. She was sure that her child-bearing days were over since she hadn’t had a menstrual cycle ever since she discovered she was pregnant with SJ.

“You’re welcome. So do you want to not make a baby with me?” Scarlet pulled him into the water.

“It will be my pleasure.”

He followed her deeper and deeper into the water, and when it reached her chin, he lifted her onto his waist. This was how he wanted to be, happy and in love with his wife. Scarlet and his son were his worlds now. He couldn’t exist anywhere they weren’t.

“You are beautiful.” He used his free hand to brush away her wet hair from her face.

“You have to say that, I’m your wife and the mother of your child.” Scarlet belittled the compliment to annoy him. He was more emotional when he was annoyed.

“I don’t have to say anything I don’t mean. You are beautiful even more so because you are my wife and the mother of my son. In my eyes, you will always be the most beautiful woman that ever walked this earth.”

He lifted her a bit more so that he could look straight into her eyes.

“Thank you.” Scarlet sank her fingers into his wet hair. “So how about we stop talking and you worship my beautiful body.

“That, I can surely do.” Stephan sank into the water taking her with him.

***

“What time is SJ’s flight?” It was Sunday evening and Scarlet was concerned about her son traveling alone. Vincent wasn’t someone she considered a chaperon or a guardian, especially when it came to SJ. She was glad that Victor was going to be with them.

“Tomorrow evening.” He had changed their morning flight to a later evening flight, “I thought that it would be better if we went to see Kayla’s family without him.”

“Why?” it didn’t make sense to her. Stephan had always been proud of his son and she was sure that he would show him off to anyone he could.

“How are we going to explain, the five foot three, three-year-old?” he didn’t want to get into the details with them, and he knew Scarlet wouldn’t be comfortable lying. She wasn’t a good liar either.

“Oh that. I can’t believe I forgot about that.” she felt silly. “What time should we go there? I think mid-morning is a polite time.”

“Not too early not too late. That’s fine we will leave early.” Stephan got out of the cooler and handed her a pint of blood. “You’d better stock up.”

Scarlet gulped down the cool blood, enjoying how it felt as it made its way down to her belly. Four years back if anyone told her she would be drinking a human’s blood she would have called them crazy.

She used her finger to lick up the last drops of blood from the cup. Her tongue licked the corners of her mouth. “That was good.”

Stephan stared at her amazed at how amazing she looked even when she was sloppy.

“What?” Scarlet asked.

“Nothing, you are just beautiful that’s all.” He flashed a smile at her.

“I’m glad you think so.” Scarlet kissed him, tasting the blood leftover on his tongue.

“Are you nervous about tomorrow?”

Scarlet huffed when she thought about going to see Kayla’s family the next day. “Definitely. I don’t know if they are going to believe the lie K came up with.”

“Humans have always used their jobs as a way out of social functions. I think they will believe you easily.”

“The thing is it’s all a lie. The life she wants me to tell them she is living.” She sighed. “She isn’t a big shot journalist for the Washington Tribunal. She is a vampire who watches over our child and hunts down animals in her spare time.”

“It’s not the life they would want for her, but it’s the one she has. She’s happy and if they love her they will be happy too.” Stephan always thought the human concept of life was easy. It all revolved around love.

“Lying to her Nana again. She’s going to know. I feel so rotten about it.” Scarlet was regretting the promise she made.

“You will be fine. I’ll be right there with you.” Stephan rubbed her arm.

“My hero.”