Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) (38 page)

Axle frowned, pressing his hand to his burning cheek as he walked out of the large tent. Moving his hand down, he pressed it to his lips
, even confused at himself.

Why did he kiss her?

Yes, she was beautiful but he had never felt so intent on someone before. Not like that, at least…

He growled, running his hands through his silver
-blonde hair and pulling back before heading towards his tent.

“Stop right there, culprit!” A girl’s voice called.

He turned and saw one of the girls who had been with Serena before and frowned, trying to remember her name.

“It’s Zoey. For your information.” She smirked.

“How can I help you?” He frowned, “look, I didn’t mean what I did to her...I know I shouldn’t have and if it makes you feel better, her hit hurt pretty fuckin’ bad.”

She nodded as if satisfied with that knowledge before she sat on a cut-down tree stump and looked over.

“Why did you do it?” She asked, “you don’t seem the type to just randomly kiss a girl.” She grinned, teasingly and he frowned, realizing she was trying to read his aura.

“I...I don’t know. I just felt like it was the right thing to do for some reason.” He confessed, looking down at his feet.

“Right? Hmm…well, I’ll let you know this…don’t try anything with her. She’s still in love with another who is…
temporarily
gone. That’s who we’re searching for, the one responsible for this.”

Axle felt his eyes narrow, “If it was me, she’d never be alone!”

“So passionate for a girl you don’t even know...”

“I just wouldn’t want to hurt her.” He looked down, biting his lip.

“Help her then.” Zoey smiled.

“I will. I will try all I can to help.” He looked out at the moon, though the words were foreign for him, they felt completely right.

“Who are you?” Serena called out, “you can come out now! I can sense you following me!”

Serena turned at the rustle of bushes and watched as a young boy jumped out of them. He looked to be about seven and she frowned, noting the small limp the boy had. He looked up, his bright blue eyes shining as he stared at her.

“Can I, uh, help you?” Serena blinked.

“Yesss! Ya made Axle smile!” He grinned, and she frowned, noticing he only had one fang.

The young boy was a vampire?

“Where is your mother?” She asked.

“Dunno! Never met ‘er, ma’am! Name’s Fang!” He grinned.

Serena frowned, sympathizing with Fang and kneeled down and smiled warmly as she patted his head.

“I’m sorry for that, Fang.” She spoke softly, “so, why were you following me?”

“Not just me, ma’am.” He grinned and gestured to five newcomers, dressed in carnival attire.

The five stepped over and Serena noticed they were all different types of mythos yet they seemed to be very close.

“Who are you all?”

“Grey.” A taller one grinned, his name was explained as his beard was completely silver-grey and his hair matched the silver-grey as well.

“Rain.” A larger therion
stepped over, he had bright cold golden eyes and frowned, stepping forward and mumbling something under his breath.

“Ace and Spade!” Two
handsome, younger sang twins stepped over and grinned, pulling out a deck of cards. “Care to play?”

“Knock it off boys!” A taller male stepped out, he looked to be in his mid thirties and Serena frowned, he reminded her of her father. “Name’s Vince.” He grinned widely, “I help Axle run the circus.”

“So, Axle runs the circus then?” She frowned.

“Axle is the ring-leader!!” Ace grinned, jumping up and down.

“He helps us all!” Spade smirked.

“Especially against the boss!” Fang chimed in.

“Shut it, boys!” Rain growled, narrowing his eyes in their direction before turning to Serena with a glare. “What do we think she can do for us anyway? She’s just like the rest! She’ll leave right when she can.”

Serena glared towards Rain and then turned to the others in the group. They were relatively easy going and she was closely becoming attached to the circus.

“What do you guys want me to do…?” She frowned.

“Well, you see...we haven’t seen Axle look so lively since his last encounter with the boss. He just…does his work and leaves. That is, until you showed up.” Vince frowned, looking down as if thinking his words properly. “We were hoping you could befriend him.”

Serena frowned, “I…”

“What are you guys surrounding her like that?” Axle stepped over, narrowing his eyes at the group. “Were they bothering you, Serena?”

“Not at all.” She smirked, “in fact, they were offering me a lovely tour of the place. If you’d like to join us?”

“That’s not necessary. You guys still have work to do, don’t you?” He smirked to Serena, “I will give you a tour.”

“Can Fang come too?” Serena smiled, “I’m sure you don’t want to put the small boy to too much work.”

“Yes, of course.” He grumbled and turned to the young vampire, “come along, Fang!”

Serena smiled and turned to see the remaining group grumble and head back towards the large show tent.

“Shall we?” Axle nodded towards the remaining areas of the circus.

“I believe we shall.”

About the Author

Megan J. Parker lives in upstate New York in a small town that is no easier to spell than it is to pronounce. She lives with her adoring fiancé, Nathan Squiers, and her two devil kitties, Trent and Yuki (don’t let their innocent looks deceive you, they are devious little cats). Normally, she can be found with her face plastered to her MacBook Pro either designing a new book cover or writing/plotting her latest story.

Currently, she is a full-time college student majoring in Visual Communications and once she graduates, she plans to continue writing and work more on cover designing as well as layout and format designs for novels/short stories.

On her down time, she likes reading and watching comedy or romantic movies. Her passion for telling stories is portrayed in all her work and when there’s a story to tell, you can be sure she’ll tell it to its full extent. She now is a co-owner for the up and coming publishing company, Tiger Dynasty Publishing, and is hoping to continue to expand this company to great lengths.