I looked again at Severn’s long, slender body packed so nicely into his black jeans and long-sleeved black T-shirt with the show’s logo and the word “crew” in red so it won’t show up on stage, and agreed. Kind of cute.
“Definitely.”
“So let’s do it.” Tasha was into direct action. She pushed herself away from the wall which had been propping her up, flicked her scarlet ostrich plumes and clicked her way across the alley. I followed bemused.
“Spare any of that coke for a gasping dancer?” She broke into their conversation, whipping the can from the Reverend’s hand before he could reply. She took a drink and handed it to me before turning back to them. “I’m Tasha, this is Riley. You can talk to us, we don’t bite.”
The Reverend tilted his head back and managed to look down at her from below. He gave a maliciously sweet smile. “We do.” With a wicked giggle he plucked the can from my hand, drained it, crushed it and tossed it into the nearby rubbish bin. “They call me the Reverend. This is Severn.”
“Why?” Tasha sounded confused.
“Because he is.”
“Not him. You. Why the Reverend?”
“Because I am.”
Beside him Severn sniggered. I looked up at him and he flashed me a smile. Without speaking he reached over and felt in one of the Reverend’s voluminous pockets, pulled out another can of coke, broke it open and passed it to me.
“You’re floor crew, right?” he finally spoke, his voice a light tenor that matched his laugh.
“Yeah. Why Seven?” If Tasha didn’t want to know, I did. “Is it because there’s seven of you?”
“No. Not the number seven. With an R, like the English river.”
“Oh, right.” I felt stupid. I also felt the all-too-embarrassing heat of a blush creeping up my neck and into my face. I gave a quick prayer of thanks that it was dark in the alley. Cover it up. “What are you? Follow spot or something? You’re not on the floor, I would have seen you.”
“Nah,” he shook his head with a slight grin. I was sure he had seen my face go red. “I’ve passed you lots of times. You’re right, I’m not floor crew, I’m sound, but I’ve been backstage every night with the radio mics.” He laughed self-depreciatingly. “I didn’t think you’d noticed.”
Now I felt guilty, like I’d snubbed him on purpose but I was saved from having to reply by a call from the stage door.
“Act two beginners on stage!”
I took another quick gulp from the can before handing it back as we headed back into the backstage gloom.
Chains of Blood
The Second of Severn
Riley Lowe is backstage at another show, but this time she is out of her depth, running equipment she doesn’t understand and faced with all sorts of problems including a boy actor who is a spoilt little brat. When her personal vampires arrive to help, Riley thinks everything has suddenly got better, until the boy disappears. Will the vampire's special skills be enough to find the boy and how long will it be before Riley turns into a vampire herself?
Read an excerpt:
I fished a hanky out of my pocket, dried my eyes and blew my nose. Crying was not going to help. But I still had no idea what to do. Maybe Mum and Grant could help. The sound operator from our own theatre company was out of town touring with a fashion show but if Grant could get hold of him, he could at least tell me what to do.
Then my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I hauled it out and stared at it blankly. A message from a withheld number. Curious, I opened it.
angels r us look up look left
I looked up, peered through the darkness of the encroaching night. Looked left – towards the carpark. And they were there. Three figures emerged out of the gloom, striding side by side like the baddies in a b-grade western or the chorus-line for a musical version of the Matrix, long black coats flowing behind them. Before I could get out of my chair the one in the middle had broken into a run. I have never climbed down the scaffold as quickly, but I was still not at ground level when he reached me, picked me off the scaffold and pulled me into his arms.
When I came up for breath I could see Mum and Grant standing up from where they had been sitting on the grass and walking towards David and Aiden, hands outstretched in welcome.
“What? How? When?” I stuttered, wrapping my arms around Severn’s waist under his coat as we walked to join the others.
“Sounded like you needed help,” Severn smiled, his arm around my shoulders.
“And we needed sun,” Aiden added.
I gave him a quizzical look. “You? Needed sun? Umm...?” The “have you forgotten you’re a vampire?” question left unasked.
“Oh no, not in the want-to-hang-out-in-the-daylight way. We were just sick of snow. It is so cold in the mountains.”
“And we were bored,” the Reverend added. “Sounds like we got here just at the right time. We were in the carpark. We heard the director’s little request.”
Of course they did. A normal person sitting beside me wouldn’t have heard it unless they were wearing headphones but of course the vampires heard it. I wonder how long it takes for things like that to change – my hearing hadn’t changed at all yet and it had been three months since I had drunk Severn’s blood and started the change-over. I must ask them how long it takes and what the symptoms are.
“How did you get here so quickly? I only emailed you yesterday?”
“We flew,” Severn replied with one of his pedantically correct and obvious answers, complete with raised eyebrow over his fine, tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses.
I gave him a similar look back. “Flew? Um, flew... as in...?”
“As in the Lear Jet,” Severn laughed. “You weren’t thinking...?” and he flexed his shoulders so I could feel his wings move under his t-shirt. “We are not that fast – or that fit.”
“Weren’t you worried about coming back so soon after ... what if they stopped you at the airport? Don’t the police still want to talk to you about the body at New Brighton?”
Severn smiled and pulled a passport out of his coat pocket. I looked at the name – Benedict Bailey. The passport was French.
“Benedict Bailey?” I whispered. “Is your passport guy an alcoholic or something? You left here as Father John Benedictine on a Vatican passport, now you’re named after two types of drink, not just one.” I shook my head in disbelief. Severn laughed.
“So who are you in public? Severn or Benny?”
“You could just yell, hey you. That could work.”
“Riley!” Danny came up behind us. “I’ve spoken to the stage manager, to the president and to the director but got no-where. We have to find all this extra gear tomorrow and make it work. Sorry. I am going to be struggling just to get my lighting stuff. I will ask around to see if anyone can help with the sound stuff, but I can’t promise anything.”
“Sorted.” The Reverend stepped forward. “I’m David Rochester. We’ve worked with Grant’s company before and we heard yesterday that Riley was struggling, so we’ve come to help.”
Danny tilted his head to the side quizzically and looked down at the diminutive figure in the enveloping ankle-length coat. I could tell what he was thinking. The Rev was even shorter than me with long hair pulled back in a pony tail. He looked like a doll. Danny gave Severn and Aiden an equally hard appraisal that seemed to last for ages before breaking into a wide smile. He grabbed the Rev’s hand and shook it firmly. “Welcome aboard. Any of you do lighting?”
“We all do,” the Rev replied. “We’re a professional crew, we all do everything.”
“Oh halleluiah! That is the best thing I have heard all week! Let’s talk later. In the meantime, Riley, they want us at our desks. Act 2.”
Severn joined me at the sound desk and I was happy to let him tweak the dials as his super-sensitive ears picked up all the faults in the mix. He couldn’t fix the faults in the acting. As the hour got later, the actors got more and more tired and made more and more mistakes until half way
through the act the director called it quits. Which was fine for the actors, but Danny and I still had about an hour’s work packing up all the gear and stowing it back in the container. Well, an hour’s work without three strong vampires. With them the pack-out was just finishing as Mum and Grant arrived in the carpark.
“Where are you staying?” Mum asked.
“We’ve booked a motel a couple of blocks from your place,” the Rev replied.
“Can I go with them?” I asked.
Mum smiled. “Of course. Just... um... oh,” her hands flapped as she struggled. “Just for coffee. Don’t stay out too late.”
I knew what she wasn’t saying but was thinking
The motel lady’s suspicious look said that she was obviously thinking the same thing. I guess we did look a bit strange. All in black, none of us looking older than teenagers and arriving close to midnight. Still, she handed over the key to the unit and pointed out where we could park the guys’ rental car. Inside, the unit was really nice – two bedrooms, a bathroom and a lounge with a tiny but complete kitchen. Severn grabbed the room with the queen-size bed; the Rev and Aiden making rude comments as they threw their bags on the two single beds in the other room. Then over cups of coffee I filled them in on my disasters and they outlined their plans to fix them. Tomorrow they would all source and pack in the extra gear, including helping Danny to rig his tower, then Severn would take over the sound desk, Aiden and I would do radio mics and the Rev would trouble-shoot all other disasters. I stopped panicking. From now on the show was going to be fun.
I had lots of questions for them too, but Aiden suggested that Severn should take me home. It was nearly two o’clock in the morning and I was exhausted, so even though I really wanted to stay with Severn, I knew Aiden was right. Severn drove me home and pulled into the driveway. As I unclipped my seatbelt, he pulled me close. His kiss was rough, hungry, almost brutal. I wanted to pull away but I wanted it never to stop. I kissed him back just as hard. Our hands moved over each other, finding their way under the layers of clothing. I slipped my hands around his back, feeling his wings tremble as I ran my finders down their furled ridge. He moaned, pulling me tighter. I knew he wanted to turn the car around and drive back to the motel, to the queen-sized bed, and part of me wanted him to do just that. Then a light came on in the house and I knew Mum and Grant were waiting up for me. I also knew that when I got inside they would pretend that they weren’t, that it was just coincidence that they happened to wake up when I arrived, but that wouldn’t be true. The knowledge that they were hovering, probably peeking out through the curtains, spoiled the moment and, suddenly, instead of enjoying the kiss, I felt like the whole world was watching. I pulled away.
“I think I had better go,” I explained, pulling a sad face.
“Yes, I guess so.” Severn sounded annoyed. “I think you are expected.”
So, with mixed feelings of elation and frustration, I let myself out of the car and ran up the drive to the front door, which opened magically as I approached.
“Oh, hello,” Mum failed to sound genuinely surprised. “I thought I heard something – must have been the car. I guess I don’t have to ask you if you’ve had a good evening. See you in the morning. Good night.”
As she walked off down the passage towards her bedroom, I could hear her softly singing something that sounded suspiciously like the theme from “Lost Boys”, her favourite vampire movie. Sometimes Mum is just plain creepy!
About the Author
J. L. O’Rourke has worked as a journalist, sub-editor, free-lance writer and office administrator. When not writing, she enjoys being in a theatre, either onstage as a singer or backstage where she has been everything from floor crew to stage-manager. She lives on a tranquil olive grove in North Canterbury, New Zealand.
You can follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MillwheelPress
Deep in the Shallows Page 18